Aucbvax.1911
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!Andrew.Reiner@CMU-10A
Wed Jun 24 06:59:27 1981
Re: coin-op computing
In 1975, one Harold Shair installed a genuine coin-operated personal computer
in the White Plains public library in White Plains, New York. If I remember
correctly, the machine was a Wang 2200. At any rate, it spoke basic, and
had cassette tape secondary storage, and you could either buy your own
tape (available at a nominal charge at the reference desk), or borrow
application & game tapes from the library's collection. The machine
was outfitted with a car-wash style coinbox which gave you ~5 minutes
of computing for $.25. It accepted up to n quarters at a time, allowing
the user n*5 minutes of uninteruppted hacking. What Shair had done was
wire the coinbox into the video display circuitry, so that the display blanked
when your time ran out. The processor and memory were unaffected, so you could
either drop in another quarter, or write your tape and go home. Shair was also,
to my knowledge, the first entrepreneur to install coin-op electronic
calculators in a public place, a decade or so ago. He currently owns a
sucessful chain of computer stores in the NY area.
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