1983 Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2 with HJL-57 keyboard

A look at Radio Shack's TRS-80 (Tandy) Color Computer 2, introduced in 1983 as a restyled and slightly upgraded version of the original "CoCo" from 1980.
Its nine-color (eight colors plus black) graphics and sound weren't as good as other home computers of the time like the C64 and Atari 800XL, but it features an excellent version of Microsoft BASIC and with a disk drive, it can run a real-time multitasking operating system known as OS-9.
This particular example was retrofitted by its original owner with an aftermarket HJL-57 keyboard, which provided improved typing feel and additional function keys versus the original "melted" keyboard it came with.

[@cybair9341]

That was my first computer. I bought it used in the mid 80's as I could not afford any new computer. Last week I bought a Raspberry Pi 400 with the same feeling of curiosity and excitement that the CoCo brought me back then.

[@themaritimegirl]

That was the most flatulent game of Space Invaders I ever heard. We spent maybe two weeks in third grade doing cursive, and then we never touched it again. I could read most of the writing. :P

[@supercompooper]

This was my baby when I was in grade school! I mastered assembly on it! What memories!

[@jimb032]

Editor assembler with zbug, on the cartridge! It's How I learned too! I thought the support material was intuative...as much as assembler could be.

[@jjets8775]

I had one but it was BASIC

[@supercompooper]

I kept tearing apart joystick's for the pots and I'd adapt them to do things like measure resistance of soil to water plants -- 64 points (5 bits!) of analog to digital conversion :)

[@kelblueskies3937]

Same here, actually wrote a game program similar to Sabotage for Apple II, but I had 3 turrets, it worked sort of, but would crash after so long, never could figure out why. I was like in my early to mid teens at the time, amazing what you can learn yourself.

[@aphexteknol]

I think the main attraction of your channel for me, is the relaxed tone you deliver the information in. It really is refreshing in a sea of "HEY GUYS, DON'T FORGET TO LIKE COMMENT AND SUBSRIBE! LOL XD!?!?!" here on youtube. Of course I love retro computers the most, but I enjoyed the camcorder/HiFi/etc videos from years past all the same honestly.

[@jasmeetmatharoo]

aphexteknol i was going to comment the same thing as you did. He never ask us to like and sub.

[@Stransh]

aphexteknol that's why I always thumb up his videos even though some content is not much interesting to me

[@kynasanderson9813]

aphexteknol g

[@Anonsage3]

I learned to program on a CoCo 2. that manual is really pleasant to read.

[@cosmicrdt]

You mentioned gw basic. I owned a Tandy 1000 hx which came with gw basic. Thanks for the trip down memory lane

[@kchalu]

I had Polaris for this computer! Remember playing this a lot.

[@arthdenton]

Joysticks of that design were VERY expensive back in the day.

[@AZEMBadlen]

This videos are just legendary. I see VWestlife I just watch whatever I was doing that time.

[@SHONNER]

Missile Command had three fire buttons. Probably a keyboard fire button. I switched to CoCo3 with OS-9 Level II as soon as it was available.

[@joelavcoco]

Earther...

[@Sashazur]

Same!

[@SavageBubblegum]

I just found one of these unopened in my dad's attic tonight and I am soooo stoked

[@CPPRODUCTIONS1001]

it's weird to think how far we have come in computing.

[@pauldzim]

Had one of these back in the day. My version had a 3-wire power cord connected inside using spade lugs. When I opened it up to install some upgrade, I disconnected the power cord connections to make it easier to work on. When I put it back together, I accidentally swapped the Ground/PE lug with the Line lug. Needless to say, when I plugged it in to the mains, there was a loud hum and a lot of magic smoke was released! RIP to my CoCo :(

[@lordmichaelofglencoe9618]

i was cleaning my garage last year and i found mine from my Younger day and still works.

[@richkh]

Polaris: Use keys 1, 2, 3 on the keyboard to select which submarine to launch Polaris missiles from. Project Nebula: yes, a 'shoot-em-up' game. The cross on the bottom right is basically a 'radar' showing the enemy ships behind you. And I know this because I still have all of mine in a box in the garage attic somewhere.

[@gregferguson7737]

Played both many times :)

[@jimb032]

Polaris...my first game for it.

