Sprucing up my TRS-80 Coco 3  

Hey Adrian, thanks for being part of SepTandy. It’s worth digging a little deeper into the CoCo3. It’s actually a pretty capable machine especially once you get into the more modern games and operating system.

The only reason why I purchased my Color Computer 2 was for Dungeons of Daggorath. Still have both and work perfectly 37 years later.

You need to get the "deluxe" joystick which has both self centering and floating capability. There was an adapter that would allow the use of atari joysticks but is hard to find. The downland cartridge probably just needs the contacts cleaned (pencil eraser). Your assumption of mindroll being for the coco3 is correct. The 512kb upgrade is an older original. You can get 3rd party upgrades 512kb-2mb that are being produced today. The "color computer archive" has every program ever made. You can also get the cocosdc to add floppy emulation and uses modern sdc cards. Nice video!

It is so fun to see this computer again. I had a super fun time at that show. I met so many interesting people.

SepTandy... next month Octommodore 😉👍 nice vid Adrian, keep it going and stay safe

I wonder if they're doing Spectember in the UK...

I wish I still had my Coco 3. I learned a lot and it sold me on being a computer professional. I learned BASIC like lots of other folks here. Awesome machine. 6809e was an awesome processor also.

Thanks for doing the TRS-80 series this Month. The TRS-80 Model 1 was my first Computer. I put the Model 1 (Level I BASIC 16K) on layaway in 1978 and mowed/Raked a lot of lawns to pay it off. Still have the TRS-80 model 1 in the box. I pull it out of the box from time to time and run Dancing Demon on it....

That version of Downland will not work on the CoCo 3. There is a version that will work on the CoCo 3. You can differentiate between the two by the cartridge label. The version that works on the CoCo 3 has a white label (like most CoCo 3 games do). Starblaze was the first game I ever owned on my CoCo 2. There are some keyboard commands you need to know. 1) M brings up the map. The game starts you on a clear sector, and the object of the game is to clear all the sectors. Yellow sectors are easier sectors, while red sectors are harder sectors. F sectors means there's a fuel depot there (you have to land in the fuel depot to refuel you ship from time to time). I believe there are also R sectors which house a repair depot. If you've taken a lot of damage you'll want to go to a repair depot to fix your ship. Once you pick the sector to travel to, you have to use the other key that's avaiable: 2) W will warp your ship to another sector. If you picked a sector on the map, it will warp you to that one. If you don't pick a sector, I believe it warps you to the next sector over. Either that, or a random one. I can't remember. And I agree that those old black sticks were the worst. But, it's all I had growing up. I think they were around $20 CAD at the time, while the Deluxe (a white version that had a floating mode and an automatic centering mode, changeable by switch and were capable of using 2 buttons on games that supported them, which were few) was $30-$35 CAD. I'm not 100% on those prices, though. Also, there are projects out there that will take a Sega Master System or Sega Genesis controller and convert it to the Tandy joystick port. It's just a box you plug the controller into that plugs into the CoCo Joystick ports.

Adrian, thanks for your hard work on this rescued machine. Note: The CoCo3 was always branded a Tandy, not a TRS-80, and outside of the great retrobrite work - you didn't have Color Computer 3 specific titles to demo like Rampage, Thexder, Robocop, and King's Quest III. The Tandy Color Computer 3 is a *new* platform released in 1986, that happens to be backwards compatible with previous models. (This is confusing, because there is no functional difference between the 1 and 2). The 80-column 512K CoCo3 is one of the most capable 8-bits of all time, with true multi-tasking (Microware's OS-9), and it emulates most of the Color Computer 1/2 graphics modes with its custom GIME chip. You'll find a 64 Color RGB Palette, with 16 colors available in 320x225 mode. It is certainly not an Amiga, but headed in that direction. Stop by CoCoTALK!, the weekly Saturday RU-vid show hosted by OGStevieStrow. We are CoCo all year round, and happy to help out with suggestions in the future. You'll want to try the 2020 free release "Digger III", a re-imagined Lode Runner-like game that showcases the graphical capabilities of the CoCo3, along with many other homebrew titles from the past few years from original CoCo3 developers like NickMarentes.com.

