VCC attempts to be an easy to use and accurate emulation Tandy Color Computer 3 as purchased from a Radio Shack store or Tandy Computer Center in 1986-1992. For VCC usage see the User Guide at https://github.com/VCCE/VCC/wiki. Also in the wiki are release notes and additional documents. Online documentation may reflect some features not available on earlier versions or that are pre-release.
The Color Computer 3 or the "Coco 3" was the final iteration of a series of computers starting with the "TRS-80 Color Computer" in 1980 with 4k of RAM, Color BASIC, and expansion slot for Game & Software Cartridges. Programs could be run from cassette tape. Eventually the memory was expanded from 4k to 16k which allowed the use of Extended Color BASIC. Also released by Tandy was the Disk Drive unit for 5.25' Floppy disks, which allowed the use of Disk Exteneded Color Basic. This, along with 64k of memory, allowed it to run Microware's "OS-9 Level 1." Several motherboard revisions were released before Tandy upgraded to a new design with a smaller footprint and more modern circuitry. This machine was the "Tandy Color Computer 2" or "Coco 2". This went through several revisions and came in 16k Color BASIC and 64k Extended Color BASIC models. Finally in 1986 Tandy released the final model, the "Tandy Color Computer 3" or "Coco 3" with 128k of memory, expandable to 512k, and "Super Extended Color BASIC" with expanded high resolution graphics with up to 16 colors from a palette of 64 colors.
In addition to emulating a stock 128k Coco 3 VCC is expandable to emulate additional products that were available from Tandy and 3rd party vendors. Some of these are:
- "Tandy MultiPak Interface" or "MPI" with 4 expansion slots.
- "Tandy FD-502 Disk Drive Controller" with "Disk Extended BASIC" and 4 configurable virtual disk drives
- A "Generic" Hard Drive Interface which allow VCC to use "Virtual Hard Disks" or "VHDs"
- "SuperIDE Hard Drive Controller" - emulates dual IDE hard drives, the same model produced by Cloud 9 and will also use Compact Flash memory card images much like the real SuperIDE.
- "Orchestra90cc" - a 5 voice music sequencer emulating the original prgram pack of the same name in cluding the stereo 8 bit DACs whitch play in stereo through your PC speakers.
- "Becker Port" interface that permits connection to a DriveWire server.
- Memory expansions up to 8192k.
- Replacement of the stock Motorolla 6809 cpu with an Hitachi 6309 with it's extended instruction set and additional cpu registers.
We welcome bug reports and suggestions. Please post these on the github "Issues" tab. We check the issues every-so-often to see if there are fixes we can do while we are working on VCC. The VCC Developement Team is a small one and we work on this when we can as we all have lives and families, so VCC is NOT a priority but a hobby. It is a work of love as we also use this software ourselves, so we try to make it as usable as possible. Sometimes progress is slow and it looks like nothing is going on (and it may not be), but usually, there's plenty going on behind the scenes and we have not committed our current work.
VCC version numbering has recently changed. The version number consists of "Vcc-" followed by 4 numbers seperated by dots, for example: "Vcc-2.1.8.2". The first number represents the "fork." Fork one is considered to be the original code from Joseph Forgeone. The current fork is "2". The second number represents a major version. It will be used if very significant changes are made in the way Vcc functions (not likely happen anytime soon). The third number represents normal releases, typically done one or two times per year. The fourth number represents bug fixes to the release. These are changes to VCC that correct errors and bugs in the intended functionality of the release.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 is used to build VCC. Optionally Visual Studio 2015 can be used to build a "legacy" VCC version that will run on Windows XP. VCC is written in C++ and C.
To build VCC from the command line launch the VS 2020 Developer Command Prompt. From there cd to the directory containing the VCC sources and type "Build" or "BuildClean".
Within Visual Studio the "Release" and "Debug" configurations build VCC binaries that will run on current Windows versions. The "Legacy" configuration builds binaries that will run on Windows XP. "Release" and "Debug" use build tools from VS2022 and "Legacy" uses build tools from VS2015.
Note that Windows versions before Windows 10 are considered out of service by Microsoft and Visual Studio 2015 is no longer supplied using a web based installer. To install VS2015 you must find and download an ISO install image for VS2015.
We welcome patches or code that contribute to the VCC project that are consistant with our goals. Comment your code well and add your name if you want credit for your work. Also if you feel you would like to join the VCC project please contact us. The code repository is on github and all changes to the code base are made by github "Pull Requests"
The default git branch is "main." To submit changes fork VCC to your own github account and download it to your development system. Create a new branch with a name that suggests the purpose of the change. After your changes are tested push the new branch to your fork on github. Then use github to create a "Pull Request" for the branch. We will review your changes and merge them if satisfactory. Do not include changes to .sln or .vcxproj files in your pull request; any changes to these will result in your request being rejected. If you feel these project files need to be changed contact us with your thoughts and we will adjust the .vcxproj files as is appropriate.
Thank You for using VCC
We will continue to try to make VCC the best Color Computer 3 Emulator available.
The VCC Developement Team.
