CX/Key/Kite

One of the many machines never to make it to market was the CX, although partially assembled units have floated around on eBay and there are people with running systems.

Internally it was known as the Key or Kite (not sure which was first) and was a portable system that could run Apple code, CP/M and eventually PC software.  It was big and heavy, like every other portable machine of the time.

I was not directly on the team, but everyone got a badge:

A popular joke was to have a green button that was modified to say RUN FOR IT!

Not a great picture, but this was part of my display at VCF East in 2014 (?) showing an ACE-2000 (far left), a CX and a Red Lightning:

I’ve got several CX’s in my collection and probably have the only “Eggebrecht board” that added an 8086 processor.