The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 340, November 25, 2023 =================================================================== Collected by L. Curtis Boyle Interviews schedule: -------------------- - Double interview with Joe Ahern & David McNally, creators of the newsletter/magazine "TRS-80 Computing (renamed "Color Computing" late in it's life) back in June 1987 as pair of 13 year olds. Complete run of their magazine: https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Magazines/TRS-80%20Computing/ - December 9 we have an interview with Mike Snyder, who authored tons of games for T&D magnazine for both the Ccoo 1/2 and the Coco 3 (some are on my site already) between 1987 and 1991. He still has his own website if you want to get familiar with the games he wrote and think of questions to ask him. https://www.cocoquest.com/ - January 6 we have a double interview with Doug Masten & Glen Dahlgren, covering the Coco 3 game The Contras. We are also planning on Glen coming on later in January to talk about his latest fantasy novel and catch up on how his series is going. Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people: ------------------------------------------------------------ SC in Brazil is going on today, and Erico Monteiro posted a couple of photos. We are hoping to have him on live later, time permitting. While not a Coco show as you can tell by the title, "World of Commodore 2023", Frank of RetroRewind (who is the sponsor) wanted to mention that they will be selling Coco items at the show including CocoSDC's at the show December 2-3 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.. and with show special prices: https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2023/ VCF SoCal: Feb 17-18, 2024 in Orange, California Hotel Fera - Events Center 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA 92868 https://vcfsocal.com/index.html CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago) Holiday Inn & Suites https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024 Social Event Space Hurricane, WV https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform) ------------------------------- 1) CocoTown returns with the start of his trip the sourcecode for the Coco portions of MAME: https://youtu.be/VPFF8jn866A?si=9Vv1ejFk47iNqKpw 2) George Janssen put out a 2 parter for his 6809 assembly language series: Part 1: Coco 3 Hi Res text screen palettes and attributes: https://youtu.be/C4t4jgE_gsA?si=uTrhrWMHbAxDv-sM Part 2: https://youtu.be/yeNVnUM_mhk?si=ziA1vXfw-LkoL_-x 3) Michael Furman posted a video of using Rick Ulland's CocoIO Ethernet card on a Coco 3 (it wasn't working reliably on all Coco 3's until recently) after installing the updated GAL chip: https://youtu.be/Fm6HlZKdDII?si=FqExzmlj3uNjXYYg 4) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted another update video for Tales of Suburbia, as well as a brief update on his plans for Coco Ultimate. He also mentions that he caught the end of our GShell CocoTech episode this past week: https://youtu.be/XJTuEqhngVM?si=Eo0LwKesS4_or-Qf 5) RetroTech Dan put up a video showing how he 3D printed a piece to help fix the mount for the spacebar's stabilizer bar on his Coco keyboard to repair it: https://youtu.be/slJgrT81QW0?si=Xr6i3qQxXcC8W_Mr 6) Simon Jonassen posted a screenshot update of his PMODE graphics online editor, showing some added icons in the drop down menu: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161039567082641/ He also added support for varying screen resolutions (both 2 and 4 color modes): https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161047409782641/ 7) Neil Blanchard on Facebook says that he has finally finished fulfilling all pre-orders for his Gamester professional joystick product, and as of earlier this week had 3 left in stock and is now taking new orders as well. This uses arcade professional joysticks and buttons, solid wood construction (with a variety of woods and finishes). These work on both the Coco and Tandy 1000's, so if you have both machines, you can move the joystick between them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161039963762641/ MC-10 ----- 1) Dragon 32/64 ------------ 1) Italian YouTube channel "65C02 movies" did a 15 minute video about the Dragon 32/64 - the title translates roughly to "The fleeting appearance of the unknown British home computer Dragon 32/64". You will have to turn Close Caption on, and then click the settings wheel to translate Italian to your native language. It basically does a quick rundown going through the BASIC manual and the Programming Your Dragon book, and then a quick lookthru of 2 issues of Dragon User magazine, including the first issue (if the translation is correct, he has some of his facts wrong, though): https://youtu.be/ptU4f5vd2eA?si=Hlx_pgOCGK3KoHlO 2) David Gisbert on the Dragon Facebook group posted some photos of both his cute dog and a Spanish Dragon disk drive brochure: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3592189067707403/ 3) Julian Brown has a few more (as of a few days ago) Dragon 32 Revision 2.1 motherboards available that he is selling. He sells the board by itself, and offers a package with all components (if they are available at the time - some sockets have been out of stock, I understand). This version of the board allows upgrading to full 64K of RAM: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3591199687806341/ He also has been fixing up quality and color issues with his video output from his NTSC daughterboard with a few tweaks, with much improved results (color screenshot in the comments). He has technical notes in the Hardware->Dragon channel on the Coco Discord as well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3593470124245964/ 4) This addresses the Coco as well, but as we mentioned last week, Ciaran (Sixxie) is working on a replacement for the SAM chip (for Coco 1's, 2's as well as Dragon 32's and 64's). He has posted more detail on the World of Dragon forums, including photos: https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11144 His latest screenshot of running a Diagnostic cart on a machine so equipped: https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11144&start=10 He also put up a video showing the vertical hardware scrolling trick that he has written some demo's for on a real SAM. As he says, it's still a little jittery, but getting close: http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/samx4-wip/glitchy-less.mp4 5) Richard Harding in the Dragon Facebook group posted a link to a video of a news segment from Wales at the time that Dragon Data was starting to have problems. He hints that more are coming as well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3593367984256178/ Game On news (all Coco related platforms): ========================================== 1) The optimized versions of Paper Route are now on the Color Computer Archive. The 6309 version in particular speeds it up about 15-20%. https://colorcomputerarchive.com/search?q=paper+route 2) Inufuto has released their next game on the Coco's called "Yewdow", and the MC-10, Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 versions are all available as of November 21-23. IJKM or arrow keys to move, Space or Shift to leave a directional arrow.: Video & download links (WAV files for cassette): Download (includes video demo links): http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/yewdow/#coco 3) John Hancock on YouTube put up a video called "Oddball Robocop Games You Might of Missed", and the last one he talks about is the Coco 3 release: https://youtu.be/Ck6_r1X_TDA?si=zzsovIalxDXKdCw8&t=538 4) Aaron of the Amigos has announced that the final Coco Show will be recording on Sunday, December 10th. They are now simulcasting on YouTube and Twitch as well. They also did their annual Thanks for Giving marathon stream (8 hours this year) covering various game consoles and home computers - including one Coco game. When they got to dinosaur games, they had to give Dino Wars a try: https://www.youtube.com/live/igWkxfN-S_0?si=2WEwYnPMdrF0FF8A&t=14619 Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here: ======================================= https://thecoconation.com/community/