[Coco] Smalles CoCo ever "re-created"??

[Bill Loguidice]

That was back in 2005 and was known both as the Commodore 64 30-in-1 and
the C-64 DTV, and was used in a few other inexpensive TV games products.
The engineering was led by Jeri Ellsworth and she had basically recreated
the Commodore 64 architecture, with enhancements (256 colors for one) on an
ASIC. It wasn't a perfect recreation (some of the more unique capabilities
of the amazing SID chip weren't in there, for example), but it was still
damned impressive. A similar feat was accomplished in the Atari Flashback 2
with the original Atari 2600 architecture (the other Flashback models were
emulations/simulations), led by Curt Vendel. Both the C-64 DTV and
Flashback 2 were accurate enough where you could in fact add original
accessories/hardware features, which put them beyond simple emulators. This
was possible because the lead engineers on both were able to pretty much
"sneak" the options onto the main boards. Obviously, the companies they
were creating these platforms for wanted cost control above all else and
it's interesting to note that the vast majority of future products in the
same vein eschewed this type of engineering for simple emulation, which was
far less accurate and not moddable, but was still deemed sufficient for the
target audience and the price point/margins the companies wanted to
achieve. That's why, for instance, the Atari Flashback 4, is not as
accurate as the Flashback 2. It's still nice, but there is a significant
difference.

I think the reality of both the engineering demands/costs and the
capabilities of today's low cost platforms (be they FPGA implementations or
something like a Rasberry Pi), a modern day platform would almost certainly
be a software emulation layer on some generic hardware, meaning original
peripherals simply wouldn't work. Particularly with something like the
CoCo, which is beloved by hundreds of hardcore individuals, but not
something that really anyone else even remembers, you'd have to think in
terms of what gives the best bang for the buck at the lowest cost and can
still make back a profit selling in the hundreds to low thousands. That's
clearly not an implementation like the DTV or Flashback 2 had.

===================================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade,
Inc.<http://www.armchairarcade.com>
===================================================
Authored Books<http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Loguidice/e/B001U7W3YS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1>and
Film <http://www.armchairarcade.com/film>; About me and other ways to get
in touch <http://about.me/billloguidice>
===================================================


On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 7:08 AM, John Donaldson <
johnadonaldson at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Some years ago, I saw a product that was a mainly a joystick with a
> external
> power brick and a cable that ran to the TV. You used the joystick to
> select one
> of three-four games. Someone open up the joystick base and found a board
> with a
> large chip on it. Turns out that the chip emulated the C-64, RAM, ROM, and
> sound/video interface. He took it out and discovered that there were
>  unused
> ports to hook a keyboard to and etc.  So getting a coco into the size of a
> smartphone is very much doable.
>
> John Donaldson
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Chad H <chadbh74 at hotmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wed, December 19, 2012 10:38:31 PM
> Subject: [Coco] Smalles CoCo ever "re-created"??
>
> With all the talk of emulators and CoCo's being re-imagined on FPGA's and
> other such micro-solutions..  I'm curious what's the SMALLEST (physical
> size) that someone has ever gotten a CoCo emulated environment running on?
> That's including Display & Keyboard.
>
>
>
> I have a idea for setting up such a device to run as a CoCo that would be a
> all-in-one self contained unit, built in 4-5 inch screen, small keyboard,
> and fit in the palm of your hand  (slightly larger than a large smartphone)
> I'm pretty sure I could pull it off, but just wondering if anyone else has
> achieved this already, might save me some work.
>
>
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