I miss radio shack

At 5 years old, I received a CoCo2 for my birthday. First machine I really cut my teeth on even though I had a Timex Sinclair before that. The 2 lasted me through the 4th grade, even having a printer and a modem, being the first machine I ever went online with. I will be 41 in a little more than a week, and I just got my first CoCo3 for Christmas! I'm waiting on an SD card to arrive so I can load software on it (mine came with the CoCo SDC as well as a 512k expansion module) and let the nostalgia start flowing! Now, all I need is a Tandy DMP-133 and the Direct Connect Modem Pak ;)

Turntable is great idea! Also the mirror underneath! Thanks mate, i'll use these in future for sure!

The difference between the US and Canadian models is just the case: the US ones lack that stupid metal mesh in the top. Also, the feet are held in with pins. If you scrape away the epoxy, you can simply push the pins out and the feet are easily removed. This is useful for painting the case.

Nathan Divino... thanks for the GREAT music.... and TY Adrian.. nice VID... 😍😎😍

I've had good luck shrinking stretched plastic (such as your long screw damage) using the hot air solder station. Can also get rid of the white stretch marks where plastic cases have been prised apart.

Outstanding vid Adrian, I have the Coco2 and 3 as well, due to do the 512 and CPU upgrade on the 3, grab yourself a COCOSDC cart, they are excellent! opens up the machine with all the software and homebrew packages, Happy SepTandy buddy!

Fun fact: the 68B09E was used in the System Industries tape controller that we used in our data center. System Industries was a hardware supplier for DEC shops . Although we had 8 x 6250 DEC drives (autoloader) the SI drives were QIC and relegated to "in addition to" status until they were thoroughly vetted by QC. They were just fine.

Love SepTandy!!! Love the Chanel, the CoCo holds a special place in my heart... Still have my original CoCo 2 and 3!!! Keep up the good work!!

The CoCo 3 was my first computer. I learned BASIC on that thing :)

I spent hours and hours programming on the Coco 3 when I was a kid! You did a great job. The joystick you were using was the crappiest joystick I’ve ever used LOL! I had those at first and then I went and saved and bought the Tandy pistol grip joystick for I believe $60 at the time; it was well worth it! My parents sold all my Coco stuff after I moved out of the house. I have another one now though, and I have a gravis joystick that when I actually worked at RadioShack I was lucky enough to obtain. It had been “lost“in the stock room and it was long since discontinued when I found it.

I think I found the man who beat me to purchasing this CoCo 3 at PRGE 2018. I went to a booth there that had vintage 8-bit computers and I asked if they had a CoCo 3 and they said they had already sold it. I'm glad it went to you though! The CoCo 3 was my first computer I bought with my own paper route money. I really expanded my programming knowledge with it, and even ran a BBS on it for about 4 years. I even programmed my own BBS Door games for it. I pretty much know how this thing operates inside and out. The CoCo line, including the 3, only had a 6-bit DAC that it used for all of its audio functions, which was all CPU controlled. So any sound generated required the CPU to do it directly. The joystick to have is the 2 button Tandy Deluxe Joystick. It also works on the Tandy 1000 line. You can take an old analog PC Joystick that uses the 15-pin connector and modify it to work with the CoCo. Besides rewiring to the 6-pin type DIN connector, I believe you need to add capacitors to the 2 pots to change the range. I know you need to do it for the Atari 5200, but don't recall if you need to on the CoCo. The CoCo 3's biggest feature was the GIME chip. It added higher resolutions (including 80 column text and a 320x200 16 color graphics mode), took care of all the MMU, which allowed for memory expansion. 32K of that 128K was used specifically for that higher graphics mode. I noticed the weirdness of the games as you were playing. Seemed like some of them had issues going right. Might be an issue with that joystick. Anyhow, there are still things being made for the CoCo 3 today, including an SDCard reader that plugs into the cartridge slot. I also want to mention that I wrote the music and some of the sound effects for a late CoCo 3 title called PacDude 2: Monster Maze by Brian O'Neill. Wrote that music when I was just 16 years old! Enjoy your new machine and learning about all it can do! I have so many fond memories of my youth with that machine.

That is the best way to retro bright I have found! I do water the cream down with about 20% water for the keys if I know the sun wont be out for long (UK) but still the same way!

Septandy is what led me to your channel last year. Thanks for the tremendous amount of work and quality you put into your content.

