2020-03-17 Update: I found another reference to The Byte House in a magazine called Micro (about the 6502 and 6809). They listed a VIC-20 game called “Mojave Desert Adventure” by Dennis McCormack. Then, in an earlier search, there was an excerpt from VIC-NIC called “Ask Dennis.” Now I have a second name to try to track down in hopes of finding this old newsletter.
2024-02-02: Someone e-mailed me today saying they had the first issues and that my Eggs program appears in issue #6. I am hopeful they can provide scans of these issues so we can get them uploaded/archived somewhere. I’ll share details when I have them.
2024-02-012: Article posted! (Also check for follow-ups as I fixed an issue with the joystick code.)
My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. When I first received it (thanks, dad!), I stayed up all night going through the manual learning how to program it. In my short time with the VIC (I got a Radio Shack CoCo 1 about a year later), I wrote many simple games. Recently, I found a box of old VIC-20 cassettes that have these programs, and I have been trying to import them to run on an emulator.
This makes me want to find another aspect of my first computer. I had a program published in a newsletter called VIC-NIC NEWS. I cannot find my physical copy of it (but may still have it somewhere, since I still have all my old Compute’s Gazette VIC-20 magazines). I’ve done some searching for it over the years (and when I search now, I tend to find myself searching for it or talking about it).
Can anyone help me track down VIC-NIC NEWS? My game was a simple “catch the falling object” game called Eggs. I’d really like to see it again.
Online searches revealed issues of a magazine called Commander. I found this excerpt:
THE VIC-NIC NEWS , bi-monthly, $6 per year from The Byte House.
8 page newsletter consisting of several brief listings, a page of reviews, a crossword puzzle, some ads, a question column, and errata. A decent price from friendly folks, but what is a VIC-NIC?
-Commander Magazine / Also The Midnite June-July 1983 Page 50
As well as a listing under User Groups – New Hampshire:
TBH VIC·NIC CLUB PO Box 981 Salem, NH 03079 Contact – J. Newman Publication – VIC-NIC NEWS Interests – VIC-20 Exclusively
I have had no luck tracking down J. Newman. (I also wonder if this might be a female, since I often see women go by an initial in publications and online. Anyone know who J. is?)
2024-02-12 – Added image of Eggs, my first published program. Replaced Factory TNT screenshot with one that shows the proper graphics. Updated Meteor Clash screenshot.
…it was going to be Custom Programs Limited.
My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20 back around 1981 or 1982 (whenever it first came out for “under $300” – $299.99 is what my father paid for it, I believe).
But my buddy, Jimmy*, suggested “Unlimited” because then it would be C.P.U. (I had not even heard the term CPU yet). And thus, CPU Software was born.
The letters appeared to the musical notes of 2001, one at a time, then the title screen would come up:
That was to be our startup for all our custom programs. It was going to be me writing for the VIC-20, and Jimmy writing for a Timex Sinclair ZX81, and another guy at school writing for a TRS-80 Model III (he didn’t own one, but had access to them at school). We thought we could custom write programs for people.
Our first program was a horse racing game, and it was written for each of these platforms, though I don’t seem to have a copy of it (or it’s on one of the tapes that is bad).
I don’t know why we didn’t pursue this, but I did write a bunch of small games for the VIC-20…
Eggs
I wrote a simple BASIC game called Eggs and it was published in the June/July 1983 issue of VIC-NIC News (issue #6).
It was a very simple “catch the falling object” game that used joystick.
Brick Layer
Bricklayer was a simple game based on the Atari VCS cartridge Surround. I apparently wasn’t date-aware back then, and the comments inside the program only list the title and author. Bummer. I really would like to know when I wrote these.
Bricklayer for the VIC-20
The game screen animated as it drew the black walls (with sounds), then the game began. Using a joystick (I think), you started “laying bricks” around the screen, trying to cover as much area as you could without running out of room or crashing.
If you got over 200, it would congratulate you. If you crashed, it would summarize your accomplishment.
Bricklayer for the VIC-20
Yeah. There was a time when this would have been considered a game. Interestingly enough, the movie TRON would come out a year later, taking the “draw lines” concept to a new level with the Light Cycles. The TRON arcade game featured Light Cycles as one of the four games it had, and this became my favorite arcade game of all-time.
I guess I had a thing for drawing lines.
Gold Grabber
Next up was a chase game.
You moved around the screen (you were the clubs symbol) trying to catch the gold (the diamond) while avoiding the bad guy (the +).
I have no idea what the “+” represented, and the game logic just had it wandering around randomly so I had to actually try to run in to it to see what it did.
Factory TNT
In my mind, this was called Factory TNT, but for some reason, the cassette was just labeled as TNT. This was a “Kaboom” catch the falling objects game. I had previously written a text version of the same type of game and called it Eggs. In it, you were catching falling eggs. This game was printed out in the VIC-NIC NEWS newsletter.
