Category Archives: CoCo

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo)

Building NitrOS-9 on Mac OS X

Updates:

6-22-2022 – I wrote up the steps on building LWTOOLS under Windows using Cygwin. I found it very simple. But, I was not able to get Toolshed building under Cygwin.
12-7-2022 – A few updates about ‘hg’ on Mac.
2-20-2025 – Updated location of NitrOS9 project, and changing instructions to use “git” instead of Mercurial for that step.

Since I have to relearn all the steps, I thought I would post them as I go through them. The NitrOS-9 website has a tutorial on building it, but here are my steps with some specifically for Mac OS X:

Install the Command Line Tools for Mac OS X.

We need the command line versions of the Mac OS X compiler so we can build the tools that are then used to build NitrOS-9. If you have XCODE installed, you may already have them. An easy way to do this is from a Terminal prompt:

xcode-select --install

That will launch the Apple Mac App Store installer and get the tools for you. Cool.

Installing the Mac OS X command line tools.

Download Mercurial.

The NitrOS-9 repository now uses git as version control. You will need to download a git client, or use the GitHub Desktop app. I just learned about this change today (Feb 2025) so I need to update these steps.

Toolshed and LWTools use Mercurial, so you will need to download that as well. On macOS, you should be able to install it using “brew install mercurial”:

brew install mercurial

Download LWTools.

These are the cross-compiler tools used to build 6809 source code from Mac/Windows/Linux systems. From a Terminal prompt, find a directory you want to download the lwtools to. I chose a poor location — “CoCo” inside my Downloads folder:

pwd
/Users/allenh/Downloads/CoCo

From this directory, use the “hg” command to obtain and build the tools. It will build the directory you specify from the command line (“lwtools”):

hg clone http://lwtools.projects.l-w.ca/hg/ lwtools
cd lwtools
make
sudo make install
cd ..

Build Toolshed.

Next we want to build Toolshed. This is a series of command-line utilities that operate on CoCo/OS-9 disk images (like those used with emulators and the CoCoSDC interface). Once again, I do these steps from my “Downloads/CoCo” directory:

hg clone http://hg.code.sf.net/p/toolshed/code toolshed
cd toolshed
sudo make -C build/unix install
cd ..

(Note: I had to use “sudo make…” here to get it to build on my system.) The different build/make process shows the different styles of the various developers that made these tools. (Note: Mine seems to fail looking for a command “markdown” at the very end. Not sure what this is, but it seems to be building HTML documentation or something.)

Build NitrOS-9.

Now we are ready to download and build NitrOS-9. Once again, I start in my “Downloads/CoCo” directory, and issue the following git commands to download all the NitrOS-9 stuff:

git clone https://github.com/nitros9project/nitros9.git
cd nitros9
make dsk

This will build absolutely everything, including tons of ports and disk images you likely do not want. After this, you will have all the sources, and have built all (or some) of the sample disk images for various types of hardware (CoCo 1/2, CoCo 3, 6809 or 6309, CoCoSDC controller versus floppy or IDE hard drive, etc.).

If you are only interested in a CoCo 3 6809 setup, why build all the CoCo 1/2 and Dragon versions, or any of the 6309 stuff? I always build everything, but you can also specify to build just a specific port. For my CoCo 3/6309 build, I could do this instead:

make dsk PORTS=coco3_6309

For stock 6809 CoCo 3:

make dsk PORTS=coco3

Updating NitrOS-9 and the Tools.

Later, if you want to update your sources, you can use this command from the “nitros9” directory:

git pull
make ask

For updating LWTools and Toolshed, use this:

hg pull
hg update

…then the build steps, shown earlier.

NOTE: David Ladd has pointed out that you may want to clean out old files before rebuilding. For Toolshed, I needed to do this first:

hg pull
hg update
make -C build/unix clean
make -C build/unix

I do this occasionally to get the “latest and greatest.” You can do this for the other tools, too, by changing in to their directory then issuing the “pull” and “update”, then the appropriate make command.

TODO: This next section was from when NitrOS9 was at SourceForge and used Mercurial. I have not had a merge conflict using git yet, so I don’t know what those look like. I will try to update this document later.

If you get a merge conflict because you changed something locally, you might see this:

hg update
abort: outstanding merge conflicts

You can use this command to see what files have been changed on your local repository that conflict with the master files. This happens if, for instance, you tweak a makefile or build list or source code:

hg resolve -l
U 3rdparty/utils/tlindner/sdir.asm

This reminded me that I already Tim’s “sdir” source code (for CoCoSDC) so enable built in help and such. I have to revert those changes if I want to update, or learn how to use the merge too… I forgot!

These steps should get you everything you need to begin playing with NitrOS-9 on a real CoCo with the CoCoSDC interface, or an emulator. If you plan to use real floppies, you can use toolshed utilities to format and then copy disk image .DSK files over to the physical floppy, but I don’t have any way to hook a 360K Floppy drive to my Mac so I have never done this. CoCoSDC is the way to go there.

More to come…

25th annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST!

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Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer fans, take note. This weekend (April 23-24, 2016), the Glenside Color Computer Club will be hosting the 25th annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! in Lombard, Illinois (near Chicago).

I attended the first “Last” CoCoFEST! there back in 1992, flying up from Lufkin, Texas with a CoCo friend of mine, Mark. That 1992 event was presented by Dave Myers of CoCoPro, and Glenside was the host club for it. Dave had gotten in to the CoCo convention scene in 1990 when he held his first CoCoFest in Atlanta, Georgia, with the Atlanta Computer Society as the host club there.

These CoCoFests were being started just as the long-running RainbowFests were winding down. Rainbow Magazine was the premier Color Computer publication, starting out as a photocopied newsletter and growing to a 300+ page monthly periodical. Rainbow had years where they held several events across America, but their last event was in Chicago in 1991.

Dave first stepped in to offer an event “down South” in 1990. Rainbow had held only one southern event in Ft. Worth, Texas. When the final RainbowFest was held, Dave decided to continue the tradition with a new event in its place.

Though CoCoPro would exit the convention scene after that 1992 event, the CoCo clubs continued. Atlanta Computer Society kept CoCoFests going there through 1995. The Glenside CoCo Club has continued to host events ever since the original CoCoPro event in 1992 (and they were host club for the RainbowFests before that). But this year is the last one. Again.

Dave chose the “Last” (in quotes) moniker for his first Chicago-area event knowing it could be the final event, and it become the “2nd annual ‘Last'” event the following year when Glenside took over.

Then the 3rd … and 4th … and 5th…

It’s hard to believe that was 25 years ago!

I last got to visit the CoCoFEST! in 2013. I would like to at least day trip to this one. Several long-time CoCo folks from the past are showing up (including our own monk, Brother Jeremy, and our Canadian pal L. Curtis Boyle). I have had several generous offers to provide lodging if I wanted to stay overnight, and even offers to fund my gas. These are some of the people I have called friends longer than just about anyone else I still have in my life.

If you can make it, and I am there, be sure to say hi. If I am not there, be sure to take photos and let me know what I missed.

Find out more: http://glensideccc.com/

CoCo VR

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Over the years, there were a number of cool ideas at Sub-Etha Software that I really wish we’d followed through on. Last year, I mentioned some unfinished software projects I uncovered when going through all my old floppies, but there were also a few hardware projects that never made it out of the idea or concept stage…

Reveal VM100 "voice mail" device for PCs. — Reveal VM100 “voice mail” device for PCs.

For instance, once I found a low-cost gadget at Walmart that interfaced a telephone line to a computer. It was controlled by a serial port, and plugged in to the audio in/out ports of a sound card on a PC. It came with software to turn the PC in to an answering machine.

I bought one to hook it up to my CoCo, and had plans to create a simple CoCo answering machine. On a 128K CoCo 3, it would be possible to play a short greeting, and record a short message from the caller then save it out to disk. Sure, the audio quality would have been poor and it would probably be cheaper to just buy an answering machine, but wouldn’t it be fun?

VM100 ready to hook to a CoCo via cassette cable and RS232 pak.

Concept software was witten (in assembly) to record audio from the VM100 (using 1-bit cassette input, or 6-bit joystick input) as well as play back digital audio.

I was even wanting to do touch tone decoding in software and create a simple voice mail system with mailboxes. There was even a plan to create a “telephone adventure game” where a description would be read and the user could make a choice by pressing buttons on their phone. (Years later, the Tellme company did something similar with a version of blackjack you could play over their 1-800-555-TELL demo line. It was so cool, Microsoft bought them!)

Woulda, coulda, shoulda…

I will try to share some more of these “lost” projects in the future, but today I wanted to focus on a virtual reality project I was working on.

