It's interesting. In Canada we had plenty of Radioshack stores, and I vaguely remember seeing ads for Tandy, but I knew exactly one person that had one...a 1000HX. It was already the mid-90s, and needless to say I wasn't impressed. I knew it was an 80s computer, but I thought "Who would have bought this when they could have had an Amiga 500?" I still kind of feel the same way. Perhaps for PC exclusives it's worth having, otherwise just use an Amiga emulator.
It's some technology that was marginally impressive in 1984, but they were still hawking more or less the same shit in the late 80s and early 90s. It's kind of like those GM cars from the 70s and 80s that they just refuse to update and won't go away....ever seen a 1996 Buick Century?

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-09-19, 10:16:

I knew it was an 80s computer, but I thought "Who would have bought this when they could have had an Amiga 500?" I still kind of feel the same way. Perhaps for PC exclusives it's worth having, otherwise just use an Amiga emulator.

I know that feeling. Personally, in retrospective, I often feel the same about the poor Commodore Amiga in comparison to a Sharp X68000.
While obviously, as an European, I had no access to an X68k back in the day, I did use other Sharp computers before.
They all had something in common. Namely, built-quality and creative ideas.
Oh, and the X68k also used professional 5,25" diskettes, as found on PC98 and IBM PCs .
Due to their flatness, they were ideal as book diskettes. ^^
The Amiga's 3,5" micro floppies always bent the book cover. Why didn't they sell more 5,25" drives more often?

Was the x68000 ever sold outside of Japan?

"Tandy 1000" is kind of a vague term. There were many submodels, and sometimes that matters. Maybe this link will be helpful:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html

They're kind of quirky, but fun, IMO.

We never owned a Tandy 1000 growing up, but I had spent enough time pouring over Radio Shack catalogs that the Tandys still feel very nostalgic to me.

I've since purchased three of them (SX, HX, and TL/2). They are fun machines to tinker with and there is something neat about playing classic DOS games with glorious 3 channel Tandy sound. 😁

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2022-09-19, 10:43:

Was the x68000 ever sold outside of Japan?

Um, no, as I wrote before, sadly not, I think.
It's still more impressive than the Amiga, though.
The whole game library is better, I think. It has US games (localized), also, since the 80s Japanese seemingly found everything cool coming from the US.

Sometimes I find myself wishing we Europeans never had gotten the Amiga in first place and its weird library of Euro games, but instead, Sharp would have had released an X68K-like system over here.
Or, maybe, the Acorn Archimedes or RISC PCs from the UK. Also much better.

But then, we wouldn't had gotten the module/tracker formats, maybe, which would have been sad. And much fewer demoscene productions, too, maybe. :(

The Tandy 1000, was it ever sold in Europe or Japan?
From what I remember, it was sold in NA only. :(

Edit: Sorry for being so negative right now.
On TV, there's the burial ceremony of that old lady shown.. That's kind of depressing.

Edit:

Cobra42898 wrote on 2022-09-19, 11:10:

"Tandy 1000" is kind of a vague term. There were many submodels, and sometimes that matters. Maybe this link will be helpful:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html

They're kind of quirky, but fun, IMO.

Oldschool.org also has a link for a Tandy 1000 emulator for MS-DOS PCs (386+), I vaguely remember.

I've seen so much Tandy mentions in game setups as a kid and was always curious what they were and only found out way later, probably during internet days. If I came across one I'd be tempted to grab it just to toy with my Sierra collection, but chances are low and I wouldn't be going out of my way for one. I have a TNDY 3 voice ISA card in one of my rigs, it's glorious and probably close enough 😀

Boohyaka wrote on 2022-09-19, 15:57:

I've seen so much Tandy mentions in game setups as a kid and was always curious what they were and only found out way later, probably during internet days. If I came across one I'd be tempted to grab it just to toy with my Sierra collection, but chances are low and I wouldn't be going out of my way for one. I have a TNDY 3 voice ISA card in one of my rigs, it's glorious and probably close enough 😀

That's because of the great video game crash, I suppose.
Home computers and video game consoles had a hard time after the crash.
America focused on higher quality computers and VHS instead, I think.

Namely the IBM PC and the Macintosh.
Those both were the most popular, judging by the few American books/manuals that I have.

Older, obsolete US systems included the TRS-80 and Apple II.
Maybe the ancient PET, too, if we're kind hearted.

That's why the NES over there was such a notable exception, looked like a VCR.. 😉

By contrast, here in Europe, simple home computers like the C64, Amiga or the MSX still had a chance.
Which, however, caused us to be stuck with much lower-end hardware for a while.
I mean, using a home computer in the 1990s as a daily driver..

The American users could just use the same type of professional computers at home they were used to use at work, anyway.
Which allowed them to be written off their taxes, I assume.

Edit: What I mean to say.. In the states, the Tandy 1000 perhaps was such a success because it was both IBM PC compatible (business software/same software from at work) and featured home computer abilities.
Tandy 3-voice, good graphics (in comparison to CGA/IBM PC)..

Edit: Just double-checked.. Here are some popular 1980s computers from a 1986 manual (US company).

Edit: As you can see, the Tandy computers were quite popular at the time.
- To be fair, maybe because Radio Shack was popular among radio hobbyist, also.
But interestingly, the Amiga is totally missing, despite the ViC20, C128 (!) and C64 being mentioned.
The slow Sanyo MBC and a rare NEC are also listed.

Edit: I'm surprised the TI99 (TI99/4A), the first (?) 16-Bit home computer, wasn't mentioned.
Maybe it was simply too mucht obsolete and hated, I guess? Not sure.

My understanding was that Radioshack was everywhere in the US indeed, and that the price was extremely aggressive for a good machine. It was an affordable computer compared to IBM's, and it was compatible with IBM too so why pay more for the same, or even worse, more for less!

Also I believe I've read somewhere they may have crossed the ocean to the UK at some point, but nowhere else? While I agree with the computer crash situation you mention, an affordable IBM PC compatible would probably have made good sales in Europe, if only they were available. As said in Switzerland I had no idea what they were, except an option in my games setup. The brand was simply unknown, just like Radioshack for that matter.

Boohyaka wrote on 2022-09-19, 18:14:

My understanding was that Radioshack was everywhere in the US indeed

They were ubiquitous in Canada too. I used to get various electronic kits and parts from them back in the day.

And of course there were the annual catalogs which I used to read diligently looking at all the 'high-tech' gadgetry for the time.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-19, 19:33:

Boohyaka wrote on 2022-09-19, 18:14:

My understanding was that Radioshack was everywhere in the US indeed

They were ubiquitous in Canada too. I used to get various electronic kits and parts from them back in the day.

And of course there were the annual catalogs which I used to read diligently looking at all the 'high-tech' gadgetry for the time.

Now that you mention them.. I've got some 70s/80s Radio Shack catalogs right here.
My father used to buy them at the international newsagents.
They used to be located in a shop at the railway station, for example.
Airports had them, too, I suppose.
That's why my father was able to read otherwise unavailable foreign, English language magazines, such as Popular Electronics or the 73 Magazine.

Cobra42898 wrote on 2022-09-19, 11:10:

"Tandy 1000" is kind of a vague term. There were many submodels, and sometimes that matters. Maybe this link will be helpful:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html

They're kind of quirky, but fun, IMO.

Yes..... That was kind of the idea.

I used "Tandy 1000" unspecifically so people could talk about any model of Tandy 1000. Why would I ask if people specifically had a Tandy 1000EX? that would greatly limit potential conversation.

And as I suspected, it seems around here the Tandy 1000 line wasn't well known and not many people had one back in the day or even right now.

They are the best "PCs" pre-mainstream support for VGA & Adlib - certainly XT/AT. The thing is even once EGA, VGA and Adlib were all out there were very lazy PC ports many of which were either Tandy 16/3-Voice or 4-color CGA/PC Speaker. I think 1987 is the uncontested winner of "The Year of Shitty DOS Ports".

I don't know much about the Tandy 1000 series, sadly, but there are a few things that I do remember.

For example, Serria games had PCJr or Tandy 3-voice support that was independent from the Tandy machine/graphics support.
Invoking sierra.exe with the - t parameter provided 3-voice sound on EGA/VGA cards.
Maybe that's of interest for people who upgraded their Tandys.

The 3-voice chip was installed in all Tandy 1000 derivatives, but listened on different port addesses sometimes.
On the 286/AT models, notably, I believe.
Later models also had a better method of PCM playback.

In essence, a real Tandy 1000 or compatible can be determined by the presence of DeskMate. 😉
It was the very heart of the machine (along with DOS), philosophical speaking. 😀

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeskMate

Edit: Here in Europe, the PC1512 and PC1640 had a similar status to the Tandy 1000, at the same time.

Unfortunately, it had no soundchip (judt beeper) and it's graphics abilities were rarely used.
GEM was about the only notable application that did use it.
Aside from some weird French games..

Not even a Windows driver was available.
Which is strange, because Microsoft software was important in in both UK (Amstrad, maker of the PC1512) and Germany (Schneider, distributor).

However, it did have a proper processor right from the start. An all 16-Bit i8086 running @ 8 MHz.
- My father did replace it by a NEC V30 back in the 80s, nevertheless. 😀

notsofossil wrote on 2022-09-20, 23:49:

Yes..... That was kind of the idea. […]
Show full quote

Cobra42898 wrote on 2022-09-19, 11:10:

"Tandy 1000" is kind of a vague term. There were many submodels, and sometimes that matters. Maybe this link will be helpful:

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html

They're kind of quirky, but fun, IMO.

Yes..... That was kind of the idea.

I used "Tandy 1000" unspecifically so people could talk about any model of Tandy 1000. Why would I ask if people specifically had a Tandy 1000EX? that would greatly limit potential conversation.

And as I suspected, it seems around here the Tandy 1000 line wasn't well known and not many people had one back in the day or even right now.

I wouldn't go that far as to say they weren't well known or popular. The Tandy price point was lower than IBM for sure, which was important because early computers like 286's and earlier often had manufacturer specific mountings, connectors, pinouts, etc. Back then it was also a big selling point that your Tandy could often be repaired at a local radio shack store.

I learned a lot back then on a 1000SL, which I still own. It needs a new floppy drive installed, but it still boots and works otherwise. And yes, I still use Deskmate.