Exidy Sorcerer

Exidy
Company type	Private
Industry	Computer hardware, Video games
Founded	1973
Headquarters	Sunnyvale, California, United States
Key people	Paul Terrell (developer of Sorcerer)
Products	Sorcerer home computer system, coin-operated arcade machines

The Sorcerer was a home computer system introduced in 1978 by the video game firm Exidy, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It was subsequently promoted for small business use through their subsidiary, Exidy Systems. Built around the emerging S-100 bus architecture and powered by the Zilog Z80 CPU, the Sorcerer offered technological advantages over contemporaries such as the Commodore PET and TRS-80. With global sales reaching approximately 20,000 units—similar to the TRS-80 Model II—it was primarily aimed at home or small business users. The concept was developed by Paul Terrell, formerly associated with the Byte Shop, an early retail chain specializing in computers.

Exidy did not provide substantial financial support for the Sorcerer, focusing instead on its coin-operated arcade machines and deliberately avoiding venture capital investment unlike companies such as Apple. As a result, distribution relied heavily on international licensing agreements and partnerships. Notable licensees included Dick Smith Electronics in Australia, Liveport in the United Kingdom, and Compudata (which later became Tulip Computers) in the Netherlands, which acquired rights to manufacture and market the system across Europe. Compudata further adapted the design into their Tulip computer series. Outside these territories, the Sorcerer remained relatively unknown.

Following an unsuccessful negotiation with Recortec—producers of TRS-80 clones—in 1980, Exidy Systems was sold to Biotech, a Wall Street venture group, in 1981. The following year, ownership transferred to Dynasty Computer Corp. based in Texas. Dynasty rebranded the machine as "smart-ALEC," selling roughly 3,000 units under this name.

Origins

Paul Terrell ran RepCo in California, supplying power supplies and test equipment to electronics manufacturers. Acting on a recommendation from Ed Roberts, Terrell launched one of the earliest personal computer retail outlets—the Byte Shop—in 1975. By 1977, this chain had expanded to 58 locations before Terrell sold it to John Peers of Logical Machine Corporation.

Prior to divesting Byte Shop, Terrell introduced an S-100 bus-based kit named the Byt8, which was marketed alongside other S-100 systems including the MITS Altair.

Terrell recognized a demand for a compact business computer that was easy to operate, affordable, fully assembled at purchase, and ready for immediate use. While systems like the Commodore PET and Tandy’s TRS-80 provided ready-to-use solutions, the TRS-80 required an expensive monitor and both offered limited graphical capabilities. The Apple II delivered superior graphics but necessitated some user assembly.

In search of an evocative name reflecting "computer magic," Terrell selected "Sorcerer."

Design

Terrell utilized his connections at Exidy, a manufacturer specializing in coin-operated arcade game machines, including Howell Ivy, their Vice President of Engineering and an avid computer enthusiast. The Sorcerer was developed as a small business computer featuring several notable enhancements:

A keyboard-based computer compatible with either television sets or high-resolution computer monitors.
A programmable graphics character set, similar to that of the Commodore PET but with greater flexibility; this allowed developers to create graphical BASIC programs such as word processors and spreadsheets. Unlike the fixed character set of the PET, Sorcerer's reprogrammable 8x8 pixel characters earned it a “Most Innovative” accolade at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Equipped with one of the fastest microprocessors available—the Zilog Z80 (also powering Tandy's TRS-80)—it supported broad software compatibility including Micro-Soft BASIC, which Exidy licensed early on before Microsoft relocated.
Software cartridges that could be plugged in for instant availability upon startup, eliminating delays associated with tape or disk loading. Exidy provided three licensed cartridges: Microsoft 8K BASIC; a Word Processor Cartridge—considered the Sorcerer's “killer app”; and an Assembler Cartridge for advanced programming tasks. Additionally, blank EEPROM cartridges were available for proprietary software development and possible localization.
An expansion chassis utilizing the widely adopted S-100 bus, enabling connection of affordable existing peripherals to accommodate growing small business requirements.

Introduction to the US Market

The Sorcerer made its initial appearance at the Long Beach Computer Show on April 28, 1978. Included as standard plug-in options were a printer interface, a cassette port for data storage, and a serial communication port—some features that were common among competitors, while others were offered as optional accessories.

With a competitive price tag of $895, the Sorcerer’s launch in Long Beach, California, resulted in an order backlog of 4,000 units. Distribution of the product commenced later that summer.

International Achievements

Exporting personal computers required authorization from the US State Department but provided financial benefits through letter of credit transactions, which ensured immediate payment compared to the typical 30-day credit terms within the domestic market. Exidy placed a strong emphasis on expanding overseas sales while keeping its development and marketing operations based in the United States.

To broaden production capacity and market penetration, Exidy licensed manufacturing rights both domestically and abroad, capitalizing on its distinctive programmable character set that supported foreign languages. Upfront royalty payments and licensing fees became a vital source of income.

In the United Kingdom, Liveport Ltd imported Sorcerer units at a starting price of £895 in 1978. Liveport also created supplementary ROM-PAC cartridges and developed an add-on floppy disk drive utilizing Micropolis hardware, thereby avoiding expensive S-100 chassis costs. In continental Europe, distributor Compudata Systems achieved robust sales. The Sorcerer’s commercial peak occurred in 1979 when Dutch broadcaster TELEAC chose to develop its own home computer; however, due to delays from Belgian company DAI, Compudata supplied several thousand Sorcerers as an alternative.

Supported by Dutch government initiatives promoting computers for small enterprises, Compudata secured a license to manufacture Exidy’s design locally. After years of producing Sorcerers under license from Exidy, Compudata introduced the Intel 8088-based Tulip computer in 1983 as a successor. The Dutch ESGG (Exidy Sorcerer Gebruikers Groep) emerged as a prominent user community that published newsletters in both Dutch and English and ranked among the largest groups within the HCC federation. Firmware producer De Broeders Montfort also gained recognition.

