When you hunt for a retro computer, it is not always the computer itself that constitutes the catch. Of course, it is required. But once you have one or many instances of the hunted machine, the extras can become the catch of the day! I love the Sharp PC-1500 and its numerous derivatives (I am still looking for the blue version – my white whale :)). But this time, I found a Radio Shack TRS-80 PC-2 with its printer at a very reasonable price. Nice. However, the true treasure this time was the software collection that accompanied this fantastic pocket computer.
Very interesting that Radio Shack undertook the hassle of moving the display to the right and rearranging some of the keys! Is there any reason for this, like maintaining continuity to a previous product?
Norbert Landsteiner I dont think that it was for harmonisation of the products line. If you look at what they did with the Casio OEM products, they simply kept them as-is. So the reason may be something else (would be great to hear from the Tandy marketing folks of that time :)). I suspect it is diversification. At least, as a collector, these changes – quite benine – are adding value to the PC-2. For example, compared to the Hungarian OEM HiradasTechnika PTA-4000 family which really just used a sticker first and then a custom badge, nothing is different from the original (besides the licensing info etched on the back). If the PTA-4000 weren’t so rare, their value would be close to nul (to me at least). I will see if I can find some info on any internal changes, but I guess that there is none.
Having a look at the Sharp PC1211, which became the TRS80 PC-1 by a simple change of the label, harmonization could have been a motivation: on and off buttons on the top left, shift to the right, light keys for characters and basic functions, and dark keys for the number pad …
But still it doesn’t explain all of the changes…