BACK TO THE PET (Commodore PET 4016 hardware demo made in 2022)

This is a playing of shiru8bit's excellent "Back to the PET" demo compo on physical hardware with amplified audio out. This is amazing software for a 1MHz 6502 microprocessor system packaged into a standalone 29KB "PRG" binary. This makes exclusive use of the "PETSCII" character set in 40x25 text mode.
This demo is presented on the physical hardware in a "dark mode" (lights off and screen focused) followed by a "light mode" (lights on and full view of the system). See 4:47 for the lights on version.
Demos like these are extraordinary forms of artwork! The original hardware system to do this was first available in 1977 (although most systems at that time did not have a full 32K of RAM and would need a CB2 mod for the audio). By mid-1980, 32K RAM became more widely available/affordable to home consumers, and the 40XX series of Commodore PET included a piezo speaker for the CB2-style audio out. Crafting this kind of audio-visual experience on such an early home-computer requires very precise understanding of the instruction set and determining very clever coding techniques to pull off the desired effects (especially also while intermixed with audio, which represents a form of multitasking).
"Back to the PET" was developed using ca65 (6502 assembler) and multiple support tools, and an emulator (called VICE) - no physical hardware was available during the development. To see how this physical hardware playthrough shown here compares with the emulator, see shiru8bit's original recording here (also with links to the original PRG and source code):
• BACK TO THE PET - a de...
Presented with permission, thanks shiru8bit!
To emphasize: I didn't create this demo, it is the work exclusively of shiru8bit. But he didn't have a physical system to run the demo on, so this is a recording to demonstrate how fantastic the results of his dev and testing on an emulator translated over to the real hardware.
NOTE: "Back to the PET" is a homage to a scene in the "8088MPH" demo for the IBM PC (CGA), both inspired by the excellent "Back to the Future" movie released in 1985 with Michael J. Fox.
In honored memory of Jack Tramiel, Leonard Tramiel, Chuck Peddle. For an outstanding in-depth paper about the PETSCII character set, refer to:
acris.aalto.fi/ws/portalfiles...
For other Commodore PET related works, see also:
- Attack of the PETSCII Robots
- Destiny Hunter for Commodore PET
- Jim Orlando's excellent Commodore PET software (Defender, Lode Runner, etc.)
- Commodore Stupid PET Tricks

[@atarixle]

This is not just a demo, it is a piece of art!

[@legPhase]

^- this

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

Nah, circular logic. All those other demos are pieces of art too, anyway.

[@Ohminen]

This is so beautiful. I cried while watching.

[@retro101gamer]

Wow amazing. Just imagine programming this back in the day and showing the head master what you've done with the school computer.

[@voidstar1337]

I talked with shiru8bit, and we're going to agree that (symbolically) the three people depicted in this demo (during the "P "E" "T" scenes) are Jack Tramiel (d.2012 creator of Commodore and owned Atari after the 1983 crash), Chuck Peddle (d.2019 designer of the $25 6502 chip), Leonard Tramiel (creator of PETSCII). [ actually, spoiler: if you examine the demo source code, they're anime female models ]. But yea, a self contained PRG like this popping back in time would be an interesting parallel-universe story :D

[@johnsmith1953x]

Yes. this demo would make people heads pop back in 1977! Espeically its ability to predict the future computers and companies in the 1980s-1990s and onward!

[@pedazodeboludo]

The persistence of the phosphorus on the display definitely makes this a lot fancier! Awesome.

[@MrManniG]

I had to pause the video twice to find out if its in the video or if my brain is lagging.

[@CaptainDangeax]

Of course, the display with only PETSCII is great, but what reallty amazes me is the sound, with a single voice beeper !

[@FlemmingSteffensen]

This is absolutely spectacular and mind boggling!! I would never have expected to see anything as great as this on the good old PET. Thank you!!!

[@joefell5311]

I absolutely love watching today's programmers push these old retro systems to their limits and produce outstanding demos and graphics. Mind boggling and I feel its an attest of today's programmers understand the older systems much better than they did in the past thanks to learning machine language on modern computers of today. This was really cool to see.

[@djmips]

I agree with the spirit of what you are saying but there were programmers that understood the systems as well back in the day, it's just that no one wanted to push on the boring systems. Rather the C64 which had many awesome demos in the original times. That being said - a lot more knowledge has been freely shared via the Internet and development is more democratized than ever and we are seeing these formerly boring machines become a whimsical yet cool new platform that is remarkable since the C64 has been done a thousand times over now.

[@SuperHammaren]

@@djmips The tools they have today is another thing, many are sitting far away from the old hardware doing things today. Take everything that away as well as the possibility to google, and it will be harder..

[@dissident4117]

@@SuperHammaren You are totally right. Working directly on old systems is the real challenge without the comforts of modern technology.

[@dissident4117]

@@djmips You nailed it. Today it‘s much easier to find information how to program a hardware than in the past. It‘s much easier to find like-mindet people to share experiences.

[@piggypiggypig1746]

40 years later and I'm still struggling to finish my text adventure game. Imagine this demo on the launch of the PET 4000 series.

[@nama022]

Exactly. I was wondering the same about all systems - imagine the reactions at demo parties if you went there with the achievements of today's coders... I bet they would be checking the hardware afterwards. 😀

[@johneygd]

Am sure if this demo existed back in 1977 and if commodore did knew about this demo ,then they wouldn’t have bothered upgrading their later hardware systems,they probably would,ve kept their later systems economically cheap as possible while forcing developers to think outside the box instead🤣

[@Nicontrast]

Mind blown. Thank you for showing this on original PET hardware, it is incredible to see!

[@AppliedCryogenics]

This is easily the best PET demo of all time!!

[@dyscotopia]

This does all sorts of things that should be impossible.. And at a great frame rate. I didn't even know the PET had sound.. But I do know all those graphics are in petscii, which is just wow

[@martindejong3974]

It didn't have sound, but it did have an output pin you could toggle and if you mounted an amplifier and speaker on that pin you could get sound out of your PET, the same as the Spectrum 16/48K could. many PET's were modified that way at the time.

[@dyscotopia]

@@martindejong3974 wow. People were circuit bending their computers in the 70s. I'd love to see a modded out pet in an electronic music performance

[@NuGanjaTron]

@@dyscotopia They weren't just circuit bending them; they built them from scratch (a.k.a. homebrewing). The whole personal computing scene originated from hobbyists. The big companies didn't see the market potential yet back then.

[@voidstar1337]

The original PET 2001/2001-N (1977 - or really 1978) didn't come with a speaker - but it was a fairly simple modification to add one. The speaker became standard on the 40XX and later series (circa 1980) and worked using the same as the mod used on the 20XX's. So, if you come across a 40XX series PET, no mod is necessary. That built in speaker of the PET 40XX isn't very loud, but it would essentially sound the same as presented - the SNES adapter has a speaker pass-thru, used either for headphones or to amplify that same internal audio (as done here).

[@JosephM101]

I heard that it was possible with extensions to add a SID chip to a Commodore PET. I have no idea if that's what's being used for this demo. Interestingly, support for a SID chip was available in the "NO PETS ALLOWED" demo. EDIT: I commented on shiru8bit's video asking what sound device they used, and they confirmed that it was the PET's internal audio.

[@nama022]

WOW. Picking up jaw... Absolutely amazing.

[@Renville80]

Absolutely mind blown. Hands down, THE best 8 bit demo I’ve ever seen, considering the PET does not have bit mapped graphics!!!

[@SpecialAgentBillMaxwell]

That ghosting effect (more of a side effect, I guess) is super cool.

[@notation254]

This is absolutely incredible, I can't wait to show this to my dad.

[@ExBenzi2]

Pheeeew, I can’t even begin to imagine how much effort and clever trickery it must’ve taken to do all this on a machine that hasn’t even got support for hardware sprites… Insanely well done. Nice.

[@oiuhwoechwe]

first computer i ever touched in my primary school - geek teacher brought it in and cos i did well on my maths test that day (motivated by the promise of being able to use it if I did well) i got to play around with it. That was about 1981. damn, i would have melted if i'd seen that demo then. sooooo cool. this coder is amazeballs.

