Tommi

From dial-up screeches and Y2K countdowns to flip phones taking over the world to today’s AI tsunami (disaster?) reshaping everything… I’ve been on every wave. But I keep coming back to retro tech. Even when I was a child, I was fascinated by tech history, and I still am.

@DreitTheDragon Not the drying of clothes LOL. That made me physically laugh out loud 🤣

@tommithetechie From reading several stories: - You had to put wooden planks under "monitor" (repurposed Tesla Merkur) so base didn't melt - It was SLOW - Students used it to dry out clothes during rainy days - There was networking option(!!!)

This is the IQ 151, a Czechoslovak 8-bit computer from the mid-1980s, made by ZPA Novy Bor. It was mainly used in schools and other institutions rather than as a typical home computer. Fun fact: This machine was modular, and you had to add different expansion modules to make it fully useful. The base machine was pretty minimal "out of the box". The mainboard only contained the CPU, supporting ICs, and memory. This looks like it's incredibly heavy. How hot do you think this ran? #RetroTech #ComputerHistory #VintageComputing

@libor007 Aaah not the red button again lol

@tommithetechie My jsme ve škole vždy nechali nějakého sebemrskače opsat program a když skončil, s dotazem "k čemu je to červené tlačítko" jsme ho stiskli 😂

@Stonewheel That would make sense as to why it’s so… sturdy

@tommithetechie Bylo to záměrně projektované tak velké a robustní, aby na tom mohl sedět televizor Merkur. A ta klávesnice byla vysloveně nepřátelská.

@GuyMontag1957 Oh that’s so unfortunate 😩

@tommithetechie The keyboard was really terrible. After some typing, my fingers looked like geckoʼs.

@chochule I have a feeling that the entire class would be mad by the end of the day

@tommithetechie Klávesnice byla příšerná a než jste dopsali delší program, tak se to celé přehřálo a resetovalo. Hlavní vypínač byl na levém boku a stačilo o něj lehce zavadit knihou nebo loktem...

@trumpetistazhu1 Oh good point! I plan to talk about him too ❤️

@tommithetechie Don't forget about Karel 🤖

@rgacz Omg that had to get so frustrating lol. I would be pulling my hair out

@tommithetechie The person learned to cover the red button with one hand, watch their classmates out of the corner of their eye, and clumsily type code with the index finger of the other hand. 🤣

@Steelcube2 That seems to be the general consensus. I had a feeling it was a bad design

@tommithetechie and terrible keyboard …

@SalamekSG Oh that’s cool! Well. Maybe

@tommithetechie I had one with bunch of expansion cards(i gave it away)

@Stremhlav Space heater that just happened to double as a computer!

@tommithetechie Good heating system in cold winter days... 😂

@MILANRIHA7 At least it… looked… cool? 😋

@tommithetechie I used it in high school. Terrible keyboard, but it was mostly fun.

@ronnie_penhall I can imagine it was extremely hard to stay afloat while competing with something like the Apple 2

@tommithetechie The Apple 2 had the same High Res graphics and sold for less. The poor Compucolor 2 suffered from flawed mechanical designs and software legality struggles. It's proprietary design and short lifespan made it become a novelty item. I applaud them for trying.

This machine is the Compucolor II, released around 1978 by the Compucolor Corporation. The Compucolor II was one of the first personal computers to offer high-resolution color graphics right out of the box. Engineers achieved this by building the computer into a heavily modified RCA color TV chassis. This was a huge deal for home users at the time. It also featured a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive mounted right into the side of the screen bezel. Talk about living in the future! What do you think the most popular video game was to play on this at the time? #RetroTech #VintageComputing #ComputerHistory

@tommithetechie problem was power source inside - it made it hot. Like really hot :-D

@tichaczech That actually sounds awful! It would be so hot in there omg

@tommithetechie I am quite sure it would - summer programming class with 30 students at 15 “computers” was hell on earth. We were all literally sweating 😅.

@rgacz That would make me so mad! I can see how it would be so hard to resist though. It’s just there begging to be pressed 😆

@tommithetechie See that red button? You'd been coding in BASIC, dozens of lines done—then a classmate strolls past and slams the red RESET button! Decades later, I can still remember that burst of anger.

@rgacz Not only is it good for your class work, it can be used for exercise too!

@tommithetechie Eight kilograms of solid metal!

@tichaczech Oh that’s rough! It’s own transistors. It sounds like I could use this to keep myself warm in the winter lol

@tommithetechie It melted plastic, it also melted soldering and sometimes it melted even own transistors. Teachers in our class used it to keep coffee warm.

@SkutecnyUFO I believe that! An unfortunate design

@tommithetechie č, definitely not, a school computer that just got very hot. 😂

@ZMartinemailcz1 Ahh yes, Basic! ❤️

@tommithetechie I remember them. It used Basic for writing scripts.

@anouser3 You could multitask! You could warm your lunch up while you work 😆

@tommithetechie Don’t place foil on top venting holes or it will melt.