9 Nov
2007
9 Nov
'07
12:20 p.m.
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:55:34 +0000
From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Commodore PET
We still seem to get them offered to the museum in
healthy numbers - including
the chicklet models (and once in a while one of the blue-fronted ones, which I
believe are the earliest).
I've never tried actively seeking one out though as
there's been no need.
Finding one that works seems to be the difficult bit -
I don't think I've ever
seen one which hasn't required some form of TLC inside. Nasty, clunky,
horrible things they are ;-)
cheers
Jules
--------Reply:
Well, recognizing that this was probably just flame bait, I respectfully disagree.
Granted, with time there were problems with poor connectors and failing RAM
& ROM chips, but that was common in systems of that day (and still is).
In my not-so-humble opinion, the PET's metal case and automobile-style 'hood'
('bonnet' to you), hefty linear power supply, crisp built-in monitor, IEEE port,
and its
generous supply of other I/O ports, not to mention Commodore's good official
support, made it stand out among the Apples and R-S model 1s of the day.
Mine _is_ originally one of the blue-front models and it still works fine to this day;
the only problems I've had with it is one of the ROMs developing a stuck bit and
the occasional dirty connector, and the keyboard contacts need to be cleaned
once in a while (and a little rust from Racoons peeing on it while it sat for many
years in the garage with a hole in the roof).
And, as an aside, it was many years before the mainstream reached the 500MB
*per side* of the 8050 and 8250 disk drives (which could use pretty well any
diskette you had on hand, soft sector, 10 or 16S hard sector, whatever).
Archiving some 25+ year old diskettes recently I had one read error in 20 diskettes
(and I could use the computer for playing a fast game or two while formatting
or copying diskettes)...
m