As the Sinclair ZX-81, the Alice was clearly marketed as an initiation machine.
In 1981, Matra signed a deal with Tandy/RadioShack to develop a MC-10 clone for 1983 : the Alice. Matra then worked with Hachette (both were owned by the Lagardère group) to produce the documentation and to organize the distribution. Last but not least, the well known and excellent french illustrator Moebius drew a beautiful illustration for the docs and the box of the Alice.
Alice is quite limited in its possibilities but is also quite pleasant to use. Its case is whole red and the computer really looks like a toy.
Several educational programs were developed for this computer.
Then in 1984, Matra presents a new version : The Alice 32 with 16 kb RAM and improved graphical possibilities.
But this computer was, like the MC 10, a flop in the marketplace. It was replaced one year later by the Alice 90.
This was my first computer. The user manual was great, and allowed me to get starte programming where most of my friends would just buy ready made code. If if was not for this box, today I would not be an IT engineer ;)
Tuesday 21st June 2005
Mirko Sala (Bangkok, Thailand)
The Alice 32 isn't much like the 4K Alice, because of its use of a completely different video chip. Its description should be either separated completely, or put on the Alice 90's page.
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(France, dec. 83)
