[Coco] Which do you prefer and why? CoCo 1/2/3

[Francis Swygert]

I started out with a Timex-Sinclair TS1500! Didn't keep it long, found out you needed special interfaces to connect anything to it, or the special (and limited) TS accessories. I wanted it for word processing -- wasn't a touch typists, so the little keyboard wasn't a big issue... but would have been later. I did a little more research after that purchase and decided the CoCo 2 (this was around 84) was the best of the inexpensive computers. The only special item needed was the disk controller -- standard floppy drives would work with it, and serial printers weren't hard to come by. My first printer was an IBM PCjr thermal printer, when the PCjr flopped and the printers were sold cheap. Just had to make a cable. 

Went straight from there to a CoCo3 shortly after they came out. Had one sent to Okinawa in 1988! Wouldn't use anything else for a long time. Wrote a most of my CoCo book on that CoCo3 (and all of two different AMC car books, wrote the first on that CoCo2), though I did transfer the ASCII files to a Mac with Pagemaker on it to set it up and print (all but that first AMC car book). The DTP programs for the CoCo3 were just too limited to do something like that. 

Now I occasionally fire up VCC. Sold my two CoCo3s in the late 90s. One was mounted in a Tandy 2000 case (a lot like a 1000SX case) with a Disto Super Controller with mini SCSI adapter, a SCSI HD, two double sided 5.25" floppies, and a 720K 3.5". The other I made specifically for going to CoCoFests in Chicago. It was mounted in an old Kaypro II case that I changed the monitor out for an amber composite and mounted a pair of 360K drives. Used a ribbon cable to the keyboard. Worked great, was perfect for traveling! At home I used it mostly to copy disks for FARNA Systems... probably copied more at the Fests than used it for anything else, though I did demo a lot of stuff with it. Almost wish I hadn't sold them, but I wasn't doing anything with them (stayed on Delphi for e-mail until it finally went all internet and couldn't use the CoCo any more), and would rather see them go to someone who would get some enjoyment out of them ather than have them languish in a closet. I had collected another CoCo2 and a CoCo1 during my CoCo days. Those I recently donated to Kip Koon.  They had been stored in an old barn and I wasn't even sure they would work. They were well boxed and dry, but hot in summer cold in winter, and they probably drew some moisture. Looked good, but I let him have the honor of firing them up for the first time since the late 80s. Frank Swygert
 Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
 803-604-6548