The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 410, April 26, 2025
===============================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle
Special Notice:
---------------
For those who want to try an online BBS running on a real 512K Coco 3,
you can reach Terry Trapp’s RiBBS system here:
telnet ribbs.griswoldfx.com 6809
Special Guests today:
---------------------
Hopefully Bob Emery live from the Spring Dallas/Fort Worth
Retrocomputing meetup this afernoon.
Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
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Two online events this evening:
The Amigos hosted "International Computer Club", which has people
talking about a variety of hardware, software, collecting, etc. retro
computer & gaming projects. Nick will be on it to show the latest
about his Pinball project. The main show starts at 4 pm EST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaD3XRYu1lQTWrMYYPmaOa4AIj4xArroD
Also tonight it TRS-80 Trash Talk live #43, at I believe 8 pm Eastern,
which can be watched live on their YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/@TRS80TrashTalk
CocoFest is May 2-3, 2025 (with takedown on the morning of May
4/Sunday) at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Carol Stream (Wheaton),
Illinois. Hotel rooms at the special Fest rate are available now
($122/night for two queens or 1 king bed), and apply for May
2-5. You will need to use the Group Rate code of G30 to get this
rate, and getting the special rate ends April 14 (a week later than
previous). Bookings for tables will be going up in January.
https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Show spreadsheet of schedule that Grant sent me as well
The same weekend, the Cincinnati Vintage Computer Club is having
their first meeting on May 3 at the West Chester Community Room A/B
at Midpointe Library, West Chester, Ohio. It will run from noon until
3:00 pm local time.
https://www.meetup.com/cincinnati-vintage-computer-club/
Retrofest 2025, organized by Tony Jewell, is a retro computer festival
happening in Swindon, England May 31-June 1, 2025. Some Dragon people
(like Richard Harding and Chris Poacher) have already committed to
attending the show, being held at STEAM (the Great Western Railway
museum):
Retrofest website:
https://retrofest.uk/
They even have a promo video:
https://youtu.be/UCZ-BtFW9Ok?si=B441wLvpDI2iekLN
VCF-SW in Texas has been booked with dates: June 20-22, 2025 at the
Davidson Gundy Alumni Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Tables & Tickets will go on sale January 2025. $20/adult ($25 if bought
at the door), $10/student ($15 at the door). 17 and under are free
(with accompanying adult). Tables are $50.
https://www.vcfsw.org/
The Southeast Michigan Vintage Computer Club is having their 8th public
meeting/display June 28, 2025 from 11 AM to 5 PM Eastern at Grace
Chapel's Gymnasium, 2515 N. Williams Lake Road, Waterford Township,
Michigan (near Pontiac). This covers all retro gaming consoles and
home computers.
https://semichiganvcc.blogspot.com/2025/04/se-michigan-vintage-computer-club-ver.html
BoatFest (now International Retro Computer Expo) will be July 11-13
in Hurricane, WV. There is now a promo video for it:
https://www.ticketsource.us/ircexpo2025/t-eanjyje
VCF-Midwest (the largest retro show in North America, I believe) is
September 13-14 at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg,
Illinois. This year is the 20th anniversary of this show, and there is
a lot of collaboration between CocoFest and VCF-MW, so expect a large
number of Coco and Glenside people at the show! Still free admission,
and hotel booking is open already.
https://www.vcfmw.org/
That same weekend, Retro World Expo will be held September 12-14 at
the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Tickets
and vendor applications aren't quite ready yet but will be soon. This
is a gaming oriented retro show (including tournaments) but also
includes things like wrestling:
https://retroworldexpo.com/
Also that same weekend, for Canadians and anyone wanting to travel
up to Canada, the WoRC (World of Retro Computing) show is September
13-14 at the old Goudies Department Store location at 8 Queen Street
North, Kitchener,ON, Canada (West of Toronto, and right beside The
Museum). This is a general retro show with a bunch of gaming and home
computer platforms, vendors, seminars, LAN parties, workshops, door
prizes & raffles and is sponsored by Retro Rewind. Admission is free,
and it runs noon to 5 pm Eastern on both Saturday and Sunday:
https://worldofretrocomputing.com/
Tandy Assembly for 2025 is Sept 26 to Sep 28 at the Courtyard by
Marriott Springfield Downtown in Springfield, Ohio:
https://www.tandyassembly.com/
And they have some exhibitors already (click Exhibitors link)
This year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo runs from October 17-19 in
2025 (they just had this years Sept 27-29). Oregon Convention Center,
Portland, Oregon.
