Colour Genie

EACA EG2000 Colour Genie

EG2000 Colour Genie computer
Manufacturer	EACA
Release date	August 1982; 39 years ago (1982-08)
Introductory price	£200 (equivalent to £722 in 2020)
Operating system	16 KB ROM containing LEVEL II BASIC
CPU	Zilog Z80, 2 MHz
Memory	16 KB RAM, expandable to 32 KB
Input	63-key typewriter style Keyboard with 4 programmable function keys
Power	5V DC, +12V DC and -12V DC
Predecessor	Video Genie

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. The BASIC was compatible with the Video Genie I and II and the TRS-80, except for graphic and sound commands; most of the 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 and vice versa, editing the pdrive commands.

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.

A 80 column card was produced. The Colour Genie was sold by Schmittke Electronics in Aachen.

A Colour Genie computer

Technical specifications[]

Central Processing Unit[]

NEC D780 (unlicenced clone of Zilog Z80) running at 2.2 Mhz

Internal hardware[]

• 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 x up to 4 pages
• Sound Hardware
  • General Instruments AY-3-8910
  • 3 sound channels, ADSR programmable
  • 1 noise channel
  • 2 8-bit wide I/O ports

I/O ports and power supply[]

EACA EG2000 Colour Genie ports

• 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

External hardware options[]

• 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 keypad

External links[]

• [1] Colour Genie Homepage (in German)
• Colour Genie games at Everygamegoing Complete list of German and English games for the Colour Genie
• gansweith.freehostia.com/colourgenie/cgenie_en.html Colour Genie Homepage (English Version)
• Colour Genie and information on other EACA machines (English)
• Colour Genie game and review database (English/German)

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