I am utterly fascinated with old technology and how absolutely fugly some of it was. I mean, check out the following list of 10 vomitous personal computers and tell me you don’t look away in horror at least once.
1. H316 - Kitchen Computer - 1969
Um, is this a computer or a studio mixing board? The H316 was not only friendly on the eyes but practical as well - it would store all of your recipes on it for the meager price of $10,600. And yep, that’s all it did - store recipes.
2. Feedback Abacus - 1971
True story - in 1973 an Abacus came within minutes of taking over the world.
3. HP-9830 - 1972
This dandy number is in many ways the first true personal computer. As you can see, the nerds hadn’t quite perfected “aesthetics” just yet. The 9830 was not much of a computer, but it made an OUTSTANDING murder weapon.
4. Apple 1 - 1976
Cuz nothing says “the future” like stained wood and awkwardly carved letters. Looking at this vaguely cash-registeresque PC, it’s hard to imagine that Apple would become the powerhouse that it has. Little known fact: the first Ipod was actually whittled from a fresh piece of maple wood.
5. Philips P5000 - 1978
Ahhh, the very picture of compact convenience. The P5000 apparently balanced your checkbook and also doubled as a fridge. And I LOVE the trapper-keeper sized floppy disk drives!
6. Sharp MZ 80C - 1979
The MZ 80C looks like what you would get if you took all of the tackiest facets of late-70s technology and threw them in a blender. And then pooped on it.
7. SMT Goupil 2 - 1981
Looks more like a prop from a Duran Duran video than a PC. Is it really any big surprise that this pink nightmare was created by the French?
8. Triumph Adler TA-1100
The TA-1100: for the casual PC user.
9. IBM ICS - 1982
Holy shit, there is so much going on with this computer that I think I just had a mild seizure. By the way, can you imagine the countless hours you would have had to put in on this piece of shit just to get it to print out that colorful little graph?
10. Actrix DS - 1983
Is this a computer, or an EZ Bake Oven?
If you liked these, make sure to check out www.old-computers.com. There are 100s more there. It is an excellent site.
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