The Interact Home Computer (also called The Interact Family Computer) is a 1978 American

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

made by Interact Electronics, Inc., of

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. It sold under the name "Interact Model One Home Computer". The original Interact Model One computer was designed by Rick Barnich and Tim Anderson at 204 E. Washington in Ann Arbor, then moving to the Georgetown Mall on Packard St. in Ann Arbor. Interact Electronics Inc was a privately held company that was funded by Hongiman, Miller, Swartz and Cohn, a law firm out of

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. The President/Founder of Interact Electronics Inc was Ken Lochner, who was one of the original developers of the

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

language based out of

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. Ken had started Interact Electronics Inc after founding the successful computer

time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...

company

Cyphernetics Cyphernetics Corporation was a commercial timesharing company founded in March 1969 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company had a sales offices in most major American cities and many international locations, providing communications and tec ...

in Ann Arbor, which was purchased by ADP in 1975. The Interact Model One Home Computer debuted at the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

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in June 1978, at a price of . Only a few thousand Interacts were sold before the company went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in late 1979. Most were sold by the liquidator Protecto Enterprizes of

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, through

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sales. It was also sold at

Highland Appliance Highland Superstores was an American consumer electronics and home appliance chain. It was founded in 1933 as Highland Appliance by Harry Mondry in Highland Park, Michigan. By the end of the 1970s, the chain had 18 stores throughout the midwest w ...

in the Detroit area, Newman Computer Exchange in Ann Arbor, and

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in the

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, area. The computer didn't come with any operating system, but

Microsoft BASIC Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first v ...

V4.7 or EDU-BASIC (supplied with the computer) could be loaded from tape. Probably the most successful application available for the Interact was a program called "Message Center". With it, a store could program a scrolling message which appeared on a TV screen (such as advertisements, or a welcome message to guests). Although it was mostly a game machine (with games such as Showdown,

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and

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), users could also create their own programs using the BASIC computer language. Customers began hooking up the Interact to control everything from lights in their house, doors, windows, smoke detectors, to a

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. Later on the design was sold to a

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company, Lambda Systems, and re-branded as the " Victor Lambda" for the French market.

Technical specifications

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

i8080, 2.0

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

* Memory: 8K

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, expandable to 16K of 32K RAM * ROM: 2K

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

plus one empty socket for an additional 2K ROM * Keyboard: 53-key chiclet * Display: 17 x 12 text; eight colors, 112 x 78 graphics, four colors * Sound: SN76477 (One voice, four

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

s) * Ports: Television, two

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...

s * Built-in

cassette recorder A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part o ...

(1200 Bps) * PSU: External AC transformer * 1980 price: US$300 ()

References

External links

old-computers.com page for Interact

interactfamilycomputer.com
Home computers Computer-related introductions in 1978 {{Compu-stub