CARDCO
| Founder | Ed Lippert II, Breck Ricketts |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 1986 |
| Fate | Closed due to declining sales. |
| Headquarters | Wichita, Kansas , US |
| Products | computer peripherals |
CARDCO was a computer peripheral company during the 1980s in Wichita, Kansas, United States. CARDCO was well known in the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 community because of advertisements in numerous issues of Compute! magazine and availability of their products at large retailers, such as Target.[1]
History[edit]
CARDCO was founded by Ed J. Lippert II (President / Management) and Breck Ricketts (Vice President / Engineering). It went out of business in 1986 because of the decline in sales of C64 computers.
In 1986, they formed a new company called C-Ltd that manufactured peripherals for Amiga computers, and it eventually went out of business in 1989 as the Amiga computer sales declined.
Computers Anonymous was a spin-off company ran by Cardco owners wife Betsy Lippert & Cherie Hovaidar-Safid, which repaired devices made and sold by CARDCO.
Hardware products[edit]
Printer interfaces[edit]
There were severe shortcomings of early Commodore printers, so CARDCO created the Card Print A (C/?A) printer interface that emulated Commodore printers by converting the Commodore serial interface to a Centronics parallel printer interface to allow numerous 3rd-party printers to be connected to a Commodore 64 or VIC-20.[2]
A second model, a version that supported printer graphics was released called the Card Print +G (C/?+G), supported printing Commodore graphic characters using Epson ESC/P escape codes.
CARDCO released additional enhancements, including a model with RS-232 serial output, and shipped over two million total printer interfaces.
Common compatible printers were manufactured by Epson, Panasonic, Okidata, Star Micronics, and C. Itoh.
GWIZ - Computer Interface between a Commodore 64 and a non Commodore printer such as a (Silver Reed Printer, Gorilla Printer, Etc.)
Cassette player interface[edit]
Unlike most other systems, Commodore computers could only use specialized cassette players, known as "Commodore Datasettes", to save data. CARDCO made an adaptor to work with normal cassette players.
Numpad[edit]
CARDCO made a numpad that plugged into both of the joystick ports on the Commodore 64.
Software products[edit]
- Cartridge
- Write Now (C/01) - word processor for VIC20.[3]
- Write Now (C/02) - word processor for C64.[4]
- Freeze Frame
- S'MORE
- Floppy Disk
- Mail Now (D/01) - mailing list processor for C64.[4]
- Spell Now (D/04) - spell checker for C64.[4]
- File Now (D/05) - relational database for C64.[4]
- Graph Now / Paint Now (D/06) - graph and chart generator for C64.[4]
- Super Printer Utility Programs (D/08)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Compute! at the Internet Archive
- ^ "CARDCO Card Print A (C/?A) - Printer Interface For The Commodore 64 and VIC-20". Compute! (34): 251. March 1983.
- ^ Compute Gazette; September 1983; Inside Back Cover.
- ^ a b c d e Compute Gazette; September 1984; Inside Back Cover.
External links[edit]
- CARDCO Manual Archive
- CARDCO Card Print A (C/?A) Printer Interface: User Manual, Addendum
- CARDCO Card Print +G (C/?+G) Printer Interface: User Manual, Supplement