The IBM PCjr, Part 1: The road to hell is paved with good intentions
Channel: The Oldskool PC
Date: 2023-11-01

On the 40th anniversary of the IBM PCjr, we revisit the machine regarded as one of the biggest flops in the computer industry.  The media would like you to believe that the PCjr failed because of its infamous keyboard, but that's not the full story.  In this multi-part retrospective, we're going to examine the entire lifecycle of the PCjr, and determine the real reason it failed.  Along the way, we'll cover its true strengths and weaknesses, the legacy it left on the computer game industry, and the community of hackers that keep its memory alive into the 21st century.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction
00:51 Series Overview
01:25 The state of the home computer market by 1982
03:35 IBM's proposed target market
04:21 PCjr Sales Training VHS
05:28 Anticipation of success
06:20 PCjr announced November 1st 1983
07:55 Hand-on at COMDEX 1983
10:54 Why the shipping delay?
12:57 Books, Magazines, and "Guaranteed" Success
14:34 What's next?

Acknowledgments:

Massive thanks to these fine folks, who granted me the use of their research, photos, or video for use in this retrospective series:

@danbcast 
@mbbrutman 
Doctor Octal
@Epictronics1 

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