Few people have heard of it, yet John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 was the first commercially available personal computer.
Oddball Micros: Mattel Aquarius
By James Grahame
Mattel is best known for creating the first 16-bit video game console, the Intellivision. Like several of their competitors, they decided to dabble in the low-end computer market -- with disastrous results.
The $159.95 Aquarius was designed by Radofin Electronics, the Hong Kong company that manufactured the Intellivision. It would have been impressive in 1981, but its 40x24 column text andlow-resolution 16-color graphics were hardly a head-turner in mid-1983. It met with indifference and hastened Mattel's withdrawal from the video gaming business.
The collapse of Mattel and their competitors (Atari and Coleco) left the market wide open in the mid 1980s, and Japanese contender Nintendo was only too happy to fill their shoes.
Mattel Aquarius (oldcomputers.net)
