I’m super excited about adding this piece of history to the Vintage Handheld Computing Collection. When i was in high school, I had a total geek crush on these units when they were came out
. Handheld, ran basic, battery powered, very nifty looking.
I acquired one back in the day (and have an interesting story about using it in a Physics exam), but haven’t had a chance to play with one since.
This one was donated by one of my coworkers. It includes the cassette interface, the original docs and boxes, and the plastic overlays that were used for ‘functions’ – basically defined keys. It’s in good physical shape, but has a bad display. I haven’t had a chance to run up the batteries and dock for it, but physically, it’s in great shape. Even came with some financial add-on software.
This particular unit is a PC-1 – the first generation of the pocket computer. They were actually made by Sharp as the PC-1211, and rebranded as the TRS-80 Pocket Computer. The PC-1 moniker was added later as the line expanded into more models.
Hello Dave, (2 years after your post, but hope you’re still interested)
As an ex-pro (who lived from SHARP-pocket projects during the ’80s), I still have my spare
PC-1211 – which is as new and has no black stains in it’s LCD (very rare indeed). Apart from
the CE-121 (the simple IF without the printer), the PC-1211 actually comes with a complete
system, incl. all sorts of accessories, docs (even the Service Manuals), and lots of books.
Please lt me know, if this might be something for you, or anyone you know.
Best Regards, Ray
Hello Ray,
I am a great fan of this very first pocket computer, as you can read on my website:
https://www.aldweb.com/articles.php?lng=en&pg=26
I could be highly interested by the docs and books you mentioned, as some of them might be missing in my collector’s items.
I hope you read me here or that Dave will forward my message to you…
Best regards,
aldweb