I almost had this program distributed by a company, but due to my very similar Eggs game being printed in a newsletter (which they also subscribed to), they decided to pass on it. (I belive this was the “FOX 20: the magazine for VIC 20 users” cassette-tape newsletter, published out of Pasadena/Deer Park, TX. (I lived in both those towns at one point, and recall going over to the house of the publisher – it was a home run operation – and meeting them once.)
The tape is bad, so the custom graphics are not loading, but it should look like a conveyor belt on the bottom, and pipes on the top. Classic round bombs would fall from the top and you moved your cup along the conveyor to catch them. If they hit the ground, they would turn in to a mushroom cloud. It has decent sound effects.
VIC-20 Factory TNT.
Apparently, it tracked high score (not saved to tape or anything, so it would reset any time you reloaded).
Factory TNT for the VIC-20
Factory TNT for the VIC-20
Apparently I had different rankings! Cool. I need to check the listing and see what all they were.
Thick Brush
For some reason, I did a blocky drawing program.
Thick Brush for the VIC-20
Thick Brush for the VIC-20
Thick Brush for the VIC-20
Thick Brush for the VIC-20
Thick Brush for the VIC-20
What in the world was this good for? There didn’t seem to be a way to save the “artwork” either. I guess I was, yet again, inspired by the Atari VCS Surround cartridge, which had a simple drawing mode (but the Atari version didn’t let you draw in colors – take that, Atari!).
Sky-Ape-Er
In a previous post, I mentioned my Donkey Kong inspired game, Sky-Ape-Er. Actually, it was really inspired by a VIC-20 game I bought that was inspired by Donkey Kong. I remember seeing it at the only VIC-20 store in Houston (I had my grandmother drive me across town to go to it), and they were out of stock, but they made a copy and sold it to me, and said I could get the real tape when they got more (I never did). On the label, they hand wrote “Krazy Kong”, so it might have been this one, or this Super Kong one. They appear to be the same game, but with different colors.
The important breakthrough was that they solved the problem of ladders and such by just making the level wrap around and go up. I had been working on a Donkey Kong style game and planned to use teleporters so you would stand on a spot and it a button and be teleported to the level above (I guess I had no idea how to make the climbing work then). When I saw the Krazy Kong approach, I knew I could do that, and make it better.
I worked on a few versions of this, with some graphics that looked like Donkey Kong girders, and some that looked like bricks. I think the brike
Unlike one I bought, my version had instructions!
I think mine looked better than the one I bought.
It turns out to be a very difficult game! I finally cleared the first screen and found out there were multiple levels! I wonder how many are in there??? This is level 2 (using the prototype graphics):
Sky-Ape-Er for the VIC-20
And the “continue” screen was kind of snarky. I seem to have put some work in to these things.
Sky-Ape-Er for the VIC-20
I don’t know what my intentions were with this game, but I expect I was trying to sell it as well. I had no idea that an individual could just make tapes and put ads in newsletters and sell copies back then. I wish I did — I probably could have made some money in those early days.
Maze Gobbler
I was annoyed with Pac-Man games not looking like Pac-Man (I’m looking’ at YOU, Atari VCS), so I started working on my own. I replicated the Pac-Man maze very accurately, but by the time I had done that, I was out of memory on this 3.5K computer. Nothing exists from that maze except a title screen, as far as I have found:
Maze Gobbler for the VIC-20
Meteor Clash
My attempt at a Defender-style game (maybe – I’m not sure that game even existed yet) was Meteor Clash. You moved a spaceship up and down and dodged endless meteors that headed to you.
Meters Clash for the VIC-20
This game had an intro that printed out text letter-by-letter like a typewriter, with beeping sounds! Fancy.
Meteor Clash for the VIC-20
Spell checkers did not exist for the VIC-20, apparently.
Meteor Clash for the VIC-20
I don’t know how to use those cursor control keys on the emulator yet, so I wasn’t able to play it. I was able to fly for a bit until a meteor hit me.
Oops. This screen shot was taken when the meteors were being redrawn, so it’s just the ship. It wasn’t much of a game yet, anyway. It did have sounds, and an explosion, though! Maybe that would have been enough to be a game, but I hadn’t even customized the graphics yet. (Maybe that’s “Meteor Storm” I keep remembering.)
Rover
I seem to recall that this was going to be a Moon Patrol style game, but all I can find is a test of the title screen.
Rover for the VIC-20
I found a few other things, too, including stuff written for the Super Expander cartridge which I cannot run on the emulator I am using. I need to figure out if that is possible in another emulator, since I have some games I wrote for it (enhanced graphics commands and such).
I also did a bunch of video titles for a booth at the Houston Boat Show for my father. I remember having an animated fish that swam back and forth on the screen in one of them, and drawing blue water waves. I later did graphics using my TRS-80 CoCo 1, and my dad was never impressed with it since the colors were so much worse than the VIC-20.
Interesting stuff, even if most of the tapes won’t load in 2016.
Man… I was, like, 12 years old when I was doing this. I really should have done more with it, but who knew computers were going to become such a part of life!
