i'm happy to report that someone had already digitized the Fantasy Gamer's package a few years ago! you can play it online here and generate your own little dungeons. the room generator is pretty cute:
what was missing, however, was the 40+ pages of print documentation that came in the mail-order ziplock, and a pic of the cassette tape. i've scanned them all here, along with a new recording of the cassette:
one of those fascinating things learned only by manual archival of materials:
Prickly-Pear Software recorded two exact copies of the program on a single 5-minute tape. the idea, i imagine, was to provide a second identical copy in case the tape became physically damaged (or mis-recorded during fabrication)
i have fallen in love with the mail order/ziplock bag era of software publishing. this piece is 42 years old, and came from a TRS-80 owner that I inherited it (and dozens of other software/hardware from) fifteen years ago
the original owner of Dunkey Munkey for the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer ordered it from a home business called Intellitronics, based out of Smithtown, NY, USA.
play as luigi 😎
what stands out to me is the cover art. this would have been created using a font stencil and paper cut-outs, hand-placed and then duplicated with a four-colour printing press process. i'd love to know if anyone into printing recognizes the technique/machinery that might have been used to duplicate it.
more hilariously good TRS-80 software from the archive
Bedlam puts you in the role of a patient in a mental facility whose only goal is to escape
having worked in a psychiatric hospital in a previous life, i can confirm that (a) this is a rather uncharitable view of hospitals and their patients, and (b) 🤣
the answer/interpretive key for the mental health exam: classic!
i'm finally opening up boxes of software from my archive that haven't seen the light of day in 15-20 years. today, i found a program that has never been archived or probably seen in over 40 years.
i absolutely adore this dungeon mastering program for the TRS-80 that was distributed in ziplock bags in 1982
i can find only one mention of it on the web - the august 1982 issue of TRS-80 Rainbow magazine that advertises it for $19.95 + S&H
happily, i found the cassette, which has never been archived anywhere AFAIK. i am scanning in the printed documentation, along with making a recording of the tape.
before these all go to ebay, are there any TRS-80 enthusiasts who want a massive collection of Radio Shack/Tandy Rainbow magazines, from 1984-1990?
will pass them on for a fraction of the ebay price. shipping from canada will be uncheap, but far less than shipping individual issues. would like to see this go to someone in the retrocomputing/archival community!
update: thanks to @shawn6809 the entire collection is now spoken for! :)
The Tandy Portable Computer 100, was a pioneering portable computer released in 1983 by RadioShack, part of Tandy Corporation. It featured an integrated keyboard, a built-in LCD screen, and ran on four AA batteries, making it highly portable for its time. 📠💻
for the All the Adventures project I embark on a brand new magical journey entitled Magical Journey from extremely early in adventure history (February 1980!)
and immediately run across one of the authentic experiences of the time, typos that come from a type-in game that was never sold on disk
This is your friendly reminder that I make and sell delightful miniature retrocomputers like TRS-80s, Osborne Ones, and the occasional big friends like Connection Machines and Crays.
I'm a retired nerd who's living the dream. Well, if your dream is working in your garage on tiny art machines. 😺 ⚙️ #retrocomputing#miniatures#trs80#cray#shamelessSelfPromotion https://store.transmutable.com/
wherein I embark on (and complete) a TRS-80 game with graphics and a 3D environment that is both novel and original and a cavalcade of horrendous game design decisions
I received this little friend as a gift. The LCD has spilled a bit and I haven't attempted to power it on but just holding it reminds me of the early days of PCs. The ability to bring computation and storage with us in the field was a ding dang big deal. #retrocomputing#trs80
In the early 80s, you could buy a text to speech hardware module (around $200-300) for your computer, or you could buy a software only solution. The S.A.M. cost $59.95 for the software. There was a version for Apple II that also included an 8 bit DAC card, for $124.95 total. This was sold by Don't Ask Computer Software and advertised here in Antic magazine, a special edition on sound and music from October 1982.
i was underestimating the price. The #votrax Type n Talk was put onthe market in 1980 at a price of $349. In US currency. Here, i found it at $499 Australian dollars in the Dick Smith Electronics catalog from 1983 (votrax would file for bankruptcy in 84). This #SpeechSynthesizer was based on Votrax own chip, the SC-01. They are so rare now that the ic itself sells for over $200 and the type n text often sells for double that. #retrocomputing#trs80#system80#appleii#atari#commodore#amstrad
But, you may ask, what is a System 80 computer? It was a Radio Shack TRS80 model I compatible computer. It was much cheaper than the US import. Here is a mk II version in the Dick Smith 1983 catalog.