Tandy coco info?

[Emily]

Im really interested in getting a Tandy Color Computer 3. I want to get one that can be hooked to a TV, but I dont know what I need to do it. Ive heard i need an adapter.....?

[rxd]

It's been years since I had one of these. I had all 3 versions of the CoCo back in the day. I think you can hook this up to a regular TV using the standard Atari type switch box but you won't be able to use the really hi res modes unless you hook it up to an RGB monitor.

At least that's how I remember it. The CoCoI and CoCoII just hooked up to a TV like an atari 2600, but the CoCo3 was backwards compatible but also allowed higher resolution modes when connected to a computer monitor.

[rxd]

OK I just gotta ask. What the hell is rgb? That's not what I typed. I typed R G B. That's not what I typed either. I type R-G-B. Okay this is rediculous. I typed r g b What the hell is going on here????

[squirrelnut]

OK I just gotta ask. What the hell is warm chocolate puddin'? That's not what I typed. I typed warmer, choclatey-er puddin'. That's not what I typed either. I type puddin' of the warm and chocolate variety. Okay this is rediculous. I typed r g b What the hell is going on here????


since your new to the forum i will kill you. Our very silly joe likes to put in word filters for various words. spot whats wrong with this sentance?

[YoshiM]

Im really interested in getting a Tandy Color Computer 3. I want to get one that can be hooked to a TV, but I dont know what I need to do it. Ive heard i need an adapter.....?

Ahh, another potential CoCo enthusiast. Our meager ranks possibly swell by one.

Anyway, there are two ways you can hook up a CoCo 3 to a TV. One is the standard TV/Computer slide box RF adapter. It also has composite A/V in the back, so RCA cables can be hooked up to a VCR or TV with ease.

[Emily]

Sweet! Av cables :love:

[vulcanjedi]

Heloo

The CoCo 3 works nicely on my Commodore 1702 monitor. Although recently it has been giving me trouble. I get a blank screen sometimes instead of my game.

If you want a real blast from the past pick up a Dungeons of Daggerroth cartridge. It was the first 3d perspective DnD computer game.

vj

[YoshiM]

Heloo

The CoCo 3 works nicely on my Commodore 1702 monitor. Although recently it has been giving me trouble. I get a blank screen sometimes instead of my game.

If you want a real blast from the past pick up a Dungeons of Daggerroth cartridge. It was the first 3d perspective DnD computer game.

vj

If you are using a cartridge, it could be ever-so-slightly dirty contacts. Same with the disk controller. Every once in a while my dad had to take the disk controller apart and rub the contacts with a clean pencil eraser. Put it back together and it'd work for a while again.

Dungeons of Daggorath: oh yeah. Great game, but tough. It was the second cartridge game I bought (first was Downland). Another blast from the past is Phantom Slayer, definitely one of THE first FPS style games.

Only downside with the CoCo 3 is that it's not 100% compatible with older software. Many games or programs using the "semi graphics" mode won't work (Rail Runner (http://nitros9.stg.net/railrunner.html) is a good example I can find online of what semi-graphics look like).

Even though it's underrated and dissed, the CoCo is quite a system that did have lots of support.

Speaking of support, anyone reading this thread know where I can get the CoCo 3 game Quest for Thelda?

[digitalpress]

I've had my TRS-80 CoCo (3) for years and years. I plug it into an older TV using a switchbox (same one as the Atari systems of yore). I don't mess with the disk and cassette games but I have a pretty good library of cartridges. Sadly, no matter what the die-hard TRS-80 guys tell you, the games are generally poor quality.There are a FEW exceptions but they're not enough to get this system much playtime in my home.

Here's my Drawer o' TRS-80 Doom :)

http://videogamecollectors.com/roomdoom/coco.jpg

[YoshiM]

I've had my TRS-80 CoCo (3) for years and years. I plug it into an older TV using a switchbox (same one as the Atari systems of yore). I don't mess with the disk and cassette games but I have a pretty good library of cartridges. Sadly, no matter what the die-hard TRS-80 guys tell you, the games are generally poor quality.There are a FEW exceptions but they're not enough to get this system much playtime in my home.

I will admit the cartridge games aren't that grand. Many were just attempts to put something out. But don't let Joe discourage CoCo interest. The real gems, like many computer systems, lie in the cassette/disk software. Even homebrew titles written in BASIC offer up some decent fun (and I can rattle off a bunch of my favorites from Hot CoCo or Rainbow magazines).

Try it, you might like it.

[RangerG]

My CoCo cart collection looks about like the one pictured. I think you need to have some nostalgia for the machine to really collect cartridges for it. I keep wavering on if I should just sell all my CoCo stuff, but I had a CoCo 1 and I have good memories with the games. My collecting goal now is to collect carts and manuals for the CoCo 1 only. The boxes for the games are totally generic and thus take up too much space in my opinion. I really think the CoCo 1/ 2 and then the CoCo 3 are very different machines and games. The one major CoCo game review site only covers CoCo 1 and 2 games. DP breaks up Atari 2600 and 7800 and Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance - why not the CoCo?

[Wookie]

DP breaks up Atari 2600 and 7800 and Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance - why not the CoCo?

There aren't that many (a dozen or so) CoCo3-only cartridge games. Different story if you throw in disk stuff, but that's not what the DP guide focuses on, and the 3-only games are pretty clearly identified.

[Emily]

Will any disk drive hook up to any CoCo? I have an FD 501, complete/boxed.
Also how offen to disk games actually work? It says it the manual for the Disk Drive that these disks can be damaged easily...is it hard to find fully fuctional disk based games x_x

[Emily]

Also, how good are cassette based games? Reliable? Or Not...

[YoshiM]

Will any disk drive hook up to any CoCo? I have an FD 501, complete/boxed.
Also how offen to disk games actually work? It says it the manual for the Disk Drive that these disks can be damaged easily...is it hard to find fully fuctional disk based games x_x

I don't see disk stuff in the wild all that often, so it's hard to answer. From my collection of copies/originals about 75% were functional yet (and I quickly transferred to DSK files for preservation). The only disks I found in the wild (and new) were The Interbank Incident and Laser/Micro Surgeon. The latter wouldn't boot while the former worked fine (and it's an older game as well). There's no definite length of time for when bit rot sets in-depends on the quality of the floppy I guess.

As for tape games, the tapes are as reliable as audio cassettes. Since the program is just one big squawking sound the things you have to watch out for is tape stretch, damage due to magnetism and that the volume doesn't drop out during load. I had that happen on a "Merry Christams 1984" tape my Dad made for me-one of the games doesn't load as there's an audible drop in the volume (tape wear). In contrast I still have my original Rainbow Book of Adventure 1 & 2 and they still work (and they are over 16 or so years old).

[SoulBlazer]

How can the cart games for the CoCo 3 be bad if they have ports (looking at Joe's pic) of Tetris, Robocop, Rampage, and Arkanoid? :hmm:

Just what years were those games made anyway? I thought it was a late 80's system.

[Emily]

How can the cart games for the CoCo 3 be bad if they have ports (looking at Joe's pic) of Tetris, Robocop, Rampage, and Arkanoid? :hmm:

Just what years were those games made anyway? I thought it was a late
80's system.

Yeah really. Are those pretty good ports?
Quest for Thelda looks sweet as does Lunchtime-a burgertime clone!

[digitalpress]

I've had my TRS-80 CoCo (3) for years and years. I plug it into an older TV using a switchbox (same one as the Atari systems of yore). I don't mess with the disk and cassette games but I have a pretty good library of cartridges. Sadly, no matter what the die-hard TRS-80 guys tell you, the games are generally poor quality.There are a FEW exceptions but they're not enough to get this system much playtime in my home.

I will admit the cartridge games aren't that grand. Many were just attempts to put something out. But don't let Joe discourage CoCo interest. The real gems, like many computer systems, lie in the cassette/disk software. Even homebrew titles written in BASIC offer up some decent fun (and I can rattle off a bunch of my favorites from Hot CoCo or Rainbow magazines).

Try it, you might like it.

I'll give you that, brother. It bugs me when people put down a system without actually giving it a shot. I've given the TRS-80 a great big shot but I'll admit that I've never tried the cassette or disk stuff. I'll reserve further judgement until I get one hooked up and try the "top shelf" games.

Carry on!

