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Computers in 1982

A listener sent me a page from the September 27, 1982, Columbus Dispatch. The writer, Mary Bridgman, was telling us about computers. In those days, the clueless led the uninitiated. Or maybe it was the other way around. Below the headline is a scan of a chart that filled the width of the page. If you'd like to see a larger version, just click the image and a new window will open.

Compute Needs Before Purchase

CLICK ABOVE FOR LARGER IMAGE
LARGER IMAGE IS 400K

By Mary Bridgman, Dispatch Accent Reporter

They'll be your social director and your personal secretary, your travel agent and your daily newspaper, your college professor and your financial analyst.

They'll teach you to talk in French and in Spanish, open your garage door and turn on the lights, analyze the stock market and plot your biorhythms, tell you who's dancing on Broadway and where to dine afterwards, and entertain you with a late-night game of Space Invaders.

Home computers. They do almost everything.

And business is booming, thank you. Personal computers are being grabbed up by families who want some extra added entertainment, by husbands and wives who want to computerize their homes, and by small businesses which want to computerize their records.

Last year, in fact, the home computer market recorded sales of $200 million, according to Dan Dorfman, whose syndicated business column appears in The Dispatch. This year, sales are expected to top $700 million and to explode to more than $2 billion in 1983.

Leading the way in sales are Commodore International, Dorfman said, along with Apple, Texas Instruments, Atari and Tandy.

All of this growth, in large part, is attributed to the plunging costs of computers. Today's price tags place them in the financial reach of many families.

The splashy new IBM personal computer, for instance, sells for about $3,000 with a disc drive and has the capability of the $3 million computer, circa 1970, said John Ford, marketing and sales director of Computerland of Columbus.

If $3,000 sounds extravagant, plenty of other computers on the market are ripe for the picking. Home computer stores are sprouting up all around Columbus, featuring showrooms stocked with computers typically tagged at $1,000 and up. At the same time, department stores and discount stores are displaying shelves full of less expensive models which can start under $200.

So how do you know what to buy?

Computer salesmen around town say the most common mistake consumers make is not knowing what they want their computer to do -- now and in the future. Consequently, they don't know what software -- the programs -- they need or how much memory they need.

"People come in and don't even know what software is," said Beth Marshdoyle, at MicroAge Computer Stores Inc. in Olentangy Plaza.

Salesmen, in fact, like to talk about software before they talk about hardware.

"We'll have people come in here and say, 'show me what (the computers) can do,' said Sam Orth, sales representative for On Line Computer Centers. "We think, they should first know their needs so they will know what kinds of software they need."

The software will determine, in large part, what kind of computer they should buy.

On the other hand, the higher the price tag on the computer itself, the more gadgetry you'll get and the more capabilities the computer will have.

With most setups, though, consumers can start with the basics and add from there, Ford said. "The main question is 'do I spend the $3,000 now or $300 now, and then add on?' Generally the second way will cost you more."

So what are the options?

There are computers with and without sound, with and without disc drives, with color and with only black and white. There are computers with huge memories and computers with memories that accommodate only 1,024 letters in a program.

Some computers can only understand BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) language while others understand several languages, like Extended BASIC, Pilot, Pascal, Assembly, Fortran or Cobol. The languages determine the access speed to your program.

And some companies -- Apple and Tandy, for example -- have large amounts of software available, while others do not.

Many families are meeting their home needs with the $200 and $300 computers. For that, they are getting a keyboard and cables which plug into the family TV and a 16K (kilobyte) memory. One "K" provides storage space for 1,024 separate characters -- or 1,024 bytes, in computer talk. These computers will use a cassette tape and generally speak one language.

Despite the modest price, Marshdoyle said, the lower-priced computers will allow you to play games as well as work up your own filing systems for telephone lists and recipes, keep track of financial investments, allow access to a data base such as CompuServe with additional hardware, and plug into pre-programmed software already created to do a specific function.

Their major disadvantage is the small memory. If you plan to use the computer much, you, will probably outgrow it quickly, Ford said.

For $600 to $1,000, Ford said, you can purchase a computer with more memory -- up to 64K -- and have access to a wider range of software. If you want the sophisticated software, you'll have to pay $600 to $800, Marshdoyle said.

The next step up is the $2,000 outfit, which along with the basic keyboard computer will have a separate disc drive (instead of cassette tape) and sometimes a separate video monitor, freeing up the family TV.

The disc drive works like a record player. The disc, which on the average holds 100K to 200K, slides inside, Ford said. A read-and-write head scans the disc when you ask for a specific program and transfers the information into the memory.

The cassette tapes, on the other hand, are played off recorders and hold considerably less programs. The computer reads audio signs on the tape to find the asked-for program, which may mean running through six minutes of tape -- or more -- to get there. Or, you can advance the tape manually to the corresponding calendar number. The program is then sent into the computer's memory.

With the $2,000 computer, using discs, you'll get a much faster machine and there will be much more software available for it.

So what are the musts?

People should buy computers with at least a 48K memory, Marshdoyle said. They should make sure there is adequate software available, and make sure the education and training to operate the machine is available.

On her wish list, Marshdoyle said she'd include a monitor, second disc drive, game paddles and joy sticks, a color monitor, printer and more software.

The "add ons" are an industry in themselves. Stores are selling a huge variety of "peripherials" -- printers which make "hard copies," accessories which add graphics and more memory, different languages, and capabilities to turn on and off lights and thermostats ... the list goes on and on.

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