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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #70 | 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 DISK DIRECTORY (#32) CONTENTS...PART 1 (i70) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i70) CONTENTS...PART 3 (i70) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i70) |
| Back to top |
ABOUT THIS MONTH'S COVER I'll have to admit, when I did this picture, I
had in mind our Friends down under -- particularly,
Keiran Kenny and Nickolas Marentes.
=*
|
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
* ARIEL .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* CFDMSEND.NIB.............ART GALLERY
* DINO .NIB.............POTPOURRI
* FACE .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* HICK201 .NIB.............ART GALLERY
LEAN .BAS....RUN......POTPOURRI
* MARVIN .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* MONARCH .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* MRBUSY .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* MRCHTRBX.NIB.............ART GALLERY =>
____________________________________________________
* MRFUNNY .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* MiGe5 .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* MiGe6 .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* NIBLOADR.BIN.............Used by NIBSHOW.BAS
NIBSHOW .BAS....RUN......ART GALLERY
* PEPPYLE .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* POWELL .NIB.............ART GALLERY
* SCREEN05.NIB.............Used by LEAN.BAS
* SCREEN09.NIB.............Used by STORY.BAS
* SHUTDOWN.NIB.............ART GALLERY
STORY .BAS....RUN......POTPOURRI
- SIDE 2 -
-- NAME..........COMMAND...SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
* AQUARIUM.NIB.............Used by RICK'S PUZZLES
BOOT .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH =>
____________________________________________________
* COYOTE .NIB.............Used by
* DRAGON .NIB............. RICK'S PUZZLES
* NIBLOADR.BIN.............Used by NIBSHOW.BAS
* OVERLAY .NIB.............
* PAGODRAG.NIB............. ALL
* PUZDAT .DAT.............
* PUZTITLE.NIB............. FILES
* PUZZLE1 .NIB.............
* PUZZLE2 .NIB............. USED
* RAINYDAY.NIB.............
* SEQ0 .DAT............. BY
* SEQ1 .DAT.............
* SWITCH .BIN............. RICK'S
* VILLAGE .NIB.............
* WINDOW .NIB............. PUZZLES
* WIZ-OZ .NIB............. =*
|
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
"ABOUT CFDM"
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
ABOUT THIS ISSUE
ABOUT THIS MONTH'S COVER
BONUS DISK DIRECTORY (#32)
CONTENTS...PART 1 (i70)
CONTENTS...PART 2 (i70)
CONTENTS...PART 3 (i70)
PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i70)
ACTIVE COCO
** PENN FEST 2000 Pictures **
10th "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST!
PennFest 2000 Photos Online =>
____________________________________________________
Post PennFest 2000 Activities
WHERE TO SEND SUBMISSIONS
ADVERTISEMENTS
BUNCH OF GOODIES DISK SET
C-III PAGES DESKTOP PUBLISHING
CoCoNUTS by: Nickolas Marentes
GATE CRASHER - NOW AVAILABLE
Other Nickolas Marentes Products
Select OS-9 Tools & Utilities
Software from Sundog
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
COCO CHRONICLES 20
PENNFEST 2000 REPORT
Slay the Mouse =>
____________________________________________________
The Hardware Store
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY
** LAKE POWELL **
ARIEL: The Little Mermaid
BUSY, CHATTERBOX & FUNNY
Did Jim Davis send you?
MONARCH BUTTERFLY
Marvin the Martian
My face
Peppy LePue
The Hick Brothers
The Millennium Generation
VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY
(SEE PART 2) =*
|
FAMILY TREE Glenside Picnic - Successful! Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.I Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.II FORUM ** PC CONNECTIONS ** A New Hardware Project Idea I A New Hardware Project Idea II NEW HARDWARE PROJECT IDEAS NEW PRODUCT? PART I NEW PRODUCT? PART II RE: NEW COCO PRODUCT? RE: NEW HARDWARE PROJECT IDEAS FROM THE EDITOR => ____________________________________________________ CFDM UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2000 Christmas Card Project '00 Footnote on the Diskette KUDOS FOR ISSUE #70 News from the Net Sep-Oct '00 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A Message from Roger Hallman A note from John Schuster Greetings from Grizzly MAIL BAG EXCERPTS Support from Herb Forger POTPOURRI DOOFUS Grizzly Enterprises T-Shirt => ____________________________________________________ LEAN MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC Purple Dinosaurs...YIKES! The PC shutdown screen PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 1 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 2 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 3 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 4 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 5 ADVENTURE MAPPER 2 ANIMATE for 6432EDIT ANIMATE for 6432EDIT Notes Fontedit for 6432EDIT Fontedit for 6432EDIT Notes (SEE PART 3) =* |
PUZZLE MANIA
PennFest 2000 & Mugsters
REVIEWS
BASH
BASH (Continued)
WEDNESDAY NIGHT FIRETALK
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
"BOB PUPPO" XT Keyboard Adapter
Black and White on CM-8?
CoCo 3 Cooling Fan
CoCo Voice Chat Session
IDE BOOT DISK DILEMMA
What's your Favorite CoCo Game?
=*
|
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
6432EDIT.BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* 6432EDIT.DOC.............Used by 6432EDIT.BAS
* ANIMATE .ASM.............Used by ANIMATE.BAS
ANIMATE .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* ANIMATE .BIN.............Used by
* ANIMATE .DOC............. ANIMATE.BAS
BLUESHOE.BIN...LOADM.....POTPOURRI
* DATAPOKE.BAS.............Used by 6432EDIT.BAS
DREAM .BIN...LOADM.....POTPOURRI
* FONT1 .BIN............. Used
* FONT2 .BIN............. by =>
____________________________________________________
* FONT3 .BIN............. FONTEDIT.BAS
FONTEDIT.BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* FONTEDIT.DOC.............Used by FONTEDIT.BAS
* HIGHSPED.BIN.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* LARGLETR.BAS.............Used by FONTEDIT.BAS
MAPPER2 .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* MEMMAP .TXT.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* NOTES .TXT.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
PEN2K .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* PEN2K .BIN.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
PENN2000.BAS....RUN......ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* PENN2000.TXT.............Used by PENN2000.BAS
PERSNLTY.BIN...LOADM.....POTPOURRI
RCKROUND.BIN...LOADM.....POTPOURRI
* ROUTINES.ASM.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* ROUTINES.BIN.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH =>
____________________________________________________
THEMEN .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* THEMEN .BIN.............PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
THETWO .BAS....RUN......PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
TLK2MUCH.BIN...LOADM.....POTPOURRI
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| **
PENN FEST 2000 Pictures ** 10th "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST! PennFest 2000 Photos Online Post PennFest 2000 Activities WHERE TO SEND SUBMISSIONS |
| Back to top |
** PENN FEST 2000 Pictures ** If you would like to see the few pictures that I
took while attending PennFest 2000 go to:
http://www.picturetrail.com/gjmoll
They are located in Album 4.
I certainly enjoyed the 20th Anniversary Celebration
with my good friends Nick and Jim!!!
CoCoNut Godfrey
GJMOLL@aol.com
=*
|
10th "Last" Chicago
CoCoFEST! The Glenside Color Computer Club, Inc.
Sponsor of the
TENTH Annual "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST!
MAY 5th & 6th, 2001
Same familiar Place
Known as the Elgin RAMADA INN
The Glenside Color Computer Club
http://members.aol.com/clubbbs/glenside
=*
|
PennFest 2000 Photos Online Hi folks.
I've put up a web page where you can find 114 photos
that I took with my digital camera at this years
PennFest 2000. You can find the photos at:
http://cocostuff.stg.net/
I've resized all the photos to a more web friendly
format. I wanted to do a bit more than just the
usual collection of photos so I also put comments
under each photo. This way you can get a better
idea of what actually happened at the fest. All the
photos are in chronological order and dated so you
can also know which day of the fest each photo was
from. The first ones start from our drive to the =>
____________________________________________________
fest, then Friday's fest setup, followed by
Saturday's fest opening, to Sunday's fest closing.
I tried to get all the names right, but if I made
any mistakes or omissions, please leave me an email
to let me know so that I could fix them. If you're
writing, please let me know which pictures need to
be fixed with somthing like:
Page 3, photo 4 - comment. Or you could right click
the photo to get its file name and I could work with
that too.
If there are other PennFest 2000 photo pages out
there, let me know too so I could put a link to
your page from mine. - John Kowalski (Sock Master)
http://www.axess.com/twilight/sock/ =*
|
Post PennFest 2000 Activities I have scanned all my photos as well as received all
of John Kowalski's excellent photos he took with his
digital camera.
I have taken video footage (which was from my PAL
based video camera) and captured most of the best
parts and have almost finished converting the files
to MPG format for greater compression.
I started late after getting back from the Fest. It
was a long flight and when I finally did get back to
Australia, I had a severe case of jet lag for a week
and had no energy for anything. I also had 2 weeks
worth of work piled up for me to catch up on.
As for the MPG video, I plan to expand the Fest =>
____________________________________________________
report with video footage (over 1 hours worth!),
possibly as a HTML page so that it is viewable on
both PC and MAC (when you click on a MPG, the OS
will open its media player...I hope!) and I will
attempt to compile a multimedia presentation using
a low cost authoring package I have purchased. This
will only be PC.
I will sell this on CD (it will almost fill a CD)
for about $10 each to cover CD, postage and other
expenses.
So, the Fest may be over...but I'm still busy!
- Nick
=*
|
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@mindspring.com
Help continue to make CFDM possible by sending in
your submission today!!
=*
|
BUNCH OF GOODIES DISK SET Bunch of Goodies - CoCo 3 Disk Basic Programs
---------------------------------------------
Includes:
- The Projector 2.1 and enhancement files
- The Projector 2.0
- Spider-Hype: musical arcade game
- Pelieti: maze race game
- Plunk: disc drop game
- 5 HPRINT: fonts
- Wake-Up: floppy disk reviver
- Super-Mac: best MAC picture viewer for the CoCo
- The CoCo Dancer: fun demo
- Wild-Copy: wildcard COPY command patch for DECB2.1
- Auto-DOS: disk utility/patch =>
____________________________________________________
- Sample picture disk for Projector viewers
AND MORE...
Write to: Roger Taylor
810 Columbia 47
Magnolia, AR 71753
ONLY $3.00 (Three Dollars)
And you may pay after you receive your disks, if you
like.
