Not so long back I got a mail from Rick Reed asking me if I'd like a TRS80 (often called 'Trash80') Model 1. Of course I would! Being slightly unemployed at the time meant I could drive across the Pennines to pick it up on a sunny day in February.

I wasn't expecting the amount of stuff there was! Everything was boxed - Model 1 itself, Monitor, Expansion Interface, Floppy drives, plus there was a box of disks, 2 boxes of tapes and 2 big boxes of documentation.....smart! Thanks Rick!

Unfortunately the machine isn't well and I lack an Oscilloscope to troubleshoot any further than I already have, with help from Tony Duell and the regulars on the comp.sys.tandy newsgroup. It behaves as expected without ROMs so the CPU is running and main memory is happy, so the problem must be either the ROMs themselves or a fault on the data lines going to them.....troubleshooting those requires extra kit so until I can get some spare ROMs the machine will have to stay unwell :(

The machine had been upgraded at time of purchase, according to the receipt, so it has Level II BASIC (not the Level I 'Tiny BASIC' which only had 3 error messages - 'ERROR', 'HOW' and 'WHAT'...hehe) and a lower case modification that added an extra screen RAM chip and some wirewrap wiring.

I've just realised I haven't got pix of the Expansion or floppy drives. Clever me.