Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting

Compaq Plus Portable

A nice review of a Compaq Plus Portable (1983) by Dmitrii Eliuseev.

KBD.news
Published January 2, 2022

Read the full article here.

The price of the Compaq Portable can be in the $100-1000 range on eBay depending on its condition. I decided to buy a not working one and to restore the computer myself, not only because it's cheaper but because it's challenging and more fun – DmitriiElj.

Well, I'm not really into vintage computing. I do collect vintage keyboards but I'm not interested in converting them or bothering with running software on these computers.

Probably that's why I was stuck by seeing some familiar apps in monochrome like Lotus and Blockout – stuff I played around somewhere back in 1990.

And while I own similar luggable computers, e.g. my IBM Portable 5155 practically comes with a Model F, while this one in the picture features foam and foil switches like my Reuters trading keyboard.

Published on Sun 2nd Jan 2022. Featured in KBD #59 (source).

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