|
Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #4 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
|
|||||||||
| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE 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! =* |
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 |
| CONTENTS...PART
1 CONTENTS...PART 2 CONTENTS...PART 3 NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM PROGRAM DIRECTORY THIS MONTH'S COVER |
| Back to top |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (3)
1 "ABOUT CFDM"
2 ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
3 THE FORMAT OF CFDM
ABOUT THIS ISSUE (6)
1 CONTENTS...PART 1
2 CONTENTS...PART 2
3 CONTENTS...PART 3
4 NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM
5 PROGRAM DIRECTORY
6 THIS MONTH'S COVER
ACTIVE COCO (1)
1 GLENSIDE COLOR COMPUTER CLUB
=>
____________________________________________________
ADVERTISEMENTS (6)
1 CFDM ACCESSORIES
2 CFDM SUBSCRIPTION
3 CoCo Tools Demo
4 SUPER SALE !!!!
5 TETRA (READ FIRST)
6 TETRA GAME SCREEN
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (4)
1 ANOTHER USE FOR LPOKE
2 HCLSINFO
3 PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 1
4 PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 2
=>
____________________________________________________
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (5)
1 CFDM COMICS by Chai
2 CFDM COMICS.(READ FIRST)
3 DUNNY
4 OLD MILL
5 OUR HOME
FAMILY TREE (5)
1 Arthur S. Hallock
2 Bradley Swanson
3 JOHN D. CLEMONS
4 LARRY BRYANT
5 YVON LEVAQUE
=*
|
FORUM (2)
1 "COCO IV ??"
2 A WARNING TO CONTRIBUTORS
FROM THE EDITOR (2)
1 FROM THE EDITOR
2 KUDOS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (10)
1 CFDM...A GREAT IDEA!!!
2 Congrats!
3 Kudos and a Question
4 NEW KID ON THE COCO BLOCK
5 PROBLEMS WITH ENTRY WRITER
6 PROGRAM DIRECTORY!!!
7 PROGRAM DIRECTORY...ISSUE #1 =>
____________________________________________________
8 PROGRAM DIRECTORY...ISSUE #2
9 Recycling Tip
10 USE OF NIB COMPRESSOR
POTPOURRI (7)
1 ! THE GREAT DEMO CONTEST !
2 DEMO - NEBULA
3 MUSIC3+ "DOLLY"
4 SLINKY ELLIPSES -- A DEMO
5 WHERE IN .. (READ FIRST)
6 WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CFDM?
7 Wisdom/Enthusiasm
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (11)
1 COLOR CODE CHALLENGE
2 Disk Directory Card =>
____________________________________________________
3 EASY ENVELOPE AND PACKAGE LABELS
4 Menu
5 PROTECT
6 RAMBASE
7 SPRITE+ (part one)
8 SPRITE+ (part two)
9 TINY DIRECTORY
10 TRANSLAT.PAT
11 Uncle CoCo Tells a Story
REVIEWS (2)
1 Disk Utility "Supreme"
2 Magnavox 1CM135 RGB Monitor
=*
|
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (9)
1 COCO III CURSOR BUG-FIX-POKE
2 COLOR OF PRINTED LETTERS
3 Drive Trouble
4 SUPER VOICE ON COCO 3
5 Submission Deadlines
6 TO DANN MC CONNELL
7 TO QUELLHORST, GIBSON & BARSON
8 USE ADOS3 RAMDRIVES WITH CFDM
9 WHERE ARE BIWARE ENTERPRISES?
=*
|
NEW FEATURES FOR CFDM If you've ever tried inserting or deleting with the
ENTRY WRITER in CFDM, you realize the meaning of
patience! I've made a considerable improvement in
these two features. PLEASE GIVE THEM A WORKOUT!!
The brand new feature in this issue is !graphics in
the magazine!. There are three graphic-oriented
entries in this issue. I'll let you discover them
on your own. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THE BUGS HAVE NOT
BEEN WORKED OUT IN THE GRAPHICS-ENTRIES. I have on
occasion experienced "system hangup" either when
trying to load one of the entries or when loading
other text-entries after having previously loaded
one of the graphics-entries. <<IF THIS HAPPENS, THE
ONLY REMEDY IS TO TURN OFF COCO AND RUN "C.BAS"
AGAIN!!>> =>
____________________________________________________
I hope you will be very forgiving if you experience
the "system hangup" problem. The inclusion of these
graphic-entries was just too neat for me to pass up!
Other information about the graphics-entries:
1) Do not attempt to EDIT them with ENTRY WRITER!
2) You cannot meaningfully copy them with the
SYSOPS MENU! (BACKUP OF THE ENTIRE CFDM DISK IS
THE ONLY PRACTICAL WAY TO COPY THESE FILES!)
3) You cannot meaningfully LPRINT them with the
SYSOPS MENU!
=>
____________________________________________________
4) The graphics-entries are two part in nature. The
loader is saved in the magazine buffer and is
called when you press the ENTER key on the MENU.
The actual graphics entry can be seen on the
disk menu. (Type DIR when you place the CFDM
disk in the drive.)
5) The files with the .SPR extention are actually
pretty simple graphics compressed with an early
and rather crude version of NIB. You can load
them outside the magazine environment. I'll tell
you how in a later issue.
I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS NEW ADDITION TO CFDM!!
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM
SIDE. File names preceded by an asterisk are data
files and not to be RUN or EXECed.
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
BOOT .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
CCTOOLS .BIN..LOADM:EXEC..ADVERTISEMENTS..........
COCODE .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
COLORS .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
DOLLY .BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI....................
* DOLLY .BIN.........DATA FILE FOR DOLLY.BAS......
* DRIVER .BIN.........UTILITY FILE FOR BOOT.BAS....
* DTOOLS .SET.........DATA FILE FOR CCTOOLS........
DUNNY .BAS...RUN...COCO ART GALLERY.............
* DUNNY .NIB.........PIX FILE FOR DUNNY.BAS.......
* EXAMPLE .BIN.........DATA FILE FOR SPRITE+.. =>
____________________________________________________
FACE .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
HCLSINFO.BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
LABEL .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
MENU .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
NEBULA .BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI -- A DEMO..........
* NIBLOADR.BIN.........PIX LOADER UTILITY...........
OLDMILL .BAS...RUN...COCO ART GALLERY.............
* OLDMILL .NIB.........PIX FILE FOR OLDMILL.BAS.....
OUR HOME.BAS...RUN...COCO ART GALLERY.............
* OUR HOME.NIB.........PIX FILE FOR OUR HOME.BAS....
PALINTCP.BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
PROTECT .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* RAMBASE .BAS.........LOADED BY BOOT.BAS...........
SLINKY .BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI -- A DEMO..........
SPRITE+ .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
THRBEARS.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH... =>
____________________________________________________
TINYDIR .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
TITLESCR.BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
* TRANSLAT.PAT..MERGE..PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
TWOLABEL.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
=*
|
Niagra Falls I felt challenged to paint a picture of Niagra
Falls on CoCo Max 3. I have been looking at a black
and white picture for a long time and I decided it
was time to put the "thinking about doing it" into
action. I believe that the wait was worth it.
Some people wonder how I go about using CoCo
Max 3 when I do my painting. Well, I set my brush
on the smallest brush icon I can get and then I draw
and paint using the small paintbrush. For the back-
ground, I use the spary can on various modes from
dense spray to a light spray. I am going to try my
hand at other drawing programs such as the RAT
Design Package and Color Max Deluxe.
I hope everyone likes Niagra and if you have
any picture from across the country that you like,
send me the picture and I'll try my best to =>
____________________________________________________
paint it for you. Sometimes challenges make my best
pictures. The only thing I have problems doing are
drawing and painting people. So, if you would like
your favorite scene painted on the COCO 3, I'd be
glad to try painting it for you.
Thanks -
Jim Gibbons
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| GLENSIDE
COLOR COMPUTER CLUB |
| Back to top |
GLENSIDE COLOR COMPUTER CLUB A few weeks ago I received two issues of "COCO-123",
a publication of the Glenside Color Computer Club of
Glendale, Illinois. This material was compliments
of Friend Tom Kowalski, a member of that club. I
enjoyed looking thru these issues very much!
A few days later a letter from Carl Boll arrived. He
wrote on behalf of the Glenside club and his letter
described the club as nearly ten years old, 112
members strong, and possibly the most active of the
remaining CoCo clubs.
One of the club's present projects is supporting the
"First Annual Last CocoFest", an undertaking of DNM
Enterprises (David Myers of COCO PRO!). Glenside's
support is in the form of paying for it's =>
____________________________________________________
own booth and also paying for a hospitality room at
that event. (This seems to be a very commendable
effort.)
Application for membership in the Color Computer
Club can be acquired by contacting Carl, who is VP
of the club, or Tony Podraza, the President. Here
are the addresses:
Carl Boll Tony Podraza
6242 S. Menard Ave. 119 Adobe Circle
Chicago, IL. 60638 Carpentersville, IL
312 735-6087 60110-1101
Contact one of these gentlemen for more information.
=>
____________________________________________________
My application and dues were sent in April 21st.
Thanks Tom Kowalski, for the introduction!
