If you could only choose between a Commodore 128 or Amstrad CPC 6128 what 's picked?

5rtytry56 · 07-02-2017 05:10PM #1

Brief synosis of these 8 bit systems

The Commodore 128 had 128 kb memory and, well, like the Commodore 64 had a good sound chip

The CPC 6128 had better graphics than the Commodore, but the sound is nothing extraordinary.

So vote in the poll!

CiDeRmAn · 07-02-2017 05:54PM

Kinda addicted to polls there, ain't ya?

And, in answer to the poll, neither.

5rtytry56 · 07-02-2017 06:05PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Kinda addicted to polls there, ain't ya?

A wee bit....... Still, the votes are coming in. I'm not a re reg either.:D

Bracken3000 · 07-02-2017 06:07PM

5rtytry56 wrote:

The Commodore 128 had 128 kb memory and, well, like the Commodore 64 had a good sound chip

Dont think I have ever seen a C128! Was it much more expensive than a C64 ?

5rtytry56 · 07-02-2017 06:10PM

If you looked hard enough, you could get a Commodore 128 for £250 punts. C 64 would retail for about £150 punts

£1 punt = €1.27

CiDeRmAn · 07-02-2017 08:40PM

If I had to have a Commodore and had moved on from the C64 I think the obvious upgrade path would be to the Amiga 500.
A similar thing was with the Spectrum.
Sinclair/Amstrad would have loved if everyone's answer was one of the 128k machines, but more likely people bought into the Atari At or Amiga instead.
Me, I just took a break and bought a Gameboy in 1990 instead.

Tom Mann Centuria · 07-02-2017 10:08PM

Eleventy-six percent of Spectrum owners would burn both options at the stake.

5rtytry56 · 08-02-2017 08:37AM

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Eleventy-six percent of Spectrum owners would burn both options at the stake.

yes i owned a 48k 'rubber wonder'

The awful colour clash was never got rid of though on the 128k Specstrad mind.

The Last Bandit · 08-02-2017 08:39AM

Amstrad 6128(+) all day every day.

BGOllie · 08-02-2017 09:15AM

Always wanted (still looking for one) a CPC 6128 .
My neighbour had one as a kid and there were some fun games on it.
Didn't even know there was a C128 till a few years ago tbh,
The logical upgrade from the C64 -and only we really knew of at the time, was to the Amiga 500 (or the Atari 520ST for some poor lost souls

)

CiDeRmAn · 08-02-2017 09:29AM

5rtytry56 wrote: »

yes i owned a 48k 'rubber wonder'

The awful colour clash was never got rid of though on the 128k Specstrad mind.

The real genius is the work done on the Spectrum within those visual and aural limits.
It's easy to get smooth scrolling and amaze-balls music from a C64, it takes talent to get that from a Spectrum.

paul777300 · 03-03-2017 11:30PM

I'd go for the C128, but i don't know of any software that was coded for it.

eddhorse · 04-03-2017 11:37AM

I probably would choose neither at the time. Better systems were available

5rtytry56 · 04-03-2017 12:19PM

eddhorse wrote: »

IBetter systems were available

Name one. Any one.

eddhorse · 04-03-2017 07:15PM

5rtytry56 wrote: »

eddhorse wrote: »

IBetter systems were available

Name one. Any one.

Do i have a budget?
Atari ST
Amiga 1000
Apple II
IBM PC

5rtytry56 · 04-03-2017 08:58PM

@Edhorse: No budget for a boardsie like you, with your sage unassailable posts on this thread.

eddhorse · 05-03-2017 09:33PM

5rtytry56 wrote: »

@Edhorse: No budget for a boardsie like you, with your sage unassailable posts on this thread.

I sense sarcasm.
I think the NES came out around then too so that sent the gamers away from the "personal computers" imo.

Wouldnt mind getting a hands on look at the two options though. How much would they cost nowadays?

Tom Mann Centuria · 05-03-2017 10:17PM

eddhorse wrote: »

I sense sarcasm.
I think the NES came out around then too so that sent the gamers away from the "personal computers" imo.

Wouldnt mind getting a hands on look at the two options though. How much would they cost nowadays?

My experience is quite different in the UK back then, presume (but don't know) Ireland was similar.
I don't think the NES sent many gamers away from home computers this side of the Atlantic at all, they were too well dug in by the time it came out. You could get hundreds of games for a couple of quid for the Spectrum et al. or free game's on the front of magazines, or trade copies for free in your lunch break at school. Quality of games wasn't enough. So think you're wrong about gamers going from their computers to the NES.

Not saying there wasn't better options than what's offered in this thread but the NES wasn't even a blip on the radar in my youth.

Dr Bob · 05-03-2017 10:49PM

I was a gamer back then .( the 80s).I kew a a lot of C64 owners ,zx Spectrums , a few Atari 8bit owners and a few posh kids with STs..oddly enough no Amstrads in my area..but retrospectively they must have been there. I knew two or three Master System owners but the NES wasnt really promoted much back then and I didnt really see them until 93 or 94 when it was sold as a budget system.
A mate of mine had a knockoff early famiclone (referred to as "the texet") which has dad bought from a dodgy shop in moore st. Also a local arcade had a Play 10 Nes cabinet.But the Nes made very little headway here compared to the US.

Dr Bob · 05-03-2017 10:59PM

For the record Id rate the C64 /Speccy as the joint winners of the UK/Ireland 8 bit era .
The c64's sound was fantastic..if it was coded properly a game could be silky smooth and look great. (There was almost zero reason for a non business computer owner to buy it as no games took advantage of the extra video mode and memory that I remember)The spectrum when coded correctly could have fantastic large graphics (colour clash thiugh..cough).

.the Amstrad was a great machine..but had way too many lazy straight up "reuse of spectrum code" ports. The Atari 8bits could have been the best machine of the lot..but were crippled in the states by the games crash..and software dried up for it way to early.The Sms was well promoted over here (virgin/mastertronic made sure it was on a lot of shop shelves),and a brilliant machine..but in an age of people used to paying a tenner for a new full price game ..and two or three for an older one ..it was too expensive..

alpahaeagle · 06-03-2017 01:51PM

I started with the good old rubber key 16K spectrum ( i upgraded it to 48K).
Then I moved to the C64...Yes the music was better but to me the spectrum was the best, most commodre games looked clutered unlike the bear screen of the spectrum.

I then moved onto the the Atari ST and then to the amiga...

For me the best system was the spectrum and the the Atari ST...

I had a c128 and it was a good system, still have the CPC6128 love the design but the system does nothing for me.

strangel00p · 06-03-2017 10:43PM

eddhorse wrote: »

I sense sarcasm.
I think the NES came out around then too so that sent the gamers away from the "personal computers" imo.

Back in the 80s, I don't remember anyone having Nintendo or sega. It was all about the c64, BBCs, spectrums, amstrads and a few upgraded to the amiga. There was a 'computer club' I used to attend in the city which was packed full of c64s and amigas copying games.

I only noticed the popularity of consoles in 91/92 when the megadrive and snes really took off.

hungry hypno toad · 06-03-2017 10:47PM

Amiga 1200 FTW with a second flop drive for playing Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis with 11 disks each.

Steve · 06-03-2017 10:48PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

The real genius is the work done on the Spectrum within those visual and aural limits.
It's easy to get smooth scrolling and amaze-balls music from a C64, it takes talent to get that from a Spectrum.

I remember being blown away by the first psuedopolyphonic games on the S48. Fairlight was one?

Tom Mann Centuria · 06-03-2017 10:54PM

Steve wrote: »

I remember being blown away by the first psuedopolyphonic games on the S48. Fairlight was one?

Music in Farlight is stunning, on 128k anyways, not sure what it was like on the 48k

strangel00p · 06-03-2017 11:01PM

Steve wrote: »

I remember being blown away by the first psuedopolyphonic games on the S48. Fairlight was one?

Fairlight was a classic. I'm still amazed by some of the 8-bit programmers - some of them were just kids learning to program. The Rowland brothers and Manfred Trenz were incredible at pushing the early computers to their limits.

Steve · 06-03-2017 11:09PM

It's funny, I still program 8 and 16 bit archaic systems today. Some are still used used to manufacture and assemble today's cutting edge 64 bit builds.

There'll be an animated move about it someday where I win.. bit like cars..

5rtytry56 · 07-03-2017 10:30AM

As well as keeping a thread like this alive Steve.

Ah well, yez are all doing grand. I don't care if yee buy the Nintendo Switch, etc etc.

Just steer clear of buying a retro ZX Spectrum called the Vega+ . The outfit have done a runner apparently with the investment capital.

Tom Mann Centuria · 07-03-2017 11:11AM

5rtytry56 wrote: »

As well as keeping a thread like this alive Steve.

Ah well, yez are all doing grand. I don't care if yee buy the Nintendo Switch, etc etc.

Just steer clear of buying a retro ZX Spectrum called the Vega+ . The outfit have done a runner apparently with the investment capital.

They took half a million, some group has set up on faceache to launch legal action.

It's all very disappointing, particularly when the emulation and screen wouldn't be any better than zxds on an old ds etc for half the price.

Star Lord · 07-03-2017 11:22AM

Never really saw any CPC6128s, the popular Amstrad systems among those I knew were the Amstrad CPC464s

Ongo Goblogian · 07-03-2017 12:34PM

Bought a 48k speccy with my confirmation money (Tomorrows World in the Ilac, remember them) spent extra on a Kempston interface and joystick. Mates all went with C64's(I envied the carts) and one odd ball got an Amstrad(reckon it was his parents choice rather then his). Breaking the games and "poke"ing and "peek"ing the memory was like hacking the pentagon to my naive mind. Desperately wanted (and still do to this day) a Sam Coupe by Miles Gordon. It was the natural progress path to the spectrum and a stop gap before the 16bit revolution.

Anyway the Sam Coupe never really made it over here and ended up with an Amiga 500, mates went wit ST's. Really think they just did not want to share their games with me at this point. Loved Monkey Island but the disk swapping drove me mad. Ended up buying an Amiga 1200 in Harry Moore's but ordered it with a 250Mb hard drive for the bones of an extra £300 punts. Damn game makers still required the disks as most would not officially install on a hard disk. They really dropped the ball with the potential of the Amiga and let the PC take over. I persisted with this through the Win95 craze and added a 68030 and FPU and 4Mb of extra memory. Eventually had to give in and get a PC from Time (Another blast from the past) Really wanted a Wang but Time came with a better software bundle. Also of note but not mentioned above was the Acorn Archimedes, always admired from afar but seemed too niche and expensive at the time for my pocket money!

But back to the OP's question. I would go for the C64 or anything over Amstrad any day of the week. Never liked Alan Sugar or Amstrad for some unknown reason. Don't know what it is but I have always just had a dislike of certain people for no good reason. Alan Sugar, Elton John, Phil Collins, Jimmy Saville(Plenty of reason here, but this was before the revelations), Just want to kick the TV when I see their faces on it.

If you could only choose between a Commodore 128 or Amstrad CPC 6128 what 's picked?

Which system do you purchase back in the late 1980's 3 votes

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