Nebulon

Holy smokes dudes! Prior to the SoundBlaster Live card, PC sound cards were awful! I think what you guys are thinking of as "good sound" are the sets of sounds that came with the cards. Now try putting those sounds through sample record and playback tests and you'll quickly find out why the Live card was light-years ahead of the previous generations of cards. When Creative purchase Emu and Ensoniq, everything changed for desktop audio. The original SoundBlaster was monophonic. The later models leading up to the SB Live were stereo and gradually made their way to 16-bit. However, their digital to analog converters were garbage and their noise floor was crap. Even a notch up to the Gravis Ultrasound was being utilized primarily as a device to play back pre-recorded samples from a built-in sample set. Anyone could have done the same (and did) using MIDI and any of the available sound modules. Furthermore, the original Gravis Ultrasound could only record in 8-bit, unless you added a daughterboard to bring its street price to $350.00. Even at that, the pro-audio reviews were not favorable. Games yes; pro-audio no. If you had money to burn, you could run out and get a Turtle Beach sound card. However, they too were relying heavily on built-in sounds (the Proteus set for example). And even if you had a card like the best that Turtle Beach offered, what about software support? It wasn't until IQS and Sonic Foundry appeared on the scene that good PC audio software became available (and that took a few versions to refine it). It was highly unlikely that a home user would be able to shell out the money for Saw (you'd be looking at around $1000.00 back in the mid-90s for just the software itself with the first utilities rack included). So that leaves Forge and its contemporaries. Again though, what kind of real sampling and effects performance would you get from the pre-SB Live cards? For professional-level audio, the PC came into its own with three things: 1) The processing power of the Pentium Pro (not an affordable general consumer option until 1997) 2) The SoundBlaster Live card (1998/9) 3) Acid Music 1.0 (1998) Prior to that, pro audio on the PC platform was a lot of stumbling around in the dark and only a glimmer of hope for people with massive budgets. As for 1992 and 1993, pro audio on a PC was still a pipe dream with the raw elements still cooking on the stovetop.

Regarding PCs and sound, I'm talking about 1992/3 and you're talking about 1998. As mentioned in my post, they're those two time periods for PC audio are completely different scenarios. The key word is context. The PC's audio was no match for the Falcon until the SoundBlaster Live card arrived on the scene. I sold every sound card that was ever released for the PC and I followed their specs very closely.

I was at an Amiga user group meeting when an Atarian brought in one of the first Atari Falcon computer and showed it to the group. It was very much appreciated and we were really impressed with it. It was neat to see a bunch of Amiga people crowded around the Falcon and asking questions. From what I can tell, the Falcon was a significant machine for its time. Putting it into context, the PC didn't really start to see a 'revolution' in audio until very late in 1998. Prior to that, it was anyone's guess who would dominate the audio market. And the Falcon's graphics specs were pretty much on par with the Mac Performas and PCs of the time. PCs were still talking about high color (as opposed to true color) and typically were displaying 256 colors on-screen at a time. https://books.google.ca/books?id=AoKUhNoOys4C&pg=PP25&lpg=PP25&dq=pc+magazine+1992+archive.org&source=bl&ots=YNlYGNKOOC&sig=xG4JnlpPbOkAKp4Y_bumnRkQinA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvkZr8q_fSAhXC5oMKHcCqBgwQ6AEIRzAH#v=onepage&q=pc%20magazine%201992%20archive.org&f=false http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_400.html

I see he also calls the N64 by its code name. I'm happy to say that I got Marathon 1 and 2 running on my old OS 9 G3 ibook. It works really well.

I don't suppose you could write a quick little point-form text tutorial on here describing how to transfer BIN files/ROMs to the CoCoFLASH, could you?

BINs: (if you click on ALLBIN.ZIP you'll save yourself a lot of time since it contains the whole list) ftp://maltedmedia.com/coco/SOFTWARE/BIN/

Defender is especially ironic considering that the CoCo used the same CPU as the arcade machine. I bet someone could make a near-perfect version for the CoCo 3 (complete with color-cycling).

More info: http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/Applications/VIP%20Terminal%20(Softlaw%20Corp).pdf http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/updates-2015.php A quick beginner's guide on how to get started using the Tandy Color Computer: http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/coco.html

The 6809 is a comparatively powerful CPU. Great for programming. The CoCo puts a lot of emphasis on coding, hardware hacks, and BBS's. As mentioned, the Color Computer 1 and 2 are not going to wow you with graphics and sound for games. However, the games on those machines are really fun. More proof that a game doesn't have to be pretty to be a total riot. On the other hand, the Color Computer 3 has recently proven that it can do some sophisticated and amazing things in the games department (check out the homebrews of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man). Similar to BassGuitari, I'm also partial to the earlier CoCos. In particular, I really dig the 64K Color Computer 2. Perhaps it's nostalgia. Check out the recent CoCoSDC thread for Color Computer 2 game recommendations. And if you can find a DIN to 9-pin adapter joystick, you can use Atari-style controllers on it. Note: Even though it doesn't appear on the surface like the Color Computer 1 and 2 can do lowercase text, it actually can. Check out the app called VIP Desktop (you'll also find terminal programs below): http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Disks/Applications/

What is this product? Is there a website with more information on it?

I'm wondering the same thing. Where can you purchase this and how much is it?

