Ah, the Slik Stik, the tire valve stick. The tire valve they used is still made, so keep that in mind if you feel like the stick mounting is a bit worn out. It can be replaced with a new part. This has got to be the most future-proof design of any Atari/Commodore peripheral, ever. Some day we'll be struggling to find working cassette tapes for a Datasette and that tire valve stem will still be available new.
Haha, you can never have too many monitors. Is what I keep telling myself as they stack up in my garage. But this would be part of my ideal setup where I could have a few different things running into the 1084s and the Tandy monitor (or my Magnavox more likely). That 1084s especially can handle so many things!
Its usage seems to be an extreme rarity. I'm currently only aware of one or two programs that utilize it (although I'm sure there are some more hiding somewhere)
Most people didn't have a monitor suitable for the 80 column VDC output. It's kind of sad that the C128 had this ability, since hardly anyone was able to take advantage of it. The VDC subsystem caused a LOT of grief for the hardware engineers, and it ended up mostly wasted. I think it was mainly a crude hack included just so they'd be able to claim the Commodore 128 was superior to the Apple ][ in advertisements. (At the time, the available Apple ][ models had 80 column capability built in.) The VDC actually has a composite video output capability with the appropriate adapter, and I actually got my hands on one. I never put it to use, though, because the 80 column output was too blurry on my 1702 monitor. However, I have since gotten my hands on a couple decent monochrome monitors. So, I'm actually going to finally set up my C128 with a dual screen setup. The 80 column VDC side will only be monochrome, but that's okay. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. What I'd really like to do is turn the monitor sideways for a portrait mode terminal. With interlacing, it should be good for 50x80 text... a bit narrow, but there's just something about portrait displays...
@@anovaprint While software that uses dual screen is EXTREMELY uncommon, I think a lot of BASIC programmers used the ability to switch between the screens. That way, you could have the normal testing on one screen, and switch to the other screen for program editing.
Yes but most people I knew back then, and even today, only hook up one monitor. Back then a good monitor had dual inputs that you selected so in any case it was one display at a time but the computer was able to drive both video chips. The 80 column chip was pretty limited graphically but it had its own RAM (16K or 64K).
It's such a shame the the c128 didn't become a gaming platform like the c64. It would have been amazing. Too many software companies just developed for the 64 because of the install base. I had both a c64 and a c128 and I would have bought so many games for the 128 if they had offered them at the time.
I've honestly only recently become aware of its unrealized potential. It's one reason I'm enjoying exploring the system so much. One day I'll do a video on all the crazy GEOS 128 enhancements out there.
Developers flocked to the Amiga because it was a more exciting platform to develop for. The C128 was not very exciting to develop for, even though it outsold the Amiga by a wide margin early on (eventually, the Amiga would catch up in total sales ... barely). But this is all really Commodore's fault. They purposefully didn't want the C128 to eat into Amiga sales, so they made a much less exciting machine than they could have. The CPU and graphics were the same unless you had an RGBI monitor (which most people didn't have). What Commodore really should have done is forget Amiga and instead make the C128/C256 serious next generation computers - with backwards compatibility. Note that the Apple IIGS also had a crippled CPU, because Steve Jobs didn't want it to outperform the Mac, but it still had capabilities on par with the Amiga and Atari ST. Commodore could have made a far more powerful C128/C256 with a 4MHz 65C816, using the same RAM speed as would be used on the (very affordable) Atari 512ST. It could have 1MHz speed for backwards compatibility with the C64, or it could run at 4MHz with a simple frame buffer video chip similar to the ST or IIGS. Nothing so fancy as the VIC-II chip, just a quick and dirty frame buffer display. That would have gotten developers excited just like the Atari ST. Next generation graphics! But it would keep the familiar 6502 coding style and backwards compatibility with disk drives and other peripherals. Oh well, a missed opportunity...
