Tandy 1000 TL/2

[FondlesInTheDark]

I had never even seen Windows before 3.1!

[MrBoogs29]

My first pc

[thomaswoolum]

Do you still have that tandy computer now or not

[ZombieRyushu]

@CaptainPoovabladoo Of course. It can even play Wolfenstein 3D.

EGA is the actual successor to CGA, and it is programmed better and looks better.

[ZombieRyushu]

@CaptainPoovabladoo No, but I have found most games that support TGA also support EGA if not VGA. I've not run into a game yet that won't support EGA at least.

[8bitbubsy]

Just googled it, a Tandy 1000 RSX would blow my mind. Probably very expensive on eBay though! :(

[8bitbubsy]

Heh, very nice computer indeed! The HDD is extremely noisy, just like all the HDDs from that era. :)

Maybe I'll get my hands on a Tandy 1000 one day, but I am mostly collecting and upgrading Amiga systems.

[vetwannabe8ball]

We just found our Tandy in our attic. It still works after about 16 or so years in the super hot and super cold attic. I don't think any computer that is made today would last like that. These things are reliable. Too bad they are out of date. :(

[ZombieRyushu]

I am restoring my Tandy 1000 TL. 

[TeamRocketReviews]

@ZombieRyushu I'd love to buy one of them.

[ZombieRyushu]

@TeamRocketReviews Not for sale, sorry. I recently finished restoring it, it now uses a Compact Flash Drive for a Hard drive and that was difficult to do.

[TeamRocketReviews]

@ZombieRyushu That's amazing! I've heard of people booting 90's laptops with those, but a 1989 PC? Thats great.

[ZombieRyushu]

@TeamRocketReviews It uses a Custom IDE Controller card from the XT-IDE project. It causes the IDE to CF Adaptor to be detected as a regular hard drive. It runs silently. As opposed to the *screech screech* the Hard drive you hear there in the Video. My Tandy has been upgraded to have VGA via a 16 bit VGA card connected to an 8-bit slot. So it can use EGA and VGA but not TGA.

It also has an AUI Network card that has an AUI to UTP tranciever and can connect to the network at 5 Mbps.

[InfinitySquared]

Thank you for the memories! I still remember composing my first music on DeskMate.

[granolabranborg]

They just don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure.

[BilisNegra]

@smartalex61 Quite good picture for a video being shot at a CRT, and a pretty old one too. Fewer dark stripes (or less dark) than is usually the case with crt's)!

[BilisNegra]

Uhmmm, windows 1 & 2 were very, very little more than a DOS shell. A way to find your files slightly quicker... what else?? (Mouse support existed in late DOS versions too).

[althalex]

OMG... love this vid.. this will be a good computer documentary for the future.

[sonyab1974]

Oh man a tandy!!! My family used to own one! :) I used to think Tandy's were awesome! :) ROFL!

[kiyotewolf]

omg that voice sounded like Kevin Flynn

[smartalex61]

@kiyotewolf Haha, so funny you said that. I JUST went to go see Tron 2 last night.

[nobadwriting1]

I remember play fifi strip poker on my Tandy and Ford Simulator both were horrible, lol.

[KartSeven1]

@smartalex61 I have not found DeskMate 3 on Google: '(

[smartalex61]

@KartSeven1 Try Vetusware com, they often have a lot of old software

[KartSeven1]

@smartalex61 Vetusware requires signing up to download files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :'(

[smartalex61]

@KartSeven1 Does it? It's still free I think

[KartSeven1]

@smartalex61 Really!!!! It's necessary to register!!!!

[smartalex61]

@KartSeven1 Yipes! I would just register then.

[kiyotewolf]

@KartSeven1

The comment section on your page is being a dork. I put together a package of Deskmate, instructions & install files & such.

kiyotewolf at gmail dot com

[TheDemoniusX]

Could never get tandy to run on Dosbox. Can someone give me pointers. I would LOVE to hear zeliard in tandy sound again....

[test540va]

Has anyone ever gotten a Tandy Emulator to work ? I know there is one called TandEM, I tried it once but never got anywhere with it.

