[Coco] The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 375, August 17, 2024

Sun Aug 18 15:01:45 EDT 2024

Thanks
Brian Wieseler

> On Aug 18, 2024, at 7:01 AM, R. Allen Murphey via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 375, August 17, 2024
> ===================================================================
> Collected by L. Curtis Boyle
> 
> Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> New England Classic Gaming is having an Electronics & Computer Retro Swap
> Meet on Aug. 24 starting at 9 AM CST, at the Norfolk Public Library in
> Norfolk, Massachusetts (2 Liberty Lane):
>  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557290357725
> 
> VCF-Midwest has moved (slightly) again to the 50,000 square foot "Convention
> North" space (they sold out of table space with the original "Exploration
> Hall" area which was 33,000 square feet at the Renaissance Schaumburg
> Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept 7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday)
> is reserved for vendors, etc to set up). They have added multiple hotels
> which people can book into, as the original sold out quickly.
>  https://vcfmw.org/
> 
> The World of Retro Computing 2024 is September 14-15 in Kitchener,
> Ontario, Canada (west of Toronto). This year it is located in the old
> Goudies Department Store, 8 Queen Street North. Free admission, and this
> covers all kinds of retro computers. Some people in the Coco community are
> planning on going, and I believe that Stacy Vetzal from the Coco Facebook
> group is planning on having a booth:
>  https://worldofretrocomputing.com/2024-worc-expo
> 
> Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. An update
> from Pete on August 9 - they have now sold out of tables for the show! And
> another announcement - Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80, is
> the keynote speaker!
>  http://www.tandyassembly.com/speakers.html
> Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
> Springfield, Ohio
>  http://www.tandyassembly.com/
> 
> Also that weekend is the Amigos next live ICC (International Computer
> Club), which will be at 4 PM EST on September 28. This is for all retro
> computers & gaming consoles. It streams live on their Twitch channel and
> YouTube channels)
> 
> The Dragon Meetup is 100% official now: October 12-13, 2024 at the Museum
> of Technology in Cambridge, England:
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3776261519300156/
> 
> Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
> Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
> In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
> largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
> covering all retro machines. Tickets can be ordered online for individual
> days or both days.
> All of their events (including separate entries for both days) at the
> bottom of this page:
>  https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/30677/What-s-On/
> The Saturday event specifically:
> 
> https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/
> 
> VCF East dates for next year have been confirmed April 25-27, 2025 -
> same facility as this year. Info Age Science Museum, Wall, NJ.
> 
> 
> 
> Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
> -------------------------------
> 1) During our show last week, La Coco Strangiato (Bob Emery) was
> simultaneously streaming his live Artemis keyboard version 2 build:
>  https://www.youtube.com/live/ta0UH46UPgM?si=qKmL7ABsVO1yKfdb
> 
> 2) CocoTown released his Game Revolutions Cycle 18 video titled "Projectiles
> as objects" as he finally starts arming the player's buggy:
>  https://youtu.be/cHgqTXR3itc?si=ZdXBGKr-BjHMeY5o
> 
> 3) Taylor and Amy did a special little show where they present Veronica
> (from the "Veronica Explains" YouTube channel) with a Coco 2... that needs
> a little fixin' (it's currently outputting many shades of grey). With a
> shout out to The Coco Nation too!:
>  https://youtu.be/CLs-osjMkio?si=fXYOpS0JqpWXBSvS
> 
> 4) ugBASIC has had multiple updates again this week in it's Beta branch,
> including several Coco related ones (dated Aug 13):
> - Added support for keyboard driver under Coco & Coco 3 (and others)
> - Added support for KEY SPEED, LINE INPUT, native RELEASE on WAIT KEY
> - Fixed XOR opcode for 6809
>  https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta
> 
> 5) Tim Lindner wrote a blog post (and accompanying program) to go through
> every video mode that a Color Computer can produce from the VDG chip which
> he is calling "SAM/VDG Sizzler". He also made 4 videos to correspond with
> the four major implementations of the SAM/VDG combo (including the Coco
> 3's GIME which emulates the older chips... mostly).
> Blog post:
>  http://tlindner.macmess.org/?p=1046
> Github with source and DSK image to download:
>  https://github.com/tlindner/VDGSIZZLE
> Videos:
> Coco 1/2 (regular Coco 2's)
>  https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-1
> Coco 2B (with T1 VDG)
>  https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-2b_202408
> Coco 3 with 1986 GIME
>  https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-3-86
> Coco 3 with 1987 GIME
>  https://archive.org/details/siz-cc-3-87
> 
> 6) Sheldon MacDonald has a video update on Facebook showing some of the
> graphics routines he has running in CG3 (128x96x4):
