Donkey Kong had only just started lobbing barrels at a chunky Mario as he climbed up wonky ladders, Ronald Regan had recently taken over the white house, and the very first Duran Duran album had just rolled off the vinyl press. It’s August 12, 1981, and IBM has just released the foundation for the PCs we know and love today, the IBM PC 5150.
IBM certainly didn’t envision the best gaming PC designs on our buying guide today when it developed the 5150, but with its early Intel x86 CPU, onboard RAM, and its own dedicated storage system, the IBM PC 5150 broke the mold, creating a powerful computer that could operate independently. In this feature, I chat to IBM about how the PC was first created, and also dismantle an original specimen.
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