VR was a big buzzword in the early 1990s, and many thought it was going to be the next big thing. As we know know, it fizzeled out rather quickly, with Atari, Sega and Nintendo abandoning their home VR products.

The Atari Jaguar VR project was being done in conjunction with Virtuality, the company I previously wrote about that created the VR game I first experienced.

The Sega VR project has a CoCo connection, since one of the launch titles was being worked on by legendary CoCo game programmer Steve Bjork**! I believe this is the game that Bjork was working on: Iron Hammer

Nintendo’s effort eventually came out as the failed Virtual Boy where, instead of wearing an immersive helmet over your eyes, you peered in to a 3-D viewer that remained stationary on a table. Hey, at least they tried!

But I digress…

In the pre-world wide web days, we had things called catalogs which were like paper versions of Amazon.com. One of the catalogs I received always had interesting items often at cheap liquidation prices. One such item was the VictorMaxx Stuntmaster VR helmet. The wiki page claims this was the very first commercial VR helmet made available.

TODO: I need to add a photo of my VR helmet, as soon as I figure out which storage box it is in.

The Stuntmaster wasn’t a real VR helmet, though. It did not provide a stereoscopic display, and did not have any head tracking capability for use with true VR games. Instead, there was an analog dial on one side that connected to a shaft which you clipped to your shoulder. As you turned your head left or right, the shaft would turn the dial, allowing a simulation of left/right head tracking.

You could plug this helmet up to a Sega Genesis game console and then play some games where you held the game controller to play, but used your head to turn left and right. It seems unlikely that this would have worked well with any games not specifically designed for this, but hey, it was the first.

Here is a video of it in all it’s glory:

Me playing Dactyl Nightmare again in 1994. — Virtuality’s Dactyl Nightmare (I am shown here playing it in Dallas in 1994) had a helmet and a hand grip controller that featured a trigger and a thumb button.

When I saw this in the catalog, I immediately ordered one to see if it could be used with the CoCo. My plan was to send CoCo video and audio to the helmet, then wire the left/right control shaft up as a joystick. Taking a nod from the controls of the Dactyl Nightmare arcade VR game I played, I was going to use the two joystick buttons for “walk” and “shoot”. My thought was you could turn your head left or right, then walk in that direction using the button. I guess I was thinking we’d build a special pistol grip controller to work with the helmet.

I had become friends with Vaughn Cato*, who did the original bouncing ball demo when the CoCo 3 first came out. He had been writing routines to do bitmap scaling and such, and I was hoping to use some of this in some CoCo game projects.

Toast 3-D maze engine by Vaugn Cato. — 3-D maze engine by Vaughn Cato. It ran under OS-9.

On of the coolest things he created was a 3-D maze engine that drew everything using lines (I guess we would call this a vector engine). It looked similar to Dungeons of Daggorath but you could move through it in all directions, like Wolfenstein 3-D or DOOM did.

I cannot remember why, but for some reason the demo executable was called toast. It would read a small text file that represented the maze, then you could walk through the maze in 3-D. Things never went much further than the demo, but I thought it would work well with the VR helmet as the basis of some kind of VR maze game.

I think I was planning to create something like Phantom Slayer VR (a tribute to the old MED Systems 3-D maze game by Ken Kalish). I certainly know I had worked on this concept before without VR in mind, as well as a 3-D Pac-Man game. The Pac-Man one was interesting, as I got as far as recreating the original Pac-Man maze in 3-D and had it populated with dots you could walk over to “eat.”

Woulda, coulda, shoulda…

I still have the helmet. Who knows . . . maybe some day CoCo VR might still get done, even if there is no longer a supply for helmets to make it a sellable product.

*Vaughn Cato may be the only former CoCo guy to accept an Oscar. He was working with a company doing motion capture and he was on stage to receive a 2005 Technical Achievement Award. That’s quite the trip from a bouncing ball demo on a TRS-80, don’t you think?

**Steve Bjork has also had encounters with movies. If I recall correctly, he was an extra in films like Rollercoaster and The Goonies, as well as working on movie related video games like The Rocketeer and The Mask. Oh, and his CoCo program Audio Spectrum Analyzer appeared in Revenge of the Nerds, and his CoCo Zaxxon program appeared in Friday the 13th Part 4.