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| CFDM
ACCESSORIES CFDM SUBSCRIPTION Coco Tools Demo SUPER SALE !!!! TETRA (READ FIRST) TETRA GAME SCREEN |
| Back to top |
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!! =*
|
Coco Tools Demo The CoCo Tools demo is a demonstration version of
the Disk Utility Program Coco Tools. It consists of
two files, CCTOOLS.BIN and DTOOLS.SET. Both are
required to run the program. It requires a Coco-3
with 128k, 1 Disk drive and an 80 column display to
run. This demonstration version can give you a good
idea of what the real version of Coco Tools can do.
Even though it is not completely functional the Arc
and Un-Arc functions are quite usable and most of
the commands function to the degree that you can get
a good understand of what the real program is like
and what it is capable of doing.
To startup the program, LOADM "CCTOOLS" <enter>
The program will automatically startup and =>
____________________________________________________
display the main menu. It is quite easy to use,
simply use the arrow keys to highlight the command
you wish to perform and press the enter key. You can
optionally select a command using the hot key letter
enclosed in paraenthesis ex. (C)opy, you could use
the "C" key to select the command and then press
enter. All functions are menu driven with prompts
to guide you in the use of each command.
If you are interested in purchasing a fully
functional version of Coco Tools, call or write to:
Cer-Comp Ltd
5566 Ricochet Ave.
Las Vegas, Nevada 89110
(702)-452-0632 =*
|
SUPER SALE !!!! FOR SALE: 64K Coco II ................................ $ 25.00 MC10 + 16K Memory Module ................... $ 25.00 DMP110 Printer (Works good. Book included) . $ 25.00 NEW 26-1164 upright drive. NO CONTROLLER works with FD500, FD501 OR FD502 controller Has cable with hookup for second drive WILL NOT FIT IN HORIZONTAL CASE $ 25.00 DOUBLE FD501 drive with controller and separate 5A SUPER REGULATED POWER SUPPLY ... $ 75.00 Radio Shack STEREO TV receiver UHF.VHF ..... $ 15.00 I will ship items to you UPS-COD YOU PAY THE FREIGHT GEORGE QUELLHORST WANTED: Old or broke 203B MEADOWS DRIVE FD502 DR. FOR PARTS. PAINESVILLE,OHIO.44077-5361 PHONE: (216) 354-3812 >* |
TETRA (READ FIRST) The entry titled, TETRA GAME SCREEN, was captured
from my TETRIS play-alike. TETRA is only one of a
number of great programs in my "UNBELIEVABLE OFFER
#1". The entire package sells for only $33 + $2 S/H.
Please check out my ads in various issues of RAINBOW
or my ads in previous issues of CFDM.
=*
|
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| ANOTHER
USE FOR LPOKE HCLSINFO PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 1 PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 2 |
| Back to top |
ANOTHER USE FOR LPOKE IN THE LAST DISCUSSION ON CFDM VOL 1, I SHOWED
HOW TO USE LPOKE ON THE FORTY WIDE SCREEN TO PUT
LETTERS ON THE SCREEN.
THERE ARE SOME MORE INTERESTING THINGS TO DO
WITH LPOKE. YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED I LPOKED ALL EVEN
NUMBERED ADDRESSES USING STEP 2. IF WE LPOKE A
NUMBER FROM 1 TO 255 INTO THE UNEVEN LOCATIONS WE
GET SOME INTERESTING EFFECTS. FOR EXAMPLE GO TO THE
GREEN SCREEN (RGB OR CMP) AND TYPE LPOKE 443368,52
(ENTER) THE NUMBER 4 IS ON THE SCREEN. NOW TYPE
LPOKE 443369,52 (ENTER). THE NUMBER IS IN A WHITE
BLOCK. WE CAN USE THIS TO HIGHLITE A WORD OR TITLE.
RUN "COLORS.BAS", USING THE UP & DN ARROWS TO SEE
THE COLORS, LINES, BLINKING LINES ETC. THAT ARE
AVAILABLE. THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT ON A MONITOR & A
TV. FOR A DEMONSTRATION OF THE USE OF THIS =>
____________________________________________________
ON A TITLE SCREEN, RUN "TITLESCR.BAS".
FINALLY LPOKE IS USED ON A CHILDS MATH QUIZ IN
THE PROGRAM FACE.BAS .
WITH A LITTLE IMAGINATION YOU MAY FIND MORE USES
FOR THIS INFORMATION.
=*
|
HCLSINFO When using a HSCREEN2 graphics screen it is very
handy to be able to clear only part of the
graphics screen that you want to clear, without
clearing all the screen.
For example:- If you have a graphic in the top half
of your screen and you want to clear text from the
bottom half of the screen, a fast way to do this is
with the HCLS command.
This will clear the entire screen, but with these
pokes you can control where the screen will be
cleared FROM and to where the screen will be cleared
TO.
=>
____________________________________________________
The poke addresses for the start are &HE6E2 & &HE6E3
The poke addresses for the end are &HE6E7 & &HE6EB
If you want a hard copy of the values when you run
the programme dont forget to set your baud rate.
RUN"HCLSINFO"
This will give you all the values that you need to
poke into memory.
EG:- To clear FROM line 100
The value of line 100 is &H5E80
Start- POKE &H6E2,&H5E:POKE&HE6E3,&H80
=>
____________________________________________________
EG:- To clear TO line 150
The value of line 150 is &H7DC0
END- POKE &HE6E7,&H7D:POKE&HE6E8,&HC0
COLIN NORTH
4 DENICE STREET
BIRKDALE QUEENSLAND 4159
AUSTRALIA
=*
|
PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 1 One of the most interesting areas in computing is graphics. The ability to show many different colors on a high-resolution screen gives the potential for very realistic pictures. Higher resolution and more colors are just two improved features of the CoCo 3. There are 64 colors available on our machine. Each number, 0 to 63, stands for a different color. Some that I have memorized are 0 (black), 63 (white), 36 (red), 18 (green) and 60 (flesh). Our limitation is we can only use 16 colors at a time. We choose the colors we want to use and load our 16 palettes. Say we want to draw a green box on a red background. First we load two of our palettes with these colors. Then call the proper HSCREEN. Last, we draw our box using the correct color. Please note the => ____________________________________________________ following program and remarks: 10 PALETTE 0,18 : REM PUT GREEN IN PALETTE 0 20 PALETTE 1,36 : REM PUT RED IN PALETTE 1 30 HSCREEN2 : REM CALL THE GRAPHIC SCREEN 40 HCLS1 : REM CLEAR THE BACKGROUND TO RED 50 HCOLOR0 : REM MAKE PALETTE 0 (GREEN) ACTIVE 60 HLINE(100,100)-(200,150),PSET,BF : REM DRAW A GREEN BOX (B STANDS FOR BOX, F STANDS FOR FILLED WITH COLOR) 70 GOTO 70 : REM KEEP THE PIX ON THE SCREEN UNTIL YOU PRESS BREAK If you are not familiar with palettes and colors, please do some experimentation. You'll soon catch on and enjoy using them! => ____________________________________________________ Finally a little technical info. The PALETTE routine is located at $E5F0. When you use this command in your BASIC programs, this routine makes sure the right color is placed in the right palette. What actually happens is the number you placed there is put in one of the 16 memory locations that determine which colors are active. These locations are $FFB0- $FFBF. That's 16 bytes of memory, one for each of the palettes. The first, $FFB0, holds the color for PALETTE 0. $FFB1 holds the color for PALETTE 1, etc. Another way to fill the palettes is to poke the color number you want in these locations. Please be aware that peeking these locations will return the color value + 64. So, if you place 36 in PALETTE 0, a PEEK(&HFFB0) will return 100 (36+64). =* |
PROGRAMMING-THE PALETTES, PART 2 The problem of monitor differences prompted this
article. There is the difficulty of standardization
which is not unique to any computer system. The
change from CoCo I to CoCo 2 to CoCo 3, the use of
TVs, composite monitors, and RGB monitors, addition
of a different operating system, and/or hardware
additions lead to problems for those creating
software packages.
While we would like for CFDM to be equally useful to
everyone, the above manifestations lead to questions
like, "What can I do to get your programs to work on
my CoCo 2 running under OS9 level I with a TV and
disk drives I got from an old Commodore?" Whew! Now
that would be a nightmare!
=>
____________________________________________________
Take even one difference in the standard setup for
CFDM (which is CoCo 3, RGB monitor, at least one
drive, under RS DOS) such as the use of a composite
monitor or TV. The colors seen on the TV/CMP are
not the same as those seen on the RGB monitor. What
do we do? Well one solution is to write every
program with an option for TV/CMP users. With CFDM,
I can only offer this as a suggestion, since I did
advertise the standard system as described above.
Another partial solution is one that I have included
on the program side. The program is "PALINTCP.BAS"
(stands for palette intercept). If you use a TV/CMP,
you can load and run this program before running a
program which uses the RGB palette set. I don't
guarantee that the colors will be true. =>
____________________________________________________
The numbers are those I used in the COCO GALLERY ON
DISK for RAINBOW a few years back. You may attempt
to change the numbers in line 250 to get the colors
you desire.
For example the 8th number in line 250 is 16. The
8th number in the RGB set is a 7 (which shows up
dark gray on a RGB monitor). The number 16 shows up
in a similar shade of gray on TV/CMP monitor. When
active, PALINTCP will substitute a 16 for a 7 every
time the PALETTE command tries to put that number in
a palette slot. Use this information to change any
of the numbers in the data statement.
