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The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 468, June 6, 2026 (May 30-June 5)

2026-06-07T13:00:32Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 468, June 6, 2026 (May 30-June 5)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 468, June 6, 2026 (May 30-June 5)
=================================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th, 2026,
starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown released a couple of updates to his projects this week:
The main board has had an update to handle the ROM’s running at 3.3V,
not 5V:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4425178251075143/
He also showed a board that leaves a lot of space for future audio:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4426998974226404/
Stuart Mears posted a photo of the Dragon Professional prototype that was
shown at the RetroFest in Swindon last weekend, along with his boy’s
impression of it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4425180851074883/
He also gave a further update on sound:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4430399310553037/

2) The More Fun Making It channel on YouTube posted a 1 & ½ hour video about
RetroFest 2026 that took place in Swindon, which included Dragon displays:
https://youtu.be/IuhfMMD9bNY?si=6io12SafsnB6b32f&t=1291

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Daniel Moisset put up assembly source and screenshots showing all
possible VDG colors on the screen at once (in SG4/text mode):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164356060887641/
This is based on a blog article Allen Huffman wrote earlier this week, which
in addition talked about how the two color sets in PMODE 1/3 graphics modes
use the first 4 and last 4 of the “standard” 8 colors from the text mode:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/02/01/displaying-all-11-of-the-cocos-8-colors/

2) Maurico Matte has released version 1.0.21 of his Coco DSK & CCC Utility,
in both English and Brazilian Portuguese. It adds OS-9 file explorer and
manipulation options:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164352783707641/

3) Don Sorensen posted more about his matching the silver color between
his Coco 1 and the multipak (white) that he got but wanted to match. He
revealed a secret, based on a story told years ago:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164345638392641/
He also posted pics of a Coco 1 he just got that has some mods to it
including heat sinks on multiple chips. I think it’s an older motherboard
– D or E perhaps?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164360990737641/

4) Mike Horgan posted on the Coco Facebook group that he has released his
CocoCas2Way.s, adding the capability to make DSK images as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164345181737641/

5) Jeff Vaughn posted a poll on the Coco Facebook group asking about how
people feel about Coco MAME emulation:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164343795432641/

6) Rich Stephens announced an update to Fujinet’s Coco 3 VT100 terminal:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164339452577641/

7) Cedric Beaudoin posted on the ESP32-Coco group on Facebook that he
is now sold out of the joystick add on option for the current batch,
but plans on making more in the next batch:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4342870872643007/

8) After I mentioned a really cool demo that Sock Master wrote way back
in pure BASIC that showed two way hardware scrolling, Allen Huffman typed
it in and released a video showing it in action:
https://youtu.be/eq0hrpFDFqA?si=Z1dJ_bZwvhaZYU9w
He also released a video showing the VDG timing tricks (switching between
graphics and text screens) that Ciaran Anscomb wrote to show smooth hardware
scrolling on the Coco 1&2 and Dragon 32/64, and asked for help to understand
exactly how it works:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/06/03/coco-smooth-scrolling/
He also showed a graphical coarse scroll using PMODE with it’s page
offset, written by Juan Castro originally:
https://youtu.be/TLOhpfi46eI?si=eM9lkyR03Y-DzVFJ

9) Brian Palmer released a disk image on the Coco Facebook group that
contains Dish Drawer originally by Craig Stewart for Australian Coco
magazine. This draws a 3D type wireframe:
Download:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164363325967641/
Screenshot:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164363289917641/

10) Paul Cunningham has started a new page on Facebook for his various
Coco projects (several of which we have covered recently):
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0HkL8VE28jCZ7gxuUQrxxHtHpqNNYLr6gxyXumfbLR1miq9kZCjRkc99zX4x4YEm4l&id=61590553234363

11) Milton Solomon posted on Facebook that he wants to make 2 keyboard
PCB’s based on files already on the net – but he has to order a minimum
of 5 which makes it more expensive. He is wondering if anyone else would
like to chip in and receive one of the remaining 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164359784752641/

12) VCF Southwest has posted Boisy’s presentation about the 12 year
history of Rainbow magazine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmcg7nbMV3c

MC-10
-----
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Some people on Facebook this past week have been showing possible
designs for a modernized version of Dungeons of Daggorath. Allen Huffman
found a video on YouTube done 9 years ago by user “Brain Crook” that
was doing the exact same thing:
https://youtu.be/NG_YCatnepo?si=57rieGBUUAO1dXJc
Some of the other people looking into this this week using AI include:
Robert Sitten used vector style graphics:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1981395615848644
J. Edward Higginbothom posted screenshots of full color, shaded images
along with the original Daggorath ones for comparison, with ChatGPT:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164351645637641/
So, what does the panel and chat think of this? There are over 100
comments already, with some wanting nothing to do with “updating”
a classic killer Coco app, but others who love the idea of playing the
game on modern machines but with completely updated graphics and sound
(we already have had a Windows straight port for decades)?

2) Marc Maltais released a DSK image on the Coco Facebook group that has
18 games in french from the book “Jeux en Basic sur TRS-80 Couleur”. He
plans on releasing an english version as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164345361212641/

3) Wikipedia recently got a page entry for Pinball Factory – a game that
started on the Coco from Michtron but got ported to the Atari ST as well
with enhancemnts by the same author (Kary McFadden):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Factory

4) Chinop on YouTube released a few Coco 1 & 2 gameplay videos:
Nuclear Avenger (I think this was from Chromasette or T&D tape magnazines?):
https://youtu.be/j_Rwh_knSYc?si=QeZR0GmkNuZKew4R
Zonx (from Rainbow magazine):
https://youtu.be/5Pk6WdQfqrE?si=iUOlq2G9Sq1diYh3

5) 8-Bit Basic on YouTube released a video going through 10 different
retro computer versions of Ski Trek, a type in game by Joey Latimer in
the February 1984 issue of Family Computing magazine. This includes a Coco
version, and a C-64 version that he updated. Coco version at 14:52:
https://youtu.be/4XIBi5az28c?si=uNMZxTxnF32_v0pZ

6) Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU) posted a high score attempt video
for the Dragon game Perilous Pit (a BASIC platform game):
https://youtu.be/8MOPN8eJ_T8?si=SA0TbHs_fVNyI-oO

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 467, May 30, 2026 (May 16-29)

2026-05-31T12:07:02Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 467, May 30, 2026 (May 16-29)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 467, May 30, 2026 (May 16-29)
=================================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-SW (Southwest) is on this weekend (May 29-31) at the Westin Dallas Forth
Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was headquartered,
so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is also this weekend, running May 30-31st at the
STEAM Museum of Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days,
and there is confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th, 2026,
starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Wanted to clarify the spanish video about the Dragon that Rick mentioned
last week; it’s a history of the Dragon while ran by Eurohard in Spain, and
why it ultimately failed (it now allows closed caption with auto-translate):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9snO3bP_cpQ

2) Julian Brown got some sample boards in for his video decoder, and posted
a photo in the Dragon Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4419250338334601/
He also got some carrier boards for his VDG prototype:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4418176018442033/
He also posted a short video on the Dragon Facebook group showing his
160x200x16 color mode, but being able to pick from a palette of 256 colors:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4415754868684148/
He also released a 10 minute video update on where his VDG project is at now:
https://youtu.be/QJ4dTopCvDQ?si=0r9jhJgQCqFycb_y

3) Phil Harvey-Smith posted a list of the exact screw types the Dragon uses,
in case one needs to get replacements for them:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4419249848334650/

4) Richard Harding posted a photo of his Dragon 32 with a Farmfax sticker
and some cows, in preparation for his display at RetroFest this weekend:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4421481214778180/

5) Chris Poacher has posted some photos and video from RetroFest 2026,
currently going on in the UK:
https://www.facebook.com/chrispoacher/posts/pfbid0A9moLYfP8ZVKReTzmPeLSkmGc4AMSmrF635Fosi5X8WiD3X6Kd7kzdYniGnDHk6Rl

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Version 5.28 of Glen Hewlett’s BASIC to 6809 compiler was released,
which fixes a bug with IF and 3 or more OR’s/AND’s, and adds support
for playing movie clips streaming from the CocoSDC using his MakeNTM
utility. He even shows how to call this from a BASIC program:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809
He also released a video showing very early progress on what is hopefully
his next full transcode project, although he has warned in the Coco Discord
that the original arcade game used 3 Z80 CPU’s that have to be transcoded
and merged:
(show local file “glen hewlett - new transcode early preview
(Galaga).mov”
2nd video shows first shot at animated sprites.

2) During the TRS-80 Trash Talk show last Saturday, George Phillips announced
some upcoming updates to the TRS-GP emulator… including more features /
hardware support for the Coco:
https://www.youtube.com/live/gYqMpxKhZB0?si=TNSdqkgWbWPKFChi&t=2193

3) Color Forth 1.1 has been released on it’s github project page. This
is a cross compiled version:
https://github.com/ugufru/coco

4) CocoTown posted a video called “The Coco’s secret debugger hidden
in Rainbow Magazine”. This covers Rainbow Check and Rainbow Check Plus,
and how they worked, how they linked into BASIC, and more:
https://youtu.be/YRwQyLVAUqs?si=P6v1cMOzf5hZXfZp

5) Allen Huffman was rather busy the last few weeks with multiple Coco
entries on his Sub-Etha Software blog site:
How Extended BASIC assigns and locates graphics screens, especially the
differences between cassette and disk based systems:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/19/where-does-cocos-pmode-graphics-memory-start/
Allen’s experiment with creating an ASCII Donkey Kong on the standard
32x16 screen:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/12/creating-ascii-donkey-kong-on-a-32x16-coco-display/
“Stupid VARPTR tricks” – this covers tricks that can be done with
the VARPTR (variable pointer) command in Extended BASIC, which allows one
to directly PEEK and POKE BASIC variables:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/26/stupid-varptr-tricks/
He also made torrents for the very high res scans of both the 1986 and
1987 GIME chips, done a few years back:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?multi_permalinks=10164327395587641&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

6) Justin Thomas extended his DE1 FPGA build to include the expanded 6309
instruction set, and used Claude code to help build it – and it works
after a few days work, including running NitrOS9/6309:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164326543082641/
He also released a new implementation of DriveWire, this one build in Rust:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164314128497641/
Github:
https://github.com/justindthomas/drivewire-rs
He also posted a screenshot of him Telnetting into his Coco3FPGA through
a ESP8266 based connection into NitrOS9:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164311445767641/

7) Richard Stephens announced Fujinet VT100 support for the Coco 3. This
is using the GIME hardware 80 column character set, so no ANSI graphics
symbols, but it does support color and European characters:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164318369597641/

8) Carlos Camacho posted on the Coco Facebook group about his using some
pixel editors for PMODE 3 and PMODE 4 graphics that one can do from a
browser, including an online interpretation of CocoMax and another called
Color SpriteX (with a more modern interface along the lines of Deluxe Paint):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164315719567641/
And 2 followups:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?multi_permalinks=10164334800902641&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164334890197641/

9) Kamil Gorgh Trzaska posted a video showing a spinning 3D cube (using
polygons) video that he made with help from Simon Jonassen 3 years back. This
runs ona 64K Coco 1 or 2:
Post with link to raw .BIN file:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164307749832641/
Video:
https://youtu.be/hi9R_fpHCv8?si=jLjbi-fTvSGIEE6T

10) Brian Palmer posted a DSK image containing a Coco 3 BASIC graphics
program that draws Elvis Presley, originally by Bill Baldacchino from
Coco-Link magazine to the Coco Facebook group (it even lets one play an
Elvis cassette in the background via the cassette port):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164302837697641/

11) Paul Cunningham posted a video showing his running a Coco 2 emulator
on a 1.8” OLED touchscreen:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164300104452641/

12) Peter (8bitsinthebasement) posted a video about his trying out Cedric
Beaudoin’s ESP32-Coco:
https://youtu.be/rSIgg4Kzkj8?si=GQzNVPLNKwfZIe0f

13) The Laird’s Lair on YouTube did a 5 Unreleased American Home Computers
episode, and the Coco 4 is one of the 5. Unfortunately, he mixed the
Deluxe Coco and the Coco 4 together, but it was cool to see unreleased
Coco’s mentioned.
https://youtu.be/LPRzlE17Xh4?si=WG7eQ00AUDKImlGz&t=530

14) Cedric Beaudoin posted that his second batch of ESP32-Coco’s is
about to enter manufacturing, and will cost $5 more than the previous
batch. But this is because there are new features on the new revision of
the board. Namely, an option port that can get an add on to use real Coco
joysticks, HDMI output (although he mentions it’s only be tested on one
TV so far, although a DVI adaptor should work fine), and a real cassette
port (an experimental feature):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/?multi_permalinks=4342870872643007&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

15) Don Sorensen posted some photos of repainted floppy drive and MPI
enclosures, taking advantage of his job being a collision car painter –
he can perfectly match just about anything:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?multi_permalinks=10164328418802641&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

16) Paul Cunningham posted a 5 minute video on the Coco Facebook group
showing his Waveshare RP2350 PiZero running Coco 2 emulation. It’s still
a work in progress, but seems to be working well so far:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164328903047641/

17) TRS-80 Retro Programing released an episode showing how to use PDF
Draw to create Coco 3 Character sprites on virtual 320x192 graph paper,
and he also gives an update on a couple of other projects:
https://youtu.be/7WhqLkVp980?si=RnWZI2h1T8cQOkoR

18) Jim Mullis put up a video showing 256x225x16 2 pixel scrolling using
Sundog’s GrafExpress 16 and some ASM routines (go in two minutes to show
the actual scrolling):
https://youtu.be/Fs0CV9RhqyU?si=WlpPBLgReLFemg-m
And 4 pixel scrolling:
https://youtu.be/x4Y8tWsBur0?si=gY8DtPPoaFOoJhBK

19) Marco Spedaletti has announced that version 1.18.1 of ugBASIC has been
released. This includes support for SG4 graphics (including loading/saving
images) on the Coco, dynamic strings, and more:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164334423162641/

20) Jim Brain has posted some photos from VCF Southwest (going on now)
to his Retro Innovations page, including photos of Boisy Pitre’s &
Brendan Donahe’s booths:
https://www.facebook.com/go4retro/posts/pfbid02xSV3MWQsordWVca7Gb7S2f8H1sPwMEqcyhG6nRVQrC9aQre73Vk8fhdqav49iDGAl

21) Tyler Durden uploaded a video showing his progress in making a Coco
3 Burgertime game strictly in BASIC, like his PacMan game:
(Show local file “Tyler Durden-BTIME9.mp4”

22) Boisy Pitre posed on the Coco Discord about his vibe-coded Python
interpreter for BASIC09, and a link to his github:
https://github.com/DrPitre/basic09

MC-10
-----
1) Industrial Retro Gamer on YouTube posted a video (part 1 of 3) about
his Tandy computer collection. In this episode he covers his Model 100
and his MC-10:
https://youtu.be/8NQN4hekw7M?si=OyLfBQ0K1IVzBE2m

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Renga in Blue reviewed “Deed of York”, originally written by Chris
Harland based on ideas from Chris Harland. This was for the first Rainbow
Adventure writing contest:
https://bluerenga.blog/2026/05/18/deed-of-the-york-1983/

2) Jim Gerrie ported ArdiMaze, originally written as a BASIC 10 liner
game by Ardi Ardi on May 25th in the Facebook BASIC programming group. The
player has to navigate a changing maze from left to right, and runs in 4K:
https://youtu.be/YBr1ASOcvaY?si=_fp_O12y2MJkeNWh

3) Paul Cordingley posted about the Coco game Draconian, and how it actually
changed and improved play from the original arcade Bosconian that it was
loosely based on. I totally agree with that sentiment:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164316064232641/

4) As mentioned by Rick last week, Penguin Icarus by Paul Thayer has been
released. This is an ML arcade style game that was originally a Super
Extended BASIC game by Nick Bradbury and published in Rainbow back in the
April 1990 issue. The new version requires RGB, a disk drive and 512K of RAM
(show demo recording from VCC):
https://pthayer100.itch.io/penguin-icarus-2026

5) Vincent Tran posted his Git repo for the AI assisted ML Coco 3 game
he wrote with Chat-GPT Pro & Thinking, called Space Raid. He noted in
an earlier post that it took Claude 10-15 tries to get it to even run,
and about 50 to get it playing properly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164311209347641/
Video gameplay (turn volume down a bit):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164309908572641/
Download of DSK image:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164309967972641/?__cft__[0]=AZZgKA8-EqJeIdIaV9jgNfimF-w3Vs-4qpUhVdDnb6Pa0Z7O-O0nj4ZMO86IVFIL15WZUJta1ImXtx4hPZP1Vr-1MsrRhyY_Z92KBYnvGnqBBEGyc-9szwej4CZCCc3AKtIeEqfzyH7j_xEmtNv5wFzT&__tn__=-UK-R
github:
https://github.com/tequestafarian/space-raid-coco3

6) Nostalgiavault on YouTube posted game play and high score attempt videos
of a multitude of Inufuto games, both the Coco 1&2 and Coco 3 versions:
https://www.youtube.com/@nostalgivault3439/videos

7) Ayeka 2 on YouTube posted a 3&1/2 minute video showing the risque text
adventure Wet T-Shirt contest:
https://youtu.be/phX6UibUY14?si=TZccgMi8MuDjz4yN

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 466, May 23, 2026 (May 16-22)

2026-05-24T11:48:04Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 466, May 23, 2026 (May 16-22)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 466, May 23, 2026 (May 16-22)
=============================================================================

Collected and Presented by Rick Ulland

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================

1 ) Paul Thayer announces "Penguin Icarus" 2026 adaptation available
RSN. Really.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164297327027641/

2 ) Vincent Tran got Quark. Nice gamepad. Must be a trend.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164284628792641/

3 ) Ron the action hero! His undercoer street makeup is very good.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164295115767641/

4 ) Rich Stephens announces FujiNet Five Card Stud for CoCo 3. Autoswitches
to CoCo2, just bring luck.

Dragon 32/64
------------

1 ) Imma just leave this here. A channel I can't pronounce 'Lo que merece
ser escuchado' discusses the Dragon for a solid 15 minutes. What about? No
clue. Have to follow the link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9snO3bP_cpQ

2 ) Julian Brown updates flex PCB, the only bit I understand is getting
the chips wrong way up the first time. And Dragon users here to explain?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/4414079078851727/

2b) and then, early signs of impending doom. The upgrade CPLDs have
arrived.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/4412639195662382/

2c) leading to this horror show, provided by Cheep Chinese Crapton
tape. Krapton tape: melts when solder don't.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/4413754998884135/

2d) As a break, Julian next merged two working pieces of code together. It
of course exploded. The debugging begins...
https://www.facebook.com/jimbro1000/videos/1681635349706900/?idorvanity=1602723113320685

2e) and fixed. Watch the forums or fall behind! So, CPLD assimulated.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/4413941812198787/

2f) he also updated his ram repair board. For some D32 with 4116
'timebomb' DRAMS, this uses single voltage DRAM with no detonator.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/4411663869093248/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------

1 ) Don Sorensen broken his floppy. We advise. Note this is a moldy old
belt drive. Is David Ladd on the chat?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164289511157641/

2 ) Paul Cunningham - CoCo 2 emulator on a 1.8" OLED screen. Want a CoCo
smartwatch?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164295115352641/

3 ) Mathew Ward scores a CCR-81 and has CoCo2 and MC10 operational. You
can tell he is new, still _likes_ tape.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164288665297641/

3b) he'd also like to hear about modern docs. There are some good
suggestions in the comments.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164295672992641/

4 ) Happy Birthday, Hebert Vargas!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164301297247641/

5) Tonino Giagnacovo with more drive porn. A belt drive TEC with speed
issues. Seems oddly familiar.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164298729027641/

7 ) TRS-80 Retro Programing covers CoCo colors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040EFO9Ego4
03:04 - 64 color chart
06:05 - Olympus concept

MC-10
-----

1 ) This week on Jim Gerrie ports! Richarl Beal's Star Trek from NASCOM
basic programs bk 1 to MC-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o08AfAIfThM

1b) also 'Vectors' by Geoff Wells. As you might fear, it's navigating
a river using 'Kentucky Windage' and math(s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB6jpYXoEPM

2 ) Jay Mundy volunteers Agent Deluxe for duty. Nice undercover ID -
a harmless old guy with bad knees. Ha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSanNnO0zM

3 ) John Papas has a CoCo laptop. Does it have a bettery? If not, is it
a laptop?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/26657176880649115/

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------

1) The next live TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast will be streamed live on YouTube
today, 7pm Eastern. It is expected to last around two hours.
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

2) VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May
29-31) because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

3) Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

4) Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th,
2026, starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

5) The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available
(this was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent)
for their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

6) VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

7) VCF-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

8) VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

9) Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

10) The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved
a few months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier
this year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 465, May 16, 2026 (May 9-15)

2026-05-17T15:47:05Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 465, May 16, 2026 (May 9-15)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 465, May 16, 2026 (May 9-15)
=================================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle and Presented by Rick Ulland

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Mark Castleijn joined us to provide some Austrialian Tandy dealer war stories.

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next live TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast (streamed live on YouTube) has
been announced: Episode 49 will be at 7 pm Eastern on May 23rd, and is
expected to last around two hours.
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th, 2026,
starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown gave a quick update on his CPLD VDG replacement, where he
has some timing problems that he is working on:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4406604409599194/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted on the Dragon Facebook group that the source
code for the Boot ROM for the Dragon Alpha has been uploaded:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4406476476278654/
Github llnk:
https://github.com/prime6809/DragonAlphaBoot
He also posted a 3D cad version of the Drive bay Mark 2 (I think for the
same machine?):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4405546809704954/

3) Pere Serrat is looking for some help in getting OS-9 Level 2 running
on updated Dragons, on the World of Dragon archive forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11355

4) Ciaran Anscomb has released Roar 1.11 (see changelog notes for what
is updated):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11354

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Version 5.28 of Glen Hewlett’s BASIC to 6809 compiler has been
released, which fixes a bug with IF and 3 or more OR’s/AND’s, and
adds support for playing movie clips streaming from the CocoSDC using his
MakeNTM utility. He even shows how to call this from a BASIC program:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

2) Tim Lindner posted a link to some photos from VCF-PNW that took place
last weekend:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZZrQnD7rcbBKGTh9

3) R. Allen Murphy posted an article about the history of the computer
hobby movement in Canada:
https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/hobby_canada/hobby_canada

4) Carlos Camacho posted some screenshots of the GUI design he is using
for a new Coco game project called Planet Miners on the Coco Facebook
group. He is writing it in CMOC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164251167157641/
He is using the high res engine that CMOC uses, but it was pointed out by
Rich Stephens (who has been doing the Coco work for Fujinet), that there
is an updated new branch of that engine that he has added enhancements too,
with Pierre's permission (see readme notes for what has been added):
https://github.com/RichStephens/hirestxt-mod

5) Ray Bell's has posted a sim framework for a 6809 test suite, thanks to
a lot of help from Claude Code:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/4008408309452521/

6) Ken of Canadian Retro Things has uploaded part 6 of his creating a game
that uses the Electronic Book for input:
https://youtu.be/Am48B1UPY2c?si=8E-QDZfUD6XTBiWo

7) Coco Town has a released a new Game Revolutions episode, this time
showing how to steal memory from BASIC for his in progress Moon Patrol
style game, by reclaiming direct page for game variables:
https://youtu.be/hGKcflhIHNM?si=fZfgPwDT3qBdhfcU

8) DMS Creates released a video on YouTube showing their OSCR (Open Source
Cart Reader) that allows on to backup any retro cartridge game, including
the Coco (see the full list in the video description), using adaptors:
https://youtu.be/OqR1Gd3KiXU?si=E6MSiT5BFsu-U8Va

MC-10
-----
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Mike Tinnes has released a Pole Position type game for the MC-10 with at
least 16K RAM expansion (should work on an Alice matching this spec too). This
is written in machine language and has the 6803 source code available:
Website including a technical description of how the game plays:
https://mtinnes.github.io/mc10-pole/
Video demo:
https://youtu.be/EyaBjgOI9c4?si=YMs-s_86PT_CMJ09

2) After delays, The 8-bit Guy's very first Coco 3 cartridge game (Quarx,
ported by Paul Shoemaker) is now shipping:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164259475337641/

3) Jim Gerrie ported "Bee Trap" originally by Robert L. Lykins in
Compute! Magazine June 1983, to the MC-10. It runs in 4K:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzUl1t3aUZc
He also ported Word originally by Geoff Wells on April 26, 1981 and
published in Rainbow September 1982. This is a Scramble type game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ybwMmQuE_U

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 464, May 9, 2026 (May 2-May 8)

2026-05-10T12:23:18Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 464, May 9, 2026 (May 2-May 8)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 464, May 9, 2026 (May 2-May 8)
=================================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next live TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast (streamed live on YouTube) has
been announced: Episode 49 will be at 7 pm Eastern on May 23rd, and is
expected to last around two hours.
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th, 2026,
starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Second Life Electronics posted a video about a boxed Dragon 32 that they
got, and to see if it still works. He also has some cassette software that
came with it, but he doesn’t have the cassette drive and cable yet:
https://youtu.be/HL9Ssu6jLk8?si=y1S5cdblZHqWFKzR

2) Julian Brown posted an update to his combined SAM/VDG enhancement board,
where it is working with 2 MB of RAM with 8K MMU blocks, and additional
text modes (32,40,64 and 80 column text modes, and a likely 320x200x16
graphics mode:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4394694340790201/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Retro Computing Roundtable from last Sunday showed an interesting book
about the Coco and MC-10, where it is organized alphabetically for every
topic pertaining to that letter (the company that made this made it for
other machines as well). Has anyone else seen this particular book before?):
https://www.youtube.com/live/xMml7kh9t_M?si=_xf52IINCb1xDWmF&t=7053

2) Allen Huffman did multiple Coco related posts on his Sub-Etha Software
blog this past week:
A) Copying screen memory to a string in Color BASIC (part 1):
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/03/copy-screen-memory-to-a-string-in-color-basic/
B) Talking about a bug (or at least unexpected behavior) in the INSTR
command:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/03/why-is-microsoft-basic-instr-like-this/
C) A followup on INSTR, and comparing it with strstr in C:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/04/basic-instr-revisited-with-special-guest-c-strstr/
D) He also posted a second article about capturing screen contents into
strings, and some of the issues that crop up (PRINT doesn’t always use
the same codes as the screen does directly):
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/05/05/poke-versus-print/
E) He also posted a question about the piracy groups that the Coco had,
and some of the hacker names they had, and was wondering if anyone knew
any of the original people. A few people answered that were involved with
some of those, and I remember a lot of people back then used Master Key (I
think that was the name) program and hardware to “crack” said programs:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164237367677641/

3) Stephen Walters posted a video (and github link) to the Coco Facebook
group where he had ChatGPT help write a keyboard synthesizer music playing
project for the Coco:
Facebook post/description:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1584107075216002/
Github:
https://github.com/voidstar78/CoCoSynth
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFH8dtNxrqM

4) Brian Blake posted a blog post about whether recapping old computers
is worth it or not, and when it is justifiable:
https://tandy-trs80.com/recap-this/

5)Cedric Beaudoin uploaded a quick demo video showing a new feature of
his ESP-32 Coco – the adding of load and save states.:
https://youtu.be/XUouTaKdhv0?si=bAsRXxEus5_6DNRE
The full update just came out, and here is a full list of the features:
Added feature: CoCo 3 Firmware
This is the firmware V 1.04
for Board Revision V1.2
-Added Hardware and Software revision in the Menu
-Added F9 to save a Screenshot. The Picture is saved on the ROOT folder
as PICTUREXXXX.BMP incremental.
-Added Save State and load State. You can now save and load game progress,
work progress, or simply use it to Fast load a game or an APP. F3 to Save,
F4 to Load, and you have a choice of 0-9 and A-Z so a choice of 36 Slots
available.
-Added in Disk menu an option to create a new formatted .DSK
-Added in disk menu FORMAT option to Format an actual .DSK File.
-Added DEL key to remove any disk in the drive (0-3).
Download link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hblj5aT13urP3Fc3VobGnCXsq-e59_41/view?usp=drive_link

6) A reddit user posted several photos of his Coco 3 collection, which
includes multiple floppy drives, modems, a full multi-pak, and more:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1suws9e/just_got_a_tandy_power_switching_station_for_my/?solution=b5b7f4f34fbec2ebb5b7f4f34fbec2eb&js_challenge=1&token=bbbe4bf1c9a2b5160829c4be34da5861212407f49b87b8b78ea48ecccc55a390&jsc_orig_r=

7) Glen Hewlett released a video showing how to install and use his BASIC
to 6809 compiler for the Coco 1,2,3 and Dragon’s. This is a cross platform
compiler that can be hosted on OSX, Windows an Linux:
https://youtu.be/NFae-Dy3J3o?si=RDb4X6PKQDYUU60_

8) Retro Islander on YouTube (Jason Ross) put up a video showing his using
Claude Code AI to generate C code to make a version of M.U.L.E. for the
Coco 3 with NitrOS9 Level II (1st actual DCC code shown running around
58:30 in). He is calling it Planet Pioneers:
https://youtu.be/ifwRzb897CQ?si=91yHOCwsU3AQvRUQ

9) Tyler Durden (Coco Synthesis, who did the BASIC PacMan for the Coco 3
we played on the Game On Challenge) is working on a Coco 3 BASIC version
of Burger Time, from the looks of some questions and video clips he posted
to the Coco Discord:
(Show local file “Recording BTIME2.mp4” in Coco Nations News folder)

10) YouTube channel frozenbeefpie (Luc Dion) put up a quick video showing
a joystick testing program he wrote, originally to test the joysticks on
the ESP-32 Coco:
https://youtu.be/2jBFQM8EuqM?si=ToYrsFgco1QadTZA
DSK image download & Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4320520784878016/

11) BlackStone on YouTube released a 2 minute video showing a first test
run of a machine code scroller, with just one scroll working so far. Part
of an upcoming game?
https://youtu.be/kK9ByPHwb6U?si=UthLnfCJ3JrdPfed

12) Earie’s 8-Bit Workshop released a half hour video of unboxing and
restoring a PAL Coco 1 and repairing cartridges, amongst other things:
https://youtu.be/4311e9X-KSo?si=gPNmSWtnKgDMINir

13) Daniel Hidle posted in the Coco Facebook group and update about the
game engine that he is working on with the help of AI:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164239242867641/

14) Steven Ziemba made an interesting post in the Coco Facebook group
about using the Dow Jones online service and some of it’s features back
in the day. I never used Dow Jones, only Compuserve, back in this time period:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?multi_permalinks=10164236347602641&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

15) Keith Frechette posted an update to his structured assembly language
translator, including talking about typecasting syntax and add/subtract
with carry syntax:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164234640332641/

16) Paul Cunningham posted the results of his retrobriting his Coco 2
case… quite successfully, I think:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164225783332641/

17) Mathew Ward posted some photos of his custom Aurebesh font in honour
of Star Wars Day, based on some BASIC lessons that Steve Strowbridge posted
almost 10 years back:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164223847977641/

18) Rich Stephens announced that the Coco 3 version of the Fujinet Weather
app is now out, and he showed a screenshot of it in the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164222072387641/
He also posted that there is new 1.6.0 Fujinet firmware, with fixes/additions
(and official Dragon support):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164217245552641/

20) Brian White posted in the Coco Facebook group some assembly source
code he wrote for the Coco 3 and OS-9 Level II back in the day:
Post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164219828387641/
github with source link (and the fact that SHOW version 2.01 is now public
domain) The program is not as complete as Brian originally planned, but
it does show the fairly rarely used technique of adding one’s own system
calls to make writing the main code shorter and easier (Home Publisher by
Spectral / Tandy also did this):
https://github.com/bcwhite-code/coco3-show

21) Vincent Tran posted some photos of his playing the new Usurper Reborn
door game going through a PC for the modern telnet connection, but rendered
on the Coco 3 via a serial cable to the PC and using Roger Taylor’s
Netmate terminal program (one of the two to fully support ANSI graphics,
along with Twilight Terminal):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164216572402641/

22) Luciano Scharfe (from Brazil) posted multiple programs that were from
the Micro Board company of Sao Paulo, written back in 1985:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/26305652489135783/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/26305671105800588/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/26315562808144751/
He also posted some photos from the 10th meeting of the Color Rio Club
from May 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/26249487658085600/

23) Ciaran Anscomb announced that he “finally got the Coco 2 running
the CYD”:
https://github.com/reyco2000/CoCo2-CYD

24) Our very own Exile In Paradise has made an updated wikipedia entry
for the ESP32 Coco:
https://exileinparadise.com/esp32coco:top

25) Brian Palmer released a graphics demo by Bill Baldacchino from 1993
CocoLink magazine:
Facebook download link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164244820677641/
Details and screenshots (Coco 1 and 2 graphic):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164244807607641/

26) Not directly Coco related, but the MSDOS version of Fujinet’s Fujitzee
cross platform & networked Yahtzee game, was released. This version joins
the Coco, Atari 8 bit and Apple II versions, allowing live gameplay between
all of those machines:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164242951417641/

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie posted in the MC-10 Facebook group a question about using AI
to generate or convert ML programs to the MC-10, starting an interesting
discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/26480044201695718/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Renga in Blue reviewed another adventure game for the Coco from the
first Rainbow Book of Adventures, this time covering Horror House by Robert
W. Magnum II:
https://bluerenga.blog/2026/05/03/horror-house-1983/

2) Amigos Retro Gaming has released their next The Coco Show – covering
a game from the UK that was available on both the Coco and the Dragon,
called Wizard’s Quest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzq2SrJRi0

3) Rob in the World of Dragon forums posted that he has converted the
“classic Spanish Adventure Archimedes XXI” to the Dragon (originally
for the ZX Spectrum, MSX and Amstrad CPC, the latter of which this this
conversion was made from). This appears to be a graphical adventure game
with very detailed pictures:
Post:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11352
Download link and info about the game, including the disik image download:
https://robcfg.itch.io/arquimedes-xxi-dragon

4) Jim Gerrie posted an updated version of the game Pitman, originally
written by Youtaka Isokawa in 1985. The update has different movement
sound and colours from his original port from 14 years ago. He also shows
a quick demo of the level editor (2:45):
https://youtu.be/MkGKGJO2iuI?si=CyyhYcx0vYVpWLeV

5) ZXFrankie on YouTube posted a high score attempt of Meteoroids/Meteors
(by Spectral Associates) – this was originally sold by Spectral directly
in the US and then was rebranded Microbes (with a few minor modifications)
ans sold by Tandy:
https://youtu.be/n3NujbJDW64?si=ZEYNmszE8LWIVNiS

6) chinop on YouTube put up a 5+ minute gameplay video of Lucifer’s Kingdom
on the Dragon 32, a clone of the vertical scroller Star Force from the arcade:
https://youtu.be/2FZdZzQ-4YQ?si=Km6zxh1mMh3RIpfZ

7) Floyd Resler (author of Gem Quest and other games for the Coco 3/NitrOS9)
found a collection of 83 DSK images packed with games. He made a quick
database of all of the games, who published them, and what DSK image and
filename each has. There are 838 entries:
Post about it on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164236526252641/
Data base (including search engine):
https://maccrafters.com/cocogames/

8) R.J. Lukacs posted a few screenshots and asked how other people did on
the Tandy/Spectral game The Interbank Incident:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164226266092641/

9) Brian Palmer typed in another Australian Coco game called Goldsoft
Adventure (from May 1986 Australian Rainbow magazine – a graphical adventure
game), and has posted the DSK image for it in the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164218047922641/
Details on the game including screenshots:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164218039192641/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 463, May 2, 2026 (April 25-May 1)

2026-05-04T22:12:16Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 463, May 2, 2026 (April 25-May 1)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 463, May 2, 2026 (April 25-May 1)
=================================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle and Presented by Rick Ulland

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next online live International Computer Club show on the Twitch and
YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco content on there
before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already been booked as of
this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown let me know that Curtis didn't have everything quite right
talking about some of his Dragon stories last week.
From Julian:
"Just watched yesterday's show, just wanted to say nice try on the slot
covering my core board for the rev 4 but not quite on target. The PLCC
(square) socket is for the character rom, not a CPU. The CPU in question
is held in the FPGA - allowing for either a very fast standalone master
CPU (disabling the main CPU), a symmetrical dual CPU setup using bus
mastering, or an asymmetric dual CPU using time slicing (the main CPU
remains responsible for handling IO and interrupts) - or you can just
switch the extra CPU off. The virtual CPU can run at about 40 times the
speed of an original. The SAM replacement would also allow a 63C09 to run
full speed not just "double" speed.
Technically the virtual CPU is a proven, cycle accurate reproduction of a
6809 but it doesn't have to be - you could implement most forms of 8-bit
CPU (or switch between them) but then you have all the fun and games of
incompatible byte code. You could also implement a more efficient 6809
compatible CPU or just extend it with custom instructions such as Hitachi
did. Dedicated compress/uncompress instructions spring to mind, likewise
for encryption which would potentially make native access to SSL protected
resources viable.
The other point is about the One ROM - these are simulated ROMs based on
the Raspberry Pi chip. They allow reprogramming over USB while in-system
on top of all the other simple tricks of paging that we normally do for
larger ROMs. One trick in particular is multiplexing the ROM so it can
effectively populate multiple ROM sockets - it just needs to see the chip
enable signal for each individual position. Look up Piers Rocks on You
Tube for demonstrations (https://www.youtube.com/@piers_rocks)"

He also posted an update to his multi-pack boards, including costs, and
how many he has left:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164188574647641/

And an update on his CPLD based SAM/VDG boards:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4390697187856583/

And an update on the MMU/2 MB of static RAM, integrated VDG board:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4387133211546314/

2) John Whitworth posted that the Dragon PSU has now fully been migrated
to KiCad, making it easier to "make progressive changes":
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4385968828329419/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown returns to his Moon Patrol style game in his latest episode,
with Game Revolutions covering “adding 80s video game special effects”,
going in detail about nested loops for an implosion effect, and a ray
explosion effect:
https://youtu.be/91E54DLC1gE?si=cU2rhMjXkc_rSuQD

2) Rich Stephens posted in the Coco Facebook group a video showing the new
"color shift" options added to the Coco Fujinet newsreader, now allowing
both inverse video and both colorsets:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164209060207641/

3) Boisy Pitre posted a quick video in the Coco Facebook group showing
his hydro-dipped "Rainbow" Coco 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?multi_permalinks=10164208554237641&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen
And a Galaxy Coco 1 using the same process:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164208083717641/

3) Erico Monteiro posted in the Coco Facebook group that his procedural
semigraphics demo with animated aliens plotting schemes, called Open
Pilantra is now available for download from his fued.net site:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164207320302641/
Download link:
https://fued.net/open-pilantra/

4) Carlos Camacho is working on a Coco assembler application with a GUI,
called CocoForge, which supports 6809 and 6309 and even some 6800/6801
equivalent instructions, Flex support, profiles, and more:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164204238327641/

5) Mauricio Matte is working on something similar, called Coco Game Studio
project, which is a modern Assembly development IDE including the editor,
cross assembler, screen editor, XROAR emulator, etc. (Scroll down to
show screenshots):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164204424572641/

6) David Collins has been working on a Linux port of Micro-C, an embedded
K&R C compiler, and he showed a screenshot of a simple test program running
that calls BASIC ROM output routines:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164193626962641/

7) Vincent Tran has made a Windows app called RetroModem Bridge that he
uses for getting online with his Coco 3 and RS-232 pack. He made it with
help from AI, and uses it with Roger Taylor's NetMate to go online with
current Telnet BBS's:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164192503917641/

7) Brian Palmer posted another Coco 3 picture type in originally done by
Joy Wallace for a Coco magazine in 1987:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164189808217641/
He also posted another for the Coco 1/2 originally by Nick Kopstarelas
in 1985:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164189620217641/

8) Mike Horgan posted a video clip of his new ESP-32 Coco, including 3D
printed case and demoing it playing Poona:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164188625457641/

9) Chris Presley posted a quick video on Facebook showing him running a
Coco emulator on an Android phone:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164188574647641/

10) Luc Dion posted some screenshots and DSK image of a 3D sombrero graphic,
and showing it with both artifacting and non-artifacting modes, running
on the ESP-32 Coco project:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4314464062150355/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4314494482147313/

11) Cedric Beaudoin posted new firmware to enable the RS-232 pak emulation
on the ESP-32, and has now also posted a diagram of how to make a cable
for it, and a test program to make sure it works:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4313595302237231/
He also posted a Joystick testing program to help people tweaking joystick
settings on the ESP-32:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4262638377332924/posts/4309613279302100/

12) Timothy S. Brennan posted a blog about his using the ESP-32 Coco,
and even rescuing a program he wrote for playing D&D:
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2026/05/flashback-friday-color-computer-fun.html

13) Dave Appleton posted photos of some old hand wired 6809 systems he
built back in the 1980's for commercial products:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3997904270502925/

14) David Collins posted some of Dave Dunfield's MicroCAD drawings:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3997479117212107/

15) Nonsonic on YouTube does an almost quarter hour review and show through
of the December 1985 issue of Rainbow magazine. He is from Canada, but
doesn't seem to familiar to the Coco:
https://youtu.be/rVkJE6YgXCA?si=h1rA9KjniFwVxkul

16) synexo on YouTube released a video showing his Coco 3 using his Modem
Pad with a modern synth modem (at 300 baud which is all the Modem Pad
supported without some hardware hacks):
https://youtu.be/KmrtVg1ozqg?si=sjnmmMlnC9cWuGm2

17) Glenside has the live stream presentations from CocoFest last weekend
up to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/@glensideccc/streams
These include Jim Brain's presentation for the CocoMem Jr., Rick Adams
Coco War stories, John Strong's Coco Game Development Q&A, and Henry
Strickland's updates on several of his projects.

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Bee Maze/Bee Amazed", a maze generating program from
Creative Computing magazine in June 1981. Ported from the TRS-80 Model
1/3 original, It includes both printer and screen output capabilities,
and I think it is running in SG6 (64x48):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPpLI80gcP8

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Allen Huffman posted on his Sub Etha blog the full story behind the
PONG programming contest from the May 1993 Chicago CocoFest. He shows the
demo he made in text mode (80 column), and mentions the winner was GNOP
by Chris Hawkes of Hawksoft, and MM/1 game where the ball stays centered
on the screen and the whole play area scrolls around it. He also reveals
the secret that he actually queried Atari about making his PONG version an
officially licensed one, and lastly a video demo of a dual simultaneous OS
(OS-9 and Linux) version of Pong he did in the early 2000’s, which had
each player with it’s own OS on a separate core in the Core Duo Intel CPU:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/28/we-wanted-to-licensed-pong-in-1993/

2) Chronologically Gaming covered both the Dragon and Coco on this weeks
episode; Sands of Egypt on the Coco, Greg Zumwalt’s version of Space
War for the Coco, and St. George and the Dragons on the Dragon 32:
https://youtu.be/bnP_tTJZYog?si=18e0szEatAd9S-Pd

3) Renga in Blue covers the text adventure game “Escape From Sparta”
written by Rick Townsend and Thomas Hollerback for the 1st Rainbow Book
of Adventures contest:
https://bluerenga.blog/2026/05/01/escape-from-sparta-1983/

4) Brian Palmer posted in the Coco Facebook group that he is typing in an
old Goldsoft Adventure game called "Search for Martha", but it is a long
listing to type in and he is asking if anyone already has it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164203623947641/

5) Erico Monteiro is sharing his progress in trying to duplicate a feat
that he did when he was younger - winning all of the time gates in the
classic game Time Bandit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164192269837641/

6) Inufuto has started releasing it's many cross platform versions of a
new game called "SwordWork":
http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/sword/
Coco 1/2 version:
https://youtu.be/ngHg8VnRyls?si=CJQszNcIN2cO9aha
Coco 3 version:
https://youtu.be/LNH6yItz9qI?si=jb186b5zUL3LXGvc
MC-10 version:
https://youtu.be/sjuuBPgoyB4?si=--QfqjYH5-t2JwOP

7) Chinop on YouTube posted a video playing Panzer by Patrick A. Ewing. I
think this was from T&D magazine. This is loosely based on the old Gunfight
arcade games from the 1970's, with 1 or 2 player options:
https://youtu.be/jLES8PfUyqY?si=LuhOKVnJ1FyJV__1

8) Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU) covers the game Fingers for the
Dragon 32/64:
https://youtu.be/Ok5M8auv7d4?si=2VPw_8qSsHdxL0z3

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 462, April 25, 2026 (April 18-April 24)

2026-04-26T11:24:06Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 462, April 25, 2026 (April 18-April 24)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 462, April 25, 2026 (April 18-April 24)
=================================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus,
and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila,
Washington:
https://www.vcfpnw.net/

The Brazil Color Computer Club has announced that their 10th meeting is
on May 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/25741764422191262/

That same weekend is the next online live International Computer Club show
on the Twitch and YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco
content on there before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already
been booked as of this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Phil Harvey-Smith put some pictures up of his Dragon Beta prototype
that he has been working on making modern replacements for some of the
original parts, etc. that Dragon used in designing it back in 1984:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4384284578497844/
And the new iC16 board, where one can not get to the adjustment pots for
the floppy interface:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4380109035582065/

2) Julian Brown posted an update to his Dragon upgrade board (2 MB Static
RAM, integrated CPU & VDG, and SAMx32 which can handle full double speed
as well as 2 MB RAM) board – and unfortunately the 1MB Static RAM chips
he was going to use are now basically unobtanium thanks to the AI caused
RAM shortage:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4384126958513606/
Picture of his latest board design:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4383711305221838/
He also posted a photo of some ROM upgrades he has available – Unfortunately
I can’t remember what they are for (the 24 and 28 parts of the names I
am guessing is the number of pins for the ROM chip itself?)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4377730715819897/
He also did a late update where he now has a dedicated video DAC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4385013428424959/

3) Tom Erik Gundersen posted a photo to the Dragon Facebook group showing
an old console and joystick made by Radofin, which he is pretty sure made
the 5th version of the official Dragon joystick (and is shown in the photo,
but with some different colors from the Dragon version). He is wondering
if anyone has any information on the “tele-sports IV” console:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4383009005292068/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Allen Huffman posted about a 3-D Maze demo written for the Coco 3 and OS-9
Level 2 and called “Toast”, that was written by Vaughn Cato back in the
1990’s. Unlike strict hallway only style 3D engines, this allowed larger
rooms and more angles of view (like a wireframe Doom style engine). It was
written in C; Allen isn’t sure if it has some assembly too. It seems to
run at a pretty decent clip given it is running under a full operating system:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/20/vaughn-catos-toast-3-d-maze-engine-for-coco-os-9-level-2/
UPDATE: He got permission to upload the sourcecode from Vaughn as well:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/23/vaughn-catos-3-d-vector-maze-demo-source-code/
He posted another demo by Vaughn (who has since gone on to working computer
effects in Hollywood, including blockbusters like Avatar)
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/22/vaughn-catos-bitmap-scaling-demo/
YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/kC52nWqZxzs?si=d-OaAKnkymgOryu6
He then posted some sourcecode for some other Sub-Etha OS-9 code from
the 1990’s:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/24/more-misc-sub-etha-os-9-stuff-on-github/

2) CocoTown did a follow up video on how the disk controller and the
Coco interact. He also talks about a bug he hit when doing the patches,
concerning the NMI flag in the Disk ROM:
https://youtu.be/_YxnA7QWyCA?si=ZKtjFUp0QOVqEbC2

3) Glenn Hewlett put up a video showing his video player for the Coco
3 with a CocoSDC. This is after he converts the video to a format to be
optimized for the Coco 3, and can do 11 fps with 11 KHz mono audio, and
supports both “256 color” composite and 16 color RGB modes:
https://youtu.be/bBJcGt6cbRc?si=IsdaD3nMqUDvwzhM

4) Brian Palmer uploaded some Coco 3 graphics disks, including SNOW.DSK
and SUMMER.DSK, to the Coco files area on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/files/files/
Sample from SUMMER.DSK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164156429392641/

5) Paul Cunningham has posted to the Coco Facebook group that he has
added a Fujinet library to his Bare Naked Forth project, and has written
a graphic clock application for it that pulls the date & time over the
internet via Fujinet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164182298787641/

6) Cedric Beaudoin has posted to the Coco Facebook group that has implemented
the RS-232 Pak into his ESP-32 Coco. He posted a video about it, showing it
in action on a full ANSI online BBS, using Sock Master’s Twilight Terminal:
https://youtu.be/TRWprAEIpag?si=tNpfl8BHGAGuaVYt

7) Geoffrey Knutzen posted photos and a description of his Coco 2 that
he had modified back in the day to have MIDI, using a small daughterboard
with a 6850 serial chip:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164166841617641/

MC-10
-----
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Chronologically Gaming covered both the Coco and Dragon this week while
covering games released in December of 1982. On the Coco he covered the
BASIC PacMan style game Mr. Munch (from Chromasette), and the Dragon 32
version of Planet Invasion:
https://youtu.be/TAUd6q9Jt3Y?si=66BiM7i7hSvnfY2o

2) Brian Palmer uploaded a PMODE 4 BASIC Chess game to the Facebook
Coco group, originally written in 1984 by Nick Kostarelas for one of the
Australian Coco magazines, I believe:
Screenshot:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164161020837641/
Download link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164161099172641/
He also put in a Golf game by the same author (and same year):
Download link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164186324862641/
Info:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164186224352641/

3) In honour of CocoFest going on right now, Erico Monteiro has released
his SG4 game White Rock Ingotz (that we have talked about on the show before):
Announcement:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164186614037641/
Download:
https://fued.net/ingotz/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 461, April 18, 2026 (April 11-17)

2026-04-19T11:48:48Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 461, April 18, 2026 (April 11-17)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 461, April 18, 2026 (April 11-17)
=================================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
CocoFest 2026 is April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting this past
week. And hotel rates are locked in now (see post on Glenside website). Table
reservations are open now too. Holiday Inn & Suites Carol Stream, IL:
https://www.glensideccc.com/

That same weekend is the first official Latin American VCF, which takes
place April 24-26 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina:
https://vcf-espaciotec-com-ar.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus,
and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila,
Washington:
https://www.vcfpnw.net/

The Brazil Color Computer Club has announced that their 10th meeting is
on May 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/25741764422191262/

That same weekend is the next online live International Computer Club show
on the Twitch and YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco
content on there before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already
been booked as of this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown posted an update to his Rev 3 design with incorporates a
SAMX8, up to 2 MB of RAM with 4 tasks, etc.:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4376875969238705/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted an update to some replacement boards he has
made for the very rare Dragon Professional:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4372885676304401/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Glen Hewlett posted a blog to compare speeds between Coco 3 BASIC and
his compiler:
https://nowhereman999.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/basic-compiler-quick-speed-comparison/

2) CocoTown returns with a different type of episode – going through
how Disk BASIC and the disk controller works, and then hacking around in
the Disk BASIC ROM’s to eliminate the HALT and NMI code. It works…
but there is a catch:
https://youtu.be/Lpn_-Y6nwDc?si=GZrvNS3lBbm1BPpy

3) Glen Hewlett has released version 5.27 of his BASIC-TO-68099 compiler,
with the following updates:
V 5.27
• Fixed the addition of 8 bit values now always results in a 16 bit
result, to avoid overflows
• Fixed the subtraction of 8 bit values always now results in a 16
bit signed result
• Changed Palette handling, Palette now updates the hardware palette
immediately
• Added PaletteW command that changes the Palette Mirror value
• Added PaletteV command that changes the palette Mirror value and
copies all 16 palette values from the mirror to hardware
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

4) Keith Frechette released his "first deployment milestone" for his
SAL4LWTOOLS utility in the Microsoft store:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164153750267641/

5) David Collins released a version of David Dunfields 6809 toolkit,
compilable under Linux. Includes C compiler, assembler, macro processor
and linker:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164134866842641/

6) Michael Pittsley posted in the Coco Facebook group that he is looking
for some Coco databased software and/or documentation - namely, the manual
for VIP DataBase III, and Profile III/Profile+ for OS9 (both software and
documentation). Neither are on the archive; has anyone got these?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164139002407641/

