Commander X16

Nice recommendation there, kelli217! For anyone interested, I thoroughly recommend the YouTube clip showing replacement of the original monochrome PPC640 screen with a colour VGA equivalent... amazing how such a relatively simple change (speaking from a completely non-technical background) can smartly bring a retro item into a comparatively modern focus?

 

Oh, and that wonderful keyboard...! It needs NO revision.

@Cyber A compact IBM PC clone in a keyboard, connecting to TV? That's pretty unusual... and awesome!

Did it use the much neglected composite CGA mode? With artifact colors? (altough I'm not sure PAL TVs can actually make artifact colors)

The Videoton TVC had a similar style of expansion cartridges.

 

I didn't own one, but might just aswell bring it up: the Hungarian-made Videoton TV Computer!



 

8-bit Z80 CPU, the architecture is based on an early prototype of the British Enterprise 128, but it had to be adapted to parts available in the eastern-bloc. It had a built-in joystick knob.

It was mostly used a in schools. I didn't see it much in action, partially because the whole class had to share it one-by-one (our elementary school in the rural had ONE on them), and partially because it was very prone to failure and had to be repaired all the time. What I heard, before our time it was used for a faculty math class, but then someone in the education ministry ordered that there has to be general computing classed now. We were taught (or at least that's what they were trying) BASIC, and some form Turtle LOGO language.

 

Then there were the Commodore Plus/4 machines. It may have been a flop in America, but then they were dumped into countries like Italy, Germany, and Hungary. The Hungarian education system bought many of them, and thus generally it was considered as a school computer (at least in more equipped towns). Our math teacher had one, and she was very anxious when she had to bring it in the school when the TVC was down.

 

Oh, and the unsold Enterprise 128 units ended up in Hungary too for some reason, but I didn't see one in live. That one had 256 colors, stereo sound, and the sound capabilities are still debated about because very few software took advantage of it beyond a simple 3-channel square-wave PSG.

 

My family's first computer was a TI 99/4A, followed by a Coleco ADAM and then a Zenith Data Systems PC clone.  The first computer I personally owned was a machine by a company known as Orange Logic.  it used a PIC microcontroller as a CPU, and the sound system consisted of an RCA 1802 and an 8-bit DAC, and the built in language was Chip-8.

16 hours ago, Wertzui said:

@Cyber A compact IBM PC clone in a keyboard, connecting to TV? That's pretty unusual... and awesome!

Did it use the much neglected composite CGA mode? With artifact colors? (altough I'm not sure PAL TVs can actually make artifact colors)

Well, kinda yeah, but actually it's not that compact. It's slim, but pretty large and heavy. And PSU is enormous. You can check out some good photos here: https://www.computer-museum.ru/articles/personalnye-evm/967/

No, it did not have composite CGA, graphics mode was 4 colours only. My dad even had to solder special PCB and mount it inside TV to connect it to Poisk.

I love seeing all these other computers that I never knew existed!

19 hours ago, Kalvan said:

My family's first computer was a TI 99/4A, followed by a Coleco ADAM and then a Zenith Data Systems PC clone.  The first computer I personally owned was a machine by a company known as Orange Logic.  it used a PIC microcontroller as a CPU, and the sound system consisted of an RCA 1802 and an 8-bit DAC, and the built in language was Chip-8.

The TI99/4A, my first, and still a favorite. ?

I never owned a Zenith PC, but I did see them around. Found it funny back then that a TV/Radio company was making computers. Then again, seems like everyone was trying to break into that market at the time. Just like in the 90's when Magnavox tried the home game console market. ?

Never even heard of Orange Logic either. Sounds like neat little system though!

On 3/4/2021 at 7:04 AM, Wertzui said:

I didn't own one, but might just aswell bring it up: the Hungarian-made Videoton TV Computer!

That thing looks cool! It has that metallic copper industrial look to it, almost like it would not look out of place in a Star Wars or Aliens film set of the era.

Thanks for sharing!

On 3/4/2021 at 10:39 PM, Kalvan said:

My family's first computer was a TI 99/4A, followed by a Coleco ADAM and then a Zenith Data Systems PC clone.  The first computer I personally owned was a machine by a company known as Orange Logic.  it used a PIC microcontroller as a CPU, and the sound system consisted of an RCA 1802 and an 8-bit DAC, and the built in language was Chip-8.

Some really weird design decisions going on there .... this must be an incredibly rare machine.

Quote

Orange Logic

It takes the saying "comparing apples and oranges" to a whole new meaning, haha!

My "worst" computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I don't know how rare they were in the US, but my dad bought me one knowing I liked computers (it was still a dream to own one at that point) he found on clearance for only $35 in the early 80s. I never ever could get it to work with any tape recorder, so it was a write only code platform with that magnificent 2K of RAM. A luxury by the standards of some computers, but yeah. He did pick up a 16K RAM expansion module for it too, but it was so flaky that the computer wasn't very stable.

On 3/19/2021 at 4:05 PM, Scott Robison said:

My "worst" computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I don't know how rare they were in the US, but my dad bought me one knowing I liked computers (it was still a dream to own one at that point) he found on clearance for only $35 in the early 80s. I never ever could get it to work with any tape recorder, so it was a write only code platform with that magnificent 2K of RAM. A luxury by the standards of some computers, but yeah. He did pick up a 16K RAM expansion module for it too, but it was so flaky that the computer wasn't very stable.

I never had the opportunity to own, or use, a TS 1000. Back then, and to this day, I really dislike "chiclet" or soft mushy keys and avoided them as much as possible. I was also not a fan of the smaller or pocket computers in general.

Of course, much later in life I got to mess with and appreciate a lot more, like the ZX Spectrum, but that's as close as I got to a TS 1000.

Still, I wish we had a computer "museum" in my area, I would love to play around with some of these systems I missed out on. :)