The CoCo Nation

(November 26-December 2)
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

CoCoTALK! is becoming The CoCo Nation in the new year.
Steve Strowbridge has retired CoCoTALK! and the show will continue
under the new name and new management.

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
——————————-
Alan @ AC’s 8-bit zone released a video about installing the CocoDV on
a variety of Coco 1 & Coco 2 models:
https://youtu.be/ZztOCo-0GKI

Damon Beals in our Discord posted a webpage devoted to installing a
6309 in a Vectrex, and running Scramble modified to run in 6309 native
mode (you can see the scrolling terrain is faster/smoother, especially
on the right hand side where terrain comes in):

https://itwww.hs-pforzheim.de/daten/mitarbeiter/johannsen/vectrex_lab/projects/mc_6309/mc_6309.htm

Glen Hewlett (of various arcade transcodes fame) posted a blog post to
explain how to stream large files from the CocoSDC, including a library
of ASM routines to do so. He also points out a few things that are not
currently in the documentation; 1) a stream file must be at LEAST
79,360 bytes long, and 2) it must be padded to a 512 byte boundary;
otherwise the CocoSDC will lock up:

Streaming large files on the CoCoSDC

Allen Huffman made a blog post about a program he wrote for Laverne
Ricks back in 1987. It originally started out as a Coco Pen-Pal log and
ended up being a Paper Route database for Laverne. He goes through how
the program ran and it’s features that he wrote just he completed high
school in 1987.

https://subethasoftware.com/2022/11/30/my-1987-paper-route-program-i-wrote-for-laverne-ricks-in-lufkin-texas/
Allen has also been experimenting with the ChatGPT AI (that has been
covered this week by The Verge and other big tech websites), and is
fairly impressed with it, including it’s (sometimes partially) figuring
out BASIC, assembly and C source code. The Coco related blog posts
about his experiments:
6809 assembly:

https://subethasoftware.com/2022/12/01/chatgpt-ai-can-analyze-6809-assembly-language/
BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2022/12/01/openais-chatgpt-knows-basic/

The November episode of the Coco Crew has dropped, including a review
of Paul Thayer’s recently released CocoBan:
cococrew.org

Ron Klein has a couple of updates for the CocoPi – XRoar 1.2.719 WIP is
now available, as well as MAME 0.250. The MAME update includes Tim
Linder’s Elanco AgVision & Videotex emulation:
https://coco-pi.com/2022/11/

Floyd Resler (author of one of the “new-to-EOU” games in Version 1.0.0,
SpaceZap) posted an interesting question/poll on Facebook – How did
everyone get their first Coco/Dragon?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160322056912641/

Antonio Caballero posted a remastered box template that you can use to
replace the box for Direct Connect Modem Pack, on the Coco Facebook
group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160320838247641/

Alderson Retro Computing released a brief YouTube video showing his
Coco 3 playing GFL Championship Football II, and also his first time on
camera:
https://youtu.be/I4Q_PIMiy1c

Vintage Geek on YouTube did a preview/behind the scenes video of the of
the fist exhibit (a computer classroom) that they are setting up for
their Vintage Geek Museum in Knoxville, Tennessee (not quite open yet).
It has Coco’s prominently displayed during the presentation &
interview:
https://youtu.be/B_y5AoqkAqc

Nik Brisevac posted a picture of a 3D printed joystick/paddle
controller he got off of Thingiverse, which he has adapted to the Coco:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160325702397641/

James Ross posted an interesting poll (with over 150 votes already) –
what machine did one migrate to for daily work after the Coco? In my
case it was the TC-9, and then finally a Windows 98 PC (way after
Windows 98 was obsolete):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160325673502641/

MC-10
—–
Jim Gerrie continues his semigraphics country flags series, this time
rendering the Chinese flag and a strong political statement:
https://youtu.be/IJysPa3ZTjQ

Robert Sieg posted his Full Screen Project sprite software package for
the MC-10, including source code. This used the Gameboy Sprite
Generator software make tiles/sprites for the software package in 4×6,
8×8, 8×16, 16×16 and 32×32 resolutions.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/5558762370917206/

