I remember reading a review of this machine in a UK Computer magazine back in the day when I was at school. Don't think I ever saw one in the plastic though. In the UK we had the Dragon 32 which was vaguely CoCo compatible. Love your enthusiasm, it reminds me of the very young me back in the mid 80's computer boom when a new machine seemed to be launched every month (though most never took off - Mattel Aquarius, Lazer 200, Jupiter Ace, Memotech, Enterprise, Lynx, Sword M5, Oric , Spectravideo, Video Genie, Newbrain, TI99, Micro Professor etc ). Of course none of which were compatible with each other and all had their own character (quirks). Great times. Thank you for reminding me how much fun it all was. Brillant.
Man I loved my old TRS-80... in 1986 we upgraded it to a Tandy-1000 'color computer'.... You guys have brought me back so many good memories of hangin out with my pop. Thanks!
I loved watching you two have so much fun with your CoCo themed drinks and era appropriate wardrobe. I kept laughing out loud. So many good quips, but I think my favorite was the quietly murmured, "I hope this isn't real-time," at the mention of the 40-year mission in the "Spaceship Enterprise" game. And you managed to make this super informative, too.
Fun! I never got into the MC-10 because I got a CoCo already in 1981. But I've always been a bit intrigued by them, and if one came my way at a decent price I'd snatch it up. I have a couple Timex/Sinclair 1000s, and briefly owned a second-hand one in the late '80s, so it would be really fun to set them side-by-side for some compare and contrast. With color, sound, 4K built in instead of 2K, a better keyboard, and a power switch, the Micro Color would seem to stomp all over the T/S 1K in nearly every area but size and, crucially, user-base. With all the ZX-81 users in the UK, there was a relatively large market for software and hardware compatible with the T/S 1K. Jim Gerrie has single-handedly ported more games (and written quite a few originals, I believe) to the MC-10 than anybody else in the Micro Color's history. Great video, as always!
It was my first computer end of 1983 and I have it to day in absolue nice working condition. In germany it was sold by "TANDY". Tthe Motorola MC-6803 was fun I wrote my own MC680x assebler (first in BASIC) and linker used a modifyed modem and son on ... 🙂 I wrote a simple MC-10 emulator for the PC (Windows/Linux) and Rasperry PI (ARM) also.
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I have fond memories of it. The graphics chip can do 8 colors with semigraphics (blocky graphics mixed with text, which is what those games used). The real graphics modes can only do 4 colors at once. You should also be able to invert the text mode and change it from green to red (each probably with a poke command). The only reason I know that is because I’m using that same MC6847 chip in my homebrew 8-bit computer.
@@fractalMD I built it from scratch on a breadboard, inspired by Ben Eater's awesome 6052 videos (with other inspiration from George Foot's related videos). I took the long way round to educate myself, doing everything myself as much as I could. I have a pretty good understanding of its components. I also built some assembly programming tools for myself. So it's got a 6502 processor, about 28K addressable RAM, 2K VRAM, 32K ROM (8K OS so far), PS2 keyboard interface (I programmed an ATtiny84 microcontroller for that), very basic sound from discreet logic (though I'm waiting for a SN76489AN sound chip to replace it), RP5C01 real time clock, SD card reader (not currently working right, as I am in the process of redesigning the interface protocol), MC6847 for video (MC1372 modulator creates color composite video, but having some issues due to crystal appearing to be off frequency, so waiting for a replacement). The MC6847 uses its own 2k RAM (dual port to avoid multiplexing), limiting graphics (I need 6K for the best resolution, which I could do but it involves banking the VRAM and I don't feel like working on it right now). It's also got a dedicated character ROM with a custom font. I've got a series of latches that can interface as needed, right now for setting the graphics mode, invert, etc. on the MC6847. It's really a mess of wire, but it works and I know how it works :)
I bought one back in the 80s along with a TP 10 printer and 16k ram expander I was a CS student at the time and later upgraded to the Coco II The 6803 processor was little brother to the Coco's 6809 and as a proof of concept I was able to use the EDTASM+ cartridge on the Coco II to cross assemble programs for the mc 10 Note: The Coco and mc 10 used a data recording method that was 5 times faster than the competition
Wonderful! From what I read, the TS-1000 failed because it had 1K memory and the RAMPacks weren't immediately available. Nice colours and sound on it. That Star Trek game was EVERYWHERE. Lucky it had the Enterprise and Klingons. Some games had the Anterprise fighting the Klangons. Take THAT , lawyers! Do your own Haunted House! I've typed in some text adventures where you know what to do. Others have you type in the words backwards, or even ROT-13 the words, and then when you play they are normal. The most advanced I saw was where there was a list of words, and then you typed in strings of characters, and then at runtime it did some Engima code level debugging based on the ASCII code as a lookup into the table...
