Tangerine Microtan 65

1979 - No generation identified

The Microtan 65 is a computer developed by Tangerine Computer Systems, a British company, in the late 1970s. It was one of the first home computers available in the UK and it was popular among hobbyists and enthusiasts. The Microtan 65 featured a 6502 CPU, and it came with 1KB of RAM, expandable to 8KB. The Microtan 65 also featured a built-in keyboard, a composite video output and a cassette tape interface for storage. The Microtan 65 had a resolution of 32x16 pixels and could display 8 colors. The Microtan 65 came with a built-in operating system called TanBUG, which was a simple, command-line based operating system. It also came with a simple Basic interpreter and a few games such as "Chase", "Life" and "Maze". The Microtan 65 was expandable and users could add memory, a floppy disk drive and a second processor. The Microtan 65 was not a commercial success and it was criticized for its high price, lack of software and poor documentation. Tangerine Computer Systems went out of business in 1981, and the Microtan 65 was only produced in small numbers, making it a relatively rare and sought-after collector's item today. The Microtan 65 is considered by some enthusiasts as a historically significant computer, as it was one of the first home computers available in the UK and it was popular among hobbyists and enthusiasts.