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Nebulon

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Posts posted by Nebulon

  3. Posted · Edited by Nebulon

    Just got my 64k Coco 2 in the mail and.... it works like a dream! The thing loads up tapes no problem, and all with my homemade cassette cable! It seems that the trouble is more to do with my old CoCo 1, which makes me curious about what the problem could be with that machine.

     

    Also, Donkey King is very hard.

     

    Congratulations! To this day, the 64K Color Computer 2 is still my all-time favorite CoCo (yes, I like it even more than the CoCo 3).

     

    The 32K and 64K games are especially awesome.

     

    Wait until you get a disk controller and disk drive. That's heaven right there. The disk system on those machines rocks (very quick -- like on the Apple II).

     

    However, now that you've mentioned tapes, I do have a few fun games on tape that I should transfer over. One is a super-simple mini-golf game that came with an issue of Rainbow magazine. Remarkably addicting for such a simple game....

     

    Not sure if you've dug through these, but Rainbow magazine is packed full of crazy hardware and software projects. The Tandy Color Computer was quite the hacker box back in the day. Tons of great info here:

    https://archive.org/details/rainbowmagazine

     

    https://archive.org/details/texts?and%5B%5D=rainbow+magazine&sin=

  4. Posted

    Actually, I was thinking that the ultimate Color Computer joystick adapter would be just like the Blanchard/Linville box with the serial connection so that you can use a second fire button on CoCo 3 games -- with the addition of two DIN ports so that you don't have to plug and unplug the adapter every time you need to switch between Atari-style controllers and the original analog sticks.

     

    I spend a lot of time plugging in the adapter so that I can play stuff like Galagon and Lunar Rover patrol using a 9-pin D-shell controller like an Atari stick and then unplugging the adapter to re-connect the analog DIN joysticks to play stuff like Varloc or Doubleback. An adapter that had both types of ports on the box for a total of four ports (two for joystick interface 1 and two for joystick interface 2) would be a dream come true for me. Heck, even an adapter like that without the serial cable would be awesome (since I spend most of the time on the CoCo 2 anyway and two-button games are rare on the CoCo 3).

  5. Posted

    It's neat to see these. The 800 and 800XL waveforms appear to be soooo close. But I guess close isn't enough.

     

    This puts me in mind of my other interest (analog synthesizers). Techs in that business lament about the same thing -- slight variances in circuitry that shouldn't make a difference but actually are noticeable.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

     

    I think it's fair to say that the majority opinion is that the SID is a fantastic sounding sound chip and ranked higher overall than the POKEY in that regard (which, to be fair, is usually ranked second in such comparisons against everything else available at the time). Of course, I have a minority opinion of my own in that I think the Atari 8-bit in-game color palettes tend to be too dark and muted for my liking. The consensus is clearly against that idea, though.

     

    Some of the A8 games have dark/muted color palettes (like Asteroids). But looking beyond examples like that, there are many that have much brighter colors than what the C64 can create. This (combined with the wider range of possible colors on the A8 is likely why most perceive it as more colorful than the C64. To my eye, the A8 definitely has more examples of bright and colorful displays whereas the C64's palette reminds me more of the NES.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    now to my US friends as in Europe (?) except of the Dragon 32/64 I never have seen a Tandy Coco... how is that rated in terms of games etc? I mean Atari 800 must be shocking to industry when presented 1978 at CES...

     

    Here's something you might like; a good Color Computer 2 emulator. Plus, it has the advantage that it supports artifact colors (something that PAL systems had trouble with on these machines):

     

    http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Emulators/Coco%201-2/David%20Keil/

     

    In my case, I took an old Pentium II machine, loaded Windows 98se on it, and plugged a D-pad controller into the joystick port on the back of a SoundBlaster card. The controls and sound both work really well.

     

    When you get it running, F4, F5, and F9 will get you to the more important configuration screens. Shift F4 resets the machine. Shift F10 quits the emulator.

