LET'S PLAY Arcade Games On The TRS-80 Color Computer 3

[@jackschidt8711]

loved rampage and robocop. and i love that tee shirt with the blinky LED for a cursor! I WANT THAT SHIRT!!!!!!

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks. You can buy one in my shop. Link should be in the description.

[@wimwiddershins]

Great to see you back. Rampage really shows what the system can do.

[@RetroHackShack]

For sure!

[@CurtisBoyle]

Ironically, the best Coco 3 arcade clones or ports were done by third parties (not Radio Shack). Would be an interesting to do a follow up video from some of those. Or the transcodes (actual arcade code directly translated), which now includes Donkey Kong, PacMan, Joust, Defender and Robotron, would be a good follow up as well.

[@RetroHackShack]

Agreed Curtis! I need to do an os9 video too.

[@CurtisBoyle]

@@RetroHackShack - I can help with NitrOS9 / EOU for sure … getting back to getting version 1.0.0 ready after being busy with work and “life”.

[@hdufort]

Not to mention the late Coco3 Zaxxon clone Z89, built by the same programmer who ported the game initially on the lower resolution Coco2.

[@hdufort]

Where can I find the Joust, Defender and Robotron transcoded? I wasn't aware.

[@hdufort]

@@CurtisBoyle Yeah, I've been missing the live shows for a while now. I'll come back to them eventually.

[@hdufort]

One of the issues with some games such as RoboCop, is that they decided to go with half resolution (160x200 in 16 colors). The Coco3 can display 320x225 in 16 colors. Two factors motivated this decision. First, cartridges limit the amount of graphics you could use in a game. Keep in mind that most users didn't have a floppy drive (which would have multiplied the amount of sprites and tiles by 5). Some games such as Super Pitfall use data compression to include more graphics. Having a limited number of sprites and tiles available on a 32kb cartridge, you'd rather use a lower resolution. The second issue is RAM. The default Coco3 setup had only 128kb. Most users didn't expand to 512kb. If you use page flipping to avoid flicker, you use 64kb in full resolution. With a 128kb Coco3, you have two choices to save on memory usage. Either you use half resolution, or you synchronize on vsync (which is feasable in some games, but not in all). Today's homebrew developers don't have these limitations. They can assume that most Coco3 out there have been upgraded to 512kb, or users play in an emulator. They can distribute virtual floppy disks as files and users can use the CocoSDC to load any virtual floppy.

[@richardadams4928]

Steve Bjork was a SUPERSTAR on the CoCo. I have always regretted that I narrowly missed meeting him at the one and only Ft Worth Rainbowfest.

[@richardadams4928]

And his Zaxxon for the original CoCo was SPECTACULAR....

[@fattomandeibu]

Had Rampage and Robocop on C64, Rampage was nearly the same, but Robocop was quite different. Fun fact: Robocop 2 was the only C64 game that I owned that could utilise the official 2 button Commodore joystick. It actually come bundled with the cartridge(the only game I owned on cart, the rest were on cassette, the price difference was massive with the cheapest carts being the same price as a premium tape game, or 5 budget tapes, and Robocop 2 was an eye watering £25, or the price of 12.5 budget tapes) and was Sega Master System compatible.

[@IvanSchmulich]

Hello, thank you very much for your videos, wish you a speedy recovery.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks!

[@Skraboing649]

Great little video! I hope your hand's feeling better soon! 👋

[@RetroHackShack]

Thank you!

[@hdufort]

My favourite Coco3 games are not arcade ports. I would include the Sierra adventure games (King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry), the late Donkey Kong transcode, Laser Surgeon, Rescue on Fractalus, Flight Simulator 2, Sinistaar, Gantelet 2, and a few more... Arcade games? Maybe Arkanoid.

[@angrydove4067]

I don't like pink but that Sony monitor is very appealing for some reason. I hope the hand heals up soon.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks!

[@EgonOlsen71]

Interesting. I didn't expect such colorful graphics from a Tandy CoCo. The NES and Tandy versions of Predator seem to have nothing in common with the C64 version, though.

[@RetroHackShack]

Yeah. Seems they were all a bit different.

[@hdufort]

There was a funny bug in the NES version. If you paused while a grenade was exploding, damage would keep accumulating. I'm sure this issue doesn't exist in the Coco3 version, but I've never played that game for long enough to find out.

[@miked4377]

those are all good looking games for that system!! very impressive!

[@miked4377]

get well soon!

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks!

[@jessen600]

I have all 3 of these for the CoCo 3.

[@thombone]

Activision is mispelled as Activion on the Rampage splash screen.

[@gmespia]

I think you've just invented _The Nipple LED_ 😁 Nice video full of nostalgia for me by the way. Thank you.

[@RetroHackShack]

Ha ha. I think I better not Google that 🙂

[@gmespia]

@@RetroHackShack 🤣

[@samcadwallader2899]

Good to see you looking healthy! Get well soon with the trigger finger! I've had it myself but was lucky it sorted itself out.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks

[@horusfalcon]

Take care of that hand and don't push it. We'll be here when you get better. Meanwhile, thanks for the CoCo 3 vid.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks! It's feeling better already.

[@MrDave6309]

Fun video .. also Arkanoid on the coco3 plays really well , especially if you make yourself a paddle !

[@RetroHackShack]

Yes. That's a good one.

[@CurtisBoyle]

Tetris, Sokoban and Arkanoid are all “fat binaries” (both Coco 1/2 and Coco 3 versions on the same cartridge). (Some non official arcade games were as well (like MindRoll)

[@hdufort]

I really enjoyed playing RoboCop even though the game is a little clunky. I knew the game so well, I could play one of the levels shooting at the enemies before they were visible onscreen.

[@kilton44]

Thanks for the content and hope you recover soon.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

I'm guessing there was no consumer software companies that took advantage of the CoCo2's enhancements over the CoCo1. They didn't even mention that you could use a poke command to double the speed of the processor. I'd imagine that alone could be quite useful. I guess it was just more convenient to just make software for the CoCo1 since the CoCo2 fully supported it. It seems to be something that often happened to systems that were built on top of a predecessor. That likely explains why successful companies like Nintendo and Sega opted for systems that were completely new. It actually looks like the SNES was to be back compatible with the NES, but they ultimately decided against it. People have found that with a bit of hacker that they could get some NES games to work natively on the SNES. The Sony PlayStation seems to be an exception to the rule as until recently its systems were back compatible all the way back to the PS1. The advancements for each new system weren't exactly slight, though.

[@user-yr1uq1qe6y]

Coincidence to hear about the surgery in an older video I pulled up! I am having first one on trigger thumb next week. Also diabetic and doctor mentioned this being related. It is still a mystery to me why it is related but oh well!

[@RetroHackShack]

Good luck with it! Give it a few weeks and it will feel much better.

[@3vi1J]

Growing up back in that day, I'm surprised that Rampage was as good as it turned out to be on that system.

[@RetroHackShack]

Yeah. It surprised me too

[@Toymortal]

I have Dupuytren's contracture in my little finger which is very similar. I had surgery two years ago to correct it (the contracture was on my actual finger) but in the last few weeks I've noticed that another contracture is forming, but this time in the upper palm of my hand under the finger. Its a real pain in the you know what's!

[@RetroHackShack]

So sorry to hear that. I feel your pain. 😁

[@infinitecanadian]

I could never understand one thing about my Atari 8-bit computer: _Why doesn't it have a 2 button joystick?!_ They had been using those since the Apple ][, so why not make a 2-button joystick for all the ones that used the Atari-style input?

[@David_Ladd]

I liked Rampage and RoboCop. I really didn’t care for Predator. Great video and keep up the good work.

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks!

[@mikepettengill2706]

Nice Video!

[@RetroHackShack]

Thanks

[@hdufort]

Predator on Coco3 was absolutely horrible in terms of graphics, controls and gameplay. I don't know anyone who managed to progress far in this game.

[@RetroHackShack]

It was pretty tough

[@mydrunksibling]

I've never see a positive review of Predator before. I may have to give this game a second chance.

[@RetroHackShack]

Still not great in today's standards, but when you compare it to what was available for the Coco at the time it isn't bad.

[@neomatrix4412]

Coco3 or c64?

[@stevegraham121]

Why would my predator game be in black and white? The first one I bought brand new from radio shack back in the day, and recently bought it off ebay. Both are black and white.

[@RetroHackShack]

Are you using rgb mode without an rgb monitor?

[@stevegraham121]

@@RetroHackShack no. My first coco was hooked to a tv with rf and my new one is hooked up via composite. My other rom packs work fine now as they did Years ago.

[@RandomEncounterShow]

​@@stevegraham121 press the m key on the start up screen

[@MrBriza5731]

Lmao, never heard anyone say Predator was pretty good for the coco 3.. If the character controls were fixed to be more flexible and not so rigid it would be a good clone.. Also The main characters colors clash and you look like a Ghost wearing clothes, update these colours would improve the games appeal..

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

I never owned one of these but they had one at the Radio Shack around the corner from where I worked and I used to play it on my break once in a while. One thing I always thought was weird about it was (can't remember if this was CoCo 1, 2 or 3) after you turned it on there'd be a picture of some weird alien on the screen and you'd have to hit the reset button in the back until its lips were red. Very bizarre. Anyone remember this or know why that was the case? I just googled it and could not find any reference to it. Is my memory faulty?

[@RetroHackShack]

The Coco used NTSC artifacting for color in the early days. The color palette was either the orange one or blue and was randomly assigned at boot. So to get the right palette that the game designer intended you would need to press reset a few times until it looked right before you started the game.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@RetroHackShackThat is very strange. I'm sure the CoCo wasn't the only computer back then to use artifacting for apparent colors so I wonder why they did it that way? I guess differences in televisions meant that some would do better with one color palette and others would do better with the other? (I imagine this is why some games from back then look so different now when we play them in emulators on our hi-def monitors)

[@RetroHackShack]

@JustWasted3HoursHere The apple ii also used NTSC artifacting, but didn't do it randomly like that

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@RetroHackShackAh, that explains why Apple II games under emulation look so hideous.

[@heyjestie]

your wife teaches me English

[@RetroHackShack]

Awesome! She said she mentioned the channel in class. Keep up the good work 👍