A Higher Intelligence-Commodore's 1985 gamble on continuing the C64's legacy with the COMMODORE 128

In January 1985, before the release of the COMMODORE AMIGA 1000 which wouldn't release until July of that year,

COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES of WEST CHESTER, PENSYLVANIA

decided to release a new 8-bit computer.

Because shortly after the disastrous release of the PLUS/4 and Commodore C16

COMMODORE was in deep trouble.

And that's because of several things:

01. The failure of the TED MACHINES as I've shown above.

02. COMMODORE's discontinuation of the PET Series of computers and the loss of the Business and education markets that the company built up.

03. The departure of JACK TRAMIEL shortly after CES 1984

after a fierce dispute with IRVING GOULD over expenditures and passing on the CEO positions from FATHER TO SON.

Yup...

COMMODORE was in deep trouble.

So until either the PC Compatibles or the AMIGA would release, COMMODORE had one last chance to prove that they can create another 8-bit Computer to win back the masses while at the same time win back both the BUSINESS and EDUCATION markets that they lost to both IBM & APPLE after the release of the VIC-20 and C64 computers.

And that would give birth to COMMODORE 128 machines

These machines are a bit of an oddball type of Machine.

They're advertised as a new machine but here's the twist if this magazine advertisement is any indication

or this Commercial which I'll provide here

This computer really was a gamble.

The thing has twice the memory of the C64, has some better chips, a better BASIC Interpreter than the COMMODORE BASIC 2.0 the 64 originally had, Faster Disk Access of the 1571 Drive compared to the unreliable and slow 1541 disk drives of old, and C/PM!

Like I said, it really was a gamble.

Or as DAVID MURRAY of THE 8-BIT GUY puts it, it's a SWISS-ARMY KNIFE of Computers.

Too bad many people's only purpose was to run your COMMODORE 64 games on that thing

That's because the 64 had a huge library of software and even the ones that were optimized for the 128's native mode limited their features to the inferior 1541 Disk Drives for greater Compatibility.

Still, it would have been KICKASS for a guy like me to have a computer like this back in the 80s but then again, I'd rather have either a PC-Compatible or even the AMIGA 1000 if I was alive in 1985 but oh well, alternate realities I guess.

Speaking about the Commodore 128, 

DAVID MURRAY of THE 8-BIT GUY knows more about the computer than I do. Which is why I'll embed his 2018 video covering the computer: