While unpacking some old boxes the other day, I ran across a computer I hadn’t seen in some time. It’s a tiny machine with an integrated chiclet keyboard in a cream-colored case about the size of two ...

Don French, a buyer for the consumer electronics chain Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), believed that Radio Shack should offer an assembled personal computer and hired engineer Steve Leininger to design it.

For over half a century, if you wanted to buy electronics parts and gadgets in the United States, one retail chain loomed large above all others: RadioShack. Its combination of distinctive, often ...

Quick – name the most important personal computer of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those of you who mentioned the legendary Apple II – that’s fine. I respect your decision. Forced to think ...

Quick — name the most important personal computer of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those of you who mentioned the legendary Apple II–that’s fine. I respect your decision. Forced to think objectively ...

Even back then, there were computers for people who couldn’t afford the more expensive stuff. Take this Tandy, which costs little more than a upgraded Netbook today. From Core Memory, photographed by ...

August 3, 1977: The Tandy TRS-80 personal computer makes its debut. The first affordable, mass-market computer gives the Apple 1 some serious competition. The success of Tandy’s TRS-80 built on the ...

As a relic of the early 80s, the TRS-80 Color Computer couldn’t display very many colors. By default, the CoCo could only display 8 colors on the screen at a time, but [John] figured out a way to ...

The Motorola 6809, released in 1978, was the follow-up to their 6800 from four years earlier. It’s a powerful little chip with many 16-bit features, although it’s an 8-bit micro at heart. Despite its ...