Dinosaurs of a Different Sort

As seen in Harlem.

Sitting on a Chelsea sidewalk.

It took a bit of searching but the computer is a Magnavox Videowriter 250, made in the mid-1980s by Philips and sold under the Magnavox name. It has a 3.5 inch screen and from this angle looks like a microwave oven.

Comments

[Valorie]

My father bought one of these Videowriters in the late 80's. It has an attached keyboard and a built-in printer. The video monitor is small, with glowing orange illumination and a cursor that looked like, and was appropriately called a "carrot." It used copious amounts of carbon tape.

I did many a report on this machine. It was state of the art at the time as home computers weren't really accessible to consumers yet. Thanks for your photographic exhibit of this now defunct, archaic, dinosaur of a machine. It brought back fond memories.

[david]

I used one of these over 20yrs ago when I was in college. My mother worked for North American Philips in Little Rock, Arkansas and was able to buy one through work at a big discount. The on/off button quit working some time ago and it got sent to the recycle pile last year. No one seemed to want it. Since I am a pack rat I would have kept it to sit along side my manual typewriter that was made in 1940. Found some old(never opened)diskette's this past winter.