News stories for Episode 242, December 18, 2021

News stories for Episode 242, December 18, 2021

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

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1) Guillaume Major, author of SDC Explorer, is now working on a new program for the CocoSDC that will let you flash the ROM banks as well, from the Coco. He already has permission for 5 games to be put into this format that are recent: Pierre Sarrazin's Color Eights, Steve Bamford's Flagon Bird, Evan Wright's Flood It, and a two pack by John Linville, Xmas Rush and Fahrfall (Pandemic Edition). He is looking for any other cartridge compatible games to include, and if you have such a game, please reply to his post on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159632028062641/

2) Todd Wallace has done a major update to his chiptunes player for NitrOS-9. It now supports not only the OPL chip in the MegaMiniMPI, but now also supports the CocoPSG (from Zippsterzone) and the GMC (Game Master Cartridge from John Linville). He also has added VGM Loop support, and an updated way of making playlists. He has uploaded a video/audio demo of it in action, and also has it up for download:

 https://tektodd.com/coco-chiptunes-player-v1-6-released-gmc-and-cocopsg-support/

3) Roger Taylor had more updated photos of the GIME die's (both 1986 and 1987 versions - along with a millimeter scale ruler so you can get a proper sense of scale. He does note that while both versions appear to have roughly the same amount of MMU, palette and font portions to each other, there is significantly more gates in the older 1986 version. He speculates that they either drastically reduced the logic needed, or they removed something (or both):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159631800822641/

4) Jamie Cho shared a Twitter link on Facebook from famous hacker and actress Jeri Ellsworth, where she helped restore a Coco 2 - and she mentions that she had fond memories of playing games on it with her friend Mike:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159630683632641/
 https://twitter.com/jeriellsworth/status/1470312501359218689?s=21

5) Michael Furman has posted a video of how to get NitrOS-9 EOU running under XRoar using it's IDE controller emulation:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEGIpIs_u2s

He has also posted a JSON file to allow one to make custom boots with other descriptors and drivers more easily (assuming you build disk images externally), which some people have been asking about lately. This particular example is for putting IDE driver/descriptors into the OS9Boot:

 https://github.com/n6il/eou_ide/blob/main/kwikgens/ide.json

6) Tony Jewell posted about changing the Brazilian Coco clone (Prologica CP400) that was shown at the Dragon Meetup, to run in the UK. While both machines are technically PAL, Brazil uses PAL-M:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3065539623705686/

7) Allen Huffman has released a followup video on using BASIC to deal with individual bits. This time he uses a pre-built array to greatly speed up his previous "2 to the power of" method, at the cost of a little memory:

 https://youtu.be/11vIcTH1OhI

8) If Grant Leighty isn't on the show to talk about it himself, He has this announcement about the May CocoFest: “I am happy to report that COCOFest will be free to attend next year. You will still need to pay $15 in clue dues if you wish to be a member in good standing. Table prices are the same as last year, $20 for the first table and $15 for each additional table. The price for the dinner will also stay the same at $20. Preregistration is still strongly encouraged so we can print the badges and to prevent a long line to enter.

Also I am looking for speakers for the fest, and people to create the artwork for the badges and posters. They can reach out to me on Discord and email, cocofest@glensdeccc.com”.

MC-10

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1) Jim Gerrie has put up an MC-10 version of a Christmas tree programming contest that Logiker.com is doing for vintage systems (note: no machine language mixed with BASIC allowed - it should be all of one or the other): The contest:

 http://logiker.com/Vintage-Computing-Christmas-Challenge-2021

Jim's entry (note: further down in the comments below talking about Paul's entry):

 https://youtu.be/GXLSqlFyxdQ

Jim later did fancier versions, which are part of the 2nd challenge in the contest, and this morning combined 4 of them into a 1 minute demo:

 https://youtu.be/mfA_wp_0xZo

Paul Shoemaker did a 1 line version as well (see his video in the comments), as well as Anders Carlsson (see their videos in the comments from Jim's original Facebook post):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/4535473683246085/

Dragon 32/64

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1) John Whitworth has opened up orders for the 2nd round of PSU's for the Dragon, although this time they will be in kit form ONLY. He hopes to send them all out by December 22, and this is a limited run, so order soon (assuming there are still any left by showtime - there were 7 left as of Friday morning):

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3063837430542572/
 https://www.dragonplus-electronics.co.uk/product/dragon-psu-board-kit-version/

2) Richard Harding has posted his 2nd Video (with commentary this time) for his walkaround at the Dragon Meetup from the end of November:

 https://youtu.be/naoEGC35tZE

3) Retro Marky on YouTube picked up a Dragon 32 system from a family member, and did a video unboxing, and clearning:

 https://youtu.be/U76B3DgCoIE

He then did a second one, explaining some problems he found:

https://youtu.be/0r-d7rjYLsM

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Paul Thayer put up the next VLOG of his upcoming Coco 3 game, CocoBan:

 https://youtu.be/tQOh3Kq_oic

2) Paul Shoemaker is now working on a Dragon / stock Coco 1/2 version of Poker Squares, that does not use artifact colors but "regular" PMODE 3, so it will run in color on the Dragon machines. He also has added a multi-voice music player (thanks to Rick Adams), so it now has a musical intro as well, which he shows on his first update video for this new project on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159630095097641/

3) Tim Thayer posted a teaser, blurred screenshot of what looks to be a Coco 3 game by him and his brother Paul (who is also of course working on CocoBan, as we mentioned earlier). What could it possibly be?

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159628280477641/

4) Jim Gerrie ported another John Krutch game (from 1981 this time) to the MC-10 called KINGMOVE. It's another from John's AI book:

 https://youtu.be/xCqVRfcf_-k

5) Pere Serrat announced that the next 6 pack of newly converted AGD games is out for the Coco and Dragon, pack #42 (one is actually a black & white version of the commercial DragonFire):

 http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10988

6) The Japanese site that has been releasing games on many platforms (including the Coco and MC-10) has now made Mazey available the MC-10 with a 16K RAM add on (and just in time for Christmas). Mazey is multi-stage 4 way scroller where you shoot monsters, get treasures and try to get to exit (with timer bonuses):

 https://youtu.be/4n6YK__tz6g

Download (at bottom of page):

 http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/mazy/#mc10 

7) Chris Hawkins of Chris's Retro Corner (we featured his video of getting a Dragon 32 for Christmas, and it's the first time he has ever had or used a Dragon) did a video showing him trying 3 user suggested games that he had come with the Dragon: Chuckie Egg, Cuthbert in Space and Katerpillar Attack (the last one is where he discovers that some games really need analog joysticks):

 https://youtu.be/jg4eRbYNPS0

He is also now doing a 10 day Christmas Countdown of some games for his Dragon. His first 2 episodes are out, featuring 1982 games "Mined-Out" & Phantom Slayer:

 https://youtu.be/mLilzRqXwAQ
 https://youtu.be/cEbwH07Dew8

8) Erico Monteiro has put up a video of his 1K War of the Worlds (which is based on last weeks story of converting a 1K single invader Space Invaders type game from the ZX-81), except he is getting much fancier with sound and low res animations (and breaking the 1K limit):

 https://youtu.be/6X1u03Z_fKc