|
Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #2 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
|
|||||||||
| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE CONTENTS...PART 1 CONTENTS...PART 2 NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM THE FORMAT OF CFDM |
| Back to top |
"ABOUT CFDM" COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated to those who still enjoy running under RS DOS. It will deal with that format exclusively. A primary goal is to keep the COCO community strong. By providing a unique means of communication, maybe old fires will be rekindled as you and I share our knowledge and experiences! The success of this effort depends on each one who becomes a subscriber. Everyone must contribute his/ her two cents in the form of articles, programs, opinions, experiences, etc. If this happens we will all look forward to the next issue. (Check out the manual with your starter kit for details on how to submit material.) Now let's have some fun!!! =* |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is the creation and property of Rick Cooper. It is distributed solely by RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE. The material which makes up each issue remains the property of the author(s) or contributor(s) unless an agreement has been made otherwise. COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated exclusively to those who enjoy the COCO3 operating under RS DOS. It is hoped that this publication will encourage the continued usage of our favorite computer. Neither CFDM nor RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE will be responsible for the submission or publication of any material that does not belong to the submitter. WE DO NOT ADVOCATE OR SUPPORT PIRACY! =* |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (6) "ABOUT CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE CONTENTS...PART 1 CONTENTS...PART 2 NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM THE FORMAT OF CFDM ABOUT THE COVER (1) THIS MONTH'S COVER...REFLECTING SUN ACTIVE COCO (1) A New Section for CFDM ADVERTISEMENTS (4) ATTENTION - 512K CoCo3 USERS => ____________________________________________________ CFDM ACCESSORIES CFDM SUBSCRIPTION FOR SALE ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (3) DISCOing WITH DSKI$ GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH LPOKE PEEKS & POKES COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (2) Country Music Mandelbrot Set FAMILY TREE (9) CoCoNut from Missouri DAVE OTIS => ____________________________________________________ GREETINGS! JERRY CRABTREE Jerry Tofte Paul H. Johnson ROBERTA C. SOWELL Robert Allen Turner Stuart Wyss-Gallifent FORUM (5) CoCo's Future HOW LONG WILL THE COCO LAST? Strengthening the Community THE NEXT FORUM (3) The Needy & The Greedy FROM THE EDITOR (2) (see CONTENTS PART 2) =* |
FROM THE EDITOR
KUDOS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (11)
CFDM...A GREAT IDEA!
COMMENT ON #1
CONGRATULATION
Can't Keep Up!!
ENTRY WRITER QUESTIONS
HARDCOPY SUGGESTION
HOW ABOUT ????
RESPONSES TO CFDM
SUGGESTIONS
THIS BUDS FOR CFDM!
What's a 250?
=>
____________________________________________________
POTPOURRI (7)
! THE GREAT DEMO CONTEST !
Another CFDM-Compatible RAM DISK
LIVELY LINES - A DEMO
NEW PROGRAM IDEA
RAMdisk
To Norman Barson & others
WISHING STAR
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (7)
BLOCKS1 READDOC
BYTE TUTORIAL 1 SCREEN DUMP FOR HSCREEN2
Hamtenna Trekkie Mission Simulation
NFL HELMETS
REVIEWS (5) =>
____________________________________________________
Basic Screen Editor
Good News About BSE
NEWSPAPER PLUS - Final Edition
RASCAN-3
TWO MINI REVIEWS
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (10)
ANS TO QUELLHORST INTERFERENCE PROBLEM
CURSOR CONTROL QUESTIONS QUESTIONS etc.
HELP FOR SEVENTH LINK RESPONSE TO GEORGE Q.
HELP WITH E.A.R.S. Submissions
Help Screen WHO LEFT OUT THE LOADER?
=*
|
NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM This second issue of CFDM has a new look and a new feel. A number of features have been added. Many are a result of suggestions from Friends! I hope you will enjoy them. Here's a description of each: KEY-CLICK and REPEATING KEYS: These two features are pretty much self-explanatory. The REPEATING KEYS are particularly helpful when moving thru menus. Just keep the arrow keys depressed to move more easily to your choice. If you do not like either of these two features, you may configure your "C.BAS" driver to turn them off. LOAD "C.BAS". To turn off REPEATING KEYS just EDIT line 150 to read 150 POKE &H7E,0:KR$ ="OFF". To turn off KEY-CLICK EDIT line 170 to read 170 POKE &H7F,0:KC$="OFF". Now SAVE "C.BAS". => ____________________________________________________ SYSOPS MENU : The SYSOPS MENU is an answer to the many requests I've had for the capability to KILL entries. It also allows you to "HARDCOPY" within CFDM. The other feature lets you copy the file from drive 0 to drive 1. To execute these features simply LOAD the file you wish to KILL, COPY, or LPRINT. Once the file is displayed to the screen you press the F1 key. The SYSOPS MENU will appear. Use the arrow keys and ENTER key to EXEC your choices. PRECAUTIONS: At first I hesitated to put these options in CFDM. They can be troublesome. Please use the SYSOPS MENU from a backup disk only. The COPY routine is useful only if you have a copy of CFDM in drive 0 and one to copy to in drive 1. => ____________________________________________________ To insure proper printing, be sure to set your baud rate in "C.BAS". CFDM comes with the baud rate set at the standard 600. To use another rate you must remove the two REMS. To use 1200 baud, remove the REMS in line 70. For 2400 baud, remove the REMS in line 90. For 4800 baud, remove the REMS in line 110. For 9600 baud, remove the REMS in line 130. Now SAVE "C.BAS" before running it. The startup screen allows you to see your settings. It also allows you to skip straight to the magazine by pressing the CTRL key. George Quellhorst suggested the number of entries in each section be placed in brackets by the section name. This number reflects startup values. =* |
THE FORMAT OF CFDM Each article in CFDM is limited to three screen
pages. A page is 16 lines with 52 characters per
line. Movement from page to page is executed by
pressing the CTRL key and then the page number (1,
2, or 3). When an article page is first displayed
or when moving to a new page, you will notice the
prompt in the upper left corner which says "ONE
MOMENT". This prompt occurs to let you know that
the page is being printed or adjusted. It also
occurs in ENTRY WRITER when you have pressed F1 for
delete or F2 for insert.
All entries in CFDM are text only. Graphics would
certainly be nice but you know how much disk storage
that would require!
=>
____________________________________________________
One feature that you can use for variety is the
text-color option. By pressing the CLEAR key you
can step thru the 64 available colors. The current
color will be saved and used when the article is
redisplayed. SHIFT and CLEAR lets you step thru the
colors in reverse.
You may edit the text of an article. First load the
original document. Next enter ENTRY WRITER and
select EDIT THE BUFFER. Make all the changes you
like in the usual manner. When you're finished
press BREAK. Choose SAVE from the SAVE MENU. Your
edited work will be saved under the same name. Your
old document will still be there too.
=>
____________________________________________________
There are three indicators to help readers travel
thru an entry. In the top lefthand corner you will
find the current page indicated. At the bottom of
each page we will find one of the following symbols.
(The meaning of the symbols are given.)
=> means there's another page.
=* means end of the article.
Adopt these symbols to help each user enjoy CFDM
even more.
I encourage submitters to use ENTRY WRITER in the
appropriate section for ALL submissions. THANKS!
=*
|
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| THIS
MONTH'S COVER |
| Back to top |
REFLECTING SUN Once in a while I like to paint sunsets. I
think no one will ever capture the true colors of
a sunset. Probably, by now, most of you have sensed
that I like wintertime. I do enjoy the picturesque
views that winter can give us.
I tried to paint a sunset at wintertime on the
computer, picked up COCOMAX 3, and then selected my
palette, and here's the picture.
This picture took about two hours to be painted
in order to get the right color combinations. I
hope you will enjoy this picture taken from the
Susquehanna River here in Central Pennsylvania.
James Gibbons
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| A
New Section for CFDM |
| Back to top |
A New Section for CFDM This new section of CFDM replaces the apparently
less worthwhile ADDRESS CORRECTION section. Here's
were we hope to place information about active CoCo
clubs, BBSs, and other organizations which promote
the CoCo. If you use a bulletin board or belong to a
club, please let them know about CFDM and how their
organization can take advantage of this free
service.
Here's what we'd like from clubs:
- Club name, address, and meeting place and times;
- contact person, address, and phone (time to call);
- interests and special features of the club.
- CFDM would also be interested in publishing the
minutes from an occasional meeting. =>
____________________________________________________
Here's what we'd like from your BBS:
- BBS name, location, access number, hours;
- Sysop name, voice contact availability;
- system parameters;
- cost, special features, orientation.
CFDM would also be interested in publishing any
special interest reports from your BBS.
Hopefully we all have the same common interest, and
that is the preservation and strengthening of our
CoCo community!
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| ATTENTION
- 512K COCO3 USERS CFDM ACCESSORIES CFDM SUBSCRIPTION FOR SALE |
| Back to top |
ATTENTION - 512K COCO3 USERS Do you like working REALLY challenging jigsaw
puzzles? Then you'll love PICTURE PUZZLER. Three
hours is an excellent time in which to complete
a 240 piece PICTURE PUZZLER puzzle.
The PICTURE PUZZLER's README instruction program
not only shows how to play PICPUZ, PICTURE PUZZLER's
game, but also includes the pricing schedule for
additional puzzles (you can even have pictures that
you created made into puzzles). PICTURE PUZZLER is
priced at $10 including shipping and handling. It
can be purchased from me at:
172 Dennis Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
=*
|
CFDM ACCESSORIES A very smart buy for single-sided disk drive users
is the flippie diskette. The SYNCOM PLATINUM SERIES
used for CFDM is a very good diskette....Rick
SYNCOM PLATINUM SERIES flippies........$8.00 per box
or
5 boxes SYNCOM PLATINUM SERIES flippies.......$35.00
MAILERS : plain white.........20 mailers for $7.00
SPECIAL: 2 boxes of flippies + 20 mailers....$20.00
PLEASE ADD $2 FOR S/H. COVERS ANY SIZE ORDER
RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE
P.O. BOX 276 Liberty, KY 42539
|
CFDM SUBSCRIPTION Is your subscription running out? Here's how to
check:
On your mailing label next to your name is a number.
The number after the last dash (-) is the last
issue on your present subscription. Please don't
let your subscription expire.
WHEN YOU RESUBSCRIBE PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR ENTIRE
SUBSCRIPTION NUMBER. THIS HELPS ME LOCATE YOU IN
MY DATABASE!
A single issue of CFDM is $6. A 6 issue subscription
is only $30 (a savings of 6$).
COCOs FOREVER!! =*
|
FOR SALE <<< FOR SALE >>> RS323 PAK WITH CABLE APPLIANCE CONTROLER MIDEVIAL MADNESS WITH PHASER CGP-115 PRINTER/PLOTTER DUAL DRIVE CABLE ALL ITEMS "LIKE NEW". FOR SALE OR TRADE. SEND ALL INQUERIES TO: JERRY CRABTREE P. O. BOX 2754 HUNTINGTON, WV. 25727-2754 =* |
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| DISCOing
WITH DSKI$ GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH LPOKE PEEKS & POKES |
| Back to top |
DISCOing WITH DSKI$ Talking about little-used or little-known BASIC commands, how about the DSKI$ command? Along with it's partner DSKO$, you can do some very useful programming! These two commands allow you to read and write to your diskettes sector by sector. I used an assembly language equivalent to store data on the CFDM disk in a more efficient manner than DISK BASIC allows. When using DISK BASIC you will store a file by granules (9 sectors). If your program happens to be 1 sector long, it will still be stored as if it was nine sectors long. This can be very inefficient! After I explain the DSKI$ command, you can use it to check out what is written on any diskette. You will most likely find large areas that do not => ____________________________________________________ hold useful information. Then check out the CFDM disk. After you pass track 7 you will find the data stored on almost every sector. Let's explain DSKI$: You've undoubtedly read that a CoCo diskette is marked off in 35 areas called TRACKS. These tracks are named by the numbers 0 thru 34. Furthermore, each TRACK is divided into 18 smaller areas called SECTORS. SECTORS are named by the numbers 1 thru 18. Each SECTOR can hold 256 bytes of data. (See my BYTE TUTORIAL I to gain a working knowledge of bytes.) The command DSKI$ (meaning DISK INPUT) allows you to get the contents of any sector on the disk. For example, to see what's stored on the 13 sector of Track 22, you would type the following: => ____________________________________________________ CLEAR 1000:DSKI$ 0,22,13,A$,B$:PRINT A$,B$ You need the CLEAR 1000 statement only one time. It sets aside an area in memory to hold the data you get from the disk. The 5 fields after DSKI$ stand for the drive # (0), the track # (22), the sector # (13), and two variables to hold the data (A$, B$). The PRINT command then prints the data to screen. The DSKO$ command allows you to write data to any sector on the disk. WARNING: DSKO$ CAN LEAD TO DISASTEROUS RESULTS IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL. PLEASE DO NOT USE DSKO$ ON A MASTER DISKETTE UNLESS YOU ARE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. The format for both commands are the same. (HAVE FUN WITH DSKI$! BE CAREFUL WITH DSKO$!) =* |
GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH LPOKE As a candidate for the most neglected commands
of the CoCo 3, I nominate LPOKE and LPEEK. In this
article we will see how we can use some intresting
effects to add a little spice to your program titles
and menus.
You may have seen characters poked into the
screen locations on the thirty two column screen.
The same thing can be done on the forty column
screen, using LPOKE.
Why take the time to do this when you can use
LOCATE and just type them in ? With this method you
can have them appear as if typed with an unseen hand
and at the speed you want. Also they can appear from
right to left, top to bottom, etc. For a sample of
this, run "NAME.BAS" and we will see how it's done.
Now run "LPOKE.BAS". This handy utility not =>
____________________________________________________
only gives you the LOCATE positions, but also the
LPOKE locations. Move the 0 with the arrow keys and
hold to repeat. Note the location at the top of the
screen. Write down the starting location and then
space one at a time the text you want to use and
write this location down. These are the locations in
line 30, reversed in line 70, and used in line 100.
Now find the ascii code for each letter from page
290 and 291 of the CoCo 3 manual and these will
replace the codes in the data statement in line 40
and reversed in line 90. Note code 32 is a space.
To see a sample title screen run "SAMPLE.BAS"
and note the special effect in the last line.
LPEEK can be used to make a better menu on the
forty wide screen in two columns. Run "MENU3.BAS".
and use the arrow keys to move up and down and =>
____________________________________________________
hold to repeat. Enter gives you the selection. For
your menu, edit line 50-70. Put your options in
lines 320 to 450. Additional options can be added as
needed by seeing how this is done in the sample. I
hope this will give you some ideas on how to use
LPOKE in your programs to add more intrest to your
titles and menus. Happy programming.
=*
|
PEEKS & POKES For anyone using the 32 col screen here are some
POKES that may be of some help.
POKE &H95AC,57:POKE&HFF22,PEEK(&HFF22) OR &H10
This POKE gives true lowercase letters.It can be
poked directly into the computer or used as a line
in your program.
POKE &H95AC,57:POKE&HFF22,PEEK(&HFF22) OR &H20
This POKE gives inverse video for a better visual
display.It can be poked directly into the computer
or used as a line in your program.
=>
____________________________________________________
POKE &H95AC,57:POKE&HFF22,PEEK(&HFF22) OR &H40
This POKE changes the border screen to a light
green.It can be poked directly into the computer or
used as a line in your program.
POKE&HADF5,12
This POKE allows use of the CLEAR key to stop or
pause program listings.It replaces using SHIFT ALT.
It can be poked directly into the computer or used
as a line in your program.It also works with any
screen width.
I hope these four POKES are of use to someone.
=*
|
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| Country
Music Mandelbrot Set |
| Back to top |
Country Music
I created the Country Music Theater Picture
to show people what they could visit when in the
OZARK mountains of Southwest Missouri. Springfield
is called the Queen City of the Ozarks and Branson
is working towards being the King of Country Music.
They now have at least 15 Country Music Shows
and are building about five new theaters in the next
two years. Name Stars from Nashville are all coming
into the area to perform and also to invest their
money.
I did a little Animation with the lights --
Hope you enjoy it.
=*
|
Mandelbrot Set
Some of you may have heard of a new scientific
approach called CHAOS. I'm no mathematician, and
certainly not a scientist, but when I read a book on
the subject by James Gleick I was intrigued enough
to investigate. It's the kind of thing that would be
impossible to do without the COCO.
The picture file MANDBROT is named for Mandelbrot,
the originator of a process used in the study of
CHAOS. Apparently, it's of interest to people who
study things like turbulent flow, long range weather
forecasts and other complex behavior patterns.
To create MANDBROT, cartesian grid coordinates
are used in equations, the result fed back in and
the process repeated, until the result reaches zero
or infinity, or until one gets tired!
=>
____________________________________________________
The screen pixel is given a color according to the
result. This is done for every pixel.
One might expect that two pixels very close to
each other would have similar values. No, it turns
out that there is no way to predict the ultimate
value of a pixel, without going through the actual
process of calculation. It can change dramatically
over very short distances in a complex way. If one
creates an image with higher resolution it will be
seen that the pattern repeats itself on smaller and
smaller scales, ad infinitum!!
That something so complex, and beautiful, can
come from such a simple process is fascinating to
me, but you will have to ask someone smarter what it
all means.
=>
____________________________________________________
The program used to create MANDBROT can create other
images such as Julia Sets. I call it SUPERGEN, and
it includes a full color screen editor for text and
graphics, disk I/O and other useful utilities, all
of my own design.
Because the COCO can open up a window on such
useful and fascinating subjects it is, to me, a
source of never ending pleasure and education.
If anyone has any questions that I can answer,
you might find me in the Family Tree.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| CoCoNut
from Missouri DAVE OTIS GREETINGS! JERRY CRABTREE Jerry Tofte Paul H. Johnson ROBERTA C. SOWELL Robert Allen Turner Stuart Wyss-Gallifent |
| Back to top |
CoCoNut from Missouri My name is Godfrey Moll -- I'll be 65 this
April and have been RETIRED for seven years. I have
a Degree in Chemical Engineering from Newark College
of Engineering (New Jersey Institute of Technology).
I worked for CIBA Pharmacuetical in Summit, NJ
for 20 years and then for SYNTEX Corp in Springfield
MO for 15 years and in Freeport Grand Bahama Island
for 3 years. The last 10 yeaars of my career were as
General Manager. In the Bahamas was where I had my
first CoCoI, Cassette Recorder, and CGP115 Printer.
Wrote letters that looked like they were on toilet
paper, played games, and recorded my finances.
When I left the Bahamas at the end of 1983 I
sold my equipment to my Secretary for her school age
daughter to learn on. I then upgraded to a CoCoII, a
DMP105 Printer and then later a Disk Drive. I now =>
____________________________________________________
own two CoCoII's, three CoCoIII's, and a DMP105, a
DMP130, and a STAR Rainbow Printer, two single Disk
Drives and a Dual Drive, along with two CM-8 Moni-
tors, and lots of other STUFF.
My main use is for letter writing to my three
children and their families in Cohasset,MA; Mukilteo
WA and Enterprise,AL. The Grandchildren in Enter-
prise have a CoCoII system also. They are now doing
most of their work on an IBM Clone -- gone modern.
We still play games to see who can get the highest
score. I also keep our financial records up-to-date
on the CoCoII. Been studying OS-9, but haven't been
too successful to date. Also have tried to go online
with DELPHI, but also lacked any real success.
Muriel and I spend 3 to 4 months each winter in
warmer climes -- past three in Panama City Beach =>
____________________________________________________
as it is only 88 miles from Enterprise,Al. I have
one of the CoCoIII systems with me, but only two
boxes of Disk Programs -- more than enough to keep
me busy.
I love to walk and try to do 5 to 6 miles each
day -- mainly to keep my weight under control as I
also love to eat. My kids think that I should write
a book about traveling on my stomach. Muriel and I
also love to travel -- been to HAWAII 12 times --
even spent one winter on the Island of Kauai!
I do not plan to go to an IBM system and there-
for am very happy that RICK is putting out a Disk
Magazine. I have not written many programs, but do
enhance others work. I try to do GRAPHICS and will
submit some CM3 Pics.
=*
|
DAVE OTIS 21 Valerie Avenue
Montpelier, VT 05602
(802)223-3190
Hi! I was born in 1923 in Lowville, New York,
moved to Burlington, Vermont when I was 14 and have
lived in Vermont, except for 3 years in the Army in
1943-46, ever since. I attended schools in Lowville
and Burlington and went to Middlebury College and
did some graduate study at the University of Vermont
in Burlington. I majored in Political Science and
did graduate work in Public Administration. I worked
for the State of Vermont for 25 years, most of it as
a Budget and Management Analyst. I retired in 1985.
