[Coco] Why do a next Gen CoCo? was Any news on the so called CoCo4 or Next CoCo

[Frank Swygert]

Ideally the emulator would be set up so that it booted directly into 
CoCo emulation mode. A stripped down OS with only the necessities 
(relatively easy to do with FreeDOS and Jeff Vavasour's DOS based 
emulator). For those who want to run with another OS as the primary then 
Virtual Box (which also runs under Windows) would be a good solution. A 
fork of MESS might actually be a good starting point, unless Jeff is 
willing to give up the code to a working group to modify (or do it 
himself).

I need to start another thread for this -- what would a CoCo successor 
have to have as a minimum to please most people? I think it needs an 
accessible I/O port. I still think the legacy LPT port (Centronic 
parallel port) would be a good easy access I/O port, but if someone 
wanted to design a USB port that would be accessible that's another 
option. The LPT port is just using existing hardware vs. creating new. I 
really don't think cartridge compatibility is important, though some way 
of connecting to a physical disk drive would be -- even if just through 
something like DriveWire or CoNect and a PC. Having access to an easily 
programmable port satisfies the experimenter's interest in such a computer.

As for joysticks, there needs to be some layer of emulation between the 
CoCo port and a standard USB joystick or game pad. Might have to 
standardize on a type though.

There has to be some limitations. I would think it could stop at CoCo3 
compatibility, drop the old video modes and such. There are a few games 
that require semi-graphics, but only a few. For those there are CoCo2 
emulators. The main purpose of the new "machine" would be to provide an 
easy to program and interface with computer with CoCo3 compatibility to 
provide an existing software base. I'd think more people would want to 
program using the advanced graphics and such more than run old stuff on it.

---------------
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:50:46 -0600
From: Frank Pittel <fwp at deepthought.com>

Whether running on dedicated hardware or an emulator running under an OS 
like
linux or windows the "coco4" will be emulated. I have a number of issues 
with the
"pc emulator" approach. The first is that I don't run windows and the 
odds are
that any pc emulator will be a windows app. I can get around that with 
virtualbox
and possibly wine but that's proven to be a major pain with vcc and so I 
don't use
it.
-------------

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:19:18 -0500
From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>

Personally, I think emulators will never provide the CoCo experience
that FPGA does. However, I do love using emulators when working on
Coco software, they are a very useful tool. I also certainly
understand the price issue.. if you can run the CoCo 4 without buying
any special hardware, it will be accessible to more people. I have my
doubts about a hardware interface for emulators that would let you
connect real CoCo peripherals. There is an awful lot of complexity
there, it's certainly over my head. But, there are some who support
the idea of emulation and have said they aren't worried about
connecting peripherals anyway.

I love all things CoCo so even though I don't prefer it, I'm happy to
help make the emulator based coco 4 a success if I can. What exactly
is holding up such a thing from happening? We have at least three
nice emulators and have had them for years. Is it just lacking
someone interested and skilled enough to start adding new features?
It's probably out of my league but if there was a list of ideas or
desired things, I'd try to help.

AFAIK, MESS is the only open source emulator, so the only option for
adding new things. Unfortunately, the official MESS project probably
wouldn't be very interested in anything outside of emulating the
actual CoCo, and MESS already does a great job of that. To add new
features in BASIC might be possible if it's just some changes in the
ROM image, since you can load any image you want, but changing the
emulated hardware would probably mean forking or maintaining a set of
patches to the mainline MESS.


-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars"
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://www.amc-mag.com
(free download available!)