Odd find: Radio Shack VCS?

[StanJr]

I stopped in a thrift on my home from work on a fluke. As I was shifting through looking for more than just the $1 Space Invaders, I came across about 7 carts that were similar in size to SNES games, but were obviously not. The end label said the games were for the Radio Shack TRS 80 computer system. The WHA...?

 

Does anybody know anything about this?

 

The games were $5 a peice and featured such classics as:

Shooting Gallery

Polaris

Doubleback

Dino Attack (I think)

some kind of driving game

and what looked like a Pong. There were some others but I don't remember.

 

What is this?

[Charlie_]

You found games for the Tandy (TRS-80) Color Computer. :-) I grew up with programming/play Tandy COCOs' (as they are knowm). The title you listed will work on a Color Computer II for sure...Wanna buy one? :-)

check this out -

 

COCO games

 

Charlie

[atari70s]

Radio Shack TRZ-80 i think your talking baout i had them in my old school when i was in 2nd grade. Tandy yet being radioshack never played carts that im aware of. i had the 1000 . nice little unit ( where can i get a good OS of Deskmate

[+RangerG]

Yes -- but the games are awful (and the joysticks). Instead of an Atari 2600, Santa brought me a TRS-80 color computer 1. I never forgave him. However -- Dino Wars is a must see game for good memories. I also remember Dungeons of Daggorath? being an actually good game. However, overall the games were poor and the joysticks like wobbly toothpicks.

[StanJr]

Yeah, these things looked like they were Dollar Store specials. They had a sad dust cover thing that was broken or at least loose covering the chip and the labels looked like they were done by 1st graders. It was really weird, but good for a laugh.

 

Chaz, thanks for the offer, but no, I don't think I'd come within a mile of this thing.

 

RangerG, I bet getting a lump of coal would have been preferable. Did you set the living room rug on fire that year or what?

 

Nothing but high quality Stan

[+RangerG]

Stan -- You're right. I must have been a bad kid. All I wanted was an Atari, but my parents were suspicious of video games and they really wanted me to have an educational toy -- so the TRS-80 color computer 1. To add insult to injury, my cousin (and best friend at the time)got a brand new 5200 that Christmas to add to his 2600 we always played. I have seen several color computers while looking for Atari carts, but I've never bought one. I guess the pain of my friends with Commodores making fun of my "trash 80" is still too strong . -- RG

[Charlie_]

rangerG:Funny thing is. When the CoCo matured to version 3, it could kick the crap out of a Commodore. Period. Not even a debate. However the early models were weak. The joysticks were funny, the little non-centering black boxes (thus the reason Im good with a 5200 controller). There was a deluxe stick that was nice with 2 buttons. :-p

 

Geez...at the end my COCO3 was running Seagate hardrives and connecting to the internet via Delphi on a true RGB monitor...running OS9 a version of unix multitasking 9 screens at once in 512K memory. A beautiful little machine.....

 

Charlie

[Ze_ro]

Ah yes, the TRS-80. I've never actually dealt with one of these things, but I know that they were never very widely accepted, and have a poor reputation (They're commonly called "Trash-80"'s).

 

The only TRS-80 stuff I've ever found was a joystick adaptor that allows you to use Atari style joysticks. It's made by Wico, the same guys that made the same thing for the 5200. Anyone know if this thing is rare at all?

 

--Zero

[Albert]

Ahhh, the good old TRS-80. I'll refrain from calling it a Trash-80 as I often did every time I saw one in Radio Shack. This is one of the few systems that I've had no interest in collecting for whatsoever. I've generally collected for systems I personally enjoyed using back when they were "hot", and I don't have any fond memories of the TRS-80. So I've passed over numerous systems and carts.

 

However, the CoCo3 was a pretty powerful machine and I remember admiring OS/9. If I wasn't engrossed with my huge pile of interconnected Atari 8-bit equipment (also with Seagate hard drives attached), I probably would have jumped onto the CoCo bandwagon.

 

..Al

[cwilkson]

I have to say I loved my Coco II. It came with 64K RAM, and Extended Color Basic.

