Whatever Happened to… the TRS80 Pocket Computer

By Friday November 13, 2009


The late, great science fiction author, Issac Asimov, hawking a miracle of modern technology.



30 Comments
  1. PeterR says:
    11/13/2009 at 12:32 pm

    I still have one…in a box…somewhere…

    Reply
  2. The Watcher says:
    11/13/2009 at 12:42 pm

    Nearly bought one of those in the 80′s, but the wife was with me :D ….

    I have several M100′s, though, and a small HP similar to the pocket Tandy.

    Reply
  3. IamAnOwner says:
    11/13/2009 at 12:46 pm

    I have the improved Radio Shack PC-2 model which was essentially a re-packaged SHARP PC-1500 pocket computer. I added the 16K memory expansion bringing total memory to 18 KBytes.

    I also have the RS-232C interface, and the plotter/cassette interface.

    I acquired the manuals, etc. that covered the assembly language of the CPU, the circuit diagrams, etc. and learned to program it in assembly language… What a speedup! The display was also dot addressable, so you could make fun little scroller games. It was also possible to access a third character set, and I configured it for greek letters and math symbols… Great for a reference for physics courses.

    I don’t have the heart to throw it out, but haven’t used it for years.

    Reply
  4. Micromike says:
    11/13/2009 at 1:10 pm

    I used one of those to learn BASIC well enough to get a job as a programmer. I was living in a teepee on the Colorado Plateau at the time so needed battery power. It worked quite well, and I also used it to understand computer generated random numbers and dice games.

    Reply
  5. Improbus says:
    11/13/2009 at 2:21 pm

    When those computers came out I was still working on trying to buy a car and some beer. You got to have your priorities when you are a teen.

    Reply
  6. ECA says:
    11/13/2009 at 2:42 pm

    1 program at a time..Get an amiga..

    Reply
  7. GF says:
    11/13/2009 at 7:30 pm

    Still have a PC-3 with printer somewhere. Now were did I put that tape deck and thermal paper.

    Reply
  8. Relik says:
    11/13/2009 at 8:01 pm

    I had one of these in junior high school. The PC-2 was the best, although the biggest. Fully addressable pixel display (one line, I think it was 156×7 pixels). I wrote a race car game, golf, and others. I used my C64 and a joystick to draw the graphics.

    I still have a PC-1, PC-2, PC-4, and PC-6. The PC-2 also had an awesome plotter that could do some pretty amazing things at the time. It could draw 40 characters wide on 2.5 inches of paper (i think).

    I credit these pocket computers to all my later success in the business.

    Reply
  9. Matt B says:
    11/14/2009 at 6:30 pm

    @Andrew McDonald I just went down to the cellar to retrieve it. Mine is actually a PC-4 model and takes 2 CR2032′s. Smaller screen than the one in this picture. And doing a little Googling it looks like mine is somewhat rare as it’s a 26-2650A.

    Reply
  10. Uncle Patso says:
    11/15/2009 at 12:27 am

    Matt B: you can find CR-2032s at most medium to large drug stores, grocery stores and supermarkets.

    I thought those were really cute, but too limited. What I _really_ wanted was the Model 100 or, even better, the 102, oooohhh!

    Reply

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