Exatron Stringy Floppy Demo TRS 80 Model 1

[ochick1]

sinclair had a version of these as well but they corrupted easly

[cryinglion]

I believe Coleco Industries back in the early 80's was considering this technology for the upgraded version/expansion module for the ColecoVision game system.

[bryantgyt]

I remember this being yet another piece of leading edge hardware I couldn't afford at the time. Thanks for the memory.

[UhtredOfBebbanberg]

Wow, nifty video. I desperately wanted one of these things after suffering through cassette loads with my Model 3. I spent all my money on the computer, and didn't have anything left over for disk drives. When the stringy floppy came out I thought I could scrape together the cash to get one, but I didn't quite make it. Thanks for posting!

[BlackArkat]

Wow Bill, I'm really glad you got my Dad's old TRS-80 up and running like that. Evidently you were able to replace the tiny little rubber bands in the one stringy floppy.

Thanks for posting this. It's really nice to see someone that cares about this sort of thing. :-)

John Brown

[retrotrs80]

Nice. Looks like a later Model I with the "sculpted" keys. I don't recall white enter keys though.

[sonick808]

whoah, i had no idea such a thing existed and I grew up with all these machines of that era! wild!

[mukatuna]

Fascinating video thanks for posting.

I find it amazing those stringy floppys still work after 30 years.

BTW there was a version for the Sinclair Spectrum in the UK called Waferdrives, made by a company called Rotronics Ltd. I'm pretty sure that the Waferdrives used the exact same cartridges and drives as the Exatron stringy floppys.

[justtestingthething]

@mukatuna I had a Sinclair QL with the similar concept of "Microdrives" - not very reliable. If you google "Waferdrives" you find that those cartridges weren't reliable either.