Commodore 16

The Commodore 16, launched in 1984, was an attempt to build a budget machine to slot in below the mighty C64 and finally retire the ageing VIC-20. Housed in a dark case, it was a tidy, sensible little computer aimed at the absolute beginner and the cost-conscious buyer.

There was one enormous problem: it wasn't compatible with the C64 - or even the Vic-20. That cut it off from Commodore's vast and growing library of games and software, leaving the C16 short of the very thing that sold home computers. A capable machine with nothing much to run on it is a hard sell, however keen the price.

Buyers stayed away, and the C16 was quietly discontinued before long. It stands as a rare misstep in Commodore's otherwise triumphant 8-bit story, a reminder that in the home-computer wars the software library, not the hardware, was so often what decided a machine's fate.