[Coco] 4K Coco Basic Programming Contest

Kip Koon computerdoc at sc.rr.com
Mon Jan 19 06:43:29 EST 2015 

Hi Allen and Fellow 4K Coco 1 Basic Programming Enthusiasts!  
The Coco 1 I mentioned in my previous email was tucked away along with another very old Coco 1 that's a bit beaten up.  The ram button on the top cover of this second Coco 1 shows 64K, but it is really a D motherboard inside and until tonight I did not realize the significance of the D motherboard.  
On this D motherboard are jumpers for choosing 4K of ram or 16K!  I had wondered which Coco motherboard version had the 4K of Ram you guys had been talking about lately.  Although this particular Coco 1 has 16K of ram, if I spent $50 on ebay I could change out the SCM9007AC3 16K  x 1 bit Dynamic Ram chips for MCM4027AC3 4K x 1 bit Dynamic Ram chips and I'd end up with a real 4K Coco 1!  It's incredible!  I'll have to settle on running the "CLEAR 0, 4095" Basic command though and get the whopping 4K of ram that way instead. That price is a bit rich for 4K of ram in my opinion!  
The two Coco 1s have been sitting in a box collecting dust and a bit of fine saw dust as well for at least a few years since I've had them.  There is a big hole cut into the top cover for a huge fan which is missing.  The keyboard is missing also.  The power cable has been disconnected and removed from the case and the strain relief is gone.  The lugs on the ends of the three wires have been cut off as well, so I will have to find some new lugs and put them back on the power cable.  Then I can see if the 4K Coco 1 with 16KB of ram will work.  Hummm... Exciting times ahead!
This 4K/16K Coco 1 has the Radio Shack Catalog Number of 26-3001 and a serial number of 00003019!  I wonder what manufacturing time frame that refers to.  Could it be that this particular Coco 1 was manufactured in '79 or '80?  
For me, this 4K Coco 1 Basic Programming Contest has gotten very interesting for me, especially since I have found this 4K Coco 1!  I have been enjoying rummaging through my storage and finding all these wonderful Color Computers!  I had totally forgotten about all of them!
I reckon some of you have dozens or maybe even hundreds of Cocos squirreled away somewhere in some secret storage facility so my Coco collection is quite humble and meager by comparison, but I'm having a whole bunch of fun!  I can dream big, can't I!  :)  Basic programmers, have a bunch of fun with this contest!  Take care my friends!

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon


-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Kip Koon
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 2:10 AM
To: 'Coco Email List'
Subject: [Coco] 4K Coco Basic Programming Contest

Hi Allen,

I found a Coco 2 in storage with believe it or not just the Color Basic Rom
in it!  I was quite surprised.  I didn't think I still had a Coco 2 with
just Color Basic 1.2 in it.  The Color Basic Rom is soldered in and there is
a socket for the Extended Basic Rom.  

So I fired it up and was greeted with the all too familiar but not seen in a
VERY long time power up message.

----------------------------

COLOR BASIC 1.2

C 1982 TANDY

 

OK

----------------------------

I typed in "CLEAR 200, 4095" then I checked the amount of free ram and it
reported 2343 bytes free!  Cool.  With a CLEAR 0, 4095 I of course have 2543
free bytes if I don't need string variables.  Cool Beans!  

Now to find my Cassette Recorder.  Oh here it is in storage also!  Now where
are some cassette tapes?  I might have to buy new ones so I can get good
clean recordings of programs.  Oh yes, some cleaning fluid for the Cassette
Recorder's Record and Play back heads.  It's a fair bet that is not sold
anymore.  Wow!  I had forgotten how difficult this was!  Anyway, back to
setting up my 4K Coco 1 Basic Programming Development Station.

Of course I could remove the Extended Basic Rom from my old coco 1 I found
two days after finding the above mentioned Coco 2.  Come to think of it, all
my Coco 1s have 64KB of ram in them so to get a 4K Coco 1, I'd have to CLEAR
0, 4095 on anything I have to get down to the 4K limit requirement of the
contest.  So with a Coco 1 Color Basic machine with 64K limited to 4K of
free ram, how close have I come to meeting all your criterion for the
contest?  

The only other thing I could possibly think of doing would be to buy that
Coco 1 4K machine on ebay which is just a bit out of reach for me since I'm
trying to save for the CoCoFEST trip this year.  It's still a bit iffy on
that front at this point.  

Anyway, I think I'm just about setup to enter my program for the 4K Coco 1
Basic Programming Contest on a machine that is as close as I can get to a
real 4K Coco 1!  It seems like I remember saving programs 3 times onto my
cassette recorder to make sure I had a good copy.  Boy that takes me back!  

My first computer was a Coco 1 64K Color Basic machine with what I found out
was an F motherboard.  I bought an Extended Basic Rom from a fellow Coco
Club member in the Spartanburg Color Computer Club.  I served as president
of that club right before I entered the Air Force in 1986.  Well, I better
get busy and continue working on one of my many projects.  Thanks Allen for
getting us all thinking about what it was actually like learning to program
our very first computer!  Take care my friend.

 

Kip Koon

 <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com

 <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon>
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon

 

 


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