64K TRS-80 CoCo memory test

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Updates:

2016/1/19 – Added reference to earlier article about more memory for BASIC (and an excerpt about why BASIC is that way). Also added reference to Juan’s comment on improving the program. Added link to Facebook CoCo group.
2016/9/2 – Removed a duplicate line in the 2nd listing. Maybe fixed a typo or two.

On startup, a cassette-based CoCo has 24871 bytes available for BASIC.

Recently, Richard Ivey became the latest person in the Facebook TRS-80 / Color Computer group to ask how to tell if an old Radio Shack Color Computer had 64K without opening the case. The problem has to do with backwards compatibility. When the original Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer was released in 1980, it was sold as either a 4K or 16K system. Later, a 32K model would be available, and the Microsoft COLOR BASIC would give about 24K of free memory (with the rest of the memory used by the video display, cassette buffers, BASIC input buffer, etc.).

Update: See this earlier article about getting more memory for BASIC. Here is an excerpt:

64K NOTE: The reason BASIC memory is the same for 32K and 64K is due to legacy designs. The 6809 processor can only address 16-bits of memory space (64K). The BASIC ROMs started in memory at $8000 (32768, the 32K halfway mark). This allowed the first 32K to be RAM for programs, and the upper 32K was for BASIC ROM, Extended BASIC ROM, Disk BASIC ROM and Program Pak ROMs. Early CoCo hackers figured out how to piggy-pack 32K RAM chips to get 64K RAM in a CoCo, but by default that RAM was “hidden” under the ROM address space. In assembly language, you could map out the ROMs and access the full 64K of RAM. But, since a BASIC program needed the BASIC ROMs, only the first 32K was available.

When 64K upgraded became available, the original BASIC would still only report about 24K free since it had never been modified to make use of the extra memory. Thus, typing “PRINT MEM” on a 32K CoCo 1 shows the same thing it does on a 512K (or greater) CoCo 3.

So how do you tell? One easy way is to just try to load a program or game that requires 64K and see if it works. But, if all you have is the CoCo, there is a short program you could type in to test. (NOTE: See a better listing later in this article.)

10 READ A$:IF A$="X" THEN END
20 POKE 20000+N,VAL("&H"+A$)
30 N=N+1:GOTO 10
40 DATA 34,01,1A,50,10,8E,80,00
50 DATA B7,FF,DE,EC,A4,AE,22,EE
60 DATA 24,B7,FF,DF,ED,A1,AF,A1
70 DATA EF,A1,10,8C,FE,FC,25,E8
80 DATA 10,8C,FF,00,24,0C,B7,FF
90 DATA DE,EC,A4,B7,FF,DF,ED,A1
100 DATA 20,EE,35,01,39
110 DATA X

Thanks to Juan Castro for passing this along. I reformatted it so no line would be longer than the 32 column screen, hoping it makes it a bit easier to type in (though it does make the program longer, needing more, shorter lines).

On a 64K CoCo, this program will copy the ROMs to RAM and then switch in to all-RAM mode. RUN it, then type EXEC 20000 to execute it.

I believe this is the classic “ROM TO RAM” (or ROM2RAM) program that appeared somewhere in Rainbow magazine back probably around 1983. Basically, it places the system in to 64K mode (where memory addresses &H0000 to &HFFFF are all RAM) and copies the COLOR BASIC and, if installed, the EXTENDED and DISK BASIC ROMs in to that upper 64K so the system can still work.

If you type this in on a CoCo 1 or 2, then RUN it, it loads a small machine language program in starting ad memory address 20000. After this, you can type “EXEC 20000” to execute that machine language program. If you typed it in correctly, it should just return to BASIC and nothing should seem any different.

But, at this point (if it worked), the BASIC ROM is now in RAM, which means you can POKE to those memory locations and make changes.

Juan suggests an easy hack of changing where the prompt “OK” appears. He says:

Now try POKE &HABEF,89 — OK should become OY.

It worked for me in the Xroar emulator (configuration to emulated a 64K CoCo 2):

The BASIC "OK" prompt is changed to read "OY" (after placing the 64K CoCo in to all-RAM mode). — The BASIC “OK” prompt is changed to read “OY” (after placing the 64K CoCo in to all-RAM mode).

Thus, if you can run this program without it crashing, and that POKE works to change something formerly in ROM, your CoCo is operating in all-RAM mode and must have more than 32K.

