News stories for Episode 208, April 17, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 208, April 17, 2021 show:

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

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1) Simon Jonassen put up a couple of screen shots showing a teaser to a demo he is working on, showing 32 graphics mode splits per 2 scan lines:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159123972547641/

And then a video showing mixed modes, with smooth offsetting by scanline:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159138621062641/

2) Trey Tomes has put up a download on his github for the entire CGA character set, that you can use in your own programs. This has the full 256 character set (Todd Wallace's NitrOS9 one, included in EOU, has 224 characters from CHR$(32) to CHR$(255)).

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159125094447641/

Download ASM sourcecode for the full character set:

 https://github.com/treytomes/color_zzt/blob/main/demo/ascii.asm

3) Walter Zambotti has released his port of the V7/32V version of Unix AWK to NitrOS-9. It took some effort to get it to run in a 64K workspace, so this requires Level II OS-9/NitrOS-9 (won't work on level 1). Link to his Github to get the sourcecode is also in the post:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/permalink/2841499922779600/

4) Robert Gault announced on Facebook that he has a new version of his EDTASM6309 that now supports up to 256 virtual drives if you are running on a CocoSDC:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159137141747641/

5) Barry Nelson posted a special copy of HDBDOS meant for the CocoSDC in the Coco Facebook group, that you can copy into one of the ROM banks on the SDC (do NOT put it in bank 0!). It lets you change the disk offset within a hard drive disk image for the virtual disks that HDBDOS supports in emulators and real hard drive controllers.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159137695157641/

6) Tandy Assembly is looking for speakers for this October's show in Springfield, Ohio. You can read the guidelines and email the link provided here:

 http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html

7) Rocky Hill on YouTube put up a video showing his receiving of some clone boards of a Coco 2 that he ordered to make sure a KiCad schematic works properly, as part of the Bit-Preserve project. For a first revision board, it required suprisingly few fixes, and works well enough to run MegaBug and use a joystick:

 https://youtu.be/QcRTDDZ0i-s

8) One for Ron Delvaux: Michael Pittsley has uploaded an almost 30 minute video showing the Coco program (with audio on the cassette) for the Radio Shack Talk/Tutor educational program, "The Solar System: Featuring the Discovery of the Planet Pluto", which includes the real voice of Clyde Tombaugh (starting at 17:35), who discovered Pluto in 1930:

 https://youtu.be/X6AHVhhXBLE

MC-10

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1) Robert Sieg, on the MC-10 Facebook group, mentioned that he has updated his drawing program for the MCX-32 that we demoed last week, and it now allows saving the 32x16 graphics as clip art. I don't think that he has uploaded this version yet, so I presume he is still working on it.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3789169924543135/

2) Jim McClellan has started working on an MC-10 banner maker (including showing a sample from his TP-10 thermal printer) on the MC-10 Facebook page:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3793464547447006/

3) "retrolimber 2018" on YouTube put up this Italian video of the French Alice 90 computer, which was the successor to the Alice (an MC-10 clone) that came out in 1985. It has improvements, though - including 32K RAM onboard and a full keyboard. It also had 8K allocatable for video RAM, which means that it should be able to handle PMODE 3 and 4 graphics fine as well (unlike the stock MC-10, which can only use up to 4K for video RAM):

 https://youtu.be/EZHH2ldm8L8

Dragon 32/64

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1) Matt Kaye has sent some metal plate name badge replacements for Dragons to John Whitworth. This includes special ones like Dragon 64+ and Dragon 64MSX2+:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2885055855087398/

2) ctrl-alt-rees on YouTube has released a 20 minute video on exploring the Dragon 32 (including his using it as a youth):

 https://youtu.be/OYEP0nzzv6M

3) Ian Hopkin started a cool photo post in the Dragon forum on Facebook, of Dragon owners taken "back in the day". I contributed my black and white 1982 shot of me with my Coco 1 as well:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2889049488021368/

4) John Whitworth uploaded the Dragon Service Manual spanish version to the Dragon Facebook group:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/permalink/2888327608093556/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Paul Shoemaker posted a couple of videos showing his porting his Poker Squares game back from the Coco 3 to the Coco 1/2 (and thanks Simon Jonassen for helping track down an insidious bug):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159137162002641/

