C64 – **** THE HOMECOMPUTER GUY ****

Commodore PET/CBM Series Overview

For some time now, I can call myself the happy owner of a Commodore CBM 8096-SK. Before I introduce my own computer in more detail, I would like to give a brief overview of the Commodore PET and CBM series that were available during the 8-bit era from 1977 until around the mid-1980s. As it turns out, a brief summary is not that easy, as there were a sometimes confusing number of series and model variants. Nevertheless, I will try to give as concise an overview as possible.

Very special season greetings

The Verein zum Erhalt klassischer Computer (VzEkC – www.classic-computing.org) did a super nice Christmas campaign on the initiative of our member Helmut (axorp) by releasing a Christmas tree plug-in card for the C64 in the Classic-Computing Edition. He was supported by another member Andreas (shadow-asc).

Commodore VC-1520 Plotter

The Commodore VC-1520 is a compact roller plotter with small ballpoint pens in four colors (black, blue, green, red) and a speed of 12 characters per second on average, with a maximum of 80 characters per line. The character count in CBM-ASCII mode is 96 characters and in plotter mode a maximum of 260 steps per second. The plotter prints on roll paper (cash register roll) with 114 mm width (96 mm printable), which is fixed on a spindle outside the plotter. The plotter mechanism comes from the company Alps Electric and was also used in other devices, such as the Sharp MZ-731 or Olivetti M10.