Special Guests today:

Mark Castleijn joined us to provide some Austrialian Tandy dealer war stories.

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:

The next live TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast (streamed live on YouTube) has
been announced: Episode 49 will be at 7 pm Eastern on May 23rd, and is
expected to last around two hours.
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk

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/

Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo is a single day event on June 20th, 2026,
starting at noon. At The Anvil Center (777 Columbia Street) in New
Westminster, BC, Canada:
https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/

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

VCF 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-SE (combined with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo) is July 31-August
2 at The Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, Georgia:
https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/

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) Julian Brown gave a quick update on his CPLD VDG replacement, where he
has some timing problems that he is working on:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4406604409599194/

2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted on the Dragon Facebook group that the source
code for the Boot ROM for the Dragon Alpha has been uploaded:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4406476476278654/
Github llnk:
https://github.com/prime6809/DragonAlphaBoot
He also posted a 3D cad version of the Drive bay Mark 2 (I think for the
same machine?):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4405546809704954/

3) Pere Serrat is looking for some help in getting OS-9 Level 2 running
on updated Dragons, on the World of Dragon archive forums:
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11355

4) Ciaran Anscomb has released Roar 1.11 (see changelog notes for what
is updated):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11354

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

1) Version 5.28 of Glen Hewlett’s BASIC to 6809 compiler has been
released, which fixes a bug with IF and 3 or more OR’s/AND’s, and
adds support for playing movie clips streaming from the CocoSDC using his
MakeNTM utility. He even shows how to call this from a BASIC program:
https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

2) Tim Lindner posted a link to some photos from VCF-PNW that took place
last weekend:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZZrQnD7rcbBKGTh9

3) R. Allen Murphy posted an article about the history of the computer
hobby movement in Canada:
https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/exhibits/show/hobby_canada/hobby_canada

4) Carlos Camacho posted some screenshots of the GUI design he is using
for a new Coco game project called Planet Miners on the Coco Facebook
group. He is writing it in CMOC:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164251167157641/
He is using the high res engine that CMOC uses, but it was pointed out by
Rich Stephens (who has been doing the Coco work for Fujinet), that there
is an updated new branch of that engine that he has added enhancements too,
with Pierre’s permission (see readme notes for what has been added):
https://github.com/RichStephens/hirestxt-mod

5) Ray Bell’s has posted a sim framework for a 6809 test suite, thanks to
a lot of help from Claude Code:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/4008408309452521/

6) Ken of Canadian Retro Things has uploaded part 6 of his creating a game
that uses the Electronic Book for input:
https://youtu.be/Am48B1UPY2c?si=8E-QDZfUD6XTBiWo

7) Coco Town has a released a new Game Revolutions episode, this time
showing how to steal memory from BASIC for his in progress Moon Patrol
style game, by reclaiming direct page for game variables:
https://youtu.be/hGKcflhIHNM?si=fZfgPwDT3qBdhfcU

8) DMS Creates released a video on YouTube showing their OSCR (Open Source
Cart Reader) that allows on to backup any retro cartridge game, including
the Coco (see the full list in the video description), using adaptors:
https://youtu.be/OqR1Gd3KiXU?si=E6MSiT5BFsu-U8Va

MC-10

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):

1) Mike Tinnes has released a Pole Position type game for the MC-10 with at
least 16K RAM expansion (should work on an Alice matching this spec too). This
is written in machine language and has the 6803 source code available:
Website including a technical description of how the game plays:
https://mtinnes.github.io/mc10-pole/
Video demo:
https://youtu.be/EyaBjgOI9c4?si=YMs-s_86PT_CMJ09

2) After delays, The 8-bit Guy’s very first Coco 3 cartridge game (Quarx,
ported by Paul Shoemaker) is now shipping:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164259475337641/

3) Jim Gerrie ported “Bee Trap” originally by Robert L. Lykins in
Compute! Magazine June 1983, to the MC-10. It runs in 4K:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzUl1t3aUZc
He also ported Word originally by Geoff Wells on April 26, 1981 and
published in Rainbow September 1982. This is a Scramble type game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ybwMmQuE_U

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