> The Mac, before it was cool.
That caption (of an image of the original Macintosh) also made me wonder. I wasn't born, but I had the impression that there was a lot of hype around the Mac, with the iconic Superbowl ad and everything?
> While the UC-2000 apparently played video games, we can’t imagine how it would have looked like with such a tiny and colorless display.
This was immediately followed by an image of Tetris being played on the watch. No need to imagine, haha.
Not only had computers not become a household item, but for those who were interested enough to buy a home computer, there were many different brands and models to choose from, most at a fraction of the price of the Apple. The computers I actually saw in the 80s were Timex, Toshiba, Sinclair, Commodore, Tandy, BBC, Amstrad, Archimedes. These were pretty much all separate ecosystems, with different models from the same manufacturer frequently being incompatible with their stable mates. Considering how capable machines like the Amiga and Archimedes were at a fraction of the cost of the Apple, and considering the fact that Apple was just another expensive ecosystem, you had to be particularly loaded to buy into it. Was there a must-have piece of software that only existed for the Mac back then? Computer graphics was arguably better on the Amiga, and even desktop publishing wasn't a done deal.
I know of only one person who had a Mac, and it was loaned to him by the company he worked for (as a software developer). No idea why they chose Apple.
The first "PC" I ever saw in real life was a Wang (unknown model) some time in the very late 80s. that was purchased for our school tech drawing class. It ran DOS and AutoCAD (unknown version) and also had Prince of Persia.
Anyone got a history on why Wang Computers didn't take off?
They had an early lead and captured word processing, IBM had big iron and expanded down to personal computers suitable for office word processing and had the big government | military | banking contracts to force through sweeter deals on the desktop range as a "one shop" solution for everything computing related.
While Dr. An Wang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Wang) was a genius and pioneer in computing, his son was not up to the task of running the company and the coming PC revolution caught him flat footed. The company never really recovered.
Single in-line memory module https://patents.google.com/patent/US4656605
The Mac, yes. But my father was a construction worker earning a below median wage (definitely not middle class) in 1988 when we bought our Atari 1040 ST. This was in the Netherlands, Europe.
(Although admittedly we were rich by world standards.)
That tetris game was written recently (2010s IIRC) by a guy who reverse engineered the watch. It was most definitely not available back then.
(small nitpick) These platforms all began with Motorola 68000 which has a 32-bit ISA.
Which is why we call the machines 16bit; they're built around 16bit buses.
It's easy to forget that the 80s took us from Apple II, TRS-80, PET, via C64, Amiga, Atari ST and Macintosh to SuperVGA and 486 when we entered the 90s.
FROM https://www.computerhistory.org/brochures/1970s-early1980s/
"...The early 1980s saw the first mass market advertising of computers. Computers were available for personal use due to the diminishing costs of machines. However, manufacturers first had to convince people that they needed a computer in their home.
They made use of well-known celebrities as spokespersons: Dick Cavett for Apple; Bill Cosby for Texas Instruments; William Shatner for Commodore; Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" for IBM; and Alan Alda for Atari.
Apple and IBM had some of the most successful campaigns during the decade. Apple aired its "1984" commercial during the Super Bowl, introducing an innovative personal computer to smash Orwellian competitors......"
Also in 1979 I build my own computer out of individually purchased components . a DREAM 6800. There was also numerous kits available. Massive innovation during that time
Now that's a ridiculous statement, especially when you're specifically talking about the year 1984...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwS24cBZPc