TRS-80 - The biggest name in little computers.  Complete and ready to go NOW!

It's another advert for one of the "1977 Trinity" - the Z80-based Tandy TRS-80. 

A year after its launch, the Level-II system appeared, with an expanded BASIC in ROM, now at 12K. 

The price has also increased, relatively - the fully-specced version with 16K was now £870 including VAT, or about [[870|1978]] in [[now]] terms, a leap up from the £400 ([[430|1977]]) that the original went for.  That compares to the 16K Commodore PET's price of £625 ([[625|1978]]). 

It's likely that the increase was for the same reason that Commodore's prices went up sharply after launch: as a way of managing demand. The TRS-80 was, for a while, the best seller of the '77 trinity, selling 100,000 in its lifetime.

In common with many sytems of the day, the default data storage mechanims was cassette tape - there was even a market in special short-length C-12 tapes - with the TRS-80 coming bundled with a "Realistic CTR-41".  Realistic was Radio Shack's consumer brand name.