Site News (2007-2009)

2007

2008

As many of you have no doubt noticed, I have scaled back the site to focus on information regarding the various home TRS-80 models and emulators and utilities related thereto. I know that people are curious as to why the dramatic shift was made.

The bottom line is that the site takes a massive commitment, and the time, energy and money would be better spent on my family. It has gotten exponentially harder and harder to maintain the site each year. When it comes down to it, family is the most important, and shedding myself of the burdens brought on from the site will be a welcome relief.

The sites original goal was to preserve the memory of these machines and to provide help to those who wished to relive their experiences with their first computer. I have converted people's long lost papers and records (and the memoirs of their deceased loved ones). The site has enabled people to relive their simpler days. I never charged anyone a single penny for any thing I ever did, even when blank DVD's, blank floppies, and postage were involved, and did it all gladly.

I think the site has worked wonders to preserve the TRS-80 through the hard work of many people who have written software to let us image and archive what seems to be rapidly degrading disks and cassettes, and to run those images on modern hardware. While there are so many people to thank for their help, and I am loth to even do so with the fear of forgetting anyone, there are 3 main people (in this category) I found to be personally helpful to me in this endeavor.

First, is Matthew Reed. At a time when there was no freeware utility to read a TRS-80 disk into DSK format using modern hardware, Matthew rode to the rescue by writing READDISK and releasing it as freeware. Without this utility there would have been no widely distributable way for people to image TRS-80 diskettes.

Matthew also prepared, in my opinion, the finest DOS and Windows TRS-80 emulators. Matthew always took my bug reports, suggestions, and wishes to heart and Matthew's latest emulator remains the only TRS-80 emulator which can emulate a TRS-80 printer. An example of something which Matthew had incorporated as a site aid was "Autoboot", which enabled me to mount a DSK image without having to know whether the disk was Model 1, 3, or 4. This featured stopped me from having to go to Configure, and cycling through each model, one by one, if a hard reboot on a DSK image produced nothing more than an empty screen, and the list of features which Matthew put into his emulators in an effort to help me out does not stop there.

Second (but, again, in no specific order) is Tim Mann. While Tim's efforts are all his own, his preparation of the drivers for the Catweasel floppy disk controller card enabled the reading of non-standard and problematic disks. Disks which I would occasionally receive proved excellent fodder for the utility, and Tim was always willing to take bug reports and feature requests.

Third (but, again, in no specific order) is Knut Roll-Lund. Knut is doing for cassettes what Tim and Matthew did for diskettes. Knut's WAV2CAS utilities enabled the archiving of cassettes. When Knut finished his Level II compatible converter (500 baud), I came up with WAV's for Level 1 cassettes (250 baud). Knut worked hard to create a Level 1 converter, just as I wound up with Model III tapes (1500 baud and NOT straight ASCII). Knut has since been working on utilities which attempt to determine if a SYSTEM or BASIC tape was not a good dump. The day when Knut manages to integrate an audio capture program which then monitors volume levels, converts to CAS, and test the result for validity, should be a considered a very significant day in the TRS-80 world.

There are also those who have donated hardware (such as disk drives and cassette players - both of which I can easily and quickly wear out) and other help. My thanks go out to these people as well.

I intend to continue with the site, adding information as I find it. I will certainly post any updates as to emulators or tools to read TRS-80 disks and cassettes, and I hope those who develop these fine tools keep doing so with great gusto. I also intend to continue to add any links for any TRS-80 related sites which are out there or which may show up.

With any luck, I will be able to go thru my TRS-80 collection and start listing eBay auctions this weekend. What I hope to put up first (probably because they are the easiest) is the fairly heavy TRS-80 related Sams Computerfacts collection, and ALL of my original diskettes. These two will likely be broken into different traunches to enable easier shipping. I also hope to list some *working* Model 100's, *working* Pocket Computers, and manuals. In the future, I will try to gather all the pieces of Model I's I have lying around, assemble and test them, and get some *working* Model I's on eBay as well.

I have added the site's story to the Personal Stories link. It is very much a work in progress.

First, I would like to thank everyone who sent me emails. Emails fell into three categories - 1) sincere thanks for what I had done for the TRS-80, 2) kind offers to host/mirror, and 3) kind requests for DVD's.

With regard to # 3, I did not respond to any of them, prompting some people to email a second and third time. As most of you know - ignoring emails is not what I do, but I had very little to say. So, I thought a news item may be best ...

As many of you know, some individuals had been selling (and some continue to currently sell) the DVD's on eBay, and taking in ridiculous amounts of money from doing so. When one individual managed to sell each individual DVD of the 4 DVD set for $30+ per disk (his donation to the site for all 4 + shipping was $20), I took down the DVD link and ceased making them.

In fact, this person found it so profitable to copy and sell the DVD's, that he was simply making copies and continued to list them on eBay (his auctions show lots of 10, per disk). He had initially listed the DVD's as a harmless 'I didn't want these disks, so I am going to just sell them for 1 cent', but once the eBayers, in their infinite wisdom, paid him 30+ per disk, he started making copies and bulk selling them ... and that's a different story.

So, while I appreciate all the kind words and support, I doubt I will ever make the DVD's again if this is how it is going to go -- so no need to email asking for them.

It dawned on me that since none of the 80 Micro pages contained downloads, there was no reason to remove them. I have restored all the 80 Micro pages, as well as the 80 Micro Table of Contents search engine.

Although it will take me some time, I believe the next eBay auction will be for all of my original TRS-80 disks. They currently take up 3 of those hard plastic disk holders (which I envision I will include).

I have cleaned up the old pages and have restored them without links. Now they are cover scans, but at least the info is back up.

Also up are the emulator pages and transferring pages.

Thank you all for your continuing supporting emails.

Three questions continue to show up, and I would like to at address them here:

1. I have X software/magazine/manual, do you still want it? Yes, yes, yes. Please continue to send me scans of books, magazines, manuals, etc. Just yesterday, (i) I finished processing a scan of the 1978 Tandy Computer catalog (which contained exactly 1 page of TRS-80's out of 52 pages!), (ii) the CopyCat II instruction sheet was scanned, and (iii) today I received a scan of the Model I Double Density Disk System Owners Manual. If you have it, please send it. If I do ever make DVD's available of the paper downloads, newly acquired and scanned items will be on it.
2. Can I have a DVD of the software downloads? Yikes. As stated below, and while I do appreciate the requests and the financial offers which have come along with them, I have never and will never send out the software files on DVD.
3. I just got a X at a garage sale, and went to find the hardware manuals for it, but the manuals seem to be gone.. If you have a specific hardware manual in mind, please send me an email with the details and I will do my best to help you out.

In case you have been wondering what I have been up to, other than the eBay auctions, of course, I have been adding 'ad' scans for the former library and have also won another TRS-80 book on eBay. I am thinking about restoring the Software section, but without links, so it can act as a library/lookup for TRS-80 software information.

Added 26 advertisement clips and 43 media scans to the library.

Vernon B. Hester has been re-working his MULTIDOS operating system and has provided a number of disks to me to make available. The first is v5.11 of his Model 4 MULTIDOS, copyright 2005.

