--- title: Tandy Radio Shack TRS 80 MODEL I categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1977' cpus: - Zilog Z80 params: name: TRS 80 MODEL I company: /companies/tandy-radio-shack company_name: Tandy Radio Shack specs: - label: NAME value: TRS 80 MODEL I - label: MANUFACTURER value: Tandy Radio Shack - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1977' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: |- Basic Level 1 (4k ROM models)\ Basic Level II (12k ROM models) - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard, 53 Keys, optional numeric keypad - label: CPU value: Zilog Z80 - label: SPEED value: 1.77 MHz - label: RAM value: 4 kb / 16 kb depending on models (up to 48 kb) - label: VRAM value: 1 kb - label: ROM value: 4 kb (Basic Level 1) or 12kb (Basic Level 2) - label: TEXT MODES value: 32 x 16, 64 x 16 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 128 x 48 - label: COLORS value: monochrome - label: SOUND value: None - label: I/O PORTS value: Monitor, cassette interface, expansion port - label: OS value: TRS DOS - NEW DOS - label: PRICE value: |- #26-1003 : Model I, Level I, 16K = 700 (France,81)\ #26-1004 : Model I, Level II, 4K = 640 r (France,81)\ #26-1006 : Model I, Level II, 16K = $1099 tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - software - emulators - links photos: - title: LEVEL 1 MODEL subtitle: '' text: Basic version of the first Level 1 model with its power supply unit and tape recorder. image: null - title: BOOT-UP SREEN subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: TOP VIEW subtitle: '' text: Model II connected to the expansion unit located below the monitor. image: null - title: BOTH SIDES subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REAR SIDE subtitle: '' text: |- From left to right:\ • Tape recorder DIN socket\ • Monitor DIN socket\ • Power trasformer DIN socket\ • Power switch\ • Expansion connector. image: null - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM subtitle: '' text: |- Very complete (and expensive at the time!) version including the expansion unit, two floppy drive units, a 5 MB hard disk unit and the Line Printer 1 dot matrix printer. Special thanks to **Georges Chapuzot** who donated us this system. image: null - title: 'COMPLETE SYSTEM #2' subtitle: '' text: TRS 80 Model 1 + expansion unit + voice synthesizer + tape recorder + disk drives + printer image: null - title: LEVEL I & LEVEL II subtitle: '' text: Externally, the only difference is the numeric keypad added to the Level II. image: null - title: OPENED subtitle: '' text: The keyboard circuit is supported by the main board which components face the bottom of the case. This model was a Level I version converted into a level II. The BASIC ROMs are located below the numeric keypad and connected to the ROM socket of the main board by a flat cable. image: null - title: MAINBOARD subtitle: '' text: |- A true Level II version. **(1)** Reset switch\ **(2)** Power regulators\ **(3)** 16 KB RAM chips (8 x 4116)\ **(4)** Keyboard cable\ **(5)** Z80 CPU, here a Mostek version\ **(6)** 8K + 4K ROM chips\ **(7)** DIN sockets ans power switch. image: null - title: THE BOX subtitle: '' text: The box holds a complete Level 1 4K system. image: null - title: THE VERY FIRST VERSION subtitle: '' text: The TRS-80 during one of its first public show, in October, 1977, with F.D. unit prototypes. image: null - title: PROMOTIONAL PICTURE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null adverts: - title: FIRST U.S. ADVERT (1977) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: U.S. ADVERT (1978) subtitle: '' text: Thanks to Orion Young for this picture image: null - title: U.S. ADVERT (1979) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: MICROSOFT ADVERT (1979) subtitle: '' text: |- Advert said: No one knows better than Microsoft how to increase your TRS-80 BASIC's power. Microsoft created the TRS-80 Level ll and Disk BASIC plus the industry standard Microsoft BASIC... ...Microsoft Level lll BASIC is an enhancement to the Level ll. It contains all Disk BASIC features not already in Level ll and it adds six new Level lll exclusives...