Another of my vintage computers on YouTube.  This time that lesser known sibling of the TRS-80 Model 100, the NEC PC-8201a.

It was the second computer I owned!  

If I remember right there was also the OLIVETTI M10... Same style and interior...

Really interesting learning the history of this computer. I had a Tandy 200 back in the early 90s which I used for taking notes in college class. Gorgeous machine! I wasn't aware of the relationship between these variants.

Love your videos.

Thanks, Terry, for the interesting video.
I still have my 8201, which I got in 1990 in an even trade for an Apple II. I had used the Trash 80 Radio Shack model in my work as a newspaper reporter, phoning in stories with the "ear muff" acoustic coupler and the screaming 300 baud modem. It was a step up from the fax-based "Mojo" wire we had used before.
Back then to get the data on political campaign contributions, I had to drive to the state capitol, go to the Secretary of State's office, get the file folders and transcribe the numbers into the computer. I remember the file clerks were quite impressed with this latest technology! Now reporters can just log on and get it.
I never used the 8201 for work because a Powerbook came on the scene soon after I got it.
Mine still works, runs for a month on four AA batteries.

Is it wrong that I want one of these now? :) Bit surprising that it doesn't have any external video options... but it'd still make a handy compact-sized portable keyboard that happened to have some memory in it and a built-in screen as well! I wonder how easy it might be to add a backlight, with an EL panel or a couple of LEDs...

I had one of these in the early 90's and I remember programming and playing that tank game!Thanks for refreshing my memory.

The screen is slanted towards the user. That's an improvement over the model 100.

I had one back in '85...great little computer...used it mostly for WP on the go and sending documents over the 300 baud modem...I also wrote a little program for sales personnel to log in orders but they never used it...it was a big ask...like telling them to split the atom....they stuck with the paper and fax machine...back then not everybody was proficient on a keyboard...lol

Would I be correct in assuming this holds about 14 pages of double spaced text (80x66/2 with an 80% usage on average per line)? Was there any compression to help get more pages of text crammed into that 32k? Seems like an interesting machine, thanks for the video.

Just found the nec one one a carboot sale today it came with battery cases, leather case, extra ram cart and book I'm so happy

I sure with the Model 100 and 102 had this visual editor. You can' t move up and edit lines in basic.

Great memories! I had to go pull mine out of the closet, I thought mine was a PC-8201a but turns out it's a PC-8300 which is a slightly upgraded version. Tested it out and it still works!
My first 'real' job out of school (early 80s) was writing the control software for a CATV (cable television) automated test system that a tech could take out into the field and diagnose cable plant issues. The tech would climb a pole and plug cables into the input and output of a device (amp, splitter, coupler, etc..) and this thing would check all the cable channels for things like signal level, signal to noise, crossmod, and more that I can't even remember anymore
This system was first developed on an Osbourne 1 in MBASIC, later converted to CBASIC for speed improvments and later I converted it to run on a TRS-80 model 100 for better portability. My "development system' was a loaded model 100 with every option you could get I think, external monitor, dual 5.25 floppies, expansion chassis, etc...
I still have printouts of the basic source for m100, such great memories!

you have a knack for doing these computer videos! thank you mr.stewart!!

OMG, that takes me back. Had a Kaypro 2 but yearned for something even more portable. Bought a NEC 8201 and a writers bundle that included a ribbon cable and a special transfer program for sending files over to the Kaypro. What an epiphany that was...

Kia Ora, Terry! I used the Tandy version "back in the day" with the barcode scanner, to track printed-circuit boards with heat-resistant "Kapton" barcode labels for a power instrumentation company where I worked. I'm still in the electronics business, and (oddly enough) one of six USA members of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (#19250).

I actually had one of these. I wish I still had it. I had a TRS-80 Model III also but I think I liked this one better.

That moustache has to be a crime :)

Hi. I m a olivetti m10 user. Ypu can send me this file ?

How to access adult websites with this computer?

hi, ou have the spot of this machine ?

