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Got a Tandy 1000 EX...now what ?

R

Retro Canada

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
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280
Location
Vancouver, BC
I got an unexpanded EX at ebay for a fair price around 70USD. It got few issues: the computer wouldn't POST and the drive light on.

I found out the motherboard was short circuiting in the metal plate, losening few screws and adding a piece of paper solved. The drive needed some lube and a head cleaning.

Now I am trying to find anything that runs on it, or that fits into the 360KB disks. For example: is there a KQ1 copy for it ? Everything I get is in a single .zip for hd install.

Got some files from oldskool site but they seem to either be for 720KB disks or requires more than 256kb.

so is a unexpanded ex so useless anyway ?

BTW: the last memory expansion on ebay was sold this week fro whopping 200 USD! No way, i prefer not to use it at all....
 
Retro Canada said:
I got an unexpanded EX at ebay for a fair price around 70USD. It got few issues: the computer wouldn't POST and the drive light on.

I found out the motherboard was short circuiting in the metal plate, losening few screws and adding a piece of paper solved. The drive needed some lube and a head cleaning.

Now I am trying to find anything that runs on it, or that fits into the 360KB disks. For example: is there a KQ1 copy for it ? Everything I get is in a single .zip for hd install.

Got some files from oldskool site but they seem to either be for 720KB disks or requires more than 256kb.

so is a unexpanded ex so useless anyway ?

BTW: the last memory expansion on ebay was sold this week fro whopping 200 USD! No way, i prefer not to use it at all....
Click to expand...

Now you put a gotek in it and use 720kb virtual disks. Plenty of games will run in 256kb of memory, like Ultima 1 - 4, bard's tale, and a ton of stuff like PCPOOL and SOPWITH. You might just have to set your standards a little lower than normal. Mobygames has a way to filter by year, games from 1985/6/7 are pretty likely to support 256kb, and there are some real gems there like early Space Quest and whatnot.

You seem like the hands-on kind of guy, obviously, so I'd be interested in hearing what you think about installing a Gotek in place of a plus card in the back; you'd need a longer floppy cable, but it would be pretty interesting way to add a second drive to an EX.
 
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keenerb said:
Now you put a gotek in it and use 720kb virtual disks. Plenty of games will run in 256kb of memory, like Ultima 1 - 4, bard's tale, and a ton of stuff like PCPOOL and SOPWITH. You might just have to set your standards a little lower than normal. Mobygames has a way to filter by year, games from 1985/6/7 are pretty likely to support 256kb, and there are some real gems there like early Space Quest and whatnot.

You seem like the hands-on kind of guy, obviously, so I'd be interested in hearing what you think about installing a Gotek in place of a plus card in the back; you'd need a longer floppy cable, but it would be pretty interesting way to add a second drive to an EX.
Click to expand...

nah, I rather get an ISA PLUS and use a XTIDE...

btw, this TOSEC seems to have the disks I was looking for: https://archive.org/details/IBM_PC_Compatibles_TOSEC_2012_04_23
 
Here's a partial list of games that should work on a 256K Tandy:

http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/pc-booter/tic,15/ti,97/
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/pc-booter/tic,15/ti,98/
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/pc-booter/tic,15/ti,99/
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/dos/tic,15/ti,97/
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/dos/tic,15/ti,98/
http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/dos/tic,15/ti,99/

Nearly 700 games, and that's not a complete list.

When it comes to Sierra games (King's Quest, etc.), always use the booter version. The DOS versions of the same game requires more disks and more memory.
 
Note that some games listed a higher memory requirement for a Tandy as compared to a standard PC -- at least if you wanted to use 16-color Tandy graphics mode instead of plain 4-color CGA. That's because the Tandy steals some of the main RAM to use as video RAM.

For example, Test Drive specified "Requires 256K RAM (384K for IBM with EGA and for Tandy 1000)".
 
Yep, and that's actually a major point of a video I'm working on. Other than Test Drive, do you recall any others that had that requirement? (I'm going to mine mobygames later this evening, but people's memories are usually quicker)

Edit: Found the following titles that had 256K as a requirement if not on Tandy/PCjr, and 384K if they were: Test Drive, 4th and Inches, Three Stooges, World Tour Golf, Donald’s Alphabet Chase, Fast Break

There are other examples of this for 512/640 but I didn't bother mining those.
 
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I have a copy of Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon adjacent to me and it has a similar extra memory requirement. On the box, it says 256K. On an insert sheet, it lists 384k for the Tandy 1000 16 color version.
 
Retro Canada said:
I got an unexpanded EX at ebay for a fair price around 70USD. It got few issues: the computer wouldn't POST and the drive light on.

I found out the motherboard was short circuiting in the metal plate, losening few screws and adding a piece of paper solved. The drive needed some lube and a head cleaning.

Now I am trying to find anything that runs on it, or that fits into the 360KB disks. For example: is there a KQ1 copy for it ? Everything I get is in a single .zip for hd install.