7) In response to an earlier question in the Coco Facebook group, Dim
Cave Software released the assembly source for a Coco program to add two
numbers and print the result in text on the Coco screen, with comments,
for Disk EDTASM+:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164145255737641/

8) Brian Palmer posted a screenshot of some graphics he drew using the
Coco 3 BASIC and DATA statements:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164148807577641/

9) Paul Cunningham released an program that demonstrates animated flames
in SG4:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164150705087641/

10) Simon Jonassen released a .CAS version of his own flames demo, done
in assembly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164153129622641/

11) Luc Dion put up a Facebook post in the Coco group showing Cedric
Beaudoin's ESP32 Coco machine in action, that we have been discussing for
some weeks now (can mute sound on this one):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164151120242641/

12) Electronics Abuse on YouTube put up a video showing the Color Doodle
program for the Coco 3, that was a type in from the Coco 3 BASIC manual:
https://youtu.be/8paJyOf9z4g?si=HsROlY0n2vI407z4

13) AllRobotics Channel on YouTube did a 5 part series "Radio Shack TRS-80
Color Computer Reborn" in Spanish about his old Coco 1 (the last 64K White
model with the melty keyboard), that he "upgrades" to a modern machine:
Part 1 (going through the hardware):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuWmsfq-DRs
Part 2 (where he starts using Coco parts with modern hardware, including
an ESP32, a modern laptop keyboards, etc):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmKmL_YQmws
Part 3 (where he gets the modern keyboard, deluxe joystick working and
spiffed up as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB6wX1c9BTo
Part 4 (Deluxe joystick with adapter):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJVIraIeFw
Part 5 (OS install - Linux, Commodore OS Vision) (maybe went too far with
this one? Lol):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqXmjuCHAQ

14) Luc Dion posted a survey in the Coco Facebook group - Would one do
retrobriting, etc. on an old Coco, or leave it as is?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?sorting_setting=CHRONOLOGICAL

15) Don Sorensen showed some admins for his Coco system, including nice
small Atari joystick adapters:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164138394312641/

16) A Japanese YouTube channel has a brief history of OS-9: (the Coco is
mentioned briefly as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR5YENrpcvU

MC-10
-----
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Chronologically Gaming continues with all video games from December 1982,
and he covered both Inspector Clueseau from Petrocci Freelance Associates &
Laser Tank Duel from Renaissance Game Designs for the Coco:
https://www.youtube.com/live/InGxkDAlNZY?si=4mdqVfJmg75bTJ2b

2) I missed several Coco gaming videos by Tim & AJ on their My Drunk
Sibling YouTube channel over the last month (thanks a lot, YouTube!):
Coco 3 BASIC Yahtzee (I think this was a freeware game early in the Coco
3’s life) – Nick Marentes, you should respond to them lol):
https://youtu.be/pljf-K6w6is?si=qnRo4CXVKw1dGt_j
Tetra by Brian O’Neill – another free download back in the day:
https://youtu.be/fUbZFRJdp8A?si=mnaxTxl3QVoCI7zO
Bonk by Joseph Cheek – a Coco 3 bustout game written in BASIC09 for the
Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/5ocmfrL9gRY?si=MXpUUhG5JpWyktOu

3) Paul Cunningham has released an AI version of Pong he wrote that
plays itself:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164135142097641/
XRoar online version:
https://pcunningham.works/coco/pong.html
He also released a live stream game demo and updated version 1.0 of his
Space Warp adaptation from the TRS-80 Model 1 to the Coco 1/2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164146111382641/
Download page:
https://ugufru.itch.io/space-warp
Video preview stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYV7HdRvj8I

4) Nostalgic Gamer on YouTube did a video showing The Tom Mix Software/Chris
Latham game Sailor Man, a great Popeye clone, with lots of custom
configuration options:
https://youtu.be/wwEa4AF6_ng?si=oKEPVjGDob3MWIj6

5) Jim Gerrie ported “Yuureisen", a text adventure by Y. Kume in 1982:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADIAa7lXU2s

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 460, April 11, 2026 (April 4-10)

2026-04-12T11:34:18Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 460, April 11, 2026 (April 4-10)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 460, April 11, 2026 (April 4-10)
=============================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
-------------------
Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-East is April 17-19 at the InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall,
New Jersey. Peter Cetinski is going to be on the Podcaster’s RoundTable
panel (for the TRS-80 Trash Talk show, that does cover Coco’s in addition
to the other TRS-80 and Tandy machines):
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest 2026 is April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting this past
week. And hotel rates are locked in now (see post on Glenside website). Table
reservations are open now too. Holiday Inn & Suites Carol Stream, IL:
https://www.glensideccc.com/

That same weekend is the first official Latin American VCF, which takes
place April 24-26 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina:
https://vcf-espaciotec-com-ar.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus,
and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila,
Washington:
https://www.vcfpnw.net/

The Brazil Color Computer Club has announced that their 10th meeting is
on May 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/25741764422191262/

That same weekend is the next online live International Computer Club show
on the Twitch and YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco
content on there before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already
been booked as of this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VDF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Website Atari Legend published an interview with Wayne Smithson, mainly
going over his Atari ST game writing days (including things “Oh No
More Lemmings” and Lemmings 2: The Tribes, the ST port of Blood Money,
etc.). But he mentions at the beginning that first started writing games
for the Dragon 32/64. And one that has his name in the credits is Superkid
– a side scrolling arcade game with speech:
https://www.atarilegend.com/interviews/84

2) Julian Brown has received his Multipack boards, and has them for sale
for those who want to build one:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4367871726805796/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Henry Strickland uploaded a video showing his Copico-Centipede cartridge
in action, which spies on the Coco Bus and ogs everything it is doing. It
shows a real Coco 2 running, and the Centipede provides 64K RAM, Disk BASIC
ROM to the Coco that has neither. It uses some techniques that Tormod’s
earlier MOOH upgrade has, including a VDG corruption issue shared by both:
https://youtu.be/qhJz52A-AZA?si=N2qt1cD3Ngq4-BmJ

2) Allen Huffman’s new blog entry is about the last time that he saw
Steve Bjork, before Steve passed in 2023. This takes place back in 2018:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/10/the-last-time-i-saw-steve-bjork/
He also did an entry explaining the CLS 100 Easter Egg found in the ROM
of the Coco 3:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/07/cls-100-coco-3-easter-egg-explored/

3) Fabian Rodriguez's seminar from VCF-Montreal, titled "From Coco to
Community: The Color Computer Then and Now" is now up on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/lAwkCKuSn4o?si=ZslFwTPVccBEkPJn

4) AuroJackal on YouTube posted a video about loading programs on a Coco
using Bluetooth and the cassette cable:
https://youtu.be/f1R7UfQ9e9k?si=0u7OFlZRlRFMGPah

5) Ken (Canadian Retro Things) posted a video about an RF to HDMI converter
he got to try on his various retro systems, including the Coco. It works
better than he expected:
https://youtu.be/dewI2TFsnDE?si=qS4NC4JV8xXOB9VL

6) Don Sorenson showed his solution for adding an HDMI port to the Coco
for either the GIME-Z (Coco 3) or CocoDV (Coco 1/2):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164126051642641/

7) Rich Stephens posted a Julia fractal drawing program to the Coco group
on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164115812942641/

8) Thomas Cherryhomes posted in the Coco group on Facebook that Robert
Gault's DWPRINT patch (tying BASIC's printer output to DriveWire) does
work with Fujinet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164113491332641/

9) If you are in the Coco groups files section, Brian Palmer has uploaded
multiple DSK images that draw Coco 3 graphics, originally written by David
Dyson for Australian Coco magazines:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/files/files

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Satellite" from the Atari to the MC-10:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/930345473184343
He also ported a Commodore graphic of the Mona Lisa:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/26197231619976979/

2) Walter Miraglia (I think he was on the Coco and/or Fidonet echoes back
in the day) posted photos of an internal 32K RAM upgrade - that works with
video as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/26174742945559180/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Chronologically Gaming goes through the 1983 Electronic Games magazine
Buyers Guide (published at the end of 1982), which does mention the
Coco. At the end of the episode, he goes through the best games of 1982
(all platforms – home computer, arcade, console, electronic tabletops,
etc.), and Donkey King is one of the best, rated at 5 out of 5 stars:
https://youtu.be/dTEZDnGoY-A?si=2FqzxEeTWMQdYTI3&t=4061

2) Paul Cunningham has released the first public beta of his Coco version
of the classic Space Warp game for the original TRS-80, which is a clone of
classic Star Trek games. But Paul has enhanced his version with graphics &
animations, and some realtime shooting elements with different kinds of ships:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164122647587641/
Download link:
https://ugufru.itch.io/space-warp/devlog/1485389/space-warp-v094-preview-available-now
Video of game in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfSX1aR2k7I

3) Jim Gerrie ported "Tomb of Terror", originally by Bob Cockroft in
1984 for the Canadian Atari magazine called "ROM", Volume 1 issue 4 from
February 1984. He used an ML draw routine by Greg Dionne in SG6 graphics
mode (64x48) to speed up the low resolution 3D wireframe style graphics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iZF7xogjM
He also updated his port of Manbiki Shounen (Shoplifting Boy) by Hiroshi
Suzuki, originally published in the February 1980 issue of RAM magazine
for the Commodore PET, and written in 1979. He added 3 kill levels and
fixed up some of the animations:
https://youtu.be/oNCyxUTAFIc?si=Yf9wkmP_-bO87T2K
Download link is in the YouTube video description

4) David Murray, The 8-Bit Guy, posted an update to the cartridge version
of Quarx (a conversion to the Coco's and Dragons of David's C64 based game,
similar to Gems on the Coco 3). The latest prototype boards worked. He
mentioned that they will be ordering 100 boards, and that 28 copies have
already been pre-ordered. He should be shipping by the end of April:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164122781572641/

5) Spriteworx posted a quick video titled "Alien Incursion in the
Grid!"... With some guest images that we are familiar with:
https://youtu.be/h_UdplpU24U?si=SMOBxBQBX7pboGVw

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 393, December 21, 2024

2026-04-05T18:40:21Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 393, December 21, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 393, December 21, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next episode of TRS-80 Trash Talk Live (#42) is tonight (Dec. 21)
at 9 pm Eastern:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

For those in the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada area, the winter meetup for
the Manitoba Retro Computer and Gaming Club is being held January 4 from
noon until 4 PM and features a variety of retro computers. They have
a theme this meetup about the TRS-80, and since David Kroeker, D. Bruce
Moore and myself are all planning on attending, there will definitely be
a Coco flavor as well:
https://www.facebook.com/events/870247295316209/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D

"Tandy Showcase" (Ed on the TRS-80 Discord, and the person who hosts
the history of Videotex on the web), posted that there is a Winter Retro
Computing Meetup on Saturday, January 18th from noon to 4 PM, sponsored by
DFW Retro Computing & the Vintage Computing Collective of North Texas. It
takes place at Bingo Bingo in Grand Prairie (and there will be a concession
stand open). Quote from Ed:
"**The Winter Event for the DFW Retro Computing Group has been announced
(Sat Jan 18); here's their event listing.
"Anyone in/near the Dallas-Fort Worth area is encouraged to attend the
free event.**
*The Winter Retro Computing Meetup of 2025 will be on Saturday, January
18th. Brought to you by the DFW Retro Computing Meetup group and the Vintage
Computing Collective of North Texas. Sponsored by Mouser Electronics who
has, for the second year, graciously donated to cover the cost for the
venue rental.
The meetup will begin at 12:00pm and end at 4:00pm and is taking place at
Bingo Bingo in Grand Prairie who will also have their concession stand open
so please bring cash and support them for allowing us to use their venue.
We encourage you to bring something for show and tell. It could be a
new addition to your collection or a favorite system you've showcased
before. Don't be shy we love seeing the unique treasures our community
has to offer. And if you're not quite ready to exhibit, no worries--just
bring yourself and your passion for retro computing.
As on prior meetups, you are welcome to bring your items for swap, sale, or
giveaway. However, you must ensure that all items are removed from the venue
at the end of the meetup. We cannot leave behind boxes of donation items.
You are welcome to bring your family. If you bring young children, please
keep an eye on them.
When parking, please be careful to observe the parking lot markings, and
only park in marked parking spaces. Last time, some people parked in areas
intended for parking lot navigation, which can cause issues with parking
lot traffic and fire/first responder access.
We look forward to seeing all of you there!*"
https://www.meetup.com/DFW-Retrocomputing/events/305135267/

Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East is April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info Age Science
Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town has released a text/webpage version of his assembly language
optimizations video, including some new examples and more detailed
explanations. Great reference (it's divided into 3 parts):
https://cocotownretro.wordpress.com/2024/12/16/8-surprising-6809-assembly-optimizations-and-3-unsurprising-ones-part-1/

2) D. Bruce Moore and David Kroeker did a quick blog post and accompanying
video with further progress on their CocoMP3 project - Testing and Selecting
the best audio amplifier solution. There is also an appearance by an old
Coco serial to parallel converter running a line printer, and more:
https://coco.gracenote.ca/cocomp3-research-development-testing-and-selecting-the-best-audio-amplifier-solution/

3) ACKRobert has released his almost 1.5 hour walkthrough/mini-interviews
of this past VCF SoCal. This includes a brief talk with Henry Strickland,
who goes through the CoPiCo project (Wireless networking), Rick Ulland's
Ethernet board, etc.
https://youtu.be/vF2s2qcEsbQ?si=ZTQxdP7tuqbLjZla&t=3298

4) Mike ("seat safety switch" on the Coco Discord) posted a link to his
blog about Fujinet, and his experience building and using it on the Coco:
https://www.leadedsolder.com/2024/12/17/coco-fujinet.html

5) Thomas Cherryhomes showed a post by Andrew Diller that is a review
of Fujinet's accomplishments in 2024, including hardware and software
(including the Coco):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162162731727641/
Show 'fujunet 2024.jpg' from my desktop, as Facebook won't let me scale
the very tall image enough to read properly

6) Terry Steege posted a teaser video on the Coco Facebook group under his
Retro Tech Time brand, that will lead into a full showcase video about
the AgVision - boxed and complete - which was the blue branded Videotex
terminal that came out before the Coco 1 but shares it's design and a lot
of it's hardware with the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162159382347641/

7) Paul Sisco posted photos (some in the comments) of a small daughterboard
with wires going to multiple place on an F board Coco 1 that he has no
idea what it is for. Comments have speculated about multiple things it
could be - any ideas from the panel or chat?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162156384747641/

8) I missed it when it was released (November 28), but Pierre Sarrazin
released 'hiresttxt' version 0.4.2 for the CMOC compile. This redirects
printf() to a hi res screen (black on green) allowing 42x24 or 42x24
text. It has an option to support some VT52 terminal sequences, includes
lowercase and Latin-1 characters, supports both inverse and bold on/off,
works on all Coco's and can even run under OS-9 Level 1 or 2.
http://perso.b2b2c.ca/~sarrazip/dev/cmoc.html
(search for 'hirestxt')

9) As per usual, both the main and beta branches of ugBASIC have had
updates throughout the past few weeks:
Main branch changelog (mostly bugfixes to the 1.16.5 release over the past
few weeks):
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch changelog (bug fixes plus things like support for SPRITE
PRIORITY, SPRITE SET, MOB SET, FADE, etc.:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

10) Ben Cossette on YouTube posted a video of the educational Coco program
"Goofy Covers Government: Inside Congress", including the original multimedia
voice acting that came on the tape:
https://youtu.be/Zeslv_66hQY?si=9lHRvudaBoqe9Yui

11) Henry of The Break Key on YouTube (and our regular panel!) put up a
special Christmas themed video showing how to use the higher semigraphics
modes to create a nice Christmas scene. He uses modern tools to create
the the final image on the Coco:
https://youtu.be/02t30UANoy4?si=VmISPwoCXA_Dgg7W

12) EJ Jacquay has released version 2.1.9.1 of VCC this past week, which does
bugfixes, enhancements to the text paste, multiple debugger enhancements,
and more:
Full list of changes, and download:
https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/releases

MC-10
-----
1) The Clueless Engineer on YouTube released a part 1 video looking at
the Matra & Hachette Alice - a First look. It includes him going through
the hardware, and getting the video output working:
https://youtu.be/JoOMIVsprkE?si=2RQr5VJBjjomuROo

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Ciaran posted on the World of Dragon forums in response to a user request
that he has added a new ASSERT pseudo op to his ASM6809 assembler. Currently
it's on the github, but hasn't had an official release yet (and he may
not have time to do so before Christmas):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11218

2) Dave's 8-bit basement released Dragon re-power part 1 - a video
followup to his previous one we covered recently, where he now has the
power supply replacement boards he was waiting for to get his Dragon 32 up
and running. This video shows soldering the parts and wires onto the board:
https://youtu.be/P5vSDNjBuJ8?si=GlgtagFiOCkYrKgP

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) As speculated last week, the MC-10 version of Paul Shoemaker's Christmas
Match game has been released for free on his itch.io page. Is is in the
.C10 cassette format):
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/christmas-match
Video demo with sound (it's doing 4 part harmony with 1 bit sound for it's
little music intro):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8720532308073514/

2) I am not sure when this article was published, but I just found out about
an interview with the creator of the first Chess game on any microcomputer
(Microchess), Peter Jennings. It's on a Norwegian site, but in english. It
goes through the original history of Peter himself, the Kim-1 release, and
mentions the other major ports (including a mention of the Coco version,
which along with Peter's Checkers were his contribution to the Coco's
launch titles in 1980):
https://spillhistorie.no/interview-with-microchess-creator-peter-jennings/

3) Jim Gerrie ported over "Rubiks", originally written by Roger Safford
and published as a type in listing for the CompuColor II computer from it's
magazine, Colorcue (June/July 1982 issue). This program lets one both play,
and have the computer solve, a Rubik's cube:
https://youtu.be/30h6354Iu9k?si=aPBiDSLHXS27GZTT
WAV file download from Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10HhvW22xPej6TpwhYgOp_LjF0RSofG4W/view

4) UK retro games podcast Retro Asylum released episode 343: 8 Bit Wars
Budget Edition. This reviews games on a variety of 8 bit systems, focusing
on the cheap, budget titles. The Dragon and Coco get mentioned a few times
(24:20 is where they ask their American co-host about the market in the US in
this time period, and he mentions the Coco specifically). The majority of the
show is comparing ports of the same game on the C64, Spectrum and BBC Micro:
https://youtu.be/FR63vL7iPkc?si=nWuaiZ4nkZJOhPdU

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 392, December 14, 2024

2026-04-05T18:39:42Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 392, December 14, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 392, December 14, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
For those in the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada area, the winter meetup for
the Manitoba Retro Computer and Gaming Club is being held January 4 from
noon until 4 PM and features a variety of retro computers. They have
a theme this meetup about the TRS-80, and since David Kroeker, D. Bruce
Moore and myself are all planning on attending, there will definitely be
a Coco flavor as well:
https://www.facebook.com/events/870247295316209/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D

Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East is April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info Age Science
Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) After a lengthy hiatus, TRS-80 Retro Programing returns with a different
type of project - Disappearing Ghosts (originally written in 1984 by Angela
Bradshaw from the book The Color Computer Playground). It's a subtraction
game for kids:
https://youtu.be/FdKSPLo5AaY?si=IqZc61GJFWK8NwKn

2) Grant Leighty passed on to me that CocoFest table registration won't be
until February 1st (rather than January). "Randy is doing a major update on
the registration system and needed more time to complete it." (Please note
that the Glenside CocoFest webpage has not been changed yet to reflect this):
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/

3) 8 Bit Doodads on YouTube are doing a Retro Computer Adventu
Calender... and an episode is about the Coco (it has some mistakes, but
the hosts admit that neither has owned one):
https://youtu.be/HGZ1m7HGVq4?si=qJtB6FcnYF1axNfv

4) Christmas themed posts on both Facebook and YouTube using Coco's have
started appearing. Some of these we have covered in previous years, but
since more and more people are joining (or re-joining) the Coco community,
I think it is worth covering:
- Michael Pittsley posted some screenshots from the Sierra Christmas
demo. I will mention that it is included with NitrOS-9/EOU, and can be
found in the DEMOS -> SIERRA_XMAS (and launched from MultiVue):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162153232332641/
Michael Eric Sezter pointed out the Tandy in store Coco 3 graphics demo
from Christmas 1986 that Spectral Associates wrote:
https://youtu.be/PaoqNDcYmOI?si=0SqblGL-4Pf8-EJ-
bng0072 on YouTube released graphic/song videos of two Coco 1/2 Christmas
themes, which are called XMAS Fantasia & XMAS Fantasia II, and are about
17 minutes and 27 minutes long respectively. Maybe have them playing on a
TV in the background during the Christmas season (I think David Ladd has
presented these before in previous years):
XMAS Fantasia:
https://youtu.be/5cHbHGaNBGk?si=x9aEcaxg5e7r6UdR
XMAS Fantasia II:
https://youtu.be/Cbo5EoNzcR8?si=3lHCxxvfziaBr7XK

5) Another theme is people sharing photos of their Coco systems (back in
day, sometimes after receiving them at Christmas). These include:
- Rodger Williamson shows his setup from the mid-80's, and mentions using
it while he attended Clemson University):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162152639702641/
- Rob Cookenour posted a 5 second video(!) of him and his brand new Coco
on Christmas morning, 1983 (just a few months after the Coco 2 was released)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162145479247641/

6) Jack Chadwick posted a link on the Coco Facebook group to Coco 2 11
ounce coffee mugs that are for sale on etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1429675299/tandy-64k-color-computer-2-computer

7) Anthonu Kulla pointed out that the pilot episode of Moonlighting
(starring Bruce Willis) has a Coco 1 in it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162142202352641/

8) Italian Youtube channel does a pretty thorough review of the 6809 (there
are a few mistakes) but mentions how it wasn't often used. They mention
the Fujistu FM-7, the Thomson machines - but don't mention the Dragons,
Coco's, Vectrex, etc.:
https://youtu.be/Do8lWLDRczc?si=-Wiex-nVXka5hE7J

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie converted a program called Sphere which first appeared in
Colorcue magazine's Dec/Jan 1982 issue (originally for the Compucolor
II computer):
https://youtu.be/szxcO8hIcck?si=CuQVm6zs6fyGlRk3

2) Jim also pointed out an article about Chess AI from the University of
Waterloo Computer Museum, written by Amy VanderLaan. They pitted a MASTER
2200X Chess Computer (which was sold by Radio Shack in 1996) vs. an MC-10
at the easiest level on each. Suprisingly, even with the computer & program
being 12-13 years older than the dedicated Chess machine... the MC-10 won:
https://uwaterloo.ca/computer-museum/chess-ai

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Dave's 8-bit Basement put up a half hour video on the Dragon 32 - part
3 of a series he is working on. He shows some hardware replacement boards
that he is making (and uploading the files for):
https://youtu.be/grrBP0ieFRY?si=zUqsmc874HA3qlA4

2) German YouTube channel "Jungsis Corner" does a quick review about using
the CocoSDC on a Dragon 32:
https://youtu.be/sWfY9XhIkCk?si=EUitk5YZ0c9o-xs8

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported the TRS-80 Model 1/3 game "All Together" to the MC-10,
originally by David Chance from his 1981 book "Computer Graphics With 29
ready-to-run Programs":
https://youtu.be/IsMlNjh9X_8?si=fosKuLEjFxWLQNfP
He also ported Flying Witches, originally written by Jenny Tyler and Chris
Oxlade in the 1984 book
"Weird Computer Games" by Usborne books. Done completely with text
characters, it is actually a side scroller where one has to fly their
witch to pick up objects as they scroll by:
https://youtu.be/bHQgaJdnyuo?si=_cap97r_7ruX1Mm2

2) Paul Shoemaker has made a Coco 1/2 version of his Christmas Match game:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162143852062641/
It is on the same disk image as the Coco 3 version, which you can get from
his itch.io:
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/christmas-match
And Ciaran Anscomb has made a hybrid disk that allows it to run on the
Dragon as well, and has made this available in the World of Dragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11216

3) Pere Serrat has now uploaded the "Big Pack" version of his SuperSprite
FM+ updated AGD games, putting all 55 games into one zip for the Dragon
or Coco (as well as separate ZIP's with instructions, screen shots, etc.):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11217

4) Non Maskable Interrupt on YouTube did some more gameplay videos on his
CM-8 equipped Coco 3 (so no artifact colors).
Bagitman:
https://youtube.com/shorts/jiX31s4-Apo?si=PVxLY0eqseDFXM6i

5) Jostive Fivezer did some gameplay videos as well:
Squeeze:
https://youtu.be/OcgqoNmYB1g?si=jWBK5uiu-3hckwvh
Android Attack (longplay):
https://youtu.be/70v3815nnMw?si=fp_2P0S7GO39I1u6

6) simonwgb played almost 3 hours of some of his favorite Dragon 32/64
games, including 45 minutes with Wizard's Quest:
https://youtu.be/wdVaBXZSR2U?si=6cKUQ69I9JUL8vzW

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 391, December 7, 2024

2026-04-05T18:39:00Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 391, December 7, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 391, December 7, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East is April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info Age Science
Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) D. Bruce Moore & David Kroeker put up another video of them working on
the CocoMP3 hardware card, this time on trying to get audio levels correct
from the Coco cassette port into a TV:
Quick blog post:
https://coco.gracenote.ca/trying-to-get-proper-audio-levels-through-the-coco-cassette-port-and-into-a-tv/
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/oq1LsY6gTPI?si=KPuli_rkP5G6dfHf

2) ugBASIC 1.16.5 RELEASED. Release notes:
"In addition to containing strong optimizations on the generated code,
and numerous fixes and corrections for all targets (especially for the
TRS-80 Color Computer 1/2/3), 32-bit division has finally been implemented
for the 6809 processor and the code generation has been improved. The MIDI
to IMF converter has been improved, with support for volume changing and
specific percussion handling and automatic instrument calculation that
composition software takes for granted, and improvements have also been
made to multitasking interleaving capabilities.
From this release the additional data type IMAGEREF is now available, which
allows you to modify the graphic resources at run time, thus allowing you to
create games with great aesthetic variability. A whole set of instructions
has been added, to manage (automatically) the animations and movements
of graphic elements, taking advantage of the improved multitasking. In
particular, the ANIMATE command allows you to activate and drive animations
while the program is running, and so does the MOVE command, which allows
you to move objects in parallel, even synchronized with the animation.
The new PATH data type, together with the TRAVEL instruction, allows you
to calculate all the intermediate points of a path between two points, thus
allowing you to easily create "programmed paths", such as those associated
with graphic adventure animations. The PRINT RAW is now available, to print
characters without escape sequence parsing. The "retro compatible hacks" have
been updated which ensure that previously written games can run without any
issues, although there have been some small changes in the specifications."
There have been multiple hot and cold fixes to the main branch since the
1.16.5 version release this past week as well"
Main website:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/
Fixes since the main version release:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main

3) Fedor Steedman posted a link to a hackaday article titled "The 6809
8-bit Microcomputer: A father-son odyssey" on the Coco Facebook group. The
article is written by Heidi Ulrich.
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/the-6809-8-bit-microcomputer-a-father-son-odyssey/
The project page by Eric Lind and his son (they posted about the upcoming
"Stage 3" on December 2):
https://hackaday.io/project/199060-lind-micro-lind

4) Logiker's Vintage Computing Christmas Challenge has been announced
(for all retro computers). This is their contest (running from Dec. 12
until Dec. 25) where you try and re-create their Christmas related shape
in as small of code as possible, in any language. They released a video
showing the shapes from previous Christmas challenges, and explains the
rules. There are prizes:
https://youtu.be/3q5ZWJmMhgQ?si=aR6tFMNDQAKlWEKq

5) Spanish YouTube channel RetroComputo did a video about how to create
real disks from DSK files using a Multipack and the CocoSDC:
https://youtu.be/hKrcteMcs6w?si=N92ICL5cc7uZ-Hfl

6) The Boston Diaries (Sean) did a 3 part blog post about how to call
assembly routines from BASIC.
Part 1 is about how his own 6809 assembler makes BASIC code (data statements,
POKE loop, etc. to make it easier to write the code in assembly and then
not have to manually translate it to BASIC yourself:
https://boston.conman.org/2024/11/26.1
Part 2 covers how to call these routines from regular Color BASIC using
the single USR command, and some steps needed to pass strings using it:
https://boston.conman.org/2024/11/26.2
Part 3 covers how to do it from Extended BASIC, which adds up to 10
USR's and the DEFUSER command used to set them up, which makes sending
and retrieving values & strings easier and takes less steps than regular
Color BASIC required.
https://boston.conman.org/2024/11/26.3

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported (and translated) and educational program for the
Metra Alice called The Combustion Engine, originally by Infogrames in 1984:
https://youtu.be/oKxwjlFrDQs?si=AzYXFXxXJvZ_yGUP
He also posted a link to a french site with screenshots and photos of the
original packaging:
http://alice32.free.fr/programmes/le-moteur-a-explosion/index.html

2) Simon Jonassen is working on a Christmas demo for the MC-10, and put up
a video in the MC-10 Facebook group showing the 2 voice/square wave music,
and will be adding graphics shortly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8652829471510465/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Pere Serrat has released 2 more game packs with the updated palettes
for the Supersprite FM+ board (for the Dragon 32/64 and Coco 1/2):
Game pack #8 has 6 games:
Diamond Geezer
Magic Able
Meteormania
The Hair-raising adventures of Mr. Hair
Nixy the Glad Sprite
Papyrus
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11214
Game pack #9 has 6 games:
Page's Castle Quest
Robot, the Impossible Mission
Springbot - Mars Attack
Sprouty
Stars 2
UFO
Yokai Monk
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11215
This puts the number of games that support the Supersprite FM+ board to
over 50 games now.

2) The Wargaming Scribe has released his review of Battle for Tunis for
the Coco in 1984 from Ark Royal games. As usual, he does his very detailed,
full review of the game:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/16184

3) Gregg Steffensen has officially released "The Caverns of Narzod" on the
Color Computer Archive, a game that is now fully working and patched for
disk. This was originally published in Australian Coco magazine, October
1985, and is a BASIC/ML hybrid (the original listing needed some patching
for disk). He also posted a link to Jim Gerrie's original video we showed
a few weeks ago of the cassette version, although I think that still had
a few bugs from typing it in that are now fixed:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162139419842641/

4) Paul Shoemaker released a new Coco 3 Christmas themed game called
Christmas Match. It was a memory match game where one flips over two tiles
at a time, and tries to find the matching tiles (which removes them from
the playfield) in as few moves as possible. It can is a free download from
his itch.io page, and requires a Coco 3 with 128K and a disk drive:
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/christmas-match
Some gameplay footage
https://youtu.be/-MOODqqRaWM?si=9VpFJ2uc0mV_9BCB

5) Richard Kelly uploaded a DSK image to the Coco Facebook group that has
the Kenneth Del Signore collection, including DataFall (ironically the only
game that does not run if you use the DOS command based menu system that
Richard included). These are games that were published by T&D magnazine,
written by Ken.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162137350892641/

6) Chronologically Gaming covered another Coco game release from November
of 1982 - a movie adaptation that was unique to the Coco - Poltergeist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P609_OETpH8&t=1438s

7) YouTube channel WhiteHat94 did a 20 minute play video of Super Pitfall
on the Coco 3, using a MiSTer FPGA. This is a actually a speed run, and
he is very familiar with the Nintendo original one (see around 17:40 for
a sub-level most people have not seen). He wins the game in 19 minutes,
47 seconds:
https://youtu.be/x8MwTjjPa6c?si=RxNbInp_4PGEbYhb.

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 390, November 30, 2024

2026-04-05T18:38:16Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 390, November 30, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 390, November 30, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East is April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info Age Science
Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Ron Klein posted a blog update for the Coco Pi Project, including the
latest on how it is being built and different ways you can install it:
https://coco-pi.com/coco-pi-project-update-2024-11-27/

2) Wi-Fi Sheep on YouTube put up a more full length video of the Cambridge
Retro Computer Festival 2024 (he showed us some Coco / Dragon stuff
specifically after the show). One area of interest is the special 6847
display, showing a variety of computers that used the same VDG as the Coco
1/2, MC-10/Alice, and Dragon 32/64 used:
https://youtu.be/9y8GMrjAPyo?si=4ifWr5MxIwIwz8S0&t=599

3) Ciaran Anscomb has announced that XRoar 1.7.3 has been released. This
fixed some bugs that crept into 1.7.2:
http://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

4) Daniel Wilson of the Think Tank Podcast, interviewed Wes Kussmaul, the
creator of the online system Delphi. Like the older Compuserve, Delphi
was filled with forums, downloads, etc. and they had an agreement with
Rainbow magazine to run Coco forums, which Rainbow had a monthly column
mentioning which new downloads, etc. were newly added. It goes through how
Delphi started as an online encyclopedia to what he is doing now. It also
covers Daniel's history with the Coco 2:
https://aithinktankpodcast.com/articles/f/the-early-days-of-the-internet---show-9
YouTube video version of the interview:
https://youtu.be/J5EREYob3N4?si=fb40RTann_RZZBmC

5) David Collins posted a video on Facebook in the Motorola 6809/6309/6800
Assembly Language programming group showing his HB63C089M single board 6309
based computer, and showing a text based Mandelbrot set being generated
using a 6309 assembly program. It completes it in about .3 seconds... an
that's writing it to a virtual terminal.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3528218010804889/

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie released an MC-10 port of "A Spacecraft Simulator" originally
written by Gary Sivak for BYTE magazine, November 1979.:
https://youtu.be/kPrI6feDyKA?si=7nvafJSi9EEpjY3U

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) robcfg on the World of Dragon Forums has announced a new utility,
DragonCas2 (sequel to DragonCas_GUI). He has also released a test version
for Windows:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11212
Direct link:
https://bitbucket.org/robcfg/dragoncas2/src/master/

2) Julian Brown posted an update for his RAM replacement board for his
Dragon 32 repro board. This is a simpler design that he hopes fixes a
bug. From some testing yesterday, it is working better than his earlier
version, but still isn't fully working... yet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3878989832360657/

3) Richard Harding has posted some high resolution original artwork for
Dragon software titles, this time in poster format (23" x 15.5") at 300 DPI:
http://dragondata.co.uk/Publications/posters-8/POSTERS-8.html

4) YouTube channel Retro4u received a fair number of UK computers that he
goes through, including a Dragon 32:
https://youtu.be/nw_U6KVrcUQ?si=B-OWOL4ZQXdqj8PZ&t=279

5) German YouTube channel MIGs Yesterchips (ran by the Yesterchips Museum)
received a Dragon 32 as a hardware donation, and need a little repair
to get the color working. Rather than doing a video showing he complete
testing, etc. he goes into figuring out was wrong with some photos, making
a shorter video:
https://youtu.be/O46BTTJSN_I?si=GxhPeVTia1uuGeif

6) Henry Gernhardt III put up part 2 of his video series on creating both the
hardware and software for a USB keyboard interface for the Coco (and Dragon):
https://youtu.be/MjQjr-vsv1U?si=x_uDEwFEVlWPaIB3

7) A follow up to last week's episode where a person in the live chat
revealed that he was the author of Hidden BASIC that was sold by Spectrum
Projects in 1983, and he was trying to find a copy. Well, Paul Fiscarelli
found a copy, and it is now on the archive!
https://colorcomputerarchive.com/

8) RetroTechTime put up a YouTube short with some photos of an "extensive
Coco collection" that he saved from getting thrown out (I think there are
other Tandy, non-Coco items included as well):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6bVAYD8Xtjo
He did a same style video showing a few photos of Tandy/TRS80 collection:
https://youtube.com/shorts/nxxXPBciDQ8?si=b5ttuG6UtfWjGhgs

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Lee Perkins put up a video update for his port of the Cloud Kingdoms game
to the Coco 3 - showing level selection and game play of a few different
levels, completing them. Note: At this stage, you can't get damaged,
so it's a bit easier to play than the final version will be (it's also
better for testing):
https://youtu.be/WxmSOFYJwSA?si=Vin-AHgGGQ2UgyTu

2) Pere Serrat has released the 6th & 7th Supersprite FM+ upgraded games
packs, with the new colour palette. The 6th pack includes:
Flype 2.0
Foggy's Quest
Funky Fungus Level 1
Funky Fungus Level 2
Funky Fungus Level 3
Funky Fungus Level 4
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11211
And the 7th has:
Forward to the Past
Bubble Frenzy 1.1
Gherbert Groundhog In Save the Date
The Goblin
Mr. Hair and the Kitty Katakombs
Janky Joe
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11213

3) Emerson Costa posted in the Motorola 6847 group on Facebook about a Mine
Sweeper port (called Campo Minado) written in BASIC for the CCE MC-1000
computer... a Z80 based machine that used the same video chip as the Coco
1/2, Dragon 32/64 and MC-10/Alice. It is done in 256x192x2 PMODE 4:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/173737063356725/posts/1659108941486189/
Github link (note that the info.txt is in Portuguese, since this was
written by Emerson in Brazil):
https://github.com/ensjo/mc1000-software/blob/master/emerson/Campo%20minado/info.txt

4) The NMI channel on YouTube release a YouTube short showing Clowns and
Balloons running on his Coco 3 with a CM-8 (Which unfortunately just shows
black and white graphics with no artifacting
https://youtube.com/shorts/Rm3Q7MIlKc8?si=3yUJJxA1jZq5vgLT

5) Jostive Fiverzer did a longplay game video of Dave Edson's Catch 'Em
from Aardvark Software:
https://youtu.be/WsE5m5o3UYA?si=R_lgkQhcWlYybJiC
He also did one of Computerware's Shark Treasure by Greg Anderson:
https://youtu.be/38CUyQu6el4?si=W6oOPTYTpqo2QHbR

6) Tim and AJ do their first Coco game in awhile that *isn't* Dungeons of
Daggorath - Paul Shoemaker's new release, Lava Hero. AJ loves the game:
https://youtu.be/62kx9ZsdyBo?si=bWcj4xHktY1tWEbA

7) Guillaume Major announced that he has made a Coco port of Kings Quest VI:
Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (which was backported to the AGI engine to run on
older PC's by Brandon Kouri... and that's the same engine that the Coco 3
versions of Sierra games use) available on the Color Computer Archive. He
posted some screenshots on the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162095029932641/
The webpage for the original PC backport:
https://kq6agi.com/

8) The Amigos did their annual Thanks-For-Giving Marathon (8 hours of
game playing on a variety of platforms), and a "Super Cut" version (thanks
Aaron!) sans game loading times and general banter (although the latter *is*
one of the reasons to watch and listen to the Amigos!) cut down to just over
5 hours is now up on their YouTube channel. The Coco is represented early on
with One on One, Dino Wars and Demon Attack (although their Dino Wars seems
corrupt - there is no way normally to kill your opponent with just one bite):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoY7cU3LCCE&t=2320s
(If you want to see the full 8 hour version with banter and loading/switching
systems - check out their Twitch page)

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 389, November 23, 2024

2026-04-05T18:37:29Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 389, November 23, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 389, November 23, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added...) and
they helped port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Thanks to Luciano Scharf has posted some pictures from RetroSC in
Brazil last weekend, since they didn't have the bandwidth at the show to
live broadcast:
https://www.facebook.com/lscharf/posts/pfbid036vhz8FFxPYexCntuVarDRdpWPJQbj9jB322SK4uurMiZ2B1KfDgFTQJLcQcsgG2vl

2) Glen Hewlett has updated his BASIC TO 6809 compiler:
"Version 3.00 is now out:
There's now a Sample_Programs folder with some example BASIC programs
ready to be compiled:
HELLO.BAS
RayTracer_to_BMP_on_SDC.BAS
Interface_BASIC_and_Assembly.BAS
Get_Filesize_of_a_File_on_the_SDC.BAS
SDC_Directory.BAS
This is what's new - Manual has been updated to explain how to use the
new commands
Added SDC file support, you can now read and write files on the SDC
filesystem directly
If a 6309 is present it puts it in native mode (should speed up code
about 15%)
Added compiler option -a which makes your program autostart
Fixed a bug where if a variable name had AND,OR,MOD,XOR,NOT or DIVR in
the name it would create variable names and operators out of it
Fixed a bug with IF command with multiple numeric commands that weren't
evaluating properly"
Github link:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

3) Coco Town's latest video is titled "8 surprising 6809 assembly
optimizations (and 3 unsurprising ones)", which is pretty self-explanatory:
https://youtu.be/Pwd5YxQ-hv8?si=mvsXKQoZQ7L5Gv3A

4) The TRS-80GP emulator received an update to version 2.5.4. Besides adding
brand new emulation of the very rare Tandy 10 from 1978 and numerous other
bug fixes and additions for the black and white TRS-80's, it also includes
updates for the MC-10 (PEEK(2) quick keyboard checking fixed) and the Coco
(Becker port support added):
http://48k.ca/trs80gp-release-notes.html

5) Paul Fiscarelli has released an update to his Windows based Coco 3
Sprite Compiler program, meant for the 16 color graphics modes of the
Coco 3. Not only does it handle compiled sprites (for speed), but it also
supports DZIP compress background graphics, including entire screens.
https://github.com/pfiscarelli/CoCo_Sprite_Compiler

6) D. Bruce Moore has done a blog update on his coco.gracenote.ca site,
showing his electronic book (available from several places) System Hacked. I
think this book has actually been out for awhile (the YouTube promo video
is 5 years old), but the blog post is from this past week:
http://coco.gracenote.ca/system-hacked-teenaged-pirates-at-the-dawn-of-the-internet/
D. Bruce Moore and David Kroeker also have an update on the CocoMP3 card
that they have been working that Bruce will be using in his Forest of Doom
sequel... and it may involve a major change to the hardware:
Bruce's blog post:
http://coco.gracenote.ca/major-design-change-for-cocomp3/
Direct video link:
https://youtu.be/WbQqJNmOEK4?si=EOVdCn2xROhGkwx6

7) Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato on YouTube) posted a video of his
rebuilding his Coco 3 Plus. Bonus : His first ever blooper reel is at the
end of the video:
https://youtu.be/2VsMj72Owe0?si=oHCxZSzdVsWSZ7_E

8) Eddie Malphrus posted a scan of a memo from Radio Shack that was written
by Jerry Heep, about using the Coco as a host to feed diagnostics to a
Videotex terminal:
(Show local file coco-videotex.jpg)

9) There are some new animation related commands coming in ugBASIC,
and it's author posted some videos showing both Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 demo
programs showing the effects. These will just be entering the Beta branch:
(See #ugbasic channel on Discord (in Programming And Development group)

10) Ciaran Anscomb (sixxie in the chat) has released XRoar 1.7.1. Most
of the changes came out in 1.7 earlier this past week, with 1.7.1 merely
reducing memory use when reading gamepad mappings files, and including
some files that were missing from the source code tarball. 1.7 added:
- New -joy-db-file option specifies SDL-compatible gamepad DB file
- New Linux evdev joystick module
- "Large changes" to underlying UI mechanisms
- New features backported to GTK+2 UI.
- Fixed one cause of crashes running Xroar under Windows 11
It should also be mentioned that XRoar online (including it's implementation
on the Color Computer Archive has been updated to the latest versions
as well.
http://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

11) For those who missed last week's Trash Talk Live #41 show, it's available
on YouTube. The Coco was discussed by multiple people, including Jim Brain,
Henry Gernhardt and myself:
https://www.youtube.com/live/fzr5FV3hRTk?si=DpKSBJ0IYfNQTwMH

12) Pere Serrat put up a file in the Coco Facebook group for getting the
MAME emulator running with a SuperSprite FM+ board, for those without the
physical hardware:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161854350592641/

13) For those who want to try out Steve Bjork's assembly language tutorial
series (on YouTube), Steve Strowbridge has also uploaded the original
slides and files to the Coco Facebook group:
Original YouTube series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfh7JjQaSYAs92js43dJ05ytKqswUV4r
ZIP of slides and files:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161834702762641/

14) Sheldon MacDonald is working on a Coco 1/2 raycaster in SG4, written
in assembly language:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161830964107641/
He also released version 0.65 of his Dual IDE (Coco and Sega Genesis)
which includes his current source for the raycaster:
https://www.smdreloaded.com/index.php?topic=9.0

15) Steve Norton has updated documentation for TextMaster, a Coco 1/2/3
program for using the PMODE 4 screen with high res fonts in machine
language. It has 32,36,42,51,64 and 85 columns (24 lines), and features
different sized fonts for the same "text" resolutions, proportional spacing
support, super/subscripts, underline, inverse, upside down, key click,
CTRL-G bell and more. It also links itself into BASIC, allowing PRINT @
to work, key repeat, screen scroll protection, full length error messages,
and more. Control and Escape codes allow one to use all of these features
in their own programs:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161828648322641/

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Dublevay on the World of Dragon forums mentioned a slight correction
is needed to the Dragon Beta motherboards' parts list in order for the
mouse add-on to work (scroll down to message dated November 19):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11044&start=30

2) Polish YouTube channel "Retro Borsuk i Montek!" - a Polish gaming show,
as part of the episode "Komputeriada #4", showed some new computers that
they acquired - which includes a Dragon 32 (which or some reason came with
Coco joysticks rather than Dragon ones), but it isn't working properly
(note: for some reason, YouTube's auto translate quit working before this
part of the video). Also of note: Their show is even longer than ours -
this one ran for almost 9.5 hours!):
https://www.youtube.com/live/3l3wVHEt4DM?si=tnR6b433W_9OxE3M&t=25184

3) Piotr Bugaj (from Poland) let the Dragon Facebook group know that he will
have another small batch of his Dragon disk drive controllers available
soon. These support up to 4 OS ROM's (like the Super Controller by Disto
for the Coco):
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3874372282822412/
Order page:
https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/61190

4) Julian Brown has another batch of his Issue 2 Dragon 32 motherboard
replacment. This features extra enhancements as well - support for 64K,
ability to switch between Dragon and Coco keyboard layouts, the parallel
port can be configured as a serial port to use with DriveWire, 2 button
joystick support, and it can be made to handle PAL or NTSC video:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3875117782747862/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) The Wargaming Scribe reviewed another Coco war game this past week,
for Battle of the Bulge from Ark Royal Games in 1984:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/15978

2) XperTek played Speed Racer this past week on his real Coco 2 with
amber monitor:
https://youtu.be/dLMivP1Vvk4?si=U8vs9brw999ueKe4

3) Jim Gerrie posted his MC-19 port of "Hopscotch" originally for the Matra
Alice in France (originally title "La Jeu de Marelle". This is a one player
game (against the computer) where the player tried to build "hopscotches",
which is an alignment of 3 pieces of the same color (further rules are in
the video description):
https://youtu.be/gkAxErxw-S0?si=Be2dujCh3c4mjiRH
(I should also mention that Jim's ZIP of all of his Coco games/programs,
and another ZIP of all of his MC-10 games/programs, are now uploaded to
the Color Computer Archive)

4) Pere Serrat has released two new AGD game packs this week for the
Supersprite FM+ board (For both Dragons and Coco's), with palettes fixed
to more closely match the Spectrum originals. Pack #4 contains 6 games:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11207
Pack #5 contains 6 games as well:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11210

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 388, November 16, 2024

2026-04-05T18:36:44Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 388, November 16, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 388, November 16, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Today is episode #41 of TRS-80 Trash Talk is being recorded live later today
(8 pm) on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added...) and
they helped port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
First, I want to clarify a few things from last weeks news:
A) The Randy Kindig interview with Steve Leninger and Don French isn't
just about the TRS-80 Model 1 creation, it does go into a little early
Coco history as well.
https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-144-interview-with-don-french-and-steve-leininger

B) The "House of Future" article with pictures of the VDG screens, as some
noted, is not a Coco but a custom set of computers created by Motorola that
used their VDG chip. This house was built in 1979 with those computers
integrated, a year before the Coco 1 came out. MarcO missed the last of
my notes on this story, so I will go through them briefly here:
Information on the "House of the Future" itself (scroll down for additional
photos), including details on the Motorola computer system it used called
"Tuke" (pronounced 'tu-kee') which apparently cost $30,000 at the time
and featured ten interconnected Motorola CPU's that "monitor and control
all aspects of the house", including monitoring windows & doors, adjusting
blinds, temperature controls & logging energy use. It even featured speech
synthesis:
https://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2020/01/awhatukee-house-of-future-1980-1984.html

In the Dragon news section, Marc did show the text interview with Derek
Williams (By Richard Harding) which has some real cool history about the
Dragon, but he missed the second part where there is a brief video clip
from the 1984 Personal Computer World show in Olympia, London, showing
the Dragon with a Touchmaster graphics tablet:
(SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR THIS VIDEO):
http://dragondata.co.uk/history/videos/index.html

I was hoping Nick would have a chance to watch Steve Rasmussen's (alias
Buck Owens) put up an hour long video on Twitch showing him creating new
levels for Nick Marentes H.E.R.O. game, using a Visual BASIC program he
hacked together (PLAY FROM 10:23, can fast forward a little from finishing
the level design, exporting DATA statements, saving them to LEVELS.DAT on
disk and the running VCC with the new level):
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2295654639

1) Jim Brain added a 3rd blog post the day before last weeks show concerning
his exploration of alternate character sets.
https://www.go4retro.com/2024/11/08/expanding-the-mc6847-deciphering-the-interface/
As Jim mentioned on the show last week, Having a way to load character sets
directly from the Coco while it's running would be the ideal goal, allowing
some CocoVGA functionality on the Coco 1/2. I had seen some comments in
the chat sidebar speculating that redefining the character sets to do
256x192-like graphics was basically a waste and that at that point one
should just switch to the 256x192 true graphics mode, but I don't agree;
One has to take into consideration that the text screen (even with the new
font(s)) is still only 512 bytes of data to move around; the equivalent
full graphics screen (PMODE 4) is 6K. So a program could be *much* faster
(especially if you are writing in BASIC vs. Assembly), and with properly
defined characters, one could even get smooth pixel by pixel (or 2 or 4
pixels at a time) movement vs. the more blocky 8 pixel chunks that text
characters currently use. Kicking in higher Semigraphics modes (like the
12 and 24 modes that we can now use from BASIC) would allow designing
some such offset characters to give smoother scrolling both vertically
and horizontally.
And lastly, the ability to trigger and IRQ or FIRQ based on a count of
scanlines (or multiple counts per screen frame) not only allows one to change
the character set & screen mode (and/or color set) for different parts of
the screen, but it could serve double duty for doing sound effects in the
background between the 60/50 times per second that we have with VSYNC and
the 15,000+ times per second we get with HSYNC, allowing background sound
(sampled or generated) to run on a Coco 1/2 without so much CPU overhead.

