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Full text of "Commander - Volume 2 Issue 06 (1984-06)(Microsystems Specialties)(US)"

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For ALL COMMODORE Computer Users 

g 02356 Beginner, Advanced, and Professional 






C-64 VIC-20 



$3.50 CAN. 



THE NEWSLETTER 
EDITOR 



THE MUSIC 
INSTRUCTOR 

BASIC + ML = ? 

EXPLORATIONS 
WITH ASSEMBLY 
LANGUAGE 



"71486"02356' 



Introducing the Most Powerful 
Business Software Ever! 

TRS-80'* (Model I, H, III, or 16) • APPLE"* IBM" • OSBORNE" • CP/NT"« COMMODORE 64 





"he versaBusiness" Series 



Each VERSABUSINESS module can be purchased and used independently, 
or can be linked in any combination to form a complete, coordinated business system. 



VeRSaRECEIVABLES™ $99.95 

VeksaReckivables™ is a complete menu-driven accounts receivable, invoicing, and 
monthly statement generating system. It keeps track of all information related to who 
owes you or your company money, and can provide automatic billing for past due ac- 
counts. VF-RSARECBVABLE5™ prints all necessary statements, invokes, and summary 
reports and can be linked with VersaLedger Il~ and V£HS/\lNVENTORY , \ 

VERSAPAYABLES™ $99.95 

Versa Pa yabi.es™ is designed to keep track of current and aged payables, keeping you 
in touch with all information regarding how much money your company owes, and to 
whom. VERSA Payables™ maintains a complete record on each vendor, prints checks, 
check registers, vouchers, transaction reports, aged payables reports, vendor reports, 
and more. With VersaPaYabLES™. you can even let your computer automatically select 
which vouchers are to be paid. 

VERSAPAYROLL™ $99.95 

VEH-SA i'AVHt >L I '■ is a powerful and sophisticated, but easy to use payroll system that 
keeps track or all government required payroll information. Complete employee records 
are maintained, and all necessary payroll calculations are performed automatically, with 
totals displayed on screen for operator approval. A payroll can be run totally, automati- 
cally, or the operator can intervene to prevent a check from being printed, or to alter 
information on it. If desired, totals may be posted to the VERSALEDGER U™ system. 



VERSALEDGER W $149.95 

VERSA LEDGER IP" is a complete accounting system that grows as your business 
grows. VersaLedger IF" can be used as asimple personal checkbook register, 
expanded to a small business bookkeeping system or developed into a large 
corporate general ledger system without any additional software. 

• VERSALEDGER IP" gives you almost unlimited storage capacity 

(300 to 10,000 entries per month, depending on the system), 

• stores all check and general ledger information forever, 

• prints tractor-feed checks, 

• handles multiple checkbooks and general ledgers, 

" prints 17 customized accounting reports including check registers, 
balance sheets, income statements, transaction reports, account 
listings, etc, 

VersaLedger If comes with a professionally-written 160 page manual de- 
signed for first-time users. The VersaLedger ir" manual will help you become 
quickly familiar with VersaLedger IT™, using complete sample data files 
supplied on diskette and more than 50 pages of sample printouts. 



VersaInventory 1 " 



$99.95 



VERSA Hvenuirv is a complete inventory control system that gives you instant access 
to data on any item. VERSAlNVENTORy keeps track of all information related to what 
items are in stock, out of stock, on backorder, etc., stores sales and pricing data, alerts 
you when an item falls below a preset reorder point, and allows you to enter and print 
invoices directly or to link with the VERSA RECEIVABLES" system. VersaINVENTORY" prints 
all needed inventory listings, reports of items below reorder point, inventory value re- 
ports, period and year-to-date sales reports, price lists, inventory checklists, etc. 

.CQinPLHRQNICSc 

50 N. PASCACK ROAD, SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. 10977 



SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! 



Every VERSA BUSINESS" 1 module is guar an! red to oulperiormall other cornpehtiw systems, 
and at a fraction ol their cost. If you are not satisfied with any VEFSABUSINESS" module, you 
may return rt within 30 daysTorr a refund Manuals lor any VtHSABUSINESS™moduU?maybe 
purchased for $25 each, credited toward a later purchase of thai module 
All CP/M based Computers must he equipped wilh Microsoft BASIC 
(MBASIC ot BASICS) 



To Order: 

Write or call Toll-free (800) 431-2818 
(N.Y.S. residents call 914-425-1535) 



• add J5 to CANADA or MEXICO 
' add proper postage elsewhere 



' add $3 lot shipping in UPS areas 
' add W lor C O.D. or non UPS areas 



DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME 

All prices and specificatxms subject to change / DeWry subject to availability 



THS 80 trademark Tandy Corp. ■ APPLE Irademark Apple Corp. ■ IBM PC trademark IBM Corp. OSBORNE trademark Osborne Corp. ■ XEROX trademark Xerox Corp KAYPRO trademark Non Linear 

Systems. Inc TELEVIDEO trademark Telewdeo Systems, Inc. SANYO trademark Sanyo Corp. NEC trademark NEC Corp. DEC Irademark Digital Equipment Corp ZENITH irademark Zenilh Corp, 

Tl PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER trademark Texas Instruments, Inc. SUPERBHAIN trademark Intertec Corp. CP/M trademark Digital Research EPSTON i-ademark Epson Corp 



"Now Your Commodore 64 
Can Print Like a Pro!" 




Grapple? CS 



Printer Interface 
The Revolutionary Printer Interface for the Commodore 64™ 



A New Era in 

Commodore Printing Power. 

Grappler CD offers the first complete answer to 
your printer interfacing requirements, with many 
powerful capabilities unique in the Commodore 
marketplace. Complete signal translation allows 
many popular name brand printers to operate 
perfectly with the Commodore 64, or to imitate 
Commodore's own printer. Even Commodore's 
graphic character set can be reproduced on 
Epson, Okidata, Star, ProWriter and other popular 
printers. 

Exclusive Grappler CD features provide a variety 
of graphic screen dumps, text screen dumps and 
formatting. No other Commodore interface can 
offer this. 

If you own a Commodore 64... 

If you're serious about quality trouble free 
printing. . . You need the Grappler CD. 

Contact your nearest Commodore dealer or call 
Orange Micro for a dealer near you. 

Commodo'e 54 ana Commodate t52b a-e ;'ademsr*s c' Commoaore Electronics L i-m. ilea 
Epson s a registered traflematk o' Eoson America inc 



A Uniquely Intelligent Interface: 

• Prints Screen Graphics Without Software 

• Graphics Screen Dump Routines Include 
Rotated, Inversed, Enhanced and Double Sized 
Graphics. 

• Full Code Translation From Commodore's PET 
ASCII to Standard ASCII, the Language of Most 
Printers. 

• Complete Emulation of the Commodore 1525 
Printer for printing of Commodore's Special 
Characters. 

• Dip Switch Printer Selection for Epson, Star, 
Okidata, ProWriter and other popular printers. 

• Conversion Mode for Easy Reading of Special 
Commodore Codes. 

• Text Screen Dump and Formatting Commands 

• 22 Unique Text and Graphics Commands 

iljOrange micro 

1400 N. LAKEVIEW AVE., ANAHEIM. CA 92807 U.S.A. 
(714) 779-2772 TELEX: 183511CSMA 

£ Orange Micro, Inc.. 19B3 



Circle No. 238 




Master 




EDUCATION S6CTOR 

I Electronic Blackboard / GENERAL 

MARYANNE DODD 
Children can learn more than just the 3 'R's 
with Matchboxes, Brain Strainers, Telly Turtle, 
and Samson & Delilah. 

The Music Instructor / C-64 

ROBERT PARR 

A unique approach to learning pitch recognition. 
Intonation and interval identification are included 
in the program. 

57 Explorations with Assembly VIC 20 & C-64 

Language / ERIC GIGUERE 

Assembly language is put to use in this month's 
column; A screen dump program is dissected to 
show you how it works. 

67 B*A*S # rC Training: Beginner's In- GENERAL 
traduction to Commodore BASIC 
Programming / JONATHAN SECAUR 

Lesson 4. 



COMMANDER Magazine, USPS 703-690, ISSN 
0746-3197, is published monthly by Micro 
Systems Specialties, 3418 S, 90th St., Tacoma, WA 
98409. Domestic subscriptions: 12 issues, $22.00. 
Second class postage paid at Tacoma, WA 98413 
and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: 
Send address changes to COMMANDER 
Magazine, P.O. Box 98827, Tacoma, WA 98498. 
Entire contents copyright ©1984 by Micro 
Systems Specialties. All rights reserved. Commo- 
dore 64, VIC-20, B-128. and PET are trademarks of 
Commodore Business Machines, Inc. Issue No. 18 



SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 

Your subscription to COMMANDER is 
shipped second class mail each month, 
on or before the fifteenth. If you do not 
receive your copy of COMMANDER by 
the last clay of the month, please send us 
a card and we will remedy the problem. 

Should you change your address, we 
ask that you notify us immediately. To 
assure delivery, your change of address 
must reach us no later than the first of 
the month prior to month of shipment. 
Please include your old address, new ad- 
dress, and date of effect. Sorry, without 
proper notification, we cannot be 
responsible for replacing any issues. 

if you have any questions, please con- 
tact our subscription department at 
(206) 584-6757. All correspondence 
should be addressed to COMMANDER 
Subscription Department, P.O. Box 
98827, Tacoma, Washington 98498. 

II COMMANDER • June 1984 



R€VI€WS AND 
R€Cft€RTION S€CTOft 

12 News, Views, Previews & Reviews / 

COLIN THOMPSON 

Disk drives! Colin reviews the new MSD dual 
disk drive. 

20 Apple Pick'n / 

ROBERT L. BLOOMER 

Racing against the clock, you must find the way 
through the labyrinth to your food supply. 



GENERAL 



GENERAL 



Menu 



f €flTUB€S S6CTOR 



VIC-20 & C-64 Command Post / JIM GRUBBS 

Exchanging programs with friends around the 
world? Yes! Your computer and ham radio 
equipment can do just that. 

C-64 The Newsletter Editor / 

COLIN THOMPSON 

This program takes some of the work out of 
publishing a newsletter. NED reads disk text files 
written on any word processor, without the pro- 
gram that generated the text. 



VIC-20 



Modify Your 8k Cartridge to Include 48 
ROM's / THOMAS HENRY 
Step by step instructions for upgrading a VIC-20 
expansion cartridge. 



VIC-20 & C-64 Screen Dump 64 / ERIC GIGUERE f 
After you create a picture with your computer 
graphics, how do you show it off? You give your 
friends a printed copy of your creation, of 

course. 

■ 

VIC-20 & C-64 Functionally Yours / IAN ADAM 

The mysterious four keys on the right side of 
the keyboard are explained. 

VIC-20 & C-64 Func'Keys / J.L. CALVIN 

A utility to bring those function keys to life. 

VIC-20 & C-64 BASIC + ML = ? / GLEN COLBERT 80 

Examples showing how BASIC and Machine 
Language can live and work together. 





COMMANDER Magazine is an independent 
publication, and has no formal relationship with 
Commodore Business Machines, Inc. otherthan as 
a paid advertiser. Submission of a manuscript by an 
author is considered an offer of exclusive publica- 
tion rights. Opinions expressed by writers in ar- 
ticles and reviews are not necessarily those of 
COMMANDER Magazine. 



HARD S€CTOR 
DCPARTMCNTS 



Key Mander 
User Groups 
REMs to Readers 
New Products 
Command Board 
News Releases 
Letters 
Advertisers Index 



BACK ISSUE INFORMATION 

COMMANDER Magazine's Subscrip- 
tion Department provides the service of 
back issue order fulfillment. Many issues 
are still available. All current issues sell for 
the single copy cover price-which is 
S2.95. Issues older than one month sell 
for $3.50, when the supply is plentiful. 
Include S1.00 (shipping) for each issue 
ordered. Your order will be shipped by 
United Parcel Service. Orders to be ship 
ped to post office boxes or foreign coun- 
tries must be shipped via the United 
States Post Office. 

Most back issues are available in 
original form. February 1983 is sold out 
but separate articles are available as 
reprints. Due to the heavy demand, we 
suggest you order the back issues you 
want now while the supplies last. 

COMMANDER accepts Visa, Master- 
card and American Express. You may also 
request to be invoiced, but payment is 
due before shipment. 

For further information call or write to 
our subscription department at P.O. Box 
98827, Tacoma, Washington 98498, 
(206) 584-6757. 

June 1984 • COMMANDERI3 



STAFF 



EDITORIAL 



Publisher 
THOMAS L. 



ROSENBAUM 



r 



Editor 

DORINDA (DEE) ANDERSON 

Editorial Assistant 
EVA R. JONES 

Marketing & Advertising 
ELIZABETH K. STEAN, Director 
VIVIAN JO CRAWFORD 

Circulation 

MARY OSBORN, Director 

Design and Production 
SCOTT A. MACDONALD 

Technical Consultants 
JOHN P. GABBARD 
GEORGE R. GAUKEL 
HOWARD ROTENBERG 
COLIN F. THOMPSON 



COMMANDER is published monthly by: 
MICRO SYSTEMS SPECIALTIES, PO. Box 98827, 
Tacoma, Washington 98498 

COMMANDER 

Regional Advertising Offices 

Pacific Marketing, Inc. 4247 North Whitman 

Tacoma, Wa. 98407. (206) 759-9933 



Garland Associates, P.O. Box 314 S.H.S. 


Duxbury, Mass. 02332. 




(617) 934-6464 or 934-6546 




Subscription Rates (U.S. Funds) 


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For back issues, subscriptions, change of addres< 

or other information, write to: 

COMMANDER 

P.O. Box 98827 

Tacoma, Washington 98498 

(206} S84-6757 

BACK ISSUES - 

S3 50 each plus $1,00 each for shipping 



Copyright'© 1984 by MICRO SYSTEMS SPECIALTIES 
All Rights Reserved 



I 



The most controversial topic in the computer industry today is 
copyright protection. More to the point is the lack of adequate 
laws to protect the authors and manufacturers of software (and 
hardware). The Supreme Court, with their Betamax decision, 
altered the concept of 'fair use' as a defense for copyright infringe- 
ment. The decision implies that devices used forcopying copyright 
material are "staple articles of commerce;" provided they perform 
functions other than copyright infringement. Although the 
Betamax case was specifically concerning video recording for 
home use, the computer industry will ultimately feel the impact of 
the ruling. 

What does this mean to authors and manufacturers who spend 
large amounts of time and money to develop computer products? 
It simply means that the development of copy protection schemes 
will be more of a consideration when creating new products. The 
people involved in creating and marketing computer products 
have every right to protect their profits. The consumer will be see- 
ing, and paying for, more and better protection schemes. Every 
time a program or product is duplicated without proper 
authorization, it is money lost by the author and distributor. It is 
unfortunate that at a time when home computing has reached a 
price range reasonable to the average consumer, the added cost 
of protection schemes will be reflected in the market place. 

This brings us to the unique position of computer publications. 
Programs are published each month with the intent that the 
subscriber will use the material for their personal library only. The 
programs are not to be copied and distributed as public domain 
software. One users group has suggested that they type the pro- 
grams listed in a magazine, copy and sell the disk toclub members 
only if they show proof that the member owns a copy of the 
publication from which the program originated. That seems to be 
a fair and equitable way to solve a potentially troublesome situa- 
tion. 

We would like to hear as much input as possible on this subject. 
Any opinions, comments or suggestions from our readers will be 
welcomed. Please indicate if your response may be published. Ad- 
dress correspondence to The Editor, COMMANDER MAGAZINE, 
P.O. Box 98827, Tacoma, WA 98498. 




4ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



1PIH01 Graphics 



m 





P. O. Box 99715 

Tacoma, WA 98499 

(206) 588-9949 



Cfe 



ii 



<* 



WE HAVE GATHERED SOME OF THE BEST SOFTWARE FROM ALL OVER 
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TO HELP YOU SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY! 





ALEX I\ THE JUNGLE- 
ALEX MUST MAKE HIS WAY THROUGH THE OMINOUS JUNGLE, SWINGING ON 
VINES, JUMPING OVER LOGS, ALLIGATORS AND PITS ARE JUST A FEW OF THE 
OBSTACLES THAT "ALEX" MUST OVERCOME DURING HIS TREK FOR VALUABLE 

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ALEX GOES JOGGING— 

ANOTHER EXCELLENT "ALEX" ADVENTURE. OUR POOR UNSUSPECTING HERO MUST SUCCESSFULLY JOG 
AROUND ALL OF THE CITY BLOCKS BEFORE THE DANGEROUS MUGGERS CATCH HIM. SIMILAR TO AMIDAR". 

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ALEX IN SPACE— 

"ALEX" HAS JOINED NASA! THIS TIME OUR HERO IS ON A DANGEROUS MISSION IN 
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COLLECTING VITAL POWEH CRYSTALS. REGULAR PRICE — 32.95 Cassette* 

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KRACKER JAX— 

AND NOW, A CUTE UTILE GAME FOB THE YOUNGER MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY. 
A POPCORN FACTORY HAS GONE WILD AND POPPED KERNALS OF CORN ARE 
FALLING FROM THE SKY. YOU MUST USE YOUR MULTI-LAYERED PRYING PAN TO 
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BALAKON RAIDERS— 

THE WORLD IS A VOIjCANIC RUIN, THERE ARE ONLY A FEW SURVIVING HUMANS 
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HAVE TAKEN OVER ALL THE CITIES OF THE WORLD. IT IS YOUR JOB IX) RID THE 
WOULD OF THESE NOW DEADLY CREATURES. REGULAR PRICE — 32. US Cassette 

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SUPER SLOT- 
REAL VEGAS ACTION IN 'THIS COIjORFUL SIMULATION. GREAT COI/JH, SOUND AND 
PAYOFFS MAKE THIS ONE OF THE BEST SLOIS AVAILABLE. 

REGULAR PRICE— 14.3.5 Cassette 
DISCOUNT PRICE — 9.95 Cassette 



CAVERNS OF DOOM— 

GREAT MACHINE LANGUAGE TEXT ADVENTURE GAME. EXPLORE THE DEPTHS OF 
THE ANCIENT CAVERN, FIGURE YOUR WAY THROUGH SOME TRICKY SITUATIONS. 
THIS ONE IS A REAL BRAIN BENDER! REGULAR PRICE — 24.*dj Cassette 

DISCOUNT PRICE — 19.95 Cassette 



QUIZSPIN— 

A FANTASTIC EDUCATIONAL GAME, NOT JUST ANOTHER BORING DRILL! QUIZSPIN 
IS BASED ON THE TV. GAME SHOW JOKER'S WILD". IT IS AN EXCITING COMPETI- 
TION BETWEEN TWO PLAYERS (OH ONE PLAYER AND THE COMPUTER). 
CATEGORIES INCLUDE: STATES & CAPITALS, CHEMISTRY, MATH, PRESIDENTS AND 
A ??MYSTERY7? CATEGORY. GREAT COLOR AND SOUND JUST TOP OFF THIS FUN, 
COMPETITIVE AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM. REGULAR PRICE - 24.95 








Cassette 
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SOFTWARE SUBMISSIONS WELCOME 



/- 



r n iti m o n n 

LUI II nil iu 



MSSSSSSSSS^SSffby Jim Gruhbsi 

For many people, summertime is a time 
for outdoor activities. Amateur radio en- 
thusiasts are no exception, though 
sometimes the slant of the activities is very 
radio oriented. For years it seemed like my 
dad, W9DXA, and I always spent the 
Fourth of July installing our antenna 
system. It's a time for field day and 
transmitter hunts. The hamfest season is 
upon us with the promise of a lot of com- 
puter goodies being exchanged as hams 
upgrade their systems. If you haven't yet 
bought a computer, don't overlook the 
very versatile VIC-20 — it was made forthe 
hamshack! 

If you are an outdoor person, enjoy the 
sunshine and taking your rig along on a 
camp out. But don't lose your summer 
copies of COMMANDER. I'll be right here 
with some projects that will still be of in- 
terest next fall. 

WHERE'S THE BEEF 

When you bought your computer, it 
wasn't very smart. It was born with some 
basic motor skills called an operating 
system. It didn't develop a personality until 
you loaded in the first program. Hopefully, 
you have written some programs yourself. 
Your continued interest in this hobby is un- 
doubtedly directly proportional to either 
writing or obtaining programs that are of 
interest to you. The 59th version of a PAC 
person gets a bit old. I can't help but think 
of that poor little lady in the popular ham- 
burger chain commercial that agrees the 
bun is sure big, but where's the beef? In 
our case, the computer is nice, but where 
are the programs. COMMAND POST 
helps to fill this need, and for a price there 
are some extremely nice software 
packages for amateur use. Unfortunately, 
I can't address every subject in this column 
every month and most of us don't have 
unlimited financial resources. What we do 
have is our amateur radio equipment, a 
quite effective means of communicating 
around the world. Can we possibly tie in to 
this gear and exchange programs with our 
friends around the world? You bet we can! 

6ICOMMANDER • June 1984 




FILE IT FOR 
FUTURE REFERENCE 

It would be nice if you could simply take 
a program saved earlierto tape ordiskand 
send it directly over the air to someone on 
the other end. It could be done, but 
without some very sophisticated pro- 
gramming and hardware, this method 
would only work between identical com- 
puters. They would still have to be inter- 
faced properly to the equipment. I'm 
always looking for an easy way out, so I 
figured there has to be an easier way. 

Let's consider for a moment what hap- 
pens when you LIST a program on your 
computer. When the operating system of 
your computer sees the command LIST, it 
checks memory to find the beginning of 
the program that currently is active in your 
computer. It then takes this machine 
code— all binary ones and zeros, and 
translates it into "plain english" characters 
to be printed on your screen. 

Your first encounter at "sending" that 
listing somewhere else probably came 
when you bought your printer. Assuming 
you have a VIC 1525 or equivalent, you 
quickly learned that the following state- 
ment would get you a printed listing: 

OPEN 4,4:CMD 4;UST 

What you did was to open a file, in this 
case number 4, to device number 4, your 
printer, and then you commanded (CMD) 
the output of your computer to file 
number 4. After doing this you issued the 
LIST command and like magic the pro- 
gram was listed to your printer. 

At the point where the computer does 
the actual listing, regular ASCII character 
codes are present. The mumbo jumbo of 
machine code lurks below thesurface, but 
doesn't get in the way of reading the pro- 
gram listing. We've just found the simpler 
way! 

FOUR TO ONE 

Have you ever thought of your cassette 
recorder as a "screen"? Your computer 
has no trouble with that concept at all. In 
fact, you use that very concept when you 



have a sequential file to tape or disk. The 
following program statement can be used 
to create such a file on cassette: 

OPEN 1,1,1, "FILE NAME":CMD 1.UST 

When that save has finished remember 
to clear the buffer by typing: 

PRINT#1 :CLOSE 1 

You now need some modem software. 
Several such programs have been printed 
in COMMANDER over the past year 
(check TELECOMMANDERJor you may be 
the lucky owner of one of the fine com- 
mercial packages such as MBATEXT or 
HAMTEXT that allow not only ASCII 
transmission, but the ability to store files 
for later printing, saving, or retransmis- 
sion. 

You send the program just like any text 
file. At this point that's all it is, just text. 

BRIDGE TO CAPTAIN KIRK 

As you are sending, the station on the 
other end hopefully is receiving and stor- 
ing this ASCII file using his or her terminal 
software. After the file has been fully 
received, it must be saved to tape. What 
has to happen after the file has been 
received is to reconvert it into a program 
file rather than an ASCII sequential file. 
The program in figure 1 will do this job 
quite simply when using cassette. 

In operation, the program first OPENs a 
receive channel to the cassette recorder. 
The POKE to decimal address 1 52 tells the 
computer there is one open file. You then 
start bringing in the program one ASCII 
character at a time and PRINT it on the 
screen. If the character is a "RETURN" we 
then "strong arm" a carriage return (ASCII 
value 13) into the keyboard buffer at 
decimal addresses 631 through 633. We 
also have to tell the computer there are 
three characters in the buffer and finally 
we send the program back to get another 
character. 

If the character received is a blank line 
(ASCII code 1 0) then the file is CLOSEd and 
the "OK" prompt is printed. If all has gone 
well at this point, delete the lines above 




-lnfd®QS0gGDs;..Making 
ome Town Business Grow 



Info Designs is the leading producer of 
accounting software for the Commodore 64... 
home town businesses made us Number 1. 
We specialize in Accounting Software and 
market only the highest quality business 
systems. Our integrated systems have helped 
businesses become more prosperous through 
better management of their money and re- 
sources. Info Designs five accounting pack- 
ages make it possible for you to computerize 
your business cost effectively. Our proven bus- 
iness software packages have been purchased 
for $595 each. With 100,000 programs sold, 
you can be assured of a proven value at $79.95 
perCommodore-64 program. 



Select the disk programs you need — 

• Accounts Receivable/Billing 

• Account Payable/Checkwriting 

• General Ledger 

• Inventory Management 

• Payroll 

Customer Support Plan 

An optional telephone consulting service is 
available to support installation and ongoing 
operations. 

To Purchase 

See your local Gomrnodore-64 Dealer or call 
us directly at (313) 540-7772. 



Circle No. 52 



Info Designs Inc. 
6905 Telegraph Road 
Birmingham, Ml 48010 



Info 




Still the Best! 



Rated THE BEST educational 
program for the VIC 20TM by 
Creative Computing magazine. 

Commodore 64 version: "This 
Is the best typing tutor we have 
seen yet; It can get your 
children touch typing In short 
order and bring an old hand up 
to speed. Includes excellent 
training modules and an 
arcade type mode to liven 
things up and put some 
pressure on;**** + " INFO-64 
Our customers continue to tell 

us of their success 

!'. . delighted with my son's 

progress ... he Is the only 

one In his second grade class 

who touch types at the computer.' 

(58 year old man writes) . , . "great, excellent. To me a source 

of great learning ... I Just can't express how much I have 

enjoyed it!" 

In dally use by schools across the USA. 

"Computer aided Instruction at its best" Commander magazine 

TYPING TUTOR + WORD INVADERS 

The proven way to learn touch typing. 
COMMODORE 64 Tape $21.95 
COMMODORE 64 DiskS24.95 
VIC 20 (unexpended) Tape $21.95 





TflS* 1 



IFR 

(FLIGHT SIMULATOR) 

DISK OR TAPE 
FOR THE 
COMMODORE 64 
529.95 



CARTRIDGE 
FOR THE VIC 20 
$39.95 

JOYSTICK REQUIRED 



Put yourself in the pilot's seat! A very challenging realistic 
simulation of instrument flying In a light plane. Take off, 
navigate over difficult terrain, and land at one of the 4 airports. 
Artificial horizon, ILS, and other working instruments on 
screen. Full aircraft features. Realistic aircraft performance- 
stalls/spins, etc. Transport yourself to a real-time adventure 
in the sky. Flight tested by professional pilots and judged 
"terrific"! Rated "Excellent*' by Midnite Software Gazette. 

■■■ Shipping and handling $1.00 per 
liM order. CA residents add 6% tax. 

ACADEmV 

SOFW/IRE 

P.O. Box 6277, San Rafael, CA 94903 (415) 499-0850 

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63000 and what remains will be the pro- 
gram as originally sent, ready to run with 
no additional typing. 

The reason for numbering the loader 
program with numbers in the 63000 
range is that it is just below the maximum 
value allowed for line numbers in a BASIC 
program. In most cases this should keep 
the loader from interfering with the actual 
program. Almost all utility type programs 
are configured in this manner. 

If you are without the necessary ter- 
minal software, you can still try the tech- 
nique. Just create the file as described 
above and then try and reload it using the 
program in Figure one. 

WORDS TO THE WISE 

If the program you are trying to send 
contains ASCII characters with a value 
above 127, some translating may occur 
during transmission that will have to be 
corrected at the receiving end. Generally 
this only includes some graphics and the 
character colors. Certainly this is a small 
price to pay to save all that typing! The 
limitation is a result of many terminal pro- 
grams (MBATEXT and HAMTEXT includ- 
ed) using seven bit ASCII. With seven bits, 
only 128 distinct combinations can be 
sent. Your Commodore computer uses 
eight bit ASCII which doubles the number 
of allowable codes to 256. Commodore 
gave us more, not less when they design- 
ed our machines. 

I strongly recommend trying this techni- 
que out with a friend across town, 
preferably on a nice quiet VHF frequency. 
All data transmission is subject to errors in- 
troduced by fading signals, interference 
and so on. The same concept applies no 
matter what the communication path. 

HAMS IN SPACE 

Since 1982, fellowamateurand satellite 
enthusiast Bob Diersing, N5AHD has 
operated a bulletin board system for AM- 
SAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corpora- 
tion. AMSAT is the driving force behind 
the OSCAR satellite series. Bob has been 
supporting that program with computer 
compiled tracking data for many years. 
The AMSAT BBS provides a central point 
for amateur satellite enthusiasts with 
computers of any type to exchange ideas 
and questions. Information on the soft- 
ware available through the AMSAT soft- 
ware exchange is also included. A recent 
check-in revealed some very interesting in- 
formation about Owen Garriot's suc- 
cessful amateur radio operation aboard 
the space shuttle. Incidentally, K9EI suc- 
cessfully used his VIC-20 and the AMS 
2064 program to track STS-9. You should 
have heard the local QRM when I came on 
with the latest tracking information! Now 



if I can just get that coveted W5LFL/space 
mobile QSL card. 

The phone number for the AMSAT BBS 
is (512) 852-8194. Bob, incidentally, comes 
by his computer "hobby" honestly. He is 
director of computer services, Corpus 
Christi State University. I do have to issue 
one warning. From my part of the country, 
the telephone circuits to Corpus Christi are 
nothing short of atrocious. I tried for 
several months with absolutely no success 
to access the AMSAT BBS using the VIC 
1600 modem. The inexpensive circuitry in 
the 1600 can not adequately distinguish 
between the "white noise" generated in 
telephone company carrier circuits and 
the precious data tones it needs to ac- 
curately send and receive data. Com- 
modore's official attitude is what do you 
expect for fifty bucks? In truth it is a good 
buy if you can count on a "full quieting" 
signal all the time. Commodore has still 
been reluctant to publish a schematic tot 
the 1600 so we experimenters can try our 
hand at our own modifications. The solu- 
tion? Read on . . . 

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE 

After a bit of hassling with a mail order 
company in the east that shall remain 
nameless I finally received the new im- 
proved, stronger than dirt, Automodem, 
model 1650. These things retail for about 
S 150 though prices vary widely. Mine cost 
$79 with a bit of attendant aggravation. 
At S79 1 would highly recommend it. The 
months of disappointment in trying to 
reach the AMSAT BBS came to an end the 
day the 1650 arrived! With it, I get about 
95 percent accuracy with that BBS. I don't 
think anything but $750 worth of Bell 
modem or equivalent would take care of 
the remaining five percent of my pro- 
blems. As I mentioned the carrier service 
to that area is absolutely miserable. 

There are indications that the new 1 650 
has been manufactured underagreement 
with the Anchor Automation folks, 
makers of the Volksmodem. Seems like a 
good bet that the 1650 is the same unit in 
a somewhat different box. 

63000 PRINT? * Eel r 3 * " t OPEN 1,1,0 

63001 PRINT" Cclrr ' :PRINT:PQKE 152,1 

63002 QET#1,X*:IF ASC<X*)=10 THEN CLOSE Is PR IN 
T 7 ' CdowrHOK' ' : END 

63003 PRINT X*; : IF ASC<X*>=13 THEN 63005 

63004 GOTO 63002 

63005 POKE 631,13:P0KE 632,13iP0KE 633, 13: POKE 

198, 3: PRINT" ' GOTOCsp363001 Chome: ' ' ; 

63006 REM COMMAND POST 

63007 REM ASCII FILE 

63008 REM LOADER 

63009 REM JUNE 1984 

63010 REM COMMANDER 

63011 REM MAGAZINE 

June 1984 ♦ COMMANDERIM 



The auto-answer feature isgreat and, of 
course, an absolute necessity for setting 
up your own BBS. I wasn't as impressed 
with the auto-dial capability. Predictably, 
dial pulsing is used rather than tone dial- 
ing. The software that comes with the 
modem, though written in machine code, 
seems extremely slow. 

Commodore did their usual job on the 
documentation. Basic routines are includ- 
ed to add to your own terminal programs 
for auto answer and auto-dial. The auto 
answer routine detects the phone ringing 
quite nicely— it never does instruct the 
computerto "answer" the phone though! 
No information at all is included for 
disconnecting the line under computer 
control, though that too is a simple pro- 
blem to solve. It is just very reminiscent of 
being told on page 16 of the disk 
operating manual that you have to NEW a 
disk before you use it! Enough about the 
1650 here. Let the folks at COMMANDER 
know if you'd like to see an in depth look 
at this new piece of gear. I just happen to 
know someone they can get to write the 
article. 

OFF TARGET 

The listing for COMMAND POST RTTY 
TX in the April column containsa minor er- 
ror. The problem only crops up if you 
merge the TX and RX programs as sug- 
gested. Line 450 contains a GOTO 430 
statement. The line should have had a 
GOTO 450 statement. It doesn't do any 
harm in itself, but when you add the two 
programs together and delete line 430 
just like I told you to you will encounter an 
error message. Sorry about that! 

You may find it interesting to know that 
COMMAND POST has readers in West 
Germany, New Zealand and a few other 
places off the beaten track. If you have 
questions (pertaining to something 
printed in COMMAND POST) or sugges- 
tions (I love hearing your ideas for projects) 
send them to me: Jim Grubbs, K9EI, PO 
Box 3042, Springfield, Illinois 62708. 



e 



News, Views, Previews 
& Reviews 



■By Colin Thompsons 



When Commodore released the first 

1540 drive, it carried an astounding $600 
price tag. That seemed to me, at the time, 
to be an awful lot of money to satisfy my 
desire to upgrade my VIC. Well, I thought, 
it does have a built-in microprocessor, and 
it does store more data than any other 
single sided, single density disk drive on 
the market, and it doesn't need the com- 
puter's RAM memory to store its opera- 
ting system, and most of all, I really do 
want it. All this rationalization cost me 
$600, and what I ended up with was the 
world's slowest disk drive that spends 
more time in the shop than on my desk. 

Yet, with all its inherent problems, I was 
happy as a clam with the 1540 and its 
cousin, the 1541 because Commodore's 
disk drive was the only game in town. If 
you wanted a disk drive, you played by 
their rules: a slow serial bus, a cheaply 
made mechanical drive assembly and an 
incredibly complex series of commands 
and channels to open and close if any- 
thing was to be done with the drive. 
(Don't forget the poor excuse for a User 
Manual that is STILL, to this day, supplied 
with 1541s.) 

Given all this, I can't understand why a 
Commodore-compatible disk drive, made 
by someone besides Commodore has 
taken so long to reach a market. 

A few months ago I reported on the first 

1541 compatible drive -the MSD Super 
Disk Drive. Since then, two other compan- 
ies have announced their intentions to 
save us from the horrors of the 1541 with 
their own new drive. All I can say is "It's 
about time!" 

WHO ARE 

THESE COMPANIES? 

I reviewed MSD System's drive already, 
but if you missed it, I gave the SD-1 high 
marks in all categories except software 
compatibility. The second manufacturer 
toannounce a drive isa veteran in the add- 
on drive business-Concorde Peripheral 
Systems. Their first product is a parallel 
single disk drive, designed for the C-64 

MICOMMANDER • June 1984 



only. I have one of the drives under review 
now. The third company is Laser Micro- 
systems, but since I haven't seen their drive 
I can't tell you much about it. With all this 
competition in thediskdrive market place, 
we now have the luxury of doing some 
comparison shopping. 

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT 

If you are going to be a smart shopper, 
you need to know the lingo before you 
part with any bucks. The newest buzz- 
word in Commodorian drives is "parallel." 
In general, parallel means high speed. 
There are two ways to transfer data and 
programs to and from the disk drive: serial 
and parallel. The 1541 uses the serial bus 
method. Since railroading terms apply 
here, let's take a ride on the Reading. 

"Bus" is nothing more than a copper 
wire connecting the drive and the com- 
puter. It's the cable. Think of it as a railroad 
track. Trains deliver their cargo-either 
freight or passengers-by traveling on the 
railroad track connecting two depots. 
Essentially, this mode of travel is point to 
point, and takes some time to complete 
the trip. Your computer uses a railroad 
track (the disk bus) to deliver it's 
cargo-data and programs-to the disk 
drive. Even though the cargo is delivered 
at electronic speeds, it still takes some 
time. You see that time when you LOAD a 
program and wait a few seconds or min- 
utes before the computer says READY. 

Commodore's serial bus is almost uni- 
que in the computer biz. Nearly every 
other brand of computer uses a parallel 
bus. Thinkof the serial bus as railroading in 
the steam era. It was slow, took a lot of 
time, but if worked. 

THE BULLET TRAIN 

A few years ago the Japanese took a dif- 
ferent track. They decided that trains 
could be made faster and more comfor- 
table if they applied some airliner 
technology. The result was called the 
"Bullet Train." It traveled very fast, was 
comfortable, and revolutionized the 



railroad industry. Disk drive technology 
has paralleled the railroad industry and 
now Commodore owners can take ad- 
vantage of it. The parallel bus is here to 
stay. It is high speed (3-5 times faster), but 
with the advantage of speed comes a cou- 
ple of drawbacks. I haven't mentioned just 
exactly how the parallel bus gets to be so 
fast. Remember the single copper wire 
that I likened to a train track? The parallel 
bus uses 8 copper wires to send and 
receive data. Eight Bullet Trains can deliver 
a lot of mail when compared to one chug- 
ging steam engine. 

Technically, parallel operation is done by 
breaking up each byte into the eight bits 
that make up the byte and sending them 
to the drive simultaneously. 

PROBLEMS IN RIVER CITY 

The MSD drive can use either serial or 
parallel technology. The Concorde drive is 
strictly parallel. If you choose a parallel 
drive, some extra hardware is necessary to 
convert from a single path to a multipath 
bus. A cartridge must be plugged into the 
game port to make the conversion. A 
special cable connects the drive to the card 
to complete the path. Here's the first pit- 
fall. 

The C-64 was designed to operate with 
a serial bus disk drive. To use a parallel 
drive, the 64 must be fooled, electronical- 
ly. This charade takes place in the parallel 
cartridge. The cartridge holds a series of 
programs that reprograms the 64's 'Ker- 
nal' or brain, tricking the 64 into thinking 
that a 1541 disk drive is attached to the 
computer when it is not. In plain terms, 
this chicanery can interfere with many 
commercial programs, thus preventing 
them from working. The 64's high order 
brain functions are scrambled, allowing 
the parallel disk drive to function, but not 
all of the programs you might wish to use. 
The current term for this mess is "software 
compatibility," although I prefer "soft- 
ware incompatibility." 

The problem affects the Concorde drive 
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the drive has been a few months late in ar- 
riving. Not enough of the popular soft- 
ware packages will work with the drive. 
The MSD drive is immune to this kind of in- 
compatibility when it uses the serial bus. 
To operate the MSD drive with a parallel 
bus, you must plug in an IEEE conversion 
cartridge. MSD makes one which I've 
found to be close to useless, but I hear 
they are upgrading it. The current version 
works with very little commercial soft- 
ware. Richvale makes a similar cartridge 
called the Buscard 2 which is reputed (I 
don't have one yet) to be more universally 
compatible. A third device called Interpod 
is also available, but is not completely 
compatible. 

In theory, a parallel disk drive is highly 
desirable, but it should be compatible with 
your software or your investment is 
wasted. 

SOFTWARE 
INCOMPATIBILITY, PART II 

So far we've seen that parallel disk 
operation requires the 64's operating 
system to be drastically modified, thus 
preventing many programs from work- 
ing. That's only half of the problem. All 
non-Commodore drives are equipped 
with Disk Operating Systems (DOS) that 
are close, but not an exact duplicate of the 
1541 DOS. Commodore's DOS is copy- 
righted and may not be duplicated by 
other disk drive manufacturers. Therefore, 
to make a Commodore compatible drive, 
the DOS has to be rewritten to get around 
the copyright restrictions, but remain 
functionally similar, or the drive won't re- 
spond to standard disk commands. The 
DOS problem is what makes many pro- 
grams fail to load from non-Commodore 
drives. Many commercial disk based pro- 
grams are "Copy Protected." This protec- 
tion prevents (in some cases) the pro- 
grams from being copied by people who 
like to steal software without paying the 
authors for their work. The protection 
scheme most frequently used involves 
sending a small, machine language pro- 
gram to the disk's RAM memory and then 
executing it. These programs cause the 
drive to move the heads to a certain track, 
read some data to verify the diskette is not 
a bootleg copy, and then return control to 
the main program residing in the com- 
puter's memory. This is the heart of the 
problem. The authors fail to consider that 
the drive may not be made by Com- 
modore. The commands sent to the non- 
Commodore drive may not be interpreted 
properly, due to the slight difference in the 
Disk Operating Systems or the disk's RAM 
layout. 

MICOMMANDER * June 1984 



HELP? 

At first, the authors did not rewrite their 
protection schemes to include non-1541 
drives because they felt they weren't los- 
ing much money. Now that MSD has cap- 
tured a large share of the disk drive 
market, the authors (and distributors) are 
scrambling to make their products com- 
patible with the new drives. Forthis reason 
(lost sales) I believe the compatibility issue 
will be mostly resolved by this summer. In 
the meantime, you will find isolated com- 
panies with software that won't load from 
the MSD and Concorde drives. The best 
way to find out if your proposed software 
purchase is going to RUN is to contact the 
software manufacturer or distributor and 
ask them. They will know. In general, the 
programs hardest hit by the compatibility 
problem are cartridge based programs 
that use the drive. 

OUT ON A LIMB 

From where I sit, I see some trends 
developing. The Commodore 64 is the 
most popular computer in an overcrowd- 
ed marketplace. This popularity is attrac- 
ting many talented software authors who 
previously plied their trade in the Apple 
and Radio Shack arena. I welcome theiref- 
forts and believe we can only benefit from 
the influx of their creativity. We should 
begin to see many more high quality pro- 
grams that, in the past, would have been 
written for other computers. I would cau- 
tion these newly arrived authors to learn 
about inconsistencies in the various Disk 
Operating Systems. Now we have a choice 
of disk drives, allowing us to tailor our 
hardware to our software needs. 

My discussion (diatribe?)of the new disk 
drives-will continue next month, but now 
let's look at an exciting new disk alterna- 
tive that has been a long time in arriving. 

SUPER DISK— 2 

THE MSD DUAL DISK DRIVE 

Talk about causing a stir! The day my 
new dual disk drive arrived, I called a cou- 
ple of my friends to let them know the 
good news. Word got out fast that I had a 
drive that would back up a diskette in less 
than two minutes. From my experience, I 
can just about guarantee that a new dual 
drive owner will gain many new friends 
and acquaintances. 

MSD Systems has delivered what they 
promised -a 4040 compatible, two disk 
drive. They call it the Super Disk 2. 1 call it 
heaven. I'm an amateur, BASIC language 
programmer. That means I program for 
fun and relaxation, like most computer 
owners who tinker with their toy. I 
sometimes think that we tinkerers keep 



the diskette manufacturers in business. 
My own library includes over 200 disk- 
ettes. As a 1541 owner, I learned to make 
backups of any diskette that I valued, but 
backing up a disk takes a lot of time and 
some sophisticated programming. To that 
end, I've collected more than 20 different 
disk copying programs to help with the 
dreaded chore. With the arrival of the 
SD-2, those days are gone for good. 

SURE, BUT AT WHAT A 
PRICE? 

A ticket to heaven, in this case, costs 
about $650. True, it sounds like a lot of 
money just to enjoy the luxury of fast 
backups, but now that we have a choice 
of disk drives, why not get the best 
available unit? This reasoning may not 
work for you, of course. Everyone has dif- 
ferent reasons for owning a computer and 
cost is a factor with most of us. Still, with 
my six month experience with the SD-1, 
MSD's single drive, I recommend anyone 
who is looking for a drive, spend the extra 
$1 00 (over the cost of a 1541) and get the 
reliable MSD unit. 

When I got the SD-2, I was expecting 
the same, highly reliable drive, and some 
software compatibility problems. I got 
both. The MSD drive has never failed me, 
except to LOAD and RUN a few commer- 
cial, copy protected programs. In my 
review of the SD-1 in December I noted a 
few of the companies that sold software 
which was not compatible. Since then, the 
list has shrunk. MSD has been working to 
overcome the problems by either chang- 
ing their DOS or by helping software com- 
panies re-write their protection schemes. 

LIFE WITH A DUAL DRIVE 

I don't think most people really need a 
dual drive. A single drive should suffice for 
most home computing applications. It's 
prime purpose, as I see it, is to make copies 
of disks in less than two minutes. Small 
software companies and user group li- 
brarians could put the SD-2 to work and 
justify the cost. Software duplication on a 
small scale is already being done by some 
companies on the SD-2. 

The other reason to own a dual is to 
simply use it with commercial software 
that makes use of a 4040 type drive. Most 
of this software was written for the Pet 
and some of it is transferable to the C-64 
and VIC, without modification. You can 
buy the SD-2 and plug it in as you would 
an ordinary 1541 and begin using it im- 
mediately, or you can buy one of the IEEE 
cartridges mentioned earlier and then en- 
joy parallel operation. I've tried both MSD 
drives with an IEEE card and liked the 



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totl.text/ 

toll, speller/ tot I. label 
reg. price $103 NOW $79 

(BP-2)— (disk) 
totl. business/ 
totf time manager/ 
totl. infomaster/totl. text 
reg. price $228 NOW $159 

(BP-3)— (disk) 
totl. info master/ 
tot I. text/ tot I. speller 
reg. price $129 NOW $99 

(BP-4)— (disk) 
totl.text/ 
totl. speller/ 
research assistant 

reg. price $118 NOW $89 

(BP-5)— (tape) 
totl. text/totl. label 

reg. price $60 NOW $49 

Commodore 64 and VIC 20 are trademarks of 
Commodore Business Machines Inc. 



INFORMATION AND ORDER COUPON 



TOTL.TEXT 2.0 (VIC + 8K) 
TOTL.TEXT 2.5 (VIC + 16K) 
T0TLLABEL2.1(VIC + 16K) 
TOTL TIME MGR. 2.1 (VIC + 8K) 
RESEARCH ASST. 2.0(VIC + 8K) 
TOTLBUSINESS3.0(VIC + 24K> 
TOTL.TEXT 2.6 (C-84) 
TOTLSPELLER 3.6(-C64) 
TOTL.LABEL2.6(C-64) 
TOTL TIME MGR. 2.6 (C-64) 
RESEARC H ASST. 2 .0 (C-64) 
TOTL.INFOMASTER 3.6 (C-64) 
TOTL. BUSINESS 3.6 (C-64) 
BONUS PAK # 



TAPE 
D 24.95 

□ 34.95 

D 19.95 
~ 29.95 
D 29.95 

D 39.95 

□ 19.95 
34.95 

□ 34.95 



Check. Money Order or 
COD" also accepted 
'C.O.D. orders S2.D0 
additional {CA residents 
add 6 1 ^% sales tax) 



Total 

C.O.D. Charges/Sales Tax 

Shippings Handling 

Amount Enclosed 



DISK 
C 28.95 
G 38.95 
D 23.95 
D 33.95 

□ 33.95 

□ 84.95 
D 43,95 
D 34.95 
D 23.95 

□ 38.95 
38.95 

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D 94.95 



S3.00 




FOR ORDERING ONLY-CALL OUR TOLL FREE NUMBERS 
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quality you can afford 
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415/943-7877 



Other VIC 20™ 
and Commodore 64™ software 
available from your dealer or 
directly from TOTL Software: 

Word Processing (totl.text) 
Spelling Checker (totl. speller) 
Mailing List & Label (totl. label) 
Business Accounting (totl. business) 
Time Management 

(totl time manager) 
Keyword Cross Reference 

(research assistant) 

TOTL Offers You... 

low prices and high quality • 30 day 
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paks • two years and 45,000 
products strong cw* No. 44 



results, though many commercial pro- 
grams won't RUN. 

INSIDE THE COVERS 

Both the SD-1 and the SD-2 use the 
Tokyo Electronics Corporation mechanical 
drive units. The TEC drives offer better 
motor speed control, error correction and 
seek access times. The SD-2 is actually 
16% faster than the SD-1 when moving 
the head from one track to the next. The 
head positioner is a split band, similar to 
the 1541 . It uses a brushless, direct drive 
DC motor to spin the diskette. The TEC 
drive is, technologically, far superior to the 
Alps drive found in the 1541 . Electronical- 
ly, the SD-2 is similar to the SD-1 in that it 
uses a 651 1Q microprocessor chip to con- 
trol all disk activities. Even though the 
4040 uses two microprocessor chips, the 
SD-2 seems to operate just as fast. 

Although the SD-2 has two drives, it 
does not behave like two 1541s hooked 
up as devices 8 & 9. Instead, it responds as 
device 8 with two Units: zero and one. For 
example, if you enter this: 
LOAD"PROGNAME",8 
both drives will be searched for PROG- 
NAME and, if found, it will be LOADed. If 
you ask for the directory, both will be 
returned. You may also specify which unit 
is to be used like this: 



/Micro 



Clear 



QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR 
YOUR C 64 -VIC 20 

HOME LIBRARIAN 

Random accass electronic cart) catalogue for 
book and magazine lovers. Contains 1 5 fields 
for data entry — author, title, 4 subject fields * 
more 5 level search. 2 level sort, 2 wildcards. 
Selective/random record review Report 
generator creates user defined hard copy. 
100% machine language. 
C 64 or VIC 20 Disk onty »28.9B 

THESIS MASTER 

Organizes research notes and creates biblio- 
graphy 6 level search. 2 level sort. 2 wildcards 
Huge multiscreen text area Report generator 
creates user defined hard copy 100% machine 
language 
C 64 Disk only S29 96 

STAMP COLLECTOR 

Put your entire collection at your finger tips. 
Mullifeatured program includes edit, report 
and file backup features. For the beginner and 
expert alike. 
C 64 or VIC 20 Tape or disk 429 96 

All VIC 20 programs require BK mm expan- 
sion Specify VIC or C 64, tape or disk. Send 
check or money order * S2.00 S/H. Missouri 
residents add 5Va% sates tax. 

Circle No. 226 

MicroClear 

P.O. Box 9368 
Raytown, MO 64133 

Dealer inquiries invited 



SAVE"0:DATAFILE",8 
Notice that both examples call on device 8, 
but the SAVE command specifies the left 
drive (0). 

The 5D-2 works with all file types and is 
command-compatible with the 4040. 
One new command is available that 1 541 
owners don't have: Duplicate. This is the 
command that copies (duplicates) the 
contents of one diskette to another in one 
minute and fifty-five seconds. The copy is 
an exact duplicate of the master, including 
disk name and ID. Special software is not 
needed to duplicate a disk. The SD-2 
recognizes the dupe command when you 
send it from the immediate mode or from 
within a BASIC program. The command 
looks like this: 
OPEN 15,8,15 
PRINT#15,"D0=r 

That's all there is. In less than two minutes 
the blank diskette in drive will be format- 
ted and become an exact duplicate of the 
diskette in drive 1 . You may also Copy a 
single file from one drive to the other with 
a similar command. A blank diskette will 
be formatted in only 17 seconds. 

IS IT REALLY 
WORTH THE PRICE? 

I'll leave that decision to you, but I fell in 
love with it, compatibility problems and 
all. \ get around most of this compatibility 
mess by adding a 1541 as device 9. When l 
want to load a severely protected pro- 
gram, I just use the 1541 to get it into the 
computer. This trick works with the SD-1 
also. The SD-2 will read from and write to 
any disk that was generated on a 4040 or 
1541. My SD-2, although a production 
model, came with a pre-production user 
manual. The manual is not typeset or pret- 
ty, but it does provide an education in disk 
operation. Every disk command is clearly 
explained, in English, with programming 
examples for each. MSD offers a 180 day 
warranty and technical assistance by 
telephone. 

For more information, call MSD 
Systems, (214) 357-4434. 



TWO VIC BOOKS 

I dearly wish I had access to "The Vic 20 
Starter Book" when I first bought my VIC. 
The new book (1984) has just been releas- 
ed by Sams. It is written in the style of a 
textbook and is well thought out. Every as- 
pect of the VIC is explained and each 
chapter ends with a quiz. This book could 
have saved me much grief and lost sleep 
two years ago. I give it my highest recom- 
mendation, Its 350 pages are well worth 
the $15.95. Written by J.A. Titus, C.A. 
Titus and D.G. Larsen. 



Did you buy a VIC and now wonder 
what to do with it? Don't put it in closet! 
Pick up a copy of Thomas Blackadar's new 
book "The Best of VIC 20 Software." In the 
book, published by Sybex, Tom reviews 19 
programs written for the VIC. About half 
are games with the rest split between 
music, education and home manage- 
ment. The first 15 pages present a lucid ex- 
planation of the abilities of the VIC. This is 
a good book for VIC novices. 175 pages, 
price is not known, 

THE COMAL CONNECTION 

A few months ago I received a public 
domain version of COMAL. The demo disk 
had me jumping for joy and looking for 
more information about this fantastic new 
programming language. I'm still not up to 
speed on COMAL, but I can at least re- 
commend a couple books that are "must" 
reading. The first book to buy is "Struc- 
tured Programming With COMAL" by Roy 
Atherton. This is a textbook which ex- 
plains how to write programs in COMAL. I 
was lost until I got this book. I purchased 
my copy for S24 from B. Dalton 
Booksellers. You may have to special order 
it. It's published by John Wiley & Sons. 

The next book to get is "The COMAL 
Handbook" written by Len Lindsay. This 
book explains how COMAL is used on the 
C-64. The $19 book is available from the 
COMAL Users Group, 5501 Groveland 
Terrace, Madison, Wl 513716. (608) 
222-4432. 

I should have known! I looked for 
Simon's BASIC for months and now that I 
have it, the cartridge sits on a shelf, unus- 
ed. COMAL seems to be a much better al- 
ternative to BASIC and assembly 
language. 




16/COMM-A/VDfJfi • June 1984 




commodore 



SOUTVMKK10R(',-<v» 



ACCESSORIES 



Business 

Multiplan S 89.00 

WordPro 3 ^64 w/SpellRight Plus ...S 79.00 

SpellRight Plus S 55.00 

Calc Result (Advanced) S 95.00 

Calc Result (Easy) S 45.00 

Mirage Concepts (data base) S 95.00 

Mirage Concepts 

(40 & 80 elm W P with Dictionary) . . S 95.00 

Home Accountant (Continental) S 69.00 

Tax Advantage (Continental) S 49.00 

Southern Solutions Accounting 

G<L, A'R. A'P, P/R. I'M each S 69.95 

Utilities 

Super Basic 64 S 35.00 

SuperCopy 64 S 35.00 

Sketch Pad 64 S 75.00 

64 Forth S 45.00 

MTS Terminal Package 

(up and down load) S 35.00 

SimonsBasic S 19.95 

80 Column Expander . . . S 55.00 

^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Solo Flight (Simulator) S 34.95 

Oscar by Databar 

(Bar Code Reader) S 79.95 

CBM 1541 Disk Drive S 249.00 

Concord Parallel Disk Drive S 345.00 

Concord Slave Drive Call 

MSD Super Disk (Single) S 395.00 

MSD Super Disk (Dual) S 695.00 

Vic 1650 Automatic Modem S 109.95 

Hayes Smart 300 Modem S 249.00 

Hayes Smart 1200 Modem S 629.00 

Vic 1530 Datasette S 65.00 

CBM 1520 Printer Plotter S 179.95 

5 Slot Expander (64) S 65.00 

Printer Utility Program (Cardco) S 19.95 

64 Relay Cartridge S 45.00 

Numeric Key Pad S 49.00 

Alien Voice Box (Talks & Sings) S119.00 

When rm 64 (Disk) S 35.00 

Texas Instruments LCD Programmer. . . S 55.95 
Verbatim Diskettes: 

Single Sided Single Density S 26.00 

Single Sided Double Density S 30.00 

Double Sided. Double Density S 42.00 

Vic 20: 

3-Slot Expander S 39.00 

6-Slot Expander S 79.95 

16K Memory S 79.95 



D 



CBM 4023 Ribbons S 12.00 

CBM 8023 Ribbons S 14.95 

Flip N' File 10. 15, 25,50 Call 

Power Strips w'surge stopper Call 

Computer Care Kit S 19.95 



irm-KKACEs 



Interpod (full compatibility!!) 

(Intelligent IEEE & RS232) Call 

The Connection (By Tymac) 

(Commodore Graphics - 2K Buffer) S 95.00 

Cardco - G Parallel Interface S 79.00 

Vic Switch S 149.95 

ADA 1800 (Parallel-8032 only) S 129.00 

ADA 1 450 (Serial-8032 only) S 149.00 

Pet-to-IEEE Cable S 39.00 

lEEE-to-IEEE Cable S 49.00 

4 Prong AV Cable S 15.00 

Centronics Cable (male to male) . S 34.95 

RS232 Cable (male to male) S 31 .95 

Custom Computer Cables 

(we make to your specifications) Call 



MONITORS 



CBM 1 702 Color Monitor S 269.00 

Panasonic CT-160 Color Call 

Panasonic TR-120 (Green) Call 

Panasonic TR-1 20 (Amber) Call 

Panasonic DT-1300 (RGB) S 395.00 

Monitor Stand (Tilt & Swivel) S 29.95 

RGB Monitor Cable: 

ET-100C (Apple) S 33.80 

ET-IOIC(IBM) S 33.80 

Transtar 120 (80 column) S 535.00 

Transtar 130 (132 column) S 725.00 

CBM 6400 Printer S1425.00 

NEC Spinwriter Call 

Cardco LQ 1 Printer S 565.00 

CBM MPS-801 Printer (50cps) S 245.00 



DEALERS INQUIRIES WELCOME 

Call to Order 

1-800-527-1738 

All Others Call 

1-214-231-2645 

Micro-Sys 



COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES 



Okidata 82A S 412.50 

Okidata 83 S 635. DO 

Okidata 84P S1165.00 

Okidata 92P S 519.00 

Okidata 93P S 810.00 

Panasonic KX-P1090 Pnnter Call 

Panasonic KX-P1091 Printer Call 

Panasonic KX-P1 092 Printer Call 

Panasonic KX-P1093 Printer Call 

StarGemini 10X S 295,00 

Star Gemini 15 S 499.00 

Star Gemini Delta 10 Call 

Executive 64 portable (new) Call 

B128-80 128k Bus. Machine (new) . . . Call 

SuperPet (5 languages) S1059.OO 

CBM 8032 S 625.00 

CBM 2031 single disk S 295.00 

CBM 8050 Dual Disk 1 meg S 995.00 

CBM 8250 Dual Disk 2 meg J1295.00 

64K Expansion Board S 275.00 

SuperPet Upgrade Kit S 695.00 

WordPro4- or5- S 305.00 

Calc Result S 199.95 

The Manager S 199.00 

BPI Accounting System 

(5 separate modules) S 325.00 

Southern Solutions Accounting 

System III (Per/Module) S 285.00 

McTerm Communications Package S 175,00 



BUSINESS SOUIWARK — B12K-RO 



Superscript II Call 

Superbase , Call 

Superoffice Call 

Complete Accounting Systems Call 

Mailing List Manager Call 

Order Entry Point of Sale Call 

Caic Result Call 



Orders under 50.00 add 10.00 Handling fee 

MasterCard, VISA, Money Order, Bank Check 

COD (add 5.00) 

Add 3% For Credit Cards 

All Products In Stock Shipped Within 24 Hours 

FO.B. Dallas. Texas 

All Products Shipped With Manufacturers 

90 Day Warranty 

PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO 

CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. 



S T R 



B U T II Fl S 



641 Presidential Drive * Richardson, Texas 75081 • 9:30 a.m. -6:30 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.) ♦ 10:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m. (Sat.) 



Key-Mander 



HOW TO TYPE IN BASIC PROGRAMS FROM COMMANDER MAGAZINE 



As you probably know, your computer 
has a limited vocabulary and responds to 
BASIC language instructions in an ex- 
tremely literal way. Programs listed in 
COMMANDER are carefully pretested, 
and should run as intended on your com- 
puter if they are copied properly. The 
following guidelines should help to clarify 
some important points about entering 
programs through the keyboard. 

WRAPAROUND 

Every "line" in a BASIC program begins 
with a line number and ends when you 
press the [RETURN] key. If a line in the pro- 
gram contains more characters and 
spaces than can fit on the width of your 
screen, just keep typing and the computer 
will automatically continue on the next 
row of the screen. You should press 
[RETURN] only once before starting the 
next line number. A 40-column C-64 or 
PET will "wrap-around" a program line for 
no more than 2 screen rows, with a maxi- 
mum of 80 characters per program line. 
The 22 column VIC-20 can wrap around 
up to 4 rows (88 characters) in a program 
line. 

SPACES 

In a BASIC statement, spaces are usually 
ignored by the computer but may be add- 
ed by programmers to increase readabili- 
ty. However, when the "quote mode" is in 
effect (see below), spaces do count. 
Unless you have good reason to do other- 
wise, it is probably safest to type spaces as 
they appear in our listing. Please note, 
however, that wrap-around lines will nof 
be indented on your screen the way they 
appear in our published listing. 

PUNCTUATION 

Pay careful attention to punctuation 
symbols. You may not think there's much 
difference between a colon and a semi- 
colon, butthe computer certainly does. All 
commas, parentheses, and other special 
characters should be faithfully copied. 

PLEASE NOTE: For technical reasons, 
quotation marks are listed as a double 
apostrophe. When you see that, press 
[Shift-2] for the quotation mark symbol. 
MICOMMANDER • Jur.e 1984 



ONES AND ZEROS 

Among the most common errors of 
beginners (and even experts) is confusing 
the numbers 1 and with the letters I, L, 
and 0. You may have learned to type a 
lower case L for 1 on a typewriter, but 
most computers will not allow it. In our 
listings, pay close attention to the shape 
differences between the numbers 1 and 
and the similar letters, I and 0. 
SAVE IT WHEN YOU CAN 

It is wise to SAVE a program on tape or 
disk before running it. That way, if the 
computer "locks up" or becomes in- 
operative because of an error, you won't 
have to re-type everything. For a very long 
program, it is advisable to save what you 
have entered after every 20 or 30 minutes 
of typing. 

THE "QUOTE MODE" 

Most Commodore computers incorpor- 
ate an extremely useful, though tricky, 
feature called the Quote Mode. This 
allows you to program screen control 
functions, including cursor movement 
and character color changes, within a 
PRINT statement. Quote Mode is turned 
on whenever the quotation mark key 
[shift-2] is pressed. It is turned off when the 
quotation mark key is pressed again, or 
when the [RETURN] key is pressed. Quote 
mode is also in effect whenever the insert 
(INST) function is used. 

When the quote mode is on, any time 
you press either a cursor control key, a col- 
or control key (such as [ctrl-wht]), or a 
reverse control key, you will see an invers- 
ed graphic character appear on your 
screen. These characters have no obvious 
meaning by themselves except as indica- 
tors that certain control functions have 
been inserted in the program. These in- 
verse graphic characters also appear in 
normal, hard-copy (paper) listings of a pro- 
gram, but are nearly impossible to inter- 
pret in that form. 

THE COMMANDER "QUOTE 
MODE" LISTING FORMAT 

To make your task as easy as possible, 
COMMANDER has adopted a unique for- 
mat for all control and graphic characters, 
as well as spaces, that occur between 



quotation marks. In our listing, each 
special character is represented by an ab- 
breviation that appears between a pair of 
square brackets. For example, [down] 
means to press the cursor-down key once. 
The abbreviation [com-G] means to hold 
down the Commodore logo key (at the far 
lower right of the keyboard) while press- 
ing G. When you see [shf-W], hold the 
shift key and press W. The space bar is indi- 
cated by the symbol [sp]. When the same 
special key is to be pressed more than 
once, the number of repeats will be 
shown between the brackets, for exam- 
ple, [right, 8 times]. 

Here is a list of the most common 
special key abbreviations: 



Abbreviation Key(s) to Press 

[blk] CTRL & 1 

[wht] CTRL & 2 

[red| CTRL & 3 

[cyn] CTRL & 4 

[pur] CTRL & 5 

[grn] CTRL & 6 

[blu] CTRL & 7 

[yel] CTRL & 8 

[rvs-on] CTRL & 9 

[rvs-off] CTRL & 

|clr] SHIFT & CLR/Home 

[home] CLR/HOME 

linst] SHIFT & INST/DEL 

♦ 
[down] CRSR 

-*• ♦ 

[up] SHIFT & CRSR 

«. * 

[right] CRSR 

* *- 

[left] SHIFT & CRSR 

|shf-X| SHIFT & X(or any 

key indicated) 

[com-X] Commodore (lower 

right key) & X (or 
any key indicated) 




Software that has the Edge. 




DATA MANAGER II 

for Commodore 64 $69.95 

The MicroSpec Data Manager II offers data management powers found only on 
larger, more expensive computer systems. Simple enough to be used in the 
home and powerful enough lo be found in the business, this versatile package 
allows you to do all your data management tasks quickly and easily. The Data 
Manager II system provides the tools to let you create files, store information, 
maintain and update files, search and select for specific information, do multiple 
sorts, define vertical or horizontal reports, print labels, merge with word proces- 
sors, and more. Sample files for different applications are used throughout the 
user guide to help explain operation of the system. To further simplify operation, 
the Data Manager II system is completely menu driven. There are absolutely no 
complicated syntaxes, commands, or languages needed to make use of this 
system. 




RENTAL PROPERTY MANAGER 
for Commodore 64 $1 79.95 

Rental Property Manager from MicroSpec is a powerful tool for organizing and 
managing financial information for rental property. Ideally suited for property 
owners and apartment managers alike, this system lakes the tedium out of your 
paperwork. The Rental Property Manager will keep accurate records for all rental 
units with the user entering only the date and amount of payments. With this 
information, the system will generate tenant lists, overdue rents lists, expired 
leases lists, vacancy lists, income reports, expense reports, payment history 
reports, and rental statements with mailing labels. A complete user guide takes 
you through each function of the system. The Rental Property Manager is simple 
to use, powerful in its capability, and the only package of its kind available for the 
Commodore 64. 



More MicroSpec software that gives you the edge... 




Maillist 
Manager 



Payroll 
Manager 



General 
Ledger 



Accounts 

Receivable 



Accounts 
Payable 



Inventory 
Manager 



Checkbook 
Manager 



rfa 




MicroSpec, Inc. 

P.O. Box 863085 
Piano, Texas 75086 
(214)867-1333 



Call or write for 

FREE catalog. 

Dealer inquiries 

welcome. 



/* 



=\ 



Apple Pick'n 



iby Robert L. Bloomer i 



In playing "Apple Pick'n" you are a 
member of a poor starving tribe. The evil 
Hothian Fuzz monsters have stolen the 
only food in the land, the "magic apples." 
They have taken them underground to 
their labyrinth. 

There are many dangers in the 
labyrinth. First there are the evi! Fuzz 
monsters. They have radar and know 
where you are. Second there are rocks. 
You can walk under them for only a brief 
moment. If you don't get out of the way in 
time, you may be crushed. The next 
danger is fighting against the clock. You 
must get the apples before you starve. The 
last danger you encounter are the gates to 
the storage chamber. They are constantly 
opening and closing. If you get caught in 
one of the gates as it closes, it proves to be 
a fatal move. 

"Apple Pick'n" is made up of two pro- 
grams. The first program loads the custom 
graphics and the machine code. It will 
automatically toad and run the second 
program. 

Your man is controlled by the joystick. 
To start, move down out of the mountain. 
Each apple is worth 50 points. Once all the 
apples are gathered you move onto the 
next level. Incidentally, when the program 
has been loaded, press stop on the play 
button or your joystick will not respond 
properly. 

In the first program lines 3-5 read the 
graphics, lines 6-7 read the machine code, 
lines 9-28 are the DATA statements, line 34 
loads and runs the second program. 

In the second program, line 3 reads the 
machine language sound routine. Lines 
5-13 contain the DATA statements for the 
sound routine. Lines 14-17 initialize the 
variables. Lines 18-30 draw the screen. 
Line 34 reads the joystick. Line 39 moves 
the tribesman. Lines 40-45 contain the 
rock falling routine. Lines 50-60 contain 
the Fuzz monsters movement routine. 
Lines 62-68 contain the death routines. 
Lines 69-75 control the levels. 

20ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



J 



LIST OF VARIABLES M -Tribesman's location. 

M{@)-M (2)-Fuzz monsters location DM-Number of apples. 

SC -Score. F3- Difference from the tribesman and 
LV-Level. Fuzz monster. 

D-Rock location. J-Reading from the joystick. 

Listing 1 

i X=PEEK (S6>-2: P0KE52. X: PQKE56, X: P0KE51 , PEE 
KC55) :CLR s PRINT' : ' LcIrlT • 

2 P0KE36879, XI O; P0KE36869, 255: PQKE36878, 15 

3 F0RA=7423TO7431 ! POKEA, O". NEXT 

4 F0RA=7168TQ7 175: POKEA, 255s NEXT 

5 F0RA=7176T07271s READB: POKEA r B: NEXT 

6 F0RA=7300T07338: READBs POKEa!, BsNEXT 

7 FQRA?=750OT07666: READB: POKEA, B: NEXT 
v Dh I A60, 24 „ 60, 90. 153. 60, 36, 102 

10 DATA24,60.62„ 126,126, 124.60,, 8 

1 1 DATA255. 255,255, 255, 255,255, 255,255 

12 DATA68, 170,56,84, 124, 124, 40,68 

13 DATA255,248,224, 192, 192, 128, 128. 128 

14 DATA255,31, 7,3,3, 1 ., 1 ., 1 

1 5 DAT A 1 28 , 1 28 „ :! 28 .192.192,224 „ 24S ,255 

1 6 DA 1 A 1 , 1,1. 3 , 3, 7, 31 , 255, il 4 ,16,126,251, 247 

,255, 126,60 
1 7 DATA230, 40,, 124, 146, 182, 254, 40, 238, 66, :l 65 

j 60,90, ].26, 102,90, 195 

1 8 DA r A 1 9 5 , 2 3 1 ,195,165 , 1 02 . 1 95 , 2 1 9 „ 1 5:3 

1 9 DATA 162,12, 1 73, 255 , 29 , 20 1 , 4 , 240 , 20 , 20 1 , 3 
, 240.9, 201, 2,240. 1, 96, 142,88,30, 96, 142, 8 
8. 30 

20 DATA142,89, 30.96, 142,88,30, 142,89,30, 142 

, 90, 30 , 96 

21 DATA172,254, 29, 174, 253,. 29,224, 10, 240,3,7 
6, i 01 , 29, 1 62, ,. 200 ; , 192,2, 240, 3, 76, 101 , 29. 
1 6< > „ 

22 DATA 192, 1,240, , 232, 1 7Z. 147, 31 . 201 . 1 , 24 
0,42, 169,3, 141, 147,31. 169. 160, 141, 154,31 
„ 142 

23 DAIA253.29, 140.254,29,96,232, 173, 154,31. 
201, 1,240, 17, 169,3, 141, 154,31 , 169, 160, 14 
J ., 1 4 7 

24 DATA31, 142, '23,29, 140,254,29,96, 169. 1, 14 
1,252,29,96, 169,3 



TWO EXCITING NEW PRODUCTS 
FOR THE C0MM0D0RE-64 



RAMDISK-64 

The RAMDISK-64 is 64 kbytes of RAM used to 
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output. 

The VIDEO-80cartridge plugs into the Commodore 
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P Technclcgies 

1555 Riverpark Drive, Suite 206 
Sacramento, CA 95815 
(916) 920-3226 
8:00 am to 5:00 pm PST. Mon-Fri 



25 DATA162, , 157,228.31,232,224 
,23,208,248, 169,7, 162, , i.57, 
.,*.xA'i,, 1 *j 1 » 2 32 j j- JL *t i He 3 j 2Ul% inB^ 
96 

26 DATA169, 127, 141,34, 145, 173, 
31, 145,201, 122,208,6, 169, , 1 
41,251,29,96,201, 118,208 
DATA6, 169,44, 141,251,29,96, 
201, 110,208,6, 169,21, 141,25 

208 

DATA6, 169,23, 141,251,29,96, 

169,22, 141,251,29,96 

PRINT ' ' Eel rr ' 

PRINT' ' E down, 3 times3Erigh 

t, 5 times3 Crvs-on3 Cwht 3AEc 

yn3PEyel 3PEwht 3LCcyn 3EEr i gh 

t3Cyel 3PCwht3ICcyn3CCyel3KC 

wht.3' Ccyn3N" ' 

PRINT' : ' Crvs-on3Cright, 7 ti 

mes3Cdown, 3 ti mes3L0ADINGE 

blu3Cup, 2 times 3'' 

POKE 1 98 , 5 : P0KE634 ,13: P0KE63 

5, 131: END 



15 P0KE7507, 10 

16 M*7794iDM«=.iM<0)=7991jM<1>- 

7955 : M < 2 ) =7984 : P0KE7676 , : P 
0KE7677, 0: P0KE7678, 0: D=. : Q= 



27 



?8 

51 
C9 



1 



£ 



6 
7 

8 

9 

10 



11 
12 



4 ",T" 

l-..'< 



14 



Listing 2 

P0KE37154, 255: P=30720 

SN=36875: POKESN-6, 255: POKES 

N+3, 15:P0KESN+4,27:DIMM<3) : 

P= 30720 

FOR I =83070974 : READCi POKET , C 

:NEXT 

SYS830 

DATA120, 169,5, 141,60,3, 169, 

6, 141,61,3, 169, 133, 133, , 169 

,3, 133, 1,169,93,141 

DATA20,3, 169,3, 141,21,3,88, 

96 

D AT A206, 6 1,3, 208, 28, 72, 152, 

72, 172, 60, 3, 200, 177, , 141,61 

,3,, 200, 177, ,,201 

DATA1,240, 12, 141, 12, 144, 140 

,60,3, 104, 168, 104,76, 191,23 

4 , 1 60 , 255 , 208 , 243 

DAT A 10, 201, 10,203, 10,207, 20 

, 225, 10, 207, 20, 225, 20, 207 

DATA30,225, 10,225, 10,228, 10 

,229, 10,231, 10,225, 10,228,2 

0,231 

DATA10,223,20,228, 40,225 

DATA 1 , 20 1,10, 203 ,10, 207 , 20 

,225, 10,207,20,225,20,207,3 

0,225, 10,219, 10,215 

DATA 10,212,10,219,10, 225 , 20 

,231, 10,228, 10,225, 10,219,4 

0,228,1,1 

SC= . : LV= 1 : P0KE7679 , 3 : A*= ' " 

00059' n :D=. 



17 

18 



19 



20 



9"! 

24 



28 



T I *=»» 000000 ' ' 
PRINT' ' Cclr3Cblu333333®®®®5) 
333333333333333333333 C r vs-o 
n 3 Cshf -A 3 Ccom--*3 Cr vs-of f 333 
3333333333' ' 

PRINT' ' Cup3333333Crvs-on3Es 
hf-\3Ecom-*3Eshf-\3Esp, 2 t 
imes3 E com-* 3 Er vs-of f 3 33333E 
F33333333Ervs-on3 Eshf-\3 Csp 
, 6 times] Ecam-#3 Crvs-of f 3® 
333GH333' ' 

PRINT' ' Cup] 333® C r vs-on 3 E sh f 
-\3Csp, €3 times3 Ccom-*3 Cshf 
-\3 Ceam-*3 Crvs-of f 333333333 
3Cr vs-on .1 II shf-\3 Csp, 12 tim 
es3Ccom-*3Ervs-off 33333®' ' 
PRINT' ' Eyel 3 Cup 3 03333333333 
3333333333C0333Ebl k'3BEyel 3© 
33® 33333® C b 1 k 3 B C yel 3 33333C ' ' 
PR I NT ' ' C up 3 03® 3)33 5)® 3) C b 1 k 3 B C 
yel 3 33333333333CC3333333333 
333 C b 1 k 3 B C y e 1 3 333S33C : ' ' 
PRINT" ' Cup3C33Cblk3BCyel 33® 
333333333333Eblk3BCyel333C ' 
PRINT' ' Eup3C33Cgrn3IEyel 33® 
3Cblk3BCyel3333333Cb:Lk3BEye 
1 3 333Cgrn3 I Cyel 3 330033 Crvs~ 
on3 Csp 3 Crvs-of f 3 333Eqrn3 I Ey 
el 3 Crvs-on] Csp, 6 ti mes3Crv 
s~of f 3 Cgrn3 I Cyel 3 333 Crvs-on 
3 Csp 3 Crvs-of f 333C* ' 
PRINT' ' Cup3C33Ervs-on3Csp3C 
rvs-off 3 3333333Cblk3BCyel33 
33333 E r vs-on 3 E sp 3 C r vs-of f 3 3 
300®® Er vs-on 3 Esp3 E rvs-off 33 
3333333333333 E r vs-on 3 E sp 3 E r 
vs-of f 3 330" : " 

PRINT' ' E up 3 C33 Crvs-on 3 Csp, 
16 ti mes3 Ervs-of f 3 33CC33Egr 
n 3 I Cyel 3333Cbl k 3CCCCCCC0Cye 
1 3333Cgrn3ICyel 3330' ' 
PRINT' ' Eup3C3®®33Cblk3BEblk 
3 C E g r n 3 I C y e 1 3 C r vs-on 3 E sp , 4 

times 3 Ervs-of f 3 Cgrn3 I Cbl k3 
CBCyel 333333CCCgrn3 I Cyel 33 
3333 Crvs-on 3 Cblk 3 Esp3 Cyel 3 C 
sp, 6 times 3 Cbl k 3 Csp 3 Cyel 3 E 
rvs-off 3 33333 Cqrn 3 1 Eyel3C ' 
PR INT " Cup 3 03335)3 C b 1 k 3 B C b 1 k 
3CEgrn3 I Cyel 3 Crvs~an3 Csp, 4 

times 3 Crvs-of f 3 Cgrn3 I Cbl k 3 
CB C ye 1 3 33333CC333333 C b 1 k 3 C 
CCCCCCCCyel 3 Crvs-of f 3333333 
CC3333 C gr n 3 I E yel 3 3333333333 
S)£qru'i I Eye.1 3333 



22ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



29 
30 
31 

32 



33 
34 



36 



37 
38 
39 

40 

41 
42 

43 

44 



POKES 163, 3 b P0KE388S3, 7 

SYS7585 

SYS7300I SYS7500: IFPEEK (7676 

>THENPOKEM, 12-.G0T062 

PRINT 1 " Cblu3Chome3Crlght3Cr 

vs-on3TIME: ' ' RIGHT* (TX*, 2) ' ' 

Cright,, 3 timesJSCOREi "SO" •" 

Chome3Cdown]Cright3Crv5--Qn3 

LVLi pp LV| ' ' Crvs-on3Cle-ft3C- 

sp3" ' 

IFTI*»A*THEN62 

SYS7610: J=PEEK <7675) -22 

I FM+ J < 78 1 20RPEEK ( M+ J ) =30RPE 

EK(M+J)=2THENJ=. 

I FPEEK < M+ J ) =9THENDM=DM+ 1 : SC 

=SC+50: POKESN, 240: POKESN , Os 

I F8O2000THENP0KE7679 , PEEK < 
7679)+! 

IFDM-14THEN69 

IFJTHENPOKESN, 220s POKESN, 

M=M+ J : POKEM-J , 1 60 : POKEM , 1 s P 

OKEM+P,0 

XX=240: IFPEEK <M-22> -2THENQ- 

I FPEEK ( D ) = 1 60THENP0KED-22 „ 1 
60: POKED, 2s POKED+P, Os D=D+22 
I FPEEK ( D ) - 1 60THENP0KESN , X X : 
XX=XX-5:B0T041 
POKESN, 



I FQ»2ANDM-DTHENF0KEM- 
: POKEM, 2s G0TQ62 



' jL.tL k 



160 



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45 I FPEEK < M-22 K >2THENQ= . ■ D- . 

50 F0RZ-0T02 

5 1 PQKE887 „ 1 44 : POKESN , 

52 F2-MCZ) sF3-<M-F2) 

53 IFF3<-22THENF4— -22 

54 IFF3>22THENF4-22 

55 IFF3<10ANDF3>0THENF4-i 

56 I FF3 >- 1 0ANDF3< OTHENF4=- 1 

57 IFPEEK <F2+F4>«1THENPQKEF2, 1 
60: P0KEF2+F4, 10: POKEM < Z) +F4 
+P,4:G0TQ62 

58 I FPEEK < F2+F4 KM 60THEN60 

59 POKEM <Z), 160i POKEM (ZJ+F4, 10 
: M < I > -M ( Z ) +F4 s POKEM ( Z ) +P , 4 

60 POKEM <Z>, 10: POKEM <Z)+P, 4: NE 
XT 

61 C50T031 

62 PRINT" [down 3 Cright,, S time 
sKrvB-oniYOUCspiDIED 1 ' ' 

63 P0KESN+3,0»F0RA-iT02000iNEX 
T 

64 P0KE7676„0 

65 P0KE7679 , PEEK < 7679 ) -- 1 : I FPEE 
K < 7679 ) THENPOKESN+3 , 1 5 : SOTO 
16 

66 PRINT' ' [home] Crvs-on 3 Cdown, 

7 times] L'ri ght, 7 times38A 
MECsp30VER Cright , 10 times] 
Crvs-on] PUSH Csp3Fl Esp3TOCs 
p 3 START' ' iFOKESN+3,0 

67 GET A*! IFA*< >' ' * ' THEN67 

Continued on page 93 



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nf r.B n l*c . 



Circle NO. 207 



Circle No. 234 



June 1984 • COMMANDERI23 



/* 



^ 



The Newsletter Editor 



^ 



iby Colin F. Thompsoni 



The "Newsletter Editor" (NED) started 
as a small programming project to ac- 
complish a very limited goal. That goal was 
to be able to read disk text files written on 
any word processor without using the 
word processing program that generated 
the text. 

As the assistant newsletter editor for my 
local Commodore Computer Group, my 
duty is to print each month's articles (from 
many different authors) on my Dynax 
DX1 5 printer and make the copy available 
to the Editor for final pasteup. At first it 
sounded like a simple task, so I accepted 
the job with a dear mind and the in- 
nocence of the uninitiated. 

I soon discovered why I was asked to do 
this job. I thought it was because I havethe 
best printer in the dub. Wrong. I got the 
job because I havethe most word process- 
ing programs. 

Each month now, I receive articles on 
disk, written on as many as six different 
word processors. I can't ask all the authors 
to switch to Quick Brown Fox just because 
I favor it, so in self defense I wrote NED. 

SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM 

The Newslette r Editor was d esig ned as a 
tool for newsletter Editors, but anyone 
who needs to extract information from 
disk files may find it useful. The program 
does not edit text, but rather pulls text 
from the disk, displays it on the screen and 
prints it on the printer. Text from the eight 
most popular word processing programs 
may be captured. Acutally, most word 
processor files are accessable. Figure 1 is a 
screen dump of the Main Selection Screen 
for the C-64 version. This is what you will 
see when you RUN the program. NED will 
work on the C-64 and VIC 20 with 8< of 
additional RAM added. 

While investigating the various word 
processors on the market, I found that 
they all store their text files on the disk in 
one of three formats: SEQuential, USER, 
or PRoGram files. Within each of these 
three formats the text may be stored in 
any of three coding schemes: PET ASCII, 

2AICOMMANDER • June 1984 



Ja 



ASCII or Screen Codes. To make a truly 
universal text reader, all the storage op- 
tions must be considered. Since I don't ex- 
pect you to know that QBF is stored as a 7 
bit ASCII PRoGram file or that Word 
Manager is a PET ASCII USER file, etc., I've 
labeled the main menu with the actual 
names of various word processors. This 
will take most of the guesswork out of 
your hands. 

WHO CAN USE 
THE PROGRAM? 

NED was written under the assumption 
that you, the Editor, don't own all the 
word processors ever written. I also 
assume you receive material in a format 
you can't cope with, unless the author 
uses the same word processor that you 
use. It is assumed you have a parallel or VIC 
printer. 

HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM 

LOAD and RUN "editor". The main 
screen (fig. 1) has 13 menu options. The 
first nine allow you to select which 
"brand" of text file you will be working 
with. Option 10 will exit the program and 
begin listing NED to the screen. Option 11 
will change the cursor color. Options 12 
and 13 are for the C-64 only and will not 
appear for VIC 20 users. They change the 
screen and border colors. 



Colin F.. Thompson 



Read a File From 
Which Word Processor? 



i. Quick Brown Fox 

2 . Word Manager 

3. SpeedScript 

4. Totl.Text 

5. Paper Clip CTL ; 

6. Paper Clip CTL \ 

7 . EasyScript 

8 . WordPro 3 + 

9. HES / Page Mate 



.Kit rrograM 

11. Cursor Color:; 

12. Screen Color 

13. Border Color 



Which Number? 1 



Insert the diskette with the text file to be 
read into drive 8 (or 0:} and select an op- 
tion between 1 and 9 to match the file 
type. The screen will change to resemble 
figure 2. The "brand" will appear in the 
upper left hand corner. The prompts 
"Press p or q" remind you that you may 
pause the text anytime or quit and return 
to the main menu. 

"Print the text y/n/q" gives you three op- 
tions. Answering "q"will return you to the 
main menu, "y" will cause the text to be 
sent to both the screen and printer, "n" 
will only list the text to the screen for view- 
ing. 

If you select "y" the next prompt will ask 
"CBM Printer y/n". Answer "y" if you have 
a VIC 1 525 or if your printer interface con- 
verts PET ASCII to ASCII or if the interface 
emulates the 1525. Most dot matrix 
printers will work if you answer "y". 
Always try to use the "y" option. This will 
print the text in the proper "case" on the 
screen. If the printed text is reversed, (uP- 
PER AND IOWER CASE) you may do two 
things to corred it. 

The better method requires you to read 
your printer manual or interface manual 
and find which switch controls the "7 bit 
or 8 bit" option. Changing this switch will 
correct the problem. The other method is 
to answer the question with an "n". This 
will do the conversion but is not guaran- 
teed to work with every printer. Also the 
case will be reversed on the screen. Try to 
let the printer or interface do the ASCII 
conversion for you. 

At this point the program asks for the 
filename. Enter it exactly as it appears on 
the disk's directory. The only exception is 
QBF. Reverse the case. Usually this means 
entering the file name in lower case even 
though the directory shows it in upper 
case. If everything goes well, the screen 
will clear and you will see a flash in the up- 
per left part of the screen. Text will start fill- 
ing the screen, one character at a time. If 
you selected the printer also, it will begin 
printing the text one line at a time. This will 



continue until the End Of File is reached, or 
you press "q" or "p". If a disk error is en- 
countered, the disk status will appear on 
the screen, telling you what the problem 
is, and the run will terminate. 

FORMATTED TEXT? 

Many word processors embed some 
formatting codes into the body of the text. 
I didn't really want these codes to appear 
on the screen or printer so NED will strip 
out these unwanted codes from some of 
the brands. In particular, QBF and 
TOTLTEXT use a lot of formatting codes, 
but none will appear. This will be discussed 
in detail later. You have some control over 
the printed output. You can select the 
right margin. If your newsletter's format is 
40 columns wide, for example, you can 
print the text with a right margin of 40. 
Words will not be broken up. Only whole 
words will be printed on each line. Right 
justification is not done, but could be im- 
plemented, as most of the code necessary 
is already in place. 

It would be a good idea to provide your 
authors with a copy of NED so they may 
read their text files with it and see how it 
looks before submitting it. In general, the 
text files should be written with no format 
codes embedded. It is best if the only non- 
text character in the text is a carriage 
return. More on this later. 

PROGRAMMING NOTES 
AND DESCRIPTION 

NED is written in BASIC. A glance at the 
listing will show the program has 9 major 
modules. Since there are many possible 
combinations of file types, the conversion 
routines are handled in one of four 
modules: QBF, Word Manager (WM), 
SpeedScript and Seq File Reader. 

Each of these modules performs similar 
tasks, but works on different file struc- 
tures. 

PROGRAM FLOW 

No matter what brand of text file is to be 
read, the flowchart of the program reads 
about the same with only minor varia- 
tions. After the user-supplied variables are 
input, NED branches to the module that 
handles that brand. A read file is opened 
to the disk, using the file name supplied. 
Status is checked and if the file name was 
found, NED continues. If any problem oc- 
curs with the disk channel, status will be 
printed on the screen for 2 seconds and 
then second screen will appear so you can 
start over, 

If status is OK the text is read in using a 
GET* statement. Yes, this is slow, but it 
allows each character to be examined. 
Conversion from Screen Code or ASCII is 
done and the character Is examined again 
(in some modules) to see if it is part of an 




Print Method: 

Serial Impact Dot Matrix 

Prlnl Speed: 

80CPS 

Print Direction: 

Bi-directional (logic seeking) in 
text mode; uni-directional in bit 
image graphics mode 

PRINT CHARACTERISTICS 
Formal: 

■ Alphanumeric— 9x8 full space 
character matrix 

■ Block character graphics— 
7 x3 dot matrix 

■ Bit image graphic— Vertical 7 or 
8 dots 

Character Set: 

■ 228 *SC11 characiers- 
normal and alphanumeric 
fonts, symbols and semi-graphics 



Dot Graphics Density: 

■ Normal— 640 dots-203.2 mm 
(8 in) line 

■ Horizontal compressed — 
1,280 dois/208.2 (8 in) line 

Graphic Resolution: 

■ Single mode-80Hx8:v DPI 

■ Double mode— )60Hx82V DPI 
Print Styles: 

■ Pica, pica bold and 
emphasized 

PAPER HANDLING 
Line Spacing: 

I l/u in: programmable in 

increments of 0.35 mm (1/72 In) 
and 0.1)8 mm (1/216 in) 

Characters Per Line: 

■ Normal 80 

■ Double width 40 



Paper Feed: 

■ Adjustable sprocket and 
friction feed 

Number Of Coplcsi 

■ 3 plus original 
PAPER 
Types: 

Fan fold Roll and 

Single Sheet 
Width: 4 to 10 in 
RIBBON 
Type i Cartridge 
Colon Black Film 
Life Expectancy) 

L'p to 1 .000.000 characters 
DIMENSIONS 
Height: 125 cm (4.9 in) 
Width: J-,7 cm (14-8 in) 
Depth: 32-39 cm ()2 75 ml 
Weight, 5.3 kg (II lbs) 



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June 1984 • COMMANDERI25 



unwanted format code. If it is, the code is 
discarded or acted upon. Characters are 
then sent to a subroutine that determines 
if the text is to be viewed only or printed . If 
it is to be printed on an ASCII printer ("n"), 
it is converted to ASCII. Text to be printed 
then goes into a string <ps$) and held until 
the CHRSJ13) (return) is received or the 
string is as long as the right margin. When 
the second condition is met, ps$ is search- 
ed from right to left for a space character 
(32). When a 32 is found, all the text to the 
left of it is printed. The text to the right of it 
is kept as a new ps$ and the building pro- 
cess starts anew. This is how the text is 
printed without breaking up the words. 
You may set the right margin in Line 1 
(rm = ??). If a return is encountered before 
ps$ is full, ps$ is printed as is. 

After a character is sent to the print 
routine, the keyboard is examined to see if 
a "q" or "p" has been pressed. If not, the 
system status is examined to check forthe 
End Of File condition. If it is found or if "q" 
was pressed, control is passed to the Disk 
Status Module where the status is read 
from the drive and printed on the screen. 
All open files are closed and the Main 
Menu appears. 

DETAILS 

There is no truly "universal" file reader. 
The scope of NED is limited to the major 
brands of word processors. If you run into 
a word processor that is not listed on the 
Main Menu, the chances are good that 
you may recover its text by using a little 
detective work. First look at the directory 
and find out what file type the text is 
stored under. PRG, USER and SEQ are 
handled by NED. Once you know the file 
type, select the menu option that handles 
that type. QBF does PRG files with ASCII. 
Word Manager does USER files with PET 
ASCII. SpeedScript does PRG files with 
Screen Codes. The rest use SEQ files with 
PET ASCII. Try reading the foregin text file 
from the option that handles that file 
structure. You WILL get something. Now 
let's examine each of the four major 
modules. 

QUICK BROWN FOX 

QBF needs one small routine the others 
do not. When you enter a file name, the 
file name must be converted to true ASCII 
in the subroutine beginning at Line 380. 
QBF's embedded format codes all begin 
with the # symbol. Incoming characters 
are examined in the routine beginning at 
line 270. lfa#symbol is encountered, NED 
branches to Line 470 to begin examining 
the following characters. Some minor for- 
matting occurs here. If the #p (new 
paragraph) code is found, a carriage 
return and four spaces are sentto the print 

26/ COMMANDER • June 1984 



]pem ,d, id, iu :prini(i, 

5 saue"editGr bu" , 8 : gosubBO 

6 print"print#4 :close4":clo 

7 open4 ,4 , 7 :cmd4 : list 

8 : 

20 rem"****************************** 
IAIN PRINT ROUTINE « 



22 rem"* MAIN PRINT RDUTI 
24 rem"********************* 

screen only 



28 ifp=. then50:rem screen only 

3D ifp=2then3B:rem cbm/vic printer 

32 if c<nethen38 : rem ascii printer 

33 ifc>191 thenc=(c-128):goto38 

34 ifc>nsthenc=(c-nc) :goto38 
36 if c>nrthenc= ( c+nc ) 
38 ifc=natheni=len(ps$) :goto4B 
4D ps$=ps$+chr${c) : iflen(ps$)<n 
h ? f ori=rmto1 step-1 

ifmid$(ps$,i,1 )<>" " thenpr$ = i..- 
print/j4,left$(ps$,i):ps$ = pr$:pr$ = "":goto50 
print#4,chr$(c) ; 



40 ps$ = ps$tcnrmi;j; j.i ik 

42 f ori=rmto1 step-1 

44 ifmid$(ps$,i,1 )<>" "thenpr$ 

46 print/j4,left$(ps$,i) 

48 print#4,chr$(c) ; 

5D printchr$(c );: return 

52 : 

100 rem"****************************** 

110 rem"* QUICK BROWN FDX * 

1 20 rem"****************************** 



mthen50 
=mid${ps$,i,1 )+pr$i 

<t <t_t11(.„„j.„cn 



nexti 



140 open4,4,sa:openB, 8 , 8 ,nb$+" , p , r " 
1 50 openl ,8,1 5 : go sub 6 000: if dsthen370 
170 printchS; 
180 get#B,a$,a$ 

130 get#8,a$:gosub270:geti$:ifi$="p"then250 
200 if i$="q"then240 
210 ifst=.then190 
220 ifst=-128then190 

240 print#4,ps$:ps$="":gosub6000:goto9410 
250 getb$:ifb$=""then250:rem pause 
260 goto190 
c=asc (a$ ) 

if c=nathsn3B0 :rem ret,num 



270 
280 
290 
300 



remif c=nathsn3B0 :rem ret,num 
if c=ndthengosub470: goto350 : rem § 
if c>nqthenc=na;goto35D :rem boil 
if c>nf thenc=c-nc : go to 350: rem "LtoU" 

ifr^npfhpn^fl « r p m niim 



310 if c>nf thenc=c-nc : gotoJbU : 
" if c<nethen350 :rem num 
ifc<ncthenc=c+nr:goto350 




400 I UL 11= I I.UJ. 

410 t=asc(t$) 

420 ift>nf thent=t-nc 

430 if t>nrthent=t+nc 

440 nb$=nb$+chr$(t) 






--•—■ I— f 



II 
II 



ABBY'5 r _. : -. . _ ii 

ouse of Discount Software 



VIC-20, Qortek and the Microchips (C) $6 
VIC-20, Intro to Basic Parts I & II (C) $14 ea. 

£s commodore 

Home Babysitter $8 

Road Race $8 

Clowns $8 

Radar Rat Race $8 

Mole Attach $8 

Seawolf $8 

Super 5lot $8 

Super 5mash $8 

Finball Spectacular $8 

Super Alien $8 

The 5hy is Falling $8 

Draw Poker $8 

Cosmic Cruncher $8 

Ra id on Ft Knox $8 

VIC Avenger $14 

Qorf $14 

The Count Adv $14 

Mission Impossible Adv $14 

Pirate Cove Adv $14 

Voodoo Castle Adv . $14 

IT 



F REE DISKETTE WITH EACH PURCHASE! 



ATARI SOFT (CT) VIC-20/64 ■ ■ HESWARE C-64 f CT1 



PacMan $29 

Centipede $29 

Defender $29 

Dig Dug $29 

Donkey Kong $29 

Robot ron $29 

IM'ltiWJW'rWl 

Typing Tudor(C) $19 

Typing Tudor (D) . $21 



COMPUTER SOFTWARE 



C-64 Practicalc (D)(C) $47 

Practicalc-20 (D)(C) $57 



DESIGN WARE C-64 
EDUCATIONAL 



Cryptocube (D) 

Spellicopter(D) 

Creative Creature (D) 

Maze Math (D) 

Spellgraph (D). 



Qorf $17 

Wizard of Wor $17 

Tooth Invaders $17 

Pinball Spectacular $17 

Lemans $17 

Radar Rat Race $17 

Seawolf $17 

Blue Print $17 

Music Composer $17 

Music Machine $17 

Frogmaster $17 

Star Post $17 

Star Ranger $17 

Clowns $17 

Lazarian. $17 

5uper Expander $19 

5imon's Basic $19 

CP/M $59 

Magic Desk $49 

E2GS 

Easy Mail $13 

Pet Emulator $13 

Word/Mame Machine $13 

Easy Spell $13 

Screen Editor $13 

Assembler $13 

Payroll $39 

A/R $39 

A/P $39 

G/L $39 

Zorkl.ll. Ill $29 

Starcross $29 

Suspended $39 

Deadline $39 

Nevada Cobol $39 

Logo $59 

Pilot $59 

Introduction to Basic Part I . . $21 
C-64 Bonus Pack $13 

EEE3S] 

Math Improvement 6-Pack. . . $15 
Sampler 6 Pack $15 



ACCESS C-64 



Beach Mead (0)(C) $31 

fleutral Zone (D)(C) $31 



.$25 
. $25 

. $25 

. $25 

.$25 

5pell A Kazam (D) $25 



DYNATECH C-64 



Codewnter (D) $69 



eiECTROMIC ARTS C-64 



Pinball Construction Set (0) . $39 
Music Construction 5et(D) . . $39 

Mule (D) $39 

Archon (D) $39 

Cut & Paste Word 

Processor (D) $45 

B-Bug(D) $34 

Hard Mat Mack (D) $34 

Worms? (D) $34 

Sword of Fargoal (C) $24 

Crush Crumb Chomp (C) $24 

Temple of Aphasi (C) $31 

Upper Reaches of Aphasi (C). $17 
Curse of RA(C) $17 

Essa 

Jumpman (D)(CT) $29 

Jumpman JR (D) (CT) $29 

Pitstop(CT) $29 

Gateway to Temple 

of Aphasi (CT) $29 

Oragonriders 

of Pern (D) $29 

Starfire/Fireone (D) , $29 



HESWARE VIC-20 (CT) 



Hes Mon $25 

Hes Writer $25 

Aggressor $19 

Synthesound $29 

Shamus $19 

Protector $19 

Grid Runner $25 

Turtle Graphics $29 

VIC Forth $29 

Robot Panic $19 

Attack of Mutant Camels. . . . $25 

Laier Zone $25 

Pharoah's Curse $25 

Story Machine $25 

Face Maker $25 



HESWARE VIC-20 CASSETTES 



Torg $15 

Raid on Isram $15 



HESWARE C-64 CASSETTE 



65 0ZPD5 $17 



Heswriter $25 

Retro Ball $19 

64 Forth $45 

Turtle Graphics II $45 



HESWARE C-64 (D) 



Benji & Space Rescue $29 

Omni Calc $59 

Omni Writer/Speller $69 

Multiplan $79 

vmsmEsn 

Demon Attack $11 

E—E5I 

Enchanter $39 

Witness $39 

Planet Fall $39 

Infidel $39 

5orcerer $45 

Sea Stalker $39 

Programmers Guide $12 

5pider Eater $24 

Color Series I or II $24 

Logo Design $29 



ODESTA C-64 (D) 



Chess $52 

Dot Gobbler $13 

Close Encounter $ 9 



Oil- LI ME C-64 (D) 



Frogger , . . , $19 

Jawbreaker $19 

Crossfire $19 



Ofl-LINE CASSETTE 



C-64 Frogger $19 

VIC-20 Crossfire $19 



OM-LIHE C-64 (CT) 



Jawbreaker. . $19 



PARKER BROTHERS 
VIC-20/C-64(CT)- 



Frogger $37 

Popeye $37 

Q-Bert $37 

Tutankham ....... $37 



QUICK BROWfl FOX 
VIC 20/64 (CT) 



Word Processor $45 



SCARBOROUGH 5Y5TEM5 
C-64 (CT) 



Master Type $31 



SPINNAKER C-64 (CT) 



Alf $27 

Alphabet 200 $27 

Bubbleburst $31 

Delta Drawing $31 

Face Maker $27 

Fraltron Fever $27 

Kids on Keys $27 

Kinder Camp $22 

5tory Machine $29 

Up for Grabs $29 



5PINNAKER 64(D) 



Aerobics , . $35 

Trains $29 

5nooper troops I $29 

Snooper troops II $29 



TOT L SOFTWARE VIC-20/64 
(t>)(C) 



SUB LOGIC C-64 (D) 



Flight Simulator II $39 

Fort Apocalypse $27 

Pharoh's Curse $27 

Blue Max $29 

Data Manager $22 

Electric Checkbook $22 

Money Manager $22 

Prog.Kitsl.il $22 

Wall St $22 

Presidential Campaign $22 

Dungeons of Algebra Drag ons , $23 

Data Manager 2 $39 

Word Writer $39 

Sale Analysis $55 

Inventory Manag ement $55 

fotTText 2.6 $31 

Totl Spell $27 

Totl Label 2.6 $19 

Totl Time Manager $31 

HARDWA RE 

MPS B01 Dot Matrix/Parallel . . $229 

1600 VIC Modem $59 

1650 Auto Modem $99 

1110 VIC 81C $40 

1011 R5 232 Interface $40 

Super Expander VIC-20 $44 

Programmers Aid VIC-20 $29 

B-128 Commodore Business 

Computer $799 

8050 Dual Drive (B-128) . . . $1200 

M5D Dual Drive (C-64) $599 

Conlorde Parallel Single (C-64) 

Single Drive $319 

Cardco 6 Expander 5lot VIC-20. $49 
CIE 4 Expand er Slot C-64 $59 

UiiUIUia 

Star Gemini 10X $299 

NEC PC 8023 $339 

NEC PC 8025 $599 

NEC 15 LQ $499 

Bpjg 

NEC 1260 $89 

MEC 1201 $139 

NEC 1215 $249 

Sakata 100C $259 

Gorilla Green $89 

Gorilla Amber $99 

Amdek300 $139 

Amdek300A $159 

AmdekColorl + $319 

I»1HM 

Nashua SSSDSoxof 10 $17 

Elephant 555D Box of 10 $19 

Elephant 55DD Box of 10 $24 

Elephant DDDD Bo x of 10 $31 

VIC-20/64 $ 8 

1541 $ 8 

1702 $ 8 

CZfl $ ? 

Koala Touch Pad C-64 $75 

(C)TAPE (D)OISC (CT) CARTRIDGE 



-.-.-..; 


ra 


r ~-1 




I 





CALL TOLL FREE 

( 10a. m .- 8 p m .EST) order Status 1-513-879-9699 

.611 Cypress Drive, Fairborn, OH 45324 

We sell mail order only. C.O.D. orders accepted. Prepaid orders receive free. shipping, UP5, continental U.5„ with no waiting period when paid with 
certified check pr money order. Add 3% (minimum iS.OO) shipping and handling on all CO D Hardware may require addjtional freight charges NO " , 
EXTRA CHARGES ON CREDIT CARD ORDERS. Ohio residents add S.5% sales tax All items subject to availability and price change Free catalog 
sent with all orders. We also carry many other third party software for other computers. 






routine, thus simulating the code. If a #f 
(form feed) is found, the words "New 
Page" are printed on the screen to show 
page breaks. All other codes are stripped 
out, so that only text will be printed, 
Encourage your QBF authors to use only 
the #p or the @ (return) codes. 

WORD MANAGER 

Thisisthe'oddbali'ofthelot.WMisthe 
80 column wordprocessor that comes 
with the Data20 (Protecto, etc.) 80 col- 
umn card. Text is stored in a USER file as 
PET ASCII, in FORMATTED FORM. That 
means that when you read in a WM file it 
will print on the printer exactly as it was 
entered on WM. No formatting is done 
within NED. Encourage your WM authors 
to set the left margin to and the right 
margin to whatever you need. Then their 
text will print perfectly for your newsletter. 
This module does not use the Print 
Routine in Line 20, but relies on its own 
routine beginning in Line 1210. You can- 
not set the right margin for a WM file. 

SPEEDSCRIPT 

SpeedScript first appeared this winter in 
the pages of Compute's Gazette and has 
achieved great popularity. I've included it 
here because of that popularity. 
SpeedScript stores its text as PRG files and 
Screen Codes. The conversion from 
Screen Code to PET ASCII takes place in 
Lines 2200-2270. The first 48 characters in 
the file are discarded — see Line 2110 
where xx is 48. I've made this a variable so 
you can change it. If you lose text or get 
some garbage characters at the begin- 
ning, adjust xx accordingly in Line 2050. 

SEQUENTIAL FILES 

Here's where the fun begins. Get out 
the Excedrin. Most word processors store 
text in SEQuential file format, so the SEQ 
file module will read SOMETHING from 
any SEQ file (database, spreadsheet, etc.). 
The problems begin with something 
called a "File Delimiter". This is a character 
that is inserted into the text to limit the 
record length (usually to about 254 
characters). The most frequently used File 
Delimiter is the quote mark, but CHR$(1 3) 
is also popular. NED will strip out these un- 
wanted Delimiter characters, but it is an in- 
volved process. If CHR${13) is used, then 
the carriage return in the text will be 
something else — usually an arrow or " " 
mark. The blocks of code from Line 5000 
to 5340 establish what the File Delimiter 
and carriage return symbol is for each of 
the different word processors. The variable 
"fl" does this. Line 3080 checks forthe oc- 
curence of the Delimiter and discards it. 

2&ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



450 next 

460 return 

470 get#B,a$:c=asc(a$) 

480 if c<>1 12then490 

483 c=13:gosub28: f ori=1 to4 

486 c=32igosub20: next : return: rem #p 

490 if c=nlorc=nkorc=nmthen560 :rem #nlr 

500 if c=noorc=nhthen560 : rem #d,t 

510 if c = n jor c = ngthen570 : remfti , c 

520 if c=nnorc=npthen570:rem#u,o 

530 ifc=1 06then570:rem# j 

535 if c=1 1 5thenget#8,a$,a$:c= . : return: rem #s 

540 ifc=102thenprintrt$"# NEW PAGE w,l rt$ : c= .: return 

550 return 

560 get#8 ,a$,a$, a$:c=. :return 

570 c=.:return 

580 : 

1000 rem "tut** «###««**«*«##***#*#* »##### 

1010 rem"* WORD MANAGER * 

1020 rem"****************************** 

1030 : 

1040 pn$="Word manager" 

1050 gosubSOBO: open4,4 , sa : openl ,8,15 

1060 open8,B,8,na$+",u,r":gosub6000:ifdsthen1050 

1070 printchS; 

1090 f ori=1 to15:get#8,a$:nexti 

11 00 get#8,a$:c=asc{a$):ifc=1 99 then 1160 

1110 ifc>nqthen1140 

1 120 gosub1210:geti$:ifi$ = n p"then1170 

1130 ifi$="q"then1160 

1 140 ifst=.then1100 

11 60 print#4,ps$:gasub600Q:goto9410 

1170 getb$:ifb$=""then1170 

1180 goto1100 

1 210 ifp=0then1270 

1220 ifp=2then1 260:rem vie 

1230 ifc<ne thenprint#4 , chr$ ( c );: gotol 270 

1240 ifc>ns thenprint#4 ,chr$( c-nc );: gotol 270 

12 50 ifc>nrthenprint|?4,chr$(c + nc);:gata1270 

1260 print#4,chr$(c) ; 

1270 printchr$(c) ;: return 

1280 : 

2000 rem "******************** ********** 

2010 rem"* SPEED SCRIPT * 

2020 rem "****************************** 

2040 : 

205 pn$="SpeedScript":fl=0:xx=48 

20S0 ps$="":sa=0:p=0:go5ub6080 

209 openl ,8,15:open4,4,sa:open8,8,8,na$+",p,r" 

21 00 printch$; :gosub6000:if ds then 2 060 

2110 printch$;:fori=1toxx:get#8,a$:nexti 

2120 get#8,a$:gosub2200:geti$:if i$ = "p"then21 80 

2130 ifi$="q"then2170 

2140 ifst=. then2120 

21 70 print#4,ps$:ps$="":gosub6000:goto941 

21BD getb$:ifb$=""then2180 

2190 goto2120 

2200 ifa$=""then21 20 

2210 c=asc(a$) 

2220 ifc=nbthenc=na:gosub28: return 



An Important Bulletin 
for Home Computer users 

This is the only programming system you'll ever need 
for your home computer. 



If you own a small home computer, the 
story we're about to tell you could be of 
great help. It's about a revolutionary new 
software programming system that will let 
you and your entire family take full advan- 
tage of that machine you bought. Bui first 
things first, so here's a list of the home 
computers this product was specifically de- 
signed for: Atari 400, 600. 800, XL Series; 
Commodore Pet, VtC 20 and 64; IBM PCjr; 
TRS-80 color computer; TI-99/4A and the 
Timex Sinclair 1000, 2048 and 2068. If you 
own one of these computers, it would be 
well worth your time to read further. 

THE PROBLEM WITH 
HOME COMPUTERS 

As you probably know, Ihe problem with 
these small computers is how to get good 
software into them. Keyboard entry is too 
time consuming. Diskettes do the job well, 
but the loaders are expensive and so are 
the diskettes. Cassette loading is less 
expensive, but the cassettes themselves 
still aren't cheap and sometimes a program 
has to be read again and again before it 
actually is entered. Furthermore, few of these 
software manufacturers guarantee their 
product to run at all. 

So unfortunately, a lot of these potentially 
useful computers are relegated to |ust 
game-playing or, even worse, they find their 
way onto a closet shelf somewhere behind 
the bowling ball or last year's magazines. 

THE SOLUTION IS DATABAR SOFTWARE 

Now, thanks to the engineers at Databar 
Corporation, you can bring your computer 
back to life. They have developed OSCAR 
— which stands for an Optical Scanning 
Reader. What it does is read a bar code 
program in much the same manner as your 
local supermarket reads the bar code infor- 
mation on your grocery products. OSCAR 
plugs directly into your computer, and can 
read even complex programs extremely fast. 
In fact, in a recent time test it took a grad- 
uate computer programmer 1 hour, 9 minutes 
and 43 seconds to successfully type-in a 
program. To enter that same program, il 
took an eight-year-old child with no com 
puter experience only eight minutes and 
17 seconds. 

With OSCAR, programming is also inexpen 
sive. The bar code programs read by OSCAR 
are printed on paper, making the programs 
inherently a tot less costly to produce than 
cassette tapes or diskettes. And because 
the programs cost less to produce, they 
can be sold to you for significantly less. 




But, just because they cost less doesn't 
mean they aren't of the highest quality. In 
fact, they are so good and reliable, we are 
almost alone among software manufac- 
turers to guarantee our product to run as 
advertised. 

Databar Corporation has already developed 
an extensive library of programs ranging in 
subject matter from non-violent games to 
science, health, home management, writing 
skills and more. These programs are readily 
available at your local computer store and 
they retail for under $10 (about 1/3 what a 
diskette costs). 

THE DATABAR CLUB 

But amazingly, you can get great software 
programs for an unbelevable St. 25 each — 
if you choose to join the Databar Club. Every 
charter member gets 12 monthly issues of 
the Databar magazine each featuring at 
least eight great programs. In addition, this 



family oriented magazine also features 
articles on related subjects and computer 
use in general. The subjects covered by the 
software include; games, home manage- 
ment, classroom learning, health, law, 
science, writing skills, and computer pro- 
gramming. What's more, Databar Club 
members get a three-ring binder for their 
software programs as well as eligibility for 
exciting contests. 

But whether you join the Databar Club or 
purchase individual program packages from 
your favorite retailer- OSCAR can dramati- 
cally change the amount and quality of the 
use you get out of your computer. And let's 
face it: in the not so distant future much of 
an individual's competence will be tied 
up in how well he or she interfaces with 
a computer. 

This trial offer includes OSCAR plus the 
premier issue of Databar magazine. OSCAR 
is backed by a full 1-year warranty and if 
you aren't 1 00% satisfied with OSCAR, then 
you can return the unit within 30 days for 
a full refund. 

To order, credit card holders call toll free 
and ask for OSCAR, or send a check plus 
$1.50 for shipping and handling for each 
unit ordered. 

OSCAR with the premier issue of Databar 
magazine can be yours for only S79.95. And 
the premier edition of Databar magazine 
provides all details necessary for joining the 
Databar Club. So send for your OSCAR today 
- and take full advantage of your computer 
tomorrow. 



D Opt Ion 1 (S79.95)ftT OSCAR -a professional 
quality optical reader for easy programming ol your 
home computer in minutes, plus a trial copy ol 
DATABAR Magazine. 

Lj Option 2 ($120.00) Cnarter Member DATABAR 
Club 1-year subscription lo DATABAR Magazine- 
with 8 ptograms every issue. 

D Option 3 (S35.00 Q1) Same as Option 2 bul pay- 
able S35 per quarter. 

Z Option 4 (S240.00)- Charter Member DATABAR 
Club 2-year subscription to DATABAR Magazine— 
with a FREE OSCAR, the industry's finest barcode 
programmer 

□ Options ($10.50) Trial copy ot DATABAR Magazine 
■ ..:k-fult of barcode programs. 

'30-day money-back guarantee. tAdd St 50 lor 
handling ttMN residents add 6% sales tax. 



Enclosed Check » 



Money Order * 



Payable to Databar. Ol charge my Am. Ex. D Visa D 
MasterCard □ Carte Blanche □ Diners Club U 

Card » 



Exp. Date 



Name 



Address 



City 



State 



Zip. 



Phone 



My Computer Model is 



^Sfsaota- 



Databar Corporation. 1D2D2 Crosslown Circle • Eden Prairie. MN 553M • Phone Orders: MN (612) 944-57DQ 
Dut-of-State: I (100) 672-2776 

Circle No. 202 



wzm 



' •■■■' - ; .■■■.-•----;■ : 

- ■ : ■ " ' ■ ■ - itJ\ ; ■.'>.-'-.'. 

-■■"-'■,'■' ■- ■ * v - a - ■-.■■■ - 









HI 



a^sse. 



'■■■-'■-': 



lo£ 



■■:..;- i c'.*" 






SB 




Of course you know what you want your computer to do. Trouble is, up 
'til now, you either had to settle for packaged software off the shelf, which meant 
squeezing your ideas into somebody else's design. Or you struggled to learn a com- 
puter language. And you know how far you got with that. 

Finally there's CodeWriter. Software that lets you talk 
to your computer by yourself. 

CodeWriter software lets you create custom software to handle your 
information, your way. The first time. And you don't have to know a thing about pro- 
gramming. Y)u type in your information 
in plain English. CodeWriter does the 
rest. It translates what you've written 
into program code, then saves it 
on a separate disk. What you wind 
up with are your own programs. 
Ready to run. As many as you can 
dream up. At a fraction of the cost. 

Five different 
programs can create 
dozens of your own. 

Whether you need soft- 
ware to handle personal files, 
create reports, figure your 
taxes, practice your French or 
design your own adventure 
game, there's a CodeWriter 
program to help you. 
Home FileWriter™ has what you need to handle household information. It 
stores, files, up-dates, does your checkbook, keeps recipe files, Christmas card lists. 

FileWriter T creates reports, sorts and compares. Use it to print out 
checks, track accounts receivable, expense reports, real estate records. The ELF 
System™ can compute loan payments, do estimates, create form letters, even games. 
AdventureWriter" lets you dream up your own mysteries, riddles, plots and conun- 
drums. And Dialog"'' creates interactive programs without programming. Design tests, 
quizzes, spelling games— to teach, inform or just entertain. 

For $3.00, prove it to yourself. 
Then collect a rebate, too. 

Don't take our word for how easy and versatile 
CodeWriter is. Try it yourself. For $3.00, we'll send you a 
Demo Disk that will have you writing your own simple 
program in minutes. It's that simple. And fun. Charge it on 
Visa or MasterCard. 

That's not all. You'll get a $5.00-$10.00 Cash 
Rebate* for your purchase. Your dealer has the details. 

CodeWriter will show you that the best programs for your computer are 
the ones you write yourself. After all, whose computer is it anyway? 

The CodeWriter Series 

lb order your CodeWriter Demo Disk, or for the name of the dealer nearest you call, toll-free: 

1-800-621-4109 

Sfc^SfeTa' 1 ""''''* In Illinois call: (312) 470-0700 «c*w«,c.n»~»«...»»4 

Circle No. 159 



CodeWriter P/ograms are available for: A tari,' 

Commodore 64,' IBM*PC. PC XT, PCjr and compatibles, Kay Pro," Apple? TPProfessiunal. 




APROSOFT™ SOFTWARE 

TYPE FOR YOUR LIFE" 

With more challenge than an arcade game, learn 
lo type 75 or more woras per minute. Speed is 
User Seleclable, but NO FOOLING AROUND 
allowed! Text is WIDELY VARIED since il comes 
from the program tape. Action color graphics with 
sound fix your eyes on the screen and away from 
your fingers. Your man rows his boat across the 
screen as fast as you can type. Maintain speed 
and he can destroy the sea monster, but if you 
slow down, ZAP! Runs on unexpanded VIC or 
C-64. 

WORDPLAY" 

WORDPLAY is a collection of programs which 
allows the user to make original stories, write a 
form of Japanese poetry, play the fun game of 
"Animal" (which children love!) and create jargon 
A bonus secret message (cypher) program is also 
included In a word, WORDPLAY is a ■'BARGAIN'! 
Requires 1 6k RAM or more. ( VIC-20 or C-64). 

DR. FLOYD™ 

Psychoanalysis by computer? Well, not quite, but 
Dr. Floyd will carry on a conversation with you 
using psychoanalytical techniques that give the 
appearance of artificial intelligence. The next time 
someone asks you 'Show me what this computer 
of yours can do," you can really amaze them with 
DR. FLOYD. Great for parties - even nice for just 
having someone to talk to. Requires t6k RAM or 
more. (ViC-20 or C-64). 



Cassette $14,95 



Disc $19.95 



Note VIC-20 versions on Cassette ONLY 
C-64 versions on Cassette OR Disc. 



Apropos Technology is proud to oHer ihe-se fjne educational 
and entertaining programs 'or your computer Each program 
comes fully Tested. Replacement, it necessary, is guaranteed 
to original purchaser Prices shown include shipping charges 



PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE 

for VIC-20 or C-64 

So easy to use - simply plug-in and print. Includes all 
cables & connectors to a Centronics Type Parallel 
Printer. Includes all Commodore Graphics 

Cardprint + G $59.95 

CardprintB $39.95 

(without Graphics) 



What is better than 
Letter Quality? 

A Commercial Duty Olivetti 
Typewriter/Printer! 



PRAXIS 




PRAXIS 

41 



W/INTERNAL "^P^' W/EXTERNAL 
INTERFACE „„„ u . INTERFACE 

coriQ95 SB OQ shipping n RAQ95 
S639 (Cont USA) * 6S9M 

Perfect for typing short notes or printing a com- 
plete manuscript. Choose from many daisy wheel 
type styles. Use carbon or nylon ribbon. Standard 
Parallel or RS-232 serial input allow connection to 
almost all computers All tor a price lower than a 
good typewriter. Call or write for complete details. 



APROSPAND-64 

for C-64 

Gives your Commodore-S4 full expandability! 
Four independently switchable cartridge slots are 
compatible wity ANY Cartridge for the '64. 




ONLY $39.95 

Shown wtih case removed 



GORILLA BANANA 

or GX-1 00 Printer . , 



$189.95 



ADD: S8.00 snipping (cont. USA). S35.00 (Canada, HI. AK) 

Seikosha GP-250X PRINTER 

with Commodore or Atari or Tl 
interface only $299.95 

ADD: 5B.O0 shipping (cont. USA] S35. 00 (Canada, HI, AK) 

Data-20 DISPLAY MANAGER 
for VIC-2Q w/software $89.95 
Data 20 VIDEO PAK 80 

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BLK 3 6k. Aflf. 24576-32767) 

BLK 5 JAdf <SD9f&0"i9T51 a I lows' disallow a 

8k ROM games) 

RAM {3k ACT. 1024-4095) 

RESET [Resets computer withool power oHrofl| 

Bufh4ri electrical Fuse to protect equipment 



Two (2) intension connectors allow AWV addi- 
tional cartridges and/pr devices deigned for Ina 

VIC expansion port 

Vary low power corisumption (175 amp usual). 