[@jean-philippegrenier120]

Absolutely stunning. And thanks for showing us the go hardware run it!

[@enderjed2523]

The speech bit reminds me of software automatic mouth.

[@dbranconnier1977]

This is a very impressive demo!

[@aytviewer2421]

I originally learned programming on one of these (actually a 4032 I think) and an Exidy Sorcerer back in 81/82. Such nostalgia for me and the beginnings of my love for Commodore computers. I was so thrilled to save up and purchase a VIC-20 a year or so later. It was totally awesome to be able to program at home at will instead of having to wait my turn on one of the five PETs in my school's lab. I miss those days...

[@fixman88]

My jaw hit the damned FLOOR when I saw this. I have some familiarity with the C64 demo scene (I had one back in the 90s, it was actually the first computer I ever owned) but anything older I don't have any experience with. One of my cousins had a C64 BBS back in the 90s and he also had a PET, but he told me it had issues and didn't have it actually working.

[@dvuemedia]

If I have seen that on C64, I would be impressed, but on PET?? I'm beyond impressed! Too bad I don't have commodore PET

[@digmsymii321]

Very good video annotation. 3:13 CRT afterglow makes some effects even more effective! =)

[@abodabalo]

Indeed. Emulating those effects requires taday's hardware.

[@digmsymii321]

@@abodabalo yep, if today is 1977.

[@paatuc6457]

Got a lot more out of this demo with this real hardware version, thanks! :)

[@djmips]

All demos should be shot on the original machines.

[@DS-pk4eh]

I was laughing hard because this looks so sureal (in most awesome way) , and I was imagining how would people react if you showed them this back in the days PET was presented for the first time. They would have fallen on the floor thinking aliens took over. Awesome.

[@djeasy5899]

I am thrilled. To find theory and creativity combined without narcissism in the executing subject is very rare. This may sound strange, but it always makes me think somewhat optimistically about people. Thanks for this

[@ExpressoMechanicTV]

Brilliant piece of work. Brings back fond memories, actually. My science teacher had a PET and on one occasion, he asked me to carry out of the class room, in order for him to take it home for the night. It wasn't like carrying a laptop and I had to carry it down two flights of stairs. I was sh*tting myself! He actually lent the thing to me for a while, shortly afterwards. They were great machines, back in the day.

[@neonvoid]

Looks amazing on the green CRT.

[@HelloKittyFanMan]

WOW, really great to see something like this being done on the first model series of computer that I ever touched!

[@makipri]

Cool to see other developers do PET demos these days too! And especially sample playback. I did a playback routine in 2014 for oobc’s We are computers and it spoke too. I also liked the good usage of the slow phosphorous and great design with the petscii charset.

[@38911bytefree]

I love how as the years go by, the limits of what seem impossible for these classics, get surpassed over and over again. Kudos to the programers !!!!!!! Seen stunning thing for the 64, but for the PET ????. CRAZY stuff !!!!!

[@voidstar1337]

If you prefer a "lights on" version of the presentation, go to time 4:47 Please click "Show more" near Video Description for more details.

[@Studeb]

The laggy display in the dark version sells it so much better, almost looks like The Matrix intro in the start.

[@cosmicavatar773]

This is amazing, could you imagine if you would of played this demo for people back in the 70s!

[@douro20]

I just saw a CBM 8032 at the flea market today. First time I have ever seen anything PET related I could remember. And I'm in my late '30s.

[@greendryerlint]

Did you buy it?

[@BoGy1980]

you'd love the demoscene mate .. i lived in that time .. 80s and 90s ... not a coder myself, but i always enjoyed the demo's.. had a c64 and thousands of floppies, made tons of money by copying those ofc :) was quite an income for a little kid :)

[@Andyzzzz501]

Wow, just wow, mind blown, I wrote a lot of code on my old VIC-20 which didn't really have true graphics although one could reprogram custom characters. if memory is correct, the PET is even more pedestrian than the vic-20 in its capabilities, so this is absolutely amazing, and yes, a lot of clever tricks and creativity with the special characters, but some of the effects I have no idea how it was done! Brilliant! Made my day!

