$1,795 Luggable PC from 1985: Sharp PC-7000
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Cleaning up, testing out, and enjoying the Sharp PC-7000 lunchbox-style portable PC! A proper MS-DOS computer that proved quite successful for Sharp throughout the second half of the 80s. It may not be the fastest, most capable luggable of its day, but dang if it doesn't look spiffy.
● LGR links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Music licensed from Epidemic Sound:
www.epidemicsound.com
● Here's where I found the 360K master floppy:
forum.vcfed.org/index.php?thr...
00:00 The Sharp PC-7000 from 1985
02:57 Cleaning up the computer
04:19 A little history, a lot of tech specs
10:11 Opening the case to see inside
10:52 Using the PC, playing DOS games
13:04 Middle of the road but recommended!
#LGR #Retro #Computer - Věda a technologie
"Hey kid, wanna try some DOS?" LOL, you never fail to crack me up, Clint!
i died laughing on that too!
Now we know where Clint got his love of vintage computers; random dudes living in his parents' basement. LOL!!!
-- slowly opens the keyboard lid --
first one's free!
gosh, that 80s car dashboard aesthetic is incredible
Petition to bring back computer designs that look like 80s vehicle dashboards! Sign below:
@@LGR signed.
We definitely need such an attention to detail these days. I really loved the diagonal embossed lines on the back of the keyboard!
@@LGR Bring back those 80s dashboards! The cars have LCD displays! We can do it! We have the technology!
@@LGR yep
I always love these oddly designed attempts at portability. Adds some personality to already then cutting edge tech.
I love your CZcams profile picture.
Yep. I remember seeing one of these in the wild in the early 90's and being impressed by it even then
Honestly "luggable" is a form factor more people should talk about. I can't fit my steam deck in my handbag, but it's alright to take to a friends' house or on holiday. I bet you could use this absolute unit the same way.
Luggable was such an 80's word that suited the tech of the time. A modern equivalent might be "bingeworthy".
You mean it's not a 21th century fun dig at stuff deemed portable by 70s/80s people, but an actual term used with a straight face?
@@Gary_Hun A *semi* straight face. Companies tried to sell these computers as "portable" and likened them to things like large briefcases. The market somewhat rejected this idea of "portable" and referred to them as "luggable" instead. I can recall hearing the term at least as far back as the mid-90s after laptops had appeared. I suspect it goes back all the way to the (very brief) heyday of these things.
They were the sort of thing JR Ewing would have taken to a business meeting (or maybe got Bobby to carry for him).
Let's not forget there was a time when a Motorola Brick sized cellphone was the ultimate Yuppie status symbol.
I like the term luggable
Or pocketable
I worked with one of those between 1988 and 1990. I was developing software for lotteries and aside from using the computer to edit and store programs on its dual 360 KB floppies, but would also use it as a terminal to connect to a mini-computer or use KERMIT to transfer files. The fact that it had an attached printer was an unheard-of option at the time. The monochrome screen was easy to read and it had a good keyboard. I wish I still had mine.
I wish they still made things like these.
I am a word processor / text editor fan, and I would definitely not mind having one as a text editor over a freewrite or a alphasmart.
@@robertnussberger2028 The 8086 processor was faster than the 8088 on most PCs at the time. Having a built-in screen, even a monochrome one, was great at the time, and you could even adjust the viewing angle. Those were the days of Kermit, 2400BPS modems, Xterm, and all GUIs were character-based. I wrote PC assembler for the Sharp and used word processors to edit higher-level languages, transfer them to the host (or used the host editor interactively), and then compile and test there. Those were the days.
Did not expect to hear LGR's superhero origin story today, but I am here for it.
As someone who also was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, I can say we didn't have weird computer guys crashing at our house. But I do remember my friend's dad having a collection of fascinating old 80s DOS computers in his garage. We only had a Mac at the time, so DOS was a mysterious thing to me. I knew it as the way to play DOOM (on slighly newer PCs than the aforementioned garage computers).
I got a similar story of a friends dad showing up with a boot filled with old 386’s. He dumped it in the shed where me and my buddy built two decked out machines to play coop doom.
Funny how back then old computers were ‘junk’ and given for free, while nowadays everybody wants money. Any case it was before craigslist and ebay, and selling stuff through classifieds was a hassle.
Yep. I was 8 in 1995 when we got a C64 from a garage sale. The set up I had would be worth thousands today where it probably cost less than $100 back then.
@@clavius5734 My best purchase in the 1990s was a working Sinclair Spectrum complete with cassette recorder in a purpose made case labelled "presented by the ITC" for £1. The main reason for buying it was that it was at a rainy, outdoor sale and could see it would end up as junk if nobody rescued it.
