The EP-101 was an electronic mini-printer developed at Seiko. It evolved from the timing printer that Epson built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. After the games were over, the company realized that the printing technology they had created had a potential market of its own. In 1968, they released the EP-101 (Electronic Printer 101) micro-printer, which was the smallest and lightest printer in the world at that time. The printer soon became extremely popular for use with the new electronic calculators that were coming into the market. Many versions were developed for attachment to different types of equipment, and ultimately millions of the printers were sold around the world. This printer also gave Epson its name. The word was coined to mean "son of EP," or "Epson." It became the trade name for Seiko's printer business. Over the years, this printer and other products that the Epson division produced overshadowed the traditional Seiko watch business.
The Apple Lisa introduced the graphic user interface (GUI) into the Apple Computer Corporation's line of personal computers. Instead of using only text-based commands, users could employ pictorial icons displayed on the screen to initiate operations. Officially, "Lisa" stood for "Local Integrated Software Architecture," but it was also the name of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' daughter. This computer was also Jobs "baby," as he championed its creation and believed it would revolutionize personal computing. Apple spent four years and $50 million to develop it, but it turned out to be a commercial flop, in large part because of the $10,000 per unit cost. Only 80,000 were eventually sold. The Lisa is most important historically as the computer that pioneered concepts later used in the far more successful Macintosh.
This Lisa has model number A65B100 and serial number B08B832370482. It was owned and used by Roslyn Lang and her family. Her husband used it for academic work, while she and her children used it for computer games. She said: "As I recall, these were mainly games that you played against the software by looking at pictures of a castle and trying to free the princess without being eaten by an ogre!”
This strange-looking contraption was actually used to play an early video game.
To play the golf game on the “Brown Box,” a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, Baer and his colleagues mounted a golf ball on a joystick handle. This allowed the player to use a real golf club to practice his or her putting skills. Magnavox licensed the "Brown Box" and released the system as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Though it was never produced commercially, the golf accessory was covered with brown wood-grain, self-adhesive vinyl so that it would match the "Brown Box."
When most people think about the first video game, they think of Pong, the ping-pong arcade game released by Atari in 1972. However, months earlier, Magnavox had released its Magnavox Odyssey, a home video game system based on the “Brown Box,” a prototype invented by Ralph Baer. Additional games and accessories, like a lightgun, were sold in separate packages.
Since the Odyssey had limited graphic capabilities and displayed only a few small white blocks and a vertical line on the screen, Magnavox included translucent color overlays to provide settings and layouts for the games. Perhaps most surprising to modern gamers, the Odyssey also came with nonelectronic game accessories such as dice, decks of cards, play money, and poker chips. These accessories were possibly included to make the Odyssey more like the physical games that existed at the time.
With approximately 350,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success, especially in comparison with Pong’s runaway popularity. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. Many potential consumers were under the impression—sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen—that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox television sets. Despite these setbacks, Magnavox Odyssey made its mark by starting the video game console industry.
As the "Millennium Bug" gained media attention, some businesses used the hype to market special millennium foods. From cars to breakfast cereal, companies like the Figueroa Brothers, Inc., cashed in on the Y2K name. This bottle once contained "Y2K Millennium Meltdown R-U-Ready?" hot sauce, a spicy concoction that included hot peppers.
The Guardian Life Insurance Company's Y2K Project Team spent over three years working to make their company Y2K compliant. This meant many late nights working and thus many visits to the local restaurants. This bottle of hot sauce was given to the team by the owner of the restaurant most frequented by them.
This Y2K advertisment was from Computer Associates, a system and application software company now owned by Broadcom of California. The front features a man standing before a very large chalk board pointing to an endlessly long scientific equation. Below the image it reads: “And Now, A Simple Explanation Of How To Prepare For The Upcoming Century Date Change.” On the reverse is a letter from the company’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Rich Chiarello. The letter invites readers to attend a free 7-hour seminar titled “The CA Discovery 2000 Seminar.” Participants would learn the size of the problem, available options, where to start, and how much it would cost to remediate their Y2K problems.
