I was given a pet 2001 by my grandma when I was 6 and I still have it with all my original ( mostly hacked or illegal ) software and I love the stupid thing.
Okay there really is no denying it. Late 70s/ early 80s computers like the Commodore PET and IBM 5150 are some of the coolest looking computers out there. I'd almost wish for modern day PC's to look like that (including being made of sheet metal and weighing way more than they should).
With a little bit of knowhow, you might be able to make your own computer in the style of the PET or the 5150. The biggest problem may be finding the right floppy drives, although that may be easily mitigated by using USB ports instead.
I really love the aesthetics of the PET. Still one of the best-looking machines out there. I wonder if it's affordable to 3D-print a PET chassis and retrofit a modern machine inside.
It only had three registers, the accumulator and X and Y. I used to have to store the contents of the registers in temporary storage and load it back into them if I needed more. IIRC, 0828 was the start of the cassette drive memory, which wasn't used if you weren't saving anything. I still remember POKE 59468,12 and 14 to change the case from upper to lower and vice versa.
Never in my life would I think that I would finally figure out what kind of dinosaur my grandmother has kept through the past 30 years, and only until now have I realized how much impact it had on the personal computer industry. This exact model has been on display in my house, much like a work of art, and near my bedroom for ages. There had been something that always intrigued me about it, whether it be because of the supposed history about it or the fact that the thing glows a sickly green on some nights. Knowing what happened in order to make that personal computer come into being is something that I am thankful for greatly. History and computers are something that I've always loved, and seeing the two combine in such a personal way for me is absolutely astounding. I've watched LGR's videos for a while, and this is by far my favorite. Even the sims videos that had me laughing for ages, this review is at the top of my list.
I learned to program on green phosphorous displays on early computers, and to this day I still love turning the background of my code editors black and the main foreground text to some form of green. Something in me still gets excited when I see these old computers, and yes, my heart did skip a small beat when I heard it had 32k of RAM. Why? Because it is actually possible to imagine what you can do with that much memory. Today most programmers don't even give a crap about memory because it is virtually unlimited. So don't feel odd. I love these old systems, too. I still may just pick up an Apple IIe sometime.
I understand perfectly how you feel about old hardware like this. While I am not a retro computer collector, I am a retro game collector. I have a lot of appreciation for strange and quirky retro hardware. One of my favorites is the Vectrex, which features a built in vector graphic display. The accessories released for it include a light pen with accompanying animation software, and a head mounted display that allows certain software to be viewed in 3D. Extremely outdated and clunky? Absolutely! But that is exactly why I love owning one.
My mother was a school teacher, she would bring the PET home on weekends and I can remember this thing sitting on my dining room table and my sister and I typing program listings into it and then being amazed. This TH-cam channel is definitely in my top 5, excellent content and very well produced. Congrats.
Douglas Adams talked about this thing, being that it was his first experience with a computer and could not fathom what possible use it would be. He said it looked like something that had crashed in Roswell. Great review, you made it all seductive, like I should have been watching in private in my room....oh yeah, baby...take that chassis off.
Few months ago I was walking to work and there was an electronics recycling drive going on, spotted one of these from a mile out and walked right up to the people loading it in. It was a 2001 without the tape deck and it had the nice black keyboard. They let me have it free of charge, plugged it in on my break and it worked. Still have it, still works.
32Kb RAM was the perfect amount for 1978. When the VIC-20 was released in 1980, it had a meager 5Kb of RAM but it should never have been released without at least 8Kb.
Dude, sweet review! I work at a museum and we've got about 10 PETs, most of them working. Quite recently we let the chancelor of the local university play pacman on one of the earliest models, you know with the one with terrible tiny keyboar...It was fun to behold.
Once you started showing the games I was overcome with waves of nostalgia. I'd sit in front of my PET for hours, transfixed by those incredible games and those beeps. The things they were able to accomplish in just 32k of RAM were incredible.
oh my god that keyboard sounds like your in a factory stamping out parts for a car not typing! man i love i live in a time where people like LGR can get paid to make crazy vids about old pcs that no one really cares about, it makes me happy.
These are really cool to see. I'm only 20, so I grew up playing on stuff like iMacs and Windows 98/2000 computers. It's incredible to see the leaps and bounds made in computers in the last 40 years.
Adventureland was from Scott Adams (not the cartoonist). His company was Adventure International and was located in Maitland, Florida. There was quite a library of text adventure games that he wrote. Commodore had several exclusive releases of his games for their platforms; I played The Count, Adventureland and Treasure Island (for example) on the Vic-20.
I knew a guy who owned a PET 2001 many years ago. He had gotten it from his dad. Unfortunately it didn't work. Cool to see these machines are still around. Looks like something you'd find in Fallout or Alien. Thanks for the vid.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. i lost my PET with 40 column and 16k in a flooded basement in 1994. I remember swapping out the 65?? read/write chip for a few bucks. It was kind of exciting to figure that problem out. It was a cool computer and I had the good keyboard.
FYI for anyone interested. As of mid 2016, just about any PET goes for no less than $1000 (cnd anyways) plus shipping on ebay. I feel like the 'Alien: Isolation' game has single-handledly boosted the desirability of these things lol
Nah, maybe the rarer models or the Buy It Now Ebay prices are high, but the machine I showed here still sells for around $300 www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Vintage-Commodore-CBM-8032-PET-Computer-TESTED-WORKS-CLEAN-/282086698238
eBay used to be great for collecting old electronics/computers/games. Now the price of everything is just horribly inflated. Damn you hipsters! I liked this stuff before it was cool! Wait... that was a pretty hipster thing to say. :P
I planned to stop by my local Salvation Army thrift store this morning for precisely that reason. But by the time I got what I wanted to do done on my modern octalcore full tower it was too warm for my disability.
