Never owned a Tandy, local store has some systems

[+jeremiahjt]

One of my local game stores has got a few Tandy CoCo systems for sale.  I know nothing about these, so if I get something wrong, just let me know.

 

One is I think the first Tandy CoCo for $80.

 

Another is the same thing, but with a 16K RAM badge, also for $80.

 

The third is a CoCo 3 for $100.

 

A Multi-Pak Interface for $80.

 

A TRS-80 Touch Pad for $10.

 

And about 4 or 5 bags with a single cable each in them.

 

Oh yeah, one system has a cartridge with no label.

 

All this comes to a total of $350.  I jokingly offered $150 for everything, which they were okay with.  I really got out of collecting anything that is not Atari, but this did interest me.  What do you Tandy experts think?  Obviously everything is untested.

[MrDave]

The original prices seemed fair. With the coco3 being priced a bit low vs market value

They are fun machines to program on and also play retro games ( which good ones are still being made by the homebrew crowd ) also great to play in with the soldering iron for hacking fun.

I think you will have fun , and can easily 2x your money if you decide to sell .. if any of the machines are not working it's usually not much wrong ..they are pretty tough.. 

Enjoy !

[jhd]

 

The Touch Pad is quite rare; I only ever saw coverage of it in the in-house TRS-80 Microcomputer Newsletter. I never actually saw one in person. That said, I do not know if there is any commercial software that supports it.

 

Overall, that is a very reasonable price for the amount of hardware.

 

  

[Green3]

9 hours ago, jhd said:

 

The Touch Pad is quite rare; I only ever saw coverage of it in the in-house TRS-80 Microcomputer Newsletter.

Is this a reference to the Radio Shack GT-116 "X-Pad", Catalog Number 26-1196?  It was advertised all over the place - Byte magazine, you name it. As for coverage,

 

The Rainbow, Vol. II, No. 7 Jan. 1983, p. 84 ran a glowing review by Paul S. Hoffman who went on to write more X-Pad articles for the magazine as well as various X-Pad programs.

 

Electronic Learning, Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jan. 1984 p. 78 covered it but was not impressed. However this was due to the limitations of stock CoCos only being able to output to TV sets.

 

Microcomputing magazine, Vol. 8, Issue 9, Sept. 1984 p. 48 pointed out that while the device was intended only for the CoCo, it could be relatively easily used by other computers.

 

Personal Computing Today Vol. 1, No. 10, May 1983 p. 46 (a British publication) said that "the manual contains many example programs on how to read the information from the tablet and convert it onto the screen. These programs cover virtually every use of the X-Pad, including examples of direct copy, start and endpoint drawing and menus."  But ultimately PCT dismissed the X-Pad as an "expensive luxury."

 

Popular Computing Vol. 4, Issue 1, Nov. 1984, p. 86 included it in a list of graphics tablets for various computers, as part of an overall article on graphics.

[Green3]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

 

The X-Pad will only work with the original Color Computer (retronymed Color Computer 1 after the CoCo 2 and CoCo 3 came out).  All silver/gray-cased CoCos are CoCo 1s.  Only a very few white-cased CoCos are -- so if the CoCo is white, examine the case badge to make sure it doesn't say "Color Computer 2" or "Color Computer 3", and it should be a long case (that is, stretching far back from the user) with vent slots only in the corners rather than going all the way across the top.

[rietveld]

On 9/21/2023 at 7:17 PM, Green3 said:

DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

 

The X-Pad will only work with the original Color Computer (retronymed Color Computer 1 after the CoCo 2 and CoCo 3 came out).  All silver/gray-cased CoCos are CoCo 1s.  Only a very few white-cased CoCos are -- so if the CoCo is white, examine the case badge to make sure it doesn't say "Color Computer 2" or "Color Computer 3", and it should be a long case (that is, stretching far back from the user) with vent slots only in the corners rather than going all the way across the top.

x pad will work on ALL cocos if you use the multi pak interface.  The MPI provides the 12v missing from the coco 2 and 3 that the x pad needs

 

[Green3]

On 12/25/2023 at 10:34 AM, rietveld said:

x pad will work on ALL cocos if you use the multi pak interface.  The MPI provides the 12v missing from the coco 2 and 3 that the x pad needs

 

Right.  Thanks.  The original CoCo diskette drive 0 is the same way.  Needs the MPI to work on a CoCo 2 or 3.

[rietveld]

4 hours ago, Green3 said:

Right.  Thanks.  The original CoCo diskette drive 0 is the same way.  Needs the MPI to work on a CoCo 2 or 3.

 

X-Pad GT-116 Owners Manual (Tandy).pdf

[JamesD]

touch pad or x-pad?  Wasn't the touch pad that pad that attached to the joystick port?

 

 

[+jeremiahjt]

Well I ended up picking all those Color Computers up.  I went in a couple of weeks ago and they had a new game stuck in one of the cartridge slots; Dungeons of Daggorath.  I also saw a Plug 'n Power Programmable Controller sitting somewhere else.  I offered $80 for everything and they took it.

 

I was able to get the 26-3001 model working.  I tested Dungeons of Daggorath, which worked, and the cartridge without a label.  It was Personal Finance.  I also tested the Multi-Pak and at least slots 1 through 3 work.  I could not get the other two units working, one was model 26-3002A, which I could not find much information about.  I did not know how to go about testing the Touch Pad or the Plug 'n Power.

 

I also have three cables which may or may not belong to these.  I have Super Pitfall somewhere around here, I could find it and test it out too.

[Gamemoose]

The 26-3002A has an "E" board, which according to another site is a "cost reduction" board seen in the silver CoCo 1's.

 

Still, even with currently non-functioning computers (which could probably be fixed depending on the issue), good haul!

[eightbit]

I'd say a CoCo3 for $100 is a freaking steal. I paid over 3x that recently for one!

[+jeremiahjt]

On 1/18/2024 at 11:05 PM, eightbit said:

I'd say a CoCo3 for $100 is a freaking steal. I paid over 3x that recently for one!

But at the moment it is not working.

[doctorclu]

So what was the Coco 2 like?  I always hear of the Coco 1 and Coco 3.

[jhd]

17 hours ago, doctorclu said:

So what was the Coco 2 like?  I always hear of the Coco 1 and Coco 3.

 

The Coco 2 is functionally the same as an original Coco. The version of BASIC is slightly newer (1.2 for Standard BASIC, 1.1 for Extended BASIC) and there are a few small hardware changes (e.g. no 12V line on the cartridge port). There is a different (I hesitate to say "better") keyboard and a smaller and more ventilated case overall. There may be some edge-case software that will not run on it and a few items of hardware will not work (e.g. some disk controllers).

 

I understand that late releases of the Coco 2 had more internal changes (reduced chip count?), but there are no functional differences evident to the user.