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Library • Museum • OS100 • PART 1
 

Room 5

FRED 1972 stretched hexagonal computer in black. Simple control panel on front of switches and lights. Smiley face and coloured dots speckle the front panel. RCA printed on bottom. Black and White CRT RCA TV to right. Tape deck and cards. In back-ground two boards on window-shelf. Flexible Recreation and Education Device. And Can Computers be fun? Fred is for all ages. With pink smiley.

FRED

FRED: the Flexible Recreational & Educational Device. An attempt to make a computer for home and school that was relatively compact, easy to use, and not too scary. Created at home by RCA engineer Joe Weisbecker.

Joe's game Bowling (1972) and his daughter Joyce's Jackpot (1974) were the first one-button video games for a home computer.

Room 5 Exhibits

 
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