The TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer SuperSite! » CoCo SIG

New CoCo3.com

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:32:18 +0000

Welcome, CoCoNuts!

The Tandy Color Computer SuperSite is going through some changes that are aimed at offering an overall better CoCo community portal.

CoCo3.com started years ago as a single page with only a tower of banners with links to other CoCo user’s web pages. Over the years the site has been overhauled when it was necessary but the goal has always been to help keep the CoCo community alive.

Please be patient while all of the systems are brought together in a nice form. This could take several weeks to update all the content from the old site areas.

To post a new public message or article, make sure you’re logged in and click on DASHBOARD in the right sidebar. Edit your message, click a checkbox next to the desired category, and submit the message.

Your posts can contain basic HTML, links, pictures, music, and even YouTube videos!

TO SHOW YOUR FACE OR AVATAR NEXT TO YOUR POSTS:

This is automatic using GRAVATARS (Globally Recognized Avatars) that follow you on the web using your e-mail address. Go to www.gravatar.com and upload your avatar there. Make sure it is square (same width and height). Done.

TO SHOW A THUMBNAIL PICTURE NEXT TO YOUR POSTS:

The YAPB Image form shown above your message editor lets you upload a picture to be used as a thumbnail when your message is listed. A larger version of the picture will show up at the top of your message when someone is reading it.

TO SHOW YOUTUBE VIDEOS IN YOUR POSTS:

To insert a YouTube video, just type the URL of the video, but use HTTPV instead of HTTP:
–> http://www.youtube.com/video_id

TO SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE TO ANOTHER USER:

A Private Messaging system has been added on October 11, 2009. To send a message to another user, click on DASHBOARD and look under the USERS menu in the left sidebar. To keep this site more of an open forum instead of too many PMs, no Private-Reply links are available at this time for public postings. In other words, you’ll have to work a little to send a PM.

First Color Computer TV Commercial

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:21:23 +0000

512k upgrade question

dana — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:22:59 +0000

I want to build this 512k simm upgrade for my coco3 but I am not sure where capacitors c1,c3 and c4 go. Any help would greatly appreciated.

512K.gif (33 KB)

This post was submitted by dana.

Is there a patch or some other way for either MESS or VCC to use the internet?

PunkMaister — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:47:15 +0000

Are there any patches or something that would allow either MESS or VCC to connect to the internet? So it could then use communications software including CoCo Web browsing and so on.

This post was submitted by PunkMaister.

m.e.s.s emulator joystick

Level 1 — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:12:46 +0000

How do i use my pc mouse as coco joystick in the mess emulator?

Thanks

This post was submitted by Level 1.

A PS/2 Mouse Interface for the TRS-80 Color Computer 1,2 and 3

gimechip — Sat, 29 May 2010 10:28:01 +0000

The CoCo PS/2 Mouse Interface emulates the Tandy Hi-Res Joystick Interface and is useful with software such as OS-9 level 2/Multi-Vu, CoCo Max 3, Window Master, etc. It will NOT operate as a low-res CoCo Joystick. This is David Gacke’s original design, as prepared by J&R of GIMEchip.com using the E.A.G.L.E. Printed Circuit Board Software. The zip file contains all of the information that you need to etch the PCB and build your own. I have updated the header info of the PIC16C505 “.ASM” files so that they will properly compile in the current version of “MPASMWIN” for the PIC16F505. The “.ASM” files have also been assembled to save you the assembly step. The “.ZIP” file also contains a copy of David Gacke’s original web-page for this project. I created custom E.A.G.L.E. library parts so that my E.A.G.L.E. schematic would closely resemble David’s original schematic. The “.ZIP” file may be downloaded by clicking here: PS-2 Mouse Interface (GIMEchip.com). Enjoy – John of GIMEchip.com

EPROM Hints using a 27256 to replace a 2764 or 27128

gimechip — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:08:45 +0000

I am often asked if I have any 2764 or 27128 EPROMs in stock. Unfortunatly, I sell out of those faster than I can find replacement stock. If I can’t get them cheap enough to allow me to sell them for $2, I don’t buy them. So, I just wanted to note that you can replace a 2764 with a 27256 by stacking the 8K image four times. A 27128 can be replaced by a 27256 by stacking the image twice. This should work in all cases, regardless of how the circuit has the upper address lines of the 28 pin socket wired.

Switching the M.E.S.S. Keyboard to “NATURAL”

gimechip — Sat, 29 May 2010 04:34:33 +0000

I usually use the Vcc Emulator, but while working on the ON ERROR GOTO command for the CoCo 1 and 2, I needed to use M.E.S.S. for testing. Now, it’s sometimes difficult for me to remember which keys to press when the keyboard is set to emulated. Pressing SCROLL LOCK and TAB and then selecting Keyboard Mode lets me change the keyboard to Natural rather than Emulated, however it is only for that session. The next time I start the emulation, I have to do this all over again. So, I navigated to the MESS ini folder and loaded coco2b.ini into notepad. Then in this section:
#
# MESS SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
ramsize
writeconfig 0
skip_warnings 0
natural 0
I changed the value of natural to 1 rather than 0 and re-saved the changed file. The CoCo2b emulation now starts up in the “natural” keyboard mode. This same procedure can be used for all of the emulated CoCo systems by making that change in the proper .ini file. There are probably other ways to accomplish this, but this works for me. It should be noted that the emulation with “natural” keyboard slows down considerably. -John of GIMEchip.com

ON ERROR GOTO 63999 for the CoCo 1 and 2

gimechip — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:23:14 +0000

Okay – I was bored, so I thought I would create an ON ERROR GOTO command for the CoCo 1 and 2. This assembly language routine will jump to line number 63999 on any error. It is not perfect – if there is no line 63999 in your BASIC program, then the computer will hang up. The routine must be disabled at the end of your BASIC program, otherwise any error, even from the command line, will attempt to jump to 63999. I referenced “Color BASIC Unraveled” for the creation of this routine. The Assembly Listing, in Disk EDTASM+ format follows:
*ON ERROR GOTO COMMAND *FOR THE TRS-80 COLOR *COMPUTER 1 & 2 *(C) 28 MAY 2010 *BY: J&R OF GIMECHIP.COM ************************ DEVNUM EQU $006F RVEC16 EQU $018E GOTO EQU $AEA9 CMDINT EQU $ADC4 BINVAL EQU $002B FRETOP EQU $0021 LINNUM EQU START+1 CASBUF EQU $01DA HILIN EQU $F9FF LB99C EQU $B99C ************************ ORG CASBUF START LDX RVEC16+1 STX TEMP,PCR LEAX ONERR,PCR STX RVEC16+1 LEAX MSG-1,PCR JSR LB99C RTS ONERR LDX #HILIN STX BINVAL LDS FRETOP LDD #CMDINT PSHS B,A CLR DEVNUM JMP GOTO DISABL LDX TEMP,PCR STX RVEC16+1 RTS TEMP RMB 2 MSG FCC 'ON ERROR GOTO 63999 ROUTINE BY' FCB $0D FCC 'J&R OF HTTP://WWW.GIMECHIP.COM' FCB $0D FCC '(C) 28 MAY 2010.' FDB $0D00 DONE EQU * END START

and here is the BASIC program containing the routine:
60000 ‘ENABLE
60010 RESTORE:FOR F= 474 TO 604:READ A$:POKE F,VAL(A$):NEXT F:POKE 65344,0:EXEC 474:RETURN
60020 ‘DISABLE
60030 EXEC 514:RETURN
60040 DATA 190,1,143,175,141,0,41,48,141,0,11,191,1,143,48,141,0,31,189,185,156,57,142,249,255,159,43,16,222,33,204,173,196,52,6,15,111,126,174,169,174,141,0,4,191,1,143,57,255,255
60050 DATA 79,78,32,69,82,82,79,82,32,71,79,84,79,32,54,51,57,57,57,32,82,79,85,84,73,78,69,32,66,89,13,74,38,82,32,79,70,32,72,84,84,80,58,47,47,87,87,87,46,71
60060 DATA 73,77,69,67,72,73,80,46,67,79,77,13,40,67,41,32,50,56,32,77,65,89,32,50,48,49,48,46,13,0
63997 ‘YOUR ERROR ROUTINE GOES AT 63999
63998 ‘ EXAMPLE: 63999 GOTO linenumber
63999 PRINT”AN ERROR HAS OCURRED.”:GOSUB 60020:END

24 and 28 Pin EPROM Differences

gimechip — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:27:26 +0000

Differences between the 24-pin and 28-pin ROM/EPROMs.
This is a handy little chart that I drew and color coded to highlight the differences between the 24-Pin 8K ROM/EPROMs and the 28-Pin 8K (or larger) ROM/EPROMs. It is especially helpful if you are trying to wire up a socket adapter for these ROM types. The main purpose for which I created this was to provide a visual reference for replacing a 24-pin ROM socket in an FD-501 controller with a 28-Pin socket. This involves removing the 24-pin socket, attaching a few jumper wires to some of the socket holes, bending pins 1,2,27,28 out on a 28-pin socket and soldering it in place, then attaching the jumper wires properly (actually, there’s a little more to it than that) – I think this is a better method than using a socket adapter and I will create an in-depth article detailing the procedure for CoCo3.com soon. Hopefully this chart will be useful. John of GIMEchip.com.