• Astrocal [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (19xx)
• Cardinal Number Converter v1.2 [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2003)
• Cube Root Solver [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (1996)
• DS1286 Bus Clock Utilities [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (1998)
• Expanded Debugger for XLR8er [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Extended Precision Math [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2005)
• Hi-Res Analog Clock [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (1995)
• Hi-Res Animation Demo [MULTIDOS v5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Hi-Res BASIC Demonstration [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2002)
• Hi-Res Fill Patterns [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (1996)
• Hi-Res Function Graph Plotter [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Hi-Res Image Printer [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (1997)
• Hi-Res Patterns [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2002)
• Hi-Res Progam Disk [MULTIDOS v5.11] (DSK) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Hi-Res Square Sum Up To 25x25 [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (1999)
• Hi-Res Vectors Demonstration [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2001)
• Integer Root Calculator with Double Precision [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• MegaMEM Memory Map Allocation [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2002)
• MegaMEM RAM Disk Drive [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Memory Disk for XLR8er [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• MSDOS Clock Patch Utility for Jeff Vavasours Emulator [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (1999)
• MSDOS Clock Patch Utility for Matthew Reeds Emulator [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (1999)
• MultiDOS v5.11 (DMK) - Vernon B Hester (2005)
• Othello [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Perpetual Calendar 1583-9999 [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2003)
• Sort Demonstration [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2004)
• Square of the Sum [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2003)
• String Garbage Collection Demo [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2005)
• Truth Table [MULTIDOS v5.11] (BAS) - Vernon B Hester (2002)
• Zeus Editor/Assembler v7.4 [MULTIDOS 5.11] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)

the following is an announcement by theresa welsh about her new book.

Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Microcomputer Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution
355 pages, with full Index and over 100 illustrations
Paperback Edition. ISBN 0780979346804
Only $19.95

This is the first book to capture the unique era of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when personal computing was just getting started. David and Theresa Welsh were part of the community of small software entrepreneurs and personally knew many of the principle players whose accomplishments are the stuff of legends.

Some of What's in this One-of-a-Kind Book:

• Steve Leininger, hired away from Silicon Valley by Tandy Corp., worked alone amid the grimy surroundings of an old Fort Worth saddle factory and built the prototype TRS-80; the final development cost was less than $150,000.
• John Roach, Tandy's product manager, got an agreement from Charles Tandy to build 3500 units after Leininger demonstrated the prototype; this was exactly the number of stores they had -- Roach figured if no one bought the computers, at least the stores could use them. Don French, a true believer, predicted they'd sell 50,000 the first year and urged the company to gear up the factory for mass production. Tandy managers, thinking they could never sell that many, were surprised when, in the weeks after the introduction, the Tandy switchboard was paralyzed with over 15,000 calls from people wanting to order a TRS-80. In the first year, over 250,000 people went on waiting lists to buy a TRS-80!
• Tandy contracted with Randy Cook to create a Disk Operating System (TRSDOS) for the TRS-80 Model I and III, which would support floppy disk drives. The company agreed Cook would retain ownership of the code. But Cook, believing Tandy violated the agreement, created a rival DOS which he sold through his own company. Tandy managers found Cooks' name embedded in the TRSDOS code.
• TRSDOS replacements appeared - five of them - and programmers made up their own homespun magazine ads touting their products great features and attacking their rivals' products in the pages of magazines like 80 Micro, the most popular of many publications devoted to the TRS-80. e.g. Wayne Green, publisher of popular computer magazines, promised to "editorially break" Radio Shack because they would not carry his 80 Micro magazine in their stores; his magazine column often lambasted Radio Shack CEO John Roach.
• Bill Schroeder, a successful businessman, bankrolled Logical Systems, Inc. and sold Tandy on LDOS as the company-sponsored TRSDOS replacement. A state-of-the-art headquarters and good money followed the lucrative contract, but once he sensed the coming demise of the TRS-80, Schroeder simply shut down his company.
• Scott Adams created popular Adventure games for the TRS-80 and other early microcomputers, became a celebrity in the magazines, but produced too many game cartridges for a computer that died in the marketplace.
• Along with microcomputers, home robots were hot. Meet the robots of the 1980s - and the man who said we were all going to have mechanical men in our homes by the year 2000. Unlike microcomputers, robots just didn't catch on.
• A notorious scam artist preyed on the gullibility of microcomputer enthusiasts, destroying the Southern California Computer Society with a Ponzi scheme, then bilking TRS-80 owners out of thousands of dollars with magazine ads from a bogus company called World Power Systems showing phony products.

Here is the real story of the first microcomputers, based on the Welsh's personal experiences selling TRS-80 software and our interviews with amazing microcomputer pioneers.

Visit the book website at http://www.microcomputerpioneers.com/ to read excerpts.

At present, the book is available only from the Welsh's, but it will be listed on amazon.com in the coming few weeks.

BIG NEWS! Matthew Reed has updated his Windows emulator to v1.16 and his fantastic READDISK utility to v2.1, all under a brand new domain name of www.trs-80emulators.com.

I have updated all the links here, or you can go directly to his web site and download the software there.

There have been many bug fixes and tweaks, including:

• Revamping the keyboard handling to work better with CP/M
• Autostarting now resets the pause state; and
• TRSDOS 6.01.00 now autostarts.

Registration of the emulator (I get NO share or incentive for your registrations) provides you with:

• Multiple types of high-resolution graphics boards
• Orchestra 85/90 music generation
• Several types of real-time-clocks
• Up to 1of additional memory (in Model 4 mode)
• Virtual hard drive support; and
• Epson FX-80 compatible printer emulation

This is the emulator I use in maintaining the site.

Jeff Post has updated his Linux/Windows DSKDIR utility to display a CP/M Disk Directory to v1.7. It is distributed under the GPL version 3 license.

Vernon B Hester has sent over his 2005 version of Model III MultiDOS and his Model III copies of ASTROCAL and ZEUS. I hope to have them up shortly.

• Astrocal [MULTIDOS 4.01] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (19xx)
• MultiDOS v4.01 (DMK) - Vernon B Hester (2005)
• Zeus Editor/Assembler v7.4 [MULTIDOS 4.01] (CMD) - Vernon B Hester (2004)

As some of you may know, what Matthew Reed and Tim Mann did for diskettes, Knut has done for cassettes.

Knut has now refined his wonder cassette utilities and has released a major major upgrade. The new version has the following features/improvements:

• Reads LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2 and MODEL III High-Speed
• Reads tapes with more than one "file" and they can be any combination of the above types.
• Decodes the data to verify the contents and displays the result
• The LEVEL 1 and LEVEL 2 decoding is better (now it is probably better than the original)
• Improved Model III High-Speed decoding, some special typical errors are handled too.
• Dropout problems are almost gone, as long as there is data wav2cas can read it.

