Comments on: 1983 Radio Shack catalog https://habitablezone.com/2012/12/10/1983-radio-shack-catalog/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:18:10 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: SDAI-Tech https://habitablezone.com/2012/12/10/1983-radio-shack-catalog/#comment-21627 SDAI-Tech Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:37:37 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=27880#comment-21627 There was a Radio Shack and one of the earliest Apple stores in the very same shopping center about a mile from where I lived. It was a geek-nirvana in bot of those stores circa 1982. The TRS-80 was more affordable, but the Apple had the color monitor and a better array of software and games. Radio Shack always sold themselves to adults and you can see the emphasis was on accounting and stuff like that. I never earned enough, even after working all summer long, to afford either but I was shooting for the $999 one. My parents had no interest in computers and would not spring for one. I first had the Sinclair ZX81 which was priced at about $100, then a Commodore ViC-20 with the memory expansion to a whopping 32kb with the cartridge! I wrote from scratch a number of games that were half ways entertaining for 1983. My first "internet" or online experience was in 1984 with the Commodore version of the internet which hooked you up to Wall Street stock quotes, a travel agency and the national weather. I had upgraded to the Commodore 64 by that time. My Commodore had color, many cartridge expansions, printer. modem, and an external floppy disc drive. It was loaded for bear and with all this still cost less than an Apple II or loaded TRS-80 type computer from Radio Shack. I eventually got an IBM clone in 1987 (remember when IBM was still the standard bearer of computing?) and it had it's own "Microsoft" DOS which one manually loaded up. I played Sid Meier's PIRATES! on an expensive color monitor ($350?) with detailed pixels and thought it didn't get much better than this! This was all pre-Windows. A lot of hours of work went into earning that privilege. Later would come the Packard Bells, AOL and the first CD-ROM drives. Thanks for the trip down "memory" lane! ;-) There was a Radio Shack and one of the earliest Apple stores in the very same shopping center about a mile from where I lived. It was a geek-nirvana in bot of those stores circa 1982. The TRS-80 was more affordable, but the Apple had the color monitor and a better array of software and games. Radio Shack always sold themselves to adults and you can see the emphasis was on accounting and stuff like that. I never earned enough, even after working all summer long, to afford either but I was shooting for the $999 one. My parents had no interest in computers and would not spring for one.

I first had the Sinclair ZX81 which was priced at about $100, then a Commodore ViC-20 with the memory expansion to a whopping 32kb with the cartridge! I wrote from scratch a number of games that were half ways entertaining for 1983. My first “internet” or online experience was in 1984 with the Commodore version of the internet which hooked you up to Wall Street stock quotes, a travel agency and the national weather. I had upgraded to the Commodore 64 by that time. My Commodore had color, many cartridge expansions, printer. modem, and an external floppy disc drive. It was loaded for bear and with all this still cost less than an Apple II or loaded TRS-80 type computer from Radio Shack.

I eventually got an IBM clone in 1987 (remember when IBM was still the standard bearer of computing?) and it had it’s own “Microsoft” DOS which one manually loaded up. I played Sid Meier’s PIRATES! on an expensive color monitor ($350?) with detailed pixels and thought it didn’t get much better than this! This was all pre-Windows.

A lot of hours of work went into earning that privilege.

Later would come the Packard Bells, AOL and the first CD-ROM drives.

Thanks for the trip down “memory” lane! ;-)

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