[Coco] CoCoTALK Live! News stories for Episode 288, November 12, 2022

Sun Nov 13 14:01:13 EST 2022

CoCoTALK Live! News stories for Episode 288, November 12, 2022
================================================
(November 5-11)
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Call for Action: Would there be 2-3 people willing to help writing Coco
gaming articles for Old school gamer?

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
Luciano Scharf posted some pics from the X RetroSC from Brazil that
Erico Monteiro helped us cover live last week. Since there were some
bandwidth challenges for Erico (that show was *busy*!), this is a good
chance to see some high resolution still shots from the show, in the
Facebook Coco group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160231497232641/

Todd Wallace posted both a video and download link on the Coco Facebook
group, showing his new graphics launcher (and using his CGA font). This
allows launching the SDC Explorer, hard drive or floppy images, ROM
banks on the SDC, cartridge slots in an MPI, etc. all from a BASIC & ML
program suite that you can edit and change yourself:

Announcement & video:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160230652662641/

Github download link:
  https://github.com/dragonbytes/Gfx_Launcher

Michael Furman has posted instructions on how to get EOU running on a
Coco3FPGA, along with the support modules needed to access it's virtual
hard drives,etc.:
  https://github.com/n6il/eou_ide/blob/main/COCO3FPGA.txt

I should mention that our very own Allen Murphy also posted his own
instructions - learning on the fly - to also get EOU running on his
Coco3FPGA:

https://exileinparadise.com/os-9:boot_coco3fpga_with_nitros-9_ease_of_use_beta_6.1.0

q4ia on itch.io has released some free ringtones for iOS and Android
that have Coco sound effects - from either Temple of ROM or Doubleback:
  https://q4ia.itch.io/coco-tones

James Diffendaffer released a new blog post where goes through the ROM
to RAM program (used on 64K Coco's) and disassembles/comments it to
show how it works (based on the original BASIC program that POKE'd it
in):

https://jdiffendaffer.blogspot.com/2022/11/tandy-coco-rom-to-ram-basic-program-and.html

Roger Cooper has written a Coco 1/2 version of the "Matrix/Rain" text
demo, I believe the first one that I have seen that doesn't require a
Coco 3 (John Kowalski/Sock Master did a Coco 3 one back in the 1990's),
and included a video of it in action on the Coco Facebook group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160241991672641/

Steve Norton on the Coco Facebook group has released both documentation
and disk images for a graphic text enhancement package for the Coco 1/2
called TextMaster that he wrote back in 1985, and was sold by Dataman
International. Using special CHR$() values, it has a ton of features,
including 32 to 85 characters per line, invert on/off, CTRL-G bell,
proportional text, both top and bottom scroll/clear protection (like
CWARea in NitrOS9), underlining, overtype mode, printer echo, subscript
and superscript support, key click, upside down text, and custom
keyboards. It also patches & additions to some of the BASIC commands
(SET, POINT, CLS) to work with the graphics screen, and also displays
full length error messages and has key repeat. Requires 64K:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160240687297641/

Also show the ad for it, as posted by Paulo Garcia:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160240535127641/

Curtis Schuler posted on Facebook about a BBS system he wrote for the
Coco 3 that had quite a few features (ANSI support, X/Y/Zmodem, up to
9600 baud on the bitbanger (although it glitched occasionally), RAM
drive support and used a hard drive). He is wondering if anybody in the
current active Coco community ever called his board (originally it ran
at 300 or 1200 baud):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160240574512641/

Ron Rogers posted a screenshot of a program that he wrote for the Coco
back in 1987 when he & his wife were expecting their first child. It
was a program to monitor contractions, to see when might be a good time
to head to the hospital. He made it very simple for his wife to operate
- press the joystick button at the start and end of each contraction,
and it interpolated the data from there:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160239106507641/

Alderson Retro Computing did a YouTube short about how the Coco 3
started his career in programming back in the late 1980's:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4esJWNWy3nk

William Astle has started working on his new replacement BASIC for the
Coco 1/2 and Coco 3, and you can watch his progress (and help test) at
his Mercurial site. He plans on it having more text and graphics modes
supported than the normal Coco 3 BASIC, moving disk buffers into RAM
outside the regular 32K on a Coco 3, possibly Integer variables on both
versions (in addition to floating point), etc.:
  http://lwbasic.projects.l-w.ca/hg/

readme to explain the project:
  http://lwbasic.projects.l-w.ca/hg/index.cgi/rev/fbb8f369ce76

MC-10
-----
Jim Gerrie ported a 1977 program originally by Sam Lundwall to the MC-
10. He based his on the version by B. & A. Laurie (published in
Practical Computing, December 1979). Called "How to Write a Sci-Fi
Novel", it randomly generates really short "science fiction stories".
It seems to favour dystopian outcomes:
  https://youtu.be/suCIp4JPkNE

Dragon 32/64
------------
Julian Brown's latest update on creating a new Dragon 32 motherboard
unfortunately mentions a setback where he has had to order new
prototype boards again, which will take a couple of weeks (explanation
of what went wrong in the comments):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3314839642109015/

John Whitworth posted that his now named prototyping cartridge board
(now called "SuperBoB") is getting a revision that will enable "active"
usage of the CPLD (clocks, flip-flops, etc.) that were not available on
the original version he previously showed:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3314809745445338/

Matt Davies, who won the Ghost Rush game challenge at the Port Talbot
Dragon 40th anniversary show, posted a photo showing his prize proudly
displayed on the wall of his home:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3314773415448971/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
Paul Thayer has released his long awaited Coco 3 game CocoBan, which is
an amped up version of Sokoban (and Picoban) with a ton of extra
features (including auto-saving your progress to disk, different
keyholes that require different methods to open, and other things that
you discover as you go). It also includes an editor to make your own
levels!