     

    Recommended games:

    Time Bandit

    Cashman

    Rommel 3D

    Galagon

    Qiks (the Spectral Associates version)

    Grabber

    Color Car

    Calixto Island

    Trekboer

    Sam Diamond

    Downland

    Dungeons of Daggorath

    Speed Racer

    Marble Maze

    Shock Trooper

     

    Step 1 is to plug in the virtual disk controller.

    Step 2 is to insert a virtual diskette into drive zero.

    And the rest of the command info is here:

     

    http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/coco.html

     

    http://www.classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/trs80/mirrors/www.discover-net.net/~dmkeil/coco/cocodoc.htm (docs)

     

    http://www.classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/trs80/mirrors/www.discover-net.net/~dmkeil/coco/index.htm (main emulator page)

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    I'm familiar with history documented at http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8bits/xl/1450xld/1450xld.html

     

    I'm making the assumption Atari without Jack would have keep the 1450XLD but instead of using FREDDIE use the Amiga chipset. And an obvious follow on would be a 68K processor with the Amiga chip set likely called a new name or something like the 1600ST ( ST for sixteen/thirty two).

     

    http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/mickey.html

     

    "one was designated the Atari 1650XLD which would have been 6502 CPU based, the other was the Atari 1850XLD which would have been based on the Amiga Lorraine."

     

     

    Amiga OS is 32-bit so (assuming Atari also opted for a 32-bit OS for the 1850XLD) that means the 6502 version would have to have a different OS written for it.

  11. Posted

    now to my US friends as in Europe (?) except of the Dragon 32/64 I never have seen a Tandy Coco... how is that rated in terms of games etc? I mean Atari 800 must be shocking to industry when presented 1978 at CES...

     

    As someone who used these extensively, I can safely say that the Atari 800 blew the Tandy Color Computer 2 away.

     

    Having said that, the CoCo actually has some really fun games. And if you were a hacker back in the day, it was the ideal platform. The 6809 offered a lot of processing power and was good at getting up to no good.

  12. Posted

    As someone who had neither Atari or Commodore in the 80s (TRS-80), I’m finding this topic very informative.

    Back then I wished I had an Atari 800 but settled on a 2nd hand TRS-80 for economic reasons.

     

    Thanks to the magic of eBay, I now have multiple commodore and Atari computers and someday I’ll hopefully have time to find space to set them up.

     

    That's exactly my history too. I really wanted an Atari 800 when they first hit the market but they were way out of my price range. So as a compromise, it was the TRS-80 for me too.

     

    Nowadays, I spend maybe a bit too much time flipping the lid on the Atari 400 and 800 open, then closed, then open again.... It's so cooool !

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    The c64 does have a great library, mainly due to some stellar end-of-the-decade releases from companies like SSI. The Atari vs. c64 debate is similar to the Genesis vs. SNES debate. The former is faster, but not quite as pretty looking or sounding (in general), and the latter is slower but prettier. Neither is 'better' than the other, but they do different things better than the other. For example, fighting games are usually superior on the SNES, while Shmups are way better on the Genesis. Same deal with Atari and the c64.

     

     

    Good observation.

  14. Posted

    Interestingly, I had neither machine back in the 80s. Hence I don't have any nostalgia for the C64 or the A8.

     

    Comparing the Atari 800 and the C64 nowadays, what I notice as an 'observer' is that the two machines are soooo very different.

     

    The aspect ratios of the displays are different, video modes have almost no relation to each other, and the way they handle colors is very different.

     

    The C64's color palette strikes me as a bit bland. However, it throws sprites around like mad and does a nice job of sliding bitplanes around. That and the SID chip has nice bass frequencies.

     

    On the other hand, the Atari 800's displays appear brighter and more colorful, has a really nice feel to its arcade conversions, and has quick drive access speeds.

     

    For those with a lot of disposable income back in the day, the ideal solution would have been to have both.

     

    Nowadays, having both systems is not a problem (lucky us).

