BassGuitari Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 I just bought a box of assorted odds and ends for the TRS-80 Color that included a Clowns & Balloons cart with a plain white file label with dot-matrix printed text. There's also a manual with it, which is printed in black and white and on much flimsier paper stock than normal, but is otherwise the same as the "normal" manual.I'm pretty sure I've seen these before but I was wondering what the story was on these. The cheap-o manual and prototype-looking label were obviously cost-cutting measures; my guess is Tandy was trying to liquidate old stock and slapped these jobbies together as cheaply as possible. (I guess the question there is, "when?")Maybe they were made for mail order or sale outside Radio Shack stores? (Seems unlikely, but I don't know!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 If I remember right, the white label versions work on the CoCo 3. The earlier release may not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 If I remember right, the white label versions work on the CoCo 3. The earlier release may not. Interesting, I'll check that out. I actually happen to have my CoCo 3 hooked up at the moment, and I have both versions of the cart. I'll report my findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 It may not mean it won't, but it was Tandy's way of letting people know something would run. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 After the Coco market crashed, Radio Shack was no longer spending money on assembling, labelling, and packaging the carts, but a customer could walk into a store, ask for a game, and it would be assembled on site and a label (and manual, I suppose) printed on store equipment. Or so I was told. I never heard that there were any changes for coco3 compatibility. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 After the Coco market crashed, Radio Shack was no longer spending money on assembling, labelling, and packaging the carts, but a customer could walk into a store, ask for a game, and it would be assembled on site and a label (and manual, I suppose) printed on store equipment. Or so I was told. I never heard that there were any changes for coco3 compatibility. I've never heard of or seen that. The white labels appeared around 1986 and the CoCo finally ceased production in 1991(?) so I think that's BS. I don't know if it was about changes or just about "this runs on the CoCo 3" They may have even discontinued titles that didn't run on it. FWIW, in later years, I saw stores start to sell CoCo stuff via special order only, and some smaller stores had done that all along. Radio Shack introduced a catalog in the mid 80s where you could find Radio Shack and 3rd party titles. I think stores started relying on that more and more. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Hmmm, the assemble-on-demand story might well be BS, as I was just repeating what I'd been told. OTOH, the only plain-white-label coco cart I own (see photo) doesn't mention the coco3 so that can't be the only reason, either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Hmmm, the assemble-on-demand story might well be BS, as I was just repeating what I'd been told. OTOH, the only plain-white-label coco cart I own (see photo) doesn't mention the coco3 so that can't be the only reason, either. IMG_1368.JPG That is very different that the "White Label" carts I'm thinking of. Whenever I see one of those, it's often a relabel because the original was lost. I think there are a couple 3rd party titles that were like that. This is what I'm talking about. Notice the white around the title of the game on the edge? http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRS-80-Reactoid-cartridge-Tandy-Coco-color-computer-3-WORKS-/192145917662 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 (edited) Oh sure, those are fairly common and I've got several of them. The OP said his was just a plain white file label, which I assumed to be similar to what I showed. It seems unlikely to me that it's just a user-made replacement label since it includes the ®, and catalog numbers - most users wouldn't bother with those, but a Radio Shack store would. *edit* stupid autocorrect changes my parenthetical into actual copyright and trademark symbols. Edited April 26, 2017 by krslam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted April 26, 2017 Author Share Posted April 26, 2017 IMG_1368.JPG Yes, this is the style of the cart in question. That is very different that the "White Label" carts I'm thinking of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 Does yours include the catalog number and trademark notations? If so, it would reinforce the idea that these were corporate made and maybe lend some credence to the built-on-demand story. A picture of your label would be nice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted April 26, 2017 Author Share Posted April 26, 2017 Does yours include the catalog number and trademark notations? If so, it would reinforce the idea that these were corporate made and maybe lend some credence to the built-on-demand story. A picture of your label would be nice... Yep! Here's a link to some pics. I never thought these were homemade or anything--I've seen others like this before, although they don't seem too common. The manual, while also very cheaply printed, was at least done so professionally; it's way too clean to have been Xeroxed (also, why make a copy of the manual when you have the original to make a copy with in the first place?). Doesn't jive that any of this would be homemade. I figured they were just bare-bones attempts to get rid of old inventory as cheaply as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 Maybe they made a bulk sale of remaining inventory to a 3rd party when they discontinued the CoCo.Something similar happened to TI Extended BASIC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerG Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 You ordered those in the store. The stores had a list of available games. Some stores had these lists available way into the 90s. I have a picture of another one in an old thread and I have had others before. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/106831-for-sale-trs-80-reproduction-and-text-label-cart/?hl=%2Bcoco 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 Interesting. I have a black and white football manual. I can't remember where I got it, probably in a lot with other carts. I just assumed it was a homemade manual but it was probably a late release? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 I wonder if this was after they discontinued the CoCo line or before.It makes sense that they wouldn't want to print full color labels and manual for something that had a really low sales volume. This way they just keep enough parts to make them one at a time to keep customers happy, and just print a new sheet of cheap © labels every now and then.To be honest, I think this was discussed on the CoCo mailing list, years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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