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The C128[D[CR]] is a great system in C128 mode. It can run at 2 MHz, has a huge BASIC with lots of graphics and sound commands, 80 columns, and a fast floppy dr

The C128[D[CR]] is a great system in C128 mode. It can run at 2 MHz, has a huge BASIC with lots of graphics and sound commands, 80 columns, and a fast floppy drive. Of course it also has a C64 mode and a CP/M mode. The problem with the C128 is it shouldn't have had a C64 mode. What the C128 should have been is more like the C65 that was designed later but never released. The C64 mode discouraged software developers from utilizing the C128 mode features because they were unavailable in order to achieve a ridiculous 99.99% backward compatibility. If the C128 had been a C64 with a second 64K bank of switchable RAM, and had an enhanced graphics chip with an 80 column mode that was 100% backward compatible with the VIC-II, and perhaps a second SID for stereo (OK, I'm dreaming here a bit), developers would have written software that checked for the enhanced features and activated them if they were present. This is what almost every other computer manufacturer did (eg. Apple II series, Atari 800/XL/XE series, Acorn BBC Micro series, Amstrad CPC series, etc.). It cost them a bit of backward compatibility but they ended up with lots of software for the later models. Bil Herd did an incredible job to get the C128 designed and working and shipped considering the lack of support he had from Commodore to do so. If he'd had some support, perhaps he could have gotten an enhanced graphics chip done. Considering what he had to work with, the C128 is one of the best 8-bit computers ever built. If you're into BASIC, it's wonderful.

hakfoo 4y ago
Compared with the Apple II and the Atari 8-bits, I suspect that Commodore was a bit more tightly painted into a corner with compatibility. The range of differences between any two C64s was likely smaller than between, say, an early 16K CTIA Atari 800 versus a late 800XL, or an vanilla II versus a highly pimped Extended IIe. This likely created a software ecosystem that played it much tighter in terms of poking magic registers and relying on specifics. I wonder if the reasoning at Commodore was a general philosophical hard-line for "100% compatibility at all costs" or more a researched analysis that said "once we start changing registers X, Y, and Z, we lose major software packages alarmingly fast." They already had been burned a few times with poor platform transitions (see: the attempt to foist the C16/+4 on the market, or even the need to rewrite anything but the most trivial BASIC from the VIC-20 to the 64), so the huge software base for the 64 was too precious to risk. OTOH, they could have definitely done much more to encourage 128-native stuff. I got a 128DCR a few years ago, but I haven't really broken out the Greaseweazle and prepared anything useful to do with it. All I have is some extremely heat-warped discs that came with some garage sale C64 setup.

hakfoo 4y ago

Compared with the Apple II and the Atari 8-bits, I suspect that Commodore was a bit more tightly painted into a corner with compatibility. The range of differences between any two C64s was likely smaller than between, say, an early 16K CTIA Atari 800 versus a late 800XL, or an vanilla II versus a highly pimped Extended IIe. This likely created a software ecosystem that played it much tighter in terms of poking magic registers and relying on specifics. I wonder if the reasoning at Commodore was a general philosophical hard-line for "100% compatibility at all costs" or more a researched analysis that said "once we start changing registers X, Y, and Z, we lose major software packages alarmingly fast." They already had been burned a few times with poor platform transitions (see: the attempt to foist the C16/+4 on the market, or even the need to rewrite anything but the most trivial BASIC from the VIC-20 to the 64), so the huge software base for the 64 was too precious to risk. OTOH, they could have definitely done much more to encourage 128-native stuff. I got a 128DCR a few years ago, but I haven't really broken out the Greaseweazle and prepared anything useful to do with it. All I have is some extremely heat-warped discs that came with some garage sale C64 setup.