Donkey Kong on CoCo 3

[lezanderson]

When O When is someone going to make a New hardware Coco 3. Something like the single chip MSX ???? But better !!

[Luigi84289]

Best DK port. Coco 3 > Nes.

[nitturo]

are there people coding homebrews for CoCo/Dragon just like for zx-spectrum (google for 'freshbeep zxdemo' ) and msx (google for 'msxdev') ?

[WarpedTrekker]

Sock, what is the trick to getting sound and music playing without slowing down gameplay? The CoCo only has a DAC and no dedicated sound chip to offload cycles. I never understood how some games could play music and animate graphics at same time. Also no hardware sprites on CoCo!

I only knew how to program in BASIC on CoCo, and always hated playing sounds because you had to wait for sound to play to do something else.

[sockypoo]

The sound routine is written to use up as few CPU cycles as possible and runs off the FIRQ interrupt, which is triggered thousands of times a second. The game code runs as the foreground process, and gets interrupted frequently but each interruption is so short as to not be visibly noticeable.

BASIC ran the program and sound both as foreground process, so neither could run at the same time as the other. A bit of clever programming could have allowed the BASIC SOUND command to run off the FIRQ.

[3gdosrsfs]

Excellent job socky poo.....screw the nay sayers. I wrote Gorf for the Jaguar from scratch and was accused of emulating it on the Jaguar. You will always have assholes that want to rain on your parade. It says much more about them than it does about you. Again, awsome job.

[Luigi84289]

Now THIS is Donkey Kong!

[ioport]

Damn this is the most beautiful home version of Donkey Kong I've seen

[randomrodder]

This game has given my daughter and I untold hours of fun. Thanks, Sockmaster, for this excellent version of DK!!!

[sonick808]

so it's certain that you need the 512K for this ?

[randomrodder]

Yes. You MUST have 512k to play this game. If you want to try it on an emulator, last I knew VCC would play it, though I can't remember if the sound was fixed. I have no clue if MESS will play it yet or not.

[pokerjet]

This didn't look doable, so I pulled out my Coco3 with the FD501 disk drive, loaded it up and tried to get the program to run on disk, and guess what, no dice... If the programmer wants to buzz me, I may revise my remarks, but for now it looks like bogus, the graphics shown here look like DK running on a bootleg cabinet. (hence the off color bonus timer)

[sockypoo]

Does everyone have to be a doubter? Firstly, 512K on the CoCo3 is required - it just won't work on 128K machines. Second, depending on transfer method, it's tricky to create CoCo disks on a PC. Try formatting the disk on the CoCo first, before transferring the files to it on your PC.

The off color bonus timer is because the CoCo 3 is running on a fixed 16 color palette. If you look closely, the game is also running at a lower resolution - you can see by the uneven spacing in the ladders.

[pokerjet]

I love you assume that someone doubts you assume they have no IQ. I do have a 512k Coco3, had it since the 80s, with the Disk Drive to run it. On top of that, I've done many other disks in the past, NONE of them have had any trouble, so the copout excuse that "the file might not come out doesnt work". On top of that, I may just show a vid of the file that actually shows the exact same you put up here, but from an Arcade cabinet. Please admit it.

[sockypoo]

Now you're just trolling. Do you want help with the file transfer, or not?

[pokerjet]

I love you assume those who challenge you are trolling lol... I re-did the file tonight, and it doesn't come off anything like what you pose in your video.

[sockypoo]

Set your monitor type from the front menu. Get an RGB monitor for it to look as sharp as the video. Enjoy the game.  You're welcome.

[Petrander]

pokerjet: I does so on my CoCo3 and dozens if not more CoCo-fans have the same experience. So you must be doing something wrong. Or maybe it is your IQ after all?

[GIMEchip]

It does on mine, and apparently almost every one of these other peoples CoCo 3 systems (and if I've read correctly, it appears to work in some of the emulators.) I am going to try it in the current VCC emulator,M.E.S.S. and David Keil emulators and will report how well it works at a later time. It runs perfectly on real CoCo 3 hardware. Don't mean to be so harsh on you pokerjet, but this is the real deal.

[randomrodder]

Runs great on Vcc. Posted a video of it a month or so ago...

