VTech Laser 200

Video Technology

Company type	Private
Industry	Consumer electronics, Computer hardware
Headquarters	Hong Kong , Hong Kong
Products	Calculators, LCD electronic games, Home computers (Laser 200 series)

The VTech Laser 200 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1983 and marketed internationally under several names: Salora Fellow in Fennoscandia, Seltron 200 across Hungary and Italy, Smart-Alec Jr. in the United States, Texet TX8000A within the United Kingdom, and the Dick Smith VZ 200 throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Produced by Video Technology, a Hong Kong-based company known for calculators and LCD electronic games, the Laser series developed from earlier monochrome models. The Laser 200/210 shared design elements with contemporaries such as the EACA Colour Genie and Mattel Aquarius.

This system supported cassette-based titles including Hoppy (a clone of Frogger), Cosmic Rescue (inspired by Scramble), VZ Invaders (modeled after Space Invaders), Dawn Patrol, and Moon Patrol. Production ceased in 1985, with the Laser 310 and VZ300 models serving as successors.

Release

Debuting in 1983, the VZ200 quickly established a presence across North America and Europe. It entered Germany through Sanyo’s distribution at the end of 1982, with units dated accordingly.

Dick Smith Electronics’ vigorous marketing campaigns substantially increased sales in Australia and New Zealand, achieving over 30,000 units sold within the first year. The VZ200 gained popularity as an economical entry-level computer ideal for programming education, competing against the Commodore 64 while providing a more advanced BASIC interpreter.

In the UK market, the Texet TX8000 was promoted as the most affordable color home microcomputer at £98 but faced tough competition from well-established products like the ZX Spectrum.

Released in 1985, the enhanced VTech Laser 310 (marketed as Dick Smith VZ300) featured a full-travel keyboard and included software for floppy disk controller support. It remained available until 1989 and found notable use in Chinese primary schools during the 1980s alongside Apple IIe clones.

Technical specification (Laser200/Laser210/VZ200)

The VZ200 is constructed with three separate circuit boards, isolating the video board and voltage regulator from the main logic board.

Its exterior design combines elements reminiscent of both the VIC-20 and ZX Spectrum, incorporating one-touch command keys similar to those on the Spectrum, although their use was optional.

Internally, its architecture resembles that of the Tandy TRS-80 Model I running Model II BASIC. The system can directly load TRS-80 Level I and II software from cassette using the VZLOADXX utility. However, due to differences in memory map configuration and partial removal of some BASIC commands—likely to avoid Microsoft licensing conflicts—these commands can be restored but it does not constitute a full TRS-80 clone.

Connectivity options include an unregulated DC power supply port, a stereo headphone jack for cassette recorders, RF modulated video output, edge connectors for printer/disk drive and joystick interfaces, composite monitor output (NTSC 60 Hz for North America and PAL 50 Hz elsewhere), and SCART connectors in select markets.

Powered by a licensed version of the Zilog Z80 processor manufactured by NEC, it operates at a clock speed of 3.58 MHz (3.54 MHz on the VZ300). Initial RAM configurations were either 4 kB (Europe) or 6 kB (North America), soon standardized to 8 kB; Australian and New Zealand models shipped with 8 kB from launch. A 16 kB RAM expansion module was offered to increase total memory to 24 kB. The VZ300 model came equipped with 18 kB RAM including 2 kB dedicated to video memory.

An 8 kB memory setup comprises 6 kB RAM, 2 kB video RAM, and 16 kB ROM. Expansion allowed up to 24 kB total memory (22 kB system RAM plus 2 kB video RAM). Similar to the TRS-80 architecture, both memory and I/O spaces are mapped accordingly.

Extended RAM utilized remote offset addressing (bank switching) beyond top RAM boundaries. This method reassigned system memory banks but restricted their use for executable code, limiting extended memory primarily to data storage functions.

Video RAM expansion enabled access to enhanced display modes of the 6847 video chip via memory expansion modules featuring chip select lines. Remote offset addressing was essential because the video processor could not directly address system or internal expansion RAM; only externally connected RAM was accessible for video purposes.

Video

The VZ200 is equipped with the Motorola 6847 video processor, delivering a screen resolution of 256×192 pixels. Its video output can be presented either as character blocks measuring 8×8 pixels arranged in a 32×24 matrix or as a monochrome bitmap display.

