LGR - Commodore PET Computer System Review

Is that a little Klayman figure I see on the right near the end of the video?

Caleb Bott

It's an aesthetically pleasing machine.

Alex

oh I missed that video thanks. We used to play Androides in school, the TO7 was used in schools as an educational computer back in France & Infogrames were massive supporters of the Thomson computers . Still got my TO7 :)

Banjo Guy Ollie

funny thing is... i was expecting "penis"

Randall Strye

Knowing LGR it would be something like... "FARTS".

Zabe

Quality review. I hope you continue to make hardware reviews (assuming you get more hardware to review). Oh BTW I got my floppy disk man. I have nothing to stick it in, but it says "GRAPHICS". Awesome. Thanks!

Zabe

You touched my heart and brought back memories of my PET computer. You were corrected stating the first PET cost $4.95. This computer came with 4K of memory. I splurged and spent $795 for a 8K version. This computer also had a great many special characters and cursor control features. You could emulate a full screen as log as you did not place a character in last position of the last screen row. This would cause the screen to scroll up one line. $795 dollars would be $3,065 today.

Yup, reviewed a game for it here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ewY7xWzKY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ewY7xWzKY</a>

LGR

Man I love this machine. Well actually the look of it, it is so cool and futuristic looking that it can't be left out in any proper retro sci-fi movie, game, whatever.^^ Btw. Old Computers.^^ Come over and we show you some Robotron Computers! At a little convention at our university we had three of them (I would have to lie to know the exact names) and they actually had network between. 80s Machines from the GDR. And you should see the keyboard layout, you rarely see so many arrow keys that do anything but what you expect them to do!. Also I tried to chat to the other Computer and the other computer just crashed! Well it is actually a copy of an more Capitalism Computer xD.^^ But I gues that would be really hard for you to track one down!. Because even for someone like me living here I have no clue where to look for those things. There are clubs over here that just search everywhere for them because face it, they where so uncomon. I bet a not Amiercan PET is much easier to find than a Robotron Computer.

Ezydenias

You described Commodore's story perfectly *manly tears* I've just got something in my eye, I swear ! Great review. Although, Jack Tramiel is head of Commodore in this video, and is head of Atari in the Atari ST review. I know the story and that both machines were years appart, but it might be confusing since Atari and Commodore were sworn ennemies. ^^ Thanks a lot for two hardware reviews in a row, I love them but I know they represent a lot of work. When you mentionned other hardware reviews in the future I couldn't help but smile as I imagined what's next. :)

Maximilien Noal

ever got your hands on the TO7/MO5 thompson computers ? they were great little machines :)

Banjo Guy Ollie

Ooooh baby....

Alyxx the Rat

As a collector, I always have to make the difficult decision to weigh up the coolness of owning a thing, with the amount of usage I'll get, and the amount of space it will take up. Sadly, these factors weigh strongly against the PET. Thankfully LGR is here, giving me the opportunity to vicariously experience these sorts of things without the steep commitment of resources involved. Thank you Clint!

RetroSwim

They can be had pretty cheap for retro computers if you get lucky in case you don't already have one around. I highly recommend the cartridge game "Parsec" if you get the speech synthesizer. That speech synthesizer is mind blowing when you consider its vintage. The machine was financially a failure, but I don't understand why, except maybe they focused too much on games by having the game cartridge slot, and maybe consumers thought it was just an overpriced video game console. Thanks for being responsive, you're a nice guy for replying to so many comments. I'm grateful for the entertainment, it really brightens my day.

I still love BASIC and just spent a couple hours inputting an othello style game from an old magazine :) But it is tedious and spell checking is a nightmare

Kristen (Coconut81)

We had PETs in the school library in elementary school. c64 were in the classrooms. I still have and use my Apple IIe and c64 and Atari ST :) I love me some retro computers

Kristen (Coconut81)

Perhaps it's a good thing I'm not on the hunt for hardware. I'm already spending too much money on games (although I've reduced my purchases these days) and my collection is starting to fill the closet outside my room, which I don't like. I can't seem to find an efficient way to store my stuff with a decent cost while not looking too ugly.

Pandatective

I know that feeling. Even with more space now, I still don't have the room to have all the computers I want set up at once. Again, due to so many PC games, ha

LGR

Right? What people did with such humble specifications is fantastic. Games like Dungeon and Ouranos are super cool.

LGR

Sadness! And oh man, that's a machine I need to cover too.

LGR

I had a ti99/4a as my first computer (in the early 90s, so it was already 10 years obsolete when I got it) and I thought it aweshum back then. One day a little puff of smoke came out of it, and that was the end of my childhood.

That is a very nice looking machine despite its limitations. I would love to acquire something like this, but money and space won't cut it (especially on the money part). I haven't done much with my C64 and nothing at all with my Amiga 500 since I own it due to a lack of space, which is mostly due to my collection of PC games. :P

Pandatective

Always a poignant story, Commodore. Definitely worth a video of its own someday.

LGR

That doesn't surprise me! The insides of pinball machines are terrifying.

LGR

That terrifying power supply is very similar to the one in my pinball machine... except yours is SMALLER. >_

Kris Asick

Here's an idea -- write 2 or 3 of those games, and do a video reviewing them and the book. That would be a hoot!

Kevin Furr

Wonderful review. It's about the closest I'll ever get to seeing a PET/CBM machine (despite my fanboy-ish nature for anything featuring that chickenbeak), because as you point out, it's not really got a lot of cool stuff to run on it though. But it's ace to see that there's cool hardware addons made for them as well, especially with more esoteric storage devices (in terms of the IEEE-488 stuff). And your description of Commodore's pathetic self-implosion is incredibly apt. *sniff*

Rob Caporetto

I'm glad to hear that! Smiles, whee!

LGR

Glorious. You always bring a smile to my face with these reviews! Very eloquent, genuine, informative, and entertaining.

Ciirka Grey

I was hoping for a secret message for the super fans!

Randall Strye

My apologies for the confusion :P

LGR

I watched 6:30 three times to see if I could tell what you were typing... before I realized it was nothing at all...

Randall Strye

Aw man! Yeah I borrowed it from the library as a kid, and thankfully bought my own on Amazon a while back

LGR

Totally, especially Alien. I just can't even express how cool I think these look, haha.

LGR

Yeah, these certainly ended up in a bunch of media! Fun lists here: <a href="http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=39" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=39</a> <a href="http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=178" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=178</a>

LGR

I freaking loved BASIC as a kid, but man, no patience for the tedium anymore at all

LGR

Man, BASIC. Shit was crazy tedious. I'm glad we've moved on from that. Props to those who could make BASIC do anything more than simple math or spell out messages.

Jeff D Smallman

Entertaining and Informative as always, Great review! I remember seeing these machines in old movies and TV and just assumed they were props created to fill a purpose, never did I think they had a back story.

Michael Lamartina

Great review as always. It also reminds me of something out of the original Star Trek (RIP Leonard Nimoy) and Alien.

Too cool ... I used to have that Basic Computer Games book, but it got ruined by water damage.

Kevin Furr