I loved going into a radio shack when I was younger(6 years old). Small dc motors were my thing back then. I still have my TRS-80 Model 100.

Awesome rebuild! We'll done!

Just a tip on the keycap puller -- if you grip it at the wire joint rather than gripping the handle, the joint will fail. I've broken two, then changed my method and haven't broken one since.

Great work Adrian. I never knew about the key puller tool - thanks! Also like the UV protector tip and the mirror and rotating tank. Only thing I’d do differently would be to get a larger clear bin and dip the console case top and bottom in H2O plus a 1/2 gallon of salon 40 liquid. In my experience cases look much better --uniform, no splotches- using dipping vs Saran Wrap and gel. I only use Saran Wrap and gel on stubbornly discolored keys. Almost all of the retrobriting gone wrong videos use the Saran Wrap and gel methods. Dipped my Coco2 and Coco3 without removing the bottom stickers and top ID tag with zero issues. I’ve only experienced the red color band on some older Apple badges (which it turns out are easily removed) fading when I left them attached in a retrobrite dip tank. Coco TRS-80 and Tandy badges have the colors suspended within resin, not on the surface of the badge. No need to remove them while retrobriting.

I must thank you Adrian for these videos. Thanks to you, I ended up buying my very first retro computer, Amiga 500. Its in rough condition but I am sure I can fix it. Thanks again for all of these great videos.

I look forward to "SepTandy!" I had an RLX 1000 which had a bad HDD, the DOS and Desk Mate kept switching between the two systems, at random times. Good thing I had a three-year warranty, they gave me a working HDD, which solved the problem. A full system. It was sweet. I played "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" and "Hangman" as well as "Expert Software" various titles. A lot of "Print Shop" I enjoyed DOS, Desk Mate and BASIC. I learned a great deal! I liked the Desk Mate best!

Don't know anything about the Tandy's. I grew up and live in Europe and have never encountered any of them in the flesh. But I absolutely love that they put the PSU inside a Faraday cage... brilliant!

That turned out really well.

That was a brilliant transformation. I liked watching you bring back a computer to "as good as new" condition, brilliant again.

Wow - almost looks new now. Great job.

My best friend in high-school had a CoCo. He had it modded to the hills. Home theater, home lighting, home security, home photography lab, you name the mod he did it. Expansion cards galore, either hand made or purchased. Even had interfaces for the Altair S-100 bus for his fathers computer. Yes, these computers didn't use a thermal set gel glue. Many items of the day that kind of glue was uncommon.

For those badges, after you heat them up, try sawing some dental floss underneath them to break the glue connection without bending the badge up.

Astonishing results.

For covering labels and other stuff that you don't want to retrobright you may apply a fluid which - when exposed to air - will turn to a kind of rubber coating. It's used in model making to cover clear cockpit windows before spraying the plane. Later just remove the rubber. It's been sold as "Humbrol Maskol" or "Revell Color Stop".

"Mindroll" is the US rename of "Quedex", originally for the C= 64 by legendary Finnish programmer Stavros Fasoulas(sp?).

Those joysticks were $19.95 per pair, so yes, they did sell for about $10 each.

Wow! What a transformation! My CoCo2 is dirty and yellowed like your CoCo was. I will be using what I learned from you here to spruce mine up, as well. On another note, regarding the screw bulge -- I have seen people use their hot air station to reduce and often eliminate those types of bulges in the cases. Now, I have never tried this myself, but I do have an otherwise pristine A500 case that suffers from a bulge, but I haven't worked up the nerve to try this hot air technique for myself. Great work, as usual!

I love that you use the 303. It is amazing stuff when you know what it actually does! I think it's still pretty unknown to most people because it doesn't look like its doing much but it's like SPF1000 for plastics and makes a huge difference over time! I used it on the soft top for my Jeep and the vinyl stayed perfect and it only had to be retired when the stitches literally rotted apart. I use it on outdoor items all the time and basically anything with a coat kept on it never degrades from the sun sometimes even after decades. I don't work for 303. I just wish everyone bought it so it would be easier to find (and cheaper.) One of these days you should go all "Project Farm (youtuber)" and test it on retrobrited plastic! Maybe retrobrite something, coat half and leave it in your backyard for a year. Test if retrobrite holds at all, and how well 303 helps.

