[Coco] The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 365, June 1, 2024

Sun Jun 2 09:13:42 EDT 2024

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 365, June 1, 2024
===================================================================
Collected by L. Curtis Boyle

Special Guests today:
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Interview schedule:
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Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
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The next Bay Area (San Francisco) Tandy Assembly meetup is June 15 from
1-5 pm at San Francisco State University. There is an online signup sheet
to join the event, and they have announced that Bill Hogue of Big Five
Software fame is the Special Guest speaker:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9ZDlEGBrd6okI9xIoKPjwLb4kHmdVFPvNog4lOUPEe5NaLQ/viewform

BoatFest 3: June 14-16, 2024
Social Event Space
Hurricane, WV

https://www.ticketsource.us/boatfest2024/boatfest-retro-computer-expo-2024/e-raedpb

VCF SouthWest: June 14-16, 2024 (same weekend as BoatFest)
Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas - Dallas
Dallas, Texas
  https://www.vcfsw.org/
UPDATES:
Also this year they are doing "Shows within the Show", and one of those
is a Tandy Assembly meetup, which includes a separate hall for just Tandy
machines. The main hall is already sold out for tables, and as of March 6,
only 2 of 21 tables in the Tandy hall were still available:
  (scroll down on the main page)
Jeff Wires (the host of Chronologically Gaming) and Boisy Pitre are both
speakers this year.
Speakers list.
*** NEW = TJBChris will be doing a seminar as well about the model
2/12/16,etc 8" drive "big iron" TRS-80's.
  https://www.vcfsw.org/speakers

Retro-Computing Expo '24 is on June 22 from 11 am until 7 pm at Anvil Center
in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is actually 2 shows in one:
the Retro-Computing Expo and the Retro-Gaming Expo. They already several
presenters lined up, including 4 people to talk about the NABU, including
Leo Binkowski who was an engineer at NABU. George Philips, the author of
the TRS-80GP emulator and a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast is
also presenting, amongst others. This is supported by the Chilliwack Retro
Computing Club, which has it's own Facebook Group:
  (show the copy of the "poster" that I was sent from my local desktop -
  "Retro-Computing_Expo_24.jpg").
Facebook group:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChilliwackRetro/

The Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition 2024 (supported by VCF) takes
place in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia is a 1 day event
from 10 am to 3 pm on June 29 at Radford College. They are going to have a
wide variety of machines on display, and Ian Maveric (of the Trash Talkers
podcast, Coco RS-232 pak clones,etc.) is one of the people helping from
the TRS-80 & clone side:

https://www.facebook.com/events/s/canberra-vintage-computer-exhi/693500242752070/
They did a live stream with several of the people in charge, for those
who want to find out more about the show:
  https://www.youtube.com/live/vSnWzH-k8h8?si=eXotYeTxuNr4Qtvo

VCF-West looks to be happening August 2-3 (Fri-Sat) at the Computer History
Museum in Mountain View, California. This year they are a full partner with
the museum, so that admission for both the museum and VCF can be done with
one purchase, and the are taking people booking to be speakers/presenters
now as well.
CHM (Computer History Museum)
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA
  https://vcfed.org/2024/03/14/vcf-west/

VCF-Midwest has announced their new, larger venue for this year (#19)
- the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. Sept
7-8, 2024 (Sept 6 evening (Friday) is reserved for vendors, etc to set
up). Unfortunately, their original block of rooms already sold out in 3
hours after they announced yesterday. VCF is working with the hotel to
get more, but that won't happen until Monday)
  https://vcfmw.org/

Tandy Assembly for 2024 has been announced for Sep 27-29, 2024. UPDATE:
THEY HAVE STARTED POSTING EXHIBITORS ON THEIR WEBSITE
Courtyard by Marriott Springfield
Springfield, Ohio
  http://www.tandyassembly.com/

Retro Computer Festival 2024: November 9-10, 2024
Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England
In the early stages of planning for this year, this is (I believe) the
largest general retro computing show in the UK (it's their VCF style show),
covering all retro machines. NOTE: thanks to Randy Kindig, it is confirmed
that it is a 2 day show.

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Today is our 365th episode - this means people new to the show can spend
an entire year watching a show EVERY DAY, occasionally up to 6 hours per day!

2) Jason (cocoman.biz) has put his video about CocoFest 2024 Day 2 on his
Fairly Amused YouTube page:
  https://youtu.be/rh62H48P4HI?si=difoDnb21tUoucch
Also, Jason has temporarily had to get a new domain for cocoman.biz:
  https://cocoman.my-online.store/

3) The 6502 Show did a video showing his using TSC's Adaptation Guide to
adapt Flex for the 6800 to his homebrew 6802 system... could this also be
ported to the 6803 in the MC-10?
  https://youtu.be/TJUeloqCTRA?si=ad4o91vKgSVkYxV7

4) Coco Town on YouTube returns to working on his Moon Patrol style game
with Game Revolutions cycle 11 - this time working on scrolling gravel at
high speed, based on a user suggestion:
  https://youtu.be/hWg3OAJuMhE?si=44FO-IrTgo6GRDVL

