| MC 10 |
/companies/tandy-radio-shack |
Tandy Radio Shack |
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| label |
value |
| MANUFACTURER |
Tandy Radio Shack |
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| TYPE |
Home Computer |
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| label |
value |
| ORIGIN |
U.S.A. |
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| label |
value |
| END OF PRODUCTION |
1984 |
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| label |
value |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE |
Microcolor Basic 1.0 (Microsoft) |
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| label |
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| KEYBOARD |
QWERTY / AZERTY, Calculator style keyboard, 48 keys, Basic statements written above keys\
SHIFT, CONTROL, ENTER, BREAK |
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| CPU |
Motorola 6803 (6800 compatible) |
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| SPEED |
0.89 MHz |
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value |
| CO-PROCESSOR |
MC-6847 Video Generator |
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value |
| RAM |
4 kb (up to 20 kb), 3142 bytes left for user |
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| ROM |
8 kb (Microcolor Basic) |
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| TEXT MODES |
32 x 16 |
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| GRAPHIC MODES |
With Basic : 64 x 32, 8 colors\
With machine-code : up to 128 x 192, 2 colors\
With machine-code and 16k expansion RAM : 256 x 192, 2 colors |
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| SOUND |
Beeper with variable pitch and duration |
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| SIZE / WEIGHT |
216 mm x 180 mm x 50mm / 836gr |
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value |
| I/O PORTS |
RGB DIN8 or RF jack (USA) video out, Expansion port, Tape (DIN6), Serial (DIN5), power IN |
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| POWER SUPPLY |
8.0v AC 1.5A (MATRA Alice PSU can be used) |
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| label |
value |
| PERIPHERALS |
16k RAM expansion, Printer |
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| label |
value |
| PRICE |
£99.95 (UK, 1983), $119.95 (USA), 16K RAM upgrade $49.95 |
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| photos |
| hardware |
| connectors |
| software |
| emulators |
| links |
| docs |
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| THE MC-10 |
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| TOP VIEW |
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I have a little game for you :
Search for the "V" key...
Yes, this must be a fabrication default... |
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| UNDER... |
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4 small feet... |
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| LEFT SIDE |
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| RIGHT SIDE |
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Spot the ON/OFF switch ! |
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| FRONT VIEW |
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| REAR VIEW |
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From left to right :
- power IN\
- RGB video out (DIN8)\
- Expansion slot (cached)\
- Reset button (soft reset)\
- Serial socket (DIN5)\
- Tape-recorder (DIN6) |
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| MC-10 MOTHERBOARD |
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| BOX |
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| EUROPEAN BOX (?) |
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Maybe this box was blue (instead of red for the US version) in order to differenciate the MC-10 from the Alice which all visual communication was based on the red color... |
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| DOCUMENTATION |
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| TP10 PRINTER |
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Could print graphics and alphanumerics, 32 characters per line at 30 characters per second on 4''1/8 wide thermal paper. Measures 3 x 8 x 5''.
The TP-10 was also compatible with "Coco" computers. |
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| DISK-DRIVE AND JOYSTICK INTERFACE |
Vaporware !!! |
This is the only known picture of the vaporware 3.5'' disk-drive and joystick interface for the Alice. They were presented at the Micro-Expo exhibition in Paris in february 1985, along with a modem (not pictured here).
Only the disk-drive and modem are vaporware. The joystick interface was indeed released. |
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| JOYSTICK EXPANSION |
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With this add-on, you can use a joystick with the Alice. But you can't use a memory expansion at the same time :-(
Thanks to [www.mapetitecollection.com](http://www.mapetitecollection.com/) for the picture |
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| 16 KB RAM MODULE |
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| 16 KB RAM |
back |
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| 16 KB RAM |
box |
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| SERIAL INTERFACE |
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1 - CD (Carrier Detection)\
2 - RD (Receive Data)\
3 - GND (Ground)\
4 - TD (Transmit Data) |
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| TAPE INTERFACE |
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1 - Audio DATA out\
2 - Ground\
3 - Audio DATA in\
4 - Not used\
5 - Not used
4 & 5 were planned to be used for Remote control of the tape-recorder, but this function was not implemented into the MC-10 / Alice. |
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| RGB VIDEO / AUDIO OUTPUT |
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1 - Commutation\
2 - Ground\
3 - Red\
4 - Video\
5 - Green\
6 - Audio\
7 - Blue |
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| EXPANSION PORT |
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The sketch represents the connector when you look at the back of the MC-10 / Alice (see Reset button on right).
1 - 2 = GND (Ground)\
3 - 10 = D0..D7 (Data Buses)\
11 = R/W (Read/Write signal)\
12 - 27 = A0..A15 (Address buses)\
28 = E (CPU clock, 1Mhz)\
29 = SEL (peripherals invalidation entry)\
30 = RESET (hard reset)\
31 = NMI (non-maskable CPU interrupts)\
32 = +5v (power in, 5v 300mA)\
33 - 34 = GND (ground) |
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| BOOT SCREEN |
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| The MESS project |
http://www.mess.org/ |
Multiplatform |
This multi-platform emulator can emulate the MC-10 |
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| The MC-10 archive |
http://mc10archive.com |
Small dedicated site with extended Basic available + utilities, games and documents to download ! |
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| MC-10 SERVICE MANUAL |
# |
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**MC-10 SERVICE MANUAL**\
written by Radio Shack
compiled/archived by Jim Marek\
type of document : PDF |
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| author |
date |
text |
| Stefan Schomburg (Germany) |
Sunday 23rd June 2019 |
Carl, could you plese share details about the differences? Your link doesn''t work for me. |
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| Paradroyd (USA) |
Wednesday 5th October 2016 |
I have one of these that I recently acquired from Ebay. I just installed a composite video interface in it (replacing the RF output). There''s an expansion called the MCX-128 for this that adds 128K static RAM, updated ROM with greatly upgraded BASIC, and it ads the ability to use drive space on a host computer (Mac or Windows) over serial / USB. This stuff is all available from here:\
https://sites.google.com/site/thezippsterzone/ |
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| Paul (USA) |
Tuesday 13rd January 2015 |
This was a short-lived, uncommon machine. When I worked at a Radio Shack Computer Center in 1985 (admittedly, it was in a business district so home machines were not our focus) there was no MC-10s in our inventory whatsoever. We had some crazy number of the 16K RAM modules, maybe 30 of them... we kept them for a year or so until they were finally struck from the inventory. I think we threw them out. |
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| Chuck Rose (Vermont, USA) |
Saturday 27th December 2014 |
After my T/S 1000 got boring, I gathered enough saving to buy one of these in the summer of 1983 along with a 16k RAM pack. This gave 20k of memory (~18k after OS overhead). I wrote tons of game software for this in Color BASIC and machine code (poke it into memory and then exec it. No assembler or even monitor here (though I did eventually write a monitor program in BASIC to save debugging and coding time). This machine was head and shoulders above the TS/1000 and had undocumented graphics modes that you could use by directly manipulating the video chip in machine language. Unfortunately BASIC didn''t have any native commands to use the higher res modes (Just the 64X48 mode). |
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| Jim Gerrie (Canada) |
Saturday 25th January 2014 |
I''ve made lots of software for this computer in recent years. It was my first computer and I had lots of fun back in late ''83 fooling around with it. Come see what we have made and relive the early 8-bit years:\
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/jimgerrie/jsoft.html |
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| JamesD (USA) |
Tuesday 14th February 2012 |
You couldn''t fully take advantage of the higher resolution graphics modes without internal modifications because some of the address lines on the 6847 weren''t attached and address decoding is a cheap design. As a result, the last 1/3 of the screen is a mirror of the first 1/3 in the highest resolution modes.
To make matters worse, the ROM interrupt vectors point to locations that are in the screen address range used by higher res modes. |
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| JamesD (USA) |
Tuesday 14th February 2012 |
You couldn''t fully take advantage of the higher resolution graphics modes without internal modifications because some of the address lines on the 6847 weren''t attached and address decoding is a cheap design. As a result, the last 1/3 of the screen is a mirror of the first 1/3 in the highest resolution modes.
To make matters worse, the ROM interrupt vectors point to locations that are in the screen address range used by higher res modes. |
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| Richard (Belgium) |
Sunday 23rd May 2010 |
Jeff, you mentioned that you also have/had a floppy for the MC-10 ? Strange, because I never heard about a floppy based system for the MC-10. The only backup was a tape-recorder system. |
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| Ed (USA) |
Monday 17th May 2010 |
Gary, I have both the MC-10 and a CoCo 2 with EDASM+. Do you mind sharing your information about the 6803 opcodes that need to be added and which advanced 6809 features need to be avoided?