I am married and have two daughters and a son, two
granddaughters and two grandsons. =>
____________________________________________________
My hobbies include: reading, writing, hiking,
antique cars (I have a very nice 1926 Model T Ford
Roadster Pickup), motorcycling (have a Honda CB350F
and a Suzuki GS650), sailing, cross-country skiing,
snowshoeing, camping, swimming, computing and
writing Basic programs for the Coco 2 and Coco 3.
I have a Coco 2 (DECB, 64K) and two Coco 3's
(one doesn't work - I tried to install 512K in it
and it never worked afterward). The one I use most
is a 512K Coco 3 with single disk drive. I have two
printers, an Okidata ML-92 and a Citizen GSX140. The
latter is a 24-pin machine capable of printing in
colors (exactly the same machine as the Tandy
DMP240). I use Telewriter 128 mostly, and also have
Simply Better (the Window feature is worth the price
of admission), Max-10, Coco Max 3, VIP Calc, Big=>
____________________________________________________
Basic (I could never get it to do anything worth
while for me), Packer (by Bob Van der Poel), etc.
I have written a few Basic programs, including
one to keep track of Lotto winning numbers and help
select sets of numbers to bet (I haven't won the
jackpot yet, so that should tell you something!), a
program to read ASCII files and display them on 80-
column screen, a wide screen disk menu program and
my pet, Typaline 80, a Basic word processor and
electronic typewriter emulator. I have written
versions for my two printers and for the DMP132 as
well as 32-character screen versions for the Coco 2.
I think the CFDM is a great idea and I wish it
well. =*
|
GREETINGS! Hi! My name is Mel Machesney. I live in Huntington,
West Virginia near where the Big-Sandy and Ohio
rivers meet to form the borders of KY,OH and WV.
I'm a retired chemist and am 71 years of age. I
got into computing as the result of my company's
gift of a CoCo as a retirement present instead of
the traditional watch; for which I shall be ever
grateful. Having never had anything much to do with
computers before, this has been a real challenge to
me and great fun. With the aid of Rainbow and the
manuals I consider that I have learned a lot but
have much more to learn about the CoCo. I have done
a little programming in basic and ml but nothing
that I would be brave enough to submit to anyone
else; and since I've bought my modem, hardly any at
all. Don't know whether thats good or bad. =>
____________________________________________________
One thing for sure, it has made my phone bills
higher.
My setup consists of a 512k CoCo3, 2 disk-drives,
MPI, Magnavox RGB monitor and a DMP-130 printer. I
subscribe to Delphi, membername:MELMAC.
HERE'S HOPING CFDM IS A GREAT SUCCESS!
=*
|
JERRY CRABTREE HELLO...My name is Jerry Crabtree. I am 40 years
old and live in Huntington, West Virginia with my
wife Dirithy and our 2 1/2 year old daughter Emily.
I am a radio announcer by vocation. I am currently
employed at a Christian radio station here in town -
WEMM. I am production director. I am in charge of
writing and producing commericals you would hear on
the air.
My system includes a CoCo 3, MPI, two drives, a '105
printer, composite TV and a host of add-ons.
My main interest is graphics. I use my DS-69 to set
up digitized pictures and have a host of files with
different formats and resolutions. =>
____________________________________________________
My current project is to complete a text graphics
simulation about running a radio station. Keep
your eyes open, you just might see it here on
COCO FRIENDS !!!
=*
|
Jerry Tofte Hi. My name is Jerry. I am a single guy, born,
raised, and living here in Portland, Oregon, a
small town of about 400,000+. My vocation is the
printing industry, and presently, I operate several
machines in my Dad's family-run print shop. I use
the term "family-run" because both my parents and
all my brothers and sisters (6 incl. me) are work-
ing or have worked there.
A few of my interests are playing strategy games,
sports of all kinds, collecting basketball cards,
and my COCO-3.
Some of the strategy games I enjoy are chess (al-
though I've never participated in any tournaments),
=>
____________________________________________________
a game called Make or Break (a Monopoly play-a-
like; Rainbow, June,'91), and Rick Cooper's COCO-3
Flags - a Risk play-a-like which I implore all of
you game-ists to try.
Although my skills are limited to the playground-
type game, I enjoy watching many different sports.
From the fast-paced action of basketball, the steady
grind of football, to the all-but-boring game of
golf, I love them all. Needless to say, I am very
proud of the Portland Trailblazers and I hope to be
celebrating with them, along with all of Portland,
in June, when they win the NBA title.
I am rather new at collecting sportscards, starting
my second year, and I am sort of =>
____________________________________________________
restricting myself to collecting only basketball
cards. It is a very exciting, and sometimes add-
icting, hobby that I enjoy. I find myself wishing
that I had started my collection years ago.
My first experience with COCO-ing was many years
ago with the MC-10 (remember those?). I upgraded to
the COCO-3 when a friend showed me the wonders of
extended basic. I am self-taught on the COCO and al-
though my knowledge in programming probably ranks as
a 2 to all of you 10's out there, with the help of
CFDM, the Rainbow, and a little of my own ingenuity,
I hope to someday master the machine we have all
grown to love.
=*
|
Paul H. Johnson Paul H. Johnson was born before WW2, and raised in
Denver CO, delivering a morning newspaper and avidly
perusing the front page to see the map showing the
current battle lines of the war. (His father was a
strong believer in simple given names for his kids
because of his own colorful moniker, but he has to
use the middle initial because there are at least 7
other Paul Johnson's in S.F. alone!)
In 1962, I moved to San Francisco and have been
here working as an Architect ever since, married
with no children, but a spouse who has over 150 of
them at the high school where she teaches.
512k COCO, 2 dual disk drives, and an Epson
FX-80 printer (no modem) are in my home office
upstairs, across the hall from the bedroom.
=>
____________________________________________________
Because of my short commute time, I have time to do
what I like most, programming on the COCO. Most of
my programs are for use in my work, like structural
beam design, surveying, solar angles, perspective
drawing and the like. I usually use BASIC because
speed is of no importance, and ease of modification
is. I painfully resort to ML for screen dumps, of
which I've written several.
A program most used is a Grade Record keeping
program for my wife. It's amazing how little
argument she gets from students when their grades
are generated by a computer! I use Telewriter 128
for all correspondence and documents, and have
extensively modified database and spreadsheet
programs obtained from the RAINBOW.
=>
____________________________________________________
It seems to me that most people are conned into
buying far more computer than they'll ever use, and
they get turned off when they have trouble handling
the unnecessarily complicated operating systems.
Unless someone comes up with graphics capable of at
least a couple thousand pixels per line, I don't
anticipate needing any more than the good old COCO,
without OS-9. I don't want the operating system to
interfere with my work.
Paul H. Johnson can be reached with the usual
SASE, or from 9:00am to 9:00pm, at:
1463 Willard Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 681-1463
Good start, Rick!
=*
|
ROBERTA C. SOWELL HELLO FROM THE LAND OF AHS! MY NAME IS ROBERTA
C. SOWELL AND MY HUSBAND, CHARLES, AND I LIVE IN
OSAGE CITY, KANSAS, A TOWN OF 2500 OR SO, LOCATED
ABOUT 35 MILES SOUTHWEST OF TOPEKA, THE CAPITOL OF
KANSAS. WE LIVE ON THE EASTERN EDGE OF THE FLINT
HILLS. CONTRARY TO WHAT MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE, KANSAS
IS NOT ALL FLAT!
I AM AN OFFICE CLERK FOR NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE
COMPANY IN TOPEKA. I HAVE ABOUT AN HOUR COMMUTE
EACH WAY BUT THE BENEFITS OF LIVING IN A SMALLER
COMMUNITY MAKES UP FOR THE DRIVE. I GREW UP ON A
FARM AND DO NOT CARE TO LIVE IN A LARGER CITY.
MY INTERESTS ARE READING, QUILTING, SEWING, GARDEN-
ING AND MOTORCYCLING, BESIDES THE COCO. WE HAVE =>
____________________________________________________
MADE A FEW TRIPS ON OUR MOTORCYCLE WITH MANY HAPPY
MEMORIES AND A FEW CALAMITIES ALONG THE WAY! WE
HAVE BEEN STRANDED IN OMAHA, ARKANSAS AND AT OLD
FAITHFUL IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
I ORIGINALLY BOUGHT MY COCO III IN ORDER TO ORGANIZE
MY QUILTING PATTERNS, QUILT MAGAZINES AND MY LIBRARY
OF BOOKS. I ALSO WANTED TO TRY DESIGNING SOME QUILT
PATTERNS. HOWEVER, I HAVE YET TO DO ANY OF THIS.
I ALSO COLLECT RECIPES FROM MAGAZINES AND THE
NEWSPAPERS AND THANKS TO A PROGRAM FROM "RAINBOW",
I HAVE MANAGED TO GET MOST OF THESE ON DISKS. I JUST
DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO DO EVERYTHING I WOULD LIKE TO
DO WHEN THERE SO MANY THINGS I HAVE TO DO (SUCH AS
HOUSEWORK AND WORKING A FULL TIME JOB!). I HAVE 15
YEARS TO GO BEFORE I CAN RETIRE AND DO THE =>
____________________________________________________
FUN THINGS FULL TIME. MAYBE I'LL BE ABLE TO TAKE
EARLY RETIREMENT. I HOPE MY COCO WILL STILL BE
WITH ME.
=*
|
Robert Allen Turner Hello fellow CoCo user's. I am a self-taught
programmer & I have been programming for about 11
years. I started programming in 1980 by learning
to program the Intel 8085 microprocessor & then the
Zilog Z-80. My first home computer was the now
defunct Timex Sinclair 1000. In 1983, I purchased
my first Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer 2 and
ever since, I have been hooked.
I am recently divorced, but my ex-wife and I still
maintain a friendship & we both love our young son,
John Eric Turner. I have a total of four years in
electronics training and I am currently developing
CoCo hardware. Any suggestions/wish lists solicited.
=*
|
Stuart Wyss-Gallifent Hi there ! I am 22 years old and have been programm
ing for about 9 years. My first computer was a CoCo
2 that I hooked up to a 19 inch off-color t.v. Now
I am the proud owner of a CoCo 3 and a couple of
Coco 2's.
