Tandy 400
From Homestar Runner Wiki
The Tandy 400 was Strong Bad's first computer. He used it to answer emails until the 33rd email, "gimmicks," when it suddenly crashed and subsequently exploded.
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History
After using Tangerine Dreams to check his email during "weird dream," Strong Bad got "the old girl" working again in "sisters," although the repaired Tandy was still malfunctioning. Strong Bad made do with the damage for a while until he returned from his vacation in "invisibility," replacing the Tandy 400 with the Compy 386. Tandy 400 made several disparaging remarks when it was thrown out, including: "386? More like three eighty SUCKS!"
The Tandy 400 haunted Strong Badia for some time. The computer appeared floating in mid-air in "ghosts," displaying a Bad Graphics Ghost on its screen. Bubs later salvaged the Tandy 400 and sold it to The King of Town for $900, who attempted to check his email with it in an Easter egg in The King of Town DVD.
The Tandy 400 seems to be Strong Bad's least favorite computer, as evidenced by his indifference whilst knocking the Tandy off the desk in "invisibility" and his comments about it in "pop-up". He claims that he liked that computer in gimmicks, when it blew up, but his loathing of the machine is likely to have originated in "sisters" when it malfunctioned and automatically deleted Ali's email. In contrast, he seemed a lot more broken up about the Compy's demise in virus than he did when the Tandy exploded.
Quick Facts
Debut: Email some kinda robot
Interactive Feature: You can click the contrast buttons in the lower-left corner to change the background color from black to green. The left button makes it darker and the right button makes it greener.
Font: Westminster
Programs
Some of the programs Strong Bad had on the Tandy 400, all of which were started by typing "run" plus the filename in double quotes:
- strongbad's__email (emails 1-40, except email 24 (the bird) which was checked on Pom Pom's Pom Pilot, and email 34 (weird dream) which was checked on The Cheat's Tangerine Dreams)
- temple__of__apshai (homestar hair)
- internet (credit card) (Strong Bad's homepage must be the_coolest_stuff_ever.com)
- duckpond (duck pond)
The Real Computer
Tandy Corporation helped to start the personal computer revolution with its TRS-80 (affectionately known as the "Trash-80") in 1977. Tandy 400 probably gets its name from the Tandy 2000 and 1000, Tandy's first "IBM-PC compatible" machines produced in 1984. However, Tandy did not produce a "400" model. This is probably just showing how old the computer is.
The rainbow star logo on Tandy 400 is a play on an early Apple Computer logo which featured a rainbow-colored apple with a missing bite.
Some believe that the Tandy 400 is an Apple Computer due to the nature of the ProDOS-like operating system and the monitor. In the DVD commentary of "cartoon," Strong Bad refers to it as an "Apple monitor."
Because of the fact that no computer tower is visible, the Tandy (and later, the Compy) may be an homage to the Apple Macintosh, since all of the internal workings were contained in the monitor case itself
Appearances outside Tandy-era Emails
- TV Time Toons Menu
- Email ghosts
- Email personal favorites
- Email no loafing
- King of Town Email
- Main Page 22
- Email rock opera
- HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
- Email do over
- Email lady...ing
- Email pop-up
- Email candy product
- strongbad_email.exe Disc One introduction
- strongbad_email.exe Disc Two introduction
The following Tandy 400 emails are only available on strongbad_email.exe Disc One and are outside the normal numbering scheme:
- Email Greeting Cards
- Email E-mail Birds
Preceded by: N/A | Strong Bad Emails 1 - 23, 25 - 33, 35 - 41 | Succeeded by: Compy 386 |