News stories for Episode 203, March 13, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 203, March 13, 2021 show:

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Doing Dragon first so the passings are last.

Dragon 32/64

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1) Ivan Rodellas Garcia reposted an earlier video (from 2013) on YouTube that did a Tano Dragon unboxing & review, from back when California Digital still had them in stock:

 https://youtu.be/1vZ5VemjXIk

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

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1) Fred Provoncha has a new video out on Facebook, showing his update on his getting the Coco and NitrOS-9 to use iCalendar files through Drivewire. This update shows download a calendar file to the Coco, and run it through a filter program he wrote:

 https://www.facebook.com/frederick.provoncha/videos/10160427158124863

2) Ken over at his Canadian Retro Things YouTube channel does his review and demo of the Switch-A-Roo cable on his Coco 3:

 https://youtu.be/sf25udo2_Xs

3) Simon Jonassen has another portion of his upcoming Coco 3 demo showing some smooth scrolling/flipping text:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159038092807641/

4) Todd Wallace put up a video demonstrating his text mode library for the Coco 3 in BASIC (which includes a port of his CGA font that he also made for OS-9):

 https://youtu.be/e8pMFUaAhvs

5) Retroralhas on YouTube has put up another video of a Coco clone in Brazil - this time, the Codimex CD-6809 (showing the machine, vs. history and ads, starts around 3:10):

 https://youtu.be/JvJdwzq0STI

6) Fabian Rodriguez, who has been working on the Cocopedia, posted a question this morning on the Coco Facebook group, asking if people would be interested in short, online workshops on how to add/create Cocopedia content, so that individuals and companies can update their entries on their own, and help keep it more up to date:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159052634617641/

7) And now, some sadder news, part 1: Lou Ottens of the Netherlands, who was the inventor of the cassette tape that was used all over the world for music and computer tapes, passed away at the age of 93. He invented the cassette in it's current form in the 1960's while work at the Belgian Hasselt branch of Philips. He also was part of the team that invented the CD:

 https://netherlandsnewslive.com/inventor-of-cassette-tape-lou-ottens-passed-away-financial/107722/

8) And sad news in the Coco community: Michael J. Knudsen, author of Ultimuse III (the 16 voice score entry program for MIDI, for OS-9/NitrOS-9) has passed away, on his birthday. Ultimuse is one of the 3rd party programs for OS-9 that I considered to be full professional grade user applications, right up there with things like MVCanvas, while most of the rest of us did utilities, programming aids, etc. He will be sorely missed in the community.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/permalink/2815384075391185/
 https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/catonsville-md/michael-knudsen-10091483

MC-10

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1)

Dragon 32/64

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1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Jim Gerrie has a few new MC-10 games. The first is Third World War, originally written by Mike Rose in his 1984 book "Creating Political & Military Simulation Games on Your Micro":

 https://youtu.be/9cOMdagRIXk

And this weeks 10 liner game, called Bazooka, which was inspired by a Sinclair User magazine game from August of 1982, but with some additions:

 https://youtu.be/ipKub6nyREI

Jim has also released an updated version of his port of The Caves of the Unwashed Heathen for the MC-10, now specifically with MCX32 SD support, that you can download from the Facebook MC-10 group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3696933530433442/

2) Erico Patricio Monteiro has posted some semi-graphics scenes from a fighting game that he is working on:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159043524342641/

3) LRU's Outrageous Gaming Project on YouTube has added some more Coco longplay gaming videos (this week Slay the Nereis, Downland, Storm Arrows:

 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3S1bkD2eTZvoNwctCHcY0e3q_Qg__Ozp

4) Cuthbert Dragon has also added some longer play videos as well: Screaming Abdabs (14 levels), Boris the Bold, The King, Demon Seed, Shaft:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn-xa4QI7mrjLcXjXr2E6Qw

5) Rob's Retro Rambles has returned with a Dragon 32 game called "MacDougal's Last Stand", with his usual awesome commentary:

 https://youtu.be/9vH9ff6F3r0

6) FRGCB Dude on YouTube put up a comparison video of Hungry Horace and Horace Goes Skiing, comparing the two games on 3 platforms: the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, and Dragon 32/64. This one is for you, FrodoNL.

 https://youtu.be/0BG4RHy0EsQ

7) Melanie Swalwell posted a link to her upcoming book, "Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality", which is a book about the early creation of game creation from the 8 bit era of the late 1970's to the early 1980's, from the Australian and New Zealand area perspective. The book, which will be available on August 17 in both paper and electronic formats, features interviews and archival research into how the games were created, and she uses our own Nicholas Marentes as a case study (and the cover of the book is based on some of his original design artwork for the original Model I/III version of Donut Dilemma:

 https://twitter.com/melswal?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

MIT press page:

 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/homebrew-gaming-and-beginnings-vernacular-digitality