Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
New Gakken 4-bit Micro Computer Kit
By James Grahame
The Gakken GMC-4 single board computer includes a 20-key hexadecimal keyboard, 7-segment LED display, and a row of seven discrete LEDs. It includes seven built-in programs including an organ, sound game, whack-a-mole, tennis, music player, morse code generator and a simple timer. It requires 3 x AA batteries and minor assembly.
The tiny machine is based upon the 4-bit F-Maikon (microcomputer) R-165 that Gakken released in the early 1980s for their Denshi Block series. There are only 32 op codes to learn, making this a unique opportunity to hone your machine language skills. After all, if machine language was good enough for Woz, it's good enough for the rest of us.
The GMC-4 is bundled with Vol. 24 of Gakken's “Otona no Kagaku” Magazine that features advanced science kits for adults, available on eBay for a mere $32.80 plus shipping from Japan.
Gakken GMC-4 4bit Micro Computer [scroll down for English]
