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              COMMODORE
  Commodore is the computer company that's called ``the house
that Jack built'', because it was started by Jack Tramiel.

         How Commodore began
  Jack began his career by being in the wrong place at the wrong
time: he was a Jew in Poland during World War 2. He was thrown
into the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he learned to view
life as a war to survive. When he finally escaped from the camp,
he moved to Canada and started an aggressive, ruthless business
whose motto for survival was, ``Business is war!''
  He called his company Commodore. At first, it just repaired
typewriters; but it grew rapidly. Then Commodore built its own
pocket calculators and sold them.

          War of the chips
  In Commodore's calculators, the CPU was a microprocessor chip
manufactured by a company called MOS Technology. But MOS
Technology was in trouble because of how that company had begun.
. . .
  In 1974, the most popular microprocessors had been the Intel
8080 and the Motorola 6800. Chuck Peddle, who helped invent the
6800, quit Motorola in 1975 and founded MOS Technology with his
friends. MOS Technology manufactured the 6501 microprocessor,
which was so similar to Motorola's 6800 that Motorola threatened
to sue. To placate Motorola, MOS Technology stopped manufacturing
the 6501 and switched to the 6502, invented by Chuck Peddle and
different enough from Motorola's 6800 to avoid a lawsuit. The
6502 chip became very popular; many companies paid MOS Technology
to manufacture it. One of MOS Technology's biggest customers was
Commodore.
  Although the 6502 was legal, Motorola sued MOS Technology for
its illegal predecessor, the 6501. The suit dragged through the
courts for two years and cost MOS Technology many thousands of
dollars in lawyers' fees. Finally, in 1977, Motorola won
$200,000.
  That put MOS Technology into financial trouble, so it announced
a desire to be bought by some company having lots of cash.
Commodore, rich by then, bought it.
  Just before that sale, Canada's tax laws changed. To duck
taxes, Commodore moved its headquarters (in theory) to the
Bahamas. That's how MOS Technology became part of ``Commodore
Limited'', a Bahamanian company, and how Commodore found itself
running a company that made chips. Commodore had entered the
computer business.

      Dealing with competitors
  At MOS Technology, Chuck Peddle had sold a 6502 chip to Steve
Wozniak for $25. Steve used the chip to create the Apple
computer. When Commodore saw Apple computers becoming popular in
California, Commodore offered to buy the Apple Computer Company
___ and almost succeeded. Apple wanted $15,000 more than
Commodore offered, so the deal never came off. Commodore's
regretted it ever since.
                                         Then Commodore hired
Chuck Peddle to design a ``Commodore computer''. Commodore hoped
to sell the Commodore computer to Radio Shack and let Radio Shack
distribute it through Radio Shack's stores. Radio Shack said,
``Great idea! Finish designing your computer, and tell us more
about it.'' Commodore finished designing it and showed it to
Radio Shack. Radio Shack said, ``Your argument for selling
low-cost computers was so convincing, we decided to build our
own. Thanks for the idea.'' That's how Radio Shack got the idea
of manufacturing computers!