In the future, I will have to track down a simpler way to test for 64K. Until then, happy typing…

Update: In the comments, Juan suggested making the following changes, so the program will execute the machine language program for you:

10 READ A$:IF A$=”X” THEN 35
20 POKE 20000+N,VAL("&H"+A$)
30 N=N+1:GOTO 10
35 EXEC 20000:POKE &HABEF,89:END
40 DATA 34,01,1A,50,10,8E,80,00
50 DATA B7,FF,DE,EC,A4,AE,22,EE
60 DATA 24,B7,FF,DF,ED,A1,AF,A1
70 DATA EF,A1,10,8C,FE,FC,25,E8
80 DATA 10,8C,FF,00,24,0C,B7,FF
90 DATA DE,EC,A4,B7,FF,DF,ED,A1
100 DATA 20,EE,35,01,39
110 DATA X

With those changes, now all you have to do is type RUN and it will load the machine language program, execute it (to copy ROM in to RAM), then poke the “OK” prompt to say “OY”. Thanks, Juan!

Carl England writes books, too?

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I met Carl England at the very first Atlanta CoCoFest, I believe, back in 1990. If it wasn’t the 1990 one, it was certainly 1991. I have been a fan of his work ever since. His SuperBoot utility was on virtually every RS-DOS disk I owned that had stuff I wanted to run by typing “DOS”. He is also the guy that demonstrated a Tandy DMP105 printer with an add on that turned it in to a full page scanner. It’s a pity that never made it to market. It was way ahead of its time.

Today I found out Carl has also written a fiction book. He is looking for enouhg nominations on Amazon to get it published. If you don’t mind, take a look:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/GCH5VQG8NI6U

Thanks.

ESP8266 $5 WiFi for Arduino?

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This evening, I saw a reference to something called an ESP8266. A quick web search revealed it was a $5 WiFi chip that was mentioned last August 2014 on Hackaday:

New Chip Alert: The ESP8266 WiFi Module (It’s $5)

As of this writing it has only been about six months since the discovery. At the time, little was known about it beyond some documents in Chinese and some early attempts to write code to use it. Today, however, you can find this part on Amazon for $7.99 with Prime shipping, or much cheaper on e-Bay with slow shipping from China:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ESP8266

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESP8266-Serial-WIFI-Wireless-TransceiveR-Module-Send-Receive-LWIP-AP-STA-SY-/221619180149?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3399885275

The chip can been hooked up to a UART (transmit and receive), or via SPI. This means, with a cheap TTL-to-RS232 adapter and a power supply, you could WiFi enable anything with an RS232 port with a bit of communications software.

The next time I have a few spare bucks, I plan to order one and see how easy it is to work with. It could be a fun way to WiFi-enable a CoCo or Arduino :)

And for those curious, here is a tutorial on using it I found:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Using-the-ESP8266-module/

Please leave a comment if you have worked with this chipset. It seems it might not take much to make a C library for Arduino that mirrored the official Arduino WiFi shield API, but used this inexpensive part.

CoCo/Tandy 1000 joystick adapter project

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Last year, I designed an adapter that would let me use original CoCo (or Tandy 1000) analog joysticks on a modern computer via USB. I also designed an opposite adapter, which would let a modern USB controller be used on an old CoCo or Tandy 1000.

I ordered all the parts for a prototype, and did some quick tests to prove that it worked… And then promptly moved on to other things.

Eventually I found some time and I dug out all of these parts and began wiring things up again. My hope was to have a few things available to sell at the Chicago CoCoFEST this past April 25 and 26, 2015. (Money is very tight here, so any thing I can do to generate some extra income is a good thing.) I was unable to go, so did no more work on the project.

Rather than collect dust, I thought I’d share my work so far in this article I originally started working on last February.

The hardware components I have will allow several things:

For the CoCo

Use modern USB joysticks/gamepads on the CoCo
Use modem Bluetooth wireless joysticks/gamepads on the CoCo
Use modern USB keyboards on the CoCo
Use modern Bluetooth wireless keyboards on the CoCo

For Mac/Linux/Windows

Use an original CoCo/Tandy 1000 joystick as a USB input device
Use an original CoCo/Tandy 1000 joystick as a wireless Bluetooth input device
Use an original CoCo keyboard as a USB keyboard
Use an original CoCo keyboard as a Bluetooth wireless keyboard

As you can see, there are two main goals (use modern stuff on a CoCo, or use old CoCo stuff on a modern computer), with a focus on USB or wireless Bluetooth. All of these are possible, with the cost of doing Bluetooth about the same (or maybe a few dollars less) than USB.

