9 Jun
1997
9 Jun
'97
9:08 a.m.
On Fri, 30 May 1997, Roger Merchberger wrote:
Aren't we all?
Heck, I know my place is getting more and more congested with stuff. I've
got old computer books all over my floor, along with some boxed
Intellivision carts, a small 5-slot S-100 motherboard I picked up a week
ago, and a boxed, complete Odyssey system (the original one) I haven't
found room for anywhere else yet. (I'm not really into game systems, but I
keep finding them and saying to myself 'I wonder if this is cool' and
leaving with them.)
Anyway, eventually I'll get around to building an extension cable for that
drive. :)
<snip>
OK, that makes
it useful. Would you happen to know what the pinout is of
the 37-pin connector, so that I can try to make use of the drive without
modification? Is it even possible to buy a matching female 37-pin
connector?
IIRC, it's just straight thru with the last/first 3 pins unused... but I'd
have to look at the cable or ring some pins to be sure (and yes, I'm a
packrat...). All CoCo controllers take Shugart standard drives (now
called IBM standard
drives... IBM's taking over again!) altho RSDOS limits you to 35 tracks,
SSDD, 156K disks (the original Shugart drives) without patches... which (of
course) I have. RSDOS can handle a max of 2 DSDD 80 track drives with
patches (more accurately... they look like 4 SSDD 80 track drives, with :2
the backside of :0 and :3 the backside of :1) but 1.44Meg storage thru
RSDOS is really good! OS-9 can handle 3 DSDD 80trk drives!
OS-9 is one OS I've been wanting to see running. Hopefully I can find a
CoCo controller or two to plug some drives into, and find someone locally
who has RSDOS and OS-9.
Seeing as you seem to know about the CoCo machines, I may as well ask you:
What the heck is this CoCo Max cartridge I picked up a year or so ago? It
looks like it's some kind of video digitizer or something... but then it
could just be some kind of wacky high-res display cartridge.
The sticker has been punctured over the screw, so all I see is "HI-RES
<hole>PUT MODULE", and on the underside is a small sticker that says
"COCO
MAX HI-RES PACK - COLORWARE INC."
Know anything about it?
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca