[Coco] Color Computer 3 Easter Eggs

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that Arthur Flexser may have mentioned these words:
>I can add one tidbit to the interesting stuff that is there.  I had access 
>to a
>preliminary version of the CoCo 3 ROM code, and the 3 mugateers picture 
>and the
>code to bring it up on ctl-alt-reset weren't in that, even though the other
>Easter Eggs brought up by CLS were.

It begs the question: How much memory did the picture actually take? With a 
bog-simple RLE compression scheme, the picture shouldn't take 6K (as the 
story alleges)... I'm guessing that it's a PMODE4 pic.

Also, where Tandy said they were upset about the extra RAM used, that 
sounds 'odd' too - they allege that a 2K masked ROM cost a lot less than an 
8K masked ROM, but it's a 32K ROM in it, isn't it? To start adding 2K ROMs 
into the memory map would've: 1) increased the pin/chip count, thereby 
increasing the cost of the board itself (to the point of diminshed returns, 
maybe?) and 2) possibly increased the board size.

Mind you, I've never had the ROM chip out of my CoCo3 (altho that might 
change soon - I have a _very_ good desoldering gun now. ;-)

>In the same section of code, there is also a little-known (undocumented?)
>feature that reverses the PMODE 4 artifact colors if you press reset and (I
>think) F4.

I think that would've been either F1 or F2 - unless you're counting ALT 
and/or CTRL as F3/F4.

Ah well, back to work. ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers |     Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com          |