"So, do I turn this "Winger" tape into MP3's it's been given over the years. Stepping out style and the adjustable two button spring
or do I just plop it to the bottom of the stack, of my Tandy-loving shoes for a moment, it's loaded model), a serial interface, a port for
never again to see the light of day?" not hard to argue that viewpoint as its ori- a cassette recorder, your standard RF out
gins were technologically humble. It started and a cartridge slot for games, expansions
This was the first question I posed to myself out as an idea between Motorola and Tandy and accessories.
as I was sifting through the collection of to create an inexpensive computer that
audio cassettes my wife and I have accu- anyone with a TV could use. During this For me being six the time my Dad came
mulated over our combined lives to chose idea phase the concept was branched walking in the door with his modified CoCo
what will be copied and converted into somewhat into an agriculture project to 1 with "16KB ECB" (that's what it said in the
audio files on our PC. When it comes to build a terminal for farmers so they could little square jewel on the lower right of the
music, I'm pretty cheap-just looking at the get hourly information pertaining to their top), I thought this little machine was some-
many one dollar vinyl albums I picked up field (no pun intended). The various parts thing right out of the Buck Rogers TV
from Goodwill or the fact we still have all needed to make the device proved to be a show. It was a silver/gray tiny god, capable
these tapes that were never replaced with bit on the costly side due to all the micro- of doing things my young mind didn't think
CDs is a good indicator. Who would really chips needed but luckily for all involved possible. I can't recall the amount of time
want to replace a Cory Hart cassette with a Motorola released the MC6847 Video Dis- my Dad spent learning how to use the com-
CD anyway? While pulling some old "Weird play Generator chip along with the MC6883 puter, probably a lot to help justify the
Al" Yankovic tapes off the rack I came Synchronous Address Multiplexer chip money spent ($700 comes to mind but I
across three unlabeled cases. This brought which took the place of all that extra silicon could be wrong) but what he could make
about the second question: "What are and when combined with the 6809 proces- that thing do in a short time for me back
these?". The answer was more positive sor, the AgVision terminal was born. It then was simply amazing. Multicolored
than the one that decided the fate of Mr. wasn't long after that Tandy announced winking faces, a little train that could move
Winger's musical project. their lineup of new computers for 1980 with at the touch of a key, a mock Wisconsin
one geared specifically for the consumer: weather map and even a smooth scrolling
Upon opening the first case I discovered a the Color Computer-essentially a modified inventory list of items we were selling at a
Radio Shack/Tandy labeled cassette with AgVision/VideoTex terminal set up to be garage sale. The quick advances he made
the words "Merry X-mas 1984" written in used as a home computer. in BASIC programming came from the
ball point pen. Radio Shack...my mind was amazingly written manuals "Getting Started
immediately filled with memories of a Now knowing its roots you can kinda see with COLOR BASIC" and "Going Ahead
Christmas in Las Vegas back in 1984 right where some of the jeers and snickering With EXTENDED COLOR BASIC", which
before we returned to Wisconsin. My Dad came from. The CoCo's 6809 processor were included in the box. Looking back on
had assembled a bunch of games and had a default speed of .89 MHz, the slowest them today I can easily say the writing
graphic toys that he had typed in from compared to other low-cost computers of reminds me of today‘s "Dummies" books:
magazines or written himself for me to play the time (the Commodore Vic-20 had 1 fun to read, informative and written in plain
on Tandy's little computer, the Color Com- MHz). The 53-key chiclet keyboard was English. By about second grade I started to
puter (CoCo). The other cases contained somewhat uncomfortable to use (creating a learn programming, typing in the tutorial
tapes from a magazine called "The Rain- market for typewriter style keyboard re- programs from the two manuals or trying to
bow", specifically their first two "Rainbow placements later on). It could only display enter in games from two of the better maga-
Book of Adventure" collections. The discov- about eight colors in the lowest graphics zines written for the platform: "Hot CoCo"
ery caused me to sit up against the wall and mode, going up to a maximum of four in the and "The Rainbow".
think back to a time where my computing middle modes of resolutions to a whopping
was typically greeted by a bright green two colors in the "high res" mode. The By about 1987 or so is when I bought my
screen notifying me of the Extended Color sound was definitely something to sneeze first game cartridge for the system. I re-
BASIC I was about to use with a flickering and blow your nose at with only one chan- member it clearly as I got it after my Dad
rectangular cursor eagerly waiting for my nel. The base CoCo started out at $399 and a friend tried and failed to piggy-back
input. with 4 KB of RAM and Microsoft Color BA- upgrade the memory on the aging CoCo 1
SIC with options to expand up to 32 KB (a loose wire on a trace blew the sys-
Sometimes when people talk about the (initially, with the more expensive 64KB tem). So it was a "forced upgrade": my
CoCo, the words are usually laced with a option later) and the more powerful Dad returned home from the local Radio
hint of disdain or with open negativity while "Extended" Color BASIC. The little system Shack with a new CoCo 2. This model had
spoken through lips twisted in a also had two joystick ports (joysticks avail- a whopping 64K right out of the box, an off
smirk. "Trash 80" was a typical pet name able were the cheap analog non-centering (Continued on page 12)
11 | Video Game Trader Magazine | July 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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