I came into possession of a friend's dad's Commodore 128!
Posted by Daedalus_SCII@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 8 comments
I saw this in my friends dad's spare room when we were crashing at his house yesterday, and when I showed interest he offered it to me for $40 and breakfast if I took care of it!
This is my first project of this vintage, but I'm looking forward to the learning experience. I have it disassembled now, and I'm going to attempt to Retrobrite it tomorrow :) The board looks remarkably clean to me considering it's age; I was expecting to have to replace capacitors (we'll see if I still do; I haven't power tested it yet because I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that could potentially cause a short in the board considering how dirty it was)
Any suggestions/things to watch out for? While I'm familiar in theory with the Commodore 128 and it's hardware, it's before my time and I've never seen one before in person. So far I've been rolling with The 8 Bit Guy's restoration video and having a blast!
(I also got a 3DO from him for the same reason, and it works perfectly as-is! I'm going to post that on an appropriate subreddit, so heads up if you'd like to see that as well)
soulless_ape@reddit
Look into a new third-party power supply iirc the old ones go bad and would damage the computer. In the US before covid there was a guy that would build them with extra safety features and support for multiple computers.
Hatta00@reddit
That 1571 is the real score here. Faster than a 1541, and can even read/write MS-DOS format floppies, should you ever need a boot disk and don't have a way to make one.
siliconlore@reddit
Some things to know -- the power supply should be very reliable. No need to get a different one.
The 80 column text/graphics mode will work with a CGA monitor or with a composite mono/color monitor. (There's a pin on the output port that supports mono composite.)
The system also has a Z-80 chip that makes it a fully compatible CP/M system but you'll have to source boot disks somehow. (It isn't hard to make them if you have an older DOS computer with a 360k drive.) I have used my 1571 and C128 to write to Osborne Executive disks to play Zork.
Holding down the Commodore key while you boot the system will pop you directly into the 99.9% Commodore 64 compatible mode. You can run all kinds of software and games that way. Enjoy!
Daedalus_SCII@reddit (OP)
This is great info, thank you very much for taking the time to share!
istilladoremy64@reddit
This is the best 8-bit computer ever produced! Congratulations on obtaining your new Commodore! :D I still use mine for all sorts of things, not just gaming in C64 mode.
Be sure to stop by https://c-128.freeforums.net/ for great 128 related advice. Also, feel free to check out my own C128-focused blog at: https://www.my128.in.nf/doku.php?id=unseen128
Have fun!
Daedalus_SCII@reddit (OP)
Thank you very much for the resources! I'm looking forward to giving this a new lease on life, and I'm sure both will come in handy! The more I learn about this, the more excited I am to be lucky enough to get my hands on one :)
Laser_Krypton7000@reddit
👍
Nice score !
There are forums with Commodore people,
f.e. the vcfed.org - register for free there!
Have fun with your score !
Daedalus_SCII@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the info! Nothing better than a forum to help get me through the restoration process.