Basic CoCo Four Requirements
The following are the minimum CoCo 4 requirements.
- Excellent Backwards compatibility with Color Computer 2 & 3
software.
- Selectable Clock speed multiples of the CoCo 2 894 KHz clock
from 1x to 8x for a maximum speed of 7.152 MHz.
- Advanced Graphics Chip backwards compatible with classic Color
Computer and GIMEX graphics.
- VGA and Composite Outputs ideally allowing for dual monitor support.
- A standard Coco Cartridge port with I high level of electrical
protection and compatibility and the ability to mimic a Multipak slot.
- Bluetooth Support
- High Speed Serial Port capable of at least 460 Kb/s.
- All standard CoCo slots except for RF Out ( replaced by the High Speed
Serial Port ) and Audio ( replaced by stereo audio ).
- The remaining superficially unchanged ports have enhancements under
the hood.
- Joysticks enhanced to 8 bit resolution.
- Bit Banger has a couple of extra control lines that with a special
cable allow for 230 Kb/s
- Cassette port improved and has 1500 and 6000 bps modes and can be
used as a stereo audio digitizer.
- Composite out has improved quality.
- Audio out is a 3.5mm stereo jack.
- Software to support
The following are the extra CoCo 4 features that would be desirable.
The best version of a CoCo 4 would be a system that implements many of the
requirements for a CoCo 5. I call this version the CoCo Four Plus and is
described here..