I knew my last missive would provoke at least one or two interesting (if
not informative) responses. Yours was no exception, and I thank you for it.
not informative responses are inevitable
For one, I hadn't known that CP/M was written originally to the 8080.. I'd
always assumed it originated on the Z80. And I don't doubt that RS / TRS-80
held a large share (until 1982 or so..) of the home computer market.
CP/M was 8080, and was intended for 8080/8085/Z80. But, as Allison
pointed out, there was nothing stopping somebody from writing software
that would run on CP/M that might require a Z80. Or write the BIOS for
the computer as Z80. Therefore, a Z80 machine would be optimal, and if
you wrote software to be sold into the CP/M world, it had to run on 8080,
AND, if it made any BIOS calls, survive a BIOS that could be 8080, 8085,
or Z80.
At the time, I was in my (almost) young teens - and at least in the circles
I traveled, the TRS-80 / Osborne and Kaypro were viewed as boring, stodgy
machines without any redeeming entertainment qualities - no color graphics,
no sprites, poor or nearly non-existent audio, expensive joysticks and so
on.
Boring, certainly.
Not sure if it was sophisticated enough to be stodgy.
The ability of the machines to serve multiple roles - for both 'serious'
work and video gaming / music - was a huge selling point in the early days.
This is one of the reasons that the C64 was so massively successful - it
pretty much had something for everyone, as the saying goes. That, and the
price of the base machine was just amazingly low for the time. Ditto for
the VIC-20.
Ah! Therein lies the rub.
The TRS-80 wasn't any good for some things. As a primarily entertainment
machine, it was rubbish. No color, no sound, no joysticks, grossly
inadequate graphics. (some of which could be worked around)
If you were looking for an games/entertainment machine, it would be
outside of the consideration set. Of the set of people looking for a
games/entertainment machine, "NOBODY has one."
Best game on it was "Adventure".
Best graphics was Lim's "Android Nim"
On the other side of the market, the TRS-80 did not have 80x24 text, and
had a memory map that was incompatible with CP/M. Parasitic Engineering
(Howard Fullmer!) and Omikron, both made [somewhat expensive] sandwich
boards for the TRS-80 to change that memory map, and to add 8" SSSD drive
support.
Of the original "Big three" (Radio Shack, Apple, Commodore), who came
first, Apple was the only one with entertainment capabilities, but they
priced it out of your market.
Later, the Commodore Vic-20 and C64 were aimed at your segment of the
market, and priced appropriately.
Radio Shack's later "Color Computer" (6809!) was far more appropriate, but
it also suffered some crippling design decision errors.
the very early 1980s, when I was about 15, my father decided to buy a
home computer. (Before that, he had a TI Silent 700 that dialed up to a
Univac mainframe.) I remember him doing hours of research comparing the
Apple II, the TRS-80, the Commodore PET, and probably some of the S-100
machines. He eventually chose the Heathkit H89. I^@^Yll have to ask him
exactly why, but I know that he^@^Ys always liked good-quality tools,
and the combination of the Heathkit design, the Z80 CPU, and CP/M seemed
like the best combination of tools at the time.
Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore PET didn't have 80x24 screen text!
THAT was why my cousin rejected them and went with a Heathkit.
If you want to be able to use it as a terminal, . . .
Later, add-on cards for Apple2 came out for 80 column.
TRS-80 didn't get 80x24 text until the Model 4 (which is what the Model 3
should have been) (Model 2/12/16 was never intended to be a "Home"
computer, and was marketed for small business)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
