Commodore Pet Business Compatibility Mode

 This mode allows to emulate the so called «Business» keyboard (the one with upper and lower case letters) used by the later Commodore PET Computer. For this Mode to work properly, you are going to need the use «.vkm» files and set your emulator to use them.

The Business keyboard has particular keys like Brackets ([ ]), REPEAT and OFF/RVS keys. Some keys have an odd distribution like */: and +/; .It has also has a Numeric Pad. Keymmodore remaps all odd and NumPad keys to the standard C-264 layout, so you don’t need to remember those combinations. You just need the corresponding .vkm file for your emulator.

Mapping the Business keyboard to the C-264 keyboard is pretty straightforward, although some keys have to change it’s position.

Plus/4 Keyboard
C-16 Keyboard

In order to map PET keys to C-264 Keyboard, the following changes are made:

  • CTRL key works as TAB.
  • £ (Pound) key works as \ (backslash).
  • F1 key works as OFF/RVS.
  • F2 key works as REPEAT.
  • F5 key have no function.
  • F7 key have no function (also used for BMC Emulator).
  • C= works as a Layer or Function key as explained below.

Access to Numeric Pad and bracket Keys

Keymmodore implements a special layer with the C= key for those special keys. You can see in blue the keys that change it’s function if you keep C= key pressed.

Plus/4 Keyboard
C-16 Keyboard
  • 1 to 0 Keys are mapped to the Numeric Pad Keys.
  • . (dot) key is mapped to Numeric Pad dot Key.
  • : and ; keys are mapped to [ and ] respectively.
  • Left and Up Cursor Keys are mapped to  ← (left) and  ↑ (up) Arrow characters respectively.

Remember to switch back to PC Compatibility Mode with C= and CONTROL, once you exit the emulator.