News stories for Episode 193, January 2, 2021 show

News stories for Episode #193, January 2, 2021 show:

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1) Darren Atkinson posted a patch to fix a bug with the new MCX32-SD card trying to get a Directory from an Emcee server (this is the new SD card / RAM upgrade solution for the MC-10):

 https://mcxwares.blogspot.com/2020/12/patch-for-server-dir.html

2) Robert Sieg posted another updated to his MC-10 directory browser, which you can download from the Facebook MC-10 Group:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3502248659901931/

3) Darren Atkinson ported Simon Jonassen's Torus Coco 1/2 graphics demo to the MC-10: Video from emulator:

 https://www.facebook.com/simon.jonassen1/videos/10164697910930506/

Cassette image download:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3501914473268683/

4) Robert Siege also posted an MC-10 download on the Facebook group that converts 24 bit BMP to MCX32 graphics images. It takes 2 to 3 hours (depending on complexity) to create the 4 color 128x96 picture:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3498402386953225/

And a sample picture:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3500706546722809/

5) Jim Gerrie posted a link to an article on dailykos.com that is brief write up of one of their community members having an MC-10 when the first came out:

 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/18/1987180/-Adventures-in-Retrocomputing-TRS-80-Micro-Color-Computer

6) Robert Sieg posted a video of his MC-10 running on the new MCX32-SD with directory support - but the surprise is he is also running a CocoVGA on his MC-10, and includes a palette demo:

 https://www.facebook.com/robert.sieg.94/videos/3976466709038823/

7) The new owners of the Radio Shack trademark are apparently now actively shutting down people using the Radio Shack logo for commercial products (it does look like the "TRS-80" ones have expired, though, and should be safe):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/260663051145211/permalink/837765663434944/

8) Allen Huffman has his 4th article on "Benchmarking the Coco Keyboard" up now, which goes into using BASIC's keyboard rollover table to detect keys being held down, with some sample BASIC code to help you visualize how it works:

 https://subethasoftware.com/2020/12/29/benchmarking-the-coco-keyboard-part-4/

9) A quick follow up about the SD cards that Antonio of SD-PAK.COM ordered last week with Terry Steege - they are 64MB cards, quantity of 200. Prices for higher capacity (512MB or less) are still less than $2.00 per cards, not including shipping.

10) Sheldon MacDonald posted a video of his drawing a circle in assembly in the semi-graphics 8 mode, with some help from Simon Jonassen:

 https://www.facebook.com/sheldon.macdonald.733/videos/10164695679760361/

He also posted a video of an early random number generator he did in assembly (Also drawing circles):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158858566657641/

11) Erico Patricio Monteiro put up a quick video on Facebook showing some of the earlier, rejected semigraphics designs that he came up with for SD Explorer 1.1:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158853387382641/

12) Alan over at the 8-Bit Zone has a video on making a 64 in 1 ROM pack, using an old game cartridge and a AM29F040 Flash chip:

 https://youtu.be/T3mSd2uBXlw

I think I missed his previous episode last week - Hacking the ROM in the Coco to improve CSAVE and CLOAD fidelity:

 https://youtu.be/xYhsa7cncR4

13) Ken @ Canadian Retro Things has a video about doing high speed audio loading over Bluetooth - the sequel to his loading from bluetooth at normal speed:

 https://youtu.be/PMs_-xInE-Q

14) David Ladd uploaded a video showing x1, x2 and x4 cassette speed load comparisons using the techniques that Ken mentioned... but goes beyond with a high speed project he found on GitHub, that does digital files and a small loader program that can run over 10x faster on a Coco 1/2, or 20x on a Coco 3.

 https://youtu.be/ygX111dDvfg

The Fastloader project:

 https://github.com/MyTDT-Mysoft/COCO-FastLoader

15) Bill Pierce announced the release of the newest VCC - 2.0.1c - which adds support for a second hard drive, some bug fixes, hot key speed controls, and an improved manual, amongst other things:

 https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/releases/tag/v2.1.0d

16) Ed Snider put up a video showing his Chiptunes player playing a couple of songs for the new year through the OPL3 chip in his MegaMini MPI:

 https://youtu.be/4H4Vbu64hbw

17) Simon Jonassen has been working on Trey Tomes BASIC fireworks simulation for the Coco 3 in VCC (fully overclocked BASIC at this point), with plans to convert to assembly so that it runs as fast at normal Coco 3 speeds:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158860231777641/

18) Rob Inman put up a video showing a boot to playing music in Ultimuse III (through Drivewire 4) under NitrOS-9 on a real Coco 3:

 https://youtu.be/oKXBX0JCXOk

19) Allen Huffman posted a photo of his running XRoar (as a Coco 1) using the new compact Raspberry Pi400:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158858508592641/

20) Jerry Stratton has put up a script to convert hex values to an actual .BIN files with pre-ambles & post-ambles (making it ready to load and EXEC:

 https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/coco/coco-bin-files/

21) Jim McClellan (and others) have done multiple updates this week to MCDRAW, a screen editing program where you can create and save screens. MCX32-SD required, and available for download in the MC-10 Group on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3512546312205499/

22) Mark Dusko found a link to a book called "BASIC programs for Small Computers" (for 4K or less computers) on archive.org, that includes MC-10 listings:

 https://archive.org/details/BASIC_Programs_for_Small_Computers/mode/2up

23) Geronimus Vanden posted a video of some PMODE 4 screenshots he made into a slideshow on his MC-10 (With the 8K internal upgrade, and the MCX-32SD add on):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3506659532794177/

24) The DragonPlus Electronics page on YouTube put up Multiple videos of the Dragon 64 with their DragonPlus board (based on the original Compusense version from 1985), booting OS-9. This gave it 64K extra RAM for a RAM drive, an 80x24 display.