High reliability ooid-psneo connectors are do* 

S'flnftJfoilonfl lite 



Compile operating Manual 



warranty to original 



Factory service 



'Mary VlC-?D eartrdges and cograms recure cer- 
tain cont gurations d IhB rr^mory [\ ecetam games 
will only run on me ur>fl"pariaed VIC whle others 
require the upper portion o' me e« pa need memory) 
Wi(h HAMAJ( '" you havft switches that tum-Qrt and 
turn-off portons of the mem&ry to D'Qvide Ihe right 
area o' memcy - all without p uggmg cr unplugging 
It's so easy 1 



NewLow Pricel 



TOTL.TEXT 2230 ifonq then return 

About half of the code in the SEQ 2240 ifc>nf thenc = c-nc:gosub28:return 

module deals with TT formatting codes, 2250 if c<ncthenc=c+nr:gosub28: return 

stripping them out or acting on them 2260 if c<nethengosub2B: return 

much like QBF. TT format codes all begin 2 270 c=c+nc:gosub28: return 

with the double dollar— $$, followed by 2 28Q : 

specific codes. For example, $$pr is a 3 qq rem "*ftsa*»tt**tm*3**#**«*tf*ft#»##*## 

paragraph command, exactly like QBF's Tn . n *,„ crnMr . lTTnl nT , ^ „.-,,,,'.-„ * 

#p. If this S$pr command is found, the 3D1Qrem * SEQUENTIAL FILE READER * 

program branches to Line 483 in QBF and 302 ° r e ™"«»»»»«»»»»«H S »«» 

executes a simulated paragraph. The 3 030 : 

$$sk, for SKip a line, is interpreted as a line 3040 gosub6080:open1 ,8,1 5:open4,4,sa 

feed. All other $$ commands are stripped 3050 open8,8,8 f na$+",s,r";gosub60 00:ifdsthen3040 

out. Your TT authors should only use $$pr 3050 printch$j 

and $$sk commands in their text. If they 3070 get/?8,a$:if a$ = ""then3070 

do, the formatted output to the printer 3080 c=asc{a$) :if fl-c=Dthen3070 

will be perfect. TT formatting is done in 3ogo gosu b31 50:geti$:if i$=" P "then31 30 

Lines 3170 to 3290. The $ is detected in -,. nn ,. *.* n n ii +hon , 1 , n 

i- -i<<-« uil m. i_ *., o i uu iri?= q tnenji2u 

Line 3160. If the next character is a $ then „,. ., , ,, , nr , n 

_, , , T-p, ... , 3110 if st= . then3070 

it is assumed to be a TT formatting code _„ ' . L „ „ „ „„ 

and is acted upon 31 20 pnnt#4 ,ps$: ps$ = "" rgosubBOOOs goto941 

3130 getb$:ifb$=""then3130 

PAPERCLIP 31^0 got D 307Q 

PaperClip text files may be saved as SEQ 3150 if c= g4thenc=na: goto331 0:reni up arrow 

files with the Control Z option or as PRG 3155 if c =95thenc=. : goto331 0: rem left arrow 

files w,t iScreen Codes iwith .the Controls 3160 if c<>36then33DD:not a $ 

option. NED wil hande both but prefers ,, „_ , „ • * . „ » •,*.,■, , 

the Control Z version. The Control S ver- 317D get ^ r ', a$! lf a$<>"$»thenb = c:c = 3B: gos U b20:c=b:goto3300 

sion uses the SpeedScript module and the 3180 tt$= • f °ri=1 to2: get#8,a$: tt$=tt$ + a$:next 

Control Z uses the SEQ module. No for- 31 90 iftt$ = ' pr"thenc=13:gdsub483:return 

matting is done because formatting codes 3200 if tt$="nl"ortt$="sk"thenc=1 3 :goto331 

are not frequently embedded. PaperClip 3210 if tt$="rm"ortt$="in"then3280 

authorsshould save theirtext with Control 3220 if tt$ = "tb"ortt$ = "st"then3280 

Z for best results. 3230 if tt$="pg"ortt$ = "qc"then3280 

WORDPRO 3# 324d ifleft $(tt$,1 } = "l"then32BO 

This works fine, but the text will be 325D if tt$ = "ti"thenc = 1 3s goto331 

printed using the right margin set up by 32B0 ifright$(tt$,1 )="$"thenget#8 ,a$:goto31 8D 

theauthor,soifyouneeda40columnarti- 3270 return 

cle, tell yourauthorto declare it in the text, 3280 gosub329D:gosub3290:c=.:gotD3300 

then set NED to match. The same goes for 3290 get#8,a$:if a$<>" "then3290: return 

HES text, but caution HES authors to use 3300 c=asc(a$ ) rgoto331 

no embedded codes otherthan a carriage 331D g0S ub2B: return 

return, or else the codes will show up on 3320 : 

your primer. 5000 rem"** it * ,f,i * s * ### ** ttttSft * ft # 5 *****#»tt 

EASYSCRIPT 5010 rem"* HES WRITER * 

Most of the embedded codes are at the 5020 rem" **********»*#**#********»*#*** 

top of the text, so caution your EasyScript 5030 pn$ = "HES/PAGE NATE" 

authors not to use embedded codes after 50 40 fl=34:rem file delimiter is quote 

the initial set up. This will result in clean 5050 n O to3040 

copy for you. 506D . 

PROGRAMMING TRICKS 5070 rera'' s|f * iiH » ,,|( ** |( *»*»«»» |tB ««« s « 

I've used some lines of BASIC code in 5080 rem"* TOTL.TEXT * 

NED that you might like to incorporate in 5090 rem" ***«*««*»»»*****#«*# **###«*»»« 

other programs. Lines 9040-9080 deter- 51 DD pn $ = "T0TL.TEXT": fl = 1 3 

mine if the program is being used on a VIC 511a g D to304D 

or a 64 by PEEKing (65532). If the result is 5120 . 

34, its a VIC and if the result is 226 its a 51 30 rem «»***#*##«*#*»*#»*#****#*#»»#** 

C-64. If the result is something else, it is ,.,,„ ■ „„. r ,„„^„^, T „ 

eitheraPET(ldon'tknowwhichkind)ora 514 ° rem * PAPERCLIP CONTROL Z * 

VIC/64 equipped with an 80 column card. 515 ° rem»^************«*************** 

NED is compatible with 80 column cards. 516Q pn$ = "PAPERCLIP (control z)":fl = 

As you are keying in the program from 5170 goto304D 

these pages, you may save the program to 5180 : 
the disk by typing. RUN2 and ret. This will 

June 1984 *COMMANDERI33 



SCRATCH the old NED program from the 
disk and then SAVE the current version. 
Since I like to have programs backed up, 
I've included the same routine in Line 4, 
with a different file name. RUN 4 will up- 
date the backup. Proofread the first 5 lines 
very closely as a mistake here can be fatal. 
RUN 6 will list the program to the printer. 
You may put in a line range after 'LIST' on 
line 7. While I was writing the program 
modules I used Menu Option 10 to 
automatically list to the screen the lines I 
was working on at the time. Line 9400 
does this. Lines 9120-9170 determine 
which computer is being used and prints a 
different title for the VIC or 64. 

CLOSING NOTES 

NED is extensively REMed for your con- 
venience, but many of the REM 
statements should be removed, or not 
keyed in. Remove all REMs that share a 
line number with other BASIC statements. 
Line 28 isan example of a REM that should 
be removed. This will speed up the pro- 
gram's operation slightly. Do not remove 
REMs that have their own line number. 
Line 8000 is an example of a REM that you 
would leave in. When in doubt, leave it in. 

I've placed my name prominently in the 
title. I've done this so if you make some 
major modifications to the program or 
find a bug (!) you will know who to con- 
tact. The Newsletter Editor is meant to be 
a tool for you, like any other utility. It is not 
meant to be the be-all end-all file reader, 
but simply a way to capture text 
generated from a word processor you 
don't use. If necessary, you may have to 
enter the captured text in your own word 
processor to achieve the desired results. 
The next major modification to NED that I 
can envision would be to read in a text file, 
convert it, and write it out in a different 
word processing format. As an experi- 
ment, I rewrote NED to read a sequential, 
convert it to ASCII, and write the file as a 
QBF (PRoGram) file back to the second 
drive on my MSD dual. This allows me to 
edit the text from QBF. It's a slow process, 
but it's still much faster than typing it in 
from scratch. 

NED is not fast. It works well, but text is 
read in at about the same rate as you can 
read. This is a program that responds well 
to compiling. I compiled NED on Petspeed 
for my own use and found the results to 
be worth the effort. It runs about 20 times 
faster. Some minor changes were re- 
quired, and I will gladly provide the new 
code to you if you can't do it yourself. 
Read the Petspeed manual closely andyou 
should have no problems. 

Please direct any correspondence to me 
through Commander Magazine. 

34ICOMMANDER * June 1984 



51 90 rem™** iS ** )i * !il! ** BS!(,i,tlt * s * ,, ****** lflf 

5200 rem"* EASYSCRIPT * 

521 rem" inis ** ,tSi,,, ** ,, * ,H,iHt *** ,tll ** ,t ***** 

5220 pn$ = , 'EASYSCRIPT" : f 1 = : goto3040 

5230 : 

5240 rem "#***#**#*»#»#» »###***#»#*»»*#» 

5250 rem"* WORDPRO 3+ * 

5260 rem "#*»***#*«»»*<*« *#«#»#« «#»*«»«** 

5270 pn$="W0RDPRO 3+" : f 1=0 : gotc-3040 

5280 : 

5290 rem"*** *************************** 

5300 rem"* PAPERCLIP CONTROL S * 

531 rem"****************************** 

5320 pn$="PAPERCLIP CTL 5" 

5330 fl=32:xx=48:goto2060 

5340 : 

6000 rem"****************************** 

6010 rem"* DISK STATUS CHECK * 

6020 rem" ******************************* 

6030 : 

6040 ds=0:input#1 ,n,ms$,t ,s 

6045 printrt$;rn$; " Filename: " na$:printr;ms$;t ; s 

6050 lfn= . thenreturn: rem no disk problem 

6055 close4 : close8 

6060 fori=1to2D00:next:print#1 ,"i" 

6065 closel 

6070 ds = 1 : return: rem a disk problem 

6075 : 

608 rem"****************************** 

6090 rem"* FILE SELECTION SCREEN * 

61 DO rem"****************************** 

611 D : 

6120 printchS jrnj;pn$: print :printm1$: print 

6125 print"Right Margin is"rm:print 

61 30 p = 1 :printrn$;m2$:inputp$:ifp$="n"ihenp=0:goto6170 

6140 ifp$="q"then9110 

6150 print ;printrn$ ;m4$: inputpS 

6155 ifp$="y"thenp=2:sa=7:goto617Q 

6160 print :printrn$ ;m3$: inputsa 

6170 print : printrn$; "Enter filename 

6180 printch$; :return 

6190 : 

8000 rem a***************************** 

8010 

8020 

8030 

8040 



: i nputna$ 



» a 



rem 
rem"* 
rem"* 
rem"* 



The Newsletter Editor * 
Public Domain * 
by Colin F. Thompson * 
for Commander Magazine * 
8050 rem"* Computers: 8K VIC & 64 * 
8060 rem"****************************** 
8070 : 

8080 rem"****************************** 
8090 rem"* INITIALIZE VARIABLES * 
81 00 rem"****************************** 
8110 : 

8120 dc=4:sa=7:bc=6:fc=7:cc=5 
8130 na=13:nb=31 :nc=32:nd=35:ne=65:nf =95 
814 ng=gg:nh=100:ni=102:nj=104:nk=108 
8150 nl=110:nm=114:nn=111:no=116:np=117:nq=122 
8160 nr=64:ns=96:close1 : elosedc : closeS 
8170 rn$=chr$(1 8) :rt$=chr${l 3) :rem rev on and ret 



J \s 



■ I 




\L_j »l 

Hats off to a 

machine language 

teaching system 

that works. 

Machine language programming isn't easy, but you 
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The Visible Computer: 6502 is an award- 
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It's an animated simulation of the 6502 micro- 
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It's a tutorial. The 150 page manual is more 
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It's 30 demonstration programs you'll work 
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The Visible Computer: 6502 

' Send me The Visible Computer: 6502 for Com- 

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MY BOOK 




I WENT OUTSIDE WITH MOMMY. DAD- 
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Your child makes his or 
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Older youngsters can then type in a story-line or 

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Page after page can be saved. But the fun isn't over 

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The first program in BECi's new Creativity Series. 
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C-64 DISK: $34.95 

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"In its Child Development Series, BECi (pro- 
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*Computes!'s Gazette, January 84 

'l_|, ■' ALPHA-BECi Ages: 2 and up 

.An alphabet program with 26 screens, each 
featuring a capital and small letter and an object. 
"For a child, watching the colorful objects appear on 
screen is like opening a present."" 
(VIC-20 only). 



••A 



NUMER-BECi Ages: 2 and up 

Number identification and color and shape 



grouping. Five levels and adjustable timing 
Ages: 5 and up 



^-- 1 ADD/SUB 

jjji 4 Addition and subtraction. Up to four digits. 
Optional objects, carries and borrows, decimal points 
and hints. Answers entered from right to left, one digit 
at a time. 



'J$\MULT-BECi Ages: 7 and up 



I \l',', $r,l Multiplication, Up to four digits in multiplier 
and multiplicand. Answers entered from right to left, 
one digit at a time. 

TAPE: $19.95 DISK: S24.95 

If ordering directly from BECi, add 5% (or $2.00 mini- 
mum) for shipping. 

BOSTON EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING, INC. 

Dept. C 
78 Dartmouth Street 
Boston, MA 021 16 
(617)536-5116 

Dealer Inquiries Invited 
Charge cards and phone orders accepted. 





(716) 837-637T 

FABTRONICS 

51 Quarry St, Dept, C, Brockport, N.V. 14420 
VICMiC'M Reg. T.M. Commodote Business Mach.. Inc 



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70{*3KyC-64 
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Keep track of at. your utility costs A Ihightly versatile piOgr^m to 
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A mail order or small business must Easy invoiceipacking 
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selection of items from an inventory database Plain patter or 
selected commercial forms 

S A V C Snakman-Skramble Gridder Pinball Wiiard 120) 
20 T St 2 95 D 514. 95 64 T ,17 950 S19 95 

20,64 Print Interlace ICardcal S39.96 

20i64 Rabbit 12.2 Version! »36.96 

64 Toll Infomastet D $38.96 

64 5 Slol Exp. Board (Cardcol 353.96 

64 S.A.M [Sofl/SpeechI *S4.96 

64 Q Boppei. (3D Arcade!. . D ,28.96 

64 Easy Script. IComml D »M.57 

64 Accounts RCV. IComml D *38.S7 

20/64 Numeric Keypad (Cerdcol ,34.96 

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S & H 52 50 First Hem ,1 00 «a added nam All puces U S funds 

COD iCashCertiUS onlvaddit 75 NT add sates (ax 

We accept MasterCharge or VISA 



PHONE-DIAL «5A 



DIALS TOUCH TONE PHQNE 
AUTOMATICALLY 

Using your Commodore 64 
WITHOUT A MODEM 

Access by phone any device 
reactive to touch tone. 

Save time when dialing long 
multi-digit numbers. 

Generate /Call a permanent 
■file of names and numbers. 

Automatically generate/dial 
sequential/random numbers 

AN IDEAL TIME SA'/ER FOR 
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Phone (305) 245-3141 



Commodore 64 
j trademark of Commodore Electronics 



8180 
8190 
8200 
8210 
8220 
8230 
8240 
9000 
9010 
9020 
9030 
9040 
9050 
9060 
9070 
9080 
9090 
9100 
9110 
9120 
9130 
9140 
9150 
9160 
9170 
9180 
9190 
9200 
9210 
9220 
9230 
9240 
9250 
9260 
9270 
9280 
9290 
9300 
9310 
9320 
9350 
9355 
9360 
9370 
9360 
9390 
9400 
9410 
9420 
9430 
9440 
9450 
9460 
9470 
9480 
9490 
9500 
9505 
9510 
9520 



ch$=chr$(1 47) .rem clr/home 

m1$="Press P to Pause"+rt$+"Press Q to Quit." 

m2$="Print the text <y/n/q>" 

m3$="Printer Secndy address" 

m4$="CBPl printer <y/n>" 

m5$=rt$+"END OF FILE-HIT A KEY" 



rem 



n*t 



MAIN MENU SETUP 



Z" 
S" 



i f peek ( 655 32 )<> 34 then 90 70: rem vie 

poke 36879, 248 : printchr$ ( 1 58) :ct=20 

goto91 00 

ifpeek(655 32)<>226then9100:rem c64 

poke53280 , be : poke53281 , f c : rem 64 colors 

sa=0:p=0:ct=64:bl=16:sl=16 

printchr$(l4);chr$(144);ch$;rn$; 

prinf'THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR"; 

ifct=20thenprint" ";:goto9150 

print 

printmS; "by Colin F. Thompson"; 

if ct=20thenprint " ".rem 1 space 

print : print : printccS ; "Read a File From" 

print"Which Word Processor ?": print 

prinf'l. Quick Brown Fox" 

print"2. Word manager" 

print"3. SpeedScript" 

print"4. Totl. Text" 

print"5. Paper Clip CTL 

print"6. Paper Clip CTL 

print"?. EasyScript" 

print"8. WordPro 3 + " 

print"9. HES / Page Plate" sprint 

printrn$;"1 0. Exit Program " 

printrn$; "1 1 . Cursor Color " 

if ct=20then9350: rem vic20 

printrn$ ; "1 2 . Screen Color " 

printrn$; "13. Border Color " 

print : input "Which Number";a 

ifa>13tnen9110 

ifa<7thenonagoto360, 1000 ,2000, 5070, 51 30, 5290 

if a>6thena=a-6 

onagoto51 90, 5240,5000, 9400,9500,9470,9440 

goto9110 

list 20- :rein you change this § 

close4 : claseS : closel ;printm5$; 

geta$:if a$=""then9420 

goto9110 

if ct<>64then91 20: rem color changes 

bc=bc+1 : if bc>blthenbc=0 

poke 53 280, be :got O9110 

ifct<>54then9110 

f c=fc+1 :iffc>slthenf c=0 

poke 53281 ,fc:goto91 1 

if cc>7thencc=0 

cc=cc+1 

once gosub 953 0,954 0,9550, 956 0,9570, 9580,9590,9600 

goto9110 



36ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



Circle No. 69 



GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR 

E- 

orVK>20computer 




• • • 





MI 

J Search \_ 



s 



Retrieve I 



_J Store \_ 



J FUe 



Organize |^ 



ALSO AVAILABLE:) | 

3 outstanding 
Music Albums to 
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Classical 

Christmas and 
Rag/Sing Along 

See below 




» 





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5) : return :rem white 
29 ): returns rem red 
30):return:rem green 
31 ): return : rem blue 
1 44 ) : returntrem black 
1 56) : return: rem purple 
1 58 ) :return:rem yellow 
1 59) : return: rem cyan 



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ready, 



This listing was printed on a DYNAX OX 15 
letter quality printer at 12 pitch with a 
15 pitch printwheel. 

0=the number zero 
o=the letter "oh" 
1 =the number one 
l=the letter"ell" 
11 " = a null character 
" "= a space 



rem"* Editor reads files from * 

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rem"* ed and the right margin is * 

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rem"* in line 1. Use the GBPI * 

rem"* PRII\ITER? = Y when possible. * 

rPm "ftftftftftft*Sftftftftftftftftftftftftft#»fti**tt*»ft 




38ICQMMANDER • June 1984 



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tBy Maryanne Doddi 



It's summertime and the living is easy. 
School is recessed for the year and no one 
wants to work during recess. In fact few 
kids would even want to think about 
education even if it is educational com- 
puting. But education does not have to be 
just reading, writing and arithmetic. There 
is another facet of learning that I like to 
think of as enabling skills. These are skills 
that are not directly connected to the 
three "Rs" but enable one to learn the 
basic skills of the three "Rs". The software 
that I'm reviewing this month are games 
that have educational or motivational 
value but they are so much fun that 
children will probably not even think of 
them as educational software, 

MATCHBOXES from BRODERBUND is a 
concentration type game that is sure to 
captivate anyone from six to sixty. It is lively 
and it is exciting and it provides practice 
using visual and auditory discrimination 
and memory. 

BRAIN STRAINERS from CAROUSEL 
may not strain your brain but the three 
games contained in this package are sure 
to stretch your memory skills and maybe 
even sweep away some of the summer 
cobwebs. 

Also from CAROUSEL is my new friend 
TELLY TURTLE'. 'TELLY TURTLE' intro- 
duces computer literacy and a beginning 
LOGO type programming. 

And lastly from DAVKA, I have SAM- 
SON AND DELILAH, an action game based 
on the Biblical story that would makeater- 
rific motivational tool. 



TITLE: 

FORMAT: 

PRICE: 

MODEL: 

AUDIENCE: 

SUMMARY 



SOURCE: 



MATCHBOXES 

Diskette/Cassette 

$29.95 

Commodore 64 

Ages six through adult 

: Memory and concentration 

game featuring sound and 

graphics. 

BRODERBUND SOFTWARE, 

INC. 

17 Paul Drive 

Rafael, CA 94903 

(415)479-1170 



Back in the heyday of television quiz 
games, one of the longest running and 
most popular was a show called CONCEN- 
TRATION. I can remember watching as a 
child and trying to out guess the con- 
testants. Since then many board games 
and simplified computer games have 
been modeled after the television game. 
MATCHBOXES from BRODERBUND is a 
lively adaptation of CONCENTRATION that 
adds some new computerized bells and 
whistles. 

GET YOUR 
THINKING CAPS ON 

MATCHBOXES offers four game varia- 
tions: MATCHBOXES, GUESSWORD, 
REVERSEWORD, and SCRAMBLEWORD. 
It may be played by two people or one 
player against the computer. If the com- 
puter is chosen as an opponent there are 
three levels of difficulty— easy, hard and 
very hard. 

The simplest MATCHBOXES game con- 
sists of a grid of thirty six squares, four ver- 
tical and nine across. Initially all of the 
squares are blank. Using a joystick the 
players move an "X" to uncover the boxes. 
If two identical boxes are uncovered, the 
player scores two points and gets another 
turn, If no match is made the other player 
is given a turn. There are two wildcards 
hidden somewhere on the screen. The 
winner is the player with the most points 
at the end of the game. 

The other three games have words con- 
cealed behind the boxes. If two people are 
playing, each enters a word containing 
two to six letters at the start of the game 
and the opponent is given a chance after 
each match to guess the word by analyz- 
ing the visible parts. If one person is play- 
ing, the computer enters a word for the 
player to guess, The winner of the game is 
the first person to correctly guess the 
word. If neither player guesses the word 
before all of the possible matches, the 
winner is the player with the highest 
number of points. There are three van's- 
tions of wordgame5 — GUESSWORD, 



REVERSEWORD, and SCRAMBLEWORD. 
During GUESSWORD the chosen word in 
the correct sequence is hidden behind the 
boxes. REVERSEWORD, which is a little 
harder, reverses the order of the letters of 
the word. The most difficult of the word- 
games is SCRAMBLEWORD which 
scrambles the letters of the word. 

SOUND AND GRAPHICS 

The sound and graphics used in 
MATCHBOXES are both excellent. There 
are three different screens or fifty four dif- 
ferent matching parts of boxes. Behind 
each box is a colorful animated figure. 
There is a PAC MAN chasing a GHOST a 
stick figure doing jumping jacks, cars 
racing, a top spinning and many more 
miniature, colorf j| figures. As each box is 
uncovered the computer plays a line of a 
familiar folk song such as: "Clementine", 
"I've Been Working On the Railroad", 
"Pop Goes the Vveasel" and behind the 
wildcards there is always "Happy 
Birthday". The sound and graphics 
together are sc remarkable that they 
would be worth watching without the 
game, I guarantee that no one will ever 
get bored with the screen activity. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUE 

The people at BRODERBUND have 
coined a new word to describe software 
such as MATCHBOXES. They call them 
"edutainment". Entertainment products 
with educational value. I like the concept. 
There is so much l&arning that requires 
more than the easily measured math and 
reading skills. 

As in all concentration games, MATCH- 
BOXES focuses on memory skills. The 
game requires perceptual and 
discriminatory memory skills to make 
matches. Some of the pairs are so similiar 
that they require morediscrimination than 
others. For example there are two 
fireworks displays with one exploding out- 
ward and the other exploding inward and 
several of the scenes are the same except 
for color and melody. During the word- 
games players must visualize the whole 



40ICOMMANDER * June 1984 



word from analyzing a part and be able to 
enter the letters in the correct sequence 
on the keyboard. As an extra bonus, spell- 
ing and vocabulary words could be used 
for the wordgames. 

My family has really enjoyed MATCH- 
BOXES. It is fun as a one player against the 
computer and it is also one of those games 
that adults can play with younger children 
and be challenged without being bored. I 
would highly recommend this game as 
family "edutainment." 

TITLE: BRAIN STRAINERS 

FORMAT: Diskette 

MODEL: Commodore 64 
AUDIENCE: Age five and above 
SUMMARY:A set of three memory 
games designed to in- 
crease auditory and visual 
discrimination. 
SOURCE: CAROUSEL SOFTWARE, 
INC. 

877 Beacon St. 
Boston, WA 02215 
(617)437-9419 

CAROUSEL is an educational software 
company that makes it their motto to pro- 
duce high quality software that is both 
educational and entertaining. The games 
found in BRAIN STRAINERS were design- 
ed by Bob Stewart, a professional soft- 
ware engineer with fifteen years ex- 
perience. They are games that he has 
played with and tested on his own 
children. The package contains three 
games-CLEF CLIMBER, FINDERS 
KEEPERS, and FOLLOW THE LEADER. All 
of the games maybe played by one to four 
players. 

CLEF CLIMBER 

CLEF CUMBER is an auditory skill game 
designed to increase the players' ability to 
discriminate between two musical tones. 
The object of the game is to mimic the 
note played by the computer by the use of 
a joystick or the "i,j,k,m, keys" on the 
keyboard. The players may choose 
whetherto hear the notes simultaneously, 
in alternating sequence, or one time only. 
If the player is good and wants to really 
make the game challenging he can 
choose a time limit to enter a response. 
The players also have the option of choos- 
ing whether the notes will sound as 
though they are emitted from a brass horn 
or a piano keyboard. When the player 
thinks that he has found a matching tone 
he pushes the joystick button a nd the cor- 
rect note, along with his choice, is 
displayed on a musical staff on the 
keyboard. 

CLEF CLIMBERS is an innovative way to 
practice auditory discrimination. The 



game requires an exactness that will pro- 
mote good listening skills. As an added 
bonus players will also be introduced to 
musical notation and gam practice in 
reading notes on a musical staff. 

FINDERS KEEPERS 

The second game of the series is a com- 
puterized concentration cardgame. The 
players choose a screen consisting of a 
grid where cards are laid out as in solitaire. 
Difficulty depends upon the size of the 
grid chosen. Players have the option of 
choosing from a grid of four cards across 
and four down, up to a grid of eighteen 
cards across and eight down. The object 
of the game is to make matches by mov- 
ing a window over the cards and exposing 
the character graphics underneath. The 
winner is the player that obtains the most 
matches and the highest score. At the end 
of the game "YOU DID IT" flashes across 
the screen and the winner is congratula- 
ted with a line from the Hallelujah Chorus. 

Playing FINDERS KEEPERS is definitely a 
way to increase concentration and visual 
memory skills. The game offers enough 
variety in the size of the grids so that 
younger children or people with poor 
visual memory skills or discrimination skills 
can enjoy the game while older more ex- 



perienced players can enjoy the challenge 
of the largest grid. 

FOLLOW THE LEADER 

FOLLOW THE LEADER is a Commodore 
64 version of the hand held computer 
game SIMON, from MILTON BRADLEY. As 
in the hand held game there are four col- 
ored triangles, each of which has a dif- 
ferent tone characteristic. The object of 
the game is to copy the sequence 
displayed by the computer. The computer 
starts by blinking one of the triangles and 
sounding a tone. Each time the player 
enters a correct response the computer 
adds another triangle/sound to the se- 
quence. The players may choose the max- 
imum number of patterns from one to 
forty that they want in each sequence. 

This game stresses the development of 
sequential memory by providing the 
players with both a visual and auditory 
stimuli. 

SOUND AND GRAPHICS 

All three of these games employ sound 
and graphics that are suitable to the learn- 
ing concepts that are being emphasized. 
The screens are colorful and well il- 
lustrated without being busyordistractful. 
Color is used efficiently and it is obvious 



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(213) 242-8598 6 PAGE CATALOGUE 



June 1984 • COMMANDER'141 




The Banner Machine 

For the Commodore 64 (3 extra fonts available). 
For the VIC-flO with 24 K memory (2 extra fonts 
available). • Use on any Gemini or Epson MX with 
Graftrax or the FX and RX printers. Also Commo- 
dore 1525E and Banana with the C-64. * Menu- 
driven prosram operates like a word processor. * 
Makes 519ns up to 13" tall by any length • Makes 
borders of widths up to v." • 8 sizes of letters 
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Tape or Disk (Specify computer equipment) 

For the Commodore 64: 

Space Raider An amazing arcade simulation, your 
mission is to destroy the enemy ships. S19;95 
CTR1-64 Permits fisting of C-64 programs on non- 
Commodore printers. Lists control symbols in 
readable form. Tape or disk S24.95 
Microbroker Exciting, realistic and educational 
stock market simulation. S34.95 Tape or Disk 
Preschool Educational Programs ABC Fun and 
123 Fun have bright color and action Each $1495 
Formulator A scientific calculator tor repetitive 
arithmetic computations. 5ave formulas. Idea! for 
chemistry, physics, or engineering students S39.95 
MUPOS Create a fite of up to 9 basic programs 
from keyboard/ tape/ disk and run each program 
selectively. Combine programs Renumber BASIC 
lines Note pad, and more. Tape or dtsk S29.95 
Screendump Print a copy of the C-64 screen by 
pressing two keys. This machme-ianguase program 
is compatible with most software 51995 



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that the author paid attention to small 
details in choosing the designs that would 
appeal to a wide range of skill and age 
levels. 

FAMILY ENJOYMENT 

BRAIN STRAINERS is software that can 
be enjoyed by the whole family. It is the 
type of game that requires thinking power 
and concentration. I can easily picture this 
being the game that children could talk 
grandparents into playing with them. I am 
sure that both age groups would be 
fascinated. I would recommend it as a low 
key game that requires thinking power in- 
stead of joystick manual dexterity. 



TITLE: 

FORMAT: 



TELLY TURTLE 

Diskette/Cassette 



MODEL: Commodore 64 
AUDIENCE: Ages five through twelve 
SUMMARY:An abbreviated LOGO type 
language emphasizing tur- 
tle graphics and sound. 
SOURCE: CAROUSEL 

SOFTWARE, INC. 
877 Beacon St. 
Boston, MA 02215 
(617)437-9419 

Hello, did you knowthatyou can havea 
friend named TELLY TURTLE living inside 
of your computer? He comes complete 
with his own play yard and bag of tricks 
and is just waiting foryou to play with him, 
as he shows you some of his tricks and lets 
you teach him how to do some tricks that 
you have designed. All that you have to do 
to release TELLY inside your computer is to 
load in the TELLY TURTLE program from 
CAROUSEL. 

Actually TELLY TURTLE is a simplified 
game derivative of LOGO that utilizes the 
joystick and icons for programming turtle 
graphics and simple sounds. 

PROGRAMMING LEVELS 

There are four levels of programming 
capability with each level building upon 
the preceding one. Level one, the simplest 
level, introduces TELLY and allows the stu- 
dent to make TELLY turn right or left, 
change colors to green, yellow or red and 
play two musical tones. All commands 
during levels one and two are executed in 
the immediate mode. 

Level two introduces the concept of 
iteration, that is specifying the number of 
times an action is to be repeated. 

Real programming gets underway in 
level three. The student is now able to 
enter several commands, change their se- 
quence and debug his program before he 
directs TELLY to perform the actions. 

The last level teaches the novice pro- 
grammer how to do subroutines and to 



store his programs on either diskette or 
cassette for future recall. Also contained in 
level four are some storage bins that con- 
tain clever demonstrations that can be 
studied, modified and used in subroutines 
for other programs or as screens for TELLY 
games. 

DOCUMENTATION 

Even though TELLY TURTLE is very user 
friendly it still helps to have some written 
directions for those people who need the 
security of reading before they jump right 
into the programming play yard. 
CAROUSEL has provided a detailed twen- 
ty four page manual that will guide a 
beginning computer user every step of the 
way. Interspersed in the lesson for each 
level are suggestions for using the con- 
cepts learned at each level. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUE 

Even though TELLY TURTLE appears to 
the child to be a neat program that allows 
them to draw pretty pictures and 
manipulate the cute little green fellow 
around the screen, it is a programming 
language. As with any language the pro- 
grammer must utilize logical thinking, 
problem solving and organizational skills. 
Programming TELLY TURTLE is so simple 
that nonreading kindergarteners (with 
limited adult initial instruction) can soon 
be building programs and putting TELLY 
through his paces. But on the other hand, 
the graphic capabilities are sophisticated 
enough that the older children will be 
fascinated with the intricate geometric 
designs and graphic pictures that they can 
create with TELLY. All users will increase 
their awareness of direction, spatial rela- 
tionships and measurement while the 
more mature user will deductively 
discover some of the laws that govern 
geometry. Since there are no rules for play- 
ing with TELLY, you can't make him go the 
wrong way, children of all ages will be en- 
couraged to use their imagination and 
creative abilities. 



SAMSON 
AND DELILAH 

Diskette/Cassette 
$24.95 

Commodore 64 
Ages ten and above 
: Arcade action game based 
on the Biblical story of 
Samson and Delilah. 
DAVKA CORPORATION 
845 N. Michigan Avenue 
Suite 843 

Chicago, Illinois 60611 
(800)621-8227 

DAVKA is a Software House that pro- 
duces quality educational and entertain- 



TITLE: 

FORMAT: 

PRICE: 

MODEL: 

AUDIENCE: 

SUMMARY 



SOURCE: 



MICOMMANDER • June 1984 



ment software that is based on Bible 
and/or Hebrew History. One of their 
newest releases is SAMSON AND 
DELILAH, an action game, that derives it's 
scenario from the story of Samson in the 
book of Judges. 

GAME DESCRIPTION 

Upon loading the program, there are 
several screens giving the background in- 
formation detailing the Biblical story of 
Samson, much like the start of an adven- 
ture game. Then the player is given 
choices on the type of obstacles and speed 
to set up the game. 

The game is a joystick controlled action 
game with levels displayed on the screen. 
The object of the game is to move Sa mson 
from the sixth floor of the Temple to the 
foundation pillars and thus defeat the 
Philistines. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Not so. 
Remember the story of Samson? He was 
some fierce warrior and life was not easy 
for him. Along the way to the pillars there 
are several obstacles. There are gray, 
green, yellow and red guards that must be 
either avoided or whacked with a jaw- 
bone if one is available. Also there is a lion 
roaming one of the levels and he has to be 
dealt with. Then there is Delilah, an en- 
counter with either her or her fiery scissors 
can only lead to disaster. 

Unlike the Biblical Samson who had 
only one life, the players are given three 
lives or chances to make it to the Temple 
Pillars. The difficulty of the game is con- 
trolled by the options chosen at the start. 
The players have a choice of twelve op- 
tions that determine the speed of the 
game, day or night setting, types of 
guards, types of scissors, and pits and 
secret doors. Players can choose one or all 
of the options for any game. 

After three attempts, the game ends 
and you are given a score that reflects the 
number of obstacles successfully en- 
countered and a spirit rating such as: 
"Spirit is Sleeping" or "Spirit is Incredible." 

When I was given this game to review, I 
opened it not knowing quite what to ex- 
pect. After trying it with very little success I 
thought, Oh, well, I'm stuck with a sleep- 
ing spirit, what can you expect at my age. 
So I left the game out for my teenage 
babysitter and his spirit was not incredible; 
in fact, it wasn't even noble. Later I show- 
ed the game to some other "arcade ex- 
perts" and the general concensus was 
that the game was definitely challenging 
and worthy of their attention. 

SOUND AND GRAPHICS 

The sound and graphics are both very 
well done. The music accompanying the 
opening of the game is an enchanting 
melody written in a minor key. During the 



game the typical computer sounds signal 
the approaching obstacles or disastrous 
conditions. The graphics are done effec- 
tively using good color and a combination 
of sprites and character graphics. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUE 

SAMSON AND DELILAH should really be 
classified in the entertainment software 
category, but it does have limited educa- 
tional value especially as a motivational 
tool. Having taught Sunday School a num- 
ber of years, I know how hard it is to get 
the attention of boys in the upper elemen- 
tary and junior high school age groups. 
They feel that they have heard all the 
lessons a hundred times and know 
everything. SAMSON AND DELILAH 
would definitely stop their groans about 
"sissy" games and have them clamoring 
for theirturn at the computer. Who knows 
after finding that the story of Samson is ex- 
citing, some of them just might decide 
that they would like to learn more about 
some other Biblical heroes and start doing 
some studying and reading on their own. 
One thing I'm sure of is that they would 
long remember the details and the plot 
long after playing the game. Another 
thought that I have is that SAMSON AND 
DELILAH offers an alternative to the ar- 
cade game for those that are tired of see- 
ing gorillas fall off of ladders. 




AN INEXPENSIVE SYSTEM FOR 
AUTOMATIC DETECTION, SURVEILLANCE, 
OBSERVATION AND RECORDING OF 
HUMAN ACTIVITY 
WITH THE COMMODORE COMPUTERS 
This report describes how to automatically detect, 
observe, and record human activity with a VIC-20 
or Commodore 64 computer using a variety of in- 
expensive sensors located throughout the obser- 
vation area. 

Report, documentation, demo programs, and 

catalog $39.95 

Demo Sensor Variety Pack: magnetic, photo, heal, 
pressure, sound-sensor, etc . .549.95 

Demo Interface Kit: Allows 63 inputs. Leaves user and ex- 
pansion pari free. With software on tape $39.95 

SUPERVISION OF THE HOUSEHOLD 
WITH YOUR COMMODORE COMPUTER 

A VIC or C-64 computer plus some $2.00 Radio 
Shack parts, some Salvation Army Thrift Store junk, 
and a speech synthesizer can transform your home 
into a computer supervised household. 

this system can monitor most human, animal, environmental, and 
mechanical activity m the home and yard It automatically creates 
tvHlhoul keyboard entries! a daily diary ol those activities. It reminds 
household membets of tasks and behavior expected Irani them. 
Checks then performance, and punishes and rewards as necessary. 
For evample an electron c scale weighs the person and supervises 
the reirigeralor door appropriately lot weight and diet control. 

Report, demo program, and documentation (including 
photos of system in actual operation). $39.95 

ULTRASONIC "RADAR" DETECTS 
AND MEASURES PRESENCE AND 
DISTANCE OF OBJECTS. 




This locating system uses a unique electrostatic transducer 
to generaiea short burst ot inaudible high frequency sound. 
The sound travels out from the transducer in a narrow cone 
and reflects back lo the transducer from objects in its path. 
The same transducer is then used to receive this reflected 
sound energy and convert n lo an electrical signal. The VIC 
or 64 measures the time between the transmitted pulse and 
its echo and computes the distance. 

SENSITIVITY: Senses objects as small 
as a flower stem. 

RANGE: 10 inches to 35 feet. 

RESOLUTION: 1/8 inch below 10 feet. 

PROVEN VERSATILITY: 

The com bination of small size and keen precision has made 
the non<omputer version ideal for such diverse applications 
as robotics, liquid level measurement security, aids for the 
harsdioapped 1 , electronic tape measure, vehicle back-up sen- 
sor and occupational safety. The VIC20C64 version promises 
even more. 

IDENTIFIES PERSONNEL 
BY THEIR HEIGHT. 

Ceiling mounted unit recognizes family members by differ- 
ences in their height. 

Ranging module and manual $99.95 

$79.95 

VIC-20/C64 Interface kit & tape. . .$99.95 

"wired and tested" $119.95 



Manual and extensive 
documentation 



$19.95 

Automated Training Systems 

7906 34th Avenue Southwest 
Seattle, WA 981 26 



Phone (206) 935-7032 
information recording 



(206) 935-2697 
ordera only 



June 1984 • COMMANDEPI43 



^ 



The Music Instructor 



\*- 



=========5SDy Robert Parrs 

Inspiration sometimes comes from the 
strangest places. For instance, my junior 
high school band director explained to me 
the rigors of keeping his band in tune, and 
jokingly asked me to set up a computer to 
teach his students pitch recognition. The 
more I thought about it, the morethe idea 
appealed to me. The results are as follows. 

PROGRAM OPERATION 

"Okay/'you're probablysaying, "I know 
that the C-64 can produce terrific sound 
on its three sound registers, but what is 
'pitch recognition?" Simply put, it is the 
process of hearing a specific pitch and 
matching it against another pitch. The 
program I have written provides for prac- 
tice in two different forms of pitch 
recognition — interval identification and 
intonation. In music, an interval is the dif- 
ference in pitch between two tones. For 
example, the interval between a "C" and a 
"G" is equal to five, while a "C" and a "B" 
make up a seventh. 

The intonation routine involves the finer 
aspect of pitch recognition— the ability to 
bring one tone exactly into tune with 
another. In the program, you must in- 
crease or decrease the pitch of a random 
tone until it matches up with the other 
tone. It is difficult at first, but becomes 
easier with practice. 