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/
Canada is getting it's own official VCF - Montreal, January 25-26
of 2026. It will be held at the Royal Military College outside of
Montreal, but I don't have any more details (the venue, for example)
yet:
https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/
Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Terry Steen has posted the beginning of two AI generated interviews
about his multi-year project Micro Works Assembler project that he will
be showing at CocoFest next week. One is about the Assembler itself,
the other about the Editor. The Microworks Assembler was, I believe,
the first full package available for the Coco, predating EDTASM+
from Tandy:
https://www.youtube.com/@SteenCOCO
2) Richard Natali will be showing the latest progress on his Coco
1/2 Spy Hunter game (2 joysticks and 64K required) at Coco Fest next
week. He put his current version (still not finished, but getting
closer) up on Discord for people to test, including a quick manual. But
best of all, he will be showing it with custom controls that actually
look better than the original Spy Hunter arcade cabinet:
Manual:
local file "SpyHunter CoCo 4_24_25.pdf" in Coco Nation News folder
SHVMAME.dsk to demo if wanted (works pretty good in XRoar, although
mouse/keyboard controls are a little awkward
"Spy Hunter demo booth for Coco Fest from Rich Natali.jpeg" to show
the custom controls he will use to demo at the Fest
3) James Jones posted on Facebook that he has received an F256K2.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1929079184021683/posts/3924280334501548/
He then posted a photo of the actual system. This is the FPGA based
6809 system that runs a port of NitrOS9 and BASIC09 that Boisy Pitre
helped them develop:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162542409232641/
4) Ken Waters (Canadian Retro Things) has released part 1 of his
going through Coco and TRS-80 Model 1 drives with Memory Minder and
the special alignment disk, seeing what he can fix on the drives
(if needed):
https://youtu.be/LV0eszteMfs?si=18qNR8p3yVtS-ASQ
5) Thomas Cherryhomes posted in the Coco Facebook group that he would
like a volunteer to be the Coco Fujinet firmware maintainer:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162539738382641/
6) Sheldon MacDonald posted a photo of a Sega Genesis game controller
adapter to the Coco. There have been others for the Coco before,
but Sheldon is going for having to use a custom joystick driver
(so it won't work with older games) that will all 12 buttons, etc.:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162535975632641/
7) Terry Trapp posted an update to his working on an emulated 6551
using a Parallax P2... it's getting close:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162532488857641/
8) Joel Ewy has been working on getting the multi-media part of his
MM/1 working again - and it sounds like he has SpAmTracker working
now (even has a background task) for playing music/sound files. He
is now seeing if he can get iffshow working:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3194643584094250/posts/4815861775305748/
9) David Collins, who is making the HB63C09M SBC project that we
have covered before, announced that he is going to be at CocoFest,
and will have boards for this project available:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3649979021962120/
He also posted in the Flex gropu a link to the flextools project in
the Flex Facebook group, which he mentions has been a great help to
his porting Flex to his SBC project:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/flexoperatingsystem/posts/1221443146011801/
10) And an aside from Allen Huffman on his Sub-Etha Software blog,
where he talks about his relationship with Steve Bjork, and Steve
mentioning that he was an extra in some Hollywood movies. Allen
managed to find on with Steve in the background from the 1977 film
"Rollercoaster":
https://subethasoftware.com/2025/04/21/steve-bjork-in-the-movie-rollercoaster-1977/
(This tradition of having Coco people show up as extras in films
