2) MUMosere S95 Us)

: urming'yourzown BRS

e 65816 ‘Supér Proctssof

SECOND\CLASS))»

SOFTWARE SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL We Carry America’s Largest Selection of C-64/C-128 Software!

ERTAINMENT PRODUCTIVITY

Pacman $9.97 1750 Super Clone $99,95 Geos 128 v2 $44.97 a 7 Plundered Hearts $12.97 Basic Compiler 64 $12.97 Graphic Label Wizard $14.97 Beyond Dark Castle $7.97 Pool of Radiance 14.97 Big Blue Reader $29.97 Graphics Basic $9.97 Beyond Zork 128 $12.97 Portal $14.97 B/W Prog Tools $14.97 Home Designer 128 $24.97 Defender of the Crown $9.97 Questron 2 $9.97 B/W Power C $9.97 Manager, The $12.97 Double Dragon 2 $9.97 | Rampage $7.97 BMW Turbo Cartridge $17.97 Maverick v5 $24.95 Heavy Metal $12.97 Realms of Darkness $12.97 C128 Graphics Bundle $29.97 Model Diet Heros of the Lance $14.97 | Roadwars $7.97 Christmas Model Kit $9.97 Newsroom Keys to Maramon $9.97 Sidearms $7.97 CSM Protection Man 1 $14.97 On Line Help Mean Streets $9.97 Steel Thunder $9.97 CSM Protection Man 2 $19.97 Outrageous Pages $19.97 Monopoly $12.97 Strip Poker $14.97 Data Manager 2 $14.97 Postcards $14,97 Ms Pacman $9.97 Trump Castle Casino $12.97 Designer's Pencil $9.97 Printmaster Plus $19.97 Ogre $9.97 Wheel Fortune 1-2-3 $9.97 Drive Align 1541/71 $12.97 Superbase 64 $19.97 Easy Working Tri Pak $9.97 Superscript 64/128 $14.97

Y Y 9.9 Ss $14.97 SPORTS & FLIGH Tt Geos 64 v2 $39.97 Swiftcalc w/Sideways $

4th & Inches $7.97 | Tony LaRussa Baseball $7.97 EDUCATIONAL Champshp Baseball $7.97 | Tournament Tennis $7.97 Champn Basketball $7.97 WWF Wrestling $7.97 Early Learning Friends $9.97 Spellicopter $9.97 Dave Winfield Batter Up $9.97 Acrojet $9.97 European Nations & Loc $9.97 Stickybear Math $9.97 Fast Break $7.97 | Apache Strike $7.97 Keys to Typing $9.97 Stickybear Numbers $9.97 Hardball $7.97 | Blue Angels $7.97 Memory Manor Cart ‘$9.97 Typing Tutor 4 $9.97 Jack Nicklaus Golf $9.97 | F-14 Tomcat $9.97 Magic Spells $9.97 Word Attack $9.97 Jordan vs Bird $7.97 | F-19Stealth Fighter $12.97 Snoopy Sky Scramble $9.97 Word Spinner $9.97 Leaderboard Golf $9.97 | Flight Sim Games $4.97 Pro Football Facts $9.97 High Roller $7.97 Fy Pro Soccer . Jet Combat Sim $7.97 rlED Pure Stat Baseball M Skyfox $7.97 Sporting News Baseball $9. Super Huey | $7.97 C-64 Keyboard w/PS $79.95 1541 Clone Drive Star Rank Boxing 9 Top Gunner $9.97 6.128 Keyboard w/PS $139.95 40 Col Monitor

C-128D Computer $174.95 80 Col Menltog ‘ian (al s 1541 Disk Drive $64.95 Printers/Call for Make $39.95 SORIES 1571 Disk Drive $129.95 Misc. CALL

C-128 RGB Cable $17.95 Floppy Disk Notcher $6.95

Computer Hand 2 $6.95 Dust Covers - specify $7.95 Items Listed Above Do Not Include Shipping. U.S 48 States - Add $5.50 Convert A Com $24.95 Ergostick Joystick $16.95 per order. Alaska, Hawaii & Canada - add $5.50 for the first piece and Disk Bank 10/3.5° $2.95 CBM 1200 Baud $9.95 $1.00 per each additional piece per shipment, Second Day Air shipping Disk Bank 10/5.25" $2.95 Aprotek 2400 Baud $49.95 is available, Call for shipping charges. Call Or Write For Your Free c= Disk Bank 100/3.5" $12.95 1351 Smart Mouse $44.95 64/128 Catalog Listing HUNDREDS Of Commodore Products And Disk Bank 100/5.25" $12.95 MW 350 Interface $44.95 Special Offers For Your Computer, Our Order Takers Are On Duty 6:00 Disk Bank 70/5.25" $7.95 64 Power Supplies $34.95 am. = 5:00 p.m, M = F and 7:00 am, ~ 3:00 p.m, Sat, - Pacific Time Disk Mailers $0.39 128 Power Supplies $49.95

Drive Cleaners $6.95 Printer Ribbons CALL -_ .

