[Coco] The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 441, November 29, 2025 (Nov 21-28)

[R. Allen Murphey]

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 441, November 29, 2025 (Nov 21-28)
=============================================================================
Collected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle


Special NOTES:
--------------
NOTE: We are planning to do a special “Coco 4” episode for January as
part of the virtual Tandy Retro Show (this hopefully gives enough time
for some of us to get our old machines up and running enough to fully
demo). These are the computers announced in the 1991-1994 time frame
that were supposed to be successors to the Coco 3. We have Joel Ewy who
has volunteered to show off their MM/1, I am going to try and get my TC-9
up and running at least enough to show it working, and Rick Ulland will
show off a Delmar System V… but we still need volunteers with TC-70’s,
Kix-20 or Kix-30, Delmar System IV, AT-306 and MM/1 B’s. Anybody still have
these machines that they would like to show off in an upcoming show? Email
me at curtisboyle at sasktel.net if you are.

For those who want to try an online BBS running on a real 512K Coco 3,
you can reach Terry Trapp’s RiBBS system here (please note that this an
active development machine so the BBS occasionally goes down when Terry
is working on hardware, etc).:
telnet ribbs.griswoldfx.com 6809


Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------
World of Commodore is December 6-7 in Mississauga, Ontario at the Admiral
Inn. The show “warmly embrace(s) enthusiasts of all retro computer gear,
not just the Commodore computers (although the SuperPET does have a 6809
in it and runs a version of OS-9 Level 1… making it a cousin to the Coco
in a way).
  https://woc.tpug.ca/

As Mark Overholser mentioned on our show, the next Tandy Retro Show will
be happening January 24 and 25th, which will be a series of live YouTube
streaming presentations. He is currently taking bookings of people &
topics. Send an email to: registration at tandyretroshow.com
  https://tandyretroshow.com/


Canada is getting it's own official VCF - Montreal, January 25-26 of
2026. It will be held at the Royal Military College outside of Montreal,
but I don't have any more details (the venue, for example) yet:
  https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/

Date for CocoFest 2026 - April 24-25, as mentioned in the Glenside meeting
this past week. And hotel rates are locked in now (see post on Glenside
website)
  https://www.glensideccc.com/

That same weekend is the first official Latin American VCF, which takes
place April 24-26 in Bahia Blanca, Argentina:
 
https://vcf-espaciotec-com-ar.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

VCF-PNW (Pacific North West) is returning after multiple years in hiatus,
and is happening May 2-3 2026 in the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila,
Washington:
  https://www.vcfpnw.net/

NEWS:
=====

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) German YouTube channel Deutschland Fruher put up a video of “20
Forgotten Home Computers That Were World Class” – and the Dragon 32
is one of them:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5-qdhdGVWc&t=2735s

2) Rami Pinku posted a short video called “The First Program I Ever Wrote
on a a Dragon 32 (1980’s Tech Memories). He gives a bit of history of
it in the video description:
  https://youtu.be/fZcvnGIHz5I?si=TEq5mqWxE1u2lmuv


Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Brian Blake posted a blog post called “Scoping the Murphy’s Law
Coco”. This is where he is fixing a Coco 3 that he got from Brian Wieseler,
and got a new scope to help debug the machine:
  https://tandy-trs80.com/scoping-the-murphyslaw-coco/

2) pw_32x from the Coco Discord has gotten some Coco blogs up, about his
port of Downland to other more modern machines:
Reverse Engineering Downland:
 
https://www.puffweet.com/2025/11/23/reverse-engineering-downland-the-tandy-color-computer-game-from-1983/
Downland Unearthed: Pick Ups and Scoring:
  https://www.puffweet.com/2025/11/24/downland-unearthed-pick-ups-and-scoring/
3rd entry talking about how Downland works internally. This time, he covers
how the acid drops work:
  https://www.puffweet.com/2025/11/28/downland-unearthed-drop-it-like-its-hot/

3) Allen Huffman posted a blog entry on how to view and convert image files
from Microworks DS-69 digitizer (.PIX files) to modern machines using GIMP:
 
https://subethasoftware.com/2025/11/24/open-micro-works-digisector-ds-69-digitizer-pix-files-in-gimp/

4) Alderson Retro Computing released a few of YouTube short videos about
the Coco:
TRS-80 Color Computer Software (shrunk wrap OS-9 software from Radio Shack):
  https://youtube.com/shorts/oEk63z9lybw?si=4hBTVRPeDhSCeiZm
Coco 3 (where he mentions that he will be starting a channel about writing
code for the Coco using the VCC emulator):
  https://youtube.com/shorts/7hM5Z-mrCIQ?si=uZcUDAxBbFaeZYjJ
Coco 3 composite output Baseball:
  https://youtube.com/shorts/fX3V-CtNJko?si=eKPP-9tgo9Frn5ZS

5) CocoTown returns with a deep inside look about the PAINT command and
how it works:
  https://youtu.be/f9YkL9_GfwQ?si=GbsfDFsK6z7fVy5L

