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TRS-80 Model 100 in Ars Technica article.
- Thread starter Chuck(G)
- Start date
kyodai
Experienced Member
Too bad the author won't go much into detail about it. I'm curious if that is a joystick port on the back? Looks a bit like the typical Commodore 64/Amiga 500 Joystick port. Also i wonder what people used them for. I mean with that kind of system i can imagine it being an oversized calculator or word processor, but i can't think of too many applications for this. Were there any programs for it that were popular?
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
It's a light pen port. Back in the day many of the large retail outfits used the 100 for inventorying. I don't think a joy stick/mouse would work for you on the 100 as it only did BASIC.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
I don't think BASIC is the limiting factor. Several lines of text usually means games that are best played on the keyboard.
You are right about that. I know there are some mouse routines and quite possibly some joy stick stuff out there for QBASIC and Visual BASIC, but I've never encountered a library of those routines for the whittled-down BASIC version that comes in the 100. I'm not referring to the special after market ROMS for the 100. There were barely enough variables (chr$) to write a NFL point-spread program back when there was only 28 teams to deal with. BTW, you're welcome to a copy of it if you want it. Might be difficult to get 32 teams to run on the 100 BASIC using my code. (I not a programmer, so there might be some whizkids out that could get'er done). I do have a 'cottage program' that some wrote which simulates DOS for 100. Also, the Tandy Scripsit runs pretty good too.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
IIRC, the Model 100 was very popular with journalists and reporters who wanted a rugged, easily-powered box to compose their reports on. You could get batteries anywhere.
So maybe not that exciting from a game player's perspective.
So maybe not that exciting from a game player's perspective.
krebizfan
Veteran Member
There were a few programmers that attempted arcade style games for the Model 100. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3j-GkMRYCI for one example.
I think there were a couple of similar games done while the Model 100 was being sold but I couldn't quickly find links to any of them.
I think there were a couple of similar games done while the Model 100 was being sold but I couldn't quickly find links to any of them.
kyodai
Experienced Member
It seems okay as a word processor, but not having any built-in data storage would make me nervous. I'd never have bought that thing without a portable floppy drive i think. probably sucks when you write a long report and in the end everything is lost if that thing runs out of battery power...
krebizfan
Veteran Member
IIRC, the Model 100 had a secondary battery system that would keep data safe long enough to install a replacement set of batteries. You have about a month to get batteries or find an AC outlet.
The portable floppy drive was $200, battery powered, and rather unwieldy. Difficult to setup both Model 100 and floppy on an airline seat tray. The usual method of data storage was get to a hotel, turn on the modem, and let the office back home store, edit and print the article. Some of the competing models had integrated a small cassette drive and the Model 600 tried to convert the idea into a small clamshell laptop with internal floppy.
The portable floppy drive was $200, battery powered, and rather unwieldy. Difficult to setup both Model 100 and floppy on an airline seat tray. The usual method of data storage was get to a hotel, turn on the modem, and let the office back home store, edit and print the article. Some of the competing models had integrated a small cassette drive and the Model 600 tried to convert the idea into a small clamshell laptop with internal floppy.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
.It seems okay as a word processor, but not having any built-in data storage would make me nervous. I'd never have bought that thing without a portable floppy drive i think. probably sucks when you write a long report and in the end everything is lost if that thing runs out of battery power...
A cassette recorder works just fine with the 100. It fully supports CLOAD & CSAVE.
kyodai
Experienced Member
Was that a special casette recorder from radio shack that was only for the TRS-80 or could you just hook up a generic casette recorder with a special microphone cable to it?
vwestlife
Veteran Member
You could use any cassette recorder with microphone, earphone, and remote jacks. In fact, Radio Shack's TRS-80 and Tandy "computer" cassette recorders were just rebranded Realistic audio cassette recorders.
We used a Model 100 daily at work. We had to write specifications which could be several hundred pages long. The spec writer would take the Model 100 home and then proceed to write the specs when he had the time - which might be while doing the laundry, etc. The next day, I would use a null modem cable to transfer the 30 to 50 pages of specs to another computer, erase them from the Model 100 memory, and then do it all over the next day. I remember the deadline for the project was very tight and this was one way we were able to achieve it.
As to having the batteries die and losing work - it never happened. When the battery got low, the unit would shut off, but the batteries had enough power left in them to maintain the contents until you could swap in a fresh set. There was a second set of batteries that would maintain the memory while you did the battery swap.
Note: Suggest you look over the Club100 web site. They have some additional hardware for the Model 100 including some solid state storage options. Not sure if any of it is still available for purchase.
Bill
Smithville, NJ