[digitalpress]

How can the cart games for the CoCo 3 be bad if they have ports (looking at Joe's pic) of Tetris, Robocop, Rampage, and Arkanoid? :hmm:

Just what years were those games made anyway? I thought it was a late
80's system.

Yeah really. Are those pretty good ports?

No. They're really bad ports. Combination of watered-down graphics and sound and/or curiously missing features. Believe me, the reason why I got into the system in the first place was for those ports. I was sorely disappointed.

I need to get a disk drive to play the good stuff, it seems.

[RangerG]

I was kidding about dividing the CoCo 3 games in the DP guide (it is a lesser collected system as is), but personally I do see a big dividing line. You can instantly tell a CoCo 3 from a CoCo 1 game by the screenshot. The CoCo 1 maxed at 32k and the CoCo 3 had 128k. The CoCo 1 games are Atari 2600 era games while the CoCo 3 games are NES/SMS era games. By the way, in my opinion the CoCo 3 cart games are terrible. I like some of the earlier CoCo games (some fun original games/clones, etc. like Downland, Doubleback, Megabug, Dungeons of Daggorath, Polaris, etc.) The CoCo 3 games look good but they are painfully slow and just missing something. I think you are teased into seeing the graphics and thinking NES and then the game starts with the sluggish control and poor gameplay.

[Ed Oscuro]

Ahh, another potential CoCo enthusiast. Our meager ranks possibly swell by one.
I've got one as well...it's still in the box though :/

[Emily]

Has anyone played any disk games? Are they cool?

[vulcanjedi]

Even though it was a limited version compared to the PC I liked playing Thexder on the CoCo. Silpheed too.

Besides needing the CoCo to complete my demon attack obsession I really really like Soko-Ban as one of my favorite shove-it games.

You guys ever play dino wars? I have been trying to get that game for years.

VJ

[Gapporin]

Even though it was a limited version compared to the PC I liked playing Thexder on the CoCo. Silpheed too.

Thexder and Slipheed are available for the CoCo!? This system just went up a few notches in my book.

[vulcanjedi]

Even though it was a limited version compared to the PC I liked playing Thexder on the CoCo. Silpheed too.

Thexder and Slipheed are available for the CoCo!? This system just went up a few notches in my book.

Both carts.

And not to hard to come by. Although the music is missing from thexder and it's only the first 5 levels which for me is no big deal cuz I haven't gotten past level 3 anyway :)

vj

[GameGuru]

OMG I can't believe someone else had Tandy computers too! My first computer ever was the Tandy Color Computer 1, a gray computer with half height keys! I later upgraded it to a Tandy Color Computer 3.

I had Megabug (Weeeeeeeeeee Got Ya!), Thexder (you were a transformer if I remember) and Dungeons of Daggorath ( a cool first person RPG).

I will have to pull them out of the garage and get a few digital pics of them!

I also owned a Tandy 1000EX. I was a Tandy man back in the 80's ha ha.

[YoshiM]

Has anyone played any disk games? Are they cool?

Just so we are on the same page, there are games that were designed for disk (like Interbank Incident, Dallas Quest, the Sands of Egypt) and there were games that were released on diskette as opposed to or along with audio casette. I'll talk about the "disk only" games.

Yeah they were pretty cool. My first "graphical adventure" was The Interbank Incident. It ran under OS-9 (on the game disk) and it was all GUI controlled. Not stellar graphics but for the time they worked well. It had kind of an RPG approach as you could select your character and their attributes affected how you interacted with the game environment. If that's true or not I don't know. I took the strongest guy and I couldn't pry a manhole cover off the pavement. It did have slow load times for each location (maybe 15 to 20 seconds).

Robot Odyssey taught the basics of electrical circuitry by allowing to wire up different robots to perform different tasks. Fun learning game but you have to have a color screen as some of the puzzles were color based.

That's just a couple I can think of off the top of my head at the moment. When I get a chance I'll try to add on.

[Atarileaf]

BIG TIME BUMP

Don't diss the Coco. Yes nostalgia is a factor but there are some quality games on the system. Yes most are on disks but there are some great cart games like Color Baseball, DoubleBack, Clowns and Balloons, Downland, Dungeons of Daggorath, Arkanoid, Tetris, Rampage, Stellar Life Line, Panic Button, Polaris, Megabug, Canyon Climber, Skiing, Popcorn, Thexder, Project Nebula, Quasar Commander, so many more.

