website/content/museum/eagle-computers-inc-spirit.md

---
title: EAGLE COMPUTERS INC. Spirit
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Transportable
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1983'
cpus:
- Intel 8088
params:
  name: Spirit
  image: /media/museum/photos/eagle_spirit_1.jpg
  company: /companies/eagle-computers-inc
  company_name: EAGLE COMPUTERS INC.
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Spirit
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Eagle Computers Inc.
  - label: TYPE
    value: Transportable
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: November ? 1983
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: GW Basic available on disk
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full-stroke keyboard, 10 functions keys, numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 8088
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4,77 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: optional 8087 math coprocessor
  - label: RAM
    value: 128 KB (up to 640 KB)
  - label: VRAM
    value: 16 KB
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 characters x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: '320 x 200 dots - Characters matrix: 7 x 9 pixels'
  - label: COLORS
    value: '8'
  - label: SOUND
    value: Unknown
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 15 kg
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Video monitor out, 2 serial ports, 1 parallel port
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: One or two 360 kb 5''1/4 disk-drives and a 10 Mb hard-disk (slimline) for the ''1 disk model''.
  - label: OS
    value: MS-DOS, CP/M 86
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in PSU
  - label: PRICE
    value: 7470 (France, december 1983)
  comments:
  - author: ron shenk (US)
    date: Wednesday 15th June 2022
    text: I have an Eagle Spirit portable. It stopped working so I opened it up and looked it over thoroughly. I found a bad capacitor and disassembled the computer to get at the board with the capacitor. After replacing it, I find I don''t remember how and where the connectors go. It would help alot to have a picture of the orange connectors and green/white/black wire connector. Thanks
  - author: gary (GA, USA)
    date: Sunday 24th April 2022
    text: Has one around 90, the original BIOS chips would not boot once a HD controller installed. Had to upgrade the BIOS to get it to boot
  - author: Ian (Waterloo Ontario Canada)
    date: Sunday 17th January 2021
    text: I''m only 19 years late to help Chris probably, but in case someone else finds this thread, the full text of the Eagle Spirit PC User''s Guide is archived at https://archive.org/stream/eagle_pc_spirit_users_guide_nov83/Eagle_PC_Spirit_Users_Guide_Nov83_djvu.txt
  - author: john
    date: Friday 7th June 2019
    text: |-
      This has a CGA display card, as was the most common used on PC clones, since it more versatile than either MDA or Hercules, having both colour and an 80 column text display.

      In common with most of these Osborne style PCS, it uses a composite video monitor (like the PET and Apple II) rather than a TTL or RGB monitor, as they are also used on TV sets and were therefore much cheaper.

      The highest resolution (640 x 200) is disabled as the monitor would not display it legibly (composite monitors are a bit blurry).\
      The other Eagle system uses a Hercules card, which has a higher resolution but is only monochrome.
  - author: Chris Griffiths (Victoria B.C. Canada)
    date: Sunday 8th September 2002
    text: I need the dip switch settings! I work in small computer store and a fellow dropped one of these off, so for nostailgia sake, and I wanted to re learn basic I took it home bot it's not booting and I wanted to find it a MFM HD.. But for these things I need to know the jumper settings of anyone has a manual Please e-mail me.. Thanks.
  oc_id: 530
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230606195828/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=530
    date: '2023-06-06'
---

This transportable computer was compatible with the IBM PC-XT. It had a built-in 9" monochrome monitor, one or two 5"1/4 disk-drive (320k) and a 10 Mb hard-disk for the "1 disk model". This hard-disk was half thinner than "classic" hard-disks of that time (Slimline technology).

It also had a color graphic board but the built-in monitor was monochrome (no color model was available). It was not completely useless as it enabled to display 8 shades of green... Hopefully it was possible to connect an external color monitor !

The Eagle Spirit was really IBM PC compatible (hardware & software) and could be booted with the original IBM PC boot disks. The disks capacity and format procedure were the same.

The graphic resolution was the same as the IBM PC: 320 x 200 with a character matrix of 7 by 9 pixels. This was a good example of the low levelling effect of the IBM PC compatibility. The [Eagle PC](/museum/eagle-computers-inc-eagle-pc/), launched one year earlier, had a high resolution of 720 x 352 with a character matrix of 11 x 19 pixels!

First models had different keyboards where you had to press CONTROL+ALT+N to activate the numeric keypad. Later models had IBM PC style keyboards with LED signals.

As the Eagle spirit weights 15kg, a transport suitcase was available!

**H. Mitchell** reports:\
In 1983, I bought an Eagle Spirit (transportable) and still have it. It was self-contained in metal luggage. We called these luggables. The Spirit accepted 2(then new) 256k chips and ran both CP/M and DOS. I had 512kb of RAM. Because of a copyright battle they had to change their BIOS (which was almost 100% compatible with IBM's) to another spec which didn't work quite as well. When the stock went public it went sky high. Later, the founder was killed in an auto crash and the stock cratered.

**Bob Whipple**'s memories:\
I had an Eagle Spirit lent me by my father in law; I wrote a PhD dissertation on this computer in 1988-1990, and later used it in my first teaching job.\
It was not too temperamental, was pretty reliable (starting up, the HDD sounded like a jet taking off), and had 2 floppy drives and a 20 MB HDD. It was robust for that time, and though quite heavy, in those days any computer approaching "portability" was a Godsend.\
The keyboard attached to the front, covering the floppy drives and tiny monitor; the black plastic handle was in the back. One had exercise caution in carrying it so as not to bump it against doorframes and the like, which ran the risk of putting the hard disk out of whack.\
A good old machine.