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I > INTERACT > Home Computer System   


Interact
Home Computer System

The Interact computer had a very short life in USA. It had only just got in production when the Interact Co. of Ann Arbor MI, went bankrupt. Several thousand machines were produced though. Some of them were sold by Protecto Enterprizes of Barrington, IL, the liquidator, but the main part was sold by MicroVideo, also of Ann Arbor. Protecto bought lots of back-of-the-magazine ads for years, always printed with "WE LOVE OUR CUSTOMERS".

The Interact shipped with 2 joysticks, a built-in tape recorder, a TV RF modulator and 2 KB of ROM. Everything, including BASIC, must be loaded from tape. A little trivia: The tape unit did include an erase head, but it was not connected! Tapes had to be erased on a regular cassette recorder before being reused. Another surprising feature is that the "1" key is after the "0" key at the far right of the keyboard. Thus the row is starting from 2 and finishing by 1... See explanation in the "Read more" page.

MicroVideo supported the machine for two years, 1979-80, making some hardware expansions (32K RAM card and stringy floppy drive), replacing the original minimalist EDU-BASIC language with a Microsoft 8K graphic version, and even publishing 3 issues of 'Interaction', a newsletter of the Detroit Interact Group.

The Interact computer finally vanished from the US market in late 1980. However, a French company bought the rights of the machine and started to sell the Interact under Victor Lambda name in French market. See the rest of the story here.

For five years, several improved sequels of the Interact, called Hector, were launched in France. The last version, the Hector MX, featured high resolution graphics and 4 built-in languages!

If you got tapes for the Interact or Victor Lambda (or Hector/Victor), please contact us. We are trying to save all programs released for this computer before there are lost forever.



Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).

Special thanks to dan A. O'Dale who donated us this computer !

 

I had an Interact in the late 70s/early 80s. I wrote a side-scrolling shooter game in assembly language (actually, directly in machine language) that I sold to MicroVideo, and it was sold in their catalogs maybe a year before they stopped supporting the Interact. The game was similar to a popular arcade game (maybe Defender?) but it had a fantasy-based theme instead of a space setting. I don''t remember the name of the game, though. Anyone have an old catalog from ancient history?

          
Thursday 17th December 2020
Chuck Yount (United States)

I have an operating Interact with many original documentations and software tapes. Always on the lookout for another functioning Interact
My very first computer back in the day

          
Monday 14th May 2018
Bruce Koldys

I have one of the original Enteract home computer systems still in original box . would like to sale it..my husband passed away..but kept it all these years..

          
Tuesday 31st May 2016
Brenda Manix (Greenville Ohio )

 

NAME  Home Computer System
MANUFACTURER  Interact
TYPE  Home Computer
ORIGIN  U.S.A.
YEAR  1979
END OF PRODUCTION  1979
BUILT IN LANGUAGE  None (EDU-BASIC on cassette tape)
KEYBOARD  QWERTY, chicklet keyboard 53 keys
CPU  Intel 8080 A
SPEED  2 MHz
RAM  8 or 16 KB
ROM  2 KB
TEXT MODES  17 chars. x 12 lines
GRAPHIC MODES  112 x 78 in 4 colors
COLORS  8
SOUND  1 voice, 4 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT  46.3 (W) x 26.5 (D) x 10 (H) cm / 5.8 kg
I/O PORTS  2 joystick sockets, TV output
BUILT IN MEDIA  Tape recorder (1200 bauds)
POWER SUPPLY  External AC transformer
PERIPHERALS  32 KB RAM card, stringy floppy drive
PRICE  300$ (USA, 1980)



Software for this system!

BREAKTHROUGH
QQA-306 1978 Interact Electronics (publisher)
 
 
 
game




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