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January 2, 2024 – Model I 3-D Parts

Marcel Erz has put up a GitHub with assorted Model I parts which can be 3-D Printed!

Currently present are:

• Main Enclosure Panel
• PCB Stand-Off
• Keyboard Stem (ALPS)
• Keyboard Spacebar Clip
• Keyboard Clip
• Keyboard Button Placeholder (Enter)
• Keyboard Shield
• Extension Interface Cover (Medium)

You check it all out at [Hotlinks Removed From Old News Pages] https://github.com/RetroStack/TRS-80-Model-I-3D-Objects.

January 2, 2024 – New Software Manual thanks to Ian

Title: Jumbo
Publisher: Frank Avery and John Taylor – Molimerx Ltd
Year: 1982
Size: 32,089,169
Pages: 40

January 3, 2024 – Update to TRS80Tools Multi-Utility

Lawrence Kesteloot has updated his TRS80TOOL to v2.6.0. Release Notes:

• Better handling of double-sided disks.
• Assembler:
  • Full expression support: All the operators in C, with their same precedence.
  • Assembles about 10 times faster.
  • Allow nv and v for po and pe flags.
  • Various compatibility improvements with zmac.
  • Breaking change: No longer permit % as binary prefix. Instead of writing %1010, use 1010b or 0b1010.
• Disassembler: Add –upper flag.

You can download it at https://www.my-trs-80.com/tool/

January 3, 2024 – New Software Manual thanks to Ian

Title: Flight Path
Publisher: Instant Software
Year: 1980
Size: 7,274,349
Pages: 7
Cat No: IS0171R
Notes: Contains Mountain
Pilot, Precision Approach Radar, and O’Hare

Title: DoSort Disk Sort Program v1.0
Publisher: Racet Computes
Year: 1979
Size: 12,836,790
Pages: 20

Title: Infinite Basic v1.0
Publisher: Racet Computes
Year: 1979
Size: 30,297,982
Pages: 46

Title: Night Flight Simulator
Publisher: George Day-Instant Software
Year: 1980
Size: 6,689,834
Pages: 7

Title: LazyFont
Publisher: Don Elmore-AlphaBit Communications
Year: 1983
Size: 46,983,177
Pages: 76
Notes: Set 1

January 8, 2023 – MxZVM Infocom Executor Updated

Shawn Sijnstra has updated his Infocom Executors … Model I and III to version 7 and Model 4 to version 17.

Full list of credits, features and issues as well as the source and compiled code are in the Gitlab page:

• https://gitlab.com/sijnstra1/m1zvm for Model I
• https://gitlab.com/sijnstra1/m3zvm for Model III
• https://gitlab.com/sijnstra1/m4zvm for Model 4

January 9, 2024 – Model 4 for sale Local Pickp in Texas.

A site visitor has a working Model 4 (or at least drive :0 does) for sale for $300 for local pickup. Unit does have a loose connection in the plug at the power supply that powers the CRT filament, although most of the time the connection is good as is. Probably an easy fix. Drive 1 works when in Drive 0 position, so perhaps there is an issue with the controller or cable for the :1 position.

Seller is located about 100 miles NW of San Antonio, TX a few miles off of I-10; and could meet in or around Kerrville, Texas if that’s better.

January 16, 2024 – Model I ALPS Keyboard PCB.

Marcel Erz has reverse engineered the Model I ALPS keyboard PCB. He says

This project is a faithful reimplementation of the ALPS keyboard PCB of the iconic TRS-80 Model 1 computer. My revision, the E1, is designed to replicate the PCB design 1-to-1 of the original down to the traces. The entire project is available under the MIT license.

Visit the https://github.com/RetroStack/TRS-80-Model-I-Keyboard-ALPS GITHub Page for gerber files, Bill of Materials (CSV and PDF formats), layers exported in PDF and SVG formats, and full schematics of the E1 replica which is 1:1 to the original G board.

January 16, 2024 – Portable

Jeff Birt was kind enough to bid, and then scan, the missing Portable Disk Drive 2 Service Manual. Thank you Jeff!

Title: Portable Disk Drive 2 Service Manual
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1987
Size: 84,173,485
Pages: 108
Notes: [26-3814]

January 23, 2024 – TRSTools / TRSRead

I have stumbled upon another disk format which TRSTools does not properly handle. I have tried to go through my old emails to find all the old reports, but many of them just sent disk images of which I no longer have records.

So … to those who use TRSTools and TRSREAD, please tread carefully on the following DOS image types:

• MultiDOS double sided disks. TRSTools/TRSREAD will sometimes insert the side 2 data in the middle of side 1 files. I confirmed this by batch reading each disk double sided and then again as single sided, extracting the files, and comparing them. VDISK (by Miguel Dutra) extraction resulted in 100% identical crc’s between those sets. TRSREAD had multiple differences, where the Double Sided disk read was corrupt.
• TRSDOS v2.3b disks.
• DosPlus 3.4A for the Model III.
• NEWDOS/80 images with damage on Track 1.
• TRSDOS v2.77D, particularly deleting files, as they may corrupt the image.
• TRSDOS 1.3 disks with extra data in a reserved area of the directory.

Right now, I have a slew of MultiDOS double sided disks (and CP/M double sided disks) where side 2 is inaccessible. The CP/M disks are entirely unusable; and that may be because they were made on a Model III with a Shuffleboard or because no tool exists to identify the geometry needed to mount them. The MultiDOS disks read (on a catweasel) as double-sided disks, but only Side 1 shows up in an emulator, and side 2 cannot be separately read as its own image.

January 24, 2024 – Two New Manuals

Brick Parrish, who is still looking to sell a Model (See January 9th news item), sent over two manuals for scanning. Thank you, Brick!

Title: DOSPlus v3.4-4.0 vA.2
Publisher: Micro-Systems Software
Year: 1982
Size: 523,279,115
Pages: 248

Title: Fortran
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1981
Size: 664,512,098
Pages: 273
Notes: [M3][26-2200]

January 27, 2024 – New Manual

Brick Parrish, who is still looking to sell a Model 4 (See January 9th news item), sent over another manuals for scanning. Thank you, Brick!

Title: Modem I
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1981
Size: 18,992,572
Pages: 15
Notes: [26-1172][v8749285-SP-281]

January 27, 2024 – New Manual

Dusty was kind enough to pass on the manual for Decision Master. Thank you Dusty!

Title: Decision Maker
Publisher: Syntonic Software Corporation
Year: 1981
Size: 114,458,177
Pages: 88

January 28, 2024 – New Manual

Bill Allen has sent over a bunch of manuals for me to scan. The first set is below. Thank you, Bill!

Title: UltraDOS and SuperBASIC Reference Manual
Publisher: Vernon B Hester-Level IV Products
Year: 1980
Size: 205,822,671
Pages: 89
Notes: [2nd Printing]

Title: LDOS v5.1.x 1st Ed
Publisher: Logical Systems Inc
Year: 1982
Size: 751,777,287
Pages: 292
Notes: [Combined Model I and III]

January 30, 2024 – New Manuals

More manuals, courtesy of Bill Allen and Brick Parrish

Title: BASCOM Basic Compiler v5.11
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Size: 516,702,297
Pages: 274

Title: NEWDOS v2.1 Changes
Publisher: Apparat
Year: 19xx
Size: 188,988,633
Pages: 48

Title: CPM-TRS-PC File Interchange Program v1.0
Publisher: Hypersoft
Year: 1984
Size: 30,192,468
Pages: 15

January 31, 2024 – New Manuals

More manuals, Brick Parrish

Title: MVB-3 80 x 24 Video Board Installation and User Guide
Publisher: Memory Merchant
Year: 1983
Size: 154,889,241
Pages: 60

Title: ShuffleBoard III Users Manual v1.0 and Addendums
Publisher: Memory Merchant
Year: 1981
Size: 1,218,545,583
Pages: 110

Title: M3CBI Model Model III Communications Board Manual
Publisher: Computex
Year: 1982
Size: 133,853,141
Pages: 50

Title: Trendex Stock Market Trend Analysis
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Size: 145,908,901
Pages: 51
Notes: [26-1509]

Title: Trilogy Drive Controller Kit for Model III User Manual
Publisher: World Wide Data Systems Inc
Year: 1983
Size: 254,676,097
Pages: 42

February 5, 2024 – New Manual

William Bares was kind enough to scan the missing Alien Armada manual. Thank you, William!