Cool project and great music yet again! Looking forward to #Octommodore in October! :-D Yup, it´s a thing now, hopefully!

I got a CoCo2 for Christmas in '86 and bought one of those crappy joysticks maybe a year later from the Radio Shack on Division, around 101st, IIRC. I know it was cheap, but it's been 33 years, so I don't remember the exact price. :) The only game I had was Klendathu, inspired by Starship Troopers. Mostly I used it to learn BASIC, which led to a good career. Nice to see an old CoCo made new again!

Just picked up a Tandy Coco 3, upgrading from my Coco 2 and MC-10, and am absolutely loving it! It needs a little work also, but that will be my fun new project.

Adrian: Dental floss under the metal badge is a great trick for not bending when removing.

That bump is like a beauty mark. 🙂

You need one of the Tandy Deluxe joysticks. They’re self centering and have adjustments.

Everyone needs a funky 70s towel 🙂

I find it's sometimes easier to clean things like that when they are assembled, then they are more structurally sound, and you can really get the elbow grease on there. When dissembled you risk something snapping.

That's great to hear about SepTandy!! Honestly, I had no idea. Two of the next three videos I'll be releasing focus on the Tandy 1000 HX, so that's perfect :-)

Late to the party, but great work on this Coco! Dental floss is good for working case badges off-but, that adhesive looks brutal.

I used to use rubber bands to auto-center the joysticks. There's just enough "gap" at the bottom of the stick to keep the rubber bands in place for this without interfering with the joystick action.

That case would have been a great candidate for painting. :-)

Amazing looking transformation.

With That small screw nipple or dimple, I have to say that can be removed with a heated butter knife, there are also kits that will take a moulding of a plastic texture to which you can cast "what was that low temperature metal again?" a mould which once casted with whatever sampled texture is heated and pressured over any shiny surface that is lacking the preferred moulded texture..

currently mid way through this, just wanted to say the work you've done on the editing of this video is superb, love the style. :)

Wooo hooo haven’t watched yet but super excited about the coco!!! Watching now!

3M 468 tape is great for re-applying case labels. It is essentially a roll of adhesive without any backing tape... just glue on a roll.

Adrian as always an incredible job! For double stick tape check out double stick tape for woodworking that is very thin as well, sticks pretty good and it is easily removable, at least shortly after you use it, you may need to test it long term but for me it has been a great overall solution beyond woodworking! Keep up the great content and thank you!

Cleaning is so satisfying :)

For keys I have actually just used h2o2 cream in plastic wrap, and just put them in my owen on 50 deg (C) for 2-3 hours. Works just as good as outside in the sun.

I think this computer was a bit coo coo, but still you made a nice recovery and a nice video. Always looking forward to your video’s.

I can’t recommend 303 protectant enough. I use it on my convertible top that is now 20 years old! Looks just like new and doesn’t have any signs of UV damage.