2) CocoTown on YouTube returns to his Moon Patrol style gaming with a
video about adding scoring:
https://youtu.be/kygaCZgpIUs?si=1rM_2eufMcolMnYT

3) RetroAndGaming on YouTube (who just got his Coco 1 working with S-Video
recently) released a video showing how the speedup POKE's work on Coco's:
https://youtu.be/138scXKZNIE?si=w4ld88xngoo9kchW

4) SjslTech on YouTube picked up a Computer Buyers Guide, which actually
goes into surprising depth about how computers work before listing a bunch
of machines and their specs, including a section on TRS-80's:
https://youtu.be/3jW4VCgKniQ?si=6SiCvbfEaDxanecq&t=480

5) Erico Monteiro has been experimenting with animated characters (Which
he is showing at RetroSC this weekend!) in low res graphics with comic
book style word balloons. He showed a preview on Facebook (the text is in
Portuguese for the show this weekend)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/big-trouble-in-retrosc-tomorrow/10161822164712641/
A slightly earlier post showing some other characters (There are 10 in all)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161810828697641/
And what all 10 look like (not animated):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161799409247641/

6) Daniel Flakelar posted a photo of his PAL Coco 2 upgraded to composite -
and how he used the case design to make it neat and tidy:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/just-did-the-composite-mod-to-the-pal-coco2-nice-convenient-spot-to-put-some-hid/10161796824137641/

7) David Collins announced that he has entered his 63C09 based single
board computer into PCBWay's yearly design contest:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/ive-entered-my-sbc-into-the-yearly-design-contest-at-pcbway-this-weekend-i-hope-/3520556828237674/
PCBWay page entry:
https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/The_HB63C09M_SBC_97a82b55.html

8) ugBASIC continues to get updates and bugfixes. The past two weeks has
included fixes to DATA statements with empty strings, CLEAR now clearing
variables correctly, and fixed blit register allocation & dynamic strings
for 3 CPU's (including 6809), as well as many updates for specific machines:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie updated his Nova Scotia flag program on the MC-10 that we
showed a couple of weeks ago to show 3 flags associated with the maritime
province: Provincial Flag, Acadian Flag, and the Grand Council Flag of
the Miqmaq/L'nu native peoples:
https://youtu.be/et_TqnCkLS8?si=V2W-y_SCJFTtuYUD

2) Jim is also looking for assembly coder volunteers to convert the chess
game Usurpator (originally written for the 6800) to the MC-10 and it's 6803:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8538150252978388/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Richard Harding has uploaded high quality scans of original Dragon Data
software artwork:
http://dragondata.co.uk/Software/artwork/index.html

2) YouTube channel Fix or No Fix did a 3/4 hour followup video about
restoring The Dragon 32 system he got. This round he works on the cassette
deck and joystick adaptor:
https://youtu.be/GqAXhu4FtmI?si=nFXan9MiknbPII66

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie has The Caves of Narzod (originally by Max Bettridge from the
Australian Coco magazine, October 1985) running on a Coco , but only from
tape. He is asking for some help to fix any ML routines for disk. Both Paul
Fiscarelli sent him versions fixed for disk. It's a graphical adventure game:
https://youtu.be/tjgiDv8tJ4E?si=TGOPnziRsl7Nj0D8

2) Stu, of the Tandy (TRS-80) Discord and Stu's Game Reviews) revisited the
Coco this week, this time tackling Cyrus Chess (vs. the original Microchess
he played earlier). This is a title written in the UK and appeared on the
Dragon first, and then Tandy got rights to sell it here in North America
about a year later:
https://www.youtube.com/live/rg1QMxqiRdU?si=JxDBHiMsgiQn_QT4

3) non_maskable_interrupt on YouTube did another Coco 3 gameplay YouTube
Short, this time covering Tandy/Greg Zumwalt's official Tetris:
https://youtube.com/shorts/0xPRun7LPqQ?si=nPbfOFPpZq0QWh9Q

4) As promised last week, Pere Serrat is keeping himself busy making
updated versions of the AGD engine games for Coco's and Dragons with the
SuperSprite FM+ upgrade board. These new versions feature changed colors
sets to more closely match the ZX-Spectrum originals that the Coco/Dragon
versions are ported from.
Pack #2 features 6 more games:
Antiquity Jones, Apulija-13, Baldy ZX, Baby Monkey, Bean Brothers and Bol
Ke Ase:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11205
Pack #3 features an additional 6 games:
Bomb Bomb Buster, Boxes, B-Squared, Cap'n Rescue, Cap'n Rescue - Reprisal,
and Cap'n Rescue - The Escape:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11206

5) Chronologically Gaming covered the Dragon 32 game "Jerusalem Adventure 2"
from Microdeal this past week, which originally came out in November 1982
(it was originally out on the Coco a year earlier):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS6C_D6_SPc&t=28s

6) French YouTube channel "GENERATION MICROS" went through the
November/December 1984 issue of TILT magazine, which covers video games
for both Micros and game consoles. there is a general review of 500 games
in alphabetical order (starts about 25 minutes in) including 6809 machines
like the Thomson MO series, the Vectrex and the Dragon 32. Each of them has a
photo as well, and some Coco / Dragon games are included, like Blochead (#27)
(although the photo is upside down), Bridge Master (#35), Cyrus Chess (#60),
Cosmic Cruiser (#79), Crash (#81), Cu*Bert (#90), Cuthbert Goes Digging
(#92), Cuthbert In the Mines (#93), Dragon Chess (#115), El Bandito (#123),
Fruity (#152), Glaxxons (#159), Junior's Revenge (#211), Kriegspiel (#221),
Leggit (#243), Lunar Rover Patrol (#263), Nerble Force (#298) (they have
Skramble pictured instead), Shenanigans (#387), Skramble (#390) (here is
the swapped Nerble Force picture), Touchstone (#455), 3D Lunattack (#464),
3D Seiddab Attack (#466), 3D Space Wars (#467), Ugh! (#472), Whirlybird Run
(#488). They also do brief specs/reviews of the Thomson series computers,
The Alice and Alice 90 (44:07), and the Dragon 32 (54:43), MC-10 (1:08:21),
TRS-80 Color 2 (although they bizarrely show a photo of a Coco 1 - and an
older model at that!) (1:09:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuSettBKiHE&t=2649s&ab_channel=GENERATIONMICROS

7) After the .... "accident" last episode, AJ finally calmed down enough
to rejoin her sibling Tim Lindner for part 9 of Dungeons of Daggorath for
their Sibling Rivalry show:
https://youtu.be/4NaMxJEej4E?si=Uo7s4CA0glZb94Nl

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 387, November 9, 2024

2026-04-05T18:35:33Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 387, November 9, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 387, November 9, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle and Mark Overholser

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
** NOTE: AS OF OCTOBER 9, THE SATURDAY SHOW IS COMPLETELY BOOKED AND SOLD
OUT. THERE IS STILL SOME SPACE ON SUNDAY. **
** AS MENTIONED IN THE NEWS, THERE IS A NOW ALSO A COLOR ROBOT BATTLE
TOURNAMENT! **
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added...) and
they helped port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) 8bitinthebasement on YouTube released a video that aims to demystify
6809 assembly language (in this case for the Thomson MO5 from France:
https://youtu.be/bZXEDxlbSJI?si=tKRHJG13tV6Vsl7U

2) Coco Town goes down the rabbit hole of fixing a bug in the MAME debugger
GUI, and then seeing if the pull request was accepted or not:
https://youtu.be/SYW-HDDw_xM?si=WnWpDCJzOqfMxzxe

3) Randy Kindig has released the audio version of his Floppy Days interview
with BOTH Steve Leninger and Don French (creators of the TRS-80 Model
I)... a video version should be out in a month or two (unless you are a
Patreon for the Floppy Days podcast... then you watch the video version
now). The Coco gets mentioned a bit as well:
https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-144-interview-with-don-french-and-steve-leininger

4) The "All Things Atari & Then Some" page on Facebook posted a couple
of photos from the "House of the Future" built by the Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation in Arizona in 1979. Why I am mentioning that here? The photos
show it being used in a kitchen for recipies, with a large keyboard, but
the screen shots are unmistakably produced by a Motorola 6847 VDG. Photos:
https://www.facebook.com/allthingsatari/posts/pfbid0XzHhoChraWf6c7TJjeRA8uyJEjhkxnLNYcmT99HBpF2E6AmaUs2aX3ZhTgs6f77Dl
Information on the "House of the Future" itself (scroll down for additional
photos), including details on the Motorola computer system it used called
"Tuke" (pronounced 'tu-kee') which apparently cost $30,000 at the time
and featured ten interconnected Motorola CPU's that "monitor and control
all aspects of the house", including monitoring windows & doors, adjusting
blinds, temperature controls & logging energy use. It even featured speech
synthesis:
https://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2020/01/awhatukee-house-of-future-1980-1984.html

5) David Collins posted an update for his 6309 single board computer,
allowing use for the HD63C09M:
Post in 6x09/6800 Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/so-i-updated-the-hack-a-day-site-for-the-hb63c09m-for-those-that-like-this-forma/3512505102376180/
Hack a Day update:
https://hackaday.io/project/193108-hb63c09m-10x10-hd63c09-based-sbc
He was also the person that got the S.O.S. (Small Operating System) manual
that we talked about recently that was up for sale. He uploaded a scan
of the front cover and a list of the files on the original 2 disk set;
unfortunately the disks themselves are not present. He plans on uploading
the full manual to both the Internet Archive and the Color Computer Archive,
once he has completed scanning it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/users-guide-is-captured-into-individual-tiff-images-two-pages-needed-to-be-redac/10161792224372641/

6) The election will be long over (I hope), but if you were on the Coco
group on Facebook this past Monday, Thomas Cherryhomes, over the span of
2 days, created a program for 8 platforms to show live election results
through Fujinet, including the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/fujinet-users-can-track-the-us-election2024-via-their-atari8bit-colecoadam-trs80/10161781043282641/

7) Scott Cooper (Tazman) put up a new video on the #assembly channel on
the Coco Discord, where he has incorporated Simon's Plasma routine into
the background of this maze solving program - which is his first foray
into assembly language programming
(show video from Nov. 5 from #assembly Coco Discord channel)

8) RetroAndGaming put up a video showing his installing an S-Video (PAL
version) modification to his Coco 1:
https://youtu.be/18LA86uwNx0?si=LDglyFrGUcO1WGTY

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie posted another part of his MC-10 Flag series - this time
the flag for the Canadian province of Nova Scotia:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8478982955561785/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Richard Harding (archivist of Dragon history) posted an article about and
interviewing Derek Williams, who was the technical manager at Dragon Data
from early on right through it's final days. This goes over a lot of the
history of Dragon/Dragon Beta, Dragon production, some on Tano, and why a lot
of Dragon people ended up at Thorn EMI within weeks of Dragon shutting down:
http://dragondata.co.uk/history/People/Derek-Wiliams/index.html
He also put up a short video clip from the 1984 Personal Computer World
show in Olympia, London, which was broadcast during the show Micro Live
on BBC2 October 27, 1984. It shows the Touchmaster Graphics Tablet on the
Dragon (SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR THIS VIDEO):
http://dragondata.co.uk/history/videos/index.html

2) Jim Gerrie announced on the World of Dragon forums that he has updated
his ZIP file of all of the .CAS file versions of his games that he has
ported to the Dragon. This new ZIP includes his Dragon port of Nick Marentes
Stellar Odyssey, which Nick originally wrote in October 1982 for the TRS-80
Model 1/3.
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4760&start=70

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) The Coco Show (with Aaron running solo this episode) reviews Sinistaar
from Sundog Systems, written by Dave Dies:
https://youtu.be/6lerbkc_neo?si=FeqHqHjG6F2UyVM7

2) Erico Patricio Monteiro showed a screenshot (and an animation in the
comments) of some SG4 characters he is doing for a possible game:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/new-pilantras-coming-soonopen-pilantra-v02/10161780995357641/

3) The Wargaming Scribe does a review of CINCPAC - The Battle of Midway from
Ark Royal Games on the Coco. This one required somebody he knows to fix
the archive copy of the game (it would freeze in sports); the new version
has been uploaded to the archive; it should be up soon if it isn't already:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/15827

4) Steve Rasmussen alias Buck Owens put up an hour long video on Twitch
showing him creating new levels for Nick Marentes H.E.R.O. game, using a
Visual BASIC program he hacked together:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2295654639

5) Pere Serrat is now planning on doing re-releases of his AGD game ports
for the SuperSprite FM+ boards (graphics/sound upgrade board for the Dragons
and Coco 1/2's), where he is updating the palettes to more closely match
the original Spectrum versions of the games. He has released the first
pack, which has 6 games. Details, games list, download and screenshots
using the new palettes are available on the World of Dragon forum here:
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11203&
Games are:
Astronaut Labyrinth
Astronaut Labyrinth (with music)
Aeon Part 1
Aeon Part 2
Aeon Part 3
Aeon Part 4

6) XperTek on YouTube did another gameplay video - this time featuring
the Semigrapics-24 color extravaganza Protecters II (labelled Protectors
on the screen, but Tom Mix Software already had a game called that on the
Coco). Of course, he plays it on his real Coco 2 with an amber monitor,
so he doesn't get to see the color (and he doesn't know the gameplay):
https://youtu.be/KAUecTKLjBY?si=-rXxsB4p6IeKMAjr

7) Vitaskhr on YouTube did a YouTube short showing his Coco 2 with Zaxxon -
including the "fun" of getting the volume right to load from tape:
https://youtube.com/shorts/HFK5R5sVtm8?si=VDsKWhUVziVd8NHa

8) Our guest from last week, Pedro Pana aka Rocky Hill on Youtube, did
a followup video about his Coco ATX, playing some games on it show it's
Coco 1/2 compatibility:
https://youtu.be/0cTdysFJ4JA?si=-OTq8z5n7L6UWQuk

9) AJ returns to Dungeons of Daggorath for part 8, having cleared out part 7
in the previous episode. She does very well, and then.... a surprise ending!
https://youtu.be/kQSu3oUsNa8?si=2GwibnHTKc4QPlwn

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 386, November 2, 2024

2026-04-05T18:34:33Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 386, November 2, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 386, November 2, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
** NOTE: AS OF OCTOBER 9, THE SATURDAY SHOW IS COMPLETELY BOOKED AND SOLD
OUT. THERE IS STILL SOME SPACE ON SUNDAY. **
** AS MENTIONED IN THE NEWS, THERE IS A NOW ALSO A COLOR ROBOT BATTLE
TOURNAMENT! **
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added...) and
they helped port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown released a video about how to use BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) in
assembly language on the 6809. This is a convenient way to do digits that
can fit two per byte and can do some simple math without much conversion
needed to make into ASCII to put on a screen. He compares the speed of
BCD vs. the more commonly used method::
https://youtu.be/MspTilYfmX0?si=4b2PcR9EcdL7nJYo

2) Ken of Canadian Retro Things put up a video for getting a couple of
tape recorders working with his Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/NZ7qMBZXsB4?si=xoAJnDJmIsuDSlZ1

3) Eric Canales has released 6dev09 Build 19, and has also now made it
free & open source:
https://www.playpi.net/6dev09-build-19-released-now-free-and-open-source/

4) Pedro Pena (Rocky Hill on YouTube) posted his SepTandy... errr,
OcTandy video about a project that he has been working on for some time:
An ATX style backplane Coco 2/3 that works with a standard ATX case/power
supply. Coco 2 is working now, Coco 3 is a work in progress. Each slot
has a card for a different function of the Coco, and it supports things
like modern wireless keyboards, etc.:
https://youtu.be/f3vT7OViMJw?si=luk4xhIDNoIH1S3t

5) Multiple people mentioned a Jason Scott podcast episode about the
MC-10, where he talks about being pestered by James "Jim" Gerrie to
add online emulation support for the MC-10 on the Internet Archive (via
online MAME), and then goes into how much Jim has uploaded for the MC-10,
and how impressed Jason is with the effort:
https://youtu.be/1BW973pX6BE?si=-kCkCbVp4NYUXDNh

6) Retro Fox on YouTube attended the VCF East Swap Meet last weekend
(like Henry did) and managed to get some Coco items:
https://www.youtube.com/live/i5kKm1LtGKo?si=IIp1SxBfvx11emGP&t=1133
And one more:
https://www.youtube.com/live/i5kKm1LtGKo?si=X2F5SC0NMdozQl3z&t=1898

7) Tazman (Scott Cooper) has been learning a little ML, and has a low res
maze solving program that has a cool animated background now:
(show file "scott cooper (tazmn) assembly maze version 2.MOV" from
my desktop

8) Glen Hewlett posted another update to his BASIC to 6809, to which
has added the faster floating point library that we mentioned last week,
written by Lennart Benschop. He mentions some benchmarks vs. the Microsoft
Extended BASIC floating for comparison:
(show file "glen_hewlett_basic_compiler_update.png" from desktop)

9) RI Computer Museum did a quick video of a Coco 1, including showing
brief gameplay of Downland:
https://youtu.be/L6vzWwKtJsM?si=Xc0tO1VMkY1-SxW9

10) Jim Brain, owner of Retro Innovations and president of the Glenside
Color Computer Club, posted two articles on how the external character ROM's
work with the 6847 VDG chip used by the Coco, Dragon, MC-10/Alice and other
computers work. Part of his research involves the original LowerKit done
by Dennis Bathory Kitz back in the 1980's, and he shows some alternate
character sets:
Part 1: Understanding external character ROM functionality on the 6847:
https://www.go4retro.com/2024/10/29/how-low-can-you-go-2/
Part 2: Expanding the MC6847: Deciphering Fonts:
https://www.go4retro.com/2024/10/31/expanding-the-mc6847-deciphering-fonts/

11) Carlos Camacho on the Coco Facebook group pointed to a cool auction
that has the manual for a rare operating system for the Coco called SOS,
and hoped that somebody in the community managed to get so it could be
scanned and preserved. We got lucky this time - David Collins won the
auction and will be receiving it soon. The community still need to find
the software itself. From the Hot Coco ad (see comments on the post),
it sounds like a real operating system with many calls, 35,40 or 80 track
single or double side drive support, and included patches for running with
Telewriter-64, Elite Word, and the Microworks Editor/assembler package:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161768509597641/

12) Martin Brossman posted a half hour interview with Steve Baker who is
the manager of Expert PC & Radio Shack in Elizabeth City, North Carolina,
and talks a little about his history selling Coco's, and his guest talks
about how the Radio Shack comeback is going, from his point of view:
https://youtu.be/zEfA0_tt6j0?si=EeXQdI9ep0Gviy4W

13) ugBASIC continues to get multiple updates per week. This week included
some Coco fixes for the VDG (graphical position calculation) amongst
other things:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Richard Harding, the historian of the Dragon community, is offering
some original artwork for sale that Dragon Data used for their "Selection
Four" software package. I don't normally list items for sale, but Richard
uploaded multiple pictures of the original artwork so I think it is worth
looking through:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3856198444639796/

2) Tony Jewell is doing a 6847 demo at an upcoming tradeshow, and he uploaded
some sample pictures to the 6847 group on Facebook (these all will work
without a SAM chip, so on things like the MC-19/Alice, VZ200, etc.):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/173737063356725/posts/1641155646614852/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Nick Marentes and Jim Gerrie have been talking about some updates to
Jim's MC-10 (soon Coco) port of Nick's original October 1982 TRS-80 Model
1/3 release "Stellar Odyssey", including some screen layout changes that
Nick suggested. Jim release an update video showing some of those changes:
https://youtu.be/sxMyQe-vcMs?si=9F_YarpMCQ1YHnNd
He also released a quick video of the first Alpha of the Coco version of
Stellar Odyssey:
https://youtu.be/xF2R8Jrcpv0?si=biqsYwDjJHn0gIl7
And he just released a video this morning showing it running under VCC, and
he mentions in the comments that he thinks he has loading/saving working,
so now it is bug testing (something Nick never had to do on the original):
https://youtu.be/1CDM2MWAm3I?si=oH82dtfoM5-r4a-g

2) Tim & AJ return to Dungeons of Daggorath for part 7 (G) on their YouTube
My Drunk Sibling channel. By the end of this episode, an ecstatic AJ manages
to completely clean out level 4, and gets both the Mithril Shield and the
Elven Sword:
https://youtu.be/ebujIXBlARI?si=Sg34g3D6tAh3MnQo

3) The non_maskable_interrupt channel on Youtube release a YouTube short
of playing Donkey King (on a CM-8 so it's in black and white):
https://youtube.com/shorts/4b5LkMbLBxE?si=xnp0-DlkVWNbHswo

4) Thomas Cherryhomes of Fujinet fame has announced (and with a screenshot)
that a new cross-platform game for the Fujinet is getting a Coco version
soon - Fujitzee (a Yahtzee style game). Currently in alpha testing:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161752761667641/

5) For those of you familiar with the programming robots game Color Robot
Battle, John Metcalf is running a tournament at the Retro Computer Festival
in Cambridge, UK November 9-10 (next weekend!) (the same convention/trade
show that we have been plugging in our Convention/Trade show segment). Full
details are available here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161751404172641/
Mini-Manual for this interested in entering:
https://corewar.co.uk/colorrobotbattle.htm
They are accepting entries as plain text or saved on a .CAS file from one
of the emulators. The rules for the tournament are:
1) no pacifist robots, it must fire the laser and/or missiles
2) robots must contain at least one random condition =? or #?
3) please give your robot a name 🤖
4) each robot will battle every other robot over multiple rounds in
a round-robin
5) robots will be published at the end of the tournament
6) entries can be sent by Facebook Messenger, there's no need to attend
the event, deadline 8th Nov (I will acknowledge all entries)

6) Jim Gerrie pointed out on that a YouTube channel called "HiGuyInTheDark"
on YouTube did a video gameplay video of his port of the ZX-81/Spectrum game
"Alien":
https://youtu.be/k_TPfaZuoxw?si=QnoAFwmj3NEZQ2Rq

7) The Wargaming Scribe has put out another Dragon war game full review and
write up, for Kriegspiel. Originally written by Ron Potkin for the TRS-80
Model 1/3 in late 1979, he ported it to the Dragon in 1983. As usual, he
does a very thorough review, including screen shots and even animations
showing game play:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/15767

8) Retrogames-co-uk did another updated of stuff he has gotten 0 and this
week he got a Cuthbert Club badge:
https://youtu.be/kxPaO5Ti2zw?si=jRSmhd_XsOMyMCtk&t=567

9) Steve Rasmussen (alias Buck Owens) put up a an hour long play video of
Nick's H.E.R.O. game run in VCC at 2.68 MHz (so close the speed a GIME-X
and GIME-Z will do). If you don't like spoilers, don't watch it all the
way through - Steve goes on to beat the game:
https://youtu.be/anb5Q_1PWLY?si=lLAE9eXBlSRn32zq

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 385, October 26, 2024

2026-04-05T18:32:17Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 385, October 26, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 385, October 26, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
A follow-up to WORC (World of Retro Computing) with multiple people involved
with show - as organizers, exhibitors, attendees), including Stacey Vetzal
who will be telling us about her Coco exhibits.

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Next week (October 26) -

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
** NOTE: AS OF OCTOBER 9, THE SATURDAY SHOW IS COMPLETELY BOOKED AND SOLD
OUT. THERE IS STILL SOME SPACE ON SUNDAY. **
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added...) and
they helped port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown goes off on another sidebar this week - using Visual Studio
to browse the source for MAME itself... and using the gdb debugger with
it debug MAME itself:
https://youtu.be/sNYUXBpazDg?si=k6Z_4Pa7cn4YXyal

2) The America Before YouTube channel did a 23 minute video on the history
of Radio Shack, which even includes a snippet from a Coco 3 commercial:
https://youtu.be/bidLW5x_yyk?si=gYsxpGlIAyFmDvsa

3) YouTube channel Hey Birt! released a video walkthrough of Tandy
Assembly. He was also one of the vendors and presenters.
https://youtu.be/gucakvZ8Ewo?si=Eei4-h4k9-yPNcS9

4) Userlandia did a 1 hour video recap of VCF-MW, including showing some
Coco's (Phoenix NitrOS9 later at 16:29):
https://youtu.be/X0boCaSemlM?si=n1L0SI5BS4oShynQ&t=776

5) I think I missed this last week - but CMOC version 0.1.89 was released
on October 16. Updates include:
- Function pmode() does change the screen mode anymore; that is done with
screen() (same as Extended BASIC) which allows double buffering to work
properly amongst other things. screen() also works properly remembering
if the Coco supports true lowercase (like the Coco 2B & Coco 3)
- bug fix to the OS9 version of putchar() now uses carriage return instead
of line feed as the line ending sequence
- switch() statement now supports 32 bit values
Full notes, downloads, etc. can be found here:
http://perso.b2b2c.ca/~sarrazip/dev/cmoc.html

6) I now have full access to my websites again (finally!) As a quick test,
I uploaded the Preview version of the new BASIC09 manual - with the bonus
that the the small chapter 10 has been added to the original preview:
http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9_docs.html

7) Henry of The Break Key fame (and regular panelist on the show) released
a video on his YouTube channel called "USB to Coco Keyboard Adapter Part 1:
The Breadboarding" It's an hour plus video of scary hardware stuff:
https://youtu.be/NGNwJkPQRqU?si=7KQ3YRZE2ZsrMcYO

8) Emerson Costa posted in the Motorla 6847 Facebook group some screenshots
of an optical illusion done on a VDG screen, and included the source from
an MC1000 computer. Since this computer has to POKE into VRAM to draw the
shapes and connectors, this would make a good candidate to port to Level
1 OS9/BASIC09. It POKE's to the screen *much* faster than Extended BASIC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/173737063356725/posts/1635822757148141/

9) David Collins posted some exciting news in the Motorola 6809/6309/6800
Assembly Language Programming group on Facebook. He sent the 4.1 Gerber files
to his github (to make the board), and has posted the full programmers manual
for his 63C09 based computer that boots from SD cards. This is considered
a pre-release. His hackster.io article on it (includes photos and links):
https://www.hackster.io/514197/hb63c09m-10x10-63c09-expandable-single-board-computer-34904b

10) Chris Marrin posted a blog about his 6809 emulator written for the
ESP32 S2 Mini (he has it working on ESP8266 and ESP32 boards and Macs):
https://marrin.org/6809-emulator/
He also posted about the 6809 in general, but in addition also about his
C-like language called Clover, which can now use the 6809 as a target:
https://marrin.org/meet-the-motorola-mc6809/

11) Craig Iannello posted a question in the Motorola 6x0x group as well
about getting faster code than his own for doing annotated Huffman decoding
(he wants to decode compressed graphics faster) for his PUGPUTER single
board project. In the comments people were asking about the PUGPUTER,
so he gave a link to his github. Pretty cool sounding - HD63C09P running
at 3.58 MHz, 1 to 4 MB of RAM, a Yamaha V9958 Video Display Processor
(same as the MSX2+), a Yamaha YMF-262m (OPL3) sound chip, UART, 32K ROM,
RTC. It even includes a 6309 enhanced version of Microsoft's Extended BASIC
and some graphics and sound samples written in assembly and the enhanced
BASIC (Scroll down to see some sample screens):
https://github.com/caiannello/Pugputer6309

12) There are some updates in several areas for ugBASIC:
Beta branch changes Coco related:
- SYS fixed under 6809
- Debugging out fixed on Coco and Coco 3
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta
Main branch:
- fixed PRINT at end of screen for Coco 3, Coco, Dragon 32, Dragon 64
- fixed reset YCURSYS on scrolling on 6809 (DP Register)
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Brand new: 1st revision of the User manual is available on the author's
twitch.io page:
https://spotlessmind1975.itch.io/ugbasic-user-manual

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Mike Miller posted some photos and a video of his iKON
Hobbit/Ultradrive/Dragonfly micro cassette system for the Dragon on the
Dragon Facebook group. This setup originally came out in 1983/1984 (version
2.3 in 1984). This micro cassette system was originally owned by one David
Rothery, who wrote articles for both Dragon User and 6809 User magazines,
including OS9 and hard drive articles:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3848498195409821/
He also posted a PDF to the Dragon group on how to make a cable between
the iKON and the Philips Digital Mini Cassette driver board:
https://www.facebook.com/download/549896360978317/Dragon%20Hobbit%20_%20ikon%20connections.pdf
The World of Dragon forums now have some uploads for the Ikon Ultradrive
Dragonfly OS and manuals:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11199

2) Julian Brown posted a photo of the open frame setup version of his
Dragon 32 motherboards that he showed at the Dragon meetup, including his
256K RAM board which he said worked "great throughout the day". The new
revision he is working on now adds a new sound generator:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3845552459037728/
He is also now offering his Dragon 32 reproduction board for sale for £17
+ shipping. This version is more strictly a Dragon 32, although it does
include an additional connector for the keyboard to make it run as a Coco
(as long as you swap the ROM's as well). It also has an option to run as
NTSC in addition to PAL (this requires a bit more technical skill):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3845476892378618/

3) Fix or No Fix on YouTube released a video about a Dragon 32 he got
from a local auction, that is quite yellowed. He tries retrobriting it,
recaps it and then tests to see if it works:
https://youtu.be/oC-TbLCjUi8?si=3-ftbiiCvw8jby3N

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) David Bean posted a screenshot of him winning the text adventure game
The Immortal Strain originally by Michael Edwards for Broomsoft (This game
uses the PMODE 4 screen for the text, so one gets a nice 32x24 screen with
true lowercase and bolded letters). One cool the thing - the original author
(who now goes by Eddie Edwards on Facebook) showed up in the comments to
talk about the game, that he originally wrote when he was 16:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3845844572341850/

2) Jim Gerrie released another video about his conversion of Nick Marentes
Stellar Odyssey - the Final Scene. Not going to spoiler it on the show,
but the link will be in the show notes if you want to see it:
https://youtu.be/5vP6kqiIdJA?si=Ysgx_kFEySXRGG1d
He also released a blog post bout porting it:
https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2024/10/stellar-odyssey-by-nick-marentes-1982.html

3) The Laird's Lair did a comparison of 4 platforms playing Smurf based
games - for the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Atari 8 bit and Tandy Coco 3
(which is 1990 T&D Software game written by Mike Snyder, whom we had as
an interview guest some time ago):
https://youtu.be/ZgWhM1OxSXQ?si=DbL4xFm9t11E6NMR

4) Retrogames-co-uk covered the Retro Videogames Show, and had a section
on the Dragons including a Dragon software catalog from April/May 1985,
and Dragon's Berzerk game (Mark Data's original):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc938gxGaD8&t=445s
He also did another video where he found a Dragon 32 machine language
tutorial package, but he liked the fact that it came in with a paper to
join the Cuthbert club, and then goes through some of the history and
Cuthbert games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBlAMPrUp6Q&t=88s

5) The Non-Maskable Interrupt channel on YouTube did some more Coco 3 game
YouTube shorts this past week:
Leisure Suite Larry:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EXBLuLghAXc
Joust (transcode):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4EHJ1gV3K_w

6) RetroTrailer-2 posted a video of the Demolition Derby:
https://youtu.be/QL5aFu5oQAg?si=ozTK0B1DOSjdvgzA

7) The Wargaming Scribe posted game #152, which does an in depth review of
"Up Periscope", a 1983 game for the Dragon from Beyond Software:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/15712

8) AJ & Tim return to the fourth level of Dungeons of Daggorath for another
2 hour episode of AJ's frustration and rage:
https://youtu.be/sBfMH6vvUyg?si=WuEQ7HxcgYm-JmX7

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 384, October 19, 2024

2026-04-05T18:31:11Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 384, October 19, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 384, October 19, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Next week (October 26) - A follow-up to WORC (World of Retro Computing)
with showrunner Justus, Trina of Trina's Technobabble and Stacey (who
actually had a Coco exhibit, but couldn't make our preview show) are going
to come on to tell us how the show went, and Stacey will finally get to
talk about her booth and the Coco's she was showing.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
** NOTE: AS OF OCTOBER 9, THE SATURDAY SHOW IS COMPLETELY BOOKED AND SOLD
OUT. THERE IS STILL SOME SPACE ON SUNDAY. **
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically now has a partial list of exhibitors:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

The World of Commodore 2024 is November 30-Dec 1 at the Admiral Inn in
Mississauga, Ontario. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it's sponsored by TPUG,
and they created the SuperPET (a special PET with a 6809 CPU added... and
they help port OS-9 Level 1 to it. So it's a sister computer to the Coco
after those improvements.
https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2024/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
0) First, a quick announcement. For those who have been trying to get a
hold of Frank & Retro Rewind the last little while and have not been getting
timely responses or seeing products in stock - I just found yesterday that
he has been on jury duty, and they aren't even allowed their phones most
of the time. He is not sure how much longer the case he is on will last
(although it is apparently a pretty major one); I will keep you posted as
I hear updates.

1) CocoTown released part 2 of "Crashing Car, Crashing Coco". Where he
learns more about crashes. Of all kinds.
https://youtu.be/PuO4klQEldE?si=fbozem9z0HhTBIyv

2) Sheldon MacDonald put up a quick video showing the first SID based tune
on his new Coco SID board (rather than just tones and sound effects):
https://youtu.be/MjuQsSQK4eQ?si=QqigQOeodJVCYQJS

3) Glen Hewlett has released version 2.13 of his BASIC to 6809 compiler,
which now adds a new command specifically for the CocoSDC: SDCPLAY. He
also has a demo video up, which shows it streaming 6 bit sound at 44.75 KHz
(this command is meant to play sound un-interrupted):
Video/audio demo:
https://youtu.be/dvVs_6RkLV0?si=x20h4HOtRMRPhBY6
Github with the latest release including SDCPLAY:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809/tree/main

5) Sean Connor found a 3rd floating point library for the 6809 (in addition
to the one built into Microsoft BASIC, and the IEEE-754 library), written
by Lennart Benschop, and he did some benchmark comparisons taking into
consideration both code size and speed:
https://boston.conman.org/2024/10/13.1

6) TRS-80 Retro Programing did a video update on his Tales of Suburbia -
which now supports saving and loading a game in progress to disk, his first
game to do so, since he never had a disk drive on his real Coco back in
the day:
https://youtu.be/gNcxAiPw22I?si=R7IK0LgcvaciJnJA

7) 8=Bit Relics released a short advertisement for their Coco 2/3 dust
cover, on sale at vitnoshop.com:
https://youtu.be/AV2vqULidh0?si=avVbvmrZ_hpoIlsn

8) RetroAndGaming from Norway returns with a YouTube video showing using
a VCR to get his Coco 1 running on a modern TV - using SCART in Europe. It
kind of works, sometimes:
https://youtu.be/WYZEpqSQ7vs?si=3iCRw4beOaIWDVBF

9) Ctrl-Alt-Rees on YouTube, a UK YouTuber (who has been a guest host on
RMC while Neil was away on Paternity leave) picked up a Japanese machine
(Cefucom-21) that is a dual Z80 based machine, but uses the 6847 video chip
that the Coco, MC-10, Dragon, Acorn Atom and some other machines used. It's
not working at this point, but he shows the 3 main boards that are inside:
https://youtu.be/11sqTJXXSQo?si=L0tUn1bR0fipE5eV

10) Joel Rees (currently living in Japan) did a series of long blog
entries that is the start of an assembly language tutorial for the 6800,
6801, 6809 and 68000 to demonstrate the split stack paradigm/discipline
(using U as an actual second stack vs. as a frame (or data memory in OS9)
pointer. This is a still ongoing series:
https://joels-programming-fun.blogspot.com/2024/03/alpp-assembly-language-programming.html

11) Tony Jewell shared some photos from his planned theme for this years
Retro Computer Festival (Nov 9-10 at the Centre for Computing History in
Cambridge, England), which is 6847 based machines. He shows some screenshots
from the Japanese PC-6001 which used the VDG, but shows a completely
different character set, and the greens aren't the same as we are used to:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/173737063356725/posts/1632687604128323/
(One cool thing linked in the comments is about some machines like the
Samsung SPC-1000 that really pushed the VDG with mixed color sets,etc.),
as shown in an article by Emerson Costa. Basically it uses 2 bytes per
character, with the "attributes" byte controlling the control pins for
internal/external character sets, semigraphics 4/6 changes, text inversion
and the color palette select. Unfortunately the blog front end he is using
doesn't seem to work properly with Google Translate - it just spins gears
and never completes. I could copy/paste chunks of text directly, though):
Portuguese page with graphics examples):
https://ensjo.blogspot.com/2015/07/um-display-rico-com-mc6847.html

MC-10
-----
1) Retro Recycling has started a video (series, I presume) going through
the Color BASIC manual on an emulated MC-10:
https://youtu.be/VGxnFr3JNq4?si=_7aBI_yKUWoMury0
Retro Recycling did another MC-10 video (and apparently now owns a physical
one as well!), this time doing a grass simulator (he did a couple of new
videos actually, although some are more just fooling around with random
numbers):
https://youtu.be/TFt3kuVPrps?si=uA2_ZrT67zXHQKsQ

2) Spriteworx has boxed copies of his new MC-10 game T.H.E.M. in stock again:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8381638028629612/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Richard Atkinson has uploaded a VDK disk image to the Dragon Facebook
gropu for testing colour mix test patterns designed for use on the French
SECAM based Dragons (he posted a screeshot of some of the color blends he
got in the comments, which in some cases look smooth enough to be additional
colors to the standard 4 at a time that the VDG can produce):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3841468396112801/
And screenshots taken from the Dragon Meetup on the SECAM Dragons they
had at the show, showing even more of the colour mixing:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3837338476525793/
And finally, pictures of the insides of Richard Harding's SECAM Dragon:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3837328376526803/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie posted first and alpha, and then a beta, and then finally
a release candidate of his MC-10/Coco port of Nick Marentes first ever
commercial game for the TRS-80 Model 1/3 that he did way back in October
of 1982, Stellar Odyssey:
Beta (this is a long play video with some spoilers - be warned):
https://youtu.be/rGnYhRbw-Z4?si=RVsJS7xQ2tzbnZGh
Release Candidate (where you discover your mission):
https://youtu.be/VO3VYwLQHes?si=T_smsgcmB6LFT_GU
And download link:
https://github.com/jggames/trs80mc10/tree/master/quicktype/Latest_Jim_G_MC-10_Compilation/Text%20Adventures
(Search for "STLODSSY.C10")

2) Tim and AJ cover Robotack on the Coco on their latest episode of Sibling
Rivalry... and played cooperatively! (Same way I did back in the day):
https://youtu.be/DQHq8OtL_a0?si=nnby6htBJv1QJHRI

3) Chronologically Gaming hit the first Coco game for November of 1982 -
3-D Brickaway by Britt Monk (sold a few months later through Avalon Hill
as Breakthrough):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa1-7nmggV4&t=442s
(I will mention for general 6809 fans - he covered the launch of the
Vectrex earlier this past week as well)

4) Brandon Tetrau did a short video showing how he has his Launchbox set
up for his Coco emulators, which includes short video with audio clips
for each game in it's menu selection system:
https://youtu.be/D952m6Dzsus?si=jCrsKHJ5_9R6ei48

5) Jostive fivezer on YouTube continued his playing of Coco games (mixed
with many other platforms) this past week, continuing on with 3 more PacMan
derivatives after playing Nick's PacMan Tribute last week. This week he
posted longplay videos covering:
Scarfman by The Cornsoft Group - the only ML 4K Pacman for the Coco:
https://youtu.be/W4TbNN5alWg?si=6tEg2WoNTPWWKyQS
Ghost Gobbler by Spectral Associates:
https://youtu.be/hZ4CmTiba70?si=Fl3qea2uM908vDQI
Jaws (Pac Jaws) by Michael Freeman (a highly customizable PacMan clone,
with multiple mazes and even intermissions):
https://youtu.be/NG9Gtp-H1UQ?si=LJYgDK48jHw3Kujs

6) Non-Maskable Interrupt also joined in the PacMan fun, doing a YouTube
short of Glen Hewlett's PacMan transcode:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XTaUMji3S6E

7) Dan Norder posted about a "Roguelike Celebration" this weekend (an
online conference), and his contribution to this even is the game Hobbit
by David Sweet from Rainbow magazine, January 1983:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/1064463788502686/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 383, October 12, 2024

2026-04-05T18:30:01Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 383, October 12, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 383, October 12, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Hopefully someone from the Dragon Meetup (or at least photos from said event)

I also have an unboxing (just the main shipping box to show what it is)
for what will be one of two door prizes I will be contributing to 2025's
CocoFest (the other is the Tandy issue of Pixel Addict magazine). Thanks
to Jay Mundy for arranging this!

Interview schedule:
--------------------
A follow-up to WORC (World of Retro Computing) with showrunning Justus,
Trina of Trina's Technobabble and Stacey (who actually had a Coco exhibit,
but couldn't make our preview show) are going to come on to tell us how
the show went, and Stacey will finally get to talk about her booth and
the Coco's she was showing. This should be happening on October 26.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Dragon Meetup one week from now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of
Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Bob Emery let me know that there is a Dallas Fort Worth Retro Computing
Meetup in Dallas on October 19, from noon until 4 pm, at Bingo Bingo,
1806 S Carrier Parkway, Grand Prairie, Texas:
https://www.meetup.com/DFW-Retrocomputing/events/303767722?utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze_canvas&utm_campaign=mmrk_alleng_event_announcement_prod_v7_en&utm_term=promo&utm_content=lp_meetup

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
** NOTE: AS OF OCTOBER 9, THE SATURDAY SHOW IS COMPLETELY BOOKED AND SOLD
OUT. THERE IS STILL SOME SPACE ON SUNDAY. **
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically now has a partial list of exhibitors:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown is back to his Moon Patrol game, titled Crashing the car,
crashing my Coco (Part 1). Sounds exciting!
https://youtu.be/DSswbvCwjoM?si=s5XcJwUQX_l8K6vo

2) George Janssen released part 2 of lesson 14 for programming assembly
language for the Coco 3 - using 512K. He also released the source code
samples on the Coco Discord:
https://youtu.be/W2A9-EtTAoQ?si=86llCdQOCVXcMp4m

3) More updates for ugBASIC:
Main branch dating back to Oct. 6 had multiple updates, including some
6809 code generation optimizations:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch seems to be other machines or some updates for all machines:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

4) The Retrocomputing Roundtable podcast has a recent tradition of going
through each year to name which computers and technologies came out each
year, based on the episode number. For the latest episode 280 they are
covering 1980 - which included the Coco & Pocket Computer from Tandy:
https://www.youtube.com/live/7__iJycFGYo?si=IZtnzedEZufos15X&t=326

5) The Clueless Engineer released a part 1 video about a late model NTSC
US model Coco 2 that he is using in Australia. Here he goes through the
board, and getting the video to work:
https://youtu.be/cv5t9UkH9HU?si=0E6DxIS1fGlEutOv

6) Retro Recycling on YouTube did several long videos on programming a
Coco. I think these are actually being done by a younger person, which is
great to see:
An hour long video called "How to program your Coco with Extended BASIC",
with a simple type in game at the end:
https://youtu.be/MW4xFEIMz7o?si=RflJCz0QTcbCe9SR
Simple games showcase (note his voice is low on this one compared to
games sounds):
https://youtu.be/-k78utPjgRg?si=0naH6c4sjBSx2Cv_
Donkey - ported from the Microsoft Retro game:
https://youtu.be/SLDcppcDeSQ?si=cJs5YuaOxF1Ku1_v
A betting game:
https://youtu.be/jQ0cmHCBPNo?si=QydvIUJrcOM3Gd3e
These are all very simple text based games... I wonder if he knows about
SET/RESET graphics, Extended BASIC higher res graphics and Coco 3 graphics
yet?

7) Sheldon MacDonald released a short video on his YouTube channel showing
what his secret project that he teased us about on Facebook is - a SID
chip hooked up and programmed by the Coco:
https://youtu.be/XqgNsJJO86Y?si=ENMk6u5T6EcmPYrO

8) Glen Hewlett has added fast GET/PUT buffers to his BASIC compiler
in progress:
"Versions 2.12 is out which now adds the graphics commands GET & PUT
They work the same as normal Extended BASIC with an extra option for the
PUT command which is XOR which XORs the bits on screen with the bits of
the GET buffer as:
100 PUT(C,Y)-(C+4,Y+9),Sprite1,XOR

From the updated manual (which still needs lots of work)
GET dimension size calculation:
To calculate the size of the array space for your GET/PUT buffer use the
following formula:
First dimension in the array is calculated with this formula:
If you saw the calculation here earlier please Ignore them and see next
post for proper calculations.
Unfortunately the DIM command can only take numbers as values (can’t use
formulas) as the numbers are used directly to calculate how much space should
be reserved and this is done with the compilers preprocessing/tokenizing
stage.  The reason so much space is needed for sprites is because the
GET command preprocesses the sprite data and saves bit shifted versions in
the array space that are ready to be PUT on the screen as fast as possible.
This means the sprites will be just as fast on a byte boundary as it is
on any other pixel."

MC-10
-----
1) Ron Delvaux uploaded a video showing Simon's latest version of his 4
voice music player for the MC-10, using it's internal 1-bit sound (warning:
Facebook is not letting me change the volume):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8313488882111194/

2) Jim Gerrie reports that he has started working on porting Nick Marentes
1982 TRS-80 Model I game Stellar Odyssey to the MC-10:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8307922082667874/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported the game "Murder One!" (originally Dean Mackie,
Peter J. Lear & Graham Richards from the 1985 book "TRS-80 Colour Computer
Programmer's Handbook/What Else Can You Do with Your TRS-80" from Hayes
Publishing:
https://youtu.be/hG8jP-GNdI8?si=qHt0E4MlIdtv1BAa

2) RichN (the person in the Coco Discord working on a Coco 1/2 Spy Hunter
game posted a video of his current progress, which has come a long way. What
makes it even more interesting is that it sounds like he is working on a
serial port (bit banger) port program so that a second Coco can be hooked
up to the main Spy Hunter playing one, and essentially the use the second
one as a "sound card", where it would play music independently, but be
controlled (as to which song, etc.) based on data being sent over the port:
(show local file "spy_hunter_update (Rich N).mov")

3) non_maskable_interrupt on YouTube released several YouTube Short Coco
video games, running on real hardware and a CM-8 (with a door!):
Predator:
https://youtube.com/shorts/oeeTAiZxmmI?si=ZrecXz3NAWm1tOpF
Silpheed:
https://youtube.com/shorts/K-Co1uI2gMU?si=vNqSlaCAl75_6qAF
MegaBug:
https://youtube.com/shorts/da0tSmA4ijY?si=fN7CWrv11Ge9BWHW

4) Nostalgiavault on YouTube also released multiple Coco game videos this
past week:
Inufuto's Ascend (he tried the Coco 3 and MC-10 versions, which I won't
show here), Mega-Bug (which I won't show)
Paul Fiscarelli's Run Dino Run:
https://youtu.be/dSZcDFg5xC4?si=dFkZdbooYdoUzerS
George Janssen's 2048:
https://youtu.be/fLQyLl2s6EU?si=TptAlsxC7M5cbAYQ
CCW's Color It (educational):
https://youtu.be/BxhQWbdcIQw?si=kqzaX15EoDm3NPky
Christmas scene (not really a game, and artifact colors reversed):
https://youtu.be/I1BvQ_JUlsg?si=zkgzOhWbkfIx1_5u
Christmas song book (using BASIC):
https://youtu.be/GobkZJxKw-U?si=tFR0pYjP8x0jIRnr
Number Race (I think this was a magazine type in educational game?):
https://youtu.be/hXJGG2DhEwI?si=nFEr9K_yWEavmOhe

5) Jostive fivezer on YouTube did a couple of retro Coco gameplay videos
as well (using Ciaran's excellent XRoar Online emulator):
Apples:
https://youtu.be/hQJFL0fqp4o?si=tx_lZ7lAEduCLgee
Vultures (originally from the Dragon)
https://youtu.be/yzM2mHRuXes?si=52gvl0S3MZHHWKeC
PacMan Tribute (he is playing the original 1 screen demo release in this
video) by Nick Marentes:
https://youtu.be/xPT_TAHLftE?si=we-USjrDQ67LqQaF

6) Chronologically Gaming did a special episode this past week - he
had a live guest on, and they linked Dragon emulators together over the
internet to play head to head Wizard War from Salamander Software, that
was released in October of 1982. This is a game I have seen before, but
have never delved into:
https://youtu.be/8FXgzl2oMrs?si=pj8AJSGl_Rz6Q0ci
He also reviewed Williamsburg Adventure #3 also from October 1982 (which
I believe was originally on the Coco, but the Coco version is lost?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-momJXTAZO4&t=41s
I will mention that has just started November 1982, and introduced the
Japanese Fujistu FM-7 - another 6809 based system that included better
graphics, and a sound chip, compared to the Coco.

7) Rick Adams has released a Super Extended BASIC Coco 3 game called
Fox Hunt:
Announcement:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161703228147641/
Download, instructions, source:
https://github.com/yggdrasilradio/foxhunt/tree/master

8) Carlos Camacho posted the generated source listing using AI to convert
from an Apple II graphics program to a Coco 1/2 graphics program:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161702542742641/

9) David Bean showed on the Dragon Facebook group that he "finally managed
to finish a Dragon game". The game is Zorakk the Conqueror:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3830219303904377/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 382, October 5, 2024

2026-04-05T18:29:06Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 382, October 5, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 382, October 5, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Dragon Meetup one week from now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of
Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically now has a partial list of exhibitors:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) If you want to watch last weeks ICC (International Computer Club),
which had both Jason Warnes (who live recapped a Coco 3 in the background
of the show) and me representing the Coco, with a bunch of other guests
from all over the world on a variety of retro topics, you can watch it
here (warning, there was some audio glitches scattered throughout, but
they usually correct themselves in 15-30 seconds):
https://youtu.be/nJ3kYe3AWRw?si=UZzh5l31UaJGsIn-

2) Rick Adams presentation from Tandy Assembly - "CoCo War Stories" -
is available on the Tandy Assembly YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/live/zMl10_sUN6A?si=dxj8LYJ2XgeUagKu
Also from Tandy Assembly was this years Trivia contest, hosted by Aussie Ian
Mavric. Neil Blanchard of the Coco Crew Podcast and make of Coco hardware
(like the wood cased arcade style joysticks, amongst other things) was
one of the contestants, and there were a fair number of Coco related
questions. Fun was had by all:
https://www.youtube.com/live/mU2vQw-uQD0?si=k72kIycHuWdNePD7

3) Anachronistic Things on YouTube posted a SepTandy video showing Fujinet
running on his Coco 2. Unfortunately his Coco 2 died near the end, so a
followup video is planned to fix it:
https://youtu.be/1GBUFgUQnKI?si=dYQ9931lx8OZz8N-

4) George Janssen returns to his Coco 3 assembly language tutorial series
with part 1 of Lesson 14 - how to use 512K in a Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/1jHnbKR51XY?si=xPwhbe83NvegyzR7

5) EJ Jaquay has a prelease version of VCC (version 2.1.9.1-pre2, which
is a pre-release for testing for 2.1.9.2) on his github. It has changes
listed on the github link:
https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/releases/tag/vcc-2.1.9.1-pre2

6) CocoTown released one more SepTandy video, this time covering MAME
and debugging - but using a different debugger than the one that normally
comes with MAME (QT):
https://youtu.be/SGCeq_4uOVU?si=TGxZQ4DP49H8lnwL

7) Sneaking in just under the wire, Wayne Campbell and I have made the
PDF available for the "Sneak Preview" new BASIC09 manual for NitrOS9 Level
II. Aside from containing some error corrections from the original manual
and expanded and improved sample programs, this preview release contains
all of chapters 1-9 and includes the updated and expanded GFX and GFX2
functions as well. We are continuing to work on finished the remaining
chapters and also adding a brand new one for working with the Multi-Vue
environment. You can find it on Facebook (in the Coco group, Coco DFE group,
and NitrOS9 group) and on the #basic09 channel on Discord.
Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161687572772641/

8) Michael Furman also got his SepTandy video out with just over an hour
to spare, featuring MAME4iOS:
https://youtu.be/Mx8gYfw8YwU?si=IamRJxNefeaG5JiX

9) 8 Bit Doodads on YouTube put up a video on YouTube called "Having an
Ewaste Friend Has Benefits!", which shows a bunch of retro computer gear
he has gotten through electronic recycling (Ewaste). Included is a Coco
1 he picked up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rmdhEJTj6I&t=1795s

10) Tom Cherryhomes speech on "the state of the union" on Fujinet from
VCF-MW is now up, including updates on the Coco port:
https://youtu.be/gBZmMhR-f6w?si=7zFF486KAEkLKqei

11) Brazilian YouTube channel Veim dos Game uploaded a video about fixing
a Prologica CP-400 Color (Brazilian Coco clone). Progress is made, but
there is still intermittent issues:
https://youtu.be/-Xb57XQYWDM?si=cq8rfcU7jOCwUqtj

12) 8-Bit Retro Journal did a SepTandy video on fixing a broken Coco 2. He
is reaching out for some help on this one, so I hope some of the hardware
types in the audience can leave some comments on his video:
https://youtu.be/_nuFL7OYb5g?si=JvKBJTeQK-BLZGJZ

13) John Kowalski (Sock Master) posted a link in the Coco Discord to a
video about the space probe "The Europa Clipper: A Voyage to the Waters
Above", on the YouTube channel ParallaxNick. While quite a few of us are
interested in space exploration, why is this a Coco related video? Because
in the middle of the video they use some "stock footage" showing a women's
hands typing a chiclet keyboard. Specifically, a Coco 1 chiclet keyboard. I
was not aware that a Coco 1 *had* stock footage...:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=981s_PEFB_g&t=1899s&ab_channel=ParallaxNick

14) Ciaran (Sixxie) posted on the World of Dragon forums that the online
version of XRoar has some new enhancements (this is from his own site,
I don't know if the Color Computer Archive is linked to this new version
yet). The View tab has new TV controls, including a Hue function to allow
on to get graphics as close to what they remember of their own setup back
in the day. The File tab lets one create and save DMK formatted disks.
Announcement:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11197
Direct link to the updated version online:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/online/

15) Dave Wiens (who helped design the most advanced no-halt disk controller
for the Coco back in the late 1980's, amongst other things) posted an update
his own ST-2900 computer project, using a highly modified OS-9/6809 kernel,
and provided details about it in the OS9/NitrOS9 group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/posts/3748403632089220/

16) Ian Mavric posted pictures of Steve Leininger signing his 64K Coco
from Tandy Assembly. Steve was the creator the Model I, and helped a bit
with the creation of the Coco as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161693014492641/

17) Marco Spedaletti has announced that ugBASIC version 1.16.4 has been
officially released for a multitude of platforms. This is the cross platform
BASIC cross-compiler he has written, which supports the Coco 1/2/3 amongst
many others:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161689018462641/
Info specifically Coco related:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/target/coco?target=coco123

18) Terry Trapp did a video about trying to convert Coco 3 RGB to VGA
(Part 1) on his YouTube channel, Terry's Workbench (Sorry, the volume is
really low on this video):
https://youtu.be/_FW_ryytBQw?si=7lbRkigqHdlF1Qmf

19) Glen Hewlett released a new version of his BASIC compiler:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

MC-10
-----
1) Jamie's Hack Shack did another #SepTandy video where he finally got a
chance to install and try out his MCX-128 upgrade for the MC-10 (predecessor
to the SD32). This adds Extended BASIC, 128K of RAM, EmCee (DriveWire like)
functionality, etc.:
https://youtu.be/fRLVYzIm6cA?si=x2--k9aSNJcnihv9

2) Jim Gerrie ported "Database" originally by Hayes Publishing in 1985
from the book TRS-80 Colour Computer Programmer's Handbook/What Else Can
You Do With Your TRS-80 - to the MC-10. It is rather odd in that it gives
you instructions while running to modify the program itself:
https://youtu.be/1Jsglxt5qvU?si=7X0oL1D4ZCulA-rj

3) Jay Mundy (Spriteworx on YouTube, and author of the brand new
T.H.E.M. game for the MC-19) did a video on adding HDMI output to the
MC-10 based on the board from Aaron Newcomb of Retro Hack Shack:
https://youtu.be/YbKqfhJnOls?si=W-y6YJ23F_HGrVy1

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) dublevay on the World of Dragon archive forums mentioned that - thanks
to Phil-Harvey-Smith - Dragon Beta add-on board schematics, PCB's and
PAL/SRC files are available on the D
Announcement:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11196
Direct link to what is available as add-ons:
https://github.com/dragonplus-electronics/Dragon-Beta-Addons

2) Julian Brown posted a detailed update on his Rev 3 motherboard replacement
for a Dragon 32 on the Dragon Facebook group. The base board is working now,
and he is testing the 256K RAM banker next:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3824460884480219/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Alien Attack" to the MC-10 from the the 1984 book
"Space Adventures". It was originally written by Peter Lear and adapted
in the book by Scott McCann:
https://youtu.be/aUYP-IfHRrQ?si=vyzxjOFYT5gBV-6t
He also ported "Snail's Trails" from the 1984 book "Fantastic Games",
originally written by Peter Lear:
https://youtu.be/rJRDLqSVrDM?si=b24oxp7x0Y1HhvLW
And The Getaway originally by Howard Evans in 1984, from the book Fantastic
Games:
https://youtu.be/_zJeS9BOmvY?si=SrVAaSkXA3Gg6YSM

2) Retro Gaming Nook on YouTube did another Coco 3 based SepTandy gaming
video, this time covering the 2 cartridge games Rad Warrior and GFL
Championship Football II:
https://youtu.be/oi221nTfeaI?si=ZGJuRVrXpFfO062u

3) Chronologically Gaming covered the Dragon version of Viking (originally
by Prickly-Pear Software on the Coco):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4KAFNR1CkE&t=572s

4) Iain Lee on YouTube did a "chilled retro stream" with some Dragon 32,
C64 and Micro Live computers. Of course, he doesn't endear me when spends
20 seconds repeatedly saying the Dragon 32 is "terrible computer" and then
picks a BASIC game to play (Alcatraz II):
https://youtu.be/bzPwFC4Nwhs?si=7Ew5RrUTNJ-it5ns

5) Nick Marentes has released H.E.R.O. 1.1. This fixes a few bugs, and
also adds native mode support for all Coco's equipped with a 6309 processor:
https://nickmarentes.com/ProjectArchive/hero.html

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 381, September 28, 2024

2026-04-05T18:26:29Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 381, September 28, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 381, September 28, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Paul Fiscarelli live from Tandy Assembly

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Today is the Amigos live ICC (International Computer Club) stream (Twitch
and YouTube, which starts at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all
retro computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel
and YouTube channels). I will be on to talk about the 2 new game releases
last week, and the CocoTech episode on semi-graphics in Extended BASIC,
but nearer the end of their show.
Previous club videos can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaD3XRYu1lQTWrMYYPmaOa4AIj4xArroD

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
The largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style
show), covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for
individual days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically now has a partial list of exhibitors:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town did another SepTandy video - this time delving back into his
earliest attempts at writing arcade games on his Coco way back in his teens:
https://youtu.be/xuwPTfglupg?si=lkDz8dM_c8DPV_2m

2) Numerous updates to ugBASIC the past two weeks as well:
Beta branch:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta
Main Branch:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main

3) Bob Emery released an 18 minute video called DIY FOG generator on
his YouTube channel La Coco Strangiato for SepTandy - which shows how to
install and configure his Color FOG Coco 3 utility:
https://youtu.be/UyeyPsDH4Fc?si=gGujycYq70tBp9Wn

4) The Amigos have release a video compiling all of the on the floor
interviews they did with some of the guests from this past June's
BoatFest, including Ken (Canadian Retro Things), Henry (The Break Key)
and myself. Catch us and other from an international group on their
YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/-P6DwG0Bwd0?si=mEJWBnVtOy6Tq7vR

5) Wi-Fi Sheep Tech Channel on YouTube released his first ever #SepTandy
video - with him running a Coco-Pi and NitrOS9 (gotta plug that!):
https://youtu.be/ff_45ua5KhE?si=e9ahHpieRP-PMEYE

6) Tandy Assembly had their Tech Talks streamed live on their YouTube
channel yesterday. One that is Coco related was John Strong talking about
Interfacing with the Color Computer:
General live stream channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@tandyassembly3099
John's Talk:
https://www.youtube.com/live/PuLk8Qqh2tE?si=SaYqJd5c0TN2wazN

7) Davidk4715 on YouTube put up a short demo of his X-Pad graphics tablet
on the Coco:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qAfNGQ494Uw

8) Spanish YouTube channel RetroComputo did a review of the CocoSDC for
their SepTandy video this past week, including SDC Explorer:
https://youtu.be/KBQSJfrj3bQ?si=4wASIMcNReFRl6ei

9) Brian Jones put up a video showing Apple Vision Pro Gaming (this is the
Apple super-expensive VR glasses use) - trying out Downland streaming via
Stream Deck:
https://youtu.be/p97MODBFqgE?si=Rz5khaz_fv0npmGV

10) Spanish YouTube channel ArJoreg1987Retro posted an almost half hour about
The World of Retro Computing Show that took place in Kitchener a couple of
weeks ago. We plan on having the same guests we had on ahead of the show
to review it, and hopefully Stacey can make it this time to talk about
her Coco exhibit (which is shown in this video, before it is up and running):
https://youtu.be/VfTqytyJtwM?si=xScJirUcT5LBkSUK

11) A bit "off to the side" for the Coco is a video from YouTube channel
Retro4u, who found a 68008 upgrade board for the BBC Micro that is supposed
to run OS-9 (OSK version). The reason I am mentioning this video is that
the Coco itself had 68008 board upgrades in the mid-1980's, and initially
Chris Burke's unreleased Rocket CPU upgrade board was also going to use it
(he ended up deciding on a 68340, I believe... but it never received enough
orders and was never manufactured). This video shows him fixing physical
issues with the upgrade board, and burning the OS9 boot ROM from Cumana
(which I think did other OS9/OSK ports back in the 1980's).
https://youtu.be/QnZIm0DagGg?si=AnSvbqPkZzzh_AeW

12) Henry Gernhardt of The Break Key fame on YouTube returns to his FORTH
language ROM project - this episode he actually gets Forth running from
an actual ROM. And a single 16K ROM I believe:
https://youtu.be/IqITZ43wGDI?si=aT78u6WuUGF8p4Ur

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Piano Animation", originally by George Dunbar in
the February 1985 issue of Computing Now magazine:
https://youtu.be/OsTYugOpTYY?si=PD30dlF_18cBEIKP
He then modified it to add more colors compared with the original:
https://youtu.be/tnkyt0iXNbs?si=PjnuvXFoG9EArON9

Dragon 32/64
------------
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Rich N. posted another update to the Spy Hunter Coco 1/2 game he is
working on - it's coming along very nicely. He posted a video of it on
the Coco Discord:
(use local file 'spy_hunter_update (Rich N).mov')

2) Jim Gerrie ported "Warlords" by Canadian company Speakeasy Software in
1978 (originally in Integer BASIC for the Apple II) to the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/S0FTZNLyqkQ?si=gOxGkkHm2B72fuA9
He also ported Microtriva from the same company:
https://youtu.be/nwQ1BCgmC-U?si=dwekugMkEwwetilh

3) Fabrizio Caruso has released a new game with his cross platform (over 200
different machines) program language (Cross-Lib) that is based on the Chrome
browser game TREX (as is an earlier Coco version called Run, Dino, Run):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161677024287641/

4) The Mastertronic website has now added a review of the Dragon version
of Horace Goes Skiing:
https://mastertronic.co.uk/game-review-horace-goes-skiing-dragon-32-melbourne-house/

5) Chronologically Gaming is back after fixing his PC, and covered both
Star Trek:PSS on the Dragon 32, and Starfire on the Coco on his first
episode back:
Star Trek:PSS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K2N4Qoplpc&t=36s
Starfire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K2N4Qoplpc&t=1311s
As an aside, but not Coco related - he also covered Nick Marentes earliest
commercial hybrid BASIC/ML game for the TRS-80 Model 1, Stellar Odyssey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ3mlizHX2g&t=1047s

6) Retro Gaming Nook put up a SepTandy video showing "3 Surprising
Coco Games You Need to Try Now". These are the various Ghost Rush games
(including the latest Goop Rush) and Video Poker (both by Paul Shoemaker)
and the Donkey Kong transcode by John Kowalski (Sock Master):
https://youtu.be/zoezF9z9yBY?si=V-CEZwjWiWB1s311

7) Tim and AJ return with Sibling Rivalry's pursuit of winning Dungeons of
Daggorath... part 5. In this episode AJ vanquishes the wizards image and
makes it to level 4 - where there is a whole slew of brand new monsters
to deal with:
https://youtu.be/nT4Dep2MD1w?si=Gr4IsQYvaB5YSmPD

8) Jay Mundy has announced in the MC-10 group on Facebook that his MC-10
arcade game T.H.E.M. is now available from his itch.io page, requiring
the MCX-32SD:
Announcement:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/260663051145211/posts/1651300265414809/
Itch.io page:
https://spriteworx.itch.io/them-total-human-eradication-mandate
YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/c4diW4AF41A?si=KWNG8gwlKomADK-A

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 380, September 21, 2024

2026-04-05T18:23:19Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 380, September 21, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 380, September 21, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Paul Shoemaker - For the launch of his new Coco 1/2, Coco 3 64K game Lava
Hero. NOTE: Ciaran has made a Dragon 64 port as well (see Dragon news below):
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/lava-hero
Nick Marentes - For the launch of his new BASIC game (using the
Semigraphics-12 BASIC tricks we talked about on CocoTech episode 6),
H.E.R.O.:
https://nickmarentes.com/ProjectArchive/hero.html

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Manitoba Retro Computer and Gaming Club is having their final meetup for
the year today at the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dave
Kroeker is planning on being there (and may pop on the show to show us what
is happening), and D. Bruce Moore might be there as well. While I couldn't
make to this meeting (too busy with work for a 16 hour roundtrip drive),
they have already set their next one for January 4, 2025 - and the current
plan is that both Bill Nobel and I will be going to that one!
https://www.facebook.com/events/490916033527109

Tandy Assembly for 2024 is Sep 27-29, 2024. An update from Pete on August 9
- they have now sold out of tables for the show! And another announcement -
Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/
(Show the vendor list image from my desktop, which was updated this last
week): "tandy assembly vendors.jpg"

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels).
Previous club videos can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaD3XRYu1lQTWrMYYPmaOa4AIj4xArroD

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Jason "Cocoman" has posted his VCF-MW video on his Fairly Amused
YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/oeka9yCODl4?si=X3sUNMzh8e7L-p4h

2) CocoTown did another SepTandy video that has nothing to do with ongoing
Moon Patrol clone project; this time showing off a financial accounting
package he wrote in middle school for himself. And then some other programs
he wrote in his childhood (long before he started the Moon Patrol game):
https://youtu.be/gv6TGXkplT8?si=LTRU__qZtSJBPfVO

3) Tim Halloran posted parts 5 & 6 of his video series on restoring
and getting his Coco 2 ready to take to Tandy Assembly, which is next
weekend. This is a unit that will be going into the no minimum bid auction
to fund raise for next years show. The Coco 2 is cleaned up, has the power
supply changed to run off of a USB cable, includes the little RF style
adaptor to run on a modern TV, and even includes Dungeons of Daggorath in
it's original packaging with the manual. He also tests it with the TP-10
thermal printer, but that won't be included in the auction:
Part 5 (the USB power supply):
https://youtu.be/CNzk02t6Vxs?si=kXLOkAshzoV8I7_3
Part 6 (final testing):
https://youtu.be/g6hP7op2Htw?si=v4d-xvlVZPC8-zVQ

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing released a video showing importing/exporting
variables using a disk/tape template, using his upcoming Tales of Suburbia
game:
https://youtu.be/EADAp4Gthqs?si=ljYb9ZMIyIZcAzUd

5) Ken of Canadian Retro Things released his video of what Coco goodies
he picked up in a box full of stuff at VCF-MW:
https://youtu.be/HGzmXWiXsI8?si=qjTbPGVHCjAyUgiy

6) Ciaran Anscomb has released XRoar 1.6.4, which fixes a couple of bugs:
Control+Shift+digit shortcuts, and LUT based composite rendering wasn't
working properly if a Coco 3 was selected. You can get it from his XRoar
site:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

7) Tandy Assembly had a couple of announcements for their show next weekend
posted on the Coco Facebook group this past week:
Rick Adams will be a presenter again this year, with his topic being Coco
War Stories:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161651794932641/
Neil Blanchard plays the role of a model in showing off the wearable merch
that one can get at Tandy Assembly:
https://www.facebook.com/tandyassembly/posts/pfbid0XNSezmCBBLBm3LjviPa6ttKZfcHWUH9DKaR1T97Rm4n2MfBmcG2W3WXVRxnuMhdql

8) Erico Monteiro posted a mockup of a PC/WEB vector program to change
vector graphic files to DRAW statements on the Facebook Coco group. Not
sure if he has made it a working project yet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161654268847641/

9) Elliot D. Inosaur (cute fake name) posted a photo on the Coco Facebook
group of a $59 AUS RF to HDMI converter, and shows a picture of MegaBug
generated with it. It should be mentioned that it is from a PAL Coco,
so the colors are not the same:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161645792357641/

10) Jim McClellan touched up his Coco 1 with flat grey rattle can paint -
and it looks pretty good, as shown by his photo in the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161639371482641/

11) Sheldon MacDonald posted a photo of a Coco hardware project that he
is working on onto the Coco Facebook group, but hasn't revealed what it
is yet. His only clue so far: "It's meant to compliment the CocoSDC and
get rid of the need of a multi-pack interface". Knowing his past work,
I am guessing either a sound or joystick cartridge that has a pass-through
for the CocosDC? What are your guesses?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161636375917641/

12) Jason Walters posted on the Coco DFE Facebook group pohotos of his
Coco 3 Athena 1.2 motherboard he received from Rocky Hill (Pedro Pana),
which he has now gotten up and running, and he included multiple photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/1043106977305034/

13) Eddie Malphrus posted in Coco DFE group on Facebook about his long search
to find the original Project Green Thumb hardware (250 were originally
manufactured, of which 200 went to farmers in Kentucky. After months of
searching.. he found a real one (not a mockup). This is the precursor to
both the VideoTex terminal that came out in the spring of 1980 and the
Coco 1 that came out a few months later, but is the forerunner of the
Coco and of Tandy and Motorola working together. Awesome history here,
with photos. Side note: He mentions that the host server machine was an
HP-3000 mini computer - I am familiar with this machine, as we had one at
my work after the PDP-11/34:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/1041886017427130/

14) 8bitsinthebasement (aka Peter) release a SepTandy video, celebrating his
Coco 2 making hardware and software to make it simulate an Etch' n' Sketch:
https://youtu.be/AgGDgrtg6Tc?si=RbWAUm-PEdFQiJXb

15) YouTube channel RetroAndGaming put up a video about his trying to get a
CASDuino, TZXDuino or MAXDuino to work for loading cassette based games on
both his MSX and Coco 1. As he mentions in the description, things didn't
turn out as planned...at least on the MSX:
https://youtu.be/2uQ_HT3kg-g?si=eG85V5rosjH3lEDs

16) Mike Hawkey released a short video of his SepTandy project on the Coco
with a TP-10 thermal printer - printing out a maze to the printer from
a maze generator program on the Coco (based on a program from Creative
Computing magazine:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161655557237641/

17) Luciano Scharf posted (including some advertising brochures) about
the Brazilian Coco clone VC-50 by Varixx. This actually took the Coco 2
beyond Tandy's including models with integrated dual floppy drives, full
keyboards with numeric keypads, one model had a built in small monitor:
https://www.facebook.com/lscharf/posts/pfbid02HtpoMp1uZi2vJ66y94hAp7AoSYxgNozeEtBcGxgN1idnby8YBXXbqmpu4ZswGBtol

18) Sonic Creeper Games, a Brazilian YouTube channel by a teenager,
released part 1 of his history/evolution of game controllers... and the
first one covered is the CP-400 ones, which is the most common Brazilian
clone. Thanks to Jose Neto for pointing this video out on Facebook:
https://youtu.be/1Yv4_yVf_xU?si=3WAKA0Dk1zWUL71v

19) As a SepTandy project, Wayne Campbell and I have been working on the
NitrOS9/EOU version of the BASIC09 manual. Now, there is no way we will
get the whole thing done by the end of September, but we are going to have
a Pre-release hopefuly done by then that will cover chapters 1 through
9. This will correct some mistakes that were in the original (even 3rd
edition) manual, and also cover all the changes and additions to the GFX
and GFX2 graphics libraries, including sample programs for things like
making program for Multi-Vue with pull down menus, etc.

MC-10
-----
1) Jamie's Hack Shack posted a video of his upgrading his MC-10 with the
composite video mod rom Ed Snider/Zippsterzone:
https://youtu.be/W5J2541Huh4?si=z9R9OnBt49p3uODA

2) Spanish YouTube channel El Viejoven FX put up a video (in Spanish) about
the Alice computers from France, including their history alongside the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/2KrD3RT5I58?si=OboHAxVjE0ocvL2a

3) Spriteworx (Jim Mundy) who is making the upcoming T.H.E.M. game,
released a video this morning of his development setup for making MC-10
games. He has a neat software trick to keep track of where routines start
when you RENUM a program (will work on a Coco as well):
https://youtu.be/YcUABR1f-yo?si=8HHiRbWyjbD7IW4P

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Ciaran has posted downloads for both Goop Rush and the brand new Lava
Hero game, both by Paul Shoemaker, for the Dragon 64. (He notes it may
not work properly on some Dragon 32's upgraded to 64K
Goop Rush download:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11195
Lava Hero download:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11194

2) Julian Brown is continuing work on his Dragon 32 Static RAM memory board,
now on version 4 with more refined SRAM chip access signals:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3812318755694432/
He also had an update on his Multi-Pak Interface project - his current
version no longer prevents the Dragon it is hooked up to from starting. It
is sporadically booting a cartridge now, so he is getting closer:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3808968392696135/

3) Simon Plumbe posted a link to his updated Mastertronic checklist of
their Dragon 32 software (including the Vegas Jackpot game that the site
already reviewed that we covered a week ago). This includes releases from
Melbourne House (whihch Mastertronics bought) and Virgin games (which
Mastertronics merged with later):
https://mastertronic.co.uk/dragon-32-mastertronic-checklist/

4) Leslie Anderson posted a photo of a Dragon 64 homebrew computer designed
by Dan Werner. It's a bit expensive, but it does have a redesigned keyboard
that has the modern arrow key replacement layout (some details in the
post text):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3467939723499385/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie has released an updated version of his port of Akalabeth
(originally by Richard Garriott fr the Apple II in 1979) to the MC-10. This
new version has been broken into two programs using the CHAIN command in
MCX BASIC (by Darren Atkinson), allowing the program to use 28K RAM from
the MCX-32SD (and thus not requiring the older MCX-128 upgrade):
https://youtu.be/BYSJSAZmNtE?si=gPrnc3piu6odM7Ey
Internet Archive download & description:
https://archive.org/details/AKALABET

2) Tim & AJ are back on Dungeons of Daggorath for part 4. Will AJ finally
crack level 3?
https://youtu.be/3yURTruWjyk?si=YY6lyVekU8ho9o6A

3) YouTube channel Jostive fivezer release a couple of long play videos
of games on the Coco this past week. Of note is that he is playing them
directly from the Color Computer Archive, using Ciaran's online XRoar:
Monster Maze (a recent Game On Challenge) from Tandy:
https://youtu.be/yJAjZNPaUqI?si=_1MxrWZqE3-hX94E
Birds from Tom Mix:
https://youtu.be/4Rn1JsKXn0Y?si=heKxhMQuu4K9LLuu

4) XperTek did another Coco 2 / amber monitor game, this time playing the
Classic Spectral Associates game, Lunar-Rover Patrol (which actually looks
pretty darned good on an amber monitor, I must say!):
https://youtu.be/xnKusXOxl0I?si=rTvWSm--tsSpu3XJ

5) Go grab the two game launches this week from Paul Shoemaker and Nick
Marentes!

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 379, September 14, 2024

2026-04-05T18:22:27Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 379, September 14, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 379, September 14, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels).
Previous club videos can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaD3XRYu1lQTWrMYYPmaOa4AIj4xArroD

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) lowlevel on the Coco Discord made his SepTandy project a DIY RF modulator
replacement style composite board for the Coco 2 (Coco 2's with flay laying
RF modulators), and shared it on pcbway:
https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/CompyCoco2_d1da9863.html

2) The GrumpyOZRetro podcast (an Australian vintage computing/retro gaming
podcoast) published the 2nd part (of 2) of their interview with Ian Mavric
(maker of many Coco and TRS-80 hardware in Australia, as well as one of
the main drivers behind Tandy Assembly). LANGUAGE WARNING:
Part 1 from June 27 (main topic is the 2024 Canberra Vintage Computer Expo):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TEQErQlcyjxdA015rgdi7
Part 2 from September 1 (main topic is the remainder of the interview
with Ian):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3e3j5TXxSYmmIQjlUuXpSk

3) CocoTown does his second SepTandy video - going further into using the
language LUA along with MAME it's debugging facilities. This round he goes
through building a performance meter for MAME:
https://youtu.be/xBgKwqdwxDo?si=SAnGbssuX46D5Lxn

4) Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato on Youtube) released a half hour video
presentation of his Color FOG GUI for Coco 3 BASIC that he originally wrote
20 years ago (for HDB-DOS and RGB-DOS compatible hard drive systems) but
recently updated to handle the CocoSDC (including with real floppy drives):
https://youtu.be/fBr0dKrB7cU?si=aVi1hatZL93XKYMB

5) Ken of Canadian Retro Things let me know about a brand new YouTuber
called "Basement Bodge" who just released his first video... and it's about
hooking up a Coco 1 to a TV that doesn't have the old RF plug. I would
tell you more, but I was traumatized watching the show open title sequence:
https://youtu.be/2RUOBW45m1k?si=JIz1p1agp2jYfSC3

6) And Ken himself released his summary of VCF-MW 2024:
https://youtu.be/TAD6KAFF6Xs?si=UAuhJxjIV15gE3pg

7) Retro-Spective on YouTube did a YouTube short of his cleaning up (and
fixing the spacebar) on a Tandy Coco 2 he aquired. He says in the video
that he could not find much on the web for working on a Coco 2 (not sure
why, there are lots). He cleaned it up quite nicely, but thinks it isn't
working. I am not sure if he knows about RF vs. composite.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/paAJQ-Nl5jQ

8) 73 outdoors w/Bob KK4DIV on YouTube posted a #SepTandy video to YouTube
about a Coco 2 that he found at his local ham radio clubhouse. The machine
looks like it started having some upgrades done to it, but were never
finished:
https://youtu.be/9e9npYgNKSk?si=4Kd-bsFecONbHFhs

9) Retro Gaming Nook also released a #SepTandy video - this one showing
both a Triad+ 512k Memory upgrade from Cloud9 and the KeyFix3 upgrade from
Rick of Computer Conect being installed in his Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/LkZ25P1k-nE?si=YOn7j6QKecfUp0qM

10) The Vintage Geek channel on YouTube put up a quick video to celebrate
SepTandy, including some of their Coco classroom set up that Ken and I
got to try out when we were there last year:
https://youtu.be/7hKlN0Ig7tY?si=-Pvg7lraB0a3oZgw

11) 8-Bit Retro Journal put up a video previewing what he will be covering
during SepTandy this - including a Coco 2 video he mentions at about 3:40:
https://youtu.be/fqJV8hTYa0E?si=Am66ZHmIG8IpXJC5

MC-10
-----
1) Spriteworx (who is the man behind the T.H.E.M. that was unboxed last
week and also built the MC-10 joystick interface that comes with it - a
left/right only stick with a fire button) to discuss making the joystick
interface based on a magazine article originally by Greg Taylor. I believe
this is the same one as used by Jim Gerrie on his joystick style games on
the MC-10. It runs out of the Serial bit-banger port, and he adds a switch
to the adaptor to switch which axis is active (he also has a sneak preview
of the game T.H.E.M. at the end:
https://youtu.be/QuTTqs77y5E?si=22pWMU76Qj9Zhyq7
He then followed up this morning with an almost hour long video with PiKey-10
(USB keyboard) from Brendan Donahe, composite video mod and MCX-32SD (from
Ed Snider/Zippsterzone) upgrades and installation. And an official sneak
peak of T.H.E.M.
https://youtu.be/GOFHna8vDXw?si=ioM8kemFabkBLaa5

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown posted a photo in the Dragon group on Facebook... as he
stated, he is almost ready to test; he just needs a second power supply. As
shown in the photo, this is his main Rev 3 board (which adds 256K RAM
support and makes the video out circuit swappable between PAL and NTSC in
a Dragon 32 replacement motherboard; and his 4 slot MPI:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3805039889755652/
Update this morning: After a scare that he had a dead part (turns out he
misread the data sheet), he now has power:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3805946996331608/

2) David Mitchell posted on his blog some video of a graphics demo typed in
from Dragon User magazine, January 1985, and shows both PMODE 3 (4 color)
and PMODE 4 (2 color) versions:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2024/09/stitchet-type-in-from-dragon-user.html

3) Retro For All (a Spanish Youtube channel) put up a video showing some
of their Dragon 32 themes for Hypermax and Retro Para Todos (emulator
front ends, I think). They mention in the description a link to get the
themes, although it mentions that a password is shown in the video to
enable the download:
https://youtu.be/UfrWTo3MVkA?si=I-5i6nYWuc-xTihd

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Chronologically Gaming covered more Coco and Dragon games this past
week, including:
Poseidon Adventure (it is good that the Dragon version of this still exists;
the original Coco version by JARB Software is one that we don't have in
the Color Computer Archive):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXEjutH-F4&t=50s
Rail Runner (this one ran with really poor keyboard controls for Jeff; I
don't remember it being that bad. I *think* that the game uses the BASIC
ROM POLCAT routine, and I know if Color BASIC 1.2 it was changed and was
less responsive, so I am thinking that is what happened to his gameplay?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXEjutH-F4&t=619s
The Dragon game Space Monopoly (which was Color Space Trader a year and
a half before on the Coco):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIUTsY2sE0&t=303s

2) Lee Perkins posted a new update to his Cloud Kingdoms game port from
the PC - it now supports item pick ups, bumper collisions, and being
pushed. Not all collisions with objects are working, and some aren't
reacting quite at the proper time, but good progress:
https://youtu.be/Uiq_V9E1z1M?si=V60M2qb-Qxb5CTHF

3) For our Spanish speaking/reading people in the audience, the spanish
versions of 2 games (School Maze and The Final Countdown) are now available
for the Dragon in the World of Dragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11193

4) A new cross platform game written with the ugBASIC compiler is out,
called Hangword. It has Coco 1/2, Coco 3 and Dragon versions available
(amongst many others). You can download it for free (or pick your own
price) from spotlessmind1975's itch.io page (he is the author of ugBASIC)
(I have the Coco 1/2 version on my desktop):
https://spotlessmind1975.itch.io/hangword

5) Simon Plumbe posted on the Dragon Facebook group that Mastertronic
has their first Dragon game review for a game made by Mastertronic -
Vegas Jackpot from August 14, 1984:
https://mastertronic.co.uk/game-review-vegas-jackpot-mastertronic-dragon-32/

6) Darren Ottery is looking for some lost games for the MC-10 that were
advertised in Australian Mico magazine (similar to what I have been doing
on the Coco). He posted a photo of an ad for multiple game from Martin
Wells Software - 6 that run in 4K, and 3 that required 20K - in the MC-10
group on Facebook. Has anybody seen this games, or better yet still has
copies of them?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8053683488091736/

7) And along the same line - Jim Gerrie is looking for another missing
MC-19 game: Adventure in Bipland, a graphical adventure game, originally
sold by The Dataman in Hamilton, Ontario, and he quotes the ad in the
MC-10 group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8052251591568259/

8) Attempts: A Gaming channel (by LRU), where he goes for "official" high
scores, added a variety of games on a variety of platforms as he usually
does. One was Dragon Data's Breakout. This is your standard paddle/ball
breakout game, but with a twist - the bricks are slowly scrolling down
the screen towards the player. And hitting a red brick doubles the speed
of the ball, I believe:
https://youtu.be/e6PQX9nEpCI?si=OD33r6SEYYl_YBwt

9) And Tim and AJ have released the 3rd ~2 hour episode of AJ playing
Dungeons of Daggorath, the worlds most disguised speed typing tutor. Will
she get past level 3 on this episode?
https://youtu.be/u8chz3hT1OI?si=xhK_JuhByDFbOwLm

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 378, September 7, 2024

2026-04-05T18:21:25Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 378, September 7, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 378, September 7, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener, Ontario,
Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old Goudies
Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this covers all
kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are planning on
going, and Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook group is planning on having
a booth. We are hoping to have 4 guests on next week to talk about the show:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels).
Previous club videos can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaD3XRYu1lQTWrMYYPmaOa4AIj4xArroD

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Retro SC, the retro show in Brazil, is having their 2024 event on November
16. This always has a strong Coco/CP-400/etc. contingent, including multiple
people who have been guests on our show.It is happening at 1670 Haroldo
Soares Glavan road, Cacupé, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina.
https://retrosc.org/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Jamie Lee Cho has announced a new utility written in Python that helps
translate the Coco's Microsoft BASIC's to OS-9's BASIC09, including most
graphics statements. This should make converting them a lot easier. It's not
perfect (and Jamie lists some limitations in the readme) but should save a
lot of time translating. This is part of his ever expanding coco-tools suite:
https://github.com/jamieleecho/coco-tools
Readme:
https://github.com/jamieleecho/coco-tools/blob/main/README.decb-to-b09.md

2) EJ Jacquay (maintainer and programmer for the current VCC emulator)
mentioned in the #general-emulators channel that he has made a boot.rom
for both VCC and MAME, that allows the boot track for NitrOS9 to be in a
virtual ROM, which allows booting straight to the hard drive image with
no floppy image attached. I am not sure if this has been released to the
public yet (as of this past Monday)

3) CocoTown, as part of his SepTandy contributions, put up a video showing
how to automate the MAME Coco debugger and how to use the LUA scripting
capabilities that MAME itself can use:
https://youtu.be/ySY8EN0sE6I?si=cJXF41LIDDoS1hlF

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a quick 10 minute video of his experience
in getting ChatGPI to generate Coco Extended BASIC code:
https://youtu.be/kot0aiTGUmk?si=9Glchca8UstmXuZv

5) Ciaran has announced that XRoar version 1.6 has been released. This
contains some bug fixes for 6309 emulation, Coco 3 emulation, more dialog
boxes under Windows, more keyboard/joystick profiles, physical joysticks
end up in menus, and support for both the Dragon Professional and the
Tandy Deluxe Color Computer (both of which feature preliminary AY-3-891x
sound chip support):
Announcement:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11191
Download:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

6) More updates to ugBASIC (micro game BASIC), including some Coco or 6809
specific ones:
Main branch:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

7) Erico Monteiro uploaded a DSK image to the Facebook Coco group that
has a test pattern for the extra artifact colors, and some test images
that he converted to the Coco (after running the loader, hit spacebar to
see the other pictures):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161597760297641/

8) Gregory Roscow showed a Coco 2 he found on ebay that was rebranded as
a "Game & Education Machine" from Automated Functions Inc. Besides the
rebranding, it also has an internal speaker with an added volume knob on
the back:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161594900322641/

9) The Tandy Assembly Facebook page featured another Coco related spotlight
for the upcoming show - Elizabeth Hayes showing her artistic skills on
her repainted Coco 2. This is the focus of her exhibit this year titled
"Pretty In Pink":
https://www.facebook.com/tandyassembly/posts/pfbid0YcBioDG6KjW9jvLDiMDr12udLoHhigTdrpbSGGLV4yr8eZ9TF2B6w61HtKUJ348Tl

10) As promised, David Mitchell has the first version of his SepTandy
project available on his GitHub (a PLAY statement editor for making sound
effects in Extended BASIC), and includes some screenshots:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2024/09/septtandy-2024-introducing-echo-co.html

MC-10
-----
1) Bruce Maret posted photos of the upgrades he did to his MC-10 this past
week - composite video output and the PiKey-10 keyboard/joystick adaptor:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/8011354878991264/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown just received his next Dragon reinvented motherboard -
aside from the CPU, almost everything on it is using more modern chips and
surface mounted, and it is an ATX style board. It includes up to 4 MB of
RAM, a hardware serial port, 512K ROM, dual 3 channel sound generators,
and the possibility of running a slightly overclocked 63C09E CPU at 3.56 MHz:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3798197950439846/
He also showed his Multipak clone that he is working on:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3798025403790434/

2) John Whitworth (of DragonPlus Electronics) showed a small MSX 2 Sound
Mixer board - from the sound mixing circuitry on the SuperSprite FM+
board - squashed onto a 27x28 mm PCB:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3794902197436088/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie updates for the week:
- Mad Monkeys is a new game that Jim himself is writing for the MC-10
(ie not a port). This is the 3rd installment, where the player can now
continue on after clearing a screen:
https://youtu.be/FucJ9qSqTfg?si=m_142o6orw80SEgp
- Bakudan Otoko originally by Shinichi Nakamoto & Shigeki Fujiwara in
1980. This is the predecessor to Bomber Man, and was made by Hudson Soft
as a tech demo for their BASIC compiler, and Jim attempted to recreate
that original demo:
https://youtu.be/3kaE8CE5-QQ?si=oS0gR6iO3VH7ezvs

2) Chronologically Gaming continues to cover game releases from October
1982. The Coco / Dragon ones that they covered this past week are:
Lemans (Spectral Associates):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JohQ9Zosu-k&t=38s
Madness and the Minotaur on the Dragon 32 (with completely different
artwork than the original Coco version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJ90LyxpXI&t=33s
Mansion Adventure 1 for the Dragon 32:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJ90LyxpXI&t=754s

3) Tim and AJ return with another 2&1/2 hours of playing Dungeons of
Daggorath - one of the marque Coco games of all time - good enough that
it spawned a PC port. How far does AJ get by the end of this episode?
https://youtu.be/-M-k8ocCjs4?si=EDzF5AorP0-n8cnv

4) As part of SepTandy, YaggieBoat on YouTube put up a just about 2 minute
video of computer vs computer gameplay of Tandy's Castle Guard on a Coco 2:
https://youtu.be/Awy7TwHPZWE?si=maApPd7H42cdB4Cn

5) TJ Ferreira put up a video showing the unboxing of a brand new MC-10
game - with full color packaging and everything, and a Atari joystick
adaptor that plugs into the serial I/O port (it only allows one axis - X
or Y - at once along with a joystick button). It is called T.H.E.M. (from
Spriteworx), and requires the MCX-32SD (the game comes on an SD Card) &
the serial joystick interface. TJ will be doing a gameplay video later. I
don't think this is on sale yet; I didn't see it on the itch.io page.
https://youtu.be/aztiCjKobO8?si=eEZy_WtfDh1Wg-Wk

6) The Collector's Quest podcast latest episode #179 "So You Want to Collect
Halloween Games #4" and covers all kinds of games (not just computer)
has a rather familiar one from the Coco and Dragon that they talk about:
https://youtu.be/If1mVAiKQ7U?si=m6U1OKbZN_IKr3k-&t=2715

7) Retronaut on YouTube goes through the first issue of UK magazine Computer
& Video Games from November 1981. Included in the news section in this
issue is an article on Dino Wars for the TRS-80 Color Computer Computer:
https://youtu.be/_ajqE1bYA-I?si=KoCUkliIZnHL80y6&t=1580

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 377, August 31, 2024

2026-04-05T18:20:35Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 377, August 31, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 377, August 31, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
We have a whole panel to talk about WORC (World of Retro Computing)
show that is happening in Kitchener, Ontario on Sep. 14-15:
Justus (who is in charge of WORC (World of Retro Computing)), Frank of
Retrorewind.ca (who is a sponsor), Trina (of Trina's Technobabble (and
other shows) on YouTube) who first attended last year and is going again
this year, and Stacey Vetzal, a former Commodore employee and long time
Coco user who will be showing off some stuff on her Coco at the show.
Video clip from last year's show (and you may remember that Frank took us
on a little live tour as well) (1:19) briefly shows a Coco 3 playing Glen
Hewlett's PacMan transcode):
https://youtu.be/tzimLoh97I8?si=0NymsOHf7yaavkjE

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
https://vcfmw.org/

The same weekend as VCF-Midwest is VCF Europa. This is the VCF for Europe,
held at the Multi-purpose hall of ESV Munich East in Munich, Germany
(and one should know that the talks will be in German) September 7-8,
2024. There are 1 and 2 passes for both individuals and families.
http://vcfe.org/E/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener, Ontario,
Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old Goudies
Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this covers all
kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are planning on
going, and Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook group is planning on having
a booth. We are hoping to have 4 guests on next week to talk about the show:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels)

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Lots of Coco specific updates/bug fixes for ugBASIC, both on the main
branch and beta:
Main:
Fixed memory exhausting re-using static strings (6809)
Fixed wrong IRQ usage in BELL command (coco / coco3)
Fixed add with 32 bit constants under 6809
Fixed disruptive optimization rule under 6809
Beta:
Fixed DUP instruction
Fixed memory exhausting re-using static strings (6809)
Fixed wrong IRQ usage in BELL command (coco / coco3)
Fixed add with 32 bit constants under 6809
Fixed MID function under 6809
Fixed disruptive optimization rule under 6809
Fixed note selection on PLAY
Fixed default duration and octave for PLAY command
Fixed error messages
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog

2) George Janssen has released Lesson 13 of his Coco 3 assembly language
tutorials, this one about Structures and macros (and it actually applies
to all 3 Coco's). He has already put the DSK image of the source into his
channel on the Coco Discord:
https://youtu.be/KClvWSJD5Yc?si=UpY7ZLj33SeC3i5c

3) Bob Emery released a video on building the Artemis keyboard version
2. This is condensed version of the livestream he did during The Coco
Nation Show two weeks ago, and with extra explanations and information
that was not present on the original live stream:
https://youtu.be/G2QLdrBMWnM?si=FcMLZvWCcR38jMXJ

4) Coco Town released Game Revolutions cycle 20 for his Moon Patrol style
game - this time adding hit detection and animated explosions. Bugs and
hilarity ensue:
https://youtu.be/qcT5xE-r1iw?si=cxwZ-FT2n5JmeTat

5) Glen Hewlett has a new version 2.00 release on his Github for
BASIC-to-6809 compiler, as well as an expanded readme file that shows all
the changes done on recent versions. The 2.00 version handles a lot more
variables, an improved token parser, internal changes to make adding new
BASIC commands much easier, greatly improved horizontal line drawing speed
(which also speeds up box and filled box options):
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809/tree/main

6) epooch on the Coco Discord (sorry, have no idea who that is) has
announced Retro Challenge for October 2024 (I believe that this is an annual
event?). The challenge is to do at least one of: 1) Do something new with
your retrocomputer, 2) learn something new involving your retrocomptuer,
3) Just play with it over the month. Further details on their website,
including two themes for this particular one:
https://www.retrochallenge.org/

7) Jim Mullis is using a new technique in his Super Powers game, and has
freed up some graphics memory. He is taking a poll this next week on what
people would like to see that freed up RAM used for (in the #super-powers
channel on the Coco Discord), so please go and vote. The 4 options are:
a) Add another super-villain to fight on each level
b) Make each level longer
c) Add more attacks/moves/animations for each character
d) Make some big animations going on in the background

8) Pedro (Rocky Hill on YouTube) put up a video of him building his own
Artemis keyboard for the Coco:
https://youtu.be/HwkgT6ArVU4?si=gMpvBsVr-75Sj7ew

9) For those that want to see all 64 colors at once for the Coco 3, Marc
Maltais uploaded a DSK image to the Coco Facebook group that lets you see
them. I *think* this is the one that Rick Adams and Dale Lear wrote way
back in 1986?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161583618167641/

10) Thomas Cherryhomes is currently working on a network Shell for the,
and released a video about it (He has CD and DIR working). Unfortunately,
as he writes about in the comments, he had to stop due to file based access
with HDB-DOS and CMOC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161577460957641/
Github for the project:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-apps/tree/master/nsh/coco

11) David Collins posted a video demoing the staging environment and upgrades
to the Dunfield mono09, on David's 63C09 single board computer that we
have been covering. He also talks about his upcoming display at VCF-MW:
https://youtu.be/3bMhbnmMmfc?si=gF-jdM8wnIZ35Ruz

12) Mark Overholser let me know that Dave's Garage posted a video about
the former Living Computer Museum in Seattle (the one that Paul Allen,
co-founder of Microsoft, had created and his family is now selling everything
off after his passing. Seemingly against his wishes). Mark pointed to a
particular bit that showed a Coco 3 playing Dungeons of Daggorath in one
of the "period" rooms:
https://youtu.be/OohnXELGQ74?t=212

13) And, in the general computer history category, Henry Strickland pointed
out that the Internet Archive has recently digitized 53 episodes of the
radio show "The Famous Computer Cafe" (a radio show 1983-1986 that was
on multiple radio stations in central and southern California). The ones
that have been found and digitized are from November 17, 1984 to July 12,
1985, and includes many big names from the computer industry and tech
enthusiasts. Many more episodes are still missing, and there is now hope
that they can be found:
https://blog.archive.org/2024/08/19/archiving-the-famous-computer-cafe/
Two interesting interview are:
A) Jon Shirley while he was the president of Microsoft... this was after
he was recruited from Radio Shack where he had been at for 25 years,
including as Vice President of Computer Merchandising):
https://archive.org/details/the-famous-computer-cafe-1984-12-12_John_Shirley_Microsoft
B) Douglas Adams (author of the Hitchikers Guide book series, amongst
others) and Steve Meretzky of Infocom on making the Hitchhikers Guide to the
Galaxy text adventure, which came out on many systems, including the Coco):
https://archive.org/details/the-famous-computer-cafe-1984-12-21_Douglas_Adams_and_Steve_Meretzky
(Henry also mentions that those of us who can afford to, to please donate
the Internet Archive. They archive software, magazines, etc. including Coco &
Dragon stuff, and have had some legal hurdles to go through in recent years).

14) Randy Kindig interviewed Steve Leininger (Line-ing-er) who designed the
original TRS-80 and did work on the Coco as well, although that is just
lightly touched on in this interview) for his Floppy Days podcast. Steve
will also be the keynote speaker at Tandy Assembly this year:
https://youtu.be/RtUCaUlJkkU?si=3H4Hgyuh_-hzcNQp

15) Ciaran Anscomb has put up a snapshot of XRoar for testing a new keyboard
layer that should allow non-US/non-UK keyboards to match keys across foreign
keyboards, and would like that tested (particularly under OS's other than
Linux). There is some feedback already in the worldofdragon.org forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11189

16) Davy Mitchell put up a blog post about his SepTandy project for this
year - he is going to work on a sound effects utility for BASIC that will
help "you compose those PLAY statements - usually at Tempo 255 to create
those bleeps and burbles for my BASIC programs. This will run on both
Tandy and Dragons":
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2024/08/septtandy-project-announcement-2024.html

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Robert Lister posted some photos of "Big box" programs for the Dragon
from back in the day (both front and back). Better than 95% of what we
got for the Coco in North America:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3792153651044276/

2) John Whitworth posted a photo of his DragonPlus board - with the 6845 80
column card installed, which allows screen output from both it and the VDG:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3786619258264382/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Brent and Aaron return on The Coco Show episode 54 with their review
(and reviews from others) of Demolition Derby by John Gabbard of Spectral
Associates, and sold by Tandy:
https://youtu.be/TnIy8M-J0uM?si=If4EySGOfpVGvUdQ

2) Jim Gerrie has ported one of Greg Zumwalt's earliest Coco games (Lunar
Lander, written in February of 1981 and sold by American Small Business
Computers) to the MC-10 with MCX-BASIC (either the MCX-128 or the MC32-SD):
https://youtu.be/97kjSOvddHc?si=GHoX4yvU-RQ7xix0
He then updated his port of "Cavernes dans le poquette", originally by
Charles Feydy in 1982 in TRACE magazine for the TRS-80 Pocket Computer
1. Originally written in French, it is not only translated but now also
includes an "alternate exponent function" to overcome a limitation in
the MC-10's BASIC exponent. The PC-1 had 8 decimal points of accuracy
(the MC-10 apparently has 7) which was used for room directions for each
room. This is a long play video (12.5 minutes), and it should be pointed
out that the PC-1 I think had a 26 character x 1 line screen, which is
partly why the descriptions are rather short:
https://youtu.be/M8UySLhMr80?si=LZP1NzSPa-9j-hUK
Jim ported some others as well that he just has screenshots for in the
MC-10 group on Facebook:
Death Ship from Aardvark, to which he added an SG4 graphics title screen,
and The Tofu game we mentioned earlier (pics in the comments as well). The
comments also has links to the programs:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7966767973449955/

3) Paul Shoemaker showed a brief animated clip of his new Coco game in
progress:
(show local "Lava_Hero preview (Paul Shoemaker).gif")

4) Chronologically Gaming covered some more Coco and Dragon games from
October 1982 this week:
Enchanted Forest - an early graphical adventure game for the Coco:
https://youtu.be/kCg_OowKcms?si=AG1KgaA0161MUP_F&t=1438
Dunkey Munkey (with the wrong colorset):
https://youtu.be/_AY7CB7zwcY?si=5tkN2s1SExHnRxoV&t=1389
Flipper (Coco):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0IfviiVJE&t=44s
Flipper (Dragon):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0IfviiVJE&t=278s
On yesterday's show, a brief mention of Jigsaw for the Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLIJju6_x_E&t=431s

5) Erico Monteiro finally got to play is COCON fighter game on a CP-400
with one of it's original joysticks:
https://youtu.be/jVgid3dPXc0?si=FmCiQNBUQM8LHeJc

6) Sibling Rivalry, with Tim and AJ, released a monster gameplay video
yesterday - almost 2 hours of Dungeons of Daggorath goodness! And this is
just part 1! (This of course means that they are doing it *right*!)
https://youtu.be/ibmIO-sJOzQ?si=Xxwnhjz2G7rXWbV4

7) Davy Mitchell has another Dragon 32 game type in (from Dragon Magazine
January 1984, originally by C. Garrington), which is a Lunar Lander style
game except that it takes place on Mars. David also did some updates to
the original, adding a fuel gain, fancier crashing effect, adding a title
screen and fixing some bugs:
https://youtu.be/H2dRRfGkjzI?si=2dk-kpxfHQtIMOEd

8) Nostalgiavault on YouTube did a playthrough of the MC-10 version of
the new Inufuto game, Osotos:
https://youtu.be/o8Hui2-pRMo?si=jpr6tHN8IriwdwVr

9) Radiant Mythology on YouTube put up a super quick review of Galagon on
the Dragon. It shows the original cassette first, and then has a simple
text screen with his review of the game (no screenshots or gameplay):
https://youtu.be/oT2WMew-U08?si=PpR9orsBrmJmzf4f

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 376, August 24, 2024

2026-04-05T18:19:38Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 376, August 24, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 376, August 24, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Some sad news: Nancy Hawks, wife of Chris Hawks of Hawksoft and a regular
attendee of Rainbowfest's & CocoFest's in Chicago since the 1980's,
passed away this past week. There are two services planned:
Memorial Service on Sunday, August 25 at 2 pm
Trinity Presbyterian Church
145 Hannings Lane
Martin, TN

Much later will be a second service:
First Presbyterian Church
240 Standish Street
Elgin, IL

Chris is a software and hardware developer for the Coco since it's early
years, as well as a past vice-president of the Glenside Color Computer
Club. He did The Wizards's Tomb game for Skyline Software way back
in 1982/1983, and then other Coco software and hardware including the
Coco 3 game Domination, customizable dos MYDOS, Icon BASIC09, Keyboard
extenders for Coco 2 and 3, Dual hi-res joystick adaptor (both Tandy
Hi-res and Coco Max III compatible), and more.

None

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
https://vcfmw.org/

The same weekend as VCF-Midwest is VCF Europa. This is the VCF for Europe,
held at the Multi-purpose hall of ESV Munich East in Munich, Germany
(and one should know that the talks will be in German) September 7-8,
2024. There are 1 and 2 passes for both individuals and families.
http://vcfe.org/E/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener, Ontario,
Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old Goudies
Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this covers all
kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are planning on
going, and Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook group is planning on having
a booth. We are hoping to have 4 guests on next week to talk about the show:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels)

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East has had a date change for next years show due to a scheduling
conflict. It is now April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info
Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) VCC 2.1.9.0 has now been released. One big change as of this version
is that it has switched to being hosted in Visual Studio 2022 rather than
an older version; this means the main branch version will no longer run
under Windows XP (although currently EJ is maintaining a legacy branch as
well). Other updates affect the debugger, the user guide, the configuration
menu is now dropdown menu items (vs the old tabbed dialog), and adding a swap
joysticks configuration item (a great feature that XRoar has had for awhile):
https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/releases/tag/vcc-2.1.9.0-release

2) CocoTown has released episode 19 of his Moon Patrol clone development
series on YouTube - now he is adding rocks to the lunar landscape. This
episode even contains a Twisted Sister song cover:
https://youtu.be/ryHjvfcppJ8?si=LH_GlKLZugWaK4gQ

3) Wayne Campbell has been recording live coding sessions for his BASIC09
Sokoban1, where he is working on adding all of the other variant levels:
https://youtu.be/VuLWMYmEHy4?si=qMnVMTSkBNSSvWRh
https://youtu.be/kcTTn_DaabM?si=k3tBkAr5ZHuC_56z
And he reports a bug when launching a really big RUNB program from
Shellplus - it doesn't seem to work without typing RUNB first (Which I
will be looking into when I get time):
https://youtu.be/V0hDAIUINT4?si=Anry55f-v0PLOK2B

4) Tandy Assembly did a little spotlight on Neil Blanchard on their Facebook
page, highlighting his Gamester joysticks and his Atari joystick adaptor:
https://www.facebook.com/tandyassembly/posts/pfbid0EuAb56DgpjbFWbnb5wiQVjvTcaRWcSAGvfdKmqfo7su1DHKbnaNaE2wk4DSy6D5Fl

5) Glen Hewlett posted an update on his BASIC compiler - he is fixing
some bugs with multi-dimensional arrays, and he is also going to have 2
versions of RND - his original 8 bit version, and a newly added 16 bit
version (as we have mentioned before, most everything will be BYTE or
INTEGER to greatly speed up BASIC, when floating point is not needed.

