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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #59 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
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| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| 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! =* |
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| BONUS
DIRECTORY (i21) CONTENTS...PART 1 (i59) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i59) CONTENTS...PART 3 (i59) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i59) THIS MONTH'S COVER |
| Back to top |
Here's a description of the files on the BONUS DISK.
File names preceded by an asterisk are data files
or program files used by other programs. Do not RUN
or EXEC files preceded by an asterisk.
------------ SIDE 1 -------------
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
CONDNDIR.BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month
NIBSHOW .BAS..RUN...NIB picture viewer
SONGBOOK.BAS..RUN...Potpourri
* ALCRETRS.BIN...
* ALLBEAUT.BIN..... Potpourri (Music)
* ALLGLORY.BIN...... Song files for the
* ANCIENT .BIN........ SONGBOOK program
* BARBRALN.BIN......
* FIRESHIP.BIN..... =>
____________________________________________________
* GOINAWAY.BIN...
* NIBLOADR.BIN........NIB loader utility
* ROSSOVAL.BIN.LOADM:EXEC..Programs of the Month
* SALYMYDR.BIN........Potpourri music
* SUN256 .BIN.LOADM:EXEC..Programs of the Month
* BETHLEHM.NIB........Art Gallery
* ALCRETRS.TXT...
* ALLBEAUT.TXT.....
* ALLGLORY.TXT...... Words for songs used
* ANCIENT .TXT........ by the
* BARBRALN.TXT......... SONGBOOK program
* FIRESHIP.TXT........
* GOINAWAY.TXT......
* SALYMYDR.TXT...
------------ SIDE 2 ----------- =>
____________________________________________________
* CFDMINDX.00A - CFDMINDX.00H........Data files for
the CFDM Index program (CI.BAS)
CI .BAS..RUN...Active CoCo
NIBSHOW .BAS..RUN...NIB picture viewer
* NIBLOADR.BIN........NIB loader utility
* CI .DRV........Utility file for CI.BAS
* DRAGON .NIB...
* FOOT .NIB...... The picture files for
* HOT-HOT .NIB....... SMURFS
* SHADOW .NIB........ see Art Gallery
* THIEF .NIB.......
* WINDMILL.NIB....
=*
|
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (2)
1) "ABOUT CFDM"
2) ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
ABOUT THIS ISSUE (6)
1) BONUS DIRECTORY (i21)
2) CONTENTS...PART 1 (i59)
3) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i59)
4) CONTENTS...PART 3 (i59)
5) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i59)
6) THIS MONTH'S COVER
ACTIVE COCO (6)
1) 1997 CFDM INDEX
2) AH-OH..NO CHRISTMAS CARD PROJECT
3) COCO PRESERVATION SOCIETY UPDATE =>
____________________________________________________
4) CoCoFEST! 1998
5) EXCERPTS FROM SUBSCRIBER LETTERS
6) WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
ADVERTISEMENTS (9)
1) CFDM SUBSCRIPTION
2) FREE FOR THE PRICE OF S/H
3) LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME...
4) MUCH COCO STUFF FOR SALE!
5) MUCH COCO STUFF FOR SALE!! PT 2
6) NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
7) NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT PART 2
8) NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT PART 3
9) THE COCO REGISTRY IS ...
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (6) =>
____________________________________________________
1) Assembly Language Programming 7
2) COCO CHRONICLES 10 (PART 1)
3) COCO CHRONICLES 10 (PART 2)
4) Playing with video part 2
5) USING ART-DELI PICTURES
6) USING ART-DELI PICTURES PART 2
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (8)
1) A Battle Line Drawn
2) ADVENTURES OF COCODAWG
3) BETHLEHEM - David's City
4) HERE COMES THE SHOWBOAT
5) SMURFS
6) The Hick Brothers
7) VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY
8) XMASGIFT =*
|
FAMILY TREE (7)
1) BERTHA DUPREE
2) DAVE OTIS
3) JOHN D. CLEMONS
4) MOVIN' ON
5) NICKOLAS MARENTES
6) NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 2
7) NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 3
FORUM (4)
1) COCO PRESERVATION SOCIETY
2) EMAIL CFDM, an idea whose time..
3) OS9 etc. after 12/31/99?
4) PLEASE REMEMBER...
FROM THE EDITOR (5) =>
____________________________________________________
1) KUDOS (i59)
2) LETTER FROM RICK
3) SPECIAL FAVOUR
4) SPECIAL THANKS TO KEIRAN KENNY
5) THE CFDM/COCO BROADCAST...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (7)
1) ANOTHER FRIEND GONE...
2) Borrowed pictures, etc.
3) EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS
4) I WAS THERE!!...
5) LA BELLE LUCIE REVISITED
6) LOOKING FORWARD TO EMULATOR !
7) RAINBOW MAGS AND DISKS TO SHARE
POTPOURRI (5) =>
____________________________________________________
1) EYE SURGERY
2) My Novel
3) SONGBOOK revised
4) THINGS I REMEMBER
5) TWO SONGS
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (6)
1) A novelty/timewaster program
2) CONDNDIR: DIR for CFDM subs
3) Dido & Fido
4) NEW SOCKMASTER DEMOS!!
5) STOCKS
6) The Magic Screen
=*
|
REVIEWS (2)
1) ART-DELI
2) E-mail CFDM
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (4)
1) C, C++, AND EMULATOR UPDATES?
2) EDTASMIII WITH EMULTOR?
3) IS THERE A SUPPORT GROUP?
4) LOOKING FOR COCO2 ROM PAKS
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM/
SIDE. File names preceded by an asterisk are data
files and are not to be RUN or EXECed!
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION
* MACROS .ASM........Assembly source for PART7.TXT
* SHOW64 .ASM........Source for 64COLOR.BAS
64COLOR .BAS..RUN...Articles of the Month
DOG .BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month
FRONT .BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month
GIRL .BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month
MAGCSCRN.BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month
MUSIC .BAS..RUN...Potpourri
NIBSHOW .BAS..RUN...NIB picture viewer
READFILE.BAS..RUN...Articles of the Month
STOCKS .BAS..RUN...Programs of the Month =>
____________________________________________________
* ALLEYCAT.BIN.......Song file for MUSIC.BAS
* GIRL .BIN....... ""
* NIBLOADR.BIN.......NIB loader utility
* RABBIT3 .BIN.......Picture file for 64COLOR.BAS
* COCODAWG.CM3.......Original file for COCODAWG.NIB
* MACROS .LST.......Source file for PART7.TXT
* COCODAWG.NIB.......Art Gallery
* COCOVSPC.NIB.......Art Gallery
* HICK 60 .NIB.......Art Gallery
* SHOWBOAT.NIB.......Art Gallery
* XMASGIFT.NIB.......Art Gallery
* 64COLOR .TXT.......File for 64COLOR.BAS
* PART7 .TXT.......View this file with READFILE
=*
|
SNOWMAN.NIB With the holiday season and winter weather upon us,
here is a picture of the Classic Snowman to keep in
theme. No gloves or hat required!
Happy Holidays,
Jim Davis
----
Rick: I recently talked with Jim Gibbons and he
reports that he is on the mend. I had hoped to have
a picture from Jim for this issue, but none has
arrived at this time. So...I have chosen a very
appropriate picture from our friend Jim Davis for
this issue's cover. Thanks Jim!!
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| 1997
CFDM INDEX AH-OH..NO CHRISTMAS CARD PROJECT COCO PRESERVATION SOCIETY UPDATE CoCoFEST! 1998 EXCERPTS FROM SUBSCRIBER LETTERS WE HAVE A WINNER!!! |
| Back to top |
1997 CFDM INDEX Is it that time already?!? Another year of CFDM has
come and gone, and Norm has once again updated the
CFDM Index. The latest issue is found on the back
of the Bonus Disk. It contains an easy to use data-
base of all the programs, articles, etc. found in
CFDM issues #49-59.
Just as a reminder, the only text searchable by
keyword is the author's name and the title. Be sure
your search keyword is in UPPER CASE; and you can
also use parts or fragments of words in your search.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
=*
|
AH-OH..NO CHRISTMAS CARD PROJECT I must apologize for letting the time slip up on me this year. Last year I was agile enough to remember to announce the Christmas Card Project in the Sept. issue. Alas, this year I just didn't think of it and I cannot figure out a way to solve the problem in time for Christmas. I will do my best to be better organized next year! Meantime...you can still salvage the project in a couple of ways. Send a Holiday card to the same person you did last year and ... see what happens! Or ... look through issues of CFDM and find the address of someone you'd like to send a card to. You know what ... we could actually make this year's project the best one yet !!! - Rick =* |
COCO PRESERVATION SOCIETY UPDATE Last issue we reported on the creation of the CoCo
Preservation Society at the Pennsylvania CoCo Fest.
The purpose of this organization is to bring unity
to the community by offering a communication device
which delivers news from every sector.
At the organizational meeting I was determined that
my name was not tied to "ownership" of the project.
Afterall, I have made a number of previous attempts
at this type of effort. Unsuccessfully I might add.
Surprisingly three other able CoCoists volunteered
to be editors of the quarterly newsletter. They are
Steve Bjork, Allen Huffman, and Scott Griepentrog.
When it seemed that my services could be used to
collect the dues, duplicate the newsletter, and
deliver it, I volunteered. =>
____________________________________________________
Although only 40 CoCoists have subscribed to the
group at this time, that could change very quickly
if we could get a little surge of subscriptions and
if we can get that first newsletter produced.
At this time forty CoCoists have signed on. Of
that number exactly one half are CFDM Friends! At
the price of only $5.00 for the yearly membership, I
do hope that many of you will join and help those
who are hesitating, to also join in.
The following are currently members of the CoCoPS:
Richard Williams, John Chasteen, Cal Wilcox, George
Bethea Jr, Rick Cooper, Carl England, R C Smith, =>
____________________________________________________
Mike Fulmer, John-Michael Wong, Larry Greenfield,
Joe Semenik Jr, James Davis, Steve Ostrom,L. E.
Padgett, Norm Barson, Mike Guzzi, Paul Hanke,
Farrell Kenimer, Don Johnson, Ron Bull, Steve Secord
John D Snell, Godfrey Moll, Arnold Garlic, Walter
Grossman, Garry Spencer, Karl Sefcik, John C.
Pendleton, Michael Shell, Ben Walker, Paul Zibaila,
Chet Simpson, Tony Durst, Luis Tanon Garcia, Marc
Fury, Gilliam Y. Parrish, Don Mock, Christopher
Perrault, Bill Barnard, and Ray Watts.
HOPE TO SEE YOUR NAME HERE SOON!