continues to this day, as Ken Waters has done the same)
11) 8 Bits in the Basement has an interesting software project this
week on his Coco: Digitizing your own voice, and then inserting it
into a game... one of Nick Marentes Coco 1/2 games:
https://youtu.be/58-Y9Pg26jk?si=r--QHfWCCPDcZDxP
MC-10
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1) Jim Gerrie ported "Fuzzy Matching" originally by Bob Chappell in
the August 1982 issue of MicroComputer Printout magazine, which shows
some simple AI techniques:
https://youtu.be/oUkjvkC28gI?si=cZUw_Y5qliuDZuCr
Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Ciaran has done an update to his SAMx8 project - he now allows the
"common" RAM to be 4 or 8K (rather than just 8), which in Fuzix's
case works better, allowing proesses to get up to 60K instead of just
56K. He has the updated firmware available for download, and XRoar
emulator updates for it as well (scroll to bottom):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11264
He also has some leftover boards from his JLCPCB run, and is selling
them for those interested (warning - it ONLY works on the PAL Dragon
64, not the Dragon 32 or the Tano Dragon):
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11281
Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Renga in Blue did part 1 review of Robert Arnstein's Bedlamd text
adventure game. While the version he is reviewing is the original
TRS-80 Model 1/3 version, the game was ported by Robert to the Coco
as well, so any talk about the gameplay and the variety of solutions
applies equally to both:
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/04/19/bedlam-1982/
He then followed up with part 2 (and the final part), where they show
the cover from the Coco version of the manual (a fair bit different
than the Model 1/3 version):
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/04/20/bedlam-corrected-with-time-and-shock-treatment/
2) Pere Serrat & Kees van Oss have released another games pack (#70)
based on the MPAGD (the compiled to ML version), featuring 4 new
games and version 1.1 bugfix for a 5th:
Arlo
Corey Coolbrew
Frankee Goes Home
TJ's Cavern Capers (Based on YouTuber TJ Ferreira, whom we have
covered recently reviewing the new MC-10 game T.H.E.M.)
Hyperkill Version 1.1
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11279
They also have released NP pack #16 (the Supersprite FM+ board version
with enhanced palettes), which contains:
Ooze
Roasty
That Sinking Feeling
The Relic
https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11280
3) Tomorrow at 6 pm Eastern on the Amigos Twitch and YouTube channels
(note: there is a pre-show that starts earlier on Twitch), Brent and
Aaron will do a full review of Nick's only 6309 based game (so far):
Gunstar for the 512k Coco 3:
https://www.twitch.tv/amigosretrogaming
https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming/streams
4) Richard Kelly has uploaded a later version of one of our active
Game On Challenge games, Chambers from Tom Mix Software. This one is
copyright 1984 (not the 1983 original), which does the following:
1) bug fix for a stray white pixel that sometimes stayed on the
screen. 2) The warpgate sound is faster and pitched higher. At the
start of the game, you can start on any level 1-20, rather than just
10. The number of creature types has been increased to 50. You can
download it from the Coco Facebook group now; hopefully it will be
on the Color Computer Archive soon as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162552054697641/
5) As we mentioned last week, Ken Reighard has a new, final version of
his Nightmare Highway game (the CocoFest 2025 edition) on his itch.io
page. There is also a game playing contest at CocoFest, and he posted a
picture of the revered Davenport Cup that the highest scorer will win:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/glensideccc/posts/10162890066031163/
Purchase link:
https://kenscococorner.itch.io/nightmare-highway-final-edition
6) Jim Mullis posted a question in the Coco Facebook group - what
is the best racing game for the Coco 1/2 or 3? What is the panel &
chat's opinion (expand chat to see responses)?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10162527886502641/
7) Ellimist on YouTube has done some more Coco adventure game speed
runs this past week:
The Martian Crypt from Tom Mix Software by Scott Cabit - a graphical
text adventure with sound, with one of the quickest speed runs I have
seen yet:
https://youtu.be/oo1zk2_-3dk?si=l9Yg5QGw7T9GMZj2
Wild West by Novasoft (Tom Mix Software), also written by Scott Cabit
- their first Coco 3 graphical text adventure (this one includes his
dying on his first attempt). Also a short game:
https://youtu.be/UtKlO8s3J8E?si=LsiUxZXony9lBKi3
The Deserted Barracks by Raleigh Rivers. May have been a freeware
release? Text Adventure, but done in Choose Your Own Adventure style
(like the book series):
https://youtu.be/1Ru_c2rfNLU?si=akD2QwU72DPxsSAj
8) RetroTrailer-2 on YouTube did a short vieo playing Fembot's Revenge
- but either his emulator has an issue or his copy of the game is
corrupt, as it is trying to display a 6K PMODE 4 graphics screen,
and it should be doing a 3K PMODE 2 graphic screen:
https://youtu.be/NiYqN_rUKd0?si=s7YrLDZSVWAzPibB
9) After a long hiatus of not recording any Coco game play videos,
Buck Owens (Steve Rasmussen) returned with a vengance this week,
recording several videos related to the Game On Challenge:
MPAGD game Chispy, in which he got through a *lot* more screens than
I have:
https://youtu.be/s_Pk8I6cGz8?si=ybobk1g5U8Rt5ZWQ
He also played M.G. Lustig's Morocco GP, sold by Computerware (he
later had his own company, Arcade Animation Inc.):
https://youtu.be/Qlzr0MtjGJU?si=1PaYwAFXPiRJInpV
And finally, he did a video showing the built in level editor for
BeanStalker, our Game On Challenge from just a couple of weeks ago:
https://youtu.be/A5aQZwUqJz8?si=VrlZaA6Wx5q721K-
10) A Chinese YouTube channel posted a video showing some Dragon
and Coco game action on an emulator, including Lunar Rover
Patrol, Whirlybird Run (both by Spectral), Cave Fighter (Cable
Software/Dragon):
https://youtu.be/UmRpQ1KUTlU?si=3icUZq90NNfz2i7_
11) Spanish YouTube channel XperTek covered some more Coco 1/2 games
on his real hardware/amber monitor this past week:
Brewmaster (Novasoft/Tom Mix Software by Rodger Smith):
https://youtu.be/krIEjjDa5-8?si=vRYfkydsPiYd4QMH
El Bandito by David Crandall/Mark Data Products. A slightly
earlier/different version of this game was published by Creative
Computing before their software selling division shut down):
https://youtu.be/5k6hz_pk5_8?si=ZOXa9tH1Q4OuvmIy
12) Chronologically Gaming is finally onto games released in December
of 1982, and covered Bird Attack by Andrew Hubbell/Tom Mix Software
this past week:
https://youtu.be/CQIlxxXrtTM?si=NK4INy_MwetF-qu4
13) Daniel C (Electro L.I.B.) did Downland walkthrough - the full
game. Interestingly, it looks he has ported Downland (calling it
"Gilbert in Downland" for the ESP8266/ESP8285 & Arduinos, using black
and white and lower res graphics (amongst a bunch of other games). He
even shows that version running side by side with the Coco version:
https://youtu.be/pJEtS17ZgM0?si=BobY4jBt3lBBoRyO
Sample download page for Arduboy (Arduino), including Gilbert in
the Downland:
https://www.tinyjoypad.com/arduboy
14) Jim Gerrie created a new MC-10 version of the game "Survival"
(aka "Moon Survival Adventure") from David Ahl's book "Big BASIC
Games", which only needed minor modifications:
https://youtu.be/Q7zh24LqpF8?si=0WRXXfW7Yr1nS8HN
15) ZXFrankie on YouTube put up a video showing him playing the
Dragon 32 version of Hungry Horace on real hardware, as his high
score submission:
https://youtu.be/hlu6RtIfIy4?si=b22S0z98fknGcVKB
16) Another high score attempt for a Dragon 32 game is by Attempts:
A gaming channel (by LRU), playing Jet Boot Colin:
https://youtu.be/ePQoQeSFGt0?si=TU-tL7QBo5sfxoX7
==============================================================================
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--
R. Allen Murphey <exile at weylan-yutani.com>
Weylan-Yutani Corporation
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