News stories for Episode 205, March 27, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 205, March 27, 2021 show:

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

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1) Mike Rowen has added the final parts to his "Printing for fun and profit" YouTube series on hooking up a DMP-130 to the Coco, his network, and modern PC's via networking. There are 9 parts total (who knew that printing was so involved that it takes almost 2 hours to setup?) Joking aside, this excellent seris goes into extensive detail on the setup, how it works, etc.:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4s7F91Z1W5GwkloR5YwRbA/videos

2) Brian Schubring has also put up multiple episodes of a couple of series on using Ultimuse III and MIDI on the Coco 3, including entering scores, tips and tricks, etc. to YouTube:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXz7kwGh60dc6SbKxdeTMfw/videos

He has also put a voting poll up asking if people would like to see him do some videos going through his history with MIDI:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159085434967641/

3) Ed Snider put up a new video showing the GIME-X with 8 MB RAM upgrade in a Coco 3, and using every output possible (5 of them!): Composite, Analog RGB, S-Video, VGA, RF. This includes better RF and composite output than the original Coco 3 had:

 https://youtu.be/vnUWPS1oGdM

Also an update prices & scheduling, from Facebook (see comments for price w/o RAM board - note some existing RAM boards will not allow all new graphics modes, or full 2.86MHz speed). While he won't go into full production for awhile, he does mention that he does have a few for a limited pre-release, if you want to order one:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159078600107641/

4) Michael Kline did in an interesting experiment that he posted about on the Coco Facebook group: Connecting two retro 8 bit machines (in this case the Coco 3 and the Pocket Computer II) via modems on each, but with no phone line involved:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159075491022641/

5) Ciaran Anscomb (creator of XRoar) has made his own 512k SRAM Coco 3 upgrade board, which he has posted about in both our #hardware-general Discord channel and on the Facebook Coco group. While 512K upgrades are not too expensive these days, most have been made in the United States, and shipping and taxes to ship them to Europe is prohibitively expensive. So Ciaran decided to use his CoVid down time to design his own, which he has graciously shared the project files for so that others can make it as well. If there is enough demand in Europe, maybe someone there can manufacture and sell it, for those not good at hardware making.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159084939502641/

6) Todd Wallace updated his OPL2/3 chip tunes player for NitrOS-9 (used by the Mega-Mini MPI, for example):

 https://tektodd.com/updated-coco-chip-tunes-player-to-version-1-3/

7) RetroTech has put up a video showing how to set up a development environment for the Coco and the GMC, using a Coco, Notepad++, LWTools and XRoar:

 https://youtu.be/QNR0s0_w5Tc

8) AC's 8 Bit Zone has made a "pure digital video" card (HDMI) that he has been working on, for the Coco 1/2. He used it during this week's video showing the Game Challenge this week, Moon Cresta, and it pulls the video directly from the Dynamic RAM; no analog conversion *at all*:

 https://youtu.be/n0JS78JFGqo

MC-10

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1) Jim McClellan has add another feature to his McDraw graphics editing program for the MC-10 - it now can print out to a printer (he shows a photo of printing on the TP-10 thermal printer).

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3729109007215894/

2) Robert Sieg has an update to his 24 bit BMP to MCX-32 128x96x4 converter, and some samples. He now has it down to about 1 hour (vs. 4 to 6 it was taking previously) to do it natively on the MC-10:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3740800529380075/

Dragon 32/64

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1) Stephen Smith posted that he has 27 issues of the National Dragon Users Group, and he is selling the lot in the UK for £25 delivered. Hopefully whomever buys it scans them in and adds them to the World of Dragon Archive (and/or the Color Computer Archive and Internet Archive). He put some photos of them up as well, and it looks like they go into late 1993:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2872796056313378/

2) Matt Kaye has finished designing replacement Dragon software boxes, and is gauging interest in getting some made for sale, that will likely sell around per box:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2870715049854812/

3) Henry Reitveld posted a video on YouTube showing running a 3.5" floppy drive on the Tano Dragon 64:

 https://youtu.be/wVd0aGoo28M

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Sheldon MacDonald has a new Work in Progress video for his current 6809 game project, Treasure Island Defence, which will support the Coco 3 and the Coco 1/2 with CocoVGA. This video is the CocoVGA version with GMC, and shows some actual gameplay and scoring:

 https://youtu.be/tgys4fUYAJM

He then added an updated video showing the additions of airplanes and parachutists:

 https://www.facebook.com/sheldon.macdonald.733/videos/10165079420000361/

2) Paul Shoemaker has been fiddling with some graphical effects, to animate an intro screen:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159073902212641/

3) I finally re-found my download of the old Gates of Delirium Archive complete website (it went offline years ago), and put it up on my website. This has complete, animated maps, inside information, etc.:

 http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/gatesofdelirium.html

4) Erico Patricio Monteiro put up a "landmark" animated GIF showing his upcoming semigraphics fighting game - showing a battle between the two characters including a win by one of them. Amazing for SG4:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159077259912641/

He also put up a small YouTube demo called "Splush" as a side project demo for it as well:

 https://youtu.be/queQJPFvgYs

5) The 18th episode of the Coco Show, featuring Demon Attack, has been officially released by the Amigos on their YouTube channel:

 https://youtu.be/lLF12MdRtaA

They have also announced that next months game is a Coco 3 only title, Springster. If you are a member of their Discord, don't forget to submit a review for next months show!