Re: Well......
1. I desired, but could not afford, the Kaypro II 8-bit luggable. It had a reasonably-large screen, 80x24 (25?)-libe display, a word processor, darabase program, etc., but most-importantly, had their structured SuperBASIC (if-then-else blocks, while loops, etc.)
2. Arcade games vs home computer games: the thing which kept myself and others pouring coins into video arcade console games was their large, colorful, high-res screens, magnitudes better than what you could get on any personal computer. PCs got much better, and the arcade games failed to keep their magnitudes-better technological lead. ISTR Atari's "Tempest" video arcade game was the last and best of that line. (It used a color, vector display, rather than a rasterized one.)
3. Similarly, TV console games were -- in my mind, at least -- too expensive for the quality of sound and graphics you got. It was better to get a home computer, which could play games, and do ordinary computer-stuff (word processing, databases, spreadsheets, and programming).
4. A friend had a Sinclair QL, and I thought it was great, except for those damned proprietary Stringy Floppies. A (or THREE) cassette tape interface(s) would have been better. 3 tapes would have allowed traditional master_tape + transactions_tape ==> new_master_tape processing, which is pretty much what you have to do when you don't have disc drives.
5. A full-travel mechanical keyboard was/is a must for me. I bought a used VIC-20 with modem to use as a terminal, pulled out the keyboard, built a 30-foot extension cable, and mounted the keyboard on a little piece of wood, with a riser to tilt the KB, and an epoxied-on remote RESET switch mounted under the KB. With all those unshielded telephone wires in the extension cable hanging out, it still worked reliably! Later, I got a C-64 wirh a 1541 diskette drive, and an word-processing quality printer.
6. The ZX had a place as a cheap base for hardware mods. An EE student friend was showing me his homebuilt RAM expansion, made a mistake, and bricked his ZX. He bought a replacement ZX for US$20.00 that afternoon, came back, and completed his project.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
