[Coco] COCO Video

[billg999 at cs.uofs.edu]

> On 6/24/2013 5:06 AM, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu wrote:
>> I have seen this comment a few times recently. To be honest, I don't
>> think Tandy ever expected the COCO to be anything but a cartridge
>> based game console like the Atari 2600 (thus the reason they never did
>> a hard disk for it even though they did for every one of the Z80 based
>> systems). Given that, I can't see them investing that much effort.
>> bill --
>
> Back in the days of early computers like the CoCo, hard drive were out
> the price range of the personal computer user.  ($10,000 and up)

Well, hard disks were expensive, but not that bad. Usually
from about $2500 to $5000  I recently posted the prices for
some DEC MFM disks and they were one of the worst with most
people claiming they had an 800% markup.  but then, they were
"DEC Certified".  :-)

>
> Maybe you were thinking Floppy and not a hard drive?

No, the Model I, Model III and Model 4 all had hard disks.
As did the Model 16.  And most CPM systems cold have hard
disks as well.  Expensive, small, but very available.

>
> They were always planning on having floppy drives on the CoCo.  When the
> CoCo hit the market back in 1980, they just had Color basic to keep the
> price down to $400.  16K of RAM and Extended BASIC would come later once
> the manufacture cost dropped.  The Floppy drive showed up once there was
> more price drops in hardware.
>
> The TRS-80 Model ONE was the only Tandy Computer line not design with
> floppy drives in mind.  You needed the poorly design Expansion Unit to
> add a floppy drive to that model.  The TRS-80 Model 3 was design from
> the ground up for Floppies.  (The TRS-80 Model II came with one 8"
> floppy drive and started at $3450.)

Yes, but the Model II was never sold as a "home computer" it was
strictly targeted at the business market.  Which make one wonder
why it didn't have an available hard disk.

I don't remember when I got my first COCO but I had I's, III's and 4's
as well as a couple of 16 all in the very early 80's.  the 16 came with
a 12 meg hard disk and hard disks were available for (but out of my
price range) for the others.

bill