CompuServe Messages

It was a niche PC marketed to video types around 1984-85, just before the Amiga came out. It ran, as I recall, on an 80186 Intel processor, which was a fast 8086 processor, but which had register problems with ordinary MS-DOS software/hardware. It had a mouse and special versions of MS-DOS and popular MS-DOS software, but not nearly enough packages were ever customized for it. It was dearly priced, but better at the time for graphics work than anything else on the market, including the Macintosh and its precursor, the Lisa. I think it had enhanced CGA graphics, roughly equivalent to the old AT&T 640×400 mode; 16 colors max, as I recall. I remember seeing a demo (they actually had door-to-door salesmen visiting TV studios and the like). The bundled paint program would look mildly quaint now, but was impressive then, with a zoom-in pixel-fixing mode and so forth. Alas, the last I saw the Mindset, it was being closed out at one mail-order computer dealer a couple of years ago for under a grand. Also, the Mindset was sexy looking! The CPU box was somewhat modular in appearance, with stackable units for extra drives. But less than a year later, the Amiga 1000 came along and outclassed it immediately, both in price and performance. Still, a VERY elegant machine for its time, and kindred to the Amiga in concept. >> Ron Legro / Milwaukee via WHAP!