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t.iv lance 128
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Interview with commodore128.org
Lance By Commodore Free magazine
Q Lance could you introduce yourself
formally to our readers
A Lance Lyon, most of your readers
would be aware of me from comp.sys.cbm
& within the wider C= community over
the last 20 odd years
Q where do you live
A Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains,
110km west of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Q Are you a Commodore Free reader :-)
A Yes
Q How did you get into Commodore
machines
A In 1978 my parents "decided" (read:
I beat them into submission with my
non-stop begging!) to buy me a
computer & wanted to get me a TRS-80,
we Were using Exidy Sorcerors in
school & I wanted one of those, so
they visited Sydney & couldn't get
either the Radio Shack or Exidy
machine & bought a PET 2001 instead.
(I still want a Sorceror though......)
Q Do you still actively use Commodore
machines
A Yes, my 128D & my original PET
(still chugging along) & my Amiga
1200. I also have a Commodore PC-5 (XT
compatible) that is used a little as
well (my original BBS machine).
Q what machines do you own
A part from those mentioned above,
several C64's (not used, just stored)
A couple of Plus4's, a several C16's,
two VIC20's, 3 Amiga 600's, 5 Amiga
1000's, several Commodore PC clones,
various contemporary PC's & a whole
plethora of other classic computers
(mostly stored). No Spectrums though
;-)
Q are there any active commodore 128
hackers
A Nothing like exists for the C64
scene, but there are a few coming out
of the woodwork on the forum, so the
scene is starting to get a (somewhat
belated) boost
Q Tell our reader about your website
A In simplest terms, a "one stop shop"
for all things Commodore 128
Q When was the site created
A The forums went online in July 2006,
www.commodore128.org went online in
October 2006, however the site is an
outgrowth of my BBs that has been
online since 1987, so it has a pretty
long pedigree
Q Why Commodore 128 what is so special
A There are a plethora of sites for
the C64 & even though there are a few
128 related sites, there are no
specific community (forum) sites, I
felt it was way past time that the
machine had a "proper" community site.
As for what's special about the
machine, well, IMHO it's the best 8
bit machine from any company & is the
penultimate 8 bit Commodore (I don't
count the unreleased C65 as it was
never finished). Add to that that the
128 has been underexposed &
underutilised for so long, it's way
beyond the time when it needed its own
dedicated site Q "what did Commodore
do wrong"
A My opinion ? several things, getting
rid of Jack Tramiel was the first big
mistake, introducing the 264 line was
another mistake, next mistake was
producing the 128 & crippling it by
including 64 mode & then continuing
to produce the 64; that should have
been canned once the 128D was
released. And they dropped the ball
big time with the Amiga - they had the
most technically superior 16 bit
computer of the time - even compared
to the Mac - and they lost their lead,
AGA was too little, too late. In
markets like here in Australia they
had a huge lead over every other
company, even their PC line was
selling better than other "name'
brands, they threw away an enormous
amount of goodwill
Q What Commercial games were released
A Not many - Infocom had a few; Beyond
Zork, A Mind Forever Voyaging,
Bureaucracy & Trinity; then of course
there were The Last V8, Thai Boxing,
Kickstart II & The rocky horror
picture Show - conversions all, but
with Kickstart II (as an example) you
could see that had more games been
released, they would have been
superior to the C64 offerings. In that
game there were 27 courses compared
to the 8 offered in the 64 version.
Elite 128 was another that sticks out
too
Q I suppose the 128_s main advantage
was backward compatibility with the
Commodore 64 I also think this was
its draw back as many programmers just
made Commodore 64 versions never
utilising the full 128_s power do you
think this was the case
A Absolutely, see my earlier comment
about C64 compatibility
Q What is the 128s killer application
A That's a hard one, GEOS 128 springs
to mind (80 column mode), and
practically any of the 80 column
business software (Timeworks was
always a favourite label of mine)
Q Although the retro scene seems
fixated on the C64 are there any new
titles in development for the 128
A In development? Well, probably not,
but one of the things that I've
noticed since starting the site is
that people are starting to program
the 128 after having been in hiatus
for many years, one of our members for
example was spurred to re-write VICE's
2MHz mode, plus with the coding comp
we're currently running (small to
start with), I'm hoping that people
Will start developing for the machine.
Remember that anything the the C64 can
do the 128 can do twice as well &
twice as fast too! <grin>
Q Thanks for your time is there
anything you would like to add
A I'd like to thank the core group of
my members who have put an enormous
amount of their own time & effort into
growing the site. Also, keep up The
excellent work with the mag!
cheers, Lance
// http://www.commodore128.org
Commodore 128 forums & more! /
...end...