[smartalex61]

@test540va I think I've tried TandEM before, but usually I just use DosBOX. That emulates a Tandy machine's graphics and sounds when configured correctly.

[test540va]

@smartalex61 DosBOX, I've used that before. But I would like to emulate the Tandy Deskmate Suite. I could never get that to run on anything other than an actual Tandy. He shows some of the Tandy Desktmate suite at 6:00 of the video. All the other programs are run in DOS.

[KartSeven1]

@smartalex61 What‘s notation program at 6:36 and where i can download this music?

[smartalex61]

@KartSeven1 It's a program that only comes on Tandy's unfortunately. You can try to download Tandy Deskmate 3 from somewhere and use DosBox as a Tandy emulator, but I haven't tried this myself.

[marquis0r]

tandy as a soundcard? is that usual?

for ISA? 8bit?

[smartalex61]

@marquis0r Yes, all Tandy's of this era had Tandy DAC's (the Tandy Sound Card). It was 8-bit, but I believe it was built in-not and ISA card.

[marquis0r]

@smartalex61 would be very interesting if there are addon cards for ISA PCs. i would buy instantly

[smartalex61]

@marquis0r Well there are add on cards, but they just don't make them anymore. eBay is a good place to buy them though, although they can be a bit pricy at times.

[dhaddox]

Windows? What, you don't like Deskmate? lol

[smartalex61]

@dhaddox I don't really use either on this computer since DOS is compatible with everything (unlike Windows and Deskmate), and DOS is faster for me to use.

[averagemale2000]

oh, that's just a reflection... yes it is... :)

[averagemale2000]

cool alpha channel desktop video, how did you get Windows 2 to play a video of you using the Tandy? Didn't think those system had the processing power to do that.,

[smartalex61]

@averagemale2000 Thanks! What's an alpha channel? I think I'm a bit confused by what you mean about Windows 2 playing a video of me, I think you're just seeing my reflection.

[s6060]

I have not used it in a while, but I have a TL/2 with a 40MB hard drive. I used to play Pete Rose Baseball, Wolfenstein 3D and a lot of other Apogee games. After watching this, I feel like hooking it back up and playing Pete Rose Baseball again. :)

[test540va]

I have this computer still, I loved the "Cannon in D minor" tune. I remember playing that tune Over and Over again. I see these Tandy machines on Ebay. They are selling for @ $200 . Better hold on to it if you have one. ;)

[rickonami]

i love those sounds u hear the hard drive and disk drives.

[RocketFast321]

Outrun playing that fast on a TL/2? I has to find that now. I still play Vette and Hard Drivin' II on it but the rate was never that fast. Also i must find maniac mansion for it. I don't have a hard drive so i made a 720k dos 6.22 boot disk for it so i could laplink this old compaq laptop i had, and use it's 700mb hard drive for the tandy.

[smartalex61]

@RocketFast321 Neat! I think OutRun is a lot more basic than those two other games. Believe it or not, OutRun even runs on my IBM PC/XT (but not very well). I'm not sure this is true, but from what I've read those other two games are actually 3D. OutRun is more of an illusion, it's actually 2D.

[poopskinTheLiar]

@smartalex61 yeah, OR most of the "3D" System-16 games were illusions (with gratuitous amounts of scaling, natch) so it would be logical if the ports were, too.

[Lachlant1984]

Do you know if some of the popular Apogee Software/ID Software games such as Wolfenstein 3D take advantage of the Tandy 1000's audio system or enhansed graphics?

[smartalex61]

@Lachlant1984 I'm not sure, I've never tried those games. But you can try them in DosBox to find out, DosBox does emulate Tandy.

[No13Machine]

The Tandy 1000 was my first computer! What memories..

[NightSprinter]

I have to say, I'm surprised with how high quality that Tandy-1000 port of Outrun was. It seemed to look, sound, and play a lot better than the Atari ST or Amiga 500 ports.