SEND YOUR CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
COCOPS, C/O RICK COOPER, P.O. BOX 276, LIBERTY,KY
42539 =*
|
CoCoFEST! 1998 FLASH **** FLASH **** FLASH **** FLASH ****
WHO? 1) The Glenside Color Computer Club of
Illinois presents
WHAT? 2) The SEVENTH Annual "Last" Chicago
CoCoFEST!
WHEN? 3) April 18th & 19th, 1998 (Sat. 10am-5pm;
Sun. 10am-3:30pm)
WHERE? 4) HOLIDAY INN ELGIN (A Holidome Indoor
Recreation Center)
345 W. River Road (A city block from
I-90 & IL-31)
Elgin, Illinois (Same great location as
last year!) Overnight room rate: $65
(plus 10% tax) Call 1-847-695-5000 for
reservations. Ask for CoCoFEST rate. =>
____________________________________________________
!! There is a limited supply of rooms blocked out
for the fest. Reserve your room early - These
rooms will be released for regular reservations
on March 31, 1998, and will not be available to
the fest attendees !!
WHY? 5) A. To provide vendor support to the CoCo
Community.
B. To provide Community support to the
CoCo Vendors.
C. To provide educational support to new
users.
D. To have an outrageously good time!!!
HOW MUCH? General Admission..$10 whole show
Children 10 and under..Free
=>
____________________________________________________
Also...Ask about the CoCo FEAST.
For further information, general or exhibitor,
contact:
Tony Podraza, VP, Special Events
847-428-3576 VOICE
847-428-0436 BBS
Tonypodraza(at sign)juno.com
Mike Knudsen, President
630-665-1394 VOICE
Mknudsen(at sign)lucent.com
Brian Schubring, Assistant Fest Coordinator
theschu2(at sign)juno.com =*
|
EXCERPTS FROM SUBSCRIBER LETTERS Hi Rick, This is for membership to the CoCoPS.
Thanks for taking the lead in this project. While
I'm mostly playing with OS9/68K for the time being,
I hope to be able to contribute more activity in
the near future. Keep up the good works and email
me if there is anything I can do. - Chris Perrault
----------------------------------------------------
Hi Rick, Ready to become a member of CoCoPS. I put a
check in for $10 as a show of my support for what
you guys are doing for the CoCo....Is there anything
I can do to help keep our machine alive? - Marc Fury
(My web site is: delta.edu/(tilde sign)mfury )
----------------------------------------------------
Hi Rick, Thank you for your honest letter. I do
wish you the best of fortune in the future. Enclosed
is for the emulator and CoCoPS. - Michael Snell =>
____________________________________________________
Hello, Please sign me up for this cool society idea.
I've got to support my CoCo in any way I can. I must
say though, I couldn't bear the thought of the
exchange rate, or the cost of sending an American
cheque, so I do hope you'll accept this bit of cash.
I believe it is a left over from some trip to see
the Seattle Mariners lose to the Toronto Blue Jays,
so that must have been a couple of years ago. I know
its a ten dollar bill, they all look so much alike
you people should make them different colors or
something, so maybe you can consider it a late fee
like Steve did, or use it for extra pencils or
something. Either way, it should also help cover the
cost of mailing any news letters to Canada. So, in
the words of my brother-in-law, "HOOK ME UP SPANKY."
- Don Johnson Langley, Canada =>
____________________________________________________
Rick, Put me down as a member of the new Color
Computer Society! - Ron Bull
----------------------------------------------------
Fellow CoCoNut, Enclosed is my check for $15 for the
my own membership/subscription for one year, and ten
for the initial mailing of the CoCoPS newsletter to
all know CoCoNuts (of the Registry). - John D Snell
----------------------------------------------------
----
RICK: Thanks for your messages and membership! I
hope we can make something that will be helpful to
all.
=*
|
We have a winner in the HPRINT FONT EDITOR contest
which was sponsored by Strongware (John Strong).
Jerry Combes is our winner. Congratulations Jerry
and I hope you'll enjoy your copy of HPRINT FONT
EDITOR!
=*
|
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. CFDM is offered only by yearly subscription. Each subscription consists of 4 regular disks issued at 3 month intervals and starts with the September issue for that year. With each issue you will also receive a Bonus disk and a copy of HARDCOPY. The cost for the subscription is $30. Back issues are available for $3 each. Please include $2 s/h on back issue orders. COCOs FOREVER!! =* |
FREE FOR THE PRICE OF S/H I have a number of commercial programs that I have
purchased. I also have a couple of good sized boxes
of "RAINBOW" magazines. If you or anyone interested
in these items will contact me, I will give them
away for the price of shipping. I would like to see
something come of the material. I fear that
eventually I'll have to dump them.
David Wilson
1076 Turquoise Way
Sandy, Utah 84094
Tel: 801-571-4325
=*
|
LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME... I have some hardware that's looking for a new home
and a continuing useful life. I'd send it to anyone
who'd pay shipping charges. Here's a list:
ROM cartridge switchable between RS-DOS 2.0 and
J-DOS (latter for CoCo2 only)
FD-500 SS upright & FD-502 DS flat drives
CM-8 monitor
DMP-107 & TRP-100 printers
I have original packing plus manuals for the monitor
and printers; the others were second-hand.
=>
____________________________________________________
My 64K CoCo2 and 128 CoCo3 might only need video
chips to live again. I would send these in original
boxes, with all manuals, to the right hardware
savant.
Barry J. Mitchel
70 Longview Road
Reading, MA 01867
Tel: 781-944-6228
=*
|
MUCH COCO STUFF FOR SALE! The following is condensed from 4 pages of CoCo
stuff that Richard and MaryAnn Schultz have for
sale. Richard was an early subscriber to CFDM and
even though he is selling these items, he has just
recently rejoined our group! Great having you back!
Call or write: Telephone: 916-965-5306
Richard & MaryAnn Schultz
5204 Schuyler Dr.
Carmichael, CA 95608
Hardware: 1 CoCo3 with 512K memory, 3 CoCo2s, 1 CoCo
disk drive, 1 monitor, 2 multi-paks, 1 TRS80 X pad
model GT116, 3 EDTASM + Editor Assembler w/zbug,
3 Direct Connect Modempaks, 1 Touchpad, 1 DS-69
Clone video grabber, 2 Atori CoCo Joysticks, =>
____________________________________________________
1 Hi-res joystick interface, 3 Hi-res joystick,
1 EPROM programmer, 1 Rascan & book, 1 Floppy drive
controller (also supports Perioral Printer),
1 Stereo Music Synthesizer, 1 Sound Cartridge,
1 Deluxe Program Pak, 1 Deluxe Color Mouse, 1 CoCo
Max2 Cartridge, 4 Plug&Power Programmable modules
(X-10 controllers)
Books: 1 set Rainbow Mags 12/83 thru 12/91 (?)
1 set Hot CoCo Mags 1984 to 1986
1 Color Script Processor Manual
1 Telewriter 64 - manual 1983
1 OS9 Level II book
1 OS9 Guide book
3 Rainbow Book of Adventures
1 Rainbow Adventure Tape =>
____________________________________________________
1 The Sourcerer RSDOS Version - Manual
1 Telewriter 128 - Manual
1 Color Computer Speech/Sound - Book
1 Cash Budget Management TRS80 - Book & Disk
2 Color Compac - Book & Cassette
1 Color Compute III Basic O9 Reference - Book
1 Tandy 1000 Reference Basic Reference Manual
1 Radio Shack TRS80 Library - Binder Book
1 Radio Shack Model III Formation
1 Radio Shack Model 4 Profile 4 Plus
1 Tandy Multi-View - filler book for binder
1 set Tandy Booklet 7A6 - Quick Ref III Basic
1 7A6 - Introducing Your Color Computer 3
1 7A6 - Extended Basic III
4 EDTASM + book
3 Editor Assembler with Zbug cart. =*
|
MUCH COCO STUFF FOR SALE!! PT 2 SOFTWARE: (Games)
1 To Heir is Human, 1 Sub Battle Simulator,
1 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, 1 Rogue,
1 The Dallas Quest, 1 Rocky's Boots, 2 Koronis
Rift, 1 Rescue on Fractalus, 2 GhanaBwana,
2 Pooyan, 1 Ernies Magic Shapes, 2 One on One -
Slam Dunk, 1 Interbank Incident, 1 Flight Sim I,
1 Biosphere, 1 Zone Runner, 1 Springster,
1 Downland, 2 Dungeons and Dragons, 1 Rampage,
1 Rad Warrior, 1 Arkanoid, 1 Silpheed, 1 Androne
(Educational)
2 Investograph, 1 Superkeys Advanced Operating
System, 1 Mostly Basic Interfacing Scientific,
1 EE Ladder Network Analysis, 1 T/S Edit,
1 T/S Spell, 2 T/S Word, 1 Discriptive Stats =>
____________________________________________________
& Regression Analysis, 1 Phantomgraph,
1 Homepublisher, 1 Color Computer Artist
From Walt Disney:
1 Telling Time with Donald, 2 Mickey's World
of Writing, 3 Goofy Covers Government,
1 Math Adventures With Mickey, 3 Donald Ducks
Playground, 3 Winnie The Pooh In the Hundred
Acre Wood
Set of 10 - Microsoft Publishers
1 Superscripsit Lesson 1 (cassette)
1 Superscripsit Lesson 3 (cassette)
1 Superscripsit Lesson 5 (cassette)
=>
____________________________________________________
Call or write: Richard & MaryAnn Schultz
5204 Schuyler Dr.
Carmichael, CA 95608
Tel: 916-965-5306
=*
|
NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT!!! PAC-MAN
A TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT GAME
6809 programming
copyright 1997 by Nickolas Marentes
for the Tandy Color Computer 3 with
512K RAM, Disk Drive and Joystick
Not another Pac-man!
Yes, I know there have been many versions of Pac-man
created for the CoCo but this I belive is the first
version that truly captures much of the graphics,
sound and gameplay of the original classic. I have
created this version firstly as a tribute to the
great game, secondly because I enjoy programming on
the CoCo, thirdly because I feel that the CoCo =>
____________________________________________________
has always been starved of good arcade conversions
unlike other 8-bit computers of the era and fourthly
because I need the money!
Is it legal?
Well, no. I haven't got a license from Namco to
release this game but as I said, I created it as a
tribute. I do not claim to have created Pac-man, nor
designed the graphics or the sound. I simply wrote
the 6809 code for the Color Computer 3. I have not
even seen the original Z-80 code. Any money I
collect will be seen as payment for my time and
effort in the 6809 coding only.