There are currently a few outstanding issues:

• Will not read tapes that have very bad timing
• Doesn't like ringing so don't record with too high volume.
• Will probably have problems with system tapes output directly by EDTASM, because EDTASM inserts pauses.
• You should use at least 22,050 samples per second when recording.
• While it understands basic and system tapes, it does not yet understand assembly from EDTASM or Scripsit documents.
• Disassembly is not yet implemented.
• No documentation or help file is supplied.

Wayne Westmoreland has provided an updated email address for the Email/Links Page.

I am in the process of going thru a bunch of disks I have received, and I must say that microDOS is possibly the most annoying Operating System ever made. Apparently, it is designed to be incompatible with every other DOS, and their recommendation for getting programs on/off disks with their DOS is to CSAVE and CLOAD. What a nightmare.

The main information on the site is under the Models page. In it I have been augmenting each and every catalog number and peripheral available from Radio Shack for the Model 1/2/3/4. As I continue to scan catalogs (which have been posted), I continue to update these pages with new information and pictures.

I have taken the old SQL search for Model 1/3/4 page, updated it so that it provides information only, and placed it as a link on the main navbar.

• Modifying the AMPERSAND Command in NEWDOS/80 BASIC
• TRSDOS 6.2 Routine Addresses
• Running TRSDOS 6.2 SYSTEM Commands from Model 4 BASIC
• Renaming TRSDOS 6.2DOS Commands
• Model 4 TRS-80 Keyboard PEEK Table
• Directly Access Model 4 Video
• Model 4 Video Locations
• Programming the Model 4 Function Keys
• Changing the Model 4 Speed (4MHZ Model 3/2MHZ Model 4)
• Controlling the Model 4 Sound Card
• Interesting Model 4 BASIC Commands

I have been contacted by Michael Gause looking for a high resolution image of a TRS-80 Model I for a publication he is editing.

If anyone out there with a Model I set up could please contact Michael, he would give you proper credit for the picture?

He is looking for high res jpegs or Adobe Illustrator files.

I was sorting through the box of new stuff that Donald Hennessy sent over, and, when I went to see if a SoftSide magazine was already archived, I realized that I had not re-implemented most of the magazine pages! I am working to get them back online, albeit as "covers". Anything pictured has been archived.

Thank you Lex for sending over your TRS-80 disks!

I am very pleased to announce that Matthew Reed has released an update to his phenomenal TRS-80 emulator for Windows to v1.17.

Matthew Reed, author of the fantastic Windows TRS-80 Emulator I use, has prepared a new TRS-80 based site. Please visit it at http://www.trs-80.org

David Hitchner wants to give away an Assembly Language Development System manual to someone in the U.S. The first taker will be passed on to David for arrangements.

Sorry for the lack of news. The reason I had stopped posting news is that every news item I posted came back with immediate "negative" emails and/or forum posts (although I always wondered why people would come to the site just to complain). I probably should have realized earlier that people who are going to complain are going to do it no matter what, and that's why the 'delete' key was created, so I hope to resume posting news.

• Now that our remodel is done, and the contractor has moved his equipment out of the garage, I can resume making/reading disks for people.
• I won an ebay auction for 2 missing printer manuals.

Matthew Reed has released an update to his PHENOMENAL Windows Compatible TRS-80 Model 1/3/4 emulator.

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

Check out comp.sys.tandy if you want to see what I am/was up against, and a nice summary (not written by me) of the general issues, and the "special" types of people out there.

To "Trash80", thank you for speaking up on my behalf. Your statements, and assessments of the risks, are well stated and well reasoned.

To "Gene" - I am astounded at the accuracy of your entire analysis (including your first sentence).

• Duplicating ACORN Copy-Protected Disks
• Sneak Circuit on the Starfighter
• How to Back Up The Sargon II Tape -and- How to Put Sargon II on Disk
• Hidden controls for FASTEROIDS

Knut Roll-Lund has released an updated version of his wonderful WAV2CAS utility. It is far more than a recorded WAV to .CAS file converter.

The new version includes the following:

• Windows GUI
• Sound level autodetection to allow you to know if your volume setting is off
• File type identification on the fly (BAS / SYSTEM)
• BASIC Program Analysis/Display

• Putting tape SFINKS on Disk
• Backing Up Super Utility Plus v2.1
• Backing Up Super Utility Plus v2.2
• Backing Up Med Systems Disks
• Backing Up BIG 5 Games

Brian Blake has let me know that a newer CoCo 3 emulator, called Vcc and written by Joseph Foregione, has been released.

What makes this emulator unique is that it runs in Windows 2000 or higher, and allows writing REAL CoCo floppies from within windows using a third party driver.

Features include:

• A Tandy Color Computer 3 with 128K, 512K, 2048K or 8192K of ram.
• Selectable Motorola MC68B09 or Hitachi HD63B09.
• Two 2 button joysticks
• FD-502 Supporting 3 Double Sided or 4 Single sided Floppy drives. Supported format include DMK,JVC,OS9.
• Real Disk access is supported on Windows 2000 or higher via the FDRAWCMD libraies provided by Simon Owen.
• Hard disk Controller (.vhd) with Cloud-9 RTC.
• 4 Slot Multi-pak interface.
• Orchestra-90 Sound Synthisizer.
• Only 8,16, and 32 BPP are supported. 24BPP is not supported.

Rainer Fredrich pointed me to a Wikipedia page for the Aster CT-80 which was a Dutch version of the TRS-80 sold as a kit, which supported a faster speed and higher density disks. Check out the Wikipedia page.

Thanks to Horacio, the searchable database of 80 Microcomputing magazine table of contents has been expanded to include September 1986 (Issue 80). This brings the count up to 93 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

I have been contacted by two (2) people today each offering TRS-80's, free for the pick-up. Please email me if you live in or near either of the following two areas and are interested in picking up what is being offered. Because they are NOT interested in being cajoled into pack-and-ship, please confirm that you intend to pick-up. I will edit this news item accordingly as each is gone. Please email me if interested. First come, first served.

• Hanover, Massachusetts (but is willing to bring them to the Quincy/Braintree line during business hours) -- Two (2) Model III's; worked the last time they were used. Current status, unknown.
• Costa Mesa, Orange County, California - Model 1 with expansion module and two floppy drives. Were in working order the last time they were powered on. Current status, unknown.

If you see this news item up, the TRS-80's are still available (as far as I know).

Thanks to Horacio, the searchable database of 80 Microcomputing magazine table of contents has been expanded to include October 1986 (Issue 81). This brings the count up to 94 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

Lajos Kintli has released v1.01 of FastZ80, a HT1080Z (Hungarian TRS-80) emulator. You can download it from His Site.

