@GrahamDowns
Here are three 1977 computers. I briefly used a TRS-80 Model I. Learned BASIC.
File:Home or Personal Computers from 1977 - Commodore PET 2001, Apple II, TRS-80 Model I, together called 'Trinity77' (edited image).jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AHome_or_Personal_Computers_from_1977_-_Commodore_PET_2001%2C_Apple_II%2C_TRS-80_Model_I%2C_together_called_%27Trinity77%27_%28edited_image%29.jpg
@royal @GrahamDowns Hardware like that would look so cool on my desk. I've always wanted a computer from that era. So little can do so much!
@royal @GrahamDowns I've heard poorly of the TRS-80!
@golemwire @GrahamDowns Some models were better. Not this one.
@golemwire @GrahamDowns
For example, this line was far better in my opinion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer?wprov=sfla1
@royal @golemwire @GrahamDowns
The CoCo's flickering color cursor probably looked really cool back then, but now it just looks like it's trying *way* too hard, kinda like earlyish 3d movies ;)
@GrahamDowns @royal @golemwire @RL_Dane every time I look at pictures of these old home micros I just can’t get past the keyboard. Especially having seen some of them come apart, there’s no way they felt good to type on at the time, forget how they must feel now with 30-40 years of material degradation.
@spaceraser @royal @golemwire @RL_Dane Interesting point! I never thought of that. :-)
@GrahamDowns @spaceraser @golemwire @RL_Dane The chiclets were awful. There are no words. Not all of them were that bad, though.
@GrahamDowns @spaceraser @golemwire @RL_Dane The chiclets were like the buttons on a cheap pocket calculator.
The better home computers had membrane keyboards akin to commodity desktop keyboards nowadays (the standard Dell keyboard, say). In this regard IBM really raised the bar. The PC and its immediate descendants had seriously clacky mechanical keyboards, all the way to the PS/2 of the late 80s/early 90s. Full size, full volume.
@spaceraser @GrahamDowns @royal @golemwire
Commodore and Apple had solid keyboards, if not ergonomics.
Never typed on a Tandy CoCo, but it looks like a macbook keyboard three decades ahead of its time XD
The Sinclair keyboards were bloody criminal.
@RL_Dane @spaceraser @GrahamDowns @golemwire The Coco 3 was good for a membrane keyboard.
There was a POKE you could do on the Cocos that would toggle the tape drive relay with every key press. Alternating high and low pitched thunk sounds plus haptic vibration. About as satisfying as you could get without a real mechanical keyboard.
@RL_Dane @spaceraser @GrahamDowns @golemwire One of those I didn't care for; maybe it was Apple? The actuation force required was too high for my taste.
@golemwire @GrahamDowns Well, the TRS-80 Model I couldn't do much.