APF Electronics, Inc. was a publicly traded company in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

dedicated to consumer electronics. The company's name comes from the initials of the two brothers who founded the company, Al & Phil Friedman.

History

The company was founded to import stereos from Japan to the U.S., specifically quadraphonic sets and 8-track player. They moved into calculators. APF had locations in Queens, NY where they were headquartered, and in Hong Kong, where they owned a factory. In all, APF employed 300 people.

Products

APF marketed calculators in the early 1970s. Models such as the Mark III and Mark V had LED displays and used C batteries.

APF TV Fun The APF TV Fun brand (stylized as aPF tv fun on its logo) is a series of dedicated home video game consoles manufactured by APF Electronics Inc. and built in Japan starting in 1976. The systems were among the first built on the General Instrume ...

was a series of classic first generation video game consoles. It is one of the first system based on the common AY-3-8500 chipset from General Instruments. There are TV Fun Model 401A and TV Fun Sportsarama. The series was first available in 1976. APF-MP1000, also called M-1000, was a second generation video game console released in 1978 at a price of $130. Twelve cartridges were released in addition to the built-in game ''Rocket Patrol.'' APF PeCos One was a computer system released in 1978. The name stood for "Personal Computing System." It came equipped with two built-in tape drives and a monitor. Instead of using

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

it used a proprietary language called PeCos 1.

APF Imagination Machine The APF Imagination Machine is a combination home video game console and home computer system released by APF Electronics Inc. in late 1979. It has two separate components, the APF-M1000 game system, and an add-on docking bay with full sized typ ...

was a computer module released in 1979 for $599. When combined with the M-1000 console it became a computer. The module added RAM, BASIC, a 53-key typewriter keyboard, and a dual-track cassette tape deck with 1500 baud rate for digitally recorded tape programs. The specifications were the result of reverse engineering several popular computers at the time. APF Mathemagician is a tabletop handheld calculator game released in 1980. By itself, it's a math learning tool and standard calculator, but it has 6 different overlays that convert it into one of several games. APF Imagination Machine II was a computer-video game console hybrid that was in the final development stages around 1983. It was more powerful and was an all in one unit. The project was cancelled. It is unknown if any prototypes exist.

Bankruptcy

The

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

caused the project to be cancelled and APF, then a publicly traded company filed for bankruptcy.

References

{{reflist Defunct retail companies of the United States Home computer hardware companies Defunct companies based in New York City Electronics companies established in 1970 Retail companies established in 1970 Retail companies disestablished in 1983 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1983 Video game companies established in 1970 Video game companies disestablished in 1983 Defunct video game companies of the United States