[Coco] Radio Shack Speech-Sound Pak

[Joel Rees]

Now you guys have got me dreaming.

... if Radio Shack had produced a Color Computer model with real DMA, real
slots mapped in separate banks, battery-backed-up RTC, ...

2017/08/22 23:55 "Bill Loguidice" <bill at armchairarcade.com>:

> An internal Speech-Sound Pak in the CoCo 3 would have hardly overshadowed
> the Tandy 1000 series. Tandy just didn't want to add extra manufacturing
> costs to the CoCo 3, something that plagued the CoCo line from day one. By
> the time the CoCo 3 was released, it would be hard to blame them for the
> strategy since there was only so much life left in 8-bit computers by that
> time, particularly in the US.
>
> It IS a pity that the Speech-Sound Pak didn't receive more overall support,
> though, but then that's to be expected with something like that. As a point
> of comparison, the similar-in-concept Mockingboard (and compatibles) on the
> Apple II received support from less than two dozen games and
> utilities/productivity software.
>
> -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, Aug 21, 2017 at 10:47 PM, Andrew <keeper63 at cox.net> wrote:
>
> > Ray, don't forget about the other half of that hardware!
> >
> > It has some pretty amazing sound capabilities as well, though I don't
> > think there were many (or any?) commercial software (games etc) that used
> > it. Honestly, the chip that was in that thing should have been
> incorporated
> > into the CoCo 3 (but Tandy didn't want to overshadow the Tandy 1000,
> which
> > is a pity).
> >
> > Still, it's a fun piece to experiment and play with!
> >
> > If you get a multi-pak for it, I seem to recall that you were supposed to
> > put the floppy-drive pak in either slot 1 or slot 4 (?) and set the
> switch
> > to that (for bootup), but other cartridges could be put in the other
> slots
> > (at one time, I had the floppy controller, the SS pak, the RS-232 pak,
> and
> > a DS-69B all connected on mine as a kid). My memory may be faulty tho...
> >
> > Have fun!
> >
> > --
> > Andrew L. Ayers
> > Glendale, Arizona
> > https://github.com/andrew-ayers
> > http://www.phoenixgarage.org/
>
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