Cromemco Dazzler

Cromemco's Dazzler (or TV DAZZLER) was a graphics card for S-100 bus computers. Released in 1976, it is the first commercial graphics card available for microcomputers. Multiple Dazzler cards could be installed in a single machine and synced together, a feature which could, with minor modification, be used to genlock. Genlocked Dazzler cards drove ColorGraphics Weather Systems displays that generated most of the weather imagery seen on US television in the early 1980s.

History

The Dazzler came about in a roundabout fashion after Les Solomon, an editor for Popular Electronics magazine, demonstrated the original Altair 8800 to Roger Melen of Stanford University. After seeing it, Melen purchased Altair #2 for his friend Harry Garland to work with. The two built a number of add-ons for the machine, starting with an early video digitizer called the Cyclops and then moving on to the prototype Dazzler. The Dazzler was first introduced at the Homebrew Computer Club on November 12, 1975.