=*
|
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| CFDM
COMICS by Chai CFDM COMICS.(READ FIRST) DUNNY OLD MILL OUR HOME |
| Back to top |
CFDM COMICS.(READ FIRST) The entry, CFDM COMICS..by Chai, is a graphics entry
and hopefully will operate on your system.
To view this entry just highlight it as usual and
press ENTER. To exit press any key.
If your computer hangs-up, you'll have to press the
reset button and RUN "C" again. Here's hoping!!
=*
|
DUNNY
This picture of an Australian Outback DUNNY was
drawn using Colormax and later finished off by
using Cocomax III.
This was my first attempt at a full picture although
I use Cocomax III for many other applications.
If Rick changes the format to NIB can he get the
windmill to spin?
COLIN NORTH
=*
|
OLD MILL
This drawing of an old time water mill was
adapted from a painting that appears on one of those
hanging calendars you buy at the drug store or else-
where. It is not really a copy but the essence of
the idea came from there. I used CoCoMax III to do
the Old Mill, and although I have had this program a
relatively short time (about 5 months), it makes art
work easy and creativity come to life.
To view the drawing, simply type RUN "OLDMILL".
I hope you like it and I hope to see lots of differ-
ent types of artwork in the ART GALLERY on the CoCo
Friends Disk Magazine. =*
|
OUR HOME
Greetings, FRIENDS: When I placed my information
in 'The Family Tree' in Issue #1 I neglected to
include my address and telephone number. I had
need to contact another FRIEND recently to ask for
some assistance and only then reallized how few of
us have provided that information.
An artist I am not! Yet, since I bought COCO MAX III
at a bargain price and want to use it, I thought I
would send you a picture of OUR HOME with my address
information: Herb Schuler
809 Locksley Lane
Woodbury, NJ 08096
(609) 848-2121
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| Arthur
S. Hallock Bradley Swanson JOHN D. CLEMONS LARRY BRYANT YVON LEVAQUE |
| Back to top |
Arthur S. Hallock Good Morning! My name is Arthur "Art" Hallock, and
I reside about six miles southeast of Deming, New
Mexico (that's U.S.A., for those who think NM is a
part of OLD Mexico.)
Since my "regular employment" is nite Dispatch for
the Police Department in Deming, you can now fully
appreciate the above greeting - it's ALWAYS a Good
Morning from my standpoint!
The CoCo was my first love in computers, and I pur-
chased my first in 1983 (the early CoCo II) and had
to replace the keyboard three times, so you can see
that I pounded a few keys, mostly in entering every
program that the Rainbow published, regardless of
the format, from BASIC to Assembly, and even all =>
____________________________________________________
of the OS9 programs I could find. Most of them had
the "bugs" worked out, but I must admit that I did
not finish Colin Stearman's "Cooking with CoCo," and
I did order his series on disk.
And, I am one of those "turn-coats," having switched
to the Compatible in 1985, and more fully in 1987.
But I still pound the keys of the (now) CoCo III,
utilizing a Sony KV-1311 monitor, drives from J&M,
and a battery of programs purchased over the years.
Since much of my programming is again in BASIC, lots
of times I still start them on the CoCo, and then
transfer them to the Compatible under Pro BASIC 7.1
where they can be refined and compiled.
Thus far in this little group of "friends" I do =>
____________________________________________________
see one familiar and friendly face, George Q. whom I
have "known" for several years. He can attest that
sometimes I can answer letters right away, and then
again sometimes it may take a few months. But I
still do have several "students" of the CoCo, that I
keep in repair, and corrections (but I could still
use about five FD502s, George...)
Should anyone wish to venture a try, I can be con-
tacted at:
Route 1, Box 198HHH
Deming, New Mexico 88030
All the best in "Comput'n";
"Art"
SKSK =*
|
Bradley Swanson 4579 Treeview Ter.
Rockford, IL 61109
(815) 874-5926
Hi there! I am a 17-year-old junior at Lutheran
High School here in Rockford. Since I haven't been
kicking around that long, I haven't got much to say
about myself. I am great in math and the sciences
and my collecting interests change like the wind...
except for the Coco, that is! We got our first Coco
in '82 and bought it off my dad for $3! I have also
bought my own Coco 3 for a poultry sum of $74! I am
proficient in programing in Basic and ML.
If you ever want to contact me, send a SASE to
the address above or call me weekdays from 4 to 8
p.m. =*
|
Family Tree-John D. Clemons Rt. 2 Box 70
Bland, VA 24315
I will be 34 in June '92, and also in June, will
have been married to Kay for 11 years. We have four
small children--John (9 this June), Scott (8 this
July), Tara (6 in March), and Kayla who turned four
in Dec. I have a B.S. degree in Environmental
Science, but am currently working as a Parts Manager
in a new car dealership. The area my family and I
live in is very mountainous and rural, and the town
so small that like the saying goes "if you blink
your eyes, you won't even know you've been through
it." The Appalachian Trail runs through a 1/2 mile
behind our home, and provides the impetus for
another of my hobbies--hiking. My sons and I have =>
____________________________________________________
started doing overnight hikes and hope to get in
several this spring and summer.
My computer experience goes back to college
where in '79 I took Fortran IV and also did
statistical analysis on a main frame. I bought my
first computer in '83, a TI-99/4A. It was mostly
used like a toy, I only did minimal programming on
it. Next came a Tandy Model 100, and then a CoCo 2.
I've had my CoCo 3 for four years and my current
system includes a Magnavox 1CM135 monitor, dual
double-sided drives, Slot Pak III, OS-9 Level II
(which I also like to use), and DMP-107 printer. I
have had the fortune of submitting and having
published one small program in Novices Niche in the
Rainbow (Nov '91). And maybe something will show up
in CFDM (if you're reading this, I guess it has). =>
____________________________________________________
Other things that I enjoy to do, besides com-
puting and using several different systems (PC com-
patibles and UNIX included), and the hiking I men-
tioned earlier are: running (at least from March til
December) and reading, especially SF and fantasies.
I like the writings of Tolkein, Terry Brooks, David
Eddings, and Gordon Dickson, among many others. I
like to watch and read Star Trek but do not consider
myself a Trekkie (no, I can't tell you what the T.
in James T. Kirk stands for.) I think that many CoCo
users also like SF and probably grew up reading
Comic Books--computer hacking just seems to be a na-
tural extension of the dreamer type of personality.
I've been accused of being a big kid with his toys,
but if growing up means giving up all things fun,
forget it--like Peter Pan--I'll never grow old. =*
|
FAMILY TREE My name is Larry Bryant. My wife's name is Bettie
and we have four children named Michael, who is
married, Jeremy, Rebekah, and Shelah. We live in
Farmington, New Mexico.
My wife works in a Christian School. Rebekah and
Shelah attend that school. Jeremy is the maintance
man at a nursing home and Michael is a security
guard at a power plant. I pastor a Baptist Church,
drive a public school bus, and work as the gardner
at the same nursing home Jeremy works at. So you
can see that I don't have a lot of free time.
I have a 512K CoCo 3, two FD-502 double-sided drives
a CM-8 RGB color monitor, a MPI, a DMP 130A printer,
and a mouse and deluxe joystick. I just recently =>
____________________________________________________
upgraded to 512K so haven't really realized the full
use of it. I use my computer very, very much, but
usually running other people's programs. I do very
little programming of my own but would like to be
able to do more of it. What I know about it I have
learned on my own. I use both Basic and OS-9
programs.
I enjoy the Rainbow Magazine very much for my OS-9
things and am very impressed with CFDM for my Basic
things. I am looking forward to learning many
things from it.
=*
|
FAMILY TREE OWNER OF A COCO 3 WITH 512K OF MEMORY, 40 MEG. HARD
DISK, 4 SIDED FLOPPY DISK DRIVE, DISTO SUPER
CONTROLLER AND A STAR NX1000 PRINTER. I LEARNED TO
COMPUTE BY MYSELF AND THE HELP OF A FEW "COCONUT"
FRIENDS...I HAVE THE COMPLETE SELECTION OF RAINBOW,
DYNAMIC COLOR NEWS, HOT COCO, COCO CLIPBOARD,
SPECTOGRAM AND UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER TIME-LIFE
SERIES. MY DISK LIBRARY INCLUDES OVER 150 UTILITY
PROGRAMS, 35 WORD PROCESSORS, 35 GRAPHICS, 100 GAMES
AND 50 OS9 PROGRAMS. MY FAVORITE WORD PROCESSOR IS
"BUSINESS WRITER", THE BEST UTILITY "COCO ACCOUNTANT
3", THE BEST GAME "WORLD OF FLIGHT" AND "COCO MAX 3"
THE FRIENDLIER GRAPHIC PROGRAM. I'VE TRIED SEVERAL
TIMES TO FIND A "GURU" TO TEACH ME THE UNFRIENDLY
OS/9 BUT TO NO AVAIL. MOST OF MY FRIENDS HAVE
TRANSFERRED THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO MSDOS BUT I HAVE =>
____________________________________________________
LOTS TO LEARN FROM MY COCO YET AND UNTIL I MASTER
ALL THE POTENTIALITIES OF MY COCO I WILL STICK TO
IT. I HOPE ALL THE "COCO-ERS" OR "COCO-NUTS" DO THE
SAME AND STICK TOGETHER. ONE WAY TO DO SO IS TO
RECEIVE THE NEW FAMILY PUBLICATION "COCO FRIENDS
DISK MAGAZINE" AND PARTICIPATE IN ITS PUBLICATION.
