I finally finished my review of Roger’s Drive Pak and CoCoNet. It’s all here with videos (GR2K is a yawner due to load time…). If you’re considering getting one of these cool new devices, go take a look. Hopefully the info there will help you make the right decision for your needs.

Brian

The usual commands for RS-DOS work in HDB-DOS -- as far as I have played with it. The manual claims each mounted ‘drive’ has access to 256 disk images -- I did not test this as I have no images set up in this manner. All I have done is insert disks and load and run programs, making vague mental notes about load times, which were quick enough for me. NitrOS-9 load times for DriveWire 4 were very quick, and I’ll discuss that in another article.

The first thing I loaded was a demo called ‘TRIBALLS’. The image loaded and executed without a hitch. And, as you can see by the included images, they displayed quite nicely on a 15″ LCD via Roy’s VGA adapter. The first image is just two reflective balls generated by the demo.

And here’s the video I attached of my CoCo3 playing MIDI files thru the server PC using Aaron’s DriveWire 4 Java applet.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP7CeIfkPyA

This redefines cool folks, if you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend it. I’ll try to post a vid later this week of me getting on one of the BBS’s I’ve been frequenting.

There are more reviews in the pipeline as well, not the least of which is Roger’s MicroSD Drive Pak and his Serial Pak.

Later,

Brian

Edit -- guess I should have included the link…

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=llQlQMRQAsY

This post was submitted by allenhuffman.

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

The MicroSD Drive Pak

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIs4zHWLGWc

• 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…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzBpvkgQ2s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7aQ1-jGoo

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

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.

This post was submitted by remz.

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.

Iron forest

Medieval Madness

This post was submitted by Chrisqcc.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3dtQ01MFlg

This post was submitted by admin.

This post was submitted by remz.

This post was submitted by remz.

This post was submitted by remz.

This post was submitted by linlee.

The CoCo ended up in some movies back in the day, and I bet you don’t even remember.  This is a work in progress with more clips added as they are found.

Here’s a few clips to remind you of when you were a Nerd long before anybody else in the world accepted personal computers to be normal.

The first part of the video appears to feature Steve Bjork’s version of Zaxxon, although this is not comfirmed yet. I just loaded that game up and it looks like a match.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLHLThC6FuE

Oh and I got the game when it first came out. So if you got the game later and it didn’t happen then perhaps they released a corrected version.

This post was submitted by linlee.

The two Mark Data Games I have are this one and Haywire. Both use a semi-graphics mode not supported on the CoCo 3. Haywire uses a semi-graphics mode for the score screen and it doesn’t display at all. You can play the game but you have no idea what your score is. Astro-Blast uses a semi-graphics mode for the title screen. Only have of it displays. Unfortunately the half that doesn’t display is the half that shows what difficulty level you are selecting. But it does play just fine on a CoCo 3.

This post was submitted by linlee.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kark_HL95_Q

This post was submitted by mrnukem.

This gadget was definitely late arriving in the CoCo world.  We needed this baby back in the 80′s or 90′s, for sure.

The Deluxe Wireless RS-232 Pak was designed to be a drop-in replacement for the Tandy Deluxe RS-232 Pak.  No Disk BASIC or OS-9 software should know the difference. Now, instead of stringing a long null-modem cable over to your PC, you can plug a bluetooth dongle or adapter into your PC and establish a wireless connection between the CoCo and PC.  After that, anything is possible.

• Compatible with the Dragon and all CoCo models
• The CoCo can use the wireless pak without a Multi-Pak Interface
• Built-in ROM Firmware (modified copy of Tandy Deluxe RS-232 Pak ROM)
• Using two paks, two CoCos will find each other and connect automatically
• Speeds up to 115200 bps or 230400 bps if the crystal is doubled
• Configure the pak using English commands
• Pak is pre-configured and ready to use out of the box

Please visit the Products page on this site to purchase your own wireless pak.

Here is a video of one user using his CoCo to connect to a Linux box that has an internet connection.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueowCfiTZ5s

This video shows a multi-player game being written and tested using two CoCos.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-NiaxW4siw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDYnS9Ta-uE

From the digitized sfx to the colorful, smooth, and fast animation and fluid game play, this game is top notch all around. Someone asked me if I could put a video up of it and I said sure, why not. What a surprise. Although I thoroughly SUCK at it right now (hence three games just to fill in some time) I had a blast playing it. after playing for a while while recording the video, I can say I fully intend to play more. Great game, glad someone laid down a challenge. I’m even more glad he lost because we ALL benefitted from this one!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XRNZ-mYu1Q

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iOI3KLOlY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZYM5ieEUp0

We ordered our first 64k TRS-80 Color Computer from Computer Shack in November 1982 (and I threw a fit because I wanted an Atari or Apple… what did I know?) with an Okidata 82a and a single floppy drive. Two of my cousins had a CoCo, and there were numerous clubs around to learn from and share knowledge. The summer of 1983, I took a 18 mile bus ride and literally ran another 3 miles to go to the Radio Shack Computer Center at the Dayton Mall to take classes for Basic programming. That store closed down in 1998. Most people could at least get a grasp on Basic since it used everyday words. Today, Visual Basic is nothing like good old Microsoft Basic as implemented on the older computers.

Compared to what the average person could do to improve their computers and their skills then versus now, the changes are amazing. These new machines are capable of playing FPS games with smooth, photo-realistic graphics, watching DirecTv thru a media card, acting as a music and video personal media server, and designing aircraft and automobiles, is very impressive. But, they just don’t hold the fun value these old 8-bitters do, I could tinker with them for days if I had the time. By the time I get home from work, I’m too damn tired from working on all the modern equipment I have to maintain as part of my job.

There’s really nothing personal about today’s personal computers. How many will still be around 15-25 years from now? I’ve had PC based motherboard failures after only 6 months of service; power supplies bad out of the box; etc… I guess the old adage is true: They don’t make ‘em like they used to… I do collect some of the older machines, though. I have a working Model IV, (3) CoCo3′s, (2) CoCo2′s, (1) gray CoCo1, (1) white CoCo1, (2) Ti99-4/a’s, (1) Atari 800XL and (1) Atari 1040ST. Are they all hooked up? Lord no, my wife would kill me. Are they able to be hooked up? Lord yes!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUJWtyaS55w

Jeweled will run in the VCC CoCo 3 emulator and M.E.S.S. emulators.  In fact -- the game was completely designed from a Windows Vista PC and tested under emulation only!  That’s right -- Jeweled was designed from the Rainbow IDE.  Only until mid 2009 was Jeweled actually run on the author’s real CoCo 3 !

Only about 30 copies were sold as of September 25, 2009, about one year out from the release date, proving that even at such a low price, CoCo software and games are hard to SELL these days.  Regardless, the elite CoCo gamers wasted no time grabbing their copy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqc9xEyYRWk

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Hello 80′s Arcade Fans, what a treat this is!

Sock Master (John Kowalski) has ported the *original* Donkey Kong arcade game to the CoCo 3 by translating the actual machine code. When you play this game on a CoCo 3, it’s like playing the original video arcade version… Top Notch Work, Sock Master! Click the banner to download Donkey Kong or read more about the project.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQgd5p-Z5DY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2jRuh1bAxw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kT207Jmhq4