Welcome back to part 4 of my fourth SepTandy Spectacular. In the last post we took a closer look at the TRS-80's various Printers and Modems. In this post we wrap up our look at peripherals and add ons for the original TRS-80 by looking at many miscellaneous add ons. There were many types of other peripherals for the TRS-80 both by Tandy and other third party companies, that range from graphics and sound cards, to joystick interfaces to even other storage devices speech synthesis and voice recognition.
First off we’ll have a look at the various Graphics cards available. These were meant to address one big thing that the TRS-80 lacked over the competition: Graphics. You see, Unlike many competing personal computers at the time, the TRS-80 Model I and III lacked built in hardware for a built-in high-resolution bitmap graphics. The only graphics it could display was the built in block characters at 128 by 48 resolution. Many games and applications made good use of them, but many still wanted true graphics modes for the TRS-80. So several companies created products to address this deficiency, with some becoming more popular than others.
The first of these was the E/RAM by Keyline Computer Products, released in October of 1980, at a retail price of $349.95.
The E/RAM came in a steel case measuring 2 1/2 Inches high, 6 Inches wide, and 12 Inches deep, and connected by simply plugging it into expansion card connector on either the Model I or Expansion Interface and plugging the monitor into the E/RAM via a 3 foot long video cable. The unit contained an extra 6K of VRAM increasing the TRS-80 graphics resolution to 256 by 192, with the high-resolution graphics being overlayed onto the standard text screen. The graphics could also be enabled and by either disabled software or a hardware switch.
The benefit of the E/RAM was that no hardware alterations to the Model I were required. The case also had an on/off switch, the graphics enable/disable switch, and an additional expansion card connector passthrough.
The driver software for the E/RAM came on cassette, with nine high-resolution functions available. In addition to the software and hardware user’s manual, Keyline Computer products also offered a $15.00 E/RAM Hardware Service Manual, and promised an E/RAM Systems Programmer’s Guide as well.
The Vern Street Products advertisements disappeared in 1981, and the E/RAM was presumably discontinued at that time. In 1982, Keyline Computer Products introduced a $495 version of the E/RAM for the TRS-80 Model II. A\ version of the E/RAM for the Model III was considered, but never produced, with the Model II E/RAM was discontinued soon after Radio Shack introduced their own Model II high-resolution product.
Next up is the 80-GRAFIX by Programma International, released in November of 1980, at a retail price of $149.95.
The 80-GRAFIX was different in that it wasn't exactly an interface to provide direct access to a bitmapped high-resolution screen, it actually allowed you to remap the upper 128 characters of the Model I character set, Much like Commodore's computers could.
With the 80-GRAFIX you could use these remapped characters to create new character sets for other languages (Arabic and Hebrew were demonstrated), inverse video, graphic screens, or even animations. Programming 80-GRAFIX could be done from BASIC, and was fairly simple to write programs for. Programma also sold software for 80-GRAFIX, with the most notable being HIRES80, a machine language tool written by Ralph Burris to help design new character sets.
Programma continued to promote and sell the 80-GRAFIX until they went out of buisness in 1982, by which point the remaining support was handled by Micro Labs who increased the price to $169.95, added support for the Model III, and no longer made it necessary to soldier the kit to install it. However, Micro Labs quickly dropped support for it in favor of their own Model III Grafyx Solution and Model 4 Grafyx Solution high-resolution add-ons, which provided true bitmapped high-resolution graphics instead than the character set remapping of 80-GRAFIX.
The next Hi Res add on was the The SubLOGIC 50/T80 by SubLOGIC, released in 1980, for an unknown price.
Unfourtunatly, not many detail survive about the device but presumably it works in a simmilar fassion to the E/RAM in that it plugged into the expansion interface and the monitors video cable plugged into it. It provided a hi res graphics mode at 256 by 240, and could easily by programed in either BASIC or assembly language.
SubLOGIC is more well known for its software. It was founded in 1977 by Bruce Artwick, a software programer and pilot. Their most famous for Flight Simulator, also released in 1980, initally for the Apple II and later for the TRS-80, IBM PC and numerous other platforms. The IBM PC version was handled by Microsoft, and later became Microsoft Flight Simulator. It could be assumed that they had plans to make a version for the 50/T80, but none have ever surfaced.
