*********************************************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************************************

Coco / DriveWire4 / HdbDos

Starter Kits

!!Are Now Available!!

(05/09/2014)

NOTE: The downloads for the Coco/DriveWire4/HDBDOS Starter Kits are a little old now. There are newer versions of VCC, XRoar, HDBDOS, MESS, & NitrOS9 aviailable anf the Starter Kits need updating badly. I hope to be updating the packages soon as well as adding some new packages for the "real" Coco as well as for MESS.

After a long wait for the NitrOS9 repository to become stable again, I have been able to resume work on the "Color Computer HDBDOS/NitrOS9/DW4 Starter Kits" that I promised to work on last year. The state of the NOS9 repo was so bad, I didn't want to produce a kit with bad boot disks so I opted to wait.

These kits include everything needed to get your Coco running with DW4, HDBDOS and NitrOS9. Include are fully configured HDBDOS roms, the DriveWire4 server, bootable NitrOS9 VHDs and the emulators (not included on kist for real Cocos).

So far, I have completed the kits for:

XRoar Coco 2 64k HDBDOS/DW4/NitrOS9

XRoar Coco 2B 64k HDBDOS/DW4/NitrOS9

Vcc 1.4.3b Coco 3 6809 2-meg HDBDOS/DW4/NitrOS9

Vcc 1.4.3b Coco 3 6309 2-meg HDBDOS/DW4/NitrOS9

I hope to follow up soon with the Mess versions as well as versions for the "real" Coco 1, 2, & 3.

These kits are still in Beta testing, so let me know if something isn't right or if something doesn't work

B.P.

Link:

Color Computer DW4/HDBDOS/NitrOS9 Starter Kits

*********************************************************************************************************

An Addendum to the DW4Man Warning below:

I have been informed by Joel Ewy that DW4Man will run "as is" on his CocoFPGA with a RassberryPi DW4 server. With his CocoFPGA running at 25mhz, the DW4 parser problem disappears just as it does on an Overclocked VCC emulation. With this revelation, I may just redo the DW4Man dw parser to my newer parser I've been working with in MShell. This would make DW4Man run on the real Coco 3 once again as well as on "normal" clocked VCC. DW4Man is allowing Joel to run his DW4 server "headless" as the disk images can be selected from the DW4Man GUI. This all makes me feel a little better about the last release of DW4Man and makes me want to improve it.

Though the functionality of DW4Man will be replaced in the near future with may latest project "MShell".

After 3 years of disecting the Ultimuse III source code, I finally feel confident enough to add to and modify the software suite. This is something I have wanted to do ever since Mike Knudsen handed the sources over to me. It has taken me the past 3 years and a lot of experimentation and research to learn Mike's unique style of "C" programming and to disect his "fragged" sub-modules and "virtual memory" features.

I decided that for my first venture into bringing UltiMusE III into the new millenium would be to add DriveWire4 functionality to the MIDI setup module. I have also eliminated the need for UltiMusE to fork the external OS-9 commands "tmode" and "pwd". They are now handled internally by UltiMusE. I've also added a "nicer" bell sound than the standard OS-9 "bell" that sounds nothing like a bell :-)

This will be the first "Official" new UltiMusE 3 release in over 15 years!!

The DriveWire4 features are:

DW4 MIDI Device manager - Um3W module

DW4 MIDI Profile manager - Um3W module

Internet Updating of the UltiMusE III software suite via DriveWire4, direct to the Coco! - Um3U module

These new features will work on any NitrOS-9 Level II system with DriveWire4 support and a Coco 3 with 512k of memory or better.

They will also work on VCC v1.4.3b with Becker Port support and DriveWire4

The Updater function requires DW4 to have an open internet connection.

I hope to soon add more features to UltiMusE III. I have many "mods" in planning and will try to work on them as I find time from the other Color Computer projects I have going. Having used UltiMusE III for many years in song writing and performance, I built up quite a long "wish list". I hope to now bring those ideas into being with new releases of UltiMusE III.

Eventually, I hope to evolve the complete software suite into "UltiMusE Pro" geared for recording studio and live performance usage.

Some of the planned features are:

32 MIDI Parts per Score

New "Pause" and "Continue" functions

More Parts per Staff (to help faciliate the new parts)

New Clef types including an expanded percussion Clef

Full 128 note General MIDI percussion support

"Named" MIDI Events with "Load" and "Save" functions

New "+8va" and "-8va" Score items for setting the part octaves

Ability to load and play Lyra files

Conversion from other non-MIDI formats such as Musica, Bells & Whistles II and Orchestra 90cc

and much more...

So keep an eye out (and an ear) for new releases right here and on the UltiMusE III page

(linked in the left sidebar)

B.P

(link)

UltiMusE3