The computer room in the middle school I attended was full of Commodore Pets and TRS-80s. This was 1982, and they were already outdated - floppy disks were starting to replace cassette drives. Students were allowed to use the computers during lunch, and kids would literally fill the room to capacity every single day. If you wanted a seat at a keyboard, you had to be in there almost as soon as the lunch bell rang, or you were stuck watching someone else have all the fun. The Basic Computer Games book you show in this video was a common sight as well - I even still have my copy! Great memories, thanks for uploading! :D
For 2012 $79 is an absolute steal as well - a few years back a reseller had a PET for sale for about 1000 and it was unknown if the OPET worked. While a reliable store as many times Igot amazing games on the fly for moderately reasonable prices or computer parts, the PET was a rare treat and I figured a grand was the Average price. That said, this video is amazing and made my week.
That wooden PET that was displayed has now reached near mythical status amongst the Commodore collectors, some claim to have seen it but no one knows where it is, you find that, Clint and you'll achieve Lord status in the Commodore fanbase. Btw i have 4 PET's myself. [img]i.imgur.com/YnOkPXw.jpg[/img]
Awesome video LGR! This was my first computer - an original 8k PET 2001. It was donated to my family in about 1983 by someone who had upgraded to a 4032 model and it was our only computer until many years later when we got a cheap DOS clone XT machine. I had most of the software you showed - although not the Zork-style adventure game which I would have loved. A few years ago the guy who gave us the 2001 retired and also gave me his 4032 so while the 2001 sadly died some time in the late 90s I still have the 4032 and the dual disk drives as well. I recently added the sound circuit (which was not stock on the 4032) and loved hearing those Space Invader sound effects again. Some of my other favourite games were MINER!, OZERO and FROG!. There were also quite a few of these cute animation apps like HAWAII! and EVEREST! which I ran over and over again.
I love these vintage computer reviews! I see no reason to get a Commodore PET at all, but it's nice to see a review of it, and I also like the curiosity of how these more limited games worked.
I learned to program on these in 1981/1982 along with an Exidy Sorcerer. Then later, I purchased a Commodore Vic-20, followed a couple years later by the C64. The next computer I bought after that was an old Mac SE. I've had many computers over the years, but the PETS always have a soft spot in my heart for they take me back to my early teenage years.
Your love for things like these is positively inspiring, I must say. The bit at the end reminded me just why I feel you deserve way more subscribers than you already have. =)
+Pizza Billund LEGO Creations It almost seems worth it to go and buy one of these things JUST to make that joke. (of course, getting anybody to take it seriously would be another thing.)
I agree with EVERYTHING you said! I have a pretty large collection of "vintage" computers and just LOVE looking at them! I don't even care if they don't work or not! Great video!
In the middle eighties I had a CBM 3032 with double 5 inches floppy drive unit given to me by my uncle (RIP) who had a factory in which had used the PET, but upgraded to different system. I could do NOTHING with it (at the times I craved videogames and there was a dearth of them for the PET) so gave it all away for a C64. =\ There's always a period of time when antiques are still simply junk and as such I treated it. Nowadays I'd like to have it back even only for a hour to relive my teen years... guess I'll have to content myself with VICE.
Brilliant review as always! I also can appreciate your feels over the PET. Much of this older equipment can't do much, especially when compared to what we use our machines for nowadays... but there is something lost nowadays when you really look at these old machines. Thanks for sharing!
This video is one I share to my friends because i as well find it hard to quite explain the feeling of why I love my PET ( I personally have a SuperPET ) It just the overall experience of the machine, the few blips when you boot it up, the overall design you touched on all the points and I just wanted to say thanks for reviewing one of my favorite vintage computers.
Pi sheep - EPIC! Also, the keyboard sound @6:25 instantly brought me back to my terminal when programming CP/M Z80-based industrial systems. IEEE488 - I worked with instruments via that too - Love this video!
When I was going to high school, we had Commodore PET's in the classroom, where we learned to program in BASIC. We had the floppy drive (installed on an A/V cart, for portability). There were some who had really, REALLY complex games they'd either written or gotten from one of the Bulletin Boards (the Internet's precursor). It was SO cool. I remember these with great fondness. After about a year and a half of these, we switched to standard IBM PC's, and never looked back. *SIGH* Those were the days.
It wouldve been really really cool if one could find an empty CBM 8032 casing & insert modern components & screen into it. It would also be a terrible shame considering how things like this gets increasingly rare, so hacking one up would almost be a crime against mankind.
Your passion for computers is insightful. I'm not one for computers or hardware but because you talk about it with so much love it makes it fascinating. Thanks, I've learned something new today about computers.
Well done, Clint. Your reviews keeps getting better and better, and this one is one of the best. The first section is professional quality, and having you, at the end, sitting beside the thing, talking on what YOU think about it, is the perfect complement.
I remember when I first encountered the mighty PET 4016 on a visit to the highschool i would attend that fall. I had a Vic 20 and had hung around the Tandy computer store (hey, in 1979 a guy had to get his computer fix however he could), but these, with their crisp green screens in that fantastic looking case fascinated me.
Great review Clint. We had a PET back in elementary school (about 35 years ago now). Loved the backstory/history that you did in the 1st part of the video.
This was the first computer I ever used, in high school. I owe my career as a Software Engineer to 8-bit Commodore computers (and the 16/32-bit Amiga).
