Man did I just love Tandy. If I had a spare lunchtime with nothing
better to do you would find me in Tandy. I could spend an eternity
going through the various electrical components, connectors and
switches. The guys in there were always helpful and so informative.
Whenever I needed a special cable or connector for the sound kit
I would always find it in Tandy.
I recall them having a special booth with a large bank of lights
welcoming you to the PC stuff, but in truth I was always too
engrossed spinning round their mobile displays of bagged connectors.
Consequently I never really got hooked on their computers. Sad now
I reflect on it, because the units I have generally work, but are
devoid of any of the goodies, such as tapes, books, games and all
the peripherals. Problem was that the guys were so into their
electronics, when confronted about an adaptor or cable connector
they would enthuse over that and not try to flog their computers.
Anyway, I thought I would feature my favourite Color 2 from the
collection which I have out all the time and muck around when I feel
the old urge. I also have a boxed one that for some reason has a
different label. Both the same machine and both work. Interestingly
they are basically the Dragon computer evidently. Not sure how
true that is. These units feel more substantial.
I have a very large TRS that sits as a coffee table in the middle
of the lounge. It did kinda start smoking once when I switched it on
so it has sat idle ever since. I would need help to move the thing.
The boxed machine below is the Extended BASIC model with the 64K.
This is also often called the Coco2 and replaced the Model 1 in 1983.
The keyboard was upgraded along with the general circuitry.
CPU is a Motorola 6809E running at 0.89 Mhz
RAM is either 16,32 or 64 KB
ROM 8 KB ( Color Basic ) with the later models having 16 KB ( Extended Color BAsic )
Text is 32 x 26
Colours are nine
Sound is one voice ( 16-bit DAC )
The computer has a cartridge slot and joystick for games.
My first Color Computer 2 which
is generally out on the bench
My second is a 64K in store
The two computers have different labels
Found this odd batch of 5.25" disk
lying under the computer
So the boxed computer is working
And the second computer also works
An this is the only tape I have
How sad is that ?
The Color - original