[navydave1]

@pokerjet I play this all the time on my 512K REAL Coco 3! Great job Sock! Ignore comments from people who dont know what they are doing.(Pokerjet). Contact Roy Justis, you can probably find his info over at coco3 dot com and buy one of his converter boxes to connect a coco3 to a current monitor. Once hooked up this RGB game looks exactly as it does on the vid. (sockypoo), when are you making another port. Cant wait to see another one if you have the time. I love maxing out the cap. of my Coco3!

[cc6809]

Just go ahead and show your bootleg vid pokerjet, need a laugh or two.

[GIMEchip]

Why would you want him to admit to a lie? This is NOT MAME or an ARCADE cabinet. THIS IS DONKEY KONG RUNNING ON THE COCO 3. It may be possible that you have a bad memory chip on your 512K board, or your floppy drive may be slightly out of alignment, etc. If you have a good 512K CoCo 3, this should run perfectly. It worked first time on my system. If you are using a composite color monitor or Television, then the display will NOT be as sharp as this video which was done with RGB monitor.

[GIMEchip]

I never doubted this Mister Sockman - I've seen all the other demos, software and hardware that you've done for the CoCo. Sock is the GURU!

[GIMEchip]

pokerjet, I have no clue why you are having problems with this. I downloaded the disk image, I used OmniFlop with Windows XP to write the image to a real CoCo disk (yes, my XP machine has a 5.25" drive). I then proceeded to turn on my CoCo 3 (with 512K upgrade), put the disk in the drive, loaded the game, selected RGB monitor (I have the CM-8 monitor) and proceeded to play the game. Care to take a guess how it looked? I'll just tell you - it looks just like Socks video.

[cryinglion]

Seriously doubt this is a CoCo3 version. Looks like MAME emulator.

[marlinlee]

You can doubt all you want. But if you actually read the comments and visited Sock Master's web site listed in the description you would see this is in fact running on a CoCo3 and is available for download.

[cc6809]

Nice try cryinglion. This is a CoCo 3.

[killer5918]

do u need a joystick?

and does it end on screen 22(kill screen)

or is it longer cause id rather it have a kill screen

[gjc82071]

Can anybody offer ANY help about installing a TRS80 emulator on Windows Vista, or 200, Me, 98? I am pretty adept at emulation. I have installed, WinVICE, Apple2, ALL, Atari,Nintendo, Sega emulators, Intellivision, Odyssey, + a bunch of obscure, 8-bit PCs, & more. For the life of me I can't get ANY TRS80 emulator to work, and as it is practically the last & basically the only system on my list I can't get to work, it's driving me crazy almost to the point of insanity. HELP! Anybody? Puleeze!

[JohnnyBeefMuscles]

Holy crap this is amazing! I wish I spent many hours on this version instead of the Tom Mix "Donkey King" clone back in my single digit years. Nice vid. :)

[nebby6]

Pretty amazing for a computer that doesn't have a sprite-generator.

[utubepenguins]

This is EXACTLY the same as the arcade version! This rox!

[sockypoo]

It's really part emulation, part port.  The original Z80 code was translated into identical-function 6809 code. It runs exactly the same as the original hardware, so far as to expect sprite, graphics, sound and I/O hardware to be there. Sprite, graphics and I/O hardware *is* emulated. Sound hardware is simulated - 6809 code that acts like the arcade sound board. The CoCo3's 6809 is fast enough to pull off this mix of conversion/emulation/simulatio­n for an arcade perfect version of Donkey Kong.

[timsteryt]

Socky... Awesome job. I understand this is available for download, but I'm not aware of a way to get a rom image from my Windows machine to a floppy readable on my CoCo. Do/can you provide a disk-based version of this game? I could provide the disk, or reimburse you for one.

[ess1898]

There is a product called drivewire put out by could 9 that will use a PC and a serial cable to your coco as a virutal disk drive

you can mount the emulator image on the drive wire server, put the drivewire cart in your tandy and load up the game from the HDB-DOS prompt.

[ninelivecat]

Wow that's perfection

[nicodermcq]

I need to apologize. I called this out as fake, and now I have egg on my face. I tried this out in an emulator and I was totally wrong. It's almost hard to believe that a port could be SO perfect in every way. Something this accurate I don't think has been done on ANY console or for ANY system before. I'm am humbled. Please take my initial skepticism as the ultimate compliment.

