This past week Autopian readers once again proved that they’re the Rolls-Royce of Cadillacs when it comes to automotive enthusiast website appreciators, because not one but two ones of people sent me, for free, out of both simple kindness and a desire to rid their houses of old crap, some fascinating old computers. As you may know, when I’m not being obsessed with cars and need to be obsessed with old, often broken machines that are more compatible with interiors, I’m obsessed with old ’70s and ’80s computing tech. So, knowing my weakness, I was sent a true icon of computing tech, a Commodore PET, and an extremely obscure handheld computer, a Canon X-07. The PET needs some repair, but the Canon works, which is why you can see that partially-drawn Volkswagen Beetle on the screen up there.
An Autopian named Mike sent me the Canon; it’s about the size of a VHS tape and has a full version of BASIC that’s more full-featured than you’d expect from something that looks like an overfed calculator. In fact, this whole machine is strangely better than you’d expect: it’s capable of bitmap graphics on its 120×32 pixel screen, and there was even an option back in the day to connect it to a video monitor, where it could display eight colors at 256×192. For the era, that’s great!
I also was able to get it to play square-wave tones and I found you can re-define parts of the character set – this thing is way better than it has any right to be. There’s some onboard RAM disk storage and you can connect a cassette player for storage. How did these things never catch on? This little Z80-based machine, with the video adapter, could have been roughly on par with computers like the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A or the VIC-20 or Atari 400, all while being portable, too. But, nobody bought them, so it’s up to me to remind you they once existed.
Also, as you can see, even though I wrote a silly little drawing program for it, I forgot to do any error-checking, so it crashed mid-drawing, and I was too lazy to do it again. Oops.
The other computer, the Commodore Pet, from an Autopian named Peter, is colossal compared to the Canon, a 40-pound beast with a built-in CRT:
I love the look of this thing. This was one of the “1977 Trinity” computers, the first three real home computers to hit the market, along with the Apple II and the Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80. Look at that keyboard layout! No numbers on the main keyboard! Those miserable shift-required cursor keys!
The whole top of this lifts up like a car hood, and even has a prop rod like a car hood, too. There’s a bad capacitor down in the lower right of the picture, so I need to fix that, which I diagnosed just like you do with a British car with Lucas electrics: turn it on and see where the Magic Smoke is coming from.
Hopefully I can get it fixed and do dumb car drawings on this, too. It’s important, you see.
This was really, really tangentially related to cars. I bet David’s gonna bitch at me about that.
Torch, I love that you mix my two favorite things – retro computing and cars.
I was thinking it was a NEC PC-8201A at first, but it’s a similar machine.
“Hopefully I can get it fixed and do dumb car drawings on this, too. It’s important, you see.”
There is no need to justify the self-evident importance of PETSCII art.
Dad was one of those that attended the National Science Foundation classes to teach teachers about computers. Dad taught programming (COBOL, FORTRAN, and Basic) at Sacramento City College and used mimeograph handouts for students. They were hand-written by dad, transposed onto our TRS-80 (with multiple 8″ disk drives) by mom. Printed out on a customized IBM Selectric typewriter. Each hit by the typeface ball was quadrupled to hit the mimeo hard enough to transfer the ink. So when the print job was started, it sounded like brrrrt-brrrrt-brrrrt-brrrrt brrrrt-brrrrt-brrrrt-brrrrt for hours. A publisher saw the mimeos and asked if dad could write a textbook on programming (there weren’t any at the time). Dad wrote manuscripts out in longhand, mom transposed them. They were loudly printed out. I took them to libraries, obtained the key code device to copy them page by page (no page feeders then). Back then you paid 10 cents per page to copy. If the printer had no code device, I fed the machine dime by dime. The Key code device counted copies so I could pay the total. They produced about a dozen books with mom eventually getting author credit. One book featured my brother’s art work at the chapter start and the cover. We went out for “royalty dinners” long after the royalties stopped.
Damn it Torch. Every time you publish something like this, it sends me down a rabbit hole. The first computer that I actually used was a PET, sometime in 1980 (maybe early ’81). Somewhere in my parents storage locker, I have an NCR Decision Mate V, and a COSMAC Elf plus. I built the Elf as part of a summer class, also in the early ’80s. Both ‘ran when parked’, and I’ve been intending to resurrect both for many years. At least they take up less space than non-running project cars.
I remember seeing the Commodore PET in the computer lab in elementary or middle school I think. I remember those things did not like Florida humidity because I specifically remember them being rusty.
I thought it was only Coleco’s that needed Tru-coat!
https://frinkiac.com/video/S10E07/DSi5yXk3DpLWUqby9ZGOt11RaHQ=.gif
I was into weird computers back in this era. My favourite was a Yamaha CX5F. It was a Z80 machine with a built in FM synthesizer (same family as DX7) and an add on keyboard, I bought it new at what was a pretty low price for the day. I had lots of fun with it. I ended up giving it to a friend’s kid years later. I regret that now.
