Commodore Pet 2001

The Commodore PET 2001 was the first full computer that Commodore produced. It was based on the same architecture as the MOS/Commodore KIM-1 but provided a keyboard ("chicklet style"), tape drive and monitor all housed in a space-age case.

The first PET 2001 in my collection was horribly brutalized by an inept shipping company and is currently not operational. I may be able to revive it some day, but it has suffered some case damage that may prevent a complete restoration.

A replacement machine was added to the collection that functions quite well. As expected, the internal tape drive isn't working yet (mainly due to a rotted out drive belt) but the external tape drive allows software to be loaded (sometimes) and it will run.

I've finally gotten a bit of time to take some pictures so I'm adding some here. All of these pictures are of my second PET. The trashed one has not yet been worked on or photographed beyond what was required to try for compensation. Those pictures will likely be posted once the case closes, one way or another, along with a description of the nonsense I've had to go through because of my poor choice of shippers.

The picture at the top is a view of the PET itself. Notice the slight modification made to the machine. The red button on the front controls a small electric fan mounted above the motherboard. These original PETs ran warm and some of the components didn't like that much. I suspect that this was a fairly common modification.

This is a Personal Electronic Transactor model 2001-8. It has 8K of RAM and runs great.

The majority of the PET line had a tilt-up body with the monitor and keyboard mounted in the top half and the computer in the bottom. Notice the fan at the back. It was added in the aforementioned modification.

It's always nice to have documentation for your classic systems. This machine came with tons. The previous owner was obviously a pack-rat (I love that type of computer owner) and kept pretty much everything, including the upper half of the warrantee document.

A pile of other documents, newsletters and magazines is shown in the pictures below.

The PET also came with a good collection of software on tape. Some of the tapes have suffered bit-rot, but many are fully or partially readable and much of the software was duplicated. I don't think much has been lost.

Before I added the PET above to my collection I had purchased another one that was, unfortunately, damaged in transit.

Since there was an outstanding claim on the machine I didn't really work with it much and just as the claim was settled I was forced to put the machine into long-term storage.

When I finally got it back I was faced with trying to pry open the case since the shipping damage had effectively locked it closed. Once I figured that out I was able to assess the interior damage to the machine. As it turned out the machine was pretty tough. Blows that were capable of bending the sheet metal of the case did little but unseat some chips, connectors and cards inside of the unit.

Realizing that the machine was salvageable I carefully put everything back where it came from and powered on the unit. I was more than surprised to see it run just fine in spite of the cosmetic damage!

The inside of the machine actually looks pretty good. It also shows some modification. Mainly the addition of a motherboard sporting additional RAM and card slots. This is plugged into the expansion interface on the side of the Pet.

The on board chicklet keyboard is pretty temperamental but the unit came with a nice matched external keyboard sporting a more traditional layout.

(Submitted April 15, 2008 23:46:37 by Jason)

Hi, I'm looking for a working PET 2001 with chiclet keyboard. Will be generous with offer if working. Thanks!

(Submitted April 14, 2008 15:07:18 by Stephen Wood)

Looking for PET 2001 or chicklet keyboard or spare chicklet keys or new chicklet stickers. Thank you.

(Submitted March 27, 2008 21:01:18 by Robert J. Teitler)

I won the bidding on ebay for a 5.25 dual external floppy drive. It is either a Commodore or Computhink old model. I connected it to my parallel port. My desktop dell computer cannot read the floppy drives. Can anyone help me?

(Submitted March 6, 2008 17:30:35 by Mario)

Hi, I'm looking for a PET 2001, boxed and working. If you have it, and want to sell it, contact me. Thanks

(Submitted February 2, 2008 11:55:59 by Daniel Weiner)

Have a Pet2001 that's been hacked a bit (tape & chicklet keyboard removed and replaced with full size keyboard); 3.0 switchable with 4.0 operating systems, DiskPro ROM; external single floppy disk drive, some manuals and disks. Would like to donate to a good home, especially anyone willing to cover shipping cost.

(Submitted January 27, 2008 16:50:29 by Bill)

I have a Commodore Pet 2001 I would like to sell. It does not boot properly but other wise in pretty good condition.

(Submitted January 10, 2008 18:52:06 by Kevin)

I have a working 8k Commodore Pet 2001 in original box with manuals, game software, and additional external cassette drive. If you're interested in purchasing contact me.

(Submitted December 19, 2007 16:20:37 by (a href=mailto:fogsideATaol.com)CH(/a))

I worked on PETs in the 1980s and you should try to get ahold of the book Peek and Poke your Pet for your collection! I don't recall the authors but they were young, possibly teenagers.

(Submitted August 28, 2007 05:31:20 by F.Baube)

Ah, memories. The first program I ever wrote was for one of these critters. I had to take transformer parameters and generate a graph of the hysteresis curve. So it was a lot of POKEs of oddball graphics characters into the graphics memory to get a best-fit to the desired curve. After that, FORTRAN and PL/C were a piece of cake!

(Submitted August 5, 2007 11:33:40 by greg cifizzari)

I have a Commodore Pet 2001-8 I am putting eBay today. It appears to work fine (i am not a computer guy. It has a lot of work books and manuals also cassette drive (no fan under cover)

(Submitted August 4, 2007 03:57:40 by jack)

I am interested in Buying a Pet Computer, Mainly the one with the Built in Cassette Player if anyone has one for sale i am willing to purchase i am based In Melbourne Australia, If you can quote me Freight and how much for the unit. Thanks Jack

(Submitted July 16, 2007 09:13:37 by Chris Wells)

I just purchased a great running Commodore PET 2001 Series identical to the one pictured at the top of page. Got it at a Estate sale. Anyone interested in purchasing let me know.