[ninelivecat]

No you got it wrong this is the arcade version but it's running on a COCO Donkey Kong Emulator not MAME

[nicodermcq]

Not an emulator in any way close to how MAME emulates. This took true skill to re-code and tweak to get running in perfection on a machine that has lesser capabilities than the real DK hardware.

[ninelivecat]

That's not entirely true COCO 3 was 1986 Donkey Kong was 1981.

[MASTERCONTROLVIDEOS]

By your logic, a 1986 Coco was more powerful than a 1976 Cray 1. The DK hardware was a 3Mhz Z80 with an 8084 microcontroller for sound. The Coco 3 used a 68b09 @ 1.78Mhz for CPU and sound generation. The Commodore Amiga 1000 was released in 1985 and was vastly more powerful. You are thinking in PC terms where age = power.

This is a PORT, not emulator. Emulating or interpreting calls is not the same as hardware emulation vis-a-vis MAME. A 1.7 Mhz 8bit processor cannot run MAME.

[ninelivecat]

I'm not a techie If you follow the links from sockypoo's profile he doesn't say that he rewrote Donkey Kong for COCO 3 He says that he emulated it

[MASTERCONTROLVIDEOS]

What Sock said, is that the CoCo is emulating an arcade machine - that it is acting like one. If you read his site, he says "...the Coco may not be fast enough to emulate Donkey Kong's 3Mhz Z80 CPU, it is fast enough to run the original game logic if it was translated into native 6809 operations." The game is PORTED. The EMULATION is the result - Arcade DK on a CoCo. It is NOT Emulation in the MAME sense with a layer of code to emulate the chips. The pre-translated code is running NATIVE.

[ninelivecat]

OK I see

[nicodermcq]

That is NOT the CoCo3. It's the arcade/Mame.

[BigFan71]

You can go to the link in the description and download it, then run it in a CoCo3 emulator. It is a direct port of the arcade version to CoCo.

[ninelivecat]

No it's a Donkey Kong Emulator written for the COCO so you are emulating the COCO which is emulating Donkey Kong arcade like MAME does It's not a direct port

[BigFan71]

So you are honestly saying that a 1.7Mhz 6809 cpu can emulate a 3Mhz Z80 CPU + an Intel 8035 microcontroller? Seriously?

My IQ dropped 30 points just thinking about that.

(1) It is a port and runs native on Coco 3 at full speed.

(2) Even with the GIME chip, emulation on the Coco would be so slow that it would take 3 weeks to display the opening image.

[ninelivecat]

If you read the guys article on how he made it he says ->

"The Donkey Kong Emulator requires a 512K CoCo 3 with disk drive and joystick."

[Domagno]

how high can you get?

[TheGameroomBlitz]

Seriously? It's this good? SERIOUSLY? Damn, it looks arcade perfect!

[m1omg]

according to mobygames there were just5 14 titles for the coco 3!

there were JUST 14 TITLES FOR THE COCO 3!

So likely most of your "Coco 3" experience and thinking about the capabilities was low because you probably had mostly coco 1/2 software.

compatibility was a bad thing here, developers were lazy annd they rather created universal coco ports that would run even on coco 1 with extremely bad graphics and sound, rather than developing for the wholly new platform coco 3

[BigFan71]

There were way more than just 14 titles for the CoCo3. There were only 14 titles in the RadioShack catalog, but 3rd party software houses published many more. You are right though, most knocks on the CoCo3 are because people never saw the better games.

[marlinlee]

The same was true of the original CoCo. I got my 1st CoCo in April '82. Space Assault and Polaris were the only 2 decent arcade titles available and the closest RS store to stock them was 2 hours away. I had about given up on the CoCo until I subscribed to The Rainbow. I had heard there was a Pacman clone for the CoCo and figured if there was an ad for it the subscription would be worth it. WOW! I literally spent an hour just looking at the ads. Oh, 1st purchase was Colorpede from Intracolor.

[m1omg]

cocos 1/2 dont have even lowercase chars

[iimustang]

Actually, the very last version of the Coco 2 did... and inverse video too (also known as the Coco 2B or Korean version). It is the white, full travel keyboard verison, and will sat Tandy (not Radio Shack) on the label on the top. You can test it out by hitting SHIFT-0, type some lowercase characters, and then run the following program:

10 POKE 65314,80:GOTO 10

[cbmeeks]

Yeah, this is awesome. This really is a CoCo 3. But I think it's been expanded to 512k or more and it's running an emulator. But this is pure CoCo hardare (with expanded RAM).