6) Henry of The Break Key fame (and famous panelist on our show) released
his next Forth on ROM project, now working on string handling:
https://youtu.be/kd_EnxNetqg?si=ixAuO3F4RpThDeTl

7) David Collins posted an update to the Facebook 68xx/63xx Assembly
language group on Facebook to his 6309 single board computer. He is slowly
eliminating bugs on it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3445568779069813/
And a general update from earlier in the week:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3443140882645936/

8) Glenside is now accepting nominations for the next election for Secretary,
Treasurer, Vice-President and President. Details on Glenside's site:
https://www.glensideccc.com/glenside-leadership-nominations/

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Richard Harding has made scans of the Dragon 64 Supplement manual
(and the Finnish Dragon 64 Supplement manual) available. These manuals
show what is different on the Dragon 64 BASIC vs. the Dragon 32:
http://dragondata.co.uk/Publications/BASIC-MAN/DD_D64_Supplement.pdf
Finnish:
http://dragondata.co.uk/Publications/BASIC-MAN/FINLUX_D64_LIITE_Supplement.pdf

2) Julian Brown has some new boards in to work on - a "simple block adapter
that to use 4164's in a mark 2 Dragon 32 without butchering the main board
or the chips themselves":
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3785183471741294/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie release an MC-10 version of "Chase" that originally appeared in
the Creative Computing book "More BASIC Computer Games" by David Ahl. Side
note: this was on of two games that inspired the programmers of the arcade
game Robotron:2084 (the other being Berzerk):
https://youtu.be/-PaGqCWvoVI?si=6LvLbIpm5Q-k0tQL
He also converted over "Orbit" from Creative Computing's book BASIC Computer
Games, originally by Jeff Lederer in 1978:
https://youtu.be/LiLrQEtVGuA?si=_CM0ejd1vascKZ6O
He also back ported the C64 version of the 1982 Aardvark text adventure
Derelict to the MC-10 and the Coco. There was an official Coco version
released way back in August 1982, but none of us have been able to find the
original, so this is the next best thing (spoiler alert: it is a *Complete*
walkthrough):
https://youtu.be/vBK8DK2IN-s?si=_EGicUjRLqVJFP1R

2) TRS-80 Retro Programing released a video update for his Ghost Saga
Extended BASIC game. He is working on getting it to work from disk in the
TRS80GP emulator... which only supports DMK format at this point, so we
will need to make a DSK version as well so that it works on all emulators
and on a CocoSDC. But he has been learning how the Coco disk system works
(never having had one back in the day):
https://youtu.be/ptN7W9_BPi8?si=uP_8hWz8P0RUwHqX

3) Randy Poffo on YouTube did a one minute video of Donkey King gameplay:
https://youtu.be/Fa-l2_sN8cs?si=r95xzfhd4K3g1dnM

4) Inufuto has released their newest game, Osotos, for the MC-10 (on August
18) and the Coco 1/2 & 3 versions (August 23). It's kind of a Pengo meets
Space Panic style game:
http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/osotos/
MC-10 gameplay video:
https://youtu.be/64zmqIcM06M?si=9WQwm1qzMZyVmV56
Coco 1/2 gameplay video:
https://youtu.be/W037xmpLXwM?si=LOdyIcYa-ajNeJpT
Coco 3 gameplay video:
https://youtu.be/RCNAOcj0pog?si=4yIlPWR3qZ--Tvhz
Brief general instructions:
You clear the level when you collect all the stars.
Defeat monsters by hitting them with blocks.
Stack blocks to get through areas that were previously impossible to cross.
Disappeared blocks will reappear in their original place.

5) Speaking of Inufuto games, Nostalgivault on YouTube playing some on
the Coco this past week as well:
AntiAir Coco 1/2:
https://youtu.be/lhTBmdu-DyE?si=4QHFk3QjcWOw4_bj
AntiAir Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/eDKWoIbhrFE?si=hRvJljy7tFJMQfhZ

6) David Mitchell showed a video of the 1 or 2 player adventure style
game "Lachlan!" by Magic Midnight on the Dragon 32. It has an interesting
(possibly unique?) fight mechanic - actually different ones depending on
your foe. He says that he saw an ad for this game in Dragon User magazine,
so he decided to try it:
https://youtu.be/F54IK7ofqLI?si=aUkYv0qOTyOdIePI
He also put a video up for the previously unreleased game Rebellion,
originally written by Roy Coates & Chris Larkin back in the early 1980's
(Roy is the guy who ported Manic Miner and Jetset Willy to the Dragon
back in the day, amongst other program he wrote). The download for it is
in the Dragon Facebook group. They originally submitted it to Microdeal,
but it was rejected.
https://youtu.be/NqtA-a0R1XM?si=WzUzri4F0eFU8N8S
.CAS file download for Dragon 32:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/3773004619625846/

7) Chronologically Gaming on YouTube showed he Berserk cartridge from
Dragon Data (Dragon conversion of the Mark Data Products one for the Coco
from a year earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXvJys58vDk&t=687s&ab_channel=ChronologicallyGaming
He also covered T&D's Coco-Terrestrial & Intracolor's Colorpede for the
Coco on yesterdays show:
Coco-Terrestrial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdTmpEmshA&t=1153s
Colorpede:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdTmpEmshA&t=1658s

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 375, August 17, 2024

2026-04-05T18:18:47Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 375, August 17, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 375, August 17, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
the keynote speaker!
http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels)

The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
of Technology in Cambridge, England:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) During our show last week, La Coco Strangiato (Bob Emery) was
simultaneously streaming his live Artemis keyboard version 2 build:
https://www.youtube.com/live/ta0UH46UPgM?si=qKmL7ABsVO1yKfdb

2) CocoTown released his Game Revolutions Cycle 18 video titled "Projectiles
as objects" as he finally starts arming the player's buggy:
https://youtu.be/cHgqTXR3itc?si=ZdXBGKr-BjHMeY5o

3) Taylor and Amy did a special little show where they present Veronica
(from the "Veronica Explains" YouTube channel) with a Coco 2... that needs
a little fixin' (it's currently outputting many shades of grey). With a
shout out to The Coco Nation too!:
https://youtu.be/CLs-osjMkio?si=fXYOpS0JqpWXBSvS

4) ugBASIC has had multiple updates again this week in it's Beta branch,
including several Coco related ones (dated Aug 13):
- Added support for keyboard driver under Coco & Coco 3 (and others)
- Added support for KEY SPEED, LINE INPUT, native RELEASE on WAIT KEY
- Fixed XOR opcode for 6809
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

5) Tim Lindner wrote a blog post (and accompanying program) to go through
every video mode that a Color Computer can produce from the VDG chip which
he is calling "SAM/VDG Sizzler". He also made 4 videos to correspond with
the four major implementations of the SAM/VDG combo (including the Coco
3's GIME which emulates the older chips... mostly).
Blog post:
http://tlindner.macmess.org/?p=1046
Github with source and DSK image to download:
https://github.com/tlindner/VDGSIZZLE
Videos:
Coco 1/2 (regular Coco 2's)
https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-1
Coco 2B (with T1 VDG)
https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-2b_202408
Coco 3 with 1986 GIME
https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-3-86
Coco 3 with 1987 GIME
https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-3-87

6) Sheldon MacDonald has a video update on Facebook showing some of the
graphics routines he has running in CG3 (128x96x4):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161520668192641/

7) Thomas Cherryhomes (main driver behind Fujinet) posted information and
sample code for the Atari 8 bits on the high score scoreboard feature in
Fujinet, and asks if anyone would like to implement this on the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161520551942641/

MC-10
-----
1) japhyriddle On YouTube posted a YouTube Short, which shows him using an
MC-10 as a "guitar" using a program he wrote back in 2016 (and with some
effects added to the normal MC-10 sound output). He says in the description
that he sold the MC-19 not long after he recorded this:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Pxv-9y-RuZs

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) John Whitworth announced on the Dragon Facebook group that he has new
versions of the Dragon power boards - both basic and Deluxe versions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3780039292255712/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted further photos of his "new" Dragon 64 - 3D
printed case (in multiple pieces), repro motherboard, and now most of the
keyboard keys are filled:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3779905235602451/

3) Jess B's Tech Dept. on YouTube fixes up a Dragon 32 she got by adding
a new power supply (from Julian, I believe?):
https://youtu.be/ssnDHPJ5Rx0?si=UFE2JHAs1H0xmwg8

4) David Mitchell (Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube) posted a video showing
his generating Mandelbrot fractals in SG4 (64x32x9). It's based on multiple
other programs for Mandelbrot he looked at:
https://youtu.be/J2UJUaqJ2H0?si=sEzh32nrsFr-50oK

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Ken at Canadian Retro Thing released another video in his single game
on multiple computers series. This time round it's part 1 of Sea Dragon -
this round covering Apple II, Atari 8 bit, & Coco. A part 2 will cover 3
more machines:
https://youtu.be/Zv1Y_uS_kyw?si=36y8WTIXuMZ54Si3
And he just released part 2 with 3 more systems:
https://youtu.be/AkJFE15x5IM?si=6LBcj4FMN1UAY7U3

2) Jim Gerrie has ported Labyrinth (by Aardvark for the Coco with Extended
BASIC) to the MC-10 with either the MCX-128 or MCX-SD installed (which
adds Extended BASIC and more RAM). It's a 3D shooter that is quite good
for a BASIC game:
https://youtu.be/lnAIH8bei0M?si=RkYyJPpWC6BcK-82
And he did an update late in the week, with some graphic changes and speed
up's (he explains one in the description and with voiceover on the video):
https://youtu.be/V4RAB2FWPIs?si=xO-vXeoVUzdaNhin
He also updated Lunar Lander, based on a fix done by Martin C. Martin
where he found a bug this June in the original 55 year old code:
https://youtu.be/n7_Tv_Hkk-A?si=TrS60jQJpWPaIasi

3) David Mitchell (Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube) has released a new
version of his Flipping Bits game for the MC-10, this time compiled with
Greg Dionne's BASIC compiler for extra speed:
https://youtu.be/99ud-QOBXEY?si=wBR1AtPuhN3z6VF-
You can download the cassette image for the MC-10 compiled version from
his github:
https://github.com/daftspaniel/RetroCornerRedux/tree/main/Tandy/MC-10/Originals/FlipBits/media

4) Carlos Camacho uploaded the BASIC sourcecode to a Japanese game ported
from Prolog to Coco BASIC. The player makes and sells Tofu, apparently
(I haven't tried it):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161517273482641/

5) Jim Gerrie pointed out on Facebook that Inufuto has started releasing
their new game OSOTOS for the dozens and dozens of retro machines they
support with their cross compiler. Coco and MC-10 versions are not up yet,
but some of the machines that are are ones that use the same 6847 chip as
the MC-10 & Coco have, so we can get a good idea what it will look like
(see PC-6001 for example). Looks like Pengo with platforms, maybe?:
http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/osotos/

6) Tricob1974 on YouTube put up a long play video showing how to solve the
5th level of Climb, a 16K ML game by Andrew Pakerski that first appeared
on Chromasette January 1984 (this was on the Game On Challenge not too
long ago). This way we finally get to see the levels that are invisible:
https://youtu.be/fvRKEsd4vOA?si=zNW_OJcNIknSUVUu

7) agamingchannelbyLRU on YouTube put up numerous gameplay videos to
achieve high scores for a variety of retro computers. Included this week
is Jet Boot Colin for the Dragon 32:
https://youtu.be/RHUGLzeRfMU?si=9AQnv-LG7GVWcu_8

8) Chronologically Gaming on YouTube and Twitch has returned to active
duty after a long summer break. This week he covered a couple of games
relevant to us:
Dragon 32: 747 Flight Simulator from DACC:
https://youtu.be/OlubigHbEks?si=-_FnO998OBl24aMY&t=1820
Coco: Avenger from The Cornsoft Group:
https://youtu.be/uKuBN4Q_Xug?si=19NBWtABTY_BW_NW&t=326

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 374, August 10, 2024

2026-04-05T18:17:03Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 374, August 10, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 374, August 10, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show!
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
YouTube channels)

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of Technology
in Cambridge, England:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&start=10

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) William Astle has released LWTOOLS version 4.23. This update fixes a
stack corruption bug, as well adds the ability to use a 0b or 0B prefix
for binary constants:
http://www.lwtools.ca/

2) Coco Town posted another Game Revolutions episode about his Moon Patrol
style game - this time working on faster gravel scrolling part 2, where he
goes through some suggestions from viewers, including one of mine (spoiler:
I come in dead last as to how much of a speed increase the new routines get):
https://youtu.be/XBS8wV7sN88?si=Mv3OEFkyget8wsij
He also posted a video showing some 6809 optimizations suggested by
@BoscoRetro:
https://youtu.be/S3xCd3r5ayk?si=oh-KbEpE26095dwl

3) Richard Kelly released "Blue/Red" version 1.1. This is a program to let
one select which way the artifact colors are set on a Coco 1 or 2. It can
be downloaded from the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161510031212641/

4) Steve Batson posted some photos from VCF West, including some Coco and
MC-10 things:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161508847862641/

5) Sheldon MacDonald posted a video about the new version 0.61 of his Dual
IDE assembly language programming app. The 1st half of the video covers
the 6809 changes with some samples (with the caveat that more extensive
testing is still needed): the ability for IF/OR/ELSE statements directly
in assembly code as well as index addressing into function calls. The
2nd half covers the Sega Genesis, including a couple of games that he is
working on for that platform:
https://youtu.be/h2Src3sc6qc?si=4AZ4NOpxiQdZqisa

6) Stacey Vetzal is planning on having a "prank" style program to show
on her Coco at the World of Retro Computing Show in Kitchener, Ontario
September 14-15. She posted a screenshot (and link to sourcecode) for how
far she has gotten:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161493989932641/

7) Fabio Sturman posted pics of a 6809 based computer he built. It has a
6809, 68681 dual UART, 8K EEPROM, 128 KB of static RAM with a simple page
memory unit, some other support chips and an 8 bit IDE port for Compact
Flash card support. It includes S-BUG 1.8, and he said that Flex 9.1 is
working but not fully tested:
Announcement and a couple of photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/flexoperatingsystem/posts/1043333137156137/
Photos of the board:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/flexoperatingsystem/posts/1043490793807038/

8) tsbrownie on YouTube did a video about his history with Radio Shack and
using their products, starting with electronics parts around 1972. About 5:28
he goes into a bit of his history with a Coco 1, which he upgrade to 64K:
https://youtu.be/ttmbOSnLqVk?si=uegzT7zCeaRo3hE0

9) Tim Halloran released his 4th video of restoring/upgrade his Coco 2 for
September's Tandy Assembly, this time working on the keyboard and adding
a 64K RAM upgrade:
https://youtu.be/t-FbOlZOCz8?si=ECQKvBawRw1quJ9N

10) Danny's Vintage Computers on YouTube put up a short video showing the
Radio Shack exhibit at the Computer Museum @ System Source in Maryland -
which has a variety of machine including a Coco 3 (commentary doesn't
really match what they are looking at, so mute the video):
https://youtu.be/byg7EYnObr8?si=0wjLd6srEzlbdpBi

11) This is Retropolis (a Portuguese show from Brazil) episode 155 cover
a few machines in the episode, including the Coco series. Unfortunately it
doesn't seem to be set up for auto-translation (and it's audio only). Coco
part starts at 32:55
https://youtu.be/dC6xkA4apkg?si=Fou4dc9FYwkPba0S&t=1975

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Roy Coates, the original author of the Dragon ports of Manic Miner & Jet
Set Willy, has been digging out boxes of historical things for the Dragon:
a) He uploaded Rebellion.cas to the files area. This is a game cowritten with
a student of his named Chris Larkin, dating before he ported Manic Miner. It
was submitted to Microdeal, but was rejected. It requires a joystick:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3773006602958981/
b) Rebellion download link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3773004619625846/
c) Roy found an award he received from Microdeal - "the broken dongle award"
- for breaking the copy protection hardware dongle scheme that Microdeal
used for their version of Buzzard Bait. And he tells the story about why
he entered the contest and got the award...:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3772091476383827/
d) Roy found notes and data for Jet Set Willy II - which he never finished
porting back in the day. If his old system will boot and disks can be used,
he is seriously considering finishing it now:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3771220156470959/
e) Boxes of stuff he found:
Box #4 - original cassettes with inserts - including a game he wrote
that had not been previously archived - Stargate sold by Abacus software
(in the comments he posted a picture of the letter from Abacus):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3768749020051406/
Box #5 has a bunch of paper - hand written notes, graphics designs,
notes on games, etc.:
(sprite structure table, screen table information)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3768758906717084/
(graphics for Manic Miner hand drawn from looking at the Spectrum
version):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3768758080050500/
(source listings for Jetset Willy, Manic Miner, The Talisman):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3768756893383952/
Box #6 (The Holy Grail as Roy calls it): about 200 floppy disks,
including commercial disks for things like the Flex operating system,
BASIC utilities, Flex C compiler, assemblers, editors, diagnostics and
much more):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3768808636712111/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith uploaded some photos of a new Dragon 64, based on
Ciaran's Dragon 64 motherboard and Julian Brown's keyboard, with photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3772986126294362/

3) Richard Harding, Dragon historian, has uploaded scans and pictures of
the Dragon Data dealer application pack, including multipage full color
artwork for a variety of programs and games... and even including the
dealer price list:
dragondata.co.uk/adverts/Dealer-app-pack/index.html

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie continues porting games to the MC-10. This week, he ported
Laser Tank, originally written by John P. Grillo & J.D. Robertson in
1983 in their book Color Computer Applications for the Coco. Jim added
some features to the original, including target direction from commander,
decreasing that amount of enemy fire as enemies are eliminated, turret speed
readout, adding scoring (and keeping track of the high score for the current
session), in game instructions, and game re-start at the end of a round:
https://youtu.be/32vzvyhA5Bg?si=by1113jq65bE3kxP
He also ported the Coco game Wheel of Fortune (originally by Harold Schneider
in Rainbow magazine's April 1984 issue. He did some minor edits and fixed a
bug (if one guessed the same consonant twice), and also changed it so the
screen background colors are assigned specifically assigned to player #'s
(up to 8), rather than being random. He also sped up the wheel rotation &
added a simple title screen:
https://youtu.be/bLej3fsN2Z0?si=1WndkF549bH1Qkcf
And updates as well: Jim updated his MC-10 port of Nightmare Park (originally
by Bob Chappel in 1980, likely for the PET). Jim added his improved inverse
video text routine:
https://youtu.be/_8g_6D6UzoQ?si=XBvHLlwyuwnLFJTB

2) Lee Perkins has released a video showing his current progress on his
6309/2 MB RAM Coco 3 version of Cloud Kingdoms that he is ported from
PC/VGA. This shows the 9 way scrolling, animated characters and several maps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpFaeTvC-YA

3) Tim & AJ cover the new game Goop Rush (which just finished being our
Game On Challenge the past two weeks) on their Sibling Rivalry show. AJ
has been on a streak lately; will it continue?
https://youtu.be/JFa5rj5zFS4?si=XCXmPC-TWzhQ-YVM

4) XperTek does his Coco 2/amber monitor thing and tries out King Tut from
Tom Mix Software:
https://youtu.be/bMPbX6xfR60?si=23Ro3RhsL2AG0WMa

5) R. Allen Murphey let me know that Stefan Vogt has a devlog started to
Hibernated 2 - a sequel to his Infocom engine game Hibernated one which
was available for the Coco:
https://8bitgames.itch.io/hibernated1/devlog/779289/hibernated-2-devlog

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 373, August 3, 2024

2026-04-05T18:16:08Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 373, August 3, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 373, August 3, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Furman & Henry Strickland are at VCF West right now. Michael uploaded
a raw/unedited video to show a bit of the show, last night. He met up with
Henry and they talk about RT/68 - the real time operating system that Ken
Kaplan and one other person wrote for the 6800 CPU while in university. It
was because of this that they developed a relationship with Motorola,
and got hired to make BASIC09 (and eventually OS9 to host it) while the
6809 was being developed (starts at 49:10). And later about the CoPiCo
(Tom Shanks) & CocoIO (Rick Ulland's) with Henry as well (1:17:55):
https://youtu.be/ST_qDWVt7MA?si=YMw0J-PgICCCX1U5
Henry Strickland added some photos as well:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sa6M8Cg6LMeEAQbj9

New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of Technology
in Cambridge, England:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&start=10

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town posted Game Revolutions 16 - where he adds "squishy tires"
to his Moon Rover in his Moon Patrol style game:
https://youtu.be/sVL7iAsRFUc?si=e8CkwvwNCTbWK8SB
He also decided to try our Semigraphics 24 from Extended BASIC tricks -
and how to fix it to fully run properly on a T1 VDG:
https://youtu.be/3e-cAwXRfWg?si=rC9YIxQZR1ENnCAt

2) Henry Strickland posted a short (3&1/2 minute) video showing the Rescue
facility (and how to use it) of the Axiom ROM Code that is part of the
Frobio software that is used with Rick Ulland's CocoIO network card. This
will actually rescue the ROM itself:
https://youtu.be/1sscHkU8k5c?si=r7y5--FtNz-lpkbO

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a video of him making his PMODE 1 Luigi
character jump (and constructing a 2nd level):
https://youtu.be/Rz2AwiafBc8?si=jo77NV0UQK9AGMXJ
He also did a quick update on his progress with no commentary:
https://youtu.be/JjdktJt_BYg?si=VBYMynZnLmZVXEvt

4) TJBChris has released his video of getting a Tandy Network 3 controller
working with the Coco (with a TRS-80 Model 12 as a host). He implemented
this promised but never released functionality using the DLOAD protocol
that the Coco 1/2 has built into the ROM. This includes sharing a drive
amongst the Coco's, and to print to a shared printer:
https://youtu.be/HYpXNBna7wU?si=-c-8Xyfvud-zchXe

5) Pedro Pana on his Rocky Hill YouTube channel showed him installing Bob
Emery's VDG breakout board on an MC-10:
https://youtu.be/Vlx6dmu4q0k?si=bP9Zsla6Oe_C7m0g

6) Glen Hewlett has been posting bug fixes and is mentioning some
enhancements he wants to do to his new BASIC cross-compiler. To keep up
with the latest, check the 'basiccompilers' channel (under Programming
and Development) on the Coco Discord.
There is a video of a sort program running side by side in Extended BASIC
(on the right) and with the compiler on the left (by Jamie Lee Cho):
(load local file 'sort (glen hewlett compiler).mov')

7) micro games basic (ugBASIC) has updates on both the main branch and
the beta branches as well:
Main branch (coco related: BELL instruction fied on Coco 3, improved CLS
color for all Coco's, several bug fixes):
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch (cpu_jump_indirect under 6809 added):
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

8) Jamie Elliott posted some photos of a 64K Coco 1 he recently received -
that has a lot of home hacked modifications:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161474243157641/

9) David Collins announced that he finally got his homebrew HB63C09M board
down to SBC size... so he is close to releasing design files so others
can build it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3427170434242981/

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Salesman" originally by Keith and Steven Brain from
their 1984 book "Artificial Intelligence" for the Commodore 64 (Jim mentions
"with some help from their other book for the Dragon 32). It attempts to
simulate a computer salesperson:
https://youtu.be/gPdEbRer5-s?si=2CaJQMhePZE5z5Nc

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) The TVRDb channel on YouTube put up a television commercial from 1984
for INPUT magazine, a cross platform programming magazine that included
the Dragon 32 (and even some Tandy Color Computer) listings:
https://youtu.be/4xi56hitd-Y?si=epOAd2Wz29kGGkmd

2) Steven Goodwin posted a photo from his Mandelbrot set renderer that
he wrote for the Dragon in C, and it uses fixed point (10.6) to further
increase the speed. His render took under an hour; by comparison, Tony
Jewell wrote one in BASIC takes up to a day (he posted a link to the source
in the comments):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3767538043505837/
He also uploaded a video (he says without rate limiting, so I assume it
is running much faster than normal?):
https://youtu.be/ZyyQU0R3sSc?si=zo4jxANxjB2MKnhs
And he has his CMOC source code available:
https://github.com/MarquisdeGeek/DragonDocker/tree/main/dragon/src/c/mandelbrot

3) Julian Brown posted thqt he has received Issue 2 of his SRAM boards -
but he is still waiting for some parts:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3767382286854746/
He also posted about his replacement VDG project in the Dragon forums
at worldofdragon.org:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11185

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie updated his MC-10 port of the game "Ark Royal" (originally
for the Sinclair ZX-81 that appeared in the December 1981 issue of Your
Computer magazine), where he has added some instructions, added a 2nd
difficulty level, and changed the canopy from cyan to white to make it
easier to see on real hardware:
https://youtu.be/lkdfXckUdm4?si=jSqzBUAvROhgg3sx
He also updated his "Moon Rover Patrol" - his own version of Moon Patrol. He
added a few new speedup techniques, and Greg Dionne's key input routine
to this version from his original 2020 version:
https://youtu.be/smwJN0BCWdI?si=qlv7xRnAbuRbBCN5
He also published "Softball" - an entry from Jim for the upcoming 10-Liner
BASIC programming competition. Loosely based on a softball game on the
Sharp MZ-700 computer:
https://youtu.be/RNM03cuYLIA?si=TegxuGbRrGFFlhY-
He also updated his game Tunnel Jumper that he originally did in 2013 to
use Greg Dionne's newer key input routines & a better inverse text routine:
https://youtu.be/4E8hSezumrg?si=mob0T5kxJSxREeE1

2) Wayne Campbell has put up a page explaining the history and features of
both his Super Extended BASIC (SECB) and OS9/BASIC09 versions of Sokoban -
which includes 80 levels from the various Japanese & American releases:
https://wayneca.neocities.org/Sokoban/Sokoban_CoCo3

3) Jim Mullis has added animations for 4 more heroes that can be played in
his Super Friends game (currently in development in BASIC and GrafExpress
2.0):
The Flash:
https://youtu.be/dGAjEPLF-fk?si=Yng246yvYrgclkh2
Robin:
https://youtu.be/EOvPJjo4avg?si=ifnEb3XfkMGPV3mu
Batman:
https://youtu.be/sIs7skrPSd4?si=Sk3F7Y1SKO3RoGSi
Aquaman:
https://youtu.be/UxlImrfNnew

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing has released an update video to his Tales
of Suburbia game (which is almost ready for release). This covers some
improvements he has made on what will be the final screen in the game:
https://youtu.be/e1gJWsevlR0?si=V8rwqV0lI-ajNI8q

5) NostalgiaVault on YouTube (which does gameplay videos on a wide variety
of platforms) did multiple Coco games this week:
Scrambled Eggs (a counting game aimed at young kids, I believe):
https://youtu.be/UzBWh5bCCFg?si=-LJ-k3rtFExb3R_y
Talking Ghostbusters by Jeff Beckerman (it sounds like Computize's Speak
Up! program):
https://youtu.be/nkxjE-3tn3I?si=KxCTDMyNoQH3nEGF
Rocky's Boots (sold by Tandy):
https://youtu.be/8im6C0Vaaak?si=84IVygybj8CJV9TJ
Frogger (unfortunately with composite/RGB colors mixed up):
https://youtu.be/cSYMFcx2myA?si=87zV3HiCu3s-JYJ5
Amphibia (by Nick Bradbury from the August 1985 Rainbow, but programmed
in 1983):
https://youtu.be/faMGCFRk4xA?si=BgqDM5kZb1xDvouy
Popcorn by Steve Bjork:
https://youtu.be/HSL4dGhJhHo?si=ZBk8u5r8HNf3cJg6
PacMan transcode by Glen Hewlett:
https://youtu.be/0sGJbhUmlfA?si=kcq2czzNQM6Ucix_

6) XperTek released a Coco 2/amber monitor gameplay video featuring
Donkey King:
https://youtu.be/Yrb-JRZ7Iz0?si=0VLf18C1A7GsgjrR

7) Davy Mitchell has released a new Coco / Dragon 32 game called Lucky Egg,
including source code. He has a quick blog entry about it on his blog:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2024/08/new-game-lucky-egg.html
Video of gameplay:
https://youtu.be/cXaWRmWL4bI?si=L0elSJRcIMCP2hcE
And source code (in BASIC) is on his github:
https://github.com/daftspaniel/RetroCornerRedux/tree/main/Dragon/Originals/LuckyEgg

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 372, July 27, 2024

2026-04-05T18:15:15Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 372, July 27, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 372, July 27, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Wayne Campbell with his OS9 version of Sokoban - enhanced from the Coco
3 Super Extended BASIC version

Also, wondering who all caught this past Monday's CocoTech, and if anyone
has had a chance to try the demo's or start working on their own programs
to use the SG12/24 modes in BASIC. Also, any questions?

One other mention - for those of you who speak (or at least understand)
Spanish, Spanish YouTube channel "La Meca del Clásico" is doing a live
stream this morning starting 45 minutes before our show starts (it may
still be going on?) titled "First romhacker translations into Spanish in
history ~ on a Tandy CoCo ~ with LuisCoCo!"
Luis Fernandez & Rod Merida are the presenter and host:
https://www.youtube.com/live/U4OIIWCKnOY?si=LASh-oBraQctJtO0

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
VCF-West is next weekend (August 2-3/Fri-Sat) at the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with the
museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with one
purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters now
as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of Technology
in Cambridge, England:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&start=10

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
bottom of this page:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
The Saturday event specifically:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Bob Emery released a video on his La CoCo Strangiato YouTube channel
introducing his VDG breakout board. This works with multiple VDG & Coco 1/2
motherboard designs, and requires far less soldering than other solutions:
https://youtu.be/vqmq6Az9_48

2) TRS-80 Retro Programing did an update video to his earlier "Mario's
Magic Mushroom" graphic demo, and talks about his working with the TRS80GP
emulator, running under Windows 11. There are some issues he is hitting:
https://youtu.be/QhN8yytOSes?si=kwA-FR15hUWhO1xQ
Following up on the Mario theme, he also made a Luigi character to animate,
and posted the source code in the description.
https://youtu.be/frbk4WZQvwM?si=3dl-gGqT8hlMgF2E

3) Coco Town returns to his Moon Patrol style game - this time round
explaining how he used physics and math to improve how the buggy jumps:
https://youtu.be/-WgtfF1h-pM?si=GHn1LzdzGFuvG_Ne

4) Randy Kindig (of Floppy Days podcast fame) had a seminar on modern
storage and video output options for retro computers, where he covered 24
different platforms, including both the Coco 1/2/3 and the MC-10. Since
he had so many to cover, he only covers a few options for each machine,
usually ones that he has in his possession. (Coco section linked here):
https://youtu.be/pk3vv-IhJTI?si=HdN49sw0iaFAz-nc&t=1981

5) A bit of a teaser for an upcoming video (hopefully within the next two
weeks) from TJBChris. To quote his post on the Tandy Discord:
"Hey all, I’ve been following up with my experimental Network 3 network
with a 8” system as host and CoCos as the clients. To that end, I ported
over my old prototype XENIX dload server to CP/M (handling keyboard and
serial IO myself via the Z80 ports for the CTC, SIO, etc. as z88dk doesn’t
support the serial port for MII CP/M).
Unlike the Model III/4 implementation, you have to select ports Network
2-style as the CoCo lacks the serial handshake lines for determining
service needs, but it works and lets you access resources on the 12 from
a CoCo over the DLOAD protocol. Hopefully I’ll get a video up in the
next couple weeks…busy times"

6) Jason Reighard uploaded his Day Two video for BoatFest that took place
last month in Hurricane, West Virginia:
https://youtu.be/8ElFzSOOf9o

7) The Capixaba Computer Museum in Brazil posted some ad copy for the
Codimex cd 6809 (A Coco clone from Brazil) on it's birthday to the Coco
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161463441077641/

8) Glen Hewlett has uploaded a video showing his Coco 1/2 BASIC
cross-compiler in action, using Scott Cooper's (Tazman) Maze generator
program (I don't know if you will be able to hear Glen - his audio is very
quiet on the clip).
https://youtu.be/47dkLLUU9OQ
And just this morning he has uploaded the compiler and installation
instructions. This is still considered a beta at this point, and also
requires some 3rd party packages installed as well (namely William Astle's
fantastic LWASM as well as QB64pe (Phenix Edition):
His blog entry which explains the compiler and it's current
limitations/differences from regular Extended BASIC
https://nowhereman999.wordpress.com/2024/07/27/coco-basic-to-6809-compiler/

9) And speaking of BASIC compilers - microgames BASIC (ugBASIC) also had
updates this past week. The beta branch has had several sets of updates,
including things like:
added D!POKE & D!PEEK (I assume that this is 16 bit word POKE/PEEK?)
added PROC, NRM, AT, SWAP (swapping strings), KEYGET, DO NULL
The official release is now up to v1.16.3, which is primarily bug fixes
(and most for the other platforms that ugBASIC supports)
Main branch updates:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch updates:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

10) And now, an update to a FORTH compiler (in ROM). Henry Gernhardt III
posted his next FORTH ROM update on his "The Break Key" channel on YouTube,
this time he has gotten variables, constants & data memory working. There
is a also a shoutout to his mom and her birthday this weekend... and she
used to be a Tandy engineer:
https://youtu.be/bF-MC-9azIM?si=Klj8leNxnCGI-NpS
(she called while he was recording - his funny reaction is around 38:49 in,
and also his shoutout to her and the Coco Nation, so play that)

11) Portuguese speaking YouTube channel did a short video talking about
the 6809 and it's history, which machines it was in, etc. (includes the
Coco). It does have some mistakes unfortunately (like showing a TRS-80
Model 1 instead of a Coco):
https://youtu.be/5ksc7sV32Wg?si=QebnT8lAXaHrUEkZ

12) Pascal Vrancken posted a scan of an ad for a Coco 16K standard BASIC
bundle, including the tape recorder and black beauty joysticks. But this
is in French and is from Tandy's 1985 catalog in Belgium:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161468533777641/

13) New channel on YouTube "Recycled Game Room" released his first video
entitled "Small bedroom turned to Game Room! - Game Room Tour 2024". He
is obviously big into console gaming, but he also has tucked away a
Coco 2 and a Commodore-64, as shown in the clip. Might he do some game
demonstrations/reviews in the future?
https://youtu.be/kg5YCT1yzHc?si=xQ8MeIS6v_2VdEx9&t=1013

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown has a Dragon RAM updates:
Issue 6/Mk2 board - SRAM upgrade up to 64K on a late model Dragon 32
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3760328360893472/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie, literally a few hours after he converted *2* games over
to the MC-10 while our show was live, did an update to "The 6 Lilies" 3d
adventure game that was originally published by Infogrames for the Alice
(and in French). This video is also a complete walkthru, if you worry
about spoilers:
https://youtu.be/PdQDy7yIHbs?si=wlI551sgm2MQiphg
He also ported the game "Shut up, and follow me" (with some enhancements)
originally for the Japanese NEC PC-6001, and published in the March 1990
issue of MiComBASIC magazine in Japan. His son Charlie helped translate
the original Japanese to English:
https://youtu.be/CQWp-wdDEq4?si=Ia-uCRywfpJ0nOok
And of course, he converted the Game challenge game, converting "Dang
It!" originally by Richard Ramella from his column in Hot Coco magazine,
during last weeks show. Now with a video to show it in action:
https://youtu.be/Yl4WkSfbHTM?si=1NrNJD44zrFcBEwT
He also converted the Coco game Devastator (written by Charles Brannon in
COMPUTE! magazine, August 1984) from the Coco to the MC-10. He did do some
modifications (speeding it up, high score feature, etc.). Also note on
the program listing the fact that BASIC handles multiple CHR$'s in a row
without semi-colons; this works on the Coco as well (and I had forgotten
about this trick!):
https://youtu.be/_K0fl_MIygs?si=023QlQzs1C9Bnifm

2) Jim Mullis has a video update to his DC Comics based Super Powers game,
using Sundog's GrafExpress 2.0 package. He also shows off some of the new
hero animations that it has (Note, fast forward past loading screens for
the latter 2):
Firestorm:
https://youtu.be/hh7m6vlTZxg?si=tUTD7r5Y9OSD-lrE
Green Lantern:
https://youtu.be/F0PTwUz95EE?si=uvDKS31JcHOwa0e_
Martian Manhunter:
https://youtu.be/V8Y8aWoRP5o?si=qWq1MwI81uLVeVBp

3) Italian YouTube page RetroTrailer-2 put up a quick video showing
Computerware's Q*Bert clone, Blochead:
https://youtu.be/LyxwrSWZe7s?si=5K-sFmlg1uF0_7wr

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 371, July 20, 2024

2026-04-05T18:14:14Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 371, July 20, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 371, July 20, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
CocoTech episode #006 - Nick Marentes and I will be presenting a
talk on fooling Extended BASIC into doing some graphics commands using
Semigraphics-12 or Semigraphics-24. This will happening July 22 at 7 pm EST,
and will include accompanying PDF version of the slideshow and a DSK image.

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum of Technology
in Cambridge, England:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&start=10

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
days or both days.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) TRS-80 Retro Programing tried out (and really likes) the TRS-80GP emulator
(written by George Phillips. This is the one that started out for the Z80
based TRS-80's (Mode 1/2/3/4, etc.) and has added the Coco & MC-10 in recent
years as well. I think he is a bit unfair in his complaints about XRoar,
especially since things like pasting in source code into the emulator has
worked in XRoar for some time. I believe he was just frustrated with the
joysticks not reading properly (an issue I have on the Mac version with
Paul Fiscarelli's Coco <--> USB joystick adapter. Ciaran has sent me a new
test version to try, but I have been too busy this week to try it. Will
try it this weekend):
https://youtu.be/3560JQJVnIQ?si=nLFKABKPldBtVOXH
He also did a short demo of "Mario's Magic Mushroom" that he pasted the
source code into the emulator from a text file, and it runs fine:
https://youtu.be/BW1Kqo-ZmIU?si=ZekgaHRG_ihHkXZj

2) La Coco Strangiato (by regular panelist Bob Emery) on YouTube released
a follow up video to his previous one concerning the SVI-CAS hardware
unit he has, that replaces cassettes for a variety of systems including
the Coco. This is to see if the various updates that have been released
since his first video have fixed some of the issues that he had found
(including multi-media tapes, which he extensively demos):
https://youtu.be/2vSSKphzvZU?si=iPldNp-vTrF5NFxd

3) CocoTown does another side tutorial video this week - this time around
explaining the math behind Two's complement:
https://youtu.be/mEsAsRjeqto?si=W8KdBt_dhQ72ZSWF
And as a follow up video, he goes through the utility he wrote that lets
one far more easily visualize working with binary (that he showed near
the end of the previous video):
https://youtu.be/wxeHAM090G0?si=TUSdhCh0niKj2sIc
And the download for the free tool can be found here:
https://cocotownretro.wordpress.com/2024/07/18/binary-playground/

4) Microcore Labs (Ted) has announced the ML6809 - a drop in replacement
board based on a Teensy 4.1 that plugs into a 6809 socket and emulates a
cycle accurate 6809E. He has tested it in a Coco 2 and so far it seems
to be working with the ROM's and trying several BASIC programs. Also,
similar to the clock doubler circuit that John Kowalski (Sockmaster)
did back in the 1990's, he has an option to eliminate the VMA/dummy
bus cycles that a lot of the instructions have. Unlike Sock's original
which basically halved the time of those, Microlabs has eliminated them
entirely, so a lot of instructions take a cycle or more less (it's kind
of like native mode for the 6809). Something like MUL should run in less
than half the time. He is thinking of furthering acceleration by putting
RAM/ROM inside the Teensy itself (eliminating having to access it through
the Coco motherboard) which means accessing those could be up to 600 MHz:
https://microcorelabs.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/mcl6809-drop-in-motorola-6809e-emulator/
He now has the project files available on his github:
https://github.com/MicroCoreLabs/Projects/tree/master/MCL6809
He also now has a demo video running it in his Coco 2 (this shows normal
speed, roughly double speed with no VMA cycles, and full blown speed
running from Teensy RAM (there is some video corruption on the last one):
https://youtu.be/v15GEWrfFuQ?si=HzrckZZPKsjPExXb

5) Henry Strickland has also announced a new hardware project - the "tfr9",
which is a single board computer he has designed for the 6809E/6309E. As
he mentions on his github, he is going for using a genuine period correct
CPU, but using modern parts for just about everything else (full details
in the readme on the github). There is also active discussion about it on
the 6x09-sbc-units channel (under Hardware) on the Coco Discord:
https://github.com/strickyak/tfr9

6) Boisy Pitre has released part 3 of his Foenix F256/6809 series covering
OS-9 - this time covering OS-9's I/O system:
https://youtu.be/jMwS94xWgws?si=MJAI9mVCtG2e1-_I

7) Ken of Canadian Retro Things is a guest in a video by 8-Bit Show and
Tell, talking about some of the weirdness that happened labelling floppy
disk sizes in Canada:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pw-4kXWBD8&t=20s
Ken also released his own video of trying out the Coco Fujinet
cartridge. This is the soon to be obsoleted version with the serial bitbanger
port being used as well as the cartridge slot; the final one should run as
a pure cartridge. But he demonstrates it's SD card reading functionality,
logging into a server through the net and running games over the net as well:
https://youtu.be/1TaCxBKO3pw?si=qoBEEAPluId249wC

8) Spotlessmind1975 on the Coco Discord has released multiple updates
to ugBASIC the past week, leading up to 1.16.3. This includes some VDG
bugfixes, some FOR/NEXT fixes when multithreading, fixed the BIT instruction
when running on a 6809, and numerous other fixes. There is a beta version
available as well, which adds support for analog joysticks (like the Coco)
amongst other things.
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/?news=1

9) David Collins released an update (including schematic) for his 6309
based homebrew computer:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3412457535714271/

10) VCC 2.1.9.0 pre-release came out this past week, which adds a few things
(listed on EJ's github). Since this is a pre-release, it may still have
some bugs, so if helping report bugs is not your thing, I would stick with
the latest official release (2.1.8.3 from January) for now:
https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/releases/

MC-10
-----
1) Olipix released another video about the MC-10, this time about the thermal
printer that Metra sold (a red clone of the TP-10 that Tandy sold for the
MC-10). He demos it with text, graphics, control characters, etc. He even
shows a video demo of a hacked MC-10 at the end that handled hi-res graphics:
https://youtu.be/a4Do6LXfoSs?si=znDAemtRTtGd9rAi

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown posted a nicely succinct summary of his various Dragon
projects on the World of Dragon archive forums (includes links):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11184

2) Richard Harding now has high res scans available of the original
concept artwork for the unreleased Dragon Alpha (aka Professional) and
Beta prototypes, at 600 dpi:
http://dragondata.co.uk/hardware/Gallery/Concept-art/index.html

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Lee Perkins has uploaded a video to YouTube showing the current state
of his port of Cloud Kingdoms from the PC to the Coco 3 - now having the
main character moving around the 8 way scrolling screen, and using double
buffering (and change to standard 4 pixel/2 byte scrolling):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QfeXAeNqBY

2) Paul Shoemaker has released a video showing his "Goop Rush", a Ghost
Rush game but themed around a radioactive wasteland - and possibly a more
modern game. The mechanics are a bit different as well - hitting an enemy
doesn't install kill you, but increases your radiation exposure (a health
bar, basically). You can drop the radiation level a tiny bit collecting
the rad-away pills. He also has it available as a free download from his
itch.io page:
Video:
https://youtu.be/FpgICmg4BD8?si=DcA9IOpuV__dMWVU
itch.io download page:
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/goop-rush

3) Jim Gerrie ported the game "Ark Royal", originally for the ZX81 from
the December 1981 of Your Computer magazine in England. Easily fits in 4K:
https://youtu.be/8HzzMps3YXU?si=xfHeLxIoUZgssXrU
Source code & the original article are on his github:
https://github.com/jggames/trs80mc10/tree/master/quicktype/Arcade/4K/ArkRoyal
He also ported Inspector Clew-so", originally by Ron Carlson in the June 1979
issue of Creative Computing magazine. It is based on the board game Clue:
https://youtu.be/ypsAxMUyf0c?si=ikyAQO-yxTtKw7q4
And Jim also ported Dang It! during todays show:
https://youtu.be/Yl4WkSfbHTM?si=9ZTj1ElrU5TJuC5x
And then he ported another Richard Ramella game - X-Ski from the first
issue of Hot Coco:
https://youtu.be/CHcu4iXTilQ?si=E3At469ZPyMgKTla

4) And of course, make sure to pick up the updated version of the number
puzzle game 2048 by George Janssen (featured the past two weeks in the
Game On Challenge), that fixes the score so that it is possible to record
>10,000 points without it wrapping around. Available on the Coco Discord
in the Game-on-challenge channel and soon on the Color Computer Archive.

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 370, July 13, 2024

2026-04-05T18:13:27Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 370, July 13, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 370, July 13, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
CocoTech episode #006 - Nick Marentes and I will be presenting a
talk on fooling Extended BASIC into doing some graphics commands using
Semigraphics-12 or Semigraphics-24. This will happening July 22 at 7 pm EST,
and will include accompanying PDF version of the slideshow and a DSK image.

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
group is planning on having a booth:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at Cambridge in England. Not
sure which venue, though (Centre for Computing History or Museum of
Technology):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&p=25389#p25389

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown explores how to do keyboard and joystick button access in
assembly language:
https://youtu.be/qA14gcAJajg?si=LfyUK8VfVW9Hug_i

2) Boisy Pitre has posted a longer, part 1 video of how the boot environment
on the Foenix F256 with the 6809 CPU added works:
https://youtu.be/yABeHb7dXPc?si=qvokWuSCw7nTXxqb
He also released part 2, which covers OS-9 fundamentals for those not
familiar:
https://youtu.be/YpoqTyrty8k?si=kizzdcal2aJNYRTE

3) Gary Becker has uploaded a firmware update for the GIME-X, which fixes a
bug for the cartridge ROM addressing. These can be found (both for regular
RAM and faster static RAM upgrades) in the GIME-X-Y-Z-infinity channel.

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing did a video on GET/PUT and DIMing for the
arrays. Unfortunately he uses the Tandy manuals for calculating the DIM
size needed... and that is multiple TIMES too much RAM being allocated:
https://youtu.be/9G2n1ljdWwM?si=Nc_TEcwQfR1RQQO5
BUT... since both Tim Lindner and I commented on that, he did an updated
video taking that into consideration:
https://youtu.be/yFm7QR7FUWw?si=4_IHmFmZhCpRV1SU
(5:50 showing original DIM based on BASIC manual)
(8:07 to show newly calculated DIM)

5) George Philips (of TRS80GP emulator fame - which now does the Coco 1/2,
by the way) let me know that the trs8bit 2024 competition is on. The object
this year is to write an AI that plays Defense Command (famous Model 1/3
game). He has arranged things so that the AI can be written in BASIC - not
only for the Model 1/3/4's that can actually play the game, but also in Coco
BASIC. He also has an "open" side for writing the AI in any platform at all.
The competition page is here:
http://48k.ca/comp2024.html
He also talks about the competition in the 39th TRS-80 Trash Talk Live
episode from May 4 (During CocoFest which is why we all likely missed it)
(34:13 shows the Coco interfacing with it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuxD8z4bTSg&t=1726s

6) Pierre Sarrazin has released CMOC 0.1.87. This update adds:
- experimental GCC6809 calling convention (where B&X pass paramaters to
a function)
- OS9 interrupt function now allowed to receive a parameter (so the signal
handler can receive the signal # in B)
- several new command line options (specify that char is unsigned by default,
set the stack ptr address directly, pass pragma's to LWASM
- several bug fixes, improvements & optimizations
You can get the latest version from Pierre's website:
http://perso.b2b2c.ca/~sarrazip/dev/cmoc.html

7) Jeffrey Alderson has posted a link to his repository of VCC that has
been redone in Visual Studio 2022 to run on ARM64 versions of Windows,
not just Intel CPU's:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161426121947641/

9) Glen Hewlett announced that he has a cross-system BASIC compiler for
the Coco 1. It's not done yet, but has a fairly extensive command set
(including support for joysticks and some PMODE 4 graphics, extras like
WHILE loops, etc. The compiler itself is written in QB64, and does the
finally assembly for the Coco using LWASM, from what I understand. He is
looking for some volunteers to test it before he makes it available to
the public. Contact him in the "basiccompilers" Discord group, under the
"Programming and Development" section for details.

9) The author of ugBASIC (spotlessmind1975 in the Coco Discord), fresh
off of releasing his multi-platform Sokoban using BASIC compiler, has
released an update to the compiler itself. version 1.16.2 fixes a bugs with
FOR/NEXT loops that work backwards, STEP not working properly for FOR/NEXT
on Dragons & Coco's, and fixed PROCEDURE / ON PROC if the procedure name
is a reserved word. This is a cross compiler that you write and compile
code on a modern platform (Windows 32/64 bit, Linux 32/64 bit) and targets
many 8 bit computers:
https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/

10) Tech Guy Life on YouTube put a video up about retrobrighting a Coco
1 with a twist - he is working on the keys in the chiclet keyboard:
https://youtu.be/j28VpFsinoU?si=nxUJGKBa1FGbsVmB

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown is putting out a call for assistance working on his latest
Dragon boards. To quote:
"Basically I need volunteers for checking the design, build and
operation. Not looking to raise an army but I really need another pair of
eyes to prevent avoidable errors and just make the board designs better
and easier to build.
At this stage everything is in KiCad and stored on Github so there is
no costs other than time but once the boards are fabricated there is the
cost of parts and fabrication. I can pay for boards and shipping but not
parts so serious interest only. Testing of the boards naturally follows
assembly but hopefully the assembled boards can be shared out (shipping
costs allowing). I need to thrash out the practicalities of this with
anyone that expresses interest"
You can reach him both in the Dragon group on Facebook, and through the
Coco Discord (his handle there is "jimbro100")
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3749344098658565/

2) YouTube Channel MIGs Yesterchips released a video about the Dragon 32
done in German (turn on autotranslate to English & CC):
https://youtu.be/4YuFJwi9dys?si=7pMMQQNYH9e3LZ7b

3) Retro Krazy released a video on YouTube that combines both a Dragon
32 joystick adaptor and 8 Bits in a Basement's game, Bob and the Alien
Fireflies:
https://youtu.be/lVsrZi9jts0?si=XivmBcPpsKdhajan

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Solitaire for Two" from the TAB book "Computer
Graphics with 29 Ready to Run Programs, original written for the TRS-80
Model 1/3/4 with Level II BASIC:
https://youtu.be/JzLm4hVlYKw?si=vVRh5_NLL6yckTxj
(Will mention again that Jim has moved all of his software downloads to
the Internet Archive)

2) XperTek does a playthrough of the original Space Invaders by Spectral
Associates on his real Coco 2 with amber monitor (this is one of the
earliest Space Invaders clones - and even adds a small shield that you
can move with a second joystick):
https://youtu.be/Z9TMaTM0FAU?si=OMVlVipdaf9nmkHN

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 369, July 6, 2024

2026-04-05T18:12:03Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 369, July 6, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 369, July 6, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
TRS-80 Trash Talk Live episode #40 is recording tonight at 9 PM Eastern Time:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

The Dragon Meetup will be October 12-13, 2024 at Cambridge in England. Not
sure which venue, though (Centre for Computing History or Museum of
Technology):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179&p=25389#p25389

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
same facility as this year

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown returns with his Game Revolutions cycle - now time to get the
moon buggy in his Moon Patrol clone jumping... and all of the pratfalls
along the way:
https://youtu.be/Swn4NysyUWQ?si=9TIUw1heJ6--1hAb

2) George Janssen has released Parts 1 & 2 of Lesson 12 of his Coco 3
assembly language series - this time covering how to interface between BASIC
and assembly language programs, and also starts to cover handling interrupts
- particularly the GIME timer (including some primitive multi-tasking of a
machine language program while your BASIC program is actively running). He
also shows how DEFUSR works. Source code is available on his channel on
the Coco Discord to save you typing if you wish:
https://youtu.be/yqQQV8f-nSE?si=PfQMenXj3RlcdaeN
Part 2, where George goes through the BASIC program and ML routines in
much more detail:
https://youtu.be/PUfd6UgOXzQ?si=uJ6MWHERWSyUvO84

3) Tim Halloran has posted the 3rd video in his series on his YouTube
channel about restore a Coco 2 that he plans on showing at Tandy Assembly
2024. This episode goes into retrobriting to clean up the case:
https://youtu.be/VvQl8L9BJOc?si=XQSkLsOIsn5ZhzKH

4) Jud Pratt, who recently joined the Coco Facebook group, posted about his
being a member of the Youngstown, Ohio Color Computer Club as a kid. He
also posted links to scans of an article from the July 1983 issue of
Color Computer Magazine, where they talk about Color Computer User groups,
how entire families would attend, and what was done at meetings:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161406011967641/

5) In honor of July 4th Independence Day celebrations in the USA, Bill
Sexton posted a rendition of the American flag, drawn in the original Coco
1/2 Deskmate:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161415856927641/

6) Matt Perkins uploaded a short Facebook Reels video showing his clockwork
uConsole (an ARM64 based machine) running an emulated Coco 3. It looks
to be a little larger than a GameBoy and with a full keyboard and joypad
style joystick controller built in:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/486752480504842
Info on the hardware:
https://www.clockworkpi.com/

7) Boisy Pitre added a couple of quick videos showing the speed of booting
OS9 Level 1 on the F256 - one for booting from the SD card, and the other
from the cartridge. The cartridge is slightly faster:
Both videos are this link (SD card is the top one, cartridge is the second):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161406952442641/

8) pmig96 on X (formerly Twitter) showed what adding a 74HC4053 analog
multiplexer to a VDG (to switch chroma signals via software control can
do to expand the colors that the VDG can produce:
https://x.com/pmig96/status/1509537145861644296

9) TRS-80 Retro Programing returns after a hiatus with a video called
"How to make a pixel follow a slope using just PPOINT":
https://youtu.be/tYm-o3gD9jg?si=eUGhI3cKaa_-8K1J

10) Henry of The Break Key fame (and regular panelist on The Coco Nation
Show) put up a video about his working on reverse engineering the classic
Mark Data Products composite Universal Video driver, a hardware add on
that Mark Data sold back in the 80's so that people could hook up Coco
1's & 2's to composite monitors rather than just RF. He sleuths out how
he thinks it works:
https://youtu.be/tbTfUFGUd3o?si=zWaedq8Y7smGOKeU

11) Gary Becker has uploaded a firmware update for the GIME-X, which is bug
fixes (some to make things more compatible). You can get it in the GIME-X
channel on the Coco Discord (I don't have details of specific bugs fixed).

