[Coco] Video card for MC-10

[Steve Strowbridge]

I have a similar composite mod installed on one of my MC-10s which I had
done by Ed Snider because I'm not a hardware guy at all, it too had some
variable adjustments, which I had to play with, if you noticed in the
screen shots from that hack-a-day article, the 9 color semi-graphics blocks
don't look quite right, our 9 colors are pretty pronounced and pretty
identifiable to those who've spent enough time looking at them, and, since
I run all my stuff through analog-to-digital capture devices to view them
on modern computers, I had to play a bit to get the colors in the closest
ballpark range to what they should look like but was able to do it.

Is it just me, or is it something about the CoCo VDG in general where it
just doesn't want to do a good, clean composite signal no matter what tech
you throw at it?

The MC-10 is now historically a part of CoCo history, and if you're a fan,
or collector, you'd probably want to have one.

As far as "why" we could ask that question about a lot of stuff Tandy did
back then, most of their decisions where based on how can we make the most
profit while spending the least amount of money, but, in the case of the
MC-10, as mentioned it was supposed to be a cost appealing alternative to
the Timex Sinclair 1000 which was the US version of the ZX-Spectrum, and
when you look at the physical keyboard vs. membrane, color vs. B/W, etc.,
it offered more, but it was also dangerously close in price to a stock CoCo
2, and offered less, it isn't hardware or software compatible with CoCo
software as the CPU is different, other than a printer or modem.

As far as modern video solutions, the CoCo VGA is an available upgrade, and
Brendan Donahe at this most recent CoCoFEST! showed off the upgrade, he has
a 3D printed riser that goes between the top and bottom and gives the room
for the stacked chip, and moves power and reset buttons to the front.  CoCo
VGA provides pristine and clean VGA output, that can be converted to modern
things like HDMI, allows for all the standard VDG graphics modes, allows
for custom character sets (fonts), and even has advanced features like
64x32 column text displays 16 color modes with a palette of 32K colors and
so much more.

In the space of MC-10 software, there are hundreds of not bordering on the
thousands of games and programs written in BASIC for it, a lot by Jim
Gerrie, but many more by the active community, there are a few other
hardware upgrades like the MCX-128 and MCX32SD solutions that provide more
RAM, more features, upgraded BASIC the ability to speak to an EMCEE server
similar to DriveWire and more, there is a modern compiler to compile BASIC
into assembly, and there are a new flock of assembly language written
arcade games being made available.

Back when Commodore and Atari were king, and the CoCo was the underdog/step
child of the 8-bit era, we can now look at the MC-10 as something of a
somewhat similar scenario compare to the CoCo, but like the CoCo, the
people who owned and used them back in the day are proud and passionate
about the machine, and the MC-10 community is just as strong as the CoCo
one is, and new things are constantly coming out.

The good news is there are many emulators for the MC-10, both dedicated
ones and multi-purpose ones like MAME and XROAR to run the software, and
those who want to try and get one now are starting to feel the CoCo 3 eBay
feeling as the availability and pricing of them seems to go way higher than
what we'd expect/prefer.

So, long story longer, the MC-10 is a valued member of the CoCo family and
why it didn't make a lot of "sense" it captured the hearts and imaginations
of lots of people who are still doing fun and amazing things with it this
very day, just like we are with the CoCo.

We recently did an MC-10 special on CoCoTALK! interviewing the people who
are involved in the past/present/future of the machine that may be of
interest to those on this topic:
https://youtu.be/jf_m7SIolIc




Steve “Stevie Strow” Strowbridge

Retro nerd, vintage computing enthusiasts, self proclaimed CoCo “Nut”



ogStevieStrow at gmail.com primary email address

http://ogsteviestrow.com web site

http://cocotalk.live CoCoTALK! the world's leading live CoCo talk show

http://imacoconut.com for all things CoCo related


On Thu, Nov 11, 2021 at 9:21 AM Mark D. Overholser <marko555.os2 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On 11/10/21 9:00 AM, John Guin wrote:
> > Just skimming through this now:
> > https://hackaday.io/project/182433-mc-10-av-mod-board
> >
> > I almost bought an MC-10 back in the day.  I have no idea what I
> > would have used it for, and looking back at it now, I don't know why
> > Tandy even came out with the machine...
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
>
>
> To compete against the Sinclair ZX-81/Timex-Sinclair 1000.....   They
> were just a Year Too Late....
>
>
>
> MarkO
>
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