                                                        Pet
                                         Rebuffed by Apple and
Radio Shack, Jack Tramiel decided to fight back by building a
computer better and cheaper than anything Apple and Radio Shack
had. Commodore called its new computer the Pet, because
Commodore's marketing director was the same guy who invented the
Pet Rock. He figured that if people were stupid enough to buy a
Pet Rock, they'd really love a Pet computer! He was right: people
loved the idea of a Pet Computer. Sales skyrocketed.
                                         Commodore told the press
that ``Pet'' was an abbreviation for ``Personal Electronic
Transactor''. Actually, Commodore invented ``Pet'' first and
later made up what it stood for.
                                         Commodore announced the
Pet in 1977 and said it would cost just $495. That price would
include everything: the CPU, RAM, ROM, keyboard, monitor, and
tape recorder. The ROM would have a good version of BASIC. The
screen would display capital letters, lower-case letters,
punctuation, math symbols, and many weirder symbols also (such as
hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, curves, circles, and
rectangles).
                                         Other microcomputer
manufacturers were scared because Commodore's price was far lower
than everybody else's, Commodore's computer offered more
features, and Commodore was wealthy enough to spend more on ads
and marketing than all other manufacturers combined.
                                         Many computer magazines
called the Pet ``the birth of a new generation'' in personal
computers. The Pet's designer, Chuck Peddle, was treated to many
interviews.
                                         Disappointments
Commodore raised its price from $495 to $595 before taking
orders. To order the Pet, the customer had to send the $595 in
full, plus shipping charges, then wait for Commodore to deliver.
                                         Many folks mailed
Commodore the money and waited a long time, but Commodore didn't
ship. People got impatient.
                                         Computer stores that had
advertised the Pet got annoyed. Though the stores had received
many orders from customers, Commodore wasn't yet shipping.
Customers complained to the stores, and the stores couldn't solve
the problem.
                                         Meanwhile, Radio Shack
entered the market with its TRS-80 model 1 priced at $599 ___
about the same price as Commodore's Pet. Radio Shack was kinder
than Commodore: Radio Shack asked customers for just a 10%
deposit (Commodore required payment in full); Radio Shack didn't
charge for shipping (Commodore did); Radio Shack set up repair
centers throughout the USA (Commodore's only repair center was in
California); and Radio Shack delivered computers quickly
(Commodore still wasn't delivering!).
                                         Finally, Commodore
admitted that the $595 Pet would not be delivered anytime soon!
Commodore would deliver instead
a $795 version that included 4K of extra RAM. So if you already
sent $595 to Commodore and wanted a computer soon, you'd have to
send an extra $200.
  That was a rip-off, since 4K of extra RAM was not worth an
extra $200. But customers were so desperate that they sent the
$200 anyway.
  Radio Shack shipped its computers on a first-come, first-served
basis. Commodore didn't: Commodore gave preferential treatment to
its ``friends''. If you ordered a Radio Shack computer, Radio
Shack gave you an accurate estimate of when you'd receive the
computer. If you ordered a computer from Commodore, you hadn't
the faintest idea of when it would arrive, because you didn't
know how many ``friends'' were on Commodore's list.
  Radio Shack's computer came with a 232-page manual that was
cheery and easy. Commodore's computer came with just 10 loose
pages that were incomplete and hard to understand.
  After announcing a low-cost printer, Commodore changed its mind
and decided to sell just an expensive printer. After announcing a
low-cost disk drive, Commodore changed its mind and decided to
sell just an expensive unit containing two disk drives. Those
wrong announcements lowered public confidence in Commodore even
further.
  That's how Commodore entered the personal computer market. And
that's why the Pet (which at first was the best-selling computer)
managed to drop in popularity, below Radio Shack, and even below
Apple. Commodore dropped from being the #1 microcomputer company
to being #3, after Radio Shack (#1) and Apple (#2).
  Commodore came out with a souped-up Pet, called the Commodore
Business Machine (CBM). But that wasn't enough to let Commodore
rise above the number 3 spot.
  As Commodore's fortunes dipped, Chuck Peddle and his friends
quit. Apple hired them but treated them as second-class citizens,
so they returned to Commodore.
  The problem with RAM Commodore came out with several versions
of the Pet. Each version contained a different quantity of RAM.
  If you bought a stripped-down version and later wanted to
increase its RAM, Commodore refused to install extra RAM.
Instead, Commodore insisted that you buy a whole new Pet.
  Some Commodore customers, who couldn't afford a new Pet, bought
extra RAM chips from chip dealers and installed the chips
themselves. To stop those tinkerers, Commodore played dirty: it
began cutting a hole in the PC board where the extra RAM chips
would go, so the tinkerers couldn't insert the chips. That nasty
hole angered customers, who realized that Commodore spent almost
as much money to cut the hole as it would have cost to provide
the extra RAM chips!
  The problem with tape Commodore changed the Pet to handle tapes
differently. The new Pet tape system was incompatible with the
old Pet tape system: tapes created for the old Pet wouldn't work
on the new Pet.
  Commodore didn't notify customers of the change. The new Pet
looked just like the old Pet; it didn't contain any kind of label
saying ``new''. Customers who wrote programs for old Pets and
then bought additional Pets discovered that their programs didn't
work on the new Pets. They thought their new Pets were broken.
  When Commodore secretly changed the tape system, companies
selling tapes of Pet computer programs received angry letters
from customers who bought the tapes and couldn't make the tapes
work on their new Pets. The customers though the companies were
crooks; the companies thought the customers were lying; and it
took a long time for
people to realize that the real culprit was Commodore, who had
changed the Pet without telling anybody.
                                         When the companies
discovered that Commodore had changed the Pet without providing a
label to distinguish new Pets from old, the companies realized
they'd have to give each customer two copies of each program, so
the customer could try both versions. That's when many companies
gave up trying to sell Pet tapes. They sold tapes for Apple and
Radio Shack computers instead. That's why there's more software
for Apple and Radio Shack than for Commodore.

                                                        Vic
                                         Because of World War 2,
Jack was scared of Nazis and the Japanese. He feared that the
Japanese would suddenly invade the USA by flooding America with
cheap Japanese computers to put Commodore and other American
companies out of business. And he noticed that Commodore's share
of the computer market was already sinking.
                                         Paranoid, in April 1980
he called his engineers together and screamed at them, ``The
Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming! So we'll become the
Japanese!'' He laid out his bold plan: Commodore would build the
world's first under-$300 computer to display colors on an
ordinary TV and produce three-part harmony through the TV's
speaker. At that time, the only under-$300 computer was
Sinclair's ZX-80, which was black-and-white and crummy.
                                         Commodore's engineers
replied, ``Build a color computer cheaply? Impossible!'' Jack
replied, ``Do it!'' Commodore's engineers finally managed to do
it.
                                         MOS Technology, owned by
Commodore, had already invented the amazing Video Interface Chip
(Vic), which could handle the entire process of sending computer
output to the TV screen. Since that chip was so cheap, Commodore
decided to use it in the under-$300 computer. Unfortunately, it
put just 22 characters per line on the screen. (By contrast, the
Pet had 40 characters per line, and most computers today have 80
characters per line.) So the under-300 computer would display
just 22 characters per line.
                                         Naming the computer
Since the new computer was feminine and foxy, Commodore wanted to
call it the ``Vixen''. But Commodore discovered that a ``Vixen''
computer couldn't sell in Germany, because ``Vixen'' sounds like
the German word ``Wichsen'', which is obscene.
                                         Commodore hastily
changed the name to Vic and ran TV ads for the ``Vic'' computer.
But that got Commodore into even worse trouble, because ``Vic''
sounds like the German word ``Ficke'', which is even more
obscene!
                                         Although Commodore still
calls it the ``Vic'' in the United States, Commodore calls it the
``VC'' computer in Germany and pretends ``VC'' stands for ``Volks
Computer''.
                                         Price Commodore began
shipping the Vic in 1981. The original price was $299.95. Over
the years, the price gradually dropped, so that stores eventually
sold the Vic for about $55.
                                         Ads To sell the Vic,
Commodore tried three kinds of ads.
                                         The first featured TV
star William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek. The
ad emphasized how the Vic was wonderful, amazing, out of this
world, fun, exciting. But then people started thinking of the Vic
as just a sci-fi toy.
                                         To combat the ``toy''
image, Commodore changed to a second kind of ad, which said the
Vic was as cheap as a video-game machine but more educational for
your kids.
                                         When Texas Instruments
began making similar claims, Commodore changed to a third kind of
ad, which revealed
that Commodore's disk drives, printers, and phone hookups cost
much less than Texas Instruments'.
  Popularity The Vic's low price, fun colors, and effective ads
made it become popular fast in the USA, England, Germany, and
Japan. Commodore quickly sold over a million Vics! The Vic became
the world's best-selling computer!

