The Jupiter Ace computer, released in 1982, was one of many home computers of the 1980s which utilised the Forth programming language, in preference to the more commonly used Basic, for its efficiency and interactivity.
Though less well known than many of its competitors, such as the ZX Spectrum, the post argues that this was not necessarily due to its use of Forth, but rather outdated hardware, poor marketing, and less user-friendly features.
The Jupiter Ace launched with only 3K of RAM and no colour graphics, and at a time when competitors were offering more for less, whilst users were becoming less concerned with technical specifications, and more interested in the functionality of ready-programmed tapes and cartridges.
The post suggests that, despite these shortcomings, the choice of Forth was reasonable for the machine’s designers, andcould have resulted in a reasonably successful product in a different technical and marketing context.
