If you're ever in my office perusing my bookshelf of computer references, there is one odd title you will run across: It is "Scooter Computer & Mr. Chips: The Computer in the Candy Store" by Leslie McGuire. And while it is not my childhood copy of the book, it's there for a reason: one of my relatives gifted it to me in the past due to my desire at the time, despite never seeing or owning one, of wanting a computer.


Don't knock me for putting two and two together as a very young child from things I heard from my uncle...

Anyways, as a very big child now, I would very much like to build a model Mr. Chips. And while from the cover of this book, I can recognize that Scooter Computer wore Adidas shoes, and his friend Arthur wore Converse All Star shoes at a five-second glance of the cover, despite illustrator John Costanza's purposeful mimicking of products, I am stumped as to what model, or dare I say models, of computer that Mr. Chips was modeled after...


It's very possible that Costanza came up with a drawing that didn't match any particular micro of the time, but something tells me that there might be a micro -- or terminal -- that looks very similar out there.

To give me a starting place for my long-term goal to build a Mr. Chips, does anyone see a similarity of Mr. Chips to any real micro or terminal out there?

That would be interesting! :D

So far, I have found flashcards:


And you can still find them on eBay. I am hunting for information and media regarding the implementation attempt for real-world hardware or software application.

Some videos of Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips can be easily found on youTube. For example:

There are some Wiki pages, such as:

Wow. :oops: I still can't find the real-life implementation of Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips in hardware, software, or even 3D print.

However, I remember that Hartmut Esslinger did mention Wega, a German audio and video company that Sony acquired in 1975, and designed a "Wega TV." It was similar to the mid-century modern futuristic design of a rounded TV enclosure on a tulip-shaped pedestal straight out of the Jetsons cartoons. :sneaky: