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Pcjr The 25th Anniversary

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by Kevin Maney
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Feb 15 2008 12:00am EDT

PCjr: the 25th Anniversary

Twenty-five years ago, in the fall of 1983, IBM introduced what it thought would be the first true home computer -- a scaled-down, over-simplified PC for the family, dubbed the PCjr. It sucked.

pcjr.jpg

The PCjr cost $669 for the cheapest version, about double the price of a Commodore 64. It was underpowered and under-featured, and came with what must be the worst keyboard ever made -- the so-called "chiclet" keyboard with a balky infrared connection instead of a wire. The Apple IIe and then the Commodore Amiga blew away the PCjr. By mid-1985, IBM pulled the machine from the market.

In retrospect, it's kind of funny that Apple set the tone way back then for the current Mac vs. Windows commercials. Below is an Apple commercial from the 1980s, picking on the PCjr.

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