12 Apr
2001
12 Apr
'01
6:22 p.m.
On 12-Apr-2001 Mark Gregory wrote:
A consortium was put together that created proprietary
hardware running
a Unix variant (years before Linux put Unix in the mainstream). In a
world rapidly being swamped by the enthusiasm and high hopes of the
"Home Computing" revolution, where Commodore, Apple and Atari were
king, the Icon was a costly failure. It limped along for a few years,
but once the government lost its initial enthusiasm for
computer-assisted learning, the plug was quickly pulled.
Sounds like the Comterm here in Qu?bec. Same reasoning, only a bit
later (during the early "IBM clone" period) and it had to be made in
Qu?bec. Imagine an IBM-compatible in a case that looked like an Apple ][.
It was barely compatible. Most software failed on it. Espcially
educational games which sort of defeated the idea.
The last place I remember seeing an Icon was at
the Ontario Science Centre, where they were used to run programs like
Forest fire fighting simulations. I'd love to get one if I ever run
across one.
Yow! I remember that game. I played it for hours as a youth. I
guess this was the first case (out of many in later years) of "I'm going
to play this computer game until I understand it and how to solve it".
There were 2 outcomes : you water bombed the fire RIGHT AWAY and put
it out or the fire escaped and spread and eventually consumed everything no
matter what you did. Not very rewarding...
-Philip