I used to spend my afternoons waypoint'ing all the computer shops I could access with a single days bus pass. This was a regular jaunt in the late 70's, early

I used to spend my afternoons waypoint'ing all the computer shops I could access with a single days bus pass. This was a regular jaunt in the late 70's, early 80's, and .. at the time .. was a great way to prove ones chops. When you only had 20 minutes to type something in, it better be funky. (Coz the sales guy/gal is either going to let you save it to their "DEMO" floppy, or kick you out of the shop.) Until you come back and decide to buy something, and suddenly .. it mattered which CPU you chose. Z80, 68xx, the rumoured 68k, and .. so on. It was a bewildering time. (Thankfully, the still-functioning, embedded Video Game Arcades were able to provide some relief. I knew a few arcade owners, lets just say.. ;) Anyway .. there was a Tandy shop, and I had a CoCo section in my (long-lost) notebook. There were some funky things, no? But still .. in the Amstrad invasion, the Atari megalith, the Commodore death spiral.. Tandy kind of lost the plot. Strangely so. The CoCo were somehow 'tainted' in my mind, back then, because of the TRS80 connection. Things didn't have to be so grey. Nevertheless, if the connection with the Arcades had been made, I'm sure the CoCo could have kicked some serious ass. What heady times!