MY HOBBY BESIDES THE COCO IS GARDENING IN SUMMER AND
SNOWMOBILING IN WINTER. I'VE JUST RETURNED FROM A
1700 MILE TRIP BY SNOWMOBILE (14 DAYS) FROM TUMBLER
RIDGE, B.C. CANADA TO FAIRBANKS, ALASKA TO
COMMEMORATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BUILDING OF
THE ALASKA HIGHWAY. WHAT A TRIP! THE WEATHER
FLUCTUATED BETWEEN 50 F. BELOW TO 45 F. ABOVE. 7 OUT
OF 27 RIDERS MADE IT ALL THE WAY AND I AM ONE OF
THEM. ALL (5) THE 500 POLARIS MADE IT. THE BEST =>
____________________________________________________
SNOWMOBILE IN THE WORLD. THE PRESIDENT OF FAIRBANKS
UNIVERSITY CITED ME TO THE YOUTH OF ALASKA AS AN
EXAMPLE OF IMAGINATION, DETERMINATION AND COURAGE.
HE COULD HAVE ALSO CITED ANOTHER GENTLEMAN OF
ALASKA, 86 YRS YOUNG, WHO RAN THE "IDITAROD" FROM
ANCHORAGE TO NOME. HE ARRIVED 10 DAYS AFTER THE
WINNER, BUT IN HIS OWN WORDS: "I ARRIVED FIRST IN MY
CLASS" (CLASS OF 86 YRS. OLD). MAY THESE EXAMPLES
OF DETERMINATION BE A LEITMOTIV FOR ALL THE COCO
FRIENDS WHO WILL READ THESE LINES.
MY ADDRESS:
199 CH. DE LA MONTAGNE
AYLMER, QC, CANADA
J9H 5E1
=*
|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| "COCO
IV ??" A WARNING TO CONTRIBUTORS |
| Back to top |
"COCO IV ??" Lonnie Falk, of Rainbow, has written two columns in recent issue of RAINBOW, which have really hit the mark with me. I'd like to comment on the latest one in this entry. (For a few words on the second see FROM THE EDITOR.) In his "PRINT #-2" column, page 2 of the May issue, Lonnie lets us in on his feelings about the new machines that some are calling the "CoCo IV". He states that he has been moving toward this decision for a number of months. In his words: "There is no Color Computer IV, and there never will be. The efforts of several third-part companies to entice those of you who want more power and abilities from your CoCo-based (or, more correctly, Motorola processor-based) platform by selling you a => ____________________________________________________ "new" computer will not serve you well into the future." Mr. Falk further says that the reason for this is that the availability of software will never be great for these machines. It is not and will not be comparable to that available for the CoCo. His advice is to buy an Intel-based PC. He stated that Tandy has some excellent ones at incredibly low prices. I agree with Mr. Falk on some of his points and vary on some of the others. Up front I admit to a much lesser degree of knowledge than anyone whose career is 100% in computers. Anyway, the new machines are not "CoCo IVs"! They are probably very nice => ____________________________________________________ computers,..just as about any of the others on the market. But they will never have the following of any of the majors. Even the CoCo in it's present state has more followers that all the "CoCo IVs" put together will ever have. (That's a prediction, but you can write it down!) If you have great numbers of users, you will eventually have the software. Agreement on PC compatible as the best option, but I disagree on buying from TANDY. Until TANDY shows a little empathy for the thousands of us, who stuck with them thru various shades of CoCo, I will not recommend their products to anyone. Furthermore, I know there are many PC compatibles out there at very decent prices. They are all practically the same and very good machines. (But they're not CoCos!!) =* |
A WARNING TO CONTRIBUTORS We are so lucky that someone, (Rick), has taken the time and effort to try and keep OUR COCO alive. However, You and I can put and end to this endeavor if we are not carefull. I am talking about programs you may have written that were published in the Rainbow. If you read the contract that Falsoft send you, you will notice that Falsoft has bought your program OUTRIGHT. In other words: YOU ARE NO LONGER THE OWNER OF THAT PROGRAM. FALSOFT IS. !!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT SUBMIT THESE PROGRAMS TO CDFM I am sure that Rick does not have the time to check each submission to see if it was previously published. The repercussions for publishing an article or program, to which someone else holds the copyright can be severe. PLEASE BE CAREFULL. GJQ.>* |
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| FROM
THE EDITOR KUDOS |
| Back to top |
FROM THE EDITOR I'd like to let everyone know that I'm still going
strong here at CFDM headquarters. A few more hours
and issue #4 will be ready to send to you. Then I
can begin on #5!!! (I can hardly wait!)
Many of you have written the words "this is what the
CoCo has needed for a long time", when speaking of
the idea of a disk-based magazine. Since starting
CFDM, I have found out that there is at least one
other (MID IOWA and COUNTRY - see issue #3) and at
least one that was tried before. I believe the name
of that one was "THE CLIPBOARD". Would you believe
that I never heard of either of these until after I
started CFDM. Somebodies been keeping secrets! I
know you will/are helping me spread the word about
CFDM and I appreciate it! =>
____________________________________________________
This brings me to a recent column of Lonnie Falk's.
In the February issue of RAINBOW, he wrote about how
to be successful by finding a niche to fill. When I
read these words for the first time, the first CoCo
Friend's were just beginning to respond to my flyers
and ads. It really seemed to me that his article
was aimed right at me. (There's a good chance that
the article was actually written before I had even
conceived CFDM!)
Well I hope you and I have found a niche that is not
only successful but comfortable, fun, beneficial,
and long-running. One Friend said that CFDM reminded
him of a long distance CoCo club. I can understand
that feeling too! Remember how I advertised CFDM as
part BBS, part magazine, and part shareware? =>
____________________________________________________
I still believe it has some of those characteristics
and hopefully, as we continue, there will be new
developments that will add to our enjoyment.
I hope you are as enthusiastic as I. That's what we
must be to get the most out of this experience!!
KEEP ON COCOing!!!!
=*
|
KUDOS
IT'S TRULY YOU WHO SUBSCRIBE, YOU WHO CONTRIBUTE,
YOU WHO SHOW OTHERS, AND YOU WHO BELIEVE, THAT MAKE
EACH ISSUE OF CFDM BETTER AND THE COMMUNITY A LITTLE
STRONGER AS A RESULT!!!!!!!!
ENDEAVOR TO PERSERVERE!! =*
|
CFDM...A GREAT IDEA!!! I think this is a great idea to keep the CoCo
community together and I hope this will help my CoCo
and others staying alive for a very long time to
come. People who are using Tandy color computer are
unique, talented, and they know how to push this
machine to the MAX!!!
I have 1 CoCo 1, 1 CoCo3 and an IBM 386sx/25MHz/
40 meg hardrive. I still think my CoCo 1, 3 are
more fun to work and play with. I can get them to
do things that are less expensive and efficient as
an IBM for the same job.
I hope CFDM will help us communicate with others
and share ideas and to learn more about the people
who are using this great MACHINE that Tandy invented
*****************
=*
|
Congrats! Dear Rick,
Congratulations on an excellent job! Your new
addition, view page 'before' hardcopy execute
command is terrific. It is but another much
appreciated enhancement to CFDM, in this short
period of it's existence.
=*
|
Kudos and a Question Rick, Thank you for your kind words in the last issue. I intend to be an active subscriber to CFDM. I think that the last issue was superb. You have obviously corrected all of the previous problem areas and added some desired capibilities. I had no trouble viewing or printing any item. From the full- ness of the program side of the disk I assume that you are getting plenty of submissions. Now for the question. When I originally acquired my dual doubled sided drives I had ADOS configured with the back side of drive 0 as drive 1 and with the second drive as drive 2 with its back side as drive 3. My question concerns an available Poke or short fix to allow the copy command in CFDM to copy to drive 2 instead of drive 1. Its no real problem because most items to be copied to other => ____________________________________________________ disks are on the program side of the disk. The submission in the Questions and Answers section is a response to Herb Schuler's question in the 2nd issue. Here's hoping that your Stamina holds up to allow all of the effort I know is required to produce such an outstanding contribution to the Coco community. For your information an analysis of the ages of the Bio's listed in the Family Tree indicate that the ratio of ages for contributors over 65 to those under 65 is 1 to 2. That just shows that some of us oldtimers still support the Coco. RICK: Thanks for your encouraging words Bob! I am just very pleased at the response we are getting from Friends like you. I had to hold your => ____________________________________________________ Letter to the Editor until this issue in order to do a little research and decide how to answer it. Due to the changes I seem to be continually making to CFDM, it may not be safe for me to tell you where to poke in order to copy to drive 2 from SYSOP. That's because everytime I change the program there's a chance that the vital poke spot may change too. At this time I believe you can try the following. I'm almost positive it will work, but please use caution when trying these pokes for the first time. Load "C.BAS" and add this line to copy to drive 2. Issue #2...515 POKE &H659C,2 Issue #3...515 POKE &H659D,2 Issue #4...515 POKE &H659D,2 (HOPE THIS IS USEFUL TO YOU!!) =* |
MY MICROSCOPE The reason I like MY MICROSCOPE is because it
teaches children all the parts of the microscope.The
first time I played it I didn't get any of them
right, but then when I played it the more I kept on
getting more of them right, and then one day when I
got all of them right I made 100%. I couldn't
believe it. Then I kept on getting them right, and
then I started trying to help other kids in my
class. At first when I started I had made a paper
because I didn't know how to do it without a paper.