Serial Cable 6ft $8.95 Userport Expander $24.95 SOFWARE Software Support Int.

Serial Cable 10'tt $9.95 Video Ram Upgrade $49.95 — 2700 N.E. Andresen Rd.

Drive Power Cable $7.95 3.5" 10 cnt.Floppy $7.95 ite D-4

User Port Cable $15.95 5.25" 20 cnt.Floppy $4.95 ete

Com Modem Adapter $15.95 7 a ee ancouver, Wa 98661

360) 695-1393,

CALL TOLL FREE TODAY! 1-800-356-1 179

Major CreditCards Accepted.

C O N T

N T

° ISSUE 12

COMMODORE

WORLD

‘THE MEWS MAGAZINE FOR CoMMODONE 64.

Generat MaNaGer Charles R. Christianson Sa Eoitor Doug Cotton Sa Assistant Eoitor Jenifer Esile oa Aoverrisina Sates Charles A, Christianson (413) 525-0023 Sa ProToGRapHy Wayne Wrubel ° Grapiic Arts Doug Colton Jenifer Esile Sa Evectronic Pre-Préss & PainTING Mansir/Holden, Inc. ° Cover Design by Jenifer Exile

Commodoro™ and the respective Commodore product names. aro trademarks oF registorod tradomarks of Escom GmbH, Commodore World is in no way affiliated with Escom GmbH., owner of the Commodore logo and technology, Commodore ‘World s published 6 times annually by Creative Micro Designs, Inc., 18 Benton Drive, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646. ‘Socond-Cinss Postage Paid at East Longmeadow MA. Annual ‘subscription rate is US$29.95 for U.S, addressos, US$35.95 for Canada or Mexico, US$45.95 for all EC Countries, and US$57.95 10 all other addresses worldwide. All subscription payments must be provided in U.S. Dollars. Mail subscriptions. to CW Subscriptions, c/o Creative Micto Designs. Inc., P.O. Box 646, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646

by Creative Micro Dosigna, In noted, No part of this publication may be printed or otherwise reproduced by any ‘means without prior written consent from the publisher. All programs publishod in this publication are for the personal uso of the render, and may not be copied or in any way distributed. Allrights reserved, Programming examplos and routines in this Issue which are presented tor educational purposes may be used in the creation of programs by the purchaser of this of this magazine, provided credit for the routines is clearly presented in either the program documentation, of the program itself. Creative Micro Designs, Inc.. assumes no responsibility for ‘rr0r8 of omissions in editorial, program listings or advertising content. Croative Micro Designs, Inc. assumes no liability for advortisors claims or reliability,

POSTMASTER; Sond address changos to: CW Address Changes, c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O, Box 646, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.

+ JANUARY 1996

Features 14 A Simic Guide To HTML by Jason Compton and Katherine Nelson Part | of a series on learning to program in HTML, 17) THe Mensch CONNECTION by Jim Brain Meet the man behind CPU technology.

20 Tre Super Processor by Jim Brain

Comparing the features of the 65816 with the 6510. 24 A Sneak Preview oF THE SupeRCPU by Mark Fellows and Doug Cotton

Find out what all the buzz is about.

37° Masterinc tHe Don’t-Do-It Key by Jim Butterfield

A quick take on the key no user should be without.

Reviews

30) GAMES by Sherri Freedline Alcon and Demon Stalkers: Raid on Doomfare.

32 The CMD FD-2000 by Jim Brain

Taking the FD for a test drive...

36 Booxware by Gaelyne R. Moranec Reviewing three guides to the Internet.

Covcumns 10 Just For Starters by Steve Vander Ark Device nunbers and printing Commodore graphics. 12 ForeiGn ExcHANGE by Gaelyne R. Moranec Commodore computing in the land Down Under! 38 Grapttic INTERPRETATION by Steve Vander Ark Part 3 of a series on programming in geoBASIC, 40 The Sysop’s Corner by Max Cottrel Did you ever want to start your own BBS? 42 Carrier Detect by Gaelyne R. Moranec Downloading “shrink-wrapped” files from the web. 46 GeoProcranist by Gene Barker DolnlineRetum. 48 Basic INSTINCTS by Gene Barker Null characters and you. SO Peripterat VISION by Jim Butterfield Null characters and you, 52 AssemBty LINE by Jim Butterfield Using processor registers and debugging tips,

DeraRTMeENTS 2 From tHe Epitor 4 Backtauk

6 Commopore Trivia & On Tue Horizon 56 Cuassirieo Aps

56 Aoverriser’s INpex

Utility On Page 54

See Our CHK-LIST

From Tne Epiror

ime to change all the calendars, reflect briefly on the year gone by, then turn to our minds to ringing in the new year with a bang. And, of course, that means it’s time for me to extend

our best wishes fora happy new year to all our readers, othe success it was for us here at Commodore World and Creative Micro Designs, Inc. And now that the amenities are out ofthe way, let's cover the ‘old business’.

