[Coco] What do you use your CoCo for? (was: Games that don't fit floppies)

[Frank Pittel]

When I got my first CoCo it was my "personal computer". When I got out
of school with my EE (a long time ago in a land far far away) I got into
industrial process control and we used to get CoCo's take the board out of
the case and replace the rom with code that I had written and used the "expansion
connector" to connect our interface electronics for the particular application.

These days my CoCo is a toy that I pull out every once in a while play with for
a week or so and then pack up and put away. I have a lot of fun with it when I'm
playing with it but I don't do any "real" work with it.

The Other Frank


On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 03:01:07PM -0200, Paulo Lindoso wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I am a newbie here in the list.  I have used my CoCo (first the Brazilian
> Clone, then a Tandy CoCo3) throughout my 80s to do mostly everything a
> (then-)teenager could do with a computer: gaming, wordprocessing (school
> work).  I have also use it extensively as a hobby since I was studying
> electronics.  Eventually, I went to university, the PC era began and my
> CoCo3 was stored in the attic.
> 
> Recently, I have dusted it up and found out (to my amazement) that it still
> worked (had to fix the keyboard mylar, but apart from that perfect) and I
> found myself a new hobby and hopefully - with the list - some new friends.
> 
> To be honest, I was amazed to see what has been done to this 8-bit computer.
> 
> As for me, I have recently bought a SuperIDE (Mark is "baking" it... should
> arrive in time fro Christmas!) and my main point of interest is using the
> CoCo for small HW/SW hobbies.
> 
> As such, it seems to me that (1) I need something to exchange files to and
> from my Mac (S-IDE seems to do the job via CFs); (2) I need some
> quick/practical way to extend ROMs and (2) I need as much access to the
> extension interface as possible.
> 
> That in mind, I have ordered a S-IDE and a Multipak.
> 
> I would like to know from the list what other stuff is being done with
> these 8-bit wonders... I have seen some sites and looked up the list, but
> perhaps people would like to jump in and write about their daily CoCo use
> these days.
> 
> Regarding the late discussions... (1) Big games are cool.  I don't think
> it's a cheat to use up mass storage.  So long as there is interest (and
> perhaps a "market" of sorts) for this, I think these initiatives are as
> "noble" as NitrOS or any other...  (2) S-IDE vs. Drivepak:  I have chosen
> S-IDE over Drivepak mostly because of what I have written above.  I am not
> sure if it was the best choice yet, and would welcome comments!
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Paulo.
> 
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