Alpha Products

Alpha Products produced many hardware products for the TRS-80, including the Green Screen, the Interfacer-80, the Analog-80, the Newclock-80, the A-BUS, and the VS-100 voice synthesizer. They also created the STICK-80, a joystick supported by almost all TRS-80 games.

Although primarily a hardware company, Alpha Products was also a prominent reseller of games from other companies, including Big Five Software, Adventure International, Soft Sector Marketing, and the Cornsoft Group. At the height of the TRS-80 game market, they bought monthly multi-page advertisements in 80 Microcomputing.

Alpha Products remained in business long after the end of the TRS-80 market. They sold products (including the A-BUS) for many systems, and even had a webpage. Alpha Products was acquired in 1995 and they seem to have been shut down not long after that.

A two-page Alpha Products advertisement from November 1982

If you are curious, the games in the above advertisement are grouped into three categories:

• A: $15.95 for tape, $19.95 for disk
• B: $19.95 for tape, $24.95 for disk
• C: $24.95 for tape, $24.95 for disk

Most of the games are in category A, one game (Penetrator) is in category C, and the rest are in category B. The discount was 10% if you bought two games, 15% if you bought three games, and 20% if you bought four games. The shipping and handling charge was $2.00 per order.

Written by Matthew Reed | Filed Under Companies