Main features:

• very fast and accurate Z80 engine
• Z80 undocumented instructions/flag bits are implemented
• RESET and NMI support
• Four running speeds including 'full' for maximum performance
• 64*16 character video display (including 128*48 pixel graphics)
• 8*8 memory mapped 'wired or' keyboard matrix
• Sound chip is not emulated
• Tape emulation through CAS files for basic language and system programs
• Direct load of TRS80 CMD & CAS & Intel Hex files
• ROM extension is included (use SYSTEM and /12288 for activating)
• ROM includes simple monitor (use SYSTEM and /12710)
• Content of ROM can be loaded from binary file
• Character generator ROM can be loaded from bitmap file
• Default ROM and character generator can be patched into the EXE file
• Small sized single EXE program, no external files are needed
• Running on standard WIN32 environment (Windows 95 and up)

System requirements & installation:

• The program was written and compiled in a special way with the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition" using only standard WIN32 API interface, not referring to any external run time library. It runs from Windows 95 to the latest windows releases. The program in standard mode consumes insignificant system resources, however in "full speed" mode it eats up one processor.
• No special installation is needed, the files should be extracted from the downloaded zip package into any directory, and FASTZ80.EXE can be run.

Basic features of the simulated hardware:

• Machine cycle accurate instruction set of Z80 processor is implemented
• Undocumented instructions are implemented. See "The undocumented Z80" for details.
• The content of ROM & ROM Extension is coming from the original HT1080Z, but it can be configured
• Sound chip is not emulated, however it was a special addition in HT1080Z
• The first version of the original machine contained only 16 kByte RAM, this implementation contains 48 kByte
• OUT instruction has no effect
• IN instruction results reading value FF, except port FF, where bit 7 is simulated as the TAPE input
• NMI is supported (can be triggered from menu), however maskable interrupt (INT) is not
• Includes two Z80 engine, one contains some simplifications for reaching better performance. See "Tuning the emulator".

Knut, master of TRS-80 cassettes, has done it again with the release of his new utility, PLAY CAS. While this utility can do a lot of things, its main function is to allow you to plug your TRS-80 EAR connector into your PC Soundcard headphone output, and turn your PC into a TRS-80 cassette player. Once hooked up in this manner, the utility will play a CAS file stored on your PC into the TRS-80 plug, so your TRS-80 thinks it is getting input from a cassette, but its really from the PC.

Play CAS checks the CAS to determine whether its a Level 1, Level 2, or Model III Highspeed image.

Download and instructions are available on the Media Conversion page.

With the permission of the copyright holder, Lance Wolstrup, the TRSTimes magazines are back online.

To the extent that I have an email address for a software author, I have made the author name in the Searchable Archive page also include a hotlink to email.

The ORCH-80/85/90 page has been added to the emulation navbar.

Dow Jones Information Service Users Guide (1987)(Tandy)

Using the Model 100 With CompuServe and Dow Jones News Service (19xx)(Tandy)

CompuServe Information Service Users Guide (1983)(Radio Shack)

Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 82 has been added to the 80 Micro 1986 web page, and the searchable 80 micro database.

This brings the count up to 94 out of 101 issues. Thank you Horacio.

Lajos Kintli has updated his FastZ80 emulator to v1.02 with some new features. The new features include:

• TRS-80 tape sound
• general Instruments AY-3-8910 (Yamaha YM2149) sound generator
• configurable keyboard matrix
• patching the emulator saves the keyboard matrix and other configuration settings too
• video cut / video page support
• window magnifier (200%)
• adjustable CPU frequency (1.774 & 1.747 MHz)
• "remove rom" feature
• port controlled timer and event counter
• restructured menu / hot keys

It can be downloaded either from his site or from the emulator page.

Infinite Basic for the TRS-80 - Matrix and Strings
Racet Computes
1979

Do you have a Model I that you would like to see go to a really important good home?

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is looking for a Model I in good physical shape to tour with an upcoming traveling exhibition. The tour would last 10 years which is why they are interested in acquiring the Model I instead of borrowing it. At the end of the tour they will be donating it to another non-profit exhibition.

Similar to the old Billy Crystal Saturday Night Live skit, it is much better for the Model I to look good than to feel good. While it would be nice if it worked, they are more interested in a Model I which is physically good looking, as it will be on display. A non-working Model I is fine by them.

The Model I does not need to have, but can have, an expansion interface and floppy disks. That would augment the exhibition, but they are really after the Monitor / Keyboard.

If you can donate your Model I, please let me know and I will put you in direct contact with them. They can, and will, provide a letter of donation for the IRS (although the donor would have to provide the value).

Two working Model I's (or so I am told) for sale for local pickup, one manufactured in 1978, the other in 1980. I believe each has its own expansion interface.

The seller has a lot of stuff, including a service manual for the Model 1, game tapes [if she can find them] & other manuals. She has 5 disk drives total.

She does not want to ship them. Contact me, and I will forward the offers on. Pickup is in Bergen County NJ.

I finally decided to turn on the ISP's spam filter on my email account. Between 8/4 and 8/26 it has snagged 2,682 emails. I am astounded.

A big thank you to Bob McDaniel, Bob Stonehill, and Susie Stonehill for a very large box of magazines and books (including the Sargon, right below this posting).

SoftSide
Publisher: SoftSide Publishing
Volume 2 Issue 1
Year: 10/1979
Pages: 70
Tosec Name: SoftSide Magazine Vol 2 No 01 (1979)(SoftSide Publications)
IF YOU HAVE THIS MAGAZINE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW; THE SCAN IS MISSING 4 PAGES.

Most of the archived copies of SoftSide are of a lower quality due to them having been scanned by the donor in Black and White Bitmap (cardinal sin #1 in scanning). Part of what Ms. Stonehill sent over were isolated pages from some old softside magazines. I have been re-scanning and replacing any pages she provided, and integrating them into the existing copies.

Computer User
Publisher: McPheeters
Volume 1 Issue 2
Year: 1983
Pages: 170

SoftSide Magazine
Vol 1 No 10
Issue : July 1979
Pages: 80
Size: 10.5MB
Publisher: SoftSide Publications
TOSEC NAME: SoftSide Magazine Vol 1 No 10 (1979)(SoftSide Publications)

For sale with local pickup ONLY. Pickup is in Bergen County NJ

• TRS-80 system Space Saver Desk
• Unopened box of 10 floppy disks in a "storage container"
• Level II of Basic Instruction Course - Parts 1 & II on Tape
• Small instruction booklets - a couple of them for the games on the tapes.
• Diskette Drive Cleaning Kit still in its box.

Contact me, and I will forward the offers on.

A visitor named Mike advises that he is putting a up web site which allows you to flip through Radio Shack catalogs.

The site can be found at www.RadioShackCatalogs.com.

With the addition of Volume 1, Issue 1 of COMPUTER USER magazine, I have separated out COMPUTER USER from the "other magazines" page, and given it its own page.

I continue to scan magazines graciously donated by Susie Stonehill. For the most part, I am augmenting prior scans which were of lower quality. Examples of new scans are:

• 80-US - Volume 05, Issue 08
• Computer User - Volume 01, Issue 01
• Computer User - Volume 01, Issue 02
• Computer User - Volume 02, Issue 01
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 01
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 02
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 03
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 04
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 05
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 06
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 07
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 10
• Softside - Volume 01, Issue 11
• Softside - Volume 02, Issue 01
• Softside - Volume 02, Issue 08
• Softside - Volume 02, Issue 09
• Softside - Volume 02, Issue 10
• Softside - Volume 02, Issue 7
• Softside - Volume 05, Issue 02

Network 2 Controller Service Manual
Pages: 12
Year: 1981
TOSEC: Network 2 Controller Service Manual (1981)(Radio Shack)[26-1211]
Publisher: Radio Shack

SoftSide Magazine
Vol 1 No 9
Issue : June 1979
Pages: 72
Size: 8.9MB
Publisher: SoftSide Publications
TOSEC NAME: SoftSide Magazine Vol 1 No 09 (1979)(SoftSide Publications).zip

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 3 No 5
Year: 1982
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 17 (1982)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 164

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 2
Year: 19xx
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 02 (19xx)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 40

Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 83 has been added to the 80 Micro 1986 web page, and the searchable 80 micro database.

