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TRS-80 MC-10

jgerrie

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May 24, 2013
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Sydney
mc-10.jpg

The Retrogaming Times did a two part article on the TRS-80 MC-10 in 2006 called "The Thrill of Defeat."

http://www.retrogamingtimes.com/rtm17/#Thrill_of_Defeat

The main focus of the article was the sad tale of how the TRS-MC-10 computer had lasted only just over a year, and that the only software created for it in that time could be numbered on the fingers of two hands (only one machine language game--a very interesting version of Pinball). It died at the hands of its more successful rivals the C64s, Ataris and, yes, its big brother the Coco too, which were coming on strong. Its ZX81 approach to computing was simply too late for 1983.

Although it was not a success then, it is still a great machine for the retro-hobbyist. Units are still available on ebay regularly. The machine is robust. The keyboard is now more than adequate for a generation raised on blackberries.

Since the time of its short lifespan as a marketed machine, a few notable games have been added to its stable of software. These include a very nice/strong version of Pacman, Tetris (one version has some very interesting voice synthesis), and a Java-script on-line emulator, and the porting of a significant number of classic Basic games, to mention just a few of the software developments:

Here are links to some of these new items for the MC-10:

Javascript emulator

Pac Man

pac-man.jpg

Tetris

Classic Basic Games

A new hardware expansion that provides more memory, additions to the basic language, and and an interface for loading and saving files to PC, called MCX has also been created. Someone has even made a disk interface for the machine. A meeting place for those interested in the machine is the Yahoo group:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/TRS80MC10Club/?yguid=303863267
 
The TRS-80 MC-10 was my first computer. I spent many, many night learning basic on it after my parents went to sleep as to not monopolize the TV. I also had the 16k ram addon.
Since there wasn't any commercial software available for it (and I had no money to buy some anyway), I had to adapt basic listing that I found in magazine for other systems, a skill that I still use today!
Ah, the good old time ;)
 
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