Top 5 worse computers from the 80s

While I'm sure someone could come up with a more definitive well-curated list, here's what I came up with on a whim: Sinclair ZX-81 The ZX-80 was a good, inexpensive step forward for the burgeoning UK computer market. Its successor, the ZX-81, tripped and fell rather than do anything beyond streamlining it for mass production. A real pain in the ass to type on, and notoriously flaky to do any serious work on. Localized in the US as the Timex-Sinclair 1000, it was too weak to really compete with the American market. British users seem to like them but I'd chalk up most of that to nostalgia goggles.

Apple III Apple tried and failed to make a business machine, and Jobs got his way a bit too much, and it overheated alot because he mandated that it couldn't have a fan. Ultimately, it confused people and was surpassed by better Apple II's. A weird footnote in Apple failures.

IBM PCjr The answer to a question that nobody asked. Crappy wireless keyboard, intended to be bolted to your home television. Cartridges? On an IBM? WTF is that? The expansion options are hot garbage. Eventually it was upstaged by the Tandy 1000 at its own game. Just get a PC XT. Or a Tandy.

Coleco Adam Likes to erase its own tapes if you leave them in the drive on power-up due to an electrical surge it shoves through the tape mechanism. The main system power supply is integrated into the printer, so you NEED the chonky printer to be plugged in for it to work. Has those weird phone pad + joystick hybrid controllers. Just get a ColecoVision to play your cartridge games.

Commodore Plus/4 I was going to take a stab at the MAX Machine, but Commodore did worse with the whole concept of the Plus/4. This thing was too cheap for its own good, and went in a completely bonkers direction at the behest of Jack Tramiel. It's supposed to be a cheap business machine to eat the ZX Spectrum's lunch. Why go after the little guy from the UK market? Who knows. Lame rubber chiclet keyboard, totally incompatible with existing Commodore software and most peripherals, and having 121 colors can't save it from being a dumb idea. Apparently it was a hit in eastern Europe.

Remember, pretty much every system has its fanclub, regardless of how flawed, underpowered, or limited a platform it is. So while I personally don't care for any of these machines, if you're mad at me for taking a pot shot at your favorite, do keep in mind that my favorite computer of all time is the VIC-20. You know, the one that most Commodore enthusiasts ignore for only having 5K of RAM having only 8 foreground colors, only 22 columns of screen resolution, and just not being a C64.

Sinclair User (April 1982) 

Sinclair ZX81 Print Ad, C+VG Magazine issue 2. December 1981

CLK Release 2024-05-05

A latency-hating emulator of: the Acorn Electron and Archimedes, Amstrad CPC, Apple II/II+/IIe and early Macintosh, Atari 2600 and ST, ColecoVision, Enterprise 64/128, Commodore Vic-20 and Amiga, MSX 1/2, Oric 1/Atmos, early PC compatibles, Sega Master System, Sinclair ZX80/81 and ZX Spectrum.

289)Get Ready With Me GRWM

● link 1 : Tistory

● link 2 : Patreon

brush 1, brush 2, palette @tv-sims https://tvsims4poses.blogspot.com/2021/09/tv-makeup-6-couple-poses-you-will-need.html?zx=8c939a1f6d59785c

beauty blender https://kikovanitysimmer.wixsite.com/kikovanity/single-post/2017/12/03/don-t-work-at-mac

mascara https://ayumea.wixsite.com/a-luckyday/single-post/2016/03/12/%E5%8C%96%E7%B2%A7%E5%93%81%E5%A5%97%E8%A3%9Dmake-up-set

lipstick https://kikovanitysimmer.wixsite.com/kikovanity/single-post/2017/08/17/getreadywithme-pose-pack

@ts4-poses

Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85 (ZX Spectrum, Danish Cracking Department, 1988)

Fittingly, originally distributed on audio cassette tapes. You can play it in your browser here.

Controls: M for menu, than A-G to select song. Hold M during a song to return to the menu.

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RetroGaming Shorts Part 092 - Dodgem

Dodgem ???? (ZX-81)

Game design inspiration! Dodgem takes a classic old school 1970s pre-CPU racing game paradigm and restricts it to only 4 directions. And it works. So yeah, a racing game works even with only 4 direction movement.

