58 min

What's With The Wedge? Part 1 Advent of Computing

    • History

Early home microcomputers have a very distinctive shape to them. From the Apple II and the ZX Spectrum, to the Commodore 64 and the Amiga, wedged were the order of the day. I've always wondered why that shape became so popular, and where it came from. Today we start a deep dive into that question, slowly tracing the origins of the first wedge shaped computer.

Selected Sources:

http://www.leefelsenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/TST_scan_150.pdf The Tom Swift Terminal, or a Convivial Cybernetic Device

https://archive.org/details/levy-s-hackers-heroes-computer-revolution "Hackers", by Levy

http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Manuals/Processor%20Technology/VDM-1%20Manual.pdf VDM-1 manual

Early home microcomputers have a very distinctive shape to them. From the Apple II and the ZX Spectrum, to the Commodore 64 and the Amiga, wedged were the order of the day. I've always wondered why that shape became so popular, and where it came from. Today we start a deep dive into that question, slowly tracing the origins of the first wedge shaped computer.

Selected Sources:

http://www.leefelsenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/TST_scan_150.pdf The Tom Swift Terminal, or a Convivial Cybernetic Device

https://archive.org/details/levy-s-hackers-heroes-computer-revolution "Hackers", by Levy

http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Manuals/Processor%20Technology/VDM-1%20Manual.pdf VDM-1 manual

58 min

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