How many do I expect to sell? =>
____________________________________________________
The CoCo has been out of production for many years
now and its active user base has dropped signifi-
cantly since its glory days. I feel a realistic
expectation for any CoCo game would be about 25
copies. 50 copies would be good, 100 would be great.
I believe anything less than 15 would be a dis-
appointment and certainly would not provide the
incentive to spend more time to creat software for
the CoCo. While it's great to program on the CoCo
and support the current active users, we programmers
still have bils to pay and some of us also have a
family to support. It's nice to receive a pat on the
back for good work but a monetary reward is a strong
indicator that one appreciates your work enough to
pay money for it. If the commercial CoCo software
market is to grow again, (See Part 2.) =>
|
NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT PART 2 monetary rewards are important to keep the pro-
grammers motivated.
Pac-man history.
The original Pac-man was created in 1980 by the
Japanese company Namco and licensed in the USA by
Bally/Midway. The game was so successful in Japan
that it actually caused a Yen shortage. Pac-man also
took America by storm appearing in Time Magazine and
spawning a Saturday morning cartoon and a hit song.
Pac-man was one of the first video games to give way
to a mammoth merchandising campaign. Everything from
Pac-man caps, T-shirts, mugs, key rings, board games
and more was released. It was simply HUGE and is now
regarded by many as the greatest video game of =>
____________________________________________________
them all.
Pac-man is a game with no male/female barriers. It's
non-violent and very easy to play using only a 4-way
joystick. At the time, Pac-man introduced a com-
pletely unique style of game play and was highly
identifiable in terms of its music.
The Pac-man idea was inspired by the idea of an
animated pizza who runs around eating things, hence
the round yellow character with a slice like mouth.
Pac-man's name emerged from the Japanese word for
eating, "paku-paku."
How does it compare?
=>
____________________________________________________
I have tried my best to implement as many of the
more subtle features of the original Pac-man game as
possible. The game contains certain characteristics
which a skilled Pac-man player can use to his or her
advantage. I have not copied the originals "ghost
patterns". Instead, I have coded my own algorithm
for the ghost's intelligence but the overall effect
is about the same as the original's. The following
characteristics have been implemented:
* Pac-man goes slower when eating dots and can be
caught by the Ghosts.
* Able to outrun and out manoeuvre a closely
pursuing ghost by taking corners.
(See Part 3.) =*
|
NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT PART 3 * Ghost's speed slows down when travelling through
the warp tunnel.
* Ghosts look and search down corridors to "see" if
you are there.
* All three of the original animated intermission
screens.
* Most of the original graphic and sound effects.
* Ghosts get smarter and become more immune to power
pills as levels increase.
* Faithful reproduction of original maze graphics
with similar aspect ratio. =>
____________________________________________________
Pac-man was written entirely using "UltraEd+" by
Randall Reid...Sound sampling was done using Oblique
Triad's "Sound Studio." All of the graphics were
drawn using an Amiga 1200 running Digital Creation's
"Brilliance" and imported to the CoCo3 as GIF using
"Color Max Deluxe." The computer used was a standard
6809 based CoCo3 with 512K of RAM and 2 standard 35
track 5.25" drives.
Game testing was performed by John Kowalski the
"Sockmaster."
Distribution and Pricing
..a survey...asking how much users were prepared to
pay found a price of around $20 seems reasonable. =>
____________________________________________________
I have decided to release a FREE demo version of
Pac-man that plays only one level...this will be
available via the internet.
The full registered version is available in
Australia for $20AUS: Nickolas Marentes
P.O. Box 2003
Runcorn, 4113
In the USA you may send $20 US in personal check or
money order to: Rick's Computer Enterprise
P.O. Box 276
Liberty, KY 42539
(No copy protection is used.) =*
|
THE COCO REGISTRY IS ... The CoCo Registry is almost complete. At this time I have 500+ 1 or 2 members registered. I want to give everyone one last chance to get in ... so, if you aren't in the Registry, please print out the form from CFDM issue #58 and send it in. I'LL DELAY UNTIL JANUARY 1, 1998 BEFORE CALLING IT COMPLETE. At that time, or very soon thereafter, I'll be send- ing out the final version of the Registry to those who have already ordered. You can have a copy too! If you already have a previous version, just send in the disk to me along with a check or M.O. for $7 and I'll send you the final version. If you have never purchased the Registry before, send a check or M.O. for $12, and I'll send your copy to you. Send to: Registry P.O. Box 276 Liberty, KY 42539 =* |
Assembly Language Programming 7 View text file associated with this article This is the seventh installment of my assembly
language series. For more information about the
series, see CFDM #54 for the first installment.
An important note: I do not guarantee that the
code presented is bug-free. If you find a bug, feel
free to change it. Also, all code presented in this
series is released to the public domain and may
be used freely and/or modified. I do not require
any acknowledgement for its use.
I can be contacted through CFDM or via email at
astler(at)telusplanet.net
To read this installment, use READFILE.BAS to read
PART7.TXT. You will discover that the source code =>
____________________________________________________
for this issue is in the files MACROS.ASM and
MACROS.LST instead of the usual PART7.ASM and
PART7.LST.
=*
|
COCO CHRONICLES 10 (PART 1) The "eyes" have it!! In September Tony Distefano's Color Clinic column featured the eye-saving hardware mod which enabled the CoCo to display green characters on a black screen. Whenever I sit at my machine for hours on end (usually every night), I (eye) thank TONY "D". MOTOROLA released a "souped-up" MC6883 which supposedly allows double-speed operation in the ALL RAM (64K) mode but, it is never marketed. New arrivals for the CoCo include Star-Kits' STAR- DOS, THE TOOLKIT from ARZIN, joysticks from ENDICOTT, Spectrum Projects' "gloom" stick, GAME WRITER from WASHINGTON COMPUTER SERVICES (a $129.00 program that helps write "super-action video => ____________________________________________________ games"), and software from a new company called ANTICO. September's CCN issue (no date on the cover) featured a look at the CoCo's INTERPRET routine in Andy Phelps' Comment Corner column, CCXREF from MIKE DONAHUE, a fine debugging utility used to locate variables in BASIC programs, and the first review of Eigen's THE STRIPPER, a utility which removes spaces, comments and "packs" program lines. The RAINBOW's 106 page September issue made it the BIGGEST CoCo magazine in publication. Besides being their first official "theme" issue (education), and containing a readers survey, the RAINBOW's cover mentions support for the TDP 100 computer... => ____________________________________________________ The TDP was TAndy's first venture at marketing outside Radio Shack stores. The TDP 100, which was rally a CoCo in a white case, was marketed by RCA distributors and would later be found to contain the F-board which would soon start showing up in the CoCo. Speculation was that, the TDP venture would be successful. (I wonder if STEVE ODNEAL made that speculation.) In October, 68 MICRO went on line with its BBS, and Andy Phelps' last Comment Corner appears in CCN. This, for me, marks the beginning of the end of CCN. The RAINBOW, meanwhile, started CHARLIE's MACHINE, a column written by Charles J. Roslund, author of WAR KINGS. (See Part 2.) =* |
COCO CHRONICLES 10 (PART 2) DRAGON LTD.
This British CoCo-clone, had a similar software
design but, featured some major hardware differences
like full-travel keyboard, parallel printer port,
and RGB monitor output. An American version would
be available sometime in 1983.
Messages on COMPUSERVE's COLOR SIG rumored that a
new CoCo magazine would debut in March of 1983, MSB
(the folks who market the KITSZ lowerkit) had
folded, and Radio Shack would market a 64K upgrade
and a MULTIPAK INTERFACE in early 1983.
BASIC TECHNOLOGY markets the first CoCo EXPANSION
INTERFACE plus, a REAL TIME CLOCK/CALENDAR. =>
____________________________________________________
Just in time for Christmas, November releases
include COLOR LOGO and a 4 color GRAPHICS PRINTER
from Radio Shack, Frank Hogg's 5 slot expansion
called THE SOLUTION, and TELEWRITER/64. Other
marketings are DUNKEY MUNKEY from INTELLECTRONICS,
and MONKEY KONG by KEN KALISH of MED SYSTEM
SOFTWARE. Although these are the first two "monkey"
programs, the best is yet to come!
MORE COCO CHRONICLES NEXT ISSUE !!!!
=*
|
Playing with video part 2 View text file associated with this article * This program does not work on the CoCo3 Emulator * Last time I showed a program that changed one color every few scan lines to create a rainbow effect on the screen. This time we'll take the idea further and make some use of it. 64COLOR.BAS is a demonstr- ation of 64 color image display on the CoCo3. The program breaks the 16 color limit by allowing ALL 16 palettes to be changed EVERY scan line of the video display. For a 320X192 screen, that means there are 16X192 (3072) palette changes every video frame! To avoid palette glitches on the screen, we end up having to change the palette values in the blank between each scan line (the time that the video is generating the border around the screen).=> ____________________________________________________ Now that we can generate 64 colors on the screen, what do we do with it? Well, I made two examples - one shows you a chart with all 64 colors on it and the other is a picture that I converted from a JPEG on my PC. Unfortunately, the JPEG format allows pictures with 16 million colors and the CoCo's 64 colors don't come anywhere near that. To keep the shading in the picture looking okay, I had to use dithering. It still looks pretty darn good though! So, we see that 64 colors is BETTER - but it's still quite a bit short when it comes to showing lots of shading. With 64 colors, you only end up with 3 shades of red, blue and green (plus black). Can we do better than that? You bet! There have been numerous tricks used in the past, but the result => ____________________________________________________ wasn't perfect. Most of the time it consisted of flashing multiple images at you in succession, each image drawn a little darker or brighter than the other and your eye would average it out to see more shades of colors. Unfortunately the flickering is very annoying. Next time I will try to demonstrate a 343 color display. (7 shades of red,blue,green 7*7*7=343) This technique will NOT have darker & brighter images flashing at you in succession so it should be free of annoying flicker. I hope so anyways! I haven't written it yet. Check out 64COLOR.BAS for the demo and text file. SHOW64.ASM is the EDTASM source code for those of you who want to experiment with the assembly. RABBIT3.BIN is the picture data and not a program. =* |
USING ART-DELI PICTURES In Issue 58, Ray Watts asked about using Art-Deli
clipart in Max-10. The Art-Deli pictures have an
extension of /ART, but they are actually CoCoMax2
pictures (/MAX). Max-10 accepts pictures in the
/CLP format, which is different. Conversion is easy
using the PIXTRANS/BAS program on the Max-10 disk:
RUN"PIXTRANS" (TRANSML/BIN will be auto-loaded.)
Instructions are available on-screen. Press Y and
<ENTER> to read them or press N <ENTER>.
When you are at the Main Menu with 13 numbered
choices, put the desired Art-Deli disk in drive 0
and a formatted blank disk in drive 1 (if you are
using two drives).
