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April 11, 2006

vintage

Meet MacCharlie

Authored by Cyrus Farivar at 9:07 AM
Category | Hardware » Vintage
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working1_th.jpg So I just came across something called the MacCharlie, a device built in 1985 that allowed the Macintosh of the day to run DOS. Lots of pundits seem to be referring to it:

ZDNet:

In 1985 Dayna Communications came out with something it called the MacCharlie. This contraption was an expansion box that fit around the Mac so you could run PC and Mac software. The PR at the time trumpeted how users could now enjoy the best of both worlds. But it was an expensive gimmick that caused the system to run like molasses. Even worse, it cost more than a thousand dollars.

Engadget:

“[O]ne of life’s most perplexing decisions – whether to buy a Macintosh or an IBM PC – can now be made with the greatest of ease.” This hyperbole appeared in a 1985 ad for a pricey contraption called MacCharlie, a PC clone enclosure into which the original Macintosh slid, offering — as the ad noted — “the best of both worlds.” MacCharlie, named in the days when IBM’s PC business was represented by a Chaplain impersonator, was offered by Dayna Communications, a company that would enjoy a good run as a cross-platform solutions company before being purchased by, of all companies, Intel.


This guy in the UK seems to be a fan. He’s even got all the documentation.

The New York Times, in 1985, wrote the following:

It is a brilliant idea. MacCharlie plans to join together what two vast corporate empires have rent asunder. Charlie Chaplin and Isaac Newton become the Odd Couple. Whether the relationship will be idylic is still uncertain, since no version was available to test here, but early reports from a recent trade show were intriguing.

The basic MacCharlie has 256,000 bytes of random access memory and one 5 1/4-inch, 360K double sided disk drive, the same type used by the PC. MacCharlie Plus comes with 640K RAM and two drives. Both versions have a gap on the side where a standard Macintosh slides in and is connected with special cables. The Mac keyboard then slips inside another shell that adds 10 function keys and a numeric keypad. The mouse loiters at the side.


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