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Technology

Everything that you need to know about the Aquarius Home Computer

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If you’re searching for valuable information on the Aquarius Home Computer System, which was first sold by Mattel in 1983, simply continue reading to discover everything that you need to know about Mattel’s first and last home computer. As Mattel decided to cease the production of their home computers a few months after they debuted the Aquarius Home Computer.

Everything that you need to know about the Aquarius Home Computer System:

Aquarius Home Computer System value:

When the Aquarius Home Computer System was first put on the market it retailed at $160 US dollars. In today’s market $160 US dollars would roughly equate to around $402.49. However, if you’re interested in purchasing a vintage Aquarius Home Computer System, expect to pay around $250 US dollars. Although prices vary on each listing depending on its condition.

If you’re lucky you may even be able to pick up a model which comes with included accessories. So be to sure to shop around for the best possible deal before you choose to purchase an Aquarius Home Computer System online.

It was only produced for a short period of time:

Mattel, which is known for producing toys such as Barbie, intended for the Aquarius Home Computer System to be their first of many home computers. However after sales of the Aquarius Home Computer System were poor, within 5 months of the release of their first home computer Mattel decided to exit the home computer market for good. A move which disappointed many of the early fans and adopters of the Aquarius.

It could be used to play arcade style video games:

While the Aquarius wasn’t marketed as a home gaming system, it could be used to play a variety of arcade style video games. Which pleased gamers who wanted to purchase a home computer which boasted the functionality and features of a home computer and which could also be used to play fun video games from the comfort of their own homes.

It was not designed by Mattel:

Many individuals mistakingly assume that Mattel developed and designed the Aquarius Home Computer. However, Mattel simply brought the rights to manufacture the Aquarius from another company, Radofin. At the time Mattel thought that it would be far more cost effective to purchase the designs and rights to a home computer, than to design and build a computer from scratch.

Hopefully you’ve learnt a few interesting facts about Mattel’s first and last home computer system the Aquarius Home Computer System. Which was only produced for five short months.

Everything that you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive

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To discover the key reasons why tape drives such as the Commodore Tape Drive used to be so popular, simply continue reading to discover everything that you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive.

Everything you need to know about the Commodore Tape Drive:

It was used to write information onto magnetic tape:

The primary use of the Commodore Tape Drive was to write important data onto archival quality magnetic tape. Although it could also read data which had been written onto magnetic tape.

It offered a cheap way to store important data:

One of the reasons why so many individuals chose to use tape drives such as the Commodore Tape Drive in order to store important data, such as business logs is that the magnetic tape which they’d use to record their data was relatively inexpensive to purchase. Which made using Commodore Tape Drive an attractive, inexpensive option for individuals, businesses and organizations on a budget.

Many organizations, businesses and individuals used the Commodore Tape Drive to back up their data:

A large percentage of the organizations, businesses and individuals who brought a Commodore Tape Drive, chose to do so in order to be able to back up their data. As there is nothing worse than losing important data or highly sensitive data. Just as individuals commonly back up their data to a cloud based system or to an external hard drive, which boasts plenty of memory, when the Commodore Tape Drive was first released, individuals would use tape drives to back up their important information.

They were designed to help you read information in sequence:

While in today’s world it’s possible to read information in a document stored in a cloud based system from any given point in your document, if you used a Commodore Tape Drive to store information, you would have to read all of the information which you’d saved onto your magnetic tape in sequence. Which is one of the reasons why tape drives eventually became old technology and society moved on from using tape drives to electronically store information.

The speed which tape drives would work would differ from machine to machine:

Not all tape drives were created equal and the speed at which each tape machine would record and would read data would differ greatly. One of the reasons why the Commodore Tape Drive was so popular is that it had the ability to burn and read data quickly.

While you may not have a use for a retro device such as a tape drive, it’s still interesting learning about different types of defunct technology. Especially if you collect old school electronic gadgets.