I had to draw some of the parts, but I knew some of
the parts like the eyepiece, base, mirror, stage,
and the stage clips. There are thirteen parts. I
would say that if you miss one out of thirteen I
would think that you would make 92%. If you missed
all of them you would make 0%. =>
____________________________________________________
Some people in my class might already know all the
parts of the microscope. I don't know about anybody
else, but I like MY MICROSCOPE.
THE END
RICK: Dana Myers is in the fourth grade at Douglas
Elementary School. Her teacher is Mrs. Margaret
Johnson and her principal is Mr. Rick Cooper. All
but one of our classrooms has a COCO 3 and most of
my software. The program Dana talks about here is
MYMICRO, an educational program from my UNBELIEVABLE
OFFER #3. Dana typed in her entry on a submission
disk I made for her class. Thanks for your great
entry Dana!! =*
|
PROBLEMS WITH ENTRY WRITER I have had a few problems with ENTRY WRITER when I
have had to save a file to the disk.
It appears to have written it, but only half of the
first page has been saved. When reloading the file
the screen border turns red and the text does not
unfold and the computer hangs until a key is pressed
I have overcome the problem by using the ramdisk and
saving everything to it and then backing the ramdisk
up to a floppy. I can now use ENTRY WRITER and be
confident that I will not lose all that I have
entered in.
I tried to copy a file from drive 0 TO 1 and the
result was that it copied OK but the source disk =>
____________________________________________________
crashed with drive lights coming on everywhere.
The source disk then refused to load.
All these problems I have solved by using the
ramdisk.
If others have had this problem maybe this will help
them and using the ramdisk makes using ENTRY WRITER
so smooth.
When using ENTRY WRITER I turn off the key repeat
(too fast for my typing Rick).
COLIN NORTH
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: COLIN, I will continue to work on ENTRY WRITER
and hopefully it will be more comfortable to use. If
I don't find any bugs in the change I've made this
month, you will find that EW deletes and inserts at
a much faster pace than before. I still need to do
some work on the repeating key's timing. Please
bear with me!
As to your problem with saving and copying, I have
not experienced such. Are you using regular RS-DOS
or some version of ADOS?
=*
|
PROGRAM DIRECTORY!!! Dear Rick:
The PROGRAM DIRECTORY in Vol 1 No 3 was a
SUPER BONUS SURPRISE! Now that you've spoiled us --
can you create PROGRAM DIRECTORIES for the first two
Issues?
I also want to congratulate you on the BUILT-IN
HARDCOPY routine -- GREAT!!! So much better to be
able to review the material before you decide to
print it out.
YOU and your FRIENDS have given me many happy
hours at the CoCo3 -- THANKS!!!
Godfrey
RICK: Thanks for the suggestion Godfrey. You'll find
both PROGRAM DIRECTORIES in this section. =*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM
SIDE of issue #1. File names preceded by an asterisk
are data files and not to be RUN or EXECed.
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
LLIST2C .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
HARDCOPY.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
BLOCKS .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
CONVERT .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
PRINTME .BAS..RUN...DOCs printer for CONVERT.DOC..
* CONVERT .DOC........Documentation for CONVERT.BAS.
RECYCLE .BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY...................
* RECYCLE .NIB........PIX FILE FOR RECYCLE.BAS......
* NIBLOADR.BIN........PIX LOADER UTILITY............
WINTSERN.BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY..ISSUE COVER......
* WINTSERN.NIB........PIX FILE FOR WINTSERN.BAS =>
____________________________________________________
BROOK .BAS...RUN...ART GALLERY..................
* BROOK .NIB.........PIX FILE FOR BROOK.BAS.......
BOWLPLOT.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
SPLIT .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* SPLIT .DOC.........DOCUMENTATION FOR SPLIT.BAS..
PREFIX .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
VCR CARD.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* SAMPLE .CRD.........SAMPLE DATA FOR VCR CARD.BAS.
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM
SIDE of issue #2. File names preceeded by an
asterisk are data files and not to be RUN or EXECed.
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
TREKINS .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* TREKKIE .ASM.........EDTASM SOURCE FOR TREKKIE.BIN
* TREKKIE .BIN.........PROGRAM FILE FOR TREKINS.BAS.
* TREKKIE .BAS.........PROGRAM FILE FOR TREKINS.BAS.
BYTETUT1.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
BRANSON2.BAS...RUN...ART GALLERY..................
HSCR2 .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* NIBLOADR.BIN.........PIX LOADER UTILITY...........
MANDBROT.BAS...RUN...ART GALLERY..................
* MANDBROT.NIB.........PIX FILE FOR MANDBROT.BAS....
* BRANSON2.NIB.........PIX FILE FOR BRANSON2.BAS =>
____________________________________________________
LIVLINES.BAS...RUN...POTPOURRI..GREAT DEMO CONTEST
HAMTENNA.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
READDOC2.BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
* READDOC2.DOC.........DOCs for READDOC2.BAS........
BLOCKS1 .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
HELMETS .BAS...RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH........
NAME .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
LPOKE .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
SAMPLE .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
MENU3 .BAS...RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH........
=*
|
Recycling Tip DEAR RICK
I have found a way to help the environment by
recycling the mailers you use to send each issue of
CFDM.Just peel off the postage label and the address
sticker and cut out a piece of paper large enough to
cover Rick's return address and put your own on it.
Glue this to the mailer, insert your submission disk
and seal. A very practical solution if you don't
have any mailers of your own.
Bradley Swanson
RICK: GREAT IDEA! Many of my mailers have already
been returned in the manner you mention!
=*
|
USE OF NIB COMPRESSOR Hi Rick: Volume 1 Issue 2 was great!! I'm really
enjoying CFDM. I have not been able to figure out
how to get a picture out of COCO MAX III and into
memory so I can use your NIB COMPRESSOR to make a
submission. Consequently, my picture submission
this month was sent in CM3 format. Now, what's the
mechanics of using NIB with CM3?
Thanks
RICK: The NIB COMPRESSOR has sure come in handy and
does a great job compressing pictures. But...there
is a little problem. To compress any picture you
must be able to 1) display it on the screen and 2)
keep the palettes intact when you exit the program
which displayed it. =>
____________________________________________________
We have discovered, that for reasons unknown, the
viewers we are familiar with change the palettes
upon exit. To make the problem worse all the ones
I know of make use of interupts and are hard to
intercept.
I did have some success with writing a program I
called PALSAVER (UNBELIEVABLE OFFER #3), which used
an interupt to intercept the VUMASTER viewer (see
A GIFT FROM DAVID MILLS in issue #3). With VUMASTER
and PALSAVER you can save CM3 pictures intact and
then use NIB to compress them.
If you do not have VUMASTER, NIB, and PALSAVER, just
send your pictures to me in their original format. I
will do my best to NIB them for you. =*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| !
THE GREAT DEMO CONTEST ! DEMO - NEBULA MUSIC3+ "DOLLY" SLINKY ELLIPSES -- A DEMO WHERE IN ..(READ FIRST) WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CFDM? Wisdom/Enthusiasm |
| 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!!
=*
|
DEMO - NEBULA This DEMO, filename NEBULA, was designed when I was
working on a computer simulation of celestial
mechanics, in which any number of bodies of various
masses, initial positions, velocities and vectors,
are plotted over time as the effect of gravity
operates. NEBULA is an attempt to simulate the
night-time sky as seen, perhaps, through the new
Keck telescope atop 13,600 foot Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
CAUTION: The pattern develops very slowly, somewhat
like watching grass grow. It should be tried only
when the computer is free from other duties for at
least a couple of hours or more, in order to get
the full effect.
=*
|
MUSIC3+ "DOLLY" THIS IS A MUSIC ENTRY USING GEORGE QUELLHORST'S
PROGRAM MUSIC3+ FROM THE RAINBOW 4/91P10. YOU HAVE
TO USE THE HIGH SPEED POKE AND A COCO3. THE PROGRAM
DOLLY.BAS TAKES CARE OF THIS FOR YOU AND RETURNS TO
SLOW SPEED WHEN FINISHED. JUST RUN DOLLY.BAS AND
LISTEN. I HOPE THERE WILL BE MORE AND BETTER SUB-
MISSIONS OF THIS KIND IN THE FUTURE.
=*
|
SLINKY ELLIPSES -- A DEMO You'll notice a striking similarity between SLINKY
and LIVLINES (which appeared in Issue 1). It was, in
fact, patterned along similar ideas (I almost said
lines). Instead of lines, it uses ellipses drawn by
the HCIRCLE command. The variables of X,Y coordi-
nates of the center, the radius and the ratio of
height/width are all randomly selected, as is the
color. Then, another ellipse is randomly defined,
and 30 intermediate ellipses are generated. The
process is repeated five more times, returning to
the original ellipse. This may not be as showy as
LIVLINES, but it demonstrates what you can do with
commands other than HLINE.
