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Quiz about Home Computers of the 1970s and 1980s
Quiz about Home Computers of the 1970s and 1980s

Home Computers of the 1970s and 1980s Quiz


Test your knowledge of the home computers of yesteryear by matching these clues with the computer in question.

A matching quiz by skylarb. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
skylarb
Time
5 mins
Type
Match Quiz
Quiz #
399,849
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
466
Last 3 plays: Guest 185 (7/10), Guest 67 (10/10), Guest 193 (10/10).
(a) Drag-and-drop from the right to the left, or (b) click on a right side answer box and then on a left side box to move it.
QuestionsChoices
1. One of the best-selling computers of all time, it had 64 kilobytes of RAM.   
  Apple MacIntosh 128K
2. This computer, later nicknamed "thin Mac," was the first to successfully feature a Graphic User Interface.   
  BBC Micro
3. Unveiled in December of 1981, this computer was common in school computer labs across the UK.  
  Coleco Adam
4. Introduced on August 12, 1981, and running on PC DOS 1.0, it popularized the term PC.   
  Apple IIe
5. Released in late 1983 and promptly discontinued in 1985, this largely unsuccessful computer, which used digital data pack drives, had an introductory price of $725.   
  Osborne 1
6. Manufactured by Commodore International and released in 1987, this bestselling model, often used as a gaming machine, retailed for $1,295.   
  Tandy TRS 80
7. Belittled by some as the "Trash 80," this home computer was sold through Radio Shack in the late 1970s.   
  Amiga 500
8. In 1983, one of these computer systems was offered free to every elementary and secondary school in California.   
  Kenbak-1
9. When released in 1981, this computer weighed over 23 pounds and cost over $1,795.   
  Commodore 64
10. According to the American Computer Museum and the Computer History Museum, this was the world's first personal computer.   
  IBM Personal Computer 5150





Select each answer

1. One of the best-selling computers of all time, it had 64 kilobytes of RAM.
2. This computer, later nicknamed "thin Mac," was the first to successfully feature a Graphic User Interface.
3. Unveiled in December of 1981, this computer was common in school computer labs across the UK.
4. Introduced on August 12, 1981, and running on PC DOS 1.0, it popularized the term PC.
5. Released in late 1983 and promptly discontinued in 1985, this largely unsuccessful computer, which used digital data pack drives, had an introductory price of $725.
6. Manufactured by Commodore International and released in 1987, this bestselling model, often used as a gaming machine, retailed for $1,295.
7. Belittled by some as the "Trash 80," this home computer was sold through Radio Shack in the late 1970s.
8. In 1983, one of these computer systems was offered free to every elementary and secondary school in California.
9. When released in 1981, this computer weighed over 23 pounds and cost over $1,795.
10. According to the American Computer Museum and the Computer History Museum, this was the world's first personal computer.

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. One of the best-selling computers of all time, it had 64 kilobytes of RAM.

Answer: Commodore 64

Released in August of 1982, the Commodore 64 initially sold for $595 in the United States. According to the Guinness World Records, as of 2014, it was the highest selling computer model of all time. From 1983 to 1986, it cornered over 30% of the share of the U.S. market for home computers.
2. This computer, later nicknamed "thin Mac," was the first to successfully feature a Graphic User Interface.

Answer: Apple MacIntosh 128K

With an introductory price of almost $2,500, the computer was costly for the market. It came with a built-in 9-inch screen and a mouse. The 128K referred to its 128 kilobytes of built-in RAM. The Macintosh 512K would become known as the "fat Mac," while the 128K would be referred to as the "thin Mac."
3. Unveiled in December of 1981, this computer was common in school computer labs across the UK.

Answer: BBC Micro

The term "BBC Micro" is typically used to collectively refer to models A, B, B+64, B+128, Master 128, and Master Compact. The introductory price for the BBC Micro Model A was 225 pounds. Nicknamed "the Beeb," the BBC Micro was built for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Computer Literacy Project by the Acorn Computer company. By 1986, around 80% of British schools had at least one BBC microcomputer.
4. Introduced on August 12, 1981, and running on PC DOS 1.0, it popularized the term PC.

Answer: IBM Personal Computer 5150

While the term personal computer (PC) had been in use since at least 1972, after the release of the International Business Machines (IBM) Personal Computer, the term PC became synonymous with IBM-compatible computers. Running on Intel 8088 at 4.77 MHz, the 5150 came with either a floppy disk or cassette system.

The later 5160 model was the first IBM PC to come standard with an internal hard drive.
5. Released in late 1983 and promptly discontinued in 1985, this largely unsuccessful computer, which used digital data pack drives, had an introductory price of $725.

Answer: Coleco Adam

The Adam was originally advertised at $525, but between production and shipment, the price increased to $725. It experienced numerous technical problems, including many returned, defective computers. The 80 kilobyte RAM computer came with the "Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom" video game.
6. Manufactured by Commodore International and released in 1987, this bestselling model, often used as a gaming machine, retailed for $1,295.

Answer: Amiga 500

The monitor ran buyers an extra $300. The Amiga 500 was discontinued in 1996 and used AmigaOS on Kickstart as its operating system. Four to six million units were sold, making the Amiga 500 one of the leading home computers of the late 1980s.
7. Belittled by some as the "Trash 80," this home computer was sold through Radio Shack in the late 1970s.

Answer: Tandy TRS 80

Released on August 3, 1977, the Tandy TRS 80 (later the Model I) was discontinued in 1981. It was one of the earliest mass marketed home computers, and over 100,000 were sold by the end of 1979 through the Tandy Corporation's Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation for the Tandy/RadioShack Z80 microprocessor.
8. In 1983, one of these computer systems was offered free to every elementary and secondary school in California.

Answer: Apple IIe

Apple quickly made inroads into the American public school classroom through its offer of free computers. A few years earlier, in 1978, it had won a contract with Minnesota Education Computing Consortium to supply schools in that state with 500 computers.

In 1982, Steve Jobs lobbied his Congressional Representative to draft HR 5573 (the Computer Equipment Contribution Act), which would allow charitable contribution income tax deduction for corporations donating computers to "qualified educational organizations." However, in recent years, Apple has begun to lose its place in the American classroom.

In 2017, Chromebooks accounted for 58 percent of computing devices shipped to schools.
9. When released in 1981, this computer weighed over 23 pounds and cost over $1,795.

Answer: Osborne 1

Despite the heavy weight, this computer was considered to be somewhat portable. It had a tiny 5-inch display, dual floppy drives, 64k of RAM, and a 4 MHz CPU. The company declared bankruptcy in 1983 after the press leaked information about the next-generation Osborne.

This gave birth to the term "the Osborne effect," which suggests that if you announce a better, future product, people might stop buying the current version to wait for the new version, thus creating cashflow problems.
10. According to the American Computer Museum and the Computer History Museum, this was the world's first personal computer.

Answer: Kenbak-1

John V. Blankenbaker of the Kenbak Corporation invented the Kenbak-1, and it was first sold in 1971 for $750. That would be over $4,800 as of December 2019, according to the CPI Inflation Calculator. Fifty of these machines were built, and, as of 2019, fourteen were believed to still be in existence worldwide.

The 8-bit Kenbak-1 was based on small-scale integration TTL chips and had 256 bytes of memory.
Source: Author skylarb

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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