12 Jun
1998
12 Jun
'98
12:58 p.m.
Cord Coslor & Deanna Wynn wrote:
I was wondering if anyone might have any information
on an old
machine produced by Tandy/Radio Shack. It came out _prior_ to the
Color Computer, but it looked like a CoCo. However, it was a
modified with a phone jack in the back for a TV/monitor and ran off
of a 6809E (???). It basically was a videotext terminal of some
sort.
It was announced the same day as the Color Computer and was 90% the
same machine. The original Videotex Terminal. Basically, it was a
Color Computer with the Vidtex ROM instead of BASIC and a built-in
DCM-1. IMHO, not one of the company's smartest moves, but it was
announced August 3, 1980 along with the Color Computer, the Pocket
Computer One and the Model III, and I didn't join the company (at a
non-policy-making level) until November 2nd that year.
If anyone might have some information on this little
unit, your help
in learning more about it, and it's purposes, and maybe some history
on it, would be much appreciated.
It was more or less a dedicated CompuSlave terminal -- while its
terminal emulation used more-or-less VT-52 commands, its graphic
command set was CompuSlave specific. (CompuServe had a demo page
that looked fine on a Vidtex terminal or a Color Computer with the
ROMPAK, but it was terminally ugly if you accessed it with the
Videotex software for the Mod 1/3 or the Mod 2, as the graphics
were not oriented for monochrome displays -- there was a package
for the Apple II [sold by Radio Shack] but I never saw it in
action]).
Oh, yeh... an off-topic question? Is this text
formatted correctly.
I had some problems with my mail software and had it completely
messed up trying to fix the original problem. Anyway, let me know if
the text is going off the right of your screen or whatever, and if
my signature box at the bottom of the page is formatted ok, ok? If
it is, great! If something's wrong, feel free to send a private
e-mail back to me to let me know ok?
Formatting seems OK from here.
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_