John_L Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 (edited) One of the biggest complaints I remember hearing about TRS-80 computers back in the day was the awful "Battleship Gray" color. Tandy Gray was the official designation the company gave the color. Despite Tandy laying claim to that particular shade of gray... well, no one liked it. Even those of us who loved the computer could see it was a bit of a, well, bland color. What most people don't know is how that color came to be, and it's a pretty interesting story. Back in the day, the TRS-80 was the first personal computer that was wired, tested, UL listed, and ready to use out of the box. Prior to that, kits were available, but there's a big difference between a hobbyist's kit and an "appliance" that anyone would potentially buy. Therefore, there weren't really computer monitors makers out there, and previous computers used VT100 terminals, and those monitors were basically a composite monitor... a TV without the receiver/decoder. So when Tandy went to build there computer, they needed a TV without the electronics, just a 12" black and white TV with no circuitry, just a chassis and CRT, and a case, not even a power supply, Tandy sourced that elsewhere. Tandy struck a deal with RCA for a 12" B&W cased monitor/chassis, that was part of a 12" B&W TV that RCA currently marketed. The thing is, it was only available in one color.. Gray. To keep costs down, Tandy decided to make the entire system that color so they wouldn't have to paint the monitor cases, so because they liked the deal, they just lived with the color. Here's a picture of one of those TVs... although RCA probably figured out that the bland gray color sucked and changed it, so this particular TV is white... In this picture the TV is sitting on top of a Model I expansion interface, and if you compare it to the other image, you can see it's identical to the Tandy monitor, and.. you now understand why the TRS-80 monitor has that big 3D cover just below the power switch to hide the holes in the case where the UHF/VHF tuner nobs sat. As a matter of fact, if you look from the back in through vent holes, you can see the two tuner cut outs quite easily. Another interesting note is that the RCA TV had front knobs to adjust contrast, brightness and vertical hold. Tandy only needed contrast and brightness controls, but the also needed an opening to accommodate the monitor to computer cable connector, so they used the vertical hold hole for that, and if you look at the closeup, there's a V, which technically worked, because it meant "video" instead of vertical hold, so you knew to connect it to the video connector on the computer ! Yet another interesting tidbit is that you can see in the picture on the left that the vent holes line up and match perfectly with the television, and the vent holes on the cpu/keyboard unit did as well, so it's obvious how much the design of the TV worked it's way into the final product. Edited July 15, 2014 by John_L 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPA5 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Neat piece of history on this machine! It's interesting the lengths they went to in order to ensure the design of the unit was cohesive, and avoid looking like they simply slapped any old TV together with the machine. I love these kinds of stories, it really shows the ingenuity these companies had when it came to building and marketing their computers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 That is cool! I knew the monitor was a converted TV, just had never seen the real thing until now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 Exactly, when you look at the keyboard/cpu portion of the computer, you can tell how they used the same gray color overall, and designed the black bezel to match the black portion of the TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I like the battleship gray, actually. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 16, 2014 Author Share Posted July 16, 2014 I like the battleship gray, actually. Yeah, I personally didn't really mind it that much, I was such a fan of the Model I/III computers, the first I worked on, computers were so new back than, and so amazing to us, that I didn't really care what color it was, I was more interested in getting color on the screen ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Loved the early Tandy computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Dart Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Am I the only one that misread this as The infamous "Tandy Gravy" ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krslam Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Am I the only one that misread this as The infamous "Tandy Gravy" ? Yes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 We can take that direction... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I think it was more common than anyone knew to do things like this. Take a commercial product and strip or modify or add stuff to it to make it "computer compatible". Actually, I really liked the TRS-80 Model I and III and wanted one before I got the Apple II. I started learning BASIC from the yellow TRS-80 book with the cartoon computer character. And THEN got a computer to which I could apply my knowledge. Cost was a factor. And I think the parents wanted something with a little more gaming capability so I wouldn't get bored with what looked like a text-only business computer. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skarrj Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Ive always liked the way the tandy looked. That was the first computer I used back in 2nd grade. Still thinking about picking one up to. Add to my little collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 I think it was more common than anyone knew to do things like this. Take a commercial product and strip or modify or add stuff to it to make it "computer compatible". Alot of people seem to think that Tandy bought the TVs and stripped out the parts they didn't need. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This was early on in the chip technology used to make the machine, and keeping the cost down was an issue. The last thing they would do would be to buy a whole TV and gut half of it. The deal they struck with RCA was specifically for just the chassis, CRT, and case. No parts were removed. I've read alot of "Model I history" web pages online and many of them quote Tandy as buying TVs and stripping them down to make the monitor. That didn't happen. You're right though, alot of companies will source parts from different manufacturers and assemble them into a final product. This is as true today as it was then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I have mixed feelings on the battleship color.I didn't hate it but I didn't think it was as attractive as other machines.One thing is for sure, it doesn't turn yellow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 I didn't mean that as literal as I sounded. They'd do it once or twice and make a prototype. Then of course they'd purchase just the parts. Apple did this with the Shugart drive mechanism for the Disk II. They bought a few complete disk drives, stripped out the electronics, and put their own in. The result was a savings of nearly 80 or so chips. The Apple design was simple and worked even better. Then they contracted out to buy just the mechanical assemblies - head transport, motor, frame.. In a sense every single product made does this if that product has multiple sources of parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 19, 2014 Author Share Posted July 19, 2014 I didn't mean that as literal as I sounded. They'd do it once or twice and make a prototype. Then of course they'd purchase just the parts. Yeah, I didn't mean to say you either... I have seen a bunch of websites though that cover the history and alot seem to mention "Tandy bought a bunch of TVs and stripped out and tossed what they didn't need"....lol, from a manufacturing standpoint, that's not very efficient.... to buy parts that are specifically going to be thrown out, especially when it's a new product where price was everything. Tandy rarely bothered to spend the money to develop a product that wasn't being called for by an army of customer requests... The Model I was a rare instance where ZERO orders were being requested by the public, and it was difficult to talk Tandy management into taking the risk. Starting with zero requests, by the time the first TRS-80 rolled off the line, there was a 10,000 unit backlog. Speaking of cost.. the very first ones off the line were $20 more to make than what they sold for! The need to ramp up manufacturing to meet demand and the "economies of scale" kicked in to bring down the manufacturing price such that they could make a profit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Ive always liked the way the tandy looked. That was the first computer I used back in 2nd grade. Still thinking about picking one up to. Add to my little collection. If you decide to pick one up on eBay, I can recommend seller ffej1457 out of PA (Jeff). He buys, repairs and sells Model 1's exclusively. I have purchased many a TRS-80 item from him. The power supply will be tested, keyboard flex connector replaced etc.. Not necessarily the cheapest, but you can bet the item will work when you get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 and apparently the guy gets good reviews too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 and apparently the guy gets good reviews too... Yeah and he deserves them too. He puts a lot of effort into what he sells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 I have mixed feelings on the battleship color. I didn't hate it but I didn't think it was as attractive as other machines. One thing is for sure, it doesn't turn yellow. Yep, I'll take battleship grey over urine yellow any day. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toptenmaterial Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Superbly written, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_L Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Color has never much mattered to me either way, it was always about what was under the hood, and how many colors it could put on the screen, or how small of a dot it could make, or how fast it could process a large amount of data. I've also always looked at clear cases with flashy LEDS as really really tacky... speaking of tacky.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Ohh those lanboize modderz rigs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Yeah, I didn't mean to say you either... I have seen a bunch of websites though that cover the history and alot seem to mention "Tandy bought a bunch of TVs and stripped out and tossed what they didn't need"....lol, from a manufacturing standpoint, that's not very efficient.... to buy parts that are specifically going to be thrown out, especially when it's a new product where price was everything. << SNIP >> Typically, Buying Completed Units and removing what you don't need is not economical.. But... It depends of what the Product Costs, and How Much you can sell it for... Take for instance, the Ford Transit Connect.... And avoiding the "Chicken Tax". See: The Wall Street Journal Car and Driver Wikipedia Many things that look Straight Forward, aren't.... MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 << SNIP >> I've also always looked at clear cases with flashy LEDS as really really tacky... speaking of tacky.... Oh YES!!!! How about FOIL!!! MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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