Announcement on Facebook Coco Group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160231468347641/

itch.io download page including screenshots (free to download, but if
you can, please send some money Paul's way as a thank you - it's a lot
of work!)
  https://pthayer100.itch.io/cocoban

Paul's itch.io page which also includes the Coco 3 game TimberMan for
$5.00:
  https://pthayer100.itch.io/

Paulo Garcia also did a quick review post at Vintage is the New Old:

https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/cocoban-a-new-puzzle-game-for-the-color-computer-3

TJ Ferreira on YouTube does a game play/review of the Inufuto Guntus
game on the MC-10:
  https://youtu.be/w_I9EA5ItJc

Pere Serrat and Kees van Oss have been busy with AGD game ports to the
Coco and Dragon this week:
First up, AGD games pak #60, which adds 7 more games (and catches them
up to the Spectrum released, from Pere's post on Facebook):
Milo's Rescue
Mythic Banjo
Power Planes
Ragequit
Temple Treachery
The Honey Thief
Underworld Escape
  http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11051

They also released the next BIG PACKS (version 3.1) which is a single
zip with all 346 games converted in one package. They have separate
zips for the Dragon and Coco, and each of those can be gotten with 8.3
filenames for the Coco SDC or with longer filenames for emulators:
  http://www.retrowiki.es/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=200038876

And finally, they released a new set of games converted to take
advantage of the Supersprite-FM+ board graphics and sound... pack #4
for for this card, with 4 games:
Antiquity Jones
Apulija-13
Astronaut Labyrinth
Baldy ZX
  http://www.retrowiki.es/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=200038855
(I will note that Pere mentioned in the comments of one of his Facebook
posts about this that he hopes to have the next Supersprite-FM+ AGD
games out within a week or two)

Tim Thayer (brother of Paul who just released CocoBan this week) has a
poll up in the Coco Facebook group asking which of 4 Coco game projects
he should complete (Craps, The Prize is Right, Euchre or Card Sharks).
You can vote yourself at:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160237535662641/

In a separate post, he posted screenshots from each of them, since all
of them were already in progress:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10160237530802641/

Old School Games and Stories posted a video of his playback and review
of Panic Button (originally released by First Star Software in 1983 on
tape/disk, then by Tandy in 1985 on cartridge):
  https://youtu.be/3AH5MdLv7HA

Retro Arcade Gaming on Youtube did a quick video showing the official
Frogger on the Coco (he also did a Dragon 32 one, but it's the same
game so I will only show the one):
  https://youtu.be/t6yWNwthTIU

MrDave6309 did a color enhanced Coco 3 version of our game of the week
Electron, and uploaded a short video to show what it looks like (it
includes some palette animation effects on the MCP cone and light cycle
screens):
  https://youtu.be/ZYb880V31MY

Retro365 posted a gameplay video of Monkey Kong for the Coco, although
they erroneously labelled it as running in 4K of RAM (it actually needs
16K):
  https://youtu.be/yeZOWcHLA-I

Jim Gerrie released "William Tell", an MC-10 conversion of the 1984
puzzle game that originally appeared in the book "1001 Things to Do
with your TRS-80" published by TAB books. Like one of the comments - I
don't quite understand the game. It's like a version of Body Parts or
Guess the animal, but making less sense:
  https://youtu.be/QFlK8QyP3l0

He also released an MC-10 conversion of a 1976 pencil an paper game
from Computer Notes Magazine's November 1976 issue called Bulls and
Cows (something like Mastermind - except this came out *Before*
Mastermind):
  https://youtu.be/hc8UjX9SvgQ

And he released Stargates, originally from the Sinclair ZX-81 in 1982
by David Healey:
  https://youtu.be/VJD45LqOq9Q

Getting Connected
=================
Join hundreds of other “CoConuts” (or is that CoConauts?) on the CoCo
Discord:
  http://discord.cocotalk.live

New to Discord? Get started quickly with this video introduction:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2POVhc5NvQ

Learn more about everything old and new for the Color Computer by
tuning in to:

The CoCoTALK! Live weekly Color Computer, Dragon, and MC-10 video talk
show,
  http://cocotalk.live

The CoCo Show monthly gaming video talk show by Boat and Aaron of
Amigos Retro Gaming,

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coco-show-a-trs-80-color-computer-podcast/id1480941752

Three different CoCo groups on https://mewe.com/:
  Glenside Color Computer Group,
  Tandy Color Computer,
  TRS-80 Color Computer,

Four different CoCo and MC-10 groups on https://groups.io:
  Color Computer,
  Retro About 64K,
  CoCo3FPGA,
  MC-10,

The CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
  https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

And even more at I'm A CoCo Nut:
  http://imacoconut.com/start-here/

-- 
Robert "Exile In Paradise" Murphey <exile at weylan-yutani.com>
Weylan-Yutani Corporation