{"id":1126,"date":"2015-05-11T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T19:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=1126"},"modified":"2015-05-13T09:45:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T14:45:39","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-trs-80-mc-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/1126\/retro-scan-of-the-week-trs-80-mc-10","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Get Your Start in Color Computing with the TRS-80 MC-10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/trs80_mc10_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/trs80_mc10_small.jpg\" alt=\"Radio Shack TRS-80 MC-10 micro color computer catalog page - 1984\" class=\"retroscan\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN A DINOSAUR SHOE<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve owned a TRS-80 MC-10 since at least 1996 (according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/365\" target=\"_blank\">this photo<\/a>), so it holds a nostalgic place in my collection.  It&#8217;s a really neat little machine despite its limitations (chief among those problems? Tiny chiclet keyboard).  But Radio Shack designed this machine as a low-cost entry-level PC for the home, so most of of those issues can easily be overlooked.<\/p>\n<p>The MC-10&#8217;s price at the time of this catalog printing had slipped to just $79 (about $178 today when adjusted for inflation).  For comparison, the Apple IIc (a far more sophisticated machine, but typical for a home PC at the time) retailed for $1295 upon its introduction that same year (that&#8217;s a whopping $3,688 today).  Price wise, that&#8217;s similar to the difference between buying a low-end Windows 8 tablet and a Mac Pro.  The technological difference was not nearly that dramatic, however.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the coolest thing about the MC-10 is that you can now download software for it over the Internet in the form of audio files and <a href=\"http:\/\/mc10archive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">load them into the MC-10<\/a> via its cassette port.  Check out this site for an awesome array of <a href=\"http:\/\/faculty.cbu.ca\/jgerrie\/Home\/jgames.html\" target=\"_blank\">homebrew MC-10 games<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><center><em>[ From 1984 Radio Shack TRS-80 Catalog (RSC-11), p.59]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> If you were stuck on a desert island and you could only use a TRS-80 MC-10 or a Sinclair ZX81, which would you pick?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN A DINOSAUR SHOE I&#8217;ve owned a TRS-80 MC-10 since at least 1996 (according to this photo), so it holds a nostalgic place in my collection. It&#8217;s a really neat little machine despite its limitations (chief among those problems? Tiny chiclet keyboard). But Radio Shack designed this machine as a low-cost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,27,26,10],"tags":[1102,1101,190,60,186],"class_list":["post-1126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-info-and-history","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-computers","tag-low-cost-computer","tag-mc-10","tag-radio-shack","tag-retro-scan","tag-trs-80"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}