[Coco] The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 340, November 25, 2023

Sun Nov 26 09:00:00 EST 2023

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 340, November 25, 2023
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Interviews schedule:
--------------------
- Double interview with Joe Ahern & David McNally, creators of the
newsletter/magazine "TRS-80 Computing (renamed "Color Computing" late in
it's life) back in June 1987 as pair of 13 year olds.
Complete run of their magazine:
  https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Magazines/TRS-80%20Computing/

- December 9 we have an interview with Mike Snyder, who authored tons of
games for T&D magnazine for both the Ccoo 1/2 and the Coco 3 (some are on my
site already) between 1987 and 1991. He still has his own website if you want
to get familiar with the games he wrote and think of questions to ask him.
  https://www.cocoquest.com/

- January 6 we have a double interview with Doug Masten & Glen Dahlgren,
covering the Coco 3 game The Contras. We are also planning on Glen coming
on later in January to talk about his latest fantasy novel and catch up
on how his series is going.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
SC in Brazil is going on today, and Erico Monteiro posted a couple of
photos. We are hoping to have him on live later, time permitting.

While not a Coco show as you can tell by the title, "World of Commodore
2023", Frank of RetroRewind (who is the sponsor) wanted to mention that
they will be selling Coco items at the show including CocoSDC's at the show
December 2-3 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.. and with show special prices:
  https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2023/

VCF SoCal: Feb 17-18, 2024 in Orange, California
Hotel Fera - Events Center
100 The City Drive, Orange, CA 92868
  https://vcfsocal.com/index.html

CocoFest: May 4-5, 2024 in Carol Stream, Illinois (near Chicago)
Holiday Inn & Suites
  https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV

https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) CocoTown returns with the start of his trip the sourcecode for the Coco
portions of MAME:
  https://youtu.be/VPFF8jn866A?si=9Vv1ejFk47iNqKpw

2) George Janssen put out a 2 parter for his 6809 assembly language series:
Part 1: Coco 3 Hi Res text screen palettes and attributes:
  https://youtu.be/C4t4jgE_gsA?si=uTrhrWMHbAxDv-sM
Part 2:
  https://youtu.be/yeNVnUM_mhk?si=ziA1vXfw-LkoL_-x

3) Michael Furman posted a video of using Rick Ulland's CocoIO Ethernet
card on a Coco 3 (it wasn't working reliably on all Coco 3's until recently)
after installing the updated GAL chip:
  https://youtu.be/Fm6HlZKdDII?si=FqExzmlj3uNjXYYg

4) TRS-80 Retro Programing posted another update video for Tales of Suburbia,
as well as a brief update on his plans for Coco Ultimate. He also mentions
that he caught the end of our GShell CocoTech episode this past week:
  https://youtu.be/XJTuEqhngVM?si=Eo0LwKesS4_or-Qf

5) RetroTech Dan put up a video showing how he 3D printed a piece to help
fix the mount for the spacebar's stabilizer bar on his Coco keyboard to
repair it:
  https://youtu.be/slJgrT81QW0?si=Xr6i3qQxXcC8W_Mr

6) Simon Jonassen posted a screenshot update of his PMODE graphics online
editor, showing some added icons in the drop down menu:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161039567082641/
He also added support for varying screen resolutions (both 2 and 4 color
modes):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161047409782641/

7) Neil Blanchard on Facebook says that he has finally finished fulfilling
all pre-orders for his Gamester professional joystick product, and as
of earlier this week had 3 left in stock and is now taking new orders
as well. This uses arcade professional joysticks and buttons, solid wood
construction (with a variety of woods and finishes). These work on both
the Coco and Tandy 1000's, so if you have both machines, you can move the
joystick between them:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161039963762641/

MC-10
-----
1)

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Italian YouTube channel "65C02 movies" did a 15 minute video about the
Dragon 32/64 - the title translates roughly to "The fleeting appearance
of the unknown British home computer Dragon 32/64". You will have to turn
Close Caption on, and then click the settings wheel to translate Italian
to your native language. It basically does a quick rundown going through
the BASIC manual and the Programming Your Dragon book, and then a quick
lookthru of 2 issues of Dragon User magazine, including the first issue
(if the translation is correct, he has some of his facts wrong, though):
  https://youtu.be/ptU4f5vd2eA?si=Hlx_pgOCGK3KoHlO

2) David Gisbert on the Dragon Facebook group posted some photos of both
his cute dog and a Spanish Dragon disk drive brochure:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3592189067707403/

3) Julian Brown has a few more (as of a few days ago) Dragon 32 Revision 2.1
motherboards available that he is selling. He sells the board by itself,
and offers a package with all components (if they are available at the
time - some sockets have been out of stock, I understand). This version
of the board allows upgrading to full 64K of RAM:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3591199687806341/
He also has been fixing up quality and color issues with his video
output from his NTSC daughterboard with a few tweaks, with much improved
results (color screenshot in the comments). He has technical notes in the
Hardware->Dragon channel on the Coco Discord as well:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3593470124245964/

4) This addresses the Coco as well, but as we mentioned last week, Ciaran
(Sixxie) is working on a replacement for the SAM chip (for Coco 1's, 2's
as well as Dragon 32's and 64's). He has posted more detail on the World
of Dragon forums, including photos:
  https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11144
His latest screenshot of running a Diagnostic cart on a machine so equipped:
  https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11144&start=10
He also put up a video showing the vertical hardware scrolling trick that
he has written some demo's for on a real SAM. As he says, it's still a
little jittery, but getting close:
  http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/samx4-wip/glitchy-less.mp4

5) Richard Harding in the Dragon Facebook group posted a link to a video
of a news segment from Wales at the time that Dragon Data was starting to
have problems. He hints that more are coming as well:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3593367984256178/

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) The optimized versions of Paper Route are now on the Color Computer
Archive. The 6309 version in particular speeds it up about 15-20%.
  https://colorcomputerarchive.com/search?q=paper+route

2) Inufuto has released their next game on the Coco's called "Yewdow",
and the MC-10, Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 versions are all available as of
November 21-23. IJKM or arrow keys to move, Space or Shift to leave a
directional arrow.:
Video & download links (WAV files for cassette):
Download (includes video demo links):
  http://inufuto.web.fc2.com/8bit/yewdow/#coco

3) John Hancock on YouTube put up a video called "Oddball Robocop Games
You Might of Missed", and the last one he talks about is the Coco 3 release:
  https://youtu.be/Ck6_r1X_TDA?si=zzsovIalxDXKdCw8&t=538

4) Aaron of the Amigos has announced that the final Coco Show will be
recording on Sunday, December 10th. They are now simulcasting on YouTube
and Twitch as well.
They also did their annual Thanks for Giving marathon stream (8 hours this
year) covering various game consoles and home computers - including one
Coco game. When they got to dinosaur games, they had to give Dino Wars a try:
  https://www.youtube.com/live/igWkxfN-S_0?si=2WEwYnPMdrF0FF8A&t=14619

=======================================
Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
https://thecoconation.com/community/

Please trim any replies to *just* the specific item replied to.
-- 
Robert "Exile In Paradise" Murphey <exile at weylan-yutani.com>
Weylan-Yutani Corporation