Roger Taylor
CoCoTower@webtv.net
=*
|
C-III PAGES DESKTOP PUBLISHING ==========================================
* THE PREMIER DESKTOP PUBLISHING PROGRAM *
==========================================
=================
= C-III Pages =
=================
What is C-III Pages? C-III Pages is a program that
pulls together TEXT and GRAPHICS and gives one on
screen tools to format and layout the content. C-III
Pages has easy to use pull down menus, icons and
dialog boxes. It also has many useful drawing tools,
such as boxes, lines, polygons, rays, circles,
elipses, brush shapes or free draw.
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!!! =>
____________________________________________________
You can also cut, copy, stamp or paste, flip,
enlarge, reduce, rotate, stretch, import any ASCII,
text, create columns, change fonts or invert text.
With C-III Pages you'll be able to create great
--> PAGES
--> FORMS
--> FLYERS
--> DOCUMENTS
--> GREETING CARDS
--> HANDOUT MATERIAL
--> AND CLUB MAGAZINES
Supports: MAX-10, PMODE1-4, Color Max 3, Color Max
Deluxe, RAT, Digitizer and now BMP! =>
____________________________________________________
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------
- CoCo 3 w/128k/512k
- RGB or Composite/Monochrome Monitor
- A Minimum of 1 disk drive (two recommended)
- RSDOS, ADOS3, EXTENDED ADOS3, OWLDOS, 1meg Upgrade
- Tandy Hi-Res Joystick Interface
- Joystick or Mouse (mouse recommended)
- Printer, Epson, Gemini, Panasonic, DMP 105/106,
NX-1000 Series, CGP-220 b/w and others.
PRICE: $20 + $2 shipping for (3)Disks/55 page manual
Send check or money order to: JIM DAVIS
P.O. BOX 1704
NIXA, MO. 65714 =*
|
CoCoNUTS by: Nickolas Marentes CoCoNUTS - "Interviews with people who helped shape
the CoCo".
This book has interviews with the following people:
ALAN DEKOK - Nitros09, Smash
CHET SIMPSON - Gold Runner, Digger II
DALE LEAR - Fire Copter, Color Baseball, Scripsit II
DAVE EDSON - Tube Frenzy, Catch'em, Planet Raiders
ERIC CRICHLOW - Gold Runner 2000, Pro Gold Runner
ERIK GAVRILUK - Color Max, Color Max Deluxe
GLEN DAHLGREN - Sundog Software
GREG MILLER - Color Max, Color Max Deluxe
GREG L. ZUMWALT - Star Blaze, Malcom Mortar, RoBoCop
JEREMY SPILLER - Zenix, Crystal City
JOHN KOWALSKI - Boink Demo, Gloom Demo =>
____________________________________________________
KEVIN K. DARLING - Inside OS-9 Level II, Lvl.3 Upgrd
MARK SEIGEL - Tandy Head of CoCo 3 Development
RICK ADAMS - Temple of ROM, Shanghai, Delphiterm
STEVE HARTFORD - Sam Sleuth, Franchise, Maui Vice
Read about their development days, why they chose
the CoCo, secret "behind-the-scenes" info, and what
they are doing now.
This book is 118 pages and features many photos and
screenshots.
Only a limited number of books remain, so get yours
while supplies last. Available directly from Jim
Davis for the reasonable price of $15 + $3 s/h.
=*
|
GATE CRASHER - NOW AVAILABLE GATE CRASHER is a "Wolf3D" style game featuring full
360 degree 3D environment, explosive 2 channel digi-
tal interrupt driven sound and five levels of the
hottest action seen in a CoCo game for years!
GAME SCENARIO - It is an era of high technology,
an era of perfection, an era of the mind enhancing
Brain Implant Devices. Small microcontrollers im-
planted into the human skull acting as a "co-proc-
essor" to the brain. With this device, a persons
abilities are enhanced while disabilities removed.
Millions of people worldwide have undergone surgery
to have a device installed and reap the benefits of
an improved lifestyle.
"He who controls the mind, controls the world." =>
____________________________________________________
But there is now evidence to prove that there is
more to these devices than creating the perfect
human. Leaked information has revealed that each
implant has a means of remote control via the inter-
net providing a low orbit satellite system also own-
ed by the same company creating these implants. This
has been found to be used as a form of mind control
allowing the CEO of the company to control things
such as the outcome of an election, the buying
habits of consumers, even to invoke death!
You are the Gate Crasher and it is time to crash
this party, destroy all the computer data and defeat
the evil CEO himself!
=>
____________________________________________________
GAME REQUIREMENTS - A Tandy Color Computer 3 with
512K RAM and a disk drive.
This game WILL NOT run under the emulator due to
limitations in the emulator's CoCo 3 hardware emu-
lation.
PURCHASING INFORMATION - The full commercial game is
available for sale via Jim Davis for the reasonable
price of $20US. Jim is taking orders NOW!
Jim Davis
PO BOX 1704
Nixa, MO 65714
http://www.mindspring.com/-gearboxed/
("-" = Tilde Symbol) =*
|
Other Nickolas Marentes Products ----------------------------------------
- Pac-Man - "A Tribute to the Classic" -
----------------------------------------
If you haven't had a chance to pick up this great
game by Nickolas Marentes yet, now's your chance!
Nickolas has this game specially priced at only $15!
So here's your change to get a great game at an even
more affordable price! Help support the continued
development of CoCo 3 games by ordering yourself a
copy today!
REQUIREMENTS:
CoCo 3 w/512K, RGB/CMP Monitor, Disk
Drive and Joystick (Keyboard support).=>
____________________________________________________
------------------------------------------------
- The Nickolas Marentes Collection "1984-1992" -
------------------------------------------------
FIVE Complete games for your CoCo, all on one easy
load "flippie" disk!
Collection includes:
- Donut Dilemma
- Neutroid 2
- Rupert Rythym
- Space Intruders
- Cosmic Ambush
=>
____________________________________________________
Also includes the original color artwork as used for
distribution at Tandy Australia and some "special"
souvenirs for only $5!
To order Pac-Man or The Collection Disk, send check/
money order to:
JIM DAVIS
PO BOX 1704
NIXA, MO 65714
=*
|
Select OS-9 Tools &
Utilities + LEVEL II TOOLS - A collection of tools for use in
the OS-9 environment that helps simplify tasks and
create more productivity. - $5
+ TOOLS II - A set of 27 useful tools for the OS-9
Level II user. Contains utilities for: windowing
features, easier use of file management, changes
and conversions, multitasking, more power and flexi-
bility in writing script files, I/O system control
and a full feature command line calculator. - $5
+ DISK MANAGER TREE - A comprehensive file manage-
ment for your OS-9 disks, with a graphic "Tree dis-
play". Works with any type of OS-9 disk device, such
as Ramdisks, Harddisks, Floppies, etc. - $5
=>
____________________________________________________
+ THE ZAPPER - A utility that allows you to patch
files as well as entire disks directly. Displays
files in a format similar to the dump command that
comes with OS-9. Edit the file or disk in either
hexadecimal or ASCII. - $5
+ MULTI MENU - A Multi-View compatible menu utility
that allows you to define your own menus for use in
the Multi-View environment. - $5
+ DATA WINDOWS - A complete database handling pack-
age for the CoCo 3. Allows you to create and main-
tain databases on your CoCo with windows. - $5
+ DATA MERGER - A document processing system that
allows you to incorporate Data Windows Data into =>
____________________________________________________
your documents. The documents can be created with
any OS-9 word processor. - $5
+ PRESTO PARTNER - A full featured NOTE PAD, CALEN-
DAR, PHONE BOOK, with CLOCK and MACRO-KEYS. - $5
+ NEWSPAPER09 - A full featured DeskTop Publishing
package for the CoCo 3 and OS-9 Level 2. Add graph-
ics, arrange story blocks and type up articles. Uses
an easy to follow assembly line approach for ease of
use. *Includes NEWS FONTS, a set of 20 new fonts all
in one complete package. - $8
To Order, send check/money order to: JIM DAVIS
Please be sure to include PO BOX 1704
$2 s/h for entire order. NIXA, MO 65714 =*
|
Software from Sundog Games from Sundog Systems:
--------------------------
o CRYSTAL CITY (action/arcade)
o PHOTON (puzzle/strategy)
o ZENIX (action/arcade)
o THE CONTRAS (action/arcade)
o QUEST FOR THELDA (action/adventure)
o IN QUEST OF THE STARLORD (adventure)
o KYUM-GAI (RSDOS) (action/fighting)
o KYUM-GAI (OS-9) (action/fighting)
o WARRIOR KING (action/fighting)
o WAR MONGER (wargame/simulation)
Applications from Sundog Systems:
---------------------------------
o GRAFEXPRESS 2.0 (programming/development) =>
____________________________________________________
o SOUNDTRAX (sound sequencing system)
o SOUNDTRAX INSTRUMENT DISK SET (requires SOUNDTRAX)
All of the above listed application and game titles
are only $5ea. + $2 s/h for entire order.
To order, send check/money order to:
JIM DAVIS
PO BOX 1704
NIXA, MO 65714
=*
|
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| COCO
CHRONICLES 20 PENNFEST 2000 REPORT Slay the Mouse The Hardware Store |
| Back to top |
COCO CHRONICLES 20 THE TENTH YEAR (Jul'89-Jun'90) Continued...
Mar'90: Coverage of Oct. Rainbowfest in New Jersey
Ad for Chicago Rainbowfest (Apr.6-8) ment-
ions Oct.20-22'89?? as the TENTATIVE date
for New Jersey Rainbowfest!?
Kenneth Leigh (of Washington, DC) announces
MS-DOS based CoCo for the 90s!?
Apr'90: Chicago Rainbowfest! (06-09) CoCoPro! debuts
with ads for "gently used software".
May'90: Rainbow magazine down to 100 pages.
Jun'90: Last Rainbow with flat binding (100 pages).
Frank Hogg announces "TOMCAT". ("CoCo of the
90s"??)
THE ELEVENTH YEAR (Jul'90-Jun'91) =>
____________________________________________________
Jul'90: Ad appears for MM/1 computer (The CoCo of
the 90s!?!)
Aug'90: In an ad for the MM/1 computer, reference is
made to "Atlanta CoCofest" on October 6&7,
1990? Lonnie Falk announces decision to drop
NJ Rainbowfest and just have one big meeting
in Chicago.
