I remember working at Software Etc.. in the 80's, the amount of pissed off IBMPCjr owners was overwhelming. Everyday, I'd have to tell people, sorry that disk isn't compatible with the PCjr. Sorry, that game isn't compatible with PCjr. Over and over again. OMG the cursing....
You have my retroactive sympathy, haha. Having worked retail during various console transitions over the years, I can only imagine how that would've been with such a similar name and the same brand making such different machines.
And the thing is, is that in the beginning the box didn't tell you. So I had to just remember people returning software before I'd even know. It was about 1/2 a year after it was released that software starting telling you on the box if it was IBMPCjr compatible. That was the downfall of the jr, not being compatible.
TwippyTwilight It's incredibly strange considering that the entire purpose of the PC was and still is software compatibility regardless of the configuration .
I remember my mom got a PCjr in the mid 80s and even as a child just starting grade school, wasn't that impressed. We had a side car to expand the memory and a couple carts, but we just didn't have much software. In the mean time, my friends all seemed to have Commodores, which had a lot more software and were easier to use.
Dude.. just, thank you for making these videos. When I have a crappy day at work and I'm down about the world, I see a video of yours about a subject like this and it instantly improves my mood. I love in-depth discussions of forgotten hardware and software (as a guy who grew up with an 8088) and I love your take on them as someone who clearly spent their formative years on old school PC machines. Whatever anyone else may say, please continue doing what you do. Not just for my own personal enjoyment but because clearly you love doing it. I sincerely find it awesome and I'm glad I found your channel through RetroWare. You rock!
I thought that, too. It also kind of reminded me of the 'Eye' ray gun from the original War of the Worlds movie circa 1950. But yeah, mostly E.T.'s head.
Kind of funny how the Apricot was ahead of its time, as we now have tablets/phones and notebooks with removable/detachable keyboards. I can see how that would be very weird at the time.
If you are brave enough to stray into the territory of Eastern European computers from the 80s, there is SOOOO much more there! Yes, a lot of them were clumsy ZX Spectrum clones, but some where really odd. There was the Electronika BK 0010 series of 16-bit desktops that were compatible with the PDP-11 "microcomputers" (read: fridge-sized mainframe beasts) There were was Radio 86RK - a fully Soviet-designed DIY series that were actually really, really fascinating in that "oddity from the dawn of computing" kind of way. Others, like Electronika MC or Kvazar 86 were these weird IBM-compatibles, while Kiev and Elf were MSX2 machines. There was even a Soviet-developed Amiga competitor Союз-Неон ПК-11/16 (Soyuz-Neon PK-11/16) that had some pretty impressive specs for 1986.
There were so many EE clones of Western computers, it's hard to catalog them all. Romania alone had a large number of ZX Spectrum locally reverse engineered clones, probably more than a dozen if you count variants (CoBra, HC85, HC88, HC90, HC91, HC2000, Cip with a few variants, Jet, Tim-S and a few more). And a few original designs, incompatible but with basically the same hardware capabilities (Prae, aMic). Some of them could run alternative operating systems, such as CP/M. There were clones of other systems such as IRIS and PDP-11, and several original mini-mainframe designs with locally developed hardware and software which never saw further development because at the end of the 1980s there was widespread adoption and standardization on IBM PC compatibles. FWIW the Prae and aMic designs are essentially open hardware and software as all the schematics and software source code for them have been published in magazines and books at the time.
That design for the Elwro-800 actually seems pretty good and I wish I had it for the C64 back in the day. That wire holder could have been used for holding a computer magazine with a user made program which they always had in the magazines back in the day. Even now it would be good for data input from a written copy, or even writers who like to get their pre-writing done on paper.
Thanks for Polish accent :) there were pretty decent vintage computers created in Poland in 70' and Elwro project was waaaay ahead of its times in the Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Courtain.
Yeah, not only that, there was loads of clones/fake devices, there was very popular copies of NES called Pegasus ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(console) - I owed one :D ), but this was already early 90' - everything was "copied" and "pirate" back then, there was simply no other way to get games or hardweare...
Yep, good times for Poland if it comes to computers, a pity this stops in 90' - we had then a pretty decent company called Optimus making awesome computers but it was killed by unfair tax law. Later on Optimus was renamed to... CD Projekt RED - the guys who created the Witcher games ;) anyway I never had occasion to express my gratitude for your videos - they have such a cool vintage vibe with this music, your voice and stuff you show and talk about - keep making them!
You could just 3d print a new Apricot housing in your favourite colour. And add an raspberry pi 4 or an atom CPU into the display unit with some added wifi keyboard
OMG Mr. LGR!!! You made my day showing the Seiko computer watch series. I collect these things and Have almost the entire lineup up including the weird UC-2200. The only one I'm missing is the "wrist mac" which was essentially a Seiko RC4400 but marketed and sold for Apple. It could be considered the first apple watch!
Before you said the Icon was Canadian I noticed the French-Canadian keyboard. I had no idea about this, nor the computer from Kingston, Ontario in the '70s video. Thanks for shining a light on all these strange computer designs and this facet of history!
If you have too much apricots it will make you look sleek as shit. If I magically found myself in the 80's that computer would be my top pick to own. Looks better than the rest on the list.
Canadian viewer here! The Unisys Icon WARPED me right back in time... we used those at school when I was a child. It was the first computer I ever used in my life! The colorful matching games were fun when I was REALLY little, the scrolling ball thing and the "action key" were so retro and iconic, and I typed out all of my first stories and books on those computers! 😄
My dad was an engineer in the 80s/90s and I remember that "super cool" computers-in-a-suitcase he'd bring home to work. The first laptop was a BRICK in the early 90s. This vid makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside with memories
Crazy. I was explaining to a friend of mine the other day that I had a PC that had a built in printer and modem. I couldn't find anything to show him. A few days later you post this video! Yes, when I was a kid, I was the proud owner of an access computer!
