Video: The Headstart Explorer's Lame Graphical "OS"
Added 2022-03-14 00:31:42 +0000 UTChttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1jpIiST6ec
I have no idea what happened for the last two+ weeks but I've just been completely out of it. Finally got a video together!
I think I found this machine about four years ago on eBay, was intrigued by the keyboard mechanism, and then found some screenshots of the built in software that instantly made me smash that Buy It Now. As I observe in the first minute of the video, I find most PC clones super boring and impossible to care about, but anything that has a really unique shape is an automatic win - and this one takes the cake. I don't think there are ANY clones that look THIS unusual.
I've just been sitting on it, meaning to make a video, and for some reason I just never felt like it was the right time, I guess because there were a number of very-unanswered questions I knew I would have to fill in. Well, I finally did it - prompted by LGR Clint uploading a Headstart video of his own recently that reminded me "oh crap, I still have that thing in a box."
This video is absurdly long for what it is, and I hope it actually gets decent views despite that, but I just have this inability to cut a narrative shorter than I feel is necessary, and I don't think I could trim a single word out of this (believe me, I already removed a bunch) and still have it be accessible to the average viewer, largely because early PC graphics were really weird, bad, and forgotten.
I expect to get nitpicked to death in the comments by people who were around for the late 80s PC market; such is the life I chose. Tomorrow I begin pushing the rock back up the hill again, etc.
Comments
Thank you for very interesting review! This PC is cool. And you pronounced POISK pretty much correctly. POISK was my main and omly computer for several years when I was a kid.
Cyber
2022-03-16 13:27:21 +0000 UTCIn addition to the problems you mentioned I think the lack of tactile feel on a lot of 80s micro keyboards comes from that they mostly used linear switches with no tactile bump beside bottoming out. Even ones like Apple that used not terrible Alps SKCC switches are linear and dirt/time can make them feel extra rough now. That plus the mentioned lack of ergonomics and poor key stabilization can make for binding
Stormcrash
2022-03-14 05:13:59 +0000 UTCIf you do try it, make sure to grab the latest version with PX3_CGA.COM as that's the one that contains the Plantronics stuff π
LGR
2022-03-14 02:44:00 +0000 UTCOh dorp, I missed that part hahaha. I'll try it!
Cathode Ray Dude
2022-03-14 02:41:30 +0000 UTCThankfully you don't need any drivers to test Plantronics mode! The functionality is built into Planet X3 and fits on a 720k disk :) And yeah if the GUI is that garbage even at 4.77 then it honestly doesn't make much difference. That word processor is shockingly bad!
LGR
2022-03-14 02:41:08 +0000 UTCThanks! Also for making a video that reminded me to do this lmao To point 1: I think you're probably right and I should make good on my suggestion to go through and try a bunch of different drivers, I just didn't have time to write out that many floppies, since I can't really fit anything with multiple drivers on a single disk. Like I said, the chances that they used anything that exotic are really low, it's probably a chip that showed up in dozens of other cards. Point 2: yeahhhhhhh I started to get a little nervous about that late in production, especially since the light is orange instead of red, and I guess ultimately I decided that A) if I can't switch modes, then ain't nobody ever going to know if I'm wrong or not; Schrodinger's turbo. and B) 4.77 was the gold standard and if the software can't run well that way it shouldn't run at all, OG 5150 crew for lyfe
Cathode Ray Dude
2022-03-14 02:38:54 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed this one, and it's great to see this in action after seeing it show up so much in my Vendex HeadStart research! I'm now curious if the keyboard uses a similar style of mechanical space invaders switches as my HeadStart. Two things: I'd place a solid bet that the "16-color extended CGA" term is just a synonym for Plantronics Colorplus mode. It was a standard found on a bunch of other clones back then, like the Epson Apex I covered a while back. Commodore's PC clones used it pretty often too, if I recall. The DOS version of 'Planet X3' is a great way to test if it has that functionality, as the game was written specifically to make use of 16-color CGA/Plantronics on all the clones that feature it. Second: have you run any CPU benchmark programs to check the speed it's running at? Because the other HeadStart machines I'm familiar with all boot up in 4.77MHz mode by default, and the only way to activate the higher speed is via software. Couldn't quite tell how quick it was running in the games you chose, so hopefully it's a model that boots up at full speed instead.
LGR
2022-03-14 02:28:23 +0000 UTC
