Gavilan Computer Corporation made headlines in early 1983 when it announced its Mobile Computer, a nine-pound, battery-powered Intel 8088 PC with an 8-line LCD screen, full-sized typewriter keyboard, and a “solid state mouse” that was a precursor to the modern trackpad. Founded by a former CEO of Zilog and backed by $31 million in venture capital, Gavilan was poised to be the next big thing in personal computing. Sadly, it wasn’t, and in October 1984, Gavilan filed for bankruptcy and quickly disappeared, memorialized by a brief report in an early 1985 Computer Chronicles episode.

In August 1987, Apple announced HyperCard, a new type of middleware for the Macintosh that made it possible for anyone to create a polished application combining text, graphics, and hyperlinks. One of the first companies to embrace HyperCard was Activision, the well-known game publisher, which released Focal Point and Business Class, two business productivity tools created by Danny Goodman, who also authored the first definitive book on HyperCard.

But why would a company known for games like Pitfall! on the Atari VCS and Ghostbusters on the Commodore 64 get into business software for the Macintosh? The answer to that question requires looking back at the early history of Activision and the company’s struggles to stay afloat after the collapse of its original home video game cartridge business.

When Computer Chronicles debuted as a national program in the fall of 1983, the IBM Personal Computer dominated what was then still called the microcomputer market. But the PC standard had yet to cement itself as the only approach to small business computers. Hewlett-Packard, one of the original Silicon Valley companies, offered its own MS-DOS machine, the HP-150 Touchscreen Personal Computer. Cyril Yansouni, the general manager of HP’s personal computer division, appeared in the inaugural Chronicles broadcast to demonstrate the HP-150 and explain how its touchscreen display and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives help drive the evolution of the micro forward.

In 1980, Mattel Electronics released the Horse Race Analyzer, a calculator-type device that promised to help you pick winning horses at the track. Developed by a former cosmetics marketing executive and a college mathematics professor, a Mattel executive claimed you would get a better return using the Analyzer to place winning bets than from purchasing U.S. government Treasury Bills. But at an initial retail price of $100, the device failed to match the success of Mattel’s earlier handheld games. Yet the Horse Race Analyzer continued to be sold for more than a decade after Mattel Electronics itself collapsed and even made a brief appearance on a March 1987 Computer Chronicles episode.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WordStar was the gold standard for word processors on microcomputers. The publisher of WordStar, MicroPro International, was one of the first successful computer software companies. But as the early CP/M machines gave way to the MS-DOS-based IBM Personal Computers, WordStar quickly lost market share to an upstart rival, WordPerfect. To add insult to injury, WordStar also faced a split in its loyal customer base thanks to a clone backed by longtime Computer Chronicles contributor George Morrow. While WordStar survived, it never again thrived.

In 1985, Broderbund released Science Toolkit, a unique combination of hardware and software that enabled students to conduct simple experiments using an Apple II computer. Science Toolkit was an early example of ‘Microcomputer Based Labs’ or MBL, a concept first developed by Dr. Robert Tinker, a legend in the field of science education. While Tinker’s own efforts to commercially develop MBL–later known as ‘probeware’–fell short, Broderbund enjoyed success with Science Toolkit in the late 1980s, thanks largely to the company’s ability to market and distribute Apple II products to the educational market. This marketing effort included not one, but two glowing reviews for Science Toolkit on Computer Chronicles from Stewart Cheifet and Paul Schindler, respectively.

In the late 1970s, Will Harvey worked a summer paper route to help pay for his first computer, a Commodore PET. After trading up to an Apple II a few years later he developed Music Construction Set, which became one of the earliest hits for a small software startup called Electronic Arts. Harvey appeared on one of the first Computer Chronicles episodes to demonstrate his program while still in high school. He went on to a long career in the tech industry, while Electronic Arts used its “construction set” brand to establish itself as an innovator in entertainment software for microcomputers.

During the early seasons of Computer Chronicles, Ashton-Tate was one of the Big Three business software companies together with Microsoft and Lotus Development Corporation. Ashton-Tate made its name with dBase II, a database application that quickly became the gold standard in its field. Unfortunately, Ashton-Tate never managed to grow its success beyond its core product, so when later versions of dBase failed to meet customer expectations, the company declined into irrelevancy.

Steve Boros managed the Oakland Athletics in 1983 and 1984, and the San Diego Padres in 1986. While he failed to lead either team to a pennant, he still made his mark as one of the first Major League Baseball managers to embrace the use of computers for statistical analysis. Boros appeared in a 1995 Computer Chronicles episode to discuss how he made use of a system built partly on the Apple II to assess player matchups. Although Boros’ role in bringing computers to the A’s was exagerrated in the press, he was a well-liked, well-respected baseball lifer who helped lend credibility to the new technology at a time when it was still not common in most American homes.

Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) was a company often featured on ‘Computer Chronicles’ for its innovative PC compatibles. ZDS was never a major presence in retail, but it enjoyed great success in the government, business, and educational computing sectors throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. But after closing its doors in 1996, the Zenith name effectively disappeared from the American computer landscape and faded into history.

Yet there’s another name–Heathkit–that is still fondly remembered today for its DIY electronic kits dating back to the 1950s. Heathkit was actually the progenitor of Zenith Data Systems. And the story of a how the Heath Company traced its own history back to a pair of airplane crashes that occurred 23 years apart provides an interesting look at how the modern PC industry was shaped by human events that had nothing to do with microprocessors.