[Coco] RE: CoCo 4 - the dream continues...

[Rob Rosenbrock]

What would be the minimum level to be considered a Coco 4?

It's tempting to develop an interpreter that could load coco BASIC  
programs, either from hard drive or a genuine coco disk. This would  
have to detokenize each file and emulate the display from the  
original coco. After that, it sounds trivial to enhance BASIC by  
adding new features such as enhance resolution, multiple windows, and  
sound. (Assuming built on Windows/Mac or PC hardware.)

I'd like to see a coco board to install into the PC. This would be an  
expansion card with a 6809 cpu and a modified rom that allows the  
original coco to run in a window. (Has this been done?)

Rob

On Jun 26, 2006, at 1:57 PM, farna at att.net wrote:

> My thinking almost exactly! It's difficult to program most  
> computers now. Even if you work with the little BASIC STAMP or PIC  
> controllers you have to write the program on a PC then load into  
> the controller. That takes time, though not much. Debugging can be  
> done through an emulator before loading on the real thing. I guess  
> that does speed things up a bit, but I really liked writing and  
> debugging right on the CoCo. Type in, run, fix the errors (usually  
> a typo, but not always!) as they come up, run again. Not only that,  
> but hardware interfacing is almost impossible! On the CoCo you can  
> easily interface with the joystick ports, and even the cassette  
> relay came in handy on occasion. Then there was the cartridge port  
> also. Something simple to prgram, can be used to develop on AND use  
> as the controller, and easy to interface to without worrying about  
> letting vital smoke out of an expensive piece of equipment (the  
> worst that usually happened to a CoCo was blowing the 6809 due to the
>   lack
> of buffers, or the buffers on an interface board). That type of  
> single board computer would be a good seller! A board that emulated  
> a floppy controller and drive but held either a thumb drive or SD  
> or CF card would be a nice addition. Or even modify something  
> similar to DECB and just have an SD/CF card, or thumb drive  
> interface as the ONLY storage. Of course such a computer wouldn't  
> really be a "CoCo4" unless it was at least CoCo3 compatible. But on  
> a simpler level something more like a CoCo 2 would be enough. If it  
> had LCD drivers on board it would be even better for experimenters,  
> but then again that's getting away from CoCo compatibility.
>
> --
> Frank Swygert
> Publisher, "American Independent
> Magazine" (AIM)
> For all AMC enthusiasts
> http://farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
> (free download available!)
>
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
>> Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 11:33:00 -0400
>> From: jdaggett at gate.net
>> Subject: RE: [Coco] CoCo 4 - the dream continues...
>
>>
>> As for a market as a desktop machine there probably would not be
>> a large  market for such a product. IMHO the market would be less
>> than a 1,000 units.
>>
>> A Coco 4 has more an appeal to those with a flair for nostalgia. I
>> would think there would be a larger market if a board could be made
>> small enough to be used in embedded projects.
>>
>>
>> james
>>
>> On 24 Jun 2006 at 7:09, Bert & Peggy Schneider wrote:
>>
>>> I know it would be great to have a CoCo 4 - but has anyone does a  
>>> market
>>> survey to find out the size of the market that would warrant the
>>> development, production, and distribution of such a system?   
>>> Looking at
>>> the problem from a business angle, I bet there is a big market  
>>> out there
>>> for a multi-platform (hardware emulator) for ALL old 8 bit systems.
>>> Think about all of the baby boomers who have disposable income  
>>> now that
>>> bought the CoCo or other 8 bit systems as an older adult in the  
>>> early
>>> 80s.  They are now in retirement, and want a little piece of  
>>> nostalgia.
>>> The problem with this business model is that if there are any game
>>> cartridges, disks, and cassettes with software out there - it is
>>> probably limited.
>>>
>>> Bert
>>>
>
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco