Commodore PET

Commodore PET-tan
Character Information
Common Names	Commodore PET-tan
Other Names	PET-chan, Personal Electronic Transactor, CBM 3000
Faction	Binteeji Renmei, formerly of the Commodore Family
Lineage	8-bit Commodore
Rival(s)	Apple II, Atari DOS (former rivals)
Appearance
Height	125 cm (4'1")
Hair Color	black
Eye Color	amber with green highlights
Weapon(s)	scabbard and "killer POKE" attack
Design
First Appearance	Aug 2006
Technical Information
System Personified	Commodore PET (hardware), Commodore BASIC (OS)
Developer(s)	Commodore
Debut	late 1977
Latest release	circa 1982

Technical details

Commodore PET-tan is the personification of Commodore International's first successful computer. Released in 1977, it competed with the Apple II and TRS-80 for control of the US Computer Market. Although it was not a top seller outside the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, it was Commodore's first full-featured computer and would form the basis for their future success.

Many variants were made, the original was the PET 2001; other variants are the 2001-N, CBM 3000, and PET 4000 series. PET-tan also represents each of these.

Character details

Commodore PET-tan is depicted as a small and young girl wearing a stylized, antiquated naval captain uniform. Her uniform is light grey with a large black collar, sleeve insignia, a white ascot, and gold-colored accents, and she wears a matching grey skirt with black trim.

She used to also wear an old-fashioned admiral's hat, and have her uniform decorated by many medals but when the Commodore Family was in its last throes, she sold those for some extra money her family seriously needed. She has short black hair, with two large side-bangs by her face with a large circular metal plate attached as a subtle reference to the steel case of the original PET. She wears a pair of Velcro boots, a nod to the Anti-Gravity Slippers featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was the inspiration for the styling on the original PET. Her eyes are amber with green highlights and have an intimidating, piercing glare. She almost always keeps them closed, except when angry because she doesn't want to intimidate others unless necessary.

She is sweet, soft-spoken and old-fashioned. She is also wise, optimistic and very pleasant to interact with. Despite her innocent and young appearance, she has a mature mindset and is surprisingly entrepreneurial. PET-tan is also great at caring for animals and takes care of the KameLogo, a flying triangular turtle based on the old LOGO software.

She used to be rivals with Apple II-tan and Atari DOS-tan but now the three of them are best of friends.

Family and relationships

KIM-1

KIM-1 is the mother of the 8-bit Commodore-tans. She was the closest to PET-tan, but her relations with the other Commodore-tans, or how long she lived for, haven't yet been specified.

Commodore Minuteman

Minuteman-tan was PET's tutor, and PET looked up to her as a second mother. PET-tan learned her aggressiveness from her.

VIC-20

VIC-20-tan and PET-tan never really had a sibling rivalry since they competed in different markets and had different rivals, but did share a rivalry with the Atari-tans. PET-tan couldn't compete with the technically superior Atari-tans, and was accepting of VIC-20-tan's more advanced abilities, and helped train her. VIC-20-tan admired PET-tan from an early age, and inherited hers and Minuteman-tan's aggressive streak, which fueled her successful campaigns against the Atari-tans and the game console-tans.

Amiga

PET-tan used to be antagonistic. While she never had anything personal against Amiga-tan, PET-tan disliked that Amiga-tan frequently disregarded the finer details of etiquette. Now that PET-tan has become a lot less uptight, she gets along well with her.

Commodore 65

PET-tan never met Commodore 65-tan until long after the Commodore Family disbanded. After a series of misunderstandings were cleared up, the two found out they have a lot in common, and are now good friends.

History and background

This article is a work in progress. …well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editors’ notes.

PET-tan is KIM-1-tan's first daughter. The Commodore Family, then a faction entirely of calculator-tans, was looking for a computer-tan to be their successor in response to the personal computer revolution. KIM-1-tan and a newborn PET-tan were adopted into the Commodore Family. PET-tan was raised mainly by KIM-1-tan, and received tutoring and military training from Minuteman-tan.

Her first appearance to the public was in April 1977, corresponding to the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, where she first met other microcomputer-tans. Altair-tan and IMSAI 8080-tan saw her as a threat, but her main rivalry was with Apple II-tan, who was also making her first public appearance.

She was raised to be professional and austere- she was prim and proper while off-duty, but stern and calculating when on the field, also taking after Minteman's aggressiveness. She was initially jealous of her sisters, VIC20-tan and C64-tan, for their advanced technical abilities, but she grew to accept them as the VIC-20 was supplanted by the C64 and the C64 was supplanted by the C128. She did not get along with Amiga-tan back then because PET-tan disliked her unprofessional attitude, and used to scold her frequently for each etiquette violation, no matter how minor.

When the Commodore Family disbanded and PET-tan was left as a wanderer, she saw how old and helpless she was on her own, and her sights of the OS Wars humbled her a lot. She joined the fledgeling Binteeji Renmei. Once she met Amiga-tan and Apple II-tan (one of her former rivals) at the fledgeling Binteeji Renmei, she would have already been quite willing to put the past behind her along with them and start fresh. During her time there, she became the laid-back individual she is today.

Also in her youth, PET-tan used to be a formidable fighter and wielded a cutlass. Her mightiest attack was her Killer POKE which would instantly kill the opponent, but used as a last resort to save the day. However in the present day she is weak and slow, and her Killer POKE attack is now the only attack of hers that she can used to cause any damage (though it's still lethal) if she can even get close enough to her opponent in battle. But that's not a problem to her as she is now a pacifist anyways.

See also:

• List of OS-tans
• Wikipedia article on Commodore PET