Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Video 2000 - The other home video system
By James Grahame
We mentioned the VHS/Beta format war a short while ago, but somehow we skipped over the Video 2000 format that was introduced by Philips and Grundig in the late 1970s. Like VHS and Beta, this European format used 1/2 inch tape in a cassette that was slightly larger than VHS. Unlike VHS and Beta, V2000 cassettes could be flipped over like audio tapes.
V2000 had a couple of other nifty features as well -- dynamic track following eliminated the need for manual tracking knobs, and the format displayed a full frame image when paused. V2000 machines had numeric tape counters with a handy GOTO function.
Alas, V2000 had a tough time competing with the two other heavily promoted formats. Relatively few V2000 VCRs were produced, along with far fewer "extra-curricular" videos (nudge, nudge... wink, wink). Sadly, the format succumbed before Philips could roll out features like hi-fi stereo and miniature cassettes for camcorder use.