Sep'90:
Oct'90: COMPUTER ISLAND runs its last ads.
Nov'90: SPECTROSYSTEM starts bi-monthly ads in Rain-
bow.
Dec'90:
Jan'91:
Feb'91: MICROCOM ads down to 2 pages.
Mar'91: Rainbow down to 84 pages. =>
____________________________________________________
Apr'91:
May'91:
Jun'91:
THE TWELFTH YEAR (Jul'91-Jun'92)
Jul'91: Rainbow down to 68 pages and 23 advertisers.
Aug'91: Lonnie Falk reviews "RAINBOWfest" of April,
1991.
Sep'91:
Oct'91:
Nov'91: Rainbow down to 52 pages and 20 advertisers.
Dec'91: Art Flexer (ADOS) runs last ad for SPECTRO-
SYSTEMS.
Jan'92:
Feb'92: Last Rainbow with magazine format (52 pgs.)*
|
PENNFEST 2000 REPORT View text file associated with this article PennFest 2000 was held at the Holiday Inn in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania on August 19, 2000. A two day event that brought "CoCo" users together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tandy Color Computer. In this issue of CFDM you'll find my report on the event as seen from its co-organis- er, Nickolas Marentes who flew in from Australia to attend. Also coming soon, The PennFest 2000 CD that will contain many photos as well as 600mb (over 1 hour) worth of MPEG video footage from the fest. This will be available via mail order for $10 each. (RUN "PENN2000.BAS" on side 2 of this disk to read Nickolas' PennFest 2000 Report.) =* |
Slay the Mouse I'm a gentle guy. I don't belong to any animal
rights organizations, but my wife has to threaten
me with divorce to get me to kill a spider on the
ceiling and it hurts me to see any living creature
suffer. However, there is one animal I would give
my entire CoCo collection to grasp by the neck be-
tween my index and my thumb and squeeze hard. I'm
referring, of course, to the frenetic mouse on Jim
Davis' web site. I believe that, if many of you
feel as I do, we should band together and take some
kind of action to still the little beast. One way
would be to send Jim some poisoned cheese to feed
it, however he may nibble some himself and that is
not part of the plan. One might also hack into Jim's
site and tie a noose around the little devil's neck.
There is also the possibility of contacting Jim's =>
____________________________________________________
namesake and introducing Garfield to the rodent.
Whatever the solution, we should have a right
to enter Jim's web page without being hypnotized
by a manic mirage of a mangy mouse (how's that for
a great alliteration?). Also, we should all be
in on this plan together so that we won't hang sep-
erately. Sorry, Jim, but we MUST slay the mouse!
=*
|
The Hardware Store I'm writing this while the SCSI hard drive on my
Grizzly CoCo is being restored to its normal self by
a backup ZIP cartridge. Learned a lesson at the Penn
Fest by disconnecting the ZIP drive late on Sunday,
then rebooting the system. This left the SCSI chain
without any termination and, in my case, introduced
an error 213 NON EXISTING SEGMENT, which just means
that the file structure of the hard drive was clob-
bered.
The 128k printer buffer I wrote of in issue #68 is
back in the latest MECI catalog for $24.95. This is
a bargain and it fits inside a regular CoCo case. I
want to thank Ron Bull & Nick Marentes for putting
on a whale of a PennFest! Also thanks to Nick and
Sockmaster for helping me troubleshoot my Disto 2mb
board. We never did get to the root of the problem,>
____________________________________________________
but we narrowed it down and "Sock" gave me a "quick
memcheck" program to work with. More thanks to fel-
low Yankee Dave Poitras for taking some of the heat
off me by being (almost) as boistrous as I was.
Susan really has to be a saint!! Thanks, also, to
Kevin Darling who spent nearly an hour checking out
GrizzlyMate and answering my questions about the OS9
Upgrade. Turns out that much of what Brother Jeremy
has been selling is merely for the "official" Tandy
offering which had to meet a 128k RAM limitation.
Kevin kept some of his fancier work, which required
512k, in his Denver home. He is going to ship them
to Brother Jeremy when he eventually returns there.
Mark Hawkins deserves thanks, too, for autographing
my "3 amigos" shirt while I was still in it.
It was great to see some of the "old" faces again=>
____________________________________________________
such as Cal Wilcox, Godfrey Moll, Jim Davis, Dick
Albers, James Jones, Paul Zibalia, Allen Huffman,
etc. The absence of Mark Marlette, Boisy Pitre,
Muriel Moll and the Chicago Mafia was sadly noted.
Several people who were due to appear, but didn't
were Alfredo Santos and Charles Scanlon. I wanted to
meet Al Santos because of his enduring presence over
the life of the CoCo and Charles because he is the
only other CT citizen that I know of still active
with the CoCo. We've never met, but about twice a
year while driving through Simsbury, I'll tell my
wife, "Let's stop off at Eagle Lane and see Charlie
Scanlon". Needless to say, we never did.
All in all, PennFest 2000 was a really great time
and a fitting sendoff for the CoCo community!
=*
|
** LAKE POWELL **
My art work does not do justice to the beauty of
Lake Powell. This would be a view of Wahweap Bay as
seen from Wahweap Lodge -- with only one houseboat.
In real life there are as many as 50 houseboats in
this area of the huge lake. Families spend their
vacations floating into the many canyons created by
Glen Canyon Dam that formed Lake Powell, named after
the famous explorer.
Muriel and I have taken sunset dinner cruises in
this part of the lake in the comfort of an authentic
paddlewheeler, THE COPPER KING!
When we visit the area we stay in Page, Arizona
and do day trips to see The Wonders of Nature, the
Grand Canyon South rim is only 138 miles away -- one
of our favorite places to visit in the U.S. Page, AZ
is 381 miles from Albuquerque, NM. =>
____________________________________________________
Day tour boats will take you to Antelope Canyon,
Navajo Canyon or Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge
is 50 miles by water and is an all day tour.
God willing, Muriel and I will be in Page, AZ
from September 12th to the 17th and then back home
by way of Taos, NM where we will visit Carol & Randy
who have The Brooks Street Inn.
Misty, our Mercury Grand Marquis, will transport
us to see these wonders of the world. In our trip to
Williamsburg, VA in July, we got 29.8 miles per gal.
-- Just bragging a little.
ENJOY THE VIEW OF LAKE POWELL!
Godfrey - GJMOLL@AOL.COM
(You'll find POWELL.NIB on side 1 of the Bonus Disk,
use NIBSHOW.BAS to view it.) =*
|
ARIEL: The Little Mermaid
Well, I figured since most of the time my drawings consist of characters that drool, have their tongues hanging out, or in some way reflect a very low form of intelligence, that it was time to redeem myself with a bit more "culture". Alas, the end result has turned out to probably be my most ambitious drawing in CoCo Max to date. I hope you'll agree, as I put a fair amount of time into this one. I used a small toy purse as my drawing model (and NO it wasn't MY purse...didn't match my shoes anyway!) It took about 10 days to draw the picture, working on it a little bit each night. I was very pleased with the final drawing and felt the time was well spent when it was finished. I hope you enjoy it! (See side 1 of the Bonus Disk for ARIEL.NIB) =* |
BUSY, CHATTERBOX & FUNNY
Well, it's time for yet another installment of Pre-
School Art...err..I mean Refrigerator Art...DANG...
I mean ART GALLERY!
Here are three additional characters from the Mr.Men
series to view on your CoCo. They're quick little
pictures to draw and very colorful. Here's a brief
background of the characters in this installment:
MR. BUSY - As his name might conclude, Mr. Busy is
always doing something and keeping him-
self "Busy". He does things ten times
faster than most, so he's ALWAYS BUSY!
----------------------------------------------------
MR. CHATTERBOX - If you've only got a minute to
talk, Mr. Chatterbox probably has=>
____________________________________________________
an HOUR! He'll talk to anybody and
everything. He'll go on and on and
on. When he can't find anyone else
to talk to, he'll just talk to him-
self!
----------------------------------------------------
MR. FUNNY - When Mr. Funny is around, he'll certain-
ly be trying to make someone laugh or
smile. If you see Mr. Funny driving down
the road you'll surely have a laugh...
his car is shaped like a shoe!
----------------------------------------------------
Now for the TECHNICAL details associated with these
pictures, oh wait...there aren't any! :)
(See side 1 of the Bonus Disk for MRBUSY.NIB,
MRCHTRBX.NIB and MRFUNNY.NIB) =*
|
Did Jim Davis send you?
With the software industry constantly treading into
murky waters, is this going to be an image from the
future? Before you vigorously shake your head, keep
looking at the picture....
(Select CFDMSEND in NIBSHOW on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk.
=*
|
MONARCH BUTTERFLY
Butterflies are always colorful. This is a
picture I found of the common Monarch butterfly. As
is often the case, my source was a calendar. My wife
and I are usually inundated with them, but occasion-
ally, they are put to good use!
(Select MONARCH in NIBSHOW on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk.)
=*
|
Marvin the Martian
CoCo Friends Disk Magazine's most distant subscriber
is pretty ticked off that Jim Davis is ending the
magazine.
(See side 1 of the Bonus Disk for MARVIN.NIB.)
=*
|
My face
Since I have only a B/W camera connected to my
laptop PC, this is as good as I can get a scan of
my face. If you can't make it out, that's okay. I
know where everything is on my face.
(You'll find Ray's FACE.NIB on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk.)
=*
|
Peppy LePue
Listen! Can you hear the soft pitter-patter of
hearts in love? Or is that the scared & frightened
female trying to avoid the Casanova of Looney Tunes?
(Select PEPPYLE in NIBSHOW on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk.)
=*
|
The Hick Brothers
After an uneventful vacation, the Hick Brothers are
back with their dawg, Mongrowl, to dispense their
words of wisdom. (Or is that cheap talk?)
(Select HICK201 in NIBSHOW on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk.)
=*
|
The Millennium Generation
Yes, you guessed it, the Millennium Bug prevented
the graphics from showing up in the last issue. I
am sorry for the trouble caused by it, so here are
two graphics for this issue. I shall try harder to
keep the Bug from getting into my CoCo.
(You'll find Ray's Millennium Generation graphics
on side 1 of the Bonus Disk. Use NIBSHOW to view
MiGe5.NIB and MiGe6.NIB.)