The last of these Hi Res add ons was the Mikeegraphic Graphic System by Mikee Electronics, released in 1981, for a retail price of $340.00 dollars.
The Mikeegraphic consisted of two circuit boards, one which was mounted in the TRS-80 case and another which was housed in a separate unit. The separate unit, which had its own power supply, was connected by a cable to the TRS-80.
The Mikeegraphic was designed for the TRS-80 Model I and III and like other TRS-80 high resolution add-ons, the Mikeegraphic used the native resolution of the TRS-80 screen: 384 by 192 for the Model I and 512 by 192 for the Model III. It came with 12K of its own video memory, and it allowed the Mikeegraphic to work on a 16K TRS-80 Model I without an Expansion Interface. The Mikeegraphic was controlled by a single port and provided a simple option to mix the high-resolution and text screens, with the high-resolution graphics mapped to one contiguous memory space, simplifying graphics programming.
The biggest problem was lack of software support. Other than the software supplied with it, the only other Mikeegraphic-compatible program was the High Resolution Command Module (Or RESCOM) Written by Bryan Mumford and sold through Mumford Micro Systems, RESCOM added high-resolution commands to BASIC. The Mikeegraphic continued to be advertised until mid-1983, By that time, the Micro-Labs and Radio Shack boards had became the high-resolution standards.
But all of these only could produce monocrome graphics, what about color? Well there were also a number of add ons that could do color graphics too. The first was the JFF Electronics Color Graphics Interface by JFF Electronics, released in early 1979, at a retail price of $49.95 dollars.
It didn’t include an enclosure, it was a bare circuit board with a regulated power supply. It plugged directly into the Model I 40-pin expansion bus, and could be connected to either a color monitor or a color television set. It supported 4 different video modes: A text display with two colors and reverse video, a 64 by 192 mode with eight color, a 128 by 192 mode with four colors (in two sets) and a 256 by 192 mode with two colors. It could be programmed in Level II BASIC using the PEEK, POKE, and OUT commands and in machine language on Level I BASIC systems.
The 256 by 192 resolution of the Color Graphics Interface was the same as the later TRS-80 Color Computer (although with fewer colors) and not too far from the 280 by 192 resolution of the Apple II. However, no known software was written for the Color Graphics Interface.
The next color graphics add on was the Electric Crayon by Percom, released in December of 1979, at a retail price of $249.00 dollars.
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The graphics were generated by a Motorola 6847 VDG, the same chip used in the later Tandy Coco, with the same graphics modes available. However, only two of them were possible with the default 1K of VRAM. All ten modes were possible if the video memory was upgraded to a full 6K, with Percom charging $29.95 for each kilobyte.
Like many of these graphics add ons, the Electric Crayon suffered from a lack of availible software. Percom sold a few programs for the Electric Crayon but no known other software was ever written.
Next up is the CHROMAtrs by South Shore Computer Concepts, released in 1982, and sold for either $99.00 dollars for a kit without case or power supply, $129.00 dollars for a kit with case and power supply, or $169.00 dollars for a fully-assembled unit.
The CHROMAtrs came with 16K of VRAM, and supported both the Model I and Model III, working with either computer using the proper cable. The Model III cable could also work with the Lobo MAX-80 with a few modifications.
The CHROMAtrs utalized a Texas Instruments TMS9918A graphics controller, the same chip used by the ColecoVision, the TI-99/4, and a number of other systems at the time. And supported most of the same features as other machines using the chip, with 40 by 24 text mode and three graphics modes. The maximum screen resolution was 256 by 192, with 16 colors (including transparent) available on a color monitor or television. Up to 32 sprites could be displayed on screen at once as well, and all display details were automatically handled by the controller. The sprites could even pass in front of one another, with the higher priority sprites overlapping the lower priority ones. It even added sound generation and joystick support. The sound, although fairly simple, could be heard either on the television or through a separate RCA jack, and 2 Atari compatible joystick connectors supported joysticks or paddles.