The Commodore modem/300 model 1660 is a pulse-dialing modem with an audio input port. It was used with Commodore 64 and 128 computers and was a popular modem because of its low cost. However, since the modem was pulsed, the computer had to generate the touch tone sounds needed for transmission through telephone lines and send these tones through the modem. Because the tones were easily manipulated and changed, this made it a favorite modem for hackers and phreakers.
According to the accompanying instruction book, this is “the world’s first electronic desk calculator.” The full-keyboard, non-printing calculator has ten columns of plastic keys and shows 12-digit results. A column of keys for multiplication is on the left. Keys for arithmetic operations and for clearance are at the front. The machine used vacuum tubes—later electronic calculators would have transistors and then microchips.
The Anita Mark VIII was one of two electronic calculators developed by the British Bell Punch Company in a team led by Norbert Kitz. Kitz had obtained an advanced degree in computer science at the University of London in 1951, studying under computer pioneer Andrew Booth. He applied for a patent for an “electronic calculating machine” as early as 1957. By 1961, Bell Punch exhibited its Mark VII and Mark VIII electronic calculators at trade fairs.
A mark on the front of the machine read: ANITA. A tag on the bottom reads near the top: MODEL NO. C/VII/I006852/A. The tag also includes an extensive list of patent and patent application numbers. The last British patent listed is 868761, which was issued May 25, 1961. A mark on the plastic cover for the machine reads: ANITA
The operating instructions for the Mark VIII received with the machine were distributed by the Inter-Continental Trading Corporation of New York, N.Y. Also received with the machine is a booklet of operating instructions for the Anita Mark 9, a similar machine.
Norbert Kitz filed for a U.S. patent for this machine December 9, 1961(he had filed for earlier U.S. patents in 1957 and 1959), and was granted it October 18, 1966.
References:
Norbert Kitz, "Key Controlled Decimal Electronic Calculating Machine," U.S. Patent 3,280,315, October 18, 1966. There are extensive online discussions of the Anita electronic calculators.
This is an example of the first commercially sold handheld graphing electronic calculator, introduced by Casio in 1985. The sides of the calculator are black plastic, with a metal keyboard and back. As with earlier calculators, it includes a ten-digit array of keys for entering numbers, a decimal point key, four arithmetic function keys, a delete (clear entry) key, and an all clear key. In addition, it has keys for a wide array of mathematical functions, including square roots, squares, logarithms, natural logarithms, inverses, sines, cosines, tangents, powers, and roots. It is also possible to use the keys in “shift” and “alpha” modes to carry out different functions or enter alphabetic characters. One also may enter programs in a programming language devised by Casio and graph functions, either over a predetermined range or over a range set by the user.
Both programs and results appear on a liquid crystal display that is behind the keyboard.The display could show sixteen characters in each of eight lines. A mark behind the display reads: CASIO SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR fx-7000G GRAPHICS. The on/off switch is on the left side. A mark on the back reads: CASIO fx-7000G (/) RATING: DC 9V 0.07W (/) use BATTERY 3.0V x 3 (/) MADE IN JAPAN (/) BM CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD. A bar code sticker attached to the back of the calculator reads: SAN JUAN HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY.
The calculator is stored in a black plastic sleeve marked: CASIO.
For a slightly later form of the calculator, the Casio fx-7000GA, see 2000.0146.02.
Hawaiian-born Jeanne Shimizu taught mathematics at San Juan High School in Citrus Heights, California, from about 1979 until her resignation in 2001 after twenty-one years of teaching. At that point she went on to get a PhD. at Penn State, completing her degree in 2013. From 2012 she has been on the faculty at SUNY Old Westbury in Long Island, New York.
For a related manual, for the fx-7000GA, see 2000.3037.01.
This black leather carrying pouch for an electronic calculator has a Velcro fastening and a loop that fits over a belt. A mark on the belt side reads: H. B. BECKER. "H.B. Becker" written in gold ink on back of case.
The HP-45 calculator received with the pouch is 2004.3053.01. The case also has a pocket that holds an HP-45 Quick Reference Guide (2004.3053.05).