[AAnHHell]

it takes me back, i love de HDD sound n_n

[EendjeKwak]

Did you create a batch file or do you really type that fast? :)

[smartalex61]

@EendjeKwak Well, I cut out all of the loading and typing from the video clip to make it shorter so you guys don't have to wait for all that.

P.S. Thanks for subscribing! I like the videos you've make of those old CGA games, they remind me a lot of the games I have on my IBM PC/XT. Also that's a really neat QBasic program (the 3D boxes). I've always wanted to know how to do stuff like that in Basic, but I can never figure it out.

[EendjeKwak]

There are a lot of tutorials online. The CGA game 'Fitna' in my collection is not a real game. It is a parody on a Dutch politian. I made it a few weeks ago using Quickbasic and Autodesk Animator. ;-)

Do you want to become the second member of my website IGODU. ORG?

[smartalex61]

@EendjeKwak Why not! What's the website about?

[EendjeKwak]

@smartalex61

DOS. :-)

[JayArgonaut]

@smartalex61 lol I was about to comment that I wish my "21st century" gear booted that quickly! The Tandy 1000 seems like a really cool computer, especially for the era. The version of Outrun you played looked quite decent, particularly considering the time and the hardware which the arcade original used in comparison to the 1000.

Nice vid. :)

[VintageJunior]

Wow, I want one :/

[TheDemoniusX]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I love older tech, They make me very happy.

[Lachlant1984]

How much RAM can this computer take? How possible is it to upgrade the floppy drive to an HD drive? I simply can't get over jow much better games sound on this computer compared to a standard IBM PC/clone with a HORRIBLE PC speaker, the sound in these games is much more like the Sega Master System or NES.

[smartalex61]

That's true! The RAM limit is probably somewhere around what I have in it now (768kb), and I believe the HD and Floppy drives are proprietary.

[NightSprinter]

@Lachlant1984 I did a bit of research on the PC Jr. and Tandy-1000. Seems it uses the same Texas Instruments sound generator as in the Colecovision and Sega Master System consoles. Combine that with the Tandy's digital audio capabilities.. that's quite impressive for its time.

[RocketFast321]

cool i have the same computer, but no hard drive :/

[poopskinTheLiar]

What i'd love to get is a MSX, a distinct japanese relative of the PC developed partially by microsoft. a lot of popular series (cough cough METAL GEAR) got their start on the MSX and it was the main gaming platform in Japan before the NES came it.

[smartalex61]

Interesting, I'd never even heard of the MSX until now. I just got finished reading the Wikipedia article.

[Elebreed]

Haha, I've always wondered about these.

Damn impressive sound compared to what I expected! Some of it actually reminded me of an Atari ST to an extent.

Pretty scary to think 768KB RAM and 10MB HDs were high-end at one point, really.

[darkmagelover]

you need to play warcraft 2 on one of thees older systems ied love to see it in all it ms dos glory

[Lachlant1984]

Was this version of Outrun optimised for these Tandy PC due to the enhanced sound and video hardware? Which version of Windoes are you running on that machine? I take it OutRun was supposed to run directly in DOS and not in Windows. These systems were underpowered, but their audio hardware is certainly far better than that found in a typical IBM PC compatible back then.

[smartalex61]

Yeah, it's the same difference between EGA and CGA for video, or Ad-Lib and SoundBlaster for sound cards. The Tandy 1000 series had much better sound and graphics than IBM's at that time, and as a result many games took advantage of this better hardware. Also, the machine is not running Windows at all, just DOS.

[southnyourmind]

had a tandy 1000tl....ad lib sound card...played mech warrior, battle over britian, battle tech, thexder, silpheed, wing commander, perils of rosella

[ComputerTutorialPro]

I completely disagree.

XP is WAY faster than that stupid IBM and tandy

e.g. XP with 2.0 GHz is WAY faster than 8 MHz xD

And nowadays windows are better (including PCs), you can convert, go to the internet faster, do anything you want.

