Compute in Good Health!\

Had many computers, from the first generation TRS80 Model 1, and many systems since. Was manager of Tandy Computer Repair for a while, then ran my own PC manufacturing.

My first computer was an Ohio Scientific C4P. I received it as "payment" for writing the documentation and collaborating with development of an early word-processing program, WP6502. I'm writing an autobiographical account of that time in 1980-81 and would like to use your photo of a C4, as I made the mistake of giving mine away a long time ago. My autobiog is strictly a non-profit venture so I hope you won't mind sharing your photo with me.

I have fond memories of the System 80 as my first computer. I bought business System 80 brand new for about $1200 in early '82 from Smith City Market. I figured that since I had a couple of tape recorders already that the additional lower case and numeric keypad would be more useful. The first game I wrote was a worm that increased in length and died when it hit itself. Next was firing at a randomly dancing * on the screen. Used it for essays at university too. Replaced it eventually with a C64.

Good information. Thanks for sharing.

Thoroughly enjoy the YouTube videos which you have created and shared! Great format, history, etc. I really appreciate you and all the effort that you put into these.
Came here to see the website and very glad too that you created this Guestbook to give us all an opportunity to say...
Thank you!

Well done Tezza. Checking what is in my shed during this Covid lockdown and uncovered various old (mostly IBM) systems I've stored over 40 years. Reading your projects file to see if I can resurect any. Also ondering what is on those old floppy diskettes there...

My two System 80's are going good. I had the keyboard units recapped but not the expansion units. The cassette model is my own machine the other is the business model, I had to put in 32k of ram chips and a new z80 chip for it to work. Long gone are the 51/4" drives instead I use a 10to 12 twist on the ribbon cable with 31/2" standard PC drives. Also gone is the old drive power supplies now using that small 5v chinese brick. I still use my DSmith B&W screen but the System 80 gives a great display on an LCD Digitor TV screen. My Colour Genies are up and running the Gnomic Wizard disk interface is the same as the P1000 except they add an extra small board to contain a loader ROM. My chips also have the numbers sraped off them.I use Microdos in both the System 80/Colour Genie and my own loaders with m/c games.

Hi Terry, I was perusing my bookmarks and found your amazing web you-tube presence again. The pure nostalgia and easy going delivery of the information contained in the videos is a remarkable feat in both nostalgia and content.

Cheers
Dave G

Hi Terry. Awesome site. I really enjoyed perusing it. I've created a page with links to a lot of your software that will run in Peter Phillips' emulator on my web site. You're welcome to copy those links over to your site.
[willus.com]

Just found your site. Wonderfull!
I'm in locked in in Welly, perfect time to try to connect 3D glasses to my SGI Indy.

I found the hack to solder a button battery ontop of a Dallas clock chip to be delightfully deranged.

Cheers,

Thijs

Thank you very much for this amazing work :)

Excellent web site. Much information I was not aware of.
I had/have a System 80 - it was my first computer. I'm going to try and turn it on after 40ish years but I'm going to check the capacitors first. The Dick Smith Green Screen Monitor I have still works so I'm hoping the System 80 will as well. Wish me luck.

Hi tezza, Im trying to troubleshoot my system 80, i checked the voltages on the output from the PSU and they are higher than i exptect, essentailly they should be -15v +15v gnd +8v

I get -21v +2v gnd +8v I was wondering fi you know what the normal tolerance was for the cpu board ?

Cheers.

Went true your Collection but NO AIM65 on the list.. hihi

So your list is not complete yet...

Hi Tez! Stopped by following a link on the TRS-80 web site. Nice collection!

-CH-

Thanks for all your effort. Love your videos. The only sad thing was when you said "That's the last video" and I realized, they don't make home computers anymore and once you reviewed all, that's it.
Still I watch your videos from time to time for sentimental reasons.

Hey Terry!

I found your YouTube channel not long ago and have been working my way through every one of your videos. I have been greatly enjoying the content that you have created and wanted to share a note of appreciation for all of the work that you've put in to preserve computing history.

I'm probably a youngin' to you folks but I got my start programming BASIC on an old Apple IIe that a friend of mines father owned. Vintage computing really set the stage to my computing career. I wish I could collect like you do, but am forced to early laptops due to space constraints. Oh the woes of being a startup engineer living in California... space comes at a premium

I am happy to say I am writing this on a Compaq 5300. It's a joy to be signing a guestbook with period hardware... it's been a few years

Thanks for everything man, your channel and site are a goldmine!

Best,
- John

Cool Website i love old computers to

i type this comment on Windows XP

Hi Terry.

Love your work, and your YouTube channel. Great to see some of the old computers, and I admire your work to preserve software from these old systems.

I'm trying to preserve some of these old type-in programs, so I was happy to see your scans of "NZ bits and bytes" which we never saw here over the pond.

I was wondering if you had those magazines still around and could re-scan the C64 listings in issues 3-1 (Meteor Smash) and 4-4 (Galactic Gladiator, Martian Lander) in a higher resolution as I can't read them clearly enough to get a working program. Yes I know that magazine listings were wonderfully hit-and-miss back in the day, but I would like to try and give them some justice for preservation.

You could send them to my email if you like. Cheers!

First system was Ohio Scientific "Superboard": bring your own power supply, monitor, I/O. Morphed through three Tandys (Tandies?), including model 200 portable, and four "PowerSpec" systems, made by Micro Center (my current employer) Nowadays, I use a nine-year-old MacBook to create the RV club chapter Web site, write and teach How-To Clinics for Micro Center Customers, and view "vintage silicon" sites like your own!