Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site

News

        



         August 27, 2009 - Thank you!
A big thank you to Bob McDaniel, Bob Stonehill, and Susie Stonehill for a very large box of magazines and books (including the Sargon, right below this posting).

         August 26, 2008 - New Book Cover
Sargon A Computer Chess Program
Publisher: Hayden Book Company
Year: 1978
Pages: 120

         August 26, 2008 - Spam Filter - WOW!
I finally decided to turn on the ISP's spam filter on my email account. Between 8/4 and 8/26 it has snagged 2,682 emails. I am astounded.

         August 25, 2008 - Two Model I's to Sell for Local NJ Pickup Only
Two working Model I's (or so I am told) for sale for local pickup, one manufactured in 1978, the other in 1980. I believe each has its own expansion interface.
The seller has a lot of stuff, including a service manual for the Model 1, game tapes [if she can find them] & other manuals. She has 5 disk drives total.
She does not want to ship them. Contact me, and I will forward the offers on. Pickup is in Bergen County NJ.

         August 13, 2008 - Anyone have a spare Model I?
Do you have a Model I that you would like to see go to a really important good home?
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is looking for a Model I in good physical shape to tour with an upcoming traveling exhibition. The tour would last 10 years which is why they are interested in acquiring the Model I instead of borrowing it. At the end of the tour they will be donating it to another non-profit exhibition.
Similar to the old Billy Crystal Saturday Night Live skit, it is much better for the Model I to look good than to feel good. While it would be nice if it worked, they are more interested in a Model I which is physically good looking, as it will be on display. A non-working Model I is fine by them.
The Model I does not need to have, but can have, an expansion interface and floppy disks. That would augment the exhibition, but they are really after the Monitor / Keyboard.
If you can donate your Model I, please let me know and I will put you in direct contact with them. They can, and will, provide a letter of donation for the IRS (although the donor would have to provide the value).

         July 19, 2008 - New Manual Cover Thanks to David C.
Infinite Basic for the TRS-80 - Matrix and Strings
Racet Computes
1979

         July 18, 2008 - New Emulator
Lajos Kintli has updated his FastZ80 emulator to v1.02 with some new features. The new features include:
  • TRS-80 tape sound
  • general Instruments AY-3-8910 (Yamaha YM2149) sound generator
  • configurable keyboard matrix
  • patching the emulator saves the keyboard matrix and other configuration settings too
  • video cut / video page support
  • window magnifier (200%)
  • adjustable CPU frequency (1.774 & 1.747 MHz)
  • "remove rom" feature
  • port controlled timer and event counter
  • restructured menu / hot keys
    It can be downloaded either from his site or from the emulator page.

    •          July 14, 2008 - New Software Manual Cover Thanks to David C.
    Microcosm II
    19xx
    Basics and Beyond Inc
    Microcosm III
    19xx
    Basics and Beyond Inc

             July 13, 2008 - New 80 Micro Data
    Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 82 has been added to the 80 Micro 1986 web page, and the searchable 80 micro database.

    This brings the count up to 94 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

             July 11, 2008 - New Cover Addition to the Archive
    CompuServe Information Service Users Guide (1983)(Radio Shack)

             July 9, 2008 - New Cover Additions to the Archive
    Dow Jones Information Service Users Guide (1987)(Tandy)
    Using the Model 100 With CompuServe and Dow Jones News Service (19xx)(Tandy)

             July 3, 2008 - ORCH
    The ORCH-80/85/90 page has been added to the emulation navbar.

             June 27, 2008 - New Hardware Manual Cover Thanks to David C.

             June 22, 2008 - New Manual Cover Thanks to David C.

             June 21, 2008 - New Manual Cover Thanks to David C.

             June 14, 2008 - New Manual Cover Thanks to David C.

             May 21, 2008 - New Manual Cover Thanks to Wes S.
    PT-210 Portable Data Terminal Owners Manual
    Year: 19xx
    Publisher: Tandy

             May 12, 2008
    To the extent that I have an email address for a software author, I have made the author name in the Searchable Archive page also include a hotlink to email.

             May 5, 2005 - New Hardware Manual Cover
    CGP-115 Operation Manual
    Cat: 26-1192
    Publisher: Tandy
    Pages: 52
    Year: (Unknown)

             April 23, 2008 - TRSTimes Back Online
    With the permission of the copyright holder, Lance Wolstrup, the TRSTimes magazines are back online.

