The Sunday CoCoist 5/27/07

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. :)

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5/13/07 The Sunday CoCoist

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.

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4/29/07 The Sunday CoCoist

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.

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The Sunday CoCoist 4/22/07

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

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