Welcome back to part 5 of my SepTandy Spectacular 3. In the last post we took a look at the the Dragon 32 and 64 Coco clones. In this post we're going to take a look at an unusual series of Coco like computers from a rather unexpected source, The Laser 100 series.
The Laser 110 (1983)
Released in 1983, The Laser 100 was a computer that was almost a clone of the Coco but had several hardware differences that managed to make a very small niche dent in the home computer market.
But what’s even stranger than the computer, is who manufactured it, as it comes from a company you don’t normally associate with personal computers. While these computers bare the Laser brand, Laser was actually a brand of Video Technology Ltd., or more commonly known as VTech.
Yes, THAT VTech!
Yes the same VTech mostly known today for making kids learning computers, as well as cordless telephones, baby monitors, and other types of electronic products. They seem like the last company you would expect to make home computers considering their mostly well known for kids learning computers, but back in the earlier days of the company, they experimented with all sorts of electronics. The company was founded in 1976 in Hong Kong by two local entrepreneurial engineers, Allan Wong and Stephen Leung, after the two men witnessed the release of the Intel 4004 and became interested in designing portable consumer electronics using similar technology.
Allan Wong and Stephen Leung in 1978
VTech initially focused on developing video games, and released its first product, a Pong console, in 1977. Since England used the same PAL video standard as Hong Kong, VTech decided to sell their Pong Console on an OEM basis to any perspective manufacturer in the UK, and the product was soon launched by Grandstand as the 3600 Mk III TV Game.
The Grandstand 3600 Mk III TV Game (1977)
By 1979, VTech managed to expand into the North American market by providing OEM products to retailers like Radio Shack and Sears, as well as expanding into making calculator, LED handhelds, and eventually the type of product they would become known for, kids learning computers. With their first kids learning computer, The Lesson One, being introduced at the New York Toy Fair, in February 1980, with an exclusive version offered to Sears as the Computron shortly afterwards.
Left to right: The VTech 4 in 1 (1979), The VTech Wizard/Grandstand Adam (1979), and The VTech Lesson one (1980)
However by 1981, they saw that the personal computer and video game market was expanding rapidly. Seeing an opportunity, they decided to dip their toes into the water by releasing the Creativision in 1982. It was distributed in West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In Italy, South Africa and Israel it was sold as the Educat 2002 name, In Australia and New Zealand it was The Dick Smith Wizzard, as well as the FunVision Computer Video Games System and the Hanimex Rameses, In France it was planned to be released as the VZ 2000 (but was likely unreleased), and Japanese model kit company Cheryco distributed a version in Japan. A US version was planned but never released.
Left to right: The VTech Creativision, The Educat 2002, The Dick Smith Wizzard, The FunVision Computer Video Games System, The Hanimex Rameses, and The Cheryco Creativision (1982)
The VTech Creativision, at its heart, was game console, similar in capabilities to the Colecovision. However, With the addition of a BASIC Cartridge, you could expand the Creativision into a home computer and could either use the membrane keyboard on the controllers, or buy a full sized chiclet keyboard.
The many computer add ons for the VTech Creativision.
After that proved successful, VTech took it a step further by forming their own computer brand known as Laser. Initially they just sold rebadged Creativisions with the title of Laser 500, but soon began working on their own computer line.
The VTech Laser Logo (1983-1985)
They didn't waste any time and by the next year in 1983, they introduced the Laser 100. Now what I'm showing is the Lasser 110, since there's no photos of a 100 available, but they're essentially the same machine. The only difference is the amount of ROM. The Laser 100 had 8K of ROM and the Laser 110 had 16K of ROM.
On the front of the machine is a logo/model badge and the keyboard.
The front of the Laser 110
On the right side, there is the power switch and nothing much else.
The right side of the Laser 110
On the back, There is the power plug, tape recorder socket, a monitor port, memory expansion port, peripheral port and an RF out.
The back of the Laser 110
And finally on the bottom is the model information sticker, a serial number sticker, a quality control sticker and a channel select switch.
The bottom of the Laser 110
Sadly as there is no Laser 100/ Laser 110 emulator available I cant show you what it looks like running BASIC, but it looks a little like this:
The Laser 100 and Laser 110 never sold in large numbers, but that didn't stop VTech from making new models, introducing the Laser 200 in November of 1983.
The Laser 200 (1983)
Much like its predecessor, it was distributed in many parts of the world. In Finland it was sold as as the Salora Fellow, in Hungary & Italy it was sold as the Seltron 200, In the UK it was sold as the the Texet TX8000A, in Australia & New Zealand it was the Dick Smith VZ 200, and in the United States & Canada it was sold by VTech as the VTech VZ 200, and OEMed to Dynasty Computer Corporation in Dallas, Texas as the Smart-Alec Jr. exclusively for North America.