MC-10
-----
1) Olipix on YouTube has done another Alice video - this time a long one
covering the main French multiport extension - which supports ROM cartridges
(both manual and auto-starting), diagnostic cartridges, virtual USB hard
drives, dual classic Atari style joystick ports, as well as two expansion
slots for things like sound cards, etc (and demos of a lot of this stuff):
https://youtu.be/XTrc-N3QPVQ?si=BR3UBTsoiGJnBExR

2) Jim Gerrie posted his MC-10 port of "Poem", originally written by
J. Victor Nahigian and William S. Hodges from the 1980 book "Announcing
Computer Games". It's actually not a game, but a program that creates
computer created poems:
https://youtu.be/YY_3hhRdKAM?si=FqLQLgtCUsOuVq1_

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) John Whitworth posted a video in the Dragon group on Facebook showing
a modified SuperSprite FM+ board that uses Phil Antonio's V9958 FPGA
replacement. As John says, the video is looking good (and has direct HDMI
output) but the sound is still being worked on:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3742250346034607/

2) For anyone who can read German, the German Dragon newsletters we
mentioned last week are up on the World of Dragon archive (although they
need some cleanup of duplicate pages, etc.):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11183
(can show some from my desktop copy of the archive)

3) Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube did a Moire/SQR patterns based on a C64
one liner program. Note that it takes some time to set up:
https://youtu.be/oHkCrq4x7jE?si=ZSWzew1IbeLS2FY2

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Following up on last weeks talk about the loader for Rommel's Revenge,
David Ladd supplied a video:
https://youtu.be/XgKGszbyGLY?si=nxjeS4YnEOE_8AGK

2) Marco Spedaletti, creator of ugBASIC, has released SOKO64+ - a port of
the Soko64 (Sokoban) game using his ugBASIC language for multiple platforms,
including the Coco:
NOTE: If you downloaded at the beginning of this past week, you may need to
re-download as there was some bug fixes (including fixing joystick controls):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161406276737641/
His itch.io page entry, including downloads & screenshots for a variety
of platforms:
https://spotlessmind1975.itch.io/soko64plus

3) Jeff Wires of Chronologically Gaming did a talk at VCF SW a few weeks
back, and that seminar is now up on YouTube. He mentions the Coco multiple
times during the talk, including near the end where he answers an audience
question about the earliest proto-3D shooter, which was the Coco's Phantom
Slayer:
https://youtu.be/GjeWfEOb5Ro?si=KXOXcfTqxofAKhlq

4) Jim Gerrie ported the text adventure "CIA" by Susan Drake Lipscomb &
Margaret Ann Zuanich from the book "BASIC Fun With Adventure Games",
originally published in 1984 by Avon Camelot books:
https://youtu.be/FeB5ntFf544?si=dAvbFD36_vYwjDXR
(Will mention again that Jim has moved all of his software downloads to
the Internet Archive)

5) Paul Shoemaker is working on Goop Rush, and posted a video showing his
progress as of this week:
(show "Goop Rush (Paul Shoemaker) progress.mp4" from desktop)

6) Brent and Aaron review Sundog Systems "The Quest For Thelda" written
by Eric Wolf in 1989. Not long after it was recorded, Brent completed
the game, and it froze. Has anyone else completed it and see if this is
"normal", or maybe a bad copy because of copy protection, etc.?
https://www.youtube.com/live/1z3oFmAmgdk?si=SfiDMnPl4Rdb0iXZ

7) Wayne Campbell is porting a Coco 3 graphics version of Sokoban (with
multiples sets of levels from different versions of Sokoban - so more levels
than the Tandy cartridge version or the existing OS9 text mode version)
that he originally wrote (with help from William Astle, author of LWASM)
in Coco 3 BASIC to BASIC09. He uploaded a progress video that shows the
splash screen, and some of the levels:
(show "Sokoban1-OS9 (Wayne Campbell) progress.mp4" from desktop)

8) XperTek did his Spanish play/review of Tom Mix's The Frog on his real
Coco 2 with amber monitor:
https://youtu.be/NVqdF1Q8SrQ?si=fWgBr3HV6skZcRV9
He also played Ghost Gobbler by Spectral Associates:
https://youtu.be/wfk3NT6cJJM?si=z71SS7jo8d-5IXKn

9) Tim & AJ return to the Coco with Orbitron on the ust released episode
142 of Sibling Rivalry on their YouTube channel):
https://youtu.be/nhWZipy-taA?si=1ZyzeSk0S-7cO4lS

10) Vintage Geek put up another Tano Dragon video this morning, this time
concentrating on the software that came bundled with it - the games in
particular. but he didn't have any instructions and is asking for some help:
https://youtu.be/gbZGRzOXA3s?si=GvSonfW4bK1GhiwO

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 368, June 29, 2024

2026-04-05T18:11:01Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 368, June 29, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 368, June 29, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None

Interview schedule:
--------------------
None

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia was a 1 day
event from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They had a wide
variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
I think they recorded some of the seminars; I will try to find them for
next week's show.

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

The Dragon Meetup is being worked on - two possible venues (only a few
blocks from each other in Cambridge) and dates are still being ironed
out. Some discussions about it on the World of Dragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11179

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town, after multiple episodes on optimizing graphics, sound,
etc. is back to adding new features to his Moon Patrol project, originally
started in his teens. This time around, he adds level encoding (mapping),
and holes in the terrain:
https://youtu.be/a0LWibCzVLg?si=hZl6E_XuXsXEOG0Q

2) The next live TRS-80 Trash Talk (episode 40) will be July 6. They are
looking to try and get their largest panel ever... if anybody is interested
in joining (I just might), you can do so via the Tandy Discord, or send
me a message and I will pass it on.
Their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

3) The "Fujinet state of the union" talk that Thomas Cherryhomes gave a
few weeks ago at VCF-SW (including a lot of Coco updates) is now available
on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/dmrtCV4nC54?si=ZfuGpCg9oYeHYSr6

4) A bit of strange news - the Home Computer Museum's Coco 3 exhibit (This is
the hands on computer museum in the Netherlands) had their SD Card stolen,
so the Coco 3 part of the museum had been shutdown for a few weeks. But
they now have a populated SD card back, and the display is back up!
https://www.instagram.com/homecomputermuseum/p/C8rzjpOIcNq/?img_index=1

5) Boisy Pitre posted a quick video showing how fast OS-9 Level 1 (and
BASIC09) boot from the F256 machine that he has been porting OS9 to. Level
1 boots from Drivewire, and with that loaded (including a driver for the
512K flash disk) he shows it running a few utility commands and BASIC09
from the flash (not pre-loaded), showing how fast the flash drive works:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161401493397641/
And for a lot more detail on the F256 and OS9 in general, you can see
Boisy's full presentation from VCF-SW (which includes the mention that
there is a 6809 specific version coming out as one of the models for the
upcoming F256-2 version... combined with the Turbo09 project that Boisy
is also involved with, this should run faster than the Coco3FPGA (which
is equivalent of a 25 MHz 6809...):
https://youtu.be/KY_qHCr-zh8?si=kiiYUNFCrHsPmqfA
The preliminary product page for the upcoming F256K2 (expected out October
2024, for $495 USD):
https://c256foenix.com/f256k2/?v=3e8d115eb4b3

6) John Whitworth put up a video showing his sRGB boards working with audio
(as well as a photo of the adapter) on a Coco 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161390090247641/
Details and how to order the board can be found on John's DragonPlus
Electronics site (this works with Coco 1's, 2's (including T1's) and
Dragons... possibly with CP-400's, etc. from Brazil?):
https://dragonpluselectronics.com/product/superrgb-6x09-for-dragon-and-coco-12-computers/

7) Inspired (or challenged?) by Mark Siegel, Simon Jonassen is working on
extending his Coco 3 demo from a few years back to add "pseudo" alpha blend
transparency, and uploaded a video showing it moving across the screen. The
final version will have the ball bouncing instead of just gliding sideways:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161388066407641/

8) Lee Perkins posted to Facebook and Discord that he would like some
further testers for his 8 way hardware scrolling engine for his 6309/2
MB RAM port of a PC game to the Coco 3... particularly timing switching
screen modes from 320 / 16 color graphics to 40 column text. I think he
has the timings between different GIME's figured out now, and has been
helping emulator writers get their emulators to match real hardware). A
screenshot showing the effect can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161386004117641/
UPDATE: He has the player's sprite added to a screenshot from Discord:
(load local file cloud_kingdoms_withplayer_screenshot.jpg. Taken from
a real monitor)

9) I don't know if any are left, but Leslie Anderson is offering FREE
HD63C09ECP's - 3 MHz rated 6309's with external clock but in the PLCC
(square) form factor. This matches nicely with the adaptor board to 40 pin
DIP that we showed recently (and there is a picture of it in the comments
for those that missed it):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3399325737027451/

10) Ultra Gamer81 on YouTube posted a video showing the entire original
Coco 3 in store demo that Tandy themselves made to sell the Color Computer 3:
https://youtu.be/grD8Ez0ezpc?si=wmEIp8tgR-MjtcNv

11) Randy Kindig and Earl Evans talk about ugBASIC on episode 13 of the
NEXT WITHOUT FOR podcast. This is the cross platform compiled BASIC that
has Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 options along with many other computers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/floppydays/posts/3743654522559627/
Episode and show links:
https://www.nextwithoutfor.org/2024/06/show-013-ugbasic.html

12) Jason "CocoMan" Reighard uploaded his BoatFest video right before
showtime:
https://youtu.be/xNsW-XlkxWM

Thanks to Jason Timmons for mentioning CocoFest and it's growth during
the VCF Showrunner panel from VCF-SW!
(https://youtu.be/bVJoF-5w-Mw?si=F-0Wem3g8dQbDORO for those interested
in the history of VCF and where it is now)

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Vintage Geek (who have a great hands on museum if you are ever in
Knoxville, Tennessee) released a video about the Tano Dragon. This is the
Dragon 64 with NTSC output:
https://youtu.be/FxVvGZAWumw?si=xltyvvkBvGR0GH8X

2) FranzL on the World of Dragon forums mentioned that he has scans of most
issues of "Siegfrieds Drachenpost" - a German Dragon newsletter from the
early 1980's. He just uploaded scans of the 21 issues he has this morning,
and they are currently being processed:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11182

3) Julian Brown has further updates on his "Kitchen sink" Dragon motherboard,
which has a ton of extra features. He also just sent me this morning the
complete list of what he has accomplished on this project in June (with
the caveat that his time was limited by him doing an engine swap in his
son's car as well). So, I will show a picture of his latest board design,
and read his complete update:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3740494966210145/
(read file from my desktop, "CoCoNation Dragon RevX4 progress update June
26 2024.txt"

4) KukmanPL on YouTube put up a Polish video showing his running the Dragon
32 emulator thanks to the Recallbox system on the Raspberry 5. Unfortunately,
there is now Close Captioning or auto-translate available... does anyone
listening speak Polish? (from his screenshots, it looks like it is more
emulating a Coco 1/2 with artifact colors (or the NTSC Dragon Tano):
https://youtu.be/KdroBsz3A5U?si=YFfbeuBK46vG2tIQ

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie has converted another sample game program from the book
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to Artificial Intelligence" by Richard Forsyth
and Chris Naylor in 1986. This one is called the "Four-site game" and was
originally written for the IBM PC in GW BASIC:
https://youtu.be/yuzd6NuDdt0?si=v52XJqf-6HKWFxWO
Download it from the Internet Archive where Jim now has all of his programs.
He also ported "Fuzzy Rita" (originally written by Tim Hartnell in 1985
from the book "Exploring Expert Systems on Your Micro Computer"):
https://youtu.be/CmXf_gXYr2Y?si=lwiBti0vLUK15sxU
And he typed in The Tower of Hanoi, originally by J.L. Elkhorne in 1985,
which was an actual MC-10 listing from the UK book "Bumper Book of Computer
Programs" (published in 1986), which was a book made by "Your Computer"
magazine:
https://youtu.be/QyVSngsDNtA?si=2Flbxqm4hQA0-8pD

2) XperTek covers the original Coco launch title Chess on his amber monitor
equipped Coco 2 (real hardware):
https://youtu.be/8h0diUSi2sg?si=eCg23YQvgLvAFr6f

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 367, June 15, 2024

2026-04-05T18:07:49Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 367, June 15, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 367, June 15, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
There are **FOUR** events happening this weekend!

The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup is June 15 from
1-5 pm at San Francisco State University. There is an online signup sheet
to join the event, and they have announced that Bill Hogue of Big Five
Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

Terry Steen has organized a new retro club called "Richmond Retro Computer",
and they are having their first meeting is June 15 at the Richmond Public
Library on Patterson Avenue, from 2 to 3 pm. They plan on discussing future
meeting dates, events, tech talks, etc.:
https://www.meetup.com/richmond-retro-computers/events/301122005

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list.
*** NEW = TJBChris will be doing a seminar as well about the model
2/12/16,etc 8" drive "big iron" TRS-80's.
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia is a 1 day event
from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They are going to have a
wide variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
They did a live stream with several of the people in charge, for those
who want to find out more about the show:
https://www.youtube.com/live/vSnWzH-k8h8?si=eXotYeTxuNr4Qtvo

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Since TRS-80 Retro Programing is planning on releasing his various
Coco 1/2 games in progress fairly soon, he had to come up with both a name
and graphic intro for his software house. He did the latter with a pretty
neat effect:
https://youtu.be/G27gmPIjvOY?si=SL05qLVU5RQX3Y_z

2) Thomas Cherryhomes issued another update to Fujinet on the Coco in the
Coco Facebook group, this time aimed at developers. He is updating the
"fujinet-lib" library, which people can look at and learn how to use them
as adds more functionality on his github:
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161361684907641/
Github example of the Network configuration on the Coco:
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-lib/blob/main/coco/src/fn_fuji/fuji_get_adapter_config.c
And the corresponding function in the firmware (written in C++):
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-firmware/blob/master/lib/device/drivewire/fuji.cpp

3) Paulo Garcia is now offering dust covers for the Coco 2/3 cases. These
are not see through plastic like the Tandy original ones, but white-ish
with black trim:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161361533892641/

4) Timothy Halloran, an active participant in the TRS-80 Trash Talkers show,
is starting a video series on prepping a Coco 2 for the Tandy Assembly
2024 auction that he just purchased. There will be more videos to follow,
including upgrading it to 64K:
https://youtu.be/1eJzLNnAkoo?si=THnaVdBAEwaaaSb_

5) YouTube channel Memoria do Microcomputador ("Micro Memory Channel",
a Portuguese channel) did a video about the ProLogica CP400 Color II
(use translate & close captioning):
https://youtu.be/GAASDNfoBSw?si=839o4u2xfgfViheN

6) YouTube channel "FFF Gaming Emporium" did a video about his Coco 1
that he just set up, including trying some game cartridges and cassettes,
etc. Unfortunately he has comments turned off, so we have no way to offer
any help:
https://youtu.be/bZPg-bKuDa4?si=hJ9tiKzbsIgw7Rng

7) Coco Town release a new video called "5 shocking joystick secrets!". Some
of these even affect BASIC programs...
https://youtu.be/V9k1ntFKYC4?si=Xrn9vrCzSz9Q-sfn

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported another Artificial Intelligence demo program, this
time "Perceptron" (originally by Richard Forsyth and Chris Naylor from
the 1986 book "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Artificial Intelligence":
https://youtu.be/_GNdexEnhuM?si=i5fvMW8grjJQXPB-

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) For those using Ciaran's XRoar with the DREAM assemlber, apparently
one of the latest updates fixed a problem where DREAM files would not load
properly, according to Facebook Dragon group member Kataja Kirjuri:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3728183694107939/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) XperTek returns with another Coco 2 / amber screen monitor gameplay
video, this time Birds by Tom Mix Software:
https://youtu.be/EeSe1f7dqC8?si=V-9hviyzEHNlgrrI

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 366, June 8, 2024

2026-04-05T18:06:38Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 366, June 8, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 366, June 8, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
There are **FOUR** events happening next weekend!

The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup is June 15 from
1-5 pm at San Francisco State University. There is an online signup sheet
to join the event, and they have announced that Bill Hogue of Big Five
Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

Terry Steen has organized a new retro club called "Richmond Retro Computer",
and they are having their first meeting is June 15 at the Richmond Public
Library on Patterson Avenue, from 2 to 3 pm. They plan on discussing future
meeting dates, events, tech talks, etc.:
https://www.meetup.com/richmond-retro-computers/events/301122005

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list.
*** NEW = TJBChris will be doing a seminar as well about the model
2/12/16,etc 8" drive "big iron" TRS-80's.
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia is a 1 day event
from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They are going to have a
wide variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
They did a live stream with several of the people in charge, for those
who want to find out more about the show:
https://www.youtube.com/live/vSnWzH-k8h8?si=eXotYeTxuNr4Qtvo

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town put up a different kind of video - How a warning message in
Color BASIC "breaks the rules" and frightened him when he was 10:
https://youtu.be/xDHwzg3lvO0?si=kSBYC24cGzNe0OZc

2) RetroAndGaming on YouTube did a short summer holiday special video,
recapping what his channel has done recently (including his Coco 1) and
that he is taking a break from retro stuff for the summer... but when he
gets back to it, he plans on working on the Coco again:
https://youtu.be/7B9oXfYXz3U?si=2pGBLbzmY5PBAld2

3) Thomas Cherryhomes has another Coco related update that he posted about
in both the Coco Discord and the Coco Facebook group, adding Becker port
support to Fujinet PC, which allows hooking up to Fujinet from any Coco
emulator that supports the port (and includes a video):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161357678617641/

4) Luciano Scharf & Daniel Campos both posted some photos from the 8th
Color Rio Club meeting (which was held on June 1) in Brazil:
Luciano's:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161356223832641/
Daniel's (includes a group photo):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161348018112641/

5) Jason Reighard announced that the domain issues (nothing that he did)
are fixed and his site is back to where it should be: http://cocoman.biz
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161346158717641/
Jason also attended Hamvention 2024 in Xenia, Ohio, and his two part
coverage can be found on his Fairly Amused YouTube channel. No Coco finds
this year from what I saw.
Part 1:
https://youtu.be/dPDMNggdbr0?si=svQUkAMZ-_4KN_YX
Part 2:
https://youtu.be/0fwYsUSXYJw?si=k3UREt7m2JhBz52o

6) Our very own Ken Waters posted a photo of a couple of musical legend
celebrities who got their picture in front of the Dino Wars posted:
pianist Todd Hunter (who plays with Dionne Warwick) and Antonia Bennett,
daughter of Tony Bennett and a famous jazz singer in her own right:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161346085102641/

7) Tim Lindner posted a link to a YouTube video where Usagi Electric (David)
has started a new experimental series with longer episodes interviews AJ
of Forgotten Machines (whom a lot of us saw at CocoFest last month). One
of the topics that comes up - the flashing "eye" on KITT from the TV series
Knight Rider originally used a 6809 to control it (6:44):
https://youtu.be/E3EIbhImXrM?si=-y_9buQg4EGtl4SW

8) Henry of The Break Key (and our panel) released a video on his YouTube
channel with an update to his ROM Forth project - adding in error messages
(and scrolling):
https://youtu.be/WDoWlSgZ3F8?si=VPXAZsrSg1UcHh0y

9) Pierre Sarrazin posted an update and question for the public who use
his CMOC C-compiler on the Coco, to the cocolist email group:
"Hi. I'm in the process of adding a second calling convention to CMOC,
a C-like compiler that targets the 6809.
I have seen C programs for the 6809 that had some code written in
assembly that assumed a calling convention where the first parameter
of a function is received in register B or X, depending on its size,
instead of on the stack, as in CMOC's default convention.
platotermCoCo is such a program:
https://github.com/beretta42/platotermCoCo/tree/master/src/coco2
I'm looking for a detailed description of that calling convention,
with the goal of clarifying a few questions that I have on corner cases.
1. Is the first parameter still passed in B or X when the parameter is
a 1- or 2-byte struct or union?
2. When the return value is one or two bytes, which register is it
returned in?
3. When the function must return a struct, a union, a long, a float
or a double, does it receive a hidden first parameter that points
to the location to be filled with the return value?
If so, is that hidden parameter received in X?
What if the return type is a 1- or 2-byte struct or union?
Thanks for any leads..."
You can email him your opinion at:
sarrazip@sarrazip.com

10) "Leep" on the Coco Discord is working on a massive multi-level, 8 way
scrolling graphic arcade game for the Coco 3. He needs some people to test
the graphics engine, with high system requirements:
Coco 3, 2 MB RAM, 6309. Both 1986 and 1987 versions of the GIME. This
is to ensure that the precise timing of switching the GIME mode from
320x200x16 color to hardware text is timed properly to look smooth. He
has some details in his post in the "hardware general" channel on the Coco
Discord, and a link to download and try it:
(Show Discord message & screenshot)

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie released an update to his "Texted" text editing utility
for the MC-10. This one runs in SG6 (64x48x4) and supports lower case
characters, with a 16x7 editing screen:
https://youtu.be/IWHtO05TYCI?si=DZ6GZJv4_z1U82cO
He also released "Robot Maze Learner", originally by Richard Forsyth and
Chris Naylor for the IBM PC in 1986, which was written to demonstrate
simple AI machine learning techniques:
https://youtu.be/2YGKnrYUIoI?si=AJZgHJxOSxc-Iv62

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Italian YouTube channel "Thousand and One Adventure" did a 1/2 hour
video about ugBASIC, and includes compiling/running the same "random dots"
program on multiple platforms, including the Dragon 32. Turn CC on to get
the translated close caption text:
https://youtu.be/SXIlrrj7u0Q?si=HGq4rXBh8d9bHtqo

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted a teaser of a replacement, 3D printed case
bottom for a Dragon (sounds like it needs a larger than average 3D printer
to do it as a one piece):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3725214617738180/

3) Julian Brown posted an update on his SAM rewrite for the RevX4 board,
where he mentions he may need a bigger CPLD to include all the features
that he wants to add (I will read post for full details):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3723708431222132/
He posted this morning that he is going for a bigger chip with possibly a
Spartan-6 FPGA being his choice, with some more details on what he wants
built in:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3726507497608892/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Olipix, a French channel on YouTube, put up a video of their pick of
the top 30 games for the MC-10 and Alice 4K:
https://youtu.be/YhLn5F0Am_g?si=gWanlGMhyxjyuazA

2) Jim Gerrie updated his 2010 game Snakebite for the MC-10 (originally
inspired by a Sinclair ZX-81 game). This version adds new key input methods
from Greg Dionne (creator the MC-10 BASIC compiler), the ability earn
extra lives and some other minor updates:
https://youtu.be/6vxURN9NKHo?si=vLznE7hHPrIzgiyI

3) Spanish YouTube channel XperTek released a longer game play video this
week - "80's Games Volume 3", featuring 12 Coco 1/2 games that he plays
on his amber monitor equipped Coco 2, and includes both Tandy and 3rd
party released titles. Some of these he hasn't played in quite awhile,
and remembers how to play them on the fly:
https://youtu.be/N9G87EEQocQ?si=n2lYldeswyQ_rU11

4) YouTube channel "Ultra Gamer81" did a video playthrough of the Coco
version of Zaxxon:
https://youtu.be/4ce8lXbpeXA?si=2OnddjW1LTk7sxpX

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 365, June 1, 2024

2026-04-05T18:04:31Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 365, June 1, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 365, June 1, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup is June 15 from
1-5 pm at San Francisco State University. There is an online signup sheet
to join the event, and they have announced that Bill Hogue of Big Five
Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list.
*** NEW = TJBChris will be doing a seminar as well about the model
2/12/16,etc 8" drive "big iron" TRS-80's.
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia is a 1 day event
from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They are going to have a
wide variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
They did a live stream with several of the people in charge, for those
who want to find out more about the show:
https://www.youtube.com/live/vSnWzH-k8h8?si=eXotYeTxuNr4Qtvo

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Today is our 365th episode - this means people new to the show can spend
an entire year watching a show EVERY DAY, occasionally up to 6 hours per day!

2) Jason (cocoman.biz) has put his video about CocoFest 2024 Day 2 on his
Fairly Amused YouTube page:
https://youtu.be/rh62H48P4HI?si=difoDnb21tUoucch
Also, Jason has temporarily had to get a new domain for cocoman.biz:
https://cocoman.my-online.store/

3) The 6502 Show did a video showing his using TSC's Adaptation Guide to
adapt Flex for the 6800 to his homebrew 6802 system... could this also be
ported to the 6803 in the MC-10?
https://youtu.be/TJUeloqCTRA?si=ad4o91vKgSVkYxV7

4) Coco Town on YouTube returns to working on his Moon Patrol style game
with Game Revolutions cycle 11 - this time working on scrolling gravel at
high speed, based on a user suggestion:
https://youtu.be/hWg3OAJuMhE?si=44FO-IrTgo6GRDVL

5) Neil Blanchard announce on Facebook that anyone who has their CocoFest
2024 pass, will be able to enter Tandy Assembly in September for *free*
(regular attendees; those with tables as exhibitors or vendors will still
pay their normal fees):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161339084337641/

6) 8-Bit Wall of Doom on YouTube released a 20 minute video about the Foenix
F256 - with the FNX6809 and NitrOS9 Level 1 and 2 ports that Boisy made for
them. This talk covers some of the history of the 6809, OS-9 and NitrOS9:,
and shows the board and the FNX6809 part:
https://youtu.be/R6Tcj2NeeRM?si=rbQ-OXoVjEDJbzsO

7) Thomas Cherryhomes has announced that the Coco's Fujinet firmware is
now part of the nightly builds, and can be applied via the web flasher app,
for those who want to try the bleeding edge of Fujinet on the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161343997912641/

8) Simon Jonassen posted on the Coco Facebook group that thanks to a little
cable extender that John Whitworth had originally done for the SuperRGB
(to extend/move any VDG upgrades to away from the their original spot)
worked for the CocoVGA as well on his PAL T1 Coco 2. The PAL T1 Coco has
the VDG located under the keyboard, and there isn't enough space to plug
in the satellite boards for the CocoVGA or SuperRGB. This little upgrade
plugs into the VDG socket but puts out a cable that can than fit elsewhere
in the case with these taller upgrades:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161337890112641/

9) For those who were not able to make it to the Fest, Brian Wieseler has
posted some photos of the Coco 1 pre-production board that he got from Robert
Kilgus (dates to probably spring of 1980 - before the official Coco release:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/974392120843187/

10) Eddie Malphrus posted a photo of what the Coco exhibit he is working
on for VCF-SW (two weeks from now in Dallas/Fort Worth):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/974114837537582/

11) Chris Burke (of B&B fame) posted, with a picture, a Searle style 6809
board that he converted to use a 6809E (external clock, like the Coco
uses). He hints that was doing some "6809E in-circuit emulation experiments
and didn't want to risk blowing up a Coco".... so what experiments is
doing for a Coco, I wonder?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3380657868894238/

12) Tim Lindner has posted a browser based 6809 disassembler, which includes
the feature of following code execution, to help it differentiate data areas
from code areas. It is based on DASM09 originally by Arto Salmi. It allows
raw BIN code as well as DECB files (with the 5 byte pre & post -ambles):
https://www.macmess.org/follow9.html

13) Tim Gilberts, one of our special guests on the giant 6 hour Dragon show
we did some time back, did a report the Portable Computer show that that
was at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge that were mentioning
the past couple of months, which you can watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/QNfgCAbrWtc?si=nSNKQZZWuYspuH9I

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie released an MC-10 program that shows 17 flags using the
MC-10's SG4 graphics (a few even have some brief songs):
https://youtu.be/NVUlPWr8CCE?si=1xENrsDIf7shjH_H

2) Tim Halloran (a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talkers podcast) posted a
video about the PiKey-10 for the MC-10 - a hardware addition that allows
using a modern keyboard on the MC-10 - while still leaving the original
keyboard usable as well:
https://youtu.be/qATZ3tDIU1s?si=VYEHg_0rfimVqft2

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Robcfg in the World of Dragon Forums posted up a picture of a fully
assembled Dragon Beta board (scroll down):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11044&start=30

2) There was a question to Jim Brain about software support for the MIDI
Maestro board for the Dragon. Ciaran Anscomb (author of XRoar, Dunjunz,
etc.) found some software originally written by Ian ones that might work
with the Dragon 64 serial port, and uploaded it the World of Dragon forum:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11176

3) Julian Brown did numerous update posts on his Dragon ATX project. In one
of the latest ones he posted, he mentions that since he no longer has use
an actual 40 pin SAM but a CPLD with more pins, that he can add more RAM,
have a single byte to write to map video RAM (rather than the odd/even
memory addresses per bit), and also to extend the RAM that the VDG can
see up to 128K:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3720917938167848/
Actually, just this morning, Julian sent me the full details thus far:
"Dragon RevX4 Plus Kitchen Sink Edition

ATX board is fab ready but still being checked.
SAMx VHDL is baselined for the current spec to
get the board up and running -

Current Spec:

Flex-ATX sized board to fit any regular mini-
or micro-ATX case, using the ATX power supply
Single speed CPU (with regular fast mode)
64K SRAM (out of 4MB fitted)
128K Video RAM address space
16K ROM (out of 512K fitted)
Plugin Video options
Plugin Audio options
4 MPI ports
Joystick and Cassette ports migrated to mini-din
Joysticks upgraded to 2 fire buttons
Serial RS232
Optional PS2 keyboard support

Target Spec (different from above):

Double/Quad speed CPU (smooth video fast modes)
1MB SRAM (out of 4MB fitted)*
2K page size for RAM, 2 tasks supported
128K Video RAM address space
16K ROM paged out of 512K**
Plugin Audio options***
Generic expansion port
(1 or 2 depending on main board size)

* If I can get the mapping to work at the 4MB size I
will. Maximum address space is 16MB. It may require a
larger CPLD to make this viable (plus the Xilinx chip
specified is no longer made). RAM page lookup will be
from memory although the current map will be held in
registers so only needs access while switching tasks

** ROM will paged at 8K boundaries and can be mapped
into any of the regular ROM base addresses. Finer
grained paging is possible and potentially to any
point in the 64k memory space (ignoring the last 2K).
I'm aiming to make the ROM writable from in-system
allowing for either a "ram drive" without batteries
or sideways ram. Writing of the flash rom is performed
by the SAM, not the CPU so this requires the
introduction of a blitter function

*** The 2nd, 3rd and 4th expansion slots have two PIA
blocks associated with each (selected from the PIA1
address space $ff20-$ff3f), and further mapped ram
bound to $40000, $80000 and $C0000 (all subject to
getting the ram paging working nicely)"

4) Steven Goodwin did another presentation of his "20 GOTO 10" book (we
talked to him about it a year or two ago). This presentation actually has
a fair about the Dragon 32 in it, including a tech description of how and
why the setting of the screen address (using the SAM and VDG) works the
way it does:
https://youtu.be/MMUJWKnWDXY?si=U3XRSMFlxd_kGfG_

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Peter of 8bitsinthebasement fame, has released his Bob and The Alien
Fire Flies game for both the Coco and the Dragon, and it it is available for
free from his itch.io page. The game is completely free from his page, with
both cassette and disk versions for the Coco, and cassette for Dragon. The
source code is also available:
https://8bitsinthebasement.itch.io/bob-and-the-alien-fireflies-coco-dragon-version

2) Jim Gerrie released an update to his Elevator Action game (that he
originally released in 2019), although he doesn't mention what exactly
the update entails:
https://youtu.be/53hK3sFFdFc?si=XeECytjVsy2O8tuL

3) AJ & Tim cover the soon to be officially released Coco 1/2 game Savage
Sword of Cocoan (written by Erico Monteiro) on their Sibling Rivalry
show (Erico is planning some additions like sound for he final version,
I believe):
https://youtu.be/uqO3gUXJa-M?si=f0hVLjdfCtvyW7Lx

4) F_T_B on Facebook put up a video of the history of The Games of Thinking
Rabbit - the creators of Sokoban. For those interested in the history of
that company and their games, check out the 3/4 hour documentary on YouTube
(it mentions the Coco version early on):
https://youtu.be/DvEfSP-sRXI?si=r7cN8OPQQlGi5tYl

5) Ultra Gamer81 on YouTube did 10+ minute game play video of Epyx Pitstop
II for the Coco 1/2 (including a pitstop to refuel):
https://youtu.be/nYVvvaJlPL8?si=wRqvNTznbdPqcsdN

6) Nostalgiavault on YouTube did a couple more gameplay videos of educational
games for the Coco 1/2: Grover's Number Rover:
https://youtu.be/iFUcevE1zDk?si=ZTg3r61f7Z7Tb3ma
Ernie's Magic Shapes:
https://youtu.be/VbISVgYrrMc?si=mhbjTjdm2mQMM5Fm

7) Stu's Game Reviews on YouTube (who has done a ton of the TRS-80 Model
1/3 games, not to mention many other platforms) did his first Coco games
stream - with the launch title ROM pak Chess, written by Peter Jennings. He
also does a bonus game cartridge at the end (Galactic Attack):
https://www.youtube.com/live/Pp-HZMW0HfE?si=x8CX9hDbBb46yIyx

8) XperTek released another Coco 2/amber monitor gameplay video this week -
this time covering the official Zaxxon:
https://youtu.be/KiHxm_bdlIo?si=zqSzIgWi2tNc3lyv

9) RetroGames covered Pooyan this past week - doing separate gameplay
videos for the Coco version as well as Atari 2600, Atari 400/800 and arcade.
Coco version:
https://youtu.be/xg6fsVwbk-E?si=6dPLiiGfkvsymX6p

10) Chronologically Gaming covered the Dragon 32 release of Katerpillar
Attack from Microdeal (originally by Tom Mix Software), showing the new
and improved artwork that the Dragon version got:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV6B_AtIjDo&t=545s

11) "Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU)": put up a couple more gameplay
videos to enter as high scores.
Shark Treasure:
https://youtu.be/zCXWJ5j4iEk?si=fuaiX9AndQbXT9HB
Pegasus And the Phantom Riders:
https://youtu.be/cxSeLn1qUdM?si=u5RSR4xCW9uSruWj

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 364, May 25, 2024

2026-04-05T18:03:34Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 364, May 25, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 364, May 25, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup is June 15 from
1-5 pm at San Francisco State University. There is an online signup sheet
to join the event, and they have announced that Bill Hogue of Big Five
Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia is a 1 day event
from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They are going to have a
wide variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
They did a live stream with several of the people in charge, for those
who want to find out more about the show:
https://www.youtube.com/live/vSnWzH-k8h8?si=eXotYeTxuNr4Qtvo

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) The Vintage Geek put up a video showing a bit of the history of X10
controllers, and then demos the Radio Shack Plug 'n Power running from a Coco
2, including showing the built in software and controlling multiple devices:
https://youtu.be/nkcERvE8bsI?si=gD1tXwFSwaH2oijM

2) Ken has posted parts 3 & 4 of our lengthy interview with Robert
Kilgus. Part 3 covers the main part of his career with the Coco from
1979-1984, including selected as one of the few to get the earliest
prototypes of the TRS-80 Color Computer, the cross development system
he used for the earliest Coco programs, and developing his Coco specific
programs and games:
https://youtu.be/kJT9T2apvvs?si=6kYwYM_p10q57jtR
Part 4 (the final part) finishes covering the Coco (including the unreleased
OS-9 Scripsit from 1984) and his final home computer (multi-platform) project
- and what went wrong there. And a bit of what he is following these days:
https://youtu.be/uwuS4dFg93o?si=T3RAXmxPugyQuTsb

3) Aaron Newcomb on his Retro Hack Shack After Hours channel posted a
video of a "mystery mod" that he found on a Coco 1 he purchased from ebay,
which he delves into figuring out what it does (hint: it's video related):
https://youtu.be/5m_5qh7uI9w?si=mktLb3VxUKxcercq

4) Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato) posted a video showing some music he
did using the PLAY command several decades ago featuring the music of RUSH
(Good choice!), and explains some of the PLAY commands he used:
https://youtu.be/zkClAtFq4GM?si=tZKVxYjDOO_fxfRo
He also posted a video about his breaking of his Mini-MPI (2 slot MPI from
Ed Snider/Zippsterzone), and seeing if he can fix it:
https://youtu.be/xcoV2Kthi6w

5) Jason (cocoman.biz) has put his video about CocoFest 2024 on his Fairly
Amused YouTube page:
https://youtu.be/bSTmng8zpkU?si=59RH0m7vl5eEk6GF
He also has the jam session for those who want to assault their ears. It
includes our parody of the Tommy Tutone song "867 5309 (Jenny), called
"Upgrading to a 6309" near the beginning. I posted the lyrics (pretty
close to the version used; we were changing it just a few hours before)
in the comments:
https://youtu.be/eNgbZy6G8O0?si=nu50-AQV9XyUQvUU

6) TRS-80 Retro Programing released a video of his testing his Tales of
Suburbia stage 3 save game feature:
https://youtu.be/G3OFcmwshCI?si=NitkMV37XzETHdK7

7) Thomas Cherryhomes posted that a new version of TNFSD (24.0522.1) has
been released, which fixed crucial bugs found when they deployed the new TCP
transport, and it is recommended that everyone using Fujinet switch to it
(who is running tnfs servers). Firmware updates for users of Fujinet are
also coming shortly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161322549042641/
He also put out a request for people to help port 5 Card Stud to the Coco
for Fujinet (it looks like Brendan Donahe may have volunteered to help):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161315838507641/

8) Mike Rayburn posted a correction (brought to his attention by a user)
to his Coco PS/2 kit, so he has updated his assembly instructions adding
a missing critical step:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161314104987641/

9) "They Create Worlds Podcast" on their 173rd episode is doing part 2
of their "The Computer Price Wars". Just over half an hour in they get
to the TRS-80 Color Computer, although they poo-poo it as not being that
relevant (once again, I wish we could get firm numbers on Coco's sold,
although at least for the Coco 1 I know it was over 500,000). Instead they
place a lot of emphasis on the TI-99/4A - which was blown out at bargain
prices and gone from the market by March of 1984. The Coco, as we know,
lasted from 1980 all the way to 1991; one of the last 8 bits standing:
https://youtu.be/Ae1NJl8kFhM?si=dTrsg-M7WVeCHflJ

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown posted another update to his expanded Dragon 32 motherboard
design for an ATX case. It has enough room for 3 slots for it's built in
MPI, 256K RAM support (he may expand it to 1 or even 4 MB). And Julian -
with NitrOS9 and/or Fuzix there is plenty use for 1 MB of RAM or higher -
like the MOOH board does:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3715303238729318/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) CocoTown did a rather different video - using the cheat code that Chris
Latham gave during out interview with him some years ago to his game Sailor
Man, which prevents any collision detection from killing the player. However,
as he soon discovered... it doesn't disable the timer of taking too long
after a heart, note, or letters hits the bottom before the players life ends:
https://youtu.be/BQxRWrDiDUY?si=bXB1fFEaMDIc58oK

2) Richard Atkinson posted some photos of the manual and disk set for an
adventure game for the Dragon 64 called "The Stone of Magician", although
the main instructions and the game itself is in German. From the responses,
this is a game that has not been seen before, and came out from Dragon
Power Software in 1990/1991:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3712800785646230/

3) Rick Adams, with help from multiple people, has been working on getting
his newly found original Omnistar (not the Coco 3 one released a few
years ago, but a Coco 1/2 not completed version from the 1980's) running
as far as he had gotten back in the day, and has been posting updates and
screenshots of his progress. I don't believe that he has plans to finish
the game at this point:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/971047051177694/

4) XperTek did another Coco 2/amber monitor game play video, this time
covering Tandy's Tennis, programmed by the Image Producers:
https://youtu.be/WDuyrJUOC8A?si=82CyPG7iTD7i6ARB

5) Nostalgia Vault (which does gameplay videos for a wide variety of
systems), covered both the Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 versions of Ruptus from
Inufuto with short video clips, which is a Bosconian style game we played
not too long ago on the Game On Challenge (scroll to find the Coco entries):
https://www.youtube.com/@nostalgivault3439/videos

6) Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU) put up a quick 2 minute video
showing gameplay and a high score attempt playing S.A.S (Special Air
Service) on the Dragon 32/64. This is not one that I have seen before,
but looks to be a war strategy game. Has anybody in the Dragon community
played this one before (it seems to be a BASIC/ML (sound) hybrid):
https://youtu.be/QyffpOR46qA?si=kCdtfRUn99h_fu70

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 363, May 18, 2024

2026-04-05T18:02:21Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 363, May 18, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 363, May 18, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
Peter of 8bitsinthebasement will be here to show and talk about his new game
(currently in beta) that is for all 3 Coco models and the Dragon 32/64. It
is based on a game he wrote for the Atari VCS earlier, and both versions
are the very first assembly language programs he has ever written!

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Parts 1&2 of 4 part Robert Kilgus interview from Ken on his Canadian Retro
Things YouTube channel are now up (see news).

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Festival of Portable Computing is on today and tomororw (May 18-19, 2024)
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup has been
announced. June 15 from 1-5 pm at San Franciso State University. There
is an online signup sheet to join the event, and they have announced that
Bill Hogue of Big Five Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town has posted Game revolutions cycle 10, where he follows up
with the actual cause/solution of the slowing down/speeding up of the
scrolling in his Moon Patrol game:
https://youtu.be/HBK0xeoamFU?si=7ocOy6-Jn9BWR9Tp

2) TRS-80 Retro Programing released a video to show running total numbers
on the screen:
https://youtu.be/bp1TXmJXduQ?si=vuQ5k1qpBgjCBaG3

3) Our very own Ken Waters of Canadian Retro Things has been extremely
busy this week.
First, with a quick review of CocoFest 2024:
https://youtu.be/wzQYNZjpNKo?si=cdIYQYaYxgriF_8I
And then, with parts 1 and 2 of our lengthy interview with Robert Kilgus:
Part 1: The Early Years:
https://youtu.be/zQAq5wNLcCo?si=hkDXXGssA93To7Vq
Part 2: The TRS-80 Model 1 Years:
https://youtu.be/gAqG0lSyuLs?si=woaTCgeCWxUi3h-m

4) Frank Linhares of RetroRewind.ca has public service announcement:
"We had a small number of Diagcarts that left here with a beta of the code
accidentally. The ones in question are rev 2.1, the rev number is on the
main screen.
If anyone got one, take a screenshot of it showing that it’s 2.1, send
it to us so that we can send them the proper rev 2.2 one. This affects
the RAM & 6309 tests in particular."

5) Peter of 8bitsinthebasement (who was on earlier to show the game in
question) put up a video on using assembly code written for the Coco, and
getting it working on a Dragon (for his game Bob and the Alien Fireflies),
which he tests with a ROM hack on a Coco to run the Dragon ROM's:
https://youtu.be/lBtHfmC17-E?si=3zVO5djjwBwql_K6

6) John Linville posted that they are inviting speakers for Tandy Assembly
2024, and that they also would like some volunteer contestants for the
Saturday night Tandy trivia game - they need 3 in all that have not played
it before. They are also adding "an expert round for each contender,
[who will need to tell John] their area of Tandy/TRS-80 expertise... the
more niche the better:
https://www.facebook.com/tandyassembly/posts/pfbid0243qkkm28phhYCFXeVURnPiELb5Hb6FGmyLTti98JPLuAXS5u2xuJ76EfWrkdEuQnl

MC-10
-----
1) Simon Jonassen put up a video on Facebook showing his first try at a 4
voice 1 bit music player on the MC-10. As he mentions in the description,
it is a work in progress and will get better:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7438579222935502/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) The "You Make Robots" channel on YouTube put up an instructional
video for using an SD card reader to load programs on a Dragon 32, using
a Dragonuitape(Maxduino):
https://youtu.be/KQPC7vQ0PWg?si=Cm4IHjtTO1XKNjDw

2) Paco Blasco Abril proudly shows off his Dragon tattoo in the Dragon
Facebook users group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3706591666267142/

3) "Mostly Horses and Retro Computing" (MHARC) on YouTube posted a video
followup of trying to get software to load on his Dragon 32 from cassette
files. He gets it working (demonstrating Frogger), but he is not getting
sound and the colors aren't right. If anyone has suggestions on things
for him to check, feel free to leave him a comment:
https://youtu.be/zAIE0-60y0U?si=51vKIVOCzwZ81fYr

4) For those interested in "general" home computer magazines from the UK
(like BYTE, Creative Computing, etc. were in North America), The Laird's
Lair went through some of "Your Computer" in a video that is part 1 of
a magazine retrospective. They published both ads and programs for many
earlier UK computers, including the Dragon. In this video he covers the
December 1983 and April 1984 issues:
https://youtu.be/oylrL_KV4l0?si=dPaRUYdRQQko9IVk

5) Julian Brown put up an experimental board layout on the Dragon group
in Facebook. If one did away with the original case, how much could he
squeeze in to an expanded Dragon, while retaining all of the original
features? What he has listed (and I am not sure what size the board design
is), he has added:
up to 3.6 MHz 6309
256K of RAM
Dual AY sound chips (6 channels total)
"fast" UART serial (I assume he means buffered, like the 16x50 series?)
Expanded video options (addressable VDG) - not sure what this means
2 button joystick support
(He answers my questions about the above in the comments)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3711178192475156/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) YouTube channel Nostalgiavault posted 2 videos showing the Coco version
of Kindercomp - a series of 6 educational games from Spinnaker software:
https://youtu.be/erZchLTXtyA?si=Orh6sJkKjoe6no92
https://youtu.be/XbWtf5wVuLQ?si=zZNP_ZJ47KHPxSGn

2) Chronologically Gaming on YouTube is still continuing with all video
game releases from October 1982, and covered a few Coco ones this week:
Protectors (by Tom Mix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltLVMdMZAO4&t=65s
Tank (from T&D magnazine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLRGpj-o7dQ&t=1462s

3) XperTek covered Pooyan on his real hardware/amber monitor Coco 2
setup. The amber monitor makes it *really* hard to see what one is doing
on this game, unfortunately:
https://youtu.be/sochL2l8WQg?si=xKIg_-CQToyojx7i&t=45

4) RetroGamerDiaries did a history & comparison video on their YouTube
channel, covering the History of the Horace games (which the Dragon
received several ports of) from Melbourne House - an Australian software
company. Gameplay for the various platforms is shown, including Hungry
Horace and Horace Goes Skiing for the Dragon:
https://youtu.be/KG67XDZFYiw?si=RYHOED3NSOPccaUd

5) Tim & AJ return to the Coco with a Sibling Rivlary episode with one of
the Coco's earliest titles, Super Bustout (written by Glenn Sogge of The
Image Producers on the original prototype TRS-80 Color Computer):
https://youtu.be/8hb5GD6NQZc?si=7_PdYf7e5KYH7V8S

6) Richard Kelly has released "Monsters And Magic" 64K Edition Beta
6. This is Richard doing reverse engineering, updates and bug fixes to
the original Mike Snyder version that originally appeared in an issue of
T&D tape magnazine (and Mike was an interview guest of ours a year or so
ago). You can download it from the Coco Facebook group. Richard provides
some details to the updates (including screenshots) in the comments:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161313663772641/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 362, May 11, 2024

2026-04-05T18:01:04Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 362, May 11, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 362, May 11, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None.

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Look out for the Robert Kilgus interview from Ken on his Canadian Retro
Things YouTube channel once editing is done!

