Like the PC9801 games earlier, I can't get any format Tandy CoCo 3 games running, not even cartridges. Most files I found are in ".bin" format, some in ".dsk". The introduction screen just shows copyright and "OK", not a drive prompt. I don't know what to type again.

Which software (title) exactly you tried to run?

Example for a disk image (Donkey Kong/Basic mode) and the coco3 driver:

Mount the disk image
Type "DIR" to see the available files e.g. "DONKEY.BAS"
Load "DONKEY" and ENTER
RUN

Example for a disk image (Pegasus/DOS mode) and the coco3 driver:

Mount the disk image
Type "DOS" and ENTER to switch into DOS mode
The game start automatically



The mounted coco3 cartridges e.g. Shanghai.rom should run automatically.

Example for a cassette image (Crazy Mazes/Basic mode) and the coco3 driver:

Mount the cassette image e.g. crazmaze.cas
CLOAD
RUN



To create and run virtual hard disk images is a bit more difficult. If you need more help, contact me.
But Robert Gault is more the expert for the CoCo and OS9 system (NitrOS-9/6809)

Anna posted some good information and to continue on that ....

Coco emulation with MESS has no provision for running .bin files directly. They must be mounted on a disk image, the most common type being .dsk. There is one other type of file used with Basic on a Coco, .bas.
Basic files can be started from a .dsk image with
RUN"FILENAME"
Machine language files on .dsk require one of two methods depending on whether they are self-starting.
LOADM"FILENAME":EXEC
or just
LOADM"FILENAME"

There are also OS-9 programs that run under Coco emulation. These may or may not require first starting OS-9. Some will start merely after mounting the disk with an .os9 extension and entering
DOS

While this forum is the best place for learning about MESS, there are specific Coco related forums and a mail server.
Send me a message and I will supply urls.

As I said, Robert Gault is the expert.

My first problem was, I was using a bad dumped bios that wouldn't run any game. After getting a new bios dump, I can run "Tetris" and "Shanghai". I now can also DIR files and start to run .dsk images, but shortly after the title screen the games freeze with scrambled graphics onscreen. ROM images "Arkanoid" and "Malcolm Mortar" and probably many more, freeze at a black screen. I am using Windows 32 MESS UI 153.

I have discovered a really strange problem I have with CoCo emulation. Every time I insert a ROM image, the floppy drives in the media list disappear, so I can't insert .dsk files. The opposite is sort of also true, When I load a .dsk file, the cartridge slot in the list will not disappear, and the emulator will say ROMs are loaded, but it won't act like any ROMs are loaded. This happens no matter how many times I soft or hard reset, and if I remove media or not. I can only get it working again by deleting the ini and configuration files.

IIRC, the disk drive plugs into the cartridge slot on the CoCo.

IIRC, the floppy drive require a disk expansion inserted in the cart slot: such expansion might be inserted by default in MESS, so to have disks available when you launch the system with nothing mounted, but it clearly is replaced by any cart you mount manually

I don't have here the exe to check, however, so I might be wrong

-listdevices clearly shows the FDC hanging off the -ext port.

If you're getting scrambled graphics when loading a game, increase the amount of RAM the emulated system has to either 2M or 8M. Had this problem in the past but I can't remember what games though...

There have been bugs in recent releases of MESS regards Coco emulation. One such is that if you mount any ROM even a disk ROM, you will lose all floppy disk drives as Diet Go Go Fan indicates.

The only way around this seems to be a custom compile where the default -ext is changed to fdcv11.

How do you increase the RAM? I can't find a menu that changes it.

mess --listxml >listxml.txt
to get and save the complete list
Check the coco3 machine and the ram option

Example for 8MB
mess coco3 -ramsize 8388608

Take a look for ramsize inside of coco3.ini

-ramsize 8M is friendlier

Yes
128K, 512K, 2M and 8M is easier

But maybe not everyone knows it. So he can use what he see (listxml)

Since you are using MESSUI .153b, you can set the RAM size in the gui.
Right click on the Coco emulation to be used and select Properties. Then click on Configuration. You will get a list (after clicking on the arrow) of possible RAM sizes.

Changing the RAM size has no effect. I just found out that the "CoCo 1" driver will not load tapes.

Thank you all, for trying to help me.

You must be doing something wrong. I just tested messui .135b and Color Computer(Extended BASIC 1.0) will indeed load tapes. Are you trying Color Computer or the Extended Basic when you say CoCo1?

The correct syntax, once the .cas is mounted is either
CLOAD
or
CLOADM
You don't need a name unless there are several files on the tape but you do need to know whether the game is in Basic or machine language.

Also RAM size is not an issue with a Coco1 but it should be 64K. You can use tapes with a Coco3 but you might need to "remove" the disk controller.

Has no effect for what?
The RAM size between the coco and coco3 machine is different.
It is easier to give us more informations.

coco driver/tape

1. Which coco driver tried you now exactly?
2. Which tape (program/game title) have you tried?
3. Which tape format (.cas or .wav)?

I tried CoCo parent set; with "Crazy Painter.CAS". Typing "cload" or "cloadm", a black rectangle with seemingly random letters and numbers appears, then disappears and a message "IO error" appears.

What I meant by the RAM having no effect was that changing it did not effect loading ROMs "Arkanoid" and "Malcolm Mortar" freeze at a black screen, and loading discs "pacdude2.dsk" and "Zenix.dsk" start to load, then freeze at a screen with scrambled graphics.

Crazy Painter.CAS seems to work for me with the cocoe (Extended BASIC 1.0) driver
But I am not a expert and Robert can give you more details, I think.

About the cartridges, did you read the softwarelist (coco_cart.xml)?
http://git.redump.net/mame/tree/hash

As Anna stated, Crazy Painter runs with cocoe emulation. It does not with coco emulation messui .135b.
I don't have an owner's manual for this game but expect that it makes use of the Extended Basic ROM for some video routines.

In any case, you should not be getting I/O errors unless you have a bad tape copy. Indicate where you obtained your copy of Crazy Painter.

==========
There are several versions of this game available. One is for the Model I or III and one or two for the Coco.
Apparently one Coco version is auto starting (with a CLOADM) while the one I have is not and requires a CLOADM:EXEC. I have been able to get a good initial screen with coco emulation by reducing memory to 16k, however the game will not play.

Yeah, actually, don't tell us where you got it or I'll be forced to ban you (and Robert for inviting it). But the size and checksum would be useful.

When you say MESSUI .135b, do you mean 0.135? or do you mean 0.153? I'm confused (as usual).

My tested "Crazy Painter.CAS" version.

SHA1: 32c0986f552879bf915e41d5013fd0d73ae3a572
CRC: 38d7c2b8

It seems to work on the dragon32/64 driver too with different mapped buttons to control the game play.

Robbert, my mistake. I should have typed 0.153 .

I have the same SHA1 and CRC(32) as Anna.

OK, I now know I have been trying to run a bunch of bad-dumps, which don't work.