The Commodore 232 is part of the Commodore 264 series, the successor to the Commodore 64 and introduced at the Consumer Electronic Show in January 1984. This model line used a new 'miracle chip', the TED (Text Editing Device). Starting with the entry-level Commodore 116 with 12K memory and the C264 with, you guessed it, 64K memory. There is also the V364, the C264 with added speech synthesis, but both the computer and speech synthesis chip were never sold.

The C264 was renamed to Plus/4 and software was added (in ROM). Despite being sold as the successor to the hugely popular Commodore 64, it was not (at all) compatible with it. The Plus/4 (and 116) lacked the sound and video capabilities of the Commodore 64. They do have a faster CPU (MOS 7501), more colors (128) and they are said to be cheaper than a C64. Many people seemed to believe they were compatible and were very disappointed to find that their brand new machine was not. Later, the Commodore 116 was released as the Commodore 16 in a similar housing to the Commodore VIC-20/64 (but black) but was not as successful as Commodore had hoped. Also, the fact that Tramiel left the company without a clear idea where this new series was headed didn't help.

Some sources claim that only 200 were ever produced as a cheaper alternative to the C264 (with only 32K memory and no software built in) and intended for educational purposes. This machine, like the V364, was never released for sale and therefore all existing C232s are prototypes. The one currently in the museum has serial number 000043 and is in the original box. By far the most boring box we've ever seen.