Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcrware!jejones From: jejones@mcrware.UUCP (James Jones) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809 Subject: Re: COCO upgrade Message-ID: <4937@mcrware.UUCP> Date: 6 Feb 91 11:32:32 GMT References: <1991Feb5.005957.14282@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> <1991Feb5.162031.13456@cbnewse.att.com> Reply-To: jejones@mcrware.UUCP (James Jones) Distribution: na Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Iowa Lines: 52 In article <1991Feb5.162031.13456@cbnewse.att.com> gmark@cbnewse.att.com (gilbert.m.stewart) writes: >I can't get COCOMAX to work (it's the >second release for the original COCO). The prompt comes up with "DISK >BASIC 2.0, blah, blah". Now, does this mean that the controller would >probably work with a different version of COCOMAX? I use OS-9 exclusively on my CoCo, but...if I remember rightly, CoCo Max came with a hunk of hardware to do 8-bit A/D to get enough resolution on the mouse/joystick, and there may be problems with that. Perhaps some former CoCo Max (or current CoCo Max III) user will come forth. >What chips can I scavenge from the old COCO? 6821s? Depends on which of them will run at the higher clock rate. >What is the difference between the 6809E and the 68B09E? The clock rate that Motorola is willing to claim they'll run at. >What improvements were made in the III as opposed >to my much-hacked-and-modified I with 64K, composite output, etc.? Improvements: comes with composite output, RGB output (you should give some serious consideration to an RGB monitor--makes life much nicer); of course, the additional RAM (do yourself a favor, and get 512K); much nicer graphics (though it's not hard to do better than the CoCo 1 and 2--we're talking a 16-entry color lookup table with colors chosen from RGB222 (that's right, RGB222)). Unfortunately, the designers felt constrained to be backwards compatible with some of the worse things about the CoCo (the keyboard setup, the sleazoid pseudo-serial port, Color BASIC :-), the clunky Multi-Pak Inter- face). >Any experience with MIDI programs? You're posting from Indian Hill, where I used to work in the same building with Mike Knudsen, author of Ultimuse, and you're asking a question like that?! :-) Oops--I edited out the question about OS-9/6809 Level Two. The folks who worked on that did quite a bit of stuff--most notably, windowing. (I'm typing this on my CoCo 3 at home in one window. A shell is going in another window, and in yet another I have a Kermit running in connect mode talking to the 68020 VME-bus system sitting next to the CoCo.) It's worth your while, IMHO. James Jones (This message has been treated with new lemon-freshened DISCLAIMO, rendering it utterly free of any opinions save my own.)