Title: Alien Armada
Publisher: Waldron P Hodsdon
Year: 1981
Size: 630,356
Pages: 4

February 12, 2024 – Using 4164 RAM in a Model I Keyboard

Amardeep was kind enough to provide the articles he had collected regarding installing 4164 RAM chips in a Model I.

• Article by Errol Rosser
• Article by McCoy and Treasure
• Article by Don Kelly

February 15, 2024 – New Manuals

More manuals, Brick Parrish

Title: Talker v2.0 Users Manual
Publisher: Alpha Products
Year: 1979
Size: 44,107,158
Pages: 17
Notes: [Set 1]

Title: VS-100 Voice Synthesizer User Manual
Publisher: Alpha Products
Year: 1983
Size: 80,191,508
Pages: 40

February 16, 2024 – New Software

William Bares was kind enough to lend me some tapes to read!

Title: Alien Armada
NOTE: None of the existing WAV to CAS programs properly converted this to CAS. To run this, you will need to use TRS32 or other emulator which can process WAV files.

Title: Iago

Title: Scarfman

February 18, 2024 – Sacramento Tandy Users Group Newsletters

Eddie, of https://tandyshowcase.com/ has scanned some Sacramento Tandy Users Group newsletters!

Title: SACTUG
Issue: Vol 1 No 1
Publisher: Sacramento Tandy Users Group
Year: 1986
Size: 41,896,038
Pages: 8

Title: SACTUG
Issue: Vol 2 No 1
Publisher: Sacramento Tandy Users Group
Year: 1987
Size: 73,312,238
Pages: 10

Title: SACTUG
Issue: Vol 2 No 3
Publisher: Sacramento Tandy Users Group
Year: 1987
Size: 59,664,335
Pages: 10

February 18, 2024 – New Software

William Bares had also lent some disks …

Title: Super Script (Model 3)

Title: Alien Armada

Title: MyChess

February 22, 2024 – Model 4 Replacement Keyboard

Jay Crutti has designed a full Model 4 keyboard replacement.

Right now, you can build it yourself, although Jay is contemplating selling them in the future.

February 23, 2024 – Model 4 for sale Local Pickp in Texas.

A site visitor has a working Model 4 (or at least drive :0 does) for sale for $300 for local pickup. Unit does have a loose connection in the plug at the power supply that powers the CRT filament, although most of the time the connection is good as is. Probably an easy fix. Drive 1 works when in Drive 0 position, so perhaps there is an issue with the controller or cable for the :1 position.

Seller is located about 100 miles NW of San Antonio, TX a few miles off of I-10; and could meet in or around Kerrville, Texas if that’s better.

February 23, 2024 – Model 4 Service Manual Addendum

Ian Mavric was kind enough to provide the Model 4 Service Manual Addendum. Thank you, Ian!

Title: Model 4 and Model 4 Gate Array Service Manual Addendum
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1985
Size: 6,420,877

March 1, 2024 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

TRS8BIT – Vol 18, No. 1

We have the first news of the 2024 competition from George Phillips. There are articles from Ian Mavric on replacing Co-Co 2 keyboard membranes, a very detailed account of the FB series of disk drives and looks forward to the 2024 T.A. Jim Adams hunts down the start of BASIC making, what is a ‘must go to’ guide. E.T. Fonehume creates a BASIC one-liner to print a 5×5 magic square using consecutive numbers. Juergen Buessert explains how to create a ‘WAV’ file from a DMK image. Vince Otten continues his series ‘Software Tools in BASIC’ with episode 3, ‘Open For Business’ and an article using ROM calls from TRSDOS. Tony G sends details of various pieces of hardware he created, ‘back in the day’. And, of course, there’s the regular features of ‘The Way We Were’, U.K. Ebay bargains, various finds from ‘Surfin the Net’ and finally, there’s a BASIC one-liner game for all you M2 fans. (Is this a first I wonder?)

Issue Information:

Table of Contents:

March 17, 2024 – Catweasel Utilities Updated to v4.10

Quentin Barnes has updated the Catweasel Utilities to v4.10

New to this release are:

• Add -S option. This option allows the user to specify a minimum number of sectors per track and side. If that minimum is not reached during a read, it’ll trigger a retry.
• Extend the -x and -X option argument syntax when specifying a track range to also allow giving sides.
• Add partial support for RX02 in dmk2jv3.

The -S is a feature that I find to be a necessary evil. Many disks with issues can erroneously report an end of track data before all the retries are finished, and CW2DMK would then decide “Oh, OK – then this track is 7 good sectors” when it really is “7 good, 11 bad” that was just mishandled. With this, you can make a second pass that FORCES CW2DMK to keep re-reading until it either gets 18 good sectors or the retry count expires.

The main GITHUB can found at https://github.com/qbarnes/cw2dmk/

March 28, 2024 – TRSDOS v2.3 BASIC/CMD Disassembled

After a LOT of work (including an entire new pass over the entire Level II ROM disassembly), I have completed a commented disassembly of BASIC/CMD as was packaged with TRSDOS v2.3

The disassembly of BASIC/CMD can be found on this site.

March 29, 2024 – New Scans from Steve H

Steve H. has sent in a bunch of scans … Thank you, Steve!

Catalogs

Title: CLOAD Magazine
Publisher: CLOAD Magazine
Year: 19xx
Size: 709,924
Pages: 2

Title: Computer TEXTile Catalog
Publisher: Computer TEXTile
Year: 19xx
Size: 2,888,502
Pages: 6

Title: TRS Yellow Page
Publisher: Micro Architect
Year: 1978
Size: 2,581,055
Pages: 8
Notes: [78-11]

Magazines

Title: CLOAD Magazine 1978-08
Publisher: CLOAD Magazine Inc
Year: 1978
Size: 1,493,333
Pages: 4
Notes: [Set 2]

Title: Level One Magazine
Publisher: Level One Magazine
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,359,518
Pages: 4

Title: TRS-80 Computing
Issue: Vol 1 No 1
Publisher: Computer Information Exchange Inc
Year: 1978
Size: 16,654,542
Pages: 32

Service Manuals

Title: 16K RAM Expansion Service Manual Addendum
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1978
Size: 758,978
Pages: 4
Notes: [26-1101]

Hardware Manuals

Title: Important Notice Regarding Model I Mini-Disk Drives
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 19xx
Size: 240,607
Pages: 1

Title: Model I Double Density System Start-Up
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Size: 2,445,499
Pages: 2

Title: Oasis Systems Light Pen Users Manual
Publisher: Oasis Systems
Year: 1980
Size: 2,269,574
Pages: 11

April 10, 2024 – SDLTRS2 Updated to v1.2.29

Thanks to eagle eyed David S, I am told that Jens Guenther has updated his Windows/Linux fork of the SDLTRS Emulator to v1.2.29

Changelog:

• Added 1024 KB memory support for TCS Genie IIIs.
• Added 512 KB memory support for TRS-80 Model I Selector.
• Added 2nd printer MMIO for TRS-80 Model III/4/4P.
• Added more shortcuts for command line options.
• Added SDL2 aspect ratio option in GUI.
• Added debugger command to change Z80 HALT action.
• Fixed TRS-80 Model 4 MMIO in map 0.
• Fixed redraw of HRG1B screen.
• Fixed IMPORT.COM utility for CP/M 3.0.
• Fixed debugger alternate register set assignment by Nick Andrew.

You check it all out at https://gitlab.com/jengun/sdltrs/-/releases

April 12, 2024 – Update to TRS80Tools Multi-Utility

Lawrence Kesteloot has updated his TRS80TOOL to v2.7.0. Release Notes:

• In the run command, if the mounted floppy is modified, the changes will be written to the underlying virtual floppy file. Specify the –write-protected option to mount the floppy write-protected.
• The dir command has a new –system option to show system files.

