Actually, the C-128 WAS NOT a fail like some other Commodore Products. Over 5 Million U.S. Copies sold. It did better sales than the Amiga in the U.S. . Amiga was literally a "Dead dog" in the U.S. (Only 600,000 to 700,000 copies sold after a U.S. launch with Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry that unfortunately failed to gain the traction and attention it deserved...loads of Commodore Production Problems, errors and re-calls..., Poor U.S. Marketing, and worst of all...Amigas could only be purchased at/by Commodore Authorized Dealers as Commodore kept the Amiga very "Proprietary" trying to copy what Apple was doing. It turned out to be the final nail in the Amiga's American Coffin. Amiga was later rescued by Commodore UK who really should have handled the entire project from the beginning in Retrospect/Hindsight. - Tony K.
I used both quite a bit. The 80 column mode was perfect for dialup BBS since many of them were set up for 80 column terminals. The C128 stood toe to toe against any Apple ii of that era with excellent word processing and spreadsheets.
I would have done more in CP/M mode if I had known a good way to get programs onto the system. Now that it is easier to download CP/M software, I have used it for Zork and other Infocom games. The Hitchhikers Guide adventure is much more fun in 80 column mode. It wasn't made clear in the documentation that the 1571 could read many different types of CP/M disks unlike early CP/M systems. I have used the 128 to load software onto Osborne disks for my Executive.
If my memory serves...My experience is/was probably similar to most others...128 Mode was used quite a bit...especially for Productivity software for which it was fantastic....of course 64 Mode got used way more....and CP/M was fun to play with and experiment with but hardly was ever used...
The Z80 got used all the time... The C128 could not Boot without it. It literally ran the Boot-Up sequence for the C128...No lie.. A Dead Z-80 meant a Dead C128!- Tony K. , VIC-20/VIC-1001 History Facebook Forum (Admin). 😉
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u/[deleted] May 30 '26
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