This brings the count up to 96 out of 101 issues and finishes up 1986.

We only have 5 issues left, from 1988.

Thank you Horacio.

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 6
Year: 19xx
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 06 (19xx)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 66

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 8
Year: 19xx
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 08 (19xx)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 72

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 7
Year: 1981
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 07 (1981)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 76

Weerd!
Year: 1982
Company/Author: Big 5 Software

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 3
Year: 1980
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 03 (1981)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 44

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 2 No 6
Year: 1981
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 12 (1981)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 76

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 5
Year: 1980
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 05 (1980)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 72

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 1 No 1
Year: 1980
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 01 (1980)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 28

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 3 No 1
Year: 1982
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 13 (1982)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 76

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 2 No 3
Year: 1981
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 09 (1981)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 68

The Alternate Source Magazine
Vol 3 No 2
Year: 1982
Publisher: The Alternate Source Publications
TOSEC NAME: The Alternate Source Issue 14 (1982)(The Alternate Source)
Pages: 76

Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 96 has been added to the 80 Micro 1988 web page, and the searchable 80 micro database.

This brings the count up to 97 out of 101 with only issues from 1998 remaining.

Thank you Horacio.

Tandy M200 for sale - best offer

• Tandy M200 with two extra 24K banks of memory
• TS-Random ROM chip
• Cables for modem, printer and cassette, AC adapter
• Owners Manual; TELCOM Manual; Application Quick Reference Card; Technical Reference Manual 26-3861; Multiplan Manual;
• Multi Solutions Rom 26-3894
• Data Manager 26-3886
• Text Power 26-3881
• Romulus Chess 26-3890
• Booster-Link software and manual

It worked fine the last time it was used it about two years ago. Seller is in Northern New Jersey near Morristown.

Any questions, please let the seller (Dale) know. He can be reached via email at dalethelibrarian at yahoo dot com

Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 97 has been added to the 80 Micro 1988 web page, and the searchable 80 Micro Table-Of-Contents database.

This brings the count up to 98 out of 101 with only three (3) issues from 1998 remaining.

Thank you Horacio.

Phil Ereaut has released PDRIVE Finder v0.5.

PDRIVE Finder will display the PDRIVE settings of any DSK or DMK image which was "formatted" by NEWDOS/80. Great for data disks where you cannot figure out what PDRIVE settings can be used to access the data.

Phil Ereaut has provided an updated copy of his Emulator File and Sector Display utility.

This utility will display the characteristics of a DSK or DMK image, as well as act as a HEX/ASCII sector and file display/editor utility.

Download Emulator File and Sector Display v9.1 HERE

Update: Phil Ereaut has advised that this version is faulty. A replacement version is found under February 1, 2009 news. This download has been removed.

Miguel Dutra is gathering up some CP-500 (a Brazilian TRS-80 Model III Clone) documents and software.

Phil Ereaut has provided an updated copy of his Emulator File and Sector Display utility. This replaces the faulty v9.1 posted previously.

This utility will display the characteristics of a DSK or DMK image, as well as act as a HEX/ASCII sector and file display/editor utility.

Phil Ereaut has released his Emulator File Type and Format Finder 2009 v1.0.

This utility analyzes DSK and DMK files and shows filename, DOS, PDRIVES, Tracks, Density, Sides, Sec/Cyl and SPG. Will also note where Track Sectors start at 1.

Phil Ereaut has released his Emulator File Read and Copy 2006 v3.1

This program reads .Dsk files, and displays the disk filenames in a list box. Clicking on a file, allows the file to be saved to a PC folder. It can be used just to view the Files on a .Dsk, if you dont want to copy the files.

It doesn't always work, but it has definitely helped me extract files from DSK images which the emulator would not recognize.

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As I continue to explore WordPress, I am toying with the idea of moving more of the site over. In connection with this transition, I have been reworking the emulator page to clean up HTML errors and make it more WordPress friendly.

In doing so, I also verified the links and have realized that a number of emulators have been updated. These include:

• HT 1080/Z v1.6, updated on Sep. 17, 2007
• VCC v1.40 Installer, updated on Jan. 3, 2008
• MC-10 Emulator v0.73c, updated on May, 2008
• Multi Emulator Super System (Binary) v1.29 updated on Jan. 6, 2008
• Virtual T v1.3 updated on Sep. 25, 2008

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While continuing to scan new materials, I am in the process of adding complete table of contents entries for the scanned magazines in an upgrade to the magazine pages.

I have completed working on THE ALTERNATE SOURCE and THE 8IGHTY magazines.

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I have updated the 80 NOTEBOOK magazine page to include larger cover scans and the tables of contents. The 80 NOTEBOOK ran for 7 issues.

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While I am continuing my efforts to continue scanning SoftSide magazines, I am also continuing the efforts of breaking magazine pages out so that each issue has its own page with tables of contents (like the 80 Micro pages have always had). I am currently pushing through the 80-US JOURNAL pages, and will not post news items for each update, but as of this writing, I have updated Volumes 2 and 3, and am in the middle of Volume 4.

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A site visitor has a Model III (unsure if it works) which he is willing to give away to anyone who will pick it up near Kalamazoo MI.

Since the person is not willing to ship, I will only pass on emails which offer to pick it up.

Please send me an email, and I will forward it on.

First come, first served.

I continue to push hard to move as much of the site as I can over to Wordpress and to otherwise upgrade the information present. Pages without a "*" on the navbar have already been moved over (although some of those need further work as well). I have also started upgrading the images on the site, including updating all of the book cover images to be substantially larger.

Issue Information:

UPDATE: I found my answer after a LOT of searching.

If anyone out there is familiar with WordPress and PHP errors, please email me. Wordpress is giving me Internal Error 500 when I try to post or view or edit pages. No other functions (news, media, links, etc) are affected - only "pages". Thanks!

I suspect that the site is too big for WordPress. Although I had solved the problem yesterday, it re-emerged as I continued to port pages over. I was able to move about 2/3 of the entire site before WordPress' capabilities were exceeded. I am still 'locked out' of page functions with a "500 Internal Error" on the php code, but I can transition the site back to the old format, and still keep WordPress for the news. Thank goodness I never implemented anything in WordPress without implementing it in my HTML first.

The good news is that the attempted WordPress port spurred me to add magazine details, increase the cover scans, and clean things up. Those benefits will continue.

Of course, I do continue scanning, and have some new stuff on the way.