You can download it from https://www.my-trs-80.com/tool/

April 25, 2024 – TRS80GP Updated to v2.5.3

George and Peter Phillips have updated their awesome TRS80GP emulator to v2.5.3. Changes are:

New Features:

• Model I/III/4 now accept .wav files as cassette input.
• Add -pp/-ppx options to control printer window pop-up.
• Model I RS-232 sense switches (thanks to Tuc for hardware tests).
• Add loopback device to RS-232 choices (-r :loop on command line)
• Add -rx option to disable RS-232 on Model I,2,III,4,12,16.
• Semigraphics 6 modes will display alternate palette (Electric Crayon, MC-10, CoCo).
• Add “-im disksummary” and disksummary on drive exports to output a summary of drive structure just like the Disk Viewer window.

Bug Fixes:

• $37EA and $37EB are now memory mapped printer port alises on Model I.
• Model I/III/4 RS-232 receive bug fixed.
• CoCo BASIC ROM 1.0 printer output fixed.
• Text pasting works for CoCo 1.0 and 1.1 ROMs.
• Printer auto-turbo works for all models now.
• Model 4 software keyboard no longer missing ‘+’ character on keycap.
• trs80gp -m1 -dx no longer loads lower case driver by default; use -lld to do so.

You can download it at http://48k.ca/trs80gp.html

April 26, 2024 – TRS-80 Trash Talk Live # 39 set for May 4!

The next TRS-80 Trash Talk live show is Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 2:00PM Pacific Daylight Time / 5:00PM Eastern Daylight Time!

You can watch on the TRS-80 Trash Talk channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkGugvdCkpkMDylVQb9gfg

If you want to participate in the live zoom session, reach out to trs80trashtalk at gmail dot com for information.

April 27, 2024 – TRS-80 Keyboard to Modern Computer via USB

Marcel Erz has just release a schematic to enable the connection of an original TRS-80 keyboard to a modern computer via USB which supports multiple TRS-80 models and various development boards for interfacing the keyboard with a system over USB.

You can find the GIT at https://github.com/RetroStack/TRS-80-USB-Keyboard

May 5, 2024 – Catweasel Utilities Updated to v4.10.1

Quentin Barnes has updated the Catweasel Utilities to v4.10.1

New to this release are:

• Fix indefinite looping while guessing head stepping rate when encountering unusually formatted disks, often from copy protection.
• Fix bug with wraparound detection when the duplicate ID block gets cut off by the DMK buffer filling up. The fix is to stop decoding when the buffer fills up, so that we don’t detect such a header in the first place.

The main GITHUB can found at https://github.com/qbarnes/cw2dmk/

May 17, 2024 – LS-LED Manual

Ian has kindly provided a scan of the LS-LED manual!

Title: LS-LED
Year: 1983
Company/Author: Logical Systems Inc
Size: 6,678,177
Pages: 15

May 17, 2024 – Robert Kilgus OK’s Downloads

L Curtis Boyle let me know that Canadian Retro Things posted a two part interview with Robert Kilgus. They write:

While at the 32nd Annual ‘Last’ Chicago CoCoFest I took a little side trip with L Curtis Boyle. We visited Robert Kilgus, a name you may recognize from a number of TRS-80 Model 1 and CoCo programs. We sat down with Robert, here is part one of the interview covering his early days, before doing anything for Tandy.

You can watch Part 1, entitled “The Early Years” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQAq5wNLcCo and Part 2, entitled “The TRS 80 Model 1 Years” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAqG0lSyuLs

While they were it, they secured permission from Robert to post his sofware and books, so you can download his book, Inside Microfiles and all of Robert’s files have now been made downloadable via the Software Seach Page.

May 19, 2024 – QuizMaster Manual

Ian has kindly provided a scan of the Quizmaster Manual!

Title: QuizMaster
Publisher: Logical Systems
Year: 1982
Size: 7,362,857
Pages: 18

May 21, 2024 – LDOS 5.3 Model 4 Interface Kit Manual

Ian has kindly provided a scan of the LDOS 5.3 Model 4 Interface Kit Manual!

Title: LDOS 5.3 Model 4 Interface Kit
Publisher: Misosys Inc
Year: 1987
Size: 11,218,690
Pages: 14
Notes: [Blue Cover]

May 23, 2024 – Robert Kilgus Interview Parts 3 and 4

L Curtis Boyle let me know that Canadian Retro Things posted two more parts of his interview with Robert Kilgus.

Part 3 covers the main part of his career with the Coco from 1979-1984, including selected as one of the few to get the earliest prototypes of the TRS-80 Color Computer, the cross development system he used for the earliest Coco programs, and developing his Coco specific programs and games. You can watch that at https://youtu.be/kJT9T2apvvs?si=6kYwYM_p10q57jtR

Part 4 (the final part) finishes covering the Coco (including the unreleased OS-9 Scripsit from 1984) and his final home computer (multi-platform) project – and what went wrong there. And a bit of what he is following these days. You can watch that at https://youtu.be/uwuS4dFg93o?si=T3RAXmxPugyQuTsb

June 3, 2024 – Bay Area Tandy Meetup

Arno, Sascha, and Lawrence Kesteloot will be running the second Bay Area Tandy Meetup on June 15, 2024!

If you are interested in the meet-up, please visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

June 4, 2024 – Model I Case Replication Project

Marcel Erz’s TRS-80 RetroStack projects continue to be completed.

Read about the recently finished Model 1 case replication project at https://www.patreon.com/posts/trs-80-model-1-104571852

And peruse his other finished projects including a ‘Fake Keyboard Bezel’ case that works with a Raspberry Pi and modern USB or wireless keyboards, a mini case, and about many others at https://www.patreon.com/posts/summary-update-105541104

Sign up for his Patreon and encourage him to complete the many special projects such as a TRS-80 Model 1 Japanese Replica, an improved version of the Model 1, or for the Norcom TC-III replica – A Model 3 in the form factor of a Model I.

Marcel Erz’s RetroStack is also hosting a noteworthy project by Ven Reddy: the Model 1 Test Harness. This device utilizes the *TEST signal on the edge card connector for system testing without needing to swap ROMs. The project is still in progress, so follow it at https://www.patreon.com/collection/298425

June 5, 2024 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter – Vol 18, No. 2

Issue Information:

Table of Contents:

June 23, 2024 – Replacement Keyboards for Real TRS-80’s

If you need a replacement keyboard for your TRS-80, Jay Crutti has developed a few models

You can visit Jay’s web site at https://www.jaycrutti.com/hardware-projects/tandy-trs-80-replacement-keyboards

June 24, 2024 – TRS-80 Trash Talk Live # 40 set for July 6, 2024

The next TRS-80 Trash Talk live show is Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 6:00PM Pacific Daylight Time / 9:00PM Eastern Daylight Time!

You can watch on the TRS-80 Trash Talk channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkGugvdCkpkMDylVQb9gfg

If you want to participate in the live zoom session, reach out to trs80trashtalk at gmail dot com for information.

July 1, 2024 – Disk Request Page Fixed

George Philips to the rescue AGAIN! The diskette request page has been fixed.

If you had a request in and never heard back, please re-submit!

July 14, 2024 – TRS-80 Model I RFI Testing Report

Pete Cetinski has provided the report which Tandy got back when it tested the Model I for RFI. The Model I was discontinued based on these findings.

July 15, 2024 – New Web Site

Jim McGinley has start up a GAMES I USED TO PLAY webpage.

The site uses TRS80GP to highlight 30 of his favourite TRS-80 games (6 so far are posted). A snapshot feature is present which allows the games to be saved and loaded, so people can start at higher levels.

You can check out the site at http://www.bigpants.ca/gamesiusedtoplay

August 12, 2024 – Model 4 ROMs Disassembled

The Model 4 ROMs have been disassembled. The same single page houses v1, v2, and the Network Student Edition ROM.

You can check out the page here.

August 19, 2024 – SDLTRS2 Updated to v1.2.30

Jens Guenther has updated his Windows/Linux fork of the SDLTRS Emulator to v1.2.30

Changelog:

• Added LNW80 Model II banking and 80×24 text mode support.
• Added 1024 KB memory support for Alpha Technology SuperMem.
• Added Alpha Technology SuperMem for TRS-80 Model 4/4P.
• Added Real Time Clock/Calendar Card (RTCC) for TRS-80 Model I.
• Added TRS-80 Model I printer address aliases.
• Added maskable interrupt in IM0 and IM2.
• Added turbo mode deactivation while any keys are pressed.
• Fixed scaling of block graphic characters for Model 4/4P.
• Fixed Z80 HALT action to run debugger.
• Fixed bugs and internal improvements.

You check it all out at https://gitlab.com/jengun/sdltrs

August 11, 2024 – Dennis Brent Passed Away

Dennis Brent, Kim Watt’s partner at PowerSoft, has passed away.

You can read the obituary at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/dallas-tx/dennis-brent-11935900.

September 1, 2024 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

TRS8BIT – Vol 18, No. 3

In this 100 page edition of all things Tandy, Ian Mavric updates us with the latest news of TA24, he details information on Type2 HDA’s for the Model 2 family and reviews the Tandy model 1200. TRS-80 BASIC floating points are described in another detailed article by Jim Adams. Pascal Holdry shows his latest work for the 68000 computer boards. ‘At The Ready Prompt’ is back with 2 very neat ways of checking for odd or even. George Phillips ‘Tunes-up’ the Co-Co randomising ability. ‘The Way We Were’ looks at the Exatron Stringy Floppy for the TRS-80. There’s details of some of the recent U.K. Ebay bargains. ‘Where Are They Now’ highlights a prolific contributor to Tandy section of Softside magazine, James Garon. (Sorry about the photo though!). There’s time for a bit of fun, checking a maze. E.T. Fonehume checks-out check digits, using a one-liner of course! There’s a quick surf around the net. Mark Casteleijn steps through his adventures with the FreHD and TRSVID. Vince Otten explains how to error trap ROM calls from TRSDOS 2.3 And finally, just a reminder, time is running fast to get you competition entries in.

A new upgrade to George and Peter Phillips’s TRS-80 emulator. trs80gp (version 2.5.4) will be available shortly. Full details of all the options are available from their website. This really is THE best TRS-80 emulator on the planet. It even has, just for the U.K., Aculab Floppy Tape emulation. Just as ‘in the day’ but, of course, without any media problems! You can also use the upgraded version of Level 2 BASIC, “TWOHAF” (Level 2.5), using the AFT as well as ordinary cassette BASIC.

September 17, 2024 – Tandy Assembly is coming up.

Tandy Assembly is happening September 27th – 29th, 2024 in Springfield, Ohio

The big news this year is that TRS-80 creator team of Don French and Steve Leininger will be joining us for the first time and Steve will be giving a keynote speech with Q&A.
All the usual events will be back, like the Friday Tech Track classes, the Saturday afternoon auction and the Saturday evening trivia contest hosted by none other than Ian Mavric!

You can get more information at https://www.tandyassembly.com/

November 11, 2024 – TRS-80 Trash Talk Live # 41 set for November 16!

The next TRS-80 Trash Talk live show is Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 6?PM PST

You can watch on the TRS-80 Trash Talk channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkGugvdCkpkMDylVQb9gfg

If you want to participate in the live zoom session, reach out to trs80trashtalk at gmail dot com for information.

November 17, 2024 – Page Devoted to Missing Software

If you have a collection of TRS-80 software, please consider visiting the Missing TRS-80 Software Page and seeing if you have anything which is missing.

November 18, 2024 – TRS80GP Updated to v2.5.4

George and Peter Phillips have updated their awesome TRS80GP emulator to v2.5.4. TRS-80 Model I/III/4-related changes are:

New Features:

• Event stream (-event endpoint) allowing external programs to blink LEDs, etc.
• FreHD emulation supports DSK/DCT LDOS driver to mount read-only disk images.
• Hardware serial port access on linux and mac via -r /dev/tty/USB0 or such.

Bug Fixes:

• Cassette now starts if inserted while CLOAD or SYSTEM in progress.
• Control of delay before cassette auto-save via -csd or Cassette -> Save menu.
• Correct Model 3 and 4 memory mapped printer port to be read-only.
• Less awkward breakpoint GUI with a single window and addr1:addr2 for ranges.
• Minor .wav output correction as .wav files should be an even number of bytes.
• Printer window auto scrolls to bottom again on output.
• Printing on LDOS no longer reboots; emulator ignored printer interrupt disable.
• Replaced patched TRSDOS with proper Japanese TRSDOS.
• Show .wav files in cassette open dialog by default if supported.
• Stop quadradic slowdown as printer output grows.

You can download it at George’s web site or by clicking here.

November 24, 2024 – Page Devoted to Missing Magazines / Newsletters

If you have a collection of actual, hard copy, TRS-80 magazines or newsletters, please consider visiting the Missing TRS-80 Magazines Page and seeing if you have anything which is missing.

November 27, 2024 – GW2DMK updated to v0.0.1-Alpha 8

Quentin Barnes has updated his GreaseWeasel software to Alpha 8. Please do not be concerned with the “Alpha” designation – he is being cautious. This software is FAR superior to the software which comes with the Greaseweasel for reading TRS-80 Model I/III/4 disks.

You can download the software at https://github.com/qbarnes/gw2dmk/releases/tag/v0.0.1.alpha.8

November 30, 2024 – SDLTRS Updated to v1.2.31

Jens Guenther has updated his Windows/Linux fork of the SDLTRS Emulator to v1.2.31

Changelog:

• Added TRS-80 Model III/4/4P NMI bug fix by Joshua Arnold
• Added Model III/4/4P memory mapped printer port to be read-only
• Added filter for supported file types in GUI file browser
• Added window border in fullscreen mode
• Added more shortcuts for command line options
• Fixed command line options for memory expansion cards
• Fixed TCS EG-64 Memory-Banking Adaptor
• Fixed TCS Genie IIs/SpeedMaster RAM 192 B memory card
• Fixed current date in LS-DOS for TRS-80 Model 4/4P
• Fixed Hard Disk Activity LED for SDL2
• Fixed Mouse cursor for selection in scaled SDL2 window
• Fixed some bugs and other improvements

You check it all out at https://gitlab.com/jengun/sdltrs

December 1, 2024 – Model I Rev D and E to Rev G

Mike Gore has done an analysis of the changes to the Model I Rev D and Rev E boards and has written up a piece on how to modify those boards to the last revision, Rev G.

You can download it here

December 2, 2024 – Model I Revisions Analyzed

Marcel Erz has done a complete breakdown of all TRS-80 Model I revisions.

You can read about it at https://www.patreon.com/posts/exploring-of-trs-117044053

December 3, 2024 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

Dusty has released the December 2024 edition of TRS8BIT magazine.

In this edition, George Phillips announces the winner of the 2024 Competition. Egoitz Campo reports on the latest TRS-80 tournament. Ian Mavric reports on the 2024 Tandy Assembly, reviews the very rare Tandy 10 and wets our appetite with a preview of his work on the Tandy Model 1 reference numbers. Vince Otten has the penultimate edition of his ‘Software Tools in BASIC’. There’s a report on some of the Ebay ‘bargains’ since our last issue and E.T. Fonehume has a one-liner for checking if a number is PRIME. ‘The Way We Were’ takes us back-to-the-day. ‘Just for fun’ sets another maze for you to try and finally, there is the sad news of the death of T.E. Kurtz, a really forward thinker, who opened the world of computing to many, in a revolutionary way.

You can download it from http://www.fabsitesuk.com/tandy/trs8bit1804.pdf

December 7, 2024 – Missing Software

A big THANK YOU to all of those who have sent in software from the Missing TRS-80 Software Page and seeing if you have anything which is missing.

As always, if you have any of the items on the list, please Contact Me.

December 15, 2024 – Update to TRS-80 Tool

Lawrence Kesteloot has updated his TRS-80 Tool with a new subcommand to the option to focus on bad sectors of a disk image.

The sectors command displays a table of the sectors in a floppy disk. The columns are the sectors and the rows are the tracks. For each sector a character is displayed with:

• – No sector.
• S Single-density sector.
• D Double-density sector.
• X Deleted sector.
• C CRC error (ID or data).
• ? Missing sector.

Use the –contents flag to also show the contents of the sectors.

The new –bad flag lists all sectors that are missing or that have a CRC error, as well as which file (if any) is on each bad sector. Can be combined with –contents to also show the contents of the bad sectors.

The instructions page can be found at https://www.my-trs-80.com/tool/#sectors, executables can be downloaded at https://www.my-trs-80.com/tool/#installation, and the source can be downloaded by choosing DOWNLOAD ZIP from https://github.com/lkesteloot/trs80.