High speed poke commands and other disk command info here: http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/coco.html

Action: Lunchtime Lunar Rover Patrol Cashman Grabber Sailor Man Gantelet Marble Maze Phantom Slayer Qiks Rommel 3D Starship Chameleon Bagitman Crystle Castles Demon Attack Astro Blast Donkey King Draconian F-16 Assault Katerpillar Attack Galagon Buzzard Bait 3D Brickaway Gold Runner Mrs Pac Whirleybird Run Time Bandit Tut's Tomb Time Fighter Spidercide Shock Trooper Pooyan Color Car Action Downland Brew Master Speed Racer Adventure: Hall of the King 1 and 2 The Interbank Incident Trekboer Sam Sleuth Dallas Quest Calixto Island Dungeons of Daggorath

He's no match for his long-lost cousin Gary: http://www.startrek.com/database_article/mitchell-gary

Yayy! Thanks everyone. I wasn't as awful to my Amiga 2000s as I thought I was. Regardless, that one machine is giving me the one-two Kung-Fu kick. Everything from it alternating between the Workbench 1.3 insert disk screen and trying to load WB from diskette (it does that strange alternating thing about 100 times a minute sometimes). Then there's the weird GURU on reset that happens about once every three reboots. Ack!

Yes, the monitor could be an issue. I've used two different model numbers of Atari color monitors on PAL titles (albeit on an NTSC machine) and the bottom of the screen disappears off of the display. There's a vertical squeeze, but I don't see a vertical shift knob anywhere (unless maybe there's some other solution).

I'm wondering the same thing...

Okay, so now that I've seen a diagram and not just a list of pin numbers, I can see that pin 3 would be two in from the end, since they're numbered in a zig-zag pattern. The diagram and description suggest that both pin 3 and 5 (or two in and three in from the end) are unused and are just connected to ground). And that bodes well for JamesD's statement that it's keyed. That would be good! I can't wait to work on this machine on the weekend. http://www.primrosebank.net/computers/amiga/upgrades/amiga_upgrades_storage_fdis.htm

This article suggests the Amiga has a slightly different pinout than a PC for the motherboard disk drive interface. Two things that stood out when I read it were: http://pinouts.ru/HD/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml "The same thing affects the classic Amiga. It uses a very slightly modified Shugart interface pinout at the motherboard (the other /MTRON on pin 4) and a PC drive just doesnt work correctly unless the /DCD is remapped to its original pin. The correctly mapped /DCD is enough for AmigaOS but many trackloaders (X-Copy Pro for example) require the /RDY signal which the drive should set low when the motor rotation has stabilised. This signal does exist on most drives but at worst it requires relocating a soldered SMD jumper on the circuit board." and "On some mainboards pin 3 is used as the key (missing pin) and on some pin 5 is used as the key pin, while a lot of mainboards dont have the key pin removed at all. This can all cause problems when using cables which have the key pin hole closed. As all odd pins are ground there are no technical implications in modifying such cables by removing the key pin closure by force." So pin 3 matches up with the PC cable that I got recently. That still leaves the Amiga's missing pin 2 as a bit of a mystery (unless maybe pin 2 on the Amiga serves the purpose of pin 3 on the PC?) To be continued...

The floppy drive works in the other Amiga (the one with all the pins intact). Interestingly, both the A2000 with the missing pin / internal drive issues and the working Amiga 2000 are both Rev 6.2 boards. I also have a PC floppy drive cable kicking around here (new actually). And it has a piece of plastic. But instead of being the second hole in from the red wire, it's the third hole from the red wire that's plugged with plastic. And to confuse things even more, I found a picture on the web of a floppy drive cable that has the second hole in from the red wire blocked and on the other end of the cable, the third hole in from the red wire is blocked with plastic. ?!? So now I'm wondering what on earth is happening in MFM disk drive world. If I go through my really old cables and disk drives, no pins are missing and no connector holes are blocked. It's too bad manufacturers couldn't have just stuck with that since it doesn't hurt anything to plug a data cable in backwards. Does anyone have the pin-out for the motherboard's floppy drive connector? I'm wondering what the second and third pins in from the red wire actually do...

Hmmm.... This pieces are beginning to fall into place here. Pun sort of intended.

I'm hoping that you're right. It does seem a bit strange for the second pin in from the end to break and not the last one as well. I'll do more research into this and see if I can pull up more motherboard revision photos.

It doesn't seem like it's the key for the cable orientation. It appears to be broken. Keys like this that I've seen in the past have been plastic and not metal. Then-again, I suppose it's possible. Based on another Amiga 2000 sitting here, there isn't supposed to be a missing pin on the Amiga 2000 motherboard floppy drive connector. Unless perhaps there are some motherboard revisions on which they did remove a pin and place it in the cable. An odd practice though, since that you stop you from being able to move the cable from one revision to another. Drives connected to that machine internally exhibit the same behavior (read for awhile, then stall out or error with a statement saying that the disk isn't there suddenly). All of the usual chips have been replaced (CIAs, Paula, Gary, 68000, Blitter). I hope you're right about the key thing.

Definitely my bad this time. Ugh. Here's a great example why it's not a good idea to do hardware changes when you're in a rush. You know, by lifting the cage that houses the power supply and bays without first disconnecting the ribbon cable from the motherboard. In the process I accidentally broke one of the pins off of the floppy drive connector on an Amiga 2000 motherboard. The pin is securely stuck in the end of the ribbon cable's connector. Any advice on the best way to fix/replace the motherboard's connector? I'm guessing that the cable itself is kaput, since I don't see how I can get the actual pin out of it. Another question: It's been awhile, but I was pretty sure that PC and Amiga disk drive ribbon cables were the same. Is that correct? Thanks!

Donkey Kong Demon Attack Space Harrier (I still can't believe how amazing this game is both technically and in playability) All on the Atari 800XL