RUN"SLINKY and the program will go to the title
page. Then, after a pause, it will start =>
____________________________________________________
creating different graphic pictures, pausing after
each one is complete. I'm sure you will see why the
name SLINKY came to mind.
=*
|
WHERE IN ..(READ FIRST) The entry, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CFDM?, is a graphic
survey of our readers. Hopefully you will be able
to successfully execute this entry. Several times I
have experienced system hang-up when trying to load
this entry. I have been unable to locate the cause
at this time. (SIMPLY RESET AND RUN "C" AGAIN.)
HOW TO USE THIS ENTRY:
After loading WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CFDM?, press the
arrow keys to move the white cursor to the location
of your residence (a best guess is as good as you
can do). Next press ENTER to see the number of your
location. Write your name, address, and location
number on the enclosed post card and send it to me.
=>
____________________________________________________
In a near-future issue I'll put the resulting map of
all who reply.
By the way, the starting white dot is my location.
(To leave the display, press any key after you have
pressed ENTER.)
=*
|
Wisdom/Enthusiasm It has been written, "Be thankful for the wisdom of
the elderly and the enthusiasm of youth".
At age 71, a CoCoNut for 4 years, and member of a
CoCo club, with half of the members in the 'youth'
category, I choose to modify the above quote:
Be thankful for the wisdom of the youth and the
enthusiasm of the elderly.
=*
|
COLOR CODE CHALLENGE This is a fun puzzle game, first published in
HOT COCO magazine in March, 1985, written by
Michael Hunt. I have made several modifications to
make it easier to play and add more interest. It is
suitable for both children and adults, but be
careful! If you compete with your offspring, you
might discover they catch on more quickly than you.
The computer selects a secret code consisting of 5
colors out of 8 possible colors. Duplication is
allowed. Two or more slots can be the same color.
To guess a color, you may press either the initial
letter of the color, or the number. The left arrow
key may be used to correct a mistake, except for the
last slot. Once the last slot is guessed, the
computer evaluates the guess and provides clues. =>
____________________________________________________
To add to the interest, I also added a feature that
keeps track of previous results. It appears at the
end of each game, and tells you how many times you
have guessed the secret code using a certain number
of guesses. A skilled player can almost always guess
the secret code in 6 guesses or less, so that part
of the challenge is to try to do it in as few
guesses as possible. The zero (0) row at the top is
used to count the number of failures to guess the
secret code. Its disk filename is COCODE.
Michael Hunt, whose last known address is P.O. Box
323, Decatur, IL 46733, did a nice job, and I think
it deserves being seen again.
=*
|
Disk Directory Card This program was inspired by a similar OS-9 program
in the May 1990 Rainbow. What it does is print a
card that should be inserted in the diskette jacket.
You could also make a second copy and have a catalog
of your disk's files. This program itemizes the
files on the disk according to the type. For example
BASIC PROGRAM (BINARY). To use this program by
typing RUN "LABEL" after it is loaded you will be
prompted for the drive to read, enter the drive
number or just press ENTER for drive 0 (the default
in brackets). Then you will be asked for today's
date enter the date exactly as shown, for example,
92/01/09 for Jan 9, 1992. Then it will prompt you to
insert the disk in the drive you selected and press
ENTER. It will then read the directory and ask for a
name of the disk (90 characters max). After =>
____________________________________________________
entering the name the program will print a formatted
card. When it is done printing, you will be asked if
you want to do another one pressing ENTER, the
default is Yes or press N to end the program. To
speed things up, use a printer spooler so you don't
have to wait for the card to be printed.
The printer codes and their uses are listed near
the begining of the program. These codes are for a
TRS-80 DMP 110 and may have to be modified for your
printer. The program prints 2 cards per 11" sheet so
be sure to align the printer to the top of a page.
I hope you find this program useful, I did.
=*
|
EASY ENVELOPE AND PACKAGE LABELS HOW DO YOU ADDRESS AN ENVELOPE?
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS !
1- BY HAND : NO ONE CAN READ MY WRITING !
2- DRAG OUT THE OLD TYPEWRITER : NAH ! NOT A
COCO NUT !
3- ENVELOPE PROG. RAINBOW 3/87 P80 : NOT BAD FOR
SMALL ENVELOPES- NOT FOR LARGE OR PACKAGES.
4- FEED IN PIN FEED ENVELOPES : A LOT OF TROUBLE
AND THEY'RE TOO FAT FOR MY PRINTER.
5- FEED IN LABELS AND A LABEL PROGRAM : NICE IF YOU
NEED A LOT OF LABELS. NOT GOOD FOR ONE OR TWO
AND I USUALLY MESS UP TWO OR THREE GETTING THEM
BACK OUT.
6- LOAD IN THE PROGRAM "TWOLABEL.BAS" ON THE FLIP
SIDE : USES REGULAR SHEET PAPER. NOT QUITE AS
CONVENIENT AS PEEL AND STICK LABELS =>
____________________________________________________
YOU DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE PAPER. A PAPER CUTTER
IS NICE, BUT A PAIR OF SISSORS WILL DO. APPLY
A LITTLE SCHOOL GLUE OR A GLUE STICK IS GREAT.
YOU CAN ALSO MAKE PACKAGE LABELS WITH A TO- AND
FROM- FORMAT. YOU CAN PRINT TWO ACROSS A PAGE
OR A PAGE FULL OR MORE AND FILE THEM ALPHEBET-
ICALLY IN A FOLDER FOR FUTURE USE.I WROTE THIS
BECAUSE I HATE TO HAVE TO CHANGE MATERIALS IN
AND OUT OF THE PRINTER. THE BAUD RATE IS IN
LINE 20. COCO 2 USERS CAN EDIT LINE 20. I HOPE
THIS MAKES YOUR ADDRESSING A LITTLE EASIER
=*
|
Menu I like to have a colorful menu on the disks
that I use most often, so I wrote this program for
that purpose.
This version of menu is from one of my utilities
disks but you can change line 440 to say "Games" for
example.
Change "N" in line 460 to the number of programs
that you want listed in MENU. It will hold 20 titles
in the left hand box.
Change the DATA statements starting at line 500
to the names of your programs and edit in your
programs starting at line 811.
Next, save MENU to your disk. Type in the number
of the program you want to run and press <ENTER>.
I hope this brightens up some of your disks!
John Tindall =*
|
PROTECT NOT MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE... JUST FOLLOW THE
INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SCREEN. PROTECT WILL MAKE ANY
BASIC PROGRAM YOU WRITE UNLISTABLE. I WOULDN'T USE
THIS ON MANY OF MY OWN PROGRAMS BECAUSE I WANT
PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE THEM TO SUIT THEIR
NEEDS, HOWEVER, IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY UNDER
CERTAIN CONDITIONS. ENJOY THE PROGRAM! - WALT
=*
|
RAMBASE IF YOU HAVE EVER WANTED TO HAVE A COMPLETE MINI BBS
FOR YOUR COCO, "RAMBASE" MIGHT BE FOR YOU. "RAMBASE"
IS WRITTEN COMPLETELY IN RAM. IT REQUIRES NO DISK
DRIVE, JUST ANY COCO AND A SMART MODEM. EVEN THOUGH
RAMBASE REQUIRES ONLY 32K, IT STILL HAS A SURPRISING
CAPACITY FOR MESSAGE STORAGE. IT MAKES A GREAT
LITTLE BASE TO PUT UP WHEN YOUR MAIN BBS IS DOWN, OR
JUST AS A "PRIVATE" MESSAGE BASE FOR YOU AND YOUR
COMPUTER FRIENDS. WITH A 128 OR 512K COCO, SOME OF
YOU WITH A LITTLE PROGRAMMING SKILL MIGHT LIKE TO
TRY YOUR HAND AT EXPANDING "RAMBASE." LET ME KNOW
IF YOU DO! TO USE "RAMBASE" YOU NEED 3 FILES: (1)
BOOT (2) DRIVER (3) RAMBASE. THE BOOT FILE CONTAINS
INSTRUCTION (THE PROGRAM IS WRITTEN TO BE ULTRA
SIMPLE) AND WILL PROGRAM YOUR MODEM TO AUTO-ANSWER.
BOOT ALSO LOADS A SIMPLE 300 BAUD DRIVER. =>
____________________________________________________
(BETTER DRIVERS ARE AVAILABLE). NEXT IS THE DRIVER
PROGRAM WHICH IS JUST THAT. DRIVER ALLOWS YOU TO RUN
YOUR BBS BY SIMPLY CONNECTING YOUR SMART MODEM TO
YOUR SERIAL PORT. NO RS-232 PACK IS REQUIRED!
