CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy’s Underdog Computer 1st Edition

This is a well-crafted history of the Color Computer. In reading it I found it to evoke a surprising mixture of, “oh yeah, I had forgotten about that,” and, “wow, I never knew that.”Having been around since the middle of the CoCo 2 era, I was present for the majority of the CoCo glory days. So it was good to read about some of the early history that pre-dated the Color Computer, as well as key points concerning the development of the CoCo 2 and the mysterious “Deluxe Color Computer”, (one of those things I had forgotten about until it was brought up.)But most important to me was information pertaining to the development of and lifetime of the CoCo 3. The time around the announcement and release of that computer having been one of the most exciting times of my computing life, I was very-much looking forward to getting a peek behind the curtain at what went on amongst those in the know and within the walls of Tandy at that time. The book delivers. Probably the biggest, “wow, I had no idea” moment of the book for me relates to this.With all of the expectations some of us have had knowing about the development of this book, it’s probably important to understand going in what it’s not. It is not “A History of the Color Computer Community.” While it would have been great to know “whatever happened to” some of the big names in CoCo software development, the book is very light on this, really only divulging such information about the people related to the development and selling of the hardware. It also is not, “A Detailed Look Into the Hardware Comprising the Various Color Computers.” As a software guy who knows just enough about hardware to know what to get excited over, the book delves a bit into some of the more notable hardware design issues of the CoCo models, and why some trade-offs were made. This is enough to give you an understanding of what and why the computers were, but not much more. And finally, the book is not, “The Continuing Legacy of the Color Computer.” Mention is made of modern-day efforts in CoCo hardware and software development, the online communities and the emulation scene, but almost just in passing.What the book IS, however, is a comforting trip down memory lane, guaranteed to make you smile repeatedly if you grew up with the CoCo.And perhaps the book is something more. Reviving these old memories, new questions emerge and old questions are remembered. Perhaps the book will serve the purpose of bringing those questions back to light such that they can be asked of the people who could answer them, and whole new chapters to this history can be discovered.Having directly participated in some of the bigger “controversies” in the Community, I have an affinity for the conflicts that heated up over time. Some mention is made of some of them, but the book generally keeps a very positive tone. So it would be very interesting if some of the darker stories were revived and got to see the light of day.One thing is practically certain. If you were a fan of the Color Computer during its heyday, you will almost certainly enjoy every moment you spend reading this book.

I just finished reading "CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer" by Boisy Pitre and Bill Loguidice.I knew very little about the history of the Tandy/Radio Shack (TRS) line of computers. What I did know, was basically gleamed from browsing the Radio Shack catalogs in the late 1970s and early 1980s that my amateur radio licensed father would receive in the mail and seeing them on display at the local Radio Shack store (now closed) in the Ocean County Mall. I did spend an inordinate amount of time during my high school years using a TRS-80 computer, albeit remotely, as my favorite go-to BBS growing up was the JSTBBS (Jersey Shore Telecommunication Breadboard System) running on a TRS-80.Fast forward to Vintage Computer Festival East 10 in April 2015, where my wife Lucy and I had an Atari 8-bit Home Computer display setup. Boisy Pitre stopped by our exhibit and we talked about vintage computers and Atari. He told me about his Liber809 product which is a Motorola 6809 upgrade for the Atari 8-bit computes. He also mentioned his book "CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer", which I told him I would read.While I was looking for "CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer" on Amazon, I came across "Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Microcomputer Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution" by David and Theresa Welsh. I decided to read "Priming the Pump" first since it went back to the beginning of the history of the Tandy/Radio Shack (TRS) line of computers.Once I completed "Priming the Pump", I ordered and read "CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer". These two books cover much of the history of the Tandy/Radio Shack (TRS) line of computers. "Priming the Pump" comes across as two disjointed repetitive autobiographies merged together with the early history of microcomputers, it does provide some insight into running an early software business by the seat of your pants.Boisy's book is a well researched and his passion for the brand really shine through. He provides great detail on the cast of characters around the development of the TRS Color Computer models and related technologies as well as the leaders in the CoCo user community from the beginning through to the early 2000s. He also provides insight into the goings on at Tandy/Radio Shack corporate.I read the printed book which has many black and white photographs. I believe that the eBook version has color photographs. I actually used YouTube to go view some of the Color Computer demos that were mentioned toward the end of the book.I enjoyed reading this book, it has a lot of great early computer history.