20K isn't as odd as you might think. Many computer/processors were limited to a grand total of 32K addressable space. That meant 20K RAM/4K Char ROM/8K BASIC+OS = 32K
The ZX-81 was indeed a terrible computer, but it launched in the UK in 1981 at a time when a PET/TI-99/TRS-80 cost £400. The launch price was less than £50 in kit form or £70 assembled, which is why they sold over 1.5 million of them. It represents a giant technical leap not because of what it can do (which is not a lot) but because Sinclair was able to condense a microcomputer to the absolute minimum, thanks largely to invention of the ULA by British firm Ferranti. There is no doubt it enabled literally millions of British children to access a computer who otherwise would not have been able to due to the cost involved.
There is a program called Emcee that is a way to connect the MC-10 to a virtual drive through the serial port at a very economical price. It uses 4 pin din to 9 pin serial and then 9 pin serial to USB serial. (Windows compatible) The TRS-80 MC-10 group is on Facebook 557 members that would love watching you two rate / review games I'm thinking. There are hundreds of games applications and special stuff. Pinball lost world Pacman Bouncy Ball Tetris Space Assault Asteroids Flood it Berzerk There are 1 bit music players There are demos There high resolution programs The MCX-128 has 58k free in the large mode. Some people have put a CocoVGA on an MC-10. There is a memory fix and a graphics fix. (I say fix but really it just completes what Radio Shack should of already done)
I've lot's of software you can simply play as WAV files. Look in the 4K directory: drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7oFL_dNqgh9aDB1MW9FVzlibUU?resourcekey=0-OYcjRksPokks2iL3MyyEnA
Yeah, Tandy/Radio Shack had a real "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" strategy going on there. For us consumers, it was confusing. But they managed to get a few good successful products out there (TRS-80 Model I, Model III, TRS-80 CoCo, TRS-80 Model 100, and Tandy 1000). The list of duds, of course, is much longer...
This wouldn't have been such a dud if the video buffer addressing had been worked out a little better. It wouldn't have been such a dud if R/S had sold it in 1981. The Motorola application note it's based on hails back to 1980 or 1979. Microsoft was churning out code-generated BASICs (not well optimized), so the BASIC interpreter would not have prevented it being built in 1981. (Not that I am a fan of Microsoft's BASICs, just that Radio Shack had the habit.)
"I'm going to change this in the code". I had a C-64 game that was a simulation of the Battle of Midway - which I lost repeatedly. Once completely annoyed, I went into the code and changed the number of planes on my aircraft carriers from 66 each to 666 each (because why not). I then always won the Midway campaign. 😈😈😈
That text-based Star Trek game dates back to the early 1970s. I found a 70s BASIC listing for it online a few years back. It had been ported to mbasic, Micro$oft's BASIC for CP/M. A version of it, written in C, was included in the bsdgames Debian package, so it's now on my Linux system. I'm lost in space.
