[Coco] What do you use your CoCo for? (was: Games that don't fit floppies)

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Paulo Lindoso <paulo.lindoso at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am a newbie here in the list.  I have used my CoCo (first the Brazilian
> Clone, then a Tandy CoCo3) throughout my 80s to do mostly everything a
> (then-)teenager could do with a computer: gaming, wordprocessing (school
> work).  I have also use it extensively as a hobby since I was studying
> electronics.  Eventually, I went to university, the PC era began and my
> CoCo3 was stored in the attic.
>
> Recently, I have dusted it up and found out (to my amazement) that it still
> worked (had to fix the keyboard mylar, but apart from that perfect) and I
> found myself a new hobby and hopefully - with the list - some new friends.
>
> To be honest, I was amazed to see what has been done to this 8-bit computer.
>
> As for me, I have recently bought a SuperIDE (Mark is "baking" it... should
> arrive in time fro Christmas!) and my main point of interest is using the
> CoCo for small HW/SW hobbies.
>
> As such, it seems to me that (1) I need something to exchange files to and
> from my Mac (S-IDE seems to do the job via CFs); (2) I need some
> quick/practical way to extend ROMs and (2) I need as much access to the
> extension interface as possible.
>
> That in mind, I have ordered a S-IDE and a Multipak.
>
> I would like to know from the list what other stuff is being done with
> these 8-bit wonders... I have seen some sites and looked up the list, but
> perhaps people would like to jump in and write about their daily CoCo use
> these days.
>
> Regarding the late discussions... (1) Big games are cool.  I don't think
> it's a cheat to use up mass storage.  So long as there is interest (and
> perhaps a "market" of sorts) for this, I think these initiatives are as
> "noble" as NitrOS or any other...  (2) S-IDE vs. Drivepak:  I have chosen
> S-IDE over Drivepak mostly because of what I have written above.  I am not
> sure if it was the best choice yet, and would welcome comments!
>
>
> Regards,
> Paulo.
>

Welcome.  The SuperIDE is a good choice for working with ROMs, as you
can flash them into the 4 rom slots very easily and test/change them
quickly.  I use this to play around with CoCoBoot roms, which is a
cool project you might be interested in:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cocoboot/

To transfer files you will not be able to just plug the CF card into a
Mac (or PC) and have anything meaningful happen, since the mac doesn't
understand a coco filesystem and the coco doesn't understand a mac fs.
 There are a few different ways you can deal with that.  If you are
using OS-9, you have more/better options than in BASIC.  What will
work best probably depends on what sort of files you want to move back
and forth.  There is always a way :)  If you want to explain more what
you're trying to do I'm sure the list will have advice.

Like Frank, I find the CoCo a great diversion and go through phases of
time where I spend a lot of time working on it and others where I
don't do much at all with it.  Programming stuff is usually what I do
with the CoCo, its a great system for some relaxing coding.  You've
got a great "easy to deal with" CPU for asm and OS9 for a very nice
higher level OS when that's better, and the whole thing is still
simple enough that you can understand all of it if you need to.

So.. welcome again and have fun.
-Aaron