5 ms·
Compucolor! That 8-bit, retro computer... I've never heard of! Discovering old obscure platforms like this is really a treat. It's like a peek into an alternat
by bitwize 3y ago
Compucolor! That 8-bit, retro computer... I've never heard of!
Discovering old obscure platforms like this is really a treat. It's like a peek into an alternate universe of computing. What did people do with these? Did they use them for games? Things like inventory and payroll? Solving engineering problems? Getting online with like CompuServe? Did their users communicate with each other? Was there a boutique industry for software?
Of course we know all about these things for the "winners", your Apples, Commodores, and Sinclairs. But what was the "scene" like for the Compucolors and Videobrains? The ones that maybe moved a few tens of thousands of units?
- flyinghamster 3y agoThere are so many might-have-beens it's almost insane. The one I drooled over in my youth was the Heathkit H11, a DEC LSI-11/23 packaged as a Heathkit. Since my high school had an 11/34, it would have been a good fit, but common sense prevailed and my dad got an Apple II instead (as all his coworkers had them as well). In practice, there was enough in common between BASIC-PLUS and Applesoft that you could mostly treat the Apple's BASIC as a subset.