A wonderful showcase of the bizarre. The 80's was a very strange time for computers as a whole. Bet you could mine another dozen videos on this subject without having to leave the 80's.
I know you probably don't have one, but have you thought about doing one of the general computer reviews for the Coleco Adam? I mean, it had a built in modem via Adam Net, and there is/was a series of yearly conventions just for the people who still had them.
That Polish computer is example of Soviet approach in manufacturing in consumer products - reusing already existing parts and assembly lines for new products, even if it means making toy piano into computer. I wish you could do same video for Soviet computers though this topic is very much unknown in the west due or exists to serve as anti-Soviet\Russian propaganda.
Actually, Poland was never a soviet state, it was communist but mostly independent. There were quite incredible computers made here such as the K-202 which was released in 1971 and was miles ahead of the IBM PC released TEN YEARS LATER. There was even a videgame console called TVG-10.
+najzwyklejszyzludzi Yes, the economic powerhouse Poland is and has always been the globally leading country in computer technology. We all know IBM stole all of their inventions and patents using industrial espionage from Poland. Initially Silicon Valley was called Polish valley until they realized that they were not in Poland anymore and renamed it.
Siewca Grozy If you think THAT was rude, you should experience me in real life. What I practiced here is usually called sarcasm. It is applied and works quite well if people make absurd claims (e.g. Poland leading the US in IT technology by 10 years, Earth being flat and so on).
Just read about the K-202. I'm not saying Poland had the most advanced technology in the world, but this computer was something else entirely. It was the brainchild of the genius engineer Jacek Karpiński and was completely sabotaged by the state that wanted to keep making crappy Odra mainframes. The only reason this computer was not successful was intentional sabotage of its production. It was at the time hands down the most powerful microcomputer out there. IBM never stole that invention, the PC was made with very different technology. Instead of attacking me, simply do some research. All the facts are out there.
Clint, literally the only thing that this list is missing and would make this video completely perfect is the MSRPs on all these insanely awesome and useless computers :)
Canadian here. We had the Icon in our classrooms at the end of the eighties. It had the educational game Northwest Fur Trader, a word processor and a drawing program. Brings back memories.
This was a trip down memory lane. I had an IBM PCjr, when I was done expanding it [sideward and upward] it had a Racore II expansion module with 640Kb of RAM, 2 5.25 floppy drives, and a printer port, a sound card, serial mouse card, power expansion and a 20MB Hard Drive.
Some more on Elwro-800: - Up to 15 student computers (type 02) could be connected via token-ring alike network to teacher's base station (type 01). Teacher's station had a floppy drive and could share a printer. - There was Elwro-804, with the whole 8088-based PC tossed into a case similar to Elwro-800
All the Apricot machines were fantastic. As a teenager I even got to visit the factory in Glenrothes while working as a programmer for one of the dealers.
What if one of those strange computers became the average computer, while the average computer now turned into a strange computer? whooooaaaa duuuuuddeeee... **smokes out of bong**
The Icon! It's the first time a non-Canadian video has even mentioned the Icon. We had them in my elementary school and they were slow as molasses. I remember the first GUI had squares with text on the screen to indicate different types of programs. Then IconLook was introduced, which slowed the machines significantly. You'd login and there would be a list of program, and you'd double-tap one of the Action keys. The last time I saw one was in high school. They had a QDOS emulator so that they could use MS Works for DOS and that was in keyboarding class.
Jesus! That's it! Back when I was 5 years old, I recall my first ever experience with a computer and its all-in-one build complete with mysterious trackball. I played all of three seconds of Offshore fishing on it before my father gave me a smack on the head and told me to get my ass in gear. I now know that magnificent machine was the Unisys Icon... Thanks for that.
6:20 - yes, this looks familiar. I had one, before my parents bought us PC with Windows 98. I hardly remember it, probably because unlike Commodore 64, Elwro didn't have many games on it and I wasn't into programming back then. But it was cool it had polish letters on the keyboard, I didn't have to think which key I have to press with "shift" or "alt" to get the letter I want.
On 1:04 - The ACT APRICOT PORTABLE: it's design was from the future! It looks like it comes from the 90's, as well the 3,5" diskette! And the keyboard design with the wireless connectivity plus the voice recognition?!?! - definitively these features are coming from the 00's era!
Oh how many times in the 80s using my Amstrad CPC464 microcomputer, did I wish there was something I could stand my manual up on to read out the program listings.. or the game listing from the magazines of the time. That looks way better than the original speccy too if you ask me.
One of the high schools that I attended (here in southern Ontario, Canada) had Icon computers. They were the machines we were taught Turing language on -- and compiling even a tiny Turing program on them was unbelievably slow. I really liked the GUI on them though, but we never really used the GUI much; all the programming we did was in a text file run through a compiler from the QNX shell. The ADAM did enjoy some succes around here, I knew a few people who were real enthusiasts for them. In the 90s, there were those who had upgraded them using 2400 baud modems and hard disk drives and actually ran BBSes on them.
I just re watched the weird PCs from the nineties video and wondered if you where gonna do one for the eighties. And today you granted my wish. Thanx LGR
You seem like the kind of person that would have appreciated the show halt and catch fire. I know nothing of technology other than what i have gleaned from your videos and I greatly enjoyed that show. If you haven’t seen it it’s about the rise of computer production and the expansion of the internet in the 80s and 90s and still remains one of my favorite shows after its conclusion.