Type 3 <ENTER>. You will see a new set of options.
=>
____________________________________________________
Type 5 <ENTER> (General file type (ANY)). The menu
of the picture disk will be on the screen. Type
the number of the desired clip and <ENTER>. The
picture will be displayed. Press <ENTER>.
You will be given the option to invert the picture.
Type N <ENTER>.
You will be given a new menu of options. <ENTER>
The picture will be shown on the screen in reduced
size. Press <ENTER>.
Back at the Main Menu, if you use two drives, type
13 <ENTER>. You will be given the choice of
destination drive. Type 1 <ENTER>. If you are
using only one drive, skip this step.
At the Main Menu, type 12 <ENTER> to save as /CLP.
A new screen gives you the choice of magnification.
Type 1 <ENTER> and type the desired =>
____________________________________________________
magnification factor (I suggest .5) and <ENTER>.
Type N <ENTER> if you do not want the white
border. Next type the desired MAX-10 filename
(no extension). The picture will be saved to
drive 1 in /CLP format. (If you are using one
drive, put the destination disk in drive 0 before
this last step.)
You will be returned to the Main Menu. You can now
switch to drive 0 and convert another picture in
the same manner.
The conversion procedure is fairly fast. Keep track
of which drive you are on, the picture disk drive
or the drive with the /CLP files. Be sure you
switch to the proper drive before saving.
=*
|
USING ART-DELI PICTURES PART 2 Art-Deli pictures can also be converted to /CM3
with the TRANSLAT/BAS utility on the CoCoMax3 disk.
However, some prelimary steps are required. First,
it is necessary to change the extension of the Art-
Deli picture from /ART to /MAX. (A problem in the
use of the TRANSLAT program with Art-Deli is that
only 16 files are shown on the menu, while each Art-
Deli disk has 22 files. I would recommend you copy
those pictures you wish to convert to a new disk,
then rename them with the /MAX extension. Use this
as your source picture disk.)
RUN"TRANSLAT". A page of instructions will appear.
<ENTER> to get to the Main Menu.
Type 6 <ENTER>. Type 0 <ENTER> to select drive 0.
Press <ENTER>. =>
____________________________________________________
At the Main Menu, type 0 <ENTER>. Type 1 <ENTER>.
Insert the /MAX picture disk in drive 0.
Type 0 <ENTER>.
The menu of the picture disk will be shown. Type
the number of the picture you wish to convert and
<ENTER>.
The selected picture will be displayed briefly. At
the menu, type 0 <ENTER> to save as /CM3.
Type the desired name of the /CM3 picture (No
extension).If you wish to save the /CM3 picture
to another disk, put the new destination disk in
drive 0. <ENTER>. The picture will be saved.
To convert more pictures, put the /MAX picture disk
in drive 0 and repeat the procedure.
=*
|
A Battle Line Drawn
If one was to place a CoCo and PC together in the
same room...would this be a possible conversation
that could take place? I think NOT! Personally
speaking...my PC has helped me interact and enjoy my
CoCo even more!
(You will find Jim's picture on the other side of
this disk.)
=*
|
ADVENTURES OF COCODAWG
Here is my attempt at a cartoon! A little canine humor--Dogs are such jokesters, you know. (You'll find John's cartoon when you RUN the NIBSHOW on the back of this disk.) ---- RICK: When John sent in this picture he asked if there was a way to implement CoCoMAX3 animation with the NIB format. John the program to make that possible is by Stuart Wyss and is found in issue 42. The program is NIB>NIB+. I have converted your submission for this issue. =* |
BETHLEHEM - David's City
I have become perhaps too fascinated with the
idea of finding a text that has some significance
(for me, anyway) and combining it on CoCo Max 3's
screen with a simple, illustrative picture. Taking
into account my limited artistic ability "simple"
has to be the operative word.
In the Bethlehem picture, the Joseph and Mary
figures and the distant Bethlehem skyline are scrap-
book ikons from the CoCo Graphic Designer Plus set
of Christmas pixettes converted to CM3 scrapbook
pictures. The text is from Luke Chapter 2.
(NOTE: Use NIBSHOW.BAS on side 1 of the Bonus Disk
to view Keiran's timely picture.)
=*
|
HERE COMES THE SHOWBOAT
In the late 1800's, the rivers of this country were the main transportation routes for commerce. At the same time, they were used to provide entertain- ment. Boats traveled the waterways, stopping at the cities along the way with musical performances -- hence the name "showboats". (History was not one of my strong points, so don't hold me to the strict accuracy of those statements.) This picture appeared on a placemat at one of the restaurants of the (what else?) Showboat Casino in Atlantic City. Since it was a monochrome print, I had to use my imagination as to what the colors of the original were. Select SHOWBOAT in NIBSHOW. =* |
SMURFS
Since I enjoy working on NIBS (the best thing that ever happened to the COCO World), and giving them action, (another nice program), I am sending in the six "SMURFS" in action. I want to thank a very nice COCO Friend of mine ( Henry Kszepka ), who gave me the Smurfs. I owe him many disks and I hope I can send him some as soon as I feel better. I also want to thank Rick Cooper who sent me such a nice letter yesterday. I do not have a list of the COCONUTS who are still with us, but I hope CFDM gets many new members. HOPING EVERY ONE HAS A NICE "LABOR DAY" ----------- -- Look at the Smurfs with the NIBSHOW.BAS on side 2 of the Bonus Disk. -- HJM 07-25-97 =* |
The Hick Brothers
While yer a-waiting fer thuh files tuh load off yor
CFDM disk, check out thuh wily Hick Brothers....
-----
See what the Hicks are up to on the back of this
disk. RUN NIBSHOW.BAS.
=*
|
VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY
Please use NIBSHOW to view the .NIB pictures on this
month's disk. As you recall, NIBSHOW was featured
in issue #18 and a more complete documentation can
be found there. NIBSHOW is the contribution of our
Friend Stuart Wyss-Gallifent. Thanks Stuart!
After RUNning NIBSHOW, press D for a directory of
the NIB pictures on the disk. Use the arrow keys to
choose a picture and press the spacebar to view it.
Press BREAK to leave the picture. Press X at the
MAIN MENU to exit NIBSHOW.
=*
|
XMASGIFT
The picture is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas
and and to have A Happy New Year.
-----
RUN "NIBSHOW.BAS" on the back of this disk to view
Ben's XMASGIFT.NIB.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| BERTHA
DUPREE DAVE OTIS JOHN D. CLEMONS MOVIN' ON NICKOLAS MARENTES NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 2 NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 3 |
| Back to top |
FAMILY TREE I joined CFDM with a subscription found in the Rain-
bow Magazine. I am retired from the Berkeley Ccunty
School System. I am married, have three daughters,
two son-in-laws, and an eleven year old grandson.
My hobbies are crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery,
and playing the many solitaire games written by
H. Allen Curtis. Many THANKS, Mr. Curtis. You have
helped me fill many hours.
Many thanks to Rick and all others who contribute to
CFDM. I will continue to be a member of the CoCc
Family as long as my CoCc lives on. Are there any
CoCc Friends living near my home?
Bertha DuPree
1072 Beaver Dam Rd. Bonneau, SC 29431 =>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Thanks for your family tree entry Bertha! I
hope others will send theirs in now that you have
led by example.
I'm sorry to report that the last CFDM Friend from
S.C., other than you, was Bill Ratchford of Pacolet
Mills. His last issue was #45.
=*
|
UPDATE My name is David Mekeel Otis. I was born on
August 13, 1923, so I'm getting to be a senior
citizen. I seem to be busier than ever these days.
In addition to two CoCo 3's, I now own a Macintosh,
which is a great and wonderful machine, especially
in the way it handles graphics and photos. I still
love my CoCo 3 and use it for most of my everyday
computing, letter writing, keeping a daily Journal,
etc. My favorite thing to do with the CoCo 3 is
entering and playing music. I use George Quell-
horst's great MUSIC3+ program to enter music in
four-part harmony and play it back with his PLAYER
program. Because I have always liked to sing, I
wrote a SONGBOOK program to display the words to a
song, a verse at a time, while playing the music. I
have recently revised it to make it a little =>
____________________________________________________
easier to use. I am strictly an amateur programmer,
but I can usually manage to make my programs do
what I want them to if I work on them long enough.
Besides SONGBOOK, I have had two other BASIC pro-
grams published in CFDM: WIDE SCREEN DISK MENU
(called M.BAS for short) and my TYPALINE 80 program
(called TL80.BAS for short). There are several ver-
sions, depending on which printer it was written
for: Citizen, Okidata, Tandy or Star).
My other hobbies include motorcycles and an-
tique cars. I have a 1973 Honda 350, a 1982 Suzuki
650, a 1923 Cadillac Victoria and a 1926 Ford Model
T Roadster-Pickup. The Cadillac needs a lot of work
before it will be presentable, but its engine runs
well. The Model T looks and runs fine and I drive
it on tours and parades. It's a fun car and I =>
____________________________________________________
enjoy it a lot. I did a valve job on it last fall
and it takes most hills in high gear now.
I had a valve job myself last March. Aortic
valve, that is. It is now six months since my open
heart surgery and I think I'm completely recovered.
My wife Ann and I have three children and five
grandchildren, all of whom we think the world of.
They live in Texas, Massachusetts and right here in
Montpelier, Vermont.
