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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #10 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
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| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
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"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! =* |
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| CONTENTS...PART
1 CONTENTS...PART 2 PROGRAM DIRECTORY (v1 i10) THIS MONTH'S COVER |
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ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (2) 1 "ABOUT CFDM" 2 ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE ABOUT THIS ISSUE (4) 1 CONTENTS...PART 1 2 CONTENTS...PART 2 3 PROGRAM DIRECTORY (v1 i10) 4 THIS MONTH'S COVER ACTIVE COCO (5) 1 MICRO80 USERS GROUP 2 OUR CFDM AGENT DOWN UNDER 3 What the R.A.T. saw at the FEST! 4 What the R.A.T. saw...PART 2. 5 What the R.A.T. saw...PART 3. => ____________________________________________________ ADVERTISEMENTS (2) 1 CFDM SUBSCRIPTION 2 PRODUCTS FROM RICK ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (4) 1 Art with Jim Gibbons (Part 3) 2 LABELPRC/004 BASIC MADE EASY. 3 Ultralace: Installment 2 4 WHAT TO DO WITH CFDM? COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (5) 1 CAT O'LANTERN <g> 2 CFDM COMICS by Chai 3 HOMEJAME 4 SCARECROW 5 Winter Fun => ____________________________________________________ FAMILY TREE (4) 1 Dick Williams 2 JOHN DANIELS 3 ROLLAND FUNK 4 ROY ATKINS FORUM (2) 1 Reply to Computeration 2 WHERE DO WE STAND? FROM THE EDITOR (5) 1 ATLANTA COCO FEST REPORT 2 ATLANTA COCO FEST REPORT PART II 3 FROM THE EDITOR 4 KUDOS <g> 5 REMEDY FOR <g> HANGUPS?? =* |
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (11)
1 A Possible #5 HANGUP Remedy
2 ABOUT YOUR FLIPPIES
3 BIRTHDAY GREETINGS!!
4 CM3 to NIB Conversion Technique
5 COVERUP
6 EXCITED ABOUT CFDM!!
7 NOTE TO RICK AND OTHERS
8 Rome wasn't ....
9 SEND GEORGE Q. TO FLORIDA?!?!
10 TO RICK,
11 Thanks & re:Hangups.
POTPOURRI (9)
1 BUYING TIPS
2 CAPRICE =>
____________________________________________________
3 CHRISTMAS CARD PROJECT UPDATE
4 GREAT EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE
5 Great Education Project:NUMMAGIC
6 Note to Herb Schuler
7 PROGRAMMING PUZZLE
8 RESISTOR
9 THE SECRET OF BOOT BAS REVEALED
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (7)
1 CALENDAR AND CALYEAR
2 From Binary to ASCII: "BINASCII"
3 HEXCHART
4 NO MORE DISABLE:DLOAD FOR ADOS
5 QUIKLIST
6 RAYLINES and NIBBLES
7 RAYLINES and NIBBLES Part 2. =>
____________________________________________________
REVIEWS (1)
1 SHANGHAI
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (7)
1 COCOMAX3
2 For R.A.Turner/H.J.Moenich
3 MIND-ROLL HELP
4 MONITOR ANSWER
5 NIBBING CM3 PIX
6 PRINTERS
7 Ram Disk Location
=*
|
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......
AC .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
ARTNIB5 .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* ARTNIB5 .NIB........PIX FILE FOR ARTNIB5.BAS......
BINASCII.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
CALENDAR.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
CALYEAR .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
CAPRICE .BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI (MUSIC).............
* CAPRICE .BIN........DATA FILE FOR CAPRICE.BAS.....
* FONT .BIN........DATA FILE FOR PRINTME4.BAS....
GALLERY .BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY...................
GENFONTN.BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.....=>
____________________________________________________
GENMLT .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
HEXCHART.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
* HOMEJAME.NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
LABELPRC.004..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* LABELTUT.004........DATA FILE FOR PRINTME4.BAS....
* NIBLOADR.BIN........PIX LOADER UTILITY............
NUMMAGIC.BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI (EDUCATION).........
PRINTME4.BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
QUIKLIST.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
RAYLINIB.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
RESISTOR.BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI (EDUCATION).........
* SCARCROW.NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
ULT .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* WINTRFUN.NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
=*
|
Kentucky Mountains This picture was quite challenging. I hope
I gave this picture some justice. It was really
hard because of all the fall colors in the hills
and mountains. This picture took about five
days to paint and I can tell you that this one
was the longest one I have ever spent time with.
I think I will try to paint another picture
of this in a winter and spring or summer setting.
At any rate, the spray can was used to the fullest
in the background and the small paint brush for
the foreground.
- Jim Gibbons
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| MICRO80
USERS GROUP OUR CFDM AGENT DOWN UNDER What the R.A.T. saw at the FEST! What the R.A.T. saw...Part 2. What the R.A.T. saw...Part 3. |
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MICRO80 USERS GROUP Dear Rick:
On behalf of the Micro80 users group here in
Winnipeg, I would like to thank you for the sample
issue we recently found in our mailbox. It is
comforting to know that the Coco is still a very
viable system, thanks mainly to publications like
yours.
I would ask that you add the Micro80 Users Group to
your Active Coco section. We are about 20 strong
and meet every second Saturday at the Brooklands/
Weston #2 Legion located at 1613 Logan Avenue. We
support both OS/9 and Disk BASIC users. Our group
may be contacted through the following address:
=>
____________________________________________________
Micro80 Users Group
Communications Dept.
598 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, MB
Canada R2L 0P1
Yours truly,
Arnie Otto
President, Micro80 Users Group
Trevor Boehm
Communications Dept.
=*
|
OUR CFDM AGENT DOWN UNDER (Fred Remin of Australia and CFDM have recently
teamed up in an effort to get CFDM and the software
of RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE to CoCoists in
Australia. All our current Australian Friends are
invited to contact Fred about resubscribing with
him when their current subscription to CFDM is up.
Here's portions of a recent letter from Fred.)
Dear Rick,
Just a short note to let you know that the disks and
manuals arrived safely yesterday. I will now be
going like a cut snake to ensure I have a number of
packages available for sale at the CoCoFest.
=>
____________________________________________________
.....
Another snippet of information for you, I am going
to take over the production of the CoCo-Link
magazine in '93, obviously I will be advertising
your products but if you know of any one else who
would be interested in advertising to the CoCo
community here in Australia get them to drop me a
line.
Not only advertising but if there is some one who
has a program that they would like the community to
see or play with, send it over and I will print it
in the Magazine.
=>
____________________________________________________
Any way I must get back to the task of producing the
packages, hopefully I will sell a few at the CoCo
Fest. I thank you for your vote of confidence, yes,
I know I have taken on a big task, but, if we all
waited for someone else to do something for the
community, then nothing would be done, and with
support like yours I know we can succeed.
Yours sincerely,
S. Remin
14 Wellington Rd.
CLAYTON VIC 3168
AUSTRALIA
=*
|
What the R.A.T. saw at the FEST! The R.A.T., that's me; R.A.Turner. I met Rick Cooper , Mike Brown and David Breeding at the Atlanta CoCo Fest. Heck, they're not such bad guys after all! Just kidding guys! Anyway, I saw a lot of neat stuff there! I'll try to tell you what of it I can remem- ber. At the Animajik Booth, there was a guy who had an OS-9/68000 computer system. I believe it was a PT68K-4. The reason that this excited me, is becuase that thing was running OSK one minute & then the guy put an MS-DOS system disk in the drive, rebooted and POW! It was suddenly an IBM compatible! Neat! Now what the heck has that got to do with the CoCo? Well it got me to thinking: Frank Hogg Labs (who was not there) markets (I think they still do) their TC-9 which is a true CoCo 3 compatible computer, which has their K-BUS installed to allow a 68000 based => ____________________________________________________ computer (such as their TC-70) to be interfaced to it. Now, it would seem to me that an IBM adapter could be developed to work with the 68000 system & we could then have three computers in one: A CoCo 3 compatible, a 68000 system and an MS-DOS system all in one case. I think I'll write to Frank Hogg and suggest this! The Glenside CoCo Club was there and I picked up some info. It's a great club! I'm going to join soon, I hope! They were mentioned in a previous issue of CFDM. SUB-ETHA SOFTWARE, PO BOX 152442, LUFKIN, TEXAS 75915, was displaying a game called "PAC-DUDE". If you have ever seen the arcade game: "PAC-LAND", then you've seen this game! The 3-D graphics are incredible! I think the price was $20, but I'm not sure. They were also displaying their banner software among other things. Get in touch => ____________________________________________________ with them for more information. Strong Ware, John R. Strong, Box 361, Matthews, IN 46957, was displaying a game called "SOVIET BLOC" which is without a doubt the most advanced version of "TETRIS" that I have ever seen! They were slightly discouraged because business was not too good on Saturday (I didn't stay Sunday). John Strong is a very talented programmer, who deserves our support! If you like "TETRIS" type games, I urge you to order "SOVIET BLOC" CoCo 3 version at $20 + $3 for shipping. There is also an OSK version, but I don't know the price. Drop John a line if you are interested in any of his products. The Adventure Survivors Group was there. They are a User's Group dedicated to adventure games. The dues is the lowest of any User Group that I have seen; only $6.00 per year. [SEE PART 2] =* |