5) Neil Blanchard announce on Facebook that anyone who has their CocoFest
2024 pass, will be able to enter Tandy Assembly in September for *free*
(regular attendees; those with tables as exhibitors or vendors will still
pay their normal fees):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161339084337641/

6) 8-Bit Wall of Doom on YouTube released a 20 minute video about the Foenix
F256 - with the FNX6809 and NitrOS9 Level 1 and 2 ports that Boisy made for
them. This talk covers some of the history of the 6809, OS-9 and NitrOS9:,
and shows the board and the FNX6809 part:
  https://youtu.be/R6Tcj2NeeRM?si=rbQ-OXoVjEDJbzsO

7) Thomas Cherryhomes has announced that the Coco's Fujinet firmware is
now part of the nightly builds, and can be applied via the web flasher app,
for those who want to try the bleeding edge of Fujinet on the Coco:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161343997912641/

8) Simon Jonassen posted on the Coco Facebook group that thanks to a little
cable extender that John Whitworth had originally done for the SuperRGB
(to extend/move any VDG upgrades to away from the their original spot)
worked for the CocoVGA as well on his PAL T1 Coco 2. The PAL T1 Coco has
the VDG located under the keyboard, and there isn't enough space to plug
in the satellite boards for the CocoVGA or SuperRGB. This little upgrade
plugs into the VDG socket but puts out a cable that can than fit elsewhere
in the case with these taller upgrades:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10161337890112641/

9) For those who were not able to make it to the Fest, Brian Wieseler has
posted some photos of the Coco 1 pre-production board that he got from Robert
Kilgus (dates to probably spring of 1980 - before the official Coco release:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/974392120843187/

10) Eddie Malphrus posted a photo of what the Coco exhibit he is working
on for VCF-SW (two weeks from now in Dallas/Fort Worth):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/colorcomputer/posts/974114837537582/

11) Chris Burke (of B&B fame) posted, with a picture, a Searle style 6809
board that he converted to use a 6809E (external clock, like the Coco
uses). He hints that was doing some "6809E in-circuit emulation experiments
and didn't want to risk blowing up a Coco".... so what experiments is
doing for a Coco, I wonder?
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/6809assembly/posts/3380657868894238/

12) Tim Lindner has posted a browser based 6809 disassembler, which includes
the feature of following code execution, to help it differentiate data areas
from code areas. It is based on DASM09 originally by Arto Salmi. It allows
raw BIN code as well as DECB files (with the 5 byte pre & post -ambles):
  https://www.macmess.org/follow9.html

13) Tim Gilberts, one of our special guests on the giant 6 hour Dragon show
we did some time back, did a report the Portable Computer show that that
was at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge that were mentioning
the past couple of months, which you can watch on YouTube:
  https://youtu.be/QNfgCAbrWtc?si=nSNKQZZWuYspuH9I

MC-10
-----
1) Jim Gerrie released an MC-10 program that shows 17 flags using the
MC-10's SG4 graphics (a few even have some brief songs):
  https://youtu.be/NVUlPWr8CCE?si=1xENrsDIf7shjH_H

2) Tim Halloran (a regular on the TRS-80 Trash Talkers podcast) posted a
video about the PiKey-10 for the MC-10 - a hardware addition that allows
using a modern keyboard on the MC-10 - while still leaving the original
keyboard usable as well:
  https://youtu.be/qATZ3tDIU1s?si=VYEHg_0rfimVqft2

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) Robcfg in the World of Dragon Forums posted up a picture of a fully
assembled Dragon Beta board (scroll down):
  https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11044&start=30

2) There was a question to Jim Brain about software support for the MIDI
Maestro board for the Dragon. Ciaran Anscomb (author of XRoar, Dunjunz,
etc.) found some software originally written by Ian ones that might work
with the Dragon 64 serial port, and uploaded it the World of Dragon forum:
  https://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11176

3) Julian Brown did numerous update posts on his Dragon ATX project. In one
of the latest ones he posted, he mentions that since he no longer has use
an actual 40 pin SAM but a CPLD with more pins, that he can add more RAM,
have a single byte to write to map video RAM (rather than the odd/even
memory addresses per bit), and also to extend the RAM that the VDG can
see up to 128K:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/3720917938167848/
Actually, just this morning, Julian sent me the full details thus far:
"Dragon RevX4 Plus Kitchen Sink Edition

ATX board is fab ready but still being checked.
SAMx VHDL is baselined for the current spec to
get the board up and running -

Current Spec:

Flex-ATX sized board to fit any regular mini-
or micro-ATX case, using the ATX power supply
Single speed CPU (with regular fast mode)
64K SRAM (out of 4MB fitted)
128K Video RAM address space
16K ROM (out of 512K fitted)
Plugin Video options
Plugin Audio options
4 MPI ports
Joystick and Cassette ports migrated to mini-din
Joysticks upgraded to 2 fire buttons
Serial RS232
Optional PS2 keyboard support

Target Spec (different from above):

Double/Quad speed CPU (smooth video fast modes)
1MB SRAM (out of 4MB fitted)*
2K page size for RAM, 2 tasks supported
128K Video RAM address space
16K ROM paged out of 512K**
Plugin Audio options***
Generic expansion port
(1 or 2 depending on main board size)

* If I can get the mapping to work at the 4MB size I
will. Maximum address space is 16MB. It may require a
larger CPLD to make this viable (plus the Xilinx chip
specified is no longer made). RAM page lookup will be
from memory although the current map will be held in
registers so only needs access while switching tasks

** ROM will paged at 8K boundaries and can be mapped
into any of the regular ROM base addresses. Finer
grained paging is possible and potentially to any
point in the 64k memory space (ignoring the last 2K).
I'm aiming to make the ROM writable from in-system
allowing for either a "ram drive" without batteries
or sideways ram. Writing of the flash rom is performed
by the SAM, not the CPU so this requires the
introduction of a blitter function

*** The 2nd, 3rd and 4th expansion slots have two PIA
blocks associated with each (selected from the PIA1
address space $ff20-$ff3f), and further mapped ram
bound to $40000, $80000 and $C0000 (all subject to
getting the ram paging working nicely)"

4) Steven Goodwin did another presentation of his "20 GOTO 10" book (we
talked to him about it a year or two ago). This presentation actually has
a fair about the Dragon 32 in it, including a tech description of how and
why the setting of the screen address (using the SAM and VDG) works the
way it does:
  https://youtu.be/MMUJWKnWDXY?si=U3XRSMFlxd_kGfG_

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Peter of 8bitsinthebasement fame, has released his Bob and The Alien
Fire Flies game for both the Coco and the Dragon, and it it is available for
free from his itch.io page. The game is completely free from his page, with
both cassette and disk versions for the Coco, and cassette for Dragon. The
source code is also available:

https://8bitsinthebasement.itch.io/bob-and-the-alien-fireflies-coco-dragon-version

2) Jim Gerrie released an update to his Elevator Action game (that he
originally released in 2019), although he doesn't mention what exactly
the update entails:
  https://youtu.be/53hK3sFFdFc?si=XeECytjVsy2O8tuL

3) AJ & Tim cover the soon to be officially released Coco 1/2 game Savage
Sword of Cocoan (written by Erico Monteiro) on their Sibling Rivalry
show (Erico is planning some additions like sound for he final version,
I believe):
  https://youtu.be/uqO3gUXJa-M?si=f0hVLjdfCtvyW7Lx

4) F_T_B on Facebook put up a video of the history of The Games of Thinking
Rabbit - the creators of Sokoban. For those interested in the history of
that company and their games, check out the 3/4 hour documentary on YouTube
(it mentions the Coco version early on):
  https://youtu.be/DvEfSP-sRXI?si=r7cN8OPQQlGi5tYl

5) Ultra Gamer81 on YouTube did 10+ minute game play video of Epyx Pitstop
II for the Coco 1/2 (including a pitstop to refuel):
  https://youtu.be/nYVvvaJlPL8?si=wRqvNTznbdPqcsdN

6) Nostalgiavault on YouTube did a couple more gameplay videos of educational
games for the Coco 1/2: Grover's Number Rover:
  https://youtu.be/iFUcevE1zDk?si=ZTg3r61f7Z7Tb3ma
Ernie's Magic Shapes:
  https://youtu.be/VbISVgYrrMc?si=mhbjTjdm2mQMM5Fm

7) Stu's Game Reviews on YouTube (who has done a ton of the TRS-80 Model
1/3 games, not to mention many other platforms) did his first Coco games
stream - with the launch title ROM pak Chess, written by Peter Jennings. He
also does a bonus game cartridge at the end (Galactic Attack):
  https://www.youtube.com/live/Pp-HZMW0HfE?si=x8CX9hDbBb46yIyx

8) XperTek released another Coco 2/amber monitor gameplay video this week -
this time covering the official Zaxxon:
  https://youtu.be/KiHxm_bdlIo?si=zqSzIgWi2tNc3lyv

9) RetroGames covered Pooyan this past week - doing separate gameplay
videos for the Coco version as well as Atari 2600, Atari 400/800 and arcade.
Coco version:
  https://youtu.be/xg6fsVwbk-E?si=6dPLiiGfkvsymX6p

10) Chronologically Gaming covered the Dragon 32 release of Katerpillar
Attack from Microdeal (originally by Tom Mix Software), showing the new
and improved artwork that the Dragon version got:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV6B_AtIjDo&t=545s

11) "Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU)": put up a couple more gameplay
videos to enter as high scores.
Shark Treasure:
  https://youtu.be/zCXWJ5j4iEk?si=fuaiX9AndQbXT9HB
Pegasus And the Phantom Riders:
  https://youtu.be/cxSeLn1qUdM?si=u5RSR4xCW9uSruWj

==============================================================================

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Weylan-Yutani Corporation