[Coco] Looks like someone has already done some legwork to get a Pi to boot as a Coco

Wed Mar 15 10:31:53 EDT 2017

Hi Glen,

I agree with everything you've said below.  It does make a relatively
inexpensive platform to enjoy the Coco for those who may not have the funds
to get a real Coco (and associated hardware) or simply want to consolidate
space, simplify and/or allow for ease in portability.

I think I will look into kicking off an initial Coco emulation distribution
for the Pi 3 (since this is what I currently have).

Latest Raspbian as a base (update through normal apt-get process)
Latest MAME (0.183)
Latest XRoar (for an alternate Coco 2 / Dragon platform)

Drivewire 4 set up to host using Becker option (local Emulators only).
Easy change to support external serial/USB hosting.  I run DW4 in non-GUI
mode, however, you can run it as an X-Windows client (GUI) on the RPI3
under Raspbian.

I'll check with Brett to see if I can add some components to support
networking under Fuzix (Coco 3 only) using 'lwwire'.  This feature would
require some easy changes a few configuration options and will be based on
each person's current networking environment.  This may become more
appealing for those folks attending CocoFEST and watch Brett's Fuzix
presentation.

As you mentioned, lot's of development tools are available.  I'll add a
good amount of those.

Only looking for a good base to start with.  I'm hoping other's will chime
in with suggestions, etc..  We will need a way to distribute and provide
some initial documentation.

I'm actually taking this a step further and looking to embed the RPi3 into
a spare Coco 3 case.  Chris Hawks did all the hard work and used a Teensy
2.0 controller (inexpensive) to connect a real Coco 3 keyboard to the RPi.
I don't know if anyone else would be interested in that, but wanted to try
it nonetheless.  It would be even neater to attach the RPi3 to a small
motherboard to mount in the case and find a way to add a Coco power switch
and even Coco joystick DIN plugs in the factory locations.  The joystick
ports could be connected to the RPi using Jayeson's USB to Coco joystick
adapters or perhaps one from Darren (on Facebook) if he decides to produce
one.  Power cord can exit out the same case hole.  Since the RPi3 supports
composite video and audio from the GPIO header, you could also add those
connections to the factory locations on the back as well.  It probably
wouldn't make much sense to route HDMI at the bottom of the case where the
RGB connection is.  I would like to do all of this without cutting up the
Coco 3 case (which should not be a problem).  Anyway, this is just
something I'm tinkering with...

-Ron

On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 8:43 AM, Glen Hewlett <glen.hewlett at sympatico.ca>
wrote:

> Hi Ron,
>
> I have compiled the fairly recent versions of MAME on my Pi 3 and tinkered
> with the CoCo3 emulation on it and found it excellent.  That actually led
> me getting back into playing with the CoCo again about a year ago.
>
> Sound like you have taken it to a whole new level and I really like the
> sounds of your setup and the options you suggested.  I for one sure would
> love to see a dedicated CoCo emulation distribution for the RPi 3
>
> Since it’s all linux based people could use lots of tools already created
> like LWTOOLS and use it to do development work.  Looking at optimizing my
> sprite rendering I came across this cool video/audio game engine called
> DynoSprite - https://github.com/richard42/dynosprite <
> https://github.com/richard42/dynosprite>
> Maybe tools like these could also be setup and ready to go on the microSD
> image
>
> I know this is a lot of work, and I’m not saying you should do it all on
> your own.  I’m just saying that I think it would be awesome to have for the
> CoCo community.  It would be a great place for people thinking of getting
> back into the CoCo to start and for long time CoCo users they could have a
> portable CoCo anywhere an HDMI TV/monitor is.
>
> The most important things I think for such a project are:
> - a usual RPI distribution microSD image
> - an easy way to get the ROMs on the microSD
> - an easy way to upgrade MAME (just to keep it current)
>
> Cheers,
> Glen
>
>
> > On Mar 15, 2017, at 8:27 AM, Ron Klein <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I have a Raspberry Pi 3 I run Coco emulation on.  I do use RetroPie and
> it
> > works well for classic game system and arcade game emulation.  It does
> run
> > XRoar and you can automatically boot into a particular system.  Some were
> > asking how fast this process is -- all relative and nothing is
> > instantaneous.
> >
> > I actually prefer to "roll my own" set up and use Raspbian as the base OS
> > on the Pie (which RetroPie uses) but do some additional tweaking from
> > there.  I'm able to use XRoar, but also have the latest version of MAME
> > running (0.183) with video hardware acceleration.  Emulation speed is
> great
> > and MAME's compatibility is very good.  Using some simple scripts, I can
> > automatically into MAME and even a particular system (like the Coco 3).
> I
> > also host Drivewire 4 on the Pi, so it can serve DSK images to the
> > emulators or I can load DSK images locally using each emulator's disk
> > management interface.
> >
> > Since the Pi has Bluetooth and WiFi, I can use many different keyboards,
> > game controllers, etc, without wires (with the exception of power and the
> > monitor).  I can also provide Drivewire 4 hosting to my real Coco 3
> through
> > the use of a USB to serial adapter.
> >
> > While I still prefer a real Coco, this method of emulation is nice and
> > fairly inexpensive.  At it's highest level, you can run a Coco 3 with 4MB
> > of RAM, have tons of storage, virtual MPI support with Orchestra 90
> > capabilities, too.  HDMI is nice, though there are ways to connect to VGA
> > or even composite video.  Digital audio through the HDMI port or analog
> > audio through the composite output jack.  You can also get a 9 pin serial
> > dongle which can be attached to the GPIO header if you don't want to use
> up
> > a USB port for serial connections.
> >
> > Depending on how many folks are interested, perhaps we can create a Coco
> > emulation distribution for the Raspberry Pi which includes Drivewire and
> > other utilities (like toolshed and various compilers) so it can be a
> > development / debug platform of sorts.  That's how I use mine.  An SD
> card
> > image could be made of a pre-configured set up (with the exception of the
> > licensed ROMs).  Instructions would be provided on where to copy those
> ROM
> > files.
> >
> > I would definitely recommend an RPI3 due to it's capabilities and
> > robustness.  A regular Pi or Pi 2 can run XRoar under RetroPie without
> any
> > issue.  Older versions of MAME (actually MESS) will work, but running at
> > full emulated speed is a bit tricky to do.  I believe Chris Hawks was one
> > of the first folks to try out Coco emulation on a Pi.
> >
> > -Ron
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 14, 2017 at 10:25 PM, John Guin <johnguin at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Retropie users already have a github page for the Coco:
> >> https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Coco
> >>
> >> If I had a few hours I would give this a try - anyone have a Pi laying
> >> around to try this out?
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Coco mailing list
> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >>
> >>
> >
> > --
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> > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
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