At the close of last year (seems so long ago now, doesn'tit?) [found myselfona small Canada Airflight from Hartford to Toronto. The mission: to attend the first World of Amigs of Commodore.

and to thank youall for making 1

show to be held since the demise

his year's sponsor was none other than Wonder Computers, a Ca

Jian firm with avery strong commitment to the Amiga and the Amiga market.

What struck me most about this show was not the kind of thing that would have piqued my interests at similar shows years before: things were still pretty much the same. Oh, there were new faces, and a lot of the old faces were missing; but the atmosphere and general aura created were—similar.

his bodes well for Amiga Technologies, the new wing of ESCOM that is working to put Amiga computers back into peoples mindsand homes. The Ami; at least—wi whatever dealers had to offe

acommunity—in Canada,

nd re;

receptive to the show, And this bodes well for vendor support as well; seeing a willing market is bound to convince a few vendors to stay on-board. Now, not everything at the show had the big “A” on the front panel. Inoticed some of our old friends at the

to buy

IPUG booth were playing around with a C-65, and I also ran into a couple of the CW advertisers at the Jason Compton and Katie Nelson were there,

ome of you have seen Jason's previous work here

show

100; orin hisown Amiga Report. Jason and Katieare starting a series on HTML in this very issue!

Another CW author joined me at the show to make the rounds; Jim Butterfield. It's amazing how many people Jim can draw to himself. This can be a true

fyou're with Jim ata show, since the booths are often crowded—getting close to a booth that had

COMMODORE WORLD 2

something! wanted to see and saying, “Hey, there's Ji Butterfield!” was generally enough toclear some space. Lalso had a rather interesting chat with Matthew

Desmond, whoapparently had hoped to run into some 8-bit folks at the show. Matt was rather pleased to see the results of the CPS tests results we published in CW Issue #4, and could probably be heard for quite some distance as he chanted, “I won! 1 won!” While Matt probably didn’t think of it at the time, whenever he wins, so do we all.

In all, it was an interesting show, and I was pleased to see a good turnout there.

Now, lets move ahead to this year. Natural has been alot of e; ofthe SuperCPU. In the issue you now hold, you'll find an update on this project (in On The Horizon), and a ‘sneak preview’ of the product itself (pg. 23), You can also find out more about the microprocessor at the heart of this product in The Super Processor (pg. 20), ates to the 6510 in The

y, there itement over the upcoming release

and get a glimpse at how it re Mensch Connection (pg. 17)

My guess is that, after reading this issue, many of you will beanticipating what's to come in thisnew ‘e here at CW and CMD!

as much as we a

eae

Cotton

Editor

Issue 12

LOADSTAR SOFTWARE VALUES!

The Compleat* Series The Compleat PRINT SHOP I: (the print Shop by Broderbund or

Printmastor roquired). Over 1300 artistic and novor before published PRINT SHOP images,

Tho smart, fast software packago included allows you to

quickly scan through the many PRINT SHOP images

Soquontially, by name, or by group number. Press a key and

save the graphic you want in 2-block, 3-block and even

PRINTMASTER graphic fies! Al that psa pind guide to

your new sea of graphic files. And it you like the first

Volume, you'll probably want to get your hands on The

Compleat PRINT SHOP II, which also contains over 1300

PRINT SHOP images, previously published on LOADSTAR,

issues over tho past ton years, Included is the same smart, software package Included in Tho Compleat PRINT (smmstikiist=tlis inet P 1, Each volume is $20.00,

The Compleat Programmer: Bocomo the Commodore programmer Youivo always wand 1 be! Magis af knowledge crammed and sll ono eight 8.25- hich disks of two 1581 disks! Pius wo include all the tools, extansion, langungos, assombla tutorials and utilities: ‘eel need to create the same type of software you see on LOADSTAR! This massive gotecton ie way over wo megabytes ef inuctona! tx! and valuabo tool $20.00. For $5 more, get = Hacking MAG, not available separately, to complete your programming set

The Compleat Maurice: a compiiation of 26 solitaire card games written by Maurico Jones, the acknowledged master of card gama simulations for tho C-64/128. Tharo's ‘von a brand new. naver botoro published game callad Boomerang. Two 5.25 inch disks oF ‘ona 315 Inch disk, $20.00 postage pad!

The Compleat Dave: two 1581 disks or threo 1541 disks crammod with SID musi¢, Over 250 classic melodies trom yesteryear, arranged and transcribod by tho Mastor of ‘Music, Davo Marquis, and now they're availablo in one aigante B-hour collection, I you enjoy SID music, you owe ito yourself fo got THE COMPLEAT DAVE, Two 1501 disks or three 1541 disks $20,00 postage paid!

