*************************************
Commodore Free Magazine
http://www.commodorefree.com/
*************************************
Issue 61
Free to download magazine
dedicated to Commodore computers
Available as PDF, ePUB, MOBI, HTML,
TXT, SEQ and D64 disk image
-------------------------
Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore
International and former CEO of
Atari International, died on Sunday
8th April at the age of 83.
-------------------------
=====================================
*************************************
CONTENTS
*************************************
* Editorial
* NEWS
- Amiga Forever/C64 Forever 2012 R2
- Automated Amiga Disk Archiver
- BOH update15 released
- Lotek64 #40 Released
- QR Code Generator
- Update on the P1565 Project
- Chillin' with Porter
- Moldi's Treasure #5
- AmigaONE X1000 Now Shipping
- Return #10 Released
- Sqrxz 3
- VFLI - VIC-20
- PETvet
- DiscreetFX
- HVTC High Voltage TED Collection
- Scene World #18
- Cinnamon Writer v0.80
- FS-UAE Emulator
- AmigaOS Beta Testers
- Aladdin 4D New Name / Ownership
- PC World Review WinUAE
- "Boing Ball" Re-visited - Part 2
* Review: Galli - Plus/4 game
* Rediscovering CP/M - Part 3
* Happy Prog’ing
* My Personal Memories of Commodore
* Interview with Jack Tramiel
* Jack Tramiel, a man who changed
the world
=====================================
EDITOR
Nigel Parker
SPELL CHECKING
Peter Badrick
TEXT, HTML & EBOOK CONVERSION
Paul Davis
D64 DISK IMAGE
Al Jackson
PDF DESIGN
Nigel Parker
WEBSITE
www.commodorefree.com
EMAIL ADDRESS
commodorefree@commodorefree.com
SUBMISSIONS
Articles are always wanted for
the magazine. Contact us for
details. We can't pay you for
your efforts but you are safe in
the knowledge that you have
passed on details that will
interest other Commodore
enthusiasts.
NOTICES
All materials in this magazine
are the property of Commodore
Free unless otherwise stated. All
copyrights, trademarks, trade
names, internet domain names or
other similar rights are
acknowledged. No part of this
magazine may be reproduced
without permission.
The appearance of an advert in
the magazine does not necessarily
mean that the goods/services
advertised are associated with or
endorsed by Commodore Free
Magazine.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2012
Commodore Free Magazine
All Rights Reserved.
Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore
International and former CEO of
Atari International, died on Sunday
8th April at the age of 83.
=====================================
*************************************
EDITORIAL
*************************************
As you will no doubt be aware Jack
passed away recently at the age of
83 (Sunday 8th April 2012)
Jack was born in Poland in 1928 into
a Jewish family, Jack and his family
survived imprisonment in Auschwitz.
The family emigrated to the U.S. in
1947 and Jack joined the army and
learnt how to repair typewriters.
In 1955 he moved to Toronto and
founded a typewriter business called
"Commodore Business Machines" it's
suggested Jack wanted a military
name but Admiral and General were
already taken. After various
innovations Commodore would move
again to Silicon Valley in the
1960's and moved into the digital
market selling calculators and then
finally moved into the home computer
market. Commodore purchased MOS
Technologies where the parts for the
Commodore range of computers would
readily be available and at rock
bottom prices. In 1982 Commodore
released the Commodore 64 home
computer selling almost 17 million
units. The Guinness Book of World
Records lists the Commodore 64 as
the best-selling computer model of
all time.
Jack left Commodore in 1984 and
purchased the consumer division of
Atari. Jack over saw the Atari
Jaguar development. Jack was a very
keen business man and always drove
the prices of machines down.
One of Jacks many famous quotes was
"Machines for the masses not the
classes"
INTERVIEW WITH JACK
http://www.commodore.ca/history/peopl
e/1989_you_dont_know_jack.htm
IN THIS ISSUE
We have the usual news and some more
cp/m tutorials we also continue or
on off look at programming, and as a
memorial to Jack we have my personal
look at Commodore and what Commodore
gave me as an individual. Of course
you will have your own unique
stories about Commodore and fights
with owners of other, machines about
how Commodore is better than XYZ.
Heck the debates still go on as to
why X machine is better than Y. To
me it was Commodore all the way,
sadly as jack left the company that
direction seemed to falter somewhat,
and commodore lost its direction.
With Jack at the helm Commodore gave
me personally many years of happy
computing (and it still does)
Bye Jack
Let's hope you are in silicone
heaven.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Bagnall
To: nigel parker
commodorefree@commodorefree.com
Sent: Tuesday, 1 May 2012, 21:06
Subject: COMMODORE FREE magazine
comments on Jack's passing
Hi Nigel,
My comment on Jack's passing:
I only knew him through research on
"Commodore: a Company on the Edge"
but I felt like I knew him better
than some of my own family. He was a
complex, driven man who would never
let himself be defeated. He changed
millions of lives for the better and
helped usher in the era of computing
to those who didn't have thousands
of dollars to spend on IBM or Apple
computers--teenagers, families on
tight budgets, people on low
incomes. Linus Torvald's first
computer was a VIC-20, and there
wouldn't be nearly as many silicon
valley entrepreneurs today if he
hadn't planted those seeds years
ago. We all owe him a lot for the
world we have today.
Best,
Brian
=====================================
*************************************
NEWS
*************************************
*************************************
CLOANTO RELEASES AMIGA FOREVER AND
C64 FOREVER 2012 "R2"
*************************************
On the April 27, 2012 - Cloanto
released the long-awaited "R2"
updates of its Amiga Forever 2012
(http://www.amigaforever.com) and
C64 Forever 2012
(http://www.c64forever.com)
preservation, emulation and support
packages for Windows.
The new "R2" versions include
hundreds of refinements that took
more than eight months to develop,
also taking into account user
feedback received since the initial
2012 release last August. The new
versions feature social and sharing
functionality, improved content
authoring, pervasive Unicode support
and faster loading times.
On the social side, the software
allows for manual posts and
automatic status updates on
Facebook, Twitter, Skype and
Messenger. Facebook and Twitter
further support screenshot sharing.
The "now playing" functionality for
Facebook uses the latest Open Graph
features to aggregate posts without
"spamming" a user's wall. Amiga
Forever and C64 Forever were among
the very first Facebook clients for
Windows approved to use the latest
Open Graph and Timeline
functionality.
RP9 files can now not only be played
back, but also be edited directly
from the Windows desktop. This
brings more freedom to organize and
access content without going through
the player interface, and new
possibilities like comparing
configurations side by side.
New Amiga platform features for
content curators include better
support for floppy and hard disk
images, with media editor options to
quickly embed blank disks and system
disks into an RP9 package. Features
include recognition of RDB disk
images and automatic conversion of
ADZ, DMS and HDZ images to the more
popular and faster ADF and HDF
formats (while the RP9 layer takes
care of compression).
C64-specific improvements include
better keyboard translation, mouse
support and the addition of GEOS,
the amazing graphical 8-bit desktop
suite, to the list of preconfigured
systems. Special thanks to Brian
Dougherty and his team for this
contribution.
By including officially licensed
system ROM and OS content, Amiga
Forever 2012 and C64 Forever 2012
embody a form of continuity with the
original machines sold by Commodore,
whose founder Jack Tramiel passed
away earlier this month. As it has
been doing since 1997, Cloanto keeps
working full time on its
RetroPlatform family of preservation
software, also thanks to its
generous supporters and contributor
friends. Because of their ease of
use, packages like Amiga Forever and
C64 Forever have the potential to go
beyond preservation and access
continuity, by providing inspiration
and a well-documented learning
environment for future generations.
Amiga Forever is available now in
three editions:
* Value Edition (downloadable
installer for Windows systems)
* Plus Edition (downloadable ISO
image with additional Windows and
platform-neutral content)
* Premium Edition (physical Plus
Edition content plus additional
videos on 3 DVDs)
C64 Forever is available now in
three editions:
* Free Express Edition
(feature-limited version)
* Downloadable Plus Edition
(downloadable installer plus CD
ISO image)
* Boxed Plus Edition (downloadable
Plus Edition content plus boxed CD)
Thanks to a new logistics platform
and partners, since December 2011
physical packages ordered from
amigaforever.com and c64forever.com
have been shipping in almost real
time from either California or
Germany. This has resulted in
reduced delivery times and increased
customer satisfaction.
Amiga Forever and C64 Forever passed
official Windows 7 logo tests on
both x86 and x64 systems, and have
also shown to run well on
pre-release versions of Windows 8.
Prices for both Amiga Forever and
C64 Forever start from $9.95
(special upgrade offers). The "R2"
updates are free for existing 2012
version customers (select Check for
Updates from the Help menu).
-------------------------------------
*************************************
AUTOMATED AMIGA DISK ARCHIVER
*************************************
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/02/mach
ine-for-bulk-archiving-tho.html
OzzyDweller has 5,000 3.5" Amiga
floppy disks that he needed to
archive, so he built a floppy-disk
bulk-importing device. It has a
magazine filled with floppies that
are auto-inserted into a drive,
copied, then ejected out, these are
then photographed (so their art can
be captured), and then dropped on
the floor. He figured out the clever
intake and exhaust mechanism by
reverse-engineering a bulk floppy
writer from eBay.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
BOH UPDATE15 RELEASED
*************************************
On the day it turns 3, BOH receives
its 15th and final update, which
brings even more contents and
improvements!
More specifically, this update:
* adds 5 missions;
* adds the Dutch translation;
* optimizes even further the
rendering engine;
* replaces the transition effect
with a cooler one;
* centres the graphics vertically
when playing in a screen bigger
than the game area;
* allows providing just alphamask
files for all the graphics of
themes;
* replaces icons with bigger and
crisper ones;
* allows to configure the URL for
the submissions of records to the
online world standings (so that,
in future, standings will remain
accessible also if the URL
changes);
* updates the manuals;
* applies various other minor
optimizations/fixes.
The update can be downloaded for
free from the DOWNLOADS page of the
official website at
www.bohthegame.com
The demos have been updated to
reflect the changes.
ABOUT BOH
BOH is a unique retro-flavoured
puzzle-riddled maze game spiced up
with thrilling action.
You move in claustrophobic,
mysterious, dangerous battlefields
searching for the Evil Masters, who
throw countless enemies at you until
you discover and face them in the
final battle. Although your quests
are made slightly less hard by the
power-ups scattered all around,
carrying out the missions demands
lots of concentration and quick
reflexes.
With BOH the fun never ends: new
missions can be added anytime and
you can even create your own! And,
as if that was not enough, you can
also customize entirely its
audio-visual aspect!
BOH has been created with lots of
passion and care to offer, with its
old-school style, a fascinatingly
different video gaming experience.
Website: www.bohthegame.com
Twitter: twitter.com/bohthegame
Facebook:
facebook.com/pages/BOH/99598418583
-------------------------------------
*************************************
LOTEK64 #40 RELEASED
*************************************
Georg Fuchs and his team released
issue #40 of the free magazine
"Lotek64". The PDF version is
absolutely free, but for a small fee
you can even get Lotek64 in printed
form delivered directly to you.
CONTENTS
* Unknown things about the
legendary successor of the C64
* Commodore C65
* Commodore 64 1982 - 2012
* The C64 is 30
* The most pointless C64 copy
protection of all time?
* Leaderboard Dongle
* Edge Grinder, C64anabalt, Panic
Analogue
* Four C64 games reviewed
Download from www.lotek64.com or
www.c64.at.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
QR CODE GENERATOR
*************************************
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?i
d=106999
This little programme when run will
prompt for a line of text to a
maximum of 32 characters then
convert the text into a QR CODE so
you can scan it with a compatible
hardware device. I don't have a
hardware device to test it with but
the code here should say "COMMODORE
FREE MAGAZINE" let me know, it may
just be a naughty word!
-------------------------------------
*************************************
UPDATE ON THE P1565 PROJECT
*************************************
http://scacom.bplaced.net/Collection/
p1565.php
The pictures show 3D-Render of the
housing. I tried to reproduce the
original housing as accurately as
possible. The pictures show the
unfinished project and some of the
details are missing. Missing also
are the LEDs at the top of the
housing of the 1565.
The technology of the original 1565
is extensively unknown and only a
small, number as known to exist.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
CHILLIN' WITH PORTER
*************************************
http://vivaamigafilm.blogspot.com/201
2/02/chillin-with-porter.html
NEWS FROM VIVA AMIGA FILM
A little while back I went to Jeff
Porter's house and picked up some
archival B-roll footage on VHS for
Viva Amiga. All kinds of promotional
video and some great print materials
as well. Jeff was cleaning out his
basement and gave me a call to come
get it. And while we were there, we
played with Jeff's Commodore laptop
prototypes and his CDTVs. Check it
out!!
-------------------------------------
*************************************
MOLDI'S TREASURE #5
*************************************
plus4world.powweb.com/forum/22554
The web page Plus/4 World has been
searching through its large software
archive of Moldi files. In this 5th
edition there are many new items,
This is the complete list for the
5th batch, enjoy
* Doki News 1,
* Doki News 2,
* Doki News 3,
* Doki News 4,
* Doki News 5,
* TFSS-nibble V7.4,
* TFSS-packer V8.5,
* Prosort+ (Hungarian),
* 2x2 Karakter Keszlet,
* A4 Printer,
* No News! 4,
* Mega tool,
* BOB-packer 1.0,
* 64'er Masterbase Plus/4 (original),
* Char-editor 2.0,
* Mega Writer I,
* Skoro's Coder V1.2,
* Sector Editor,
* Korak Times 9,
* Lamer News #008,
* Aircraft,
* Kikstart Plus,
* Legicsata (LEH),
* Teke Jatek,
* Teke,
* Big Casino,
* Aranyalmák,
* Auto Zone (LEH),
* Super Boulder (Hungarian),
* Cartoon 1,
* Cartoon 2,
* CAD Box Demo,
* F-C Trans Plus/4,
* Italo-mix,
* Radio Speech,
* Porno Show 2,
* The Camera,
* Picture Show 1,
* Metallica Demo,
* Sex Pause 48 Scenes,
* Demo Designer Info,
* Flipper (Basic),
* Flipper 2,
* Funny Girls (2 versions).