Hi i have a olivetti m10 . Please you can do a tutorial for programming this machine

I kinda feel they missed a trick by still using a big clunky tape deck like that. By the time these machines were on sale you could get compact cassette dictaphones that were barely any larger than a regular walkman (my dad had one, and I often caught hell for "borrowing" it to play with as it was so much cooler than my fisher-price kiddie model that was more the size of the NEC device shown here), mainly due to having a built in speaker and mic, and of course they could record and had line in and out sockets... Or as demonstrated with the Epson HX20's built in drive, microcassettes and their recorders were also already a thing and would have been entirely high enough quality and capacity for the data rates and program sizes typical of these portables... Could even have made one as a snap-on module that plugged directly into the cassette port and clipped to the case and worked under direct computer control for much greater portability than having the main unit plus a separate full size tape deck.

Hello sir, thank you for the great video about these beautiful portable machines. I own myself a NEC-PC 8210a and spent great time programming it in BASIC with SOUND and PSET commands. Recently I took it out of its box and noticed that the LCD became slightly darker in the middle, where the darker region is more or less a cloud shaped blob. I am afraid that this problem grows with time and render the display useless. Due to the form of the blob, I am taken to believe that, due to hot weather, the plastic enclosure of the LCD may have become a little bit soft and collapsed in the middle. Does your show any sign of the same problem? Would you know how to fix this?

I am an 18 year old collector so I don't have nostalgia I guess except for my first two computers the Compaq armada e500 and the Compaq Presario 5000 but I love buying old computers and game consoles to learn how they got to were they are now

The simple Telcom program is fantastic. I've used the Model 100 as a terminal for my Raspberry Pi with a USB-to-serial cable and null modem cable, and to connect to dialup BBSs with the built-in modem. There's actually an old Model 100 driver for Linux from the 1990s still floating around the Web somewhere.

6:27 "no boot-up time for our phones and tablets today" WRONG!
11:30 Sure does look back-lit here.

So it is a portable trs 80?

I had (and still have) a PC-8201a, and I used it the same way you did. I'd write something during my daily c9mmute, and when I got home, I'd use Telcom to downlad it to my IBM PC, edit it and format it, and print it out for sending to the magazine I was freelancing for.

A really great keyboard, and massive battery life for 4 AA batteries.

Back in those days you was a good-looking cowboy, wow...

I have this computer :) Still working like new.

Could you make a video specifically on the Trs 80 model 100?

The NEC was my third computer, after a Kaypro II and a TI 99/4a. Thanks for posting!

80's NZ moe Tezza w/cardigan is just how our we Aussies still imagine Kiwis. :)

Pretty cool , not many guys left who can say that was their 2nd computer :) QC

Great video. I used to love these "Portable" computers when I was a kid. Especially if it came with those tiny printers and tape recorders. I wanted one really bad for programming but for some reason, we never had a chance to get one. My parents always supported me when it came to programming and technology so it really wasn't the price either. So I ended up programming on my Sinclair ZX for a while with the infamous tape recording until I got my Commodore 64 and so on. Must have been really useful during the times at the University.

Thanks for the video. I also collect vintage computers. I wish I had more space for them!
Have you ever considered getting the HP 71b? It's an amazing portable computer from the early 80's.

while you were recording this video it felt almost as if your Tandy in the background wanted to join in creating of this video.  I guess it must have got savvy.  I've never seen anybody's computers on their computers channel do this before

Such a nice design. Logically you'd expect that NEC had opted for a folding screen.

I used it on my commute into London, this was long before anyone else took a computer on a train. I'd spend the hour writing an article, the hour back writing another, upload them to the PC using Procomm, spell check using Turbo Lightning, format and tidy up using the IBM Professional Editor or PC Write, and then print them out onto paper, double-spaced, to send to the magazine, because in those days, that was the only format they could accept articles!

Another thing I did with the NEC, was hook up a barcode reader, just for fun. It worked well!

I had one of these; I used it for writing articles for magazines. I was very surprised at the cost you quoted. Mine cost £200, and I got a 30% discount on that as trade price. I really loved that computer, although not as much as the IBM PC!

really enjoying your channel

Hi Tezza, amazing video!
Me too I have one NEC PC-8201a, great machine!
Only one question, what's the name of the software shown at 22:14 and where I can find it?
Thanks in advance.

My father worked for a newspaper in London, Ontario and all the field reporters were given Model 100's and later 102's. As a teenager I used it more than he did. We had the disk/video interface for it with a really old CRT monochrome monitor. I wrote a war-dialer program and used it to find open modems in my area. So much fun.

