CNET has a new article series titled

"Dinosaur sighting:  The Commodore 64"

Check it out at the following link:

http://www.news.com/2300-1042_3-6229406-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg


CNET's TechRepublic takes a Commodore 64 system and package through it's paces after buying it off eBay.

Well, Commodore was mainly making typewriters, adding machines, and even calculators before they got into computers with the PET and VIC-20.

I still have a really old red-LED based Commodore calculator that was given to me back in the 5th grade when I was about 10 or 11 years old.  It ran on a standard 9-volt battery and still works to this day.

I downloaded the GB64 version from that link and ran it on my WinVICE 1.22 setup.

The graphics seem to be fine, regardless of whether I'm running in PAL or NTSC mode.  ALso works fine if I run WinVICE in a window or fullscreen.


Try these settings, as they are the ones I'm using on my WinVICE 1.22 setup:

Refresh Rate Auto
Maximum Speed 100%
Video Cache enabled
Double Scan enabled
Double Size enabled
PAL Emulation off
Scale 2x off
Virtual Device Traps enabled
Emulator Identification enabled


VIC-II Settings
===============
Border Normal
Sprite-Sprite Collisions Enabled
Sprite-Background Collisions Enabled
New Luminances Enabled


(if running fullscreen)

Video Settings - Fullscreen
=================
Driver: Primary Display Driver
Bitdepth: 32
Resolution: 800 x 600
Refreshrate: 85
VBLANK Synchronization enabled
Render to DX Primary Surface enabled

Quote from: nikoniko

Quote from: WonderSlugLeave the C128 VDC palette (which is used by the 80 column mode) alone, since it is already properly set up.

Actually, it isn't. Special monitor circuitry is supposed to massage the 128's half-intensity yellow into a lovely shade of brown, but the VICE palette doesn't take that account, instead displaying a dark yellow.

Ah, yes, now that I see it, you are correct.  I also notice that the 80-column VDC gray is much too dark in VICE.  It should be closer to medium gray instead of the dark gray it is now.

I've made a custom palette strictly for the VDC 80-column mode which should look much better.

As before, I saved this one as 'c128vdcstandard.vpl' in the C128 subdirectory of VICE and point to it in the C128 Settings -> Video Settings -> VDC Palette

===========================================================


#
# VICE Palette file
#
# Syntax:
# Red Green Blue Dither
#
# This one works best on a standard RGB color scheme on a
# Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/XP system and CRT/LCD monitor.
# It might also work well on another OS that runs VICE like *nix/Mac.
# This palette seems to most closely match that of an original
# Commodore 128 VDC 80-Column palette.
# It was compared to an actual running C128 with 1902 monitor.
# The colors are well saturated, with no bleeding, and very good contrast.

# Black (X11/W3C Standard Black)
00 00 00 0

# Medium Gray
# 80 80 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Gray)
# 60 60 60 0
70 70 70 0

# Blue
# 00 00 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Navy Blue)
00 00 A0 0

# Light Blue
# 00 00 FF 0 (X11/W3C Standard Blue)
60 60 FF 0

# Green
# 00 80 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Green)
00 C0 00 0

# Light Green
# 00 FF 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Lime)
# 60 FF 60 0
80 FF 80 0

# Dark Cyan
00 80 80 0

# Light Cyan (X11/W3C Standard Cyan)
00 FF FF 0

# Dark Red
# 80 00 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Maroon)
# 90 00 00 0
A0 00 00 0

# Light Red
# FF 00 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Red)
# FF 80 80 0 (Pink)
FF 60 60 0

# Dark Purple
# 80 00 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Purple)
D0 00 D0 0

# Light Purple
# FF 00 FF 0 (X11/W3C Standard Magenta / Fucshia)
# FF 80 FF 0
E0 80 E0 0

# Brown
# A5 2A 2A 0 (X11/W3C Standard Brown)
# F0 80 00 0 (Amber Screen)
# 80 40 00 0 (Earthen Brown)
# A0 60 00 0 (Medium Brown)
# C0 80 00 0 (Dull Orange)
# FF 80 00 0 (Orange)
# FF 80 40 0 (Orangish)
A0 60 00 0

# Yellow (X11/W3C Standard Yellow)
FF FF 00 0

# Light Gray (X11/W3C Standard Silver)
C0 C0 C0 0

# White (X11/W3C Standard White)
FF FF FF 0


============================================================

Quote from: xlar54Which file is this?  Looking around in vice I dont see a palette file that stands out (by filename).

It's a custom file I made.  copy and paste the text above into a file and save it.  Then reference it in the settings as I stated above.

In essence, the programmers created software-based sprite routines in machine language that pretty much did the same things.

Some of the better ones copied the routines from the C64 kernal as much as possible, modifying as necessary to run on the Plus4.

Another thing about the C128 is that one of it's greatest strengths, the Enhanced Basic 7.0 language built into the machine, with the dozens (or even hundreds) of extra commands to do nearly everything one could hope for, ended up little used by C128 owners.

It was probably the best and most powerful version of BASIC out there, in the mid-1980s, and yet, very few knew much about it.

Of all the C128 programs out there, how many of them used this new BASIC language?  Not as many as they should.

Quote from: mystikshadowsNot sure if it's a problem with your palette file or if it's with vice..  But I followed your steps, started my c128 vice...change the palette etc...then I hit F7 and ALT-R to go to the 80 column mode and the text was yellow isntead of light cyan.

Yeah, as the mod stated, this palette file is only for the VICII palette.  Leave the C128 VDC palette (which is used by the 80 column mode) alone, since it is already properly set up.

Yeah, I hit submit the first time, and the site took forever to respond.   I then went back to the forum, and it didn't show my post, so I reposted this one.

Looks like my first attempt finally got through, although partially.

I just went and deleted the other one.

Hello all.

I made a palette file to be used with the C64 and C128 emulators in VICE.

As far as I can tell, this custom palette very closely matches that of a real C64 and  C128 as they look on 1702 and 1902 monitors, respectively.

Here's the 'text' of my palette file.  

============================================================


#
# VICE Palette file
#
# Syntax:
# Red Green Blue Dither
#
# This one works best on a standard RGB color scheme on a
# Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/XP system and CRT/LCD monitor.
# It might also work well on another OS that runs VICE like *nix/Mac.
# This palette seems to most closely match that of an original C64/128.
# It was compared to an actual running C64 with 1702 monitor.
# The colors are well saturated, with no bleeding, and very good contrast.

# Black
00 00 00 0

# White
FF FF FF 0

# Red
FF 00 00 0

# Cyan
00 FF FF 0

# Purple
# 80 00 80 0 (W3C/X11 Standard)
# FF 00 FF 0 (Magenta / Fuschia)
# C0 00 C0 0
A0 00 A0 0

# Green
# 00 FF 00 0 (Lime)
# 00 80 00 0 (W3C/X11 Standard)
# 00 C0 00 0
00 A0 00 0

# Blue
00 00 FF 0

# Yellow
FF FF 00 0

# Orange
# FF A5 00 0 (Standard Orange)
# FF 80 00 0 (Deep Orange)
FF A0 00 0

# Brown
# A5 2A 2A 0 (Standard Brown)
# 6A 33 04 0 (Dark Earth Clay Brown)
80 40 20 0

# Light Red
# FF C0 CB 0 (Pink)
# FF 69 B4 0 (Hot Pink)
FF 80 80 0

# Dark Gray
# 40 40 40 0 (Twice as dark as Standard/Medium Gray)
40 40 40 0

# Medium Gray (Standard Gray)
80 80 80 0

# Light Green
# 90 EE 90 0 (X11/W3C Standard)
# 90 F0 90 0
90 FF 90 0

# Light Blue
# AD D8 E6 0 (Standard Light Blue)
# 80 80 FF 0 (Saturated Light Blue)
80 A0 FF 0

# Light Gray (Silver - Twice as bright as Standard Gray)
# D3 D3 D3 0 (Standard Light Gray)
C0 C0 C0 0


============================================================


Copy and paste the above text, between the '========', but don't include the '======' , into a text file and save it.

