The IBM PCjr, Part 1: The road to hell is paved with good intentions

the IBM PC Jr is regarded as one of the biggest flops in the computer industry serving as a cautionary tale that proves even companies as large as IBM can make monumentally costly mistakes the media would like you to believe that the PC Jr failed because of its Infamous keyboard but that's not the full story in this 40th anniversary retrospective we're going to examine the entire life cycle of the PC Jor and determined the real reason it failed along the way we'll cover its true strengths and weaknesses the Legacy it left on the computer game industry and the community of hackers that keep its memory alive into the 21st century first I'll cover how the PC Jr was born why did IBM of all companies decide to get into the home computer Market in the early 1980s we'll cover what the PC Jr was and what it wasn't what it did well and what it did very poorly we'll also cover why it flopped so badly why was it a complete failure in the marketplace and no it wasn't just the keyboard I'll present an opinion on how I feel it changed the industry anyway finally we'll cover the PC Jr today communities hacks homebrews and some Unearthed hords so to understand why IBM decided to get into this Market let's go back to the late 19 7s mass production of the microprocessor finally enables affordable home computers now what is a home computer it was a class of microcomputers marketed to the non-technical home consumer so this would be for example dad to balance the checkbook as part of Home finances or some simple word processing or education and games for the kids uh even managing recipes for example for Mom in the kitchen I know that that sounds a bit like a stereotype but that was the thinking back then initial success of the Apple 2 the trs8 and the Commodore pet which we now come to call the Trinity of 1977 personal computers led to more than 10 product lines in this space in 2 years so by 1982 over 600,000 home computers were sold at an average price of $530 so let's look at this time period to get a better example of what IBM was facing in the early part of 1982 we have the the Apple 2 the trs8 and the Commodore pets still out there in the market but then Atari and the Commodore with their Vic 20 decided to get into this trs8 color computer series were created and then over on the other side of the pond we had the Sinclair and the BBC micro this was a a market that was growing and it was not going to shrink by February of 1982 IBM PC sales have taken way off they were 600% more than predicted selling at least 60,000 units by Fe February and so this is what prompted IBM to form a task force to develop a home computer from an oral history I had with uh Gary Webb I was very shocked to learn that most of the engineering team members were fairly young they were aged 22 to 25 in January of 1983 rumors leak that IBM is developing new computers the peanut Rover and popcorn peanut eventually became the PC junor and in fact the Press constantly kept referring to whatever IBM was developing as the peanut in fact they kept calling it The Peanut even after the actual name of the system was announced IBM wanted to erode the large home computer Market primarily dominated by the Apple 2 and so the initial peanut design was for that market it was small it was easy to use and unintimidating you could have it on your kitchen counter you could have it in the living room a home computer not threatening at all during the design phase the marketing department wanted peanut to grab a little bit more market share than the home computer Market through secondary sales to businessmen and also education like schools so peanut would now be for the home and the classroom and office markets it sounds like they're trying to develop a system for every single Market keep that in the back of your head as you watch this entire series you did mention educational uses for your children as I recall well that's right I think it's time that the kids got to know computers they sure could use some help with their math their homework's going to kill me I think the IBM PC Jr is the computer for your family it's very easy to learn even for youngsters I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea if we could play some games on it too I like the idea of the family staying together for recreation the more you say the more I'm convinced that the IBM PC Jr is the computer for you well how come if it's from IBM isn't it more complicated not at all it was designed for home use so it's simple and Power powerful at the same time we have an IBM PC at the office I don't suppose there's any way I could take some work home that's probably asking too much PC and PC Jr are compatible as their names imply they even use the same microprocessor it seems like PC Jr can handle about anything I can give it remember it's a personal computer but a very powerful one with the options available for PC Jr you can tailor it for exactly the purposes you want the anticipation for this still unnamed home computer was incredibly High IBM's brand and reputation were Ironclad in the 1980s uh here's some quotes once it enters a market IBM is likely to stay another phrase from that time no one ever got fired for buying IBM 1.3 million IBM PCS sold in the Years between 1981 and 1983 uh and the New York Times also wrote that hundreds of thousands perhaps more than a million would be sold next year the prediction of success of whatever IBM was cooking up was so great it affected Apple's stock price John gance wrote in infow World in November of 83 Apple announced that earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter ending September 30 would be a fraction of what they had been the year earlier the peanut damage is done finally on November 1st 1983 IBM announced the model 4860 also known as the PC Jr IBM proudly introduces a bright little addition to the family name PC junor weight 12 lb small but powerful PC junr designed by IBM to make Computing easy for everyone PC Jr comes with bright ideas like a keyboard that doesn't need a cord it's called the freeboard there are picture instruction to help you get started and special overlays to help you find the right Keys you can get easy to use software like a word processing program and more surprises games and Graphics your kids won't believe plus a starting price you won't believe and with easy to add options Junior can grow up real fast PC junor the new Family Edition from IBM but they did not announce anounce a ship date a week later PC Jr was shown at a live press conference and Industry reaction was a little mixed some people were very uh bullish for example John hillkirk with the peanut IBM is heralding a new era in the USA's home computer industry note still calling it peanut John Scully then Apple president of course Very bearish I guess it's kind of what everyone expected I don't think there were any surprises finally the public got their hands on PC Jr during a live demonstration with many PC Juniors set up in