Tandy 1000 series and nintendo sega

Sat Oct 06, 2018

the 1980s has been described as the golden age of computers, desktops much as our time is the golden age of the smartphone

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yep it is $8500 in 1989 dollars for a 80386 processor and VGA graphics.

IBM and Apple and Compaq also sold systems of comparable price.

to give some sense of scale

the computer i actually bought (well my family)



i actually only paid $799 as it was on sale, but about 6 months later the much faster tandy 1000tx with the 80286 processor was sold.

other expensive options was the commdore amiga, the apple 2gs, and various clones like leading edge model D

despite the huge range of prices, what i actually use a pc for was games and it turns out that
for DOS pc gaming the tandy 1000 series was the best

The 1000 and its many successors were successful unlike the PCjr, partly because it was sold in ubiquitous Radio Shack stores and partly because the computer was less costly, easier to expand, and almost entirely compatible with the IBM PC. The PCjr's enhanced graphics and sound standards became known as "Tandy-compatible". With its graphics, sound, and built-in joystick ports, the 1000 was the best computer for PC games until VGA graphics became popular in the 1990s.[8] Software companies of the era advertised their support for the Tandy platform;[14] 28 of 66 games that Computer Gaming World tested in 1989 supported Tandy graphics.[15]

in otherwords, spending $4000 on a macintosh SE, or $3000 on an apple 2gs, (with monitor and other peripherals like floppy drives) or $4000 on an ibm ps/2

it's a lot more money to spend $8000 on a compaq 386 deskpro

but for what i actually used a computer for, games, it wouldn't offer any additional benefit.

only tandy 1000 had tandy enhanced 16 color graphics and tandy 3-voice sound

no other DOS computer offered this.

so my family spent $799 for the base system which came with 2 floppy drives, with $100 upgrade to 640k, $400 for apple trackstar, $450 for the premium cm-11 monitor,

and then i was able to trade for free a lot of the DOS games.

the commodore amiga and apple 2gs offered better graphics and sound, and better games, but no one i knew owned one, and therefore i would have to go to babagges to actually buy it



so a lot of my childhood was playing tandy 1000 enhanced games like thexder



and shogun



even though there were much more expensive computers and with VGA graphics and 386 processor

it wouldn't actually be a better experience, it would be a much worse experience at the time, since tandy also had enhanced 3-voice sound

and is it better to have a technically superior commdore amiga or apple 2gs but with no games, or 1 game, or to have the worse tandy 1000sx but have literally scores of games?

i for the most part played games on the tandy 1000sx everytime i was at home, obviously i was at bible summer camps and travelled so i didn't play but on a typical schoool day i'd come home fire up the pc insert a disk

the apple2gs has a reputation for being extremely slow, without upgrades.

i think the only thing i wished was after 6 months tandy introduced the 1000tx with a 286 processor. it was more than twice as fast. a lot of games ran slowly on my pc

but playing kings quest 4



was a truly magical experience

one person had a leading edge model D which was also a 7.16mhz 8088 like mine, but he didn't have enhanced graphics and sound which i showed him when he came over.

another friend had an ibm ps/2 model 50 with 10mhz 80286 and vga graphics.

now i was blown away by the incredible sharpness of vga graphics compared to my tandy graphics.

but when it came to playing games, he had a 5 1/4 floppy drive which he had to pay $500 (!) add on. ibm was very expensive.

so king's quest would play but only in regular 4 color cga graphics and no tandy sound, just beeps and boops. and that ibm ps/2 was more than $4000, $3500 for base system, then $500 for monitor and $500 for floppy drive
it did have a 20 meg hard drive my pc didn't

the amiga clearly offered better graphics and sound



but who owned one?

i had a similar experience with the original nintendo and sega

i much preferred the sega master sytem, one for the games like ghost house



i preferred sega master system graphics and sound, i preferred its controller and i preferred its games

i really loved black belt




but all the other kids preferred the nintendo

and they were trading games among themselves and obviously it wouldn't work on my master system

i ended up returning the master system at toys r us and my family bought the NES for me.

i did end up playing super mario world and ghost and goblins and other NES classics.




for me even though there were much more expensive computers than the tandy 1000sx, with the exception of the tandy 1000tx, i felt it was the best pc i could have bought at the time.

with sega all the kids had nintendo, but i actually preferred the sega master games, but at the time it seemed all the momentum and games would go nintendo.

it was a quite a change for kids of my age and generation

from the 1970s where there were no gaming consoles or common home computers (that i knew of)

and then in the 80s an explosion with tandy 1000 and sega master sytem and nintendo

still no common internet.

none of the kids i knew with computers like the apple 2e, ibm pc, ibm ps/2 originally had a modem to dial up, nor did i.

even if i had a modem i wouldn't know who to call to dial up and it would tie the phone line from other people trying to call us

i never heard of a bbs

but as a very young kid in first grade, there were no computers or gaming consoles at least that i knew of, but by the time i hit fourth and fifth grade they now had tandy 1000sx and kings quest and thexder and sega master system and nintendo, which was far superior to the atari 2600.

i saw computers progress from the apple 2c and trs-80 model 3 to tandy 1000tx in this time, and some rich kids had the macintosh se

ive seen 2 year olds playing with iphones and tablets so its quite a different world for them.

i realize the value of what you buy is whether you enjoy it

i enjoyed the tandy 1000sx, though i wish i had the faster 1000tx, i enjoyed playing bard's tale and even gauntlet and kings quest and thexder

some rich families had the macintosh SE which was a $4000 purchase, but i never saw them use it or play games on it. i suppose you could spend another $500 for microsoft word on it, which was superior to DOS home word from sierra

i actually used my computer every day. a lot of apple 2es had dust covers to prevent them from collecting dust from disuse.

my computer fan in the back had colllect a lot of dust from too much use.

the amiga is even better but where would i get games for it?
the sega master system i think then and now is better than the NES but there were far fewer games