Q. I am contemplating purchasing either a Commodore 64 or an Amstrad CPC 464.

Since I already know a little 6502 assembly language I think the Commodore may be more suitable. However, I intend to purchase disk drives later on and the ones supplied by Commodore are reputedly very slow. Also, might Commodore neglect the C64 in favour of its two new machines?

On the other hand many magazines are starting to publish articles and games listings for the Amstrad and all say how good the machine is.

I want to use the machine for playing games and for some serious development of machine code programs.

M. Sutton
Swansea

A. When a new machine is launched it takes quite a while for the software industry to learn its ins and outs. This means it can be a while before much software becomes available. This is where the Commodore wins over the Amstrad, as it has reams of extremely good titles available.

The Amstrad has quite a way to go before it catches up so, if you want lots of games available now, the C64 looks like the one to go for. And Commodore's two new machines won't dent the popularity of the C64 enough to stop the company's support for it.

On the other hand, once the Amstrad disk drive is available it will be able to run existing CP/M software. This means that you'll be able to use business and development programs that are already established favourites on business machines, as well as play games on it. Obviously, the Amstrad's Z80 processor means learning a new language but this shouldn't be too difficult. Only you can decide which compromises to make.