[Index]
The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 394, January 4, 2025
=============================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle
NOTE: This covers two weeks since we had our holiday break. So Dec. 21 to
Jan. 4
Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
"Tandy Showcase" (Ed on the TRS-80 Discord, and the person who hosts
the history of Videotex on the web), posted that there is a Winter Retro
Computing Meetup on Saturday, January 18th from noon to 4 PM, sponsored by
DFW Retro Computing & the Vintage Computing Collective of North Texas. It
takes place at Bingo Bingo in Grand Prairie (and there will be a concession
stand open). Quote from Ed:
"**The Winter Event for the DFW Retro Computing Group has been announced
(Sat Jan 18); here's their event listing.
"Anyone in/near the Dallas-Fort Worth area is encouraged to attend the
free event.**
*The Winter Retro Computing Meetup of 2025 will be on Saturday, January
18th. Brought to you by the DFW Retro Computing Meetup group and the Vintage
Computing Collective of North Texas. Sponsored by Mouser Electronics who
has, for the second year, graciously donated to cover the cost for the
venue rental.
The meetup will begin at 12:00pm and end at 4:00pm and is taking place at
Bingo Bingo in Grand Prairie who will also have their concession stand open
so please bring cash and support them for allowing us to use their venue.
We encourage you to bring something for show and tell. It could be a
new addition to your collection or a favorite system you've showcased
before. Don't be shy – we love seeing the unique treasures our community
has to offer. And if you're not quite ready to exhibit, no worries--just
bring yourself and your passion for retro computing.
As on prior meetups, you are welcome to bring your items for swap, sale, or
giveaway. However, you must ensure that all items are removed from the venue
at the end of the meetup. We cannot leave behind boxes of donation items.
You are welcome to bring your family. If you bring young children, please
keep an eye on them.
When parking, please be careful to observe the parking lot markings, and
only park in marked parking spaces. Last time, some people parked in areas
intended for parking lot navigation, which can cause issues with parking
lot traffic and fire/first responder access.
We look forward to seeing all of you there!*"
https://www.meetup.com/DFW-Retrocomputing/events/305135267/
Virtual Coco/Tandy Fest is January 25, 2025, and now has it's own website
site up: Mark Overholser is the driving force for it, and can give updates
on speakers, etc.
https://tandyretroshow.com/
VCF-SoCal - Feb 15-16 (Hotel Fera in Orange, California.
https://www.vcfsocal.com/
VCF East is April 4-6, 2025 - same facility as this year. Info Age Science
Museum, Wall, NJ.
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/
CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May 4/Sunday) at
the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton), Illinois. Hotel rooms
at the special Fest rate are available now ($122/night for two queens or
1 king bed), and apply for May 2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate
code of G30 to get this rate, and getting the special rate ends April
7. Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Tables go on sale January 1 at noon, Central standard time.
VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the Davidson
Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free (with
accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/
BoatFest will be July 11-13 in Hurricane, WV.
Tandy Assembly for 2025 dates have been announced - it will be Sept 26 to Sep
28 at the Courtyard by Marriott Springfield Downtown in Springfield, Ohio:
https://www.tandyassembly.com/
Tim Lindner let me know that next year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs
from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29).
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/
Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) For those that downloaded VCC 2.1.9.1 the day of our last show, and use
the debugging features, EJ Jaquay posted on the Coco Discord that he had
to a quick update to fix a bug. So if you downloaded before the morning
of Dec. 22:
https://github.com/VCCE/VCC
2) The Coco Crew surprised us with a new episode of The Coco Crew (just
over a year since their last episode) with episode 99:
***
(There are some discussions they had - you can discuss on the panel and
chat the same subjects if you wish).
