A 5.25" floppy disk drive (100 KB, 40 tracks) could be connected thanks to the onboard floppy-disk controller. However, 80 track double-sided drives could be used if the operating system supported it. Due to some poor design, only 3 drives could be used and the last drive had to be single-sided. A graphic expansion was available as well and provided a maximum graphic resolution of 384 x 192, it was necessary to modify the internals of the machine to fit it.
An expansion interface (similar to the TRS-80抯) could be connected to the expansion bus and provided RAM upgrade (up to 32K), floppy disk, printer interface, and an expansion slot for an optional RS232 interface. An alternative Operating system available from the USA and called LS-DOS could run on this version.
One year later (1981), a new model was launched : the Video Genie II. Basically, it is Video Genie 1 with a numeric keypad instead of the built-in tape-recorder (see ''more pictures'' section)...
Dick Smith Electronics in Australia brought out a re-badged version of the Video Genie called the System 80. These were identical except of course they carried the Dick Smith Logo. I presume that that came from the same Eaca factory in Hong Kong. They also sold a 'business' version with the keyboard, two floppy disk drives and expansion box with a clunky little printer.
These machines were expandable with after-market parts - you could purchase Exabyte "stringy floppy" drives (an eternal loop tape that held 4 programs, pretty much regardless of size, and ran somewhere between tape and disk speed). You could also purchase memory chips, which you added by soldering onto the top of the existing chips. There were a few magazines dedicated to the System 80/TRS-80 in Australia/New Zealand, which carried basic program listings. My high school had a lab of them with a locally-produced "network" chip, that allowed one machine to take control of another via I think the S100 bus - so the lab had one flobby drive, and all the machines could access it.
They also didn't have a volume control on the tape drive - it wasn't uncommon to see second hand units that had had that added.
The System 80 came with a Dick-Smith tape that, amongst other things, had a program that played "flight of the bumble bee" - badly ;)
By entering SYSTEM 12288 into the Video Genie, it would give you lower case letters, a flashing cursor and auto repeat on keys. Remarkable!
主要参数编辑本段回目录
NAME | VIDEO GENIE 1 / EG-3003 |
MANUFACTURER | Eaca |
TYPE | Home Computer |
ORIGIN | Hong Kong |
YEAR | 1980 |
BUILT IN LANGUAGE | Microsoft Basic Level II |
KEYBOARD | Full stroke keyboard, 54 keys, QWERTY |
CPU | Zilog Z80A |
SPEED | 1,77 MHz |
RAM | 16 KB (up to 48 KB) |
ROM | 12 KB (Microsoft Basic Level II) |
TEXT MODES | 16 x 32 / 16 x 64 |
GRAPHIC MODES | 128 x 48 |
COLORS | Monochrome |
SOUND | None |
I/O PORTS | 50-pin expansion Bus, video output (DIN), tape-interface (DIN) |
BUILT IN MEDIA | Built-in tape-recorder |
OS | TRS-DOS, NEWDOS 80 (with disk-drives) |
POWER SUPPLY | Built-in power supply |
PERIPHERALS | Printers, Memory expansion, Sound generator, Disk drives |
PRICE | 3950 FF (France, January 1981) |