Retro calculator

Well, here is my first post for the Retrochallenge of '08. I know, I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I do have some cool goodies to tell everyone about. The best one is a neat little piece of retro hardware I found at the local thrift shop the other day. Actually, it was Saturday the 21st, my birthday. And for the price I payed (the princely sum of $2) it really was quite the birthday present!

I was rummaging through their electronics section (it is a bit like an oversized garage sale) and I came upon a Casio 121-L calculator. By the markings on the boards inside it looks like it was probably made around 1971 or shortly after. It's quite heavy, with a case of thick plastic and steel. It's a four function with some of the quirks usually seen in such old calculators, like two equals buttons for adding and subtracting, and a slider that forces a certain number of decimal places and another one for determining whether to truncate the decimals or to round. Kinda neat to mess with, and sometimes you can make it do really odd things it should not by moving the sliders around while you use it.

It also has the coolest gas-filled tubes for the display, which glow with a very pleasing, bright, and easily readable blue light. The keys are extremely nice, and use magnetic reed switches for that perfect feel. Now if I could just get a good keyboard made with those keys! The whole unit was nearly flawless when I got it, and after a little cleaning it looks like brand new. I'll post pictures as soon as I can borrow a digital camera. Watch this space: