Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

[Arran]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

What versions of the TRS 80 were sold in Tandy shops? I have a TRS-80 Model 100 laptop that were sold mainly as a business computer rather than a home computer. Most people in Britain bought them because they were portable and had a word processor in the ROM rather than because they were a TRS 80.

[Richard1978]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

TRS stands for Tandy Radio Shack, certainly in the USA they were sold through Radio Shack electronics stores.

[Mulletino]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I always remember Maplin selling a replacement "proper" keyboard for the ZX Spectrum, always wanted one of those.

[Arran]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

The TRS 80 is a moniker for several families of computers manufactured by Tandy / Radio Shack that were not software compatible with each other.

Which particular models were sold in Tandy shops in Britain?

[MalcolmAndSheldon]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I started with a ZX81 and went on to an Acorn Electron - great machine. True, it might have been a cut-down, slower BBC micro but they left a load of the good stuff in - most notably, BBC BASIC which was just the nuts. You could actually mix BASIC and 6502 assembly code, which finally allowed me to tackle the mysteries of machine code with some real debugging facilities. Unfortunately, machine code proved to be dead hard, and though I managed a few things such as a sidescroller subroutine and collision detector, most of it remained a mystery to me. Just what, exactly, was the stack pointer for? And what was I supposed to do with it?

The prize for the less common machine, however, must go to one of my pals, who had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. I recall going round to his place to play some pretty run-of-the-mill games on it, and generally found the machine to be pretty uninspiring. It wasn't until a long time later that I discovered that this was actually one of the first 16-bit home micros.

[Richard1978]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I had an Acorn Electron & found it good for the time in terms of games & programmability.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I did read somewhere the Dragons were based on the TRS 80.

Tandy colour computer. tandy coco for short, I still have one... not sure if the dragons copied tandy or tandy copied the dragons, i suspect that neither did - most likely both used manu supplied sample designs to make the machine and both bought the same operating system......

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

The Sinclair QL was another potentially great computer aimed at the semi-pro market, but problems with the Microdrives & a few other supposedly "penny pinching" short cuts to keep the price down didn't help things.

Was an interesting machine, remember seeing them in whsmiths, and seeing pranksters turn them upside down and shake loose keys so they fell out

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

Many of the Usborne books used to have a program listing at the back with adaptions for different computers, often obscure ones.

forgot all about those probably still got one lying around somewhere.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

Tatung Einstein. It was originally intended as a business computer but ended up being more popular with programmers. They were manufactured in Bridgnorth in Shropshire. It was a rare example of a computer that used the 3 inch disk like that on the Amstrad CPC 6128. Sord M5. A very simple Japanese home computer that sold in very low numbers. I think that Sord also sold some business computers.

the einstein was a machine i drooled over. could never have afforded one back then, or even now lol.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I think outside the bolded ones they were fairly uncommon. A mate of mine had a Toshiba MSX and I'd only ever knew 2 people who owned one. The Commodore 128 seemed quite rare. I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh.

my dad owned a tosh msx, I remember playing on it and also not liking its microsh&te basic.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

REMEMBER HAVING THESE AT SCHOOL. BBC Micro. Acorn Technologies DONT THINK YOU COULD PLAY GAMES ON THESE OR THEY WERE VERY BASIC GAMES. ARE THEY 8 OR 16 BIT.

6502 processor so 8 bit, but they had a tube and could have a different processor, not sure if they could have a 16 bit one in place?

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

There were some quite good games for them, the BBC Master was a bit more able.

Elite. Chuckie egg and more.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

The TRS 80 is a moniker for several families of computers manufactured by Tandy / Radio Shack that were not software compatible with each other. Which particular models were sold in Tandy shops in Britain?

From memory (which is not as good as it was) of drooling over tandy catalogs and hanging around like a deranged nerd in the shops as a kid - all of them were available - usually mostly only in the catalogue, dont recall seeing them all in the shops.

[ken70]

Re: Less common vintage 8 and 16 bit computers

I started with a ZX81 and went on to an Acorn Electron - great machine. True, it might have been a cut-down, slower BBC micro but they left a load of the good stuff in - most notably, BBC BASIC which was just the nuts. You could actually mix BASIC and 6502 assembly code, which finally allowed me to tackle the mysteries of machine code with some real debugging facilities. Unfortunately, machine code proved to be dead hard, and though I managed a few things such as a sidescroller subroutine and collision detector, most of it remained a mystery to me. Just what, exactly, was the stack pointer for? And what was I supposed to do with it? The prize for the less common machine, however, must go to one of my pals, who had a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. I recall going round to his place to play some pretty run-of-the-mill games on it, and generally found the machine to be pretty uninspiring. It wasn't until a long time later that I discovered that this was actually one of the first 16-bit home micros.

Stack pointer.. Think of a pile of post it notes. Write a not stick it on the pile stack pointer increases,remove one it decreases. Want a note not on top? Set stack pointer to the level you want and get that note.