[Coco] Just a thought

[Al Hartman]

The Atari-ST was a pretty plain-vanilla 68000 system. It ran a version 
of CP/M-68k that was very much like MS-DOS (GEMDOS) that had GEM layered 
on top of it...



It had through software (and later hardware) 8088 MS-DOS emulation. It 
had Macintosh Emulation by just plugging in a couple of Mac ROMs on a 
cartridge, and writing some software to account for the hardware 
differences (Magic-Sac, Spectre-128, Spectre-GCR, Aladdin).


I have a 520-ST upgraded to 1mb, with a MagicSAC and SpectreGCR.


The Amiga also had Mac and PC Emulation, though I never used it. I have 
an Amiga 1000 and a 500 I'm fixing, as well as Amiga Forever.


The PC is a pretty decent emulation machine. I have a 486 setup to 
emulate TRS-80 Model I/III/4, Coco, Dragon, Atari-ST, MacPlus, 
Atari-2600, Atari-800, Apple ][, and more...


I'd like a Coco 3 clone. I'd also like a TRS-80 Model I clone (Peter 
Bartlett is cloning the E/I currently). There used to be a board called 
the TC-III that you'd use to remove the Model I logic board, and install 
this board to add a full Model III including disk controller and RS-232 
in a Model I case. ( http://www.trs-80.org/norcom-tc-iii/ )


I don't want yet another computer that emulates a Coco. I have plenty of 
those.


-[ Al ]-


On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 07:37 PM, Hugo Dufort wrote:

> There was a point in the History of personal computers where all the 
> major companies making computers based on Motorola 68--- chips could 
> have started working together and come up with some common 
> architecture for peripherals, coprocessors and formats. Amiga and 
> Atari couldn't manage to work together and were bitter enemies. Tandy 
> abandoned the Morotola architecture to switch to Intel, and trying to 
> offer PCjr clones.
>
> But imagine for a moment that these companies (Amiga, Tandy, Atari) 
> start working together, developing a common "M68000 compatible" 
> platform. Tandy could have offered a Coco3 backwards compatibility 
> mode through some 6809 expansion card that you switch on and off, for 
> instance. Program packs are quickly phased out, although some 
> third-party company sells an adapter for the Coco4/Tandy68+ computer 
> line. Eventually OS9 could have imposed itself, merging with AmigaOS, 
> keeping the best of both worlds and becoming the dominant OS for the 
> 68000 line of processors. Eventually, sales figures help Motorola 
> develop the next-generation PowerPC chip that dominates a domestic 
> market where Intel/IBM struggles with failing sales figures... and 
> where Apple is just another "Motorola compatible" PC maker. :p
> And generations of programmers are happy because you know, Motorola 
> chips are really, really nice!
>
>
> Hugo