Pong introduced November 29, 1972

Pong introduced November 29, 1972

Pong is 53 years young this week, introduced November 29, 1972. Pong was the first commercially successful video game. It was the product that put Atari on the map.

Read more

Tandy 2000: Released Nov 28, 1983

Tandy 2000: Released Nov 28, 1983

In November 1983, Tandy introduced the Tandy 2000, a forward-looking PC that tried to be better than IBM. The problem was the Tandy 2000 was IBM-like, but fell too far short of being fully IBM compatible.

Read more

Microsoft trademark registered November 1976

Microsoft trademark registered November 1976

On November 26, 1976, Microsoft registered its name as a trademark. At the time, Microsoft was still headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It didn’t move to the Seattle area until 1979.

Read more

Babbage’s remembered

Babbage’s remembered

Babbage’s was a software retailer that operated storefronts in closed-air shopping malls. It opened its first store in NorthPark Center in Dallas on Memorial Day, May 30, 1983. By mid 1994, it operated 320 stores in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada, but by 1996, it fell on hard times. Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio bought the company November 27, 1996.

Read more

Why AOL bought Netscape

Why AOL bought Netscape

On November 24, 1998, America Online purchased Netscape, the pioneering web browser maker and dotcom darling, for $4.2 billion. In this blog post, we will try to figure out why AOL bought Netscape.

Read more

Max Headroom incident of Nov 22, 1987

Max Headroom incident of Nov 22, 1987

It was November 22, 1987, that the most notorious unsolved pirate television broadcast happened in Chicago. It was the Max Headroom incident.

Read more

How the Tandy 2000 doomed Tandy computers

How the Tandy 2000 doomed Tandy computers

The Tandy 2000 was aptly named. It was twice as good as the Tandy 1000 in nearly every way. But it wasn’t even half as successful. In this blog post, I will explain how the Tandy 2000’s commercial failure and its reliance on Microsoft Windows set the tone for subsequent Tandy computers and perhaps even doomed the whole product line.

Read more

Tandy 1000 models

Tandy 1000 models

The Tandy 1000 wasn’t Tandy’s first foray into the IBM PC compatible market. That was the Tandy 2000, released in November 1983. But in late 1983, Tandy started preparing the Tandy 1000, a home and education-oriented PC aimed at the lower end of the market, to compete with the IBM PCjr. First released in mid November 1984, it became a bestseller and spawned three generations of Tandy 1000 models, surviving on the market until 1992.

Read more

Push button telephones introduced November 18, 1963

Push button telephones introduced November 18, 1963

It was 62 years ago, on November 18, 1963, that the push button telephone, or touch tone phone, was first introduced.

Read more

The rise and fall of Syquest

The rise and fall of Syquest

Syquest was a maker of removable hard drives. It was a clever idea that is completely obsolete in these days of high capacity USB flash drives, but at the time, Syquest drives solved a real problem. Founded January 27, 1982, they were a pioneer of removable hard drives for personal computers.

Read more