Growing up, I never got the Famicom I wanted, but somehow our house had a PC-6001 (blazing-fast 4 MHz CPU, whopping 16 KB of RAM).
I spent my childhood typing out something vaguely resembling Space Invaders from an N88 BASIC book, one painfully slow session at a time, and then actually playing it.
A very wholesome childhood, all things considered.
I'll admit the IchigoJam concept gives me a quiet wave of nostalgia.
…But never mind me.
Setting aside personal sentiment, this is a genuinely surreal product and worth a closer look.
The Concept
The product concept is:
"Recreating the golden age when programming was the ultimate game — with modern technology!"
Ah, so that's the angle.
It's billed as a "kids' computer," but the real target audience clearly isn't children.
Is It a Computer?
Boot it up and you're dropped into a BASIC runtime.
There's no graphical OS like Windows, no command-line OS like Linux —
no modern OS of any kind.
Calling that a "computer" takes some serious audacity. I'm impressed.
Maybe the logic is that a "kids' computer" isn't really a "computer" — but this thing is considerably more spartan than any adult PC.
In the parlance of "back then," this would be called a "Papicon."
BASIC… Really?
An educational programming tool, and the language is BASIC.
What exactly is someone going to do with BASIC knowledge in this day and age?
That said, when you actually think about what language you would use, it's genuinely tricky.
C means starting with "what is a pointer."
Java means "what is an object."
Go with Python and the unusual indentation syntax isn't ideal for a first introduction either.
PS/2 Keyboard
Whether it's intentional or just that adding USB Host support via DIP soldering is too much of a stretch, the machine uses a PS/2 keyboard.
Can you even still buy those?
Even the all-in-one "Get Started Set" ships with a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, which is kind of charming.
Either way, ¥1,500 for the build-it-yourself kit is tempting.
Maybe I'll get it running Heiankyo Alien.
No comments:
Post a Comment