Nothing Says Christmas like the Tandy 1000 TL
By The Retroist
I used to go into the Radio Shack at the mall and play around on the Tandys until they would kick me out. For 1K this doesn’t sound like it was that bad of a machine. Did anyone have one? Any good?
3 Responses to “Nothing Says Christmas like the Tandy 1000 TL”
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TL1000user
December 26th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Yes, this was an excellent computer. We used one from late 1988 until late 1993. At the time, it was an excellent system. Note that for $1099, you just got the computer. It cost $1400 to get the computer with the monitor; when purchased in 1988 on sale, the $1400 package ended up including a dot matrix printer; we were able to get a modem for very little additional cost since Prodigy was offering a rebate on the modem for signing up with their online service.
Matt
April 16th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I still have my Tandy 1000TL. The thing still works too! I bought it when I was 15 years old for $1299. I worked an entire summer to save up enough money to pick it up. I upgraded it with a 20MB Hard Card and the extra memory to bump it to 768K. I also put in a Soundblaster card. I used that machine until 1993 when I bought a 486SX to replace it. The 1000TL was even Y2K compliant. It still runs the software that was designed for it very well. It’s currently in storage, and I’m never going to get rid of it. Eventually, I’d like to set it up somewhere permanently.
Jimmy McGuirt
June 1st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
My dad bought my Tandy 1000TL for $1000.00, before that I had a Type 2 TRS-80. I still have both and both work fine. I have fond memories of my Tandy. It was used and already had a 20MB HDD in it. On board sound as well. I did get the first Soundblaster card to ever come out for it. I do remember that on the into to Space Quest 3 you can hear whispering when Roger wilco is waking up… but with the soundblaster engaged in the game you could not hear the talking part. I upgraded the memory to 768K so that Wing Commander would play better. One of my favorite games I played on it and still play to day is the Original Bard’s Tale in Tandy-16 Color, which is equivalent to EGA. I learned DOS and GWBasic and I owe it to my Tandy for where I am today working in the computer IT industry. I will never get rid of my computer.