My current prototype reads a PC USB joystick and turns that in to a CoCo-readable analog joystick. I also wired up CoCo joysticks to use on my Mac (very direct and easy).

The keyboard stuff also interests me. I plan to order the Bluetooth part I need so I can embed it inside my CoCo, hooked to the keyboard connector, and use an external battery powered Bluetooth keyboard on my CoCo.

The other combinations are not high on my project list since I do not even own a wireless Bluetooth gamepad or controller (unless my OUYA console controller can be used). However, when I get to that point, I may be able to find someone I can borrow one from for testing.

My eyesight took a hit last year, and now I can no longer focus on things more than a few feet away so I probably won’t do much until I can afford a new set of glasses ;-) Mid-40s is trying to make me think I’m no longer in my mid-20s!

To be continued…

Introducing the CoCoPilot DriveWire Server

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NEW “PRODUCT” ANNOUNCEMENT

Sub-Etha Software is proud to announce plans for its latest bit of vaporware: The CoCoPilot DriveWire Server, or “CoPi” for short.

The CoPi is a tiny device (which is approximately the size of a Raspberry Pi in a case) that comes with everything you need to have a functioning DriveWire server without having to keep your Mac or Windows machine nearby and powered on just so you can type “dir /x0”.

Pricing is to be announced but hopefully it will be around $50. Kit versions will also be available so you can just buy the bits you need in case you already have some of the other bits.

CoCoPilot Configurations

Turnkey – This is a “plug and go” version, where all you have to do is install the DriveWire drivers for NitrOS-9, or load the appropriate RS-DOS software (like the special DriveWire version of HDB-DOS), and plug it in. It comes complete with the server hardware, power supply, server-to-CoCo interface device (often called an RS232 cable), and internal solid-state boot device (sometimes called an “SD card”).
BYOE – The bring-your-own-everything edition is shipped as a set of simple instructions that will let you transform a boring Raspberry Pi in to the amazing CoCoPilot DriveWrite Server. All you have to do is provide the Raspberry Pi, SD card, RS232 adapter and CoCo serial cable. And do a bunch of typing*. And downloading. And editing. And configuring. But the end result is you have everything that the Turnkey edition has at a fraction of the price.
Custom – Also planned to be available are various custom configurations. Already have a Pi? Don’t need another CoCo serial cable? Our custom configuration engineers are ready to custom tailor your order.

Pricing

We estimate complete pricing will be around $50. Or maybe $60. But probably not more than $75.Unless someone really wants to overpay for this.

Availability

The first working prototype was just turned on last night. Quit rushing us. We’ll announce availability when it is ready.

For more information, be sure to follow this blog.

(In case you didn’t get it, I started working with DriveWire on my Raspberry Pi. I will try to document all my steps to make things easier for you if you want to try it. And if you just want a Pi already setup, I’ll probably be able to do that as well.)

* Actually, it’s not really that much typing. I will have a full “from getting a Pi, to using DriveWire” tutorial next. But if you already know your away around the Pi, you pretty much can boot a freshly installed Pi, login and type:

wget http://sites.google.com/site/drivewire4/download/DriveWire4_4.3.3.zip
unzip DriveWire4_4.3.3.zip
cd DriveWire4_4.3.3

Then, you have to edit the “config.xml” file to tell it what serial port you are using. For instance, if you plug in a USB-RS232 adapter, it might appear as device “/dev/ttyUSB0”. You just edit the file and change two bits:

<DeviceType category="device" list="serial,tcp-server,tcp-client,dummy" type="list">serial</DeviceType>

…and…

<SerialDevice category="device" type="serialdev">/dev/ttyUSB0</SerialDevice>

Then all you have to do to start it up is type:

java -jar DW4UI.jar -noui

Tada! Now your DriveWire-enabled CoCo should be able to start issuing commands to the server.

However, DriveWire has many more features that you can only get to using the DriveWire GUI. If you have a display, mouse and keyboard hooked to your Pi, you can instead run the GUI like this:

startx

That will start up the X-Windows desktop GUI on the Pi. Now all you have to do is run the DriveWire GUI. One way to do this is by opening up a Terminal to get to a shell prompt (Ctrl-Escape -> Accessories -> Terminal).

