Greetings and welcome to a somewhat brief LGR thing.
Just wanted to talk about something simple, amusing, and forgotten while I work on larger
projects, like this thing here: the EC-435 Computer Keyboard Calculator, sold by Radio
Shack at a price of $5.99 in 1992.
“Fits right on your keyboard!”
Yep, this is literally just a calculator slab that you stick to the top of your keyboard
in order to provide... well, a calculator, on your keyboard.
That’s it!
But believe it or not I’ve been after one of these for a good while now, with only this
single complete in box example showing up on eBay in all the time I’ve been looking.
I’m not sure if that’s because it’s legit uncommon, or because it’s so cheap
in both price and build quality that it’s considered not worth selling.
A mix of the two I’d wager, considering that low-cost, limited-use devices like this
are often just tossed in the trash after a year or two in my experience.
Regardless though, Radio Shack catalog item number 65-826 here has proven oddly challenging
to find, so let’s crack open this packaging and see what’s inside.
[rustling of bubble wrap]
And well, there’s not much it turns out.
You get the calculator encased in bubble wrap
and a folded up bit of documentation and there you go.
And dang it, go figure that the thing doesn’t even work.
Powering it on with the pre-installed battery results in a display that is rather screwy.
Now, there’s a chance it’s due to the battery being garbage after 26 years so we’ll
open it up in a minute.
Till then there’s also this handy set of instructions, providing a key table and describing
how to best take advantage of its 8-digit display.
Mm, percentages, number memory, standard arithmetic operations, oh my.
It even powers itself off after remaining undisturbed for 11 minutes, how thoughtful.
But let’s get that battery swapped out, starting by removing these three tiny phillips
head screws underneath.
The whole back panel pops off easily enough, revealing the battery and the rear of the PCB.
Looks like the battery is a little button cell deal, a 189 model according to this.
Radio Shack sold this as well of course, but I can’t imagine I’ll be having much luck
at my local store.
You know, considering it longer exists and stuff...
Thankfully the local drug store’s got me covered, and the 189 seems to be the same
as a standard 389 cell here.
I always liked this little sliding battery measurement thing, it's simple and effective.
Back in the office let’s go ahead and get this installed and...
Nope. No different.
Welp.
I poked around what little it had going on inside to see if there was anything loose,
leaking, fried, pinched, or otherwise KO’d and I couldn’t find anything to tweak that
made a difference.
Oh well, it’s not like you’re missing much.
The Keyboard Calculator really is only a basic calculator, for your keyboard, to do basic
calculator-y things basically.
Nothing fancy, just a thin device with sticky pads on the back to adhere it to the top bezel
of your keyboard.
Or, it would if the adhesive hadn’t turned into a dried-out powdery goo.
But yeah, it’s just a rather uninteresting device.
And that is precisely why I wanted one.
Thinking back to 1992, it’s a bit strange that such a simplistic device as the Keyboard
Calculator was a thing at all, considering most computers had built-in calculator applications.
And if not then, y’know, you had a regular ol’ calculator on your desk that was probably
superior in every way.
Combine that with the fact that this thing was advertised in newspapers, magazines, and
retail flyers for years, and its existence becomes increasingly amusing.
Turns out it wasn’t even made by Radio Shack.
This was a generic item mass-produced in China and distributed by various companies from
about 1990 to 1996.
Curtis seems to be the first company to market this particular Keyboard Calculator in North
America, accompanied by MediaMate for a couple years, and finally Radio Shack followed suit.
And in every ad I’ve found, the Keyboard Calc never actually sold for the manufacturer’s
suggested list price of $9.99, instead remaining continually on discount at sub-$10 prices
for over half a decade.
Which is interesting, not only from a marketing psychology perspective, but also because computer
keyboards were continually decreasing in size.
The Keyboard Calculator, due to its size and shape, is most suited to the larger boards
of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with their wide plastic bezel above the function keys.
But as the years went on, keyboard internals decreased in size, consumer preferences shifted,
and keyboards shrank smaller and smaller.
Heck even IBM’s own IBM Model M SSK had a much shorter bezel on top, and that was
released back in 1987.
And it goes without saying, but a modern, low-profile keyboard doesn’t make sense
for this at all. [calculator thunks onto tabletop]
Then again, considering modern boards often have a dedicated calculator button to bring
up the associated app in your OS of choice [clicks keyboard key]
it’s kinda neat to see the idea of accessing
a calculator from your keyboard live on in one sense.
And yeah, that’s about it!
The Radio Computer Shack Keyboard Calculator: a thing that existed, was marketed for an
oddly long time, came to be forgotten, and finally achieved some sense of arbitrary importance
by making its way onto YouTube for your fleeting entertainment.
And if you enjoyed this episode of LGR then awesome.
Might I recommend some other, more substantial videos on retro things I’ve covered!
There are new videos every week so feel free to subscribe if you’d care to see even more.
And as always I thank you very much for watching.