[@twocvbloke]

With the Résumé thing, over here in the UK, we just call it a CV, or Curriculum Vitae, which is usually filled with lies to get a job... :)

[@itismezed]

twocvbloke we have cv's the in the US, but it tends to be focused on schooling career vs work experience.

[@captainturloc5938]

I find this computer to be pleasing.

[@KenWarnersniperperformance]

I had one of these when I was a kid. You had to write code from a book to play games if you didnt have cartridges. Tape deck was used to save files along with a 5 1/4 floppy.

[@defleppal]

This was my second computer. My first was the micro color computer you also shared. Again, thanks for the memories!

[@kdw75]

We have a bunch of Tandys from my childhood in storage. CoCo 2 and 3, Model I, III and IV and 1000s. I remember as a child dad bought me the RAM upgrade for my CoCo and I was able to play more games, which made my year.

[@GreggObst]

The Tandy Color Computer II was my first computer. My Parents bought it as a family computer back around the end of 1984 or the beginning of 1985. I quickly took over the computer which was odd since I had never had the chance to use any of the computers at high school because they were reserved for only the best math students (not me). That launched the start of a three decade career in I.T. and software engineering, so far. I had the expansion pack that plugged in the side along with two double-sided double-density floppy drives, memory expansion cartridge, Radio Shack cassette tape recorder for archival storage backup and the OS9 assembler that also gave you I think 80 column screen output in addition to more direct access to the computer's functions. I need to pick one up again for nostalgia purposes.

[@MasterHavik]

Dungeons of Daggorath is THE coco game to rule them all. Early dungeon crawl with directional sound effects....awesome for its day.

[@danieldougan269]

I had one of these as a kid! Not just a TRS-80, but a Color Computer 2 (minus the aftermarket keyboard). It was a complete POS compared to the Commodore 64, but we couldn't afford one of those. My cousin had a C64, and I was amazed by it.

[@mrcheese9541]

I am in 8th grade and I can read that cursive just fine

[@BollingHolt]

My second computer was a Color Computer 2. It was my birthday present when I turned 5, replacing my Timex Sinclair. This was the first computer with which I ever dialed BBSes with the "Direct Connect Modem Pak" (a whopping 300 baud). The keyboard failed and was replaced with a Color Computer 3 keyboard. I got a printer for it in 1990 or 1991 (Tandy DMP 133) that I actually still used on my first two PCs before getting an ink jet. I never had a disk drive for it. Unfortunately, as with SO MUCH of my vintage equipment, my mother GAVE IT ALL AWAY WITHOUT ASKING ME not too many years ago. Cassette drive, modem, cartridges, speech synthesizer, EVERYTHING except the special Tandy monitor/TV that finally died in 1993 while watching an episode of "Beavis and Butthead", no less.

[@OrangeDied]

what a death

[@BollingHolt]

@@OrangeDied Right? LOL!

[@alancorns5837]

I own the TRS 80... Thank you for the flashback. I haven't seen it in years,i keep it locked up in my loft. I got a few older PCs. I must have a look threw and see what i need to throw out. Or give away. COOL VIDEO. ( no manual with mine)

[@infinitecanadian]

Nice! I always like vintage computers. I have an Atari 800XL that I hope to repair.

[@RetroDawn]

Kudos for showing the difference between all 3 keyboards!

[@winstonsmith84]

That Tandy book bring back memories.

[@uxwbill]

They sure didn't get carried away with improvements to the case design between the CoCo II and III. I had a nearly complete III years ago, and would like to find another sometime. I never liked learning cursive, and I don't write that way today.

[@AricVogel]

Same here, despite learning it in school I never use it these days. I actually can't even think of the last time I needed to *read* something written in cursive, let alone write with it myself.

[@megabojan1993]

Congratulations on the 50000 subs VWestlife.

[@chrysanth.5700]

I can't recall him ever celebrating these sorts of things. I think that's what makes him so deserving of so many. This is just a genuine hobby for him and it makes these much more fun.

[@rkworth1]

That book is great- I bought it because the coco was the one i grew up with. When you do your video on the coco 3- there is an easy easter egg to get to. Keep up the videos!

[@Sashazur]

Wow I remember some of these games on my old CoCo. Brings back a lot of memories!!

[@chrisridenhour]

Wow I remember playing the space game at 14:34 on my TRS80. Haven’t thought about that game in 36 years! What memories.