Differences between the 24-pin and 28-pin ROM/EPROMs

26-3124 MPI CoCo 3 Upgrade #1

gimechip — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:24:34 +0000

CoCo 3 Upgrade for the 26-3124 Multi-Pak Interface #1.
This is a schematic illustration of the CoCo 3 upgrade for the 26-3124 (small white) Multipak Interface (MPI). As you can see, the upgrade procedure is relatively simple. After this modification is applied, the M.P.I. data buffer is limited to the address range of $FF40-$FF7F as well as CTS* and SLENB*. All that is needed is a 74LS10 Triple 3-Input NAND, a spot of solder and some Kynar wire-wrap wire. This upgrade performs in an identical fashion to the Tandy MPI upgrade. Note that if you have a 26-3124A (note the “A”), then no upgrade is needed. Don’t forget a .1uF ceramic disc capacitor across the Vcc and GND of the 74LS10. Hopefully this will be of use to some. -John of GIMEchip.com

CoCo 3 Upgrade for the 26-3124 Multi-Pak Interface #1

CoCo 1 and 2 Audio Output Buffer

gimechip — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:19:59 +0000

I have had many people ask me if my Video output circuit could be used to also provide an audio output for the CoCo 1 and 2. I wouldn’t recommend it. This audio circuit, however, is one that I originally designed to match a High-Impedance Crystal Microphone to a zero-crossing detector (I was playing around with some frequency analysis circuitry). Anyway, Pin 3 of the RF Modulator in the Color Computer 1 and 2 is the pin which feeds the audio signal into the RF Modulator. This is a High-Impedance Audio Signal and so this little buffer circuit is somewhat suited to that signal. The circuit isn’t as complex as it might appear. The LEFT and RIGHT jacks are not really stereo, or even pseudo-stereo. They both carry the same mono signal, but the balance pot allows one channel or the other to have a higher signal level, or for them both to be balanced in respect to the signal level. The LEFT and RIGHT jacks and BALANCE pot can be left out in favor of the single jack labeled MONO. The INPUT LEVEL pot can be left out (although I would recommend placing a fixed resistor of some value [experiment] in place of the pot if you leave it out). The OUTPUT LEVEL pot can also be left out, but if you choose to do so, the 5K resistor that is in series with it should be increased to 10K. In fact, it would be better to simply use a 10K pot for the OUTPUT LEVEL instead of the 5K pot+5K resistor (I used the Pot/Resistor combination to prevent the signal being reduced to zero in my experiments, but a 10K Pot would be advisable to replace the resistor/pot combo) -John of GIMEchip.com

TRS-80 Color Computer 1 and 2 Line-Level Audio Output Buffer

Coco disks on Windows computer & “Y” cable

keyboardman — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:20:14 +0000

Is there any way I can read both Disk Basic & OS9 disks on a Windows XP computer?

Also, I need to get a “Y” cable to use a MIDI Pac & disk pac together (I use to have one-lost it over the years). My Multipac Interface died and I have no way to get my old MIDI files.

Thanks

This post was submitted by keyboardman.

Manuals and software looking for a good home

daven — Sat, 22 May 2010 21:48:57 +0000

Hi,

I have several manuals and software packages looking for a good home. First come, first serve. Let me know which things you want, I will let you know how much it will cost for me to mail it, and you can PayPal me the postage.

Note that these were kept in an attic, so I don’t have high hopes for the software disks or tapes working properly.

Please email me at dave_nedde (at) yahoo.com.

Thanks

Here is what I have:
26-1172 TRS-80 modem manual
26-3290 The Sands of Egypt Animated Adventure manual and disks
26-3311 raaka-tu Adventure game manual and tape
26-3076 Mega-Bug game cartridge
26-3085 Microbes game cartridge
62-2006 TRS-80 Assembly Language Programming
0-8359-7864-8 TRS-80 Color Computer Graphics by Don Inman
8749284-800 Getting started with Color basic
26-3001/3002 TRS-80 Color Computer Operation Manual
26-3250 EDTASM+ Color computer editor assembler with zbug (manual only)
62-2076 Color Computer Graphics by William Barden Jr.
62-2077 TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming by William Barden Jr.
8749267-800 Going Ahead with Extended color basic
8749299-881-TM Color Computer Disk System Owners manual & Programming Guide
Hot CoCo 5/85, 6/85, 7/85, 8/85, 10/85, 11/85

What looks like a computer (round 5 pin) <-> cassette tape (3 mono plugs) cable

Was there ever a version of the game Super Mario for the CoCo?

PunkMaister — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:01:35 +0000

This game to this day is one of the most addictive and imaginative games ever, did anybody ever made a CoCo version of it? I do not mean Super Mario Bros but Super Mario the Sidescroller original top notch game with mushrooms that make him grow or throw fireballs etc. Was this game ever ported to the CoCo and if so where can it be obtained?

This post was submitted by PunkMaister.

CoCoNet ROMS

Ed Orbea — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:17:24 +0000

Roger:

What is the process for upgrading the CoCoNet ROMS in a Drivepak? I see you have released several newer versions since the one I received in my Drivepak.

Thanks

This post was submitted by Ed Orbea.

Very interesting… CoCoFest 2010

pilot352 — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:30:53 +0000

I was at the show and met with the guy from cloud-9 in this video. but, he didn’t have this when I was there. Too bad, because I would really like to have seen this… This is really cool. The board is only $150.00

< <<< Go Here >>>>

-Pilot

This post was submitted by pilot352.

Looking for Cheese Louise I and II

dneyman — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:19:29 +0000

One of my favorite games to type out of a magazine (Hot CoCo, I believe) was Cheese Louise – Tantrum and Cheese Louise II – Cheese Bombs. Any help finding the article and/or images would be awesome!!

Darryl

This post was submitted by dneyman.

A little gift in honor of CoCoFest 2010

jdiffend — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:35:09 +0000

I scanned my The Best of 1981 issue of Color Computer News.
Here is the rapidshare link which will expire after 10 downloads.
Someone will need to upload it to a more permanent place.

http://rapidshare.com/files/388442991/ColorComputerNewsBestOf1981.pdf.html

MD5: 5FB17235E2EAFFD5A4AD3435AF005EE7

If you aren’t going to upload it to a permanent spot, please don’t download it.
I’m sure someone will post a permanent link to the file.

This post was submitted by jdiffend.

CoCoFEST! Video Trip Report DVD – $5

allenhuffman — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:32:56 +0000

I have completed my 2009 video trip report DVD that goes along with my fest report from last year. It contains several sections, including my trip there, Saturday at the Fest, highlights from the No Minimum Bid Auction, the Saturday Night Music Jam led by Brother Jeremy, and almost a half hour of short interviews with most of the folks there.

You can read more and see a YouTube clip from the DVD here:

http://web.me.com/allenhuffman/CoCoFest/Fest_DVD%21.html

The disc is available for $5 (and I am paying shipping, currently) — PayPal me at alsplace@pobox.com or contact me directly.

I will soon be working on a 2010 disc, and also have archives of older Fest footage (as far back as 1994) to make available. These cheap DVD projects (tons of time to import edit and create) help fund me getting to the fest now that my disposable income isn’t quite what it used to be

This post was submitted by allenhuffman.

Need Help to Finally Play Beyond the Cimeeon Moon

daggorath — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:30:42 +0000

Back in the day, I used to see ads in Rainbow Magazine for ColorQuest 3-D adventure games like “Beyond the Cimeeon Moon” and “Fembot’s Revenge.” The screenshots and gameplay looked a lot like a sci-fi version of Dungeons of Daggorath, so I’ve always wanted to check them out. Here’s a screenshot:

http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/fembotsrevenge.html

After much searching, I found a Dragon software archive with a VDK (virtual disk) file that appears to contain one of the “Cimeeon Moon” games here:

http://archive.worldofdragon.org/archive/index.php?dir=Disks/SnarkHunter/&sort=filename&sort_mode=d

http://archive.worldofdragon.org/archive/index.php?dir=Disks/SnarkHunter/&file=ADVEN04A.vdk

I’ve spent hours trying to open that file in MESS and XROAR, hoping to finally play the game and see if it approaches the greatness of Daggorath. No luck. So I am appealing to all of you for help. Can anyone extract “Cimeeon Moon” from that VDK file and convert it to a pak or cas file that I can play? You would make this old school CoCo gamer very happy.

Also, does anyone know if the ColorQuest 3-D games were inspired by Dungeons of Daggorath, or perhaps even release before it?

Thanks for your help, and for this great site!

This post was submitted by daggorath.

White Case CoCo1 with Grey Keyboard Question?

cocopuff — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:56:15 +0000

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum, but the CoCo2 16K was my first childhood computer. I just recently got bitten by the CoCo bug again and I am now trying to get back into the CoCo seen. Anyhow, I have a question that I hope you CoCo buffs can help me with as I cannot find this information on the web. I recently purchased a white case CoCo 1 with 64K ram on Ebay, but the interesting part is that this computer comes with a regular size key grey keyboard! Did Tandy ever make a white case CoCo 1 with a grey keyboard? I though that these white case CoCo 1′s only come with the “melted” keyboard according to wikipedia? I can’t find any info on the web about these grey keyboard CoCo’s ever exist so I assume that this computer had an aftermarket keyboard upgrade? The previous owner also added a green power on light to the top of the case, see attached picture of the computer below. I think it looks pretty cool! Can anyone confirm that this computer’s grey keyboard is original or have any info on this unique CoCo? Thank you.

coco2_64k.jpg (48 KB)

This post was submitted by cocopuff.

eb101 will this work for the wireless drive pak rogers sells

dodge972 — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:53:30 +0000

Richard,

Yes you can purchase this Bluetooth module.
We typically do not include on the online store because too many customers are not sure what they really need and subsequently order the wrong parts.

have you used BT modules in the past?? Do you have a particular application you are designing for??

tell us what you are doing, how many units you need short term and anticipated production requirements. I am sure we can help.