The reason old computers are now valuable is because so many got thrown away. A colleague was quite proud of the fact that he once used a genuine IBM PC AT to repair his car exhaust !
The same thing has happened with cars. My first car was a two door MK1 Ford Escort bought for £900 and sold three years later for £400. It would be worth 50 times that now if I had kept it.
Not much has changed on the Mac vs PC front, then
There's something oddly soothing with watching Clint clean up an old computer like this. It's almost like an ASMR.
I was thinking he should start a sub-channel of computer cleaning ASMR, maybe even with jazz playing in the background.
You must be new here
Almost?
@@raerae1630 NO! NO MUSIC IN ASMR! IM fooking so sick of "light ambience" background mus oh i quit!
It's amazing this didn't blow up. It seems like everything you could want in '85 for a traveling business cat.
I have this amazing piece of computer history sitting protected in my closet. I got it from eBay years ago. How much do you think these go for now days?
you know you are a hopeless nerd when the part about cleaning the old pc soothes you and amuses you to no end...this is ASMR for us tech geeks.
man, i love the pc-7000 and the display dimensions, the sexy tilt, robust build... the whole form factor ... beautiful. still hope to find one for myself.
i remember that the father of a friend had the system mounted in a custom build cradle in his car, he drove through whole germany, measured radiation etc near nuclear power plants and used that beauty to document the readings. pretty slick, i was in awe as i saw that as kid, that was something straight from the future.
This is my first PC, the one I learned to code BASIC on! I have so many fond memories of this weird little thing. I'm glad you got one to review :).
Oddly, I recall having a version of Round 42 that worked well on this machine. Were there different releases of that game?
And yes, I too had weird strangers show up to my house with obsolete PCs as a child. What a time.
how did u find out what you needed (BASIC interpreter program) and where or who did you find it or where to find it at?
Thanks, Woody, for enabling Clint to share this with the rest of us!
What a neat machine, I love seeing old school "portable" units like this, also that Jeremy Jahns "Good time no alcohol required" gave me a laugh, good stuff.
This is the most pleasing formfactor of the portables of the era that I have seen, what a fantastic design.
I love how you talk about the technical specs and possible gaming when you make videos. I'm more into the gaming than the technical stuff but I just love how these two balance out each other in every video.
Sharp had such a great understanding of form. This looks cool even today.
i think i could watch some good 20-30 minutes of just Clint cleaning old computers while having these nice jazz tunes in the background
"Hey kid, wanna try DOS.." gave me a good chuckle on this Friday
I’ve missed a good PC cleaning video with smooth jazz.. so calming and satisfying
I just had my first heart attack and I'm laying in bed at the hospital and I'm going through so much of your Playlist. It's really helping me fight my boredom.
Just saying: if you want to feature more sections of cleaning up old hardware, I would not be mad about it at all. Watching you spiffy up this beautiful beast was absurdly soothing
Pairs flawlessly with the Michael Douglas Phone
Also, pro tip: if you have the CGA add-on card, then you can play Those 160x100 modified text mode graphics games. I had mine configured with the onboard display as MDA while the CGA card is connected to an external Sharp TTL CGA Color display (yeah, it can totally support that use case). Good times.
"Keys clack with light dissatisfaction" These closed captions are gold
I love how back in the 80s, portable just meant it had a handle on it.
also, it's 6 AM where I live and I'm watching a man clean a nearly 40 year old computer. worth it
It's 11 PM where I live and it's nice to end the day with this.
@@emirvmendoza same
People were tougher in those days
The unexpected origin story was great. That's how I got intro retro tech as well, people giving me old stuff, or sometimes literally finding and fixing trash.
Great video Clint, excited to see this thing featured on the channel. I got a bargain on the Sharp PC7100 with built-in hard drive and the optional printer a few years ago. Fun stuff to play around with.
I love when ya see a sticker or something like that velcro you removed and you see how new it looks under that. Crazy. :-)
3:35 zeiss lens wipes!! I use these on EVERYTHING! I especially love cleaning thermal paste off with them and while doing so, I think about how Zeiss is the ENTIRE reason we have the advanced processors of today! Zeiss makes the lithography machines that make all of our fancy chips. They are probably the most important company in the computer industry.
For real. There was always someone giving kids weird out of date computers in the 90s
It’s true.
My dad's friend in 1993 gave me a Atari 800 computer, I wish I still had it
@@LGR Did people in the U.S just have dudes come to live in the basement?
