[Coco] make-do ROM Paks

[Roger Taylor]

At 01:11 PM 9/18/2007, you wrote:
>If you're making the ROM Pak boards for prototyping it might be wise 
>to make them for a full size case, even if half of it is just perf 
>board or solid board. Just run the unused (for ROM) lines out to 
>spot lands so that a wire can soldered to them.
>
>Another idea is to just make it identical to ROM Pak boards. You can 
>always rob the case from an unused but good pak. Store the original 
>board for safe keeping, transfer the program to disk for playing.



This was one of my ideas, to take maybe 20-30 of the ugliest 
label-damaged already-mutilated CoCo ROM Paks I can find and reuse 
the cases.  There seems to be no shortage of ROM Paks or rarity 
problems getting them.  You can watch ebay every day and they keep 
popping up.  I feel that since so much working CoCo stuff has been 
thrown out by others without our knowing it, which includes mainly 
non-CoCo community members who didn't know any better, that taking 
the lowest form of CoCo software medium and giving it a new life by 
reusing the case, isn't such a bad idea, especially if a new game or 
utility is designed that makes the whole idea worthy.

This is my two cents as of today.  :)  Tomorrow, if someone comes up 
with a real cheap solution to coming up with ROM Pak cases, whether 
they are short or long, I will definately consider that over hurting 
someone's feelings that a ROM Pak is being "mutilated".    This is 
the reason I'm in search of a few trash-bound or auction-bound old 
ROM Paks.  The other reason is to dupe the board design, if needed, 
but someone has already submitted a working board design that looks 
like a winner.  So, if anyone wanted the game boards out of these 
ugly cases, I could arrange that, and the game itself would not be 
thrown in a shoebox or something.  In fact, with me having 2 young 
kids and with my 80's withdrawal here lately, I would never even 
fathom the thought of throwing away the unused part of any CoCo 
product, ever.  I've got nonworking bits and pieces of my CoCo past 
still around me here and there for this reason, the love of the CoCo.

I'm ALSO looking right now at some plastic enclosures online that 
just might work as-is, although the boards would have to be custom 
mounted using stand-offs of an unknown length, etc.  The sides of 
these cases are beveled, however.  This gives it a way cool look and 
shouldn't affect the ability to insert the pak since the sides of the 
case are still straight along the length, giving it a perfect guide 
(IF the width is right).  This is what I'm going to find out.  The 
ends of the case are removeable like some of the Radio Shack project 
cases, which means one end can be removed to expose the board, 
without cutting a hole there.  This open-end idea seems reasonable 
considering I don't expect to unload many of these home-brew items in 
the first place.  it's going to start as a persoal project and if it 
goes well, I'll see if there's any interest in what is proven to work 
great for a new ROM Pak.


-- 
Roger Taylor