Thanks,\
Ed |
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| Gary (USA) |
Friday 7th May 2010 |
I bought one of these on clearances along with the 16k memory upgrade and the thermal printer. I used it until I could afford the more usable Color Computer 2.\
At one point, I got into writing assembly language programs for the MC-10. Since there was no support from Radio Shack, I had to analyse the Rom to find useful routines.\
The 6803 processor was backward compatible to the 6800, but included added features which which made it closer to the 6809 processor used in the color computers 1 through 3. When I upgraded to a color computer 2, I found it possible to use the EDASM+ cartridge on the Coco 2 to develop machine language prograns for the MC-10, by defining 5 opcodes unique to the 6803 and avoiding the advanced features of the 6809.\
The MC-10 used the same cassette tape format as the color computers, but the BASIC interpreter used different keyword tokens and the MC-10 was unable to load or save ascii format programs. It was also unable to use the serial port and the tape drive at the same time. |
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| Jeff(USA) (Il/USA) |
Monday 29th March 2010 |
I have one of these still, along with floppy, and thermal printer. My first PC ever and loved it at the time. |
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| Tom (UK) |
Friday 26th June 2009 |
Just recently aquired one of these babys for my collection. Didn''t come with any software, but I found a site that has every program released for the system plus a few homebrew games stored as WAV files. Shame the machine failed$ if Tandy had promoted it a bit better, it might have done well. |
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| James (Canada) |
Tuesday 9th December 2008 |
I had one of these briefly in the 80''s but didn''t have the addons as RS had already cleared them out. Did write a few basic programs on tape. Would like to find one working condition if I could just to have something to fiddle with. james.m.alexander@gmail.com |
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| Richard (Belgium) (Belgium) |
Tuesday 8th May 2007 |
The MC-10 also had the ability to connect a modem to the printer port. The modem had 300 baud speed, and there was even a simple communication program for it to use. I do not know if the modem was originally from Tandy or from 3rd party vendors. The graphics chip from the MC-10 is the same as in the Tandy Color Computer, but Tandy did not solder all connections, so the chip was limited in grafix. |
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| Eric Murray (Pittsburgh, PA) |
Thursday 20th April 2006 |
My dad bought me this magical machine when I was 12 and got me hooked. Did a bunch of BASIC programming and even bought a COCO3 later, which died and was replaced by another COCO3 with Boxes of programs and add-ons. Still have the MC-10 in the original box, but have not power it on in over a decade... |
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| Richard (Belgium) |
Tuesday 7th February 2006 |
I bougth my MC-10 color computer in 1983 or 1984 and there wasn't much support by Tandy corp. But I developed loads of programs for this tiny little computer. Some features that were not mentioned in the manual are:\
Several graphic modes up to 256x192 resolution with 2 colors and 128x 192 resolution in 4 color mode\
Synthesizer functions for the sound chip\
The ability to load data-files from tape to be used with programs like paint-programs, wordprocessors,etc. |
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| Jason (U.S.) |
Monday 15th November 2004 |
I was clearing out old stuff in my parents house, and found my MC-10. I can't find the power supply, but I did find the ram expansion module. Does anyone know where I can find the power supply specs. Also, I am not a collector, and may be selling this soon, where can I find value info? |
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| Erik Keever (Earth) |
Tuesday 13rd August 2002 |
The sound for the MC-10 was generated through the TV. It could generate 255 tones, lasting 75 milliseconds to 19.125 seconds.
On the TV I use, anything above tone 224 is just noise - too high for the speakers.
The BASIC command for sound was SOUND tone, length where both values were 1 to 255.
There was only one problem. While it is generating a tone, everything else freezes. |
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| Shawn (Earth) |
Monday 8th July 2002 |
Although there wasn't one specifically desiganted for it, I believe the MC-10 could be used with any of the serial modems for the rest of the coco series. I don't have any such modem, so I can't test that out. Also, I read somewhere that one could POKE the serial port all the way up to 9600, not sure about that either though. |
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| Shawn (US) |
Saturday 6th July 2002 |
Just purchased myself a slighty used MC-10. MY first system was an mc-10, but was lost long ago. Actually the systems & it's manual could probably stlle be used a a good into to programming concepts. (even with the GOTOs :-P ) |
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| /museum/matra-hachette-alice |
| /museum/matra-hachette-alice-90 |
| /museum/sysdata-eletronica-microcolor |
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