[vox] TRS 80, anyone?

[Gandalf Parker]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007, Brian Lavender wrote:
>>
>> One day someone will figure out that old TRS80's and Commodores have all
>> the best parts for a small robot. Including some parts that new computers
>> dont have such as a programmable sound chip.
>
> Interesting. Have you done any work with these sound chips? I would be
> curious to hear more on how to do this.

I did way back when but the thing I remember is that the sound chips in 
those boxes did more than just "beep". They had white-noise generation and 
full range. You could get some very sophisticated game sounds out of the 
little piezo (sp?) chips. And being old Z80 programmable isnt bad for a 
controller board also. The power requirements on the entire machine was 
very low. Shit, just add wheels and motion sensors. :)

There was also an idea using the old CGA/EGA graphics cards. They actually 
work by using pixels of red, green, blue, and white to get the 16 color 
combinations. It was quite suitable for cartoons. Take a big sheet of 
plywood, drill holes, put christmas bulbs in it. In each hole have one of 
R/G/B/W. Cover it with a sheet of sanded plexiglass and have a dancing 
billboard the size of a house :)

Gandalf  Parker