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  • Greetings and welcome to a somewhat brief LGR thing.

  • Just wanted to talk about something simple, amusing, and forgotten while I work on larger

  • projects, like this thing here: the EC-435 Computer Keyboard Calculator, sold by Radio

  • Shack at a price of $5.99 in 1992.

  • Fits right on your keyboard!”

  • Yep, this is literally just a calculator slab that you stick to the top of your keyboard

  • in order to provide... well, a calculator, on your keyboard.

  • That’s it!

  • But believe it or not I’ve been after one of these for a good while now, with only this

  • single complete in box example showing up on eBay in all the time I’ve been looking.

  • I’m not sure if that’s because it’s legit uncommon, or because it’s so cheap

  • in both price and build quality that it’s considered not worth selling.

  • A mix of the two I’d wager, considering that low-cost, limited-use devices like this

  • are often just tossed in the trash after a year or two in my experience.

  • Regardless though, Radio Shack catalog item number 65-826 here has proven oddly challenging

  • to find, so let’s crack open this packaging and see what’s inside.

  • [rustling of bubble wrap]

  • And well, there’s not much it turns out.

  • You get the calculator encased in bubble wrap

  • and a folded up bit of documentation and there you go.

  • And dang it, go figure that the thing doesn’t even work.

  • Powering it on with the pre-installed battery results in a display that is rather screwy.

  • Now, there’s a chance it’s due to the battery being garbage after 26 years so well

  • open it up in a minute.

  • Till then there’s also this handy set of instructions, providing a key table and describing

  • how to best take advantage of its 8-digit display.

  • Mm, percentages, number memory, standard arithmetic operations, oh my.

  • It even powers itself off after remaining undisturbed for 11 minutes, how thoughtful.

  • But let’s get that battery swapped out, starting by removing these three tiny phillips

  • head screws underneath.

  • The whole back panel pops off easily enough, revealing the battery and the rear of the PCB.

  • Looks like the battery is a little button cell deal, a 189 model according to this.

  • Radio Shack sold this as well of course, but I can’t imagine I’ll be having much luck

  • at my local store.

  • You know, considering it longer exists and stuff...

  • Thankfully the local drug store’s got me covered, and the 189 seems to be the same

  • as a standard 389 cell here.

  • I always liked this little sliding battery measurement thing, it's simple and effective.

  • Back in the office let’s go ahead and get this installed and...

  • Nope. No different.

  • Welp.

  • I poked around what little it had going on inside to see if there was anything loose,

  • leaking, fried, pinched, or otherwise KO’d and I couldn’t find anything to tweak that

  • made a difference.

  • Oh well, it’s not like youre missing much.

  • The Keyboard Calculator really is only a basic calculator, for your keyboard, to do basic

  • calculator-y things basically.

  • Nothing fancy, just a thin device with sticky pads on the back to adhere it to the top bezel

  • of your keyboard.

  • Or, it would if the adhesive hadn’t turned into a dried-out powdery goo.

  • But yeah, it’s just a rather uninteresting device.

  • And that is precisely why I wanted one.

  • Thinking back to 1992, it’s a bit strange that such a simplistic device as the Keyboard

  • Calculator was a thing at all, considering most computers had built-in calculator applications.

  • And if not then, y’know, you had a regular olcalculator on your desk that was probably

  • superior in every way.

  • Combine that with the fact that this thing was advertised in newspapers, magazines, and

  • retail flyers for years, and its existence becomes increasingly amusing.

  • Turns out it wasn’t even made by Radio Shack.

  • This was a generic item mass-produced in China and distributed by various companies from

  • about 1990 to 1996.

  • Curtis seems to be the first company to market this particular Keyboard Calculator in North

  • America, accompanied by MediaMate for a couple years, and finally Radio Shack followed suit.

  • And in every ad I’ve found, the Keyboard Calc never actually sold for the manufacturer’s

  • suggested list price of $9.99, instead remaining continually on discount at sub-$10 prices

  • for over half a decade.

  • Which is interesting, not only from a marketing psychology perspective, but also because computer

  • keyboards were continually decreasing in size.

  • The Keyboard Calculator, due to its size and shape, is most suited to the larger boards

  • of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with their wide plastic bezel above the function keys.

  • But as the years went on, keyboard internals decreased in size, consumer preferences shifted,

  • and keyboards shrank smaller and smaller.

  • Heck even IBM’s own IBM Model M SSK had a much shorter bezel on top, and that was

  • released back in 1987.

  • And it goes without saying, but a modern, low-profile keyboard doesn’t make sense

  • for this at all. [calculator thunks onto tabletop]

  • Then again, considering modern boards often have a dedicated calculator button to bring

  • up the associated app in your OS of choice [clicks keyboard key]

  • it’s kinda neat to see the idea of accessing

  • a calculator from your keyboard live on in one sense.

  • And yeah, that’s about it!

  • The Radio Computer Shack Keyboard Calculator: a thing that existed, was marketed for an

  • oddly long time, came to be forgotten, and finally achieved some sense of arbitrary importance

  • by making its way onto YouTube for your fleeting entertainment.

  • And if you enjoyed this episode of LGR then awesome.

  • Might I recommend some other, more substantial videos on retro things I’ve covered!

  • There are new videos every week so feel free to subscribe if you’d care to see even more.

  • And as always I thank you very much for watching.

Greetings and welcome to a somewhat brief LGR thing.

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LGR - ラジオシャックコンピュータキーボード計算機 (LGR - Radio Shack Computer Keyboard Calculator)

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    林宜悉 に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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