Colour Genie

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EG2000 Colour Genie computer

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-oriented Video Genie III.

The BASIC was compatible with the Video Genie I and II and the TRS-80, except for graphic and sound commands; some routines for Video Genie I BASIC commands were left over in the Colour Genie's BASIC ROM. Programs were provided to load TRS-80 programs into the Colour Genie. Colour Genie disks could be read in a TRS-80 floppy disk drive but not vice versa.

The original Video Genies had been based upon (and broadly compatible with) the then-current TRS-80 Model I. As the Colour Genie was descended from this architecture, it was incompatible with Tandy's newer TRS-80 Color Computer which - despite its name - was an entirely new and unrelated design based on an entirely different CPU, and thus incompatible with the TRS-80 Model I and derivatives such as the Color Genie.

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Technical specifications

Internal hardware

• CPU
  • Zilog Z80, 2 MHz

• Video Hardware
  • Motorola 6845 CRTC
  • 40×24 text (original ROMs) or 40×25 text (upgraded ROMs), 16 colours, 128 user defined characters
  • 160×96 graphics (original ROMs) or 160×102 graphics (upgraded ROMs), 4 colours

• Sound Hardware
  • General Instruments AY-3-8910
  • 3 sound channels, ADSR programmable
  • 1 noise channel
  • 2 8-bit wide I/O ports

• RAM:
  • 16 KB RAM, expandable to 32 KB

• ROM:
  • 16 KB containing LEVEL II BASIC

• Keyboard
  • 63-key typewriter style
  • 4 programmable function keys

I/O ports and power supply

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• I/O ports:
  • Composite video out and audio out (cinch plugs)
  • Integrated RF modulator antenna output, which also carries sound, to TV
  • Cartridge expansion slot (slot for edge connector with Z80 CPU address/data bus lines and control signals, as well as GND and voltage pins; used for ROM cartridges or the floppy disk controller
  • 1200 baud tape interface (5 pin DIN)
  • RS-232 port (5 pin DIN)
  • Lightpen port (5 pin DIN)
  • Parallel port for printer or joystick controller
• Power supply: 5V DC, +12V DC and -12V DC

External hardware options

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• Floppy disk controller with floppy disk station.
  • Supported up to 4 drives (5.25 inch).
  • Support for 90 KB SS/SD up to 720 KB DS/DD drives.
• Cassette recorder
• EPROM cartridge of 12 KB
• EG2013 Joystick Controller
  • 2 Analogue joysticks with keypads

External links

• www.colourgenie.de.vu Colour Genie Homepage (at this time in German only)
• gansweith.freehostia.com/colourgenie/cgenie_en.html Colour Genie Homepage (English Version)
• [1] Colour Genie and information on other EACA machines (English)