Vintage computers you've never heard of

HiI'm British so I was interested in asking you people about old computers starting from the late 70's through to the 80's era that were released in your country but no where else.I know about some of the first home computers released in the U.S such as the Radio Shack TRS80, Commodore's PET, VIC-20, C64 and the Apple II, but do you guys know anymore?In the UK we had the Commodore machines of course but there were a few others that competed against it such as the Sinclair Spectrum range (known as the 'speccy') and Amstrad's CPC464 computers.Also, what computers were used in U.S schools in the 80's and 90's before PC's became the standard? In the UK a computer company called Acorn got into a parternship with the BBC to create the BBC Mircocomputer (it was affectionaly known as 'The 'beeb'). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bbc_computerDiscuss.... Vintage computers you've never heard of
Why no responses, are you all too young for the 8 bit 'golden age' of computer gaming?Vintage computers you've never heard of
BBC Micro? Sinclair Spectrum? Have you mentioned Amstrad? I know a few but I only had a C64.
So whats the point
We had a bunch of APPLE II's in my elementry school growing up - which coincidently caught on fire at the rate of once per year :P
[QUOTE=''mcddimz'']We had a bunch of APPLE II's in my elementry school growing up - which coincidently caught on fire at the rate of once per year :P[/QUOTE] I remember having apple computers at my elementary school also.
[QUOTE=''mcddimz'']We had a bunch of APPLE II's in my elementry school growing up - which coincidently caught on fire at the rate of once per year :P[/QUOTE]Same here. Apple IIe, to be exact. This was in the mid 80's, New York City.
Commodore 16, anyone?
If I had never heard of them I wouldn't be able to name them would I?:PAnyway, some computers from the 80's would be the NEC PC-8801/9801, MSX/MSX-2/MSX-2+, Fujitsu FM-TOWNS and Sharp X68000.
[QUOTE=''Panzer_Zwei'']If I had never heard of them I wouldn't be able to name them would I?:PAnyway, some computers from the 80's would be the NEC PC-8801/9801, MSX/MSX-2/MSX-2+, Fujitsu FM-TOWNS and Sharp X68000. [/QUOTE]

You took the words right out of my mouth. Those are all Japanese computers, though the MSX standard did have a bit of a foothold in Europe.



Also, I'm very surprised that the TC didn't mention the Acorn Archimedes...or is that too modern? From what I know, the Archimedes was a very advanced RISC computer at the time (sometime around the late 1980s/early 1990s IIRC), holding up very well to the Commodore Amiga hardware-wise, and was primarily used in schools like most Acorn computers. It also happens to be the platform for which the ARM architecture is created-that's right, your gaming handhelds, cell phones, PDAs, and the like all probably have a CPU derived from the Archimedes to some extent! It got succeeded by the RISC PC line that ran this RISC OS I don't know too much about.



As for what computers dominated schools in the States? Back in my elementary school days (1990s), there were Macs everywhere, back in the days of the Classic Mac OS and probably 680x0 CPUs as well. I remember playing a version of The Oregon Trail and The Amazon Trail on those things, as well as Kid Pix. It wasn't until later that I stumbled upon an Apple II in a school, and on that machine I played The Oregon Trail again-but in its original format. However, by the time I got into middle school (2001-2004 or so), schools were largely dominated by IBM PC clones.



And, yes, I'm basically too young for the 8-bit age of computers. I was raised with early IBM PC clones with 486s/Pentiums, VGA cards, Sound Blasters, and the like, along with the classic Macs in school. My only regret is that my first computer wasn't an Amiga A1200 or A4000-I can't state how badly I want an actual Amiga, despite never encountering one in-person and just familiarizing myself with it through WinUAE and the Internet.
The C64 was without a doubt the most widespread computer in the 80s in Sweden, where I live. The ZX Spectrum was very rare over here, much more so than in the U.K. During the late 80s and early 90s (until about 1995) the Amiga remained one of the most popular computers alongside Atari ST/TT/Falcon and the then pretty recent VGA PCs computers. The C64 was still common. But around the time of the release of Windows 95, and around the time that the internet became more widespread, the PC quickly took over more or less the entire computer market in Sweden. (Atari and Commodore went bankrupt; Atari in 1996, Commodore in 1994).In schools, I remember the swedish computer ABC80 (and variants) being popular, as well as a computer called Compis (kompis is swedish for ''friend''). Some VIC20s existed, but the PC established itself faster in schools and in businesses than it did on the hobbyist, enthusiast front and in homes in general. Windows 3.0/3.1 PCs (486 and 386 machines) with Novell Netware were the most common in schools when I was about 12-13 (1995-1996). Computers became much more mainstream, of course, starting in the mid 90s, and from there on things changed rapidly, exlusively in favour of PC computers, as I said.