News stories for Episode 224, August 7, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 224, August 7, 2021 show:

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

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1) James Jones posted in the OS9/NitrOS9 Facebook group a webpage about the timeline and family tree of computer operating systems going all the way back to 1951. It's not complete yet, but includes over 830 so far, and OS9/NitrOS9 is included (NOTE: Shrink with Command-, as it doesn't fit even on 1920x1080):

 https://eylenburg.github.io/os_familytree.htm

2) Joel Ewy started a very technical discussion on the Coco group on Facebook that has included input from Robert Gault and John Kowalski (Sock Master) on how to translate colors between composite and RGB (and component). In particular it goes through the composite "color wheel" which shows the 4 levels of intensity for each of the 16 colors based on the phase angle (intensity is more "white" added to the base color). It's one of the best technical details on how this works that I have seen, and quite over my head, to be honest. The discussion goes into dithering, 640 vs. 320 mode, artifact colors when using greyscale at 640x200 resolution, etc. (including samples done by Sock Master in the comments):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159384306252641/

3) Danielle O'Connor put up a photo showing the results of a VDG style color/character test, but showing PAL composite on the left to RGB on the right. How good the PAL composite is compared to the NTSC composite we are used to in North American is stunning - your are almost hard pressed to tell a difference between the PAL composite and the RGB Analog:

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=961951921313465&set=gm.10159382988657641

4) Sheldon MacDonald posted on the Coco Facebook group some updates to his RSDOSTool and PMODE 1 library, and also a PMODE 1 drawing program:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159392200822641/

He also has a video demonstrating it:

 https://youtu.be/LnQu-TYJeLw

5) Retro Rick put up the official release for his Maze Maker 4.0 program, with a video here showing the Coco 3 mode running (pardon the aspect ratio stretching his emulator is doing). This official version is faster, has a Dragon specific version, and also a 16K version:

 https://youtu.be/j04XsuGLGaQ

MC-10

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1) Jim Gerrie posted a video to a program that may be of interest to Ron Delvaux. It's an astronomy program originally by Philippe Easclangon, from the March 1984 issue of Trace magazine. Originally for the TRS-80 Model 1/3, Jim's MC-10 port uses the slightly higher resolution 64x48x4 SG6 mode on the MC-10:

 https://youtu.be/_aMYXspPY90

Dragon 32/64

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1) John Whitworth has announced that he has been given permission to manufacture Phil Harvey-Smith's Dragon Power supply boards (which are getting hard to find). This version causes the Dragon to lose RF out (but it keeps composite, which is both better quality and compatible with more modern TV's). It also boosts the power draw capability, so that some internal boards won't need extra power anymore. He is currently asking about how much interest there is for these, as he needs to order parts and equipment to make them. He is expecting to be able to sell them initially at £33.50 for a kit; £40.00 built.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/2969709089955407/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) TKM's Retro Gaming Nook continues to produce Coco gameplay videos. This week they released: Battle of the Centipede clones (Katerpillar Attack, Colorpede, Color Caterpillar, Megapede, Caterpillar, Slay the Neries:

 https://youtu.be/oIKwCLu1dBI

2) Jim Gerrie posted a video complete walkthrough of "Sunrise of Bethselamine", a text adventure originally from the Sinclair Spectrum, on the MC-10. It even features a little bit of graphics.

 https://youtu.be/4Rpj5X2KrGc

He also did a video with a partial playthrough of the game Sorcelleire (Sorcery) originally written by Rafi Deryeghiyan for the magazine L'Ordinateur Individuel in their December 1985 issue (and an Alice version existed before Jim ported it to the MC-10). Of further interest is a blog post that Jim wrote to go along with it, where he speculates that it is possible that this game may have been part of the inspiration for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series:

 https://youtu.be/yeGIjHaHsFU

The blog:

 https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2021/08/sorcelleriesorcery-by-rafi-deryeghiyan.html

3) Cuthbert Dragon has released some more Dragon game videos this week; some of note: Glove (up to 3 player Gauntlet clone for Dragon & Coco released in 2006), Slide (A large version of the plastic tile sliding game where you try to get the numbers or images (pictures sample about 1 min. in) in order - I believe this is written in BASIC), Data Fall (a Popcorn style game), Jaws (a rescue at sea game - with yellow water?), Dunjunz (since it's author, Ciaran Anscomb alias sixxie will be on next week), Lachlan (a low res graphical RPG/adventure game - with a unique battle system, etc.), Morbid Mansion, Castle Attack (never seen this one before), Ultrapede (Centipede clone), Temple of Zoren (a BASIC adventure game, but with a little bit of graphical arcadeness at the beginning?), Sultan's Maze (a 3D maze game with monsters-go 45 sec in to show some different things it does), Guardian Angel (a bit like Scramble, but a bit different, too - see landing sequence & what happens after that).

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

4) Tom Erik Gundersen posted a video of text mode version of snakes that he ported to the Dragon from an original version he did in both GWBASIC (IBM PC compatible) and Amstrad CPC464. It's not finished yet, but looks pretty decent for a VDG game in BASIC (in the comments he shows stage 8 when the game is running faster, and also a tape cover inlay "just for fun"):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/2968833953376254/

5) Chris Poacher, who will be on our DragonTalk! show next week (and was our lead in guest on the teaser trailer for that show), showed some cassette games from Microdeal for the Dragon that showed that Cuthbert showed up even in games where he wasn't mentioned in the title:

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10166271928025713&set=gm.817996352419553

6) Lyndon of Old School Games & Stories channel on YouTube, whom we haven't mentioned in awhile, did a playthrough of the Coco 1/2 classic Downland:

 https://youtu.be/AWAEjjZ9lpY

He also earlier in the week appeared in the Retro Gaming Roundtable, where the theme was "first game console" - where he showed off his Coco 2 that he got for Christmas 1984: (around 12:30 in):

 https://youtu.be/yzRVzEYDmEY