a classroom at comex on November 28th 1983 and this footage comes courtesy of Dan brickland who was at comex shooting video and it's a fascinating record of uh the first time the public actually got their hands on it I want to comment on a few things uh before we go watch some excerpts from the presentation uh this being a business show you can see businessmen in suits using a joystick to play M shaft a cartridge game for the PC Jr and then we're also going to see Sierra home word which was made or customized for the PC Jr uh very easy to use and supported the uh introductory printer as we zoom out if you look at the keyboard you'll see that there is a keyboard overlay on top of the keyboard and then finally we go into the classroom there were over 50 PC Juniors here and the front of the classroom was made up to look like a living room it had uh windows and a mock TV uh bookcase and so on uh further solidifying IBM's dedication to trying to make this a friendly home computer and now let's listen to some excerpts from this presentation first of all you are sitting in front of the enhanced version of the PC junor the entry level version has 64 KB of memory and two character slots the expanded version has the addition of a discat drive 128k of memory and capability for 80 characters of text on the screen now with this set system here we will be I will be demonstrating up in my room the cordless keyboard very Innovative feature of the ibmc Jr as you can see no magic at all uh totally wi free it uses an infrared link uh very similar to the controller that you use for your remote television sets now as you have already probably detected you are firmly attached to your PC Juniors with the optional keyboard cord and that as you might suspect in a r of this side that's done to keep folks from zapping their neighbors and you would you would get a whole lot of work done that way you're also Al now getting a demonstration of the three voice capability of the PC Jr which is an enhancement over uh previous music capability of PC systems this particular panel comes up and describes the Four Keys that are important for you to know how to use the PC samper those are the Escape key which is the upper leftand corner key to exit a program the inner key which is the l-shape key to allow you to enter a program and the right and left cursor movement Keys which are on the right hand side of the keyboard but you also can use the compact printers that are sitting on top of the PC juner to print it out so if you wish to do that this is not a full-blown uh word processing program as you were likely to see uh rather that it is a representation of a correcting selectric type record remember now it will go through the uh it will go through the Diagnostics and then it will automatically load the samper program for you so why did IBM announce the PC junr early but no shipping date well there's always the conspiracy theory angle that IBM acted intentionally to hurt potential competitor sales if you announce your product early and people are on the fence about trying to buy it then they will hold back their purchase until the new system is out but the actual reasons were fairly mundane they were technical logistical and financial the IBM PC Jr repeatedly failed FCC certification due to too much radio frequency interference the case was made of plastic to try to keep costs down the PC Jr was actually finished in Spring 1983 but it didn't pass FCC certification until September and that's because IBM needed time to develop a process to effectively spray liquid metal to the inside of the plastic case to pass certification now the inside of a PC Jor case is gunmetal gray and it's a matte finish however early formulas of this used silver paint which was shiny and nickel paint which was black if you have a very early PC Jun or a known prototype open it up your PC Jr might actually have a silver lining IBM also needed time to get the manufacturing cost down PC Jr cost $450 in Parts alone to make finally PC Jr starts shipping January 13th 1984 but in that announcement there is a small caveat about a limited Supply while this was the week of the Macintosh IBM reported the start of volume shipments of the PC JR this week there were questions as to what volume really meant as IBM warned that supplies would be limited there were rumors that IBM was having problems due to Parts shortages but IBM said absolutely not while IBM did start shipping January 13th shipments to Consumers were delayed all the way until March and that's because retail locations got PC Jor shipments to serve as display units to try to sell the system before consumers had their orders fulfilled the success of the ibmp and IBM's reputation in the industry LED people to believe that the PC Jr was effectively a guaranteed success there were over 100 PC Jr specific books published in anticipation of PC Jr's eventual success there was the time life step-by-step guide to the IBM PC Jr which is notable for having some incredibly wonderful glamour shots of the IBM PC Jr hey junr using IBM's most personal computer was also published in late 883 Peter Norton wrote a lot about the PC Jr in technical magazines he published two books and the first one was discovering the IBM PC Junior home computer and there were also over 15 books dedicated to teaching kids how to program in basic on the PC junr something else very surprising there were no less than four magazines dedicated to the PC junr Junior published by CW Communications peanut published by hardcourt brace javanovich computes PC and PC Jr published by ABC and PC Jr magazine published by Z Davis the same publisher of PC Magazine PC Jr magazine also notable for shipping before the PC Jr did why so many magazines as David needle wrote in infow World they were started with the idea that the PC Jr would sell well in schools and homes opening up a whole new era of PC applications worthy of a dedicated magazine you have to remember everyone thought IBM couldn't lose so what happened next did IBM impossibly actually lose in the next installment of this series we'll cover the tech of the PC junr its advantages and disadvantages what it got right and what it got wrong then we'll cover the reception of the PC junr its downfall and the aftermath of that and finally we'll cover the legacy of the PC junr home brews and hacks that people created to keep it alive and where the PC junr is today and where you can find Community Support I hope you'll join me for the next part of this 40th anniversary retrospective series on the PC junr if you're not currently subscribed to the old school PC why not subscribe so you don't miss the next installment and feel free to go through our back catalog to see all the videos we've made about the first decade of computing and gaming on the IBM PC and comp PES

Channel: The Oldskool PC

Views: 6,387

Keywords: vintage, computing, retro, vintage computing, personal computers

Id: lL6Fu8uDr3Y

Length: 15min 33sec (933 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2023