PROGRAM DESIGN 

The program is structured as follows: 
Lines 10-20 contain the set upcommands. 
The Title Menu is contained in lines 
30-140. Lines 200-300 select the two 
pitches used in the intonation routine, and 
the intonation Menu is in lines 310-470. 
Lines 480-530 contain the subroutines 
that sound the two pitches. Lines 540*570 
adjust the pitch of the second tone, and 
the two tones are compared for accuracy 
in lines 580-595. The intonation Menu is 
found in lines 660-780; the notes are 
played in lines 790-850, and the interval is 
tested by the routine contained in lines 
860-910. The Data for the program is 
stored in lines 1000-1030. 



J> 



10 
20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

90 
1 OO 
110 
120 

1 30 
140 
200 
210 
220 
230 
240 
250 

260 
300 

310 
320 
330 
340 

350 

360 

370 

380 

390 

400 
410 

420 



POKE 53280, 6: POKE 53281 , 15: PRINT "CblkJ' 

PRINT »'Ccir3*':FOR Z=54272 TO 54296:POK 

E Z,0:NEXT 

PRINT TAB (10) ' 'THECspJMUSICEspDINSTRUCTa 

R" 

RINT 

PRINT ' ' CspJCrvs-anl lErvs-af i 3- INTERVALS 

PRINT ' ' Csp:]IIrvs-on32Crvs-of-f 3-INTONATIO 

N : ' ' 

PRINT ' ' [sp]Crvs-on]3i:rv5-off J-EXIT' ' 

PRINTsPRINT • 'CspJWHICHT ? ; 

INPUT M* 

IF M*«' 'i" THEN 600 

IF M$=-' '2" THEN 200 

IF M*---' '3 : ' ' THEN END 

GOTO 20 

Z = INT<RND(1>*37H-1 

FOR Y=0 TO ZtREAD CsNEXT 

A=INT<C/256> :B=C~<A*256) 

Z=INT(RND<l)*41>-20 

F=C+ Z s D= I NT < F/256 ) : E=F- < D #256 ) 

POKE 54296, 15: POKE 54284, 33: POKE 54285,3 

3 

POKE 54277, 33: POKE 54278,33 

RESTORE 

PRINT ' ' [clr]' ' 

PR I NT TAB < 1 5 > ' ' I NTONAT I ON : ' ' 

PR I NT TAB ( 1 5 ) ; ' • =========== ' : ' : PR I NT 

PRINT ? ' C 5p ] Cr vs-an 3 U rvs-a-ff- 3 -PL A Ytsp 31 

STL'sp3PITCH : ' ' 

PRINT ' ' Csp:Krvs-on32Ervs-of-F3-PLAYi:sp32 

NDCsp3PITCH* ' 

PRINT ' ' Csp3Crvs-on33Crvs-o-ff 3-PLAYCsp3B 

OTHCsp 3 PITCHES' ' 

PRINT ' ' Csp3Crvs-on34Crvs~of f 3-LOWERCsp 3 

2NDC5P3PITCH 1 ' ' 

PRINT " ' Csp3Ervs-on35Crvs~afi : 3-RAISE[sp3 

2ND Csp 3 PITCH* : ' 

PRINT ' ? CBp3Crv5-on36Crvs-of-F3-C0t v lPAREC5 

p] PITCHES* ' 

PR I NT : PR I NT ' ' NHX CH" | I X NPUT N* 

IF N*= ? '1*' THEN 480 

IP NS=**2" THEN 500 



AAICOMMANDER • June 1984 



430 


IF N»=' '3' ? THEN 520 


440 


IF N*="4' ' THEN 540 


450 


IF N»=' '5' ' THEN 560 


460 


IF N»«=* '6' ' THEN 580 


470 


BDTD 310 


480 


POKE 54276, 33: FOKE 54273, A: 




POKE 54272, B 


490 


FOR T-i TO 2000s NEXT sPOKE 5 




4276, 32: SOTO 310 


500 


POKE 54283, 33s POKE 54280, D: 




POKE 54279, E 


510 


FOR T=l TO 2000: NEXT: POKE 5 




4283, 32: GOTO 310 


520 


POKE 54276, 33: POKE 54283,33 




SPOKE 54273, A: POKE 54272, B: 




POKE 54280, D 




POKE 54279, E 


530 


FOR T=l TO 4000: NEXT: POKE 5 



540 

550 
560 

570 
580 



590 



600 
610 

620 
630 

640 

650 

660 
670 
680 

690 

700 

710 

720 

730 

740 
750 



GOTO 



4276, 32: POKE 5428; 

310 

F=F-3:D=INT(F/256) :E=F-(D*2 

56) 

GOTO 500 

F=F+3:D=INT(F/256> ;E=F-<D*2 

56) 

GOTO 500 

IF F>C-2 AND F<C+2 THEN PR I 

NT ' ' VERY Csp] GOOD! " ' : FOR P= 

1 TO 2000s NEXT: GOTO 20 

PRINT "OUT-OF-TUNE. " s IF F 

>C THEN PRINT " #2Csp3SHARP 

.":FOR P=l TO 2000: NEXT: GO 

TO 310 

PRINT "#2Csp3FLAT. ' > : FOR P 

=1 TO 2000: NEXT: GOTO 310 

FOR Y«0 TO 7: READ C:NEXT 

Z=INT<RND<i)*7):F0R Y=0 TO 

Z:READ F: NEXT: I=Z+2: RESTORE 

A=INT <C/256) : B=C- < A*256> 

D=INT<F/256> :E=F-(D*256> 

POKE 54296, 15: POKE 54284,33 

sPOKE 54285,33 

POKE 54277, 33: POKE 54278,33 

: ZZ~1 

PRINT 

PRINT 

PRINT 

PRINT 

PRINT " Crvs-onJlCrvs-off 3- 

PLAYCsp31STtsp]N0TE' J 

PRINT » * Crvs-on32Crvs-o+f 3- 

PL.AYCsp32NDCsp3NOTE :, ' 

PRINT ' ' CrvB-on33Crvs-of-f 3- 

PUAYCsp3CH0RD' ' 

PRINT ' ' Ervs-on34Crvs-off 3- 

ENTERCsp 3 INTERVAL' ' 

PRINT: PRINT : ' ' WHICH" ' ■ : INPU 

T N* 

IF N*=' r l" THEN 790 

IF N*=' '2 9 " THEN 810 



• ' Cclr3 ; 
TABC15) ; 
TAB < 15) 



INTERVALS 1 



□ 



□ 

cn 

[E 

F 

01 
c 



PRDGRflmminG 

VDUR 
CDmHlDDDRE 

by Mario 
Eisenbacher Lt~| 

BASIC 

TUTDRlflL : 1 EftSV LEUELS 

including PET Graphics, Sprites and Music 
Autographed & Serialized 







u 
cn 

CO 



P.O Bo« 23-1 

Ml Laurel. NJ 

08054 



^ 

#& 



paperback: $12{ppd) Published by Prentice-Hall 

Name 

Add ress 



Autographed to: 



(Name) 



BASIC BYTE JUST 

MADE MANAGING YOUR 

STOCK PORTFOLIO EASIER 



Introducing PORTFOLIO MANAGER by Basic Byte, a high- 
quality, easy-to-use software program for use on your 
Commodore 64 or VIC 20 (16K RAM) personal computer. 

It's designed to eliminate hours of time consuming 
paperwork. And make it easy for you to handle your 
investments. 

PORTFOLIO MANAGER lets you instantly update your 
stock's current value. Calculate gains and losses. Record 
dividends. Print reports. Even determine the price per 
share after your broker's commission. All you have to do 
is follow the easy, step-by-step instructions. 

The price? Only S29.95. And that makes PORTFOLIO 
MANAGER a great investment by itself. 

You'll find PORTFOLIO MANAGER on tape or disk drive 
at your local dealer. Or call direct (313) 540-0655 or write 
P.O. Box 924, Southfield. Ml 48037 and order yours today. 



BASIC BYTE, INC. 



June 1984 • COMMANDER 1*5 



760 
770 
780 

790 

800 
8 1 

820 
830 



840 
850 



860 

870 
880 



890 
895 



900 

9 1 
1000 

1010 

1 020 

1030 



IF N»=' '3" THEN 830 

IF H*=' '4" THEN 860 

GOTO 660 

POKE 54276, 33: POKE 54273, A: 

POKE 54272,8 

FOR T=l TO 2000: NEXT! POKE 5 

4276, 32: GOTO 660 

POKE 54283, 33: POKE 54280, D: 

POKE 54279, E 

FOR T=l TO 2000: NEXT: POKE 5 

4283, 32: GOTO 660 

POKE 54276, 33: POKE 54283,33 

SPOKE 54273, A: POKE 54272, B: 

POKE 54280, D 

POKE 54279, E 

FOR T=l TO 4000: NEXT: POKE 5 

4276,32: POKE 54283, 32: GOTO 

660 

PRINT: PRINT ' ' ENTER Csp 11 INTE 

RVALtsp] (2-8) ' : ' ; : INPUT N$ 

IF VALCN*)'OI THEM 890 

PRINT ' ' VERYCsp3B00D ! : ' : ' : FOR 

PAUSEe 1 TO 2000: NEXT: GOTO 
20 

IF ZZ»3 THEN 900 
PRINT ''INCORRECT. Csp, 2 ti 
mes .1 TRY I sp ::i AGA I N . r : ' i FOR pa 1 

TO 2000 : NE X T : Z 2 ■ Z Z + 1 s GOTO 
660 

PRINT • ' INCORRECT. Csp, 2 ti 
mes] THE C sp I! I NTERVAL C sp 3 WAS C 
sp ] AC sp] VALUE Csp 3 OF Csp 3' ' j I 

» ? ,i :' r 

FOR PAUSE*! TO 2000: NEXT: GO 

TO 20 

DATA 1 072 ., 1 204 ,1351,1 432 , 1 6 

07 , 1 804 , 2025 ,2145, 2408 , 2703 

, 2864 

DATA 32 15, 3608 , 4050 , 429 1 , 48 

17,5407, 57 28 , 6430 , 72 17,8101 

,8583 

DATA 1 136, 1 275 ,1517,1 703 , 1 9 

11,2273,2551,3034 

DATA 3406, 3823, 4547, 5103, 60 

69, 6812,, 7647,, 9094 





TlVFOriTQT^ The truly 
Il^JTWJLyJlOJrV p rofess i ona | 

Data-base system for Commodore 64 

• up to 1 SO fields per record 

• up to 2400 characters per record 

• 19 calculation functions 

« ONLY S89.95 

• links to word processors 

• very easy to use 

• 6 applications included 

INFOTAPE — An interpretive tape system for virtu- 
ally ANY data storage application S29 95 






UTILITY 64 — All BASIC 4,0 DOS commands for 
BACK-UPs etc. on one disk $19.95 

IEEE interface cartridge — enables you to use ANY 
Commodore disk drive or printer S-84.95 






MD residents add 5% tax Dealer inquiries 

invited. 






Beaver Software Systems 
PO Box 88 

Cabin John, MD 20818 

(301)229-4082 eiid.Na.aa 












!7lfop<\&&aJj{j£s 




^cr^MrOAJl/ 



STOCK HELPER" 

Commodore 64" 

Stock HELPER is a tool to maintain a history of stock 
prices and market indicators on diskette, to display 
charts, and to calculate moving averages. Stock 
HELPER was designed and written by a "weekend 
investor" for other weekend investors. 

Stock HELPER is available on diskette for: 
^^ $30.00 (S37.50 Canadian) 

visa (Minnesota residents please add 6' ., sales tax) ^^^ 

plus $1.25 shipping (1.55 Canadian) 

(M)agreeable software, inc. 

5925 Magnolia Lane • Plymouth. MN 55442 
(612)559-1108 

[Mjagreeable and HELPER are trademarks of (M)agreeable software, inc. 
Commodore 64 is a trademark ol Commodore Electronics Ltd. 



46KOMMANDER • June 1984 



UNITE YOUR C-64 AND PRINTER WITH 

PRINT-MASTER 



SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE $39.95 



CARTRIDGE 



Enhances the operation of a serial bus 
printer interface such as "Card-?" by 
Cardco, the "MV-302" by MicroWorld 
Electronics, or "The Connection" 
byTymac. 

Does high resolution screen 
dumps in normal or reverse video 
with a single key stroke, 

Allows control over the many printer features 
either from the keyboard or from a BASIC program. 

But that's not all! Also included are a DOS wedge similar to DOS 5.1 and the 
UNNEW command, a PRINT-MASTER exclusive, allowing you to regain access 
to a BASIC program after a system RESET, a NEW command or a runaway 
program. 

PRINT-MASTER works with all Epson compatible printers. 






SUGGESTED 
RETAILPRICE 

$19.95 



^^N^tf* 



your 
Commodore Computer 






Completely re-initializes the Commodore computer's hardware and 

software. 

Recover from runaway or hung programs. 

Restart a cartridge without using the power switch. 

RESET without clearing memory. 

RESTORE your BASIC program with the UNNEW program (included). 

Save wear and tear on your computer caused by frequent power off and on. 

Plugs into the USER port and returns a User Port device. 

Quality push-button switch and PC board with all gold 

contacts. 

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED VfSA" 

INNOVATIVE PERIPHERAL SYSTEMS 

1 057D SW WALKER RD. 

BEAVERTON, OR. 37005 

C503) BB4-D15B 





^ 



Modify Your 8K Cartridge 
to Include ROM's 



\* 



jby Thomas Henry* 



It's a fairly well known fact that the circuit boards used in the 
Commodore VIC-20 8K and 16K RAM Expansion Cartridges 
are identical. The only thing that differs is the amount of actual 
RAM stuffed in the board. This means that you can easily 
upgrade an 8K pack to 16K simply by adding chips in the 
empty slots. But did you know that you can add ROM's or 
EPROM's to the 8K expander with a minimum of hassle? This 
article shows you how with step-by-step instructions il- 
lustrating the procedure. 

Why add ROMs? Well, perhaps you have some frequently 
used utilities, like a machine language monitor, programmer's 
aid, assembler or word processor. Wouldn't it be nice to have 
these available the minute you turn on your VIC-20? With ROM 
based programs this is possible and there's no more waiting for 
cassette decks or disk drives to do theirthing! And if you're into 
software development for commercial applications this 
modification ought to appeal even more. Consider that it is 
possible to map 8K of RAM and 8K of ROM into the $AOO0 
region with this arrangement. You can carry out your software 
development in the RAM area and when you are certain that 
the program works correctly, you can then burn it into EPROM 
and plug it into the ROM compartment. Keeping in mind the 
cost of an 8K cartridge and the few parts needed to implement 
the design, this may well be the least expensive (albeit simple) 
development system around! 

HOW THE RAM/ROM CARTRIDGE WORKS 

The theory of this system is simple. We'll take an ordinary 8K 
RAM cartridge, add four sockets for the 2716 EPROM's and 
throw in a selector switch which will alfow you to alternately 



^J 



map the RAM or ROM into the $AOO0 through $BFFF region. 
This portion of the VIC-20's operating system is selected 
because the $AO0O region incorporates an unique auto-start 
feature which is particularly useful in ROM or EPROM applica- 
tions. (See Nick Hampshire's THE VIC REVEALED, Hayden Book 
Company, 1982, pp. 102-103 fora description of this feature). 
Figure one shows the arrangement of the RAM, ROM and 
switch. Notice how the DPDT switch sends the BLK5 signal to 
eitherthe RAM or ROM depending on ts position. But equally 
important is the way that the + 5V line is sent to the memory 
(either RAM or ROM again) which is to be deselected. Your im- 
mediate impression might be that a SPDT switch would suffice 
here, but it's crucial that the deselected memory chip enable 
line be pulled up to a solid + 5V. Hence the DPDT switch. In- 
cidentally, old electronic hands will recognize this switch ar- 
rangement as a standard polarity reverser. 

There are, of course, several different areas into which ROM 
may be mapped on a VIC-20. While this article describes only 
one of them, the same principles apply to the rest. So, even if 
you have no immediate use for this modification, you may 
want to read on and see if what'ssaid might apply to your own 
particular project. 

By the way, economics and convenience play a major roie in 
the usefulness of modifying an 8K cartridge to include ROM. 
Chances are, if you were to design a RAM/ROM board from 
scratch, you would end up spending more time and money 
than if you were to start with a factory built 8K expander. Those 
empty slots in the commercial unit sure are handy and just beg 
to be put to work! 



DPDT switch 




BLK5 



FIGURE 1 



MICOMMANDER • June 1984 



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characters, fantastic print quality, uses 
inexpensive thermal paper! Best thermal 
printer in the U.S.A.! (Centronics Parallel 
Interface). 

"DELUXE COMSTAR T/F 
60CPSPRINTER-$199.00 

The COMSTAR T/F (Tractor Friction) 
PRINTER is exceptionally versatile. It 
prints 8W" x 11" standard size single 
sheet stationary or continuous feed com- 
puter paper. Bi-directional, impact dot 
matrix, 80 CPS, 224 characters. (Cen- 
tronics Parallel Interface). 

Premium Quality— 120 CPS 
COMSTAR T/F SUPER-10X 

PRINTER— $289.00 

COMSTAR T/F (Tractor Friction) SUPER- 
10X PRINTER gives you all the features 
Of the COMSTAR T/F PRINTER plus a 
10" carnage, 120 CPS. 9 x 9 dot matrix 
with double strike capability for 18 x 18 
dot matrix (near letter quality), high 
resolution bit image (120 x 144 dot 
matrix), underlining, back spacing, left 
and right margin settings, true lower 
decenders with super and subscripts, 
prints standard, italic, block graphics 



and special characters, plus 2K of user 
definable characters! The COMSTAR T/F 
SUPER-10X PRINTER was Rated No. 1 by 
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print quality and features found on 
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tronics Parallel Interface) (Better than Ep- 
son FX 80). 

Premium Quality— 120 CPS 
COMSTAR T/F SUPER-15V 

PRINTER — $379.00 

COMSTAR T/F SUPER 15V PRINTER 
has all the features of the COMSTAR T/F 
SUPER-10X PRINTER plus a 15V car- 
riage and more powerful electronics 
components to handle large ledger 
business forms! (Better than Epson FX 
100). 

Superior Quality 

SUPER HIGH SPEED-160 CPS 

COMSTAR T/F 10" 

PRINTER— $489.00 

SUPER HIGH SPEED COMSTAR T/F 
(Tractor Friction) PRINTER has all the 
features of the COMSTAR SUPER-10X 
PRINTER plus SUPER HIGH SPEED 
PRINTING— 160 CPS, 100% duty cycle, 
8K buffer, diverse character fonts, 
special symbols and true decenders. ver- 
tical and horizontal tabs. RED HOT 
BUSINESS PRINTER at an unbelievabie 
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• Add $17.50 for shipping, handling and insurance. WE DO NOT EXPORT 
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Superior Quality 

SUPER HIGH SPEED— 160 CPS 

COMSTAR T/F 15Vi" 

PRINTER— $579.00 

SUPER HIGH SPEED COMSTAR T/F 
15%" PRINTER has all the features of the 
SUPER HIGH SPEED COMSTAR T/F 10" 
PRINTER plus a 15V carriage and more 
powerful electronics to handle larger 
ledger business forms! Exclusive bottom 
paper feed!! 



PARALLEL INTERFACES 

For VIC-20 and COM-64— S49.00 
For Apple Computers— S79.00 

NOTE: Other printer interfaces are 
available at computer stores! 



Double 

Immediate Replacement 

Warranty 

We have doubled the normal 90 day war- 
ranty to 180 days. Therefore if your 
printer fails within "180 days" from the 
date of purchase you simply send your 
printer to us via United Parcel Service, 
prepaid. We will IMMEDIATELY send you 
a replacement printer at no charge, 
prepaid. This warranty, once again, 
proves that WE LOVE OUR 
CUSTOMERS! 



j Enclose Cashiers Check. Money Order or Personal Check. Allow 14 days 
[ tor delivery, 2 to 7 days for phone orders, 1 day express mail! Canada 
I orders must be in U.S. dollars. VISA — MASTER CARD ACCEPTED. We 
I ship C.O.D. 



I 



(WE LOVE OUR CUSTOMERS! 



ENTERPRIZES 

BOX 550, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS 60010 



Phone 312/382-5244 to order 



Circle No. 34 



SUPER-10" ABCDEFGH I JKLMNQPQR8TUVWXYZ 

fiBCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890 



4 Color 
80 COLUMN Letter Quality 

PRINTER/PLOTTER 
Super ^m&Btb Special 



$99 

1/2 PRICE 

sale 




$99 



^| 2 PWCE 



\ 



• LOWEST PRICE IN U.S.A. 

Commodore 64 & VIC-20 



• List your programs • High resolution graphics for bar charts and geometric figures (like 
spirograph) • Plugs directly into VIC 20 and Commodore 64 — Interface included • Lowest 
cost letter quality printer in the country. 



* PROJECTED SALES * 



i! 



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si i 



ACTUAL PRINT SAMPLES 

UPPER CASE - ABCDEFGhlJKLIINOPQRSTUUUXYZ 
LOWER CASE - abcdef 9h i jklmnopqrstuuuixyz 




At last you can list your programs (even control characters) and make beautiful high resolu- 
tion graphics at an affordable price. This 80 column letter quality printer/plotter is great for 
making complex bar charts for business plus fancy greeting cards and geometric designs. 
Great for homework too. Everyone must have a 4 color printer plotter for their VIC-20 or 
Commodore-64. List $199.00. Sale $99.00. 

• LOWEST PRICES ■ 15 DAY FREE TRIAL • 90 DAY FREE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY 
• BEST SERVICE IN U.S.A. • ONE DAY EXPRESS MAIL • OVER 500 PROGRAMS • FREE CATALOGS 



■ Add $10.00 tor shipping, handling and Insurance Illinois residents 1 
| please add 6% lax. Add S20.00 lor CANADA, PUERTO RICO, HAWAII | 
j orden. WE DO NOT EXPORT TO OTH ER COU NT Rl ES. 

I Enclose Cashiers Check. Money Order or Personal Check. Allow 14 | 
j days lor delivery. 2 to 7 days lor phone orders, 1 day express mail' I 
| Canada orders musl be in US dollars. Visa - MasterCard - CO.O. 



Circle No 3J 



ENTERPRIZES " £ LOvE OUB cust ° uers > 

BOX 550, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS 60010 
Phone 312/382-5244 to order 



® SANYO MONITOR SALEM 




9" Data Monitor 



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• 15 Day Free Trial - 90 Day Immediate Replacement Warranty 



9" Screen - Green Text Display 
12" Screen - Green Text Display (anti-reflective screen) 
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*PLUS $9.95 for Connecting Cable. 

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$ 69.00 
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With the need for computing power growing every day, Sanyo has 
stepped in to meet the demand with a whole new line of low cost, high 
quality data monitors. Designed for commercial and personal com- 
puter use. All models come with an array of features, including up- 
front brightness and contrast controls. The capacity 5 x 7 dot 
characters as the input is 24 lines of characters with up to 
80 characters per line. 

Equally important, all are built with Sanyo's commitment 
to technological excellence. In the world of Audio/Video, Sanyo is 
synonymous with reliability and performance. And Sanyo quality is 
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I Add $10.00 for shipping, handling arid insurance. Illinois residents 1 
I please add 6% tax. Add $20.00 for CANADA, PUERTO RICO, HAWAII " 
j orders. WE DO NOT EXPORTTO OTHER COUNTRIES. 

I Enclose Cashiers Check, Money Order or Personal Check. Allow 14 
| days for delivery, 2 to 7 days for phone orders, 1 day express mail! 
I Canada orders must be in U.S. dollars. Visa ■ MasterCard - C.O.D. 



ENlfERPRIZES WE LOVE OUR CUSTOMERS! 

BOX 550, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS 60010 
Phone 3127382-5244 to order 



Circle No. 34 






cardco, inc. 



. It'stimeforyour 
computer to grow up. 



VIC-20 EXPANDER SALE! 



8K RAM MEMORY EXPANDER 

(Free $16.95 Game) 

16K RAM MEMORY EXPANDER "CARDCO" 

(Free $29.95 Adventure Game) 

24K RAM MEMORY EXPANDER 

(Free $29.95 Adventure Game) 

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(Expands to total memory to 57K (57,000 bytes) 

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RIBBON CABLE EXPANDER BOARD (Lifetime warranty) 

40-80 COLUMN BOARD 

"CARDCO" PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE 



LIST 



SALE 



$ 69.95 $39.00 

$ 99.00 $49.00 

$159.00 $59.00 

$199.00 $75.00 

$ 39.95 $29.00 

$ 99.00 $49.00 

$ 99.00 $59.00 

$ 99.00 $69.00 



VIC-20 
WORD PROCESSOR SALE 

1. "Write Now" Word Processor Cartridge! (Better than Quick Brown Fox) No disk drive or 
cassette player needed! Just plug in the "Write Now" cartridge. Easy to use and learn, has all the 
professional features: margin settings, editing word wrap, scrolling, search and replace, center- 
ing, page numbering, user defined characters, ascii code set that allows use of all printer 
features! ! Includes a powerful mailmerge for mailing lists! List S39.95 Sale S34.95. 

2. "H.E.S. Writer" Word Processor Cartridge! Full screen editing, scrolling up and down, word 
wrap, left and right justification, centering, page numbering, screen text preview and more! List 
S39.95. Sale $24.95. 

3. "Total Text" Word Processor creates professional documents! Features include page number- 
ing, right and left margins, paragraph control, upper/lower case, full screen editing, footnotes, 
etc.! (8K Ram required) Tape List $34.95. Sale $19.95. 

4. "Total Labels" Mailing List! Keep and print mailing list labels with ease. Add change and 
delete labels, alphabetize, option to select any part of list. (8K Ram required) Tape List 
$24.95. Sale $14.95. 



Add S3 00 for postage Add S6 00 lor CANADA PUERTO RICO HAWAII 
orders WE DO NOT EXPORT TO OTHER COUNTRIES 
Enclose Cashiers Cfteck Money Orde' or Personal Cnec* Allow 14 
days lor rjelivefy. 2 to 7 days lor phone orders 1 day e«press mail 1 
Canada orders musi be m u S dollars We accept Visa ana Master 



t Card We ship COD 



ENTERPRIZES M '°" iouflfysraMfBS 

BOX 550, BARRINGTON, ILLINOIS 6OO10 
Phone 312/382 5244 to order 



Circle No. 34 



A7 


1 


A6 


2 


A5 


3 


A4 


4 


A3 


5 


A2 


6 


A1 


7 


AO 1 


8 


DO 


9 


D1 


10 


D2 


11 


GND 


12 




A10 

cs, 

D7 

06 low = read 

D5 high = inhibit 

D4 

D3 



A7 


1 


"WP 


24 


+5V 




A6 


2 


TMM2016P 


23 


A3 

A9 

WE 




A5 


3 


RAM 


22 

21 


to finger #17 


A4 


4 






* 


A3 


5 




20 




^,_ 




-L 0E 


A2 


6 




19 


A10 


A1 


7 




18 


CS 


- 


AO 


8 




17 


D7 




DO 


9 




16 


D6 




D1 


10 




15 


, D5 




D2 


11 




14 


D4 




GND 


12 




13 


D3 





RAM pinout versus ROM pinout 
FIGURE 2 

One final detail needs to be hit before we can move on to the 
"how-to-do-it". If we are to make this modification work we 
need to know if the ROMs or EPROMs we intend to use are pin 
compatible with the RAMs already in the unit. Well, the answer 
is "almost". Refer to Figure two for a comparison of the 
TMM2016P RAM chip (the type already in the cartridge) with 
the 2716 (a common type of 2K EPROM). Notice how all of ad- 
dress lines, data lines, power lines, chip select lines and output 
enable lines are in identical locations. So far, so good! 

In fact the only line which causes trouble is pin 21 . On the 
TMM2016P, pin 21 functions as a read-write line. When this 
line is low, you may write to the chip and when it is high you 
may read from it. Now, on the 2716 this pin is used for pro- 
gramming purposes (hence its name "Vpp") and to ac- 
complish a read this pin must be high. Since both chips require 
this pin to be high to accomplish a read, you may think that you 
can simply pop the 2716 in and it would work right away. In 
theory this is true, but unfortunately, pin 21 on the 2716 draws 
a hefty hunk of current, more than the VIC-20's R/W line can 
provide. The only sensible way to conquer the problem is to 
pull this line high permanently. After all, we only want to read 
from it anyway, so this solution serves the purpose quite ad- 
mirably! 

PERFORMING THE MODIFICATION 

Now that we have an idea of the general approach, let's see 
how to actually perform the modification. Let's get a few warn- 
ings out of the way: 

1) Modifying your 8K cartridge voids your warranty with Com- 
modore. 



2) While the instructions included herein are believed to be ac- 
curate, neither the author of this article northepublisherof this 
magazine can be held accountable for any mishaps. This infor- 
mation is provided to further the public's knowledge of the 
electronics of RAM cartridges and no warranty of any kind is to 
be inferred. 

3) Some of the components in the 8K RAM cartridge are sen- 
sitiveandcan be easily destroyed by static electricity. Observeall 
normal grounding procedures. Do not wear clothes made of 
synthetic fibres and use a grounded soldering iron. Alternative- 
ly, if no grounded iron is available, unplug the unit from the 
wall momentarily while soldering any joint. This minimizes the 
occurrence of stray electrostatic fields. 

4) If any of these steps make no sense to you, STOP! Get a 
friend or dealer more knowledgeable in electronics to com- 
plete the project. 

While these four warnings may sound rather grim, actually 
the work is quite straightforward. As usual, the more ex- 
perience in electronics that you've had, the easier the work will 
seem. I found one evening allowed plenty of time to complete 
the project. 

To best execute this modification, it is essential to perform 
the various steps in the correct order. Here follows a checklist 
which should considerably simplify the task. 

1 ) Remove the single screw which is to be found on the back 
side of the 8K RAM expander. See Figure three. Set aside for 
later re-assembly. 

2} The cartridge is held together bytwo snap-lock type connec- 
tors located inside the cartridge and belowthe two slotson the 
cartridge back. To free these, slip the blade of a small 
screwdriver into one slot at a time and carefully pry backward. 
See Figure four. After freeing both connectors, firmly grasp one 
half of the case with each hand and lever apart. Be careful not 
to damage either of the plastic snap-locks. Refer to Figure five. 




Figure 3 

3) You should have three parts in your hands now: a case bot- 
tom, a case top and the circuit board. Set both case parts aside 
temporarily and concentrate on the circuit board. 

4) Locate the dip switch assembly nearthe fingers of the circuit 



June 1984 • COMMANDER I 53 




6} Likewise, remove the solder from the holes provided for the 
four decoupling capacitors. These are located at the head of 
each of the four empty regions mentioned in step 5. We will 
add capacitors here in a later step. 

7) Refer again to Figure six. Using a sharp razor knife, carefully 
cut the bridge between the two pads as indicated. Exercise 
care not to slash either your fingers or the circuit board! 

8) Using Figure eight as a guide, carefully cut the trace coming 
from pin 21 of integrated circuit U4. Note that the far side of 
this trace is not needed for anything further, but the side closest 
to pin 21 will be tied to another point in a later step. Call this 
point P 



Figure 4 

board. Using a solder bulb and wick, carefully desolder and 
remove completely. You may throw this dipswitch assembly in- 
to your junk box, for we won't be using it at all in the final 
design. Underneath the dip switch you should find a pad ar- 
rangement like that shown in Figure six. For reference sake, 
notice that these pads give us access to the RAM chip select, 
the ROM chip select, the + 5V line and the BLK5 line. These are 
the four connections we need to implement the new switch 
assembly as shown in Figure one. 

5) Still using the bulb and wick, remove the solder filler from 
the four empty twenty-four pin connectors. Refer to Figure 
seven. We will be installing the sockets for the 271 6's here later 
on, 



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(206) 845-5903 

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Figure 5 





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54ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



screw hole 



+5V line 




RAM CS 




BLK5 



component side, 
lingers at bottom 



FIGURE 6 



9) Now refer to Figure nine. Using the razor knife again, 
carefully cut the trace running to finger number 1 7, Note that 
the point closest to the finger is designated Q. We will connect 
point Q to P (as mentioned in step 8). 




Figure 7 

10) Using a piece of insulated hookup wire, connect points P 
and Q, Route the wire in such a way as to avoid obscuring the 
single screw hole in the circuit board and make certain that 
your solder joints are dainty and clean. Since the circuit board 
employs a solder mask, you will have to scrap it away slightly at 
both points P and Q before soldering. Use a razor knife for this 
purpose, but be careful notto cut into the board. The modifica- 
tion we have just performed insures that the R/W line from the 
computer goes only to the RAM chips, not the ROM. 

1 1) As mentioned earlier, the Vpp pins of the 2716 need to be 
tied to + 5V Refer to Figure nine again. Using a piece of bare 
bus wire, bridge the point indicated to the + 5V line. Once 



again, you will have to scrape a bit of the solder masking off to 
facilitate this. Keep your connection small since a socket will be 
mounted on top of this in the next step. 

1 2) Instal four low profile twenty-four pin sockets in the holes 
cleared in step 5. Use good soldering practices and avoid ex- 
cessive heat which may cause traces to lift up or the sockets to 
melt. 

1 3) Install four .0 1 mfd capacitors in the holes cleared in step 6. 
At this point your board should look like Figure ten. 

U4 



connect point P 
to point Q 



cut trace 


pin 21 




• : 

screw hole 



component side 



FIGURE 8 

14) We can now install the switch, but just how you do this 
depends on the size and type of switch you locate. The 8K 
RAM package is housed in rather cramped quarters and I had 
trouble finding a DPDT switch small enough to mount in the 
plastic box. The solution I came up with is illustrated in Figure 
eleven. The switch is actually mounted on the outside of the 
box using epoxy cement to build up the region. The wires con- 
necting to it run through a hole in the box right below where it 
is mounted as illustrated in Figure twelve. Although the affair 
looks strange, it does work well and the epoxy is as strong as 
the box. You're on your own here; pick the switch you intend 
to use and decide upon a mode of fastening it. After installing 
the switch, use a length of ribbon cable to connect the six ter- 
minals of the switch to the various pads illustrated in Figure six. 
Use Figure one as your master wiring guide. 



bridge this point 
to +5V line 



M 




connect point Q 
to point P 



TVim 

+5V line trace i 



component side 



finger #17 



FIGURE 9 



June 19S4 • COMMANDERI5S 



^ 



User Groups 

& Clubs Directory 



Users Groups 

USER GROUPS AND 
CLUB DIRECTORIES 

To be included in future issues in the 
User Group and Club Directories, your 
group or club must supply COMMANDER 
with the following information: 

1. Name of organization 

2. Mailing address 

3. Contact person and telephone 
number 

4. Name of newsletter or publication 

5. Special interests 

Send your information to User Groups 
and Club Directories, COMMANDER, RO. 
Box 98827, Tacoma, WA 98827. 



ARIZONA 

Commodore User Group 
4578 Monarch Drive 
Sierra Vista, Az. 85635 
Contact Michael Stephany 

CALIFORNIA 

64 West 

813 S. Curson Street 

Los Angeles, Ca. 90036 

Contact Karen McCamy 

South Bay Commodore User Group 

4707 162nd. Street 

Lawndale, Ca. 90206 

Contact Andrew Mouser 

Commodore 64 West 

291 7 Colorado Ave. 

Santa Monica, Ca. 90404 

Contact Don Campbell 

SFVCUG 

5844 Riverton Ave. 

N. Hollywood, Ca. 90601 

Contact Steve Botts 

Southern Ca. C-64 Users Group 

14944 Bayou 

Bellf lower, Ca. 90706 

Contact Bob Johnston 

SDPUG 
Box 86531 

San Diego, Ca. 92138-6531 
Contact Jane Campbell 
64 User & Exchange Report 
13622 Carroll Way 
Tustin, Ca. 92680 
Contact Lowell Ehrhardt 
Sixty Fourum 
RO. Box 16098 
Fresno, Ca. 93755 
Contact John Damiano 

S6ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



San Francisco Commodore U.G. 
178 -27 Ave. #103 
San Francisco, Ca. 94121 
Contact Roger Tierce 

20/64 Users Group 

PO. Box 18473 

Contact San Jose, Ca. 95158 

SC3 

10004 Vanguard Drive 

Sacramento, Ca 95827 

Contact John Zacharias 

CONNECTICUT 

Fairfield County U.G. 
RO. Box 212 
Danbury, Ct. 06810 
Contact Linda Retter 

FLORIDA 

Commodore Computer Club 
RO. Box 9726 
Jacksonville, Fl. 32208 
Contact David Phillips 

GEORGIA 

Liberty Commodore U.G. 
PO. Box 973 
Hinesville, Ga. 31313 
Contact Jeanette Burger 

HAWAII 

20/64 Hawaii 
98487 Koauka Loop #804 
Aiea, Hi. 96701 
Contact Ted Clay 

MARYLAND 

Compucats 
680 W Bel Air Ave. 
Aberdeen, Md. 21001 
Contact Betty Schueler 

MICHIGAN 

South Computer Club 
South Junior High School 
45201 Owen 
Bellevue, Mi. 48111 
Contact Ronald Rupert 

MISSOURI 

Northland Amateur Radio Assoc. 
528 Skyline Drive 
Liberty, Mo. 64068 
Contact Alan Boyer 

NEW YORK 

NYCUG 

436 East 69th Street 
New York, NY. 10021 
Contact Joycelyn Woods 

NORTH DAKOTA 

CCND 

1607 Reno Drive 
Bismark, ND. 58501 
Contact James G. Allen 



OREGON 

USCUG 
Box 2310 

Roseburg, Or. 97470 
Contact Rich Tsukiji 

Jefferson State User Group 
2355 Camp Baker Road 
Medford, Or. 97501 
Contact John Newman 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Westmoreland C.U.G. 
3021 Ben Venue Drive 
Greenburg, Pa. 15601 
Contact Jim Mathers 
8**2 Commodore Users 
RO. Box 76 

Mt. Holly Springs, Pa. 17065 
Contact JA. Skelton 

TEXAS 

Commodore Houston User Group 
8738 Wildforest 
Houston, Tx. 77088 
Contact John Walker 

VIRGINIA 

Tidewater 

4205 Westchester Circle 
Virginia Beach, Va. 23452 
Contact Joel Crabbe 

WASHINGTON 

Bunch A Bytes 
4916 121st Place NE 
Marysville, Wa. 98270 
Contact Joey Miller 

WYOMING 

64 Users Group 
3311 Sutherland Drive 
Gillette, Wy. 82716 
Contact Jerry Hughes 



NATIONAL USER GROUPS 

National VIC-20 User Group 
PO. Box 34575 
Omaha, Ne. 68134 
Contact George Kaywood 

United States Commodore Users Group 
RO. Box 2310 
Roseburg, Or. 97470 
Contact Rich Tsukiji 

Toronto Pet Users Group 
1912A A/enue Road, Suite 1 
Toronto Ontario Canada M5M 4A1 
Contact Chiis Bennett 



IT 



*\ 



Explorations with 
Assembly Language 



V i n liy Eric Giguerei 

This month we're going to sidetrack 
from our current discussion of the KER- 
NAL and take a look at a useful application 
of an assembly language routine. We're 
going to dissect a program I created called 
Screen Dump, which dumps (copies) a 
high-resolution picture from the 64 to a 
1525 printer. Its actual use is detailed 
elsewhere in COMMANDER, in the ac- 
companying article "SCREEN DUMP 64". 

THE PROBLEM 

I wanted to dump some of my hi-res pic- 
tures to the printer so I decided to create 
my own program. This was not as easy as 
it sounds. The 1 525 {or MPS 801 ) has a hi- 
res mode {dot-addressable graphics is the 
proper term) but it differs from the way hi- 
res pictures are stored in the 64 's memory. 
As you can see by looking at Figure 1 , one 
printer line is 480 dots (pixels) wide by 7 
dots high. You're probably saying that 
because a hi-res picture is 320 pixels wide 
by 200 pixelshighit should be easyto copy 
the picture to the printer. If a hi-res picture 
was stored in the same fashion as the 
printer prints its graphics — left to right, 1 
dot wide and 7 dots high — this would be 
true. But if you take a look at Figure 2, 
you'll see that it's not. It shows the 
memory arrangement for a hi-res picture. 
As would be expected, the first 8 pixels of 
the picture are stored in the first byte of 
picture memory (each bit in the byte 
represents one pixel). The next byte should 
hold the 8 pixels to the right, true? False. 
The next byte (byte 2) holds the 8 pixels 
underneath the first 8, and the third holds 
the 8 underneath those, and so on, until 
we reach the ninth byte. Instead of 
holding the eight pixels underneath the 
eighth byte, it holds the eight pixels to the 
right of the first byte. 

In effect, the first eight bytes hold all the 
pixels from 0,0 to 7,7 (values are given in 
the format X,Y and usually start from in- 
stead of 1). The next eight bytes hold the 
pixels from 8,0 to 1 5,7 and so on. When 



J 



the right side of the screen is reached 8 is 
added to the Y-value and the cycle starts 
over with an X-value of 0. If this isn't 
enough, we can't send a full byte to the 
printer at once, since it will only print 1 dot 
horizontally and 7 vertically at a time. We 
are forced to send the separate bits one at 
a time, in the proper order. Not an easy 
task! 

THE PROGRAM 

Program 1 is my solution to the problem 
(actually an incomplete solution). When it 
prints out a hi-res picture, it only prints the 
first seven pixels down, skipping the eight 
(see Figure 3). Why do I do this? Mainly 
because it makes keeping track of where 
we are in memory much easier. If we 
printed each and every pixel in the picture 
the program would be beyond the scope 
of this column. 

FIRST STEPS 

We first have to define all the memory 
locations and values we will be needing. 
Lines 3 to 8 of the listing take care of this. 
Two KERNAL routines are going to be 
used in this program: CHROUT and STOP 
CHROUT is the routine that outputs a 
character to the device currently OPENed 
(in our case it will be the printer) and STOP 
is the routine that checks to see if the STOP 
key is being depressed. We will use XLO 
and XHI to keep track of our X-location 
(we need two bytes because there are 320 
pixels horizontally) and YLOX to keep 
track of our Y-location. Finally, OUT is the 
character we'll send to the printer. 

INITIALIZATION 

Lines 10 to 12 store the first eight 
powers of 2 into memory, as we'll be 
needing them later. Now comes the pro- 
gram. First we initialize the Y-pointer and 
then the X-pointer. The Y-pointer will only 
be cleared once but the X-pointer will be 
cleared each time we start a new printer 
line. Lines 19 to 24 are used to adjust the 



left margin of the printout by printing a 
number of blank dots before the picture. 
The X-register is decreased until it is less 
than zero, after which it will branch to 
NEWCOL. Otherwise it will print a blank 
dot (128 to the printer) and then loop 
back. As it's set right now the program 
won't print any blank dots before the pic- 
ture but a POKE to $034F would change 
that. SCREEN DUMP 64 does that to con- 
trol the margin. 

MAIN CODE 

The main code of the program resides in 
lines 25 to 44. These take a value from 
memory, AND it with a value from the 
powers of 2 table at the beginning and 
store this in OUT The AND makes sure we 
get the bit we want. We check to see if the 
byte equals zero or not and set the carry 
accordingly, rotating it through OUT This 
will properly set the bits in OUT so that the 
printer can print the picture. The EOR#$FF 
reverse the picture (changing this to an 
EOR #$00 leaves it unchanged) and the 
ORA #128 is needed to make sure the 
printer doesn't take our byte as a com- 
mand. JSR CHROUT sends the character 
to the printer, after which we check to see 
if we have finished all eight bits in the 
bytes. If not, we jump back to INITX and 
repeat the process. 

After we're finished sending that 8 by 8 
block of pixels we bump up the pointer at 
NEXTBYT by 8 as well as the X-pointer. If 
we've reached $14® (320) we send a car- 
riage return to the printer and increase the 
Y-pointer, checking to see if we have 
finished all 200 pixels down (25 lines). If 
not, we start over, but if we are finished, 
the program resets the pointer at NEXBYT 
to $6000 and does an RTS. 

CONTROL POINTS 

One thing about this program is its flex- 
ibility. By changing several locations the 
screen dump can be modified. Location 
847 ($034F) controls how many blank pix- 

Junel984 • COMMANDERI57 



FIGURE 2 





Bytel 


Byte9 


2 


10 


3 


11 


4 


12 


5 


13 


6 


14 


7 


15 


8 


16 


321 


329 


FIGL 


IRE 3 



Hi-res Picture Screen Dump 



o o 

• • 

• 1st 7 , 

• Only • 
o o 

• • 



els are to be printed before the actual 
dump. Location 885 ($0375) controls 
whether the picture will be printed in 
reverse or not. A 255 here reverses the pic- 
ture and a leaves it as it is (try using values 
in between and see what happens). The 
last modification you can do, and perhaps 
the most important, is to change the start- 
ing address for the screen dump. Loca- 
tions 866 ($0362) and 960 ($03C0) have 
to hold the low-byte of the address and 
locations 867 ($0363) and 955 ($03BB) 
must hold the high-byte. As the program 
is listed it will dumpa picture from location 
$6000, the start of a standard KoalaPad 
picture. To output other pictures you simp- 
ly change the proper locations, as in 
SCREEN DUMP 64. 



OPEN THE FILE 

Before you can use Screen Dump you 
must open a file to the printer, tell it to go 
into graphics mode and then direct all out- 
put to this file. Doing this from assembly 
language is a hassle, so do it from BASIC 
first. Before activating Screen Dump type 
the following: 
OPEN 4,4: PRINT#4,CHR$(8);: CMD4 
This will set everything up and you can 
now do a SYS 836 to activate the routine. 



ERROR, ERROR! 

Before leaving this month's column I 
want to note an error that appeared in the 
EDIT/ASM updates on page 124 in the 
March issue of COMMANDER. Line 31 90 
should read "THEM Y = 2", not "THEN 
Y = 1 ". Also, you should change line 3235 
in the assembler to read "IFF 5" instead 
of "IF 4". I hope "hese are the final up- 
dates and corrections! Commodore 64 
owners who find their version of 
EDIT/ASM too slow for their needs can 
now purchase the new EDIT/ASM II from 
Abacus Software (in Canada contact King 
Microware Ltd.). Not only is it faster (it's 
compiled), but I've added some new com- 
mands and indudec a 60-page manual to 
help you use the program. Best of all, it's 
completely compatible with your old 
EDIT/ASM disk files. Unfortunately, 
EDIT/ASM II will not work on the VIC, but if 
there is enough demand for a VIC version 
perhaps I will publish one. 

NEXT MONTH 

Next month we'll get back to our ex- 
plorations of the KERNAL and talk about 
printing characters lo the screen and get- 
ting input from, the user. Any questions or 
comments can be sent to me at: Eric 
Giguere, c/o COMMANDER Magazine, 
PO. Box 98827, Tacoma, WA 98498. 



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.: OUTPUT CHRRPCTER 
CHECK STOP KEY 
X-POSITION LOW BVTE 
X-POS1TIOW HIGH BVTE 
V-PQSITION 
OUTPUT VALUE 



; INITIALIZE V-POINTER 

; INITIALIZE X-P0INTER (NEW LINE; 



; PRINT BLRNK SPACES BEFORE 

; ACTUAL SCREEN BUMP 

; IF X<0 THEN LEAVE 

; PRINT BLANK CHARACTER 



:STRRT NEW 6-BIT COLUMN 



; CLEAR OU" 

;0ET BYTE 

;MRSK PROPER ETT 



S8ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



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;8 BITS VET? 

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.: reverse it f**0 = ho reverse) 

;mbke sure high bit is on 

ISENB IT ni.IT 

;BONE RLL 8 HORIZON. BITS? 



.: CHECK STOP KEV 



:ABB 8 TO SCREEN POINTER 



;BO THE SAME FOR X-PDIHTER 



; CHECK X-POINTER TO SEE IF 
.; IT HAS PASSED *140 



JIT HAS, PRINT fl RETURN 



; CHECK TO SEE IF DONE 25 LINES 

.: RESTORE OLD VALUE 
:TO POINTER 



ASSEMBLY COMPLETE. 



■'MKOL Ta»l„F 



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PROOPBM END: 403C3 



June 1984 • COMMANDERI5S 



/* 



*\ 



Screen Dump 64 



\s 



■By Eric Giguerei 



A Commodore 64 armed with a 
KoalaPad and the Koala Painter program 
can provide an amazing foray into the 
world of computer graphics. This is also 
true of the many other computer "draw- 
ing" programs on the market. But once 
you've created your masterpiece and have 
it safely stored away on disk, what do you 
do? You can't very well show off the disk, 
saying "I made that" or carry your com- 
puter with you. The best way to impress 
others would be to have a printed copy of 
your creation. You can do this by either 1) 
buying a commercial program, or 2) typ- 
ing in Screen Dump 64. 

REQUIREMENTS 

If you want to use Screen Dump 64 
you're going to need three things: a Com- 
modore 64, a disk drive, and a 1 525 or 
MPS-801 printer. You can even use a dif- 
ferent brand of printer if you have an inter- 
face that emulates a 1 525. Type in the pro- 
gram accompanying this article and save it 
on disk, in case you madean errortyping it 
in. You are now ready to try out the pro- 
gram, so make sure you have a hi-res pic- 
ture handy. 

THE MENU 

When you RUN the program the screen 
will clear and a menu will appear. Screen 
Dump 64 has eight options, all (except the 
last) being accessed by pressing one of the 
function keys on the right side of the com- 
puter. The function keys allow you to load 
and print a picture, change picture tab- 
bing, print the picture in reverse and get a 
disk directory. To quit the program simply 
hit the letter 'Q' (if this is done accidentally, 
simply RUN the program again). Let'stake 
a look at the options. 

F1 -DUMP PICTURE 
Hitting F1 causes the hi-res picture cur- 
rently in memory to be copied or 
"dumped" to the printer. Pressing any key 
interrupts the printing and returns you to 
the menu. Use the other function keys to 
set the options you want before printing. 

F2-PICTURE SPACING 
60ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



F2 is used to specify the number of 
"dots" to move before printing the pic- 
ture, allowing you to print it anywhere on 
the page. The old value will be displayed 
and you will be asked to input the new 
value (if you don't want to change it simp- 
ly re-type the old value). Six dots is 
equivalent to one normal printed 
character, so to move the picture 5 
characters to the right you would enter a 
value of 30 (5 x 6 = 30). A value of will 
print the picture flush with the left margin. 

F3-REVERSE ON/OFF 
Typing F3 controls whether or not the 
picture will be printed in reverse (black 
changed to white and white changed to 
black). Initially reverse mode is turned on 
so hit F3 to turn it off and press a key to 
return to the menu. To turn it back on 
simply hit the F3 key once more. 

F4-DISK DIRECTORY 
This option lists all the programs on disk 
in case you forget the name of your pic- 
ture. Pressing the space bar returns you to 
the menu while holding down a key 
freezes the listing until you release it. 

F5-LOAD KOALAPAD PICTURE 
This option loads a picture created with 
the Koala Painter program into memory. 
When it asks you to enter the name of the 
picture, type in the appropriate letter of 
the alphabet, a space and the rest of the 
name. For example, to load PIC B EXAM- 
PLE you would first hit F5 and see this 
prompt: 

PICO 

The '( )' represents the cursor, so just 
type in the sequence 'B EXAMPLE' and 
press RETURN. Once loaded the picture 
will be displayed on the screen so that you 
may verify that it is the proper picture. 
Press the SHIFT key and release it to return 
to the menu. (The display routine was 
taken from the Koala Painter manual.) 

F7-LOAD OTHER PICTURE 
This is exactly the same as F5 except that 
it allows you to load in pictures otherthan 



ones created with Koala Painter. You will 
be prompted for the complete name and 
once the picture is loaded you will be 
returned to the main menu (there are so 
many different methods of storing the pic- 
tures in memory that it would be impos- 
sible to include display routines for each 
and every one). 

Be sure to use option F8 before dump- 
ing pictures loaded in this fashion. 

F8-CHANGE DUMP ADDRESS 
A KoalaPad picture is stored in memory 
starting at location 24575 but pictures 
loaded with option F7 may be stored 
elsewhere. H^t F8 and enter the address 
where the first byte of the picture is stored. 
The old value will be displayed for you at 
the top of "he screen. If you don't want to 
change it simply re-enter it as the new 
value and press RETURN. Program 2 can 
be used to find the starting address of 
most high-resolution pictures. Simply load 
and run it, entering the name of the pic- 
ture you want checked. Jot down the 
value and use it when you re-load Screen 
Dump 64. For example, the hi-res picture 
"KAREN" that comes on the C64 demo 
disk starts out at 81 92. Load it with F7 and 
then use F8 to change the dump address 
to 8192. Figure 1 is the result of that 
dump. 

LIMITATIONS 

Although Screen Dump 64 is quite ver- 
satile, it is also somewhat limited. If you 
take a close look at the examples I've in- 
cluded you'll notice how squat the pic- 
tures seem. This is because the program 
will only print the first 7 out of every 8 pix- 
els (dots) down the screen (to find out why 
you can turn to this month's "Explorations 
With Assembly Language"). Since pictures 
are 200 pixels high, in effect you lose 25 of 
these in the printout, resulting in that 
"pancake" look. 

HOW IT WORKS 

The actual work of Screen Dump 64 is 
done by a small assembly language 
routine I created (for an explanation of 



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Castle Wolfenstein (D) 23.95 
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Checkers (D) 39 95 

Odin (D| 39 95 
Hdw About A Game ol 

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Ultima III | D] 47 95 
PRENTICE HALL 

Miner 2049 r (Cl 29 95 
PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE 

Word Pro 3 Plus Spell |D| 79 95 

Word Pro Spell Right (D) 39.95 
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Ouick Brown Fox (NEW) (D) 39.95 

Quick Brown Fox (C) 39 95 
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Prisoner (D) 27.95 

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Night Mission Pintail (C) 23.95 

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SYNAPSE 

Fort Apocalypse (D/T) 26.95 

Survivor (D/T) 26.95 

Protector II (D/T) 27.95 

Shamus (D/T) 27.95 

Blue Max (O/T) 27 95 

Pharoah's Curse lO/T) 27 95 
TAYLORMAOE 

Touch Typing Tuior (T) 14 95 

Touch Typing Tutor (0) 18 95 
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(O/T) 18.95 

Money Manager |D/T) 18.95 

Data Manager (D/T) 18 95 

Inventory Management (D) 63.95 

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Electronic Checkbook (D) 19.95 

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Dragons |D) 19 95 

Cash Flow Management (0) 63.95 

Data Manager li (D) 39 95 

Swiftax (D) 39.95 

Word Writer (D) 39.95 
TOTL 

Toll Text 2 6 (T) 34.95 

Totl Text 2 6(D) 38 95 

Toll Label ( 1 > 1 8 95 

Totl Label (D) 21 95 

Time Manager (T) 29 95 

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Research Assistant (T) 29.95 

Research Assistant (D| 33 95 

Totl Business (D) 79 95 

Toil Speller | Dl 27.95 

Word Processing Pkg (Di 63 95 

Writer s Pkg |D) 71 95 
WAVE FORMS 

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Music Calc II (D) 23 95 

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Music Calc Template Pro(D) 120 00 

Hit Disk (D) b 00 
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Printer (Letter Duality) 650.00 
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Key Pad 31.95 
D = Disk T = Tape (or cassette} 
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then activate the routine. Now the BASIC 
program does all the work for you. Feel 
free to alter it as you like, but make sure 
you don't change the basic structure, 
especially lines 40-95. 

FINAL NOTES 

I hope you will enjoy using Screen 
Dump 64 as much as I do. Any questions 
or comments can be sent to me at: Eric 
Giguere, c/o COMMANDER Magazine, 
PO. Box 98827, Tacoma, WA, 98498. 




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28 
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50 
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< ?7 

98 
99 

1 00 



110 

120 

1 30 
140 

1 50 
1 60 

1 70 
1 80 
190 

200 
2 1 

220 
230 

247 
248 



REM ** ***** ****** ***** 
REM * * 

REM * SCREEN DUMP 64 * 
REM * * 

REM * COPYRIGHT * 
REM * (Q) 1984 * 
REM * * 

REM * BY * 
REM * * 

REM * ERIC GIGUERE * 
REM * * 

REM ****************** 
REM 

■ 

POKE 53280,, 14! POKE 53281., Is KP*~CHR$< 
129) 

IF PEEK < 828) =128 AND PEEK <49154) =173 THE 

N 80 

RESTORE: FOR 1-828 TO 964: READ J; POKE 

I ;, Ji NEXT 

FOR 1-49154 TO 49317; READ J: POKE I.Ji 

NEXT 

IF KP»0 THEN 100 

SYS 49154: WAIT 653,, Is WAIT 653,1,1 

POKE 53265, PEEK (53265) AND223: POKE 53272 

„ (PEEK (53272) AND240) 0R4 

PRINT' ' Eclr.3' : ' s RUN 

REM 

REM ** MENU ** 

REM 

KP"0 1: PR I NT ' ; ' E c I r 1 1 d own ] E b 1 k 3 C sp , 2 1 1 m 

es 3 SCREEN E sp 3 DUMP E sp 3 64 E sp 3 - E sp 3 COPYR I GH 

TCsp:il984Csp3BY 7 ' 

PR I N T TAB ( 1 3 > " ' C cl own 3 ER I C L" sp 3 G I GUERE : ' ' 

PR I NT : ' ' l down , 2 ti mes 3 C r i ght 3 Cb 1 k 3 Fl Esp 3 

Cblt»3DUMPCap3PICTURE' * 

P R I NT " E down 3 E r i g h t J Cb 1 k 3F2 E Sp 3 Eb 1 u 3 CHAN 

BE E sp 3 P I CTURE E sp 3SPAC I NG * : ' 

PRINT" :l Edbwn3Cright3Eblk3F3Esp3Eblu3TdSB 

LE C Sp 3 REVERSE E sp 3 ON / OFF ' ' 

PR I NT ' ■ " i d own 3 E r :i. g h 1 3 E b 1 k 3 F4 E sp 3 E b 1 u 3 D I SK 

Esp 3D I RECTORY" ' 

PR INT ' ' E d own 3 E r i g h t .1 E b 1 k 3 F5 C sp 3 E b 1 u 3 LO AD 

E sp 3 KOALAPAD E sp 3 P I CTURE : ' ; ' 

PR I NT : ' ' E d own 3 C r i ght 3 1 b 1 k 3 F7 E sp 3 E b 1 u 3 LOAD 

E sp 3 OTHER E sp 3 P I CTURE ' ' 

PR I NT : ' ' E d own 3 E r 1 g h 1 3 E b 1 k 3F8 E sp 3 E bl u 3 RESE 

T E sp 3 DUMP E sp 3 ADDRE SS : ' ' 

PR INT" * E down 3 E r i g h 1 3 H I T E sp 3 E b I k 3 : ' 0. :i E b 1 u 3 

Csp3TQCsp3QUIT" ' 

PR :i: NT •' ;r E d own , 2 t i mes 3 E r i g h 1 3 E com-7 3 PLEA 

BE i: sp 3 ENTER E sp 1 YOURC sp 3 SELECT' ION"' 

WAIT .1.97.64,, 64s GET A*: IF A*«"G" THEN 

PRINT ' ' Eclr3' ; ' : END 
IF A*<CHR$<133) OR A*>CHR* ( 140) THEN 210 
PRINT" : ' E c 1 r 3 : ' : ' s ON ASC < A* ) ■-■ 1 32 00 TO 250 , 

300,, 350 „ 400, 500, 600, 21 0'» 550 
REM 
REM ** DUMP PICTURE ** 



62ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



The COMMODORE- USERS' Monthly Journal 





i 



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SMSfSFJSUIJ II 5 ivli: 



COMMODORE COMPUTERS 

Articles written by teading experts in their iield. 

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1520 

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570 

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60 1 
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REM 

OPEN 4,4: CMD 4 J PRINT CHR*<8); 

SYS 836 

PRINT#4: CLOSE 4: GOTO 100 

REM 

REM *# TOGGLE REVERSE MODE *# 

REM 

R=PEEKC885)s M=0: IF R=0 THEN M=255 

PRINT • * L down 3 [right 3 REVERSE lisp 3 MODE Csp 3 

ISCsp3NOWCsp3' ■ ; : IF M THEN PRINT "ON." 

s GOTO 330 

PRINT " : ' OFF., : ' '. 

POKE 885, Ms PRINT" [down, 3 times: [right 

3 H I T C sp 3 ANY [ sp 3 KEY C sp 3 TO C sp 3 CONT I NUE " 

WAIT 197,64,64: GET A*: GOTO 100 

REM 

REM ** LOAD KOALAPAD PICTURE ** 

REM 

PRINT* ' [down, 2 ti mes 3 ENTER [spj FILENAME! 

PR I NT" ' [ d own 3 [ r i q h t , 2 t i ii1es3 P ICC sp 3 * ' ; : 
GOSUB 1000s IF Nf.= "QUIT" THEN 100 

KP« 1 1 M«LEFT$ ( KP* + ' : ' P 1 C C sp 3 * " +N*+ " [ sp , 
1 o t i mes 3 * • „ 1 5 ) i LOAD F « ,(=1,1 

REM 

REM #* LOAD OTHER PICTURE ** 

REM 

PR I NT ' Vt d own , 2 t i mes 3 [ r 1 gh t 3 ENTER [ sp 3 F I 

LENAME : II down ,, 2 t. i mes 3 ' ? 

GO 8 U B 1 s I F N* « : ' "QUI T ' : ' 7 HEN 1 00 

LOAD N*, 8, 1 

REM 

REM ** CHANGE SPACING ** 

REM 

PR I NT ' ' ti down 3 [ b I k 3 [ r i gh t II PRESfcNT C sp 3 SPAC 

I NG [ sp 3 I S " s PEEK < 847 ) 

PR INT" C down „ 2 t i mes 3 C r i ght 3 ENTER L" sp 3 TH 

E [ sp 3 NEW C sp 3 VALUE [ sp 3 < 0-255 > i Csp 3 " Jl 60 

SUB 1000 

IF N<0 OR N>255 THEN PRINT : ' ; ' [clr 3 " n GO 

TO 500 

POKE 847, Nl GOTO 100 

REM 

REM ** RESET DUMP ADDRESS ** 

REM 

PRINT" Ldown, 2 ti mes 3 PRESENT lisp 3 LOAD Csp 

3 ADDRESS Csp 3 IS' " s PEEK < 867) *256+PEEK (866) 

PR I NT " C d own , 2 t. i mes 3 ENTER [ sp 3 NEW [ sp 3 AD 

DRESS * lisp 3" !i s GOSUB 1000s IF N<0 OR N>6 

5535 THEN 1 00 

N"/.»N/256: N=N-N'/.*256s POKE 867, NX; POKE 

955, N9S 

POKE 866, N: POKE 960, N: GOTO 100 

REM 

REM ** DISK DIRECTORY ** 

REM 

OPEN 1 5 , 8 , 1 5 , " 1 " s 0PEN4 , 8 , , ' ' *0 ' * s NU* 

■CHR*'(0) 

GET#4 , A* , A* 
BET#4,A*,A* 



64IC0MMANDER • June 1984 



605 


IFA*=* " ' 'THEN665 


610 


GET#4,A$,B$ 


620 


PR I NTASC < A$-i-NU$ ) +ASC ( B*+NU* 




) % j£. iJ 6 !, 


630 


QET#4,A* 


640 


IFA*»' ' • ' THENPRINTs G0T0602 


650 


PR I NT A*; 


6 ' "i 2 


GET A*: IFA*" ? ' CspIT * THEN665 


655 


WAIT .197, 64 


o 


G0T0630 


665 


WAIT 197,64,64: GET A* 


670 


PRINTS CLOSE 4s CLOSE 15: Q 




OTO LOO 


• 797 


REM 


798 


REM ** ML DATA ** 


799 


REM 


800 


DATA 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 




2 s 1„ 169, 0, 133, 252, 16 




9 , 


805 


DATA 133, 250, 133, 251, 16 




2, 0, 202, 48, 7, 169, 128, 




32, 210, 255 


810 


DATA 208,, 246, 160,, 0, 162, 




0, 138 j 133, 253, 189, 0, 




96 „ 57 , 60 


815 


DATA 3, 24, 240, 1, 56, 102 



9, 165, 253 
820 DATA 73, 255,, 9, 128,, 32, 
10 j 255. 200, 192, 8, 208, 




MPftlS 






THAT'S MORE 



ioWfP 



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Vf-niartW °* t, 9 rd W^ic and 



.need a ° d 







825 DATA 255, 240, 53, 24, 173, 

98, 3,, 105,, 8, 141. 98, 3, 

173, 99 
830 DATA 3, 105, 0, 141, 99, 3, 

24, 165, 250, 105, B, 133, 

250 , 1 65 
835 DATA 251, 105, 0, 133, 251, 

165, 250. 201, 64, 144, 17 
7, 165, 251, 240 
840 DATA 173, 169, 13, 32, 210, 

01, 25 „ 208, 142 
845 DATA 169, 96, 141, 99, 3, 1 

69, 0, 141 , 98, 3, 96 
850 DATA 173, 17, 208, 41, 239, 

141, 17, 208 
855 DATA 162, 127, 160, 64, 32, 

156, 192, 162 
860 DATA 4, 160, 0, 32, 161, 19 

TJ -| A '"> 1 "J!" 1 

£,. if -I. Ct?4wt 'i -I. ■-.' .1. 

865 DATA 160, 39, 32, 114,, 192, 

162,, 131, 160 
870 DATA 40, 32, 156, 192, 162, 

216, 1 60 , 
875 DATA 32, 161, 192, 162, 135 

,, 160, 15, 32 
880 DATA 114. 192, 173, 16, 135 
„ 141, 33, 208 




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DATA 173, 17, 208, 
41, 17, 208 


9, 34, 1 


890 


DATA 173, 22, 208, 
9, 16, 141 


41, 223, 


895 


DATA 22. 208, 173, 
9, 8, 141 


24 , 208 , 


900 


DATA 24, 208, 162, 
Oi, 32., 156 


96, 160, 


905 


DATA 192, 162, 32, 
32, 161, 192 


160, 0, 


9 1 


DATA 162, 127, 160 
114, 192, 173 




915 


DATA 17, 208, 9, 16, 141, 1 




7, 208 „ 96 




920 


DATA 142, 1, 192, 
92, 160, 


140, 0, 1 


925 


DATA 177, 251, 145 


, 253, 16 


930 


DATA 192, 208, 8, 
205,, 0„ 192 


165. 251, 


935 


DATA 208, 1,, 96, 2 
208, 2„ 230 


30, 251, 


940 


DATA 252. 230, 253 
7, 230, 254, 76 


, 208, 22 


945 


DATA 122, 192, 134 
2, 251, 96, 134 




950 


DAT' A 254, 132, 253 


„ 96 


997 


REM 




998 


REM ** INPUT ROUTINE ** 


999 


REN 




1000 


OPEN 1,0: INPUTS! , 


N*s CLOS 


E 


Is N-VAL (Nit): PR IN" 


" i RETU RN 






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66ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



B*A*S*I*C Training 



iby Jonathan Secauri 



LESSON 4 

THE GOTO STATEMENT 

1) So far the simple programs you have typed in follow one 
step after another. That's good, because those programs are 
easy to read and understand. Here's another way to write pro- 
grams: 

10 GOTO 120 

20 PRINT "SENSE WHEN" 

30 GOTO 140 

40 PRINT "CAREFULLY," 

50 GOTO 100 

60 PRINT "WHEW!" 

70 END 

80 PRINT "RUN IT." 

90 GOTO 60 
100 PRINT "IT WILL MAKE" 
110 GOTO 20 
1 20 PRINT "IF YOU" 
130 GOTO 160 
140 PRINT "YOU FINALLY" 
1 50 GOTO 80 
160 PRINT "TYPE THIS IN" 
1 70 GOTO40 
Run this program and see if it really does make sense. 

2) Of course, there would be an easier way of making the com- 
puter say what it did in that program, and what it said wasn't 
really worth saying in the first place. This is a great example of a 
really poor program; professional programmers call this 
spaghetti code. It breaks what you could call 

THE GOLDEN RULE OF PROGRAMMING: 

A program should be as easy for a person to understand as it 
is for a computer to understand. 

If you think about it, it's going to be hard for a person to 
follow the program if it's jumping around from one line to 
another. GOTO statements make programs hard to read and 
should be avoided when you can. Later lessons will show you 
how to write well, without saying too much on GOTO. 

There's a sort of joke among programmers that you can 
judge the quality of a program by the number of GOTO 
statements it uses. By that rule, the program you just typed in is 
exceptionally poor! 

3) Here's an example of a slightly more useful and much more 
interesting program: 

NEW 

10 INPUT "WHAT'S YOUR NAME"; N$ 

20 PRINT N$ + " "■ 

30 GOTO 20 



Run this program. It will give you some idea of how fast the 
computer can work— and printing things on the screen is one 
of the slowest things it does! 

The trouble is, this program puts the computer into an 
endless loop. Every time it passes line 20, it goes to line 30, but 
as soon as it arrives at line 30, it is sent back to line 20. There are 
two ways to make it come to an end. One is to turn the com- 
puter off; a much better way is to break into the computer's 
cycle. Do that by pressing the STOP key. Anytime the computer 
is in an endless loop, STOP will get you back into control. 

To review a little, please answer these two questions: 

Why is there a space between 
the quotation marks in line 20? 

What does the semicolon do at the 
end of line 20? 



4} The GOTO statement is most useful for letting the computer 
make a simple decision. Type in this program to see how. 

NEW 

10 PRINT "PICK A NUMBER FROM 1 TO 5!" 
20 INPUT X 

30 ON X GOTO 100,200,300,400,500 
1 00 PRINT "YOU PICKED 1 . THAT'S NOT MUCH OF A 

NUMBER." 
110 END 
200 PRINT "YOU PICKED 2. NOT MANY PEOPLE 

PICK 2." 
210 END 
300 PRINT "YOU PICKED 3. MORE PEOPLE PICK 3 

THAN ANY OTHER NUMBER." 
310 END 

400 PRINT "YOU PICKED 4. 4 IS A STUPID NUMBER." 
410 END 
500 PRINT "YOU PICKED 5. THAT'S ONE OF MY 

FAVORITES." 
510 END 

Run this program several times. Picka different number each 
time and see what happens. 

The key to this program is in line 30, the words ON GOTO. 
That means, depending ON what value X has, the computer 
will GOTO one of the numbers that follow. There are five 
choices for X, and five places to go to. If you pick 1 for X, the 
computer will go to line 1 00. If you pick 3, the computer will go 
to line 300. What will happen if you pick 5? 

What would happen if lines 1 10, 
210, 310, 410, and 510 were left out? 



June 1984 • COMMANDERI67 



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HOW DID YOU DO? 

Answers to lesson four questions: 

3) The space between quotation marks makes the computer 
print a space after your name each time the name is printed. 
The semicolon makes the computer keep printing on the same 
line; technically, it suppresses the carriage return that normally 
occurs with a PRINT statement. Try running the program with a 
comma in place of the semicolon, or with no punctuation in 
that spot at all. 

4) The computer jumps to line 500, because that is the fifth 
choice you gave it in line 30. 

This is an important question! The END statements are 
necessary to keep the computer from running over into other 
options that were not selected. If these lines were left out and 
you picked 2, say, then the computer would print the expected 
response for 2, but would also print responses for choosing 3, 
4, or 5! 

The answers to lesson 3 were inadverte ntly o mitted from the 
May issue. 
Answers to lesson three questions: 

1 } This is an important one. RUN makes the computer actually 
do the program, and LIST makes the computer show you the 
steps in the program. 

3) Line 20 only, lines 20 and 30 (plus any other lines that might 
have been between 20 and 30), all lines from the beginning 
through line 30, line 30 and all lines fallowing it. 

5) String variables end in dollar signs. NUM$ would be a string 
variable, but NUM is a numeric variable. 

?REDO FROM START means the computer was expecting 
numeric input, and you gave it letters instead. 




E 



mStar64 

-. by Eastern House 



A Communications Cartridge 
for the Commodore 64. 

Upload/Download, Status Line. etc. Works with 

your Commodore 1600 or 1650 Modem. 

Auto-dialing, etc. when used with the new 

C8M 1650 Modem. 

Cartridge and Manual - $49.95 




WICOMMANDER • June 1984 







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Reads files from cassette or disk. • Connect-time clock.** • ASCII or Commodore 
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files.** • Full support for auto-dial and auto-answer modems.** • Color selection 
menu. Set border, screen, and character colors. 



• User selectable communication protocols 

* Baud rate . . . 50-2400 * Word length ... 5-8 bits 

* Stop bits ... 1 or 2 * Duplex . . . full or half 

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If you want to learn to win at CASINO BLACKJACK, or, if you simply enjoy 
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"\ 



Functionally Yours . . . 



^ 



I By Ian Adam i 



The VIC 20 and the Commodore 64 
feature four large function keys on the 
right side of the keyboard. At first blush, 
these keys appear to serve no purpose. 
This article provides an easy method of 
using them, from BASIC, that is both 
straightforward and effective. This ap- 
proach will be of interest to all users of the 
VIC and the 64, and is particularly oriented 
toward the beginning or intermediate- 
level programmer. 

So you bought a VIC-20 or C-64 
recently. . .and you are most impressed 
with your good judgement. Your Com- 
modore has great graphics, sound, built-in 
BASIC, and all those programming ap- 
plications. But what really sold you on the 
machine, the one extra feature that cinch- 
ed the deal, was the four special function 
keys on the right, and the promise of all 
the wonderful things they could do. 

The only trouble is, when you open up 
the box and fire up the computer, those 
function keys do not seem to work! When 
you press them nothing happens-games 
do not spring to life, the computer does 
not balance your checkbook, the techno- 
logical revolution does not sweep your 
home. In fact, the computer just does not 
seem to react at all, since nothing appears 
on the screen. Perhaps you feel like you 
are knocking at the wrong door. 

So-back to the computer store, and 
track down an * EXPERT*, and ask him 
how the devil these little function keys are 
supposed to work. Aha, he tells you, it is 
simple. All you need is an auto-boot 
machine-code program structured on a 
selective interrupt-enable routine, in order 
to transfer internal system control of the 
microprocessor to the addressable code 
sequence of your choosing. 

Simple, right? Well, here is some good 
news. It does not have to be that dif- 
ficult -those keys do in fact work, and you 
can program them very easily yourself. 
You will find that they can be extremely 
useful, and have many practical applica- 
tions in programs that you write. 

7QICOMMANDER • June 1984 



When you write an interactive pro- 
gram, there are several ways of getting a 
response from the user. One way is to 
issue a user's manual, and expect the user 
to know what to do and when. A better 
way is to print a 'menu', or list of options, 
on the screen. The user then knows ex- 
actly what his options are, and indicates 
his choice by pressing one of the function 
keys. A large program may have several 
menus; there will be a main menu that 
selects a general area of the program. 
Each area will then have sub-menus for 
more detailed information, or the user can 
return to the main menu at any time. This 
type of program is very 'friendly.' 

DO THEY REALLY WORK? 

Probably the most frustrating thing 
about the function keys is that, when you 
press them, nothing appears on the 
screen. So, let us start by proving that they 
really do work. Press shift-2 to get a single 
quotation mark; this puts your computer 
into what is known as 'quote mode'. 
Sounds rather tike a politician in an elec- 
tion year. Now we find that the function 
keys do work-press them and see 
graphics characters appear on the screen. 
Nothing else happens. . . but at least we 
can set our fears to rest, knowing that the 
keys are not defective. (For the even- 
numbered functions F2 to F8, you have to 
hold down the shift key while pressing the 
function keys). 

In order to see how the function keys 
are worked into a program, we will divide 
the process into four easy steps. Just 
follow these one by one, and the job 
couldn't be easier. 

STEP ONE: 
DETECTING THE KEYS 

This is obviously the first step in the pro- 
cess, that is, finding out that the user has 
pressed a function key. Given the difficulty 
we experienced at first just finding out 
whether the keys worked at all, you might 
expect this step to be difficult. In fact, that 
is just not the case; there are at least four 



ways we can detect that a function key 
has been pressed, and find out which one. 
Each way has its own particular advan- 
tages and disadvantages over the others. 
Which one you choose in each case will 
depend on exactly what you want to ac- 
complish. 

(i)GETA$:IFA$ = "*'THEN550 
The first way is probably the easiest. Just 
GET a character, and compare it to the 
graphics character that the function key 
produces. If they match, then branch to 
the appropriate sub-area of your pro- 
gram. One point to note-the GET com- 
mand is 'destructive'; that is, if the key 
pressed is not the one you are testing for, it 
will be ignored. This can be an advantage, 
in that it gives the programmer more con- 
trol over the flow of the program. In some 
cases, however, it would be a disadvan- 
tage, if you did not want to lose those 
other characters. A disadvantage of this 
method is that, if you want to test for all of 
the function keys, you are faced with at 
least eight lines of programming, and that 
is considered to be bad form. 

{ii)GETA$:IFA$ = CHR$(133) 
THEN 550 

This method isalso very simple, although it 
requires you to know the ASCII codes for 
the function keys (these are 133 to 140). 
Otherwise, it has the same advantages 
and disadvantages as the first method, 
with one important exception-if you 
want to test for all of the keys, you can do 
this in a FOR. , .NEXT loop in two orthree 
lines, instead of eight. 

(iii) IF PEEK (197) = 4 THEN GOTO 550 
This is an entirely different method of 
detecting the function keys. Location 197 
in the VIC and the 64 is a memory register 
that indicates what key is currently being 
pressed. The operating system of your 
computer checks the keyboard sixty times 
each second, and the result of this 'scan' is 
stored temporarily as a code in memory 
location 197. Each key on the keyboard 
has its own unique code; the values forthe 



function keys are three to six on the C-64 
and 39 to 63 on the VIC-20. An advantage 
of this method is that it is nondestructive; 
that is, when you PEEK at location 1 97, you 
do not destroy the computer's record of 
keys that have been pressed. Another in- 
teresting feature is that location 197 only 
holds a value while the key is being 
pressed, not afterward. This could be a 
good or a bad feature, depending on 
what type of program you are writing. The 
main disadvantage of this method is that 
only the four keys can be detected, not all 
eight. 

(iv) IF PEEK (631)= 133 THEN GOTO 
550 
As we noted, location 1 97 holds a code for 
the key pressed only temporarily. The com- 
puter remembers what has been pressed 
by storing a code (a different code!!) in the 
keyboard buffer. The buffer is a series of 
ten locations from 631 to 640 which holds 
up to the last ten keys pressed, until they 
are processed. The number of keys 
waiting to be processed is stored in loca- 
tion 198. The advantage of this method is 
that the computer will automatically keep 
a record of the last key orkeys pressed, un- 
til you are ready to deal with them. A 
disadvantage is that there could be up to 
ten keys in the buffer, and you only get to 
see one at a time. This method is nonde- 
structive, and provides access to all eight 
function keys. 

For the purpose of building a menu, we 
will use the fourth method, but modify it 
to overcome its disadvantage. We will 
assume that the available choices have 
already been printed on the screen. Then, 
we will clear the keyboard bufferand wait 
for a key to be pressed: 

100 POKE 198,0: WAIT 198,1 
Remember that location 198 holds the 
number of keystrokes in the buffer. This 
line tells the computer there are none, 
then waits until some key is pressed. The 
program wil! not proceed to the next tine 
until one and only one key has been 
pressed. 

110A = PEEK(631) 

120IFA 132 AND A 141 
THEN GOTO 9000 

130 GOTO 100 

Line 1 10 assigns the code for the first key 
pressed to variable A. The next line tests A 
to see if it is in the range for the function 
keys, that is 133 to 140. If a function key 
was pressed, then control of the program 
is transferred to a routine at line 9000. If 
any other key was pressed, then it is ig- 
nored and the program returns to line 100 
to wait for another. 

At this point we have successfully com- 
pleted step one, detecting the function 



keys, and sent the program to line 9000 
when that occurs. 

STEP TWO: ACKNOWLEDGE 

The function keys are different! There 
they are, apart from all the others, a dif- 
ferent color, a different size. When you 
press them, they should do something dif- 
ferent. They should, in some special way, 
acknowledge their special function. There 
are lots of ways to do this, of course, but a 
very good way is to have the keys beep 
when they are pressed. 
For the C-64: 

9000 POKE 54276,33 

9010 FOR 1=1 TO 40: NEXT 

9020POKE 54276,0 
For the VIC-20: 

9000POKE 36874,250 

9010FORI=1 TO 40; NEXT 

9020 POKE 36874,0 
Before we do this, of course, we will have 
to set up the sound registers at the begin- 
ning of the program. 

That effectively takes care of step two. 
There could be lots of ways to acknow- 
ledge the function keys ... use your im- 
agination! 

