The Sharp PC-2000 Computer Boombox from 1979 | Hacker News Reader

The Sharp PC-2000 Computer Boombox from 1979

stereo2go.com

47 pointscoloneltcb9 comments

First time I hear about this device. I learned to program 25 years ago on a PC-1500. I wish it had multiple lines like this machine !

The bane of the single line display! It's amazing what constraints like that can do to your imagination and skills, though. You have to be very clever.

I programmed all day at school for years on the Casio version:

https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/page89.html

I had an MSX machine at home and a casio (not sure anymore which one although I still have it, somewhere, and last time I tried, it still worked but that's > 10 years ago); so in class I could write on the casio then, then copy to paper, delete, write more, copy to paper etc. And when boring af school was over, I would type into my MSX with the necessary changes to the BASIC code. Good times.

From the keyboard it looks more like a programmable calculator than a computer, maybe splitting hairs considering the era.

It looks to me to have:

- NEW

- GTO (GOTO)

- LST (LIST)

- END

- RUN

- FOR

- NXT (NEXT)

- LOD (LOAD)

- STP (STOP)

- RTN (RETURN)

All of which are BASIC commands, as well as GTS (go to subroutine, probably like GOSUB).

In addition, it would’ve lent itself well to loading programs from cassette (see TI-99 or TRS-80 of the era).

I have a 1984 Sharp PC-1246 handheld which is surprisingly programmable despite being about the size of a modern smartphone, an actual calculator form factor, and, you know, from 1984.

Sharp still standing strong more than 100 years later in Japan. Didn't know they made personal computers back then

I learned programming on a Sharp MZ-80K. Rectangular sheet metal case with an amber monochrome monitor and a built in cassette tape drive for storage. The keyboard keys were neatly squared up, zero ergonomics. You could flip it open like the hood of a car. And I faintly recall that there was some kind of UV erasable EEprom inside, not sure what for.

Everyone made personal computers in the late 70's and early 80's. It was the latest corporate fad.

“Cyberfunk”

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