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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #65 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
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| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| Back to top |
"ABOUT CFDM" COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated to those who still enjoy running under RS DOS. It will deal with that format exclusively. A primary goal is to keep the COCO community strong. By providing a unique means of communication, maybe old fires will be rekindled as you and I share our knowledge and experiences! The success of this effort depends on each one who becomes a subscriber. Everyone must contribute his/ her two cents in the form of articles, programs, opinions, experiences, etc. If this happens we will all look forward to the next issue. (Check out the manual with your starter kit for details on how to submit material.) Now let's have some fun!!! =* |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is the creation and property of Rick Cooper. It is distributed solely by RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE. The material which makes up each issue remains the property of the author(s) or contributor(s) unless an agreement has been made otherwise. COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated exclusively to those who enjoy the COCO3 operating under RS DOS. It is hoped that this publication will encourage the continued usage of our favorite computer. Neither CFDM nor RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE will be responsible for the submission or publication of any material that does not belong to the submitter. WE DO NOT ADVOCATE OR SUPPORT PIRACY! =* |
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| ABOUT
THIS MONTH'S COVER BONUS DIRECTORY (#27) CONTENTS...PART 1 (i65) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i65) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i65) |
| Back to top |
ABOUT THIS MONTH'S COVER I recently read a book by one of my favorite
authors -- Anne McCaffrey --entitled "The Dolphins
of Pern". It is one of her Dragon series which I
highly recommend if you like good science fiction.
In any event, it suggested a subject for the cover
of this issue.
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the BONUS DISK.
File names preceded by an asterisk are data files or
program files used by other programs. Do not RUN or
EXEC these files.
- SIDE 1 -
-- NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
* AS-TEARS.MOD.........MOD file for CoCoTracker
* ATXCARIB.MOD.........MOD file for CoCoTracker
CHET .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* CHET .TXT.........Used by CHET.BAS
DOG .BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI
* HUMANRAC.MOD.........MOD file for CoCoTracker
* MOD13 .BIN.........Used
* MOD6809 .BIN......... by CoCoTracker
MODPLAY .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* NIBLOADR.BIN.........Used by DOG.BAS =>
____________________________________________________
* SCREEN .NIB.........Used by DOG.BAS
- SIDE 2 -
-- NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
BOOT .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* CITYLITE.NIB.........
* COBRA .NIB.........
* FLOWERS .NIB......... These files
* MTNBUCK .NIB.........
* NIBLOADR.BIN.........
* NO-MAN .NIB......... are all used
* OVERLAY .NIB.........
* PARROT .NIB.........
* PUZDAT .DAT......... by Rick's PUZZLES
* PUZTITLE.NIB.........
* PUZZLE1 .NIB......... =>
____________________________________________________
* PUZZLE2 .NIB......... in PROGRAMS
* SATURN .NIB.........
* SEQ0 .DAT......... of
* SEQ1 .DAT......... the
* SHTLLNCH.NIB.........
* SWITCH .BIN......... MONTH!
=*
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ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE "ABOUT CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE ABOUT THIS ISSUE ABOUT THIS MONTH'S COVER BONUS DIRECTORY (#27) CONTENTS...PART 1 (i65) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i65) PROGRAM DIRECTORY ACTIVE COCO PENN FEST '99 Penn Fest Attendee List Penn Fest Vendor List WHERE TO SEND SUBMISSIONS => ____________________________________________________ What's Nickolas Marentes up to? ADVERTISEMENTS CFDM SUBSCRIPTION PAC-MAN & MARENTES COLLECTION! SUNDOG/COCOPRO! SOFTWARE THE COCO3 EMULATOR ARTICLES OF THE MONTH Assembly Language Programming COCO CHRONICLES 16 PART 1 COCO CHRONICLES 16 PART 2 Chet Simpson Interview MOD Music on the CoCo3 MOD Music on the CoCo3 Part 2 The Hardware Store => ____________________________________________________ The Hardware Store Revisited COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY AMAZE YOURSeLF! Garfield's sidekick: ODIE! HUMMINGBIRD The Hick Brothers VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY FAMILY TREE ** ON THE ROAD AGAIN ** SCHOOL'S OUT!! FORUM ** PC Connections ** ** UPDATE ON ISSUE #64 ** (See PART 2) =* |
Penn Fest 99 Who's Going?
Penn Fest 99 Who's Going? (Pt.2)
FROM THE EDITOR
CFDM UPDATE - JUNE 1999
KUDOS FOR ISSUE #65
New Member Welcome
THIS MONTH'S HOLY SCRIPTURE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CFDM loses B. Kittsmiller
CFDM loses Benjamin H. Walker
GONE PC
Subscription Renewal
POTPOURRI =>
____________________________________________________
LOST DOG
PUZZLE ANSWER
STARTREK Y2K
my capital thoughts
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
Books of the Bible Puzzle
CALENDR2.BAS
METRIC<>STANDARD CONVERSIONS
MORE PUZZLES
NUMBER CONVERTER
TETRA
REVIEWS
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.1)
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.2) =>
____________________________________________________
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.3)
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.4)
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.5)
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.6)
Cloud-9 AT Keyboard Interface
RICKS'S PUZZLES
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.2)
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.3)
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.4)
=*
|
Here's a description of the files located on the
PROGRAM SIDE. File names preceded by an asterisk
are data files and should not be RUN or EXECed!
-- NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
BIBLE .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
CALENDR2.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
DEC-HEX .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
FAH<>CEL.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* FONTS .BIN.........Used by TETRA
GAL<>LIT.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* HICK 109.NIB.........ART GALLERY
* HUMBIRD .NIB.........ART GALLERY
KIL<>MIL.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* MACROS .ASM.........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* MACROS .LST.........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH =>
____________________________________________________
* NIBLOADR.BIN.........Used by NIBSHOW.BAS
NIBSHOW .BAS...RUN...ART GALLERY
* ODIE .NIB.........ART GALLERY
* PART11 .ASM.........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* PART11 .LST.........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* PART11 .TXT.........Used by READFILE.BAS
* PART11A .ASM.........See
* PART11A .LST......... Articles
* PART11B .ASM......... of
* PART11B .LST......... the
READFILE.BAS...RUN... Month
* SCREEN .BIN.........Used by TETRA
STARTREK.BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI
* STARTREK.NIB.........Used by STARTREK.BAS
* TETBUFF .DAT.........Used by TETRA
TETRA .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH =>
____________________________________________________
* TETRA .BIN.........Used by TETRA.BAS
TON<>KGM.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* ZDTV .NIB.........ART GALLERY
=*
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| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| PENN
FEST '99 Penn Fest Attendee List Penn Fest Vendor List WHERE TO SEND SUBMISSIONS What's Nickolas Marentes up to? |
| Back to top |
PENN FEST '99 August 21-22, 1999 (Sat. 8am - 4pm; Sun. 8am - 3pm)
Holiday Inn (near airport)
1406 Beers School Road
Coraopolis, PA 15106
Room Rate = $89/night Reservations: 1-800-333-4835
(CHEAPER hotels are located in the immediate area!)
Fest Admission: $5 per person per day OR
a very special FAMILY RATE
of just $15 for both days!
Vendors: Tables are just $35 each!
Ron Bull - 115 Ann Street Duncannon, PA 17020 =*
|
Penn Fest Attendee List Please note that there are "No Guarantees" implied
or expressed that everyone listed here will defi-
nitely be at the show!
Dave Snell, Joann Snell, John D. Snell, Bill Pierce,
George Bethea Jr., Merv Curley, R. Perrin Ehlinger,
Woodrow Hinkleman, Godfrey & Muriel Moll, Malcolm
Donahue, John Riddle, Dave Linsley, James E. Jones,
Lonnie Falk, Allan R. Batteiger, Greg Zumwalt, Dr.
Marty Goodman, Jim Rittenhouse, Stacy Harper, Todd
Wallace, Avram Berman, Dave Poitras, Susan Poitras,
Kris Poitras, Larry Greenfield, Shane Wolfe, Keith
March, Kevin H. Hobbes, Michelle Turner, Dennis
Smith, Randy Praster.
This list is only based on people that told me =>
____________________________________________________
they were coming. I'm expecting MANY more!
=*
|
Penn Fest Vendor List Please note that there are "No Guarantees" implied
or expressed that everyone here will definitely be
at the show! Also note the Vendors with the "*" in
front of their name are ones that have PAID for
their booths! So I'm pretty sure they will be there!
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
1 - Blackhawk (MM-1) and Ron Bull
* 2 - Sock Master
* 3 - Nickolas Marentes
* 4 - CoCo Friends Disk Magazine - Jim Davis
5 - Planet 9 Systems - Boisy Pitre
6 - Bit's & Pieces - Stephen Shimatzki
7 - Sub-Etha Software - Allen Huffman
* 8 - CoCo Preservation Society - Allen Huffman
9 - Mike Guzzi =>
____________________________________________________
* 10 - MONK-O-WARE - Brother Jeremy
* 11 - Paul W. Zibailia II
* 12 - The World of 68 Micros - Stephen Disney
13 - Glenside Color Computer Club - Tony Podraza
* 14 - SBUG - Richard Albers
* 15 - Karl Sefcik
16 - CoCoMan - Jason Reighard
* 17 - Grizzly Enterprises - Ray Watts
* 18 - Team OS-9 - John Strong & Company
* 19 - STG.NET - Scott Griepentrog
* 20 - BUYCOCO.COM - Scott Griepentrog
21 - Cloud-9 - Mark Marlett
Want to be a Vendor? Contact: Ron Bull
115 Ann Street
Duncannon, PA 17020 =*
|
WHERE TO SEND SUBMISSIONS Please send CFDM submissions to:
JIM DAVIS
c/o CFDM
P.O. BOX 1704
NIXA, MO. 65714
You may also send them via my E-Mail address at:
gearboxed@geocities.com
Help continue to make CFDM possible by sending in
your submission today!!