6) Hirudov on YouTube put up several videos showing the relative speed
of MS BASIC on the Coco at stock .895 MHz. He does show some with the
6309 running in his emulator; but since BASIC has no clue about that chip
(without patching), it doesn’t increase in speed:
Coco 1 Extended BASIC 1.0/6309:
  https://youtu.be/J-3bnlczx0w?si=idwWxMOyGiRNcGMZ
Coco 2 Extended BASIC 1.1 (I think)/6309:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2KG0egVLzI
Coco 1 Color BASIC 1.0/6309:
  https://youtu.be/u2jL4GgrMac?si=6v3mdfqY5pk6AxH-
Coco 2B Color BASIC 1.3/Extended BASIC 1.1/6309:
  https://youtu.be/usEiIzwy6Us?si=hjYPV__U0UDCFJ4I
Coco 3 Super Extended BASIC/6309:
  https://youtu.be/A6mQwt6WlIo?si=p5n5O7mfQukukjM7
Dragon 64:
  https://youtu.be/0n4y79p1mhM?si=bK-UT2tLp6mnpUcq
Color64 Novo Tempo:
  https://youtu.be/7xMmhIPht2E?si=E2kX7HDx2pevdwOB

7) YouTube channel All Things MSP put up a video about the TRS-80 Color
Computer – his first computer – and some of his plans for it in
the future:
  https://youtu.be/HWBpiuJ-2jQ?si=km6P0fxlgrNLpF2Z

8) TRS-80 Retro Programing put up his first video about the Coco 3, as he
learns Super Extended BASIC. He does warn in the comments that his mic is
doing strange things and likely needs replacing:
  https://youtu.be/8kzgbVvWt1Y?si=IBPDSG9BbZVdOq_K

9) Eric Monteiro released a video showing the release candidate for his
White Rock Ingotz game demo. This was written in ugBASIC, I believe?:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163517069062641/

10) Missed this earlier this month, but Nicole Branigan did a blog post
about upgrading her Coco 2B to use composite output:
  https://nicole.express/2025/cuckoo-for-coco-puffs.html


MC-10
-----
1) Robert Sieg has posted some screenshots from a CocoVGA enabled MC-10
(which as 64x32 text screen, so 128x64 9 color semi-graphics screen):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/24995416120158541/
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/24998860273147459/
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/25004660402567446/
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/25002033892830097/
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/25006523229047830/

2) Andrew Petrie showed off his Alice system, which includes modern
expansions & programs, game cartridges, and more:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/24988931590806994/
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/731424100317748/posts/24998118229888330/

3) Spriteworx posted a video showing the new enclosure he received for
the HDMI adapter on his MC-10, both from Retro Hack Shack:
  https://youtu.be/EHwq6ICNT0M?si=5D1Mjyyd-GwTJUXy


Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Petsasjim1 on YouTube put up a video showing the new Coco 3 version of
the PUSHORI64+ game we mentioned last week, which was written in the cross
platform BASIC compiler called ugBASIC. This is based on the BASIC code
using the same language for the Commodore 64 that was released earlier. This
one is Coco 3 specific (actual gameplay starts 2:20 in):
  https://youtu.be/J1FCzTzV908?si=f19kP942DLcMoUSy

2) Jim Gerrie ported “Space Game” originally by Loring C. White that
originally appeared in the October 1979 issue of BYTE:
  https://youtu.be/0n4y79p1mhM?si=bK-UT2tLp6mnpUcq

3) Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU) made a high score of 930 on Skill
level 5 of Jet Boot Colin on the Dragon:
  https://youtu.be/B2gS26LtVI8?si=G1vAtQpcZYbe3MVv

4) ZX Frankie got a score of 2,245 on Mined Out on the Dragon:
  https://youtu.be/6CHwv19Pzjk?si=TUJU73eQemrBCPid

5) Guillaume Major has updated his Sierra engine to enable the shake.screen
command that was previously ignored on the Coco 3, and has updated the
Sierra games on the Color Computer Archive to enable them. He also released
a quick video demo on Facebook showing the effect on the Coco 3:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163519742792641/

6) Thomas Cherryhomes released screenshots showing enhancements done to
the 5 Stud Poker game for Fujinet, showing 320 wide graphics on a Coco
3. He shows both composite and RGB screenshots:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163523228637641/

7) Aaron of the Amigos announced “THIS VERY SUNDAY, Nov 30, at 6 PM EST
the boys are BACK with the HOLIDAY Edition of THE COCO SHOW!  This time out,
watch us talk about the TRUELY ORIGINAL game QUIX!” That is tomorrow
  https://www.youtube.com/@AmigosRetroGaming

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

Speak your mind! Let us know what you think at:
    feedback at TheCoCoNation.com

If replying on a mailing list, please trim replies to the specific items.

Get connected with more of the CoCo, Dragon and MC-10 community here:
    https://thecoconation.com/community/

-- 
R. Allen Murphey <exile at weylan-yutani.com>
Weylan-Yutani Corporation