[Coco] The Tri-Annual CoCo 4 Thread

[Brian Blake]

Hear, hear!

Well said Bill.

------------------------------
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On Feb 12, 2014 9:51 PM, "Bill Loguidice" <bill at armchairarcade.com> wrote:

> Is it possible you're misremembering how much your CoCo 3 gift was? Even
> when it was brand new, it would have been incredibly difficult to come up
> with a $2000 configuration, no matter how much you loaded it up. It really
> wasn't designed to exceed $1000 even in its most extravagant configuration.
> Also, no one is expecting the CoCo 4 to have any type of mainstream
> success. It won't. It won't even have Raspberry Pi success, which is the
> biggest hit for these types of hobbyist systems (and a lot of that has to
> do with the extraordinary price). The "new CoCo" (I hesitate to call it a
> CoCo 4) has to be targeted to the CoCo fans like the ones on this list,
> and, preferably (more maximum impact) the Dragon fans. I'd say sales of a
> few hundred units at $150 - $300 would be reasonable if it hit enough
> checkpoints on most wishlists, but numbers beyond that would be wildly (and
> baselessly) optimistic. There's a LOT of competition out there in this
> hobbyist category, and has been stated time and again, not a great deal of
> nostalgia for the CoCo to help drive anything remotely like mass
> production. Obviously we're all trying to change that (the book, the new
> homebrew projects, etc.), but we've got a LONG way to go.
>
> -Bill
>
> ===================================================
> Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade,
> Inc.<http://www.armchairarcade.com>
> ===================================================
> Authored Books<
> http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Loguidice/e/B001U7W3YS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1>and
> Film <http://www.armchairarcade.com/film>; About me and other ways to get
> in touch <http://about.me/billloguidice>
> ===================================================
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 8:55 PM, Michael Robinson
> <deemcr at robinson-west.com>wrote:
>
> >
> > Explain to me how a faster modern 6309/6809 successor can be built
> > without introducing: direct memory access, interrupts, memory protection
> > hardware, etcetera?  For a COCO 4 to be popular, really popular, it has
> > to compete with Playstation 3, Wii U, and XBOX.  Unlike XBOX and
> > Playstation 3, a COCO 4 can have an improved version of COCO basic in
> > ROM and like the COCO3, a COCO4 should operate with or without a hard
> > disk/floppy disk/etcetera.  The biggest problem, ultimately, is the
> > operating system.  Build a more modern 6309/6809E plus GIME chip based
> > computer, this can be readily done, but the complexity of the machine
> > will necessarily be greater than the complexity of a COCO 3.
> >
> > As far as will it be a COCO, yes if it is downward compatible and can be
> > operated without an OS installed on a hard drive or other low mean time
> > between failures media device.  A solid 32 bit OS with a GUI will fit in
> > 32 megabytes or less.  A 128 gig SSD now is under $100.
> >
> > When I got my COCO 3 as a Christmas present, it was a $2k computer.
> > Fortunately, the cost of memory and integrated circuits in general has
> > plummeted.
> >
> > A 1+ Ghz computer without memory protection, hardware expansion support
> > via interrupts, and the ability to address 4 gigabytes or more of memory
> > is going to be awfully limited.  Anyone can run a COCO emulator on any
> > computer, but people who want a COCO 4 want something that feels simple
> > even if it isn't.  Emulators don't offer the same feeling that hardware
> > offers.
> >
> > My older brother who is an electrical engineer says the COCO3 can be
> > cloned easily using Xylinx or Microchip or Texas Instruments processors.
> > I'd say that the person who is serious about cloning the COCO 3 and
> > going further has to first duplicate the functionality of the COCO 3 in
> > hardware.  It has been easily 20 years since Radio Shack stopped making
> > Color Computers.  Once a prototype works that provides the level
> > of functionality that a COCO 3 does, decide what additional
> > instructions and hardware are needed and start building from that
> > prototype.
> >
> > The market will probably accept $150-$300 US for a COCO 4.  Don't
> > despair, in today's tech that is more substantial than what was
> > possible 20 years ago.
> >
> >
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> >
>
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