[Coco] Retro computer, somewhat similar to CC1/MC-10.

[Darren A]

This is probably an FPGA running a "custom" processor design. They
don't have any kind of information on how to program it other than by
using the BASIC interpreter. The BASIC has some serious limitations:

Only single-character variable names
Program lines and strings are limited to 79 characters
Single dimensioned arrays with a maximum of 256 elements
No ELSE clauses in IF THEN statements
Cannot use a varibale name in NEXT to override nesting

On the plus side, it allows expressions in GOTO and GOSUB statements
and appears to support 24-bit integers in addition to 32-bit floating
point numbers.

Darren

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On 11/3/08, Frank Swygert wrote:
> Anyone seen one of these things: http://www.multilabs.net/Retro.html
> It's a 32K built-in BASIC computer with a native 40 x 30 Text screen,
> 320 x 240 Pixel graphics, 64 Colors. Very reminiscent of the CoCo 1!
> Well, maybe more like a more powerful MC-10. The only removable storage
> is an 8 pin DIP socket for EEPROMs up to a 24LC512 (512K?). An SD card
> slot or some other more easily portable device would have been better,
> but you can program the EEPROM and use the thing as a controller, but
> then you could do that with an SD also.
>
> No mention of what processor is used, only that it's an 8-bit. BASIC is
> a line number BASIC similar to Color BASIC, but I didn't look at the
> manual enough to know how close.That and it's been ages since I tried to
> program anything! There's some technical info in the manual concerning
> the expansion port, maybe some of you more hardware/technical types can
> figure something out by that.
>