[Coco] VCC2.0.1 and DriveWire

Barry Nelson barry.nelson at amobiledevice.com
Sun Oct 18 17:51:00 EDT 2015


Don't change it! Maybe distribute it with a NitrOS9 boot/DECB hard disk setup for the non DriveWire controller, since that can be hard to find. I run mine that way most of the time since I don't want to have to startup DriveWire every time I start VCC. Maybe also include options on the FS502 configuration screen specifically for HDBDOS like this:

( ) HDB DOS for DriveWire using Becker Port (hdbdw3bc3.rom file must be present in VCC folder)
( ) Disk Basic (disk11.rom file must be present in VCC folder)
( ) RGB DOS (rgbdos.rom file must be present in VCC folder)
( ) Other external ROM image

Also, I know why the setting on the DriveWire server side is required for the Becker Port, but shouldn't it be possible to emulate the "bit banger" port so that the standard NitrOS9 drivers and HDBDOS ROMs would work? I would think today's computers are fast enough to do that. That way we don't need a different driver for the "Becker" configuration and could boot the same image on either VCC or a physical CoCo 3. Alternatively, maybe the ROM and the the NitrOS9 driver could at least auto-detect which code is needed, so the same software would work on both VCC and the physical hardware.

> Bill Pierce ooogalapasooo at aol.com 
> Sun Oct 18 15:56:32 EDT 2015
> 
> Pere, just go to "Catridge/FD-502 Conifg" and select "External Rom" and browse to your hdbdos rom in the the browse box (just as it states in the Vcc manual). Then reboot (hit F9 twice).
> If I remember correctly, the ini in the zip file was accidentally left in rgbdos mode.
> This is the case with the MPI selections as well. They were meant to be left empty, but I forgot my last testing had left the ini file in the state it's in before I zipped the dir.
> I should be making a new release soon as Joseph has fixed the WinXP issues as well as a couple of other things.
> 
> Vcc 201 known bugs:
> 
> Keyboard will stay in "OS9" (PC keyboard) mode no matter which setting it is on.
> In Win Vista, F10 does not turn off the status bar in full screen mode, use <SHIFT>F10 instead. This does not seem to be an issue in any other version of Windows but Vista
> You "might" experience a mouse bug while in full screen mode... On some builds, while in a 640 x 192 graphics screen in full screen mode, the mouse will not travel fulle screen. This bug seems to come and go with each build so it's been hard to track down what's causing it.
> In the current release, Vcc will NOT run on WinXP. This issue has been fixed, but has not been released yet. I'm still waiting on one last bug fix before releasing.
> 
> 
> The manual in the Zip is for v2.01.. not 1.43. I recently revised the manual with new info. There never has been a manual for 1.43, only 1.42. There may still be parts of the manual where I missed changing version numbers as well as a few other minor spelling and syntax errors, but for the most part, all aspects of Vcc 2.01 have been added. I actually started a manul for 1.43b, but never finished and I used parts of that document to make the additions to Joe's original 1.42 manual, so you may find references to 1.43b that slipped through the editing.
> 
> Oh, and anytime you're in hdbdos or rgbdos and can't access the virtual drives 1-3, try typing "DRIVEON" and if you can't access the floppies, try "DRIVEOFF", and if all else fails... try reading the HDBDOS manual.
> 
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> Bill Pierce
> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
> 
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> 
> 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
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> 
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com



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