The CoCo Nation News Stories for Episode 329, September 9, 2023

The CoCo Nation News stories for Episode 329, September 9, 2023

Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Next week we have our interview with 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.
The interview with Doug Masten (author of The Contras) with co-interviewee
Glen Dahlgren of Sundogs Systems that was originally going to happen
on August 19 is being postponed, due to a fairly major surgery. We are
shooting for around October/November depending on doctor’s orders.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:

VCF-MidWest 2023 ( VCFMW18 ) : Elmhurst, Illinois U.S.A
SEP 09-10, 2023
https://vcfmw.org/

Utah Retro Game Swap : Layton, Utah U.S.A.
SEP 09
http://www.davisconferencecenter.com/calendars

World of Retro Computing : Kitchener, Ontario Canada
SEP 16-17, 2023
https://www.worldofretrocomputing.com/2023-worc-expo

Tandy Assembly 2023: Springfield, Ohio U.S.A.
SEP29-OCT01, 2023
http://www.tandyassembly.com/

-=- The Interim Computer Festival -=- : Seattle, Washington U.S.A.
SEP30-OCT01, 2023
https://sdf.org/icf/

Dragon MeetUP 2023 : Cambridge, UK
OCT 07-08, 2023
https://www.facebook.com/events/225011523831254

Portland Retro Gaming Expo: Portland, Oregon U.S.A.
OCT 15-18, 2023
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

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

1) Pierre Serrazin (during the show last week) announce updates to both
CMOC and the hirestxt library:
CMOC version 0.1.85:

supports function-local function prototypes;
allows a K&R prototype for a function that specifies no return type,
but only at the top level;
adds new warning options;
adds small optimizations.
HIRESTXT library version 0.4.1:
adds support for inverted colors and bold characters. This library
provides a software 51×24
or 42×24 black-on-green PMODE 4 text screen. It is available on the
CMOC page.
CMOC page: http://sarrazip.com/dev/cmoc.html

2) Our very own Bob has posted his first ever SepTandy video on his YouTube
channel La Coco Strangiato. This one the first part of a multipart series

where he replaces the Coco 3 RF modulator with an HDMI socket. No case
modifications are needed (just “lots of soldering” as Bob puts it):
https://youtu.be/Bny1oQ1gYoE?si=Q7K37TmPWeSJcpNE
And part 2 – finalizing the assembly correcting some issues with the
RGB->SCART cable, and the mode switch:
https://youtu.be/dLsf85RXy5U?si=ZwEGoEq92twaSfcc

3) MrDave6309 put up a video for SepTandy as well, doing a software sprite
demo that he wrote for he Coco 3, and shows the sourcecode with explanations
of what it is doing:
https://youtu.be/lA2U8er_A6k?si=kTnxieja-sDQuyLW
He did a second video showing editing sprite code with EDTASM+:
https://youtu.be/SRKGhadarb8?si=_AElLZWxeUETPBjj
And a 3rd showing him calling the sprite routines from BASIC:
https://youtu.be/z9Zikcg4sUM

4) Tin Lindner joins SepTandy with a video about X-Pad – the graphics
tablet that came out for the Coco 1. He shows both hardware and software
in action (the main program is completely in BASIC and from the manual
that came with the XPad):
https://youtu.be/KQ-lHSE1AaU?si=O1g3a7jqS2oiCRZD

5) 8BitBoyzRetro posted a YouTube short to give us a quick peek at his
SepTandy 2023 project – restoring a Coco 2:
https://youtube.com/shorts/2AEsXi4sziA?si=VtlOL9y6is0Y9gxJ

6) 8-Bit Retro Journal on YouTube also released a preview video for his Coco
SepTandy project – although at almost 5 minutes it’s not a short. He has also
acquired a Coco 2 – that actually was originally owned by his wife’s family:
https://youtu.be/R2SbQLfiwvk?si=OoJoN7yUZFLUjCa8

7) CocoTown has started releasing videos that he is doing as part of
SepTandy – “That old assembly language game I never finished” – which is
a Moon Patrol game he was working on as a teenager, while he was starting
to learn machine language. In the first part he recovers some old DSKS,
notes and graphic diagrams for a Moon Patrol clone he was working on,
while learning assembly language for the first time:
https://youtu.be/Xl4XKiKGDuo?si=rs7iLhtukLC2PrEQ
Part 2 is “How a naive high schooler managed sprites”:
https://youtu.be/WnHepYQR04g?si=7FI-h5k35J7q2T7U

8) AC’s 8-Bit Zone posted another SepTandy video this week – “The simplest
no-wires composite video upgrade”:
https://youtu.be/-297YiSl4lM?si=saXTBtv8mnYoVyUR
He then did a follow up to see which of the two main original composite
mods worked better: the Tandy one (usually only done for educational models)
or the Mark Data one:
https://youtu.be/kIoLVpwQ-qQ?si=ye92Fd43w8cFW6gn

9) Ron Klein has done multiple updates to the Coco Pi project the past
month, and he made a blog post to cover them all. Quick summary: ugBASIC
update Sep. 6, XRoar Snapshot 1.4.1527 update Aug. 8, CMOC 0.1.85 Sep. 6,
QB64 update Aug. 30, FreeBASIC update Aug. 30, TRS80GP emulator 1.5.1
update Sep. 5:
https://coco-pi.com/multiple-updates-to-coco-pi/