The Compleat Walt: ten yoars of Walt Harned's slidoohows and multimedia events gathered Into one huge collection Seven §.25-inch disks or three 38 inch disks! Over 250 pictures, ineluding soma that havo nover boon pubishad. The groatost ono: man collection of art on any computer platform! $20.00 postage pat

The Compleat Roger: 2s eaveational quiz programs, ‘ach carotully crattod by Roger Norton, an educator who uses C64, Thos programs come rammed on two 5.25:inch 1841 disks or ono 1881 dak. $20.00 postago paid!

* No, we didn’t misspell “complete.” Compleat is the ten dollar spelling of complete,

Other Products

Geopower Tools. 19 Geos utities: Calendar Printer, Fast Format, Goo Fetch (gray any portion of a scroan as a Photo Serap), Phoonix (resurrect a trasheanned fil), Prograrmmor's Calculator aro justa few of the handy Tools, Sido Two Is ilod with Clip Art (In Photo Album format) and fonts, $0.95 (C-68/128) Item #oRose5

Songsmith - coaostar's own music-making program. With this deluxe music editor/playor you can easily transcribe music from sheet music of make up yout own tunes. Songsmith comes with a slick a0-page manual and a jukebox player wih eight tunes. $9.95,

Game Star #1 eight games trom LOADSTAR #70:#100), The Tenomont, Stack ‘Em, The Sherwood Open, Gems, Stealth Bomber, Eagle Eyes, Moonraker & Circuitry, $9.95

Just For Fun. eight origina gamos, Thore are arcade games, educational gamos, puzzle games and just games that are just plain fun on this disk, $9.95.

Fun Four - Four original gamos. A huge maze gama, trivia game, solitaire and a space shoot 'em up ~ all runnablo from a menu, $9.95

Sport -in tho early days of science, "sport" meant “mutant. This is a full novel on C-64 disk

by author, Jott Jonos, about a murderous neo-human Over 500 terrifying pages. Automatic

ars presentation software included. Printing capability. Bookmarks. Warning! This is

x“ alt ‘eal novel with strong content, frank language, violence and adult situations. If

ho hard-iting acton of roa cr-t/horrar novels turns yout stomach, pleaso

don't buy this book Must be 18, 1 CMD MD disk , 2:3.5-Inch disks or 39 254inch Wisk. $5.95 $1.00 Shipping.

Brainpower/Brainstorm - so.column word processor and idoa processor tor tho G-128, Thoso two programs aro togethor on ono disk. It comes with a dotailod 82.pago manual. $9.95 (G-128 only) ham #069424

Best Of Loadstar Compilations: oapstar is over 11 yoars young! We

have 5 anthology disks that take you through the evolution of LOADSTAR, from humble

beginnings to the well-oiled machine we've became. Il you want to Nop on a time machine and go

back. start with The Best Of LOADSTAR #5 and move your way back to The Best 8

LOADSTAR #1, Each of the 136 back Issues are available for purchase with discounts on li

{or fr you ecocors out thao, Bos OF LOADSTAR dks are avalablo on 526:nchcaks ony. "68 disk 60.05

Master Base - patapaso of users’ groups tor the 80-column 6-128, This Is a fast, Bowotul dtabase program for handing adaross0s and naling labels (includes barcode printing) he disk also has a file of over 600 users’ groups addresses, st 95 (C128 only)

LOADSTAR is a monthly "magazine on disk" for the Commodore 64/128, Subscribers receive two 1541 disks (or one 1581 disk) in their mailbox every

month filled with news, articles and programs. Th

non-PD, high-quality programs are written by the best home-based programmers in the field and edited by

the crack LOADSTAR team of Fender Tucker and Jeff Jones. Subscription prices are at an all-time low of $69.95 for a 12-month subscription, or $19.95 for a three-month subscription. You may also elect to subscribe "by the month," where we charge your credit card $7.95 for each issue after it's shipped.

Loadstar Products Order form 1-800-594-3370

Quantity Description

3-month LOADSTAR subscription $19.95 na 1-year subscription to LOADSTAR $69.95 na Month to month @$7,95 7.95/mo na Compleat Print Shop Lon 5,25-inch $20.00 QO09DS. Compleat Print Shop Lon 3.5-inch $20.00 0001D3. Compleat Print Shop Il on 5.25-inch $20.00 0010D5 Compleat Print Shop II on 3.5-inch $20.00 0002D3 Compleat Programmer on 5.25-inch $20.00 0005D5 Compleat Programmer on 35-inch $20.00 0005D3 Hacking mag 3.5-inch only $5.00 0006D3 Compleat rice 5.25-inch $20,00 0007D5. Compleat Maurice 3.5-inch $20.00 0007D3 Compleat Dave 5.25-inch $20,00 070525 Compleat Dave 3.5-inch $20,00 070523 Compleat Walt 5.25-inch $20.00 070425 Compleat Walt 3.5-inch $20.00 070423 Compleat Roger 5.25-inch $20.00 0004D5. Compleat Roger 3 0004D3 Geopower Tools. 080525 _Game Star #1 080825 | Just For (73525 ___Fun Four 073525 Sport 5.25-inch 070325 Sport 3,.5-inch 070323 Sport CMD High Density 070327