            Commodore 64
  In 1982, Commodore began selling an improved Vic, called the
Commodore 64 because it included 64K of RAM. (The original Vic
had just 5K.)
  The Commodore 64 also improved on the Vic by displaying 40
characters per line (instead of just 22) and including 20K of ROM
(instead of just 16K).
  Price The Commodore 64's price went through 4 phases.
  In phase 1, the recommended list price was $599.95, and
Commodore tried to force all its dealers to charge that price in
full. If a dealer advertised a discount, Commodore refused to
send that dealer any more computers. (Commodore's policy was an
example of price fixing, which is illegal.)
  In phase 2, Commodore allowed discounts. Dealers charged just
$350. Moreover, Commodore mailed a $100 rebate to anybody trading
in another computer or a video-game machine, even if that
computer or game was worth less than $100. Bargain-hunters bought
the cheap Timex Sinclair 1000 computer just to trade in for a
Commodore 64. A New York dealer, ``Crazy Eddy'', sold junky
video-game machines for $10 just so his customers could mail them
to Commodore for the $100 rebate. Commodore donated most of the
traded-in computers and games to charities for a tax write-off
but kept some Timex Sinclair 1000's for use as doorstops.
  In phase 3, Commodore stopped the $100 cash rebate but offered
a lower over-the-counter price. Discount dealers sold the
Commodore 64 for just $148.
  In phase 4, the Commodore sold an improved version called the
Commodore 64C, whose keyboard contained extra keys. Discount
dealers sold the Commodore 64C for just $119. The Commodore 64C
came with a free copy of the Geos operating system, which made
the computer resemble a Mac.
  Why so cheap? Here's why the Commodore 64 cost so much less
than an Apple 2c or IBM PC.
  The Commodore 64's advertised price did not include a disk
drive or monitor. Moreover, Commodore's disk drives and monitors
were terrible.
  Commodore's original disk drive, the Model 1541, needed repairs
frequently (because its head went out of alignment). It ran
ridiculously slowly (because its cable to the computer contained
just one wire to transmit data, instead of several wires in
parallel). It put very little info on the disk (just single-sided
single-density).
  Commodore's original color monitor, the Model 1702, produced a
blurry image (because the monitor was composite instead of RGB).
The image was not sharp enough to display 80 characters per line
clearly, though it was adequate for displaying 40; so most
Commodore 64 software displayed just 40 characters per line. IBM
PC software displayed 80 instead. Another problem with
Commodore's video was that the M looked too much like N, and the
B looked like 8.
  Eventually, Commodore developed an improved monitor (the 1802)
and improved disk drives (the 1541C and 1541-2).
  The Commodore 64's version of BASIC wasn't as fancy as the IBM
PC's. In fact, it was even worse than the Apple 2's. For example,
it didn't even include a command to let you draw
a diagonal line across the screen.
                                         The Commodore 64's
printer port was non-standard: it worked only with the strange
printers manufactured by Commodore, unless you bought a special
adapter. The Commodore 64's keyboard included just 66 keys, and
its layout was archaic. The Commodore 64's CPU, the 6502, was
slower than the 65C02 CPU in the current Apple 2e & 2c and much
slower than the CPU in the IBM PC.
                                         Popularity The Commodore
64 became popular because it was cheap. Commodore sold over a
million of them. Because of that popularity, many programmers who
wrote programs for Apple computers rewrote their programs to also
work on the Commodore 64. Soon the Commodore 64 ran nearly as
many popular programs as the Apple 2c but cost less. Even after
adding on the price of a disk drive and a monitor, Commodore 64
still totalled less than the price of an Apple 2e, Apple 2c, IBM
PC, or IBM PC Junior.
                                         The Commodore 64
contained a fancy music synthesizer chip that produced a wide
variety of musical tone qualities. When the Commodore 64 played
music, it sounded much better than an Apple 2e or 2c or IBM.

                                                  Jack jumps ship
                                         After the Commodore 64
became successful, Jack Tramiel wanted to hire his sons to help
run Commodore; but Commodore's other major shareholders refused
to deal with Jack's sons. So Jack quit. He sold his 2 million
shares of Commodore stock, at $40 per share, netting himself 80
million dollars in cash.
                                         After Jack quit,
Commodore tried selling two new computers ___ the Commodore 16
and Commodore Plus 4 ___ but they had serious flaws. Then
Commodore invented two great computers: the Commodore 128 and
Amiga.

                                                   Commodore 128
                                         The Commodore 128 ran
all the Commodore 64 software and also included a better version
of BASIC, a better keyboard, and better video. To go with it,
Commodore invented a superior RGB monitor (the Model 1902) and a
superior disk drive (the Model 1571).
                                         Later, Commodore
invented the Commodore 128D computer, which included a built-in
disk drive.

                                                       Amiga
                                         The Amiga is Commodore's
newest and fanciest computer. It contains three special chips
that produce fast animated graphics in beautiful shades of color.
Like the Mac, it uses a mouse and pull-down menus.
                                         The Amiga's first
version was called the Amiga 1000. Later, Commodore replaced it
by newer versions: the Amiga 500, Amiga 600, Amiga 1200, Amiga
2000, Amiga 3000, and Amiga 4000.
                                         Amigas are used mainly
by video professionals and by others interested in animated
graphics.
                                         Aside from graphics, not
enough good software is available for Amigas. The Amigas are not
compatible with the Commodore 64 or Mac. The Amiga 2000 can be
made to imitate an IBM PC but costs more than most IBM PC clones.

                                                    Bankruptcy
                                         In 1994, Commodore filed
for bankruptcy because it had trouble paying its bills.
Commodore's future is murky.

                TANDY
  Tandy, which owns Radio Shack, has been around for many years.

           Thanks to Tandy
  Radio Shack helped the computer industry in many ways.
Radio Shack was the first big chain of stores to sell computers
nationally. It was the first chain to reach rural areas.

Radio Shack invented the first low-cost assembled computer. That
was the TRS-80 model 1, which cost $599, including the monitor.

Radio Shack was the first company to keep computer prices low
without skimping on quality.

Radio Shack sold the first notebook computer (the Tandy 100,
invented by Tandy with help from Microsoft and a Japanese
manufacturer, Kyocera).

Radio Shack sold the first pocket computers, which were
manufactured for Tandy by Sharp and Casio.

Radio Shack invented the first cheap computer having fancy
graphics commands. That was the Color Computer, whose BASIC was
designed by Microsoft as a ``rough draft'' for the fancier BASIC
in the IBM PC.
  But once the IBM PC came out and became the standard American
computer, Tandy had difficulty figuring out how to be profitably
innovative, since Americans want to buy just tradiitonal IBM PC's
and clones.
  Tandy's given up trying to be wildly innovative. Now Radio
Shack sells just IBM clones. Tandy tried some experiments in
building IBM clones innovatively, but Tandy's never built
anything as radical as Apple's Mac or Commodore's Amiga.
  Though Tandy's IBM clones cost less than the computers by IBM
and Compaq, they cost much more than the clones offered by
mail-order dealers. Mail-order dealers thank Tandy for charging
high prices that are easy to beat!

              Nicknames
  Tandy's computers are often called ``TRS'' computers. The
``TRS'' stands for ``Tandy's Radio Shack''. People who dislike
TRS computers add the letters A and H, and call them ``TRASH''
computers.
  Tandy's customers are therefore called ``trash collectors''. On
the other hand, Apple lovers are called ``worms'', ``pie
people'', ``fruits'', and ``suffering from Appleplexy'';
Commodore lovers are called ``boat people'', ``swabbies'', and
``deck ducks''; IBM lovers are called ``blue bloods'' (because
old IBM computers were blue); and kids who play with Atari
computers are called ``Atari-eyed dreamers & screamers''.

           How Tandy began
  The Tandy Leather Company was begun by Charles Tandy. Later, he
acquired Radio Shack, which had been a Boston-based chain of
discount electronics stores.
  Under his leadership from his Fort Worth headquarters,
Tandy/Radio Shack succeeded and grew 30% per year, helped by the
CB radio craze that was sweeping the country. When the market for
CB radios declined, he began looking for a new product to sell,
to continue his 30% growth.
  Commodore was inventing a computer and tried to convince
Tandy's staff to sell it. Don French, a Tandy salesman whose
hobby was building computers, recommended to Charles Tandy that
Radio Shack start selling computers. Instead of buying computers
from Commodore, Radio Shack hired Steve Leininger to design a
Radio Shack computer and keep the cost as low as possible.
                                         Steve wanted his
computer to handle lower-case letters instead of just capitals.
But since interfacing the lower-case chip would have added 10¢ to
the cost, management rejected lower case: Radio Shack's computer
handled just capitals. (In those days, lower-case letters weren't
considered important. Later, when customers began demanding
lower-case letters, Radio Shack regretted not spending the extra
dime. Customers were spending $50 to rip open the Radio Shack and
rearrange the chips to get lower-case.)
                                         The monitor was a
modified black-and-white TV built for Radio Shack by RCA.
                                         RCA told Radio Shack
that the standard color for the TV's case was ``Mercedes
silver''; any other color would cost extra. Radio Shack accepted
Mercedes silver and painted the rest of the computer to match the
TV. When you get your hands on a Radio Shack computer, you're
supposed to feel as if you're driving a Mercedes. But since
Mercedes silver looked like gray, Radio Shack became nicknamed
``the great gray monster''. Californians preferred Apples, whose
beige matched their living-room decors. (Later, in 1982, Radio
Shack wised up and switched from ``Mercedes silver'' to white.)
                                         Radio Shack's original
computer listed for just $599 and consisted of four devices: a
keyboard (in which hid the CPU, ROM, & RAM), a monitor (built for
Radio Shack by RCA), a cheap Radio Shack tape recorder, and an
AC/DC transformer. Wires ran between those devices, so that the
whole system looked like an octopus.
                                         Radio Shack wanted to
put the AC/DC transformer inside the keyboard, so that the
computer system would consist of three boxes instead of four. But
if the AC/DC transformer had been inside the keyboard,
Underwriters Laboratories would have delayed approval for 6
months, and Radio Shack didn't want to wait that long.
                                         Radio Shack named its
computer the TRS-80 because it was by Tandy's Radio Shack and
contained a Z-80 CPU.
                                         To officially announce
its new computer, Radio Shack called a press meeting, to take
place on a Monday morning in August 1977, on the front steps of
the New York Stock Exchange. But when Radio Shack's management
stood on those steps and were surrounded by reporters, a guy ran
up to the group and yelled that a bomb had gone off two blocks
away. The reporters all ran away to cover the story, and Radio
Shack wasn't able to announce its new computer!
                                         Radio Shack rushed to
find a new place to announce its computer. Radio Shack heard that
the Boston Computer Society was going to run a computer show that
week ___ Wednesday through Friday. So Radio Shack's management
drove up to Boston, got a booth at the show, and announced its
computer there. Radio Shack was shocked when it discovered that
the entire show and entire Boston Computer Society were run by
Jonathan Rotenberg, a 14-year-old kid!
                                         That intro was
successful: people liked and bought Radio Shack's new computer.
The base price was $599. For a complete business system
(including two disk drives and a printer), Radio Shack charged
$2600, while Radio Shack's competitors charged over $4500.
                                         Problems with DOS Radio
Shack hired Randy Cook to write the DOS. My friend Dick Miller
was one of the first people to try it. He noticed that DOS
version 1.0 didn't work; it didn't even boot! He told Radio
Shack, which told Randy Cook, who fixed the problem and wrote
version 1.1. Dick noticed it worked better but still had a big
flaw: it didn't tell you how much disk space was left and ___
even worse ___ as soon as the disk was filled it would
self-destruct!
                                         Then came version 1.2.
It worked better but not perfectly.
  Since Radio Shack's DOS was still buggy, Visicalc's inventors
put Visicalc onto the Apple instead of the TRS-80. Apple became
known as the ``Visicalc machine'', and many accountants began
buying Apples instead of TRS-80's.
  Meanwhile, a Colorado company named Apparat invented its own
improvements to Radio Shack's DOS. Apparat showed its
improvements to Dick, who liked them and recommended calling them
``NEWDOS''. Many folks bought NEWDOS and formed NEWDOS colonies.
  Dealing with the public In 1977, when Radio Shack began selling
the TRS-80, customers didn't understand what computers were.
  For example, at a Radio Shack show, I saw a police chief buy a
TRS-80. While carrying it out of the room, he called back over
his shoulder, ``By the way, how do you program it?'' He expected
a one-sentence answer.
  Radio Shack provided a toll-free 800 number for customers to
call in case they had any questions. Many customers called
because they were confused. For example, many customers had this
gripe: ``I put my mouth next to the tape recorder and yelled TWO
PLUS TWO, but it didn't say FOUR!''
  Radio Shack's first version of BASIC provided just three error
messages: WHAT (which means ``I don't know what you're talking
about''), HOW (which means ``I don't know how to handle a number
that big'') and SORRY (which means ``I'm sorry I can't do that
___ you didn't buy enough RAM yet''). Those error messages
confused beginners. For example, this conversation occurred
between a Radio Shack customer and a Radio Shack technician who
answered the 800 number (Chris Daly). . . .
Chris:``What's your problem?''
Customer:``I plugged in the video, then the tape recorder, then .
. . ''
Chris:``Yes, sir, but what's the problem?''
Customer:``It doesn't work.''
Chris:``How do you know it doesn't work?''
Customer:``It says READY.''
Chris:``What's wrong with that? It's supposed to say READY.''
Customer:``It isn't ready.''
Chris:``How do you know it isn't ready?''
Customer:``I asked it `Where's my wife Martha?', and it just said
WHAT.''
  Other Z-80 computers After the TRS-80, Tandy invented improved
versions: the TRS-80 Models 2, 3, 4, 4D, 4P, 12, 16, & 16B, and
the Tandy 6000. Like the Model 1, they contained a Z-80 CPU and
included a monochrome monitor.
  Coco To compete against the Commodore 64, Tandy invented the
Color Computer, nicknamed the Coco. Folks who loved it started
Hot Coco Magazine. Cynics thought the Coco was just a useless toy
___ a parody of a computer ___ and call it Coco the Clown.
  Like the Commodore 64, the Coco could attach to either a
monitor or an ordinary TV, and it could store programs on either
a disk or an ordinary cassette tape (the same kind of tape that
you listen to music on).
  Tandy began selling the Coco in 1980 ___ the year before IBM
began selling the PC. Microsoft, which invented the Coco's BASIC
ROM, also invented the IBM PC's. The Coco's BASIC ROM was
Microsoft's ``rough draft'' of the ROM that went into the IBM PC.
The Coco could be described as ``an IBM PC that wasn't quite
right yet''. In the Coco's BASIC, the commands for handling
graphics and music were similar to the IBM PC's but slightly more
awkward. People who couldn't afford an IBM PC but wanted to
practice writing programs for the IBM PC bought the Coco.
  The original Coco was called the Coco 1. Then came improved
versions: the Coco 2 and Coco 3. Tandy also
invented a cheap, tiny version called the Micro Coco.
                                         Pocket computers Tandy
sold 8 different pocket computers, numbered PC-1 through PC-8.
They fit in your pocket, ran on batteries, and included LCD
screens.
                                         Notebook computers In
1983, Tandy, Epson, and NEC all tried to sell cheap notebook
computers. Just Tandy's became popular, because it was the
cheapest ($499) and the easiest to learn how to use. It was
called the Model 100.
                                         Later Tandy sold an
improved version, the Model 102. It included more RAM, weighed
less, and listed for $599. It included a nice keyboard, LCD
screen (displaying eight 40-character lines), 32K RAM, 32K ROM
(containing BASIC, a word-processing program, some filing
programs, and a telecommunications program), and 300-baud modem
(for attaching to a phone, after you bought a $19.95 cable). It
was 8½ inches by 12 inches, and just 1½ inches thick! It weighed
just 3 pounds. Reporters used it to take notes that could be
easily phoned to the newspaper.
                                         Tandy's stopped selling
it, since IBM-compatible notebooks are much more powerful.