I used PETs quite a but in the early 80s, as my high school in The Bronx had several of them, from one of the originals with the calculator keyboard, to a SuperPet. We had a few double disk drives, which as I recall could be networked to several machines. I contest the notion that the PET was a limited machine. It came with a very user-friendly version of BASIC and had a built-in "monitor" which was a essentially a stripped-down machine language assembler. This made it possible to write hybrid programs in basic and machine code that enabled the programmer (back then, users WERE programmers because that's what computers were for, programming) to do some amazing things. The biggest limitation my friends and I encountered was that Commodore somehow made it impossible to change the operating system's pointers to the the character set from ROM to RAM. So the character set could not be copied and redefined, as one could do on the Atari, another 6502 machine. I did learn a lot on the PET and have many fond memories.
I took a BASIC class many years ago and we used those, great old machines and I totally understand why people still love them. About the keyboard, yep, I get that too, and it's why I love my IBM Model M keyboards, I use one at work and at home. Those things make a great clicking sound, are solid as a rock and fifty years from now people will still be using them.
Man, I've always loved the look of this thing, but when you pulled out a prop rod to hold the top up like the hood of a car it killed me. Amazing. Also, pi sheep. :D
That book takes my way back, thanks for showing that. I used to loan that from the local library weeks on end and I ended up typing almost every game on it to my C64 I got as a kid.
Back in the 90's I had that model you have with dual disk drives.... I bought it for 20 bucks I foolishly sold it for 40 bucks I didn't know what I had and no computer store as in local store could get me software.. oh the damn 90's! I am sad when I see this system today because I could have this day and age got the software and enjoyed the system!!
Damn that keyboard is like *clunk* *ka* *thunk* *klak* lol. Reminds me of the kind of those terminal computers you would find in an old school public library or school computer lab. Really retro goodness :)
As usual, Clint, this was a very beautiful review. I always seem to be more cheery when I see your videos. I used to go to this electronic junk place once, and I kid you not, I must have seen a few of these Commodore PETs on a pile. I know they were PET computers because they all had the logos. They have very distinctive shapes as computers. Regretfully... I didn't have a god damn clue about the values of these machines. I was more focused on PC and laptop parts at the time. This all happened around the first quarter of 2011. What hurts even more is how they looked on those piles. I truly regret not recovering any of those after seeing this video.
Thank you for the look at the PET. I've always thought this computer looked futuristic. I'd love to just get a non-working one, and put modern PC stuff inside it. :)
With years ever since this video was published I'm now commenting. I found this video trying to find info about the CBM pet 3032, a model I owned back in the 80ies alongside the external dual HD floppy drives. They both were given to me, back then, from my late uncle who had used both in his factory until he made a machine upgrade with something I never asked him about. So, having to get rid of the 3032, he gave it to me. Sadly, back then I was a teenager who only wanted to play videogames, internet was a misspelled soccer team form Milan and software of ANY kind, let alone the games I craved, for that machine around amounted to zilch, so when my father found a friend of his who wanted to take both machine and floppy drives in in exchange of a C64 I JUMPED to the occasion. Nowadays from time to time I travel on memory lane to back to those carefree days (for me, they were) and on a search to deepen the knowledge of what I left behind back in the times, I happened here. Nice video.
This was the first computer I ever touched. I'll never forget having to load programs by cassette tape. Since tapes are sequentially accessed, if the program you were looking for was at the end of the tape, it could take up to an hour for a program to load.
First computer I ever had my hands on in the junior high computer lab. Didn't get to use it much. In high school was had "advanced" to Commodore 64s. Learned BASIC and a lof of programs on that. Time flies.
+LMLMD meh, I really want a light up keyboard, possibly a Logitech or Razor. My shitty Logitech keyboard can't even process 5 keys at once. I CANT PLAY SURGEON SIMULATOR!!
This was the first computer I ever used when I was 10, back in 1982. The school got one, and we were taken in groups of 4 to see the magical mystery box. The teachers were afraid to touch the thing because they were told any wrong key press could irreparably destroy the thing. They loaded up a very basic educational game, where you could press 1, 2, or 3 to tell the machine what room of a museum you'd like to visit next. I took to it like a duck in water, going down options the teachers didn't even know existed. They were like, "Whoa! Slow down! You might break something!" I told them, "You can't break it by using it exactly what how it was meant to be used." Then they were like, "Can you get us back to the menu, so we can restart for the next group of kids?" I did.
When I was in high school, in the mid-late 80's, they had a lab of about 20 in a room upstairs and out of the way (they had moved on to early ibm labs by then, but I remember having classes in that room and turning them on and programming in basic string programs to have them ask questions and give personalized answers lol. It always felt kind of retrofuturistic in there, even then. (I had a c64 at home, so it was like seeing the beginnings of where commodore came from)
awesome video Clint! contemporary synthesizers have adopted the vintage look, computers should too, not all of course but some. And oh man that Spacebar, amazing sound.
At my secondary school we had PETs, I dreamed of owning one! We had the really old ones with the tape deck and crappy keyboard all the way up to the nice ones with disk drives. Most kids played games on them, but I learned BASIC. I still have my copy of The PET Revealed! I ended up with a second-hand 16K ZX81 as my first computer.
watching your system reviews is the best. I love most of your stuff but finding this is like Christmas everytime. I know these reviews are especially hard to do, because of all the Infos you need but I can say it's always worth it and I'm truly interested in your opinion about these maschines. Thank you for the good work.
Eh, I kind of agree, but even though most horror movies nowadays are just predictable formulaic dreck there are still a few good ones namely Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Insidious.
When I first started Polytechnic they had a suite of these (PET). I remember even back then (mid 80s) it was very limited. Still, typing in a game, bug fixing your mistakes and getting it going was always fun.
Very interesting peace of history Clint, I knew you'd review that machine sooner or later, as I've been seeing it in the background in some of your videos for a while now. I've never even seen a Commodore CBM let alone owned one and It's an interesting piece of computer history and a great start for Commodore back in the day. There were countless Commodore 64s and Vic 20s but for me definitely, the CBM and the PET are an interesting thing to own and I'd love to have the space and the money to collect such machines.