STEP THREE: 
SORT OUT THE KEY 

What we have at this stage is a number 
between 133 and 140 to the variable A. (If 
one of the other methods of detecting a 



key were used, then we would have a dif- 
ferent set of values, or else an odd 
graphics character stored in AS.) This is not 
a very handy form to get the data in; what 
is more, the keys are not even in the right 
order! All of the odd function keys are 
numbered first, from 1 33 to 1 36, followed 
by the even functions from 137 to 140. 
What we want to do, then, is sort these 
values out into a more useful form. This 
will include putting the function keys in 
the right order, then assigning each one a 
number from one to eight, to match the 
descriptions on the keys. This line is a little 
complicated, but it achieves exactly that: 

9030 F = 2*A -265 + 7 * (A 136) 
You might have to experiment with this 
line to assure youself that it works, or you 
can take my word for it. Multiplying A by 
two, then subtracting 265, yields the 

number series 1, 3, 5 15. The key to 

this line is the last part; the expression 
(A 136) is a 'relational operator', and will 
have a value of zero for the odd- 
numbered functions, or -1 for the even 
functions. The end result is that variable F 
will have a value from one to eight, mat- 
ching the function key that was pressed. 
Success! 
STEP FOUR: 
BRANCH OUT TO SUB-AREAS 

Now that we have detected a function 

key, acknowledged it, and sorted out 

Continued on page 94 

HERE AT LAST! ^ 

COMMODORE 64" - VIC 20™ 
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June 1984 ■ COMMANDER m 



The Simpler, the Better 




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Func*Keys 



^ 



wby LL Calvin • 



As useful and invisible as the DOS 
Wedge, FUNC*KEYS, a machine 
language function key program for the 
Commodore 64 should be a welcome ad- 
dition to any programmer's utility collec- 
tion. It resides in memory above basic user 
RAM and is completely compatible with 
the DOS Wedge. It aliows the user to 
create and execute numerous definitions 
for the eight function keys of the Com- 
modore 64. The user may at any time call 
to the program main menu, redefine the 
function keys, and return to the task at 
hand unaltered. The unique flexibility of 
this program lies in the fact that any 
previously created function key definitions 
may be saved to disk and reloaded at a 
future date. This enables the programmer 
to create several function key definition 
files and switch between them dependent 
upon his present requirements. Some 
typical examples of uses are: printer com- 
mands, disk drive commands, system 
calls, basic directives, and just about 
anything else the Commodore 64 will 
recognize. The program contains a default 
set of function key definitions as an exam- 
ple of the many different possible uses. 



PROGRAM INSTRUCTIONS 

Type in and save the program listing. Be 
extra careful, the data statements are 
critical and easily mistyped. "RUN" the 
program. There will be a brief delay while 
the data statements are poked into RAM. 
If you have been successful in your 
endeavor you will be presented with the 
main menu, if not, carefully recheck the 
data statement portion of the program for 
typos. 

The program is menu driven and allows 
the user to select one of five possible op- 
tions. 

1 . Execute present commands 

2. Review present commands 

3. Create new commands 

4. Save present commands to disk 

5. Load command file from disk 
74ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



1) EXECUTE 
PRESENT COMMANDS 

Selecting this option will assign the 
definitions presently residing in the pro- 
gram tothe function keys. Once executed, 
the READY prompt will appear on the 
screen. Everything is the same as if 
FUNC * KEYS had not been run except that 
now each of the function keys will print 
the assigned command or text to the 
screen when pressed. The only time the 
function keys will not respond with the 
assigned value, is when quote mode is in 
effect or during a program run. In these 
cases, each of the function keys will re- 
spond normally. 

2) REVIEW 
PRESENT COMMANDS 

Allows the user to examine the function 
key definitions presently residing in the 
program. Each command will be listed on 
a separate line. After examining the com- 
mands available simply press any key to 
return to the main menu. Answering yes 
to the HARD COPY? prompt will cause a 
listing of the present commandsto be sent 
to the printer. 

3) CREATE NEW COMMANDS 

This option allows the user to redefine 
each of the function keys. Once selected, a 
prompt indicating that the first key is 
being defined will appear. After the 
prompt, type in the command or text to 
be assigned to that key. If a carriage return 
is desired at the end of the text or com- 
mand, use the back arrow key to indicate 
so. The return key terminates entry forthe 
present assignment and brings the next 
function key prompt to the screen. Once 
all the function keys have been assigned a 
definition, the new assignments will be 
stored in memory and you will be returned 
to the main menu. A single definition 
should not exceed eighty characters in 
length and the total of all eight definitions 
should not exceed 490 characters. 

4) SAVE PRESENT 
COMMANDS TO DISK 

By selecting this option, the user may 
create a disk file containing the com- 



mands presently residing in the program. 
These commands may be reloaded by 
selecting option five at a later time. This 
allows the user to create several different 
useful function key command files to be 
used interchangeably during a program- 
ming session. When selected you will be 
presented with a prompt requesting the 
name under which to store this command 
file. Enter a file name less than 16 
characters long and then press return. The 
commands or text will be saved on disk 
and you will be returned to the main 
menu. 



5) LOAD COMMAND 
FILE FROM DISK 

Selecting this option will allow the user 
to reload a previously saved command file 
into the program. A prompt will request 
the file name of the file to be loaded. Enter 
the file name and then press return. The 
previously saved file will be reloaded and 
you will be returned to the main menu. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES 

a) FUNC* KEYS will be deactivated by 
the run stop/restore key combina- 
tion. To reactivate, type SYS 49152 
and select option 1 at the main 
menu. 

b) To change function key definitions 
SYS 49152, load or create new func- 
tion key definitions, then select op- 
tion 1 . 

c) A request for a hard copy of the 
function key definitions when no 
printer exists will return you to the 
main menu. If the printer is present 
but off-line the program will hang 
until the printer is brought on-line. 

d) Adiskerrorwillcausea return of the 
disk error code and a return to the 
main menu when any key is pressed. 
Consult your 1541 Disk Drive 
manual forthe exact meaning of the 
error code returned. 

I hope you find this program to be as 
useful and usable as any in your present 
utility collection. 



10 

20 
30 
40 
50 

60 

70 

80 
90 
95 

100 

110 
1000 

1001 

1002 

1003 

1 004 

1 005 
100 6 
1007 
1 1 
1011 
1012 
1 1 3 

:i. o 1 4 

1 1 5 
1016 
1017 
1020 



J.L.. CALVIN 



FUNCKEYS 



2/5/84 



** 

REM * 

* 
REM * 

* 
REM * 

* 
REM * 

* 
REM * 

* 
REM * 

* 

r"" 1 1"" tvi ^t ^ ^ ^ *X* 'L 1 ^" *if '£ "^ "X* ^ '**.' & ^ ""i' ^ ^A' v i"' ^ ^- r ^v ^ 

Fi !"■* 1 1 ^ T^ * ^ ff ^* * T ^ ^r ^P ^ ^ T T ^ h ^ ^ V fl^ ^ *■ ' ** 

#** 

REM 

REM 

PRINT" ' Tel r 3 Cdown, 5 times] 

[right, 8 times] Crvs-onDFU 

NCKEYS [ sp 1 1 N I T I AL I Z I NG C r vs~ 

off 3" 

F0RX*49152TQ5026i : RE AD A: POK 

EX„A;NEXTX 

8YS49152 

DATA 120. 169, 49. 141. 20 „ 

3, 169, 234, 141, 21 
DATA 3. 88, 32, 176, 194, 1 
62. 0, 138. 141, 230 
DATA 195, 189, 13, 195, 201 
, 94, 240, 7, 32, 210 
DATA 255, 232, 76, 21. 192, 

32. 192, 194, 32, 228 
DATA 255, 201,, 49, 240, 19, 

201, 50, 240, 18, 201 
DATA 51, 240, 17, 201, 52, 
240, 16, 201, 53, 240 
DATA 15, 76, 38, 192, 76, 2 
04 „ 192, 76, 58, 193 
DATA 76, 79, 192, 76, 24, 1 
94, 76, 30, 194, 32 
DATA 176, 194,, 160, 0, 162, 

2, 169, 0, 145. 251 
DATA 200, 240, 3, 76, 88, 1 
92, 230, 252, 202, 240 
DATA 3, 76, 88, 192, 169, 1 
33, 141, 231. 195, 169 



DATA 49, 141, 



19! 



192, 194,, 162, 0, 189 
DATA 174, 195,, 32, 210, 255 
, 232, 224, 7, 240, 3 
DATA 76, 119, 192, 173, 232 
. 195, 32. 210. 255, 162 
DA T A , 189, 1 8 1 , 195, 32 , 



2 1 , 



i!24 



DATA 240. 3, 76, 141. 192, 
173. 231. 195, 160, 
DATA 145, 251, 32, 240, 194 
, 32. 207. 194, 32, 207 






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FULL RS232 INTERFACE 

" Connects to the User port provides lull 
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June 1984 • COMMANDERI75 



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A GRAPHICS TERMINAL 

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GRAPH-TERM 64 is a100% machine- 
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standard Tektronix 1 ' 1 format 

■ downloads text (36K) or plot files 
(20K) 

• creates instant replays of text or 
graphs at high speed, slow motion 
or stop action 

• creates hard copies of plots on the 
Commodore 1520 Plotter 

In addition, themachine language 
subroutines used in GRAPH-TERM 64 
are documented so you can use them 
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Dealer inquiries invited 

The 1520 plotter and the Commodore 

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over 50 programs per collection ■ T.ne/Oi.k ■ $10.00 

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over 25 programs per collection - Tap*/Ois!i; - $10.00 

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22 colleclions - Tape/Disk ■ S10 00 aach 

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15131 69B-5o3S or 15131 339-1725 



1020 DATA 145, 251. 32, 240, 194, 32, 207, 1? 
4, 32, 207 

1021 DATA 255, 201, 13, 240, 16, 201, 95, 208 
, 2 , 169 

1022 DATA 13, 160, 0, 145, 251, 32, 240,, 194, 

76 , 1 68 

1023 DATA 192, 173, 232, 195, 201, 57, 240, 3 
, 76, 117 

1024 DATA 192, 76, 12, 192, 120, 173, 7, 195, 

141, 20 

1025 DATA 3, 173, 8, 195, 141, 21, 3, 88, 169 

i <-' 

1026 DATA 141, 232, 195, 32, 176, 194, 32, 51 
., 165, 76 

1027 DATA 116, 164, 173, 23,2, 195, 208, 31, 1 
65, 215, 32 

1030 DATA 249, 194, 176, 3, 76, 49, 234, 165, 

212, 208 

1031 DATA 249. 160, 0. 177, 251, 197, 215, 24 
0, 6, 32 

1032 DATA 240, 194, 76, 251, 192, 32, 240, 19 
4, 160, 

1.033 DATA 177, 251, 32, 249, 194,, 144, 11, 16 
9, 0, 141 

1.034 DATA 232, 195, 32, 192, 194, 76, 49, 234 
, 201, 

1035 DATA 240, 241, 1.66, 198, 157. 119, 2, 23 

0, 198, 32 

1036 DATA 240, 1.94, 165, 198, 201, 11, 144, 2 
16, 238, 232 

1037 DATA 195. 76, 49. 234, 169, 133, 141. 23 

1. 195, 169 

1040 DATA 49, 141, 232, 195, 169, 0, 141, 233 

,, 195, 32 
1.041 DATA 176, 1,94, 162, 0, 189, 187, 1.95, 20 

1 , 94 , 240 

1042 DATA 7, 32, 210, 255, 232, 76, 78, 193, 

1043 DATA 255, 201, 89, 240, 77, 201, 78 „ 208 
, 245, 32 

1044 DATA 176. 194, 160, 0, 177, 251, 205, 23 

1, 195, 208 

1045 DATA 55, 162, 0, 1.89, 174, 195, 32. 210, 

255, 232 

1046 DATA 224, 6, 208, 245, 173, 232, 195, 32 

210 255 

1047 DATA 169, 32, 32, 210, 255, 32, 240, 194 
, 1 60 , 

1050 DATA 177, 251, 201, 0, 208, 3, 76, 210, 
193, 32 

1.051 DATA 249. 194, 176, 52, 201, 1.3, 208, 2, 

1.69, 95 

1.052 DATA 32, 210, 255, 76, 139,, 193, 32, 240 
, 194., 76 

1053 DATA 1.08. 193, 238, 233, 195, 169, 126, 
162,, 4. 160 

1054 DATA 255. 32, 186, 255, 169, 0, 32, 189, 

■-,. C," P.T IT O 
■ttu w w t| W »j£, 

1055 DATA' 192, 255, 32, 125, 194, 162, 126, 3 

2, 201. 255 



76ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



1056 
1057 
1 060 
1061 
1062 
1063 
1 064 
1065 

1 066 

1 067 
1070 
1071 
1072 
1073 
1074 
1075 
1076 
1077 
1 080 
10S1 
1082 
1 083 
1084 
1 085 
1086 
1087 
1090 
1091 
1092 
1 093 



DATA 32, 125, 194, 76, 106, 

193. 169, 13, 32, 210 
DATA 255, 32, 207. 194, 173 
. 232, 195, 201, 57, 208 
DATA 49, 173. 233, 195, 201 
. 0. 208, 26, 162, 
DATA 189, 203, 195, 201, 94 
. 240, 7. 32. 210, 255 
DATA 232, 76. 234, 193, 32, 

228, 255, 201, 0, 240 
DATA 249. 76. 12, 192, 169, 



13 



210, 



169 



DATA 10,, 32, 210, 255, 32, 

Jm ■....' .1. h 4m w *J I f \.J u J. .£•• jt ,1t 1 <£*■ 

DATA 32, 192, 194, 76, 106, 
193, 32, 36, 194, 76 



DATA 9.1, 194 
76, 108, 194 



32, 36, 194, 
32, 176 
DATA 194, 162, 0, 189, 215. 

195, 201, 94, 240, 7 
DATA 32, 210, 255, 232, 76, 

41, 194, 169. 125, 162 
DAI' A 8, 160,, 1, 32. 186, 25 
5, 162. 0, 32, 207 
DATA 255. 201, 13, 240, 7, 
157, 234, 195, 232, 76 
DATA 66, 194, 138, 174. 11, 



195 



172, 12, 195, 32 



DATA 189, 255, 96 „ 169, 253 
, 174, 9, 195, 172, 10 
DATA 195. 32, 216, 255, 32, 

125, 194, 76, 12, 192 
DATA 169, 0, 174, 5, 195, 1 
■■/-:> a 1 or "K'? 'y 1 "i 

DATA 255, 32, 125, 194, 76, 

12, 192, 176. 11, 32 
DATA 183, 255, 48, 12, 173. 

230, 195, 208, 9, 96 
DATA 141. 230,, 195. 76, 127 
, 194, 169, 5, 72, 32 
DATA 231, 255, 160, 0, 32, 
47, 241, 104, 9, 48 
DATA 32, 210, 255, 104, 104 
, 169, 13, 32, 210, 255 
DATA 169, 13, 32, 210, 255, 

76, 232. 193, 169, 147 
DATA 32, 210, 255, 169, 13. 

32, 210, 255. 169, 13 
DATA 32, 210, 255, 96,, 173, 

5, 195, 133, 251, 133 
DATA 253, 173,, 6, 195, 133, 

252, 133, 254. 96. 173 
DATA 232, 195, 41. 1„ 240, 
13, 169, 4„ 24. 109 
DATA 231, 195, 141, 231, 19 
5. 238, 232, 195, 96. 173 
DATA 231, 195, 56, 233, 3, 
141, 231, 195, 238, 232 
DATA 195, 96, 230, 25.1, 166 
, 251, 208, 2, 230, 252 



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* LET US KNOW WHICH MACHINE YOU USE * 



June 1984 • COMMANDERI77 



VIC-20 & 64 



LEROY'S CHEATSHEET 



ONLY S 3.95 ea 






What is a Cheatsheet, anyway? 

Leroy's Cheatsheet - Keyboard overlays are durable plastic- 
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essential information, placing your most valuable program- 
ming tool at your fingertips. 

At Cheatsheet Products" we take the time to learn and use 
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Please send me the following 








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D 




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□ 




UMI Wordcraft 20 


D 




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D 




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D 




Vic Typewriter' 


D 


D 


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D 




Victerm 1 ' 




D 


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□ 


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D 


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~ 


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a 


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Basic 







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D 


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Script 64 c 




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PractiCalc 64/plus £ 


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us$1.00 (postage and liandlmgl 






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CHEATSHEET PRODUCTS'" @ 

PO Box 8299 Pittsburgh PA. 15218 (412)456-7420 



7BIC0MMANDER • June 1984 



1094 

1095 

1096 

1097 

1 1 00 

1101 

1102 

1103 

.1. 1 04 

1 1 05 

1 1 06 

1107 

1110 

1 1 1 1 

1 1 1 2 

1 1 1 3 

1114 

1 1 1 5 

1116 

;l. :i. 1 7 

1 1 20 

1121 

1122 

1 1 23 

1 1 24 

1125 

1 1 26 

1127 

1130 

1131 



DATA 96, 201, 133, 144, 6, 

201, 141, 176, 2, 56 

DATA 96, 24, 96, 250, 195, 

232, 192, 238, 197, 234 

DATA 195, 18, 49, 41, 32, 1 

46, 69, 88, 69, 67 

DATA- 85, 84, 69, 32, 69, 88 

P 73, 83, 84, 73 

DATA 78, 71,' 32, 67, 79, 77 

, 77, 65, 78, 68 

DATA 83, 13, 13, 18, 50, 41 

, 32, 146, 82, 69 

DATA 86, 73. 69, 87, 32, 69 

, 88, 73, 83, 84 

DATA 73, 78, 71, 32, 67, 79 

, 77, 77, 65, 78 

DATA 68, 83, 13, 13, 18, 51 

. 41,, 32, 146, 67 

DATA 82, 69, 65, 84, 69, 32 

, 78, 69, 87, 32 

DATA 67, 79, 77, 77, 65, 78 

, 6 8 „ 8 3 , 1 3 „ 1 3 

DATA 18, 52, ' 41, 32, 146, 8 

3, 65, 86, 69, 32 

DATA 69, 88, 73, S3, 84, 73 

, 78, 71, 32, 67 

DATA 79, 77, 77, 65, 78, 68 

, S3, 32, 84, 79 

DATA 32, 68, 73, 83, 75, 3.3 

,, 13, 18, S3, 41 

DATA 32, 146, 76, 79. 65, 6 

8, 32, 67, 79, 77 

DATA 77, 65, 78, 68, 32. 70 

, 7Z„ 76, 69, 32 

DATA 70, 82, 79, 77, 32, 68 

, 73, 83, 75, 13 

DATA 13, 94, 13, 70, 75, 69 

, 89, 32, IS, 146 

DATA 32, 61, 32, 63. 32, 72 

. 65, 82, 68, 32 



DATA 67, 79, SO, 89 



89 



. 47, 78, 32, 63 

DATA 94, 13„ 13, IS, 65, 78 

, 89, 32, 75, 69 

DATA 89, 146, 94, 70, 73, 7 

6, 69, 32, 78, 65 

DATA 77, 69, 32, 61, 32, 63 

, 32, 94, 0„ 137 

DATA 0, 0, 56, 229. 52, 168 

, 200, 165, 52, 240 

DATA 17, 141, 68, 198, 166, 

51, 189, 0, 133, 79 
DATA SO, 69, 78, 52, 44, 52 
, 58 „ 67, 77, 68 



DATA 5^ 



58, 76, 73, S3, 84 



, 13, 137, 80, 82 

DATA 73, 78, 84, 35, 52, 58 

, 67. 76, 79, 83 

DATA 69, 52, 13, 134, 76, 7 

9, 65, 68, 34, 36 

Continued on page 94 



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June 1984 • COMMANDERI79 



BASIC + ML = ? 



*by Glen E. Colbert i 



One thing that prevents many people 
from moving from BASIC into the realm of 
machine language is a fear of the inability 
to write an entire program in code. 
However, programs don't have to be all 
machine language or all BA5IC or all 
anything. In fact, I believe that the best 
program is one that is a combination of 
the user's language and the machine's. 
Everyone has had a program that just 
didn't quite do what they wanted it to, or 
didn't operate well with their equipment. 
On occasions when the program is in 
BASIC, "customizing" it is (usually) quite 
easy. On the other hand, tailoring a 
machine language program can be 
nothing less than a nightmare, but there 
are times when machine language is 
unavoidable. Sorting string arrays pro- 
vides a prime example of this. 

One of the (small) problems that has to 
be taken care of to "hybridize" a program 
is finding room in your computer for the 
machine language and BASIC programs 
to live and work. There are several ways to 
accomplish this. One way is to "steal" 
some of BASIC'S work area and reserve it 
for the machine language program. 
Similar to this is the technique of putting 
the code inside the BASIC text area of 
memory. Another method is to use an 
area of memory which BASIC does not 
utilize (e.g. the cassette buffer}. A fourth 
method is "chaining" the programs. 
Chaining is a process in which one pro- 
gram "LOADs" a separate program to per- 
form a specific job. Once the job is per- 
formed, the second program then reloads 
the main program and execution con- 
tinues. 

MERGING THE PROGRAMS 

Let's look at different ways to combine 
BASIC text and machine code. To do this, a 
machine language sort routine is provided 

&QICOMMANDER • June 1984 



which will be merged into a basic program 
in several different ways. The routine is 
relocatable (will run at any available 
memory location), and was written to run 
on either the 64 or on a VIC-20 with one 
small modification (line 505 in listing #1). 
By POKEing a value into memory location 
828, the sort can be made from inside the 
string. For example, if the first five 
characters of the string are a zip code and 
the last name starts at the sixth position, 
the routine would sort by zip if a zero were 
POKEd into location 828. However, POKE- 
ing a five into 828 would result in the 
routine sorting by names. It will sort 100 
elements in an array in about two 
seconds. It is one which you will want to 
keep around as a permanent addition to 
your subroutine library. 

The data for each of the examples is 
provided in program listing #1. I recom- 
mend that you type it in and save it as an 
independent file. Then the other pro- 
grams can be easily merged with it. 

BASIC LOADERS 

Listing #2 gives an example of the most 
common method of merging ML and 
BASIC. Often called a "BASIC loader," this 
program READs the values from DATA 
statements and POKEs the machine 
language into memory. In this example, 
the routine is written into the top of the 
BASIC string storage area. To protect the 
program from BASIC attempting to store 
strings on top of it, fine 105 changes the 
pointers to the top of memory. This leads 
BASIC to believe that the memory ends 
before the machine language routine, 
preventing it from storing information 
there. The variable ML is set by computing 
the top of BASIC address from the pointer 
as 55-56. ML is then used for both deter- 
mining where to start POKEing the code 
and knowing whereto SYS to for the sort. 



Basic loaders are popular for several 
reasons. Probably the most often given 
reason for their use is that very little pro- 
gramming expertise is required to use 
them. They are also quite easyfor a userto 
modify fora particular application (so long 
as the code is relocatable). They don't re- 
quire a machine language monitor or 
assembler, and it is easy to check for typing 
errors with a check sum (see CK in lines 
125-135). 

There are, however, two drawbacks to 
this method. First, it requires quite a bit 
more memory. In the given example, the 
machine language takes up 264 bytes of 
memory. However, the overhead for the 
poke routine and the BASIC data for the 
poke take up around 900 more bytes! 
That means that over 1 K of memory is lost 
for just one small routine. While 1K may 
not seem like much, it really is, particularly 
if the program is to run on a 5K VIC. 

The second problem, whiie much less 
serious, can be quite annoying with long 
machine language routines. This is the 
time that the program seems to "stop" 
while the machine language is POKEd into 
memory. If this method is employed, it is a 
good idea to flash a message on and off 
while it is being stored to avoid "blank 
screen paranoia". 

INSIDE BASIC TEXT 

A more memory efficient method 
would be to save the machine language in 
its object (executable) form directly with 
the BASIC program. Then, each time the 
program is loaded, the machine language 
is ready to go. For Disk users, merging the 
files is quitesimple. The machine language 
can be saved to the disk as a program file 
and appended to the BASIC program with 
the "CO:" command in the Disk Operating 
System (DOS). Once the files have been 



appended this way, the machine language 
is a part of the main program file on the 
disk. Each time it is loaded, the machine 
language is too. BASIC starts storing 
variables AFTER the last location loaded. 
This automatically takes care of the pro- 
blem of protecting the routine from 
BASIC. 

One problem with this method is deter- 
mining where the machine language 
routine starts after the programs have 
been merged. However, because the 
pointer to the start of BASIC variables 
points to an address three bytes past the 
end of the routine, it can be used to find 
the correct address to SYS to. Just subtract 
the length of the machine language 
routine + 3 from the address given by the 
start of variables pointer! Now the 
machine language is much less of a 
memory hog. Program three gives an ex- 
ample of writing a program file from data 
statements. 

Running this program will write a pro- 
gram file called "ml.program" to the disk. 
Once this has been done, type in program 
number four. This program should then be 
SAVEd to the same disk using the name 
"8ASICPROGRAM." To merge the files, 
send the following commands to the disk 
drive: 



500 


DATA 


505 


DATA 


510 


DATA 


515 


DATA 


520 


DATA 




DATA 


530 


DATA 




, 197 


hJ'jJ 


DATA 




6 


540 


DATA 


545 


DATA 


550 


DATA 


l? K* Kj 


DATA 




18 


560 


DATA 


>J O >J 


DATA 


570 


DATA 


575 


DATA 


580 


DATA 


585 


DATA 


590 


DATA 


595 


DATA 


600 


DATA 




77 


605 


DATA 




1 60 ,5,177, 252 ,141,1 60 , 3 , 200 ,177, 252 
141, 161,3, 169, 1, 141, 162,3, 169,0 
141, 163,3,24, 165,252, 105,7, 133,228 
165,253, 105,0, 133,229, 165,228, 133,2 



165,229,133,219,24, 165, 218, 105,3, 13 

228. 165,219, 105,0, 133,229, 160,0, 177 
218,208,51,24, 173, 162,3, 105, 1, 141 
162,3, 173, 163,3, 105,0, 141, 163,3 
173, 163,3,205, 160,3, 144,204, 173, 162 
3 , 205 ,161,3,144,196,173,164,3,208 
6,169, 147,32,210,255,96, 169,0, 141 
164,3,240,155, 141,165,3, 177,228,240 
231, 141, 166,3,200, 177,218, 133,226, 1 

228, 133,230,200,177,218,133,227,177 



»8 



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610 DATA 133,231,172,6 

4 
615 DATA 168,240,2,176 
620 DATA 158,204,166,3 
625 DATA 3,145,218,173 
630 DATA 230,145,218,1 

,231 
635 DATA 145,218,165,2 

64 
6 4 D A T A 3 , i 69 , ,240,2 

OPEN15,8,15 

PRINT#1 5,"C0:B0TH = BASIC 

PROGRAM, ML PROG RAM 

CLOSE15 

The "CO:" command will create a new 
file on the disk called "BOTH." It contains 
the BASIC program from listing 4 and the 
machine language program created by 
listing 3. The result is a user modifiable 
BASIC program with a fast machine 
language sort routine that only uses 260 
bytes of memory. 

The files could be appended on the disk 
by changing line #30 in listing three to 
read OPEN3,8,3"BASICPROGRAM,A" to 
directly append the file, but having 
separate files makes corrections and 
changes much easier later on. Aside from 
the significant memory savings that this 
method provides, it has an additional ad- 
vantage. It seems that when BASIC text is 
moved around to make room for new 
lines (or deleted lines) and when a pro- 
gram is saved, the start of variables pointer 
is used to determine when enough text 
has been moved. This means that the 
machine language is not overwritten 
when changes are made to the BASIC pro- 
gram. It also means that your machine 
language will be saved along with any 
changes that you make to the program. 
With this pointer being used to determine 
the starting address of the machine code, 
the address to +SYS doesn't have to be 
re-computed each time changes are made 
to the BASIC program. This only applies 
however, to programs that do not have in- 
ternal JMPs or JSRs. 

GETTING THE BOOT 

There are times when the routine that is 
to be used with the BASIC program is not 
relocatabfe. How aboutthat routine in last 
month's magazine that has to be located 
at $C0O0, but with the BASIC loader and 
your program both in you keep running 
out of memory? If you are comfortable 
with machine language, there is always 
the option of modifying the code to run at 
the end of BASIC as in the last example. 
However, every time the BASIC text is 
edited, the code will have to be re- 
modified. There is a solution which, whiie 
not too graceful, does take care of this 

82ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



0,3, 177,226,209,230,14 

,11, 200, 204, 165, 3, 240 
,208,235, 160,0,173, 166 

, 165,3, 145,228,200,165 
65,226, 145,228,200, 165 

27, 145,228, 169, 1, 141, 1 

10 

problem, This is to load the program with 
the machine language data, POKE the 
code, protect it, and then load the main 
program, A problem which is often en- 
countered in using this method is that 



when one BASIC program LOADs 
another, the start of variable pointers are 
not reset to the end of the new program. 
While this permits passing variables be- 
tween the two programs, it also means 
that the second program loaded must be 
smaller than the first. If this condition is not 
met, the variables will be stored in the 
same memory area that the BASIC text is. 
This will almost guarantee the program to 
crash. 

One way of working around this prob- 
lem is to use the 'dynamic keyboard 
technique,' using the keyboard que to 
force load the second program. Listing #5 
provides an example of this method. This 
program is loaded first. It POKEs the 
machine language into an area which is 
not used by BASIC. In this example, it puts 







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Commodore 64 is a trademark of Commodore Electronics Lid 



the code into the block of memory above 
BASIC at SC0O0. At line thirty, the screen is 
cleared and the LOAD and RUN com- 
mands are printed on the screen just as if 
they had been typed in. 

You may have noticed that, at times, a 
BASIC program will seem to stop for a few 
seconds then continue. If keys have been 
pressed while this happened the 
characters may seem to suddenly appear 
once the program resumes. Even while 
BASIC is busy, the computer is looking at 
the keyboard to see if a key is being 
pressed. If a key has been pressed, the 
computer wil put it in a temporary area of 
memory for BASIC to use when it 'gets the 
time.' This area of memory is called the 
"keyboard que" and is located from ad- 
dress 63 1 -640. Additionally, the computer 
stores the number of characters in the buf- 
fer in address 198 so that BASIC knows 
when to stop reading information from 
the que. Line 50 POKEs a four into address 
198 to "fool" BASIC into thinking that 
there are four characters waiting for it. 
Line 60 POKEs four carriage returns into 
the keyboard que. When the program 
reaches the END in line 70, the program 
stops, but BASIC still thinks that is has 
characters to process. The LOAD and RUN 
messages were printed on the screen to 
be on the lines where the cursor will end 
up as the program stops. When BASIC 
processes the carriage returns, it is as if 
someone had typed in the load instruction 
and pressed return. By changing the 
character color to the background color, 
the process will be invisible to the user. 

A better method might be to have the 
first program change the start of variables 
pointer to where it would be for the sec- 
ond program by poking new values into 
memory locations 44-45. The second pro- 
gram can then be loaded by a LOAD'TRO- 
GRAM",8 within the first program. 

CHAINING PROGRAMS 

The boot method illustrated the fact 
that one program can toad and run 
another. With a little bit of deduction, it 
should become clear that the machine 
language program doesn't really have to 
be in the computer at the same time as the 
BASIC program. Rather, it can be kept out 
on the disk as a separate program and 
loaded in when needed. This eliminates 
the need forprotecting an area in memory 
for the program. Not only does it save the 
900+ byte basic loader overhead found 
in listing #2, it also eliminates the 260 
bytes taken up by the machine language 
itself. By chaining, programs can be run on 
an unexpanded VIC that would require a 
much larger computer if all of the 
segments were loaded together. 



When one program LOADs another, 
the second program loaded begins execu- 
tion at the first line. To avoid re-initializing 
variables and REDIMMED ARRAY errors, 
some method must be employed to jump 
into the program at a safe point after it is 
loaded. One way of doing this is to check 
for a variable that is known to have a value 
afterthe first program has been run. If the 
value is set, then the program should 



GOTO the safe entry point. Otherwise, it 
should be alright to execute the program 
normally. For an example of this, see line 5 
in the disk librarian program. 

The program given in listing #3 shows 
that a machine language program can be 
written out to the disk as a program file. 
However, if the program created by it is 
loaded into memory as a BASIC program, 
LISTing it will show garbage. Typing RUN 



10 

20 
21 



BOTOX 00 

*\l> ■A/ ih >h \b %X' •■}/ \ij ■J/ \h \i- -J/ Ki- \u %L- *L -X- w U-' «L< >V 



26 
30 



40 
45 
50 

60 



* LISTING! #2 * 

* BASIC LOADER FOR * 

* STRING * 

* ARRAY SORT ROUTINE * 

* W/8AMPLE USA6E * 

*vX- : *_y *k \lf ^ ^h "vjy -J* \Jy \L' 0/ J/ ^ sb Mw "^ »JL *i 'Jf l V l .is 
if* ry- qv ffi fp fp rft^t/y'rf'rfirfi^t^irfkrfiff^^tfftifirfi 

D I M 9 * ( 1 ) is R EM C R E A T E AR R A Y 
PR I NT' ' : ' Z c: 1 r 3 1: d own , S t i me s 3 GREAT I NB C sp 3 S 
TRtNGCsp3ARRAY' ' 
FORI = 1 TO 100 
FQRJ=1TD30 

S* <L> =S* (L) h-CHR* < <RND ( 1 ) *26) +65) 
NEXTJ ! PRINTS* (L) :NEXTL 

POKE 828,0 iREM STRING POSITION TO SORT- 
ER ON 
65 PRINT* "C down j 2 times 3 STARTING [^330^" 

- TI*- : ' '■' OOOOOO ; ' ' 
70 SYS (ML) ,S*(0) sT«TI 
75 PR I NT : ' * SORT t sp 3 FIN I SHED * J 
80 F0RL-1T0100 
85 PRINTS* (L) 
90 NEXTL 

95 PRINTSORT TIME *»> " T/60 ? ' SECONDS" s-END 
100 REM BASIC LOADER 
105 PGKE56, PEEK <56) -2n CLR 
110 ML=PEEK<55)+256*PEEK<56) : REM NEW TOP OF 

MEMORY 
1 1 5 F0RL=MLT0ML+264 

120 READ DTiPOKEi DT 

125 CK-CK+DT 
130 NEXTL 

135 IFCKO38208 THEN PRINT ; ' 
DATA : ' • s END : REM CKX >38240 
1 40 Q0T030 



ERRORLspIIINEsp] 
ON VIC 



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June 1984 • COMMANDER183 



will result in a SYNTAX ERROR. How then, 
can a machine language program be load- 
ed from a BASIC program with the LOAD 
command and be executed? Listing #7 is a 
program which writes another program, 
Type it in with the data statements in 
listing #1 and RUN it. It will write a pro- 
gram file called "CHAIN SORT" to the disk. 
Load "CHAIN SORT" and LIST it. The 
BASIC lines displayed were written from 
the data in lines 300 to 335. 

Chain Sort is a simple program. All it 
does is call a machine language routine, 
then load the main program. However, 
unlike the programs written by program 
number 3, it can be loaded and run in- 
dependently. 

DISK LIBRARIAN 

Program #6 is a rather handy program. 
tt provides alphabetized listings of files on 
one or more disks. The DIM statements 
should be changed to reflect the number 
of programs and disks that need to be 
cataloged for your particular purpose. 
Also, the printer routines may need to be 
changed to operate properly on your 
equipment. While it is a nice utility to have, 
it was written to give you an opportunity 
to experiment with these different 
methods of merging BASIC and machine 
language. There is nothing like a few suc- 
cessful experiments to build confidence. 

Each method has advantages and 
disadvantages. Each is more appropriate 
in some situations than in others. How 
often does the routine have to be called? 
How tight are the memory restrictions? 
How difficult will modifications to the pro- 
gram be? How idiot proof does the pro- 
gram have to be? Only you can answer 
these questions about your own pro- 
grams, but a bit of playing around with 
these techniques will help when it comes 
time to merge your own routines. 











L^w A 




HsiKSn 


=j=b| 


v-r> *yv* 













10 
20 

2 1 



24 

2 RC 

3Q 

40 

45 

50 
55 
60 

135 

500 



10 
20 
2 1 
22 

A, s„' 

24 
25 
26 
30 
35 
40 
45 
50 
55 
60 
6. j 
70 
75 
80 
85 
90 



G0T030 

* PROGRAM TO WRITE A * 

* PROGRAM FILE TO * 

* THE DISK FROM: DATA * 

* IN BASIC DATA STATEMENTS * 

^T* 'T' ^P * T« T™ T» * MP T 1 TP ^ * T^ T^ ^P ^P T^ T* 'V' T* ^* ■nT' T^ flp. M^ 1 ift ** Mn 

OPEN 3,8,3, ? ■■• ML. PROGRAM, P,W ' 

PRINT#3,CHR*U>cREM LOW BYTE OF START A 

D DRESS 

PRINT#3,CHR*<8> ; :REM HIGH BYTE OF START 

ADDRESS 

FC)RL™1T0265 

READ DA:PRINT#3,CHR$(DA) ", 

NEXT:PRINT#3,CHR$<0) ;CHR*<0>: 

CLOSES: END 

I FCI« >3S208THENPR I NT " : ' ERROR L" sp 3 I N C sp 1 DAT 

A'" sENDs REM GKO3S240 ON VIC 

DATA FROM LISTING #1 HERE 



GOT 030 

*w ^ J/ ^A" '*' ^ ^' ^ "X' ^ l A f *i' *}f ^X' ^ ^ ^L' ^ *lf Uf \L" ^ ^ 
0^ ^ ^ flp 't* t * ^ 0^ n^ n^ n^ T^ t ff ^ n^ ^r* t^ * * ff nr 



LISTING #4 



"0 



* 
* 



THIS PROGRAM IS 
BE MERGED WITH 
M L - P R G R A M WH I C H W A S 
CREATED BY LISTING 3 

^i ^% jj* rf\ /p. /^ ^ rf* f^i n^ t^ n^ *p n^ -^ *j* T* "J" T* * n^ 'T* 'T 1 *T* 

ML=PEEK <45) +256+PEEK <46> ~-264™3 

DIM S* ( 1 00 ) s PR I NT • ' CRE A T I NO C sp ] ARR A Y : ' 

FOR L==1T0100 

FOR J«lT0i5 

S* < L ) =e* ( L > +CHR* ( ( RND ( 1 ) * 26 ) +65 ) 

NE X T J s PR I NTS* < L ) s NE X TL 

PR I NT * ' START I NG C sp .1 SORT ' 

SYS < ML) ,G*<0) ;T=TI 

PRINT' ' SORT Csp] FIN I SHED' 

FORI »1 TO 100 

PRINTS* (L> 

NEXTL 

PR I NT ' ' SORT L~ sp ] T I ME L" sp ] - 

NDS : ' : ' 

END 



'1$=' '000000' 



T/60' : ' Csp3SEC0 



ZAtCOMMANDER • June 1984 



10 


GOTO 100 




IFCOOQ 


20 


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24 


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50 


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70 


F0RL----1T 




>S 


80 


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70 


END 


90 


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110 


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INTOCsp 



THEN60 

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15 

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3 THE" ' 



Better Than 
Original Equipment 




£x commodore 
^V commodore 

This CP Power Supply for the Commodore 64 and V1C- 
20 is definitely better and more reliable than the one that 
originally came with your computer. Ii works dependably. 
year-in and year-out. Unlike the others, this CI' Power 
Supply is serviceable. NOT disposable. 



~£7 Computer Place 



(213) 325-4754 

23914 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, CA 90505 

Dealer Inquiries Welcome 

Commodore 64 and VIC-20 are trademarks of Commodore Business Machines Inc 
Circle No. 104 



UNAUTHORIZED COMMODORE 
SERVICE CENTER 



Tired of looking for service for your Commodore 

C64ond 1541? 

LOOK NO FURTHER 

Send COMPUTER OUTLET your sick hardware, we'll 
repair ir or NO CHARGE. 

M7.7J RotRore' 

V1C20-C64- 1540- 1541 

C64 Power supplies repaired and upgraded $19.95 

*5end eqoipmenr intact wirh all parrs ond power supply 

45 Day Guaronree on oil work 

MAIL ORDER SPECIALS 

STAR Gemini -1 OX 527995 STAR ftjwer Type UQ S399 95 

MSO Dual Disk Drive $56995 Dorosserre J4995 

CLOTH COVERS for protection of your VIC 20. C64. 
1702, 1541. 1 0X $1.99 

Prmrer Supplies: Ribbons, 10X- $3.95/1515 or 1525 
-$8.95/Prowrirer - $7.95 

CALL or WRITE for our free corolog 

COMPUTER OUTLET js an Authorized seivice center 

for STAR & MSD 



COMPUTER OUTLET, SD 

5861 Mission Gorge Rood 
Son Diego. CA 92021 

TEL (619)282-6200 



Circle No. 2? 



June 1984 • COMMANDER /85 



i 40 



145 
150 
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S6IC0MMANDEF) • June 1984 



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335 DATA 77,8,40, , 1 38 , , , 
400 REM ****** SORT ROUTINE *** 




REMs to Readers 



Submitting Material to COMMANDER 
Magazine 

We encourage everyone to submit ar- 
ticles/programs to COMMANDER for 
possible publication. If you have written 
an original program/article about a com- 
puter application, product, or educational 
approach, please send us a manuscript or 
letter of inquiry. Materials of interest to 
beginning, intermediate, and advanced 
programmers are welcomed. 

