Home computers were a class of personal computers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles. These computers typically cost much less than business, scientific or engineering-oriented desktop personal computers of the time, and were generally less powerful in terms of memory and expandability. However, a home computer often had better graphics and sound than contemporary business personal computers. Usually they were purchased for education, game play, and personal productivity use such as word processing.
Advertisements for early home computers were rife with possibilities for their use in the home, from cataloging recipes to personal finance to home automation, but these were seldom realized in practice. If no packaged software was available for a particular application, the home computer user was required to learn computer programming; a significant time commitment many weren't willing to make. Still, for many the home computer offered the first opportunity to learn to program.
The line between a 'business' and 'home' computer market segments has blurred, since the computers typically use the same operating systems, processor architectures, applications and peripherals. Another change from the home computer era is that the once-common endeavour of writing one's own software programs has almost vanished from home computer use.
Background
Computers became affordable for the general public due to the mass production of the microprocessor. Early microcomputers had front-mounted switches and blinkenlights to control and indicate internal system status, and were often sold in kit form. These kits would contain an empty printed circuit board which the purchaser would fill with the integrated circuits, other individual electronic components, wires and connectors, and then hand-solder all the connections. In contrast, home computers were designed to be used by the average consumer, not necessarily an electronics hobbyist.
While two early home computers (Sinclair ZX80, and Acorn Atom) could be purchased in kit form (or assembled), otherwise home computers were only sold pre-assembled. They were enclosed in molded plastic cases, which were more attractive to consumers and lower cost than the metal card-cage enclosures used by the Altair and similar computers. A keyboard was usually built into the case. Ports for plug-in peripheral devices such as a video display, cassette tape recorders, joysticks, and (later) disk drives either were provided or available as add-on cards. Usually the manufacturer would provide all the peripheral devices practical to add to any system as extra cost accessories. Often peripherals were not interchangeable between brands of home computer (or sometimes even between successive models of the same brand).
To save the cost of a dedicated monitor, the home computer often would have connected either directly or through an RF modulator to the family TV set as video display and sound system.
Almost universally, home computers had a version of a BASIC interpreter combined with a line editor in read-only permanent memory with which you could type in BASIC programs and execute them immediately. The BASIC interpreter was also used as the Operating system, and given tasks such as the loading, saving and managing and running of files. One exception was the Jupiter Ace, which had the Forth language built in. A programming language was seen as a requirement for any computer of the era due to the dearth of commercially-available productivity software.
After the success of systems like the RadioShack TRS-80, the Commodore PET and the Apple II in 1977, large numbers of new machines of all types began to appear during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some home computers sold many units over several years, such as the BBC Micro, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Atari 800XL and Commodore 64, and attracted third-party software development. By 1982, an estimated 621,000 home computers were in use in the United States, at an average sales price of $530.
Low-end home computers competed with video game consoles. The markets weren't entirely distinct, as both could be used for games. A common marketing tactic was to show a computer system and console playing games side by side, then emphasising the computer's greater ability by showing it running user-created programs, educational software, word processing, spreadsheet and other applications while the game console showed a blank screen or continued playing the same repetitive game. Books were available for most models of computer with titles along the lines of "64 Amazing BASIC Games for the Commodore 64". These books would include type in program listings and sometimes an mail-in offer to obtain the programs on disk or cassette and were a popular and low-cost means of both learning to program and software distribution. . Some video game consoles offered "programming packs", consisting of a version of BASIC in a ROM cartridge. For the ColecoVision console Coleco even announced an expansion module which should convert it into a full-fledged computer system, but this never materialised, and instead the Coleco Adam was announced. During the peak years of the home computer market, scores of models were produced, usually with little or no thought given to compatibility between different manufacturers or even within product lines of one manufacturer. The concept of a computer platform did not exist, except for the Japanese MSX standard.
The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer in August 1981 would eventually lead to standardization in personal computers, largely due to the system's open architecture, which encouraged production of third-party clones of the unit. While the Apple II would be quickly displaced by the IBM PC for office use, Apple Computer's 1984 release of the Apple Macintosh created a new model for the home computer which IBM-compatible computers would eventually imitate.
The declining cost of IBM-compatible "personal computers" on the one hand, and the greatly increased graphics, sound, and storage capabilities of dedicated video game consoles such as the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System on the other, combined to cause the market segment for home computers to vanish by the early 1990s in the US. In Europe, the home computer remained a distinct presence for a few years more, with the Amiga and Atari ST lines being the dominant players, but today a computer purchased for home use anywhere will be very similar to those used in offices - made by the same manufacturers, with compatible peripherals, operating systems, and application software.
Technology
Many home computers were superficially similar. Most had a keyboard integrated into the case; sometimes a cheap-to-manufacture chiclet keyboard in the early days, although full-travel keyboards quickly became universal due to overwhelming consumer preference. Most systems could use an RF modulator to display 20–40 column text output on a home television. Indeed, the use of a television set as a display almost defines the pre-PC home computer. Although dedicated composite or "green screen" computer displays were available for this market segment and offered sharper text display and sometimes increased graphics resolution, a monitor was often a later purchase only made after users had bought a floppy disk drive, printer, modem, and the other pieces of a full system. This "peripherals sold separately" approach is another defining characteristic of the home computer era. Many first time computer buyers brought a base C-64 system home and hooked it up to their TV only to find they needed to purchase a disk drive or Datassette before they could make use of it as anything but a game machine.
In the early part of the 1980s, home computers were mostly based on 8-bit microprocessor technology, typically the MOS Technology 6502 or the Zilog Z80. A notable exception was the TI-99 series, announced in 1979 with a 16-bit TMS9900 CPU.
Processor clock rates were typically 1–2 MHz for 6502 based CPU's and 2–4 MHz for Z80 based systems (yielding roughly equal performance), but this aspect of performance was not emphasized by users or manufacturers, as dealing with the systems' limited RAM capacity, graphics capabilities and storage options took priority. Clock speed was considered a technical detail of interest only to users needing accurate timing. To economize on component cost, often the same crystal used to produce color television compatible signals was also divided down and used for the processor clock. This meant processors rarely operated at their full rated speed, and had the side-effect that European and North American versions
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