LGR - Tandy 1000 RL/HD Retro Computer Review

Review from the perspective of a somewhat casual collector: is the 1000 series worth collecting today? A run-down of the history, pros and cons of the systems and games, what to look for and be aware of when buying. The PCjr may have failed, but Tandy? Tandy ruled.
There are functions I wanted to talk about but ran out of time, like the ability to run in Hercules mode, further Deskmate and TL-related features and the upgrade options, but alas. Lots more information and troubleshooting at:
www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/
LHX Attack Chopper
Lemmings
Out Run
Thexder Firehawk
Zeliard
Arkanoid
Also check out the Maxis games of the time, the Tandy versions are spectacular - SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt etc
Thanks to Yushatak for the Tandy!
/ yushatak

[@MatthewHill]

Here I am on KZbin, watching a "vintage computer system review," that is itself now vintage. Isn't the Internet grand?

[@sameash3153]

Blows marijuana smoke onto the screen

[@mrs7195]

Even more vintage for me. 11 years ago, sheesh!

[@customphpdesign]

I purchased this machine when I was 16 or 17. It was new then. I just purchased it again in 2021 about 30 years later. Now, I am on KZbin owning a vintage PC, watching a review on a vintage machine, the review is now vintage and your comment is also now vintage. :) :) :)

[@HavocSun]

I know this video was done over seven years ago, but I just wanted to say. You have summed up the production & the special options of the Tandy line of 1000's extremely well. Being a part of Radio Shack for some time (Store Manager). I was there when the 1000's made history by out selling all other computers. It was why Radio Shack was a Fortune 500 company for many years. It was a very happy time for me, so much so I have dedicated a large portion of my upstairs to a Tandy Computer Museum.

[@LGR]

That is awesome, and thank you :)

[@darrinsiberia]

@@LGR I remember how exciting it used to be to go to Radio Shack and see the latest video game releases.

[@trs-80fanclub12]

I can remember searching Tandy stores hours on end for all that stuff I couldn't afford, and then leaving with a red radio shack flashlight that I could.

[@DarthVader1977]

3 more years later.....it's 2020. :)

[@zeruty]

​@@DarthVader19773 more

[@gsxerwhite]

I remember my Dad having to drag me out of Radio Shack at the mall in the 80's because I didn't wanna stop playing with the Tandys

[@ericwood3709]

I recall a seeing and being impressed by a demo PC, maybe a Tandy, that had some kind of game demo running. It was something for DOS that had a very pixelated yet smoothly animated character. I seem to recall he was lying by a campfire. I was only familiar with the graphics on the Apple II and the Mac at the time, both of which are very different to those DOS VGA graphics.

[@vwestlife]

The 1000RL-HD is my favorite vintage PC. It's amazing how far Tandy was able to miniaturize its components -- it doesn't even need a fan, because it's basically built like a laptop inside. It's also worth noting that the RL/SL/TL series has improved IBM compatibility, whereas some games refuse to work properly on the older 1000s due to the different keyboard layout.

[@xiaochicash]

8:17 Annihilating a camel with a chopper.

[@LGR]

xiaochicash One of the best features of LHX.

[@9isuzu5]

This is an excellent video. I learned a lot and could not stop being impressed by the quality of it. After seeing so many shabby / poorly put together vids, I can truly say this is one of the best. The cutscenes & audio showcasing this classic computer are movie quality. No doubt someone's labor of love. What a nice gift to find on this Valentine's day morning 2012!

[@williamhilow6974]

dude thanks for the awesome review dude. It's great seeing young folks digging in. No plug and play and you had to know your stuff. Even the TL/2 was mind wracking. entire weekends spend getting Chuck Yeager Air Combat to run. expensive too. a new TL2 with CM5 monitor was over $2200!!! great reviews guy!

[@hotchalupa]

Your review inspired me. I watched this review when it first came out weeks ago and since I've shifted my vintage collection to include Tandy 1000 series machines. I absolutely love them! A TL/2 paired up with a CM-11 monitor is a thing of beauty... And, thanks to your Zeliard review I have discovered a "new" game I never played back in the day... Thank you for being awesome!

[@my4trackmachine]

i love your computer reviews. they aren't gimmicky and are chalked full of awesome information and history. keep up the good work!

