Brendan's Classic Tandy Color Computer Series

Tandy Color Computer 2        (CoCo 2)

The Color Computer 2 was the first computer I had that was all mine to do with as I pleased - it was our family's second "real" (meaning not a video game console) computer. I used to drool over this little machine in the old Radio Shack catalogs and show Dad how cool they were! Little did I know just how cool they really were.

I remember getting this machine from one of the Radio Shack dealers in Las Cruces, New Mexico. For those who have lived there for a long time (or long ago), this was the one inside the Loretto Mall, which of course is long gone. We wanted (or rather, Dad thought I should have) one with 64k RAM and Extended Color Basic (ECB - more about that later). When we got home, we discovered that it wasn't ECB, but only the standard Color Basic. After some discussions and negotiations, Radio Shack replaced/upgraded it (I can't remember which).

My early-model version had a keyboard that was a little bit of a cross between the "chiclet-style" of the CoCo 1 (with its somewhat short travel and rubbery feel) and the later CoCo 2 keys. I really liked this keyboard, since the keys had little "wells" into which my little fingers fit so nicely. It also had a cartridge slot on the right side into which you could insert ROM-based "Program Paks" or other compatible expansion hardware. Across the back were a power button, a reset button, two analog joystick ports, a cassette drive port, and a serial port.

This little machine had such an incredibly powerful basic interpreter that I was completely absorbed by the included "Getting Started with Color Basic" and "Going Ahead with Extended Color Basic" tutorial books. They were very well written and clear enough, even, for a 4th grader to understand (although I continued to read and refer to it through 8th grade). Over time, I became incredibly glad that Dad had pushed for the ECB upgrade, since I was able to utilize the high resolution graphics mode as well as the additional single-voice sound capabilities in various and sundry games, applications, and demos.

Later, this was also the machine with which I "cut my teeth" on assembly language programming. (This was about the same time as I began using the Microcomputer Trainer, too.) The beautifully orthogonal instruction set of the little Motorola 6809 made it easy. I was able to concentrate on various new concepts such as bases 2, 8, and 16, registers, and addressing modes, and not concern myself with any architectural oddities. I poured much time into my little book written by William Barden, Jr., "Color Computer Assembly Language Programming", on road trips in the camper from Washington through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Iowa, and Illinois.

It was in Washington state, in fact, where in 6th grade I made a good friend, Steve, who happened to have a similarly equipped CoCo 1. He introduced me to the CoCo-only Rainbow Magazine, which had tons of program listings, the occasional easy hardware project, ads for peripherals, and more. He and I spent many a day writing little programs utilizing all of the various peripherals we had.

Peripherals that Dad (or later, myself) upgraded my little CoCo 2 with included:

• A new Panasonic TV (10 or 11 inch diagonal viewable screen) with a rotary "clicky" tuner, since, unlike the Apple II series, the CoCo 1 and 2 only had modulated audio/video output on channels 3 or 4. This little TV is still going strong and is now used in the kitchen.
  
  
• A Tandy CGP-115 (Color Graphic Printer), which was actually a little 4-color plotter (black, red, green, and blue) with which Dad was able to intrigue me demonstrating Lissajous curves (named for Jules Antoine Lissajous - you can experiment some more with them here). Since the plotter could be used in either a large 40-column or small 80-column text mode or in an (x,y) graphics mode, it immediately became my hardcopying backup and debug buddy for programs and made for some very cool plots. Later, I had a few problems with it not knowing where its pens were (x-axis), and we had to ship it back to Tandy for repairs. This plotter not only had the standard serial port (for CoCo connectivity) but also had a parallel port so it saw a little use with our first PC (a Tandy 1000TL).
  
  
  
  
• A high-quality Panasonic cassette tape drive from which I could load games and other programs and to which I could store my own programs or data. Sadly, even though the tape deck was quite good, I had trouble keeping the volume settings at the same level (or had trouble in the mid-80s finding good blank tapes) so I'd sometimes have problems reading my programs back from tape. I experienced such dissatisfaction with these problems (I was so spoiled having used the Apple II series 5-1/4 inch floppy drives with all their relative speed and reliability) that I remember telling Dad that without a floppy drive upgrade, that this machine was mostly worthless...which of course, in time, lead to the following upgrade...
  
  
• A Tandy FD-501 5-1/4 inch floppy drive (this was a 1/2 height drive in a full height case) with controller cartridge. This was the most important upgrade for the Color Computer - it lead into so many other things, from a basic understanding of random-access binary and ASCII file I/O to much of my early knowledge of kernel-based operating systems. It also lead into several other "necessary" peripherals (such as a second single-sided double-density half-height 5-1/4 inch drive from IBM to fit into the same case).
  
  
  
  
• A custom made birch-veneered computer desk which had a removable formica-covered writing surface/computer dust cover. Dad, Mom, and I built this specifically for my CoCo 2 with lots of shelving (the lowest specifically for the Panasonic TV) and a flourescent light under the lowest shelf for either the writing surface or to light the computer work area. This desk is still in use today with my CoCo 3.
  
  

  Now you see it...

  Now you don't...