-------------------------------------
*************************************
AMIGAONE X1000 NOW SHIPPING
*************************************
A-EON Technology
http://www.a-eon.com/ is now
shipping AmigaONE X1000 systems to a
select group of "First Contact"
customers. Instead of waiting until
AmigaOS 4.2 was completed, A-EON
decided to do a limited production
run of X1000 systems for the general
public. These systems are shipping
with a special version of AmigaOS
4.1 Update 5 only for X1000 users.
All "First Contact" customers will
be provided with their own unique
AmigaOS 4.2 serial number via email.
This serial number entitles them to
free support via Hyperion's support
forum as well as access to any new
drivers and updates via the main
site.
Given the rushed nature of this
AmigaOS 4.1 Update 5 release, there
are still some bugs and a few rough
edges. Remember, the X1000 was
originally planned to be released
only with AmigaOS 4.2 installed.
Also please keep in mind most of the
X1000 system is still unoptimised.
This is truly the most powerful
Amiga Operating System hardware
platform ever released and we plan
to utilize this hardware to its full
potential in due course.
The development and beta testing
teams we will do their best to help
manage any issues as we march
towards the final 4.2 product
release!
Steven Solie
AmigaOS Development Team Lead
-------------------------------------
*************************************
RETURN #10 RELEASED
*************************************
http://www.return-magazin.de/
Return magazine is a German print
magazine about the 8-bit computers
from A (Atari) to Z (ZX Spectrum).
In this edition:
* Boulder Dash,
* C64anabalt,
* Commodore 16,
* ABBUC,
* Xain'd Sleena,
* Lt. Kernal Hard drive,
* Tom Snyder Productions,
* James Monkman,
* Racing the Beam,
* Exploits of Fingers Malone,
* The universe and 8 Bit,
* Future Looter (Sinclair Spectrum),
* Timeline: 35 Years Home-computer.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
SQRXZ 3
*************************************
http://www.sqrxz.de/
Sqrxz 3 is now available for Amiga
OS4 and AROS. Sqrxz and his
girlfriend were on a romantic
adventure journey in a jungle
somewhere here on our planet. All of
a sudden Yve gets kidnapped by an
evil power and Sqrxz is forced to
collect dozens of shiny little rings
to free her. The old ruins he has to
explore are anything else than safe.
Traps are spread all over the place,
and Sqrxz is not alone!
-------------------------------------
*************************************
VFLI - VIC-20
*************************************
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/b
ulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4882
Michael started a project in 2010 to
enhance the graphics of the
Commodore VIC-20. The new graphics
mode requires a hardware
modification to the VIC-20. The
normal RAM is expanded from 5 kB to
8kB and the new colour RAM is 16
times bigger than the original
machine. Recently Michael updated
the conversion software and
introduced gamma-correction which
improves the quality of the
converted pictures. You can read all
about the VFLI system on the Denial
forum.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
PETVET
*************************************
http://www.bitfixer.com/bf/PETvet
The PETvet is a RAM and ROM
replacement board for the Commodore
PET, and potentially other 6502
based microcomputers. The PETvet
connects to the 6502 socket in your
PET, and allows you to select your
boot ROM via jumper settings. It
also allows you to view the memory
of a running PET using the
replacement RAM by halting the CPU
and sending the memory contents over
a serial port.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
DISCREETFX SEEKING TO ADD RESOURCES
FOR AMIGAOS 4.X & MORPHOS DEVELOPMENT
*************************************
AmigaOS 4.x & MorphOS community we
have listened to your feedback and
are now seeking additional resources
for DiscreetFX Labs to develop
Aladdin 4D 6.0 for AmigaOS 4.x &
MorphOS. You stated it was taking
too long and we should not work on
the OS X Lion version first so we
are talking your feedback to heart.
We are looking for one Amiga and
MorphOS programmer proficient in C.
No naughty Windows, Mac or Linux
skills required, your time will be
spent 100% working on coding what
you love, AmigaOS 4.x & MorphOS!
A past resume on AmiNet, OS4Depot or
MorphZone is a plus, preferably in
the 3D animation/rendering software
department. What do you get in
return? Part time steady income from
your Amiga development, don't quit
your day job. This will be a long
term commitment so we are looking
for someone that loves to code 3D
animation applications that wants to
take Aladdin 4D to the next level.
We don't need you just for version
6.0 but version 7,8,9 and beyond.
Since you make royalties plus
regular pay the more you do the more
you make. We want someone excited to
bite their programming teeth into a
large exciting Amiga project. In the
future you may have to work with the
other developer working on the OS X
Lion version of Aladdin 4D 6.0 but
this will not be necessary in the
beginning. AROS will not be left out
in the cold, we will also need
assistance in getting the AROS
version coded once the AmigaOS 4.x
and MorphOS versions are complete.
Contact us via the link below please
with your CV/Resume and reasons why
you are right for job. You will also
be required to submit your code on a
daily or at least weekly bases to a
CVS and Blog about your progress to
our customers. The Wizard of Oz
behind the curtain development cycle
of Aladdin 4D 6.0 has not pleased us
either and we want future
development to be in the public eye
so customers see rapid progress.
www.discreetfx.com/contact.html
Best regards
DiscreetFX Team
-------------------------------------
*************************************
HVTC HIGH VOLTAGE TED COLLECTION
*************************************
http://plus4world.powweb.com/features
/High_Voltage_TED_Collection
The HVTC or High Voltage TED
Collection is an collection of music
for the Commodore C16, 116 and the
Plus/4. The files that are
available, are the original programs
that produce the music with the TED
music chip. At the moment there are
200 files available in the database.
A few examples are: Auf Wiedershen
Monty, Karate+, Lunar Blitz, Melon
v1, Rainbow Trout, Emerald Mine 2,
Summer events, Bandits at Zero,
Power Ball, etc.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
SCENE WORLD #18 IS OUT NOW!
*************************************
Hello everybody!
Today we release Scene World #18!
(Download at:
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?i
d=106679 )
We are very proud of this release
because for the first time we got 2
Skype Video interviews as well
(echeck on the issue's page right on
our homepage):
http://www.sceneworld.c64.org
We have got ex-phreaker and legend
Captain Crunch (John Draper) and
ex-Commodore right-hand of Jack
Tramiel - Michael Tomczyk to speak
about the stuff they had their hands
in!
(Of course you can read full
transcriptions inside the magazine
itself, so lean back and enjoy!).
Please also send us articles, logos,
disk covers and exclusive tunes, we
need them, thank you! :)
Nafcom
-------------------------------------
*************************************
CINNAMON WRITER V0.80 IS
READY FOR DOWNLOAD
*************************************
News from Desler
http://desler.be/modules/wfchannel/
It is a pleasure to announce that
version 0.80 of Cinnamon Writer is
available for download at desler.be
or at OS4Depot.net
GET THE NEW VERSION HERE
Cinnamon Writer is a compact and
efficient word processor developed
especially with Amiga and Amiga-like
systems in mind. CW have all of the
basic functionality expected of a
modern word processor. This includes
changeable layout style, support of
anti-aliased true type fonts,
infinite "intelligent" Undo/Redo
history, user defined page setup and
file compatibility with other word
processors as Word and OpenOffice
that can use RTF or DocX files.
NEW IN VERSION 0.80
CW now supports spell checking while
you type: I have been able to port a
small and very efficient spell
checker and integrate it into CW. As
a result, you now have the
possibility to have your document
checked for spelling mistakes while
you are working with it. You are
able to work with as many different
languages within the same document
as you wish. When a miss-spelled
word is detected it is highlighted
and, if possible, suggestions for
replacement are given. Please read
the supplied manual for usage.
English and German dictionaries are
supplied as standard with CW 0.80
and dictionaries of other languages
will be made available from the
download section of Desler.be in the
near future. If you have access to a
comprehensive list of words within
your language of choice, please send
me the list or a link to it at
projects@desler.be. I will build a
dictionary file and make it
available as fast as possible.
However, please make sure that the
licensing of the file allows
distribution.
If you are a software developer who
would like to add spell-checking
abilities to your program, feel free
to contact me for the source codes
for CW spell-checker. You are also
welcome to use the CW dictionary
files for your own projects as long
as you abide to the licenses that
may follow a dictionary. Please
contact me at projects@desler.be.
Better integration with AOS: The
focus of CW has so far to implement
functionality and not necessarily
implement the typical Amiga feel
that people would expect from a
project like this. As the feature
list is now becoming more and more
comprehensive I will start
integrating the small things that
make the program more "Amiga" like
and ease the daily use. Implemented
in this version are a comprehensive
collection of short-cut keys and the
introduction of a right-click menu.
This work will continue in future
versions of CW
KNOWN ISSUES / BUGS
The RTF file format is not being
developed further. With the
introduction of DOCX support I have
decided to out phase RTF support. It
is simply too much work to support
different file formats and DOCX is
the de facto standard within most
areas. CW also supports load/save of
unformatted text
The first time the spell checker
needs to spell check a word in a
specific language, it will have to
load the corresponding dictionary.
As a result there will be a small
lag until the file has been loaded.
This lag is dependent on the size of
the dictionary and the speed of your
hard drive / system. This is not a
bug. If you find the spell checking
to be slowing down CW, you can turn
it off. CW is quite usable on my G4
@ 800. But I do not know how it runs
on lower specced machines
Printer / PDF functionality of CW
0.80 has not been improved since the
prior version. Any inconsistencies
therefore still exist. This will be
improved in a future version
A lot of work has been put into this
version, however bugs may still
persist. If you find a bug and it is
not described in "Known problems" in
the manual, please submit it to me
at bugs@desler.be. You can also use
the new bug tracker, which you can
find here
Visit the homepage for more
information here
DONATIONS
If you like this product and would
like to see its development
continue, please consider a donation
-------------------------------------
*************************************
FS-UAE EMULATOR
*************************************
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/
FS-UAE 0.9.13BETA5 README
FS-UAE is a multi-platform Amiga
emulator for Windows, Linux and Mac
OS X based on WinUAE/E-UAE/PUAE,
with a focus on emulating
floppy-disk and CD-ROM based games.
FS-UAE is fully controllable with a
gamepad, with an on-screen GUI,
which means that you can easily swap
floppies and load save states with
your gamepad. Because of this,
FS-UAE is well suited to be started
from an emulator frontend running on
a HTPC, but will work equally great
on your personal computer.
The emulator uses the cycle-exact
emulation code from WinUAE and
requires a moderately fast computer
with accelerated graphics (OpenGL)
to work.
The official home page of FS-UAE is:
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/
Thank you for your interest in
FS-UAE :)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
FS-UAE does not include a
configuration UI, so you must create
a configuration file before the
emulator will be usable. This is
fairly easy, please read on for more
information.
Please report any errors found in
the documentation to
fs-uae@fengestad.no.
CONFIGURATION FILE
You will also need to create a
configuration file for FS-UAE. The
important things you need to
configure is what floppy disks to
use, and where the Kickstart ROMs
are stored. Documentation (and
examples) is available here:
fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/documentation
You have several options for where
to store the configuration file:
1. In the same directory as the
FS-UAE executable, as Config.fs-uae.
FS-UAE will always try to load this
file first.
2. As a per-user configuration file:
(My) Documents/FS-UAE/Configurations/
Default.fs-uae
3. You can also store the file
anywhere you want, and invoke FS-UAE
with the config file as a parameter
(fs-uae /path/to/config-file.fs-uae)
4. In graphical shells (Windows
Explorer, Mac OS Finder), you can
also select a configuration file,
and then choose to open it in FS-UAE
(you may need to browse to find the
program), or you may also drag and
drop a configuration file in top of
the FS-UAE application/executable.
(you can see in the log file exactly
what path FS-UAE tries to load the
default configuration from on your
system)
KICKSTART
You will need Kickstart ROMs for the
Amigas you want to emulate. One
source for this is your real Amiga,
but you can also purchase the
Kickstart ROMs in file format from
Cloanto - they are bundled in their
Amiga Forever-product.
JOYSTICKS
If you have a recognized joystick
connected, FS-UAE will automatically
try to use this as the primary Amiga
joystick. Otherwise, keyboard
joystick emulation will be enabled,
where the cursor keys and the right
control (right alt on Mac) on your
keyboard controls the joystick.
FS-UAE does not (currently) support
two keyboard emulated joysticks. If
you want to use two Amiga joysticks,
you need to have at least one real
joystick or gamepad.
You can specify which joystick to
use for each Amiga joystick port.
Please see example.conf for more
information. Information about
supported controllers are here:
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/control
lers
If your joystick is not recognized
by FS-UAE (you can see this in the
log file), you can create a
configuration file for it.
See http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/
custom-controller-configuration
If you create a configuration file,
I would appreciate it if you would
send a copy to fs-uae@fengestad.no
with the producer and model name of
the joystick/gamepad (for inclusion
in future versions of FS-UAE).
EMULATOR MENU
While running the emulator, you
press F12 to enter and exit the
emulator menu. From here, you can
load and save states, and swap
floppy disks. On Mac OS X, you can
use ALT + F12 instead (Possibly even
FN + ALT + F12).
With gamepads, you enter the menu
either by using the dedicated "menu"
button, if the gamepad has one, or
you press and hold "start" and
"selected" at the same time (or
equivalent buttons).
You use the same key/button to
dismiss the menu.
In the menu, you use the following
keys for navigation:
* Cursor keys
* Enter (choose item, enter sub-menu)
* Back-space (leave sub-menu)
On the game pad, you can use either
the hat or the primary analogue
stick for navigation. You choose
items and enter sub-menus with the
"primary" button on the game pad.
This is generally the "south" button
on the right side of the controller.
The back button is the "east" button
(Just like you would navigate on the
Xbox).
SCREENSHOTS
Press the "Print Scrn" key on the
keyboard to save a screenshot of the
running game to the desktop.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
* F12 - Toggle menu (On Mac: ALT +
F12 or FN + ALT + F12)
* F11 - Ungrab/grab mouse pointer
(On Mac: ALT + F11 or FN + ALT +
F11)
* CTRL + F10 - Toggle audio/video
performance overlay
* CTRL + F11 - Toggle debug crop
rectangle for auto scale algorithm
PROGRAM ARGUMENTS
<path> Use a custom configuration
file
--video-sync=auto Automatically
enable appropriate sync mode
--video-sync=off Do not enable vsync
--video-sync=vblank Will sync
rendering to vblank interval (avoid
tearing)
--video-sync=full Sync emulation to
vblank interval
--fullscreen=1 Start in fullscreen
mode instead of windowed mode
--stdout=1 Also log to stdout (not
on Windows)
With recent version of FS-UAE, you
can override any configuration
option with --key=value (e.g.
