The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 311, May 6, 2023
The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 311, May 6, 2023
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle
NOTE: Episode 310 during CoCoFEST! did not include a news segment.
BONUS links for those reading this from the Coco Discord: Some photos and
videos from CocoFest:
Antonio Caballero video montage:
https://youtu.be/FCBLjhkPoTo
Antonio Caballero photos on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160619782602641/
Ron Delvaux took quite a few:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/487282281640389/posts/1888853381483265/
David Kroeker:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160614690567641/
Alex Macomber has a couple:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160612313337641/
John Laury has one with the Amigos:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160611666802641/
Glensides Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/glensideccc/posts/10160799687111163/
Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
1) Color Computer Programing has put up 6 new videos the past few weeks
showing the progress with the Coco Ultimate game that he is working on
(a BASIC Ultima style game). I will highlight just a couple here:
Ultimate Party of 4 vs. 4 snakes:
https://youtu.be/_IM7w3_aQ8E
Ultimate Overworld (with a cool animated beach):
https://youtu.be/WkCTCOQZz10
2) Coco Crew episode #95 is out, including a review of CocoFest 2023 &
Kung-Fu Dude:
http://cococrew.org/
3) Henry Reitveld posted a picture of what he calls his “FrankenCoco”,
which includes a Xerox drive system that he got at the CocoFest auction. He
did some part swapping, and it now has 2 half height 3.5″ drives, a half
height 5.25″ drive and a SCSI hard drive all in one enclosure:
https://imgur.com/a/uaxWheF
4) Allen Huffman has started blogging a multipart series on the Coco Disk
BASIC disk structure. In this first entry he both goes through the low
level sector format (including things like the CRC bytes), and also the
DECB higher level file and FAT (File Allocation Table) formats.
https://subethasoftware.com/2023/04/25/coco-disk-basic-disk-structure-part-1/
He also earlier did a blog post about writing BASIC easier using Python
scripts by Alex Evans. He gives some warnings of certain words that you
can not use in variable names etc. as they won’t work in BASIC:
https://subethasoftware.com/2023/04/18/write-basic-easier-with-alex-evans-python-scripts/
5) Glenn Hewlett has released the sourcecode to his Robotron:2084
transcode/emulation for the Coco 3 on his github page. It should be mentioned
that some of the “bugs” he was trying to track down are actually in the
original arcade game. Some sound samples are still missing though:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/ROBOTRON_CoCo3
6) Hot on the heels of CocoFest 31 two weeks ago, the Clube Color Rio
in Brazil ran a week after, and Daniel Campos posted pictures from it on
the Coco Facebook group, including even an early prototype of one of the
Brazilian Coco clones:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160630490807641/
There is also an 8 minute video showing a bit about the show (in Portuguese):
https://youtu.be/Av1Mg9mwQ7Q
7) Jim Brain attended the Indy Classic retro computer show in Indianapolis
the week after CocoFest, and posted some pictures on Facebook (including
his table with some Coco’s on display):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160626296247641/
8) James Maxwell has started posting a lot of scans of program listings
and documentation that his father had for his Coco on Facebook and his
Google drive:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160619727512641/
Google Drive:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfX-TwXP9vAeD1y93smwYHlJuTDp0lQjV4WRobECPXv4IWGgW1uR6cn3AXK3VZgA?key=bmxKclFLblVSRVMyQzVGaXJWRkFyTU5PWVB2YW1R
9) Retro Islander posted a show and tell of his Coco related computers,
books and magazines on his YouTube channel just before CocoFest:
https://youtu.be/1kj-l26O85c
10) Ron Klein posted on the Coco Pi website that MAME 0.254 is now available
as an update. This contains a fair number of updates to the Coco floppy
disk drivers & ROM’s available:
https://coco-pi.com/new-mame-0-254-package-available-for-coco-pi/
11) Gadget Reboot on YouTube put up a video of his making a Coco EPROM
Cartridge based on publicly available designs:
https://youtu.be/7ILHTM3gZes
12) Computer Hobbyists (Dave) on YouTube put up an 8 minute video of
CocoFest:
https://youtu.be/EK27aijipqM
