[Coco] Remembering the Deluxe Color Computer....

[Boisy G. Pitre]

Steve,

My first exposure to the Deluxe CoCo was in the "Getting Started with Extended Color BASIC" manual that came with my 16K Extended BASIC CoCo 2 in November of 1985.  As I recall there were mentions in the sidelines of the manual about some key command that exhibited true lowercase on the screen.  I remember how tantalizing that was and wondering when the Deluxe CoCo would come out.

Tandy must have hit themselves over the head for letting that slip in the BASIC manual.

My second exposure to the Deluxe CoCo was listening to a cassette tape that Falsoft sold from the October 1986 Princeton Rainbowfest.  It was titled "CoCo 3 Roundtable" and on that tape, a question was asked by a gentleman to the panel about the "Deluxe CoCo" and where it was actually the CoCo 3.  Mark Siegel coyly answered something to the fact that those two products "had nothing to do with each other."  Steve, I believe you were on that panel.

My third and final exposure to the Deluxe CoCo was when I worked for Microware.  One of the OS-9 guys told me that he had worked on OS-9 for the Deluxe CoCo but obviously nothing ever went to market.

I would love to see a photo of the Deluxe CoCo, if one exists.
--
Boisy G. Pitre
http://www.tee-boy.com/

On Jun 18, 2011, at 6:29 PM, Steve Bjork wrote:

> I've trying to write down the story behind the never released Tandy's Deluxe Color Computer.  It almost hit the market with a one picture left in a Radio Shack catalog.  (The computer was removed just before going to print.)  The story from Tandy the Deluxe computer was dropped because of a limited supply on one or parts also used in the CoCo 2.
> 
> Even after having one for a short while, some of the details of unit are getting a bit fuzzy now a days.
> 
> Anyway, I remember the Deluxe CoCo having a true Double speed mode, real RS-232 port with UART, Sound Chip and RAM drive.  While it used the same graphics system, there was a bit that "shift" the colors for a new color palette.
> 
> Was the memory size on the it 64k or 128k and did it have any memory paging?
> 
> Do you remember anything else about the Deluxe Color Computer?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Steve
> P.S. All those keyboards that Radio Shack stores sold are parts from the Deluxe CoCo first run.
> 
> 
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