[@richardadams4928]

One modest point of contention: it's quite understandable how the size of the manual makes it seem "comprehensive", but my understanding is that it was only about HALF of what was originally planned, Tandy pulling the plug on manual development to avoid delay in the CoCo's release. There is a lot there, all the same.

[@benh.635]

Nice! That is an awesome find! :) I need this after a suspected hard disk failure this morning...

[@noelj62]

Cursive writing. I read most of the letter. Love it. Thanks Kevin for this info.

[@johnpossum556]

During breakout the reason the joystick can go up and down is that software emulates gravity and so when you bring the joystick up you are imparting a force on the ball to overcome gravity and speed it up. You can control what speed you want to play at. I remember having "Madness & the Minotaur" loading up via the tape drive. It was a text adventure. Talk about low low low tech. But for the time it was kind of exciting. I really considered the computer more of a hacker's delight. I had to build my own single transistor driver to drive a green monitor rather than the TV. I didn't play many games. It did teach me to program and in microsoft basic which was similar to other platforms. On one of the CoCo's if you held down the cntrl and delete key(?) you would get a picture of Wozniak and some other inventors. I also got the multipak and the speech cartridge. Like I said it really was more of a hacker's computer. I had the DMP-100 I think it was and that printer was so horribly loud I later used a 25 foot phone extension (with printer ends soldered on) to move it into the hallway linen closet because it was so noisy. I wrote a lot of school reports on it and teacher's were impressed even though it did not even have true descenders. I guess I've labeled myself as one of its loyal followers, hunh?

[@Geoffr524]

I had TRS-80 Color Computers 1, 2, and 3, and a Tandy 1000 computer, back when they came out with them.

[@miked4377]

i love the sound on that space invader game...bleeps blurps..i think the poor boy has gas..

[@ImTheDaveman]

This brings back the memories. The TRS-80 color computer 2 was technically my 1st computer back in the day. I had fun programming my own simple nothing games - LoL

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Really wish the Commodore 64 had this kind of BASIC.

[@FrankBruce]

Use to enjoy MegaBug! Payed for hours with that game, also a color baseball game, and the one we played till late Canyon Climber! it became our school computer when we introduced the word processor Scripsit (came in a disk) which help us print on a one direction Tandy dot matrix printer our homework and research papers. Thank you for sharing

[@sci3ntologist]

I love the CoCo's! When it comes to the classic 8bit systems they don't get nearly enough love. When I was a kid, the first computers I was given were a CoCo2&3. It's strange too, Like next to nobody has made youtube videos about them. I learned how to type before I could even print from copying basic code for games out of old gaming magazines I had and playing text adventures on it. I even had the exact same rainbow coloured manuals. I can't wait too see the video you do on the CoCo3 I remember mine had the 512k upgrade and I had the 5 1/4 floppy drive that used the cartridge port.

[@TCGProductions03]

512k of RAM!?

[@jimb032]

@@TCGProductions03 yes! And I had Kings quest by Sierra for my coco3. I made a ramdisk out of the extra memory copied the game disks to it and man that game flew!! It could kick a PC's ass.

[@Mayala285]

im in love with the Coco

[@elvisburgerking8675]

a friend of mine learned to program on a TRS-80 , not this colour one, but the original, he won it as first prize in a lottery competition at a computer show, he then went on to write games for Commodore, Sony, Nintendo and other platforms including some early classics, so now the world knows about Dave and how he got started.

[@geotechmore8855]

I like the aftermarket keyboard! Very nice! I bought a Unicomp Model M Keyboard with Large Fonts like this keyboard.. The large font letters are much easier to see.. Awesome video as always!

[@zorgatron8998]

Ah the Coco2, my first computer. Fondest memory is the incredible heat generated by its power transformer, it could melt crayons! Side note, acetone should be able to dissolve the polystyrene.

[@dumb5308]

Nice video! :) You never fail to impress!

[@VectrexRoli]

That Space Invaders clone is great! :-) Nice to see that computer in action, in my neck of the woods we had more TI-99, Sinclair and Commodore stuff back then.

[@pettttson]

At least this joystick isn't as sensitive compared to LGN Video art's joystick. That thing is pure balls!

[@kenkobra]

This thing was build like a tank. I purchased mine 37 years ago and still works perfectly.

