[Coco] [SPAM] Kicking the Z-80 butts...

[Bill Pierce]

Joe, I've been reading about the FM-7 for years. I first heard of it through mention of Microware's version of OS-9 for the FM-7 in a Rainbow article.
The graphics on the FM-7 were FAR superior to the Coco 2 and it had an MMU capable of bank switching long before the Coco 3.

With text resolutions of 80x25 & 40x25, and graphics resolution of 640x200, blew the Coco 2 out of the water and it was comparable to the Coco 3 even before it came out! Check out these screenshots!
http://www.nausicaa.net/~lgreenf/fmsoft.htm

Sound was 3 voice (onboard) with 3 noise channels.

3 card slots (one for a CP-M card), so expansion was available.

I saw one on ebay a few years back but could not afford it and hated to see it go to someone else. I've wanted one for years.

The "FBASIC" is a port of Coco's MS BASIC with more commands. The OS-9 L1 was "almost" OS-9 L2. The screenshot shown actually says "OS-9 Level 2", but a lot of people called OS-9 v1.2.0 "Level 2" up until the actual L2 came out Coco. Level 2 had been out for other machines for years, so most of the work was done when they ported it to the Coco 3.

Tandy could have done all this to the Coco, but I imagine it was out of their "Coco budget" and besides, it would've been a better machine than their lower end 1000s, and that would've been forbidden.

 

 


Bill Pierce
"Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
 

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Grubbs <jsgrubbs at hotmail.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 29, 2015 9:37 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] [SPAM]  Kicking the Z-80 butts...


That was me (not the owner of the FM7, but the one who mentioned multi-procs) :)
Man, that thing is cool, I've never heard of it before. If the CoCo had a second
6809 to handle graphics and sound, that would've been awesome. However back then
I'm sure it would have jacked the pricetag up quite a bit.



> Date: Wed, 29
Apr 2015 09:14:42 -0400
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Subject: Re: [Coco] [SPAM] 
Kicking the Z-80 butts...
> From: coco at maltedmedia.com
> CC:
ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> Someone said something about dual 6809s, the Japanese
version of the Coco (Fujitsu FM-7 & FM-8) had dual 6809 CPUs, 1 for oepration
and one as a GPU. The memory went beyond 64k and graphics were better than the
Coco 2. Many american Coco games were proted to the FM-7 and had better graphics
and sound.
> Here's some info (and pics) on the FM-7:
> 
>
http://www.nausicaa.net/~lgreenf/fm7page.htm
> 
> Someone here on the list has
one, I just can't remember who it is.
> 

 		 	   		  

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