The Tandy Portable Computer 100, was a pioneering portable computer released in 1983 by RadioShack, part of Tandy Corporation. It featured an integrated keyboard, a built-in LCD screen, and ran on four AA batteries, making it highly portable for its time. 📠💻
Sharp's innovative pocket PCs ran on BASIC, allowing users to write programs, load from tapes, and even check email. They connected to phones, enabling journalists to read email from payphones. Equipped with serial ports, they facilitated data transfer with printers and computers, and some even had built-in printers! 🖨️
Radio Shack's "Science Fair" crystal radio kit was one of my favorite toys growing up; I grounded it to a radiator pipe in my bedroom and could receive quite a few local and regional stations back in the 1980s.
I reacquired one about a year ago; every now and then I'll fiddle with it, trying in vain to bring in our town's lone AM station. If we have decent weather this summer for a change, it'll give me an excuse to try some outdoor antenna work!
So, this was my favorite toy growing up... A "160-in-One" Electronics Kit from #RadioShack. The kit had instructions on how to build a simple, low-powered broadcast radio (and I, of course, had cut off the jack of a microphone cord, which I stripped and added as an sound input). Not satisfied with the range of my "pirate radio station," I added a few extra capacitors, used a stainless steel window screen as an antenna, and soon the neighbors were complaining to my grandparents. Mission accomplished!
In the early 80s, you could buy a text to speech hardware module (around $200-300) for your computer, or you could buy a software only solution. The S.A.M. cost $59.95 for the software. There was a version for Apple II that also included an 8 bit DAC card, for $124.95 total. This was sold by Don't Ask Computer Software and advertised here in Antic magazine, a special edition on sound and music from October 1982.
But, you may ask, what is a System 80 computer? It was a Radio Shack TRS80 model I compatible computer. It was much cheaper than the US import. Here is a mk II version in the Dick Smith 1983 catalog.
There are very few days I wish Radio Shack still existed. Today, today is one of those days.
You could just walk in with a busted power brick and say “I need this” and walk out a few minutes later with a replacement #RadioShack#RIP#YouAreMissed
My Retro-Computer Journey - let's start with my Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P. I got this given to me by an older fellow who was getting rid of all his stuff. It had the MOS 6502 processor in it and I kept it for several years but really didn't do much with it. I wound up donating it to a computer museum in the end. Interesting machine for sure!
My Retro-Computing Journey - okay, we're almost done! This next computer was my first "almost" PC compatible. The Tandy 1000 TX had a 20MB MFM hard drive in it, and used to run the usual business apps, plus I remember playing Grand Prix on it using the TERRIBLE Tandy joystick! The Atari joystick was much better, but not compatible.
My Retro-Computing Journey - this is the only micro computer that I ever owned... the Tandy TRS-80 MC-10. It was adorable! I had a tiny cassette recorder with it, and even a tiny memory expansion module. I wound up giving to a friend as he had one of these as a little kid, and I figured he'd appreciate it more than I did.