What the R.A.T. saw...Part 2. The yearly membership is slightly higher for Canada and Mexico; $7 (year) and only $10 (year) for all others. It's a very interesting group. The Adventure Survivors, 24 Perthshire Dr., Peachtree City, GA 30269. (404) 487-8461. I know Rick and CFDM doesn't usually mention, or have anything to to with OS-9, but I'll mention some of those vendors anyway. They do support our favorite computer. David Wordell has put together a Video Tape called: "OS-9 In the beginning...". It costs $14.95 + $2 shipping. Money Orders only. David Wordell, 833 Woodhaven Ln, Grand Prairie, TX 75051, (214) 264-3610. Drop him a line for more info. The NEW OS-9 User's Group was there. They were offering a free Utility Disk with member- ship, which is $25 yearly. Get in touch with them if interested. OS-9 USERS GROUP, PO BOX => ____________________________________________________ 465, Goshen, IN 46526. The "International" OS9 Underground is a neat new OS9/OSK publication from Animajik. $18/year U.S., $23 CDN, $27 Overseas. Contact: "The OS9 Underground Magazine", Fat Cat Publications, 4650 Cahuenga Blvd., Ste #7, Toluca Lake, CA 91602. ED HATHAWAY of KALA SOFTWARE (formerly Second City Software) was there. The only product on display was "UltiMusE III" MIDI music editor. He had a CoCo 3 hooked to a MIDI keyboard and it was incredible! I watched and listened in awe as it played "Stairway To Heaven." He also had disks of some good ole' Beatles, The Who and other great artists for sale. They play under UltiMusE. However, I failed to get the address of KALA, as Ed was doing a seminar when I had to leave. Can anyone provide us CFDM readers with the correct address for KALA? => ____________________________________________________ Chris Hawks of Hawksoft was there. He had his usual products: Hi-Res Joystick Interfaces, "MYDOS", etc. An interesting new product is available from him. It is "Icon Basic09" is a Graphical User Interface to Basic09. It costs a reasonable $20, postpaid to U.S. /CDN. Hawksoft, PO BOX 7112, Elgin, IL 60121-7112. CoCoPRO! was there with their incredible array of products. I picked up a brochure and sample copy of a new publication called "UpTime". This appears to be a joint venture between CoCoPRO! and JWT Enter- prises. A subscription costs $15 and is payable in 2 installments of $7.50. To start your subscription, send a check or MO for $7.50 (foreign orders, except Canada & Mexico, add $7 extra postage) to: UpTime, JWT Enterprises, 5755 Lockwood Blvd., Youngstown, OH 44512. [SEE PART 3] =* |
What the R.A.T. saw...Part 3. You will be billed for the 2nd installment of $7.50. THREE C's PROJECTS, were being represented by the Adventure Survivors. They have a couple of neat adventures: "THE POWER STONES OF ARD I & II" which cost $18 and $25, respectively. Postpaid! CoCo 3 and Disk Drive required. PO BOX 1323, HAMLET,NC 28345. Andre J. LaVelle (Pres.), South Bay Users Group (SBUG), 1251 W. Sepulveda Blvd. #400, Torrance, CA 90502-2677, (310) 539-9702 (After 7PM, PST), had a lot of CoCo stuff for sale. I bought DOWNLAND, FOOT- BALL II, and SPRINGSTER for $2 each!He also had 1200 BAUD Serial to Parallel Converters for $15, PBJ 512K RAM UPGRADES for $55 (I think.), lots of books for $5, Deskmate 3 for $20, Disk Drives, a lot of other software, etc.,etc.! He said that he did not publish a catalog or list, but if someone saw something => ____________________________________________________ they wanted, they could get in touch with him to find out the prices and how much shipping, etc. If there is something that you need, drop him a line and include a SASE. He may have it. You may also wish to inquire about his User Group. BARsoft, David Barnes was there, but he indicated that he did not generally do mail-order, so I'll with hold his address. He is the editor of the Glenside CoCo 123 newsletter, so you could get in touch with him by joining Glenside. I would like to thank Glenside for the door prize that I won: a 16K CoCo 2! I was standing in the right place at the right time. THANKS GUYS! Rick's Computer Enterprise seemed to be doing well and Rick seemed to be making some new friends! I'm sure Rick will let us know! I had an interesting conversation with Mike Brown on how => ____________________________________________________ he created his "FLY" program and David Breeding has resparked my interest in OS-9 (I'm not abandoning RS-DOS, though). Hopefully I can become more pro- ficient with OS-9 with the help of people such as David. Thank You All! If I have omitted any vendors & info, forgive me. It was my first Fest & I was excited! The PT 68K-4 and MS-DOS board that I men- tioned earlier is available from:PERIPHERAL TECH- NOLOGY, 1480 TERRELL MILL RD., SUITE 870, MARIETTA, GA 30067 (404) 984-0742. They have been in business for several years! They did an article on building an earlier version of the PT 68K computer, several years ago in Radio-Electronics, I think. For info on Glenside, contact:GEORGE SCHNEEWEISS, 2801 SOUTH KILLBOURN AVENUE, CHICAGO, IL 60623-4213. I hope you all have enjoyed this article, your friend; R.A.T.=* |
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| CFDM
SUBSCRIPTION PRODUCTS FROM RICK |
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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!! =*
|
PRODUCTS FROM RICK It's been quite awhile since I've advertised my
software in CFDM. So here's a reminder of what I
have to offer. Many of the Friends already have
OFFER #1 and I still believe it's the best software
value ever offered for the CoCo! If you don't have
this package, now's a great opportunity to get it at
a SPECIAL SPECIAL price! This offer is to all who
order before January 1st, 1993. Please check it out!
----------------------------------------------------
FLIPPIE DISKETTES
25 FLIPPIES + 25 SLEEVES
(no labels, no boxes)
ONLY $13 + $2 shipping/handling =>
----------------------------------------------------
____________________________________________________
*************** UNBELIEVABLE OFFER #1 **************
*********** A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL **********
* ONE TIME OFFER! ONLY ON ORDERS MADE BY 1/1/93. *
******* ONLY $25 + $2 shipping/handling ******
****************************************************
1 CC3FLAGS - "the best Risk playalike for CoCo3"
2 VOCAB - "a great Scrabble playalike"
3 MASTER DIR - "a very good disk cataloger"
4 PROGRAMS FOR FRIENDS - 3 educational + 1 fun game
5 11 YR. RAINBOW INDEXES - "my best selling program"
6 NIB COMPRESSOR/RICK'S COCO GALLERY - graphics util
7 GALLERY MAKER - "make personalized CoCo galleries"
8 PUZZLES - 8 hi-res 188 piece jig-saws + utilities
9 TETRA - "my TETRIS playalike"
10 MASTER DIRECTORY 3 - "remarkable disk cataloger"
11 STEVE RICKETTS PICs - 24 digitized HSCREENs =>
____________________________________________________
************ UNBELIEVABLE OFFER #2 *************
****** THE SPORTSware PACKAGE ******
*** $25 + $2 s/h -- ON ORDERS BEFORE 1/1/92 ***
****************************************************
1 SUPER DISK - "professional program protection"
2 BARBARIAN QUEST - "512k adventure game"
3 WEEKLY WINNER - "lottery system utilities"
4 WAR GAME DESIGNER II - design or play war games
5 WAR GAME DESIGNER ICON DISK - icons for your games
====================================================
************ UNBELIEVABLE OFFER #3 *************
****** 20 PROGRAMS FROM RICK ******
****** REGULARLY $20 + $2 SPECIAL $12 + $2 ******
*** STONES, WHEELS, CONNECTS, DISCOVER, PIXSLIDE ***
*** CIRMATH, MYMICRO, SPELLING, USDRILL, TUTOR ***
***LOCATE, PRESIDENTS, TICTACMATH, + 7 MORE =*
|
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| Art
with Jim Gibbons (Part 3) LABELPRC/004 BASIC MADE EASY. Ultralace: Installment 2 WHAT TO DO WITH CFDM? |
| Back to top |
Art with Jim Gibbons (Part 3)
This is the last step with the CoCo Max III
and silhouette painting. (SEE ARTNIB5.)
Notice that everything was done previously
and all that is needed to add is the foreground.
The spray can is needed for leaves or bushes and
the smallest paintbrush for the trees and branches.
There is a short cut in making the tree stumps.
Just click on the largest line size and draw lines
filling in the size tree you will need. Again, the
only color that you will be using at this point is
black and possibly a little dark gray.
As you can see, after a little work, you will
come out with a fairly good finished picture. Be
aware that the branches are the hardest thing to
draw on the picture. It's all in the way you
manipulate the mouse on the pad. --->
____________________________________________________
I hope you have all benefited from this,
and if there are any questions, please ask them
in the questions and answers section of "CFDM".
If you are interested, I will be glad to do a
teaching section on landscape painting with the
full color palette (16 colors). Thanks again for
the opportunity to share silhouette painting
with CoCo Max III with you. Happy painting!!!!
---Jim Gibbons---
=*
|
LABELPRC/004 BASIC MADE EASY. Due to the length of The secret of BOOT/BAS revealed
See Potpourri, we'll have a short version this time,
about half the normal length. I have received four
letters requesting that I reformat the documentation
so as to leave room on the left margin for "three
ring binder holes". And I also told you four in a
letter, you know who you are, that I would. However,
after giving it some thought, I decided it would not
be a good idea to change the format of the printout
halfway through the series. Instead may I offer the
following solution to this problem. Before running
PRINTME/BAS put your printer in the 12 CPI mode,
PRINT#-2,CHR$(27);CHR$(23); for the DMP130 series
printers. Change line 16 of PRINTME/BAS which now
reads: 16 PRINTL$:PRINT#-2,L$
To: 16 PRINTL$:PRINT#-2,STRING$(8,32);L$ =>
____________________________________________________
You now have a 8 character left margin. If you wish
you may use the same technique to print out the
previous installments. This way, the format remains
the same, and those of you who desire the left
margin can have your cake and eat it too.
By the time you read this, it will be mid November,
and though today, is only the 3rd of October, I
would like to take this opportunity to wish all of
you a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY. My wife and I
will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on
the 11th of November, so this is kind of a special
month for our family. ( The kids are throwing us a
party, dinner, dancing the works ). PRINTME4/BAS
will also print out the BOOT/BAS solution. But I
will keep the page numbering system for the two
programs seperated from each other =>
____________________________________________________
This months programs are:
1. LABELPRC/004 The program up to date.
2. LABELTUT/004 This months article.
3. PRINTME4/BAS The program that will print out
program 2, [ RUN"PRINTME4/BAS" ]
ADOS USERS USE SCANP"LABELTUT/004"
4. FONT/BIN The font used on the HI-RES screen
====================================================
NOTE:
The Secret of BOOT/BAS revealed and LABELTUT/OO4
will be on this disk as a single program called
LABELTUT/004 The pages for BOOT/BAS will be numbered
1,2, and 3. The pages for LABELTUT/004 will keep
their original sequence. P.S. Placing the 2 programs
on the disk as a single file saved a whole GRAN of
disk space. Until next month. George Quellhorst. *>
|
Ultralace: Installment 2 This is the second installment of a 3 part
series on Ultralace, a desktop publisher. This
installment includes 3 programs: GENFONTN.BAS,
GENMLT.BAS, and ULT.BAS. They appeared in THE
RAINBOW issues - May, June, and July, respectively,
of 1991. Before you try these programs, be sure to
read thoroughly the associated Ultralace articles.
Those of you with Tandy printers have with this
installment the complete version of Ultralace that
appeared in the 5 issues - May through September,
1991 - of THE RAINBOW. The 6th article provided an
updated and upgraded version of Ultralace. If you
wish to start using the present version now, be sure
to read the September 1991 issue of THE RAINBOW and
also delete the POKE from line 36 of ULT.
=>
____________________________________________________
As in installment 1, I am offering for sale the
disk containing all 25 Ultralace fonts at a price of
$15. To purchase the disk please send a check or
money order to:
H. Allen Curtis
172 Dennis Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
=*
|
WHAT TO DO WITH CFDM? What are you doing with all the great stuff in CFDM every month? Are you reading thru it, and that's it? Well, who's to say...that may be enough. Here are some of the things I do with it: 1. We all probably copy some programs from the CFDM disk to other disks we have; we shuffle the new programs in with those we already have. Ganes go to our GAMES disk, puzzles to the PUZZLES disk, etc. That's good. That's why our FRIENDS give us their programs to use. 2. I've also been impressed with all the great art work. I have a disk on which I have placed all of the cover pictures of Jim Gibbons. Isn't his work marvelous? If you haven't figured it out yet, here's how to do it: A. Our Editor gave us the program 'PIXDOCTR' on => ____________________________________________________ side 2 of Issue #5. RUN that program and follow its instructions. You will end up with the cover pictur- es on your disk as /NIB programs. B. Our good FRIEND Keiran Kenny just gave us 'PIXLOADR' in Issue #7. You need that program on your disk along with 'NIBLOADR'. C. When you have all your /NIB pictures, 'NIBLOADR and 'PIXLOADR' on one disk, just RUN 'PIXLOADR'. It will call on 'NIBLOADR' and allow you to select which of the pictures you wish to see. I have one disk full of the other art work, too, and I'm filling up a second one. Here's how you do the regular art work: A. On a clean disk copy 'NIBLOADR' and 'PIXLOADR' to it, and all the /NIB programs from all the side=> ____________________________________________________ 2's of all the issues. Then you just RUN 'PIXLOADR' and make your selection. You can look at all the work of Moll, Barson, Tindall, Raul Guido, Simons, Clemons, North and Williams. 3. How about the music Charlie Gibson and I contrib- uted? Take a fresh disk and copy all of the /BIN music programs to it along with their /BAS programs to RUN them. Why not try writing a separate program that will RUN all of the songs in succession, rather than RUNning each song individually? When you finish it, be sure to share it with all of your FRIENDs. After you do all of the above, maybe that will inspire you to draw a picture, transcribe a song, or write an article or a program to share with us. That is what it will take to keep CFDM strong! Come on, you can do it!! =* |
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| CAT
O'LANTERN <g> CFDM COMICS by Chai HOMEJAME SCARECROW Winter Fun |
| Back to top |
HOMEJAME
HOMEJAME was drawn with the aid of COCOMAX-3 when
Keiran Kenny was leaving Australia to his new home
in HOLLAND, I thought I would send Keiran a drawing
just to remind him which way Australia was...This is
how this drawing originated.
To Keiran Hi!
=*
|
SCARECROW
Here's the first of a number of pictures you'll be
seeing in CFDM in the issues to come. Rick, Mike
Brown, and David Breeding had the good fortune of
meeting Howard at the ATLANTA FEST in October. We
have long admired his drawings and now he has
graciously permitted us to share them with the
Friends!
This first offering has been chosen because it's
"that time of year". (Also it's one I particularly
like!) Enjoy!
=*
|
Winter Fun
This is my first try with CM3. I'm embarrased to
even send it, but I guess I'll have to do it some
time. As you can see it is pretty simple, but it
reminds me of growing up on a Canal in Amityville,
N.Y. When the water froze we had a great time
skating in back of the house. At night we had lights
and music and sometimes a fire. Oh, for the good old
days!!
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| Dick
Williams JOHN DANIELS ROLLAND FUNK ROY ATKINS |
| Back to top |
Dick Williams Sep/30/92
Name : Dick Williams
Address : 711 N. Cherry St.
City/State : Shamokin, PA 17872-5026
Phone : (717) 648-6404
Born in this hard-coal (anthracite) mining & text-
ile manufacturing town 65 years ago. Graduated from
high school, served in USAAF last few months of WWII
in this country then France & Germany in the follow-
ing months. Upon returning home I married my wife
Jane some 45 + years ago. Went to Bliss Electrical
School, upon graduating joined LU #607, Internation-
al Brotherhood of Electrical Workers going from
apprentice to journeyman-wireman to foreman on jobs
ranging from supermarkets & schools =>
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to power houses and chemical factories.
I developed MS back in the late sixties losing
some balance & co-ordination making it unsafe to
stay on construction. Was in the process of taking
night courses for teaching credits so I applied for
teaching position in a Vo-Tech school & was accepted
Taught in Vo-Tech schools for nine years until MS
affected my voice & I was forced to retire in 1976.
Before I developed MS I helped my wife to raise a
girl & a boy, served the local union as Rec Sec for
19 years, was a Scout Master & SS teacher in a local
church, served my volunteer fire company as driver &
foreman(captain) & help start our local EM squad.
When I was forced to retire some 16 years ago I
began to remodel our house as my money & my strength
allowed & I bought a computer to fill in my spare =>
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time. You guessed it! I do very little remodeling
& a lot of computering, although I am very slow at
both. It took me 7 months to submit this entry.
I spend most of my time listening to music, making
copies of tapes for our fundamental church, visting
a local nursing home, attending Bible study(held at
our home) & going to church.
I thank & praise God that I am able to walk with a
walker, still drive my car & get around & I am not
confined to bed. Most of all I thank him for my
Saviour Jesus the Christ.
It is unlikely that I can contribute to the CoCo
'Friends' but please be aware that with every disk I
feel like I am being visted by those who contribute.
=*
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JOHN DANIELS I AM 47, SINGLE, AND LIVE IN A 20-FOOT TRAVEL
TRAILER WITH 1 CAT AND 6 COMPUTERS. I WORK IN A BOX
PLANT AND OPERATE A 350-TON DIE-CUTTER. WHEN NOT
WORKING OR PLAYING WITH MY COMPUTERS, I LIKE TO READ
ALMOST ANYTHING, LISTEN TO MUSIC, AND WORK CROSSWORD
PUZZLES. I ALSO ENJOY CAMPING BUT SINCE I LIVE IN A
KOA KAMPGROUND I DON'T CONSIDER IT A HOBBY.
MY MAIN SYSTEM IS A 128K COCO3, DUAL FD-502, MPI
CM-8 AND A DMP-107. I HAVE ANOTHER COCO3 WITH A
SINGLE FD-501 AS BACKUP. I ALSO HAVE 3 COMMODORE
C-64C AND A TI 99/4A FOR GAME PLAYING. I ALSO HAVE
A COMMODORE PET (ANYONE REMEMBER THOSE?) THAT STILL
WORKS BUT IS IN STORAGE DUE TO SPACE PROBLEMS.
THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH ONE CAN PUT IN A SMALL TRAVEL
TRAILER AND I NEED CLOTHING AND A BED MORE THAN
ANOTHER COMPUTER. =>
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I HAVE BEEN IN COMPUTERS SINCE 1969 WHEN I
STARTED WITH IBM AS A CUSTOMER ENGINEER. I FIXED
THEM FOR A WHILE THEN CHANGED OVER TO PROGRAMMING
AND MOVED TO CALIFORNIA. I PROGRAMMED FOR ABOUT 10
YEARS THEN QUIT AND MOVED TO TENNESSEE WHERE I
HAVE LIVED FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS. I SORT OF BURNED
OUT ON COMPUTERS AND WENT THROUGH MY MID-LIFE CRISIS
AT THE SAME TIME. I REALLY ENJOY PROGRAMMING NOW
THAT I DON'T DO IT FOR PAY. I AM FLUENT IN COBOL AND
BASIC AND CAN HACK AROUND WITH 6502 AND 6800 MACHINE
LANGUAGE IF NECESSARY. I ALSO DABBLE IN LOGO UNDER
OS-9 WHEN I HAVE TIME.
SINCE I MOVED TO TENNESSEE I HAVE GONE BACK TO
SCHOOL AND HAVE RECEIVED TWO ASSOCIATE DEGREES IN
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS AND GENERAL SCIENCE. I WOULD
LIKE TO CONTINUE FOR A BACHELORS DEGREE IN =>
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COMPUTER SCIENCE WHEN TIME AND MONEY PERMITS.
I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED MY COCO3 AND HOPE TO
CONTINUE ENJOYING IT FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.
THANK YOU, JOHN DANIELS
648 PLEASANT GROVE RD.
MCDONALD, TN 37353
=*
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ROLLAND FUNK My name is Rolland Funk. My wife Dorothy and I live
near Forest Grove, Oregon.
I was an Air Force pilot for 22 years so we have
lived in a number of places, including 3 years in
the Panama Canal Zone, and 2 years in Japan. I also
spent a year in Europe during World War 2.
We are both native Oregonion's. We have 3 children,
7 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild. Our eldest,
a son, lives in Dallas Texas, the next, a daughter,
lives near Orchards, Washington, and the youngest, a
son, lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
I retired from the Air Force in 1964 and entered the
construction trade as an electrician. I retired =>
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from this in 1984 and have enjoyed full retirement
since then.
We bought our first computer in 1987, a Co Co 2. My
wife had back surgery and we thought a few computer
games would make the time go faster during her
recovery. But when she found out she could draw
pictures with it, that was what she enjoyed.
My intrest is in the technical part, and programing
,basic only, to configure an existing program to run
on our equipment or make it do the specific task we
desire it to do.
Our present equipment consists of a Co Co 3, FD 502
disk drive with 4 drives, a Star NX 1020 printer,=>
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and a CM-8 monitor, We have a number of programs but
the ones we use the most are Desk Mate, Color Max 3,
Co Co Max 3, Max 10, and CoCo 3 Tool Kit.
We intend to submit some of my wife's pictures as
soon as I can get them on a submission disk.
We enjoy CFDM very much and hope you will continue
the good work.
Rolland W. Funk
47760 NW Waldheim Way
Forest Grove Oregon 97116
=*
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ROY ATKINS My name is Roy Atkins. I live in London, Ont., Canada. My wife's name is Karen. I have 3 girls - Jennifer, Sabrina, and Megan. My hobbies are computing and Classical Guitar. My wife plays the soprano recorder and we have played together at various functions. I first got interested in computers in 1984 when the company I worked for closed it's London plant in December '83. I took a computer programming course at the local Community College. I studied on a Tandy Model 3. I managed to purchase a CoCo 2 from a fellow who was moving out to Calgary and did not want to take it with him. I also got a cassette recorder with it. About 3 years ago I purchased a CoCo 3 and a FD-502 disk drive from a local => ____________________________________________________ used computer store. I now have 2 CoCo 3's, 1 FD-502 disk drive, a TANDY CM-8 monitor and 2 cassette recorders. I have various programs I have typed in from RAINBOW and other computer magazines as well as ones that I have written for my own use. I also have Telewriter- 128, VIP Database, CoCo Graphics Designer Plus, First Prize by CoCo Graphics Designer. I hope to purchase Max 10. I would like to correspond with other CoCo users. My address is as follows: Roy Atkins ------------------------* 3 Lundy Lane Telephone: 519 433-6948 * London, Ont. ------------------------* Canada N6C 3G4 =* |
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| Reply
to Computeration WHERE DO WE STAND? |
| Back to top |
Reply to Computeration When I read the article "Computeration" it made
me think of my tenure as a teacher in a Vo-Tech
school, the problem our state(s) & the nation are
having with education plus the lack of support for
the CoCo community.
