fetrow@entropy.UUCP (David Fetrow) (09/22/85)
I've had my C-128 for a few days now and thought a quick review on a Production
machine was in order.
First, everything works. Further, there haven't been any returns out of the
40 sold at the store I bought it!
Second, it is possible to run cp/m on it with
a 1541 drive. The cp/m disk is two sided but each side can be read individually
with a 1541 drive. There is a single drive copy utility built into cp/m so I
put the core system stuff and my favorite parts of cp/m on a single sided disk
to make it useable. The 1541 is so slow though that using cp/m with it is not
a terribly happy experience.
Third, the C-64 mode works better than my C-64! (It is an old and abused
machine, the C-64 mode is probably no better or worse than for a new C-64)
Fourth, The C-128 mode (8502 CPU, with 128K easily addressable) is very nice.
The amount of room for basic is incredable and the BASIC itself is MUCH easier
to use. I'm even converting some old FORTH routines to BASIC. So far I haven't
run into any problems with running C64 BASIC programs in C128 mode, including
a BASIC XMODEM terminal program through my Commodore 1650 modem. It also has
a FAST command which speeds things up considerably (FAST won't work with
graphics and doesn't speed up any peripherals).
Fifth, the 80-column screen is a joy (only available in C128 and CP/M modes).
If you already have a monochrome or colour RGBI monitor it works great but does
require a new cable (the old plug only works for 40 column screens), it costs
about 4 bucks to get the 9-pin male serial plug and you can cut and solder it
into the coaxial cable that comes with the machine.
Sixth, the documentation is very minimal but clear. The CP/M section is very
sparse but you can buy more documentation and a couple utility disks from
Digital research for $10 total.
All in all this is a really nice machine for the money, especially if you have
a lot of C-64 stuff around. It isn't very fast (even in FAST mode) and until
the 1571 drive comes out (which they say is faster) it won't be any faster on
disk i/o either (but if you've lived with a 1541 this long....). The documents
mention a whole lot more stuff but I've avoided mentioning anything I haven't
tested (by the way I'm using VIP-TERM in C64 mode at the moment).
There are two things I find annoying. 1: There is supposed to be some sort
of shell program for doing tricky disk stuff that I can't find (This isn't
such a lack really; "DLOAD" is a lot nicer than 'LOAD "...",8,1' for example)
and 2: the CP/M in the box has no simple way (or even moderately difficult way)
to get a modem file transfer program going. This is serious because of the
unusual disk format of the 1541 (making getting a copy of a CP/M program
difficult). The 1571 is supposed to have a KAYPRO (as well as 1541) format
feature but I can neither afford nor find a 1571 at this time. I almost forgot:
the C-128 has a machine language monitor built in (only usable in C128 mode),
it seems to work o.k. but this isn't an area I have any expertise in.
-Dave Fetrow
Kludgemaster of CQS
{ ihnp4, microsof }!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow