Commodore 128

We play with the Commodore 128 and a 1571 disk drive.

#retrocomputers #retrogaming #commodore128

[BilHerd]

LOL... We included spider eggs, nasty ones, but I assume that they, and their children, are long dead.
WOOT! How much do I owe you?
Also I didn't know if the RF modulator actually worked, your the first I have seen to use it. XP
Now if I could just remember where I have seen that keyboard layout before... :P

[Great-Documentaries]

25: That it was expandable to 512K was not the selling point. The thing written just below that (that it was compatible with the C64) was the selling point.

[mike_pena]

As a kid, I always wanted to have a C128 after my Plus/4. Thirty years later I finally have one! Love your videos!

[Alexandrashepiro]

The C128 was my First computer. I had so many games on Disc and Cartridge! I and got really good at programming! I could make graphics, music. I used to program my computer for when I left for school till i goty home to see how far i could get it to count up! I still have all my Discs! Sometimes I would get so inviolved with a chess game, or programming, I would just be at the computer all night writing a program or playing a game!

[tonyshaw]

loved the graphics and sound of the c128 mode, both in 40 column And 80 column modes, never used the CP/M side of things, but back in the day (um 40 plus years ago) I was never interested in that side of things, and you ladies are well jammy getting your hands on a fully working C128

[marcuswilliams]

Ah, back in the day, the c128 seemed as an awesome 8-bit computer. First owned the C64, then later owned the C128. Once I got used to 80 column display, with the exception of playing video games, going back 40 columns was a step back. Yes, that 40/80 button was only used to determine which screen to boot up with. Though, c128 does have the ability to toggle between 40 and 80 modes via software.

[BobIrving]

Wonderful! I loved my 128 for the 80 column mode word for word processing. Even used *WordStar* on CP/M. Good times! Thanks for being awesome.

[GarthBeagle]

1:09 "🎶8502 🎶 ..we're not doing that"

Love the SID music!

[bretlinden]

I'm 1:30 in, and I just wanted to pause and say how excited I am to watch the rest. I grew up in some poverty, but I had some friends that had the C64 and would occasionally take pity on me and let me play with theirs. However through all my friends, and even my school, I never got to see a C128 live and in person. So, this should be interesting and educational for me.

[JeffSmith]

I'm so glad you conquered the problems; no spiders, RF works then you had compatible monitor, ok first drive blew up but you even had the newer model, disks working... next to design your own OS! You can still re-cap that older drive just need lot of cleanup. At least you learned why we "re-cap" the old electronics! Those old capacitors will indeed dry out the eloctrolyte fluid, causing it to short out then when it heads up, the paper is flammable because it's dry, hence replacing the caps that are going bad. People replace all of them but usually they don't all go bad that fast.

[ActionRetro]

CP/M, the OS for distinguished connoisseurs

[ChristopherGruber]

I'm sorta jealous. When I was a child, I desperately wanted the Commodore 128 but I never could talk my family into buying it for me. After this computer, I wanted the Amiga 1000 and never got that one either. Such is life.

[damianscott]

Your 1541 can be saved ... the likely culprit for putting on a fireworks display and letting out the magic smoke is C15 a 10uf 25v Tantalium capacitor (from the front of the drive, this is located on the right hand side of the PCB closest to the front) . Good Luck!

[weepingscorpion]

I really, really need to repair our C128. I miss that machine so much. I also have a 1571 but the power board broke during shipping so that will need some serious TLC. And I also have the rare 1570 disk drive and a 1541-II which was the original disk drive we had with the 128 so yeah... 3 disk drives. I never had that. There are even 1581 and FD-2000 replicas that you can build so I might migrate from 5.25" to 3.5" disks, especially the FD-2000 would be nice as it supports 3.5" DSHD disks which would be sooo convenient seeing as I have so many HD disks from my PC era. Anyway, this was so great to see. I hope that the community will make more games for the 128, the best currently are perhaps Ultima V from back in the day (and which is nice to play with multiple disk drives especially if they have the burst mode) and also Attack of the PETSCII Robots which uses both monitor outputs at the same time. *sigh* really gotta repair ours now. Wish me luck.

[treyduval]

Great show, im subscribed! I had a C128 and never really used the CP/M mode, but booted into C64 mode a LOT for the games! Didn’t know there was a Star Trek game!

[michaelblair]

I had a Commodore 128 flat version I got back in 1985. The ultimate 8 bit computer! Of course I mostly used it to play Commodore 64 games of course!

[mxg]

Because the 40 and 80 column video signals are generated by two different chips using different APIs, it's technically possible to use both simultaneously in a dual monitor setup. Attack of the Petscii Robots has gameplay on the 40 column VIC II monitor and a map on the 80 column VDC monitor.

[TheREALJosephTurner]

I remember when the magazines had pages of programs you could type in. Typing in those hundreds of peek/poke numbers was maddening. Get just ONE digit wrong, and your eyes would cross trying to find where you made the mistake!

[CommodoreMode]

Congratulations on obtaining the greatest 8 bit computer of all time! I still feel equally excited every time I set my own Commodore 128 up.

[jeffreyphipps]

The C-128 is unusual in a few ways. 1) the 1571 would boot CP/M from a Commodore formatted disk, but then CP/M knew how to manipulate the hardware of the 1571 to read MFM disks like from Kaypro, giving it access to hundreds of software programs. However, by this time people were starting to move on to machines running MS-DOS. 2) For some reason, the C-128 required the Z-80 while booting. I don't remember why. 3) the C-128 could run the Z-80 for CP/M, however, I don't remember the Z-80 running at the speeds normally associated the normal speeds used in CP/M machines. 4) Technically, the C-128 can be expanded past 512K - but MMU management becomes a problem. 5) the C-128 can have the 80-column RAM expanded to provide better color in the display. 6) The C-128 is largely, though not 100%, C-64 compatible. 7) The C-128 is NOT subject to the "brick of death" problem that plagued the VIC models (that had the brick) and C-64s.