10 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] TRS-80 Model 4”

1. Multimedia Mike Says:
   February 12th, 2015 at 12:07 pm

   Thinking back on it, TRS-80 was the first computer on which I ever programmed BASIC, in a school lab circa 1988-89 (though I had done LOGO on an Apple a few years earlier). I had a cassette for saving– floppy disks were more of an expensive luxury.

2. Dan helton Says:
   February 12th, 2015 at 12:17 pm

   Into the Win95 era, one of my friends still had a crappy old Tandy running MS-DOS on floppies. We used to play this awful Spider-Man game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0f_3vSTeOc

   Spider-Man walks like he’s just bebopping through town and the controls were as bad as the NES Spider-Man games. The one cool thing was the life meter.

3. Benj Edwards Says:
   February 12th, 2015 at 9:04 pm

   Dan, I played a cracked version of that Spider-Man game that someone uploaded to my BBS in the early 1990s. I always wondered if it was an official title and where it came from, since all the credits had been stripped from it (and I think the comic book cut scenes had too, presumably to save space). I loved the graphics.

4. BDD Says:
   February 13th, 2015 at 3:56 am

   I spent a lot of time with TRS-80 Model IIIs and 4s. They were the systems that were in our computer lab in high school. I learned Z80 assembly on a Model III, and would spend my time during 6th hour computer class working on a game or some other program. My comp teacher knew that I already had everything down, so he only made me take the final exam (which I aced) and just help him grade papers and other things around the lab. Too bad that, other than owning an arcade and having a street location route, that I never turned it into a career…

5. Daniel Says:
   February 13th, 2015 at 10:11 am

   I had a TRS-80 Color Computer (first gen, the silver one with chiclet keys), and I used a Model 3 or Model 4 in high school. I always liked those Model 3/4 systems. I also always liked the MC-10. Those were neat computers, back in the day.

6. Galactus Says:
   February 13th, 2015 at 10:50 pm

   Yes, I used a Tandy Coco a few times back in the late 80s, but it wasn’t a happy experience for me.

   I owned a nice PC box with a CGA monitor, 640k, and HD.
   But one of my friends had a Tandy plugged to a TV set, he wasn’t happy with his Tandy because the text looked a bit fuzzy on his TV and he couldn’t run some programs because it had low memory (probably 512k or less), once we tried to do some homework with his limited Tandy at his house but we ended up going to my house and finish the work using my PC.

   Maybe if my buddy had a real computer monitor the Tandy would have been a bit more comfortable to use.

7. Moondog Says:
   February 20th, 2015 at 12:45 pm

   In the early 1990’s I needed a laplink or null modem cable to play some games with a friend head to head, and I stopped at a local RS, hoping to find one. The local store no generic items like that, let alone any more recent parts. Only parts and accessories for the TRS series computers. It was strange seeing a double height 5.25″ floppy on the shelf. My guess it was old stock that was originally pricey, and the manager insisted on trying to sell it than purge old inventory.

8. John Says:
   February 24th, 2015 at 12:47 pm

   I had one of these until about a year ago.

9. Galactus Says:
   February 26th, 2015 at 1:08 am

   Hi Moon:

   Oh Yeah, the Laplink cable brings some memories.

   I remember using LL3 to transfer files between PCs.
   There was a smart guy in my town that would built Laplinks by hand at almost any lenght you wanted. I remember asking him to make me a 5 meter Laplink and it worked very well.

   Before USB, the Laplink method was awesome. 🙂

10. Herb Says:
    April 4th, 2015 at 6:10 am

    My first experience in computing was on a TRS-80 Model 1 with a cassette – no floppy. It was 1978, I was 13 and the RatShack near our house had just gotten this little wonder in their showroom. It was setup in the display window at the front of the store.

    I’m sure I looked like the ubernerdiest kid on the block as I stood there all summer, in the window, going through every book and cassette they had on the shelf. I played all the games, loaded and learned all the business software and taught myself how to program in basic.

    I think they kept me around because I would help them sell the things. After all, if a “kid” could use it, so could an adult customer. I’ve been in IT ever since.

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