So like an idiot I recycled 5 laptops this year. Should have just sent that shit to you Torch. Damn it.
The TRS-80 was how I entered the world of tech. During my freshman year in high school a forward-thinking math teacher brought in the fairly new at the time TRS-80s. That inspired me to learn programming. I quickly ditched BASIC for assembly and started digging into the guts of the machine, quickly realizing programming was fine but not really my thing; I was really more interested in the hardware the programs ran on. I eventually become an electrical engineer, and it’s been a great run alongside the exponential growth of the semiconductor industry ever since.
Put me firmly in the Z80 camp as one of the great microprocessors of all time. I am shocked that I have no familiarity with or even memory of the Canon X-07 but your description shows it to be a remarkably capable machine for its era.
In a day and age where electronics probably comprises over half the cost of a car’s bill of materials I consider this to be most assuredly automotive adjacent and highly entertaining content. Thanks!
I like the low-rez Beetle drawing Jason! 🙂 Reminds me of something from John Muir’s beetle book… that sort of R. Crumbish thing going on.
I’ve owned SO MANY weird old computers in the past, though I didn’t have the good sense not to sell them to finance the next acquisition/error in judgement. I had not one but two Mindset PCs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindset_(computer) and that Sony CP/M computer with the genlocking function (I forget the name of it), and a couple of Osbornes (one of which I dragged with me on the 7 train in NYC mostly because it was possible to do so… just barely), etc… etc… etc…
There’s still some SGI stuff in the garage, but they notoriously cost more to ship than the hardware itself is worth. Haven’t used them in years, but they keep my ratty old Miata company. 😉
I always thought the Cold Starts were 100% in the Torch domain and expect them to be filled with whatever sorts of nonsense you think will appeal to us. I for one enjoyed this article.
I suspect that David, Beau, etc., can bitch all they want but there’s no reining in Torch’s free association form of writing.
Back when, programmable calculators were hitting the scenes. Aside from the usual math functions, if you wanted to do anything, you had to write a program. Started with the HP67 and eventually ended up with the HP41. Seemed it could do anything. So I was test flying aircraft in the Navy, primarily the E-2C Hawkeye, a gigantic computer that happened to fly as well. I had to calculate several parameters during the test, as some test were predicated on the tests results of other tests. Being a clever monkey, I wrote some programs on the HP41 to do this kind of menial math/circular slide rule stuff. Day comes to test it out in flight. My line guys actually made a modified kneeboard to hold it. I was jazzed. Get to altitude, the lads in the back asked to switch on the system and the gigantic 1.2 million watt Radar went online. As soon as the antenna rotated by the cockpit, zzthzzz. The HP41 was dead as a doornail. Shows the power of the force, I mean EMP.
I was listening to an old episode of Car Talk this weekend where they used the joke of “Why aren’t there any British computer manufacturers? Because they haven’t figured out how to make them leak oil yet”
But the Speccy!
Actually there was a pretty diverse selection of British computer manufacturers, but forgetting the ZX Spectrum and hit games like Bear Bovver and Ah Diddums, that’s going to really draw the ire of any nearby Brits.
There was a whole generation of programmers who started out with the Spectrum, and then went on to bigger things. Codemasters began this way. I have a Spectrum with a load of games and peripherals in Mother Dearest’s loft that I have promised Torch he can have.
What. Sinclair and Amstrad. Then I think acorn? Or apricot?
ARM grew out of the Acorn computer developed at Cambridge university. “The Chip Letter” on substack goes into quite a lot of detail
https://open.substack.com/pub/thechipletter/p/the-arm-story-part-3-creating-a-global-1b0
I like to bust out my OG iMac from time to time and connect it to the internet and see what happens so I get the appeal. Grew up on Commodore 64’s with the cassette deck in my house and it is amazing what used to pass as a computer compared to what we have today. So many hours spent playing Pole Position! I remember thinking back in 1998 that there was no way I could ever fill up the 8GB hard drive on my iMac. Now I roll with 128GB on my phone and 4TB at home…
I wonder how many of these silly utes had to Google VHS to get a picture for reference. Damn it, I’m old.
Ugh, that TRS-80 brings back a lot of painful memories from middle school. Lots and lots of hard key typing with nothing to show for it but sore fingers a cassette full of weird noises.
I’m glad to know there is such advanced computer technology powering this whole operation. Pretty cool that you can now go mobile with that handheld device, it’ll be like living in the future or something!
Just tell him this is important “CCO” type work, not for his CEO ass.
Back in 1982, for my computer engineering class final project, I wrote an assembler in BASIC for the Sharp PC-1212 pocket computer (similar to the Casio). Halfway through I discovered that there was not enough internal memory to complete the project so I built a hand-wired external RAM drive. It worked!
You could edit the assembler source code, print out source code listings (with comments!) onto the amazing little 4-color plotter/printer, assemble into binary, load into memory, and run. As a proof of operation, I wrote an assembler program that played “A Well-Tempered Clavier” on the internal piezo electric speaker 10 times faster than the Basic interpreter.
That project set the tone for many amazing, barely lucrative, and ultimately pointless engineering marvels I went on to create in my career.
Here is one of these lovely little machines. I still have mine.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155559476114?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1pUUDe-jkSSqvIDCzRutSXQ65&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=155559476114&targetid=1587268787897&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9010753&poi=&campaignid=20385105599&mkgroupid=150744488839&rlsatarget=pla-1587268787897&abcId=9316499&merchantid=6296724&gclid=CjwKCAjwt52mBhB5EiwA05YKox6X2zK9t3dznLg_qMM4UqqMrUOnvztAK-T9TRiupoFB8sbDRSb-XxoCbEgQAvD_BwE
Early in my career I had one of those Sharps. It was a lovely bit of kit and took me far in making engineering calculations. That extended display just made everything easier.
Then my boss sat on my desk and snapped the display. By then, Sharp had stopped making them and good used ones were hard to come by. I may have shed a tear over it. I switched to TI calcuators after that. Good, but never good enough.
I thought Canon had done a funny and included a drawing of a bug on the error screen. Bug. Get it?
Meanwhile I’m trying to draw future cars on a 3.6 GHz processor with 32 GB of RAM that’s quarter of a mile away from my actual desk and bitching about how slow it is.
I don’t even have to hold the cassette tape recorder away from the CRT while it saves, that’s progress.
I wish it was virtual, but my actual physical desktop is in a big room with hundreds of others where I can’t get to it to turn it back on when it crashes.
I say “crashes”, I strongly suspect someone in IT turns them off when they need a bit of overtime.
I bet it’s nice and warm in there in winter.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?!
Jason, if you haven’t already, you should look into a cassette drive emulator. You know, after you get all those car reviews written.
https://hackaday.com/2019/12/17/commodore-tape-drive-emulator-on-a-raspberry-pi/
Got to do Fortran on a donated IBM 1630 with punch cards and 4K memory in my high school circa 1968. Later, 1980, worked at Xerox PARC where they had the Alto with bit-mapped graphics. It’s been a little down hill since then, but I helped make flexible OLED displays possible before retiring to gardening in my dotage.
My first year at the University of Illinois the entry-level classes still used punch cards (PL/I on a never-seen IBM 370, if I recall). Nothing forces discipline and planning like typing out each line of code on a separate card.
It’s kind of like a hood prop, I guess. If the prop was also holding up the engine! I’d be worried about the CRT crushing my hand as I reached in to work on it.
Lots of years ago I worked on and collected Sun Microsystems stuff. The 4m workstations were called “pizza boxes” because they were large flat squares, though a little thicker than their cardboard counterparts.
They were also very heavy for their size because they were made of actual metal. This can be a little confusing until you realize that they were designed to have even heavier 20″ CRT monitors sitting on them. And unlike actual pizza boxes, the Sun machines did not have a center support to assist in holding up the lid. 🙂
They also used an oddball video connector (13W3) and had an equally strange screen resolution of 1152×900.
I never worked on much Sun equipment, so I didn’t know this! Thanks for sharing. Similarly, Macintosh LCII and LCIII computers were also “pizza boxes” for the same reason. They were only expected to carry the weight of 14-inch or maybe 15-inch monitors, though, so while they were surprisingly stout, they weren’t THAT stout.
I’m happy to provide useless information whenever possible. 🙂
Here’s a good pic of a SPARC20 with a monitor: https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/userdata/images/large/21/53/product-102153.jpg
It’s from the Centre for Computing History, thus reinforcing the “holy crap, that was a while ago” aspect. 😐
The pizza box is about 16″ wide, so you can get an idea of the scale.
That prop rod trick reminds us of a time when you didn’t have to wonder if you had a right to repair.
Take it easy on him David, while I normally do not care at all about computer stuff, there are few things that are not entertaining to read about from Torch!
What year is the X-07 from? I don’t necessarily care what year your new one was produced, just the year it came on the market? I probably missed it above, and I am going to have to google it shortly, when work allows.
Looks like 1983. Nice. Did not know they had anything like that that long ago. That’s pretty awesome.
That long ago!?!?!? Get off my lawn, ya damn whippersnapper! I have first-person memories of these things so it couldn’t be that long ago or I wouldn’t remember them.
haha 40 years ago was a while ago no matter how you look at it. My family had a computer before most because my mom worked on them, and we didn’t get a home computer until like 92 ish, so the idea that there was a handheld computer that was this capable nearly a decade prior to that is crazy to me.
For desktops, check out the Xerox 8010 Star from 1981, it’ll blow your mind (as it also did for people in 1981, just not enough to actually buy it)