[@cyruscuckler3495]

My first computer was a 1000TL that my grandfather gave me! I still have it to this day.

[@eddiehimself]

Back in the day when "HD" didn't just stand for "High Definition" lol.

[@unfa00]

I was born in 1991 and all I had until 2000s was a Commodore C64. And this thing had real music editing tools and could record and edit audio! Mind-boggling!

[@KentuckyRanger]

I remember when the Tandy 1000 series came out. While not outrageously expensive, it wasn't cheap. What really pushed the budget into the stratosphere where the peripherals and software. They worked well but were financially out of reach for most. I was 20 when all this stuff started happening and had no way of affording such tech. In a way, it was a godsend for me that I couldn't afford a good PC until 1998. I did get a Vic 20 and Commodore 64 while going to school, but I still couldn't afford all the peripherals that came with them. The only peripheral I could afford was a tape data drive... LOL! In the 80s and most of the 90s, tech moved along so fast, you had to be rich just to keep up. I'm so glad that in 2017, I can purchase a PC and not worry it'll be obsolete in the next 6 months...

[@sameash3153]

Dick slap the state

[@psimon12345]

Cool vid. I met you and your channel about 4 months ago and just going through your back log. My in-laws told me they had a Tandy machine, I want to get one for them, (or for me), but I'm still trying to narrow down with them which model they exactly had. I think this video will help, so thanks!!!

[@-taz-]

Thanks for the great rundown of Tandy machines. I was always way into building my own PCs back then but never paid attention to Tandy or PCjr. It's interesting to finally find out about them. I also enjoyed your GameBlaster review because, other than the 3 voice Tandy/PCjr sound, it's practically the only card I never owned! Good choices of games, too.

[@kuripangui]

Nice review! Your voice has improved a lot!! as well your style for describing the machines.

[@Starbuckin]

Great upload! This is very nostalgic. I'm 38 now and still have the original Tandy 1000 that our mom bought for us around 1986. I enjoyed playing Lode Runner, using Desk Mate, and playing Outrun and Flight Simulator on it. I also used Basic to program all kinds of stuff. My how computers have changed!

[@TheLogicman1]

My friend used to down a Tandy computer and we used to spend days playing with it lol. It's good to see a well respected review on a great computer (at the time) Keep up the great work!

[@ClarksonFisherIII]

Thanks for the feels, man. My famly had a TL and after a few years I did eventually learn how to do some fun(-ish) stuff.

[@DonaldAnderson]

I had Tandy 1000 Serial #936! I ran a BBS in Santa Rosa, CA on it for years back in the day! I have another one waiting in the garage for my son to move out so I can have an office!

[@MaximumRD]

Great info! Never had a Tandy but have been getting more interested in them so this video was very informative/helpful!

[@Dean0mac]

i have just come across your channel and omg so freaking awesome. I love old school tech stuff.

[@AmosMustDie]

This was my first PC. Great review as always

[@TheOldFartGamer]

thanks for making videos like this. Long times when I was a kid there use to be these in radio shack but my family was too poor to purchase one. nice to know how it would haved worked

[@FLlTTER]

My grandpa has one of the original models, I can't wait to get a chance to check it out

[@SaMPLeMaSTeR]

Man I learn so much from you. Thanks, very good review.

[@hakemon]

Question about the parallel port being output only. Even the original PC parallel port which was unidirectional, did allow external drives like HD's, CD-ROM, or Zip disks via a 4-bit nibble mode of the status registers. Though not very fast, it's still faster than the floppy drives. Could that not be done on the Tandy?

[@TheNostalgiaMall]

I now need to start doing some more stuff with my Tandy 1000 SX, which now has a permanent home. I just wish I could find a way to hook a CF card up to it to make transferring games to it much simpler. Disks are great, but I only have but so many and so many games just won't fit on a disk. But it's such a cool machine and I look forward to seeing what it's capable of.

[@LGR]

Only way I know to do that easily is with an XT-IDE adapter, and best of luck finding one for a good price! I've been looking for years and they're getting tougher to track down.

[@piplol2468]

I have a TRS-80 model 100 i use every now and then to take notes on in school. And I am thinking of getting a RL since they seem to play a lot of the dos games I like. Great review, not a lot of people do old PC reviews.

