Versatility is the Key - The Video Genie System

The EG 3003 Video Genie System was a sort-of TRS-80 Model 1 clone, made by enigmatic Hong Kong electronics company EACA and distributed in the UK by Lowe Electronics. It was first launched in early 1980.

Lowe, an established company that was also known for its amateur radio equipment[source: http://www.listenersguide.org.uk/swl/lowe-electronics-what-happened/], had wanted to secure the [#VIC-20] franchise when [@Commodore]'s new machine was announced at around the same time as this advert, but it insisted on being the sole distributor - a demand which cut no ice with Commodore.

Instead, it would formalise its relationship with EACA and go with the Colour Genie franchise - the micro which replaced the EG 3003 - which it did have the exclusive on[source: "Colour Genie", PCW, June 1983, p. 120]. 

[picture: video_genie_pcw_apr80.webp|A Lowe Electronics advert for the EG 3003, which appeared in PCW, April 1980. The price then was £425 including VAT, so about [[425|1980]] in [[now]]] 

The EG 3003 Video Genie System - later renamed as the Genie I, at which point it gained a built-in sound generator and an extra 1.5K ROM - also stands out as possibly the largest console around, looking more like a 1970s synthesizer than a computer, especially, as seen in this advert, when coupled up to a rather large veneered television. 

It was reasonably cheap for the specification, which was unusually - for a home computer - based on the older S-100 bus. 

Its launch price of £425 is about [[425|1981]] in [[now]], whilst it was now down to only £325 plus VAT, which is about [[373|1981]] now. By the spring of 1982 it was down to £299 plus VAT.

PRAC said of it when it first came onto the market that:

~"Its price and capability seemed a bit too good to be true"

However, by 1982 it seemed to have been considered a reasonable success, with PRAC suggesting that price reductions and new hardware would make it even more popular.

It went on to point out that its distributor Lowe and gone from stocking a single Genie-related product - the EG 3003 itself - to fifty-two products in two years, which pointed to a "bright future ahead" for the systems[source: "Review: Genie I and II", PRAC, May 1982, pp. 61-64].