Wait. Wireless keyboards in 84? I imagined that was unheard of til the 90s. Or heck, even the 00s. Was that super unique or were actually wireless peripherals more common back then than I imagine? Damn that Apricot seems extremely great for it's time.
BenRangel When the designers included the wireless keyboard they invisiged it being used on a desk in an office, with the keyboard and mouse easy to hide away during meetings. The keyboard used infrared, and due to interference in the system from other light sources it's communication protocol had to use a huge number of parity bits. The speech recognition also wasn't so much for entering text as for making common commands like "copy" and "save" faster.
Holy crap, I remember using the Unisys Icon in grade school. I remember always playing the game "New Kid in Town" (I think that's what it was called) on it and thinking it was AWESOME! Strange, aside from a Reddit post, I can't find ANYTHING about this game. But at least I know there is one other person on the planet who remembers it.
I remember a story about the Adam, about how Coleco faked it's appearance at a CES one year. It involved tinted glass, a cardboard or papier-mache "case", and a Colecovision running Donkey Kong or something to the display from behind or under the cabinet the whole thing was sitting in.
That happened at the ps4/xbone preview event. Some of them malfunctioned and they opened up the cabinets to pc dev machines running the console software
Every time i think youve hit a ceiling of interesting content you deliver again! Your so dope LGR, one of the few youtubers i have set up for notifications 😎
The Icon is legendary here in Ontario. The school board where I grew up went with Apple IIs because of all the MECC software available - but a friend of mine grew up in Brockville, where Icons were built,, and apparently they had a full network of them in every classroom.
Unexpected Polandball That's a surprisingly underrated meme xD But at least that's better than it becoming forced and oversaturated like Loss (a.k.a. the worst meme ever) and modern memes
I've been following your channel for years now. I create stories set in the latter half of the 20th century, and a fat load of the weirder computers you've covered are perfect design fodder for my characters to use. Especially that first computer. Looks like E.T., what the heck?
Thanks for bringing up the Elwro! Greetings from Warsaw. 😀 However, Elwros are really obscure, hard to find items. Back in the day it was easier to import ZX Spectrum from behind the iron curtain than to obtain an Elwro.
Atari XEGS. Pretty odd looking, and why even release that when they had the 7800 and the xe lineup? To cater to the 8 bit market that already had 800xls or xe computers?
Westwurtzli yeah, they should've just put the cx40 and gun in with a 65xe tho. And don't get me wrong, I have an xegs hooked up in my game room (5200 controller ext. works with the keyboard..just wish start button was on the kb.)
Man, this video is awesome. I've seen most of the ones on the '90s and '00s list, but there's a lot more on this list that I haven't seen. Then again, I think in the '80s, they were playing around a lot more with computer design in general. There was a ton of variety back there and plenty of weird '80s computers that aren't on this list.
Interesting you just released this video, I was binge watching your hardware list and enjoyed your previous videos about the strange designs in the 90's and 2000's. I'm really enjoying this stuff, learning a bit of computer history and bringing back some memories, since I had some old pcs when I was little back in the mid 90's.
I actually used Icons in school :P They were pretty cool, and hilarious hearing everyone rolling the fuck out of the track balls :D They had quite a few educational games that were actually fun to play. I still remember them and this was before I was 10.
Oh yeah baby, Math Maze and Offshore Fishing. Good times. I wish we could get those games emulated to see them again but I don't think such a thing exists.
The lab in my Highschool were all Lexicon/Icon. They were curious machines. Some of the software they came with I have never seen the likes of again. The experience I gained with QNX worked well for me when I started working as there were some QNX systems running in my first job. QNX is kind of Unix, but the syntax is often backwards.
This is such an interesting channel, especially with all the old computers from the days when I could only gaze upon these new, magical devices from afar but never actually got a chance to use until the 21st century. I'd kind of like to play around with old 70s, 80s and 90s computers but computers are inherently practical machines and I guess the only practical use an old one would have nowadays is playing old games from its era.
I'm a little blown away by the Apricot computer! Wireless mouse and keyboard! Flats screen! Voice control! These folks were really looking ahead! That one page advert was even aping the Apple stylistics!
It would be cool if you could cover some of these computers more in-depth at some point. Espescially the last one from Poland is really intriguing. What was the Operating system and what games were made for it? Also, I think you should cover the Swedish Compis computers. My high school had a whole bunch of them piled up and my computer teacher said they had an add-on which made it possible to control RC cars with it. I however never got to try this out in person.
My first computer as a child was the Coleco Adam. My parents still have it in a box somewhere. Can confirm the annoying 'you need the printer for its power supply'. Some of the very first 'artwork' I did as a child, to get posted on the family fridge was typed out ASCII art printed off of that thing. Also Buck Rogers on cassette and 2100 on cartridge. :D And my older brother retyping BASIC from a book into it.
We were always big on computers in Poland, even during the dark days of socialism. PC gaming is still way more popular here than consoles. It's not an accident PC friendly companies like GOG and CD Projekt are Polish.
I had that Seiko watch when I was at college (still got it somewhere), it was great for cheating in exams as none of the lecturers were particularly computer savvy, even the ones supposed to be teaching computing, in fact the only lecturer that realised what my watch was was the metalwork and technical drawing lecturer, he used to make me take it off in exams even though it was useless for cheating at technical drawing :-).
