In sweden, abc 80 (meaning advanced basic computer for the 80s) was a fairly popular home computer which also saw use in schools and business. Libraries had manuals and software cookbooks for ABC BASIC. Launched in 1978, it was z80 based and made by the same tv company (luxor ab) who made a local version of Fairchild Channel F called "Luxor Video Entertainment Computer".
If you lived near Stockholm, you could download applications to tape via radio; broadcast by "the ABC club", a bit like the BBC/Acorn partnership but on smaller scale. Its schematics were published in a book called "the ABC of microcomputers". It was superseded by the largely backwards-compatible ABC 800 in 1981, which introduced a c64-style colour mode by halving the x resolution. There was an external graphics card which let you have both 8 colours and 'high' resolution, by remapping external video memory when it needed to be accessed. Otherwise, the 64kB addr space was divided half and half between ROM and RAM. Luxors' advertisement boldly asked "Who needs to be IBM complatible?"
In reality, a program called W ABC was used to convert and transfer files to diskette.
They released ABC 1600 in 1985 which used Motorola 68008 and an OS called "ABCenix" which was based on DNIX. Its most notable feature was its 90 degree rotating screen which could be configured as either portrait or landscape, at a resolution of 1024 x 768. I don't think this computer saw much use among hobbyists.
Ericsson, later more known for cell phones, made a suite of business computers; including laptop models. Their screens were red phosphor monochrome. I suspect this was for branding/style reasons, because i cannot imagine red phosphor being relaxing to stare at hours on end at work.
Then there's the infamous "Compis" computer (a play on words, meaning both comrade and COMputer In School). A state funded private/public partnership to raise the competence by introducing high school students to a computer made for the specific purpose of teaching computer science. A bit like BBC micro. The trouble being that noone in business or the industry was using "compis", so students would be taught a system they'd never use outside school. From a performance standpoint, it was up to date and all right, but it wasn't ibm /ms-dos compatible and came too late in this regard.
It's also infamous for its delete key. It reads 'utplåna', which means "obliterate" or "destroy" as much as it does mean "delete" or "erase". Very menacing. Who dares press it? Its placement next to seach almost implies "search and destroy".
It did have $ at shift+4 though, unlike the modern swedish keyboard layout...
What quirky computers did your corner of the world see?
If you lived near Stockholm, you could download applications to tape via radio; broadcast by "the ABC club", a bit like the BBC/Acorn partnership but on smaller scale. Its schematics were published in a book called "the ABC of microcomputers". It was superseded by the largely backwards-compatible ABC 800 in 1981, which introduced a c64-style colour mode by halving the x resolution. There was an external graphics card which let you have both 8 colours and 'high' resolution, by remapping external video memory when it needed to be accessed. Otherwise, the 64kB addr space was divided half and half between ROM and RAM. Luxors' advertisement boldly asked "Who needs to be IBM complatible?"
In reality, a program called W ABC was used to convert and transfer files to diskette.
They released ABC 1600 in 1985 which used Motorola 68008 and an OS called "ABCenix" which was based on DNIX. Its most notable feature was its 90 degree rotating screen which could be configured as either portrait or landscape, at a resolution of 1024 x 768. I don't think this computer saw much use among hobbyists.
Ericsson, later more known for cell phones, made a suite of business computers; including laptop models. Their screens were red phosphor monochrome. I suspect this was for branding/style reasons, because i cannot imagine red phosphor being relaxing to stare at hours on end at work.
Then there's the infamous "Compis" computer (a play on words, meaning both comrade and COMputer In School). A state funded private/public partnership to raise the competence by introducing high school students to a computer made for the specific purpose of teaching computer science. A bit like BBC micro. The trouble being that noone in business or the industry was using "compis", so students would be taught a system they'd never use outside school. From a performance standpoint, it was up to date and all right, but it wasn't ibm /ms-dos compatible and came too late in this regard.
It's also infamous for its delete key. It reads 'utplåna', which means "obliterate" or "destroy" as much as it does mean "delete" or "erase". Very menacing. Who dares press it? Its placement next to seach almost implies "search and destroy".
It did have $ at shift+4 though, unlike the modern swedish keyboard layout...
What quirky computers did your corner of the world see?