What should I do with this?

[Newuser1111]

I found a Tandy 1000 SX, and it still works.

Pics:
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/DJKPSP/100_0276.jpg
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/DJKPSP/100_0279.jpg
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/DJKPSP/100_0280.jpg
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/DJKPSP/100_0281.jpg
http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr70/DJKPSP/100_0282.jpg

[Chilli Bob]

Cool! What are the specs, and what software do you have for it? You are going to be limited by the availability of 5 1/2" floppies in working order. I haven't seen one in ages. It would be fun to play with some retro software.

EDIT: Here's a good place to start....

http://www.vetusware.com/

[Newuser1111]

But I don't have any floppies.

And I don't know the specs of it, where can I find that?

[jacobw.uk]

Tandy 1000 SX/TX

The Tandy 1000 TX was very similar to the Tandy 1000, having an external keyboard and similar casing. The most major difference was the use of an 80286 CPU; otherwise, it was nearly identical to the Tandy 1000, including the unique parallel port edge connector. Despite the 80286 processor, it was still an XT-class PC, not an AT-class PC, as it adapted the 80286 to operate over the same 8-bit data bus as previous Tandy 1000 models, and had 8-bit XT-style expansion slots. As such, it could not operate in 80286 Protected Mode or perform 16-bit memory or I/O transfers in one bus cycle, but it did benefit from the higher speed of the 80286 and its other added instructions in Real Mode. The TX had a 3.5" internal floppy disk drive, with an optional additional internal 5.25" floppy disk drive. It contained ports for two joysticks in the front along with the keyboard, and included a volume control with a headphone jack on the front. The back had all of the same ports as the Tandy 1000, except that the light wand port was replaced with a 9-pin standard D-shell RS-232 serial port. The memory size was 640k (upgradable to 768k, with the added 128K devoted to video*) and the computer came bundled with Deskmate. The SX was identical to the TX except it used a 7.16 MHz 8088 processor, had 384k of memory (upgradeable to 640K on the motherboard,) came with either one or two 5.25" internal floppy disk drives, had the light pen port instead of the RS-232 serial port, and lacked the volume control and headphone jack. All original Tandy-provided internal floppy disk drives for the 1000 SX and TX were double density drives.

* Unlike the IBM PC, PX/XT, PC/AT, and all compatibles, the Tandy 1000 series (except possibly for late models) used part of main memory as video memory, as the IBM PCjr did. Expanding the TX's memory to 768K ensured that more memory would be available in the 640K of the memory space allocated by IBM for main memory (for programs and their data).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SX.2FTX

[2hot6ft2]

it did benefit from the higher speed of the 80286

Ah the old days. Man that was smokin' back in the day

[exploder]

That's an awesome old machine! It looks to be in perfect condition and with the original boxes, wow! Those things were built to last.

[hotweiss]

Wow I remember someone that had a Tandy back in the day, I was so impressed by it. It had a Sound Blaster sound card that was capable of playing back recorded sounds. To hear an actual voice in Space Quest blew my mind away. Does anyone remember the AdLib sound card, lol?

[MikeTheC]

One of my friends from HS had one of those, I think.

Ah, the good 'ole days when there was no such a thing as a ubiquitous defacto standard platform.

[Newuser1111]

Is there anything to do with it that doesn't require floppies?

[steveneddy]

My suggestions for any Tandy PC:

1. Prop open a door on breezy days.

2. Hold open the garage door.

3. Take the cover off and make a litter box for the cat.

4. Recycle it.

5. Sell it on E-bay.

6. Donate it to a museum.

7. Find 199 more of them and put them in one room and start a Tandy PC Beowulf cluster.

8. Pound it to death with a sledge hammer, film it, and put it on YouTube.

9. Find a version of Linux to run on it.

10. Put it back in the attic and forget about it for another 15 years.

[Newuser1111]

10. Put it back in the attic and forget about it for another 15 years.I just put it in the closet.

[oldsoundguy]

Actually the Tandy 1000SX (not TX) had an 8088 processor with a socket for a math co-processor. It was expandable to 512K of ram on a slot plug in card. It used IBM SHORT plug in boards ISA (would not take the standard 14" boards of the time).

The stock OS was PC DOS (not sure of the number think it was 2.1) and it came with Tandy Deskmate software to do office management. RGB monitor and one 5 1/4 floppy were standard but most opted for a second drive. (I put 3 1/2 drives in as soon as they were available.

It was my first office machine.

It ran a Diablo 610 daisy wheel printer (that was loud as he**) using PFS ProWrite software. Our accounting software was Peachtree. Our data base was Lotus 123.

We added an 800 baud modem and a controller card for an external hard drive. Ran a Tallgrass 26MEG (not gig) drive/tape backup that was almost as big as the computer itself.

EVERYTHING was command line as there were very few programs with mouse support and GUI was only available on Apple computers at that time.

The whole package including the printer, all of the add ons possible and the hard drive set up came to a bit over 3 grand new.

No "net" or "WWW" then .. only bulletin board services or peer to peer with both having to set up for the data transer(s).

[wmcbrine]

The cool thing (at the time) about the Tandy 1000, vs. other XTs, was the advanced video modes it had -- basically the same as on a PCjr. It was sort of between CGA and EGA.

[melojo]

One of my friends from HS had one of those, I think.

Ah, the good 'ole days when there was no such a thing as a ubiquitous defacto standard platform.

I haven't seen one since highschool. That's what we used!

[Chilli Bob]

I put 3 1/2 drives in as soon as they were available.



Hmmm.... if to OP can install 3 1/2 drives, he should be able to boot DR-DOS and get some vintage apps running. Seriously, my first PC was an XT with only 2 x 5 1/4 floppies and no hard drive, and I used it for Uni assignments for over a year. That thing rocked (in a small way).

[mips]

Use it as a door stopper.