Victor Computer anyone?

From: Tom Phelan <tomph_at_ix3.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed May 7 06:29:23 1997

Hi Again,

<snip>
> I remember playing around with some Victors at the neighborhood computer
> store in 1981 or so. . .did they run CP/M?

The original lot we used ran CPM/86. As the IBM continued to grow in
market share a version of MS/DOS modified specifically for the Victor
was released.

> I also remember reading that they had a wierd disk format, and Victor
> wanted to control all of the software available for the machine.

The wierd disk format came from the multi speed floppy drive and the
zones. 600K on one side of a 5-1/4" disk. Not bad for it's time.

> The
> article said "You couldn't even get a copy of Dbase II unless you got it
> through Victor". Any truth to that?

Yep, due mainly to the disk format. Can't remember if there were
problems with the video driver portion also. The system had a very
high resolution. I once saw video being played on the screen. Looked
every bit as good as a black and white TV except it was green and
black. In any event, you just couldn't bring programs straight over.

As far as applications went, they had Victor versions of Lotus,
Supercalc, MultiPlan, Multimate, dBase II, Crosstalk, Wordstar and
others. It even had a 3D spreadsheet called Victor Calc.

There was talk of Victor releasing a disk drive that would read and
write IBM format and an emulation board that would allow it to run
IBM software. As I remember it, this board was giving them all kinds
of headaches. Never really got it to work bug free or at least free
enough so that users wouldn't complain. Shortly after this the
company went belly up. Seems that they were will established over seas
and had a good share of the market. In an attempt to migrate the
system to this side of the pond they overextended themselves in the
marketing department and opened up too many sales locations all over
the country but the sales didn't materialze. I remember them
shutting down location after location. That's about all I can
remember.

Hope that helps.
Tom
 
Received on Wed May 07 1997 - 06:29:23 BST