Tandy Color Computer 3 + video options and RAM upgrade
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2023
- We play with a Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer 3 for the first time. Video options are explored and the RAM is upgraded. Fun was had.
#retrocomputers #retrogaming
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Cocoman
cocoman.onlineweb.shop/
Retro Rewind
retrorewind.ca/home
![ОРБАН приехал к ПУТИНУ и "отчитался" о поездке в Киев 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_0ukDovOWq8/mqdefault.jpg)
Amy… “we’re about to be scarted on” made me laugh so hard I almost scarted!! 🤪😂
Another great episode ladies!! AND… nice T-Shirt Amy!!
I LOVE MY SHIRT.
AJ!!!!!
Hey Amy! This has got to be the greatest Tandy Color Computer RAM upgrade video you've ever done! Congratulations.
**bows** **accepts applause**
Enjoyed the video. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Look forward to other future videos with it. Have fun.
Thanks again, Brian!!!!!!!
I had one of those when I was a kid. I could never remember what it was called. Was a learning tool for me in my bedroom. Then Webtv came out, and that was all she wrote...haha. I miss the 90s.
❤
THE TAKLYO
Firmware update required
Loool
Nice! I cut my teeth on a CoCo2, a birthday present for my 5th birthday in early 1986. I did my first programming on that machine, called my first BBSes on that machine, had a printer, had all sorts of fun with it. I have a CoCo3 in my retro collection these days and love it. Glad I found your channel! :)
Very very cool. Welcome!!!
Fantastic video. Really enjoyed watching the upgrade, and as always, the entertainment was second to none! Keep it up you two!
😊
Saw the other day that you will be a VCF Southwest! I will be attending with a friend. We are huge retro computer fans.
Oh cool! I think it will be fun.
"are we farming bitcoin" lol that would take a bit on the coco.
Would not be a very good get rich quick scheme. 😅
Manic Miner does run black and white on a Coco (or Dragon)
Space Marauder by Craig Stewart was actually sold by Tandy stores - but only in Australia. As you may have noticed, to shoot the asteroids you have to hit them pretty well dead center (there are some other keyboard commands for things like changing how your shots work)- but you can find complete instructions on the Color Computer Archive). It is a Coco 3 exclusive game, so you will see the better graphics that the Coco 3 offers (320x192 16 color in Space Marauder's case). Also - there was no standard for which joystick port each game used, so you may have to switch left and right joystick ports.
One oddity that you will hit for Coco 3 games - the palettes between RGB and composite are different (which is why most Coco 3 specific games will ask which monitor type you have). But for RF and composite, the Coco 3 defaults to composite. If you want to play some of the older Coco 1/2 games (that don't use artifact colors) in RGB mode (for your SCART adapter), you will need to type RGB in BASIC first.
As others have mentioned, you definitely should check out WIDTH 40 and WIDTH 80 commands in BASIC as well, especially with the SCART. You also now have the PALETTE command, which lets you change colors (even for old Coco 1/2 programs and the text screen). On the 32 column (Coco 1/2 style) screen, the text foreground is PALETTE 12,xx and the background is PALETTE 13,xx (where xx can be anything from 0 to 64 for both). For 40 and 80 columns, PALETTE 8,xx is the foreground and PALETTE 0,xx is the background.
If you wanted white text on a black background (for example), you would replace xx with 63 (for white) and xx with 0 (for black). There are a few colors that are the same between composite and RGB; black and white are 2 of them, so this works in both modes.
And of course, now that you have both a 512K Coco 3 and a CocoSDC - you can download the free NitrOS9 Ease of Use version 1.0.0 for the 6809, and give that a try (you *knew* that was coming, didn't you? lol).
I'm reading all this fabulous info eating Canadian dark chocolate kit kats.
@@fractalMD - You finally picked them up, eh? :)
@@CurtisBoyle I did! So good. John even likes them.
@@fractalMD - I promise to actually bring them ** IN THE CAR ** next year... versus UPS.
But I mean, the saga will be told and retold for years to come!
