[Coco] The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 436, October 25, 2025 (Oct 16-24)

Sun Oct 26 09:26:17 EDT 2025

The Coco Nation News stories for Episode 436, October 25, 2025 (Oct 16-24)
=============================================================================
Colected and Presented by L. Curtis Boyle and Mark Overholser

Special NOTES:
--------------
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

NOTE: We are planning to do a special “Coco 4” episode in the
future, which will included all the computers that were 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.

Upcoming conventions/trade shows of interest to Coco people:
------------------------------------------------------------

The Vernon BC Retro Mania is happening November 8th, showing off
various retro computers:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163312949837641/

The Retro Computer Festival is being held November 15-16 at Cambridge
in the UK, and this year’s theme is gaming:

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/74558/Retro-Computer-Festival-2025-(Gaming-Edition)-Saturday-15th-November/

This year’s RetroSC (a general retro show in Brazil, with a lot of
Coco and Coco clones present) is November 15, 2025 in Florianopolis,
SC, Brazil.
Native Portuguese site:
  https://retrosc.org/
Google translate to english version:

https://retrosc-org.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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

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/

**** NEW NEWS ORDER TO HELP OUR LIVE EUROPEAN VIEWERS ****

Dragon 32/64
------------
1) The Dragon Social 2025 was today in Kenfig (where they toured the
Dragon factory) and ended up at “The Park” pub in the back room,
in Barry. That part might still be going as we speak:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4196442103948760/

2) Julian Brown posted an update about his video amplifier output
board for his piecemeal Dragon project:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4195961450663492/
He also posted an update on his rev3 board – and has it producing
video output now, albeit currently only with black and white:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4195366277389676/

3) David Collins posted in the Dragon Facebook group about a VDG tester
he made for a VZ-200 clone to test 6847 chips. This could also check
that chip for the Coco, Dragon, MC-10 and other computers:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dragon32/posts/4199305180329119/

4) Earie’s 8-Bit Workshop put up an 18 minute plus video showing
the history of the Dragon, the unboxing, 1st power up and some classic
games on a Dragon 32 that was found in a loft after decades in storage:
  https://youtu.be/wPhFEIwGgWk?si=gzu7AlWLd6GZdAKR

Coco 1/2/3 (and multi-platform)
-------------------------------
1) Erico Monteiro pointed out some links to some articles about/by
a guy who worked at Prologica (creators of the Brazilian Coco clone,
CP-400:
  https://web.facebook.com/share/p/1FXh8fuFy3/
Some his blog posts, translated to english.
Prologica CP200 Dwarf:

https://erl4ever-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2023/01/prologica-cp200-nanico.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Prologica CP500:

https://erl4ever-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2017/01/meu-cp500-prologica-na-versao-nanico.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

2) Jeff Noyle has an update on the Ultima style Mythwalker game coming
for the 512K Coco 3 and Windows PC’s:
  https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3577880/view/582778112589170487

3) ugBASIC has had some updates both in the main and beta branches –
with some really cool updates in the beta version for Coco & Dragons:
Main branch (performance upgrades for 6809, including task switching,
and 6847):
  https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/main
Beta branch (6309 support, including when used with a 6847, optimized
POKE commands, fixed coco 3 makefile)
  https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/changelog/beta

4) pw_32x posted on the General channel on the Coco Discord about
further ports of Download that he has been making to classic game
consoles. He has the SG-1000 and Colecovision ports done, as well
as the Sega Game Gear. He is currently working on the NES version,
and posted a short video showing it with tiles and testing to the
Discord channel.
  (either pre-download video from Coco Lobby → General channel,
  or maybe show it live from there?)

5) Thomas Cherryhomes announced the availability of the Fujinet weather
app for the Coco (1/2/3), which was ported over by Rich Stephens:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163363038357641/

6) Keith Frechette put up a Facebook blog like postupdate about his
SAL (Structured Assembly Language) translator, and includes a link
to his github with the project. He mentions that has been focusing
on control statements (if/else, do/while, etc.) and that expression
statements are next:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163361086607641/

