News stories for Episode 261, May 7, 2022

News stories for Episode 261, May 7, 2022

=========================================

(news from Apr 29-May 6)

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

---

1) David Irish posted about an interesting proposal about his Raspberry Pi project - using Twister OS as a base to make an OS that thinks may have happened if Coco development had continue beyond Tandy's dropping it. It's another "Coco 4" style proposal (enhanced graphics, new modern BASIC, etc.). I have no idea how much traction this would have (there have been multiple proposals similar to this before), but it is a recurring theme that some members of the community are drawn to:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159877092062641/

2) Brendan Donahe has uploaded a video & new upload (version 0.2 now) of his CocoVGA BASIC extensions (this will be available at next weekend's CocoFest as well!). He also now includes a tutorial program to help get you aquainted with the enhancements and how they work:

 https://youtu.be/c48C9Lhz5d0

Download link (scroll down to "Software (.DSK/.VDK) Images) (I should note that it is also available in the Files area of the Coco Facebook group):

 http://cocovga.com/downloads/

3) Our own Ken Waters of Canadian Retro Things put up a video for Part 4 of his BASIC09 series: "Some Beginner Graphics"

 https://youtu.be/rfR5r3BagcM

4) D. Bruce Moore posted on Facebook that he is going to be selling a USB/cassette version of the Coco Forever multi-media radio play:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159885081127641/

5) Brad Hartz posted on Facebook that he went to Taylor University, and in the Computer Science & Engineering section they have a mini-museum - including a Coco 1:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159882262152641/

6) Jerry Stratton posted an updated his Rainbow preflight tool - it now checks for missing line numbers, helping you catch printing mistakes and program bugs in listings (or bad scans):

 https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/coco/rainbow-magazine-basic-program-preflight-tool/rainbow-magazine-preflight-tool-enhanced/

7) Fabian Rodriguez posted on Facebook that this months Maximum PC magazine (May 2022) has an articel on the TRS-80 Color Computer:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10159881431032641/

8) Brenda Make posted in the OS-9/NitrOS-9 that she is working on a Rhino 3D design of a 3D printed box to would screw onto the bottom of a Coco 3 with a short cable (to save on cable strain). It sounds like it's still a work in progress:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/posts/3113253185604271/

9) Vintage Geek on YouTube did a video on the TDP-100. He compares it with the Coco 1 and 2, compares packaging of ROM pack games, etc.:

 https://youtu.be/e5GrlkaxF5o

10) Pedro Pana (Rocky Hill on YouTube) posted a video about a little adaptor he made between the VDG chip and the motherboard, which makes it easier to connect an RGB to HDMI adaptor:

 https://youtu.be/jDvpSt9nP8E

11) Joel Rees has started to translate the original "Hidden Features of the 6309" from it's original Japanese (from Oh!FM magazine April 1988) to English, since he is fluent in both languages. He has the first 2 paragraphs done now, and will continue it as he has time. He also has the remainder of it generated by Google Translate, which is somewhat readable. A couple of points of interest I noticed and did not know before:

- The 6309 was officially release for sale by Hitachi in August 1985
- The chip was used by multiple people to overclock their FM-7's, FM-77's, FM-11's, FM-77AV, etc. (it was rated for 3MHz). Apparently a fair many of them went to 4 MHz without trouble, as long as the supporting chips were ok with it.
- the first "extra feature" found on the 6309 was a new register, which was found when a commercial word processor called WPV3 stopped working properly. Their first thought was that clocking it higher caused a timing problem, so they dropped back to 2 MHz, but that made no difference. They started tracing the code, and the culprit was the TFR instruction. On a 6809, TFRing a "non-existent" register to a legitimate register always makes it $FFFF... but it didn't on the 6309. As an experiment, they transferred a known value (not $FFFF) from a legitimate register to the "new" one, and then transferred it back. On a 6809 it still comes out as a $FFFF... but on the 6309 it retained the value properly, meaning it was a real, previously unknown, register.
- A committee of programmers was formed to figure out what else was extra, and this was shared on BBS's as it went along. (When I found the extra indexing modes in 1992, with Bill verifying them, we used a similar approach).

The article is here (and will be updated with full proper translation as time goes on).

 https://defining-computers.blogspot.com/2022/05/translation-of-article-on-63c09-in-oh-fm-1988-4-72.html.html?m=1

MC-10

---

1)

Dragon 32/64

---

1) Phil Kruman on YouTube is doing a series of videos on computers turning 40 this year - including this 23 minute piece on the Dragon 32. This is first of several videos on the Dragon that he is planning:

 https://youtu.be/89WCugfWeTg

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

==============================

1) Tim & AJ released last week the Castle Guard edition of Sibling Rivalry. This is a Coco 1/2 game that frankly isn't that good when you play against the computer... but is a lot more fun when 2 human players (or better, Rival Siblings!) play it! (They also just dropped their Atari 2600 Outlaw video yesterday as well):

 https://youtu.be/ZZuQuBWfx_0

2) Jim Gerrie has been busy, as usual: Star Trader - originally Dave Kaufman, this is an updated version from Dave's original 1973 BASIC simulation game (including some low resolution graphics):

 https://youtu.be/H8UYKEbUTcQ

Bubble Bobble Graphics demo - converted from BBC BASIC. It shows not only low res graphics of a Bubble Bobble character, but how it can be compressed in a string:

 https://youtu.be/mkHWlKpN_Jo

Noughts & Crosses (X's and O's) - but with some AI. This is a conversion from a program originally by Trevor Lusty in Practical Computing Magazine September 1979. This version has the computer "learning" from it's mistakes, rather than just a fixed algorithm:

 https://youtu.be/sBBXtm5WQiQ

A One Liner arcade game adapted to the MC-10 from a C-64:

 https://youtu.be/D3v8oU1PD8M

3) Glen Hewlett posted a blog update on his Robotron transcode... unfortunately he has lost the drive to completely finish it, although he says it is playable with a some sound samples still needing to be added and a few graphics glitches/slowdowns, so he is releasing it as is. Nick Marentes will show us the game start and attract mode (it requires 2 joysticks, just like the arcade version itself):

 https://nowhereman999.wordpress.com/2022/05/04/robotron-last-update/

4) Pere Serrat & Kees von Oss have released AGD pack #55, which contains 6 more mini game conversions (this is using the smaller sprites capable engine, as was the previous pack): Armored (Side A) Armored (Side B) Frantic Pengo Road Trippin 2 2022 Coast 2 Coast The Castle of Dr. Game U.F.O. Invaders

 http://www.retrowiki.es/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=200038244

5) The Taylor and Amy Show put up a new video going through different ports of the game Ghostbusters (based on the original smash movie, of course), trying out the Spectrum and C64 ports (and attempting to play the Atari 2600 version)... and then they play the Coco version. There was no official port of this game to the Coco (by Activision or anyone else), so what they found was a BASIC game:

 https://youtu.be/twA4u5DpHhM

6) LocoLobo XIII on YouTube posted a video "Level 1/Basics" about Dungeons of Daggorath, a game he first played when he was around 8 years old. Here he plays a modified version:

 https://youtu.be/HLTUW5tfQqs