In addition to the php.ini at 25MB (didn't work alone, but left it there anyway), I added a line to HTACCESS which some stated solved some PHP5 processing problems on 1and1 hosted sites. This gave me access to the 'pages' functions again. I realized that 1/2 of the pages were single magazine pages (showing the cover, giving issue information/stats, and setting out the tables of contents). I have realized that if I port the entire site over (or as much as can go ... I don't think my SQL pages can go) but leave the single magazine pages as they were, I should not hit the WordPress limitation.

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The following TRS-80 items are available, first come first served, for LOCAL PICKUP ONLY from Marstons Mills, Massachusetts (photos are for reference only).

Since the donator has no interest in shipping, please email me which models you would like to pick-up and I will forward on the request in the order received.

I will update this news posting to strike off any items which have already been claimed.

• TRS-80 Model I - Current working status unknown but worked when last used.
• TRS-80 Model III - Current working status unknown but worked when last used.
• TRS-80 Model 4P - Current working status unknown but worked when last used.
• TRS-80 CoCo - In box; current working status unknown.
• DWP 220 Printer - Current working status unknown but worked when last used.

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As I have been converting the site over to WordPress, I note that information surrounding many of the DOS's is splattered all over the site. While I will leave that information where it is, I am in the process of developing pages which are devoted to each DOS. The first of which will be NEWDOS/80.

• Although some pages require a little tweaking (most notedly, those magazine issue pages which were backed out of WordPress due to WordPress limitations), I believe all of the pages that are going to be transitioned to WordPress have been transitioned.
• I have updated the H&E Computronics page to provide for larger cover images, additional issue details, and, of course, the associated Tables of Contents from each of the issues.
• Finally, the NEWDOS/80 Page is now complete. Of course, if anyone has additional information, tips, hints, patches, etc., I would love to hear!

Issue Information:

Horacio has provided another 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 99 has been added to the 80 Micro 1988 web page, and the searchable 80 Micro Table-Of-Contents database.

This brings the count up to 99 out of 101 with only two (2) issues from 1998 remaining.

Thank you Horacio.

Issue Information:

Took the better part of a day, but I have added a CLOAD MAGAZINE page which includes 'cover' scans and the listing of the contents of each cassette in the series.

I apologize for the serious lack of updates to the site, but things at work have been fairly intense. The following has been added to the site:

• Putting tape FS1 on Disk
• Backing Up Tape FS1
• Concatenating TABLE/CIM into DISASM/CMD
• Modifying ORCH-85 and PIANO-85 to Take Command File Inputs
• Disabling Passwords in DOSPLUS 3.4
• Forcing VERIFY in DOSPLUS v3.4
• Undocumented Z-80 Opcodes
• Set MEMORY SIZE from BASIC
• Added 'To get print arrows to print in a BASIC program' in Keyboard Tips and Tricks

Matthew Reed, creator of the fantastic TRS32 (Model I, III, 4 emulator for Windows) has just released an update to v1.19.

Changes include:

• Corrected problem with flickering and incorrect colors while in full-screen mode
• Fixed problem with double-wide status in Model I mode (Thanks to Al Wallace)
• Added a new Level I, Model III mode

David Cooper has located, with the aid of John Benson, a Level I Model III, and has taken pictures of the insides as well as dumped the ROM. David wrote:

Well, folks, the Model III, Level I ROM is no longer an extinct species! I have purchased a Model III, Level I machine and have made an image of it's ROM.

Before I continue, please allow me to thank John Benson of Australia for locating this machine. He notified me of the machine for sale so that I could purchase it. Without his locating the machine, I would never have been able to obtain the machine and image the ROM.

It appears that the ROM is a 4K ROM, even though it's plugged into the ROM A socket on the Model III motherboard (which supports 8K ROMs). I say this because when I read the ROM, the A12 line *appeared* to be ignored. This makes sense because Model I, Level I ROM was only 4K. But, it'd be nice to see a datasheet on this ROM. I couldn't find one anywhere. The chip number is SCM91616P, which is a Motorola ROM.

TRS-80 Model I with expansion interface, floppy drive, cassette recorder, and Line Printer VII (with complete dust covers), as well as TRS-80 power strip, joystick, and a bunch of manuals and books, are free for pickup

As for the working status, here's what I am told: The Model I does power up and does operate, but there may be an issue as the letters not all right. A test program ran. The E/I may or may not work (hard to tell), so it was not possible to test the floppy or the printer.

The items are in Auburn, California (Sacramento area).

As always, first come, first served (through emailing me only - not through usenet postings). If you are willing to pickup, please let me know, and I will put you in contact with the donator.

• Added: NewDos/80 *Unofficial* Zaps page
• Added: Electric Pencil Zaps Page.

• Added: NEWDOS/80 v2.0 Program Reference

Programming Microprocessors
Year: 1981
Author: M. Stubs
Publisher: Ing W Hofacker
Pages: 217
TOSEC: Programmieren mit TRS-80 (1981)(Ing W Hofacker) 8.9MB

Horacio has provided Volume 100 of 80 Micro, and the data for Issue 100 has been added to the 80 Micro 1988 web page, and the searchable Magazine Table-Of-Contents database.

This brings the count up to 100 out of 101 with only one (1) issue from 1998 remaining.

Thank you Horacio.

Issue Information:

Horacio has finished scanning the 80 Micro's!!!! The data for Issue 101 has been added to the 80 Micro 1988 web page, and the searchable Magazine Table-Of-Contents database.

Thank you for all your hard work, Horacio.

Issue Information:

With Horacio having finished scanning the rest of the 80 Micro's, and with Thomas McNair busily scanning missing SoftSide's, I have used my extremely limited knowledge of HTMLized SQL to expand the (now deleted) "80 Micro Magazine Search Page" to a "TRS-80 Magazine Search Page". Right now it can accept Softside or 80 Micro (through some fairly sloppy coding which will NOT scale well once additional types of magazines are added), and I have added SoftSide Issue 39 to the NEW Database.

If anyone is interested in helping convert tables of contents to lines of database code, please contact me. It will basically involve typing in the tables of contents in a specific way, and you can do as little or as much as you want.

Stratos
Year: 1982
Publisher: Adventure International
Pages: 12
Size: 3.7MB
TOSEC: Stratos (1982)(Adventure International)

A site visitor from Ann Arbor, Michigan has found a LNW Research Expansion Board, and many, if not all of the parts to go into the board.

He is asking for $50 (which includes U.S. shipping & handling). If you are interested, please contact me.

Mike Yetso provided a fake ad, which used to be on a 24x36 glossy photoprint (which he no longer has). He writes:

This is a real ad. Well, it was real, but it wasn't to the general public. It was for an industry magazine. If I remember right, it was called 'The Yellow Jaundice'. I think it was a 'trade journal' that dealt with sunday newspaper supplements. Anyway, every April they would make a 'spoof' ad. They did one with three guys standing at urinals, and one had a PC (pocket computer in those days). The ad read "The PeeWee computer that goes where you pee", or something like that. When some people at Tandy saw it, they said if you're going to poke fun at us, at least make it a good one. The magazine responded with "Ok, YOU do one next year", and the ad was what was actually published in the magazine.
Tandy actually got coupons from the ad back!
If I remember right, one of the guys in the ad was Sal Greski (sp?)"

