TRS-80 Model III

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
Date: Wed Aug 7 22:27:01 2002

At 09:13 08/07/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>Nope, still no video. The video is hosed. Along with the rest of the
>units I've tried.
>
>Now I know why stuff like TRS-80s and C64s were so derided back in the
>day: the shit just don't last!

Every machine has it's pros & cons... the video memory mapping that seemed
to defy logic on the Apple ][s is one of the main reasons why I never stuck
with them...

Honestly, I don't think I *ever* had a Tandy CoCo, no matter where I got
it, no matter what shape I got it in, that didn't boot first time up; IIRC
I had a floppy drive controller that on occasion might hiccup every 1/4th
boot every couple years; pull 1 screw, reseat chips, reassemble, good for a
couple more years. The beauty of that controller was this: if it was wonky,
it wouldn't survive the boot to OS-9. If the OS booted, it would work
flawlessly until the next reboot, even if it was days later... I still have
no idea how the chips "knew" to "hold on, dammit, hold on!" - but I never
lost a single bit.

Oh, and I had one CoCo2 that I got from a garage sale would miss around 1/2
of the characters typed on the keyboard, but I'm sure that the 1/4 cup of
sand that I extricated from the keyboard during the re-build had nothing to
do with it... (worked flawlessly after that...)

Maybe Tandys just don't like you??? ;-)

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
Received on Wed Aug 07 2002 - 22:27:01 BST