TLB2

The TLB2 (short for "That Little Black Box") is a fanonical game console created by JustAlex93.

It is a console released in Late 1983/Early 1984 in the U.K. by Murphy Computing.

Overview
The TLB2, developed by a team lead by Murphy Computing's CEO Barton Murphy, was touted to be a low-cost, full-colour system. Instead of cartridges, the TLB2 uses a small-sized floppy disk format referred to as the "Floppy Card" for its software titles. The system has a distinct display mode where ASCII characters are used to create a pseudo-bitmapped screen. Text VDUs store a small grid of ASCII values used to look up appropriate entries in a character matrix table accessed by the display processor. By changing the character matrices, or essentially treating them all as user-definable graphics, a bitmap screen could be achieved using less memory.

The TLB2's main input device, the TLB2 Game Controller is a joypad with four rubber fire buttons, D-pad, and a start/pause button.

Murphy Computing had also developed the TLB2 Keyboard, a peripheral which, with the included TLBASIC OS Floppy Card, lets the user run the TLB2 as a home microcomputer. With the MGC-004 External Floppy Card Drive, the user can save data on re-writable Floppy Cards when the TLB2 is in computer mode.

With the TM-16 Memory Expansion Pack (M.E.P.), the user can add an extra 16K of memory to the TLB2's base memory, making it ideal especially for the system's computer mode.

MORE INFO TO BE ADDED

Product Listings

 * MCG-001 - TLB2
 * MCG-002 - TLB2 Game Controller
 * MCG-003 - TLB2 Keyboard
 * MCG-004 - External Floppy Card Drive
 * TM-16 - TLB2 Memory Expansion Pack (M.E.P.) 16K
 * FCD-C - Floppy Card Drive Cleaner

Software Listings
MORE TO BE ADDED
 * Bladenite
 * Dead Dude: Undead Cool Guy
 * Solar Nightmare

Trivia

 * The TLB2's display mode is inspired by that of the Sinclair LC3, an unreleased game console.