--floppy-drive-0=/path/to/adf)
LOG FILE AND REPORTING PROBLEMS
A log file is stored as (My)
Documents/FS-UAE/Logs/FS-UAE.log
When reporting a problem, you should
include this log file with you error
report.
FLOPPY DISKS
New data is always saved to overlay
ADF files (.sdf). As an example, if
you have floppy.adf insert into df0
and the Amiga writes to df0, the
data is written to floppy.sdf
instead of modifying floppy.adf
itself. You need both floppy.adf and
floppy.sdf to represent the entire
modified disk. The save files are
created on demand (when data is
written to a drive).
The floppy file overlays are by
default save in the directory (My)
Documents/FS-UAE/Floppy Overlays
The GUI does not allow you to browse
for files on the file system. Disks
can be inserted at startup time
(specified in the configuration
file), and FS-UAE maintains a list
of available floppy images to insert
(also specified in the configuration
file). See example.conf for more
information.
SUPPORTED AMIGA MODELS
The following Amiga models are
supported:
* Amiga 500
* Amiga 500+
* Amiga 600
* Amiga 1200
* Amiga 1200/020
* Amiga CD32
* Commodore CDTV
The default configurations
corresponds to the quickstarts in
WinUAE for these systems, on the
most compatible setting (cycle-exact
mode).
DISPLAY REFRESH RATE AND RESOLUTION
For really smooth scrolling in
games, your display MUST run at the
same refresh rate as the Amiga: 50Hz
(PAL). Many monitors and TVs with
1920x1080 resolution supports this
refresh rate. If FS-UAE detects that
you display is running at 50Hz,
vsync will automatically be enabled
for perfect scrolling.
FS-UAE will (not yet) on its own
change your refresh rate to 50Hz
-you must do this yourself before
starting FS-UAE.
If you run your display with another
refresh rate, the emulator will
still work just fine, but scrolling
will be somewhat jerky -it varies
with games whether this is very
noticeable or not.
Note: On Mac OS X, FS-UAE does not
currently detect the refresh rate,
which means that full vsync will not
be enabled. If you are running at
50Hz, you can force vsync with
--video-sync=full
FS-UAE will use whatever full-screen
resolution you desktop is using, and
will assume that you have square
pixels. The Amiga image will be
scaled to fit the display, and you
can choose whether to stretch to
fill the entire screen, or scale up
while maintaining the original
aspect ratio.
SUPPORTED HOST OPERATING SYSTEM
* Linux (Other Unices will probably
also work just fine)
* Windows
* Mac OS X 10.6 or newer
DEBUGGING SUPPORT
FS-UAE does not include a debugger
for debugging Amiga programs. For
debugging FS-UAE itself, a native
debugger can be used if you compile
FS-UAE yourself. Other debug
information can be retrieved from
the log file.
There is debug overlay to debug
video, audio and vsync issues. You
can toggle the display of this with
CTRL+F10.
FS-UAE automatically crops the Amiga
video output. Sometimes this does
not work perfectly. You can override
this behaviour in the configuration
file. Also, you can press CTRL+F11
when running to visually see the
entire Amiga output with the crop
rectangle.
KNOWN ISSUES / TODO
CD32 gamepad (emulated by keyboard)
Amiga mouse must currently be
emulated with a native mouse device.
A nice feature would be to be able
to emulate the mouse with gamepads -
analogue controls for instance.
An on-screen keyboard, controllable
with a game pad / joystick would
also be nice, and is planned for a
future version.
Picasso 96 is not supported.
Floppy list UI does not support
scrolling, so if you have many
floppy images in the floppy list,
some may be obscured.
The CD32 does not always reset
properly when choosing RESET from the
on-screen menu.
COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS
FS-UAE is Copyright (c) 2011-2012,
Frode Solheim Large portions are
copyrighted by other individuals.
FS-UAE is based on the fantastic
work of the original UAE authors,
the authors of WinUAE, E-UAE, P-UAE,
and contributions from external
contributors.
UAE was created by Bernd Schmidt,
with the help of a host of volunteer
contributors (see the UAE
distribution for full credits).
WinUAE has been developed and
maintained by Mathias Ortmann and
Toni Wilen.
E-UAE was developed by Richard
Drummond, and P-UAE is developed by
Mustafa 'GnoStiC' TUFAN.
http://www.amigaemulator.org/
http://www.winuae.net/
http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/
https://github.com/GnoStiC/PUAE
libfsemu is Copyright (c) 2011-2012,
Frode Solheim
IPF decoder library is Copyright (c)
2001-2011 by István Fábián with
additional work by Christian Sauer.
-------------------------------------
*************************************
AMIGAOS BETA TESTERS
*************************************
Hyperion Entertainment
From: Steven Solie
AmigaOS beta testers are not often
acknowledged for the important work
they do.
A fresh list of AmigaOS beta testers
has now been posted on the AmigaOS
web site. http://www.amigaos.net/
This list is not 100% complete in
that it only includes those beta
testers that worked on version 4.0
of the Amiga's operating system and
up.
Beta testers are not paid for their
work and they are expected to pay
for their own hardware as well as
software licenses. Beta testing is
truly a labour of love so hats off
to all the volunteers.
Again, special thanks to Olaf
Barthel who is the keeper of this
kind of historical information.
Steven Solie
AmigaOS Development Team Lead
CREDITS
The following is the list of
developers who have worked directly
on the Amiga Operating System
(AmigaOS) over the years:
* Adam Kowalczyk
* Alexander Kneer
* Alexander Lohrmann
* Allan Havemose
* Álmos Rajnai
* Andre Dörffler
* Andrea Vallinotto
* Andrija Antonijevic
* Andy Finkel
* Barry Walshand
* Bart Whitebook
* Bill Toner
* Bob Burns
* Bob Pariseau
* Brian Jackson
* Bruce Barrett
* Bruce Drake
* Bryce Nesbitt
* Carl Sassenrath
* Carolyn Scheppner
* Charles Warwick
* Chris Green
* Chris Morris
* Christopher Aldi
* Christopher Kossa
* Colin Wenzel
* Costel Mincea
* Craig Makarowski
* Csaba Simon
* Dale Larson
* Dale Luck
* Dan Baker
* Darren Greenwald
* Dave Berezowski
* Dave Needle
* David Haynie
* David Joiner
* David Junod
* David Rey
* Davy Wentzler
* Deryk Robosson
* Detlef Würkner
* Doug Walker
* Eike M. Lang
* Eric Cotton
* Frank Wille
* Greg Miller
* Gudrun Haage
* Hans de Ruiter
* Hans-Jörg Frieden
* Kevin Klop
* Leo Schwab
* Leonard Poma
* Markus Nerding
* Markus Pöllmann
* Martin Hunt
* Martin McKenzie
* Martin Merz
* Martin Steigerwald
* Martin Taillefer
* Mary-Ellen Toebes
* Massimiliano Tretene
* Massimo Tantignone
* Matthew Kille
* Michael Sinz
* Mike Whitcher
* Neil Katin
* Olaf Barthel
* Oliver Roberts
* Palmyra Pawlik
* Paul Heams
* Paul Schifferer
* Peter Annuss
* Peter Cherna
* Peter Gordon
* Hartwig Haage
* Hedley Davis
* Heinz Wrobel
* Henning Nielsen Lund
* Henrik Isaksson
* Ignatios Souvatzis
* Jay Denebeim
* Jay Miner
* Jens Langner
* Jerry Horanoff
* Jim Barkley
* Jim Cooper
* Jim Mackraz
* Joanne Dow
* Jochen Becher
* Joe Pillow
* John Szucs
* John Toebes
* Jon Prince
* Jörg Strohmayer
* Joshua B. Helm
* Jürgen Haage
* Kaori Kuwata
* Karl Churchill
* Kenneth Dyke
* Philippe-Andre Bourdin
* Phillippe Ferrucci
* Randell Jesup
* Raymond S. Brand
* René W. Olsen
* Richard Drummond
* Robert "RJ" Mical
* Ross Vumbaca
* Rudolph Riedel
* Sam Dicker
* Sam Jordan
* Scott Wegener
* Sebastian Bauer
* Sebastian Reinfeldt
* Simon Archer
* Spencer Shanson
* Stan Shepard
* Stefan Burström
* Stefan Falke
* Stefan Robl
* Steffen Häuser
* Stephan Rupprecht
* Stéphane Guillard
* Stephen Fellner
* Steve Beats
* Steven Solie
* Stuart Ferguson
* Sven Ottemann
* Thomas Frieden
* Thomas Graff Thøger
* Thomas Richter
* Thore Böckelmann
* Tim King
* Tobias Abt
* Tony Wyatt
* Tracy D. McSheery
* Valentin Pepelea
* William H. M. Parker
* William S. Hawes
THE FOLLOWING IS THE LIST OF BETA
TESTERS WHO HAVE HELPED TEST AMIGAOS
SINCE VERSION 4.0
* Achim Stegemann
* Adam Kowalczyk
* Al Stremming
* Alan Buxey
* Albert Jasinski
* Aleksander Czarnowski
* Alen Hadzihasanovic
* Alex Carmona
* Alexander Lohrmann
* Alexander Weber
* Alexandre Balaban
* Alfredo Amendolagine
* Álmos Rajnai
* Andre Dörffler
* Andrea Favini
* Andrea Monni
* Andrea Palmatè
* Andrea Vallinotto
* Andreas Loong
* Andreas Weyrauch
* Andrew Boyarintsev
* Andrija Antonijevic
* Andy Broad
* Anthony Bandiera
* Antti Korhola
* Arkadiusz Hucko
* Arturino Mazzei
* Bill Borsari
* Bill Eaves
* Bill Toner
* Björn Hagström
* Borut Zivkovic
* Carl Moppett
* Carles Bernardez
* Carlos Orois
* Csaba Simon
* Charles F. Warwick
* Chris Dallimore
* Chris Handley
* Chris Morris
* Christoph Gutjahr
* Christopher Follett
* Christopher Kossa
* Colin Ward
* Colin Wenzel
* Costel Mincea
* Damien Stewart
* Damir Arh
* Damir Dardagan
* Daniel Allsopp
* Dariusz Wisniewski
* Darren Eveland
* Darren Glenn
* Darren Stevens
* Dave Fisher
* Dave W. Pitcher
* David Braconnier
* David Burström
* David J. Aiau
* David Pitcher
* David Rey
* Davy Wentzler
* Denis Troller
* Dennis Zweedijk
* Deron Kazmaier
* Detlef Würkner
* Dirk Baeyens
* Dirk Stoecker
* Doug Moir
* Douglas McLaughlin
* Dwayne Jarvis
* Edgar Schwan
* Emmanuel Rey
* Enrico Vidale
* Fabian Kreitner
* Felix Schwarz
* Ferran Garcia
* Francis Labrie
* Frank Wille
* Frans van Egmond
* Fredrik Nilsson
* Gabriele Favrin
* Gary Herring
* Gaspar Marton Imre
* George Sokianos
* Gerd Frank
* Gregory S. Donner
* Guido Jonk
* Guvenc Kaplan
* Hans de Ruiter
* Hans-Jörg Frieden
* Heinz Wrobel
* Henning Nielsen Lund
* Henrik Jacobsson
* Herve Dupont
* Ignatios Souvatzis
* Jacques Vanhove
* Jaime Cagigal Bordonaba
* James Carroll
* Jamie Krueger
* Janez Starc
* Janne Peräaho
* Javier de las Rivas
* Jean-Francois Bachelet
* Jens Dueholm Christensen
* Jens Langner
* Jerome Senay
* Joakim Nordström
* Joanne B. Dow
* Jochen Kuse
* Jody J. Tierney
* Jörg Strohmayer
* Johan Banis
* Johan Engdahl
* Johan Samuelsson
* Johannes Geiss
* John Scolieri
* Joni Halme
* Jose Manuel Menendez
* Joshua B. Helm
* Jürgen Schober
* Jürgen Weiss
* Juha Niemimäki
* Julien Cervellera
* Justin Hemmings
* Justin Raug Veggerby
* Kamil Niescioruk
* Karl Churchill
* Karsten Fischer
* Karsten Limberg
* Ken Wilde
* Kendrick Hughes
* Konrad Bielski
* Kyle Caldock
* Kyle Kivi
* Kymon Zonias
* Larry Keller
* Lars Nelson
* Louie Dituri
* Lyle Hazelwood
* Marc Jouault
* Marco De Vitis
* Marcus Comstedt
* Mario Cattaneo
* Mariusz Danilewicz
* Marko Mihailovic
* Martin Lafunte
* Martin McKenzie
* Martin Steigerwald
* Martin Wolf
* Marton Dosa
* Massimiliano Tretene
* Massimo Tantignone
* Mathias Roslund
* Matthew Kille
* Matthew Leaman
* Matthijs Jansen
* Maurizio Lotauro
* Michael Boehmer
* Michael Carrillo
* Michael Christoph
* Michael Malyshev
* Michael Merkel
* Michel De Meerleer
* Mick Sutton
* Mike Beecham
* Ned Kelly
* Nick Clover
* Nicolas Mendoza
* Niels Bache
* Nikolaos Damilakis
* Ole-Egil Hvitmyren
* Oleg Sergeev
* Oliver Roberts
* Olrick Lefebvre
* Ondrej Zima
* Pål Ringkilen
* Paolo Suriano
* Pascal Rullier
* Paul Heams
* Paul Sadlik
* Paul Sabourenkov
* Pavel Svetlik
* Pawel Stypula
* Peter Gordon
* Peter Jensen
* Petrus Bergman
* Philip Young
* Philippe Bourdin
* Philippe Ferrucci
* Philippe Rouxhet
* Piotr Zadora
* Rafal Chyla
* Ralf Gruner
* Ralf Toenjes
* Ralph Holzer
* Raul Silva
* Remco Komduur
* René Thol
* René W. Olsen
* Ricco Clemens
* Richard Drummond
* Robert Kihl
* Robert Mattin
* Robert Mustin
* Robert T. Dickinson
* Robert Wahnsiedler
* Robert Williams
* Ronald Dean Hallman, Jr
* Ronald Teune
* Ross Vumbaca
* Rudolph Riedel
* Russ Norrby
* Ryan C. Gordon
* Sven Ottemann
* Sascha Hoogen
* Scott Wegener
* Sebastian Bauer
* Shane Ponting
* Simon Archer
* Simon Neumann
* Simon Tyrrell
* Sinan Gurkan
* Steen Lund Nielsen
* Stefan Falke
* Stefan Juhas
* Stefan Kost
* Stefan Nordlander
* Stefan Robl
* Stefano Guidetti
* Steffen Häuser
* Stephan Rupprecht
* Stephan Scheele
* Stéphane Guillard
* Stephen Fellner
* Stephen Jones
* Stephen Robinson
* Stephen Umney
* Steve Bowman
* Steve Harrison
* Steven Fuller
* Steven Solie
* Stuart C. Paterson
* Sven K. Harvey
* Sylvio Kurze
* Tejinder Brar
* Terry Palfrey
* Thomas Blatt
* Thomas Frieden
* Thomas Graff Thøger
* Thomas Palestig
* Thomas Richter
* Thomas Wenzel
* Thomas Würgler
* Thore Böckelmann
* Thorsten Freund
* Timothy De Groote
* Tobias Franke
* Tom Crecelius
* Tony Aksnes
* Tony Wyatt
* Tore B. Bjørnsen
* Torfinn Ingolfsen
* Tuomas Hokka
* Uros Bogataj
* Val Marti
* Vasileios Kostopoulos
* Vicente Gimeno
* Viktor Soponyai
* Vit Sindlar
* Warren T. Katchmar
* Wilfred Luesebrink
* Xavier Bal
* Yurdaer Donmez
-------------------------------------
*************************************
ALADDIN 4D NEW NAME / NEW OWNERSHIP
*************************************
www.discreetfx.com/Aladeen4D.html
Aladdin 4D has been renamed Aladeen
4D
We were conquered and had no choice!
On February 26th, 2012 DiscreetFX
surrendered all inventory, source
code and intellectual property
rights to his Holiness and
Excellency Admiral General Aladeen.
Aladeen 4D is one of his many
conquests and he will be updating
and releasing a new 6.0 version for
OS X Lion, AmigaOS 4.x, MorphOS 2.x,
AROS, and Linux. Admiral General
Aladeen said the Windows version of
Aladdin 4D is cancelled because
Megan Fox does not like that OS. We
hope it will not take another 1000
years for version 6.0 to be finished!
Oscars 48 Hour Sale!
www.discreetfx.com/Aladeen4D.html
When the Oscar's Start You Are
Allowed to Buy it!
Unbest regards
DiscreetFX Team
(Captured and being held prisoner in
the Mighty Nation of Wadiya)
-------------------------------------
*************************************
PC WORLD REVIEW WINUAE
*************************************
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file
/fid,201995-order,4/description.html
PC World have reviewed the WINUAE
software allowing user to run Amiga
software on their PC systems
QUOTE FROM THE SITE
Also, acquainting (or reacquainting)
yourself with the ins and outs of an
old computer system can take a
little time, even if you're no
stranger to the platform: be
prepared to take a few steps up the
learning curve. For the Amiga
faithful, however, none of this
matters. WinUAE is nothing less than
a time machine back to the golden
age of computing. It's a ride well
worth taking.
--Jim Norris
-------------------------------------
*************************************
"BOING BALL" RE-VISITED - PART 2
*************************************
Trevor Dick
Following the recent release of the
RadeonHD graphics driver for AmigaOS
4.1 Update 5, which made its
official debut on the AmigaONE X1000
"First Contact" system, we are
pleased to reveal that we have now
concluded a further agreement with
Hans de Ruiter for the continued
development of his RadeonHD drivers
for the AmigaOS. In a statement De
Ruiter commented, "I am currently
working to get the driver fully
ready for 3D, and to release
quality. Thanks to the support of
Trevor Dickinson (A-EON Technology),
I will be able to devote more time
to RadeonHD driver development over
the next few months, and achieve
this goal much sooner than would
otherwise have been the case. The
features being worked on include:
Vertical blanking interrupt support
for RadeonHD cards (no more wasting
CPU cycles when double-buffering);
Video RAM (VRAM) management for the
RadeonHD_RM.resource (intelligent
VRAM buffer paging)." De Ruiter
added, "The last feature is
essential for stable 3D operation. I
look forward to delivering
RadeonHD.chip version 1.x and, of
course, to be able to run modern 3D
applications using RadeonHD cards
and AmigaOS." Dickinson said in
reply, "I am really pleased to help
fund Hans' RadeonHD driver work.
This is excellent news for all
AmigaONE X1000 owners, including
myself ;-) and hopefully should
benefit all AmigaOS 4 users in the
future."
About Hans de Ruiter & HDRLab: Hans
de Ruiter is an electrical &
electronic engineer and leading
AmigaOS developer and Amiga
enthusiast. His website - HDRLab -
details various projects, many of
which are AmigaOS related. The
biggest of these is the RadeonHD
driver for AmigaOS, an ambitious
project that aims to deliver modern
graphics capabilities for the
AmigaOS platform.
About AmigaOS: The AmigaOS dates
back to 1985 with the introduction
of the landmark Amiga 1000. Today,
under the guidance and control of
Hyperion Entertainment, AmigaOS has
evolved into a modern operating
system without losing that intrinsic
"Amiga" look and feel.
About the AmigaONE X1000: The
AmigaONE X1000 is not like other
computers. It is a culmination of
efforts by real Amiga enthusiasts
and developers to create powerful,
modern desktop hardware for the
AmigaOS. It is the natural evolution
of the Amiga's PowerPC lineage and
is based on the PA-Semi Dual-core
PA6T-1682M CPU and includes Xena, a
"Software Defined Silicon"
co-processor. Above all it runs the
latest version of the AmigaOS.
HDR Labs -
http://hdrlab.org.nz/projects/amiga-.
..deonhd-driver/
A-EON Technology -
http://www.a-eon.com/
AmigaOS http://www.amigaos.net/
A-EON Technology
=====================================
*************************************
REVIEW: GALLI
Plus/4 game
By Commodore Free
*************************************
plus4world.powweb.com/software/Galli
Nino has created a new game for the
Commodore Plus/4. Called "Galli" its
a side-scrolling platform game. The
game was developed between 1989 and
1995, but was never released. The
game is now finished and can be
downloaded. Because he game is only
16 Kbyte in size it can also be
played on the Commodore C16.
Title: Galli
Category: Game/Platformer
Released: 2012-02-22
Language: English
Size: 16K
Machine: PAL Only
Code Type: Machine code
Distribution: Freeware
Ending Type: Has an end, game ends
Notes: Created by Antonino
Scala. The main char-
acter has been named
"Gallina", that means
"chicken" in Italian.
COMMODORE FREE REVIEW OF THE GAME
The game loads and they typing run
show the screen GAME over, pressing
the fire button takes you to the
games start, however I don't seem to
be able to find any instructions and
as you will read I became confused
as to what I was supposed to
actually do.
The game looks rather basic and when
jumping out character seems to soar
into the air as if he was lighter
than something incredibly light
indeed, maybe because he is a bird
he can fly a little who knows, This
gravity or lack of it can come in
handy though as you will be able to
jump to amazing heights to collect
treasures that would normally be
impossible to reach.
Here is a YouTube taster
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-12YtS6DUSw
I did see this line in a forum
How do you play the game? Collect
all diamonds and coins and don't
touch the aliens.
So that must be where I was going
wrong I need to collect everything
before I can move on so let's try
again, with a joystick plugged into
port 1 and loading the game then
running and pressing Fire at the
game over we are on the main screen.
Moving is just a case of pressing
the joystick ion the right
direction, as you move to the right
the screen scrolls with you can move
back but only to the screen edge the
screen will no scroll back.
You control this guy
[IMAGE]
And need to avoid these aliens
[IMAGE]
Collect these
[IMAGE]
And these treasure items
[IMAGE]
Not too bad a game really, it's a
bit glitchy but that could be my
machine I only have 1 machine
working (of sorts) to test the game
on at the moment.
I seemed to have missed the games
design, as I thought I had to
collect all the treasure and the 10
coins were just a bonus but it seems
to advance to the next level you
have to collect everything possible,
or if you pass something and it
scrolls off screen you then have to
replay the level. Sounds are minimal
although the game was designed to
play with a SID card the code has
been removed. Animation is quite
crude, it's a decent couple of hours
play but not something you will
continue to go back to over and over
again.
Gameplay: 4/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sounds: 3/10
Longevity: 3/10
Overall: 4/10
=====================================
*************************************
REDISCOVERING CP/M
Part 3
By Commodoreman
*************************************
Before beginning with this third
part, I would like to refer you to
the summary provided at the end of
Part 2. This should bring everyone
up to speed on where I am and will
set the stage for this part. I have
also included an updated Checklist
of things to do and a List of
Resources available to me. I have
links to digital files that I can
read on my other computers, but I
prefer to flip through the actual
paper books. I'm not intimidated by
large manuals.
I took a directory of the CP/M
System Disk in drive A by typing DIR
<RETURN>. Here is what was on each
side (the disk provided with the 128
was formatted so a 1541 could access
it)...
Directory of CP/M System Disk:
SIDE 1
CPM+.SYS CCP.COM KEYFIG.HLP
FORMAT.COM HELP.HLP DIR.COM HELP.COM
PIP.COM KEYFIG.COM COPYSIS.COM
SIDE 2
DATE.COM DIRLBL.RSX GET.COM
RENAME.COM SUBMIT.COM DATEC.ASM
DUMP.COM INITDIR.COM SAVE.COM
TYPE.COM DATEC.RSX ED.COM PATCH.COM
SET.COM DEVICE.COM PIP.COM SETDEF.COM
DIR.COM GENCOM.COM PUT.COM SHOW.COM
While perusing through the reading
material I have, I saw a lot of
information describing what these
files are and what they do. I will
be researching these files in more
detail.
Many different books about CP/M
typically start by formatting and
copying files. I am going to go a
different way. Now, when I tackle a
project like this, I prefer to be
surrounded by manuals and books. My
way of learning may be a little
difficult to follow for others, but
maybe someone somewhere might find
something useful here.
I like to be able to look at the
contents of disks in their drives. I
remember, from back when I was
learning about CP/M, that I would
take a directory from a drive by
entering the drive letter (as
opposed to the numbering system used
on the Commodore line of products),
followed by the built-in command
DIR. CP/M gives a simple directory
listing of files on the selected
drive.
Referencing the Digital Research
User's Guide, DIR has quite a few
parameters and there is a lot I can
do with this command. Comparing this
to the method used by the Commodore
128 DIRECTORY command, CP/M offers
more options of displaying files -
or how they can be displayed.
DIRECTORY on the 128 used alone will
give the directory listing of files
on drive 8; showing the name of the
disk, id number, file names, file
size in blocks, file type, and
number of blocks free. Certain files
or file types can be selected using
wildcard patterns. Other drives can
also be selected by adding D0,Ux (x
can be any number from 8 on up -
theoretically to high numbers less
than 100). CP/M's DIR has many
parameters. Here's a quick rundown
of ways that DIR can be used..
DIR <RETURN>
Directory of contents of default
drive (indicated by the letter at
prompt).
DIR B: <RETURN>
Directory of disk in drive B.
DIR FIL*.* <RETURN>
Show all files on the disk in the
default drive that start with FIL.
DIR D: *.COM <RETURN>
Show all files on the disk in drive
D that end with the filetype .COM.
DIR [FULL] <RETURN>
Gives a complete listing of the file
information on the disk in the
default drive.
DIR [USER=ALL] <RETURN>
List all files on the disk in the
default drive under all the user
numbers.
This is interesting because files
can be defined by the user that
created them (providing the user
specified his/her unique user
number). So if I had a system with
three users and they all signed on
with their unique user number, I
could take a directory listing of
one, two, or all files created by
each user. This is different from
the Commodore filesystem, but I do
see its unique advantage.
I can also list files by their size,
attribute, or even tell CP/M to list
all files on all connected drives!
(This would be a separate step for
each drive on the Commodore - if I
didn't have a special program to do
it)!
DIR F*
This does not work as it does in
Commodore mode. I found I need to
use the previous method to find what
I was looking for. In other words,
this will not show all files
beginning with the letter F.
Taking a directory has always been
one of the first things I do because
I want to find out what program
files exist, or if there are text
files I can try to access to read.
There's more, but I have found
enough for now.
Next, referring to the directory
listing of the CP/M System Disk, I
see there are different types of
files. To me, the files appear to be
defined by the three letter
description that follows the
filename. Here I see .COM, .RSX,
HLP, ASM, and .SYS. The Programmer's
Manual describes these files as (in
order listed above): Command file
(program), Resident System
Extension, HLP is a special text
file (see Digital Research User's
Guide p. 5-47 thru 5-49), Assembler
Source, and System file. There are
of course other extensions, and I
found this list in the Programmer's
Manual p. 2-11:
ASM Assembler Source
PRN Printer Listing
HEX Hex Machine Code
BAS BASIC Source File
INT Intermediate File
COM Command File
PRL Page Relocatable
SPR Sys. Page Reloc.
PLI PL/I Source File
REL Relocatable Module
TEX Tex Formatter Source
BAK ED Source Backup
SYM SID Symbol File
$$$ Temporary File
DAT Data File
SYS System File
After searching the manuals, I found
I was correct. This naming
convention is just a general rule.
If I wanted to, I could name a text
file and use the .txt extension,
which is the standardized extension
for text files (typically ASCII).
For the most part, I'll stick with
the rest here until I learn more
details later.
On to the program disks that I have.
I wanted to see what this program
was, and if I could get it to load.