=*
|
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 |
| Glenside
Picnic - Successful! Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.I Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.II |
| Back to top |
Glenside Picnic - Successful! And now I know why Carl Boll was absent from the
Annual Glenside picnic. The 2-1/2 to 3 hours it
would have taken him to drive to the location of
this year's picnic were spent working on the IDE
Project. Let it known that you're were missed, Carl.
AND you missed the grand tour of George Schneeweiss'
house and "House on the Plain" (If Wisconsin can
have "House on the Rock", than we can have this).
If George doesn't have it, it doesn't exist.
Overall, with wives, children, and other family
members, there were 17 or so in attendance at the
picnic. Had a good time of fellowship & food; met
some new people; laughed with everyone. No one got
lost; no one got cut; no one got stung; there were
no mosquitoes; and nobody was left behind. =>
____________________________________________________
BUT those not present were sorely missed. As the
Cubs say....WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR! Well maybe not...
everybody in the Chicago area associated with the
Glenside Club was invited to the Club's storage
locker on September 23rd. for an organized meeting -
not organizational...we repacked and inventoried the
STUFF that people have donated over the years. This
(hopefully) will enable the club to respond to the
needs of CoCo users in the future when this or that
goes South on a user and we will be able to get them
up and running, again.
- Tony Podraza
=*
|
Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.I Dear friends,
The PennFest 2000 has come to an end and with it
comes the end of a wonderful experience which was
due to the labors of Ron Bull and Nickolas Marentes.
I won't list all the vendors and attendees, (I'm
sure that Allen Huffman will once again do one of
his Fest Reports), but approximately 15 vendors were
either present or had their products represented. I
believe that there were 76 paid attendees.
The PennFest was billed as the CoCo's 20th birthday
celebration, and certainly lived up to its name. We
had the pleasure of having three special guests in
attendance. Jeremy Spiller, author of "Zenix" and
"Crystal City", Mark Hawkins, who was primary =>
____________________________________________________
engineer, customer coordinator and project manager
of the port of OS-9 to the COCO. (Mark is one of the
three individuals that appears on the CoCo3 screen
image when you do a ctr-alt-reset.) Rounding out the
three guests, was the legendary Kevin Darling. I had
the pleasure of singing "Hello Darling" my musical
plea for the release of the Level 2 upgrade to Kevin
in person. (Hello Darling is available as a wave
file on the os9archive.rtsi.com site in the new up-
loads section, I believe the file is called:
Bjkevdar.wav). Kevin was quite gracious and respond-
ed very good naturedly to the song. (The music video
will be coming out soon.)
Kevin, Jeremy, and Mark had an open forum Saturday
evening with yours truly, Allen Huffman, Curtis =>
____________________________________________________
Boyle, James Jones, and Brian Schubring doing the
pre-forum warm-up of Music and Mayhem with the Monk
and Friends. The open forum went on for several
hours, presenting an extremely interesting history
of the COCO, software development, etc.
Sunday saw several seminars, along with our traditi-
onal time of worship. It has always been wonderful
to share with people in this very special way.
The Fest was a time to celebrate, a time to reflect,
a time to laugh, and yes, even shed a few tears, for
something very precious has come to an end. Glenside
has planned a Fest for next May 5 and 6 in Elgin,
Illinois. But the Penn Fests have come to an end.
(See Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.II) =*
|
Words from Brother Jeremy Pt.II Ron Bull held 4 wonderful shows, (this year with
Nickolas doing an incredible job as well.) Thank
you Ron for a job well done.
As I reflect back, I also have to thank Tandy for
creating the hardware we know as the COCO. I thank
Motorola, Microsoft (yes Microsoft) and Microware
and others for the software. Little did they imagine
that there would still be a dedicated group of COCO
users after all these years. But in addition to the
hardware and software, they unknowingly created
another kind of ware, HEART-WARE. The COCO has
brought about a community of people who are among
the most friendly, supportive, and indeed loving
people I have ever had the privilege to know. Every-
thing I know about computers and computing I owe =>
____________________________________________________
to you people. Your support and encouragement both
in computers and in other areas. We have shared many
happy moments along with sad ones. I still remember
the outpouring of kindness I received from the COCO
world when my father died and more recently after my
mother suffered a serious stroke. I know of many
others in our community who have had the same ex-
periences in their times of need.
Sadly the COCO doesn't get used as much as it did
in the past. But it remains set up. Sometimes I find
myself looking at the screen and remembering the
forum nights on Delphi, the various BBS's, the
emails, etc. When I look at the screen, I see more
than just the program running. I think that if I
look hard enough, I see the faces of the people =>
____________________________________________________
who have become a part of the fiber and being of my
life.
I will leave it to others who are more eloquent to
describe the Fest, but once again I would like to
simply thank the people that have been so kind to
me for almost two decades, thank you for sharing a
part of your life with me, and may God be with you
till we meet again.
With all best wishes,
Brother Jeremy, CSJW
---------------------
brjeremy@execpc.com
=*
|
** PC Connections ** Another SUPER CoCo Web Page to report on -- by
Markus Blumrich whose site is titled: TRS-80 & Tandy
Color Computer Homepage located at:
http://zeppelin.tzo.cc/coco/coco.html and when he
says SEE THE NEW PAGES all you have to change is the
.html to .jhtml and are they ever neat! Done in two
shades of what I call eyerest green. I had a most
enjoyable two hours surfing through his page and I
could have spent several more!
His first picture is of his souped up CoCo3 with
1 Mb RAM +++ Wow!
He has the most extensive GUESTBOOK -- original
one with 250 entries and the current one with 136 --
Terry Blackwell of Tampa FL was the last to visit on
May 9,2000.
To qualify for a newsletter you must Logon. =>
____________________________________________________
I took the time to try the New User Logon program
and will hopefully be on his e-mail list.
His Web page is set up with 10 Features:
I checked them in this order:
1) User Directory: Lists 47 persons
2) Internet Link Library: Divided into 16 Categories
CoCo3 Specific -- 4 Links
Other CoCo Homepages -- 26 Links
Each Link has a brief description of the site
3) How To and Technical Library -- Four Categories
OS-9 for Smarties Tutorial
Links to Part 1 to Part 11 Tutorials
Hardware Modifications -- 5 Links
Software Techniques and References -- 3 Links
Other / Miscellaneous -- 2 Links
4) File Library -- Categories, in the works =>
____________________________________________________
5) Marketplace Buy & Sell -- in the works
6) Headline News, Rumours & Exciting Stuff
Great Info and Links!!!!
7) High Scores & Gaming Tips -- in the works
8) Features: Special Odds and Ends -- 3 Links
9) Voting & Polling Station
FUN to do and see what others are doing!
10) Manage Your Account Information -- have to log
in to make additions or changes.
Through his Links I have come upon many new Web
Sites to explore in the future! Many ideas for CFDM
articles. Continue to look for the bigger and better
EMULATOR -- I know it is out there somewhere!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Godfrey at GJMOLL@aol.com =*
|
A New Hardware Project Idea I Mark Marlette's little hardware idea sounds cool.
It has the potential to make the CoCo do what the
PC can...and that is where I pause for a bit of re-
think.
Apart from the novelty value and I guess the chal-
lenge to make the CoCo do the things that modern
computers do today, is it really worthwhile to go
ahead with an expensive project like this on the
CoCo?
Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to be able
to use a small 8-bit, 15 year old computer to access
the web, print to a color inkjet or laser printer,
etc., but I doubt I would replace my PC (or if I
owned one, a Mac) with the CoCo as my primary =>
____________________________________________________
computer for daily use.
For me personally, an EASY-TO-SETUP and LOW-COST
hard disk drive would be of greater value. I'll
admit to not being proficient at OS-9 and my at-
tempts to get a Burke-and-Burke Hard drive control-
ler operating wasted so much of my time that I gave
up in disgust (I bought it second hand and real
cheap).
Here's my idea that is not really new and that the
Atari users (8-bit computers) have had for a long
time now, is a cable they call an SIO-to-PC cable.
One of the innovations that Atari created in the
Atari 800 back in 1978 was a serial bus that =>
____________________________________________________
allowed them to connect all external devices such
as floppy drives, printers, multi RS-232 ports, cas-
sette players, etc., in a daisy chain fashion. Each
device had an ID and the computer would send the ap-
propriate packet of data (and command strings) pre-
ceded by a device number. Only the chosen device
acknowledged. I guess in a way it is an early ver-
sion of what we call USB interface except that it
was far slower using the technology of the late
70's. Commodore adpoted a similar scheme for their
Vic-20 and C-64 computers but theirs ran at a much
slower rate.
(See A New Hardware Project Idea II)
=*
|
A New Hardware Project Idea II Sometime in the early 90's, some Atari person de-
vised a cable that interfaced a PC's bi-directional
parallel port to this SIO port on the Atari with
special software running on the PC, the Atari would
believe that it is writing to a floppy disk drive...
except that the files were actually disk images on
the PC's hard drive.
I actually own an Atari 800Xl and have made up this
interface for myself. It cost me less then $15 and
the software was free. It works wonderfully!!
My question is, is such an interface possible for
the CoCo?
The device can be extended to more than just a PC =>
____________________________________________________
being used as a hard drive slave. It can allow ac-
cess to the video card and sound card. All these
features with a low cost interface. The bulk of the
work is on the PC in "C" or Assembler. And since for
many of us, their CoCo's already sitting next to
their PC (or near proximity) it wouldn't be a strain
to have to turn on the PC first to access the extra
functions.
This idea was raised by Steve Bjork on the Wednesday
night voice chat's that I have been trying to con-
vince people to attend.
What does everyone think of the idea?
Nickolas Marentes =*
|
NEW HARDWARE PROJECT IDEAS I had a look at J. Bird's website with the files and
info on his PCShare project that links his Dragon64
(CoCo Clone) to his PC via the bi-directional para-
llel port, allowing him to access the PC's hard
disk, floppy disk, keyboard and VDU via OS-9 on the
Dragon.
This proves that this idea definitely works and very
economically. There are still a few things required
to make it work with a CoCo.
Firstly, we need an interface from the CoCo3 to the
PC.
My idea for this would be a board that plugs into
the 6809 socket then the 6809 or 6309 plugs back =>
____________________________________________________
into this board. On the board would be a 6821 PIA
chip running to a connector for a connection to the
PC, and a ROM chip. When the CoCo is first fired up,
this ROM is booted first (instead of the standard
BASIC ROM). The code here looks at the PIA and de-
termines if a PC is connected and if so, proceeds
to load OS-9 from the PC (acting as a hard drive).
