[Coco] DE1 arrives :-)

[Frank Swygert]

Most of the extra I/O (joysticks, maybe even tape port -- it's good for some I/O) has nothing to do with the cartridge port. I really don't see a need for anything other than the joystick ports and cartridge port that the DE-1 doesn't already provide. Most FPGA boards have a serial port on them that could emulate the bit-banger. I don't think the joysticks could be put on the cartridge ports and still work like the ones on the motherboard. If so, that would surely be a good idea (cartridge with the two ports). If a PS/2 or USB mouse or joystick can be made to emulate the CoCo joystick input that would be half the problem solved. The CoCo JS ports can be used for other I/O though, so you'd lose that.

The MPI isn't as easy to find as you think! A lot of people don't have one and they are getting harder to find. Wouldn't be hard to make a disk controller sized car with 2-3 ports on it though -- someone made one with three at one time that acted just like an MPI, but without a manual slot select.

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Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:20:51 -0400
From: Aaron Wolfe<aawolfe at gmail.com>

I wonder, if we just had an interface between the FPGA board and a
multipak interface, would this allow the MPI to provide the "standard
modular interface"?  seems most of us have or can obtain an MPI.  If
it does provide enough signals for everything someone wants to do (and
I'm not sure of that), then supporting a new FPGA board would mean
redoing the work to get an MPI connected, but at that point you would
be compatible with all classic coco hardware and any new paks made
specifically for use in fpga boards.

a possibility?


-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars"
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