IBM PEC

IBM PEC (IBM Portable Entertainment Computer) was the first IBM handheld console, and one of the first handheld consoles with colour screen. It was released in 1982 in USA, Europe and Japan. It's hardware is very similar to the IBM PC from 1981, but with lower specs to make it cheaper and portable.

Colour palette
Unlike it's PC counterpart, it uses the Pocket Color Graphics Adapter (PCGA), it had the same color palette as the CGA, but with all the 16 colors available at the same time in 90x64.

Cassette catcher
It is to listen music in cassettes. It can be inserted on the cartridge slot, it adds an cassette slot. Some games and software were published in cassetes, like some IBM PC software.

Menu
By default, it shows an cassette player with this options:
 * Bar: The current minute/second of the music
 * Rewind: Rewind the cassette
 * Settings: Configure the cassette player
 * Title bar: It only shows the state of the player, it can show "Playing" (When it is playing an inserted cassette), "Inserted" (If an cassette inserted, but it's not being played) and "No cassette inserted" (When there isn't a cassette inserted)
 * Duration: Shows the duration of the cassette
 * Option label: Shows the name of the selected option, if there isn't an inserted cassette, it shows "Insert an cassette" and all the options are disabled (Only the Settings option is enabled to configure the cassette player), and the title bar shows "No cassette inserted", and the option label shows "Insert a cassette"

IBM PEC-compatible consoles
Like with the IBM PC, many manufacturers made console clones compatible with the original console, even some of them had higher-specs or lower-specs.

Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc
There was a clone of the IBM PEC in the USSR, which was called "Электроника ПРБК " (Electronika PRBK). It used a monochrome screen instead of a colour one to make it cheaper, however, the console still supported colour but colours were seen as grayscale tones due to the monochrome screen; a peripheral adding TV input allowing colour was released in 1987, but most games were optimized for greyscale instead of colour, so some newer games released during/after 1987 would include 2 colour palletes, one opitimized for greyscale and other one for colour. It costed around 650 rubles when it was released in 1985.

Japanese Version
While not exactly a clone, the initial version of the IBM PEC released in Japan had slightly lower specs than the international version to possibly save on costs. It also used a grayscale screen with colors being seen as shades of gray. The international version later on released in Japan as the "IBM PEC+Color".

BIOS Updates
Using the Connection cable to connect it to an IBM PC/or compatible, you can update the BIOS within the PEC to give it extra features that were added in over time. The 1.0 was supposed to be the RTM BIOS version included in the IBM PEC, but due to the text (font) being a somewhat unreadable and several BIOS bugs, it was replaced by the 1.1, which was included in most of the 1982 IBM PECs; however, some early retail units were shipped with the 1.0, these are about 100-250 IBM PECs; these IBM PECs were quickly (likely 1 day after the initial release) replaced by IBM PECs with the 1.1 BIOS. The first BIOS update was the "IBM PEC BIOS Software v1.2" released as an update floppy disc given out for free on January 1st, 1983 that fixed a fatal bug within the IBM PEC version of Adventure (Atari 2600 port). The last BIOS update was released around June 1995, and was called "IBM PEC BIOS Software v7.0", it updated the OS to a version of IBM-DOS based off of IBM PC-DOS 6.1, and added in partial support for a CD-ROM drive.

Prototype BIOS

 * v0.9 (Unknown date, but likely from late-1981 or early-1982) - Dumped from a preproduction IBM PEC and released by an unknown leaker around June 1st, 2008. Barely resembles later BIOSes, doesn't even boot any game. It only shows the screen with this text: "IBM PEC VERSION 0.9". It's suspicied that this was a test BIOS, and that games and BIOS menu would be booted in another chip, but that isn't confirmed yet.
 * v1.0 (January 29th, 1982) - Included in some early retail IBM PECs. It was shipped with about 100-250 IBM PECs.

Retail BIOS

 * v1.1 (February 28th, 1982) - Initial RTM release. Shipped with most of the 1982 IBM PECs. Updated the BIOS text font and fixed some minor bugs.
 * v1.2 (January 1st, 1983) - Released on January 1st, 1983 as an update floppy disk for most 1982 IBM PECs to fix a fatal bug with the IBM PEC port of Adventure from the Atari 2600 and other games, was shipped with most 1983 IBM PECs.
 * v1.5 (March 8th, 1984) - Fixed bugs with some add-ons and peripherals (like with the "TV Receiver", "FloppyAdapter/3.5, etc)
 * v2.0 (March 31st, 1985) - Shipped with most 1985 IBM PECs, especially after the SOC revision (and the cheaper "Slim" model), includes drivers to make the SOCs work properly. Also includes proper compatibility and connection with the IBM PC/AT.
 * v2.2 (June 27th, 1985) - Minor bug fixes, also tweaks the font for unknown reasons.
 * v2.2a (June 30th, 1985) - Was mentioned to be released in an update floppy disk in some magazines, but it's unknown if it actually exists. Possible build date located in the files of v2.2b.
 * v2.2b (August 1st, 1985) - Adds support for the "Video Output Cable with RGB" add-on released in the EU and Japan.
 * v2.5 (January 1st, 1986) - Adds "Switcher", a primitive way of Multitasking.
 * v3.0 (March 31st, 1986) - Finally updates IBM-DOS to a version based off of PC-DOS 3.2. Added compatibility and connection with the newly released IBM APEC, which was released at the same day.
 * v3.2 (June 5th, 1986) - Faulty BIOS, the only game it can boot is "Microsoft Flight Simulator". Shipped with about 100-200 IBM PECs from 1986 until v3.2.1 replaced it.
 * v3.2.1 (June 6th, 1986) - Fixed the bugs with v3.2.
 * v4.0 (September 1st, 1988) - Uses a version of IBM-DOS based off of PC-DOS v4.01, it's optimized for "Microsoft Windows PEC".
 * v4.5 (May 13rd, 1990) - Last version shipped with new units, as the IBM PEC stopped production in 1991.
 * v5.0 (September 19th, 1992) - Uses a version of IBM-DOS based off of PC-DOS v5.0. It is the first update that wasn't shipped/preinstalled on any PECs due to production ending the year before.
 * v6.5 (November 31st, 1994) - Minor bug fixes, adds support for the last official add-on (IBM PEC/2 conversion kit).
 * v7.0 (June 21st, 1995) - Updates IBM-DOS to a version based off of IBM PC-DOS 6.1, includes partial support for a cancelled CD-ROM add-on (That would be finished by 3rd party cloners.)
 * v7.1 (December 5th, 1995) - An aftermarket version of the BIOS, released by a third party company. Differences from v7.0 currently unknown.