My CoCo3 was my first computer and fortunately I still have it. I really enjoyed the first part of this video, especially pulling off the keycaps and retrobrighting them - something I've been wanting to do on my CoCo3, but haven't dared to try yet. Now I know how easy it is to get them off and what's underneath. The case cleaning and retrobrighting turned out amazing, and I really like that you talked about the different screw lengths and explained how the case can be damaged by putting one of the long screws in the wrong place. But, I was really disappointed with the selection of software you chose to "show off" this machine. To only use CoCo1 & 2 software when demonstrating a CoCo3 is a complete disservice to what the CoCo3 can do - imagine using some VIC20 games to show off a newly restored C64, if that was possible. I really hope you are planning to do another video during #SEPTANDY 2020 that includes some real CoCo3 software. My biggest disappointments with my CoCo3 were that it booted up in 32 column mode like the CoCo1 and 2 instead of the new 40 and 80 column modes it can use (type WIDTH40 or WIDTH80 to get into those modes), and that I didn't have a lot of CoCo3 software back then. You really need an RGB monitor (I believe the Commodore 1084 monitor works very well with it with the right cable and you may already have one of these), or an RGB to SCART cable and then SCART to HDMI converter on a new TV to take full advantage of the new CoCo3 graphics modes. There is a large and active community of CoCo enthusiasts. Check out these pages for a great overview: imacoconut.com/start-here/ imacoconut.com/buy-sell-trade/ Links to three great hardware suppliers for the CoCo3: thezippsterzone.com/buy/ boysontech.com/marketplace www.cloud9tech.com/ Just a few of the highlights of hardware upgrades available: 1) CoCoSDC is a MUST to provide quick access to tons of software. You can use your joystick (or keyboard) to navigate the SDC Explorer file browser to load up your software off your SC card. With a CoCoSDC, you really don't need one of the floppy disk drives anymore, but it's worth mentioning that the FD501/502 drives were way faster than the Commodore 1541 drives. 2) Hitachi 6309 CPU, which you mentioned in your video. Some of the newest CoCo3 software takes advantage of its faster speed. 3) 2MB RAM - particularly useful if you use NitrOS9 - the CoCo3's multi-tasking operating system that is still being improved today. www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9.html 4) CoCoMech keyboard using modern mechanical switches 5) GIMEX is coming soon (currently being beta tested). An improved version of the GIME chip with new graphics modes that support 256 colours. It will also support upgrading to even more RAM (I think 8MB?). thezippsterzone.com/2019/03/27/gime-x/ If you were demonstrating a CoCo1 or 2, then Color Baseball and Download would be excellent choices as those are both classic games for those computers. But, for the CoCo3 you absolutely MUST choose some games that use the CoCo3's 16 colour graphics. Here are some suggestions: * PopStar Pilot or Gunstar by Nicolas Marentes (recent releases) * any of the Sierra games in NitrOS9 EOU (www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/nitros9.html) King's Quest 3 and Thexder are two classic titles that were originally available on the CoCo3, several of the others are more recent ports. * Contras by Sundog Systems * Zenix or The Crystal City by Jeremy Spiller Sorry to go on so long, but there is a ton you can do with your CoCo3, which is why these machines are currently so sought after by many CoCo1 and 2 owners. Mr. Lurch made an excellent choice for his SEPTANDY 2020 opening video by using a 6309 CPU, CoCoSDC and demonstrating Gunstar. Please, please do something similar soon. I love your channel and will keep watching!

Use some boiled linseed oil to restore the luster and protect the plastic surfaces. Works awesome on rubber and vinyl too. Removes oxidation and restores color especially on darker colors.

Amazing results Adrian, well done!

Nice job Adrian, that came up really well

I find the paging memory management of the GIME chip to be fascinating as it allows 8K pages of memory to be assembled to create a process virtual address space - which an enhanced OS-9 could take advantage of. It's a mystery to me why no retro channel has never drilled down on this capability with a deep dive, because as humble as the CoCo3 was as a home computer, it had the most sophisiticated memory management for breaking the 64K barrier and had by far the most sophisticated operating system (OS-9) to show it off

Another downside of the magic eraser is that is you overdo, it makes the plastic foggy. It is specially visible in dark coloured plastics. Also I recommend using a mask and protective glasses while using the magic eraser to avoid breathing the dust residue or entering into your eyes. 👍

I took my first programming course on a TRS-80. THe course was Pascal basics in 1986.

My first computer was a Coco with 16k Ram. It is the original grey model with the chiclets keys. I still have it in it’s original box.

Star Blaze is like Defender-meets-Star Raiders. You need to use the keyboard to bring up your galactic map and warp to sectors in distress. 🙂

While Tandy Radio Shack may only exist today in name only, bought out by General Wireless, it means that they are still officially doing business with that TRS company title. Since they are probably not going to fully go away anytime soon, it means that by next year, Radio Shack operations itself will make the century mark as a business. I frequented Radio Shack in the 1980's, 1990's & the 1st decade of Y2k, until I discovered they were finally liquidating in Spring 2017 of which I was able to buy a lot of stuff at 50-90% off. I took a couple photos of the inside of the Shack in my town, just to say goodbye to it after visiting that place for 3 decades. The only TRS computer I own is a Tandy 1000A that was given to me by a family friend in the mid 1990's.

That version of Downland doesn't work on the 3. Later versions have been patched.

Tandy/Radio Shack still exists in our hearts.

~eyes drift from the refurbed Tandy to that HUGE pile of floppy disks~ O.O

You can fix that screw bump with a hair-drier and a teaspoon.

