[Coco] CoCo-X is not dead

[Mark McDougall]

On 30/04/2013 5:46 PM, Fedor Steeman wrote:

>> What you won't see is a flood of 256-colour hires Coco games,
>> so don't waste your time dreaming about them!
>
> I am curious to hear why you think so. Too small a user base? Too much
> effort for a single coder?

It's all about numbers. I don't think the (relatively moderate) extra 
complexity will scare off any of the existing Coco developers.

The Coco enthusiast community isn't really very large compared with certain 
other retro micros; Apple II, C64, Atari come to mind.

Now reduce that to the percentage that would be interested in - and can 
afford - to purchase whatever incarnation of Coco-X is produced. Keep in 
mind that not everyone wants the same thing from the project, which reduces 
the numbers even further.

Now reduce that to the percentage of users capable of writing games for the 
Coco-X of any reasonable complexity/quality.

Now reduce that to the percentage of those that have both the time and are 
willing to produce games for the Coco-X, with such a limited market.

At most, you'll see a handful of games trickling out from the likes of Nick, 
Steve (although IIUC Coco-X hasn't gone in a direction that necessarily 
interest him), John etc. Maybe a port or two from Sockmaster. But I don't 
see anything more than that.

As I said, I think you'll see more output from OS9 users, wanting better 
text modes and faster processing. Maybe they will get a reasonable GUI 
up-and-running in graphics mode on top if it? I really think that's where 
you'll see most of the development on the Coco-X.

Just my opinion of course.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"