One more thing: besides being much grateful for your fantastic work, I would suggest that (please... and if not begging to much...), that you made the videos available at 1080p, because the (so good) editing you are making, the quality of the contents, and the amount of work you put into making these videos sure deserves it. You are making History, for many people. We are at a time in which the machines we can get by eBay (and the like) are becoming rustier, and even those machines we tried to preserve in our attics are becoming more and more rusty also, despite all our efforts. So, it may very well be a decisive decade to capture these machines working for the last time, in cases that still resembles what they were once.

Thank you for these videos. It's amazing how it is becoming easier and easier to find about the history of home computing, and all those computers that we only knew by their reference in computing magazines. You have done an amazing work. By now I only see a couple of videos per week, but it's good to know they are "there", and I that gives me the prospects of spending an amazing time in a future where I can afford it ;) .

The usual way is cassette tape although loading in from another machine across the serial port is also possible.

Hi there! How do you get the games around 20:05 in the machine? Are they in cartridges, or which type of media? Thank you and great video!

I would so like one of these. In many ways my Z88 is superior. But that keyboard..... It would make a nice terminal for my Linux boxes.

Thanks!

I don't think NEC would worry too much about these games being shared between people.

Thanks for letting me know. Keeping an eye on eBay as would like to add a NEC PC-8201a to my collection, don't seem to be many around for sale though especially with cassettes. I wonder if these games are freeware or are they copyrighted?

No it's just the instructions. I don't think those games are compatible with the Model 100. The BASIC does have differences, in particular the LOCATE command which I think is used a lot in those games.

Thanks for your reply. I wonder if these would be compatible with TRS-80 Model 100? I see the tank and snake game are shown in the pink application guide, does it have the program in there or just the instructions? If so will try get hold of a copy.

Sorry, I'm not sure where you would find those. I have them on cassette.

Thanks for your videos. Any idea were i can find the snake and tank games? Didn't see them on club100 site..

Much obliged Jim. The MC-10 is a machine I've read about but I've never seen it in action. I'll check it out

Very nice video. I especially liked seeing the Snake game. It inspired me to make a port of that game for the TRS-80 MC-10, which is my favorite retrocomputing machine. Just look for SNAKE.BAS here on YouTube if you're interested, or go to my channel. Liked the stash too.

Thanks again.

Thanks. If people enjoy them it makes them worth doing.

Yes, I've heard about these. The 8201a had similar peripherals designed to be added to those serial interfaces. I've never seen one in the flesh though.

Thanks Vint. Yes, they are rugged little machines.

I was brought here by the M100 mailing list...

I was itching for another video! Thanks Tezza!! Awesome video as always!

Radio Shack had two later models after the 100: the Tandy 200, which had a larger, flip-up LCD with 40x16 text and a built-in spreadsheet program (Microsoft Multiplan), and the Tandy 102, which was the same thing as the Model 100 except in a slightly smaller and lighter case. They also offered a 3½" external disk drive, and a Disk/Video Interface expansion unit, which turned the Model 100/102 into a full-fledged desktop computer with 5¼" disk drives and a CRT monitor output with 80-column text.

Enjoyed this video - mainly because I have a fine working Model 100 myself. I should have bought one of those nice looking NEC machines off eBay a few years back because I do think they are better looking. Still I'm plenty happy with my Model 100. I think these machines will run another 30 years, they are so durable. Looking forward to your next video. Vint (from VCF)

Yes, at some stage. There a still a few earlier machines to cover before I get there though.

I had to look it up. They would be the same as the RAM chips as in the unit itself (which are 2k static RAM chips with the code MSM81C55RS).

not to give away too much,, but can we expect a apple gs vid in the future?

What kind of memory chips were in the expansion slot RAM PAC?

Err....No. LOL!

I know exactly what you mean as a colleague of mine bought a 8401a (inspired by my 8201a). He gave it to me around 1993. I stored it but when I dragged it out years later it had been damaged by leaky batteries )-:

Excellent video as always. I used to have an NEC PC-8401A laptop in about 2002. I got it from a fete at my school. It was at the toys stall because no one had any idea what it was. It ran CP/M and had a word processor, spread sheet, database and telecom software in ROM. I typed a few school assignments on it and wired it up to an Epson dot matrix printer to print them. Eventually the cable between the board and the LCD failed and I didn't have the ability to fix it so I threw it away.