# Commodore 128

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Commodore 128 and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Many people recall learning assembler and BBS use on it; critics find the system limited, with poor C64-mode BASIC and no simultaneous 8502 and Z80 use.

## Why people recommend it

- Fond memories of learning to program (2 comments): "I too ended up spending a lot of time working around the limitations of the system, and I too would say that I owe my career to that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733017)) "when I was 10 to 11 years old hacking my way into the world of assembler programming on C128." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48459450))
- Hacking and BBS use in youth (2 comments): "when I was 10 to 11 years old hacking my way into the world of assembler programming on C128." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48459450)) "the BBS thing for a while which was really fascinating at 12 or so" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946109))

## What people warn about

- Disappointing lack of new capabilities (2 comments): "neither is very exciting for bringing new capabilities to the line" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48168672)) "Both disappointed me because they could be so much more." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48168337))
- Could not use both CPUs (2 comments): "I too ended up spending a lot of time working around the limitations of the system, and I too would say that I owe my career to that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733017)) "One of the biggest disappointments of the 8-bit era was the Commodore 128 not being able to use both the 8502 and Z80 CPUs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45822350))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Commodore 64](https://hackerapproved.com/p/commodore-64.md): 121 recommend
- [Commodore Amiga](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amiga.md): 60 recommend
- [ZX Spectrum](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zx-spectrum.md): 31 recommend
- [TI-99/4A](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ti-99-4a.md): 26 recommend
- [Commodore Amiga 500](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amiga-500.md): 20 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Commodore+128+computer&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Commodore 128", https://hackerapproved.com/p/commodore-128/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).