LOL - I don't think many of them were used much by people. I have one as well in the original box as well. Trying to find the memory module for it (for a decent price). However, I didn't know there was a modern version with a SD card slot. That sounds like the cat's meow. Unfortunately they are all sold out.
There were smaller computers. This one was (is) pretty useless. I have one and it's the only retro-computer I don't use .. ever. Not expandable, no decent mass storage, no decent software. About time I put the POS up for sale.
I remember reading a review of this machine in a UK Computer magazine back in the day when I was at school. Don't think I ever saw one in the plastic though. In the UK we had the Dragon 32 which was vaguely CoCo compatible.
Love your enthusiasm, it reminds me of the very young me back in the mid 80's computer boom when a new machine seemed to be launched every month (though most never took off - Mattel Aquarius, Lazer 200, Jupiter Ace, Memotech, Enterprise, Lynx, Sword M5, Oric , Spectravideo, Video Genie, Newbrain, TI99, Micro Professor etc ). Of course none of which were compatible with each other and all had their own character (quirks). Great times. Thank you for reminding me how much fun it all was. Brillant.
thanks!
Vibing the feels of the good ole days
Man I loved my old TRS-80... in 1986 we upgraded it to a Tandy-1000 'color computer'.... You guys have brought me back so many good memories of hangin out with my pop. Thanks!
Thats wonderful. :)
I loved watching you two have so much fun with your CoCo themed drinks and era appropriate wardrobe. I kept laughing out loud. So many good quips, but I think my favorite was the quietly murmured, "I hope this isn't real-time," at the mention of the 40-year mission in the "Spaceship Enterprise" game. And you managed to make this super informative, too.
thanks!
I feel appropriate raising a glass (albeit filled with coffee at the moment) to this relatable pair.
I must say, that cord makes quite an impression. Much like you two! ;-)
Thank you!!
Wow, I've seen lots of cables burned into cases like that, but never a perfect impression of the plug!
And I mean, PERFECT.
Fun! I never got into the MC-10 because I got a CoCo already in 1981. But I've always been a bit intrigued by them, and if one came my way at a decent price I'd snatch it up. I have a couple Timex/Sinclair 1000s, and briefly owned a second-hand one in the late '80s, so it would be really fun to set them side-by-side for some compare and contrast. With color, sound, 4K built in instead of 2K, a better keyboard, and a power switch, the Micro Color would seem to stomp all over the T/S 1K in nearly every area but size and, crucially, user-base. With all the ZX-81 users in the UK, there was a relatively large market for software and hardware compatible with the T/S 1K.
Jim Gerrie has single-handedly ported more games (and written quite a few originals, I believe) to the MC-10 than anybody else in the Micro Color's history.
Great video, as always!
I find your videos very relaxing and fun, you are original and your friendship is priceless. Keep it up girls.
As you can imagine, you find a person like Taylor and you friend them as hard as you can!!!!!
It was my first computer end of 1983 and I have it to day in absolue nice working condition. In germany it was sold by "TANDY". Tthe Motorola MC-6803 was fun I wrote my own MC680x assebler (first in BASIC) and linker used a modifyed modem and son on ... 🙂 I wrote a simple MC-10 emulator for the PC (Windows/Linux) and Rasperry PI (ARM) also.
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I have fond memories of it. The graphics chip can do 8 colors with semigraphics (blocky graphics mixed with text, which is what those games used). The real graphics modes can only do 4 colors at once. You should also be able to invert the text mode and change it from green to red (each probably with a poke command). The only reason I know that is because I’m using that same MC6847 chip in my homebrew 8-bit computer.
Oooh, tell us more about the home brew?