December 24, 2024 – TRSDOS v2.3 FORMAT/CMD Disassembled

I misunderstood someone’s request and disassembled TRSDOS v2.3’s FORMAT/CMD program. Oh well.

You can find that commented disassembly here.

January 7, 2025 – PC-2 ROMs Disassembled

Jeff Birt has disassembled the 3 versions of the PC-2 ROM. You can download those ROMs and their disassemblies from Jeff’s github.

January 15, 2025 – TBBS on Telnet

John H has TBBS running on his Model I. To access, telnet (using Putty or similar telnet client; but not a browser) to trs80bbs.tplinkdns.com

For those interested, he is using WiModem232 Pro as his modem.

January 19, 2025 – Three Emails

I had received three emails on January 17th that required me to do a little research. In the interim, an accident with FDISK caused me erase my C drive. While I have a daily backup, I lost those 3 emails.

So if you emailed me on the 16th or 17th and didn’t get a response, I apologize but I don’t have your email address anymore.

If you have an unanswered question from me, please reach back out.

January 22, 2024 – New Software Manuals thanks to Tom Bourke

Title: EnhComp Enhanced Basic Compiler Development System
Publisher: Philip Oliver
Year: 1986
Size: 113,813,889
Pages: 191

Title: LS-Utility
Publisher: Misosys
Year: 1984
Size: 30,338,491
Pages: 30
Notes: [L-32-150]

Title: MC C-Language Compiler v1.6
Publisher: Misosys
Year: 1985
Size: 267,958,512
Pages: 363

Title: Pro-ADE
Publisher: Misosys
Year: 1984
Size: 16,662,505
Pages: 16

Title: Relocating Macro Assembler Development System
Publisher: Misosys
Year: 1985
Size: 92,189,668
Pages: 105

January 25, 2024 – FROGGY for ChromaTRS

Thanks to Richard Zimmerman and Robert French, Froggy for the ChromaTRS has been added to the archive.

You can download it here.

All of Robert French’s software is available for download via the TRS-80 Archive Search page, just search for Robert S French in the AUTHOR field.

January 27, 2024 – Rigid Driver for Model I DOSPlus v3.5 VR Data Hard Drive

Disk

Screenshot

Tuc was kind enough to send the Rigid Driver for Model I DOSPlus v3.5 VR Data Hard Drive for archiving.

You can download it here.

January 29, 2024 – MCAP: A Microcomputer Circuit Analysis Program

Ad

Media

Screenshot

Sean O’Neill was kind enough to send MCAP: A Microcomputer Circuit Analysis Program, by Hayden for archiving.

You can download it here.

February 2, 2025 – Greaseweazle Driver Update

Greaseweazel hardware

Quentin Barnes has released an update to his Greaseweazle software, now at version 0.0.1.beta.1. Supported is Windows 32 and 64 bit varieties, and Linux Aarch64, Arm7L and x86/x64.

IMHO, he is being very conservative with his numbering – the program works perfectly.

You can download it from Quentin’s GITHUB at
https://github.com/qbarnes/gw2dmk/releases/tag/v0.0.1.beta.1 or all compiled in one zip here.

If you are dumping your own images, please consider sending them over to me for addition to the archive.

February 3, 2025 – Modern Replacement Parts

Marcel Erz, through his Retrostack github page, has put together a lot of modern replacements for TRS-80 Model I/III/4 parts, including motherboards, ROMs, character generators, and various plastic parts.

As of this posting, the site includes:

• Model I:
  • Motherboards: Revision A, D, E, G
  • ROMs: Broken out into 2×64, 2×128, 2×256, and 2×512
  • Keyboards: ALPS and MX
  • Power Supply with 3-D Printable Enclosure
  • Mods: XRX-III
  • Adapters: Keyboard, ROM, and Character Generator
  • 3-D Printable Parts
• Model III and 4:
  • Keyboard Adapter
  • 3-D Printable Parts

February 7, 2025 – New Hardware Manuals thanks to Ken Sperling

Title: Sprinter I
Publisher: Holmes Engineering
Year: 19xx
Size: 13,167,088
Pages: 8

Title: Orchestra-85
Publisher: Jon Bokelman
Year: 1981
Size: 73,390,734
Pages: 47
Notes: [Set 1]

February 13, 2025 – Adventure International’s Night Walker

Ian Mavric has managed to get his hands on the rare Night Walker by Adventure International. Thank you Ian!

Title: Night Walker
Publisher: Bob Cassady Adventure International
Year: 1983
Size: 8,598,935
Pages: 11

As a reminder … if you have any disks at all, or any of the software on the known missing page, please consider letting me know.

February 15, 2025 – The Search for Martian Menace

Jamie Curmi has put up a page discussing the search to locate the program Martian Menace. You can read it at https://curmi.com/martian-menace/.

February 16, 2025 – What have I been up to

The Software Archive is unwieldy. Between SUPERZAP and BASIC, so many files were modified by the various users resulting a slightly different versions of otherwise identical files.

In attempting to weed through all these, I realized that I needed to be more descriptive in each filename, so that duplicates could be sussed out.

This entails running every piece of software in the archive, figuring out something that would quickly distinguish one version of, let’s say, Star Trek or Othello or Poker, from another, and re-labeling the ZIP with that note. Then, seeing which files have the same label and running them again to see if they are identical and, if so, merging them into a single ZIP file instead of having multiple ZIP files. Then running them all again to get screen shots.

This exercise also allows for discovery of previously missing information, like an embedded author’s name in one copy that was removed from another.

So that’s what’s going on. It is a drastic renaming and recommenting of the archive, but with a reduction in ‘Author Unknown’ and duplicate entries.

… and it also lets me program, something I don’t otherwise do, in developing all the tools and batch files I need to make this jobs somewhat easier. VB6 still works fine under Windows 11, thank goodness!

February 18, 2025 – Tandy Australia Software

Scott Atkinson has kindly provided a few Tandy Australia titles. Thank you, Scott!

Title: Bowling
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Catalog: 269-7912

Title: Formula One
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Catalog: 269-7911

Title: Gun Fighter
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Catalog: 269-7953

Title: Helicopter
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Catalog: 269-7951

Title: Invaders
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 19xx
Catalog: 269-7913

As a reminder … if you have any disks at all, or any of the software on the known missing page, please consider letting me know.

February 20, 2025 – Racet Computes Files Now Downloadable

Thanks to Darin May, who used to work at Racet Computes, Chris Johnston (the “C” in RACET) has given me permission to make Racet Computes software available for download.

So … the software archive links and the software manual links are now live.

Thank you Chris and Darin!

February 25, 2025 – Model I for LOCAL PICKUP ONLY

UPDATE: Claimed

March 7, 2025 – VR Data Hard Disk III User Manual

Title: VR Data Hard Disk III
Publisher: VR Data
Year: 19xx
Size: 2,539,179
Pages: 26

March 8, 2025 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

TRS8BIT – Vol 19, No. 1

Starting our 19th year with a bumper 150+ page edition of TRS8BIT! Thanks to everyone who have contributed articles. There’s first sight of the main 2025 competition ‘IMPOSSiPUZZLE25’. Great prize on offer, so get your thinking-heads on! There’s also a comp/comp for you to enter too. (See page 60). So, down to the March issue. Part one of Jim Norris’s ‘Disk Files’, (a rare find!). Debug routines coded, Model 16 roundtable and servicing old hardware from Ken Brookner. Latest re-engineering details from Pascal Holdry. There’s a one-liner from E.T. Fonehume just for Scrabble fans. Ian Mavric has articles on M3 video board repairs, reviews the Model 12 and looks forward to Tandy Assembly 2025. Randy Kindig interviews Don French and Steve Leininger. And finally, Vince Otten completes his Software Tools series with episode 7 and has details of a new series featuring Dr. David Lien’s book, from back in the day, ‘it’s easier than you think’. And of course, there’s all our regular features too.

You can download it from http://www.fabsitesuk.com/tandy/trs8bit1901.pdf

Issue Information:

Table of Contents:

March 11, 2025 – Some CINTIG Newsletters

I found some random CINTUG newsletters in a binder while cleaning out some TRS-80 stuff.

