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Tandys Never Die

Posted by michael on from the they-just-get-dimmer-and-dimmer dept.

kevcol writes: "Great article on the SF Chronicle's website on a school bus driver in Contra Costa County California who heads a Tandy model 100 computer user group. The model 100 was the portable version of the beloved TRS-80 (jokingly known as the 'Trash 80') which was the first computer I ever laid fingers on in high school back in the day..."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Emulators? by raelitycheckbounced · · Score: 3, Informative
    this is a list of emulators on classicgaming.com

    Amstrad CPC Emulators, Apple II Emulators, Arcade Emulators (Multi-Game), Arcadia 2001 Emulators, Atari 2600 Emulators, Atari 5200 Emulators, Atari 7800 Emulators, Atari Lynx Emulators, Coleco Emulators, Commodore 64 Emulators, Magnavox Odyssey Emulators, MSX Emulators, NeoGeo Emulators, NES Emulators, Odyssey Emulators, Sega Genesis Emulators, Sega Master System Emulators, TurboGrafx16 Emulators, Vectrex Emulators.

    Which means this tandy is prehistoric

  2. Tandys are indeed sturdy by ism · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nowhere near as old as the one in the article, but I had a 1000RL (8086 8mhz I think) and when I upgraded to a better machine, sent the Tandy to my cousins in the Phillipines. Their house had no air conditioning, and the machine was situated in a room that often reached well over 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the midday sun. The house is in a fishing village and is often plagued with floods and monsoons.

    I visited the summer the year after and the machine worked flawlessly. I managed to play a Tandy BASIC minigolf game but had to stop because it was way too hot in the room. This continued for a few more years, and about 8 years after my initial purchase of the machine, it stopped working during a visit. I opened the case to discover it had become home to some large native flying insects... which got fried inside. In a weird sort of way, the heat didn't but also did manage to kill it eventually. Those conditions were definitely out of the bounds of a "normal operating environmeny" and I was amazed it lasted so long.

    Buying a Tandy again is pretty much out of the question, but during my ownership they certainly grew on me. The RL's 3-voice PCM sound capability allowed me to exercise my interest in sound programming. Had a subscription to a Tandy magazine (can't remember which one) and specifically looked for programs that supported the special Tandy graphics. As my first (IBM-compatible) PC, it served its purpose well, letting my preteen self learn about programming, proprietariness, and patience. It was a great machine for a hobbyist.

  3. Guys in Glass Houses.... by cybrpnk · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...shouldn't throw rocks. There was really no such thing as a uber-TRS-80. It was a code designation for a number of computers made by Tandy Radio Shack using the Z-80 microprocessor. The Model 100 portable was as much of an "official" TRS-80 as the original Model I or business-oriented Model II or FCC-approved Model III etc etc etc....

    If you want to buy one, go to EBay. Notice the TRS-80 moniker located upper right in the photo...

  4. No floppy interface. by maynard · · Score: 3, Informative

    The model 100 had no floppy interface, though there were external 3 1/2 floppy units available at the time. It did have a built in 300 bps modem The standard modem interface was a DIN 9 adapter on the side of the unit in which RS sold a DIN 9 to RJ-11 cable, though RS did sell an acoustic coupler for use with pay phones. Next to the modem was a secondary cassette tape interface. The screen displayed 40 cols by 8 lines, LCD. It shipped with 8K RAM in its original configuration, though it could be upgraded to 48K. The main CPU was an 8085, not a Z-80. It was in no way binary compatible with the original TRS-80.

    This is an important point, the TRS-80 Model I, III, and IV was a completely different computer system from the Model 100. They weren't compatible in any way whatsoever. Just like the Model 11 and 16 wasn't compatible with the model 1/III/IV. Totally different systems. At one point I ran a BBS off of a model I for four years from 1982 to 1986, which my family originally bought in 1977. It was a good computer for its time, though it generated way too much RFI, the buffered expansion interface cable often broke requiring replacement, and the B/W monitor which shipped with the model 1 was junk. The computer, however, was fast with a 1.77 MHz Z-80. Oh well, enough memory lane...

    Cheers,
    --Maynard

  5. CoCo with OS-9 by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3, Informative
    What about the TRS-80 Color Computer with OS-9. That was amazing. Multiple users in 128K RAM and two floppies. Unix-like OS. It even had a (small) Free Software community.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  6. there are modern alternatives by markj02 · · Score: 3, Informative
    There are actually lots of modern versions of the Model 100. Take a look at brainium.com, quickpad.com, calcuscribe.com, and alphasmart.com. The QuickPad runs DOS and uses CF for storage. Some others use WinCE 3.0. These also tend to run batteries.

    So, if this is the kind of laptop you like, you can get modern alternatives, and they even run software for which you can get development systems.