CoCo Hut

Last post here...

2011-02-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

Howdy folks. The title says it really. Four years ago, when Cris asked me if I'd be a contributor here, I was shocked as I was still relatively new to the modern CoCo scene. I'd spent a little time starting my current collection, and in turn commented to his 'CoCo Collector' posts regarding eBay auctions he had discussed and I had won. Cris then asked if I'd write occasional posts to the blog and I gladly accepted.

Fast forward four years, and I have way too many projects to keep track of. I've got my hardware testing, website, repack blog, and many others too numerous to list. Pre-accident Brian could have handled all of this, but, it's all a little hard to handle now. Too easy to get frustrated, disappointed and aggravated; something has to give. Unfortunately, it's gonna have to be the blogging. Since the blogs have been the areas that have suffered, they are gonna go. Both of 'em.

The CoCoHut is Cris' blog; he started it and he can make the decision to close it when he sees fit. He's been AWOL for quite some time - I haven't heard from him in over a year.

I will not be leaving the CoCo Scene. My latest project has been the creation of an actual forum, which can be found here. Slowly, I'll get the contents of the repack blog transferred over to the 'Mod My CoCo' section. When that's done, I'll close the repack blog also.

This was a tough decision, but, I've got to lighten the load some. It's been a fun ride, and I hope everyone will join us over at the forum.

Later,

Brian

Oy....

2010-11-06T14:22:00.000-05:00

Just finished four MAJOR projects at work that began in June. Due for some downtime and look forward to getting into some CoCoing....

Time's flying...

2010-06-14T14:44:00.001-05:00

Okay, been busy, not gonna make a bunch of excuses - been CoCoing whenever I can, and since I've got a CoCo3.com MicroSD Drive Pak and a Cloud9 DriveWire HDBDOS Pak, that's been quite a lot. Look for full blown USER reviews on my website later this month. If someone else wants to do benchmarking, knock yourself out, I don't have time for that. While I've been busy as (insert your favorite word here), there's been quite a bit of action over on the eVilBay. So, without further ado...

tandy color computer 3 trs-80

This was a decent auction but DAMN!!! Shipping from Canada was a killer...

TRS-80 Color Computer T & D Software Disk #97

John over at gimechip.com, aka shadow_nightwarrior, had a butt-load of T&D disks up for auction. Not gonna post them all here, tho...

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers Lot of 2 Vintage

This was almost criminal... THe buyer got a hell of a deal.

RADIO SHACK TRS-80 COLOR VINTAGE COMPUTER

This IS criminal...

Tandy Color Computer 3 with original box!

Not bad....

Tandy Color Computer 3 (w/ 512k ram upgrade)

Wow, didn't see that coming....

That's about all I see of interest. Later...

Rare, rarer or rarest?

2010-05-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've noticed about eBay recently is the increasing use of the 'rare' moniker. That word has been attached to everything from hardware to software to 1980's Radio Shack catalogs. Quite honestly it's driving me bonkers. The question that's eating at me is this: when dealing with vintage/retro computer equipment, what qualifies as rare?

My line of thinking believes the white CoCo1 comes pretty close to being the rarest creature living in the CoCo family.However, I'm hesitant to even consider it a 'rare' item, especially compared to an IMSAI or an Atari Falcon, computers that would give even Indiana Jones a tough time finding. When those two pop up on eBay, they command a price one would think should accompany truly rare vintage/retro computing equipment.

I'll fully agree that certain items qualify as rare. One needs only look at the Exatron Stringy Floppy Controller and the PBJ Expansion Interface auctions to see two examples of rare CoCo artifacts. I've not seen these two items on eBay since I started tracking CoCo stuff in 2006. Add those to a mislabeled White CoCo with a Keytronic KB-500 keyboard - the white is rare enough, but, that keyboard has not shown up on eBay since I've been looking either.

Looking at the Vintage Computers category on
eBay, the Atari, Commodore, and PC categories usually out-number the
TRS-80 categories by a 3 to 1 margin. (I am boycotting everything,
including discussion, of the fruity computer company, so they are not
included) This easily makes the TRS-80 stuff 'more rare' than most
others. But, are they really rare to those looking for them? That's am
impossible question to answer, unfortunately, since I cannot read the
minds of the people viewing the auctions.

When compared to the the Commodore auctions, the TRS-80 items tend to sell for more, especially the CoCo3, Model I and III. The TRS-80 line also fares well when compared to a few of the Atari auctions, the exceptions being the Atari Falcon, MEGA ST and TT. The Atari 400 seems to be the red-headed step-child of the Atari family, rarely commanding a decent price unless it's accompanied by numerous accessories and software. The 800 line sells well, but, prices seem to be a moving target with no rational behind them.

What about software? Can that be considered a rare item. My opinion is this: the rarity of software is completely dependent upon completeness of the package, and demand. Remember, most of the software for vintage/retro computers is now freely available SOMEWHERE on the internet, as is most of the documentation. So unless people are looking for a specific package for a museum, club collection, or other reason, there's little reason to be looking for software. For software to be considered rare, IMO, it should include the original packaging, manuals, and media, all in good and working condition. The media or manuals by themselves do not make the item rare - yes they can complete a collection, but, for the media you can do that yourself.

What got me started on this subject is all of the auctions the have the 'rare' moniker listed boldly in the auction titles or description recently. While not in the title, this auction for the CoCo Winnie the Pooh game is an example, and it's price is ridiculous. Yes, it's original, and sealed, and it'd be a cold day in Hades before I paid that price. I already have a copy I got from the CoCo Lounge before Glenn closed it down (also got the Mikey's Space Adventure and Flight Sim II in complete packaging). The seal was broken, but, it is a complete package and I paid less than $20 for each package. There's also a TDP-100 listed for $300 right now, using it's rarity status. While in a different case, it IS a CoCo.

Another quickie...

2010-05-07T07:38:00.002-05:00

Looks like this must be the year of the rare items for the CoCo. Going thru eVilBay again last night I saw this:

Exatron FD Controller Tandy Color Computer + CCDOS!

Just dropping in for a quickie - update that is...

2010-05-05T21:24:00.000-05:00

While perusing eVilBay tonight, I saw one of the rarest items I have ever encountered in the wild.

PBJ Bus Expander for Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer!

I've never seen one of these in person, nor have I seen one on eVilBay before now. If I had the extra cash, I'd bid on it myself. This ranks right up there with the Amdek 3" Dual Disk Drive in this auction a few months ago in rarity level.

Later,

MCCM

Okay.... I'm a slacker...

2010-04-26T10:42:00.001-05:00

Okay, sorry for the lack of posting. I've been otherwise occupied with my website(s), work and life. So, without any further delay, I will post some recent CoCo activity of interest. I hope some of you readers were the lucky recipients of these fountains of CoCo-Goodness...

WICO NEW JOYSTICKS ADAPTOR FOR TRS80 COLOR COMPUTER

Well, what can I say, I was the lucky winner of this. I've been wanting one of these for a while now. Can't wait to get it in and start play with my WICO joystick I've had for three years...

Tandy Color Computer 3 with 512K RAM Upgrade

This was a good buy for someone.

Tandy Color Computer 3 Floppy Drives

Another good buy.

TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE UNIT TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 3

Seller claims this has the PAL upgrade. I had expected this one to go a little higher ~ $75 mark. Wasn't too far off.

TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE UNIT TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2

I figured this one would go for about $50. Again, not too far off.

Orchestra 90-CC Stereo Music Synthesizer Tandy Coco 2

I suppose a fair price for this. God knows there are better speech and sound paks for the CoCo line...

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer W 16 games and more

I was a little surprised this one sold for $125 - evidently someone thought it was worth it as there wasn't a lot of action on this auction...

Trs-80 color computer cart: Speech Systems "The voice"

Heh, I won this one also. If only the other bidders has a clue as to how close they came to going over my max bid... Now I gotta first see if the thing works, and second, related to the first, find the software...

Vintage Tandy FD 501 Disk Drive All Connections

Unless the winning bidder has a spare parts floppy somewhere, he'll have to replace this drive in this one. Not a bad price at any rate.

Tandy Color ComputerMetric Serial Parallel Interface

These are pretty rare devices, so, this isn't a bad deal at all.

Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer Multi Pack Interface

I guess I had to eat my words on this one... The seller and I passed a few emails regarding the starting price on this. I seriously doubted it would sell that high. Guess I was wrong. BTW, the seller was very gracious and not rude at all, so, I would deal with him in the future if he had a product I was interested in.

TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE FOR TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2

There's been a butt-load of MPI's on eBay this year...

TRS-80 Vintage computer Silver 4K Ram model 1 RARE RS

No comment for this one...

VINTAGE TANDY DELUXE JOYSTICK 26-3012B ++FREE SHIP++

This is just silly...

Vintage - TRS-80 color computer (radio shack)

Radio Shack Tandy Color Computer 3 with Manuals and Box

No too bad.

There were interesting auctions - if you've been watching eBay, you saw 'em and hopefully you won some. I'm not making any promises on updates here. I've got a ton going on right now. I'll try to pop in every so often and give an update. Cris is trying to locate his 'CoCo Collector' file. I'd like to update it with some newer data as well as add some rare items that have been spotted recently.

Later,

MCCM

Sorry...

2010-03-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry that it's been so long since the last post - life and work has gotten in the way. I'm gonna throw some eBay action up here on the screen and not even comment on them, so, here goes...

tandy 64k color computer 2

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer - Works

Nice trs-80 26-3004a With trs-80 X-pad Rare Find

RADIO SHACK TRS-80

Extreme Rare Diecom Adapter+Sega Phaser / Tandy TRS-80

Vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2 System

Vintage TRS-80 Color Computer System Tested Game

Look all you want, but, I think that Diecom light gun adapter is about the rarest thing I've seen on eBay for a few years.

Anyway, my excuse for not posting a lot leave a little to be desired - in short since my car accident, I've found it necessary to start training for a new career. I don't know what the future holds for it, but, I've been taking classes in web design. I've learned a lot, but, I still have more to learn. My first go 'round was actually the site for my employer, and it turned out pretty well. My next one was my own web site, and two sub-domains are CoCo-centric so this is as good a place as any to talk about it. If you are interested in looking at yet another CoCo website, take a look at Random Rodder's CoCo Den at let me know what you think. Shortly there will be an anonymous FTP access also.

Later,

MCCM

I'm Back Fellow Coconuts

2010-02-14T19:22:00.001-06:00

Been ages since I could post anything in the coco blog. Feels awesome to be back in the Blogger crew.

laters

Briza

Review - take 2

2010-02-14T18:53:00.000-06:00

For some unknown reason, my last post about these had some formatting issues... So, we'll try again...

Radio Shack Tandy TRS80 Color Computer MIB W/access

Well, I can understand why this one didn't sell. $50 seems a little high as a starting price.

Radio Shack Tandy TRS80 Color Computer MIB W/access

Well, I can understand why this one didn't sell. $50 seems a little high as a starting price.

Tandy Color Computer 3 COCO 3 with 3 disc drives mouse

This auction was an interesting one. Up until the last hour it was stuck at $56 and change. In the last few minutes it exploded. It surpassed by expectations by selling for as much as it did. I figured it would go for about $125 or so. Guess the rarity of the Amdek unit definitely added to the value of this one...

Not much still....

2010-02-07T18:36:00.001-06:00

As I sit in Alley Katz in Gainesville watching my family bowl, I figured I'd do something constructive (yeah right) and make a 'Hut entry.

After the last few weeks of CoComania, things have settled down. The mailing list has been fairly quiet, and there's not been a whole lot going on on CoCo3.com. Even eVil Bay is still slow (unless you are into Atari, Apple and Commies). So, I thought I'd go in another direction and talk about collecting in general. Is anybody still actively collecting? Are you using your real CoCos or using emulators? Currently my collections consists of the following:

3 - 512k CoCo3' (2 have 6309's)
My repack CoCo3 which is 128k (soon to upgrade to 512k), upgraded to a 6309, 2-3.5" floppies, 1-5.25" floppy, Roy's VGA adapter connected to a 15" HP LCD, MPI, and a Radio Shack multimedia sound system is being installed. All jammed into a Model III case.
2 - CoCo2's (one is a 3127B lowercase capable)
1 - grey CoCo1
1 - White CoCo1
1 - MPI I am trying to repair
2 - FD-501 (1 with 2 DS/DD 5.25's, and 1 with 1 5.25 and 1 3.5)
1 - FD-502 with a single DS/DD drive

I have misc. games, cassettes, and software.

The reason I ask is I have come across a guy want to get rid of a BUNCH of CoCo stuff. My issue is that I'm really not sure I need it, but, I'd rather buy it than see it land-filled.

THEY WON!!!!

2010-02-04T07:52:00.000-06:00

The CoCo trio who entered into the RetroChallenge Winter Warmup 2010 won!!! Boisy, Aaron and Jim brought the internet to the CoCo via Drivewire4, entered the Challenge and won. There's something very cool about the CoCo being in the spotlight again.

You can check out all of the info here:

RetroChallenge

Aaron's CoCo served homepage

Jim's Project page

My congratulations to the three gentlemen. This was a very cool project with spectacular results. If nothing else, it certainly raised interest in the CoCo again for lots of people. And hey, it finally gave me the kick in the ass I needed to clean a spot on my desk to set up one of my CoCo systems again.

Way to go guys!!! You deserved it!!!

MCCM.

Quick eVil Bay update

2010-02-02T10:39:00.000-06:00

A quick scan of eVil Bay netted a couple CoCo3 auctions:

Tandy Computer 3 TRS 80 System & Joysticks Plus Games appears to be a run of the mill auction; CoCo3, switchbox, video cable, couple games and joysticks.

The next one is billed as This is the BIGGEST CoCo package to ever hit eBay. While it is a fairly complete system, it's hardly the BIGGEST CoCo package ever to hit eVil Bay.It DOES have a very noteworthy piece of hardware - an Amdek dual mini-disk drive system. I've never seen one of these in person, but, remember drooling over them in ads in the Rainbow... While it doesn't live up to it's billing as the BIGGEST, it may well be in the top ten in the last few years.

Later,

MCCM

Still pretty quiet

2010-01-31T12:43:00.003-06:00

Man, it's still pretty quiet on eBay. And equally quiet it seems this week on the mailing list. There are a few tidbits worth looking at, so, here we go:

If you're in the need for a Hi-Res joystick interface, here's one that looks decent and at a fair price.

Here's a nice looking grey CoCo1, with not a whole lot of info included...

If you're in the market for a decent looking CoCo2, the this one may be for you. the seller has it listed as a Tandy Computer 2 Model 26-31278, but, I'm sure he means a 26-3127B which if my memory serves is the Korean version capable of true lowercase text instead of just the inverse text we've all grown to love/hate...

The same seller with the Hi-Res adapter also has a single button CoCo mouse up for sale as well...

There's another nice looking grey CoCo1 up for auction, seems to be complete with most original documentation that came with it, but, does not say if it's in an original box. Also includes some bonus material from a ZX Spectrum if you need that as well. From the pics it looks like it's been opened up, maybe a memory upgrade??? (just a guess...)

Our next victim, err, auction is for a CoCo2 with original box, or, what's left of the box... Seller claims the original docs, and antenna box are with it, but, as is the case with so many of these auctions, he has no idea of the functional status (I will use a rare case of better judgement and not say any more about this...).

There seem to be plenty of CoCo2's up for sale, including this one: Radio Shack Tandy TRS80 Color Computer MIB W/access (is this the ever elusive Men In Black edition?) I have no idea what the computer actually looks like; the seller has pics of everything BUT the computer...

Here's the ONLY CoCo3 auction I've seen this week. And it's a pretty complete system, with RGB monitor and R/S printer to boot. If I wasn't already committed to but another system from someone else, I'd seriously consider this myself. Hopefully it'll fine a nice caring home soon...

That's about all that really caught my eyes, auction wise this week. There are a couple of game up for sale that are price rather high, IMHO ($60 for Thexder). Whatever.

I did get a little quality CoCo time in this week, with my newly repaired and upgraded CoCo3. You can read about it on my repack blog if you like.

Till next time,

MCCM

Shhhhh... can you hear that...?

2010-01-24T20:32:00.001-06:00

Well, that's the sound of nothing. And quite literally nothing has been going on this last week. No auctions really grabbed my attention, no major revelations in CoCoWorld this week - pretty much nothing. There was an update on the RetroChallenge website. Looks like our three intrepid entrants into the game are making good headway with internet enabling the CoCo via Java DriveWire. You can go to Aaron's home page for the complete play-by-play, and the page is being served from a COCo3 no less.

My only CoCoing has been with snipping out a CPU and throwing a socketed 63C09EP in it's place on one of my CoCo3's. I'll be posting more on that on my repack blog later...

I still haven't heard from Cris - the CoCoHut website is still very much MIA, so I hope he can get things straightened out.

Last about it for this entry.

Later...

eVil Bay Auction results, and....

2010-01-19T12:17:00.000-06:00

We'll do the and first. Briza has been in contact with Cris, aka CaptCPU (not as fun as Capt. Morgan, but, what can ya do...?). Cris has no idea why his website is down and is going to look into it. When I looked into everything, his domain name was registered until 2011, so, hopefully he'll show back up in these parts...

_________________________________________________________________

Below are some of the result from auctions I've noted earlier:

Reasonable looking CoCo1 with games went for a reasonable price...

This CoCo1 FDC 26-3022 went for a surprisingly low price. I figured it's at least go for $20.

This REALLY nice grey CoCo1 went for an insanely low price of $9.99...

That's it for now. I'm looking to post on some current auctions later today - I hope...

MCCM.

Quick update...

2010-01-16T13:16:00.000-06:00

If you've been following my CoCo3 repair escapades on the mailing list, it's over for now. You can go to my repack page and see the gory details...

I lampooned this auction from KPSURPLUS earlier. I couldn't let well enough alone. Last time he put up a CoCo auction this ridiculous, I offered $5. I just did the same thing here. Why? I dunno, we'll see if I get the same result (was banned from making offers on any of his auctions for a while).

This Orchestra-90 went very reasonable.

The low serial is the only reason I can think of why this CoCo2 went for $51.00. Then again, CoCo2's seem to have a history for going at prices higher than I'd guess. Some much higher than CoCo3 prices.

Yet, here's an example of a CoCo2 that didn't sell...

Either someone was desperate for a 3029 controller, floppy and rusty case or, well... damn... I can't think of a reason.

Remember that CoCo2 & CoCo3 auction? Wow... I know they both needed a bath, but, I didn't expect this low of a price for a boxed CoCo3.

That's about it for now....

Later,

MCCM

CoCo Developments and eVil Bay updates

2010-01-10T06:05:00.005-06:00

Good morning all,

Well, at least where I'm at it's still morning. I'm sure all of the readers of this blog (all four so far) are members of the CoCo mailing list, and are probably already aware of the recent developments on the CoCo scene. If not, crawl out from under that rock!!! You can look at the at mailing listarchive to get caught up. I'd suggest looking at around Christmas time to see that Aaron Wolfe, Boisy and Jim Hathaway have made the CoCo internet capable with a Java version of DriveWire 3. And to top it off, Aaron now has a CoCo3 serving up a web page!!!

The gang of three have entered the project in RetroChallenge Winter Warm-up 2010 and by looking at the current entrants, I'd say they have a great chance!!! They have implemented a telnet client, an IRC client, and have successfully connect CoCo to CoCo over the internet. That's cool by ANY standards.

Now, over on CoCo3.com, there's been activity as well. A gang of four, consisting of Jason, Briza, Robert Gault and Potatohead, have discovered and provided test dsk images of a 256 color mode (composite only so no RGB love here) that uses i byte per pixel. Meaning NO special software or page flipping techniques will be required to design some great 8-bit games with cool graphics and enough CPU cycles left over for killer sound effects and music.

As someone pointed out regarding both of these projects, these have been done with hardware and equipment that was available in the 1980's so there is no special hardware being utilized with any of this. The 256 color composite mode DOES require a 512k CoCo3; that's my understanding anyway. The DriveWire3/internet capabilities should be available to any member of the CoCo line.

___________________________________________

Okay, time for some eVil Bay updates:

First on the hit list is a semi-nice looking CoCo1 with a few carts. It has a little wear about where you'd expect, but, it also has a COOL keyboard overlay that I have no Earthly idea where it came from...

Here we have a first generation CoCo floppy controller - Model 26-3022. This is the ONLY Radio Shack made controller that can be modified for hi-density floppy use. It's also the least reliable in OS-9/NitrOS-9.

If you are in the market for a NICE CoCo1, this auction may be your ticket. It comes in it's original box, has the manuals, cassette recorder, and couple carts and the CoCo Learning Lab on cassette. So far the price is reasonable and shipping is tolerable. Should make a nice score for some CoCoNut.

Shadow-Nightwarrior is back with another interesting auction.A set of 5 1/4" quad-density OS-9 floppies containing a C compiler. Good luck on figuring it out. Even more good luck on getting a drive that'll read those disks...

Well, I guess that's it for this episode. If anyone has any suggestions of what they want to see, let me know and I'll try. If anyone would like to post articles here, contact me and we'll get it arranged...

Later,

MCCM

More eVil Bay

2010-01-08T17:33:00.001-06:00

Been trying out the 'email a post' feature offered by Blogger. It works. That's about all I can say right now...

I'm going to guess that Cris has lost interest in this blog and his website. His website (coco.clubltdstudios.com) is no longer functional either. I hope he decidec to let the CoCoHut blog continue. I'll do the best I can to post CoCo related stuff in a semi-frequent nature...

Okay, on to eVil Bay....

The first victim, uh, auction is for a Non-Working CoCo3 that, from the description sounds like it could simply need the GIME removed, cleaned and reseated....

'Prepare for LUDICROUS SPEED!!!' to steal a phrase from Spaceballs... What the hell???? Now I know the O-90 is cool and all, but, for $150 a whole lot more coolness could be gotten; IDE interface, TC^3, MicroSD DrivePak, set up DW3 and host a CoCo website from your CoCo...

'They've gone to plaid...' And here's another CoCo2 auction from KPSURPLUS that's only slightly less stupid than yesterday's entry. At least this CoCo2 looks like it was dried off before being put away...

The following eVil Bayer has got several auctions up for grads for floppy ROM's. shadow-nightwarrior has had some interesting stuff up in the past, but, I have no clue who he his. His website is www.gimechip,com but, that's still no help to me any way, here are his floppy ROM auctions: FDOS 2.2, JDOS , ADOS3. Evidently he's not a big fan of his ADOS3 configuration because he's offering to give it away...

Here's an auction for 2 COCos, a CoCo2 and a CoCo3, which even the seller admits need a good cleaning. I'm not thrilled in the least with the $40 shipping price to Florida, tho...

That's about it for today. Like I said, I'm going to try and start posting semi-regularly again. I've also started some work on my repack, and am still posting on the blogsite for it. If you're interested, hop on over an take a gander - just don;t laugh loud enough for me to hear...

