Michel Henric Coll, a young french commercial engineer from Philips Data System, is at the origin of the Hector/Victor series. He recalls:

"I discovered the Interact Model 1 during a trip to the United-States in july 79. It was very simple: I had read its description in an american technical magazine. When I arrived to Ann Arbor (the city in Michigan where the Interact firm is based), I phoned to Interact to explain that I wanted to sell their products in France. James Scotton, the Interact chairman, sent me a white Cadillac to my hotel and spent a whole day with me. A contract was quickly signed".

Thus, in september 79, Michel signs a commercial distribution agreement with Interact. Then in january 80, he creates its own company, Lambda System, based in Toulouse (France).

> Michel Henric Coll

 

"As I obtained the right to sell the Interact under my own brand, I immediatly renamed it Victor Lambda. It was during a brainstorming group organised in a training course I followed in Toulouse at the "Ecole Supérieure de Commerce" from january to july 79, that I discovered this name. We already have chosen the first name, Victor, thanks to the help of the computer (!). We were looking for the last name. Tired, someone said: is it so important to waste so many time to this search to sell a lambda computer to a lambda customer? It rang my bell, we had just found the name."

Unfortunately for Michel, the american company Interact closes its doors in february 80 and Lambda System does the same thing in july 81.

Here comes Micronique, a french company specialised in electronic hardware. In fact, the Micronique group is composed at that time by 7 companies, 330 employees and has an annual result of 120 millions of francs. As Micronique wanted to own their own product, when they meet Michel in the summer 81 just after the failure of Lambda System, they don't miss the opportunity to enter the micro-computers market with the Victor Lambda.

> René Benech, one of the three chairmans of Micronique

 

In december 81, Micronique becomes the only owner of the Victor Lambda by buying all the right to the americans. Then, at the start of 82, a new structure is created so that the new activity could be more independent : Victor Lambda Diffusion, VLD. It is in charge with the marketing of the computer and the development of software.

The first system sold until then, an Interact computer in fact, is completely re-studied and the new models Victor I, II and 2HR, will be completely conceived and built at Corbeil, in the Micronique factory. The first american model was based upon the 8080 from Intel, the french models will run with a Z80A.