My family had a Commodore 128, though we didn't keep it very long. As I remember, we traded it in or sold it to help fund the new Amiga 1000.
It actually looks kind of similar to the Amiga 1000, actually. I'll do the 1000 in a future installment, but further down the list. I want to stick to the obscure ones for the time being and have just been doing these Commodore ones lately because they were handy and/or useful at the moment.
Matt Barton wrote:
I vaguely remember booting the system into CPM mode just to see what that was like, but seem to recall it was green or orange monochrome. At any rate, we didn't have any software to utilize it. I don't even think we had anything for the 128. It was always GO64 and that's the end of the story.
I'm guessing this would have been a much bigger hit among people who had a large quantity of CPM software, maybe businessmen or professionals needing apps like Wordstar. As far as the 128 mode goes, I'm not aware that much was ever done for it.
Yes, it was typical CP/M, meaning mostly pure text. It had its advantages, including 80 columns. As for the 128 mode, it was excellent for productivity and utilities and the 128 made much better use of memory expansions, but there were very few mainstream games, just a few from Mastertronic and Infocom that were specific.
Matt Barton wrote:
Bill, what was that other 8-bit super machine that more or less failed? I can't remember what it was, though I seem to think it may have been the CoCo 3. I need to re-read those entries. ;-)
The Color Computer 3, yeah, which would have easily been the best 8-bit machine ever had it not been for the single channel sound. It's still very impressive though and could have even had a 256 color mode (and improved sound capability) if Tandy hadn't held it back so - as the rumor goes - not to compete with the Tandy 1000.
There were very few "Super 8-bits" actually released other than those two and there were some weird hybrids, like the Sinclair QL, which had some 32-bit components like the processor, but was hobbled by an essentially 8-bit architecture (it's arguable that the Apple IIgs would fall into this class, but it actually was more 16-bit than anything). TI never released the TI-99/8, which would have been a heck of a machine (even though the processor was 16-bit), nor Atari with the Atari 1450XL (and XLD). Commdore itself never released the C-64 successor, the C-65, which would have truly been a "Super 8-bit", with 256 color mode, built-in 3.5" disk drive and other nifty features.
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
======================================
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
My family had a Commodore 128, though we didn't keep it very long. As I remember, we traded it in or sold it to help fund the new Amiga 1000.
It actually looks kind of similar to the Amiga 1000, actually. I'll do the 1000 in a future installment, but further down the list. I want to stick to the obscure ones for the time being and have just been doing these Commodore ones lately because they were handy and/or useful at the moment.
I vaguely remember booting the system into CPM mode just to see what that was like, but seem to recall it was green or orange monochrome. At any rate, we didn't have any software to utilize it. I don't even think we had anything for the 128. It was always GO64 and that's the end of the story.
I'm guessing this would have been a much bigger hit among people who had a large quantity of CPM software, maybe businessmen or professionals needing apps like Wordstar. As far as the 128 mode goes, I'm not aware that much was ever done for it.
Yes, it was typical CP/M, meaning mostly pure text. It had its advantages, including 80 columns. As for the 128 mode, it was excellent for productivity and utilities and the 128 made much better use of memory expansions, but there were very few mainstream games, just a few from Mastertronic and Infocom that were specific.
Bill, what was that other 8-bit super machine that more or less failed? I can't remember what it was, though I seem to think it may have been the CoCo 3. I need to re-read those entries. ;-)
The Color Computer 3, yeah, which would have easily been the best 8-bit machine ever had it not been for the single channel sound. It's still very impressive though and could have even had a 256 color mode (and improved sound capability) if Tandy hadn't held it back so - as the rumor goes - not to compete with the Tandy 1000.
There were very few "Super 8-bits" actually released other than those two and there were some weird hybrids, like the Sinclair QL, which had some 32-bit components like the processor, but was hobbled by an essentially 8-bit architecture (it's arguable that the Apple IIgs would fall into this class, but it actually was more 16-bit than anything). TI never released the TI-99/8, which would have been a heck of a machine (even though the processor was 16-bit), nor Atari with the Atari 1450XL (and XLD). Commdore itself never released the C-64 successor, the C-65, which would have truly been a "Super 8-bit", with 256 color mode, built-in 3.5" disk drive and other nifty features.
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
======================================
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.