Dave Otis
21 Valerie Avenue
Montpelier, VT 05602-3748
(802) 223-3190
E-Mail: dotis(at)plainfield.bypass.com =*
|
Updated Tree Hi. Its been a long time since I had anything in CFDM; in fact, its been a long time since I sub- scribed to CFDM. I was one of the early ones to respond to Rick's ad in Rainbow and my sub # was 3-06 (if I remember correctly). I was really excit- ed about CFDM at the time and looked forward to a long association with Rick, but "things happen!" I dropped out after issue 19, bought 3 copies in the thirties, and dropped out again. I missed the fun though and now I'm back for at least three years due to E-mail CFDM. And I'm having fun again! My original Family Tree was way back in issue #4. Not a whole lot has changed since then. Still mar- ried to Kay. Still got four kids (John, Scott, Tara, and Kayla.) I still like to hike and run. ==> ____________________________________________________ I am 5 years older and during this time I got back into Water and Wastewater Treatment. I'm now the Superintendent of a four mgd (millon gallon per day) water treatment plant in the Town of Wytheville, VA. If you wonder where in the World is Wytheville, check out a map of southwestern Virginia. Look for where Interstates 77 and 81 cross. That's Wytheville and my home town is about 15 miles north of there on I-77. If you ever travel up/down I-81, look for the water tank painted like a hot air balloon--that's part of my jurisdiction. My most important interests are my religious faith and my family. While I won't go into religion here, I am willing to discuss it with anyone. Suffice it to say I am Christian, but my beliefs and yours ==> ____________________________________________________ will probably differ greatly. However, something I do believe in is religious freedom and tolerance of all people's beliefs (not just the majority.) I no longer have a "real" CoCo; but I have had the next best thing since it became available--the emu- lator. I've been running it on a 25mhz 486 and a 133 mhz Pentium (at work in my spare time.) I just or- dered a 200mhz MMX--I'm looking to do some serious CoCoing. 8-> If you would like to contact me about anything: John D. Clemons Rt 2 Box 70 Bland, VA 24315 jclemons(a)naxs.com ==* |
MOVIN' ON ...Down the road from Jackson, MS, going west toward
Vicksburg, MS, is a neat little town called Clinton
where I spent some of my happiest days as a freshman
at Mississippi College (Baptist). That was years
ago. Today, World Com is building itself on land
bought from MC. MC and the town of Clinton are
growing and striving toward the (hopefully) "even
better." Clinton has been calling itself a good
place to retire. I agree. But after the chaos of
moving from a home of more than 33 years, 2 cataract
operations, attending to the needs of older
relatives plus two near serious accidents...so much
for retirement. Me? Still just happy to be here!
Frances Farr
Clinton, MS =*
|
NICKOLAS MARENTES (The following autobiography was taken from the web
page of Nickolas Marentes, with his permission. The
address is http://www.launch.net.au/(tilde)stauros/
nickspage/nick.html )
I started programming when I was still in high
school on a Tandy TRS-80 Model 1 with 4 K of RAM and
Level 1 BASIC. Every day after school, I would go
down to the local Tandy store and start "fiddling".
I wrote many BASIC programs and very soon, outgrew
the capabilities of the machine. Eventually, I
convinced my parents to buy me my very own TRS-80
Model 1 with 16K of RAM and Level 2 BASIC. I con-
tinued writing larger and more complex programs,
most of them games.
=>
____________________________________________________
Soon I found that BASIC was proving to be too slow
for creating any real arcade type games and re-
alizing that much greater speed could be achieved
using machine language, I decided it was time to
learn Z-80 assembly language programming.
I tried reading Z-80 books, learning about each of
the Z-80 mnemonics but I couldn't put the pieces
together to create anything usefull. Then one day I
saw a short assembly language listing of a game
called Tennis which was similar to many of the early
"bat and ball" TV games. Seeing the complete program
with each line well documented, I was able to follow
the flow of logic and understand how it all worked.
My first steps into assembly language game pro-
gramming had begun. =>
____________________________________________________
I begun writing a version of the popular arcade
game Frogger. I never finished the game. I got half
way through it and had learned so much about
assembly language programming that I found many of
the routines I wrote could be rewritten more
efficiently. I decided to scrub the Frogger project
and tackle something more adventurous. I ended up
writing several TRS-80 games such as Stellar Odyssey
1 & 2, Neutroid, The Gladiator, Donut Dilemma and
Escape Zone.
By this time, the TRS-80 was beginning to show its
age. All other systems on the market had color and
high resolution graphics. I had to move on. I looked
at several machines...in the end I chose the TRS-80
Color Computer. (See Part 2.) =*
|
NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 2 I quickly learned how to program in 6809 assembly
language and wrote 2 commercial programs, Donut
Dilemma and Neutroide 2. Donut Dilemma was later
picked up by Tandy Electronics here in Australia and
bundled with a CoCo Christmas package.
The 6809 was a very nice CPU to program, certainly
better than the Z-80. What I did find disappointing
with the Color Computer was its limited color
capability. Compared to what other machines on the
market were creating, the Color Computer's graphics
looked quite bland. With only 2 colors in high-res
or 4 in medium-res and very limited ability to
choose the colors used, all CoCo games began having
a very similar look. Artifacted colors where
becoming popular with many US developed games but =>
____________________________________________________
here using the PAL video system, artifacting doesn't
work as effectively. Instead, we get a rather ugly
green and purple banding effect.
In 1986, Tandy released the CoCo3 and my prayers
were answered. I immediately bought the first unit
to arrive at my local store. The improved colors,
resolution and speed was just what I had been wait-
ing for. I immediately began to learn its inner
secrets and created Rupert Rythym and Space
Intruders of which Tandy also picked up and sold in
their stores. Game Point Software in the US also
became a distributor for a short while.
I also dabbled with a bit of hardware development
and along with my friend David Meiklejohn, =>
____________________________________________________
created the Rascan Video Digitizer which I later
renamed to the DigiScan Video Digitizer.
I decided my next CoCo3 game was to be designed to
fit in a 32K cartridge and began working on Cosmic
Ambush. The Tandy decided to do the dirty and
discontinued the CoCo. I was left with an unmarket-
able game and I was so depressed I shelved it. Six
months later I brought it out of the archives to
show a friend and my interest to finish it grew. I
finished it and released it as shareware. Unfort-
unately only one copy ever got registered for the
sum of $10. I decided, it was time to say goodbye
to the CoCo world.
(See Part 3.) =*
|
NICKOLAS MARENTES PART 3 Then 12 months ago I realized that something was
missing in the computer industry today. Within this
industry of WinTel PC's and Apple Macs, the concept
of a home hobbyist computer was lost. No one was
programming except for work related projects. Every-
one was buying canned software and not really
interested in learning how their computers worked.
Magazines were filled with product reviews and
industry hype. It seemed that everything had become
so corporate. Creating a new product became so
competitive with large companies spending thousands
even millions of dollars to create a new program.
The days of the bedroom programmer were gone.
I retrieved my CoCo3 from storage and set it up
again. I looked on the internet and located =>
____________________________________________________
several Color Computer related pages. I e-mailed
with other CoCo users around the world and I then
remembered the fun of the good old days. What I
found most astounding was that I was not alone and
that other prominant CoCo people such as Steve Bjork
were also back into the CoCo scene. I discovered new
CoCo users who were still actively developing games
for the CoCo3 such as Chet Simpson and John
"Sockmaster" Kowalski.
I decided I'd give it another go and decided to
create another program. Nowadays, I don't have as
much time as I use to for programming but in my
spare time, I thought I could create just one more.
If it proves popular, I may do another. There is
still hope for the CoCo! =>
____________________________________________________
...still hope indeed! Check out the description of
Nickolas' new project and ad in the ADVERTISEMENTS.
Welcome back Nickolas!
=*
|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| COCO
PRESERVATION SOCIETY EMAIL CFDM, an idea whose time.. OS9 etc. after 12/31/99? PLEASE REMEMBER... |
| Back to top |
COCO PRESERVATION SOCIETY One of the most exciting things to come out of Ron
Bull's Pennsylvania Fest is CoCoPS. That's the
initialism for "The Color Computer Preservation
Society." During a round table discussion several
of the attendees agreed that one of the things most
needed in keeping the CoCo Community alive was an
organization that all CoCoists could join that would
provide unity to ALL segments of the community. In
short CoCoPS will provide a two page communication
on a quarterly basis to all who join. The cost is
$5.00 per year and can be paid to Rick Cooper at our
regular address ( P.O. Box 276 Liberty, KY 42539 ).
Steve Bjork, Allen Huffman, and Scott Griepentrog
have agreed to be co-editors for the first year.
Rick Cooper is treasurer and publisher for =>
____________________________________________________
the first year. Scott is in the process of setting
up a CoCoPS web page and email address. The email
address is cocops(at sign)stg.net. The web page is
http//stg.net/cocops. You can send messages to the
email address.
Now let's talk a little turkey!! For years now WE
have dedicated a portion of our time and finances to
keep CFDM and the CoCo alive. I've never printed
harsh words about those who "live in" the CoCo world
and yet never support any of its groups (and there's
plenty other than CFDM). But now I'm ready to deride
anyone who calls themselves a CoCoist, if they do
not support this nonprofit entity that has been
established to strengthen the community. Watch for
such statements on the CoCo list and other avenues=>
____________________________________________________
that I can find to spread the word.
I hope my friends in CFDM will join the CoCoPS and
give their support to it's efforts. We have a great
opportunity to help our community grow!!
=*
|
EMAIL CFDM, an idea whose time.. I've recently been letting people know that we are
prepared to offer an email subscription to CFDM via
their internet email address. This will be quite a
bargain to some and will also be helpful in keeping
CFDM strong. Here's how it works.
Our stated goal is to keep CFDM going for 3 years,
so, for $30.00 you can subscribe to CFDM for 3 years
via your internet email address. That's right, 12
issues over the next 3 years for the regular price
of one year's subscription. Please note that you
will not receive HARDCOPY nor any disks through the
postal service. The files you receive will be in
the CoCo3 emulator .DSK format. You'll need a PC
and the emulator to read them.
=>
____________________________________________________
Now for those who have already paid for their CFDM
subscription for the next year, you can trade your
present subscription for the email subscription at
the low, trade-in cost of only $10.00. (That will
help offset the cost of the two issues, that you
have already received, which have already had the
postage, mailer, disk, etc paid for.) I hope you
will find this a fair deal.
Not only will this help your finances, but we will
be able to save on the already scarce supply of
flippies. And it will cut down on duplication of
disks, losses through postal destruction, and it
will even speed up delivery time!!
Consider making CFDM email your new choice!! =*
|
OS9 etc. after 12/31/99? Some operating systems and utilities for CoCo, like OS9, MULTIVUE and Deskmate, begin by requiring the user to enter the date in the form mm/dd/yy. But if users hope to continue using software like these in 2000 AD and thereafter, then there may be disap- pointment in store for them. The software will ass- ume that all dates fall in the period 1900-1999. If I enter mm/dd/yy as 1/1/00 on January 1, 2000, that will give me January 1, 1900. Sadly, somebody blundered, and no provision was made for expressing years in four digits: thus, 1997 instead of 97. I understand that this applies to a whole range of PCs and their applications as well and that the publishers of a lot of very expensive PC software are worrying about the costs of rectifying the mis- take. Anybody know: what's the word from Tandy? =* |
PLEASE REMEMBER... In our effort to accomodate the members of CFDM and
the CoCo Community, we usually include the ads and
requests for assistance at no charge in our issues.
It might be that those that ask requests don't
always know "from whence their help cometh." Please
tell those that you contact as a result of "seeing
it in CFDM," that you saw it here. THANKS!
Also, I know that many of you see entries in CFDM
that don't actually ask you to react, but if you see
someone asking for help or even just a word of
support in some way, please take it upon yourself to
do that act of kindness by sending them a card or
letter. THANKS!!
