Guest Post: The Real Story of Hacking Together the Commodore C128

[ChuckT]

Guest Post: The Real Story of Hacking Together the Commodore C128

The most popular computer ever sold to-date, the Commodore C-64, sold 27 Million units total back in the 1980’s.  Little is left to show of those times, the 8-bit “retro” years when a young long-haired self-taught engineer could, through sheer chance and a fair amount of determination, sit down and design a computer from scratch using a mechanical pencil, a pile of data books, and a lot of paper.

http://hackaday.com/2013/12/09/guest-post-the-real-story-of-hacking-together-the-commodore-c128/

Guess which Commodore Engineers are in the comment section?

[Iggy]

Guess which Commodore Engineers are in the comment section?

Wow! And a really modest fellow indeed.

"the last of the 8-bit computers which somehow was able to include many firsts for home computing"

The C128 was a serious turkey with a Z-80 mode slower than virtually any other CP/M machine.

And the last 8bit?
Actually several companies had last 8 bit machines.
And frankly, I'd take an Atari 130XE or a Tandy Color Computer 3 over a C128 any day.

And the C128's worth is revealed by iys high re-sale value.

Let's see, a quick check on eBay, ...ah yes there is one...

"$39.95                                    Buy It Now"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-C128-128-Computer-System-Console-/261349709294?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item3cd9a815ee

Yeah, this is what Commodore thought would sell.
No wonder they couldn't figure out how to market Jay Miner's invention.

Sorry guys.
But for those of you who hold Commodore in high regard, obviously I don't.

Lame.