[Coco] CoCo3FPGA development - WAS: Coco 4 project dead?

[Joel Ewy]

On 01/25/2012 08:41 AM, Fedor Steeman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I know this subject only superficially, but with the growing users of
> CoCo3FPGA boards, I was wondering if anyone was developing any special
> programs like e.g. games that take advantage of the increased clocking
> speed?
>
> Also, I presume that the increased speed also enables graphics with higher
> resolution and colour depth. Any signs of the project going in the
> direction of an extended GIME or other graphical extension? Now that would
> make it even more CoCo4-ish!
>
> /Fedor
>

It already has a real 256 color mode (at half the horizontal resolution, 
kinda like the CoCo 3 8-bit artifact mode), and the regular CoCo 3 
graphics modes can now use an extended, 12-bit palette, so you can pick 
the best 16 colors out of 4096 instead of 64.  I don't know of anyone 
writing any games that use its capabilities, but 'remz' is doing a 
texture mapping demo that works on the CoCo 3 and the CoCo3FPGA, showing 
off the high speed.  I'm planning to try to modify Tim K's 'view' 
utility to use the 12-bit palette and eventually the 256 color mode.

And I almost forgot that it can also double the vertical screen 
resolution.  So you can have a 160x450x256 screen.

JCE

> On 24 January 2012 02:40, thebig_a_27<aawolfe at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> Last I heard Steve talk about it, several months back now, he was taking a
>> new approach towards some of the same goals but in a different form that
>> wouldn't be a new computer.
>>
>> That is not the only project around, however.  Depending on what your
>> concept of a "CoCo 4" is, you may find that it is already available.
>>   Several of us have been exploring Gary Becker's CoCo3FPGA project.
>>   Although technically it says "3" in the name, this is a machine that runs
>> at 25 Mhz, has built in VGA output and stereo sound (and soon, SD card
>> reader for removable storage.. right now it uses DriveWire, although at a
>> blazing 460kbps).  It can store lots of ROM images and switch between them,
>> it has 8MB ram onboard that isn't yet in play but may be someday (512k is
>> available now)... there are new graphics modes, new I/O capabilities to
>> explore.. I'm probably forgetting as many cool things as I've remembered,
>> but hopefully you get the idea.  This thing is a blast, and it exists now
>> and works great right now.
>> There are some limitations which are quickly falling away as Gary makes it
>> even better, but the system is extremely capable already.
>>
>> Here is the yahoo group for what I definitely call my "CoCo 4".
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CoCo3FPGA/
>>
>>
>>
>> --- In ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com, Ben Jimenez<ben_jimenez at ...>  wrote:
>>> Just wondering if the coco 4 project is dead. I see the coco4.comwebsite is still up, but nothing new about the project for such a long time.
>>>
>>
>>
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