Welcome to part 6 of my SepTandy Spectacular. In this post, we're taking a look at probably the most obscure computer in Tandy's computer history, The Tandy MC-10.
Released in 1983, the Tandy MC-10 was designed to be an extremely low cost entry level color computer and a low-cost alternative to The Tandy Color Computer. But due to it's limitation's and competition, it became a commercial failure and was discontinued after just one year.
So, why did Tandy create the MC-10? Well, in order to answer that question, we need to travel to England. In 1980, Sinclair Research introduced a computer called the ZX80. It had one design goal, to be as inexpensive as possible, selling for £79.00 (or around $140.00 at the time) for a kit, or £99.00 (or around $200.00 at the time) pre-assembled.
While it was inexpensive and very successful, due to the cost cutting measures it made the ZX80 more of a calculator that could hook up to a tv. Sinclair realized this, and the very next year in 1981, they introduced a new model called the ZX81. It had a number of improvements and was far more popular, selling for £19.95 as an upgrade kit for the ZX80, £50.00 for a kit, or £70.00 pre-assembled.
Eventually, Sinclair brought their computer to the US, initially via mail order, and eventually though a licencing deal through Timex (Yes as in the watch company. Sinclair had contracted them as they already were the main contractor for manufacturing the ZX81 at their plant in Dundee, Scotland). The result was the Timex Sinclair 1000, released in 1982, for a retail price of $99.95.
While the Timex Sinclair 1000 originally sold for $99, by 1983, it was selling for $49. Even though the computer still wasn’t that good, and it wasn’t even as popular compared to computers from TI, Commodore and Atari, it still managed to have a decent success as a low end, entry level computer and 600,000 were units sold by that year.
After seeing the success of the Timex Sinclair 1000, Tandy decided to make a computer to compete with it. So they took the Tandy CoCo's design, removed and replaced the more expensive components, and put it in a smaller case. The result was the MC-10 (MC short for Micro Color) computer launching in 1983 for $119.95.
Once again, the machine itself is an all in one unit, much like its predecessors and it uses a chiclet keyboard. Unfortunately it's somewhat worse than the CoCo's keyboard, as its smaller and the keys are rubber instead of plastic.
On the right side, lies the all important power switch and nothing else.
On the back, there is the AC adapter port, an RF output, an expansion port, a reset button, an RS232 serial port, and a cassette port.
And on the bottom, there are tiny holes for the speaker and the channel selector switch.
Powering on the MC-10, You're greeted with a familiar looking BASIC prompt. The MC-10 version of BASIC is essentially a cut down version of the CoCo's Color BASIC, called Micro Color BASIC, and is partly compatible. So software written in BASIC can run on both machines with some modification.
Storage wise, the cassette port that is once again, compatible with the previous machines. However, unlike previous machines, there's no floppy drive support. Although that wasn't much of a problem for the computers's target audience, its still somewhat unfortunate.
The only other peripherals that were available for it were a 16K memory expansion and a printer.
For hardware, the MC-10 uses a Motorola 6803 clocked at 0.89 MHz, 4K of RAM which is expandable to 20K (with 3142 bytes left for user), and 8K of ROM. For graphics, the MC-10 contains the Motorola MCC6847 Video Display Generator (the same video chip used in the CoCo), with most of the same graphics and text resolutions. For sound, the MC-10 uses a beeper speaker instead of the 6-bit DAC, outputting various pitches and durations, similar to the beeper speakers used in the Apple II and the IBM PC.
Software wise, There wasn't much prewritten software availible to purchase, even less so than the Model 100, and like the Model 100, most of the software that was came from Radio Shack themselves. However, Various enthusiasts have written various software cassettes were available that can still be downloaded online today.
One software title worth mentioning is a more recent title from three years ago, a game called Shoplifting Boy. The game was originally released back in 1979 for the Commodore PET and is considered to be the first stealth game. However no known copy of the original PET version is available to play or download, so the game is some what of a lost game. (Although the game itself was available as a type in listing in the Japanese computer magazine RAM back in 1980, so unless someone finds that magazine and types in the listing, it will remain lost.) So this reprogrammed version for the MC-10 remains the only version of the game that survives and is playable today. I'll leave a link down below to an emulator with it to play if you're interested.
So how did the MC-10 compare to the Timex Sinclair 1000? Well, for processors the Timex featured a Z80 CPU and the Tandy had a 6800 variant, the RAM was also no contest with the Tandy coming with 4K compared to the Timex's 2K (The ZX81 had 1K), the Timex really had no true graphics modes at all and the Tandy had all the same graphics modes as the CoCo with 8 colors as opposed to none with the Timex, and the Tandy had a chiclet keyboard as opposed to the membrane keyboard of the Timex.
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But while the MC-10 had advantages over the Timex, it wasn't enough to generate big sales compared to Tandy's other machines. The personal computer market itself was incredibly competitive by 1983, and the MC-10 just couldn't compete with machines from companies like Commodore and Atari. Not only that, but the MC-10 sold for $119.95, which was only $110 less than the CoCo 2, and if you spent that much more money you could get a computer with a better keyboard, more RAM, a cartridge port, joystick ports, the ability to hook up a disk drive, and a much larger software library.
So with all the factors into consideration, its no wonder that the MC-10 was a giant flop on the market and had been discontinued by Tandy in 1984.
The MC-10 does at least have one film appearance, In the 1984 film Electric Dreams, you can see an MC-10 on the shelf in the computer store.
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