If no slave PC is found, the ROM switches out and
the normal BASIC ROM takes over and the system is
restarted as a standard CoCo3 running RS-DOS.
This board could also be equiped with 2 mb of RAM.
Does this sound feasible?
Nickolas Marentes =*
|
NEW PRODUCT? PART I Well it is that time again....Time to roll out
another never been done before design for the CoCo.
I have been gathering information for quite some
time and I'm almost ready to start work.
I think it will be the largest board ever for the
CoCo and will definitely have more horsepower on
board than twenty CoCos! The problem is cost. With
these super chips in low volume come super prices.
Am I TOTAL nuts for even thinking about a project
like this these days? Please let me know if and how
many people would be willing to have such a board or
what they would like to see if it isn't already on
it.
MAJOR ITEMS: =>
____________________________________________________
* 2megs DRAW
* FLASH memory for OS9
* Ethernet
* PPP, LCP, IPCP, IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, SMTP, POP3,
HTTP and PAP, CHAP or Script authentication,
Binary Base64 encoding and MIME. Did I miss any-
thing?
* Dual Port 16c550 FIFOs
* Bidirectional Parallel Port
* RTC
* AT Keyboard Interface
* Dual Boot IC2 ROM
* SCSI
* IDE
* MIDI
* ADC true hardware solution, not sure about these=>
____________________________________________________
* DAC true hardware solution, "" "" ""
As you can see this is an incredible device and it
has been in the works for awhile. I didn't want to
release my 2meg card till I was set on what would
be on it. Some of the add ons will be options to be
added to the base 2 meg board as plug in modules.
These plug in modules WILL also plug into the Glen-
side IDE card. Not sure what the breakdown is of
that until I get all the logic design done.
As far as the Ethernet and the super communications
chip goes this is where the cost lies. The PPP chips
are pretty much a done deal. It is expensive but
what a treat.
(See NEW PRODUCT? PART II) =*
|
NEW PRODUCT? PART II ANYONE will be able to program it and with seven
setup commands you are connected to the Internet
that will allow you send and retrieve Email from
the CoCo! :) We all know that there will be some
graphical restrictions but there will be almost no
work for the CoCo to do. It will all be processed
on the super chips. Retrieve/Send an Email is six
commands/responses. UNBELIEVABLE! What is even bet-
ter is that the drivers are all ready done for
this! Only the applications will need to be written.
Cloud-9 will not be writing the applications due to
the "workload" here. I'm sure that if there is
enough interest that someone or a group of poeple
will be able to develop this application. Please
contact me if you would be interested in the task.
Only serious people apply. =>
____________________________________________________
The Ethernet controller I need to research a bit
more but it will need some drivers to be written.
Demand will drive this product only.
Please respond to both the CoCo Mailing List and to
me personally. I want everyone to know what is going
on **if** anything.
Thanks,
Mark (Cloud-9)
mmarlett@isd.net
Cloud-9 Web Site:
http://www.isd.net/mmarlett/cloud9.html =*
|
RE: NEW COCO PRODUCT? Well, Mark... all true CoCoNuts will definitely want
such a board to make their CoCo do all those modern
things. CoCo users who already have PC's that do all
that stuff might not care for it. And some CoCo
users might even think that for the price tag they
can pick up a used PC out of the local classifieds.
Even though I realize that at 2mhz, graphical web
pages would never load quick enough to really do
much there... but I'm sure that resizable fonts
and colors would do us well enough to get by.
Anyway, I am all for this board. With it, the
CoCo community will do GREAT things, my friend.
Why don't you just build a new CoCo and give us =>
____________________________________________________
the CoCo 4? :) The actual CoCo itself can be put on
one chip nowadays.
Of course Paul Barton's 8-meg board is extremely
tempting but unless everyone has one the whole idea
goes to waste. I hope you get enough response on
this project.
I will be glad to write drivers and support software
for your board, for OS-9 and/or DECB. Please put me
at the top of your consideration list and let me
know as soon as you are ready for some software to
show that baby off.
- Roger Taylor
=*
|
RE: NEW HARDWARE PROJECT IDEAS New ideas are good and there are certainly more than
one way to do things. My question on this PCShare
idea would be, why? If you are going to have the PC
do most of the work utilizing its resources, why not
just use an emulator. For me to use an emulator on
the PC it would have to support the 6309 instruction
set. The emulators that I have seen are good but
still have a ways to go. Maybe opening up these de-
vices under an improved emulator would be another
good route? Also the CoCo, IMHO is large enough with
the connected multipack and devices that plug into
it. Then to have to rely on a PC too. :( I'm going
with the hardware solution. Ethernet is the unknown
at this point. Still looking at it. I know it can be
done just looking at the best method.
Mark - Cloud-9 =*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| CFDM
UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2000 Christmas Card Project '00 Footnote on the Diskette KUDOS FOR ISSUE #70 News from the Net Sep-Oct '00 |
| Back to top |
CFDM UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2000 Hello Everyone, Welcome to the long awaited CFDM Issue #70. Yes, it is FINALLY here! As I've explained in the past, slow arrival of submission material makes putting issues of CFDM together very difficult. Please take the time to go through this issue thoroughly. I think we have a good issue here and there's some good ma- terial in these pages (and on the disks). Despite the September issue being so late, I have managed to divide a good portion of the remaining submission material between this issue and the final issue. We STILL need your material and I'm hoping to hear from as many members as possible. Please keep in mind that you only have one last opportunity to=> ____________________________________________________ be "heard" in CFDM. Please take a moment to remember CFDM before the holiday rush begins, by sending in a submission. Even if you only have the time to drop us a short note, we still want to hear from you! Thanks go out to those who've renewed for these final two issues. Let's all participate in making the final issue of CFDM a memorable one! As many of you already know, the PennFest 2000 20th. Anniversary of the Color Computer was a success. Nickolas Marentes and Ron Bull's efforts brought the CoCo Community a fine show that was enjoyed by all who attended. Once again it was a real pleasure to have Nickolas Marentes as our guest here in Nixa, Missouri. I've certainly enjoyed Nickolas' last two visits and will hopefully meet up with him => ____________________________________________________ again one day. In addition, it was an extra special treat being able to share the road trip and Fest activities with my good friend Godfrey Moll as well. As always, it was great to see everyone at the Fest. With the closing of PennFest 2000, also comes with it the end of the Penn Fests. The Glenside Color Computer Club will once again be sponsoring a CoCo Fest in May of next year, so hopefully we'll still have another chance to have an annual gathering of CoCoists. The final issue of CFDM (#71) is scheduled to ship out by December 12th., so all submission material needs to be received by December 1st., after that it's too late! Hope to hear from you and see you in about a month! - Jim =* |
Christmas Card Project '00 For several years, many of you have participated in
our Annual Christmas Card Project. This year is no
exception and once again I would like to announce
the Christmas Card Project for 2000! I am sure that
many of our members ALREADY remember their fellow
CoCo users during the Holidays. But, for those who
may not be familiar with how the Project works,
here's what it consists of:
Simply send a postcard by DECEMBER 1, 2000, with
your NAME and ADDRESS to:
The Christmas Card Project
c/o Jim Davis
PO BOX 1704
Nixa, MO 65714
more =>
____________________________________________________
When the December 2000 (final issue) is mailed out,
I will place your postcard in a participating CFDM
members disk mailer. You will in return receive a
postcard in your mailer. Once you receive your Dec-
ember Issue of CFDM, simply send a Christmas Card or
Holiday Greeting to the member whose name appears on
the postcard! To make things even easier, for those
who have email access, you're welcome to participate
in that manner as well. Don't forget...the deadline
for getting the postcards or emails to me is by Dec-
ember 1st.
Thanks to all those who have participated in this
project over the years. Let's make this year's
final Christmas Card Project the best one ever!! =*
|
Footnote on the Diskette ...reputation is not so much what you stand for -
its what you fall for.
...pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.
...don't ever be in a haste to end a day; a lifetime
holds too few of them.
...the straight and narrow is full of good turns.
=*
|
KUDOS FOR ISSUE #70 This issue of CFDM was made possible by the efforts
of the following CoCoists:
Don Adams, William Astle, Norm Barson, Ray Berney,
George H. Bethea Jr., Steve Bjork, Carl Boll, Rick
Cooper, Earle Eason, Herb Forger Sr., Kevin Gallant,
Glenside Color Computer Club, Larry Greenfield,
Roger Hallman, Arthur S. Hallock, Gene Heskett,
Brother Jeremy, Don Johnson, John Kowalski, Nickolas
Marentes, Mark Marlette, Jeremy Michea, Harold J.
Moenich, Godfrey Moll, Tony Podraza, John Riddle,
Al Santos, John Schuster, Roger Taylor, The CoCo
Mailing List, Ray Watts and Stuart Wyss-Gallifent.
THANKS!! THANKS!! THANKS!! THANKS!! THANKS!!
=*
|
News from the Net Sep-Oct '00 Here are some of the latest happenings in the CoCo Community making News on the Net. This update covers from about 09/00 - 10/00. ---------------------------------------------------- John Kowalski (Sock Master) has placed MANY high quality CoCo game screenshots on his web page and they can be found at: http://cocostuff.stg.net/screens John's also updated some of his demos and has a host of great things to check out on his web page located at: http://www.axess.com/twilight/sock/ ---------------------------------------------------- Carl Boll has been sending regular updates to the CoCo Mailing List with regard to the IDE Interface.> ____________________________________________________ It appears that the majority of the IDE Cards have been distributed, so if you still haven't received yours, you need to contact Carl Boll at: root@chicoco.chi.il.us Please see the Q&A Section of this issue for various tips on getting your IDE Interface up and running. ---------------------------------------------------- Nickolas Marentes has updated his web page and has posted his PennFest 2000 Report, complete with pic- tures along with a nicely formatted page layout. Be sure to stop by Nickolas Marentes' Color Computer Workshop located at: http://www.launch.net.au/-nickm/coco/ Nick's also been helping to promote the Wednesday Night Voice Chat's and you'll find information on how to join these chat's in this issue of CFDM. => ____________________________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------- Stuart Wyss recently updated the CoCo Swap page, for BUYING/SELLING/WANTED CoCo items. He's also updated his page with information on his recent travels to foreign lands. All this coupled with a winning Penn- Fest 2000 Theme Track. There seems to always be something going on at: http://www.voicenet.com/-swyss/index.html ---------------------------------------------------- The BIGGEST of Internet News of course came from Mark Marlette of Cloud-9, when he announced a possi- ble "in-the-works" hardware project that has the potential to expand the usage and functionality of the CoCo like never before. See the FORUM Section of this issue for all the details on this amazing idea. Please replace all "-"'s with the tilde symbol. =* |
| Articles in section: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| A
Message from Roger Hallman A note from John Schuster Greetings from Grizzly MAIL BAG EXCERPTS Support from Herb Forger |
| Back to top |
A Message from Roger Hallman Hi Jim,
How was the Pennfest? I was logged into web-
cam for a while. I saw you walk past the camera a
few times. The room seemed to be small...I heard
their were 60 - 70 people at the fest.
