Coco DrivePaks - Any insight?

[Chuck D. Head]

I would really love to get a DrivePak micro sd (and that archive disc) for the Coco, but from what I see, it is hopelessly out of production and from comments I see the seller had some serious issues.

 

Does anyone have quick input on the product or some insight into whether anyone has expressed interested in picking up where they left off?

[Charlie_]

I dont know about the drivepak, but you can build a drivewire cable and I can hook you up with a disk that runs drivewire without the need for a rom in a pak.

There is also a fantastic game archive on the net that I can point you to. Many games work well over drivewire. Coco community is funny like this though. Besides for a handful of coco3 games, the games library has not been patched to run from mass storage at all. Luckily most games that are simply BIN files load and exec ok.

 

[Chuck D. Head]

Thanks! I will have to do some research. I found some Drivewire for Dummies posts at gmane.comp.hardware.tandy.coco that look helpful. The cable looks simple enough and I will have to scrounge a PC with serial port. At first blush, the thing I don't quite get is what I need to do with HDB-DOS. Is it installed on the HD in the server PC?

 

For clarity, I have a Coco3 with 128K, but dont have a disc drive if I need to actually load HDB-DOS onto the Coco.

[Charlie_]

Well with no disk drive it makes it hard to load HDB dos.

You would need someone to burn a rom and then use it in a compatible controller.

I know the FD-502 disk controller works, thats what I use on my coco3.

I "think" the deluxe rs-232 pak also has a rom socket.

Cloud-9 used to sell a ROM PAK just for HDBDOS but they do not anymore.

You can load it from tape, but that would be a huge pain.

 

Basically HDBDOS for drivewire works just like APE or ASPEQT on the Atari A8.

When HDBDOS is loaded on the coco the PC running DriveWire becomes the coco's floppy or hard drive however you use it.

 

Also, you do not need a pc with a serial port, just a usb to serial adapter.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Official Ninja