[@blkspade23]

That's awesome. My grandmother's stopped working, but it was the computer that got me in to computers at like 4 years old.

[@RogelioPerea]

The RFI can greatly be reduced by using heavy gauge video signal grade coax cable - I have used BNC to BNC video patch cables with the proper adapters on each end for a long time on my CoCo 1s and 2s... near composite quality video :-)

[@Sashazur]

I had one of these and learned assembly on it, wrote and sold some utilities to do stuff like give it true lowercase letters on the display.

[@rustymerritt]

I love my CoCo2, thank you!

[@AZEMBadlen]

Wau. I didn't know that in America you are no longer being taught to write using a technique in 6:16. In Slovakia (Where I live). We are still being taught and lot of people are still using it today.

[@TheRailroad99]

here in Germany we still learn it aswell, but nobody beyond grade 6 really uses it anymore, only the kids who have to :)

[@OmegaEnvych]

We still learn it in Ukraine. However this text is pretty bad (almost as bad as mine)

[@AZEMBadlen]

I am also converting myself to normal style but I am like 16 and still cannot do that quickly. :)

[@jeffpeterson7022]

@@YordletonMy daughter's school does not teach it anymore. We have to teach it to her.

[@geotechmore8855]

I like the large letters on the keyboard. I have a Unicomp Model M keyboard with the large letters. This keyboard reminds me of my Unicomp. Nice video as always!

[@toad731]

this was my first computer when I was a kid, I had different games tho, the only one I remember the name of was temple of rom, same joystick tho. there were better games once I got the floppy drive for it, Dallas Quest, and P-51 were my favorites, it was neat seeing it again thank you

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

I love it when he gets momentarily possessed by one of the Chipmunks! 🤣

[@austinriddick6414]

Radio Shack was auctioning off a few of these on their website. Brand new as well. I'm not sure if the auctions are still going on though...

[@vwestlife]

The auction ended a few days ago. I didn't bid on anything because the prices were getting too high for me.

[@EpicLPer]

You uploaded this RIGHT as KZbin had a Subscriber problem lol

[@ipeters61]

It wasn't just me!

[@twocvbloke]

Hmm, was wondering what happened earlier, guess there's a new "feature" on its way, always happens, youtube majorly breaks down just before or after a new thing is added... :P

[@filipmac1545]

the 8 bit guy would love this

[@stevef6392]

"Russ, do you mind? I'm trying to work this out on the old computer."

[@246RickJames]

I pulled out my TRS-80 2 color computer, attached it to an RCA signal out /HDMI adapter and attached that to a new 1080 flat screen and it works perfectly. No radio interference at all.

[@michaelwellman1069]

When I was a kid way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth I had a 16k TRS-80 Color Computer. I had that Polaris game. I'm not sure but I think it was a keyboard and Joystick (perhaps keyboard only as well). I distinctly remember shooting from specific subs anyway.

[@mcamp39004]

In case you can't read the cursive, it says "Kevin, Thanks so much for purchasing item #121388527410 vintage TRS 80 game lot! (Great or Just) for vintage TRS 80 computers! Enjoy your purchase! Please take the time to post positive feedback with 5 stars in all categories. It is very appreciated and as important to sellers! I will post super positive feedback for you!" It's important to learn to read and write it.

[@yeshua1812]

thanks

[@wildbilltexas]

I had a good friend in the early 80's who had a loaded Coco 2 system with hard drive, modem and a very cool sound/speech synthesizer cartridge. I remember playing that Missie Command game and I think you had to use the keyboard instead to fire missiles. It was a fun computer, great support from Radio Shack, but just wasn't good as the C-64, and that pukey green screen!

[@jdebultra]

Love your videos.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

since the keys are already modded, you might as well do an RCA mod to finish it off

[@jsanz787]

Brings back memories

[@laranaarana]

I sold those models (the color used to be grey). Very popular during Christmas Season. As for the handwritten letter, I learned to write in cursive and preferred it over the bold type.

[@awesomeeverythingcomputers6180]

My school never taught cursive but I still use it and no students can read it 😂

[@tonybarrera8568]

when computing was fun......

[@coreyjackson1123]

Just seeing it wow I loved that computer

[@ReedHansen84]

Great vid, love 8 bit machines. I might pull out my coco and futz with it soon.