                                               Why Tandy is popular
                                         Tandy has 7000 Radio
Shack stores. Besides infiltrating every major city, they're also
in remote rural areas, where few other computer stores compete.
                                         The phrase that best
describes Tandy is ``solid value''. Tandy keeps its quality high
and its prices below IBM's and Apple's (though not as low as
generic clones). Tandy's computers and prices are aimed at
middle-America consumers, not business executives (who buy from
IBM) or bargain-hunting hobbyists (who buy mail-order).
                                         Tandy's computers are
built reliably. Tandy's assembly line checks them thoroughly
before shipping to Tandy's stores.
                                         If your Tandy computer
does need repair, just bring it to your neighborhood Radio Shack
store. If the computer's still under warranty, the store will fix
it free even if you bought it from a different store. If the
warranty has expired, Radio Shack charges very little for the
labor of fixing it.

                                                   Bad attitude
                                         Tandy's headquarters
used to provide toll-free numbers that customers could call for
technical help. Tandy switched to numbers that were not
toll-free. To make matters worse, Tandy recently decided to
refuse answering any questions unless the customer buys a support
contract. Tandy's claim to offer better support than mail-order
companies is Texas bull.
                                         During the 1980's, Tandy
established a dress code for its computer centers: employees who
met the public had to don blue or gray suits, blue or white
shirts, no beards, and no moustaches. Tandy fired a center
manager for refusing to shave his beard. Wasn't the
personal-computing revolution supposed to give us tools to
express our individuality? The computer revolution's founders did
their creative work while wearing jeans. Tandy's dress code
offended some Jewish and other religious groups whose members
wore beards.
                                         Recently, Tandy shut
down all its computer centers. At regular Radio Shack stores,
beards are permitted.

                                                      Sellout
                                         In 1993, Tandy stopped
manufacturing computers. Tandy sold all its factories to another
computer company, AST. So now Tandy buys its computers from AST.

                ATARI
  Of all the major computer manufacturers, Atari is the strangest
___ and most creative!

             Video games
  The world's first popular video game was Pong, invented in 1972
by a California company named Atari, which is a Japanese war cry
that means ``beware!''
  After Pong, Atari invented a game called Asteroids, then dozens
of other games. Atari's games were placed in arcades and in your
neighborhood bar. To play the games, you had to insert quarters.
  In 1975, Atari invented a machine that played Pong on your
home's TV.
  In 1976, Warner Communications Inc. bought Atari; and so Atari
became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warner. Warner was a gigantic
company: it owned Warner Brothers movies & cartoons, Warner Cable
TV, DC Comics, and many other subsidiaries.
  In 1977, Atari invented the Video Computer System (VCS), which
is a machine that plays a wide variety of games on your home TV.
Each game comes as a ROM cartridge. Later, companies such as
Mattel and Coleco invented machines that were similar but
fancier.

