[Coco] Getting into Tandy Color Computer 3, Suggestions and Info Needed

[Barry Nelson]

There is also this solution for RGB video if you have an HDMI TV:

https://hackaday.io/project/7366-coco-3-rgb-to-scart-to-hdmi-cable

It requires soldering, but the only components are the wires, plugs, a 100 ohm resistor and a 5V power source.
If the 5V power is unplugged, this switches to NTSC. It works pretty well.

Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:51:04 -0600
From: Brandon Tetreau <brandon.tetreau at gmail.com>
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: [Coco] Getting into Tandy Color Computer 3,	Suggestions and
	Info Needed
Message-ID:
	<CAA2+T-0-PitSYrjnaPHumOnAzKmC6wRjUw=VC9zCKmgh9xmrBg at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Everyone, Just wanted to introduce myself. I grew up with the Tandy
Color Computers and recently got our system back from my parents. Got a
couple Tandy Color Computer 3's a CM8 Monitor, multi-pack, floppy drives,
etc... and tons of my old games on disk and carts but It's tough getting
the entire system setup. I started looking into options to use the Tandy on
newer hardware and was surprised to see Flash Carts, video cables, and
Drivewire and such which would really make running old games easy but It
appears I'm several years late as most types of Hardware aren't sold
anymore or have diagrams of electrical component blueprints which cause my
head to hurt.

I'm only 33 now so I was really young when we had the CoCo but have tons of
great memories (would love to get Ghana Bwana running for my mom to play as
it was one of her favorites) and would love to get it up and running.
I'm hoping to summarize what I think I've learnt in searching the web for
ways to connect the CoCo to a modern monitor and allow playing of disk
images.

Can any of you give me suggestions on what would be a good setup? I don't
mind having the entire system setup but it would also be cool to just have
the computer, maybe a flash cart and some joysticks.

*Connecting Tandy to Monitor/TV*
*RGB to S-Video* - Made by Chistopher Hawks, emailed him but got no reply
*RGB2VGA* - Appears they are for purchase possibly by Zippster, not sure
who can purchase

*CoCo Flash Carts/Drivewire*
*CoCo SDC *- CoCo flash cart which allows the running of disk images from a
Compact Flash Card (This allow you to run a HBDDOS rom and connect to
Drivewire)
*Tandy Drive Pak* - Doesn't appear to be made anymore but was a flash cart
which ran most software expect software which needed to be run specifically
from a physical floppy drive (CoCo SDC fixes this though?)
*HDBDOS Rom Cart *- You can put a socket on a Cart and flash HDBDOS and
boot from that, I'm told people used to sell HDBDOS Rom Carts complete but
It doesn't appear anymore. I found various roms in the Drivewire download
but perhaps people have details about which carts can be used as a donor,
the socket I'd need to put on, compatible eeprom, and rom required to make
this.
*Drivewire Cable* - Appears to still be sold on Cloud9 and can also be made
so I don't think this would be a huge issue, can also use a RS232 to USB
cable to connect to USB.