10) Davy’s Retro Corner did a few blog updates.
The first was about getting SGEdit into React – a work in progress:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/08/septandy-2023-sgedit-in-react.html
The second was about the VDG characters and state in React, and links to
his Github & Work in Progress output:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/09/characters-and-state.html
His third is called “Screen Time”, and it talks about the changes like
being able to draw on screen with both left and right mouse buttons:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/09/screen-time.html

11) YARC (Yet Another Retro Channel) (Todd Horch) on YouTube did his
first ever SepTandy video – cleaning up and upgrading a 1st gen Coco 2
(melty keyboard) with 16K of RAM is his goal for SepTandy. In this first
episode it’s all about the cleaning up:
https://youtu.be/T0FkmYyTOYA?si=vIillF43HbyBsyPy

12) Ken Waters (Canadian Retro Things) is one of many Cocoists from the
show and community who is attending VCF-MW in the Chicago area. For one
of his SepTandy videos, he goes through a sneak peak of what he will be
showing at the show:
https://youtu.be/YpGYygt0ooI?si=x9Jo075YhxwKf9TF

13) TRS-80 Retro Programing put up a video showing to find the angles
of an “irregular heptagon or any polygon”, along with PMODE 4 graphics
to demonstrate:
https://youtu.be/lCYTVr4VVPs

14) While not strictly Coco related, TJBChris did a video using the Tandy
Network 2 controller with some Model 3 & 4’s. It is supposed to work on the
Coco the same way (which he mentions during the video) but he couldn’t get
them to work. He is wondering if the newer Coco 2’s and Coco 3’s that he
tried are the issue, and that maybe only Coco 1’s would work… has anybody
tried this (or remembers even using the Network 2 with Coco’s at schools?
https://youtu.be/YMOMH-SXcVk?si=m9VYBUzbCP-0WYFx

15) Peter Cetinski announced that the next TRS-80 Trash Talk live (#35)
will on September 23 at 3 PM CST, live on YouTube on their channel. This
episode will be a Tandy Assembly 2023 preview show, and they will be going
through the tech track classes, speakers, exhibits and sponsors. The show
covers all Tandy computers, from TRS-80 Models 1/2/3/4, etc., all the
Coco’s and MC-10, Pocket Computers and the Tandy 1000-5000 line:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160890723902641/

16) Keith March posted in the Coco Facebook group that he is working on
some updates for the MM/1, for those that still have one, and the he is
posting all of this on his Github. He has done an update to the manual,
and is currently working on upgrading the Minibus to run with newer ATX
power supplies (with thanks to Pedro Pena (Rocky Hill)):
https://github.com/HomerKH19/MM1-Updates

17) Craig Marshall has posted a photo of his Tandy display for the Adelaide
Retro show in Adelaide, Australia:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160890644787641/

MC-10

Dragon 32/64

1) Ciaran Anscomb released a video showing his reproduction Dragon 64
motherboard build as part of SepTandy (kinda, as he puts it), in the form
of a timelapse video:
https://youtu.be/sxpX5VQFwbQ?si=d90ja9mLDH_vjn18

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

1) Jim Gerrie did some games this past week
Tiddleywinks was originally done by Stephen G. Toop on January 3, 1979,
and it was originally published in the September 1979 issue of Practical
Computing (a UK computer magazine) for the TRS-80 (what became know as
the Model 1). It’s a simple game where a flat surface is drawn on the
bottom of the screen with a small, randomly placed hole in it. Your goal
in the game is figure out the length (0-99) of a parabolic arc to get the
tiddleywink to fall into the hole:
https://youtu.be/xsToKJES5w4?si=81AH3pZLwPF36Dv9
He also did a major update to his “Bomb Aimer” BASIC 10 line contest
entry. Based on some testing of his previous version by his son Charlie,
Jim did the revisions – although he doesn’t mention in the comments what
those changes were:
https://youtu.be/zdfv_tVcbxw?si=eDEtO7p84BN5yikl
Another is Head-on Collision, originally from Practical Computing November
1981 issue, for the Superboard/UK101 Computer by Wynford and Jane James. It
is Joypad compatible as well, and is a Dodge ‘Em style game:
https://youtu.be/ASRX5bbp-kM?si=jG5qb–Nj9mCXhCB

2) Chronologically Gaming has been covering June of 1982 this week, and
a few Coco games have been covered:
Covering Killer Mansion for T&D, Maze Race by Tom Mix & Mercenary Force by
GOSUB (not the same GOSUB that Jeremy Spiller released Zenix and Crystal
City on a half decade later). All 3 in a row.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Ic8QwcRaWVM?si=8mDbu7Vfikeaa0s7&t=2179

3) Tim and AJ’s latest Sibling Rivalry episode cover’s Paul Thayer’s game
Timber Man for the Coco 3 (and they have a fun intro where AJ reminds me
of… me!):
https://youtu.be/ADegRAGJxak?si=icFj85671EZhkrYP

4) Mark Overholser, as part of his SepTandy efforts, has been doing Discord
live streams of testing the networking and multiplayer capabilities of
the WIP game Legends of Alcarron (main coding by Brett Gordon (the Galaxy
Server it uses) and Jay Searle, who is behind the game itself):

=======================================
Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

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