The CoCo Nation Show

News stories for June 22 show:

1) Ron Klein has release a 2nd tutorial video on running the CocoPi3 - this time for working with disk images:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPmmhA2Wf5s

2) Ron Klein has also put up a video about using the Atom Editor for cross platform software development to the Coco:
https://youtu.be/CkFVCOD0NoU

He also has uploaded the files for it to GitHub:
https://github.com/mrgw454/AtomDevEnv

3) Mark D. Overholser & Bill Nobel have both received some Omniboards for developing hardware projects for the Coco, based on a design by Jayeson Lee-Steere. Picture of Mark's (in different colors) here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157337010235960&set=a.123088625959&type=3

4) Carlos Camacho asked on the Coco group on Facebook for a complete list of magazines/newsletters that supported the Coco. The list is a lot bigger than I would have thought when it was first asked.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157240838647641/

5) Ed Orbea was asking some questions about running Fuzix (Coco 3 port by Brett Gordon) on a real Coco 3, and has received answers from William Carlin and Ron Klein. For those wanting to experiment with a version of Unix for the Coco, this is a good post to start with.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157275811322641/

6) Brendin Emslie printed a case for his CocoSDC using his resin printer, which turned out quite well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157278238652641/

7) Richard Sorek has uploaded a PDF reference for the 6809, 6821, 6840 & 6850 in French.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157262363462641/

8) Paul Barton is doing a Coco 3 repack into a PC tower case (We haven't seen one of these in quite awhile, but they were almost commonplace in the 1990's):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157277554822641/

9) RetroManCave on YouTube has a video about The Micro Museum (40 years of collecting microcomputers), and the Coco 1, 2 and MC-10 make an appearance around 5:35 into it (and again at 5:50) when showing some of the 1980's machines. Strangely, I don't see a Coco 3 in there.
https://youtu.be/S8e84LE7fYs

10) Jim Gerrie has been busy again:
Coup D'Etat MC10 port from Sharp MZ80A:
https://youtu.be/GUZSTyx9xd0

11) Todd Wallace shared a video powering his Coco 3 set up from stored solar energy:
https://youtu.be/YyLG4MrFSEk

12) For our Dragon brethren in the UK, The 3rd annual Dragon Meetup (2019) is being held on July 6, at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2344147779178211/

13) Retro Arcade Gaming did a comparison of Galaxians (and clones) between platforms. Since every computer had multiple clones, he chose Galax Attax by Spectral Associates to represent the Coco. (Coco at 9:26). He did choose the version with the original alien ships (quite different than the arcade); there was a later version that had graphics more closely resembling the original arcade. Visually, Glaxxons by Mark Data was closer visually, but the gameplay was quite different than the arcade.
https://youtu.be/fTFT3aCj_AY

14) Paul Thayer & Simon Jonassen are starting a massive Coco game project that they want to get other volunteers to become part of the team (graphics artists, level designers, musicians, etc.) You can respond to Paul's call on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157285796482641/

 

Today we'll be even liver than ever, because we'll have our first ever live audio podcast on Spreaker!

Live YouTube video feed: http://live.cocotalk.live

Live audio podcast feed: https://www.spreaker.com/show/cocotalklive

News stories for June 22 show:

1) AGD game pack #31 release by Pere Serrat and Kees van Oss. Includes Breakanoid, Chunkzone, Operation Labyrinth Fall, Pengo Quest & Percy Penguin. Of note is that these are much more recently made games from the Spectrum; these are from 2015-2019.
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6085

2) AGD game pack #31 release by Pere Serrat and Kees van Oss. Includes Ferret Buster, Flipping Horace, Lupo Alberto, Monkey Jr, Pickaxe Pete & "Zyblut Owrzodzien w Kamiennym".
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6091

They have also updated the "Big Packs" to version 2.3, if you want to get all of the AGD games in one ZIP. There are 4 versions - long filenames (for emulators), short filenames (for the SDC,etc.), and each for Dragon and Coco.
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5971

3) Brian Wieseler found other sets of Production samples of Coco cartridges (both Tandy & Radio Shack labelled) are now up on eBay (similar to the Temple of ROM we talked about a few weeks ago). These also have the dates and sizes of production runs, which I find fascinating, especially with how many copies of older games (like Bustout) were still being made 8 years after their debut). And the fact that these are the only "official" numbers I have seen for Coco related product (even if they are incomplete, and a snapshot of a specific time frame). These were in the archives at the Radio Shack warehouse in Fort Worth, and were obtained by the seller in 2017 when Radio Shack went into bankruptcy.
Demolition Derby (4,650 made between April 21, 1988-March 7, 1989):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273893753643

Dino Wars (2,300 made between Sep. 20-21, 1988):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dinowars-Tandy-TRS-80-Radio-Shack-Production-Sample/273893753615

Bustout (1,950 made between Nov. 10, 1988-Nov. 23, 1988):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bustout-Tandy-TRS-80-Radio-Shack-Production-Samples/273893753621

Space Assault (1,925 made between April 20, 1988-Feb. 24, 1989)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Space-Assault-Tandy-TRS-80-Radio-Shack-Production-Sample-Complete-in-Box/283519897602

Monster Maze (made between April 20, 1988-Sep 19,1988 Can't quite read qtys - at least 1558?)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Monster-Maze-Tandy-TRS-80-Radio-Shack-Production-Sample-Complete-in-Box/283519897605

4) Matchy (I don't know his real name) has released as DSK image for his Atari 2600 Combat type game called Tank Out, that we showed last week. This includes support for Ed Snider's PSG sound/joystick card, as well as "normal" joystick and 6 bit DAC sound. It's in the I'm A CoCo Nut group on Facebook, under Files:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/imacoconut/permalink/415901369260807/

5) Davy Mitchell has uploaded videos of the remaining games on the Dragon by Pocket Money Software (we have already viewed Tea Time, Bubble Buster, Data Fall and Robin Hood). New games to look at are Fearless Freddy, Bandito, Jet Boot Colin, Slide, Toppler, Pit Fiend.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0L3KoVXJkYHs0aKZfSACTIJmuavZPUlN

6) Jason Pittman has rejoined the Coco community, and has a screenshot from an emulated Coco, showing his real Coco set up (inception?)
https://imgur.com/a/ooGkS10

7) A discussion on Facebook for supporting more than the standard 32K RAM supported by BASIC, particulary on a Coco 1/2/Dragon/TDP that has 64K brought out a couple of solutions; a 40K BASIC from Rainbow magazine January 1984, Baby Basic. I remember Key-264 also supporting something like this.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157265333152641/

8) Noriko Miyagami has posted a walkthrough of the Coco version of the Scott Adams adventure game Secret Mission (originally Mission Impossible - likely changed for copyright reasons).
https://youtu.be/Whj6hpoLxVE

9) Atari Vision on YouTube has uploaded an 8 minute video "introducing his Tandy Color Computer 3". His is upgraded to 512k, and has a real FD-501 floppy drive. I am not sure who this is, real name wise.
https://youtu.be/6tR_mEeFmOk

10) Ciaran Ascomb's online, web-based XRoar emulator (coco 1/2/Dragon) is "Coming along nicely" It supports various disk ROM's, cassette, Orchestra-90 and Game Master Cartridge support (if running the Fest demo for the GMC, it only works properly with NTSC emulation - timing will be off in PAL).
http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/x/

 

Episode 112 of CoCoTALK! will deal with adding/upgrading RAM in your CoCo 3. From 512K to 2MB and beyond, we'll hear first-hand from those who've done it, see a tutorial video on how to do it, and discuss how much RAM is really "needed" in a CoCo 3. We'll also review some news from around the retro web, including Davy Mitchell's retro corner and Dragon games, Jim Gerries MC-10 trophy challenges, and more, tune in at 2PM EDT at http://live.cocotalk.live

NEWS LINKS:
CoCo PSG Tank Battle (Mat Chy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXRhwG8Feq4&fbclid=IwAR1PKrYzl5jI8xNOqPXVabUNmbsu_J1tnleUw-kFRy1v904DRjEwYJI98j0

CoCo Mystery unboxing - Amigos Retro Gaming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCjshz4YhYM&fbclid=IwAR37lH5J3QNinKBVr8HV1cAOTvCOcakOyhEU7SSbKHlUPdeM8SHEzshmzYc

AGD downloadable packs:
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5971

AGD Pack #30
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6077&fbclid=IwAR3r-b-QjQjXjKRzSbk2ZUf4S3eNznJ1c5msCSfCRNywPiO5cTpYHctEZpg

Nick Marentes Waterfall:
http://www.nickmarentes.com/ProjectArchive/waterfall.html

Glen Dahlgren (Sun Dog Systems)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157244056382641/

Jeff Vavosaur Atari StarWars Arcade emulation:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10157247518017641/?sfnsn=mo

Dragon videos from Davy's retro corner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJCLq3KjoSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD6OjCa_feQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCGY0qSRrU8

Charlie's MC-10 page:
http://chazbeenhad.tripod.com/?fbclid=IwAR1dY3BlYAXGYaa8MVCszyEbdzLOgOqdHs3M37QwttZFPGmqcBhhyJ9nepA

Jamie Cho MC-10 group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/2162992693827541/

Jim Gerrie's type-in mania page:
http://faculty.cbu.ca/jgerrie/Home/jgames.html?fbclid=IwAR1D514SIT_wranG_TcIpcbz2ihtEmcPvs0P7AJuRT1BVi59oZXJRFr8_k4

MC-10 group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

 

This week's episode is a potpourri of CoCo goodness, we'll have an announcement from Richard Lorbieski of BoysonTech we'll cover this week in CoCo news, hear from members of the community, possibly see some footage from VCF East this year, and maybe, if we're lucky, see a tutorial on how to install a memory upgrade on a CoCo 3. All this and more, tune in live and join the CoCo community with CoCoTALK!