TOTAL FROM THIS COLUMN

January 1996

Price Item# Total Qty Description TOTAL FROM LEFT COLUMN;

| __Best Of LOADSTAR #2

Price _Item# Total $9.95 $9.95 $0.95 $9.95 $9.95 $9.95,

Songsmith Best OF LOADSTAR #5 Best Of LOADSTAR #4

Best Of LOADSTAR #3

(69525) 049525) 049425] 049325) 049225) 049125) 081025

Best Of LOADS’ Masterbase

suthori ‘ign

cribers: I pref sh diskette:

3 COMMODORE WORLD

@ACKTALK

LETTERS AND QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS

Dear CW,

Thi dressed to T. J. Moylesin regard tohis question in the last issue,

The protection scheme Cosmi uses is "cute", not devious. How they accomplish it is not that important. Here is how to make a bootable copy:

1, Takea5 1/4" blank disk, and notch it so that

you can write on both sides of the disk.

Format each side as a 1541 disk (i.e, 664

blocks free on each side.)

«up Maverick 5.0, select single or dual drives (which ever you have) and when you gettothemain menu, sele RNYBBLER.

. When loaded, put side A of Swiftsheet 128 in the drive and copy to side A of backup disk.

. When completed, flip to side B of Swiftsheet

128, place in drive, and copy to side B of

backup disk.

Runa directory on both sides of the backup

to insure they are identical to Swiftsheet

128.

S

>

=

VIOLA! You now have a bootable copy! Just autoboot it like you do the original. Enjoy. About other 80 column spreadsheets, | like SwiftCalc 128, PocketPlanner 128, and ifyou are into GEOS, GeoCale 128 is no slouch either. If you like to graph and chart data, GeoChart i must to go with it. All of these programs are still available through Software International Ine. the time I checked. Best regards, Robert J.C

‘berry

I'd like to voice our appreciation to Mr. Carberry and a number of other readers who responded to Mr. ‘Moyles’ questions. Since Mr. Carberry's response was the mast complete of those we received, it was the one we decided to publish. However, we will pass along copies of all of the responses to Mr. Moyles for his perusal,

Dear CW,

Thave a CMD 500 MB HD that I wish to u an external drive on my Compac 286 Eggleston, Editor of te UNDERGROU kind enough to take a shot at it, but he had not actually done it, and therefore was not able to

COMMODORE WORLD

spell out a successful step by step instruction which I really need, because I'm not a computer wiz. Surely one of your acknowledged wizards (Dale Sidebottom, Doug Cotton, Jim Brain, Maurice Randall, or Steve Vander Ark, ete.) can come to my rescue? Help, help, help! IT have an 8-bit SCSI card and the cable to mate the HD to the card, but I'm nervous about plugging in and firing up without divine guidance. I sure don’t ant to screw up the HD. lalready havethe CMD, 85 MB HD running on my C128. | have had it for some time now wi almost dail Great machine!

I hope you can help me with my problem. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Robert J. Carberry

w

h no trouble operating on an

Frankly, hooking it up is simple... getting it to work, however, is the iffy part. SCSI, in fact, is about the only thing I can think of that’s more finicky than a cat.

Here's what you should be aware of: Your HD contains a SCSI controller, which is similar to that 8-bit card for your ‘other’ computer. So similar, in fact, that they probably both have the same SCSI address (practically every SCSI controller on the

planet uses SCSI device 7), This can be a source of

conflict.

Also, consider that what the CMD HD controller does when you start your system is to begin a search of your drive for HD-DOS, Normally this is found right ‘away, and booting is quick. I[the drive gets formatted foranother purpose (which Lassumeis the case here), this search can take a minuete or so on the larger drives. Now, there’s a fairly simple way around these two problems, but I think most users will find it cumbersome, The trick is to turn on the drive while holding down both the SWAP buttons on the front panel, This causes the drive to come up in INSTALL mode, where it will generally ignore other controllers and skip the search for a DOS.

The best solution, however, is to get yourself a new cable for inside the drive, Currently you have two cables inside your drive—one goes from the drive mechanism to the controller, and the other goes from the controller to the D, connector on the rear panel. If you can get yourself a new cable that goes directly from thedrive (50-pinSCStheaderconnector) to the rear panel (DB-25 female)—replacing the two

4

cables and rear panel connector—you'll have an external drive that works like any other, without the quirks and hassles, Such cables aren't common fare, though, so you may have to try a custom cable house such as Cables To Go in Dayton, Ohio (800-225- 46).

