The TRS-80 computer manufactured by Tandy / Radio Shack contains an 8-bit character set. It is partially derived from ASCII, and shares the code points from 32 - 95 on the standard model. Code points 96 - 127 are supported on models that have been fitted with a lower-case upgrade.

The character set consists of letters, various numeric and special characters as well as 64 semigraphics called squots (square dots) from a 2×3 matrix. These were located at code points 128 to 191 with bits 5-0 following their binary representation, similar to alpha-mosaic characters in World System Teletext. These characters were used for graphics in games, such as Android Nim.

Character set

The following table shows the TRS-80 model I character set. Each character is shown with a potential Unicode equivalent. Space and control characters are represented by the abbreviations for their names.

TRS-80 model I character set
0123456789ABCDEF
0xBSLFCRconcoff
1xカ32←→↓↑homesolceolceof
2xSP!"#$%&'()*+,-./
3x0123456789:;<=>?
4x@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO
5xPQRSTUVWXYZ↑↓←→_
6xabcdefghijklmno
7xpqrstuvwxyz{|}~±
8xNBSP🬀🬁🬂🬃🬄🬅🬆🬇🬈🬉🬊🬋🬌🬍🬎
9x🬏🬐🬑🬒🬓▌🬔🬕🬖🬗🬘🬙🬚🬛🬜🬝
Ax🬞🬟🬠🬡🬢🬣🬤🬥🬦🬧▐🬨🬩🬪🬫🬬
Bx🬭🬮🬯🬰🬱🬲🬳🬴🬵🬶🬷🬸🬹🬺🬻█
Cxtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtab
Dxtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtab
Extabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtab
Fxtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtabtab

Citations

Sources

  • Heiserman, David L. (1983). . Prentice-Hall. ISBN978-0-131-64749-7.
  • Crawford, Chris (2003). . New Riders. ISBN978-0-131-46099-7.

Further reading

  • Bettencourt, Rebecca G. (2017) [2015]. . Kreative Korporation. from the original on 2017-07-29.