I was originally born in Switzerland, and I grew up
in England, moving to America in 1981.
My other interests include Ham radio (call sign is
KA3PLA Tech with code), photography, singing and
playing the guitar.
I am actively involved in my church and its youth
group.
=>
____________________________________________________
I am studying to be an elementary school teacher
and will graduate with a B.S. degree in May of 1992.
Oh, my computer system is a CoCo 3, a Zenith RGB
monitor, two disk drives and a DMP 105. I also own
a Zoom 2400 modem that got struck by lightning and
now won't recognize the phone dial tone or go on
hook. It is a pain to use, but still useable.
I work part-time at Roy Rogers and up to Christmas
worked at Radio Shack also.
I enjoy writing programs for the CoCo and figuring
out how other programs work so that I can modify
them to do what I need them to do.
=>
____________________________________________________
If you have any technical or programming questions
about the CoCo 2 or 3, I can at least try to answer
them. I'm not Marty Goodman, so I don't even
pretend to know everything! But at least, ask!!!
I guess I'll check out the Questions column every
month.
My address is 2123 Longview Road
Warrington, PA 18976
It may change in June of 1991.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| CoCo's
Future HOW LONG WILL THE COCO LAST? Strengthening the Community THE NEXT FORUM (3) The Needy & The Greedy |
| Back to top |
CoCo's Future I agree with something I read on Delphi recently:
Why go from a computer I know a lot about to one I
know little or nothing about? I would have to start
from the ground up learning about the new machine. I
have owned CoCos, and ONLY CoCos, since 1981. It
makes you think, and wonder if you REALLY want to
take on all that work. Oh, sure, it's always fun to
have something new and different. But you have to
do a lot of studying and trial-and-error to get your
new equipment to work together. Think about it.
=*
|
HOW LONG WILL THE COCO LAST? THE COCO COMMUNITY MAY SPLIT APART AND FRAGMENT
INTO DIVERSE GROUPS, VENDORS MAY FAIL AND THE
RAINBOW MIGHT STOP PRODUCTION BUT I WILL USE MY COCO
UNTIL THE LAST CHIP OVERHEATS AND THE DISK DRIVE
GRINDS ITSELF INTO NOTHINGNESS.
A FRIEND OF MINE OWNS A COCO AND I WILL CONTINUE
TO TRADE PROGRAMS WITH HIM NO MATTER IF WE OWN THE
LAST TWO WORKING COCOS. THE IRONIC THING IS THAT THE
COCO IS NO LONGER AS POPULAR AS IT ONCE WAS BUT I
USE IT MORE OFTEN NOW THAN IN PREVIOUS YEARS.
AND WHEN THE TIME COMES AND MY COCO FINALLY PASSES
ON IT WILL LEAVE BEHIND MANY THINGS. IT TAUGHT ME
HOW TO PROGRAM. IT GAVE ME HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF
ENJOYMENT PLAYING GAMES. THE COCO ALSO HELPED ME
TYPE IN PAGE AFTER PAGE INTO A WORD PROCESSOR.
=>
____________________________________________________
UNTIL THE FINAL SAD DAY I WILL CONTINUE TO USE
MY COCO, SUPPORT RAINBOW, SUPPORT CFDM AND PURCHASE
SOFTWARE FROM OTHER VENDORS. I WOULD GLADLY SPEND
MONEY ON MY COCO FOR THE NEXT DECADE TO COME.
=*
|
Strengthening the Community What am I doing to help keep the COCO community strong? First off, I'm staying with the COCO! As recent as today I stopped at the local 'Shack' to look over again that great offer on a 386 running at 25 mhz with all the bells and whistles. I've also looked at similar deals recently at non-Shack stores. I'm telling you, prices are coming down! Down to what? Well the 'Shack' deal is ONLY about 1300 bucks and the other stores I've been in have great deals for even less than that. Sure I'd like to have a PC. But, I really do not NEED one. I mean, my COCO does just about all I want to do. I would like to have a 100 meg hard drive...who wouldn't. But heck, I lived with tape drive for 7 years and made out pretty good. I graduated to heaven when I got my two => ____________________________________________________ floppy drives a couple years ago. I even use OS-9! When I bought it I was gonna do great things. Well I am...I use OS-9 for 'DYNACALC' cause there isn't a better spreadsheet program for the COCO. And I don't even need a hard drive for it. If I could find a better word processor than 'TELEWRITER 128' that would run under OS-9 that would be two things I could use OS-9 for! Then there's database programs. There must be as many of them for the COCO as there are checkbook programs. Like most of you I have even taken to modifying database programs to simplify them for just a particular application; separate database programs for each application. We're in heaven, guys and gals! I use spreadsheets rather extensively and Lotus 1-2-3 couldn't do => ____________________________________________________ it any better than 'DYNACALC'. We all use wordprocessors. We get our writing done just as well with our 'TELEWRITER 128s' and 'SIMPLY BETTERs', etc. as anything available on a PC. And databases; my gosh everyone uses them. I haven't found an application for a database yet that I couldn't solve with my COCO. Yessir, I'm gonna stick with my COCO. I can do it all with my machine. I'm even going to start using my COCO MAX III and maybe I'll get a picture I can submit to CFDM. Now that I think about it...maybe I'll part with a small portion of that 1300 bucks the other guys want for a new machine, and get me a hard drive for my COCO. Now that really makes sense! You got money to burn? Go out and buy a hard drive for your COCO. You don't need a new machine! =* |
THE NEXT FORUM (3) The Forum is always open to anything that may be of
interest to you. I will try to come up with an idea
each issue to get you started, but feel free to use
your imagination!
From the time I wrote my first BASIC program, back
in 1981, I have always felt that the greatest reward
was sharing my programs with others. Even though my
audience is not always as inclined to receive as I
am to give, I still love to show-off my latest work.
Due to the lack of someone to share with, I must
admit that there have been times that I thought I
had written my last program. Somehow I always got
back to the CoCo and started again.
=>
____________________________________________________
And now CFDM! My fires are rekindled! During the
last two months I have put in at least 30 hours per
week. Sometimes I have had to take a break. Early
this week, after writing a program for about twelve
hours, I could barely keep my eyes open! When I was
finished I could hardly wait to get that program in
the mail to a CoCo Friend!! Now I eagerly await his
response to a program that will surely make his job
easier and more enjoyable! The acquaintance of that
Friend was made due to CFDM.
The theme of this next topic is: Has CFDM made a
difference in your CoCo life as it has in mine? Are
you spending more time at your computer? Are you
finding that you don't have enough time to complete
all the projects that are springing up in =>
____________________________________________________
your rejuvenated soul? If any of this describes
your experience, tell us about it...WHAT EFFECT HAS
CFDM HAD ON YOUR COCOing?
If we get some meaningful responses to this topic, I
will use some in CFDM and put some in a future ad in
RAINBOW. (PLEASE PUT YOUR PERMISSION IN WRITING!)
Those used in the RAINBOW ad may be exerpts due to
the limited space.
COME ON NOW FRIENDS! TELL US ABOUT IT!
(I already know from conversations and letters that
this applies to many of you. In my mind's eye I
have seen your eyes widen and heard your heart
pounding!!) =*
|
The Needy & The Greedy Many years ago, at a large sales seminar, a multi-
millionaire was asked: "How much money is enough?"
His reply was: "Just a little bit more!"
There used to be two classes: the poor & the rich;
forget about the middle class, they never existed!
Today, anyone who makes a dollar more than you is
rich. So much then for the "middle class".
I choose to call the two classes the Needy & the
Greedy. That says it better.
Relative to computers, the CoCo user may have a good
income, and needs to have a "home computer" for the
children, who will later need much money for a
college education. When Greed prevents this =>
____________________________________________________
they must forgo having a home computer. So, Tandy,
how about a $199k CoCo 3.1?
=*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| FROM
THE EDITOR KUDOS |
| Back to top |
FROM THE EDITOR Hello CoCo Friends! This past month has been a real experience for me. Ups and downs seem to appear almost daily! In other words there's been good news and bad news. First I was able to mail out a seemingly good CFDM about two weeks early. Then I begin to find out that not all disk controllers are created equal. Problems with disk I/O seemed to be caused by the speed I had duplicated CFDM with. The speeding up of some disk drives seem to solve disk I/O. But that wasn't the problem. It seems that a little routine that had worked with my drives would not work with many of yours. So I eliminated that code, reproduced a new diskette for everyone and mailed them out. (Thanks to my wife Donna for her patient assistance!) => ____________________________________________________ Second, some users found gobblety-gook at the end of the last entry under QUESTIONS & ANSWERS. (This did not happen with some users.) The problem was that I was not properly loading the last sector of the DIR. Evidently some controllers were putting data there that appeared to be more directory. Others did not. The problem has been solved. Third, I had worried about participation by the CoCo Friends. Not to worry, INPUT HAS BEEN GREAT!! And... it is amazing the amount of talent you possess. We have already received some great graphics, programs, and documentation. It's already getting competitive! Let me make this perfectly clear -- If you do not find your submissions in this issue, it's not a case of them not being good enough...WE JUST DIDN'T => ____________________________________________________ HAVE ENOUGH ROOM!! Some Friends submitted more than one great program! Look for them in a near-future issue. Also look for comments, reviews, Q & A, etc. One problem has arisen that I should mention. We have had some terrific big (multiple file) programs. One was two disk sides long! It had graphics and digitized speech. But...they are just too big. We feel that everyone deserves a little space. So..... please be aware that small (1 gran) to medium-sized (5-8 grans) programs will have a better chance at being published!! In summary, YOU HAVE BEEN GREAT!! Please continue to PARTICIPATE. And PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT CFDM! =* |
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|
CFDM...A GREAT IDEA! DEAR RICK-
I RECEIVED THE STARTUP KIT AND TWO DAYS LATER
RECEIVED THE FIRST ISSUE. I THINK THIS IS A GREAT
IDEA AND ENJOYED THE FIRST ISSUE VERY MUCH. I AM
ENCLOSING MY CHECK FOR MY SUBSCRIPTION.
I AM VERY GREATFUL FOR THE ADDITION OF "HARDCOPY".
I LIKE TO HAVE THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GAMES IN
FRONT OF ME WHEN I'M LEARNING. I ALWAYS MANAGE TO
FORGET WHICH KEY I NEED TO PRESS. ALSO I WAS ABLE
TO PRINT OUT ARTICLES TO READ THAT I WAS UNABLE TO
ACCESS TO THE SCREEN.