The Franklin Ace 1200 was a clone of the Apple II microcomputer sold by Franklin Computer Corporation. It was an upgrade of the Franklin 1000. It was compatible with Apple II computers, but could also run the CP/M operating system.
The Franklin ACE 1200 had a MOS/Commodore 6502 microprocessor that ran at 1 MHz. It contained 48 KB of RAM and 16 KB of ROM and dual 5 ¼" floppy drives. The Ace 1200 came out between Apple II+ and the Apple //e. It included a CP/M card, a disk controller card, an 80 column card, and a dual serial/parallel card that was software interchangeable. The printer card caused problems because many applications did not recognize it.
The Franklin Ace 1200 was introduced in about 1983 for the price of $2,200 (the donor said she had acquired this one in 1982). Several games came with this example of the microcomputer. The Franklin series ended after Franklin lost a legal battle with Apple.
Pronto Systems, Inc. introduced its Pronto Series 16 microcomputer in 1983. It represented the high end of business computing of its era. The Pronto pioneered innovative design features, including a tilting and swiveling monitor, a small foot print, a streamlined and adjustable keyboard, and an expandable cord that allowed the processor to be stored as much as six feet away from the monitor. These features won a 1983 design award from Industrial Design Magazine. The computer offered the first tower system—a design that later became common in the industry. This index number covers the tower.
Inside, the Pronto 16 was a powerful machine designed for the full range of business applications. It had a 16-bit Intel 80186 microprocessor. It was shipped with MS-DOS 2.0. It had 128 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 1 MB. The standard hard drive was 5.6 MB, and it was removable. The computer had dual 800 KB floppy drives (5 ¼"), dual serial ports, one parallel port, and a high-resolution monochrome monitor. Users could buy a color monitor as an option. The base price was $3,000.
Over 1,000 systems were sold from 1983 to 1987. The company had to file for bankruptcy when the stock market crashed while the company was in the process of going public through an Initial Public Offering.
The donors of this example of the Pronto 16 were both associated with the firm that made it. Henry Gasbarro was founder, executive vice president, and chief technology officer of Pronto. He created the company in 1982. Skip Hansen, vice president of engineering, was responsible for the hardware design, software,and the high-resolution graphics capability that the system had.
See the other parts of acquisition 2001.0255 as well as 2001.3082.
This object number covers the monitor and attached keyboard by Data Terminals Corporation used with an Alpha AM100 microcomputer.It has serial number 7015308. Introduced in 1977 by Alpha Micro Systems, the Alpha Micro 100 was an ambitious attempt to break out of the Intel 8080 mold of the late 1970s and to offer a true multi-user, multi-tasking microcomputer based on S-100 bus technology. The machine was expensive, and was targeted for sale to commercial firms or successful professionals. Ultimately, the entire (and quite extensive) commercial sector that was based on the S-100 bus machines (and the CP/M operating) collapsed in the face of the competition from the IBM PC and Microsoft's DOS
The Alpha AM 100 contained a WD1600 processor that ran at 2 MHz. It used Alpha Micro Operating System (AMOS).
The Alpha AM 100 represents the early attempt by the industry to move beyond the limited 8-bit technology of commercial use. From this arose a class of expensive and higher performance machines based on the S-100 bus and CP/M operating systems. The Alpha Micro 100 was the first proper multi-user microcomputer available and was first available in kit form.
For the microcomputer, see 1998.0634.01. For other parts, see 1998.0234.03 and 1998.0234.04. For documentation see 1998.3072.
The Phone Plus, a smart screen telephone designed and released by U.S. Order in 1994, was created to appeal to the home user. It was an enhanced "information appliance" that combined the functions of a telephone with Internet packet-switching technology and included banking and shopping features. With the Phone Plus, a user could speak on the telephone, read and write e-mail, pay bills, check bank statements, receive news and weather information, and shop for groceries or catalogue goods. The telephone included a high-resolution display, a QWERTY keyboard hidden underneath the telephone keypad, 256K memory and a magnetic card reader. This "home transaction terminal" had limited functions, however, and failed because users had already turned to the Web for these same features. VeriFone Inc., a leader in point-of-sale terminal hardware and software, purchased the technology from U.S. Order. U.S. Order, now known as InteliData Technologies Corp., and VeriFone continue to develop hardware and software for the home banking and retail markets.
