X-Nico

unusual facts about IBM PC/AT



Beat Ball

Beat Ball is a freeware breakout clone game PC that was created by Stefan Persson, also known under the alias Imphenzia Games, using the Game Maker software.

Clock rate

The original IBM PC (c. 1981) had a clock rate of 4.77 MHz (4,772,727 cycles/second).

Composite monitor

From the late 1970s stand-alone composite monitors came into use, including by the Apple II, Commodore VIC 20/64/128, Atari, the IBM PC with CGA card, some computers compatible with it, and other home and business computers of the 1980s.

Game engine recreation

Emulation of classical systems or operating systems is an alternative to an engine recreation; for instance DOSbox is a notable emulator of the PC/MS-DOS environment.

GlobalView

GlobalView was an integrated “desktop environment” including word-processing, desktop-publishing, and simple calculation (spreadsheet) and database functionality, developed at Xerox Parc as a way to run the software originally developed for their Xerox Alto, Xerox Star and Xerox Daybreak 6085 specialized workstations on SUN Microsystems workstations and IBM PC-based platforms.

IBM System/36 BASIC

System/36 BASIC was first offered in 1983, and as such, contained many of the trappings that a BASIC program would have encountered in the time period of the IBM PC, the Commodore 64, the VIC-20, the TRS-80, or many other offerings of the Seventies and early Eighties.

Intel 8237

It was used as the DMA controller in the original IBM PC and IBM XT.

Loopz

Audiogenic also published versions of the original game for the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, and IBM PC in 1990 and 1991.

Lotus Improv

By the end of the summer of 1986, Salas had created a slideshow-like demonstration of a system known as Modeler on the IBM PC.

His version, Lotus 1-2-3, would go on to be an even greater success than VisiCalc, in no small part due to the fact that it ran on, and was tuned for, the new IBM PC.

Okimate 10

The Okimate 10 by Oki Electric Industry was a low-cost 1980s color printer with interface "plug 'n print" modules for Commodore, Atari, IBM PC, and Apple Inc. home computers.

Plantronics Colorplus

The Plantronics Colorplus was a graphics card for IBM PC computers, first sold in 1982.

Roland SC-7

It can also be configured as a MIDI interface for either IBM PC/AT or Apple Macintosh computers with a special serial cable and Roland software.

Screensaver

The first screensaver was allegedly written for the original IBM PC by John Socha, best known for creating the Norton Commander; he also coined the term screen saver.

Strategic Studies Group

Its success was followed by a string of other, mostly historical military games published throughout the 1980s for Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, and IBM PC series of computers.


see also