=*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| KUDOS
(i59) LETTER FROM RICK SPECIAL FAVOUR SPECIAL THANKS TO KEIRAN KENNY THE CFDM/COCO BROADCAST... |
| Back to top |
KUDOS (i59) A great thanks goes out to the 35 people listed here who have contributed to this issue of CFDM. William Astle, Norm Barson, Ray Berney, Clarence Bowers, Ron Bull, John Clemons, H Allen Curtis, Jim Davis, Bertha Dupree, Frances Farr, Marc Fury, Luis Tanon Garcia, Glenside CoCo Club, Jerry Hoover, Don Johnson, Keiran Kenny, John Kowalski, Nickolas Marentes, Gordon Matthews, Esther Milliard, Barry Mitchel, Harold Moenich, Jim Noah, Dave Otis, Chris Perrault, George Quellhorst, Muriel Rosenfeld, Alfredo Santos, Richard Schultz, John Snell, Michael Snell, Ben Walker, Ray Watts, David Wilson, and Stuart Wyss-Gallifent. PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND IN YOUR COCO CREATIONS!! =* |
LETTER FROM RICK Welcome to issue #59 of CFDM. This is a very good
issue and I hope a turning point to stronger issues
of our favorite CoCo publication! Here's some of
the things you'll find in this issue:
- A little more assembly language from William Astle
and John Kowalski (the SOCKMASTER). Be sure and
check out John's 64 color pictures for the CoCo!
- Some BASIC artwork from H Allen Curtis and some
more great graphics from Ray Berney, Jim Davis,
Keiran Kenny, Ben Walker, Harold Moenich, Norm
Barson, and John Clemons.
- Programs from Ray Berney, Keiran Kenny, and John
Clemons. =>
____________________________________________________
- Music from Dave Otis and Harold Moenich.
- The latest version of the CFDM Index!
- Introductions to a new CFDM Editor, Nickolas
Marentes, and the latest quality CoCo software he
has just announced to the CoCo market place.
- Re-intro to an old CFDM Friend, John Clemons...
Welcome back John!!
I hope that you will take the time to really dig in
to this issue of CFDM. Let's rekindle the flame by
increasing our participation...please write me and
let me know what you think....LET'S GET ACTIVE!! =>
____________________________________________________
THIS MONTH'S HOLY SCRIPTURE
But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou
hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by in-
spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
thoughly furnished unto all good works.
- II Timothy 3:14-17
=*
|
SPECIAL FAVOUR For over a year now I had been vaguely aware that
one of our faithful friends, Vic Kell, had not been
making his presence known as he had so often in the
previous years. I made a call to a former CFDM
Friend who lives in his town to inquire about Vic.
It seems Vic has moved into a nursing home and no
longer has access to his "warehouse collection" of
CoCos. I'm sure Vic would be very comforted to
hear from some of his CFDM friends. Following is
a letter a received from Vic recently and his
current address. I hope many of you will take a few
minutes and write to him. Thanks!! - Rick
=>
____________________________________________________
(Here's Vic's letter.)
Dear Rick,
I'm having my wife write this as I'm not able to.
Thank you for the nice card. I enjoyed hearing from
you. I've been hear for 2 years and will be going
to King soon so write to me at:
1509 W. College
Appleton, WI 54914
My wife will see that I get it. The veterans home
will sure be better than here and I'll give you my
new address when I get there. There's nothing much
they can do for me, so I'll be at King awhile.
Thank you for your concern and your card. God Bless
You. Your friend, Vic =*
|
SPECIAL THANKS TO KEIRAN KENNY Just a short entry to relate to those of you who
have been (and continue to be) so faithful in your
contributions to CFDM. There are many of you and
I'll not mention all your names...but here's to one
who has been very prolific for many years in the
CoCo Community ... Keiran Kenny of the Netherlands.
I don't believe Keiran will ever run out of ideas
and I look forward to seeing what he will come up
with next! Thanks Keiran!
In this issue you'll find a Christmas graphic and
a directory printing program. There was another on
the disk, MICRODIR.BAS, but the CFDM entry had been
glitched. Maybe Keiran still has a copy and will
send it in with his next disk.
=*
|
THE CFDM/COCO BROADCAST... If you have been one of those few who have been
listening to the CFDM/COCO broadcast, I'm sure you
have noticed that the message has not changed in
quite some time. There is a reason for that...
The CFDM/COCO broadcast was created and made
possible by a special "long-distance platform" that
I purchased earlier this year. The startup cost was
$300 and then I spent $100 for an extra 500 minutes
of platform time. In September I called my number
to make a new message and I heard a message to call
customer service. It seems that the original
company had gone out of business and that in order
to use my platform and remaining time, I now had to
sign on for a monthly usage payment. So until and
if ever that situation is resolved I have no =>
____________________________________________________
way of continuing the "broadcast."
My apologies to all who have "tuned in."
=*
|
ANOTHER FRIEND GONE... I recently received this letter from the widow of
our friend Bill Rosenfeld.
Dear Rick,
I know you were a good friend of my husbands,
Bill Rosenfeld. Bill passed away a year ago and
with him went all our interest in the computer.
I know he would have been a supporter of anything
you did and I too wish you the best of luck in
your many endeavors.
Very sincerely,
Muriel Rosenfeld
300 Edwards St.
Roslyn Hts, NY 11577 =*
|
Borrowed pictures, etc. As I confessed in the text for BETHLEHM/NIB, I
often use pixettes from the CoCo Graphic Designer
Plus sets to compensate for my own lack of artistic
ability. I hope you do not mind this and that you
will warn me if there are any copyright objections
involved.
I guess BETHLEHM will arrive too late for the
December disk, but maybe you will be able to use
it the issue of December 1977.
The directory label on this disk was done with
CONDNDIR. The listing in this submission is an en-
hanced version of one that I have used for a long
time.
----
RICK: I very much doubt that using the clips =>
____________________________________________________
would cause much of a squall today. Maybe more of
a feeling of wonderment and glow by the programmer/
distributor if by any chance they might see it!!!
=*
|
EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS Hi Rick!
I'm still hangin' in there. I recently acquired an
older "286," which I'm learning to use. Next comes
the CoCo 3 Emulator to keep me "CoCoing" into the
21st century (in case my CoCo drives give up).
Continued success!
Your Friend,
Gordon Matthews
415 South Drive
St. Eleanors, PEI
Canada C1N 3Z3
=>
____________________________________________________
(Written on a CoCo Registry form) "Need another 512K
CoCo3, preferably a complete system with drives and
everything. My CoCo3 recently died so I need another
one until I can repair it. Seems to be 512K memory
board. I get the display screen but no message. I
know about the emulator, but I would like a real
CoCo3. That will leave my 2 Pentiums for other
things. Hope you or someone can help!
Luis E. Tanon Garcia
Los Arios de Suchville Apt 217
Guaynabo, PR 00969
Tel: 787-277-9419
email: letanon(atsign)prtc.net
=>
____________________________________________________
(And a sad one...)
Rick,
Please cancel the rest of my subscription to CFDM.
My system has given up and I can't seem to find out
what the trouble is. I'm changing to a Word
Processor for this kind of thing. It is about all
I've been using it for lately anyway!
I've really enjoyed my years of being a member of
CFDM and my contact with all the nice people. I hope
CFDM has more good years. I also wish Health and
Happiness for You and Your Family. - Esther Milliard
111 Windy Hgts Rt 4, Camden, NC 27921
=*
|
I WAS THERE!!... Hi Rick,
Mea culpa, mea culpa, etc.. etc.!!! Of all the
people to forget investing in the CoCo Preservation
Society, I must be the champion! With three CoCo
systems on the line and no ability (or care) to
operate a PC clone, I should have been first in line
to join. And I was present at the creation! Enclosed
is $5.00 to remedy that situation.
Also enclosed is an additional $12.00 for the 4th(?)
(latest) edition of the CoCo Registry when it is
ready. Am having a little difficulty updating the
Registry records. The enclosed list of my systems
might help explain why. Also have 2 CoCo-2's with
B/W tv, 2 SSDD drives and software that could =>
____________________________________________________
still be connected up. I never throw anything out!
In a letter to Norm Barson, who has been a great
help since I joined CFDM, I explained the difficulty
I've had in finding ways I could contribute to the
CoCo community through your publication. Your
coverage is heavy on graphics and DECB programming.
I don't have much talent for the former and most of
the latter has been technical (underwater acoustics
& electronics). I do have a number of simple(?!?)
hardware mods and projects, some of which show up
in systems description, if the readers might be
interested. If so, please let me know.
- Ray Watts
P.O. Box 574 Niantic, CT 06357 =>
____________________________________________________
Telephone: 860-739-9729
----
RICK: Hi Ray! It was great meeting you in PA and
I'm really excited to have you as a part of the CFDM
group! Please feel free to send in descriptions of
any of your projects. Parts of our material is of
interest to only certain of us...but we are a group
of diverse interests, and I'm sure your work is of
interest to at least some of our Friends.
=*
|
LA BELLE LUCIE REVISITED In CFDM issue #58, Robert Bruhl wrote in a little
fix to the wonderful game, "La Belle Lucie". Robert
referred to this as an H Allen Curtis game...but it
really was the production of one of our other editor
friends, George Quellhorst.
Robert's "fix" caused letters from both H Allen and
George. H Allen said, "In 'La Belle Lucie Revisited'
of 'Potpourri', Robert E. Bruhl credited me with
writing the excellent 'La Belle Lucie' solitaire
program. That honor belongs to George Quellhorst.
His solitaire programs, that appeared in the early
issues of CFDM, inspired me to try my hand at
writing my first solitaire game programs."
(Here we must pause to thank George for inspiring =>
____________________________________________________
H Allen, for he has surely programmed a great
selection since those early days!)
Next I received an email from George in which he
reminded me that he was indeed the author of La
Belle Lucie. George also explained that there isn't
really a miscue in the program. "In the final
version, the break key is ENABLED with a poke before
the instruction "Press break to quit" is printed to
the screen...and disabled again when the letter N is
pressed."
So...I hope this will settle all questions and mis-
understandings which may have arisen. I should also
tell you that all the talk about La Belle Lucie
caused me to "go find it" again in CFDM #12, =>
____________________________________________________
and spend considerable time "trying to see the end-
of-game screen" which only comes when you win. I'll
also admit that I never did get to see it...but
really enjoyed reliving the game!!
Thanks to all who participated!!
- Rick
=*
|
LOOKING FORWARD TO EMULATOR ! Upon renewing his subscription to CFDM and ordering
the emulator, Jim Noah writes:
Sorry I let my subscription lapse, but I tend
to let things go in my old age!
