Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!mdharding From: mdharding@watmath.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: Re: Anyone got a Tandy 1000? Message-ID: <14046@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: Fri, 24-Jul-87 13:12:55 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.14046 Posted: Fri Jul 24 13:12:55 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 15:47:45 EDT References: <13938@watmath.UUCP> <1908@mtx5a.ATT.COM> Reply-To: mdharding@watmath.waterloo.edu (Matt) Distribution: na Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 61 In article <1908@mtx5a.ATT.COM> ahs@mtx5a.ATT.COM (Art Stadlin) writes: >> I subscribed to this newsgroup hoping to learn more about my trusty 1000,... >> >> ..... I'm interested as to why some programs don't work on my 1000.... >> ....Also, the new Tandy Dos makes disks not-readable on >> non-Tandy machines. Why?... > >You are not alone out there. In 1986 I purchased a Tandy 1000 SX. >Since then, I do not recall any articles in this newgroup of interest >to me and my Tandy. Maybe you and I can start the ball rolling! Right on!!! >On compatibility, I have found only one IBM PC-compatible program that >partially failed on my Tandy 1000 SX: MicroSoft QuickBASIC compiler >Version 2. The arrow keys didn't seem to work, but one can still >use the program without them. Recently MicroSoft sent me their >version 3 upgrade package, and the arrow keys work! Guess they >"fixed" their program. ;-) > >On DOS versions, I don't know an answer to your question. MS-DOS 3.2 >came with my Tandy 1000 SX, and the disk formats are completely >compatible with IBM and AT&T machines. I often create text files >at home using Tandy's DeskMate II software, and then bring the floppies >to my IBM PC/XT at work where I upload the .TXT files to UNIX for >high-speed letter-quality printing. BTW, thanx for responding. First: I guess I should have been more specific. I own an original Tandy 1000 (we didn't get any EX or SX letters with ours), bought way back when they first came out. It came with DOS 2.11, which was compatible with IBM PC's. However, when I received an upgrade to DOS 3.2, I found that if you format disks/s (i.e. make them bootable), they refuse to boot up on non-1000's. ('Diskette only bootable on a Tandy 1000'). Not only is this strange but as far as I am aware, my old versions didn't do that. Everything else works fine, of course - just a Tandy quirk. (Maybe they are jealous of _their_ DOS). As to compatibility, I have found several things that barf on my 1000. The majority of them are graphics/game programs that some knowledgeable person told me use different memory scan routines, and also look for a DMA on the mother- board. (Thanks Tom, if you're out there). But also to my surprise, I purchased a couple of games from Radio Shack stores designed especially for the 1000 (the more notable of the two being Demon Attack) which presumably are optimized for a1000, yet don't even want to begin to work on IBM PC's. My opinion is that Tandyare stressing the idea that their 1000's (and others) are not just PC compat.'s,but a whole different breed, so to speak. As to Deskmate software - no phlames intended, but I personally found it to be practically worthless. About the only redeeming quality it has is that it fits on a single disk, as opposed to integrated packages that need megs of space. My next question: does anyone have a good explanation of what the HOLD key does on the 1000? Does it freeze output, or halt the cpu, or am I not even close? As far as I'm concerned it's just great. I have been able to stop every single program I've ever run (bar _one_ exception) instantaneously, frozen. It's great for real-time games (of which I'm a real fan), the programs don't even know about it and therefore can't protect against it when writing the code. Let's hear from the Tandy 1000 owners amongst us!!!!!!!! Matt. (mdharding@watmath.UUCP, I think)