Submitted materials should follow 
these guidelines: 

1. Articles must be typed double- 
spaced, in upper and lower case on 
8V2 " x 1 1 " paper, with at least 1 Vi" 
margins on all sides. Good quality 
printers may be used if the output is 
clear and dark. Two copies of each 
article should be included. 

2. Programs must be provided in both 
hard-copy listing and machine 
readable form (disk or tape). Where 
feasible, please include both C-64 
and VIC-20 versions. 

3. Each page should include your 
name, title of the article, the date 



submitted, and the page number. 
Any accompanying listings, photos, 
graphs, etc., must be clearly iden- 
tified. 

4. In your cover letter, include a brief 
description of your relevant 
background and interests, the com- 
puter equipment you use, and the in- 
tended audience of yoursubmission. 
Don't forget your address with day 
and evening phone numbers. 

5. We only consider articles that are 
submitted exclusively to COM- 
MANDER. If you do not receive a 
response from our office within eight 
weeks, please write or call before 
sending it to another publication. 

6. The amount of payment for ac- 
cepted materials depends on the 
type, length, and quality. You will 
receive an author contract specifying 
payment and copyright details 
before publication. 

7. Reviews of commercial products are 
generally commissioned from our of- 
fice. Please, do not solicit free copies 
from manufacturers on your own. 



However, we would consider well- 
written, timely reviews of hardware 
and software you have purchased 
for your own use. 
Materials not accepted for publication 
can be returned only if a SASE or adequate 
postage is included. Please send all un- 
solicited materials to: 

Submissions Editor 
COMMANDER Magazine 
PO. Box 98827 
Tacoma, WA 98498 




June 1984 • C0MMANDERIS7 



New Products 



^e 



J 



THETRAV-L-CASE 

The Computer Case Company of Col- 
umbus, Ohio, producers of compact carry- 
ing casesfor microcomputers for over four 
years has just introduced newTrav-L-Cases 
for the Commodore 64 or Vic 20 com- 
puter 




These cases are constructed of heavy 
duty materials with extensive inside foam 
padding to provide the level of protection 
required for the frequent long distance 
traveler. They are constructed of plywood 
sides covered with scuff resistant vinyl on 
the outside for an attractive appearance, 
metal protection on the edges and cor- 
ners, key draw bolt locks, padded handle 
and a minimum of one inch of foam pad- 
ding on all sides for protection of the 
equipment. 

The cases have been sized to hold the 
equipment in a package that can be 
handled by one person and will easily fit in- 
side the trunks of most standard size cars. 

The cases can be obtained through 
most computer stores or direct from the 
Computer Case Company, 5650 Indian 
Mound Court, Columbus, Ohio 43213, 
(614) 868-9464 or (800) 848-7548. 

KEEPTRACK™ 

FILE MANAGER FOR PERSONAL 
COMPUTERS 

Turn your Commodore 64 or VIC 20 in- 
to an electronic organizer! KeepTrack: File 
Manager for Personal Computers by 
Norm Church is a versatile program that 
allows your computer to "keep track" of 

BBICOMMANDER • June 1984 



all kinds of information: mailing lists, 
household inventories, tax expenses, 
bibliography lists, birthdays, recipes, etc. 
The book and book/software package will 
both be released by Dilithium Press in 
March, 1984. 

KeepTrack: File Manager for Personal 
Computers is a file management program 
that stores and retrieves information like 
an ordinary file cabinet— except it's much 
faster, easier to use, and more flexible. 




KeepTrack: File Manager for Personal 
Computers performs all of the following 
useful functions: add data, display data, 
change data, save a file, retrieve a file, 
print labels, sort by category, turn sort off, 
and select categories. The software con- 
tains the KeepTrack program as well as 
two data files. 
Dilitium Press 

8285 SW Nimbus Suite 151 
Seaverton, OR 97005 



SOFTWARE LETS NOVICES 
AND PROS SEE THEIR 
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS IN 
STANDARD NOTATION ON 
COMMODORE 64 

A software package which shows 
MusiCalc 1 users how their improvisations 
and creations would look in standard 
musical notation. 

According to Waveform, users can see 
the notation on any screen used with the 
Commodore 64, and also obtain easy-to- 
read printouts using any of several 
graphics printers, 



The product, called MusiCalc 2 
ScoreWriter, translates score sequences 
created on MusiCalc 1 into standard music 
notation that appears on the screen in 
either one, two or three voices at a time, 
depending on the user's preference. 
ScoreWriter lets users link MusiCalc 1 se- 
quences together, allowing compositions 
to contain over 7,000 notes. 

Users can receive easy-to-read printouts 
of their creations by installing a compati- 
ble Epson printer with the Graftrax option, 
or a Commodore VIC-1525 graphics 
printer. 

MusiCalc 2 ScoreWriter works in con- 
junction with MusiCalc 1 . 

The ScoreWriter package also includes 
SyncLink, which McCreery described as "a 
bonus program which allows the 
MusiCalc system to work in sync with up 
to eight digital effects devices, including 
popular drum machines such as 
Drumulator, Drumatix and Dr. Rhythm. 
With SyncLink, you can have the digital ef- 
fects device control the MusiCalc system 
and vice versa. 




"ScoreWriter makes it possible for 
anyone to create written music," said Mc- 
Creery. "And musicians who can't read or 
write in standard musical notation can use 
the MusiCalc 2 Scorewriterto translate im- 
provisations into sheet music. Musicians 
can also use MusiCalc 2 ScoreWriter for 
copywriting and publishing purposes, or 
for supplying band members with copies 
of arrangements." 

Waveforms MusiCalc 2 ScoreWriter 
retails for $34.95, and will be available 



through computer specialty stores, com- 
puter software stores, book stores and 
musical instrument stores. 

SYNAPSE ANNOUNCES 

RELAX: 

THE FIRST IN A 

SERIES OF PERSONAL 

HEALTHWARE PROGRAMS 

FOR HOME COMPUTERS 

Synapse has announced the debut of 
their new hardware/software package 
RELAX, a stress reduction system designed 
for use with your home computer. 

Using bio sensory technology, RELAX 
allows you to monitor stress levels by 
representing muscle tension graphically 
on your computer monitor. The RELAX 




workbook that is included with the hard- 
ware and software helps you to under- 
stand your reactions to stress and also pro- 
vides suggestions for managing and rever- 
sing those reactions. An audiotape guides 
you into deep relaxation, and when you 
use this tape in conjunction with the 
biofeedback mechanism, you'll be able to 
see and feel results. RELAX also allows you 
to program in subliminal messages that 
will reinforce your relaxation response. 

The method is simple. Put on your 
RELAX sensor headband. Three tiny sen- 
sors in the band provide highly accurate 
measurements of muscle tension. This 
biofeedback method, called elec- 
tromyograph (or EMG), measures elec- 
trical activity in the muscles. When you're 
tense, electrical activity increases. Of 
course, when you are relaxed, electrical 
activity decreases and your muscles lose 
their tension. With RELAX, this is por- 
trayed graphically on your computer 
monitor. 

A control unit allows you to determine 
the sampling rate that you wish to use. A 
very fast sample can help you discover 
your unconscious reactions to stressful 
stimuli, and a slower averaged rate will 
give you a general index of relaxation. 
Whatever setting you choose, you can see 
the readings immediately on the screen. If 
you attach a printer to your computer, 
your reading can also be printed out. 



RELAX is the first in a series of products 
from the new personal healthware divi- 
sion of Synapse, designed to use the 
capabilities of your home computer to 
help monitor and improve your health. 

HOME DECORATOR™ 
FORTHEC-64 

Wedecorate your home. Oryouroffice. 
We teach you about colors, furniture 
layout, and even the theory behind it. 
Then, by following simple instructions you 
select carpeting, paint walls, move heavy 
sofa beds— and you see it before you 
make costly mistakes. 
Softron, Inc. 

150 Nassau Street Suite 2024 
New York, NY 10038 
(212)608-2922 



STATISTICS PACKAGE 
FOR COMMODORE 64 

Quality Input, Inc., has just announced 
the release of "Q-STAT" a statistical 
package designed for the Commodore 
64. The Q-STAT package was designed for 
the researchers in education, social 
sciences, natural sciences, and business. 
The extensive documentation and the 
simplicity of this package make using 
Q-STAT an easy, enjoyable experience. 
Completely menu-driven, Q-STAT allows 
you to perform complex statistical pro- 
cedures by simply pressing a key. Statistical 
results may be sent to the printer as well as 
to the screen. Data Management, Data 
Transformation, Descriptive Statistics, 
Cross-tabulation, T-tests, Non-parametric 
statistics, Correlation Analysis including 
Scattergrams, Residual Analysis, ANOVA 
and Time-Series Analysis are just a few of 
the functions Q-STAT is capable of per- 
forming. Also included is a "Memo Pad" 
which allows the user to send text to the 
printer, eliminating the need to load a 
word processor. Q-STAT is available on 
diskette for $269.95. For further informa- 
tion, call or write Quality Input, Inc., 309 
W Beaufort, Normal, Illinois, 6161 1, (309) 
454-1061. 

DESKMATE PUTS YOUR 
COMPUTER IN ITS PLACE 

HoilisCraft of Hollis, NH announces the 
introduction of the DeskMate, a ready-to- 
finish, desk-top organizer for personal 
computers. The DeskMate holds all 
popular brands of computers, turning any 
desk or table into a convenient computer 
work station. 

The DeskMate features a turntable shelf 
for the CRT which rotates a full 360° on 
ball bearings. Next to this shelf there is 



TAPES ON 

COMMAND 

••••••••••• 

• Games 

• Education 
• Business 

• Utilities 

The same great programs of- 
fered in each issue of COM- 
MANDER are now at your com- 
mand! TAPES ON COMMAND 
will increase your valuable pro- 
gramming time by eliminating 
typing and proofreading. 

Starting with the December 
issue, enjoy TAPES ON COM- 
MAND in tape or disk format. 
Order a year subscription and 
save 25%! 




Tape $ 9.95 each 
Disk $ 13.95 each 

To order TAPES ON COMMAND, 
call toll free (800) 426-1830. In 
Alaska, Hawaii and Washing- 
ton call direct, (206) 584-6757, 
or write to COMMANDER Ma- 
gazine at P. O. Box 98827, 
Tacoma, WA 98498. 

••••••••••• 

June 1984 • COMMANDERIB9 



space for a printer. Underneath, a shelf 
holds fan-fold paper which feeds through 
a convenient sfot to the printer above. This 
shelf is handy for storing software and 
peripherals, too. The DeskMate fits on any 
flat surface making a convenient coverfor 
the keyboard, data recorder and/or disk 
drive. 

Made of solid pine, the DeskMate 
assembles easily to make a sturdy attrac- 
tive unit. Its construction features slotted 
joints and pre-drilled holes. All necessary 
fasteners and glue are included. No-mar 
pads protect desk-top finishes while 
preventing the DeskMate from sliding. 
The DeskMate weighs 15 lbs. and 
measures 36" x 13" x 12". 

The DeskMate sells for $44.95 plus 
$5.00 shipping. Inquiries and orders 
should be directed to HOLUSCRAFT, BO. 
Box 465, Oakdale, MA 01539. 



"I SPEAK BASIC TO 
MY COMMODORE-64™" 

I SPEAK BASIC TO MY COM- 
MODORE-64 is a field-tested computer 
literacy course that introduces students to 
BASIC language programming and the 
operation of a Commodore-64 
microcomputer. The series includes a 
Teacher's Manual, Student Text, and Exam 
Set. 

Written by Aubrey Jones and published 
by the Hayden Book Company of 
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, I Speak 
BASIC to My Commodore-64 is designed 
forteachers regardless of their knowledge 
of microcomputers and their program- 
ming skill. 

The core of the course is the Student 
Text that features learning objectives, 
definitions and examples of key terms and 
BASIC concepts in class programming ex- 
ercises, practices and assignments. Each 
version includes chapters explaining the 
parts and operation of the microcom- 
puter. Chapters cover BASIC program- 
ming topics such as Mathematical Opera- 
tions, Scientific Notations, Conditional 
and Unconditional Branching, Input 
Statements, Loops, Reading Data, Video 
Display Graphics, Arrays and Subroutines. 

The Teacher's Manual provides techni- 
ques for presenting the material and em- 
phasizing particular concepts, annota- 
tions to aid in lesson planning, sugges- 
tions for implementing the course and 
answers to all practice exams. 

The Exam Set contains 12 quizzes on 
spirit duplicating masters to check student 
understanding and reinforce learning. The 
quizzes can be easily reproduced for class 
use. A Classroom set of i Speak BASIC con- 
B0ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



tains one Teacher's Manual, 20 Student 

Texts and one Exam Set. 

Hayden Book Company, Inc. 

10 Mulholland Drive 

Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 

(201)393-6306 

Commodore is a registered trademark 
of Commodore Business Machines. 

SOFTWARE FOR THE 
PROJECT MANAGER 

PM + (TM)— A user friendly software 
product designed forthe project manager. 
This program computes the critical path 
and/or project schedule for a project. It is 
designed to be useful for the individual 
who has little, or no experience with the 
techniques of critical path scheduling and 
project management. One unusual 
feature in this product is the ability toenter 
up to ten different cost items (five levels of 
manpower with different wage rates and 
duration of time spent on an activity; three 
types of material with estimated usage, 
unit measure, and cost; capital equipment 
costs; and miscellaneous expenses) for 
each activity in the project. Another 
unusual feature is the ability to enter ac- 
tual cost data and compare the initial cost 
estimates with actual expenses. A third 
unusual feature is the use of data sheets to 
develop and record the data needed for 
the program. 

Immediately available on disk for the 
Commodore 64. Price: $129.95. 

LAWCO Ltd. 
PO. Box 1337 
Cupertino, CA 95015 
408 733-0739 



HUMAN ENGINEERED 
SOFTWARE'S TURTLE 
TOYLAND JR. 

For children aged six and up, the 
challenge of learning about computers 
and computer concepts has been made 
easier— and a lot more fun— with the in- 
troduction of Turtle Toyland Jr. by Human 
Engineered Software. 

Available forthe Commodore 64, Turtle 
Toyland Jr. operates with just a joystick, 
teaching children computer concepts by 
moving a turtle across the computer 
screen to build film strips. 

"Turtle Toyland Jr. is an ideal introduc- 
tion to creative programming for young 
children," said Dr. Sueann Ambron, direc- 
tor of educational software at Human 
Engineered Software. "The program 
translates a child's joystick movements in- 
to reproducible turtle graphics. As a side 
effect of this creative play, children learn 
programming concepts and techniques." 



To achieve the best results from the 
game, Ambron recommended following 
a carefully designed sequence of activities, 
beginning with a playground to discover 
how to move the turtle and draw images. 
From this introductory phase, children 
move on to turtle training and then on to 
the Crossroads to decide where to go 
next. 

After a stop in Training Land, children 
can try four other sequences: Music Land, 
Sprite Land, the Toybox and Input/Output 
Land. In Music Land, children can learn to 
write their own music using the joystick to 
control notes from a piano, horn, guitar 
and flute. The music created can be stored 
in The Toybox. 

Children in Sprite Land fill in squares 
with the turtle to draw sprites, which are 
animated drawings. Sprites can also be 
stored in The Toybox. In Input/Output 
Land, saved files in The Toybox can be call- 
ed up and played with again. 

"Turtle Toyland Jr. is a perfect precursor 
to any beginning programming 
language," added Ambron. "It allows 
children to play with programming con- 
cepts at a very early age. In addition, it 
feeds directly into our more advanced Tur- 
tle Graphics." 

Turtle Toyland Jr. was developed jointly 
by Human Engineered Software and 
Childware Corporation, an innovative 
software development group. 

MINNESOTA FAT'S 
POOL CHALLENGE 

World famous pool expert, Minnesota 
Fats, has dared olayers to beat him at his 
own game. This time, though, he'll be us- 
ing a joystick instead of a pool cue in the 
Minnesota Fats' Pool Challenge, an elec- 
tronic pool game introduced by Human 
Engineered Software. 

With the look and feel of the real thing, 
the Minnesota Fats Pool Challenge re- 
quires all the skill, precision and finesse 
found in a poolhall. Available for the Com- 
modore 64, this exciting game includes six 
different play options and accommodates 
one or two players. 

The game substitutes a joystick or com- 
puter function keys for a pool cue. A 
power gauge determines the speed of 
each shot and the position of the cursor 
guides the direction of the ball, making it 
possible to carom shots. 

The game is as realistic as possible. The 
dimensions of a real pool table were used 
in designing the game. 

The six different options for the game 
include three games for one player: sink- 
ing the balls in any pocket, pocketing the 
balls in order, and shooting the balls in 
their assigned pockets. Two players can 
choose from three games: sinking each 



ball in its pocket and scoring the pocket, 
Mini-Pool, and a game where one player 
"pots" balls 1-6 while the other player pots 
6-1. 

To keep track of the real pool experts, 
the Minnesota Fats' Pool Challenge 
displays high scores. 

Available on cartridge for the Com- 
modore 64, the game's suggested retail 
price is $29.95. 

Human Engineered Software markets a 
full line of advanced cartridge- and disk- 
based utility, entertainment, education, 
productivity and business software under 
the HesWare™ brand name, as well as 
peripheral products. 

THE NUMBER GARDEN 
FROM SOFTSMITH 

Correct answers to math problems 
grow brightly colored flowers in The 
Number Garden from Softsmith. Wrong 
answers sprout weeds, but math students 
have three tries to get rid of a weed before 
the correct answer is provided. Extremely 
easy to use, this delightful Softsmith 
educational program for the Commodore 
64 is equally suited for home and 
classroom use. 

One of the most impressive features of 
The Number Garden is that it automati- 
cally increasesor decreases the difficulty of 
each problem in response to how quickly 
and accurately the student answered the 
preceding problem. Each learner's needs 
are accommodated by this special feature 
which adjusts the difficulty of each pro- 
blem for each individual using The 
Number Garden. Talented students can 
progress quickly to the higher, more 
challenging levels . . . which are very dif- 
ficult. Students who require more work 
are able to gain additional practice at the 
more basic levels. 

In The Number Garden, where birds 
sing and the sun always shines, math is 
beautiful! Drilling with whole numbers, 
decimals and fractions in the four basic 
math functions is fun and colorful. So is 
converting decimals to fractions and frac- 
tions to decimals. 

The Number Garden from Softsmith 
automatically records the name and final 
scores for each student. Progress can be 
monitored and printed easily and quickly 
to identify areas of strength and 
weakness. The student can see how he or 
she is doing while working since the score 
and skill level appear on the edge of the 
garden. Softsmith's The Number Garden 
is available for the Commodore 64 at a 
Suggested Retail Price of $39.95. 



COMMODORE 64 GETS 
AWAY FROM BASICS 

Limbic Systems, Inc., a California-based 
firm specializing in computer peripherals 
and software for the Commodore Com- 
puter line, introduces the PASCAL COM- 
PILER for the Commodore 64™. The 
PASCAL COMPILER represents a major ad- 
vancement in the programmability of the 
Commodore 64, providing a professional, 
business/scientific tool capable of hand- 
ling complex and sophisticated applica- 
tions. 

Pascal, a programming language, 
simplifies development of software for 
customized applications. Pascal simplifies 
and reduces program development time 
by allowing for highly modularized 
coding, employing predefined procedures 
and functions. This characteristic of Pascal 
minimizes debugging time, the majortask 
in program development. The self- 
documenting, structured coding provided 
by Pascal makes it the preferred computer 
language for teaching programming skills 
to and use by computer students. 

The Pascal Compiler was developed by 
Oxford Computer Systems (Software) 
Ltd., authors and developers of the 
*PETSPEED for the Commodore 8000, 
4000 and 64 computers — the BASIC 
compiler recommended by Commodore. 

The Compiler generates efficient native 
code for the Commodore micro- 
processor, resulting in fast executing pro- 
grams demanded by the business/scien- 
tific environment. The following utilities 
are provided as an aid to programming 
development: a linker (allowing for com- 
bining assembler code into the program}, 
debugging facilities, and an editor. 

The documentation provides a tutorial 
on Pascal program development through 
the compilation process, as well as offer- 
ing the user an easy access reference. 

The PASCAL COMPILER is being 
distributed in the United States by Limbic 
Systems, Inc., and is anticipated to retail 
for approximately $50. Inquiries should be 
directed to Limbic Systems, 560 San An- 
tonio Road, Suite 202, Palo Alto, Califor- 
nia 94306; (415)424-0168. 

* PETSPEED is a trademark of Oxford Com- 
puter Systems (Software), Ltd. Com- 
modore 64 is a trademark of Commodore 
Electronics, Ltd. 

CONSTELLATIONS I 
(HEAVENLY BODIES) 

An educational program that's fun to 
use. It displays 12 different constellations 
on screen, from an available menu. You 
may also ask "Morcon" to name any of 
the stars that make up the constellations. 



This is done by moving a joystick directed 
magic wand (that looks suspiciously like 
an arrow) to the star in question; the name 
of the star will appear on screen when you 
press the fire button. 

After viewing the constellation, you can 
request to take the quiz (also built in the 
program)— it keeps track of your correct 
answers and gives your score at the end Of 
the quiz. Be warned, those who score too 
low may wake up as a frog in the morning! 

Constellations I also comes with a small 
booklet that gives you more interesting 
facts about each constellation as you go 
through the viewing phase. 

This is the first of six such programs 
which will list the majority of the named 
constellations and star clusters. This series 
is an excellent astronomy tutor without 
the "heavy math", stiff necks or mosquito 
bites. 

FortheVicand 64— (tape only) $14.95. 

Write: Morcon and Wizard Software 
PO. Box 360 
Sandwich, Illinois 60548 




Fty 



Your 
Computer 




FLIGHT SIMULATOR GAM ES 

Sky Pilot (8K VIC-20; $18.00 

Runway 20 (16KV1O20) $25.00 

Runway 64 (Commodore 64) $35.00 

Micro-Pilot (EPSON HX-20) $18.00 



ADD $2°° FOR DISK VERSION 



TORPEDO/' 



Submarine Battle Games 

8K VIC-20 or Commodore 64 $25.00 



SUSIE SOFTWARE 

;r»*ii5hircD: m - Proioect IL 600SA 

(312)394-5165 

Circle No. 149 



Jure 1984 • COA/U4iV£J£rf/91 



7? 



COMMAND-BOAR 

Show us how you command your favorite computer game. We want you to put 
your best effort on record in the COMMAND-BOARD. To show the Commodore 
world your best score send your entries to: COMMAND-BOARD, P.O. Box 98827, 
Tacoma, WA 98498 




Attack of the Mutant Camels from HES 

• 20,850 Jason Ingel, W. Paim Beach, Fl. 

• 16,705 Gary Raftery, Atlanta, Ga. 

Space Sentinel from T & F Software 

• 36,1 10 Lake Davidson, Anaheim, Ca. 

• 27,460 Eric Wolff, Boise, Id. 

Pooyan from Datasoft 

• 575 Cathy Haley, Boston, Ma. 

• 560 Jon Stoneberg, Houston, Tx. 

Serpentine from Creative Software 

• 10,000 Marshall Smith, Eerie, Pa. 

• 8,500 Kevin Clough, Norfolk, Va. 

Choplifter from Creative Software 

•k 6,405 Mark Petersen, Salem, Or. 

• 5,200 Paul DeLorenzie, Newark, NJ 

Shamus from Synapse 

• 310 Brenda Carson, Baltimore, Md. 

• 295 Thomas Brakken, Las Vegas, Nv. 

Blue Max from Synapse 

• 5,61 5 Terry Young, Richland, Wa. 

• 5,410 Brad Hinman, Omaha, Ne. 

Riverchase from Cyberia 

• 2,300 John Moody, San Jose, Ca. 

• 980 Gene Reynolds, Shreveport, La. 

Frogger from Parker Brothers 

• 5,600 Roger Chase, Great Neck, NY 

• 4,215 Becky Ricci, Sacramento, Ca. 

Stix from Skyies Electric Works 

• 6,990 Richard Orona, Ukiah, Ca. 

• 6,890 Gerald Choo, Alberta, Canada 

Knights of the Desert from Strategic Simulations 

• 3,680 Peter Lo, Salt Lake City, Ut. 

• 3,570 Burton Geiger, South Bend, In. 

Telengard from Avalon Hill 

• 6,328,255,960 Tom Leavell, Portland, Or. 

• 4,263,145,830 Jeffrey Wilson, Champaign, II. 



I All entries must be received by the first of the month to be eligible for the following month. 




ANGELSOFT SOFTWARE 

Mindscape, Inc., has announced an ex- 
clusive agreement with Angetsoft, Inc. to 
publish an exciting array of fun-learning 
software written by Angelsoft founder 
and award winning children's book 
author Mercer Mayer. 

Mindscape, formerly called SFN Elec- 
tronic Publishing Company, is a newly- 
formed subsidiary of SFN Companies, Inc. 
(NYSE-SFN). 

Mindscape's first line of software 
targeted to children ages four through 
eight is entitled SPROUT! Eight programs 
in the SPROUT! line will be built around 
Mayer's newTINKSTONK! characters. 

Mindscape will release its first four 
SPROUT! programs in April and another 
four in September. The software will be 
compatible with the Commodore 64. 

Features of the TINK1TONK! programs 
will include the teaching of basic educa- 
tional skills such as letter and number 
recognition, counting, simple addition 
and subtraction and size and shape rela- 
tionships. Children also become familiar 
with the computer and its operation. 

The software utilizes bold, high resolu- 
tion graphics and original music, profes- 
sionally scored much like a motion picture 
production. Each of the four characters, 
Tink, Tonk, Tinka, and Tuk, has his or her 
own theme song. 



As a successful children's book il- 
lustrator and author, Mayer brings a uni- 
que combination of skill and insight to 
Mindscape's production of the first 
SPROUT! programs. 

Mindscape's parent company, SFN, is a 
leading educational and professional 
publisher based in Glenview, Illinois. 

SUPER HEROES 
GAME SOFTWARE 

ADVENTURE INTERNATIONAL has an- 
nounced the signing of a long-term licens- 
ing agreement with MARVEL ENTERTAIN- 
MENT GROUP 

ADVENTURE INTERNATIONAL will 
create and market a series of at least 
twelve home computer graphic adven- 
ture games featuring the entire MARVEL 
UNIVERSE. MARVEL will create a special 
series of companion comic books ten- 
tatively called Quest Probe to tie into these 
programs. 

Public announcement of the signing of 
the licensing agreement did take place at 
the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in 
Las Vegas in January, with the initiai pro- 
duct release targeted for dealer shelves by 
late Spring 1984. 

All Marvel characters are trademarks of 
the Marvel Entertainment Group. Super 
Heroes is a trademark co-owned by the 
Marvel Entertainment Group. 



Continued from page 23 

62 PRINT" ' C dawn 3 C right,, 5 ti mes] Crvs-on J YOU 
EspHDIED' ' 

POKESN+3 . : FOR A= 1 T02000 : NEXT 
P0KE7676,0 
P0KE7679, PEEK (7679) -1 : IFFEEK (7679) THENPO 



63 
64 

65 



66 



67 
68 
69 
70 
71 
72 

74 

7S 



KESN+3, 15s GOTO 16 

PRINT" ■" [name] Crvs-an HCdawn , 7 times3Crig 

ht, 7 times3BAMECsp30VERCright, 10 times 

3£rvs-on3PUSHi:sp3Fli:3p3TaCsp3START : ' ' : PQK 

E ESN +3,0 

BETA*) IFA$< >* ' ' ' THEN67 

P0KE36B78 1 lS'l SOTO 1 4 

LV«LV+1»PQKEM, 160: PQKEM+J, 1 : POKEM+J+P, 

I FLV=3THENP0KE7507 , 5 

IFLV=STHENP0KE7507 , 2 

IFLV-7THENA*"' '000040' " 

P0KEBS7, Ob POKESN+1 , Ol FORA«iT020}POKESN,2 

40 s FORB-1 T020 : NEXT : FOKESN . : FORC= 1 TD3 

FORB= 1 T020 s NEXT : POKESN , : FORC= 1 T03 ; NEXT : 

NEXT 

GOTO 16 




Newsletter 



• NEWS on the latest hardware 
and software developments. 

• INFORMATION for the novice as 
well as the advanced user. 

• REVIEWS o) software and 
hardware by experienced users. 

• APPROVED Product Program. 
Buy products with the CLUB 64 
seal of approval. 

• USERS GROUP reports 
Featuring users groups from 
around the country and what 
they are doing with their 64's. 

• BULLETIN BOARD listings and 
reports. 

Phone numbers of boards all 
around the country and feature 
articles of what they have to 
offer. 

• EASY to understand HOW-TO 
Articles. 

• CLASSIFIED ad section for 
users. 

• SPECIAL offers for subscribers, 
(from our advertisers) 

• BUYING SERVICE for bulk 
purchases of 64 products for 
users. 

• PUBLIC DOMAIN Software 
Library, (for subscribers only) 

SUBSCRIBE TODAY ! 

FOR ONLY $24.00 A YEAR 

Make payable to : 

ROBERT JOHNSON 

14944 BAYOU AVE. 

BELLFLOWER, CA 90706 

(213) 925-4049 



CLUB 64 
BUYING SERVICE 

Computer covers 
All are waterproof, form fitting tan 
covers by DES-SOFT. Lifetime 
warranty - CLUB 64 APPROVED 

C-64, VIC-20 Cover S5.95 

1541 Drive Cover S5.95 

Datasette Cover S5.95 

1701 Monitor Cover $7.95 

1525 Printer Cover $7.95 

MPS-801 Printer Cover $7.95 

Practicalc 64 $41.95 

Practice $41.95 

Inventory 64 323,95 

64 Doctor S19.95 

RESCUE SQUAD $23.95 

Castle Wollenstein $23.95 
All programs are on disk. 

On all orders 

please add $3.00 shipping 

Plus .25 per each item. 

Calif, add 6.5% tax 

NO C.O.D's or credit cards 



June 1984 • COMMANDER 193 



Continued from page 71 

which key it was, we can proceed with 
whatever action the user has selected. 
Many programs accomplish this by means 
of a long series of IF. . .THEN tests. 
However, the efficient programmer uses 
the simple ON statement instead: 
9040 ON F GOTO 9050, 9060, 9100, 
9110,9150,9160,200,200 
Based on the value of F, the program will 
branch to one of the lines listed, i.e. to line 
9050 if F1 was pushed, to 9060 if F2, etc. 
Of course, it will be up to the programmer 
to decide what to do when the program 
arrives at each of those lines. 

PUTTING IT TO USE 

How you put this menu to use, of 
course, is entirely up to you. Just 
remember to print the available choices 
on the screen first, then adjust thedestina- 
tion line numbers in line 9040, and take it 
from there. 

ALL FOR NOW 

Well, there it is- how to use the function 
keys in four BASIC steps. Now that you 
have the goods, try making more use of 
the function keys in your programs. You 
will find they add that extra touch of polish 
and professionalism. 




Dear COMMANDER: 

Your magazine has been very helpful to 
me this past year. When I bought my com- 
puter last spring, I knew absolutely 
nothing about programming. Today, 
though I'd be hard pressed to earn as 
much as a cup of coffee, I can at least 
understand in part what the programs I 
read in your magazine will do before I run 
them. 

Thank you forthe advice and useful pro- 
grams I've been receiving through your 
magazine. 



E.L.B. 



Bethlehem, PA 



To the Editor: 

I recently purchased a copy of the COM- 
AL SYSTEM 0.14 for the C64, and the 
COMAL HANDBOOK. I was so pleased 
with COMAL that after six weeks I started 
COMAL CLUB. 

It is my opinion that COMAL is so 
superior to BASIC that everyone will be us- 
ing it in the very near future. If you haven't 
tried it yet, please do so. 

I sincerely hope that COMAL will be a 
regular feature in your magazine. 

David Skinner 
Clark County Commodore 
Computer Club 
Bismark, AR 



Continued from page 78 



1132 DATA 34, 44, 56, 13, 138, 78, 69. 87, 13 

1133 DATA 76, 73, 83, 84, 13, 139,, 83, 89, 83 

1134 DATA 54, 52 „ 55, 51, 56, 13, 136, 82, 85 
, 78 

11.35 DATA 13. 140, 83. 89, 83. 52, 57. 49, 53 

, 50 

1136 DATA 13, 0„ 0„ 0, 0„ 0, 0, 0, 0, 



DearD.S. 

The COMAL language is generating a 
fair amount of interest among our 
readers. Commodore has released a 
COMAL cartridge, and they are pro- 
moting COMAL through trade shows and 
press releases. 

COMMANDER is in the process of 
preparing articles, programs and reviews 
about COMAL and its applications. Look 
in upcoming issues for more information. 

The COMAL Users Group, 5501 
Groveland Terrace, Madison, Wl 53716 
will send anyone interested an informa- 
tion pack if you send a SASE with your in- 
quiry. 

The Editor 

To the Editor: 

I have a C-64 and would like to add a 
color plotter to my system. Do you have 
any information about plotter/printers? 

TZ. 
Reno, NV 

Dear TZ. 

Commodore markets the C-1 520 plot- 
ter/printer It prints on 4'A inch paper and 
uses four color pens. An alternative to the 
C-1 520 is the soon to be released 
MCS-801 eight color printer. You should 
contact your nearest Commodore dealer 
for details. 

To the Editor: 

Where would I find a replacement for a 
broken VIC-20 key? I have contacted 
dealers in my area, but have not found a 
source for spare parts. 

SAM. 

Houston, TX 

Dear 5. A.M. 

After several calls, I also have found that 
dealers do not carry replacement parts for 
Commodore products. The best solution 
seems to be a service call. If any of our 
readers know where to find parts, we 
would appreciate hearing from you. 

The Editor 



SMCOMMANDER • June 1984 



15) Congratulations; you're done! Slip some 2716 EPROM 'sin- 
to the sockets and put the case back together. While fitting the 
two case halves, dress the ribbon cable in such a way that it 
won't get crimped or interfere with the screw hole. Snap the 
two case halves together then insert and tighten the single 
mounting screw 



As you can tell, it's easy to flip back and forth from RAM bas- 
ed to ROM based software now. This not only simplifies the 
daylights out of using various forms of software, but also 
opens up the door for more advanced applications. 

A good question you might have is what sort of software is 
best to have in ROM. The answer to this clearly depends on 
what sort of work you do most often. If you're a BASIC pro- 
grammer, you probably will want to have a programmer's aid 
in ROM ready to use whenever you sit at the computer. 




Figure 10 

USING THE RAM/ROM CARTRIDGE 

You will find that work with the RAM/ROM cartridge goes 
best if your VIC-20 is fitted with a RESET switch, although this 
isn't absolutely essential. Let's see how a typical session might 
go. For argument's sake, assume that the ROM's at SA000 
contain a programmer's aid utility with the auto-start feature. 
With the switch in the ROM position, you fire up your VIC-20. 
What happens? 

Well, very conveniently, the computer fires up with the pro- 
grammer's aids already installed and ready to go! It's just like 
your VIC-20 has a new and expanded operating system. 

Now suppose that you want to use your machine language 
monitor which also sits at SAOOO and can be loaded from disk. 
To get it running is easy: simply flip the RAM/ROM switch to the 
RAM position, hit your RESET button to reinitialize your VIC-20 
to a cold start, and then load in the monitor from disk. Since 
there is now RAM sitting at SAOOO, this is possible. 





Figure 12 

Machine language programmers will want to have monitors 
and assemblers handy at all times for debugging work. Writers 
might like to pop a word processor program into the ROM's 
and this would tremendously simplify the fireup procedure for 
them. As you can tell, the sky's the limit! So, if you need auto- 
start software on your VIC-20, but also like having RAM 
available for other purposes, consider modifying your Com- 
modore 8K cartridge to include ROM's. 




Figure 11 



June 1984 • COMMANDERI95 



Advertisers 
Index 



Take COMMAND by patronizing our advertisers whosupport the 
wide selection of products for the Commodore computer line. 
COMMANDER Magazine would appreciate you mentioning our 
name when dealing with these organizations. 



Circle No. 



Page No. 



Circk.No 



Page No. 



271 

203 



268 



69 Abacus Software 37 

Abacus Software 62 

Abby's House 27 

2 Academy Software 8 

After-Six Software 8 

Apropos Technology 32 

Arkay Magnacomp 41 

Astrasoft 45 

Automated Training Systems 43 

Basic Byte 45 

Batteries Included . 9 

Beaver Software 46 

Bennett Software 76 

Boston Educational 35 

Cardco Cover 4 

Cardinal Software 42 

Cheatsheet Products 78 

Chromazone Software 83 

Club 64 93 

Computer Alliance 65 

ComputerMat 13 

Computer Outlet 79, 85 

Computer Place 72, 85 

Computer Software Associates 73 

Dalco 42 

202 Databar Corporation 29 

267 Diversified Manufacturing 65 

67 Double E Electronics 66 

159 Dynatech 30, 31 

Eastern House 39, 68 

Fabtronics 36 

French Silk 39, 68 

247 Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich 39 

H & E Computronics Cover 2 

ICD 25 



10 
185 

27 
104 



52 INFO Designs 7 

Innovative Peripherals 47 

Input Systems 36 

245 J & H Enterprises 68 

Macrotech Marketing 75 

(M)agreeable 46 

Metaphase 69 

235 MFJ Enterprises 38 

226 MicroClear 16 

Micro 80 64 

Microperipherals 81 

Micro Spec 19 

Micro Sys 17 

173 Micro Technic Solutions 15 

234 Nibble Notch 23 

228 Omnitronix 75 

238 Orange Micro 1 

270 P.B. Systems 64 

Proline Software 10 

34 Protecto Enterprizes 49, 50, 51, 52 

P-Technology 21 

47 Public Domain 76 

77 Rees Software 71 

Skylight Software 77 

207 Software Crafts 23 

Software Masters 35 

Softway 82 

150 Superior Graphics Emporium 5, 54 

149 Susie Software 91 

212 Synapse Software Cover 3 

46 Tot'l Software 15, 72 

3-G Company 81 

T.P.U.C 77 

Universal Software 61 

Ultrabyte 66 



96ICOMMANDER • June 1984 



I 



I 





^""Tft's who stole 
Quasimodo know 

the crown jewek He ^ 

r^Su^n't'ieove 
? done T»is multi-screen 

h ' m fl Je adventure is a g[ eat 
arcade aa* d 

combination of skM^ 

strategy- « 
Commodore s j 

64 disk & 
cassette 




and incredible ""^^^fidifyou 

practice hard, yo ^ gg^ 

"rneet the deadly 

2AXXON himselt. 

Commodore 64 

disk & cassette 



M.reC-64 Titles* 

B,0eMa ldthom-Co P seH r 
Sentinel. 




^Enterprises, Inc. 



SlomMf , dpi,,. 

May be you've P'^ k P e ^is- 
ball before, but no 

Upanddownscollmg 

4fullscreenspl^ C % ir 

ball control and ^ A/ ^^f. 
feature in fir 
the best §■ 

computer k - W 

pinball 3 £ 

game yet. m 

Commodore £ 

64 disk & 
cassette 

sswESr 

VlSA/MasterCard nu 







" }of *e Alan, «Fi' 
1 comp» ,ers ' 



J * AHtitl^o reffod & 1984 Synapse. , 



demarkofCom^ 





Comp«* e 



Circle No, 212 



'Commodore-ready", 

. . . and ready for you NOW! 

"Cardcorder" DC/1 , Data Cassette Recorder/Player 



Introducing the "CARDCORDER", Model 
DC/1 , the Computer Cassette that is 
"Commodore-ready," designed for storage 
and retrieval of computer data efficiently, 
economically; with consistent performance. Yet, 
this fine CARDCO product is priced lower than 
any similar product with special quality features. 

Includes standard connector which is 
"Commodore-ready"; LED "save" indicator light 



handles up to 120 minutes (60 minutes on each 
side) of any standard tape including existing 
pre-recorded commercial as well as personal 
data tapes intended for use with Commodore 
Personal Computers; ready to go . . . just plug it 
in and record efficiently. 

CARDCO's "CARDCORDER" COMPUTER 
CASSETTE is a quality data cassette recorder/ 
player in an attractive polystyrene case, with all 



the standard cassette functk 

record . . . play . . . rewind . . . fdst forward . . . 

stop and eject . . . pause. A sol d-state 

designed product of the finest Domponentswith 

auto-stop. 

The "CARDCORDER" DC/1 carr es a 90 day 
warranty to original owners. 



i ■ 




313Mathewson Wichita, Kansas 67214 (316)267-6525 
world's largest manufacturer of Commodore accessories." 



Commodore™ is a registered trademark ot Commodore Business Systems, Inc.