News stories for Episode 186, November 14, 2020 show

News stories for Episode #186, November 14, 2020 show:

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1) Sheldon MacDonald continues to work on his DSK and development system for cross developing form Windows to the Coco. He is also working on a game project using this system, and is also working on a semi-graphics tile editor as well (scroll down in comments for his screenshot of the semigraphics editor):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158733327077641/

2) Dave Shadoff (author of Star Spores) pointed out on our Discord server that there is now a free MC-10/Alice core for the MiSTer):

 https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/AliceMC10_MiSTer

3) Rutherford Le Blang on Facebook mentions a trick you can do on the CocoSDC where you can specify a specific virtual drive number (0-255) as part of larger DECB VHD, in one command:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158742139137641/

4) Larry Reeves shared some of the history of his Coco BBS's, starting way back in the Coco 1 era, on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158741916682641/

5) Jerry Stratton has added some new features to his rcheck+ (Rainbow Check compatible scripts), which he has documented on his page (and an OSX version ready for download, and it should work on Unix/Linux as well). Some of it goes even beyond the original Rainbow magazine versions, including telling you some things to specifically look for:

 https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/coco/rcheck-plus/improved/

6) Congratulations to the Coco Crew for hitting the 150,000 total download mark.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158740039787641/

7) Steve Bamford on the Dragon group on Facebook posted a message about an idea for a coffee table book for Dragon software art, that he doesn't think he will get a chance to get to:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2771296346463350/

8) Ed Snider has announced the initial release of the MCX-32, which we previewed on the show a few weeks ago. It is an expansion cartridge that plugs into the MC-10/Alice's expansion port, and gives it the following: - 32K of RAM - MCX BASIC 3 (which adds a lot of Extended BASIC commands, include high res graphics up to PMODE 2 on a stock MC-10, or PMODE 3/4 on an MC-10 with an internal modification to the MC-10. It also supports both the SD Card and the Emcee server for loading/saving programs (Emcee is the MC-10's version of Drivewire)) - SD Card slot - the BASIC now supports loading cassette files, raw BASIC and ML programs, etc. - 128K of Flash memory Announcement - follow the links for the introductory video, user guide, and order site (NOTE: The first batch of 20 is already sold out! Email Ed to be put on the list for the next batch!). $65.00 including case.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3379119468881518/

If you want to modify the MC-10 for 8K internal RAM (and allow PMODE 3/4), Ed has instructions here:

 https://thezippsterzone.com/2020/06/12/mc-10-8k-internal-mod/

9) Speaking of the MC-10, I somehow completely missed Steve Blakely's project on the Facebook MC-10 group, where he is running an MC-10 ROM on a modified car engine computer, communicating at 9600 baud via the serial port.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3353705508089581/

10) Allen Huffman has posted an updated version of his blog article "Compressing BASIC DATA with Base-64 - Part 1" (note to Allen - you posted about part 2 on the Coco list, but the link is broken):

 https://subethasoftware.com/2020/11/11/compressing-basic-data-with-base-64-part-1/

11) ScottyAnimation on YouTube gives some pointers on fixing the older CTR Radio Shack cassette recorders. He then demonstrates it working on a Coco 2:

 https://youtu.be/u3CfccYPlI0

12) AC's 8-Bit Zone released part 3 (and final part) of his fixing a Coco 2 for a subscriber to his channel (a bad RAM chip):

 https://youtu.be/t0jVmZdx_BI

13) TJBChris does an "unboxing" of a Tandy DCM-6 modem (300 baud, originally purchased by an ebay seller for $9.95 in 1991!). While he plans to use it with the black and white TRS-80's, it would also work with a Coco:

 https://youtu.be/nJVqx4zwaSo

14) TechSMR release a video on YouTube demonstrating what it sounds like to use a Coco 2 keyboard (for 10 whole minutes):

 https://youtu.be/E__wI0WBUyk

15) Mike's Tech Rescue (Mike Dancy, a new member of the Coco Facebook group) on YouTube released a video on how to make your own RF cables for older computers - in particular, a Coco 1 he just bought:

 https://youtu.be/ujIywepPwx0

16) Paul Barton posted a "doodled" version of a schematic for a dual 16550 circuit board for the Coco cartridge port:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158748100862641/

