Dragon Data Dragon 32
Here is my Dragon 32, originally launched in 1982 and built in Port Talbot in Wales, and also manufactured in the USA as the Tano Dragon. It's very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer in the USA. The 32 in its name relates to the 32KB of RAM, there was a later model known as the Dragon 64 which had 64KB of RAM
The Dragon had two major limitations that limited it's appeal, first was the limited graphic capabilities, machines like the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro could easily outperform the Dragon. And the machine only had an upper case character set, you could define a lower case character set in software, but this limitation restricted its use in education at the time
Dragon Data collapsed in 1984 and was bought by a Spanish company, the Dragon was only around for two years
Compared to contemporary machines, the dragon is quite large, but not as large as the BBC Micro
There are ports all around the Dragon, on the left is the TV out (RF), reset button, left joystick, cassette recorder, right joystick, and something which is labelled as P.I/O
On the back is the Trans supply (PSU), On/Off button, and a monitor connection
Finally on the right side there is a cartridge port, which is recessed quite far inside the unit
The PSU is an unusual looking thing, it has two circuits and they are rated at 8.5Vac 1.5A and 28Vac 250mA, and it has a 9 pin D-Sub connector
Normally I would test the output of the PSU to check the voltages are in spec before powering up the machine, but I will need to find the pin-out for the plug first, and on closer inspection, there is copper wire visible where the cable enters the plug, this may just be the cable screening, but a thorough check will need to be done first
Other cables I got with the machine are a cassette lead and an RF TV lead
I also got two joysticks with the machine, these are analogue joysticks and use a DIN plug to connect, and they don't centre like other joysticks of the era, think early pong machines and you won't be far off
Update
Apparently I bought two of them?
And the second one came with a programmers guide
You've got to love drunken new years eve ebay bidding
Update 2
I tested the PSU and cleaned up the cable, the voltages are 9.2Vac for circuit A and 28Vac for circuit B, these are in spec, so lets set them up...
Dragon #1
Smoke test, there is a relay clicking inside, so there's life in the machine, but as usual the TV won't manual tune to anything, so a nervous wait while auto scan does its thing...
FInally it found the Dragon on CH35, and I'm calling this one a win
Dragon #2
Firing up the second "surprise" Dragon, and the TV didn't see the output, so back to auto scan and the TV found the output on CH36
And this one works as well, so I decided to test the cartridge game from below, it works, and it's a Pacman clone, which you would never know from the box art (below). The RF out is noisy on this Dragon, it seems to get better when the CPU is under load though, but it does work
The first Dragon has a better picture via RF, I'm still calling this a win-win
Software
I got quite a lot of software with this machine
Cassette Software
Cuthbert Goes Walkabout
Cassette 50 (50 Rubbish games)
Leggit!
Cash Man
Munching Crunching Katerpillar Attack
Mined-Out
Bug Diver
The Official Frogger
Cosmic Clones
Ugh!
Mansion Adventure
Chuckie Egg
Danger Ranger
Pedro
Pettigrews Diary
Cuthbert in the Mines
Android Attack
Wizard War
Buzzard Bait
Air Traffic Control
Cartridge software
Ghost Attack
So far I haven't been able to test the machine due to the PSU, but I will check it out over the next few days and report back...
For more retro hardware check out my online museum here
