[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Hot CoCo (2) for Christmas
December 17th, 2007 by Benj Edwards
As a sequel to last year’s “Very TRS-80 Christmas,” we have this ad for the TRS-80 Color Computer 2. I’m not sure what makes this model “better” than the first Color Computer (CoCo), aside from obvious: different keyboard, ugly case-retooling, and perhaps more RAM.
Unfortunately, this unit ages to a nasty brown and its rubber-dome keyboard isn’t much of an improvement (I still like the CoCo 1’s keyboard better). But at least Tandy saw it fit to advertise the unit with a Christmas theme, which is quite relevant to the season at hand.
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December 17th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
“Use the built-in Color BASIC language and our entertaining 308-page manual to start writing your own programs with color and sound.”
Something tells me that this was written by someone who had very little knowledge of the English language and they accidentally used “entertaining” instead of “excruciating”.
===also===
“Add a cassette recorder to store and load your own programs, a telephone modem to access tomorrow’s news and stock reports, … ”
Something also tells me that this is a bit misleading.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Hate to ruin your joke, but as I’ve mentioned before in a few places on this site, the TRS-80 CoCo’s BASIC manual was actually the best I’ve ever read or seen for any system. It actually is entertaining, with colorful cartoons and clear, easy-to-understand examples.
Also, there were a number of online information services available at the time, such as Dow Jones and CompuServe where you could actually check those very things listed over a modem, even on a TRS-80 CoCo 2.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
1.) still…it’s a manual…isn’t that kinda like saying the CBN is educational?
2.) emphasis on “tomorrow”
December 17th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I actually remember my father buying one of these while I had two commodore 64’s… and I ended up with all 3 machines fairly quickly… of course I didnt like the TRS-80 nearly as much as the commodores… but it was definitely a fun and fugly machine lol
December 19th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Why was coco 2 better than coco 1? Because it could play Dungeons of Daggorath!
And the manual WAS entertaining. I should know; I didn’t work all the way through it because I enjoy excruciating manuals….
December 19th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Okay, sheesh, you win. The manual was entertaining. I was only 11 mo. old at the time so I really don’t know what the jack I’m talking about anyway.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Nothing bespeaks of raw computing power like faux wood paneling on your monitor.
Merry Christmas to all!