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Matthew Reed has passed away
Matthew Reed passed away on August 21, 2025. His site is being preserved by Ira Goldklang of www.TRS-80.com. There will be no further updates to this web site.
Rest in Peace, Matthew.
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The Selectra-Print
The Selectra-Print (originally known as the Selec-Term) was a device that connected a TRS-80 Model I to an IBM Selectric electric typewriter. It was sold by Micro Computer Devices Inc. of Anaheim, California. The TRS-80 version of the Selectra-Print cost $1,925.00 and included a modified Selectric II as part of the package.
The Selectric was an electric typewriter that used a “typeball” (which was removable and changeable) instead of individual typebars. IBM introduced the original Selectric (later known as the Selectric I) in 1961 and an improved version, the Selectric II, in 1971. The Selectric produced excellent output and eventually gained 75% of the United States electric typewriter market.
Computer Plus
Anyone who subscribed to TRS-80 magazines such as 80 Micro or The Rainbow will probably remember the advertisements for Computer Plus of Littleton, Massachusetts. They ran advertisements (usually full-page) for almost the entire life of the TRS-80 line. What they sold were Radio Shack computers and other hardware at prices lower than Radio Shack sold them itself.
For example, in 1984, Radio Shack sold a TRS-80 Model 4 with two floppy drives for $1,999.00. Computer Plus sold it for $1,699.00. A 16K Color Computer 2 that cost $159.95 at Radio Shack, cost $135.00 at Computer Plus. A 24K Model 100 cost $999.00 at Radio Shack and $835.00 at Computer Plus. Not only that, but only purchasers who lived in Massachusetts had to pay the state sales tax.
So how did Computer Plus do it? Stephen B. Gray talked about this in his “TRS-80 Strings” column in the July 1982 issue of Creative Computing, referring to companies “offering TRS-80 computers at considerably less than the prices listed in the Radio Shack catalogs”:
Dotwriter
Dotwriter was a dot-matrix printing utility, described as a “graphics text formatter.” It supported the TRS-80 Model I, Model III, and later the Model 4. Dotwriter was a highly regarded program: it won the 80 Micro Readers’ Choice Award in 1983 and achieved a perfect score in its 1985 review in 80 Micro.
Dotwriter, which was also styled as DOTWRITER and Dot Writer, was written by William K. Mason. The first version, Dotwriter 1.5, cost $69.95 when it was introduced in 1982. It was originally sold by J.F. Consulting of Palm Desert, California and RCM Computers of Buffalo, New York. Dotwriter 1.5 was written in a combination of BASIC and assembly language.
The much better known versions, Dotwriter 3.0 and 4.0, were sold by Prosoft of North Hollywood, California. (Prosoft also sold the Newscript word processor frequently mentioned in the Dotwriter 1.5 manual.) Dotwriter 3.0 was introduced in 1983 for $79.95. Dotwriter 4.0, which was a complete rewrite in assembly language and four times faster than Dotwriter 3.0, was released in 1984. It cost $79.95 for the Model I and III version and $99.95 for the Model 4 version.
Microsoft FORTRAN
Microsoft FORTRAN, also known as FORTRAN-80, was one of the most advanced programming tools available for the TRS-80. As a compiled language, it was more powerful than the included BASIC interpreter. Microsoft FORTRAN was created and sold by Microsoft for multiple TRS-80 models, although the most popular versions were sold directly by Radio Shack. Many commercial TRS-80 programs, such as The Mean Checkers Machine by Lance Miklus, were written in FORTRAN. Miklus wrote in the March 1980 issue of The S-Eighty:
FORTRAN’s advantages are numerous: it’s fast, the coding technique is protected, it has powerful library functions, it is an excellent number cruncher, its functions are complete subroutines instead of single lines, and it interfaces easily with machine language subroutines.
The Muscle Micros
The April 1983 issue of 80 Micro contained an article called “The Muscle Micros.” Written by the “80 Micro Tech Staff”, the article profiled “three sleek supercharged” TRS-80 Model III computers equipped with hard drives (commonly known at the time as Winchester drives). The three computers profiled were:
- The BT Hard Disk Model III Microcomputer from BT Enterprises of Bohemia, New York
- The MTI Mod III Plus from Microcomputer Technology Inc. (better known as MTI) of Santa Ana, California
- The Computex Model 326 from Computex of Houston, Texas
Much like the earlier Adcock & Johnson Model 3000, which was a Model III repackaged in a transportable case, these companies bought Model III computers from Radio Shack and then extensively upgraded them into their own branded products. The article described what made up these “muscle micros”:
Arex
Arex, written by William Muk Koon Yet, was one of the last games Adventure International sold for the TRS-80 Model I and III. It cost $34.95 for both the disk and tape versions when it was released in late 1982. As with many of their other games, Adventure International adapted Arex for multiple computers:
- The Apple II version (for disk only) was written by Gordon Eastman.
- The Atari 400/800 version (for disk and tape) was written by John Anderson.
- The Commodore 64 version (for disk and tape) was a conversion by Philip Case of John Anderson’s Atari version.
- The IBM PC version (for disk only) was written by Philip Case.
- The TRS-80 Color Computer version (for tape only) was written by Roger Schrag.
TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries
One of the most popular books ever written for the TRS-80 was TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries by Harvard C. Pennington. It was published in 1979 by International Jewelry Guild of Upland, California (a company co-founded by Pennington) for a price of $22.95. The book was an unexpected success for International Jewelery Guild (better known as IJG), at the time primarily a seller of gold coins and diamonds. The first two printings of TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries sold out before IJG had even received them from the printers. One advertisement described the book as “the definitive work on the TRS-80 disk system.” The manual for Super Utility described it as “a ‘standard’ reference.”
The TRS-80 Model I was less than two years old at the time, and Pennington had been one of the first purchasers. There was a great demand for TRS-80 information and Pennington wrote about many topics in the TRS-80 Disk and Other Mysteries. These included using hexadecimal and binary, a discussion of TRS-80 disk operating systems, the TRSDOS directory structure, even Pennington’s opinions of Radio Shack. William Barden, Jr. described the contents in the preface to the book:
Miner 2049er
Bill Hogue, through his company Big Five Software, was known for producing some of the best games available for the TRS-80 Model I and III. Games like Galaxy Invasion and Robot Attack were legendary in TRS-80 circles. But Bill Hogue and Big Five Software’s most successful game wasn’t for the TRS-80. It was Miner 2049er, the 1984 Electronic Game of the Year. Miner 2049er was an Atari platform game with ten levels that had versions available for more computers than any other game at the time.
Here is a description of Miner 2049er from a 1983 Big Five Software flyer:
The Rest of 80
In late 1982, 80 Micro magazine and the TRS-80 itself were riding a wave of popularity. Some issues of 80 Micro topped 500 pages and it was the third largest magazine in the United States, not just among computer magazines, but among all magazines. 80 Micro actively solicited articles and those enormous issues were filled largely with articles submitted by readers.
The book The Rest of 80 was another result of this abundance of material. It was a collection of articles submitted to 80 Micro, but never published. They were described as “some of the very best manuscripts ever sent to 80 Micro.” The Rest of 80 cost $9.97 when it was introduced in 1983.
Commander 80
“Commander 80” was a column that ran irregularly in 80 Microcomputing magazine from the May 1982 to the May 1983 issues. It was written by Jake Commander, TRS-80 author, technical consultant to 80 Microcomputing, and a very frequent contributor to the magazine. Despite the fact that there were only nine “Commander 80” columns, it remains one of the best remembered columns from the magazine.
Jake Commander described “Commander 80” as “a regular pot-pourri of TRS-80 facts, ideas, and opinions” in his first column:
This is the first of a series of columns I’ll be doing every month for 80 Microcomputing, covering topics ranging all the way from software and hardware to my general opinions on whatever takes my fancy. This is an opportunity I’ve waited for — to be able to sound off and air some of my views.