Interview schedule:

Not scheduled yet, but Logan Ward and Britt Monk have agreed to come on
the show.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:

CocoFest 2026 is April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting this past
week. And hotel rates are locked in now (see post on Glenside website). Table
reservations are open now too. Holiday Inn & Suites Carol Stream, IL:
https://www.glensideccc.com/

That same weekend is the first official Latin American VCF, which takes
place April 24-26 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina:
https://vcf-espaciotec-com-ar.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus,
and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila,
Washington:
https://www.vcfpnw.net/

The Brazil Color Computer Club has announced that their 10th meeting is
on May 2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/25741764422191262/

That same weekend is the next online live International Computer Club show
on the Twitch and YouTube channels for the Amigos. There has been Coco
content on there before; will there be this year? 7 guests have already
been booked as of this week. It starts at 4:30 pm EST on May 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

VCF-SW (Southwest) is at a slightly different date this year (May 29-31)
because of the Soccer championships, and is happening at the Westin
Dallas Forth Worth Airport. This is of course where Tandy/Radio Shack was
headquartered, so expect some alumni to be popping by!
https://www.vcfsw.org/

Retro Fest in the UK is running May 30-31st at the STEAM Museum of
Great Western Railway in Swindon, 10 am to 5 pm both days, and there is
confirmation that a Dragon Fujinet rig will be shown at the show:
https://www.retrofest.uk/

The International Retro Computer Expo 2026 now has tickets available (this
was formerly BoatFest, ran by the Amigos – John, Aaron and Brent) for
their retro show happening July 10-11 (Friday/Saturday) (July 9/Thursday
vendors can set up in the evening). This is a general retro show for old
home computers, consoles and more, with gaming highlighted:
https://www.ticketsource.com/ircexpo2025/international-retro-computer-expo-2026/2026-07-10/09:00/t-qmjplra

VCF West is August 1-2, 2026 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain
View California, and there are a few local Coco people that may attend:
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

VCF-MW (Midwest) is September 12-13 at the Schaumburg Convention Center
in Schaumburg, Illinois (west of Chicago proper):
https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly dates and new venue have been announced on Facebook. Oct
2-Oct 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at the Cincinnati Airport:
https://www.facebook.com/events/896272716427805/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The 2nd VCF Montreal dates have been announced, and they have moved a few
months ahead to avoid the dead of winter (it was in January earlier this
year; the next one is November 7-8 this year as well):
https://cvcfed.org/vcf-montreal-2-0/

NEWS:

Dragon 32/64

1) Julian Brown posted an update to his Rev 3 design with incorporates a
SAMX8, up to 2 MB of RAM with 4 tasks, etc.:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4376875969238705/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted an update to some replacement boards he has
made for the very rare Dragon Professional:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4372885676304401/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)

1) Glen Hewlett posted a blog to compare speeds between Coco 3 BASIC and
his compiler:
https://nowhereman999.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/basic-compiler-quick-speed-comparison/

2) CocoTown returns with a different type of episode – going through
how Disk BASIC and the disk controller works, and then hacking around in
the Disk BASIC ROM’s to eliminate the HALT and NMI code. It works…
but there is a catch:
https://youtu.be/Lpn_-Y6nwDc?si=GZrvNS3lBbm1BPpy

3) Glen Hewlett has released version 5.27 of his BASIC-TO-68099 compiler,
with the following updates:
V 5.27
• Fixed the addition of 8 bit values now always results in a 16 bit
result, to avoid overflows
• Fixed the subtraction of 8 bit values always now results in a 16
bit signed result
• Changed Palette handling, Palette now updates the hardware palette
immediately
• Added PaletteW command that changes the Palette Mirror value
• Added PaletteV command that changes the palette Mirror value and
copies all 16 palette values from the mirror to hardware
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

4) Keith Frechette released his “first deployment milestone” for his
SAL4LWTOOLS utility in the Microsoft store:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164153750267641/

5) David Collins released a version of David Dunfields 6809 toolkit,
compilable under Linux. Includes C compiler, assembler, macro processor
and linker:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164134866842641/