To be continued…
*Jimmy J was a kid I met in 7th grade. I had seen a listing in TV guide for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” on PBS and had watched it. In English (?) class, I quoted a line from the show, and he turned around and said something like “you watched that to?” We became friends, and I think he’s the one that let me know about Douglas Adams and the book versions of Hitchhikers. He also introduced me to computers. He had a book on programming and we would go down to Radio Shack to type things in on the TRS-80 Model III. He’s likely the one that introduced me to BBSes too (again, we’d go down and get online at Radio Shack before we had our own computers and modems), and he was also the one that introduced me to the concept of hacking and phone phreaking. Fun times! Beyond my parents, I can’t think of any other person that had such an impact on the direction of my life at an early age. Thanks, James!
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.
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 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:
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.
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.
Tonight, I made an amazing discovery. I finally located a cigar box full of cassettes tapes containing VIC-20 programs I wrote in 1982 (when I was just 13 years old). I am eager to see what is on them!
Amazingly, not only where the games I remember writing here, but also a number of others I had completely forgotten about (and some I am not sure what they were). The list of programs I wrote includes:
Brick Layer – likely a Surround type game (like TRON light cycles, which was not out yet).
Factory TNT – the tape just calls it TNT, though. This was a Kaboom “catch the falling bombs” game.
Gold Grabber – ???
Meteor Clash – maybe this is the one I have been calling Meteor Storm all these years. If so, it’s a side scrolling spaceship dodging game.
Sky-Ape-Er – a Donkey Kong style platform game, based on one I purchased and knew I could write better.
Space Shot – ???
Thick Brush – likely a drawing program.
I am very excited to see what these programs were. I also have (very faded) thermal printouts of some of them, though I don’t think I could scan them and OCR them or even read them enough to type them in these days.
Off to find a VIC-20 emulator, and figure out how to digitize these tapes and get them loaded in to it…
Sky-Ape-Er Lives!
Update: I managed to load a few files so far, but most have errors. But, I found two versions of Sky-Ape-Er!
This must have been an early prototype.
Pinwheels where the original enemy. For some reason.
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).
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!
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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!
Just a few months after the announcement of the TC-70, Frank Hogg posted a Q&A file answering some of the questions about how it was different than the MM/1. This file also came from the GEnie online service:
Number: 4643 Name: tomcat_q_a_text
Address: B.BRADY Date: 900704
Approximate # of bytes: 21420
Number of Accesses: 45 Library: 9
Description:
The Tomcat is a replacement for the CoCo 3. All OS-9ers should read this
file.
Keywords: CoCo,Tomcat,OS-9,OSK,OS-9000,6809,68000
TOMCAT Questions and Answers in a random and sometimes
confused order.
7/3/90
Q: Will the TC9 be a ready-to-go computer with case & power
supply & keyboard or do we get those separately? Options
either way maybe?
A: The TC9 will be offered in five different formats.
#1 is the board that you can install in your case. Price is
$299.95 with ZERO K RAM. 512K installed is $49.95.
#2 is a Low profile desktop case that is about 16 inches
square and 4 inches tall. It will hold the TC9 +3 K-Bus
cards +2 or 3 CoCo cartridges + 2 5 in and 2 3.5 in drives.
It has a 200 Watt power supply.
#3 is similar to the LP except it is about 6 high and holds
3 5 in and 1 3.5 in drives and and 6 or 7 K-Bus cards plus
the CoCo cartridges. It has a 200 Watt power supply.
#4 is a Mini-Tower about 6 in wide x 16 in tall by 16 in
deep more or less. Holds 2 5's and 2 3's plus 6-8 K-Bus
cards and CoCo cartridges. It has a 200 Watt power supply.
#5 is a big Tower and it will hold everything, 8 drives, 16
slot bus etc etc. Stands 24 in tall x 8 in wide by 18 or so
deep. It has a 240 Watt power supply.
Q: Would I be able to just unplug the Multi-pak from my CoCo
3, with Disto II floppy controller, Burke & Burke HD
interface & RS232 pak and just plug the works into the
TOMCAT?
A: Yes, because the TC9 has a CoCo Bus everything will work
except ROM cartridge games. You may not want the RS-232 pak
anymore because the TC9 has 2 RS232 style ports on it.
Q: Hmmm, wait, I won't need the RS232 pak anymore. That
still leaves two CoCo-type rompaks to run my existing
drives - still need the multi-pak?, or can I connect my
existing drives some other way?
A: The TC9, should run 2 Paks on just a cable. The CoCo Bus
on the TC9 is via a dual header rather than a card edge
connector which was done to make it easier to cable the paks
in the case. We and you have too too many ways to mount
everything so we decided to make it flexible. Also we put 12
volts back on the bus for things like the Burke & Burke
Interface.
Q: Here's one - What kind of video resolution are we talking
about with the new machines, and in how many colors??
A: The TC9 is exactly the same as the CoCo 3 because it uses
the GIME chip. The TC70 uses the VSC chip which has up to
720 X 540 with up to 256 colors
Q: Will the TC9 have an on board floppy controller or will
it be necessary to use a CoCo or K-Bus controller?
