I bought a 40 year old computer

[mkessler9]

 

This may sound cool to some, or dumb to others...but I just bought a working Commodore PET 4320 (not the exact one in the picture but like it), green monochrome screen and all. As someone who was not around when this came out, I have a little general knowledge of the system but a lot to learn. Hoping someone on here may be knowledgeable with this specific computer.

 

It's currently in shipping, so diving into learning more about it in the meantime. As a starter, can anyone help me in regards to what floppy drives are compatible with this?? They came with some pretty interesting ones back in the day, but they are crazy expensive to buy the originals in working order, so an alternative would be appreciated.

[Needfuldoer]

Ah, the Commodore Tax. I think it's even higher than the Apple Tax.

 

 

Original drives are going to be expensive, especially in working order. (Commodore drives are basically a whole second computer, so they were relatively expensive even when they were new.) There are a couple SD card based drive emulators out there, but I can't vouch for how good they are.

 

https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/sd2pet-future.html

 

[mkessler9]

45 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Ah, the Commodore Tax. I think it's even higher than the Apple Tax.

 

 

Original drives are going to be expensive, especially in working order. (Commodore drives are basically a whole second computer, so they were relatively expensive even when they were new.) There are a couple SD card based drive emulators out there, but I can't vouch for how good they are.

 

https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/sd2pet-future.html

 

Starting to understand what you mean... At some point I remember hearing about the really old floppy drives having there own cpus...figures I buy a computer that uses one of those. 

 

Thanks for the lead on the emulator. I put in an order for it after seeing a number of good reviews. It says in stock on the product page, but when I went to checkout it shows as backordered?. So we'll see if I end up receiving it. Hah!

[Echothedolpin]

4 minutes ago, mkessler9 said:

Starting to understand what you mean... At some point I remember hearing about the really old floppy drives having there own cpus...figures I buy a computer that uses one of those. 

 

Thanks for the lead on the emulator. I put in an order for it after seeing a number of good reviews. It says in stock on the product page, but when I went to checkout it shows as backordered?. So we'll see if I end up receiving it. Hah!

The other issue with old floppy drives like that is they almost always had external power supplies that you had to be really careful about matching up with the correct drive. Sometimes you’ll run into the issue where you’ve got the right part, but can’t find a compatible power supply for any amount of money.

 

-edit- Keep in mind that floppies and floppy drives were very very very premium on these systems. There’s no real comparable piece of equipment in the consumer space these days. Most everyone was using cassettes for storage in this era.

 

Having done late 80s to mid 90s retro computing (when it wasn’t retro) and having restored a few systems more recently: late 70s retro computing is a whole different ballgame. 

[Needfuldoer]

6 minutes ago, Echothedolpin said:

The other issue with old floppy drives like that is they almost always had external power supplies that you had to be really careful about matching up with the correct drive. Sometimes you’ll run into the issue where you’ve got the right part, but can’t find a compatible power supply for any amount of money.

Some old Commodore AC adapters also have a fun failure mode where the DC side shorts to line voltage, so your drive gets 120/240 V AC instead of a few DC volts.

[Mark Kaine]

how did you buy a pet without a drive? that's like buying a Lamborghini without tires lol

you need this:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/115966667970

 

 

 

[mkessler9]

On 12/4/2023 at 11:58 PM, Mark Kaine said:

how did you buy a pet without a drive? that's like buying a Lamborghini without tires lol

you need this:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/115966667970

 

 

 

The good ole tale of dive in and figure it out as I go

 

Going to attempt to avoid the old drives. Have an order in for a SD card emulator which from the videos and reviews I've found it seems to be a pretty good alternative for most things.

[Echothedolpin]

26 minutes ago, mkessler9 said:

The good ole tale of dive in and figure it out as I go

 

Going to attempt to avoid the old drives. Have an order in for a SD card emulator which from the videos and reviews I've found it seems to be a pretty good alternative for most things.

That’s a great choice, I went with CF on anything with an old hard drive. I’d love to do a floppy emulator, but they’re a bit pricey for the goals I have (fix/restore old systems for little to no expense)