Later,

MCCM

Update and eVil Bay update

2010-01-07T21:28:00.003-06:00

Okay, a few folks said they were interested in seeing some posting going on here again, so let's see if the works. I'll start with an explanation of my absence; in short other hobbies, life, recovery.

Other hobbies: Each year I put up Christmas lights. Everybody does right? Well, no. And certainly not everyone goes as far as I do, though some make my display look like a Light-Bright on steroids. No, I usually put up 15-20,000 lights each year and sync them to music. This starts sometime in August and runs thru December. Which is why my last post was in August 2008. Usually, I pick back up in January. Last year I didn't....

Life: Spending time with my wife and kids during and after the holidays. Nuff said...

Recovery: On February 2nd, 2009, I was stopped at a traffic light when some asshat who was not paying attention rear ended me. I was in a 1995 Ford Thunderbird. He was in a GMC 2500 series pickup. I was standing still. He was going about 50mph. I remember the initial impact, and my car hitting the van in front of me. I don't remember anything else until I was out of my car walking around. Physically, I hurt like hell, but, with no apparent major injuries, I turned down the ride in the meat-wagon and waited until the FHP trooper was done and my wife took me to the hospital. Talk about a bunch more ass hats. If your guts aren't dragging and your brains aren't oozing out of your head, there's nothing wrong with you.

In the weeks after I had numerous problems, both physicality and mentally - I hurt like hell everywhere and my memory was non-existent, I had trouble finding words to complete sentences, my eyes were VERY sensitive to light (still are), I had mood swings worse that Carrie and Sybil combined, and was not getting more than 2 hours sleep per night. When I say my memory was bad, I mean I forgot complete conversations, forgot entire nights, forgot how to do parts of my job. We began to look my symptoms and look over pictures of my car. We discovered three distinct impact marks from the truck's tire on my rear bumper and trunk - I had been bounced around like a pinball between him and the minivan in front of me.

After numerous MRI's and other tests, I was finally diagnosed wither herniated discs in my back and neck, torn rotator cuff in my left and right shoulders, and 'post concussion syndrome', or in other words, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. While I'm not back to 100%, at this stage I;m probably as far back physically as I'll come. We have seen improvements in the head symptoms and hopefully those will continue. However, many people whom I have talked to who are familiar with this type of injury tell me I'll be battling it on and off for the rest of my life...

Anyway, on to the eVil Bay stuff...

KPSURPLUS is back with a CoCo2 that looks like it's been rode hard and put away wet... and the price is ridiculous at $69.00 for being sold 'as parts.'

If you have a Model III in need of a picture tube this may work for you. Tho the seller says he is trying to 'build his rating back up' and that usually scares me...

Here's a CoCo Orechestra 90 for a very reasonable price at $7.95 right now. I'd be interested if I didn't already have one...

And we have a much better example of a CoCo2 with Manuals here than the KPRIPOFF above. Shipping cost is fair, the price is a little high at $49.00.

Not in as good shape as the one right above, but, far better than KP's, this CoCo2 with Bustout is priced fair and shipping is also where one would expect.

Don't know who this guy is, but, um no.... CoCO disk drive and controller...

There are some others that are still more than 4 days out right now. I'll try to catch up on them tomorrow.

Later,

MCCM

Just out of curiosity....

2010-01-06T21:52:00.000-06:00

Is anyone still reading this blog? I think Cris gave up on it. I haven't heard from him in... forever, don;t even know if he's alive, okay, or otherwise.

I haven't had time what with work, my ongoing recovery, trying to maintain my own blogs, CoCoing, Christmas, learning web design, etc... to do much here.

Has anyone missed the eVil Bay updates or has the lack of activity gone un-noticed? If this blog is even read any more, let me know and I'll try to get back to doing some semi-regular posting...

MCCM.

More noteable sales

2008-08-26T11:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, I had a few auctions I'd been watching, hoping to be able to bid on a few things. My F-250 Super Duty drank the extra money, so... all I can do is report what happened with the auction...

2 VINTAGE TANDY TRS-80 CoCo-2 SYSTEMS - 25 GAMES +MORE

Here was a nice auction with 2 CoCo2's, some paks, an O-90 and a floppy controller. Oh yeah.. the FDC was a 3029 model. Decent selling price.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (first generation!)

Here's a decent looking first gen grey that sold a for a little more than I thought it'd go for.

Tandy TRS-80 CoCo Color Schematic Designer v2.0 w/Disk

Well, this auction fell under the category of 'Damn, I didn;t see that one coming'. In a good way I might add. I had planned on bidding on this until Ilogged on close to the end and saw what the latest bid was. Didn't realize this was such a rare piece.

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 26-3003A Vintag

Here's another auction of a CoCo1 that's been modded. Almost bid on it myself...

That's about all of the stuff I'd been watching. Haven;t been on eVilBay for a whle. I'll go look and if there is anything of interest, I'll add some auction to watch...

Later,

mccm

Recent sales..

2008-08-18T10:50:00.001-05:00

Been watching a few items of interest and wanted to do a quick update on some recent sales. Nothing really earth-shattering has been going on, but, there are some items that I would classify as rare; I'll note 'em when I get to 'em:

Custom Deluxe Joystick for the TRS-80 / Tandy CoCo

Here's a nice PC joystick modded to work with a CoCo. Sprybug was the seller; and he's also back in CoCoworld and, apparently with the help of Bob DeVries, will be tackling Mini-Hog again. I look forward to playing Sonic on a CoCo...

TRS-80 CoCo Color Computer WORDPAK RS

This on I'd classify are rare. Since I've been tracking CoCo stuff on eVilBay, I've never seen this PBJ product. A rare find indeed...

TRS-80 Tandy Color Computer Coco MULTI-PAK

While the item is not rare, the price sure is. I haven't seen an MPI go for this much for a while.

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer Games Sands of Egypt

Ahhh, yes... good old Sands of Egypt... spent many hours on this game as a kid. Never did solve it. Guess it's a good thing I lost this auction. My wife may have divorced me...

10 VINTAGE TANDY TRS-80 CoCo-3 GAMES +DISKS +PAPERWORK

Looks like a nice start to a good collection of original softs. There's enough here to make most CoCo-lovers drule...

As for current auctions, not much of interesting items, IMHO. This seller, retro_eng has a few late Rainbows up for grabs. Another seller, 53onthemove has had some nice items as well. He says they are all estate items.

Well, that about covers it for this trip around the auction world.

Later,

mccm

Quick noteable sale...

2008-08-11T15:43:00.000-05:00

Radio Shack Tandy 128K Color Computer 3 CoCo3 TRS-80

Here's what I'd consider to be an average (at best) CoCo3 going for a decent price. Must be the box (looked like a nice box at that...). Another eVilBay seller, mkandrac36, had several nice CoCo3's that took multiple auctions to get rid of, tho I don;t know if his had boxes. Just one of those things, I guess.

Later,
mccm

eVilBay Rundown

2008-08-11T06:31:00.001-05:00

Okay, there are a few interesting auctions on the 'Bay right now, so, without further ado...

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer Spectaculator

Disk version of Spectacultor. If you don't recall, and I'd say you lived under a rock if you don't, Spectaculator is a spreadsheet program for the CoCo. I never used it so I have no idea of it's capabilities.

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer Personafile

Disk version of Pesonafile, which is basically a personal database. Again, never used it...

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 CoCo Color Computer Scripsit

Disk version of the 'Shack's word processor. If you like it for collectors purposes, I'd say go for it. For actual use, there are much better wp's for the CoCo (TW-64 to name just one).

Tandy TRS-80 Radio Shack CoCo EDTASM with ZBUG Editor

Disk version of EDTASM w/Z-BUG. If you want to do Assembly language programming on a real CoCo, you'll need this (or something like it.)

TRS-80 Color Computer Homebrew Style Drive & Controller

Just what the title says. If nothing else, the spare controller is a good find. They ain't makin' any more of them...

That's about all that caught my eye out of the current auctions. There is some hardware (meaning CoCo's) on eBay, but, nothing out of the ordinary.

Now, let's look at some recent sales:

TRS-80 Radio Shack COLOR COMPUTER 2 - Mint Condition

I'd like to have got this one. Looks to be an HJL keyboard on this CoCo2. Would've been worth it just for the HJL, IMO.

Tandy Radio Shack CoCo TRS-80 Color Computer FHL O-Pak

This FHL package, I think, would HAVE to fall into the ultra-rare categroy. In the three years I've been tracking the CoCo stuff, this is the first I've seen. Whoever zepplin71 is, I'm sure he's happy...

Lot Tandy TRS-80 CoCo Computer Friends Disk Magazine

Another one I'd like to have gotten my hands on. I know you can download the CFDM still, but, to have original with the hard copy, I dunno, just seems kewl...

Thant's about all for now. I've got another project coming up in a few months. My daughter's Girlscout troop is going for their badges in computers (who'da thunk it). Since I'm the only parent with any computer knowledge, I get to help them with this one. So I get to sit with 22 five to ten year old girls for two hours and give them the basics of computer use and terminology. Figured I'd also give them some exposure to the CoCo by having them type in a quick basic program on it. Maybe something that will allow them to print their name or something on a dot matrix printer.

Later,

mccm

Scored a few...

2008-07-31T05:50:00.001-05:00

Well, I scored a couple Rainbow's last week from seller mkandrac36. I got Dec 1985, Jan 1988 and May 1988. Still waiting on them to arrive; should be early next week.

Not CoCo related, but, I scored a Tandy 1000 SX box at a flea market last weekend also. I figured it could be a really nice repack project. Took it home, cleaned it up and figured, what the hell... I plugged it's composite out into my 25" tv, hooked up a power cord and I was greeted by a message at the top of the screen that said 'System Memory 384k', the floppies did their seek and the machine went to a 'No operating system found' message. I couldn't believe the thing worked. So now I'm debating whether I want to part out the motherboard (the 5 1/4" & 3.5" are staying regardless) or try to restore it. I was looking on eVilBay yesterday and the hard drive cards this thing took were nowhere to be found (not a surprise). I've got a few ISA HDD controllers, but, I think they are all MFM or RLL and I know those drive are hard to come by and when you do, more often than not, they gave up the ghost long ago. Oh well, I have time to figure it out...

Oh yeah... I paid $5 for it...

Later,

mccm

Oh Christalmighty he's back...

2008-07-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

I would be speaking of KP's Surplus. Few months ago I railed him big time on a few of his auctions being WWWAAAAAYYYY over priced. Well, check out this auction for a CoCo2 that I dare say is as yellow as my house. And he wants $149.99 + $20 shipping. If I had any use for it, I'd offer him $5.00 for it, but I'm afraid he might take it just to get some money out of me...

mccm

eVilBay seller firehoarse...

2008-07-25T06:42:00.001-05:00

Has a TANDY COCO 3 + RARE MULTIPAK INTERFACE in BOXES listed for $649.00 Buy It Now or Best Offer (eVil gRin). So me being the smart ass I am, I bid $15.00. That expired without a response. So this morning I went back to bid $10.00. I was greeted with this:

Hello random_rodder! (Not you?)
Warning
Unfortunately, this seller has decided that you are not permitted to place best offer on their listings. You may contact the seller via the Ask Seller Questions feature if you want additional details.

Please note: You may not use other eBay accounts to place best offer on this seller's listings. Doing so may result in your indefinite suspension from eBay.

I thinks it's humorous. But I do think it's quite ridiculous to be asking the kind of money he is for these items. The MPI and CoCo3 in a box would be worth no more than $100, IMHO, and that depends on the condition. The CoCo3 looks pretty good, but without other pics it's hard to say for sure. The MPI looks okay, maybe a little yellowed, but again, it's hard to say from just one pic. Of the two items in this auction, only the MPI would be considered hard to get hold of. There are two other auctions on eVil Bay for Coco3's right now. And you can get a grade A fully tested and guaranteed CoCo3 from Mark at Cloud9 for $50 + shipping. Add another $40 and you've got a 512k CoCo3. So yeah, this auction gets my vBSOD for the day...

mccm

What in the Blue Blazes is going on???!!!

2008-07-23T13:12:00.001-05:00

Okay, I don't know what the deal is but Vintage Computer Museum Services has got a buttload of vintage computer stuff listed. It'll also take a buttload of cash to get the things he has listed; $70 for a CoCo Mouse? $116.00 for a Model III Clone Keyboard? Man I wish I had some of whatever he's smoking. Looking at a few of his past auctions, I'm pretty stunned. Someone actually paid $150 for Microsoft Windows 3.0 unopened NIB. Whatever.

There is a little CoCo goodness happening on EvilBay. EvilBay user crime420 has a few CoCo related items up for grabs.

That's about all that caught my interest for this round. Hopefully as the summertime wanes I'll be able to be a little more active.

mccm

Quick eBay update

2008-07-22T07:25:00.001-05:00

I don't have time to do a full EvilBay update, but, they have re-added the categories under the Vintage Computer section, which includes the TRS-80 category. Hope to have some time to look through and do a proper 'Collector' update shortly...

Message Board Archive

2008-06-20T16:01:00.002-05:00

I've done a crude text based archive of the CoCo Hut Message Board. If someone ever gets a chance to edit and format it nicely, go for it. ;) Basically I just dumped the entire contents of the MB, sans the admin forums, to a text file.

The current board configuration is too much to maintain. Alas, I simply don't have time to clean it, promote it, install the updates, and hold the spammers at bay. And I'm not comfortable asking someone else to take on such a massive job. (Special thanks to manequinn for his heroic efforts trying! He is truly one of the CoCo community's treasured participants and has my undying gratitude. As does everyone who posted and took a stab at it.) At this point, I'm inclined to remove it completely. Everyone's thoughts welcome before I do something, one way or the other. Pretty sure we can call it dead. And honestly, for the Hut's purposes, the blog posting format is a) perfectly acceptable, b) way more secure, and c) much easier to maintain.

This is step one in streamlining the entire CoCo Hut site(s) and making it easier and more friendly. This archive of posts is here:

http://www.clubltdstudios.com/files/coco/2008cocohutmsgbrdarc.txt.txt

-Capt.

BAK. Sorta.

2008-06-10T17:10:00.003-05:00

In the where the hell have you been department... :)

It's WAY too long a story. Lots of personal business to attend to and a career change have seriously messed up my CoCo enjoyment time these last many months. I DID scan through my private email (captcpu@clubltdstudios.com) account and see many CoCo related emails. I will endeavor to answer every one of the ASAP, with my sincere apologies to the senders. The weeding of the copious amounts of junk mail and advertisements is about finished.

Things have only slowed marginally for me, though, so I won't be on terribly much for the immediate future. However, I'm making a strong effort to spend more time with my beloved CoCo and will post those outings and opines when possible.

I'm posting a not-so-quicky on copyrights and CoCos that I wrote back in January (See below). This has ALWAYS been an issue with CoCoists, with a lot of misinformation floating around, so I decided I'd finally wieght in on the issue. This is not to stir things up, nor is it intended as any sort of final word. It's is strictly IMHO.

On the CoCo side, mostly I've gotten to pop in a program pack now and then. I also wrote a quick BASIC program to help my eldest daughter (8) with her math skills. It was actually a lot of fun. Not terribly challenging and nothing particularly new learned, but it's nice to find ways to actually use the CoCo in a practical sense. If you've done similar stuff, be sure to post about it! I think we NEED more "simple" stuff in the CoCo world from all levels of experience and expertise.

As for the site(s) and such, expect big changes as I come back online more and more this year. The first order business will be severely streamlining everything to make it more usable and compact. That includes only one site (this one) for everything. My inclination at this point is to remove the message board and all external, non-blogger material. Anything that can be posted to the blog format will be reposted. Following that, more contributors to the blog would be awesome. I'll post specifics as they happen.

My sincere thanks to Brian and the rest of the gang here for posting. And my sincere apologies to anyone I haven't responded to via email. The collector updates on eBay, the new CoCo experiences and the "where the hell are you?" messages are greatly appreciated.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Well... I'm still alive

2008-04-07T06:43:00.001-05:00

Is anyone else artound here????

The CoCo & Intellectual Property Rights

2008-01-23T20:12:00.002-06:00

I've been studiously avoiding weighing in on this issue for about three years now. heh! :) But seems it's time to have a go at it. The issue is, of course, intellectual property rights (primarily copyright, but also includes Trademark and Patent) for CoCo stuffs. First some explanation...

What kicked this post off was, of course, the discussion about Hot CoCo. In a bit of odd timing, I also got a rather legal sounding email recently from a CoCo programmer who objected to one of his old programs being posted to a portion of the site. It was an accident (the files were mistakenly included in an archive of other stuff) and resolved amicably for all parties involved, but it's definitely not something we want to make a habit of having to deal with. To that extent, public announcement:

If an original author of a CoCo program (or anything for that matter) discovers something that belongs to them on any Club LTD Studios site, that shouldn't be there, email me immediately at captcpu@clubltdstudios.com. I'll pull it off right away. I do not "police" the other areas of the site. I rarely use downloaded software on my CoCo or emulators, except for the modern stuff, most of which I buy. Most the older stuff is simply not of interest to me. CoCo MAx and Max 10 were great programs back in the day, it was a flash-back blast to play with them again (I own the originals) but I'll take Photoshop and OpenOffice now, thank you. Using those old programs is a chore. Occasionally I come across a program that IS still fun to use on the CoCo, like Musica II, in which case I acquire it for my collection by buying the original on eBay and running off of backups. That's about it. I do browse through the message boards, posts here on the blog, and the file areas, of course. But I don't examine them particularly closely if they aren't my bag of dough nuts. So, if you see something that should not be there, give me a shout. I'll take care of it. :) By the same token, if you WANT your stuff posted, drop me a note, as well. We'll work something out and I'll shout to the world that it's here!

So what's all this have to do with CoCos and intellectual property rights? Well, a lot of people want to preserve the CoCo and the publications and software that were produced for it. A noble goal, to be sure. Occasionally, though, there's a bit of a fight about ownership and in the enthusiasm to share, property rights can get pushed aside. And that ain't right. That fight always boils down to the "what should be" side and the "what is" side.

"What Should Be"

These folks basically argue that 20-30 (older) year old software for a defunct 8-bit computer should be released into the public domain. Most of it is abandoned (no attempt to conduct commerce using it and/or insufficient attempts to protect the rights) and none of it has any real commercial value any longer. As such, the law should reflect this "abandonware" and, after a suitable period of time, it should default into the public domain. The main reasoning is that without such a mechanism in the law, historically important information (including code, articles, designs, art, et al.) will disappear long before the property rights expire.

"What Is"

This group's argument is pretty simple. It's the law. The original creator of a work should (and does) have a right to do with it as they please. They own it and if they want to let it fade into oblivion that's their right.

I've been in content creation and media, in some form of another, my entire working life; frequently independently, as well as for the likes of America Online and The Borders Group. I've signed so many non-disclosure agreements and property transfer contracts I can't talk about half the stuff I know. Regardless, I have an acute awareness of intellectual property rights and how creators can get royally screwed if they aren't careful and diligent. As such, I'm a big supporter of intellectual property laws, particularly copyrights, and due compensation to the original creator.

Unlike trademarks (and to some extent patents), copyright is pretty much rock solid. Ownership can get muddled, but the rights themselves are firm. If you hold a trademark, you have to defend it vigorously and consistently. For example, if you've ever run a moderately successful website or published something in print, you've probably gotten the "proper use" letter from a company.
"In [publication] you used the term "clorox" as a generic adjective/verb for bleach products. Please be aware that Clorox brand liquid bleach is a trademark of [company]. It should always be used as a proper noun... etc." Annoying, but they have to do that and send out those letters to protect their trademark. The law requires that effort if they ever need to take legal action to protect their brand. Copyrights are under no such restrictions, though. To protect a copyright the owner has to do.... absolutely nothing.

A copyright (after 1978) lasts the life of the original copyright holder, plus 70 years. That's it. It doesn't fade, and there's no mechanism to change the duration. Copyright covers several aspects of a work, as well, including original presentation. To use a recent example from the CoCo world, you can't reprint Hot CoCo in print or digital form, without permission, because the copyright is still in effect. The copyright covers whatever rights the owners purchased, plus the original presentation including format and artwork. Copyright doesn't cover the title of the publication (that's trademark), but does cover the logo (font, colors, etc.) artwork used to represent that title. So, you can't reprint the original Hot CoCo (e.g. scan it cover to cover and release it) without permission from whoever owns the rights to the publication. But...

Hot CoCo had many authors in the form of contributors. How's that work? Well, the original publishers of Hot CoCo would have purchased rights from the original authors. That's the hang up with the current owners of the publication. They have no idea or records of which rights were originally purchased or from whom. And even if they did, they probably would figure out pretty quick that there would be no profit in digging up that information and sorting it out just to appease a few 8-bit computer hobbyists.

Lonnie Falk was in a similar situation when he was negotiating "The Rainbow on Disk" project. Any rights not originally acquired by the publication are, by law, still owned by the original author. The publisher has an obligation to do their part to protect those rights. Which means they can't just release the original publication into the Public Domain for free. The publisher never purchased that right. If they just release the author's work, included in their original publication, for free then they could be held liable to the original author for deluding their rights as copyright holders. (In other words, if the publisher gives away the work for free, the original article authors could claim damages because the potential to resell the articles, which they still hold the rights to, is greatly diminished, if not obliterated.)

Most common rights purchased by a publisher of a magazine, here in the U.S., are First North American Serial Rights. Most will also purchase, as part of the deal, non-exclusive Reprint Rights or First Reprint Rights. That's pretty much standard. That gives the exclusive rights to be the first to publish a work in North America, and the right to reprint that work as they see fit in the future. The author retains the right to sell reprint rights elsewhere, as well as the right to republish the article as they see fit, including internationally and in digital format. (Though it is common for publications to acquire digital rights these days, of course.) I remember getting the writers guidelines long ago from The Rainbow, and FNAS rights were part of it. I don't remember if others were specified, but if Lonnie was able to negotiate a deal then they obviously had some sort of Reprint rights as well. With Hot CoCo, there's just no record of those rights, but from the authors I've spoken to, it wasn't an "all rights" deal. The original authors can still authorize reprints to other formats, apparently. (Not a lawyer. Don't own the rights myself. Talk to appropriate counsel. Etc.)

As such, an enterprising individual COULD contact those authors, gather up Reprint Rights through some form of arrangement, and then reprint the articles in a NEW format. An "originally appeared in" notice would probably be required or appropriate, but as long as it wasn't the same format and presentation as the original publication, it should be good if the original author a) still owns those rights and b) authorizes the publication. (Again with the "consult appropriate legal council before proceeding, IMHO, etc.")

CoCo software is a slightly more straight forward. In most instances, software companies buy ALL rights to the original author's creations. There may have been limited distribution deals, but in most cases, the ownership is going to be pretty clear. Either the original author still owns all the rights, or the company that bought those rights still owns them. Tracking down those owners could be challenging, though. Some would also have some form of reversion clause, so that rights revert back to the author if, say, the company goes out of business or chooses to stop publishing the material. If not, and in the event the company is no longer in business, the rights would have fallen to one of its principles; the owner in a sole proprietorship, or one of the partners/officers in a partnership or corporation. Either way, those rights aren't going to expire in our lifetimes.

Confused? It can get messy pretty quick. The short version is: Copyright last Lifetime + 70. Period. Prior to that, if you're inclined to put on the Net something created by someone else, get their permission first. You might be surprised to find quite a few creators are more than willing!

Now the promised opinion part...

As I said, I'm a big believer in intellectual property. Sorry, but you don't have the right to do whatever you want with someone else's stuff. Whether you agree with what they do with their stuff or not, that's kind of the whole concept of personal property.

But that doesn't mean some changes aren't in order. I do support the notion that abandoned works, including CoCo software, should be defaulted into the public domain at some point prior to the copyright statute based on very strict criteria. Absolutely. It's insane that a creator would ignore a work that is useful to the public, or of historical significance, for 30 years and then suddenly start screaming when a few hobbyists start sharing it around. Time to move out of the 1980s there, ya know? They have every right to do it, but that doesn't make it right.

The problem is that there's no easy way to do that. To my mind, it is simply not possible and still protect creator's rights.

In particular, and here's the debate, it's been suggested 20 to 50 years as a good benchmark. If the work has not been reasonably solicited commercially in interstate commerce for more than 20 (or 30 or 50 or whatever) years, or has not been published or maintained by reasonable standards in that time, it defaults into some form of non-commercial use public domain status.

The problem with this is obvious. Let's say, for example, Bob created Superhero X for the CoCo back in 1980 and it quickly faded into obscurity. It's not published or used at all until 2008 when suddenly, Superhero X is the hottest thing ever. Hell, Spielberg options the rights, for cryin' out loud! Under the proposal above, Bob is screwed. He never sees any money or credit for his creation. Does it matter that he created it 28 years ago? Of course not. He made it, and if someone's enjoying it and making money from it, he should get compensation for his work.

But that's not going to happen with old CoCo software, now is it? Well... the chances are probably pretty slim. But that's why the copyright expiration is set where it is. After much debate (back in 1978, actually) the time line for defunct works was set. Life +70.

That built in difficulty between the two arguments is why I've done two things here at the CoCo Hut. First, I promote CoCo collecting as much as possible. Take care of your CoCos and that original software. CoCo collectors are the first (and in some cases only) line of defense against some of that stuff disappearing forever. Second, track down and encourage original authors to share their works with the CoCo Community. There are plenty of options to do so that should be quite equitable to the authors themselves.

CoCoists, don't just assume. It's not yours to redistribute, so despite what you believe, don't take it upon yourself to make a decision for someone about their rights. It's condescending and rude, you do not know better than they do. And it is illegal, of course. And authors? Don't be stingy. You know as well as anyone that there's little or no commercial value in old CoCo software and publications. Seriously. Protect your property. But work with webmasters and CoCoists around the world to get your work back into circulation.

Here's two proposals, though there are tons of other ways to do this:

Set up some sort of micropay system for your vintage CoCo creations. Easy to do with places like PayPal. For a buck or two (think iTunes model) CoCoists can snag old software. This is a particularly good option for those looking to start developing (or are developing) new software for the CoCo. Use that older stuff to build a fan and customer base. Don't think you're going to get a lot of people willing to pay $20 or $30 for old CoCo software. Or even $10 for that matter. Your competition is too tough. Old CoCo games are fun, but you can download better to your cell phone for $1.99. A buck or two is probably your best price point, and don't expect to sell many. The market isn't that big. However, at that price point, you'll get a huge number of the hardcore users supporting it (even some of those that have the originals!), AND you'll pick up some of the casual retro-gamers that pop in and out of the CoCo scene.

I'll even consider setting something like that up here if there's enough interest from authors. Takes a few buttons clicks, so it's not rocket science. (Good thing, too, cause... well... I'm an idiot.) The main goal would be to get that old software out there for people to enjoy (at a more than reasonable cost) and encourage more modern development by some of those same authors. I've maintained for ages that the CoCo Community needs some form of expanded commerce, or developers aren't going to develop for it. There's one way to encourage it and I'll be happy to help in any way I can.

Option 2 is pretty straight forward. Set up some sort of arrangement for a CoCo website to distribute it to the community for free. Doesn't have to be here (though happy to do it, of course!). There's plenty of sites that would jump at the opportunity. If you're not going to use it, you're not going develop it, and it's just a "it's mine, so there!" thing, give it up. There's just no greater gift to the entire CoCo Community than letting that old software free. It will be greatly appreciated and recognized, I assure you. Better, release the whole thing, source code, art, tools and all. Help others pick it up, develop it, and make something new out of it. You won't get monetary compensation, but I suspect there will be some hearty recognition and thanks for doing it.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Some small stuff and a bit of rambling...

2008-01-18T12:55:00.001-06:00

Greetings CoCoNutz, from the deep (freeze) south. Yeah, I know it's not as cold here as it is where some of you folks are, but, for Florida, it's damn chilly!! The CoCo scene's been kinda anemic lately, on eVilBay, CoCo3.com and on the mailing list. Been some of talk about new CoCo's, virtual CoCo's, and even a resurrection of the old Hot CoCo fiasco and Rainbow on disk project (which seem to be dead). BTW, anybody know when C9 is going to release the SuperBoard? Last I heard was Mark saying they were going to try and push it out the door by the end of '07. Oh well... it'll get here when it does. There's also been some talk about copyrights vs. PD software and why some people have held on to their rights to 20+ year old software. Basically, a whole lot of useless, constipated conversation... Let me see if I can express my opinion on a few of these topics...

1. eVilBay and the mailing list: usually slow this time of year, nuttin' new here. It'll pick back up.
2. Virtual CoCo project: I'll believe it when I see it. There's bee so much prognosticating on this subject it's been hard to follow. The
Vcc emulator does much of what has been proposed and seemed like a good place to start, but, the project seems effectively stalled...
3. New CoCos: Well, sure sounds nice. And I like the idea of using a pic or other dev board for it. However, I doubt there'll be lots of people interested in this type of a project. I sure as hell would, but, lack the know how as of yet...
4. The Hot CoCo archive project (as mention recently on the list): I started to scan all of the Hot CoCos I have back in early 2007. However, I have since fallen very behind in this regard due to job and life related issues. Do I have anyone's permission to do so? Nope. I was going to archive them to DVD for my own use, as paper only lasts so long. I cannot for the life of me imagine why someone would object to an archival project like this.
5. The Rainbow on Disk project: it's a damn shame, dead in the water apparently.
6. The SuperBoard: great idea, want one really bad. Know I'll be one of the last to get one since I came so late... It'll get here sooner or later.
7. Software: hey, if the original author of the software still holds and maintains the copyright, more power to him/her. I don't really understand why it's such a big deal, though. I mean, regardless of what 'future' projects one has in mind for the CoCo, I don;t know why releasing code to PD would prevent that from happening. But, hey, who am I??

That said, let us turn our attention, or in my case, targeting array, toward an eVilBayer who has my undies in a bunch:

KP's Surplus

This link is to his eVilBay store with a TRS-80 search. Located just north of me in Georgia, he's got three items that appear to be in okay shape, tho the CoCo2 looks to be rode hard. HOWEVER, what the hell is he thinking with the prices? And the shipping? That MPI has been listed before and I emailed him inquiring about it's condition. I also informed him that the thing was way over priced when the recent selling prices of them were taken into account. He replied with a 'Thanks!' but apparently did NOT gt the hint. And for that, this guy gets my vBSOD.

Now that's over, let's get to some auction action.

Recent sales: (Just gonna hit the highlights...)

Early TRS 80 Color Computer Printer Manuals Modem + NR

Well, I certainly missed out on this one. This was a steal at the price it went for.

TRS-80 with Tandy Disk Drive FD 501

Good GAWD what happened here? Yeah, it was yellow, but DAMN!!! $8.00 with the FD-501?? Insane.

Like new TRS-80 Color Complete system

This is more realistic...

Vintage TRS-80 Mini Disk Computer Drive

Yep... this too...

Tandy 128K CoCo 3 , Disk Drives , Cassette ,and Extras

Another HOLY SH!T moment here... I paid more for my modified MPI than this whole auction went for. 5x more... That was a killer score, my congrats go out to the winner.

As for current auctions... meh.. nothing really interesting at this point. There are a few CoCo2's and I think one 3 right now.

On a personal note, it looks like I may be switching jobs shortly, I'll know for sure in a few weeks. Funding cuts at the fed and state levels have made it almost impossible for regional workforce boards to function effectively, and I work for one currently. If I do switch jobs, my only connection to the 'net will be... wait, I will not have a connection to the 'net. I kicked Bellsouth/ATT (both suck a$$) out back in November when they raised the price of dial up, which would only connect at 26k, to $23/mo. They were supposed to have DSL out to where we live by the end of 2007. I think they meant 2017... Liars.

Later all,
MCCM

Welcome to my second post in as many weeks!!!

2008-01-10T12:53:00.001-06:00

Had a few spare minutes on the clock today and figured I'd post an update of some current EvilBay auctions and review some of last weeks sales, while listening to Nickleback. Heeeeeere we go:

Early TRS 80 Color Computer Printer Manuals Modem + NR

Not sure how I missed this one last week. Looks to be a very complete set up with a bunch of software. I did notice a Franklin Ace 1000 sticker taped to the top of the CoCo... hope someone hasn't taken my Apple II improvement plan and done the reverse... (not likely, I doubt they would have kept the chicket keyboard...). If this interests, you, better hurry up, only 10 hours left!!!

TRS-80 Vintage Computer Disk Drive Manual Tandy TRS-80

Here's a CoCo2 with what looks to be a FD-501 setup. Current price of $16+ isn't bad considering it includes the computer, drive and controller.

TRS-80 with Tandy Disk Drive FD 501

And here we have a decidedly yellowed CoCo2 with what appears to be a single drive FD-501. Just a little note from personal observations, the yellowed items tend not to be selling lately. At all. Says too me that most who are buying may be the hard core collectors right now.

Like new TRS-80 Color Complete system

This is a rarity... when an auction title actually represents (or is close to it) what is being sold. Here's a (mostly) complete, in original box, CoCo2 (Canadian), with a few gmes and joysticks. BBW: 16k Standard basic machine. The pic of the machine looks very clean. If I was in the market for it, I'd buy...

Vintage TRS-80 Mini Disk Computer Drive

Looks like a complete 26-3029 FD setup in it's original box.I'd be shocked if the price stays at $10.50, but you never know...

Tandy 128K CoCo 3 , Disk Drives , Cassette ,and Extras

Good starter setup for someone wanting a CoCo3 to play around with. Not sure about the shipping, tho.... seems a little high.

That's pretty much it for now. Looks like CoCo auctions are slowing for now. As I mentioned earlier, I have noticed that mainly the good or very good condition items are getting any $$ right now. If memory serves, this is the time of year for that to happen. I know I will not have any money until the end of this month so I'm out of contention for anything I find of interest. Even then, my wife has two grand worth of dental work that needs to be done so I doubt I'll be doing any CoCoCollecting for a while... Anywho.. lets take a look at last weeks auction and see if anything shattered the CoCo 'verse.

Vintage Tandy TRS-80 System Radio Shack Color + 2 Games

This auction and

RADIO SHACK TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2 L@@K

are good examples of what I was talking about. The second one looked to be an awesome CoCo2, complete with box, and had fewer accessories (no joysticks) and very collectible. The first was in OK shape and had a few games, but, look at the price difference...

Tandy CM8 Coco3 Color Computer RGB

If you HAD to have a CM-8, $27 + (guess) $20 s/h is not a bad price. But, for less than that, you could get Roy's VGA adapter and be cocoing on an LCD...

TRS-80 Mini Disk, Keyboard, Dot Matrix Printer, Games

Not sure what held the price back on this auction, the shipping cost or the yellowed equipment. Though, the DMP-105 is kinda hard to get ribbons for...

REMIX Disk Drive OS9

Hmmmph.... $1.04 for this custom 2 drive setup... what a steal!!!

Tandy Color Computer Orchestra 90-CC

$11.07... guess that's probably an average price for one now. I paid $15 for mine, I think.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer + Extras VINTAGE NR!

Our beat up friend went for $10.49. Probably worth it just to check out what the mods were... of course I'm strange that way.

Color Computer Printer Interface

Went for under $5. Good buy.

Tandy Color Computer Disk Drive Lot

$62.89 is a very good price for this FDC & FDD lot, assuming it all works...

Printer interface for Tandy Color Computer

This printer interface went for a good bit more $$$ than the other one, $24.00. Good device, probably worth it.

TRS-80 Color Computer 3 CoCo 3 - Super Clean Condition

Nice CoCo3, sold for $41.00. Not a bad price at all for am incomplete but VERY clean CoCo3.

As I said earlier, things appear to be slowing down a bit. I'm gonna be keeping an eye on things to see what items are selling and also if it's the more pristine items that are getting all the attention. That alone may help boost the CoCoMod/repack scene a little bit if folks start picking up yellowed and neglected units on the cheap.

Till next time,
MCCM

Okay, well, not later in the week...

2008-01-04T10:19:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the delay in getting back here... life interfered. I can sympathized with the good CaptCPU about that. Been busy as a politician during campaign season ;). Figured I'd stop in and see if anything was going on, other than Cris changing the geek moment. Prefer the TRS-80 commercial to the code monkey!!! Anyway, figured I'd check out EvilBay and see what's going on, CoCo-wise that is...

Vintage Tandy TRS-80 System Radio Shack Color + 2 Games

Here's a nice looking CoCo2. Appears to have all the normal manuals a couple xtras. Shippings a little tall since it's in Canada, but, still worth it to some.

RADIO SHACK TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2 L@@K

Nice looking, mostly complete 2 and the price is right (maybe a little low considering that past CoCo2 have gone for a good bit more).

Tandy CM8 Coco3 Color Computer RGB

Looks to be a decent CM-8, with a little cosmetic blemish. Nice to collect, but, with Roy's VGA adapter I can't for the life of me think why you'd want to use a CoCo3 with this dinosaur.

TRS-80 Mini Disk, Keyboard, Dot Matrix Printer, Games

Looks likea chunk of CoCo equipment in this one. CoCo2, 3029 FD system, DMP-105... anything that can yellow looks like it has. I think the $70 shipping may be a bit overboard, tho...

REMIX Disk Drive OS9

Quite interesting custom drive setup. I'm pretty sure it'd work under DECB, but, only utilize 35 tracks instead of the 40. Not too shabby.Wish this seller posted shipping in his auctions...

Tandy Color Computer Orchestra 90-CC

Speaks for itself...

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer + Extras VINTAGE NR!

HOLY BEAT UP COCO's BATMAN!!! Aftermarket keyboard, some mods... I'm curious to know what the cutout hole in the top is for... Things been rode hard and put away wet. :(

Color Computer Printer Interface

If you're looking to use your CoCo with an RS-232 based printer, here's your ticket...

Tandy Color Computer Disk Drive Lot

The mother load of FDD auctions... all would be worth having.

Printer interface for Tandy Color Computer

Here's a Blue Streak serial to parallel printer adapter. I have one of these units and it works great to interface my CoCo3 (2 or 1) to my Okidata 320T. (I think they all come with the black electrical tape down by the Centronics plug...)

TRS-80 Color Computer 3 CoCo 3 - Super Clean Condition

Good looking CoCo3. Starting bid is good, so is the Buy it Now if you're in a hurry for one...

Well, that was pretty much all I saw of interest this time around. Now let's takea look at some of the sales from my last post (way back in December.. yeah, I know, I suck at keeping up to date...)

Radio Shack TRS-80 color computer

CoCo2 went for $.99...

TRS-80 Color Computer Mini Disk with Color Controller

FDD and controller sold for $34.50. Not a bad price, tho mode is unknown.

Lot of 2 TRS80 Tandy Color Computers

CoCo2 and CoCo3 sold for $11.05. Good price.

That's about it for now. If life doesn't interfere, I'll check back next week and see what's interesting.

Ho, ho, ho Recent sales updates and more...

2007-12-04T07:14:00.001-06:00

Going thru eBay this a.m. I found a few tidbits worthy of a mention. However, before I get to that, let us review some recent items of interest and see how they fared:

WICO Command Control Trackball for TRS80 Color Computer

This very nice Wico track ball sold for a measly $10. Wish I'd have had the time to follow up and bid...

TANDY TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2! RARE! L@@K VINTAGE!

Our little yellowing/beige friend sold for $15.50. Not too bad...

Tandy CoCo Rainbow Magazines

This one surprised me a little bit. A first year run of Rainbow sold for $62.00. Not bad, they seem to be in very good shape the collectible factor is definitely there.

Tandy TRS-80 128K Color Computer 3 + 12 carts CoCo3

Not sure, but, I'd almost consider $42.00 for this one thievery... Congrats to the buyer.

NEW BOXED Radio Shack TRS-80 Multi-Pak Interface

This did not sell. In fact, it's back with the same price, Buy It Now, etc...

Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer MPI/Multi Pak Interface

This may qualify for my rant for the day. This item has been relisted, still for the same ludicrous price and shipping. I'll go back a Model IV and service manuals I had shipped to me some time ago. The cost for this was $32.00 for a box five times the size necessary for an MPI. Aside from the unrealistic Buy It Now, the shipping is way out there also. Bidder beware (or avoid entirely...)

Tandy TRS-80 CoCo Color Computer 3 with 512KB Memory

This auction could possibly bump up the average price of a CoCo3 a little. I'm sure the 512k had something to do with the $79.78 selling price, tho... Cris, are you still keeping up the price guide?

Disto Super Controller II for TRS-80 Color Computer 3

I expected this to go for a little more than $92.00. Had I not just bought a garage and a buttload of Christmas lights, I would have bid on this myself. Awesome item!!!

Disto Memory Upgrade TRS 80 CoCo 3 ( 512k GOLD PINS )

I had no clue where this auction would go. $46.01 for a Disto 512k upgrade sounds reasonable. Good auction.

Vintage: Tandy 128K Color Computer 3 "NO RESERVE"

This nice CoCo3 with original box sold for a very respectable $57.00.

Vintage Tandy 128 COCO 3 Color Computer

Backing up my original feelings on this particular auction's price, this one did not sell...

Vintage Tandy Color Computers 2 & 3 with Accessories

I do believe the winner of this auction got the deal of the week. Hopefully my feeling of the CoCo3 just needing a GIME reseat will be all it needs. At $15.00, a very good deal.

I'm starting to see some new blood bidding on CoCo items. Hopefully they'll pop their head in and let us know how well the CoCo stuff works and maybe start contributing to the community.

Now, for some more current stuff...

Radio Shack TRS-80 color computer

Here's a slightly yellowed CoCo2 starting at $.99. Comes in original box. Manuals are apparently not there...

TRS-80 Color Computer Mini Disk with Color Controller

I'll bite my tongue about my feeling of reserve auctions... Shipping seems a little steep as well... Bidder beware.

This Seller...

Has got four separate Chromosette auctions...

Tandy Color Computer classic Chromasette Magazines

22 issues of Chromsette up for bid. Good starting price and shipping is very reasonable.

Lot of 2 TRS80 Tandy Color Computers

A CoCo2 and CoCo3 starting at $.99 with $15.60 s/h, which is reasonable for 2 CoCos. Both units look clean, however, the flash can wash out discoloration on vintage computers. Bidder beware and ask questions!!

That's about all I've found interesting this time around. I'll check back later this week or early next week. Merry Christmas!!!

Later,

MCCM

More CoCo Collecting....

2007-11-30T10:08:00.001-06:00

Greetings all and Merry Christmas!!! I hope everyone out there in CoCo Land had a great Thanksgiving Holiday. Looking thru eBay this morning I found a few intriguing items and thought I'd share a few of them. If you arelookijng to collect old Radio Shack catalogs, you'd be in luck as there seems to be quite a few. Since this is a CoCoCentric Blog, I'll focus only on the CoCo stuff ;-).

TRS 80 Color Computer-CCR-82 Cassette Recorder-4 Carts

Here's a nice looking CoCo2, cassette recorder and a few carts. All cables seems to be present. Not a bad price at all and shipping seems reasonable as well.

Tandy Color Computer Disk Drive FD502

A single FD-502 FDD and controller. Again, nice price and reasonable shipping. Would make nice addition under the Christmas tree.

Vintage Tandy Color Computers 2 & 3 with Accessories

Here we have a CoCo2 and a CoCo3, joysticks and a few carts. Seller says the CoCo3 only displays a green screen. Could just need the GIME reseated. Price and shipping are both very fair.

Tandy Color Computer COCO Collection

This seller has a plethora of CoCos (I, II and III). Quite a few games and other packs like an O-90 and a DC Modem. There are even a couple of cassettes, but, no cassette player.

Vintage Tandy 128 COCO 3 Color Computer

Very nice looking BOXED CoCo3. Perhaps a TAD yellowed, can't really tell from the lighting of the photo. Where I have problems is the shipping and the actual price. $45.00 is a little high for a starting bid and $105.00 Buy It Now for a 128k machine is just ridiculous, eve for a boxed CoCo3 IMO. And $20.00 for shipping is also a tad high. I know there was a flame-fest on the CoCo mailing list a few weeks back (almost made me cancel my subscription again) about this very subject. See the next auction for a reasonable shipping price...

Vintage: Tandy 128K Color Computer 3 "NO RESERVE"

Looks to be a nice CoCo3 with typing tutor in it's original box. Shipping price is very reasonable.

And finally, my INSANE auction of the week....

tandy color computer 3

While the starting price is alright, this VERY yellowed unit is located in Michigan and the shipping prices are just stupid. $33.80 for UPS ground and $22.71 for USPS Parcel Post. Not fair for shipping at all.... >:P

There really is a good bit more CoCo Goodness on eBay right now. Especially if you're into collecting cart based software. Lots o' goodness right now. Let's hope it all goes to a good CoCo lovin' home!!!

Later,

MCCM

Quick Collector etry

2007-11-13T12:42:00.001-06:00

Don't have time to do a proper CoCo Collector entry right now, but, there are some AWESOME items on eBay right now:

Disto Memory Upgrade TRS 80 CoCo 3 ( 512k GOLD PINS )

Disto Super Controller II for TRS-80 Color Computer 3

Tandy TRS-80 CoCo Color Computer 3 with 512KB Memory

This is really just a sample of the goodies on eBay right now. If you've got some extra Washingtons on hand, take a look. Especially if you have a hankerin' for software and Rainbow Mags...

Later,

MCCM

A Collector entry...

