Archives: 1970's

The Altair 8800 List Price: US $395 as a kit, US $650 assembled Release Date: February 1975 The Altair 8800 from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque, NM, is considered by many to be the first “personal computer” – a computer that is easily affordable and Read More...

The IMSAI 8080 List Price: US $931 assembled, US $599 as a kit Release Date: August 1975 Built by IMS Associates, Inc. of San Leandro, California, the IMSAI 8080 is one of the first consumer computers available. True, there were other, earlier computers, but most were available in Read More...

The Sol-20 Terminal Computer List Price: US $2129 assembled, US $995 as a kit Release Date: June 1976 Like many other computers, the Sol-20 was envisioned as something other than what it became. Originally designed as a simple terminal to communicate with other devices, it evolved into Read More...

The ADDS Regent 40 List Price: US $995 Release Date: April 1979 Applied Digital Data Systems of New York (or ADDS for short) is a computer terminal manufactured in the late 70’s and the early 80’s. Unfortunately, we have very little information about it. If you are Read More...

The Apple II Plus List Price: US $1200 Release Date: June 1979 The Apple II Plus was Apple’s third machine, released in 1978, after the Apple I and Apple II. The Plus was virtually identical to the standard Apple II model, but it had a different ROM, Read More...

The Commodore PET 4016 List Price: US $995 Release Date: 1978 The PET 4016 was the second in the series of what will become a long running series of PET computers designed by Chuck Peddle, (who also designed the 6502 microprocessor) and marketed by Commodore. The 4000 series Read More...

Release Date: 1979 CPU: Z80 at 4Mhz Ram: 8kb up to 256kb Price:$7200 Unlike the TRS80 model 1, the Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1 weighs close to 1.5 tons. It was however, one of the first machines that could reliably and relatively inexpensively run both CP/M and Unix. The DPS-1 appears Read More...

The Intertec SuperBrain List Price: US $2995 Release Date: September 1979 William M. Wells III (and brother Ron) started Intertec Data Systems as a one-man operation in 1973. He primarily made low-cost video terminals up until 1979, when the SuperBrain computer was released. Wells previously work at Read More...

Merlin the Electronic Wizard List Price: US $24.95 Release Date: 1978 Merlin (sometimes known as Merlin, the Electronic Wizard) was a handheld electronic game first made by Parker Brothers in 1978. Merlin is notable as one of the earliest and most popular handheld games, selling over 5 million Read More...