[@Dreamshadow1977]

Between my CoCo 2 and my Tandy 1000 (ST and TL models), this summed up my computing experience as a young teen. Loved my Tandy 1000 and my Sierra adventure games (alongside Thexder and Silpheed)

[@lucentv]

Great video. The 1000 RL was my first computer. I wish I knew all that about it back then. For instance most of the time I was only using CGA. Also, some models originally shipped with 512k ram and had to be upgraded to 768k, like mine. Of course it didn't help that I found that most games needed at least 720k to do Tandy graphics mode when I did figure it out.

[@phlydude]

10.5 years after this video was published, watching thinking about how my grandparents felt that it was better to stoke the imagination than to shun technology that they didn't understand...we had TRS-80s in my grade school (what's an Apple II?) and the next step up was the 1000 series. We went to a Radio Shack in a new strip mall that was built and my grandparents let me check out all the computers and I decided on the 1000RL (no HDD). It's interface and file explorer were very unique for someone that was used to Basic and early DOS file exploring. The disks that came with it were 6 or so operating system and program files...without these disks you were screwed. I had a hard time finding compatible software (mainly because everyone had Commodores) on 3.5" disks and often relied on searching through computer show tables and bins looking for "Tandy Compatible" games. Outrun was a game I copied from someone in school and my other favorite game was some type of doctor/surgeon game where the copyright protection was tied to a pager with spinning disks that gave phone numbers to call from a desk in the hospital once you got a page (call doctor XYZ at location C) - if you got it wrong, it would close the game. Not that the game was easy by any means... I even bought a 2400 baud modem for it and got it to connect to Prodigy once in a while... Overall, I used that thing mainly as a word processor and tooled around with the sound programs from end of elementary school and throughout high school until I saved enough money in 1996 to get myself a Pentium 66 PC.

[@OldSchoolNYCGamer]

Great review Clint, I do remember seeing these machines but NEVER actually playing them... ahhh!

[@radishpineapple74]

I don't understand why your videos aren't more popular. They're of very high quality (although the video quality itself seems like it came from a VHS camcorder, but that's OK), obviously take quite some time to make, despite being done by a lazy reviewer, and are always fun to watch. BTW that armchair looks really comfortable.

[@erikhicks07]

Excellent review! So much nostalgia... My first real PC was the Tandy 1000 EX with its whopping 256K RAM and 360K floppy drive. I desperately wanted to go 640K RAM but the expansion was just too much to afford at the time - played so many great games on it (King's Quest series, Amiga ports, etc.). The 3-voice sound chip produced amazing sound - way better than the standard bleep-type you still hear today. I miss that old PC. I am subscribed - great job :)

[@DJPhaser1]

I love these reviews of old systems.

[@IvyANguyen]

This was one of my favourite of your reviews. Might I be able to find a list of good games that are Tandy-exclusive?

[@lucius1976]

Love that old LGR stuff. That intro is legendary

[@willwarden2603]

Thanks brought back memories of using the Tandy computer at Radio shack at my local mall. I would go by and stay there the whole time while my parents were shopping. When they come get me then say what are you doing this whole time and I would say I need this computer I never got one I got the Coleco Adam instead.

[@VaITGuy757]

This is so awesome, my first computer was a 1000TL. I have many fond memories of playing Wing Commander and Ultima VI on it

[@ocallaghandesign]

And all Tandy products come strongly endorsed by the Tandy Computer Wiz Kids!

[@ConradFlynn]

I had a Tandy 1000 plenty of great old games and also early DeskMate. It was my first computer, my grandfather bought in for himself in 1985 and gave it to me when I was 9 or 10. Somewhere along the way I also got a Tandy 1000 EX with GEM. A friend of mine had a later 286 Tandy HD with the slicker mouse driven DeskMate.