There was another one in the 1980s: The RDI Halcyon. Released in 1985, it was a laserdisc based computer that would hook up to your TV. Inside the box included a membrane-based keyboard (it's plug was oddly enough a network port-connecting to the front of the machine), 2 games: Thayer's Quest, and NFL Football: LA Raiders vs SD Chargers-even with their respective overlays. The true selling point of this thing was the voice synthesis, understanding your name voice synthesis, as well as voice recognition up to 800 words (200 of which you could make up). It retailed for a price of around $2,500-$3,000. It was made by the same people who worked on Dragon's Lair, and Space Ace. In fact, they were going to be ported to the machine, but it flopped so hard, it caused RDI (the company behind such games) to go under. Incredibly rare, and hard to find. Sales figures for the machine were around 20,000 units instead of the initial 250,000 units expected to be shipped out. It's Artificial Intelligence predated Siri, Cortana and even Google Help-hence the name HALcyon (like Hal9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey).
I used a microwriter at school and it's language was hell on earth to learn. It was designed mainly for the disabled and anyone with limited mobility in the hands, to use. I have mild cerebral palsy and the MW was mostly used for note taking. However, my school dumped the idea and let me use the Beeb at home instead.
I remember working at Software Etc.. in the 80's, the amount of pissed off IBMPCjr owners was overwhelming. Everyday, I'd have to tell people, sorry that disk isn't compatible with the PCjr. Sorry, that game isn't compatible with PCjr. Over and over again. OMG the cursing....
You have my retroactive sympathy, haha. Having worked retail during various console transitions over the years, I can only imagine how that would've been with such a similar name and the same brand making such different machines.
And the thing is, is that in the beginning the box didn't tell you. So I had to just remember people returning software before I'd even know. It was about 1/2 a year after it was released that software starting telling you on the box if it was IBMPCjr compatible. That was the downfall of the jr, not being compatible.
TwippyTwilight It's incredibly strange considering that the entire purpose of the PC was and still is software compatibility regardless of the configuration .
Samurai Shampoo I think he means operating system and CPU architecture, not hardware
I remember my mom got a PCjr in the mid 80s and even as a child just starting grade school, wasn't that impressed. We had a side car to expand the memory and a couple carts, but we just didn't have much software. In the mean time, my friends all seemed to have Commodores, which had a lot more software and were easier to use.
Praying for you as you recover from the storm!
The Holborn 9100 is the most 70's Sci-Fi looking computer I've ever seen. It would fit right into the set of Logan's Run.
Juan Nunez Or "2001; A Space Odyssey".
zh84 I feel "2001" did a lot for inspiring such design aesthetics in computer design during that time.
Juan Nunez Fallout.
RandomReviews Of course nowadays the dark, cynical view of the future is pretty big in today's view of the future.
It looks like Karen, Plankton's wife from spongebob.
Dude.. just, thank you for making these videos. When I have a crappy day at work and I'm down about the world, I see a video of yours about a subject like this and it instantly improves my mood. I love in-depth discussions of forgotten hardware and software (as a guy who grew up with an 8088) and I love your take on them as someone who clearly spent their formative years on old school PC machines. Whatever anyone else may say, please continue doing what you do. Not just for my own personal enjoyment but because clearly you love doing it. I sincerely find it awesome and I'm glad I found your channel through RetroWare. You rock!
Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
Holy shiitake that apricot look so modern for an 80s computer
6:15 Army definition of portable: can be moved without the use of a forklift. :P
it has a handle so it HAS to be portable...
the Holborn 9100 looks like E.T.'s head :P
StaelTek that's exactly what I thought!
StaelTek It also resembles a peroscope in design so...
You certainly mean, it looks like a legally-safe knock-off of an 80ies sci-fi alien?
I thought that, too. It also kind of reminded me of the 'Eye' ray gun from the original War of the Worlds movie circa 1950. But yeah, mostly E.T.'s head.
E.T compute taxes and play Oregon Trail
Kind of funny how the Apricot was ahead of its time, as we now have tablets/phones and notebooks with removable/detachable keyboards. I can see how that would be very weird at the time.
If you are brave enough to stray into the territory of Eastern European computers from the 80s, there is SOOOO much more there! Yes, a lot of them were clumsy ZX Spectrum clones, but some where really odd.
There was the Electronika BK 0010 series of 16-bit desktops that were compatible with the PDP-11 "microcomputers" (read: fridge-sized mainframe beasts)
There were was Radio 86RK - a fully Soviet-designed DIY series that were actually really, really fascinating in that "oddity from the dawn of computing" kind of way.
Others, like Electronika MC or Kvazar 86 were these weird IBM-compatibles, while Kiev and Elf were MSX2 machines.
There was even a Soviet-developed Amiga competitor Союз-Неон ПК-11/16 (Soyuz-Neon PK-11/16) that had some pretty impressive specs for 1986.
There were so many EE clones of Western computers, it's hard to catalog them all. Romania alone had a large number of ZX Spectrum locally reverse engineered clones, probably more than a dozen if you count variants (CoBra, HC85, HC88, HC90, HC91, HC2000, Cip with a few variants, Jet, Tim-S and a few more). And a few original designs, incompatible but with basically the same hardware capabilities (Prae, aMic). Some of them could run alternative operating systems, such as CP/M. There were clones of other systems such as IRIS and PDP-11, and several original mini-mainframe designs with locally developed hardware and software which never saw further development because at the end of the 1980s there was widespread adoption and standardization on IBM PC compatibles.
FWIW the Prae and aMic designs are essentially open hardware and software as all the schematics and software source code for them have been published in magazines and books at the time.
I ate my pizza from start to finish during this video, it was a good video.
was it a good pizza?
was it a small pizza?
was it a square pizza
was it pizza
was it
The apricot isn't strange, it's freaking awesome!
Never said these weren't awesome! In fact, the stranger they get the more awesome they are in my opinion ;)
That design for the Elwro-800 actually seems pretty good and I wish I had it for the C64 back in the day. That wire holder could have been used for holding a computer magazine with a user made program which they always had in the magazines back in the day. Even now it would be good for data input from a written copy, or even writers who like to get their pre-writing done on paper.
Thanks for Polish accent :) there were pretty decent vintage computers created in Poland in 70' and Elwro project was waaaay ahead of its times in the Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Courtain.
Haha, I try my best. And yeah, Elwro did some super cool stuff in the '70s and '80s!
Did it also use the clone-Z80 CPU from Russia?
Yeah, not only that, there was loads of clones/fake devices, there was very popular copies of NES called Pegasus ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(console) - I owed one :D ), but this was already early 90' - everything was "copied" and "pirate" back then, there was simply no other way to get games or hardweare...
You have to check out the history of the K-202. A microcomputer 10 years ahead of its time, released in 1971.
Yep, good times for Poland if it comes to computers, a pity this stops in 90' - we had then a pretty decent company called Optimus making awesome computers but it was killed by unfair tax law. Later on Optimus was renamed to... CD Projekt RED - the guys who created the Witcher games ;) anyway I never had occasion to express my gratitude for your videos - they have such a cool vintage vibe with this music, your voice and stuff you show and talk about - keep making them!
Someone please take an Apricot and replace the internals with modern technology. It is a sexy, sexy looking thing and I want it.
You could just 3d print a new Apricot housing in your favourite colour. And add an raspberry pi 4 or an atom CPU into the display unit with some added wifi keyboard
@@pteppig Fuck 3d printing and fuck raspberry pi. Both are cheap shortcuts and both suck.
But the screen is too small for Windows 10
@@pteppig sadly it won't feel the same
OMG Mr. LGR!!! You made my day showing the Seiko computer watch series. I collect these things and Have almost the entire lineup up including the weird UC-2200. The only one I'm missing is the "wrist mac" which was essentially a Seiko RC4400 but marketed and sold for Apple. It could be considered the first apple watch!
Before you said the Icon was Canadian I noticed the French-Canadian keyboard. I had no idea about this, nor the computer from Kingston, Ontario in the '70s video. Thanks for shining a light on all these strange computer designs and this facet of history!
That apricot looks sleek as shit.
Still does today! It's amazing
Sure does look sweet alright
Props to whoever designed the case for it.
If you have too much apricots it will make you look sleek as shit.
If I magically found myself in the 80's that computer would be my top pick to own. Looks better than the rest on the list.
It really doesn't, though. It looks like a blocky piece of shit from the 80s. I don't get how it's supposed to look good.
I had one of these, sold it on ebay for £100 a few years back - I wish I kept it, useless but looked amazing!
Canadian viewer here! The Unisys Icon WARPED me right back in time... we used those at school when I was a child. It was the first computer I ever used in my life!
The colorful matching games were fun when I was REALLY little, the scrolling ball thing and the "action key" were so retro and iconic, and I typed out all of my first stories and books on those computers! 😄
Now I finally know what the computer that Techmoan's muppet uses is!
Yes indeed! It was his content that made me aware of the system in the first place.
Two of my favourite youtubers watch another of my favourite youtubers
VWestlife could you please give me the timestamp?
nice
Hey west, hope you are well!
My dad was an engineer in the 80s/90s and I remember that "super cool" computers-in-a-suitcase he'd bring home to work. The first laptop was a BRICK in the early 90s. This vid makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside with memories
Wow that Apricot is really ahead of its time! It is like something from the '90s, concept and design wise.
Crazy. I was explaining to a friend of mine the other day that I had a PC that had a built in printer and modem. I couldn't find anything to show him. A few days later you post this video! Yes, when I was a kid, I was the proud owner of an access computer!
first pc looks like the terminals from fallout
To me it looks more like those useless computers from Prey
Yes! I thought “ If the 50’s and 60’s had small computers they would probably look like that” Then “ Oh yeah, Fall out Terminals!”
Yeah, or more specifically the "Institute" Terminals from FO4 lol.
@@JamezzyM fallout is just one word
Nah
A wonderful showcase of the bizarre. The 80's was a very strange time for computers as a whole. Bet you could mine another dozen videos on this subject without having to leave the 80's.
Glad you enjoyed! And yeah I probably could, it's a fascinating decade :)
I do hope to see more like this in the future. There are so many weird computers, and so many weird computer accessories. Love your work.
I know you probably don't have one, but have you thought about doing one of the general computer reviews for the Coleco Adam? I mean, it had a built in modem via Adam Net, and there is/was a series of yearly conventions just for the people who still had them.
That Polish computer is example of Soviet approach in manufacturing in consumer products - reusing already existing parts and assembly lines for new products, even if it means making toy piano into computer. I wish you could do same video for Soviet computers though this topic is very much unknown in the west due or exists to serve as anti-Soviet\Russian propaganda.
Actually, Poland was never a soviet state, it was communist but mostly independent. There were quite incredible computers made here such as the K-202 which was released in 1971 and was miles ahead of the IBM PC released TEN YEARS LATER. There was even a videgame console called TVG-10.
+najzwyklejszyzludzi
Yes, the economic powerhouse Poland is and has always been the globally leading country in computer technology. We all know IBM stole all of their inventions and patents using industrial espionage from Poland. Initially Silicon Valley was called Polish valley until they realized that they were not in Poland anymore and renamed it.