I've moved to a new internet provider. I'm now with
Time-Warner RoadRunner. I use a cable modem and WOW
is it fast. It is unbelievable the speed difference
(25 times faster than a 56k modem). Some web pages
load up as if they were already cached on my hard-
drive!
Roger Hallman
Milwaukee, WI
----------------------------------------------------
=>
____________________________________________________
Hi Roger!
Good to hear from you. As you might have
expected the PennFest 2000 was a lot of fun and it
was a real treat to be able to attend. Surprisingly
I managed to walk by that web cam with out knocking
it over or embarrassing myself in some way! Thanks
go out to you and the other CoCoists who joined us
via web cam and chat. A great show and a great show-
ing of support by all.
I can only dream about cable modems and "high speed"
internet access. We're still using tin cans and
string for internet connections in our parts! :)
Ah, maybe one day? Thanks for the updated email ad-
dress. Will hopefully be getting back into my normal
mail/online routine shortly. I'm long overdue for=>
____________________________________________________
a web page update...er...rather I still have unfi-
nished "construction"!
- Jim
=*
|
A note from John Schuster Dear Jim,
I'm sorry CFDM is closing down, but I
suppose you're right about trying to continue with
a dwindling user base. I'm sure all of us subscri-
bers will miss the disk magazine a lot.
Yours,
John Schuster
Atascadero, CA
----------------------------------------------------
Hi John!
Thanks for the note and renewal. The dwind-
ling user base for the CoCo certainly makes it a
very tough task to keep users active. On a positive
note, those who still remain in CFDM and the CoCo
community are some of the most spirited and =>
____________________________________________________
supportive people I've ever met. Long after CFDM
is gone, the Spirit for the CoCo will surely remain!
- Jim
=*
|
Greetings from Grizzly Hi Jim,
It was really great seeing you again! Hope
you did well at the show as I did. I even had a
bunch of orders to fill when I returned home. That
has been completed and the Grizzly CoCo repaired
(see The Hardware Store). Now these articles are
done....finally. I wanted to do a review on Bob
Gault's ColorZap disk editor for this issue but
yardwork and the appearence of one of my sons from
the West Coast limited me to this.
Hope you don't take the short article TOO seriously.
However, don't nibble on any cheese samples arriving
in the mail just in case someone else does!
I'm getting stares from you-know-who about work =>
____________________________________________________
that needs to be done so I have to keep this short.
Hope to see you in Chicago next Spring.
Best of everything to you.
Ray Watts
Niantic, CT
----------------------------------------------------
Hi Ray!
It was great to see you at the Fest as well.
What a fun time and the Penn Fest 2000 will certain-
ly be one to remember. I'm glad you did well at the
show. I did ok at the show, I probably did more
roaming around and goofing off than work! As far
as Fest sales...I'm not sure where my next meal is
coming from?! Fortunately I've still got my =>
____________________________________________________
Grizzly T-Shirt on my back! :)
Looking forward to your final articles probably as
much as Doralee's looking forward to you getting
those leaves raked up!
Nah, I took the Slay the Mouse article with a smile.
It takes more than "Rodent Homicide" to get me stir-
red. And, I'm not one to hold a grudge. (Ray will
now be receiving CFDM on Cassette Tape format) :)
Look forward to seeing you at the Chicago Fest next
year! Will be looking forward to your articles as
well.
- Jim
=*
|
MAIL BAG EXCERPTS Jim,
Enjoyed Issue #69! Enclosed is my check for my
E-Mail and HardCopy. Keep up the good work!
Godfrey Moll
Springfield, MO
----------------------------------------------------
I finally have a PC -- here is my e-mail address:
haroldjmoen@aol.com -- Long live the CoCo 3!
Harold J. Moenich
Monroeville, PA
----------------------------------------------------
Enclosed is my renewal fee for CFDM.
- William Astle Calgary, AB CANADA =>
____________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------
Please sign me up for the two final issues of CFDM
and HardCcopy.
Earle Eason
Huntsville, AL
----------------------------------------------------
Sorry I couldn't be at the conventions till the end.
Here is my CFDM renewal.
Don Adams
Kokomo, IN
----------------------------------------------------
Hated to do this to you, Jim, but I slew your whirl-
ing rodent...at least on my MAC. Used a shareware
called WebFree which is normally used to block out
most blinking and animated web stuff. Worth its =>
____________________________________________________
weight in grizzly bears! I know your mind is already
working on how to defeat it. Good Luck!
Ray Watts
Niantic, CT
----------------------------------------------------
=*
|
Support from Herb Forger Jim,
Enclosed is my check to cover CFDM Email w/Hard-
Copy, issues 70 & 71. Sorry I haven't been able to
help the cause lately. Should some miracle happen to
extend CFDM beyond Issue 71, I would certainly be
glad to support it.
You and Rick have given us years of Great Magazine.
Thanks Once Again!!!
Herb Forger Sr. - Norwalk, CT
----------------------------------------------------
JIM:
Hi Herb!
Always good to hear from you. You've =>
____________________________________________________
always been an outgoing supporter and have certainly
done a fair amount of contributing to CFDM over the
last several years. Faithful members such as your-
self are what's kept CFDM going all these years.
Once again, thanks for all the submissions you've
sent over the years and for your continued support
in CFDM's final run.
- Jim
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| DOOFUS Grizzly Enterprises T-Shirt LEAN MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC Purple Dinosaurs...YIKES! The PC shutdown screen |
| Back to top |
DOOFUS
I found an interesting ad on TV about CHEESE. It
seems that BOB DOLE just keeps popping up on TV
concerning a variety of products! Since my wife
and I like CHEESE so much, we thought BOB DOLE'S
venture was pretty cute. We are happy that we ARE
NOT "DOOFUS'S". Are you a "DOOFUS"?
Harold J. Moenich
(RUN "STORY.BAS" on side 1 of the Bonus Disk.)
=*
|
Grizzly Enterprises T-Shirt While at the PennFest, Doralee and I stayed with her
sister in Steubenville, Ohio. As a thank you gesture
I made a Grizzly Enterprises T-shirt for her, her
son & daughter, and her boyfriend, Chuck. About a
week after the Fest, Chuck wore his shirt to work
and this big guy came up to him and said, "Hey, what
are you doing with that shirt? That's Ray's shirt!
How did you get Ray's shirt?" After a little confus-
ed discussion, he realized how Chuck obtained the
shirt and how the other guy recognized it. Thank you
Paul Zibalia, for standing up for me and for check-
ing out a possible hijacking. How do you like that?
I only know two people in greater Pittsburgh and
they happen to work together.
Cheers,
Ray =*
|
LEAN
Diet today seems to be on everyone's mind, includ-
ing my wife. Even the pets are considered as need-
ing a diet in order to live longer---good for them.
I saw an ad on TV for dogs and their diet. I thought
it was cute---"IT AINT MUCH", but here it is.
Harold Moenich
(RUN "LEAN.BAS" on side 1 of the Bonus Disk.)
=*
|
MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC Here are five more music selections. I don't
believe they have appeared in CFDM before. Again, I
did not transcribe these and have no idea who did.
The pieces included are:
BLUESHOE -- Blue Suede Shoes
DREAM -- Dream, Dream, Dream
PERSNLTY -- She's Got Personality
RCKROUND -- Rock Around the Clock
TLK2MUCH -- You Talk Too Much
There is no loader program. Simply LOADM and
EXEC each selection individually.
(See side 2 of this disk for these music files.) =*
|
Purple Dinosaurs...YIKES!
Well, I'm not sure what the motive behind this pic-
ture was? I'm by NO MEANS a fan of the Flintstones
"yapping" pet dinosaur Dino. I suppose if you're a
child Dino's menacing antics are entertaining? But
as an adult, he's SURE to get on your nerves. Any-
way, here's a quick sketch I drew in CoCoMax to give
the purple dinosaur a "brief" moment in the spot-
light, and more importantly a "silent" moment at
that! Well at least I didn't feature that "other"
purple dinosaur that's sings...YIKES!
(DINO.NIB is located on side 1 of the Bonus Disk.)
=*
|
The PC shutdown screen
For those of you out there in CoCo land who operate
a PC, don't you wish this were an option on the
shutdown screen? Hmmm?
(You'll find SHUTDOWN.NIB on side 1 of the Bonus
Disk, use NIBSHOW.BAS to view it.)
=*
|
64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 1 INTRODUCTION
------------
The 64 X 32 block graphics editor is a basic program
with many subroutines written in assembly language.
This program will allow you to create pictures or
title screens on the 64x32 (block graphics, only 32x
16 for text) screen and apply them to certain appli-
cations or for entertainment. The Animate part of
the program allows you to animate up to 48 screens
at any speed. 64x32 edit is driven by 2 menus, ani-
mate is also menu driven.
STARTUP PROCEDURES
------------------
6432Edit used a program called 'Highsped' to use
2mhz drive operation. If you don't have this =>
____________________________________________________
program, you will either have to run it in slow
speed or extensively modify the program.
FEATURES
--------
I will now go through all the features of 6432edit.
Note: Within the 4 modes, the clear key is used to
clear the screen. Use the left and right arrow keys
to move through the patterns, spacebar when desired
pattern is reached. ENTER exits the modes. Also:
Whenever the screen clears and it prints Enter File-
name:, typing DIR will display a directory.
MODE 1 OF EDITING
-----------------
To draw on the 64x32 screen in any color, select =>
____________________________________________________
this mode. D and S are used to draw and stop draw-
ing. For diagonal movement, use the I,O,K and L
keys. The # keys select the color. To erase select
0. This mode has a cursor routine which took a lot
of work to come up with.