Sincerely,

Thomas Bisconti
ZBA, Inc.
94 Old Camplain Road
Hillsborough, NJ 08844
PH: 908-359-2070 x9003
www.zbausa.com

he also said there engineers are testing the eb301 also

http://www.zbaus.com/products.php?id=72

BT44-eb101S Bluetooth ModuleThe BT44-eb101S is a general purpose Bluetooth module incorporating an on-board ceramic antenna designed to be incorporated into an end product. This Bluetooth Module assembly is based onthe BlueCore4-External chipset from Cambridge Silicon Radio, a leading Bluetooth chipset supplier. It provides a fully compliant Bluetooth system for data communications. It interfaces with a host via UART and supports EDR data rate up to 3Mbps modulation modes. The module and device firmware are fully compliant with the Bluetooth Specification V2.0.
Downloads
BT44-EB101 Datasheet
FEATURES:

•Pin compatible with A7 engineering eb101 Bluetooth module
•Operating Frequency Band 2.40 GHz~2.48GHz unlicensed ISM Band
•Bluetooth Spec. v2.0 Compliant + EDR
•Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) compliant with v2.0.E.2 of specification for both 2Mbps and 3Mbps modulation modes
•Class 2 type Output Power
•Supports Firmware Upgrade via UART
•Standard firmware supports SPP (Serial Port Profile)
•Supports HID-Keyboard
•UART Host Interface
•Low Voltage Power Supply, 2.7V to 3.6V
•Built-in 8Mbit Flash Memory
•Low Power Modes Available: Park, Sniff, Hold and Deep Sleep
•Surface-mount, Size: 25.0 x 14.5 x 2.0 mm
•Optional version with External antenna connection
•Development board available.

This post was submitted by dodge972.

MicroSD Pak – Is it OK to cheat?

wlhaynes1248 — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:47:20 +0000

I’m lovin’ the MicroSD pak. Brainstorming question for Roger (or anyone else for that matter). This may be a bit lengthy, so apologies in advance.

In addition to the included 2 GB card, I also have a 1 GB card to play with. The tools that came with the drive pak would allow me to create at most 2 partitions of 256 Disk Basic floppies on my 1 GB card, correct? This is because CoCoNet reserves 720k per floppy, 720k x 256 floppies = 180 MB, so two sets, but not three, will fit in the 512 MB available to Disk Basic.

That got me thinking. 720k actually is enough space to hold four ~150k Disk Basic floppies. So could I (using my own methods) stick an additional three floppies in the unused space, then create partitions with the correct pointers to each? Using the default DOS partition as an example, I would have:

partition 1 = DOS , LSN=$2000, length=$B4000 (standard)
partition 2 = DOS1, LSN=$22D0, length=$B4000 (offset by 180k)
partition 3 = DOS2, LSN=$25A0, length=$B4000 (offset by 360k)
partition 4 = DOS3, LSN=$2870, length=$B4000 (offset by 540k)

So these four partitions would be sort of “interlaced”. Can anyone think of a reason this wouldn’t work? I would of course avoid invoking any of CoCoNet’s built-in partitioning tools on this abomination. I would probably just build up an .img file under windows, then “burn” it to my 1 GB card using Win32DiskImager.exe. Sound OK, on the whole?

Wes

This post was submitted by wlhaynes1248.

cocotape – where can I download it?

atarileaf — Mon, 10 May 2010 22:19:40 +0000

I can’t remember where I downloaded a copy of cocotape from and I don’t think I have it anymore after I reformatted my drive. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is this still available for download?
Thanks

This post was submitted by atarileaf.

Wanted: CM-8 Monitor

cwgordon — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:59:49 +0000

I’m looking for a CM-8 monitor to complete my small Coco 3 setup. Anyone who has one to sell (or give away) is welcome to contact me.

Thanks

This post was submitted by cwgordon.

Joystick comparator input.

Level 1 — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:38:53 +0000

Would it be possible to measure voltage from an outside source with the Joystick port on the Color computer, say like a single wire o2 sensor that gives a output from 0 to +1 volts or other sensors that have the same range? And how could it be wired?

This post was submitted by Level 1.

is there anybody haveing trouble running coconet 1.07

dodge972 — Sat, 08 May 2010 17:36:52 +0000

i have the deluex wireless pack and it just seems not to work with coconet 1.07, lots of i/o erros then i switch mutilpak switch to the wireless slot and run coconet 1.00 and it runs perfectly. but when i have the wireless pack slot on,, the micro sd card dosent work. I can not type (dos#”police” with out getting a s/n error. any body else

thanks richard hawk

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Super Extended BASIC

swpowell — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:49:02 +0000

I recently dug out my old COCO 3 and fired it up. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any programming and seem to have forgotten the syntax on a lot of the commands. I have the books that Radio Shack put out on Color BASIC and Color Extended BASIC but I can’t find anything on the COCO 3 Super Extended BASIC.
Does anyone know where I can find this information?

This post was submitted by swpowell.

coco dvd

arfa1960 — Fri, 07 May 2010 10:24:19 +0000

i ordered the dvd on 17th mar 2010
is it still coming….

thanx arfa jones

CoCo 3 racing game prototype

remz — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:42:25 +0000

Hey guys

I was attempting at doing a smooth driving/racing game to see if the coco 3 could pull it out. I think it would be feasible. This screenshot shows the actual prototype running on MESS:

The demo has no user control yet, but the road moves at a totally arcade quality framerate of 60 frames per second. The road is shown in pseudo-3D perspective, along with a colorful gradient sky. The car dash itself is ‘borrowed’ from Test Drive, Amiga version. You can see the game shows about 32 different colors at the same time, which is pretty cool. A bit like good-old DragonFire did with the CoCo 2
I haven’t tested it yet on the real hardware.
The main problem with this kind of demo is the tricky timing required to use horizontal blank usefully. That is why I haven’t made a lot of progress.
I would have hoped to add curvy roads eventually. The best would be up and down hill too but I haven’t figured out how to do it.

This post was submitted by remz.

TRS80 Coco 2 for sale.

reenigne — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:20:46 +0000

Hi. My apologies if it’s not ok to promote ebay auctions here, but I’ve been starting to sell of most of my vintage computer collection recently, and I’d like as much as possible to go to good homes instead of being discarded.

I have a CoCo 2 on ebay, with 4 days left. Just the unit itself, no software or peripherals, but it seems to boot into basic ok.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140398439889

I’m only listing this once before discarding it in the interest of time, so I figured I’d post it here in case anybody wanted to bid.
I’m pretty sure all the other CoCo related material and manuals were discarded already, so this is probably it as far as my TRS-80 stuff goes.

Thanks!

This post was submitted by reenigne.

COCO stuff for sale

etzaras — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:58:20 +0000

I have some stuff for sale, quick list more info upon request
1 – COCO 2
1 – COCO 3
1 – Tandy Joystick
1- Tandy TP10 Thermal printer
1 – Tandy RGB Monitor
1 – Tandy FD502 Floppy Drive
Aprox 15 COCO games
1 – Tandy Cassette recorder
Located in Toronto
ektzaras@sympatico.ca

This post was submitted by etzaras.

COCO stuff for sale

etzaras — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:51:03 +0000

This post was submitted by etzaras.

pucrunch on the Coco 3

remz — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:27:03 +0000

Hi Guys! I’ve just finished implementing ‘pucrunch’ decompressor on the Coco 3. Pucrunch is a compression tool for the Commodore 64 used in demos and games.
It manages an amazing compression ratio: as an example, I’m trying to compressed the ‘Zak McKracken’ bedroom image, which is 320 x 128 pixels in 16 colors. It takes 20480 bytes uncompressed.
Using pucrunch, it drops to an amazing 3335 bytes.
That’s even better than ZIP can manage, better than PNG, much better than GIF.
And it uncompresses really fast: about 1 second on the Coco 3. Here’s an attached image of the picture decompressed (on coco 3 MESS emulation).
I wonder if it would be possible to kinda ‘port’ Zak McKracken to the coco 3

coco3_zak.gif (15 KB)

This post was submitted by remz.

Micro SD Pack Implementation

Ed Orbea — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:00:00 +0000

I just received my MicroSD pack. I am trying to figure out how to physically implement it. I have a CoCo3 with 512k memory, MPI (CoCo 3 fix), Disto SCII with HDB/DW3 EPROM, Wireless RS-232 pack
After looking through the preliminary documentation I have a configuration question so as to be able use the MicroSD Pak, the RS-232 Wirlesss Pak, and my Floppy Controller. SO, is this the correct MPI configuration:
MPI #1 – RS232 Wirelsee Pak
MPI #2 – MicroSD Pak
MPI #3 – Empty, or SSC or Stereo Pak
MPI #4 – Disto SCII Pak

Front MPI Switch set for slot 4.

This post was submitted by Ed Orbea.

Creating the 6809

diego_bf109 — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:46:13 +0000

I think this is cool. They don’t design them like this anymore.

http://oldcomputers.net/oldads/old-computer-ads-7.html

Hotlinking is bad, but if you can not find it there…

http://oldcomputers.net/oldads/wow/6809.jpg

This post was submitted by diego_bf109.

has the MicroSD started to ship yet or has anybody started to receive their MicroSD

dodge972 — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:18:43 +0000

80 Column Infocom games patch ???

Charlie — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:24:11 +0000

Does anyone have the 80 column version or Patches to the Infocom games?
Zork and so on….

I’ve been playing through Zork I but its not so enjoyable on the 32 wide screen.

Thanks!

This post was submitted by Charlie.

Old CoCo’s never die!!!

pilot352 — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:29:31 +0000

With the soon to be released MicroSD device coming out, I decided to finally pull my old CoCo III and RGB monitor out of mothballs. To put things in perspective, these two devices haven’t seen an electron flow through their innards for at least 16 years. When I bought a Tandy 1000, the CoCo was delegated to the closet like my bell bottoms and satin shirts. Currently, I’ve been using emulators to fulfill my need for nostalgia.

I put both units on my kitchen table and plugged them in. The monitor was already on (must have just unplugged it 16 years ago). I saw no smoke, no fire and no flames from the monitor. Woo Hoo!! Now for the main event… I pushed the power on the old CoCo3 and was greeted to a wonderful green screen with a title along with that silly flashing cursor. After a while, I did smell a little smell from the dust burning in the monitor but it wasn’t electrical.

Now I’m patiently waiting for the mail gods to grant my wish for a MicroSD pak.

Moral of this story is Old CoCo’s never die, they just get better (but not faster).