I placed the genealogy program (disk
1 of 3) into drive A and took a
directory. Here are the files:
CPM+ SYS CCP COM
PIP COM FR COM
STARTUP OVR FINISH OVR
ENTRY OVR MODIFY OVR
MODIND OVR MODMAR OVR
MODFAM OVR ADDFAMCH OVR
ADDFAMPR OVR DELFAMPR OVR
DELFAMCH OVR PEDSRCH OVR
NOTES OVR NTOPTION OVR
NTGETIND OVR NOTEPRNT OVR
NE OVR UTILITY OVR
DELDATA OVR DELIND OVR
DELFAM OVR DELETE OVR
I noticed there are three filetypes,
.SYS, .COM, and .OVR. The last one
strikes me as an overlay, but that
is only a guess, but right now I am
only interested in the program
files. There is only one on this
disk - FR.COM. So I ran it. The
screen printed an error message on
drive B. So, I thought, maybe it was
looking for a disk in that drive. So
I decided disconnect the 1541 and
connect a 1571. I needed a disk for
drive B and did not have one
immediately available, so I
remembered seeing a FORMAT command
somewhere in the text I have been
reading. Then I grabbed a blank
disk, inserted the CP/M System Disk
in drive A and typed in
FORMAT <RETURN>
The FORMAT program loaded and
displayed the following:
C128 FORMAT PROGRAM
15 May 1985
Drive A is a 1571 <- reversed
Please select disk type to format
C128 double sided <- reversed
C128 single sided
C64 single sided
I removed the System Disk and placed
a blank in the drive. Then I
selected the first option (I'll
research the 64 single sided option
later) and then the program prompted:
Insert diskette TO BE FORMATTED
in drive A. Type $ when ready,
any other key to abort
I typed $ and the disk was formatted
(once the $ key was pressed, the
program immediately went to work - I
did not have to press <RETURN>).
Then I put this disk in drive B, the
genealogy program into drive A, and
typed FR <RETURN>. The program
loaded and displayed the title
screen - and now I know what this
program is (it did check for a disk
in drive B). It is called Personal
Ancestral File and carries version
number two. I'll need to add an
internet search to see if I can find
an instruction manual (not too
hopeful that I will find one, but it
is worth a try).
By the way, I do have a 1581 drive
connected, I wonder how (or if) CP/M
uses it? I searched through the 1581
Disk Drive Manual, but I did not
find anything specific (another item
to add to my list).
O.k., since I do not have any word
processing programs for CP/M, I
decided to try out ED. As I was
looking through the manuals, I did
take some time to read a little
about this program. According to the
Digital Research User's Guide, ED
is, "...a line oriented context
editor. This means that you create
and change character files
line-by-line, or by referencing
individual characters within a line
(p. 5-30)". This page referred me to
a more detailed section for this
utility (Section 6).
Here is the opening paragraph, "To
do almost anything with a computer
you need some way to enter data, a
way to give the computer the
information you want it to process.
The programs most commonly used for
this task are called editors. They
transfer your keystrokes at the
keyboard to a disk file. CP/M 3's
editor is named ED. Using ED, you
can easily create and alter CP/M 3
text files (p. 6-1)".
I checked to make sure side two of
the CP/M System Disk was in drive A
and I typed in
ED TEST1.TEX <RETURN>.
The computer displayed:
NEW FILE
:*
I looked at this for a moment and
decided that the disk I formatted
earlier would be a better place to
experiment with new files. So I
placed this disk into drive B. I
also thought I would copy PIP.COM
and ED.COM to this disk (I wanted to
make sure I would not corrupt my
System Disk). I typed in PIP
<RETURN> and the computer displayed
this:
CPM/3 PIP VERSION 3
*
I could vaguely remember this
utility, but went to the Digital
Research User's Guide for more
specifics. On page 5-70 I found what
I needed. Here is what it says...
"This form of the PIP command starts
the PIP utility and lets you type
multiple command lines while PIP
remains in user memory.
PIP writes an asterisk on your
screen when ready to accept input
command lines.
You can type any valid command line
described under previous PIP formats
following the asterisk prompt.
Terminate PIP by pressing only the
RETURN key following the asterisk
prompt. The empty command line tells
PIP to discontinue operation and
return to the CP/M 3 system prompt".
What I remember from before was that
to copy a file from one drive to
another, there was a specific way to
type in the command. To make sure I
had it right, I checked the syntax
after I had entered this after the
asterisk...
B: = A:PIP*.*
and the program copied the PIP.COM
utility from drive A to drive B (the
destination is typed in first along
with any specifics followed by the
equal character, then by the source
drive and any specific parameters
(here it is "PIP*.*"). I did the
same thing with the ED utility. This
way I have these utilities available
when I create text files with ED. I
might even add more later (e.g. SHOW
and TYPE).
I noticed also that if I wanted to,
I could copy a file designated for a
certain user to any one of the other
users. If it is on the same disk, it
would be two copies of the same file
(I will verify this in Part 4).
After this, I changed the default
drive to B and entered the following
at the System Prompt:
ED TEST1.TEX
This started the ED utility which
showed the following (just like
before):
NEW FILE
:*
It took me a little bit of reading
to figure out how to start entering
text because this is the ED utility
prompt. There are a number of
commands that can be entered from
here that do certain things. One I
found interesting was 0V (that's a
zero followed by the letter 'v').
This command will show how much free
space is left in the Transient
Program Area (RAM) for the text file
and the total amount of memory
available.
Then I found the insert command "I",
which places a user into "Insert
Mode". Aha! The screen prompt
changed to a number followed by the
semi-colon. Each line is numbered
for easier reference (this line
numbering feature can be turned off
with the "-V" command). I didn't see
a "save to disk" command, well, one
that made sense to me, so I had to
sift through the manual to find out
how to do it. I read that by
pressing the ESC (escape) key, I
would exit "insert" mode. Then I
could type "E" to exit the ED
utility, thereby saving the file to
the default (or defined) disk (when
starting ED, it is possible to tell
it where to save the information
when done).
Then I used the TYPE utility to
display the text file on the screen.
I just had a thought, I'm almost
sure that I can read and write to a
CP/M disk from my old Windows 98
tower. I have a 5 1/4" drive
installed. That could make file
transfers easy. I will add that to
my checklist of things to do later.
TO SUMMARIZE PART 3, I WOULD DO IT
LIKE THIS...
CP/M has many utilities to aid the
user in managing disks. The DIR
command will give a concise
(specific info is accessed by using
the SHOW utility) directory of files
on whichever drive the user
specifies. This is done by entering
the following at the system prompt:
DIR <RETURN>
There are many filetypes used by
CP/M of which program files have a
.COM extension, system files have a
.SYS extension, resident system
extension has .RSX, and text files
have .TEX. Even though these are
quite common, there are many other
filetypes for other purposes. To
have CP/M list only those files
ending in .COM, I enter the
following at the system prompt:
DIR *.COM <RETURN>
To list only files starting with the
letter K, I type in the following at
the system prompt:
DIR K*.* <RETURN>
The FORMAT utility prepares a disk
for use by CP/M. The FORMAT command
on the CP/M System Disk for the
Commodore 128 has specific options
for that system enabling the user to
format a disk in a 1571 for CP/M if
the disk is a single sided or double
sided disk. This is done by typing
in the following at the system
prompt:
FORMAT <RETURN>
Then selecting from the menu the
option desired.
PIP is a utility with many features
among of which I can copy files from
drive to drive, or user to user (or
both).
ED is a utility that can create text
files. Although it may not be as
easy to use as a word processor, it
is much better than not having
anything at all. It does seem
cumbersome at first, but I
anticipate more use will provide a
more accurate analysis and critique
of its abilities.
Accessing existing files (this
example filename is LETTER.TEX) is a
matter of entering in the following
at the system prompt:
ED LETTER.TEX <RETURN>
Text can then be inserted at the ED
prompt (*) by entering the letter I.
ED will save when the user presses
the ESC key and enters E at the ED
prompt (exit program and save file).
Creating a new text file is easy.
Simply enter ED followed by the
filename and the extension you wish
to use. After pressing RETURN, ED
will show a prompt. Entering the
letter 'I' will put the user into
'insert mode' where text can be
typed. The procedure for saving the
file is the same as given above.
There are many features that ED
offers and details are found in the
Digital Research manuals.
TYPE is a fast way to read a text
file. Simply enter TYPE followed by
the filename and extension and the
utility will display the file to the
screen. Specifying a drive before
TYPE enables the utility to access
the file if it is on a different
drive.
End of Part 3
See you in the fourth instalment!
Commodoreman
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHECKLIST
* Hard drive (note: logical drive
capacity cannot exceed 512 MB -
CP/M Programmer's Guide, sec. 1.5,
p. 1.11). Find out more about this
feature (can I still get one?)
* REU CP/M disk
* BDOS
* What is the date displayed on
startup? Is it the date of the OS
or is it there to represent the
current date? If so how do I
change it?
* How do I use other peripheral
devices (modem, printer, joystick,
etc.)?
* What other high-level languages
exist (BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL,
etc.)?
* Find a manual for Personal
Ancestral File version 2
* How do I use a 1581 with CP/M?
* What does FORMAT mean with the 64
single sided format option?
* Can I read and write to a CP/M
formatted disk using my Win98
tower?
LIST OF RESOURCES
Hardware:
* Commodore 128D
* 1541
* 1571 (2)
* 1581
* 1750 REU
* 1702 Monitor
* 1902 Monitor
Software:
* CP/M System Boot Disk
* Genealogy Program
* other CP/M formatted disks (copies
of system disk)
Printed Material:
* Commodore 128D User's Guide
* Commodore 128 Programmer's
Reference Manual
* Digital Research User's Guide (3
books in one)
* Commodore 128 CP/M User's Guide -
ABACUS ISBN#0916439453
* Commodore World Magazine
Digital resources:
* Commodore 128D User's Guide -
www.commodore.ca/manuals
* Commodore 128 Programmer's
Reference Manual -
www.commodore.ca/manuals
* Digital Research User's Guide -
www.commodoreman.com/commodore/book
s/man/Digital_CPM_Manual.zip
* C Hacking Magazine
Other
* An Internet connection
* Tower computer with Windows98 and
a 5 1/4" floppy drive (I am almost
positive I can read CP/M formatted
disks with this computer!)
=====================================
*************************************
HAPPY PROG'ING
By John Fielden
*************************************
FUNCTIONS WE HAVEN'T COVERED YET
A bit of time here allows me to
ponder the things that the prog'ing
series hasn't covered from the c16
manual. Well, I haven't covered
~Assembly yet; dreading it!!! Even
though the c16 was my very first
computer. The monitor still remains
much the mystery, and before the pc
and thus internet became available
to me, I'd never heard of "TedMon".
In fact the only Mon I had heard of
was Solomon from dear old Granny
waffling on after her church
commitments etc. -still bruised from
all the bashing! But no, I find they
are probably not related! -unless
you know otherwise... Still Mon was
an abbreviation for Monday. And the
only Ted I knew of was from the
comedy series HideHi. Even when Dad
and I fumbled on a runstop & reset,
to save a program that crashed, I
don't think either of us knew the
'gibberish' collection of letters
and numbers meant we'd entered the
world of TedMon! Proceeding to
blindly press letters and getting
random results got boring after
awhile with no explanation. (I think
he left that book on the shelf
opting for a games book that taught
nothing much on its own. -enough of
my depraved childhood let's get on
with it!)
DEFFNA COMMANDS
The main thing that had been
concerning me was whether the Basic
statements were covered. And I
realised DEF FN... has so far been
over looked. So we'll start with
that in a moment.
I'm very Thankful this time to the
author Brian Lloyd for his companion
book, as listed in program, for both
the above explanations. They are the
best I can find with the limited
information available to me today. I
think you'll agree they are well
written -if you have the book ...On
the other hand if you just have my
hash up of it to go from, just do
the best you can. And Good Luck
-you'll need it!
DEF FN
The function command takes a
variable and does something with it
before giving you the answer. The
statement allows the programmer to
make their own function/s if those
they want aren't already available.
Like "cos", "sin" etc. Which are yet
to be covered properly. The term is
an abbreviation of "DEFine FuNction"
and is used in numeric calculations.
The included program -which will go
on and on until you hold shift and
press 'runs/stop' keys, or type in
an added exit to it. (like the Trap
command).- And gives this as the
repetitive calculation:-
((ZZ/5)*32)^2
Where ^ means raised to power of, an
arrow up in program.
110 defines the calculation and
gives it the name A1 for future
reference.
ZZ is the variable that will make
each repetition of the sum bring out
a different answer.
- divides ZZ by 5. multiply the
result by 32then square the result.
-So he says! Thank fully he gave us
the rest f the listed program to
show various outcomes. Now all you
need to do is type it in and RUN it.
Only line 50 may need explaining. It
says to the computer use N. as part
of this calculation where you saw ZZ
before. This is because any number
(or variable letter/s that represent
a number) can be used in place of ZZ.
Like the weird monkey says
"Simples!" ..."pff!"
(EDITOR I think is a meerkat)
The more I look at The
Commodore16/plus4 Companion, A
beginners guide, Brian Lloyd, 1984,
Sunshine books (an imprint of Scot
Press Ltd.), London. 0-946408-64-5
The more I like it. It's
explanations are clear throughout.
For Instance, I'm now able to better
understand the correct form with
RDOT, RGR, RCLR, RLUM etc. (pg. 92)
is : Variable=RGR(x) where x in
above case is a dummy number that
the computer ignores. From the
variable it is determined what the
value of said code is. Though why
any programmer would need such
things when they programmed it in in
the first place still eludes me. I
suppose "You never know when
something will come in handy!"
?"(xx!xx?)" - ??? "Is that what that
bloke TedMon said in his Proverbs
Granny?! -???
"Yes dear, ..., ... "
MACHINE CODE
From Chapter 11 of The c16/+4 of The
Companion book, B. Lloyd. p.107 - 121
After a brief but crystal clear
reminder that RAM is lost when the
machine is reset, whist ROM is kept.
ROM is permanent, and there a many
types, for instance the CPU, the
brains of the unit. This however
understands only its own language.
So it needs another type of ROM, The
Interpreter to understand the BASIC
commands given to it.
RAM is volatile. You can't use all
of RAM for a program, because
everything on screen is stored in
part of it. Hence the "Commodore
Basic x bytes free" etc. on the
startup screen when you turn your
computer on. This is the workspace
the user is given to play with.
I also found interesting the analogy
that ROM is like a glass jar with a
lid you can't open. You can see what
is there without changing it. While
RAM is like a glass jar with no lid
so you can change as well as PEEK at
the number that it holds.
Try,
POKE 3072,1
You get an 'A' in the top left of
the screen. 1 is the ASCII code for
A.
If later you wish to look at this
code for this part of the screen.
You would type,
PRINT PEEK (3072)
And of course 1 is the outcome.
Next to it at 3073 is the result of
32 because this is the code for a
blank space.
Now try,
POKE2048,128
Amazingly -to me- The 'A' that was
put in by the above POKE now flashes.