***
http://cococrew.org/
3) La Coco Strangiato on YouTube (alias Bob Emery on the Coco Discord and
The Coco Nation Show) released a video explain the updates he has done to
the Artemis Keyboard upgrade... including his first ever firmware updates:
https://youtu.be/-dg2u9QDOrA?si=2ZcWxK-0y6rFQ0TR
4) A video titled "Top 10 Things You Didn't know about the Radio Shack
TRS-80 Color Computer" was put on YouTube on the "Mx. Victoria Rayne Havens
W9JYD channel:
https://youtu.be/5Rqlw-3WwRY?si=Q4wyg7SZpTNPg2dJ
5) The VintNerd on YouTube did a long video with the manufacturer of the
Fujinet hardware, Brian Cox, covering where the hardware is for a multitude
of platforms including the Coco. The VintNerd is also the one of the people
who run VCF-SoCal:
https://youtu.be/0XcsSznKbTs?si=icGYayo7H2e60mwx
(Coco section):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XcsSznKbTs&t=4725s
6) Canadian Retro Things (Ken Waters) posted his final video for 2024,
summarizing what he did and some of his favourite moments over the past year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51A1QvSMX6I&t=612s&pp=ygULdGFuZHkgY29sb3I%3D
7) Jason Kubin posted a short video about the Radio Shack franchise that
he and another person are opening (hopefully already opened - they were
shooting for January 1) in Moorefield:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162191699527641/
8) A minor update from David Collins on his HB63C09M project - he rolled
back to using HC logic for the Bill of Materials to build the 6309 based
board (it was occasionally missing reads and writes using AHC logic if
the 6309 was running native mode).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/403922002342070/posts/478122224922047/
9) Mauricio Matte posted a photo on Facebook of some reproduction joysticks
he has made that match the original design of the CP-400 Brazilian Coco
clone joysticks. And hidden in the background he has the very rare CP450
disk drives as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162211872462641/
MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie ported a program that originally appeared in the Triangle
Sinclair User Group newsletter from it's March 1984 issue. It was originally
written by Phil Kegelmeyer and is described as a domo program of some
simple A.I. concepts, and is called "Edge Detection Program":
https://youtu.be/UGwWoQiu57w?si=Eff06xcTI-I5cyV8
2) He also posted a Merry Christmas animation graphics program him and
his sone Charlie on Christmas Eve:
https://youtu.be/LZR7elOJbmY?si=QG1dSkZ-NWApLnic
Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Tomeu Capo posted some screenshots of his Dragon 64 running OS-9 Level
1 and with an external terminal attached to the serial port (and a quick
video of him logging in from the terminal):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3904238886502418/
2) There is a discussion on the Dragon Facebook group (started by Phil
Harvey-Smith) about getting EDIT128 (an 80 column supporting text editor
to use with the DragonPlus board), about different versions of the 6845
chip not working correctly, while others do. And trying to figure out how
to tell if one will work or not:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3903131459946494/
Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) David Mitchell of Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube produced an updated
version of an old BASIC game from the Rainbow Book of BASIC Programs that
was published by W.H. Smith in 1984 and was originally called Xmas. David
made some updates to it (added title & instruction screens, changed the
original text objects to color blocks, widened the play area, and added a
count of attempts on the main gameplay screen) and renamed it Gift Drop
at the same time. The object to time hitting the period key to drop a a
present through the chimney on the bottom:
The video of gameplay:
https://youtu.be/ZBUlntH_ib4?si=ZOGwsyVhtxuWnuGr
Github link to download the source:
https://github.com/daftspaniel/RetroCornerRedux/tree/main/Dragon/TypeIns/GiftDrop
2) Jim Gerrie ported Evasion to the MC-10, originally a snake type game
from Creative Computing in 1979. But it has a twist; you have to flee
an ever growing computer controlled snake (and there is game options for
jumping, too):
https://youtu.be/nBqvVzPsLTM?si=z1LHUG-wjws2EW7u
3) TRS-80 Retro Programing on YouTube released a video showing the new
map feature he is adding to his Tales of Suburbia BASIC game, and also
mentions that Ghost Saga is now available for download (from my games site,
where it has it's own entry):
https://youtu.be/RCWdTg3fJ8M?si=Z4tsc8KCLDTCDlTh
4) The Amigos did their 2024 Game of the year awards (best and worst)
for all of their show, starting with the Coco Show:
https://youtu.be/-a7Eb9lZDnw1
5) TGP Highscore Runs on YouTube did a bunch of gameplay videos for the
Dragon 32 this past week, including:
Cuthbert and the Golden Chalice
Cuthbuert Goes Walkabout
Crazy Painter
Talking Android Attack
Cosmic Clones
Barmy Burgers
Astro Blast
(scroll to bottom of playlist for these most recent ones):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdU-q6CceuQLFFkdeZFSqSjlTeVTiJtGv
6) YouTube channel Zolaeria did a real indepth review of Rescue on Fractalus,
starting with the original Atari 8 bit version. The Coco 3 version also
gets a good sized review, although she isn't that impressed with it (she
did have the wrong monitor type selected so the colors were completely
wrong)... but she is not wrong on most of her criticism's comparing it
with the Atari 8 bit original:
Video link:
https://youtu.be/28zEPLaHrc0?si=XbXvpgL_zToL8ivM
Coco 3 port version part:
https://youtu.be/28zEPLaHrc0?si=3SS0xbFCnJq9FWJL&t=2097
7) Jason Musser posted some photos of a fairly rare Coco version of the
Adventure International Value Pack - a group of 3 Scott Adams adventure
games (adventures 10-12 in this case: Save Island Part 1, Savage Island
Part 2 and Golden Voyage). He also showed his original docs for both Donkey
King and Calixto Island:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162192564352641/
Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
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