Wow, you're really rude Frank. Guy above you never mentioned anything about IBM stealing anything. It was different systems boi.
Siewca Grozy
If you think THAT was rude, you should experience me in real life.
What I practiced here is usually called sarcasm. It is applied and works quite well if people make absurd claims (e.g. Poland leading the US in IT technology by 10 years, Earth being flat and so on).
Just read about the K-202. I'm not saying Poland had the most advanced technology in the world, but this computer was something else entirely. It was the brainchild of the genius engineer Jacek Karpiński and was completely sabotaged by the state that wanted to keep making crappy Odra mainframes.
The only reason this computer was not successful was intentional sabotage of its production. It was at the time hands down the most powerful microcomputer out there. IBM never stole that invention, the PC was made with very different technology.
Instead of attacking me, simply do some research. All the facts are out there.
LGR shows the finest shows that need to be on television for all to see. Not only I am an end user, but I am also a fan of computer technology.
Clint, literally the only thing that this list is missing and would make this video completely perfect is the MSRPs on all these insanely awesome and useless computers :)
Sadly a lot of those prices are hard to find and/or verify.
If you hammerfist your numpad a few times, you'll get an accurate representation of the prices.
Canadian here. We had the Icon in our classrooms at the end of the eighties. It had the educational game Northwest Fur Trader, a word processor and a drawing program. Brings back memories.
I've got love for the Dutch E.T. computer. Even Steven Spielberg would be impressed.
This was a trip down memory lane. I had an IBM PCjr, when I was done expanding it [sideward and upward] it had a Racore II expansion module with 640Kb of RAM, 2 5.25 floppy drives, and a printer port, a sound card, serial mouse card, power expansion and a 20MB Hard Drive.
Was the Holborn before or after E.T.? Some strange similarities there lol
HAZARDOUS88 E.T. is 1982
Some more on Elwro-800:
- Up to 15 student computers (type 02) could be connected via token-ring alike network to teacher's base station (type 01). Teacher's station had a floppy drive and could share a printer.
- There was Elwro-804, with the whole 8088-based PC tossed into a case similar to Elwro-800
Thanks for the metric conversion on screen. I automatically reached for the keyboard when hearing the weight. Please keep doing that :)
Sure thing! Over half of my viewers are from outside the US, so it just makes sense.
All the Apricot machines were fantastic. As a teenager I even got to visit the factory in Glenrothes while working as a programmer for one of the dealers.
What if one of those strange computers became the average computer, while the average computer now turned into a strange computer?
whooooaaaa duuuuuddeeee... **smokes out of bong**
Damn man
Mind. Blown.
coolkid18751 lol I don't do the marijuana
+Antiwhimsy 空
Was that a reference to... Van Wilder or something. I remember some Indian guy saying, "THAT'S NOT A BONG! IT'S FOR MY DONG!"
The Icon! It's the first time a non-Canadian video has even mentioned the Icon.
We had them in my elementary school and they were slow as molasses.
I remember the first GUI had squares with text on the screen to indicate different types of programs. Then IconLook was introduced, which slowed the machines significantly. You'd login and there would be a list of program, and you'd double-tap one of the Action keys.
The last time I saw one was in high school. They had a QDOS emulator so that they could use MS Works for DOS and that was in keyboarding class.
Jesus! That's it!
Back when I was 5 years old, I recall my first ever experience with a computer and its all-in-one build complete with mysterious trackball. I played all of three seconds of Offshore fishing on it before my father gave me a smack on the head and told me to get my ass in gear. I now know that magnificent machine was the Unisys Icon... Thanks for that.
The MicroWriter is basically what tapwithus is selling now. Glorious retro info!
6:20 - yes, this looks familiar. I had one, before my parents bought us PC with Windows 98. I hardly remember it, probably because unlike Commodore 64, Elwro didn't have many games on it and I wasn't into programming back then. But it was cool it had polish letters on the keyboard, I didn't have to think which key I have to press with "shift" or "alt" to get the letter I want.
On 1:04 - The ACT APRICOT PORTABLE: it's design was from the future! It looks like it comes from the 90's, as well the 3,5" diskette! And the keyboard design with the wireless connectivity plus the voice recognition?!?! - definitively these features are coming from the 00's era!
The Holborn 9100 looks like the control computers that should be in War Of The Worlds, the original movie, not the Tom Cruise "remake".
Yes you are right, that's totally the design of the Martian ships.
It lools just like the Terminals from Fallout.
Looks a bit like the Computer Space arcade cabinet too!
The MaskedGeek 69 likes
@@enniopaone we seen for deskop nanofactory to built cool component
I could listen to you passionately talk about computers all day! you are intelligent and unique!
lmao, why didn't they remove the sheet holders before shipping those computers?
Maybe they thought "we're making a learning computer. Lets keep that thing on their so they can place their books on it"
Oh how many times in the 80s using my Amstrad CPC464 microcomputer, did I wish there was something I could stand my manual up on to read out the program listings.. or the game listing from the magazines of the time. That looks way better than the original speccy too if you ask me.
because kurwa
Becuace it was the Polish... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_joke
That's precisely what I was thinking. It *would* be quite handy for such a thing.
That modular book shaped one is a brilliant idea.
One of the high schools that I attended (here in southern Ontario, Canada) had Icon computers. They were the machines we were taught Turing language on -- and compiling even a tiny Turing program on them was unbelievably slow. I really liked the GUI on them though, but we never really used the GUI much; all the programming we did was in a text file run through a compiler from the QNX shell. The ADAM did enjoy some succes around here, I knew a few people who were real enthusiasts for them. In the 90s, there were those who had upgraded them using 2400 baud modems and hard disk drives and actually ran BBSes on them.