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161520668192641/
> 
> 7) Thomas Cherryhomes (main driver behind Fujinet) posted information and
> sample code for the Atari 8 bits on the high score scoreboard feature in
> Fujinet, and asks if anyone would like to implement this on the Coco:
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161520551942641/
> 
> 
> MC-10
> -----
> 1) japhyriddle On YouTube posted a YouTube Short, which shows him using an
> MC-10 as a "guitar" using a program he wrote back in 2016 (and with some
> effects added to the normal MC-10 sound output). He says in the description
> that he sold the MC-19 not long after he recorded this:
>  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Pxv-9y-RuZs
> 
> 
> Dragon 32/64
> ------------
> 1) John Whitworth announced on the Dragon Facebook group that he has new
> versions of the Dragon power boards - both basic and Deluxe versions:
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3780039292255712/
> 
> 2) Phil Harvey-Smith posted further photos of his "new" Dragon 64 - 3D
> printed case (in multiple pieces), repro motherboard, and now most of the
> keyboard keys are filled:
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3779905235602451/
> 
> 3) Jess B's Tech Dept. on YouTube fixes up a Dragon 32 she got by adding
> a new power supply (from Julian, I believe?):
>  https://youtu.be/ssnDHPJ5Rx0?si=UFE2JHAs1H0xmwg8
> 
> 4) David Mitchell (Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube) posted a video showing
> his generating Mandelbrot fractals in SG4 (64x32x9). It's based on multiple
> other programs for Mandelbrot he looked at:
>  https://youtu.be/J2UJUaqJ2H0?si=sEzh32nrsFr-50oK
> 
> 
> Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
> ==========================================
> 1) Ken at Canadian Retro Thing released another video in his single game
> on multiple computers series. This time round it's part 1 of Sea Dragon -
> this round covering Apple II, Atari 8 bit, & Coco. A part 2 will cover 3
> more machines:
>  https://youtu.be/Zv1Y_uS_kyw?si=36y8WTIXuMZ54Si3
> And he just released part 2 with 3 more systems:
>  https://youtu.be/AkJFE15x5IM?si=6LBcj4FMN1UAY7U3
> 
> 2) Jim Gerrie has ported Labyrinth (by Aardvark for the Coco with Extended
> BASIC) to the MC-10 with either the MCX-128 or MCX-SD installed (which
> adds Extended BASIC and more RAM). It's a 3D shooter that is quite good
> for a BASIC game:
>  https://youtu.be/lnAIH8bei0M?si=RkYyJPpWC6BcK-82
> And he did an update late in the week, with some graphic changes and speed
> up's (he explains one in the description and with voiceover on the video):
>  https://youtu.be/V4RAB2FWPIs?si=xO-vXeoVUzdaNhin
> He also updated Lunar Lander, based on a fix done by Martin C. Martin
> where he found a bug this June in the original 55 year old code:
>  https://youtu.be/n7_Tv_Hkk-A?si=TrS60jQJpWPaIasi
> 
> 3) David Mitchell (Davy's Retro Corner on YouTube) has released a new
> version of his Flipping Bits game for the MC-10, this time compiled with
> Greg Dionne's BASIC compiler for extra speed:
>  https://youtu.be/99ud-QOBXEY?si=wBR1AtPuhN3z6VF-
> You can download the cassette image for the MC-10 compiled version from
> his github:
> 
> https://github.com/daftspaniel/RetroCornerRedux/tree/main/Tandy/MC-10/Originals/FlipBits/media
> 
> 4) Carlos Camacho uploaded the BASIC sourcecode to a Japanese game ported
> from Prolog to Coco BASIC. The player makes and sells Tofu, apparently
> (I haven't tried it):
>  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161517273482641/
> 
> 5) Jim Gerrie pointed out on Facebook that Inufuto has started releasing
> their new game OSOTOS for the dozens and dozens of retro machines they
> support with their cross compiler. Coco and MC-10 versions are not up yet,
> but some of the machines that are are ones that use the same 6847 chip as
> the MC-10 & Coco have, so we can get a good idea what it will look like
> (see PC-6001 for example). Looks like Pengo with platforms, maybe?:
>  http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/osotos/
> 
> 6) Tricob1974 on YouTube put up a long play video showing how to solve the
> 5th level of Climb, a 16K ML game by Andrew Pakerski that first appeared
> on Chromasette January 1984 (this was on the Game On Challenge not too
> long ago). This way we finally get to see the levels that are invisible:
>  https://youtu.be/fvRKEsd4vOA?si=zNW_OJcNIknSUVUu
> 
> 7) agamingchannelbyLRU on YouTube put up numerous gameplay videos to
> achieve high scores for a variety of retro computers. Included this week
> is Jet Boot Colin for the Dragon 32:
>  https://youtu.be/RHUGLzeRfMU?si=9AQnv-LG7GVWcu_8
> 
> 8) Chronologically Gaming on YouTube and Twitch has returned to active
> duty after a long summer break. This week he covered a couple of games
> relevant to us:
> Dragon 32: 747 Flight Simulator from DACC:
>  https://youtu.be/OlubigHbEks?si=-_FnO998OBl24aMY&t=1820
> Coco: Avenger from The Cornsoft Group:
>  https://youtu.be/uKuBN4Q_Xug?si=19NBWtABTY_BW_NW&t=326
> 
> 
> ==============================================================================
> 
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> 
> --
> R. Allen Murphey <exile at weylan-yutani.com>
> Weylan-Yutani Corporation
> 
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