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 05 / 38
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 05 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 116
SIZE: 76.1MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 07 / 40
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 07 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 96
SIZE: 63.7MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 08 / 41
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 08 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 80
SIZE: 53.1MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 09 / 42
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 09 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 88
SIZE: 57.5MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 10 / 43
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 10 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 104
SIZE: 72.8MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 12 / 45
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 12 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 112
SIZE: 77.1MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 6 No 11 / 44
Year: 1983
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 6 No 11 (1983)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 108
SIZE: 69.6MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 7 No 01 / 46
Year: 1984
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 7 No 01 (1984)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 88
SIZE: 61.8MB

SoftSide Magazine
Issue: Vol 7 No 02 / 47
Year: 1984
TOSEC: SoftSide Magazine Vol 7 No 02 (1984)(SoftSide Publications)
Pages: 80
SIZE: 52.8MB

As I add magazine (covers) to the web site, I am also expanding the Magazine Table of Contents search with those magazines. As always, if anyone is interested in helping add magazines to the searchable index, please let me know!

Matthew Reed has updated his fantastic TRS32 emulator to v1.20, this time adding Exatron Stringy Floppy emulation support (and increasing the window margin sizes to improve readability).

This is the emulator I use in maintaining the site and in addition to being one of the very few emulators out there which is Windows NT/XP/Vista compatible, it is also the only one which is updated regularly.

You can download a copy from Matthew's web site [Link Deleted] or from the first entry on the TRS-80.com emulator page.

I heartily recommend you register the emulator [Link Deleted] (and no, I do not get a penny from that registration; it is just very very good software).

For those of you who use Matthew Reed's TRS32 emulator and wish to make use of the ESF module, please note the following:

• The ROM esf.rom needs to be in your ROMs directory
• Exatron Stringy Floppy needs to be enabled in your configuation screen
• You need to invoke the ROM through a SYSTEM command
• For file I/O, you will need to mount a virtual wafer.

To invoke the ESF ROM use the SYSTEM command with the following addresses:

ESF Commands are:

The following commands will only work if you load the "Data I/O Program" from a wafer that came with the Stringy Floppy. To date, no wafers have been dumped. Each functions exactly the same as it does for TAPE and DISK.

Sorry about the lack of updates ... I have been adding Tables of Contents of various magazines to the web site and to the searchable table of contents archive. As of now, all of my 80 Micro's, SoftSides, Micro-80's, Prog-80's, H & E Computronics, and The Alternate Source have been added. The archive page shows the status of all of the magazines, and that status will update as more tables of contents come online.

Additionally, Kim Watt was kind enough to send over a box of disks and manuals, and I have been reading the disks and scanning the manuals.

While I continue to scan the manuals which Kim Watt kindly sent over, I have updated the searchable table of contents to include all of the 80-NW Journal and 80-US Journals, as well as all the Basic Computing (which is what 80-US turned into) I have. I do not know the last published issue, so I have flagged it as yellow (=entered all I have) rather than green (=all known issues entered).

Three more magazines have been added to the searchable table of contents: Barons Microcomputing (the few issues I had), The 8ighty (the few issues I have), and The 80 Notebook (all of them). The corresponding pages have also been updated to include the tables of contents.

Miguel Dutra has released a BETA of his new Virtual Disk Manager utility for Windows. This is a small utility which allows you to access virtual TRS-80 disks at a file level, as if they were normal PC disks.

TRSTimes has been added to the searchable table of contents.

By the way, for those who are uaware, all of the TRSTimes issues are downloadable.

For those who do not know, Terry Stewart has been spearheading the effort to get Exatron Stringy Floppy images moved over for use in Matthew Reed's emulator. Terry has a blog [Link Deleted] on a fairly diverse set of topics, sometimes discussing TRS-80's, but in almost all cases, involving problem solving. Terry's blog can be found at http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/.

The few issues I had of the French magazine, Trace, has had its tables of contents added to the searchable table of contents. Of course, since it is in French, results which search for words (instead of, for example, by issue number, year, etc) are unlikely to show up given the incompatibilities of the international character set.

I have updated the TRS-80 Microcomputer News page with bigger thumbnails and not-yet-implemented links to separate pages which will contain their tables of contents. I am slowly adding new pages (and updating the Searchable Table of Contents page to include the TRS-80 Microcomputer News. This part will be slow going.

Matthew Reed has issued an interim update to his FANTASTIC TRS32 emulator. Changed in this update is:

• Added sound to the Stringy Floppy emulation
• Improved the sound used by the floppy disk emulation
• Fixed a problem with returning Stringy Floppy status
• Changed the floppy autostart order to favor the Model I
• Fixed emulated floppy disk sector not found behavior
• Added copy and paste features
• Corrected behavior of an emulated Model I without lowercase

For those who have not yet registered Matthew's emulator, I encourage you to do so. This emulator (unlike 98% of the others) is still in development and is phenomenal. You can register at Matthew's site.

Issues 1 through 27 of TRS-80 Microcomputer News have now been added to the Searchable Table of Contents page, and their TOC's have been added to their respective pages.

I realize this is off topic, but when you come across something really cool, sometimes you gotta mention it. Although my TRS-80 was the last system I had purchased as an assembled unit (preferring to build my own), I have been familiar with Puget Systems [Link Deleted] for a while. Puget allows you to select brands and types (A corsair TX 850 power supply or w WD Caviar SE16) rather than just generic (850 watt; 200GB Hard drive, etc). I elected to go with them and, although I have not yet received the system, every question I have asked them (and I have asked a TON) has always been met with a quick and technologically correct answer. What I just noticed, though, is their order status page. This thing not only has each component and each test they ran, but temperature logs of the system under load over time, and performance benchmarks. They also email pictures of the inside, front, and back of your computer once its built, including a thermal picture of the inside. Crazy stuff.

Oh, and for the skeptics out there, NO I am not getting any payment from them. I am just THAT impressed (kinda like the way I talk about Matthew Reed's emulator).

George Philips has released v1.5 of his TRS80GP Emulator which is available for download from the emulator page.

George describes the emulator as "built primarily as a development tool for software written for real TRS-80's and for experiments in improved emulation fidelity. It can load programs in .cas, .hex, .bas or .cmd format directly but has no disk emulation nor can use use CLOAD or SYSTEM to load .cas files (as in most normal emulators).

I would say that this 'emulator's strength is that you do not need to set up a ROM (it is built in), import files onto DSK/DMK's, have boot disks, etc. If you have a /CMD file or a /BAS file or a /CAS file, you would simply execute the emulator FROM A COMMAND LINE, and your program would run. No fuss.

More details can be found by running the emulator with a -? flag will also provide details.

Issues 1 through 43 of TRS-80 Microcomputer News have now been added to the Searchable Table of Contents page, and their TOC's have been added to their respective pages.