@@fractalMD I built it from scratch on a breadboard, inspired by Ben Eater's awesome 6052 videos (with other inspiration from George Foot's related videos). I took the long way round to educate myself, doing everything myself as much as I could. I have a pretty good understanding of its components. I also built some assembly programming tools for myself. So it's got a 6502 processor, about 28K addressable RAM, 2K VRAM, 32K ROM (8K OS so far), PS2 keyboard interface (I programmed an ATtiny84 microcontroller for that), very basic sound from discreet logic (though I'm waiting for a SN76489AN sound chip to replace it), RP5C01 real time clock, SD card reader (not currently working right, as I am in the process of redesigning the interface protocol), MC6847 for video (MC1372 modulator creates color composite video, but having some issues due to crystal appearing to be off frequency, so waiting for a replacement). The MC6847 uses its own 2k RAM (dual port to avoid multiplexing), limiting graphics (I need 6K for the best resolution, which I could do but it involves banking the VRAM and I don't feel like working on it right now). It's also got a dedicated character ROM with a custom font. I've got a series of latches that can interface as needed, right now for setting the graphics mode, invert, etc. on the MC6847. It's really a mess of wire, but it works and I know how it works :)
@@brettb.345 That. Is. AMAZING!!!
Thank you.
I bought one back in the 80s along with a TP 10 printer and 16k ram expander
I was a CS student at the time and later upgraded to the Coco II
The 6803 processor was little brother to the Coco's 6809 and as a proof of concept I was able to use the EDTASM+ cartridge on the Coco II to cross assemble programs for the mc 10
Note: The Coco and mc 10 used a data recording method that was 5 times faster than the competition
I'm only 4 minutes in and I already love this video. Props!
MC-10, baby!
That chord burn into plastic is no joke. It seems to happen a lot with Tac-2 joysticks. I've yet to find one without chord burn in the plastic.
Real life application of organic chemistry.
Wonderful! From what I read, the TS-1000 failed because it had 1K memory and the RAMPacks weren't immediately available.
Nice colours and sound on it. That Star Trek game was EVERYWHERE. Lucky it had the Enterprise and Klingons. Some games had the Anterprise fighting the Klangons. Take THAT , lawyers!
Do your own Haunted House! I've typed in some text adventures where you know what to do. Others have you type in the words backwards, or even ROT-13 the words, and then when you play they are normal.
The most advanced I saw was where there was a list of words, and then you typed in strings of characters, and then at runtime it did some Engima code level debugging based on the ASCII code as a lookup into the table...
20K isn't as odd as you might think. Many computer/processors were limited to a grand total of 32K addressable space. That meant 20K RAM/4K Char ROM/8K BASIC+OS = 32K
"One at a time space invaders."
Demon Attack, more like Seagull Attack.
@@aloiivwizardThose M birds you draw as a kid, for sure.
The ZX-81 was indeed a terrible computer, but it launched in the UK in 1981 at a time when a PET/TI-99/TRS-80 cost £400. The launch price was less than £50 in kit form or £70 assembled, which is why they sold over 1.5 million of them.
It represents a giant technical leap not because of what it can do (which is not a lot) but because Sinclair was able to condense a microcomputer to the absolute minimum, thanks largely to invention of the ULA by British firm Ferranti. There is no doubt it enabled literally millions of British children to access a computer who otherwise would not have been able to due to the cost involved.
Oh yeah, inarguably it was a huge boon to accessibility. It just...never took off in the US in the t/s Pokémon form.
Was this "bringing tech to the masses of Britain" why Clive Sinclair got knighted?
There is a program called Emcee that is a way to connect the MC-10 to a virtual drive through the serial port at a very economical price. It uses 4 pin din to 9 pin serial and then 9 pin serial to USB serial. (Windows compatible)
The TRS-80 MC-10 group is on Facebook 557 members that would love watching you two rate / review games I'm thinking. There are hundreds of games applications and special stuff.
Pinball lost world
Pacman
Bouncy Ball
Tetris
Space Assault
Asteroids
Flood it
Berzerk
There are 1 bit music players
There are demos
There high resolution programs
The MCX-128 has 58k free in the large mode.
Some people have put a CocoVGA on an MC-10.
