[Coco] The Tri-Annual CoCo 4 Thread

[Joel Ewy]

On 02/09/2014 07:46 PM, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> On Feb 9, 2014 6:57 PM, "Mark McDougall" <msmcdoug at iinet.net.au> wrote:
>> On 10/02/2014 10:20 AM, Steve Batson wrote:
>>
>>> I hear a lot about the low number of CoCo enthusiasts compared to other
>>> platforms. Attracting new users that aren't super CoCo savvy with a
>>> simple and easily used solution such as Good Emulators could be a way to
>>> grow those numbers.
>>
>> I agree with your sentiments but I just don't see any solution being able
> to attract new users, regardless how cheap, simple or even sexy it is. You
> either know what a Coco is, and are still interested in tinkering with it,
> or you are completely and utterly disinterested.
> I also agree in the long term, but I think there is actually real potential
> for the coco hobby community to grow significantly beyond its current
> numbers in the short term.
>
> There are two group of people where "new recruits" can (and sometimes do)
> come from.
>
> [snip]
> I'm one of the "coco was my first computer as a kid" types.  There are
> several of us around too, but I think we are underrepresented compared to
> our numbers.  [snip]

I'm definitely in your category, Aaron.  I got my CoCo in the summer of 
1981 between 6th and 7th grade, with 4K, a cassette recorder, a pair of 
joysticks, and Quasar Commander.  By 9th grade I'd upgraded it to 16K, 
then 64K ECB (had the Shack do that one since it entailed a board 
modification), added a floppy drive, DMP-105, and TW-64, so I could 
write papers for school.  The CoCo 3 came out just after my birthday in 
1986 when I was a senior in High School, and I used it through college 
and beyond.
> Then you have the second (or third, who's counting) group, which is largely
> untapped.  These are the folks who maybe had no or little experience with
> the coco, but are involved in "retro computing" on other platforms.
> [snip]   A good example is a group who came to last year's cocofest.
> They were c64 guys iirc, but some of us spent time talking with them and
> they had genuine interest in learning about the coco.

I'm also an example of this phenomenon, but in reverse.  The CoCo and 
its derivatives and relatives will always be my primary hobby computers, 
but I've accumulated a pretty fair collection of other classic computers 
as well -- mostly in that span of time when they were considered 
worthless junk, between being current and being vintage.  For me part of 
the fun is the game of compare and contrast, and getting to play with 
all the different computers and operating systems, and experience the 
character of the machines of the past.  I would think that a lot of the 
people who are vintage computer enthusiasts in general would love to 
experience as many old systems as possible, and that would have to 
include the CoCo.  For me, the more obscure systems are even more 
intriguing in general than the popular ones.  But the CoCo has a charm 
all its own.

JCE
> [snip]
>
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