[Coco] "My" CoCo 4 project

[Bill Pierce]

 Here's one from "coco3.com" where Steve actually mentions the author of Vcc allowing his code to be used for the "VR Coco 4 Project". No mention of "buying it":

--------------------------------------------------------

6809er						
				November 15, 2007 at 2:19 am        		 		
		
Is there any ongoing work or discussion of this project? In particular, is there anywhere a person could obtain work-in-progress code for this? It seems to me that there might be more interest in the project if there was something to look at and comment on. After all, it’s hard to visualize something from a lot of words on a screen.

There has been no code done because it’s stalled in the design stage.
When I try to get the project going (a few months back) most of the talk was anti-productive options on what the project should not be.
At this point, project’s design (so far) has been on my own with input from a few CoCo user that are open to what the design could be.
Please remember that any CoCo project is a “labor of love” with limited resources in both time and money and that controls the speed of development. (Look at long it’s taking for the SuperBoard from Cloud-9 to get done!)
As for where we are…
We start with the MESS as the core for the project but the later versions have not been so great. (Very buggy.) Now with the VCC emulator running under the Raindow IDE, we may move to that being the project’s code base.  (Besides the programmer is very open to creating a V.R. CoCo 4 version.)
While VCC is for windows only at this time, the programmer maybe open to using SDL to make the code cross-platform.  We will see how far the project gets before we cross that bridge.
Will the first version be a full V.R. CoCo 4 with all the extras?  Most likely not.  We need to take this project one step at a time.  From now, let get the bugs out of the code-base and IDE system.
The goals the first time out are:
1) Get the full IDE system up and running. The key to writing new CoCo programs.  With the current state of the VCC and Raindow IDE, we are just about there.
2) Expand the graphics modes to support all CoCo 1/2 graphics modes in the CoCo 3 mode.  Some programs will not run on a coco 3 because some graphics modes are not supports.  Need to address this.
3) Get the VCC to support the Speech Sound pak and other standard CoCo hardware items.
4) Add a few extra improvements to the CoCo 3 hardware to make a V.R. CoCo 3.5 like…
  A) 2048 Megabytes of RAM  (done on the VCC)
  B) Extra CPU speed (done on the VCC)
  C) Add a Red and Green bits for a 8-Bit color reg.  for 256 color palette.
  D) Add more scrolling control to the Bit map screens.
Later we will add tools like an Internet Interface system so your V.R. CoCo can talk to other V.R. CoCos on the web.
Well, that is where the project is as of today.  More will happen once those working on it have more time.  For me, I just moved and I’m still trying to get my house in order.
Hopefully, you can visualize the project with the above words.  

Steve (6809er) Bjork
								
 


----------------------------------------------------------

Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

 

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Global Moderator for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums
http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/

E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com