"Hey kid, wanna try some DOS?" LOLOL Best line of the year so far
Lightning fast vcr repair! A man of class I see :) always fun to see a favorite channel of mine on another favourite channel haha
i never knew i was this hardcore a nerd until i found myself happily watching clint clean some obsolete 80s hardware
thank you clint!
This whole computer reminds me of every Sewing Machine I've ever used. Kind of makes me want to use something similar in a nature based creative space.
2:26 "Tactical Velcro" :lol:
There's just something strangely calming about watching you clean old computers to cool jazz.
I love that you show us how you clean tech. It's somewhat calming AND something we all do but barely see online
Sharp were ahead of everyone else with their displays for a decade or two. In Dixons (a camera and electronics shop) I recall seeing amongst all the laptops with dreadful "Dual Scan" displays a Sharp laptop with a good looking TFT display.
The way that folds out is real nice, especially that leaning screen. Is a nice baige box.
Man, I needed a calming video, and one featuring 80s tech is even better. Thanks, Clint, you saved my day!
12:53 Bouncing Babies with that display ghosting only enhances the challenge! This is a really neat device. I grew up on the first Compaq Luggable (er, "Portable") and have always enjoyed these early forays into "easily" transportable machines. So glad that you are the LGR you are today, Clint!
Oh man, I had one of these. My friend saw a lady down his street throwing away 2 of these so he kept one and gave me the other. Mine powered up but the A floppy drive was jammed while the B was non-functional. Ended up selling it off in the end cause I couldn't do anything with it, but aesthetically it's a beautiful machine.
I have always loved your choice of music in this videos. This video is no exception.
Oh that design is magical! Wow! Thanks for sharing this!
This kind of video is more exciting than a high school reunion. I taught myself DOS and talked my way into my first technology job with only that one qualification.
That Enter key is hilariously huge and I WANT IT.
Thank you so much for including the cleaning process in the video!
The thing I love the most is the review itself, not the system. Quality video as always LGR, thanks!
And I too remember the strangers handing me even stranger computer equipment that molded me into what I am today, haha.
Im checking in for the first time in a long time...good on you dude! seems like you are living your best life!!
Looks amazing! Loved your childhood insight.
Hi Clint! Regards from Mexico! Love your content!!
Love the light jazz during cleaning and great video.
12:44 "Hey kid, wanna try some DOS?"
Thanks for sharing this little beast Clint
Now this is an elegant looking luggable, Clint! Kudos for the addition!
Such a beautiful machine, great design. I love the way screen looks and works and overall aesthetic
That "Good time, no alcohol required" caught me off guard, I just finished Jeremy Jahns's Plane review :D
Ah nice to see you’ve joined the Sharp luggable club :-)
That RAM expansion is very easy and relatively cheap. You can get over 700k of conventional memory :-) and even run windows 3.0 in real mode on something like a go-tek
Love the Lightning VCR Repair sticker on the workbench. Rich Evans is smiling somewhere.
And then you hit us with the Jeremy Jahns reference.
I have been depressed for some years. I am outdated, gritty, no allure. I should just observe myself as a system and work at cleaning up the basic stuff that worked. As traits of personality. Thank you Mr for reminding me.
Fixing stuff is therapy.
I actually really appreciate that you put the cleaning section in here. It satisfied some deep, dark section of my mind
You need more videos of computer baths with smooth jazz in the background!
Its nice that you know about Lightning Fast VCR, if you ever need to watch your precious Night Court tape.
This has got to be one of the coolest you've shown so far! From Sharp minds, come Sharp products...
I've gotta say - the different intro music is a real jam. Loving it.
The suggestive tone in his voice when he says “getting inside the pc” 😂
That story took a real hard left turn there and I enjoyed the whiplash. Fascinating.
Great video. One of the best things of your channel is the music tou choose for your videos. I don’t know how you do it but it’s always appropriate and I just love it.
You should release a music compilation some day.
Always nice to get some sensuous restoration in a video i thought was just going to be discussing specs. Hot action!
ugh! your videos just get better and better!
A dream machine in 1985!! Thank you for another great video!!
Seeing that next to a recent MacBook Air is just mind blowing.
I love all the unique shapes and sizes "portables" were during this time period.
Man your video are so nice and relaxing
Also very informative and entertaining
They're perfect for sleep or genuine information and entertainment
Ah, childhood computer experiences. I remember when I was in preschool (before I got kicked out of the first preschool I was in because I was real stubborn with how activities were planned) the classroom had this old computer near its entrance, possibly a late 80s or early 90s dos machine. All I can remember from that was that the monitor had a blue screen. Later on, dad would tell me about the old dos machines that were around in his day and my first exposure to older Windows versions was when I curiously peeked at the instructions on the case of Disney's Winnie the Pooh Animated Storybook. As someone who grew up with Windows 95 and 98 in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh seemed so mysterious to me back then.
Then a while after dad opened up a computer shop when I was in early middle school, he put his old Commodore 64 and accessories on a display in the store as a historical showcase of sorts. That started my fascination with vintage computers which only grew once I found a book about them in a discount store at the age of 12! And since I was already introduced to CZcams, I watched quite a few C64 and Amiga demoscene vids. A while before he passed, my dad told me about the computers he used to use in a community college computer lab and how they were all hooked up to four 5.25 in floppy drives and I managed to find an image that, while not taken in the college's actual computer lab, it matched his description perfectly.
Once I watched a vid of the 8088mph demo on here, I thought "Man, if I found this back when it was uploaded, I totally would've shown this to dad, he'd get a kick out of it!" Thanks dad, for introducing me to the world of computers old and new.
Found u from the Sims a long time ago I automatically like your videos as soon as I click them you deserve it
"It's a great time, no alcohol required!"
- I love the Jeremy Jahns reference 😅❤️
All the "old" 8088 and 286 class machines I should have kept. Thanks for keeping these machines going.
What a nice computer. I actually really like the form factor. What a quirky little thing. I'd get a few hours of fun just playing old games. Thanks for another great video. 👏
That compact portable computer that came out in 84. My sisters and I always joked it was a collaboration between Compaq computer and Samsonite luggage. Have an excellent weekend
Love the Lightning Fast VCR Repair sticker! RLM are awesome!
Amazing how tech went up in leaps and bounds since then, with a third pillar being a handheld PC that has the ergonomics of a handheld gaming device.
By the way you should try to get your hands on a Sperry UTS-30 computer terminal, featured in the movie Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
What a gorgeous piece of technology. You describing it as having pizazz made me laugh. This was quite a treat to watch, more 80s portables please!
Fantastic please more of these late 80's early 90's portable machine, they are my favourite machines.
Customers would have been really impressed rocking up with machines like these.
Keep up the interesting content.
I would suggest a Toshiba T3100 with the orange Gas Plasma display. That was my first PC picked up used for £100 back in about 1994.
My mom had a Hewitt-Packard machine with a yellow monochrome display for accounting purposes back in late 80's that she used until we moved in 99. Seeing the Wheel of Fortune game brought back memories. It also had Jeopardy and Tom Sawyer's Chase, with a cheesy Disney intro and a midi version of Zippity-do-da playing. It was great telling my friends in the 90's I had a computer with a few games and then showing them that.
As someone born in 1990 and raised in a very country state. I have never seen 96% of the things on your channel. Probably why I enjoy it so much.
You have outdone yourself, Mr LGR Sir!
When it came to hardware, 80s era Sharp was awesome. Had one of their old Microwaves for a very long time before the turntable motor finally tanked in 2016 (I think my dad got it in '86-'87 a few years before I came into existence). The computers from that era were also pretty neat looking
Oh yeah!! This hit all the right spots. Thanks LGR!!!
The actual "computer" part of this product might be lacking, but I absolutely LOVE the design of it. Very elegant.
Yet another classic machine that I used to work on when I was a service tech at Computerland in the late 1980s. Thanks for the memory blast.
This just popped up in my feed and I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know if it's the same model but back in Scotland a friend of mine borrowed a computer very similar to this from college in around 1987. From what I remember it looked very similar to this as the keyboard did protect the screen. I can remember that we played one game from I believe a floppy disc. The game allowed you to pick 2 groups of warriors and have them fight each other. I thought it might have a historical context so you could have native Americans fighting General Custer as I'm sure I can remember watching arrows being fired across the screen and you would gradually see the forces becoming decimated.
I see you're a proud customer of Lightning VCR Repair, that new Plinkett guy they hired sure is a whizz!
That bath was so relaxing. I agree it’s pretty awesome looking.
digging the new BGM!, also, this computer looks a little like a boombox!
Great Vlog, wow brings back memories
I'm super jazzed to see this, I have one and I LOVE it! I daydream about the day I find the CGA add-on for it...
When you pressed that tilt button, it was boss. Soft eject too. Quality.
I had one of these on my display at VCF East in 2022, with the factory hard drive add on and thermal printer. There were two hard drive add ons for the bottom, one with the ISA slots and one without, the one I have just adds a 10mb MFM hard drive, and about 15lbs to the carry weight!
That clean up montage music had my foot tapping