User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Oct 14, 2022 10:09 am


The Graphic Environment Operating System, or more commonly, “GEOS,” was released by Berkeley Softworks in 1986.

GEOS is a Classic Mac-like graphical user interface (GUI) that manages to offer a lot of the functionality of the original and expensive Macintoshes. The difference is it was created to work with an affordable computer that you might have heard of: the Commodore 64 (a 1 MHz computer with only 64 Kilobytes of RAM).

GEOS-advert-2page.jpg
Advertisement found in Ahoy! magazine, January 1987.


Originally GEOS was built to be an innovative experience found in the backs of airplane seats called “Sky Tray”. But that project was cancelled right as the software was being completed.

Berkeley Softworks had built GEOS to run on 6502 CPU-based machines. The 6502 they'd originally targeted was almost identical to the C64’s CPU, which was already in millions of North American homes. So, in a pivot, they initially ported GEOS to the best-selling computer of all time.

In the 1980s the Macintosh began to dominate the desktop publishing world - for a price. GEOS brought world-class word processing and productivity software to the affordable Commodore 64 in a way C64 users had never seen before.

Geos-Suite.jpg

At its peak, thanks to Commodore bundling GEOS with its C64C computers, GEOS was for a time the second most widely used graphical user interface in the world next to Mac OS.

Today, I’m going to show you my favorite setup using period-correct hardware and software to create the Ultimate GEOS Battle Station as if we were back in 1989.

To start, let’s say, “Hello,” to the Commodore 128D(cr).

C128DCR-B.jpg
My setup. There are many ways to "go modern" or enhance this even further. But this is my favorite way to use GEOS right now.


Beyond having a sturdy metal case that never yellows, the C128Dcr came with an internal 1571 disk drive, a 1-2 Mhz CPU and double the RAM of the Commodore 64. The fact is in order to use GEOS effectively, you really need to use a RAM Expansion Unit (REU). This is going to both speed up GEOS as well as provide a virtual RAM disk, which I’ll explain more about later.

We also want to use a monitor that can support 80 columns, so I’m using an original Commodore CRT (repaired by Ray Carlsen in 2020): the 1902A.

We are also going to be using the Cadillac of 8-bit Commodore drives: the gorgeous 1581 disk drive. A single 1581 disk can hold almost 5-times that of a 1541 disk. With just a couple of disks I can have virtually all of the GEOS software I’ll ever need, and at pretty respectable speeds.

Finally, a Commodore 1351 mouse to get us around the screen.

IMG_9987-b.jpg

Yes, it does look a lot like an Amiga tank mouse. But the two mice aren’t compatible. It also looks exactly like the 1350 mouse - but you want to avoid that one since it only provides janky joystick movements. The 1351 is the way to go if you're trying to stay period-correct to the best option from the 1980s.

Here’s how it all comes together.

My internal 1571 is set to Drive 8.
(I have a custom switch on my C128D a friend of mine made that allows me to easily flip the internal drive from 8 to 9, which is extremely handy.)

My 1581 is set to Drive 9.

I have the Commodore 1750 REU plugged in, which I have also have set as a Drive in GEOS, and it’s all being pumped through the 1902A monitor in 80 column mode.

  • In 1986 GEOS for the C64 was born.
  • In 1987, Berkeley Softworks created GEOS 128 to take advantage of the C128’s extra horsepower and higher screen resolution. 1987 is also when the C128D was born.
  • In 1988 they released GEOS 2.0 for the Commodore 64.
  • And finally in 1989 GEOS 128 2.0 for the Commodore 128. The C128 was discontinued by Commodore in 1989, but several innovative companies weren’t ready to give up on it just yet.
My focus is on GEOS 128 2.0, which can take advantage of the C128's enhanced "burst mode" in conjunction with the 1571 and 1581 drives. Combining the obvious speed boost with an REU and 80-column mode graphics and we’ve got a very powerful productivity machine.

For even more performance, you can create or buy a 32K ROM chip designed specifically to speed up the boot process and task switching operations on the Commodore C128. This ROM can be installed into the internal function ROM - slot U36 - which shipped from Commodore empty and ready for use.

My Battle Station doesn’t currently take advantage of that potential upgrade, however. But since I use my 1581 disk drive as the boot drive on ID 9 in conjunction with a "staggering" half-meg of REU RAM, I’m pleased with the overall performance. The U36 ROMs are designed to use a boot rom on ID 8.

Here’s why I love this setup so much. By starting GEOS this way my REU can now be used as a very fast emulated 1571 RAM disk. And since I boot off of the 1581, that leaves my internal 1571 empty and ready for use should I want to load more programs, which are most commonly found in that format.

GEOS can only really use 2 drives at a time - what it calls Drive A and Drive B. This allows me to easily use my RAM disk as one of those two drives!