Sinclair ZX-81 (print ads in USA)

The Sinclair machines were among the cheapest (especially in the USA), the second machine, the ZX-81, was a great leap forward from the ZX-80.

Therefore, the price also increased, but it could be purchased optionally in a set at a price of $99.95. In 1981-82, this price was quite 'ridiculously low' - just for comparison: Atari 400 16Kb was $329, Atari 800 was $699, but even the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, which had been devalued due to the market crash, was $379.

ZX-81 was not successful in the USA, but it managed to sell 1.5 million units in the UK and EU (mainly due to its price).

These IPOs align with the broader trend of Chinese companies seeking public listings in Hong Kong, driven by regulatory scrutiny and market dynamics. Three prominent mainland China-based companies, led by Beijing Fourth Paradigm, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) software firm, have debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with initial public offerings (IPOs). Collectively, the companies plan to raise up to $280 million through the IPOs. Fourth Paradigm completed the necessary procedures for its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange back in July and received the official green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to conduct the offerings after three previous failures. The approval comes after the financial regulator implemented fresh rules to enable offshore listings. Fourth Paradigm Plans to Raise $144 Million A few months after obtaining the regulatory approval, the company now leads two other Chinese firms to seek funding through traditional IPOs. In this IPO, three cornerstone investors, led by New China Capital Management, have shown strong interest, subscribing for approximately $96.8 million worth of stock, accounting for roughly 70.6 percent of the total offering. According to a Monday filing, Fourth Paradigm plans to secure up to $144 million by issuing 18.4 million shares at a price range of HK$55.60 to HK$61.16 each. Launched in September 2014, Fourth Paradigm boasts various product offerings across different industries, including finance, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications. In 2021, the company completed its series D funding round, which saw participation from prominent financial companies such as Sequoia Capital, Goldman Sachs, China-UAE Joint Investment Fund, Mubadala Investment Company, and CDB Capital. These heavyweight investors contributed up to $700 million for the company. Two years after the Series D fundraising, the company found itself in the U.S. “Entity List,” which imposed restrictions on U.S. suppliers from shipping technology to the company unless they could secure a license from the country’s Commerce Department. Neusoft Xikang and ZX Seeks to Raise $135M in Hong Kong IPOs In addition to Fourth Paradigm, another Chinese firm, Neusoft Xikang, a prominent cloud hospital platform, is targeting an IPO to raise between $81 million and $101 million by selling 133.8 million shares. The shares are priced in a range of HK$4.76 to HK$5.91 each. Similarly, the third company in the IPO, ZX Inc, a mobile games operator, is offering 18.97 million shares priced between HK$11 to HK$14 each, intending to secure between $27 million and $34 million in funding. The two companies aim to raise approximately $135 million in the IPO, bringing it to a total of $280 million with the planned $144 million raise by Fourth Paradigm. These IPOs align with the broader trend of Chinese companies seeking public listings in Hong Kong, driven by regulatory scrutiny and market dynamics. Chinese firms are increasingly looking to tap into Hong Kong’s vibrant capital markets to fund their growth and expansion plans. Meanwhile, these offerings mark an exciting chapter in the growth of the three Chinese companies and their foray into the international financial landscape. Investors and industry observers will closely watch their performance in the coming months as they navigate the dynamic IPO landscape in Hong Kong. Thank you! You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Source

Linux Life Episode 81

Hello and welcome to my continued adventures into the world of Linux. As I said in the previous episode I have just installed Endeavour OS Cassini Nova on my Dell Precision M6800 i7 laptop (Mangelwurzel).

Now previously the Dell had caused issues with internet and Nouveau could not work with the Quadro K3100 graphics card but these issues seem to be resolved. Not unusual for something based on Arch Linux fixing issues giving the constant updating, but equally this can cause issues.

It seems I have an intermittent sound card that stops and starts when it feels like. If it was a driver issue it would fix quickly. However I admit that the sound card has stopped being recognised under Windows 10 too (yes I am running dual boot as the Dell has two SSDs in it. So the drives are on separate controller points).

I believe the op-amp on card is dying and occasionally has moments of working and then after an indifferent length of time (sometimes it works for hours, other times minutes) just stops.

So sometimes I have sound other times I don’t. I may have to see if I can get an external USB sound card.

I have installed a few emulators such as Fuse (ZX Spectrum emulator), VICE (C64 emulator), Caprice 32 (Amstrad emulator and MAME (Multi Arcade Machine emulator) so far they all work without any issues.

I did install Audacity, OBS Studio and KDEnlive but now the sound card has failed these items may be a bit of a dead end.

To be honest i don’t know where to go with this installation do I use it as a test platform to install things. I thought about this but there is no point trying to install Steam or various games as Nouveau can’t access Vulkan so I would not have access DXVK limiting access to OpenGL.

So probably limiting it to Shaders 2.0 even though the K3100 has access to Shaders 3.0+

To be honest Mangelwurzel is slowly fading. The DVD drive has failed, The Mousepad has failed, now the sound card is becoming intermitted and failing. The Quadro K3100 is not supported by the official Nvidia Linux driver as it is considered too old.

Unfortunately there is no chance I am going to be able to replace it with anything new any time soon so I continue to use the machine until it falls. Time to start backing up stuff I think.

Do I continue to play with Linux, to be honest I don’t know what to look into given the limitations and issues of the ailing beast. I wish I had a backup plan on this machine but now my i7 desktop is deceased I don’t even have a fallback that isn’t an Apple machine.

And that is a Xeon based Mac Pro 1,1 (ghosting as 2,1 as it has been CPU upgraded). Due to its 32 bit EFI I would have to run a boot modified version of Linux if I wanted to run it and the Nvidia card in the Mac Pro is even older than the K3100 or a similar age as its a Nvidia 5300 video card I think I can’t remember exactly.

But once again it would not be fully Nvidia supported and Mac OS X El Capitan is stopped being supported by Steam on 1 Sept 2023. So it would be limited if it would even work at all.

I need to start making contingency plans for the potential failure of Mangelwurzel. I will continue to run it as long as I can but will have to compensate for another failure. Hopefully it is just minor issues and I can keep it going until I can sort a replacement.

OK well I think that’s enough for now… until next time take care.

Things that came out in the 80s

Wanted to make this specific thing because I couldn’t find any ones that helped me. Hopefully this helps you, this may be constantly updating.

Cool Ranch Doritos (86)

Peanut Butter Boppers (85, discontinued.)

Cabbage Patch Kids (83)

Pound puppies TOYS (84)

Care Bears (81)

leg warmers (80)

Chicken McNuggets - yes I’m serious. (83)

Commodore 64 (82)

Macintosh (84)

Teddy Ruxpin (85)

the first permanent artificial heart (82)

The first payphone (89)

Sony CDP 101 (82)

Betacam/camcorder (83)

[first] Microsoft Windows (85)

Prozac (87)

Nintendo Gameboy (89)

PAC-MAN (80)

Koosh ball (87)

Jelly shoes (80)

Freezy freakies (80)

Garbage pail kids (85)

Slice soda/ Slice (84)

Lazer Tag (86)

glo worms (82)

The Clapper (84)

nerds Cereal (85, discontinued.)

slap bracelets (83)

fisher price cassette (80)

swatch (83)

speak and spell (81)

Nintendo entertainment system (83)

sharp pocket computer (81)

ZX spectrum (82)

Motorola MicroTAC (89)

Casio databank (83)

the og muppet babies (show) (84)

Rainbow Brite (show) (84)

Epson ET-10 (84)

Polaroid Sun AF 660 (81)

Sinclair User (April 1982)

the mind is always shifting in to- ward the heart of the poem and out toward the world it grows from and will grow back into

～ Hartman, Charles O. “The Sinclair ZX-81.”

Clock Signal 2024-01-22 released - A latency-hating emulator of 8- and 16-bit platforms: the Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Apple II/II+/IIe and early Macintosh, Atari 2600 and ST, ColecoVision, Enterprise 64/128, Commodore Vic-20 and Amiga, MSX 1/2, Oric 1/Atmos, early PC compatibles, Sega Master System, Sinclair ZX80/81 and ZX Spectrum.

Le ZX 81 , le premier ordinateur abordable pour le public

​  L’ordinateur Sinclair ZX 81 est présenté en 1981 et commercialisé en France début 1984, une innovation sans précédent puisque le grand public (assez averti tout de même) pouvait enfin avoir accès à la puissance informatique à la maison, les PC de la série série 80186 étant encore réservés aux bourses aisées en 1982. La société Timex qui commercialise le ZX81 innove en proposant son…

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