What were the Tandy/Radio Shack computers good at?

[punchy71]

The Commodore 8-bit machines were good at video games, the Apple 8-bit machines carved out a niche in the education sector, ... but what did the Radio Shack 8 bit computers specialize in, anything? I had to ask because I have often wondered.

 

[commodorejohn]

Being cheap, was my understanding.

 

[vwestlife]

The Commodore 8-bit machines were good at video games, the Apple 8-bit machines carved out a niche in the education sector, ... but what did the Radio Shack 8 bit computers specialize in, anything? I had to ask because I have often wondered.

Radio Shack had several different lines of 8-bit computers.

The TRS-80 Model I was the first mass-marketed home computer in the USA. The Apple II and Commodore PET also came out around the same time as it (1977), but Radio Shack had the advantage of having thousands of stores to sell it in.

The subsequent Models III and 4 had a loyal following among schools and small businesses due to its compact, all-in-one design; all you had to do was plop it down on a table and plug it in. It was also affordable and gave access to a vast array of CP/M software.

The Models II, 12, 16, and 6000 were large business computers, among the first to offer hard drives. I don't think they were ever that popular, but they may have prevented the Apple III from gaining a foothold in the business market. (The models 16 and 6000 were actually 16/32-bit, using the Motorola 68000 CPU, putting them in competition with the Apple Lisa.)

And finally the Color Computer series couldn't compete with the C64 or Atari in terms of graphics, sound, and game titles, but it was inexpensive and used the fairly powerful Motorola 6809 CPU, and even had a multitasking OS available.

 

[pearce_jj]

Scripsit?

 

[tezza]

The Commodore 8-bit machines were good at video games, the Apple 8-bit machines carved out a niche in the education sector, ... but what did the Radio Shack 8 bit computers specialize in, anything? I had to ask because I have often wondered.

You have you take them model by model.

The Model 1 was a general purpose microcomputer not specialising in anything in particular. It could play games, run business applications and communicate depending on what hardware was attached. The same could be said of the Commodore Pet and original Apple II. This was because when they came out in 1977 the microcomputer market hadn't segmented into it's various niches.

The Model II was strictly a business machine.

The Model III was another all purpose machine (essentially a grown up Model 1) but tended to lean towards the business market.

The TRS-80 Color Computer 1 was for home. Mostly games. The Commodore Vic 20 was a competitor. The Coco went through a series of models each one better than that before it. Still targeted at the home market though.

The Model 4 was for business. Good machine but still z80 based like the I and III. By the time it came out the IBM and IBM compatible juggernaught had captured that market.

Tez

 

[Rick Ethridge]

Adding to that, the Color Computer II and III were updates to the Coco I. The TRS-80 Model 12 and 16 were updated Model II's with the ability to upgrade to a 16 bit multi-user system with the Tandy 6000 being a Model 16 with the upgrade included and the inclusion of an internal hard drive and optional additional memory expansion.

 

[Agent Orange]

One would think the Tandy 1000's would at least deserve a mention. Anything the PCjr or XT could do the 1000SX did just little better IMHO.

 

[vwestlife]

There was also the TRS-80 Model 100, which is considered to be the first successful laptop computer, although it was actually designed by Kyocera in Japan and also sold with minor differences by NEC and Olivetti. The follow-up Tandy 200 and 600 models added a "clamshell" flip-up LCD and built-in floppy drive, respectively, but were not nearly as popular. After those two were discontinued, the Model 100 was updated to become the Tandy 102, with a slightly thinner case and more built-in RAM. The 102 remained in production all the way until around 1993, when PC-based laptops (including Tandy's own) finally became small, light, and affordable enough to replace it.

There was also a line of TRS-80/Tandy Pocket Computers, which resembled overgrown pocket calculators, but had a QWERTY keyboard and programmed in BASIC. These went through numerous different generations, and remained in production all the way until the mid-1990s.

And I believe the very last 8-bit TRS-80 model not already mentioned was the MC-10 "Micro Color Computer", a very small and inexpensive home computer designed by Matra/Hachette in France, which was intended to compete with the Timex Sinclair 1000 (a.k.a. ZX81), but by the time it reached stores, the market for such cheap and limited-capability computers had disappeared, so it was quickly discontinued.

 

[vwestlife]

One would think the Tandy 1000's would at least deserve a mention. Anything the PCjr or XT could do the 1000SX did just little better IMHO.