(Submitted June 1, 2007 02:33:45 by (a href=mailto:)C(/a))

Is that a prop rod built into the case to hold it open?! That's so awesome!

(Submitted March 15, 2007 15:16:09 by Tim)

I am also looking for a Pet 2001, if anyone knows of a seller, I'm willing to pay good $ for a fully functional unit.

(Submitted March 12, 2007 18:24:31 by Fergal)

I bought a PET 2001 series - full keyboard, external cassette, 16k, BASIC 4.0. I also have a CBM 4040 disk drive. However, when I try disk commands the PET usually responds with PRESS PLAY ON TAPE #1 (and occasionally DEVICE NOT PRESENT ERROR.

Are these devices compatible? Can you give me any troubleshooting advice?

(Submitted August 28, 2006 05:46:01 by Booble)

Hi, I have a CBM 3016 (PET) with external tape drive. I rescued it from works decommisioned stash years ago. just got round to setting it up, it works first time. Where can i obtain/ buy some software? And how much is this machine with the tape drive fully working worth? cheers Booble

(Submitted August 18, 2006 10:18:01 by Dick Thompson)

Nostalgia! I ordered my PET in 1977 for $895 USD, sight unseen. Received it from Commodore a full nine months later. Interesting problem using BASIC and 6502 assembly language - and a homebrew cable - to connect the machine to an old military surplus Kleinschmidt teletypewriter (via the 6522 interface IC) to serve as a printer. CBM was WAY too proud of their printers at the time.

Thanks for your Web site! It's a nice stroll down memory lane!

(Submitted August 17, 2006 05:33:42 by Galgogergo)

Hi!

As I see you've got a Pet 2001 in very good condition... I have some questions:

1: when did you buy it, and 2: how much was the cost you bought it? (just because I saw a PET 8032 on eBay for $300, and it hasn't got softwares, cassette recorder, disk drive unit, etc., and an external keyboard!)

thx for the answers:

Geri

(Submitted April 3, 2006 06:47:24 by Labak Surat )

Hello........., Good day i will like to know if u have computer for sale. i want to buy. so i will like to read back from u soon, Thankx

Labak,

(Submitted December 16, 2005 08:49:13 by Patrick)

I have a Commodore Pet 2001 with bad RAM chips and missing the tape recorder, can anyone tell me where to buy the chips and recorder? Many thanks.

(Submitted November 4, 2005 09:32:15 by CSaunders)

HI! Me again! I was wondering......... If you get a hold on another Comodore PET, Please E-Mail me, because I realy like them! (Hope My Mum dosen't go through the roof!) From CSaunders.

(Submitted October 23, 2005 17:18:06 by Neil Phillips)

Looking to buy a PET 2001. Any information, links, etc. would be apprectiated.

(Submitted September 6, 2005 18:49:23 by Josh Harrison)

I've got a PET 2001-8 for sale, odd display problem.. e-mail me for details and photos.

(Submitted August 25, 2005 11:43:58 by neville buchan)

I own a PET 2001 - internal tape drive missing, though external tape drive with cord avaiable. Unforetunately, the intel fuse is bust. Anyone interested or has a fuse info or one for sale please contact me.

(Submitted April 22, 2005 15:35:31 by Musicman50)

You might want to change the current value on these rare machines. Last time I saw one on eBay it went for over $1,200. Worth more now then when it was new, as a collectors valued machine.

(Submitted March 10, 2005 22:38:23 by Todd Decker)

Looking to buy at PET 2001, software, accesories, etc.

(Submitted February 9, 2005 09:22:26 by (a href=mailto:)Jim Luurtsema(/a))

Impressive collection and in excellent condition.

Wow.....

(Submitted February 3, 2005 11:59:47 by George Miles)

Looking for a PET in working order, or not, willing to discuss $

(Submitted December 30, 2004 13:51:08 by Helge)

Hi, I am living in Germany and I own a well running PET 2001. I'm constantly in search for software on tape to swap. If you are interested please contact me and I will send you a list. Tschüß, Helge

(Submitted November 28, 2004 09:00:27 by Kevin Lawton)

I also have a couple of PET 2001's, unfortunately neither of them work properly. One boots up, but the display flickers on/off for a minute or two then goes off completely. The other is electrically perfect (I think) but won't do anything. Would dearly love to get hold of technical and repair manuals and get them both working properly. The cassette drives also work with C=64 etc. Cheers, Kevin.

Description
Manufacturer	Commodore Business Machines
Model	Personal Electronic Transactor (PET) 2001
Date Announced	1977
Date Canceled	Unknown
Number Produced	10,000+
Country of Origin	United States
Price	Approximately $595
Current Value	$100-$500

Specifications
Processor	MOS 6502
Speed	1 MHz
RAM	4K on the first models, 8K on the later ones.
ROM	Unknown
Storage	Built-in Cassette drive
Expansion	Various internal expansion options became available over time including ROM and keyboard upgrades.
Bus	N/A
Video	40x24 text on the built-in monitor
I/O	Parallel, Serial, IEEE-488
OS Options	N/A

Notes	The PET was Commodore's (formerly MOS) first fully integrated computer. The design was based on the specifications of the KIM-1 but added the full keyboard, video, built-in storage and more. The original PET keyboard was effectively a "chicklet" style keyboard with small plastic keycaps arranged in neat rows and columns rather then the larger offset keys of a regular keyboard. This was the PETs worst feature and was corrected in later models.

Related Items in Collection	Some software on tape, external tape drives, magazines, newsletters, manuals, Commodore Pet 8032
Related Items Wanted	Working original tape drive(s), disk drives, additional software, newsletters, etc.