Ancient "toy computer"

From: Rick Bensene <rickb_at_bensene.com>
Date: Wed Dec 19 00:21:12 2001

Think-A-Tron, made by Hasbro.
I had one too (and still wish I had it)
These do show up on eBay from time to time.

Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Web Museum
http://www.geocities.com/oldcalculators

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Glen Goodwin
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 9:19 PM
> To: classiccmp
> Subject: Ancient "toy computer"
>
>
> Okay, in order to pose this question I have to come clean
> here and admit my
> age:
>
> Right around 1960 or '61 (I was five or six years old at the
> time) I was given a toy computer. I suppose it was meant to
> represent a mainframe (what else could it have been, given
> the era?) and there was a rectangular (4 x 8? 5 X 7?) array
> of blinkenlights on the front of it. There was also a tray
> in the front which accepted a small punched card. A set of
> these cards came with the toy. Each card had a
> multiple-choice question printed on it, as well as four
> answers to choose from, numbered A through D.
> Additional card sets could be purchased separately.
>
> When a card was placed into the tray and the tray was then
> closed, the blinkenlights would display a "random" pattern
> for a couple of seconds (always the same pattern) and then
> the array would display the correct answer to the printed
> question, A B C or D. It didn't take long for me to be able
> to read the holes in the cards, and I even "modified" a
> couple of them so that the toy displayed an incorrect answer.
>
> Does *anyone* remember this thing? It must have cost a few
> bucks back then. What was it called?
>
> Glen
> 0/0
>
>
>
Received on Wed Dec 19 2001 - 00:21:12 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:33:40 BST