A: The TC9 is the same as the CoCo so you would use your
present controller or if you added 68K compatibility you
could use a controller there.
Q: Does the TC9 have 256 color graphics or CD quality sound?
A: No, the color graphics is the same as the CoCo because
the TC9 uses the same GIMI chip the CoCo uses. Sound is
better because the TC9 has 8 bit D to A as opposed to the
CoCo's 6 bits. The TC70 has much better than CD quality .
sound However you would have to define just what that term
means.
Q: Does the TC9 have a built in mouse interface?
A: Yes, that's why we included two serial ports, one can be
used for a serial mouse that is much better than the Tandy
style mouse, smooth as a PC or Mac mouse, unlike the jittery
operation of the Tandy mouse.
Q: What software is included with the TC9?
A: At this point we are planning to include software to
allow running a modified version of Tandys OS9. We are
working on modifying RS BASIC to the TC9. Details will have
to wait until later.
Q: What about MS-DOS compatibility?
A: No, we do not plan this at present, although the
possibility of doing a '386 board for the K-Bus has been
discussed it is not planned. We considered emulation briefly
but it would be too slow to be useful. Hard to swallow but
the cheapest way to get MS-DOS is to but a cheap clone and
use it as a terminal. Clones cost less than some terminals
these days and are good for that purpose.
Q: What about Mac compatibility?
A: Yes, we are very interested in that avenue. The Mac uses
a 68000 and hardware that is very similar to what we have on
the TC70 and other K-Bus cards. It would make much more
sense to do a Mac board for the TOMCAT and we are looking
into it. No promises but we want it too.
Q: Is the TC9 completely CoCo compatible? Will RS BASIC
software work with the TC9?
A: Yes, with a caveat. We did change the hardware (we made
it better) Whenever you change the hardware even in a small
way you stand the risk of some poorly written software not
running. This should not be the case with OS9 but RS-DOS is
going to be a bear. We are planning on RS-DOS compatibility
but I would be lying if I said we would have it soon without
problems. Again, OS9, no problems! RS-DOS ugh, we're going
to do our best.
Q: Can I use my (Disto, RS, etc) floppy controller and
drives?
A: Yes, the TC9 has the same CoCo bus as the CoCo and all
non-ROM cartridges will work and some ROM cartridges will
too. (see previous question)
Q: Can I mount my drives in your case?
A: Yes, The case has at least a 200 watt power supply and
can handle both floppy and hard drives.
Q: Will my (Burke&Burke, Eliminator etc etc) hard drive
system work in the TC?
A: Yes. Again the 200 watt supply can handle just about
anything you have now.
Q: If I have a hard drive on the TC9 will the tape backup
system for 68K back it up?
A: Yes, in theory at least. You would need to have OS9/68K
running on the TOMCAT but it could work. Software would have
to be done for this to work. Ahhh a new challenge.
Q: Would it be better to run my hard drive under 68K or
under OS9/LII?
A: Tough one, depends on the level of software support under
68K. At some point in time when the software is completely
done under 68K that would be the fastest way to go. Either
way would work with 68K being faster than the 6809.
Q: Will I need my RS232 Pak or can I use one of the serial
ports on the TC9 for my (Modem, Printer, Terminal etc etc)?
A: No you could use one of the 'real' serial ports on the
TC9. They are the same style we used on the Eliminator.
(6552)
Q: Will ROM Paks work on the TC9?
A: No. You would have to change the ROM to support the
hardware we changed.
Q: What OS9/LII software doesn't work on the TC9?
None that you would want. All OS9 software that follows the
rules will work. Software that doesn't follow the rules
should be discarded. I don't think that there is much of
that anyway.
Q: What OS9/LII software does work or how can I tell what to
look for?
A: If the software is from a credible company and does not
make direct calls to the hardware it will work. I know of
none that will not work.
Q: Will my (Disto, Hemphill etc etc) 512K upgrade work in
the TC9?
A: Yes, both plug-in upgrades and plug-in chips can be used.
Q: Will the Tandy Hi-Res mouse work in the TC9?
A: No, we decided to opt for the higher quality serial mouse
that works as smoothly as a Macs. Once you see it you will
not want to go back.
Q: Do I need OS9/68K to make use of the 68000 with the TC9?
A: No, the 68000 CPU is used by OS9/LII as a speed up device
besides being used for OSK. You can get faster LII without
OSK by just having a 68000 CPU.
Q: How is the 1 meg Disto upgrade installed in the TC9?
A: Just plug it in, no soldering required. We provided the
header on the TC9 that you have to solder in the CoCo.
Q: I have a PC keyboard, can I use it with the TC9?
A: Yes, if it's a AT compatible keyboard. Some have a switch
for XT/AT use, others auto sense. Either will work with the
TC9 or TC70.
Q: Will an XT style keyboard work with the TC9?
A: No, not on the TC70 either.
Q: Can I use the new style keyboards that have built in
trackballs with the TC9?
A: Yes, the trackball would be connected to a serial port
and used like a serial mouse.
