[Coco] Vcc Coco 3 Emulator Open Source Project

[Bill Pierce]

 Since I doubt anyone else will do this, I will start it.

There are plans for making the source code to the "Vcc 1.4.2 Coco 3 Emulator" an open source project. The goal being to hopefully convert the emulator into a "cross-platform" emulator that would at least, run on Windows, Linux, & Mac OS's and possibly fix some bugs as well as adding some enhancements.

There has been a question as to the ownership of the Vcc source code and that the original author "Joseph Forgione" may have sold (or given) the rights to someone else (it has been verified that Steve Bjork does NOT have ownership). Joseph has not answered emails since 2013 and when last contacted, had plans to release the Vcc code to open source himself. This has been verified by 3 people (including myself) that were last in contact with him.

The original Vcc 1.42 sources were sent to these people (including myself) by Joseph, to "play with" until he made a few changes in copyrights and removed the Tandy roms (for copyright reasons) from the sources.

Here is a transcript from one of the last emails I received from Joseph on releasing the vcc sources to open source.

----------------------------------------------July 13 2012

Bill.
I've actually been in contact with David Ladd (whom you may not know) and he has convinced me to make VCC an open source project. I've just need to make some changes (add copyleft notices, Remove the built in roms etc) before I can post it to sourceforge. Please don't confuse my "lack of time" for a "lack of interest".  For the past few weeks I've been trying to make even these trivial changes have not gotten very far. Be assured however that I will get it up soon and I will (If you wish) let you know when Its up. If you like I can send you the source "as-is" if you would like to look at it. The only thing I ask is that my name stays in the about box and you dont make unkind comments about the more crude sections of code.

-----------------------------------------------

As you can see, Joseph clearly had intentions of releasing the code. After one more email with him in which I asked about the status of the VCC Open Source Project, he replied "I thought I had already done thins, I will have it ready in a couple of weeks then". Then contact was lost, and no one has heard from him since. At this point, I do not think he would mind us putting the code into open source, as long as his wishes are complied with.

Now, for the $60,000,000 question....Is there ANYONE who HAS or KNOWs (no comments/speculations, just facts) of anyone who may have rights to the VCC 1.42 software/sources? If so, speak up now or these sources will be posted to Source Forge or some other software repository as an Open Source project. We will wait at least 30 days from this date (08/09/2015) before doing so to give time for any response. This message will also be posted on the Coco FaceBook page as well as The TandyCoco forum.

Other than responses from any author and/or owner of the Vcc 1.42 sources, please do not comment to this post. Any discussion should be in another thread as to not "lose" any author/owner response in the "fluff" this list sometimes creates in a thread.


 


Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

 

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