This computer was used in the 80's in Hungarian schools along with the Primo. It was very similar to the Enterprise 64 as it was a licensed product. There is even a built-in joystick on the right of the keyboard.
There are different models : 32 KB, 64 KB and 64 KB+ (picture here). The 64 KB+ has more video RAM (64 KB instead of 16 KB) and different versions of ROM (2.1 - 2.2 & 2.4 instead of 1.1 -1.2 - 1.3 & 1.4).
The main physical difference of the TV-Computer is the four expansion slots that are placed at the top left side of the case, allowing easy upgrade of the system. On the left side, one can find two joystick connectors and a cartridge slot (16 KB max.) for games, applications and operating systems. TVC OS is built-in the system (along with Basic), but UPM (special version of CP/M for the TVC) or VT-DOS (DOS 3.10 compatible) could be implemented this way. VT-DOS could only read/write IBM PC disks, as it was not fully compatible with both the hardware and software.
Thanks to Gabor Monok for all the info & pictures!
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TVC's network, by Béla Czeiner:
Can you imagine a network from these PCs?
I had worked on it!
It means that 8 TVC was connected to a standalone floppy disk drive (which was able to handle 2 (!) disks). So it was possible to "distribute" data from this common FDD. But mainly we stored our programs written in Basic to tape drives.
And a story:
When you were ready with your program and tried to connect the tape - or doing any other hasty movement - knocked the table under your TVC you had a great chance of a reboot... ;-)
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
Videotron is also a big cable company in Canada
Thursday 17th March 2022
Frank (Canada)
Can you imagine a network from these PCs? I had worked on it! It means that 8 TVC was connected to a standalone floppy disk drive (which was able to handle 2 (!) disks). So it was possible to "distribute" data from this common FDD. But mainly we stored our programs written in Basic to tape drives. And a story: When you were ready with your program and tried to connect the tape - or doing any other hasty movement - knocked the table under your TVC you had a great chance of a reboot... ;-)
Monday 9th October 2006
Béla Czeiner (Hungary)
The tvc.homeserver.hu page is updated frequently, new emulators, more fotos, documentation, and programs are avaible from time to time.
(Hungary, 1985)