It wasn't supported by Tandy/Radio Shack but it was possible to upgrade the CoCo3 to 2MB ram which was enormous on a machine of this class at the time. This is because the memory was allocated in 8x8K chunks in memory. The hardware would allow any 8K of physical ram to be allocated in to any of the 8 slots. 8x8K=64K of course. Officially you could only allocate chunks 0-63 (8x64=512K) but the hardware actually supported allocating chunks 0-255 (8x256=2048). I suspected this was possible after reading over the specs of my shiny new CoCo3 and later learnt that people had done it. OS-9 Level 2 did this seamlessly.

Ah, 6809 boxen. The dark horse of home system CPUs, but it got a LOT of love on arcade boards - especially from Konami and Data East.

Wow. Nice job!

Rampage, Thexder, Robocop like Rob in the comments are some of my favs and downland is super awesome!

I miss my CoCo3. My first computer. Dungeons of Daggorath is so good. I had Downland and Baseball. Totally forgot about those games.

Great video as always. If you every do a Q&A episode you gotta address what happened to your work bench that caused that rectangular mark. Every time I see it I wonder.

The coco may not have had the cool of some of the other eight bits but it had a really good basic and the machine language editor was really good. Oh and the floppy disk system was way better and more flexable

Forget the sun. Use a zip-lock bag in a sous vide at 130c for two days. Seriously, this is the way, very consistent color results!

I'm glad you beat the timer cleaning those keys... I think I would of had a stroke if you didn't... great video, as always!

Always nice to see those cleaning and retrobrighting videos. Makes me calm down :) Hi from Ovesen.net

You should get the CocoSDC cartridge adapter and download tonnes of coco3 games to it from the disk section. Most of the sierra games are there. Love your video and how you cleaned up your coco3. I may post a few vids of my own this month

It's amazing to see how much such a tired-looking computer can be rejuvenated. My mother and aunts and grandma raised me to appreciate antiques, so I've really enjoyed all the retro computing community on RU-vid. I look forward to your videos every Wednesday and Saturday. :) My dad actually had a business class RadioShack/Tandy ... thing. I'm not exactly sure what it was: monochrome (green) monitor, with a huge, orange, rubberized RESET key that was really irresistible when I was about six. (I wasn't left alone with the Tandy after pressing the big orange button and sending a spredsheet to the beyond. Oops.) So, even though I barely used the thing, I defnitely have some nostalgia for it. I was wondering if #SepTandy was going to return this year. I'm so glad to see it back. :)

You could try to "massage" the screw bump using the top (half-round) side of the screwdriver plastic handle.

#septandy, #septandy, let's hear it for #septandy! My first computer was a 4K Model 1. So wanted a Coco, but got married and couldn't afford it. Thank goodness for emulation these days.

Love that T-Shirt.

The big thing the Coco had going was the ability to create a multi user UNIX environment, courtesy of Motorola. I don't remember all the details, but I do recall friends in the 1980s that made it work successfully. You are right, though. The Coco was no match for the graphical abilities or game play of the C64. The C64 also had the distinction of being able to run the Geos environment, which was very Mac-like.

I still have my childhood CoCo2. I never did get the CoCo3, as I wound up buying a Tandy 1000TL instead (I still have that one too). It was great seeing you restore this one. I have 2 of those joysticks. They were $20 for two of them back in the day. I also have the pistol grip one that I bought for the Tandy 1000TL. It's MUCH nicer than the other two. Looking forward to more Tandy stuff!

After getting that keyboard so well done, I think it's time to reward yourself with a bag of doritos while you write a nice BASIC program. Get those keys looking like they're used. :)

Yeah, those joysticks worked on the Tandy 1000 series as well (except for the 1000 RSX, which did away with the 6-pin joystick ports). As a bonus, they can be used in lieu of a mouse in Deskmate.

Ammonia in hot water is fore me the best way to clean any case (or joypad/joystick/mouse etc.) before starting the retrobright process.

The Coco 3 was my very first computer growing up. It's how I learned BASIC and why I still work on old computers to this day! Hold the Ctrl and Alt keys down when turning it on and find out why Tandy was furious with the programmers tasked with writing the extended basic Rom on these machine.

Learned to program on a TRS-80 clone called CP-500. The teacher one day asked us to draw a swastika on the screen using the BASIC drawing functions. It was 1988 and people were less sensitive but I still remember that weird programming assignment.