I'm making the leap to a new PC setup in the
next few days and hope the emulator will help
in the transfer.
Best Wishes,
Jim Noah
P.S. Once I get on the net, I'll sign up for the
3 year Email CFDM.
=*
|
RAINBOW MAGS AND DISKS TO SHARE Dear Rick,
I have a large quantity of Rainbow magazines and the
original disks of the programs I am willing to share
with anyone that wants them. I hate to destroy them
if anyone can use them.
All I ask is that the persons that want them pay the
shipping. My phone is 440-352-1216 and I'm located
in Northern Ohio.
I intend to continue with CFDM until my subscription
runs out as I have enjoyed the great programs and
data you have provided. I'm fearful we are reaching
the point of no return for you and know you must
keep this operation as a viable business. =>
____________________________________________________
Thank you for your assistance.
Yours very truly,
Clarence Bowers
44 Wilmington Drive
Painesville, OH 44077-1626
----
RICK: Thanks for your generous offer Clarence. I'm
betting you'll be hearing from someone soon!
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| EYE
SURGERY My Novel SONGBOOK revised THINGS I REMEMBER TWO SONGS |
| Back to top |
EYE SURGERY My doctor said that cataract surgery is now one of
the easiest of all. But I could remember when I was
a child going to New Orleans with my mother to take
care of my grandmother when she had surgery. We had
made reservations for a room at a house near the
hospital weeks in advance. Grandmother had to lie on
her back for many hours after the surgery with sand
bags bracing her head so that she couldn't move.
Even the slightest move could mean disaster. For
many days mobility was limited. I wondered then if I
could endure such an ordeal, and decided that I
couldn't.
Cataracts are inherited in some families, although
almost anyone can have them. But because of modern
advances I didn't have to endure what my grandmother
and other relatives did when my turn came. Due =>
____________________________________________________
to other causes, I am not one of those who didn't
need glasses after surgery. But the world has become
a much clearer and brighter place.
So I would like to leave a word of encouragement
to those who dread cataract surgery. Long gone are
the days of sandbags. A dental appointment can cause
more stress, and there is very little chance of poor
results. Implants can be a part of what seems to be
a modern miracle. I wnet home the same day, and
could read after the bandages were removed the next
day after a week. During recovery time of about a
month, I could do almost anything I pleased. That
includes enjoying my Color Computer.
Frances Farr
Clinton, MS =*
|
My Novel 09-02-1997
My PC's power module died yesterday, but after
scrounging around my vast junkpile of electronic
parts, I built a replacement power supply. It's a
lot bigger, but it works and that's the point.
I'm up to 335 pages and it looks like it'll end at
340 pages. I've sent away for the 1998 Writer's
Guide, which has all the pertinent information I
need to properly submit my manuscript to the right
publisher. In the 1997 copy, most publishers state
the actual publish time is anywhere from 6 months to
2 years after the acceptance date of the manuscript.
I would like to thank everybody thru CFDM that has
helped me in my effort to write this novel. I =>
____________________________________________________
still have a ways to go, such as writing my synapsis
of the book, the individual proposal letters to the
submissions editors and proofreading the submission
sample chapters. One mistake and my 14 months of
work will be so much recyled paper.
=*
|
SONGBOOK revised View text file associated with this article My SONGBOOK program was published in two issues
of CFDM, #50 and #53, along with several songs in
each issue: Gypsy Rover, Santa Lucia and We Gather
Together in #50 and A-Roving, Derby Ram, Robin Hood
and Blest Be the Tie That Binds in #53. I have now
revised the program a little, which I think will
make it a bit easier to use and less confusing. As
before, when you RUN "SONGBOOK.BAS" it displays a
Menu showing all the BIN files on the disk. On my
own music disks all the BIN files are MUSIC3+ files
created by George Quellhorst's great MUSIC3+ pro-
gram, but if there are other BIN files on the disk
(non-music) don't try to load them into SONGBOOK!
Move the cursor to the song you want to play and
press P (for Play). The program loads a MUSIC3+ BIN
file and then a TXT file with the same name. =>
____________________________________________________
When it has finished loading both files, it dis-
plays a new screen with three lines of instructions
at the top, a row of stars and five lines with the
full title of the song, its writer and composer (if
known) and the name of the CoCoist who transcribed
the music. After playing the music once, it then
displays the words, one verse at a time, as the mu-
sic plays. The song can be interrupted, if desired,
at the end of any verse, by pressing and holding
<BREAK> just before the end of the music for that
verse. The PREVIOUS version had some rather con-
fusing screen flipping between the first playing
and the display of the first verse. Also, the in-
structions now shown at the top of the screen were
visible only before the first verse was displayed,
which could be baffling to a new user! =>
____________________________________________________
The MUSIC3+ program allows you to transcribe
music in four part harmony and save it to disk as
a BIN file. That program will also play the music.
The PLAYER program, also by George Quellhorst, will
play the music more conveniently, though. Any MUS-
IC3+ BIN file can be played by SONGBOOK, as well,
but its real purpose is to display the words so you
can sing along if you would like to.
Any word processor program that can save its
output as TXT files can be used to make a file of a
song's words so they can be displayed by SONGBOOK.
The spacing is critical: the top five lines are for
the title of the song, names of author, composer,
transcriber. Verse 1 is line 7-19, 2nd 20-33, etc.,
following the pattern of any SONGBOOK TXT file.
(See Bonus Disk Side #1 for SONGBOOK & songs.) =*
|
THINGS I REMEMBER I am interested in Buck Carden's recollection of
an old poem. I remember it as a novelty song sung
by Perry Como sometime during his many years on TV.
The most I can remember of the song is of my state..
"What did Missi sip? She sipped a Minnesota."
This next one may be a little mixed up...
"What did Tennessee? I don't know Alaska."
and "What did Arkansas...?" "Where has Oregon?"
The song was sung by others on occasions. I hope
someone can recall the all the words.
Frances Farr
Clinton, MS
=*
|
TWO SONGS Since I like to transcribe songs, and since Rick
made up such a nice program for two songs, I just
had to take advantage and "get into the act" as
they say. Thanks Rick.
I thank all of my CoCo friends, but my hat goes off
to Henry Kszepka for his kindness -- KUDOS, HENRY.
On my last entry I asked for help, since I now have
a "SPEECH/SOUND" PAK but do not have a manual, text,
or docs. On the "COCO REGISTRY" I noted that 27
CoCoNUTS have the PAK! Please, someone help me, as I
want to get started on this project.
I gave my e-mail address but have a problem showing
it on this "ENTRY WRITER" since the "AT" key shows
a display at the top of the page!
e-mail address : moen1 webtv.net -- "AT" sign goes
in between 1 and w. FAX ADDRESS : 412-373-1309 =>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Sorry about the at key sign! Harold's music
can be found on the back of this disk. RUN MUSIC.BAS
and make your choice.
=*
|
| Articles in section: PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH |
| A
novelty/timewaster program CONDNDIR: DIR for CFDM subs Dido & Fido NEW SOCKMASTER DEMOS!! STOCKS The Magic Screen |
| Back to top |
A novelty/timewaster program I started this silly program as a possible CoCo 3 copy of Jeff Vavasour's PC COCO 3 EMULATOR. But I got sidetracked and worked on my manuscript, so this program never got very far. However, I did jazz it up enough to let you enjoy what I have done. There are 13 MS-DOS commands this program understands: CLS - Clears the screen (REAL) DIR - Directory of disk in MS-DOS format (REAL) CHKDSK - Checks the disk (SEMI-REAL) TIME - Reports a time, allows input (FAKE) DATE - Reports a date, allows input (FAKE) FORMAT - Formats a disk (FAKE) LABEL - Allows for a label of the disk (FAKE) VERIFY - Turns verification ON or OFF => (REAL) ____________________________________________________ VER - Returns "RS-DOS 2.1" (FAKE) VOL - Returns a Volume name (FAKE) MEM - Returns a report of memory usage (SEMI-REAL) TREE - States what the pathway is (FAKE) CHCP - Change code page (FAKE) You can also input the drive (A: to D:) A: is DRIVE 0, B: is 1, C: is 2, D: is 3. Any attempt to go past D: is met with an error message. Trying to access a drive with no disk in it gets you another error message. This program falls under the catagory 'FLUFFWARE'. Enjoy it at your own risk. (You'll find FRONT.BAS on the back of this disk.) =* |
CONDNDIR: DIR for CFDM subs After I complete a CFDM submission disk, I stick a label on the disk showing the contents: programs, pictures, texts etc. CONDNDIR will print a directory in my DMP130A's condensed font (17 c.p.i.). Line 30 contains the printer codes for 2400 baud and conden- sed font. Change these to suit your printer if nec- essary. Line 10 checks if the printer is turned on and there you stay until you turn it on. As prompted, imsert your disk, give it a name or number and enter the number of columns for the dir- ectory. Four columns will fit neatly across a disk. After the directory has been printed, the eleven "C" menu items from ACTIVE COCO to QUESTIONS & ANS- WERS are printed on the screen. Follow the footnote and input 3,1 if you have one text saved under ART- ICLES OF THE MONTH; 9,2 for two PROGRAMS OF THE => ____________________________________________________ MONTH and so on. Each item is printed as you enter it. Ennter 0,0 when you are done. Press any key to add your name and address. You can install your own name and address instead of mine in lines 360 to 390. Omit line 390 if you only need three lines. Clip your printout neatly along the right edge of the text and glue it onto your disk so that it does not intrude on the center holes. Press BREAK when the "C" menu appears if you just want a directory and no menu items. Similarly, press BREAK at the prompt if you do not want to print your name and address. ( CONDNDIR.BAS is located on side 1 of the Bonus Disk.) =* |
Dido & Fido The title characters, Dido and Fido, represent
two programs, GIRL and DOG, respectively. Both are
studies in large object animation using BASIC
without any machine language enhancements.
The BASIC drawn figures were copied from clip art
by two anonymous artists. In each study in addition
to the animated figure there are six images which
when "riffled through" produce motion.
=*
|
NEW SOCKMASTER DEMOS!! John Kowalski (the Sockmaster) emailed his demo of
how to display 64 colors (and a sample picture) on
the CoCo3 screen (see Articles of the Month). With
it he mentioned that if I had any sample PC pictures
that I would like him to transfer to send them.
Well...a few years ago I was dappling around with a
PC program called PICTURE PUBLISHER and an art book
by the noted tv artist Bob Ross. I was rather amazed
at what even I could do with this combination of art
tools! My two attempts produced ROSSOVAL and SUN256.
For those interested I used the oil tools in the
program to get the resulting pictures.
