[Coco] DRAGON TANO Arrived

[Frank Swygert]

The "cloner" had to change a few things to prevent problems with Tandy. The keyboard matrix is slightly different and the BASIC tokens are different. You can save a BASIC program in ASCII format and it will run on a CoCo or Dragon. TANO was the Louisiana maker. The computer itself is identical to the Dragon 64 from the U.K. (made by Dragon Data Ltd.).

 From Wikipedia:


      Differences from the TRS-80

Both the Dragon and the TRS-80 Color Computer 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer> are based on a 
Motorola data sheet design for the MC6883 SAM (MMU) chip for memory 
management and peripheral control.

The systems are sufficiently similar that a significant fraction of the 
compiled software produced for one machine will run on the other. 
Software running via the built-in Basic interpreters also has a high 
level of compatibility, but only after they are re-tokenized 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenize>, which can be achieved fairly 
easily by transferring via cassette tape with appropriate options.

It is possible to permanently convert a TRS-80 into a Dragon by swapping 
the original TRS-80 ROM and rewiring the keyboard cable.^[4] 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_32/64#cite_note-3>

The Dragon has additional circuitry to make the MC6847 VDG compatible 
with European 625-line 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_of_resolution> television standards, 
rather than the US 525-line NTSC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC> 
standard, and a Centronics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centronics> 
parallel printer port not present on the TRS-80. Some models were 
manufactured with NTSC video for the US market.

For instructions to convert a CoCo1 or 2 to a Dragon, see http://www.onastick.clara.co.uk/cococnv.htm.
Should be able to easily reverse the process to make a Dragon into a CoCo.

I find it funny that Dragon Data apparently didn't like their 3rd party disk system supplier making their own DOS for the Dragon, since the Dragon was an almost direct copy of the CoCo itself! Just enough differences that Tandy couldn't sue them.

This site hasn't been updated for a while, but has pretty much all the Dragon info you could want:
http://www.dragon32.com/


-----------------
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:44:02 -0700
From: Steve Batson<steve at batsonphotography.com>

How compatible are these with the CoCo?

-- 
Frank Swygert
Editor - American Motors Cars Magazine
www.amc-mag.com