The Commodore SuperPET (or MMF – Micro Main Frame in Europe) was an enhanced 8032 designed by the University of Waterloo for programming education, and then sold retail. It added a second CPU, the Motorola 6809, as well as a total of 96k of RAM to the original 8032. In 6809 mode, on the software […]
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Varta’d by the Amiga 4000
In very early 2021, really bored by the pandemic, I was on the lookout for busted Commodore and Amiga machines. Someone reached out with an Amiga 4000 they had available. They had no way to test it, all of the cables and accessories were missing, and it’s been in a garage for decades. Sounds like […]
Continue ReadingThe Ongoing Saga of this Commodore B128 (4/4)
In the last post, I found out my MOS 6509 was garbage, at the very least, and was waiting on an order of a Nu6509 from RETRO Innovations. There were some delays in receiving PCBs and getting them soldered up, but it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, I ordered a WDC 65C816S CPU […]
Continue ReadingA Forgotten Amiga 500
I came across a pretty nice condition, but broken, Commodore Amiga 500. The Amiga 500 was a cost reduced, mass market successor to the Amiga 1000, wrapped in a wonderful case with a built-in keyboard, side expansion, and a floppy drive. It didn’t have the most amazing specifications, but it had tons of room to […]
Continue ReadingA Surprisingly Annoying Amiga 3000
The Amiga 3000 was a high-end Amiga released in 1990, with a redesigned case, a 68030 processor, up to 16mb of RAM on board, and built-in SCSI support. They didn’t sell incredibly well, and at least for me, were remarkably hard to find. Naturally, I found myself a broken one. This one would boot immediately […]
Continue ReadingThe Ongoing Saga of this Commodore B128 (3/4)
In the last post, I ended up desoldering some components that I thought could be a problem, only to find that they appear to be just fine. I moved on to second guess my assumptions due to my experience level, specifically wondering about whether these address and data lines are correct. I then sent off […]
Continue ReadingThe Ongoing Saga of this Commodore B128 (2/4)
In the last post, I introduced my US-market Commodore B128 that wasn’t feeling like being a computer. A lot of the diagnostics looked okay, and I was just about to start desoldering components out of a combination of hope and despair. Some Soldering Required Each desoldered component was replaced with a same-size socket, and continuity […]
Continue ReadingThe Ongoing Saga of this Commodore B128 (1/4)
This is my Commodore B128, serial C002720. The B128 is the low-profile US version of the Commodore CBM-II, a machine designed to replace the PET/CBM series, released around the same time as the Commodore 64. Other pages, linked below, do a great job covering the history of this machine. When I received it, it looked […]
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