Discussion of large systems - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

2 Nov 2006

...
   Tony Duell
wrote:

  You do. It saved them having to fit a tokenising
routine into the ROM.

 So how do you distinguish 'calculator' from 'computer'?   They work
better as a door jam. :)  
 Except that a common name for the ZX81 over here was the 'black 
 doorwedge' :-)

 -tony 
That's what Commodore used them for:

"Under this steady promotional blitz [of the C64], plus a trade-in option that
offered a $100
rebate on any other computer or video game console (a clever New York chain called Crazy
Eddy
started selling the cheap Timex Sinclair 1000, an Americanised Sinclair ZX-81, for $10 so
that
users could get the rebate; Commodore donated most of them to charity but kept some,
reportedly,
for doorstops!), sales skyrocketed and the C64 eclipsed its older sibling within a short
time."

http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/history.html

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