Video Genie (or simply Genie) is a discontinued series of computers produced by

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

-based manufacturer

EACA EACA International Ltd was a Hong Kong manufacturer active from 1975 to 1983, producing Pong-style television video games, and later producing thousands of personal computers. The company's products included the Video Genies I, II and III (which ...

during the early 1980s. Computers from the Video Genie line are mostly compatible with the Tandy TRS-80 Model I computers and can be considered a clone, although there are hardware and software differences. The computers making up the series were *Video Genie System (EG3003 - first version, early/mid 1980) *Video Genie System (EG3003 - second version, late 1980) *Genie I (EG3003 - third version, late 1981) *Genie II (EG3008 - late 1981) *Genie III (EG3200 - mid 1982) - a more business-oriented machine with CP/M-compatibility. Although Video Genie was the name used in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, the machines were sold under different names in other countries. In Australia and New Zealand they were sold as the Dick Smith System 80 MK I (EG3003) and System 80 MK II (EG3008), and in North America they were sold as the PMC-80 and PMC-81. In

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, the Video Genie was sold as the TRZ-80, a name similar to its rival. In early 1983, the related

Colour Genie The EACA EG2000 Colour Genie was a computer produced by Hong Kong-based manufacturer EACA and introduced in Germany in August 1982. It followed their earlier Video Genie I and II computers and was released around the same time as the business-orien ...

machine was released by EACA.

Features

* CPU:

Zilog Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...

, at 1.76 MHz * Video: Monochrome ** 64×16 / 32×16

uppercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

text ** 128×48 block graphics ** Composite video output, cable included ** RF TV signal output, cable included * 16 KB RAM, expandable to 48 KB * 12 KB ROM containing Microsoft LEVEL II BASIC * Storage: Built-in 500 baud cassette deck ** Cable for using an external cassette deck included * Built in power supply

Versions

* The first version has only a 51-key keyboard and is missing the CLEAR and TAB keys as compared to the Tandy TRS-80 Model I. * The second version has a corrected keyboard but sacrifices the right SHIFT key. This version also includes a

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

-player VU-meter and volume control, a very helpful feature in loading software from cassettes. * Genie I (the third version) features inbuilt

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

with drivers in the

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

extension. This ROM also contains an improved keyboard driver and a machine language monitor. * Genie II has a 19-key keypad instead of the internal cassette deck. Also the keyboard was updated, adding the missing right shift key, making the keyboard 53+19 keys. It was intended for use with floppy drives, although this still requires the EG3014 Expander.

EG3014 Expander

The EG3014 Expander add-on corresponds to the Tandy TRS-80 Model I Expansion Interface. It has a Centronics printer port and a

single density Disk density is a capacity designation on magnetic storage, usually floppy disks. Each designation describes a set of characteristics that can affect the areal density of a disk or the efficiency of the encoded data. Such characteristics include ...

floppy interface for up to 4 single-sided or 3 double-sided drives. It also has sockets for adding two 16K banks of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

(making it possible to expand to 48K RAM) and

edge connector An edge connector is the portion of a printed circuit board (PCB) consisting of traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching socket. The edge connector is a money-saving device because it only requires a sin ...

s for the EG3020

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such ...

interface and EG3022

S-100 bus The S-100 bus or Altair bus, IEEE 696-1983 ''(withdrawn)'', is an early computer bus designed in 1974 as a part of the Altair 8800. The bus was the first industry standard expansion bus for the microcomputer industry. computers, consisting of p ...

interface. The EG3014 can also be expanded with the EG3021

double density Disk density is a capacity designation on magnetic storage, usually floppy disks. Each designation describes a set of characteristics that can affect the areal density of a disk or the efficiency of the encoded data. Such characteristics include ...

kit.

EG3016 Parallel Printer Interface

Centronics printer port add-on.

EG3050 and EG3085 Printer

Lawsuit

In early 1981,

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, ...

sued Personal Microcomputers Inc., EACA's American subsidiary which sold the computers as the PMC-80 and -81. Tandy cited patent and copyright infringement of the TRS-80's microcode and

code, as well as trademark infringement with the "-80" branding. PMC maintained their innocence, charging that Tandy had not informed the company of copyright infringement before launching the suit and that Tandy was trying to eliminate competition. The two companies supposedly settled out of court.

Reception

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...

'' in April 1981 favorably reviewed the PMC-80. It reported that the computer was compatible with all tested software and several S-100 boards in the expansion interface, and found the integrated datacassette recorder to be very reliable. While criticizing the absence of a right shift key, the magazine concluded that " e PMC-80 is a well-built alternative ... if you are considering buying a TRS-80 Model III, the PMC-80 ... costs less and has essentially the same performance and the bonus of S-100 expansion possibilities". A ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

'' writer in January 1983 stated that "of all the business machines at the"

Personal Computer World ''Personal Computer World'' (''PCW'') (February 1978 - June 2009) was the first British computer magazine. Although for at least the last decade it contained a high proportion of Windows PC content (reflecting the state of the IT field), the mag ...

show, the EACA Genie III was "the one that caught my eye. Like the

IBM Personal Computer The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

, it is newsworthy not because it's innovative but because it carefully combines the best features of other computers".

References

External links

"Video Genie System"
at home.online.no
"A Tribute to the Dick Smith System 80"
at classic-computers.org.nz
"System-80 ROMs"
at theoldcomputer.com {{TRS-80 and Tandy computers Z80-based home computers Home computers