=*
|
What's Nickolas Marentes up to? Jim asked me to write a short article about what I
have been doing with the CoCo lately so, here it is.
I am currently working on a new game for the 512K
CoCo3. It is about 70% complete and I hope to have
it ready for Ron Bull's Penn Fest in August. I can-
not say at this stage what the game is except that
it is titled "Gate Crasher", is looking and sound-
ing quite good so far and that it should be a bit
of a "breakthrough" as far as what people expect
from the CoCo.
I am also working on a book containing all the in-
terviews I have done and posted on my web page
(http://www.launch.net.au/-nickm/coco). It also
contains several extra interviews from people =>
____________________________________________________
such as Steve Hartford, Dave Elson, Mark Seigel and
more.
Both the game and the interviews book are planned to
be released and made available for sale at the Penn
Fest in August. The game will be $20 while the book
$15.
I am also hoping to scrape up enough money to actu-
ally make the flight from Australia and attend the
Fest in person. It costs just over $2000 AUS (about
$1200 US) for the airfare so I cannot make any solid
promises yet!
If I make it to the Fest, I plan to not only unveil
both my new game and book but also run a seminar, =>
____________________________________________________
bring with me a PAL based CoCo3 and generally meet
many of the people that I only contact via e-mail.
That's what I have been spending all my spare time
on...and that is limited in itself. :)
- Nickolas
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| CFDM
SUBSCRIPTION PAC-MAN & MARENTES COLLECTION! SUNDOG/COCOPRO! SOFTWARE THE COCO3 EMULATOR |
| Back to top |
CFDM SUBSCRIPTION SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ------------------------ CFDM Subscriptions are offered on an annual basis. You will receive 4 issues per year, which will be delivered to you quarterly. The quarterly year runs from September of the current year, to June of the following year. Each issue will include 2 "flippie" disks and you will also get HARDCOPY, the magazine side of CFDM printed by Arthur S. Hallock. CFDM/HARDCOPY - $30 per year. *Your mailing label will have a membership number as follows: ##-##-Q3. The Q3 means that the last issue on your subscription is June, 1999. Please don't let your subscription expire! We need you in our group!* |
PAC-MAN & MARENTES
COLLECTION! /-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
/ P A C - M A N / "A Tribute to the Classic"
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/ by: Nickolas Marentes
COCO 3 w/512k, RGB/CMP Monitor, Disk Drive, Joystick
PRICE: $20
------------------------------------
- THE NICKOLAS MARENTES COLLECTION - (1984 - 1992)
------------------------------------
Five complete games for your Tandy Color Computer 2
or 3 all on one easy loading disk! Games included
are Donut Dilemma, Neutroid 2, Rupert Rythym, Space
Intruders and Cosmic Ambush! Also includes orginal
color artwork and Australian souvenirs!
PRICE: $7 (See page 2 of this entry for ordering) =>
____________________________________________________
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
JIM DAVIS
PO BOX 1704
NIXA, MO 65714
=*
|
SUNDOG/COCOPRO! SOFTWARE Just a reminder that the Sundog/CoCoPro! software is
still available to CFDM Members for $5 ea. + ($2 s/h
for entire order) Here's what's available:
----------------------------------------------------
CRYSTAL CITY, PHOTON, ZENIX, THE CONTRAS, QUEST FOR
THELDA, IN QUEST OF THE STARLORD, KYUM-GAI(RSDOS),
KYUM-GAI(OS9), WARRIOR KING, WAR MONGER, SOUNDTRAX,
SOUNDTRAX INSTRUMENT(3)DISK SET AND GRAFEXPRESS 2.0.
----------------------------------------------------
MULTI-MENU, DATA WINDOWS, DATA MERGER, THE ZAPPER,
TOOLS II, LEVEL II TOOLS, DISK MANAGER TREE, V-TERM,
PRESTO PARTNER, OS9 LEVEL II BBS, NEWSPAPER09, NEWS
FONTS(for NEWSPAPER09), SIMPLY BETTER AND SOLTAIRE.
----------------------------------------------------
JIM DAVIS
P.O. BOX 1704 NIXA, MO. 65714 =*
|
THE COCO3 EMULATOR If you have a PC and a CoCo3 software collection,
you will find this an invaluable piece of software.
The price is only $25.00. The utilities that come
with the emulator are well worth the $25.00 by
themselves.
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY...SEND CASH, CHECK OR MONEY
ORDER FOR $25 TO:
RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE
P.O. BOX 276
LIBERTY, KY 42539
=*
|
Assembly Language Programming View text file associated with this article Well, due to constrains on my time, I will no long-
er be writing a regular series. However, I will try
to write a few submissions over time. There is in-
cluded this time a final wrapup installment called
PART11.TXT. You can read this using READFILE.BAS.
All the usual files are included:
PART11.ASM PART11A.ASM PART11B.ASM MACROS.ASM
PART11.LST PART11A.LST PART11B.LST MACROS.LST
If you have any projects you would like me to
undertake, or just wish to chat, you can reach me by
email at lost@l-w.net.
(These files are located on side 2 of this disk.)
=*
|
COCO CHRONICLES 16 PART 1 THE FIFTH YEAR (Jul'84-Jun'85) Continued... A new product called TELE-FORM is marketed by CIGNA. The software enables mail-merge with Telewriter. In August, TCCM is the subject of "going out of business" rumors, Bob Rosen puts BBS #5 "on the air" in San Jose, and rumors circulate in England that TANDY is interested in the floundering Dragon Data Ltd. company. At the September RAINBOWFEST, held in Princeton, NJ (28-30), Dennis Lewandowski debuts his 128K upgrade. Other first timers include NOMAD the robot from Frank Hogg, GRAPHICOM II from WHITESMITH, and a graphics program and digitzer from GRAFX. => ____________________________________________________ VIP Software moves out to California. The rumored takeover by a Spanish company, gives British Dragon users something to roar about. TCCM's rumored demise proves correct. This is the third CoCo Magazine to fold within the past year. The October issue is its last but, take heart be- cause Dennis Kitsz announces the start of UNDER- COLOR (UCL for short) which will hit the stands this month. Good luck Dennis! Computerware begins marketing DON'T FORGET, and EUROHARD of Spain begins production of the Dragon computer in that country. => ____________________________________________________ An auto-answer modem too expensive? Check out the November issue of RAINBOW and find out how to teach your Modem I to auto-answer. Bill & Sara Nolan sell Prickly-Pear Software to Mike & Joanne Chinitis. Good luck to all! Rumors, rumors everywhere: Radio Shack has CoCos with TRUE LOWERCASE (using the new Motorola 6847-TI VDG chip) which won't be released until after the holidays. The better late than never, 26 page UNDERCOLOR maga- zine premiered in December with information about two "new" Korean CoCo IIs featuring...(See PART 2)=* |
COCO CHRONICLES 16 PART 2 (Continued from PART 1.) ...a 1.3 BASIC ROM. Other new December arrivals included THE WIZARD from NEXUS which will modify Telewriter's character set, Dennis Lewandowski's 128K upgrade, the CALINDEX ap- pointment scheduler from GRANTHAM SOFTWARE, a video digitizer from The Micro Works, and NOVASOFT (a Tom Mix company) starts marketing CoCo goodies. 7000 people attend Britain's first 6809 COLOUR SHOW for DRAGON and TANDY users. 1985 started with a bang and whimper! The bang came from the debut of another CoCo milestone, COCOMAX => ____________________________________________________ from COLORWARE. The whimper is provided by rumors that Color Micro Journal is about to go "belly up". The February RAINBOWFEST in Irvine, California (15- 17) attracts 8,000 for a first-hand look at COCOMAX (250 sold). Product debuts include the P-51 MUSTANG ATTACK FLIGHT SIMULATOR from Tom Mix, the 68008 ex- pansion card from RGS Micro Electronics, and a 15 key numeric keypad from MORETON BAY. Tandy sells 16K CoCos for a mere $50, a drop in the proverbial bit bucket. Back to where it all started, CoCo information will start re-appearing in 68 MICRO JOURNAL as rumors of COLOR MICRO JOURNAL's demise prove true. With this month's issue, CMJ joined Color Computer News, => ____________________________________________________ Chromasette, and The Color Computer Magazine as the fourth major CoCo publication to fold within the past 17 months. March brought word that the "new" CoCo would be an exclusive OS-9 machine (no BASIC ROM) and would be in Radio Shack stores sometime between Sep'85 and Mar'86. - Callers to any of Bob Rosen's 4 bulletin boards in Woodhaven, New York are greeted, not by the usual high pitched carrier tone but, by a "dis- connected" message. Bob has signed off the East coast boards. From one "guru" to another Bob, thanks for the memories. (More CoCo Chronicles in the next issue of CFDM!) =* |
Chet Simpson Interview View text file associated with this article Included in this issue of CFDM you will find an in- teresting interview that I conducted with CoCo Pro- grammer Chet Simpson. Chet is the creator of the game "Digger II - Return of the Saint" for the CoCo. To read the interview simply: RUN "CHET.BAS" or load CHET.TXT with you favorite word processor. Please see the "ACTIVE COCO" section elsewhere in this issue for the latest details on my "soon to be released" book! - Nickolas (See side 1 of the Bonus Disk for these files.) =* |