2007-11-06T13:13:00.001-06:00

It has been a while since Cris, myself, or anyone else has done a CoCo Collector Entry. Hell, it's been a while since I've done much of anything at all CoCo related. SOOO, you can imagine my surprise when I checked out the TRS-80 section of eBay and saw 164 entries. I figured there had to be at least a few CoCo related items.... I was right. The thoughts expressed below are my opinion only, and in no way express what anyone else here may think...

Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer MPI/Multi Pak Interface

Here's a nice looking gray first generation MPI that's is priced WWAAAYYYYY too high.

NEW BOXED Radio Shack TRS-80 Multi-Pak Interface

Here's a nice looking, boxed, white first generation MPI with a $99.95 Buy It Now!. This much easier to handle, price wise. And, it'd go well with a nice white CoCo 1 (Cris, are you paying attention...? :D )

Tandy 128k Color Computer 3 Non - Working

Well... if you are looking for a charity case, this one may be it. Seller says it has a bad RF unit, but did not state if he tried the composite out. Either way, this thing looks like it was rode pretty hard...

Tandy TRS-80 128K Color Computer 3 + 12 carts CoCo3

And now we have a well loved CoCo3 with 12 carts. The CoCo3 is obviously used, and would definitely be a candidate for repack material. The carts are probably loose with no blister packs (none are shown), so if you are looking for cart games to play, and a CoCo3 for repacking, this is a perfect auction for you!!!

Tandy CoCo Rainbow Magazines

Hehe... our own NavyDave really wants these Rainbows... lol. This seller has several lots of Rainbows up right now.

TRS-80 Color Computer 3 CoCo 3 PBJ Memory Boards 4 pcs

This is a VERY interesting auction. PBJ 512k bare memory expansion boards. I would think these would definitely fall into the RARE category.

TANDY TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2! RARE! L@@K VINTAGE!

Holy yellowing computers Batman!!! this thing has turned almost a lite beige color. One would have to hope it was a poor color choice for a paint job!!!

And finally, under the 'you don't see this everyday' category (unless you own one :) ):

WICO Command Control Trackball for TRS80 Color Computer

Had one of these back in the day. A must for playing the Centipede variants on the CoCo!!!

Now that my schedule is calming down (wife had surgery, house is closed on, garage is up), I will be back here a little more frequently. Christmas time is nearing and I've got a ton of lights to hang, and need to finish my light controllers also. But I'll be popping in more frequently...

Blink...

2007-10-12T14:34:00.001-05:00

Been a while since I've been able to check in here, works been a b!7@h lately. We finally closed on our house last week, wife came thru her surgery without a hitch, so my time may be freeing up a little bit finally. I am signing (today) to have a 24X36 garage built, 16X24 will be workshop space for me and my numerous hobbies. I should be back closer to normal in November. BTW, anyone hear from Briza lately?

l8r,

MCCM

August Poll and some bits

2007-09-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

Let's see...

The August poll was about what we'd would like to see next on the CoCo Hut. An image gallery came in first. That is fairly easy to impliment and I'll see about getting the software installed on the server for that ASAP. Second place was an online store, which would be trickier, but certainly doable. I have a few ideas on the subject I'll post on the message board. Comments and thoughts are more than welcome. I wouldn't expect anything to come of it until next year, but it would be good to start laying the groundwork and chatting up ideas.

If you're in the mood to buy CoCo stuff hit the CoCo Hut Gift shop for T-shirts, mugs, and... well, whatever else we get in the mood for. :) That's actually kind of cool. Anything you want to see, just drop a note. If you've got an image you want a T-shirt or something, cafepress can do that. No prob. And other people might like it, too!

The current poll has to do with the commercial at the top of the main page, and is just... well for silly. I love YouTube. I don't even have cable TV anymore. I mean really, the stuff on YouTube is WAY more entertaining. heh... :)

A 2008 CoCo Calendar? Tried to get one done last year and just couldn't get the images together. Is this something folks would like? Cafe Press has some excellent calendar options, so if I had the images and text to pop in there, we could have one whipped up pretty quick. I managed four CoCo photos that would be suitable. If you're interested in contributing a very high quality image for it, drop me a note. We'd need, oh, I'd say about... 12. :) Proceeds (US$1 per calendar) would go to support the Hut, of course. Depending on the format chosen, that would make the retail price between $4.99 to $20.99. I'll post the options to the message board.

Some questions I've gotten via email the last few months:

What happened to the Sunday CoCoist? My scheduled changed and I don't have Sunday free anymore. So that wasn't gonna work. With more contributors, CoCo Downunder joining us at the Hut, and the message board running along nicely, the hope is that eventually we'll have something CoCoish for you if you stop by, say, once a week or so. Might be interesting threads, new blog posts, or files to play with but it'll be something. We can build it from there.

(paraphrased) When's the GloCo gonna be done??? Well... I dunno. When it gets there. The mods that need doing are finish soldering the socket, covert to a PC power supply, and do the keyboard decals. Not much, but will require, say, an hour or two each uninterrupted. I haven't had a couple of hours uninterrupted in months, so we'll see how it works out. :) I'll post something in Pimp My CoCo as soon as there's something to tell.

How do I get my auction mentioned in the CoCo Collector? You can't. :) It has to be something one of the bloggers here sees and thinks is interesting or mentionable. No placement or promotion by request, I'm afraid. What I DO recommend is emailing me when you post an auction. I'll certainly be happy to take a look. (Other bloggers here may feel differently, so ask before spamming, please.) I look for items that are of a collectible nature. That mint Personal Finance pak isn't gonna get my CoCo lust going.

Sellers should also feel free to post a list of their current or upcoming auctions into the General forum of the message board! I have no problem with this at all, and if there's enough interest in it, I'll bring it up with the board admins and mods and see about setting up a separate forum for those types of posts. Hey, promoting yourself is essential, so jump on in. I recommend listing when the auctions will start, how long they will run, and a couple of pictures, at minimum.

Okay, that's enough for now... :) If I can stop playing WoW long enough (that game is pure digital crack), I'll play with image gallery software and see what we can get going.

Angel's Luck,
Capt

CoCo Mugs!

2007-09-19T11:24:00.001-05:00

The CoCo has quite a mug on it, and now its mug is on a mug. haha! (Sorry... okay, that was bad.) In an effort to drive donations, coco3.com is offering a limited edition Holiday CoCo coffee mug with each contribution of $20.00 or more. The listing is currently on the main page of the site.

Discuss this entry in The CoCo Hut Message Board. Now Open!

FOR SALE: CoCo Lounge

2007-09-19T11:17:00.000-05:00

Alas, Glen VanDenBiggelaar has decided to discontinue the popular CoCo Lounge website. Glenn is offering to sell the site and the entire online store inventory to an interested party. See his announcement on the site for details. Let's hope that someone will step up to do it, since the information on the Lounge is a great reference.

Discuss this post on The CoCo Hut Message Board! Get some CoCo Love!

Huge sales, great retro stuff, and some cool knicknacks!

2007-09-10T01:04:00.001-05:00

A little bit o' catch up here in the Old CoCo Collector.

VINTAGE COMPUTER MOUSE, RADIO SHACK COLOR MOUSE, TRS80 - (eBay item 280149646957 end time Sep-10-07 13:21:53 PDT)

These seem to be getting slightly more rare. The Color Mouse appears in decent condition from the photos. Alas, the seller couldn't test it. Still, never heard of two much trouble with these. Not as luxurious as the Deluxe Color Mouse, but it does the job. Just make sure you have plenty of desktop real estate.

TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2 + RARE FD 501 DISK DRIVE buynow - (eBay item 290158722255 end time Sep-10-07 16:01:36 PDT)

Most useful thing in the auction is the controller. And the price plus shipping is probably too high for just that. Still, if you're desperate for a drive controller, the FD-501 is a good one.

Tandy Color Computer CM-8 Monitor COCO 26-3125 - (eBay item 280151788533 end time Sep-10-07 19:39:44 PDT)

If you can't get hold of a RGB to VGA or S-Video converter, this will do. Not the best display for your CoCo 3, but certainly better than RF to a TV!

Tandy TRS-80/COCO ORCHESTRA 90-CC 26-3143 - (eBay item 280151794701 end time Sep-10-07 20:03:48 PDT)

We're not seeing these popping up lately, so figured I'd list this one since the seller demonstrates it as working. If you like CoCo music, you'll be needing one of these in the "to use" pile.

Tandy FD-502 Drive Case/Controller COCO 26-3133 - (eBay item 280151794839 end time Sep-10-07 20:04:15 PDT)

Again, this one also seems a bit high for just the controller. Then again, it'll do the job.

TRS-80 Color Computer-Chopper Stike by Computer Shack - (eBay item 190149166018 end time Sep-10-07 20:57:51 PDT)

Nice rare Computer Shack game called Chopper Strike. No manual, alas, but the disk is original. Very cool! :)

The Rainbow magazine for TRS-80 Color Computers - 17 - (eBay item 150158199368 end time Sep-11-07 18:21:40 PDT)

CoCo mags haven't been popping up much either. So here's a nice random lot of The Rainbow, including the reprint edition of the very first issue, to get someone started.

Retro TANDY Mousepad - (eBay item 300148302414 end time Sep-11-07 19:53:37 PDT)

A Tandy mouse pad to go with your Color Mouse. heh...

Rainbow Magazine, 1989, 12 issues, TRS-80, Coco 3 - (eBay item 190150571372 end time Sep-12-07 09:30:07 PDT)
Rainbow Magazine, 1988, 12 issues, TRS-80, Coco 3 - (eBay item 190150572432 end time Sep-12-07 09:33:28 PDT)
My eBay Summary
Rainbow Magazine, 1987, 11 issues, TRS-80, Coco 3 - (eBay item 190150573039 end time Sep-12-07 09:35:44 PDT)

Three lots of the The Rainbow from the dates indicated. In 88 and 89 you'll start seeing CoCo 3 stuff.

TRS-80 Color Computer 3 and Extras - (eBay item 130150682012 end time Sep-12-07 09:40:19 PDT)

Big pile of CoCo 3 stuff, including random disks, paks, drive, sticks and pretty much everything you need except a display. The 2 CoCo 3s included might need some work, would be good for pimpin', or serve as back ups or parts.

WICO Command Control Trackball for TRS80 Color Computer - (eBay item 130151616815 end time Sep-14-07 20:13:05 PDT)

Boxed Wico Command trackball for the CoCo. These actually work pretty good with "missile command" and "darn marble" type games. This one is potentially in collectible condition as well, but the seller doesn't show a picture of the actual unit... just the box. Claims it's like new and never used, so might be worth a look.

TRS-80 Model I, III & Color Remote Command Control! - (eBay item 280150127829 end time Sep-15-07 12:01:00 PDT)

For you old school CoCoists, here a brand spankin' new looking, original appliance and light controller. That's right, drive you wife and/or hubby nuts by hooking up the house to the CoCo! It's fun. Really. Neat collectible, too.

Trs-80 Color Computer CoCo Fest ticket (1993) - (eBay item 190150996876 end time Sep-15-07 19:27:45 PDT)

Every once and awhile a real CoCo collectible pops up, and here's one that's super cool. It's an original ticket stub from Glenside's 2nd CoCoFest. Neat little keepsake for the discriminating collector. :)

VINTAGE RADIO SHACK TRS-80 - (eBay item 200150762959 end time Sep-15-07 22:01:47 PDT)

OOOOHHH! The Great White CoCo, Aussie Edition! Original boxes, manuals, boxed paks.... My favorite CoCo and a super collectible. You don't see these in this condition too often.

Rogue - Tandy Colour Computer 128k - (eBay item 320156601250 end time Sep-15-07 22:55:50 PDT)

Another Australian auction, this is a copy of the great adventure game Rogue for OS-9. No instructions, but it's pretty straight forward. Hours of adventuring fun, too.

Trs-80 Color Computer EDTASM+ - (eBay item 190151152927 end time Sep-16-07 09:52:30 PDT)

Here's an EDTASM+ pak with manual. Get this on disk and patch it with the Super EDTASM patch printed in The Rainbow (I forget which issues, dang I need Rainbow on Disk!) and it makes a decent Assembler package.

Trs-80 color computer Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - (eBay item 190151169606 end time Sep-16-07 10:39:22 PDT)

Super rare Infocom super hit here. This might qualify as the funniest game ever done for the CoCo. heh! Pure Douglas Adams goodness. Almost complete, it's missing the Don't Panic Button, but who cares. Playing this is fantastic. Owning it in the original is even better.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer Cassette Recorder Vintage - (eBay item 250163629325 end time Sep-16-07 18:50:50 PDT)

Another ultra-retro collectible, an original CRT-80A. Just look at this beast! Wicked cool for the 26-3001 CoCo you've got hooked up. Real CoCoists do it in 4K with tape! Bwahahaha!

Tandy DeskMate 3 for OS-9 Level 2 Color Computer 3 - (eBay item 200150112243 end time Sep-16-07 19:22:02 PDT)

Appears to be complete copy of DeskMate 3 for the CoCo 3. Good collectible.

BOXED Radio Shack TRS-80 COCO Multi-Pak Interface - (eBay item 320155810254 end time Sep-09-07 12:00:53 PDT)

This boxed, but no manuals, MPI went for about US$42.00. Kind of expected it to go a bit higher, but it is the older style 26-3024 model by the look of it. It would need an upgrade to work properly with a CoCo 3.

Tandy TRS-80 Colour Computer - Complete HUGE Rare 1981 - (eBay item 180153700219 end time Sep-07-07 03:20:35 PDT)

This big fat lot of Australian CoCo goodness went for a whopping AU$176.39 (about US$145)! Included some rare issue of Softgold (which I'd love to know more about) and the Pyramid 2000 and Bedlam games, as well as a Christmas Cards tape. Interesting lot, great sale, great buy!

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 ROM Paks, multi-pak interface - (eBay item 130147340875 end time Sep-04-07 21:45:52 PDT)

And we think MPIs go high in the States? This one, with program paks, went for AU$222.22 (about US$183)!!! Included two rarities... something called the CoCo Tuner (more info!) and an Art Gallery data tape. Wonder what's on that?

Pile of Tandy TRS-80 STUFF! Floppy drive, games, books! - (eBay item 250158867099 end time Sep-02-07 21:08:07 PDT)

This awesome FD-500 in box, with original wrappers/packing, and a pile of CoCo stuff went for $US66.22. Again, surprised it didn't go higher. That's a good looking drive in rare condition.

Disto Super Controller 2 for TRS-80 Color Computer 3 - (eBay item 290154772798 end time Sep-02-07 13:58:10 PDT)

Setting a new record, this Disto Super Controller II floppy controller went for US$106.00. Man what a prize! :)

~~Vintage Tandy Coco Computer Very rare find on Ebay~~ - (eBay item 330159437597 end time Aug-29-07 05:55:46 PDT)

Even with busted CoCos, this huge lot of CoCo 3 stuff, including drives, CM-8, 512K upgrade and paks went for a huge US$225.00.

Rare Tom Mix Software collection-TRS-80 Color Computer - (eBay item 300143916332 end time Aug-28-07 11:44:27 PDT)

In another giant sale, this lot of Tom Mix games on disk with manuals went for $73.50. Serious envy going on here. Serious. :)

Over all, some huge sales and some great stuff up for grabs at the moment. It's a good time to be a CoCoist, of course, and at the moment, a great time to be a collector!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Dead DSL, CoCo Fun, and Assembler

2007-09-07T21:43:00.000-05:00

My DSL connection has been dead as a doornail for a week now. Arg! I have three Webkins addicts in my house, so basically my life has been a living hell. heh...

On the upside, being "offline" did give me some quality CoCo time! Woo hoo! Mainly, I played with a few BASIC routines, which I'll share when they're cleaned up, and practiced a bit of Assembler. The latter is slowly starting to make sense in my befuddled mind. Of course, knowing 6809 assembler is a lot different from being able to program in 6809 assembler. Just relearning basic programing technique and constructing simple routines is still a challenge for me. But I highly recommend the endeavor, even if you only have a bit of time to devote to it each week. Even just getting something simple to work in BASIC is a blast. It's like that old thrill I got the first time I powered on the CoCo and spend two weeks in front of it, pretty much non-stop. Fabulous!

While on the topic of programming, pop over to the CoCo Hut message board and join in the fun there, as well. There's a BASIC board for programmers, and plenty of other interesting bits including Pimp My CoCo, CoCo Downunder, and The CoCo Collector. Hell, if someone will moderate it (and post to it regularly) we'll even add an Assembler or language-of-your-choice board! Oh, how about a programing games on the Coco forum? You know, design considerations, tricks, help, that sort of thing... Would anyone post to that? ahem... anyhow...

You do need to register and get authorization to access the board, but we hope to make the bit of trouble worth your while. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt

PS For everyone I owe email and/or stuff, please hang in there. It's coming! :) Might be Sunday or Monday night before I get caught up. I DO have to fit in some quality World of Warcraft time as well, you know??? Heh...

The CoCo 2 picks up, a Disto Super Controller, and more!

2007-08-26T23:28:00.001-05:00

Sales of CoCo 2s have been pretty steady, but just of late they're going even better, with price increases galore. Original CoCo 1s are doing good, as well. We've seen a price increase across the board on all models. CoCo 3s still sell well, in the $100s for those that include lots usable extras. Many of the CoCo 2s being sold are not "collectible" quality, which would indicate that many folks are buying them to use. An increase in paks in poor to good condition, mainly in lots, provides another indicator of this. Now... how do we lure in these new/returning CoCoists and keep them active? :)

Some of these end very soon:

VINTAGE TRS-80 CO CO - COLOR METEOROIDS GAME - (eBay item 300143708009 end time Aug-27-07 18:31:16 PDT)

A rare complete tape copy of Color Metroids from Spectral Associates. 'Fraid I know nothin' about this one, but it looks neat.

Zaxxon - (eBay item 290152878171 end time Aug-27-07 21:20:09 PDT)

Another rare one, the DataSoft Zaxxon cassette, complete in the box. The other version was sold in a clamshell case and is slightly (only) more common.

VINTAGE TRS-80 CO CO SOFTWARE ( ZAXXON ) COMPUTER GAME - (eBay item 300144753228 end time Aug-30-07 20:47:27 PDT)

Here's a great looking copy of the version sold in a clamshell case. That case usually gets brittle and yellowed fast. This one's getting there, but still one of the nicer copies I've seen. I know this packaging was sold at Radio Shack (I bought it), but I don't know about the boxed version (above).

Disto Super Controller 2 for TRS-80 Color Computer 3 - (eBay item 290154772798 end time Sep-02-07 13:58:10 PDT)

In the freakin' awesome rare department, here's a nice looking Disto Super Controller II for your floppies. Not ever having owned one of these, I can't comment too much, but I believe it'll drive higher density floppies, depending on what DOS is installed.

1982 Radio Shack Color Computer system in original box - (eBay item 130147598673 end time Sep-02-07 15:34:24 PDT)

The 26-3004A CoCo is a fine F or NR board machine. This one looks great and comes with a CCR-82 and a few extra goodies. No mention what's on those tapes. Judging from the manuals it's an ECB machine, but no word on the RAM, though probably 16K. That was common in 1982. (The machine was built in October of '82 according to the date code on the box.)

~~Vintage Tandy Coco Computer Very rare find on Ebay~~ - (eBay item 330159437597 end time Sep-03-07 22:29:26 PDT)

Can't decide if this is one of those crazy ones or a deal. heh... Lots of CoCo stuff, but the 2 included CoCo 3s don't work. I suppose if you needed the stuff and the CoCos for parts...

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 ROM Paks, multi-pak interface - (eBay item 130147340875 end time Sep-04-07 21:45:52 PDT)

Nice lot that includes an MPI and a bunch of paks. Includes the CoCo Max Hi-Res Pack (no software) and something called the CoCo Tuner. That last could be interesting.

Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Vintage Color Computer No Rsrv - (eBay item 110160452016 end time Aug-23-07 11:07:39 PDT)

Great looking, collectible quality 26-3004 Color BASIC machine that went for US$41.26. Included a still in the box CCR-81 as well. Good looking machine.

Rare Tom Mix Software collection-TRS-80 Color Computer - (eBay item 300143916332 end time Aug-28-07 11:44:27 PDT)

Here's an awesome collection of Tom Mix disks that includes King Tut, Sailor Man, The King, The Frog and SR-71 with docs (except The Frog).

Circuit Design Programs for the TRS-80 by Howard M. ... - (eBay item 230164271928 end time Aug-29-07 16:30:00 PDT)

This looks interesting. I've got a project planned to do a "shop CoCo" some day, and want to load it with all sort of handyman and electronics software. This would be handy, I suspect. Haven't seen it before, so might be worth a look and it should be too hard to convert the programs to the Color BASIC.

Tandy Color Computer 2 "coco" - (eBay item 220143280197 end time Aug-30-07 18:03:20 PDT)

Here's a beautiful, looks complete, CoCo 2.

Superman and Wounder Woman TRS-80 Computer Comic - (eBay item 170142799391 end time Aug-30-07 18:10:18 PDT)

This gets listed from time-to-time, but it features the CoCo (if I remember correctly) and hey, I love DC comics. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Tandy Color Computer 3 & Extra's

2007-08-25T07:12:00.000-05:00

Checkout this dandy Coco3 setup. It has all the things you need to have a complete running hardware setup. Looking at the pic for the hardware. All Hardware looks smick. Even comes with a 2xSpeaker system.

So If your after a complete disk drive setup with Multi-Pack. Then this is a done deal for you. Then you throw in the Tandy Speech Pack(Which by the way are hard to obtain). You are ready and able to get deep into the Coco Goodness available. Even if you just want this setup to do word processing work. Then your in luck, even comes with a Printer and Paper. So bid on this if you want everything at once and not buy bits and pieces to have a complete setup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tandy-TRS-80-Color-Computer-3-Disk-System-Extras_W0QQitemZ140151382506QQihZ004QQcategoryZ74947QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Laters

Briza(CocoDownunder crew).

240 or 256 colors on the 320x192 screen

2007-08-21T03:44:00.000-05:00

Hows this for a gem of a program. I have downloaded and tested it out on a real 512k Coco 3.
And boy does it look super. You can see the different shades of Green, Red, Blue, Plus you can see Different shades for Pink, Yellow and So forth.
Download it and see for yourself. And By what Chris says. If he uses a lower Color chart. Say 140-160 colors. He will be able to do animation. Now this will be perfect for Games. So looks like the Coco 3 will be seeing a new lease of life after all. Why design games using 16 colors. When you can get a mode utilizing 140-160 colors in a 320x192-225 mode.

http://www.lomont.org/Software/Misc/CoCo/

This must show the world what a great Graphics chip the GIME was. And how powerful it is when partnered with a 6809 chip.

laters

Briza(CocoDownunder)

The Rat Graphics package, and plenty o' CoCo 3s!