  
  
  
• A Multi-Pak Interface, expanding the single cartridge slot into four slots that you could either select between or, as I usually did, simply leave the disk controller plugged into slot 4 (as required) and set the Multi-Pak selector switch to 4. Other cartridges, such as the Speech/Sound Pak and the CoCo Max high resolution joystick interface (more about these below) were addressable via software in the other slots, so the selector switch didn't often have to be moved.
  
  
  
  
• A Speech/Sound Pak, allowing for speech and 3-voice sound, all through the TV speaker. This could be accessed simultaneously with the disk drive via the Multi-Pak Interface or a Y-cable, the latter of which I've never seen nor tried.
  
  
• An Orchestra90-CC Pak allowing for 5 simultaneous voices in stereo via its pair of low level RCA outputs (or monaural via the TV speaker). Steve and I programmed tons of songs into this combination hardware interface, "compiler", and built in editor. Of course, having this Pak mounted in the Multi-Pak allowed us to save our Orchestra90-CC music files to disk.
  
  
• A Colorware CoCo Max Hi-Res Input Module high resolution joystick port cartridge for use with the CoCo Max drawing program which would allow higher precision than the 6-bit (0 to 63) analog to digital converters in the CoCo itself.
  
  
• A Tandy DMP-130 dot matrix printer with both serial and parallel ports. I printed numerous papers and listings on this printer along with CoCo Max output, and Steve and I also did some manual raster programming of it to draw specific graphics. Later, this printer did double duty on our Tandy 1000TL, making use of its parallel port.
  
  
• A pair of Deluxe Joysticks. These joysticks had the ability to select two different modes for each axis, a "spring back to center" mode and a mode where the stick stayed where it was left and provided little resistance. Because they had a "spring back" mode, they also had trim controls. The first of these had only one button, but a later one had a pair of buttons, the second of which was used only by the CoCo 3 if I remember correctly.
  
  
• A cool 3-ring binder that had 12 pressure sensitive switches in it, called the "Electronic Book", into which you could place sheets providing a picture-based user interface for a particular game program. The game programs, of course, were pre-programmed to recognize the locations of the switches.
  
  

• Games
  • Popcorn (26-3090 Copyright 1981)
    The first Program Pak Dad bought for me (along with the computer purchase). In this game, you had to catch popcorn falling from the ceiling in your frying pans.
  • Gomoku/Renju (26-3089 Copyright 1983)
    A game similar to Othello.
  • Robot Battle (26-3070 Copyright 1981)
    A really cool game in which you could program your robot (using a built-in command language) to go to battle against other robots.
  • Downland (26-3046 Copyright 1983)
    An arcade adventure game. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Silpheed (26-3054 Copyright 1988)
    An arcade space shoot-'em-up. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Galactic Attack (26-3066 Copyright 1982)
    Another arcade space shoot-'em-up. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Androne (26-3096 Copyright 1983)
    A old-style 3-D first person shooter type game. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Chess (26-3050 Copyright 1980) - Acquired 2001.
  • Castle Guard (26-3079 Copyright 1981) - Acquired 2001.
  • Starblaze (26-3094 Copyright 1983) - Acquired 2001.
  • Spidercide (26-3049 Copyright 1983)
    From what I remember, this game was reminiscent of the arcade game Qix. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Dino Wars (26-3057 Copyright 1980)
    Battle your dinosaur against another. (Acquired 2001.)
  • Math Bingo (26-3150 Copyright 1980) - Acquired 2001.
• Productivity
  • Typing Tutor (26-3152 Copyright 1980)
    A recently acquired (2001) Program Pak to teach basic typing skills.
  • Personal Finance (26-3101 Copyright 1980)
    Another recently acquired (2001) Program Pak for handling finances/budgets.
• Programming
  • EDTASM+ (26-3250 Copyright 1981)
    This is the first editor/assembler I ever used. It wasn't incredibly intuitive, but it was still very useful and I used this in combination with my "Color Computer Assembly Language Programming" book. It came with a reference which included all the opcodes for the 6809E.

• Games on tape:
  • Pyramid - The was the first tape-based game I ever played and never got too far. It had a text-based interface similar to Infocom adventure games.
  • Grobot - In this Learning Company game, you act as a space farmer and attempt to grow various crops based on forecasted climate changes.
  • Maze Master - This was an Electronic Book game.
  • Number Factory - This was an Electronic Book game.
  • Shape Maker - This was an Electronic Book game.
  • Word Wizard - This was an Electronic Book game.
• On diskette:
  • Games
    • Robot Odyssey - This Learning Company game is probably the coolest educational game I have ever played. In this game, your task is to wire up the logic gates, sensors, grippers, thrusters, and antennas of your 3 robots to allow them to autonomously navigate various mazes and perform various tasks. I consider it to be the big brother to Rocky's Boots, another Learning Company game that I first played on the Apple ][+.
  • Programming and Languages
    • Color Disk EDTASM - With an interface and functionality very similar to the EDTSAM+ ROM Pak, the important feature this provided was the ability to save/load programs to/from floppy as well as providing routines for use in your software.
    • OS-9 Pascal
    • D.L. Logo - So named because it was written by Dale Lear. This was a really cool implementation of Logo that supported the speech/sound pak and arbitrary-precision numbers. Excerpts of the manual are scanned here.