The Tandy 1000 series, 2000, and other Tandy PC clones were not 8-bit. So yes, the Tandy 1000s were highly successful, but they're not within the scope of this discussion.

 

[Agent Orange]

The Tandy 1000 series, 2000, and other Tandy PC clones were not 8-bit. So yes, the Tandy 1000s were highly successful, but they're not within the scope of this discussion.

You are mistaken: The 1000SX is a 8-bit computer.

 

[dabone]

8088 doesn't equal 8bit...

The Intel 8088 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 8086 and was introduced on July 1, 1979. It had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range were unchanged, however. The original IBM PC was based on the 8088.

16Bit internal, 8bit data bus.

Later,
dabone

 

[billdeg]

Tandy was huge in the USA. Best selling z80 computer line ever. by far. People bust on them but they were very popular and well liked. The 16-bit line was probably one of the biggest-selling ibm clones through until Radio Shack switched to the IBM-branded machines. Look it up!

There were tons of mags dedicated all or in part to various Tandy machines. Plus every town had a local Tandy user group.

So to answer your question, it was all about user preference. If you wanted the power of a z80 in an inexpensive package you often got a Tandy.

Personally and totally objectively my preference of the 8 bit era appliance computer manufacturers (not including s-100, obscure, hobby, and business stuff), taking everything into account is

Commodore
Tandy
Apple
Atari
Texas Instruments

Its kind of a shame that people over emphasize the importance of Apple at the expense of Commodore and Tandy history wise. You'd think Apple invented the computer and was always the best selling and most popular computer. There were dozens of computer makes and models to chose from before the IBM PC came out, they all had their niches. It wasn't as monolithic as it is today.

 

[deathshadow]

Its kind of a shame that people over emphasize the importance of Apple at the expense of Commodore and Tandy history wise. You'd think Apple invented the computer and was always the best selling and most popular computer.

I often wonder if that's an east-coast west-coast thing or something too... I've been knee deep in the computing scene since 1976, and you know when the first time I ever even SAW an Apple in person was?

High school in 1984... and they were locked away in a room because the school had them shoved down their throats by the Commiewealth of Taxachusetts and then didn't provide the funds to hire anyone qualified to use/teach/supervise them.

EVERYONE I knew who had computers either had a Tandy, TI, Atari or Commodore... I never knew ANYONE who even owned a Apple II. LITERALLY until the VIC-20 and C=64 came along the ONLY computers I ever saw for sale ANYWHERE were TRS-80's, TI's (which is what we had in middle school), the occasional rare Sinclair and Atari 400/800. For such an 'influential' computer I really sit there going "Who the **** even owned an Apple?!?" Because from where I sat in New England, the answer was "Nobody". I never even saw them for sale anyplace until around '86... You couldn't just go to a store and buy one ANYWHERE. Hell, we had TI and Atari stores... NOTHING for Apple.

Of course that they milked the one design and CPU level for a decade and a half while everyone else moved on was also a head scratcher. By the time I first saw an Apple II they were already a rinky outdated toy... and then they sold them for another 8 years?!?

The TRS-80's were very pervasive in about a 250 mile radius of where I lived (Plymouth, MA) -- Radio Shacks in EVERY town helped with that, as did their opening up "computer centers"; More so the fact I regularly traveled to/through Peterborough NH on my way to my grandparents place -- which in the 80's was basically TRS-80 Mecca, being home to one of the best Radio Shack computer centers and Wayne Green Enterprises.

Up until about '82ish, you wanted a home computer you couldn't buy an Apple anywhere I knew of in New England, Sears carried Atari's,but had them locked away under glass and had nobody qualified to tell you about the product (or even able to find the key to the case), Some places like Zayers, Caldors or Mammoth Mart carried the TI 99-4A but had maybe TWO bits of software for them (TI Invaders and Hunt the Wumpus)...

But you could always walk into most any Radio Shack, choose from two to three different models in dozens of configurations to meet your needs/budget - from learning to gaming to business, they offered it all. For software there were most always at least six or seven Model I/III titles in stock, dozens of coco games ready and on hand, and they offered warehouse to store letting you dodge the hassle of mail order... they had machines out in the store where you could actually sit down and *SHOCK* try them out -- something I didn't see anyone else letting you do until the late 80's!

