The Dick Smith System 80 was a clone of the TRS-80 Model 1 computer released in 1980.  There were at least four revisions of the System 80 over the years, the last identified as the "Blue Label" model as it had a dark blue label rather than a black one. The Blue Label was the only one guaranteed to be fitted with lowercase characters.

This module will add lowercase characters to the earlier Black Label models that didn't have it already installed. The module optionally includes the "arrow" characters as seen on the TRS-80.  Because the early models only had 7 bit video RAM an extra RAM chip is also included in the kit.

The module consists of a small PCB with the new character generator IC and a flylead which needs to be soldered to the video board.   The supplied video RAM chip needs to be piggyback soldered to an existing one as detailed in the link below.

You should only attempt this modification if you are confident with disassembly and soldering, if not you should probably find someone who has these skills to do it for you. We can't be held responsible if bad things happen. As with any vintage computer things can and will go wrong.

See our blog here for an installation guide.


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System 80 Lowercase Module for Black Label Models

  • Product Code: S80MLOWER
  • Availability: 3
  • $35.00


Tags: System-80 lowercase lower case module video genie pmc-80