A couple of firsts for me (Commodore)

From: Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd_at_ccp.com>
Date: Tue May 28 19:51:56 2002

Chad Fernandez wrote:
>
> Well, a friend whose moving was digging through his attic and found the
> families old Commodore 128. This is the first time a friend has ever
> given me an old computer, I think. It's also the first Commodore in my
> collection. <snip>
>
> I got the C128, and a 1581 floppy drive. No monitor and no software,
> unfortunetly. The other day, I saw a Commodore monitor at Goodwill,
> along with another model floppy drive. I think I may go pick those up
> tomorrow.

If the monitor is a 1702, then you're stuck with compostive video in 40
column mode. for 80 colums you need a CGA monitor, or a Commodore
1902/1080. Some magnavoxz monitors would work as well; I have several
spare cables for a 128 to Magnavox (DB9 to 6 pin round DIN)

The 1581 is a 3.5" floppy that uses DSDD disks; the preferred drive is
the 1571 (5 1/4"), as it will do cp/m formats as well as the standard
CBM GCR format. You can use a 1541 as well, but no cp/m formats. I'd
reccomend two 1571's and keep the '81 as a poor man's hard drive.
>
> Does this have an OS in Rom, or does it need a "boot" disk like an Apple //?

The DOS is embedded in the disk controller. The interface is a serial
version of IEEE-488, and is quite slow in 1541 mode. In cp/m and burst
mode there is a noticeable speed difference, but then you need a 1571.

You can get the complete owner's guide and disk drive guide in plain
ASCII text off the web --- beware, there are a LOT of pages.
>
> I like the slim design, although and internal power supply would have
> been nice. I think I like the way the Apple //'s are built, better.
> The C128 was kind of difficult to disassemble. I actually had to use a
> soldering iron..... something I've never done while disassembling a
> computer.

Commodore was famous for cheap packaging; they made a really nice
C128D(CR) which had a built-in drive and separate keyboard, and it
remotely looked like the Amiga 1000.
>
> Chad Fernandez
> Michigan, USA

Contact me off-list if you would like any other info. Cameron Kaiser is
a CBM guru on here as well, between us we should have the answers.

Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
Received on Tue May 28 2002 - 19:51:56 BST