I'm surprised RS and TRS-80 aren't more recognized..?

[jhd]

 

You're probably talking about the Tandy 2000, which was their first "PC clone", but the problem is it really wasn't that. They weren't really trying to be PC compatible, they were just trying to be MS-DOS compatible. They just used the same OS. This was in 1983; it wasn't really established yet that IBM was going to set the standard, so Tandy probably didn't think they needed to fully copy the PC.

 

Note that Tandy was not the only major player to follow this business model. The DEC Rainbow and the Sanyo MBC series (to give just two examples) were both "MS-DOS compatible", but not "PC Compatible" at the hardware (or BIOS) level.

 

It was expected that MS-DOS would be much like CP/M -- the software would run on a variety of closely related but slightly different hardware platforms.

[digdugnate]

We had a Tandy 1000EX and then an HX in the late 80s-early 90s (I think it was, but it might've been a few years later).

 

I remember dinking around with the CoCos when my dad was looking for electronic parts at Radio Shack (you know.. when they still sold that stuff)

[zzip]

Unreliability came later. In the 70's and 80's RS did sell great stuff. They never spend the $$$ on marketing compared to other brands of computers or audio gear. The brand suffered with the decline of the electronics hobbyist market and their decision to turn their stores into cell phones kiosk.

Well why spend marketing money on billboards and bus stop ads when their stores were so ubiquitous you probably had to walk past 3 Radioshacks on your way to the bus stop?

[troff]

There is still a bit of fondness for Tandy/Radio Shack computers to be found. In addition to the catalog linked in the first message of this thread, there are many catalogs you can browse online here:

 

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/