Dragon 32/64
————
wayland on YouTube took up the Mandelbrot Challenge 8 bit Battle Royale
Text mode:
https://youtu.be/wirvwHVokz4
He then uploaded a semigraphics version to add some color:
https://youtu.be/uaamZzfBqJU
(This is similar to a BASIC09 version I did about a year ago, on the
Coco 3 for both the 6809 and 6309. EOU version 1.0.0 will run a little
faster, too)
https://youtu.be/5HSlruKzCxk

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
Color Computer Programing has changed his YouTube channel name to TRS-
80 Retro Programing, and has release a no-commentary update video to
his “Tales of Suburbia” graphical adventure game, now in it’s second
program for Stage 2:
https://youtu.be/3cFMfi6XyHg

Jim Gerrie has released a port of the Dungeons of Doom RPG game
originally by Les Howarth, Cheryl Evans and Chris Oxlade for the 1984
“Write Your Own Adventure Games” book. The version Jim did is based on
the BBC Micro, and he added a simple 3D view using the 64×48 SG6
graphics system made by Erico Patricio Monteiro. The game lets you make
your own characters and even your own maps:
https://youtu.be/aL1-510kX3w

Pere Serrat posted the 7th Supersprite FM+ enhanced AGD games for the
Coco and Dragon. The 4 games in this pack is:
Papyrus
Sprouty
Stars
UFO
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11056
Pere also has released the first BIG PACK (a collection of all
Supersprite FM+ enhanced AGD games to day – so all 7 separate packs
combined – 28 games):
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11057
Pere also posted a ZIP file with screenshots from the original
Coco/Dragon AGD converted games, to help people select the next games
to port to the SuperSprite FM+. He also notes that any games to be
converted can not have sprites other than 16×16 – the V9958 chip on the
board only supports sprites of that size, and that he is thus working
on a list that will exclude games that can’t be ported:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3333481016911544/

Robert Sieg posted the download for his game port of Flipull, that
requires either the VMC-10 emulator or an MCX-128 card on a real MC-10
(screenshot in the comments) and can be found in the MC-10 Facebook
group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/5558938100899633/

The Games Version Comparison channel on YouTube did an interesting
video covering the evolution of games based on Robert Heinlein’s book,
Starship Troopers (unfortunately it doesn’t show any gameplay attacking
bugs – just running around the map). And it starts with the 1982 Coco
game Klendathu by Leo Christopherson:
https://youtu.be/zsnF70FAIXc

The Video Game Magazine channel on YouTube put up their “slideshow” of
Electronic Games magazine issued #1 (October 1981 issue), which
actually has a 2 page spread about the first Color Computer. Cool to
look at if you have never seen it before:
https://youtu.be/AI26yFQWX8Y?t=111
(Also, at 5:21, it has a quick review of Space Trader by Spectral
Associates for the Coco, and also a comparison of Football games,
including a screenshot of Tandy’s Coco Football at 6:12)

Ken of Canadian Retro Things put up a video last night of not one, but
two new Coco games: CocoBan (by Paul Thayer) and Jumping Joey (by Nick
Marentes). He also shows how to use the table of POKE values that Nick
put up on his Jumping Joey webpage to get the graphics of other higher
semigraphics games from the Coco 1/2 working on a Coco 3 (although text
characters will be lost):
https://youtu.be/SeDY-eggVWc

Getting Connected
=================
Join hundreds of other “CoConuts” (or is that CoConauts?) on the CoCo
Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/4J5nHXm

New to Discord? Get started quickly with this video introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2POVhc5NvQ

Learn more about everything old and new for the Color Computer by
tuning in to:

The CoCo Nation Show – a weekly Color Computer, Dragon, and MC-10 talk
live:
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The CoCo Show monthly gaming video talk show by Boat and Aaron of
Amigos Retro Gaming,

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coco-show-a-trs-80-color-computer-podcast/id1480941752

Three different CoCo groups on https://mewe.com/:
  Glenside Color Computer Group,
  Tandy Color Computer,
  TRS-80 Color Computer,

Four different CoCo and MC-10 groups on https://groups.io:
  Color Computer,
  Retro About 64K,
  CoCo3FPGA,
  MC-10,

The CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco