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The
DRAGON 32 enjoyed a pretty good success in Europe. Its ROM
holds the Operating System and a version of the Microsoft Extended
BASIC.
One of its characteristics is partial compatibility with the Tandy TRS
80 Color Series. They can use same peripherals and some cartridges,
but most ROM calls will fail on the other computer.
However, the Dragon did have at least two advantages over the first
TRS-80 Color computer: A typewriter-style keyboard that was somewhat
better than the Tandy's calculator-like keys; and a Centronics
parallel-printer port.
The
Dragon 64, launched in 83, was exactly the same computer as the
Dragon 32, except that it had 64k RAM instead of 32k, an OS9 operating
system and a RS232C connector.
The Extended Basic has been modified to provide RS232 I/O calls, to
remove the USR bug present in the Dragon 32 ROM and to add calls
allowing the additional interpreter to be invoked.
This second interpreter was the same Extended Basic re-compiled to run
from a higher memory address and stored in a EPROM. When invoked, the
machine was switched into 64k RAM mode and the interpreter copied from
EPROM to RAM giving an extra 16K BASIC workspace. (Source : Jon's
Dragon Home Page)
The Dragon 64 was sold in various European countries. A slightly
modified version was also manufactured and sold in the US by TANO
(Technical Associates of New Orleans) from August 1983. They sold the
machine under the TANO name for a few months but couldn't compete with
the aggressive price policy from Commodore, Atari and T.I. All the
unsold machine were eventually sold off to a discount store called
California Digital.
In 85 Eurohard, a Spanish manufacturer, acquired Dragons Data. Then
the Dragon 200 replaced the 64 with some minor changes: power-on
lights, auto-repeat keyboard... They also also had plans for a 128k
Dragon and a MSX Dragon.
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