Dragon 32

The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are 8-bit home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales, before moving to Port Talbot, Wales (until 1984), and by Eurohard S.A. in Casar de Cáceres, Spain (from 1984 to 1987), and for the US market by Tano Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana. The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines, which have 32 and 64 kilobytes of RAM, respectively. Dragon Data introduced the Dragon 32 microcomputer in August 1982, followed by the Dragon 64 a year later. Despite initial success, the Dragon faced technical limitations in graphics capabilities and hardware-supported text modes, which restricted its appeal in the gaming and educational markets. Dragon Data collapsed in 1984 and was acquired by Spanish company Eurohard S.A. However, Eurohard filed for bankruptcy in 1987. The Dragon computers were built around the Motorola MC6809E processor and featured a composite monitor port, allowing connection to (at the time) modern TVs. They used analog joysticks and had a range of peripherals and add-ons available. The Dragon had several high-resolution display modes, but limited graphics capabilities compared to other home computers of the time. The Dragon came with a Microsoft BASIC interpreter in ROM, which allowed instant system start-up. The Dragon 32/64 was capable of running multiple disk operating systems, and a range of popular games were ported to the system.

Overall, the Dragon computers were initially well-received but faced limitations that hindered their long-term success.

WIKIPEDIA DRAGON 32/64

Dragon Multi Cartiridge

This is Dragon multi cartridge version 1.6 for Dragon (TANO) 32/64. It is a minor update of version 1.5. Functionally the same, but a little bit smaller. Display and controls now are in horizontal orientation. The PCB is mounted onto a solid aluminum plate, which makes it rugged and provides a stable seat in the slot, even when operating the controls. The dimensions are small enough making it possible, to build the cartridge into a standard ATARI VCS/2600 shell.

This device is exclusively designed for cartridge ROM programs, not for cassette or floppy disk programs.

It holds up to 64 8k (or 4k/2k) ROM images. It also can store 16k ROM images on adjacent slots. The cartridge uses a single 27C4001 EPROM (512 kBytes).

ROM images are selected by setting two 16 position rotary switches. A two digit LED display shows the number of the selected image (00 ... 63).

Autostart can be switched on and off. An additional switch combines the selected even numbered slot with the following one, providing a 16k slot for larger images.

No loading time:

- hold reset,
- select slot,
- release reset

and the program will launch immediately.

The project started as DRAGON-only, but drifted during the years more and more to be inter-console. In the meantime, most Dragon multi-carts probably are used with different systems.

A special thanks goes to ROLO who introduced me to this multipurpose cartridge!

wolrdofdragon.org

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