On Monday the 13th, $HOUSEMATE drove us from, er, somewhere in the Philadelphia area to a place in Maryland. Why? To visit System Source Computer Museum. Go look at the web site. I can wait.
Alright, lots of older computing machinery, from mechanical through tubes, transistors, and to fairly modern “big iron” and once-upon-a-time (that was how recent?!) supercomputers. One fellow, Brandon (not Corrupt China Joe, someone truly named Brandon) had some stuff there that might have been his personal collection of lower-end stuff… such as Radio Shack “pocket computers” and 1980’s & 1990’s video consoles. The display of those had a few things. Curiously, I noted one item by its absence. The Radio Shack PC-6. How did I notice that? I own one. I likely bought it in 1987 or 1988. I am now in the process of gathering up the device, the manual, and the support devices (cassette adapter, cables) so I can send it off to Brandon. That way the device will have a good home and not just be so much scrap or land fill. I will, before I send it off, take a few photos. It won’t show, but I did get the memory expansion (I think it was a whole 8K…) for it. At the time, it helped, and was worth the money.
Like many things Radio Shack (or Tandy) the device was simply re-badged for them. It was really made by Sharp.