There is a memory fix and a graphics fix. (I say fix but really it just completes what Radio Shack should of already done)
Hey, thanks for all this great info!
@@fractalMD Thanks I am looking forward to watch more of your videos!
A mutant MC-10! It's alive!!!
I've lot's of software you can simply play as WAV files. Look in the 4K directory: drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7oFL_dNqgh9aDB1MW9FVzlibUU?resourcekey=0-OYcjRksPokks2iL3MyyEnA
Amy, I've often wondered why there isn't a "drain website" option...
Yeah, Tandy/Radio Shack had a real "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" strategy going on there. For us consumers, it was confusing. But they managed to get a few good successful products out there (TRS-80 Model I, Model III, TRS-80 CoCo, TRS-80 Model 100, and Tandy 1000). The list of duds, of course, is much longer...
Now I want to eat spaghetti.
This wouldn't have been such a dud if the video buffer addressing had been worked out a little better.
It wouldn't have been such a dud if R/S had sold it in 1981. The Motorola application note it's based on hails back to 1980 or 1979. Microsoft was churning out code-generated BASICs (not well optimized), so the BASIC interpreter would not have prevented it being built in 1981. (Not that I am a fan of Microsoft's BASICs, just that Radio Shack had the habit.)
You have a nice nuclear green glow to your skin on this episode. LOL
It's either the monitor reflection or our uranium stockpile
Why is the adventurer on your shirt holding the spear backwards??
He's drunk?
"I'm going to change this in the code". I had a C-64 game that was a simulation of the Battle of Midway - which I lost repeatedly. Once completely annoyed, I went into the code and changed the number of planes on my aircraft carriers from 66 each to 666 each (because why not). I then always won the Midway campaign. 😈😈😈
Yay! New Video!
That text-based Star Trek game dates back to the early 1970s. I found a 70s BASIC listing for it online a few years back. It had been ported to mbasic, Micro$oft's BASIC for CP/M. A version of it, written in C, was included in the bsdgames Debian package, so it's now on my Linux system. I'm lost in space.
Dude, that is awesome.
LOL - I don't think many of them were used much by people. I have one as well in the original box as well. Trying to find the memory module for it (for a decent price). However, I didn't know there was a modern version with a SD card slot. That sounds like the cat's meow. Unfortunately they are all sold out.
Keep an eye out for restock!
Because Amy has already had a Screwdriver... 🤣
Amy is the quintessential digital cougar and is rustling our three and a half inch floppies over here!
This is disgusting
Hey Taylor ! lol
Well, assuming the warranty hasn't run out and that you could find a RS to take it to...
Can you imagine the confused look on their theoretical faces?
Is it bad that I got the 'photon torpedoes' reference? Star Trek the Motion Picture right? I'll see myself out...
exactly!
So what do you ladies call your space? "The Lab" or "She Shed" or "Lady Lounge" ?
Oh, it's definitely.....The Lab [tm]
@@fractalMD LOL.. but that would make it sound like the bathroom.. "laboratory" ..
@@OGHUGO Never the laboratory, always The Lab. Where we make The Content for The Channel. :)
@@fractalMD So great !... please consider doing a Lab tour.. There are lots of interesting bits everywhere!
@@OGHUGO It is truly a magical wonderland. Every time I'm in it I see something I haven't seen before. Like a room that is a fractal.
How do you find out about all these awesome mods? Or maybe I shouldn’t ask because it could cost me.😅
The internet is a magical place
@@fractalMD Your search terms are obviously way cooler than mine. 😂
Also - nobody needed the Commodore 16 or the Plus/4
There were smaller computers. This one was (is) pretty useless. I have one and it's the only retro-computer I don't use .. ever. Not expandable, no decent mass storage, no decent software. About time I put the POS up for sale.
get a MCX-32 SD and solve all your problems!
Of course, they could have called the crap game "sh*ts"...