Trs 80 emulator mac Pc#
Trs 80 emulator mac tv#

But its days as a major purveyor of PCs are so far behind it that I wasnвЂ™t even sure whether todayвЂ™s Radio Shack sells computers at all until I checked. It then sold other companiesвЂ™ models, such as Compaqs.

Trs 80 emulator mac Pc#

In 1984, the year Apple introduced the landmark it called the Macintosh, Radio Shack was still noodling around with variations on the Model I such as the Model 4P, a 26-pound вЂњportable.вЂќ That was also the year it released the Tandy 1000, a computer Wikipedia correctly calls a вЂњmore-or-less IBM PC compatibleвЂќ system.ДЇor a while, Radio Shack seemed to flourish as a maker of PC clones, but by the mid-1990s, it decided to exit the PC business.

I suspect IвЂ™ll hear from some of them - maybe even Charles.) (Then again, the Color Computer has its partisans even now. Even I wasnвЂ™t impressed by 1980вЂ™s cheesy and underpowered TRS-80 Color Computer I was frankly dismayed when my high-school buddy Charles chose to buy one. Radio Shack even sold high-end computers in configurations that cost as much as $22,000, or at least attempted to do so.Д«ut as the computer world began to change at a dizzying pace, the TRS-80 line evolved only in baby steps. 1983вЂ™s TRS-80 Model 100, the first successful notebook computer, might have been a more important machine than the original TRS-80. It also aggressively broadened the TRS-80 line, starting with 1979вЂ™s Model II, a more expensive, business-oriented model.ДЎ980вЂ™s TRS-80 Model III - essentially the Model I in an all-in-one-case - was a best-selling workhorse. Even after the Apple II, Commodore 64 and other competitors became blockbusters, the company continued to sell plenty of computers. If Radio Shack was bothered by its image problem in the TRS-80 era, at least it got to cry all the way to the bank. Radio Shack is still struggling with its moniker today: It changed it to RadioShack in 2000, and has recently taken to calling itself вЂњThe Shack.вЂќ They did, however, want to collect your name and address every time you made a purchase in order to carpet-bomb your mailbox with ads, a practice the company terminated only in this century.ДЇor a time, there were also Radio Shack Computer Centers which tried for a more corporate feel, although the mere fact that they had the words вЂњRadio ShackвЂќ in their name made them feel like, well, Radio Shacks. Most of the people behind the counters, in my experience, knew very little about the TRS-80. Its essential lack of dignity transferred itself to the computers the company made.ДЄt a Radio Shack store, the TRS-80 wasnвЂ™t surrounded by other computers it sat alongside odd electronic toys, Radio Shack-branded hi-fi equipment, diodes and resistors and vacuum tubes, Flavoradios, and lots and lots of batteries and audio cassettes.

Even if youвЂ™re fond of the place - as I was, and am - itвЂ™s difficult to argue that it was good for the reputation of the TRS-80. By contrast, the Apple II did Atari-like color graphics and came in a curvy beige case with the feel of a piece of high-end consumer electronics.

Trs 80 emulator mac tv#

So was its plasticky gray case the TRS-80 got its design aesthetic, such as it was, because Radio Shack modeled the computer itself on the monitor, which was actually a repurposed RCA TV set. Why was the TRS-80 the Rodney Dangerfield of early computers? In part, it was because it was a decidedly proletarian device which didnвЂ™t look important. Suggesting that it was a piece of junk was both mean and inaccurate. The TRS-80 wasnвЂ™t perfect even so, it was one of the best PCs of its time. I certainly remember being wounded by it at the time when it was used by Apple II ownersвЂ“those pompous, style-obsessed twits.Д®ven today, вЂњTrash-80вЂќ strikes me as a mindless jibe that reveals more about the people who used it than it does about the TRS-80. There are those who claim that this was a nickname fondly applied by TRS-80 fans themselves maybe so, but IвЂ™m positive it originated as a slur. In fact, TRS-80 haters had a favorite put-down, which they used at every possible opportunity: They called it the Trash-80. Back in the day, computer fans who werenвЂ™t TRS-80 users tended to dismiss it as ugly and insignificant. But somehow, it never got anywhere near the respect it deserved. It played at least as great a role as any other single machine in consumerizing what had originally been a product category for the propellerhead set. I didnвЂ™t even mind dealing with its quirks, such as вЂњkeybounce,вЂќ a devilish defect with early models which lled to their keyyboards repeatiing characters randomlyy. I knew the machine inside and out, in a way thatвЂ™s impossible with modern computers. I spent thousands of hours sitting in front of TRS-80s, cranking out programs in BASIC. Follow writing about all this is giving me a Proustian jolt of pleasure.