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Surprisingly Official Attention
Sep. 18th, 2012 08:37 pmEvery so often, I read the just-archived messages from a mailing list about the Radio Shack/Tandy Color Computers, one of which is the sole piece of "8-bit" hardware I don't have to say "emulation is the sincerest form of flattery" about. On my latest look through the messages, I noticed discussion about Radio Shack itself posting some online videos in which a veteran engineer and a writer about old computers discussed the Color Computer, with one of the machines visible in the background.
I suppose it was seeing the company that once sold the computers talking about them that got my attention, just because it stood against a significant theme in the armchair quarterbacking that seems to go along with interest in "old computers," lamenting how the companies cruelly abandoned their 8-bit user bases to chase new respectability dismissed as in the end just playing into the hands of Bill Gates. (Well, I suppose I have seen comments that Commodore diverted time and money into trying to develop a "Commodore 65" when it should have been keeping the Amiga at the forefront of technology...) This might, I suppose, have a little to do with how, just a few years after Radio Shack finally took the years-old Color Computer 3 out of its catalogues, it stopped selling "Tandy"-branded PC clones and just started selling computers made by other companies. It is, though, still more or less in business, as opposed to certain brand names now owned by new people. Beyond the surprise, though, I also noticed comments there's a a book on the Color Computer in the works, and that might be very interesting.
I suppose it was seeing the company that once sold the computers talking about them that got my attention, just because it stood against a significant theme in the armchair quarterbacking that seems to go along with interest in "old computers," lamenting how the companies cruelly abandoned their 8-bit user bases to chase new respectability dismissed as in the end just playing into the hands of Bill Gates. (Well, I suppose I have seen comments that Commodore diverted time and money into trying to develop a "Commodore 65" when it should have been keeping the Amiga at the forefront of technology...) This might, I suppose, have a little to do with how, just a few years after Radio Shack finally took the years-old Color Computer 3 out of its catalogues, it stopped selling "Tandy"-branded PC clones and just started selling computers made by other companies. It is, though, still more or less in business, as opposed to certain brand names now owned by new people. Beyond the surprise, though, I also noticed comments there's a a book on the Color Computer in the works, and that might be very interesting.