I AM NOT A PROGRAMMER AND I HAVE YET TO DRAW MY
FIRST PICTURE SO I'M NOT SURE HOW MUCH I WILL BE =>
____________________________________________________
ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE. I ENJOYED THE ARTWORK AND TRIED
THE GAMES IN ISSUE ONE AND THE STARTUP KIT.
LIKE TED KITSOS, I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO SEE ARTICLES
TEACHING BASIC CONCEPTS AND OTHER TUTORIALS FOR
THOSE OF US WHO ARE SEMI-BEGINNERS.
THANK YOU.
=*
|
COMMENT ON #1 I LOVE THE HARDCOPY PROGRAM! IT WORKS GREAT AND
I FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE READING A PRINTED PAGE
RATHER THAN A TV SCREEN. COMPILE THE PAGES TOGETHER
AND YOU HAVE A MAGAZINE MINUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE REST OF MY LETTER WAS TO BE ABOUT PROBLEMS
I HAD WITH LOADING PROGRAMS ON THE OLD DISK. GLAD TO
SEE A BRAND NEW DISK ARRIVE IN THE MAIL, ALL
PROBLEMS CORRECTED. AND I THOUGHT MY DRIVE WAS ON
THE FRITZ. SENDING THE DISK OUT SHOWS THAT YOU
REALLY CARE.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND HERE'S TO A LONG LIFE.
Rick: Thanks Andrew, and I hope you like the new
"HARDCOPY" feature!
=*
|
CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations, Rick, on your first issue of CFDM!!
You deserve an A+. It has been a long time since I
derived so much pleasure from reading a computer
magazine. Your first issue bodes well for the
SURVIVAL and REVIVAL of interest in the CoCo 3.
=*
|
Can't Keep Up!! Hi Rick: Gosh, you guys are too quick for me. I
stopped learning OS-9 cause it was interfering with
my HAM RADIO. Now I spend a week or so using
'HARDCOPY'(a great program..thank you very much) to
read the inaccessible parts of CFDM (first issue)
and composing a letter to you all about it and along
comes a new copy with all straightened out. That's
great, but my letter was shot to &%$#&.
Boy, did I love that first issue, though. I knew
if there was going to be any success we could count
on you, Rick. Now I've got to get busy and dream up
some submissions to help keep things going. MORE
TIME LOST FROM HAM RADIO!! Well, I'll get crackin'
and try. Best wishes and good luck.
Herb Schuler =*
|
ENTRY WRITER QUESTIONS Dear Rick,
I like your ENTRY WRITER routine, and it's obvious
you've spent a good deal of time on it. I have only
two questions:
1. How can one erase a file, once it has been
saved?
2. How easy would it be to make the arrow keys
repeat, to speed up cursor movement?
Thanks,
Paul
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Paul please checkout the NEW FEATURES entry
in the ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE section. You
will find that killing files, hardprinting files and
copying to drive 1 are now available with CFDM.
As to your suggestion for repeating cursor movement
on the menus: I liked the idea and have added that
feature too. Key click has also been added. Those
who do not care for these features may configure
their "C.BAS" driver to turn them off.
Other suggestions have asked for a HARDCOPY option
from within CFDM (okay, I've added that too.) (You
Friends sure are creative!!) Some want to use their
personal word processor to prepare their input. =>
____________________________________________________
I have mixed feelings about that. Reason number one
is that I don't own most word processors and am not
familiar with how they store files. This suggestion
may be possible but I don't know about it for now.
Reason number two is that I believe ENTRY WRITER is
very adequate for the job and it's certainly easier
for me to transfer your input since I'm familiar
with it's makeup. I understand that learning any
new program takes a little time...but let's wait
awhile and see how you feel after a couple more
issues.
=*
|
HARDCOPY SUGGESTION Modify and incorporate the program "HARDCOPY" into the "CFDM". So I can view that section and, if I decide, press a key to print a hardcopy of it. I would rather be able to load "CFDM" with my word processor, as I am familiar with its operation. Then all subsequent related articles can easily be categorized and/or incorporated. Your six programs used 66 grans. Would the same amount of text in a word processor format use any more? I like the Ham Radio information stuff, keep it up. Rick: Thanks for the suggestions and comments. Let me try to give an overview of the CFDM disk. PRINT FREE(0) instruction might lead one to believe => ____________________________________________________ that all the disk space except for 2 granules have been used. This is not the case at all. And as I hope you will soon see, the CFDM disk is using the disk space in a pretty efficient manner. Please consider: Side one of CFDM has 54 granules of disk space marked as used before any of the utility programs or driver is placed on the disk. The reason for this is that 54 granules are reserved for the entries of the magazine. The entries are the 66 (I believe it was) articles, Q & A, program documentation, family trees, etc. found in issue #1. Of those 54 reserved granules only 42 granules + 4 sectors were actually used. Over 11 granules were unused. Since a simple compression routine was used to store the => ____________________________________________________ entries, I think you will find them more efficiently stored than any word-processor stores it's files. One highly useful programming technique has become a trademark of CoCo programmers. That is efficiency of memory usuage and efficiency of coding. Computers with vast memory has not required their users to learn efficiency. Lastly, the 6 filenames you see when you do a DIR on side one, use only 14 of the remaining 16 granules of disk space. Included are the Basic loader "C.BAS, NIBLOADR.BIN (required for loading the cover picture which is save in NIB format), "CCFRONT.NIB" (the cover picture), "CUTILS.BIN" (the code that does everything in CFDM), "FONTS.BIN" (the two type fonts used by CFDM), and "PATCH". =* |
HOW ABOUT ???? RICK,
I noticed in the "Family tree" section, that not too
many people are actually involved in writing their
own programs, but perhaps would like to be.
The manual that comes with our mutual friend,
unfortunately does not offer much incentive to get
one started, it just seems too complicated.
I could, if you wanted me to, perhaps guide CFDM
friends through the process of writing an actual
program or game. Step by step by step. Perhaps over
a five or six month period.
For example the game pyramid, (RNB.5-91.pg.78) =>
____________________________________________________
Or perhaps a totally new game or program.
Another idea would be to examine uses for BASIC
commands and/or functions that are not mentioned in
the manual. I.e the INSTR function.......
Let me know what you like.
Rick: George I would love to see you do both. How
about you CoCo Friends. Of course we don't want to
overwork you, but we have had requests for tutorials
on the BASIC commands. I thought about a series
which ended up with all participants having a useful
finished product. I would be more than willing for
you to take on that assignment! So, feel free =>
____________________________________________________
to begin your feature series. I think I can speak
for all, "We can hardly wait!!"
=*
|
RESPONSES TO CFDM HERE ARE JUST A FEW EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS I'VE
RECEIVED ABOUT CFDM. I'VE ENJOYED EACH AND EVERY
ONE!
I was impressed by the STARTUP disk and then really
impressed by the first month's issue of CFDM.
....Clarence Bowers, OH
I was very pleased with 1st issue. I took the START-
UP KIT & 1st issue to our CoCo club meeting. I think
you'll hear from a couple of the fellows.
....Kraig Scott, SC
..definitely be looking forward to future issues....
Currently I am working on the Submission Disk.
....Scott Baldridge, PA =>
____________________________________________________
..Sure hope you have success with this. It's great
fun....Mel Machesney, WV
I like it! I like it!.....John Pendleton, MO
I think it is an exciting project..Brad Swanson, IL
I received the CFDM the other day, and all I can say
is that it is the best thing since sliced bread.....
Rick I am impressed...Colin North, Australia
I thought the first issue was great and am looking
forward to the next..expecially like the informality
of the writing by various people. Keep up the good
work.....Norm Barson, NJ
=>
____________________________________________________
...received a copy of your advert for CFDM from my
friend Keiran Kenny in Holland. His opinion was that
I, as editor of COCO-LINK Magazine, would be
interested in your product..he was correct..decided
to include a copy of your advert..in our next issue
of COCO-LINK..I would like to wish you the best of
luck in this venture and if you feel that I can be
of any assistance .... please feel free to contact
me...Robbie Dalzell, Editor of COCO-LINK Magazine,
South Australia
I am .. years old and just a beginner with CoCo 3...
You have so much on one little floppy disk - I can't
believe all the wonderful things you have on it! I
spend hours going over and over..Harold Moenich, PA
Thanks Harold! That one made my day..Rick =*
|
SUGGESTIONS OS-9 is great for some, but not all. For those who
don't have the time to study it, or find it hard to
comprehend it, let's not overdo it with CFDM.
Remember K.I.S.S. still has a lot of merit.
Also, I have both a CoCo 2 & a CoCo 3, but many of
your friends only have a CoCo 2. So I suggest we
try to include these CoCo Friends. Amen.
Rick: It is not the intention of CFDM to leave any
of our CoCo Friends behind. The reality of the
situation is CFDM requires the CoCo 3 for execution.
About the only thing I can suggest for those who
would wish to join us is to help them find a CoCo 3
keyboard at a reasonable price. I would =>
____________________________________________________
really appreciate and be open to suggestions from
Friends or anyone who can come up with a way we can
help those Vic mentions!
=*
|
THIS BUDS FOR CFDM! DEAR RICK,
YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND SOME GARBAGE IN THIS SECTION.
AS I HAVE HAD SOME DIFFICULTY WORKING WITH IT. NOW
THAT I THINK I HAVE THE HANG OF IT, I'LL INTRODUCE
MYSELF. I AM BUD LEWIS, RETIRED SECONDARY SCHOOL
TEACHER, PROUD OWNER OF A SECOND-HAND CC3,512. MY
WIFE USES IT MAINLY TO INDEX ARTICLES IN HER HORSE
MAGAZINES AND TO PLAY SOLITAIRE. (SHE USES MAX-10
FOR THE INDEXING, AND I USE IT FOR CORRESPONDENCE
AND ON OCCASION FOR OTHER WRITING SUCH AS RECORDS.)