Now ladies hold down your excitement… I’m breaking out the bell bottoms ans satin shirts next week!!

-Pilot

This post was submitted by pilot352.

terminal program for rs232 pack

sc — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:16:43 +0000

Let’s say I have the super coco archive dvd, not enough time to devote to my coco , and I want to know if there is a terminal program on the dvd that will make use of my rs232 pak (and my wireless pak too!). Anybody know off the tops of their heads?

This post was submitted by sc.

any luck on being able to print from the coco to the windows pc, through the coconet server on a usb printer.

dodge972 — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:21:48 +0000

Speech/Sound Pak.

JitterBug — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:43:41 +0000

Hello,
Does anyone have the schematics for a Speech/Sound Pak? As well as program that it holds?
Thank you,
Jitterbug

This post was submitted by JitterBug.

help using Cocotape.exe

lucifershalo — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:22:33 +0000

I have a COCO2 and a cassette player
I am trying to load games from my PC (with wav files)
can I convert all bin files into wav files?
I tried to convert one file
cocotape catrplr.bin -b -cloadm -p
and it created catrplr.bin.wav
when I tried to load into the Coco
at the end I had a “ok” prompt but nothing else
what am I doing wrong
thanks for helping a newbie

This post was submitted by lucifershalo.

Introducing… the MicroSD Drive Pak

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 06:23:45 +0000

I N T R O D U C I N G . . .

The MicroSD Drive Pak

Works on any CoCo with Extended BASIC
Bonus -- 30mb NitrOS-9 Level II system for CoCo 3
Bonus -- thousands of CoCo games on hundreds of disks for all CoCo models
Disk BASIC 1.1 w/CoCoNet enhancements
115200 bps bitbanger remote disks
6551 RS-232 Pak remote disks
PC and web disks
real disks
MicroSD card disks
Auto-boot to OS-9 or *.BAS
and more…

CoCoNet 1.02 beta
4-18-2010
www.coco3.com
e-mail Roger Taylor (operator@coco3.com) for suggestions, corrections, complaints, thanks, ideas, improvements, contributions, etc.

This is a very quick rough version of the “coming soon” PDF docs for the CoCoNet system, Drive Pak, and Deluxe Wireless RS-232 Pak products.

CoCoNet is a Disk BASIC 1.1 ROM replacement that does everything Disk BASIC already does and lots more. It is compatible with any CoCo that has Extended BASIC, and of course all CoCo 3′s.
However, you only need one ROM to boot with, so you’ll want to disable or remove any existing floppy controller ROMs, either using a Multi-Pak Interface or by putting tape over one of the pins on your floppy controller’s card edge.

“CoCoNet” is a system based around the CoCoNet/Disk BASIC ROM and one or more of these devices: a ROM pak, bitbanger cable, RS-232 Pak, Deluxe Wireless RS-232 Pak, Drive Pak, Floppy disk controller, MPI.

Install and run the CoCoNet server on your PC.
Install the *16K* CoCoNet EPROM in a pak or controller of your choice on your CoCo.

Here’s just a few things you can do using CoCoNet, some of which is automatic or done in a Plug and Play fashion.

- When you turn your CoCo on, CoCoNet will detect what paks or controllers you have inserted, then look for *.BAS or an OS-9 disk on the most significant device out of the ones present. Using a custom *.BAS program you can then launch off to whatever you want in a seamless fashion whether it be a menu of games, embedded apps, utilities, custom OS-9 builds, etc., even from the Web!
- To go to the DOS prompt instead of auto-booting, hold down the BREAK key during power-up. Devices will still be detected and configured, but you won’t auto-boot.
- Enjoy fast speeds of 115200 bps for bitbanger, 115200 bps wired or wireless/bluetooth 6551 serial, and a blazing 230400 bps for the Drive Pak (2 gig MicroSD card pak)
- Move disks and files between your CoCo and PC using a bitbanger cable, Tandy RS-232 Pak, or Deluxe Wireless RS-232 Pak
- Easily add small or huge OS-9 floppies or mass drives on the Drive Pak, and virtually unlimited 256-floppy partitions, switchable from DOS!
- Grab web files and save them to a mounted remote disk using one Disk BASIC command (an HTTP-GET front end)
- Append parameters to your request URLs to run and control web scripts and services (over bitbanger or 6551)
- Use your real floppy drives (1mhz controlled speed for safety)
- Mix and match any 4 drive types at once and perform all standard DOS commands between disks!
- Mount any Drive Pak partition from DOS using the DRIVE command and even use DSKI$/DSKO$ to access raw sectors.

On startup, CoCoNet automatically mounts and sorts each drive type for 0-3.
CoCoNet then looks for a bootable disk on Drive 0. A bootable disk is one that contains a *.BAS program. Eventually, support for automatically booting OS-9 disks will be added.

The CoCoNet “ROM” can be booted from whatever device you own that accepts a 27128 EPROM.
You just have to use your imagination, like when you’re looking at a set of BASIC commands and asking, “what can I do with this?”. Pretty much everything.

SOME COMMANDS:
————--

(list DRIVES 0-3 and their types or mounted disks)
DRIVE

(switch to FDC/real disk drive for DRIVE 0)
DRIVE 0,ON

(switch back to virtual drive 0, previous subsystem)
DRIVE 0,OFF

(save remote file to a remote virtual disk, in ASCII format)
SAVER 0,”web url or PC path”,”COCOFILE.DAT”,A
- file is saved to virtual DRIVE 0 as COCOFILE.DAT
- requires prior disk mount using ! (bitbanger) or @ (6551) prefix before remote disk

BITBANGER CABLE-BASED DRIVE SYSTEM EXAMPLES:
——————————————--

(mount a web disk using the bitbanger cable)
DRIVE 0,!”FTP://RTSI.COM/RSDOS/EMULATOR/CAVE1.DSK”

(mount a PC disk using the bitbanger cable)
DRIVE 0,!”C:\MYGAMES.DSK”

(mount and boot NitrOS-9 over the serial cable)
DRIVE 0,!”HTTP://WWW.COCO3.COM/NITROS9_L2_BITBANGER.OS9″

(grab a google search listing and dump it to a remote virtual disk)
DRIVE 0,!”C:\GOOGLE.DSK” (mount a bitbanger remote disk)
SAVER 0,”HTTP://WWW.GOOGLE.COM?SEARCH=FOX%20NEWS”,”NEWS.HTM”,A
‘ DO SOMETHING WITH THE FILE
OPEN “D”,#1,”NEWS.HTM:0″,1
CLOSE #1

6551 ACIA-BASED DRIVE SYSTEM EXAMPLES:
————————————--

(mount a virtual disk using a 6551-based pak)
DRIVE 1,@”C:\MYSTOCKS.DSK”

(mount a web disk using a 6551-based pak)
DRIVE 1,@”FTP:\\RTSI.COM\RSDOS\EMULATOR\CAVE1.DSK”

DRIVE 0,@”HTTP://WWW.COCO3.COM/COOLGAMES.DSK”
DOS (boot into OS-9 from CoCo3.com)
DRIVE 0,@”HTTP://WWW.COCO3.COM/NITROS9_L2_6551.DSK”
DOS

DRIVE 0,@”C:\GOOGLE.DSK” (mount a disk via RS-232 Pak)
SAVER 0,”HTTP://WWW.COCO3.COM/COCONET.TXT”,”COCONET.TXT”,A
‘ DO SOMETHING WITH THE FILE
OPEN “I”,1,”COCONET.TXT”
CLOSE 1

MICROSD DRIVE PAK EXAMPLES:
—————————

DOS#”NITROL2″ (boot to 30mb NitrOS-9 system)

DOS#”IBI” (play Interbank Incident)

DOS#”KQ4″ (play King’s Quest 4)

(use 256 floppy disks in the “DOS” partition)
(sets Disk BASIC to startup in this partition)
DRIVE# “DOS”

(switch to the 256-disk “OS9″ partition)
(sets Disk BASIC to startup in this partition)
DRIVE# “OS9FD”
or DRIVE# SET DOS “OS9FD”

(“wires up” the pak’s OS-9 drives -- assign /u0-/u3 to a partition)
DRIVE# SET U0 “NITROS9″
DRIVE# SET U1 “OS9DATA”
DRIVE# SET U2 “OS9BACKUP”
DRIVE# SET U3 “OS9MEDIA”

(redundant command, links the DD (/dd) device to the OS9BOOT partition)
(DD is automatically set by the ‘DOS’ command)
DRIVE# SET DD “OS9BOOT”

(mount disk #255 from the current partition, on Drive 1)
DRIVE 1,#255

(list partitions on the current MicroSD card)
DRIVE #?

(show the type of drive system and disk that is mounted on each Drive 0-3)
DRIVE

(mount Drive Pak disk #0 on DRIVE 0)
DRIVE 0,#0

(switch to the special 720k/single disk partition called “SYS”)
(you should only mount and use disk #0 since disks 1-255 have no place here)
DRIVE # “SYS”
DRIVE 0,#0:DIR

(mount Drive Pak disk #254 on DRIVE 3)
DRIVE 3,#254

The following types of commands are mainly good for a partition manager program and you have to manually return to the desired partition later or this can be dangerous)
For example, if you do these but forget to switch back, and then type SAVE “MYGAME” on accident, DOS will do that.
DRIVE# SET# 0,0,0 (mount LSN $000000 as the DOS partition and access it as 256 disks… although you’d want to use DSKI$/DSKO$ only to perform raw sector surgery)
DRIVE# SET# 0,32,0 (mount LSN $002000 which is also DOSFD0)
DRIVE# SET# 0,0,1:DSKINI 0 (erase the partition table!)

