Commodore 128 - Anyone had one?

hamster

Now when I said I had a c64... what I really meant to say was that I had a c128 from January 1987 onwards (ok prior to that I had a c64)... but unfortunately I never used the c128 mode. It had a neat 80 column mode which gave sharp text displays - good for spreadsheets and text adventures games like Zork.
The CP/M mode I only booted up once or twice for the lack of a manual... but the c128 was a decent 8 bit machine in it's own right. It still had it's sprites and hi-definition basic drawing such as DRAW, LINE etc.
This helped to reduce the amount of pokes and peeks you'd have to do. Even better was SPRDEF. Try typing SPRDEF on the c128 start up and see what happens! Notice that you get a sprite window up... yes you could edit the sprites in a windows (ok - so it was for the basic 8 hardware sprites) but it was easier than poking the colors and coordinates. Still, you'd have been used to that by then.
Actually, one other neat feature was that you could capture some hi-definition graphic and turn that into a string for capturing into a sprite. Kind of a conversion from bitmap to Sprite if you will....

Sadly, I never got the programmer's guide - only the user manual - so I never knew about the above. Fasinating! Thank god for Net!

LoGiE

You know I don't think I new a single person with a 128! I used my c64 almost exclusively for games so I don't think I'd have benefited from the enhanced performance and extra bits

TinCool

Myself and my bro upgraded from c64 to c128. Completely pointless really as we never did find even 1 game for the thing. Always booting up in C64 mode. It looked cool cos it said C128 on it and all my friends were jealous

TC

hamster

TinCool wrote:

Myself and my bro upgraded from c64 to c128. Completely pointless really as we never did find even 1 game for the thing. Always booting up in C64 mode. It looked cool cos it said C128 on it and all my friends were jealous

TC

Too true. I never used it - just once to test out Cauldron II on it and surprise surprise it didn't load obviously. CP/M - a 5 minute wonder with the floppy provided... and then I lived in C64 mode with the MKVI replay cart (which was handy).
Went over the C128 in more detail there and must admit it could have been a great machine but the fact was C64 had such a huge base - the c128 didn't have a chance. The 80 column looks lovely though (try infocom's titles on it) and the basic is way more up to scratch - I typed in a few basic examples of line drawing, triangles etc. It was not bad at all. Even as I mentioned above - some help with sprite design. On any c128 basic line - type SPRDEF....

hamster

I've been looking high and low... and to my dismay there is no Zork I,II or III for the commodore 128. That machine's 80 column res was great for that!!

Well, there is alway Bureaucracy which is really funny interactive fiction. The game starts with you filling in a form.