[comp.os.cpm] FYI C64 CP/M

secrist@msdsws.DEC.COM (Richard Secrist, Digital Equip. Corp. USA) (08/01/88)

>	Date: Fri, 29 Jul 88 12:08 EDT
>	From: <TLEWIS%UTKVX4.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
>	Subject: C64 CPM
> 
>	I would like to get CPM for the Commodore 64 and I understand Commodore
>	does not market it anymore.  Does anyone know how I could get it?
> 
>	Terry Lewis
>	University of Tennessee at Martin
>	TLEWIS@UTKVX1   (Bitnet)

You probably do not even want to try it... the reason CBM doesn't market it
anymore is because it is my understanding that it was such a severly flawed
product and the Federal Trade Commission demanded that they remove it from
the market and provide refunds.  This of course didn't help me, because I
found out after I bought one of the silly things.  Half of the chips in mine
were bad even at that, and after socketing the whole thing and replacing
the bad chips it sometimes boots but crashes soon after that.  Apparently
it has something to do with revisions made to the SID chips that are present
in almost ALL C64s but were not present in the machine(s) they designed
the cartridge around.  Someone with an SX-64 out there in net land however
swore to me once that theirs worked, although you will find that this is
not the general experience of people in the free world.  Mine works so poorly
that I wouldn't even believe him except that someone in a Dr. Dobbs many
moons ago (Walter Biolifsky or something like that) actually got an XMODEM
flying for his C64 under CP/M, which is still available on the BBSes so some-
body must be downloading it.  I sincerely hope someone on the net can tell
me I'm all wrong and here-is-how-to-fix-it, but I've asked before.  FYI I
found mine in a K-Mart about 2-3 years ago when they were cleaning out their
C64 stuff.

I called CBM myself about this, which took many, many attempts, and the guy
I finally got hold of said they only give refunds or exchanges for software,
that there is no fix, and that none of the units ever worked.

Hope that helps.

rcs