Amazing. I just sent this to my grandfather. He used to use Tandy computers at work. He let me dad play with them on the weekends when my father was a child.
Very cool. I had a 16K CoCo2 as a kid, and also worked as a network admin in a school district later on. My dad also had that exact same printer too! So lots of nostalgia points for me on this one. Interesting to see Tandy's vision of a computer classroom environment.
Glad you liked it! I always wanted a Star printer back in the day, so having one now for the TRS-80 systems just seems “right”. Network 3 has been tons of fun to explore. I’m not sure what’s next for it, but I know I’m not done yet. Thanks for watching!
Am geeking out. Have no experience on Network-3 but saw them from a distance back in the 80's. Saw a Coco setup as a prototype StarText terminal. Happy #SepTANDY .
I got a little time to play with the Network 3 setup in my school as they were getting ready to punt the TRS-80 gear. That's what really got me interested in it. I couldn't believe there was a serial networking solution for Model IIIs. Happy #SepTANDY!
This is awesome!! Thank you very much for this video. It definitely makes sense about using the bit banger port. Dload was brilliant for this. Thank you for the class.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! The concept of Network 3 using CoCos has fascinated me ever since I first found it it was planned. DLOAD seemed like a natural fit, since it was built into CoCo 1s and 2s with Extended BASIC. Hopefully I can get around to playing with this some more...there's got to be more I can do with it.
Wonder how many of the network setups Radio Shack sold to schools and how they worked in practice. The lack of a way to broadcast programs to all stations seems like it would make classroom setup tedious if you had more than just a couple of student computers. Even more so if everything needed to be reset for each class period. It also makes me wonder if some kind of multiplexed cassette cable could have worked for that. Type CLOAD on all the student computers and then CSAVE on the instructor's computer to have everyone get the same program at the same time.
Agreed. Funnily enough, Network 3 and Network 2 were actually marketed as complimentary…you used Network 2 to bootstrap Network 3 stations that didn’t have the bootstrap in ROM. Network 2 was basically what you describe. For any schools that actually did that, they had the best of both worlds. And from a Network 3 OS, you could still use Network 2 for broadcast cassette operations. I imagine a CoCo implementation would be similar. If I were doing it, it would be. 😁
IIRC, there was something like that. We had a room with several CoCo 2's and a Master computer for the teacher. The teacher could dial-select which computer to send/receive. The interface also had LEDs which would indicate which computer was attempting to load(?) I used to tinker in there after-class hours, but I don't think I ever tried sending to all computers at once. It did use the cassette port to connect between the coco's and the interface I think. (We're going back to the early 80's here... my memory's a bit fuzzy lol)
With the classroom limitations that came with the TRS-80 machines, is this where Apple ][ swooped in to the rescue so effectively? 🤔 Or was it about the same for Apple ][ as well? 🤔 My memory was, the TRS-80’s didn’t stay in the schools for very long.
We had a very small school -- my graduating class was only 73 students... But our school had CoCo 2s, a few Apple ]['s and several TRS-80 Model 3s. We were a mish-mash of computers, and I loved all of 'em :-)
RS was in schools longer than many realize. Apple was so aggressive about getting machines in schools that the vast majority of us remember Apple more than anything. Apple had a much larger installed base, but the Model 4 was in the RS catalog until the 1990 catalog mainly because of the educational market.
The name’s close, but they’re different companies. Microware systems brought out OS-9. I think Micro Systems did some other well-known software, though I can’t think of any off-hand.
Amazing. I just sent this to my grandfather. He used to use Tandy computers at work. He let me dad play with them on the weekends when my father was a child.
Glad you liked it, and thanks for watching and sharing! The Network 3 has been a lot of fun to explore…especially the proposed CoCo-Model II setup.
Very cool. I had a 16K CoCo2 as a kid, and also worked as a network admin in a school district later on. My dad also had that exact same printer too! So lots of nostalgia points for me on this one. Interesting to see Tandy's vision of a computer classroom environment.
Glad you liked it! I always wanted a Star printer back in the day, so having one now for the TRS-80 systems just seems “right”. Network 3 has been tons of fun to explore. I’m not sure what’s next for it, but I know I’m not done yet. Thanks for watching!
Am geeking out. Have no experience on Network-3 but saw them from a distance back in the 80's. Saw a Coco setup as a prototype StarText terminal. Happy #SepTANDY .
I got a little time to play with the Network 3 setup in my school as they were getting ready to punt the TRS-80 gear. That's what really got me interested in it. I couldn't believe there was a serial networking solution for Model IIIs. Happy #SepTANDY!
This is awesome!! Thank you very much for this video. It definitely makes sense about using the bit banger port. Dload was brilliant for this. Thank you for the class.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! The concept of Network 3 using CoCos has fascinated me ever since I first found it it was planned. DLOAD seemed like a natural fit, since it was built into CoCo 1s and 2s with Extended BASIC. Hopefully I can get around to playing with this some more...there's got to be more I can do with it.
I mean, this is just so stinkin' cool.
Wonder how many of the network setups Radio Shack sold to schools and how they worked in practice. The lack of a way to broadcast programs to all stations seems like it would make classroom setup tedious if you had more than just a couple of student computers. Even more so if everything needed to be reset for each class period. It also makes me wonder if some kind of multiplexed cassette cable could have worked for that. Type CLOAD on all the student computers and then CSAVE on the instructor's computer to have everyone get the same program at the same time.
Agreed. Funnily enough, Network 3 and Network 2 were actually marketed as complimentary…you used Network 2 to bootstrap Network 3 stations that didn’t have the bootstrap in ROM. Network 2 was basically what you describe. For any schools that actually did that, they had the best of both worlds. And from a Network 3 OS, you could still use Network 2 for broadcast cassette operations. I imagine a CoCo implementation would be similar. If I were doing it, it would be. 😁
IIRC, there was something like that. We had a room with several CoCo 2's and a Master computer for the teacher. The teacher could dial-select which computer to send/receive. The interface also had LEDs which would indicate which computer was attempting to load(?) I used to tinker in there after-class hours, but I don't think I ever tried sending to all computers at once. It did use the cassette port to connect between the coco's and the interface I think. (We're going back to the early 80's here... my memory's a bit fuzzy lol)
With the classroom limitations that came with the TRS-80 machines, is this where Apple ][ swooped in to the rescue so effectively? 🤔 Or was it about the same for Apple ][ as well? 🤔
My memory was, the TRS-80’s didn’t stay in the schools for very long.
We had a very small school -- my graduating class was only 73 students... But our school had CoCo 2s, a few Apple ]['s and several TRS-80 Model 3s. We were a mish-mash of computers, and I loved all of 'em :-)
My school was similar - Apple ][s, a few TRS-80s, a few IBM PCs, and the random 512K Mac.
RS was in schools longer than many realize. Apple was so aggressive about getting machines in schools that the vast majority of us remember Apple more than anything. Apple had a much larger installed base, but the Model 4 was in the RS catalog until the 1990 catalog mainly because of the educational market.
Micro Systems software, is that the company that brought out OS-9 for the COCO?
The name’s close, but they’re different companies. Microware systems brought out OS-9. I think Micro Systems did some other well-known software, though I can’t think of any off-hand.
@@TJBChris They were the creators of DosPLUS for the models 1, 3 and 4, among other things. Oh yeah... Happy #Septandy
@@zodak9999bAh yeah, THAT’S it! I knew I’ve seen that name before. I’ve got DosPLUS on my 4. Thanks! #SepTANDY is fast approaching!