[Coco] CocoPi3 Update
Ron
ron at kdomain.org
Wed May 3 09:51:31 EDT 2017
Hi Tim,
I just realized I did not respond to all your comments.
The CocoPi3 project (well, perhaps not big enough to call a project) is
a Raspberry Pi 3 running the latest version of Raspbian. I've added the
most current version of MAME and XRoar to provide Coco (and MC-10)
emulation. There's a bit more to it than that as I've made it a sort of
mini Raspberry Pi 3 distribution. There are many performance tweaks as
well as development tools, utilities, etc., to allow for more than just
Coco emulation. In addition, it runs DriveWire to host files for
emulated Coco's or real Coco's provided you have a Drivewire cable and
USB to serial adapter). Emceed has also been added to host files for a
real MC-10 (it uses the same Drivewire cable and USB to serial
adapter). In addition, you would need Darren's excellent MCX-128
cartridge. This has MCX-128 basic (with 128K of additional RAM) and has
commands access files on a Emcee server. Ed Snider may still be selling
these, but you would need to check with him.
Since the RPi3 has Bluetooth, I use a Nintendo WiiU Pro Controller
(fully supported) and it works great for Coco games. The controller has
analog and digital controls, so you get everything you need in a single
controller. Many other Bluetooth controllers should work as well.
Heck, you could even go wireless for your keyboard, mouse or speakers if
you wanted to. I've tested some of this as well.
Wifi is also built-in to the RPi3. Very easy to copy games, ROM images,
manage DriveWire, etc., all from another workstation on the same
network. You can even compile your own version of MAME, XRoar, etc.,
since all the compilers and tools required are installed. You can run
MAME's debugger on it as well.
Modern video options (i.e. HDMI or composite video on the RPi3 GPIO pin
header) make this easy to hook up to a variety of display devices.
Digital and analog sound output.
There's a bunch more to it than this, you this gives you a bit more info
about.
Even though I'm a big advocate for this platform, I still prefer my real
Coco hardware, but the RPi3 and emulation really makes thing easy and
provide a (relatively) lower cost solution for having the Coco
experience if you don't have any of the original hardware.
Thanks!
On 05/03/2017 08:34 AM, Ron wrote:
> Hi Tim,
>
> I was at CocoFEST and had a Raspberry Pi 3 running all weekend at the
> table right across from Allen. Brett Gordon was at an adjacent table
> running Fuzix. Brendan Donahe had his Coco 2 and VGA adapter at a
> table on the other side of mine . William Astle was behind me. In
> fact, I was handing out free 8GB SD cards with the CocoPi3
> distribution on it. I only brought about 8 cards, but wanted to help
> get it into the hands of whoever might want it and didn't have an SD
> card there for me to copy it to.
>
> I did not have a sign or banner at my table. Perhaps a bit more
> marketing for next year's CocoFEST? :)
>
> Thanks
>
>
> On 05/03/2017 08:20 AM, tim franklinlabs.com wrote:
>> OK, I'm a little confused here (normal for me). I know Allen had
>> Roger
>> Taylor's DE0 FPGA at his table. I never saw any Raspberry Pi. Not to
>> say it wasn't there but the only Raspberry CoCo I saw was at Chris
>> Hawks table. Am I mistaken??? Is a "CoCoPi 3" a CoCo running on a
>> Raspberry Pi or is it something else???
>>
>> On May 3, 2017 at 8:01 AM Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ron,
>>
>> Allen Huffman brought one of those to CocoFEST. It's a really neat
>> little device!
>>
>> We both talked about it and actually tried to get CocoPi3 up and
>> running
>> on it. The built-in display did not support a resolution of 640 x
>> 480
>> (at least not that we could see). If it weren't for that, I bet it
>> would have been fine.
>>
>> The CocoPi3 distribution forces a 640 x 480 resolution in order to
>> maintain a decent level of emulation performance. For the Coco,
>> 640
>> x
>> 480 is actually more than adequate.
>>
>> I may try to test 1920 x 1080 again at some point as I do have
>> other
>> tweaks to help performance.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> On 05/03/2017 07:46 AM, Rob Rosenbrock wrote:
>>
>> It would be tempting to do this with pi-top...
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On May 3, 2017, at 7:52 AM, Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> If it's a Raspberry Pi 3, yes. You would power it off, pull out
>> the
>> RetroPie SD card, replace it with this distribution (on another SD
>> card) and then power it back up.
>>
>> It would be up to you to determine if you could merge the two into
>> one. I've added programs and libraries from alternate repo's,
>> so my
>> guess is it would not work. RetroPie does have an older version of
>> XRoar available and they do offer MAME, but no idea on what
>> version
>> and if it would have all the tweaks I've added.
>>
>> I encourage anyone to experiment -- lot's of talented people here
>> with great ideas.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> -Ron
>>
>> On 05/03/2017 01:05 AM, Dave Regan wrote:
>> Thanks Ron. Would it be able to be run from the same Raspberry Pi
>> that has retropie and all my other emulators installed?
>>
>> Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com> on behalf of Ron
>> <ron at kdomain.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 4:16:21 PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
>>
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> This is a complete ready-to-run distribution based on Raspbian
>> as a
>> base
>> OS. Not RetroPie.
>>
>> Other than just adding the Coco ROMs, this is ready to go. You
>> would
>> copy the SD card image on to a micro SD card (8GB or higher).
>> Class
>> 10
>> recommended (for speed). It should boot right up.
>>
>> On 05/02/2017 06:05 PM, Dave Regan wrote:
>> I'm getting a RP 3 to take with me when I travel so I can play a
>> little in
>> the hotel. Sorry for the newbie type question though, but is this
>> something
>> that works similar to RetroPie that you simply load onto the Pi
>> and
>> then
>> load the dsk images into a particular subfolder and you're
>> ready to
>> go?
