The Story of the IBM PCjr, IBM's Major Failure. - Tech Retrospective
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- The IBM's PCjr was an attempt by IBM to expand their personal computer line to the home market. The story of the PCjr is fascinating. While the PC jr graphics are rather impressive it was overall a failure on the market. We go over the history of the IBM PCjr's awful keyboard, it's lack of software compatibility, and the eventual success of a clone of the PCjr, the Tandy 1000.
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My first computer. So many memories, I loved it.
Played so much Space Quest!
12:10 And then on December 25, 1985, children of IBM employees across the country found kitted-out PC Jrs under the Christmas tree. IBM was so over the Jr that they just wanted to clear the stock ASAP and sold off everything to workers at fire sale prices. I think below even manufacturing cost. Mine was apparently $700ish, with monitor, printer, and a pricey RAM expansion up to 640k.
BTW, you should have mentioned its quirky little printer - another sticking point for buyers. Rather than the typical dot matrix BZZZT-WHRRRRR style, their printer used the heat transfer process, the same one used in a lot of cash registers for receipts. The upshot is that it was very quiet and ran relatively quickly, but it meant the Jr required special and significantly more expensive paper to feed the printer.
Because what the Jr really needed was yet another factor driving up its TCO. (*facepalm*)
When I was in undergrad, my friend, a EE major, had gotten a PCjr. Our mutual friend laughed at the machine. Our brilliant EE friend eventually became a consultant for Accenture. The three of us are still friends!
Loved it, got upgrades and even passed it down where it got used for several more years and went basically around the world via the Air Force and still kept running! It was literally a trooper that stood it's ground in it's day! Very fond memories.
the saga of Tandy 1000 besting the IBM PC Jr is one of my favorite tales of 80s retro computing; not that the Tandy 1000 didn't have two or three warts, but relative to the PC Jr it was an execution of marketing/design genius; I nominate the Tandy 1000 as the MS-DOS computer of the 80s - it could successfully run both PC productivity software and a class of PC games more comparable to Commodore 64, Tandy bundled their fairly decent app suit software , Deskmate, and the Tandy 1000 brought consumers PC compatible affordability. It's noteworthy that the story of the IBM PC Jr cannot be told without the Tandy 1000 as its epilogue. Just love it!
I had the first IBM PCjr in Latin america (Panama) back in the 1984. I used to program lot of games using BYTE magazine's BASIC code articles.
Fond memories- my very first computer! Got mine at a Sears business systems store at a close out price of $999 with new style keyboard, monitor and 128K. Later added a Tecmar jr. Captain to boost RAM to 640K. Even installed the pathetic dial-up 300 baud modem! Yet for all of it's shortcomings, I taught myself basic programming and going "on-line" to the bulletin boards was a thrilling and liberating experience in a world before the web. Thank you PC jr, you may have been hated and despised by the public but you will always have a special place in my heart!
I know this machine is much maligned here on RUclips, but this was my next computer after starting with a Commodore 64. I LOVED this machine, LOL! I've used computers of all types all my life, and none have ever given me such joy as that machine did at that time. So many good memories with this machine. :)
I'm a year late, but I agree with your sentiment. I *loved* my IBM PCjr and used it extensively for several years. I learned BASIC, PASCL, and x86 assembler on the IBM PCjr - skills which are paying off to this day! I'm so tired of hearing about the "blunder" or "failed" or in this case "major failure" of this platform. At the time it was none of those things. It was a market shaping device that multiple companies tried to copy. As for the "hated keyboard" I kept my 2nd generation IBM PCjr keyboard and have it in my house even now.
Underrated channel, good stuff and glad I recently subscribed.
We certainly appreciate that! We all work real hard to make great videos for you guys
well, attention to details like how the PC Jr didn't have DMA making software to access the floppy drive more complicated (and CPU intensive) - other channels might basically just regurgitate the Wikipedia text; their history segments are bit short, but they are fairly meaty
At 7:00m - I had the PCjr and found a Racore second drive, unopened, for next to nothing, to add to it. It not only gave it a cool look and another drive but a total of 640K of memory.
I struggle to find software that will actually run on my Jr. but I still love it... the fact that my motherboard came from Computer Reset just makes it so much more special.
The biggest problem with the sidecar, was that you couldn't have too many of them, because the power supply couldn't handle more than about 3, depending on how much power each individual card drew. Some sidecars would be sold with their own power supply, but IBM also sold a power sidecar, with a power supply, that would power the sidecars downstream of it. The TI/99 also had an expansion slot on the side that allowed you to chain peripherals to it, but it was really unwieldy, because some of the accessories that used it were huge. A TI machine, with every expansion port accessory attached, could be more than 10 feet long.
Nice video! A couple of notes:
The C64 user port is not the expansion port, it’s closer to the parallel port on the PC. The expansion port on the C64 is almost identical to the PCjr side cart port. So not a big difference there.
The 8088, while 16 bit internal, is only 8 bit external. Due to this and operations using more clock cycles, the PC jr is not much faster than the 64. It can address more memory, though, but it did not give much more speed for the money than 6502 based systems.
You got a like and subscribe 😊👍
I loved my PCjr! I had the extra floppy expansion for file transfers. That was a fun computer.
It was our first computer and we used it for many many years. It is important to mention that we used it well beyond my friend's C64s an Apple IIs. I upgraded directly to 80386. You didn't need a monitor as it came with a TV adapter. We used a small b&w tv for many years until we bought an IBM color monitor (not the jr one). Very enjoyable and we learned a lot.. of software and hardware.
Btw, I am in the process of making it work again as it was badly stored for decades. At the time we did the diy 640 k uprade to the 128k sidecar, added a second disk drive and other frankestin mods.
i actually used one of these all through college. I used it exclusively with Word Perfect 5.0. I also had a matching IBM Pro Printer I actually kept using until 1993 This was a hand me down from my step mother, who used it for the same thing. I never understood the pricing on this. This was the mid-eighties iPhone user's computer. It did not matter what it cost, they were going to either get an IBM, or just keep the typewriter. I recently interviewed then Tandy CEO John Roach who told me he had been waiting in the wings for IBM to screw up since the launch of the PC in 1981. He knew Tandy would eventually build a PC clone, to sell to regular consumers, for years before it actually happened. The sidecar idea was orginally brought out in 1979 by Texas Instruments. The TI99 Speech Synthesizer was a side car, and other components were made to plug into that. They abandoned that idea after a year also in favor of the PEB. I think it's important to note, that IBM farmed out the manufacturing of these to Teledyne (the Water Pik company), who had no PC manufacturing experience. I always assumed that was the reason the keyboard was so bad at launch.
You can't go wrong with WordPerfect 5.0 It was also one of my favorite word processors, back in the day. Some days, I still wish I was using WP 5 instead of MS Word which often drives me crazy.
@@dbranconnier1977 How about that reveal codes? Ah memories.
@@dbranconnier1977wordperfect still exists and is actually really good, if you miss it you should check it out. It still has a fairly large install base among graphics software houses (mostly because wordperfect office can be got heavily discounted if you're subscribed to some of Corel's graphics services and not even Microsofts near monopoly can compete on that front)
I had my uncles pc jr from ibm Toronto. They had of course messed with it and added a Wooden panel over the first cart port with a turbo and a reset button. It had 640kb of ram and 2 external drives. And funny enough we also had the Tandy 1000 HX. Which Tandy based their whole line on the pc jr and was a commercial smash.
Always glad to see some IBM PCjr coverage; a flawed but historically relevant system. Your video presents a nice overview.
Some technical corrections for your video:
The PCjr had two cartridge slots, not one. Some applications required both ports to work as they came with two carts.
Sidecars did not overheat; not sure what your source was for that. Also, all sidecars used a standard connection, so not sure where your source was for "wiggling third-party carts could cause a short".
And finally: The chiclet keyboard has better tactile response than the later keyboard, but most people are so afraid of it that they don't try it to find out.
Thank you for your feedback. We are going to pick up the older PCJr keyboard to try out. Jacob loves keyboards so we are getting quite a collection at this point.
On the subject of technical corrections, yeah the 'connector short' thing was a bit of a wtf moment for me.. Definitely not true. The amp connectors are pretty stiff and the 4 screws hold pretty well. Heat was never an issue either. The two most significant side car issues were never mentioned in the video. Each side car adds more inductive load and trace length. At some point (depending on the impedance of each side car), things degrade to non-working. Traditional ISA slot machines effectively control this by limiting the number of expansion slots. The second issue is power. There wasn't enough power budget in the 70'ish Watt internal supply. IBM sold a power side car to boost head room.
Also there was never a compatibility problem with the PCjr's CGA video modes. The Jr was register compatible with CGA and even supported up to 16KB of video window access at segment B800. All assuming you never accessed the enhanced features of the Jr (page panning and enhanced modes). Also he mentioned the only two "graphics' options in 1983/4 were MDA and CGA. MDA is text only. Maybe he was thinking of Hercules? The disk routines were not more complex due to lack of DMA. If anything they would be simpler. Though they do take longer. It's worth noting though the Tandy 1000/A did not have a DMA controller either. Both the Tandy 1000/A/EX/HX and the PCjr have hardware support for a DMA controller via expansion, but none of the built-in ROM code detects or supports it. And unless a piece of code was looking for a copy protection feature of a diskette, which wasn't wide spread in 1983/4 PCs, it generally used BIOS Int 13 routines and didn't go direct. I'm unware of any software written pre-1985 that wouldn't run on the Jr due to a disk incompatibility.
This biggest incompatibility annoyance of the Jr was actually keyboard related. The keyboard controller used the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) line. This meant that any key press would always invoke the keyboard routines and if the limited 5 key buffer were full, it meant playing a beep from the NMI ISR - effectively locking up the CPU during that routine/time. It also meant that any software trying to directly go to the keyboard controller would not work.
Also I (and I believe Mike B.) have never actually heard of a Jr system sold to a customer in a base 64K or non-disk drive configuration. IBM's marketing focus was software compatibility with it's big brother. No disk drive was counter to this. And you really couldn't run DOS programs in 64K - especially when some of it was shared with video; even in version 2.xx. So IBM quickly made the 'standard' base configuration include the disk drive and 64KB (128KB total) memory expansion board. AFAIK all PCjr's ever sold to actual customers had both. I found a pink unicorn during early days at the Computer Reset liquidation - the blank filler plate for the disk drive cavity. But that's the only one I've ever laid eyes on.
Lastly I've seen a number of Jr reviews all claiming IBM was trying to compete with Commodore and Atari in the home market. I've never agreed with this. IBM was catering the Jr towards business professionals who were gaining new experience with the full IBM PC in the office every day as a family machine and after hours work machine at home. Yes, C= and Atari were after an overlapping market. But IBM marketed the Jr at a sophistication level (and price point) well above anything those companies were selling. The Jr was part of a planned IBM eco-system. It just had an unfortunate accident in naming - "Junior". Had it been named just about anything else, it likely would have sold better.
@@alanhightower976 Fantastic info! The only point I'd make is that the PCjr was not 100% register compatible with CGA, as an exposed alpha/graphics bit is at port 61h which caused some trouble; I think port 3d8h also isn't exactly the same, as early CGA games like MS Flight Sim 1.x boot up in quasi-text mode instead of graphics.
And, don’t forget the Tandy 1000. It was like a PCJR but better.
We have a Tandy 1000 video coming out very soon!
I still have mine with original monitor from 1984 and it still works. So do the floppy disks. I’m shocked that I can still load things I wrote 40yrs ago. I have the improved wireless keyboard.
oh and 7:00 that was Lemmings. I loved that game and still have a copy
Tandy did the PCJr right, and it was a massively popular seller for them.
Why does EVERY article and review of the PCjr claim the Tandy 1000 series were PCjr compatible? Despite using the same sound chip and the same video resolutions and colors, a PCjr requires a simple hardware modification to make its video T1000 compatible. The audio can be made T1000 compatible with a hardware mod (which nobody seems to know exactly how to do anymore) or there's a program that can make it T1000 compatible. The hardware mods still leave it compatible with the small number of programs made specifically for the PCjr's features.
PC Enterprises sold kits for the video and audio mods, and other hardware hacks. I bought a kit to do the video mod and felt it was quite the ripoff. Simply one 7400 series TTL chip, piggybacked onto a chip on the motherboard for power, cut one trace and solder on a couple of wires. I just searched but could not find the specific directions. IBM Canada's website used to have a PCjr section and included how to do this modification, but not anything on hacking the sound. But with the instructions in hand from PC Enterprises I was able to mod the video on a few other PCjrs for free using chips from a dead old hard drive controller.
"Many companies, including PCE, offer inexpensive modifications known as the "Tandy Mods". While the implementation of these modifications will often differ, most cause the PCjr to redirect a 32KB block instead of 16KB.
The PCE Tandy Mod, which is one of the "Five System Board Modifications" offered by PCE, will cause the PCjr to redirect 32KB of information to any 32KB block set up in the PCjr's first 128KB."
I've not found anyone who bought, or will admit to buying, the PCE Tandy Sound Mod for the PCjr. From what info I've been able to dig up it sounds like one probably got a bit of wire and instructions that cost $15. IIRC that was the price for the video mod.
Those "Five System Board Modifications" should be re-created and saved for posterity, and anyone with a PCjr who wants to do them to make the computer better. Best would be to find a PCjr with all five of them done to it to document them.
PCE also offered things like a "Thin Font" module which was ROM chip that went under one of the BIOS chips to patch the video ROM with the same alternate font present in the normal CGA video card, or perhaps it's already there and the mod just enabled it to be used. PCE was not known for putting detailed pictures of some of their hacks in their catalogs. PCE also sold several BIOS hacks packaged in cartridges, with various combinations at various prices. Why would anyone want any of them other than the one with the most functions?
PCE wasn't just PCjr stuff. They did plenty of big things like 486 upgrade motherboards for some of the more popular proprietary PC clones. IIRC they may even have made them for some of the IBM PS/2 systems. There's an FTP server out there with a crapton of PCjr magazine and catalog scans (including PCE), software, and technical info. I downloaded it all but a casual dig through did not turn up anything on a modification for Tandy compatible sound, but I'm pretty certain the info for the video mod is in there.
