Episode 128

The CoCoTALKers did a whole lot of CoCoTALKing this week :)  No major topic just a lot of panel discussions.

We saw an update on some new 3D printed cased from John Strong for the Ian Mavrick FD-502 reproduction cartridge.

We had a host discussion on favorite CoCo Arcade Game/Clone/Derivative that one might enjoy more than the arcade original.

And CoCo/Dragon and MC-10 news from around the web.

 

Some news stories for October 5, 2019 show:

1) Ed Snider announced that him and Gary Becker will continue to collaborate after the GIME-X project is done (which seems to be soon now), and will make a full blown Coco 4!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157521502122641/

2) Todd Wallace has started implementing copying files between DECB and OS9 in his disk utility:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157526522332641/

3) Sheldon MacDonald showed off his prototype mini game controller for the Coco (smaller than a black beauty joystick):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157526519867641/

4) Jim Gerrie has an update video to his MC-10/MCX-128 Akalabeth port (The predecessor to Ultima).
https://youtu.be/2ZOsAsKzMqE

He also has a blog entry for it now:
http://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2019/10/retrochallenge-201910-akalabeth-updates.html

5) Matchy has a new video (shown *greatly* sped up, not in real time) of 3D mapping (both outline and filled) using tessellation terrain maps. The first part is on the Coco 1/2 in semigraphics graphics; the later parts on the Coco 3 with 16 colors.
https://youtu.be/WvWuVKGc6AI

6) Interesting discussion on Facebook started by our very own Nick Marotta - what game ports (official or clone) did one prefer to play on the Coco vs. the actual arcade (not including the influence who not having to pay quarters).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157528830222641/

7) "Petsasjlm1" on YouTube has been using XRoar to play a bunch of old Dragon games, which he seems to be playing in alphabetic order. I don't think he is too familar with the platform, as some of them he doesn't get very far at all. But there are some good videos of Dragon unique titles:
Backtrax: https://youtu.be/sN-RxQ_iiJE

Balldozer (Arkanoid style game): https://youtu.be/LevwtgRePfE

Beanstalker (Lode Runner clone): https://youtu.be/OKBEYaDm9tI

The Bells:  https://youtu.be/MDiOrdniHc8?t=47

8) Richard Kelly put up a program to check for true lowercase T1 VDG by checking it one has Color Basic 1.3 installed. Now, the two are not tied together, hardware wise, but does anyone know if Tandy sold Color Basic 1.3 on anything but T1 equipped Coco 2's (and Coco 3's)?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157526641202641/

9) Daniel Campos & Luciano Scharf have some pictures from the RetroSC gathering in Brazil, showing various Coco's and some of the Brazilian clones:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157536046292641/

10) Paul Shoemaker has some pics from a possible upcoming Coco project (one of several people to delve into porting Oregon Trail to the Coco).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157534949302641/

11) Amigos Retro Gaming (on YouTube) did a live stream of several of their shows in a row on Friday night. One of them is their new Coco gaming show (which featured Poltergeist and Sailor Man), but it hasn't been posted yet (Their Sinclair show, recorded just before the Coco show, just got posted this morning, so I assume that it is coming soon).

12) Retro Arcade gaming has done a Space Invaders clone, which includes several Coco/Dragon ports (including the transcode) (I would have picked Mark Data Products clone for the Coco 1/2 over the Spectral one, myself):
https://youtu.be/7gl9AdOs5hY