[coco] dragon

[Phill Harvey-Smith]

Quoting RJRTTY at aol.com:

> People,
>
>     I just got the my 64k dragon today and  played
> with it between assembly sessions for my
> converter.    It has some nice touches I wish
> the color computer had come with.   A real
> keyboard,

Yeah The Tano 64, the Dragon Data 64, and some of the 32s came with a pretty
decent keyboard, the majority of the 32s had a keyboard that was not quite as
good, though better than the CoCo 1 I would say not as good as the CoCo 2.

>         48k available to basic, a parallel
> port, composite video, key repeat on hold
> down.

Yeah the composite video is aslso very usefull, and IMHO gives a better 
quality
picture than the TV output, because it's not being modulated and then
demodulated.

>       THe color of the cursor is used to
> indicate mode of operation whereas the
> coco's just rotates color meaninglessly.
> The only fault with it I can find is it has
> a different game port output connector
> than the coco.

It is ??? I'm sure I have used CoCo Joysticks on the Drago and vice-versa ?

>                 Too bad.   I know that
> hind-site is 20-20 but the date on this
> machine is 1983 so I think Tandy could
> have done better by the coco.
>     Could somebody direct me to information
> on how to adapt a coco disk drive controller
> to the dragon?

Ok, I have ported the Dragon Dos compatible SuperDos to work with the RS-Dos
controler, it has been tested by me on my FD-500, and by Boisy Pitre on the
FD-502, and disto controlers, it seems to work fine and can format, read and
write Dragon disks that are compatible with the Dragon controler, however the
format is different from the standard RS-Dos format.

You will need access to an eprom programmer to use this port, and also an 8K
eprom, also you will need an adapter card to enable a 28 pin eprom to 
sit in the
24 pin socket of the RS-Dos cart.

As I am at work currently, I don't have a copy of the eprom with me, 
but contact
me off list and I'll email you a copy.

Note to self....I really myst put up a stie with some of my Dragon/CoCo 
stuff on
it.

Hope that helps.

Phill.

-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.

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