[Coco] Nick's Survey results

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Roger

I still use a "Real" Coco 3. IN fact it is as close to the original as possible. Still has 
the 6809 in it and a 1986 GIME chip. I did upgrade it to 512K and amd still using 
OS9 Level II 2.00.01 version.

I can upgrade to the 1987 GIME chip if I want to. In fact I still have it up and use it 
once in a while. I used it to write many reports while working on my degree in the 
late 80's. 

james


On 9 Dec 2003 at 16:29, Roger Taylor wrote:

> At 09:12 PM 12/7/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >>Mark,
> >>Thank you for your reply! I understand that there is already
> >>some excellent hardware and software for "real COCO,s" but if
> >>I wanted to really build a super expanded COCO I would not
> >>use a true coco at all. Instead I would run a coco emulator
> >>which would give me the use of all the natives systems
> >>periferal devices. I could then have hard drives,floppies,CD-
> >>roms or whatever and run at whatever speed my native machine
> >>would do. For my interests the real beauty of the coco is
> >>that it is a full computer with video,keyboard etc. in a
> >>small size. The SAM chip was an excellent product for it,s
> >>time because it tied together the VDU,DRAM,CPU,roms and I/O
> >>using an "Interleaved DMA" allowing the cpu access to all
> >>memory at any time without it(the CPU) having to worry about
> >>refreshing ram and accessing video memory only during video
> >>retrace or non refresh times. Of course the SAM,s later
> >>cousin the GIME also did this.
> >>
> >>If I truly wanted to operate a COCO I do have a coco1,several
> >>coco2,s and a 512k coco3. My interests are a bit different
> >>though. Thank you from all of us coco,ist for all of your
> >>fine work in keeping this machinge going in this modern age.
> >>
> >>Eric
> 
> 
> I think some of the most common uses for a CoCo emulator are:
> 
> 1) playing all those games we never could afford to buy
> 2) keeping the CoCo alive in any form is better than total death
> 3) developing software for a real CoCo
> 
> I've never been a total game freak, but at 35 I still find it a lot of
> fun to boot into an old CoCo 1, 2, or 3 game that I never owned or
> even had a clue about other than seeing it in Radio Shack or the
> Rainbow, etc.  All these ROM Pak images are now floating around for
> free.  This is truly a trip.
> 
> If EPROM burners and 4 or 8k EPROMs were free, then I'd bet that a lot
> of CoCo users would put these images on real cartridges. 
> Realistically, we'd be better off just emulating the ROM Paks and
> getting the same exact enjoyment from playing the games.
> 
> Now, if we could actually develop ROM Paks or disk software from a
> better environment (cross development is nothing new in this world),
> then there's another good use for some.
> 
> But I highly suggest not throwing out or selling off your entire CoCo
> system just because you've got a cool emulator like M.E.S.S.  Nothing
> beats being able to use the real thing.  If anything, give it it's own
> corner in your backyard shop and use it for handyman calculations or
> controlling gadgets, etc. etc. etc.
> 
> 
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