I used them too, at a school in T.O. (forget which; it was a summer program)
Yup I used them in my high school as well in the Toronto area.
I just re watched the weird PCs from the nineties video and wondered if you where gonna do one for the eighties. And today you granted my wish. Thanx LGR
OMG- I've never expected to see hardware from my homeland :D
Greatings from Poland! :)
You seem like the kind of person that would have appreciated the show halt and catch fire. I know nothing of technology other than what i have gleaned from your videos and I greatly enjoyed that show. If you haven’t seen it it’s about the rise of computer production and the expansion of the internet in the 80s and 90s and still remains one of my favorite shows after its conclusion.
Wait. Wireless keyboards in 84? I imagined that was unheard of til the 90s. Or heck, even the 00s.
Was that super unique or were actually wireless peripherals more common back then than I imagine?
Damn that Apricot seems extremely great for it's time.
They weren't exactly common, but not unheard-of either! Even the Atari 2600 had a form of wireless joystick controllers.
BenRangel When the designers included the wireless keyboard they invisiged it being used on a desk in an office, with the keyboard and mouse easy to hide away during meetings. The keyboard used infrared, and due to interference in the system from other light sources it's communication protocol had to use a huge number of parity bits. The speech recognition also wasn't so much for entering text as for making common commands like "copy" and "save" faster.
+Samuel Doye Yep, here's an example of the PCjr freaking out due to a light source:
ruclips.net/video/OjmqTBILs6g/видео.html
Just found this channel and absolutely love it. Underrated for sure.
That Apricot keyboard was so ahead of its time.
Holy crap, I remember using the Unisys Icon in grade school. I remember always playing the game "New Kid in Town" (I think that's what it was called) on it and thinking it was AWESOME!
Strange, aside from a Reddit post, I can't find ANYTHING about this game. But at least I know there is one other person on the planet who remembers it.
I remember a story about the Adam, about how Coleco faked it's appearance at a CES one year. It involved tinted glass, a cardboard or papier-mache "case", and a Colecovision running Donkey Kong or something to the display from behind or under the cabinet the whole thing was sitting in.
Similar to the Coleco Chameleon.
That story probably inspired a plotline in the show "Halt and Catch Fire"
That happened at the ps4/xbone preview event. Some of them malfunctioned and they opened up the cabinets to pc dev machines running the console software
Those old PC ad photos are just GORGEOUS.... I need to learn how to edit photos like that
Elwro
I to był element niszczenia polskiego przemysłu przez Niemiaszków. Niemiaszkom się udało.
Thank you for pronouncing ELWRO correctly.
Nice video!
All of your videos are amazing Good Sir!
The Apricot computer stood out to me. I love the design, very ahead of it’s time for 1984, looks more 90s.
Every time i think youve hit a ceiling of interesting content you deliver again! Your so dope LGR, one of the few youtubers i have set up for notifications 😎
Thank you :)
I adore my Adam! It's got its flaws, but it's the closest thing I've got to a vintage computer.
nothing like getting some soda and watching some sweet sweet old school tech
My best friend growing up actually had an Apricot computer. I used to come over and help her write short stories on it.
My School had those Unysis Icon computers, I spent most of computer class playing Carmen Sandiego
My high school had the those Sammy ICON computers as well running QNX.
Love your videos because they're very quick and to the point and not deliberately drawn out. Thanks.
Woo! RUclips actually pushed out a notification that mattered!
My school had a bunch of Unisys Icons when I was a kid. We used to play weird educational games. The trackball was satisfying!
I had a Unisys Icon in my elementary school! It's development was actually funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education
The Icon is legendary here in Ontario. The school board where I grew up went with Apple IIs because of all the MECC software available - but a friend of mine grew up in Brockville, where Icons were built,, and apparently they had a full network of them in every classroom.
Polandball can of into computers!
Jim Tiberius Germany: great Poland! But I am more into advancing and producing faster ze computers than you...
Poland: Niemcy, WHHY?!!
Im not Germany
UK: Actually I have more advanced PCs, Anyone up for some Amstrad?
@@ralphchestercapistranolomi6827 chyba Niemcy, DLAAAACZEEEGOOOO???
Unexpected Polandball
That's a surprisingly underrated meme xD
But at least that's better than it becoming forced and oversaturated like Loss (a.k.a. the worst meme ever) and modern memes
I've been following your channel for years now. I create stories set in the latter half of the 20th century, and a fat load of the weirder computers you've covered are perfect design fodder for my characters to use. Especially that first computer. Looks like E.T., what the heck?
Thanks for bringing up the Elwro! Greetings from Warsaw. 😀 However, Elwros are really obscure, hard to find items. Back in the day it was easier to import ZX Spectrum from behind the iron curtain than to obtain an Elwro.
Lol, the PSU in the printer required for the whole computer to work. So funny. Cool video ! Love the memories, and a lot of stuff not seen before..
Atari XEGS. Pretty odd looking, and why even release that when they had the 7800 and the xe lineup? To cater to the 8 bit market that already had 800xls or xe computers?
More likely to liquidate the remaining Atari 8-bit equipment and software stock.
Westwurtzli yeah, they should've just put the cx40 and gun in with a 65xe tho. And don't get me wrong, I have an xegs hooked up in my game room (5200 controller ext. works with the keyboard..just wish start button was on the kb.)
