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PET Alive! - The Event Thread!

AFAIK, the SuperPET is simply a 8032 with the 6809 card (and different sticker). The card plugs into the socket of the 6502 with a 40-conductor ribbon, and the 6502 is moved onto the card. If you unplug the card and put the 6502 in, it's back to being a 8032.

Joe.
 
carlsson said:
For the VCF event, I chose to dig out my CBM 8032-SK with a 8250LP floppy drive and a 3rd party Corvus hard disk fitted with a 6 MB disk.
Click to expand...
While the backup has not happened, partly due to my USB to RS232 adapter is incompatible, I decided to post a little video of my setup:
 
carlsson, I'm surprised! An EEE PC shouldn't be in a video about a PET, it's too new ;) (kidding)

In seriousness, I didn't know there were hard drives made for PETs! I guess you really do learn something new every day.
 
carlsson said:
While the backup has not happened, partly due to my USB to RS232 adapter is incompatible, I decided to post a little video of my setup:
Click to expand...

Nice.

It's easy to forget just what a relief it was to have a hard disk on a microcomputer back in those days, after juggling floppies for a few years (or even worse..juggling cassettes!).

Tez
 
Actually both devices currently listen to #8, but for some reason the 8250 intercepts the call and when it has failed, the HardBox gets second chance to respond. Ideally I should change the device number on either device, or refrain from having both turned on at the same time.

The number of blocks free is due to the hard drive is divided into many areas, which you shift between with custom DOS commands. The default area is the "SYSTEM" one that once has been setup to the size of a small floppy disk or so.

Tezza: Not sure what you mean by "relief". Perhaps you relate to when the day was over and you could safely turn off the hard drive, it would be relief to your ears. :mrgreen: On the other hand those were so expensive that most companies probably would add the Corvus multiplexer (not shown) which let you connect many HardBoxes to the same hard drive. I can imagine a lot of band cables going in various directions across the room.

Linuxlove: The Eee PC was meant to be used for taking backups, but it didn't yet work out. It is also there as proof this is a newly taken video, not an old clip from the 1980's.
 
Just a reminder that there is less than 18 hours left for you to post a PET if you want to be considered for the awards.

Judging will start after 24.00 hours, GMT, 2nd May (or 0.00 hours 3rd May GMT..whatever you prefer). Either way it's midnight Sunday night if you are on GMT and 12 noon Monday here in New Zealand.

Time zones. Ya gotta love 'em! :)

Tez
 
Hi there,

Although I'm not in the running, I wanted to share a couple of pictures of my PET 2001-8N, with standard-sized PETSCII keyboard and outboard C2N datasette:

pet2001-8n-001.jpg


pet2001-8n-002.jpg


(I hope these image links come through OK - first time on Picasa picture sharing.)

Likely in this audience you know the specs on the machine - it's got 8K of RAM, and no built-in cassette deck. It's a workhorse. It was gifted to me by a friend who got it from the school district he worked at for many years. I very much appreciated having a PET in my collection. Only got this machine a short while back, and it had been in a garage for many, many years - but it still works OK. Keyboard needs a little cleaning and the fuse holder needs to be replaced but functions for now.

As the PET screen says, congratulations to all participants! It was so much fun to see the various PETs, add-ons, and programming efforts.

Chat with you soon,

- Earl
 
Nicely presented machine Earl. These PETs seem to scrub up well!

The pictures came through fine.

I have a question for Commodore/PET experts? Was the C2N datasette (seen above) sold with these PETs or did it appear later with the VIC-20? If the latter, was there a specific PET external cassette player which was sold before the VIC-20 appeared?

Tez
 
I am quite sure that square C2N one was sold with both PETs and early VICs, and the later, rounded 1530 model arrived with the C64, VIC-20CR and CBM-II (!) series. The latter do have a cassette connector, but no ROM support. There are several examples of custom ROMs and routines to communicate with the cassette port though, so it is not dead, just unsupported in stock ROM on the CBM-II / B-series.

Worth noting is the square C2N usually (?) doesn't have a housing on the connector, just the plastic connector itself.
 