It is awesome. I've never owned one, but I had use of one at a workplace years ago (when it was quite new no doubt, although even then it seemed old!). I absolutely loved it. compared to all of the other machines I had access to like the ZX81 it seemed years ahead of just about everything. In build quality at least!!
In 1981 or 1982 my Dad got this computer to take home from the university where he worked. It ran Wordpro 4 plus, the first word processor I ever used, and it wasn’t bad for the time. I bought a book that had a bunch of games that ran on it, but I had to enter them by hand. Some actually worked (they had been written for the earlier version of PET so there were display issues with some games). We ran a disk drive on it and I have a memory of it being part of the machine, not external, but that could be wrong.
In 1988 I changed schools to a very old little private school. The computer room featured 4 PET machines and 8 C64. We mostly only used the C64, but the PETs did work. Just can't recall we ever figured out what to do with them. Most interesting part of those machines was that they were all modified to support the full 29 character Danish alphabet, and had stickers with Æ, Ø, and Å on the three right hand keys that were modded to support the extra letters. Not entirely sure how it was done (I was just a little kid then), but at least the C64 worked normally in everything we used them for. About 2 years the law was changed and made it required to include IT as part of the curriculum (instead of being up to the schools to choose whether they could be bothered), so the old commodore machines went out and were replaced by brand new PS/2. Sadly don't know what happened to those old machine, but assume they were simply scrapped
First computer I ever used was a Commodore PET. I was about 8 and the library had a number of them in a side room. We were taught the basics of basic. I never cared for it. It had no soul. Although it did have a very sharp monitor. Soon after that I touched an Apple II+ for the first time and it was love at first sight.
Good job, very nice episode with some awesome trivia (Pet Rock? Had to check this one). The computer is indeed beautiful with it's retro-sci-fi look. And these green monitors... ahhh. Some of those games actually seem better than they should be. Fast and snappy, unlike later spectrum games. Oh, and I was puzzled by the 3D game you showed (the last one). Crazy.
Found you via Skylines review and really loving your content. Haven't subbed to another game channel in couple of years since TB. Keep this varied content coming! Love it.
I have one of these PETs. Side note, in the dark you can put a flashlight up to the screen and it will absorb the energy and glow in the dark, when you shut the flashlight off.
I found a commodore pet once, on a trash can... it works pretty well, really glad I found it! (there was also an ibm 5120 which also worked perfectly!)
I have that exact same model. I know exactly what you mean. I bought it for "200-ish" about 8 years ago and that included shipping. Hell, shipping was half the cost for that beast. lol. LOVE it.
I was given a pet 2001 by my grandma when I was 6 and I still have it with all my original ( mostly hacked or illegal ) software and I love the stupid thing.
Sell it.
To me.
Nice youre lucky to have got it for free
Okay there really is no denying it.
Late 70s/ early 80s computers like the Commodore PET and IBM 5150 are some of the coolest looking computers out there. I'd almost wish for modern day PC's to look like that (including being made of sheet metal and weighing way more than they should).
My case is made from sheet aluminium...
With a little bit of knowhow, you might be able to make your own computer in the style of the PET or the 5150. The biggest problem may be finding the right floppy drives, although that may be easily mitigated by using USB ports instead.
My case was made of cast iron ;)
Easiest way to do that is to embed a modern PC in a PET casing.
@@weirdwalrus5757 no
"Normally I would talk about games, but this didn't have any games, so I'm gonna show you some games."
LGR logic, gotta love it ;)
Games in boxes, no, which is what I was taking about :)
But then my lame comment doesn't work anymore :(
Lil'Mlg
She's talking to someone named Athome, we don't need to care about the message!
My comment was a joke too : P
I like LGR logic. It's like if Hunter S Thompson was a game reviewer. I dig that.
6:33 those typing sounds. Glorious! Gloooorious!
It really does make even the most mundane typing an event.
Lazy Game Reviews Yea, from the clunk clunk of the keys!
*Sound of the avalanche in the middle of the night*
- ... What is happening?
- Don't worry, it's just me typing on my PET.
Lol! More like an earthquake when he types on it!
which are all good things :)
I really love the aesthetics of the PET. Still one of the best-looking machines out there.
I wonder if it's affordable to 3D-print a PET chassis and retrofit a modern machine inside.
Man, the 6502 is like the little processor that could. Seems like it was in almost everything back in the day.
Yup. Mostly because it was the cheapest option.
And it has been used up to the present (most notably in the Nintendo NES / SNES) and is STILL in production!
It only had three registers, the accumulator and X and Y. I used to have to store the contents of the registers in temporary storage and load it back into them if I needed more. IIRC, 0828 was the start of the cassette drive memory, which wasn't used if you weren't saving anything. I still remember POKE 59468,12 and 14 to change the case from upper to lower and vice versa.
Never in my life would I think that I would finally figure out what kind of dinosaur my grandmother has kept through the past 30 years, and only until now have I realized how much impact it had on the personal computer industry. This exact model has been on display in my house, much like a work of art, and near my bedroom for ages. There had been something that always intrigued me about it, whether it be because of the supposed history about it or the fact that the thing glows a sickly green on some nights.
Knowing what happened in order to make that personal computer come into being is something that I am thankful for greatly. History and computers are something that I've always loved, and seeing the two combine in such a personal way for me is absolutely astounding. I've watched LGR's videos for a while, and this is by far my favorite. Even the sims videos that had me laughing for ages, this review is at the top of my list.