Dear CW,

I would like to comment on Maurice Randall's disk drive article in Issue 11. | own two 1581 drives: onemanufactured in Taiwan andthe other in Hong Kong. The Taiwanese model freezes up with HD disks while the other model does have saved Basic, CP/M and GEOS files to HD disks and they all work like a charm.

1 don't know if this matters, but the P/N numbers on the bottom of each slightly differ. The ‘non-HD" drive reads 255068-03. The ‘HD’ drive reads 255068-04, and German wording appears on this drive as well. Also, the gray face plates differ. Commodore is spelled in lower case letterson the‘non-HD' driveandthe Commodore symbol appears on the HD’ version with the first letter in Commodore capitalized.

Is it a ‘bootleg’ drive? Could I have stumbled onto Commodore's missing link? My opinion is that computers and peripheral devices will not

perform certain functions unless they are programmed to do so in the first place.

‘Thanks for a great magazine and for keeping the faith!

Sincerely,

Kevin A. Komonyi

Itwasn'tuncommon for Commodore to manufacture products in more than one place, and I don't suspect you have a ‘clone’ 1581. The reason that HD disks workononeand not theotheris moredue to differences inthetwomechanisms—HD disks requirea stronger magnetic signal, and many DD (Double Density) drives simply won't have the ability to write to HD disks,

Commodore World reserves the right to edit letters published in this column for length,

spelling, and clarity. If you have questions or comments, write to: CW Backtalk, c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East Longmeadow MA 01028.

Issue 12

PERFECT TAX’

¢ THIRTEENTH SUCCESSFUL YEAR! * MANY THOUSANDS ALREADY IN USE! ¢ Your Simple Answer to the TAX Reform Acts of 1986 through 1994

Stores data files on disk for quick recall

Yearly upgrades available to registered users

Fully screen-prompted, menu-driven and easy-to-use Includes helpful tutorial example and forms library Built-in calculator accumulates input and enters totals Instant recalculation of your entire return when you change any item with just a single keystroke

Prints directly onto IRS forms and Schedules or to blank computer paper for use with transparent overlays PERFECT TAX is Tax Deductible

Supports all of these FORMS and Schedules: FORMS: 1040, 1040A, 2441, 3903, 6251, 8615 and 8815 Schedules: A, B, C, D, E, SE, 1, 2,3 and EIC-A TAXPERFECT 128 additionally supports:

FORMS 2106, 2119, 2210, 3800, 4136, 4256, 4562, 4684, 4952 and 8396, plus Schedules EIC, F and R

JiffyDOS

FOR THE BEST SELECTION OF REFURBISHED COMMODORE EQUIPMENT CALL 1-800-638-3263

COMPUTERS

pre-installed on C64 or C64c (refurbished) ¢ $89.00 every computer & MOA Ute) 149.00 disk drivel 128-D (refurbished) CALL MONITORS

1702 (refurbished) CALL

1802 (refurbished) 5149.00 SPECIAL!

ae monitors CALL 1544-ll Drive

30 DAY ‘ WARRANTY = 1541 (refurbished) 875.00 $89.00

e “= on alt reuiosned 1541-Il (refurbished) SPECIAL! $89.00 oe 1571 (refurbished) SPECIAL! $99.00

Prices do not include shipping charges, and are subject to change without notice. All items subject to availability, call before ordering.

Creative Micro Designs, Inc.

Get PERFECT TAX™ now and relax on April 15th...

* PERFECT TAX is the quick, correct, easy

way to do your taxes * Absolutely up-to-date

with the Tax Reform Act of 1986/87/88/90/93 and

all_new tax changes * Simplest tax return preparation program available - at any price * Single- keystroke form-to-form change * Automatically calculates and transfers data from every FORM and Schedule to the FORM 1040 * Simply answer the questions - PERFECT TAX calculates the return, tax due or amount of refund due you * Automatically elects the greater of Standard or Itemized deductions Prints data to all FORMS or Schedules you need for your complete return - ready to sign and file * Highly acclaimed by the tax pros, CPA's and tax preparers, PERFECT TAX is easy to understand and a pleasure to work with * Separate versions available for Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 computers

PERFECT TAX 64 $69.00 PERFECT TAX 128 $79.00

(plus shipping—see our main ad)

Creative Mi ‘© Designs, Inc.

1-800-638-3263

SPECIAL! 1571 Drive

$99.00

January 1996 5

COMMODORE WORLD

ComMMopDoRE TRIVIA

dy Jim Brain

Welcome to another edition of Commodore Trivia. As many of you r questions and answers have been donated by me to the Commodore communit other questionshave been placedin the publicdomain, Task only that the trivia questions remain intact and unchanged, and that my name and address

SOA0,

SOAL

S$OA2

S0A3

SOA4

SOAS,

SOA6

SOA7

$090

$091

$092

$093

$094

know, these trivia — tri

at large. Unlike Vorld, these trivia

articles in Commodore

where the tri

Enjoy.

appear somewhere so users can contact me. The Iso used fora contest I run onthe Internet; contact me at the included address for more information, Because curiosit me, lalways welcomea note or post a goes, | also welcome new questions—provided they come with theanswers,

Jim Brain Brain Innovations, Inc.

as the best of

arddetailing 602 North Lemen

Fenton, MI 48430 brain @mail.msen.com

COMMODORE TRIVIA #11 QUESTIONS

In the mid 1980's, Commodore introduced RAM Expansion Units for the Commodore 64, 64C, 128, and 128D. There were three of them, Give their model numbers, and what was different among them.