7) YouTube channel “Prologue: Life 10.3” released a 2+ hour video
where he goes through the various TRS-80 computers he has. At 28:30
he shows his MC-10. He also shows a first gen Coco grey Multipack –
but he thinks it goes with a Model 1 rather than a Coco. He also has
a Tandy branded Coco 2 (quite possibly a true lowercase version),
and a Coco 1 and floppy controller as well, and near the end goes
through a collection of Coco cartridges that he has. Unfortunately
comments seem to be off so I couldn’t offer any corrections:
  https://youtu.be/8Rw3gw9KNyY?si=3NyVgsi2f1KPz4wP

8) George Janssen has released a new DSK image in his Discord channel
as well as an accompanying video, where he tries AI out in making
a BASIC program to calculate Prime Numbers (previously he was not
impressed with how it did 6809 assembly):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om4mvF7lsOo

9) Glen Hewlett has updated his BASIC-TO-6809 compiler to version
4.43. This adds support for the CocoMP3 hardware:
  https://github.com/nowhereman999/BASIC-To-6809

MC-10
-----
1)

Game On news (all Coco related platforms):
==========================================
1) Nick Marentes, after extensive gameplay testing by Steve Rasmussen
(“Buck Owens”), has release his 512K Coco 3 pinball game, featuring
digitized sound effects and smooth scrolling playfield. For the first
time, Nick has made it available as a digital download from itch.io:
  https://nickolasmarentes.itch.io/pinball

2) The Laird’s Lair on YouTube compiled (based on Facebook votes
and other things) the top 20 Dragon 32 games:
  https://youtu.be/D6H3xhCrrng?si=16j7NkqB6Avhok_w

3) The first official announcement of Spriteworx’ (Jay Mundy) new
MC-10 game (of which we have been showing back story teaser videos
for the past month) has been released:
  https://youtu.be/mOMZnSMUOls?si=W0y_O46mcYNjaY8J

4) TJ Ferreira also released a video about the upcoming MC-10 game
– a reaction video to the video we just watched as well as some of
his backstory videos:
  https://youtu.be/XzMTT9N3jAQ?si=CEhkayQP4cptsxOR

5) “Attempts: A gaming channel (by LRU)” on YouTube released a
high score play video for the MC-10 version of Battlot by Inufuto. He
actually stopped playing at the 17th screen as the difficulty no longer
ramps up (there are 10 unique screen layouts, and then they repeat):
  https://youtu.be/T4IUBEfqKpY?si=MjrZJmnFOHmB210P

6) YouTube channel VirtualJamesKing has released multiple YouTube
shorts of Dragon 32 gameplay:
Phantom Slayer:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TLDiLQDe1fo
Robin Hood:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qFRZrc91u8k
Shaolin Master:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zx6iUwM6gAk
MacDougal’s Lst Stand:
  https://youtube.com/shorts/J90PGbKFirs?si=_DEO1OW4yxDzlfdw
Nerble Force:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0vFPaZHRFDE
Pacdroids:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1jWbGlsH6jM
Monsters & Magic:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iq7ioDzTEI0
Mansion of Doom:
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8xpkaVZSmu8

7) Retro Gaming Loft released a long play video of Tandy/Imagic’s
Galactic Attack, loosely based on Galaxian from the arcade:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYhBA2IGcRY

8) Gregok1973 on YouTube released a video showing Acey Ducey on
the Coco (or maybe MC-10?). This is a low res card game that was
originally written in 1978 by Bill Palmby; I am not sure when the
Coco/MC-10 version(s) was released:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdoSkpB048

9) Thomas Cherryhomes announced that the PMODE 3 version of Fujinet’s
5 Card Stud multi-player online Poker game has had it’s Coco Beta
version released for players to test. Lobby Integration will be
added soon:
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10163371644802641/

10) For those who speak Portuguese, Henrique Porto from the Color
Brazil club has translated the text in multiple Coco games from
English to Portuguese and uploaded them to the Color Computer Archive
(this would be for CP-400’s, Codimax, etc.):
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClubeColor/posts/24439412229093161/

11) ZXFrankie released a high score video on his YouTube channel
showing Ghost Attack on the Dragon. This is basically Computerware’s
Pac-Attack but changed slightly for the Dragon (including the maze
color):
  https://youtu.be/aO6RwjbJ1ko?si=fL5RN5QuBNk415cK

12) Tim & AJ have a special guest on Sibling Rivalry episode 203
– Mike from Mike’s Gaming Gala – as all 3 play Wildcatting on
the Coco:
  https://youtu.be/koOP5TCJer0?si=hY-3zzfESaBkqSDh

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

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