2007-08-19T23:08:00.001-05:00

Auctions of Note for August 19th, 2007:

Not a lot, but a super rare software/hardware combo and some CoCo 3s!

COLOR COMPUTER 3 AND DISK DRIVE SYSTEM PLUS DISKS!! - (eBay item 330156659372 end time Aug-18-07 18:38:10 PDT)

This CoCo 3 system with FD-502 went for a hefty US$131.13! See below for a deal... :)

1983 Walt Disney Telling Time with Donald for TRS-80 - (eBay item 120153234611 end time Aug-26-07 19:38:57 PDT)

Here's a good looking Telling Time with Donald in the hard clamshell box. Looks complete. This whole series from Walt Disney is pretty good if you have young ones in the house. Hook the CoCo 1/2 up to a big TV and let these run. Several solid hours of edutainment for the 5-10 years old crowd. And a great way to get your kids active in the CoCo. You do need a tape player for these, since they frequently use MOTOR ON:AUDIO ON to play narration off of the cassette. The one being offered here appears in collectible condition as well.

TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE TRS 80 MOUSE COCO MAX INPUT - (eBay item 290152298644 end time Aug-26-07 19:37:28 PDT)

Here's an interesting lot. This is a 26-3024 MPI and original CoCo Max hi-res input pak with Color Mouse. Also includes what appears to be a custom selector switch that would, in theory, allow you to switch between hi-res mode and regular mode for the mouse. Neato.

Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer Multi-pak interface - (eBay item 290152181518 end time Aug-26-07 13:24:23 PDT)

Another 26-3024 MPI by itself. Untested according to the seller. (Note that these aren't necessarily of collectible interest but so many people want 'em I figured I'd give them a call out.)

Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer 3 CM-8 RGB color monitor - (eBay item 290152178185 end time Aug-26-07 13:14:43 PDT)

And a good ol' CM-8 for your retro-viewing pleasure.

Tandy Color Computer 3 128k Like New w/Games + More - (eBay item 170140281145 end time Aug-20-07 16:21:55 PDT)

Very good looking CoCo 3 with box, manuals and extras. It's mislisted, so worth a look if you're wanting a 3 cheap. Ending soon!

Diecom The Rat Graphic Design Package for Tandy Coco 3 - (eBay item 280143772617 end time Aug-20-07 18:17:30 PDT)

This one is mislisted as well, and maybe the rarest of the rare auctions we see this year. Ending soon, so jump in if you're able!!! The Rat was a graphics package for the CoCo 3 by Diecom. It boasted some pretty highend features, but having never seen it, I couldn't tell you for certain what was in it. :)

TANDY COLOR COMPUTER W/ 5 GAMES CONTROLLER Disk Drive - (eBay item 220140292527 end time Aug-21-07 12:48:28 PDT)

Yet another CoCo 3 with an FD-502. This one is also mislisted, so worth a peek. Even with the high shipping, it could come in under $130+ price listed above. ;)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Lamont updates CoCo Docs and some Math

2007-08-19T20:57:00.001-05:00

Chris Lomont has made several updates to his CoCo page since we last visited back in June (I really need to get out and about more). There's an article called "Retro Supercomputing" in which he tackles some heavy duty computational tasks with a CoCo 3. Okay, mathematics are not my strongest area, whereas Chris is a PhD, but just seeing the programs run on a CoCo is pretty darn amazing once you understand what they're doing inside. Chris's description of the inner workings of both the E and TM computations is clear and easy to follow in the article and in the programs themselves. The way he gets around some of the inherent programing limitations of the CoCo is pretty slick as well (such as overwriting an unused portion of the program itself to free up more RAM) and certainly worth studying if you're planning to do some memory intensive CoCo'ing. Can't wait to see what he does with Pi.

In other news, he recently updated his CoCo hardware programing documentation. It's easier to navigate around and there are many new additions from the last version. If, like me, you're learning assembler again, grab these docs right now. Just being able to see how all this stuff works and interrelates is a huge kick to the ol' learning curve. Between Mr. Lomont's docs and the Barden and Leventhal books, I'm actually starting to get it. Well, mostly, but way better than I was previously. If you're already a whiz with a CoCo assembler, Chris's docs will serve as a welcome and frequently used reference.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Vcc Updated to Version 1.14

2007-08-19T20:11:00.000-05:00

Jack has updated his Vcc Color Computer 3 emulator several times since last reported (in just the last couple of weeks!). The current version is 1.14 and includes additional tweaking of the sound, separating out the virtual hard disk, new keymaps, and several bug fixes. Also some doc cleaning by our very own Bob Devries. :) See the full list of updates by version number on the download page.

If you haven't snagged Vcc yet, go get it. I think what I like most about it is a) it's Windows based, so it uses the various windows APIs and plays nicely with XP and Vista, b) it's extensible via .dll (Chris Lamont is working on a machine monitor/debugger for Vcc!) and c) it "feels" more like a real CoCo than any emulator I've used. I'll grant the latter is subjective and certainly up to debate. Your mileage may vary. But it works and it works very well. I've even fired up Disk EDTASM on it and poked around a bit with assembler finally (not saying I'm getting far enough to write programs, mind you, but it's a start!) The potential of almost unlimited expandability makes it a top notch contender for the ultimate "virtual CoCo." Two huge CoCo-lovin' thumbs up.

Angel's Luck,
Capt

A bit o' updating and FILES!

2007-08-14T23:46:00.000-05:00

Instead of working on the message boards like I'm suppose to be doing (it's installed, at last, just not fully configured... heh...), I decided to update the blog a bit. Mainly just tidying up.

I did, however, add a link directly to the piles o' files that Briza and Bob have been uploading to the Downunder section of the sever! And oh, baby, is there some good CoCo loving in there! Can't wait to see what they put in there next, but what's there should keep ya busy for, oh, most of your life. heh...

The linkage is on the right (under Files). I also added what little bit I've converted to disk and uploaded. Not much, but some fun stuff to play with. This is just stuff from my private collection, for archival purposes, but figured eventually it might be of interest to some CoCoists. And no, all the manuals and such aren't scanned in yet. I'm working on it, but I'm going to have to get a new scanner and finish off a few of the projects I've already got going before I tackle that one. I'd eventually like to host magazine and document archives, as well, but we'll see how it goes. The "official" CoCo Hut file list, from my collection and meager efforts, including programs donated by the original authors, is here.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Coco Leisure reading

2007-08-14T07:45:00.000-05:00

Having a touch of OCD :-), I find myself searching the net for anything coco related quite frequently. For example, the other day I found a couple of interesting articles (outdated of course), that mentioned the Coco (by doing a google search for 'Tandy Color Computer cut costs'). Dont ask me why. The first one was called "Price War in Small Computers" ,which talked about the price wars going on back in the early 80's with the 8-bit computers of the day. Its funny how its seems so similar to the price wars of video gaming consoles of today. Another one was called "David Versus Goliath" and talks about how Microware had big plans to squash Bill Gates with OS-9 set-top boxes. Theres some references to the Coco 3 in there. I believe the system is still used today in cable boxes, not sure. A system called "DAVID". If you haven't already seen these articles, I think you'll find them some interesting reads. Some more tidbits for the Coco history books.

Thanks for the Welcome!

2007-08-13T04:33:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the greets all! I'll try my best to post something worthwhile in the near future. Thanks for letting me onboard. Now where did I hide my last 20 cents? :-0

Welcome NavyDave to the best coco blogger

2007-08-10T00:14:00.001-05:00

I second Captcpu's welcome to NavyDave. Welcome to the best coco blogger in the world.
All we need now is some well known Coco Programmers dropping in and leaving their 20cents worth and the website will rock.

laters

Briza

Welcome NavyDave!

2007-08-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just want to take a moment to welcome our newest blog member, NavyDave!!! Besides having an enviable CoCo collection, Dave is also an accomplished musician. I'll let him post an introduction with all the gritty details, but you can catch him on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/navydave1. Welcome to the CoCo Hut!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Stinkin' message boards :)

2007-08-09T02:13:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently I ganked the stinkin' message board. Been trying to restore it for three hours, but so far, dead as a doornail. I shall take it up again on the morrow. Until then I ask, how gung ho is everyone for an alternate CoCo message board? Your thoughts?

I'm more than willing to do it, of course. I love it! But is it something that others are going to use? Let me know.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Auctions of Note for August 8th, 2007

2007-08-08T00:51:00.001-05:00

Haven't done this in awhile, so here we goooo!

Wishbringer TRS-80 Infocom Complete! - (item 200135770194 end time Aug-06-07 17:57:04 PDT)

First up is this jewel that I can't believe I freakin' missed. ARG! Wishbringer was a later Infocom game sold through Radio Shack for the CoCo. It was classic all text style. The box included all the goodies Infocom started throwing in toward the end of the text adventure era, including the super cool glow in the dark Wishbringer rock. heh. Finding this complete is amazing. Sold for a nice US$35.00 to our good friend NavyDave! Appears to be complete, as well. Super rare and a good win. :)

RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer 1 CoCo Beige 64K RARE - (item 250151457904 end time Aug-08-07 02:43:26 PDT)

As I write, this one has about four hours to go, so if you want to take a whack, go quick. This is the last of the CoCo 1s, The Great White CoCo, the 26-3003B that Tandy released just before the CoCo 2. It was only built in a 64K, ECB model and initially got more attention than the CoCo 2. For about a month. heh. This one is dang gorgeous as far as condition goes. Well, not as purdy as mine, but nice. :P This one (unlike mine) even has it's original RF box and cables. Anyhow, as rare as these are, they've never sold particularly well at auction. Usually only for a few dollars. Though, I will throw in, that this is the nicest complete one I've seen unrestored (mine is heavily restored). The Buy It Now price is too high, perhaps, but is the bid price good? To me, this CoCo has always been undervalued, so I say yes.

TRS-80 Color Mouse New in Box - (item 180145120740 end time Aug-11-07 13:54:48 PDT)

I don't post these often enough, and they are becoming a bit fewer and farther between. This is the original single button Color Mouse. Not quite as nice as the Deluze Color Mouse that came later, but definitely an improvement over a joystick for Hi-Res Interface apps like Color Max or CoCo Max. Best thing about them: GIANT STEEL BALLS! Seriously, using this thing after a lightweight PC mouse is like driving a brick.

TRS 80 TANDY COLOUR COMPUTER GAMES / PROGRAMS LOT - (item 130139970329 end time Aug-12-07 02:00:16 PDT)

Extremely rare cassette lot from Australia with original manuals. The Australian CoCo market had plenty of stuff never seen elsewhere in the world, and it looks like several of these qualify. Super rare and worth a look.

Tandy/RADIO SHACK Color Computer 2 MULTI-PAK INTERFACE - (item 280139493532 end time Aug-12-07 18:00:00 PDT)

On the off chance that you reeeeealy need an MPI. heh.

TRS-8O COLOR COMPUTER 2/ 64K EXTENDED BASIC & RAM CART - (item 110157068907 end time Aug-13-07 20:21:36 PDT)

If anyone buys this, please please please don't try to stick that MC-10 16K RAM upgrade in the CoCo. Ouch.

TANDY CCR-81 Computer Cassette Recorder Player - (item 170138021989 end time Aug-14-07 13:10:12 PDT)

A rather nice looking CCR-81 in the white (AKA CCR-81A). Never hurts to have a few of these around and they're WAY better than the craptacular (IMHO) CCR-82. Although, if you can get a CCR-83 (the last of the CCR line) by all means do. They're so very choice, if you have the means. :P This would go well with that 3003B, above.

Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer - (item 260147127406 end time Aug-17-07 01:13:59 PDT)

BWahahahaha! I love CoCos. I love to see people buy CoCos. I just don't like to see people taking it in the... er... yeah.

Primo Condition!! TRS 80- Color Computer circa 1983 - (item 280141392944 end time Aug-17-07 18:24:55 PDT)

Beautiful condition, collectible grade CoCo 2 from looking at the pics. Alas, no Cat No given in the auction, but inquire if you need one specific for the collection. I'm not collecting 2s at the moment, but I'd bid on this one if I were.

That's it for this go 'round!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

How do I proceed with my DVD Compilation

2007-08-05T07:48:00.000-05:00

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Ok. people how do you think I should proceed with my Dvd Games compilation set. I'm worried about how the community will react to this DVD set. Since we are talking about nearly every Coco game ever done. Not many games will be missing. And mostly these will be games by At home So

le programmers. But as for well known company games. They will be on this set.
I'm worried mostly about this DVD set being copied and sold on Ebay for a mint. As we are talking about nearly all the games. Plus Apps and other goodies as well. A fellow coconut had a great idea to market it on a word of mouth basis. Which I'm thinking of doing.

So if you have any ideas on how I should proceed let me know.

laters

Briza

EDIT:

I wouldn't normally edit someonelse's post, but, I think this is important enough.

Briza, I would refrain from selling the item to anyone who has not earned the trust of the group. People like Hexstar and the guy who posted Ira's archive need to be left out of this all together. Newcomers should be looked at thru a jaundiced eye until they've proven themselves responsible. This will add to your work for sure, but, I think this will be the only way to monitor who gets the DVD.

Brian

CoCoist from Downunder

2007-08-03T22:04:00.001-05:00

Looks like the Downunder gang is all here now, so jump in and give 'em a big welcome. We've got Briza, Bob, and RicoJack joining the CoCo Hut to bring you heaps of CoCo Goodness with an Aussie flavor. As I'm pretty sure everyone reading this knows, these are the talented gents that had CoCo Downunder with it's great blog posts, file selection and CoCo docs. Welcome aboard!

I'm fiddling now and trying to secure file space on the Club LTD Studios server for file hosting. At the very least I'd like to get FTP running so there's a place for all the CoCo stuff these guys have amassed.

With luck, a few more esteemed CoCoists will be joining us soon as well. Stay tuned!

In additional Hut news: The message board IS working fine, it's secured and everyone is welcome to post in there. Remember that you MUST email me at captcpu@clubltdstudios or coco@clubltdstudios.com to get access. This is terribly unfortunate, but it's also the only way to beat the spammers that attack the board on a daily basis. You can see the effect by looking at the user list, which is packed with bad usernames and inactive accounts. Until I can find time to upgrade the phpBB software, though, there's no easy way to weed those out. They're harmless, just don't click on any links in the user profiles. ;)

I also updated the review for Roy Justus' RGB-toVGA converter and have completed the moving around and reorg of the website at coco.clubltdstudios.com. The new PC should allow me more time to update the site a little more frequently, as well.

Happy CoCoing!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

PS Bob mentioned Vcc, a new CoCo 3 emulator for Windows. The link has been added to the Linkage section on the right. Go get it. Now. :P

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Cris invited them, I'll welcome them!!!

2007-08-03T07:04:00.001-05:00

Welcome Bob, Briza and everyone else from CocoDownunder!!! Hearing from Cris that he invited our Aussie CoCoNutz was great news. Hopefully, and indeed it looks to be happening, you guys can bring some life to the bolg since Cris has been dealing with Harry Potter mania and I've been dealing with life. It looks like it'll be around October before I get back to my sarcastic self. Hopefully by then, I'll have Evil Lab Florida up and running. Noe guaranteesm tho...

Later,

Brian

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Welcome to cocodownunder part 2

2007-08-03T01:02:00.000-05:00

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

I'm hoping to have the old topics from the old website called cocodownunder over to this blogger in a few days time. Sure Wordpress was a dream to use. But in time I'll get the hang of this blogger.
And as Cris mentioned in a earlier email to me. In a few days time. He will have a storage area setup to hold the former zip file contents from the old website. So fellow coconuts you can all rejoice. Part2 of cocodownunder is up and running.

laters

Briza

New(ish) VCC Emulator... It's great mate!

2007-08-03T00:45:00.000-05:00

For the last couple of hours I have been trying out the VCC emulator.

I must say I'm very impressed, and will be using this from now on.
The only thing missing is output to a printer, which may not be important to a lot of people. Also, I wonder if RS-232 emulation would be doable?

I'll need to keep up with updates for this software.

Regards, Bob Devries
Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Hello from Down Under!

2007-08-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the invitation to this blog site.

I'm looking forward to being able to upload all my coco document files to share with others. I have *so* many. :)

Regards, Bob Devries
Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Archiving and storing your CoCo stuff!

2007-08-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

Let's face it. This CoCo stuff isn't going to last forever. Indeed, one of the main reasons behind the projects currently underway to rebuild the CoCo, either in software or hardware, is because the CoCo itself will someday simple stop working. Components get old and the older they are the harder they get to replace. Software, books, and hardware build back in the 80s isn't going to fare well for long either.

So instead of actually tending my CoCo collection, which is what I should be doing, I thought I'd write up some thoughts on preserving what we have. I decided to start by examining exactly what needs to be archived, and what can be done about it. This is preliminary and based largely on my experience with preserving 200 year old books and 60-year old pulp magazines. A lot of the same principles apply, though.

For supplies, run a Google search on "archival storage." This brings up a nice list of vendors who offer archival quality storage for a variety of applications. I was particularly impressed initially with the offerings from Bags Unlimited, who specialize in comics and magazines, but their line would be easily usable for CoCo collecting needs. (I haven't ordered from anyone yet, nor have I tested any of these products, so look around before you try it.) I tend to use local shops for my archival needs, but may try a few of the products I've seen online today. If I do, I'll report results and impressions, of course.

What's the problem?

The main enemy is exposure. Even exposure to air will slowly damage your CoCo paraphernalia beyond repair. Granted, it takes many years, but it's happening. Water, dirt, chemicals, humidity, temperature and sunlight are also big culprits. I also happen to know that the holding capacity of the original chiclet style keyboard on the CoCo 1 is exactly 3/4 a can of Coca-Cola. Ouch. The goal of any archival quality storage system would be to limit, or possibly eliminate, exposure to these elements. Limiting access to the collection from dumb-asses like me is a good idea, too. :P

For disks, there's unfortunately not a lot you can do to preserve the data intact. To save the information stored on the disk, you have to move it to a new medium. Something that might help would be placing the disk an acid free, air sealed bag. Eventually, though, the magnetic forces holding the data together will degrade and the data will be lost.

So, you have to move it off. I current back everything CoCoish up to the PC, then onto a CD, and also on to a secured online storage site. I saw some gold archival quality DVDs for sale while I was looking around. More research needed on these, of course, but the idea is promising. I remember reading years ago that the average 5 1/4" floppy had a life span of about 5 years. Well, I've got plenty of disks that are way past that, but still best not to take chances. Backups are your best bet.

For manuals, magazines and books, I would strongly recommend archival quality storage bags. There are many different types, with all sorts of claims as to which is more effective. I've tried about all of the out there, over the years, and they all work pretty much the same. Generally speaking, the more you spend per bag, the better they work. For my magazines and very old books, I use polyethylene and change the bag every five years. The reason is that the acid in the papers causes the material to eat itself. This can't be stopped (well, it can be severely arrested with a LOT of time and money), but it can be slowed down considerably. We're talking extending the life of pulp paper (the worst) to 500 years or more! For pennies a bag (well, dimes at least), it's an easy investment for your CoCo collection's printed materials.

Archival storage boxes are also recommended for storing, well, everything. You average cardboard box or storage box, has enough acid in it to eat through your collection and severely damage it in a year or so. Ouch! Acid free boxes are cheap and add an extra layer of protection. the plastic kind are even better, since rats and mice can't chew their way in. Covers are necessary. The plastic tubs you can buy at hardware stores for storing cloths and such are also excellent and tend to be pH neutral.

Use these boxes for everything. Store CoCos, hardware, magazines, manuals, disks... everything... in these acid free or plastic boxes. Store in a cool, dry place. It's general better to store magazines and manuals upright (on their butts), rather than flat or on their spines. Never expose them for too long to direct sunlight. Dust and clean equipment religiously. Anything mechanical should be taken out and "worked" a little, moving the parts around and such, at least once a year. Lint free gloves should be used for anything you want to keep pristine. The acids on your fingers are deadly to your collection. Seems silly, I know, but I'm serious. I've seen 200 and 300 year old books that are perfect except for the one little spot where some doofus put a thumb print and it ate a quarter inch hole in the cover over the years. Yow.

So start, some general recommendations (with specifics to come, hopefully):

Disks, magazines, books, software boxes, and any paper CoCo stuff should be "bagged and boarded." This involves using mylar (polyester) or polyethylene bags and acid free backing boards to store them. I tend to avoid polypropylene bags because, in my experience, they tend to yellow after a couple of years. Never had any damage from them, but still... Drop the bagged items in acid free storage boxes. The stuff used for comic and magazine collecting is very good. You can punch it up a notch and use library quality archival products, but these are exceedingly expensive. Save those for you most treasured and rare CoCo items.

I tend to avoid de-acid products for paper items. They tend to be messy and, to many collectors, alter the original condition of the item. I have used them on pulp magazines that are "reader" copies, or trashed so bad they have no real collectible value. They work, but it's a pain in the ass and the results are mixed, at best.

You DO want to separate individuals pieces. For example, a software box, its inserts, the manual, and the the disk/tape should all be bagged separately, and then bagged together in a larger bag. This helps prevent the different pH levels from mixing and one item causing another item to be damaged. Old Ziplock bags and clamshell cases should definitely be separated from their original contents. These packaging materials are serious suckage. Very bad.

Take precautions against critters getting into the collection. Bag spray, mouse traps, poisons, sonic deterrent systems, small tactic nukes, or whatever your conscience, wife, and budget will allow. (I prefer the good old mouse trap, for example, but the three girls living with me prevent that particular method from being utilized frequently. On the other hand, they have no objection to me nuking bugs and spiders in gruesome ways. Go figure.)

Hardware should be protected using large bags or sheets of the same materials listed above. Then drop them into plastic tubs and containers. Seal the containers and store them in a cool, dry place, preferably indoors. I have a whole closet dedicated to CoCo storage, for example. If that's not feasible, then the driest, most consistent temperature/humidity you can manage.

Eventually, I'll put everything together in the CoCo Collector FAQ. But this is a good place to start for those that are curious about preserving their CoCo collection. Please do share any thoughts or experiences you've had as well!

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Vista, USB and DriveWire, Part 2

2007-07-27T16:16:00.000-05:00

My first attempt to get the PC to CoCo connection running via DriveWire on a Windows Vista PC didn't quite work out. For those contemplating the move, here what I've got so far...

You would think I'd know better, but when I ordered up the Serial to USB adapter I went ultra cheap. I purchased a unit made by Prolific out of Taiwan. After hot plugging it, Vista immediately located the correct driver online and loaded it up, without the need to install from CD. Unfortunately, the driver is for XP, not Vista. Still, the ports showed up properly and everything tested out okay.

Next I hooked up the cable that comes with DriveWire to the CoCo. I installed DriveWire onto the PC from a thumbdrive. When run, DriveWire popped up with an error message stating it could not locate the COM ports and quit. Running the server in compatibility modes (I tried Win 95, ME and XP) and with administrator privileges didn't help, alas. Prolific will not be providing Vista drivers, dammit, and is relying on third party vendors to supply them. Serious suckage. The two I was able to locate just crashed the device, and had me spending an hour or so uninstalling and reinstalling shit, so we won't go there.

