The ACT 800 was the first machine sold by ACT company. It was in fact manufactured in the USA.
The ACT-800 was built as an attempt to design a computer that would last 7 years without becoming obsolete. Why therefore the specifications were so dated from the start is mystery. The machine was clearly based on the Commodore PET line of computer which were very, very popular certainly in the UK - far more than the US registers.
The ACT-800 was an 'all in one unit' but with an external 5.25'' disk drive. The CPU was a 6502 running at 2 MHz (to give it the 'edge' over the PET.) The machine had text only modes so no graphics to speak of but did handle 80 columns on screen. RAM was 48 KB and ROM included a rendering of BASIC similar to the PET's.
That was it. It was no a revolutionary machine by any stretch of the imagination and the computer was far from a commercial success.
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Thanks to Laurence Coombes for the info.
About the ACT-800, Steve Squires sent us this information:
Back in 1982 there was a very obscure machine kicking around which was badged the "ACT 800". It was a on-piece unit with a single circuit board, housed inside a huge case. The keyboard was built-in and permanently affixed to the top was a monochrome monitor (about 14 inches).
To service it you simply unscrewed a couple of screws at the bottom and the entire top half (monitor and keyboard) hinged up from the back (a bit like the Commodore PET) and was propped up on a metal arm a bit like an engine hood.
This monster actually had plug-in options for an external dual 8-inch floppy unit and had a built-in IEE488 port. I can't remember what processor this thing ran on but I do remember that it had about 32K RAM when fully loaded.
I had the pleasure of working on this obscure machine back in 1981.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
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.).
Hi I run a web site for ACT and Victor computers. If anyone has any images and details of this computer so I may do a page on the site. Check out www.actactsirius1.co.uk. Please make contact through the act sirius site thanks you Thanks in advance
Monday 7th August 2017
Bill Appleton
Some info marked on the back. Model MMII, S/N 600559. 220V. Amps 3/4 4/81(this might be the date). 965 W Maude Ave Sunnyvale Ca 94086 Made in U.S.A.
