Back in 1983 or so I bought my dad a "portable" Radio Shack computer (about the size of small, thickish but narrow book) w/ about 4k of memory and built in basic. this machine used some 4 bit japanese microprocessor. so, to have have fun i programmed it to make random music (!) lots of fun with only 4k !!! so, i wander off to texas, then to chile.
scene changes to 1993.
i discover my dad was never interested in computers and had after a month or so given this radio shack portable to my sister, who used it as a calculator for a while then put it away in the drawer.
since she didn't use it either, i asked her to give it back to me and she was happy to oblige.
so, i turn on the device, and hit run -- and my silly music generator program starts to run!
and this with the original batteries i had bought in 1983 or 1984!!!! i was stunned.
i wrote a keyboard chord program for this beast and still use it occasionally (doing bit graphics on the narrow LCD display ;)
I was working at KVIL FM in Dallas at the time, and we needed a way to come up with totally random phone numbers for the Peoples' Choice phone calls we made offering cash to listeners. I bought one of those same boxes, programmed it with all the local exchanges, made it pick an exchange at random and then generate 4 random digits, and - just for fun, also programmed in some audible beeps, blooks - stuff that would "sound like a computer." I then machined a piece of blank 19" rack panel so that it had a window you could see the display thru - and a "start" button, which pressed the "enter" key on the box. Had to add a small speaker so you could hear the "doodledoodledoodle" beeping.
KVIL used that thing for a great number of years to make up random phone numbers.
Michael