From :Cris Egger

Greetings Glen, After being stomped multiple times in bidding on eBay by you , I finally decided to take a look at your About Me page, which led me to your web site.  Wow!  Definately the best up to date information on the CoCo I've seen yet.  I'm looking forward to seeing it grow.  I'm working on my own CoCo site, but it won't be anything this comprehensive.  Great job and I hope you'll keep going for a long time! I've only had a few moments to look through it, so far.  I love the hardware info since I'm more of a software guy and your breakdown of the CoCo 1 is sure to come in handy.  I have an D-board (I think) machine on the way and I can't wait to take it apart (I have a very special project in mind for this one... heh...).  The section on operating systems looks promising, too.  One suggestion:  I hope you'll add some info on one of the best OS for the Coco... FLEX!  Granted it died a horrible death as OS/9 became more popular, but in the early 80s it was pretty dang poweful on a 16K-32K machine. I recall messing with a buddy's CoCo when I was 13 that his father was using thast had FHL FLEX and had a blast messing with it. Love to get my hands on that OS sometime.  Articles and ads can be found in the 83-84 issues of HotCoCo and Rainbow.  There was, apparently, even a CP/M cart for the CoCo! I also agree that some folks appear to be driving up the prices on some stuff on eBay and my wallet and I share the sentiment.  I bid what I can afford and then stop, which means I loose a lot... sigh.  FD-501s in particular, though!  I finally landed one, but it cost US$135 (with a CoCo3, but both units were in pretty bad shape)!!!  Ouch!  Someone needs to make a solid, modern 5 1/4" drive package (case, drive, power, cables and controller) for the CoCo 3.  I'd buy it... heck, I'd buy several!   Sigh.  Anyhow, that leads me to the real reason I'm writing... The drive came with a beat up, but operational CoCo3.  One that I wouldn't have really given a second look without the drive.  It has the standard model number, but... it has some sort of wire mesh across the top grill on the inside the case.  I've never seen this before and was wondering if you had any information on this variation. All the other CoCo3s I've seen don't have this (3 about 10 years ago, then the four I've aquired recently). The factory warrenty seal is still intact and the machine doesn't appear to have been modified in any way.  I plan to crack it open this weekend or next (I plan to use it as an experiment machine to try out and test upgrades and projects and such) and will take photos, of course.  Have you ever encountered such a thing?  And what was the mesh's purpose (the mesh is too big to stop dust and fine particles)?  Any thoughts or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for a great site!  It's great to see this wonderful machine alive and well.

Angel's Luck & Electric Dreams,

Cris

Thanks for the kind words Cris,
BTW, most of the E-bay stuff ends up on my online store. All the sales go to keeping the site up, and most of the time, the Items are the same price or cheaper than what I paid for them on E-bay. I have never heard of FLEX, but that is not all that surprising when you understand that A) I live in Canada, and A LOT of stuff never made it here or was never sold here, and B) all I ever had growing up was Basic and a Cassette deck. Right now I am focusing more on software on E-Bay, but I am going to have to break down soon and start getting all the old CoCo magazines. Your CoCo 3 does sound interesting, at first read, I thought maybe the "cage" around the P/S might have come off, but that doesn't sound like the case. Best bet is to crack it open. Who knows what Tandy did, you may have a prototype board, or possibly a distro upgrade of some kind, just look at the 64K CoCo 1, it appears that all of them have a "last Minute" mod to the board. I have yet to get my hands on a Korean made coco3. I have some in transport, maybe that is what its is.
-Glen

From :Dave Freed

Great site Glen…keep up the good work!

Dave in Kanata

From :Charles Ken Thomaston

Hi!

I just wanted to say thanks for all your effort on your CoCo web pages. I've found them very informative and useful. Just a few minutes ago, literally, I finished upgrading my 16KB CoCo2, to 64KB, thanks to one of your your web pages. I'm a happy camper!
Keep up the great work.

Best Regards,
Charles Thomaston

From: Madison Farrell

Glen,

Had a chance at work to briefly check your website! I have to admit... it really brought back some memories. Somewhere (That being the keyword) I've got an older silver CoCo. When I was a kid, my dad and I popped its hood and upgraded it to 32 then later I believe to 64k (Had to be... I had a copy of Tom Mix's Sailor Man, and it was 64k). The disk drives were from an old Mod I/II. Dad was an electronics nut and could do all that stuff. I had tons of stuff for the thing. Glad to see someone is keeping it alive.

Thanks again,
Madison

From: Golden, David

Hi Glen,

Nice website and very nice article on ebay. Unfortunately, more than a few of us are getting the same sentimental ideas about our coco's, I think :-( My kids think that I am nuts, but I have gotten 2 coco III's in the last couple of weeks (always wanted one of those). Even dug out some of my old Rainbow magazines. Makes you laugh when you read about 20 meg hard disks for over $1000! Still looking for a multi-pak, but your comments on your editorial page are right on. Ebay is great for finding stuff, but it is like having a yardsale that is visible by the whole world. With that many customers, you know you're gonna get someone that really, really, wants something. My wife and I have bought lots of different things from ebay sellers over the past couple of years, but I just started looking for cocos. It is very cool that there are pages like yours with all the historical knowledge of the coco. I used to know all the peeks and pokes, etc. by heart, but that has long been pushed out of the brain :-)

Dave