The VTech Laser 200 is an early 8-bit home computer from 1983, also sold as a Salora Fellow (especially in Fennoscandia, mainly Finland), in Hungary and Italy, Texet TX8000 (in Great Britain), and Dick Smith VZ 200 (in Australia and New Zealand).
This machine runs the basic game on tapes like " Hoppy " (version Frogger ), " Cosmic Rescue < ), " VZ Invaders " ( Space Invaders ) and Moon Patrol . Laser 210/VZ200 computer was discontinued in 1985.
Video VTech Laser 200
Release
VZ200 has a small impact in the UK where it is sold at the same price as the 16 kB Sinclair Spectrum and in the United States where the Timex TS1000 can be purchased for $ 30. It acquires a measured follower in another country where it is supported by the distributor and where Sinclair Research is too disorganized to have any impact. He gained several followers in his native Taiwan, in Australia and New Zealand, and in some countries in continental Europe.
At its launch in the UK, Texet claims that the TX8000-brand version of £ 98 is the cheapest color microcomputer on the market. However, this is not enough to ensure its success against the dominant ZX Spectrum and similar machines already sold.
The "Dick Smith" - stood the VZ 200 more successful in Australia, where it proved popular as the first computer.
The improved version known as VTech Laser 310 , or Dick Smith VZ 300 features a full travel keyboard and 8K ROM software based on Floppy Disk Controller, released in 1985 and continued until 1989.
Maps VTech Laser 200
Technical specifications
VZ200 is designed and built by Video Technology (VTech) in Taiwan. It appears to be inspired by the Sinclair ZX-81 because it has the same type of one key command but has some additional features, that is, 6 kB of RAM (ZX-81 is only 1 kB), the characters can be redefined (with ZX81 you are stuck with supplied ones) , bitmapped mode allows block after block of animation (ZX81 only has character movement) and pager speakers (ZX81 silence).
Based on the Zilog Z80A CPU powered by the television color burst crystal (3.5795454 MHz) (in PAL, NTSC and Secam), it offers 16 KB ROM that contains Microsoft BASIC Level II, 8 kB RAM (2 kB for video memory) for the model PAL, while the NTSC and Secam models have 6 kB RAM (2 kB for VRAM) and eight colors.
Text mode has 32 x 16 characters and there are two bitmap modes: 32 x 64 blocks are addressed in eight colors and 32 x 128 blocks are addressable in four colors. The total number of pixels is 256 x 192.
Since there are only 2 kB VRAMs, only one video display mode of the available MC6847 Video Display Generator (VDG) chip, which effectively disables the 256M resolution of bits higher by 192 mono color mode. There are some unofficial "mods" developed that increase the VRAM and allow MC6847's 256ÃÆ'â € "192 mode, a number of programs written (mainly) by German user groups using this particular modification. The rather rough sound effects can be achieved with built-in push/pull piezo speakers via BASIC, although synth sounds and 1-bit sampling can be generated through raw Z80 assembly or libraries in the Z88 Development Kit.
Interpreter BASIC menggunakan Microsoft Level II BASIC (serupa dengan IBM PC BASIC A).
Laser 310/VZ 300
Laser 310 was released in 1985 in all parts of Europe and the United States. It was named and sold as "Dick Smith" VZ 300 throughout Australia and New Zealand. Also based on the Zilog Z80A CPU with a slightly updated version of 16k ROM, it is driven by color blast crystal television (3.54 MHz). It comes with 16k of RAM for programming, along with 2k Ram Videos just like the ones from Laser 200.
Peripherals
Within a year of the Laser 310 release, 80k disk drive units were released to the market, of which two could be connected to a computer at the same time. A plug-pack cartridge containing DOS ROM is required to operate the drive. DOS ROM and disk drives compatible with Laser 200. A number of other designed VTech plug-in devices are also available for Laser 200 and Laser 310 computers. Among them are joysticks, drive cassettes, light pens, printer plotters, 75 baud MODEM, cartridges word processor, and 16k and 64k extended RAM cartridges. As the number of users increases, so does the number of homemade kits on offer, including the Speech synthesizer, SN6847AN music synthesizer, EEPROM programmer, data recorder, 300 baud MODEM, full 101 keyboard, and RTTY Ham radio kit.
Software
With both their releases in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and some other countries, commercial-based software titles grow and are distributed in various outlets in their home country. Throughout Germany, Sanyo distributes a number of high quality graphics, cassette and disk software. Big W stores and Dick Smith Electronics throughout Australia and New Zealand sell many titles, including educational and graphic games, financial programs and utility software tools, most of which have been found and transferred for use in emulators. Unfortunately there are a number of known software packages that are lost through the age of time.
- Intertext software download page
- VZ Andrew wiki download page
Emulator
A number of emulators have been written for this computer model:
- MESS VZ/Laser emulation by Juergen Buchmueller and Dirk Best
- JEMU by Richard Wilson
- JVZ200 by James Tamer
- VZEM (Windows and DOS versions) by Guy Thomason
- Pocket VZ (for Pocket PC) by Guy Thomason
- Android VZ (for Android OS) by Guy Thomason
- DSVZ200 - VZ300 & amp; Emulation VZ200, debugger, and assembler by Gavin Turner
- The download page to a number of them is here
Gallery
References
External links
- DSVZ200 - emulator VZ200
- VZEM by Intertek - VZEM emulator official site
- JEMU - Java based VZ200 & amp; VZ300 Emulator
- Contemporary review - from Your Computer, April 1983
- Laser Light Only At Ã, Â £ 70 - from Personal Computer News, August 18, 1983
- The VZ200 - Tutorial and Programming
- Wiki VZ200 - Information
- Clockmeisters VZ/Laser310 page
- VZ German devotion page with more than 600 German VZ device titles.
- All VZ pages are absolutely owned by Bushy.
- VZ Steve page.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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