Initially, with a mere 4 kB of total memory and only 2 kB devoted to video, the display is limited to 16 lines vertically, resulting in a text mode resolution of 256×128 pixels. Early versions of the system do not support bitmapped graphics.

The device accommodates up to ten colours—comprising an eight-colour palette plus black and buff—and features 256 predefined character blocks. Text output is restricted to uppercase letters without any option for character redefinition. The screen can toggle between green or black (inverse) display modes.

MODE 0

In mode 0, the background colour can be either dark green or orange. The dark green setting (COLOR,0) allows for ten distinct colours, while the orange background (COLOR,1) supports eleven.

Text appears with a black foreground against either background. The first set of 128 character blocks includes 64 alphanumeric symbols along with their inverse forms; black foreground is exclusive to this mode.

The remaining 128 character blocks consist of 2×2 pixel patterns combining eight foreground colours with the selected background colour.

MODE 1

Mode 1 functions as a high-resolution graphics mode offering a resolution of 128×64 pixels (totaling 8192 addressable points), utilizing video RAM from addresses 0x7000 to 0x77FF.

There are two distinct colour sets corresponding to each background:

• SET 1 features a light green background with foreground colours including light green, yellow, blue, or red.
• SET 2 uses a buff (white) background with buff, cyan, magenta, or orange foreground colours.

Only four colours from one set can be displayed at once, consuming the entire 2 kB of video memory.

Through advanced video timing techniques, it is possible to showcase all eight colours simultaneously, as demonstrated in demos such as '2018AD' and '8 colours.'

Sound output

Sound generation relies on an internal latch that manages the piezoelectric speaker and signals sent to the video processor. The speaker is driven in push-pull mode by bits 0 and 5 of the latch located at $6800.

The BASIC programming language includes a SOUND command that provides a range spanning approximately 2.5 octaves.

Certain ZX Spectrum one-bit music players are compatible with VZ/Laser systems and produce audio through the speaker, cassette port, or parallel printer interface. Software volume control is enabled by two bits in the latch, allowing for mute, half volume, and full volume levels.

Complete 8-bit waveform and music playback is achievable via a DAC connected through the parallel interface, extending beyond BASIC's original limitation of 31 discrete pitches.

Peripherals

Disk drive units were introduced in Germany in 1984 and became available worldwide by 1985. Up to two drives could be connected simultaneously through the drive controller, which required a plug-in cartridge controller containing DOS ROM for operation. Both the DOS ROM and disk drives maintained backwards compatible functionality with the Laser 200 model.

VTech provided an assortment of plug-in peripherals compatible with both the Laser 200 and Laser 310 systems. These included joysticks, cassette recorders, light pen devices, printer plotter units, a 75 baud modem, word processing cartridges, and RAM expansions of 16kB or 64kB. The expanding user community also developed homemade accessories such as speech synthesizers, Music Synthesiser chips (Texas Instruments SN76489AN), relay interfaces, EEPROM programmers, data loggers, 300 baud MODEMs, complete keyboards, sideways RAM expansions up to 128kB, and RTTY Ham radio kits.

In 2020, Ben Grimmett from BennVenn Electronics produced fifty SD card readers designed for enthusiasts. These devices expanded RAM capacity to 128kB and supported storage sizes starting at 2 GB depending on the SD card used. An embedded FAT32 DOS system within EEPROM was created for this project. A subsequent release in 2022 added forty more units featuring updated DOS software that enabled full file access alongside direct playback of music and graphical videos stored on the SD card.

Laser 310 / VZ-300

Introduced in 1985 throughout parts of Europe and Mainland China, the Laser 310 was branded as the "Dick Smith" VZ 300 in Australia and New Zealand. It operated on a Zilog Z80A processor paired with an enhanced 16kB ROM and utilized a television colour burst crystal oscillating at 3.54 MHz. The system included 16kB of RAM for programming alongside 2kB dedicated to video memory, consistent with the Laser 200’s specifications.

While the VZ300 incorporated slight physical refinements, it remained entirely backward-compatible with the VZ200. There were three distinct keyboard variants released over time:

1. Brown keys without labels beneath (1985)
2. Brown keys featuring under-key labels (1986)
3. Light grey or cream keys with under-key labels (1987)

The original rubber keytops were replaced by rigid plastic caps, and the enclosure was constructed from a more robust plastic material. Video Technology upgraded the memory integrated circuits, resulting in a total memory capacity of 18kB (16kB CPU RAM plus 2kB video RAM). The system RAM was increased to 16kB with an optional expansion module providing an additional 16kB, allowing for a maximum of 34kB.

Although the VZ200’s 16kB RAM expansion module was compatible with the VZ300, it only delivered 8kB due to differences in chip select pin configurations. A circuit modification published by ETI magazine enabled full utilization of the expansion’s entire 16kB on the VZ300.

At least one example of a Video Technology-manufactured VZ300 exists featuring an expanded memory of 66kB (64kB RAM plus 2kB video RAM), achieved by employing eight HM4864P-2 static RAM chips instead of the usual smaller capacity chips.

Laser 100 / Laser 110

The Laser 100 and Laser 110 models, launched shortly before the Laser 210 / VZ200, bore close resemblance to the TRS-80 Model 1 regarding their BASIC ROM implementations. Both utilized the MC6847 video display chip, also present in the TRS-80 Color Computer.

These units sported an orange-colored 'chicklet' style keyboard set against a black base and shared BASIC ROM versions ranging from 1.0 to 1.2. The Laser 100 was equipped with 2kB RAM plus 2kB video RAM, while the Laser 110 offered increased memory of 4kB RAM alongside the same amount of video RAM.

Despite their BASIC and assembler language environments supporting color output, both NTSC and PAL video signals were restricted to monochrome display. Neither model was sold as a rebranded 'VZ 100'.

Laser 305

The Laser 305 is an extremely scarce variant that combines the motherboard from the Laser 310 with the keyboard from the Laser 200—a setup achievable by end users owning both devices. The rationale behind this configuration remains uncertain. As of mid-2021, only two such units are known to be in existence.

Seltron 200

The Seltron 200 Color Computer, named after Austria’s Scale ELEKTRON supermarket chain, saw a limited import run of approximately eighty units into Austria and was distributed across Austria, Hungary, and Italy. Its motherboard design differs substantially from other models but incorporates identical custom GA003 and GA004 chipsets found in the VZ300/Laser 310 series, replacing discrete components used previously.

This iteration eliminated the GA008 clock register and DRAM controller present in the VZ300/Laser 310, presumably as a cost-reduction strategy. It shipped with 2kB each of video RAM and user RAM (similar to the Laser 200) but supported expansions up to an additional 2kB or even 4kB user RAM, aligning with the "8K" specifications of the VZ200/Laser 210 models. The Seltron also featured a standard-sized 16kB ROM with options for either one single chip or two separate 8kB ROM chips.

By early 2022, around ten Seltron units were known to survive, predominantly located in Hungary.

Salora Fellow

In Finland, Sweden, and across Scandinavia, the Laser 200 was marketed under the name Salora Fellow. These models featured 2kB of RAM alongside 2kB of video memory.

Smart Alec Jr

The Laser 210 was introduced to the US market as the Smart Alec Jr, distributed on a limited basis by Dynasty Computer Corporation. Precise sales data for this model remains unavailable.

Texet TX8000A

Within the United Kingdom, the Laser 200 was rebranded as the Texet TX8000A. Only a small number of units were sold, and their current status is largely unknown.

Additional Models

The Laser 128, released in 1986 as an Apple II clone, was not compatible with the earlier Laser 100-310 series.

Subsequent models, such as the Laser 500 and Laser 750, utilized Z80 processor architecture similar to MSX systems. These featured 32kB ROM (including BASIC 3.0) and 64kB RAM but did not offer backward compatibility with the Laser 100-310 range.

Australia and New Zealand

Dick Smith Electronics handled distribution of the VZ200 in these regions, achieving sales numbering in the tens of thousands.

United States of America

Video Technology launched its initial US branch in Redwood City, California, in 1985. This location functioned as headquarters for mail order operations, kit assembly, and retail sales. Additional outlets opened in Berkeley, San Jose, and Los Angeles before the US division was sold a few years later.

NTSC versions of the Laser 200, 210, 310, and VTech VZ200 were reportedly available across the United States. The Smart Alec Jr represented one of these rebranded variants. An electronics publication also advertised a training course that included a VZ200 giveaway, mirroring promotional efforts seen in Australia during the mid-1980s.

Canada

The VZ200 was distributed throughout Canada by Rocelco Inc., located in Concord, Ontario. While still operating at the same address today, Rocelco has since shifted focus to wholesaling office furniture.

Germany

Sanyo managed nationwide distribution of the VTech Laser 200, 210, and Laser 310 models. The VZ200 was sold under its original "VTECH VZ200" branding, whereas more advanced machines carried the "SANYO VIDEO/LASER XXX" label. This branding led to legal disputes over Sanyo’s name usage; however, an amicable agreement permitted Video Technology Hong Kong to continue packaging German-market Laser 310 units as "SANYO VIDEO."

Early sales of the VZ200 and Laser 210 were strong in Germany, supporting multiple user communities. The Light Pen accessory was sold domestically and also privately imported into Australia before official release there. Similarly, floppy disk drives reached German consumers in 1984—almost two years prior to their Australian market debut—resulting in unofficial imports before Dick Smith Electronics began official distribution.

Software

Commercial software titles were released across Germany, England, the USA, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and other markets through various retail channels. Numerous programs—including educational software, graphical games, financial applications, and utilities—were widely available in stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. Many of these titles have since been preserved through emulation; however, some software has been lost over time.

Dick Smith Electronics sourced software from local developers and sold cassette tapes at $12 each. The majority of VZ200 programs originated from Australian programmers, positioning it as a local counterpart to the Sinclair ZX-81 (which faced production difficulties in the UK). The limited presence of foreign software on this platform encouraged domestic development efforts that struggled to compete with popular platforms like the Commodore 64 dominated by international titles.

BASIC

The VZ series incorporates an onboard BASIC interpreter stored in ROM, designed to facilitate programming and system management tasks.

Specifically, the VZ200 utilizes a variant of Microsoft BASIC II, closely resembling but not identical to the TRS-80 Level II BASIC. This version includes commands such as SET, PRINT@, and IF-THEN-ELSE. Additionally, firmware routines provided by Zilog through NEC can be accessed via the RSX command interface.

Certain TRS-80 BASIC commands like RANDOMIZE, ON, and DEF are absent, which restricts compatibility primarily to simpler TRS-80 programs unless they are adapted accordingly. To address this limitation, extended versions of BASIC were developed that re-enable about 25 partially disabled commands originally concealed by Video Technology.

The BASIC interpreter supports numeric data types including integers, decimals, and floating-point numbers. Although double precision is not natively supported, it can be emulated by manipulating strings to represent varying power positions.

Emulators

A variety of emulators have been created for these computers across diverse platforms:

• MAME/MESS VZ/Laser emulation developed by Juergen Buchmueller and Dirk Best
• JEMU (Java) authored by Richard Wilson
• JVZ200 (Windows) created by James Tamer
• VZEM (Windows/DOS) developed by Guy Thomason
• Pocket VZ (Pocket PC) by Guy Thomason
• Android VZ (Android OS) also by Guy Thomason
• WinVZ300 / DSEVZ200 / Emulator 2001 maintained by Gavin Turner
• VZ SoundPaint (Java) by Jürgen Reuter
• VZ200 Remake Java emulator authored by C Wahlmann
• Windows Laser 310 Emulator from ZZemu
• FPGA-based VZ emulator by ZZEMU
• VZ Emulator developed by Paul Anderson
• VZ-Next supporting ESP32/Windows/Linux/Raspberry Pi platforms by Paul Robson
• MiSTer FPGA core created by Alan Hanson
• JSMESS maintained by Jason Scott
• Browser-based laser310-emu developed by Antonino Porcino
• VTech CreatiVision core for MiSTer FPGA designed by Jamie Blanks

External links

• Blue Bilby – website offering new games, interviews, tutorials, and applications
• VZEM by Intertek – official homepage for the VZEM emulator
• JEMU – Java-based emulator for VZ200 & VZ300 systems
• A contemporary review – published in Your Computer, April 1983 issue
• The VZ200 – collection of tutorials and programming guides
• A VZ200 Wiki – comprehensive details about the VZ200 computer
• Clockmeisters – dedicated page for VZ/Laser310 information
• Bushy's – extensive resources related to the VZ series
• Steve's – informational page focused on the VZ platform
• CreatiVEmu – hub for CreatiVision emulation projects

Software

• Intertek's software download repository
• Bushy's collection of downloadable VZ software