Commodore International Ltd. Provides a Powerful Solution to Family Computer Needs with its Redesigned C64 Bundled with the Graphic Environment Operating System and its Applications Programs

Chicago -- June 2, 1986 -- PRN-Mediawire -- Commodore International Ltd. (NYSE: CBU) is providing a new and powerful solution to family computer needs based on its redesign of the popular C64 bundled with the Graphic Environment Operating System (GEOS) and its application programs.

GEOS transforms the new, sleekly designed Commodore 64C into a powerful, easy-to-use computer with icons, pull-down menus, dialogue boxes and bit-mapped graphics similar to those found on more expensive personal computers on the market today. Also included on the program disk containing the new operating system are powerful programs for highly sought-after productivity applications in the home market -- word processing, calculation and painting/design.

GEOS is bundled with the new Commodore 64C computer, but may be purchased separately for $59.99 by current owners of C64 or C128 computers. Because GEOS is loaded into the computer on a floppy disk, it can be installed in any Commodore 64/128 computer. The new 64C also retains complete compatibility with the original Commodore 64 and can use any of the thousands of software packages currently available for educational, recreational or productivity needs.

User Interface/Operating System

The company said the first thing users will notice after loading GEOS is the fresh face it displays on the monitor. GEOS presents a clean desktop with program titles shown under icons and system instructions displayed on a bar at the top of the screen. Users will immediately feel comfortable with the desktop design which incorporates the key ease-of-use features found in expensive 68000- chip-based computers. With a mouse or joystick, users merely point and click an arrow positioned on the program icon they want to call up, or on the command they want to execute, such as view, load, copy, rename or delete files. No programming or difficult commands are required.

Experienced users will notice the dramatically increased speed at which the disk drive loads files. GEOS has a built-in read/write fast loader which operates the Commodore 1541 disk drive up to seven times faster than normal. Users will appreciate the time they save while waiting to begin their work or play.

geoWrite

geoWrite is a powerful word-processing program that includes many features found on expensive packages. The mouse- or joystick- driven program allows users to edit text and move or delete blocks of type by merely pointing to commands and pressing the mouse's button. There are no difficult commands to learn to insert footnotes, choose fonts or type sizes, move to selected pages, etc. GEOS has the ability to display a variety of fonts and formats including italics, bold, underline, outline and shadows, each in different point sizes. geoWrite allows users to display several font styles and sizes on the same page. The paper printout will look exactly as the screen version that has been created because geoWrite incorporates a "WYSIWYG" format ("what you see is what you get"). These features previously have been available only on expensive microcomputers.

geoPaint

Users can create posters, pictures and newsletters by using geoPaint. The sophisticated graphics-editing program gives users a wide array of painting and design tools to exercise their creative talents, offering features such as pencil draw, paint brush, area fill, air brush, straight line and circle draw.

Users can select from 32 pre-drawn patterns or create their own. Fine-tune editing can be performed with a grid, a ruler and a zoom editing mode. Even beginners can create powerful presentations or page-layouts for publication by combining the pictures they have drawn and documents written on geoWrite.

Desktop Utilities

Desktop utilities included in GEOS are a notepad, alarm clock, calendar and calculator. Programs offering these features are becoming increasingly popular because of their convenience. For instance, while composing a document, a user might want to write a short note to remind himself of an errand to perform, or quickly use the calculator to check figures in the middle of a geoWrite document.

Not only does GEOS run programs written by its developer, Berkeley Softworks, it can also run other third-party programs modified to take advantage of GEOS' features. Many of the leading C64 and C128 software developers have aleady indicated that they plan to take advantage of the new operating system.

/CONTACT: Alan Penchansky of Geltzer & Co., 213-575-1976, for Commodore/