This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Eaca  VIDEO GENIE 1 / EG-3003 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message! For other purposes like sales messages, hardware & software questions or information requests, please use our main forum.

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!

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.

We have a boxed Video Genie in our loft. I''m not sure what to do with it. Any ideas?

I wrote a lunar lander game in Basic on this PC.
Also learnt Z-80 Machine code on this and my Homebrew PC.. Z-80..2114s,2732''s,4116''s and 41256s ..still have Z-80 Instructions stored in my head.

I used to have a video-genie too. Tape-deck model with a Nick Kershaw sticker from a weatabix box. I used to play Scott Adam adventures such as the Count and other games as well. It has always been truly inspiring to me how they could get games like android reversi working using ascii character code programming so that the robots had a 3d appearance. I was given mine as a birthday present in 1984 and I have programmed since then (on and off (even my expressions are binary(note the advanced human bracketing system I use))). I would really like to be able to buy an original if anyone still has one. I still have all the games somewhere. There were a lot of scientific programs for them like the game of life, astronomy programs, electronics programs with schemas and databases that fired my imagination in a way that people who prefer to read book than use a computer are now hideously offended by - something to do with money I think but I''m not certain$
gosub "gosub" their favourite expression. I wouldn''t personally give my children - if I had any - a calculator before the age of 17 but I would give them a computer.

I wrote my first program on mine in Quick Basic, it was a stock control database written from first principles it was 16Kb and it took 10 mins to load from audio tape.

Hi, I've got a site devoted to this model at http://www.webweavers.co.nz/system-80/

What I really want to find out now though is more about the company that made it, EACA. I know that they were based in Hong Kong and went out of business in 1983 or 84. How large were they? Did they make any other products? Who designed the original EACA Video Genie/System 80? This kind of thing.

If you know anything please email me.

I got one of these for my xmas and birthday present. I remember that it was purchased from Lowe Electronics in the UK www.lowe.co.uk. From my memory it is equlivent to a TRS-80 model 2. Its a shame but I sold all my books and parts for it to a local school back in the 1980's. My main memory of it is playing text adventures on it. And learning to write Z80 machine code... ahhh those were the days.

I have one of the EG3003 model with casette deck. I managed to upgrade the internal board from 16 KB to 48 KB RAM and to add a 2KB monitor eprom by myself. Later the model came with this monitor build in i addition to the BASIC program. I also changed the character generator to be able to have both upper and lower case letters, and then I added a little centronic printer interface. Then the PC came and the model became history.