             March 25, 2008 - New Utility by Knut Roll-Lund
    Knut, master of TRS-80 cassettes, has done it again with the release of his new utility, PLAY CAS. While this utility can do a lot of things, its main function is to allow you to plug your TRS-80 EAR connector into your PC Soundcard headphone output, and turn your PC into a TRS-80 cassette player. Once hooked up in this manner, the utility will play a CAS file stored on your PC into the TRS-80 plug, so your TRS-80 thinks it is getting input from a cassette, but its really from the PC.

    Play CAS checks the CAS to determine whether its a Level 1, Level 2, or Model III Highspeed image.

    Download and instructions are available on Knut's PLAYCAS Web Page or on the Media Conversion page.

             March 14, 2008 - New Emulator
    Lajos Kintli has released v1.01 of FastZ80, a HT1080Z (Hungarian TRS-80) emulator. You can download it from His Site.
    Main features:
  • very fast and accurate Z80 engine
  • Z80 undocumented instructions/flag bits are implemented
  • RESET and NMI support
  • Four running speeds including 'full' for maximum performance
  • 64*16 character video display (including 128*48 pixel graphics)
  • 8*8 memory mapped 'wired or' keyboard matrix
  • Sound chip is not emulated
  • Tape emulation through CAS files for basic language and system programs
  • Direct load of TRS80 CMD & CAS & Intel Hex files
  • ROM extension is included (use SYSTEM and /12288 for activating)
  • ROM includes simple monitor (use SYSTEM and /12710)
  • Content of ROM can be loaded from binary file
  • Character generator ROM can be loaded from bitmap file
  • Default ROM and character generator can be patched into the EXE file
  • Small sized single EXE program, no external files are needed
  • Running on standard WIN32 environment (Windows 95 and up)

    		•
    System requirements & installation:
  • The program was written and compiled in a special way with the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition" using only standard WIN32 API interface, not referring to any external run time library. It runs from Windows 95 to the latest windows releases. The program in standard mode consumes insignificant system resources, however in "full speed" mode it eats up one processor.
  • No special installation is needed, the files should be extracted from the downloaded zip package into any directory, and FASTZ80.EXE can be run.

    Basic features of the simulated hardware:
  • Machine cycle accurate instruction set of Z80 processor is implemented
  • Undocumented instructions are implemented. See "The undocumented Z80" for details.
  • The content of ROM & ROM Extension is coming from the original HT1080Z, but it can be configured
  • Sound chip is not emulated, however it was a special addition in HT1080Z
  • The first version of the original machine contained only 16 kByte RAM, this implementation contains 48 kByte
  • OUT instruction has no effect
  • IN instruction results reading value FF, except port FF, where bit 7 is simulated as the TAPE input
  • NMI is supported (can be triggered from menu), however maskable interrupt (INT) is not
  • Includes two Z80 engine, one contains some simplifications for reaching better performance. See "Tuning the emulator".

    •          March 12, 2008 - New Cover Scan
    TRS-80 Means Business
    Year: 1982
    Copyright: Wiley

             February 26, 2008 - Information Added to 80 Micro Database
    Thanks to Horacio, the searchable database of 80 Microcomputing magazine table of contents has been expanded to include October 1986 (Issue 81). This brings the count up to 94 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

             February 23, 2008 - New Cover Scan from David Cooper
    Maces and Magic Series Instructions
    Year: 1983
    Copyright: Scott Adams Inc

             February 19, 2008 - Free TRS-80 Day (It Seems)

    I have been contacted by two (2) people today each offering TRS-80's, free for the pick-up. Please email me if you live in or near either of the following two areas and are interested in picking up what is being offered. Because they are NOT interested in being cajoled into pack-and-ship, please confirm that you intend to pick-up. I will edit this news item accordingly as each is gone. Please email me if interested. First come, first served.

  • Hanover, Massachusetts (but is willing to bring them to the Quincy/Braintree line during business hours) -- Two (2) Model III's; worked the last time they were used. Current status, unknown.

  • Costa Mesa, Orange County, California - Model 1 with expansion module and two floppy drives. Were in working order the last time they were powered on. Current status, unknown.



    • If you see this news item up, the TRS-80's are still available (as far as I know).

             February 19, 2008 - Information Added to 80 Micro Database
    Thanks to Horacio, the searchable database of 80 Microcomputing magazine table of contents has been expanded to include September 1986 (Issue 80). This brings the count up to 93 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

             February 14, 2008 - New Clone Information
    Rainer Fredrich pointed me to a Wikipedia page for the Aster CT-80 which was a Dutch version of the TRS-80 sold as a kit, which supported a faster speed and higher density disks. Check out the Wikipedia page here.