I learned to program on green phosphorous displays on early computers, and to this day I still love turning the background of my code editors black and the main foreground text to some form of green. Something in me still gets excited when I see these old computers, and yes, my heart did skip a small beat when I heard it had 32k of RAM. Why? Because it is actually possible to imagine what you can do with that much memory. Today most programmers don't even give a crap about memory because it is virtually unlimited. So don't feel odd. I love these old systems, too. I still may just pick up an Apple IIe sometime.
For writing, get focus writer. You can download a pet background and it will work...with font
I understand perfectly how you feel about old hardware like this. While I am not a retro computer collector, I am a retro game collector. I have a lot of appreciation for strange and quirky retro hardware. One of my favorites is the Vectrex, which features a built in vector graphic display. The accessories released for it include a light pen with accompanying animation software, and a head mounted display that allows certain software to be viewed in 3D. Extremely outdated and clunky? Absolutely! But that is exactly why I love owning one.
Esquire Fox
Ever had a look at the Channel of VectrexRoli ? He has reviews lots of really weird Vectrex hardware accessories.
My mother was a school teacher, she would bring the PET home on weekends and I can remember this thing sitting on my dining room table and my sister and I typing program listings into it and then being amazed. This TH-cam channel is definitely in my top 5, excellent content and very well produced. Congrats.
Congrats on 250k LGR! Your one of the most consistent reviewer and game player on YT- you deserve every awesome fan and no haters ! Cheers bud
Thank you!
Douglas Adams talked about this thing, being that it was his first experience with a computer and could not fathom what possible use it would be. He said it looked like something that had crashed in Roswell.
Great review, you made it all seductive, like I should have been watching in private in my room....oh yeah, baby...take that chassis off.
That rounded commodore looks amazing. So retro-futuristic!
Few months ago I was walking to work and there was an electronics recycling drive going on, spotted one of these from a mile out and walked right up to the people loading it in. It was a 2001 without the tape deck and it had the nice black keyboard. They let me have it free of charge, plugged it in on my break and it worked. Still have it, still works.
32kb of ram?! It is the future!!
"Oh did we say 32kb? We meant tb lol sry"
That's too much. Who would ever need that much memory? 4K is plenty.
32Kb RAM was the perfect amount for 1978. When the VIC-20 was released in 1980, it had a meager 5Kb of RAM but it should never have been released without at least 8Kb.
32kb! I only have 1000b
Just a fart is like 1.44 MB
Your research on these old computers is AMAZING! Incredible detail...
Dude, sweet review! I work at a museum and we've got about 10 PETs, most of them working. Quite recently we let the chancelor of the local university play pacman on one of the earliest models, you know with the one with terrible tiny keyboar...It was fun to behold.
Once you started showing the games I was overcome with waves of nostalgia. I'd sit in front of my PET for hours, transfixed by those incredible games and those beeps. The things they were able to accomplish in just 32k of RAM were incredible.
The games & graphics were laughable to witness.
I'd love to see an "LGR tech tales: the rise and fall of commodore"
That is an actual piece of art. You should review TRS-80 Model III too!
Using π to represent sheep... brilliant!
VWestlife A tau fan, are we?
I thought he was British or something
oh my god that keyboard sounds like your in a factory stamping out parts for a car not typing! man i love i live in a time where people like LGR can get paid to make crazy vids about old pcs that no one really cares about, it makes me happy.
Awesome times indeed, I feel lucky :)
These are really cool to see. I'm only 20, so I grew up playing on stuff like iMacs and Windows 98/2000 computers. It's incredible to see the leaps and bounds made in computers in the last 40 years.
I remember that when I bought my first car back in 1991, the car dealer used a Commodore Pet to print out the details of the purchase.
Wow....even back then it would of been 'retro'.
The game options for the PET are surprisingly good. PETSCII artists got very creative with their work using limited key graphics.
Adventureland was from Scott Adams (not the cartoonist). His company was Adventure International and was located in Maitland, Florida. There was quite a library of text adventure games that he wrote. Commodore had several exclusive releases of his games for their platforms; I played The Count, Adventureland and Treasure Island (for example) on the Vic-20.
thedungeondelver
i guess there where thirteen, and there where ported to nearly every popular system, including the C64, ZX Spectrum and 8-Bit Atari.
LGR you ever think of doing books on tape, my lord you could read the phonebook and I would be there the whole time O_O
Oh hai tommy
Assimandeli recording porn
thirdbman You did naught?
You're tearing me apart lisa!
Glorious, glorious room reference
I knew a guy who owned a PET 2001 many years ago. He had gotten it from his dad. Unfortunately it didn't work. Cool to see these machines are still around. Looks like something you'd find in Fallout or Alien. Thanks for the vid.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. i lost my PET with 40 column and 16k in a flooded basement in 1994. I remember swapping out the 65?? read/write chip for a few bucks. It was kind of exciting to figure that problem out. It was a cool computer and I had the good keyboard.
FYI for anyone interested. As of mid 2016, just about any PET goes for no less than $1000 (cnd anyways) plus shipping on ebay. I feel like the 'Alien: Isolation' game has single-handledly boosted the desirability of these things lol
Nah, maybe the rarer models or the Buy It Now Ebay prices are high, but the machine I showed here still sells for around $300
www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Vintage-Commodore-CBM-8032-PET-Computer-TESTED-WORKS-CLEAN-/282086698238
+Lazy Game Reviews Ahh, eBay.ca has a much smaller selection, forgot to log into the us version. Thanks.
did you know there are commodore pet phone?
eBay used to be great for collecting old electronics/computers/games. Now the price of everything is just horribly inflated. Damn you hipsters! I liked this stuff before it was cool! Wait... that was a pretty hipster thing to say. :P
I planned to stop by my local Salvation Army thrift store this morning for precisely that reason. But by the time I got what I wanted to do done on my modern octalcore full tower it was too warm for my disability.
my highschool had a CBM 8032 and the dual disk drive. i had permission to use it even after school hours. pure bliss!!!
