8 replies to this topic

[tremoloman2006]

Hello everyone!

Let me introduce myself since this is my 1st post here. I'm tremoloman2006 and currently live on the South Shore in Massachusetts. I plan on relocating to New Hampshire in the next year or two and do visit Meredith & Funspot roughly every few weeks while visiting friends and family.

I recently acquired a Tandy 1000 SX so I can start playing my old games from the 80s that do not work on modern hardware. It needs a keyboard, 3½" floppy, and possibly memory to expand it to 640K. Any idea where I might find some of this stuff local?

Also... is there some sort of adapter that would allow me to connect a modern VGA monitor to the EGA output on the Tandy 1000?

If any of you are ever in the mood to play some games at Funspot be sure to give me a shout!

Take care and best regards,
tremoloman2006

[tremoloman2006]

bump

[nathanallan]

Holy cow, how did I miss this post?? I see it only took 291 other posts and 1 bump to get it answered, sorry!

A converter box for these two standards would be hard to come by, but they exist and they are expensive as far as I remember. I haven't seen one in several years, and the one I halfway remember seeing cost over a hundred bucks, and I quickly passed on it. It would be better to look around for an old EGA monitor to go with the Tandy. And if you can find them cheap-free, get as many 9-pin cabled monitors as you can until you find something that works.

And a google search later tells me the prices have gone up. It's not a simple piece of hardware to build, from what I remember. check out the thrifts, see if you can't find a monitor.

Google EGA VGA converter

[Great Hierophant]

Be fortunate that even if you cannot find a CGA (EGA is overkill) monitor you can still use the RCA output to a TV to view the graphics.

[nathanallan]

Some of them didn't come with the RCA out. Have to wait to see what he has, though. Mine doesn't have it.

But if it does, be sure to use a good shielded cable, else the interference will make the picture all grainy. tandys are cool

Nathan

[dinosaur]

Damn! I just trashed a perfectly good EGA monitor! Sorry!

I do have have a Tandy 720k 3.5" disk drive.

Edited by dinosaur, Tue Jul 8, 2008 11:02 PM.

[nathanallan]

It's better to buy them locally, unless he doesn't mind paying close to thirty bucks in shipping-- those things are heavy.

Just browsed ebay got 8-bit cards and they are everywhere! Most are pretty cheap, too, so if you ever get a picture off of the thing you can upgrade it a lot! heck, I may invest a little into my Tandys. Didn't see any video cards, though, I suppose they are kind of rare and get pricey. There are some over at the vintage-computer auction site.

Nathan

dinosaur, on Tue Jul 8, 2008 11:00 PM, said:

Damn! I just trashed a perfectly good EGA monitor! Sorry!

I do have have a Tandy 720k 3.5" disk drive.

[Great Hierophant]

nathanallan, on Wed Jul 9, 2008 12:15 AM, said:

Some of them didn't come with the RCA out. Have to wait to see what he has, though. Mine doesn't have it.

Nathan

The Tandy 1000 /A/HD/EX/HX/SX/TX are the only ones that did.

[tremoloman2006]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

My SX does have thr RCA outputs but the signal is dismal at best. Damn... I wish I never threw out my old Tandy EGA monitor. Who knew I'd get back into it 20 years later it became outdated. Ahhhh... hindsight is 20/20!

I'm always looking for Tandy 1000 stuff in general so if you have some Tandy related items feel free to IM me as I'm open to trades/sales/whatever.

If anyone here is looking for something, don't hesitate to ask. I've got tons of junk stored in my attic as I have a hard time throwing out ANYTHING that still works perfectly fine.

Edited by tremoloman2006, Wed Sep 2, 2009 10:46 PM.