Each CHROMAtrs came with a software driver, a version of LOGO, and a game to help show off the color graphics. South Shore sold a number of CHROMAtrs programs, including CHROMA BASIC for $30.00 dollars, but soon was bundled with the CHROMAtrs. Upon request, they would also send a list that they maintained of third-party CHROMAtrs programs. By the end of 1983, South Shore Computer Concepts changed their name to Micro Control Systems, Inc., but they continued to sell the CHROMAtrs.
Although there was more software written for the CHROMAtrs, There was never a “killer app” written for the CHROMAtrs that might have helped to drive wider adoption.
Next is the Color-Graf by Solectonics, released in 1982, Initally for a retail price of $260.00 for a Model I version, but later reduced to $195.00 for the Model I version and $235.00 for a new Model III version.
It was a fairly small device and just simply plugged into the TRS-80 expansion bus, and had a power supply to plug into the wall, with RF output for TVs.
Like the CHROMAtrs, it used the TMS9918A, and supported most of the same features except the sound and joystick support. One of the biggest selling points of the Color-Graf was its complete documentation. It Included sample programs available on both tape and disk that demonstrated how to work with the color graphics features. The programs were based around a set of routines that manipulated all of the features of the TMS9918A controller, and detailed documentation for them was included in the manual and program listings.
And finally there's the E-Z Color By Micromint, Relased in 1983, and sold at a retail price of $219.00 dollars for a kit or $249.00 dollars fully assembled.
The Micromint E-Z Color was based on a color graphics interface for the TRS-80 Model I and Model III design by Steve Ciarcia in his "Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar" column in the August 1982 edition of BYTE Magazine. It included connecting cables, power supply, manual, the “Super Editor software”, and an animation demo.
Again, it utalized the TMS9918A, and shared many of the same features with the CHROMAtrs and the Color-Graf except the sound and joystick support of the CHROMAtrs. In fact one of the biggest problems wth all 3 of these devices were dispite sharing the same video chip, they weren't compatible with each other, one of the biggest mistakes a computer hardware maker could make!
As such no known software is known to exist with support for the E-Z Color, other than the demo program it came with, likely due to the few units that were actually sold.
But enough about graphics, what about sound? Well there were a few ways to get sound out of the TRS-80. At first, People just simply placed AM radios near their TRS-80's to generate sound. Since the computer produced a high level of RF interference, it could be used to generate sound.
But this method was dropped pretty quickly as the AM radios also picked up all microprocessor signals and any game sound is mixed with signal gibberish. However, many programmers did use an AM radio as a tool to tell when their program had entered an endless loop, as the Z80 CPU in an endless loop produced a very distinctive sound when picked up on an AM radio.
The more common method was to hook an external speaker into the cassette recorder to produce squarewave tones. Because of how the TRS-80 saves data to cassette by converting it into tones and signals, programmers soon figured out how to use the same hardware to create sound by plugging amplified speakers into the MIC port on the cassette recorder.
A popular choice for doing this was the The Radio Shack Speaker-Amplifier (catalog number 277-1008) a small 9-volt battery-powered speaker with volume control.
The speaker actually had a pretty long life, In fact, its possibly one of the longest selling products that Radio Shack ever made. It was origianlly introduced in 1968, and continued to be sold until 2017! Not a bad run for a 9V speaker!
But for those that wanted more than just squarewaves, The option to go for was the Orchestra-80 by Software Affair, Ltd.,released in 1980, at a retail price of $79.95 dollars.
The Orchestra-80 manual describes the included software as consisting of five components integrated into one program: A digital synthesizer, A music language compiler, A full screen text editor for entering the musical code, and A file manager to load and save music on disk or tape.
Now the card wasn't really meant for games, it was meant for musicians, so it couldn't really be used of sound effects. But after users began transcribing music for the Orchestra-80 and making it available on bulletin board systems around the country, even musically inexperienced users could play music on their Orchestra-80 and it became very popular. One musician named Robb Murray even created a 45 RPM record called Classical Mosquito! which consisted entirely of music rendered using an Orchestra-80. The card became so popular that it spawn newer versions like the stero Orchestra-85 and the Model II based Orchestra-90.
