Near Conquest: TANDY PC-4

[PowerPup]

Stopped at some thrift stores today, and came across a box showing a little device similar to a calculator. Reading the words on the box in bold, white letters, "Pocket Computer." "Cool"! I thought, it was marked for only $4. So I opened the box to see what was inside. It had all the manuals... But no TANDY PC-4. So I decided not to get it.

Found this little site that shows the TANDY PC-4: http://www.ledudu.com/pockets.asp?type=20&serie=2&lg=eng

It even has a web based emulator there.

Anyone ever mess around with or own one of these? (I assume CHC might have one since there's a link to floodgap.com at the mentioned site above.)

 

[gilles]

ledudu is a friend

you may find many pocket calculator enthusiast here http://silicium.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=46 but in french only.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Go back and get the Docs!!!!! :approve:

I often look for manuals, docs, peripherals, cards & software for the things on my wish list long before I think it's time to find the object of my desire, at a price I can live with!

 

[PowerPup]

Well I wasn't interested in it that much. That's why I decided not to get the manuals. But if someone here is wanting them I could go back and get them.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I love the PC-4. It has a miniature 10-entry filesystem, a simple BASIC, a small size and low power usage. Yes, I had a whole page up on it (hopefully AT&T provisioned the T1 today like they were supposed to).

 

[quinterro]

I've messed with a PC-4 and owned a PC-7. The PC-4 is much nicer hands down. Trying to type on the membrane keyboard that was in alphabetical order instead of QWERTY sucked.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

The PC-7 is an unmitigated disaster. You couldn't even save to tape with it.

Of the Pocket Computers, the PC-2 is the most powerful (but the biggest), the PC-4 is the smallest with good functionality (but slowest), and the PC-3 is somewhere in the middle. The PC-2 is remarkable, however. People can even program it in assembly language (not that stupid simul-assembler that came with the PC-5 and -6).

 

[Gorgonops]

When I was a kid my family had a PC-2, purchased when Radio Shack was blowing them out *very* cheap. Along with the computer itself I had the cute little plotter thing. I used to play with that for hours, drawing spirograph-style drawings with short BASIC programs. (That was the one problem, actually... we never had the RAM expansion cartridge so I was bumping up against the top of memory on a fairly regular basis.)

Last I saw it was around 1999 when the rechargeable batteries in the plotter were long dead and I seem to recall the main unit was having some sort of LCD problem. Sad, really.