Who wants a Commodore 128 D?

[Louis Dias]

I added an extra SID chip to my 128D and ran it thru the composite a/v rca jack.  I was using a nice Magnavox TTL RGB+Composite monitor so I had no use for the RF modulator jack.  It became a second audio channel jack.

Ofcourse the sound output was much lower...maybe I didn't have it grounded right at the jack...

Other than the stereo SID player, nothing else supported it.  Oh well...

Anyone want a 128D for $45 shipped in the US?

[boing]

I claimed that^^.

I know what the 128D is.  But what's the 128Dcr? And what's a 128CD?  What's a DCR motherboard?

[Louis Dias]

supposedly, all US 128D's are the cr (cost reduced) version

I forget what the difference is...

oh:

http://www.commodore.ca/text/128.htm

[Marco]

@ Boing: to the best of my knowledge it goes like this:

The 128D was the second revision of the 128, they changed it to the desktop form-factor and put a 1571 inside the case, which was plastic and had the carry-handle. The plastic case hadn't a snowball in hell's chance of being legal in the US due to the FCC regs (they later exported their crazy regulations to us via the EU IIRC).

Anyway to sell the 128D in the US they repackaged it in a metal case to meet the FCC interference regs and also made some motherboard revisions to reduce costs including integrating the 128D PCB with the 1571's PCB (hence the 'CR' in the name) producing the 128DCR. It also featured the max 64K of video ram and a different VDC.

This new cheaper board couldn't fit inside the wedge case so they prototyped a version called the 128CR which had the mobo revisions to reduce cost and improve the video capabilities but removed the 1571 bits of the board. I have no clue if this version actually made it to production though. Further they made a few mockups of a wedge 128 with a built in floppy, might have been a 1581, not sure. I think Zimmer's site has the pics - some had a deck-loading mechanism, very retro. None of those were actually real though I don't think.

[Doppie1200]

Also not that the 128Dcr has som annoyances.

1st The SID is the 8580 rather then the 6581. I think it sounds awfull.

2nd The VIC has some interferance with the 1Mhz Bus. It produces veticle culomns all over the screen. If you want a solid picture stay clear of the Dcr.

On the other hand the ROM is debugged. I recall a nice bug in the 128(D) Rom where the caps lock did not work for one key.....forgot which (beleive it was 'q').

And the DCR case is smaller then the D in terms of height. And it is solid as a tank! (MIL SPEC no doubt)
Sadly the keyboard bay was dropped and so was the carrying handle and the fan. The latter being an advantage IMHO.

[boing]

>This new cheaper board couldn't fit inside the wedge case

 And what is this "wedge case" you guys speak of?   I know of the case for the very original C=128 (the A500 and A1200 were rather similar to this case).  And I know of the later A1000-styled case with the handle, keyboard garage and embedded 5.25" floppy drive.  So what's this "wedge case"?


>1st The SID is the 8580 rather then the 6581. I think it sounds awfull.

If the 8580 is truly inferior (as opposed to just one bad unit) is it pin comaptible so that a SID chip can be installed in place of the 8580?


>2nd The VIC has some interferance with the 1Mhz Bus.
> It produces veticle culomns all over the screen. If you want a solid picture stay
>clear of the Dcr.

But aren't all North American 128D's in fact the DCR model?  Is there a fix for this problem?

There's no keyboard bay and no handle on the 128Dcr?!?  I've seen them at Montgomery Wards or Sears with handle and keyboard garage!

[Doppie1200]

boing wrote:

If the 8580 is truly inferior (as opposed to just one bad unit) is it pin comaptible so that a SID chip can be installed in place of the 8580?

The 6581 requires a higher voltage. I don't know about pincompatibility. Inferior, no. Different, yes. The filters are different and 'digitized' sound is not possible. It whispers 'ghostbusters' rather than saying it like the 6581 does.

But aren't all North American 128D's in fact the DCR model?  Is there a fix for this problem?

I have not found a fix yet. Three Dcr's I've come about had/have this problem. They where PAL Dcr's. It should be fixable with the right decoupling.

There's no keyboard bay and no handle on the 128Dcr?!?  I've seen them at Montgomery Wards or Sears with handle and keyboard garage!

The Dcr has no handle or garage. This is unique to the D model.

[Marco]

boing wrote:
 And what is this "wedge case" you guys speak of?   I know of the case for the very original C=128 (the A500 and A1200 were rather similar to this case).  And I know of the later A1000-styled case with the handle, keyboard garage and embedded 5.25" floppy drive.  So what's this "wedge case"?

As in a 'wedge' of cheese, or a 'wedge' doorstop, you know a triangular wedge.

I was refering to the normal integrated keyboard version 128 by its shape. I just use that word to describe the shape of keyboard-integrated computers with a vaguely triangular side-profile like the A500, A600 and A1200, the Atari STs, the Acorn A3000, A3010 and A3020.