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup has been
announced. June 15 from 1-5 pm at San Franciso State University. There
is an online signup sheet to join the event, and they have announced that
Bill Hogue of Big Five Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center in New
Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

COCOFEST!
---------
1) A bit of confusion in that live streaming of the show floor was done
via The Coco Nation channels on Twitch and YouTube, but the seminars were
on the Glenside Color Computer Club's YouTube stream. We will make this
more clear (and in advance!) next year. But you can watch replays of all
4 seminars as well as the auction on the Glenside YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@glensideccc/streams
And the show floor livestream on The Coco Nation channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@The_CoCo_Nation/streams

2) Some summary videos are already popping up, to, including:
Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato) (he actually has bit of our jam session too):
https://youtu.be/KvywZMwFTS8?si=NKUEMJ0ZhtO4sX5i
Obscu:RE (9B's channel) (even includes Coco multi-voice generated music
as a background):
https://youtu.be/WPwjmiTxU2M?si=E9_YX7tQTFMSzQMw
Computer Hobbyists:
https://youtu.be/5F9mYRFUa9g?si=4skFmDOwvpXyADm_

3) There are also numerous groups of photos, from Glenside, Jim Brain,
Ron Delvaux, etc. on Facebook.
(I can find some if people on the show don't already have a ton. I will
show my Robert Kilgus signing the Dino Wars poster)

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Coco Town released Game revolutions cycle 9 of his project of finishing
a Moon Patrol style game from his youth, this time investigating why the
scrolling speed in the previous episode started fluctuating:
https://youtu.be/FO1SetsLCbQ?si=w_UA3zLeVkjfczLT

2) While not a Coco related video, Taylor & Amy's latest episode (covering
an 8085 based homebrew computer - the same CPU as the Tandy Model 100/102)
did mention that they were sorry that they missed CocoFest, and to watch
The Coco Nation. Thanks for the shoutout!
https://youtu.be/3qrhPROKYrU?si=5--CPfcCiCbBrvbL

3) Tim and AJ posted a time lapse video showing an entire recording day of
their Sibling Rivalry show, "behind the scenes". Since they record 4 shows in
a single day, they actually do costume and hair changes between each machine:
https://youtu.be/iWcYIbtcYl0?si=xRFIE64pedHrQEpx

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a video taking an in depth look using
the flashlight in his Tales of Suburbia game that he is getting close
to finishing:
https://youtu.be/rEPSmnAIG84?si=qOqkIL3n7fNuJwP1
He also did a video on random graphics, based on a listing in the BASIC
manuals, and includes some shortcuts for some graphics commands:
https://youtu.be/fArb0Rz993c?si=BNfqLtgvd8rx-uTx

5) Henry Gernhardt posted a video (just before CocoFest, where he
demonstrated this live, as well as his FORTH ROM) about getting the latest
Fujinet hardware going (including assembly), and what he discovered along the
way. This is the version that is a cartridge and doesn't need separate power:
https://youtu.be/5ZLF359y6DE?si=TaVZwZd1Yg8LsHCf

6) Alderson Retro Computing put up a short video on YouTube showing a
small demo program for the Coco 3, and showing how to type the code in
a text editor in Windows, and then copying/pasting the code into current
versions of VCC directly:
https://youtu.be/D4eyEpaECNo?si=FriybMWa_5wi3klM

7) RetroAndGaming posted a video about upgrading a Coco CPU from the
Motorola 6809 to the Hitachi 6309, and using some tips from my comments
on his previous video to test color and and sound on his Coco 1:
https://youtu.be/TRcOYjvvE_U?si=AgQzm3iS2wemLPXa

8) Mike Kadolph posted on the Coco group on Facebook that after 5 months,
he has "completed my remake of my 1980's project and have a working 2
meter ham radio repeater, using his Coco 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161300032417641/

9) Thomas Cherryhomes is asking the Coco programming community for some
help in porting some cross platform turn based games, including Poker,
Yahtzee, trivia games, etc. to run with Fujinet, allowing players to play
against each other over the internet and across different 8 bit platforms
in the same game:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161289097527641/

10) At the same time as CocoFest last weekend, Brazil was also having
their 13th RetroSC retro computing show, including their wide variety of
Coco clones, in Blumenau, SC, Brazil. Luciano Scharf put up some photos
from the show in the Coco group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161288870922641/

11) Rick Adams released a re-imagining of game he wrote decades ago
called Omnistar. Turns out he recently found a printed source listing of
his original (previously presumed lost) half completed version of the game,
and found that it was actually planned to be more expansive than the release
he did recently. So he and others are thinking of ways to try and OCR the
listing, and maybe complete the original vision of the game:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/960484908900575/

12) The TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast was live last Saturday during CocoFest
as well (and were asking if anybody could pop on from the Fest floor to do
a report - which I passed along on the previous weeks show and mentioned
again Saturday morning to a few people, but I don't think anybody had time
- I know I didn't. I haven't had time to watch the whole show to see if
there is any Coco related stuff in the episode yet, but I hope to pop on
their next episode to talk about the Fest:
https://www.youtube.com/live/WuxD8z4bTSg?si=h2_F6azerE7L8CAh

MC-10
-----
1) Olipix on YouTube put up an almost hour video (in French) going through
the Alice (one can translate with close captioning) and it's history,
including the original agreements between Tandy and Matra. Also included
is deep dives into the hardware with all versions of the Alice. He also
includes some sample games for the various versions of the Alice:
https://youtu.be/du5enAwBLow?si=ZCy09NqOj6gfoBW4

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) RoboNuggie on YouTube posted a video about his finding and experience
on revisiting the Dragon 32 of his youth via Ciaran Anscomb's XRoar on
his FreeBSD machine. He goes through the various menus in XRoar as well,
and then demos a few games:
https://youtu.be/rnuf_bAeYh8?si=f2ME8k6ImVK1EwxW

2) Polish YouTube channel Tomasz Ogarnia posted a half hour video (in Polish,
but with no translate available, unfortunately) about his making a dual Atari
joystick adaptor for his Dragon 32, and then testing it with numerous games:
https://youtu.be/KRxzFqrp1Sg?si=66aqqmwsJJBCsyYM

3) Julian Brown has posted many updates to his Dragon PAL daughterboard
design, and other things, to the point that I have been losing
track. Hopefully he is in the chat to give us a proper update!
Latest photo update:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3705951122997863/
He is also working on a 4 slot multipak type product for the Dragon as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3705153339744308/

4) Phil Harvey-Smith posted files for a redesigned top for a Gotek/Dragon
Drive, allowing the addition of a 0.96" 128x64 OLED display:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3702494710010171/
And a picture of it installed and in action:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3701074746818834/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Chronologically Gaming is back - and on Thursday he covered Number
Gulper for the Dragon 32, an educational game:
https://www.youtube.com/live/T1iqvfz97p8?si=kJr7-R2c0td3tEqi

2) Tim and AJ played the game Climb (written by Andrew Pakerski for
Chromasette magnazine) on the latest episode of Sibling Rivalry. This is
one of my favourites by Andrew - with great sound effects and fun game play:
https://youtu.be/VXmGaoVbogY?si=a3laCICWnYU3vxkA

3) YouTube channel RetroGamerDiaries did a 45 minute video detailing
the history of game Hunchback, and includes the Dragon 32 version in it
(Dragon starts around 20:00):
https://youtu.be/sW5upytIV0w?si=xQhtmYA4lcSV-7-a

4) Erico Monteiro put up a gameplay video for his new semigraphics game
The Savage Sword of Cocon, on his FUED YouTube channel (written in ugBASIC)
(may have to mute music?):
https://youtu.be/Ybq48xGIWs0?si=EMxK4UxV7CaVW3A-
His game was also featured running on a Codimex Coco Clone at the Brazilian
RetroSC show last weekend:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161288804827641/

5) Jim Gerrie released Success Mansion for the MC-10, ported from the Coco
original by Paul Ruby Jr. in 1986, which actually used the SSP to speak
the game out loud:
https://youtu.be/K0aFaqhu24E?si=NMGcww3mbeR37C0c
Also, a big announcement: Jim now has a new home for all of his programs,
which his own Internet Archive set of pages:
https://archive.org/details/@james_gerrie

6) XperTek released two more game play videos on a real Coco 2 with an
amber monitor:
Fury by Computer Shack / Michtron:
https://youtu.be/Q37NXlsiqFU?si=KC2vhfK6xNR2T4lY
Project Nebula by Robert Arnstein (sold by Tandy):
https://youtu.be/SlpnLAwDguI?si=lOUOdF5DSYtbvD_0

7) The Coco Show's latest episode was recorded at the same time CocoFest
was on, featuring Nick Marentes 2000 game, Gate Crasher:
https://www.youtube.com/live/IVjnqSVtN4I?si=GqlEwG4LbCeUnhcR

8) Glen Dahlgren posted a newspaper article from way back where he and
another school student created a fantasy game... which was the inspiration
for his Coco 3 graphic adventure game "In Quest of the Star Lord" some
years later:
https://www.facebook.com/glen.dahlgren/posts/pfbid0TfmeeNCR1TEZPTZ4P4hqcyeiT4334axEzf7KsfeJigmopb9oL4Mo6V6LhfCdFcVKl

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 361, April 27, 2024

2026-04-05T18:00:20Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 361, April 27, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 361, April 27, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None.

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Ron Klein will discuss recent updates to CoCo Pi

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup has been
announced. June 15 from 1-5 pm at San Franciso State University. There
is an online signup sheet to join the event, and they have announced that
Bill Hogue of Big Five Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center in New
Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) RichN posted a video updated of his Coco 1/2 Spy Hunter game - the first
"playable" version but still buggy - to the Coco Discord:
(show Spy Hunter.mov from my desktop)

2) CocoTown has released his next video of his series on finishing up a
Moon Patrol game that he started as a teenager. This episode he starts
getting the moon buggy moving left to right... with his traditional
"everything that happened including mistakes" mantra:
https://youtu.be/72hi1h9eo_Q?si=WrMASv03Sb8HM0kl

3) M.David Johnson (who will be at CocoFest!) has updated his BDS software
page with some academic papers and demo DSK images using his ML Foundation
System - a couple of game images as well as printer routines and disk
utilities. They are available on his website (along with his previous Coco
projects). The ML foundation system is for the Coco 1/2, and is meant to
run faster than regular Extended BASIC:
https://www.bds-soft.com/cocoPapers.php

4) George Janssen has uploaded the DSK images (to the Coco Discord) and two
more episodes (Lesson 11, parts 1 and 2) of his Coco 3 assembly language
series (to YouTube). Lesson 11, Part 1 stars with drawing a rectangular
spiral in the 320x192x16 mode (the same as HSCREEN 2 in BASIC), calling
the HPRINT routine in BASIC, and then he shows you how to change the
GIME settings to uses 320x200x200 (well, 199 in reality). Part 2 adds a
BASIC program and another option for drawing, and some programming tips
on modifying code using BRN/BRA, and using indirect JMP's.
George is also wondering if many people are watching/using his lessons. Is
there certain subjects/topics for Coco 3 assembly language that viewers
would like George to cover?
Lesson 11, Part 1:
https://youtu.be/Ip_yB_axo6Y?si=ACqqQlgtwZUR4dqR
Lesson 11, Part 2:
https://youtu.be/mlyT7OBW6Kk?si=UWXEJIARM6WLJ378

5) The next TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast/live stream is on May 4 at 5 PM EDT
- during the Fest. They are asking if anyone would like to pop on during
the show to do a live update from the CocoFest show floor. If you can,
please reply to the message on the Coco Facebook group (or on the TRS-80
Discord, if you are a member there):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161275931052641/

6) Joe Lowe on the Coco Facebook group has posted a few pictures of him
running Fujinet on his Coco 3, including mounting a 40 MB file that contains
256 floppy drive images into Drive 0:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161275727482641/
He also showed a photo of TELNETing at 80 columns:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161275703017641/
They will be demonstrating the new Coco 3 functionality at CocoFest,
too! And for those who aren't able to build their own boards, they have
parts on order for 10 units, that they are hoping to have assembled and
available by late May.

7) Speaking of Fujinet, Thomas Cherryhomes is asking for some help in
porting his 5 card stud cross-platform client program to the Coco, so that
they can join with C64, Apple II, etc. users. Details in his Facebook post,
including a link to the Github with the current clients and an example
makefile for CMOC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161274381112641/

8) Matthew Coffron posted photos of him upgrading his Coco 2 to 64K and
adding Extended BASIC He used a 2364-27C128 adaptor card from PCBWay with
27C64 EPROM. It even worked on his first try, and this may be an option
for those having trouble finding some of the original EPROM sizes that
the Coco 1/2 used.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161275201272641/

9) Mark Lowe is migrated his site Coco Central to Dreamhost from Godaddy,
which he mentions is now 4x faster. Now that the migration is complete,
I look forward to him adding even more Coco content!:
https://cococentral.com/

10) Jeffrey Duncan put up a post on the Coco Facebook group, asking if Disk
Color Scripsit was ever released (it was; I used it for a bit back in the
day until I got Telewriter-64). He may have been thinking of OS-9 Scripsit,
which did appear in a Radio Shack Catalog, but was never released. However,
since it was written by Robert Kilgus and Brian Wieseler has gotten all of
Robert's old disks, it is possible we may get to resurrect it (assuming the
disk works). It actually looked pretty advanced, including proportional
text support and full justification based on word or character, amongst
other things:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161271336752641/

11) Julian Brown (who has been working on the replacement (and now enhanced)
Dragon 32 motherboard, has aquired, I believe, his first Coco (a middle era
Coco 2 - full travel keyboard, but the original VDG). Congrats! Hopefully
you can find a Coco 3 as well!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3694343400825302/

12) Bob Emery (La CocCo Strangiato on YouTube) released a video - "HDMI
On Board Revisited", where he uses more recent technology to get the Coco
3 RGB Analog output working with HDMI TV's/monitors, using SCART and some
custom cabling:
https://youtu.be/MYk-C6K9roo?si=Fds4HtR2UGyN50oK

13) I was one of the guests on the International Computer Club show on
the Amigos network, going through a bit of NitrOS9/EOU version 1.0.1,
and also some preview notes on the interview with Robert Kilgus that Ken
and I will be doing this upcoming Friday. But there are lots of presents
covering a wide range of retro topics:
https://www.youtube.com/live/_efz3edJt4Q?si=-SOdseciHVp10Y4w

14) TheRetroChannel went into a deep dive talking about RGB and composite
video outputs and getting them working with SCART. Although not a Coco
specific video (he uses a Sega Master System in the video), the general
principles here should apply to the Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/1gSMNLwl96Y?si=XX4swwyxZoW3zvyu

15) Practical IT with Jeremy Leik on YouTube did their Sunday Night Retro
Talk, and he mentions that he started on a Coco - and then he brings
up Cloud9Tech (Mark Marlette) and RetroRewind (Frank) for RAM upgrades
(although the link was broke) and the CocoSDC, respectively:
https://www.youtube.com/live/QAngh_vaDUI?si=2eBpmdTxlO1EOTF3&t=151

16) AnotherMaker posted a video about building a diagnostic cartridge
for the Coco 1,2 or 3 (note that it is the Tandy version 2.0 version,
so it doesn't check any of the things unique to the Coco 3):
https://youtu.be/0L6OtoY7bHo?si=t_qPCWpnvOEZ9G9o

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown posted an update of his getting the PAL daughterboard
working although he is still missing the amplifier to get full proper
stable color). But he likes how clear the signal/text is now:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3693672364225739/

2) Allan Macpherson posted the 6809 assembler source code for his high res
graphics screen text driver for the Dragon, which supports 32, 51 or 64
columns (x 24) for the Dragon 32 or 64 (It even has a 32x24 PMODE 3 color
text option). If I understand right, it also adds some commands to BASIC
to support the new text "modes":
https://github.com/Abimelef/DragonTextXX

3) Julian also posted a question on the Dragon Facebook group, about his
upcoming experimenters SuperBOB boards (for both Dragons & Coco's); he
is wondering if what people think the pros and cons are of providing both
male and female header pins for each node, or just rows of male header pins
(which is the prototype he currently has made). Please leave any comments
on his post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3693032567623052/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Pere Serrat has released Supersprite-FM+ ehanced AGD games pack #13,
adding 4 more games to use the hardware sprites, enhanced color and sound
chip included in the upgrade, for both the Coco and Dragon.
This pack includes:
Bubble Frenzy 1.1
Nixy the Glad Sprite
Page's Castle Quest
Springbot
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11171
He also has added the SSBigPack#3 - which is all games for the Supersprite
so far. There are now 55 games supporting the new hardware!
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11172

2) D. Bruce Moore, who will be at CocoFest, will have a sale on for the
show for both his Forest of Doom RPG and his Coco Forever multimedia radio
play series (even if you aren't at the Fest and are ordering online):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161274334737641/

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 360, April 20, 2024

2026-04-05T17:59:13Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 360, April 20, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 360, April 20, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None.

Interview schedule:
--------------------
Thomas Cherryhomes will be on to clear up some misconceptions about the
Fujinet system that some of us were trying to discuss last week without
proper knowledge

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center in New
Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
(show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
"Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. I am not sure if it 1 or 2 days; the header &
ordering part of the site says November 9th only, but just below that it
says November 9-10.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Tim Lindner has posted some "lightly" commented 6809 assembly source
code from the Diecom game Iron Forest, to show a routine that works with
the Diecom designed Master system Phaser interface:
https://github.com/tlindner/DCLG-Kernel

2) CocoTown has posted his next video about upgrading his Moon Patrol
style game from when he was a teenager with Game revolutions cycle 7 -
this time optimizing the players car not just for speed, but to enhance
it's appearance:
https://youtu.be/JJT7NhNKq9Y?si=SputTnCj7n20lcvI

3) Eddie Malphrus, in the "All Things Tandy/Radio Shack" group on Facebook,
posted a brief history of Videotex from the original Project Green Thumb
up to the Videotex cartridge on the Coco. It includes photos of the
original TRS-80 Model 1 shell based version that we showed a few weeks
ago, the Agvision version, and the Professional Farmers version as well
(go through photos):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/260663051145211/posts/1545410492670454/

4) Thomas Cherryhomes released another Coco Fujinet video, this time
showing the News Reader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYYOazjhfs4&ab_channel=tschak909
He also did a quick video showing NDIR (Network Directory) as well:
https://youtu.be/J-85vtD5ihE?si=jDTsd5U9IvwkJmwp
He also shared some pics from VCF-East, where he taught classes on Fujinet,
and mentioned that there has been an attitude shift towards Fujinet and
that people are starting to volunteer to help:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161258993682641/

5) The Stray Pointers podcast interviewed our Glenside president Jim Brain
in their Season 2, episode 10 show, covering his journey in electronics,
Commodore computers, the Coco and his company Retro Innovations:
https://youtu.be/sBJ5DF7X3GA?si=LRtADLSYk1K2yHF_

6) Congrats to David Kroeker who sold out all 4 Diecom adapters/phaser
guns by the end of the weekend. He will be doing a second run later,
and then possibly pass it off to someone else to continue manufacturing them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161255403392641/

7) Evie Solomon's presentation from VCF-Socal earlier this year is now
up on YouTube, where she goes through the Backbit and what machines and
features it supports. Including going through the Coco, 6809 and even
mentioning the 6309:
https://youtu.be/b1Oong5vORk?si=If-eF7OvObo6CGWc

8) TRS-80 Retro Programing did a video showing his fixing of bugs of his
save game feature in his Tales of Suburbia game, which is nearing completion:
https://youtu.be/__TiYtPLDcc?si=pJzqGSmvcfpm8GCR

MC-10
-----
1) Canadian Retro Things did a video of his upgrading his MC-10 (already
modded with 8K RAM on the main board) to composite video output, using
the upgrade from Ed Snider @ zippsterzone.com:
https://youtu.be/li6n4wqevmc?si=faY4urt_4LuyEPm6

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Bosco released (on the world of dragons forums) a set of (mostly)
classic heavy metal style song clips based on the Dragon, it's hardware
(6809) and software (Microdeal & their mascot, Cuthbert). Tomfoolery /
work in Progress is what he calls them (I quite like them, being a bit of
a classic metalhead myself):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11168
(play a sample or two from folder on my desktop)

2) RetroGingerPod on YouTube did a 3 part (so far) video series from a
wrapped in black plastic mystery computer to exploring a quite yellowed
(and water damaged) Dragon 32:
Discovery (and shows how bad of a state the power supply board is in):
https://youtu.be/5t4jng868_Q?si=GHJnT9Fom7hEASaG
First Power Up:
https://youtu.be/vnX2Y17HKiw?si=jZ5ZRNBAofCAw3Iy
Second Power up:
https://youtu.be/zbZNEbMWISo?si=I1jR5wye4YQIEPt5

3) Mostly Horses and Retro Computing on YouTube did a video of attempting
to load tapes on a Dragon 32. I am not sure what his exact set up is,
but the audio did sound like a proper Dragon (or Coco) tape, but it wasn't
picking it up at all. Cable issue maybe?:
https://youtu.be/kftYokJutNk?si=kICtcVk-5Q6f7gq7

4) Julian Brown found some more corrections to do with his PAL daughterboard
(part of his Dragon replacement motherboard project), but he is not fully
where he wants to be yet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3690291057897203/

5) Richard Harding posted a link on the Dragon Facebook group to the
text of an interview that Helen Osborne did with David Farrugia, who ran
"Dragon Computers and Software" shop during the Dragons heyday, on the
island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
Interview link:
http://www.dragondata.co.uk/history/Quotes/DAVID_FARRUGIA/DAVID_FARRUGIA.html

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Pere Serrat has now released AGD Games pack #12 for the SuperSprite FM+
board (for both Coco and Dragon). This is the upgrade board with improved
graphics, hardware sprites and a sound chip. This pack adds 4 more games
that use the enhanced features:
Castle of Sorrow
Droid Buster
Flype v2.0
Space Escape
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11169

2) Erico Patricio Monteiro has a new animated gif showing his progress
on the low res action game The Savage Sword of Cocon. The final game is
written in ugBASIC, I believe:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161264342347641/
He also shot (with a camera aimed at a TV) video of the game in action
as well. While not as clean looking, it does show some of the animation
effects better:
https://youtu.be/8Pl6S_sYqnI?si=AmBfZ3xHGvGe9ltq

3) Retro Trailer-2 on YouTube put up a gameplay video of a recent Game On
Challenge - Time Fighter by Mark Data Products, including getting to the
second time period:
https://youtu.be/1NFoFhnyEhE?si=cK4uuSMwC5cs1aS7

4) Jim Gerrie ported a text adventure game called Enchanted Island,
originally written by 13 year old Greg Hassett on the TRS-80 Model 1/3 to
the MC-10, adding an animated title screen:
https://youtu.be/LGjuP3FDEos?si=vF-wtG3A9gXhLoXF
And another from the same author, Voyage to Atlantis was updated with some
bug fixes:
https://youtu.be/hB85doY_B8M?si=kJMNj-EkWMjeGrxm

5) This weeks Sibling Rivalry with Tim & AJ features the game Vultures
on the Coco (originally from the Dragon). And Tim & AJ might have figured
out why AJ's luck playing games has been poorer than it should be:
https://youtu.be/WbMIVgPOL1Y?si=Wl3pF3C0s_kpl8b1

6) Retrobloke on YouTube did a YouTube short showing the original box &
tape for MicroDeal's Space Fighter (a Star Trek clone):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iO0rBIxKd4w

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 359, April 13, 2024

2026-04-05T17:58:19Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 359, April 13, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 359, April 13, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
None.

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Both the Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo in Indianapolis & VCF-East
in New Jersey are happening right now this weekend. Hopefully we can get
some live reports!

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. I am not sure if it 1 or 2 days; the header &
ordering part of the site says November 9th only, but just below that it
says November 9-10.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Thomas Cherryhomes has been making rapid progress on the Fujinet
capabilities for the Coco 1/2 - after the Mastodon client last week,
he also put up a a video showing the ISS (International Space Station)
tracker. This one runs in the 128x192x4 color graphics mode:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XGEPfu1arQg
He has also released a short intro video showing off Fujinet on the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2144589165904127
And a YouTube short showing the NETCAT dumb terminal program connecting
to a BBS over the net:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NjqIwa6XLLk

2) CocoTown, after a series on getting background sound & music working
smoothly on a Coco 1/2, is back to finishing off his Moon Patrol style
game that he started writing as a teenager. In this episode he works on
using VSYNC to time drawing and double buffering, and optimizing routines
for speed rather than ease of programming:
https://youtu.be/TtoTSr1Up_M?si=5b_YtddIbK-upbkY

3) Glenside had their last meeting before CocoFest this past week. I only
caught a few minutes of it, does anyone on the panel know what was all
discussed, how much has effect on CocoFest, etc.?
https://www.youtube.com/live/HN-9l9ID34k?si=itdek2m4BUsIeG60

4) Allen Huffman release a video called Coco: The Musical. This features
AI generated music and vocals, with the lyrics supplied by Allen, I believe:
https://youtu.be/A5LI7NzaFKI?si=8Taoh61uYYNesF_R
While not specifically Coco related, Allen also posted a blog entry about
some of the TRS-80 Model 1 source code by Steve Bjork from before he got
onto the Coco, including some programs that we have mentioned in previous
episodes:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/04/09/steve-bjork-trs-80-model-1-source-code/

5) Roger Taylor has added a Deluxe Color Computer option to the MiSTer
FPGA system, similar to what Tim Lindner did for MAME, and wrote a blog
post on his Patreon about it (along with a 1 minute video demo - note the
AY sound near the end is really quiet):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/real-glimpse-at-101654782
If you wish to help support Roger's work on a variety of projects for the
Coco, including his scanning and backing up disks from Steve Bjork's estate
sale, please consider supporting him on his Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/rogertaylor

6) As promised, Brazilian YouTube channel Tropical Retro has published
there history/rundown of the CP-400 translated into English:
https://youtu.be/v7uo8jmuARM?si=6rTK3OPI95sUy63O

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie has started translating the French Alice series of programs
called "Ecology: Cycle of Life" to English and the MC-10. The first 4K entry
is done, and called "Bio". This is very early software from Infogrames,
which became famous for a variety of modern games, I believe.
https://youtu.be/Idgyr1FpzOI?si=2owo_aTWYF92zH9Q
He finished all the 4K programs into one or "Ecologie/Cycle de Vie":
https://youtu.be/kwgexaXJV3E?si=Of3in4jri9UtJ-rP
Jim also posted a link to a french page that shows the original Alice
version with screenshots as well as pictures of the manual cover page,
original cassettes, etc.:
http://alice32.free.fr/programmes/ecologie/index.html

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Userlandia on YouTube posted a video of exploring British Computer
museums from an American's perspective, starting with Cambridge's Centre
for Computing History, which even has mentions of the Dragon, and This
Week in Retro's Cave (the Retro Collective):
https://youtu.be/3sz4L_h_6I4?si=SkFf4q829cSABiL7

2) Polish YouTube channel Tromasz Ogarnia did a video inspecting & replacing
capacitors on a Dragon 32, and tries some games as well. Unfortunately
one thing it doesn't do is allow translation into english :
https://youtu.be/_ztKCaurOZ0?si=eRw-PArMglUdJFvi

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Tropical Retro (portugese site from Brazil) that we showed last week
put up a 2 minute gameplay video showing the Portugese translated version
of Polaris, on a CP-400 cartridge:
https://youtu.be/W8jH7gwwyVE?si=YxlPHn7BkY-loN17

2) Russian site DFU has released their next blog post on Star Wars
based/inspired games, now switching over to the Apple II. But Sergei took
my suggestion of Project Nebula (a Star Raiders clone but with tie fighters
and the player controlling X-Wing style guns to give it a Star Wars flavour)
and covered that first to help close the Coco segment out:
English translation (note: Video links do NOT work, will ned to go to the
Russian site for that):
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2611989-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-53-apple-ii?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp#comments

3) Pere Serrat has released AGD games pack #63 for both the Coco and
Dragon, which has 6 games (Pere notes that 3 were programmed by students
from Bearsden P6 (I believe that is grade 6?):
BOD Run
Bubble Bobble 2023
Devil Run
Invasion of Japan
Roasty
SHMUPKIT
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11166

4) Paul Shoemaker has his Coco 1/2/3 port of Fire Playtest VII (originally
by Erico Monteiro) out as of this morning, and available on his itch.io
page. Requires 64K:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161254428697641/
video of game play on Coco 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161248921592641/
itch.io download page, including screenshots of the Coco 1/2 version as well:
https://pshoemaker70.itch.io/fire-playtest-vii

5) Speaking of Erico, he released an animated GIF showing his low res Coco
graphics "The Savage Sword of COCON":
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161253723987641/

6) The Laird's Lair on YouTube did a comparison video of Lady Bug (official
and clones) between the MSX, BBC Micro, Dragon 32 and Philips P2000. Like
his previous comparison videos, he isolates sound between each platform. On
the the Dragon he goes through the 3 graphics modes too (green, buff &
black/white):
https://youtu.be/pyQJSbG7t8c?si=VE6m05y-LUfcB5VK

7) XperTek, the spanish speaking site that has covered Coco games on his
amber monitor in the past, covers Cashman this round:
https://youtu.be/3cHIVUpfZ0E?si=VtVqjXLXRsu91lim

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 358, April 6, 2024

2026-04-05T17:57:21Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 358, April 6, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 358, April 6, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

VCF-East: InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey
April 12-14
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. I am not sure if it 1 or 2 days; the header &
ordering part of the site says November 9th only, but just below that it
says November 9-10.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
A) (If David Ladd is on, have him give an update on getting the BlueSCSI
and hard drive images working, and some of the quirks found). It looks
like David Graham also uploaded the March 1992 MM/1 ROM images.
0) Necroware on YouTube put up a video on making your own 5.25" floppy
cleaning disk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nIQv4FpoFk&t=275s

1) Ron Klein posted an updated for the Coco-Pi project, including an
installer version that is available for the first time to the public:
https://coco-pi.com/coco-pi-project-update-2024-03-27/

2) Ciaran Anscomb posted a short but deep dive into how the NTSC Coco 3's
composite signal works (note - this is from the 1987 edition of the GIME;
there may be small differences compared to the 1986 GIME, but hasn't got
one of those to test):
https://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/coco3-cmp.shtml

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing on YouTube put up a video going back to his
Tales of Suburbia game, showing him debugging the Hobby shop scene:
https://youtu.be/rW_21pBT6bo?si=HttKQKj6bsw5zPjA
He also put up a little "side project" program for rotating globes in
BASIC. Warning - he has neighbor rant early in the video, and the project
isn't completed yet:
https://youtu.be/jaLX0kaZ_w0?si=Ow2e7KsVaXD2aQjv
He also put up a "PCOPY" challenge for Extended BASIC programmers:
https://youtu.be/yQ--C23oeN0?si=y6h7OIjzxy30LdnY
As a bit of side project he did a program called "Dimensional Analyzer",
which does some metric conversions:
https://youtu.be/LKzhm1vhZ7E?si=WBOHJuwjT3p5OefL

4) Todd Wallace posted some screenshots in the Coco group on Facebook
showing further progress on his Apple II emulator for the 6309 Coco 3 -
this time he has high res graphics (with artifacting) and floppy drive
emulation (currently read only). It is quite slow, but it works to the
point that it can boot DOS 3.3. No new release yet - but he is hoping by
sometime in April (so before the Fest!):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161228127392641/

5) Carlos Camacho put a post up asking (in a hypothetical world) what
some of other color sets would have been best for making games on the VDG,
given the restriction of 4 colors on the screen at once. In the comments,
Paul Shoemaker put up the raw RGB values (8 bits per), and shows that
orange was an odd one, and suggests that black would have been better (and
I mentioned that would basically match one the IBM PC CGA color sets). But
Paul mentioned something I didn't know - the "pastel" color set actually
looks quite good on a monochrome monitor (show image in the comments of
his Ghost Rush example:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161226144482641/

6) For those on Facebook, Jack Chadwick started a new public group devoted
to Tom Mix Software - both on the Coco and the Dragon:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/773263327604888/

7) Thomas Cherryhomes put up a video showing him using an 8 bit Atari
terminal program that emulates Videotex / VidTex, based on a demo server
for Videotex written by Tim Lindner (based on the Coco terminal program
and actual console):
https://youtu.be/HpeaYuWS94o?si=CwkBhavu9Uw8Iy-D
He also notified us on Discord on Friday evening that he is now able to
view Mastodon posts from his Fujinet Coco client - on his Coco 2. And he
has provided a link to the sourcecode so that others can see how to do it
as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161242515977641/
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-apps/tree/master/mastodon/coco

8) Neil Cherry is working on porting Peter Stark's HUMBUG debugging tool
for the 6800 (he later ported it to the Coco and 6809, I believe). On the
same Github that he has for HUMBUG is a copy of other utilities, and also
Microware's very first OS - RT/68MX - a real time OS for the 6800 that came
out in 1977 while Ken Kaplan was still in University (and it was because
of this OS that Motorola worked directly with Microware on making the 6809
and the BASIC09 programming language for it):
Post about HUMBUG:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3337406853219340/
Github readme:
https://github.com/linuxha/RT68mx/blob/main/README.md

9) Ciaran Anscomb released version 1.5.5 of XRoar, which when tied with
a bugfix to SDL 2.29.3 for Windows, should hopefully smooth out some of
the audio glitches that Windows (and Mac) users have reported:
Announcement on worldofdragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11152
Ciaran's site with download link:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

10) Allen Huffman delved into Steve Bjork's TRS-80 Model 1 software in
his blog, including 2 videos we showed last week (Space Ball and Soft
Music Editor), both from 1980. He mentions in the blog that there is a
Space Ball 2, which was basically the same Circus type game, but with an
added countdown timer before the next ball drops. He also found a screen
shot of Galactic Fighter. Allen notes that in an interview that Steve
game in 1997, Steve said that his game came out about 3 months before
the arcade smash Galaxian (which played similarly and came out in the
U.S. in November of 1979), but Roger hasn't transferred that one over yet
(and it sounds like he has to be extra careful with that one). Also found
were 2 Model 1 BASIC programs (one of which we will talk about shortly,
as Jim Gerrie ported it to the MC-10): Perpetual Calendar and Bio-Rhythm,
as well as his light pen software extensions for BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/26/steve-bjorks-trs-80-model-1-days/
Allen also posted about April Fools programs on the Coco - including one
that Steve Bjork did that faked a disk being formatted (I had seen similar
a year or two earlier on the Apple II+ at my high school - it just stepped
the motor at the right speed to simulate formatting). He asked about what
other programs had been done as a prank/joke back in the day. Does anyone
here remember any others?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161235369912641/

11) Marco Spedaletti has released a new version of ugBASIC (microBASIC)
- version 1.16. This update affects all the computers it runs on, but
particular attention was made to the Ccoo 1/2 and Coco 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161232434407641/

12) YouTube channel "Nerdery and Murdery", which seems to do a computer
segment followed by a real crime segment for their show (an odd combo,
eh?) cover a bit of the history of the Coco as their computer segment on
episode 138:
https://youtu.be/QhgYLAcEY44?si=OhVf8tpWWb3AkM1M

13) Jim Mullis continues to explore ways to help speed up his GrafEXpress
driven games "Super Powers" with a short video showing 256x192x16 scrolling
in 16 pixel increments, double buffered:
https://youtu.be/2yMb9E_oxKA?si=NHBvDoYCHMGs6opV

14) Henry of The Break Key fame released a video of a side project he
worked on - putting together one of Thom Cherryhomes' Fujinet boards. With
bonus mistakes!
https://youtu.be/WMVpyVoKB_Y?si=L0_7JmnIVk8srJO6

15) Bruneau & Co Auctioneers actually released a special video called
"Steve Bjork Archives Auction Highlights" (dated from February 24):
https://youtu.be/VEvlxkft7bQ?si=3N78PRf-EXbuF30K

16) Brazilian YouTube channel Tropical Retro posted a video about the
CP-400 in Portugese, but there is a note in the description that an English
version of the video is coming soon. It appears to show some of the history,
and some sample games running on it as well:
https://youtu.be/iGtBux13Abc?si=loks-dyvFH_wFfFt

17) Tech Guy Life on YouTube did video #2 of getting a Coco 1 up and running
(the previous episode he replace the power supply) - this time he tackles
RAM and the chiclet keyboard:
https://youtu.be/Hh6rNFoHRGA?si=RjlumBdRwDmd5_q1

18) Jim Brain posted an update about CocoFest to the Glenside site,
including the reminder that 102 rooms have already been booked and the
special room rate expires April 17:
https://www.glensideccc.com/calling-all-coco-connoisseurs/

19) Craig Iannello posted an update to his "Pugputer" - a 6309 based homebrew
project - which is now reading files from an SD card. He is currently
getting 17.1K / second, but that is including a pause every 512 bytes read
to calculate a 16 bit CRC before getting the next block. Changing it window
like ZModem (he mistakenly said XModem in his post) and calculating the CRC
on the fly rather than all at once at the end should speed things up, too:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3342468346046524/

20) NitrOS9/EOU version 1.0.1 has been released at long last, and is
available for download now for 6809 and 6309 based Coco 3's with a CocoSDC
and at least 512K of RAM, and for emulators as well:
http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9.html

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Planets" originally by Gordon Speer for Computronics
magzine issue #28 (1980) to the MC-10, adding some color to the original
TRS-80 Model 1/3 program. This shows the relative locations of the Earth,
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the sun, showing their different speeds
in orbit:
https://youtu.be/g3nLz-M2dDE?si=Rc10IMaC9K5QA_ct

2) Jim also ported an early Calendar program originally written by Steve
Bjork to the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/Fo_O0Jb0Yyo?si=I39z2-UJpZAmRVvG

3) He also pored "Testamour" which is a program to test the users knowledge
of BASIC, originally published by the editorial team in the April 1985
issue of the french Micro 7 Magazine. Looks a bit buggy at the moment:
https://youtu.be/LSDfcshWD1k?si=1s-00NQkOwTU7391

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Phil Harvey-Smith in the Dragon Facebook group, has also been playing
with his 3D printer - And posted some photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674562179470091/

2) Julian Brown has started working on little sound chip daughterboards
for his Dragon 32 repro project, and posted a photo of one he started 2
years ago, and a very recent one:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674434182816224/
In an update yesterday, he has assembled board #1, but can't test it yet
since he doesn't have a main board to plug it into:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680669768859332/
He also has ordered rev 3 of his PAL daughterboards for testing before he
commits to a CPLD version to greatly cut down the size & number of chips:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680051018921207/
He also showed a screenshot after bodging some transistors. While it has
really visible interference wave (messing up the signal), but he says the
image is rock solid now so he is getting close:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3679900362269606/
He also posted a short video of his possible new contender for an
alternative power supply board for either the Dragon 32 or 64... with some
added features:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1366595000719344

3) John Whitworth of DragonPlus Electronics has posted a PDF document that
compares his replacement power supply board for the Dragon, with a Spanish
made one based on an MP1584 made by Ant Goffart. There is also comments
between Ant and John on the original Facebook post:
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3673993559526953/
PDF direct download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iOR5R4TVqRTpUlpOZOgE_RQ0JS-tueJo/view
He also posted a short video playing with the "elusive MODE 1" on the Dragon
128, including a demo of colour cycling (there are some sync problems,
I believe because the OS9 drivers aren't totally finished):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680297865563189/

4) Richard Harding (thanks to original scans by Elias Rokka of Finland)
has posted the FINLUX Dragon 32 BASIC handbook (in Finnish) for download
to the Dragon group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3678157849110524/
Richard also posted a photo of his new retro ride:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3677815012478141/
(note: posted April 1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Castle Adventure" original written by Dave Trapasso
in July of 1981 and published in the April 1982 of Computronics magazine,
originally for the TRS-80 Model 1/3. The video shows Jim's new color
graphic title screen, and SPOILER ALERT! it includes a complete playthrough:
https://youtu.be/fkEHMpR9NbA?si=r2NvoPEI7HGuozHP
He also ported Video Poker by D. Scott Williams, who had entered it in
the 10 line BASIC programming contest for the Atari 8 bits:
https://youtu.be/L7p6oU834cw?si=Q45w6Fh05f8krMIv
Download the WAV from the MC-10 Facebook group:The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 358, April 6, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

VCF-East: InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey
April 12-14
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

The Festival of Portable Computing: May 18-19, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
This show is dedicated to portable computers. With Frank Swygert, Taylor
& Amy, and now portacoco.com, we actually have portable Coco's and
MC-10's... we should qualify for this show, right? :-)
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72231/The-Festival-of-Portable-Computing-18th-19th-May-2024/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. I am not sure if it 1 or 2 days; the header &
ordering part of the site says November 9th only, but just below that it
says November 9-10.
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
A) (If David Ladd is on, have him give an update on getting the BlueSCSI
and hard drive images working, and some of the quirks found). It looks
like David Graham also uploaded the March 1992 MM/1 ROM images.
0) Necroware on YouTube put up a video on making your own 5.25" floppy
cleaning disk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nIQv4FpoFk&t=275s

1) Ron Klein posted an updated for the Coco-Pi project, including an
installer version that is available for the first time to the public:
https://coco-pi.com/coco-pi-project-update-2024-03-27/

2) Ciaran Anscomb posted a short but deep dive into how the NTSC Coco 3's
composite signal works (note - this is from the 1987 edition of the GIME;
there may be small differences compared to the 1986 GIME, but hasn't got
one of those to test):
https://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/coco3-cmp.shtml

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing on YouTube put up a video going back to his
Tales of Suburbia game, showing him debugging the Hobby shop scene:
https://youtu.be/rW_21pBT6bo?si=HttKQKj6bsw5zPjA
He also put up a little "side project" program for rotating globes in
BASIC. Warning - he has neighbor rant early in the video, and the project
isn't completed yet:
https://youtu.be/jaLX0kaZ_w0?si=Ow2e7KsVaXD2aQjv
He also put up a "PCOPY" challenge for Extended BASIC programmers:
https://youtu.be/yQ--C23oeN0?si=y6h7OIjzxy30LdnY
As a bit of side project he did a program called "Dimensional Analyzer",
which does some metric conversions:
https://youtu.be/LKzhm1vhZ7E?si=WBOHJuwjT3p5OefL

4) Todd Wallace posted some screenshots in the Coco group on Facebook
showing further progress on his Apple II emulator for the 6309 Coco 3 -
this time he has high res graphics (with artifacting) and floppy drive
emulation (currently read only). It is quite slow, but it works to the
point that it can boot DOS 3.3. No new release yet - but he is hoping by
sometime in April (so before the Fest!):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161228127392641/

5) Carlos Camacho put a post up asking (in a hypothetical world) what
some of other color sets would have been best for making games on the VDG,
given the restriction of 4 colors on the screen at once. In the comments,
Paul Shoemaker put up the raw RGB values (8 bits per), and shows that
orange was an odd one, and suggests that black would have been better (and
I mentioned that would basically match one the IBM PC CGA color sets). But
Paul mentioned something I didn't know - the "pastel" color set actually
looks quite good on a monochrome monitor (show image in the comments of
his Ghost Rush example:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161226144482641/

6) For those on Facebook, Jack Chadwick started a new public group devoted
to Tom Mix Software - both on the Coco and the Dragon:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/773263327604888/

7) Thomas Cherryhomes put up a video showing him using an 8 bit Atari
terminal program that emulates Videotex / VidTex, based on a demo server
for Videotex written by Tim Lindner (based on the Coco terminal program
and actual console):
https://youtu.be/HpeaYuWS94o?si=CwkBhavu9Uw8Iy-D
He also notified us on Discord on Friday evening that he is now able to
view Mastodon posts from his Fujinet Coco client - on his Coco 2. And he
has provided a link to the sourcecode so that others can see how to do it
as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161242515977641/
https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-apps/tree/master/mastodon/coco

8) Neil Cherry is working on porting Peter Stark's HUMBUG debugging tool
for the 6800 (he later ported it to the Coco and 6809, I believe). On the
same Github that he has for HUMBUG is a copy of other utilities, and also
Microware's very first OS - RT/68MX - a real time OS for the 6800 that came
out in 1977 while Ken Kaplan was still in University (and it was because
of this OS that Motorola worked directly with Microware on making the 6809
and the BASIC09 programming language for it):
Post about HUMBUG:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3337406853219340/
Github readme:
https://github.com/linuxha/RT68mx/blob/main/README.md

9) Ciaran Anscomb released version 1.5.5 of XRoar, which when tied with
a bugfix to SDL 2.29.3 for Windows, should hopefully smooth out some of
the audio glitches that Windows (and Mac) users have reported:
Announcement on worldofdragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11152
Ciaran's site with download link:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

10) Allen Huffman delved into Steve Bjork's TRS-80 Model 1 software in
his blog, including 2 videos we showed last week (Space Ball and Soft
Music Editor), both from 1980. He mentions in the blog that there is a
Space Ball 2, which was basically the same Circus type game, but with an
added countdown timer before the next ball drops. He also found a screen
shot of Galactic Fighter. Allen notes that in an interview that Steve
game in 1997, Steve said that his game came out about 3 months before
the arcade smash Galaxian (which played similarly and came out in the
U.S. in November of 1979), but Roger hasn't transferred that one over yet
(and it sounds like he has to be extra careful with that one). Also found
were 2 Model 1 BASIC programs (one of which we will talk about shortly,
as Jim Gerrie ported it to the MC-10): Perpetual Calendar and Bio-Rhythm,
as well as his light pen software extensions for BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/26/steve-bjorks-trs-80-model-1-days/
Allen also posted about April Fools programs on the Coco - including one
that Steve Bjork did that faked a disk being formatted (I had seen similar
a year or two earlier on the Apple II+ at my high school - it just stepped
the motor at the right speed to simulate formatting). He asked about what
other programs had been done as a prank/joke back in the day. Does anyone
here remember any others?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161235369912641/

11) Marco Spedaletti has released a new version of ugBASIC (microBASIC)
- version 1.16. This update affects all the computers it runs on, but
particular attention was made to the Ccoo 1/2 and Coco 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161232434407641/

12) YouTube channel "Nerdery and Murdery", which seems to do a computer
segment followed by a real crime segment for their show (an odd combo,
eh?) cover a bit of the history of the Coco as their computer segment on
episode 138:
https://youtu.be/QhgYLAcEY44?si=OhVf8tpWWb3AkM1M

13) Jim Mullis continues to explore ways to help speed up his GrafEXpress
driven games "Super Powers" with a short video showing 256x192x16 scrolling
in 16 pixel increments, double buffered:
https://youtu.be/2yMb9E_oxKA?si=NHBvDoYCHMGs6opV

14) Henry of The Break Key fame released a video of a side project he
worked on - putting together one of Thom Cherryhomes' Fujinet boards. With
bonus mistakes!
https://youtu.be/WMVpyVoKB_Y?si=L0_7JmnIVk8srJO6

15) Bruneau & Co Auctioneers actually released a special video called
"Steve Bjork Archives Auction Highlights" (dated from February 24):
https://youtu.be/VEvlxkft7bQ?si=3N78PRf-EXbuF30K

16) Brazilian YouTube channel Tropical Retro posted a video about the
CP-400 in Portugese, but there is a note in the description that an English
version of the video is coming soon. It appears to show some of the history,
and some sample games running on it as well:
https://youtu.be/iGtBux13Abc?si=loks-dyvFH_wFfFt

17) Tech Guy Life on YouTube did video #2 of getting a Coco 1 up and running
(the previous episode he replace the power supply) - this time he tackles
RAM and the chiclet keyboard:
https://youtu.be/Hh6rNFoHRGA?si=RjlumBdRwDmd5_q1

18) Jim Brain posted an update about CocoFest to the Glenside site,
including the reminder that 102 rooms have already been booked and the
special room rate expires April 17:
https://www.glensideccc.com/calling-all-coco-connoisseurs/

19) Craig Iannello posted an update to his "Pugputer" - a 6309 based homebrew
project - which is now reading files from an SD card. He is currently
getting 17.1K / second, but that is including a pause every 512 bytes read
to calculate a 16 bit CRC before getting the next block. Changing it window
like ZModem (he mistakenly said XModem in his post) and calculating the CRC
on the fly rather than all at once at the end should speed things up, too:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3342468346046524/

20) NitrOS9/EOU version 1.0.1 has been released at long last, and is
available for download now for 6809 and 6309 based Coco 3's with a CocoSDC
and at least 512K of RAM, and for emulators as well:
http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9.html

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Planets" originally by Gordon Speer for Computronics
magzine issue #28 (1980) to the MC-10, adding some color to the original
TRS-80 Model 1/3 program. This shows the relative locations of the Earth,
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the sun, showing their different speeds
in orbit:
https://youtu.be/g3nLz-M2dDE?si=Rc10IMaC9K5QA_ct

2) Jim also ported an early Calendar program originally written by Steve
Bjork to the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/Fo_O0Jb0Yyo?si=I39z2-UJpZAmRVvG

3) He also pored "Testamour" which is a program to test the users knowledge
of BASIC, originally published by the editorial team in the April 1985
issue of the french Micro 7 Magazine. Looks a bit buggy at the moment:
https://youtu.be/LSDfcshWD1k?si=1s-00NQkOwTU7391

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Phil Harvey-Smith in the Dragon Facebook group, has also been playing
with his 3D printer - And posted some photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674562179470091/

2) Julian Brown has started working on little sound chip daughterboards
for his Dragon 32 repro project, and posted a photo of one he started 2
years ago, and a very recent one:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674434182816224/
In an update yesterday, he has assembled board #1, but can't test it yet
since he doesn't have a main board to plug it into:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680669768859332/
He also has ordered rev 3 of his PAL daughterboards for testing before he
commits to a CPLD version to greatly cut down the size & number of chips:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680051018921207/
He also showed a screenshot after bodging some transistors. While it has
really visible interference wave (messing up the signal), but he says the
image is rock solid now so he is getting close:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3679900362269606/
He also posted a short video of his possible new contender for an
alternative power supply board for either the Dragon 32 or 64... with some
added features:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1366595000719344

3) John Whitworth of DragonPlus Electronics has posted a PDF document that
compares his replacement power supply board for the Dragon, with a Spanish
made one based on an MP1584 made by Ant Goffart. There is also comments
between Ant and John on the original Facebook post:
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3673993559526953/
PDF direct download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iOR5R4TVqRTpUlpOZOgE_RQ0JS-tueJo/view
He also posted a short video playing with the "elusive MODE 1" on the Dragon
128, including a demo of colour cycling (there are some sync problems,
I believe because the OS9 drivers aren't totally finished):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3680297865563189/

4) Richard Harding (thanks to original scans by Elias Rokka of Finland)
has posted the FINLUX Dragon 32 BASIC handbook (in Finnish) for download
to the Dragon group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3678157849110524/
Richard also posted a photo of his new retro ride:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3677815012478141/
(note: posted April 1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Castle Adventure" original written by Dave Trapasso
in July of 1981 and published in the April 1982 of Computronics magazine,
originally for the TRS-80 Model 1/3. The video shows Jim's new color
graphic title screen, and SPOILER ALERT! it includes a complete playthrough:
https://youtu.be/fkEHMpR9NbA?si=r2NvoPEI7HGuozHP
He also ported Video Poker by D. Scott Williams, who had entered it in
the 10 line BASIC programming contest for the Atari 8 bits:
https://youtu.be/L7p6oU834cw?si=Q45w6Fh05f8krMIv
Download the WAV from the MC-10 Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7255459367914156/

2) Russian site by Segey Makeev continues to cover Coco Star Wars games,
this time trying Return of the Jeti by Thundervision, Laser Run on the
Dragon, Syzygy from Spectral Associates, Zector Adventures for both the
Coco & MC-10, and Space Raider from T&D:
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2595551-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-51-trs-80-coco?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
And on Friday he added a few more, including Star Wars by Mike Moore in
BASIC (this might have been a type in?), Star Wars (text adventure included
in NitrOS9/EOU), Vader on the MC-10 by Jim Gerrie
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2597525-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-52-trs-80-coco?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

3) Japanese cross platform game developer Inufuto has released their next
game - and MC-10, Coco 1/2 & Coco 3 versions are available now in WAV
format. It's called Anti Air, and while it looks like a Space Invaders
clone, it has some extras like things dropped from above that will block
your horizontal movement on the ground, etc.:
List of all he release versions with videos:
http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/antiair/#coco

4) Hot on the heels of last weeks release from Pere Serrat, comes Game Pack
#11 for the Supersprite FM+ board of AGD games. As well as a bug fix for 3
of the games from Pack #10 (the 3 parts to "Doom Pit"). The new pack has
a 4 part series of games with versions for both the Coco and the Dragon
(with the Supersprite board):
Funky Fungus Level 1
Funky Fungus Level 2
Funky Fungus Level 3
Funky Fungus Level 4
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11164

5) Spanish YouTube channel DR .GRIFA did a video of gameplays on the Dragon,
including BackTrack, Chuckie Egg, Cyrus Chess, Ugh!, Donkey King, Frogger,
and many others (over 3/4 hour worth) :
https://youtu.be/na9Lj9SKsgI?si=BwUMkOXUZpxxo8_V

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7255459367914156/

2) Russian site by Segey Makeev continues to cover Coco Star Wars games,
this time trying Return of the Jeti by Thundervision, Laser Run on the
Dragon, Syzygy from Spectral Associates, Zector Adventures for both the
Coco & MC-10, and Space Raider from T&D:
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2595551-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-51-trs-80-coco?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
And on Friday he added a few more, including Star Wars by Mike Moore in
BASIC (this might have been a type in?), Star Wars (text adventure included
in NitrOS9/EOU), Vader on the MC-10 by Jim Gerrie
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2597525-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-52-trs-80-coco?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

3) Japanese cross platform game developer Inufuto has released their next
game - and MC-10, Coco 1/2 & Coco 3 versions are available now in WAV
format. It's called Anti Air, and while it looks like a Space Invaders
clone, it has some extras like things dropped from above that will block
your horizontal movement on the ground, etc.:
List of all he release versions with videos:
http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/antiair/#coco

4) Hot on the heels of last weeks release from Pere Serrat, comes Game Pack
#11 for the Supersprite FM+ board of AGD games. As well as a bug fix for 3
of the games from Pack #10 (the 3 parts to "Doom Pit"). The new pack has
a 4 part series of games with versions for both the Coco and the Dragon
(with the Supersprite board):
Funky Fungus Level 1
Funky Fungus Level 2
Funky Fungus Level 3
Funky Fungus Level 4
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11164

5) Spanish YouTube channel DR .GRIFA did a video of gameplays on the Dragon,
including BackTrack, Chuckie Egg, Cyrus Chess, Ugh!, Donkey King, Frogger,
and many others (over 3/4 hour worth) :
https://youtu.be/na9Lj9SKsgI?si=BwUMkOXUZpxxo8_V

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 357, March 30, 2024

2026-04-05T17:56:23Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 357, March 30, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 357, March 30, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
From the Pixels Addict magazine, we have 3 guests today:
Paul Monaghan (editor)
Ian Griffiths (writer)
Tom Williamson (writer)

Interview schedule:
--------------------

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
The Southeast Michigan Vintage Computer Club is having a meeting/swap meet
at their April 6 meeting (12 pm - 4 pm). No admission fee. Ran by Adam
(Commodore Chronicles) and sponsored by Retro Rewind.
Grace Chapel's Gymnasium
2515 N. Williams Lake Rd.
Waterford Twp, MI
https://semichiganvcc.blogspot.com/2024/01/semvcc-ver-311-updated-swap-meet-april.html

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

VCF-East: InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey
April 12-14
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
A) (If David Ladd is on, have him give an update on getting the BlueSCSI
and hard drive images working, and some of the quirks found). It looks
like David Graham also uploaded the March 1992 MM/1 ROM images.

