News stories for Episode 229, September 11, 2021 show

News stories for Episode 229, September 11, 2021 show

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Thank you to Nick Marotta from David Kroeker for the High Score Challenge: "Curtis, thanks for CoCoTalk! It’s been something for me to look forward to every week throughout the pandemic - which has meant a lot. I’m not setup yet for video capture of gameplay from my CoCo3, so I’ll need to work on that. When Nick does step down (not sure on the timing), feel free to read this tribute from me on the show: “Hi, Nick! Just want to thank you for all the weeks you’ve run the challenge and tallied our scores and put up with our shenanigans. I’m thankful for the way you encouraged families to take part and your fun banter with Stevie each week. I really like the touch of class you bring to the show as well - no swearing and keeping things positive. I hope you’ll continue to be on the panel for a long time still!”

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

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1) Deborah Maxwell has uploaded multiple cassette images to the Coco Facebook group (a few samples are SMONSTERS, BIRTHDAY, etc.). I think these are converted from magazines: (This link is for SMONSTERS as an example):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159448500697641/

2) Robert Gault has uploaded a quick memory test program for the Coco 3 to the Coco Facebook group Files section:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159448240732641/

3) Sheldon MacDonald has uploaded a utility that will let you reflash the factory settings (ROM's) into Ed Snider's (Zippster) PSG cartridge... all with software. Just needs a Coco with an MPI of some sort, the PSG itself and a CocoSDC:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159447960527641/

Sheldon also put up an update (and sample video) of his graphical PSG loader menu system:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159444678342641/

Sheldon MacDonald later got his graphical menu launcher program up to the point of having it up for beta testing, and the software now includes a free version of Treasure Island Defence game (with PSG sound chip support). Screenshots included:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159453960497641/

4) Mike Rojas has the first batch of his Coco 3 RGB to AppleColor RGB (IIGS version) monitor adaptors ready to ship. He is planning on selling for $12 complete (plus shipping), but he also posted how to do it yourself at his GitHub. He did previously ask people on the Coco Facebook group what color of case people will want (he shows samples of orange and black); the boards are completed at this point:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159454011502641/

Poll for case color with some samples:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159444320582641/

Github to do it yourself:

 https://github.com/mrojas36/Coco3AppleRGB

He also put up a 4&1/2 minute video showing how he builds the boards:

 https://www.facebook.com/1098577417/videos/pcb.10159453177687641/604379567388757

5) Various updates are still coming in hot and heavy for the CocoPi:

 https://coco-pi.com/news-updates/

6) Ken at Canadian Retro Things has put up his NitrOS9 EOU Part 3 video up:

 https://youtu.be/FBFFNNdiqh8

7) Danielle O'Connor posted some photos from the September meetup for the Adelaide Retro Computer Group, including her Coco 1/2 systems and many other retro systems as well:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159453950132641/

9) Fabian Rodriguez has been working on improving CocoPedia, and has updated the Coco 2 page to help people identify which model of the Coco 2 they have, and what types of RAM upgrades can be used with that particular model:

 https://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Color_Computer_2

10) For those following the many scheduled videos that Allen Huffman has been releasing that are Coco related for #SepTandy, a bunch more dropped this past week (and more are still coming):

 https://www.youtube.com/allenhuffman/videos

11) Joe's Computer Museum on YouTube, for SepTandy, did a live stream on Sept. 9 doing a Tandy 1000TX teardown, and an exploration of the Coco 3 (Coco starts at 1:53:10 - note that it doesn't boot up at the start - he gets it going a little later... although he isn't sure why it started working. He is also just learning the SDC, so it was a lot of live figuring out how things worked):

 https://youtu.be/CwWpb108qP4

12) Nick Marentes, Steve Strowbridge and myself are planning to be on the Amigos ICCC (International Computer Club) live stream on Twitch, which starts at 6 pm EST on Saturday, Sept 18, to represent the Coco. Please join us in the Twitch stream chat (it should carry over on our channel after CocoTalk is done as well):

 https://www.twitch.tv/amigosretrogaming

13) Read/show - Mark Ovehorlser's announcement. (local PDF)

14) And lastly, some sad news in the Coco world: Paul Barton (creator of the NoCan3 memory/I/O upgrade board & many other things, and a guest on our show multiple times) is in Hospice, and could use your best wishes and prayers. Thanks to Ron Delvaux for letting us know.

 http://www.geocities.ws/idezilla/CoCoZilla/8mbpcb.html

MC-10

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1)

Dragon 32/64

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1) Tim Gilberts shared a video for SepTandy on YouTube on upgrading a Dragon 32 Mark II to 64K - with humour.

 https://youtu.be/olRUYvM_O08

2) Stewart Orchard (our interview guest from a few weeks back) has been uploading a ton of software, utilities and source code to his various Dragon games to the World of Dragon forums: His pixel editing software that he used to create sprites for his games:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10963

The executable, source code and planet level designer for his Black Planet parallax scrolling demo game we showed during his interview:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10962

ROTABB clone kit, and partial source code:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10961

He also found some old types of programs he typed in from Dragon User magazines between 1984 and 1986, so he uploaded 10 games of those as well, that you can try in XRoar or on real Dragons:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10955

Plus 4 utilities (including a SuperBasic he doesn't know much about):

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10956

3) Alanna Kelly in the Dragon Facebook group showed the results of her converting a 3D Blender image to a wireframe Dragon image, and has link to her github showing the BASIC source:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/2995583470701302/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Paul Thayer has been making more progress on his upcoming CocoBan game, CocoBan. He now has a level editor basically, and is looking for testers to try it out (Coco 3 / 128K required). If you are interested, please respond to his Facebook post:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159448990047641/

2) Paul Shoemaker put up a quick video demo of some hand compiled sprites (for Coco 1/2) for his upcoming H.E.R.O. game. Each character is actually made of 3 sprites: head, torso and legs, that can be mixed and matched as needed. (To be honest, it's running too fast to make much detail - a good "problem" to have):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159448440047641/

3) Ciaran Anscomb also uploaded his patched version of Star Trek III version 4.00 (that I had just fixed to run properly on disk systems - see the Color Computer Archive) so that it will run on a Dragon as well:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10959

4) Phil Wheatley posted a cool ad from Personal Computer Games magazine, showing a full color, full page ad for Microdeal selling it's various 3rd party gams in Tandy shops all over England (in the Microdeal Facebook group):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/204334613785733/posts/840004473552074/

5) Whathosnorkers on YouTube (no I am not making that up) put up a video of a variety of BASIC games on the Dragon 32. One unique thing he does (aside from his comedy bits) is he modifies the games to improved them:

 https://youtu.be/YSxHVDlk7dg

6) Nick Marentes has a blog and video update to his game project, Zero Hour:

 https://nickmarentes.com/ZeroHour/10.html

SPECIAL VCF COVERAGE - LIVE FEED HOPEFULLY, BUT ALSO SOME PHOTOS FROM STEVIE:

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10160388862862448&type=3