And on Friday, he released it in our Discord, in the general-game-posts channel. It should be up on the Color Computer Archive soon. He has also started working on a CocoVGA version; his first screenshot of imported cards from the Coco 3 is on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159137811297641/

• NOTE: PAUL WILL TRY TO BE ON THE SHOW TO DISCUSS THE NEW RELEASE. WE CAN MOVE THIS STORY AROUND DEPENDING ON WHEN HE IS AVAILABLE, AND FOR HOW LONG*

2) Sheldon MacDonald has now started rolling out his new Coco 3 and Coco 1/2 with CocoVGA game, Treasure Island Defence. The game will come on the Game MAster ROM cartridge and fully utilizes the sound chip on the card, as well as 16 color graphics on a Coco 1/2 with the CocoVGA (and the ROM double speed that putting the game on a cartridge allows). The cartridge will be $20 USD, plus shipping. You can also request the source code from Sheldon as well. It is possible to run it off of disk, but it won't have sound. He showed a picture of the the complete "kit" to show how it is constructed, and what is included, on the Coco group on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159123932637641/

He also put up a video showing it running from Ed Snider's PSG sound card now as well (note the PSG has to be in slot 1). He notes that notes sound "darker" on the PSG vs. the GMC, and compares the two in the video:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159138706592641/

3) Richard Kelly posted his reference map guide for his version 2 "The Binary Adventure" game. He does mention the map gets complicated enough that this will prove quite helpful. Available for download on the Coco Facebook group:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159124350007641/

4) Fabrizio Caruso placed 2nd in the PUR-120 category of the 10 liner BASIC programming contest, with his MC-10 game Mines+. He has a video demo of the game in the MC-10 group on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3786383284821799/

You can download the game in .C10 here:

 https://github.com/Fabrizio-Caruso/TRS-80-BASIC-10-liners/releases/download/MC10/TRS-80-MC-10.zip

5) Trey Tomes put up a screenshot of a PC to Coco 3 game conversion he is working on (using the extended IBM ANSI character set), which was called "Town of ZZT" on the PC:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159131225522641/

He also put up some screenshots of level mockups:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10159133708932641/

6) Robert Sieg put up some animation cels with Mario for the MC-10 (Created on an MC-10 with the MCX-32):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3796235993836528/

7) Ken of Canadian Retro Things put up a video showing some Coco (or generic 8 bit bit micro) books of type in BASIC games, and demonstrates several of them:

 https://youtu.be/Vcf88zEchTs

8) FrodoNL has a couple of noteworthy videos out this past week: On YouTube, he has a comparison game video, showing him playing the UK game Manic Miner on 12 different systems, including the Coco/Dragon, using his MiSTer (this was recorded awhile ago on Twitch):

 https://youtu.be/Xt1MFxr2uy0

He also did a Coco episode of his series "The first year of". Because the Coco 1 came out a little late (and some had to be recalled in late 1980 due to some issues with the first run of SAM chips), he included the tail end of 1980 and all of 1981 in his list (a few from 1982 snuck in as well, as they are incorrectly labeled on both the Color Computer Archive and even on some ROM cartridge labels):

 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/988703065

9) Nick Marentes has posted his 4th chapter in his Zero Hour development blog - this time covering sound effects & his "ambient" sound in the background that goes along with the animated cogs he showed in the previous episode:

 https://nickmarentes.com/ZeroHour/04.html

10) Jim Gerrie is taking a poll for what compiled game of his on the MC-10 should be used for a high score challenge. The prize is one of his "Type-in Mania" coffee mugs:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/permalink/3796225077170953/

11) Sixxie (Ciaran Anscomb, author of XRoar) put up a video showing the Anniversary Edition of his Dunjunz port to the Coco or Dragon (which includes the multi-voice soundtrack on the title screen if you have 64K):

 https://youtu.be/BHC1slG_J8M

He also put up a recording of his smooth scrolling game demo, this time recorded both from real hardware, and with artifacting (this is on a Coco 1/2 level machine):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsiXdWQPac

12) The YouTube version of this months The Coco Show (featuring Rescue on Fractalus) has been released by the Amigos:

 https://youtu.be/pqPSVZ4WoT0

13) Cuthbert Dragon has his YouTube page bak up again, and has over 25 games on it, including a few that he has not shown before:

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