Saturday, October 1, 2022

MC-10 First Impressions...

Between running RetroChallenge and how limited the TRS-80 MC-10 is, a real endurance challenge is not in the cards for me. But I fully intend to use this computer daily, connect to some important peripherals and make some necessary upgrades. I hope the results will be a usable guide for somebody who is just getting started with the Radio Shack Model MC-10 TRS-80 Micro Color Computer. For such a small computer, it has a very long name! So, here we go with my notes so far:

FIRST RC2022/10 POST. INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF MC-10: 1) WHERE IS LOWERCASE?!; 2) KEYBOARD IS OK. MUCH BETTER THAN TS1000. AND I LIKE THE CTRL KEY BASIC COMMANDS HERE TOO. MISSING A SHIFT KEY; 3) LOTS OF SOFTWARE ONLINE. NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT ON HERE; 4) I REALLY DO LIKE THE FORM FACTOR AND AESTHETICS; 5) DISPLAY IS SMALL AND BLURRY. NEED COMPOSITE + 80 COLS
I STARTED BY HOOKING UP THE MONITOR. THE PHONO PLUG ON THE COMPUTER IS FOR RF, NOT COMOSITE VIDEO. SO, YOU NEED AN ADAPTER. 'F / RCA ADAPTER' WITH CATV CABLE WORKS GREAT. AFTER MAKING SURE THE COMPUTER AND TV WERE SET TO THE SAME CHANNEL, I TURNED ON THE MC-10. I WAS GREETED WITH A MICROSOFT COPYRIGHT ON GREEN BACKGROUND THAT ONLY A COCO USER COULD LOVE.
I HAD TO TURN OFF THE COLOR ON MY MONITOR TO GET A DECENT PICTURE. THE BLACK ON GREEN COLOR WAS FAR TOO BLURRY.IN THE MORNING I WILL BUY SOME MORE SUPPLIES TO MAKE A SERIAL CABLE AND AUDIO CASSETTE STORAGE CABLE.
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Location: Santee, CA, USA

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