This is the story of a keyboard and the boy who loved it.
My first personal computer, purchased in 1980 at the dawn of personal computing, was a Horizon NorthStar with a TeleVideo 950 terminal and an NEC 3550 printer. It took eight months of research to arrive at this
configuration.
The Horizon NorthStar had a wooden case. High-end audio equipment at the time had wooden cases, so the best personal computers had wooden cases. I used the NorthStar daily through 1984. People would come to see what computer I used, look at the NorthStar and say: ”Oh, they`re making computers with wooden cases now!”
The NorthStar ran CP/M. All the programs I needed were available in CP/M, so as the years rolled on (in terms of advancement, computer years are like dog years: One real year equals about seven computer years), as IBM and MS-DOS became standards and as more and more programs and peripherals were offered only for MS-DOS, I was unmoved. I was happy with what I had.
When I opened an office in New York, I stuck with CP/M and bought an Epson QX-10, which has one of the nicest keyboard-screen arrangements of all time. But then, destiny called.
I was at a computer show in 1984, and noticed a keyboard unlike any I had ever seen before. It was a standard Selectric-style keyboard, but added to the right of the numeric keypad was a trackball, a ball mounted so that roughly half of it protrudes from a flat surface and can rotate freely in all directions.
I first saw trackballs with the arcade game Missile Command. The spaceship would go up, down, left, right or diagonally depending upon which way the ball was rolled. It was a great movement device, far better than the joystick. The Wico Co. sold tens of thousands of trackballs to personal computer owners for game playing.
And then it combined a trackball with a legitimate keyboard. What a revelation! The trackball is by far the best way to move the cursor around the screen, far superior to the mouse, cursor keys, touch screens, touch pads, foot mice or bands you wear around your head that put the cursor wherever you`re looking.
The trackball on the keyboard stays put. You always know where it is in relation to the keys. This means you don`t have to take your eyes off the screen in order to move the cursor.
A mouse, by contrast, can be anywhere. Further, mice require a square foot of room to move about in. Now, how many desks of how many working people have a square foot of unaccounted-for room?
Cursor movement keys are fine, especially on detailed character-by-characte r movement, but when it comes to cruising through a document, they`re a drag. With a trackball you roll your way though the document, stopping where you please.
The Wico Smartline SmartBoard works only with the IBM and compatibles. But I was hooked. It was time to move into the world of IBM compatibility. And while doing that, why not do it all the way, put together the ultimate personal computer? Write an article about it!
Next: The computer and peripherals.
(The Wico Co., 6400 W. Gross Point Road, Niles, Ill. 60648; 800-323-0765)
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