[Coco] Nick's Survey results

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/14/03 11:29:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
rtaylor at bayou.com writes:

> I wouldn't dare strip down a CoCo 3.  An old 16k CoCo 2 would be 
>  perfect.  More memory will definitely
>  not hurt, either.  :)

No, let's not trash any Coco3s, at least until we get an idea of how many of 
each model Coco are really surviving out there.

As for memory, you can do amazing stuff in 16K using assembler for 8-bit CPUs.
16 MIDI channels, 128 notes per channel, that's only 2K possible notes, you 
could have almost 8 bytes for every note a MIDI system can play.

BTW, if you need spare 6800-series peripheral chips (like the 6820 or '21), 
find someone who collects and restores sold-state pinball machines (the kind 
made after mid'70s, without real bells and digit counters).  Or video games.  
These machines had NiCad batteries that typically leaked and spoiled the circuit 
board, but left many of the components salvageable.
--Mike K.