MOD Music on the CoCo3 Instead of an article about graphics, I've got a bit of music for you this time. I promise I'll get back to the graphics in the future! MOD files are 'standardized' music files. That means almost any modern computer can play almost any MOD file. Back when MOD files were invented, it took some nifty hardware or a very fast computer to be able to play them. Computers have come a long way, and so have MOD files. Originally, only the Amiga could play these files. Soon there were players for the Atari ST too, and eventually, on the PC. All these computers were 16 bit with around 8Mhz CPUs so they could handle the real-time computation of MOD files. ==> ____________________________________________________ So, what about the CoCo? Originally, I believed that it couldn't be done. The CoCo just wasn't fast enough. Then the hidden features of the Hitachi 6309 CPU were discovered, and I started trying to think of ways to play MOD files on the CoCo3. After some work, I finally put together enough 'tricks' into a routine that played 4 voice sampled sound that it still sounded okay. A little bit later, CoCoTracker was made. It only worked with the 6309, but I came up with enough programming tricks that it *MIGHT* be possible to also make a 6809 version. Well, here it is! This version of CoCoTracker works on both 6809 and 6309, preferably 512K but it should also run on 128K machines *if* you only try playing very small MOD files. I've included 3 short MOD files here. I think they're small enough to work with 128K CoCos=> ____________________________________________________ (But I haven't tested them on a 128K machine. I hope they'll all work with 128K.) You can download any 4 voice '.MOD' file from BBSes or off the net. Most of them should work, but there are some very large MOD files out there. Some of them won't even fit on CoCo disks - even if you have an 80 track drive! If you're lucky enough to have an 80 track drive, CoCoTracker automatically patches RS -DOS so that it can read files off double sided 80 track drives. (It'll still work normally if you have 35 track drives.) This way you can play much larger MOD files (320K). MOD files have come a long way. There are now many new types of files, like S3M,XM,IT,MTM...<next> *** |
MOD Music on the CoCo3 Part 2 Unfortunately, CoCoTracker can't play these new file types (S3M,XM,IT,MTM...). The new types can do as many as 32 or 64 voices and the CoCo just doesn't have enough computational power to handle them. To RUN CoCoTracker and listen to the 3 MOD files I've included, simply insert the bonus disk and type: RUN"MODPLAY" You should see 3 MOD files listed at the bottom, simply press the letter before each file to load it. The 3 files are: Human Race (Supposedly first MOD file ever made) As.Tears (A Rolling Stones tune) ATX Carib (Carib-Jive. A short MOD that fit :) )==> ____________________________________________________ You can press the numbers 0 to 3 to change drives. Pressing 6 changes the sample rate (audio quality). The higher the sample rate, the slower the graphics go when the song is playing. If you have a 6309 the available sample rates are higher than with a 6809, and there is an extra key-command "O" to use the Orchestra-90 Pak (If you have one) for even better quality stereo sound. Key command "7" toggles between 50Hz & 60Hz video refresh rates (For those of you with PAL CoCos, and also because some songs sound better with the slightly slower tempo.) "8" selects the size of the oscilloscope that is displayed when the song plays (smaller is faster), and lastly, "Q" quits the program and reboots BASIC. that's it for commands, now for the song display.==> ____________________________________________________ Once a MOD file starts playing, the prgram switches to a graphic display. In the top half of the screen in two columns, it displays all the text information (if any) that is stored in the MOD file. Sometimes it's a list of instruments, sometimes it's comments. Read the LEFT half first, then the right half. In the middle, it shows the song name, pattern # and position. At the right are 8 bars. The first 4 show the volume of each voice, and the last 4 show when a note is 'struck'. If you have a 6309, it also shows 4 hexadecimal numbers below the volume bars. These numbers represent which 'special effect' is being applied to each voice at the moment. Finally, at the bottom is a really cool oscilloscope display of the sound. If you're using ORCH-90, the scope is stereo. That's all! Enjoy! *Sock* === |
The Hardware Store The Keyboard Copout - I had mentioned discussing
the construction of a remote CoCo keyboard. The
problem with describing a project like this is that
many of the parts usually emerge from the junkpile
and everyone has different junk, and some having no
junk at all. Because of the junk factor I have two
remote CoCo keyboards with three CoCo's fitted for
them, and none are identical except for the connect-
ors. Now that Mark Marlette has built an AT key-
board adapter at a reasonable price (see the Review
in this issue), and, I believe, Chris Hawkes is
still in business with his CoCo Keyboard Extender
cable, I don't see much sense in writing a detail-
ed construction article. Heck, I was collecting the
last parts to build a Puppo XT keyboard interface
when Mark announced his product and I quit on the =>
____________________________________________________
spot. Based on the hours it would have taken me to
build an interface, I paid MUCH less than minimum
wages to Mark for a superior product. The same is
probably true for Chris, also. Even if you buy
Chris Hawkes extender you will still need a case for
the keyboard. One of your options is to use an old
CoCo case. Better yet, cut it down so only the key-
board portion is used then place a back on it. An-
other option is to build a case from a scrap of old
wall panel with 1" lumber scraps for the sides. One
other method is buy the materials described last is-
sue for building a disk drive case. Select a 1'X 2'
sheet of .080" polystyrene and the plexiglass knife.
While at the hobby store, also get a 2 oz bottle of
Ambroid Pro-Weld and a 1 oz bottle of Testors liquid
cement(red label). The rest is up to you and your =>
____________________________________________________
creativity. Good luck, and enjoy!
=*
|
The Hardware Store Revisited Copout #2 - Ahhh, Spring, indoor projects, outdoor
projects, visits, one son is in Providence for a
spell on business from the West Coast, another son
just made us grandparents for the second time (and
a 370 mile drive through the mountains). What a
great time for copouts! I had mentioned building a
serial-to-parallel printer port from an article in
the June, 1983 Hot CoCo. In the process, I rede-
signed the 555 oscillator to replace the 600 baud
input with a 4800 baud input. I would liked to have
designed it for 9600 but it would have been beyond
the 555 specs. The beauty of this design was that
it could be soldered directly to the serial port at
the motherboard and that it required no software
driver for either RSDOS or OS-9. However, after
carefully building this little gem, it failed to =>
____________________________________________________
work properly. With a program writing to the
printer, I was supposed to adjust a variable resist-
er in the oscillator until the printer produced a
garble-free line but it never happened! To make
matters worse, I had no test equipment for trouble-
shooting except for an old Simpson 260 multimeter.
I made a CRUDE frequency meter from a resistor and
capacitor network and the Simpson 260 on the 2.5
volt "Output" scale. With this I found that the
oscillator was generating a steady 57kHz signal
while adjusting the resistor instead of varying
around 76.8kHz. Although I had no oscilloscope to
observe the waveform, I assumed that it would look
OK since it was producing a healthy 2.3 volts RMS.
So it still sits there waiting to be looked at and
the list of projects around the house keeps =>
____________________________________________________
getting longer. I may eventually chop out the
oscillator and put in a crystal controlled one for
9600 baud, but it probably won't be until after the
PennFest in August. How about bringing it to Pitts-
burgh and hanging it from a gallows, or some thing?
Until then, the cop-outs continue.
=*
|
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| AMAZE
YOURSeLF! Garfield's sidekick: ODIE! HUMMINGBIRD The Hick Brothers VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY |
| Back to top |
AMAZE YOURSeLF!
On the DISH satellite network (Echostar), on Channel
191, there is a channel dedicated solely to computer
related topics. I drew the logo for your amusement.
(See ZDTV.NIB on the back side of this disk.)
=*
|
Garfield's sidekick: ODIE!
With a little help from the powerful tools found in
CoCo Max III, the humorous antics of our favorite
comic strip characters come to life on the CoCo 3.
While I have an extensive library of graphical tools
for the PC, none match the simplicity and ease of
use associated with CoCo Max III. The PC tools are
certainly powerful and deemed appropriate for their
intended purposes, BUT for just plain fun...the CoCo
is where it's at!
(You'll find ODIE.NIB on side 2 of this disk.)
=*
|
HUMMINGBIRD
This picture was taken from a greeting card. I
liked it because it was colorful, and I've tried to
retain the colors as close as possible to those of
the original. You will notice that I made use of
quite a few "checkerboard" patterns to create more
shades than are available in the normal palette.
People often ask me how long it takes to do one of
these pictures. This one took the better part of
three days.
(Select HUMBIRD in NIBSHOW on side 2 of this disk.)
=*
|
The Hick Brothers
The computer age has caught up with our two back-
woods brothers and they cope with it in their own
unique way.
(You'll find HICK 109.NIB on side 2 of this disk.)
=*
|
VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY In order to view the .NIB pictures in this month's
Art Gallery, please RUN "NIBSHOW.BAS".
After RUNing NIBSHOW, you will need to press the <D>
key for the directory listing of NIB pictures on the
disk. Use the <ARROW KEYS> to choose a picture and
press the <SPACE BAR> to view it. After viewing a
picture, use the <BREAK> key to clear it. To leave
NIBSHOW, press the <X> key from the MAIN SCREEN.
NIBSHOW is a contribution by Stuart Wyss-Gallifent
and was featured on CFDM Issue #18, along with more
complete documentation. Thanks Stuart!
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| **
ON THE ROAD AGAIN ** SCHOOL'S OUT!! |
| Back to top |
** ON THE ROAD AGAIN ** CFDM Friends: Muriel & I will be on the road
again in our NEW 1999 Grand Marquis -- heading for
Seattle Washington on the 19th of July to attend The
Bears Run in Honor of our Son Larry. The local Har-
ley Davidson riders will do a 100 mile run and raise
money for the Handicapped Workers that our son work-
ed with.
