Tangerine MICROTAN 65

The Microtan 65 in the full System Rack enclosure and with the ASCII keyboard
Manufacturer	Tangerine Computer Systems
Type	Personal Computer
Release date	1979; 38 years ago (1979)
Introductory price	£90.85 £79.35 (in kit form)
CPU	6502 clocked at 0.75MHz
Memory	1KB-48KB RAM, 1KB-14KB ROM
Display	Monochrome
Input	Keyboard
Successor	Oric-1

The Tangerine Microtan 65 (sometimes abbreviated M65) was a 6502 based single board microcomputer, first sold in 1979, which could be expanded into, what was for its day, a comprehensive and powerful system. The design became the basis for what later became the ORIC ATMOS and later computers, which had similar keyboard addressing and tape I/O as in the Microtan 65. The Microtan 65 had a single step function that could be used for debugging at the hardware level. The computer was available as ready-built boards or as kits consisting of board and components requiring soldering together.

The Microtan 65 was intended as a general purpose microcomputer which could be used by laboratories, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)s and the computer enthusiast, and it was designed with expandability in mind. In this way the customer could customise the system, be it as a specialised control system, as a learning tool, or as a general purpose computing device.

Price of the Microtan 65 board in 1981 was £79.35 (inc. VAT) in kit form or £90.85 ready-assembled. The system was not generally available in the shops, one of the few stockists at the time being Henry's Radio of Edgware Road, London.

To accompany the hardware and to offer further support to users, a magazine was created, the Tansoft Gazette (name inspired by the Liverpool Software Gazette). This was edited by Tangerine employee Paul Kaufman who continued as editor when the magazine was renamed Oric Owner. Tansoft also became the name of Tangerine Computer's official software house which supplied a number of software products and book for the Microtan system and subsequently for the Oric range of computers. The Tansoft Gazette was prepared in-house using very basic layout facilities and then printed by local printer, Mid-Anglia Litho. Oric Owner improved on this by using a professional typsetting company.