On 26/06/07, Jason McBrien <jbmcb1 at gmail.com> wrote:
OK, branching off another thread. There probably
aren't many, but there are
a few clones that I'd consider "interesting." I'd say the PCjr counts,
it
was a pretty strange system - the unsuccessful IIgs of the PC world. Sidecar
expansion slots, IR keyboard and cartridges...
The last of the PS/2's had some strange designs. The 95 was really strange -
a fold-out power supply design with a spring loaded plunger power supply
connector. C2 level hardware, which meant if you forgot the BIOS password
you're SOL. I'd count the whole MCA based PS/2 line as a string of oddities
in the PC world.
There were some really odd Japanese designs as well. My favorite is the FM
Townes, which was a hybrid PC and game console. It ran a proprietary OS, but
could run language-localized Windows. It also had an oddball graphics system
that could overlay multiple screen modes over each other, so you could play
full-motion video games with text overlay.
Agreed, especially with the PS/2s. Lovely machines - I still have an
80-A21 and a 55slc. Alas I never saw the later ones.
How about the SGI Visual Workstations?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Visual_Workstation
Also lovely machines. Beautiful design & build. Not very
PC-compatible, but ran Windows NT.
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