(switch to Direct Sector Mode -- allowing DSKI$/DSKO$ to be used carefully to access the card)
DRIVE# #0,0,0:DRIVE 0,#0 (points to the beginning of the memory card where LSN0 is and the partition table, etc.)
DSKI$ 0,0,1,A$,B$ (read LSN0 of the card!)
{make changes to A$/B$)
DSKO$ 0,0,1,A$,B$ (write LSN0 of the card -- USE WITH CARE)

*
*   DRIVE       list mounted disks
*   DRIVE n,ON   turn on real drive (n)
*   DRIVE n,OFF   turn off real drive, switch to previously mounted virtual disk
*   DRIVE n,@”ftp://rtsi.com/RSDOS/EMULATOR/CAVE1.DSK”   mounts a web disk using 6551 ACIA (requires CoCoNet applet on PC)
*   DRIVE n,!”c:\anydisk.dsk”    mounts a remote virtual disk over a bitbanger cable (requires CoCoNet applet on PC)
*   DRIVE n       sets DRIVE n to the default drive
*   DRIVE n,#ddd   mount a MicroSD virtual floppy disk (ddd) on DRIVE (n)
*   DRIVE #?   list MicroSD Drive Pak partitions
*   DRIVE # “PARTNAME”   change DOS partition (256 uDisks)
*   DRIVE # #a,b,c       change DOS partition using 24-bit LSN (a,b,c)
*   DRIVE # FIELD #a,b,c   change partition table to 24-bit LSN (a,b,c)
*   DRIVE #
*
* New ‘SAVE’ command syntax:
* -- SAVER #,”remote file path”,”COCODISK.DAT”,A/D/M/P/PA/PB/DA/DB   copy remote file to CoCo virtual disk
*

* =================================================================================================

Drive Pak Distribution MicroSD Card Contents

‘DOS’ Partition
What is it: Collection of 256 Disk BASIC floppy disk images
How to use it: DRIVE#”DOS”:DRIVE #,n   (where n is a floppy disk image below)
Disk#   Contents
0       Welcome menu, partitioner, dpcopy, sector test
1       Cash Budget Manager
2       free
3       Demolition Derby, Demon Attack, Devil Assault, Danger Ranger (48 free)
4       free
5       Donkey Kong (Sock Master)
6       Draconian
7       Catalyst, Cyber Wars, Death Trap, Chopper Strike,
8       Candyco, Pyramix, Ganelet, Ganthi, Roller, Shark, Uno
9       Sock Master demos
10       Sailor Man (50 free)
11       Space Intruders (48 free)
12       Trekboer (57 free)
13       Jim Gerrie Games (Invaders, Bandit, Sentinel, Vader, Solitair, Asteroid, Monster, Jeweler) (49 free)
14       MSNYDER1.DSK: Rodoc, Hostage, Orbderra, Cadet#1, Java, Crioload, Crio, Chambers, Triorace, Trooper, Starlog, Sandston, Monsters, Snofight, Dir
15       MSNYDER2.DSK: Dunmaze, Blaster, Tilertwo, D-Tunnel, MntDeath, Terron, Maxomar, Cadet#2, Showdown, Cadet#3, Chemist, Journey, Submania, Genesis, Dir
16       MSNYDER3.DSK: Tilertex, Cadet#4, Ghost, Robo, Treasure, Snakshak, Destin, Silence, Warrior3, Saucer, Mower
17       MSNYDER4.DSK: Speedgam, Ontarget, Timetrap, Country, Shadow, Advtut, Advsam, Rahinst, Rahul, Nametune, Virus-D
18       MSNYDER5.DSK: Factory, Breakin1, Breakin2, Silvcape, Manual, Gnome1, 2, 3
19       MSNYDER6.DSK: Dir, Smurfins, Smurf, Questins, CQuest2, Gopher, Manual, Gnome2, 2, 3, 4
20       MSNYDER7.DSK: Snow-Ski, Cadet#5, Aliax, GalaxyQ, Eldus, Prog1, Prog2, Prog3
21       MSNYDER8.DSK: Whopart1/2/3/4m, Riverins, River, Rivrooms
22       MSNYDER9.DSK: Monster Mash
23       Anihilator, Apollo, Backgammon, Time Bandit, Bandito, BCBill, Berserk, Blaster, BlocDemo, Blox, Boulders, Bouldpt2
24       Brew, Buzzard, Caterpillar/1, Caterpillar/2, Chess, Clones, CyberTank, DoubleBack, Death Trap, Diablero, Downland, Dshrink, Dual128
25       Dungeon, Eyespy, Fangman, Fltsim, Fourcube, Funzip, Gantelet, Gantprt2, Germ, GoldII
26       Gremlin, Grid, Guardian, Hopbob, Spider-Hyper, UnArc512
27       D01.DSK: Defender, Bug, Spacerac, Donkey, Mmaze, Pac-Man, Doodle, Planet, Galax, Vadrev, Gaatt, Trek, Shoot, Pooyan, Dir
28       D02.DSK: Colorzap, Dir, Trapfall, Firecopt, Castle, Tubfren, Crosword, Slots, Dungeon, Whrlbird, Cpede, Pin
29       D03.DSK: Calixto, SeaQuest, Wonder, Bedlam, Shenani, Kraken, Dir (some games pending patchwork)
30       D04.DSK: Paper, Paperrt, Karate, P-51, Colorcar, Trooper
31       D05.DSK: Polaris, Fltsim, Dir, Baseball, Frogger, Firecopy, Wildcat, Shark, Snakpak, Dancer, Frog, DBack, Birds, Microbes, Zaksund
32       D06.DSK: Dir, Invaders, Synther7, Starship, Nebula, Pactac, Phantoms, Prot, Skiing, Robot, Polter, Kat, Tennis, Railroad, Wckyfood, Catchem
33       D07.DSK: Dir, Climber, 64, TW64, Chess, Com-E, R, D, Super, TCI1, TCI2, TCI3, Copy-It, Colorfil, Spec, Assemble, EDTASM+64, Bytecopy, Fax, Disasm
34       D08.DSK: Dir, Catacomb, Autotalk, Sgr8pack, Gomoku, Amulet, Linecopy, Plumber, Ram Test, Horsrace, Drunk, Carmanag, Squeeze, SprBckup, Recipe, Anti-Air, Unreason, Talkalph, Talkalml, Vaders, Autoedit
35       D09.DSK: Eggs, Dirprint, Speedkey, Hovert, Swpowins, Swpower, Termites, Spelrite, DOS Boss, Ninecard, Musicgen, Fyr-Ins, Fyr-Drac, Drivetst, Graftour, Mod #1/#5, Dir
36       D10:DSK: Dir, Mathhelp, Zector, Worldcon, Dragrace, Mines, T-Notes, Progindx, CCstatus, Err-trap, Drollatk, Barsoom, Battlegr, Scl-Ins, Scl-Comp, Lib-Ins, Microgof, Starduel, Eduftbll, Grid Run, Sprlatk, Fastsort
37       D11.DSK: Dir, Peek, Poke, ScRescue, Yungtypr, O-Tel-O, Swimming, Fieldevt, DublDice, Dbins, CoCoDbm, Pinball, Dungeons, TRS-C64, Galsmug, IndyRace, AcctMngr, Cassmerg, Str-Pack, SpacDuel, Bugs, Trapball, Balloons
38       D12.DSK: Dir, Tapeanlz, Life, Indy 500, Memory, Colladv, Dungeon, Wthrfore, Gridins, Gridfact, Draw, 3-D Tic, Climber, Conquest, Warlords, States, Mathtutr, Mldata, Pdutil, Prtdrvr, Mutant, Probe, Dir Prot
39       D13.DSK:
40       D14.DSK:
41       D15.DSK:
42       D16.DSK:
43       D17.DSK:
44       D18.DSK:
45       D19.DSK:

‘T&D’ Partition
What is it: Collection of 256 Disk BASIC floppy disk images
How to use it: DRIVE#”T&D”:DRIVE #,n   (where n is a floppy disk image below)
Disk#   Contents
0       Welcome menu, dpcopy
001       Racetrac, Hangman, Musical, Life Exp, Wordtest, Killer M, Bartend, Calendar, Robotwar
001       UFOCOVER, Bio, Bombard, Blackjck, Costs, Frenzy, Buslet, Quick T, Qustins, Quest
003       UFOCOV2, Basketb, Chukluck, Slots, Alpha, NFLPred, Flagcap, Robotb
004       UFORescu, Tank, Driveway, Sounds, Balloon, Mind Bog, Ct Adven, Calcount, Jackolan
005       Catcover, Bowling, Proginv, Promloan, Checkbal, Trigtut, Convoy, Bag-it, Spectra, Conbelt
006       Chrcover, Raindrop, Stockmkt, Advpong, Destroy, Sound An, Createst, Voice, Mlt 1, Loony
122

‘NITROL2′ partition
What is it: The primary bootable NitrOS-9 system (30mb /dd drive)
How to use it: DRIVE #”NITROL2″:DRIVE 0,#0:DOS

‘OS9FD’ partition
What is it: Collection of 256 OS-9 floppy disk programs
How to use it: DRIVE #”OS9FD”:DRIVE 0,#n:DOS
Disk# Contents
0 NitrOS-9 Level Two (720k system)

* =================================================================================================

OS-9 DRIVE DESCRIPTORS

/dd       type $80   OS-9 boots drive/disk, can be a floppy disk image or mass drive
/u0       type $84   OS-9 fixed drive, can point to any partition 0-3 as defined in LSN0 of the pak,
the distro pak points /u0 to the “NITRO” partition or other primary NitrOS-9 boot drive
/u1       type $84   OS-9 fixed drive, can point to any partition 0-3 as defined in LSN0 of the pak
/u2       type $84   OS-9 fixed drive, can point to any partition 0-3 as defined in LSN0 of the pak
/u3       type $84   OS-9 fixed drive, can point to any partition 0-3 as defined in LSN0 of the pak

*
* CoCoNet standard settings for the MicroSD memory card (Drive Pak)
* 24-bit LSNs are used in the code but we reserve future space for 32-bit LSNs

* =================================================================================================
* MicroSD LSN0 bytes
*
* $00-$07 CARD NAME
* $08-$0B Mounted Floppies on drives 0-3 (unused at this time)
* $0C-$0F reserved
* $10,[$11,$12,$13]: LSN of partition table
* Quick Drive References (entries point to top of each partition)
* $14,[$15,$16,$17]: LSN of floppy partition (256 x 720K = 180mb)
* $18,[$19,$1A,$1B]: LSN of top of “/DD” OS-9 boot drive partition
* $1C,[$1D,$1E,$1F]: LSN of top of “/U0″ OS-9 drive
* $20,[$21,$22,$23]: LSN of top of “/U1″ OS-9 drive
* $24,[$25,$26,$27]: LSN of top of “/U2″ OS-9 drive
* $28,[$29,$2A,$2B]: LSN of top of “/U3″ OS-9 drive
* $2C-$FF available

******** Partition Entry Bytes
*
* each partition entry sector
* $00: Partition Type 0 or >127 = empty
* $01-$10: Partition Name
* $20,$21,$22: Partition Start (LSN)
* $23,$24,$25: Partition Size (sectors)

dpk_ptable_lsn   equ   $11
dpk_dos_partition   equ   $15
dpk_dd_partition   equ   $19
dpk_u0_partition   equ   $1D
dpk_u1_partition   equ   $21
dpk_u2_partition   equ   $25
dpk_u3_partition   equ   $29

Okay, this ECB code has me lost …

RetroRick1974 — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:33:25 +0000

I’ve seen code like this in numerous releases of T&D Software. It looks something like this:

1 REM COPYRIGHT (C) T&D SOFTWARE 1984
2 GOTO60000
3 PMODE4:CLEAR1000,15599
4 HT=PEEK(27)*256+PEEK(28)-783
5 CLS:PRINT”THIS TEXT GOES TO GRAPHICS!”:EXEC HT
59999 END:RUN
60000 PCLEAR4:GOTO3

The code makes perfect sense to me until the “EXEC HT” thing. This seems to dump the text screen onto the first page of PMODE 4 … with no ML code to work with. I have no idea why.

Can anyone shed light on this? Thanks.

This post was submitted by RetroRick1974.

Space Assault High Score Challenge.

linlee — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:43:28 +0000

As part of the recent Space Invaders Invade YouTube event I posted a Space Assault High Score Challenge. Feel free to join in. Post a video on YouTube or leave your high score as a comment here or on YouTube.

This post was submitted by linlee.

Posting a classified ad!

tvilov — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:29:33 +0000

How do I post a classified For Sale ad?

Tom

This post was submitted by tvilov.

searching for CoCo II terminal software

keith — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:51:44 +0000

Hi there.

I owned a TRS-80 CoCo II during the 1980′s. I basically grew up on that machine. I had a TI-99/4a before that.

In any event, on my 16k CoCo II, I used some terminal software which I believe was shareware that I’m trying to locate. I “lived” inside that terminal package calling tons of local BBSs, and I spent countless hours using it. I don’t remember the name of it.

It has a simple interface, with a main menu, which looked something like this

1. Text Editor
2. Terminal
3. Keyboard Macros

And you could switch between menus while still online. The text editor option, was just that, allowed you to type and edit text, maybe save your results to tape.

The keyboard macros option let you create shortcut keystrokes that would have longer strings of text associated with them. I think I may have used it for usernames/passwords on all the different BBSs.

I don’t believe there was any xmodem/ymodem/zmodem support, but there was some way of transferring of files. I’m not sure if there was a uuencode (8-bit to 7-bit conversion) type of thing, but I think you could capture text/executable files, and save them to tape.

This software was distributed on tape, there was a 16k and 64k version available. If it helps, I think the authors name MAY have been Phil or Phillip and I think he was located in Texas.

I know I’m being real specific here, but it’s been 20+ years.

Thanks for any help.

Keith

This post was submitted by keith.

application planet

dodge972 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:04:23 +0000

does anybody know how to get planet running
i didi the start up 128k coco 3 and i dont quiet understand, i did everything it says but i cannot find plantn on the planet disk. i have 3 dir planet plates5 and doc

any help would be appreciated
thanks richard hawk

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Cool Dungeons of Daggorath review on Youtube

navydave — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:53:40 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C733v_VuYqY

Hello Darling

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:30:32 +0000

If you’ve made it all these CoCo years without hearing this song – this article is for you. I’m sure you’d also like to hear the full story behind it. So check periodically for updates after I talk to Brother Jeremy.

Basically, the song is about persuading Kevin Darling to release his OS-9 Level II upgrade that was supposedly low-key at the time. The song has a way of bringing back memories for any true CoCo user who’s been on the ride since the early 80′s.

Click the Play button below to hear the song:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Somebody reply with the lyrics?

any news on the microSD paks

dodge972 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:15:11 +0000

just wandering if roger started to send the microSD pak out? yes anxious in getting mine

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Webmaster/Admin Contact?

tgmaxx — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:35:12 +0000

How do I contact the admin for this site?

Thanks!

This post was submitted by tgmaxx.

eb101 and eb301

legtech — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:58:41 +0000

Dear Coco

Maybe you can tell me where we can buy the bluetooth eb101 and eb301 from a7eng.

Best regards

Ulrich Grøn

Elektronik udvikler/
Electronics developer

Legtech El-Teknik
ersehaven 17
3320 Skaevinge

Tel. +45 7734 9045
Info@legtech.dk
www.legtech.dk

This post was submitted by legtech.

coco .bin to .wav help

groertel — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:56:21 +0000

ok i am new to the coco,very new, and i have a coco1 and a cassette player and the wire for it, so here is my question is there a way to convert a .bin to a .wav on my windows pc, I would think i would use a emulator, any ideas, any help? Can you please be very specific i am very new.

Thanks, Greg

This post was submitted by groertel.

Nitros9 boot screen help

Charlie — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:54:25 +0000

I’d like to make a boot disk for Nitros9 , the current version, that has the boot screen a 32 wide screen instead of the standard white 80 column screen.

I know how to make a boot disk with the mb script. I did this a long time ago. I seem to remember something about renaming some modules to make it work.

Thanks.

This post was submitted by Charlie.

Diecom Iron Forest & Medieval Madness Boot-Up Trouble

djutc — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:06:46 +0000

Hi,
I have recently purchased the Diecom Sega Light Phaser Adapter from Christian out in Quebec. However I am having trouble booting the games. I load them and they get as far as the “Diecom Text Based Screen” displaying the name of the game and copyright year etc. I have made these disks up using a catweasel card and using the DMK2CW program with the .DMK image files.

What my main question is does anybody know if these games will run properly on a CoCo3 with the hitachi cpu installed? I am thinking this might be what the problem is. I do not have a stock CoCo3 handy to try.

Thanks in advance,
Neil

This post was submitted by djutc.

320 Pixel Mode Artifact Samples

Potatohead — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:56:59 +0000

These are some captures from Jason’s work trying out various palette settings. The color spaces on these are really good, and clearly get over the 256 color limit overall. Mostly this is a good option for different screens, where one could be brighter, or optimized for motion, or darker, etc… However, if mid-screen palette register changes were used, or different palettes for different screens are used, the number of colors possible on the screen gets pretty high, and likely to easily hit 1K colors displayed at one time, with no flicker, just vertical limits, where the palette registers are changed. Probably only good for pictures, though one or two changes could break the screen into zones, and still be useful.

I didn’t expect this good of a color space!

I’ll let Jason link this, and the disk image that generated these. FYI, each pair of screens is captured with the phase bit set to either one or zero, showing the color space change on phase change. From my quick inspection, the colors are actually the same, for the screens where the brightness is the same.

One advantage of this mode is 16 “real” colors are available. Just plot two pixels together, and there will be few to no artifacts. What that means is objects can be moved at 320 pixel resolution, so long as it’s composed of sets of two 320 mode pixels that are the same color. Effective resolution of the moving images is still 160 pixels, but with better precision in placement.

Doing this will incur some color clash, if done on a non-black background, the amount of this depending on how much color contrast there is.

Moving objects drawn with artifact colors, where sets of two pixels are not the same color, will need to be positioned at the one byte per pixel, or 160 pixel resolution, to prevent color shifting on motion.

IMHO, a careful palette selection to maximize this would yield less than 256 useful colors, but allow for better precision on moving objects. Of course, this is all a choice that can be changed at any time! This pixel mode has some advantages over the 640 pixel one, IMHO.

Good job on checking out palettes!

This post was submitted by Potatohead.

Sending private messages

hhos — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:32:14 +0000

I just recently discovered how to send private messages in here. I haven’t seen any quick short cuts to the private message section, so I am assuming that others may have the same problem. This is the link I use to get to private messages:

http://www.coco3.com/community/wp-admin/profile.php?page=wp-private-messages/wpu_private_messages.php

If this doesn’t work properly for you then:

http://www.coco3.com/community/wp-admin/

will get you to the “Dashboard.” Then you can click on the private messages to get to your private messages.

This post was submitted by hhos.

Might go in the Games section instead, but …

RetroRick1974 — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:18:34 +0000

“RetroRick” (as RetroRick1974, no less) here. I’d like fellow CoCo fans to know that I’m back in the “CoCo groove” again after a long hiatus. I was working on an open-source 3D engine for a while.

I’m going back to CoCo programming again for a very good reason – I’ve had more than enough of Windows for now. So I’ve gone back into my graphical redo of the PD game Lander. I’ve gotten Robert’s ML scrolling routine compiled, and even gotten EDTASM running in MESS (turns out you run EDTASM.BIN through the DOS.BAS program).

It doesn’t end there. Things have taken an unexpected twist. If anyone’s seen my home-grown, godawful pixel editor called “Picture Devil”, you’ll know it’s a user-unfriendly, incomplete drawing program. Well, it looks like I’ll actually have to finish making the utility in order to finish making the Lander remake. I’m doing the utility’s Copy and Paste feature right now, and Lines and Boxes will be enabled next. The utility will never be great, but eventually it’ll do everything it was originally intended to do: Enable complete picture editing without the need of a joystick.

- “Retro Rick”.

This post was submitted by RetroRick1974.

Micro SD Pak

stevoh — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:45:31 +0000

I’m just getting back into the coco world after a long absence and happened to see the preorder ad for the microSD pak. I’m a bit confused as to what else I might need. I have a 128K Coco 3 running Extended Color Basic. Do I need to run Disk Basic? Does that mean a ROM upgrade first? Or is the microSD pak all I need to get? Don’t mean to sound duh-slow-duh but my prior coco experience is game paks and basic programs saved/loaded to/from cassette. I would dearly love to be able to run NitrOs/OS-9 from this machine (I realize my RAM needs an upgrade and will be contacting cloud9 re that shortly…)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Steve

This post was submitted by stevoh.

NEWBIE the easiest way to transfer game files to a COCO?

lucifershalo — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:36:58 +0000

after the consoles
thinking of going into 8 bits computers
I am enquiring of the easiest to transfer game files from a PC to a COCO before investing into a computer

is there a SD to COCO hardware or a cable ?
I look for something easy (not something that needs a lot of configuration) to play games on a original COCO
thanks for your help

This post was submitted by lucifershalo.

New CoCo web site

random_rodder — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:13:47 +0000

Greetings all,

With the apparent demise of the cocohut website, and the necessity of my having to learn web design, I figured my first non-work related web site would be CoCo related. So, I went and created my first real web site, random rodder’s coco den. There’s a few articles from Rainbow, some technical documents,basic synopsis of the various CoCo models, a gallery of my CoCo collection, etc… I’ll also do occasional reviews of products, the first one being Roy’s RGB -> VGA adapter, and the next one being Cloud9′s 512k upgrade kit. Some of the material is stored offsite (scrib’d). There are various techniques used throughout the site, simply testing the waters and various coding techniques.

Also, when he finds the time, Briza will be contributing thru his own sub-domain with game reviews. His pages are already set up, just waiting for his first review.

Finally, there is also an ftp section. address: ftp.randomrodder.com ; user: anonymous@randomrodder.com and no password. YOU NEED AN FTP CLIENT to access it – my ISP does not support FTP over HTTP. I use the FileZilla ftp client; I’m sure most CoCo enthusiasts already have some sort of an ftp client anyhow.

I don’t know how serious my ISP is when they say unlimted bandwidth, but, I guess I’ll find out. Considering the size of the CoCo group, I doubt I’ll be in too much danger, but, you never know…

Considering this is my first web site, I’d appreciate constructive feedback, so, have at it!!!

Brian

Running Interbank Incident via CoCoNet

Robert Gault — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:22:45 +0000

Guys, Roger has asked for OS-9 programmers to get OS-9 games running over the CoCoNet system. I’ve just put together a disk for The Interbank Incident which can be mounted on a PC using the CoCoNet server and played on a Coco3 via an RS-232 pak and the CoCoNet ROM.
Roger will be testing the disk on his system. If all goes well, you might even be able to call up the game and play it over the internet.

Let’s see some support for Roger’s excellent product by making more game disks!

This post was submitted by Robert Gault.

does anybody else have the wireless pak from roger

dodge972 — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:06:07 +0000

just want to see if you can load .bin files and whats eles you all have come up with?

This post was submitted by dodge972.

A FORTH for CoCo3

beretta42 — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:14:17 +0000

Humbley Submitted for your review:

Unnamed is a somewhat ANS ’94 compliant FORTH written for the Tandy
Color Computer 3. It’s titled “Unnamed”, simply because I haven’t
figured out a name yet. Unnamed was written in Assembler and FORTH.
Yes, some of the “kernel” is written in FORTH compiled at first boot,
and made into a loadable image.

The attached zipped disk image is very ALPHA, and has not been tested on a real CoCo.

Let me know what your think,

– Beretta

unnamed.zip (21 KB)

This post was submitted by beretta42.

CoCo 2 keyboard help

parasomia — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:02:23 +0000

Hey everyone,

Well, I got my childhood color computer out after sitting for a long, long time. It’s a CoCo 2 and it still works (had to buy an adapter for the tv at radioshack). The one problem I’m having is the keyboard. Some keys work and some don’t. I don’t recall anything ever being spilled on it.

I opened the computer up and messed with the ribbon cable connected from the keyboard to the main board. After trying to clean and tinker with it, a few more keys worked. But I can’t get them all to go. I’m a bit stuck on what to do with it. I haven’t opened the actual keyboard part up to take a look as.. well.. I’m not quite sure how to open it.

The keys that work: 345780-WEUOP@SDGHKL;XCM enter and spacebar also work along with the up arrow and shifts also work. Anyone have any ideas?

This post was submitted by parasomia.

Hazelwood Computer Systems

seabeeefour — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:30:39 +0000

any one in here know anything abot the old helix Or Uniqad or K-kits

Newbie VCC Help

MattLombardo — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:44:39 +0000

Hello,

I’m new to this whole coco3/VCC thing so I’m sorry if this question as already been asked/answered.

I’m trying to run donkey kong through the VCC emulator but I do not know how to run .dsk files.

Please help.

Matt

This post was submitted by MattLombardo.

Looking for a whole CoCo 3 system

Jray — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:13:29 +0000

Hi everyone,

New guy here… I have recently been bitten by the CoCo bug after having been “out of the game” for probably 15 years. Once upon a time I had a pretty large system and collection of CoCo stuff (at least 2 computers, multiple floppies, hard drive, MPI, etc.). Unfortunately, most of my stuff found the bottom of a dumpster a long time ago. And now, I’m regretting it and looking to see what I can get.

I’ve only been looking around a few days but it seems like the people selling on Ebay want a small fortune. And most are selling the computer by itself, which leaves a lot of searching for other parts. I checked the local flea market to no avail.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions, or if anyone is looking to sell some extra hardware (at a reasonable price), please let me know.

Thanks!

Ok. I cannot log into website after logging in

briza — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:59:23 +0000

Ok. well I can log into the website, But I can only get into the dash board page.

If I try and visit the coco 3 website I get a error page, Error 92 some file is missing.

laters

Briza

Sailor Man

linlee — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:47:29 +0000

Tried to post this once but it doesn’t appear to have posted. So it could possibly show up twice.

There is already a video of Sailor Man posted. But it is running on an emulator and is only the first screen. This is running on a CoCo 3 and is all three screens.

This post was submitted by linlee.

radio shack 5 1/4 high density Ms-Dos preformatted

dodge972 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:48:29 +0000

is there a way that i can get theses to work with the color computer 3 under disk extended and os9
i tried the dskini it wont work says IO error

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Need help finding a U15 Chip for Coco1 – Mfg # 8050741 Tandy# AMX4258

wins411 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:15:39 +0000

I have a friend who purchased a Coco1 from Ebay and he gave it to me to see if it could be fixed. After examining it I found the caps near the RAM chips are puffed up so I am changin them. However, most noticeably U15 is missing from the board! Does anyone know where I can find one of these chips so I can continue to troubleshoot this item? Is there a substitute chip that fits this slot (24 pin I think!)?

Any help you can give, thanks in advance.

disk drive

dodge972 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:25:45 +0000

i have a 5 1/4 floppy drive it works sometimes and then it wont, i can read disk no problems and then i copy a program from a working disk to a blank dskini disk on a real coco 3. it copys but i try to load it and it wont load, i did try to adjust it my self, but i cant get it adjust correctly i guess. is there a place i can send it in and have it recaliberated and clean. i tried to clean it with a disk cleaner also.

This post was submitted by dodge972.

New Instruction Set Documentation

DarrenA — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:29:40 +0000

I have posted a PDF of my Instruction Set Reference for the 6809 and 6309 with the hope that someone may find it useful. I believe it contains more accurate and detailed information regarding the extra features of the 6309 than is available elsewhere.

http://www.coco3.com/community/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/6x09_Instruction_Sets.pdf

Enjoy!

This post was submitted by DarrenA.

“RESET” opcode. Does it exist?

hhos — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:23:39 +0000

Does anyone know anything about this? I am modifying a disassembler for my own purposes. The disasm I’m modifying places a “RESET” opcode at $3E. I checked both 6809 and 6309 refs that I have. None of them show anything at this location. I’m thinking I will just remove it, but if anyone can tell me what this is, if it is indeed anything at all, I will leave it in. Thanks.

This post was submitted by hhos.

CoCo-to-PC Serial Cable Instructions

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:26:19 +0000

how to get the ~ and the %

dodge972 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:41:34 +0000

where can i get a list of keyboard codes to get speacial characters like the sift+clear get you the \. thanks
you all have been a good help

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Can a device in a ROMPAK write to the CoCo RAM?

Potatohead — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:30:38 +0000

Just wondering whether or not one could halt the 6809, and have a external CPU write to the RAM / GIME registers. Can it be done?

This post was submitted by Potatohead.

How do I “auto” exec a loadm’d bin file?

beretta42 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:16:35 +0000

Hey, peeps.

I thought I once read about a way to “autoexec” a loadm’d bin file. How does one do this? I have a hunch that is has to do with a special loaded file block that conjigures basic to autoexec a prior loaded ML block? Maybe a ML block that modify’s BASIC’s return stack??? ( I know little about basic….)

–Beretta

This post was submitted by beretta42.

got my wireless pak

dodge972 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:31:11 +0000

it works great. finally i can get my pc organized agian and put all .dsk in one folder on pc. and print directory and load what i want. works awsome. i noticed when i play clowns and balloons on games01.dsk its in black and white on coco3 with RJRTTY amazing scan converter for the Color Computer 3. any questions
most games are in black and white.

any help? thanks

This post was submitted by dodge972.

MicroSD Drive Pak!

dodge972 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:37:09 +0000

has anybody recieved there MicroSD Drive Pak yet. has anybody heard of any updates yet. just checking I put my order in december 2009 and the web page still says he roger taylor is As of Tuesday, November 24, 2009, there are a few small bugs that are being worked out and then 1.0 should be ready in days. just checking for any talk

This post was submitted by dodge972.

Timer $FF94 problem

remz — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:47:57 +0000

I can’t figure this out. The CoCo 3 timer at $FF94..$FF95 which is a 12-bit counter.
This is from Sock Master GIME reference:
“The 12 bit timer can be loaded with any number from 0-4095. The timer resets and restarts counting down as soon as a number is written to FF94. Writing to FF95 does not restart the timer, but the value does save. Reading from either register does not restart the timer. When the timer reaches zero, it automatically restarts and triggers an interrupt (if enabled). The timer also controls the rate of blinking text.
Storing a zero to both registers stops the timer from operating.”
What it doesn’t say here is that writing a 00 to $FF94 stops the timer.
In that case, and if I understand properly, it is impossible to set a timer count of less than 256 right?
Example: I want to wait with a timer for ’43′.
I set it up like this:
ldd #$0043 std $FF94 ; set TIMER for 43 lda #%00100000 ; enable TIMER interrupt sta FIRQENR * enable the interrupt register
Interrupt is never triggered. Nothing happens.
The timer does not start since $00 is being written to $FF94.
Am I mad?
If not, Sock Master documentation is wrong and the GIME reference PDF I found too. This is false: “can be loaded with any number from 0-4095″. It can be loaded with any number from 256-4095.
In fact, I would prefer to be mad.

This post was submitted by remz.

VBLANK and HBLANK

remz — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:41:41 +0000

Hello fellow CoCoders,

I would like to know if the PIA ‘VSYNC FLAG’ and ‘HSYNC FLAG’ can be read on a CoCo 3 running a GIME video mode, such as 320x200x16 colors.
In order word: can I know the state of the vertical sync and horizontal sync without using interrupt, just by reading the PIA registers, like a pseudo-code while loop like this:
while(PIA.VSYNC == false) wait;
// Great, we are in VBLANK period: do something useful
…
while(PIA.VSYNC == true) wait;
// OK the vertical blank period is over, the screen begins to be traced.
…
I’ve done some test but I failed miserably.

Thanks!

This post was submitted by remz.

CoCoSID2 playing Battle Valley

remz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:36:37 +0000

Hi CoCo people,
I have put a youtube video of CoCoSID2 playing “Battle Valley”,
however since the program have absolutely no graphic output, I’m showing the source code along with commented annotations

This post was submitted by remz.

CoCOSID2

remz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:58:20 +0000

At last, it is done: CoCoSID2 playing a complete music, converted automatically from a Commodore 64 .SID music file.
Here is a link to the resulting MP3:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The music is from the game Battle Valley on the C64, by Jeroen Tel. It is pretty long: 7 minutes!

The mixing is very high quality, effectively mixing 3 channels at 23.5 KHz.
The music itself is converted automatically by a Perl script I wrote, which take a .SID and convert it into CoCoSID2 data. This new format features endless possibilities such as vibrato, portamento, attack/decay/sustain/release, etc.

One of the biggest challenge was fitting the song into the remaining space (in order to keep the file small enough so that a simple LOADM command loads both program and data simultaneously).
In fact the uncompressed complete song takes exactly 125952 bytes (123 KB).
Using two stages of compression, I managed to compress it down to 29478 bytes (29 KB). The music player uncompress data in realtime without any requiring memory. So making a CoCo 2 version is absolutely possible.

However since the music data takes so much space, I have removed the background image as it didn’t fit anymore.

This is the best sound I have ever heard a CoCo generate, even including the Orchestra-90 pak which sounded so “thin”.
I hope you enjoy it. As the first CoCoSID, I can gladly put the source code online too.
Thanks to everyone who helped creating this project!
Rem

This post was submitted by remz.

Was there a Blue Max Clone for the Coco

mrnukem — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:52:26 +0000

Wondering if there was ever a coco version of the game Blue Max done for the Coco. This was made by Synapse for the C64, Atari and Spectrum

Wiki Info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Max_%28video_game%29

This post was submitted by mrnukem.

how do you edit nitros9 bootlist

dodge972 — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:33:43 +0000

i was able to type “chd nitros9/6809l2/bootlists” and i found the standard.bl file. so i typed edit standard.bl and seen things with * marks. I want to creat a boot disk with hard drive capable. how do i change the * so i can have a ide (1) drive and when so. what do i need to do to get out of the file and save it to re run the the mb.floppy.

This post was submitted by dodge972.

FD-502 pin settings for /d2

mikedubya — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:40:51 +0000

Does anyone know the pin settings on a Tandy FD-502 to set it up as /d2. It has the pins on the underside; but I can find no documentation on how to set it up for anything other than /d0.

Thanks.

This post was submitted by mikedubya.

CoCoSID uploaded on Youtube

remz — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:43:12 +0000

I have put a youtube video demonstrating ‘CoCoSID’ for those who would like to hear to result without having to run an emulator or transfer on a real CoCo 3:

Note: the video was screen grabbed from my PC running MESS emulation,
but the sound actually comes from my real CoCo 3, digitized and synchronized with the video.

cocosid_title_test2.gif (8 KB)

This post was submitted by remz.

Rat Graphics Design Package

Paul — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:16:48 +0000

Anyone have a copy of the Rat program? I’d like to see it. Also am looking for ROD’s (Rainbow On Disk) virtual disks.

This post was submitted by Paul.

what kind of software do i need to unzip .lzh formate

dodge972 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:24:41 +0000

i have a disk called DeskMate3_Patch.lzh, how can i use this disk. i already have deskmate3 disk. just wanting to patch what i have so i came across the DeskMate3_Patch.lzh. any sugestions
thanks

This post was submitted by dodge972.

FD-50x fan

dentman42 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:32:38 +0000

I’ve seen people say that a 486 type fan will work for an FD-50x enclosure when adding a second drive. What I’ve never seen is information on how (and where) to mount the fan. Anybody got the instructions (and maybe a picture or two)? I noticed there is a connector on the power supply board that looks like it would be used for fan power, but I don’t see any obvious mounting points for the fan.

This post was submitted by dentman42.

So this website is at an end? Why?

PunkMaister — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:47:58 +0000

I have received CoColist Emails notifying that this website is shutting down permanently! Why?

This post was submitted by PunkMaister.

Dangerous loading

remz — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:45:59 +0000

Hello guys
I had a dangerous bug yesterday while coding my music synth. I would like to know what is a safe way to load a program without risking this:
I have set my code and data to start at org $4000, and reaching up to address $8000.
The problem I encountered seems to be related to the fact that the CoCo BASIC stack pointer starts at $8000 so it hangs in the range of $7FD0 or something like that when a program is loaded from LOADM”HELLO. What happens is that before your program can even start (and thus set the stack to somewhere safe like $F000 and put to Coco in all-RAM mode), a little bit of data will get corrupted near the initial stack pointer. Maybe its the disk loading routine itself? I don’t know.

But what happened to me was having corrupted data which in turned led to a complete crash with an invalid opcode. Even worse the bug is somewhat random since the stack or corruption is not exactly the same each time I booted it up. Very annoying bug, since even MESS Debugger can’t help because when it ‘crashes’ on an illegal opcode, it simply stops working and doesn’t tell you anything about it. Arggh.

This post was submitted by remz.

Are these 64K chips that would work with a CoCo1?

hhos — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:26:10 +0000

I have some chips that have the number 8043665 on them. I am almost certain that they are 64k DRAM chips. They are 16 pin chips, but since I can’t remember where I got them I can’t be absolutely certain. If they are 64k DRAMs I want to upgrade my CoCo1 F board to 64k with them. I don’t want to go to the trouble of removing the caps on the board, just to find out that they won’t work. My favorite chip datasheet archives don’t have anything on them, so can anyone confirm that these are 64k chips, or identify them as something else?

Thanks,
HH

This post was submitted by hhos.

Can a Coco 3 sound like a C64?

remz — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:39:38 +0000

Oh yes it can.
I am currently working at a 3-voice synthesizer which should mimic and sound almost like a Commodore 64 SID chip, on a plain Coco 3. At the moment I haven’t finished coding the 3rd channel of a demo music, but it is going pretty well.
The final result will be a full 6-bit quality sound mixed in realtime, outputing at a high quality sample rate of 19456 Hz, featuring 3 completely independent channels that can play either a sine, sawtooth, triangle, pulse, or noise wave, at any frequency. It is not fully done yet but I am very confident it will sound like a C64.
(However the CPU is 100% used while playing so no chance of having stuff going on the screen simultaneously )

This post was submitted by remz.

My new CoCo showed up.. Some questions..

broke_coco — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:24:15 +0000

My new $10 CoCo system showed up today

Its a 16K 1.1Rom system. Was mint in the orig box.. doesnt look like it got very much use. And unlike my CoCo2 this one likes the sound of its own voice I have a working tape system again.

I have one question…
I have a spare CoCo 2 board with bad ram. It has extended Color basic. Can I take the 2nd rom chip out of a CoCo2 board and put it in a CoCo1?

My new coco1 is a gray USA made 26-3004A. Center sticker.

Thanks!

This post was submitted by broke_coco.

MicroSD

broke_coco — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:55:12 +0000

Hello,

I have a few questions about the MicroSD…

1) I do not own a coco3. Just my tired old 64K CoCo2. I also have a CoCo1 with 16K on the way. Both are cassette only systems. Will this device work well on these lesser systems? I don’t have much interest (yet) in OS9.

2) I read it has a removable SD card. Is this readable on a PC so I can Xfer disk images back and forth?

3) Does it come with documentation? Ive never owned a disk system so I don’t know much about how the DOS works on the CoCo.

Thanks!

This post was submitted by broke_coco.

How does one emulate the high res. Joystick on the MESS Emulator?

PunkMaister — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:01:56 +0000

So how does one emulate those high res. Joysticks?

This post was submitted by PunkMaister.