[Coco] Japanese PC Game in CoCo Style?

[Joel Ewy]

Andrew wrote:
> I think my "japanese friend" found the author's homepage -
> unfortunately, it is in japanese as well:
> ...
> He noted on this page (and if you look around the site you will see
> what I mean) that maybe the game was written for something called a
> PC-6001 ... some more searching brought me this:
>
>   http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=177
>
> And there is the answer to this mystery - alas, not a CoCo - darn.
>
> However, the PC-6001 did use an MC6847 compatible video chipset,
> which, along with 3.8 Mhz Z-80 compatible CPU plus three audio
> channels via a General Instruments AY-3-8910 - kinda makes it a
> machine more on par with an NES/Famicom, than a CoCo.
>
> Once again proving that the Japanese always have the better stuff long
> before we can get our hands on it (why is that?!)...
>
> Challenge:
>
> Can we create a similar game on arguably worse hardware (I still say
> YES)...?
>
Arguably?  I'll argue that point!  :)  According to old-computers.com
the PC-6001 had 16-32K of RAM.  The CoCo easily meets or exceeds that
capability.  I think one could make a case that the 6809 is a generally
superior processor to the Z-80.  Comparing a 3.8 MHz Z-80 to a .89 MHz
6809E is apples and oranges of course, but I think the 6809 generally
gets more done per clock cycle than the Z-80.  Still, that's a pretty
big gap in clock rates, so the 6001 might have a slight edge in raw
CPU.  I'll bet Sockmaster could give us a pretty good comparison, given
his experience with the Donkey Kong translation.  But the 6809 may still
make up some ground in sophistication that it loses in RPM.  We can MUL,
doggone-it.  And a 64K CoCo might find opportunities to trade storage
space for speed in ways that a 32K 6001 couldn't.

For graphics, it looks like they are at a dead tie, unless the chip in
the 6001 has a few enhancements that the stock 6847 doesn't.  So they
can't boast better graphics.  It looks like the CoCo's only real
deficiency in comparison to the PC-6001 is in its sound hardware.  But
the sound chip in the 6001 is (I believe) a subset of the chip in the
Radio Shack Speech and Sound Cartridge.  So if you are lucky enough to
have one of those, the 6001 has basically nothing on the CoCo.  If the
6001 has better hardware than the CoCo, it's marginal -- maybe a little
more raw CPU for some purposes, and better built-in sound, though a CoCo
expansion betters it with an improved version of the sound chip, plus
hardware speech synthesis to boot.

So I'm with you, Andrew.  I don't think there's any reason the CoCo 1/2
couldn't have that game.  The CoCo 3 of course could blow the 6001 out
of the water, but that's not really a fair comparison.

JCE
> -- Andrew L. Ayers
>    Glendale, Arizona
>
> Andrew wrote:
>> I sent an email to the owner of the linked webpage, the one with the
>> download. He informed me in readable english that it was a windows
>> executable, and that it was fun to play. He noted that he wasn't the
>> author (and didn't know who was), and only had put it up on his page
>> for others to download.
>>
>> Too bad - I wonder if you disassembled it, what you might find out?
>>
>> -- Andrew L. Ayers
>>    Glendale, Arizona
>>
>>
>>> Message: 6
>>> Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 19:05:33 -0500
>>> From: "Joef6809" <joef6809 at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Japanese PC Game in CoCo Style?
>>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Message-ID: <006901c87bf9$22f62910$7001a8c0 at ncc1701>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>>>     reply-type=response
>>>
>>> The download is a win32 executable using Directx8. definatly done
>>> recently. (last 10 years) But yes this really does look like a coco2
>>> game using pmode 3 graphics. Or at least a simulation of a system
>>> using a 6847. The main play colors imply it Red/Green/Blue/Yellow
>>> and when you die is swaps to the second 6847 color set.
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>