25 Jun
2007
25 Jun
'07
1:09 p.m.
On 25 Jun 2007, at 18:29, Liam Proven wrote:
What mattered to *me* was Clive Sinclair's computers. Machines you
could actually afford. Microcomputers for the everyman. Not business
machines for thousands, not even cut-down toys for the American home
market or high-quality educational machines for the European market,
but computers designed and made for the home, for hobbyists, where all
you needed was the computer - it worked with your existing TV and
cassette tape recorder - and said computer cost, say, a week or two's
disposable income, so it's something you might buy for your child.
I started collecting home computers and have a large number of Apple,
sinclair , commodore and amstrad equipment. This started my interest
in computers of all types. After joining this list, my horizons have
been broadly expanded as to what was available if you had the money. I
like nothing more than messing about with hardware that once cost as
much as my car or even house but is now almost free.
Tony, your HP sounds like the first single-unit ready-to-use desktop
computer, but that's not the same thing. I bet it was appallingly
expensive, and with a calculator display what it could do would be
very limited - a great deal less than a 1K ZX-81, I would think...?
HP-85's are my favorite. A machine i had never heard of 20 years ago.