They had sound too on the Commode-ores, the Coco's too IIRC. I think they
left the serial port off (even on the POS Sanyo MBC-555-2 that I had) to get
you for another expnsive add-on after you committed a lot of money for the
unit itself. The Sanyo serial port was a crap 8250 UART and it cost nearly
$100 for a 3x3 card that screwed to the back, had only a few parts such as a
UART and 1488/1489 send/recieve and some resistors, caps and diodes. The
Sanyo had a Ctrl key but NO Alt, u nderrated power supply, bitmap (Apple
type) video on a supposed IBM compat, and other really pain in the rump
problems. Witht he help of a few BBS systems, numerous editions of Soft
Sector magazine and newsletters froma few Sanyo user's groups I finally had
the machine where I was comfy with it, then dropped it for a clone and a
PS/2.
A real POS was that chicklet keyboard on the PCjr...after literally hours on
end on those crappy keyboards I was so relieved to get off t hat machine to
go to an AT with a tactile Alps switch keyboard. I would love to have a
bulldozer and run over any more that are in existence (not really but I feel
they suck that much).
-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]On
-> Behalf Of Ben Franchuk
-> Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 3:01 PM
-> To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
-> Subject: Re: CoCo's *are* real... (was: OT: PC Motherboard with a vacuum
-> tube
->
->
-> Roger Merchberger wrote:
->
-> > Define "real" -- Admittedly, the CoCo1's chicklet keyboard sucked
-> > bigtime, but The CoCo2/3's keyboard is as good as anything made
-> > nowadays... (that's why the newest keyboard I use on any PeeCee is an
-> > IBM "klackety" keyboard from '84 or so... and wouldn't mind having an
-> > interface for these on my CoCo...) and although they were a little
-> > harder to upgrade than today's machines, they were easier to hack &
-> > interface to. Sure, they weren't on par to the minis &
-> mainframes of the
-> > same timeframe, but that's true today; and it was still a very
-> capable,
-> > affordable & expandable computer in it's own right.
->
-> Not really a general purpose computer more like the game console
-> box of today.
-> The C64/Coco/Apple was the quick and simple computer - 8k rom - 64k D-ram
-> and a graphics chip and CPU. It was the cost cutting that got ya
-> like none of
-> the common 8 bit computers had a serial port. Even the AT was
-> too cheap to
-> drive the IRQ open collector.
->
-> > [whew... just had to get that out of the way; 6809's being my
-> favorite &
-> > all... ;-) ]
-> That was a toss up for me between the 6809 and the PDP-8.
-> Needless to say I
-> working a 12/24 bit CPU that reminds you of the 6809.
->
http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk/index.html
->
-> >> Nobody in the USA made a nice 6809 machine.
-> >
-> >
-> > Huh? That's where I beg to differ with you! I *lusted* over the ads in
-> > HotCoCo & Rainbow mags for the Chieftain (methinks... weren't many of
-> > those ads), and even more so, the Gimix... The Gimix was one
-> *bitchin'*
-> > box - ran OS-9 level 2 (wasn't there a level 3 for that?), it
-> could take
-> > 512K of RAM if you wanted it to, and this was by '83 or '84...
-> It truly
-> > was a mini, as it was designed to run multiuser apps on multiple
-> > terminals with no problem... I dunno if they ever made a video
-> card for
-> > it....
->
-> I had forgot about them.
->
-> > No, it couldn't - it was a flat memory space. However, with the right
-> > SAM, bank switching was available & with some "creative memory
-> > accounting" it worked quite well, especially with OS-9.
-> I suspect one could decode the opcodes since you get instruction fetch
-> information with the 6809..
->
-> > That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it...
-> > Roger "Merch" Merchberger
->
-> Mind you with fast ram now days and programable logic a nice OS-9
-> machine could be built. Finding a fast 6809 chip is the problem.
-> Boy I wish OS-9 was open source.
->
->
->
Received on Fri Sep 06 2002 - 16:51:01 BST