MAX-10 IS NOT PERFECT, BUT IT IS EASY TO USE AND IS
QUITE COMPLETE AS A WORD PROCESSOR. I HOPE TO HAVE
TIME TO WRITE A REVIEW IN TIME TO SUBMIT IN CFDM'S
NEXT ISSUE. =>
____________________________________________________
I QUITE AGREE WITH YOU THAT RAINBOW HAS SHIFTED FAR
TOO MUCH INTO THE OS-9 SYSTEM AND INTIMATING THAT
THE TIME OF THE SO-CALLED CC4 IS UPON US. SOUNDS TOO
MUCH TO ME LIKE IBM'S (AND OTHER'S, FOR THAT MATTER)
SUGGESTIONS THAT ONLY THE NEW MACHINES AND SYSTEMS
ARE WORTH BOTHERING WITH. AND I APPLAUD YOUR GOAL OF
PERPETUATING THE COCO AND SUPPORTING USERS WHO
NEITHER WANT TO USE "ADVANCED SYSTEMS" LIKE OS-9,
NOR CAN NOT AFFORD/DON'T WANT OTHER BRANDS.YOU HAVE
COURAGE,AND I FOR ONE WILL SUPPORT YOU WITH A
SUBSCRIPTION, CHECK UNDER SEPARATE COVER.
THE BEST OF LUCK TO YOU, AND MAY SUCCESS CROWN YOUR
ENDEAVOR.
NORVAL ("BUD") LEWIS
=*
|
What's a 250 A personal entry from Stuart proved to me that this
Coco Friend knows his CoCo and also alot about the
CFDM driver. He explained in detail about his find-
ings! Stuart also wrote a HARDCOPY program for us.
Since we already had two when I received his, it
would be redundant to print another. (But it was
good work Stuart and I appreciate your effort!)
Two areas you mentioned were:
"What's that 250 byte in the compressed file all
about?...Well you almost had it Stuart. It was no
more than the control character you suspected. It
was probably so simple that it took you by surprise.
The 250 simply means - the next byte holds the num-
ber of spaces before the next non-space char. =>
____________________________________________________
You also figured out precisely were the directory
for CFDM is located and how the file info is stored.
I do want you to know that I have changed to start
and end addresses of some of the directories due to
the realization that more room was needed in some
and less in others. The start addresses are now
located at $75CD-$75EA. The START address of the
second directory is the END address of the first,
etc.
(Ironically the change I made in the size of the
directories was the reason some Friends were getting
gobblety-gok at the end of the Q & A section. I
won't try to explain that here.)
Stuart, I am really looking forward to more =>
____________________________________________________
of your work! Your second submission may find it's
way into a near-future issue.
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| !
THE GREAT DEMO CONTEST ! Another CFDM-Compatible RAM DISK LIVELY LINES - A DEMO NEW PROGRAM IDEA RAMdisk To Norman Barson & others WISHING STAR |
| Back to top |
! THE GREAT DEMO CONTEST ! Ever need to show that guy next door what your COCO
could do? We've seen some very impressive demos on
the COCO and now's the time to see what our COCO
FRIENDS can do. Let's have a contest!
HERE'S THE RULES:
1) Your demo must be your original work.
2) Your demo must work on a 128k COCO.
3) Your demo must use 10 or less granules of disk
space.
4) Make a backup of your starter diskette. Use the
ENTRY WRITER in the POTPOURRI section to enter
any instructions we need plus any interesting
facts about your demo. Kill all the files on the
disk, then copy your demo on the same side. =>
____________________________________________________
5) The deadline for receiving your demo is June 15.
As I receive demos, I will put as many as possible
on the current issue (space permitting). Issues #2,
#3, #4, and #5 will each have some demos (If you
send them in.).
With issue #5 each subscriber will receive a ballot
with the names of all entries. Please make your
decision, mark your ballot and return it to me by
August 1st. I will get a nice prize for the winner.
But we'll all be winners by doing a demo and seeing
all the others! Please don't be afraid to enter.
We're here to have some fun!!
=*
|
Another CFDM-Compatible RAM DISK CFDM will work with the RAM disk program, JRAMRDSK,
by J & R Electronics. However, there is an odd
idiosyncrasy: After any selected menu item is
loaded, the menu remains on screen and the border
turns red. When you press ENTER again, then the
screen containing the first page of the loaded menu
item appears.
=*
|
LIVELY LINES - A DEMO Here's a program for those who like to relax and
watch changing graphics on the screen. Just
RUN"LIVLINES".
After the title page, the program starts with a
randomly-placed line in a randomly-selected color.
It then selects another random line as a destina-
tion, and 40 lines are drawn between the two. Next,
another target line is selected and, in a different
color (usually), the interemediate lines are drawn.
This process is repeated five times and ends up at
the starting line, thus giving a sense of complete-
ness. There is a slight pause after each picture is
drawn; the screen clears and the process is re-
peated. Press <BREAK> to exit the program.
=>
____________________________________________________
Note that all the lines are segments. While they may
intersect or overlap, they are not continuous or
connected at the ends. So call such results random
graphics, graphic art, or whatever. But, PLEASE
DON'T CALL IT STRINGART!
=*
|
NEW PROGRAM IDEA LAST ISSUE I WROTE ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF
A COCO VERSION OF "PC-ATLAS" OR "PC-GLOBE". I
HAVE MAPS THAT ARE DRAWN BUT I'M HAVING PROBLEMS
GETTING IT INTO A PROGRAM SETUP, SUCH AS CALLING
HELP MENUS, DATA FILES, MAPS, ETC. IF ANYONE COULD
HELP IN THIS AREA I WOULD APPRECIATE IT. I COULD USE
FOR SCHOOL IN MY GEOGRAPHY CLASS.
=*
|
RAMdisk I usually use Extended ADOS-3 on my Color Comput-
er 3. It adds a lot of enhancements to RS-DOS. When
I received my first issue of CoCo Friends Disk Maga-
zine, I immediately entered BACKUP 0 TO 2, F, 35
which is the command to backup the disk in Drive 0
to my RAMdisk. Everything appeared to work until I
tried to access the second page of "The Format of
CFDM" under "About CoCo Friends Disk Magazine". I
wasn't able to get to page 2 of the article. I was
afraid there was something wrong with my computer.
Then I tried using "vanilla" RS-DOS with CFDM. I
LOADMed a RAMdisk program I had and BACKUPed the
disk. It worked! And CTRL worked, too! This is
great.
=*
|
To Norman Barson & others Norman,
Thanks for your letter, as you should know by now,
I already replied to it.
The POKE you send which causes the HPRINT command to
"overwrite" whatever was on the screen below it,
POKE&HF015,&HF21 works just fine.
I immediately incorporated it in the 3D TIC TAC TOE
game I submitted this month. CHECK IT OUT
AND THANK YOU !!!!
P.S. The default value for this poke is &HAA.
Rick: George, I have saved your fantastic little TIC
TAC.TOE for issue #3. Can hardly wait!! =*
|
WISHING STAR This is not a wish for a program; rather it is a
wish for an article. In reading Bob Griffard's bio
I was intrigued by his mention of using COCO MAX III
to create titles and stuff for his camcorder.
Maybe Bob, or someone else, could favor us with a
brief article with the basics of how to get started
with this activity. Sure would appreciate it.
Herb Schuler =*
|
| Articles in section: PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH |
| BLOCKS1 BYTE TUTORIAL 1 Hamtenna NFL HELMETS READDOC SCREEN DUMP for HSCREEN2 Trekkie Mission Simulation |
| Back to top |
BLOCKS1 Last issue we introduced a trivia-type games called
BLOCKS. The program was written by Rick Cooper and
the concept for the program was by an anonymous CoCo
Friend. We asked our Friends to send in any good
set of questions that they created. Now our Friend
has sent in a number of good sets of questions. Due
to the length of the game, we will publish only one
set in this issue. If you want more later, let me
know.
This edition of BLOCKS is called BLOCKS1.BAS. Please
check out the instructions in issue #1. I think you
will like this new set of questions. By the way, I
have made the answer window bigger to accomodate
answers of 22 characters in length.
=*
|
BYTE TUTORIAL 1 My offering for this issue is a tutorial on the
byte. The material covered will be of interest to
those Friends who would like to understand how to
convert numbers between binary, hexidecimal, and
decimal. Those aspiring to learn assembly language
must have a working knowledge of these systems. I
hope the format of this tutorial will facilitate
learning and make it ENJOYABLE FOR ALL.
The presentation is a little different than learning
from a book in that the student can practice right
on the screen. Let me know if you would like more
tutorials like this one. I'm sure many other friends
can come up with other topics to treat in a similar
manner.
=>
____________________________________________________
In a future issue, I'll present BYTE TUTORIAL 2. It
will demonstrate binary to hex conversion, how bytes
are represented on text and graphics screens, and
other terms and concepts like NIBBLE and WORD.
BYTE TUTORIAL 1 is in the program "BYTETUT1.BAS".
Run the program and read the prompts. Take your
time and do the exercises on the screen. Sometimes
it will help to have a pen and paper for some simple
addition. I hope you enjoy this one!!
=*
|
Hamtenna As a Ham, I am always fooling around with different
kinds of antennas to see if I can improve my signal
to parts of the world I want to talk to. This util-
ity is not complicated, but it is handy. I can grab
a disk and run the program a lot faster than looking
up the formulas in a book. I don't try to keep all
of those formulas in my head, thats why charts are
printed!
The three most common antennas, the dipole, the yagi
and the quad are formulated. I have always had a
lot of fun trying to transpose decimal parts of feet
into inches, so with Rick's help, I came up with the
decimal to inch conversion to make it easier for me.
The last part of the program is for figuring the
effective radiated power of your antenna system. =>
____________________________________________________
I am trusting the ARRL handbook for the formula. I
had a time with the logarithms, not fooling with
them in many years, but my answers match the ones in
the ARRL study books, so I guess I have gotten them
correct. Please pass this utility around to your
Ham & Coco pals and get them to writing utilities
for us!
I intended to complete the utility package with two
more, forward/reflected power and beam headings, but
got involved with setting up a packet node and got
behind. I hope to have them in the near future.
Meanwhile, you fellows interested in Ham radio, lets
do up some Coco stuff! I sure get envious when I
see the Hamsoftware in the Ham mags!
=>
____________________________________________________
I saw a letter in the Rainbow magazine from a guy
that had six diskettes full of public domain ham
stuff that he would copy if you send him the disk-
ettes and postage. Sounds good to me!
73 (best regards) de (this is) KM4IY (my callsign)
=*
|
NFL HELMETS Did you ever have the urge to combine two of your
favorite interests into one exciting project? Well,
my forever love of football and computing has
prompted me to write HELMETS. This program allows
the user to view the helmets of the 28 teams of the
National Football League. Even if you do not share
the same interests as I, you will still enjoy the
graphics show.