Title: CINTUG Basic IO Newsletter
Publisher: CINTUG
Year: 1979
Size: 11,340,563
Pages: 4
Notes: [1979-09]

Title: CINTUG Basic IO Newsletter
Publisher: CINTUG
Year: 1979
Size: 8,950,291
Pages: 5
Notes: [1979-11]

Title: CINTUG Basic IO Newsletter
Publisher: CINTUG
Year: 1979
Size: 6,883,555
Pages: 4
Notes: [1979-12]

March 20, 2025 – ROM Bugs

Vernon Hester had previously written up (twice now, actually) a breakdown of ROM bugs he found while developing SuperBASIC. I had reached out to him for clarity on a few, and he got back to me on most. While I was holding off until I heard back on the rest, recent Facebook activity about a ROM Bug led me to conclude I should probably announce and add the page.

So … if you would like to see the bugs he found, head on over to the ROM Errors page, with all but 1 duplicated.

April 14, 2025 – Model III’s for Free in the UK

Alistair MacMillan has 4 Model III’s available for free for local pickup in Norwich, Norfolk.

He advises that were in a garage for a very long time and are as-is. From looking at them, he sees a couple of keys missing and there is a crack in one casing but other than that they seem to look ok. He has NOT powered them on.

If interested, and you can do local pickup, please contact me.

May 21, 2025 – eBay Auctions to Support the Site

I am going to stop eBaying for a while; tried on about 1/4 of what I have, but need a bit of a break.

The following are the remaining auctions that I have online until I pick this up again; probably next year.

May 25, 2025 – Tuc’s Workbench

If you are looking for TRS-80 parts, such as matching (silver) paint, or replacement ROMs, or composite video cables, visit Tuc’s Workbench at https://shop.tucs-workbench.com/.

May 27, 2025 – 80 Microcomputing 1984 on eBay

Decided to put some magazines up and see how it goes! First up, 1984 80 Micro.

Auction can be found Here.

May 27, 2025 – 80 Microcomputing 1984 on eBay

Decided to put some magazines up and see how it goes! First up, 1984 80 Micro.

Auction can be found here.

June 1, 2025 – Model I RS-232 Reproduction

Roger Murley / BYTESHiFT has a developed a recreation of the 26-1145 RS-232 interface board for the Model I

They are available for sale to those who wish to purchase one, or for those who like to build, the Gerbers, schematics, BOM, and KiCAD source files are available on GitHub.

Roger’s design replicates the operation of the original board, ensuring compatibility with existing Model I software. Hardware-wise, he reports a few differences:

• SMT components are used wherever possible, to minimize cost
• Sense switch (DIP switch configuration) functionality is removed, so that the interface must be configured via software
• The TERM/COMM switch has been removed. The unit is configured in TERM (DTE) mode, and an external null-modem adapter must be used if operation as a DCE device is required.
• IC selection eliminated the need for +12/-12/-5 supply rails. +5V is the only supply needed

More info can be found at: https://byteshiftmusic.com/trs-80-model-i-rs-232-interface-re-creation/

June 1, 2025 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

TRS8Bit – Vol 19, No. 2

You can download it from https://www.fabsitesuk.com/tandy/trs8bit1902.pdf

Issue Information

Table Of Contents

June 4, 2026 – TRS80GP Updated to v2.5.5

George and Peter Phillips have updated their awesome TRS80GP emulator to v2.5.5. TRS-80 Model I/III/4-related changes are:

New Functions/Updates

• Debug -> File Utility window to examine and manipulate disk files.
• Scripting commands to control TRS-80 and UI. http://48k.ca/trs80gp.html#script
• Add your own commands to Custom menu with -menu
• Run commands at boot with -cmd
• Run commands along with with automatic input using -icmd
• Can pass arguments to endpoints: -p [ :mx70 -mute ]
• Motorola S-record file loading.
• Paste modes for injecting text on unsupported operating systems + programs.
• Added “-ib file” to run trs80gp script commands from a file.
• Added “-ifr file” to paste in a file with no line ending translation.
• Direct loaded BASIC programs can have multiple-line lines.
• Bus tracing can be limited to address ranges with -tr low:high,l2:h2
• Output registers to bus trace with -trpr A,HL or similar
• -cix option to turn off warning when cassette I/O seen and interrupts enabled.
• MX-70 can automatically pause at the end of every page.
• MX-70 tractor feed and perforations can be turned off.
• Add “save image” to printer window in Windows.
• Add Cassette to Device Viewer.

Bug Fixes

• Keyboard auto de-turbo now works on linux and mac.
• Serial port, printer and other dialogs have explicit enable checkbox.
• Fix linux crash when resizing window in turbo mode.
• Fix linux crash when media key like “pause” or “next track” pressed.
• Fix crash/emulation errors when examining active HFE disk images in Disk Viewer.
• Fix crash formatting single-density only DMK files as double density.
• “Typing” keyboard layout (-kl typ) better for Level 1, TRSDOS 2.3, CP/M input.
• Keyboard layout and ghosting now remembered as user preferences.
• Input system (-i flags) timing more consistent and useful.
• Loading symbols with -ls still allows boot into DOS.
• Symbols now appear in profiler output.
• Copy screen to clipboard sometimes failed in graphics-only mode under Windows.
• Trim trailing spaces and blank lines when copying text screen.
• Pasting to Tandy 10 faster and more reliable.
• MX-70 reset puts printer into default mode; cold restart drops pages.
• MX-70 no longer gets bad line height if high bit set in size.
• Stop -turbo from skipping renders; it was triggering legacy code.
• On Windows sub-processes like from -p :mx70 don’t steal the focus.
• IMD/JV3 with CRC errors now report those errors to the FDC.
• Blank double-sided diskette images moved to Other submenu to reduce clutter.

You can download the emulator here or from their site at http://48k.ca/trs80gp.html.

June 5, 2025 – eBay Auctions to Support the Site

I have listed the 1986 Year run of 80 Microcomputing on eBay.

Auction can be found Here.

June 6, 2025 – New Manuals

Mloewen has provided some missing manuals!

Title: Micro-Courier v1.00.00
Publisher: Microcom Inc-Radio Shack
Year: 1982
Size: 7,021,857
Pages: 104
Notes: [M3][26-1589]

Title: Orchestra-80
Publisher: Jon Bokelman-Software Affair
Year: 1980
Size: 2186295
Pages: 44

Title: Teleterm Terminal Emulator System
Publisher: Telexpress Inc
Year: 1983
Size: 7436278
Pages: 198

June 14, 2024 – ASCII Magazine

Stuart Feldhammer has found a tape containing an issue of the fabled ASCII Magazine.

You can see him review/play the tape at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncvzz7zP-d0

June 19, 2025 – Mark Allen Reed

Matthew Reed wrote in to let me know of his brother’s, Mark, passing.

Mark, author of the popular TRS-80 text editor ED-IT, as well as the Utility Disks sold by Computer News 80, and many articles about the TRS-80 for multiple publications, passed away on April 20, 2025.

You can download all of Mark’s software here.

June 23, 2025 – Matthew Reed’s TRS-80 Emulators and Z80ASM

Matthew Reed, who has done so much for the TRS-80 community, including writing quite a few of the most important programs in TRS-80 emulation, has taken seriously ill and has decided to make all of the versions of his software which previously was subject to paid registration to unlock all their features, freely available in their fully registered forms.

• Model 4 Emulator v1.0B for MSDOS can be downloaded here.
  Matthew’s official page, with instructions for use, can be found at http://www.trs-80emulators.com/model-4-emulator/
• Model I/III Emulator v1.0B for MSDOS can be downloaded here.
  Matthew’s official page, with instructions for use, can be found at http://www.trs-80emulators.com/model-1-3-emulator/
  
• TRS32 Model I/III/4 Emulator v1.28 for Windows can be downloaded here.
  Matthew’s official page, with instructions for use, can be found at http://www.trs-80emulators.com/model-1-3-4-emulator/
  
• Z80Asm v1.26 for Windows can be downloaded here.
  Matthew’s official page, with instructions for use, can be found at http://www.trs-80emulators.com/z80asm/
  

Thank you so much Matthew!

June 29, 2025 – Trash Talk Live

The next Trash Talk Live is on Saturday July 5th at 9pm Eastern! I hope to see all of you there!

