Re: TRS80 mutating into Triton II under Linux questions

Mick J Hellstrom (mickh@rd.scitec.com.au)
Fri, 3 May 1996 13:12:53 +1000 (EST)

On Thu, 2 May 1996, Ray O'Leary wrote:
> Drew Eckhardt wrote:
> > >> mickh} Actually, I've heard that someone is working on a TRS-80 port to x86,
> > > now
> > >> mickh} that could be particularly interesting...
> > >>
> > >> Oonlly if ttheyy emmullaatte the kkeyyboaard bbounnce.
> > >
> > >;-) That brings back memories. I'd forgotten about that. Although it
> > >didn't seem to affect me much, you got used to pressing backspace every
> > >so often.
> >
> > My first computer was a TRS-80 Mopel I, with Level II BASIC, 16K of RAM
> > onboard; the 64 column X 16 line monochrome screen, an expansion chasis
> > with an additional 32K and the optional RS232 board, and a pair of single
> > sided, single density (80K without TRSDOS, 50 or 60 something K free with)
> > floppy drives.
>
> Oh, Lord, mine was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1K RAM (I sh*t you not) and a 40
> x 23 monochrome text only screen. Saves were done using an audio
> cassette recorder. It had a _very_ tacky membrane keyboard, and if you
> were lucky enough to get the 16K RAM expansion "pod", it kept falling
> out of the expansion socket and had to held in place using a carefully
> folded cigarette pack or some scotch tape.

Now those were the days! Having to load data by cassettes. Getting the
volume control wrong and having to reload, as it was too load or soft. I
don't know if it applied to every TRS80-I, but I had terrible trouble
loading off cassettes, tried several recorders.

I was actually in the process of writing my own fs for the cassettes. I
had a recorder that I hacked so I could provide control for reverse, play
and record via the parallel port. I managed to get it to the stage where
I was reading/writing stuff to the tape... an early form of mass storage!
It was plauged with problems, the reading was terrible - with multiple
re-tries.

> Those were the days, eh? The days I hated.

No! Completely the opposite for me! I loved it! All those nights hacking!

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