My Commodore 128

February 14, 2022

My Commodore 128D is the computer I value the most and my only original one surviving. This machine I used for a long time, only getting a PC relatively late. This is the machine I did most of my programming on.

This is also the machine that rekindled my 8 bit passion when this machine came back from my parents attic.

For me it is the perfect 8 bit, combining the C64 platform for it's huge software catalogue, the C128 rich BASIC 7.0, the VDC chip for 80 column mode, the additional memory, the form factor with great keyboard and internal disk drive, CP/M support...

Presently, I won in total three C128s:

my original Commodore 128D 'Plastic'
a Commodore 128 'flat' bought two years ago
a relatively recently acquired Commodore 128DCR 'Metal'

My present daily driver is the DCR, as that one is less noisy than the D, I installed JiffyDOS in that one (still scared to do that in my own old D for sentimental reasons) and it has 64KB VDC memory.

The D I now mainly use as second unit for video capturing, as I have the RGB2HDMI and Framemeister connected to this one to be able to make video captures for YouTube from original hardware.

The 'flat' is alas stored away by lack of space.

For both the D and DCR I own an Ultimate II+ cartridge. This greatly enhances the C128 with modern storage with full 1541, 1571 and 1581 disk emulation, REU emulation, and tons of other cool features. It also solves one great problem on using D and DCR models with modern mass storage solutions: it allows to re-assign the internal drive to another drive ID or mute it alltogether, so you can run software only working from drive ID 8 (or even not allowing devices present at other device IDs). For this I use the great C128 Device Manager ROM by Bart van Leeuwen. This Device Manager ROM directly leaded to my own DMBoot project.

Picture showing the D and the DCR stacked in my present setup: thecommodores