TRS-80 MC-10

The TRS-80 MC-10 is a budget home computer manufactured by Tandy Corporation and sold through RadioShack stores. Released in 1983 at an introductory price of US$119.95, it was positioned as a low-cost alternative to Tandy's own TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), aimed at competing with entry-level machines like the Commodore VIC-20 and Sinclair ZX81. It was discontinued just one year later in 1984.

The MC-10 features a Motorola MC6803 CPU at 0.89 MHz, just 4 KB RAM (expandable to 20 KB), 8 KB ROM containing Micro Color BASIC (by Microsoft), and a Motorola MC6847 VDG (same video chip as the CoCo). Graphics modes include 256×192 (limited by insufficient VRAM), 128×96 (2-4 colors), and 64×32 (8 colors). Text is 32×16 characters. Sound is a basic built-in speaker. The 48-key chiclet keyboard was widely criticized as uncomfortable.

The MC-10 was a commercial failure — with only 4 KB RAM, a chiclet keyboard, no disk drive support, and a tiny software library (~32 known commercial games), it could not compete even at its low price point. It was cannibalizing Tandy's own superior CoCo and was hopelessly outclassed by the Commodore 64.

A licensed French clone, the Matra & Hachette Alice, was produced in several variants (Alice, Alice 32, Alice 90) with enhanced features.

This system scrapes metadata for the “mc10” group(s) and loads the mc10 set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

BIOS

For MAME:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description
bios/mc10.zip MC-10 BIOS ROM set
bios/alice.zip Matra Alice BIOS ROM set (French clone)

For XRoar:

Share file path Description
bios/xroar/ MC-10 firmware ROMs (see Color Computer Archive)

ROMs

Place your TRS-80 MC-10 ROMs in /userdata/roms/mc10.

Software was distributed on cassette tapes (.cas, .wav) and ROM cartridges (.rom, .bin). The software library is very small — approximately 32 known commercial games plus type-in programs from books and magazines.

Emulators

MAME

MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) supports the MC-10 and the French Alice variants.

XRoar

XRoar is a dedicated Dragon and CoCo/MC-10 family emulator. It requires BASIC ROMs to be placed in /userdata/bios/xroar/. ROMs can be obtained from the Color Computer Archive.

RetroArch

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

libretro: MAME

The libretro version of MAME can be used to emulate the MC-10. It uses the same BIOS and ROM sets as the standalone version.

Controls

The MC-10 has a 48-key chiclet-style keyboard. A physical USB keyboard is strongly recommended.

See also

Troubleshooting

Black screen on boot

Make sure the correct BIOS files are in place — mc10.zip in /userdata/bios/ for MAME, or firmware ROMs in /userdata/bios/xroar/ for XRoar.

Further troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/mc10.txt
  • Last modified: 5 weeks ago
  • by wizzard