You can watch it on https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

The Zoom can be found at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89974424571?pwd=CSl8ZbXU5bX0bbJl0ME8HlhalbAAGf.1

June 30, 2025 – Updating Ads in Archive

Over the weekend I licensed ABBYY Finereader 16 and ran all 102 issues of 80 Microcomputing through it. While I am surprised at some bugs that seem to have survived 16 iterations of the program to make themselves known almost immediately, it has allowed me to leverage the dtSearch indexing software to help augment the graphic parts of the archive, mostly adding missing blurbs and ads, although also helping to correct some author errors.

The workflow is that I do an archive search for program whose author is known but which doesn’t have an ad. I then use dtSearch to try to see if they advertised in 80 Microcomputing. If so, I use GhostScript (command line) to extract to the page from the 80 Microcomputing to TIFF and edit accordingly.

While not perfect, it helped.

July 7, 2025 – Updating Ads in Archive

I have finished going through the OCR’d 80 Microcomputing magazines looking for advertisements which were missing from the search results. All in all, 483 more advertisements have been added.

July 10, 2025 – Model III Recapping Kit

Rick Morris recently had his Model III’s power supply go poof. He was kind enough to let me know that recap kits can be found at:

https://console5.com/store/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-3-4-power-supply-cap-kit-astec-aa11320.html

July 28, 2025 – Radio Shack Technician Series Bulletins

Doug R was kind enough to provide two of the Radio Shack Technician Series bulletins:

Title: Radio Shack Technician Series – Diagnostics – Dynamic Memory Test
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,103,566
Pages: 16
NOTES: Model I-III Memory Diagnostics Program

Title: Radio Shack Technician Series – Diagnostics – FDCALCG 1
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,141,870
Pages: 14
NOTES: Model I FDC Alignment Program

July 31, 2025 – Additional Documents

Doug R was kind enough to provide some more publications and documents:

Title: Diagnostic and Burn In Tandy Drive Controller TDC 3
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1981
Size: 2,909,023
Pages: 19

Title: Radio Shack Technician Series – Diagnostics – Model I and III Tandy Drive Controller
Publisher: Tandy
Year: 1982
Size: 2,908,586
Pages: 38

Title: Technical Education Series – Floppy Drive Training Workbook
Publisher: Tandy Corporation
Year: 1986
Size: 6,680,314
Pages: 72

Title: Western Digital Series I Hard Disk Driver
Publisher: Watt Breeze QSD
Year: 1983
Size: 641,624
Pages: 6

Title: Using a Single Hard Drive with Two Operating Systems
Publisher: Powersoft Products
Year: 1984
Size: 366,038
Pages: 3

August 10, 2025 – New Model III Game

Andrew Myers has written a Model III BASIC Game called Boozer. You basically move your player around the screen to get the beer and avoid cops, but the player gets harder to control the more beers it gets!

You can download it here.

August 14, 2025 – Basic Computer Games Volume 1 by Dave Ahl

David S found the BASIC COMPUTER GAMES Vol 1 (TRS-80 Edition) for sale and kindly drop shipped it straight to me. Since Dave Ahl had previously released all his work (and all Creative Computing work), you can download it by clicking below!

Title: Basic Computer Games Volume I TRS-80 Edition
Publisher: David Ahl – Creative Computing
Year: 1979
Size: 36,612,228
Pages: 194
OCRed: Yes

August 16, 2025 – Basic Computer Games Volume 1 by Dave Ahl – CORRECTED

Peter Philips was kind enough to point out some issues with the scan. While my original did not have pages 37 or 38, the errors he pointed out on pages 11, 60, 61, 124, 132, 133, and 134 have been corrected

If you previously downloaded the book, please re-download it.

Title: Basic Computer Games Volume I TRS-80 Edition
Publisher: David Ahl – Creative Computing
Year: 1979
Size: 36,612,228
Pages: 194
OCRed: Yes

By the way, the source book I had was completely water stained and in awful shape, so I am not surprised it was missing a page.

August 20, 2025 – HxC Flopy Drive Emulator and Software

Jean-François DEL NERO, author of the HxC Floppy Emulator software, has let me know that the bug which had sometimes affected creating DMK images has been fixed! If you are using the most recent version and still experience a conversion error, please reach out.

August 21, 2025 – Matthew Reed has Passed Away

I am sorry to announce that Matthew Reed has passed away. Matthew had done so much for the TRS-80 community, and for me personally, that this is a huge loss.

Matthew had previously made all of his “registered” software free and ensured that 100% of his source code was passed into good hands, so nothing there is lost.

His two TRS-80 related domains, www.TRS-80.org and www.TRS-80Emulators.com have now been registered to me, and I am currently hosting their prior content, which he had carefully converted his wordpress to HTML so that I could just upload it once he passed away.

An annoucement can be found here.

August 25, 2025 – Snappware

Nicole Snapp-Holloway, daughter of Bob Snapp, has OK’d making all Snappware software and manuals available for download. Those links are now all live. Thank you, Nicole!

August 29, 2025 – Programmable Sound Generator Board Manual

Dusty was kind enough to send over the User’s Manual for the Programmable Sound Generator board for the TRS-80 Model I made by LFH Associates.

Thanks, Dusty!

Title: Programmable Sound Generator Board Users Manual
Publisher: LFH Associates Ltd
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,144,041
Pages: 12
OCRed: Yes

August 29, 2025 – SDLTRS2 v1.2.33

Jens Guenther’s SDLTRS2 has been updated to v1.2.33. The changelog from v1.2.32 is:

• Added Solid State Disk (RAM-Disk) for Aster CT-80.
• Added character set for Aster CT-80 CP/M.
• Added debugger command to show hard disk controller state.
• Added debugger commands to fill and move memory.
• Added support for 8 Disk Drives (TCS SpeedMaster/Genie IIs/IIIs).
• Added function to copy the emulator screen to printer file.
• Fixed Aster CT-80 emulation to run CP/M (thanks to Wim Nelis).
• Fixed CP/M utilities (reported by Wim Nelis).
• Fixed some bugs and internal improvements.

You can find his site and downloads at https://gitlab.com/jengun/sdltrs.

August 31, 2025 – Australian TRS-80 Microcomputer News

The Australian TRS-80 Microcomputer News page has been updated to include Volumes 3, 4, and some of 5.

Thank you Gonk23 for the heads up and the issues!

August 31, 2025 – Yahoo TRS-80 Group Files

George Phillips was kind enough to point me to a dump of the Yahoo TRS-80 groups from Archive.Org. I hope to go through it and see if anything is worth adding.

For now, here are some manuals which were turned into HTML, which I turned into PDF’s

Title: Grand Prix 80
Publisher: Rick Maurice – Melbourne House
Year: 1982
Size: 331,315
Pages: 3
OCRed: No

Title: Martian Patrol
Publisher: Rick Maurice – Melbourne House
Year: 1982
Size: 469,517
Pages: 3
OCRed: No

Title: Space Attack
Publisher: Clifford Abrahams – Melbourne House
Year: 1982
Size: 453,035
Pages: 3
OCRed: No

Title: Wild West
Publisher: Clifford Abrahams – Melbourne House
Year: 1982
Size: 428,854
Pages: 3
OCRed: No

Title: Air Raid
Publisher: Small System Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 213,178
Pages: 3
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: Airmail Pilot
Publisher: Instant Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 355,333
Pages: 1
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: Ball Turret Gunner
Publisher: Instant Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 414,985
Pages: 5
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: House of Thirty Gables
Publisher: Bill Miller – Instant Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 259,374
Pages: 2
NOTES: IS0219R / HTML to PDF

Title: Oil Tycoon
Publisher: Instant Software
Year: 1979
Size: 662,952
Pages: 6
NOTES: IS0023R / HTML to PDF

Title: Packer
Publisher: Cottage Software
Year: 1979
Size: 213,589
Pages: 4
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: Pinball
Publisher: John Allen – Acorn
Year: 1980
Size: 249,228
Pages: 3
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: Slag
Publisher: Stewart Eastman – Adventure International
Year: 1980
Size: 562,464
Pages: 4
NOTES: HTML to PDF

Title: Space Invasion
Publisher: Author Unknown
Year: 19xx
Size: 192,068
Pages: 1
NOTES: HTML to PDF

