[Coco] CoCoNet status

[Roger Taylor]

At 05:45 PM 2/9/2009, you wrote:
>Hey guys, CoCoNet just gained the auto-update feature!  It also has 
>the side effect of allowing Virtual Game Paks....
>
>Read on...
>
>The very top of the CoCoNet ROM has code that tries to replace 
>itself with an updated .rom file (on your PC).  If the .rom is not 
>CoCoNet, it starts up like a game pak.  So, CoCoNet is also a Live 
>ROM Pak.  From your PC you tell the CoCo what ROM to boot up with - 
>CoCoNet, a game pak, utility pak, embedded pak, etc.  Otherwise, the 
>cartridge's EPROM already contains a version of CoCoNet that continues to boot.
>
>This is over the bitbanger cable, and it's still very cool.  I can't 
>wait to see all this go wireless.
>
>Wireless virtual disks
>Wireless ROM Paks
>Wireless HTTP requests



Today I did more work and testing with the Live ROM Pak.  This is 
pure magic.  The CoCoNet Pak (both bitbanger and bluetooth) both will 
serve many purposes even as simple as the system is.  Technically the 
self-replacing ROM doesn't have to have anything other than the 
replacement routine, but that would require the PC to serve up either 
CoCoNet or a game, etc.  Instead, CoCoNet + the updater are on the 
EPROM in case nothing is served from the PC as an update or replacement ROM.

All you see when you turn the CoCo on is a few seconds of delay while 
CoCoNet figures out if it can update itself with a game or another 
copy of CoCoNet, and then you get either the Disk BASIC 1.1 boot 
screen, or a game firing up.  It's practically transparent.  No need 
to mail out updated EPROMs.  The users can just download the latest 
client ROM and nothing has to be done from the CoCo at all.

Now you can develop game paks or even DOSes from the Rainbow IDE 
(click Build, the .rom appears in your Files folder), turn on your 
CoCo and it automatically runs the ROM as if a ROM Pak is 
inserted.  This is live code testing at its best, or just a way to 
run hundreds of game paks without owning the real thing.  It's almost 
the same as an ROM/EPROM emulator.  The only thing I haven't tested 
yet is a wireless connection and that's because those boards aren't here yet.

What I'm doing now is through a simple EPROM Pak and a bitbanger 
cable.  This is by far the most "amazifying" piece of software I've 
probably created yet, yet it's the simplest compared to my other systems.

There's no hardware gadgets or tricks to any of this other than the 
ROM Pak containing a custom patched Disk BASIC 1.1 that can replace 
itself on powerup.  So far this only works on a CoCo 3.  In order to 
work on a CoCo 1 or 2 it has to be 64K and I need to put the all-RAM 
routine in somewhere.  However, this will kill the 115200 bps mode 
since a CoCo 2 can't run at double speed while in all-RAM 
mode.  You'll still get 57600 bps which is actually pretty fast.

What I propose now is that CoCoNet have Virtual Memory access by 
using the PC's resources yet again to give the CoCo more power.  If 
all of this can be possible from a cheap ROM Pak, why try to invent 
some huge expensive cartridge that nobody can afford?  Is software 
the solution?  It can be.  So far, I've ditched the floppy drives and 
ROM Paks, and when the bluetooth pak is done, there goes the idea of 
a needing an MPI for a Deluxe RS-232 Pak slot.

I should really call this thing the Mystery Box and put no label on 
the cartridge.  Or perhaps, the All-in-One Pak.  :)

A few copies of this little ROM Pak should be available by this 
weekend to the testers chosen to play around for a while before I 
release the final gizmo.  The programs I work on as demos will be, 
again... Live, to the testers who will just mount my updated floppy 
disk by pointing to a URL on the web.  The virtual disk is then 
accessible from their CoCo.

Anything else I mention is probably giving too much secret and 
mystery away, so I'll get back to the drawing board and get this 
thing finished already.

Roger Taylor

-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com