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John_L

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About John_L

  • Birthday 03/29/1964

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  1. Radio Shack went out of business quite a few years ago. Their IP was bought up by a company that sells cheap Chinese junk with a "Radio Shack" badge on it, but even though they own the IP for everything, they're not interested in any of it. They only want the name really, to badge garbage with it and sell it online.
  2. I think Mr Dave is on the right track. In particular, remove the VDG chip (MC6847) near the RF modulator, and check the RF modulator solder connections for a cracked connection, something like that can be fixed pretty easily by simply reflowing the solder on any cold (cracked) joints.
  3. Yeah, I noticed the label looked a bit funky... like it was blacked out. Not like Model IIIs are even a thing anymore, and oddly, why dig up a vintage computer, that, honestly, worked great with Epson printers back in the day, but I don't think modern Epsons will even connect to a Model III because you need a Centronics or 5 pin din serial port to connect a Model III...
  4. Honestly, no, it doesn't need the fan, at least if you're installing original equipment. Once you start installing 3rd party hardware, or useless things never designed in (like a power LED for example), then you're off into territory that was never tested by Tandy when the product was designed. So, a stock Tandy upgrade on a coco3 doesn't require the fan. Ironically, the addition of a fan may put enough extra strain on the power supply such that the unit will generate enough heat such that... it would require a fan... so, I wouldn't add one to be honest.
  5. Heh, his name is Shaquille O'Neal, or just "Shaq" is good enough and anyone would know who you're referring to, and his claim to fame is basketball, but he's done much more, musician, actor, and his doctoral degree in education from Barry University. He's also done a ton of product endorsements, including the recent one that has a Radio Shack Model III in the ad. It looks like a diskless workstation perhaps, or a Model III with no drives.... pretty rare as most had at least 1 drive.
  6. You could probably talk me out of my left arm easier than you could my CoCoSDC.... I also have CoCoVGA, and will have a GIME-X the minute it's released.
  7. If you change the poke to &HFF22 to &H70 you'll get inverted (light text on dark) instead of light background with dark text.
  8. This is an standard feature built into the VDG chip. It's an alternate color set. The original VDG supported Green background with (dark green) letters, or the inverse, dark green background with green letters. Basic supports switching this mode with the SCREEN command. SCREEN 0,0 is Green/Black SCREEN 0,1 is Orange/Black. Your poke allows for the inverse to be enabled and makes it permanent until reset as you stated. This is nice if you have a coco 1/2, if you have a coco 3, you have palette control. For example, if you have a coco 3, you can use PALETTE 12,63:PALETTE 13,0 to get black background with white characters, which is extremely nice. You also have 40 and 80 column modes that can change to any foreground or background color out of the 64 colors. For CoCo 1/2, you also have the option of CoCoVGA (CoCoVGA.com) for much improved graphics, a 64 column mode, and 16 color VGA mode (128x96), palette control and 512 color set total. However, as far as color sets go, the stock coco can do the greeen/black or orange/black, or their inverses, and that's it.
  9. So, what benefit do you gain by "stealing" the name of a pre-existing game. The only thing something like that tells me is that you are too lazy to come up with a unique name, and/or wish to confuse people as to what game it actually is.
  10. Yeah, I kinda jumped the gun, right after posting, I grabbed a spudger from my phone repair kit and was able to get into it after a bit of tinkering. I just wanted to get in, I need to get the soldering iron, solder, wires, etc to do this. I wouldn't expect too many people will be tinkering with it to improve gameplay as it's more a novelty than a game expected to be all that playable.
  11. I took the battery cover off, removed the screws, but not sure how to proceed. I want to get it apart without breaking it so I can re3assemble it at some point. Are there just plastic clips holding it in at that point. I have Galaxian, Space Invaders and Pacman.
  12. You guys are giving more credit to Apollo computers than you should. A 4 function calculator has more raw computing power than the AGC had. The AGC had more code, but in terms of computing capability. A 99 cent 4 function calculator out performs the Apollo AGC.
  13. Yeah, well, you have to remember, businesses are in the business of making money, so if something is doing the job, why replace it? That's why it's possible to this day to find ancient systems still in use. Honestly, if you're not doing heavy lifting like multimedia, then most systems made back in the 80's can often still perform the task just as well as a new system.
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