The sweet spot for home turntable enthusiasts on a budget seems to be the $200 mark. This might be the best of the bunch.
One can only imagine the sake-fueled club hopping that led to the development of the Seiko Frequency drum machine watch.
Oddball Micros: The TRS-80 MC-10
By James Grahame
Radio Shack followed up the success of its TRS-80 Model I -- which featured an underwhelming B&W display -- with the Color Computer (CoCo) in July 1980. It was designed to connect to the antenna input of a TV using an RF modulator to reduce cost.
The original Color Computer's keyboard was a bizarre full-sized chicklet-style unit that was challenging to touch type on and the basic configuration offered a mere 4K of memory and offered mediocre 4-color graphics. It did have a few things going for it: a game cartridge port, low price ($399), a multi-tasking operating system (OS-9), and the support of the Radio Shack sales network.
It's little brother the MC-10 was envisioned as an entry-level machine to compete with ultra-cheap designs like the Sinclair ZX81. It arrived in late 1983 at a price of $119.95. Unfortunately, its tiny keyboard was even harder to use than it's big brother and it offered an equally deficient display and 4K memory. It was definitely a better machine than the ZX81, but didn't have to power to be a Truly Useful Computer. It vanished quietly in 1984.
