 This is the SF Productions podcast network There were PCs before IBM came from the pop culture bunker I'm Indy and I'm Mark you can check out our auto podcast how I got my free comics and iTunes or on our website SFpodcastnetwork.com So we recently talked about early video game systems. Yes, but what about desktop computers? Yes, a lot of people don't seem to remember that before the PC versus Mac religious wars began There were a lot of players out there, right? It wasn't just you know Dell and blah blah blah blah blah making PCs Right, so I was inspired to talk about this by another podcast called Antic and Atari 8-bit podcast I'm gonna skip the IBM PC players as well as Apple Because you know we could talk about those for quite a while on all on their own I'm also skipping Atari for now because I'm gonna save that for a future episode. You know a lot about your about the Atari stuff Yeah, so while the name desktop computer goes actually back to the 1960s the earliest models were actually built into a desk Yes, they weren't really desktop. They were desk computers. Yes. They don't really count Now there was the mother of all demos given in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart a very famous demo Where he showed email word processing hypertext, which is the basis for the internet Video conferencing and a mouse, but it required the exclusive use of a mainframe to have enough power to do it But this was very prescient of what we do today with computers Yes, and there were also some models in the early 70s that were kind of progenitors The Xerox Alto is considered the first GUI or graphical user interface computer But it never reached the general consumer market was sold into Businesses and maybe a little educational. Well, nobody ever imagined that you would need a computer in your home, right? Now Apple and Microsoft later borrowed concepts from the Xerox Alto for the for Mac and Windows And if you were an electronic hobbyist you could build kits like the Altair Had no permanent storage, right or a display or a keyboard. It was a box with switches on it Yes, and you had to program it by flipping switches every time you turned it on and not just I'm flipping the switch You had to program it flip flip flip flip flip over and over and over and over and over to get to the point Where you actually could load anything and that's even to have an operating system much less on application Yes, and you had to do that every time you turned it on Not really practical 1977 was the first wave of true consumer personal computers. I was in high school in 1977 and I was in like junior high. Yeah, I'm I'm older. Just slightly Tiny Boy, you're justifying that. Yes. No, no Okay, now, of course, there's Apple computers there, but there were also the Commodore pet 2001 I inherited one from my father-in-law and it still runs Yes, and I remember using that when I was in high school and then in college Now it has a built-in monitor has cassette storage because that's how you did storage back then Not a floppy drive on it, right? You had a chiclet keyboard you had a floppy disk as an add-on in a big huge box a separate seat This was all in like big sheet metal You know a heavy computer had a massive between four and eight K of memory K Okay, now keep in mind the smartphone that you have in your pocket right now most likely has Literally a million times more storage than that more memory than that Because it goes kilobyte a thousand times more is a megabyte and a thousand times more is a gigabyte You have gigabytes of memory in your in your phone And they sold as I said in the business and educational markets into the early 80s But never really caught on for consumers and they cost between 595 and 795 dollars and which was like a few grand back then Then there's the TRS 80 aka the trash 80 model one Which I also inherited one from my father-in-law. Yes, it was sold by the now nearly departed radio shack Yes, and TRS actually Stood for Tandy Radio Shack So they needed a replacement for falling CB radio sales I love my dad So stores could they figured stores could also use it to run Inventory if it didn't sell because they literally made one computer for each store Initially, and then what we'll see if it sells and if it doesn't sell you can run inventory for your story My dad must have got somebody's inventory system Has a real keyboard an external monitor a cassette drive and because they actually threw in a consumer Cassette recorder in in the mix. So they just took one of those off the shelf. Here you go. Here's your cassette drive Yeah, and an expansion module for a floppy drive Started at 599 dollars with the monitor the cassette drive and again 4k of memory And it's worth noting of course that all of these monitors were all monochrome Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're not talking graphic displays. This is all monochrome text. Yes Successor models were sold actually into the early 80s and then Radio Shack moved into the IBM PC compatible business at that point The second wave hit in the early 80s just as IBM began to get into the business Commodore came out with a Vic 20 the successor to the pet 4k of RAM this time expandable to a massive 64k of RAM. I remember when that went up and we just thought oh my gosh It's so much memory. Oh Has a real keyboard No monitor you had to hook it up to your TV, which is what most of these now did There was an internal cartridge port and External cassette drive and it was only two hundred ninety nine dollars for the base model So much better introductory price. Yes, and the Commodore 64 replaced that started out Standard with 64k of memory had better sound and video and it actually outsold the rest of the entire computer market including IBM through the mid 80s and why do you suppose that was because at the beginning the IBM PCs were Thousands of dollars. Yeah, you couldn't you know, so and this was you know, 399 or whatever it was Texas instruments also wanted to sell computers in order to sell their own chips Yep, so they had what they called the TI 99 for was introduced actually in 79 But never sold very well replaced by the TI 99 for a 1981 keep in mind Texas instruments all engineers didn't really understand how to actually make a name or a product Yeah, but numbers on things It was the first 16-bit processor and keep in mind everything was all 8-bit until then 64-bit new notes built-in keyboard Lots of peripherals including a speech synthesis module because TI was into that and a huge expansion box I mean basically the size of a larger traditional desktop PC Unfortunately, they got caught in a price war with Commodore that so even though they had a much better computer in terms of specs They dropped out of the market by 83 because really you know the consumer at this point does not know much about computers other than the price Exactly, and that's what they're buying it based on and still today to some extent. That's what's still happening Sinclair research a company out of the UK came out with the sx series between 80 and 82 The sx 81 which was their most successful model had a massive 2k of RAM But it was expandable to 64k and a membrane keyboard So it wasn't even a chiclet keyboard It was just this flat surface with this membrane on it and you had to go Did I hit the button? Did I not yes? None of these were really designed for say word processing or anything So timex license and sold it in the US for about a hundred dollars initially a huge seller due to the low cost Coleco followed up their successful Coleco vision video game system with the atom in 1983 for $725 you got a computer with 80k of RAM a built-in cassette drive and a printer And it was all compatible with the Coleco vision games. So, okay, this is great Unfortunately, it took a very long time to actually reach the market and a lot of technical issues which kind of killed it Yeah, such as When you tune when you turned it on it generated a huge may electromagnetic surge That would wipe cassettes and other media that were near it including the media you would have in the unit Just a slight problem. Yes, so by this point IBM basically took over with their PC architecture and from that point the rest is history and ever since then it's been IBM PC architecture and of course then an 84 Apple came in with the Mac and that pretty much stabilized the market for many years Yes And now only today are we seeing new players as the idea of the personal computer Starts to wane toward. Okay. I just need to get to the web, right? And especially with the mobile devices that you know, you can write, you know, your tablet or your phone completely replaces The need for a desktop computer, right? So, right So you can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife treat comics on itunes or on our website Sfpodcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm indeed and I'm mark. Thanks for watching enjoy computing