[@c64os]

Sublime. Nice work!

[@SchardtCinematic]

Could you image the drop jaws you would have going back in time with this demo. Even if you didn't have the audio playing. The visuals alone are impressive. Put this on an office workers PET in 1978. They would probably wonder how you did it.

[@paulwomack5866]

Office workers didn't have PETs in 1978!

[@RetroDawn]

@@paulwomack5866 There must have been *at least* one in the world.

[@XYZB0RG]

makes my jaw drop even though I'm using a significantly technologically advanced computer compared to one of these. people doing amazing things with limited resources like this mystifies me

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

Same model as mine, I've had my PET since new. Did upgrade the memory to 32k just after I bought it as I couldn't afford the 32k model. Only faults so far have been a video memory chip fail. Also the mains filter went bang in the single floppy drive. Have a few videos of getting it working again. Still love to see other people showing some PET love.

[@decle]

Nice! The phosphor persistence is the icing on an excellent cake. 👍

[@commodorecave5581]

Incredible! ... just incredible!

[@flottenheimer]

Beautiful, incredibly stylish work. Such an achievement. Bravo! 🔥🔥🔥

[@C64EVO]

Can’t lie, kinda love this demo! The PET was my first hands on computer in elementary school. Remember lunar lander and some trajectory launcher game and maybe a text adventure, but this is some “Other Level” stuff… really nicely linked and orchestrated… cheers to all involved in making it!

[@CyberhugTechnologies]

Absolutely wonderful demo! Thanks!

[@chironpictures]

Great video! You've got my PetSynth on that disk, haha! One of these days I need to release a new version!

[@voidstar1337]

That guy circuit bending his PET while using PETSynth was one of the things that motivated me to bring my PET back out! Great stuff.

[@chironpictures]

@@voidstar1337 Yeah that was “Look Mum No Computer” and he was trying to overcome a hardware limitation of the PET in terms of making bass tones. My original software was a very quick and dirty program to make the PET make enough interesting music that I could sample it and make some instruments that I could use within Logic. I made a second version but it was janky and I never felt it was good enough to release. I’ve worked on it some more and even have a version for the original Nintendo but it’s still only proof of concept. But when I finish what I’m working on now maybe I’ll focus on PetSynth again!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Pretty darn impressive for just PETSCII characters and a beeper piezo speaker for sound!

[@stimpyfeelinit]

i love the art at 1:46 its incredible 😍

[@NuntiusLegis]

I have a green monitor on one of my C64s, but it doesn't produce such an incredible glow. Beautiful.

[@JulianMelville]

That's incredible. A 4016 was my first computer, and I could never make it do that!

[@jali7913]

I sometimes wonder, how it would be, if you could go back through time to the year 1977 and show one of the programmers back then, what's really possible with these machines. We watch it in 2023, knowing what more advanced computers can de, and we are mind blown. Imagine how someone from 1977 would feel!

[@idadru]

3:16 that effect looks dope!

[@espacemaxim]

Just awesome!!!

[@hooverboy2331]

Mindblowing !

[@uriituw]

That’s mind blowing.

[@PSL1969]

Wow! That's amazing! One of the best demos ever made!

[@harihegen]

Absolut beeindruckend was auf dieser Maschine möglich ist! Großartig!

[@idreamtin8bits]

Wow! Spectacular demo.

[@espfusion]

Some really wonderful PETSCII art.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

It's always amazing what demoscene coders can do on these old machines when they have access to modern development tools.

[@johnwells558]

I wish i still had my PET

[@exquizitely]

That was awesome!

[@reaktormannen]

Really cool! Well done :)

[@xcoder1122]

One has to keep in mind: The PET could not display graphics at all, only text. All you see in this demo is made with text characters. Sure, the PET did not just have numbers and letters, it also had characters that resembled lines and small blocks but even if you search for PETSCII to get a table with all these characters, it's still insane to make such a demo just using only these characters.

