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Last update Sept 5, 2005

By Glen VanDenBiggelaar

Hello, and welcome to my attempt at a thorough support page for the beloved Coco. We here at Quark X are dedicated to preserving the past, and from time to time we come across old Technical Reference Manuals, Service Manuals, and schematics. I will do my best to make them into PDF files, to share. If you have an interesting old manual, book or schematic that you would like to donate to the Co Co library, or if you have any interesting story and/or corrections/additions, please feel free to e-mail me. This site started out as a composite of all the CoCo sites I could find and a lot of information (and thanks) is due in part to great CoCo sites by Al Santos, SockMaster, L. Curtis Boyle, Techno's site, Cloud 9 , Nickolas Marentes, just to name a few. If I haven't named your site, I do apologize. These are the main ones I have gathered info off of.

Latest updates
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September 5
I have the new "more Marshmallows" page up. I have been working on the on line store this long weekend and found the "cartridge" page to be corrupted some how. It is taking a LONG time recoding it, so all the "paypal" links havn't qute been updated for the new shipping yet. From now on all Carts will cost $7 for shipping. this may seem a bit high, but when you add in the Bubble envolopes from Canada post, You can see the cost is about $7. The Fuel Surcharge that Canadapost is adding ontop of the postage rates is just astronimical. We are paying about twice as much for fuel here in Canada, than in the US and the gas is coming from here in ALBERTA! The latest gas price here in Alberta (and it is much worse down east) is $1.13/per liter That is almost $5 in the US galons and once you do the exchange. It is times like these where I am glad I do not have a car anymore (but it sure sucks walking or bussing everyware).

September 4,
Ok, not to sound sarcastic or angry, BUT PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM FILTERS, IF YOU HAVE ORDERED PRODUCT FROM THE ON-LINE STORE AND YOU HAVEN'T RECIEVED ANY CONFORMATION OR STAUS ON THE ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have sent all the orders out on the online store except orders that I have received this weekend. I have sent conformation and follow up e-mails to everyone. If I do not receive any indication back from you or messages from your server, saying the e-mail has bounced, I assume everything is OK. My e-mails go through the "Hotmail" server. Please , I can not be held responsible for YOUR filters. Thanks

August 30,
I have some rather distressful news to report. I am trying to catch up on my shipping today for the online store. I just have 3 packages left outstanding. It seems that on June 1, Canada Post had raised in shipping rates again! In the past, I just swallowed the "extra" shipping as some packages were less than quoted and some were more. I still am convinced that it cost MORE to ship within Canada, then to ship to the US. In the past, a CoCo being shipped from here (Edmonton, Alberta) to Anywhere in the US in its original box with manuals etc and a shipping box has always cost about $20 (US). Today, I shipped of a CoCo 2 unit (by itself) with just it and packing peanuts and 2 joysticks-with no manuals or anything. It cost me over $26., so as a result, I am forced to up the shipping prices by about $2-$5 an Item. I hate to do that, but the little expenses are eating away at bottom line. I do apologize for this, but I can see no other way to continue, with out increasing the actual prices, and I don't wish to do that.

August 25,
Yesterday, I received the package from Jerry, and have yet to go through it all. Project Green thumb is very fascinating. The original 250 units were indeed mounted in a Model 1 case and had a numeric pad instead of a keyboard. (I will post pictures in the next few days). what was really interesting is Al Santos e-mailed me a picture form the 6809 cookbook. This picture describes the video text, but it has a Model 1 case AND a full CoCo 1 "Chick let" keyboard. (click here for photo).
I wonder if this was the videotex prototype, sent out before the videotex actually hit the market. Jerry can not actually confirm this, because he was not involved with the videotex, but suspects that it is indeed the prototype.
In other news, the online store had a great week, and I fear that I will be soon running really low on supply on hardware. I do have tons of carts for sale, but the vast majority of sale is focused on hardware. Get yours while you can, because I do not see more hardware coming in for at least another few months.

August 9,
I have received more E-mails from Jerry. It looks like he is sending a bunch of info and documentation's on "project Green Thumb" via snail mail. One interesting note is that the video tex and PGT are NOT related, and the only connection to the CoCo from PGT is the SAM chip that Jerry and Motorola developed. when I get the package in, I will update everything then. Thanks Radio Shack.

