Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
A Gloriously Complicated Car Cassette Deck
By James Grahame
Back in the late 1980s, the lowly audio cassette ruled dashboards around the globe. Most people made do with factory decks, but a sizable minority stepped into the often expensive world of aftermarket audio, which was dominated by brands such as Kenwood, Alpine, Blaupunkt, Panasonic and Sony.
Lyle sent us a link to this wickedly high-end Kenwood KRC-999II deck from 1988 that features a servo-driven pop-out panel for adjusting EQ and radio tuning, zillions of blinky LEDs, and DBX and Dolby B & C noise reduction. The microprocessor-driven design with brushed metal buttons mirrors the look of expensive home stereo components of the period, although everything is miniaturized.
I'd love one of these electromechanical marvels, if only I could figure out a way to stylishly hack an extra hole into my modern car's swoopy dash.
Kenwood car cassette player KRC999 mark II [YouTube, thanks Lyle!]