MODE 2 OF EDITING
-----------------
Mode 2 lets you type text in either normal or in-
verse style. It supports every letter, number, and
symbol. F2 switches to inverse, F1 switches back.
CTRL changes the spacebar code.
(See 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 2)
=*
|
64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 2 MODE 3 OF EDITING
-----------------
This mode uses letters much larger than normal. It
first asks which font you want to use, then loads
it. SHIFT+# will change the color of the characters.
CTRL lets you change the spacebar code. In this mode
the cursor does not advance when you type something,
to allow for flexibility.
Font1: Large letters and numbers, color changeable
Font2: Same as above but black (don't try to change
the color!)
Font3: Most of the symbols, color changeable
MODE 4 OF EDITING
-----------------
This feature lets you type the 15 graphics codes =>
____________________________________________________
contained in the CoCos ASCII set on the screen with
the number keys (1-9) and letter keys (A-F). SHIFT+#
and CTRL same as mode 3. F1 enables a pattern chart
at the bottom of the screen which is very useful.
F2 brings back bottom line. As in mode 3, the cursor
doesn't advance when something is typed.
SWITCH TO EDIT SCREEN
---------------------
Select this after you have selected one of the above
4 modes.
SCROLL SCREEN ANY DIRECTION
---------------------------
Select this and you can use the arrow keys to
scroll the screen around. Press enter when done, =>
____________________________________________________
to return to main menu.
BORDER
------
This option adds a border to the screen. Use the
left and right arrow keys to move through the pat-
terns. Spacebar selects that border and returns to
main menu.
CLEAR SCREEN (0-255)
--------------------
Select this to clear the edit screen any pattern be-
tween (0-255). This is useful if you already know
what code# you want to clear the screen to.
(See 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 3) =*
|
64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 3 SAVE SCREEN
-----------
This will ask you for the filename first, then copy
the edit screen to the text screen and save it to
disk. Start address=d1024, length d512.
LOAD SCREEN
-----------
This of course asks for the filename, then copies
the loaded screen to the edit screen. If loading a
screen created with another program, make sure it
starts at d1024. Otherwise write a short program to
offset load it and save it at obviously d1024.
TRANSFER TO BUFFER
------------------ =>
____________________________________________________
A 'Buffer' is an area of memory reserved for some-
thing later on. 6432edit allows you to transfer the
edit screen to any of the three in-memory buffers to
store a copy of your work. This is useful for pre-
serving a screen for later use, or to keep an extra
copy just in case something goes wrong when editing
the current one.
TRANSFER FROM BUFFER
--------------------
Select this to recall the screen from the buffer
of your choice to the edit screen.
SWAP SCREEN AND BUFFER
----------------------
This swaps the edit screen and the selected buffer.>
____________________________________________________
What was in the edit buffer is now in the storage
buffer and vice versa.
CHANGE BYTE DIGITALLY
---------------------
This option asks you for the position of the screen
and the byte to poke. For position you may use
either 0-511 or 1024-1535. After poking the byte,
it will increment the position and keep asking for
bytes to poke. OOPS will change back the last byte
poked. END will exit to the position prompt, then
back to the menu page 2. VIEW at either prompt dis-
plays the screen.
(See 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 4)
=*
|
64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 4 COPY LINE TO LINE
-----------------
This option is used to copy a row of bytes over
another row of bytes on the edit screen. Use the up
and down arrow keys to select the row you want to
copy. F1 will copy a row to a 'holding buffer'. When
your press F2, what is in the 'holding buffer' will
be copied over that row. Press Enter when done.
CHANGE LINE TO ALL ONE CODE
---------------------------
This option clears any row on the screen to the code
of your choice. Use the up and down arrows to select
the row you want to change. Press F1, then use the
left and right arrows to select the pattern to fill
the row with. Then press F2 to select that pattern=>
____________________________________________________
for use. Press Enter when done.
REPLACE TEXT SCREEN LOAD ON ML FILE
-----------------------------------
This option will replace the text screen load of
an ML program. It will ask for the filename and the
text screen will be replaced. See below section for
ML file requirements. Obviously, this won't work un-
less that works on your target ML file. NOTE: Use my
program "ADDTSBIN.EXE" on an MS-DOS platform to add
a text screen load to a binary file which doesn't
already have one.
EDIT TEXT SCREEN LOAD OF AN ML FILE
-----------------------------------
This loads in the text screen load of a program. =>
____________________________________________________
The screen must be the first preamble, in other
words what gets loaded into memory absolutely first
when you LOADM the ML file. Use replace feature of
Menu page 2 #8 to write back a modified copy of the
screen if you want.
WRITE EDTASM3 FORMAT SOURCE FOR SCREEN
--------------------------------------
This feature writes out assembly language source
code of the screen. When in the assembler, append
your code to the end of the screen source code,
then assemble it. Your screen will display while
your program loads. Source code generated with 6432-
edit is compatible only with Cer-comps EDTASM3.
(See 64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 5) =*
|
64 X 32 Block Graphics Editor 5 WRITE BASIC PROGRAM FOR SCREEN ------------------------------ This feature writes out an Ascii basic program so that when you load and run it, it outputs the screen. The next option loads and runs the animate program. NOTE: ----- You will find the instructions for using ANIMATE and Fontedit in PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH. All files for 6432EDIT, ANIMATE and Fontedit are located on the back side of this disk. You will also find the .DOC files for each of the programs on side 2 of this disk as well. =* |
ADVENTURE MAPPER 2 ADVENTURE MAPPER 2 is a utility that will allow you
to print out a BLANK MAP for use in solving advent-
ure games.
Simply set a piece of paper at the top of the page,
turn the PRINTER ON, and select your BAUD from the
menu selection.
(You'll find John's MAPPER2.BAS on the back side
of this disk.)
=*
|
ANIMATE for 6432EDIT INTRODUCTION ------------ This program will take the screens you created with 6432edit and other block-graphics drawing programs and animate them. It supports up to 48 screens in memory at one time. STARTUP PROCEDURES ------------------ Highsped is also used in this program. LOAD SEQUENCE SAVED SCREENS --------------------------- This loads a sequence of saved screens into memory starting at slot 1. The screens must have been first saved using option 2 of this program. => ____________________________________________________ SAVE SEQUENCE OF SCREENS ------------------------ This saves a sequence of screens from memory. It asks for the number of screens, and starts saving them from slot 1. The resulting file usually con- tains multiple pictures taking up very few granules. LOAD SCREEN INTO SLOT --------------------- Use this to load one text screen into memory at a time. The start address must be d1024. SAVE SCREEN IN SLOT ------------------- Useful if you want to edit a screen from a sequence> ____________________________________________________ file and don't have the single screen anymore. This will save a screen to disk as a single file. LOAD ORDERED SCREENS -------------------- The fastest set-up method Animate offers! Use 6432- edit to save the screens you want to animate with the same filename and incrementing numbers, and Ani- mate will load them sequentially. Input number of screens and slot to start loading them. PREVIEW SCREENS --------------- Preview the screens before you animate them. Also useful for a user-controlled slide-show demo. First select the # of screens. (See ANIMATE Notes) =* |
ANIMATE for 6432EDIT Notes View text file associated with this article COPY SLOT TO SLOT ----------------- If you see a mistake while previewing them, use this to rearrange the order. Or repeat a picture. ABOUT ANIMATE ------------- The whole reason for this program. It will animate the specified number of screns. A speed of 1 is fastest, 1000 a several second delay. 10000 around 10 seconds. Lower numbers are fast, higher numbers are slow. The last option loads 6432edit. (See side 2 of this disk for ANIMATE.) =* |
Fontedit for 6432EDIT INTRODUCTION
------------
This program allows you to edit the Large letters
used in 6432edit. You can easily design your own
character set, or modify an old one.
STARTUP PROCEDURES
------------------
Highsped also used in this program. Fontedit isn't
accessible from 6432edit or animate, so do a cold
start and run"fontedit".
SYNTAX
------
Most of the letters are 3x3 (32x16) or 6x6 (64x32).
The letters m,n,w,x are 4x3 (32x16) or 8x6 (64x32).>
____________________________________________________
When using Fontedit, the characters are displayed
in green.
SCROLLING THROUGH THE SET
-------------------------
The program displays the font one character at a
time inside a blue box on the screen. The left and
right arrow keys are used to scroll through the
character set. You will notice the slot number chan-
ges. It says Normal under the slot number, meaning
3x3 characters. There are 32 of them. After scrol-
ling through all 32, it displays the 4x3 chars. The
slot number resets and Large is displayed under it.
Press: means when using 6432edit you should press
that key to display the current character.
=>
____________________________________________________
MODIFYING A CHARACTER
---------------------
Press M to modify the current character. Coordinates
will display the horizontal and vertical position of
the cursor. Use the arrow keys to move, press the
spacebar to set/reset (toggle) points on or off.
Press Clear to erase the character. Pressing CTRL
will reverse all the points of the character, allow-
ing you to print black on green.
EXITING MODIFY MODE
-------------------
When you are finished modifying a character, press
Enter to accept the modification or Alt to abort.
Pressing either of these returns you to the scrol-
ling mode. (See Fontedit for 6432EDIT Notes) =*
|
Fontedit for 6432EDIT Notes LOADING OR SAVING SETS
----------------------
To load a new set, press L. To save a set after you
are finished modifying the characters, press S. They
both ask for a font number.
(See the back side of this disk for FONTEDIT.)
=*
|
PUZZLE MANIA
For those of you who have not had enough puzzles,
here are more. As before, the program is Rick's. I
have adapted some nice pictures by unknown artists.
They are worth looking at even if you don't want to
solve the puzzles. But, you'll be missing a lot of
fun if you don't try working the puzzles.
(RUN "BOOT.BAS" on side 2 of the Bonus Disk.)
=*
|
PennFest 2000 & Mugsters Paul Zibaila had come up with the idea of replac-
ing the "Three Mugsters" ROM image with the PennFest
2000 Logo. Our friend George Bethea came up with the
idea of saving the "Mugsters" and PennFest 2000 Logo
to diskette for easy viewing on your CoCo.
Simply RUN one of the associated BASIC programs
listed below to view the images.
PEN2K.BAS - The PennFest 2000 Logo displays.
THEMEN.BAS - The "Mugsters" image displays.
THETWO.BAS - The PennFest 2000 Logo displays,
then the "Mugsters" image displays.