But wait! The GUI requires a few elements that are not part of the default Pi Linux installation, so you need to add them first by typing:

sudo apt-get install libswt-gtk-3-java
sudo apt-get install  libswt-cairo-gtk-3-jni

Now you are ready to run the DriveWire 4 GUI:

cd DriveWire4_4.3.3
java -jar DW4UI.jar

Now you can do things like update the DriveWire software and many other things you cannot do without a mouse (apparently).

Check back later for a full, step-by-step article on taking a fresh out-of-the-box Pi and turning it in to a DriveWire server. (Or I can sell you one already configured.)

An easier way to save your old floppies

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Over in the Facebook CoCo group, Steve Batson pointed out an interesting Textfiles.com product review for a USB 5 1/4″ drive interface.

The FD5025 USB 5.25″ floppy controller by deviceside.com is a $55 interface that lets you plug up a “modern. 1.2M 5 1/4” floppy drive (provide your own drive, case and power supply) and run software on Mac, Windows or Linux to read older 360K floppy disks in to disk image files. Currently, the software understands the following disk formats:

Apple DOS 3.2 (13-sector)
Apple DOS 3.3 (16-sector)
Apple ProDOS
Atari 810
Calcomp Vistagraphics 4500
Commodore 1541
Kaypro 2 CP/M 2.2
Kaypro 4 CP/M 2.2
MS-DOS
Motorola VersaDOS
North Star MDS-A-D
PMC MicroMate
Tandy Color Computer Disk BASIC
TI-99/4A

Unless it’s doing something special with the file system, I would hope that it could also handle CoCo OS-9 disks (same track/sectors, just different data on the 256-byte sectors).

It looks like a very interesting interface and one that would have saved me a ton of time. BUT, my custom approach let me locate and flag the bad disks and identify the “lost” sectors in the copies (I would write a set pattern to any sector I could not read from the disk — easier to detect later with a disk editor or utility program).

Check it out, and if you have experience with this interface, please leave a comment with your comments…

Invaders09 updated to 1.04

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Sub-Etha Software has released another update to our Color Computer 3 OS-9 space invaders-style game, Invaders09. Version 1.04 is now available and is a recommended upgrade for all users. It supplants previous February 1995 release of 1.03. As with all Sub-Etha Software products, bug fixes and maintenance releases are free upgrades.

You may download the 1.04 update as a self-booting .DSK image from our update server:

http://subethasoftware.com/files/coco/

The INVADE09.DSK image includes a fully bootable version of NitrOS-9 v3.3.0 and may be ran directly on a real Color Computer 3 or emulator just by mounting the image and typing “DOS”. You may also copy the invaders1.04.txt documentation file and CMDS/invaders1.04 binary to your existing OS-9 Level 2 or NitrOS-9 6309 or 6809 system.

1.04 RELEASE NOTES

Updated title screen (website, new message).
Added “secret” options to help screen.
Fixed bug that made font not always load.
Fixed shield and border graphics, palette cleanup.

KNOWN ISSUES

After 20 years, the game still doesn’t have an “attract mode” or “high score” listing. Maybe 1.05 will be out by 2025 to fix this. (Sorry about that, Bob Devries!)
The documentation refers to the binary as being called “invaders” but it is really “invaders1.04” on this release. Maybe the author won’t be so lazy next time and will name the binary correctly.

DOCUMENTATION

File:  INVADERS.TXT - Revision 1.2 (2/7/2015) - By Allen C. Huffman

|   I    NNNNN  VV  V   AAA   DDDD   EEEEE  RRRR   SSSSS   |
|   I    N   N  VV  V   A A   D   D  E      R  R   S       |
|   II   NN  N  VV VV  AAAAA  DD  D  EEEE   RRRRR  SSSSS   |
|   II   NN  N   V V   AA  A  DD  D  EE     RR  R     SS   |
|   II   NN  N    V    AA  A  DDDD   EEEEE  RR  R  SSSSS   |
| 
The Invasion Begins!

By Allen C. Huffman
Copyright (C) 1994,1995,2015 by Sub-Etha Software
www.subethasoftware.com

INTRODUCTION

     For years, determined scientists have probed the endless boundries of the
universe for extra-terrestrial signals.  Countless satellites have been
launched, radio signals transmitted, and theories formulated...all without
results.  Until now...
     Far out in the eastern spiral arm of the galaxy, something was listening.
And this something didn't like what it heard.  Soon outposts around the planet
were picking up masses moving towards the Earth.  The planet was preparing for
first contact, but no signals came from the void.
     The scientists prepared their welcome speeches.  The government, of
course, prepared defense actions.  The tabloids prepared headlines about the
end of the world.  The invasion began.
     Without warning, waves of disc shaped ships filled the skies.  Blasts of
energy were fired on unsuspecting buildings, knocking out military
installations before any retaliation strikes could be launched.  The Earth was
defenseless except...of course...for one last hope.
     The E.T.H.A. (Extra Terrestrial Hope Association) had planned for the
worst when the big day of contact would arrive.  Along with an endless supply
of peaceful translation equipment they possessed an experimental plasma cannon.
 This would be Earth's only chance for survival.
     You, my friend, are the control operator of this cannon.  Good luck.

INSTALLATION

     Invaders09 is a self contained executable called "Invaders".  Copy it to
your CMDS directory.  Usage is as follows:

     Invaders 1.04 by Allen Huffman (alsplace@pobox.com)
     Copyright (C) 1994,95,2015 by Sub-Etha Software. www.subethasoftware.com

     Syntax: Invaders [-opts]
     Usage : LEFT/RIGHT to Move, SPACE to Fire, P to Pause, Q to Quit.
     Opts  : -? = display this message.
             -m = monochrome colors (for 'montype m' displays).
             -z = secret option if you think it is too slow.
             -* = secret cheat mode (press * to skip level).

PLAYING THE GAME

     At the title screen, joystick users should press "J" or the fire button to
start the game.  [Note:  The joystick must be plugged into the left joystick
port.]  For keyboard control, press "K".  "Q" will quit back to OS-9.
     The game will begin and the playfield will appear.  The object is simply
to move your cannon (at the bottom of the screen) left and right to shoot at
the bad guys.  Direct hits are required as any side shots will be absorbed
harmlessly by the invaders.  Also, equipment limitations prevent your plasma
cannon from moving and firing at the same time.  Readouts at the bottom of the
screen display your current score, round, power rating, and lives remaining.

     Scoring:  Each invader you hit earns you 10 points.  Occassionally, a
mother ship ufo will pass across the top of the playfied.  Destroying it is
worth 100 points.
     Rounds:  After clearing out all fifty invaders, a new round will begin. 
The invaders will start closer to the ground.
     Power:  This determines how many shots your cannon can fire at a time. 
Each round gives you an extra shot up to the maximum of "J" (10 shots).  Each
time you lose a life your power goes down by one to the minimum of "B" (two
shots).
     Lives:  You start with three cannons.  Use them wisely.  Without them the
dreaded "Game Over" message will appear.
     Pause:  During game play, press "P" to pause the game.
     Quit:  Pressing "Q" during a game will quit.

     You have three shields to hide under.  Be warned:  They do not protect you
from bombs dropped by the mothership.  Also, when the invaders get low enough
your shields will disappear.  Be warned again.

WINNING THE GAME

     As with all classic arcade games, the enemies are never ending.  Each
level causes the enemies to start closer and closer to the ground and they get
faster and faster.  Good luck!

THANKS

     Special thanks to YOU for helping support the future of the CoCo and OS-9
by supporting vendors such as ourselves.  Without you, our hobby would have
died years ago.

SPECIAL THANKS

     Thanks to Bob Devries, Robert Gault, Colin McKay, Alan DeKok and the late
Alex Forrest for helping beta test this product and get it to this stage.

RELEASE HISTORY

Programming on Invaders09 began on 8/21/94 and it debuted at the 1994 Atlanta
CoCoFest.

* 1.00 09/24/94 - Release version for 1994 Atlanta CoCoFest!
* 1.01 10/26/94 - Robert Gault patch for >512K systems
*                 Since NitrOS9 call does not work for >512K, call removed
* 1.02 01/29/95 - Converting to 16-color gfx screen (whew!)
* 1.03 02/04/95 - Added test for valid screen BEFORE mapping it into MEM R.G.
*                 Moved hiscore and packet (=enemies) to dp. A.H.
* 1.04 02/07/15 - Updated title screen (website, new message).
*                 Added "secret" options to help screen.
*                 Fixed bug that made font not always load.
*                 Fixed shield and border graphics, palette cleanup.

CONTACTING SUB-ETHA:

    Internet: www.subethasoftware.com
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/subethasoftware