Step one in my profit-losing goal to open a vintage electronics museum (or not) here in Jasper, Texas called JPEG (Jasper Programmable Electronics Gallery) is complete. I just got this Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 in today with some interesting surprise items…
1) A 1988 invoice from Radio Shack for a keyboard replacement for $233.78 which is roughly $47,003.11 in today’s dollars!
2) A news article from 1997 that – I think – features this very computer, because on the back of the computer is a green sticker from THE SAGINAW NEWS.
3) The original 2 inch thick manual, which is roughly 15 inches thick in todays inches!
4) An incredibly tangle-prone printer interface of some sort.
I remember soaking a copy of the Radio Shack catalog in drool back in my youth when I first saw this thing in there. I had no idea what 12-year-old me would do with it other than poking some very simple GW-BASIC into it, but it was just so damn cool I had to have one. Of course, considering they sold for a reduced price of $399 back in 1985-ish (originally for around $1,000 in 1983) and 12-year-old me had barely enough money to purchase a single G.I. Joe action figure, my hands would not grace the molded plastic body of a TRS-80 Model 100 until now.