To start this program, type "RUN HELMETS". You are
then presented with the main menu. Highlight the
team you wish to view by pressing the arrow keys to
move the cursor. When the helmet of your choice is
highlighted, press ENTER. After the helmet is
displayed, you can either press the F1 key to return
to the menu or press the F2 key to exit the =>
____________________________________________________
program. Pressing the F2 key at the main menu will
also allow you to exit.
These helmets can also be printed out using the
screen dump program for your printer or else
transported into your favorite graphics editor. I
hope this program will bring you much enjoyment
during football season and beyond.
=*
|
READDOC Although this program appeared in the MAY 1991 issue
of RAINBOW, I have since tinkered with it to make it
a little easier to use. It is still pretty straight
forward, and the ESC key usually takes you back or
aborts a function.
The program allows you to read an ASCII file off the
disk. It prints one page at a time, and allows you
to page down, or move down line by line. You can
print a hardcopy of text, or search the text for a
specific word/phrase. When found, the line will be
printed and the search text highlighted.
If you call a BBS system that uses ANSI to generate
colored text, the program can be set to 'filter out'
the ANSI strings. If they weren't filtered, text =>
____________________________________________________
might look like this:
[31;m;TO:;[45;12;56;e;Stuart
Obviously you just want the TO:STUART
The ANSI filter will eliminate MOST of the codes.
See the instruction Manual for specifics!
In order to printout the instructions (READDOC.DOC)
Use the Readdoc program itself!
Load it and type RUN. Select the L option and type
in READDOC.DOC as the filename.ext.
Press ENTER on the two questions it will ask
=>
____________________________________________________
The disk will spin a bit, then you'll see the Menu
at the bottom. Select B and the whole file will go
by on the screen. When it has stopped, Select the
P option and use option #2("up to here")
The program assumes your printer is compatible with
a DMP105 and is set for 2400 baud.
=*
|
SCREEN DUMP for HSCREEN2 Sometimes I like to obtain hardcopy of HSCREEN2 on
my dot matrix printer, even though it won't show all
the colors. I wrote HSCR2 for this purpose.
The program produces a half-page (5 1/3 x 8)
picture using an Epson FX-80, or similar, printer.
Each pixel is printed using 4 dots, and 7 shades of
grey are available from which the USER can choose to
display the 16 palette colors.
When RUN"HSCR2 <ENTER> is typed, the ML is poked
into memory. The introduction is self-explanatory.
The USER makes any changes in palette assignments
desired, or can use the default. When he/she is
satisfied, a "READY PRINTER" prompt appears, and
printing begins. The process can be repeated. To
quit, press <BREAK>. Such in-elegance!
=>
____________________________________________________
Introduction and set-up are written in BASIC, and
the print routine (screen dump) is machine language
for speed. The ML is embedded in BASIC in the form
of strings so that only a single disk file is
needed. The ML resides in memory starting at &HE00,
the area normally used by PMODE screens, but it
would be easy to put it elsewhere if desired.
The assembly language for the ML code is not
included here, but if anyone is interested, I may
provide it in the future.
I wrote this program some time ago, and in
looking over the listing, I have to admit that I'm
uncertain of the reasons things were written as
they are. If anyone has any questions, we'll both
have to do some homework.
=>
____________________________________________________
There are two flaws in the program. During printing,
a short smeary line appears on the screen, which
burbles as if some ML process is using the same
memory space. This is copied to the printer also,
and it happens three times because the MMU is re-set
three times during the routine. I don't know why.
The second flaw is that palette slots 8-15 don't
always print as expected. Again I don't know why,
and haven't had time to work on it.
Nevertheless, I've found the program useful.
=*
|
Trekkie Mission Simulation Have you ever had the desire to fly through space
and zap evil attacking aliens? I remember watching
the old Star Trek episodes & wishing I could be on
board that famous starship. An incredible fantasy!
That's what Gene Roddenberry gave us. I'm sure you
all know that he passed away recently. In memory of
Mr. Roddenberry, I spent a lot of time converting
the enclosed Trekkie Mission Simulation program
from a GW-BASIC 3.31 (IBM PC/XT/AT, etc.) PUBLIC
DOMAIN Program that I have had for several years.
The program was a listing given to me while I was
a student at R.E.T.'s Electronic Institute. One of
my classmates had told me of the program & how much
fun he had playing it. I asked for a listing, with
=>
____________________________________________________
intent to convert it to my Franklin Ace 2100, which
is an Apple ][ compatible. The program required an
80 column screen, which my CoCo2 did not have. I
never got around to the conversion, until I learned
of Mr. Roddenberry's passing. Rick had already
contacted me with the "CFDM" Starter Kit, so I
decided to go with the conversion, but for my
recently acquired CoCo3, now my primary computer.
So, in memory of Gene Roddenberry, I present to my
fellow CoCoists, the enclosed, still PUBLIC DOMAIN,
Trekkie Mission Simulation. I hope that all of you
enjoy it as much as I have, as of late. Write to me
with your comments, suggestions or requests for
other GW-BASIC Public Domain program conversions.
=>
____________________________________________________
If someone sends me a listing from GW-BASIC which
is Public Domain, I will do my best to get around
to converting it to the CoCo3 & then offering it
for presentation in "CFDM".
There are four files which relate to this program.
They are: TREKINS.BAS, TREKKIE.ASM, TREKKIE.BIN, &
TREKKIE.BAS. All that is required to run the
program is to type: RUN "TREKINS" <press [ENTER]>.
Simply follow the prompts and the mission gets
underway. You must have a printer to print out the
instructions. If, however, you have no printer, you
may load the file "TREKKIE.ASM" & use LIST to read
the instructions. This file is the source for
"TREKKIE.BIN" which was created using DISKEDTASM+.
=*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| Basic
Screen Editor Good News About The BSE NEWSPAPER PLUS - Final Edition RASCAN-3 TWO MINI REVIEWS |
| Back to top |
Basic Screen Editor The Basic Screen Editor (BSE) distributed by Second
City Software is the most useful Basic programming
tool I have for editing Basic programs. The BSE
runs circles around the limited RS-DOS editor. With
the BSE you can edit any line on the screen. The
arrow keys are used to move anywhere on the screen.
Once a line is chosen, you type in your changes.
Ctrl-I toggles insert mode on and off. Break deletes
the character the cursor is on. Ctrl-Break deletes
from the cursor to the end of the Basic line.
Copying a line is trivial. Just type a new line
number over the old line.
The ENTER key is important. No change occurs unless
the enter key is pressed while you are on the line
just edited. The allows you to abort any edit by =>
____________________________________________________
moving the arrow key down to any unedited line and
pressing ENTER. Pressing ENTER enters only the
line the cursor is on into Basic. The whole line
goes into Basic, regardless of where the cursor is
on the line.
Want to merge two lines? List the two lines, then
CTRL-DOWN-arrow on the second line till it wraps
back into the first line. After the merge, the
second line still exists. Delete it by entering the
line number.
A line can be split apart into two lines. At the
point of the split, CTRL-ENTER. The line will
split. Then CTRL-I to insert a line number at the
beginning of the new line. =>
____________________________________________________
CTRL-W will toggle the screen between widths 80,
40 and 32. This is useful because a width 80
screen will hold a great many Basic lines that can
all be edited using the BSE.
That covers most but not all of the BSE commands.
I highly recommend the BSE for Basic programming.
The bad news is that Second City Software is
probably out of business. I don't know if any other
company is marketing BSE.
=*
|
Good News About The BSE After writing my review of the Basic Screen Editor,
I was unhappy because to my knowledge the program
was no longer available. So I decided to try and
find a distributer of the BSE. Much to my surprise
after only two phones calls and one letter, I
reached the author of the BSE, Gil Winograd. Mr.
Winograd wrote the BSE in high school and he is now
a grad student at the University of Illinois. Mr.
Winograd still receives an occasional letter, such
as mine, asking about the BSE. He sold his CoCo
about one year ago, so he is no longer part of the
CoCo community.
During the course of a later phone conversation, Mr.
Winograd gave me permission to distribute his
program as shareware. He requested that his name =>
____________________________________________________
continue to appear as the author on the documentati-
on. A marvelous, generous offer for CoCo-ists.
For a five dollar shipping and handling fee, I will
mail the BSE and its six page documentation to any
and all interested CoCo-ists (preferably CoCo-ists
and CDFM subscribers). I look forward to sharing
this excellent software with you.
Ted Kitsos
4712 Strathdon Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46816
=*
|
NEWSPAPER PLUS - Final Edition PROGRAM - Newspaper Plus/FINAL EDITION
AUTHOR - Eric A. Wolfe
VENDOR - Second City Software
(This company may or may not still be in
business. It may still be available
from CoCo PRO! as a used item)
PRICE - NEW...49.95
This is an EXCELLENT piece of desktop publishing! I
obtained my copy from CoCo PRO1 along with the
entire 26 disk set of NewsArt. An inseparable pair.
First, about Newspaper...The program is easily
adapted to your system using a CONFIG menu. Set
printer baud, disk drives, monitor type, ROM , =>
____________________________________________________
and even a RAM disk. All are bootable the next
time you power up. The manual is well written
and easy to follow. The features I like best are
LAYOUT and from the Utilities menu...aa ASCII text
converter. Layout lets you see on the screen what
you are working on one "pannel" at a time. Pannels
can be flipped so it is possible to hold two in
memory simultaneously as a comparison. Input from
this "edit" mode allows access to pictures and
numerous font types. The ASCII text converter will
allow you to write your articles on say, Telewriter
128 and convert the text from the saved file to any
font style you desire. There is even a grabber that
will allow you to "peel" off a portion as a PMODE
screen and save it to a clipart type file the
Newspaper Plus can access and import. =>
____________________________________________________
The NewsArt package is a TREMENDOUS assortment
of well defined clipart. Every topic imaginable
is covered. From witches to Ronald Regan! The
support manual defines each disk and shows a print
of each file on the disk.
I would highly recommend this set of desktop
publishing tools to any club issuing a newsletter.
I published our club newsletter for over two years
using this package. If you would like a hardcopy
sample, send a S.A.S.E. to the address below.
Newspaper Plus - FINAL EDITION is THE BEST!!!
Jerry Crabtree, P. O. Box 2754, Huntington, Wv.
