Commodore 128/Amiga Find

[llabnip]

My first "trash find". Driving back from a friends house I spotted a large white box with large "COMMODORE 128" lettering. The wife didn't want to stop, but I convinced her that it might be a good find for me. Not only was there a C128 but also a Commodore Amiga with box and some manuals, discs, etc. Unfortauntely, most of the boxes were water damaged (no idea how long they had been out waiting for trash pickup - but it rained the night before). I took all the stuff that was being thrown out... got it home and started the long process of seperating it all out and drying what I could. The Amiga box didn't survive, but the C128 box did. The hardware looked in good shape - after drying for a day I hooked up the C128 and it booted without problem - read and wrote both the cassette and disk drive without problems. A few of the discs were water damaged, but most seem to work. The Amiga I haven't tried yet... I don't have an RGB monitor handy (will borrow one from work). The Workbench (OS?) manuals are present but no 3.5" discs so I don't even know if I would be able to get that to boot (but maybe it has a ROM basic that will boot so at least I can tell if the machine is mostly working...).

My question is... what the heck do I have on my hands? Treasure or junk? (I suspect the latter). I've never collected anything but Atari 2600 and Colecovision. I know the C128 has a C64 mode and there is lots of stuff to get for that but I'm not sure I want to dive into the deep end. I checked ebay and apparently the stuff isn't worth very much (darn!) so my hopes of trading this stuff for things I collect (Atari and Coleco carts and hardware) is not likely to come to fruition. Any suggestions on what I should do with any of this stuff?

Here are some pics I took this morning of the systems "drying" (and being used).

Commodore 128, Disk Drive, Cassette Drive

Commodore Amiga A500, C128 Box, Misc Stuff

Commodore Manuals, discs, etc

Hopefully this is OK to post here - most discussion seems to be on consoles, but I did search and find some posts on C64/128 stuff...

[Flack]

If you are talking about "monitary value", yeah, mostly junk. A complete C128 doesn't sell for much more than $20-$30. A complete Amiga 500 with disks and all goes for more, maybe $50-$70. Certainly worth digging out of the trash, but probably not enough for retirement. The biggest problem with selling these is, as I'm sure you noticed, they're kind of heavy. The Amiga 500 I bought off of eBay cost me $50 with an additional $20 in shipping.

As for "entertainment value", they're priceless. IMHO, two of the greatest computer systems ever made. With a few cables and some software, you can still download Commodore programs today and play them on your 128. I spent so many years hacking around on mine that I've never been able to let the little bugger go.

[Mayhem]

Exactly... keep them! Buy or trade discs. Play games. Enjoy them!

[Blendo75]

The Workbench (OS?) manuals are present but no 3.5" discs so I don't even know if I would be able to get that to boot (but maybe it has a ROM basic that will boot so at least I can tell if the machine is mostly working...).[.

If it's working what you should see when you turn it on is a lo-res 4-color pic of a hand holding a disk that says "Workbench" on it. It's the kickstart ROM telling you to put in a Workbench disk. However, any disk that's bootable (99% of commercial software) can be put in at this time and it will boot up. You dont necessarily need workbench to load stuff, just kickstart, and if you have an Amiga 500 then you have a kickstart ROM - and this is all you will see until you put in a disk.

Your Amiga 500 looks to be in really good shape, much better than mine and I've never left it out in the rain. Congratulations!

[Raedon]

Good trash finds! The C128 is the hardiest of the C64 type systems.. the A500 is ok, but it's like the worst of the Amiga's IMHO.. I love my A1000, but the A3000 is the KING of the Amiga hardware.

[SpasticFuctard]

The a500 is the best gaming rig of the systems. The a1000 is it's older mongoloid brother, who didn't know enough to stop hitting himself in the brain with an axe. The 2k and 3k respectively were godlike mahines which should be worshiped with great reverence from afar.

I still have my a500>2000 conversion kit plugged into my A500, replete with harddrive and cdrom.

Oh, and a couple billion (or so) games on diskette if you're wanting em.

SF

[Flack]

Oh, and a couple billion (or so) games on diskette if you're wanting em.

Wow, that would be awesome. Is it possible to download those on an IBM and then get them to work on the Amiga? I bought an Amiga 500 about a year ago on eBay, but the biggest hurdle has been I have absolutely no software for it (other than kickstart or workbench)

[Raedon]

The a500 is the best gaming rig of the systems. The a1000 is it's older mongoloid brother, who didn't know enough to stop hitting himself in the brain with an axe. SF

Actually the better machine is the A1000 from both a computer collector's standpoint and a gamer for serveral reasons. When you open a A1000, the plastic top is molded with the John Hancock of the people who created it. No other system or computer to date had creators so proud of their work, they "signed" it. It has an TV out so it works with a TV.. a staple of any good gaming computer. It is compatible with 99.5% of amiga games... ever. The keyboard is seperate, which makes it better then the A500 right off. You put a A1000 and an A500 plug them in and throw in Bard's Tale the exact same thing will happen.. I say, the A500 is the WORST of the Amiga systems.

The A3000 is the god of the Amiga line because it can use VGA monitors stock, so you can use your old 19" VGA monitor and use it. It does not work with as many of the older games though, but it can be upgraded to a system that rivals a G4..

[Raedon]

Oh, and a couple billion (or so) games on diskette if you're wanting em.

Wow, that would be awesome. Is it possible to download those on an IBM and then get them to work on the Amiga? I bought an Amiga 500 about a year ago on eBay, but the biggest hurdle has been I have absolutely no software for it (other than kickstart or workbench)

There are a few ways to do this.. but it can be difficult with an older Amiga.. easiest was is to get that DOS.. ohh. DOSemu program.. (what was it called) it allows you to read Microsoft Floppy format... then copy the .zipped .adf onto the floppy (you have to compress them as Amiga floppies are 1.88 while PC is smaller..) unzip them to your HD (no HD? it has to go onto the ramdisk.) then use and adf writer..

If you have an stock amiga A500 and A1000 then forget it.. you need at least a 2 meg expantion for a ram disk to unzip the adf into.

If you have an A2000, or A3000 you have a HD which makes things easier.. You can connect a PC and Amiga with a null-modem and do it that way.. 98pacecar has an A3000 with a NIC card that he has on his home network. It can get on the net, that would be the easiest way.

FYI unzipping 1.77meg on a 7mhz machine takes like 20+ minutes.

[llabnip]

If it's working what you should see when you turn it on is a lo-res 4-color pic of a hand holding a disk that says "Workbench" on it. It's the kickstart ROM telling you to put in a Workbench disk.

That's exactly what it did. It had a little animation of inserting a disk. I think it said Workbench 2.0 (not sure if that's the disk it wanted or the rev of the kickstart roms or both... but it appears it works at least that much).

However, any disk that's bootable (99% of commercial software) can be put in at this time and it will boot up. You dont necessarily need workbench to load stuff, just kickstart, and if you have an Amiga 500 then you have a kickstart ROM - and this is all you will see until you put in a disk.

That's good to know! Maybe I'll try to get some Amiga stuff on diskette. I'm a huge shmup fan and there are several that I'll try to locate for this machine.

On a semi-related note... there was a small plastic adapter that was part of this find that I don't know what it does. You can just see this little 2" by 1" white plastic box on the extreme left side of:

White Box

It has a Commodore-type serial connector on one side (that 6 pin Din connector) and a 25 pin serial or paralell port on the other side. I have no idea if it goes with my C128 or Amiga A500 and couldn't find anything in a quick browse of the manuals. Anyone have a clue what it's used for?

Thanks again... I'm enjoying playing a bit of Wishbringer on the C128 (in C64 mode). Only half of the games survived buing out in the cold and rain... and the disk drive needed a bit of cleaning but it all appears to be working pretty well (except the only cart that was in the lot - a Kickman cart which does not want to load even after repeated contact cleanings and various wiggles on insertion).

Not sure if I'm keeping any of it yet, but it's keeping me busy! Now if I could just find a fully boxed Colecovision....

[SpasticFuctard]

It might be the Amiga C64 emulator 1541/71 interface, if our Commodore fan there didn't want to abandon all his old commie games, he mighta bought this gem.

As for the a500/1000 debate, the 1000 is the older system, which was marketed as a Home PC, whereas the 500 was the later scaled back gaming console rig they released. The difference in the two being of course the Fat Agnes frontside bus speed. the A1000 while a pioneering machine suffered from being the prototype for a line of awesome computer, its Gary and Denise chips were an older slower model.

Besides, anyone who owned a 500 almost immediately cracked the case, got the special chip puller and dropped in a Fatter Agner. Chances are they went out and got the harddrive that conformed to the a500 lines too. I know I did, as did everyone else in the NJAUG.

SF

[Blendo75]

That's exactly what it did. It had a little animation of inserting a disk. I think it said Workbench 2.0 (not sure if that's the disk it wanted or the rev of the kickstart roms or both... but it appears it works at least that much).

On a semi-related note... there was a small plastic adapter that was part of this find that I don't know what it does. Anyone have a clue what it's used for?

You have Kickstart 2.0, that's why it's asking for Workbench 2.0. I always had Kickstart 1.3/Workbench 1.3. You'll definitely want to use Workbench 2.0 if you can find it.
As far as that plastic adapter goes I'm going to guess it's a printer adapter for the C-128. C-64 emulation on the Amiga 500 is extremely slow.

[metal_head]

CUT!!!

[Raedon]

also many games are not compatable with anything over kickstart 1.3

and my A1000 could kick your A500's ass!

Actually I had my a1000 maxed.. it had a kickboard (kickstart ROM 1.3 or 2.0 switcher.) 2.5meg or RAM and 3 floppies..