[Coco] Another Radio Shack Article

Bill Loguidice bill at armchairarcade.com
Mon Jan 6 09:30:03 EST 2014


Just a side note, I still find it stunning that no one at Sierra - even Ken
Williams and the guy officially credited with the engine conversion (name
slips my mind at the moment) - didn't even RECALL doing any of the CoCo 3
stuff. And obviously this was a company with a relatively long history of
supporting Tandy products, including with Disney stuff. To be fair, Sierra
supported a LOT of platforms, but you would think it would have been
something of a decent business deal to get a "sure thing" contract like
that considering that each and every Radio Shack store had to carry some
type of Sierra product.

Also, as someone who has written and is presently writing books related to
Microsoft products, I can tell you that they're not helpful in any way with
authors. Same goes for most other companies these days, though, so it's not
particularly unique to Microsoft. In the case of the CoCo book, though, it
was more about individuals, so the corporate entity really didn't factor
into the equation.

-Bill

===================================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade,
Inc.<http://www.armchairarcade.com>
===================================================
Authored Books<http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Loguidice/e/B001U7W3YS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1>and
Film <http://www.armchairarcade.com/film>; About me and other ways to get
in touch <http://about.me/billloguidice>
===================================================


On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 9:03 AM, Boisy Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com> wrote:

> On Jan 6, 2014, at 2:32 AM, Arthur Flexser <flexser at fiu.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 4:37 PM, Boisy Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Obviously we could not interview (or speak for) the dead. Nor could we
> force the very small number of people who either refused to respond to our
> interview requests or insisted on terms we could not agree to, to provide
> their perspective.  We did, however, interview a large number of people and
> went farther than I think anyone has ever gone in compiling the history of
> the CoCo.  Naturally, recollections are often flawed, but wherever
> possible, multiple perspectives and hard evidence were used.
> >>
> >
> > I did notice a conspicuous absence of anyone from Microsoft speaking
> > of their role in the history of the CoCo.  Is there a Microsoft policy
> > against cooperation with authors such as yourself?
>
> Not that I know of. Truth be told, I couldn’t locate one Microsoft guy
> that new anything about the CoCo, despite my efforts.
>
> >   Was it Microsoft that "insisted on terms we could not agree to”?
>
> No, Just one individual insisted on interview terms that were outside of
> the norm for a book. Two refused to respond to our requests despite several
> verifiable attempts, and one or two just never got back to us and/or
> dropped off the radar.
>
> > What about Microsoft retirees?  I know you were seeking to contact the
> > author of the ROMs, Mark Chamberlin.  No luck there, I take it?  Or is
> > there some nondisclosure thing that prevents retirees from talking to
> > you?
>
> Nothing like that at all. As noted above, it was just something I wasn’t
> successful at. Mark Chamberlin was especially difficult. Based on the info
> you gave me, I tried tracking down relevant parties, but to no avail. And
> as much as I wanted to include that information in the book, I was
> reluctant to do so namely because of the esoteric nature of the transcript.
>
> > Art
> >
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>
>
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