By all means, go for the C128. They're a lot better. Also, if you want
it for Geos, know that you can run all of your C64 Geos programs in the
C128 mode at higher resolutions, and at 2x the speed as long as you boot
up C128-Geos.
To boot up in C64 mode, all you have to do is press the Commodore key
when it powers up.
There's also a hidden mode that lets you jump directly into the
monitor. You hold (I think) the run-stop key as you reset (or power)
the C128. This has a very important use if you want to, um, reverse
engineer any old C-64 programs after they've booted up. In this mode,
most of the C64 memory hasn't been touched, and the monitor can be used
to disassemble, or save an image of the rest of that memory to disk.
For example, I used this trick back in the ancient days to capture a
copy of Geos 1.3, and slap on a fast loader onto it, thus bypassing all
the protection. :-) Didn't work for Geos 2.0, but that's less important.
I'm a bit fuzzy on it, but if I remember right, you could cut a trace
off the expansion port to prevent C64 cartridges from booting up and
still allow the ROM to be visible to the C128 mode, and then use the
monitor to save the cartridge's contents to disk. Since the C64 use
memory windows, you can load the ROM into RAM and get it to run without
the cart. (Some of these overwrote their memory space, thus writing to
the RAM underneath the ROM addresses, thus prevented you from doing
this, but you could use the monitor to find out where they did this and
overwrite that code with NOP's.)
If you can, try to get your hands on an REU, those were memory expansion
cards for the C128 which GEOS could use as either virtual memory or a
RAM drive. They were very useful.
GEOS on the 128 in the 80 column mode (well, really in 640x200x1 hires
mode) with a 1571 and REU and an appropriate printer made a very capable
DTP system, and the right applications, and in some ways was as good as
or better than an original Mac 128.
(As an aside, GEOS used serial numbers to label its applications as an
additional protection layer. The very first time you booted off a GEOS
disk it would write a random 16 bit number to the disk, and serialize
itself. Then, the first time you loaded an application such as
GeoPublish, or GeoWrite, etc. it would write that same serial number to
the application. The next time it ran, it would compare the
application's serial number to itself. If it didn't match, it refused
to run the application. This is almost identical to the DRM that the
Apple Lisa used, except that the serial number wasn't burned into a ROM
on the Commodore's.
For shits and giggles I wrote a small GEOS program that let you see the
serial # and reset it by overwriting the GEOS kernel routine that
returned it, to get around this. :-) )
If you liked coding in basic, the c128's basic is a lot more capable.
It's better than the PET's basic.
However, to use the 80 column mode of the C128, you'll need an RGB
monitor. You can use a VGA monitor with the appropriate db9-hdb15
converter. Unfortunately, few monitors support the composite video
needed for the 40 column/C64 mode and the RGB modes, but they're worth
it if you can find'em.
For the composite mode, you should be able to use one of those small car
LCD monitors with the appropriate power supply, and powered speakers.
I'm sure there are some composite to VGA adapters out there too, but
they're probably on expensive side.
Possibly a modern LCD screen TV that has VGA and composite inputs would
work just fine for both modes.
You probably don't care about this very much, but the C128 with a 1571
also has a CP/M mode. So you're really getting 3 computers in one
case. If you've never messed around with CP/M, it's a fun stroll down
memory lane to see DOS's precursor.
Also, the 1571 can be used to transfer files back and forth to PC's -
but you'll of course need a PC with a 5.25" drive too.
(You can do the same with a 1541 and a special cable that goes to the
parallel port of a PC + software.)
Jay West wrote:
So, my question is - for the c128 people... if I
really just want a
C64, will the C128's C64 emulation be 100% and make me happy? If so
I'd like a 128 as long as I'm going for a C64 so I have some extra
functionality to play with. But if the C128 won't run 100% of the C64
software, then I'd best just stick with getting a C64.