[@RocketVet]

I absolutely loved this computer as a kid. It was my first home computer. I loved it enough to keep it set up all the way into the late 90s in the study even with my Windows 98 machine in my room. I loved playing Microsoft Flight Sim (we had a joystick), Ford Simulator (pretty much a playable ford ad that was an arcade racing game), 3D Battle Chess, some math and learning games (can't remember the names but they were really fun), some sort of Hot Rod drag racing game where you could customize the car engines and stuff, and a bunch of other stuff. Played in the Draw program a lot too, and I remember there being another coloring program on disk, and you can't forget "Tandyman" lol. We had the joystick, mouse, dot matrix printer, and I think a modem with it (but I never used that). DeskMate OS, and at least one of ours (the one I used) had the built in hard drive (20 MB I think). We still have two Tandy 1000 systems stored away at my parent's place.

[@scott93257]

I love the ability to record and edit sound. Totally awesome.

[@5553371]

I once had a tandy with ROM-DOS Version something-or-other and it was awesome. And i owned the 386 variant as well. Nice Review Clint, Keep up the good work.

[@dvamateur]

Man, you're a total monster computer reviewer of the entire KZbin.

[@JesterPezz]

brings back memories, when i was a kid, my dad got a 1000TL and i used to record stuff. and i miss the DeskMate OS. so awesome!

[@thepthepthep]

Thanks to your videos, I'm now starting to consider getting a DOS PC, mainly a Tandy machine. However, I don't have the space for a dedicated monitor and I'd like to know if any of the later Tandys hook up to a TV. Thanks!

[@aeonjoey3d]

oh man, Tandy's PCB edge printer ports, I was a radio shack general manager in the late 2000s and we sold those centronics to tandy printer cables all the way up to 2007, and there was in fact demand for them; a lot of schools and CNC machines used Tandys

[@Starbuckin]

ohh, I also almost fell off my couch when I saw the chair you had the computers setting on. We had the WHOLE living room suite of those including the chair at our house in Burgin Kentucky in the 80's WOW!

[@BigTechie24]

I had one of these as a kid. Would love another one

[@BryonLape]

The earlier 1000's had an edge connector for the parallel port, just like the TRS-80. Deskmate was a character mode interface, using the extended IBM character set of graphics like characters. I had access to the SDK back in the day, but I never made anything for it.

[@16mmDJ]

I love these reviews.

[@joshuakozee5719]

those game sounds are so pleasing through my headphones

[@johnnyxsi]

This was my first computer, thanks for posting this

[@Highretrogamelord]

Wow, what an amazing hardware! LHX Attack Chopper looks so advanced for its time. :D

[@shingo7772]

Nice review man

[@q306005]

Love the Spore music in the background!

[@jkbenedict]

Face melted. Born and bred on B-Series mainframes, the TRS-80 was the first home computer I remember. Holy crap... time to shop.

[@bobbyberetta4206]

My first was the Ti-99/4a. I still have it and all the educational games.

[@jkbenedict]

Niiiice!

[@Hardts]

Thanks for this awesome walktrough of old computers. Hard to fathom that my telephone has more than 10 to the 6. x the memory of your old Tandy machine.. Getting hit by a bit of nostalgia here - I remember playing really old car games back when I was so young only few people had computers. In particular I remember the choppy 'tone-by-tone' engine sounds :) Ah, and Lemmings.. The music was just awesome. Haha @the midi - that was Bach's invention No. 8 - I used to play that ;)

[@DaiAtlus79]

@phreakindee ah that may have been the case as well. so the one you were showing at 8:50 was running on Tandy 16 color graphics? i wish i still had my RL. i loved that thing. i used to make music with it (sheet music) and used to screw around with the voice recording as well. there is a guy on youtube that did a video of him recording random music from the radio on his Tandy. was rather good :) you should look it up!!!

[@neonte13]

Man, I really appreciate these videos as a breif-ish introduction to classic computer and gaming systems. I grew up in the 90s' but wasn't allowed to play video games very much. The games that we did have were considered cheap out-dated junk at the time, but as retro gaming seems to gain more wide-spread appeal, I'm reminded of some of my great old memories. Time to look for a video on classic 5 1/2 inch loppy based Atari computers.

[@SeekerLancer]

I never owned a Tandy but I have fond memories of going into Radio Shack and mucking around with the display machines.

[@KidpandaAG]

Clint, I just wanted to thank you for making this review, after watching it I scooped myself a Tandy 1000 HX, now I just need a memory expansion "PLUS" card so I can play some games :D

[@terkolez1879]

Is that Spore music I hear in the background?

