Hector (or Victor Lambda) are a series of a

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

s produced in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the early 1980s. In January 1980, Michel Henric-Coll founded a company named ''"Lambda Systems"'' in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, that would import a computer (produced by ''"Interact Electronics Inc"'' of

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

) to France. The computer was sold under the name of "Victor Lambda". ''"Lambda Systems"'' went bankrupt in July 1981, along with ''"Interact"''. In December 1981, ''"Micronique"'', an electronic components company based in southern

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, acquires the rights to the "Victor Lambda". In 1982, ''"Victor Lambda Diffusion"'', a subsidiary, distributes the "Victor Lambda". The first machines built in the United States were not a success, and the following models were designed and produced in France at the headquarters of the ''"Micronique"'' company. The company uses the slogan: ''"The French Personal Computer"''. In 1983, the "Victor" is renamed "Hector", to avoid confusion with the machines from the Californian company ''"Victor Technologies"'' (formerly ''"

Sirius Systems Technology Sirius Systems Technology was a personal computer manufacturer in Scotts Valley, California. It was founded in 1980 by Chuck Peddle and Chris Fish, formerly of MOS Technology and capitalized by Walter Kidde Inc. In late 1982 Sirius acquired Victo ...

"''). The last model introduced was the Hector MX, with production of the series ending in 1985. The series was not successful, due to the focus on the French market, intense competition from

Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad ...

machines and high prices.

Models

Victor Lambda

The Victor Lambda was a rebranded

Interact Home Computer The Interact Home Computer (also called The Interact Family Computer) is a 1978 American home computer made by Interact Electronics Inc of Ann Arbor, Michigan. It sold under the name "Interact Model One Home Computer". The original Interact Model ...

(also called The Interact Family Computer 2) microcomputer. Introduced in 1980, it had a chiclet keyboard and built-in cassette recorder for data storage. Specifications: *

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

i8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibili ...

, 2.0

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

* Memory: 8K

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

, expandable to 16K RAM; 2K ROM * OS: Basic Level II (

Microsoft BASIC Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first ve ...

v4.7); EDU-Basic (both loaded from tape) * Keyboard: 53-key chiclet * Display: 17 × 12 characters text in 8 colors; 112 × 78 with 4 colors from a palette of 8 * Sound: SN76477 (one voice, four

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

s) * Ports: Television (RGB), two

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

RS232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such ...

(optional) * Built-in

cassette recorder A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a ...

(1200 Bps) *

PSU PSU may refer to: Organizations Military *Police Support Unit, a paramilitary wing of the Zimbabwe Republic Police *Port Security Unit, a U.S. Coast Guard expeditionary force protection unit Political parties * Parti Socialiste Unifié (disambig ...

: External AC transformer

Hector 1 (Victor Lambda 2)

The Hector 1 was a 1983 computer, based on the Victor Lambda. Initially sold as Victor Lambda 2 it was renamed to avoid trademark confusion. Also known as Hector 16K. More than 100 games were published for this machine. It was eventually considered as an entry level machine. Specifications: * CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 1.7 MHz * Memory: 16K RAM * OS: Basic Level III (loaded from tape) * Keyboard: mechanical * Display: 17 × 12 text in 8 colors, 112 × 78 in 8 colors * Sound: SN76477N (one voice, four octaves) * Ports: Television (RGB), two joysticks, RS232 (optional) * Built-in cassette recorder (1200 Bps) * PSU: Built-in

Hector 2 HR

The Hector 2HR is a 1983 computer with a Zilog Z80 processor, 16KB of ROM and 48KB of RAM. Initially sold as Victor Lambda 2HR, it was renamed avoid trademark confusion. Graphics were improved, with a resolution of 243x231 in 4 colors, and 40x23 character text. It has an built-in cassette recorder and an optional disk drive (DISK II). At launch there were sixty software titles available on tape. It was considered as a more serious machine for those wishing to program their own games. Specifications: * CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 5 MHz * Memory: 48K RAM; 4KB ROM * OS: Basic Level III (loaded from tape) * Keyboard: mechanical * Display: 40 × 22 text; 112 × 78 in 8 colours, 243 × 231 in 4 colours * Sound: SN76477 (one voice, four octaves) * Built-in cassette recorder

DISK II device

The "Disk II" is a dual external -inch

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

drive with a dedicated processor. The Hector processor would handle the screen, keyboard and printer, while the floppy drive processor would run

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...

and manage floppy disks. Communication took place via the bi-directional

parallel port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once ( parallel ...

Programming languages

The programming language is not available in ROM but loaded at startup. This makes it possible to distribute several languages, with

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 ...

80,

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

MT+,

Cobol COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily us ...

80, Fortran 77,

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...

and

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

being available.

Hector 2HR+

The Hector 2HR+, also released in 1983, is similar to the previous model, but including the BASIC language in ROM (thus freeing up more RAM memory for user programs). Specifications: * CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 5 MHz * Memory: 48K RAM; 16KB ROM * OS: Basic Level III * Keyboard: mechanical * Display: 40 × 22 text in 8 colours; 112 × 78 in 8 colours, 243 × 231 in 4 colours * Sound: SN76477 (one voice, four octaves) * Ports: Television (RGB,

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

), two joysticks,

Centronics Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector. History Foundations Centronics began as a division o ...

, Disc Drive * Built-in cassette recorder * PSU: Built-in

Hector HRX

The Hector HRX, also released in 1983, is similar to the previous model, but changes BASIC for a

language interpreter in ROM and features a 64KB RAM. An early 1983 review mentioned as positive

compatibility Compatibility may refer to: Computing * Backward compatibility, in which newer devices can understand data generated by older devices * Compatibility card, an expansion card for hardware emulation of another device * Compatibility layer, compon ...

with existing Lambda II HR software, but pointed lack of high-profile titles like arcade game conversions. It was considered as a professional machine, capable of running small business applications like text processors,

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...

s and

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

s. A 1985 review of the system praised the varied

peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...

s available, but again criticized the lack of software. Specifications: * CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 5 MHz * Memory: 64K RAM; 16K ROM * OS:

* Keyboard: mechanical * Display: 40 × 22 text in 8 colours; 112 × 78 in 8 colours, 243 × 231 in 4 colours * Sound: SN76477 (one voice, four octaves) * Ports: Television (RGB, SECAM), two joysticks, Centronics, Disc Drive * Built-in cassette recorder * PSU: Built-in

Hector MX

The Hector MX, released in 1985, is similar to the HRX but offers BASIC,

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

and

as languages available in ROM. Specifications: * CPU: Zilog Z80A @ 5 MHz * Memory: 48K RAM; 64K ROM * OS: BASIC 3X, HRX

* Keyboard: mechanical * Display: 40 × 22 text in 8 colours; 112 × 78 in 8 colours, 243 × 231 in 4 colours * Sound: One voice, four octaves * Ports: Television (RGB, SECAM), two joysticks, Centronics, Disc Drive * Built-in cassette recorder * PSU: Built-in

Software

Some software like

Wordstar WordStar is a word processor application for microcomputers. It was published by MicroPro International and originally written for the CP/M-80 operating system, and later written also for MS-DOS and other 16-bit PC OSes. Rob Barnaby was the sol ...

Multiplan Multiplan is spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft and introduced in 1982 as a competitor to VisiCalc. Multiplan was released first for computers running CP/M; it was developed using a Microsoft proprietary p-code machine, p-code C compil ...

exists for this series of machines, along with many small games.

References

Microcomputers Lists of computer hardware Z80-based home computers Computer companies of France History of computing in France {{microcompu-stub