=>
____________________________________________________
Thanks go out to George H. Bethea Jr. and to Paul
Zibaila for their contribution to CFDM and the CoCo
Community.
(See side 2 of this disk for these programs.)
=*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| BASH BASH (Continued) WEDNESDAY NIGHT FIRETALK |
| Back to top |
BASH I don't play games on my CoCo very often. When I
do, it's usually Shanghai or Rick's WACKO, neither
of which requires any hand/eye coordination or fast
response. However, occasionally, I do enjoy playing
Steve Bjork's BASH.
The story-line is pretty trivial: you must clear
vacant lots of debris by using a girder and a wreck-
ing ball. You occasionally find a treasure. Actually
the game is a version of the old Breakout, moving a
paddle horizontally to hit a ball which, in turn,
will hit and remove blocks. BASH does have a few
novel wrinkles. The blocks are of various colors,
which give you different scores when removed. There
are also flashing blocks which must be hit twice to
be removed. And, there are grey barriers which can
not be removed. =>
____________________________________________________
One or two people can play. One nice feature is
that you can choose to start on any lot (screen)
from 1 to 15. You must earn your way to screens 16
to 20. Clearing a screen will automatically move you
to the next screen. Initially, you have three balls
and can earn more. The game ends when you have none
left. During the game, when some blocks are struck,
a letter (treasure) will drop. Catching different
letters on your paddle causes different results:
X - gives you an extra ball
S - slows down the speed of the ball
F - speeds up the ball but makes the paddle wider
M - causes two more balls to be put into play
C - lets you catch a ball on the paddle, move it
to a desired location and release it
=>
____________________________________________________
In addition to the X, you can earn extra balls at
certain levels of score. But, you won't have time to
worry about this as the action requires you to pay
attention to the ball in play. There is a pause
feature.
At the title screen, you can choose your starting
screen, then press <ENTER> to start. If you do
neither, you will see a random demo screen which
will give you an idea of what the play is like.
In terms of strategy, catch every S to slow down
the play. The ball progressively speeds up as you
play. Avoid the F -- the wider paddle is not worth
the higher speed. Naturally, you want to catch any X
to get an extra life. The M can sometimes be fun,
but you'll find you can't keep up with more than one
ball for long, even at slow speeds. =*
|
BASH (Continued) A "life" is lost when the last ball gets past the
paddle. Catching a C makes the ball stick to the
paddle. You can move the paddle where you wish and
release the ball by hitting the joystick button.
Beware -- the ball does not always go straight up
when you release it. The "catch" feature continues
to be in effect until you catch another letter on
your paddle.
This is a fun game with fiendishly-designed
screens and great colors. Even the background on
each screen is different (if you have time to
notice).
=*
|
WEDNESDAY NIGHT FIRETALK Steve Bjork announced he was going to hold a voice
chat session on Firetalk, the easy to use and free
chat service. I was skeptical of its success. I was
accustomed to the text chat and had been using it
quite successfully over the last year to communicate
with Ron Bull with the organisation of PennFest
2000.
Still, I decided to give it a go. I downloaded the
free software from the Firetalk web site at:
http://www.firetalk.com and installed in on my ma-
chine. After running it, it proceedes to configure
and test your microphone connection and speaker out-
put connection. After all this is done, you are
allocated a Firetalk number and you assign yourself
a password. =>
____________________________________________________
Well, the first session of voice chat worked out
well. We had 5 people on at one time and I must
stand corrected in saying that voice chat is easier
to use than text chat.
Steve Bjork is planning on making this a monthly
event, but for a short time host it every Wednesday
night at 7pm PST.
So there you go! From critic to devoted user in one
setting!!
Note: In discussion with Steve Bjork regarding the
Wednesday night voice chat sessions, we discussed
that the future of these chat's will be that they =>
____________________________________________________
are run monthly and we will assign a topic for each
session.
Hope to see you there!
Nickolas Marentes
=*
|
"BOB PUPPO" XT
Keyboard Adapter Hi all,
I need information on how to connect a XT/AT/PS2
keyboard to the CoCo (I want a hardware, transparent
solution).
I did find some "grid" information, but no pinouts,
no timing, no nothing. And everybody is talking
about the "Bob Puppo" keyboard adapter. Well I'm
sorry, after three nights of searching the web, all
I can find is mention of it, and nothing more.
Can you help an old CoCo fan?
ANSWER:
------- =>
____________________________________________________
If you can't find a Puppo XT adapter and need/want
one, Mark Marlette of Cloud-9 sells his own version.
I have both the Puppo and Cloud-9 adapter. I haven't
typed on a real CoCo keyboard in at least 10 years
I think...
Larry Greenfield
=*
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Black and White on CM-8? Hi,
Does anyone know why certain games come out in
Black and White on my CM-8 monitor, but appear in
Color when I hook up my CoCo 3 to a tv?
For example, One-on-one Basketball is Black and
White on my Color monitor, but in Color on my tv.
However, Pooyan comes out in Color on the monitor.
I have two CM-8's and two CoCo 3's and have tried
each CoCo with each monitor, with no change.
Is there a command or poke I can enter to make color
or is there something I'm missing here?
Thanks,
Jeremy Michea =>
____________________________________________________
ANSWER:
----------------------------------------------------
Try holding down the <clear> key while booting a
game that comes up in Black and White. This will
force some games to switch from Pmode 4 to a Pmode 3
graphics mode that works on PAL version of the CoCo.
This was a Tandy standard that most game programmers
used to handle the problem of a Pmode 4 game running
on a PAL system. The same is true when using an RGB
monitor on a CoCo 3.
Steve Bjork
=*
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CoCo 3 Cooling Fan I'm interested in mounting a cooling fan on top of
my CoCo 3. Can anyone give some instructions as to
where I need to connect the fan.
ANSWER:
------
There is a good place on the cathode end of one of
the power rectifiers. That will give 9 to 10 volts
and run a 12 volt fan rather nicely, I have a CoCo
2 with such a rig, been running that way since about
'89, only off when there is a power failure.
The cathode end is the one with the stripe mark,
just tack solder its red wire there, and the black
wire to most anyplace on the ground plane of the
pcb. =>
____________________________________________________
- Gene Heskett
=*
|
CoCo Voice Chat Session It would be nice to have more information on how to
join the Wednesday Night CoCo Voice Chat Session.
ANSWER:
------
There actually is not much to it. You need to down-
load and install the firetalk software available at:
firetalk.com - It will make sure your machine is
suitable and run you through some tests to ensure
that your sound output and microphone input are ok.
Then YOU assign yourself a name and password. They
will e-mail you a firetalk number.
All you do is connect to the internet as normal, run
firetalk, provide your firetalk number and password
and you're in. You then click on the forums button=>
____________________________________________________
and enter the computers section. When Steve Bjork
logs on, he will create the Tandy Color Computer
forum (it will be listed on the screen) and you
just click it. You can see who else is online and
who is currently talking because it lists their
names. It's very intuitive...heck! Even I could
do it!!
Unfortunately, there is no Linux version. A MAC
version is in development. For now you will need
to use an inferior platform. :)
Nickolas Marentes
=*
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IDE BOOT DISK DILEMMA I first tried the Lformat command included on the
IDE disk, but it could not find the /h0 descriptor,
presumably because I had no such descriptor in the
OS9boot file. I was able to use the basic09 detect
program to show that I had a hard drive hooked up
to the controller. Believing that the Lformat com-
mand needed the /h0 descriptor already on the boot
disk I have been concentrating to that end, and of
course the /h0 descriptor is always looking for the
driver when I place it in the OS9boot file. So which
comes first the format or the boot disk.
ANSWER:
------
Carl Boll: Here is what I suggest. Make a minimal
boot disk. Leave out as much as possible, such as =>
____________________________________________________
serial drivers and descriptors, extra windows, etc.
Do this to free up system map RAM.
Boot up to OS9. Now load the driver and descriptor
manually and initialize them. Run the detect program
to get the cyl., hd and spt info. Now run Lformat
using this info. Do not use the verify, this may be
broken. At this point you should be able to do a dir
/H0 and see the drive. Try copying the entire origi-
nal OS9 floppy disk to the hard drive using DSAVE,
including subdirectories.
Now you are ready to start working on making a boot
disk.
Eddie and I are going to take a stock CoCo system =>
____________________________________________________
and using only stock OS9 first format a drive using
the above technique and then build a boot disk. We
will take precise notes and post them to the CoCo
Mailing List. We will also post the procedure on
the IDE Project Web Page as well.
It seems people either have forgotten or don't know
that you can load drivers and descriptors manually.
This is exactly what should be done >before< trying
to make a boot disk. When trying to build a boot
disk there are more variables and this makes it
much harder to troubleshoot problems.
- Carl Boll
=*
|
What's your Favorite CoCo Game? Just decided to take a little poll about everybody's
favorite CoCo game. If I had to list my top three
they would be:
(1) Color Baseball
(2) Clowns & Balloons
(3) Pooyan
In Color Baseball I love seeing that handwritten
"Home Run" on the screen when I get one.
So what are your favorites?
ANSWER:
------
Jim Davis: While I have a lot of "favorite" games,=>
____________________________________________________
I'll stick to just a few titles sold at Radio Shack:
(1) Stellar Life Line - In my opinion the best game
sold on a ROM PAK.
(2) Temple of ROM - Another good ROM PAK game that
was quick, easy and just plain fun.
(3) Pooyan - A really good game on several different
platforms, including the Coin-Op.
(4) Radio Ball - A simple pinball game, but pretty
decent for the time at which it was released.
The game featured Multi-Ball Play, up to 4 play-
ers and the title RADIO BALL would light up and
change to RADIO SHACK during Multi-Ball Play. =>
____________________________________________________
ANSWER:
------
Kevin Gallant: Color Baseball was one of my favorite
games on my CoCo 1 from "Back in the day". There was
a Video Poker game for my CoCo 3 that I typed in
from Rainbow Magazine that I used to enjoy as well.
My favorite game as a kid though, would have to be
Nauga, on my CoCo 1. I can't remember much of the
game, except that it was a text-graphics game on an
"overhead" map. I used to play it again and again
for hours on end. It's a shame I lost it when the
tape wore out about 10-15 years ago. Anyone heard
of it? Better yet, do you still have a working copy?
- Kevin Gallant: lumpynospam@idirect.ca =*
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