2048 is the colour memory which
starts at the top left of the screen
from 2048. To put colour in a letter
at say 3116, which it is assumed a
character up to the maximum 255 has
been chosen. So, deduct 1024 from
this. We should now have POKE 2092,
First you must decide what colour
you want. From 1 to 16 as with the
command of the same name. Then
multiply the Luminance level (0 to
7) by 16 and add this to the number
for the colour. If you want the
character to flash then add 128 to
the result.
Now RUN or type in the program
listed as "p.109". A full
description of this is given in The
Companion book. It puts pretty
randomly coloured dots onto the
screen. When you've had enough press
runs/stop key.
Mute point: I can't help wondering
what the same program would look
like with CHAR in place of POKE. The
main difference is while POKE has 1
number for its co-ordinates CHAR
requires two -as with CHARts!-
Following on from this, how
complicated would the same program
be with PRINT statements? It would
be interesting to see how the
colours fit in. Have a go if you
wish but this is moving away from
true assembly.
Try,
POKE3072,81
To understand line 60 a bit better.
It's all pretty much in the above
explanation, or what has gone before
anyway, so I won't repeat myself
here.
AN INTRODUCTION TO TEDMON
(pg.110 and beyond.)
ML (Machine Language) is what the
CPU inside your computer
understands. As the CPU does not
therefore need an interpreter with
this programs are much quicker than
in BASIC. (To be honest, though I am
enjoying learning about our Ted. I'd
sooner have BASIC with a Compiler,
at least for the things I've been
doing thus far.)
To learn Assembler etc. properly -if
you haven't already- it would be
better to seek out books dedicated
to the subject. This is a discovery
rather than a lesson. If you like
it, you can look into it further
elsewhere.
The Commodore 16 and The plus 4 came
with an Assembler built in. Called
TedMon. The way to access this from
BASIC is to type
MONITOR
(another command from The c16 manual
now covered!!!)
Though the numbers may vary, you get
something like:-
MONITOR
PC SR AC XR YR SP
;FFFF 00 FF FF FF F9
we will be told later what this all
means. But we are now in TedMon -so
'listen carefully my son, these
words will give you wisdom...' or a
bit to start us off at least.
Try typing
M 8188
(include spacing or results may be
different.)
The four digit number immediately
after the greater than sign is a
memory address in Hex. After that
the eight 2 digit numbers -I'm told
these can be changed...
In Hex A=10, ... F is 15, also
called base16 numbers because of the
0 being also or pseudo 1. i.e.
considered the first number in the
sequence. Therefore the list does
not go 8188, 8189, then (8190) -this
must be 818A, 819B and so on. Thus
the 8 two digit numbers contain what
is in memory. 8188 holds A2, 8189
holds A9 and so on until we do
actually get hexadecimal to 8190
which is the next line and contains
C4. And so on again.
8188 is 33160 in decimal. In a prior
issue we've looked at conversions.
The area of ROM that we have looked
at is the reserved word table of the
interpreter. A . is given in place
of any unprintable character.
Press M if you wish to continue
examining ROM. Alternatively try,
M 8188 8382
Pressing The Commodore key will slow
the speed of the scrolling. Ctrl and
S -if memory serves- to pause screen.
A sort of M = List Memory (line)
8188 - 8382, but without the extras.
If the above wasn't ROM, you could
change the listing. For a bit of fun
with RAM try,
M 3000
Where ROM changes itself back, RAM
can be altered. But beware of
possibly strange occurrences when
you blindly play around without
knowing what things do.
To leave TedMon press,
X
and you're back in BASIC. What's
more, if you didn't delete them, you
still have the dots from the prior
program in memory! Type,
LIST
Again for TedMon type
MONITOR
here's some more tips.
F 2400 2A00 A3
Will fill all that area of memory
locations with the value A3.
H 7000 9000 C0
Will search through all the listed
memory locations Hunting for C0. And
should display a list of the memory
locations that hold this value.
H 8000 9000 'COMMODORE
will return
80CF
Now type
M 80CF
and you will find it is written. Be
sure to use the 'apostrophe to
search for strings.
T 0C00 0FFF 0BD8
Transfers everything up one line.
We may work out how to move this
down again later. Have a go. 08D8 is
40 memory locations before 0C00
which is the start of screen memory.
WRITING MACHINE CODE PROGRAMS
A is for Assemble.
A 2000 LDA # $01
A 2002 STA $0C00
A 2005 LDA # $80
A 2007 STA $0800
A 200A BRK
As you type the computer adds
things, working out the next memory
location when you press return, like
AUTO in Basic. And it will Assemble
the line as you go into its own
machine code from the Assembly
Language you type in. LDA has the
code A9 for example. You will see
how things change depending on their
use.
A at the start of each line stands
for Assemble (pg. 114), having
stated the start the computer works
out the next line (a sort of auto
statement! Wait till you see
'Teddies' alternative for RUNning
the Assembled program.)
Every Machine code command has a
code number which the computer adds
in the line before these. The
command LDA (Load Accumulator) has
the code number A9. So A901 being
the equivalent of LDA #$01. (surely
it would be easier just to put the
former! -ah, well -'tis not mine to
question why' as the saying goes 'it
is but mine to -' get utterly
flumaxed!!!
(p115) The computer likes to have
the low byte part of the number
before the high byte. So, in the
second line; when a memory address
is used STA $0C00 becomes 8D 00 0C.
I'm still unclear as to the terms
"Low Byte", and "High Byte" and what
the differences are etc. Also, B.
Lloyd says he 'doesn't intend to
cover machine code programming in
depth'. So, much is lost on me here.
Nor does my Computer Dictionary seem
to want to tell me the difference
though the term "bytes" are in. And
we know already these are linked to
bits but I'm still a bit fed up that
I can't find the explanation; and
can only guess that the high byte
may be something to do with or same
as the first number in a POKE
statement in BASIC. Whether or not
this is true, to start the program
type,
G 2000
G is short for GO, but if you type
in GO; You'd get a question mark and
nothing much else would happen. You
will see that this is the ML.
equivalent of the single line POKE
command (In the segment titled
"machine code" above, or Pg. 108 of
the companion book)
DISASSEMBLY
OK!!!
The teachers at school liked
attention quite a lot, I remember
being dragged in as a class and
having to sit still for ages on end
and listen to a waffling old -
...err, wait a minute... oh!
(**#!#**!! -AKA 'Ooops!') err, ...
"ahem!" .."Ah, yes!"
Pg. 115-116 of Companion book.
Assembling is to converting a series
of machine code commands into a
series of numbers. TedMON can also
~Disasemble a machine code program,
that is convert all the numbers to
the commands which they represent.
Try,
D 9000
just for an alternative that we
cannot change as this is a part of
memory known as ROM described
earlier. For RAM and our little
Proggie; type
D 2000 200A
the space making the form to numbers
readable.
The dissasembly is in the format
which the computer converts your ml
program to when it assembles them.
To alter a line of our program.
change the first line to,
.2000 A9 01 LDA #02
When you press return A9 01 is now
A9 02.
The D command takes the same format
as the memory dump. D 4000 4020 will
Disassemble the contents of these
hexadecimal memory locations.
(Pg.117) As it comes next, though
the author considers this less
useful but to type,
C 1000 2000 4000
C stands for compare, and would in
the above case compare memory
locations from 1000 to 2000 with
those from 4000 to 5000, the last
number (5000) isn't needed as it
occurs by default with the total
amount to be compared -(Clever
calculators, these things!)
The computer displays a list of
memory locations which differ.
SAVING & LOADING ML. PROGS
To Save our above machine code
program. We need to give it a name,
then tell the computer tape or disk,
I chose disk given that is all I
have -or need for that matter- and
finally the memory locations from
and to that indicate where our
program is.
In other words type,
S"pg114to117",8,2000,200A
To Load this back later. All we need
is the name of the program, and
whether it's on tape or disk. So, if
you put the prog on tape. Having
turned the computer off then coming
back to it after awhile to continue.
You'd type.
L"pg114to117",1
where "...",1 is ,8 if on disk.
We can even Verify programs in
TedMON with
V"pg114to117",8
All the usual messages, screen going
blank to load/save etc. occur as
usual. If Verify OK. the flashing
cursor is returned, otherwise VERIFY
ERROR is displayed.
THE REGISTERS
(Pg. 118)
Not a lesson to be late for -as this
refers to the numbers when typing
MONITOR
or holding the runs/stop key and
pressing reset. And on so doing
opening TedMON.
PC is Program Counter (I'm so
pleased; had this been for that
moister which is political
correctness -AKA sensible
Incorrectness then I would've ended
the session here!!!) The Program
Counter always points to the part of
the machine code program that the
computer is carrying out. If monitor
was the first thing you typed when
turning the machine on 0000 will be
displayed under PC. Now, it occurs
that loading in the Assembly program
will alter these numbers. However,
using The usually Excellent Yape
Emulator for the c16/+4. The
L"pg114to117",8 Having changed the
filename to PG, through the menu of
Yape. I then opened it with the
menu. It will go as normal. And now
it has it anyway, it will Load no
problem -though you don't need to
with the emulator if you've gone
through the file.
I was right. PC has changed. But so
have two other Register Counters. I
pressed "R" for Register to find
out. Note: If you go too far down
the page so that the computer has to
scroll lines upon return. You won't
see the change as the top line will
be wiped off by the scrolling.
The next Register we come across is
SR, The Status Register contains
information about the operations
which have just been carried out.
Next The Accumulator. AC can be
thought of as similar to a variable,
although it is used in a slightly
different way from variables. Next
XR and YRegister are similar to the
AC but each can do things the others
cannot have.
The SP. Last on the list is the
Stack Pointer. The stack is an area
of memory where numbers are stored
or STACKed! Like a pile of books on
a shelf. Only with the specific rule
that -due to health and safety, back
issues?- You can only move one book
at a time. And this must be from the
top of the pile on a first in last
out basis. Stack can hold 256 bytes.
The number points to the first free
memory location in the stack.
Now type,
R
change XR from BF to 2A. This can be
done, thanks to ";" the semicolon at
the start of the line.
Nothing really happens as we haven't
engaged the X Register -yet.
THE SYS COMMAND AND USR FUNCTION
pg.119-121
There are two ways to execute a
machine code program from BASIC. (
err, The title is a clue!)
First -for both- Dissasemble the ML.
2. Change 200a from BRK to RTS -
Short for ReTurn Subroutine.
3. type,
S"PG121",8,2000 200A
- hence saving the new layout as a
new file.
X
- And on typing that you will see
"READY" and we're back in BASIC.
You should have the "pg109" program
in basic memory. If not load it
-through BASIC. And LIST the program.
Alter from line 70 as follows.
70 k=k+1
80 ifk<25 then 20
90 k=0
100 sys8192
110 forj=1to300: nextj
120 goto 20
Save it on disk as,
SAVE"PG120",8
or
DSAVE"PG120"
As there is no switch over with the
letter. We might try to expand the
ML. My next guess was that there
isn't anything important after our
first RTS at 200A. So, with a bit of
trial and error I Disassembled 2000
to 2012,
D 2000 2012 And from the next line
after 200A, I wrote essentially the
same program. Only at 200B -the
counter-part of 2000 "A9 03" has A9
09 for its trouble. RTS is at 2015,
the ??? at 2016 I changed to a BReaK
command for good measure.
Now, I am to change the basic prog.
So,
S"Pg121b",8,2000 2016
Saving...
X
LIST
change line 90 to
90 K=0: KK=1-KK
100 if k=0 then sys8192 :else sys
dec("200B")
Note, for quicker code. i.e. else
sys dec...
try, making the calculation before
the code, in a PRINT statement.
? dec("200B")
-in basic of course...
I get 8203, so you may wish to
remove the DEC... after SYS and type
the actual number -this is 8
commands on.
Now type,
SAVE"PG120B",8
You can give each program a better
more memorable name if you wish. The
USR function seems essentially very
similar -at this point to the SYS
command. But as a function is more
complicated. I have not used it in
place of the SYS command for the
simple reason that SYS works, having
been there first:. And I had to
experiment a lot to make loading the
assembled sub-routine from the basic
program work. But so as to not hold
any-one back in our process of
learning. The USeR function is given
in the companion book *Pg.120) as
follows:-
The USR function is an alternative
way to execute a machine language
program from BASIC. This function
can be used to pass a number or
string of letters to a machine code
program, as well as to execute the
ml.
However, you must store the start
address of the machine code program
in memory locations 1281 and 1282.
For instance, to execute our machine
code program using the USR command
we must carry out this procedure.
PRINT DEC ("2000")
The c16/+4 returns the number 8192.
This shows in DECimal where in
memory dear old TedMON holds his
Assembly!
Now I don't know how this is the
high byte calculation. I only know
the book I'm working from says it
is. So,
PRINT8192/256
32
READY.
POKE 1281,0 : POKE 1282,32
READY
X=USR(0)
Because it is a function it must be
used with a variable, in the above
format. The value in brackets is the
one passed to the machine code
program. Because we don't need to
pass a value to our particular
program, it does not matter what
value is used. The variable (x)
which is used will have a value
stored in it when the machine code
routine ends. -So, do not use a
variable which is already in use in
the program elsewhere.
The companion has reached the
closing paragraph for the chapter.
And I'm feeling I have gained some
understanding that I didn't have
before of ml. And especially how to
use TedMON. If you can get hold of
the book it is well worth reading.
There are more books of course but
this is the best start I found for
people with no knowledge to get
started. Where I felt let down is
the apparent reluctance of this and
other books (including those
specifically written to teach ML!)
to explain clearly and with examples
how to use a saved machine code
sub-routine in a basic program,
bearing in mind that both the main
basic program as well as the machine
code has to be loaded in again after
the machine is switched on. Learning
how to chain was something of a leap
of faith!
So... Good luck with that...
("hee-he-hee!")
I'm not that cruel -often! And as I
know there are people also
struggling on this. I am of course
including it, though tempted to
charge! Here it is in these pages.
After all, what use is either basic
or ml. without the ability to
interact!
OK. A bit Scooby-doo, but my first
clue came from that useful of all
sources. The c16 user manual. (Pg.
104 to be exact). This explains the
numbers after the LOAD, and confirms
that you can indeed use this
statement within a program. A
process known as Chaining. I knew
that the first number being either 1
for tape, or 8 for disk, but the
second number had been a mystery.
Just there! Ever since the
supplement from the original c16
explained that the only way to load
the four games that came as part of
the introductory pack (namely, in my
case; Chess, Rolf Harris Picture
Builder, Xzap, and Punchy) had to be
loaded thus,
LOAD"",1,1
I remember my dad calling the " ",
tick tick. As usual, I didn't have a
clue what he was on about at first.
But it seems easier than saying "two
quotation marks". -very posh!
The second number is labelled as U
for Unit, and known as the relocate
flag. it determines where in memory
a program is loaded. 0 is for
loading at the start of BASIC. That
is $1001. The part of memory where
basic naturally starts. 1 tells it
to load into the part of memory to
where it was Saved, $2000 in the
case of our machine code routine.
Default is 0. And usually only used
for ML prog's.
Things moved on from pages 120 and
121b. programs. Though 121b is still
the ml code called from basic. The
basic program had to be altered,
modified and generally experimented
on. So, for safeties sake 120b
became asm along the way. There were
other files including an
experimental 'loader' program which
tried to load both the basic and ml.
With various results from freezing
at the load command, (despite the
ml. having been loaded), basic code
that changed from what I'd typed in.
To one coloured dot in a random
place on screen before the program
stopped having not loaded the ml.
So, when I say it took a lot, it did!
The ASM file shows some of the
previously tried ideas, as well as
the way that worked. It seems you
can't load in the subroutine first
-at least not at this point of
knowing. And the screen will come up
with a round of dots then clear the
screen again before putting in the
letters and setting off with the
dots again. While a file called ASM1
tried to call the ml. first, at an
rts -having altered the ml, and
start area- loading in the ml at the
start. But this again just froze the
program. I don't know how ASM2
works. That is to say the in-program
load requires the sys command
somewhere near it. Here, I purposely
turned it off so that it could not
call the sub-prog in ml. -at first.
This is most like how it was when I
had to load the two programs
separately. ("aah!" how long ago
that now feels!)
I'm chuffed because I always wanted
to have background music in
projects. It just wasn't possible
before! I think though as much
ground has been covered, we'll end
there for now.
So, on with the listings.
THE AMENDED MACHINE LANGUAGE CODE (I
C)
MONITOR
PC SR AC XR YR SP
; 0000 00 FF 00 00 F9
D 2000 2016
. 2000 A9 03 LDA #$03
. 2002 8D 00 0C STA $0C00
. 2005 A9 80 LDA #$80
. 2007 8D 00 08 STA $0800
. 200A 60 RTS
. 200B A9 09 LDA #$09
. 200D 8D 00 0C STA $0C00
. 2010 A9 80 LDA #$80
. 2012 8D 00 08 STA $0800
. 2015 60 RTS
. 2016 00 BRK
THE AMENDED BASIC PROGRAM CODE (ASM)
10 REM POKE1281,0 :POKE1281,32
20 A$="PG121B"
30 B$="ASM"
40 REM LOAD (A$),8,1, 2000
50 REM LOAD"ASM",8,0
100 REM POKE1281,28 : POKE1282,153
1000 REM *ASM*
1010 REM *PG.109* *COMPANION*
1020 COLOR4,2,7:COLOR0,2,7:SCNCLR
1030 X=INT(RND(0)*999)+1
1040 C=INT(RND(0)*15)+1
1050 I=INT(RND(0)*6)
1060 C=C+I*16
1070 POKEX+2047,C:POKEX+3071,81
1080 K=K+1
1090 IFK<25 THEN1030
1100 KK=1-KK :K=0
1105 IF LL=0 THEN LL=1:LOAD"PG121B",
8,1
1110 IFKK=0 THEN SYS8192 :ELSE
SYS8203
1120 FORJ=1 TO 300 :NEXTJ
1130 GOTO 1030
FINAL BREAKTHROUGH 7 MARCH 2012
10 REM POKE1281,0 :POKE1281,32
20 A$="PG121B"
30 B$="ASM"
40 IF LL=0 THEN LL=1:LOAD"PG121B",8,1
50 IFKK=4 THEN SYS8192 :ELSE SYS8203
100 REM POKE1281,28 : POKE1282,153
1000 REM *ASM2*
1010 REM *PG.109* *COMPANION*
1020 COLOR4,2,7:COLOR0,2,7:SCNCLR
1030 X=INT(RND(0)*999)+1
1040 C=INT(RND(0)*15)+1
1050 I=INT(RND(0)*6)
1060 C=C+I*16
1070 POKEX+2047,C:POKEX+3071,81
1080 K=K+1
1090 IFK<25 THEN1030
1100 KK=1-KK :K=0
1105 IF LL=0 THEN LL=1:LOAD"PG121B",
8,1
1110 IFKK=0 THEN SYS8192 :ELSE
SYS8203
1120 FORJ=1 TO 300 :NEXTJ
1130 GOTO 1030
Along the way I renumbered the basic
code from pg. 109 of the companion
book. This was done as I blindly
searched for a way to load in the
programs from a program. It seems
basic loads out the old program, but
if there are numbers within numbers
in one program it may trip the main
program up. But as this was not so
much about learning to chain
programs, we can leave such for
another day.
LINES
10 - 30, (even to 100) are remnants
from previous experiments on loading
the ml. sub-routine in. Ideas when
looking through books and having a
go from vague comments that I'm sure
the authors understand. It turns out
you can use LOAD with a variable, so
long as that variable is assigned a
name$.
40-50 Early attempts to load in the
ml. on start up failed, so as you'll
see from the original ASM listing
these lines are modified here; the
idea from the plus 4 reference
guide. Another vague offering! So,
40 loads in our precious ml. It will
never do it again as the variable
upon which it is allowed to has been
changed. (Note: If the computer
encounters a LOAD statement within a
program, it will not only attempt to
load it, but then RUN it
automatically as well. *But as BASIC
comes first therefore that is being
run again.
50 Now to allow the computer
'closure', it seems we must offer it
a SYS command or it will refuse to
move. In this case we give it a
conditional offering. If the named
variable KK = 4 then it can run the
ml. However, it doesn't as we don't
want it yet. So it will skip it.
(Very logical of the makers of basic
to make sure there is this though!)
100 you will see is REMarked, and is
to do with USR which I haven't tried
yet. I was seeing if it would
unfreeze the comp. before I 'found'
the conditional operand. (ie.
figured it might work this way!)
1000 name over original.
1010 named prog.
1020 - 1070 is about the same as pg.
109 in the companion. Thus needs no
further explanation as they put the
random dots on the screen.
1080-1090 create a count so that the
repeat is interrupted. Currently set
to 25 but change this to whatever
you wish, if you wish.
1100 When the limit is reached the
program continues, instead of
jumping back. And we find that the
count we've used is reset. And we
again use a switch for the following
lines.
1105-1110 The latter having been
modified earlier to show the machine
code being called. Is therefore
already explained. Instead of one
SYStem call there are two depending
on the letter that is currently
flashing at the top left corner of
the screen.
1105 on the other hand was inserted
as that leap of faith I mentioned
earlier, when I was on the point of
woefully telling the editor I'd
bitten off more than I could chew.
In this program it is ignored due to
lines 40-50. But was essential
without them. It still only worked
to load in ml. once because once is
all that is required. After the
"program name",8 denotes that I have
used disk. Change this to 1 if you
are using tapes. The second number,1
tells the computer to load in the
program at the memory where it was
saved. By default this is 0 for the
start of basic. The Unit is called a
relocate flag. See the respective
manuals for more details.
1120 A pause on return to basic.
Probably unnecessary except for the
purpose of basking in glory!!!
1130 In case I have to explain this
line. It keeps the program going.
But if I did, you either haven't
been reading from Iss. 28 (on and
off), or I've wasted my time!
HAVING DONE ALL THAT
There's still more for the sake of
thoroughness. If you type,
NEW You only erase basic. The
assembled memory remains intact. To
prove it having typed NEW.
type,
SYS 8192
C flashes in the top left, control
is returned to basic again. As there
is nothing else down to do, we get
the prompt,
READY.
Incidentally, we could've called the
part of ml. that prints the 'I'. had
we wished. Now to clear this.
A reset is probably safest, though
any program needing that space would
probably just write over it.
Alternatively you can make it safe.
type the above,
NEW
after pressing return go to TedMON.
... ie. type,
MONITOR
D 2000 2016
The list will appear.
Option one. Go over each STA, each
LDA, RTS and so on in the list. type,
???
and space out any letters after.
And go down the list this way.
Or, we can use option two, and get
it all done with one command.
F 2000 2016 02
but! Remember to put the odd BRK in
here and there or the machine will
crash or reset. Still better to
reset anyway.
Happy Prog'ing
John Fielden
=====================================
*************************************
MY PERSONAL MEMORIES OF COMMODORE
By Commodore Free
*************************************
Sometimes a date sticks in your
mind; and when someone says to you
"oh were you on X date" you
immediately remember where you were
and are transported back in time as
if the event had just happened. The
news about the death of Jack is one
of those dates. When I heard the
Death of Jack Tramiel and was so
saddened by the news, and indeed it
took some time for the information
to sink in, It didn't occur to me
that Jack wouldn't live forever. I
went up to my "Man cave" after work
(computer room) and looked at all
the Commodore equipment I had and
said "Thanks Jack for all the
memories" it took some time for the
sad feelings to subside, and I was
quiet for some days, rolling over
the memories and sadness.
Sadly I never personally met Jack so
can't comment on him and his
personality, All I know is what Jack
left me, and the many memories I
have of Commodore and my Commodore
equipment. So in honor of Jack and
his family here is my story about
how Commodore touched me and how a
man with a vision changed my life. I
am sure as a reader you have your
own stories and they are possible
similar to mine.
SCHOOL
I never liked school, and it was
made worse for me by the fact that I
wasn't allowed to use the schools
computers. I think at the time these
were some form of Commodore Pets,
but as I never saw them and I can't
really be 100% sure. You needed to
be in the top math classes to use
them due to the complexity of the
machines (or so school thought). I
had friends who used them and
brought home homework from computer
lesions. I did this homework for
them in exchange for them helping me
with English and maths.
VIC
I used to buy Computer magazines
from our local newsagent; and had
read about the Commodore Vic20, I
can't remember the year but the
machine must have just been launched
in the U.K. as I do remember the
magazine had a full review. The Vic
was keenly priced and of course a
number one item on my Christmas
list. My Dad had a mutual friend of
the family who had just bought a
Vic20 and said he could show it to
us and explain how it all worked. So
we boarded the car and shot down to
his house to see this wondrous
machine. Not only did the machine
look beautiful it smelt new and felt
like touching gold. To be brutally
honest it seemed more like I was
demoing the machine to him; as I
loaded some of the games from the
supplied tape on the datasette and
then loaded Blitz bomber, and we all
played for what seemed like 1 hour,
until someone actually landed the
plain and a little ma came out
waving. My father's friend seemed
baffled at how to actually load
things, but with the research I had
done I managed to step up to the
mark and show off my skills. We all
played on the machine for a while
longer and thought was the most
amazing invention ever.
After some begging and saying I
would wanted nothing else, I somehow
convincing my parents that missing
out on a computer would hurt my
school work, especially English and
math's, they agreed to the purchase
of a Vic20 with datasette for my
Christmas present.
CHRISTMAS
Christmas day couldn't come fast
enough for me, I knew exactly what
to expect and although I did receive
other presents, I don't know what
they were as the Vic took over my
whole Christmas period. I remember
unboxing it and setting it all up on
a portable TV and a card table with
green top.
I managed to do some rudimentary
programming and I wrote a program
for the machine to display my name,
and then accept a key input and
print out the key pressed on screen,
I even managed to get the machine to
play out the tune "we wish you a
merry Christmas" although I think
some artistic licensing had to be
used for some of the notes and
rests. I also realized at that time
I would never make a programmer, but
I did have some sort of aptitude at
diagnosing problems. So maybe
something other than programming
would exist for me.
1541
I found Tape loading slow,
especially while I worked on things
like databases. So I decided to save
up for a disk drive, my savings were
also helped with birthday money and
doing odd jobs for family members
etc, basically anything I could do
to earn money for a disk drive I
did, and soon I was the owner of a
Commodore 1541 disk drive. The VIC
machine was a wonder to behold color
and sound like nothing else around
at the time. I know some friends
looked in envy at the machine.
COMMODORE 64
The Vic soon gave way to the
Commodore 64 and although I couldn't
part with the Vic (yes I still have
it today) the new Commodore machine
took over my life and it seemed my
whole being, everything I did was
revolving around the Commodore 64, I
would save for games read reviews of
games play games and use various
utilities, I even managed to haunt a
few bulletin board services were I
would chat and download the odd SID
file. A few fiends would meet at a
local computer meeting to worship
the gods that the club called
"hackers" these guys could take a
copy protected disk and by the end
of the meeting they had beat the
protection and they would have a
version they could pass around to
all the members of the club.
Now I come to think about the
process I thinks this was Not
exactly the right thing to do, and
yes I know it's not 100% legal
either. However If I played a game
and liked it I would buy the disk
just to physically own the thing, so
for me it worked as an advantage,
any games I disliked the disks would
be re-used so I suppose from me no
one actually lost any money from the
process. I did however still enjoy
loading from Tapes, as this was the
popular format in the U.K. with the
introduction of the fast loading for
the Commodore 64 I didn't have to
wait too long and the music and
loading screens made up for the
speed, I also still feel that even
now the anticipation of a tape
loading is well worth it.
SID
The thing about the c64 over the
vic20 was the sounds, the Sid chip
in the c64 was something special and
when programmed to an inch of its
life by people like Rob Hubbard,
well it was an instrument in its own
right and still is. I used to tape
game music onto audio cassette so I
could listen to it on my cassette
player, something I still do now!
only they are on Mp3 and flac files
and I usually listen to them in the
car. The tunes were so catchy and
the sounds so cool, I would even buy
games just because of the music. I
still remember loading "Monty on the
run" and listening to the music for
ages before even playing the game,
classic stuff!
I dabbled with programming as I
said, but realized I was no good!
and so had to find another method to
pay bills and forge out a life. I
left school and entered a day job I
went to college and qualified as a
carpenter/joiner, I worked for a
local company before being made
redundant and moved to another
company working as a joiner, but in
the back of my mind I wanted to do
something with computers, I didn't
know what, but just wanted to do
something. I seemed good at helping
others and explaining about machine
terminology, so was there a job in
this, My father purchased an IBM
compatible machine but couldn't
really work it, I studied the
machine and soon found out how to
trouble shoot problems and what the
Config and Autoexec files were for.
I also scored as a Drum programmer
in a local band, mainly because I
had an add-on for the commodore 64
that replayed sampled sounds. One of
the sound kits supplied sounded like
"neworder" blue Mondays drum kit so
I got the job! The band didn't last
very long and it was so frustrating
listening to drum sections over and
over and then re-creating them, but
at least when playing live it was
just a case of pressing a button and
then relaxing and looking cool! I
was soon called on to help others
setting up computers at home, tuning
in TVs loading files general helping
out really, this started to increase
and I thought, maybe I do have
something here.
At least this spawned my interest in
more musical add-ons for the C64
like the Fm digital sound expander,
midi cartridges and the purchase of
a real midi keyboard for my
commodore 64 to trigger the sounds,
very cool at the time. My
programming experience increased and
I could write some simple
applications, my favorite was a wall
paper estimator I still use this
today when decorating.
AMIGA
I moved to an Amiga 500 for a 21st
birthday present and again was
totally stunned by things like
tracker music programs, heck you
could sample bits and pieces and put
together your own remix just on 1
machine. I had always been musically
inclined having been taught the
piano from an early age and soon the
Amiga had an add-ons like me C64 in
the way of a Midi interface and a
copy of music X, My equipment grew
also with various keyboards and
sound modules being added and then I
purchased Drt`s KCs software and
again did nothing much but compose
music.
Some friends pestered so much I
actually made a few demos but rely
the music was for my own enjoyment.
As I was made redundant again I
thought I would try working as a
shop assistant or a PC technician as
I had built some IBM clones for
friends and diagnosed various
problems. I went for an interview
with Silica shops, after a
successful interview I worked as the
Amiga expert. I was promoted to
assistant manager then for a short
time as manager, it was around this
time Commodore filed for bankruptcy
and I realized that Silica wouldn't
be able to function without the
Commodore range of machines, so I
left and worked as a manager in a
local tool hire shop, then I moved
to my current position as a System
support engineer looking after
computer/printer/network and server
problems. If it wasn't for Commodore
some things would have never
happened. Using the Commodore range
of machines meant I was 1 step ahead
when it came to using machines and
finding problems.
Here are some of the things
Commodore gave me
1. Fun
2. my career progression
3. lots of friends, because I loved
computers and so did they
4. music
5. fascination about how machines
work
So it's a Bye Jack and thanks for
all of the above, you will be very
sadly missed!
Most of All thanks for bringing
Computers to the masses and not just
the classes and of course thanks for
Commodore and your visions of what
could be.
Nigel
Commodore Free (Editor)
=====================================
*************************************
INTERVIEW WITH JACK TRAMIEL
You Don't Know Jack!
*************************************
http://www.commodore.ca/history/peopl
e/1989_you_dont_know_jack.htm
Reprinted with permission from
www.commodore.ca
Presenter: I don't know if you like
computers or if you use computers
but computers are so much a part of
life that it's hard to resist them I
think and Commodore 64 is still the
best selling home computer in
Australia, in fact the whole world,
and my next guest is the man who
created the Commodore 64, Jack
Tramiel. He's now heading another
computer company which is called
Atari, he actually bought up the
company in 1984 and we'll learn
about that in a moment, but when he
took over Atari the company was said
to be losing an enormous amount of
money every day, but within only a
couple of years it was out of the
red, into the black, and Atari is
churning out more than 70-million
dollars worth of profit these days,
which is pretty healthy indeed.
Jack Tramiel is here in Australia to
open the PC '89 exhibition at
Darling Habour which starts today,
and he's given us a little bit of
time in the studio this morning.
Good morning.
Jack Tramiel: Good morning.
Presenter: We work our guests hard
when they come to Australia and
you're finding that out, aren't you?
Jack Tramiel: I do yes.
Presenter: You've had a very busy
time.
Jack Tramiel: But I'm enjoying it.
Presenter: Are you?
Jack Tramiel: Yes.
Presenter: Well I'm glad to hear
that. In fact we've got a line of
Americans in this hour of the
program which is interesting because
it's a lot of people from your part
of the world making their way to our
shores. Commodore 64 is big here,
it's big just about everywhere isn't
it?
Jack Tramiel: Yes it is.
Presenter: Did you really invent it?
Jack Tramiel: No I'm not the
engineer. I'm a businessman, but I
do know what the public wants and I
know how to bring technology and
people together. And by living in
Silicon Valley where the technology
was born I know it's available, I
know how to bring like I said people
together and sell volume to bring
the price down that the average
person can afford to buy. In this
we've made the 64 so successful.
Presenter: Commodore started out as
a fairly small company I think
didn't it? What did they start out
as?
Jack Tramiel: Well I founded
Commodore and that was in 1955 in
Toronto Canada.
Presenter: Where did you get the
name from?
Jack Tramiel: From the back of a
Opal Commodore of a car.
Presenter: It was as ordinary as
that was it?
Jack Tramiel: I was sitting in a
taxi cab and I was trying to get the
name for the company which I was
building, and I was really looking
to make it call it General, I'd just
come out of the army and I was in
the army for three years and seven
months, so I was looking for
something strong, so I was looking
for a name like General which I
couldn't get because it was taken.
Then I was looking for a name like
Admiral, and that was taken, and as
I was talking to a friend of mine in
the cab right in front of me this
car with the name Commodore. I said
well let's try this one.
Presenter: And that was it.
Jack Tramiel: And that was it.
Presenter: What a wonderful story, I
love it, I love it. We're back in
1955, let's go a little bit further
back, life started for you in
Poland, is that right?
Jack Tramiel: Yes I was born in
Poland, I was born in 1928, in 1939
the war started and that's the time
when I to a certain extent left
Poland. Auschwitz was still in
Poland but it was not Poland for me.
Presenter: When you were in
Auschwitz.
Jack Tramiel: Yes.
Presenter: For how long?
Jack Tramiel: I was in the camps
altogether for five years and a few
months.
Presenter: And then America?
Jack Tramiel: Then I spent two years
in Germany from April 10th 1945 till
November 19th 1947. In November 1947
I left Germany and went to the
United States.
Presenter: Did you have a lot of
money?
Jack Tramiel: I had absolutely no
money at all when I arrived in the
States, I'm Jewish, that's the
reason I was in camp, and a Jewish
organisation paid for my ticket and
they also gave me 10 dollars
spending money. And when I arrived I
was in a hostel like which was done
by the Jewish Immigration
Association and for three weeks I
had to find my own way and I started
to work for whatever job I could
find. But when I did arrive in New
York I did not believe that I'm in
the United States.
Presenter: Why?
Jack Tramiel: Because it was just
like being back in Poland, same
language, the area I was in it was
lots of immigrants and it had the
same smell of pickles and of herring
and all that which was very nice but
this is not what I came for. And I
made a decision that the United
States was extremely good to me, I
was liberated by the Americans and I
felt I wanted to learn more about
America so I joined the army.
Presenter: Where did you fight, or
did you not fight? Did you go to
Korea?
Jack Tramiel: No I didn't go
anywhere.
Presenter: You just joined the army.
Jack Tramiel: I joined the army and
it did me a lot of good to learn all
about America because it was a
peopledom. Washington State, from
California, from Texas and from New
York and black and green and white -
all kinds of different people, and I
found that America is not New York
City only, there is much more to it.
Then I left the army and after two
years and the Korean War started and
I was recalled, but I was still
lucky that I was not shipped to the
front and there the second time
around I made a decision that I'd
better learn a trade, and the army
gave that opportunity to start
repairing office equipment like
typewriters and adding machines etc.
And before I left I was in charge of
the First Army Office Equipment
Repair Department which we had
something like 25-thousand pieces of
equipment in there for repairs. And
when I left the army I actually
continued working in the same field.
Presenter: And that was the genesis
of your interest in computers.
Jack Tramiel: Correct. And so during
the day I was working in an office
equipment repair shop, at night I
was driving a cab to be able to feed
my family and after a while I
decided I'd better use my allowance
which I received from the United
States Army I was entitled to borrow
25-thousand dollars from the bank
with a government guarantee. And I
actually took that money and I
started my own business, my own
little shop. And after I have done
that I found that New York City in
which I was in the Bronx, it was
just a little too big, people were
too smart and 25-thousand dollars
which is not enough. And my wife had
lots of family, she's also a
survivor, also from Poland, and she
had a lot of family in Toronto and
we used to go there every once in a
while, so we decided to move to
Toronto. And there I repaired again
the typewriters and adding machines
in a company by the name of Sears
Roebuck liked my services and they
asked me if I'd possibly could find
a way how I could assembly a
typewriter for them. Being young
enough and foolish enough I figure
it's an easy task, as long as you
have money you can do almost
anything. Well I get 176-thousand
dollar loan from Sears and I started
to try to find a license to build
typewriters. Well no American or
West European country or company
wanted to give me a license, so I
wound up getting a license from
Czechoslovakia.
And I actually brought 50
technicians over the counter, we
started building typewriters. And we
built so many that we could not sell
them all in Canada and I had to
start exporting them back to the
States and that's the way Commodore
started.
Presenter: That's a fantastic story
and it tells me because you haven't
said this, but it tells me that
you're a man of great determination,
that you don't think that any
obstacle can get in your way. Do you
feel that?
Jack Tramiel: I don't feel that.
When I look back you know there must
be something you know. In the camp
that I told you I was in there was
10-thousand people in 1944, and we
moved from Auschwitz to Hanover and
when the war came to an end of these
10-thousand there was only 60 left.
Presenter: 60 individuals?
Jack Tramiel: 60 individuals from
10-thousand people. I was one of
those 60. So from there on nothing
was difficult to me.
Presenter: No, having survived that.
Jack Tramiel: Right. So I believe
when a person has a goal, when a
person is willing to work hard, the
person does not want to become rich
the same day but he looks at it in
the long term, he can make it. The
key is to give first and receive
after. We live in a society today
that's just the opposite.
Presenter: Everybody wants to take,
take, take don't they.
Jack Tramiel: Right now.
Presenter: Instant gratification.
Jack Tramiel: But if you are willing
to invest your time, your effort and
you're willing to serve society,
society will reward you in time.
Presenter: Extraordinary, an amazing
story. And you've got a very happy
face. Are you a happy person do you
think?
Jack Tramiel: Well a very happy
person because I, I'm just looking
at that in 1945 I was reborn, I
don't look back, I do remember but I
don't have any hate in me. I have
built a company, I have built a
family, I have three sons and four
grandchildren and they all know
about my background and about
success and they're all working
together with me, my three sons are
part of my company, and we are very
happy with what we've accomplished.
Presenter: Well welcome to our
country, I hope you have a happy
stay, and I hope they don't work you
too hard, not in this humidity
anyway.
Jack Tramiel: Thank you
=====================================
*************************************
JACK TRAMIEL, A MAN WHO
CHANGED THE WORLD
By Robert Bernardo
*************************************
The evening was over, and Jack was
leaving, but as he left, several
people were asking him for his
autograph. Heck! I wasn't expecting
that. I scrambled to the other side
of the Computer History Museum, to
the table where I had set up a
Commodore 64 display in honor of the
25th Anniversary of the Commodore
64. I disconnected the brown C64 off
that set-up and rushed back to where
Jack was. He was walking out,
surrounded by friends and fans.
I rushed up to him, "Mr. Tramiel,
could you sign my C64?" He
graciously smiled at me, took my
pen, and autographed the top of the
Commodore. "Thank you, Mr. Tramiel."
He and his retinue then continued
walking out the door with me
watching as they left.
Later, CBM engineer Bil Herd, who
also had attended the event, sent me
an e-mail remarking, "It was a
special night... very rare...".
History had been made. Jack Tramiel,
the leader of Commodore Business
Machines, had made a rare appearance
and had spoken at length about
Commodore. The auditorium had been
packed with his family members,
former employees, industry leaders,
news people, and fans like me, all
there to honor Jack Tramiel and
Commodore. There was much love and
respect shown to the man... standing
ovations... plenty of laughter and
smiles... everybody on the edge of
their seats to hear his words.
And I thought that there would be
another such celebration for Jack
and Commodore. After that December
night in 2007, I regularly checked
the Computer History Museum's
website to see if they would have
another Commodore night, another
appearance of Jack. Nothing. Every
year in the planning of the
Commodore Vegas Expo, I would create
the guest list, and our treasurer,
Dick Estel, one time flew the idea
about inviting Jack. How could I, a
measly person, do such a thing,
invite such a legendary character?
Dick said it wouldn't hurt to try. I
never tried.
With the release of Brian Bagnall's
expanded edition, "Commodore: A
Company on the Edge", in 2011, I was
anticipating the 30th anniversary of
the C64 in 2012. I was hoping that
Jack would make an appearance again
and speak about Commodore, and we
would honor his accomplishments. We
would laugh and smile and listen to
his words again.
On Monday evening, April 9, I was on
Commodore business; I was at Duncan
MacDougall's house in Santa Clara in
order to pick up a repaired Amiga
3000 computer. I waited in my car
awhile, and finally he showed up. He
opened up his garage workshop, and
as he dug out the A3000, he said,
"You know about Jack Tramiel dying?"
Jack had died the day before.
I was shocked. I was dumbfounded.
Forget about any repaired machine.
Duncan said, "I thought he'd always
be around." And I agreed... I
thought that Jack would always be
around, in the background, watching
over his Commodore creations and his
fans.
Duncan went on to talk about the
repairs he had made to the A3000 and
about other hardware matters, but
Jack's death weighed heavily on me.
I couldn't get over it. I left Santa
Clara for the long drive back to the
valley, and I was thinking about
Jack. For the next 5 days, I thought
about Jack, and I read all the news
and talk about his passing. Whereas
others were very vocal, I didn't say
much on-line. I suppose it was my
own form of mourning his death.
Whether as a hobby or in my work or
in my social life, Commodore had
been a significant part of my life
for nearly 30 years. Hence, Jack had
been a part of my life for nearly 30
years.
At the end of mourning comes
acceptance. I've decided that Jack
should be honored. The Commodore
Vegas Expo 2012 will be devoted to
his memory. My video of him at the
25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64
will be shown, Larry Anderson is
planning a Jack Tramiel-labeled wine
bottle, and photos of Jack will be
distributed to each attendee. The
30th anniversary of the C64 will be
a celebration of Jack, a man who
developed computers that affected my
life, that affected the lives of
millions of others, that affected
the development of all future
computers. Jack Tramiel, a man who
changed the world.
=====================================