Mike Wolf marketed his Color Computer disk controller around this time but,
unless you had either inquired or ordered his WOLFBUG monitor, chances are
you didn't hear about it because, the controller was marketed through direct
mail. With a price tag of around $350.00, the unit included an 80 column
card, real time clock, and parallel printer port. In a phone interview, Mike
told me that a Michigan Computer Club was responsible for the sale of about
10 pieces.
The name, TRS-80, stands for Tandy Radio Shack, the 80 is a result of the
Z-80 cpu in Tandy's first computer, the Model I.
Because our machine uses a 6809 cpu, it should have been called either a
TRS-68 or a TRS-09 Color Computer but, what's in a name? Some, nicknamed it
the TRS-80CC, other the TRS-80C, still others the 80C but it was Dave
Lagerquist, in October's Chromasette, who first used the name COCO. This
innocent enough action set of a "name calling" debate lasted for several
months through-out the ever growing "CoCo" community.
Some things in the November winds included a tip to reduce internal heat
produced by the 32K "piggyback" upgrades by painting the inside of the
CoCo's top cover flat black, and a rumor that Radio Shack is using half-
good 64K chips in its 32K upgrade, and an interesting article about CoCos
being used to control Mr. Walt Bolden's solar heated home in Washington
state. The computers were set up by HOME COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC. of Seattle,
WA.
November also brings the first review of the Exatron disk system, the
PROGRAMMERS INSTITUTE's tape magazine, TRC but, still no Super "Color"
Writer.
Nelson Software may have been dragging its feet but, not COGNITEC. Within
a couple of months of its November release, TELEWRITER, was the talk of the
CoCo community. Telewriter was the first "world-class" word processor. To
this day, Telewriter (for the price) is my personal favorite!
Thanks Howard!
Although it was possible to do primitive Videotex downloading, COLORCOM/E
from Eigen Systems was light years ahead. It supported online/offline
scrolling, cassette file transfer, automatic or manual data capturing, off-
line print-outs, and selectable RS232 options.
When MARK DAVIDSAVER'S Colorcom/E was ready for shipping, he mailed flyers
to those who had responded to his "put your Basic program on a ROM" ad
(June'81). Bob Rosen, upon receiving his flyer, immediately phones Mark.
Colorcom/E becomes the first major software sold by Bob's Connection-80 BBS.
The rest, as they say, is history.... for both, Bob and Colorcom/E.
Thanks Mark!
December saw, not only the release of Computerware's PAC ATTACK (the first
of many PAC-MAN clones) but, a review of the Tallgrass disk system, to my
knowledge, the only disk system which ran on a 4K CoCo!
As 1981 drew to a close, reviews and comparisons were being made between
the new Radio Shack disk system and the Exatron system. The consensus of
opinion seems to be that Exatron's single density format is its biggest
drawback.
____________________________________
|
