
              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 8 inches by 12 inches, and just 1 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.