I'm not sure that there was a strict "this went with that" time line, except for the incompatible Plus/4. As I recall, the 'normal' shape/size C2Ns (originally black) were the standard cassette drive (probably a modified standard OEM drive like the original built-in Sanyo[?]) from the days of the first full-size keyboard PETs right up to and past the introduction of the VIC-20, when the smaller unit started to appear. Here's an assortment:

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/pictures/gpage1/02.jpg
 
Just a note to say the award deadline is closing in 30 mins. I can't be here to post a close-off note at the exact time as I've got another committment then.

It will be interesting to see what Earl selects :)

Tez
 
Back from my meeting.

The awards competition is now closed off and Earl will be checking to entries in the next few hours. Thanks to all those who participated.

After Earl announces the winners (and allowing some time for us to all tease/congratulate them), I'll write a few words officially closing the event. Probably later tonight my time (Monday 10.00 GMT or so).

Tez
 
Last edited:
MikeS said:
I'm not sure that there was a strict "this went with that" time line, except for the incompatible Plus/4. As I recall, the 'normal' shape/size C2Ns (originally black) were the standard cassette drive (probably a modified standard OEM drive like the original built-in Sanyo[?]) from the days of the first full-size keyboard PETs right up to and past the introduction of the VIC-20, when the smaller unit started to appear. Here's an assortment:

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/pictures/gpage1/02.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link Mike. Quite a line up of little soldiers there. I didn't realise there were so many models.

Tez
 
PET Alive! Awards

PET Alive! Awards

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated in the PET Alive! celebration. Since my first days hunting and pecking on our classroom's PET 2001, I've always been fascinated with the PET line of computers. It was great seeing not only a lot of PETs in action, but new projects being born.

Without further ado, because who needs ado? Here are the PET Alive! awards:

BEST DRESSED PET

This award goes to none other than the person hosting the event - Terry (screen name "Tezza"), whose PET is adorned with sunglasses, a classy bow-tie, and a brew? Awesome! Way to dress up the PET!

Of course, I never give my PETs any brewskies. The 6502 is kind of a lightweight :)

2010-04-24-pet-alive-short.jpg


BEST BEHAVED PET

We have twin winners in this category - for our first well-trained PET, we turn to none other than Robin Harbron (screen name "MacbthPSW"), with stereo PETs playing a very smooth scrolling marquee (and source code to boot!). See the video on the early pages of the thread for this scroll down memory lane!

Co-winner for best behaved PET is billdeg, with the beginnings of a multi-player PET extravaganza that, while not rivaling modern Internet FPS bullet-fests, definitely opens new frontiers of PETs playing together!

thm_PET_UserPort-SerialCables.JPG


BEST GROOMED PET

Most of the PETs posted were in tip-top shape, so this category was particularly hard to judge. The award here goes to Phil (screen name "Nama") for his Japanese original PET 2001. Not only is the machine in great shape, but it's also a bit of a rarity and was very fun to look at, even on the inside:

DSC_0012.jpg


MOST NEGLECTED PET

Undoubtedly, the award for most neglected (abused? thrashed?) PET goes to MikeS, and his tornado-ravaged 2001:

attachment.php


Wow, that PET needs a medic! Stat! :p

And, a bonus award category:

MOST GENETICALLY-ENHANCED PET

André's turbo-charged PET is, at 10 MHz, a screamer!

petbench.png


Thanks again to all for participating! I hope we'll do this again!

- Earl
 
Fantastic job Earl! Thank you.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who exhibited something!

Re: Best Dressed Pet. I must confess that my wife Annette assisted with ideas in fashion design. Blu-tack was also handy for holding on the sunglasses!

MOST GENETICALLY- ENHANCED PET: Love it!! :)

Stand by for a PET ALIVE wrap up in 6-7 hours or so.

Tez
 
Hmm... I forgot all about that 'Most Neglected/Abused' category...

Don't know whether to say thank you or hang my head in shame; maybe that'll be a 'Before' picture to compare to an 'After' picture some day soon.

Thanks for a great idea, Tez! It was interesting and also a lot of fun; let's do it again some day.

Now let's see if we can get those poor ailing PETs out of the Critical Care ward in the Hospital thread...

mike
 
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