Commodore PET (1977)

Monochromatic Monophonic Gaming

The Commodore PET range of personal computers were first released in 1977. 8-bit, one colour and one sound channel. BASIC is the word.

Most games were played using a keyboard, and loaded in via cassette tape or by floppy disk.

The Commodore PET 'WinVICE' emulator makes a very good effort at emulating the entire range of PET computers. To get games working you may need to make some adjustments to the settings in advance of playing a game.

Getting Started

Download then install the latest WinVICE emulator.

N.B.You may need to experiment to find the correct version for your computer. "WinVICE-2.2-x64" works well on my Windows 7 64-bit computer. I also recommend downloading this "AA-CONFIG" file should you later have problems getting "Air Attack" to work correctly.

Double-click on the "xpet" C64 logo to start the emulator.

Playing Games

I recommend downloading "Air Attack" and placing it within a "GAMES" folder of your making. From within the PET Emulator adjust the "PET" and "Video Settings" to the following:

40 Columns.
CRTC chip disabled (leave blank)
Keyboard: Graphics
"Keep Aspect Ratio"

Trouble Shooting: If "Air Attack" will not run correctly, try loading in the "AA-CONFIG" file to adjust your PET settings, via the "Load settings from specified file" option.

Next you can find more games from the OneSwitch links list which includes a number of other simple games.

Basic Emulator Controls

FILE > "Autostart disk/tape image" = Load and start a game.
ESC = Quit a game back to BASIC.
Alt+Enter = Toggle Full screen on/off.

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LEGAL NOTICE: Many game ROMs remain the copyright of the original owners who may or may not be happy for them to be played under emulation. Put in the context of these games impossible to play in their original format for some disabled gamers and I would hope that attitudes would be more relaxed. Support developers by letting them know why you can't play their games and offer some solutions.