I used a TRS-80 Model 100 for remote newspaper reporting work from 1985-1990. It also gave me my first online public Bulletin Board System experience with its internal modem blazing at 300 bps.

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TheseAd1490@reddit

Loved the keyboard! I remember writing a column while on an airplane and thinking that was really a cool thing to do.

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sputwiler@reddit

I've been trying to build something like this just to write on, but finding a display like that is proving to be impossible. Best I can get is 40x4 characters like an AlphaSmart.

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Knut_Knoblauch@reddit

But will it play DOOM! I'm sure it will. Someone must have ported it already.

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Hondahobbit50@reddit

No graphics. It 8x40 characters resolution

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grwatplay9000@reddit

Wow, 300 BPS! A real step up from 110 BPS. I used to whistle to the modem to watch it type chars.

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FunnyKozaru@reddit

$599 in 1984 is $1814 in today’s dollars. $799 is $2420.

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DabblingOrganizer@reddit

When I bought mine on eBay around 2010, the shipping cost was more than the item.

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Aggressive_Yard_1289@reddit

gonna get a free one with all the papers and original binder from a friend here soon, cant wait to see what it can do

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I own a model 200. Same idea but a more familiar hinge display laptop design. A whopping 4kb of ram in two banks. I should dig it out and see if it still works. It comes with Microsoft basic on-rom, apparently containing some code written by bill gates personally.

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FeistyDay5172@reddit

OMFG! I remember when that came out! Of course back then I could only literally dream about owning one, but that DID NOT stop me from playing around with the damned thing in the store tho! This gets 👍👍 for serious nostalgia here.

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BASerx8@reddit

I remember people using them in press conferences and our executives complaining about the keyboard noise. I was an IT tech back then and even helped someone write a novel on one, unloading his memory to paper, one cassette at a time.

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Shadowforce426@reddit

i’m from the late 90s and i think machines like this seem so sick. are there any modern uses of them?

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Flybot76@reddit

I had a Radio Shack comic book in the 80s that was an advertisement for the TRS-80. It made me excited about the Atari 800 we had at the time, even though I had to be convinced that the TRS was not the better machine for us.

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couchmaster518@reddit

At that baud rate you could just casually read along without worrying about something scrolling off. My 300 bud modem was an acoustic coupler style, which was fun to show off.

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jfoust2@reddit

What, you didn't have the battery-powered floppy drive, too?

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valuecolor@reddit (OP)

Nope. This was newspaper property. Wasn't even mine.

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Fomentor@reddit

I used one of these to log onto the mainframe and do my machine problems for my computer science degree. Now I’m building a new PC with 64GB of RAM and crazy processing power. It’s been great living through the personal computer revolution.

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Knut_Knoblauch@reddit

I'm going back to my roots with the Commodore 64 via emulation. I've been relearning CBM Basic V2. I have a book on Adventure game writing and some books for retro game development. The thing about the C64 is that out of the box you get graphics and sound. Instant gratification in moments. To this day, some 40+ years later, none of my work has programmed sounds, not even the old beep.

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Mofuntocompute@reddit

I never had a C64 but sure seems like it was the best value. We had an Apple ][+ which was WAY more expensive and sound and color weren’t as good I don’t think

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stepinfusion@reddit

I still have mine from the mid 80s. With the built in modem, I discovering BBSs and that convinced me to go into computer networking and communication way before it was cool.

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Knut_Knoblauch@reddit

Remember all the good times getting different brands of modems to work together. The AT ST commands. The AT commands. I only miss them now. While up against the gun, getting certain modems to work was a PITA.

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SuspiciousTravel3766@reddit

I worked in newspapers for over 30 years and these were used by reporters in the mid eighties and early nineties. They definitely were cutting edge at the time.

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horse1066@reddit

I remember a journalist writing an article about the same use case back in the 80's(?). Being able to pen a story and then dial up his newspaper to upload it, rather than having to dictate it over the phone to someone

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F54280@reddit

Fun fact: this was the last project for which Bill Gates had a major programming role (afaik, he wrote most of the ROM code — citation needed, though).

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MarcusAurelius68@reddit

https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35

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marx2k@reddit

I wonder when the interview was dated. From his description, it reads like it was back in the late 80s, early 90s

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cagehooper@reddit

I had 1 and 2 model 200s.

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zxcvbn113@reddit

I've got a M100 and an M102 sitting around. Loved the M100 I bought while in university in 1985! I was in Electrical Engineering and we were learning assembly language on the 8085 for some of our labs. This had an 80C85 (CMOS version) and I was doing incredible things in assembly language just for fun.

A few times I connected to the school mainframe (IBM 3080) via that 300 baud modem. That was painful. Accidentally did a program listing and watched the characters come in one at a time, taking forever!

A decade ago I was able to connect it to a PC with a null-modem cable and was able to re-load all the programs I'd saved from the late '80s. A fun technical challenge but useless for real-world stuff. I guess that pretty much defines vintage computer though.

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ThisAccountIsStolen@reddit

First time I ever repaired one of these in the '80s, I thought I was going to break it because it was "so tiny and fragile" LMAO.

I was used to working on the full size TRS-80 line (and the commodore pet to a lesser extent), so something this "small" to me was like a toy and I felt I was going to destroy it just trying to work on it. Had to replace some 74LS chip, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it took me about 3x longer than it should have because I was being so overcautious with this "tiny" little thing.

I was much happier by the very end of the '80s/early '90s when I had mostly transitioned over to building IBM clones in my shop (I did still do repairs, just not as often and it was more commonly TVs and VCRs by then).

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maurymarkowitz@reddit

Surprisingly good keyboard.

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squareoctopus@reddit

Please send one to William Osman.

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ElectroChuck@reddit

LOVED my Model 100.

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craig1st@reddit

Got one to use as an AT&T EasyLink Telex terminal. Used to jump around FIDO Net et al. Great fun.

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muse_head@reddit

In the UK, I acquired one of these for free around 1998 (was being thrown out by someone), amazing how they could go from so expensive to being thrown out in the space of just over 10 years! I used it as a kid for basic programming and messing around. Still have it in original box with the carry case etc. They seem to go for around £100+ on eBay now.

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