[Coco] CoCo/PC hybrid....

[Frank Swygert]

I agree with you 100%! I was only suggesting DOS as it could be easily pared down to a minimal system. I did mention that a Linux base (which can also be stripped down!) would be much better. 

I also agree with you on "newish" hardware, not really old stuff! In my last post I listed several P4 machines, complete computers, for under $100. In reality a P3 system would be the lowest I'd shoot for, mainly because of the VIA-C3 mini-ITX boards (the C3 uses a P3 compatible core). That would make an excellent board is one wanted to mount it in a CoCo case, but I wouldn't mess up an original CoCo. 

The USB adapter for the CoCo cartridge port is intriguing! I was thinking the parallel port would reduce the amount of hardware needed at first, but maybe not. With the USB board you're doing a lot more with software, which is probably better and easier, and even a P3 has the processing power. I've never seen the real need/desire for being able to connect all the old CoCo peripherals -- everything except something like an I/O relay board can be emulated or transferred to PC hardware. If you needed a 360K floppy it would be just as easy to mount the physical drive in a PC case, or mod a USB floppy driver to work with 360K. Come to think of it, will modern PC floppy controller chips (integrated I/O chips) even support 360K floppies? 

If the CC4 project is dead for you, would there be a possibility of you turning over the project to the CoCo community? Sounds like you've already had everything running. The USB board shouldn't be a necessity, but may be for playing games with the joysticks -- or can the PC joystick port be used? Someone would have to be in charge of building the hardware, but if the system will work without it that's a start. Maybe stick it up on Source Forge under an open source/GPL license, or upload it to Allen Huffman's CC4 site??? I'm not a programmer, but could serve as a project coordinator. 

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Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:19:51 -0700
From: Steve Bjork <6809er at bjork-huffman.net>

I've been watching the exchange on using PC hardware for a hybrid CoCo 4 
and do have a few comments since I?ve been working on this type of 
project for over a year now. (The current state of the project is dead 
or on long term hold.)

The CoCo 4 project was to use low cost NEW PC hardware. With complete 
system boards (with memory) starting at $200.00. Why play around with 
old hardware that does not get the job done?

This is the case with trying to use old PC and running DOS. DOS is only 
16-bit OS with a max of direct memory of 640k or so. With 32-bit Windows 
and Linux you have just under 4 GB of addressing. Lots of room to code 
great stuff for the CoCo 4 system like better graphic and sound.

I had posted a lot of details on the project at CoCo3.com but it was 
wiped out by a hacker. Maybe you could use my work to help your project 
if Roger ever gets those post back.

By the way, the CoCo 4 project also had a USB interface board for 
Joysticks, cassette player, Multi-Pak, floppy disk controller and other 
CoCo hardware devices that could be plugged into PC for use with the 
CoCo 4 software. To run a Game Pak, just plug it into the 40 Pin Slot 
and CoCo 4 boots it. Both the USB I/O board and an ION based PC would 
have fit inside a CoCo 3 case.

Oh yes, there was even a hook-up for the CoCo?s keyboard on the USB board.

So, how fast was the CoCo 4? BASIC programs ran about 5,000 times faster 
in tests. So fast that you write very good arcade types game in BASIC. A 
full Zaxxon arcade type of game written in BASIC would have been a 
breeze on a CoCo 4 system.

I will try to post some of the CoCo 4 data over at CoCo4.com for you to 
use. It may take some time because I'm busy with other projects.

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)