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Fellow CoCo lovers

chuckcmagee

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Ok, fellow CoCo lovers - I just purchased a CoCo1 - 64k and a CoCo2 - 64k. I wanted the cassette recorders that came with them but looks like they are fairly impressive machines. I know, the CoCo3 is much more impressive but I ended up with these. What's the story on OS-9? I'm also trying to get an FD 501 on ebay.

What do I need to do to get a legal copy of OS-9? I hope I win the disk drive, gonna be tough with no drive.

Oooooooo, the CoCo1 is a 26-3003B, wow! Gotta rare one by accident!
 
P.S. Also trying to win a copy of EDTASM - is OS-9 on the same diskette? If so, would be a "two birds" kind of thing.
 
I'm sure you know this, but don't forget you need a disk controller (plugs into the cartridge port) before you can use the disk drive. Make sure it comes with one or you can definitely get one. Another useful add-on is the multi-pak interface, which allows you to use more than one cartridge at once.

Look here for the software if you don't want to transfer it yourself: http://www.cloud9tech.com/
 
Thanks alot. I have read about the multi deal but really didn't know what it did. Yep, I did notice the cartridges sitting there in the ebay pics.
 
Microware still support 6809??? I looked at that website, doesn't seem to support old processors still, yes/no?
 
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You're gonna need:

Coco (obviously)
Disk controller (26-3022/3029/fd-500/FD-501/FD-502/aftermarket)
External FD Drive
External FD Drive cable

OS-9 disks Level 1 V2.0.0(I have images you can gen onto 5.25" blanks)
referably, you want NitrOS-9, which was what OS-9 on the CoCo migrated to. It's near 100% compatible, so very few issues.

One of the developers was an original Microware developer on OS-9.

Disk images are at http://www.nitros9.org there's another link there for the RETRIEVE and DSKINI utilities. DSKINI is what you will use to write the .DSK images back on to floppies. RETRIEVE is for creating .DSK's from original CoCo floppies.

A multipack will be necessary if you want, for example, a hard disk, sound card, synth card, RS-232 card, etc...

There's also the Hitachi HD6309 upgrade, which has full 6809 emulation/register set, except it works about 10-20% faster than a Motorola MC68B09EP at the same exact clock speed. In native 6309 mode, it really cooks - I think I read 30-40% faster for native 6309 OS-9 code?


Lemme know what help ya need.



Tony
 
Thanks Tony. I just found the "org" site. I'll wait and see if I win the disk drive off of ebay or not.
 
I'll take the FD-500 setup off your hands if you don't need/want both.

I had that on my watch list, but I saw a familiar ebay ID.......


;)
 
EDTASM and other miscellaneous

EDTASM and other miscellaneous

It look like Tony has already given you the run down on OS-9 and NitrOS-9, however your EDTASM (editor/assmbler) question still looked unanswered. There are 2 common versions of EDTASM, EDTASM+, which is a black ROM cartridge, and Color Disk EDTASM, which comes on floppy. The ROM cartridge version only allows saving to tape, whereas Color Disk EDTASM allows easy floppy access. Neither of these 2 have anything to do with OS-9. I think there is also a separate assembler and several languages (I have Pascal, C, and maybe Basic09?) for OS-9.

Other things I'll mention - if you want to have your Speech/Sound cartridge (3-voice mono audio + speech) and the floppy drives connected/usable at the same time, you'll need a multi-pak interface. The disk controller always goes in slot 4.

There are other cool cartridges you can get - one I used to use alot is the Orchestra90 CC, which is simply a ROM and D/A converters for 5-channel audio to which you can connect up your stereo (dual RCA phono plugs). This has a builtin editor/compiler for a dedicated music language, and you can save your songs to floppy if you're using a multi-pak.

I've also done the Hitachi 6309 upgrade to my CoCo3. Very nice...

Congrats on your purchases! I hope you will find them as fun to tinker with as I have!
 
Shoot! Pretty soon I'll get to find out what ebay charges for selling. I now have 3 CoCo2s and 1 (rather rare maybe) CoCo1. Likely toooo many for my needs (just playing around with them).

Crud - on to look for a multi-pak and one of those sound dealies, I loved playing MODs on my PAS so likely will love that cart too. I still try out various MODs and STMs with xmms and winamp.
 
Ummn, there's also a cassette version of EDTASM, but all run under BASIC/RSDOS. Besides the Pascal & C, there is also an assembler package for OS/9, but good luck finding it. The BASIC09 is part of the OS/9 distribution, IIRC.

--T
 
I had a PAS-16 that I played MODs and the like on for quite some time and enjoyed (not on the CoCo, of course). Naturally, keep in mind that the synthesizer output isn't quite up to the quality of the PAS. In other words, there's not a ton of control over ADSR (Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release) under Orchestra90 CC or general instrument waveform, but still cool, none the less (think early 80s home computer capabilities).

Along these lines, if you have interest in music synthesis software for the Speech/Sound Pak and OS-9, Pan was a OS-9 disk-based graphical package in which you could place the notes from your 3 voices on a standard treble/bass staff using the joystick.
 
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