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Hello all I am a long time retro gamer who grew up with a Spectrum and then Atari machines and have a massive collection. I have been really intrigued with the Dragon for a while now and have nearly bought one several times, after a recent discussion with some people in America who own a CoCo it made me really want to finally take the plunge. But I want to ask a few questions about it.

1. The CoCo has a device called the Drive Wire - http://www.cloud9tech.com/ that lets you use your PC as a file server for the machine. Does this device work on the Dragon or is there something like it for the machine?

2. I would like to do some programming on the machine and know Spectrum basic extremely well and have also used BBC and HiSoft basic in the past. How does the Basic on the Dragon compare?

3. I am going to give it a try via emulation at some point can somebody point me in the right direction for one with roms and tell me what are the best games to try?

Thanks in advance!

(1) It won't work on the Dragon. You should buy a CoCo if you wan't to use this.

(2) I haven't tried BBC or Spectrum BASIC, so can't answer this one.

(3) If you are using MS Windows, try XROAR with my Starter Kit from the 'Uploads' section. Look here for a list of games to try.



Regards,
Steve

The_Laird wrote:I would like to do some programming on the machine and know Spectrum basic extremely well and have also used BBC and HiSoft basic in the past. How does the Basic on the Dragon compare?

Spectrum Basic is from the same era and is quite similar (in spirit) to the Dragon's Basic. There are differences, especially when it comes to graphics and sound programming, but most of the concepts are the same. BBC Basic is more modern (almost like Pascal) and a very different beast.

-- Rolf

rolfmichelsen wrote:

The_Laird wrote:I would like to do some programming on the machine and know Spectrum basic extremely well and have also used BBC and HiSoft basic in the past. How does the Basic on the Dragon compare?

Spectrum Basic is from the same era and is quite similar (in spirit) to the Dragon's Basic. There are differences, especially when it comes to graphics and sound programming, but most of the concepts are the same. BBC Basic is more modern (almost like Pascal) and a very different beast.

Actually I find both Sinclair ZX80/81/Spectrum basic and Acorn / BBC basic a little quirky, and whilst BBC basic does have some structured concepts (procedures local variables etc), I would still contest that QL SuperBasic is more powerfull than any of the others (including Dragon/CoCo/Microsoft basic).

But that's just my opinion........

Phill.

Thanks for the help. I will have a think about it. I just don't want to use tapes at all and havn't seen any disk drives being sold at all.

A PC based solution would have been ideal.

Hi Laird I have some questions too.

4. What controller plug Dragon use?

5. Is there a Floopy Disk Drive?

6. Can you gimme photos of controller?