  18. Posted

    Page 141 of this PDF (p. 139) of the magazine) shows the circuit for making a DIN to DB9 adapter so that you can use Atari joysticks on the CoCo.

    http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Magazines/Color%20Computer%20Magazine%20%28Clearscan%29/Color%20Computer%20Magazine%20-%208402%20-%20February%201984.pdf

     

    As mentioned, Wico made an adapter. So did Spectrum Projects (like this over-priced listing):

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Spectrum-Projects-TRS-80-Atari-2600-Joystick-Controller-Adapter-5-Pin-to-Wico-9/152872642459?hash=item2397eb679b:g:VT8AAOSw~3paYgTr

     

    A fellow is actually making these joystick adapters for the CoCo 3. I recently purchased one and it works great. I'll have to see if it works on the CoCo 2 as well.

  19. Posted

    Depends on the game.

     

    460,000 on TRON at default settings. Other game elude me (like Sinistar).

     

    Then there's watching my brother wrap the scoreboard on Star Trek the Strategic Operations Simulator 15 times (with his alleged highest score of 22 million). After watching him get to 15 million, I believe him. At that level, it's all about keeping focus.

  21. Posted

     

    I personally believe games are a form of art, but unfortunately we don't really have many people really trying to make works of art in this medium that compare to what other medium have from the people who take them seriously. What are our masterpieces? What games can be considered uncompromised works of art?

     

    I also think of them as a form of art. As for the general public -- maybe a game like Bioshock 2 might have a chance of being categorized as art.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

     

    I agree with your first point - the excessive inventories of games didn't cause the crash, they were just an effect of it. I have trouble agreeing with your explanations for the crash though.

     

    The interest rate argument doesn't make much sense to me. Interest rates on mortgages peaked at over 18% in the fall of 1981, when the video game market was booming. If they were an important factor in driving people to stop buying console games then the effects of that would have happened much sooner than 1983-1985 (by which time interest rates, while still high by historical standards, were going down from that peak).

     

    The negative media coverage might have played some role, but of course that coverage didn't occur in a vaccum - Atari (and others) made some objectively bad business decisions that fed into that and made them ultimately unable to survive the crash.

     

    Things like interest rate spikes don't have an immediate effect at 'ground level'. It takes a while.

     

    There's always a delay when dealing with economies. The peak comes first. Then people hope that it'll end and try to hang in there. After a few years of rates remaining at an elevated level, some give in and cut their losses while others go broke. Either way, a cut in spending (and in investment) occurs. And when production and shipping drop, the consumer feels it. But since consumer disposable income has also dropped, few have money to buy anything as non-essential as video game entertainment. And that serves to further drive out manufacturers since fewer people are buying.

     

    It's a bit like getting drunk and knowing that you may be somewhat tipsy now... but in 20 minutes, the wave of drunken stupor will slam into you and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

  23. Posted

    I recall teaching some much younger cousins of mine how to play ColecoVision games. One of them could barely use the controller. He got the hang of it after a bit. I think that was their first attempt at video games.

     

    And an old friend of mine got his kid started on video games when he could barely use a mouse. Now his son is in his early 20s and god-like at video games.

     

    Whereas some of us 'oldies' had to adjust to the concept of video games, some of the kids out there today have known them as long as they can recall. I think they've got the advantage in the reflexes department.

  25. Posted

    Ok, but a full 1GB is too much, right?

     

    I actally got Windows 2.1 working on my Windows XP IBM ThinkCentre once. The system has 1GB RAM, a Pentium 4 2.8 GHZ CPU, and a 40GB HDD. I got it working by accident and have never been able to do so again since. It worked perfectly, better than 3.1 on the same PC which was stuck at 640x480x16 with no sound (2.1 was running at the same, but it seemed more acceptable since I don't think it had any sounds and that was the default resolution).

     

    Pretty amazing that you got 2.1 to run on a P4.

     

    As for the 1GB RAM question, yes -- 1024MB is too much. Once it goes over 1000 MB, programs like Photoshop think that the RAM is back to zero again. Then it starts counting up from there. It kind of wraps around, leaving you with very little RAM to work with.

    • Like 1
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