[@shiru8bit]

@KZbin WantsToSilenceMe PET does not feature a loadable character set, it is burned into the ROM, so no, this is completely standard set in action, no customization there.

[@MrLocsei]

wow absolutely amazing I used to have a c64 back in the days in fact it was my very 1st computer :)

[@frejadraco9409]

Impresive!

[@Jmdeclue]

Brings back memories. We had 8 of these with 8” floppy drives in my grade school computer lab. Probably ‘82-‘84. Felt like I was right back in 7th grade.

[@colintroy3831]

Light bleed + ghosting 😍

[@ItBusinessyoutube]

Absolutely fabolous !!

[@SixOThree]

First bit of 40 column software I've wanted to run on my 8032.

[@rafalwronowski1893]

To Demo urywa jaja totalnie. Bardzo dobry material

[@EricBarbman]

This is amazing :O

[@egriimre]

Wow, great demo, the phosphor lag adds a lot to the style :)

[@jovanfilipovic]

If it wasent for the picture of pet screen i would think that demo is not runned on pet.... ITS ABSOLUTLY AMAZING !!!!!! mindblowing. greetings from serbia. john

[@diamondsnake1273]

Amazing 😍

[@KanalFrump]

lovely phosphor glow.

[@RetroGadgetMan]

Speechless!👌

[@merman1974]

That is so impressive!

[@bigredracingteam9642]

This is awesome!

[@shaurz]

Very creative effects

[@suadcokljat1045]

Nicely done. Cheers! S

[@Steman313]

The c64 was the first computer that I owed and watching this now really does make me appreciate what I have now

[@danield.7359]

Incredible

[@PeterBudai]

Awesome!

[@LeonardoRamos-jz5uw]

You have no idea how difficult it was to compile music without a piano keyboard interface. I was so excited when dad bought me the synthesizer chip. I was only able to get one note going. Plus it was not in Do re mi, I never was able to get the c d stuff right.

[@CaptainCattywampus]

Don't forget... It took modern computing for us to realize the full potential of these older machines. Back in the day, we would say this is hardly possible, especially without all of this modern bootstrapping. Even so, this demo is very entertaining. It doesn't serve any real practical purpose, but does offer great feelings of nostalgia, being a computer I actually touched when it was relevant.

[@voidstar1337]

If you had access to a mainframe with a decent editor and a 6502 assembler and emulator, then you might have a chance. And that's not so different today -- no one develops directly on an MCU (like an ESP32 or Arduino), we always use the "big computer" to do the (serious) development and transfer the final binary product over. But you're right, modern computing has made editing code easier, running the assemblers faster, and searching up technical info so much more efficient.

[@RabiesTheBeagle]

wasnt this computer designed to handle numeric calculations and MAYBE a spreadsheet? Mind Blown.....

[@FerHivore]

Holy fuck I’ve never seen the really generated maze generated so fast

[@trooperj9152]

Wow! Just Wow! 😲

[@ataritufty]

Amazing

[@seattlematt1976]

A f**king masterpiece.

[@SellamAbraham]

Spectacular.

[@Daemonarch2k6]

Incredible, bet these guys could program impressive demos on 70's calculators.

[@hakureicirno6059]

People have programmed demo for Soviet era telephones as they have Z80 processors inside.

[@seraphinberktold7087]

Back then I've never seen any PET computer at our school do anything remotely as cool as this. 😎 Might have kept the Schneider (aka Amstrad) CPC computers at bay for some time. These replaced the PETs in 1985 IIRC.

[@CYON4D]

Awesome.

[@CoLD.SToRAGE]

LOVE IT ❤😊

[@connorcanwell]

wow never seen a PET scroll so smooth

[@martindejong3974]

This is probably a PET that has the 6845 video controller inside, that really helps when you do scrolling like this.

[@benharyo]

an amazing demo on 1 mhz 6502 CPU.. 1 bit speakers.. text mode with no graphics... the programmers's skills are otherwordly 🙇‍♀🙇‍♀🙇‍♀

[@AlexanderKurtz]

Awsome

[@outtabubblegum7034]

This video is extremely underestimated