Next peripheral type to talk about is joystick interfaces. The first one availible was the STICK-80 by Alpha Products (originally Alpha Product Co.), released in 1980, at a retail price of $29.95.
The STICK-80 used the lower four bits of port 0 to map the four main directions (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT) to an Atari joystick. The FIRE button was mapped to the impossible combination of UP plus DOWN. In-between directions (such as UP plus RIGHT or DOWN plus LEFT) used two bits. This made it easy to design and made joystick support easy to add to games. The card proved popular Within a year, almost all TRS-80 games had joystick support.
Alpha Products also introduced the DOUBLE-STICK-80. This package included two joysticks, interface, and demo game for $59.95. The second joystick was mapped to the same port as the first, but it used the upper four bits instead of the lower four. The DOUBLE-STICK-80didnt sell as well as the original, and no known program was designed to use it.
Next is the TRSSTICK by Big Five Software, released in 1981, at a retail price of $29.95.
The it was identical to the STICK-80, only you can hit the fire button and a direction at the same time.mthe reason was because I\Kn 1981, Bill Hogue wrote a clone of Berzerk called Robot Attack. Unlike most TRS-80 games, in Robot Attack you can move and fire in all directions. You fire in a direction by moving the joystick in that direction and pressing the FIRE button. This shows up a problem with the STICK-80 mapping; how can a game determine if the player was moving the joystick up or down and firing if the FIRE button is mapped to a combination of UP plus DOWN?
The solution was to use a discrete bit for the fire button. Big Five Software created the TRISSTICK, their own Atari joystick interface which used bit 4 for the FIRE button. For those who already had the STICK-80, the instructions for Robot Attack contain very detailed instructions about how to modify the joystick’s FIRE button to work with Robot Attack. You don’t normally find instructions for trace cutting and soldering in game documentation!
The TRISSTICK became very popular, and it was a rare TRS-80 game that was not modified to work with either the STICK-80 or the TRISSTICK. Later on, Big Five Software also sold a Model III version of the TRISSTICK.
Next is the Alpha Joystick by Alpha Products (originally Alpha Product Co.), released in 198q, at a retail price of $39.95.
This was essentially a joystick Adaper that could act as either a STICK-80 or A TRSSTICK interface. this useful for when a game required a different interface.
Finally there was the The Stickeroo Joystick Interface by Micro-80, released in 1980, and retailing for $49.95.
This was only availible in Austrailia and was designed with the EACA Video Genie in mind. The Stickeroo Joystick Interface used the same joystick standard as the Alpha Joystick (sold by Alpha Products) and the TRISSTICK (sold by Big Five Software). This meant that it was compatible with most TRS-80 games, including all of the games sold by Micro-80.
Later, the joystick and interface were separated “due to popular demand” so that customers could supply their own joystick. The new price for the Stickeroo Joystick Interface (without a joystick) was $32.00 (Australian). For customers who also needed a joystick, there was a “pistol grip joystick with fire button” for $25.00 (Australian).
There were also other interesting storage devices like the Amdisk by Amdek, released in 1982, and sold for a retail price of $899.00.
The Amdisk is knoable as I belive it was the only US disk drive that used the 3 Inch floppy disk format avilible. Its better known for its use in Europe.It did not sell for very long and was discontiued in 1984 after Sony's 3.5 inch drives became the standard.
Hard Drives were also availible with the of them being the PHD by Percom., released in 1982, for $2,495.00 dolalrs for the 256K version
An ad the Percom PHD Drive(1982)
The PHD drives were available in 5, 10, 15, and 30 megabyte sizes. The model numbers corresponded to the drive capacity: the PHD-10 was a ten megabyte drive. The prices started at $2,495.00 and increased with drive size. Its notable as being the Last TRS-80 product by Percom.
The last Ill talk about is the CR-510 Card Reader, released in 1984, for a retail price of $1595.00.
