This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Tandy Radio Shack  TRS-80 Model 200 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.

I have a Tandy 200 portable computer, with all the manuals, and even the couplers. I bought it in 1988 because I was working as a journalist. I used to to write my stories and send them to the newspaper, using the couplers on pay phones to transmit. Amazing to think about, really.

It was my first laptot. If my memory is good, Reuters or another big news company use it.. In fact, for a copy writer, this computer was the best companion! I baught it in rom 1987 and use it to 89. Excellent Keybaord, full view on sceren and a lot of other stuff... For me the 200 is a classic computer. Default? Yes! External serial fucking floppy driver, fucking extensions..... But...... I'd ll to have it again... My Lifebook from Fujitsu on Windows 2000 is only worst......;

The scottish sunday newspaper The Sunday Post had a reporter called 'Tandy Man'. He journeyed the country reporting on various events and sent his stories in using his Tandy Model 200.

The 200 was the first computer I purchased. I was working for NBC at the time. It was used by all of their correspondents and producers for access to the network's mainframe computer. Some of the NBC users even wrote BASIC programs that matched up with the network's expense reports and other paperwork. They even wrote one that allowed the computer to perform the theme to "I Love Lucy"! I was still able to use it as late as 1999 for filing stories to UPI. It was a remarkably flexible unit. The spreadsheet program allowed me to track the revenues of two groups of salespeople and do month to month and year to year comparisons. The machine had an AC adapter or operated on four AA batteries. I cannot remember how much I paid for it, it was a few hundred dollars (I picked it up in Delaware to avoid a big sakes tax hit). You could hook it directly into a telephone line or you could buy an "acoustic coupler" that allowed you to communicate through a telephone handset.

I actually had a customer present one of these babies to me asking if I could install Windows on it for him. After I regained my composure i explained to him that this computer was 17 years old which he replied "But the guy who sold it to me for $100 dollars said it would connect to the internet. I briefly explained what the internet was when his "computer" was in use. I offered him $15 to take it off his hands but he packed it up and left. His wife yelled at him when he got back in his car.

Have Tandy 200 for sale
complete set includes couplers ,matrix printer,mauels and suitcase

Do the key caps come off easily? There''s a hefty amount of dirt beneath my keyboard and I don''t want to ruin any of the keys.

Back in the 1980''s I worked for a Tandy dealership in Dublin. We had great success with the T102 and T200 with all of the national newspapers. As other posters have mentioned, the simplicity of both machines and the battery life (on 4xAA''s) along with an inbuilt 300baud Bell Modem, meant that these machines were ''journalist-proof''. Indeed when they were discontinued and the papers were forced to move to standard laptops, we experienced many more support calls. We even sourced software for laptops which emulated the T102/200''s inbuilt simple text processing software!

any one has a T200 for sale reasonable please post here and let me know

Photo Bill Gates with Tandy 200
http://www.club100.org/stories/02/beer2.html

I just got one (for free). Judging the "documents" is has been in use by a local newspaper.
It is in a leather case but the cables are missing as well as the documentation.
Maybe I am going to use it as a terminal, just for fun.