13) Eric Canales announced the first Alpha version of 6dev09, his IDE
that handles both BASIC and assembly language and automatically makes
DSK images for emulators like MAME to test your code. It includes themes,
automated installation of things like MAME and LWTOOLS, etc. I think it
also supports both 6809 and 6309:
https://www.playpi.net/
14) Coco Town on YouTube did an animation of a famous PMODE 4 mathematical
picture from the Coco, but made an animation of it (using various parameters)
by capturing frames from XRoar as each drawing was rendered:
https://youtu.be/VVebs8UciwQ
He also did a video showing how he used Drivewire (with a cable he received
from Cloud9) to backup his old floppies in 2 parts:
Part 1 (setting up Drivewire and backing up real floppies to drivewire
drives):
https://youtu.be/ap2resm30Fw
Part 2 (splitting up single files to separate drivewire disks, with delving
into Drivewire 4, the Becker Port and multiple instances):
https://youtu.be/E4g8dRdcUoI
15) The Taylor and Amy Show did their CocoFest wrap video… with a couple
of lame Canadian guests (ok… one lame guest plus Ken):
https://youtu.be/6MJdkthucuQ
16) Justin D. Morgan did an almost 3.5 hour live stream video on his VCF
East 2023 consignment/free pile & thrifting pickups… which included a
64K Coco 2 with a Speech/Sound Pak. The Coco works:
https://www.youtube.com/live/UErN9GPQuk8?feature=share&t=5043
17) The Vintage Geek Museum in Knoxville, Tennessee is now open to the
public for tours that you can phone in to schedule (full open to the walk
in public will be a little later). Ken and I had the opportunity to see it
before the opening on April 25th, and we interviewed Aaron Ishamel for Ken’s
channel (and Aaron interviewed us as well). It has a cool “Coco classroom”
set up, although the Network II controller wasn’t working properly when
we were there:
https://youtu.be/E_6vJGisfKY
Aaron also just released a video this morning showing the 3 of us
experimenting with Tandy’s Electronic Book (first time for any of us!):
https://youtu.be/w1k4TVsBz5s
18) Bob Emery (La Coco Strangiato on YouTube) showed a YUV to an RGB ->
HDMI adaptor for a Coco 1/2, including artifact color support:
https://youtu.be/_65X4UgN1gQ
19) Verne’s Misadventures on YouTube has added a 2 part video about
upgrading his Coco 2:
Part 1 – Adding Extended BASIC and upgrading the RAM:
https://youtu.be/qN4gz57xUXI
Part 2 – Setting up and learning to use the CocoSDC (and SDC Explorer):
https://youtu.be/B2tRJPBayjM
20) David Mitchell (Davy’s Retro Corner) released a video of the GFX Spring
Demo running in PMODE 4 on a Coco 1/2 (he also did a low res version for
the MC-10 – we will get to that in a bit). This originally appeared in
the book Terrific Games for Your Tandy Color by Hal Renko & Sam Edwards,
although David did some minor updates:
https://youtu.be/JXpIfds7NgU
21) Our very own Ken of Canadian Retro Things put up a video of our trip
to CocoFest 2023 – and beyond!
https://youtu.be/gTTMHQJX7kM
22) TJBChris posted a video about the latest CocoSDC firmware and SDC-DOS
upgrades:
https://youtu.be/uhe-1lVpjjk
MC-10
1) Jim Gerrie is working on a BASIC game for the MC-10 called “Bomb Aimer”
that he plans on entering in the next BASIC 10 liner contest with (and he
has the WAV file available in the Coco and MC-10 Facebook groups):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XF1tu8Y6-8&ab_channel=JimGerrie
He also typed in the MicoWord simple word processor for the MC-10 that
was originally written for the MC-10 by Tino Delbourgo for the October
1984 issue of Australian Coco magazine:
https://youtu.be/gKPfcwsdEYc
Jim also released a program for the MC-10 to make intro screens that
originally appeared in Australian Coco magazine from Dec. 1984, called
Mico Magic:
https://youtu.be/ZmGOeygHWss
He also ported “Computer Olympics” originally by Stephen Manes & Paul
Somerson from the 1984 book “Computer Olympics”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APRkYbVs0Y8&ab_channel=JimGerrie
2) Giving Jim competition these days is David Mitchell (Davy’s Retro Corner
on YouTube), as he put out several MC-10 videos & downloads himself. This
is the non-game related one:
Spring GFX Demo (originally from “Terrific Games For Your Tandy Color”
by Hal Renko & Sam Edwards (download link in YouTube description), and
converted to SG4 & the MC-10 by David:
https://youtu.be/rVoNzc1AcDc
3) Robert Sieg posted a rather interesting ebay find – a supposed Tandy
MC-10 Diagnostic cartridge with instructions… with an asking price of
$1500. Some of the comments suggest it may not be a real thing; does anyone
know of this item?