FINALLY WE HAVE "RAMBASE ITSELF. YOU CAN RUN RAMBASE
IN SECONDS, AND WILL NEVER HAVE ANY WEAR AND TEAR ON
YOUR DRIVES. AS AN INTERESTING FACT, MY OWN STRANGE
BBS (714) 369-9704 HAS BEEN RUNNING ON A COCO 1 FOR
7 OR 8 YEARS NOW CONTINUOUSLY AND HAS NEEDED ONLY
ONE VERY MINOR REPAIR! GOOD LUCK, AND ENJOY THE
PROGRAM! - WALT
P.S. I USE A SIMPLE RELAY AND MY CASSETTE PORT
TO FORCE THE REMOTE MODEM TO HANG UP. IF YOU HAVE
ANY TROUBLE WITH USERS FAILING TO HANG UP, YOU CAN
WRITE TO ME FOR A SCHEMATIC. =*
|
SPRITE+ (part one) Have you ever tried to make an arcade game for your Coco? If you have, you have also felt the frustration of trying to create your characters using graph paper. Sure, graph paper is easy, but what if you make a mistake? You have to start all over again. Then when you translate it to the graphic's screen, it is not what you expected to see. So the process goes on and on. That was me before I wrote SPRITE+. This easy to use program eliminated the clutter around my desk; I now create my characters with ease and you can too. This program will work on any Coco 3. An RGB monitor is recommended but not required. To get started, just type in RUN"SPRITE+" <ENTER>. After you type run, the screen will clear and the HSCREEN 2 graphic's screen appears. It takes => ____________________________________________________ about 35 seconds for the program to initialize. There are three fields on the screen. The largest is the large rectangle that takes up most of the screen ; this is where you will do your drawing. The second is the palette field. The first number is the color code (number); the second number is the palette slot in hexdecimal; the small rectangle is what that color looks like. The third field is the actual size of what you are drawing in field one. It is under the word "INFO". The first thing you should do is type in a question mark. This brings you to the info screens. These screens will tell you most of what you will need to know about how to use this program. Here are some notes on how to use some functions: CHANGE PALETTE-press "P", press the number of => ____________________________________________________ the palette you want to change, use the up/down arrow keys to select new color (up increases color number by one, down decreases), press ENTER. PRINT TO PRINTER/SCREEN-this will print the palette slot number of every point in the sprite. This is to aid in translating your work to HSET, HDRAW, etc. statements. It will also ask for palettes to ignore. This means that if you want it to ignore palette 3, everytime it comes across a point set to color 3, it will print a space. Normally you will want to ignore palette E, for every point that you don't set is initially set to palette E. Looking for your character in a screen full of E's is difficult at best (I included this after my first printout). SAVE/LOAD MENU-if you have a disk system, you can not save your work to tape and vice versa. =* |
SPRITE+ (part two) SAVE/LOAD MENU CONTINUED-you can, however, load
your work from tape to your disk system with the
Upload From Tape To Disk System option (it must have
been saved on a tape-only system). The reason for
this is because the program uses the PMODE graphic's
pages 1 & 2 to store and retrieve your work and this
area moves if you add a disk drive.
A few words about the graphics. You can create
characters of up to 52 across and 39 down. This
should be adequate for most applications. The sprite
you draw in field one is five times as big as actual
size. I also use a few POKEs to get a larger screen.
HSCREEN 2 only allows us 0-191 vertically. I use
0-198 vertically. Seven pixels doesn't sound like
much, but I needed it for this program. How do I do
this you ask? Simple, just look in the Rainbow =>
____________________________________________________
column "Novices Niche" (its not just for novices!)
in the October 1988 issue, page 88.
Every thing else should be self-explanatory. If,
however, you should have any questions, please send
then to CFDM or to me at:
4579 Treeview Ter.
Rockford, IL 61109
Please include a SASE if you want me to reply. I
hope you enjoy this program and make full use of it.
P.S. I have included a sample picture for your
viewing pleasure called EXAMPLE. Just load it
in from the save/load menu.
=*
|
TINY DIRECTORY I like to have directories of my disks on the
jackets so I can immediately see the contents of
each and the correct spelling of the program names.
TINYDIR prints a directory listing that is small and
neat. It is based upon a One-Liner by Michael R.
Patrick (RAINBOW Apr. '85, p.212) with modifications
for greater flexibility.
You can print the directory from a disk in any
drive. RUN "TINYDIR" and answer the prompts for the
disk name and the drive number. I usually cut out
the directories and affix them to my disk jackets
with Scotch Magic Tape. But, if you are not using
Tyvek (plastic) jackets, you will have trouble
removing them later. (You may still have some
difficulty, but it will not damage the jackets =>
____________________________________________________
so much that they cannot be reused.)
The program is written for an Epson-compatible
printer (I have a Star Micronics NX-1020), but since
not everyone has that, I have commented each line of
control codes to identify what it does. To convert
to another type of printer, Tandy, for example, look
up the control codes for the equivalent action and
substitute them.
Other modifications may be necessary. Line 80 sets
the baud rate to 9600. Change it to whatever you
use. If you use ADOS3 or Extended ADOS3, delete Line
150, as it will be redundant.
=>
____________________________________________________
I am indebted to George Quellhorst for bringing to
my attention the test in Line 70 which checks to see
if the printer is turned on.
=*
|
TRANSLAT.PAT If you have a copy of COCOMAX III this utility may
help you when using the TRANSLAT programme.
This patch will not set the palette registers to a
pre determined colour, but will PEEK the memory for
the colours that have been used for any picture that
you want to transfer into COCOMAX III. When
transfering a picture, make sure that the programme,
on BREAK, does not reset the palette registers with
RGB or CMP or the palette registers will be reset to
the default colours.
Another feature to be altered is converting PMODE4
pictures into COCOMAX III. When selecting to load a
PMODE4 file, you will be asked for the extension so
that you can load any PMODE4 picture you wish. =>
____________________________________________________
The menu lets you select any of the 22 picture files
that will fit onto a 35 track disk. This is very
handy if you want to convert ART-DELI pictures into
COCOMAX.
HINT
When saving pictures, save the first one twice. This
turns off the animation and any picture saved after
is not affected with animation being turned on.
USING "TRANSLAT.PAT"
LOAD"TRANSLAT" - From the original COCOMAX III
MERGE"TRANSLAT.PAT"
SAVE"TRANSLAT" =>
____________________________________________________
If you want to keep it as another file save as:-
"TRANSLAT.ALT"
I hope that this patch is of some use to the people
that use COCOMAX III because it is a big help to me.
COLIN NORTH
4 DENICE STREET
BIRKDALE QUEENSLAND 4159
AUSTRALIA
=*
|
Uncle CoCo Tells a Story Once upon a time, there was a weary parent who
didn't know what to do,
the kids were yelling and hollering 'cause there
was nothing on the tube.
Came Uncle CoCo, a bedtime story to tell, say-
ing,
This one's for the kids and their tired, tired
parents, too.
If you have a Tandy Speech/Sound (S/S for short)
Pak, and a multi-pak, Slot Pack III, or y-cable,
RUN "THRBEARS", answer a couple of questions and let
your CoCo 3 tell the kids the story of "Goldilocks
and the Three Bears". The program can be run without
a S/S, but you or your kids will have to read the
story. Alternately, if you don't have a multi-pak,=>
____________________________________________________
y-cable, or Slot Pack III, then the program can be
transferred to tape and the S/S pak installed in
place of the disk controller. You can also use ei-
ther a composite or an RGB monitor.
I neither claim to be an artist, great author,
or linquist, so please don't expect perfection. The
program is fun to watch and captivates my kids, so I
hope it does the same for yours. Feel free to change
the data lines containing the spoken words to suit
how you think the words should sound. Please note
however that for some reason, the S/S Pak pronounces
certain words differently in different RUN's. There-
fore, a word may be synthesized correctly most of
the time, but incorrectly at others.
Additionally, I chose to have the story drawings
drawn on the screen as you watch, as opposed to =>
____________________________________________________
using Palette switching. I did this because I felt
that it would help hold a small child's attention.
Have fun, and I hope this brings you a few minutes
of rest! =*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| Disk
Utility "Supreme" Magnavox 1CM135 RGB Monitor |
| Back to top |
Disk Utility "Supreme"
A disk utility that is multi-functional, menu-
driven, and NO instructions needed! YES!
My most used and most appreciated program is
Jeff Francis' "DISKUTIL". It's 100% usuable on
a CoCo II; and "CC3UTIL", the same, but designed
for the CoCo 3.
The CoCo 3 version will only access 3 of 4 drives
on my double-sided, dual drives; and it places the
CoCo 3 in a CoCo II mode, when executed - therefore
will not Load a CoCo 3 program. BUT, I'd not trade
it for Any 10 programs I own!
=*
|
Magnavox 1CM135 RGB Monitor Are you seeing RED, because your friends make
fun of your CoCo? Maybe, you feel a little GREEN
with envy? Or is it that you just feel BLUE, 'cause
your eyes can't take the strain anymore? Possibly,
what you need my friend, is a way to liven up your
CoCo. The most important peripheral that you can add
to your system is arguably an RGB monitor. It will
put color into your work, instead of your emotions.
And with this one add-on, your display becomes more
professional and your CoCo shines as bright as any
of the big boys.
