Old Radio Shack computer from the 70's

[Flysofree]

Hello to all. I'm a long time reader but first time poster. Am not very computer literate so I won't be asking any complicated questions about them. What I'm looking for is information on a computer program that was written a LONG time ago back in the late 70's or possible early 1980's. I don't remember the exact name of the program, but it came packaged in a laptop Radio Shack computer. I bought it from a guy in Baltimore Maryland, who I think was the original developer. Have no idea what his name was and I vaguely remeber the name of the program was something like "winner" . But that's not important . The program, by today's standards would be like a dinosour, but I did very well with it and hit a pick six at Pimlico which didn't pay a lot, but my investment was only $32. on the pick six.
Anyway, I paid for the program and the computer about $900. which was unheard of in those days. However, I lost the computer and of course the program at a track one day at Delaware Park, after having "one too many". Any info from you old timers (if there are any of us left) would be appreciated.

[andicap]

dont know the program but I believe the computer was a
TRS-100. Very popular with journalists.

[Flysofree]

Yes that was it.

Wish I could find the program. You had to input your own information from the DRF. The computer screen would go blank about 2 minutes after all the information was in and it came up with the top four horses and a 4 digit number representing the strength of each contender. It was a Great program, but in those days I enjoy the brew more (or equal to) the horses. It did not require a lot of time to do a card. Actually an hour or so before the first race at the track was all that was needed.

The problem, I have with the packaged stuff available today is that you can't see the numbers going into the evaluation. But as Bret Favre says: "that's just me".

[Speed Figure]

Did you try E-Bay?

[Flysofree]

No I haven't looked at Ebay. Figured better chance of seasoned horse players on this board. Maybe give it a look.

[Speed Figure]

I went on ebay and saw, "Tandy TRS 80 Model 100". I don't know if this is what your looking for but, some are for sell.

[Flysofree]

Thanks Speed,

I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Basically without the computer program the actual computer would do me no good. Guess, I was looking for a real long-shot to see if anyone had ever used this particular program from the guy in Baltimore. He had lots of the computers with him and was like a type of "traveling salesman" with handicapping and computer experience. Sine handicapping horse by computer in those days was fairly recent--it's a SUPER long shot!!! I appreciate the efforts.

While I'm at it--has anyone ever heard of a handicapping system called "magic squares". I was at Laurel way back when when an oldtimer pulled out of his pocket a system and was trying to teach it to me!! LOL. I was deeply into reading the form--while this old guy was busy cashing tickets.
He called it magic squares. It was a pencil and paper system where added up and subtracted something from the form. But he had to know the morning line. Just be on the lookout for the Magic Squares System.:)

[Speed Figure]

The guy you want to talk to is Jaguar, he want said something about that old program. Good Luck!:)

[Tom]

I have a poceket computer from Radio Shack-about the size of a Hershey bar. It had 10 program modules in it-and I got a bunch of programs from John Meyer in California. The computer is out of wack-maybe low betteries, but I have the prgrams somwhere if it was him.
Also, I still have the Sharp 360 pocket with the Sartin progrms and Dick Schmidt's 3rd fraction program in it. Made a lot of oney off that little baby. Got the original Synergism, PhaseIII, energy, and my own version of TPR that converted the beyers to a daily variant. Used to program with a magnifying glass and eraser end of a pencil. And I was thinking how hi-tech racing had become!

[Flysofree]

Wish I new the guys name who wrote and sold the program. I'm allmost 100% certain that he ran an advertisement in the Racing Form back in those days. Maybe that's where I would need to start my search.
The program(s) was not complicated. It asked standard questions about date of last race, distance, money won and speed and track variant. Maybe one or two other questions. But the output was a 4 digit number. Then it had a program thatallowed for scratches if one of the top four was scratched. I think it called them Power Numbers.

Is there someway, without costing a fortune to see the ads from the old racing forms or is that too far back?

[BillW]

Originally posted by Flysofree


Is there someway, without costing a fortune to see the ads from the old racing forms or is that too far back?

Try the library, and BTW, welcome to the visible side of the site.

Bill

[Amazin]

Flsofree askedWhile I'm at it--has anyone ever heard of a handicapping system called "magic squares".

Sounds familiar.Wasn't that by a guy who called himself "Dr Brown". I thought I read a review of that years ago in Phillips Racing Newsletter. Wasn't a very good review as I recall.

[trying2win]

Flysofree,

--Re, the "Magic Squares" system. You might try sending an e-mail to Alan Dietrich of Phillips Racing Newsletter at the following link:

http://phillipsracingnewsletter.htmlplanet.com/

--As you know or may not know, they review horse racing systems and methods. This is not an endorsement of their website or their publication, but just as a reference. Alan D. sells a systems review index book that lists all the systems they've reviewed over many years. Maybe the "Magic Squares" system is listed in there. Of course, even if this system was listed let's say 20 years ago, there's no guarantee that the person originally selling it, is either still selling it, or even still at a particular address anymore.

--Anyways, Alan D.'s e-mail address is listed at his website in the CONTACT PAGE section. Maybe Alan D. will answer your question about the "Magic Squares" system, without having to buy his systems review index book first. He might just tell you if they've reviewed it or not in the past. Then you can go from there.

--Good luck in your search.

T2W

[trying2win]

Amazin,

--Now that you mention a Dr. Brown, the name D.D. Brown comes to mind. I might have seen his name in an old edition of Phillips Racing Newletter many years ago. Yeah, he might have sold something called the 'MAGIC SQUARES' system, or the 'MAGIC TRIANGLE' system, or some name similar to those two. I just can't remember exact name of the system for sure.

T2W

[dav4463]

Was it Les Conklin ? I think he called it the Magic Triangle...something to do with improving position circling the 4 calls of the third race back, then circle 3 calls, then last two calls of the last race.

[David McKenzie]

Originally posted by Tom
I have a poceket computer from Radio Shack-about the size of a Hershey bar...

Tom, I've got all those too. Didn't you forget to mention the monochrome Toshiba laptop, built like a little Mac truck with a battery that lasts forever?

:>)

[David McKenzie]

Originally posted by Amazin
Sounds familiar.Wasn't that by a guy who called himself "Dr Brown"...

D.D.Brown, yes. I bought that system years ago when it was being hawked out of Brooklyn by Norris Strauss (or something like that), an outift which recycled old systems.

One of my hobbies back then was to order everything under the sun Phillips gave a halfway decent rating to and return the systems that didn't even come close to working. That particular system, which was primarily for greyhounds, fell into the later category.

Unfortunately, they didn't want to return my money. I pressed the issue to the max -- got the attorney general's office for the state of FL involved -- and eventually I got every dime back along with a phone call and personal apology. That was fun. :>)

[MarylandPaul@HSH]

Originally posted by David McKenzie@HSH
...Didn't you forget to mention the monochrome Toshiba laptop, built like a little Mac truck with a battery that lasts forever?
:>)

The Toshiba T-1000....8086 processor, no hard drive, single 3.5 floppy, monochrome unlit screen, and yep, about 6 hours of battery life. Paid over $700 for it so that I could run Sartin's stuff. 1st computer I ever owned. Still got it hiding in a closet somewhere I think.

Interesting how things happen. My infatuation with horse racing got me to buy a computer, which sparked my interest in that area, which helped me build a technical career. I guess that was $700 well spent..:D

[Big Bill]

Tom,

You wrote: "I have a poceket computer from Radio Shack-about the size of a Hershey bar. It had 10 program modules in it-and I got a bunch of programs from John Meyer in California. The computer is out of wack-maybe low betteries, but I have the prgrams somwhere if it was him."

Was this the Radio Shack (Tandy) PC-3 pocket computer? I purchased one many years ago and bought some programs from Dick Mitchell, written in BASIC, that I used in it. The Dr. Z calculations was one of the programs.

Were the John Meyer programs written in BASIC? And do you remember anything about those programs?

Big Bill

[timtam]

I purchased a radio shack hand held computer in the mid 80's which had Barry Burkan's Power Pace method programmed into it. In the hand held computer program you had 6 different programs. One used the Power pace as is . 2. was the Power Pace with variants. other programs were the actual class of the horse another was earnings per start another was the actual place and show payoffs of the horse you were betting on. I think he sold the manual then later offered a package of the hand held computer along with the method for something like $200. I think he advocated 2 horse win betting which was popular at that time. He later teamed up with I believe Vince Doyle and they did seminars etc together. He was from upstate New York and was a reputable seller cause I talked to him several times. I don't know if Power Pace works today but it was OK for that time.

[Lefty]

Indeed, D.D. Brown wrote and sold Magic Squares. Sold him some names back in 77. Mr. Brown has gone to his great reward. Ray Taulbot prob. informing him right now that Magic Squares is nonsense and Pace the way to go.

[David McKenzie]

Originally posted by Big Bill
...Were the John Meyer programs written in BASIC? And do you remember anything about those programs?


Yes, they were written in BASIC. I still have them; I had to do a mild rewrite to make them work in the Tandy PC-6, but it wasn't hard to do.

I still use the PC-6 and bring it to the simulcast center with me. Granted, I use it mostly for odds related activities now, but still...it's a lot less hassle than worrying about my laptop which is too valuable to comfortably leave unattended even in the restuarants.

[Dick Schmidt]

Tom,

"Also, I still have the Sharp 360 pocket with the Sartin programs and Dick Schmidt's 3rd fraction program in it. Made a lot of money off that little baby. Got the original Synergism, PhaseIII, energy, and my own version of TPR that converted the beyers to a daily variant."

OK Tom, give it up. I want to see what you were doing to "improve" TPR with the Beyers. Tom Hambleton and I tried everything we could think of using the Beyers and never got close to bettering our results using speed rating+variant. I'd love to see what you came up with, just as a matter of historical interest if nothing else.

Thanks,

Dick

An old dog looking for a new trick.

[Tom]

Nothing earth shattering-I just calculated the daily variant based on the Beyer number and the chart in the back of his book. I used that number to adjust TPR just like you illustrted in the book.
The whole idea came from a phrase I heard over and over at Doc's seminars - "A variant is a variant is a variant."
So I used that adjustment, based on a constant chart on all tracks and did no track to track. My theory was that the track to track would be taken care of by the one variant. And it worked very well, even using a one turn mile pace line in a two turn route race. Even shippers from SA to AQI were handled nicely even with the big track speed variations. The best scores came from finding EP gaps that weren't obvious in the raw times. My favorite play was a Medowlands shipper to the inner dirt at Aqueduct when the EP was 10 points better than the locals, no matter what the FFR or TPR was. And there were enough each year to really make it one of those wait and unload plays.
I hav eto change the batteries in that computer soon, so I am scouring the old Follow Ups for your proceedure on how to do it. Really fun to read some of those old articles from back in the day. There are some interesting things in there.

[Amazin]

Tom quote My favorite play was a Medowlands shipper to the inner dirt at Aqueduct when the EP was 10 points better than the locals, no matter what the FFR or TPR was. And there were enough each year to really make it one of those wait and unload plays.

Correct me if I'm wrong,but it sounds like you are talking past tense(i.e.was,were). If it was so successful as stated above,why would you stop?

[Tom]

Originally posted by Amazin
Correct me if I'm wrong,but it sounds like you are talking past tense(i.e.was,were). If it was so successful as stated above,why would you stop?

Amazin, I don't use that program anymore-moved on to HTR and ES. Back then, TPR was the only thing I used in my handicapping.
I will still use it from time to time, like when I travel and there happens to be track nearby, I will take it with me.

The idea behind the Med shippers is still in my toolbox, but in different forms now. One of them is the ES method I posted about in another thread earlier in the week. If the Med horse leads the pack in the simulation, and is not beaten too badly at the wire, even if out of the money, I will play them.
I don't get near as many plays anymore, but enough to make it worth following.

[KyRacer]

Flysofree,

This is tread is a little old, but the computer program that you were looking for might have been one put out by Lee Lawrence. Lee operated out of Baltimore , Md and it came out around the late 70's or early 80's. He sold the program for $1200 by it's self or $2100 with a TRS-80 RS100 computer. Maybe you bought it after he reduced the prices.

The program is mentioned in "High Tech Handicapping" by James Quinn starting on page 96. The article says the program was called "Handicappers Guide to Fiscal Fitness". Maybe he changed the name later. Basically used the last 4 speed ratings plus variants and sometimes the half mile fraction. The article wasn't very complimentary calling it the greatest high-tech ripoff to date.

I imagine the program was on tape, so it would be hard to fine now even if the tape was still good. That's all I know about it.

KyRacer

[Flysofree]

KyRacer,

I haven't checked this board is a long time . You have hit exactly the program that I was thinking about.

I liked the program and had success with it way back when.

Thanks for that response. (Yes I did buy it at a cheaper price with the computer included. Don't remember now the figure, but wasn't cheap.)

Using different program these days.