[Eep386]

I got one of these bad boys at home. Mine has a VGA card though, since I can't stand the dogwhistle-like squeal old CGA monitors emit. For the hard drive, I hacked up an old ST03 SCSI controller and hooked up an 80MB Quantum drive (taken from an old Macintosh LC).

Back in the day I played all kinds of weird games on my old 1000HX and 1000SL. None of my games ever used the Tandy's enhanced sound and graphics, however... :(

[Eep386]

I forgot to mention, the hard drive in my 1000SL was a Miniscribe MFM drive that made a very futuristic-sounding "sweep" noise when it was accessing.

[smartalex61]

I completely agree!!! My 1983 IBM PC/XT boots faster than my 2007 Dell Inspiron 530.

[ventues97]

I have one of these..It cost me $ 1500.00 in 1991..It still works!!!

[smartalex61]

MS-DOS 3, 16 bit.

[smartalex61]

Yes, a lot of my vintage computers came with broken hard drives. The only two computers I haven't been able to restore are my two PS/2's. My PS/2 70 is seemingly dead (could be processor?) and my PS/2 55sx's hard drive is dead and PS/2 hard drives are hard to come by. I tried using an SCSI card and a SCSI hard drive, but the computer restarts every time I try to install the drivers.

[christo930]

Why use a vintage pc? A modern pc will boot dos, at least dos 5, if you use a windows 98 dos it will support fat32,even. If you have a soundblaster and the dos driver (probably have to be isa) if would be very close (no tandy sound though.

With dosbox you don't even have to use a dos boot disk (or cd) .

[smartalex61]

True, but I guess it's just more fun to play games on the platform they were built for.

[christo930]

That is just it, a modern pc IS the platform they were made for. It's like wanting an original playstation and not playing the playstation game on a ps2.

[KACU2]

IBM version of outrun has support sound card Oo !?

Not only pc speaker !?

[smartalex61]

Yeah, how about that? A lot of older programs (pre-sound blaster) do support the Tandy 3 voice card. (and sound much better).

[Colortiniz]

I had the Tandy 1000 TL/2 on an employee half-off special, only $2000. What a deal!

[brandonkr]

nice dude!!! did u just get it?

[smartalex61]

Yeah, I always kind of wanted a Tandy, and I saw this on eBay for about $30 so I couldn't resist.

[brandonkr]

wow what a great deal man!

[kasm279]

wow, windoze 2.....

[linuxlove4004]

neat, i have a picture of your computer there in a tandy ad!

I CHOOSE YOU, VINTAGE COMPUTER!

[vwestlife]

Nice! Tandy 1000s were really good computers for their time.

[themaritimeman]

Tandy 1000s are the ultimate DOS machines! - their video and sound are better than any other AT-class computer!

Are you ever going to try out Windows 3.0 on this computer, even just temporarily? It would make a cool video if you could. A 286 and 768K of RAM is sufficient enough to run it.

I was surprised when I heard the voice - that's Tandy 1000 sound for ya!

We had a Tandy 1000 EX was I was little. Dad sold it when I was 8. I wish he hadn't of now.

Great video!

[smartalex61]

I agree! And I was thinking of installing Windows 3.0 while I was in the process of installing 2.03, but just for time's sake I continued with 2.03. I'm sure I'll try 3.0 at some point, and I'll try to make a video of it. The only problem is not many programs were written for either of those Windows versions, it wasn't until Windows 3.1 where a decent amount of programs were available. Do you know of anyplace where I could get 2.03 or 3.0 programs? I could also try 3.1, but it'd be too slow.

[themaritimeman]

Actually, most of the programs written for Windows 3.1/3.11 will run on Windows 3.0. It was around 1994/1995 when software companies started writing programs that would run on 3.1, but not 3.0.

I know an awesome place to get vintage software and vintage OSs. I'll send you a PM.

[themaritimeman]

You have the friend lock on, so I can't send you a PM. I sent a friend invite.

[poopskinTheLiar]

Is that 2.0 or 1.0?

[smartalex61]

If it's Windows your talking about it's Windows 2.03, or if it's DeskMate it's DeskMate 3.

[poopskinTheLiar]

ah.