      Early personal computers
  In 1979, Atari began selling complete personal computers.
Atari's first two computers were the Atari 400 (which was cheap)
and the Atari 800 (which had a nicer keyboard). They were far
ahead of their time. Of all the microcomputers being sold,
Atari's had the best graphics, the best music, and the best way
of editing programs. Compared to the Atari, the Apple looked
pitiful! And yet Atari charged less than Apple!
  But Atari made two mistakes. . . .
  The first mistake was that Atari didn't hire Bill Gates to
write its version of BASIC; instead, it hired the same jerk who
invented Apple's DOS. Like Apple's DOS, Atari's BASIC looks
simple but can't handle serious business problems.
  The second mistake was Atari's belief that personal computers
would be used mainly for games. Atari didn't realize that
personal computers would be used mainly for business. As a
result, Atari sank lots of effort into developing spectacular
games, but didn't sink enough effort into developing software and
hardware for word processing, accounting, and filing.
  Even after developing some slightly improved computers (the 600
XL, the 800 XL, and the 1200 XL), Atari lost lots of money.

             Jack attack
  Much to Atari's surprise, Atari wound up getting bought by Jack
Tramiel, who had been the head of Commodore. Here's how that
happened. . . .
  When Jack quit being the head of Commodore, he sold his
Commodore stock for 80 million dollars. He used some of that cash
to take his wife on a trip around the world.
  When they reached Japan, the heads of Japanese computer
companies said, ``Jack, we're so glad you quit Commodore, because
now we can enter the American computer marketplace without having
to fight you.''
                                         That comment scared
Jack. He didn't want to let the Japanese invade the U.S. computer
market. So he started a second computer company, called ``Tramiel
Associates'', whose sole purpose was to stop the Japanese
invasion.
                                         Tramiel Associates
bought Atari from Warner. Since Jack was rich and Atari was
nearly worthless (having accumulated lots of debt), Jack managed
to buy all of Atari at 4PM one afternoon by using his Visa card.
                                         Now Jack and his sons
run Atari. He competes against the company he founded: Commodore.
                                         Jack turned Atari around
so that Atari became successful again.

                                                        XE
                                         When Jack took over
Atari, he replaced Atari's computers by two new computers: the 65
XE and the 130 XE. They run the same software as Atari's earlier
computers but are cheaper to manufacture, since Jack is an expert
at redesigning computers to cut costs.
                                         Jack passed the savings
on to consumers. Discount dealers sold the 65 XE for $84 and the
130 XE for $119 ___ prices so low that the Japanese couldn't
compete!
                                         The 65 XE includes
``about 65,000 bytes of RAM'' (actually, 64K). The 130 XE
includes ``about 130,000 bytes of RAM'' (actually, 128K).
                                         Later, Atari sold a
modified 65 XE, called the XE Game System. It cost $150 and
included games instead of BASIC.

                                                    Jackintosh
                                         In 1985, Jack began
selling a low-cost imitation of Apple's Macintosh computer.
Jack's low-cost imitation is nicknamed the ``Jackintosh''. It's
also called the Atari 520 ST.
                                         It uses the Gem
operating system, which was invented by Digital Research for the
Atari and the IBM PC. Although Gem makes the 520 ST look like a
Mac, the ST will not run Mac software: you must buy software
specially modified to work on the 520 ST.
                                         When the 520 ST first
came out, its prices were about half as much as the Mac and Amiga
so that, by comparison, the Mac and Amiga looked overpriced. To
fight back, Apple lowered the Mac's price, and Commodore lowered
the Amiga's. But the 520 ST is still the cheapest of the bunch.
                                         The ST's BASIC is not by
Microsoft but is similar.
                                         Programmers have created
a reasonable quantity of software for the ST, but the Amiga has
more and the Mac has even more.
                                         When Apple announced the
Mac Plus, which contains 1 megabyte of RAM, Atari responded by
announcing the 1040 ST, which contains 1 megabyte also. Then
Atari announced a 2-megabyte version (the Mega-2) and 4-megabyte
version (the Mega-4).

                                                 Is Atari popular?
                                         But Atari's had
difficulty competing in the USA ever since the prices of the
Amiga and IBM clones dropped, but Atari computers remain popular
in Europe.