[@Ruinah]

Shades of my childhood. Our first family computer was a Tandy 1000EX. My introduction to DOS, Sierra's classics like King's Quest & Space Quest III. 3-channel sound & 16-color 'Tandy' Graphics ftw! :D

[@MrRetroReviewer]

amazing vid! i liked it alot im thinking about buying a compact late 70s early 802 computer any suggests? preferbly on the cheaper side

[@aeonjoey3d]

i do remember you could also either knockout a plastic peg or bend pins down to either get a tandy kb/mouse to work with PS/2 or vice versa, don't remember which anymore but i recall we had to do that A LOT for customers who would balk at adapters. (i was a radio manager in the late 2000s and separately an RS employee in the early 90s)

[@jzolghadr]

Do any of your late model 1000's have the default DeskMate sound file? It said "Welcome To DeskMate. For help at any time, please press the key labeled F1". I'd really like to hear that sample again!

[@hunardongsson7087]

Minor correction, the 1000 RL-HD didn't come with 768K. It shipped with 512K. If yours has 768K, it's because the owner got more chip RAM from Radio Shack. Very easy upgrade, you just unscrew the cover and install it. I don't recall whether the RLs had ISA slots. The HXes definitely didn't. If you wanted an internal modem, you had to buy it from Tandy because ISA cards couldn't be installed to the proprietary Tandy slots. The RL-HD has a daughter card with the sound hardware on it, and does native wavetable synthesis with system RAM. Upgrading that to 768K gets you a longer maximum time for recording audio. I don't remember how many channels the wavetable synth could handle, but it might have been four. I think it was mono. DeskMate's bundled music software came with a pretty good set of samples and songs, which were composed with a standard sheet music-style interface. The wavetable synth gave the system the ability to play .mod-like music, although I don't know if anyone ever wrote an actual .mod player for it. The system was advanced enough to run MS-DOS 6.22, and you could use DoubleSpace (later renamed DriveSpace) to wring more out of the 20MB drive.

[@StrobeFlashLite]

Hey, Clint; Is it possible to use any sound cards on the Tandy 1000 while using the Tandy graphic modes?

[@dave4shmups]

Great review! So, how do you get it to play Coco games, or can it?

[@KandyMan971]

Is that Spore music I'm hearing in the background? It fits reviews and facts quite well, gotta say.

[@TheCgOrion]

I remember my 1000 RLX like it was yesterday. Ahhh yes, no hard drive (though there was a 20MB and 40MB available), and with the Ram upgrade, I could run wolfenstein in a medium sized window, at a respectable frame rate. Games like Commander Keen ran great! I loved the sound manipulation and Midi support. I used both heavily. I then moved on to the Tandy Sensation II 486SX/33, which later got pimped out with a DX4/100, Soundblaster, and a WD 1GB drive. That machine still works to this day! Even the monitor stand speakers with subwoofer.

[@Holammer]

My first PC computer was a 486/66. Pretty much everyone had C64/Amiga around here at the time so it's fun to see the stuff I missed out on. ... and I'm not losing sleep over it.

[@Kilroy_5150]

Hey, what about a review on the Tandy Coco? It went through 3 generations of changes.

[@alexsmith6607]

What kinda ports dose the Tandy use can you use any old style joystick mouse and keyboard with it?

[@Ruinah]

Incidentally, most of the games demoed on the RL I had on the EX and they ran just as well as shown on the RL. Digger in particular was one of my favorite games, along w/ Zeliard & Thexder (Both of which, I had gotten from a boxset of games that Sierra released back then that also included Oil's Well).

[@andrewbonica]

Awesome review and history lesson! My first computer was a Tandy 1000 (RL, I believe) I would still have it if my family didn't give it away without me knowing many year later! I loved the game on there. My neighbor loaded a ton of great stuff on there for us. Those were the days! ;-) Hoping the emulators out there can be of help. Any great recommendations or lists for titles?

[@andrewbonica]

That chair is also bitchin'! Had very similar furniture in my basement growing up! LOL Do you also have orange shag carpet? ;-) That music program is what originally opened my eyes into the world of computer audio and MIDI. I'm now an audio engineer and music producer. Time flies!

