The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 332, September 30, 2023

Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

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:

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

Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown and Gameroom Expo *** ON NOW ***
https://www.pinballshowdown.com/index.html
Pinball and classic video games – sent in by James Diffendaffer

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

Dragon MeetUP 2023 : NOTE: THE LOCATION OF THIS HAS MOVED DOWN THE ROAD
TO THE CAMBRIDGE MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY,
RATHER THAN THE CENTRE OF COMPUTING HISTORY:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/71156/Dragon-Meetup-7th-8th-October-2023/
(They were doing roof repairs but they fell behind schedule and won’t be
fixed in time for the meet up).
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) First up is the success of our first Beta episode of CocoTECH (sneaking
it in just before #SepTandy ends, and already over 200 views on YouTube
alone!). We tried a dual approach, with some software and some hardware. We
also got some comments on the show and suggestions for format changes,
etc. Lets go through the ones mentioned on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/live/-BUERUCbgXM?si=8KP8xXiS-mFJ1V2y
(personal observation – since we do want it live and interactive, I don’t
think we can limit every one to 30 minutes. But we can also have pre-recorded
episodes of fixed length if the presenter so wishes. I agree with cutting
the “chatty banter” down – this is the TECH show after all – and that may
be more easily handled by having less people on the live panel (they can
be in chat instead). Maybe 1 person per project and a “moderator” who can
change the camera views and keep things on the rails as a maximum? And 2
projects maximum… maybe just one per episode would be better?
An exception might be if we do a live “class” style episode – people
following along with and doing a hardware upgrade, or going through software
or programming?

2) CocoTown has started his second series about resurrecting the Moon
Patrol clone he started in his teens. The previous series covered all the
routines he had done back in the day as a teenager. Now, he starts on bug
fixes and improvements, including changing the loader program from BASIC
to assembly, amongst other things. And bugs. Lots of bugs:
https://youtu.be/OLKpE-wkw0w?si=lEWhO9Uqs3ffX3PH

2) David Mitchell of Davy’s Retro Corner fixed up his SG-Edit (and even has
links to the source on his Github). You can use this to design screens for
the Coco, MC-10, Dragon and all of their clones. It’s an interactive web app:
Blog announcement:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/09/oops-and-grid.html
He later did an update where you can four-way scroll the screen you are
editing on:
https://davysretrocorner.blogspot.com/2023/09/we-are-scrolling.html
Web app link:
https://cheerful-cajeta-f5df82.netlify.app/

3) La Coco Strangiato on YouTube (aka Bob Emery) put up a video of him
trying to figure out how to get an SVI-CAS to work on his Coco (this is
a virtual cassette recorder replacement for retro computers from Australia):
https://youtu.be/pDE4cZge6-Y?si=1RqbbG4f9cLLQdJ6

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted a video of some changes of how he is
going to do his Coco Ultimate, including switching to PMODE 1 (to save
RAM and to get 4 colors on the screen at once).
https://youtu.be/GQfHxVrL5gk?si=Xe5CeiISc3wly6pH
He added another part about Coco Ultimate, adding player health bars:
https://youtu.be/naAcbsDYgEo?si=MPeCv12WcplAgIB6
He also did something different – Part 1 of creating a cursor based
navigable menu in Color BASIC that uses the arrow keys:
https://youtu.be/z6kxZZE6p-s?si=FlcKUPeGRFt4JPqS

5) Chris’s Retro Tech Channel put up a video for SepTandy showing the Coco
1 he picked up in a “Mega Haul” earlier this summer. He just shows what it
looks like and the condition it is in, and wondered out loud if it would
work with either/both of an RCA to Coax adapter (I tried one here awhile
ago and it seemed to work, but I was going to a flat screen TV with a
tuner built in), or if a TI-99 RF modulator would work:
https://youtu.be/Z-WWbNIyvV4?si=nEPi_28EoLwfCK3G
He did a follow up video a couple of days later, where is does have it
going to the TV. It’s Color Basic 1.1, no extended. Don’t know the RAM yet,
but I suspect 16K:
https://youtu.be/Sga8RjIsMZc?si=Smt4BGxegkCeufbl

6) Terry Stewart (tezza) of New Zealand on YouTube goes through the Coco
1 in his collection. He mentions that this is a re-upload to fix bad audio
in a previous release; not sure if that is a recent or much older version
of this video:
https://youtu.be/qXaxodHVsyo?si=j4Kwi5aSl7-tvl4-

7) Veronica Explains on YouTube did her summary of VCF-MW (she is one of
the guest spots in the 6502 song by Taylor and Amy that we covered last
week), and it shows Ken and his Coco table a few times. She even mentions
in the video description that Ken may have convinced her that she may need
to get a Coco 3… way to go, Ken!
https://youtu.be/ImKZb7Ych38?si=QtC8aXTwa9hqspfl

8) Ken of Canadian Retro Things has another #SepTandy video himself,
based on a special Coco 2 I donated to him from an ex-Coco user here in
Saskatoon. It has multiple upgrades – including a composite upgrade that
doesn’t seem to be producing colour. Will he figure it out?
https://youtu.be/fcCqUoXR1MY?si=n4uEEyiNFGKodwS0

9) TJBChris on YouTube has put up Part IV (and the final one) of his SepTandy
“TEC” (Tandy Education Connection) series, this time covering educational
software of TRS-80 Model 1/3/4 and the Coco:
https://youtu.be/8h-YqOdRMtA?si=-ZjvEaTBfWO4PeC8

10) Geek with Social Skills put up his last SepTandy for this year, doing
a memory upgrade on his Coco 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrLytiCyJX8

11) MrDave6309 has released a new video showing his sprite engine,
showing backgrounds and foregrounds that sprites can go behind or in
front of and using double buffering. He plans on tweaking it a bit more,
and then extending it to make it easy to call from BASIC:
https://youtu.be/INmlGb9bx_I?si=0lPnQxgWcQHUVd5s

12) Justin D. Morgan did a 3rd try at fixing up/upgrading his Coco 2. While
it’s still not 100%, he did reduce the yellow bar size by quite a bit
(and out of the active display area), and did get the 6309 installed:
https://www.youtube.com/live/MEojIu9M4s8?si=hvQ5KyTKMq37QZAl

13) Danniielle O’Connor posted a photo of the PONG game by Nick & Richard
Kelly running on her Coco D (Coco 3 in a Model 4 case). She is hoping to
have the Coco D completed by the end of SepTandy (today):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160928838567641/

14) For those of you who watch the show “This Week in Retro”, they are asking
people to submit Tandy related (Coco, TRS-80 B&W models, Tandy 1000-5000,
etc.) stories to their sub-reddit for this weeks question to viewers.
Current episode SepTandy part:
https://youtu.be/mQtQ9RPzwgM?si=DoW-7_CbO0rQ5A6l
Their sub-reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/

MC-10

1) Dillon Teagan posted in the MC-10 group on Facebook that someone has
developed a 2 port multipack, with 2 joystick ports and a special ROM Card
socket for game cartridges for the Alice (4K/32/90K). If that is correct, it
should work on the MC-10 as well (Alice 4K is a clone of it). Unfortunately,
it looks like it wouldn’t work with either of the MCX cards currently out
(the 128K RAM upgrade, or the 32K RAM/SD cards reader one).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/6531827416944025/
The original posts in French, including photos:
https://forum.system-cfg.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=14636&start=60&

2) Johan Koelman announced the availability of the beta of a new MC-10
emulator that runs on a ZX Spectrum:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/6526653437461423/

Dragon 32/64

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

1) Jim ported Solitaire (a single player card game, but not common Klondike
style that most people know) to the MC-10 from Compute! magazine January
1986, originally from the IBM PC by Ben Elizer and Kevin Mykytyn. The
video is over 15 minutes long, as it shows a complete game played right
through to a win:
https://youtu.be/ja2nuASkWhg?si=NDakc-pBY-kPO492
He also updated his low res Dig Dug clone for the MC-10, including some
music by Carlos Camacho. He added a timer, enemies turn white and can
travel through rock, minor speedups and adjustments to the timer length
based on level of play have been added as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160935619772641/
Video of the new game play:
https://youtu.be/RFqWvESkHbg?si=7ZjYApyGoGLe-X1c

2) Chronologically Gaming did his first coverage of a Coco specific magazine
(having covered several video game magazines as well Atari specific
magazines, etc.) on Monday’s episode. He covered the July 1982 Rainbow –
their first anniversary and the first time Lonnie considered it a “full
magazine” – full color cover, typesetting, etc.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8oHJD8dw5c&t=1913s

3) Retro Gaming Nook continues their SepTandy with another Coco game
review – this time Super Pitfall on a Coco 3. This is a longer video –
almost 45 minutes:
https://youtu.be/EnhZDx2gGak?si=1xDQreHpe5cG-IXJ

4) ExperTek (Spanish channel with an amber monitor that we have shown
before) showed Britt Monk’s / Avalon Hill’s 3-D Brickaway:
https://youtu.be/nkdWcKL4LXs?si=2s2JsoGGUkny3Qvr

5) Bruno Aubin on YouTube released video gameplay of the Inufuto games
for the MC-10:
https://www.youtube.com/@Neotenien/videos

6) The Wargaming Scribe (it’s been awhile since we have covered his
website!) has added game #111 to his “all computer wargames” page, which
is Waterloo by Ark Royal Games on the Coco, released at the end of 1983. He
does not think highly of it:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/10995
Also, I think I missed one he did back in December around Christmas time,
Bomber Command also by Ark Royal Games:
https://zeitgame.net/archives/7888

7) For the Amigos SepTandy contribution, Aaron hosts a 1 & 3/4 hour special
on “The Games of Nick Marentes”. As much as Nick would like me to play
the whole thing here on the show, I will just play a clip, and y’all can
go watch the full video and leave comments on their YouTube channel (it
covers most of Nick’s Coco games… but not all) (Nick recommends showing
a clip at 1:01 – Gunstar):
https://youtu.be/F6t_x89Vtmg?si=F-T-3qR8LJXVoyl5

8) Brian Palmer has another game typed in from Australian Coco magazines –
Pendant of Death originally by Wayne Kelly. A text adventure game with a
few graphics pictures thrown in. He wants some testers to play it and see
if he had any typing mistakes, and you can download the DSK image from
the Coco group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160935507127641/
And another from Australian Coco – Dragon Lord originally by Dennis Mellican

also available in the Coco group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160927200917641/

9) Richard Kelly has uploaded BASIC Pong version 1.11 “Retro Rick Edition”
(this you will remember was started by Nick Marentes a couple of weeks ago)
to the Coco Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160930290822641/

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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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