Great info. I just saw one of these $50 at an estate sale if it's still there Sunday when the prices are reduced I think I'll pick it up.
Hope that goes well for you!
Had one back in the day. It came with both keyboards. It was drastically reduced in price. Used the color monitor on other computers for years.
Hey Fellow RUclipsr! I just discovered your channel and am SO impressed by the amount of research you've done, but more importantly, how easy you are to listen too! You're natural narration style is great! Keep up the Amazing Work :)
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does anybody know a trick to get back into an Instagram account?
I stupidly forgot the password. I appreciate any help you can offer me!
@Gianni Edgar Instablaster ;)
@Lian Cassius i really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im in the hacking process now.
I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Lian Cassius It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thanks so much you saved my account!
@Gianni Edgar happy to help xD
Do the Orao computer. That'd be a nice one. It's an 8 bit Eagle clone from 1984 made in croatia
I loved the PC Jr keyboard when it came out. I was selling replacement keyboards and got $5 for each one I sold. Loved that PC Jr keyboard.
When my (now) husband & I started living together in 1986, I found that he'd bought one of these. It never worked. I'd been programming since 1978, so I could judge. This was trash. He should have returned it next day. He trusted the IBM name, and finally saw an IBM he could afford. My guess is that was true for most. The market moved past IBM very quickly, but he was clueless. But, this computer.... total trash - which is where it went.
I was a young kid then in the UK where underpowered machines were the norm. Is this a case where the machine was limited but could still do some neat tricks by good coders like a lot of machines at the time?
My parents bought me one of these when I was a kid to keep me off of the original IBM PC that we had (because I was hogging it). It had some nice features like better graphics & sound, as pointed out in the video. I liked it a lot at the time. But yeah, that keyboard was a piece of crap.
The wireless keyboard is more like a TV remote control with qwerty lol
Nice video, good background info..well done !
Thank you!
found a channel to binge. Great videos!
Thank you for watching. We have a bunch of new videos in the works.
Pc Jr was the first computer I’d ever seen
4:55 replacement keyboards were never a thing with the 5150" WRONG. I was a coder/ author in the 80's and the first thing I did was to get a Qubie keyboard. The IBM had the return in the WRONG place. The better keyboards (about $200) had the keys in correct place as well as a light that would go on for the caps and key locks to tell you when they were engaged. Keyboards of the 1980s didn't have lights under each key and some of the word processors (I used volkswriter deluxe) didn't tell you when it was on.
IMB could have been THE company. Not Apple. They could have been the first trillion dollar company. They done fucked up.
As a big fan of King's Quest I gotta love the PCjr despite it's flaws
You paid more than when I bought one in the late 80s lol
Okay, serious question........
Backyard Baseball, who was your main?
Pricey for something called "Jr."
Compared to the IBM PCs of the time, the PC Jr really does feel like a Jr. At some point we hope to buy an older IBM PC so we an show them side by side.
People in the 80's would be amazed if you said you have a massive computer collection lol They'd be like "People collect computers?! How do they afford that?! They must be rich" lol
I remember the wireless keyboard being the thing that made me want one. Glad I stuck with the Atari’s
It's a really cool feature for the time, but the tradeoffs were NOT worth it
Love my PCjr with matching monitor. I just need to get some RAM expansion.
Yeah some good ram expansion is definitely important!
Hi. Nice video.
Anyway, like often you don't show the machine working.
in those days the pc market was overpriced think of it like this would you pay 2,000 dollars for a toaster?
no as a applience the pc was good at 100 dollars the 64 and others started to see this shortly after this was realeased killing the ibm jr pc
I still have one of these with the sidecar if anyone wants it.
I had o e of these, the whole kit. And I had two keyboards, the craplet and an ibm made real keyboard also wireless.
Have you ever used a PCjr? If so which keyboard did it have?
Great video. My first computer was the PCjr which came with the revised keyboard. My dad thought it would be an affordable way for me to learn the IBM standard, and he was right. I spent a year's worth of newspaper delivery money on it and was devastated when it was cancelled just a few months later. Fortunately, thanks to the Tandy standard, we were able to keep getting software for several years more.
Never used it unfortunately! Never seen one in person either. By the time I was old enough the tandy was my favorite computer
The PCjr was handed down to me when my father upgraded to a 286. I used it from about 1989 to 1993. I learned BASIC programming, did schoolwork using Writing Assistant and later Word Star and had many game disks too. It was my first and still is my favorite computer. I still pull it out every once in a while to give it a good cleaning and make sure all the disks still work :).
2:00 WHY the FUCK would you set a computer up like that lol
Is it true that the Intel 8086 and 8088 was an assembly programmer's nightmare?
I'd love to use this as a hardware crypto wallet to store my Ethereum and 0xMR.
The IBM PC "Junker" :)