The computer room in the middle school I attended was full of Commodore Pets and TRS-80s. This was 1982, and they were already outdated - floppy disks were starting to replace cassette drives. Students were allowed to use the computers during lunch, and kids would literally fill the room to capacity every single day. If you wanted a seat at a keyboard, you had to be in there almost as soon as the lunch bell rang, or you were stuck watching someone else have all the fun. The Basic Computer Games book you show in this video was a common sight as well - I even still have my copy! Great memories, thanks for uploading! :D
For 2012 $79 is an absolute steal as well - a few years back a reseller had a PET for sale for about 1000 and it was unknown if the OPET worked. While a reliable store as many times Igot amazing games on the fly for moderately reasonable prices or computer parts, the PET was a rare treat and I figured a grand was the Average price. That said, this video is amazing and made my week.
That wooden PET that was displayed has now reached near mythical status amongst the Commodore collectors, some claim to have seen it but no one knows where it is, you find that, Clint and you'll achieve Lord status in the Commodore fanbase.
Btw i have 4 PET's myself.
[img]i.imgur.com/YnOkPXw.jpg[/img]
Woah a young lgr. I think you need to do a reaction video of how you look in your first videos vs now
Awesome video LGR! This was my first computer - an original 8k PET 2001. It was donated to my family in about 1983 by someone who had upgraded to a 4032 model and it was our only computer until many years later when we got a cheap DOS clone XT machine. I had most of the software you showed - although not the Zork-style adventure game which I would have loved.
A few years ago the guy who gave us the 2001 retired and also gave me his 4032 so while the 2001 sadly died some time in the late 90s I still have the 4032 and the dual disk drives as well. I recently added the sound circuit (which was not stock on the 4032) and loved hearing those Space Invader sound effects again.
Some of my other favourite games were MINER!, OZERO and FROG!. There were also quite a few of these cute animation apps like HAWAII! and EVEREST! which I ran over and over again.
I love these vintage computer reviews!
I see no reason to get a Commodore PET at all, but it's nice to see a review of it, and I also like the curiosity of how these more limited games worked.
I learned to program on these in 1981/1982 along with an Exidy Sorcerer. Then later, I purchased a Commodore Vic-20, followed a couple years later by the C64. The next computer I bought after that was an old Mac SE. I've had many computers over the years, but the PETS always have a soft spot in my heart for they take me back to my early teenage years.
Your love for things like these is positively inspiring, I must say. The bit at the end reminded me just why I feel you deserve way more subscribers than you already have. =)
Me: Hey, i got a pet!
Friend: Cool, what pet?
Me: A Commodore PET. *puts on sunglasses*
Nice one!
I didn't upload that video.
+Pizza Billund LEGO Creations
Lesser Commodore is questioning your choices.
+Pizza Billund LEGO Creations
It almost seems worth it to go and buy one of these things JUST to make that joke. (of course, getting anybody to take it seriously would be another thing.)
Some games that were fun on PET:
- Monopole (yes that's how it was spelled)
- Star Trek (more than one version IIRC)
- Text Adventures (lots of them)
I agree with EVERYTHING you said! I have a pretty large collection of "vintage" computers and just LOVE looking at them! I don't even care if they don't work or not!
Great video!
The PET model shown at 3:19 looks kinda like a terminal from Fallout.
+Ethan LaBorde
The PET series in general probably inspired the design of the desktop Terminals in Fallout.
+Scowler LGR said that Terminals ARE the basis of the terminals in Fallout.
He also said think the ADM-3A.
+Scowler things like it, I mean
JordyT1998
Yeah. The overall profile is very similar.
looks like alien isolation took it as well.
In the middle eighties I had a CBM 3032 with double 5 inches floppy drive unit given to me by my uncle (RIP) who had a factory in which had used the PET, but upgraded to different system.
I could do NOTHING with it (at the times I craved videogames and there was a dearth of them for the PET) so gave it all away for a C64. =\
There's always a period of time when antiques are still simply junk and as such I treated it. Nowadays I'd like to have it back even only for a hour to relive my teen years... guess I'll have to content myself with VICE.
Brilliant review as always! I also can appreciate your feels over the PET. Much of this older equipment can't do much, especially when compared to what we use our machines for nowadays... but there is something lost nowadays when you really look at these old machines. Thanks for sharing!
This video is one I share to my friends because i as well find it hard to quite explain the feeling of why I love my PET ( I personally have a SuperPET ) It just the overall experience of the machine, the few blips when you boot it up, the overall design you touched on all the points and I just wanted to say thanks for reviewing one of my favorite vintage computers.
Pi sheep - EPIC! Also, the keyboard sound @6:25 instantly brought me back to my terminal when programming CP/M Z80-based industrial systems.
IEEE488 - I worked with instruments via that too - Love this video!
When I was going to high school, we had Commodore PET's in the classroom, where we learned to program in BASIC. We had the floppy drive (installed on an A/V cart, for portability). There were some who had really, REALLY complex games they'd either written or gotten from one of the Bulletin Boards (the Internet's precursor). It was SO cool. I remember these with great fondness. After about a year and a half of these, we switched to standard IBM PC's, and never looked back. *SIGH* Those were the days.
It wouldve been really really cool if one could find an empty CBM 8032 casing & insert modern components & screen into it.
It would also be a terrible shame considering how things like this gets increasingly rare, so hacking one up would almost be a crime against mankind.
But if you had a dead one with no hope of repair...
Your passion for computers is insightful. I'm not one for computers or hardware but because you talk about it with so much love it makes it fascinating. Thanks, I've learned something new today about computers.
