Tatung Einstein
The Tatung Einstein was an 8-Bit home computer produced by the Taiwanese corporation Tatung. The machine iteslf was designed and manufactured in England (in Telford). It was aimed primarily at the small busines market.
This machine is a lesser known retro computer - but it certainly deserves a mention.
The Einstein was released onto the UK computer market during the summer of 1984. On top of the basic machine a Tatung monitor (which was available in colour or the slightly cheaper monochrome) and printer were also available as optional add-ons.
The machine was physically a large beast (we're talking almost BBC Micro territory here!), with an option for one or two built-in three-inch Hitachi floppy disk drives.
At the time most home computers used ordinary cassette tapes for data storage - so the floppy disk option was quite something.
Another unusual feature of the Einstein was that on start-up the computer entered a simple machine code monitor which was called MOS (standing for Machine Operating System).
Plenty of software could be loaded in from disk, including a CP/M compatible operating system called Xtal DOS and a BASIC interpreter (called Xtal BASIC).
The Tatung Einstein was more expensive than most of its rivals, and really lacked an obvious niche market other than technically advanced home programmers (it was suitable for people fluent in machine code and 'binary load lifters').
Subsequently the Einstein was commercially unsuccessful in the home market and not many units were sold.
It should be noted that some developers used the Einstein to write their machine code before porting it to other systems (some games were developed for the ZX Spectrum this way). It was easier to get straight into coding and store your data this way (no need for Microdrives).
A later, revised version (the Tatung Einstein 256) was released but suffered a similar fate to it's predecessor.
A few games were released on the machine such as the classic Chuckie Egg, Lazy Jones, the seminal space trading Elite and the beat em up Yie Ar Kung Fu.
The Einstein came and went with little fanfare but has since become a cult classic system in the ranks of retro computers.
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