[jnaina]

used to sell the Apricots back in the days. The PCs from Apricot and Grid stood out in terms of design, from the rest of beige uglies.

[Scramblejams]

The Grid Compass series (especially the II models with the big screen) looked like it came from the future. Stunning in its era. Wouldn't mind seeing a reboot.

[jnaina]

Yes, they were stunning. looked like a prop from bladerunner.

[wazoox]

Actually were a prop in Aliens :)

[jnaina]

damn, did not know that. will have to view Alien tonight on Plex to spot this.

[wazoox]

In Aliens (the second episode), the automatic cannons are controlled by a pair of Grid Compass.

[FiddlerClamp]

Also the Data General One (poor screen aside).

[rbanffy]

The EL display one was nice, but the GRID ones were on a different level. They still look modern.

Other than would be perfectly at home in a modern office is the QL. Put two SDCard slot where the micro drives were and four USB-C ports in the back (6, one for power, one for the first monitor, four for expansion) and it’ll still look cool. With a decent CPU (and a delete key) could be a daily driver.

[jnaina]

Yes, the QL was another very clean modern design. Too bad the MicroDrives were an utter disaster and the sales tanked because of that

[rbanffy]

I think the Spectrum-like graphics and overall speed were what killed it. The 68008 was painfully slow compared to the 68000.

Maybe someone could make a QL Next ;-) Or just a wireless keyboard with the same shape as the QL.

[spants]

me too! In the pc business from 1981!, Apricots were great bits of kit. The GRIDs were good but very expensive at the time.

[le-mark]

Were they actually available to purchase? Seems like supply of these and others was usually a bit spotty.

[jnaina]

Yes, I had the Apricot Xen in the shop. If I remember correctly, they were not 100% PC compatible, and did not exactly sell well. Neither did the Grids. But both were great conversation starters.