The Story of the Tandy Color Computer 2 - Tandy Lab

[@EnigmaticCanadian]

Christmas '84 I got this lovely machine. I was a big nerd of 13 years old with very little friends and this became my world for a few years. Not only to play games, but to learn to code, even if it was Basic. I got a cassette player with it and I can tell you I could zip up what I wanted to load as fast as the ol' 286 machines in later years. I even had the 64K RAM hard upgrade - and, as a bonus, the place I and others were getting software from got busted for mass pirating - the first my town had ever experienced! As much as I love how gaming has evolved and am excited to see where things go next during my lifetime, I truly miss those heady days in my room playing those games and long hours of coding games and utilities out of the Rainbow magazines that were centered around the color computer (and all news therein). I sold the whole setup, magazines and all, in the late 80s as I grew out of the scene and got into other things. I believe that to have been a mistake but you can't turn back the clock. I should track down that old computer and get a little setup going again - nostalgia and all of that.

[@davinp]

That TRS-80 Color Computer 2 was my first computer when I was a kid in the '80s. I think I got it in the late '80s

[@candidawojcik6356]

The TRS 80 c2 was the first computer I had. I got it for a birthday present as a child. I absolutely loved it . I played Panic Button Clowns and Balloons, and Space Probe Math that required a cassette Player to run the program.

[@fdmltd]

This was the first computer I ever was given. I have such fond memories of Tandy.

[@MikeDancy]

I'm watching this on my COCO2 !

[@CurtisBoyle]

A quick note: The Tandy 1000 came out just over a year after the Coco 2 (and the 64K white Coco 1 with melted keyboard... the last of the Coco 1 line). You are correct on the 12V, although there was a rather expensive workaround - the Multi-Pak Interface also supplied 12V, in addition to adding 4 slots for expansion. Your Coco 2 is one of the "middle" models in the Coco 2 family; the first ones had the melted keyboard, not the full travel one. The last ones had the Tandy branding, and the very last ones had the 6847-T1 Video Display Generator upgrade, which feature true lowercase, full border, and inverse video under software control. Composite was available from Tandy, but those are quite rare as they were usually only sold to the educational markets directly. Look forward to your Coco 3 video!

[@CurtisBoyle]

@Fernan Schouffoer - The power supply is built into the Multi-pak (so internal, not external), that is in addition to the power supply in the Coco itself.

[@fernanr8377]

I have also seen CoCo 2's with a scart video output, which output RGB video, however those machines were only released in france

[@evilengine9]

Just found this channel. Awesome content! Seeing these reviews brings me back to when I was young. I never had a Tandy computer, I started with a Vic 20, then moved up to a C64. Keep up the Awesome reviews!

[@Subtilior74]

Great video, brings back so many memories of my CoCo 2, 16k in 1987!

[@kcharles8857]

I am an Amiga tragic from way back when, but this channel has become oddly addictive. Great stuff, keep it up.

[@NewsmakersTech]

We really want to get into the Amiga line but that will probably take awhile!

[@artemusprine]

Atari 400 to Amiga 2000... But the Coco 2. I remember seeing Coco magazines the size of phone books. Its rarely talked about but I think it was pretty popular in its day.

[@artemusprine]

What's a phone book?

[@NewsmakersTech]

Thanks for watching! next up the Color Computer 3!

[@SqueekyBums]

I played for many, many hours on the colour computer 2. It was an update from my TRS-80 model 1, level II. None of my friends had one, they had Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad cpc464 etc, but some had the Dragon 32. This was good for me as some games worked on my TRS-80 Coco. I collect late 70's to late 90's machines, standalone game units / pocket and cartridge game consoles. I think I have 80% of everything released, and all works as it should. Favourite games on the Coco for me? Pole position, Donkey King and buzzard bait. 😍

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i remember years ago back when i was 13 my dad brought home a trs-80 coco 2. this was the first computer we ever owned. most of the family never used it except for me. i had a great time on it. my dad had a friend never knew he's real name, but everyone called him moose. my dad used to go over to moose house & picked free games from him for the computer. fun times.

[@NewsmakersTech]

The Color Computer 2 was a great system! Who started with it?

[@brianedwards30]

First learned programming on the CoCo 2 at the age of 7 or so. I can still hear what the saves sounded like on cassette tape. Just found the emulator website and I'm excited about it.

[@RoyCyberPunk]

Me.

[@CyBeRTRoNFLuX]

my first computer was a 64k coco 1 pal version

[@CarsandCats]

When Tandy released the CoCo 3, we had all moved onto ST's and Amiga's (I had both). We were always moving forwards back then and nobody wanted an 8-bit computer. Sadly, I sold my silver CoCo at that time.

[@Da40kOrks]

I got my CoCo2 after my Timex-Sinclair 1000 died. My best friend's dad was an electrical engineer at the time and they also used CoCos. I was able to upgrade to 64k, and they flashed an EEPROM with extended basic for me. But most importantly they added a monochrome composite video out! It allowed me to hook it up to a great quality amber monitor and running OS/9 in 80 column mode looked fantastic. After getting my hands on a serial daisy wheel printer I used my CoCo2 to write papers through my sophomore year in college (1991) before finally switching to a PC full-time. I still have it, buried in the bottom back of my storage unit.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

This was my very first computer.

[@Shonuff42080]

I picked one up on offer up with a tape deck and a few games ,had a coco3 when i was kid .

[@Peremptor]

Had a Coco2 myself with biospace and robot odyssey... also Cave Jumper... Archon too... had 3D wireframe graphics.

[@lh1678]

Is it just me..or does he look like he dances around in his living room in Spidey Underoos.

[@MayheM_72]

My 1st computer (Christmas '84 or '85) was a TRS-80 CoCo 2. I even had the floppy disk drive, joystick, and the DMP-120 printer. Of course, my friends all had Apple or Commodore computers, and I was kind of a joke. Biggest pain in the butt was that it didn't have a QWERTY keyboard. I couldn't use it in high school to practice typing at home.

[@roxasofmalice3335]

Ah some color. Finally we are close to Persona 4 Golden on one of these.

[@95blahblahhaha]

I found one of these in my attic with a joystick and the poor thing had never been opened 😢😢 but Idk anything about computers so I still just threw it away. Good thing you said they're very common or I would've felt bad 😂😂

[@charlywatts]

i still have my coco 2 !! maybe i have to plug it in, so i see if it runs

[@robertsonsid]

2 digits for the year? Not expecting to be around beyond 1999.

[@jamesb2877]

Ok my computer for years till I could no longer fix it I did programming for the IBM and Mac on that CC2 and Yess you can right apps for both MAC and IBM on it.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Just scored a CoCo 1 off eBay in mint cond.

[@danieldougan269]

My dad got me one of these back around 1987. I was seven years old, and it was cheap. Unfortunately, I hated this thing from the very beginning because we had Apple IIGS machines at school, and many of my friends had NES machines that could both blow the doors off this for gaming at least. It might have helped if he had gotten the floppy drive for this, but he didn't, and so the only game I had was Color Baseball...a stick-figure video game. The Commodore 64 came out in 1982, and it absolutely smoked the CoCo 2 in every way.

[@Shonuff42080]

Similar story wanted a Nintendo in so bad everyone had one I literally had no interest in computers at the time Christmas rolled around grandparents got me a coco 3

[@infinitecanadian]

I want to hear more stories from Two Guys Talk Tech.

[@NewsmakersTech]

We just recorded several the other day!

[@infinitecanadian]

@@NewsmakersTech I like the part where he says that he was told not to use the toilet in a rainstorm.

[@graygunter698]

I got one for xmas in 1987 my gma got it from radioshack everyone thought it was some futuristic peice of hardware and all i was able to use it for was typing and playing a game that u shot at a baloon. Real pos it sat in corner i chose to play in dirt and kick a ball outside vs play that item.

[@FromTheRoomOfLittleEase]

5:06 How far in the future I need to be, chief?

[@Csauls3378]

Who wants to play some la cucaracha or panic button and chill?

[@stopcreepingyouweirdo]

Pedantic- “CORP.” Stands for Corporation, not Corporated. A corporation can be Incorporated, but that’s “Inc.”

[@RogelioPerea]

Oh look, another minimal effort CoCo related video from these guys 🤣

[@ChronicKPOP]

minimal? lol, you must be new to the youtubes

[@dew12u]

Not as good as the videos that possibly you post on your channel?

[@mikeme9938]

No information here. We can all see the case and keyboard just by looking at it. No information on hardware used. Basic or extended basic or even disk basic. All of which made the Coco popular.

[@jobadirk6371]

The look of this system is definitely a slight downgrade from the coco1

[@CarsandCats]

Yes, the silver was gorgeous with a heavy metallic that you could see as the camera rotated. I would love to have a car painted in a matte finish like that!