Man, this video is awesome. I've seen most of the ones on the '90s and '00s list, but there's a lot more on this list that I haven't seen. Then again, I think in the '80s, they were playing around a lot more with computer design in general. There was a ton of variety back there and plenty of weird '80s computers that aren't on this list.
keep doing these types of vids clint. :)
Interesting you just released this video, I was binge watching your hardware list and enjoyed your previous videos about the strange designs in the 90's and 2000's. I'm really enjoying this stuff, learning a bit of computer history and bringing back some memories, since I had some old pcs when I was little back in the mid 90's.
I actually used Icons in school :P They were pretty cool, and hilarious hearing everyone rolling the fuck out of the track balls :D
They had quite a few educational games that were actually fun to play. I still remember them and this was before I was 10.
it's awesome how informative LGR's channel is
Ah, we had the Unisys ICON in my elementary school. I remember them weirdly fondly.
Oh yeah baby, Math Maze and Offshore Fishing. Good times. I wish we could get those games emulated to see them again but I don't think such a thing exists.
Off shore fishing., wow brings back memories.
what a joy it is to see a new LGR video on a friday afternoon.
1:33 so that is where Eric Foreman ended up after the 70s
Excellent video! Nice to see my fave retro machine (Compaq Portable 3) and the Elwro. Being from Poland and seeing that, brings back memories.
The lab in my Highschool were all Lexicon/Icon. They were curious machines. Some of the software they came with I have never seen the likes of again. The experience I gained with QNX worked well for me when I started working as there were some QNX systems running in my first job. QNX is kind of Unix, but the syntax is often backwards.
QNX Neutrino (first released in 2001) can be made POSIX-conformant quite easily, so whatever it evolved into effectively is just "Unix".
There was *some* posix support earlier than Neutrino, but the version I knew was certainly not. BlackBerry owns it now
Even Windows NT (until 4.0) was initially Posix (and OS/2) compatible
This is such an interesting channel, especially with all the old computers from the days when I could only gaze upon these new, magical devices from afar but never actually got a chance to use until the 21st century. I'd kind of like to play around with old 70s, 80s and 90s computers but computers are inherently practical machines and I guess the only practical use an old one would have nowadays is playing old games from its era.
"Computer in a book"
All I thought of was Penny from Inspector Gadget.
Darn, my childhood dreams.
I'm a little blown away by the Apricot computer!
Wireless mouse and keyboard! Flats screen! Voice control!
These folks were really looking ahead! That one page advert was even aping the Apple stylistics!
It would be cool if you could cover some of these computers more in-depth at some point. Espescially the last one from Poland is really intriguing. What was the Operating system and what games were made for it?
Also, I think you should cover the Swedish Compis computers. My high school had a whole bunch of them piled up and my computer teacher said they had an add-on which made it possible to control RC cars with it. I however never got to try this out in person.
Jakob Holgersson Eastern Europe in particular had it's own set of computer systems and brands during that time that certainly deserve a look into.
Awesome, just what I needed an amazing LGR video :)
The first computer really makes me think of E.T.
I appreciate the ACT Apricot Portable's keyboard. It looks pretty good and easy to clean unlike certain later, chunky keyboards.
No Cardiff Giant?
Ha. I almost included the Grid Compass, which is what the Giant was largely based on!
My first computer as a child was the Coleco Adam. My parents still have it in a box somewhere. Can confirm the annoying 'you need the printer for its power supply'.
Some of the very first 'artwork' I did as a child, to get posted on the family fridge was typed out ASCII art printed off of that thing.
Also Buck Rogers on cassette and 2100 on cartridge. :D And my older brother retyping BASIC from a book into it.
6:48 - Poland can into IT!
We were always big on computers in Poland, even during the dark days of socialism. PC gaming is still way more popular here than consoles. It's not an accident PC friendly companies like GOG and CD Projekt are Polish.
Gotta love that Toy Story-reference. "To infinity and beyond"! Also heard it in some of your other videos. Keep it up, Buzz LGR!
The Holbern 9100 looks like a fallout 4 terminal.
I had that Seiko watch when I was at college (still got it somewhere), it was great for cheating in exams as none of the lecturers were particularly computer savvy, even the ones supposed to be teaching computing, in fact the only lecturer that realised what my watch was was the metalwork and technical drawing lecturer, he used to make me take it off in exams even though it was useless for cheating at technical drawing :-).
The Seiko UC-2000 looks like the thing they based the COMPs off of in Shin Megami Tensei.
Could very well be, seeing as the UC-2000 was most popular in Japan!
Huh.
Could have been.
There was another one in the 1980s: The RDI Halcyon. Released in 1985, it was a laserdisc based computer that would hook up to your TV. Inside the box included a membrane-based keyboard (it's plug was oddly enough a network port-connecting to the front of the machine), 2 games: Thayer's Quest, and NFL Football: LA Raiders vs SD Chargers-even with their respective overlays. The true selling point of this thing was the voice synthesis, understanding your name voice synthesis, as well as voice recognition up to 800 words (200 of which you could make up). It retailed for a price of around $2,500-$3,000. It was made by the same people who worked on Dragon's Lair, and Space Ace. In fact, they were going to be ported to the machine, but it flopped so hard, it caused RDI (the company behind such games) to go under. Incredibly rare, and hard to find. Sales figures for the machine were around 20,000 units instead of the initial 250,000 units expected to be shipped out. It's Artificial Intelligence predated Siri, Cortana and even Google Help-hence the name HALcyon (like Hal9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Make strangest computer desings of 70s :D
Planning to!
I used a microwriter at school and it's language was hell on earth to learn. It was designed mainly for the disabled and anyone with limited mobility in the hands, to use. I have mild cerebral palsy and the MW was mostly used for note taking. However, my school dumped the idea and let me use the Beeb at home instead.