Like so many of those in my age group 60+ this was our introduction to the world of computers
If you remember those days you can also remember the thrill of getting it to work and the frustration of spending hours entering in code by hand for a basic game from a Home Computer Magazine and it failing.
If there were no mistakes in the code in the magazine and "You Made No Mistakes" during typing it in and The Tape Player was saving well with clean tape head and the computer did not crash during your data entry then you might end up with a game where you could shoot an alien on a blocky screen
So what did you get for your money and how much did it cost
For a TRS 80 with screen, keyboard and tape player etc. you were looking at between $600 and $1,000 ( in today's money that is between $2,000 and $4,000
The processor was a Z80 the current processor found in most basic tablets is up to 200 + times faster
Memory ranged from 4K to 48K the Galaxy Tablet for example has 16 million times more memory
Video was 128x48
lets call it pixels per screen about 6,000 then today the screen I am typing this on has 2073600 pixels
Tape / Game Load Speed was diabolical no other way to describe it it could take up to 35 minutes to load a game and that was if you were lucky enough no errors encountered while loading the tape
I should mention the Tandy was just one of a few home computers at the time, others included the Apple II, the Commodore Pet, Heath Kits, Ohio Scientific, Processor Tech and many others
The Apple II was considered by many to be the best of them all and was priced at around $2,000 or in today's money up to $6,000
From the late 1970's to the early 1990's I had more than 15 different home computers as each year they would become better and more efficient with more ways to load S/W , I believe many are still in my mums loft today.
It was due to my interest in home computers that led me into a career in the computer industry which served me well for 25 years
Today's
Taking You Back In Time
moment
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