WHERE CAN I BUY/FIND A PET
COMPUTER?
That is a tough one, here are some suggestions
- Word of Mouth - People know I collect old computers
(from conversations, postings and this website), sonetimes I
get approached and people ask if I want their old computers.
Remember the axiom of not looking a gift horse in the mouth,
if you have the time, accept the offer. If it is someone you
know better, ask them what cmputers they have and politely refuse,
but always thank them for their consideration.
- Schools - In the United States the PETs were pretty
popular for schools, almost all of which have been deemed obsolete
and have been given away, sold or discardrd. I bought a bunch
through our county's school district auction, after that I have
received a couple from individual users, and have been fortunate
to locate a few used computer stores in the area that have had
discarded school machines.
- On-Line Internet Auctions - (such as http://www.ebay.com
) regularly sell PETs but their prices may climb way higher than
you should expect to pay. Also shipping PETs is an expensive
proposition (the lightest is about 35 pounds).
- Place An Ad - A more direct approach would be to place
an ad in your local paper or advertiser on looking for old computers.
You may be surprised what you will find. Also there is the internet,
and from time to time I see postings in newsgroups like comp.sys.cbm
or misc.forsale.computers.other.systems.
- Local Users Groups - Also join or visit your local
users group and let them know you are a PET fan, there may be
a PET owner in the group or that contacts the group, looking
to pass their model into loving hands. I know from experience
when you give support, you will receive support back.
WHAT'S THE 'BEST PET'?
That's definitely a matter of opinion, compared to today's
computers the PET is about as featureless as you can get, it mainly
depends on what you are looking for. If you have specific programs
to run then let the programs will dictate your system, as it may
be impossible to find versions for other PET models. I will give
you these insights though.
Computers:
- If you want a 'show model' the original PET gets more attention
than the later ones - especially if it is operational. The other
small screen units look cool as well, and if you want a jazzy
display the 4000/8000 has the biggest/brightest screen of the
lot (and built-in sound).
- If you want to re-live your childhood playing games and such,
the later 2000, 4000 models are good, the 8000s work well too
(even with the 8000, there is a program to get them into 4000
mode). Also the 4000 models have built-in speakers which may
be a factor.
- If you want to mess with programming/business software, the
8000 models may be your best bet, though the 4000 models are
up there too, the 4000/8000 has a tad better speed then the older
models. Also the large screen models are much more visible at
a distance if you are running a demonstration display.
- For "power PET computing" it would be the SuperPET,
it has all the features of an 8000 as well as ability to run
multiple languages.
- Those European models with the counded cases are a rarity
in the US and definitely show PET attitude!
Tape Drives:
TAPE: Nothing is more common on the PET than tape drives, as
back then disk drives started at $500 and jumped to 1200 for a
dual disk model, get a tape drive, it's cheap and it will come
in handy. Of the tape drives experience has shown reliability
in this order:
- 1530 low-profile drive (rarely a problem, I always have one
ready)
- Black Box C2N somewhat durable.
- Original SANYO deck (the one in the original PETs), except
for the belts mine still function.
- Cream Color Box C2N - not sure why but they have the most
problems...
If you can't find/afford a disk drive you can always use
a cassette, and if you have a Commodore 64 in your collection
you can use that to get programs on tape for you easily with Jim
Butterfield's Unicopy64 program.
Disk Drives:
- 4040/2031/MSD: like the 1541 is the defacto standard for
disk drives on the 64, for the PET are the 4040, 2031, and MSD,
as the 4040 was the most sold, and of course the compatibility
with the 1541 format does not hurt either. Note the 4040 and
other models are VERY large (as big of footprint as the PETs!)
so if you are looking to save space, look for the 2031, 2031
LP, or MSD SD1 or 2, these are much smaller.
- 8050, 8250, 8250LP, SFD-1001, these drives were more in use
by business users, some software may only run on these drives.
Also for many years in the 1980s these large capacity drives
were long sought after by BBS sysops before affordable hard drives
became available. Again the single drive SFD-1001 is much smaller
then the dual drive units.
- 9060, 9090, these hard disk drives would be a companion drive
to a floppy drive as there is no removable disk access, and as
far as software support, it is probably exclusive to business
programs, as these drives sold for multiple thousands of dollars
at the time. Also unlike todays drives the 9060/9090 use all
custom hardware (and older SASI drives!) so maintaining one may
be problematic..
- 8280 This dual 8" drive would certainly be a show stopper,
not just because of its rarity but because it is so big and heavy.
As far as software we are looking at an even a smaller set of
business titles that support it
Printers:
The PET printers are not all that feature laden, the also are
big, usually quite noisy and slow. When looking at printers some
models are Tractor Feed or Friction only, keep that in mind, some
are daisy-wheel and not dot-matrix, also a factor. There are a
handful of PET to Parallel or RS-232 printer interfaces out there
which will allow you to print to a generic dot matrix (at the
expense of no graphics on most adapters) but those may be hard
to get as well.
ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR PET...
Once you have the PET you can think about restoring it, showing
it off, or better yet playing with it. If you plan to showcase
the computer work up a demo disk or tape of programs that demonstrate
the PETs better features, and probably some games and programs
you are fond about too.