25727-2754 =*
|
RASCAN-3 I recently purchased the RASCAN-3 video digitizer
from SUPERSOFT, Inc. and I find it very easy, fun
and also very useful in ways! With the RASCAN-3 you
need a video source such as a camcorder or a VCR and
the RASCAN-3. If you have a 128k system you can
digitize in 4 color gray scale, 16 color gray scale,
and 16 color. I find the 16 color gray scale very
nice to use since I own a 128k CoCo 3. If you have a
512k system you can do all of the above plus more
features like 4096 color and even 3-D pictures! The
RASCAN-3 comes equipped with everything needed and
more. It comes with the necessary software to
digitize, separate viewing software, printing
software, everything! Then, if you want, you could
transfer your picture to a program like COCO MAX 3
and add/delete things on your picture, add =>
____________________________________________________
animation, shrink, enlarge, etc... You can even
make your own personnalized T-shirts! Just buy
T-shirt transfers, print your picture on it and then
put it on a T-shirt! No more spending $20.00 for a
specialized T-shirt! The RASCAN-3 video digitizer
is for anyone that wants excellent quality of hi -
resolution pictures, or just plain fun. Also, it's
quite compact for something that can do all that.
I would suggest the RASCAN-3 video digitizer to
anyone that asked about it because it's an excellent
piece of work for the CoCo! The address and phone
number of SUPERSOFT, Inc. is in some Rainbow maga -
zines. Check it out! Chances are you'll love it!
=*
|
TWO MINI REVIEWS SUNDOG'S CHAMPION & KYUM-GAI:
I PURCHASED THESE TWO GAMES AT THE RAINBOWFEST
IN CHICAGO. THE PEOPLE THERE WERE VERY FRIENDLY AND
WILLING TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS I HAD. OTHER OF
THEIR GAMES WERE ALSO ON DISLPLAY AND THEY LOOKED
EXCITING.
CHAMPION IS A GRAPHIC GAME FOR ANY 64K COCO. YOU
PLAY THE PART OF A SUPERHERO WITH THE POWERS OF
FLIGHT, MARTIAL ARTS AND A BLAST ATTACK. THE GAME IS
BASED LOOSELY ON THE RPG CHAMPIONS.
SCENES INCLUDE FLYING OVER THE CITY, BLOCK TO
BLOCK AND OF YOUR ENEMIES AS YOU AND HIM BATTLE IT
OUT. YOU MUST SEARCH THE CITY TO FIND THE GADGET
THAT WILL HELP YOU DEFEAT THE EVIL MR. BIGG.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND ARE TERRIFIC AND GAME PLAY =>
____________________________________________________
NEVER GETS DULL. RECOMMENDED.
MY FAVOURITE GAME FOR THE COCO IS KYUM-GAI. YOU
ARE A MARTIAL ARTIST WITH THE ABILITY TO KICK, PUNCH
OR HURL YOUR OPPONENTS OVER YOUR HEAD. ACTION TAKES
PLACE IN MANY DIFFERING SCENES; FROM A CRAGGY
MOUNTAIN TO THE ROOFTOPS OF A CITY.
I PLAY THE GAME ON A T.V. AND GRAPHICS ARE
OUTSTANDING. I CAN JUST IMAGINE THEM ON A MONITOR.
INCLUDED ALSO ARE DIGITIZED SOUND EFFECTS FOR
PUNCHES, SCREAMS AND SO ON.
THE GAME CAN BE PLAYED WITH A SINGLE BUTTON
JOYSTICK, BUT I RECOMMEND HAVING THE TWO BUTTON
JOYSTICK. IT MAKES PLAYING THE GAME EASIER.
BOTH GAMES ARE ARCADE QUALITY AND WILL ENHANCE
ANY GAME LIBRARY.
=*
|
ANS TO QUELLHORST The pokes you were looking were given in the
Rainbow 9-87 p 7 as POKE &HF812,&H21 AND POKE &HF91C
,&H21. I COULD NEVER GET THEM TO WORK. By the way we
thank you for MUSIC3+. It was about the only program
last year that I found interesting. If there are any
improvements or upgrades, please let us know. It is
a great program. These pokes are listed in the poke
section of my version of Rainbow Disk Index.
=*
|
CURSOR CONTROL In the CFDM Vol.1 No.1, someone asked about how to
keep the cursor from printing on the 40/80 column
screen. My file of PEEKs & POKEs, garnered over the
years from various sources, says to use the
following:
POKE &HF812, &H21:POKE &HF91C, &H21
Incidentally, people using Rick's NIBSAVER might
like to know about a POKE that keeps the HSCREEN
from being erased when breaking out of a graphics
program. Try,
POKE &HE6C6, &H21
=>
____________________________________________________
Now, I have a question about flippies. I have a
home-made template for making them, but it's not
very convenient, especially when I anticipate the
number I'll need for CFDM.
Does anyone know of a source where they can be
purchased ready made?
Thanks.
Paul H. Johnson
1463 Willard Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 681-1463
RICK: A number of Friends have asked about flippies.
Please check out my ad "CFDM ACCESSORIES".
=*
|
HELP FOR SEVENTH LINK CAN ANYONE HELP OUT WITH THE ADVENTURE GAME
SEVENTH LINK? I'VE PLAYED THE GAME OFF AND ON OVER
THE PAST FEW YEARS AND NEVER GOTTEN TOO FAR.
GENERALIZED INSTRUCTIONS OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE
LANDS WOULD BE A GREAT HELP.
=*
|
HELP WITH E.A.R.S. I am needing the TRANSLAT program as sold by
Speech Systems to support voice between the
E.A>R.S. package and the Radio Shack Speech
Sound Cartridge. Also, has anyone gotten
Colorwear's TALKHEAD (with Real Talker) to
properly operate on a CoCo 3.
Reply to*
Jery Crabtree
P. O. Box 2754
Huntington, WV.
25727-2754
=*
|
Help Screen When I push the ALT key, and the Help message ap-
pears at the top of the screen, why does the screen
appear to "jump" out at me? I use a CM-8 monitor.
Rick: Beats me Lee! I've noticed that too. Maybe
some of our technical-minded Friends has an answer
for us.
=*
|
INTERFERENCE PROBLEM COULD SOMEONE OUT THERE IN COCO LAND TELL ME
WHAT I CAN DO TO GET RID OF ELECTRICAL INTERFERENCE.
I AM USING THE COCO 3 VERSION OF "WEFAX". THE ONLY
PROBLEM IS THAT WHEN I TURN MY COMPUTER ON, THE
SIGNAL FROM THE SHORTWAVE RADIO IS SO INTERFERED
WITH THAT YOU CAN'T HEAR ENOUGH OF THE SIGNAL TO GET
A GOOD WEATHER PICTURE. IF KNOW ONE KNOWS ABOUT THIS
PROGRAM, I WOULD BE HAPPY TO WRITE A REVIEW OF THIS
PROGRAM. THANKS!
=*
|
QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS WHEN I BOUGHT MY COCO 3 I HOPED TO USE MY OLD GRAY
DRIVES, BUT FOUND THEY DID NOT WORK WITH COCO 3.
CAN THEY BE MADE TO WORK WITH COCO 3 AND WILL THEY
STILL WORK WITH COCO 1?
I HAVE 2 FD-502 PRIMARY DRIVES AND 1 SECONDARY
DRIVE. CAN I MAKE ONE OF THE PRIMARY DRIVES A 3RD
DRIVE? IF SO, HOW AND HOW OR WHERE DO I GET OR MAKE
A CABLE TO CONNECT IT?
I THOUGHT COCO 3 HAD 128K OF MEMORY TO USE FOR
BASIC. I AM DISAPPOINTED TO FIND I ONLY HAVE LESS
THAN 25K. IS THERE A WAY TO USE THE REST OF THE
128K FOR BASIC? IF I UPGRADE TO 512K WILL I HAVE
MORE MEMORY FOR BASIC?
=>
____________________________________________________
IS THE ROM PORT CONFIGURED THE SAME FOR COCO 3 AS
FOR COCO 1? I BUILT AN INTERFACE FOR COCO 1 TO
CONNECT IT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD AND NEED TO KNOW
IF I NEED TO BULID A NEW ONE FOR COCO 3.
ANY INFORMATION OR SUGGESTIONS WILL BE APPRECIATED!
JERRY SHAULIS
1906 BUENA VISTA PL.
LOVELAND, CO. 80538
Rick: Jerry, the extra memory (any over 64K) in the
CoCo 3 can be used only by switching the extra banks
into the upper 64k slots or by LPOKE. We may do a
tutorial on that in the future. The program =>
____________________________________________________
BIGBASIC by DANOSOFT, marketed now by COCOPRO is
supposed to let you use your extra memory in your
BASIC programs. I can't tell you this for a fact.
Please contact COCOPRO or wait for info from our
Friends. Can anyone help Jerry with the other
questions?
=*
|
RESPONSE TO GEORGE QUELLHORST In the first issue, George requested help in
locating a poke which would remove the cursor on
the Hi-res text screens. I believe what he is
looking for appeared in a Letter to RAINBOW,
Sept. '87, p.7. I have already communicated this
reference to George, since he seemed desperate. I
am repeating it here in case it is of interest to
other readers. I must mention that when I tried
these pokes, they did not work. Did I do something
wrong or am I having a problem with my CoCo? It
has done some strange things lately, and I am still
checking it out.
=*
|
Submissions Dear Rick, If I want to send a submission, do I make a copy of the most-recent issue and put the submission on that, or do I put it on a copy of the startup disk? Sincerely, Lee Deuell Rick: Lee, the best practice is to make a backup of the most recent copy of CFDM. Then use the PATCH program found on the magazine side of issue #1 to make a submission disk. For your convenience, I will put PATCH on the mag-side of each issue if that's possible. =* |
WHO LEFT OUT THE LOADER? MY QUESTION IS: WHAT PROGRAM DO YOU NEED IN ORDER
TO KEY IN MACHINE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS SUCH AS "ZIGZAG"
WHICH APPEARED IN THE FEBRUARY ISSUE OF "RAINBOW"?
OR HOW DO YOU KEY IT IN? THANKS.
Rick: I've got my hand up on that question Roberta.
You will have to have an assembler such as EDTASM to
make an executable file of the "ZIGZAG" listing 2.
I was surprised to see that there was not a BASIC
program to load the code for you. (Neither was the
object code printed with the AL listing.) I spoke
on the phone with the author Bill Nee and he gave me
permission to assemble and send the needed file to
you if you don't have an assembler. Let me know..
=*
|
