Make it portable! Make it possible

Bondwell was the trading name of Bondwell Holdings Limited of Hong Kong and was the company that had rescued the failed Spectravideo.

Spectravideo - as SpectraVision - had made its name as a producer of games and joysticks for machines like the VIC-20 and Atari's 2600 Video Computer System, before it launched its own almost-MSX machine, the SV-318. 

The company had been restructured having written off $2.6 million of past debt and was now being run by a new management team recruited from Atari and NEC.

[picture: specvision_creat_comp_82.webp|The legendary QuickShot joystick, compatible with the VIC-20 as well as the Atari 2600. From Creative Computing, August 1982]

President of the new company, John Constantine, explained that marketing would be "largely locally-based because our present dealer network is widely scattered throughout the country". 

However, the company's work was cut out for it, as no Hong Kong manufacturer had yet been successful in the US market.

David Ahl of PCW wondered whether Spectravideo might be the exception before concluding "not a chance"[source: "The second time around", PCW, August 1985, p. 124].

[picture: Bondwell2_percw_may85.webp|A third-party advert from Barbatan Limited for the Bondwell 2 - a CP/M laptop but almost-uniquely offering 3½" floppy disk drives, as CP/M was considered obsolete by the time these drives came out. It retailed for £1,575, or about [[1575|1985]] in [[now]]. From PCW, May 1985]

Meanwhile, the Bondwell 12 was a Z80-based CP/M machine and was one of three "luggables" released at the same time, the others being the models 14 and 16. There was also a proper "lap top" - weighing only 12 pounds - in the shape of the Bondwell 2, as well as a pair of IBM compatibles.