6) Michael Pittsley posted in the Coco Facebook group that he is looking
for some Coco databased software and/or documentation – namely, the manual
for VIP DataBase III, and Profile III/Profile+ for OS9 (both software and
documentation). Neither are on the archive; has anyone got these?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164139002407641/

7) In response to an earlier question in the Coco Facebook group, Dim
Cave Software released the assembly source for a Coco program to add two
numbers and print the result in text on the Coco screen, with comments,
for Disk EDTASM+:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164145255737641/

8) Brian Palmer posted a screenshot of some graphics he drew using the
Coco 3 BASIC and DATA statements:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164148807577641/

9) Paul Cunningham released an program that demonstrates animated flames
in SG4:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164150705087641/

10) Simon Jonassen released a .CAS version of his own flames demo, done
in assembly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164153129622641/

11) Luc Dion put up a Facebook post in the Coco group showing Cedric
Beaudoin’s ESP32 Coco machine in action, that we have been discussing for
some weeks now (can mute sound on this one):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164151120242641/

12) Electronics Abuse on YouTube put up a video showing the Color Doodle
program for the Coco 3, that was a type in from the Coco 3 BASIC manual:
https://youtu.be/8paJyOf9z4g?si=HsROlY0n2vI407z4

13) AllRobotics Channel on YouTube did a 5 part series “Radio Shack TRS-80
Color Computer Reborn” in Spanish about his old Coco 1 (the last 64K White
model with the melty keyboard), that he “upgrades” to a modern machine:
Part 1 (going through the hardware):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuWmsfq-DRs
Part 2 (where he starts using Coco parts with modern hardware, including
an ESP32, a modern laptop keyboards, etc):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmKmL_YQmws
Part 3 (where he gets the modern keyboard, deluxe joystick working and
spiffed up as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB6wX1c9BTo
Part 4 (Deluxe joystick with adapter):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJVIraIeFw
Part 5 (OS install – Linux, Commodore OS Vision) (maybe went too far with
this one? Lol):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqXmjuCHAQ

14) Luc Dion posted a survey in the Coco Facebook group – Would one do
retrobriting, etc. on an old Coco, or leave it as is?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/?sorting_setting=CHRONOLOGICAL

15) Don Sorensen showed some admins for his Coco system, including nice
small Atari joystick adapters:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164138394312641/

16) A Japanese YouTube channel has a brief history of OS-9: (the Coco is
mentioned briefly as well)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR5YENrpcvU

MC-10

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

1) Chronologically Gaming continues with all video games from December 1982,
and he covered both Inspector Clueseau from Petrocci Freelance Associates &
Laser Tank Duel from Renaissance Game Designs for the Coco:
https://www.youtube.com/live/InGxkDAlNZY?si=4mdqVfJmg75bTJ2b

2) I missed several Coco gaming videos by Tim & AJ on their My Drunk
Sibling YouTube channel over the last month (thanks a lot, YouTube!):
Coco 3 BASIC Yahtzee (I think this was a freeware game early in the Coco
3’s life) – Nick Marentes, you should respond to them lol):
https://youtu.be/pljf-K6w6is?si=qnRo4CXVKw1dGt_j
Tetra by Brian O’Neill – another free download back in the day:
https://youtu.be/fUbZFRJdp8A?si=mnaxTxl3QVoCI7zO
Bonk by Joseph Cheek – a Coco 3 bustout game written in BASIC09 for the
Coco 3:
https://youtu.be/5ocmfrL9gRY?si=MXpUUhG5JpWyktOu

3) Paul Cunningham has released an AI version of Pong he wrote that
plays itself:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164135142097641/
XRoar online version:
https://pcunningham.works/coco/pong.html
He also released a live stream game demo and updated version 1.0 of his
Space Warp adaptation from the TRS-80 Model 1 to the Coco 1/2:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164146111382641/
Download page:
https://ugufru.itch.io/space-warp
Video preview stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYV7HdRvj8I

4) Nostalgic Gamer on YouTube did a video showing The Tom Mix Software/Chris
Latham game Sailor Man, a great Popeye clone, with lots of custom
configuration options:
https://youtu.be/wwEa4AF6_ng?si=oKEPVjGDob3MWIj6

5) Jim Gerrie ported “Yuureisen”, a text adventure by Y. Kume in 1982:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADIAa7lXU2s

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