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Getting spare parts

I'm worried that I won't be able to get any replacement parts for my C128 which are specific to the C128. The particular part which springs to mind is the 8566 VIC-IIe chip, which is unique to the C128 because it contains some additional registers. I think these are for reading the extra keys. I read the article about hacking the C128 together where a C64 VIC-II chip was used during development on a seperate board. I don't know if this would be possible on my production model C128 though.  It produces noticeable vertical bars in each character cell on the display. I've only tried two C64 games on it so far, but a type in sprite demo caused some white dots which I'd been warned about. I have just seen some 8566 VIC-II chips for sale somewhere, so I wonder if I should buy one now just in case.  Are there any other parts specific to the C128? I assume that replacment ROMs could be produced for it using an EPROM burner.
 
BTW, my C128 is a German PAL model, so I assume that only a PAL 8566 VIC-IIe chip would work. One thing that surprised me about it is that along the top row of keys, there's one marked CAPS LOCK ASCII/DIN, which switches into a German character set in a skinny font. This key works in C64 mode, as well as in C128 mode!
 
 

Re: Getting spare parts

Paul Alba wrote:

> I have just seen some 8566 VIC-II chips for sale somewhere, so I wonder if I should buy one now just in case.

Yes, that would be wise to do. Or get spare PAL C128s.

> ...there's one marked CAPS LOCK ASCII/DIN, which switches into a German character set in a skinny font. This key works in C64 mode, as well as in C128 mode!

Oh, that's interesting. It reminds me of the Japanese C64 (or was it the VIC-20 or.???) that had Japanese characters as an alternate character set.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

How nice for you that I've

How nice for you that I've managed to interest you! Meanwhile, I'm still worried that one day my 8566 VIC-IIe chip will blow out and that will be the end of my C128. I didn't think the C64 or VIC-20 were released in Japan. In any case, these computers already had 2 different character sets built in, selectable by pressing C= SHIFT. My C128 has an additional German character set built in, but the only extra characters seem to be Ä Ö Ü ä ö ü ẞ and § . I find myself wondering if current technology available to the general public has now reached the levels of Commodore/MOS in 1985, so that some more of these chips could be produced.  

--

Paul Alba

These are legitimate concerns

These are legitimate concerns - and for now, the only answer is donor machines. Although it's theoretically possible to reproduce chips like the VIC, financially it wouldn't make any sense at all for someone to do so. However, not all hope is lost. In time, probably less than 10 years, drop in FPGA replacements should become much more affordable and practical to produce in reasonable numbers. 
Paul, as your primary concern is your 128, you should relax - under the hood they are very solid machines, with a very reliable PSU. I have bought and repaired probably three dozen dead flat 128's over the past ten years, and the majority of them were killed by people modifying them. For the most part, nothing a diagnostic harness couldn't pick up, replacement ram, replacement kernel ect, no big deal mostly.
Unfortunately c64 owners, their PSU's simply sit there waiting to smite the 64 they are attached to. The 64 reloaded project at icomp.de looks interesting - it's a brand new c64 motherboard, which among other things, takes cars of the dreaded 9vac on the board, - it will take a simple 12v cd power supply - protecting prescious chips, from from the evil brick under the desk. I know Ray Carlsen is looking into replacement supplies - but I don't envy / fancy the idea of taking on that kind of liability and the cost of getting them certified, for a large market.

Banjo

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