Home computer
80s Home Computers
The 1980s were the period when computers started to become cheap enough for the general public to start buying them. The first home computers were primarily bought by computing hobbyists, but when game software became available they entered somewhat wider use for games. In a manner resembling the expansion of new animal forms in the Cambrian period, large numbers of new machines of all types, including such exotica as the Forth-based Jupiter Ace appeared on the market, and disappeared again. A few types remained for much longer, some, such as the BBC Micro still having a devoted following, but by the end of the decade most were squeezed out between the IBM PC-compatibles and the newer generations of video game consoles.
Many of these computers were superficially similar, having a usually very cheap-to-manufacture keyboard integrated into the processor unit and displaying output on a home television. Many used audio compact cassette as a (notoriously unreliable) storage mechanism, floppy disk drives were very expensive at the time. Cheapness was the order of the day for most of these machines.
- Radio Shack
- TRS-80 Model I, II, III, ...
- TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), Coco 2, Coco 3
- Tandy 1000