TRS-80 Model 2000

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Thu Aug 24 15:40:46 2000

> Picked this up for $10. No monitor or keyboard. 2 Floppies. No cracks or
> scratches but "yellowed" case. Very little info on net about this one.
> Seems that was one of the rare computers to use an actual 80186 chip.

At the time this came out, Microsoft was flying ads in magazines showing
a Windows alpha (i.e. pre-1.0) on Tandy 2000s, and I was in the market
for a system to replace the Sol, and the CP/M-based systems looked like
their days were numbered.

<short digression>

But one day, I was on my way to buy tickets at the local Ticketron
for some concert, and the Ticketron was was in a local department
store (Lazarus? No, L.S. Ayres, I think), and that store also had
a computer department. While walking by, I saw a Macintosh. The shirts
who were selling them were talking to each other and ignoring me, so
I spent some time drawing in MacPaint, ending up painting a picture
that as best as I could reproduce from memory was "There's a hole
in the bottom of the sea, there's a hole in the bottom of the sea".

Anyway, it came down to decision time, and I decided that the Tandy
2000 was too geeky, and too much like the CP/M systems at work. I
was sure I would bring work home with me, while if I bought the Mac,
I'd have a computer to use for the things *normal* people use them
for.

Anyway, I too, just acquired a Tandy 2000, from a co-worker who
used it in his architectural firm years ago. It didn't look like
it had yellowed, he must have kept it out of the sun. It has a
10MB hard drive in a thematically-same-styled case, connected
by a ribbon cable.

Since he didn't deliver it to me with the original software
(DOS & BASIC), I was happy to pick these up cheap on E-Bay
the other day.

haven't fired it up yet, and in factm it may go into storage for
a while before I do so. But I recall liking the specs, the
graphics resolution was higher than most PC-alikes at the time
(IIRC).

regards,
-doug quebbeman
Received on Thu Aug 24 2000 - 15:40:46 BST