19 Feb
1999
19 Feb
'99
2:06 a.m.
Sellam said:
VZ200, eh? Interesting. Maybe you Oz-nerds can shed
some light on this.
I recently acquired a Dynasty Smart Alec Jr. Its a small computer with a
chiclet keyboard. Almost reminds me of a Mattel Aquarius. Anyway, on the
bottom the label reads that its a model VZ200, made by VTech (or Video
Technology) circa 1982. Is this the same thing perhaps as a Dick Smith
VZ200?
As Andrew Davie said, seems so. I have the VZ200 and VZ300 as sold by Dick
Smith, and the VZ 200 manual says copyright Video Technology 1983 on the
first page.
To all "Oz-nerds" (as opposed to Yank-nerds or Limey-nerds?:) - in the book
"Programming the Dick Smith Electronics VZ300 Personal Computer" by Tim
Hartnell, there is a section on attaching a disk drive (Cat X-7302) via a
floppy disk controller (X-7304) which can take two drives. You also need the
16K memory expansion (X-7306). I have the latter, but I have never laid eyes
on a VZ disk drive. I assume they are rare - if you had the sort of money I
expect they wanted for them in 1986-7 (the system units were still being
advertised in Aust Personal Computer in June 1987 for $A169 including
datacasette and 4 programs) you would have bought a better computer!
The boot screen with the disk drive attached is supposed to say
VIDEO TECHNOLOGY
DOS BASIC V1.2
READY
So has anyone ever seen that?
Phil
in Brisbane, Australia.