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How to play Dragon 32/64 and TRS-80 CoCo games

/ How to play / Dragon 32/64 and CoCo games

The Dragon 32 and the Dragon 64 were home computers produced in Wales between 1982 and 1984. They were very close to the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer, the "CoCo", sold in the United States, and many games came out for both.

We have about 350 Dragon 32/64 games and about 160 TRS-80 CoCo games on My Abandonware. The same emulator runs both machines.

Dragon and CoCo emulators

XRoar is the only emulator you'll need: free, on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it also runs in your browser. It emulates the Dragon 32 and 64 and all the CoCo models.

  • XRoar: an open source emulator for the Dragon 32/64, the Tandy CoCo 1, 2 and 3, and the Tandy MC-10. Still updated. Recommended.
  • XRoar Online: the same emulator in your browser. You can load your own tape and disk files in it.
  • VCC (Windows): an emulator made for the CoCo 3, the last and most powerful CoCo. Windows may warn you about it the first time, as its installer is not signed.

The ROM files

XRoar needs the ROM files of the machine you emulate: the built-in BASIC of the real computer. Name them as XRoar expects, and put them in its ROM folder.

You can find the ROM files on the TRS-80 Color Computer Archive. Be careful to name them properly, as stated in the manual:

  • Dragon 32: d32.rom
  • Dragon 64: d64_1.rom and d64_2.rom
  • CoCo 1 and 2: bas13.rom (Color BASIC) and extbas11.rom (Extended Color BASIC)
  • CoCo 3: coco3.rom
  • Disk games also need the disk ROM: ddos10.rom for the Dragon, disk11.rom for the CoCo.

Put them in the XRoar folder, or in the ROM folder of your system: %LOCALAPPDATA%\XRoar\roms\ on Windows, ~/Library/XRoar/roms/ on a Mac, ~/.xroar/roms/ on Linux. Once you have the ROM running, you see a green screen with a BASIC prompt.

Running games with XRoar

Choose the machine in the Hardware menu, then click File > Run... and select the game file. XRoar loads it and starts it by itself.

  • Pick the machine the game was made for in Hardware > Machine: XRoar restarts as that machine.
  • Click on File > Run..., then choose the game file you have previously unzipped: a tape (.cas, .wav), a disk (.vdk, .dsk) or a cartridge (.rom, .ccc).
  • Play!

Running Airball in XRoar.

Loading a tape by hand

If a tape game does not start by itself, insert the tape and type the BASIC command to load it. Most games use CLOADM then EXEC, BASIC games CLOAD then RUN.

In XRoar, insert the tape from the File menu, then type at the prompt:

  • for a machine code game (most of them): CLOADM, press Enter, wait for the prompt to come back, then type EXEC and press Enter;
  • for a BASIC game: CLOAD, press Enter, then RUN.

I need help!

We do not provide support for running abandonware games. The Dragon and CoCo communities are small, but friendly.

Dragon owners meet on The Dragon Archive, which also holds many games and guides. For the CoCo, the TRS-80 Color Computer Archive has software and documentation for every model.

First written by hand, and brought up to date in October 2026 against each program's own documentation and, where it exists, its source code. Game counts and file sizes come from our own catalogue. The update was drafted with the help of an AI assistant and checked by hand before publishing. If something here is out of date, tell us.