We traded in our 1991 Grand Marquis with 127,500
miles on it for the new Silver Frost car that we now
call 'Misty'. If all goes well with this trip, we
plan to attend the PennFest '99 in Pittsburgh, PA on
August 21 & 22, 1999. We will only be HOME on August
15th from our Northwest Trip! Hope this works out as
we do enjoy meeting the many friends that we have in
the CoCo Community.
When we arrived HOME from our Winter stay in ==>
____________________________________________________
Destin Florida, we had a Family Reunion to celebrate
Muriel's 75th Birthday (and also my 72nd) in April.
Since we live in an apartment, we provided rooms at
the Extended StayAmerica facility (motel with frig,
stove, microwave, recliner and Queen Bed) which is
located just a half a mile away. Had a great time
together and if you're on the Internet you can view
some of the pictures of our Gang:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/1418
We plan to stay in an Extended StayAmerica during
our visit to Seattle and Pittsburgh -- very pleased
with their facilities.
We are scheduled to be back in Destin Florida on
December 1,1999 and will stay till April 1,2000. WOW
we'll be in Florida when the Y2K bugs hit all of the
computer systems!? I believe that this 'bug' is ==>
____________________________________________________
in the minds of those that see an opportunity to
make some money out of it. Oh well, you can find us
at: Muriel & Godfrey Moll
Breakers East Condo Unit 504
1010 Highway 98 East
Destin, Fl 32541
All of the above is 'God willing'.
Always good to hear from you by snail mail or by
e-mail.
Have a good Summer -- Muriel & Godfrey
PS: Keep up the good work on CFDM Jim!!
=*
|
SCHOOL'S OUT!! Once again for those of us in the education world,
school is out for the summer. I believe the teachers
are as happy about that as the students!
That brings up the question "What do teachers do in
the summer?" Aren't they lucky to have nearly two
and one half months vacation every year?! Well, if
you know teachers then you know that most of them
will, for a number of years, go back to college to
complete their masters degree, then their rank I.
It's not vacation, but it's not altogether bad. The
change from "giving assignments" to doing them is a
welcome change of pace to many.
As for me, well I must work at my school for 35
days during the summer. Fortunately I already =>
____________________________________________________
have all my degree work completed. My summer will
consist of getting my school in order, cleaned and
organized for the beginning of the next school year.
Donna, Kristin, Kasey, Kayla, and I will also take
off for about a week to visit Disney World in
Florida. I'm looking forward to the trip back home
when we hope to pass through Savannah, Georgia. I
was stationed there for a few months in 1971, and
I've never had the chance to revisit. Of course,
there's no one there now, to my knowledge, that I
knew there in 1971.
Finally, the new millenium is coming up quickly! It
seems like it was many years ago when I was spending
my time at this desk doing CFDM and the RCE =>
____________________________________________________
business! I really enjoyed that time, but we must
all someday move on. By the way, Jim Davis is doing
a terrific job with CFDM, and I fully expect him to
attain the goal of "CFDM 'til 2000." Keep up the
good work Jim!!
- Rick
=*
|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| **
PC Connections ** ** UPDATE ON ISSUE #64 ** Penn Fest 99 Who's Going? Penn Fest 99 Who's Going? (Pt.2) |
| Back to top |
** PC Connections ** This month I will introduce the PC users to the
ULTIMATE CoCo Web Site maintained by Markus Blumrich
of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
'TRS-80 Color Computer Homepage'
URL= http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/-ab594/coco/
coco.html (where the - is a tilde or approximate
sign)
Now that's a lot of typing, but I can assure you
that you will be rewarded with More INFO and More
LINKS than you can ever imagine! For real FUN just
access the Guestbooks,the current one has 37 entries
the old one 250 entries. You will find many well
known persons have signed his Guestbook -- and LINKS
to their Homepages!
I checked the HTML Code used to create this site
and it was 23 pages long in 10 point type! ==>
____________________________________________________
Running along the right side of the page are
many neat photos of CoCo systems and screens of
Programs. On the left side are the following:
1. Headline News, Events, Rumors and Exciting
Stuff -- All the latest INFO on what others are up
to with the CoCo. And then there is a LINK to the
NEWS ARCHIVES -- That covers 3/15/97 to 1/16/99.
2. Quick Picks -- Currently contains 8 LINKS to
CoCo STUFF!
3. Polls! -- You'll have FUN answering the ques-
tions and seeing what others are doing.
4. Where to talk about Coco -- He lists 11 lo-
cations that you can go to and CHAT.
5. The 'Online OS-9 for Smarties' Tutorial
6. Technical Information & Hacking -- another 24
LINKS to enjoy! ==>
____________________________________________________
7. CoCo Games and Entertainment -- With 10 LINKS
to FUN Sites.
8. Community Information and Miscellaneous Links
-- Which lists 27 Guest Home Pages.
9. Sources for Color Computer & Dragon Software
-- Another 27 LINKS to Software Sources.
10. Company Index -- Would you believe a list of
44 Companies? With LINKS and Addresses!
11. Other People's homepages -- Here he has 34 of
the BEST on the INTERNET!
12. Color Computer Clubs & Organizations -- He's
found 12 of them!!! So I guess it looks like we can
make it to the Year 2000 without too much trouble!
GJMOLL@aol.com
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/1418
==*
|
** UPDATE ON ISSUE #64 ** I took another look at the CoCo Club Web Site
on Yahoo, that I reported about in Issue #64, and
found that they now have 44 members.
I also took a closer look at the Calendar fea-
ture, and found that there is a Monthly and Yearly
calendar that one can post events and happenings on.
So I took the liberty to Post the 8th 'Last'
Chicago CoCoFest that took place on May 1 & 2.
I also posted the PENN FEST '99 that will take
place on August 21st & 22nd.
You will find the CoCo Club at:
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/cococlub
Try it -- you might like it! Godfrey ==*
|
Penn Fest 99 Who's Going? I have been compiling a list of people who are plan- ning to attend the Festival as well as what they will be offering at the show. Here is the list of people that appeared in the last issue of CFDM: # Lonnie Falk # Dr. Marty Goodman John Kowalski Jim Davis Allen Huffman ---------------------------------------------------- What follows is the latest additions to this list: Nickolas Marentes - I'll be there! I'm taking the $1400 risk to fly from Australia. I will be holding a seminar to unveil my new game Gate Crasher and => ____________________________________________________ my new book CoCoNUTS. I will also bring along my PAL based CoCo3 which differs internally from the US model. I will also be helping Ron setup the Fest itself. # Mark Seigel - Mr. Seigel worked for Tandy's R&D section and is the primary creator of the Color Com- puter 3. He said that he will attend the Fest if he has some spare time during this period from his busy schedule. # Glen Dahlgren - Glen was the owner/operator of Sundog Systems, possibly the last large Software House for the CoCo in the late 80's and early 90's. Glen lives near the Fest location and will attend if he is able to. => ____________________________________________________ Richard Albers - Richard will be attending as a Ven- dor and will represent SBUG, attempting to sell used CoCo hardware and software, plus some new handwired MFM/RLL hard disk controller interfaces. He also should have some generic supplies, such as floppy disks, mouse pads, etc. Mike Guzzi - Mike will be hosting the IRC chat from the Fest and will probably bring the "reptile pro- ject" again. He had plans to sell a new card for the CoCo but due to moving, he will not be able to. Steve Secord - Steve will have a table at the show and plans to release a CD related to OS-9 for pri- mary use on PC or MAC. He also might...(See Pt.2) =* |
Penn Fest 99 Who's Going? (Pt.2) ...have 200+ pages in book form of The Complete OS-9
Underground from Fat Cat Publishing.
Stephen Shimatzki - Stephen was at PA Fest '98 as
Bit's & Pieces and will be there again this year
with a variety of CoCo goodies from complete CoCo3
systems with monitors to software.
Stephen Disney - Stephen Disney is the new editor of
The World of 68' Micros magazine and will have it on
display along with Frank Swygert's FARNA Systems and
a few items that he is distributing.
Boisy G. Pitre - Boisy and his company, Planet 9
Systems will be there.
=>
____________________________________________________
* Please note - all attendees preceded with an "#"
cannot be 100% confirmed till closer to the Fest.
- Nickolas
=*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| CFDM
UPDATE - JUNE 1999 KUDOS FOR ISSUE #65 New Member Welcome THIS MONTH'S HOLY SCRIPTURE |
| Back to top |
CFDM UPDATE - JUNE 1999 Greetings Friends,
I hope this issue finds everyone doing well and
still using their CoCo or Emulator! We've been keep-
ing on schedule to "some degree" but a good portion
of the submission material is coming in at the last
minute. Even though the material is coming in late,
at least it's still coming in! As mentioned in past
issues, I really strive to keep both the Magazine
and Disks as full as possible. By waiting for an
issue to be "full", I usually end up delaying the
issue from going out on schedule. I do feel the ex-
tra time taken has been worth it, since the end re-
sult has been "full" issues. The main problem with
this method, is that it uses up a great deal of our
submission reserves. So please consider sending =>
____________________________________________________
in some material for future issue and help out where
you can!
We have a good mix of material in this issue and I
hope you will all find something of interest. You
will notice that there is a fair amount of material
dealing with the upcoming Penn Fest. I hope many of
you will be able to attend this event and have the
chance to meet your fellow CoCo users. I think this
is going to be a good Fest, hope to see you there!