In Australia, exclusive distributor Dick Smith Electronics vigorously marketed the Sorcerer, achieving success despite some resistance from hobbyists regarding pricing. The Sorcerer Computer Users Group of Australia (SCUA) continued to support the platform well beyond its discontinuation by offering RAM expansions, performance upgrades, an "80-column card," and replacement monitor software known as SCUAMON.

Technical Overview

The Sorcerer’s architecture blended aspects of the popular but not yet standardized MITS-derived S-100 bus with custom-designed display and input/output circuitry, all enclosed within a sealed case. The ROM-pac cartridge system was inspired by Howell Ivy’s prior work at Ramtek. Powered by the Zilog Z80 processor and equipped with essential bus functions to operate the CP/M operating system, Exidy’s four-person software team led by Vic Tolomei collaborated with Digital Research to develop a CP/M port.

Its integrated keyboard featured a high-quality full-travel design reminiscent of later models such as the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers, including a dedicated "Graphics" key for quick access to extended character sets. Unlike many contemporaries, the Sorcerer incorporated lowercase characters in ROM and allowed users to program custom characters in RAM.

Differing from most S-100 CP/M systems of its time, the Sorcerer lacked internal expansion slots; all core computing functions were integrated. It required connection to a standard video monitor for display output and optionally supported an audio cassette deck for data storage. A small onboard ROM housed a simple machine code monitor program written by John Borders that enabled low-level control and loading from either cassette or ROM cartridges ("ROM PACs"). These cartridges replaced traditional tape media with circuit boards housed in eight-track-style cartridges that interfaced directly with the Sorcerer, enabling instant application launch without waiting for tape loading.

Although fully functional without expansion, users could attach an external S-100 expansion chassis through a 50-pin ribbon cable at the rear of the unit, transforming the Sorcerer into a full-fledged S-100 system. This interface also supported direct connection of floppy disk drives for CP/M booting; later versions integrated floppy drives and a small monitor into a single unit resembling the TRS-80 Model II. A Winchester hard drive option was introduced subsequently.

Graphics

The Sorcerer showcased remarkable visual capabilities, offering a resolution of , surpassing the standard limits of many machines that were restricted to . Unlike most contemporaries, which lowered either resolution or color depth due to video hardware constraints on RAM access speeds, the Sorcerer utilized programmable character graphics. Each position on the screen displayed one of 256 possible characters: the lower set was fixed in ROM as standard ASCII, while the upper set was stored in dedicated RAM and could be customized. This character RAM initially loaded default graphics at startup but could be redefined dynamically, allowing flexible visuals without employing pixel-addressable graphics.

In practical terms, this produced a display resolution of ( pixel characters), comfortably within the hardware’s processing range, but limited to a checkerboard layout and less versatile than true bitmap graphics. Since this high resolution exceeded typical color television capabilities, the Sorcerer did not support color output—similar to systems like the PET and TRS-80 that also relied on "graphics characters." Despite these limitations, the visual quality was considered excellent. The programmable character RAM made animation possible by redefining character bitmaps on the fly; combining multiple characters per graphic enabled fluid motion even across character-cell boundaries.

Sound

A significant drawback, especially given the machine’s background, was the absence of built-in audio output. Developers standardized on using two pins from a parallel port, requiring users to connect an external speaker for sound.

Software

The system shipped with a Standard BASIC cartridge based on the widely adopted Microsoft BASIC common in CP/M environments. It included single-key shortcuts for frequently used commands, which expedited program entry (for example, automatically inserted PRINT). The sound input/output ports supported cassette recorder connections for program loading and saving in the absence of disk drives. An Extended BASIC cartridge (16 KB) was advertised, though its actual availability remains uncertain; Microsoft’s Extended BASIC was also distributed on cassette. The popular Word Processor PAC cartridge contained an early iteration of the Spellbinder word processor.

Third Party Add-ons

A variety of third-party hardware and software enhancements were created for the Sorcerer and its S-100 bus architecture, including:

Montfort Brothers’ EPROM PAC featuring a rechargeable battery, 16 KB RAM, and an external write-protect switch to maintain persistent bootable software.
Montfort’s general-purpose IO (GPIO) ROM PAC equipped with 8 KB RAM and addressable input/output lines.

Active user communities existed in Australia (SCUA), the Netherlands (ESGG), the U.K. (ESC), and the U.S. (SUG), publishing newsletters such as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, fostering a lively support network.

RAM expansion

Although many CP/M-compatible systems supported the full 64 KB 16-bit address space, the Exidy Sorcerer faced certain limitations. It could readily accommodate 32 KB of RAM; an additional 16 KB was reserved for ROM cartridges but could be repurposed only by disabling ROM functionality. The remaining 16 KB was dedicated to system I/O, primarily video functions, necessitating extensive system modifications to alter this allocation.

Exidy Systems

Following an unsuccessful attempt to sell its Data System Division to Recortec in August 1980, Exidy Systems was established in January 1981 to manage the disposition of Sorcerer design rights and related business segments.

Founder Terrell continued creating systems targeting small business markets. The 1981 System 80 Desktop Computer integrated the Sorcerer with a 12" monitor, dot matrix printer, and business software—comparable to contemporaneous offerings like the Xerox Diablo 3100. That same year introduced the Multi-Net 80, which incorporated multiple Winchester disk drives alongside a centralized "timeshare global module" running MP/M and CP/NET, enabling up to 16 Sorcerers to connect via Terminal ROM-pacs—an early example of networked computing, though sales figures are unclear. Around this period, Exidy Systems was acquired by Biotech; Terrell departed in January 1982.

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