I saved it as 'cbmstandard.vpl' in the C64 and C128 subdirectories of VICE.  To use it, do the following within VICE (using WinVICE 1.22 as an example):

Goto Settings -> Video Settings -> VICII Palette

Choose External Palette

Type in cbmstandard.vpl   (or whatever you saved the above text as)

There are any number of a possible number of reasons why the C128 didn't sell anywhere near as well as the C64.  I owned all 3 major Commodore computers:  VIC-20, C64, C128.  I still have them, although I don't really "fire them up" anymore, since I've since transferred all my software to .D64 and .D71 files to be run on WinVICE instead.

The years of 1980 to 1988 were the glory years for Commodore.

First, the C64 pretty much owned the 8-bit realm, and millions upon millions of the computers were sold.  When the C128 came out, the target user already had a C64, so the C64 mode wasn't good enough a selling point since they could just use their current C64 for that.

Add in the major disappointment from the previous "new" Commodore, the Plus-4, which left a bad taste in many Commmodore users' mouths.  The Plus-4 was notorious for being incompatible with C64 software, and while having 4 built-in apps, had some other major shortcomings besides the C64 incompatibility.  So, the C128 when announced, was afflicted with the Commodore user skepticism and hesitancy brought on by the Plus-4's lack of usefulness in a C64 user base looking to upgrade.

Second, the lack of software for the native C128 mode, both 40 and 80 column, compared to what was available for the C64.  Even a year after the C128 came out, there were only a few dozen commercial titles that took advantage of the C128's extra features.  Compare that to the hundreds for the C64 a year after it came out and the thousands or so just three years after it came out.  The majority of the C128 software was user-written and not easily available from a central source or even a publisher like Activision, but passed around in user groups and such.  That made it more difficult to obtain for people that were too far away from a Commodore user group, or couldn't afford to drive on a regular basis to one.

Third, the CP/M feature was great when first announced, but the fact that the CP/M disks were too late in arriving (at least for me when I bought my C128), and people often waited months after their C128 purchase to receive their copies of the CP/M operating system from Commodore, made it an afterthought in the great majority of the initial buyers.  That was a shame since the lack of C128 software could have been mitigated for the first year by people using the thousands of "free" CP/M programs available.  However, once again, even if they were inclined to use CP/M they had to search for the software.  Commodore should have put up a central site where people could send away for CP/M software.  Like pay $5 per CP/M disk full of software to be sent to you.  That would have added greatly to the appeal.

Instead, CP/M began to languish in the face of the growing MS-DOS base of software on the IBM PC.  The C-128 could have given CP/M longer life, at least another 5 to 7 years, until Windows 3.1 came out.

The 80-column mode was great for potential business customers, instead of the typical home hobbyist that was the target of previous 8-bit systems. The C-128, with the built-in 80 column mode, could have been a really good "cheap" word processing setup if packaged with a decent word processing program and printer.

C128 + Perfect Write 128 + 1902 Monitor (for 80column mode) + 1571 disk drive + Printer for, say, $900, when people were shelling out quite a bit more than that (sometimes twice as much) for WordPerfect and an IBM PC clone.  Or even package GEOS 128 with it instead of Perfect Write, since GEOS came with a word processor.  This would allow it to compete some with the Apple Macintosh as well.

However, Commodore didn't do this, and the cost of a C-128 plus printer, plus word processing program by 1988 didn't hold much of a price advantage over an IBM PC clone with printer and shareware word processing program.  Even the Macintosh at that point was more desirable as a word processing system.

Instead, Commodore chose the Amiga 500, 1000, and 2000 to compete with the PC and Mac.  That left the C128 to be marketed to the same base as always, who were already satisfied with the C64 and didn't see much added value in the C128.

Thus, the C128 only had 5% the sales that the C64 had.