LGR - Strangest Computer Designs of the '80s 

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.

it has a handle so it HAS to be portable...

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.

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!

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.

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

was it a good pizza?

was it a small pizza?

was it a square pizza

was it pizza

was it

Never said these weren't awesome! In fact, the stranger they get the more awesome they are in my opinion ;)

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!

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!

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

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!

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!"

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.

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

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.

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: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OjmqTBILs6g.html

Sure thing! Over half of my viewers are from outside the US, so it just makes sense.

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

HAZARDOUS88 E.T. is 1982

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

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.

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.

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.

My high school had the those Sammy ICON computers as well running QNX.

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.

Thank you :)

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 to był element niszczenia polskiego przemysłu przez Niemiaszków. Niemiaszkom się udało.

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.

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

Planning to!

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.)

David Dawson also thumbs up for pronouncing "Elwro" as "Elvro". Clint did his research.

Ha. I almost included the Grid Compass, which is what the Giant was largely based on!

Could very well be, seeing as the UC-2000 was most popular in Japan!

Huh. Could have been.

The keyboard is detachable on those. Most of those who owned them probably kept the keyboard stashed in their pocket for when they needed it.

Yukari Yakumo Which is why I said "attached".

id wear it

+A Player 69 Honey, you just wear the wrist on your arm ... The keyboard is either worn on your chest or attached to your forehead for easy access. This is except for the Powerglove and Pit-Boy line of models, where you indeed wear it on your arm.

Back in high school, I used to walk around with a ruler and a pen attached under my watch since they didn't fit in my pockets and I didn't feel like holding them in my hands. Easy for me to forget about them.

That's awesome! They made fascinating machines.

Lazy Game Reviews I suppose the wire support helped students when it came to typing out book reports!

Jomaster The Second lost all of my brain cell in one comment

I'd like to do a whole video on Soviet-era machines! I own a couple of them, they're fascinating.

LGR is my favourite channel on youtube.. Thankyou Clint!

@@LGR That would be super interesting. I'd love to see more weird computers!

everything is entered in braille and it has this awesome synthesized voice that sounds like a robot

The Braille 'n Speak. Blazie Engineering's first product, released in 1986. I have a Type 'n Speak which I picked up at the local flea market a few years back. It is basically the same device but with a QWERTY keyboard. I built a new battery for mine. I wish I had the floppy disk drive and serial terminal cable so I could use it with a terminal display.