Ancient Web: Bo Zimmerman Kept a Commodore Warehouse Online

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Bo Zimmerman introduces his website by asking whether a picture of an old Commodore computer makes your heart beat faster. If it does, there is an extraordinary amount of browsing ahead.

Visit Zimmers.net.

Zimmerman's personal homepage mixes Commodore nostalgia with a GEOS section, older bulletin-board software, a collection gallery and a few outside interests. The friendly tone makes the site feel like a personal basement full of cherished machines. Behind that door, however, lies a remarkable attempt to catalog an entire computer manufacturer's past.

The Commodore collection gallery stretches beyond the famous Commodore 64. Its index covers the KIM-1, PET and CBM business machines, VIC-20, Commodore 128, Plus/4, Amigas, Commodore-branded PCs, disk drives, printers, modems, cartridges, monitors and joysticks. There are even entries for unusual prototypes and regional versions.

A collector's gallery and an FTP archive

The gallery labels machines by precise model number. For the PET family alone, the index distinguishes early PET 2001 units from later 4000-series models, CBM 8000-series machines and the SuperPET. Similar attention goes to 1541, 1571 and 1581 disk drives and to rare models such as the Commodore 65.

A visitor interested in preserving actual files can follow the separate Commodore 8-bit archive. Its directory structure identifies material for the C64, C128, VIC-20, PET, Plus/4 and CBM-II families. Other folders store firmware, programming information, memory maps, technical manuals, schematics, released source code and disk magazines.

The file index still provides downloadable lists of all archive directories and files, including versions organized by date. A README describes the collection, while the navigation retains the older FTP-library habit of treating directories and filenames as the principal user interface.

The GEOS section is a reminder that Commodore machines also supported graphic desktop environments long before modern Windows became ubiquitous.

No number of catalog entries guarantees that every machine pictured is complete or that every old program runs today. But the breadth makes Zimmerman's work valuable: it preserves not just nostalgic photographs but the naming, software and technical differences that enthusiasts need to distinguish one vintage machine from another.

Browse the Commodore hardware gallery.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.