Home computer facts for kids

A Commodore 64 system, showing the basic layout of a typical home computer system of the era. Pictured are the CPU/keyboard unit, floppy disk drive, and dedicated color monitor. Many systems also had a dot matrix printer for producing paper output.

A home computer is the name given to early personal computers made in the 1980s and 1990s that could be plugged into a television set. They were used for playing video games and doing school work and were usually owned by children.

Popular makers of home computers

• Sinclair Research
• Atari
• Tandy
• Commodore
• Amstrad

Images for kids

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  Children playing Paperboy on an Amstrad CPC 464 in 1988

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  The often sprawling nature of a well-outfitted home computer is evident with this Tandy Color Computer 3

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  The computers Byte retrospectively called the "1977 Trinity" (L-R): Commodore PET 2001-8, Apple II, TRS-80 Model I.

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  Mary Allen Wilkes working on the LINC at home in 1965; thought to be the first home computer user

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  Eastern Bloc computers were often significantly different in appearance from western computers. Pictured is a KC 85/3 with its keyboard placed on top, by VEB Mikroelektronik Mühlhausen released in 1986 and based on an East German Zilog Z80 clone.

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  The Soviet Electronika BK0010.01 home computer was based on the К1801ВМ1 (Soviet LSI-11-compatible CPU) and was, basically, a very stripped-down PDP-11.

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  The 1977 Apple II with two Disk II disk drives and an Apple monitor

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  No computer has sold more units than the Commodore 64.

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  The East German Robotron KC 85/1 was virtually not available for sale due to huge demand by industrial, educational, and military institutions.

See also

In Spanish: Computadora doméstica para niños