You knew this day would come

April 13, 2009 1:28 PM

Cashman is my favorite game. Where or how can I play the old Tandy/TRS-80 video game Cashman without an emulator?

I tried to play Cashman by getting an emulator and running the program, but that didn't work for me (and I almost wrecked my computer in the process). How can I play this game without an emulator? Is it online somewhere? Is there some other way to play it?

posted by cashman to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I haven't been able to find an online version, but can I ask what emulator you were using? I'm seeing a lot of TRS-80 emulators out there. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to try a different one.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:48 PM on April 13

Yes, without an emulator you're only going to be able to play it on a Color Computer, but that way lies pain. I have one in a box somewhere, but it hasn't seen the light of day for years, and even if it did there's no guarantee those floppys will still read after 15+ years of storage.

Presuming you did find a Color Computer somewhere and had the image file for Cashman on your PC, you'll still need to figure out a way to get it onto either a floppy or a tape, depending on what storage device said Color Computer has with it. If your Color Computer has a floppy drive, you'll need a SSDD (Single Sided, Double Density) 5.25" disk, and a PC with a 5.25" drive, which is uncommon these days. Still findable at surplus shops, but no new PC has been sold with one in ages. If the Color Computer has a tape drive only, well, that's more challenging. Perhaps someone somewhere has written a program that will output CoCo image files as either a wav or an MP3 that you could play and capture onto a tape.... though the one person I would have suspected of doing such a thing is the guy who runs the website you linked (I've known him since we were kids) and I don't see such a program there...

Really you're better off just trying various emulators out there. I've used a ton of emulators for various platforms and never had any significant issues aside from them just not always running very well. Not sure how one might wreck a computer any more than any other program out there. Maybe the one you tried was infected with something?

As for emulators, MESS seems to be the best one out there for now. Maybe give it a go?
posted by barc0001 at 7:21 PM on April 13

Also, I too loved the Cashman, but Phantom Slayer and Donkey King will always have a special place in my childhood on the Color Computer.
posted by barc0001 at 7:23 PM on April 13

I can't remember exactly which emulator I tried. All I know is that I went to run it and everything went black and my computer shut off and I barely got it restarted. I'll look into MESS.
posted by cashman at 4:40 AM on April 14

Ah - found it online! Now I guess I have to get a joystick, because I can't seem to control it with the keyboard.
posted by cashman at 9:28 PM on April 20

Got it to work using the numlock arrow keys after emailing the site owner. Awesomeness.
posted by cashman at 7:07 PM on April 21