Nice upgrades there!
Thanks, Chris! See you at VCFSW!
@@fractalMD Yes!!! Looking forward to it!
Chris! 🍦
Woohoo! RGB and 512K! now your living the best Tandy life you can be! :)
No thanks to sloopy? :O
I have the 512K, now I just need the fancy SCART cable and SCART to HDMI switcher box.
Slooopy. We totally thank you in the video, silly.
Welcome to the CoCo 3 Cult 😀
Thanks, Ken!!
I recommend you play some games that require 512k like the Glen Hewlett ports of Pac Man, Defender or Donkey Kong. Also, when you are playing coco 1 and 2 games that use artifacts, you need to switch-a-roo to composite if you want to see color. Love your videos!
Much excellent advice. Thx!
Sorry, Donkey Kong is Sockmaster. Glen Hewlett also did Joust and Robotron. Unbelieveable ports of the original code from Z80 to 6809. I'd love to see your reactions to loading these games up for the first time. They really show what the Coco 3 is capable of without the same hardware as a C64 or Atari.
You should have seen my reaction to the name Sockmaster.
I am envious of your CoCo 3 goodness :-D
We love it!
Awesome video as always! I'd highly recommend an OSSC or Retrotink 5x for SCART connections if you get other consoles/computers in the future that utilize RGB as it can line double up to 5 times and won't stretch out a 4:3 signal to 16:9.
Awesome, thanks!
I wish they still sold computers like that today new. I got my refurb CoCo 3 a while back and was using LW Tools to write assembly programs for it now and then while using Toolshed to make the disk images of the assembled programs. Good stuff! Though watching the joystick get plugged in while the computer was running made me flinch. I'm so used to shutting those off before plugging/unplugging things cause they really hammered that point home back in the 80s when I was a teenager.
Just avert your eyes! 😂
COCO FEST! I've been wanting to goto that.
You should! It's great.
1:29 Amy looks like she was about to scart whatever she was drinking all over the place. And at 6:27 Taylor was giving us the vibes of a bomb defusing scene from an 80s action film.
That was legit almost a spit take.
“Super Extended Color Basic.” That was my nickname in high school; also my super power.
I heard that about you.
Love the AT AT shirt.
Isn't it great?
Nice that coco 3 Looking good that picture looks great-niece upgrade
It's so crazy how good it looks.
You guys playing with RGB>Composite is so awsome. kkkk
😄😄😄
If you want to really see the difference between composite and RGB, try 80 column mode with 'WIDTH 80'. Mind = blown.
I can't wait to try it.
best comedy couple since laurel and hardy
High praise, indeed!
There's something strangely satisfying listening to you two say "SCART." 🤣
SCART SCART SCART
Good Point... I concede...
INFALLIBLE!
wtf? you two are funny and amazing :-) 2 nerdy women, yes!
Soooo nerdy
The only problem with the Radio Shack Memory upgrade(I had one and I replaced it) is that it normally runs HOT. The Memory Upgrade that Cloud 9 sells offers the same memory capacity but it runs much cooler and adds longevity to the CoCo 3...
Joe...
But then how would we toast our marshmellows?
Mark at Cloud9 is an amazing person. He has saved my butt a few times. I do own his upgrades, and I am very happy with them.
Very cool! Welcome to the CoCo 3 club. I got one a few months ago myself and also did the 512KB memory upgrade, however mine is one of the newer upgrades, but the same process to install. I do need to get one of those SCART cables and SCART to HDMI converters. Can you add a link to the one you are using please?
Cocoman is your guy and he is linked in the description. 👌🏻 It's the Switcheroo.
@@fractalMD I see the Switcheroo, but what about the SCART to HDMI switcher box thiny you guys have?
@@geekwithsocialskills Oh hell. Yeah, let me look into that one.
So the answer I have for you just now is "Amazon."
@@fractalMD model number by chance? Please and thank you! 🙂
Gobbler looks fun
You know it!
Scart, oooh yeah;)
We want to be cool like you!