             February 13, 2008 - New CoCo3 Emulator
    Brian Blake has let me know that a newer CoCo 3 emulator, called Vcc and written by Joseph Foregione, has been released.

    What makes this emulator unique is that it runs in Windows 2000 or higher, and allows writing REAL CoCo floppies from within windows using a third party driver.

    Features include:

  • A Tandy Color Computer 3 with 128K, 512K, 2048K or 8192K of ram.
  • Selectable Motorola MC68B09 or Hitachi HD63B09.
  • Two 2 button joysticks
  • FD-502 Supporting 3 Double Sided or 4 Single sided Floppy drives. Supported format include DMK,JVC,OS9.
  • Real Disk access is supported on Windows 2000 or higher via the FDRAWCMD libraies provided by Simon Owen.
  • Hard disk Controller (.vhd) with Cloud-9 RTC.
  • 4 Slot Multi-pak interface.
  • Orchestra-90 Sound Synthisizer.
  • Only 8,16, and 32 BPP are supported. 24BPP is not supported.

    It can be downloaded from the author's site at http://vcc6809.bravehost.com/.

    •          February 5, 2008 - New Articles
  • Putting tape SFINKS on Disk
  • Backing Up Super Utility Plus v2.1
  • Backing Up Super Utility Plus v2.2
  • Backing Up Med Systems Disks
  • Backing Up BIG 5 Games

    •          February 5, 2008 - New WAV2CAS
    Knut Roll-Lund has released an updated version of his wonderful WAV2CAS utility. It is far more than a recorded WAV to .CAS file converter. You can download it here or from his Home Site.

    The new version includes the following:
  • Windows GUI
  • Sound level autodetection to allow you to know if your volume setting is off
  • File type identification on the fly (BAS / SYSTEM)
  • BASIC Program Analysis/Display

    •          February 4, 2008 - New Articles
  • Duplicating ACORN Copy-Protected Disks
  • Sneak Circuit on the Starfighter
  • How to Back Up The Sargon II Tape -and- How to Put Sargon II on Disk
  • Hidden controls for FASTEROIDS

    •          January 30, 2008
    Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

    Check out comp.sys.tandy if you want to see what I am/was up against, and a nice summary (not written by me) of the general issues, and the "special" types of people out there.

    To "Trash80", thank you for speaking up on my behalf. Your statements, and assessments of the risks, are well stated and well reasoned.

    To "Gene" - I am astounded at the accuracy of your entire analysis (including your first sentence).

             January 28, 2008 - New Radio Shack Catalogs thanks to David Cooper
    CCF-833 Computer Catalog
    Year: 1983
    Publisher: Radio Shack/Tandy
    Pages: 16
    CCF-834 Computer Catalog
    Year: 1983
    Publisher: Radio Shack/Tandy
    Pages: 12
    CCF-836 Computer Catalog
    Year: 1983
    Publisher: Radio Shack/Tandy
    Pages: 16

             January 28, 2008 - New Hardware Manual
    Bi-Directional Tractor Kit for DMP-2100 Operation Manual
    Year: 1982
    Publisher: Tandy

             January 25, 2008 - New Version of TRS32 Released
    Matthew Reed has released an update to his PHENOMENAL Windows Compatible TRS-80 Model 1/3/4 emulator. The updated version 1.18 can be downloaded here or from his site. If you are looking for a Windows based emulator, this is the one to register (which I strongly encourage you to do ... and NO, I do not see a penny from this venture or recommendation).

             January 24, 2008 - New Hardware Manual
    DMP-2100 Operation Manual
    Year: 1982
    Publisher: Tandy

             January 19, 2007
  • Now that our remodel is done, and the contractor has moved his equipment out of the garage, I can resume making/reading disks for people.
  • I won an ebay auction for 2 missing printer manuals.

    •          January 16, 2008 - New Manual Scan from David Cooper
    Robot Attack

             January 3, 2008 - New Catalog
    SSI (Strategic Simulations Inc.)
    Fall 1984

             January 2, 2008
    Sorry for the lack of news. The reason I had stopped posting news is that every news item I posted came back with immediate “negative” emails and/or forum posts (although I always wondered why people would come to the site just to complain). I probably should have realized earlier that people who are going to complain are going to do it no matter what, and that's why the 'delete' key was created, so I hope to resume posting news.

             ARCHIVED NEWS ITEMS
    Archived 2007 News can be found here