[Coco] DRAGON TANO Arrived

[Retro Canada]

Except TANO is NTSC and 110v ;)

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Frank Swygert <farna at amc-mag.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
> --
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-- 
Panasonic FSA1-WSX
Commodore 64
Commodore 64C
Commodore 128
Apple //c
TRS-Color Computer 3
TI-99/4A
..and more coming!