Q: Can I program the function keys from the keyboard in the
TC9?
A: Yes and more importantly from the computer as well.
Q: What about the other special keys on the keyboard?
A: All of the keys are controlled by software in the
computer. All can be easily reprogrammed.
Q: Can I use my (CM8, Magnavox) monitor with the TC9?
A: Yes and also standard TTL RGB such as PC's use.
Q: What does the starter system include at $499.99?
A: The TC9 board with 0K, case, power supply and keyboard
and all cables.
Q: What does the dual system include at $799.99?
A: Same as above but also a 4 slot K-Bus and a 10 Mhz 68000
CPU card.
Q: Can I use K-Bus cards without a 680x0 CPU card, in other
words will the TC9 work on the K-Bus without a CPU on the
bus and if not why not?
A: No it will not. The TC9's 6809 CPU cannot directly access
anything on the K-Bus. It has to ask the 68000 to do its
work for it. The TC9's memory (CoCo memory) is the only
thing that the 68000 sees. They use a simple but elegant
interrupt protocol to talk to each other.
Q: How does the TC9's 6809 communicate with the 68K cpu?
A: Via a interrupt protocol. See above.
Q: If I got a TC9 and a TC70 what else would I need to run
both OS9/LII and OS9/68K?
A: Just a 2 slot K-Bus to plug them into and a power supply
to power them. Everything else is there. (oops... forgot
CoCo memory drives etc.)
Q: Can I run the TC70 without the TC9?
A: Yes, the TC70 is a fully functional 68K color graphics
computer with 68K etc etc.
Q: Will the TC70 run OS9/LII software?
A: No, no 68K computer can run LII software unless it has
been recompiled under either C or BASIC on the 68K machine.
New versions of software will have to be ported to 68K to
work. A task best left to the original author.
Q: Will Multi-Vue work with the TC9?
A: Yes, just like any other OS9 software.
Q: Will OS9/LII run on the TC9?
A: Yes with mods included from us.
Q: Will software drivers be included to support the AT
keyboard, serial ports, serial mouse, parallel port etc?
A: Yes, most certainly and in source too.
Q: Will windowing software like Multi-Vue be available for
the TC70 and your other 68K CPUs?
A: Yes, it is being worked on now and should be ready when
the computer ships.
Q: Can the TOMCAT be configured as a multi-user machine?
A: Yes, with 2 serial and 1 parallel port you have most of
what you need to run a three user system with a parallel
printer.
Q: What hardware and software for the CoCo 3 will work with
the TC9?
A: Yes, on the OS9 side and most non-ROM hardware will work.
Q: Can the TC9 use IBM style disk drives and monitors?
A: Yes.
Q: What's involved in upgrading to OS9/68K?
A: Not much, 68K is like a superset of LII and although much
more powerful it is actually easier to use.
Q: Can the TC9 use more than 1 CoCo cartridge at a time?
A: The CoCo bus on the TC9 is just like the CoCo with the
same restrictions. You can use 2 with a Y cable like the
CoCo and you can use one of the multi-pak like devices sold
by third party for the CoCo (Howard and Orion should work
OK)
Q: Can the TC9 use the multi-pak and other 3rd party multi-
pak like devices such as Howard Medicals?
A: Yes, see above.
Q: Can the TC9 use the host adaptor for the A-Bus?
A: Should be no problem, however I haven't tried it.
Q: How much RAM comes with the TC9?
A: None unless you order it with it. ($49.95 for 512K) You
can plug in any 512K upgrade or just add 16 256K chips.
Q: Can the TC9 use RAM on one of the K-Bus cards?
A: No not directly, although the TC9 could instruct the
68000 to move memory from the K-Bus to the TC9 memory for
some interesting effects.
Q: What is the resolution of the TC9?
A: Same as the CoCo, uses the GIMI.
Q: Can the TC9 hot key thru windows like the CoCo 3?
A: Yes.
Q: How will FHL supply the patches to OS9/LII for the TC9?
A: Either on disk or in the EPROM on the board, haven't
decided that one yet.
Q: Will the TC9 autoboot OS9?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I use the case I have now. (I put my CoCo 3 in a PC
case)?
A: Yes, very easy to do. The TC9 uses a PC power connector.
Q: Will the TC9 fit in the CoCo 3 case?
A: No, too big and the CoCo power supply is too small. The
keyboard would not work either.
I just read your Advertisement in the June issue of
Rainbow, for the TOMCAT. I was quite impressed, and glad you
took a full-page.But, as they say, with the answers to
questions come more questions. I have pulled out various
issues, that I have tried to keep directly related to the
Ad. You may want to break up your reply into 2 or more
separate replies.
Q: For the K-Bus system of OSK: I have heard that the K-bus
is only 16-bit. Is this true, and if so, have you any plans
to change this?
A: The K-Bus is 16 bits data and 16 meg memory map. The
68000 series of CPUs are also only 16 bit so the only reason
to change this would be for CPU's such as the 68030 and
68040. Most operations (I/O etc) on the bus are 8 bits so
the
only thing we could use 32 bits for would be memory
accesses.