I have also been interested in trying to move the
pictures to the CoCo, but due to the picture =>
____________________________________________________
format, of which I knew nothing, and their being PC
pictures, of which I know little, I had not been
able to transfer them.
John evidently has no such hangups. By the next day
he had returned them in his 64 color CoCo format. He
even improved the original format by putting them in
executable .BIN files.
As John pointed out, they have lost some detail, but
the results are still interesting, at least to me!
The two pictures are located on side 1 of the bonus
disk (Bonus Disk #21). To view them just type:
LOADM "SUN256":EXEC (and press ENTER) and
LOADM "ROSSOVAL":EXEC (and press ENTER) =>
____________________________________________________
Thanks John! I've really enjoyed seeing my PC art
on the CoCo screen. Reminds me of how I felt when I
first saw the CoCo's RGB colors on a TV screen. That
was at the first Rick's Picnic. Stuart and Jeff V.
used a PC, TV, CoCo emultor, and the AVERKEY program
to make that happen.
=*
|
STOCKS Have you ever wanted to see why the stock market has climb so astronomically in the past year? This small Simulation will provide an inkling of how it's done. 32 diverse companies are assigned fixed, but different prices and the stocks are randomly increased or decreased. Sometimes the stock's price won't change at all. For the purposes of speed and simplicity, price changes are limited to 20 cents in either direction. All of the stocks are listed and updated. At the bottom of the list is the total of the market as well as the daily change. And how many days has progressed for far. I think you'll agree with the opening statement. Enjoy at your own risk. (STOCKS.BAS is on the back of this disk.) =* |
The Magic Screen This small program is based on a magic illusion I
saw David Copperfield do a long time ago. Like all
"magic" the less said about it the better. But re-
member, if you run the program more than once, the
fairy dust wears off. ;-)
To run, type:
RUN "MAGCSCRN"
(This program is located on the back of this disk.)
=*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| ART-DELI E-mail CFDM |
| Back to top |
ART-DELI Art-Deli by Specialty Projects of Memphis, TN, is
a collection of clipart. The package consists of 10
flippie disks with 22 pictures per side -- 440 in
all. The subjects are Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Christmas I and II, Travel, Pets, Sports, Funny
Sports, Summer, Spring, People I and II, Food,
Winter, New Year, Easter, Valentine, Patriotic,
Creative Art and Miscellaneous. Also included is a
small spiral-bound book showing all the pictures --
but, there are NO instructions!
The pictures are in the PMODE4 format with an ex-
tension of /ART (I assume this was done to avoid any
conflict with other extensions associated with copy-
righted graphics programs), but they are the equiva-
lent of CcCoMax2 /MAX pictures. =>
____________________________________________________
The black-and-white pictures are digitized from
original artwork. When examined closely, the pic-
tures look a little crude, probably due to the
digitizing process. This, however, does not make
them any less useful. By renaming the pictures with
the extension /MAX, they can be loaded directly into
CoCoMax2. And, with translation programs, they can
be converted to /CM3 and /CLP for CoCoMax3 and
MAX-10, respectively (See "Using Art-Deli pictures"
in Articles of the Month).
I have used these pictures primarily to make color
letterheads for my Christmas letters. I convert the
desired picture to the CoCoMax3 format, then edit
the lines and add color. I also made good use of the
Art-Deli pictures when Rick asked me to come up =>
____________________________________________________
with graphics to head the sections of PCFDM. If you
are into newsletters or just want to dress up your
letters, using these pictures with MAX-10 works
great.
A minor annoyance is that the pictures do not have
names, just numbers. That is why the accompanying
book of pictures is useful. Also, each disk has a
program for viewing the pictures.
There is also available a second set, Art-Deli II,
with the subjects Kid Sports, Baby Animals, Animated
Favorites 1 and 2, Birds, Ducks, Shapes, Road Signs,
Boats and Cars (220 more pictures). For those of us
who like graphics, this clipart is a treasure trove.
=*
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E-mail CFDM Having been one of the early subscribers to CFDM, I was one of those that believed that CFDM was the greatest CoCo tool since Rainbow and that I would be around for as long as CFDM lasted. Alas, that was not to be! Frustration with a rapidly declining sys- tem, interest in faster and faster PCs, and personal obligations all built up and I dropped out after is- sue 19. That didn't end my involvement with the CoCo though. I continued doing some work with it. I came back for three issues in the thirties. As soon as the emulator became available, I ordered it, but was disappointed when programs like CoCo Max III didn't run on it. I became a CoCo bystander, vicariously checking up on it through the Internet where there are many great CoCo sites, including CFDM's site. And that is where things stood until three ==> ____________________________________________________ things occured. First, Jeff Vavasour sent the up- dated version of the emulator that would run CoCo Max III; second, Harold Moenich contacted me about a couple of things and sent some examples of things he had done for CFDM and again piqued my interest (thanks Harold!); and last but not least, Rick sent out a mailing to wayward former CFDMers that includ- ed an offer for E-mail CFDM. Having no working CoCo, an untrustworthy 5-1/4" drive on my PC, and yet having the emulator and an Internet account, this seemed like a perfect way to come back and see what I had been missing. And that it has proven to be. For the same amount as a one year sub (with HardCopy), E-mail subscribers get 3 years worth of CFDM (no HardCopy). The *.dsk ==> ____________________________________________________ file comes as a zipped attachment to an E-mail note from Rick. Saving and unzipping the file, leaves you with an emulator *.dsk file which can be used di- rectly with the emulator or, if you are fortunate enough to have both a PC and a working CoCo, can be transfered to a regular CoCo disk. I like using E- mail CFDM with the emulator, because on a fast PC, graphics, the magazine, etc. appear on the screen almost immediately, for instant gratification. While E-mail CFDM is economical for the customer, it might not be so apparent that it is also for Rick, since he doesn't have to cover the cost of 2 disks, the HardCopy, the mailer and postage. It is also envi- ronmentally friendly. I recommend E-mail CFDM to anyone who has the capabilities to get and use it. It's great to be getting CFDM again! ==* |
| Articles in section: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS |
| C,
C++, AND EMULATOR UPDATES? EDTASMIII WITH EMULATOR? IS THERE A SUPPORT GROUP? LOOKING FOR COCO2 ROM PAKS |
| Back to top |
C, C++, AND EMULATOR UPDATES? I've got a few ideas for programs I would like to do
and will try to brush up on my programming and send
you something in the near future. Speaking of
programming, I really like programming in C and C++
on the PC and was wondering if you knew if any C
compilers for RS-DOS are still available. I know
there was one for OS-9 available from TANDY and
pretty sure there was a third-party one available
for RS-DOS. I would like to give it a try, if there
is one still available.
Also, is Jeff Vavasour planning anymore "upgrades"
to the emulator like he did for HiRes mouse
emulation (or has demand for the emulator been so
low that it would just not be worth it to him -- or
you--anymore)? For instance, he might address =>
____________________________________________________
emulation of the speech pak and improvements to the
emulator's music routines (on my PC and ProAudio 16
card, music sounds terrible). Accessing the Sound
Blaster Compatibility modes of most sound cards
ought to be possible through the emulator, I would
think--it would simply be a matter of interpreting
CoCo commands and redirecting them to the proper
port address. At least, I think that's how it should
work!
John Clemons
Rt. 2 Box 70
Bland, VA 24315
----
RICK: I believe you are correct about the past =>
____________________________________________________
availability of C for the CoCo. It may be that you
will have to settle for "2nd-hand software" at this
time. Maybe one of our Friends has something
available.
Per Jeff and future updates to the emulator, I guess
only Jeff can answer that. The last time we talked
about that subject, Jeff seemed to feel like this
last update would in fact be the last. I don't know
how sales have been for Jeff in the past, but I am
still having calls for the emulator and have sold
about 40 since this spring!!
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|
EDTASMIII WITH EMULATOR? Anyone have any experience with using CER-COMP's
EDT/ASMIII with the emulator? I can't get it to work
with it. I know you have to use the original disk--
piracy protection I guess. But you can make copies
and then back them up to the original disk if need-
ed because of damage. I've done this and I also use
the PC's physical 5-1/4" drive, but all I get is IO
errors.
Can anyone help? I would like to be able to use this
program that I payed big bucks for just a few years
ago.
John D. Clemons
Thanks, John Rt. 2 Box 70
Bland, VA 24315
email: jclemons(at sign)naxs.com ==*
|
IS THERE A SUPPORT GROUP? ...my one concern with the CoCoPS effort is the
price of the membership. I guess five dollars was
settled on, although I thought we initially talked
about two or three dollars at the 'Fest.' I don't
mind the fee, personally, but I am worried that five
might be just high enough for some to lose interest.
I think of it like computer prices were talked about
in the 80's - the magic price of $999 would get home
buyers, but $1000 was too much! I'm worried that,
for a quarterly newsletter, $5 might be just over
that same barrier, while, say, three dollars might
be okay. I know that $1.28 is burned up in postage
(four stamps per year) right from the start, but it
would be nice to keep it cheap to capture as large
of an audience as possible. - John D. Snell
=>
____________________________________________________
----
RICK: John I can agree with your statement that
"$5 might be just over that same barrier...", but
only in the sense that 1 cent would be over the
same barrier. My feeling is that if one doesn't
care $5 worth for the effort, they don't deserve to
have any part of it! We have had in the past and
continue to have publications that charge nearly
$20 for quarterly newsletters. Their membership is
and has been quite good. I must mention that one of
the publishers of a now defunct CoCo publication
often mentioned to me that those who didn't support
his efforts yet still expected him to support them
were not worth the time...I definitely agree.
To follow this conversation just a little further =>
____________________________________________________
The price is $5.00. If the newsletter is 2 sheets,
front and back, you can expect to pay 15 cents for
each of those two sheets. That's 30 cents per issue
or $1.20 per subscription. Then you have 4 X 32
cents for the stamps as you mentioned. That's
another $1.28. Of course if you are mailing to
Canada it will cost a little bit more. And to
Australia and Europe probably $1.00 for each letter.
But let's just assume everyone is in the US. We have
now a total of $2.48 for each subscriber. We are
not yet considering replacements for misdelivered
issues, the cost of envelopes, or stuffing envelopes
or placing stamps on the envelopes, or making labels
or placing labels, or any of the other little extra
energy and money burning exercises. Personally I
believe $5 is about the least we could ask. =*
|
LOOKING FOR COCO2 ROM PAKS Jerry Hoover is looking for CoCo2 Rom Paks like
MEGABUG. I hope that our Friends will be helpful
to Jerry.
Jerry Hoover
310 E. McDowell #41
Alturas, CA 96101
(Please mention CFDM to Jerry when you contact him.)
=*
|
