The Calcupen
No prizes for guessing both functions of the Calcupen. A highly desirable, if rather compromised piece of 1970s tech.
Comments (59)
Puppets!!
you daft apeth... we'll never tire of the outros :)
Every time I see my name in the credits of your videos I feel so happy to have made a small contribution to this beautiful little corner of the Internet that you've created. Thanks for another fun, interesting, and funny video.
If you’re happy, I'm happy. Glad you’re here.
Very enjoyable, and brought back great memories of my 1973 Commodore pocket calculator. With its LED display, it went through N batteries like potato chips (4 at a time). I also enjoyed the puppets at the end... Even if it's just filler, I enjoy hearing you talking in that voice. In fact, I just ordered two of the puppet mugs so I can get a smile in the morning with my coffee. Thanks, Mat.
Two mugs - that’s quite some investment. Thanks.
I'd nearly forgot to check for puppets for an outro on this one. I recently watched the entire comedy playlist again. Maybe it's just my love for comedy out of the UK, but I love those, I'd like to see what you could do in a long form version of one of the outros.
Unfortunately they wouldn’t work in long form as the constant back and forth camera shift between the two characters would become more and more annoying until it was unbearable - like a tennis volley that never stopped.
Radio Shack (I was a fan) also had a watch pen that had an alarm as part of the clock. I was teased often by people saying that if i wrote a naughty word the alarm might go off! ;-) Never get tired of those puppet outros.
Pleased to see a puppet segment! I appreciate the cheeky switch from a warning to "good news" as well. As far as I care, do as many outros as it remains fun for you, eh?
lol
Nope, I'm afraid you're not getting away from doing outros anytime soon 😂
😂
Those high prices on ebay are funny. Few day's ago I was wearing my HP-01 and some guy asked me what it was. I told him and then googled it on his phone and saw that he found one on ebay for 6,700$, he then looked at me with a very surprised face...
I think they hope that one day someone will need one at any price. Perhaps Spielberg is shooting the HP story with Tom Hanks.
These pens somehow passed me by, but I did persuade my mum & dad to fork out a load of dosh for a Sinclair Scientific calculator. Mmmmh lovely red LEDS. It's probably living in the loft with the Amstrad amplifier and tunable I bought in '77. And +1 for the puppets. It doesn't matter what they say...
I also liked the big macros shots, well done. Great outtro, too, Mat, that 'turn to camera' after the skip line was spot on. :-)
There’s some very specific timing goes on with those end bits. I’ve noticed that a tenth of a second edit can make the difference between something appearing funny or laboured.
Best outro ever. Really made me LOL
Great find! As a boy I always wanted one but sadly they were way too expensive for me then :)
Well, you asked for it Mat: More outros please! Can't be daft and silly enough.
Hahahaha, SHELLOIL, didn't know that one.
Maybe it was glass and a half of delicious Port I just drank, but that Skip gag really landed for me.
I like the puppets no matter what.
Ooff.. it's useless to me... I'm left-handed! ^_^
Sorry Mat, I will never get tired of the outros, guess you wont be able to retire the puppets anytime soon! And that led display is a work of art,the minuscule wires going to the segments are amazing!
Absolutely loved the Outros, more pleased Matt
What a fun oddity. I’d seen the clock pens in person, but never heard of the calculator pens. Really appreciated the extreme closeup of the LED display, with the bond wires visible. Ewen PS: funny, if very meta, outro :-)
Glad you liked the macro shots..those took quite a bit of work. Not many people will appreciate this. Ta.
More Outros! Boobies!
Love your outro! Cold dinner...
Dear god that's a blast from the past. I remember the ads for those, but never bought one. I dumped my stupid purchase money into a calculator watch that had a tiny ink pen built into the band. I have no idea why I thought that was a good idea, and haven't seen it in decades (though it might be in one of my boxes 'o crap somewhere in the shed).
I’d buy one of those too.
Nope, more outro's please. 👍
In 1971, I was in a physics class at university with the beautiful daughter of a Texas Instruments senior vice president. One day she brought to class a prototype of the very first TI calculator. We all gathered around her and stood in awe as she added , subtracted, multiplied, and divided... but with scientific notation! The year before, I had competed in high school slide rule competitions, and now I was obsolete! I enjoy all your videos, and as a Texan, I would love to see you do one on bovine containment...
I'd watch those puppets for HOURS!!!!!
This was something I had never seen before. I really enjoyed it. And best outro ever!
Great stuff, Mat. Back in the day I would have yearned for one of those Calcupens even knowing it was unlikely to be much use as either a calculator or a pen. In 1979 I did have one of the first LCD wrist watches that could simulate an analogue watchface - that was cool, at least until the crystals leaked and it all went black. Love the Moans too, especially when they are being Meta. Someday I must share my recipe for gazpacho soup which is heavy on vodka and light on tomatoes ;-)
Sounds like my kind of soup.
I remember having the clock pen. No idea where it went. I hope you can find more oddities like the calcupen. And love the outro.
Never come across this before although I did have the clock pen. I think both me and my brother got them as gifts. Never did me any good, I still struggled with the time to do my homework.
Loved the outro! An interesting piece of consumer technology, when can we expect Apple to lauch the iPen? Haha!
O. M. G. First, I remember these silly things. Never had one but did have a watch-pen. I do sort of remember being skeptical of the "quadra-plane" keys even then. Second, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE MAT'S SENSE OF HUMO(U)R! May be one of the funniest yet and that's before the Moans showed up. Good work, as always! Thank you! Oh - forgot to mention. Sorry that the ink thing didn't work out - I really wanted to see how the "print" feature worked.
Quick tip. Never chop the end off a Parker refill. My house still looks like the Blue Man Group dismembered some Andorians.
The moment I saw the digital watch pen I remembered that I owned one by myself, but I am not sure where I put it or still have it? Was it even in this life? ;-) For sure I did not know the Calcupen, thanks for sharing it!
That's what I get for not looking at the description - thanks!
May I ask what the computer-y noise at the end of the videos is? I find it soothing.
It’s the sound effect used by Universal whenever computers showed up in their TV shows and movies for decades. It’s most known for The Six Million Dollar Man - but can be heard in movies like Beverley Hills Cop III - there’s a link to the source on YouTube in the video description.
8008135!
I've been considering getting one of those cow cars;) Maybe I should go on ebay and purchase a calf pen first.
I was thinking the other day what I was going to do with all these 'N' cell batteries I've got - when i buy A23 from Poundland they have an 'N', 2 x LR44 and an E27 in the pack too - then up pops Mat the Mind reader with his Calcupen :o)
I must be turning into a boring old bloke with a slowing brain, because it actually took me a second to get the "skip" joke! ........ sigh
In your defence it’s not the best joke ever.
The puppets are getting quite meta. ❤️
This was so good – I always wondered about Calcupen, and I appreciated other pens shown early on for context. I also laughed at the Liquid Retina comment!
Oh, what is the little computer thingy that the white-haired guy is using in the end? (I recognize the other machine as Minitel.)
MORE OUTROS PLEASE
I grew up in the 1970's and did not see any of the Calcupens in use in America during that time, so these must be quite rare at this point.
I can imagine such a thing would be cool, but forbidden, in my primary school time ;-)