--- title: Exidy SORCERER categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1978' cpus: - Zilog Z80 A params: name: SORCERER image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_system_s1.jpg company: /companies/exidy company_name: Exidy specs: - label: NAME value: SORCERER - label: MANUFACTURER value: Exidy - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1978' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1982' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: BASIC interpreter ROM cartridge - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard, 79 keys with numeric keypad - label: CPU value: Zilog Z80 A - label: SPEED value: 2.106 Mhz. - label: RAM value: 8 KB, later 16KB (up to 48 KB) - label: VRAM value: 2 KB - label: ROM value: 8 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 64 chars. x 32 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 128 programmable graphics characters - label: COLORS value: Monochrome - label: SOUND value: By connecting a speaker to pins 1 and 4 of the parallel port. - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 48.3 (W) 32.8 (D) 9.7 (H) cm - label: I/O PORTS value: Expansion Bus (S100), Parallel Interface, Video out, Serial Interface, Tape recorder EAR & MIC (300 / 1200 bauds) - label: OS value: CP/M (needs the extender chassis with disk drive) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in PSU - label: PERIPHERALS value: Floppy drive unit, S-100 bus expansion box, Intelligent tape recorder, Micromation's Doubler disk drive controller - label: PRICE value: From $895 to $1395 tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - software - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: EXIDY SORCERER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_system_s2.jpg - title: RIGHT SIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcerer-vm_1.jpg - title: DINASTY SMART-ALEC subtitle: '' text: Compudata European version. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcerer_smart-alec_1.jpg - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_keyboard_s1.jpg - title: BOTH SIDES subtitle: '' text: Note the Cartridge slot on the right hand side. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_sides_s1.jpg - title: ROM CARTRIDGES SLOT subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_cartslot_s1.jpg - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: An additional TV/RF video output was added to this model, red jack, next to the expansion bus connector. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_rearcon_s1.jpg - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM subtitle: '' text: Complete system with the standard Exidy monochrome monitor and the FDM 180 floppy drive unit. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_completesys_s1.jpg - title: OPENED subtitle: '' text: The power regulation card is fastened on top of the motherboard. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_opened_s1.jpg - title: MOTHERBOARD subtitle: '' text: |- In 1978, all the functions of the motherboard - memory management and various I/O, were carried out by numerous standard logic chips. **(1)** Character generator 2 KB ROM\ **(2)** Z80 processor, here a NEC D780 version\ **(3)** AY-3-1015 UART *Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter* Manages various serial communications\ **(4)** Power regulation card connector\ **(5)** ROM cartridge connector\ **(6)** 8 KB monitor ROMs\ **(7)** 48 KB RAM chips (24 x 4116)\ **(8)** RAM banks selector switches image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_mainboard_s1.jpg - title: MOTHERBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_mainboard_s2.jpg - title: TAPE DRIVE subtitle: '' text: Provision was made inside the monitor case for either 1 or 2 5.25" floppy disk drives or an intelligent tape drive. The monitor and tape drive could be switched on separately (2 black switches on the right hand side). The two chrome buttons allowed to adjust read and record levels. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_tapemonitor_s1.jpg - title: 'TAPE DRIVE #2' subtitle: '' text: The tape drive and card were provided by a third company called MECA. The card holds its own CPU, ROM and RAM. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_monitorinside_s1.jpg - title: USER'S MANUAL subtitle: '' text: User's manual and Word processor cartridge. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_manual_s1.jpg - title: THE BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_box_1.jpg - title: BOOT UP SCREEN subtitle: '' text: Boot up screen followed by a memory dump command. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_bootscreen_s1.jpg - title: TEST SHEET subtitle: '' text: Final test before the system left the factory. image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_testsheet_1.jpg adverts: - title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980) subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/pubs/exidy_sorcerer2_pub_voici.jpg hardware: - title: THE COMPUPRINT PRINTER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_compuprint_1.jpg - title: THE MECA DIGITAL TAPE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_meca-digital-tape_1.jpg - title: THE "PENNYWHISTLE" ACOUSTIC MODEM subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_acoustic-modem_1.jpg - title: FDM 180 subtitle: FDD unit text: This FDD unit was made in 1980 made by Liveport Ltd., in the UK. The FD drive was a hard sector Teac model, single sided, single density, 180 KB formatted capacity. The controller cards occupie both sides of the FD drive. image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcererii_fdm180_s1.jpg emulators: - title: WSorcerer url: http://www.geocities.com/emucompboy/ platform: Windows text: The only Sorcerer Win32 emulator. Supports \*.SNP format file - title: Exidy Sorcerer Emulator url: http://www.liaquay.co.uk/sorcerer/index.html platform: Other platform text: emulator with files to download - title: JSorcerer url: http://www.liaquay.demon.co.uk/sorcerer/ platform: Other platform text: Java Exidy Sorcerer emulator that can be played online with some games ! - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: MESS can emulate the Sorcerer computer links: - title: Digibarn Computer Museum url: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/exidy-sorcerer/index.html text: Nice page with a lot of pictures from their acquisition - title: Mike's Exidy Sorcerer Z80 Page url: http://www.lisp.com.au/~michael/exidy/ text: '' - title: oldcomputers.net url: http://oldcomputers.net/sorcerer.html text: Nice detailed page with pictures - title: Sorcerer's Lair url: http://www.liaquay.co.uk/sorcerer/ text: A showcase of magical computing on the Exidy Sorcerer - title: The Trailing Edge url: http://www.trailingedge.com/exidy/ text: Docs and ROMs for download - title: Wikipedia article url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exidy_Sorcerer text: '' - title: www.computer-museum.nl url: http://www.computer-museum.nl/Exidy.html text: a lot of info here with many pictures and scans docs: - title: TECHNICAL MANUAL url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/exidy_sorcerer_doc_manual.jpg text: |- **TECHNICAL MANUAL**\ written by Dick Smith Electronics  compiled/archived by David Wilson\  type of document : PDF\  size : 984 KB\  source : www.old-computers.com comments: - author: Peter Jones (United Kingdom) date: Friday 17th February 2023 text: 'Correction to the size of the rompacs. 8k not 16k.The CPU could only address 64k: 0-48k for RAM, 49-56 for rompacs, 57-64 for the OS.' - author: Jeef date: Saturday 25th April 2020 text: Hello Stephany, did the Sorcerer find a good home? - author: stephany (Tennessee US) date: Sunday 5th August 2018 text: |- I''ve my Dad''s Exidy Sorcerer in a hall closet for years and it''s now time to get rid of it. I have no idea if it still boots up. But it does have the original manual. He upgraded the system to have the 8-track-ish tape thing for storage.\ Anyone who is willing to pay the shipping CAN HAVE THIS FOR FREE. It is heavy. - author: PAOK date: Wednesday 20th June 2018 text: |- Bolches yarboclos, Batman!!! I''d like an Exidy Sorcerer for Xmas. - author: Binaryben date: Monday 5th February 2018 text: I have one of these in my loft. Back in 1981 I wrote my own COS (cassette operating system) using Hitachi tape deck which had electrical controls and a opto to check for tape stop. Using this deck I could write a directory at the start of tape, and then automatically access multiple programs off a C90 cassette by letting the Sorcerer control the tape movements and get position count from opto! - author: rod (canada) date: Tuesday 30th January 2018 text: |- I knew that Exidy published and developed a lot of games for various home computers and video game consoles. But I had no idea that they also made a line of computers as well. Very interesting read... - author: Tibsi (Gyula, Hungary) date: Tuesday 31st October 2017 text: I''m searching for a working piece of Exidy Sorcerer. - author: Scott Adams (United States) date: Wednesday 3rd June 2015 text: My company Adventure International did support this system with a number of my games. It was a decent machine I really liked it. - author: Scott Adams (United States) date: Wednesday 3rd June 2015 text: My company Adventure International did support this system with a number of my games. It was a decent machine I really liked it. - author: Miles (New york) date: Monday 11th May 2015 text: |- I have two new exidy computers in original boxes.\ Would you like to buy them? Email me at exidy@nym.hush.com\ now before they sell out. - author: Miles (New York) date: Monday 11th May 2015 text: I have two new exidy sorcerer computers in the original boxes. Who would like to buy them? - author: Tyler (us) date: Friday 17th October 2014 text: I have a sorcerer complete in box working in good condition with original literature few cassette tapes a cartridge standard basic I think it is and a external cassette player I''m looking to sell this contact me via email a9163161094 at Gmail for pictures info and offErs - author: Rob (Australia) date: Friday 27th June 2014 text: I am interested Paul, if it still boots, I am not sure if the internal battery would be good to replace if it doesn''t. Wait to hear from you, Only needs to boot to Rom, as I only ever programmed them in hex. Regards Rob - author: Paul Hynek (Canada) date: Monday 23rd June 2014 text: I have a Sorcerer with the original box. Cleaning house. anyone want to make me an offer? - author: Andy Holyer (UK) date: Sunday 1st May 2011 text: |- We had a Sorcerer as the only computer at my school (in about 1980). Not a very good machine. Tended to freeze, and we put a sticker on the top of the case saying "hit here to unfreeze". The wierdest thing was the "bounce-free" keyboard. To prevent bouncing, the key registered on the up-stroke of the key rather than the down-stroke. That is, you pressed a key, nothing happened. Released the key, and the character was entered. \*Not\* a good idea. - author: James Perrett (Melbourne) date: Monday 17th January 2011 text: I remember it being the first Micro Computer in Austrailia with the top 128 Characters being programable. My Homebrew was a cross between a Trs-80/System 80 and Sorcerer. With a monitor program writen by myself and a friend and Basic copied/mod-ed from TRS-80 Remember the wiz. - author: Brian C (Vermont, USA) date: Tuesday 12th December 2006 text: The sorcerer II was my first non-mainframe computer. It totally used 8-track carts for the ROM packs. I don't remember it being terribly colorful, but