A listing for the CR-510 Card Reader in the Radio Shack catalog
Aimed primarily at schools, it connected to the RS232 Serial add on and was designed to read information like test scores on traditional punch cards. It came with 200 cards and a disk with sample drivers written in BASIC and COBOL, but obviously there wasnt and software distributed on the cards them selves.
Speech was also possible with the The TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer, introduced in 1979, for $399.00.
The unit was only compatible with the TRS-80 Model I; Radio Shack never sold a TRS-80 Model III version.
The TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer plugged directly into the Model I expansion port and worked with both Level I and Level II BASIC. Like most speech synthesizers at the time, it worked by outputting words already broken into phonemes, or very small units of sound. It gives your Level-I or II TRS-80 the capability of simulating human speech under program control.
There are 60 phonemes (elementary sounds) which, under your program’s control, are joined together by the computer to produce words. The words, in turn, may be joined together to form sentences. If you are writing an interactive program like the ones used in computer-assisted instruction, the Voice Synthesizer will allow you to verbally comment, clarify, and direct the program user.
This may seem far-fetched, but you’ll be convinced when you hear the demonstration cassette that comes with the Synthesizer! An instruction manual is also included.
Communicating with the unit was done in an unusual way. It “paralleled” thirty-two bytes of video memory, corresponding to the right half of the bottom screen line. Each phoneme was mapped to a different ASCII character and the synthesizer would speak any string of ASCII phonemes (bracketed by question marks) that was displayed on that part of the screen.
This odd method of addressing made it as easy as possible to output speech from a BASIC program. For example, the word “compute” could be spoken using this BASIC program line: PRINT@992,"?K6MPY(UT?";
Although Radio Shack sold at least one program designed for the TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer (Talking Eliza, catalog number 26-1908) and a handful of third-party programs supported it (Hyperlight Patrol from Fantastic Software was a notable example), the unit was clearly intended for people who wanted to write their own talking programs. Radio Shack sold the TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer until it was discontinued in 1983.
The last Perifieral Ill talk about is the VOXBOX, released in 1979, for $169.95
A listing for The TRS-80 VOXBOX in the 1980 Radio Shack catalog
The interesting thing is, I think that the reason to why this was created, was simply to help clear stock from a passing fad! You see, if you look closely at the mic, its clearly a CB radio micropohone. That no coincidence as CB .Radios were a huge seller at Radio Shack as they were very succesful at capturing the CB Radio boom of the time. Why were CB Radios so popular back then? the answer lies in a world wide economic slump. After the 1973 OPEAC Oil Crisis, the government set a nationwide 55mph speed limit which was actively enforced by the police. this greatly effected truckers as their job made pay by driving for long periods of time. Soon CB Radio became used to find fuel stations and avoid speed traps
After novelty Country and Western singer Bill Fries penned under the alias of C.J. McCall, released Convoy, CB Radio sales skyrocketed, and the CB Radio became a popular item being referenced in uded in movies and tv shows like Smokey and the Bandit, The Dukes Of Hazzard, and even a movie version of Convoy.
Radio Shack was a big CB Radio seller, with it genreating at least 20% of sales. So much so that when the TRS-80 was in development, Tandy’s staff rejected it in part because CB’s were more profiable. But by 1979, the CB craze died out, so that presumably left them with a considerable amount. So in order to clear inventory they made these. Just think, if CB Radio never became popular, there would be no Siri!
While the VOXBOX was very limited, it was certainly impressive for the time. The VOXBOX is also notable in that J. Weaver Jr., the author of the TRS-80 games Outhouse, Chicken, Rally, Vexus, Planetbuster, Yield, and Pulsar, used the VOXBOX and custom software to encode the voice samples. However the device remained neice and was discontinued in 1982.
And with that, that concludes our look at pereferals for the TRS-80. There were many peripherals and add ons for the original Model I, some well known and adopted others not, but they've all played both small and big parts in the computers life and some of the many people who proved that Radio Shack had the right customer base to support them and continue innovating in the personal computer market This concludes Part 4 of the fourth Septandy Spectacular, join me next time as we take our first look at the miscellaneous add ons and peripherals for the Coco.
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