Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Comment: Best of the Best

Like a dumbass, I overwrote the November issue of The Color Computer Collector and then promptly uploaded the overwritten file to the server without making a back up. Brillant, eh?

Riding to the rescue is a gentleman named Charles, who promptly emailed me the complete issue and basically saved the day. Very cool stuff and I can't express how grateful I am for the save.

It may seem like a little thing, but it is a big part of what makes the Color Computer community so special. As I read and reread through the old mags, there is a constant sense of trying to build something, to make it bigger and better, and to include everyone and every interest. I had the opportunity to browse through some "other" computer mags from that era and that whole sense of community is... well, just missing. It's not there like it was for the CoCo.

It's still out there, of course. Smaller perhaps. But it is still there. I get email from Color Computer users every week asking questions and providing answers. When I can't provide the answers myself (let's face it, I'm the kind of guy that would solder his finger to the mainboard... not that I ever have, mind you, but just so you know it burns like a mother), I try to point them in the proper direction. I then often will hear back from them to let me know that they got the answers they needed, and how pleased they were that other CoCoists are out there spreading the good word and helping to make new CoCoists (or welcome them back!).

I think that's why I wanted to do a site for TRS-80 Color Computers. It's my favorite computer, of course. I grew on TRS-80s. I love Ataris, too. From the 2600 to the Jaguar, an Atari is one tasty machine (I'm particularly fond of the 48K 800). But there's a ton of great sites for Atari collectors and support for those machines. An Atari will never be a CoCo. It's that community that pervades the entire Color Computer scene that always draws me back to these marvelous machines.

There's a lot of CoCoists out there. More than we see in the CoCo mailing list, or the message board at CoCo3.com. I just want to encourage all of you silent CoCo lovers out there to chime in every once and awhile. No matter what your experience level or what you like to do with your CoCo, there's plenty of people out there that are more than happy to help, share and contribute. In the end, that's what has always been missing from the "other" computer communities. It's about the computer. The Color Computer has always been about the people. Jump on in.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

4 comments:

brizaos9 said...

Hi Capt,

Yeah come on you Silent Coco Users, leave a comment or 2, More comments we get, The better it is for the coco communtity.
I've left my Bit, So the rest of you, Please do the same.

laters

Captain Computer said...

Scarlet, not irish, just a TRS-80 fan. The vintage computer called a "CoCo" had a bright green screen when started up. So the site is done in different shades of that same hue of green (as sampled on to my monitor, your mileage may vary). Thanks for stoping in! -Cris

Captain Computer said...

Let's hope more do, Briza! :) There's plenty out there now, from the shear number of CoCos moving on eBay. The CoCo can satisfy just about any interest. I wander what people out there want their CoCos to do? Hmmm... maybe that'll be January's survey....

Anonymous said...

briza said,

Hi Capt,

Have a happy new Year Mate, And hopefully some more coco nuts will leave comments in your blogger.
And some new people join the coco community.

Did ya like my Xmas present to you Capt.

laters

briza