Some of the CIA integrated circuits used on the C64 have a hardware defect. What is the result of this defe occur? (May be more than one, but I need only one.)

nd C128 computers nd when does it

Name the Commodore machine(s) on whieh a Intel 8088 wasan OPTIONAL coprocessor, (Hint, not the IBM clones.)

On Commodore computers beside the Plus/4 series, there are three frequencies used to record the data on the tape. Name the frequencies used,

Commodore Plus/4 series computers can not read any cassettes recorded on other Commodore computers. Why? (Hint: It has nothing to do with the nonstandard connector on the Plus/4.)

During power-up, the Commodore 64 checks to seeifit runningin PAL-4and or NTSC-land, How does it determine its location?

What is the 6

XX ML opcode for BRK?

SOAS

SOA9

SOAA

SOAB SOAC

SOAD InCommodore BASIC, whatis the abbreviated form ofthe

SOAE

SOAK

On the 65XX CPU, what gets pushed onto the stack when an interrupt occurs?

COMMODORE TRIVIA The65XX series of processors was modeled after the Motorola 6800, Motorola

hampered the design groups’ efforts to pursue product developments using the 6800, A core group of 8 designers left Motorola and went to MOS Technologies, which was the largest producer of calculator chipsat the time. MOS decided it was time to go into the CPU business,

The older brother to the 6502 was the 6501, The 6501 was pin-compatible with the 6800, which promptedasuit by Motorola, Eventually, MOS reached an agreement where they scrapped the 6501 marketing, but were free to market the 6502.

151 opcodes are documented in the NMOS 6502 data book. The remaining 105 opcodes were not implemented, and exist as “don't care” states in the opeodematrix, That means that some seemingly invalid opeodeswillactually perform of two or more valid opcodes, Newer CPU systems trap all hon-implemented opcode usages, but not the 65

‘The architecture assumes that each opcode has two bytes in it and one byte an be fetched per cycle. For instructions that use only 1 byte, the extra fetched byte (actually the next opcode) is thrown aw:

Although this isa subjective answer, one could nominate NOP on the basis that NOP is generally believed to waste one execution cycle on a particular processor, namely one cycle on the 65XX line, However, one ean argue that

COMMODORE WORLD

$09. $096

$097

$098 9

$099

$09A,

$098

Speaking of the stack, where is the stack located in the 65XX address map?

On the 65XX CPU line, it is possible to set and clear a number of processor status flags, Examples include SEC and CLC to set and clear the carry flag. What flag has a clear opcode, but no set opcode?

When saving a text file to tape, the computer records 192 bytes of data, an inter-record gap, and then the same 192 bytes of data again. How wide is this inter-record gap, and why is it there?

On an unexpanded VIC-20, where does the screen memory start?

InCommodore BASIC, whatis theabbreviated form ofthe"Load” command?

command?

On the Commodore 64, there is section of 4 kilobytes of RAM that cannot be used for BASIC programs. It is the favorite hiding places for many ML programs, however. What is its address in memory?

What is stored at locations $A004-$A00B, and why is it strange?

#10 ANSWERS

NOP simply means no operation, and has no ties to length ofexecution. You be the judge.

All other instructions must take at least two cycles: one for opcode fetch, one for operation,

Asstated above, it was calculator chips.

Rockwell, MOS Technologies, and Synertek.

1.022727143 MHz. It is derived by taking the main clock frequency (14.31818MHz) and diving it by 14,

a snddivdingitby 18 ThusthePALG4 than the NTSC one,

tuallycupenloneee

Datais latehed in to the 6: diagram in some books (64 PRG

he falling edge of Phi0 (Phil). The timing s one) is incorrect,

‘The 75XX line used in the 264 series (Plus/4 and C16) used in the C64C and C128 series.

cl the 85XX series

Theansweris location $f410mod 251

answerinvolvesexplaining a (mis)features of the NMOS

above code instructs the

Issue 12

65XX CPU to use zero-page addressing mode to load the accumulator. In zero-page addressing, the address need only be one byte wide (Sff in this case), because the high byte is considered to be $00. Now, as humans, we would expect the CPU would add 10 to 255 ($f), giving 265 ($109) as the address to load the accumulator from. However, the CPU designers decided that zero-page addressing means that the high byte will be $00 all the time, noexceptions. Ifasituation like theabove occurs, the low byte ofthe addition will be used as the low byte of the address (9 in t nse), but the high-byte