Then I tried it with the old install I had on my ME machine, copied directly to the thumb drive and then into Vista. That forced DriveWire to fire up (with the old settings) and I was able to manually set it to the COM port selected (I did all tests on COM3 and 4, Vista has hidden COM 1 and 2 somewhere and I can't find 'em... or the Prolific Driver just isn't installing them to begin with... hard to say). This almost worked.

The CoCo, under HDB-DOS, would COPY, BACKUP and load BASIC programs from the server just fine. Unfortunately, it reported an I/O ERROR every time I tried to load a machine language file. Once again back to the compatibility settings, but again to no avail. I did not test it on NitrOS-9, yet.

[Side Note: The compatibility mode in Vista is actually workable and super easy to use and tweak. Other than this, I haven't found anything it won't fix that was built for Win 95 through XP. All my old stuff is working fine on Vista, awaiting it's turn for the full 32-bit Vista treatment. Of course, old DOS stuff won't work at all without an alternate DOS installed, such as DOSBox. For us Tandy fans, DOSBox even emulated Tandy graphics/sound like the old 1000 series!]

I emailed Boisy at Cloud-9 and he was kind enough to make a couple of suggestions and answer questions. (Seriously, Boisy and Mark rock at customer service. Stand behind their products 100%, so buy from these guys without pause.) First, there's no plans for a Vista version of the server, which granted, is asking a bit much. heh. Second, he recommended trying a USB to Serial adapter with the FTDI chipset. He runs DriveWire with such a converter on a Mac and says he's found them to be way more reliable than the Prolific brand.

So that's where I'm at so far. Next week, when there's money in the CoCo-fund again, I'll order up an FTDI chipset serial to USB converter and give that whirl. FTDI just released brand new shiny drivers for Vista, so I'm hopeful. At the very least, I can reasonable eliminate the hardware as the problem. I'll report more when I get it up and running.

Anyone else had success or failure running DriveWire in this manner under Vista? How about on an older machine with serial ports installed? Any thoughts? More to come....

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Sockmaster non-CoCo Fun

2007-07-27T15:43:00.001-05:00

While searching out weekend project do while on vacation, and figuring out a Fall project as well (I know I haven't finished the two projects I have going for summer... sheesh!) I stumbled upon this on Instructables:

http://www.instructables.com/member/sockmaster/

Both LED projects by our very own Sockmaster! My wife took one look at the fridge project and said "That's awesome! If you touch my fridge I'll kill you." (On the other hand, both our iRobot cleaners died recently, neither of which I was allowed to touch before, so now I get to have a whack at those... bwahahaha!) From reading through it, looks like it could be modified to go somewhere else. Then I got to thinking about how cool it would be to build an LED grid and then hook it up to the CoCo somehow so that you could program it via a PIC to display simple pictures like this... and then promptly realized I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to go about it. Still, it'd be cool... heh

Anyhow, if you like to Make stuff, be sure to check out Instructables, and in particular Sockmasters contributions. The LED indirect light project is one I've already got several uses for and have started putting together to light bookcases and my wife's makeup stand. Very cool stuff!

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Becker CoCo 3 FPGA Nearly Complete

2007-07-26T22:46:00.001-05:00

Exciting news for CoCo fans everywhere! Gary L Becker has nearly completed his implementation of a CoCo 3 in an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). See it and get the technical details here:

coco3fpga

Mr. Becker says he'll be releasing the code to program an FPGA via the GNU General Public License, which means that soon, those inclined will be able to build their own CoCo 3 using this technique. He also posted information to the maltedmedia CoCo list about the board he used. It's available here:

Digilent Inc. - Digital Design Engineer's Source

This opens up a world of possibilities for developing the CoCo in hardware. Very cool stuff. Check it out!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

CoCo Group on MySpace

2007-07-22T19:55:00.001-05:00

Nemo has started a CoCo group on Myspace.

http://groups.myspace.com/colorcomputer

While there's certainly a spam factor on MySpace, I've never had much trouble. Plus it's fun to play with. heh... Only a couple of users so far, so join in!

No CoCo news or updates, but I got a new PC! :)

2007-07-18T00:43:00.001-05:00

I surfed around CoCo-land a few days ago, and actually for the last few weeks, and just haven't really found anything interesting to write about. And alas, that damn Harry Potter has been eating up all my time of late. Being a bookseller by trade, I suppose I do have to prepare for the biggest fargin' book release in history. But it really cuts into my CoCo time.

On the pimping front, I did manage to get the 6309 socketed in the GlowCo, but it wouldn't fire. Pretty sure I botched a connection, so I'll have to go back through all 40 and figure out which one(s) a goofed. I suck at soldering almost, but not quite as, bad as I do at desoldering. heh. On the other hand, I'm learning loads about the guts of the CoCo and electronics in general. Fun stuff. And handy, too. I wired up a cool LED wand for my HP costume. (Yes, I have to hold a giant party at the store, and yes, I have to go in costume. If you're in Tulsa, stop by! It's going to be a blast). CoCo stuff can lead and lend itself to all sorts of interesting things.

Mostly, though, I've been playing CoCo games. Pretty much anything and everything, which will be great for website updates, if I ever get around to doing that again.

I did buy a new PC, as well. Just a Dell out of the cheapseats, but considering it's the first new PC I've had in many, many moons, it seems pretty sweet to me. Nice big fat widescreen monitor, gobs of hard drive space. I actually like Vista, though I need to spend some time gutting out all the crap MS and Dell loaded on it. I know it has nay sayers, and saying you like an MS product is tantamount to heresy in the CoCo world... heh... but I'm enjoying the hell out of it. The CoCo is partially an MS product, after all.

Alas, it has no floppies (nor anyplace to hook one up) and no serial ports. So that means no DriveWire! Arg! From a modern standpoint, it simplifies the crap out of the thing. The machine is small, quick, and easy to use. From a retro-point of view, it's a nightmare. I suppose it's a good thing, though. I'll get an opportunity to try out how DriveWire works when run through a Serial-to-USB adapter. I'll letcha know how it works out.

Anyhoo... If you have any CoCo News, send it this way. There's not whole lot of action out there at the moment, but there's plenty of stuff in progress from what I can tell. If you'd like me to post an update on your projects, or any other CoCo announcement for that matter, drop a note to coco@clubltdstudios.com

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Lomont does 6309s

2007-07-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

Chris Lomont of lomont.org has obtained a batch of Hitachi 63C09EPs and is offering them up for sale at $20 a piece plus $8 shipping in the U.S. You can order them from his CoCo blog at http://www.lomont.org/Software/Misc/CoCo/

This is a great deal because these chips often go for $30 to $50 or more each! The 6309 is a replacement for the CoCo's 6809. The C version of the EP chip is perfect for pimping out a CoCo 3. This was the last revision of the part and can run at 3Mhz. (Although getting a CoCo to actually run at 3Mhz is a bit tricky, from what I've read so far.) The chip was also produced in A and B versions. This is a direct and fully compatible replacement chip for the Motorola 68B09EP that comes with the CoCo 3. The Hitachi part also includes optimizations and extra instructions that can speed up operation, with the right software, even without clocking the chip faster. NitrOS-9 even comes in a 6309 version. Serious soldering/desoldering skills are required to perform this upgrade.

Trivia: Did you know that Commodore made a 6809-based machine?!? Yup. The SuperPET 9000 was a duel processor machine that had both a MOS 6502 and a Motorola 6809 in the same box! Commodore almost got it right. ha!

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

New Edition CoCo Nutz! E-Zine

2007-06-10T18:57:00.000-05:00

Mary Kramer and crew have published the latest edition of CoCo Nutz! E-Zine. Now subtitled, "The Life and Time of the Color Computer." If that sounds familiar, that's because Steve Bjork is doing the typesetting and layouts. :) It's gorgeous. There are now two versions to download; a print version with much sharper graphics, and a screen version with lower res pics, but much smaller file size. The screen version is fine for reading through, but high speed users will probably want to grab the print version of the pdf anyhow. Big difference.

This issue, Vol.2 Iss. 2, is packed with CoCo Goodness. I still haven't read through everything yet, but highlights include an interview with Steve Bjork, an interview with Sockmaster (plus some bonus Sockmaster one liners), and a review of Sock's Donkey Kong by Briza. I'll run it down a bit more in tonight's Sunday CoCoist. But in the meantime, get ye to one of the sites below and get to reading this latest issue. Top notch and two big thumbs up!

http://coco.etechwds.com/coconutz/index.shtml
On Steve's Life and Times of The Color Computer site.

http://www.coco3.com
Kinda hard to find on coco3.com, scroll down to "Non Categorized Content" near the middle of the page. Back issues are available here as well.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

The Sunday CoCoist 5/27/07

2007-05-27T14:41:00.001-05:00

The Sunday CoCoist

[Date fixed 6/2/07. Wacky green bold text fixed. Oops. -CC] It's been two weeks, so what's up with the cheesy little post, you ask? Well, there really hasn't been a whole lot to comment on. heh! While there's plenty of CoCo Good Stuff rolling along out there in CoCo land, including the mentions in the last few Sunday CoCoists, it seems like everyone's quite busy off actually doing it! That, of course, is pretty darn exciting, as is. If I catch anything that breaks suddenly, though, I'll throw up a news post.

Inside the Evil Lab

Of course, I could be writing my own CoCo articles. Ahem. Tonight I'll be having a wee bit of CoCo quality time. With luck, on Wednesday I'll get into the lab and have some Pimpin' to report. Specifically, the 40 pin socket has been sitting there for three weeks just begging to be soldered onto the GloCo's board, an I haven't even looked sideways at it. Sigh.

I'm also going to try to get a bunch of those old tapes I've acquired of late onto floppies. Then try to whack 'em into shape to run properly on an RGB CoCo 3. Over on CoCo Downunder, they guys have an archive of games that have been patched already. I haven't had a chance to peek at them and the site doesn't list the contents, but it might be worth a look if there's one you need. A quick look at the archive doesn't reveal anything I recognize (maybe a Cuthbert game), but you'd really want to dig into the .dsk images. Go on, you know it'll be fun.

Anyhow, the tapes I have include old Hot CoCo Instant CoCo tapes, some utilities, and a game or two. Anything post-able will go up ASAP.

Updata

Randy posted an interesting article to the CoCo Downunder blog about Glen Dahlgren of Sundog fame. Good historical and chronological list of games and information about the man behind one of the most successful CoCo game companies. If anyone has any more information about Glen or his current whereabouts, be sure to email Randy.

While you're there, don't forget to stop by the downloads sections. More and more stuff being added all the time.

Darren A. has updated/added his CoCoDisk utility here: www.coco3.com/users/DarrenA/. The program runs under Windows and adds a GUI based method for making real CoCo disks on your PC. I couldn't test it, on account I don't have a floppy in my PC, but it looks pretty straight forward and easy to use. If you need to transfer files from your PC to your CoCo from .dsk images, this is just the thing!

Sites To See

This week I thought it would be interesting to browse a bit deeper into CoCo super genius Tim Lindner's site, called "frakendirary," at tlindner.macmess.org. Tim's site is primarily his personal journal, which is a good read and well presented using WordPress. Now my daughter's both want a Tinkerbell room, as well. Thanks, Tim. I love painting.

The CoCo aspect of the site, though, consists of several pages including some excellent technical resources for programmers and hardware hackers. There's information on how to copy the protected Diecom floppy disks, technical information on the Diecom Light Gun, and The Rat graphic system. Of particular interest is the extensive information Tim has written and collected about the Tandy Speech/Sound pak, including the difficult to obtain manual and technical reference.

Additional handy technical stuff include one page printout reference sheets, designed by Tim, on the 6309 and the CoCo's PIAs. There's also a reproduction of several Byte articles from 1979 about the creation of the shiny new 6809. Fascinating reading!

Tim's site is a great not because the volume of content, or attempt there of, but because what's there is complete and infinitely useful. You could spend months playing with this information and it is definitely a site every serious CoCoist should be checking in with regularly.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

PS Heh. I hit SAVE as draft instead of PUBLISH, so this one's late, too. Let's just make it a tradition. :)

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Buying Cars, CoCo Updates, and Other Fun Stuff

2007-05-22T18:47:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the lack of posts, folks. (Although the concern and emails have been greatly appreciated, and no I'm not dead or incapacitated. heh!) My old Ford Escort finally died a horribly death and I've been stressing and scrambling through the process of buying a new car. Which, by the way, is a wholly evil and mind numbing experience. Sheesh! Just looking and price bickering took a four freakin' days! Anyhoo, that's about over...

CoCo-wise, there hasn't been too much to report, though I urge everyone to keep up with the V.R. CoCo 4 project. No website yet, but the message board at coco3.com is a good place to keep tabs for now. Hopefully we'll see some designs, code and testing soon. Should be a blast! I did pick up a few bits for The Sunday CoCoists, which will be back at it's irregularly scheduled time next week. Probably. :) And I'm prepping a CoCo Collector post for late tonight.

I haven't gotten to get on my CoCo for a week. I know, horror, right? It's hell believe me. But I did steal a couple of minutes to start cleaning up the GloCo's main board where I'd unassed the 6809 and will hopefully get a shot at soldering in the socket for 6309. This will be the B version (2 Mhz) for now, but I'm looking forward to trying it out with NitrOS-9 and anything else I can dig up that will use the chip's advanced features. Also, have to locate (or upgrade) an MPI soon, so that's on the list. Of course, since I just sold my soul to the bank for the next three years, we'll have to see on that one. heh... More as it develops.

Tune in and Stay tuned!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

5/13/07 The Sunday CoCoist

2007-05-13T19:55:00.000-05:00

The Sunday CoCoist

May 13th, 2007

Shall The CoCo C?

Chris Lamont has updated his CoCo page to include a 6809/6309 based disassembler. His work is a step toward building a C/C++ compiler for the CoCo 3, as reported earlier. Also included are his thoughts on the project, pointing out that the compiler would most likely be a C with some C++ like features. Also as reported, this is all way over my head. heh! But it's also terribly exciting. To see just how far over my head, check out this thread on coco3.com's message forums.

Besides the technical details, however, the development Chris is doing is hugely significant. For a lot of CoCoists, yours truly included, being able to punch out some C++ code easily, in say Visual Studio, would be a massive boon. Many potential CoCo programmers wouldn't even need to learn a new language. Having a modern C++ compiler would also lower the learning curve for many other programmers, at least a lot less than learning assembly. And plenty of applications and games could be ported to the CoCo much easier. The amount of quality software for the CoCo would explode!

Keep your fingers crossed and send extra brain cycles Mr. Lamont's way.

V.R. CoCo Reality

Yup, more on the V.R. CoCo 4. Mainly because the more I hear about it, the better it sounds. Steve Bjork posted a "back on track" message to the coco3.com message board that goes a long way toward solidifying, in my mind at least, what this is all about. He also took time to answer some specific questions. As mentioned last time, I'm really interested in a new CoCo 3. Or rather, a way to build an old one. As Steve mentions in his post, eventually these old machines aren't going to work anymore. Vintage disks and disk drives, and the CoCo 3 hardware itself, are already past their working life span (about 20 years). The electronics in a well maintained CoCo 3 could last quite a bit longer, of course. But eventually...

So having a CoCo 3 replacement that uses modern components is a pretty good idea. The V.R. CoCo project's idea is: Why not upgrade it a bit while we're at it? Why not build it around an extensible system as well? Sounds like a good plan, actually. Read the threads and see what you think. It should be interesting to see how it develops.

Download of the Week

This week I'm going to give some snaps to the CoCo's little brother, the MC-10. Our link will point us to Charlie's MC-10 Files and Links. The site includes fun programs for the 10er by chazbeenhad, as well as an amazing Pac Man clone by Greg Dionne. Snag an MC-10 emulator while you're there. Did you know that there's a voice synthesizer and an Extended BASIC for the MC-10? Well, follow the links at this site and it shall be so. :)

Tune In & Stay Tuned!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

What?!? No Sunday CoCoist??? (Sorta)

2007-05-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, the timing is a little off this week. I really wanted to post a Sunday CoCoist, but the CoCo Collector reeeeally needed an update, and so did the main site. So Sunday I did the Collector, and updated the Price Guide, and tonight I did some on the website. Heh... So, theoretically and baring, oh, life in general, the plan is to have the Sunday CoCoist on Sunday and The CoCo Collector on Tuesday. These will be late night posts, and yes I'll miss occasionally. If I do miss, I'll try to post something. :)

Changes to the this blog, thus far, are re-adding the syndication feed. (I'll add the feed Collector tomorrow, too tired! But if you want it: The CoCo Collector Atom Feed.) The feed is via Atom's XML syndication feature. Most readers can read this format. If anyone wants it, I'll add RSS as well (might just do it anyhoo).

For those that aren't familiar with site syndication, let me 'splain. A syndication feed let's you pull the contents, or part of the contents, of a website to you. Usually, this is in the form of an abbreviated list of headers, labels, or headlines. You can then read the full article when you're ready. The benefit is, you don't have to keep jumping from site to site looking for updates. If the site has been updated, the update will show up in your feed list. If it hasn't, it won't. Easy. And handy. :)

Making this work is dirt simple. Two examples:

In Firefox, if the site is syndicated, you'll see an icon appear in the address bar. Click, select where you want the link to live in your booksmarks, and you're subscribed. From now on, whenever you mouse over that bookmark, you'll see a list of updates to that site/blog. Click and you'll get the whole article.

You can also feed the syndicated site to an aggregated feed collector. There are many available, both programs you host on your computer, and web based aggregators. I use My Yahoo, since it's my default home page anyhow. Now when I fire up my browser, for example, the latest updates from, say, Curtis Boyle's CoCo Games List site are listed nice and neat in a My Yahoo content box. So as soon as Curtis updates the site, I know it. You can do the same thing with the CoCo Hut blog, The CoCo Collector, Brain's CoCo/Model III Repak blog, etc. If you look to the right pane of this blog, under Blog Feeds, you see that THIS site is acting like an syndication aggregator! Fun, eh?

The point is that it's easier than ever to stay up to date with your favorite CoCo sites and blogs, as long as the authors are syndicating the sites via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom (an XML API used by google.com/blogger.com which can also do RSS).

If you're currently syndicating your CoCo site or blog via RSS or Atom, drop me a note with the feed URL. I'd love to feed it into this blog, and add it to my own list as well.

[Note: blogger's Add Site Feed feature seems to be down tonight, so I'll try to get more feeds added soon. Do send them in, though! They'll get it working again shortly.]

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

A little GloCo action

2007-05-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I wasn't going to post any more on the GloCo for awhile, but figured what the heck. Nothin' else going on at the moment. The reason for no Pimp My CoCo posts for awhile is pretty simple, by the way. I need the time and guts to attempt the 6309 upgrade again. heh. However, I would like to have some fun with the machine before I attempt to wreck it, so I went ahead and did the 512K thang on it.

This time, the upgrade took a whole three and half minutes. Seriously. If you haven't yet, do this. No excuses.

I thought this was interesting though, because for the GloCo's memory boost, I had to go retro. Really retro. A SIM based upgrade won't fit correctly. So I needed a flat, horizontally oriented board.

This is the PBJ 512K upgrade, one of the first third party boards available in 1986. Yeah, it's pretty much ancient. It's nice, though because it's flat and it fits nice and snug against the RF box there. Doesn't get in the way of the keyboard. Most important for this project, it's low. It does however, run as hot as a firecracker. The fan was definitely a good idea. As it is, with the power transformer out, the fan will blow straight across the memory board. Perfect.

Of course, we have to test the board and make sure all those ancient chips are still good. The proper way to do that would be to run a cyclic memory test on it, such as the one that comes with Cloud-9s 512K SIMM upgrade. But naw, that's the old way. The new way to test a 512K upgrade is...

DONKEY KONG! :D

I made sure to test this for a good half hour, just to be sure. And that monkey just really pisses me off sometimes. He must be destroyed! heh.

This is probably a pretty good test of the memory, though. Sock Master's Donkey Kong conversion/emulator really gives the system a workout.

By the time I was done playing, you could have cooked an egg on that memory board. And that was with the top off.

The CoCo never glitched, though. Not once. Go GloCo, go GloCo, go GloCo!

I did, of course, let the proper memory test run for awhile. A-OK. And fired up NitrOS-9 again, which was more a test to make sure I put the 40-track drives back together (the NitrOS disks are 40-track) properly. Another A-OK.

More soon (er or later). :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

4/29/07 The Sunday CoCoist

2007-04-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

The Sunday CoCoist!

This edition of The Sunday CoCoist is either early, or really late. heh! I have to work all night Sunday, and alas it one of those must be done things. So I'm starting this on Saturday night, but it might not get posted until Monday night. On with the show...

In Your Face(book)

Derek Snider and James "RC" McNary have created a Color Computer Facebook network. As I write this, it already has ten members and a nice photo gallery going. Facebook is a great way to network with other people, without the flash, ads, and annoying bits of some other people network sites. Yet another way to join up with other CoCoists!

A New Compiler?

From the oh-man-yes! file, there's an interesting thread on coco3.com's message board about choosing an assembler. In it, Chris Lomont, who I've profiled here before, mentions the possibility of doing a full blown, modern C++ compiler for the CoCo. While development would take place on the PC, it could potentially compile to highly optimized 6809 code and perhaps even output to a dsk image. Something like this would launch CoCo development about 20 years forward. :)

Downloads O' The Week

Militant Buddist recently posted the Diecom collection archive (originally put together by Briza), so I thought it was a great time bring up his site. While there's plenty of good reading about CoCo's here, there's also a 12MB CoCo download packed full of magazines, games, adventures, edutainment and just about anything else you could want. It is a pile big enough to keep any CoCoists happy for months. Download the Diecom archive as well and you may not get back to your PC for awhile.

CoCo On the Brain - The CoCo 4

Okay, this is the IMHO part. Thought we could try out an opinion section of this post and see how it flies. This week I've been thinking a lot about a the CoCo 4 and the VR CoCo project.

Starting with the "let me be frank" part, I really don't have much interest in a CoCo 4. I like CoCos. The last Color Computer built was the 3 from Tandy. That's it for the CoCo. Anything past that isn't. My personal interest is in those vintage machines, the TRS-80 and Tandy Color Computers. The odd little box with the green screen is it for me.

That said, I do think that a project to build a new system inspired by the CoCo, and even maintaining at least some compatibility and features with the old machines, is a wonderful idea. It's a fabulous endeavor from a hobbyist perspective. Seeing it built would be exceedingly cool. A fast, self contained, built it, program it yourself box that does CoCo-like things, maintains the open spirit of the CoCo, and is built by a like minded community could be a huge deal. Why shouldn't the CoCo 4, or VR CoCo, or whatever it ends up being called, be the next open source hot item? Works for me.

