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Using PC Paintbrush on the Tandy 1000
The 16 color mode of the Tandy 1000 was added in order to give PC Jr.
Compatability. But the 1000 is general viewed as more of a PC
compatable than as a Jr. compatable. This is probably due to the
dismal view that most users take towards IBM's failure in the Jr. The
graphics mode shared by the Jr. and the 1000 make them powerful
graphics machines by comparison with their Big Blue forebearers.
One of the more popular graphics programs for IBM compatables is PC
Paintbrush. A program that is currently being sold with the Microsoft
Mouse (but not with Tandy's antique version). Paintbrush works with
over 30 differant color cards but no where on the list can one find
the 1000. You can configure it to work with the PC Color Card and
get 2 or 4 color graphics but it does not appear to utilize the 16
color mode. At least not on the surface.
Configuring Paintbrush as a 16 color PC Jr. will cause the system to
hang when Paintbrush is run. This can be fixed after configuration by
editing the file PAINT.BAT. PAINT.BAT contains a call to the FREIZE
program and a call to PCPAINT. The call to PCPAINT passes parameters
to tell it what input device and what graphics card you are using.
The last parameter will read 0B00 (for the PC Jr.) and must be changed to
B800 for the 1000. PC Paintbrush will now work in 16 glorious colors.
One other note: If you are using Tandy's Digi-mouse there is no
MOUSE.COM on you Digimouse disk. Most Microsoft Mouse programs want
you to initialize the mouse through MOUSE.COM and not MOUSE.SYS (as
Tandy does). I found that you can fake out the install program by
temporarily renaming MOUSE.SYS to MOUSE.COM, running the install,
removing the call to MOUSE.COM from the .BAT file, and renaming
MOUSE.COM to MOUSE.SYS. All this because Tandy refuses to upgrade
their Mouse software to the latest version!
Once again Tandy proves that though their Hardware is clearly
superior, their support is pathetic!
With the Digi-mouse, a CGP 220, and 16 color graphics, your final
PAINT.BAT should look like:
FREIZE P1
PCPAINT M PCJR 3 B800
Professor PC - Denver Metro MSDOS Users Group