Well done, Clint. Your reviews keeps getting better and better, and this one is one of the best. The first section is professional quality, and having you, at the end, sitting beside the thing, talking on what YOU think about it, is the perfect complement.
I remember when I first encountered the mighty PET 4016 on a visit to the highschool i would attend that fall. I had a Vic 20 and had hung around the Tandy computer store (hey, in 1979 a guy had to get his computer fix however he could), but these, with their crisp green screens in that fantastic looking case fascinated me.
Great review Clint. We had a PET back in elementary school (about 35 years ago now). Loved the backstory/history that you did in the 1st part of the video.
A prop rod used to hold open the "hood" - brilliant!
This was the first computer I ever used, in high school. I owe my career as a Software Engineer to 8-bit Commodore computers (and the 16/32-bit Amiga).
Nice review there, I've been always curious about what the PET computers were like.
Very interesting indeed.
I used PETs quite a but in the early 80s, as my high school in The Bronx had several of them, from one of the originals with the calculator keyboard, to a SuperPet. We had a few double disk drives, which as I recall could be networked to several machines. I contest the notion that the PET was a limited machine. It came with a very user-friendly version of BASIC and had a built-in "monitor" which was a essentially a stripped-down machine language assembler. This made it possible to write hybrid programs in basic and machine code that enabled the programmer (back then, users WERE programmers because that's what computers were for, programming) to do some amazing things. The biggest limitation my friends and I encountered was that Commodore somehow made it impossible to change the operating system's pointers to the the character set from ROM to RAM. So the character set could not be copied and redefined, as one could do on the Atari, another 6502 machine. I did learn a lot on the PET and have many fond memories.
What a pleasure to listen to you.... Thanks for showing us the PET.
I took a BASIC class many years ago and we used those, great old machines and I totally understand why people still love them.
About the keyboard, yep, I get that too, and it's why I love my IBM Model M keyboards, I use one at work and at home. Those things make a great clicking sound, are solid as a rock and fifty years from now people will still be using them.
Man, I've always loved the look of this thing, but when you pulled out a prop rod to hold the top up like the hood of a car it killed me. Amazing.
Also, pi sheep. :D
That book takes my way back, thanks for showing that. I used to loan that from the local library weeks on end and I ended up typing almost every game on it to my C64 I got as a kid.
Did the same thing with my local library's copy :) Just not with a C64, heh.
Back in the 90's I had that model you have with dual disk drives.... I bought it for 20 bucks I foolishly sold it for 40 bucks I didn't know what I had and no computer store as in local store could get me software.. oh the damn 90's!
I am sad when I see this system today because I could have this day and age got the software and enjoyed the system!!
Damn that keyboard is like *clunk* *ka* *thunk* *klak* lol. Reminds me of the kind of those terminal computers you would find in an old school public library or school computer lab. Really retro goodness :)
As usual, Clint, this was a very beautiful review. I always seem to be more cheery when I see your videos. I used to go to this electronic junk place once, and I kid you not, I must have seen a few of these Commodore PETs on a pile. I know they were PET computers because they all had the logos. They have very distinctive shapes as computers.
Regretfully... I didn't have a god damn clue about the values of these machines. I was more focused on PC and laptop parts at the time. This all happened around the first quarter of 2011. What hurts even more is how they looked on those piles. I truly regret not recovering any of those after seeing this video.
6:23
Sweet, sweet typing noise goodness. Screw chiclets and plastic domes, this is what a real keyboard sounds like.
Thank you for the look at the PET. I've always thought this computer looked futuristic. I'd love to just get a non-working one, and put modern PC stuff inside it. :)
With years ever since this video was published I'm now commenting. I found this video trying to find info about the CBM pet 3032, a model I owned back in the 80ies alongside the external dual HD floppy drives. They both were given to me, back then, from my late uncle who had used both in his factory until he made a machine upgrade with something I never asked him about. So, having to get rid of the 3032, he gave it to me.
Sadly, back then I was a teenager who only wanted to play videogames, internet was a misspelled soccer team form Milan and software of ANY kind, let alone the games I craved, for that machine around amounted to zilch, so when my father found a friend of his who wanted to take both machine and floppy drives in in exchange of a C64 I JUMPED to the occasion.
Nowadays from time to time I travel on memory lane to back to those carefree days (for me, they were) and on a search to deepen the knowledge of what I left behind back in the times, I happened here. Nice video.
YES!!!
more hardware reviews please LGR. i love them so.
This was the first computer I ever touched. I'll never forget having to load programs by cassette tape. Since tapes are sequentially accessed, if the program you were looking for was at the end of the tape, it could take up to an hour for a program to load.
First computer I ever had my hands on in the junior high computer lab. Didn't get to use it much. In high school was had "advanced" to Commodore 64s. Learned BASIC and a lof of programs on that. Time flies.
Orgasmic typing experiences and a power supply looking much like an improvised nuclear device, we've got it all.
+BrokenSet Never underestimate the joy of a good keyboard... (this message was brought you by courtesy of a classic thinkpad)
+LMLMD meh, I really want a light up keyboard, possibly a Logitech or Razor.
My shitty Logitech keyboard can't even process 5 keys at once.
I CANT PLAY SURGEON SIMULATOR!!
As soon as I saw the way this thing opens up I was sold.
6:35 "There's more to love around back too"
What a quote!
The PET looks like something out of a 1960's sci-fi TV show.
I just picked up a Commodore PET and Educator 64 for $25. I never would have known to pick it up (or be interested, to be honest) without this video.
