<![CDATA[Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III]]>I received one of these from parents when I finished the 8th grade in 1980. I think they got the base model though with 4KB of ram, it was "only" $999. I recorded programs onto a cassette tape. Fun!

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]]>https://forum.ieu.app/topic/347338d3-7f3e-4a2d-acb4-7f74ad668a82/radio-shack-s-trs-80-model-iiiRSS for NodeSat, 05 Sep 2026 16:12:09 GMTTue, 01 Sep 2026 19:19:10 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 23:16:11 GMT]]>there were add ons for the TRS-80, but Radio Shack assumed they'd never have to make an updated core system

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://anarchist.nexus/comment/5294108https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://anarchist.nexus/comment/5294108Tue, 01 Sep 2026 23:16:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 22:30:12 GMT]]>I call that advertising text "Yuppie Font"

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://sh.itjust.works/comment/27211215https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://sh.itjust.works/comment/27211215Tue, 01 Sep 2026 22:30:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 22:05:27 GMT]]>I think we call that a "desktop computer."

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://sh.itjust.works/comment/27210828https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://sh.itjust.works/comment/27210828Tue, 01 Sep 2026 22:05:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:55:33 GMT]]>I was 11 years old when I learned BASIC programming on one of these in 7th grade. I loved it and it led to my career.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610729https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610729Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:55:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:42:49 GMT]]>The ad specifically says "perfect starter system"?

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://fedia.io/m/vintageads@sh.itjust.works/t/4318952/-/comment/16172367https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://fedia.io/m/vintageads@sh.itjust.works/t/4318952/-/comment/16172367Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:42:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:35:03 GMT]]>On the trash 80 I had to do a lot of work to find the memory region for the display. It didn't take that long but many of the games I ported used peek and poke statement to write the screen. Doing it was fun in a way nothing today can be. Its either too simple or way too complex these days.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610394https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610394Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:35:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:30:49 GMT]]>True! hmm. Cyber-conversation-piece?

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610338https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25610338Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:30:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:15:35 GMT]]>That would be the world heaviest cyberdeck, haha

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.social/comment/12751780https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.social/comment/12751780Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:15:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:13:20 GMT]]>

porting basic games from magazines to these.

Same! Lunar Lander, a maze generator, so many. And I even started to learn about Assembly language but that turned out to be too hard for me at that age.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.social/comment/12751761https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.social/comment/12751761Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:13:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:08:47 GMT]]>I already had a computer when I started computer science in the ninth grade. These bad boys were fun to play with. The teacher who was a very smart guy quickly gave up trying to keep me from typing away. I spent most of my time porting basic games from magazines to these. There were a lot of copies of my floppy making the rounds if you know what I mean.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25609051https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25609051Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:08:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:06:24 GMT]]>very arguably radio shack assuming they had made the perfect computer (this) and no one would ever want more computer in the future is exactly why there's still Apple and there's not still Radio Shack

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://anarchist.nexus/comment/5291765https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://anarchist.nexus/comment/5291765Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:06:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:01:29 GMT]]>Iconic design. Still want to make a cyberdeck from one but even a husk is $400. So, no.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25608940https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/25608940Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:01:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:46:39 GMT]]>Upper AND lower case letters?

"How'd they do that?!"

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://crazypeople.online/comment/10859596https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://crazypeople.online/comment/10859596Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:46:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:42:09 GMT]]>Glorious graphics! /s

Inflation calculator says $2500 then is similar to $8000 today.

Funny thing, those floppy drives, 175K x 2. Both together are still a small fraction of a single web page, for many sites in 2026. Multi-megabyte web pages are very common.

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.ca/comment/6127071https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://piefed.ca/comment/6127071Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:42:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model III on Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:22:46 GMT]]>Ooh, TWO drives, so you could boot from one and work from the other!

]]>https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.cafe/comment/18846413https://forum.ieu.app/post/https://lemmy.cafe/comment/18846413Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:22:46 GMT