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The Final Final Chapter, Finally
In Part 1 of this series I demoed one of the peak GEOS setups that was possible for Commodore computers in the late 1980s.
That setup included:
- C128Dcr - with an internal 1571 Floppy Drive (ID 8)
- 1902A Commodore Monitor
- C= 512KB RAM Expansion Unit (REU)
- External 1581 Drive (ID 9) viewtopic.php?t=1507
- and C= 1351 mouse
- GEOS 128 2.0, with 2-drive support and a 3rd swappable drive in the form of an small 512KB REU RAMdisk.
In Part 2, I took a step forward and explored some of the hardware innovations Creative Micro Designs (CMD) brought to the waning 8-bit Commodore market by 1993.
Our setup changed like this:
- We updated GEOS 128 2.0 with CMDs very own GateWay 2.5 software. More than just a DeskTop replacement, this gave us full 3-drive support.
- This allowed us to swap the 512KB REU with a CMD RAMLink packed with 16MB RAM. The RAMLink gave us both a DACC partition (I had mine set to 2MB), for faster OS operations as well as a 10 MB “drive” that allowed for liquid fast boot-ups and loading of software applications.
- I also swapped out the Commodore 1581 with a CMD FD-2000, which could either mimic a 1581 drive or use its own CMD Native partitions, which let us use easy-to-source HD disks and doubled their storage capacity from 800K to a whopping 1.6 megabytes.
- Finally, we added a rare Star NL-10 Printer for printing, which is really one of the main benefits of GEOS - a very well-designed WYSIWYG environment for writing and printing - aka Desktop Publishing.
Today, I want to demo the absolute peak GEOS battle station that could have ever been assembled between 1997-2002. And we might sprinkle a tiny bit of 2025 innovation on top, just for fun. This final step in our journey is almost entirely composed of CMD hardware from end to end, some of which today are still considered unobtanium “holy grail” items.
Before we go for a test drive, let’s take a closer look at all of the hardware and features while still on the show floor.
First, let’s see what hasn’t changed from last time:
- We’re keeping the C128Dcr with its internal 1571. Remember, mine has a custom 8/9 switch and in this setup I keep it set to ID 9 rather than the default 8. If I used a wedge C128 I might toss this drive, but the truth is a lot of original software still came in this format so it’s handy to have a 5.25” capable drive. And since I have a lot of the original software, I plan on using it rather than trying to find digital versions of the same thing online. There’s no need to change it, “Just because it’s old.” This is vintage computing, after all.
- We’re also keeping the 1902A monitor, which can flip from 80 to 40 columns with the press of a button. Even though we’re on a C128 in 128-mode, a lot of GEOS software was never converted to 80 columns, so having a simple switch to flip-flop modes is the way to go for me.
- We’re also keeping the CMD RAMlink. This time around I won’t be using it as an REU or DACC, but primarily as the boot drive. I have the RAMlink set to a custom ID 10.
FD-4000 & GFD-2000
We’ve swapped out the FD-2000 with an FD-4000, and I set this drive to ID 8. The main difference here is the FD-4000 lets us use ED or Extra-high Density disks, which hold an incredible 3.2MB. An entire video could be done on the FD drives but at a high level in CMD Native mode - which gateWay and Wheels fully support, you can use the disk’s entire capacity like a mini-hard drive. Think about it: a single-sided 5.25” disk on a 1541 is 170KB. So you can almost fit 20 single-sided disks, or almost 10 double-sided disks on a single ED disk.
For all intents and purposes, we could run our entire GEOS world off one or two of these, and I say two only because it might be easier to organize your programs and files that way, not because we’d be running out of space.
Another big bonus, the CMD FD drives are significantly faster than the 1581 drive. So, we get vast increases in storage and performance here. Remember, JiffyDOS is built into all the devices we’re looking at today so everything is just smooth and buttery.
Interesting side-note: this will sound ludicrous, but it is possible to convert HD disks into ED disks with a bit of work. And some folks have done this and used those disks for many years. Since it raises legitimate questions around data stability, I use actual ED disks as they came from the factory. But I know others that have use the converted disks without any problems.
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Sometimes I download files that are in D81 format. When that’s the case, I swap out Drive 8 with another CMD 2000 I upgraded last year with a GoTek drive. Thomas Christoph of Corei64 reverse engineered and legally sells the CMD FD drives now. And he recently worked with the GoTek guy to upgrade the firmware to work with CMD drives. So now we can easily use digital disks with our CMD floppy drives and they are 100% CMD compatible. If you have an FD-2000 or 4000 drive, you can swap out the drive mechanism for a GoTek for less than $40. It’s a total game changer! I use my FD-4000 as my daily driver and swap it out with this drive when I’ve got some D81 files I need to use. It’s total luxury.
CMD HD
I personally want even more stability and security for my main workspace. So I’m adding a CMD HD hard drive to the mix. In 2025, the old mechanical SCSI drives are usually removed due to noise and power consumption and replaced with quiet Zulu or BlueSCSI drives with 4GB SD cards. Believe it or not, the CMD HD can totally support up to 4 GB, although I’m going to only need to create a single 16 MB partition - the max size of any partition - for my Wheels environment.
This will be the main work drive where I launch my programs and save most of my data. The truth is, the RAMLink seems to be about 4-5X faster than the HD, but sometimes I need to disconnect the RAMlink from power, and sometimes I’ve also run into some data corruption over there. The HD, on the other hand, is a total rock-solid tank. And it’s still a lot faster than reading or writing to a floppy disk.
SuperCPU 128
This time we’re adding the legendary CMD SuperCPU 128 with a 16MB internal RAM card. And in order for this to work with the C128, there is a special “MMU SuperAdapter” daughterboard that goes into the MMU’s socket and uses 5 clips that attach to the microprocessor. If you don’t have the MMU card, your SCPU 128 will only be usable in 64-mode, or on Commodore 64s, obviously.
Okidata 180
We’re replacing the ultra-rare Star NL-10 with an Okidata 180. The reason is because - incredibly - we can still buy brand new ribbons from Amazon.com and you can get a box of 12 for only $20. I love the Star printer, but I don’t love inking my own ribbons. Thanks to site member CommodoreSam for the heads up on this printer. I love it.
Wheels
And finally, we’re upgrading GEOS once again. This time we’re using Wheels 128, which was released in 1999 and was supported and improved as late as 2002 by its creator, Maurice Randall from Michigan. There are both Wheels 64 and 128 versions, just like GEOS and gateWay, so if you lack a C128 you can still do everything here on a C64. You’ll just be in 40 columns the entire time, which honestly isn’t a huge deal at all.
What’s Wheels anyway? It is yet another advancement and update to the GEOS User Interface and Operating System. But it’s more than a fresh coat of paint. This time we can take advantage of a staggering 4 drives simultaneously. And the windowed user interface brings several modern advancements to our 8-bit environment.
If you want to see Wheels in action, watch my video where I demo some of the coolest features and let’s go for a spin! You can use the Table of Contents in the video description on YT if you want to jump right to it.
So there she is in all her late 90s and early 2000s glory. In my opinion, this is the “S-class” luxury model Commodore and GEOS dream machine.
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So guys, I wanted to discuss a few technical things before wrapping things up. This is more for anyone who might try and follow in my footsteps someday.
Power Hungry!
First off, it took me a while to get the SCPU 128 to work. What I mean is, the SCPU is a very power hungry device. And even though the C128Dcr has a great power supply, these things are freaking old. I happen to have 3 of these machines, and after a lot of testing only one of my machines had an internal PSU that could boot with the SCPU attached. As a result, I sent two my PSUs to Ray Carlsen and had him rebuild them from scratch. When I got them back the SCPU fired right up no problem at all.
Also, when I got my PSUs rebuilt I had Ray add fans to them, which the Cost Reduced version lacked from the factory but still has a place for them to go in the case. So, my demo may have a bit of fan noise in the background. Just know that the noise means my chips are cozy and chill.
MMU & Daughterboards
Also, the MMU. I happened to buy a stranded MMU a while back. A gentleman I met online had one stuck in his C128Dcr when he bought it. This was actually a fairly common fate of a lot of SCPU128s over the years. The MMU SuperAdapter boards would become separated from their SCPUs. I bought the old MMU in the hopes that someday I might be lucky enough to finally find a 128 model and so many of the ones I’d seen sold on Ebay lacked the MMU board. So, I gambled and hoped for the best.
Now, today Corei64 (https://www.corei64.com/shop/) sells a much improved design that doesn’t use the old fashioned clips. Truth be told, in order to use either the old adapter or the new one, I needed to add socket risers for everything to fit. Regardless, for whatever reason I was never able to get the new version to work. After several tests I finally gave up and went with the old clip job and it fired right up.
Finally, while the Wheels manual spends a fair amount of time talking about accelerators, they are not 100% required. You can still create a system without one and it will fire up. It’s just that the SCPU with internal RAM is going to give you the best overall performance by far.
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Statistics: Posted by intric8 — Fri Mar 14, 2025 8:40 am — Replies 0 — Views 864