--- title: Dick Smith VZ300 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - Hong Kong years: - '1985' cpus: - Zilog Z80 A params: name: VZ300 company: /companies/dick-smith company_name: Dick Smith specs: - label: NAME value: VZ300 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Dick Smith - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: Hong Kong - label: YEAR value: '1985' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1987' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Microsoft Basic - label: KEYBOARD value: QWERTY, 46 mechanical keys, Basic instructions and graphic symbols - label: CPU value: Zilog Z80 A - label: SPEED value: 3.54 MHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: 'Video chip : Motorola 6807' - label: RAM value: 16 kb (up to 64 kb) - label: VRAM value: 2 kb - label: ROM value: 16 kb - label: TEXT MODES value: 32 columns x 16 lines, 8 colors (Mode 0) - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 128 x 64 dots, 4 colors (Mode 1) - label: COLORS value: '8' - label: SOUND value: built-in piezzo loudspeaker 1 voice, 2.5 octaves, 9 note lengths - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 30,5 x 18,5 x 5,5 cm - label: I/O PORTS value: Tape-recorder (600 bauds), TV (RF modulator), Composite video, Memory expansion port, general expansion port - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: None - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External AC adaptor 10V DC 800 mA - label: PERIPHERALS value: 16 and 64 KB RAM plug-in modules, tape recorder, FDD unit - label: PRICE value: $99.00 AU Dollars (Australia, 1985) tabs: - photos - hardware - software - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: LARGER VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null hardware: - title: LASER 16K RAM EXPANSION subtitle: '' text: This thing fits in the memory expansion port and adds 16k RAM. It cost 590fr in 1984. image: /media/museum/hardware/vtehc_laser200_16k_cart.jpg - title: LASER LIGHT PEN subtitle: '' text: Cool little light pen... But the only software using it was the on demo tape sold with it ! image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_laser200_lpen.jpg - title: LASER JOYSTICK subtitle: '' text: Nice shape. Two joysticks and their interface cost 320fr in 1984. image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_laser200_jstck.jpg - title: DR-10 / DR-20 subtitle: Tape-recorder text: |- A originally designed tape-recorder available for the whole Laser family.\ It cost 590fr in 1984.. The DR-10 and DR-20 tape-recorders seem identicals in all points. Apparently, the DR-20 was sold for Dick Smith models, and the DR-10 for Laser machines... image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_200_dr10.jpg - title: DR-30 subtitle: Tape-Recorder text: |- Another cool tape-recorder for the Laser serie.\ This one was also found for many other computers of that time. image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_200_dr30.jpg - title: DD-20 subtitle: 5''1/4 Disk-drive text: A small 5"1/4 floppy disk drive for the Laser computers. But its capacity is a bit short with only 78k per formated disk. One disk drive and its controller cost 2380fr in 1984. image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_dd20.jpg - title: DD-20 subtitle: The inside text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_dd20_2.jpg - title: PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE subtitle: '' text: This enables the Laser computers to use ''parallel'' printers. image: /media/museum/hardware/vtech_vz300_printer-interface.jpg screenshots: - title: CIRCUS subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_circus.png - title: CRASH subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_crash.png - title: DAWN PATROL subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_dawn.png - title: DEFENCE PENETRATOR subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_defpen.png - title: DIGOUT subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_digout.png - title: DRACULA'S CASTLE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_dracula.gif - title: DUEL subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_duel2.png - title: GALAXON subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_galaxon.png - title: GHOST HUNTER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_ghosth.gif - title: HAMBURGER SAM subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_hamsam.png - title: HOPPY subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_hoppy.gif - title: INVADERS subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_invaders.png - title: KAMIKAZE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_kamikaze.png - title: LADDER CHALLENGE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_ladder.png - title: LUNAR LANDER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_llander.png - title: MISSILE ATTACK subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_missile.png - title: PENGUIN subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_penguin.png - title: SPACE RAM subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_spaceram.png - title: STAR BLASTER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_starblst.png - title: VZ PANIK subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/software/vtech_ss_vzpanik.png emulators: - title: VZEM url: http://www.powerup.com.au/~intertek/VZ200/vz.htm platform: MS DOS text: The emulator is written in Borland C++. It emulates a VZ200/300 with 34k RAM - title: Emulator2001 url: http://www.gstsoftware.co.nz/ platform: Windows text: The VZ-200 has been added to this multi-emulator - title: James's VZ 200 emulator url: http://www.geocities.com/EMUCOMPBOY/ platform: Windows text: Emulator for the NTSC version of this computer - title: WinVZ url: http://vzalive.bangrocks.com/emulators/ platform: Windows text: Play your VZ games in Windows - title: MESS Project url: http://www.mess.org/ platform: Multiplatform text: Emulates a lot of systems for all platforms. links: - title: Planet VZ url: http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/laser/184/ text: Useful infos here... - title: Steve75 Laser 310 page url: http://utenti.lycos.it/STEVE75/laser.html text: Pictures, info, games, emulators and online manual. - title: The VZ200 url: http://vz200.tripod.com/ text: Growing website aimed at the new modern user. - title: Tricky's VZ200 page url: http://www.trickynz.com/VZ200.html text: Photos and downloadable docs - title: Video Technology official site url: http://www.vtech.com text: Nothing remains about the old computers... - title: VZ Alive url: http://vzalive.bangrocks.com/ text: Excellent site dedicated to the VZ computers - title: VZ Online url: http://www.vz200-online.de.vu/ text: a German VZ 200 homepage - title: VZ-200/VZ-300 url: http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Dunes/6771/vz/ text: Lots of information and links about the Dick Smith VZ series. - title: Yahoo Discussion Group - The VZ Color computer mailing list url: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/vzemu/ text: Quite active discussion group docs: - title: VZ-200 - GETTING STARTED MANUAL url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_getting-started_cover.jpg text: |- **VZ-200 - GETTING STARTED MANUAL**\ written by Tim Hartnell/ Neville Predebon / Dick Smith  compiled/archived by Unknown\  type of document : PDF\  size : 325 KB\  source : [ManualZZ.com](https://manualzz.com/download/1086812) - title: DICK-SMITH VZ200 USER MANUAL url: https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-5639672 cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_user-manual.jpg text: |- [**DICK-SMITH VZ200 USER MANUAL**](https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-5639672)written by Video Technology  compiled/archived by Archive.org\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Achive.org](https://archive.org) - title: VZ-200 TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL url: https://archive.org/details/VZ200-technical-reference-manual cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_technical-ref-manual_cover.jpg text: |- [**VZ-200 TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL**](https://archive.org/details/VZ200-technical-reference-manual)written by Jamieson Rowe / Dick Smith  compiled/archived by Archive.org\  type of document : Online reader\  source : [Archive.org](https://archive.org/) - title: VZ-200 FIRST BOOK OF PROGRAMS url: https://archive.org/details/vz-200-first-book-of-programs cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_first-book-of-programs.jpg text: |- [**VZ-200 FIRST BOOK OF PROGRAMS**](https://archive.org/details/vz-200-first-book-of-programs)written by Dick Smith  compiled/archived by Archive.org\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Archive.org](https://archive.org/) - title: VZ-200 SECOND BOOK OF GAMES url: https://archive.org/details/VZ200-second-book-of-games cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_second-book-of-games.jpg text: |- [**VZ-200 SECOND BOOK OF GAMES**](https://archive.org/details/VZ200-second-book-of-games)written by Dick Smith  compiled/archived by Archive.org\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Archive.org](https://archive.org/) - title: VZ-200 FURTHER PROGRAMMING url: https://archive.org/details/vz200fp cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_further-programming.jpg text: |- [**VZ-200 FURTHER PROGRAMMING**](https://archive.org/details/vz200fp)written by Dick Smith / Tim Hartnell  compiled/archived by Archive.org\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Archive.org](https://archive.org/) - title: VZ200/300 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING FOR BEGINNERS url: http://vz200.tripod.com/index.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200-300_assembly-language-manual%5B1%5D.jpg text: |- [**VZ200/300 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING FOR BEGINNERS**](http://vz200.tripod.com/index.html)written by Steve Olney  compiled/archived by The VZ200\  type of document : PDF\  size : 6 MB\  source : Old-Computers.com - title: USEFUL ROM SUBROUTINES FOR ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vz200_useful-lm-subroutines.jpg text: |- **USEFUL ROM SUBROUTINES FOR ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING**\ written by Unknown  compiled/archived by The VZ200\  type of document : PDF\  size : 110 Ko\  source : [The VZ200](http://vz200.tripod.com) comments: - author: Lisati (New Zealand) date: Thursday 12th June 2014 text: I had one 20-something years ago. It was a good little workhorse, until the conduit that carries the blue smoke it runs on sprung a leak. - author: dave (Australia ) date: Sunday 16th February 2014 text: just got one today, have spent the last few hours loading tapes and mucking around with it, for me it all started with the commodore 64, the collection just keeps growing, books, magazines, now a Tandy printer, it seems old computers are becoming a bit more of a active hobby for me - author: Juan Castro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) date: Wednesday 9th January 2013 text: 'Typo: the video processor is teh 6847, not 6807. And I wouldn''''t call it a "coprocessor."' - author: Jeremy (Australia) date: Monday 16th January 2012 text: I still remember the different memory addresses, such as using "POKE 30744,1" to invert the colours in text mode. - author: Andrew Laird (Mlebourne, Australia) date: Friday 2nd November 2007 text: |- I started with a VZ200 and then eventually upgraded to a VZ300 complete with floppy disk drive. I had many hours of fun playing games, learning BASIC programming. Now I collect them and have a growing collection of computers, peripherals, books and electronics and computer magazines from the era. - author: James (Melbourne, Australia) date: Wednesday 30th November 2005 text: |- I have many fond memories of this machine. A friend owed one, while I opted for the Microbee. I spent many hours playing with the VZ300 as a kid and learned to like it greatly. I've just purchased one this evening and hope that it is in working order so I might make a further contribution your fine site. - author: Steve (Adelaide, Australia) date: Saturday 4th September 2004 text: |- Great to see that pretty much every old computer is covered on this site. My Dad bought a VZ300 in the mid 80's when I was a kid, without a tape drive though it's entertainment value was limited, programs had to be laboriously typed in each time. We even spent something like 2 or 3 hours typing in a game with colour graphics, only to have it wiped when switched off.\ The VZ300 gave me an appreciation for text-based adventures (I seem to recall now my father borrowing a tape drive off a workmate once, he still has an old VZ200 tape floating around as evidence of this).\ All in all, it was a pretty frustrating and forgettable experience, kind of a poor man's Commodore 64 although I'm sure it would have got a lot more use if my Dad hadn't skimped on buying a damn tape drive! related: - /museum/dick-smith-vz200 - /museum/salora-fellow - /museum/texet-tx-8000 - /museum/video-technology-laser-200-210 - /museum/video-technology-laser-310 oc_id: 980 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608091718/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=980 date: '2023-06-08' --- Dick Smith released the VZ-300 (same model as the VTech [Laser 310](/museum/video-technology-laser-310/)) in 1985. It was basically a VZ-200 with 16K RAM (the VZ-200 had 8K RAM), a slightly updated BASIC ROM and a better standard keyboard. The 16K cartridge could be plugged into the VZ300, as well as a new 64K version, but it only gave a total of 34 KB. Only language machine programs could take advantage of the extra 32 KB thanks to the Z80 bank switching facility.