Ryan's SepTandy Spectacular! 4: Peripheral Vision Part #5 - The TRS-80 Color Computers early add ons

Welcome back to part 5 of my fourth SepTandy Spectacular. In the last post we wraped up our look at peripherals and add ons for the original TRS-80 by looking at many miscellaneous add ons. In this post, we shift our focus to the Color Computer by looking at its early periferals and add ons. Much like the original TRS-80, the only real peripherals available for it were the monitor and tape deck, but their still worth having a closer look at none the less.

The first of these two peripherals well look at is the monitor. Now unlike its predecessor, the Coco uses standard RF output rather than composite, In fact the Coco didnt even get composite out until the release of the Coco 3 in 1986. So a monitor was no longer required and instead could just be hooked up to a standard tv set. While you certainly COULD get a matching Radio Shack tv to use as a monitor, I'm sure most people were happy to just buy the computer and use their own home tv's instead.

If you did want to buy a matching tv to use as a monitor, there were 2 models that Radio Shack sold in the first few years of the Coco's life. The first was the Radio Shack Color Reciver TV (Catalog nuber 26-3010), intorduced along side of the Coco on July 31st 1980, for $399 dollars.

A listing for the original “Color Receiver” TV Monitor in the 1981 Radio Shack catalog. 

It was a basic 13 inch color TV, and much like the TRS-80 Model I's monitor, it was a rebaged RCA monitor. While I have been unable to confirm what model it is (because again much like the TRS-80's monitor its difficult to verify due to little resources for CRT TV models), I believe it was a set as part of RCA's ColorTrak line, which was produced from the 1970's into the Late 1990's.

An ad for RCA's ColorTrak TV sets (1978)

The Color Reciver was only advertised for a few years before being replaced with another TV: The TC-130, Released in 1983, at a retail price of $399.95.

A listing for the TC-130 TV Monitor in the 1983 Radio Shack catalog. 

Again it was a basic 13 inch color TV, and its also possibly its a rebadged RCA monitor. but Ive never confirmed this. The weird thing Ive noticed about both these, and other Radio Shack TV Sets is that other than their pocket and portable 5 inch TV's, No Radio Shack branded TV is availible today I dont know if its because they were poor quaility, were too expensive or what, but only a few manage to pop up on Ebay every now and again.

I know they definatly sold though. Not only because their in the catalogs with prices, but also there is some photo proof. While writing the first issue of this years special, I did some reaserch on Compuserve for writing, and while searching for screenshot of the service at the time, I came across an article by The Columbus Dispach which had a few photos including this one. Its a setup of a Coco connected to the service and if you look closely, you can see a Color Receiver in the background.

A photo of a Coco connected to Compuserve with the Color Receiver in the background (1981)

As for storage, the Coco was initially supplied with the CTR-80A, but it wasn't long before another option became availible. Radio Shack sold their first cassette data recorder for their computers, The CCR-81, in 1982 at a retail price of  $59.95.

A listing for the CCR-81 Cassette Recorder in the 1983 Radio Shack catalog. 

On the top you have the speaker,  cassette door, tape counter, battery LED, and the controls: Record, Play, Rewind, Fast Forward, Stop/Eject, and pause.

The top of CCR-81 Cassette Recorder

On the front you just have the carry handle, theres no volume knob and a tone switch on the CTR-81 as aboused to the earlier CTR-41.

The front of CCR-81 Cassette Recorder

On the left side you have  a 6V DC Power Jack, Earphone in, Auxiliary In, Remote In, Microphone In, and the volume wheel.

The left side of CCR-81 Cassette Recorder

On the right side you just have the AC input, a 6V DC Power Jack, Earphone in, Auxiliary In, Remote In and Microphone In.

The right side of CCR-81 Cassette Recorder

And on the bottom you have the model info markings and the battery compartment.

The Bottom of CCR-81 Cassette Recorder

The CCR-81 is generally considered the best among Radio Shack tape drives, as it's incredible reliable in terms of Read/Write operations and the cassette mech itself is reasonably high quality.

There was a 3rd perifereal at launch as well though, and those were the Coco's Dual Gyrating Joysticks, also introduced alongside it on July 31st, 1980, at a retail price of $24.95.

A listing for the Coco's Dual Gyrating Joystick in the 1981 Radio Shack catalog. 

These were sold in a pair of two, and were analog, single-button, non-centering sticks, with a 6-pin DIN connection. while not unusable, they do have problems such as the fire button being at the top, and the non centering sticks can be a hassle depending on what kind of game that you were playing. If it was a game that didnt require definite movement like a space shooter, it was fine, but o]if you were playing a game that required definite direction like a maze game, it became far more difficult to use.

Other than an Extended BASIC add on and an optional dust cover, the Coco didnt have many add ons or periferals. But that would soon change by the following year with more periferals and add ons comming along. This concludes Part 5 of the fourth Septandy Spectacular, join me next time as we move forward to 1981, and take a closer look at the Color Computer Controller, and disk drives.