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How the Vectrex game console sunk a 124-year-old company

Dave Farquhar 1980s, Retro Gaming May 4, 2026May 4, 2026 1 Comment

On May 4, 1984, Milton Bradley, a leading producer of board games for 124 years, agreed to sell itself to Hasbro. Changes in the way people played games in the 80s, especially kids, put pressure on the company. In this blog post, I’ll explain how changing times led Milton Bradley to make a transformational bet at the worst possible time that ultimately sunk the maker of the game Battleship, and what happened to what was left of Milton Bradley.

Microsoft’s open sourcing of 86-DOS and what it means

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 3, 2026 0 Comment

On April 28, 2026, Microsoft unexpectedly open sourced 86-DOS. This is the direct ancestor to PC DOS 1.0. I’ve written a number of things about the controversies around PC DOS 1.0 and early versions of MS-DOS, so of course I need to say something about this, even if I’m a few days late.

Ad Lib bankruptcy: May 1, 1992

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 1, 2026May 1, 2026 2 Comments

Ad Lib, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturer of sound cards founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval in Quebec City. Ad Lib’s best known product was an eponymously named sound card, the first add-on sound card for the IBM PC and compatibles to achieve widespread acceptance. It became a de facto standard.

Why Commodore went bankrupt in 1994

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 12 Comments

On April 29, 1994, Commodore announced it was bankrupt and was going out of business. Its demise was a long time coming. Arguably it had been inevitable for 10 years. But the reasons Commodore went bankrupt are often oversimplified and misunderstood.

What happened to Palm Pilots?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 4 Comments

Palm was a high-flying brand in the late 1990s, creating the first really popular personal data assistant. Then it seemed to vanish almost as quickly as it came. What happened to Palm Pilots, and the company who made them? On April 28, 2010, HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion, with big plans to use its tech to compete directly with Apple. That didn’t go to plan, so you’re not reading this on a Palm-based phone or tablet. But the tech may be hiding in plain sight elsewhere in your home.

TRS-80 Model 100

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 28, 2026April 28, 2026 1 Comment

The TRS-80 Model 100 was an early laptop computer manufactured by Kyocera in Japan and marketed in North America by Radio Shack. Kyocera’s own version, the Kyotronic-85, didn’t set any sales records. But the TRS-80 Model 100 and the line it spawned proved widely successful in the United States.

How Xerox invented the GUI and lost it

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 27, 2026March 28, 2026 5 Comments

Xerox is a company that people who want to sound smart or to sound visionary should be familiar with. In the 1960s, Xerox was a company that seemed to own the future, in a position similar to the position Apple or Nvidia are in today. The Xerox name was synonymous with photocopying. In the days before digital document retrieval, every office had at least one photocopy machine. Xerox was in the enviable position of its trademark being a verb. If I said I was xeroxing, people knew exactly what I was doing. But Xerox famously invented the GUI and got very little for its invention.

Apple IIc: A smaller, sleeker Apple II from 1984

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 24, 2026April 24, 2026 4 Comments

The Apple IIc was the 4th computer in the Apple II line, introduced April 24, 1984. It was a bit of a departure from the earlier Apple II machines.

The Apple II, II+, and IIe were strictly desktop computers. The system unit was a large box with an integrated keyboard and, importantly, expansion slots. The expansion slots went a long way toward ensuring the Apple II’s longevity. When you ran short on hardware capability, there were seven expansion slots to plug more hardware in to solve your problem.

The first Youtube video

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 0 Comment

The first Youtube video went live April 23, 2005. Titled “Me at the zoo,” it shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. You can still view it on the site. The same day, Youtube launched a public beta. The domain had been live since February 15, 2005. This was the humble beginning of something that changed how we watch television and how content is created and delivered.

When Escom bought Commodore

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 22, 2026April 22, 2026 5 Comments

Escom acquired Commodore on April 22, 1995 for $14 million. At the time, it seemed like Commodore’s long nightmare might be over. The Amiga had a new owner. Sadly, it didn’t work out that way.

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