The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 421, July 12,2025 (July 5-July 11) =============================================================== Collected by L. Curtis Boyle Special NOTES: -------------- For those who want to try an online BBS running on a real 512K Coco 3, you can reach Terry Trapp’s RiBBS system here (please note that this an active development machine so the BBS occasionally goes down when Terry is working on hardware, etc).: telnet ribbs.griswoldfx.com 6809 Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people: ------------------------------------------------------------ International Retro Computer Expo (formerly BoatFest) is this weekend, July 11-13 in Hurricane, WV. There is now a promo video for it: https://www.ticketsource.us/ircexpo2025/t-eanjyje VCF West at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California is August 1-2, from 10 am-6 pm Friday and 9 am-5 pm Saturday. There are usually some Coco people at the show (both attendees and exhibitors), and we have had walkthroughs before that show it to be a fun show with a lot of history since it is in Silicon Valley: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/ VCF-Midwest (the largest retro show in North America, I believe) is September 13-14 at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. This year is the 20th anniversary of this show, and there is a lot of collaboration between CocoFest and VCF-MW, so expect a large number of Coco and Glenside people at the show! Still free admission, and hotel booking is open already. https://www.vcfmw.org/ That same weekend, Retro World Expo will be held September 12-14 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Tickets and vendor applications aren't quite ready yet but will be soon. This is a gaming oriented retro show (including tournaments) but also includes things like wrestling: https://retroworldexpo.com/ Also that same weekend, for Canadians and anyone wanting to travel up to Canada, the WoRC (World of Retro Computing) show is September 13-14 at the old Goudies Department Store location at 8 Queen Street North, Kitchener,ON, Canada (West of Toronto, and right beside The Museum). This is a general retro show with a bunch of gaming and home computer platforms, vendors, seminars, LAN parties, workshops, door prizes & raffles and is sponsored by Retro Rewind. Admission is free, and it runs noon to 5 pm Eastern on both Saturday and Sunday: https://worldofretrocomputing.com/ Tandy Assembly for 2025 is Sept 26 to Sep 28 at the Courtyard by Marriott Springfield Downtown in Springfield, Ohio. NOTE 1: If you attended CocoFest this year, bring your badge to Tandy Assembly, and you will get in for FREE! NOTE 2: Peter Cetinski issued an update on May 13 - all tables are officially sold out: https://www.tandyassembly.com/ And they have some exhibitors already (click Exhibitors link) This year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs from October 17-19 in 2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29). Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon. https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/ Canada is getting it's own official VCF - Montreal, January 25-26 of 2026. It will be held at the Royal Military College outside of Montreal, but I don't have any more details (the venue, for example) yet: https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/ Tentative date for CocoFest 2026 - April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting this past week. Not 100% confirmed, but sounded pretty solid. **** NEW NEWS ORDER TO HELP OUR LIVE EUROPEAN VIEWERS **** NOTE: We are planning to do a special “Coco 4” episode in the future, which will included all the computers that were announced in the 1991-1994 time frame that were supposed to be successors to the Coco 3. We have Joel Ewy who has volunteered to show off their MM/1, I am going to try and get my TC-9 up and running at least enough to show it working, but we still need volunteers with TC-70’s, Kix-20 or Kix-30, Delmar System IV or System V’s, AT-306, MM/1 B’s. Anybody still have these machines that they would like to show off in an upcoming show? Email me at curtisboyle at sasktel.net if you are. Dragon 32/64 ------------ 1) Tom Erik Gundersen posted a photo in the Dragon Facebook group showing every Dragon joystick made (by Dragon Data, Eurohard, Voltmace, Microdeal. Some additional ones are mentioned in the comments: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4086125674980404/ Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform) ------------------------------- 1) Thanks to Brian Wieseler for pointing out that Roger Taylor put up a blog post about the Foenix F256 that Boisy and others have been working on. It uses a 6809 hardware emulated core at 6-12 MHz, but also has enhancements like hardware sprites, multi-layer graphics/text, and a variety of sound options including playing MP3 and MIDI, amongst many others: https://www.patreon.com/posts/next-level-os-9-133913145/instant-access?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyZWRpc19rZXkiOiJpYTI6NjU3ZmFhZmYtZjY0Mi00ZGYzLTljNGMtMjdhOWRlOTc3ODhjIiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTMzOTEzMTQ1LCJwYXRyb25faWQiOjIxNDY5OTI2fQ.2nN2BU1xYdlKcgw9Wic8-x22wX6YTpidrop1Fptyimc&utm_source=post_link&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=patron_engagement&utm_id=0fcdbbf2-73c8-41b7-b2b7-4b583f253a17 2) David C. Wiens has posted part of the source code for his OS-9 utility OF-Link (which allows running FLEX under OS9 Level 2). This upload includes the OS-9 components only; he is planning on releasing source for the FLEX portion later: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/posts/3994979917431589/ Actual link on his site: https://www.sardis-technologies.com/coco/other/oflink.htm Note that this emulator is pre-installed in NitrOS9/EOU 3) My Snyder posted a photo of her mug from the 1987 Princeton, NJ RainbowFest. While I have had bags and T-shirts from RainbowFests, I never had a coffee cup! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162911621697641/ 4) Antonio Caballero posted photos of some new versions of the Tower of Power cartridge holders that he is working on: The Tower of Power Deluxe (which changes the top part to double as SD card holders for the CocoSDC, etc., and the Micro Tower of Power which is exclusively for SD Cards: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162907810067641/ 5) It was pointed out that there isa “Retro Electro Jumble” happening next weekend (July 19) which is basically a flea market of retro electronics for sale, being held at The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park in the UK, from 10 am to 4 pm. This is a ticket only event, and it specifically mentions that some brands that will have stuff available for sale: Amstrad, Commodore and Dragon: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/retro-electro-jumble-tickets-1084147687919 6) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a video showing his development update to Tales of Suburbia, which adds cloud animations, .BIN pre-saved graphics, and a complete game breakdown: https://youtu.be/-8MAkvGlc3E?si=ElnqYlxP4PxCnC4M 7) TRS-80 Trash Talk had their live show last Saturday night, and there were some mentions about the Coco during show. It also covers the upcoming Tandy Assembly, and goes through an old TRS-80/Tandy computer magazine: https://www.youtube.com/live/trUsi0r0tqg?si=FbihxcQGudS9NVgR 8) Definitely Casual Pc’s on YouTbue did an almost 25 minute video on unboxing nd restoring a Coco 2: https://youtu.be/uTBMDEK5TiM?si=d-GE2FSjh1ryYFus 9) YouTube channel CityXen posted an almost hour long video covering VCF Southeast in Atlanta (which actually was combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo). There is a Coco section 4:52 into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KixUchIvOrg&t=292s MC-10 ----- 1) Thomas OderausVkommt posted photos of his Metra Alice (the original, MC-10 clone version) system. It’s in pristine condition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162923290447641/ Game On news (all Coco related platforms): ========================================== 1) We mentioned last week that there is now a Coco/Dragon emulator for the Nintendo DS, and we were asking if anyone in the audience could make a video showing it in action. 8Bitsinthebasement did exactly that, showing how the menu system works, and actual emulation of multiple Coco ½ games:: https://youtu.be/_B4my3YRauE?si=-WJdYcceK7FnXweR 2) Marlin Lee, one of the first YouTubers to review Coco games, has returned after a long break, covering several early Coco PacMan clones/derivatives: PacketMan by Greg Zumwalt with American Small Business Computers, September 1981: https://youtu.be/cm-BfxPriWU?si=WxcyD_27QrZaECf0 Sooper Pac by Michael Freeman from Bare Bones Software – a highly configurable PacMan style game: https://youtu.be/Zlbrs-ms1qg?si=HF3_2Hu9-DMM9xwv and finally a two-fer with two Skiing games: EZ Ski bye Paul Griffiths from Chromasette, and the 3D Skiing by Robert Kilgus for Tandy: https://youtu.be/nAtFv40-dlE?si=MmOz006MyCGfWCKX 3) XperTek on YouTube released several new gameplay videos this week as well: Disk #7, Black-Jack (part of Tandy’s Card Games cassette game package): https://youtu.be/tDW-Cv-maVQ?si=ldg02Vd62ZW_iNo7 Disk #7, Cosmic Superbowl (from Spectral Associates): https://youtu.be/MB_ZE9Fry3w?si=uFcP96mOHZ7g75AM 4) Jim Gerrie got busy on his MC-10 conversions this week: “Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio” – an updated version with a cleaned up interface, added color and mp improvements, compared to his original MC-10 conversion. This is a full game play through that lasts more than 20 minutes. (This is similar to Coco games like Viking, Erland, etc.): https://youtu.be/UKfC0r5dqQI?si=EZdwrpFP5laZL5cT Jim also updated “Blue Meanies” from the original 1981 release on the Vic-20 to the MC-10 he did a few years back. The updates include smooth keyboard input for moving repair robots, and code optimization. Still works in 4K RAM, too! https://youtu.be/UMsi0kQMg2o?si=G2unV1aLzyItVRNo 5) Scott Adams (of Adventure International fame) put up a post of making a new 8 bit adventuge game: https://www.facebook.com/MScottAdams/posts/pfbid025usJdj2zeWK2EvmsoPKYp2z6mJiD32pAPMapgqgLFgYVrrWeudGekw8opcgtD2DZl Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at: ============================================================================== feedback at TheCoCoNation.com Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here: ============================================================================== https://thecoconation.com/community/