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:

VCF-East is April 17-19 at the InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall,
New Jersey. Peter Cetinski is going to be on the Podcaster’s RoundTable
panel (for the TRS-80 Trash Talk show, that does cover Coco’s in addition
to the other TRS-80 and Tandy machines):
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

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

VDF 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) Website Atari Legend published an interview with Wayne Smithson, mainly
going over his Atari ST game writing days (including things “Oh No
More Lemmings” and Lemmings 2: The Tribes, the ST port of Blood Money,
etc.). But he mentions at the beginning that first started writing games
for the Dragon 32/64. And one that has his name in the credits is Superkid
– a side scrolling arcade game with speech:
https://www.atarilegend.com/interviews/84

2) Julian Brown has received his Multipack boards, and has them for sale
for those who want to build one:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4367871726805796/

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

1) Henry Strickland uploaded a video showing his Copico-Centipede cartridge
in action, which spies on the Coco Bus and ogs everything it is doing. It
shows a real Coco 2 running, and the Centipede provides 64K RAM, Disk BASIC
ROM to the Coco that has neither. It uses some techniques that Tormod’s
earlier MOOH upgrade has, including a VDG corruption issue shared by both:
https://youtu.be/qhJz52A-AZA?si=N2qt1cD3Ngq4-BmJ

2) Allen Huffman’s new blog entry is about the last time that he saw
Steve Bjork, before Steve passed in 2023. This takes place back in 2018:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/10/the-last-time-i-saw-steve-bjork/
He also did an entry explaining the CLS 100 Easter Egg found in the ROM
of the Coco 3:
https://subethasoftware.com/2026/04/07/cls-100-coco-3-easter-egg-explored/

3) Fabian Rodriguez’s seminar from VCF-Montreal, titled “From Coco to
Community: The Color Computer Then and Now” is now up on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/lAwkCKuSn4o?si=ZslFwTPVccBEkPJn

4) AuroJackal on YouTube posted a video about loading programs on a Coco
using Bluetooth and the cassette cable:
https://youtu.be/f1R7UfQ9e9k?si=0u7OFlZRlRFMGPah

5) Ken (Canadian Retro Things) posted a video about an RF to HDMI converter
he got to try on his various retro systems, including the Coco. It works
better than he expected:
https://youtu.be/dewI2TFsnDE?si=qS4NC4JV8xXOB9VL

6) Don Sorenson showed his solution for adding an HDMI port to the Coco
for either the GIME-Z (Coco 3) or CocoDV (Coco 1/2):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164126051642641/

7) Rich Stephens posted a Julia fractal drawing program to the Coco group
on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164115812942641/

8) Thomas Cherryhomes posted in the Coco group on Facebook that Robert
Gault’s DWPRINT patch (tying BASIC’s printer output to DriveWire) does
work with Fujinet:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164113491332641/

9) If you are in the Coco groups files section, Brian Palmer has uploaded
multiple DSK images that draw Coco 3 graphics, originally written by David
Dyson for Australian Coco magazines:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/files/files

MC-10

1) Jim Gerrie ported “Satellite” from the Atari to the MC-10:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/930345473184343
He also ported a Commodore graphic of the Mona Lisa:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/26197231619976979/

2) Walter Miraglia (I think he was on the Coco and/or Fidonet echoes back
in the day) posted photos of an internal 32K RAM upgrade – that works with
video as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/26174742945559180/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

1) Chronologically Gaming goes through the 1983 Electronic Games magazine
Buyers Guide (published at the end of 1982), which does mention the
Coco. At the end of the episode, he goes through the best games of 1982
(all platforms – home computer, arcade, console, electronic tabletops,
etc.), and Donkey King is one of the best, rated at 5 out of 5 stars:
https://youtu.be/dTEZDnGoY-A?si=2FqzxEeTWMQdYTI3&t=4061

2) Paul Cunningham has released the first public beta of his Coco version
of the classic Space Warp game for the original TRS-80, which is a clone of
classic Star Trek games. But Paul has enhanced his version with graphics &
animations, and some realtime shooting elements with different kinds of ships:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164122647587641/
Download link:
https://ugufru.itch.io/space-warp/devlog/1485389/space-warp-v094-preview-available-now
Video of game in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfSX1aR2k7I

3) Jim Gerrie ported “Tomb of Terror”, originally by Bob Cockroft in
1984 for the Canadian Atari magazine called “ROM”, Volume 1 issue 4 from
February 1984. He used an ML draw routine by Greg Dionne in SG6 graphics
mode (64×48) to speed up the low resolution 3D wireframe style graphics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iZF7xogjM
He also updated his port of Manbiki Shounen (Shoplifting Boy) by Hiroshi
Suzuki, originally published in the February 1980 issue of RAM magazine
for the Commodore PET, and written in 1979. He added 3 kill levels and
fixed up some of the animations:
https://youtu.be/oNCyxUTAFIc?si=Yf9wkmP_-bO87T2K
Download link is in the YouTube video description

4) David Murray, The 8-Bit Guy, posted an update to the cartridge version
of Quarx (a conversion to the Coco’s and Dragons of David’s C64 based game,
similar to Gems on the Coco 3). The latest prototype boards worked. He
mentioned that they will be ordering 100 boards, and that 28 copies have
already been pre-ordered. He should be shipping by the end of April:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164122781572641/

5) Spriteworx posted a quick video titled “Alien Incursion in the
Grid!”… With some guest images that we are familiar with:
https://youtu.be/h_UdplpU24U?si=SMOBxBQBX7pboGVw

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