jimomura@lsuc.uucp (Jim Omura) (08/11/88)
Some recent discussions have arisen regarding what programs would
be worth writing. This actually happens fairly often, but it just
stuck in my mind this time:
1. A new chess game in a cartridge. I have the first Chess
cartridge. I never got around to buying Cyruss chess, but
I was going to. Now I hear it won't run on the CoCo3 anyway.
I would certainly be in the market for a new chess cartridge!
In fact, there has always been a market for chess. It's a
consistent seller.
By the way, you will notice that I am asking for *cartridges*!
I do not like software on disk except under OS-9. Even that
has become a bit painful with the 3 different screen drivers.
I no longer have a cassette hooked up, so that's not practical
and I only have 80 track drives so anything on a 48 TPI disk
is worthless for me (I will not bother trying to transfer it).
I *do* have the MultiPak, so cartridges are wonderful! I sit
Thexder in slot 3 and play it occasionally. That's what I'd
do with cartridges if I had them. Just leave one in and
play it periodically for a break.
I believe there is a really good future in cartridges with
around 32K bytes - 128K bytes.
2. A new version of Defender. And try to negotiate with Williams
for the rights to the name! Do it right for a change. This
too should be on cartridge.
3. A new DL Logo to work under Multivue. Obviously this would
not be a cartridge.
Notice that none of these are "new" ideas? There are a lot
of old ideas worth rehashing. I have no idea why people think that
just because the idea is an old one that it's not good. With the
CoCo3 we can "get it right this time" which is fine.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
Byte Information eXchange: jimomurasneezy@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Frank Farm) (08/13/88)
In article <1988Aug10.224033.8096@lsuc.uucp>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) wrote: > > Some recent discussions have arisen regarding what programs would >be worth writing. This actually happens fairly often, but it just >stuck in my mind this time: > >1. A new chess game in a cartridge. I have the first Chess > cartridge. I never got around to buying Cyruss chess, but > I was going to. Now I hear it won't run on the CoCo3 anyway. > I would certainly be in the market for a new chess cartridge! > ... The CARTRIDGE won't run on the CoCo 3, but I've been able to transfer it to disk and it works beautifully. The graphics are MUCH sharper in RGB! Although Cyrus is an EXCELLENT program, it could stand improvement, esp. with the CoCo 3 graphics. Edtasm+ and Cyrus are the ONLY cartridges I ever bought. I bought Edtasm+ because I didn't have drives at the time, and Cyrus because it was on sale for an incredibly cheap price. > By the way, you will notice that I am asking for *cartridges*! > ... > I *do* have the MultiPak, so cartridges are wonderful! > ... > I believe there is a really good future in cartridges with > around 32K bytes - 128K bytes. >... > >Cheers! -- Jim O. >... If there really IS a future in cartridges, it won't include me. I *don't* have the MultiPak. I'm certainly not going to risk plugging and unplugging my disk controller, and I'm not excited about paying for an MPI that will take up EVEN MORE of the limited desk space that I have simply to be able to play a game at the flick of a switch. And what happens after you've bought four or more game cartridges? Do the plug-unplug procedure again? Why buy the thing in the first place? You can plug and unplug to your heart's content WITHOUT the MPI. And then there're all the PAL chip complications; you have to buy a certain model MPI for it to work with a CoCo 3. And, if you still happen to have your original CoCo, GUESS WHAT?!!! It won't work with your MPI!!! Once I almost bought one, but luckily the salesperson confused me long enough for me to leave the store in a dazed state; I later realized how much more trouble (and $$) an MPI would be (for me) than it's worth. If Tandy wanted to "do it right," they should've given away the MPIs with every CoCo sold. That way, if one later got a disk system, s/he needn't worry each time the disk controller needed to be pulled out to stick in a cartridge and would still be open to purchasing ROMpaks as well as disk software. Asking $99 (or even $60, on sale) just to be kept "open" to ROMpak software after you've already spent several hundred dollars for a drive or two is presumptuous, considering the low price of the CoCo 3 itself. +-------------------------+ | Frank Farm | | sneezy@ucscb.ucsc.edu | +-------------------------+
dml@loral.UUCP (Dave Lewis) (08/15/88)
In article <4503@saturn.ucsc.edu> sneezy@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Frank Farm) writes: >If there really IS a future in cartridges, it won't include me. >I *don't* have the MultiPak. I'm certainly not going to risk plugging >and unplugging my disk controller, and I'm not excited about paying for >an MPI that will take up EVEN MORE of the limited desk space that I have >simply to be able to play a game at the flick of a switch. And what >happens after you've bought four or more game cartridges? Do the >plug-unplug procedure again? Why buy the thing in the first place? >You can plug and unplug to your heart's content WITHOUT the MPI. Well I *do* have a Multi-Pak, and all 4 of its little slots are full of: * Disk controller (of course) * Deluxe RS-232 pack (on sale, $30, who could resist) * George Indorf/Intronics EPROM programmer, modified to run with OS-9 * ummm...well...Polaris. I admit it. Thing is, I HAVE to have the Multi-Pak to use my system the way I'm used to. I run a 9600 baud terminal off the RS-232 pak because the CoCo's 32 X 16 Ugly font is too painful to contemplate, and since I modified the EPROM programmer I can use all those neat OS-9 utilities (some of which I wrote) to diddle the binary files. There's also the OS-9 L1 assembler, and the Z-80 assembler I made by replacing the mnemonic table, code generate, and address mode sections. Point is, I need to run all this stuff (except Polaris) at the same time. Let's see you do that without a Multi-Pak. (Don't talk to me about Y-cables) And since it's all hooked to a CoCo 2, I don't have to worry about PLA mods. (I've got a CoCo 3 too...just don't have a disk controller for it yet. The CoCo 2 and the Amiga keep me busy enough as it is...) -- Dave Lewis Loral Instrumentation San Diego (619) 282-3341 ihnp4 --\ bang --\ kontron -\ hp-sdd --\ calmasd ->-> crash ->--> loral!dml sdcrdcf -->--------> sdcsvax -/ (uucp)
knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen) (08/16/88)
Frank points out that the MPI will only postpone the plug & unplug syndrome for heavy cartridge users. However, I need the MPI just to run my OS9 system. In fact I whish I had 1 or 2 more slots. What I keep in there is: Floppy controller Hard disk controller MIDI interface RS232 Pak and if I hd another slot would keep my 256K DISTO RAMdisk in there. Then maybe speech synthesizer, etc. At least I don't need an 80-column pak any more. It's NOT true that an MPI upgraded for Coco 3 will not work with older Cocos, just certain peripherals (like Coco Max) that use out-of-range addresses. Of course the MPI's biggest problem for OS9 users -- its screwed-up interrupt-mishandling -- is caused by its original design intent as a 4-game-cart manifold, and Tandy's early use of constant interrupts to signal a game cart's presence. Finally, without excusing Tandy's $60+ price for the MPI, remember the TI/99, which needed a bookshelf-speaker-sized expansion box just to add more RAM, let alone a disk? Cost a few hundred $$, too!