To me, we already have a "CoCo 4," or at least a CoCo 3.5. You can build one yourself. Add mass storage, upgrade the display, add at least 512K (or more), pop in a 6309 and I say you're there. Add an OS upgrade, like NitrOS-9, and you've got a machine that's the same, but still vastly different than the machine we grew up with. Do so, and you've gone way beyond what Tandy intended for the CoCo.

One of the concerns about a CoCo 4 project, and one I share, is that it will take away development from the CoCo 3. There's still plenty to be done, and that can be done, with the CoCo 3. For example, just to take a personal recent interest, we have the wonderful and powerful operating system that takes an advanced degree to learn how to use. Okay, that's overstating a bit, but still, it could be easier. Why isn't NitrOS-9 used on every CoCo 3 by now? We have a few people who put a tremendous amount of work into this thing, did an amazing job making it work, and few people use it or develop for it. The community needs to step up and support it. How about a nice and simple interface, something like the old Norton Commander (NitrOS Commander?), to make operating NitrOS-9 a little easier?

Better programming tools would a boon. Why does it take so much searching and insider knowledge to locate a C compiler for OS-9? There should be a NitrOS BASIC. More people building hardware would be a great idea. Why can't we have a community designed 512K upgrade board, publish the plans and parts lists, and let folks build it themselves? And have half a dozen folks building and selling them to those that don't want to build it themselves? I'm not suggesting undermining the business of those who already offer such products, but let's face it, no one's going to get rich selling CoCo stuff. A 512K upgrade should be so common the cost should be negligible. 1 MB, 2MB and up boards should be premium items, of course. As should the software, hardware, and drivers to make use of them. So for some items, why not do it under some common license. Short of a lack of chips, why don't a dozen people offer 6309 upgrade services? Those are just examples, of course, but there's a lot of stuff like that still doable for the CoCo 3, particularly as community projects.

There are, of course, good reasons why some of the above aren't being done. I'm just saying they could be done. There are plenty of very smart people in the CoCo Community and they're out there doing some amazing things. Alone for the most part. Then there's a bunch of people who, like yours truly, don't have the technical knowledge to pull off some of those amazing things. But there's plenty we could do. Starting with massive support of what's out there already.

The CoCo 4 project is about bringing a bunch of like minded hobbyists together to create something new and exciting out of the Color Computer. I think that's great. But I also think there's plenty of excitement left in the ol' Tandy girl. As such, the CoCo 4 isn't so much about a new machine, but more about a call to action.

It's about getting involved with the CoCo community. It doesn't matter if you can program, understand 6809 machine code as a first language, or dream in binary. It doesn't matter if you don't know the difference between a diode and a dog biscuit, or are not quite sure which end of the soldering iron to hold. I can honestly say I am firmly in that category. But get in there and do something with, for and/or about your CoCo. Submit a game review or a one-liner to Mary's CoCo Nutz E-zine. Buy stuff from anyone selling new CoCo products. Write a blog. Join a chat. Post to the message boards. Write a goofy BASIC program and share it. Offer to scan documentation. Track down an author of an old program and get them to rerelease it. We need as many users as we do creators. But the users can't be the silent majority. Speak up and speak out! Get involved with the CoCo and the people that make it what it is today.

There may be a CoCo 4 eventually. And if so, I'll be the first in line to say hoorah. But to me, we're talking about the next generation Color Computer. A CoCo for the modern hobbyist. The CoCo has always been about the people who use it. The beauty of the design, more than any other 8-bit, is that it takes on the personality of the owner. A 6809 in a box, it's been called. You make the CoCo what you want it to be. If that's the case, then the CoCo 4 isn't in our future. It was done in 1986 and folks have been building it for over 20 years.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

Stinkin' Spammers, Part 2

2007-04-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

I think I ticked someone off... heh... :)

I sent out email to all registered users of the CoCo Hut message board, but here it is again just in case:

Unfortunately, some spammers got through to the board today and posted some, er, rather graphic pictures.  I sincerely apologize to anyone who stumbled into them before I could get them nuked.

The board IS completely safe (well, as safe as any phpBB board).  It won't execute scripts or anything like that, or anything that someone could use to compromise a remote computer.  If you see a message from someone who's name is not underlined (linked), those are the ones to avoid.  Shouldn't see those anymore, but just in case, that's how you can tell.  I have locked down the forums they got into, as well, and modified the scripts to stop the issue from happening again. 

Again, my apologies. If you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to write.

Basically, some porn got stuck in there. And it wasn't even good porn. Sheesh! I change the scripts a bit and added a phpBB update tonight. So it should be locked down. Posting a dirty picture or two, by the way, is about the worse thing they can do. No serious damage. But, if it offended anyone, I am truly sorry. Steps have been taken to purge this peril from our midsts. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Discuss this entry and its comments in The CoCo Hut Message Board!

The Sunday CoCoist 4/22/07

2007-04-23T00:44:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the first issue of the Sunday CoCoist.  No idea what this will be, or even if it'll continue (let me know), but I'm jazzed up on coffee and figure I might as well post something. :)

So let's start with a little stroll around CoCo-land and see what's up.  It's been a little quite on the ol' CoCo Front of late.  Things are cookin', though. So stay tuned.  Even still, there's some interesting stuff you won't want to miss.

First stop is Allen Huffman's blog.  Allen's blog is great because he's posting CoCoFest photos and videos, and it's a blast to go through them.  Now he's got more YouTube video of The Last Ninja up for viewing, as well as pictures from this year and last year's CoCoFest.  Allen's photo collection now contains CoCo conventions dating back to the 1994 AtlantaFest!  Let's see, there's also photos of the CoCo 3 prototype!  Also can't wait for Mary's Steve Bjork interview.  Did I mention I was an unabashed fan?  Well... there you go.  I hope Allen gets a chance to write up a little bit about some of this stuff and add some captions, of course, but just flipping through the photos is a blast.  Awesome and you'll probably spend a whole evening there poking around.

As mentioned earlier this week, Curtis Boyle has done some extensive updating on The CoCo Games List site.  Also included is an RSS feed, which means it's even easier now to stay up to date and feed the CoCo games addiction.  I mention the games list Curtis maintains a lot, but I should also point to the main site at http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/ since there's plenty of CoCo Goodness there as well, including the original Radio Shack CoCo 3 demo!

Over at CoCo Downunder, there's an interesting entry from Randy recounting some of the history and rumors surrounding Diecom and Dave Dies.  Excellent and fascinating reading. You'll also want to be browsing their recently updated download section for piles of CoCo fun. :)

I should probably add a rant or a ramble in here, but alas, it's bed time and I must work in the morning.  So, I'll come up with some good ranting for next week.  Both barrels.  Ha ha!  Okay, maybe we'll just do another news round up... but it'll be something. :)

Angel's Luck,

Capt

Very Little Pimpin' But Some Progress

2007-04-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a ton of time to work on the CoCo mod, on account I apparently have to do yard work, repair fences, clean the garage and such. Geez. Oh, and I finally got around to putting up some peg board in the workshop to hang some of the growing collection of tools. Ever notice how something little makes a world of difference? That's what peg board is like. It's not hard to hang. Just a pain in the ass doing it by yourself (hold the peg board up with one hand, screw it to the frame with the other... gah!), so it's a put it off thing. I should have done it a year ago. Anyhow, score one for the life is easier, dept.

Here's some more shots of things in progress. I did finally land a CoCo 3 to use the board out of for the GloCo, since I trashed the original one trying to unass the 6809. True, I'll probably trash this one too, but I got it cheap, so... Okay, let's keep our fingers crossed I can get the job done. While we're at it we'll do a quick CoCo 3 break down. And fire it up to make sure everything works.

For those that already know all this stuff, skip it. Just haven't done a break down article in a long time, so figured since I had the pics, I'd run one. Not a lot of detail here, but the point is to encourage more folks to take the plunge.

First step is to remove all the screws from the bottom of the case. One of them is located under the warranty seal. Punch right through and pop that sucker's cherry.

It helps to turn the case on it's side like this while you're unscrewing the screws. Do one screw at a time and dump it into your hand. A magnetic screwdriver will also work, if you prefer. (You can do it with a regular screwdriver. Just give a sharp smack on the edge of your work bench. It'll magnetize the crap out of it. Consider that you'll need an electro-magnetic coil or demagnetizer to return it to normal.)

After dumping the screws out, save them in a safe place. Dixie cups work nice, those little electronics tubes are handy, or put 'em in an envelope. You'll also want to note that the front screws are shorter than the back screws. But sure to use the right ones in the right place when reassembling.

That screw driver, by the way, is probably the best powered one I've ever owned. It's a Kobalt Lithium-Ion little guy I picked up at Lowe's. It's light, comfy and has just the right amount of torque. Not enough to strip the threads, but just enough to loosen most normal screws. And runs for a long time on a single charge so, unlike many cordless tools that are only good for short projects, you can use this screwdriver a lot. Very nice, highly recommended.

This board was pretty clean, but dusty. A little canned air takes care of that nicely. This is Velocity brand from Radio Shack. You can get canned air cheaper if you shop around a bit, but hey, I was there. Thing about canned air is, if the outside says it won't cause condensation or leak water, it's a) full of shit and b) full of shit. Use it in short bursts and don't tip it more than 30 or 40 degrees, or it'll wet itself.

Here's another one of those easy but do it slow and steady operations. Remove the flat keyboard cable by lifting the keyboard up, off it's posts, and down a little. Then gently pull the cable out of the socket. They stick a bit sometimes, so use two hands and wiggle it just a smidgen, if needed. The plastic cable is fairly tough, but it will rip if mishandled.

Then unplug the power transformer from the board. You might need to use a flathead screwdriver to very gently pull back on the clip that holds the plug in.

The rest is pretty straight forward. Remove all the screws holding the main board down. There's two over by the pak slot that have to come out and two little brackets you'll want to save. Also note that there are two copper clips at the bottom of the board. These being the keyboard grounds. You'll want to keep those as well. The transformer has two screws holding it down. Just be sure to grab and lift it low cause the top cage will come off when you lift. I didn't take pictures of all this on account I figure we've already got enough pictures of me unscrewing things.

For now, I've installed the original CoCo power transformer in the GloCo. This will do until I get up the guts to convert it to the PC power supply. Still not entirely clear on how that works, but we'll throw the whole thing off that bridge when we get to it. There's actually nothing wrong with the CoCo's transformer, it just won't power anything else (easily).

Here it is all put together. Step the next is easy. Install the 512K upgrade board. The step after that is not too easy. Upgrade the microprocessor. Looking forward to giving it another try, though. I learned a lot in the last attempt, and have since gotten a few more pointers from some clever folks that actually know what they're doing, so I'm cautiously optimistic. :)

Here it is up and running. This was actually an important test, because I needed to know if the fan, power boxes, and lights would cause any interference. They don't. If they had that would have seriously sucked.

The drives are up and running too, which was the other major accomplishment. They're 5 1/4" 40-track, double sided 360K drives hooked up to a 26-3129 controller. Currently, they're crammed into an old FD-501 case. I'll need to find a Disk BASIC compatible DOS to run them to their full potential temporarily. NitrOS-9 works nicely with them, though. Still can't get the top drive to format or DSKINI, but they do everything else including load, save, copy, backup, etc. That's good enough for now. The goal is to replace the top drive with a 3 1/2" eventually, anyhow.

So, this will probably be the last Pimp My CoCo update on this project for a little while. I'll do another post when the upgrades are in place and running. Though, if anything interesting comes up, I'll post before then. At this point, the goal is to get the thing running so I can start using it. Then we'll house the drives, power supply, VGA adapter and all that other stuff in a nice, painted case. Also need to upgrade an MPI and paint it black for use with this guy as well. Plenty to do, but at least there's some light peeking out at the end of the tunnel. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

CoCo Downunder Downloads!

2007-04-20T22:30:00.001-05:00

If you haven't popped by CoCo Downunder lately, get thee there in a quick! Briza, David, Randy and Bob have added piles of great CoCo software including apps and games for download. Great stuff. Rare stuff you won't see anywhere else. Tis true CoCo joy. They've also started a OS-9 downloads section that contains stuff that might actually even get me to get serious about the OS. ;)

Hit it here:

Coco Downunder

Angel's Luck,

Capt.

Note: This post was edited on 4/21/07 to update and add a correction. See Comments.

@#$&*#ing Spammers

2007-04-20T21:36:00.000-05:00

We now break from our regularly scheduled CoCo-loving for a quick word from our maintenance department:

All spammers must die.

Thank you.

I've spent the last couple of days fighting off an attack to my email accounts. Sigh. After 6000+ spams in 24 hours, I finally had to break down and turn on the servers spam filters. I use Yahoo Small Business Internet Services and their SpamGuard is actually pretty good. I just like to have all my mail and deal with it myself. heh.

Anyhow, I had to turn on the spam filters and ramp 'em up to the most aggressive level. As of right now, all legitimate mail I was able to snag has been answered. If you haven't had a response from me (and are expecting one) please drop a note here (hit comment below) and let me know. I'll get it fixed and email you right back.

And to my lovely secret spam admirer: I've tracked where you're broadcasting from, I know it's out of this country... but someday I will be ripping both your arms off and make you eat them. In the meantime there's a little surprise waiting for you at your hub connection. Enjoy figuring that one out, you @#$&*er. Have a nice day.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Wintermute tips the Hut

2007-04-19T23:15:00.001-05:00

Blog Tipping.  Love it.  Haven't heard that one before, but then again I don't read a lot of blogs that aren't about CoCos. :)  Wintermute was kind enough to give The CoCo Hut, Brian's CoCo/Model III Repak blog, and David and Briza's CoCo Downunder a mention on his April 2, 2007 entry.  You can read it here:

Blogtipping for April 2007 - Wintermute's Blog

Many thanks, amigo, and glad you like it. 

As for the posting frequency he tips, well... I'll work on it.  See, if I picked a regular posting frequency I'd never hit it.  And then I'd be all in fits trying to get caught up.  And then it wouldn't get done because I'd lock up.  And then...   Okay, I'll try. :)

I think one way to do a regular entry would be having a regular column of sorts.  The Comments just kind of pop up when they stick and my head WHILE I happen to be sitting at the computer (see previous post on ATTR command).  Clearly, those aren't planned.  News when it occurs, of course.  Can't help that.  Pimp My CoCo is contingent on me actually getting out in the Evil Lab and actually working on it.  (Sans little girls running around while I'm using power tools and electricity.  Bad combination.)  So...

Two off the top my head thoughts.  First, I could go back to doing a regular CoCo history post.  I use to this in the old CoCo Collector and it always went over big.  This would be me picking something pretty much at random (whatever strikes my fancy at the moment... yes, I have a fancy... shuddap) and posting everything I come up with. Another similar concept would be posting about a particular aspect of the CoCo, like BASIC command of the month, or hack of the month, or something like that.  Couldn't promise that more than once a month, but I could pick a due date and mostly stick with it.

The second would be a weekly CoCo Roundup.  I did this a bit early on, but it never got a lot of responses.  And when I quite, no one noticed.  Course I'm pretty sure there were only two readers at the time, and one of them was my wife (who has since lost complete interest).  I'm pretty sure there's at least four readers now.  Well, apparently five.  :)  Anyhow, that could be done, say, late Sunday nights for posting every Monday.  It involves me hitting certain sites, message boards, mailing lists and google searches and just yammering about what comes up.

Regardless, drop a note this way and let me know if something more regular like the above, or anything else for that matter, would be of interest.  Just hit the comment link below, or email this way.

And thanks again to Wintermute for the mention!  While you're over there, be sure to read through the rest of his posts.  Great stuff on technology, implications and how to use it (and not).  I can sympathize. heh...

Angel's Luck,

Capt.

discuss this post (and other CoCo Goodness) in the CoCo Hut Message board!

Color Computer Games page does RSS

2007-04-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

L. Curtis Boyle has been busily adding tons of new game listings to:

Tandy (TRS-80) Color Computer Games

He also has The Last Ninja screen shots and movies shot by Allen Huffman at CoCoFest.  Great stuff!  Keep your fingers crossed that we'll see this game sometime soon.

More important, though, Curtis has added an RSS feed to the page.  Now you can get the updates as they occur via your RSS reader (I recommend Firefox, of course. heh!)  Great stuff and two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Another interesting bit is the edition of an Author Index and a Timeline index.  While these aren't entirely complete yet, they make fantastic additions to the site and aid in historical research as well.

Just this month, Curtis has added tons of downloads and author collections.  If  you need games to play on your CoCo, there's more here than you could get to in a lifetime.  Kudos and thanks to Curtis!

Angel's Luck,

Capt.

Stop in the CoCo Hut Message Board to discuss this site and others!

The ATTR command, Or a pretty good Microware joke

2007-04-18T18:02:00.000-05:00

I've been resolved for some time to post more entries about actually, you know, using the CoCo. Then I get distracted with things like building 'em and collecting 'em and writing about 'em and making web sites about 'em. That's great, of course. Sharing is part of the experience. But I still need to make more of an effort to post stuff about using our beloved machine.

So the other night I'm floundering about on the keyboard, as I am wont to do as I am having no particular programming skill to speak of, and I decide I need a snazzy title screen for the game I'm failing to get put together. When you hit a brick wall in the programming department, it's always a good idea to have a backup plan. Like, say, making it purdier. I'm pretty sure all opening/title screens for programs come about this way.

Game Developer: So, um, how do we do that?
Game Programmer: I dunno.
Game Developer: Well, we're getting paid for making games, you know, so we should, um, do something.
Game Programmer: We could make a really pretty title screen and opening graphics?
Game Artist: You should make a spinning 3D logo with lightning bolts shooting out of it.
Game Programmer: Um, yeah, well, that would really be....
Game Developer: There, see, that's perfect! Let's do that!
Game Programmer: But I'm pretty sure it would take longer than....
Game Developer: Great! Now do we start with the logo or the lightning bolts?
Game Artist: [grinning evilly] I'm going to get a soda.
Game Programmer: Bast...

This is also why most games are delayed several months, or even years. The opening title sequences are actually more difficult to do than the game. David Letterman once said, "Sometimes something worth doing is worth overdoing." That's my motto.

All I really wanted to do was have some colored text display the game title, credits, and notices on a black background. To snazz it up a bit, I though the text should be different colors for each line. The game is only in SG6 mode, so we don't want to go overboard.

Okay, yeah we do.

So there's the standard reversed video method, but you don't get different text colors that way. On the other hand, the 40/80 column modes can have different background/foreground colors. That would work. Though I should also look at printing it on the HSCREEN and that way I could add graphics later, if so inclined.

So HSCREEN sucks. The enhanced video modes of the CoCo 3 are great, but accessing them in BASIC is not really practical. I'm sure there's something one could do with it, but mostly it's so slow it blows. Yes, it blows and it sucks. So there.

That left the 40/80 column "hi-res text screen" mode. They have their own suckiness, but they're good enough. (As far as Color BASIC goes, those enhanced modes and screens have a serious "tacked on" feel to them.) Except that now I have to mess about with the ATTR command.

To be fair, using ATTR isn't that tough. The command uses PALETTE slots 8-15 for the foreground and 0-7 for the background. (Why are they backwards? Why not 0-7 for the foreground, which is specified first in the command? I'm sure there's a technical explaination revolving around how the CoCo is setting the bits, but still... sheesh!) Easy enough, but some doofus stuck the weirdest ass default colors in the default foreground selection. They go: black, green, black, buff, black, green, black, orange. Huh? It's like whoever did that part of the code said, "Ha! This'll be funny! Who needs text other than black, green, buff and orange anyhow! Bwahahahaha!" Or maybe it was, "Hurry, dude! The suits from Tandy are here!"

The background colors, by the way, follow the normal generic 8 color scheme. Go figure. To fix it, you have to reload the ATTR foreground pallette slots, 8 through 15, with the correct colors. Thus, one must dig out the old color chart, or make one, and look up each generic code and then load the PALETTE with the correct value. Can you say, Pain In The Ass? I thought you could.

So you do one of these:

100 FOR X=8 TO 15
110 READ C
120 PALETTE X,C
130 NEXT X
140 DATA 0,18,54,9,36,63,31,38

The DATA statements are the colors I selected. Notice that I substituted orange (38 in slot 15) for magenta. Green would normally start at slot 8 (yellow in 9, etc.) and orange would be in slot 15. I wanted black in slot 8 so that black-on-something-text would work as well. Also ATTR 0,0 to get black on black. I have my reasons. :P

While I'm bitching, why blink and underline? The ATTR command has two switches, B and U, that allow these two attributes to be applied to your text. e.g. ATTR 2,2,B would blink. Why? Because other 8-bits at the time could do that? Because no one ever used those features on other 8-bits? Meaning CoCo users would? Italic and bold would have been more handy.

Now, granted, most people are going to change the colors anyway. There are plenty of colors in the CoCo's palette that look great for title screens. Some are very high contrast (which is why you see them in games so often) and look very nice. But there should be a base set, and it seems to me the base set should be the standard colors (green, yellow, blue, red... etc.) I know, I know. Nag, nag, nag.

Anyhoo, now I've got my fancy title and instruction screens, which are probably longer than the actual game program. heh. The title flashes colors by rotating the PALETTE. There's sound, there's dancing girls, there's 3D spinning dervishes, it's a true multimedia experience, let me tell ya. (Editor's Note: Not really.) Still, it took a lot longer and a lot more effort than it should have. Once you get the hang of it, you can make some pretty cool text effects, and some nice looking screens, with ATTR. But it's kind of a pain, anyhow.

At least the title screen is done. Drat, now I actually have to go back to programing the game.

Maybe it needs a save score to disk feature. Hmmm... yeah, that would kill some time and a ton of unnecessary bytes. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Look Ma, A Site Update

2007-04-13T23:42:00.000-05:00

I have, of course, been a bit lax in updating the website proper. As I've said before, blogging is just so damn easy, it's more efficient to post here than make up a new web page. But... there is something more permanent and more thorough about a web site. A blog entry and a proper web page both have their place and purposes. Anyhoo...

I did a bit of updating to the web page. The front page is something I've been messing about with for awhile. I've also been playing with a whole other system of doing web sites, called php-nuke, which is pretty cool as well, but would require quite a few people to maintain. If I push that project any further, I'll letch'all know. In the meantime, most of the formating is done for the CoCo Hut, and I just need to methodically go through and update the pages and add the new content.

And boy is there content. I've got tons of pictures and half assed articles done. I'm hoping to get to spend I little time each week, over the next few months, updating everything and adding stuff in. Drop in occasionally, take a look around, and let me know what ya think. You can post a comment here, pop into the CoCo Hut Message Board, or drop me email at captcpu@clubltdstudios.com.

And if there's something specific you'd like to see, drop a note and I'll see what I can do!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

DK A Hit!

2007-04-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

The consensus is in! 100% of little girls under the age of seven in my house say Sock Master's Donkey Kong conversion is a hit. (Hey, if Al Gore can claim a consensus on "global warming" I can claim a consensus with a test set of two little girls. heh!)

DK is a huge hit here!

In other CoCo goings on at the Evil Lab, I'm gathering materials to do the electronics work on the GloCo but have questions. I've also embarked on another game project. I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed, but if it works it'll be absolutely... er... odd.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Allen Huffman blog, last ninja, and CoCoFest

2007-04-02T23:24:00.001-05:00

Not only does Allen Huffman (of Sub-Etha Software) have a blog up now (woo hoo), but he's also posted tons of pics and a movie of The Last Ninja, the long lost game Steve Bjork showed at CoCoFest 07. Also posted are some pictures of this year's CoCoFest! Hope over and have a look:

Blog

Update: YouTubed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je9UsL1Ai54

Very cool. Really want to play that game! :)

Armchair CoCoFesters

2007-04-01T23:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe "fester" isn't the best word. Still, those that couldn't attend the CoCoFest in Chicago managed to congregate in the coco3.com chat room and were treated to some great times. Rumor at this early date is that a lot of folks took video and pictures at the Fest. Hopefully we'll be seeing those soon, and I've course I'll link them here as I come across them.

The big announcement, of course, was SockMaster's "translation" of the original Donkey Kong to the 6809 CoCo. The Donkey Kong arcade machine was originally run on a Z80 processor. SockMaster has all the technical bits on his website. What was great about it was the anticipation and build up to the release. Lots of CoCoists, lots of excited CoCoists. The CoCo community really needs to do this sort of thing more often!

http://www.axess.com/twilight/sock/dk/index.html

On Sunday, we got word that Steve Bjork was there (yes, THE Steve Bjork) and had all sorts of goodies. The main one that made everyone's eyes pop was an unfinished version of The Last Ninja. This game was done for other systems, but never finished for the CoCo 3. Alas, Tandy had too tight a deadline and by the time Steve got to it, it was too close to the deadline to finish. Is it possible it could get finished now? Stay tuned. And check out Steve Bjork's CoCo site at:

http://coco.etechwds.com/

Apparently there was a forum about creating the CoCo 4 and a project was started along those lines. This would be a "VR CoCo 4" with super enhanced graphics capabilities and other goodies. Stay tuned for more on this project as it develops.

Briza and I logged some of the chats. While unedited, they are currently living at:

http://clubltdstudios.com/files/coco/cocofest07/

Some great reading in there if you can wade through. If not, wait for the edited versions. ;)

There's been a bit of controversy of the last year regarding attendance at the Fest, versus folks that just want to (or have to) armchair it. I won't get into that here. :) But I will say that this "Fest" brought more CoCoists online and in contact with each other than anything else over the last couple of years. As I write this, there's still a large crowd in the coco3.com chatroom discussing lost games, the coco 4, and other CoCo items. There's even people just bantering. It's a Good Thing. We need more of this... if we can have a VR CoCo, then we can certainly do more things together for VR CoCo gatherings!

Give the chat a try. Give a message board a shot. Post something. Just sit and chit chat. But get out there and show your CoCo Love!

Angel's Luck,
Capt

The GloCo :)

2007-04-01T22:14:00.000-05:00

Brian dubbed this the "GloCo" which I thought was pretty cool. Here's the lit pictures with the black paint. Decals are vexing me at the moment, but it's mostly getting them to print right, which is easy enough to work out. Just gotta have time to do it. In the meantime, a few new pics of the GloCo.

Long Lost CoCo Game: The Last Ninja

2007-04-01T13:38:00.000-05:00

Another CoCoFest hot release! :) These are pics of a long lost OS-9 game called The Last Ninja, brought to the Fest by Steve Bjork... more later on this one later. :)

Bjork at CoCoFest

2007-03-31T19:29:00.000-05:00

Armchair CoCofesting here, live from the coco3.com chat room. Sigh. So far details have been scant, which means everyone is probably having a great time. :)

Earlier, SockMaster spent a lot of time in the chat talking up details of his amazing Donk Kong emulator for the CoCo 3. Fabulous. That's the big news this weekend, so far. And of course, a lot of the folks there have been pretty much playing it all day. I seriously couldn't belive the CoCo was doing that. heh!

There was a lot of chatter about doing more CoCo ports of old arcades. Hopefully, Sock's effort with inspire plenty more!

Roy stopped in this evening to share a few details. Alas, the webcam didn't go up... yet. Still a possibility of it going live at some point. maybe. Regardless, some of things he mentioned:

* A lot of video and pictures being taken, so hopefully we'll see some of those after the Fest.
* Steve Bjork is there. Yeah, that Steve Bjork. He brought a lot of stuff from the early and even pre-CoCo days including the Electric Crayon for the Model 1 and some of the original development disks for some of this games (including Zaxxon). Very good stuff.
* Mary video interview Steve. Can't wait to see that!!!
* Roy got a real life hug from Mary. :)
* He reports about 100 people (roughly) there, which would make it one of the bigger CoCofests recently.

Plenty of interesting chat going on and can't wait to hear more about the Real Fest activities! Unedited logs (what Briza and I could snag) of the chats will be up later.

That's it for now, but tune in and stay tuned.

Angel's Luck,
Capt

SockMaster Goes Kong On Your CoCo

2007-03-31T12:56:00.000-05:00

As CoCofest 2007 gets underway, it has kicked off witha HUGE bang! Master of the impossible on a CoCo, SockMaster, has done it again. This time, it's Donkey Kong on a the CoCo 3. But not just a translation, but the actual arcade being "emulated" ON THE COCO 3! In otherwords, it's the real thing.

I've been playing with it for about 10 minutes and to say it's amazing would be understating the matter a bit. I'll have more on this game later, and the implications, of course. Fest news as it comes up as well. And a log of some the chats from CoCo3.com later in the week.

Download Sock's latests master piece here:

http://www.axess.com/twilight/sock/dk/

If you haven't yet (and you're not in Chicago) pop by coco3.com to join the fun!

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Solid Black: The New CoCo Color

2007-03-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, back on track with the original intent of this project. The main purpose was two fold. First, to paint the case in a nice professional manner and jazz it up a little bit, including adding a light kit. Second, to do some basic electronic modifications to update the system a tad. I'll post on the latter as it continues to develop. Talk about a learning curve!

Modifying the case turned into some serious experimenting with a material I hadn't worked with much. I'd done small plastic on models and miniatures plenty of times, of course. Most of that work, however, can be done with a standard Exacto knife, a micro file set and a small pin vise. I learned quite a bit about making holes in plastic at high speed (see previous post). heh! :)

The painting and detailing part, however, is the part where I can have a little more of a free hand for fun. I'm on more familiar ground here. Solid black isn't my favorite case color, but there's a good reason why it's so popular. When done right, it looks great. The only downside is, black tends to show dust more than some other colors do. Black works well with two-tone applications as well. For example, I strongly considered (but discarded for this project) doing black and silver on this case.

The solid black look, though, isn't as easy to pull off as it first seems. I've seen a LOT of spray and hand painted cases. Getting any color to look right takes a ton of work. Black is no less tricky. Traditionally, for a professional look, you would use a finishing system like that used to do auto-body work. You sand/prep, primer, paint, buff, paint, buff, paint, buff, finish, buff, finish, buff, and then final finish. Seriously. In that order. It's a HUGE amount of work and the slightest mishap, dust being the biggest culprit, can force a do over.

I was all prepared to do that, though to slightly lesser extent. Molded plastic is a bit more forgiving than metal, as far as paint jobs go. But then I stumbled upon Krylon Fusion spray paint. I've written about this stuff before and I really can't rave enough about it. Stuff bonds with plastic. One or two coats and it really does look like it was molded in that color. Pictures just don't do it justice. Very cool stuff. Working with it is the same as using any other spray paint, but the results are nicer.

Step one is to clean the crap out of the case. All paint jobs start with this. Do it not and you'll see how mucked up it looks. A proper paint job should be as thin as possible. As such, any tiny defect, specks of dust, crud, or anything else will show up. Smooth and clean is what you want. NEVER try to cover a defect with paint. Tis a serious sin when painting. The rule: Use as little paint as possible to get the desired finish. Most of the work is done long before you apply a brush or press the trigger.

For painting plastic, an ammonia based cleaned is generally considered best. The ammonia cleans well and then evaporates leaving no residue. Non-ammonia based cleaners are better than they were 20 years ago, but most painters still recommend using one with. Another option I'm fond of a is Simple Green spray cleaner. Does a great job at cleaning about anything, it's non-toxic, biodegradable, and concentrated so you can mix the amount of cleaner you actually need. I was out, unfortunately, so I went with my second favorite cleaner, Clorox Cleanup spray cleaner. This bleach based cleaner works great on things that can take a little bleach. Don't use this on the old gray CoCos! Works fine on the CoCo 2 and 3 cases.

When spray painting, always be aware of your environment and potential for hazard. Wear a mask (this crap always gives me a head ache). Drop a cloth or newspaper down to keep it from marking your work area. Keep away from children and pets. Always paint outdoors or in a well ventilated area.

I went over using the Krylon paint last time. To sum up: light coats, broad strokes, let it dry. Drying time is 15 minutes to touch (give or take, depending on temp and humidity), 24 hours to set, and about 72 hours to finish. Once it's set in there, it's fantastic.

This is the satin finish. I like it, but it's still a bit shiny. After I apply the decals it'll need a dusting of Testor's Dull Coat anyhow, which will take out some of the shine. The keyboard, alas, will have to be "bullet proofed." That involves multiple finish coats of Dull Coat and Clear Coat to make a nice thick layer for pounding on to protect the decals. I'll cover that when we get there. The paint, however, doesn't need a finish. Pretty tough stuff once it sets.

Ideally, I would have built a paint box to put this in before spraying it. That helps protect it from dust and dirt when painting it outside. This can be as simple as a properly sized cardboard box. It was a nice, clear day with moderate wind (for Oklahoma), and it had just rained, so there wasn't a lot of dust blowing about. Every little scratch and defect shows up. Next time I'll use a nice, pristine CoCo case. This one had been through the ringer. I sanded it a bit and filled some of the bigger gashes, but it still shows a ding or two if you hold to the light the right way.

In the workshop it's hard to get proper shots of this case without catching a glare or a brown tint caused by the lighting. In person, neither is apparent. Still, here's some shots of the painted case. Just loving the all black look.

It's not as perfect as I would like, but it's close enough for this go around. :)

Here's a few of the pinup art images I'm considering for the logo that will adorn the left side of the case. Let me know which you like best. (NOTE: Some of these are "risque." Don't peek if you don't want to see 'em.)

.
.
.
.
.
.

The first is perfect nose art style, which is what I'm really going for. I'm concerned about having to use white decal paper. It's a pain on black. The second is perfect for the planned name of the machine, but no pink, please. Would have to change it to red in Photoshop. The third fits nicely for the "CoCo" image (she could be drinking cocoa!) but is a bit TOO risque perhaps. And yes, all computers a red heads. Seriously...

Next, decals, the keyboard, and some electronics bits... :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Let's make some holes!

2007-03-28T21:33:00.000-05:00

Holey Moley, Batman! Today we're going to talk about cutting holes in my CoCo's case. Why? Because I can. Bwahahaha! Ahem...

There's several methods to go about this:

Option 1. Go at it with a hobby knife. See also, Brian's post on the Model III/CoCo Repak blog. (Yeah, like I'm one to talk.) This will work, but it's slow going sometimes. If you try it, use a straight edge, wear nice leather gloves, and use a a VERY sharp knife. One of those thicker, heavier styles works best. Make shallow cuts, over and over and over, ad naseum.

Option 2. Use a hot knife. Never tried this, but should work pretty good on the CoCo's case. It melts real easy. :)

Option 3. Dremel!!!!

Being an unabashed fan, of course I went with option 3. Here's some shots (click 'em for the big 'uns) and thoughts on my various successes and failures with this method.

Setting Up

Standard safety disclaimer/notice. :)

I love this freakin' thing! This is the Black & Decker Workmate portable work bench and clampy thingie. (Don't quote me on the exact wording there. I threw away the box.) It is exceptionally light, so you can lug it anywhere, yet surprisingly sturdy and stable and it can hold up to 350 lbs. I've used it about a bajillion times since I picked it up at ACE hardware a month ago. The front board there moves on screw rods that shift it forward and back by use of the crank handles. Each end moves independently so that the whole thing can clamp strange angles (like the CoCo's molded case). Four movable blocks add additional blocking, fencing and jigging options. I'd love to have one about twice this size for even bigger projects (Take a look at the different models here. I'm thinking the 425 is definitely making the Christmas wish list.) This size, however, is perfect for hobby projects like this. Here I've got the CoCo clamped between the two clamping plates with a fence set against the blocks. The arse-end of the CoCo snuggles up against the fence, which gives the router a nice smooth edge to run against.

Here's a closer shot, sans router, after making the horizontal (to the bottom edge of the case) cuts. Note the nice straight cuts versus the rough vertical cuts. There's several ways to go about this task. I started with a free hand routing to clear the material away and then followed that with several passes using the edge guide. What I recommend, should you want to cut holes in your case, is to make a template. To do so would require a band or scroll saw, which alas I am without. (Never needed one before.) Make it out of 1/8" plywood. As we'll see below, a template would give much more control and prevent massive doofus moves like the several I managed, even with the edge guide attached. Grrr... ahem. In this shot you can see the angle of the back of the case, thus the necessity of the fence (see below).

The Dremel Router accessories is a lovely tool. The Dremel tool goes in the middle and screws down. A router bit is mounted in the chuck and you're pretty much good to go. The rail system underneath is for the edge and circle guides. This a plunge router and the right handle tightens it at depth. It won't replace a proper fixed or plunge router for, say, building a dresser or kitchen cabinets, but for small intricate work it does the job brilliantly.

The fence is there is to give the edge guide something to run against. The CoCo's arse is angled a couple of degrees, so you can't just run the edge guide along the back of the case, unless you want to recreate that angle, of course. You can, however, run it along the bottom for horizontal cuts. A small 1/4"X1/4" strip of wood would work better, but that random piece shown is all I had handy.

The Cutting Part (or, The Part with all the Cussing)

Wear safety goggles. Little bits of super heated plastic swirlies tend to go flying all over the place while routing the material out. I use a giant pair of goggles from a bad 50s sci-fi movie called Attack of the Fuzzy Headed Goggle Guy From Alpha Prime. You can get those fancy "Cheaters" that look like regular sunglasses and are probably more fashionable. Unfortunately, they aren't designed for us poor schmucks that haven't upgraded to contacts or laser eye surgery. You really have to get in close to see where you're cutting. As always with a rotary tool, a light tough is the best way to go. Routing with it is the same as any other application: Let the tool do most of the work. It's the speed not the pressure.

Here's a close up of the tool in action. Thoughts? Go slow and light. Keep light pressure against fence to hold the guide against it. Several times I caught myself pulling the tool off the fence. A second block clamped behind the tool might help, if possible. Run the tool in the direction of rotation. Doing so produces a smoother finish and a lot less chance the thing will jump on you. Take out material a little at a time. I found it best to take out about a 1/16" at time. An 1/8" worked as well, but the result required several passes. The fewer passes the better.

The round bit will produce round corners, of course. I like that look. Pretty neato. To get squared off corners, use a smaller bit or one designed to produce that effect. There are about 9.8 billion (roughly) Dremel routing bits available from various suppliers, like MicroMark. A small square file will also do the job, though with a considerable amount of elbow grease.

Much better. I did three more passes after this and took out more material and fixing the odd top angle and the corners. Came out nice and professional looking. This is the fan hole, by the way. A small 40mm fan will mount in there with a fan grill. Still need to find a grill, or make one.

When finished, I hit with some rally fine sandpaper (forgot the grit) to finish off the rough edges.

Now why make this hole so nice if it's just going to be covered
with a fan grill? Well, I wanted to try it on something that would be covered before having a go on at it on something that wouldn't be covered. Turned out I goofed the other hole anyway (see below), but it was still good practice. Once I have the grill worked out, all I need to do is drill a couple of small holes for the screws and lock the fan and grill in place.

So there I am, doing a pretty good job with the fence/edge guide method. Here's why I say use a template if you can. And why proper clamping is essential. See that nice weird shape there? That's where the whole CoCo slipped through the clamp because I was pressing down on the plunge router while it was running. Before I could get it shut off, the whole @#$@#ing thing cut a nice swath into the case.

So, I figured hey, let's see if we can do a shallow groove cut. Might as well... can't muck it up more than it already is. Ta-daa! A decorative groove! Ha ha! Ha... ahem. Actually, that was good experience, and now I know how to do it. But the experimenting made a horrible mess. Now, if I was smart, I would have use some putty to fill the error. Key word there is smart. At this point, the neighbors were coming out of their houses and looking over my way in a rather alarmed manner. Yeah, like they've never heard those words before. Okay, maybe not at the volume... :P So instead, I just cleaned it up, painted it and called it good.

The moral of the story here is, check your clamps carefully before you turn the tool on.

I know, I know.... Duh.

Extra Credit

Another shot of the CoCo clamped down in the Workmate. Seriously, this thing rocks. I clamped it in there several different ways, and as far as I can tell, it should hold the case nice and tight no matter what you need to do to it.

If you hadn't noticed: I love clamps. I go to the hardware store and ponder clamps all the time. I have tons of clamps. I've got springy clamps, stretchy clamps, screwy clamps, strappy clamps, clamps with arms, clamps with bungies, clamps with clamps... if they make it, I can clamp it. And if I can't, I'll go ponder clamps until I can.

Here's a couple of shots of the internal cuts. These were done with the Dremel tool and a cut off wheel designed for plastic and finished off with a light sanding bit. Nothing fancy and no a lot of care taken. It's not visible. The Color Computer is full of all sorts of molds, ridges, and such that make it tricky to get extra parts in there. Some of it is there to guide things. Other bits are in there as reinforcement for the case. Take care cutting those things out. Still other pieces don't seem to have any purpose at all. There's a round punch out, for example, in the upper left of the bottom of the case. What's that all about? I'm going to run the power through it, but still wonder what it was originally for. Anyhow, this cut was so the light bar will fit in properly.

This is where the power transformer use to sit. Makes a nice place to store extra bits like the light bar's transformer. The box was a little long, however, so I had to cut away some of the ridge that held the power supply. Same technique as above. The only caution I'd give is to, as always, use a light touch and make multiple passes. Press down and, at 10,000 rpm, the bit will melt right through the case!

To Review

To sum up, as far as making holes in your CoCo's case goes, it's not terribly difficult. The things to consider:

The CoCo's case is about an 1/8" thick.

The plastic is pretty dense, but melts easy. It's not particularly brittle and will give a bit. Too much pressure WILL crack it, but you have a little play to work with.

Will anyone see the cut? Does it need to be presentable? If no, then whack away it and don't worry too much about finish. An accurate measure and cutting the piece out safely are the only real concerns.

If it does need to have that "manufactuered" look, my recommendations are as follows:

1. A sharp, heavy duty hobby knife will do the job. Use a straight edge.
2. A rotary tool works particularly well.
3. Use a template, if possible.
4. If you can't use a template, use some sort of guide. You won't get good results freehand.
5. I don't recommend the freehand and then putty and sand it method (like on the top of case hole in this project). Great results, but time consuming and messy.
6. Don't rush. Do keep your favorite plastic putty handy for repairs.
7. Regardless of method, make small, shallow cuts to remove material. Trying to get it all at once tends to make the plastic melt and bunch up. Cleaning it out requires multiple passes with the tool that are not nearly as accurate.
8. You can make ridges and remold the case with heat or high speed. Set for shallow depth, use a guide, and take you time.

In the end, I'm probably making more mods to the case than are necessary. For example, no reason why the fan can't be mounted directly on top. Drawing hot air out is just as effective since the CoCo is vented on the bottom as well. Or blow air from the bottom up, which would work just as well. Once I got my head set on a side blowing fan, though, I had to try it.

I could also mount the switch for the light bar in the planned base unit as. (The base unit is phase two of this project and will house the PC power supply, floppy drives, hard drive, VGA converter and anything else I can think to cram in there. The cables will run into the back of the CoCo and be bound together with shiny braided silver cable sleeves.) The switch is mounted in a PC slot style bracket, after all. But, no I had to have it mounted inside the CoCo, of course. heh.

But part of the point of this project is to learn more about molding and cutting plastic, in particular the CoCo 3's case for future projects. As far as working with the CoCo's case, I've got a pretty good idea now what can be done. And now an excellent excuse to buy a scroll saw. :D

The CoCo 3's case doesn't leave a lot of room for modification. However, with a little patience and creativity, you can certain remold it into your liking. It's pretty easy to work with and you can get some nice results with a little practice.

Now to the fun part... painting and decorating! :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Glow In The Dark CoCo

2007-03-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

I haven't done much pimping on the CoCo mod all winter, so since it is the first full day of Spring, I figured I would at least get organized and clean up a bit. The Evil Lab was a complete mess, of course. Spring cleaning is always such a joy... the left over Christmas boxes piled high, the accumulated dirt and leaves from the fall/winter, the mouse droppings. Gak!

While I was out there slaving away (and setting traps), though, I hooked up the light bar I'll be using in the mod and fired it up. Just duct taped it in there to see how it fits. A few challenges remain, including cutting a few holes in the side to accomidate the switch for the light bar, one in the back for the molex connector for the mainboard, a hole to run additional power to the case (for fan and light), and one on the side for the fan. When that's done I can paint the top and then slap it all together and see how it works.

Anyhow, at least it's back underway. I remember when this was going to be a project for a couple of hours over a weekend. You'd think I'd know better by now... sheesh! I just thought it was cool the way the green light bleeds out the vents. The bar has kind of a liquid motion thang going on, so it's funky as it oscillates in waves like some kind of green, radio active slime is flowing through the case. Neat!

Angel's Luck,
Capt

YACCS Announces 2006 Asimov Award Winners

2007-03-19T23:29:00.001-05:00

Diego over at YACCS (Yet Another Color Computer Site) has announced the winners of the first Asimov Awards. The awards, named after the famous science fiction author who also did Radio Shack ads back in the 80s, are open to all CoCo programmers.

The 1st prize entry was Mister Mind, a gorgeous CoCo 3 Master Mind game clone from Christian Bilodeau. 2nd place went to James McKay for his awesome Gauntlet clone for the CoCo 1/2/3 called Glove. Special mention also went to James and Charlie Gerrie for their game Sentinel, which looks rather intriguing.

With luck, Mister Mind and Sentinel will be available on dsk soon. Glove is available from Mr. McKay at

http://www.sclaudia.net/coco/AA/aa2006.html

Congrats to all the winners! Thanks to Diego and looking forward to the 2007 Asimov awards! Take a look at all the winners at

The Asimov Awards