If I really wanted a crazy speed enhancement, I could move my programs off the already fast 1581 over to the REU, and load things them from there. In my anecdotal tests, launching programs from the REU is liquid fast and programs launch and run 5-7 time faster than the 1581.

In fact, the RAMlink can take GEOS to a whole new level, especially if I upgrade to Wheels. But that’s a fascinating topic for another day and why I’m focusing on the more common REU. In fact there are GEOS-specific REUs you can buy brand new, so this isn’t a totally impossible setup to achieve these days. But the RAMlink is very hard to find these days and is why I’m focusing on more realistically obtainable goals like it’s 1989.

Once I had all of this set up, I used my Zoom Floppy to migrate really cool software I found online over to a 1541 disk, which I then easily copied to my 1581 program and work disks.

The truth is if you are really interested in setting up a machine like this yourself, there are a lot of fantastic books, sites and videos out there that explain how to do it. And honestly the original manuals are superb in discussing how to do it.

But the truth is if I can do it, anyone can. And once you get past making your boot and work disks it’s all about exploring all of the cool software that was made for this OS.

And the truth is, one of the best programs is the built-in word processor GeoWrite. It’s a very nicely done program that, like a lot of old word processors, you type in a main window then view a print preview you need to render before deciding to print. When you use GeoWrite for the first time, honestly I think most will be stunned to learn it was created in 1986. It's really intuitive, powerful and clean.

The only downside with all of this is many GEOS programs were written with the C64 in mind - meaning they won’t have an 80-column version. Thus you have to flip-flop between screen modes to use those programs. But it’s not that bad, really.

If you’re going to go through all of this trouble setting up a GEOS machine, you kinda want to have a printer setup, too. Surprisingly, that’s where GEOS sometimes falls down.

The original operating systems came with several period-correct printer drivers. And, over the years some folks in the community have written several more. The problem most commonly seen, however, was in scaling. A lot of printers had difficulty scaling the text and graphics GEOS created and produce jaggy results. However, a few printers did produce prints that even a Macintosh fan would have found impressive.

This would have been either a HP PCL (which sold for $3,000) or, an Apple Laserwriter printer (which cost $6,995 - more than $17,000 in today’s dollars!).

The funny thing is these printers cost way more than the entire computer setup! But they produced extremely professional results.

The only catch being you’d also need an interface to connect the printers to your Commodore machines.

Note: while the Star NX-10 dot matrix printer was available all over the place, I’m told a much rarer Star NL-10 was amazing: pixel perfection with all of the GEOS publishing software. If you can ever find one of these exceptionally rare special mail-order printers, you’ll have the joys and sounds of dot-matrix printing with the quality you’d only dreamt of, and never got in GEOS.


But you don’t have to settle for trying to print on a finicky and obsolete 35-year-old printer. These are the 2020s, after all. You can convert your beautiful manuscripts to a “telecommunications-safe format” and then bring them over to your PC, or Amiga. Once the file is there, you can re-convert them back into text documents and be on your merry way!

Here's my process on how I do that:

  1. Duplicate original text document (just in case)
  2. Convert your GEOS file to “Commodore Format”
    1. Launch “convert” in GEOS
    2. Select duplicated text document
    3. Run program
  3. Copy your new file to 5.25” floppy
  4. Copy CVT’d file via Zoom floppy to PC
  5. Transfer file from PC to Amiga (Or, use a PC converter executable. There is an original converter by Maurice Randall, and a more recent program that converts to RTF that respects even more formatting.)
  6. Run the Amiga conversion program by Maurice Randall on document
  7. Open CVT’d document in a WORD PROCESSOR, not a text editor. I use Excellence, which looks a lot like GeoWrite.

RUN Magazine, Sept/Oct 1992:
The power to unleash creativity has never
been more accessible to Commodore [8-bits]
enthusiasts than it has since the onslaught
of the GEOS generation of productivity software.
If you can think it, you can produce it.
Do you have a favorite GEOS setup? What are your favorite tools and applications?

Some of the sites I use extensively include:
CBM Files, by Maurice Randall
Commodore Software
Lyon Labs
Zimmers.net

:commodore: <3

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:04 pm

I've been informed that I could eliminate the Zoom Floppy from my process entirely if I wanted to by using C1581.lha.

That program is a c1581-handler 1.4 (24.4.99), which allows the Amiga read/write to 1581 disks.
... Allows you to use
1581-formatted disks in the Amiga builtin 3.5" drive (or an
external one, or even a 5.25" drive).
I'll have to check it out!

User avatar
grshaw

Posted Mon Oct 17, 2022 5:07 am

Really enjoyed watching this video. Fantastic work. Thanks for posting. :D





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