@@fractalMD You don't need scart to do that, you're already 20 times cooler than I am ;)
@@8bitsinthebasement We aren't even close to your coolness!! You are crazy.
MMM you ladies look to young to know about this early 's pc? Being 57 i had 2 coco's 1 4 K upgraded to 64, xpad, multiport. coco 3. with monitor. loved them both. first use of spreadsheets deskmate. wrote weather forecasting programs.
Hey, we'll take being called young any way we can get it.
5:41 "There is this little jail." But what did the transformer do to deserve the incarceration!
Inquiring minds want to know!
very much like us europeans....scart goes into to everything, what a slag! XD
Ain't nothing wrong with that!
@@fractalMD it's beautiful really, I have a massive crt, sadly wide-screen. It only has scarts....when you get your cables sorted you are set!
I think we are converts.
😍
Woo!
There is an easter egg on the CoCo3 on power up. Hold down the alt and ctrl keys while pushing the power button! 😊
Since this is an 8 bit computer, it can't probably address the 512k all at once, so it does bank switching, and these increasing numbers could be the different banks being tested.
Correct - each MMU bank is 8K, so in 512K you have MMU page numbers 0 to 63 (or 0 to $3F in hex, which is what the test shows).
**relaxes while LCB does all the hard work**
Manic Miner is in B&W because it was originally written for the Dragon 32 (basically a Welsh clone of the Coco 1) and it’s a conversion of the Sinclair Spectrum original and needed HiRes mode to achieve the same graphics layout etc.
Fun fact, the Dragon 32 version has two extra levels over the Spectrum version, although to need to play through the previous 20 levels to see them, or apply the cheat code.
I really want a dragon, btw.
From what I read, we got the dragon 32 in the US but in very very low numbers.
@@maxxdahl6062 - It was the Dragon 64, but yes, TANO made an NTSC version in the US sold in late 1983 and 1984. There was actually a warehouse full of them that got gradually sold off until the mid 2000-noughts.
@@CurtisBoyle I think we got some of sinclair's computers too, but rebranded as Timex computers.
@@maxxdahl6062 - yep, that happened too.
CoCoMo3!
Aruba, Jamaica....
Enjoyed the show, as usual. Know little about any of the CoCos, although a friend of mine from my first job was an avid Dragon-32 aficionado. Was it the CoCos that used OS-9 when the had floppies fitted?
OS-9 is an optional OS that does require a floppy disk system.
I defer to Joel!
Congratulations on being SCARTed... I think.
It felt great.
The only Coco games I've ever played were One on One (basketball) and some maze game where a magnifying glass follows a bug around, showing an enlarged view of the maze as you move. This was when the local Radio Shack used to have systems set up and on display.
The maze game was interesting, even if it was just a ripoff of Pac-Man, but the enlarged view made it harder to know where the enemies were.
Whoa. I wonder what the crazy maze have was called.
@@fractalMD - Mega-Bug (known as Dung Beetles on the Apple II)
@@fractalMD What Curtis said. I was too lazy to Google it before. :)
Dung beetles!!!
@@fractalMD The one creature you can tell to "Eat s***" and it's not an insult. :)
With that keyboard, silent computing is not a feature of the Color Computer 3 😆
Trooth
Adjust the screen size in the monitor to 640x480
put 2 joysticks in ..most software uses the right joystick
Ooh, thx Ron!
The MiSTer's HDMI out for its cores are EVEN CLEARER. Just sayin'.
Ooooooooh
are you generation x?
Oh, I see for this one you are having fun, unlike all the other videos. I'm amazed at your decadence though - how much memory can anyone need. 4K does for most people right, 8K if you have a realy big program. Hundreds of K is just, like, wasteful
WE DESERVE THIS OPULENCE!
@@fractalMD Yes you do
A modern version of this expansion board goes for $49, any idea what the original Tandy brand RAM board went for in the day?
One million dollars
According to the 1988 Radio Shack Catalog, the Color Computer 3 512K RAM Upgrade Kit was listed for $149.95.