Re: X-files goof.Color laptops in 1989 dream on!

[shamino@techie.com (David C.)]

Bible John <john.doggett@x-files.gov> writes:
>
> Watching my new X-files DVD and in one episode which is a flashback to
> 1989 which explained how the Lone Gunman met and got together, and
> also how they met Mulder.  During the episode a color laptop is used
> which is impossible because color laptops did not exist in 1989!

Don't know about color laptops.  I don't think color LCD panels were
commercially available then.

But there were a lot of color computers at the time:

The Apple II suported 16 colors in low-res mode and 6 colors in hi-res
mode.  It was first sold in 1977.

The Atari 400 and 800 computers supported 128 colors in low-res mode and
2 colors in hi-res mode.  They were first sold in 1978.

The Texas Instrumments TI-99/4A supported 16 colors.  It was first sold
in 1979.

The TRS-80 Color Computer supported 8 colors in low-res mode, and 2
colors in hi-res mode.  It was first sold in 1980.

The first IBM PC had an optional CGA card which supported 16 colors in
text mode, 4 colors in low-res graphics mode, and 2 colors in hi-res
graphics mode.  It was first sold in 1981.

The Commodore Vic-20 supported 16 colors.  It was first sold in 1981.
The C-64 (also 16-colors) shipped in 1982.

The Coleco Adam supported 16 colors.  It was first sold in 1983.

Heck, the Commodore Amiga - which supported 4096 colors and has most of
the features of a modern computer - was first introduced in 1985 - four
years before the date you provided.

> As a matter of fact, even color monitors were hard to come bye

The early color computers generally used televisions for their output
devices, but composite monitors were always available (that's what the
Apple II used).  RGB monitors were available everywhere by 1989 (that's
what every IBM PC used.)

> If me and my ibook G4 were to go back in time to that year, my ibook
> would be the most advanced and powerful computer on the planet, yet CC
> makes it look like 1989 PC's could do things that modern computers
> cannot in some of the scenes where Byers is searching through
> government databases.

Hint: The X-Files is a work of fiction.

I'm also pretty certain that a kid with a PowerBook won't be able to
hack an alien spacecraft in a few hours.

> First in 1989 government databases would not look as nice and richly
> formatted as CC portrays, and second a 1989 government database would
> be accessed via a VT-100 Unix command prompt or shell and there would
> be no such thing as a picture that goes along with a government
> personnel profile! Perhaps CC is not as computer savvy as people are
> led to believe.

GUI systems (especially expensive ones that governments might use) have
been around for a very long time.

The Xerox 860 (document processing system - monochrome, but with a
modern GUI) was first sold in 1980.

Apollo Computer was making color graphical workstations throughout the
1980's until HP bought the company in 1989.  Their DN100 shipped in
1981.

The first Sun workstations were sold in 1982.

Given the existance of three major workstations in the early 80's (two
of which were in color), it would not in any way seem unusual for large
corporations and government agencies to have them in 1989.

-- David