The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 459, April 4, 2026 (March 28-April 3)

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 459, April 4, 2026 (March 28-April 3)

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Collected by L. Curtis Boyle and Presented by Mark Overholser and Rick Ulland

Interview schedule:

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Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:

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VCF-East is April 17-19 at the InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey. Peter Cetinski is going to be on the Podcaster’s RoundTable panel (for the TRS-80 Trash Talk show, that does cover Coco’s in addition to the other TRS-80 and Tandy machines):

 https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

CocoFest 2026 is April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting this past week. And hotel rates are locked in now (see post on Glenside website). Table reservations are open now too. Holiday Inn & Suites Carol Stream, IL:

 https://www.glensideccc.com/

That same weekend is the first official Latin American VCF, which takes place April 24-26 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina:

 https://vcf-espaciotec-com-ar.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus, and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila, Washington:

 https://www.vcfpnw.net/

The Brazil Color Computer Club has announced that their 10th meeting is on May 2:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/25741764422191262/

That same weekend is the next online live International Computer Club show on the Twitch and YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco content on there before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already been booked as of this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:

 https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31) because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!

 https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:

 https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:

 https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):

 https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct 2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:

 https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

NEWS:

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Dragon 32/64

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1) Tony Jewell posted some photos from last weekends Dragon Meetup:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4357720161154286/

2) Jim Brain posted some info on the CocoMem Jr, which actually might turn into a Dragon project first, on the World of Dragon forums:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11349

3) DragonData on the world of Dragon forums posted a ROM download (and screenshot) of a program that he suspects was a Dragon Data factory test cartridge, to make sure the colors and characters on the VDG are coming out right:

 https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11350

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

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1) R. Allen Murphy has been updating Coco Nation news summaries to Allen Huffman’s Cocopedia, after Allen had to do some changes to the site. He has the 2019 entries done now, and will continue to work on the others as time permits:

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

2) Glen Hewlett has released BASIC-TO-6809 version 5.25, which is some more bug fixes from the previous 5.22 release: Fixed SDC_DIRPAGE(0), was causing a stack corruption Fixed V=VAL("&H"+A$) Fixed a problem with mixed two byte addition or subtraction one byte operations Fixed String concat, like S$ = "HELLO "+ "WORLD" was backwards, although S$ = A$ + B$ was fine Fixed STRING$(), was totally broken Adding missing command SLEEP to the manual, command existed but I forgot to put it in the manual Fixed a bunch of compare sizes that were incorrectly comparing the wrong types on the stack

He then released a 5.26 with five more bug fixes: Fixed compare code GreaterOrEqualLS2RU1 it was corrupting the stack Fixed the EqualSameType8 routine, needed a LEAS 15,S at the end was a type of LEAS 5,S Fixed reversal of conversion code of FP5 types that were first in an expression Fixed compares with Single and Double types

 https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809Fixed non literal types
 that start with - and mistakenly identified as unsigned should be signed

3) The other main BASIC cross compiler (ugBASIC, which is also multi-platform) also had some updates. The Main branch is mainly general bug fixes (or for machines other than Coco related), but the Beta branch has added SG4 support for 6847 based machines (Coco 1&2, Dragon 32&64, MC-10):

 https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

4) RPN’s blog (I think this is Richard Natali?) has an article where he is using the Coco’s cassette port input as a game controller, based on Steve Bjork’s Audio Spectrum Analyzer):

 https://rpnweblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/color-computer-cassette-port-input-used.html

5) Paul Cunningham posted an update to his Star Trek type game port from the original TRS-80 Model I game called Space Warp, including a video of it in action:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/permalink/10164083990342641/?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=uSox5BOjSvLwTWAY

6) Although manufacturing has not started yet, the CocoSDC2 specs have been released by Darren Atkinson on the Coco Discord: • Smaller board. • No DIP switches or jumpers to configure. • Allows up to four disk images to be mounted

 simultaneously from the SD card.

• Supports long-ish file names

 (up to 39 ASCII characters).

• ROM images up to 32K (Program Paks, Disk

 Basic ROMs) can be loaded from SD card.
 This replaces the Flash Banks of original SDC.

• On a CoCo 1 or 2 without an Extended Color Basic

 ROM, you can also have the ECB image loaded from
 the SD card (requires CoCo with at least 16K RAM).

• Real Time Clock and Battery.

7) Aaron Banerjee posted the patent for CLOAD for the Coco on the Coco Facebook group, originally filed by Dale Chatham:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164097966002641/

8) Ron Delvaux posted a Coco 3 picture of Earth in tribute to the Artemis II flight, currently en route to the moon:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164097910797641/

9) Cedric Beaudoin posted an update to his Coco ESP-32 project - he has received his first batch of boards, and is now preparing to ship his first batch of orders:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164095264692641/

10) Brian Palmer posted some screenshots of Coco 3 graphics done by David Dyson back in the day, where he pointed out that it is where he learned to use DATA statements with graphics commands:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164092929202641/

11) Michael Pittsley posted a video showing a graphic and some music for St. Patrick's day earlier last month. This originally appeared in the March 1984 issue of TRS-80 News magazine:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164089534782641/

12) Allen Huffman posted a couple of blog entries about the fake vendor at Atlanta CocoFest 1994 and the whole in joke behind it:

 https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/01/klystronics/
 https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/02/klystronics-at-the-1994-atlanta-cocofest-revealed/

13) Paul Thayer is working on an ML, 512K Coco 3 super enhanced version of the Coco 3 BASIC game Penguin Icarus, originally written by Nick Bradbury and published in Rainbow magazine. He posted a couple of videos about it, the latest being a comparison between the original and his new enhanced version, with animated snow, digital sound effects and more added:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164082639447641/

14) Thomas Cherryhomes posted a link on the Coco Facebook group to User documentation for Fujinet that is now available:

 https://fujinetwifi.github.io/fujinet-docs/

15) Retro Byte Master posted a video to his YouTube channel about upgrading a Multi-pak to work on a Coco 3:

 https://youtu.be/STLQI_wi84k?si=PoGgPszoJUXP6NN8

16) Coco Town has posted his next Game Revolutions video, showing how to make transparent pixels on the Coco 1/2 in assembly language:

 https://youtu.be/AfOYICfRMZA?si=xFVlcZ-LEoTcNTJg

17) TRS-80 Retro Programming has released an update to his Ulysses of Ithaca game project on his YouTube channel, and the fact that the demo has been released on the Color Computer Archive:

 https://youtu.be/Q3TD2tKGqmg?si=YGVE0XY9ilasJR9_

Download link:

 https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Disks/Games/Ulysses%20of%20Ithaca%20Demo%20v1.0%20%28Coco%20Power%20Software%29%20%28Coco%203%29.zip

18) YouTube channel MacStories did an interview with David Sparks (podcaster, creator of MacSparky), where he goes through his history with computers. Of interest at the beginning was that he programmed text adventures on the Coco 1, that he programmed in store at Radio Shack with the blessing of the manager, as he and his family couldn't afford to buy a Coco themselves:

 https://youtu.be/odCL34UcyuU?si=5zSMBI9YuA1wgZYt

19) Ron Klein has released a Coco Pi project update (a "release candidate" as he calls it, since he is sure some minor fixes will be needed). It features a new Python based launcher, using VS Code for the standard development environment, hover hints and full syntax highlighting for both classic BASIC's on the Coco as well as ugBasic and BASIC-TO-6809 cross compilers, 6809/6309 assembly language, MC-10 and CMOC.

https://coco-pi.com/coco-pi-project-update-2026-04-04/

MC-10

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1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

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1) Jason Ross has released a demo video (and updated download link) for his Stocks and Bonds game, a conversion from an old Avalon Hill game of the same name. He used Claude AI to make it into BASIC09 (and later ChatGPT):

 https://youtu.be/G7OF1prl_s4?si=1wQRhasVoeMa6WFh

Link to DSK downloads (and source & docs):

 https://github.com/Rastamafugg/stocks-and-bonds/blob/main/disks/snb.dsk

2) Nick Marentes has revealed the "cover art" for this upcoming Coco 1&2 and Dragon 32&64 game, "Get Off My Lawn":

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164070991772641/

3) The website devoted to Mastertronic (a budget game development house in the UK) posted an article of their top 20 best selling games on all platforms, and with breakdowns by platform. Their Vegas Jackpot game (#5 if you scroll down) sold 306,957 copies total, and the Dragon 32/64 version sold 2,333, which is one of the firm sales figures I have seen for either the Coco or the Dragon:

 https://mastertronic.co.uk/mastertronic-the-big-hitters-they-sold-millions-part-3/

4) Jim Gerrie ported "Lines of Action" from the 8 bit Atari computers to the MC-10. The game was originally written by Canadian Claude Soucie, and ported to the Atari by Sol Gruber in the Dec/Jan 1985 issue of ROM magazine:

 https://youtu.be/kz8nz9cnyMg?si=DiyPTET8UXqKP9Bp

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