that's probably because we had a mono monitor. I totally remember programming like mad in basic, and playing some of the games.. - author: Paolo Colombo (Australia) date: Tuesday 20th December 2005 text: Is the Sorcerer really dead? I have kept my 4th Sorcerer packaged up for a number of years, and one of these days I shall start it up. It has a S100 Box, 2 Micropolis 16 hard sector drives 360Kb, 64K of memory and a modified 80x32 columns screen. It was the mightiest machine of the time before the arrival of the first XT, and besides the floppies being totally unreliable by Verbatim, my wife used to do thesis typing with an Olivetti daisywheel typewriter with the interface designed and built by me. his offered excelllent pages, miles better that the 8 dot dotmatrix printers of the time without lower case descendants. The lot cost me a fortune by todays standards, but thats all that was available. - author: Steve Shepherd (Herts, UK) date: Thursday 27th January 2005 text: I have a Sorcerer II but don't ever remember it having any colour capabilities, only the ability to define your own mono graphics characters. I also have the Video/Disk Unit. - author: Duncan Layne (UK) date: Wednesday 5th January 2005 text: They bought one of these at work (British Aerospace) back in 1980. I am sure that the ROM packs (seen on the right of the machine) were built into empty 8 track tape cartridges ! Was a colour version (or add on) available. I am sure that the reason work bought this was for its colour graphics (they already had a PET and Nascom which were both monochrome). I remember someone being sent out to buy a portable colour TV (costing £250, about the same as my monthly wage) to use with the Exidy. The arrival of this generated just as much interest as the arrival of the computer ! software: - /software/chomp - /software/galaxians - /software/martian-invaders - /software/snake - /software/sorcerer-invaders oc_id: 214 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603023204/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=214 date: '2023-06-03' --- The Sorcerer II was the successor of the Sorcerer I (launched in 1978). The computer used programs on 8KB ROM packs encased in 8-track tape cartridges. The CPU could only address 64k: 0-48k for RAM, 49-56 for rompacs, 57-64 for the OS. It shipped with Microsoft MBASIC and a development tools assembler / editor ROM pack. A word processor ROM pack was also available. Exidy initially provided an expansion chassis that would accept up to 6 S-100 cards, and a Micropolis dual-disk quad-density 16-sector hard sector floppy disk drive was available. These disks would hold up to 330kb of data on a single side. A later version of the expansion chassis also included a green-screen monitor and two floppy drives, but may have held only 4 S-100 slots. A standard serial port was available, but shared internal resources with the keyboard which made baud rates higher than 300 a problem. The Pennywhistle 300-baud modem was often provided with this machine. The MECA digital "intelligent" tape drive could also be used and inserted into the Exidy monochrome monitor. (1 MB storage capacity, 8000 bauds transfer rate, file access in 10s, plugged into the parallel port) **Dutch CompuData** (CD) imported the Sorcerer into the European mainland. When sales in the US dropped because of the heavy competition in home computers market, Exidy Inc. stopped production of the Sorcerer. CompuData then produced the original Sorcerer in Holland in exactly the same outfit, but with the CompuData Systems Trademark for the European market. EXIDY Inc. of Richardson, Texas, finally closed the doors on March 26th 1982. --- **Brian Shoebridge** adds:\ The Exidy Sorcerer II was used in Australia by a few scientific and research people, like my father. Not many were sold as it was hugely expensive (>AUD$3,000 1981) and no good for games (the best was "Tank-Trap"). Sorcerers here shipped with either 32k or 48k. As it used a standard cassette tape for data storage, volume control was always an issue when loading or saving. Disk drives cost as much again as the basic machine, but there was a urious "stringy-floppy" which was less expensive. I owned one for a year or two, and used it with a large Unisys greenscreen monitor unit i sourced from a mini-computer. **Tim Bishop** specifies:\ The sorcerer had better games than Tank Trap. (Though I fondly remember the game, playing it for hours when I was a kid, and would love to get a copy of the source code.) The graphics were quite good, with Chomp a Pac Man clone and Glaxians a Space Invaders clone. **Alan Meyer** reports:\ I bought an Exidy Sorcerer II for $715 some time near the end of its sales life from a store that wanted to get rid of the last one it had. My son, then aged 6, wrote his first program on the machine and played "Arrows and Alleys" for hours. In addition to a 6.5KB MBASIC interpreter that was smaller and less functional than those found on Apple, Radio Shack, Atari or Commodore computers, a Forth compiler / interpreter was also available. It produced programs that were intermediate in efficiency between Basic and assembler. Two distinguishing features of the Sorcerer were the ROM cartridge port and the screen size. It supported, IIRC, a 30 line by 64 column display. The good part of that was that far more information could be displayed than in the competing systems. The bad side was that a real video monitor was required. A TV RF modulator would not produce readable text on screen. The keyboard was also quite nice, as can be seen from the image. Sorcerer sales were never very high and the manufacturers never had the money to get all the bugs out of the hardware and software. Crashes and hardware failures seemed to me to be more common than on other machines - though that may have just been my experience.