The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 320, July 8, 2023
The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 320, July 8, 2023
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle
Surprise special guest today – Dan Barber is on to talk about his USB Coco
project, which includes his first video showing it in action!
August 12 we have Matt Harper on (developer of Wizard’s Den sold by Tom
Mix Software).
August 19 we have a special treat – the original programmer of The Contras
for Sundog Systems, Doug Masten – and Glen Dahlgren who ran Sundog (and
who has been on the show several times before, including during our Dave
Dies interview) will be on to help co-interview Doug about one of the most
ambitious Coco 3 games done at that time (1991-1993)
September 9 we have Mark P. & Charlie from Portacoco.com. If you were
at the Fest, you would have seen them at their booth showing Coco’s (and
monitors) running wirelessly together and off batteries that do NOT require
modifications to a Coco case to attach.
Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
Our guest Don Barber has released a video on YouTube showing his progress
on a USB Host controller Pak for the Coco (which some of you may have been
keeping up on in our Coco Discord):
https://youtu.be/BSZMqUnaXe4
Frank of Retrorewind.ca let me know that the CocoSDC is now back in stock
and his recovery is going well, which will help him keep up with orders
1) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a quick video showing some of the new
things he has added to attic in his game in progress, Tales of Suburbia:
https://youtu.be/IWUdSOO8i_g
He also did a video of “Do It Yourself Program 18-2: Lightning storm”, a
type in program from the Coco 2 Extended BASIC manual (page 211 if you are
interested), which uses some tricks like switch PMODE’s without clearing
the screen in between:
https://youtu.be/SSJXlRGldYU
2) Coco Town released a video to show going through all of the SAM/VDG
video modes, including a machine language program that lets you switch
between modes on the fly (and tells you which one you are about to view):
https://youtu.be/7g60c3l_SFg
Source code:
https://cocotownretro.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/a-garbage-tour-of-the-vdg-display-modes/
He also released a follow up video that talks about AI and SG4 modes on
the VDG – and how things are actually implemented on the Coco:
https://youtu.be/3wcxVPfnlKA
He also did a video going through hunting down a bug:
https://youtu.be/hvo7C7lA7F4
3) Ken released his video review of attending BoatFest for the first time
a couple of weeks ago:
https://youtu.be/Z2pzt7bk0XY
4) Michael Furman announced on the Coco Discord that he will have a booth
at VCF West (Aug 4-5 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA)
to show off his FLEXing the Coco Project!
(at the bottom of the list):
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/vcf-west-exhibits/
He also uploaded his next VLOG – a 3&1/2 minute channel update with 3 things
covered – a milestone in YouTube subscribers, his seminar at VCF West, and
finally – an interesting twist in the search for the FHL Flex Master Disk:
https://youtu.be/eu4FEKhsX2w
5) Thomas Cherryholmes (creator of the cross-platform Fujinet project
for networking) revealed that he has received a Coco 2 to help him start
working on a Coco version of Fujinet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160759361267641/
6) Richard Kelly has released version 0.30G of his Maze Creator program
(hopefully the last beta) – it’s a little more user friendly, a little
faster and smaller. He has some screenshots in the comments:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160758743522641/
7) The TRS-80 Trash Talk Live show is today at 7 pm Central time on YouTube,
and the main theme this month is talk about Tandy Assembly (they are also
taking a break for the summer after this episode):
Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160756395477641/
YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk
8) JolliAllGenGamer did a YouTube video showing his Coco 2 and demonstrates
a couple of games on it. It’s a custom painted version that he picked up
on ebay:
https://youtu.be/q-IVdeap630
9) Peter at 8 bits in the Basement on YouTube put up a video on how to
hack ANY PC Analog joystick to work with the Coco:
https://youtu.be/Lb1maMAr4zE
MC-10
1) David Mitchell on his Davy’s Retro Corner channel on YouTube did a
graphics demo of a Vegan Flag:
https://youtu.be/ciGBNsFNtwc
Dragon 32/64
1) Robcfg on the World of Dragon forums posted a link to his github,
which contains assembly debugging sheets for both the Z80 and the 6809:
https://github.com/robcfg/assembly_debug_sheets/blob/main/6809/Debug%20sheet%206809.pdf
Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
1) “A gaming channel (by L.R.)” on YouTube continues to do longer play
videos of Dragon games. This week he did:
Boris the Bold:
https://youtu.be/vlM-_2PdcrY
He also did a Coco game (with artifact colours): Chambers by Tom Mix
Software:
https://youtu.be/41QCWjdL_hM
2) Tim and AJ have a request for the viewers of their Sibling Rivalry show
(which covers them playing computer and console games each week, including
the Coco). There is a voting contest for “YouTuber of the Month” that they
would like see some votes from our community. Here is the video explaining
the contest:
https://youtu.be/_PoHGZlbaxI
And a link to the video that one has to leave the comment on (it also
shows the other 4 shows that are nominated this month):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC_V8EQIj38
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Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/
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