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Video Genie System

Photo by and with permission from Bubboboo (eBay).

My Video Genie was exactly same as the one in the picture above. This is the second model with all 4 arrows, clear key, lacking shift on right side and having a volume control and VU-meter with the cassette player. The first model had no right arrow (tab) or clear key and no volume control or VU-meter.
Made by EACA International LTD.
Marketed in England as a product of Lowe Electronics, and in Germany as a product of Trommeschläger Computer gmbh etc. EACA wasn't mentioned.
Sold under other names in other parts of the world:
System 80 (Australia, NZ), PMC-80 (USA) and HT-1080Z (Hungary) are certainly the same. TRZ-80 (South Africa) according a review in 80 Micro January 1982 by Eric Lindsay. Video Genie was the western European name.

It is a clone of The TRS-80 Model I (level 2, 16K) with some differences
It's physically quite different but most of the hardware is similar.

Differences	Video Genie	TRS-80
1: Cassette relays port (write only)	I/O port 254	Memory mapped at 37E4h
2: Printer port (write and read)	I/O port 253	Memory mapped at 37E8h
3: 32/64 character mode (Video Cut)	Button on back	I/O port 255 bit 3
4: ROM/BIOS startup message	"READY?"	"MEMORY SIZE?"
5: ROM/BIOS second message	23 CR's (clear screen and start at bottom)	"RADIO SHACK LEVEL II BASIC"
6: ROM-Basic error message on Disk BASIC commands	SN (Syntax error)	L3 (Level III error)
7: Expansion port	50 pin gold plated ( pin listing )	40 pin tin plated

All except 3 and 7 are represented by changes in the ROM
The significant changes are 1 and 2, programs usually use the ROM routines for these devices so they work still. The ROM routine for the printer doesn't have a timeout, so if a program has its own routine with a timeout there could be a problem. Patching such a program is pretty easy though.

The 32 character mode is also different in what it does. The Video Genie exands either the left half of the screen, or the right half if the 'Page' button is down. The TRS-80 expands every other character and has no 'Page' button.

Video Genie Links:

Terry Stewart's

System 80 Support Site

In Hungarian

The Hungarian HT-1080Z

My old Video Genie

My first computer
Still going strong

My expansion pin listing

documentation page

My HI.RES page about the LE18

High Resolution Graphics
for Video Genie

TRS-80 Links:

TRS-80 Model I

Microcomputer from 1977

TRS-80 Model III

Better TRS-80 from 1980

TRS-80 Model 4

Even better TRS-80 from 1983

Emulator Links:

David Keil's TRS-80 emulator where he also has software and documentation
My page about how to change keyboard layout in David Keil's version 6 emulator
Jürgen Büssert 'sTRS-80 page with more information about International Keyboard layout
My page about font modification in David Keil's version 6 emulator with a tool and ROM modification
My page about my transfer utility X/CMD for David Keil's emulator

PC tools for TRS-80 stuff:

wav2cas

Cassette tape conversion.

Play CAS

Use a pc as a cassette deck.

Software and documentation Links:

Tim Mann's TRS-80 page where he also has an emulator for unix
Ira Goldklang's www.trs-80.com information
TRS-80 Model I Expansion Interface Schematics Layout (146k 100DPI JPG), page 1 (157k 300DPI PNG) and page 2 (125k 300DPI PNG).

Selfmade TRS-80 and emulator software

My transfer utility X/CMD for David Keil's emulator
The ABELT page, an old TRS-80 game I made

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