\ ...Advanced graphics is Level lll's most exciting addition to the TRS-80 - and it's exclusive. Draw a line, outline or solid box by specifying just two points, then save it and put it back with BASIC statement. You'll find yourself writing more programs with charts, graphs and even animation... image: null - title: U.S. ADVERT (1980) subtitle: '' text: In september 1980, over 200,000 Model 1 were sold, more than 50,000 units per month since the computer was launched. image: null - title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: FRENCH ADVERT (1980) subtitle: '' text: Dated december 1980 image: null - title: TANDY BROCHURE COVER subtitle: '' text: Cover of a Tandy catalogue. image: null hardware: - title: VOXBOX subtitle: Serial# 26-1181 text: |- The VoxBox is a voice recognition device with a CB-style microphone attached. You have to push-to-talk, and though it can only recognize a few words at a time, it is fun to play with. You can program the TRS-80 Model 1 (level II) so it can react to specific words. It cost 925fr (France, 1981) image: null - title: MUSIC SYNTHESIZER subtitle: '' text: It has a left and right audio output. image: null - title: VOICE SYNTHESIZER subtitle: Serial# 26-1180 text: |- This is a real voice synthesizer with built-in speaker. Is sounds too cool with its robotic voice. Can be used with Level I or II Basic but the TRS-80 must have at least 16k RAM. It cost 2695fr (France, 1981) image: null - title: VOICE SYNTHESIZER subtitle: Another picture text: '' image: null - title: 'DUAL MINIDISK UNIT #1' subtitle: 'Ref #26-1160' text: |- Up to 4 minidisks could be attached. They used 5''1/4 disks. Minidisk 1 had a capacity of 55kb and additional ones 89kb, or 160 KB for dual density version. #26-1160 : Minidisk 1 cost 470 Euros (France, 81), $699.00 (USA)\ #26-1161 : Additional minidisks cost 426 Euros (France, 81) image: null - title: 'DUAL MINIDISK UNIT #2' subtitle: Inside text: The floppy drive was a Tandon single side, single density model. image: null - title: '5 MB HARD DISK UNIT #1' subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: '5 MB HARD DISK UNIT #2' subtitle: Inside text: The unit used a Tandon 5.25" HDD. Up to 4 similar HDD could be connected to this unit. image: null - title: 'EXPANSION UNIT #1' subtitle: Ref. 26-114x text: |- Most of the serious TRS-80 users bought this expansion unit which gave 16 or 32 KB more RAM. The TRS-80 thus reached a wooping 48 KB RAM It also offered a provision for using two cassette tape units, a Parallel printer port, the floppy disk controller (single then dual density), a serial port and a real-time clock interrupt that was used by various DOS systems for time keeping functions.\ French Prices (1981):\ 26-1140 : Expansion unit alone = 320 Euros\ 26-1141 : ... with 16k RAM = 452 Euros\ 26-1142 : ... with 32k RAM = 585 Euros\ 26-1102 : 16k RAM kit = 135 Euros\ US prices:\ 26-1140 : Expansion unit alone = $449\ 26-1102 : 16k RAM kit = $189 image: null - title: 'EXPANSION BOX #2' subtitle: Inside text: This version holds 32 KB RAM and an add-on card for dual density floppy disk drives. Provision was made for the main unit's AC adaptor. image: null - title: TAPE RECORDER subtitle: Ref# 14-841 text: The tape recorder was a standard version also sold separately in Tandy shops. image: null - title: NUMERIC KEYPAD subtitle: Serial# 26-1031 / 26-1103 text: The numeric keypad was mounted on 16k models, but could also be added to 4k models (Level I or II) in place of the "TRS-80" label... image: null - title: RS232C CARD subtitle: Serial# 26-1145 text: |- This RS232c card is meant to be mounted into the expansion unit and enables the TRS-80 to communicate with various devices such as a modem. It cost 729fr (France, 1981) image: null - title: RADIO SHACK MODEMS subtitle: '' text: |- **(1) Direct-Connect Modem 1** Full-duplex modem. 300 baud Bell 103J compatible. Did not need an RS-232 board in TRS-Model 1 computers.\ **(2) Direct-Connect Modem 2** Same as Modem 1 + Built-in 6805 microprocessor. 25 chars. register to store commands and parameters for automatic dialing and operations.\ **(3) Telephone Interface 2** Used to transfer data through a telephone handset. 300 baud, full or half duplex operations. image: null - title: MODEM 1B subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: ACOUSTIC MODEM subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: LYNX TELEPHONE COUPLER subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REMOTE UNIT ACTIVE subtitle: Serial# 26-1210 text: |- This rare unit is meant for teachers to control up to 16 TRS-80 Model 1 from a another TRS-80 equiped with min-disk. All the controled TRS-80 model 1 must be equiped with Level II. It cost 2895fr (France, 1981) image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_remote-unit-active.jpg - title: NETWORK II BOX subtitle: p/n 26-1211 text: |- This box allowed up to 16 TRS computer to be networked. Three network boxes were released by Tandy (I, II and III).\ The Network II required verbal communication between the server operator and the remote user, and data transfer had to be completed one user at a time.\ The network III allowed automated control of the network so that users could easily access programs and data stored on the server's storage device. Thanks to **David Sutherland** for the pictures. image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_network2_s1.jpg - title: TRS80 PRINTER CONTROLLER subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: DMP-200 subtitle: '' text: 80-column, 100 cps dot matrix printer. image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model3_dmp200_s1.jpg - title: QUICK PRINTER II subtitle: Serial# 26-1155 text: |- Ideal affordable printer for TRS-80 users (that's what the ad says...). It uses special paper-rolls (6cm large). Can print 16 or 32 c/line. It cost 1495fr in 1981 (France). image: null - title: DAISY WHEEL PRINTER II subtitle: Serial# 26-1158 text: |- This is a high-quality printer meant to be used with wordprocessors. Some interchangeable daisy-wheels were available (Courrier, Elite, Madeleine). It could print 163 characters per line (34cm), at a 43 cps rate. It cost 9595fr (France, 1981) image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_daisy-wheel-printer-2_1.jpg - title: PLOTTER subtitle: Serial# 26-1190 text: |- Multidirectionnal printer/plotter.\ 10 c/s print rate.\ Printing wide size : 19cm It cost 6250fr (France) in 1981. image: null - title: GRAPHIC PLOTTER subtitle: 4-pen mini printer-plotter text: '' image: null - title: LINE PRINTER I subtitle: Ref# 26-7017 text: |- This printer was a custom version of the Oki Microline 80.\ Printed lower and upper case on paper rolls or listing paper (24cm wide) from 40 to 80 columns/line, at a speed rate of 28 lines/minute. It cost 716 Euros in 1981 (France). image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model1_lineprinter1_s1.jpg - title: LINE PRINTER III subtitle: Serial# 26-1156 text: This printer can print lower and upper case, at a speed rate of 120 c/s, on paper up to 38cm wide. It is conceived for intensive use ! It cost 9950fr in 1981 (France). image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_line-printer-3_1.jpg - title: LINE PRINTER VI subtitle: Serial# 26-1166 text: |- This large printer can print lower and upper case, graphic characters and symbols at a speed rate of 100 c/s ! This is definately a professional printer. It cost 5495fr in 1981 (France). image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_line-printer-6_1.jpg - title: TP-10 THERMAL PRINTER subtitle: Box text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80_tp-10_thermal-printer_box.jpg - title: EXATRON subtitle: Stringy Floppy drive text: |- The Exatron Stringy Floppy (ESF) was a low-cost data—storage system that fitted the gap, between cassettes and disk drives.\ The system was based on a miniature endless—loop tape cartridge called a "wafer".\ The amount of data that could be recorded on a wafer depended on the length of tape in it, typically, a 50—foot wafer could hold at least 40 KB of programs or data. **Matt** reports to us:\ A curiousity about the model 1, CPU SPEED had a direct relatonship with STORAGE CAPACITY. if you doubled the clock speed of your MODEL 1 CPU you doubled the amount of data you could store on your stringy floppies. this is a feat that no other computer no matter how many ghz you have in your PC can do today without using compression. Thanks to **David Sutherland** for the pictures image: /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model3_exatronwafer_s1.jpg emulators: - title: David Keil's TRS-80 Computer Emulator Pages url: http://discover-net.net/~dmkeil/ platform: MS DOS text: This program emulates a complete TRS-80 - title: David Keil's TRS-80 Model III/4/4P Emulator Page url: http://discover-net.net/~dmkeil/trs80/model4.htm platform: MS DOS text: This program emulates a complete TRS-80 - title: Jeff Vavasour's TRS-80 EMULATION Page url: http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html#model1 platform: MS DOS text: This emulator simulates a 48K TRS-80 Model I with 4 disk drives, printer, RS-232 board, and cassette drive. - title: Matthew Reed's TRS-80 Emulator Web Site url: http://www.arrowweb.com/mkr/ platform: MS DOS text: This page offers shareware versions of a TRS-80 Model 4 emulator and a TRS-80 Model 1-2 emulator - title: THE TRSF-80 HOME PAGE url: http://members.aol.com/trsf80/ platform: MS DOS text: The TRSF-80 emulator is designed to emulate a TRS-80 Model I computer on a DOS-based Intel x86 platform - title: TRS-80 Model III/4 Emulator url: http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html#model4 platform: MS DOS text: This TRS-80 Model III/4 Emulator is a commercial product - title: Yves Lempereur's TRS-80 Emulator for Mac OS url: http://www.vcnet.com/~skyrider/trs80.html platform: Apple text: TRS-80 emulator for MAC which simulates the TRS-80 emulator simulates a TRS-80 Model I with an Expansion Interface, two 5" floppy drives and 48K of RAM - title: 'xtrs: TRS-80 Model I/III/4 Emulator for Unix' url: http://www.tim-mann.org/xtrs.html platform: Unix / Linux text: xtrs is a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I/III/4/4P emulator for Unix and the X Window System - title: TRS-80 Level I BASIC in a browser url: http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html#simulator platform: Other platform text: With this Java emulator, you'll be able to write a BASIC program directly in your browser! - title: Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Pages url: http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-e.htm platform: Multiplatform text: A complete list of TRS-80 emulators for various platforms ! - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: MESS emulator also emulates a TRS-80 systems links: - title: 8bit-micro.com - Online TRS-80 Computer Magazine url: HTTP://WWW.8BIT-MICRO.COM text: Online Magazine dedicated to the TRS-80 and other Vintage - Monthly Issues - title: David's TRS-80 Page url: http://freespace.virgin.net/david.sampson/ text: '' - title: Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Pages url: http://www.trs-80.com/ text: Lof of infos about all TRS-80 computers - title: Java TRS-80 Model 1 BASIC Interpreter url: http://ganley.org/software/trs80.html text: '' - title: Mike's Personal Computer Museum url: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/mclays/trsmod1.html text: Level 1 & 2 Basic summaries, Tandy time-lines, price-list, etc ... ! - title: RadioShackCatalogs.com url: http://www.RadioShackCatalogs.com text: Here, you can actually/virtually flip-through the pages to view the content of every RadioShack catalog! - title: The TRS-80 Home Page url: http://www.kjsl.com/trs80 text: Full of infos - title: Tim Mann's TRS-80 Page url: http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80.html text: Infos, tools and home of xtrs, a Model I/III/4 emulator for Unix - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: Discussion about Tandy computers comments: - author: Lawrence M Kapenstein (United States) date: Tuesday 3rd August 2021 text: I found an old 5 1/4" disk with 12 years of work on it that I would like to convert to my new computer or just print. Does anyone know how to do that? - author: John C Sullivan (United States) date: Monday 5th March 2018 text: Need to have data printed from my 8" disks. Anyone help? - author: John C Sullivan (United States) date: Monday 5th March 2018 text: I have 8" disks that I need to print . Can anyone suggest who might be able to do this for me? - author: Homer Le (CA/USA) date: Thursday 3rd August 2017 text: '1976 we develope CP/M OS with 64 Kilo Bytes, At Gnat computer: system 8 is a box robotic using to control Angelica industrial washing/drying sytems! It work like a champ! 2) system 10 personal computer (have picture on local papers .. But cánt post here! too bad! ) this was my design and development, as VP enginnering) after graduate at SDSU .. I still have a system Gnat/associate system 10, 128KB... any one have interests ? Later competitors were Osborne, Kaypro, IBM, TRS ... Now is is history! (I still have OS on disketts!) $.. Enjoy modern PC but forget not when they are born! ... LOL' - author: Alan (USA) date: Friday 12th May 2017 text: |- I remember Christmas morning that we found the TRS 80 under the tree. I did my first computer graphics on it doing point graphing a few years later and even wrote my own game after a while. I will have to ask my Dad what happened to it, its probably just in the attic somewhere next to an atari (what we really wanted that Christmas). - author: emerson date: Saturday 24th August 2013 text: |- Hi there, I''ve added a category in my iPad app to challenge your knowledge of vintage computers: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-legend-of-zhizz/id661108464?l$pt$ls$1$mt$8 Regards, Emerson PS: thanks for this amazing website...lot of fond memories :)...and useful information $) - author: Henry (Texas) date: Wednesday 30th January 2013 text: In October 1977, my first semester in high school, my father bought a TRS-80 (model 1). The Radio Shack store in Bryan, TX was unpacking it, their first one, to put on display and my father bought it before they even turned it on. It was the optional 16K memory model. We kept it a few years and added accessories, including hard drives, a thermal printer, and later a dot-matrix printer and TRS-80 desk. It was sold to a local businessman for his bookkeeping, after we got an Apple II. I remember the dot matrix printer was made of steel, cost $1000 and was very slow and loud, sounding like tiny men with jackhammers inside. - author: The Dude (Chicago, IL) date: Thursday 24th January 2013 text: |- I had one of these. I bought it used in 1981 or so when I entered high school. Level II basic with 16K. I had the disk drives, the cassette recorder, and I even had the TALKER speech box thing It sounded JUST like the system Matthew Broderick used in WarGames. I remember spending hour after house playing the games. Another computer geek/friend of mine had set up a BBS using a TRS-80. It crashed quite a bit. The monitor died in the early 90''s. I lost the power supply in a move. I am not sure where the speech box went, I think I sold it. I do still have the machine and a bunch of disks and tapes. It is missing at least ONE RAM chip. I had an old video arcade game in my basement. One day I turned it on to play it and, it came up with a RAM ERROR. Following the directions I was able to see the diagnostic LED''s on the board and see it was reporting the RAM chip in socket 1, row 7, was bad. Now, this is like 1993. No ebay, no real internet, how the heck am I going to find a RAM chip that has been out of production for god knows ow long? Just for grins, knowing the TRS-80 was from the same era, I popped open the TRS-80 and, it has the same RAM chips! So, I yanked one from the TRS80 to put in my stand up video game. It''s been working ever since and works to this very day. My 8 year old daughter and her friends loves the old video games. Even my wife''s nieces and nephews (ages 8 to 15) when they come over love playing these old games. Both the stand up one I still have and the old ATARI games. So, while my TRS-80 is still on a shelf, a small piece of it is still helping bring smiles to kids faces. - author: Chuck Rose (USA) date: Wednesday 12th December 2012 text: In 1977-78 I was a freshman in high school and my school offered a BASIC programming class. The main computer in the class was a DEC pdp-8 with tape drives. But halfway through the school year, we got one of the first TRS80''s sold in the state of Maine. It was a 4k Level 1 system, that was quickly upgraded to a 16k Level II machine. I remember how amazed I was that the entire computer was in the keyboard unit. The pdp-8 was about the size of a large fridge! And also the little TRS-80 was much faster and had GRAPHICS! Later in life I owned several Tandy computers (Model 4p, Coco 2 and 3, and even a Tandy 1000) but I still remember the shock of of that tiny weeny little TRS 80 in my first computer science class. - author: Geoff Greig (Australia) date: Sunday 11th November 2012 text: |- The TRS 80 was the first computer I ever owned. Although I no longer have it I still have some cassettes with programs for it. Hard to conceive that we used to save programs on a audio cassette player A very addictive game we all played on it at the time was space invaders I have a black and white video with my then 1 year old son bashing the keyboard with a banana. He is now 32 and is well into computers. I must have spent 1,000''s of hours programing it. I wrote a very crude spreadsheet and version of the snake game. - author: Melvin F. Bailey (Canada) date: Sunday 21st October 2012 text: |- I bought the first TRS-80 Model I in Canada. I walked into a Vancouver B.C. Radio Shack store because of a big sign in the window that said: PERSONAL COMPUTERS I learned BASIC and wrote PC-MAIL and PC-SELL and dba CENTRAL CONSULTING in Surrey B.C. I contributed them to downloads.com as shareware and contributed my TRS80 Model II to the Victoria B.C. Museum. - author: E.J. Wilson (Atlanta, GA, USA) date: Tuesday 25th September 2012 text: My father and I wrote Games Pack I and II for the Model I around 1978. Marketed by Micro Pro International, which was an office on a pig farm. The games had AI, so the computer could play. Most ran in 16K, Including Poker, Spades, and Hearts. We wrote the first Monopoly for the TRS-80, which drew the board, took care of all the banking/deeding, etc, and rolled the dice in only 32K of RAM, and they all used the speech synthesizer if you had one. - author: Dave Yelen (NEPA, USA) date: Sunday 29th July 2012 text: I was hardcore TRS-80 Model I programmer - machine code and Assembly (thank you Microsoft). I built my own modem and designed an auto-dial auto answering unit and write and ran my own BBS (for only a few other friends that had modems at the time). Of course I had tons of games too. Anyone remember Voyage of the Valkyrie? Anyone remember StarFighter SC-78503? Man I spent a lot of time playing that game. - author: Dave Yelen (NEPA, USA) date: Sunday 29th July 2012 text: I was hardcore TRS-80 Model I programmer - machine code and Assembly (thank you Microsoft). I built my own modem and designed an auto-dial auto answering unit and write and ran my own BBS (for only a few other friends that had modems at the time). Of course I had tons of games too. Anyone remember Voyage of the Valkyrie? Anyone remember StarFighter SC-78503? Man I spent a lot of time playing that game. - author: C. Burke date: Saturday 16th June 2012 text: Does anyone remember an animated cartoon stick character named "Alfredo"? Like Mr. Bill, he got into a lot of "dangerous" comic situations. I would appreciate it if someone can tell me if there is a repro version that I can download onto my netbook. - author: Mark R (UK) date: Tuesday 22nd May 2012 text: Bought the Model 1 Level 2 16k on Valentines day 1979, then later the expansion interface and disk drives. Taught myself to program in basic and assembler, then went on to write software for a career, which I still do 30+ years later. All thanks to the old Tandy. Still have her, fully working. Happy days! - author: Peter (Luxembourg) date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012 text: I have a TRS-80, with extension interface, and three, yes three, disk drives. NewDos plus all the documentation is included. It still works fine, believe it or not! Lots of software such as Visicalc and a stock exchange trading program. - author: PaulH (UK) date: Monday 20th February 2012 text: I remember the Model 1 well... one of its little quirks was its "bouncy" keyboard... when typing away, characters would regularly appear several times. Standard fix was a little utility that needed loading from tape each time! - author: Jeff (United States) date: Monday 12th December 2011 text: I purchased a 4K Model I in November 1979. I''m pretty sure I was the first person in my community to own a personal computer. It was really cool being able to do programming at home as opposed to sitting in the lab at school. I was in college at the time! - author: Johnny (Norway) date: Thursday 10th November 2011 text: I bought one of those used in 1980 from a store in Stavanger, Norway. It cost NOK 5000 and contained the Computer, Screen, tape recorder and an electrostatic printer that could dump the screen to paper. It cost me most of the money I earned in my summerjob that year. I remember that the tape recorder was very picky on the volume to be able to read the tapes. It came with the standard BASIC language and it also included an Accounting program. I remember that Radio Shack had to stop producing this Computer because it didn''t meet the FCC''s requirements for EMC. As Patrice Chouinard experienced in the hospital. - author: Jon (United States) date: Tuesday 31st May 2011 text: I remember playing with one of these. I was in the 8th grade and I was introduced to BASIC programming. The TRS-80 Model I''s I saw in school had NEWDOS 80 and one unit had an expansion unit, which was used primarily for student attendance records. These systems were great for the time, but were discontinued due to interference with TV and radio signal reception. - author: Jon Fukumoto (United States) date: Tuesday 31st May 2011 text: I remember playing with one of these. When I was attending intermediate school here in Hawaii, there were a couple of these machines. I remember learning how to program in BASIC and playing games on them. The games didn''t look so hot, but despite the hardware limitations, the TRS-80 Model I''s were decent. - author: Jon Fukumoto (United States) date: Tuesday 31st May 2011 text: I remember playing with one of these. When I was attending intermediate school here in Hawaii, there were a couple of these machines. I remember learning how to program in BASIC and playing games on them. The games didn''t look so hot, but despite the hardware limitations, the TRS-80 Model I''s were decent. - author: Jan-Eric (Finland) date: Wednesday 18th May 2011 text: |- Back in 1978 (yes, just like all others... $-) I got my first real computer, a TRS-80 Model I. Until then, I had experimented with home.brew stuff. Thr TRS was still in use in 2010, controlling the 15 stepper motors in my animation camera. (More here: http://www.saunalahti.fi/animato/stand/stand.html$mplane2 ) - the TRS was ideal for this purpose thanks to its expansion interface. I also built a home-brew TRS, my "Frankenputer", from discrete parts - this was possible, since the TRS schematics were published! You can find info about it here: http://www.saunalahti.fi/animato/transferseu/3003s.html All in all, a fascinating time! - author: Susana (Argentina) date: Saturday 8th January 2011 text: I had started programming with Dave Ahl´s 101 basic computer games in 76 with my dad´s Novadata. On my 16th birthday, in 1978, I received a Radio Shack as a gift. My heart longed for an Imsai but this was easily bought. I´ve never seen such wonderful books as the ones written for this computer. It was so easy to learn to program this way. 32 years later I look back and yearn for these years gone by! - author: Roy Thorn (USA) date: Thursday 2nd April 2009 text: Date excapes me But- I learned to program in basic for my new TRS 80. I did formulations for chemical fertilizer manufacture. You had to balance both physical and chemical properties. So I could do my formulations on the computer for the various raw materials and final grades. This suprised every one all the way to the front office on the east coast. I ws the only one in a multie plant organization that had computer printed formulas! Was on a TRS 80 with 16K memory! Still have it and it works!!! Was a simpler time and another place - author: David Boccabella (Australia) date: Monday 4th September 2006 text: Back in 1978 I was living in Adeliade, South Australia. I had known of the TRS-80 for the past year and a bit but the pricing was a little high. A local electronics company called Dick Smith Electronics was offering a clone for about half the price - equiv to a TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 for the Level 1 price. Unfortunately delay after delay happened and I was forced in desperation to purchase a original TRS-80 Model 1 Level 1 4K ram. In 2 days I upgraded to 16k. I remeber the Level 1 basic just had 2 string variables. I saved my cents and putchased the Level 2 basics and this was the start of my programming career. Over time I got the expansion module. Diskettes (I upgraded to a Pertec disk doubler and ended up with 2 80 track double sides drives.) The Level 2 Basic was very interesting as it was tokenised. Each instruction was stored in memory as one byte. This allowed me to develop sever tricks to code development. By creating several strings I could use the varptr to get the string location. From there I just Poked new commands into memory and when the interpreted code reached those lines - there was new code. I was able to make self modifying code for some very intensive database searches and well as creating some natural language interfaces. I'm now 46 and stilll remember the magazines and other details of the TRS-80 very fondly. - author: Nick Wittenberg (Toronto, Canada) date: Wednesday 20th April 2005 text: In 1977, I was the manager of a Radio Shack in Richmond Hill, Ontario. We started selling the TRS-80s but I couldn't figure out what to do with the darn things. I bought a book on basic and learned the language. I created a program that printed out a graph, called a histogram, on a printer. The program used all 4K of RAM and I was very proud of myself. It was probably the best program I ever wrote. Another Radio Shack manager had got wind of a technique to attach a Teletype machine to the TRS-80 as a printer. So I purchased a very used Olivetti teletype machine complete with paper punch to use as my printer. It was made of iron and took two men to lift it. When I left Radio Shack, I returned the borrowed TRS-80 but I had that damned dust-gathering teletype machine for years. - author: Michel T Dallaire (Quebec city, QC) date: Sunday 6th March 2005 text: |- In 1978, my father bought a TRS-80 Model I, He wanted to be ahead for his time. At that time, I was 7 years old and fortunetely, Tandy Corporation was giving the books in english and in french. Since my father was working so much he was never at home, so I was using the computer every day after school and every weedend. After 6 month, when we were going to Radio Shack, I was in big discussion with salesmen and programmers. There was always a back area computer center with demo computers we could try on. There was a guy working there part time while going at school and he was working on a computer project. He was not able to find is bug (poking memory at wrong address), that day I found the bug in 2 minutes. The guy told me that I was wrong. So I told him I was right and he looses nothing to try it. It happens that I was right. A lawyer was there to gather information about computers and he has seen the scene. He told the salesman: "Put me one of these right away. If a 8 years old little boy can use it, that's exactly what I need" Over a 5000$ dollar sales because he took all the accessories and priter stuff. My father is still laughing about it 25 years later! ;-) It helped me alot to learn on a computer which has not game at all. I happy today for my knowledges about programming, algebra, english and logcial schemes. - author: Ken Hansen (Pennington, New Jersey) date: Friday 25th February 2005 text: When I was in High School (graduated 1983) we had a TRS-80 lab, with about a dozen TRS-80s. I remember using the special switch (not sure of the name) that was designed to allow users to save their programs on the "server" (a floppy-equiped TRS-80) via the cassette port. The "student" would coordinate with the "administrator", who would dial the student's computer on the switch, then the "administrator" would "LOAD" from the cassette port while the student "SAVE"ed thier program to the cassette port. The "administrator" would then "SAVE" the program on to a floppy disk - the reverse was possible too. The "Networking Switch" was simply that, a switch that connected cassette ports on all the machines to each other! - author: Philippe Serrano (France) date: Saturday 18th October 2003 text: 'I owned my first computer back in June 1978, a TRS-80 Model I - Basic Level II. AT the time I worked in a Photo Laboratory and I made a swap with a co-worker : my Nikon F2 camera for the TRS-80. First day at home with the computer I spent 35 hours trying to understand how it works, entering basic command lines from computing magazines.. I never took a picture anymore but I''m now working in Computing Industry :-)' - author: Patrice Chouinard (Montréal Qc.) date: Tuesday 3rd June 2003 text: |- At the time (1978) I owned a TRS-80 Model I. I also worked in an hospital. One of my co-worker wanted to see my computer. Radio-Shack had the "Carrying Case" for the computer. A set of two luggages. One for the computer and the other rather big one for the monitor. I carryied out my TRS. In break-time, we set the machine on a cantina table, plugged it and turn it on. Whowwwww "Panik in the hospital". Every single\ piece of électronic monitoring équipment even two stairs down went completely crazy. Try to figure our faces when the chief medical found out why.\ So that's fact... TRS-80 model I did generate a lot of radio freq. related: - /museum/radionic-model-r1001 - /museum/sysdata-eletronica-jr - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-12 - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-16 - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-4 - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-4p - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-ii - /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-iii software: - /software/galaxy-invasion oc_id: 409 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230602050749/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=409 date: '2023-06-02' --- The Tandy TRS 80 model 1 was the first member of one of the most famous computer family. It was one of the first home computer and was launched at the same time as famous computers like the [Apple II](/museum/apple-ii/) or the [Commodore PET](/museum/commodore-pet-2001/). Beside, Tandy competitors nicknamed was "Trash-80". The TRS-80 was developed was developed within the Radio Shack engeneering group, based upon several processor chips, SC/MP, PACE, 8008, 8080 and finally the Z80. It used a black & white TV set, made by RCA, without tuner as monitor. The earlier models use a poor basic called Basic Level 1 (the Basic and the OS fit in the 4 KB ROM!). It was replaced later with the Basic Level 2 which needed a 12 KB ROM. To offset its poor characteristics, Tandy developed a device called Expansion Interface which brings a lot of new features : additional 16 or 32kb RAM, two tape unit connectors, a printer port, a floppy disk controller, a serial port and a real time clock. Tandy did as well 5, 10 and 15 MB hard drives. The case for them is about the size of a small PC tower. It's possible to fit 2 drives into each case. They were compatible with all TRS-80 versions. When it was connected to a floppy disk unit, the TRS-80 uses the TRS DOS operating system, it was pretty bugged and most of the TRS-80 users prefered NEW DOS, it was an operating system done by a third-party company called Apparat. This OS was the real TRS-80 operating system. LS-DOS was also an excellent DOS, superior to NEW DOS for most users. Interestingly, Microsoft's MS-DOS became more and more like LS-DOS each time it was updated, although never as good. LS-DOS was finally adopted by Tandy as the official DOS for the [Model 4](/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-4/). Documentation for all the TRS machines was superb. Even Microsoft provided documentation for its BASIC interpreter listing all the machine calls. You could use these calls when programming with either machine code or BASIC. The Model I was followed by the [TRS 80 model II](/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-ii/) (a business computer) and [model III](/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-iii/) which had almost the same characteristics as the model I. --- **Contributors :** Donald French, Paul D Moore