[@sci3ntologist]

I'd love to see you do a TRS-80 review. My first computer ever was The Tandy CoCo3 upgraded to 512k.I learned to read playing text based adventures on it and I learned basic on that thing before I could even really print. Then I got a Tandy1000hd given to me with the Tandy colour and mono monitors. That thing was the bomb.

[@SwedishEmpire1700]

btw, will there be anymore Commodore reviews? ya know, PET, Amiga, CD32?

[@atrainhxdotcom]

LOL at these comments! Personally I'm finding Phreak's KZbin presentations great value for money. I like the laconic style - doesn't take himself too seriously or anything - he's funny and the reviews are honest and well thought through. Keep it up, mate. I'm personally gonna pimp you and your channel all over the place.

[@Audiomancer]

Holy cow, how did I miss this one?! I used to play cribbage with my grandfather on one of those Tandy 1000's. Good memories.

[@outdatedTV]

Sound graphical sample editing in 1981. Impressive. A noble cause general.

[@toddhoward5964]

One question, if I get a Tandy, can I type on it with boxing gloves on my hands?

[@toddhoward5964]

***** mhm

[@jedits1988]

BEHOLD the 386! A spectacle of graphics and sound!

[@RK-zf1jm]

yes just not well

[@MrGencyExit64]

8088

[@JawshMcCullaugh]

No, you have to have a Compy.

[@Magus12000BC]

I had a Tandy 1000 EX growing up. My parents bought one used for cheap in the early 90's used though my dad got more use out of it than I did. I was 9 at the time and I had a really tough time figuring out DOS.

[@JoeZiehmer]

Just got my first Tandy out of a recycling shop and fixed it up a little bit. Runs very fast and it is pretty much my DOS gaming box. Person left the floppy disk disconnected, reconnected it, tested it, and it runs just fine.

[@nesnahprotsdam]

Promoting it as an MS-DOS compatible machine was a brilliant move! Because MS-DOS is awesome!

[@isamukusanagi]

now i wish my original 1000 still worked. played the hell out of that thing when i was a kid. lots of fond memories of thexder

[@Frog_Puppet]

I just found a vanilla 1000 in storage at my work place and I'm hoping I can get a hold of it.

[@8bitrocketstudios]

I love that version of Outrun!

[@knaagi]

Thanks for your good videos!

[@bcyrx]

ohhh tandy 1000 and deskmate. we had the RLX machine long after its prime and I learned a lot of ways to make a computer not work correctly with that machine... gotta learn somewhere haha. your sacrifice did not go to waste tandy.

[@SaccoBelmonte]

I still remember Tandy's ...at the time I could not possibly afford any of these but they were regarded as very good systems alongside the Amiga for music sequencing.

[@ikonix360]

I had a 1000RLX and out of the several different computers I had it was the only one that came with built in software allowing one to make music with realistic sounding instruments. Tandy I believe were way ahead of the competition in a lot of respects. Had Tandy just kept up doing things that nobody else was really doing I suppose they would still be making computers. They even had their own OS while for the most part being fully IBM compatible. Also I think it or maybe a later Tandy would play the PC speaker audio through the sound card as well. Don't know of any other computer from then through now that can do that without some program running to send the pc speaker audio to the sound card.

[@cr1901]

2:48 - 8086 AT-class processors? I thought AT-class machines had 286 processors by virtue of the original AT architecture... does "AT-class" refer to 16-bit ISA slots in that case (since the 8086 has a 16-bit external data bus and could handle it)?

[@KeithsComputers]

are you planning on making a trs-80 review?

[@jadetraveler]

The 5.25" floppy disk drive on the side at 1:28 looks funny but cool

[@NightSprinter]

I can say I was lucky to get a working RL for $75 off a local eBay seller, and the pistol grip joystick for another $20 (which works great on the CoCo 3 as well). Definitely worth it. Plus, with an MCE2VGA or RGB2HDMI, you can even do then correct CGA composite colors for the older games.

[@ridiculous_gaming]

I was an Amiga guy back then, but must admit that these machines were very sweet. In fact, I worked at Radio Shack in late 80s and Tandy games were enhanced before VGA took off.