This small paperback book describes the operation of the Casio fx-7000GA graphing calculator. The undated publication is well illustrated. The calculator shown closely resembles the Casio fx-7000G, an example of which is 2000.0146.01. Both that calculator and the manual were used at San Juan High School in Citrus Heights, California.
This is an example of a slightly later version of the Casio fx-7000G graphing calculator introduced by Casio in 1985. The sides of the calculator are black plastic, with a metal keyboard and back. As with earlier calculators, it includes a ten-digit array of keys for entering numbers, a decimal point key, four arithmetic function keys, a delete (clear entry) key, and an all clear key. In addition, it has keys for a wide array of mathematical functions, including square roots, squares, logarithms, natural logarithms, inverses, sines, cosines, tangents, powers, and roots. It is also possible to use the keys in “shift” and “alpha” modes to carry out different functions or enter alphabetic characters. One also may enter programs in a programming language devised by Casio and graph functions, either over a predetermined range or over a range set by the user.
Both programs and results appear on a liquid crystal display that is behind the keyboard.The display could show sixteen characters in each of eight lines. A mark behind the display reads: CASIO SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR fx-7000GA GRAPHICS. The on/off switch is on the left side. A mark on the back reads: CASIO fx-7000GA (/) RATING: DC 9V 0.04W (/) use BATTERY CR2032 x 3 (/) MADE IN JAPAN (/) BM CASIO COMPUTER CO., LTD. A bar code sticker attached to the back of the calculator reads: SAN JUAN HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY.
The calculator is stored in a black plastic sleeve marked: CASIO
For a related manual, see 2000.3037.01.
In addition to requiring less power, the Casio fx-7000GA had a slightly larger type font on its keys and used a keyboard that was in shades of gray rather than silver. In the fx-7000GA, keys for finding estimated values using a regression formula are found in a different mode. In other words, the keys designed for multiplication and division are used somewhat differently.
This computer game software, for use on a Commodore 64 microcomputer, has the original box containing a 5 ¼” diskette with the “Transformer” software, an 8-page User Manual, and a brochure for productivity software by Personal Choice Software.
The action role-playing game “Transformer” was designed by David Crane and published by Activision in 1986. It was based on the popular animated series “Transformers.”
The game had two groups, the Decepticons, who found a way to drain the Earth’s energy supply, and the Autobots, who sought to stop them. The player controlled the Autobots and accumulated points by destroying the Decepticons as they attempted to steal resources. The Decepticons gained points for successfully stealing them. The group with the most points at the end of the game won.
What do you do after you invent the video game? Try to make it better!
While preparing their video game system prototype, the “Brown Box” to be presented to potential investors, Ralph Baer and his colleague Bill Harrison created TV Game Unit #8. They wanted to demonstrate a more advanced technology that would allow the user’s paddle to determine, in the direction and speed of the game ball, when the two would collide. This would allow for games such as baseball and more realistic hockey game play.
This TV Game Unit #8 interfaced with the "Brown Box," but proved too expensive to pursue in these early stages. Since it was not going to be shown to investors just yet, it was never covered with brown wood grain self-adhesive vinyl to match the "Brown Box." A few years later, this technology was key when Baer and his colleagues started to design and build arcade games.
This yellow-tinted electronic cash register sits atop an off-white cash drawer. It has black keyboard keys, a printer for receipts, and a red digital display. The key that opens the cash drawer is missing.
A mark on the left front reads: CHECK-A-TRON. The machine has serial number 4500032. Stanley Hayman Business Machines stickers are on the front and the back.
Check-A-Tron began selling an American-built electronic cash register in 1975. In 1977 it introduced the MICROS electronic cash register/point-of-sale terminal. The firm also distributed Sanyo cash registers made in Japan. According to a mark on this machine, it was assembled in the United States. By 1983 Check-A-Tron Corporation was out of the cash register business entirely.
Reference:
Creative Strategies Internaional, Retail Automation to 1983, San Jose: Creative Strategies International, 1980, esp. p. 116.