Much less mail order -- Where 80 Micro ran double the ad density (and USEFUL article density) of Byte... There's a reason Byte was considered an "also ran" compared to 80 Microcomputing right up until Tandy turned into a PC clone vendor. Byte started out to be an Apple rag, but ended up multi-system because nobody actually HAD an Apple unless they were in that magic perfect school system (that I also never saw, and I went to eight different schools in four different systems before I even hit high school... while only moving once... Commiewealth redistricting FTW) -- While 80 Micro stayed mostly true to the B&W TRS-80's for years; to the point they spun off the Coco stuff into it's own mag. (Rainbow I think? Or was it Hot Coco? Can't remember which of them was the WG one).... also why BYTE was on the top rack in the back and pretty much sat there on shelves (at least around my parts) and 80 Micro was front-and-center at most every newsstand... as evidenced on "magazine dumpster diving day" where you'd have a dozen copies of BYTE in the dumpster out back, and if you were lucky one copy of 80 Micro. (You remember that right? They cut off the top 3" of the front cover for credit from the manufacturer and then threw all the magazines out after the month was up?)

Literally until the VIC 20 came along, (and to a lesser extent the Coleco Adam) where I lived the TRS-80 (and to a lesser extent TI-99/4a) is what you could go look at, try out, and actually buy. Everyone else? Not so much.

Particularly Apple, which were a thing of myth that you might have HEARD of, but nobody actually seemed to own one or be able to buy one. If someone was selling them in the Boston area prior to the mid 80's to anything other than school systems who didn't know what to do with them, I sure as shine-ola never heard about it.

 

[dracos]

Well said BillDeg! I knew I really could not offer an unbiased opinion so I refrained from posting.
User preference, experience and goals certainly play a large part.
The more I contemplated this, the more I kept coming back around to going out with girls back in the day... (key the time travel music...)

Apple: The sexy girl you knew you would never get a date with, and wasn't sure it would be all that if you did.
Commodore: The cute girl that everyone but you dated, but for some reason, not more than once.
Atari: The ok, but fun girl every liked to be around, but could not get serious about.
TRS-80: The bright girl of average looks that brought out the best in you. You could stay up and talk with her all night, maybe steal a kiss if you worked real hard and didn't take yourself too seriously.

Kinda lame I know, but it all does seem more philosophical, not pragmatical, after the fact.

Peace!

 

[Trixter]

Apple: The sexy girl you knew you would never get a date with, and wasn't sure it would be all that if you did.
Commodore: The cute girl that everyone but you dated, but for some reason, not more than once.
Atari: The ok, but fun girl every liked to be around, but could not get serious about.
TRS-80: The bright girl of average looks that brought out the best in you. You could stay up and talk with her all night, maybe steal a kiss if you worked real hard and didn't take yourself too seriously.

I do NOT want to know where IBM fit into this analogy. No, you can't use http://firealyellon.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/111007_ugly_woman_shirt.jpg as a cop-out either.

 

[Roman78]

^^

IBM: Tha big fat old lady eeehhh hmmmmm

But i just read the topic and must say my first computer also was a TRS-80... Clone. My mom worked at a German company called TSC who imported the EACA Video Genie from Honk Kong. This was a Tandy 1 clone. Still own a Genie I and a Genie II.

This company also developed one of the fastest Z80's computer. The Video Genie IIIs whit a Z80 cpu running on 7,2 Mhz and had 128k Ram (expendable to 256k) whit separate 64k video ram (512x512px). But those are very rare because they where to late, a lot of companies already switched to 16-bit computers.

 

[Compgeke]

Wait a sec...Radio Shack once sold something other than Cell Phones?

Wait, I know they had to since I have 2 Tandy's in need of power supplies that I'll get around to fixing eventually.

 

[Roman78]

Don't know if it is allowd but i need to post this rage....

 

[Ole Juul]

Don't know if it is allowd but i need to post this rage....

Thanks Roman, I really like that one! It's probably the reason why I never looked at Tandy computers, although I do understand they're perfectly good. When I was kid there were also real electronics shops and if you went in there and asked for a "derpistor" they'd know what you were trying to say and probably give you a free one because they had boxes full and not blister packs with serial numbers. It's funny how those early experiences effect your choices later on.

 

[dabone]

I was browsing at radioshack the other week and was SHOCKED to find arduino kits, and a beginner propeller board, they also have some basic electronics kits including led christmas trees. It's been a long time rs... Thanks.... The prices aren't too bad either for retail. Arduino Uno's are 35.00 retail.

Later,
dabone