Original Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/6034598726666899/
Ebay entry (if it still works by showtime):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234991213220?hash=item36b6915aa4%3Ag%3AUr4AAOSwhhxkSMcA&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwMKYhQHhXd4E2OSJZMxP2vVkPILtck9ihfUaEBPjsmglcSvc752RYeZNNkQVOhkhhaffeMgS0lyPmrFKX%2FdiPm6zH3WVh9SLRn7idqT2hO%2BY7sOA1sPYF%2Bh7xYI4jkJxOmKIWUq1NQSV3x1YWQpAwgvTmaAMOl%2BAM1cBgPUALN3t8Qwkeno8GqbhIHi5m6bylW2%2Fbv17210RcQfDTWwI6ogr5gVtI1Nws4bwoi8%2BWeHlfGH7lXHiAxDrzMbnnQd09A%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8qB-O_6YQ&
If not, load ‘mc10diagnostic.png’ from my desktop
4) Robert Sieg posted some graphic images using a 24 bit BMP to 2 bits/pixel
converter he has done (with some inbetween stages) for the MC-10 – the
last stage actually runs on the MC-10:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/6012204218906350/
And earlier, he showed a 16 color to 4 color MC-10 picture conversion
as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/6003540146439424/
Dragon 32/64
1) Wayland in the World of Dragon forums posted pictures of his adapting
the original arcade Defender panel (with controls) that he uses with XRoar
running Glenn Hewlett’s Defender emulation/transcode for the Coco 3:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11087
2) Wayland also upgraded one of his Microdeal joysticks to use a larger,
more arcade style button (the original had a very small button that I can
see would almost put a permanent dent in one’s finger):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11086
3) John Whitworth announced that Supersprite FM+ board kits are now available
again for the Coco and Dragon from the Dragonplus Electronic online store:
https://www.dragonplus-electronics.co.uk/product/supersprite-fm-6×09-for-dragon-and-coco-computers/
He also posted that he has managed to aquire a batch of the ALPS short stem
keyswitches that were used in Dragon 64 keyboards (and some Dragon 32’s),
if you need to replace any:
https://www.dragonplus-electronics.co.uk/product/dragon-64-alps-keyswitch-skcc0001-short-stem/
4) David Mitchell (Davy’s Retro Corner on YouTube) put up a new enhanced
version of the Whirlpool graphics demo (adding color) that originally was
by Clive Gifford in the 1983 book “Games for Your Dragon”:
https://youtu.be/Y9-37ixsXUc
5) Just Jamie on YouTube put up an 8 minute video: “The Easiest Dragon
Emulator Tutorial 2023″, which shows how to get XRoar with Dragon 32
emulation up and running quickly:
https://youtu.be/ZN64ket0_fY
Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
1) Pere Serrat & Kees von Oss have uploaded the next AGD game pack
(converted from the Spectrum) to the World of Dragon archive, both for
the Coco and Dragon. Pack #61 has 8 new games:
Bola Ke Ase
Chopper Defence
Cocaine Bear
Gherbert Groundhog in Save the Date
Mr. Hair’s A Very Hairy Remix
Mr. Hair and the Kitty Katacombs
Janky Joe
Yokai Monk
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11082
(Please note: one of the games needed a bug fix if you already grabbed
these from their initial release):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11084
He has also updated the “Big Pack” series to V3.2a. This is a complete
pack of all the games for those just starting to get into the AGD converted
games, and includes all 354 games converted to date:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11083
Pere also released the Supersprite FM+ enhanced AGD games pack #8, which
adds 8 more AGD converted games that take advantage of extra color, hardware
sprites and enhanced sound that the Supersprite board provides. One of
the games is a patch to an earlier one, so there are 7 new games added:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11088face
2) Jim Mullis posted a new video showing his further progress for the Coco
3 game he is working on that is in BASIC using the GrafXpress subroutine
package from Sundog Systems (which includes much faster graphics, sprites,
windowing, multi-voice music, etc.). This includes a new intro screen
and a few screens of side scrolling city terrain and some “place holder”
graphics masked onto the background. He posted a more full explanation of
what he is showing on Facebook:
Text (read during showing of video if possible):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160627195492641/
Video:
https://cocodevelopment.tinytake.com/msc/ODE3NDQyNl8yMTM3NDM4NA
3) Paul and Tim Thayer (The Coco Bros – we missed you at CocoFest!) have
released a new game called LIT on Facebook, even featuring an instruction
page as if it were an article in Rainbow magazine:
Instruction page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160626655212641/
Download:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160641062327641/
Sample video of game play:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160638639277641/
4) The Coco Show episode 43 from John & Aaron (which was recorded live at
CocoFest – sorry about the poor audio, but it’s better than the original
stream by far, and hopefully there is an even better audio version being
worked on) is out, featuring Whirlybird Run:
https://youtu.be/zUvNecPli-4
5) David Mitchell (Davey’s Retro Corner on YouTube) put up Night Rally
for the MC-10, originally from “Games for Your Dragon” by Clive Gifford
in 1983. The game is inspired by the 1970’s arcade game Night Driver:
https://youtu.be/elc9oq79UsY
And he also did an updated version of Night Driver for the Dragon 32:
https://youtu.be/yiNcpg9vLew
And Yeti Hunt (which he originally did in 10 lines of BASIC for the Coco /
Dragon in 2019… but now more than 10 lines).
https://youtu.be/kK2A-OstywA
David also did a blog post update on his MC-10 endeavors as of late:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/04/
He also updated Polar Attack:
https://youtu.be/QMc2r4Chbgo
And Robot Arm Grab:
https://youtu.be/Rwsm77aOEVQ
Speed Trek:
https://youtu.be/zAR4mvS8Bg8
6) Jim Gerrie ported a game with some simple AI techniques for the MC-10
called “Even Steven”, originally by Paul Ruiterman in 1985 for the magazine
“ZX-Appeal”:
https://youtu.be/mcIurgBTg30
He also posted a video for Pharoah’s Tomb (inspired by Tutankham in the
arcade) – It thought that we had seen this before, but maybe it’s updated
or compiled? (Or I am remembering wrong)
https://youtu.be/8YWjkDsErXw
And Dracula’s Castle, originally by Felix Software for the Dick Smith
VZ-200 in 1982:
https://youtu.be/-0ZH8cdeT-E
And an recode/update to his conversion of Space Mouse, originally by
Takanari Suzuki in 1981. He also did a blog on this particular conversion.
Game play video:
https://youtu.be/1MtSh7XF7Xg
Blog entry:
http://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2023/05/space-mouse-by-takanari-suzuki-1981.html
7) Allan Turvey (HappyCodingZX on the Amigos Discord) has released, with
a collaboration with Pere Serrat of AGD game conversion fame, his version
of Asteroids for the Dragon and Coco, based on his previous version for
the ZX Spectrum:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3443575929235385/
Video Demo:
https://youtu.be/2TA2htFwsD0
You can purchase both the Dragon/Coco and Spectrum versions for $4.99 USD
on his itch.io page:
https://highriser.itch.io/asteroidsrx
8) Pippos34 Be on YouTube showed a video playing the Coco 3 game Catacomb
by L. Miller around 1987/1988 (I remember it being a free download on
Compuserve). Unfortunately it seems to be showing the wrong monitor type,
but you can still see how the game plays:
https://youtu.be/fZmREREg4PM
9) Matt Flin on YouTube did an hour long video covering Coco games from
A-Z in alphabetical order (after an intro roll), showing each game for
around 5-10 seconds). It includes 3rd party and Tandy games for the Coco
1/2, and a large number of them. Might give Ken and Sloopy some ideas for
upcoming game on challenges:
https://youtu.be/s6T3oxg93sU
10) And of course, Chronologically Gaming has been busy the past few
weeks, now up to the start of March 1982. Some of the Coco games from
January-February 1982 that he has covered since that last gaming news
segment are:
Cave Hunter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlshNuezcPY&t=1298s
Block Buster, Blockade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDBNbWRDQk&t=804s
Laser Star/Helo Battle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQtpn4Vuysc&t=300s
Voyager I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5nIoEZVedI&t=1477s
Bleep:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UnubVO6528&t=999s
Anti Ballistic Missile Command:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHR52eFB0hs&t=1483s
Moon Lander 1 and 2, Space Zapper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELEiKKYGQVE&t=38s
11) The Only way is Cuthbert, GA (another rename for this channel) has
some more longer play videos of various Dragon games, including photos
of the original artwork and tape labels (mute sound, as usual of late,
TV is running full volume in the background):
https://www.youtube.com/@MaryWinstead32/videos
12) Retr0rewind (not associated with RetroRewind.ca in any way that I
know of) on YouTube did a Dragon 32 gameplay Livestream special on April
- Note that he is not that familiar with the Dragon, and neither is any
of the people who were in his chat, so some of our UK viewers may want to
go and leave some comments 🙂 :
https://www.youtube.com/live/WeiOR-2khJ8?feature=share
13) agamingchannelbyLR on YouTube also added new Dragon game play videos
(look for ones released the past few weeks):
https://www.youtube.com/@agamingchannelbyLR/search?query=dragon
14) Coco Town on YouTube put up a video on how to use an XBox controller
with Coco games in the XRoar emulator, and a trick in Buzzard Bait:
https://youtu.be/b_Z-VreEx80
15) Tim & AJ’s latest Sibling Rivalry episode #81 (great to meet AJ for
the first time at the Fest!) features Moon Lander on the Coco – One of
Chris Latham’s (of Donkey King and Sailor Man fame) first commercial Coco
games – Moon Lander from Tom Mix Software. Tim at the beginning even does
a bit of a dramatic explanation of the game goals at the beginning:
https://youtu.be/zde4txsvo2Q
=======================================
Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/
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