Commodore 128 tower project thread #3

[redrumloa]

The last thread started off oddly and had no real flow :-) A major milestone has been made, stage one is complete! I now have a completely functional, base Commodore 128 Tower with single 1571 disk drive! Now both 40 column and 80 column are viewable on a standard VGA monitor and I may switch between them on the fly with the black toggle switch to the upper right corner of the tower.




Some other details have been completed, like I also added an original 40 col video port to the back panel just in case I want to use an old monitor, or standard video out for recording (Youtube etc). Stage 2 is under way, I am currently working on the expansion port extension cable. Boy is that a ball buster  :angry:

[Jeff]

Congratulations it looks great!  I would love to see a shot of the inside and the rear also if you have them.

-Jeff

[redrumloa]

Thanks Jeff :-) These 2 pics are not completely current but close enough for now. Inside pic and back panel pic. You can also check the last thread for more pics if you wish :-)

[Damion]

It does look fantastic, and a 128 tower is just super cool. Nice job! :pint: (It's given me the urge to set my 'ol 128 up and play a few rounds of yie ar kung-fu, LOL.)

[Darrin]

So, how many of these are you going to build and when are you putting them on eBay?   ;-)   :-D

[Firedawg]

Awesome, your project is inspiring me to take on another similar mod for an Atari unit I have :idea:.  Your work is very clean and organized.  Thanks for sharing.....  

[redrumloa]

-D- wrote:
It does look fantastic, and a 128 tower is just super cool. Nice job! :pint: (It's given me the urge to set my 'ol 128 up and play a few rounds of yie ar kung-fu, LOL.)

How about playing the 128 version of The Last V8 and telling me what the trick to the first level is :-?

[redrumloa]

Darrin wrote:
So, how many of these are you going to build and when are you putting them on eBay?   ;-)   :-D

Haha, yeah right :-P The amount of labor and expensive parts involved makes this a one off project. This is my baby, if I ever sold it there would be a lot of 0s and ,s in the number :-D

[redrumloa]

Firedawg wrote:
Awesome, your project is inspiring me to take on another similar mod for an Atari unit I have :idea:.  Your work is very clean and organized.  Thanks for sharing.....  

Thanks a lot, if you do it let us know :-)

[tokyoracer]

That sticker I found has done it wonders, did you ever bother with the other ones I told you about in the end?

[redrumloa]

tokyoracer wrote:
That stiker I found has done it wonders, did you ever bother with the other ones I told you about in the end?

Yeah that case badge adds a lot :-) I'm not sure about the large stickers, I'm going to wait until the end to decide on that.

[frootloop]

Wow! That is awesome! How did you handle the VGA output?

[redrumloa]

frootloop wrote:
Wow! That is awesome! How did you handle the VGA output?

Here's a couple pics while under construction, before completion of stage one.
 


I have 2 converters installed. The one shown here is a composite video to VGA adapter.



In the right side of this image you see the other side which is the CGA to VGA adapter, which is modified for the 128's RGBi and displays all 16 unique colors.

The output of the composite converter goes into the pass through of the CGA converter.

[frootloop]

Ingenius! I would not have thought of the modded cga adaptor for the 16 colour mode!

[weirdami]

@redrumloa

How about playing the 128 version of The Last V8 and telling me what the trick to the first level is :-?

I had the C=64 version. I didn't know there was a C=128 version, but if it's the game I remember, then I spent hours and hours doing that game and only ever passed the first level after a long time practicing. The trick is to just go fast and not crash at all. :-) If it's the same game I'm thinking of, where you race around the streets in the first level trying to get to the door to the underground in time, then the second level is underground and I think was pretty much the same thing with driving around really fast and I never ever got past the second level. Probably due to having to pass the first level again each time I failed the second one. :-/