(...Basic!!! ...Basic!!! ...Basic!!!)

 

It had kickass games...originals, clones, what have you. It was a great system, and it was cheap. And it was decent for productivity too.

 

But the Coco3? My GAWD!!! What a monster!

 

I remember reading that a Coco3 running NitrOS-09 with 512K of memory would outperform a 20MHz 286 PC in everything but floating point, and it was close in that.

 

And this was an 8-bit machine running at 1.79 MHz!

 

I can't verify that report, as I never ran NitrOS-09, but having owned the machine, I can *certainly* believe it.

 

Wow...that thing was an absolute BEAST!!!

 

-Chris

[mos6507]

The CoCo is not the Trash-80.

 

For stupid marketing reasons that machine was called a TRS-80 when it has nothing to do with the traditional TRS-80. The TRS-80 name obviously referred to the Z80 processor in the original model. The CoCo machines are all totally different architectures based on the 6809, a much more capable processor, and they have better graphics and sound than the various TRS-80s.

[Lemmi]

What year was the tandy COCO's out in the stores? i dont remember thoes

 

All i have (and still do ) is the Atari 800/800XL with--cassette drive, 3 disk drives 1 - 810 drive & 2 1050 drives, printer,monitor (still works great), and a interface

 

Texas Instruments 99/4a (w/ voice modulator)

 

And a TDP electronics system 100 personal computer(this is what it says on the box)Brand new still never opened original price tag and wrapping still on it comes with 1 game-Bustout and a basics program. i think its made by Tandy does anyone have any info on this system?

 

[ 10-10-2001: Message edited by: Lemmi ]

[Lemmi]

omg i just found a pic of that TRS system and it looks almost like the 1 i got same style game carts and everything just different names

[Ze_ro]

Is there some reason that no one collects this machine? I mean, everyone and their dog seems to collect C-64 and TI-99/4a and the like... but it seems to be almost universal that no one bothers with the TRS-80. Perhaps Tempest can start collecting these and race them against his Arcadia 2000

 

(Just kidding... I'd buy an Arcadia if I found one in the wild... they're not very common though)

 

--Zero

[+RangerG]

Zero -- I thought I sent you a private e-mail, but maybe it didn't work. I just wanted to know more about the Wico Atari to TRS-80 joystick adaptor. I have never heard of anything like that, but that would be a great piece of equipment. I actually have some fond memories of(a few)CoCo games, but the joysticks were the absolute worst. Is it really for the TRS-80 color? Does it have a circular plug to go into the TRS-80? What's it called? Could you describe it better? Thank you -- RangerG

 

[ 10-11-2001: Message edited by: RangerG ]

[Ze_ro]

Hmm... strange, I didn't get the email. I'll have to check what's up at atari.net or something. Anyways, here's some more info about this thing:

 

It's a small black box measuring about 1"x2.5"x4.5" with two 9-pin Atari style joystick ports, and two cords with round, 5-pin connectors on them. I assume these would plug into the TRS-80's joystick ports. I know nothing about the different models of TRS-80's, so I have no idea which ones this would work with.

 

On the top of the box, "Wico Command Control" is molded into the plastic, and there's a small sticked between the Atari joystick ports that reads "Wico 72-4535 TRS80 Adapter".

 

That's about all there is to say about it really... it's a pretty simple looking device. I picked it up for $0.50 at a thrift store on a half-off day. I don't collect TRS-80 stuff, so I wasn't sure if it was worth anything, but considering Wico's 5200 stuff seems to be in high demand, I figured this might be worth something... I also figured that if I ever got a TRS-80, this would be the only way I'd ever manage to hook joysticks to the thing, since I've never seen any TRS-80 joysticks around (Until I found this device, I didn't know they used a special port).

 

Oh, I should probably also point out that I have no idea if this thing works or not, since I have no way to test it.