[@dysfunctionalwombat]

I’m 15 and could read it that cursive. And very cool, There is a radio shack near me and it is still open. I need a matching transformer for my TI99/4A

[@selwynandrews9665]

Nebula reminded me of the HUD on the Space Shuttle...probably developed around the same time!

[@gregferguson7737]

It is a clone of Star Raiders which was a show off game for the (then new) Atari 800. Quickly became popular

[@TechBaffle]

Funnily enough the characters on my keyboard are in the centre. I think some modern keyboards (although mainly on laptops) are going back to that way, although the characters aren't nearly as big.

[@bigdrew565]

When we bought our first computer, we had a choice between the CoCo 3 and the 1000 EX. We went with the 1000. I think they had a lot of inventory of color computers and model 4s that they were trying to get rid of, because I remember the guy trying to convince us that the CoCo was the way to go.

[@kae4466]

@ 5:48 that is some clear cursive . i read the entire note and whom ever wrote that note had a neat writing style. ive seen some drs hand writing that looks like it came off a seismograph. that is beautiful. sniff.

[@compactc9]

I started learning cursive in 3rd grade, mostly because the teacher decided to teach us, it wasn't party of the whole curriculum. Later on we did learn it "officially" in 5th grade, and ever since then I've used cursive for everything I write unless it says it must be printed. I use print so rarely that it looks child-like and messy.

[@Lurker1979]

I had that joystick Tandy branded for the Mac in the late 80s.

[@Gmoney6422]

Congrats on 50k

[@AlphanPeter]

my 1st pc computer I had

[@MikeDancy]

I had one.. not sure if I miss it. I played a lot of Megabug on it :)

[@allanegleston4931]

interisting. i also agree the main attraction is described by posters below ,

[@WildDieWoodard]

Funny... Never knew about HJL Products from my old home town. At that time, though, I was heavily into Atari 8-Bit computers, so I wasn't really aware of the TRS-80 market.

[@TheXJ12]

Hey, what about the CoCo 3 you told us about 1½ years ago ? 'd love to see it !

[@ogjalena]

Good ol' Signature Plastics keys [SHIF T]. The replacement keyboard has their SA profile keycaps, and what looks like some kind of a Cherry MX mount on top of that spring. The older keyboard that it would've come with looked like the flatter uniform profile DSA keycaps. They still sell these and manufacturer the keys just like this, but usually you have to get them through group buys or keyboard stores that run those (can be sketchy) or from them directly (they have a backlog of buys through 2018 now). They also sold their older awkward kenning-wise molds to a Chinese company named Maxkeys now.

[@SebisRandomTech]

That sound 30,10 seemed like 2 notes were playing. Middle C was one of the notes but I think it was drowned out by a G.

[@stonent]

My CoCo2 must have been in the transitional period. I had the Radio Shack TRS-80 label on it, but it did not have the melted keyboard. Mine was a 64K system from the start and I think it was a Korean model.

[@TheRailroad99]

that last alien :D the space invaders clone seems really fun to play because of its speed

[@nickpalance3622]

That Project Nebula game (starting at around 14:10) looks like "Star Raiders" from Atari (debut on 400/800 and then adapted to 2600 and 5200). It was a launch title for the 400 and 800 as legend has it. I had (and still have) it for my 5200 and I picked up a cart for the 400/800/XL/XE in a lot of Atari carts in an auction I won. Fun times. Oh and it's now a few minutes past midnight on July 17 (2022) in our state of NJ ... so happy 5th anniversary on the posting of this video (7/17/17)? :-)

[@mheermance]

You can modify those to add VGA output now. Also, the CoCo SDC let's you use a micro SD for storage. You can then download drive images for a lot of software.

[@ms-ex8em]

do u know about the machine code program word processor for the dragon 32 ? i typed it in but couldnt save the program because the addresses werer not there in the magazine. but there could be a bug inside of it thanks.

[@pdsrenos]

When are you doing the video on your Tandy Color Computer 3? It's been 5 years now...

[@Odessia-ij5ys]

The tandy color machine was sold in the uk seeing radio shack shops were there

[@munnsie100]

I'm 16 and can read that letter easily. We were taught the NSW version of cursive in primary (elementary) school but not many people utilised it. Cursive is pretty much disregarded in high school.

[@aspectcarl]

Great sounds from the space assault!

[@prebenjaeger]

I heard that US schools just gave up on teaching all together?