• Tag Archives Radio Shack

  • Software Support, Inc. (1984)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    color_computer_magazine_11-068

    Source: Color Computer Magazine – Issue Number 11 – January 1984

    There was a time when disk drives of any kind were a luxury item for computer owners. Many early home computer owners used cassettes to store and load data. In 1984 when this particular ad came out, the price of floppy drives was starting to come down. Most still cost $200-$300 which was more expensive than it sounds in 1984. Also, $1000 (which is several thousand in today’s dollars) got you a whopping 5 MB hard drive.

    This particular ad is from the January 1984 issue of Color Computer Magazine.


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  • Spectral Associates: TRS-80 Color Computer

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Spectral Associates: TRS-80 Color Computer (1982)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/161313504992/retrocgads-usa-1982-spectral-associates-trs-80

    The Color Computer was a fairly popular and one of the longest supported computers of the 8-bit era. It was not at all related to the standard TRS-80 (Models I-IV) and used the relatively unique 6809 CPU which was pretty advanced for the time and had some 16-bit features. For some reason the Color Computer line never really gained a huge amount of third party software support as compared to others like Atari, Apple and Commodore but it had decent support from Radio Shack for more than a decade (and there was SOME 3rd party support).

    The above ad by Spectral Associates, a retailer for Color Computer upgrades, accessories and software, is from 1982. There were three Color Computer models throughout the year but in 1982 when this ad appeared they were still on the original iteration. As you can see from the ad, 1982 was early enough in the life of home computers that software just being written in machine language (as opposed to BASIC) was considered a selling point.


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  • Protector II, Shamus, Picnic Paranoia (TRS-80 Color Computer)

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    Advertisement for Protector II, Shamus and Picnic Paranoia for the TRS-80 Color Computer from the October 1983 issue of Color Computer Magazine.

    Color Computer Magazine Issue 08-043

    Source: Color Computer Magazine – Issue Number 8 – October 1983

    Radio Shack’s Color Computer never seemed to have as much third party support as the other major 8-bit computers of the day. I’m not sure exactly why since Radio Shack supported it for a very long time. I suspect that most CoCo owners tended to get their software through Radio Shack so if it wasn’t sold there it probably didn’t sell nearly as well.

    However, there was some third party support, particularly in the early days. This ad from the October 1983 issue of Color Computer Magazine shows three popular games at the time from Synapse. Synapse was primarily an Atari 8-bit developer, later moving on the the Commodore 64 and other systems. Protector II, Shamus and Picnic Paranoia were all available on other 8-bit computers as well. I’m not sure how the CoCo versions compared but the screen shots seem to indicate that they are on par with other versions, at least graphically.

    For more on Shamus, see here and for more on Picnic Paranoia, see here.



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