Tony Duell wrote:
>
> > The Color Computer clone was the Dragon, best known in the UK. It
>
> Strictly, those 2 machines were not clones. They were both based on the
> same Motorola Application Note (for the 6883 SAM), and both ran Microsoft
> BASIC, but there were several differences.
>
> Once you've decided to use a 6883 SAM + 6809E CPU + 6847 video chip,
> there's not a lot of choice in what else you put in there.
Yes, I noticed when I finally got the Motorola App Note that it was
identical to at least half of the Color Computer Technical Reference.
> One of the most annoying differences between the Dragon and the CoCo was
> that the BASIC tokens were in a different order. A tokenised BASIC tape
> CSAVEd on one machine wouldn't CLOAD into the other and run. All the
> keywords would be swapped round
That was annoying even when the Micro-CoCo showed up -- it was 100%
compatible with Standard Color BASIC, but the tokens were wrong. I made
a bunch of tapes for customers by offset-loading the standard tapes to
a machine with a disk then saving them back with the appropriate bytes
changed.
> > has the advantage over the original of having a parallel port --
> > necessary for attaching a Windows machine as a hard disk interface
> > under OS-9. I've decided I want a Dragon to add to my three
> > generations of Color Computers ever since I discovered that last.
>
> It should be pretty easy to add the parallel port to the CoCo. According
> to 'Anatomy of the Dragon' and the CoCo TechRef, there are only 3 port
> lines left free after the ones for the video control/sound/etc have been
> taken. They are on the second PIA (U4 in a CoCo)
(snip)
I know, there were kits on the market for years, and lots of instructions
in the magazines.. Not presently easy to find, and I've admitted before
that I haven't done much soldering since the late 70s -- hated burning
myself then, and lately my hands are strarting to get arthritic due to a
bad choice of ancestors -- this shouldn't happen at 42, then again most
of my ancestors had full heads of grey hair by 35, and I've barely started
-- I'd rather have full use of my hands and go bald.
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.
Received on Thu Feb 26 1998 - 01:00:07 GMT