August 8,
I has an very interesting E-mail today from Jerry Heep - a Staff Engineer at Radio Shack. Jerry was THE project engineer that headed the team "Green Thumb Project". Jerry and Motorola Developed the SAM chip Using the Green Thumb platform. They ended up building 250 "Green Thumb" boxes built in a Model 1 case. Jerry also adds that they "weighed the same as a boat anchor"due to all the RF shielding, and they had to get a special Radio transmission licence.
I have asked Jerry for more information and if he chooses to reveal more, I will update the Video Tex page or create a page on Project Green Thumb itself.

August 5,
Last night was my night off, so I stayed up all night playing King's Quest on the CoCo. The game is tolerable on the "Fastest" speed setting, but switching floppies all the time can become quite tedious. How we have come to depend on a hard drive! The "Game Save" process is also as tedious, because if you die, you have to put in your "game Save" Disk and start at the last point you saved. With all the floppies, you can spend minutes trying to get the right floppy in. The deluxe joystick is not all the great going diagonally (up stairs and down the mountain paths). I died more than a few times, stepping off the path and falling to my death! But with all my gripes aside, I do like the old game.- I always did like the King's Quest games, but, for the life of me, I can't remember what number I had on the 486. I think it was 6.
I have updated the Accessories page with information I had not previously know. It seems that on an un-modified CoCo 3, the only floppy controller that will work properly is a 502. Maybe that FD500 system does work (that I pulled off the on-line store, because of I/O errors), I guess I will have to break down and fire up a CoCo 2 system to check.

August 1,
I have the new "more Marshmallows" page up (spent all night at it) I will proof read it later and fix errors, but its up! I have been getting about an hour a day on the CoCo itself, so Right now, I am just making sure everything in the on line store is functional (all the Disk Software). I also am getting more e-mail on products. If you have a piece of software that you wrote and would like to sell it through my on line store, feel free to e-mail me with all the details. I don't have to cary stock and when I get an order, I just forward it to you, you do the shipping etc. Again, just e-mail me for info. I would love to be a distributor for Sundog games, if they are still around, and carry different DOS.

July 26,
Ok, so I finally squeezed in enough time to hook everything up and get my CoCo 3 running! So far I have had a lot of fun with the beast, but be warned, if you are using an RGB monitor (like the CM-8) you will get either no color, or weird color on some programs. I know you "experience users" know this, but for the new users, this might not be apparent. Also patches must be applied for certain programs (EG: Gwanna Bwanna) to run on a CoCo 3. I will make a Patch page soon. Some examples I have run across: Pit Stop 2, Pitfall 2, Cave Walker -all run in Black and White. Desk Mate 3 runs in Pink Yellow and Black. I will report more on this, as I find it out.
I also had a chance to fire up both OS-09 and NitrOS 9. I am not much of a unix guy, so getting around is a bit hard for now, but one thing i did notice. NitrOS 9 looks a lot "cleaner" and is Y2K compatible, Although I haven't quite figured out how to launch it in NitrOS 9, Deskmate says the date is 1905.
NEW USERS BE WARNED- when copying a disk, it is not as simple as on a windows box. it will copy as much as it can in memory and then you have to swap disks, on a single drive system. I sat for over an hour swapping disks back and forth last night to make a back up of NitrOS 9. It gets old really fast.
I have also done some shipping today, but I still have more packages to get out- I am sorry for delays.

July 18,

I AM BACK!!
After a 2 month hiatus, I am back and Almost ready to get back to the lounge.
Over the last 2 months I moved, and got a new job, also I got a NASTY virus and had to format my computer, so its still not quite back. I got in my CM-8 monitor (thanks Mike P) and am ready to get to work on my old CoCo. Although, I haven't had time to actually set it up yet, It now looks like I have a good set up. During the last 2 months, I have gotten behind in my shipments from the on line store, and I hope to have them caught up in the next 2 weeks. I do apologize for the delays, but I will throw some "extras" in your shipments to make it up. My e-mail now comes from Shaw.ca, so please check your spam filters again, so I can reply back to you. Also "Hotmail" might be showing up. I am working graveyard shifts, so my days are a bit messed up, so if I do not get back to you right away, please be patient.
Please note: What I have for sale right now on the online store, is what I have for sale. I do not have access to sell any forms of DOS for the CoCo at this time. Like always, as new product become available, it will be posted. For some reason, I have been getting quite a few requests (like over 50 in the last month) for Various DOS software. I am not sure why this is, but please check E-bay if you can't find it on the on line store.
Over the last month, a big project of converting (legally) the Rainbow Magazine to PDF was started by one of the members of the Yahoo Color Computer Club. This means I won't be doing that here, but once it is done, I (hope) to either offer it in the on line store (on DVD or CD format). Once the project has been completed, I will try to contact the parties involved or at the very least put a link up to where you can get them. I only have the last 2 years or so of issues, and mine are falling apart, so I know, I will be buying a copy. The Rainbow was THE source and still offers a vast knowledge base of COCO information.

May 17,
ATTENTION: PLEASE NOTE: As of June 1, the mailing address and the HQ of the CoCo lounge is MOVING! (no, not the website) All orders to the online store received between now and May 28 will be shipped out as usual with a conformation and tracking number, If you wish to pay by M/O send it Express or overnight to avoid possible delays. I am not sure at this time where or how long the delay will be in shipping. I do apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Over the weekend was our six month anniversary here at the lounge! it is hard to believe that 6 months ago, I would have all this inventory. It has been pointed out that my apartment looks like a Tandy warehouse from the 1980's. I am not sure if that was a burn or not (maybe I should just clean it up once and a while) but then again, I have seen worse. Not to mention any NAMES, but I do have a good friend who's shop has a room with Tandy Parts and Computers, stacked to the ceiling. Not CoCo's, but all TRS-80 computer's and parts. (hint: he used to own 2 Radio Shack stores :) )
About last thursday, we did reach over 1,000 unique hits to the web site. For a site with little to no advertising, I view this as great.

May 10
I love surprises from Ebay. Yesterday, I got in a CoCo 2 -26-3026. At first glance, it was a nice example of a first model CoCo 2, with just a bit of cleaning required. I was looking it over, when I noticed what appeared to be some wires you can see through the venting slots. This usually means 1 of 2 things: A) its busted or B) its been modded!. Last night, I took it apart and to my surprise, it had indeed be modded, but not very much. It had the extended Basic installed, but it seems to be a third party or possibly a home made upgrade. Originally the model 3026 had 2 24 pin Roms installed. This looks like a 28 pin Rom inserted with jumpers and pins bent up. It also looks like EPROMS also, but I do not want to take the masking tape off or touch it in anyway. It also looks like it was upgraded to a full 64K machine as it does have chips marked TMM4164AP-20 installed as Ram and looks like the W1 pad is soldered.in fact the only "flaw" is a bit of surface rust on the top of the RF modulator but that's minor. The motherboard is a #8709416, with everything socketed. All and All a really nice example of the first CoCo 2.

May 9,
This next weekend will celebrate our 6 month of operation at the lounge and we are also closing in on our 1000 visitor! It might look like a month or 2 coming up with no updates, as it looks like I will have to move at the end of the month, I officially got the pink slip thursday, so I am very busy looking for a new job. I did scan in those FD502 "variants". As pointed out by Dave F., these are just differences between American And Canadian Models. They were both made in Korea, but why cosmetic changes to Canada is still unknown. These can be seen on the "accessories" page.

May 5,
I took the time today to catalogue and post over a dozen floppy programs on the online store. I still have a stack to go through, but it seems like a good start.

May 4.
I was up early again, but didn't have the chance to get more stuff posted until late evening. I have found a variance in FD 502 disk drives. One has a cover with slots for venting, and the other has the "screen" underneath the venting, but also it is made up of square holes and not of just slots. I will try to scan the differences when I get a minute.

May 3,

I was up early this morning and started to put the new software in inventory and started loading up some to the online store. I probably have at least 40 games and Utility disks to go through, so it is just a small portion that I have got up. I don't have allot of spare time these days, as my personal life is in a rough stretch right now, But I will try to have them done soon. I have also made a new archived of the past updates, as this page was getting long again.

May 2
Today, I received a huge shipment in of assorted software, Names like flight Sim 1 and 2, Crystal City, Winnie the Pooh, Inter bank Incident and much much more. It is going to take a while to catalog it all, but I also got in cassette software, and it is not all games, but all the Cassettes are legal software. I will be posting it over the next few days.

May 1,

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, IF YOU ARE MAKING A PURCHASE IN THE ONLINE STORE, OR IF YOUR ARE ASKING QUESTIONS ETC. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SPAM FILTER WILL ALLOW ME TO REPLY! ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE INQUIREING ABOUT RECENT ORDERS. MY E-MAIL DOES COME FROM TELUS.NET

Click Here to see page 1 and page 2 of past updates