Left to right: Salora Fellow, The Seltron 200, Texet TX8000A, The Dick Smith VZ 200, the VTech VZ 200, and The Dynasty Computer Corporation Smart-Alec Jr. (1983)
The machine is very much like its predecessor, On the front of the machine is a logo/model badge and the keyboard. One notable inclusion is that there's BASIC commands printed on they keyboard above each key which allow you to type a BASIC commands by holding the control key, much like to what the Sinclair computers do, However you do have the option for typing them in manually as well.
The front of the Laser 200
On the right side, there is the power switch and nothing much else.
The right side of the Laser 200
On the back, There is the power plug, tape recorder socket, a monitor port, memory expansion port, peripheral port and an RF out.
The back of the Laser 200
And finally on the bottom is the model information sticker, a serial number sticker, a quality control sticker and a channel select switch.
The bottom of the Laser 200
Powering up the Laser 200 drops you into BASIC where you're greeted by a start up screen with a READY prompt. while it looks like Color BASIC on the Coco, its actually a clone of Level II BASIC on the TRS-80. this makes a little more sense considering the hardware, but we'll get to to that later.
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Storage wise, the cassette port that is not compatible with any Tandy machines, but is still readily available and you can either use the official DR-10 tape recorder, or your own.
The VTech DR-10 tape recorder
You also have the ability to use floppy disks. VTech sold the DD-20 disk drive.
The Laser DD 20
To interface it with the computer, you need the DI 40 Floppy Disk Controller, which provides you with ports for 2 5.25 inch floppy drives.
The Laser DI 40 Floppy Disk Controller
The DI 40 also has a passthrough so you can connect the 16K RAM Memory Expansion Module to boost memory. There was also a 64K RAM Memory Expansion Module.
The Laser 16K RAM Memory Expansion Module
For joysticks, VTech sold the JI 20 Joystick Interface which provides 2 proprietary 2 button joysticks.
The JI 20 Joystick Interface with 2 JS 20 joysticks
Other Peripherals included the PI 20 Printer interface, The PP 40 4 color plotter, and a Light Pen.
The many other peripherals available for the Laser 200
For the hardware of the computer itself, It uses the exact same hardware as its predecessors only it's in color rather than just monochrome. It uses a Zilog Z80A CPU clocked at 3.58 MHz, 2K of RAM, and 16K of ROM.
For graphics, It uses the Motorola MC6847 Video Display Generator, capable of displaying 9 distinct colors across multiple text and graphics modes, the text mode is uppercase-only displaying at 32 columns by 16 rows, and color graphics though, with resolutions ranging between 64x32 and 256x192 with up to four simultaneous colors.
The sound is generated by a small beeper speeker providing monophonic sound.
The Laser 200 Motherboard
So theres an obvious problem in that the only component itshares from the Coco is the video chip, the rest of it is based on the TRS-80 Model 1. As a result its not compatible with Coco software and it would take complete rewrites to get software to work.
Speaking of software, With its releases in Germany, England, USA, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, commercially based software titles grew and were distributed throughout various outlets around the world. In Australia and New Zealand many titles were sold including educational and graphical games, finance programs and various software utility tools.
While The Laser 200 wasn't as popular as its rivals, new hardware kept getting made There was a Laser 210 made alongside the originals, which bumped up the RAM to 6K.
The Laser 210 (1983)
The 210 was followed up by the 310 released in 1984, which bumped up the RAM to 16K and included a full travel keyboard.
The Laser 310 (1984)
The 100, 200 and 300 line was discontinued in 1985, Afterwhich VTech stared to sell the Laser 350. Originally they wanted it to be an MSX compatible, but they ended up changing it into their own design instead. which which was also sold as the the Laser 500 (No relation to the rebranded Creativisions), the Laser 700, and the Laser 750.
The Laser 500 (1985)
VTech would eventually abandon proprietary hardware and move on to making Apple II and IBM compatible computers instead.
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Left to right: The Laser 128 (1985), and the Laser XT (1988)
However that's not the last we hear from Laser as they will definitely come back in a future post.
So how do I rate the The Laser 100 series on compatibility? It just barely ranks as semi compatible as only simple BASIC programs are compatible any anything beyond that would require major rewriting.
This concludes Part 5 of my third Septandy Spectacular, join me next time as we take a look at miscellaneous Coco clones sold throughout the world.
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