Cool interview in progress...
I tracked down the guy in Denmark who was product manager for the Lego robotics kit in the mid-1980s. Got his name from one of the manuals, reached out to him on LinkedIn, and now we're corresponding by email. He already sent me some fascinating information. Tomorrow we are speaking by Skype at 1pm. Can't wait! I have so many questions. If any of you have questions, then let me know by tomorrow morning. For some of the technical questions, I'm thinking to myself: "What would Dan ask?"
I’d love to know if they’ve been influenced by the Fischertechnik (construction toy from Germany) robotics sets from the 1980s. -Thomas F.
On Sep 14, 2018, at 12:21 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I tracked down the guy in Denmark who was product manager for the Lego robotics kit in the mid-1980s. Got his name from one of the manuals, reached out to him on LinkedIn, and now we're corresponding by email. He already sent me some fascinating information. Tomorrow we are speaking by Skype at 1pm. Can't wait! I have so many questions. If any of you have questions, then let me know by tomorrow morning.
For some of the technical questions, I'm thinking to myself: "What would Dan ask?"
I’d love to know if they’ve been influenced by the Fischertechnik (construction toy from Germany) robotics sets from the 1980s.
Good question! The answer is almost certainly "yes". FT's web site says that company got into computers in 1985: https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/about-us/history Google let me to a German Wikipedia entry, which automatically translated to: "With computing, training robots and plotter scanners, Fischertechnik got involved in computer technology. Interfaces for all then common home computers appeared, including Apple II, Acorn and Commodore 64, later also for Schneider, Atari ST and IBM PCs. Programming languages for driving the models were GW-BASIC, Turbo Pascal and in later kits (1991) also the in-house programming tool Lucky Logic." I never heard of a computer brand called Scheider, but I found their name on this advertisement: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/3/32/Fischertechnik_Covertape.jpg Presumably the computer is a mockup: it's a terminal keyboard (dead giveaway is "line feed" key) and the monitor shows hex code. :) But the model looks pretty cool. I have other information about the FT/Lego connection, but I am not yet prepared to share it...
The Schneider home computers were rebadged Amstrad CPCs for the German market. -Thomas F. On Sep 14, 2018, at 1:00 AM, Evan Koblentz <evan@snarc.net> wrote:
I’d love to know if they’ve been influenced by the Fischertechnik (construction toy from Germany) robotics sets from the 1980s.
Good question!
The answer is almost certainly "yes".
FT's web site says that company got into computers in 1985: https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/about-us/history
Google let me to a German Wikipedia entry, which automatically translated to:
"With computing, training robots and plotter scanners, Fischertechnik got involved in computer technology. Interfaces for all then common home computers appeared, including Apple II, Acorn and Commodore 64, later also for Schneider, Atari ST and IBM PCs. Programming languages for driving the models were GW-BASIC, Turbo Pascal and in later kits (1991) also the in-house programming tool Lucky Logic."
I never heard of a computer brand called Scheider, but I found their name on this advertisement: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/3/32/Fischertechnik_Covertape.jpg
Presumably the computer is a mockup: it's a terminal keyboard (dead giveaway is "line feed" key) and the monitor shows hex code. :)
But the model looks pretty cool.
I have other information about the FT/Lego connection, but I am not yet prepared to share it...
I posted a write-up (as bullet points) after my interview a few days ago with Alan Anov. Alan is an EE who worked as product manager at the Lego education department (Denmark) when they started making robot sets in the mid-1980s. http://www.mindsbeforethestorm.com/8bit.htm
I think we found the graphic for next year's VCF t-shirt, or maybe even a bumper sticker. A simple display of text in large letters: WWDA ... perhaps with tiny letters in between to spell the phrase, "What Would Dan Ask." On Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 12:22 AM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
For some of the technical questions, I'm thinking to myself: "What would Dan ask?"
participants (4)
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Evan Koblentz -
Evan Koblentz -
jsalzman＠gmail.com -
Thomas Fuchs