This was the first computer I ever used when I was 10, back in 1982. The school got one, and we were taken in groups of 4 to see the magical mystery box. The teachers were afraid to touch the thing because they were told any wrong key press could irreparably destroy the thing. They loaded up a very basic educational game, where you could press 1, 2, or 3 to tell the machine what room of a museum you'd like to visit next. I took to it like a duck in water, going down options the teachers didn't even know existed. They were like, "Whoa! Slow down! You might break something!"
I told them, "You can't break it by using it exactly what how it was meant to be used."
Then they were like, "Can you get us back to the menu, so we can restart for the next group of kids?" I did.
Brilliant as always! I've had tons of fun with those IBMs I bought a few months back based on your feedback!
When I was in high school, in the mid-late 80's, they had a lab of about 20 in a room upstairs and out of the way (they had moved on to early ibm labs by then, but I remember having classes in that room and turning them on and programming in basic string programs to have them ask questions and give personalized answers lol. It always felt kind of retrofuturistic in there, even then. (I had a c64 at home, so it was like seeing the beginnings of where commodore came from)
That "The movie, not the year" line nearly made me laugh myself out of my parents basement.
awesome video Clint! contemporary synthesizers have adopted the vintage look, computers should too, not all of course but some. And oh man that Spacebar, amazing sound.
At my secondary school we had PETs, I dreamed of owning one! We had the really old ones with the tape deck and crappy keyboard all the way up to the nice ones with disk drives. Most kids played games on them, but I learned BASIC. I still have my copy of The PET Revealed! I ended up with a second-hand 16K ZX81 as my first computer.
watching your system reviews is the best. I love most of your stuff but finding this is like Christmas everytime.
I know these reviews are especially hard to do, because of all the Infos you need but I can say it's always worth it and I'm truly interested in your opinion about these maschines.
Thank you for the good work.
"Vice and Mess" sounds like the name of a 1970s porno magazine.
lol it does, btw I love your profile pic; Vincent Price was a badass
MrFirewolf18 He sure was, man
He was a horror legend and one of my inspirations, he died only a few months before I was born.
MrFirewolf18 Yes, and with him died the horror genre, in my humble opinion.
Eh, I kind of agree, but even though most horror movies nowadays are just predictable formulaic dreck there are still a few good ones namely Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Insidious.
When I first started Polytechnic they had a suite of these (PET). I remember even back then (mid 80s) it was very limited. Still, typing in a game, bug fixing your mistakes and getting it going was always fun.
Very interesting peace of history Clint, I knew you'd review that machine sooner or later, as I've been seeing it in the background in some of your videos for a while now. I've never even seen a Commodore CBM let alone owned one and It's an interesting piece of computer history and a great start for Commodore back in the day. There were countless Commodore 64s and Vic 20s but for me definitely, the CBM and the PET are an interesting thing to own and I'd love to have the space and the money to collect such machines.
It is awesome. I've never owned one, but I had use of one at a workplace years ago (when it was quite new no doubt, although even then it seemed old!). I absolutely loved it. compared to all of the other machines I had access to like the ZX81 it seemed years ahead of just about everything. In build quality at least!!
In 1981 or 1982 my Dad got this computer to take home from the university where he worked. It ran Wordpro 4 plus, the first word processor I ever used, and it wasn’t bad for the time. I bought a book that had a bunch of games that ran on it, but I had to enter them by hand. Some actually worked (they had been written for the earlier version of PET so there were display issues with some games). We ran a disk drive on it and I have a memory of it being part of the machine, not external, but that could be wrong.
In 1988 I changed schools to a very old little private school. The computer room featured 4 PET machines and 8 C64. We mostly only used the C64, but the PETs did work. Just can't recall we ever figured out what to do with them. Most interesting part of those machines was that they were all modified to support the full 29 character Danish alphabet, and had stickers with Æ, Ø, and Å on the three right hand keys that were modded to support the extra letters. Not entirely sure how it was done (I was just a little kid then), but at least the C64 worked normally in everything we used them for. About 2 years the law was changed and made it required to include IT as part of the curriculum (instead of being up to the schools to choose whether they could be bothered), so the old commodore machines went out and were replaced by brand new PS/2. Sadly don't know what happened to those old machine, but assume they were simply scrapped
First computer I ever used was a Commodore PET. I was about 8 and the library had a number of them in a side room. We were taught the basics of basic. I never cared for it. It had no soul. Although it did have a very sharp monitor.
Soon after that I touched an Apple II+ for the first time and it was love at first sight.
Good job, very nice episode with some awesome trivia (Pet Rock? Had to check this one). The computer is indeed beautiful with it's retro-sci-fi look. And these green monitors... ahhh. Some of those games actually seem better than they should be. Fast and snappy, unlike later spectrum games. Oh, and I was puzzled by the 3D game you showed (the last one). Crazy.
Found you via Skylines review and really loving your content. Haven't subbed to another game channel in couple of years since TB.
Keep this varied content coming! Love it.
Thanks LGR. Waves of nostalgia in there. Great.
The Commodore Pet was the very First computer I was introduced to. That was back in 78-79 I believe, and I've been a Nerd ever since!
I have one of these PETs. Side note, in the dark you can put a flashlight up to the screen and it will absorb the energy and glow in the dark, when you shut the flashlight off.
Love it, it was the main computer in my school days. Great to see it again.
I found a commodore pet once, on a trash can... it works pretty well, really glad I found it!
(there was also an ibm 5120 which also worked perfectly!)
10:03 that is the most charming use of the Pi symbol I have ever seen!
I have that exact same model. I know exactly what you mean. I bought it for "200-ish" about 8 years ago and that included shipping. Hell, shipping was half the cost for that beast. lol. LOVE it.
Last time I seen one in person was in my early school days! Always loved the look of them!
I used to have a Commodore 64 when I was a kid. Game loading times used to make me cry, it took so long!