Got some files from oldskool site but they seem to either be for 720KB disks or requires more than 256kb.

so is a unexpanded ex so useless anyway ?

BTW: the last memory expansion on ebay was sold this week fro whopping 200 USD! No way, i prefer not to use it at all....
Click to expand...

If the flexible top shield has been removed then you really need to put something non-conductive under the mainboard to prevent shorts. I used a piece of thin flexible plastic from a document folder (from the supermarket) cut to shape with holes in all the right places and that worked great. It actually looks a lot like the plastic isolator C= used in the Amiga 500's to prevent the mainboards from shorting out against the metal RF shield.
 
Retro Canada said:
nah, I rather get an ISA PLUS and use a XTIDE...

btw, this TOSEC seems to have the disks I was looking for: https://archive.org/details/IBM_PC_Compatibles_TOSEC_2012_04_23
Click to expand...

My understanding was that the DMA bit of the ex/hx memory expansion was partially for RAM refresh on that extra memory?

You may be able to backfill RAM to 512k or maybe 640 with a Lotech 1MB board or something similar that uses SRAM, which doesn't require refresh. I've never tried it though.
 
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keenerb said:
My understanding was that the DMA bit of the ex/hx memory expansion was partially for RAM refresh on that extra memory?

You may be able to backfill RAM to 512k or maybe 640 with a Lotech 1MB board or something similar that uses SRAM, which doesn't require refresh. I've never tried it though.
Click to expand...

looks like the ISA plus requires the memory expansion...
 
Retro Canada said:
looks like the ISA plus requires the memory expansion...
Click to expand...

I can build (as in I have the parts) an earlier version of my PLUS-ISA adapter which does work in a non-Ram expanded EX/HX and does work with the Lo-tech ISA compact flash IDE controller if you want one - the down side is you only get 1 ISA Slot.

v0.8 looks like this (I never sold it as it's too tall for machines with the Ram expansion):

BBlbpqFl.jpg


NSNgk9Gl.jpg


I've been kicking around making a proper 2 ISA-slot riser board with 512kb of RAM and an Intel 8237a DMA controller but I need help from one of my EE mates to finish it (he's a LOT smarter than I am).
 
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dJOS said:
I can build (as in I have the parts) an earlier version of my PLUS-ISA adapter which does work in a non-Ram expanded EX/HX and does work with the Lo-tech ISA compact flash IDE controller if you want one - the down side is you only get 1 ISA Slot.

v0.8 looks like this (I never sold it as it's too tall for machines with the Ram expansion):

BBlbpqFl.jpg


NSNgk9Gl.jpg


I've keen kicking around making a proper 2 ISA-slot riser board with 512kb of RAM and an Intel 8237a DMA controller but I need help from one of my EE mates to finish it (he's a LOT smarter than I am).
Click to expand...

cool how much ?
 
dJOS said:
I've been kicking around making a proper 2 ISA-slot riser board with 512kb of RAM and an Intel 8237a DMA controller but I need help from one of my EE mates to finish it (he's a LOT smarter than I am).
Click to expand...

That's some great news, people (notably most EX owners) are starved for RAM expansion boards, prices online are getting crazy.

Think you can fit an XT-IDE(-CF) on it? And a serial port connector?
 
HoJoPo said:
The schematics and PCB mask for the Tandy memory expansion / DMA controller are in the Tandy 1000 EX reference manual: ftp://ftp.mindcandydvd.com/pub/drivers/Tandy/Tandy_1000EX_Technical_Reference_Manual.pdf starting on page 136...
Click to expand...

I replaced the 5 1/4 for a 3 1/2 and now I can have some fun. Thexder is beautiful....

Using 5 1/4 is a total waste of time and patience. Everything is copy protected, cracked versions won't fit yada yada...

Yup I'd be up for a complete memory expansion + XT IDE hehe :)
 
khaz said:
That's some great news, people (notably most EX owners) are starved for RAM expansion boards, prices online are getting crazy.

Think you can fit an XT-IDE(-CF) on it? And a serial port connector?
Click to expand...

The idea is for it to be a ISA riser, here's an early concept that I was trying to fit 3 ISA slots onto but it left no room on the back side for the Ram and DMA chip.

eRktGFEl.png
 
HoJoPo said:
The schematics and PCB mask for the Tandy memory expansion / DMA controller are in the Tandy 1000 EX reference manual: ftp://ftp.mindcandydvd.com/pub/drivers/Tandy/Tandy_1000EX_Technical_Reference_Manual.pdf starting on page 136...
Click to expand...

Yeah I have those already, the DMA chip Tandy used has some custom logic attached to an 8237 - my mate is a digital logic specialist and will help me iron out the issues. He designed and built THIS so knows what he's doing - essentially I want him to verify I'm not going to destroy any precious Tandy's. :cool:
 
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