17) Robert Sieg has been doing further graphical experiments with the "256 color" composite "mode": I believe this one uses 320x192x16 (but in composite):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158746542817641/

And the 160x192x16 mode, an updated result from a previous photo he has been working on:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158745121002641/

And a blue smoke one - he says super high resolution, but it's still 160x192x16:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158749190152641/

18) Aaron Newcomb had an interesting question in Facebook: Has anyone had success scanning program listings from Coco magazines and getting them OCR'd into actual text? (Not all of the pre-typed disk/tape versions are available on archives):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158742982527641/

19) Richard Kelly uploaded a disk image of 7 one line BASIC programs to Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158742767432641/

20) Piotr Bugaj (in Poland) had more Dragon Drive's available. These are floppy interfaces with a built in Gotek & a second floppy connector. Unfortunately, it looks like they sold out again during the week:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2774913426101642/

Order site, if they come back in stock again:

 https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/32317

21) Jim Gerrie posted a blog article on Key debounce delay POKE's for the MC-10:

 https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2020/11/key-debounce-delay-pokes.html

Game On news:

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1) Richard Kelly, who has been doing some Coco games programming lately (like his Ladderman 2 project), has starting uploading game play demo videos to his YouTube channel. So far he has 3: N.A.E.R. (Not Another Expressway Ripoff), Maze Maker, and Artillery:

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLifpEZV_vybJaa4fA8pNzyw7hGvix5fg

2) Cuthbert Dragon has been uploading a ton of Dragon game videos - but this time around, he is including photos of the original Dragon cassettes as well as gameplay on a real CRT on a real Dragon. He also does cuts so that you can see later levels (in some of the games) without watching the entire play up until that point. This week he has: Cuthbert in the Jungle Cashman Ugh! Danger Ranger Crystal Castles Speed Racer Planet Invasion Space War Glaxxons Cuthbert in the Mines Pengon Frogger Talking Android Attack Robin Hood Skramble Electron Jet Boot Colin Galagon Mr. Dig Leggit! Pit Fiend Touchstone

 https://www.youtube.com/user/MaryWinstead32/videos

3) Jim Gerrie made an updated work in progress video for his port of Warren's World: The Lost Colony that we mentioned last week:

 https://youtu.be/CFGEG5w2Fn8

4) The Color Computer Archive has an updated DSK image package for a lot of Coco Games in 1 zip, with 83 disk images. Unlike the main ZIP, this has many games combined on each DSK image. There are lots of other update (like some foreign language translations, etc.):

 https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Disks/Coco%20SDC/Games/Coco%20Games%20Collection%20(Coco%20SDC).zip

5) Stevie did a Coco live game marathon with strictly Coco 1/2 games last weekend, including Stevie's first play of Nick Marentes' new game, Pipes. He also played this past weeks Challenge game, Buzzard Bait, and then: a brief preview of Jupiter Patrol, Legend Quest, Mazeland and Cuthbert Goes Walkabout.

 https://youtu.be/eJvzETrLodw

6) You Make Robots on YouTube put up a video demonstration of DRAGONUITAPE, which uses MaxDuino firmware for a hardware solution that he has done for the Dragon 32 (he makes SD card adaptors for other older machines as well). It allows loading of CAS files from the SD card:

 https://youtu.be/F2Is-S9vQd4

Details:

 http://dragonuitape.youmakerobots.com

(I don't see it in the store yet, but it should be up shortly)

7) Mat Chy is back in the Facebook CoCo group, and has his semigraphics game Doodle Jump available for download at itch.io. You can donate as much money as you would like, to help encourage him to make more games:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158747960592641/

8) Antonio Carlos Jiminez Ely has posted images of almost 20 SD card custom labels for some popular Coco games:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158747245712641/