>>
>> On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 3:41 PM, Rietveld Rietveld
>> <rietveldh at hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks. Right now I am running VCC using a little ATOM powered
>> PC on
>> a
>> stick. It's pretty nice as its only a little bigger than a card
>> reader but
>> it is no where as cool as using the Pi.
>>
>> ,
>> Original Message
>> From: Ron
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:35 PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>> Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
>>
>> I still need to check with Rick Adams, but would like to
>> continue to
>> have him host a copy of the SD card image as well as Simon
>> Jonassen.
>>
>> The current links (for the old image and documentation) are:
>>
>> [1]http://rickadams.org/ronklein/
>> [2]http://www.roust-it.dk/coco/ronklein/
>>
>> I will also need to update the documentation to reflect all the
>> changes.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> On 05/02/2017 05:27 PM, Rietveld Rietveld wrote:
>> This looks incredible. How can I get a copy for my rasp pi?
>>
>> ,
>> Original Message
>> From: Michael Brant
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:19 PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>> Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
>>
>> Cool making me really want a rasp pi 3.
>>
>> On May 2, 2017 4:34 PM, "Glen Hewlett" <glen.hewlett at sympatico.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ron,
>>
>> That's a lot of cool updates. I do appreciate all the effort
>> you are
>> putting into this SDimage. I think it will be very useful for
>> anyone
>> who
>> wants to learn about the CoCo or someone who remembers playing
>> with
>> the
>> CoCo many years ago and wants to give it a try again. The RPi3 is
>> cheap
>> and connects to any recent monitor/TV all you need is keyboard and
>> your
>> good to go in CoCo world. :)
>>
>> Personally using emulators is what got me back into the CoCo,
>> luckily I
>> still had some of my old CoCo hardware and I'm having a blast with
>> it
>> again.
>> Cheers,
>> Glen
>>
>> On May 2, 2017, at 3:37 PM, Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
>>
>> CocoPi3 - ChangeLog - May 2017
>>
>> CocoFEST 2017 was a trial run for the CocoPi3 distribution. I took
>> some
>> time to observe how others looked at it, used it, etc., and made
>> some
>> enhancements. Some are minor others are more significant. I've
>> been
>> learning quite a bit with this little project, but the best
>> part has
>> been
>> some of the folks I've met and worked with along the way.
>> * Quick refresh of some Raspbian packages (i.e. sudo apt-get
>> update;
>> sudo apt-get upgrade)
>> * Updated GCC 6 (as part of Debian's bleeding edge "stretch"
>> repo).
>> GCC
>> 6 is required to compile MAME.
>> * Pierre Sarrazin resolved an issue with the cmoc compiler for
>> Raspbian. Fix already included with this update.
>> * Updated MAME to the latest version (0.185)
>> * Updated the Main Menu and included many new entries as well as
>> updated
>> existing ones (over double the options)!
>> * Typing 'menu' from any prompt will return to main menu screen
>> * Some menu options include additional informational
>> screens/prompts
>> * Option for booting Coco 3 with VCCEmuDisk hard drive image.
>> Includes
>> NitrOS9 & 255 virtual DECB disks with programs
>> * Option for booting Coco 3 (2MB RAM) directly into NitrOS9 using
>> latest
>> image from [3]http://nitros9.sourceforge.net/snapshot/
>> * Option for booting Coco 3 (2MB RAM) directly into Fuzix (via
>> YA-DOS).
>> Internet access provided via 'lwwire' daemon
>> * Options still available for Coco 2 (MAME & XRoar) both with
>> Drivewire
>> support as well as booting into MC-10
>> * Updated the scripts to start and stop the DriveWire, lwwire and
>> emceed
>> daemons from main menu
>> * Edit Wifi configuration from main menu
>> * Adjust RPi3 system volume from main menu (for HDMI and analog
>> ports)
>> * Run 'raspi-config' from main menu (resize file system, other
>> administrative options)
>> * Backup existing RPi3 installation to alternate SD card (i.e.
>> clone
>> entire SD card) from main menu
>> * Reboot or shutdown RPi3 (safely) from main menu
>> * IP address(es) on main menu screen. Includes for both WiFi
>> and CAT6
>> * System uptime information on main menu screen
>> * Daemon status (DriveWire, lwwire and emceed) on main menu screen
>> * Emceed server for hosting files to a real MC-10. Requires
>> MCX-128
>> expansion cartridge & serial to USB adapter
>> * DriveWire can still be configured to host files for real
>> Coco's as
>> well. Same serial to USB adapter would be required
>> * Added additional documentation in Samba share 'doc' folder
>> (/media/share1/docs). This includes help with Bluetooth
>> controllers
>> Unfortunately, there's too many changes to just provide updated
>> files
>> for. As such, it will require downloading a new image. Going
>> forward,
>> I
>> am working on a way to package updates (perhaps via a CocoPi3
>> repo
>> for
>> use
>> with apt-get) to save time.
>> I plan on recording a video demo of this new version soon and
>> will
>> send
>> it off to Steve Strowbridge to add to his YouTube channel. I
>> also
>> need
>> to
>> work with Rick Adams and Simon Jonassen to see about
>> replacing the
>> older SD
>> card image with this new one.
>> Thanks!
>>
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>>
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>>
>> References
>>
>> 1. http://rickadams.org/ronklein/
>> 2. http://www.roust-it.dk/coco/ronklein/
>> 3. http://nitros9.sourceforge.net/snapshot/
>> 4. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 5. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 6. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 7. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 8. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 9. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 10. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 11. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>
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