https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/02/fans-preserve-and-emulate-segas-extremely-rare-80s-ai-computer/
Prolog-based Japanese education hardware sported an early touch-panel, speech synthesizer.
I would have like to been in the meeting where they discussed putting the keyboard cable on the front of the keyboard.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After all, the usually obsessive documentation over at Sega Retro includes only the barest stub of an information page for the quixotic, education-focused 1986 hardware.
The site's recently posted deep dive on the Sega AI Computer includes an incredible amount of well-documented information on this historical oddity, including ROMs for dozens of previously unpreserved pieces of software that can now be partially run on MAME.
Despite the Japan-only release, the Sega AI Computer's casing includes an English-language message stressing its support for the AI-focused Prolog language and a promise that it will "bring you into the world of artificial intelligence."
Indeed, a 1986 article in Electronics magazine (preserved by SMS Power) describes what sounds like a kind of simple and wholesome early progenitor of today's world of generative AI creations:
Still, it's notable how much effort the community has put in to fill a formerly black hole in our understanding of this corner of Sega history.
SMS Power's write-up of its findings is well worth a full look, as is the site's massive Google Drive, which is filled with documentation, screenshots, photos, contemporaneous articles and ads, and much more.
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