sears Archives - The Silicon Underground

Central Hardware, St. Louis history

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 11:00:54 +0000

St. Louis-based Central Hardware was one of the first big-box home improvement chains. It peaked in 1993 at 39 stores in six states in the midwest, employing 3,700 people. It was once the 19th largest hardware retailer in the United

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Coleco Gemini: An Atari 2600 clone from 1983

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:00:54 +0000

I spotted it on page 597 of the 1983 Sears Christmas catalog. “Two big names play the same games,” the headline boasted. Next to the venerable Atari 2600, Sears presented the Coleco Gemini video game system, an Atari 2600 clone.

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What happened to Compuserve?

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 11:00:10 +0000

Compuserve was an online service for dialup modems from the 1970s to the 1990s. It was a way of getting online and communicating with others before the Internet was generally available to individuals. Later, it became a primary way for

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Marx William Crooks locomotive

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 11:00:59 +0000

In 1959, Marx attempted to cash in on the popularity of TV westerns by creating an 1860s style locomotive. Today, the Marx William Crooks locomotive is one of the rarer and more desirable Marx locomotives. You don’t often hear the

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The Marx factory fire in Girard PA

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 11:00:21 +0000

The birthplace of scores of classic toy trains fell victim to the Marx factory fire in Girard, Pennslyvania. The old Marx factory stood at 227 E Hathaway in Girard, Pennsylvania. For a time in the 1950s, Marx was the largest toy

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Save money on appliances

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 11:00:40 +0000

If you want to know how to save money on appliances, I have some unconventional advice: Buy used. Yes, really. Here’s how to buy used (or refurbished) appliances and save big money without getting ripped off. I’ve had a number

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Marx vs. Lionel

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 12:00:42 +0000

In the 1950s, Marx and Lionel took turns being the biggest toy company in the world, largely riding on the popularity of O gauge trains. Neither company particularly liked the other, but both owed some degree of their success to

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What it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:00:57 +0000

Since questions occasionally come up, and I remember well what it was like owning a Commodore in the 1980s in the United States, I’ll share my recollections of it. It was very different from computing today. It was still interesting,

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Remembering Dolgin’s

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:00:36 +0000

Growing up in Missouri, a lot of my Christmas gifts when I was young came from a catalog showroom called Dolgin’s. One of my earliest memories is going to Dolgin’s with my mom and aunt, who showed me some Tonka

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Mimic Systems Spartan: Apple II emulator for the C-64

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:07:05 +0000

The Mimic Systems Spartan was an elusive bit of C-64 hardware that made it Apple II+ compatible. It’s one of the more interesting Apple II clones of the 1980s. People thought of it as an Apple II+ emulator for the

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