Notice that the build date on the ID tag of this keyboard says 1986, even though that is a full 7-8 years after the build of the rest of the terminal (1978-79). The IC chip dates all seem to back this up on the keyboard (84-85 dates) and the terminal (78-79 dates) This is curious, but not unheard of.
Since only 5 of these terminals are documented to survive in the world so far, what are the dates of the other 4 keyboards? We shall find out...because we have 3 of them, and we hope to get dates from the other two!
See this great article from the HNF (Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum) from Paderborn, Germany. They mention us, which is WAY cool...thank you, HNF, for this great article!
BURLINGTON/MASSACHUSETTS - Heinz Nixdorf's plans for America were created ten years ago. In 1972, Nixdorf Computer Corporation was founded in Chicago. The gradual expansion of US activities came to a provisional conclusion in 1977 with the takeover of the data entry specialist Entrex. The Nixdorf Computer Corporation, whose headquarters were relocated to Burlington (Massachusetts) as part of the Entry integration, is now the largest subsidiary of the Paderborn company.
Throw in several hundred Nixdorf Computer Corp. key-entry devices and hundreds of Omron Electronics, Inc. and Tektronix, Inc. interactive terminals for programmer and analyst use, plus various microform producers and flat-bed plotters and some idea emerges of the size of an operation that keeps one Univac 1108 mainframe around just for backup.
All of my analysis brings me to the conclusion that this software company (if it is a software company) had NOTHING to do with the Entrex 480 systems that this website is about. Perhaps by 1989, the trademark on the original Entrex name had expired, and this small software development company took it over, and repackaged some existing games by Softech Microsystems and maybe added some of their own features?
Perhaps enthusiasts in the DOS game genre can speak to this...
There's a LOT of other copyright holders in these files. For example:
Name:In the Days of Knights & Kings
Version:1.0
Language/Country:English
Flags:
Year:1989
Publisher:Softech Microsystems
Genre(s):Adventure
Entrex is only mentioned in 1 file: KNISM.VOL
Here are excerpts:
MASTER:simdat
For the exclusive use of:' The program disk must have an original
Entrex label on it.
CLOCKUNI
#Copyright 1989 Entrex Software Inc.
TRANSFER
$CURSOR $EQUAL
0 157 25 98 47blow-up
{ENTREX SOFTWARE PRESENTS: IN the DAYS of KNIGHTS and KINGS ** }
{copyright 1987, 1988 Entrex Software Inc. ** }
{design by Michael Byrne ** }
{program by Johan Van Imschoot and Steve Hughes ** }
