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spankibaltyesterday at 7:11 PM2 repliesview on HN

The Mindset machines were (also) advertised as Video Production System, with custom VLSI chips and modules for graphics and video workflows and assorted applications (e. g. Lumena). So a bit of a different market.

I wonder if there's some top-class Japanese x86 machines from the "IBM workalike" era.


Replies

nkaliyesterday at 11:23 PM

PC-9801 could do 640×400 in 8 colors, and is supported by early Windows.

bitwizeyesterday at 7:46 PM

Indeed. At the time, Tandy was trying to break into the business market with its computer offerings, and the 2000's software library reflects that, including MultiMate, Basic Four, Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony with hi-res graphic/charting add-ons, a version of Ashton-Tate's Framework, and the best desktop version of AutoCAD available at the time. The Mindset and Amiga lapped it in terms of video, audio, and in particular NTSC- and composite-compatible output capabilities, but machines that were targeting those workflows were doing something very different from the generic business market (which Windows, at the time, was aimed squarely at).

A composite compatible output addon, called the TV/Game Adapter, was planned but never released for the Tandy 2000; if released it might not have supported genlocking or really much beyond getting 16-color 320x200 or so video onto a TV. Until recently the only graphical game I recall actually being released for the machine was a special version of Flight Simulator; but recently on Facebook I saw a photo of a 2000 running some sort of video poker or other card game. It was unlikely to have been very fast paced and may even have been written in GW-BASIC; I don't know much about it.