Help jog my childhood memory
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:55 amThere are two computers from my childhood that I'm trying to find information on.
First, was a portable, BASIC driven computer that my father (a technician for Telecom South in Timaru) had in his company car around 1988. All he remembers today is it might have been an NEC? I'm not sure what he ever used it for, but I remember playing with it and its accompanying printer as a child.
I recall it being a flat all-in-one (LCD screen above the keyboard) with perhaps a 40x8-ish character display? The closest possible match I can find is the TRS-80 Model 100, but I have a vague recollection that what I had was bigger - perhaps about the size of two Commodore 64s sitting in front of one another? About the same size as a portable typewriter, and perhaps even with a carry handle.
Maybe someone out there remembers what was on the market (or even better, what Telecom used) around then.
Next up, and with even less information, is a game machine which we had from my earliest childhood (early 1980s) until we sold it in a garage sale in Christchurch in the late 1980s. I recall it being yellow (or maybe just yellowed with age) and having at least a Pong game of some sort, which suggests it might have been one of those multi-sports TV consoles from that era.
I suspect I'd identify either of these from a photo, if anyone might think they know what they are?
Thanks in advance!
First, was a portable, BASIC driven computer that my father (a technician for Telecom South in Timaru) had in his company car around 1988. All he remembers today is it might have been an NEC? I'm not sure what he ever used it for, but I remember playing with it and its accompanying printer as a child.
I recall it being a flat all-in-one (LCD screen above the keyboard) with perhaps a 40x8-ish character display? The closest possible match I can find is the TRS-80 Model 100, but I have a vague recollection that what I had was bigger - perhaps about the size of two Commodore 64s sitting in front of one another? About the same size as a portable typewriter, and perhaps even with a carry handle.
Maybe someone out there remembers what was on the market (or even better, what Telecom used) around then.
Next up, and with even less information, is a game machine which we had from my earliest childhood (early 1980s) until we sold it in a garage sale in Christchurch in the late 1980s. I recall it being yellow (or maybe just yellowed with age) and having at least a Pong game of some sort, which suggests it might have been one of those multi-sports TV consoles from that era.
I suspect I'd identify either of these from a photo, if anyone might think they know what they are?
Thanks in advance!
I can't even remember what I used to use it for. I believe I had a Commodore 64 at the time (if not, we had a VIC-20 before) so I probably was more a tinkerer than a programmer or a game player.