And how about being able to buy 4 monitors for
the price of one? Sound incredible? Not really! The
Magnavox 1CM135 RGB Monitor is like 4 monitors in
one. Let's count 'em. First, for the CoCo III, there
is analog RGB. Second, for PMODE 4 compatibility, =>
____________________________________________________
there is composite video. Third, if you like a mono-
chrome display, there is a green switch, which used
with the color-burst POKE and inverse video gives
you a monochrome display. Fourth, if you plan to
move on to a pc compatible (shame on you), the
1CM135 has TTL RGB equivalent to a high resolution
CGA output. This monitor can also be used with se-
veral other computers including Amiga, Atari, and
the so-called CoCo 4's. Additionally, it can be used
as a high quality video monitor for a VCR. So you
get a lot of monitor for your buck.
True, the price can be a little daunting if your
CoCo budget is severely limited. I know, with a
mortgage and four kids, I had to wait a long time
for mine. In fact, the 1CM135 and my first issue of
CoCo Friends Disk Magazine arrived the same day =>
____________________________________________________
(March 9, 1992--about a week ago.) But it was well
worth the wait, as evidenced by programs such as
Simply Better in 80 column mode or Max 10 (and real-
ly been able to read it.) The clarity is superb, and
much better than the Tandy CM8's I've seen.
But if you are using a TV, monochrome monitor,
or maybe Tandy's CM8 and are satisfied with the dis-
play, don't feel put out. That's what is so great
about the CoCo, it allows us to configure our sys-
tems to whatever level we desire and can afford
without severely limiting our overall enjoyment.
Finally, if you choose to purchase a Magnavox
1CM135, you can't go wrong by giving CoCoPro! a call
because they ship cables for the CoCo RGB, for com-
posite, and one for pc's, too. All for one price.
You can look for their ads in the Rainbow. =*
|
COCO III CURSOR BUG-FIX-POKE To all those who responded to my inquiry about the
two pokes that remove the cursor from the Hi-Res
text screen, THANKS !! All of you send me the same
two pokes POKE&HF812,&H21:POKE&HF91C,&H21. Also most
all of you remarked, that you could never get them
to work for you. Well you are right. These two pokes
do indeed render the cursor invisible, BUT ONLY ON
THE 32 wide screen !!! THE COCO III CURSOR BUG....
Type WIDTH32:SOUND12,12 <ENTER> and watch the cursor
Now type WIDTH40:SOUND12,12 <ENTER>, and watch the
cursor and you'll see what I mean. The fix for this
bug is: POKE&HF80F,0:POKE&HF84F,0:POKE&HF89C,0
RICK: Add these pokes to your PATCH program and see
how much better the display looks. (No more flashing
cursor)... CHARLES GIBSON: LPOKE demo, same story.
<CTRL 2> =>
____________________________________________________
MEANWHILE.......Some time ago either in a letter to
the editor, a hint or a one liner, someone published
in the Rainbow the two pokes that render the cursor
invisible on the 40 and 80 column Hires text screens
These are the pokes I am looking for.
So, I will ask one more time if any of you know the
pokes I am looking for. If so, please let me know.
Thanks, George Quellhorst.
>*
|
COLOR OF PRINTED LETTERS WHEN I RUN MANY OF THE PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH,I FIND THE COLOR OF THE LETTERS ARE SO BAD THAT I CAN NOT READ ANY OF THEM! WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CLEAR UP THIS PROBLEM,SINCE IT CAN NOT BE CLEARED BY USING THE CLEAR KEY? HAROLD J. MOENICH 715 GREENLEAF DRIVE MONROEVILLE, PA 15146-1133 RICK: Harold, the programs all show up fine on my RGB monitors, so I'm assuming you're using a TV or CMP. The only help I can give you on that is to try the following code before running in program which runs on an 80 WIDTH screen... => ____________________________________________________ 10 FOR X=0 TO 7 20 PALETTE X,63 30 PALETTE X+8,0 40 NEXT X What this program does is change the foreground (text) to black on a white background. This will allow you the best display possible for 80 WIDTH on a TV or CMP. BEWARE - If the programmer changes the palettes in the program, this little fix will not be useful! In those cases your only recourse is to look thru the program and change all palette commands from palette 0-7 to 63 and all calls from palette 8-15 to 0 (as in the above program). GOOD LUCK!! =* |
Drive Trouble I recently had to replace my ds/40trk drive.
The new drive will read both sides perfectly, but
will not format or write to disk on a formatted disk
The drive was given to me by a friend, so I cannot
return it. Do any of you hackers out there have any
ideas of what my problem could be? I would greatly
appreciate the help.
George Corbin
Rt3 Box 138
Swainsboro, Ga. 30401
=*
|
SUPER VOICE ON COCO 3 I need help getting my SUPER VOICE running on my
COCO 3. The program SUPERTOK.BIN and TRANSLAT.BIN
doen't want to run on my COCO 3, but they would work
OK on my COCO 1. I've tried everything!!! I hope
someone can help me...it will make my day!
I am working on a project that will have Super
Voice answer my door everytime someone push the door
bell and it will sing you a song while you are
waiting for someone to open the door for you!!!
THANKS!!!
Chairuth Bouphaphanh
Box 107 Drake
Saskatchewan
S0K 1H0 CANADA
RICK: Chai, others are asking the same question. =*
|
Submission Deadlines Rick, when is submission DEADLINE for "Next Issue"
publication consideration?
RICK: Vic, currently I am starting with material
that was sent in about 1 1/2 months before the next
mailing date. If a section needs more material, it
could come from submissions dated as late as two
weeks before the mailing date. That is, if issue
#5 is to be mailed June 15th, the newest submissions
in that issue would have been recieved the last of
May. The oldest submissions could be 2 or even 3
months old. The majority would have come in from
May 1 to about May 21st.
=*
|
TO DANN MC CONNELL 2400 BAUD IS AVAILABLE ON THE DMP 105. THE 106
CAME OUT AFTER IT SO I WOULD ASSUME IT HAS THE SAME.
TRY THE DIP SWITCHES ON THE BACK OF THE PRINTER.
CHECK THE MANUAL FOR HOW TO SET THEM.
THE BACK SIDE OF THE DISK IS ACCESSED ON A
DOUBLE DRIVE DISK BY POKES. SEE THE RAINBOW 6-91 P6
MIDDLE COL. CENTER PAGE. THIS SETS UP 0 AS 0 & 2
AND 1 AS 1 & 3 ON A DOUBLE DRIVE. POKES DEPEND ON
WHETHER YOU HAVE DISK BASIC 2.1 OR 2.0.
=*
|
TO QUELLHORST, GIBSON &
BARSON THE INVISIBLE CURSOR
Yes the pokes that you have DO WORK!!!
They will not and are not expected to work if you
are using an INPUT statement of any kind but if you
want it to work when using the PRINT statement try
this.
PRINT"YOU CAN'T SEE ME";
Don't forget to use the semicolon at the end of the
statement, if you don't the poke will NOT WORK.
If my programme MENU is on any future CFDM you will
see how this poke was used to hide the cursor. =>
____________________________________________________
It is always the same, the most simple solution is
always overlooked.
Once I used to feel silly by asking simple questions
but the questions are only silly to the ones that
know the answers. So I keep asking to find out all
the answers.
COLIN NORTH
4 DENICE STREET
BIRKDALE QUEENSLAND 4159
AUSTRALIA
=*
|
USE ADOS3 RAMDRIVES WITH CFDM To Lee Deuell and all others who use ADOS3. Yes Virginia, you can use the ADOS ramdrives with CFDM. Here's how:....... 1. Set your CONFIG so that your ramdrive(s) are active. ( I set mine at 0 1 R0 R1. ) 2. Type: DISABLE:DLOAD <ENTER> 3. Type: POKE 2427,0 <ENTER> Your ramdrives are now active and the CONFIG has defaulted to what it was before you executed #2. 4. Type: BACKUP 0 TO 2,A,35 <ENTER> 5. Type: DRIVE2:RUN"C/BAS" <ENTER> DO NOT forget the A,35 option. "A" for "ALL". 35 for 35 tracks. Without the "A" ADOS does a GAT (Grain allocation table) backup. Since most of the info => ____________________________________________________ on CFDM disk is NOT in the GAT, it will not get copied to the ramdrive. The "35" is not needed if you have ADOS configured f or 35 tracks. However, if you are using a 40 track configuration, ADOS will try to do a 40 track backup from the CFDM disk. This will return an IO error as soon as the disk reaches track 35. (The first track is track zero.) Note that you must set the CONFIG BEFORE you type: DISABLE:DLOAD. (Because the CONFIG command will not work anymore after the disable.) The options for the backup routine ( "A" "F" "35" and "40") are still active. (Hope this helps some of you, George.) =* |
WHERE ARE BIWARE ENTERPRISES? Can anyone out there help me?
In October 1991 I sent a cheque to:-
BIWARE ENTERPRISES
C/o KANDI STINSON
BOX 265, ALLEN, OK 74825
This was to purchase a game that was reviewed in the
October edition of Rainbow Magazine. The programme
name was MONSTER MASH.
I have received no reply to my letter and it looks
like I have also done my money.
=>
____________________________________________________
If anyone over there knows of this mob and how to
get in touch with them and how to get the game that
I have purchased but not received would you please
get in touch with me and let me know.
It is very hard to chase up these advertisers from
Australia.
COLIN NORTH
4 DENICE STREET
BIRKDALE QUEENSLAND 4159
AUSTRALIA
=*
|