We are looking at doing a 68040 card with 4 to 16 meg of 32
bit on board memory. This would use 16 bit K-Bus memory in a
slower mode or on-board memory in full 32 bit mode. This
makes sense because most boards on the bus would only cost
more if they had to support the full 32 bits while doing
8 bit operations. (SCSI, Floppy, Serial, Parallel etc) As a
side note our paper calculations with our 68030 CPU running
at 16 Mhz and 16 bits data show only a 5% thru-put loss.
Makes sense when you realize that most system operations are
I/O and 32 bits doesn't help. Gotta be careful of benchmarks
that don't show real world situations. The K-Bus 68030 is
twice as fast as our 20X, a 68020 with a 32 bit bus!
Q: (Since OSK is advertised with the K-bus) Does your $300
OSK package come with the C compiler? How much for it
separately?
A: There are two packages now for the K-Bus. The TC70
includes Professional OSK with C and Basic plus other
software. The standard K-bus OSK which is optional does no
have the C or Basic. Take your pick. The TC70 is a better
deal for individual users while the standard version is
cheaper for industrial users.
Q: And mainly for the TOMCAT/TC9 : It was said that the TC9
is "K-bus compatible". Does that mean that it is possible to
add on a K-bus, or does one come with it?
A: It means that the TC9 plugs into the K-Bus for 68K upward
compatibility and no, one does not come with it. We have 4,
8, 12, and 16 slot buses to suit everyone's needs.
Q: How about 1.2/1.4 Meg floppies?
A: The TC70's floppy controller supports all densities
including 1.2/1.4 Meg. We will be doing a stand alone hi-
density K-Bus card for floppies also.
Q: You stated that the TC9 could use a 68000 board as a co-
processor. Would that be in some ways automatic, or is it up
to us to make our programs take advantage of this?
A: OS9/LII would be modified to have to 68000 do things like
memory moves, graphics etc. User software could be changed
to take more advantage of the 68000 but would not be
necessary to get benefit from it.
Q: Similarly, What configurations are possible? TC9 and TWO
68000 boards?
A: No, many TC9's but only 1 680x0 CPU. The TC9 looks like
just a memory board to the 680x0 and because they are
addressed in 1 meg increments you 'could' have 14 TC9's on
the bus. Time will tell just how many will actually work.
Q: Would a TC9 and a 68030 be better than TC9 +68000?
A: Yes, although I question the dollar value of a 68030 in
this case.
Q: Since a 68000 can use TC9 as a slave board, can a 68030
use a 68000 board?
A: No, only one 680x0 on the bus.
Q: You said that the joystick res has been increased to 256.
How will this affect a high-res joystick interface?
A: You would use a serial mouse or serial joystick if the
256 x 256 wasn't good enough. The hi-res interface is not
supported as yet.
Q: Is there any way to get 640 by XXX joystick res WITHOUT
using a hi-res interface? Will it be possible to use a
logitech, or optical, "digital" mouse, under OS9?
(since it will have "real" serial ports now)
A: YES, and that is the way we think everyone will want to
go. Trackballs and serial joysticks are also available but I
haven't looked into that last one yet.
Q: How about no-halt disk operations, under OS9, without a
68000 board?
A: Would be the same as the CoCo.
Q: You mentioned that under OSK, with the 68000 board as
main CPU, the TC9 would be "a multi-function graphics co-
processor". You didn't mention anything about the graphics
board I have heard about here! Does the TC9 have increased
res. over the CoCo III?
A: No, but you can have many TC9's giving multiple graphics.
Also the TC70 has color graphics which will also work with
the TC9 in the system. Also multiple graphics cards can be
run in the system with any of the 68K CPU's.
Q: Can I use the 68881 math co-processor from LII?
A: In order to use the 68881 from LII you would have to have
a 680x0 CPU in the system. The procedure would be to pass
the request to the 680x0 and then let it communicate with
the 68881. The 680x0 would then return the answer to LII. In
the case of a graphics speed up in a situation like this the
680x0 would also be used to do the graphics for LII.
Q: How is the 68881 math co-processor used with 68K?
A: In OS9/68K there is a module called 'math'. If your
system did not have a math co-processor then the 'math'
module would do the math with software. If you installed a
co-processor in the system then by simply changing the
'math' module to one that used the co-processor is all that
is required.
Q: I don't have a hard drive now, would it be better for me
to get a hard drive that is SCSI compatible for future use
with 68K?
A: Yes, although all hard drive systems for the CoCo will
work with the TC9 and thru that 68K, a SCSI hard drive would
work better with 68K
Q: How is the power on the CoCo bus of the TC9 vs the CoCo
3's bus.
A: Because we have the power of the 200 Watt power supply we
are able to power more thru the TC9's CoCo bus than the CoCo
3's bus. Also we have 12 volts on the bus which is needed
for some cartridges such as the Burke & Burke interface.
This allows Y cabling these things that were not possible
with the CoCo 3. The amount of power available at the bus is
almost unlimited.
Q: How about streaming tape backup?
A: Yes, we have that on the 68K side of the TOMCAT thru the
SCSI interface.
Q: How is multi-user done?
A: Multi-user is done by connecting terminals to serial
ports on the TOMCAT. The TC9 can handle 2 while the 68K
TOMCAT can have as many as 60. Memory and CPU power affect
the number of users as well as the type of users. Users
doing extensive C development beat the system much more than
users doing data entry or word processing. As an example in
an office environment 2-4 users could be supported by the
TC9, up to 8 or so on a 68000, with a max of about 40 or so
on a 68030. Using a fast hard drive and DMA is a great help
as the hard drive is usually the bottleneck of any multi-
user system.
Q: Will the TC9 be compatible with the MM1?
A: The issue of the MM1 vs the TOMCAT is covered in another
file called TCVMM.CMP
I decided to stop this first installment of QnA because of
its size. Please Email me any further questions so that I
can include them in QnA #2.
Thank You
Frank Hogg 70310,317
Here is another one from the archives. Uploaded on March 31st, 1990 to the GEnie online service Tandy RoundTable, these documents were the original product announcement from Frank Hogg Labs Tomcat OSK machine. The TC-9 was a 6809 based machine that used the CoCo 3’s GIME chip for compatibility, and the TC-70 was a 68000-type system similar to the MM/1.
I will also attach the original price list.
Number: 4376 Name: tomcat.txt
Address: F.RESLER Date: 900331
Approximate # of bytes: 7560
Number of Accesses: 49 Library: 9
Description:
This is a file describing the new CoCo4, officially called the TC9 Tomcat,
from Frank Hogg. Very interesting and exciting!
Keywords: coco4,tomcat,hogg,computer,announcement
I N F I N I T E
E X P A N S I O N
P O S S I B I L I T I E S
from 6809 to
60030 and
beyond,
with your
PRESENT
HARDWARE,
at your own
pace...
at Super Prices...
(About what the CoCo 3 was when it first came out.)
INTRODUCING....
THE...
********* *
********* **
** *** *** *** **** **** ******
** ** ** **** **** ** * ** ** **
** ** ** ** *** ** ** ** ** **
** ** ** ** * ** ** * ** ** **
** *** ** ** **** ***** **
TM
____________________________________________________
The TC9 TOMCAT (TM) is a major improvement over the CoCo 3.
The TC9 is over 25% faster!
The TC9 uses a PC compatible keyboard.
The TC9 has two 'real' serial ports.
The TC9 supports a serial mouse.
The TC9 has a parallel printer port.
The TC9 has provision for 512K on board RAM or it can use a
CoCo 3 512K memory upgrade.
The TC9 can be upgraded to 1 megabyte with the Disto 1 Meg
upgrade with no soldering, just plug it in.
The TC9 has 8 bit D to A and A to D. 8 bit provides better
sound and a higher resolution joystick, 256 vs 64.
The TC9 supports an internal speaker.
The TC9 has the standard CoCo bus so that CoCo cartridges
can be used.
The TC9 board can be powered by any PC power supply. This
also allows installing the board in most PC clone
cases.
The TC9 will work with most, if not all OS9 software.
The TC9 will have RSDOS compatibility thru 3rd party
vendors.
The TC9 is K-Bus compatible.
K-Bus capability is important because it allows interfacing the TC9 to
the 68000 and even the 68030! By installing the TC9 in a K-Bus 68K
system the Tomcat becomes a dual-processing system! When in OS9 Level II
mode the 68000 becomes a co-processor to the TC9, like a accelerator to
Level II. We can expect a 2 or 3 fold improvement in performance!
When the 68000 is the master under OS9/68K, the TC9 acts as a co-
processor to 68K. Switching back and forth between systems will be easy
and will allow a smooth transition from OS9 to OSK. It is not necessary
to jump to OSK to get the benefits of the 68000, but it provides a
smooth transition when and if you decide to make the move. You go at
your own pace, upgrading as you desire, and at each point you get a
significant improvement in performance, for a very slight cost.
E X P A N S I O N
Once a K-Bus backplane is added, (It is not required for TC9 operation)
the world of 68K is open to you. The logical first step is to add a
68000 CPU which will immediately speed up Level II operations by several
factors and opens the door to running OSK. No other additions are needed
to run OSK, as OSK will run in the TC9 memory and use TC9 I/O. For
further performance increases additional boards, memory, I/O etc. can be
added to the K-Bus. It is even possible to have several TC9's in the K-
Bus for a multi-processing system! Memory limits are 16 Megabytes of
which more than 14 Megabytes can be RAM!
They are backplane sizes from 4 to 16 slots and a 20 slot bus is under
consideration. The backplane itself is inexpensive so that if you
outgrew your first bus you could transfer all your cards to a bigger
backplane for little cost. Because of the bus concept upgrades to future
CPUs only requires adding that CPU to accomplish it. For example, you
could start with a 68000 and later replace that with a 68030 and still
use ALL of your other cards.