No the graphics aren't great but the games are FUN at least to me anyway. I love the system and the games.

There are modern solutions to not having a disk drive (I don't have one either - hard to come by, prone to failure and expensive because every coco nut is bidding on them) like drivewire from cloud9tech and the MicroSD Drive Pak - both of which simulate virtual disk drives to give you access to hundreds and hundreds of coco games.

[YoshiM]

Holy Rise-From-Your-Grave!

I just recently put together a video "greeting card" for my Dad for Father's Day that contained video of some of his programs he did on the CoCo. He made an art program that shifted patterns of lines which is still dang trippy to watch. His version of Yahtzee still looks pretty sharp with its "high res" black and white PMODE 4 graphics.

There's a site called CoCo 3.com (http://www.coco3.com/) that's got tons of information, a community and products available.

I still debate on getting a CoCo again as my daughter is showing an interest in anything electronic (she's only 15 months old but will sit and try to figure out an electronic device over playing with her favorite toys) and it'd be neat to show her, when she's older, what I used as a kid.

[Steve W]

I've got both a model 1 and a model 2 along with some joysticks and a few cartridges. I think they're more plentiful around my area considering Tandy's headquarters is nearby. So I've got the consoles and games, but very little desire to play them. I've been looking for a model 3 since I have four or five carts specifically for it, but I can't find one locally. I've even come across a Videotex terminal, the precursor to the CoCo. I'd love to get a model 3 if I could ever come across one in a thrift store here. I really regret passing up on one years ago while on vacation out of state. But then I didn't have any gear for it then.

[Atarileaf]

There's a site called CoCo 3.com (http://www.coco3.com/) that's got tons of information, a community and products available.


Great site. They just switched owners after many many years. Glad to see its back up and running. :)

[kedawa]

I'd love a Candy Taco.

[Steve W]

I prefer a ChocoTaco myself.

[Nophix]

The CoCo 3 was my very first computer back in the day. I miss it!

I had the monitor, but also used the RF switch to hook it to my TV.

[YoshiM]

The CoCo 3 was my very first computer back in the day. I miss it!

I had the monitor, but also used the RF switch to hook it to my TV.

I had a green screen monitor for mine (traded my TI-99/4A and some games for it) but would also hook it up to the 20"(?) TV right next to my desk that I used for gaming. This became a necessity when a buddy of mine used CoCo MAX 3 to, ahem, take the swim suit off of one of the demo pictures and make her a red head. It was tastefully done but then the disk got corrupted from so many over writes.

The same dude wore out my right arrow key playing Tetris too. The jerk.

[courtesi1]

the hilarity that is the coco world is back when it was "busy" every programmer would cry about people pirating their games. i lol because all their games were stolen ripoffs of well known arcade/computer games of the time. their were exceptions but i'd say only 5% of the coco titles were actually original.

that being said, here are my favorites:

color baseball (cartridge) - the only baseball game i can tolerate. the ai is decent but works best with two players. it would have been nice if you could set the number of innings to play.

time bandit (binary image) - a tutkanham clone that is very very good. something like 320 unique levels packed into 32k. if you emulate this i'll give you a hint: link your left/right shoot to z and /. so you can shoot left/right.

caladuril flame of light (disk) - a hybrid of text/graphic adventure where you use cursor characters to move your character around, have on screen inventory, and a text parser. the author spent around 3 years writing the text so it's extremely well polished. the sequel is supposed to suck though.

gold runner 1/2 (binary image) - very good lode runner clones. very good ai. not like the apple version where the enemies "stop." they are relentless and intelligent in this version.

wizards den (disk) - before there was oblivion there was this...

and for my opinions on publishers:

diecom - good looking ripoffs that run at a snails pace. gantelet 2 (gauntlet 2 ripoff) was probably their best game. legend has it there is some code still in the game to unlock four player mode but you need to build an adapter to use it. don't feel bad that you can't play both of the light gun games because they both suck ass (the iron forest graphics looked AWESOME but it didn't play very well.)

sundog - same as diecom but even slower. anything glen d. wrote was slower than molasses.

computer shack/michtron - solid gold baby. almost everything is pure delite.

[Nophix]

SUB battle and Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego