Archive for the 'Personal Computers' Category



1980 J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog: Atari 800

1980 JCPenny Christmas page354

Oh my holy grail. This is the best gift I ever got, although it was between $200 and $300 when my dad told me, out of the blue, to grab one off the shelves—was it ’82, ’83? That was a lot of money then, and here it’s bloody $1,080! Mine came with Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and the Basic cartridge. I didn’t have any of the peripherals, and at some point after War Games came out I started to long for a more sophisticated system: the IBM PC XT. That never happened, but I did get to borrow one from my dad’s friend, who went out of town for a weekend. I was on that thing all night, man, just sitting in the dark, my face lit up by the glare of that beautiful green text.

The 800 was my first love, though. And you never forget your first love.

(Image via WishbookWeb. Click to enlarge.)

Starcade Prizes: Spectravideo and the Aquarius Home Computer System

“Spectravideo: The personal computer you grow into and not out of.” Built in joystick? Bad Idea Jeans.

The Aquarius system, released in 1983, was Mattel’s attempt to get into the home computer game.  It didn’t do so well, which is why they had to give the damn things away every week on Starcade.


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