When new cards such as the 68040 become available, you could add those
too. Even capabilities, not thought of today can be added by just adding
a card!
This is upgrading without having to throw anything away. Even if you
eventually switched over to 68K completely the TC9 still functions as a
multi-function graphics co-processor. Our Hi-Res graphics board, now in
design, will have its own keyboard interface and video memory so that it
can be used with the TC9 . Several of either cards can be used in the
same system, making for the first multi-processor, multi-user, multi-
graphics system for OS9 and OSK! Because of the wide variety of K-Bus
boards available and those under development, the possibilities for the
future are unlimited.
The TC9 Tomcat truly is the CoCo 4 that Tandy should have made, for
that matter it could well be the CoCo 5, 6, 7, 8.............
SHOULD YOU GET ONE?
If you currently own a CoCo 3 and use it for both RSDOS and OS9 Level II
the TC9 Tomcat is your road to the future. It will run your current
software faster and give you powerful new features and performance at
modest cost. You get the ability to expand at your own pace, at low
cost, the way you want to do it, for your future.
THE FUTURE.
FHL, in business since 1976, has been manufacturing 680x0 based
computers for over 6 years! The Tomcat is the computer for the 90's. We
have put all of our knowledge and experience into the creation of the
Tomcat. We believe it is the best choice for you and for us. We create
computers because we like to use them, not because we like to sell them.
Every computer we've made has been one we've wanted for ourselves. The
Tomcat is the best we've done... so far.
TOMCAT is a trademark of FHL
FHL
For more information and price/availability:
Call or write:
FRANK HOGG LABORATORY, Inc.
204 WINDEMERE ROAD
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 13205
315/469-7364
FAX 315/469-8537
CIS 70310,317
DELPHI FHOGG
3/29/90
ty:
And here is the original pricelist, though I do not remember where I got this file from. I slightly altered it for readability since it looks like blank lines got stripped somewhere along the way… Note the date of March 31, 1990.
FHL TOMCAT COMPUTER PRICE LIST March 31, 1990
ENCLOSURES
Low Profile for TC9 - 4 high holds 2 5.25 and 2 3.5 drives, 220W PS $179.95
Mini Tower for 8 slot K-Bus, 2 5.25 and 2 3.5 drives, 220W PS 199.95
Desktop for 12 slot K-Bus, 3 5.25 and 1 3.5 drive, 200W PS 199.95
Big Tower for 16 slot K-Bus, 8 1/2 drives, 250W PS 399.95
Portable with keyboard and screen. Price to be announced.
K-BUS BASED PRODUCTS
TC9 TOMCAT 6809/Multi-I/O/Color Graphics (COCO4) $299.95 (2nd 1/4)
K-BUS 4 SLOT BUS 59.95
K-BUS 8 SLOT BUS (Under Development)
K-BUS 12 SLOT BUS 189.95
K-BUS 16 SLOT BUS 289.95
K-CPU-030 68030 CPU 16MHZ 799.95
K-CPU-68K/10 10 MHZ 68000 CPU Board 189.95
K-CPU-68K/12 12 MHZ 68000 CPU Board 219.95
K-CPU-68K/16 16 MHZ 68000 CPU Board 269.95
K-MATH-0 MATH CoProcessor less chip 89.95
K-MATH-81 MATH CoProcessor with 68881 installed 299.95
K-DRAM-0 2 MegaByte Dynamic Memory (no memory chips) 299.95
K-DRAM-2M 2 MegaByte Dynamic Memory 80NS Chips 499.95
K-MEM-0K 256K Static RAM or 27256 Type EPROM (64K Blocks) 89.95
K-TIMER Timer, Battery RTC/RAM,Parallel Printer Port 149.95
K-DMA 2 Channel DMA (68440) 189.95
K-SCSI SCSI Controller (5380) 149.95
K-FDC Floppy Disk Controller (1772) 4 drives 149.95
K-ACI 2 Port Async Serial (68681) 149.95
K-ACI4 4 Port Async Serial (68681) 249.95
K-PAR 4 Port Parallel Interface (6821) 149.95
K-BUSMON Bus Monitor with LED's and Single Step Switch 189.95
K-PROTO General Purpose Wirewrap 59.95
K-GRAPHICS Hi-Res Color Graphics VSC W/PC Keyboard Interface (2nd 1/4)
SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
OS9/68000 Includes Editor, Assembler, Debugger, Scred $249.95
BOOT-ROM SET Required for OS9 50.00
PC-DOS UTILITY Utility to Read/Write/Format PC-DOS under OS9 99.95
FHL reserves the right to change prices and specifications without notice
Delivery: Stock to 30 Days except where noted
Terms: Payment with order in U.S. Funds Check, VISA, MC (AMEX & DINERS add 5%)
Shipping/Handling: $8.00 Per Order (UPS Ground), Foreign and Air Extra
FRANK HOGG LABORATORY, Inc
204 WINDEMERE ROAD
SYRACUSE, NY 13205
315/469-7364
FAX 315/469-8537
