Hi Jay, 99.9% compatible - there are a few badly written C64 programs that won't work & you may have issues with some fast loaders in 64 mode. However, by & large it's a superior machine - C128 40 & 80 colum modes, 64 mode, CP/M mode & let's not forget it's better keyboard! If you must, get the 128D rather than the flat 128. Looks better & if you get the metal case job (DCR) you'll end up with a 64k VDC rather than the 16k one in the origanl D & flat C128. I have a 128D here on my desk & it takes up less space than the 64 it replaced (monitor behind, floppy beside). cheers, Lance // http://landover.no-ip.com Commodore 128 forums & more! //

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:

Jay West wrote: Get yourself an early C64; the case design was a lot nicer and you'll feel better for it :-) -- If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow You need buttermilk and cheese, and an equilateral chainsaw