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

CoCo Demus retrocanada76 at gmail.com
Wed Apr 29 10:53:12 EDT 2015


Daniel Campos had one. He has the crazy hitachi 6809.

On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 10:50 AM, Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com
> wrote:

> 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.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Coco mailing
> list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>


More information about the Coco mailing list