1) Ron Klein posted an updated for the Coco-Pi project, including an
installer version that is available for the first time to the public:
https://coco-pi.com/coco-pi-project-update-2024-03-27/

2) Ciaran Anscomb posted a short but deep dive into how the NTSC Coco 3's
composite signal works (note - this is from the 1987 edition of the GIME;
there may be small differences compared to the 1986 GIME, but hasn't got
one of those to test):
https://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/coco3-cmp.shtml

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing on YouTube put up a video going back to his
Tales of Suburbia game, showing him debugging the Hobby shop scene:
https://youtu.be/rW_21pBT6bo?si=HttKQKj6bsw5zPjA
He also put up a little "side project" program for rotating globes in
BASIC. Warning - he has neighbor rant early in the video, and the project
isn't completed yet:
https://youtu.be/jaLX0kaZ_w0?si=Ow2e7KsVaXD2aQjv

4) Todd Wallace posted some screenshots in the Coco group on Facebook
showing further progress on his Apple II emulator for the 6309 Coco 3 -
this time he has high res graphics (with artifacting) and floppy drive
emulation (currently read only). It is quite slow, but it works to the
point that it can boot DOS 3.3. No new release yet - but he is hoping by
sometime in April (so before the Fest!):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161228127392641/

5) Carlos Camacho put a post up asking (in a hypothetical world) what
some of other color sets would have been best for making games on the VDG,
given the restriction of 4 colors on the screen at once. In the comments,
Paul Shoemaker put up the raw RGB values (8 bits per), and shows that
orange was an odd one, and suggests that black would have been better (and
I mentioned that would basically match one the IBM PC CGA color sets). But
Paul mentioned something I didn't know - the "pastel" color set actually
looks quite good on a monochrome monitor:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161226144482641/

6) For those on Facebook, Jack Chadwick started a new public group devoted
to Tom Mix Software - both on the Coco and the Dragon:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/773263327604888/

7) Thomas Cherryhomes put up a video showing him using an 8 bit Atari
terminal program that emulates Videotex / VidTex, based on a demo server
for Videotex written by Tim Lindner (based on the Coco terminal program
and actual console):
https://youtu.be/HpeaYuWS94o?si=CwkBhavu9Uw8Iy-D

8) Neil Cherry is working on porting Peter Stark's HUMBUG debugging tool
for the 6800 (he later ported it to the Coco and 6809, I believe). On the
same Github that he has for HUMBUG is a copy of other utilities, and also
Microware's very first OS - RT/68MX - a real time OS for the 6800 that came
out in 1977 while Ken Kaplan was still in University (and it was because
of this OS that Motorola worked directly with Microware on making the 6809
and the BASIC09 programming language for it):
Post about HUMBUG:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3337406853219340/
Github readme:
https://github.com/linuxha/RT68mx/blob/main/README.md

9) Ciaran Anscomb released version 1.5.5 of XRoar, which when tied with
a bugfix to SDL 2.29.3 for Windows, should hopefully smooth out some of
the audio glitches that Windows (and Mac) users have reported:
Announcement on worldofdragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11152
Ciaran's site with download link:
https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/

10) Allen Huffman delved into Steve Bjork's TRS-80 Model 1 software in
his blog, including 2 videos we showed last week (Space Ball and Soft
Music Editor), both from 1980. He mentions in the blog that there is a
Space Ball 2, which was basically the same Circus type game, but with an
added countdown timer before the next ball drops. He also found a screen
shot of Galactic Fighter. Allen notes that in an interview that Steve
game in 1997, Steve said that his game came out about 3 months before
the arcade smash Galaxian (which played similarly and came out in the
U.S. in November of 1979), but Roger hasn't transferred that one over yet
(and it sounds like he has to be extra careful with that one). Also found
were 2 Model 1 BASIC programs (one of which we will talk about shortly,
as Jim Gerrie ported it to the MC-10): Perpetual Calendar and Bio-Rhythm,
as well as his light pen software extensions for BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/26/steve-bjorks-trs-80-model-1-days/

11) Marco Spedaletti has released a new version of ugBASIC (microBASIC)
- version 1.16. This update affects all the computers it runs on, but
particular attention was made to the Ccoo 1/2 and Coco 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161232434407641/

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported "Planets" originally by Gordon Speer for Computronics
magzine issue #28 (1980) to the MC-10, adding some color to the original
TRS-80 Model 1/3 program. This shows the relative locations of the Earth,
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn around the sun, showing their different speeds
in orbit:
https://youtu.be/g3nLz-M2dDE?si=Rc10IMaC9K5QA_ct

2) Jim also ported an early Calendar program originally written by Steve
Bjork to the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/Fo_O0Jb0Yyo?si=I39z2-UJpZAmRVvG

3) He also pored "Testamour" which is a program to test the users knowledge
of BASIC, originally published by the editorial team in the April 1985
issue of the french Micro 7 Magazine. Looks a bit buggy at the moment:
https://youtu.be/LSDfcshWD1k?si=1s-00NQkOwTU7391

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Phil Harvey-Smith in the Dragon Facebook group, has also been playing
with his 3D printer - And posted some photos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674562179470091/

2) Julian Brown has started working on little sound chip daughterboards
for his Dragon 32 repro project, and posted a photo of one he started 2
years ago, and a very recent one:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3674434182816224/

3) John Whitworth of DragonPlus Electronics has posted a PDF document that
compares his replacement power supply board for the Dragon, with a Spanish
made one based on an MP1584 made by Ant Goffart. There is also comments
between Ant and John on the original Facebook post:
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3673993559526953/
PDF direct download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iOR5R4TVqRTpUlpOZOgE_RQ0JS-tueJo/view

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie converted Nanochess's 10 liner BASIC program Tentris to the
MC-10 (it was originally for GW BASIC on an IBM PC). Jim did have to expand
it to 20 lines to work on the MC-10. Jim's version, because of the way it
uses SET/RESET to draw, has an interesting effect as each piece moves down:
https://youtu.be/u03S6GKk_9Q?si=K3DXud1KLWbTLh9L

2) Renga in Blue (the Interactive Fiction All the Adventures text adventure
game site) did a review of the text adventure ENO from PAL Creations from
1982 (using the Dragon version):
https://bluerenga.blog/2024/03/22/eno-1982/

3) The Russian game playing YouTuber we showed a few weeks ago has added
some more Dragon and Coco gameplay content this past week:
Laser Run for the Dragon by Blaby Computer Games:
https://youtu.be/NJAWYo8jX5s?si=jSHmFkolPqU6VCN3
Return of the Jet-I from Thundervision on the Coco":
https://youtu.be/iyWi9s_sSpw?si=zUQvd4ZXiHkxCVyD

4) Tim & AJ on episode 128 of Sibling Rivalry take on one of Dave Die's
earliest games - Fight Pilot - on the Coco:
https://youtu.be/ia9QJE8aXJE?si=97AcMEaEhdWI-9Up

5) Pere Serrat has released the Supersprite FM+ required AGD games pack #10,
featuring 4 new games:
Astronaut Labyrinth
Doom Pit Part I
Doom Pit Part II
Doom Pit Part III
http://www.retrowiki.es/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=200040290
(not on worldofdragon.org yet; Pere couldn't upload)

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 356, March 23, 2024

2026-04-05T17:55:36Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 356, March 23, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 356, March 23, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------
NONE.

Interview schedule:
--------------------
March 30 - not a full interview, but 3 guests that are involved with Pixel
Addict magazine - editor Paul Monaghan, writer Ian Griffiths and writer
Tom Williamson - will be on to talk about both the current issue #19
(Tandy cover story) and Pixel Addict in general.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Interim Computer Festival: On this weekend!
Intraspace
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington
This is a pre-announcement for a retro computer show in the Pacific
Northwest Area.
https://sdf.org/icf/

The Southeast Michigan Vintage Computer Club is having a meeting/swap meet
at their April 6 meeting (12 pm - 4 pm). No admission fee. Ran by Adam
(Commodore Chronicles) and sponsored by Retro Rewind.
Grace Chapel's Gymnasium
2515 N. Williams Lake Rd.
Waterford Twp, MI
https://semichiganvcc.blogspot.com/2024/01/semvcc-ver-311-updated-swap-meet-april.html

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

VCF-East: InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey
April 12-14
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024.
UPDATE: THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------

1) Some sad news - Bruce Isted (who worked on the Tomcat's, the Eliminator
and other hardware/software projects for Frank Hogg Labs, and was also
an integral part of the team that was behind the Version 3 OS-9 Level II
upgrade (he did the serial mouse drivers amongst _many_ other things),
has passed away:
https://mhfh.com/tribute/details/45646/Bruce-Isted/obituary.html

2) Frederic (MicroHobbyist on YouTube) released his 4th video of his "6309
Unleashed" project series. As he showed us last week live, this include a
6551 serial chip added and software that allows a terminal program to hook
up to it and talk back and forth (and sneak peeks at the monitor program
he also has been working on):
https://youtu.be/njnaJyZcJGA?si=V2lmpxDDkIcvJoN0

3) Allen Huffman did a followup blog post to his port of Factory TNT that
he originally wrote on his first computer (VIC-20) to the Coco, and that
he plans on finishing up soon, extending his tile font to include letters
and numbers for on screen scoring, etc.:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/19/my-vic-20-factory-tnt-for-coco/
And while not strictly Coco, Allen also got some of Steve Bjork's earliest
commercial programs (for the TRS-80 Model 1/3) running in an emulator,
so that we can see them running:
Space Ball (1980):
https://youtu.be/QcaVxxMhCHs?si=nDuifEUWCSWIu10E
Soft Music Editor (1980):
https://youtu.be/XyOhTVrNwBs?si=l2cq0nc9I_IdmuuF

4) Coco Town (on YouTube) has come out with an extra length (~45 minutes)
part 7 of his Coco 1/2 assembly language sound series, titled "6 Unanswered
Questions... ANSWERED!" (I think that is his most click-baity title yet!":
https://youtu.be/aKpZpn6m-rc?si=eAZdkEwqqkhgF0wW

5) Forgotten Machines on YouTube released a video showing him testing
heating up a floppy disk with creases in it, to see if that will make it
able to read bad sectors that even a flux reader can't read:
https://youtu.be/vqeFimyAR88?si=lW__v6xPU4n3XffF

6) Tech Guy Life put up a video on YouTube showing a Coco 1 (and on an
older motherboard) getting a power transformer replacement:
https://youtu.be/ZGjDB6iZN8U?si=EXhRLptHgn14bQx3

7) Roger Taylor has posted more things that he found in the Steve Bjork
collection - including some SuperScripsit Model 3/4 text files talking about
the Deluxe Color Computer. One seems to be questions inserted into a post
about the Deluxe early on, and the other is Steve reviewing it. There is
speculation as to whether the first file is somebody else asking questions
to Steve, or Steve asking questions to the original poster; from my
remembering the Coco forums on Compuserve at during this time (1983/1984),
I believe it was the latter, as that is how they recorded such forum banter
(like when the Coco 3 was announced a few years later). It is worth noting
that a price is shown in the second document ($399) and that the BASIC is a
little different from what we have on the pre-release ROM's (a SING command
instead of TONE, although I think just the command name was changed), as
well as noting some things that we had not found yet while disassembling
the ROM's, like RESTORE <line #> for DATA statements (similar to BASIC09):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/deluxe-100769774
He also posted a version of Zaxxon that he found, that was labelled as Zaxxon
for the Coco 3 (both on the physical disk and on the title screen). This
is not an older version of Z-89, but appears to be an RGB patched version
that runs at full double speed and states that it is a Coco 3 version on
the splash screen:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/zaxxon-for-coco-100701156
Roger also released a video showing some of Steve's graphic and map tools
that Steve wrote to make his games:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/bjorks-secret-100512264
If you are a member of Roger's Patreon already, there are other things
that you also get access to. One release this week is version 1.01 of his
Netmate high speed, fully ANSI terminal program (that you can use to get
onto modern BBS's through the internet nowadays).

If you want to support Roger in his recovery work (and to help cover the
large cost he had to get as much of Steve's stuff as he could), and/or
want access to all of his other special Coco projects, please think about
supporting his Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/rogertaylor

8) Paul Shoemaker has added more screens, animation and sound to finish
his Karateka intro demo (based on the Apple II original):
https://youtu.be/BVsK-EF0mvs?si=8HF2jIKe7sLk2TCL

9) Joe Lowe posted in the original Coco Facebook group a video showing
him using Ed Snider's (ZippsterZone) CocoSDC media player playing an old
Ramones song, Blitzkrieg Bop, which sounds pretty awesome (it's in 6309
mode on an Orchestra-90 for full 8 bit sound, and stereo I presume):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161217683772641/

10) Boisy Pitre released a couple of quick videos to demonstrate the speed
difference in booting up the F256 Jr in OS9 Level II when using the slow
and high speed SD card reader modes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161215717392641/

11) Brian Blake posted a quick video showing his new translucent blue
keyboard bezel for his HJL-57 keyboard on his 64K Coco 2, to the Coco DFE
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1058808428750710

12) David Collins has an update on his homebrew 6309 based computer -
he now has it booting successfully from an SD card:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3333128503647175/

13) Romeo Cat Computers on YouTube did a short <2 minute video showing
a Coco 3 that he fixed fairly easily (reseating RAM, mainly) that he had
received from Brady Zimmel. He runs a few of the test programs from the
"Introducing Your Color Computer 3" booklet:
https://youtu.be/M-xvsjEPqk8?si=30oRdDoE56EXtjCX

14) RetroAndGaming, a YouTube channel from Norway, gets a Coco 1 working
again that he just received:
https://youtu.be/JxIlmqtq-9Q?si=ZjdKE5ug-KoLGttr

MC-10
-----
1) James Diffendaffer posted an update to the Chess game he has been porting
to the MC-10; the compiler he is using treats true/false differently than
the compiler the original version was for, which has slowed him down but
hopefully will be fixable now:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7190895881037172/

2) Jim Gerrie is seeking some help - he wants to be able to upload playable
MC-10 files to the Internet Archive, by using it's built in MAME/MESS
emulator. But he hasn't been able to get it to work. If anybody on the
panel or watching knows how to do that, please contact Jim or us for
pointers on how to do it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7186874314772662/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Ciaran Anscomb (of XRoar fame) got his SAMX4 256K RAM Banker board
working in his Dragon 64 new motherboard, and posted about it in the World
of Dragon forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11158

2) Morgan Hetherington, as we mentioned last episode, has been making
multi-colour 3D prints for retro computers and retro games for other retro
platforms, and has started making ones for the Dragon. He know has photos
and prices for some that he has ready now that he posted to the Dragon group
on Facebook. (There are multiple posts from people who ordered some of these
and already received them. The Dragon 32 one in particular is a popular one):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3671092326483743/

3) Matt Kaye has posted something along the same line - a classic game from
the Dragon but on a coffee mug instead. He mentions that he is updating
his website for it, but unfortunately didn't post a link (yet):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3671040813155561/

4) Julian Brown has a further update on his Dragon 32 PAL daughterboard; he
is working on shrinking the modulator and amp sections and refining traces:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3669544009971908/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Sure enough - Jim Gerrie ported Andrew Hubble's "BustDown" Breakout
clone from the January 1982 issue of CCN (Color Computer News) to the MC-10
the same day we talked about it on the show - and his copy works! 4K BASIC
Breakout clone.
https://youtu.be/MZ6F7B6c0F0?si=Wu0LqDnD__i5Dicx
He also converted the game "Minidam" originally by Christian Garaud in
1985 for the French Micro7 magazine, April 1985 issue (and translated it
to English at the same time). Jim mentioned in a Facebook post that the
object is swap all of the blue and red pieces from left <-> right. He
hasn't been able to win it yet, and doesn't even know if it is solvable:
https://youtu.be/tVU2czPog5s?si=k62viEfPr2Ky54Xx

2) Its been awhile, but Pere Serrat has uploaded AGD games pack #62 for
both the Coco and the Dragon. This pack includes:
Javi Pómez y la Cámara no secreta ("Javi Pómez and the non-secret
Chamber")
Lil Ninja
NightAir B&B
Psyqo Santa
The Last Escape
Ziona Quest
Downloads and screenshots available at the World of Dragon Archive:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11159

3) A Gaming channel (by LRU) on YouTube, who records gameplay videos for a
variety of consoles and home computers to achieve high scores to submit,
did one of Spectral Associates Froggie this past week. Unfortunately he
had the artifact colors reversed:
https://youtu.be/gZmHg00Bzdg?si=KcBuwfpT-DsrHQWn

4) Nebulous on YouTube (a new channel just started on March 11, 2024) put
up an almost 10 minute video showing Glen Hewlett's transcode of Joust for
a 512K Coco 3, playing on real hardware (and a real floppy!) Unfortunately
his camera does terrible autofocus, but he is a good player - he made it
wave 10 on his first try:
https://youtu.be/tYQPnhhlJlA?si=1GbuXnK70wCYZVmL

5) Chronologically Gaming (currently doing October of 1982 games) covered
a few Coco / Dragon games this past week:
Earthquake (from Aardvark) - He found the ad for it for the Coco, but like
me, we can't find the actual game for the Coco. But he did find the Vic-20
version, which would have played basically the same (Same author & company):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHkI3QJ27qk&t=61s&ab_channel=ChronologicallyGaming
El Diablero (from Computerware for the Coco, and licensed to Dragon Data
themselves for the Dragon). I will show the Dragon portion a bit here,
since they actually have the manual and it looks pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/live/kHkI3QJ27qk?si=HTO9fgD_LXNqeY8f&t=696

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 355, March 16, 2024

2026-04-05T17:54:43Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 355, March 16, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 355, March 16, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interviews schedule:
--------------------
March 30 - not a full interview, but 2 guests that are involved with
Pixel Addict magazine - editor Paul Monaghan and writer Ian Griffiths -
will be on to talk about both the current issue #19 (Tandy cover story)
and Pixel Addict in general.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Interim Computer Festival: March 23-24.
Intraspace
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington
This is a pre-announcement for a retro computer show in the Pacific
Northwest Area.
https://sdf.org/icf/

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

VCF-East: InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey
April 12-14
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024.
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Pixel Addict magazine (in the UK, and ran by some friends of the Amigos)
is a real print magazine (or digital if one prefers) that covers retro
computing and retro gaming in general. The current issue (#19), that just
came out last week, has as their cover story the story of Tandy:
https://www.pixel.addict.media/shop/current-issue-and-subscriptions/pixel-addict-magazine
NOTE: We will have two of the people involved with the magazine on our
March 30th show. Paul Monaghan is the editor of the magazine, and Ian
Griffiths (@PixelsAtDawn for those familiar with Amigos shows) who is one
of their writers (he is one of the main people for it's sister magazine,
Amiga Addict).

2) George Janssen has released lesson 10 (Graphics screens Parts 1 and 2)
of his Coco 3 assembly language series. He goes through a variety of the
available graphics screens modes, including ones not supported by BASIC,
and writes a BASIC/ML combo program to quickly demo how to set 4 of them
up - some the same as BASIC HSCREEN's, some not:
Part 1:
https://youtu.be/OrncM85aFsI?si=W8RjUGcyj9lQdQl6
Part 2:
https://youtu.be/P_jRNpxBhss?si=_WBY-VeaSuo5rSvk
As usual, he also has put the sourcecode for the lesson up on the Coco
Discord.

3) Pierre Sarrazin has release version 0.1.86 of his CMOC C-compiler for
the Coco (both DECB and OS9). New features in this version:
-minor bug fixes, improvements and optimizations
-new command line option --mc6839, which adds a single precision floating
point library, namely the MC6839 math routine ROM from Motorola. This means
BASIC does not need to be around for floating point as in previous versions.
-Added strspn, strcspn, strtok, strpbrk, strrchr
-Added sbrk and sbrkmax for OS-9
http://perso.b2b2c.ca/~sarrazip/dev/cmoc.html

4) And in a kind of follow up to Pierre's incorporating the Motorola ROM
code, Sean Conner posted on the Coco maltedmedia list a link to his blog,
where he compared the speed of Microsoft BASIC's floating point to the
Motorola / IEEE code - and the Microsoft one is around twice as fast:
https://boston.conman.org/2024/03/01.1
It should be mentioned that has other good deep dive blog entries about
the Coco... well worth checking his blog out (he discusses other completely
unrelated things as well).

5) Coco Town released part 6 of assembly language sound series for the
Coco 1/2/3 - this time he does multi-voice background sound while BASIC
program with graphics is running. With lots of bugs along the way:
https://youtu.be/6A1DRN2sCyY?si=kHm1d4e1Bk5UFUlc

6) Allen Huffman posted on his Sub-Etha Software blog a story that originally
appear in Mary Kramer's CocoNuts! newsletter back in May 2007, about the
discovery of the first Coco 3 prototype found at Microware:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/11/the-color-computer-3-prototype/
Allen also released part 7 of his blog on converting Rick Adam's Lights
Out Coco 3 to plain old Color BASIC, and even a Vic-20 port:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/12/lets-write-lights-out-in-basic-part-7/
He also put up a blog about the Super Pitfall II sourcecode that Roger
Taylor posted about:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/13/super-pitfall-2/
Roger's original blog, which shows the first pages of multiple commercial
programs by Steve. Again, if you can help via his Patreon to cover the large
costs Roger took on to get all of this stuff, please think about doing so:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/here-we-go-100273449
Allen later added a post on Facebook about Roger finding the possible
earlier version of the bouncing ball demo he later did for the Coco 1/2
under OS9 Level 1, but this one is 1) in DECB, and 2) the drawing of the
ball frames is in BASIC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161207966642641/
Roger released the video of it in action on his Mr CoCo YouTube page (Note:
some of the BASIC stuff is sped up in the emulator):
https://youtu.be/MDFdWYAecy0?si=q7IjOJYIq4WX6Kez

7) TRS-80 Retro Programming did another Coco Ultimate update, where he
has added the player getting hit and getting the REPEL spell working:
https://youtu.be/r3_NbmZwbi4?si=BRV6D_TqMYR_fN8B

8) Michael Pittsley sent me a message after seeing our mention of his
videos using the Dorsett courseware multi-media programs on the Coco 1,
where he explains some pretty interesting details on how they work. To quote:
"Soon I'll be putting up another library that I found. But I wanted to let
you know how they are designed in the event you don't know 100%. I load a
main program with cloadm. This program can be used with almost any of the
Dorsette courseware tapes. This program reads the data on the cassette.
to load graphics and do the motor and audio on and offs. The program also
keeps track of the score of the correct and incorrect answers you have
made to display at the end. The graphics are loaded as the tape is read.
Now this is pretty neat as even if there is a bad spot in the tape and
certain graphics cannot be loaded, the program still continues without error.
The graphics on that page may be jumbled a bit, but upon reading the next
bit of code / graphics on the tape, everything will go back to normal.
I can load this program from the Spelling course and run one tape.. then
I can pop in a math tape and not even have to load another program. Heck,
I'm willing to bet I can pop out a spelling tape midway through and stick
a different tape in and it will continue like nothing happened."

9) La Coco Strangiato (Bob Emery) tried putting in a modern WDC 65C21
chip to replace a 68B21, having heard that it would work, but would have
"side effects". He made a video that uses Nick's Jumping Joey game to test
and show the differences:
https://youtu.be/C5Lg_ROCu7s?si=DUQdOkxMIAguBbSw

10) Henry of "The Break Key" channel on YouTube has released the next
video blog of his FORTH on ROM project for the Coco, where he now has
output working:
https://youtu.be/VOCDsbKEw_c?si=O434LkntnhCk8jIP

11) David Ladd has managed to get his MM/1 with 8 MB upgrade
working, although he doesn't have an XT keyboard to use on the machine
locally. However, he was able to log through the RS232 and got his Gotek
to work with 1.44 MB floppy drive files, and his OSK 2.4 is up and running
(login video in the comments):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3194643584094250/posts/4416904168534846/

12) Primal-Bits on YouTube has his follow up Coco 2 video; after fixing
the keyboard in the first one (that we showed a few weeks ago) he is now
performing upgrades to both RAM and ROM:
https://youtu.be/bYZXofB0Jcs?si=Mqx66KQFV3fbq12K

13) Conrad Hoffman did a brief (<2 minutes) Coco 3 overview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/k9iqDZL43e8?si=pcvdLYtSTo-vjTsO

14) YouTube channel THSBIAJKK (Jim Mullis) put up a couple of videos
relating to Sundog Systems GrafExpress utility, showing a lot of it's
features and capabilities in action. Unfortunately it does have some sound
issues due to it's being run in XRoar (I have encountered those myself),
but the graphics run fine:
INTRO.BAS - this gives more information than the regular demo program that
we have shown before:
https://youtu.be/YdcNl86UjnY?si=J9Zi9rKV36-Fi2uA
He then put up a video showing his experiments with horizontal scrolling -
in this video's case, 8 pixel increments, double buffered, 256x192 scroll
window using the COPY command:
https://youtu.be/wQabrE9u2BU?si=UPjXK4nvv5tBetf5

15) Mike Miller posted a screenshot of him getting Flex and the programming
language PL/9 running under an SWTPC emulator. His next steps are to change
interrupts, etc. to allow him to move them to the Dragon and the Coco. He
also got the Tracer module working as well.
(show local copy of screen shot "flex-pl9.png"

MC-10
-----
1) YOUR MC-10 EXPLOITS HERE

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Julian Brown figured out why one of his PAL daughterboards was not
working - a faulty 74LS32 chip and fuse:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3666401916952784/
He also posted about a further refinement to his upgraded Rev 3 board -
he removed the 3rd PIA in favor of an AY compatible sound chip:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3663984037194572/

2) If there is enough interest, reply to Morgan Hetherington's post in
the Dragon Facebook group about making some 3D printed color versions of
the Dragon 32 logo:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3664089933850649/
Morgan also posted about 3D printed tributes that he has made for other
retro computers and games:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3662645750661734/

3) Helen Osborne posted a video of the Dragon 32 Demonstration Cart running
(Unfortunately, her monitor (and camera) seem to have some issues... but
the Dragon and it's demo run fine. I believe this is a BASIC program:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3663493883910254/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie typed in "Adventure" from "Let's Compute" magazine (it spanned
5 issues from March-July of 1991). Problem is... the magazine was cancelled
before the program was completed. So Jim is asking for help/suggestions
in finishing the game off (see details in the description):
https://youtu.be/dAEga45aLHs?si=QVBR13y1Zt-eQEgs
... and then later this week he made a version with the story completed by
himself, and added a title page (NOTE: requires the 16K RAM pack or higher):
https://youtu.be/42F7Sho20Ek?si=SfsT-ZWiIdTsb9ej

2) Paul Shoemaker made a demo of he introduction screens to the Apple II
hit game Karateka. He doesn't plan on finishing it at this point, he just
wanted to show what it may have looked like:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161203012972641/

3) Of historical note, the YouTube channel "The 6502 Show" managed to
rescue some text games from an archive of FLEX disks originally 6800 and
6809 systems:
https://youtu.be/jAsjbxfmhEI?si=TzW-DRkAIES4p4lK

4) The Wargaming Scribe hooked me up with a Russian site that is covering
all official and unofficial Star Wars (or Star Wars related) games, and
he has covered a few Coco ones recently:
https://dtf-ru.translate.goog/retro/2539533-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-50-trs-80-coco?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

5) Tim and AJ of THE My Drunk Sibling YouTube channel return to the Coco
with episode 126 of Sibling Rivalry, this time feature the Tandy/Radio
Shack cartridge game Slay the Nereis by Spectral Associate. With their
traditional humour, of course:
https://youtu.be/R0U9lQeZKeg?si=w4LC5fQvkf5hVMcN

6) Marco Spedaletti has posted the link to his game ACME, Inc.to the Coco
Facebook group. This is part of the BASIC 10 liner contest, and he wrote
it in ugBASIC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161203632027641/
Direct link to his itch.io page, which has versions of it (all written in
ugBASIC) for the Atari 8 bits, Coco 1/2 and Olivetti Prodest PC128:
https://spotlessmind1975.itch.io/acme-inc-10-liner

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 354, March 9, 2024

2026-04-05T17:53:41Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 354, March 9, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 354, March 9, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interviews schedule:
--------------------
None.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Interim Computer Festival: March 23-24.
Intraspace
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington
This is a pre-announcement for a retro computer show in the Pacific
Northwest Area.

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 5 of the
extra overflow tables have now been sold):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) is also one of the speakers
at VCF-SW this year!
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

VCF-Midwest has finally announced their new, larger venue for this year
(#19) - the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, et.c
to set up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out
in 3 hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel
to get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024.
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Paul Fiscarelli, on his Long Branch Never YouTube page, released a video
walking through the latest updates to his Coco Waveform Generator utility:
https://youtu.be/rTq5EUAgGmE?si=8oOoqJUBORRp3A_3

2) And, somewhat along the same line... Coco Town has released ASM sound
part 5 - after fixing his waveforms in the previous episode, this time he
tackles multivoice chords:
https://youtu.be/SeGuVIYFlHI?si=fFQ5M5_Vgqc8hJzn

3) Allen Huffman has released part 6 of his blog of convert Rick Adam's Coco
3 game Lights Out to Coco 1/2's. As of part 5 he had the game basically
working, and now he is making some upgrades from the original version,
including bigger grid sizes & formatted headers:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/05/lets-write-lights-out-in-basic-part-6/

He is also now seeding the incredibly high res scans of the GIME 1986 chip
(he will be adding the 1987 version in the future) that we covered a few
years back. These are scans of the interior of the chip layer by layer:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/02/decaps-of-1986-gime-chip-via-sean-riddle-erik-gavriluk-and-roger-taylor/

Allen also posted a video from Roger Taylor's YouTube page ("Mr. Coco"),
showing the insides of the MicroSEP II - a Mexican Coco 3 that has
modified ROM's:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/03/03/the-mexico-coco-3-clone-no-one-told-me-about/

Roger's video, showing the Microsep labelling on the top and bottom, and
opening the case to show it is a pretty stock Coco 3 (although the ROM's
apparently have some Spanish):
https://youtu.be/vEBsR_yt660?si=P8RsjxxOQF5zb624

4) As a follow up on the MicroSEP II, Roger posted on Facebook about
his adventure in burning a 32K ROM to try on it. He tried an AT28C256K
EEPROM at first, but it wouldn't work. When he switched to a 27C256 it
worked. As mentioned in the comments by Neil Cherry - those two chips are
NOT completely compatible:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161197126132641/

5) From Roger's Patreon link, Roger is the one who purchased the Steve
Bjork estate re-selling of source code, etc., too, and he has plans to
duplicate the disks and source in the future, but with no specific time
schedule. Since this is going to take a lot of time to do, feel free to
join his Patreon (which also goes to his developing his Coco 3 MiSTer core
and other projects):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/roger-taylor-99555827

6) TRS-80 Retro Programing put up a video showing how to use the TRON/TROFF
(Trace On/Off) commands to help track down complex bugs in BASIC:
https://youtu.be/IQoL_qpYbW0?si=EbJdWtTCO_3WDmEY

7) Boisy Pitre put up a quick video showing that the Foenix F256 Jr. is now
stable and booting OS-9 Level II, and he shows it display several text screen
modes and some of the colors possible. This is the machine running a cycle
accurate 6809 core, but at 3.3V and at 6.29 MHz using an FPGA. It currently
is using a 65C02 pin out, so it can't be plugged into a regular 6809 machine:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161197970252641/

Details/price on the system & FGPA CPU:
https://c256foenix.com/product/f256-junior-mini-itx/?v=3e8d115eb4b3
https://c256foenix.com/product/fnx6809/?v=3e8d115eb4b3

8) Alex Redman posted a video to the Coco group on Facebook showing both
his extensions to Coco 3 BASIC that he did back in 1989 (including key
repeat), and a database program he did:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161197879732641/

9) Robert Hamilton posted a cool photo that he took of Tom Mix at his
booth at the very first Rainbowfest in May 1983 in Chicago, as a part of
a discussion about Tom Mix Software started by Richard Kelly:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1599007467324464&set=p.1599007467324464&type=3

10) Paul Shoemaker has made a 64K Coco 1/2 graphics animation demo in the
theme for this year's Chicago CocoFest ("May the Fourth Be With You"),
and he released a video on the Coco Facebook group of it in action:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161191742572641/

He uploaded the DSK image itself to the #glenside-cocofest channel on the
Coco Discord, if you want to try it yourself.

11) John Linville posted that "The Great BASIC Text Adventure Programming
Contest" is live for registration since the beginning of last week, and
the link to their Facebook page. Registration closes in 2 weeks:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1059495638638036/

12) John Whitworth posted in the Dragon Facebook group that he just put
together one of his experimental VDG 6847 socket extended cables. It seems
to work, and will enable his SuperRGB board to be put into some models of
the Coco that it doesn't normally fit in (picture in the comments):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3661765997416376/

13) Craig Iannello posed in the 6809/6309 group on Facebook that he fixed
a bug on his "Pugputer 6309", so he is back to resuming work on it. It
has 1 MB of RAM, bank switching to 4MB.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3322801381346554/

His github:
https://github.com/caiannello/Pugputer6309

14) A little bit of history was posted in the TRS-80 Discord (thanks to user
"NachoGamer") - an article on the release of Videotex in the October 1980
issue of Popular Electronics magazine. The interesting part? The photo
of it is not the same design as the Agvision version or the Coco 1 style
Videotex; it's a Model 1 case with the Coco chiclet keyboard in it:

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie did a non-game program conversion for the MC-10 this past
week, called "A Problem Solving Technique Based on Genetics", originally
written by Arthur Radcliffe in 1981. This was a magazine program from
Creative Computing February 1981, and showed some simple AI techniques,
and has a lengthy explanation at the beginning of the program explaining
what it is doing:
https://youtu.be/HjWdOQdA0Yw?si=aJD2w3wDmo79aZZX

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) John Whitworth posted a quick 7 second video in the Dragon Facebook
group of the SuperBob and SPO256 experiment he was working on, fixing a
bug from his original attempt. It now speaks properly, I believe using
the same speech chip as the SSP on the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3661765477416428/

He also "Got a very definite success with the PAL board!". Funnily enough
- it wasn't one of the ones he built, but one a friend had built to help
him test... thus working much better than his own. Tracking down the
differences is now going on:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3662431644016478/

2) Gary Moulton posted a quick video showing his Screen Editor code in action
- showing text copy, adding new characters and deleting characters. (Mike
Miller mentions in the comments that the code to do this is smaller than
the original Microsoft EDIT command):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3661694067423569/

He also posted docs and the source code (both a BASIC loader program,
and the assembly source as well):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3661691717423804/

3) Clive Townsend posted a question about the graphics capabilities of
the Dragon vs. a Spectrum. Why is this news? Clive is the author of the
Spectrum game called Saboteur, and he is interested in porting it to the
Dragon. He even has some PMODE 4 / B&W screenshots (in the comments) as
mockups to see what it would look like. Wouldn't be too hard to port to
the Coco afterwards, I would imagine:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3659855720940737/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato on YouTube) released a long play video
that shows what the Sound Speech Pack added to our Game On Challenge game,
Space Wrek from Spectral Associates (see YouTube comments for what the
game rankings that it speaks are):
https://youtu.be/Up1QUJbAPEU?si=L0iKEdTGOnd5gBZL

2) Ken Waters of Canadian Retro Things did a comparison review of Adventure
International's "Eliminator" game... a strange title where all 5 platforms
that it came out on (TRS-80 Model 1/3, Apple II, Atari 8 bit, Coco, and
the C64), most of them are completely different games:
https://youtu.be/xRr6HBH9jlE?si=HeMRxnq9uiKBjiDE

3) Brent and Aaron of the Amigos have released The Coco Show episode 51,
covering our recent Game On Challenge game Space Wrek by Spectral Associates,
that they recorded live a week ago:
https://youtu.be/6EfescXzyxM?si=uL-R4CwoxfAgTX71

4) Jim Gerrie ported a text adventure game originally published in Softside
Magazine, written by Peter Kirsch in 1980, called "Magical Journey". This
had a lot of fixes done by Jason Dyer, and then a few more by Jim himself:
https://youtu.be/D4VhgxZTZWg?si=aqE8flFeK79WtTxl

He also posted a link to the cassette WAV file the MC-10 group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7142816995845061/

NOTE: He released an updated version to fix a few bugs on Friday:
https://github.com/jggames/trs80mc10/tree/master/quicktype/Text%20Adventures/MJourney

5) Amigo Aaron did a live "Friday Night Disaster Stream" featuring the Coco
last night (I only caught the tail end of it live). (Start 8 minutes in). 2
hours of Coco goodness (and some stuff that didn't run on his MiSTter):
https://youtube.com/live/jOJ5ZLIutjU?feature=share

6) RetroGamerDiaries on YouTube posted a video comparing 18 ports of Manic
Miner - including the Dragon 32/64 version:
https://youtu.be/8ACkDmXwKe0?si=tj4c-4zP1YokL61Z

7) Sergei Makeev (I think from Kyrgyzistan?) on his youtube channel
"Сергей Макеев" posted a short video showing Startrench Warfare
by Fred Scerbo of Illustrated Memory Banks. This is the original shrunken
version from Rainbow magazine, rather than the commercial larger version
sold by IMB. I don't know if he typed it in himself, but some of it is
not working properly (like animating the trench):
https://youtu.be/nBIfpS1ET4s?si=aVPR6kiNwRztmyfK

He also did The Force by Charles Roslund (for some reason, only the intro
has sound - the Star Wars theme - the rest of the video is silent (the
actual game has sound effects):
https://youtu.be/Jkz9cXFNCU4?si=RXKWem-g4GoR0Ay1

And Space War by Spectral Associates (this appears to be the Dragon version,
since it runs in PMODE 3 for color rather than PMODE 4 with artifacting):
https://youtu.be/GDVsN9ZmO4A?si=-JNmLWxTCgVOq2W-

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 353, March 2, 2024

2026-04-05T17:52:38Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 353, March 2, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 353, March 2, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interviews schedule:
--------------------
None upcoming... yet.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
TRS-80 Trash Talk is live tonight at 9PM Eastern, streamed on youtube. They
are thinking of doing a magazine walkthrough (like they used to do on their
podcast way back), and the issue they are doing today is the August 1982 80
Micro. This is one I actually own (and bought it at the same time as the very
first Rainbow I got, from the same month) and has multiple Coco programs,
plus interviews with the people making graphics for TRON, and with Leo
Christopherson, from when he was working on his first Coco game, Klendathu:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk/streams

Interim Computer Festival: March 23-24.
Intraspace
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington
This is a pre-announcement for a retro computer show in the Pacific
Northwest Area.
https://sdf.org/icf/

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 1 of 14 has
been sold for the hall tables already):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) is also one of the speakers
at VCF-SW this year!
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024.
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) The Taylor and Amy Show did an episode on the Color Computer Mascot -
including making him/her - bow tie and all!:
https://youtu.be/lsOtBIVRnyE?si=KMcDB7gJfUed_H6w

2) George Janssen has posted episode 9 of his Coco 3 assembly language
programming series, this time explaining how the keyboard matrix works,
and how to read it:
https://youtu.be/B_RgJVTTm6Y?si=KeGJK_aQ8qAR6Tjc

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted an update to his Coco Ultimate project,
and now has the hit detection working:
https://youtu.be/Hsqo_HLEif4?si=NbgaB-TzySj51bsY

4) Coco Town released part 4 of his working with Coco assembly language
sound, changing to fixed point to replace his original oscillator routine
to get much better quality sound:
https://youtu.be/2l6sm3blGJw?si=BscU_e_H0JdBn5b8

5) The Break Key (Henry) has released his next episode of making a Forth
ROM for the Coco 1/2 - now implementing some math routines with base 2 to
36, and the first few word tokens in FORTH as well:
https://youtu.be/_d234i7g62s?si=1VKJ6FdQuocRaxPF

6) The individual videos for each presentation at the Virtual CocoFest are
up on YouTube, and Marc Overholser will quickly go over which presentations
we had last weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/@The_CoCo_Nation/streams

7) Grant Leighty posted an update on CocoFest 32 on the Glenside site:
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest-32-update/

8) Joel Ewy posted in the MM/1 group on Facebook that the BlueSCSI's SD
cards are, in fact, hot swappable (although don't try writing or reading
anything to the SD card when it's not actually there). These lets you add
files, etc. on another machine without have to reboot the MM/1 from scratch:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3194643584094250/posts/4405166233041973/

9) David Collins posted an update to the 6309 based homebrew computer that
he is working on. He has it working with "Self staging". This allows his
board to load code to the 6309 CPU at boot up with RAM only pulling in
a small relocatable, self modifying loader in the 48 byte space of the
AVR. (Details in his post):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3320545464905479/

10) Michael Pittsley has posted another set of long form videos covering
some of the multi-media educational programs for the Coco from Dorsett
Educational systems. This includes a 2 part Algebra course, a 2 part
Reading Comprehension course, a 2 part Spelling course, and 2 more parts
(9 and 10) of the United States History course:
https://www.youtube.com/@michaelpittsley8323/videos

11) The Hayden Walt Bradley Channel on YouTube did a review of a collection
of things. This time around covers some computer books including the Coco
2 BASIC manual, and a 64K Coco 2 itself, amongst other things:
https://youtu.be/7Y5djKD1S9E?si=s0ob2tA59adZJFPY

12) Terry Steege's YouTube channel Retro Tech Time put up a quick video
of 2 rather damaged/dirty Coco 2's that he received. He is going to try
to restore them:
https://youtu.be/2T6D8ymq2YA?si=IDE_slbYkz3CkoUR

13) Suburban Relic's on YouTube posted a short video showing a Coco 1
he picked (with an HJL-57 keyboard, no less) and runs the Radio Shack
Diagnostic cartridge on it to test graphics, sound, etc.:
https://youtu.be/-1-mJwElz7g?si=9UJdEGGszJbf2aci

14) Allen Huffman posted part 5 of his series on converting Rick Adams
Coco 3 game Lights Out to regular Color BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/02/27/lets-write-lights-out-in-basic-part-5/

MC-10
-----
1) For those who want to try a homemade composite video/audio out mod for
the MC-10, Mark Dusko posted his on the MC-10 Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7079721405487954/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Mostly Horses and Retro Computing on YouTube (MHARC for short) posted
a First Look video of the Dragon 32 he recently picked up, and what he
got with it:
https://youtu.be/t56UaTXYfGU?si=dxreC1-Ix-V4S0qV

2) In a reverse conversion from normal, JSW Central presented a walkthrough
of John Elliot's 2006 conversion of the Dragon 32 version of Manic Miner
(originally by Roy Coates in 1984, and itself based on the original 1983
version by Matthew Smith) to the Spectrum 128K. He also showed Jetset
Willy that went through the same porting process:
https://www.youtube.com/@jswcentral/videos

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported the CryptoQuote from Syntax ZX80 magazine's very
first issue from 1980. It helps one solve substitution cyphers:
https://youtu.be/d_fVtmnAWAY?si=q0dDC8lHPGOQ11Bf
He also posted "Cape Breton Song" - featuring a nice low res graphic
homage to his home and the lyrics to Island Song appearing on the bottom
(no actual music):
https://youtu.be/JBifyfm9I1o?si=iae8gnIvnBUsD_C4
He also ported "Escape from Monster Manor", originally by Jim McLellan in
2020, from the MC10 to the MC10. No, that's not confusing - Jim wrote the
original game requiring MCX BASIC (the Extended like BASIC Darren Atkinson
made for the MC10) and converted it back to run on a regular Microcolor
BASIC machine (although you will need the 16K RAM expansion or higher):
https://youtu.be/HvwdhvFgR34?si=zZ8P3d5_K4QHPkwC

2) Animation Plus did a video reviewing the top 12 ports of Arkanoid -
Steve Bjork's Coco 3 port made the list (Coco version is the 2nd one shown):
https://youtu.be/Hn3pX3eSZHY?si=w5UqIDffOdtaLUJI

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 352, February 24, 2024

2026-04-05T17:51:38Z

ExileInParadise: The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 352, February 24, 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 352, February 24, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
---------------------

Interviews schedule:
--------------------
None upcoming... yet.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
Interim Computer Festival: March 23-24.
Intraspace
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington
This is a pre-announcement for a retro computer show in the Pacific
Northwest Area.
https://sdf.org/icf/

The Indy Classic Computer & Gaming Expo is April 13-14 in Indianapolis.
Crowne Plaza
Randy Kindig of the Floppy Days podcast helps with this one - and he was
our guest not too far back.
https://indyclassic.org/

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Table bookings (the main hall is completely taken up now, and 1 of 14 has
been sold for the hall tables already):
https://www.tandylist.com/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV
https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup:
(scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) is also one of the speakers
at VCF-SW this year!
Speakers list:
https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024.
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) voidstar in the Coco Discord put up a blogsite with photos from last
weekend's VCF Southern California:
https://voidstar.blog/vcf-socal-2024/

2) George Janssen has released part 4 of his assembly language series on
Coco 3 sprites, which includes some updates, corrections and speed-ups to
what he went over in part 3:
https://youtu.be/L4RLqusdxxQ?si=tRmNMhbNwnd6ttXi

3) TRS-80 Retro Programing put up another Coco Ultimate video, this time
showing combat against a snake:
https://youtu.be/AZEIvidEYbs?si=c5ulpyDvaFARCrT8

4) I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but Darren Atkinson has released an
new CocoSDC firmware update that should solve the problem booting NitrOS9
EOU/6309. Has anybody on the panel had a chance to try it yet? (It's on
the nitros9-eou channel on the Coco Discord, and was uploaded Thursday)

5) Todd Wallace posted a screenshot and short video of his Apple II emulator
for a Coco 3 (requires 512K RAM and a 6309). As he explains in the comments
to his post, it currently works in MAME, VCC and real hardware, but not
yet XRoar. NOTE: When you try booting it up, the Apple ROM tries to boot
from disk, which it doesn't support. ON real hardware, APPLE-RESET bypasses
disk and goes straight to the AppleSoft BASIC ROM. Todd has this emulated
using the CLEAR key instead. NOTE: You will have to supply your own 20K
ROM image and please note it is not the quickest thing in the world:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161173480972641/
You can download it (and look at the sourcecode) on Todd's github (includes
notes on the 1.0 release - like it now has rudimentary lo-res graphics
support.:
https://github.com/dragonbytes/Apple2CoCo

6) Brenda Make posted in the Coco OS9/NitrOS9 Facebook page a proposal she
has for plotting out a parallel bus to use with various retro computers
and micro-controllers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/posts/3579273812335537/

7) Retro Magazine, a European made magazine in PDF format that is a free
download and covers all kinds of retro home computers and video game systems,
has an article/review of Paul Shoemaker's Video Poker for the MC-10 (page
41) in issue 22:
https://www.retromagazine.net/download/RetroMagazine_22_eng.pdf

8) Joel Ewy posted in the MM/1 Facebook group a photo of little mod he
did for his MM/1 case, adding 3 digit 7 segment display. Since this was
an empty spot on the MM/1 front panel, he hardwired it to say "OS9". He
also connected the Turbo button to the RAM jumper, so that he can select
1 MB RAM mode to help checking compatibility:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3194643584094250/posts/4398561813702415/

9) Allen Huffman has been posting some old photos this past week, including
some related to Steve Bjork & the OS9 Archive host computer:
OS9 Archive (rtsi.com) host computer (with OS-9000 manual set on the shelf):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/334403350011917/posts/7170675646384619/
Some info on Steve's modern projects that he was working on recently in
the haunt hackers realm:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161173285282641/
Low resolution pictures of a couple of plaques Steve got that are Coco
related:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161167976927641/
Allen also posted part 4 of his porting the Lights Out game in Color BASIC
series... which will be at least 7 parts:
https://subethasoftware.com/2024/02/20/lets-write-lights-out-in-basic-part-4/

10) Mr. Coco on YouTube posted a video about a Coco 3 that was gotten from
the Steve Bjork estate sale. It is a 6809/512K (using an early 512K SIMM
upgrade from Mark Marlette @ Cloud9). No commentary, but he opens it up
to show the inside (stock other than the memory upgrade):
https://youtu.be/UjTVwwHVmPg?si=dASi6vl4wcjUSmO7

11) Bob Emery posted a video showing how to convert a PC Joystick to the
Coco on his YouTube page "La Coco Strangiato":
https://youtu.be/ytO1BJXkUDY?si=D1UwNzDv_PIrHMPr

12) Primal-Bits released the follow up video to his short that we saw last
week, where he tries a couple of different ways to fix a bad keyboard on
a Coco 2:
https://youtu.be/TvSog3ZTf9c?si=cGlaGI8EYyiy38jo

MC-10
-----
1) For those who want to try a homemade composite video/audio out mod for
the MC-10, Mark Dusko posted his on the MC-10 Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/7079721405487954/

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Ant Goffart is offering Dragon 32 PSU replacement boards, which lets
you run the Dragon 32 from a single regulated 12V 1A power supply, which
he posted about in the Dragon Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3651150368477939/
Sell my Retro purchase page:
https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/64165

2) Stephen Goodwin has put up his DragonDocker container for developing
Dragon 32 code up on his Github (and posted about it in the Dragon group
on Facebook). Currently only tested on Linux, it contains scripts to build
a container, and another to run it:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3650623975197245/
Github (includes documentation):
https://github.com/MarquisdeGeek/DragonDocker

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Jim Gerrie ported the "Haunted House" text adventure (originally sold by
Tandy in 1979 for the TRS-80 Model 1) and added some color to it's splash
screen as well, to the MC-10:
https://youtu.be/nvYP6B1Xi2U?si=yc7D1pvoCjywZHR2
He also ported Sceptre of Kzirgla (By Rainbow Connection Software for
the Coco in 1982). He had to change some high res screens to low res,
but the main game always ran in SG4:
https://youtu.be/E9ySw7LxTJQ?si=08URYVMTn9EFsKQs
He also ported an addition/subtraction drill program that came from an
original Dutch MC-10 tape. Jim translated it to english:
https://youtu.be/Sj6w8T_R4NA?si=7ZFSPbKoysOemM8q

2) Chronologically Gaming just finished September of 1982, he covered a
few Dragon and Coco games:
Tyrant of Athens - he showed the Spectrum version for the most part,
but he did show the tape and manual from the Dragon 32 version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvNkCf4X5Ps&t=115s
same thing with Warlord:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMPBnSZ4R6s&t=675s
and the last Coco entry was this past week, with Wildcatting by the Image
Producers (this originally came out for other machines like the TI-99/4
a couple of years later):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWOmT8BHiBE&t=1425s

3) RetroTrailer-2 put up a short video of gameplay of Speed Racer, with
an old version of MESS (so artifacting looks much poorer than on real
hardware). But it looks like it might have some custom palettes for the
Coco 3. Thoughts?
https://youtu.be/hntovYd-PpA?si=sdJhQSwY-uO9J85A

4) XperTek put up another Coco 2 game video in spanish, this time covering
Spidercide by Tandy, on his amber monitor equipped Coco:
https://youtu.be/T7FSXjaq3K4?si=epHTJTwEiEKeG9Ck

==============================================================================

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
feedback@TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/