A tale of two Einsteins: The Tatung Einstein TC-01 and TCS-256
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- Tatung Einstein
There are a lot of popular retro machines around, most of them retain a level of love due to the games that people remember from the past. Here's one from Tatung, the Einstein
Today we’re going to look at a machine that is mostly overlooked, but had a real impact on a lot of the games from our past. Tatung's Einstein TC-01 and TCS-256.
Don't forget to visit the Tatung forums: www.robheaton.co.uk/tatung/
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Chapters
========
00:00 Intro
00:20 About the machines
05:50 Touring the machines
08:31 Inside the machines
11:02 The Software
11:52 Zork
13:29 Scrabble
15:40 DBase II
18:24 Cobol
19:05 Football Manager
20:30 Yie ar kung fu
21:50 Chuckie Egg
23.58 Summary - เกม
A bit of a clarification: I installed the Gotek into the TC01, I bought the 256 with it already installed
Shift And back-arrow: that brings back memories of my c64.
Really glad you updated the video to include the 256. I'm not sure I've ever seen one before. It's a shame they never caught on more than they did. I can only imagen how must it must have been swapping from developing on the specy the specy. The amount their productivity must have leaped by, being able to just keep assembling on the Einstein, and pushing the results to the spectrum.
It must have been an incredible step-change
This machine, especially the 256, it makes me a bit sad inside to think what we might have had in the UK market, I mean a maching with 192Kb of VRAM!!! Take that, or uniqueness like the Jupiter Ace, or consider what might have happened if the Sharp X68000 had be marketed here! We could have dominated the industry with these fascinating and clearly somewhat puissant machines!
This is great content and fond memories - I didn't have such a machine, I was an army brat in Germany at the time but I Dad had a massive collection of home computing magazines from both sides the the pond I used to read them and practically drool! Kind of emulating the computer inside my head!
The Tatung, the Oric Atmos, the Enterprise 128, the various Apricot machines ... Loved that, was a great way to lose myself in fantastic digital world, and I have been an IT geek and programmer ever since!
Thank you again!
Another thing that I *really* do like is the quality of the output, even on the TC-01 ... that pastel blue works well with that Font which I have to say is one of the best I have ever seen on a machine of that vintage!
Thanks for your nice comments. And yes, it’s a real shame seeing the machines that failed, and the machines that just never left their respective countries.
Ahh Elite... wish my memory was more complete but it was a long time ago. Mr Micro were commissioned by Firebird to convert Elite to a variety of platforms. It was one of my first tasks there. Another programmer had started it on the Tatung Einstein and I took over. I wrote the version for the MSX for sure. I don't recall us producing an Einstein version but considering how close the hardware was between the two, maybe I did as a sort of by product. As I said, a lot of water has passed under that bridge.
What I do know is that due to some contractual problems, I converted the versions blind - the only code I had was the algorithm to generate the planet names and the raw 3D models for the ships. In an attempt to get more speed and overcome the lack of a multiply instruction in Z80, I used log maths for a lot of the 3D stuff. Problem was this introduced rounding errors and the 3D vectors representing the orientation of the models collapsed over time - if left along the spinning space station would get smaller and smaller. Therefore every 256 matrix operations (rotation), a routine ran to reset the 3D vector (XYZ) back to 1.0 which meant that if you watched closed, the space station popped back out in size.
After the MSX version, I wrote the ST and Amiga conversions which were a lot more fun!
Just found a reference page to the Einstein version of Elite - produced by Merlin under license from Firebird. So maybe my memory is correct and Mr Micro didn't do this version. I'm struggling to recall which of the development systems mentioned was used for the MSX version. But it certainly started life on the Einstein. I personally had an Amstrad CPC at the time and worked with my friend Alex on the basic 3D math in BASIC - proof of concept as such. Much quicker to write in BASIC and then convert to Z80 assembler. Alex studied Math at uni so his knowledge of mathematics was better than mine although I was pretty proficient by the end. He should have been credited.
The comment about using it as a development machine very much echoes my own experience at Mr Micro. I used both the Tatung, the Amstrad PCW and the Amstrad CPC as development systems to write Z80 code for Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX. I too put together a parallel interface to the target machine. I'd done electronics at University so it was a relatively simple interface but boy was it fast. I remember starting to use the excellent SLR Z80 assembler which was lightning fast compared to what I'd used before. What I can't remember is which text editor I used...
Thanks for your information Rob, I can only repeat the information I read so it's always great to get first hand experience.
I really enjoy your choice of uncommon machines to review... I have a tc-01, but not the 256 (and dont know much about it beyond its appearance), so this was quite educational for me...
Thanks, glad you found it useful. Honestly, as interesting as the 256 is, I don’t think a TC-01 owner will feel like they’re missing out - I mean you can play Chuckie Egg so what else do you need? ;)
Never seen the 256 before, looks like an Amstrad CPC 664 and MSX had a baby... Sounds like the MB and/or power supply need re-capping 🤔
I suspect the caps in the computer need checking, I doubt it'll be anything serious
there was also the albert apple 2 clone so if you combined the 2 you have the albert Einstein computer .
haha
Don't want to offend or anything like that.... But.... What's the point of having this machine nowadays? Very few games were made for it. And even fewer that are worth to play. Apart from the text adventures (Infocom published games for this machine), what's the point of having one? 🤔
Just trying to understand. I apologize if I'm being rude 😊
Depends on your motivation for restoring/collecting. If its to have a game playing machine, then you have a point, but exploring/restoration/historical overviews can also provide a lot of value! Might have owned or used one back in the day, or might have been interested in it back in the day but could never get access to it to play with...
It’s down to personal preference, of course. If you’re mostly interested in software, then this probably isn’t the machine for you. Although, with CP/M support and its own library there are quite a few titles, including good versions of 8-bit games that were made popular on other computers, such as Chuckie Egg, Elite, Jet Set Willy, Druid, Impossible Mission, Knight Lore etc (bigger list here www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/front/gameslist.htm ), several development kits and cross development systems. But if you’re into hardware then it’s a genuinely unique machine, in that it had a big impact on the industry but isn’t talked about as much as machines like the Spectrum or Commodore 64. Plus, it’s a truly impressive bit of kit
@@patbreen3859yes, I understand that point of view, and it's very valid. Thank you for your reply 🙂
@@ReEnthusedYes, I am basically a games player. I play games since I was 10 years old, I think. I'm 60 now😊
At the time there were no video games at all, only electro-mechanical. The first video game I played was Pong.
In terms of hardware, I would have trouble just to unscrew the case, let alone everything else 😂
Anyway, thank for the video, I found it quite enjoyable. 😊
I’m glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I understand your motivations. For me, it’s mostly the technology that interests me - but I can understand people having more nostalgia for the games