We're getting ready to start the fourth quarterly
year of CFDM, so many of our postal subscribers will
find a renewal form enclosed in their mailer. I hope
you've found this past year of CFDM enjoyable and
wish to continue your subscription. I really feel =>
____________________________________________________
that the likelihood of another disk based magazine
surfacing post CFDM, is very unlikely. So lets try
to keep what we've already got...going! :)
Have a great Summer!
- Jim
=*
|
KUDOS FOR ISSUE #65 This issue was made possible by the efforts of the
following CFDM Friends!
William Astle, Bill Baker, Norm Barson, Ray Berney,
Ron Bull, Rick Cooper, Frances Farr, Herb Forger,
Wally Grossman, Keiran Kenny, Althea Kittsmiller,
John Kowalski, Terry Laraway, Nickolas Marentes,
Harold Moenich, Godfrey Moll, Stuart Roberts, Al
Santos, Mike A. Walker, Ray Watts and Stuart Wyss-
Gallifent.
Your support is GREATLY appreciated!
=*
|
New Member Welcome Please welcome one of CFDM's newest members,
George H. Bethea Jr. George is no stranger to the
CoCo and has been a long time user and supporter of
the CoCo and the CoCo Community. He's also been in
attendance at MANY of the CoCo Fests over the years.
He has once again rejoined us and we hope to hear
more from him in the future!
Thanks goes out to the CFDM members who recently
renewed their CFDM subscription at the 8th Annual
"LAST" Chicago CoCo Fest this past May. Your support
is greatly appreciated!
=*
|
THIS MONTH'S HOLY SCRIPTURE This month's scripture speaks about "preaching" and
"the foolishness of preaching." It is my belief
that the position of preacher is to be filled only
by those that have been "called" by God. There
appears to be those today who have been "called" by
God and others who have "called" themselves. The
latter may have the best of intentions, but I feel
they are not really effective as far as to the real
purpose of a preacher of God's word.
In the past I have placed in this section one of my
favorite passages (Isaiah 55:8,9) which states that
God's ways are higher than man's ways; his thoughts
higher than man's thoughts; as the heavens are
higher than the earth. God has his plan, even if we
don't agree with it or understand it! =>
____________________________________________________
For the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where
is the disputer of this world? hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in
the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek
after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, =>
____________________________________________________
unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greek
foolishness; But unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the
wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men;
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
I Corinthians 1:18-25
=*
|
| Articles in section: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| CFDM
loses B. Kittsmiller CFDM loses Benjamin H. Walker GONE PC Subscription Renewal |
| Back to top |
CFDM loses B. Kittsmiller Dear Jim,
please discontinue all future CoCo Friends
mailings to B. Kittsmiller. He passed away Jan. 29,
1999.
Thank you -
Sincerely,
Mrs. Althea Kittsmiller
1834 Easton Ave
Waterloo, IA 50702-2605
=*
|
CFDM loses Benjamin H. Walker April 2, 1999
Mr. Davis,
My father, Benjamin H. Walker, passed away
in February. Due to circumstances, I would like to
cancel any future disks. He certainly enjoyed re-
ceiving them. I've enclosed the mailing label for
information purpose.
Thank You.
Mike A. Walker
5813 Grand Heritage St.
Las Vegas, NV 89130
=*
|
GONE PC I now have a PC and I am looking forward to
exploring all the possibilities I have read about in
CFDM. As soon as I feel confident I will order an
EMULATOR3 as I have so much material on CoCo3 disks
that I would wish to preserve.
You have not heard much from me during recent
months but my sudden return to Australia and recent
hip replacement have made concentration on other
matters difficult.
Fortunately, I can report that the operation was
a success and I have been overwhelmed by the support
of numerous family and friends. My Veterans' Affairs
and local "Home Care" have been a strong right arm
to lean on. Veterans' Affairs provided structural
installations to my apartment to suit my physical
condition, and handy gadgets to make my =>
____________________________________________________
days easier. Ever heard of a "sock puller onner"?
The best invention since the wheel! Every arthritis
patient who has struggled for a half-hour to get one
sock on one foot should have one!
My choice of a PC was guided by old CoConuts
Arthur Williams and Colin North.
I am certainly glad that CFDM is now arriving
regularly and I must say that the quality of the
submissions seems to go from great to more so.
Now that I am comfortably settled in my old home-
town and deferred problems like my wonky, wobbly hip
have been dealt with I hope to be able to keep my
promise and churnout some CoCo stuff again.
Best wishes to all CoConuts everywhere!
=>
____________________________________________________
----
JIM:
----
Hi Keiran, always good to hear from you! Sounds like
you've got every thing under control and you're back
in action. I'm confident that your move to the PC
will most certainly stir-up some creative ideas for
you and the CoCo 3 Emulator will surely open up some
exciting new possibilities as well. Good Luck!
=*
|
Subscription Renewal Dear Jim,
sorry I am late with my subscription. I
will write for CFDM later. Keep on with the good
work.
Sincerely,
Frances Farr
----
JIM: Hi Frances! Good to hear from you. You're right
on time with your subscription, as the new quarterly
year will soon begin. (Q4) Thanks for your continued
support and kind words. :)
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| LOST
DOG PUZZLE ANSWER STARTREK Y2K my capital thoughts |
| Back to top |
LOST DOG
Since I like to use the "SPEECH/SOUND PAK", here is yet another PROGRAM using it. I certainly hope I can get "MAXSOUND" operating for me, for I know that all CoCoers do not have the S/S PAK. When I see a poor lost dog, I would like to take it home with me, but we do not have a house that is proper for him, and too, we have a CAT that HATES all dogs. I still need help with "MAXSOUND" --- PLEASE, someone, will you help me? MAXSOUND sound comes right out of your com- puter, and that is very nice, I might say. I will say GOODBYE for now, since I will once more get BUSY and WORK on "MAXSOUND". Summer will soon be here, so Have FUN, FUN, FUN Y'ALL. 04-15-99 H.J.M MOEN1@WEBTV.NET FAX:412-373-1309 (Harold's DOG.BAS is on side 1 of the Bonus Disk.)=* |
PUZZLE ANSWER (1) reMARKed (2) luLU, KEpt
(3) looKING, So (4) fACTS
(5) REVELATION (6) JAM, ESpecially
(7) JOB (8) A, MOSt
(9) yES, THERe (10) tRUTHfully
(11) JUDGES (12) PREACHERs
(13) NUMBERS (14) thaT, IT, USually
(15) LAMENTATIONS (16) sHE, BREWS
(17) PRO, VERBS (18) comPETE, Relax
(19) banaNA, HUM (20) HOSE, A
=*
|
STARTREK Y2K I am still trying to program "MAXSOUND", but I am too old to fully understand the manual. When trying to program "G&M", I can get a graphic picture on it, but I can not get the sound on the disk---Help will be appreciated. There is a "DEMO" on "G&M" about STAR TREK, so I decided to use the same idea in a SPEECH/SOUND program. I hope anyone with a SPEECH/ SOUND PAK likes the results. I am still trying to calm myself down since learning that CFDM has lost one of the GREAT ONES. He always contributed so generously and his CARTOONS were very CLEAR and WITTY---BENJAMIN H.WALKER--- whom I called "BEN". He taught me many TRICKS about the COCO3 and gave me many disks. I will certainly miss him. - HJM 04-15-99 MOEN1@WEBTV.NET (RUN "STARTREK.BAS on side 2 of this disk.) =* |
my capital thoughts THis mAy Not looK right with So few caps, but Read
on: just try thIs triCK: FOr starteRs, Take eacH
capital lettEr, (aBoveE and below) & SeT them intO
a sentence Format. they are in the Correct order.
the result will be a message oF gooD quality coM-
puter FORmatted SOftware MateriAl. Now You and i
must GRin AND saY doEs this mAke Real senSe? it
will. now AND THen Ask who to thaNK for thiS Jewel.
I May FOr one wish to Renew a CONTINUing subscrIpt-
ioN, to Go for what I call The year 2001 plus.
See page 2 of this entry for the answer. =>
____________________________________________________
Answer:
-------
THANKS RICK FOR THE BEST OF CFDM FOR SO MANY GRAND
YEARS! AND THANKS JIM FOR CONTINUING IT!
and if you didn't find the message, at least stick
with us CoCo Friends!
=*
|
| Articles in section: PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH |
| Books
of the Bible Puzzle CALENDR2.BAS METRIC<>STANDARD CONVERSIONS MORE PUZZLES NUMBER CONVERTER TETRA |
| Back to top |
Books of the Bible Puzzle I submit this for a filler in the up coming Hard
Copy. I don't think it will be very hard to identify
all 20 words.
CAN YOU FIND 20 BOOKS
OF THE BIBLE
IN THIS PARAGRAPH
Someone showed me this story and remarked that there
are twenty books of the bible hidden here. He chal-
lenged me to find them. Sure enough they're all
here. Still this thing's a lulu, kept me looking so
hard for the longest time. Some of you will get bog-
ged down with facts. Others are hit by them like
they were some kind of revelation or something. You
may get in a jam, especially since the names are not
capitalized and often leap the spaces between the =>
____________________________________________________
words. This makes it a real job to find them, but
it'll provide a most fascinating few minutes for
you. Yes, there are some really easy ones to spot,
but don't get the big head cause truthfully you'll
soon figure that it would take most federal judges
and preachers numbers of hours to find them all. I
will admit that it usually takes a minister to find
one of them and that is not uncommon for there are
to be loud lamentations when it is pointed out. One
lady says that when she is confronted with puzzles
like this she brews a cup of tea to help her concen-
trate better. But then this gals a real pro. Verbs,
nouns, and all that stuff are her thing. See how
well you can compete. Relax! there really are twenty
names of bible books in this story. If you fail to
find them there's a penalty. You'll have to go fly=>
____________________________________________________
a kite, sit on a banana, hum the battle hymn of the
republic, or hose a dog (a mean one). Get to it!
See the PUZZLE ANSWER entry in POTPOURRI for the
complete list of 20 hidden Bible books.
You may also view this puzzle by simply RUNning
"BIBLE.BAS".
(Please see side 2 of this disk for BIBLE.BAS.)
=*
|
CALENDR2.BAS Are you prepared for Y2K? Will you be able to find a
calendar past the year 2000? This nifty letter
program will print out any year past 1752. So, when
you look across the card table in your tent, eating
cold Campbell's soup from the can by candlelight,
you can see what day it will be tomorrow.
(RUN "CALENDR2.BAS" on side 2 of this disk.)
=*
|
METRIC<>STANDARD
CONVERSIONS I hope some day, soon, the USA and Canada will join the rest of the world and go metric. Here down under we took the plunge in the early sixties. The switchover went smoothly enough and we also survived a simultaneous currency change from pounds shillings and pence to dollars and cents. All scales and cash registers in the land were changed or replaced in seemingly no time. This submission includes four programs so very similar in use that I have put instructions for all four in this single text file. TONS<>KILOGRAMS: select 1 on the menu and follow the prompts, Enter an integral value for tons (no deci- mal) and then integrals for pounds and ounces. If you enter a non-integral value for tons or pounds or a value greater than 32767 then the display goes => ____________________________________________________ directly to the result (in kilograms). If you have entered a value for tons then, logically, a follow- ing entry for pounds must be less than 2240. You can skip a prompt by pressing ENTER. On choice 2 you can enter metric weights as kilo- grams and milligrams but more logical would be an entry like 123.456789 kilos instead of 123 k 456 gm 799 mg: that's the beauty of metric notation. If your printer is switched on each entry and re- sult will be printed as a equation. Line 700 sets 2400 baud to suit my DMP130. FAHRENHEIT<>CELSIUS: Follow the menu prompts and enter a value, F or C. The entered value and the re- ciprocal value are shown at screen center. Line 20 sets the baud rate. Press the up/down arrow instead of A or M to print a table in steps of .5 of a => ____________________________________________________ degree up or down from your initial value. MILES<>KILOMETERS: pattern like TONS<>KILOGRAMS. The baudrate is in line 10. GALLONS<>LITERS: the baudrate is set in line 10. I have used a conversion rate of 3.785 liters per gal- lon. The standard US gallon is .83 of the old Brit- ish imperial gallon. Units like deciliters and cen- tiliters are rarely used. I would ask for a 400mill bottle of medicine rather than a 4 deciliter bottle. If you are engaged in buying selling and shipping far and wide you may meet up with less common units like the bushel (US 4 pecks = 2150.42 cubic inches) or the Indian lakh or crore. The hottest temperature I ever experienced was 137 F on a ship moored windstill in midsummer in the Persian Gulf. What was yours? (See side 2 of disk)=* |
MORE PUZZLES
I know that many Friends (and their wives) are
hooked on Rick's PUZZLES. That's why some of us
keep trying to add more pictures to be used with
the PUZZLES program. I have adapted eight pictures
and incorporated them into the program. I have
used a version of the BOOT program which is slightly
modified: Godfrey Moll has added instructions, and I
have added a randomization feature (see the Review
of Rick's PUZZLES in this issue).
I have no idea of the sources of the pictures I
have included. I know I picked them up (among a lot
of others) at various CoCo clubs I have been to.
Others downloaded them from Bulletin Boards and made
them available. It looks like several are digitized
rather than original art work, but that still
=>
____________________________________________________
requires a lot of work to clean up. If anyone
recognizes any of these pictures and can identify
the source, I will see that credit is acknowledged
in some future issue.
Some of these pictures are complex enough to be
quite challenging, but that makes them better
puzzles. Have fun!
(All of the files located on side 2 of the Bonus
Disk are associated with the PUZZLES program.
Simply RUN "BOOT.BAS" to start the program.)
=*
|
NUMBER CONVERTER Here's a quick and easy to use NUMBER CONVERSION program to assist you with conversion needs! The program presents a small option menu as follows: MSB/LSB DECIMAL BINARY HEXIDECIMAL SEARCH MEMORY The Search Memory function allows the option to send the output to the printer for convenient hard copy printouts. (RUN "DEC-HEX.BAS" on side 2 of this disk.) =* |
TETRA Here's another one of my creations from Unbelievable Offer #1. It's TETRA, a Tetris play-alike. I hope you'll enjoy my version of this program! There are 5 files that must be copied when moving TETRA to a new disk. (Jim, please be aware that the FONTS.BIN file is both necessary for TETRA and for CFDM's C.BAS program! I'm placing this entry on a CFDM submission disk.) The files are: TETRA.BAS, TETRA.BIN, FONTS.BIN, TETBUFF.DAT, and SCREEN.BIN. To get started just RUN "TETRA.BAS". You should leave the game disk in drive 0 since your score will be recorded on the disk for future reference. TETRA plays like the standard version, but there => ____________________________________________________ be a few differences. The falling pieces can be moved by using the LEFT arrow, RIGHT arrow, accelerated down with the DOWN arrow, and rotated with the UP arrow. If you have a piece that has come to rest on another piece, you will have a short time to move left or right or down before the next piece is introduced. I call this option "sliding." You may pause the game by pressing the "P" key and continue by pressing any key other than "P". Press the BREAK key to quit playing. Please give time for your score to be recorded to disk. ENJOY! (See side 2 of this disk for these files.) =* |
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.1) Well, earlier this year I was really wondering if the Chicago Fest was going to take place? This was for the most part due to the lack of publicity. But...lo and behold, out of nowhere; the list of Vendors quickly grew and the 8th. Annual "Last" Chicago CoCo Fest did take place. In the next few pages I hope to give somewhat of an overview of the events that unfolded. I'll try to give as much in- formation as I can remember, but will of course leave out the most important details! :) On the Road: As in the past, we left from Missouri in the wee hours of the morning on Friday (04/30/99) and head- ed for Illinois. This early morning tactic will => ____________________________________________________ usually get you through the St. Louis morning rush hour, but that's about the only traffic avoided for the rest of the trip. We arrived near Chicago early Friday morning and spent most of the day visiting some friends and relatives in the immediate area. As we slowly headed for Elgin, we made a few brief stops along the way and generally took our time get- ting there. Unlike the previous year, the check-in time at the Elgin Plaza Hotel was a few hours later than usual. We decided to use this extra time up by going out to the Old Country Buffet in West Dundee, IL. After we finished eating lunch, we headed back to the hotel to get checked into our room. Later that afternoon, familiar faces began showing up around the parking lot and lobby. Last year we setup on Saturday morning, but this time we got a => ____________________________________________________ jump on things by setting up on Friday afternoon. This allowed us more time to fully prepare our booth and not have to be in such a rush on Saturday. This also made it possible to talk with several people prior to the actual Fest. After a long and somewhat productive day, we went off in search of dinner! The evening was spent chatting with others and generally just relaxing in the hotel lobby. Early Saturday morning (05/01/99) my father and I went out for an early morning breakfast at MCD's. When we returned back at the hotel, we noticed a rather "shady" looking man sitting outside the lock- ed exhibit hall. He looked as though he hadn't had any sleep and appeared to be exhausted..."Hey it's Ron Bull!":) Ron had apparently spent...(See PT.2)=* |
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.2) the night "burning the midnight oil" to make sure he arrived early Saturday morning in time to setup his booth! During the early morning hours, additional Vendors and Attendees began arriving, while others were doing last minute booth preparations. On a positive note, there was a small group of Fest goers starting to assemble outside the exhibit hall. It was indeed a small group, but thankfully there were people out there waiting to get in! :) Let the Festivities begin! When the doors were finally opened, the small but lively crowd moved into the showroom. They were => ____________________________________________________ greeted by a room full of Vendors with CoCo products to sell and interesting things to see! What follows is an alphabetical listing of the Vendors present: / Adventure Survivors / - L.E. & Nan Padgett were there representing their Adventure Survivors News- letter. A.S. is the only group of its kind which is solely dedicated to the CoCo Adventure Game player. Not only will A.S. help you succeed with your quest, they'll also cheer you up with a "Beanie Baby" if you should fail! :) / Bargeman Research Labs / - The first thing that comes to mind about Karl Sefcik is support! The list of individuals and entities that he's shown support for...continues to grow! If there's an upcoming => ____________________________________________________ Fest scheduled, you can bet Karl will be there to show his support! It's always a pleasure to talk with Karl at the Fests and I look forward to seeing him at the Penn Fest in August. (Go Red Wings!) :) / CJB Enterprises / - Carl Boll is a name familiar to many, especially those who've been following the development of the IDE Interface. Carl has devoted so much time to this project and continues to be a very important part of the Glenside CoCo Club. If you've ever read through the "CoCo List" online, you've surely seen Carl's efforts in helping other CoCo users with technical and other support. It's always nice to know that there are still individuals out there helping fellow CoCoers and still take time to share their knowledge with others. (See PT.3) =* |
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.3) / Cloud-9 / - When Mark Marlett's gears start turn-
ing, the end result is usually a new and innovative
piece of hardware for the CoCo. This year he unveil-
ed "The Protector" and the eagerly anticipated CoCo
3 SCSI Interface. Mark doesn't just develop great
hardware gadgets, he also knows how to deliver high
quality products at reasonable prices as well!
/ CoCo Friends Disk Magazine / - Oh boy, you should
have seen the two clowns running this booth! :)
Displayed on our two tables were products ranging
from OS-9 to RSDOS, which included the CoCoPro and
Sundog Systems product lines. We also had Nickolas
Marentes' Pac-man Tribute along with his Collection
Disk containing his past games. Other items avail-
able were Rick's CoCo Registry, Roger Hallman's =>
____________________________________________________
C-III Pages and of course subscriptions and renewals
to CFDM were available. Another nice addition to our
booth this year was Roger Hallman himself! (so there
were really three clowns running this booth! ) :)
Roger had on display his less than ordinary CoCo 3,
which had an IDE Interface card connected to it. Now
it's one thing to have one of these connected to a
CoCo, but he took it a step further by Installing
the Interface AND the mini Hard Drive INSIDE the
CoCo case itself! Oh, did I mention he was also us-
ing this machine to run a HICOLOR Slide Show via
"quick access" loads from the hard drive?! The Slide
Show featured pictures from past Fests and was a
welcome addition to our booth. Thanks Roger!
/ Color Computer Preservation Society / - CoCoPS =>
____________________________________________________
was there in an effort to support their Newsletter,
which is usually represented by Allen Huffman. Un-
fortunately Allen was unable to attend the Fest and
I can't recall who it was filling in for him?
/ FWD Computing / - Frank Davis and his wife are
certainly no strangers to "Classic Computers"! In
addition to supporting the CoCo, they also support
the Intel-Compatibles, MAC and Amiga! Frank told me
they had several "Classic Computer" shows booked
worldwide for 1999. One item he had that was inter-
esting, was a mouse pad featuring Sock Master's CoCo
Graphic on it. No matter where you travel in the
CoCo Community, Sock's little graphic is there!
That little picture sure gets around! :)
(See PT.4) =*
|
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.4) / Glenside CoCo Club / - The Fest organizer and long
time CoCo Community supporter had their booth in
full swing. Everything from Club Memberships to T-
shirts. One particularly neat item they had was a
small Calculator which had the Fest Logo imprinted
on it. Thanks Glenside for continuing to provide a
means of gathering for the CoCo enthusiast!
/ Hawksoft / - Chris & Nancy Hawks had a variety of
CoCo wares available, in addition they had MM1 Sup-
ort. It's always nice to see these friendly Fest
Veterans in attendance.
/ Kenneth Baker / - No more excuses about a failing
CoCo System! If your're in need of a brand new
"boxed" CoCo 3, Kenneth only has a few hundred =>
____________________________________________________
left! He can be contacted at: 161 West Main Cross
Street; Eldorado, OH 45321 for more information or
visit Stuart's "CoCo Swap" on the internet.
/ Lee Veal / - If your looking for CoCo Hardware or
Software, this was the place to get it. Lee always
has a good assortment of classic CoCo wares in his
booth, at resonable prices too! Lee's always fun to
talk with and it was good to see him again.
/ LUCKEY CORNER / - This "corner" may have been
"lucky" for some, but I never did get over to talk
to Howard Luckey or see what was going on in his
booth. I did get some nice pictures of it from afar!
/ MONK-O-WARE / - Brother Jeremy is always a nice =>
____________________________________________________
addition to a Fest. He had the OS-9 Level II Upgrade
available and also helped provide the musical enter-
tainment Saturday night.
/ Planet 9 Systems / - Boisy Pitre not only thinks
up ingenious new CoCo projects to undertake, he also
completes them! A fellow CoCo user who puts his
words and ideas into action, resulting in items such
as a ROMable OS-9 Boot Utility AND an OS-9 based
CoCo installed inside a pick-up truck (Coyota). What
I wouldn't give to see the look on the face of a
Toyota mechanic when this vehicle drove in for serv-
ice! Always good to see Boisy and looking forward to
seeing him at the Penn Fest August.
(See PT.5) =*
|
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.5) / Robert & George Bruhl / - These names are sure to
be familiar to you. Robert and George have been long
time CoCo users and have been active in both CFDM
and Glenside over the years. They decided that it
was time to move on, so they made their collection
of CoCo gear available at the Fest. I enjoyed meet-
ing them both and was glad to see fellow Missourians
at the Fest too!
/ Ron Bull / - As if organizing the Penn Fest wasn't
taking up enough of Ron's free time, he also made a
point of driving all the way to the Chicago Fest in
support of Glenside's activities. How about return-
ing the favor to Ron by attending his Penn Fest '99
or 2000 show, in support of his efforts and time! =>
____________________________________________________
/ SBUG / - Richard Albers had a nice assortment of
CoCo hardware and software in his booth. Richard
made the long trip all the way from California just
to be there!
/ STG.NET & BUYCOCO.COM / - Scott Griepentrog is an
"internet guru" running a fast growing computer net
that hosts the CoCoPS & Bull's Barn and MANY other
web sites of various interests. He also has a "clas-
sified ad" CoCo section for both buyers and sellers
alike, which also provides credit card services for
added convenience.
/ STRONGWARE / - John Strong is the author of clas-
sic games such as, "SOVIET BLOC" and "GEMS; and also
has products for the MM/1. He was unable to setup =>
____________________________________________________
a booth, but he and Don Adams were able to stop in
at the Fest in support. STRONGWARE also paid for the
"lunch cart" that was outside the showroom for Fest
goers, which was a very nice gesture! :)
/ Sub-Etha / - Allen Huffman is the author of "The
CoCoFEST! Chronicles" and is an active Fest partici-
pant. As mentioned earlier, he was unable to attend,
but he's sure to be at the next Fest!
/ The IDE Project / - Carl Boll and all the MANY
Glenside members that were involved in this project,
distributed the IDE Interface cards along with the
drivers and documentation...Yahoo! Thanks to ALL for
your tremendous effort on this project! (See PT.6)
=*
|
8th Chicago CoCo Fest (PT.6) / The Music Men / - Brian Schubring was running the
music with his "larger than life" CoCo setup! As in
the past years, music played during the day and com-
plimented the Musical Jam Session on Saturday Night.
/ The World of 68 Micros / - Stephen Disney is the
new Editor of 68 Micros and now distributes the
Farna Systems products among other things. He wasn't
able to make the Fest, but should be at the PA Fest.
That pretty much wraps up the Vendor portion of the
Fest. I managed to miss the seminars due to several
long conversations, which I kinda got caught up in.
Normally there is a Seminar listing in the Fest
Guide, but this year it was just posted outside the
showroom instead. I believe there were seminars on=>
____________________________________________________
the IDE Interface, Y2K and Roger Hallman showed off
his system and slide show. I'm sure that I've left
some out, but I imagine the next Glenside Newsletter
will have more information on the events. It won't
be long before pictures start appearing on people's
web pages as well.
All and all my father and I both had a good time and
will surely return to yet another Chicago Fest next
year. The only real downside to the Fest was the
small attendance. Brian Goers (Glenside President)
said that he's already working on the details for
next years Fest and that publicity will be one area
that get more attention next year! Glenside once
again did a fine job with the Fest and their con-
tinued effort to keep the CoCo and the Fest alive=>
____________________________________________________
is greatly appreciated by all who attended.
If you were unable to make this Fest, please do con-
sider coming to the Penn Fest in August. Without the
support of CoCo users, our Fests will quickly become
a thing of the past. Hope to see you there!
CFDM Members present at the Chicago Fest: Don Adams,
George Bethea, Robert & George Bruhl, Ron Bull,
Wally Grossman, Roger Hallman, L.E. & Nan Padgett,
Karl Sefcik and Joe Semenik. Thanks for the support
for CFDM and the Fest! Hope to see you all at Penn
Fest!
----------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to my dad for the enjoyable trip! :)
=*
|
Cloud-9 AT Keyboard Interface How many of you love to run your CoCo but still
prefer the layout and feel of an upscale PC key-
board? Bob Puppo once built an adapter that inter-
faced with an XT keyboard only but it cost around
$100 minus the keyboard. Frank Swygert later re-
vived it for a while at $75. By then, XT and XT/AT
switchable keyboards were beginning to get scarce
and AT-only keyboards were cheaper anyhow.
Now, Mark Marlette at Cloud-9 has come out with
an AT-only keyboard adapter for only $55 + $3 S&H.
What is even better, if you can remove the screws
to your CoCo case, you can install it! You merely
remove the CoCo keyboard cable from the connecter
and plug the approx. 2" X 3" board into it. There
are three wires with clips to connect in accordance
with very clear instructions. Finally, connect the=>
____________________________________________________
keyboard cable to the socket on the right side of
the board. The only tool you will need is a file or
cutter for a hole on the right side of the CoCo case
for the keyboard cable to pass through.
A nice touch for those of you who still miss
your CoCo keyboard, is that you can plug it in a
socket atop the adapter board. There is no inter-
ference problem between the two keyboards (as long
as you don't try to operate them both at once ....
.. then all bets are off).
The instruction manual is clear for both the in-
stallation and operating instructions. It explains
operations in both AT and CoCo modes and, also, how
to install macros using the function keys. An added
undocumented bonus for OS-9 users is that you can
also switch windows using the + key on the numeric=>
____________________________________________________
keypad.
The AT keyboard is well constructed and is a
bargain for you PC keyboard lovers. Incidentally,
you should not have to pay more than $15 for a good
AT keyboard if you shop around. If you already own
one, so much the better.
Contact: Mark Marlette
Cloud-9
3749 County Road 30
Delano, MN 55328
(612) 972-3261
=*
|
RICK'S PUZZLES Rick's Puzzles, which was part of his original
UNBELIEVABLE OFFER, is, in my opinion, one of the
best programs written for the CcCo. For the first
time, he shows pieces that LOOK like jigsaw pieces,
not squares as some previous programs have used.
PUZZLES works smoothly and has no bugs.
In addition to the original eight puzzles, Rick
has provided the means to generate your own puzzles.
I know of a few others who have adapted pictures to
be used in the program -- Godfrey Moll and Buck
Carden, to name a few. Many others with whom I have
corresponded are avid fans and have become hooked on
solving puzzles.
Adapting pictures to be used with the program is a
little complicated and tedious. For one thing, the
=>
____________________________________________________
palette of colors must have three slots which are
not used. And, since most pictures have utilized all
16 palette slots, some adjusting is necessary. For
instance, similar colors can be eliminated by using
a single color for both. And, if no other means is
possible, a color can be eliminated and a previously
used color can be substituted. Interestingly enough,
if even a single pixel is used with one of the three
reserved slots, the picture will be rejected when
creating the puzzle disk.
Issues #46 and #61 featured puzzles adapted by
Godfrey Moll from Jim Mills' digitized pictures. So,
those of you who have been with CFDM for a while
should be familiar with the PUZZLE program.
There are only a couple of minor problems. The
=>
____________________________________________________
flashing cursor for placing a piece in the puzzle is
small, and some have trouble seeing it. Another
problem, less noticeable, is that of randomization.
Every time you boot up the program it will start by
showing you the same piece, regardless of which
puzzle you select. Or, if you choose a random
picture in the menu, it will be the same every time.
A simple solution is to insert a program statement
to "reseed" the random number generator:
15 ZZ=RND(-TIMER).
As I said, these are minor annoyances and do not
detract from the enjoyment of solving the puzzles.
I have spent many pleasant hours with Rick's
PUZZLES, and I am not alone. So, congratulations to
Rick for a great program -- and MANY THANKS!
=*
|
| Articles in section: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS |
| CoCo
3 Emulator/OS9 Setup CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.2) CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.3) CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.4) |
| Back to top |
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup What follows is an account of how I setup OS9 on my
CoCo III Emulator v1.6. The Emulator is an excellent
product and should be used by everyone who likes the
Color Computer and has a PC. The first thing that
must be done is to make a complete print-out of the
file that comes with the Emulator called COCO3.DOC.
It is very well written and complete manual for us-
ing the Emulator and should be read in its entirety
before and while starting the Emulator.
I set up my Emulator in two directories: one I call-
ed COCO3X and the other OS9. In this way I can ac-
cess either RS DOS or OS9 from the C: prompt easily
via a simple BAT file which I will list later.
In the COCO3X directory I copied all the files on =>
____________________________________________________
the Emulator distribution disk. Then following the
instructions detailed in the manual (COCO3.DOC) I
set up the ROM files to run my Extended ADOS 3 (or
regular RS DOS) and any RS DOS or DISK BASIC appli-
cations. It is in this directory I set up all my
"virtual disks" including all my OS9 virtuals. (More
about the OS9 virtuals later.)
Once all the CoCo (or ADOS) ROM images are set up
(again well covered in the manual) all CoCo funct-
ions including OS9 can be run from this directory.
OS9 can be run by typing the customary "DOS" command
from basic. To run the CoCo from the DOS C: prompt
I wrote the following simple BAT files I named
COCO.BAT and placed it in the C: directory:
=>
____________________________________________________
*Note replace "/" with a backslash on the PC.
----------------------------------------------------
@echo off
cd/coco3x
coco3x
cd/
This will return you to the C: prompt after quitting
the Emulator. If you would rather stay in the COCO3X
directory the last line can be eliminated. Staying
in the COCO3X directory will allow you to backup
virtual disks onto floppies via the dskini command
in the COCO3X directory. However, it is often more
convenient to write, copy, or backup to floppies
right from disk basic because...(See pt.2) =*
|
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.2) you can work with individual files on a floppy disk while still in the Emulator. However, after quitting the Emulator you are left only with the option of doing a complete backup of a floppy to virtual disk or from virtual disk to floppy. Individual files on either type disk cannot be accessed from DOS. After setting up the OS9 directory I also copied all the files on the Emulator distribution disk to that directory, just as I did for the COCO3X directory. However, I neither set up nor copied any virtual disks to this directory for reasons I will explain later. In the Emulator is a file named OS9BOOT.MOR. By re- naming this file as described in the manual, => ____________________________________________________ you can start the Emulator booting immediately into OS9 without needing the ROM images that RS DOS re- quires. Again, for this purpose I use a file named OS9.BAT which is placed in the C: directory as fol- lows: *Note replace "/" with a backslash on the PC. ---------------------------------------------------- @echo off cd/os9 coco3x cd/coco3x I also keep a copy of this BAT file in the COCO3X directory in case I want to start OS9 from there. This time, after quitting the Emulator you are => ____________________________________________________ placed in the COCO3X directory so that virtual disks can be backed up. Unlike the Emulator running RS- DOS, the Emulator running OS9 will not read from or write to a floppy disk. It will read from and write to virtual disks perfectly. Even though there may be no virtual disks in the OS9 directory, the Emu- lator will automatically seek the virtual disks in the COCO3X directory. This way, all virtual disks can be stored in one directory and can be accessed by both the OS9 and COCO3X directories. Another consideration in setting up OS9 on the Emu- lator is the fact that the Emulator will only read single sided floppies. So any OS9 disk that is copi- ed over to a virtual disk must be single sided. On the other hand, virtual disks can...(See pt.3) =* |
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.3) be formatted 40 or 80 track so that more data can be stored on one virtual disk. (However, an 80 track virtual disk must run in a virtual drive that has an OS9 80 track descriptor in memory for that drive. More about this later.) OS9 Level 2 can run at least three drives, so I set up my boot file to initialize /d0 as a 40 track double sided drive, /d1 as an 80 track single sided, and /d2 as a 40 track single. This way my boot-up and executables are in /d0, I can use either 40 or 80 track single sided disks in my data drives /d1 and /d2. These disks are readable both by the Emulator and the real CoCo. (If you or anyone needs drive descriptors let me know. I should either have them or can write one as needed. It then just becomes a matter of installing them in the bootfiles.) => ____________________________________________________ Setting the system up can be a bit confusing. Most OS9 systems on a real CoCo run double sided disks. To set up the same system on the Emulator requires these disks to be changed to single sided so the Emulator can read them. Then they can be changed back to double sided once in the virtual disk sys- tem. The original disks to boot the Emulator into OS9 must be prepared on a real CoCo. First a copy of 'os9boot' has to be placed on a newly formatted single sided sided OS9 disk with 'cobbler' or 'os9gen'. Then a startup file transferred to it, then a CMDS directory. In the commands directory must be 'format', 'shell', 'grfdrv', 'cobbler' and 'dsave' or 'wcopy' if you have it. (Actually anyone serious about OS9 really must have Level II Tools and Tools II by Keith Alphonso and at least the => ____________________________________________________ 'copy' utility from the Goldberg Utilities.) In ad- dition to this any additional commands or files that you can add to fill the single sided disk is fine. This disk can then be transferred to the COCO3X dir- ectory via the 'retrieve' command. Now you have a bootable virtual disk which if designated as D0 when the Emulator comes up will get you into OS9. Bear in mind that the same descriptors will be placed in memory in the Emulator as would be placed in memory on a real CoCo. At this point I formatted another virtual disk on the Emulator, from within OS9, as a double sided 40 track disk. Next I made the disk into a boot disk using 'cobbler' and copying all the ...(see pt.4) =* |
CoCo 3 Emulator/OS9 Setup (pt.4) files and directories from the original single sided virtual boot disk. (Once you verify that OS9 will boot with the new double sided disk the single sided boot disk can be deleted from MS DOS.) After that, I brought over the rest of the files from my original CoCo double sided disk and copied them on to my new double sided virtual boot disk. (Again this is accomplished by making a single sided disk on the CoCo, transferring it over to a single sided virtual disk with 'retrieve', then copying the files to the permanent double sided virtual disk from with in OS9 and deleting the single sided virtual disk from MS DOS.) This ultimately gave me a virtual boot disk identical to the CoCo boot disk I started with. But remember that the characteristics of all the drives on the Emulator will be determined by the => ____________________________________________________ descriptors in memory. So you cannot format a drive on the Emulator that you do not have a descriptor for in memory. For data disks (/d1 and /d2) that I want to be com- patible both with the Emulator and the CoCo I always format as single sided so they are easily transferr- ed back and forth between the two. At this point you may ask what is the advantage of setting up two Emulator directories in the first place. Well, one major advantage is the ability to leave a boot-program virtual disk in D0 with most or all of your program files, utilities, procedure files, dictionaries, etc. and just about never have to change it. A large virtual disk such as a => ____________________________________________________ double sided 80 track can be formatted and used as the boot disk and such a disk can hold an enormous amount of OS9 files. Better yet now with the Emulat- or v1.6, Mr. Vavasour gives us a virtual hard drive along with the utilities (driver and descriptor) to set it up. Now a "hard drive boot disk" can be made, placed in virtual drive D0 and left there just about permanently. From this the virtual hard drive can be accessed and once done becomes the default drive after bootup. This may seem to be a bit of commotion to get the Emulator set up to do OS9, but it is well, well worth the effort once it is set up. I have been using my Emulator this way for quite a while and have found it to be very efficient and enjoyable. =* |