Donkey Kong wasn't really that hardware intense so an 8bit CoCo 3 could handle the emulation.

Very nice.

[m1omg]

Emulator would require MUCH more than just porting the game, CoCo 3 can do 320 x 200 in 16 colors with good annimation speed just very little software was written for it so most users thinked it cannot compete with even Atari 800 because they run CoCo 1/2 software on it, even through it was designed to COMPETE WITH ATARI ST!

It is no surprise it can play MODs or do early 80s arcade identiccally to original, it was intended as 8-bit with 16-bit power.

[Learnhistory]

This was called 'Donkey King' and then had its name changed to 'The King' when released by Microdeal in the UK for the Dragon 32 which was the European sister computer to the Tandy TRS-80.

[Adama900]

You are way off base. The Dragon 32 could not have done this. This is CoCo3 with some serious software tricks. Donkey King was crap compared to this...this is a direct port of the original game and the CoCo1/2/Dragon did not have the resolution or color depth to pull this off.

[m1omg]

lol

CoCo 1 and 2 had the extremely crappy Motorola 6847 video chip that did 128 x 192 in 4 crappz colours and it cannot even displaz the damn white, just some color that is very similiar to it and it sucked so much power from the CPU that even through Motorola 6809 CPU was the most powerful early 80s 8-bit chip it couldnt do real fluid animation and sound was reduced to primitive bleeping even through its real specs were 6-bit digital sound channel.

[clownhorse]

why did it suck more power out of the 6809 than the CoCo3? Does CoCo3 have a blitter?

[nebby6]

Nope. No bit block transfer hardware in the Coco 3. Just pushing pixels the olde-fashion way.

You know, I'm surprised no one's ported Defender or Stargate to the Coco 3. Looking at the specs, it would be a natural for the old Williams games.

[misterk81]

This is very cool. I had no idea that the CoCo 3 was capable of such things.

The Tandy Colour Computer 3 was the first computer my parents ever bought when I was a kid. I was about 6 or 7 when they first brought it home, and I had no idea what to do with it other than running a few games on it.

I still remember trying to learn how to program from the examples in the big thick manual that it came with, and getting frustrated at it. Ha!

[Apple2gs]

Wow, incredible! I'd been impressed by the ColecoVision and (especially) NES ports, but this blows them both away! This is the most accurate port I've seen to date--on anything!

(they may have cheated for audio though, sounds like a simple digital recording played back through the 6-bit DAC; i.e. a WAV file; not synthesized like in the other ports).

This really makes me want to pull out my CoCo 3 and play with it (have one in my collection, just no floppy drive or way to get data onto it). :/

[eminboztepe]

Uh....this is the MAME version of DK....nice try.

[sockypoo]

lol, no it really is running on the CoCo. You can download it yourself to see. The graphics had to be scaled down a little to fit the CoCo's horizontal screen - you can see it a bit in how the bars in the ladders aren't quite evenly spaced.

[eminboztepe]

Ok, I'll check it out.  Thanks!

[allenhuffman]

Wow!  That's like the ultimate compliment for the programmer. At the CoCoFest when this was shown we spent some time talking trying to figure out what non-emulator had the best Donkey Kong port. I'm not sure what we decided.

[ryand76]

Wow, I never knew the coco 3 had a better version. Did the pie level have moving belts on the arcade?  I can't remember.

[GreenDayRlz]

The micro in the coco 1+2 is a Motorola 6809, it`s 5x better then the one used in the donkeykong arcade game. Thats why the conversion is so great.

[cc6809]

Wow... kudos to the Sock Master. As always, impressive programming efforts - had software of this quality come out in the heyday of the CoCo... well... :-)

[briza1972]

I've compared other screenshots to the Coco 3 game. Closet ones to it are NES and the Amstrad CPC64 versions. But they are no match for the Coco 3 version. So I have too agree Coco 3 DK rules the 8bit class.

[allenhuffman]

Screenshots don't tell the whole story. Music, titles, etc. should also be considered. It's hard to think of anything better or more accurate than something effectively running the original code. Wow.

[allenhuffman]

Holy crap. I'm at the Chicago Fest right now (hi from the hotel) and this blew me away. Is this the best DK game ever for a home system???

[iimustang]

Awesome conversion, Sock!

[iimustang]

Awesome conversion, Sock!