Playing with a Color Computer again for the first time in 35 years

[+DamonicFury]

So around 1984, my friend had a Color Computer with a few games.  I think he might have had Canyon Climber, which I also played on my Atari 8-bit at home, but he also had an excellent game called Doubleback.  That one was super addictive and fun and there wasn't anything quite like it on other machines.  It even was a good fit for the wonky joysticks the machine used.  ?

 

Fast forward thirty-five years, and I'm helping my wife clean out a closet filled with things she bought at yard sales and thrift shops and was planning to resell someday.  I notice a Color Computer 2 in its box that she picked up for 20$ and ask her if I can have it.  She says ok, and I proceed to test it out... works fine!  I then hit up Ebay for a Deluxe joystick and some games.  What a fun system this is!  It seems to have a rather limited color pallete, but aside from that, the system seems very powerful and capable for its age.  It's a shame most of the games for it seem to be re-named arcade ports, but there are a few standouts I've already found... but the real killer app for this still is Doubleback IMHO... just as addictively fun as I remembered it!

 

Also enjoying Downland and Reactoid, and I'm amused by the Defender/Star Raiders hybrid of Star Blaze.  Popcorn! is also an excellent port of Atari's Avalanche, which didn't seem to get ports of any kind to other machines (other than the rather different Kaboom, of course)  Less exciting are the ports of Space Invaders, Bump and Jump (with no jumping!) and Asteroids (although that one does have a vector look that most contemporary ports did not have.)

 

Anyway, this is a really fun system that seems to have been almost entirely forgotten.  I'm glad I lucked into rediscovering it!

[Blindseer42]

that's wonderful news! i almost envy you

[jhd]

 

Doubleback was one of the very first games that I had for the Coco and it was much fun. 

 

There is a version of Galaxian (on cartridge) called Galactic Attack that is quite good, especially considering that the Coco lacks hardware sprites. There is a bonus "night mode" that made clever use of alternate colour the palette. 

 

Dungeons of Daggorath (also a cartridge) is an important proto-RPG.  http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2014/01/game-132-dungeons-of-daggorath-1982.html

 

If you can find a way to load software, there are really great versions of Zaxxon (an official port!), Donkey Kong, and Joust. 

 

[BassGuitari]

So, wait...your wife's been sitting on a TRS-80 Color all this time and never told you?

 

Check out Color Computer Archive! There are hundreds of games and applications available in disk image form (for SD-based or DriveWire transfer solutions), and most of the CoCo 1/2 stuff is also available in .WAV form to load directly from your device's headphone jack (if you have a cassette cable)! Allow me to riff off a few games I recommend off the top of my head:

 

Phantom Slayer

Androne

Guardian

Temple of Rom

Starship Chameleon

Downland

Galax Attax

Color Space Invaders

Clowns & Balloons

Zaxxon

Popcorn

Polaris (as seen in Spinal Tap!)

Berserk (aka Haywire)

Module Man

Marble Maze (64K)

Shock Trooper

Protectors

Radio Ball

Time Bandit

 

Basically anything by Spectral Associates is going to be pretty good, at the minimum--they're like the Color Computer's Activision. Mark Data and Tom Mix are some of the CoCo's other top publishers IMO (and I think most other TRS-80 Color fans will agree).

 

(Another thing to consider is RAM. Most of the better games require 32K or 64K, although there are still quite a few good ones that run on 16K systems. Pickings are pretty slim on 4K systems, though, but if you're running Doubleback you should have at least 16K in your system.)

[+DamonicFury]

On 9/18/2019 at 11:49 PM, BassGuitari said:

So, wait...your wife's been sitting on a TRS-80 Color all this time and never told you?

Lol, I certainly already have a ridiculous amount of classic-era gaming and computer stuff.  It probably didn't even occur to her that I would want any more if it!  ?

 

I wouldn't mind picking up a few more games... thanks for the list!  Intriguing idea to pick up a cassette cable and use downloaded WAVs to play non-cart games.

 

I think I'm good on RAM... this one already has a nice 64K.  Clearly, I got lucky there as well.

[rietveld]

On September 20, 2019 at 10:27 AM, DamonicFury said:

Lol, I certainly already have a ridiculous amount of classic-era gaming and computer stuff.  It probably didn't even occur to her that I would want any more if it!  ?

 

I wouldn't mind picking up a few more games... thanks for the list!  Intriguing idea to pick up a cassette cable and use downloaded WAVs to play non-cart games.

 

I think I'm good on RAM... this one already has a nice 64K.  Clearly, I got lucky there as well.

This is the cable you need.    The dragon and the Coco used the same one.  

You plug the black plug plug into the headphone jack of the PC.      

The two grey ones are not needed 

 

 

https://m.ebay.ca/itm/DRAGON-32-DRAGON-64-CASSETTE-TAPE-RECORDER-CABLE-LEADS-/391164004605?_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1

 

The software can be found here.  

 

http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Cassettes/

 

Just download and unzip and play the. WAV using any media player 

 

Edited September 22, 2019 by rietveld

[rietveld]

On September 18, 2019 at 11:49 PM, BassGuitari said:

So, wait...your wife's been sitting on a TRS-80 Color all this time and never told you?

 

Check out Color Computer Archive! There are hundreds of games and applications available in disk image form (for SD-based or DriveWire transfer solutions), and most of the CoCo 1/2 stuff is also available in .WAV form to load directly from your device's headphone jack (if you have a cassette cable)! Allow me to riff off a few games I recommend off the top of my head:

 

Phantom Slayer

Androne

Guardian

Temple of Rom

Starship Chameleon

Downland

Galax Attax

Color Space Invaders

Clowns & Balloons

Zaxxon

Popcorn

Polaris (as seen in Spinal Tap!)

Berserk (aka Haywire)

Module Man

Marble Maze (64K)

Shock Trooper

Protectors

Radio Ball

Time Bandit

 

Basically anything by Spectral Associates is going to be pretty good, at the minimum--they're like the Color Computer's Activision. Mark Data and Tom Mix are some of the CoCo's other top publishers IMO (and I think most other TRS-80 Color fans will agree).

 

(Another thing to consider is RAM. Most of the better games require 32K or 64K, although there are still quite a few good ones that run on 16K systems. Pickings are pretty slim on 4K systems, though, but if you're running Doubleback you should have at least 16K in your system.)

You can build your own cassette cable to CLOAD(M) games if you don't want to buy one

 

You just need a 5 PIN din and a 3.5 mm headphone cable (mono)

 

Connect the ground wire (sleeve) of the headphone cable to PIN 2 

Connect the centre wire (tip) of the headphone cable to PIN 4

 

That's it. Very simple way to load. Wav files into your coco the same way you would with a cassette tape 

[Briza1]

Next item to get is a SDC and you have a floppy disk system built into a Cart that uses a SD card for storing games...

[rietveld]

49 minutes ago, Briza1 said:

Next item to get is a SDC and you have a floppy disk system built into a Cart that uses a SD card for storing games...

I agree.     The SDC put new life into my coco. Now I can play all those games I used to see advertised in RAINBOW Magazine as a kid