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Sharp PC-1401: A Recollection...from the archives (circa
early 2000's)


I got this unit from a friend sometime in 1985. This was my 
first handheld computer. It was also a calculator. I had lots 
of fun learning to write BASIC programs on this. I would play
around in BASIC on the Commodore 64 and see if I could do 
similar things on this unit. I gave me many hours of fun 
during long car rides and visits to relatives who had no kids my
age. There was even a tape drive and a thermal printer 
available but I never could save up enough for it.  

I loved the pseudo-metallic keys and just how it looked so 
hi-tech. I remember I use to pretend like it was some kind of 
control panel for all sorts of things, like the car. I used 
to put it on the dashboard of my parents' car and pretend 
like I was in a spaceship and controlling the way the ship 
was moving.  Sometimes I would tape it to my arm and pretend 
like I was some kind of robot. Man, those were some fun 
times. I think this computer stretched my imagination more 
than I used it for its functional purpose.  Eventually, 
unsurprisingly, the LCD cracked and was no longer functional. 
I took one of those eyeglass screwdrivers and took it apart 
to release the microscopic robots that lived inside that 
controlled the computer. And I also wanted to see if I could 
fix it, which I never could.

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