The "Dick Smith System 80" was a computer available here in Australia is the late seventies/early eighties. People
from other parts of the world may also have heard of it under many different names such as PMC-80, TRZ-80, Alpha one,
Video Genie, or what have you. It is a TRS-80 Model 1 clone, though in a lot of ways it is worse.
Before it was released it was said to come out in both 4KB Level 1 models and 16KB Level 2 models, but when released, it
was only available in the latter version. The machine was imported into Australia from Japan, and came out in many different
models.
The first one had 16KB of RAM, and Level 2 Basic in ROM. As you can see from the picture, it was all kept in a large case, which
held the power supply, keyboard and tape drive, along with all the circuitry. You could plug a second tape drive in at the back,
which most people did, because the internal one was hopeless. I use my internal one, but every so often you have to demagnetise it to make it work. You couldn't use the sound, unless you did a conversion that let
you use the external drive as #1, instead of #2.
The keyboard was the same as the Model 1, though the arrow keys were gone, and you had to use [ ] \ ^ instead. And to top
that off, CLEAR key and HOME (?) keys were missing. Most of these problems were fixed on later models though (I own one of those later models).
There were quite a few more incopatibilities with the proper Model 1. For example, when you print CHR$(23), it gives you the normal text,
but with a space inserted between the letters. Most routines were the same though.
In later models, attempts were made to fix the tape drive. On the very last models, the internal tape drive was removed and replaced with
a numeric keypad.
I own two System 80s. One is a fully working, good condition unit, with an Expansion Interface, Black and White monitor, a broken printer and a "Fred Music Synthersiser". I also have a System 80 main unit, that is in bad condition that doesn't work.
All in all, I reckon that the System 80 was pretty good for its time, but you would have been better off with a proper TRS-80 Model 1. Problem was, here in Australia, they were much more expensive!
Downloads:
TRS-80 Model 1/3 Emulator (62kb) Emulates a 48K Model 1 with 4 disk drives, an Expansion Interface, a doubler, a virual hard drive and a hardware clock.
System 80 ROM file This is the ROM file for use with many emulators. The System 80 Rom was slightly different to the Model 1 ROM.
To use the above file, click on the link. Then a lot of useless data will come up on the screen. I suppose you should just save the data (File>Save As) over your Model 1 ROM file, though I haven't actually tried this.
Pictures:
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