Hyperion (was: Re: This Week's Haul)

From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Sat Aug 22 03:59:50 1998

On Mon, 17 Aug 1998, Doug Yowza wrote:

> > Did the Hyperion beat Compaq's intro? And if so, how come Compaq
> > generally gets the credit?
>
> According to my arm-chair research, yes, Hyperion was first. Compaq gets
> the glory because they're American, were much more PC-compatible, and
> because they kicked the Hyperion's butt in terms of market success.

That first reason stinks a little, but the others make sense. :) In a
perfect world, credit would go where credit is due, but this is the real
world.

> It may be more complicated than that. The Hyperion was intro'd in 1982 by
> Dynalogic, but Dynalogic was then acquired by Bytec. My manual was
> published by Bytec in 1983 (rev 4).

Ouch! Assuming that Dynalogic started with the Hyperion (and they may not
have), they sure didn't last long!

Do you happen to know where Dynalogic was headquartered? An old magazine
I've got lists an address in Ottawa, but it lists addresses in Ontario for
a lot of international companies, too. A friend of mine says that
Dynalogic was based in Montreal.

My second Hyperion unit has the "Ontario Hydro Electrical Approval"
sticker on it, but I don't know if that means anything. (One of my PET
2001 units also bears this sticker.)

The Bytec name sounds familiar for some reason, but I don't know why. It
just makes me think "PET peripherals" for some reason? (Possibly a company
with a similar name made PET stuff?)

> > How fast is the modem? 300 baud?
>
> Damn, you made me get out of my arm chair. 300 baud.

Damn, I was hoping for 1200 so I could call my favourite local BBS with
it. They stopped accepting 300 baud calls a few years back, else I'd
probably BBS with my VIC-20. ;)

> > > display modes: 320x200, 640x200, 320x250, 640x250.
> >
> > Are the x250 modes normal for the PC?
>
> Nope. The Hyperion was special (thus its downfall).

It is kind of a strange size, but not too far from 240 pixels, which I
would assume would be a wee bit more normal.

Did any of the software that came with the Hyperion actually use these
graphics modes?

> -- Doug

Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Received on Sat Aug 22 1998 - 03:59:50 BST

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