Composite Mod on the CoCo 2: The UVD Board

Since at least March of 2019, the Tandy Color Computer 2 has sat there, teasing me. It has a Motorola 6847, the tragically disappointing graphics chip, paired with the terrifyingly powerful Motorola 6809 CPU (running at… substantially less than a megahertz, but we all have our flaws). Truly a machine that should provoke more interest from me than it does… except for the fact that it only has RF output. Let’s finally fix that.

The Tandy Color Computer

The TRS-80 Color Computer and Tandy Color Computer 2 are pretty much the same computer; the Color Computer 2 is a cost-reduced variant with a better keyboard and more RAM. Also, at least mine is branded “Tandy Color Computer” rather than “TRS-80 Color Computer”, which is good, because despite Tandy Corporation’s fondness for the TRS-80 acronym, the 80 did originally stand for Z80, and there’s no Z80 anywhere here.

Well… there is one other big difference. If you search the internet for a Color Computer video mod, you’ll find a ton, but just like this page on CoCopedia, they’ll pretty much only talk about the original model.

So, why do they only include the original Color Computer? Because of how the Motorola 6847 works. You see, unlike