… and some hardware manuals

Title: Aerocomp Disk Drive Installation Hint Sheet
Publisher: Aerocomp
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,111,760
Pages: 4
OCRed: Yes

Title: Aerocomp Model III and Model 4 Floppy Disk Controller Installation Instructions
Publisher: Aerocomp
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,494,066
Pages: 8
OCRed: Yes

Title: Network Controller 3 Operation Guide
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1981
Size: 1,640,338
Pages: 12
NOTES: 26-1212

Title: Omikron Mapper Owners Manual
Publisher: Omikron
Year: 1980
Size: 2,207,388
Pages: 38

Title: TRS-80 Model I Preliminary Users Manual
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 19xx
Size: 822,707
Pages: 30
NOTES: 30 Pages

… and some catalogs

Title: Lichen Software Catalog
Publisher: Lichen Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 1,278,721
Pages: 21

Title: Mayday Center Catalog
Publisher: Mayday Software
Year: 19xx
Size: 281,824
Pages: 6

Title: Smallsystem Center Catalog
Publisher: Smallsystem Center
Year: 19xx
Size: 342,654
Pages: 6

… and some service manuals/procedures/schematics

Title: Expansion Interface Testing
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1978
Size: 4,337,392
Pages: 10
NOTES: 1978-04-18 / Testing Procedures for Production Line Repair Technicans and Workflow Diagram

Title: TRS-80 Model I Prelimiary Service Manual
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1977
Size: 5,198,347
Pages: 10
NOTES: 1977-11 / TRS-80 service manual consisting of only 10 pages

Title: TRS-80 Model I Preliminary Schematics Rev A
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1977
Size: 15,798,791
Pages: 7
NOTES: 1977-09-22 / With Designer Handwritten Corrections

Title: TRS-80 Model I Preliminary Schematics Rev B
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1977
Size: 13,808,839
Pages: 7
NOTES: 1977-09-22 / With Designer Handwritten Corrections

Title: TRS-80 Model I Testing Procedures
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1977
Size: 5,785,046
Pages: 7
NOTES: 1977-09-09 / Testing Procedures For Tandy Production Line Repair Technicans

Title: Model 4 European Patent
Publisher: Radio Shack
Year: 1984
Size: 1,561,257
Pages: 62
OCRed: No
NOTES: PAL formulas

September 1, 2025 – Compilable Commented Model I Source Code

KiwiSinceBirth has updated his compilable source for the Model I. It is compilable with Telemark Assembler includes v1.2, v1.3, and EACA (selectable by #DEFINES). The following customizations are included:

• Enables the FreHD auto boot feature, i.e. the Auto boot ROM.
• Disable the use of memory mapped hardware at 37Exh, Floppy disk, Printer, etc. for machines where these peripherals are not needed (e.g. in a FreHD only system) and allows the use of the 2kb memory 3000h – 37FFh
• Set NMI (reset) as always perform a hard reset instead of returning to READY on non-DOS systems
• Disable Alpha character translation of letters A-Z,a-z to the values on range 00h to 1Fh. This is useful when a lower case mod is installed, but an alternate video driver has not been installed, or where the font rom on the machine has the alternate characters in the 00h 1Fh range (0471h)

You can find the Github here.

September 2, 2025 – Basic Computer Games Volume 1 by Dave Ahl – CORRECTED Again

David S bought ANOTHER copy of the book, just to complete the missing pages 37-38. They have been integrated; so if you downloaded this previously, you should do it again.

Title: Basic Computer Games Volume I TRS-80 Edition
Publisher: David Ahl – Creative Computing
Year: 1979
Size: 36,612,228
Pages: 194
OCRed: Yes

Thank you, David.

September 4, 2025 – New Downloads

Randy Kindig, of the Floppy Days Pocast, was kind enough to provide a scan of Twin Cities TRS-80 Users Group Vol 5 No 7.

Title: Twin Cities TRS-80 Users Group Vol 5 No 7
Publisher: TCTUG
Year: 1985
Size: 4,551,431
Pages: 10
NOTES: 1985-07

Title: Maxletter Issue 9
Publisher: Lobo Systems
Year: 1987
Size: 2,049,682
Pages: 6
NOTES: 1984-August

Thank you, Randy.

September 4, 2025 – New Downloads

Randy Kindig, of the Floppy Days Pocast, was kind enough to provide a scan of Twin Cities TRS-80 Users Group Vol 5 No 7.

Title: Twin Cities TRS-80 Users Group Vol 5 No 7
Publisher: TCTUG
Year: 1985
Size: 4,551,431
Pages: 10
NOTES: 1985-07

Title: Maxletter Issue 9
Publisher: Lobo Systems
Year: 1987
Size: 2,049,682
Pages: 6
NOTES: 1984-August

Thank you, Randy.

September 5, 2025 – New TRS8BIT Newsletter

TRS8Bit – Vol 19, No. 3

Dusty writes:

In this edition, Ian Mavric has the final details for the September Tandy Assembly, asks “what now” when you’ve bought a Model 2000, and has a review of the recent VCF-SW he attended. Vince Otten continues with part 3 of his fantastic series “Power of the ROM”, and reviews the language, APL. (This was available for the M1!). E.T. Fonehume provides a one-liner BASIC program to suit the requirements of modern-day passwords. There’s more development in ‘News from France’ from Pascal Holdry. Egoitz Campo sends in a review of the recent TRS-80 Basque Tournament. It seems LINUX is having a birthday. We’re asking if you have any ideas for the 2026 competitions. There’s a sad Obit. for Matthew Reed. A quick check on the U.K.’s Ebay bargains, a ‘just for fun’ maze puzzle and finally, a M1 upgrade I came across while ‘Surfin the Net’ (looks fantastic!).

You can download it from https://www.fabsitesuk.com/tandy/trs8bit1902.pdf or an OCR’d version here.

September 14, 2025 – Search Pages

I turned Claude.AI on my three search pages and let it update them to a modern look as well as to handle responsivity in the results pages.

• Software Search
• Magazine Search
• Catalog Search

Now they don’t look or act as dated as the rest of the site does.

September 28, 2025 – Tandy Assembly 2025

TandyAssembly 2025 happened this weekend and they were lightning quick on getting some of the talks online.

Downpoly

Joel Hillard

Tandy Assembly 2025 – Beyond 512kB: Enhancing the CoCo Memory Management Unit

Jim Brain

Tandy Assembly 2025 Tech Talk – Exploring 513: A Technical Look at VIS

Christopher Hyzer (TJBChris)

Tandy Assembly 2025 Tech Talk – Building Modern Accessories for Vintage Computers for Fun and Profit

Jeff Birt (Hey Birt!)

Tandy Assembly 2025 Tech Talk – Rebuilding the TRS-80 Model I: A Reverse Engineering Journey

Marcel Erz

Tandy Assembly 2025 Tech Talk – The MIDI/80 and Software

Joel Hilliard

Tandy Assembly 2025 Tech Talk – CP/M on the TRS-80: An Introduction

Tim Halloran

October 3, 2025 – X-MEM/80 for Model I and III

Model I Version

Model III Version

Michael Wessel and Mark Pruden have developed X-MEM/80, a 512 KB paged memory expansion for the TRS-80 Model 1 and Model III.

According to them:

No permanent modifications are required for installation. The Model 1 version is entirely external (via expansion port edge connector), and the Model III version simply plugs into the existing Z80 socket on the Model III motherboard – the CPU needs to be relocated from the Model III motherboard onto the X-MEM/80 board, but it is already socketed. No motherboard modifications are required, but the RF shielding in the Model III needs to be removed.
Unlike previous memory expansions for the Model I (i.e., SuperMem), this is a minimally invasive memory expansion that does not require any soldering for installlation.
X-MMEM/80 is partially SuperMem compatible, as it allows to “bank” the upper 32 KBs (address range from 0x8000 to 0xFFFF) with the memory on the card.
A jumper allows configuration in two different modes – SuperMem and X-MEM/80 modes:

More info can be found at: https://github.com/lambdamikel/x-mem-80

October 9, 2025 – Site Update Status

So far about 200 pages have been converted to the newer format, with about 100 more to go. Claude.ai has now instituted not only hourly caps but weekly caps, so this is very slow going.