The TRS-80 Color Computer, universally nicknamed the CoCo, is the home computer launched by Tandy in September 1980 and sold in Radio Shack stores. Despite its name it has nothing in common with the TRS-80 Model I: that machine was built on a Z80, whereas the CoCo is built around a Motorola 6809, the most sophisticated 8-bit processor of its time. The machine descends directly from an agricultural videotex terminal designed by Motorola and Tandy.
Three generations followed one another: the 1980 CoCo 1 with its square-key keyboard, the CoCo 2 of 1983, smaller and cheaper, then the CoCo 3 of 1986, which added a 64-color palette, more memory and 80-column modes. The multitasking operating system OS-9, a rarity on a home machine, earned it a serious reputation and a loyal community that is still active today.
The 6809 family spread beyond Tandy: the Welsh Dragon 32/64 uses the same architecture, and the small MC-10 and Matra Alice are simplified cousins. That is why the emulator used by Recalbox can also load their ROMs. On the games side, the CoCo received arcade conversions published by Tandy and a prolific independent output, often distributed on cassette.
It is the only emulator offered for this system, and it is available on every board, from the Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi Zero 2 up to the PC. As it is not a libretro core, netplay and softpatching are not available, and RetroAchievements are not supported. CRT output is handled, as is picture smoothing.
The emulated model — CoCo 1, 2 or 3, PAL or NTSC — is picked by putting the games in a dedicated subfolder. The TRS-80 Color Computer guide gives the full list of recognised subfolders, along with the details of XRoar configuration overrides and how to retrieve printer output.
A keyboard is mandatory on this system. A pad-to-keyboard file ships out of the box and maps the D-pad and buttons to the most common keys, which is enough to start most games. Both machine joysticks are supported.
XRoar also emulates the Dragon 32/64, which is a separate system in Recalbox with its own roms folder: see the Dragon 32/64 guide.
The machine's BASIC ROMs are expected in /recalbox/share/bios/trs80coco/. Four of them are mandatory and cover the CoCo 1 and 2; the others unlock extra models or peripherals.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
trs80coco/bas11.rom |
CoCo 1 Color BASIC (mandatory) | c73fb4bff9621c5ab17f6220b20db82f | XRoar |
trs80coco/extbas10.rom |
CoCo 1 Extended Color BASIC (mandatory) | fda72f415afe99b36f953bb9bc1253da | XRoar |
trs80coco/bas13.rom |
CoCo 2 Color BASIC (mandatory) | c2fc43556eb6b7b25bdf5955bd9df825 | XRoar |
trs80coco/extbas11.rom |
CoCo 2 Extended Color BASIC (mandatory) | 21070aa0496142b886c562bf76d7c113 | XRoar |
trs80coco/bas10.rom |
CoCo 1 Color BASIC, first revision (optional) | a74f3d95b395dad7cdca19d560eeea74 | XRoar |
trs80coco/bas12.rom |
CoCo 2 Color BASIC, intermediate revision (optional) | c933316c7d939532a13648850c1c2aa6 | XRoar |
trs80coco/coco3.rom |
NTSC CoCo 3 BASIC (optional) | 7233c6c429f3ce1c7392f28a933e0b6f | XRoar |
trs80coco/coco3p.rom |
PAL CoCo 3 BASIC (optional) | 4ae57e5a8e7494e5485446fefedb580b | XRoar |
trs80coco/mx1600bas.rom |
BASIC of the Dynacom MX-1600 clone (optional) | 88d1504e93366f498105a846cdbf7fb7 | XRoar |
trs80coco/disk10.rom |
RS-DOS 1.0, floppy disk controller (optional) | a64b3ef9efcc066b18d35b134068d1cc | XRoar |
trs80coco/disk11.rom |
RS-DOS 1.1, floppy disk controller (optional) | 8cab28f4b7311b8df63c07bb3b59bfd5 | XRoar |
trs80coco/hdbdw3bck.rom |
RS-DOS for the Becker port, remote disk access (optional) | ef750d93d24d7bc87a8ecd6e5a15a845 | XRoar |
trs80coco/mc10.rom |
Tandy MC-10 ROM (optional) | f29e94ff36577ffb6a787959e45bfe85 | XRoar |
trs80coco/alice32.rom |
Matra Alice 32 ROM (optional) | 79ea46603d716578d5f2b52eb4c33ca2 | XRoar |
trs80coco/alice4k.rom |
Matra Alice 4K ROM (optional) | 78af465c2f31cf4e05dec1efda77da01 | XRoar |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/trs80coco/
├── bas11.rom
├── extbas10.rom
├── bas13.rom
├── extbas11.rom
└── … (optional files)
To play on a CoCo 3, add
coco3.romorcoco3p.rom: without them the CoCo 3 subfolders will not work. The BIOS checker sums up what is missing.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/trs80coco/
Accepted extensions:
| Type | Extensions |
|---|---|
| Cassette tape | .cas .c10 .wav |
| Floppy disk | .dsk .dmk .jvc .vdk .os9 |
| Cartridge | .rom .ccc |
| BASIC program | .bas .asc |
This system does not read archives:
.zipand.7zfiles are not recognised, so extract your games before copying them.