News stories for Episode 202, March 6, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 202, March 6, 2021 show:

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

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1) Our very own Ron Delvaux found that the current incarnation of Radio Shack, which is selling T-Shirt's, etc. actually refers to their TRS-80 Color Computer as a "Coco", which is something the U.S.A. Radio Shack never did back in the day (it was with InterTan, as we have shown on both Australian and french Quebec Coco ads):

(For some reason, I can't load the page this morning, but it should be at):
 https://www.radioshack.com/products/retro-radioshack-tandy-trs-80-coco-badge-t-shirt

2) A quick followup to the NitrOS-9 install video that we showed last week by YouTuber pahandav - He had also made a blog post about it, which in includes links to his install disk images with written instructions and a source code patch:

 https://oldschoolbasic.blogspot.com/2021/02/coco-3-nitros-9-emulator-vhd-install.html

3) Jon Guidry posted a link to photos related to Tandy Electronics in Australia - including old catalog covers, a store, etc.:

 https://imgur.com/gallery/v7obcFF

4) Robert Gault posted a disk image in the Facebook OS-9/NitrOS-9 Facebook group that contains a utility so that you can create various text and graphics windows types right from the command line, without needing to memorize the DISPLAY codes:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/permalink/2810295599233366/

5) Terry Trapp put up an update video on his P2 / Coco Blender hardware project he is working on, which now auto-detects if an SD card is present:

 https://www.facebook.com/terrytrapp/videos/10226679203393198/

6) Fabian Rodriguez is working on updating/fixing/cleaning up the CocoPedia Wiki, and has asked for Coco related vendors, bloggers, etc. to send in any updates they may have, to bring it up to date:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159022763812641/

7) Retrotralhas on YouTube posted a video showing his Color 64 (Coco clone from South America) with a 6309 installed. The video is in Portuguese, I believe:

 https://youtu.be/UUelkz4LEh4

8) Eric Canales announced on Facebook and the Glenside Color Computer Club website that online PayPal donations to the club can now be made. They also accept equipment donations. Glenside is the club that makes the quarterly Glenside Coco newsletter/electronic magazine, and also organizes and sponsors the CocoFest's each year in the Chicago area:

 https://www.glensideccc.com/donate/

9) Ed Snider of Zippsterzone.com put up a quick video of his first test of his new pick and place machine that should help greatly speed up his making of his various hardware boards for the Coco and MC-10 computers:

 https://youtu.be/KktGzba1yDY

MC-10

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1)

Dragon 32/64

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1) John Whitworth posted on the Dragon Facebook group that he has some lowercase kits now available for sale for 18 pounds for the Dragon 32/64/200. These are the ones that support several alternate character sets (like CGA style, serif fonts, etc.), & inverse video as well as true lowercase. These are currently available in kit form:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2858483161078001/

And store link:

 https://www.dragonplus-electronics.co.uk/product/lower-case-text-upgrade-for-dragon-32-64-200-kit-version/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Sheldon MacDonald has put up a teaser video of game project he is working on that runs on a Coco 3, or a Coco 1/2 with CocoVGA, using the exact same graphics mode (128x96x16 color):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159020694887641/

2) Richard N. has uploaded an updated version of his Spacewar! game (version 2) to the Color Computer archive, which adds sound. He also uploaded the new assembly source code to the #software-dev channel on the Coco Discord. Download from Color Computer Archive (pick 2.0):

 https://colorcomputerarchive.com/search?q=spacewar

(Show local MP4 I made recording sound with my mic - crappy, but should give the idea), file is spacewar_v2_demo_trim.mp4:

3) The Pixel Gaiden podcast (which is a featured podcasts on the Amigos Discord) released episode 53, which includes a segment called "6 Good Tandy Color Computer Games", where they review Zenix, The Contras, Deathchase 3D, Robotack, Doubleback, and Megabug (and mention several others):

 https://pixelgaiden.podbean.com/e/episode-53-a-nice-glass-of-hot-coco-a-very-british-game-show-6-good-tandy-color-computer-games/

4) Paul Thayer showed a really cool looking graphics technique on the Coco 3 showing a "spotlight effect", that I believe is a "company" logo for an upcoming game or two:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159026225597641/

5) LRU's outrageous gaming project on YouTube has posted long play videos of several Coco and Dragon games this past week: Spidercide, Caverns of Chaos, Kung Fu: The Master, Breakout, Downland, Jet Boot Colin, Desperado Dan, :

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3S1bkD2eTZufvgI_nBMiTk_K3X2ld5VO

6) Cuthbert Dragon also did a 2 pack long play game video, showing all 22 levels of the Dragon version of Manic Miner:

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

7) Darren Ottery has released a download and video of his new game for the MC-10 (that requires the MCX-32SD) called DropShip, which he describes as a "large, multi-level space arcade adventure":

https://www.facebook.com/darren.ottery/videos/10160755941426632/

Download:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iXkoMXMqgxdr2k2FHrr5YpwZlAxx44cS/view