Miguel Dutra has released v0.2 of his new Virtual Disk Manager utility for Windows. This is a small utility which allows you to access virtual TRS-80 disks at a file level, as if they were normal PC disks.

The TRS-80 Virtual Disk Manager shows the file name, size, date and attributes of each directory item, supports reading both .DSK and .DMK image files, and allows exporting TRS-80 files to the Windows file system.

Miguel lists each possible DOS for the TRS-80 and whether or not it is currently supported, with his ultimate goal being 100% of all OS's.

Explanations and the program can be found on the TRS-80 Disk and Tape Conversion Utilities page.

Miguel Dutra has released v0.2.2 of his new Virtual Disk Manager utility for Windows. This is a small utility which allows you to access virtual TRS-80 disks at a file level, as if they were normal PC disks.

Explanations and the program can be found on the TRS-80 Disk Utilities page.

All issues of TRS-80 Microcomputer News have been added to the Searchable Table of Contents page.

Miguel Dutra has released v0.4 of his command line version of his Virtual Disk Manager utility for Windows. This is a small utility which allows you to access virtual TRS-80 disks at a file level, as if they were normal PC disks.

Explanations and the program can be found on Miguel's web site and on the TRS-80 Disk and Tape Conversion Utilities page.

Miguel Dutra has released v0.5 of his GUI version of his Virtual Disk Manager utility for Windows. This is a small utility which allows you to access virtual TRS-80 disks at a file level, as if they were normal PC disks.

It appears that this utility can read all known TRS-80 DOS's except for (1) CPM and (2) anything made by Percom.

Explanations and the program can be found on TRS-80 Disk and Tape Conversion Utilities page.

The new version brings:

• Open DSK and DMK files by just double-clicking over them
• Choose whether to detect file formats automatically or manually
• Choose whether to show or hide system and invisible files
• Sort files by name, extension, size, date and attributes
• Export multiple selected files at once
• See disk properties including name, date, DOS version etc.
• Navigate through disk sectors

The drives have been claimed. Thanks.

A site visitor has four external floppy drives with power supplies for the TRS-80 Model III. He is not sure if they work, but advised advised that they are from a working system that was retired two decades ago.

He has popped the cover off of one of them and confirmed no unusual corrosion, and the belt appears to be in decent shape. The ribbon cables are also with the drives, and the set includes a matching, under-desk bay that can hold two of the drives.

He is willing to give them away as long as he is not out-of-pocket. If you want to pick them up (Prior Lake, MN) that's fine, and if you want to pay pack/shipping, that's fine.

Email me if interested - first come first served.

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: July 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-07 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 24

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: January 1981
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1981-01 (1981)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 24

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: April 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-04 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 24

8-Meg Hard Disk Service Manual
Pages: 114
Year: 1982
TOSEC: TRS-80 8MB Hard Drive Service Manual (1982)(Tandy)
Cat: 26-4150/4151
Publisher: Tandy

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: March 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-03 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 28

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: May 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-05 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 28

Level III BASIC Reference Card
Pages: 16
Year: 1979
TOSEC: Level III BASIC Reference Card (1979)(GRT Corp)
Publisher: GRT Corp

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: September 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-09 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 24

Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group
Issue: November 1980
TOSEC: Orange Country TRS-80 Users Group 1980-11 (1980)(Octug)
Page Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: 24

Attila Grosz has updated his HT/Videogenie/TRS-80 emulator to v1.6.2. New Features/Changes:

• custom screen refresh frequencies (between 5 and 200)
• copy screen contents to the clipboard (text format)
• better AY-3-8910 sound IC emulation (mixer)
• bugfixes (reenabled breakpoints)

Download from the emulator page.

A page listing all unofficial TRSDOS 1.3 zaps which I had has been added here. If you have any to contribute, please let me know.

A page listing unofficial Model 4 TRSDOS zaps has been added here.

If you have any to contribute, please let me know.

Although it happened in July, I just found out that Tim Mann's TRS-80 Emulator in Unix, XTRS, was updated to v4.9. The updated version can be downloaded from Tim Mann's XTRS web page [Link Deleted] or from the emulator web page.

Mark Grebe has ported Tim Mann's XTRS emulator for Macintosh OSX, Windows, and Linux. While it is always good to have a new emulator on the scene, this is big news for those MAC users out there, as there has not been a workable TRS-80 emulator for the MAC in many years.

As many know, Tim Mann's XTRS offers Model 1, 3, and 4/4P emulation, with cassette, 5", 8" and hard drive emulation. It emualtes sound, mouse, joystick, and printer, and can do data I/O between the emulator and the host operating system.

SDLTRS expands on this and adds:

• Windows and Mac OS X support.
• Fullscreen display.
• Text based GUI on Windows and Linux, and in Fullscreen mode on the Macintosh.
• Configuration files.
• Disk LED Indicators on screen.
• Creation of Disk images inside of the program.
• Saving and loading of disk sets.
• Saving and loading of emulator state.
• Copy and Paste of text to/from host and emulator.
• USB Joystick support.

The MAC version also adds:

• Graphical interface, include Media management with graphical representation of the disk drives and cassette.
• Printer emulation of Epson FX-80 and CGP-115 Plotter/Printer, with output to PDF files.
• Debugger in seperate program window.

SDLTRS can be downloaded via the SDLTRS Web Page [Link Deleted] or from the emulator web page.

A page with TRSDOS 1.2 patches has been added, the page of the TRSDOS 1.3 patches has been GREATLY expanded, and Miguel Dutra's VDISK utility has been added to the Virtual Disk Utilities page.

Matthew Reed, author of the wonderful TRS32 emulator [Link Deleted] has released "TRSTOOLS," a utility that makes it easier to work with virtual disk images.

TRSTools features include:

• Open an existing virtual disk image
• Create a new virtual disk image
• Add files to or extract files from the disk image (with file dates preserved)
• Preview files (with integrated viewer)
• Rename files
• Delete files
• Change the disk label and volume date
• Drag and Drop support to and from Windows Explorer
• Integrated file viewer

That last point, the built-in viewer, can preview several different types of TRS-80 file formats, including:

• Text files, with any line ending
• Tokenized Model III BASIC programs
• Model III and Model 4 high-resolution images (/HR)
• Model 4 compressed high-resolution images (/CHR)
• Model 4 super-compressed high-resolution images (/SHR)
• Binary files (which can be viewed as a hexadecimal dump)

TRSTools supports the following TRS-80 Operating Systems:

• TRSDOS 2.3 (Model I)
• TRSDOS 1.3 (Model III)
• TRSDOS 6 and LS-DOS (Model 4)
• LDOS (Model I and III)
• DOSPLUS (Model I, III, and 4)
• MULTIDOS (Model I, III, and 4)
• NEWDOS (Model I)
• NEWDOS/80 (Model I and III)
• ULTRADOS (Model I)
• DBLDOS (Model I)
• VTOS (Model I)
• RAPIDOS (Model 4)

TRSTools v1.0 can be downloaded from Matthew Reed's web site [Link Deleted] or from the Utilities Section of the DSK and DMK Image Utilities Page.