Bondwell Advert - August 1984
From Personal Computer World
Make it portable! Make it possible
Bondwell was the trading name of Bondwell Holdings Limited of Hong Kong and was the company that had rescued the failed SpectraVideo.
SpectraVideo - as SpectraVision - had made its name as a producer of games and joysticks for machines like the VIC-20 and Atari's 2600 Video Computer System, before it launched its own almost-MSX machine, the SV-318.
The company had been restructured having written off $2.6 million of past debt and was now being run by a new management team recruited from Atari and NEC.
The legendary QuickShot joystick, compatible with the VIC-20 as well as the Atari 2600. From Creative Computing, August 1982
President of the new company, John Constantine, explained that marketing would be "largely locally-based because our present dealer network is widely scattered throughout the country".
However, the company's work was cut out for it, as no Hong Kong manufacturer had yet been successful in the US market.
David Ahl of Personal Computer World wondered whether SpectraVideo might be the exception before concluding "not a chance"[1].
Meanwhile, the Bondwell 12 was a Z80-based CP/M machine and was one of three "luggables" released at the same time, the others being the models 14 and 16. There was also a proper "lap top" - weighing only 11 pounds - in the shape of the Bondwell 2, as well as a pair of IBM compatibles.
Date created: 16 July 2015
Last updated: 11 December 2024
Sources
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