Opinions on must have hardware for a recently acquired Coco 3

[snowpile]

I own many classic systems and have multi-carts, sd card readers etc.. for most. I have a Tandy 1000HX with a 3-in-1 card as well as a Tandy model 1. Those are very different then the coco 3 I just acquired though. Im not incredibly familiar with new hardware for the coco series specifically the coco3 which I have. I want a system that will run the major old and new games/software/OS's out there for the coco 3 as well as an SD card reader for floppy and roms. I believe the following two pieces of kit are the best options but would like opinions. The results I have are from about 3 hours of searching vs others on this forum with years of knowledge regarding the coco 3.

1) Coco SDC (for running floppy and roms off an SD card)

2) The COCOmem for 16megs of ram and no-solder upgrade (honestly Im great with a soldering iron etc so no worries but this one is no soldering and appears to be the most capable as well as backwards compatible).

If the coco sdc is the most compatible capable/popular unit where would you recommend purchasing it from?

Am I missing anything else out there that you would recomend in place of the above items or in addition too? Can you get a coco3 online for telnet/bbs fun? What OS should I run these days? I remember OS9 is there a new version? any GUI's out there? Not entirely sure where to get software and etc.. but I can get creative with that. I'd love to buy/support new developers too and will look for ways to do so.

[MrDave]

There is alot going on for the coco3 ! 

More mem and sdc are a must. , so is using the rgb out.. hands down the best picture.

There are rgb to hdmi setups ( cocoman.biz ) if you prefer..

People are back online with their cocos..

Nitros-09  ease of use ( L.Curtis Boyle ) is the most capable os.  Its a updated os 9..

If you are good at desoldering , i would of course socket the cpu and put a 6309.. gives the coco better performance   ..faster games..

Gunstar for the coco3 was written by nick marentes and will only run on 6309.

And my game Space Pirate Kimiko ( anime space adventure ) is also written for 6309..:)

[snowpile]

Yes!! I found articles and youtubes last night on the 6309 then went and looked for the cpu LOL. I have a bin of 40pin sockets so when I re-cap this coco-3 (the 4700uf capacitor looks suspect) I'll zip a socket on. Yes I also researched rgb adapters. I found some good cables like the switcher-oo (think thats what it was called) and will grab one. I really want a cable that will connect to one of my four Commodore 1084's (two 1084D's and two 1084PS monitors). I havent been able to find any info on building a cable for those. I have a CM5 but its digital RGB of course and not analog. Even an adapter cable to one of my AppleII GS monitors would be great. I just like the old tubes.

 

I ordered the SDC last night and will order the mem today. I always thought everything for the coco 3 was designed for the 512k expansion and the larger expansions were a novelty so a 16meg expansion surprised the heck out of me.

 

Wonderful I'll check out the games once all my upgrades filter in. ZeroPage on atariage here (and on youtube) does a great job keeping track of new programming projects for the atari. Is there a similar list for the coco?

 

I searched for quite a while last night and didnt find a network adapter. Any feedback on what to look for there would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[MrDave]

There are guys on the cocodiscord doung everything you are looking for.. games ,cables, carts, videoout, gaming etc..here is Henry's coco on internet..

I make carts for the cocos 

[snowpile]

OH!! I assume the discord channel's name is cocodiscord? I'll try to search on it. Very cool. I'll assume info on new software and game dev/sales, carts etc.. would be floating on there too.

[MrDave]

http://discord.cocotalk.live

 

Mention my name in the welcome

 

[Green3]

I'll toot my own horn here and point you to my recent post about monitors.  The bottom line is that you'll want one that can not only take your RGB signal for CoCo 3-native software (and the CoCo 1/2 software that works on it), but can also take composite video in order to show, in color, the CoCo 1/2 that need composite video for color.

 

 

[MrDave]

This is a good point .. as i loved my first rgb monitor the cm8  ( had it a few years now ) it was dissapointing to see my favorite clasic games appear in b&w .. so i learned how to hack the code and restore ( even improve ) color ..with the coco3's 64 colors available..  but there are a few games that lose resolution with this method but overall a great improvement.