The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 295, January 7, 2023 =============================================================== Collected by L. Curtis Boyle Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform) ------------------------------- TRS-80 Retro Programing on YouTube did a video about using PCOPY in Extended BASIC: https://youtu.be/Qh0DKRaJnAc Ron Klein announced that the CocoPi now has the MAME 0.251 package available for it through the updating system built in. On the Coco side of things, it fixes some bugs in the 6809 core for things like TFR (where it was using 6309 behaviour in a few spots), adds in the Disto Super Controller II mini expansion bus emulation, including the add-on realtime clock/parallel printer board for the mini bus. It also contains very preliminary work on the never released Deluxe Coco: https://coco-pi.com/new-mame-0-251-package-available-for-coco-pi/ Brian Wieseler posted photos of a Coco cartridge that I have never seen before: from HiTech Electronic Sign Company in Clearwater Florida. It has a ROM and a large 1/4" stereo style plug coming from it. I am guessing it is to program electronic signs (Bill Nobel did a similar project for a company in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan back in the 1990's) - but has anyone seen these before?: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160395574967641/ XRoar version 1.3 has been released, and it Main XRoar page with downloads: https://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/ List of changes in 1.3 (mainly floppy write back behaviour - it will now by default actually save things to the disk image when you save things, rather than just temporarily and then throwing out your changes when you quit XRoar. Yay!): http://www.6809.org.uk/xroar/doc/xroar.shtml#Recent-changes Allen Huffman has dug out some old graphics ads and demos he did within the first 2 years of getting his Coco 3, and has posted videos of 4 of them on his Sub-Etha Software YouTube channel. They include ads on behalf of his father, and feature palette animations, custom character sets and more: https://www.youtube.com/@subethasoftware/videos Carl England posted an update of his attempting to write software that can back up copy protected disks directly to the CocoSDC. He has had *some* success, but purposeful CRC errors still seem to cause problems when trying to create the .SDF format disk images (See comments for some further details): https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160392682597641/ For those wanting to put in a CocoDV board from AC's 8-bit Zone into a Coco 1, but don't want to have to cut the plastic center post, Mike Rojas as a solution - a little "CocoDV Board Relocater for the Coco 1": https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160397300112641/ Retro Tech Repair put up his part 2 video for trying to fix his homebrew composite mod on his Coco 2. He also shouts out AC's 8 bit Zone, and does game demos at the end: https://youtu.be/yVPkKDZzCRo Portuguese YouTube channel "Oldplayers" did an almost 2.5 hour live stream talking about the TRS-80 Color computer and clones. Make sure to turn on close captioning and settings->auto translate->english if you don't speak Portuguese (Luciano Scharf, Juan Castro and Daniel Campos were on the show as well, although with some audio issues at the beginning - they are active in the Coco community as well): https://youtu.be/hELNWBKrbYI Nine Finger Tom on YouTube (and on the Coco Discord) did a short video showing the GIME-X 256 screen image, with scrolling vertically to show the whole thing (256x225x256): https://youtu.be/d_C06z7832M Sheldon MacDonald has posted another update video on his dual IDE (to generated code for both the Coco and the Sega Genesis: https://youtu.be/O8YB0zJoEeQ And a second one, which will be part of a series for those getting started in assembly. This episode covers loads and stores on both the 6809 and the 68000 CPU's: https://youtu.be/_29ATB9C5V8 TJBChris is starting a new series on his YouTube channel - "Tandy Time", and his first part of the series is with the Coco 3 - and he creates the TJB shopping network (however, nothing is actually for sale): https://youtu.be/CTsmYbrn5iA Antonio Caballero has finished his design of a replacement box for the Direct Connect Modem Pak: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160399160612641/ Steve Strowbridge uploaded a font that can be drawn using DRAW statements to the Coco Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160398963587641/ Ken of Canadian Retro Things did a quick video to show and talk about some of the things changed or added in NitrOS9/EOU Version 1.0.0: https://youtu.be/WEzkV9eYtiQ MC-10 ----- Darren Ottery posted another version of his MCX32-SD file browser at the suggestion of Ron Delvaux: @-L will toggle inverse text on/off. You can get it from his Google drive, and the announcement post is from the Facebook MC-10 group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/5665378816922227/ Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MoNq4qmz0FRubv5CDMrNpSAoR_zJU0d5 Robert Sieg posted a sample of a menu system that he is working on for the MCX32-SD. This is very early stages and he expects to make a lot of changes as he goes, but he is requesting that people download it and give it a try and give him some feedback. The program is available for download in the MC-10 Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/5682357415224367/ Dragon 32/64 ------------ Julian Brown has made progress on his Dragon motherboard replication project, and now has it booting the ROM correctly (he still is awaiting some parts to test the cassette port and audio): https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3365661430360169/ And Ciaran Anscomb's similar project also showed progress. He doesn't have the screen hooked up yet, but the ROM is running fine - he types MOTOR ON (blindly) and you can hear the click of the cassette relay, and typing in purposeful syntax error (which caused MS BASIC to shut the motor off) also works in his quick little video: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3365143467078632/ NOTE: Julian Brown is working on a Dragon32 and Ciaran Anscomb is working on a Dragon64. Game On news (all Coco related platforms): ========================================== Jim Mullis posted the question in the Coco Facebook group: "How many folks here are actively working on new games for the CoCo? Also when you are done, will you be sharing your code freely?" To which Paul Shoemaker responded (see comments) with a screenshot of an awesome looking new RPG he is working on (with it's own unique combat system, going by his comments): https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160397161607641/ Jim Gerrie posted a video of another MC-10 game port he has done - this time Aztec Adventure (by Roberto B. in 1988) originally for the Italian Laser 300 computer. It was fixed up and translated to English originally by Garry Francis, and Jim ported it to the MC-10. SPOILER ALERT if you play the whole video it shows how to win. It's a text adventure with a low res graphic title screen: https://youtu.be/fP4iXCUXjqc He also ported the text adventure "Spaceship Farmer" to the MC-10 (also translated from Italian). He would like testers for this one to see if they can play it all the way through. (download link in the description on the YouTube page): https://youtu.be/07LaeL7n4yk Chronologically Gaming has a new episode that has Space Assault (by Image Producers for Tandy) @ 3:37: https://youtu.be/A6jTqG0M1gc?t=217 And also Project Nebula: https://youtu.be/usMk_0FvXk8?t=744 The 2022 "Beauty and the Beast" programming contest for all TRS-80's were announced (the challenge this year was making a Wordle clone), and Rick Adams COCOdle came in a very close 2nd with Rowland Archer's Word-80 on the Model 4 in the "Beauty" category (mainly because Rowland included extra stats that it keeps track of): https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/the-results-for-the-2022-beauty-and-the-beast-programming-contest-for-the-trs-80-has-been-announced