[Coco] [coco] The next coco3.....wish list

[Mark McDougall]

On 4/10/2014 12:57 AM, Bill Loguidice wrote:

> Of course there's always the argument that it could be pitched as a general
> hobbyist thing, but that would be ignoring well established and usually
> very low cost go-to devices in that area, like the Raspberry Pi and the
> various FPGA implementations.

As you mention Bill, there are already several purpose-built FPGA platforms 
for various micro systems, like C-One (C64), Minimig, (Amiga), Suska (Atari 
ST), OCM (MSX), Mist (Amiga & ST), Turbo Chameleon (C64, Amiga, MSX) as well 
as the more generic MCC and Replay.

[You could of course implement a Coco on most if not all of these!]

Most of these platforms have fan bases significantly larger than the Coco 
and yet they remain niche products (in some cases already dead) and 
relatively obscure.

IMHO any attempt to fund an even remotely commerically-viable Coco-themed 
hardware development - even if arguably generic enough to appeal to other 
communities - would be unsuccessful. The market is too small, the cost too 
high, and there's already competition. If a Coco hardware project were to be 
developed, it would be for the love of it and at a loss.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"