Tandy TRS-80 Model 4D computer overview & software

I believe the "All in on one computer" is now the (laptop) .

In Scarfman the eyes are different on the ghosts that you can eat. Watching you chase the wrong ghosts was painful.

Brings back memories! I learned BASIC on that computer and now, I’m coding iOS. Even a small hand held smart phone has FAR MORE computing power than that Model 4!

With the Model 4 there was software that would allow you to use ram for ram drives in banks of 32K that you accessed through the function keys. With 128K installed you could have 2 32K ram banks with software running on them and jump between them with a single key stroke. While not in focus the programs would be paused. Very advanced for the time.

I have owned a

Model III (48K Cassette). I still have this one, don't have the cassette drive though
Two Model IV (1 64K and 1 128K)
Two Model IV P (64K)

You could also fit 4 x 80 track DS floppies in the 4 (2 in the 4P) internally and up to 4 external Hard drives. Not sure what the size limit was but I have run a 15 MB drive on a 4.

I started doing work experience in 1983 at my local Tandy shop and then working there till 1990 and sold alot of the trash 80 computers. Was great times !!

On Scarfman, can tell if the ghosts are safe to capture by their eyes. If their eyes are open then they are not safe, if they are closed, they they are safe to capture

My earliest computer memory is the TRS80 in the window of the Tandy shop, running the Dancing Demon. It was before I even knew personal, let alone "home" computers were a thing. I just remember looking at this computer and thinking how incredible it was to see a computer in the flesh.

The Deskmate is awesome! It's like having Microsoft Office in the early days of personal computing.

i will solve the mystery of why only the bottom is yellowed...top case has been replaced..this was very common..hitting the screen or a sharp drop of the computer would break the mounting pins for the CRT..top case needed replaced...

In 1985 I got mine with Cobol and Pascal compiler and Visical spreadsheet software. Later added an external 15 megabytes hard drive. Wrote some business programs for our familiy business. A very reliable machine

On Scarfman if the ghosts eyes are on the very bottom, they are safe to eat. If their eyes are more towards top they are not safe. I never owned the game or a TRS-80 Model 4D, I just notice that while you were playing it.

I used to want one of those in the worlds worst way when I was young. In the end I got a Tandy Coco 2 then a 3 then a Tandy 1000.

Looks like those terminal machines

I saw a tik tok of a lady discovering one of these in a abandoned warehouse , it was really dusty

I have some plastic stuff, never saw sunlight &turned yellow....

My 4yo son loved your BASIC prgs and immediately recognized each of them. He'd love them if you still have them to share. Perhaps you could copy and paste the code or share the files? Thanks! And I understand if you can't.

We have a Tandy Model 4…serial number 21. Do you know who collects these vintage computers who might want to purchase it. It is the computer where a popular Midwest BBS software program was created (MTABBS ) and run for many years (Rolla Link in Exile). Multiple OS existed and the BBS ran with New Dos 80

I'm guessing someone has already cleaned it up with some Retr0bright before you got it but didn't clean the bottom of it, perhaps? 🤓

I love your in-depth coverage of machines from around my childhood. The Frogger and Scarf-Man games on the Model 4 are surprisingly sophisticated. I especially like the way the developers of Frogger made crisp, almost vector-like graphics out of such low-resolution character building blocks. They must’ve used a good abstraction layer to avoid going crazy.

👍

the z80 processor was in a class by itself

the instruction set was very well made

Wonderfully well built, seriously solid and stable computing machine - not a toy !

My dad let us play 13 Ghosts on his. We still have a couple Model 4s a Model 3 and a Model 1.

Wow that art was awesome, you are talented

Can't hit the power switch by accident, smart.

and they landed a man on the moon 16 years earlier !

The first time I saw one of these was shortly after they came out. A friend of mine had one and was bragging on the word processing capabilities. I still laugh thinking of him showing me a VERY long paper he had written, more like a book, and demonstrating how easy it was for him to change all the letter A's to E. Immediately, he regretted doing so when he tried to change those E's back to A and found that EVERY E was changed! I guess he hadn't saved it yet and had to go through and proofread the entire thing, changing letters as needed. I don't think it would have occurred to him to restore a saved version even if he had done so. That PC captured my imagination from then on. I knew I would get one and eventually ended up with a TRS 80 color computer. Good times.

It's a shame Tandy never made the top drive have two half-height 5¼" floppy drives and the lower drive be a built-in hard drive. There were 3 third-party providers that offered an internal hard drive. And Tandy did offer EXTERNAL hard drives -- but mostly they were in cases that were physically huge, about the same footprint as the Model III/4 itself. Only in 1986 (RSC-15, p. 4 Model 4 compatibility on p. 19) did they offer an external hard drive with a reasonable physical size.

On the Model 4s and 4Ds there was a way to add another 64Kb RAM to create a 64Kb RAM disk. Also Model 4s could run CP/M, the common microcomputer operating system before MS-DOS for PCs.

Good God man. This takes me back. I started learning on these in 1980. I actually worked in the micro computer lab. Thanks for posting.

THe eyes, look at the eyes... when they have eyes, they'll kill you.

I think a cover was an accessory for this unit, which partially explains toe odd yellowing situation.

❤❤❤💻💻⌨️⌨️🖱🖱💾💾💾

Awesome, owned a Model-4 but never heard of the Model-4D. Though Deskmate was only on the Model-1000, but guess this was the precursor. Had a Model-1 version of Scarfman, guess I ordered out of a computer magazine (cassette at that). Thanks for the video.

Model I wasn't that affordable. It was $3,000 in today's money. Was the first personal computer I used (at school).. We also had the Model 3 by the time I graduated HS.

On scarfman, if the ghosts have eyes, they are lethal, so it does show it ;)

Being very careful...THUD🤣

this was my first computer! I had the one button joystick as well

Does will convert anime images to bitmap and then to trs-80 basic using 128x48 resolution?

Which version of BASIC?

I remember using one of these in the 8th grade. The teacher would get pissed when somebody would cause the floppy drive to initiate with no floppy in it.

Computers also yellowed due to the flame resistant chemical used in it.

The classical music in the background is so sweet

I worked on this computer in 1986 to onwards and used software like dbase II , Lotus, Visical spread sheet, basic and Scriptsit. Enjoyed well floppy disk of 250k. Thanks for posting.

I remember when I was in school our school built a classroom with several TRS80’s all in one box systems like this one and I remember sitting at the computer learning to program in BASIC on one of these as the local news media did a story with the camera on us students while they interviewed the school principal about the computers since computers in the classroom was new in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.

I used this computer in high school for fun when I was in high school. I did took computer math class during my 2nd semester of my sophomore year in 1986. When I was in high school from 1984-1988. Even when my sister took the class,too. My father had borrowed one from school that he taught for myself or my sister to used. We had a Franklin computer that was an Apple compatible. There was Apple 2 computers in class. I never used them in class. I even liked this one game that I used to played on. My favorite program was doing a face on the computer that made the eyes blink. I didn’t do the shorter way on it. My was long program.

My childhood computer. My father brought this home from the office and I started using it. Learning from BASIC, Spreadsheet and even a game. This big thing was even up on my shelf. This and the TI-80 Texas Instruments was the foundation of my tech interests.