[Coco] Nick's Survey results

[Robert Gault]

As one of those "mature adults" who still support the Coco, I have to 
say the power of modern computers have so greatly exceeded that of the 
Coco, I do all of my word processing, spreadsheet, internet activity, 
and games non-Coco with few exceptions. I use the Coco for tinkering and 
support of the Coco community and not much else.

Frankly the Coco has always been for me, a chance to prove Tandy wrong 
in some fashion, by making the Coco do something Tandy thought 
impossible. I still buy many adventure games but for the PC. While there 
were some games sold by Tandy that still hold their own against the 
current crop, nostalgia probably plays a large part.

We have got to be realistic folks. Much as we like the Coco, and it is 
the perfect tool for hardware tinkering and programming, it is not going 
to take the world by storm no matter what we do with it. There just is 
not much of a Coco market left.

What this means to anyone who wants to create software for the Coco 
community is don't create end products like games and expect to sell 
much. Create tools so users can produce their own projects. That is why 
the emulators, Portal9, and the like or hardware sold by Cloud-9 have at 
least a limited market. These items enable user creativity.

Nickolas Marentes wrote:

> The survey so far isn't a raging success with only 6 responses so far. I
> guess it's still early to call but I am getting some data about the current
> CoCo market and community.
> 
> The results so far are of no surprise. Here is my summary, adding in some of
> my own personal observations from the list.
> 
> My purpose for the survey is to ascertain the viability of me spending the
> next 6-12 months of my precious little spare time to develop another CoCo3
> game. I like developing games for the CoCo but the enjoyment falls a bit
> flat if there are few people to appreciate the effort.
> 
> I see the CoCo community as a mature group of adults who are past the games
> stage and primarily interested in communicating with one another and are
> fond of OS9.
> 
> While there are over 100 users on this list, the number of "active users"
> appears far less, probably 20-25 with the majority taking a "back seat
> observers post". Correct me if I'm wrong on this.
> 
> As for active developers of saleable/commercial level products, this number
> falls even further with people such as Mark Marlett and Curtis Boyle as the
> main ones that I can see at this point. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.
> 
> 
> 
> I have a few questions to ask.
> 
> 
> 
> 1) Has anyone developed a new (and better!) gui for OS-9?
> 
> It's probably a bit late to suggest this but I feel OS-9 really needs an
> injection of user friendliness that may attract other less OS-9 centric
> people to OS-9. I know I've tried 3 times in my lifetime and each time I
> threw it across the room in discust with it's unfriendliness, slowness and
> bugginess. This was in the early days of CoCo OS-9 when there were bug lists
> for OS-9 spanning several pages. I understand the Nitros9 is far better but
> has anything been developed to utilize this added power of Nitros9?
> 
> 2) It seems to me that what the CoCo needs a central website that all CoCo
> users can look at to keep up with what's going on in the CoCo world. Back in
> the "good-old-days" we had the CoCo magazines as a way of keeping up to
> date. Later, there was ???? (forgot his name) website that was kept
> up-to-date with CoCo developments. Now it seems all that is lost. Apart from
> this CoCoList (thanks Dennis!) We need a site were we can look and see what
> products are in development by others, read up on the latest CoCo news and
> going on's (Fests etc).
> 
> 3) Anyone interested in a good pinball game for the CoCo? What about an
> arcade perfect version of Defender? A new CoCo3 update of Zaxxon, like Z'89
> only faster and extended gameplay?
> 
> 4) And lastly, has anyone been able to find out more info about this
> mystical 256 color mode of the GIME? Does it or does it not exist? I'm still
> looking for the author of the book, "Super Extended Color Basic Unravelled".
> Does anyone know where I can contact someone from Spectral Associates? These
> guys worked closely with Radio Shack during those CoCo3 development days and
> may have some answers.
> 
> 
> 
> Ok, off my soap box now before the tomatoes start to fly!
> 
> Nickolas Marentes
> 
> 
>