"When I bought the 64, I paid $150 for it. The last three I got I paid a total of $30 for; some difference."

"I started with a tape drive, since the 1541 drive at that time was about $250 which was ay too much to spend for a hobby, and I stayed with the tape. A few years ago, I found another 64 with a drive, and tons of software for another $150."

" Well, this one had a real monitor too, so I bought it. Then I got another drive for $45, and I was really computing now. Then, a friend found out I was playing with C= machines and unloaded two 128s and lots more programs on me. After seeing the 128-80 col screen, I didn't care if I ever used the 64 again."

(Hmmm....hope the wife doesn't see this note and start adding it all up) [G].

"When I bought the second 64, I found a Q-Link disk in among the software, so I gave it a try. Boy, that was great! I was on the net, and there were lots of files to DL. Of course, I was netting at 300 baud, so everything took forever, but, so was everyone else then, so it didn't matter. I found most of the stuff I was DLing from "Q" either didn't work, or was outdated. The only program I think I got that was any good was Omega-q."

"Well anyway, Q-Link went down, and Steve Case used our money to start AOL. That's why most of us old timers don't like AOL. Steve kept us on the line long after the "Q" was no longer of much use, so we would keep paying till he had AOL up and running, then he dumped us. He offered the ones that had bought a lifetime contract a membership in AOL, but you can't get on there with a C=, so that was worthless."

"Then we all found out you can call any OnLine Service that used a text interface with our machines, and Delphi, and GEnie had that, so as they say, the rest is history. I ended up on Delphi, and I'm glad of that. Genie has some problems, and Compuserve doesn't have alot of stuff, so Delphi looked like the best choice."

"We all kind of stick together here, and help each other with C= problems, and wait for new stuff to come out, and try that."

"I have a 386 too, that I built out of spare parts, and I used it for genealogy mostly. A genealogy program (for the pc) did more of what I want, so I used the PC for that and a few other things."

"I was once told, 'If I had to use a Commodore for Genealogy, I'd quit'. Well, I can only say, my hobbie IS the Commodore, and I found I can use it for Genealogy. Genealogy is never ending, as soon as you discover one relative, you just have two new ones to look for."

"There is a company in Massachusetts called Quinsept that sells a program called 'Family Roots' for the 128 and I want to "plug" them here. If you are using a 128, it is a good example of what can be done with a program. It loads different modules into memory as you need them, so as not to run out of memory."

"I also use 'Brother's Keeper' on the PC. The big difference is BK can handle GEDCOMs, an ASCII format file that is used to transfer data between pro- grams and through e-mail. I've talked to Craig Bruce, and several others, trying to get someone interested in writing a gedcom we can use on the 128, but at this point we are still waiting. I find Genealogy to be like a big mystery novel. You never know what you will find on the next page."

"When I want to have fun and talk to people, the 128 is better than the peecee. I can boot it up and be on the net while Windoze is trying to boot on the PC."

"I'm known at work as that 'Commodore guy' in the back shop, but when they have trouble with the computers they ask me what I think :-) I get a kick out of that. Most of what I know about computers I learned from playing with these machines."

"I tryed Geos several times, but it is buggy, and I don't like it at this point. When Maurice gets it straightened out, it will work great, especially with the SuperCPU. They are working on the 128 version right now, and it should be out soon. I have almost paid for it already, that's how certain CMD will have another great product to add to their line."

"Maurice is the guy that wrote geoShell and geoFax, amoung other things, and it's worth having GEOS on your machine just for that. I bought an old fax machine so I can send pictures to geoFax, and have them digitized to use in geoPaint. After you get the pics into geoPaint, you can convert them into any other type you want, and use them wherever."

"I use a program called Menu Magic in the RamLink and it runs automaticly on boot up. From there, I can boot Dialogue 128 (this program), or Wordwriter 128 (word processing), Swiftcalc 128 (spread sheet), ZED (that's another whole story :), several utilities I got from CMD, and Geos. They all boot from the menu, and from the RamLink. I do play a few games, but not too often. Most stuff I like to do is productive, even if it's helping someone better understand their machine. :-)"

"So that's my story. If you have any questions, ask them, I've already been there and tried that...and if I haven't, someone on Delphi has. We try to promote the C= as much as we can, try to get people to get them out of the closets and use 'em. You know what they say about safety in numbers."