1) Shows the switchover from the 32x16 VDG screen to the 51x24 graphics display (briefly), then kicking over to the 80 column card. Finally it shows initializing the RAM drive:
 https://youtu.be/bw2FqB2zQNg
2) Shows running EDIT128 from a DragonDOS formatted virtual disk (so using 80 columns from BASIC):
 https://youtu.be/FPCc9spDYTU
3) Shows the Dragonplus running 80 columns with FLEX, including a primitive hardware text windowing system:
 https://youtu.be/RaNw19lY-XQ

25) [REDACTED] posted a video showing some of what his [REDACTED APP] animation and sound development system can do:

 https://youtu.be/HAyRhCuVPo0

26) A new (to me) YouTube called "Ohead" put up a short video showing his Coco 1 playing the first few bars of the song Daisy Bell, with lyrics, using the build in BASIC sound:

 https://youtu.be/_jzX65sBgHQ

27) Boisy Pitre has released an update to his DriveWire 4 server for OSX: While not adding the full functionality of the Java DriveWire 4 client, it does add support for the new Apple Silicon (M1 chip) Macs:

 https://github.com/boisy/drivewire-mac/releases/tag/v1.2

28) Ricky ElQasem posted updates to the TZX Tools for the CASduinio and MaxDuino, with a link in the Facebook Dragon group:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2814977815428536/

GitHub direct link:

 https://github.com/rickyelqasem/TZX_Tools

Game On news:

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1) Vide Malban on YouTube released a video showing his port of Coco game Dungeons of Daggorath to a Vectrex game console (which has a 6809 in common with the Coco):

 https://youtu.be/QRr-a78Lyvc

2) Jim McClellan has released a survival horror game Called Monsters in the Manor, that requires an MDX-32SD upgrade card on the MC-10:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3511461072314023/

Direct download link:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PR1tO1vAz_UBI_sCgPK4iFB1SftoZdYV/view

3) Jim also asked about Chess games on the MC-10... and Jim Gerrie came through with no less than 4 that he has ported over (see comments):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3502169239909873/

4) Allen Huffman has been pulling the graphics information from the Atari 2600 Adventure cartridge, and showing what they look like on a Coco 1/2 system:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10158856937382641/

5) Aaron and his brother Brent over at the Amigos have released the 18th episode of The Coco Show, featuring Mega-Bug:

 https://youtu.be/j5nVn_JqUBE

6) Allen Huffman also put up a video of a mockup of "Super Coco Bros." (Super Mario Bros.) with a title screen in SG4, and the theme song done with PLAY statements:

 https://youtu.be/SejtEbAuB54

7) Mr. Dave has a teaser video for part of his new Coco 3 game, featuring some recognizable guest stars....

 https://youtu.be/RjjrGXTGB8I

8) Our own Stevie did an almost 3 hour stream of MC-10 games using is new MCX32-SD card (which adds RAM, and SD card access for the MC-10):

 https://youtu.be/qoQQanMR37E

9) Diego Barizo showed his progress in optimizing & Remixing an older game he wrote back in 1987 (Air Wolf), showing side by side his original version vs. his new one:

 https://www.facebook.com/diegoba/videos/10224655926286963/

10) Robert Sieg uploaded a game for the MCX-32SD upgrade on the MC-10 called "Fuel or Die", available for download on his Google Drive:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3512359562224174/

He also uploaded his War17X, although the link appears to be broken at the time I looked:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3516045611855569/

11) Rob's Retro Rambles covers Devil Assault for the Dragon 32 in his latest video:

 https://youtu.be/_p3uys2in_o

12) Marlin Lee did his video walkthrough of Nerble Force, and Defender style game, on the Coco:

 https://youtu.be/hsd0IO-7A_A?t=14

13) Simwgb did three 3+hour streams of various Dragon games over the past few days (that I have been too busy to watch live, unfortunately: Day 1: Wizards Quest, Donkey King, Mr. Dig, Cashman,

 https://youtu.be/BIEYqmjwbZ0

Day 2: Gordon Bennet, Speed Racer, Fire Force, Tea Time

 https://youtu.be/KfqlGpowdcM

Day 3: Cuthbert Goes Walkabout, Hunchback, Jet Set Willy

 https://youtu.be/pnRkDXRE7DA

14) Steve Bamford posted a video showing his very first boot of Circe's Island from an actual ROM chip on the Game Master cartridge (local link on my desktop; was posted to Discord): (use Circes_Island_RomBoot_0540.mp4 from my desktop)

15) Cuthbert Dragon just started putting new videos of this morning for the week. So far, he has put up: Star Spores (as we saw earlier) Caverns of Doom:

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

16) Allen Huffman has been going through the Atari 2600 classic game Adventure - using his Coco - and has been blogging about it's internals, etc.:

 https://subethasoftware.com/2020/12/23/exploring-atari-vcs-2600-adventure-part-1/
 https://subethasoftware.com/2020/12/30/exploring-atari-vcs-2600-adventure-part-2/

Allen also went into the history of the unreleased Atari 2600 Hangman game that was going to use the VDG chip from the Coco, and apparently The Image Producers was actually going to release a port of Space Assault to it as well, and it is speculated that this would also have the VDG chip in it:

 https://subethasoftware.com/2020/12/31/coco-mc6847-vdg-chip-draw-black-challenge/