Dick Smith VZ200

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Mon May 07, 2007 6:29 pm

Just bought a Dick Smith VZ200 off ebay..

It's the first non-Commodore 8-bit machine I have owned (though at school we had BBC B micros, which were brilliant) but I had heard of it being a competitor for the VIC as an entry-level computer and wanted to check it out. The computer was released in 1983, which I guess was the VIC's heyday or even a little past it.

Apparently the machine is based on a TRS-80, has a Z80 processor and 8k RAM. The sound is a one-voice internal beeper, the colours are restricted to 9, and the keyboard is one of those 'dead-flesh' rubber things. It's like an enhanced ZX81 but with fewer rows.. display is 32x16 which is similar to VIC but probably an easier to read layout.

I don't know how much I will investigate this further, the keyboard alone makes it almost impossible to use - space, return being in such strange locations and the absence of a delete key makes it almost unuseable for someone who has spent 20+ years touchtyping.

As well, the 'tape port' is merely a line-in, which I can appreciate would have been to make it cheap for users, but I wonder how many tape decks in 1983 had line-out? As well, the tape recording is extremely unreliable. You have to verify your recording at least twice (on the VIC, the C2N was so reliable I don't recall ever verifying anything or having a problem.)

I may use it just to learn a little about Z80 machine language, but it will probably stay in my collection as a curiosity more than anything else.

An odd one..

-G

d0c · Post by **d0c** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:08 pm

http://vz200.tripod.com/
http://vzalive.bangrocks.com/

i found these links they may have some usage for you

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Tue May 08, 2007 5:47 pm

You could probably use the headphone jack and play with the volume setting to get it just right.

hawk · Post by **hawk** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:31 pm

Hi Glen,

I've got a couple of VZ200s and a VZ300 in my collection. It's one of those computers that I remember wanting back then, but was never as capable as the Atari 400 we ended up getting. I keep telling myself I'd like to try some cross development for it, but I never seem to make the time.

I've got 16k expansions for both machines, but I don't have any joysticks.

They did bring out a couple of different tape drives specifically for the machine. Although these days, most people connect it straight to the output of their sound card and play .wav files. I've yet to try this.

There's a moderately active forum, the members of which are very helpful, and plenty of information on the net.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/vzemu/

-Hawk

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Tue May 08, 2007 9:06 pm

Thanks guys,

I'll be exploring those links when I get a moment..

As for the tape recorder, the modern solution seems to be to connect your VZ200 to the line/in of your PC and record it digitally onto your PC - so simple I would never have thought of it!

-Glen

Stinky · Post by **Stinky** » Wed May 09, 2007 4:49 am

My mate had one when we were kids, I had a VIC. The joysticks were pretty clunky, but some of the games were good. A few years later, my uncle bought a VZ300 and loaned it to me for a while, it had a great version of choplifter and I played it heaps.

They were pretty popular in Australia, heaps cheaper than the others.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:45 am

They were pretty popular in Australia, heaps cheaper than the others.

At their release in 1983, the VZ200s were $199 - I think we got our VIC for $299 at the same time, but both the VIC and VZ200 fell to below $100 within about 1 year - a bargain for the VIC, yet the VZ200 probably still outsold it.. there was no marketing campaign for the Vic20 at all unlike the backing of DSE. Hmm.. the DSE CAT always looked cool too..

Typeins from Aussie mags used to have VZ200 listings in them, that's probably the only place I saw them as our local Dick Smith store didn't stock the machine!

Probably should have gone for the VZ300 just for the keyboard and my sanity though

-G

idrougge · Post by **idrougge** » Thu May 10, 2007 3:22 pm

Victragic wrote:Just bought a Dick Smith VZ200 off ebay..

How nice, or something. I have a Sanyo VZ200 (which has got nothing to do with the Japanese home electronics giant Sanyo). In most of the world, it was known as the Laser 200.

Victragic wrote:Apparently the machine is based on a TRS-80, has a Z80 processor and 8k RAM. The sound is a one-voice internal beeper, the colours are restricted to 9, and the keyboard is one of those 'dead-flesh' rubber things. It's like an enhanced ZX81 but with fewer rows.. display is 32x16 which is similar to VIC but probably an easier to read layout.

A bit of TRS-80 (especially the BASIC), coupled with the video chip of the Tandy Coco (or Dragon 32).

Victragic wrote:As well, the 'tape port' is merely a line-in, which I can appreciate would have been to make it cheap for users, but I wonder how many tape decks in 1983 had line-out? As well, the tape recording is extremely unreliable. You have to verify your recording at least twice (on the VIC, the C2N was so reliable I don't recall ever verifying anything or having a problem.)

It's not line-out, it's earphone-out. All cheap taperecorders had that in 1983, and apart from the CBM and Atari machines, everyone used those cheap taperecorders.

All in all, it's a slow machine with limited graphics. You can only see its good points if you compare it to Sinclair models, since at least it has "luxuries" such as a power-on LED and an on/off switch.

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:19 pm

In a way, those computers that used a standard audio cassette deck were more consumer friendly than the 8 bit Commodores. The $50-$60 price tag doesn't seem like much today, but it was still a fair chunk of change back in the early 80's.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Thu May 10, 2007 6:33 pm

Earphone - makes sense now.

Limited graphics - oh yeah, seriously chunky. And the computer crashes in a nasty way whenever you try to call a peripheral that doesn't exist - no 'device not ready' messages here..

I consider this more a computing educational toy than a computer, in it's cheap construction and total lack of luxuries. Totally different philosophy than the VIC.

Does anyone know what the default screen colours are meant to be? There's a couple of trimmers that move the colour on the screen around the spectrum.. I'm thinking the default screen should be either green or 'buff' (whatever that is) but don't know what colour the text or border should be..

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Thu May 10, 2007 7:14 pm

I think the Vic 20 was geared more towards video game console users, and so it got great colour, sound, and decent graphics with a focus on making it as "User friendly" as possible. The Dick Smith VZ200 would have been aimed more at computer hobbiests, with a rather speedy Z80 processor.

Commodore was wise to stick with a real keyboard; I think that helped them out a lot.

idrougge · Post by **idrougge** » Sat May 12, 2007 1:12 pm

Victragic wrote:Does anyone know what the default screen colours are meant to be? There's a couple of trimmers that move the colour on the screen around the spectrum.. I'm thinking the default screen should be either green or 'buff' (whatever that is) but don't know what colour the text or border should be..

"Buff" is a dirty white, I think Motorola invented the word at the same time as they invented the worst graphics chip in history.

The default screen on the VZ200 is bright green, with black (dark green) borders and black text.

Denial

Dick Smith VZ200

Dick Smith VZ200

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