This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Tandy Radio Shack  TRS 80 MODEL III computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

In the later years of TRS-80 Model III I bought a 5meg external hard drive. Then IBM PC came along and I switched to it. In Kansas City we had a Radio Shack Computer User forum that met once a month in the Olathe Kansas store to share stories of how to program and get things to work. It was a giant help for me. About 30 of us met there. Dad sold me the Mod III that he had just bought for $2500 in 1982/1983. I went without lunches for a year and half to pay for that. I gave a lecture to a wealthy women''s group on Ward Parkway in about 1984 or so and took my Mod III with me to demonstrate what a computer could do. I kept mentioning how useful the users group was. After 30 minutes a lady said, "Oh, you are not talking about a drug users group." It never occurred to me to explain what a computer users groups was.

I have some old radio shack programs. and Tandy tapes that could be read by Model III in my day. Who could I donate them to? Also I have several Basic program text books who to give to?

In 1983, I worked on one of these for a Radio Shack store that also rented VHS movie tapes. It was a 48k dual floppy machine with a printer attached. My mission was to write the BASIC software necessary to inventory and keep track of which movies were currently rented out. It also printed out the tapes that were available for a given month. I got this job because I had experience with Level II BASIC on the Model I machine. Great times! :)

At school we had the model I and the TRS80 model III was my first own computer. I still have it and it is still working and I also have lots of original documentation and tons of floppies. As I bought it once in Germany it has an extremely rare feature: German keyboard layout! So I''m very proud to have it $-) Would be happy to share memories about this machine if you like: jvogel@vetphys.uzh.ch

My parents bought me a TRS-80 Model III as a high school graduation present in 1981. That was a sweet machine at that time. Of course, I didn''t have floppy disks because those were too expensive. OTOH, I did have the new *triple speed* audio cassette that could load data at a zippy 1500 bits per second!

I quickly outgrew the 16K of RAM and upgraded first to 32K and then maxed out at 48K. I still have the machine, and I still have the Model III ROM Commented book that has the assembly source code for the L2 ROM.

Not seeking to sell...just posting for shared interest. :-)

This was my first computer. I bought it used (or perhaps I should say that my mom bought it for me as I didn''t have money at the time (Sound familar??)) for $1000 used. Came with two caes of disk, bunch of Load-80 tapes and several books. That night I was up until 5:00 A.M.w when my mom made me go to bed. I woke up 3 hours later and was back on the machine. True, the graphics sucked even at the time, but the games were still fun. I also had fun BBSing (but for some reason it wasn''t fun when the phone bill came looking as thick as a phone book ...just kidding, but the bill was no laughing matter. Still, it was fun trying to get on that popular BBS that ALWAYS had a busy signal....*SIGH* I tell you kids have SO EASY now a days with the Internet. Able to listen to any song you want right away w/o having to call a radio station asking the DJ to put it on wondering f he/she would, never getting a busy signal when you want to go online. In a weird way it was fun trying to get on that populat BBS$ LOL

How many of you remember paying $40 for a box of ten 5 1/4" floppies at Radio Shack? That''s something I don''t miss!!! I do remember an Elephant floppy I had that I used to boot the system. I used that sucker for a year at least and that floppy NEVER gave me a gram of trouble.

I have a TRS80 III and the wide printer. Purchased back in 1985. Last used about 1995. Has been stored in excellent condition. Lots of cables and misc. Several boxes of books, magazines and software for this computer. If someone is interested in them please contact me. flyrite777@juno.com

I have a TRS80 III and the wide printer. Purchased back in 1985. Last used about 1995. Has been stored in excellent condition. Lots of cables and misc. Several boxes of books, magazines and software for this computer. If someone is interested in them please contact me. flyrite777@juno.com

J''ai 2 ordinateurs à donner, TRS-80 Modèle III (64Ko, 2 flopy 5"1/4, + carte graphique) et TRS-80 Modèle IV (clavier accentué) , plus une imprimante daisyweel avec margueritte.
Le tout en parfait état.
Faire offre de rachat au prix des frais de port, ou venir chercher en france. Tel 0336 23 86 38 45. 033478 21 42 14
Urgent avant le 15 Aout 2011, date de destruction. Me contacter pour se mettre d''accord.

@PAUL (FROM MICHIGAN) - I just left a job as "Computer Operator" that still prints reports off a line printer on good ol'' greenbar paper. Stepping into that office is like stepping in a time machine! But, on topic, my experience with the TRS-80 Model III was in the 5th grade. My 5th grade teacher predicted that we would be looking up information on our computers, rather than libraries, by the time my 5th grade class was in college. We laughed at him, back then. He was right on the money.

This was my first computer and I remember typing in code so I could play games. My dad still has this. Any idea if it is worth anything today?

I purchase a new TRS 80 Mod III at the beginning of the 80''s. This came with 48K of RAM and two floppy 5.1/4" drives. I had it sent over from UK. At the time I was very interested in Amateor radio just having obtained my Ham license. I learned to program in basic using the manual supplied with the machine and this was the basis of my working in the IT field. I also purchases a unit called Terminall which I could use with my TRS 80 and Transciever to send and receive RTTY (radio teletype). Radio teletype was the old type telex. At the time machines still used punched tape to send messages but the TRS 80 with Terminall did it using software. I still have the machine sitting covered in my garage. Hopefully someone will decide to open a computer museum and it will find its righfull place there.

Back in 1984, my freshman year of highschool, our computer classes consisted of puchcards for FORTRAN programming and the good old "Trash-80" model III for BASIC and COBOL programming. I still remember the day I discovered the "dir" command and ran every single DOS command listed, up to and including format... which formatted the system drive for the network and killedeveryones projects. Live and learn. Oh, the days of 360K 5 1/4" disks and green-bar printouts.

Hey there just got one today from a computer recycle place for free. ummm but how do turn this thing on! :) i used the switch next to the keyboard but the screen is blank......is it damaged? or is there a seprate switch for the screen? it has two disk drives.

This was my second computer. I had the Model I, and with the FCC interference regulations that shut down the Model I, I was able to trade in my Model I on a new Model III. Al of the software that I had for both computers went with this model when I sold it.

One of the "New and Improved" features was placing the "Reset" button right next to the number pad so that anyone could hit it while you were working on it! Many of us who sold these taped our business cards OVER that recessed button. On the other hand, unlike the model 1, you did not have to reach around the back to press the reset button. A very common and necessary function.

This was also my first computer. 48K of ram, floppy drive, and tape drive. .NET web services are a long way from the basic programs I used to write.

Tandy TRS-80 was my first vision of the Computers. I Start learn Basic Language ont that computer.

Cut my teeth on this one. It had 64k of memory, but only 48K was addressable. Rest was ROM. Mine came with one floppy. I remember adding the second one myself - instant computer technician. I also remember using a hole punch to create "flippies" - The drives were single sided. If you bought double sided diskettes, you could notch the other side and punch a couple of holes on either side of the case for the timing hole and - voila - you could flip the diskette and use the other side! Ah, the good 'ole days...