 

--Zero

[+RangerG]

Zero --

 

Sorry to keep bugging you, but the Wico adaptor really interests me. If it says for the TRS-80 then it could also be for several different TRS-80 models. The TRS-80 color computer played the cartidges. You said it has an Atari adaptor to a 5 pin circle connector. I am a severe novice at electronics -- so what does this mean? The TRS-80 joystick port on the computer is round with 7 small holes (pin indentures?). Would this joystick adaptor fit? Thanks again and sounds like you have an interesting piece of equipment (whatever it is . -- RangerG

 

[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: RangerG ]

[Charlie_]

Sure sounds like a COCO device. The COCO uses 5 pin DIN plugs for its joysticks. I'm not sure any other Tandy did.

 

Charlie

[Ze_ro]

Well, it definitely has only 5 pins on the TRS-80 side of it... so I guess it's meant for the Coco then. If the regular TRS-80 has 7 pin joystick ports, then I assume it won't work (Although it might... as long as the pins are in the right places. I've seen many cords that are missing pins simply because that device didn't use them). Strange that it would say "TRS80 adapter" on it if it only works with the Coco though....

 

The whole point of this device is so that you can plug Atari joysticks into a TRS-80 (or a Coco, or whatever this thing was meant for). Sorta like the masterplay adapter for the 5200 (lets you use 2600 joysticks on the 5200).

 

--Zero

[Charlie_]

Yup, The COCO was labeled TRS-80 at first. And somewhere between the COCO2 and COCO3 was changed to being labeled TANDY. I'm sure this adapter was able to be used on other TRS-80/TANDY computers other than the COCO. If I remember right, I think even the Tandy 1000 (the IBM clone that wasn't IBM compatible) used the Tandy 5-pin joysticks.

 

I should know. :-) I was a HEAVY COCO user and remember lots of devices at Radio Shack that would work with the COCO and other TRS-80's. Gee.... I miss those days.

 

And your right it's just like the 5200 adapter. The TRS-80 sticks were analog just like the 5200.

 

Charlie

 

[+RangerG]

Charlie --

 

Thanks for the picture. It would be great to use Atari joysticks on the CoCo. Do you know any other 3rd party joysticks that worked? Radio Shack had a "deluxe" model joystick, but they weren't much better than the originals. It's like the 5200, if I could figure out how to use better joysticks, I'd drag out the CoCo and the games I have and have a new system to collect for (which for me has some good memories). Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. -- Randy

[Ze_ro]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chazbeenhad:

And your right it's just like the 5200 adapter. The TRS-80 sticks were analog just like the 5200.

---

 

Really? I had no idea! I wonder if there's any way I could hack this thing into a Masterplay interface (I have a 5200 with no joysticks... but no games either... ).

 

Now that I think about it, I might have actually seen some of those joysticks hanging around. I don't recall them having a button in such a strange position though. Every time I see them, I just think it's some crappy, broken (these things don't center, do they?) PC joystick. For some reason, computers have a history of badly designed controllers. Gravis made the first PC joystick that even looked worth buying at all.

 

--Zero

[Inky]

All this talk about classic computers makes me long for a classic computing museum...

[Charlie_]

RangerG: Here is the deluxe stick. I personaly loved this controller. It has 2 seperate buttons and can be switched from self centering to non-centering. It also has the trim controls to help center it up. This one here is just about mint. I have others. How many I'm not sure. :-) I think I have just about everything for the COCO. Did you have a disk drive? My disk collection is a gold mine for COCO collectors.

 

 

 

 

Charlie

[jhd]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lemmi:

What year was the tandy COCO's out in the stores? i dont remember thoes

---

 

About 1980 or '81 for the original Coco. It went through several releases (internal changes, mostly) before the Coco 2 came out in 1984. The Coco 3 was released in Fall 1987.

 

quote:

---

And a TDP electronics system 100 personal computer(this is what it says on the box)Brand new still never opened original price tag and wrapping still on it comes with 1 game-Bustout and a basics program. i think its made by Tandy does anyone have any info on this system?

---

 

I think this is a European release of the Coco 1. It is esentially a Coco 1, anyway.

Bustout is a Breakout clone and was the Canadian (at least) pack-in cartridge in 1982.