In my opinion the problem of poor education only
lies with the Federal & State in as far as they are
trying to tell local school boards what the criteria
of a good education is or should be. The powers
that be think that the more money one spends on
education the better educated the children or adults
will be or the more modern programs we have will im-
prove it. THIS IS NOT SO! MOTIVATION is the answer
for a better education.
MOTIVATION should start at home with the parents
not only teaching motivation but moral values as =>
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well. It should not be the job of the teacher to
teach morals or to motivate the student although I
have met many teachers who were very moral & very
good at motivating.
Without high moral values the student is not
motivated to expend the effort & time needed to ob-
tain a guality education no matter how much money is
spent or how good the teacher is.
Motivation is also, in my opinion, the problem in
the CoCo community. Tandy probaly lost its motivat-
ion because they thought they we not making enough
money. Third party programmers lost their motivat-
ion due to lack of sales & pirating.
Just as the parent must teach good values & moti-
vate the student, individual CoCo users must use
good moral standards & motivate & cooperate with =>
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each other. There are many contributors to CFDM who
are doing a quality job and they have certainly
motivated me.
You Rick have motivated me when I think of the
time & effort you put into CFDM. I hope that this
article will motivate others. Just as I think that
motivation beginning at home will improve education,
I also think that motivation beginning with the in-
dividual CoCo user with improve the CoCo community.
SO GET MOTIVATED & PASS IT ON!!!
=*
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WHERE DO WE STAND? There is a question that I have found myself asking lately. That question is "where do we stand?". I use to ask that question to myself when I coached basketball. Driving down the road I would mentally go over our strengths and weaknesses as a team. How do we stand on offense? How do we stand on defense? How do we stand in our knowledge of situational play? How's our fitness and our skill level? How do we compare to our toughest opponents? These kinds of questions should help you be prepared for competition. Sometimes you can't tell exactly how you stand because some data is difficult or even impossible to get! Some of the questions I'm asking nowadays revolve around the theme; how are we doing with CFDM? => ____________________________________________________ How well can we expect to be doing? Now that's a good question! We need to know how many CoCoist are still out there, how many are still interested in RS Dos, and how many desire to continue. We also ask, how many know about CFDM, how can we get them to try it? Why do some drop out? Why do we hear from some sporadically? (Boy these are good questions! And I haven't the faintest idea of some of the answers!) Another area is how about the quality of CFDM? I know we continue to try to improve, to find creative activities, and to motivate. We also try to reason with those who pose questions about why they should continue. => ____________________________________________________ Now for some OPINIONS, NOT ANSWERS. We do not know how many are still out there. RAINBOW probably has considerably less than 20,000. The most active of the many clubs seem to be OS9 oriented. I believe that most RS Dos folks are probably not members of clubs!?!? How many know about CFDM? I have no idea. But I do believe we have made an honest effort to let folks know about us! Why some have tried and never came back is also a mystery! As to the quality of CFDM: we continue to try to solve some problems but overall I believe it is well worth the $5 per issue. If I were on the subscribing end, I'd say "IT'S PRICELESS!". =* |
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| ATLANTA
COCO FEST REPORT ATLANTA COCO FEST REPORT PART II FROM THE EDITOR KUDOS <g> REMEDY FOR <g> HANGUPS?? |
| Back to top |
ATLANTA COCO FEST REPORT Mike Brown, David Breeding and I left Liberty at 4:30 p.m., Friday, October 2nd for our first CoCo Fest. We arrived in Atlanta about 12:30 a.m. and finally got to bed about 2 a.m. The next morning we got up early (about 5:30) and had a nice breakfast in the hotel dining area. (Little did I know that was my last food until about 6:30 p.m.) We walked to the fest area about 8 a.m. and met with some the members of the Atlanta Computer Society (ACS hosted the fest). These were super nice folks who made us feel most welcome! I noticed that almost everyone was wearing a white T-shirt with a CoCo Fest picture on the front. They also carried black magic markers which were used to collect everyone's autograph on their new shirts! Mike, David and => ____________________________________________________ I quickly purchased shirts and got a few autographs before our minds got down to the business of setting up our booth. After setup it was time to meet the 100-150 Cocoists who were in attendance that first day. About 23 vendors were there. All the folks I met were very nice. I can't possibly mention everyone I met, but here are a few names that come to mind. Allen Huffman of SUB-ETHA SOFTWARE was stationed across and to the left of us. He took a look at CFDM and made some nice comments. Later he took pictures of a number of vendors and attendees. He said he was planning to digitize the pictures and make a computer game of us! => ____________________________________________________ Directly to our left was John Strong and company with STRONGWARE. We had some nice conversations and traded some software. John is a very talented programmer in both RS Dos and OS9. He was scheduled to give a Sunday seminar about Programming OS9/OSK. (Our little group left late Saturday night and as you can tell, I had very little chance to attend the seminars or to visit the other vendors.) To our right was the GLENSIDE COCO CLUB and BARSOFT. I did get a chance to speak with Tony Podraza, Pres. of this fine club. (Check out RAINBOW's interview with Tony in the November issue.) As you have probably noticed, this fest was 90% OS9 oriented. (See Part II.) =* |
ATLANTA COCO FEST REPORT PART II Others that I spoke with were Andre Lavelle of SBUG, L.E. Padgett of ADVENTURE SURVIVORS, James Jones of MID IOWA & COUNTRY COCO, Alan Dages of the Atlanta Computer Society, Nick Johnson of SUB-ETHA (formerly of Nick Johnson Software), and Frank Swiggert of FARNA SYSTEMS. (Upon returning home I received a subscription for CFDM from R.C. Smith who has a company of the same name. R.C. had a booth at the fest and said in his letter he had planned to visit us but we had left. I had occasion to phone R.C. the very next week and he was most helpful with some questions I had concerning hardware and software prices. Thanks R.C.!) I also had the pleasure of meeting Howard Rouse, a talented contributor to RAINBOW's once popular => ____________________________________________________ COCO GALLERY. Howard has since sent me a number of his beautiful pictures and invited me to share them with the Friends! The first is in this issue. Thanks a million Howard! We also had the GREAT pleasure of meeting some of our very own CoCo Friends! There was Robert A Turner and his little son and also his friend Terry Dale. We had an opportunity to at least share some time together. (AND THANKS ROBERT FOR YOUR GREAT REPORT ON THE FEST..see ACTIVE COCO section.) Also talked with Friends Jack Diele and David Weldon, both from Florida. Thanks for your kind words, Jack and David! Also John Daniels and I talked for quite awhile! It was great to meet with these and others whose names I can't recall at this time. Please forgive! => ____________________________________________________ We also made a few new Friends! Although most of the vendors and attendees were OS9 oriented, there were a few who purchased our software and more who listened and took our literature. Here's our new Friends: Donald Adams, Dan Carey, L.E. Padgett, Al Monday, Irving Lebovic, Frank Daniel, and Perry Elrod. Welcome Friends! We hope you soon feel at home with CFDM!! After about 10 hours on our feet, Mike, David and I headed for home. We arrived in Liberty about 2 a.m. and were grateful to be able to rest! (There'd be plenty of time to reflect on our adventure later!) By the way, my heartfelt thanks to Mike and David. Their assistance & companionship was invaluable and enthusiastic! THANKS FRIENDS, MIKE AND DAVID!! =* |
FROM THE EDITOR Just a short entry to say THANKS to the many loyal and faithful Friends we have found! Thanks for all your help these first 10 months of CFDM! As of today (Oct. 27, 92) we have exactly 150 Friends on our subscription list. As you recall, at the end of issue #7 over half of our then 150+/- Friends were up for renewal. At the mailing of #10, we had only 10 up for renewal. I hope we can continue to enjoy the CoCo, CFDM, and friendship for a long time! Here's another of my favorite scriptures. This one is often used by MOM to advise me. A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. - PROVERBS 18:24 =* |
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ONCE UPON A TIME A HUNGRY PILGRIM CAME UPON A VILLAGE IN A HUNGRY LAND. SOON THE CURIOUS TOWNFOLKS GATHERED ROUND TO INQUIRE OF HIS BUSINESS. I'M ON A LONG JOURNEY. NOW I'M TIRED AND HUNGRY. HAVE YOU ANYTHING TO EAT? OH NO, SAID THE TOWNFOLKS, WE'VE NOT ONE THING!..AND THEY TURNED TO LEAVE. WAIT SAID THE PILGRIM...I SEE YOU HAVE SOME FINE STONES IN YOUR VILLAGE. WHAT GOOD ARE STONES WHEN WE ARE ALL STARVING?..AND THEY BEGAN TO LAUGH! WHAT GOOD ARE STONES, SAID THE PILGRIM WITH A GASP! WHY FOR STONE SOUP!! STONE SOUP? ASKED THE TOWNFOLK... CAN YOU MAKE SOUP OF OUR STONES? OH SURE SAID THE PILGRIM LOOKING ABOUT I'D SHOW YOU HOW, IF I HAD A BIG POT. THIS I'VE GOT TO SEE SAID ONE OLD MAID AND AWAY SHE WENT TO GET A POT. IT WASN'T LONG UNTIL A BIG POT FILLED WITH WATER WAS BEGINNING TO BOIL! THEN THE PILGRIM PICKED UP SOME OF THE STONES, PUT THEM IN THE POT AND.... BEGAN TO STIR THE POT OF STONES. THE MENFOLK MOVED CLOSER TO SEE. HMMM..SMELLS GOOD SAID THE PILGRIM. IF I HAD JUST A PINCH OF SALT AND PEPPER. IT WOULD MAKE YOUR MOUTH WATER! I THINK I HAVE SOME SALT SAID THE OLD MAN..AND MAYBE PEPPER TOO. AND HE DID. HE CONTINUED TO STIR..AND IT DID SMELL GREAT! IF WE HAD A CARROT TO ADD... OH HOW SCRUMPTIOUS IT WOULD BE! WAIT SAID THE MAID..I HAVE A CARROT AND... MAYBE EVEN A PEA! SHE RAN TO CHECK. SHE DID HAVE BOTH AND PUT THEM IN! I HAVE SOME RADISHES SAID THE GIRL. AND I HAVE SOME BEANS SAID THE LAD. WOULDN'T A LITTLE MEAT MAKE IT BETTER? ASKED THE FARMER. AND HE WENT TO LOOK. AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW HE DID FIND SOME MEAT. AND QUITE A BEEF HE DID FIND!! WELL IT WASN'T TOO LONG UNTIL THE STONE SOUP WAS DONE! AND EVERYONE AGREED THEY HAD NEVER EATEN SO WELL BEFORE!! THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS... THERE'S USUALLY MORE AVAILABLE THAN.. AT FIRST APPEARS...WHEN EACH ADDS HIS LITTLE PART..ALL DINE HEARTILY!!! YOUR CFDM FEAST THIS MONTH IS COMPLIMENTS OF THE FOLLOWING FRIENDS: KUDOS ROY ATKINS RAYMOND BERNEY TREVOR BOEHM CHAIRUTH BOUPHAPHAHN H ALLEN CURTIS JOHN DANIELS ROLAND FUNK JAMES GIBBONS JERRY HOPSON PAUL JOHNSON KEIRAN KENNY DALE KRAMER CHARLOTTE LEAKE ESTHER MILLARD HAROLD J MOENICH ARNIE OTTO GEORGE QUELLHORST FRED REMIN HOWARD ROUSE BOB RUSSELL HERB SCHULER DOROTHY TOPPING ROBERT A TURNER J R WAGGONER LESLIE WALTZ ARTHUR WILLIAMS DICK WILLIAMS THANKS FRIENDS!!! |
REMEDY FOR <g> HANGUPS?? From time to time we have experienced hangups when
trying to load the graphic files in CFDM. Sometimes
we receive a word from a Friend that they cannot get
the <g> (graphics) files inside CFDM to load. There
may be more of you who have had this problem and not
reported it. Here's something I have found that may
help you!
IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THE ABOVE DIFFICULTIES ADD
THIS LINE TO YOUR "C.BAS" PROGRAM:
638 POKE &HD7C0,0 : POKE &HD816,20
I recently compared the DISK BASIC in two of my
controllers. One loaded the <g> files and one
didn't. Both were version 1.1, but there =>
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were four bytes that were different. The two noted
above were critical to proper loading of the <g>
files. Even when using these pokes you may at times
experience hangups or incorrect colors. This is
still a great mystery to me!
=*
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A Possible #5 HANGUP Remedy Rick,
When reading Jerry Tofte's comments about issue #5
hanging up, I suspected that the problem might be
disk drive timing related. Customarily, immediately
after turning on CoCo, I run a system initializing
program which among other things changes the drive
track to track access time from 30 m sec to 6 m sec.
To test my theory about Jerry's problem I omitted
initialization and tried running several issues of
CFDM. One of the issues displayed the symptoms that
Jerry described. The issue then worked perfectly
after running the initialization program.
Thus, I suggest that Jerry try the following POKEs
before running issue #5:
POKE&HD7C0,0:POKE&HD816,20 =*
|
ABOUT YOUR FLIPPIES I am glad that you are enjoying my rendition of
CFDM on paper. I was not sure how you would react
and had second thoughts after I had mailed it.
....On the matter of bulk diskettes, I have been a
little afraid of using them in the past. We had
purchased 200 bulk disk for our RADIO SHACK store
a few years ago. When the disks arrived, they were
a mixed lot of different brands, styles and quality.
Of those 200, we ended up with about 75 that were
bad.
The disk that you are offering though, are of better
quality than the ones we purchased. Also, after
formatting the whole lot, then using 14 to backup
other disks, I did not find any bad disk. =>
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Now, since I have applied for membership in Mid Iowa
& Country CoCo, I will probably be ordering more of
your disks in the future.
Once again, I congratulate you for continuing to
supply the CoCo community with high quality,
reasonably priced products for the Color Computer.
Also, for your fast and personalized service to your
customers.
- J R Waggoner
RICK: J R, thanks for the endorsement of the disks.
I have bought, used, and sold probably 5 thousand in
the last couple of years, and have had no difficulty
or complaints with them. Also, I took your CFDM
(magazine style) to Atlanta for others to see. =>
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It's a great way to see just how much information
can be stored on a single disk side! Thanks again,
for that great gift!!
=*
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BIRTHDAY GREETINGS!! HI! Rick:
Knowing not much about programming, the best I
can do is subscribe. I have enclosed a few post
cards from this area that some of the CoCo artists
may use as a model for their paintings. I enjoy
seeing some of the fine examples that you have
published. I also enjoy the fine transcriptions of
Herb Schuler's music. I can hardly wait for the
middle of the month to receive CFDM. I'm following
the tutorials of George Quellhorst so some day I
may be able to program.
Beginning with issue #10, could you change my
address to ...Florida. My health does not allow me
to stay North in the winter... =>
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Until I write again may your endeavor continue as
successfully as in the past. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Sincerely,
Bob Russell
P.S. 74 years young tomorrow.
RICK: A most happy birthday to you Bob! Thanks for
the KUDOs for Herb, George and our artist Friends.
(Your post cards are great and have been forwarded
to Jim Gibbons. (The cards were of Maine, Bob's
summer home.))
=*
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CM3 to NIB Conversion Technique To All CoCo Friends:
I have successfully found a way to convert CoCoMax
III graphic files to the NIB format used in CFDM.
Here is how I did it:
1.Get into CoCoMax III and get done editing.
2.Go to "OPTIONS"; Select "SCROLL PAGE". This puts
the whole graphic page on the screen without any
of the other CM3 stuff.
3.Press SHIFT-UP ARROW to save the graphic page.
4.Read the DIR to get the correct name for the
graphic page you just saved and remember it!!
5.Load "MINILOAD" from your CoCoMax III Master Disk.
6.Load your graphic page you just saved.
7.Hit the BREAK key. =>
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8.Load NIBSAVER if you have it. (I found NIBSAVER on
the program side of Issue #4) To load, just type
LOADM "NIBSAVER"
9. Type EXEC and it should save the graphic page in
the NIB format.
At least, this is how I did it. Hopefully, all
Friends have NIBSAVER.
Raymond Berney =*
|
COVERUP RICK:
THANKS FOR PIXDOCTR. IT WAS INTERESTING TO
WATCH THE PIC CENTER ITSELF ON THE SCREEN. I'VE
ALREADY TRIED IT ON TW0 CCFFRONTS. YOUR NIB
PROGRAMS ARE ALSO FUN TO WATCH. I'VE OFTEN WONDERED
WHY WE SEE WHAT WE DO ON SCREEN DURING PROGRAM
EXECUTION.
ALTHOUGH PIXDOCTR GOT RID OF THE COVER I HAD
HOPED THE PICTURE WOULD HAVE BEEN LARGER. I ASSUME
THAT YOU START WITH A 320 X 192 (OR 200) PICTURE
AND OVERLAP IT WITH THE COVER BEFORE NIBBING IT
AND PLACING IT ON DISK. I THOUGHT CUTILS.BIN WAS
COVERING THE PICTURE AND THEREFORE COULD BE OMITTED
TO GIVE ME "THE BIG PICTURE" - PUN INTENDED!
DON'T RUN OFF AND MAKE ANOTHER PROGRAM. THERE'S
SOME GOOD NEWS HERE. =>
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WORKING WITH GALLERY MAKER WAS FUN. BUT I DECIDED
ON A SHORTCUT. INSTEAD OF REMOVING THE COVER I LEFT
IT ON. I HAVE THE FIRST SIX CCFFRONTS IN ORDER AND
FOLLOWED THEM WITH 5 OF CFDM PROGRAM PICS. BY
LEAVING THE COVER ON I DON'T HAVE TO ENTER THAT MUCH
DATA.THE AUTHORS FULL NAME IS ALL THAT'S NEEDED!
I PLAN TO REPLACE THE OTHER PICS AS EACH ISSUE
COMES OUT AND WILL MAKE A SEPERATE GALLERY FOR THE
PROGRAM PICS. "THE CFDM COVER GALLERY" WILL
CHRONICLE CFDM'S HISTORY IN ITS COVER ART - LIKE
"LIFE" MAGAZINE. TOO BAD GALLERY MAKER ONLY WORKS
WITH 11 PICTURES....OOPS! I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID
THAT. HA! YOU COULD USE ONE OF MY OFFERINGS AS THE
COVER OF #12 - THAT WAY NOTHING WOULD BE LOST. I
JUST HOPE WE DON'T WEAR J.G. OUT! THANKS FOR THE
PICS GUYS. =>
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RICK: Thanks for the interesting comments Dale. I'd
like to explain the "NIB DANCE", but I don't know if
I could make it understandable!! Suffice it to say
that the "dance" (movement from top to bottom, etc)
is caused by trying to keep most of the execution in
one portion of memory (namely in the graphics screen
memory). In order to do that I have to first move
it from the top of screen (where it's loaded to) to
the bottom of the screen, to begin decompressing the
picture (from top to bottom). After the skeleton is
formed, the data on the screen is exclusively or'ed
down the screen to fill in the missing pixels. (I
KNOW THAT DIDN'T SOUND RIGHT BUT..I TOLD YOU SO!)
Also, Jim Gibbon's draws on only a portion of the
CoCo Max 3 screen. This allows CFDM's border! =*
|
EXCITED ABOUT CFDM!! Dear Rick,
I am enclosing a check for $65 to cover the cost
of my subscription renewal and your UNBELIEVABLE
OFFER #1.
What a terrific thing you are doing for the CoCo
Community.
I have been wanting to send in a submission to
the magazine, but I have been so busy hardcopying
all the disks and ordering from the wonderful
advertisers, that I just haven't had the chance. I
spend every evening with my CFDM while Bob, my
husband is busy watching T.V. I can't believe all
that I have learned so far from the great =>
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programs, letters, questions & answers, etc. I feel
like I have gained a whole new family.
Long live CFDM and all it's supporters. God bless
you all.
Charlotte Leake
108 W Randall St.
Baltimore, MD 21230
RICK: Thanks for your WONDERFUL letter, Charlotte!
We are looking forward to your submissions too! Just
a note: Some feel that to be a contributor, they
must submit a program or graphic, etc. But really,
your personal comments are just as enjoyable for the
Friends and me! =*
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NOTE TO RICK AND OTHERS I HAVE ENJOYED MY COCO3 FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS
AND HOPE TO CONTINUE ENJOYING IT FOR MANY MORE.
I THINK THAT CFDM WILL BE A LARGE FACTOR IN THE
CONTINUING SUPPORT FOR THE COCO COMMUNITY. I WILL
DO WHAT I CAN TO HELP KEEP IT GOING AND I HOPE
MANY MORE OUT THERE WILL DO THE SAME.
JOHN
RICK: Thanks John! And it was great to meet you
in Atlanta. John and I got a chance to talk for
awhile about CFDM, programming, and a few programs
we share an interest in. I hope to get to visit
the great new Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and
take a tour under John's guidance! =*
|
Rome wasn't .... In a recent issue of CFDM, Rick made the state-
ment that "Rome wasn't built in a day". This took
me back to a humorous incident that happened to me
in 1949.
I was in the second year of my electrical appren-
ticeship, working at a powerhouse as the apprentice
for a gang of 8 journeymen being supervised by a
foreman.
The apprentice for a gang was a "grunt or gopher"
going for all the material needed by any member of
the gang or when heavy work was to be done he often
helped with the lifting. This was a good way for
the apprentice to learn much about the material &
equipment used although at times it was rough on the
apprentice because he had at least 9 people shouting
orders at him. =>
____________________________________________________
One particular day I was very busy running here &
there, driving truck, delivering material, etc. As
I went by my foreman he shouted an order at me &
being behind in my chores & feeling frustrated I
stopped in my tracks and said to him, "Hold your
pants on! Rome wasn't built in a day." Without one
moment hesitation he came back at me saying, "That's
because I wasn't foreman on the job. Now get moving"
which I did.
Often times in the following years when we would
be on the same job we would kid each other about it.
=*
|
SEND GEORGE Q. TO FLORIDA?!?! Hi Rick -
I am completely enjoying your CFDM and wish to
extend my subscription (5-08-9). I am also ordering
the flippies you advertised. I can't believe how
helpful your CoCoNuts are - I have already received
help from Norm Barson, and my only request is to see
if you can get George Quellhorst to come to Florida
to do my washing and ironing. It's HIS fault that
he contributed "ACES-UP" and nothing is getting done
around here. Also a couple of swats to Esther, the
lady who informed him the chances of winning are 1
in 10! I taught it to my husband and neither of us
win very often - if at all. Up to now we have been
happily married for 44 years. Could George put a
cheating factor in his next game! - Dorothy =>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Thanks for the KUDOs for Norm, Esther, and
George. I can fully appreciate your experience
with "ACES-UP"!
There are a lot of communications going on that I
never really know about. From the reports I get,
Norm and George have been very helpful to many of
our Friends! They have also been invaluable in
assisting me!!
George told me that the idea for "ACES-UP" came from
Esther (Millard). This game has surely been one of
the most popular programs submitted to CFDM! Thanks
all!
=*
|
TO RICK, Hi Rick, how is everything with you! I'm sending you some more comics in...I hope you will like them and I want to renewal my 6 months to CFDM...My friend asked me if I could give her a copy of the magazine, but she did not have the CoCc3 ...she was disappointed!! She asked if you would plan to expand CFDM to IBM !!! She thinks it is a good idea to have the magazine on disk like CFDM!! I found an error in one of my earlier comic sending in to you, so I fixed it and sent the new copy in with the new ones. RICK: Thanks Chai! We are enjoying your comics very much! Expanding to IBM..well..no...but thanks to your friend for asking!! =* |
Thanks & re:Hangups. Rick: Thanks for putting me straight on "Newdespz".
I enjoyed it, did it in four sittings. I see by the
letter from Godfrey Moll that he adds new pictures
to the Puzzle Program. I've thought about it, but
didn't know how to start. Some month maybe one of
you will tell us how to do it! I hope so.
My #7 disk did the same thing Jerry
Tofte wrote about in "Hangup in #5". I've had it
happen before on others. The way I get around it is
to read something in another section first, then go
back to the beginning. So far it seems to work.
RICK: Okay Esther, I'll try to get that request on
the agenda. I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed
the puzzle! =*
|
BUYING TIPS IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF BACKUP COCO SYSTEMS, I CAN
RECOMMEND VISITING YARD SALES AND PAWN SHOPS. I GOT
A COCO3 WITH DUAL FD-502 AND MULTI-PAK ALONG WITH A
HOST OF ACCESSORIES AND ABOUT 80 DISKS OF PROGRAMS
FOR $200 AND IT ALL WORKS. I ALSO FOUND A COCO3 AT
A PAWN SHOP IN ATLANTA FOR $25 AND AN FD-501 FOR
$35. I VISIT THE MANY PAWN SHOPS IN THE CHATTANOOGA
AREA AT LEAST ONCE EVERY THREE MONTHS. I ALSO HIT
MANY YARD SALES EVERY SATURDAY.
=*
|
CAPRICE I have looked every where for the book that contains this month's song. I transcribed it several years ago, and now I can't find the book anywhere. So, as with some others, all I can tell you about this song is its title is VALSE CAPRICE and it was composed by a Mr. de Falla. I chose this piece for you this month because it plays nice! Notice the 'grace' notes. They are very short notes before another note of longer duration that is either a tone above or below the grace note. They almost sound like errors in playing; usually on a piano where you hit the note above or below as you are playing a note. As always, I hope you can hear this song on a stereo or hi-fi, because it really sounds nice on one. Do you like this stuff? Want me to continue? =* |
Please don't forget the CHRISTMAS CARD PROJECT we
began last issue. It's not too late to participate.
Here's how it works. If you would enjoy sending and
receiving a Season's Greetings card with a Friend,
send a postcard with your name and address and the
words HOLIDAY on it. When I send out issue #11, I
will place your card in a Friend's package and then
place another Friend's card in your package. When
you receive your package send a Season's Greetings
card to the Friend whose name and address is on the
card in your package. In this manner you will get a
card from one Friend and a different Friend will
receive a card from you.
Please Participate! =*
|
GREAT EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE Next month is the last month of our GREAT EDUCATION
PROJECT. Participation has not been as good as we
would have liked, but we have enjoyed the programs
received! If you have an educational program that
you have been working on, we'd still like to see it.
A new project will begin next month. I think you'll
enjoy it and I hope you will give it a try. We won't
tell you what it is now, but I'll tell you that it
was suggested by one of our Friends. Please be sure
to check it out!
=*
|
Great Education Project:NUMMAGIC On this disk, you will find my entry to the GREAT EDUCATION PROJECT. It is nothing real fancy, but it keeps my 7 year old nephew, Brandon, busy. It uses a math formula that my 10th Grade math teacher taught me. I love to program math games. The program will ask you to think of a number and will then proceed to ask you to perform simple arithmetic (multipli- cation, division, addition, & subtraction) on said number, after which it will tell you the result that you come up with. If, for some reason, your answer differs from the computers, the computer will ask for the number that you thought of and will work the problem for you. RUN "NUMMAGIC" from the program side of this disk to see it in action. Hope you like it. R.A.Turner,c/o Kathy & Terry Dale, Rt 3 Box 458, Double Springs, AL 3553. =* |
Note to Herb Schuler I really enjoyed "Stardust" and "Once in Love With Amy", even without hearing them thru my stereo. My Coco and stereo are in different rooms. I'll look forward to more. =* |
PROGRAMMING PUZZLE IN THE 'COMPUTER FUN' COLUMN IN THE JULY ISSUE
OF 'COMPUTER MONTHLY' BY DR. MICHAEL W. ECKER, I
FOUND THIS LITTLE PROGRAMMING EXERCISE:
GIVEN THE FORMULA A*B*AB = 1992, WHAT IS THE NEXT
YEAR THAT WILL SATISFY THE EQUATION?
A HINT - THE NEXT YEAR IS WITHIN 20 YEARS OF 1992.
=*
|
RESISTOR RESISTOR/BAS is intended as an educational
program for those who want to learn or practice
using the standard resistor color code. It may also
be of interest to anyone who would like to know what
those colorful markings on one of the most-used
components in electronics represent.
If you are using a CMP monitor or a TV, the
colors that are placed on the screen may appear
wrong.(The program was written using a RGB monitor.)
You may correct this by loading the color codes for
black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
violet, gray, white, gold, and silver into PALETTE
slots 0 through 11, respectively. Do this by editing
lines 250-260. Also edit line 40 and the last line
of the program by changing RGB to CMP. All colors
used for identification are also labeled on the =>
____________________________________________________
screen to aid in positive identification.
To run the program, type LOAD"RESISTOR/BAS"
[ENTER] and RUN [ENTER]. The program will take a
second or two to initialize, and you will be instruc
ted to press any key. The next screen will display a
chart to show what the color bands represent. The
next three screens (press any key to advance) will
show three different examples to help show how the
colors are used. If you wish to go back at any time,
you must press [BREAK] to start over.
After the third example, you will be given 25
problems to identify. If you make a mistake while
making an entry, press the back-arrow key to erase
the entry. After making your entry, press [ENTER].
After entering the tolerance (4th band), you will be
told if you were correct, or you will be given the=>
____________________________________________________
correct answer if you were incorrect. You may press
any key to continue.
Your score and the problem number will be kept
track of in the upper left corner of the screen.
After the last problem has been completed, and any
key is pressed, you will be given your final score
and a brief remark.
If you don't understand how the color code is
used at first, you will probably catch on soon if
you go back to view the chart and samples a few
times.
Just remember: Black=0, Brown=1, Red=2,
Orange=3, Yellow=4, Green=5, Blue=6, Violet=7,
Gray=8, White=9, Gold=.1 or 5(%), Silver=.01 or
10(%)
(Problems are random samples of actual values.) =*
|
THE SECRET OF BOOT BAS REVEALED Well, the time has come to reveal to all how this little gem of a program works. I tracked down the real author, I called Marty Goodman, and he informed me that the author is PAUL RYAN, who, according to Marty, is also the author of GRAFICOM and WE-FAX. However, Marty admitted, that he helped PAUL write the program, so I was partly right anyway. Marty seemed real surprised that the program was still "floating around" and that people were still trying to figure out how it works. He asked my permission to use some of my observations in his column in a upcoming issue of The Rainbow. So if this program "Pops up" in The Rainbow in the near future, you know why. I had planned to write the whole story on this side of the disk in the POTPOURRI section, But the space available here, would not do the => ____________________________________________________ program justice. It ended up to be a three page article. Explaining in detail, how I took the pro- gram apart, to find out how it worked, and how I put it back together again to prove my theory. I think, if you do any programming at all, that you will find it to be a very interesting story. To "READ" the article, run PRINTME4/BAS on the other side of this disk. Instructions on how to proceed will be printed to the screen. PRINTME4/BAS will also printout four pages of LABELTUT/004. If you are not following that series, just press BREAK after the first three pages are printed and the printing process will be aborted. George Quellhorst (216) 354-3812 203B Meadows Drive. **********> Painesville,Ohio.44077-5361 EOF. |
CALENDAR AND CALYEAR To most of us, the calendar is confusing. We never
know the day on which birthdays and holidays occur,
and each year we scramble around to get new
calendars for our wall or wallet. We used to receive
a flood of advertising calendars, but now that
source of supply has almost disappeared.
For the last few years, I've been making my own
calendars. CALYEAR is the program I wrote to print
a compact calendar that hangs above my computer. It
is even small enough that it could be fan-folded and
tucked into a wallet. True, it is too small to use
for much in the way of appointments and notes, but
some of our astute CFDM readers could easily modify
it to a larger graphic format if desired.
=>
____________________________________________________
Type RUN"CALYEAR, ready the printer and position
the paper at the very top of a sheet. The printer
codes at line 305 are for the Epson, and allow you
to use a TAB function. The line may be changed or
eliminated if desired. A full year will print out on
less than 2 sheets. If you want, you can back the
paper up and print a second copy at TAB 40.
CALENDAR is a close-related program that displays
a single month on the 32-column screen, and provides
a factor, F, that can be used to determine the
number of days between dates.
Our current Gregorian calendar began October 15,
1582, when Pope Gregory became annoyed that Easter
=>
____________________________________________________
was beginning to occur late in the Spring season
under the then-used Julian calendar. Consulting with
his astronomers and philosophers, he decreed that
some 15 days be eliminated from that year, and that
a new way of determining leap years would be used.
This played havoc with money-lenders and other kinds
of business, not to mention the consternation of the
populace. On the plus side, the Gregorian calendar
will remain accurate enough to suit us for a very
long time to come.
Never buy a calendar again!
Paul H. Johnson
1463 Willard Street
San Francisco, CA 94117 =*
|
From Binary to ASCII:
"BINASCII" In issue #5, Vol. 1 of CFDM, Roy Atkins asked if
anyone new of a program to convert Binary Text files
to ASCII text files. Well, I didn't know of one, so
I decided to write one since I love to program my
CoCo. "BINASCII" is the result. A WORD OF CAUTION:
Use a backup of the Binary text file, because if it
is stored in memory below &H0E00, "BINASCII" will
crash. This is not a fault of the program itself,
but of the Binary file which will clash with DISK
BASIC's reserved memory. The program will automati-
cally detect if it is being used on a CoCo 1/2 or 3.
If it is a 3, then the first prompt will ask for
monitor type. Then, you are asked if you wish to
convert from VDG to ASCII. In most cases, you should
answer Y. Next, you are asked if you want ASCII
characters above CHR$(128) converted to SPACES =>
____________________________________________________
CHR$(32). You will probably also want to answer Y to
this also. Then you are asked if you wish to have
the WORDWRAP feature activated. Again, probably Yes.
After you have answered the initial questions, you
will then be asked for the name of the file to con-
vert, followed by it's EXTension & the drive which
has the disk containing the specified file. The pro-
gram will then convert the file-name by changing all
upper case to lower case & vice versa. This then be-
comes the destination file-name. The EXTension is
not converted in this manner. If the program cannot
convert the file-name as just described, you will be
prompted for a destination file-name which must be
different from the source. Now, a sample line will
be created from the source file. If it appears corr-
ect, answer Y to the prompt. If not, answer N, =>
____________________________________________________
& you are given the opportunity to adjust the Start-
ing position in the file. If it is incorrect for
some other reason, press [BREAK] & begin again. If
the line is correct & you answer Y to the prompt,
file conversion will begin & should not be interrup-
ted. You will then see the document on the screen as
it is being converted. You will be informed as to
when the process is complete, and you should then
have an ASCII file which can be loaded into your
favorite word processor. If you have any problems, I
will try to help. I may be contacted at the follow-
ing address: ROBERT ALLEN TURNER
C/O KATHY & TERRY DALE
RT 3 BOX 458
DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553
=*
|
HEXCHART THIS IS A SIMPLE PROGRAM THAT PRINTS OUT A
DECIMAL TO HEXIDECIMAL CHART FROM 0 TO 254 IN 5
COLUMNS TO THE PRINTER. IT COULD BE CHANGED TO
DISPLAY TO THE 80 COLUMN SCREEN. BY THE WAY,255
IS FF IN HEX!
=*
|
NO MORE DISABLE:DLOAD FOR ADOS ADOS3 (IN EPROM USERS) HERE IS THE MOMENT YOU
********************** HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR
===================================================
NOW YOU ARE ABLE TO TYPE RUN"AC/BAS" AND THIS DISK
MAGAZINE WILL PURRR LIKE A NEW BORN KITTEN AS IT
RUNS UNDER EXTENDED ADOS3. IF YOU HAVE 512K YOU ARE
ABLE TO BACKUP THIS DISK TO ONE OF YOUR RAMDRIVES,
NOW YOU ARE REALLY COOKING WITH GAS
USE THE FOLLOWING COMMAND: BACKUP 0 TO 2,A,F,35
REPLACE THE "2" WITH THE DRIVE NUMBER OF ONE OF YOUR
YOUR RAMDRIVES.
RICK WAS KIND ENOUGH TOO SEND ME THE SOURCE CODE FOR
PART OF CUTILS/BIN SO THAT I COULD FIND THE BYTES
THAT NEEDED CHANGING TO MAKE CUTILS RUN UNDER ADOS.
SEE PAGE TWO FOR CHANGES TO MAKE. OR JUST USE THE
PROGRAM AC/BAS. WHERE I MADE THE CHANGES FOR YOU =>
____________________________________________________
1. REM OUT, that is place the word REM or a hyphen
<'> in front of the line that sets the baud rate. If
you have ADOS3 or EXTENDED ADOS3 in an EPROM your
baud rate should already be set.
2. In line 330 where it states: IFI$=CHR$(189) THEN
change the 189 to 32. Thus: IFI$=CHR$(32) THEN
3. ADD LINE 511 AS FOLLOWS:
511 POKE&H65EF,&HE2:POKE&H62C2,&H17:POKE&H6BA7,&H17:
POKE&H6D71,&H17
4. Change line 650 so that it reads:
650 WIDTH80:EXEC&H8C1B
THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT FOUR POKES AND ONE EXEC.
OF COURSE IF YOU ARE USING ADOS FROM DISK. YOU MIGHT
AS WELL USE RS-DOS TO RUN CFDM.
ENJOY ... ENJOY ... ENJOY ... GEORGE .... >*
|
QUIKLIST This is a simple little program to produce neat
listings of your programs. Load the program you
want to copy, then enter MERGE"QUIKLIST":GOTO 10000
You are then prompted to enter the filename and the
date (Anything else you want in the header can also
be included on this line, but limit the number of
characters (including the filename) to 38.) The
next prompt tells you to setup the printer, and away
we go! The listing has a heading in expanded type,
and skips the perforations at the bottom of the
pages.
NOTE: The program is written for the Radio Shack
DMP130 printer, running at 9600 baud. It can be
adapted for other printers by changing lines
=>
____________________________________________________
10000 (baud rate) and 10120 (page length and skip
perforation).
I used 10000 as the first line number because the
programs I write don't generally have line numbers
as high as that. If yours does, it's a simple
matter to RENUM the program lines, and change the
last line accordingly.
=*
|
RAYLINES and NIBBLES Tom Lehane is well known in the Australian CoCo community because of his RAYLINE programs and very artistic PMODE4 drawings he does with them. I have written RAYLINIB as a HSCREEN2 emulation of Tom's programs and I am glad to have Rick's NIB programs so that I can save the HSCREEN2 pictures without us- ing up too many granules. To start, run the program and take option 2 on the title screen menu. You have a flashing cursor at screen center. Depress an arrow key to move the cursor; a horizontal and vertical key together for diagonal movement and the spacebar with keys to speed up the cursor. Press B to Begin a line. A flashing ray will move in the arrow direction. Toggle arrow keys to vary its angle and direction. When you are satis-=> ____________________________________________________ fied with your line, press E to End it. Press A to Accept the line and the cursor is at the line end waiting for further movement. Press R to Reject a line and the cursor returns to its last position. For curved lines, use very short lines and short swings of your rays. The program uses HGET and HPUT to ensure that when a line is rejected the screen as it was pre- viously is restored. This imposes a restriction on the length and slope of any line. To see what I mean move the cursor to top center of the screen, press B and draw a ray straight down to near screen bottom. Depress a horizontal key and swing the ray left or right. It will reach a point where the area subten- ded by the ray exceeds 14000 pixels. You will get a sound warning and the end X and Y coordinates of => ____________________________________________________ the ray will increase/decrease by one (or three if the spacebar is depressed). In line 690, the buf- fered area is updated each time before the ray fla- shes on. This keeps you out of FC ERROR. You can also draw circles and semi-circular arcs. Press C to mark your center. Move the cursor horiz- ontally or vertically to set the length of the rad- ius. Press P and the cursor returns to center. Move it up or down to set the height. Press N to draw a circle or oval. Move it up and press Q for an arc closed at the top. Move it down and press Q to for an arc closed at the bottom. Move it up and press O for a right-hand arc. Move it down for a left-hand arc. Press A to accept a circle or arc or R to reject. =* |
RAYLINES and NIBBLES Part 2. After you press C, cursor movement is restric- ted to 59 pixels left/right above/below the center to ensure that the HGET and HPUT parameters enclose a square of 14000 pixels. To draw a true circle, press C, move the cursor up or down, press P, and then move up/down so that the flashing cursor covers the pixel set at point P. Then press N. At any time after you have accepted a line, cir- cle or arc and a flashing cursor or ray are on the screen, you can press CLEAR. You can then abort the picture or save it. A modification of NIBSAVER is in lines 790 to 1290. This ends the program. To view your picture again, run the program and press 1 at the title screen menu. Lines 80 to 320 are a modified version of NIBLOADR. After your => ____________________________________________________ picture is loaded, and you want to add to it, press any key and the cursor is at screen center. You can then proceed as before. If a picture is still in memory, and you press 2 to draw a new picture, the previous screen will app- ear. Press RESET to clear the previous picture from memory and run again. In line 10 I have disabled the BREAK key. Prefer- ably use CLEAR to end the program while you are on the graphic screen. RAYLINIB only gives you a black on white outline but you could use the CoCo Max 3 TRANSLAT program to convert a /NIB screen to a /CM3 screen and color it in on CoCo Max 3. I have no artistic ability, but I would hope to see examples of what you can do with the RAYLINIB program. => ____________________________________________________ Worth mentioning, perhaps, is that you can swing a flashing ray across existing picture elements and it will not damage them. The HGET and HPUT entries in line 690 serve to restore the areas through which the ray swings. =* |
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| SHANGHAI |
| Back to top |
SHANGHAI Here is a game that is very popular at our house.
Shanghai was marketed by TANDY in the ROMPAK form.
My copy was a gift from our Friend Norm Barson, who
found a number on clearance sale at his local Shack
store. Thanks Norm.
Shanghai is a 3-D tile game. From the 144 randomized
picture-tiles of 7 different suits, you match tiles
from the ends of the tile lines until all are gone
or until all possible matches are made. The object,
of course, is to remove all tiles from the board.
There are a number of variations to the game. You
can play with or without time limits, do tournament
play, or match play. My favorite is to play for high
score against my wife, Donna, in 5 minute =>
____________________________________________________
tournaments. I must admit she usually wins, (but she
gets more practice!).
Shanghai is certainly an addicting game. Joystick
control is fairly good. A hint option is available
in some of the game types and you can try the same
setup over again. This allows you to try different
approaches to solving the problem.
I definitely reccommend Shanghai. You might find one
at your RADIO SHACK store at a great price or check
yard sales and flea markets.
=*
|
| Articles in section: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS |
| COCOMAX3 For R.A.Turner/H.J.Moenich MIND-ROLL HELP MONITOR ANSWER NIBBING CM3 PIX PRINTERS Ram Disk Location |
| Back to top |
COCOMAX3 WHEN USING COCOMAX3 I CAN NOT CENTER THE PICTURE
WHEN I CLICK "SHOW PAGE" AND WHEN I SAVE THE PICTURE
TO DISK AND SHOW IT ON "VUMASTER", IT IS ALSO NOT
CENTERED PROPERLY.
THE PICTURE APPEARS IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER.
THE "MOVE WINDOW" ONLY ALLOWS UP, DOWN AND LEFT -
NOT TO THE RIGHT WHICH I NEED!
I AM USING 512K UPGRADE-WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
PLEASE HELP.
HAROLD J. MOENICH
715 GREENLEAF DRIVE
MONROEVILLE,PA 15146-1133 =>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Harold, I believe the following is the answer
to your problem. CoCo Max3 allows you to create a
full page-size picture. But since they must have
room on the viewing screen for the palette of colors
and the various icons, etc., it is not possible to
view the entire screen while drawing the picture.
Thus, you see only a portion of the screen while the
above mentioned tools are displayed. You may view
and draw on other parts of the screen by using the
hand tool to "move" the viewing/drawing portion of
the screen. When you first execute CoCo Max3, the
upper-left portion of the screen is what you see in
the drawing window. Here's where the answer to your
question comes in: Some artists (such as our own
Jim Gibbons) use only this portion of the screen for
their drawings. So when you load such a pix =>
____________________________________________________
from inside CoCo Max3, and go to "SHOW PAGE", you
will naturally see the picture just where the artist
put it (in the upper left corner). That also
explains why VUMASTER displays it as it does!
Harold, I can't tell you how to center the picture
in CM3 format, but....if you can keep the picture on
the screen and the palette intact, you can use the
PIXDOCTR program I wrote (in issue #5) and it will
automatically be saved (after centering) in NIB
format. You can then use any of the various NIB
loaders to display the picture correctly.
P.S. Other Friends may know how to "fix" the CM3
version. Let us know Friends.
=*
|
For R.A.Turner/H.J.Moenich Without getting too technical (which my wife
says I always DO get), I'll try to answer Robert
Allen Turner's question from Issue 6 about CLS 5.
When you enter CLS 5, you are clearing the
screen to the color stored in PALETTE slot 4, which
is white. (Tandy calls it Buff, but it is white) To
illustrate this, enter PALETTE 4,X (X being any
whole number between 0 and 62). Then clear your
screen with CLS 5. It will be cleared to the color
represented by the number you stored in slot 4.
(Your Extended Basic Manual has good info on p.8-9
and 48-54 about colors & palettes.) Enter CMP or RGB
to restore your palette to standard.
To go further, the RGB & CMP palettes use
different color numbers in some of the palette slots
because composite monitors and TV's produce the =>
____________________________________________________
colors on the screen in a different way than a RGB
monitor produces them. That is where the discussion
can get much more complex, so I will just say that
the color white is the clearest background you can
have for your CMP or TV and all the other colors
will stand out best and clearest on white.
The POKES given by Robert Turner work by
disabling the colorburst generator in the computer
so the output to your monitor or TV is black (or
shades of gray) and white for the 32, 40, and 80
column screen. These POKES appear to have no effect
with an RGB monitor.
And finally, if you would like to know what
color numbers are in your palette slots type in and
run the following little program:
=>
____________________________________________________
10 WIDTH 40:CLS5
20 X=0
30 FOR I=&HFFB0 TO &HFFBF
40 PRINT"PALETTE";X;"=";:PRINT PEEK(I)-64
50 X=X+1
60 NEXT I
=*
|
MIND-ROLL HELP I NEED HELP WITH THE MIND-ROLL CARTRIDGE. I CAN
NOT SEEM TO GET OFF THE STARTING SCREEN. I HAVE
MANAGED IT ONLY TWO OR THREE TIMES AND I DON'T KNOW
WHAT I DID TO DO IT THOSE FEW TIMES. ANYONE OUT
THERE KNOW WHAT TO DO?
JOHN DANIELS
648 PLEASANT GROVE RD.
MCDONALD, TN 37353
=*
|
MONITOR ANSWER LEW DEWELL WANTED TO KNOW WHY THE DISPLAY SEEMED
TO JUMP OUT AT HIM WHEN THE HELP MENU WAS DISPLAYED.
I REMEMEBER AN ARTICLE IN 'BYTE' A FEW MONTHS BACK
ABOUT MONITORS THAT TALKED ABOUT THIS EFFECT, CALLED
"BLOOMING". IT OCCURS WHEN CHANGING LARGE AREAS OF
COLOR AT ONE TIME AND IS A FUNCTION OF THE VOLTAGE
REGULATION OF THE MONITOR. THE BETTER THE REGULATION
THE LESS BLOOMING. FROM THIS WE CAN TELL THAT THE
CM-8 IS NOT TOO WELL-REGULATED.
JOHN DANIELS
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NIBBING CM3 PIX SOMEONE ASKED ABOUT SAVING COCO MAX III PICS WITH
NIBSAVER IN A PREVIOUS ISSUE. I BELIEVE RICK SAID HE
USED PALSAVER AND VUMASTER WITH NIBSAVER TO CONVERT
CM3 TO NIB FORMAT.
I HAVE "FOUND" A PROGRAM CALLED 'MINILOAD' ON THE
BACKUP OF MY 'COCOMAX III' MASTER DISK. THIS PROGRAM
WORKS SIMILAR TO RICK'S 'NIBLOADER'. WHEN YOU LOAD
AND RUN IT 'MINILOAD' ASKS FOR THE NAME OF THE CM3
PIC YOU WANT DISPLAYED. PUT YOUR CM3 PICTURE DISK IN
DRIVE0 AND ENTER THE NAME (PICTURE MUST HAVE "CM3"
EXTENTION).
THE PICTURE APPEARS ON THE SCREEN UNTIL YOU PRESS
"BREAK" AND THE PICTURE PALETTES REMAIN UNCHANGED!!
I THEN INSERT MY 'NIB' DISK AND RUN 'NIBSAVER". IT
MAY BE HARD TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE TYPING BECAUSE OF
=>
____________________________________________________
THE COLORS IN THE PALETTE. WHEN 'NIBSAVER' RUNS
FOLLOW THE NORMAL ROUTINE AND A "NIBBED" CM3 PICTURE
WILL BE SAVED ON DISK. TO SEE IF YOU WERE SUCCESSFUL
SIMPLY LOAD AND RUN 'NIBLOADR'. AFTER ANSWERING THE
PROMPTS YOUR FORMER CM3 PICTURE SHOULD APPEAR AS
NORMAL.
I HOPE THIS WILL HELP OTHERS WHO ARE DISCOVERING
THE WONDERFUL PROGRAMS RICK HAS MADE. "GALLERY'S" OF
CM3 PICTURES ARE NOW EASIER TO MAKE FOR ME.
RICK: Dale, thanks for the helpful info!
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PRINTERS THERE SEEMS TO BE PLENTY OF PRINTER SCREEN DUMPS
FOR PMODE PICTURES BUT FEW FOR HSCREEN2. IT SEEMS
THAT HSCREEN PICTURES HAVE TO BE RELOCATED TO THE
LOWER 64K ADDRESS SPACE TO BE PRINTED WITH A M/L
DRIVER. THIS WILL REQUIRE MANIPULATING THE COCO 3
MMU REGISTERS - SOMETHING I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH.
I MAKE THESE SUPPOSITIONS BASED ON ARTICLES IN
"RAINBOW" LIKE THE 'EXPANDER',AND 'CLS' PROGRAMS IN
THE JUNE '92 ISSUE AND 'AUTOGRAY' IN THE MAY '92
ISSUE BY FELLOW CFDM MEMBER STUART WYSS-GALLIFENT.
STUART HAD TO USE BASIC'S "HPOINT" ROUTINE TO SCAN
THE PICTURE BEFORE PRINTING. IF THE MMU REGISTER WAS
SET TO ACCESS HSCREEN2 IN THE LOWER 64K THEN COULD
NOT THE PICTURE BE PRINTED USING A SIMPLE M/L
DRIVER? AM I ON TO SOMETHING ?
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Ram Disk Location Having read about RAM DISK in issues of CFDM I
now realize that somewhere along the line I must
have missed information concerning a 'RAM DISK'.
Would someone please tell me where this infor-
tion is located? I can not find anything in my CoCo
3 or my disk drive instructions. Thank you!
RICK: Dick, a RAM DISK is a program which allows
you to use the extra memory in your 512K CoCo as
in-memory disk drives. You usually have a choice of
setting the ram drives as any of the four available.
(0, 1, 2, or 3). Several RAM DRIVES (programs) have
been available. I notice that OWL-WARE (see their
ad in November's RAINBOW) includes the RAM DISK
LIGHTNING, with their 512K upgrade. Maybe =>
____________________________________________________
they sell it as a separate item too. By the way,
if you have 512K, you might have received some bonus
software. That bonus software could have included a
RAM DRIVE.
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