RO, All zero page addressing modes work this way. Note that the CMOS versions of the 6502 do perform the high byte “fix-up”, so this behavior is only seen on the NMOS parts,

$09C_ This was a trick, The code is trying to use INDIRECT INDEXED indexing mode using the x register, but that addressing mode can only be used with the y register. Ifthe code is changed to the following, legal code:

Looking for a Commodore user group in your area? User groups can help you solve problems, keep you informed of new products and events that might be of interest, and give you a chance to share your computing experiences with others who enjoy Commodore computing, The listings below include: Name, Address,

Sook

SO9F

Idx #10 Ida (SM),y

‘Then, the above discussion for zero-page addressing holds true here as well. The effective address would have been (hi:lo) $100:S0ff, but is instead (hislo) $000:SOff. The simple rule is: zero page means exactly that. Thereisnoway toaddress outside of zero-page with zero-page address

Sflle, The address formed by reading ${fd and $fife is stuffed into the IP, and the code is read starting there, $fi¥e is read first, since the 65XX line stores addresses in low byte, high byte format,

Bill Mensch, He hand-designed these newer parts in the 65XX line in the same manner he and Chuck Peddle and others hand-designed the 6501 and 6502,

Meeting dates, Number of members, Contact person, and Phone.

ARIZONA Busy-Bee User Group 3 Paseo Cuacha de Toro Arivaca, AZ 85601

CALIFORNIA Club 64

PO Box 514

Patton, CA 92369

Commodore Technical User's Group 2231 E. Trenton Ave. Orange, CA 92667-4451

FLORIDA Naples Area C.U.G. 10701 Rogers Lane Bonita Springs, FL 33923

Stuart Area Commodore P.O, Box 1446 Port Salerno, FL 33492

ILLINOIS

East Side Computer Club P.O, Box 1347

Alton, IL 62002

S.W.R.A.P. User's Group

PO Box 528232 Chicago, IL 60652-8232

January 1996

NEVADA

Clark County Commodore Computer Club

P.O. Box 28136

Las Vegas, NV 89102

OHIO

Ashtabula County Commodore User's Group

c/o 1527 Elmwood Dr. Ashtabula, OH 44004

OREGON

Amiga Commodore Users Group 623 29th St.

Astoria, OR 97103.

WASHINGTON Spokane Commodore User's Group PO Box 474

Mead, WA 99021

CANADA Hamilton Commodore Users Group 35-1400 Limeridge Rd. East Hamilton, Ontario

Attention User Groups!

Please send us your group’s name, contact person and phone number, when you meet, number of users, and an address where users can contact you to:

CW UG Connection c/o Creative Micro Designs P.O. Box 646

East Longmeadow, MA 01028-0646

COMMODORE WORLD

BN THEI

COMMODORE AND COmMPpUTER INDUSTRY NEws

EZ Loader Menu Program Updated to Version 3.10 EZ Loader, by David Schmoll, isa menu system designed to help you access your most used programs by a single menu from any disk drive, as long as the program is on the drive requested. Although the program concept was written to help CMD Driveusers, EZ Loader works just fineon Commodore disk drives and, once set up, can be used asa menu for each disk. EZ Loader operates in all modes; 64 and 128, 40 or 80 column, as well as slow or fast mode. BZ loader can call a 64 program from the 128 side menu and drop into 64 mode to execute it supports the TOD clock, and allows you to preset program execution times, so programs can run automatically from the menu,

This new version is mainly bug fixes and tweaks, but the known bugs were serious enough to justify the release. The only real new features are:

Loadei

+ the full 128 keyboard is now * 128users the ALT

ve in 64 mode drop to 64 mode without leaving E

ader by pressing

Registration notes: Due to requests usersthatsomeindicationandadvantage be given to those users who register this program, certain features in the evaluation copy have been disabled. Disabled features include the mouse, clock and date display (assuming an RTC (Real-Time Clock) is present), loading of saved data files, multiple sereen access, sereen blanking, entry

exchange option, and timed event support, andauto booting of the first file. These options can beenabled once the registration hasbeen completed and you receive and enter the proper codes that I will need to send you.

EZ Loader is available online from a number of Commodore Support boards. It can be freq’ed or downloaded from: The Silver Hammer BBS (303)766-8035 (Kido-1:104/518). Itbis»also_ available for ETP:from: cenga.uwaterloo,ca, Archive name is ezldra-1 stk,

Internet Book for Commodore Users Coming Soon ‘Thelnternet isa big placeandit'snotalways easy to find outallthein’sand out’sabouttakingadvantage ofits features when checkingit outforthe first time. There's a lot of Commodore specific information available on the Internet, but you have to know how to get to the information, and that can bea catch-22;

How dol get on the Internet? What term programs can Luse? What the heck is FTP? Can I browse the World Wide Web with my C-64?

Gaelyne Moranec, the former editor of CEE-64 Alivel, has been writing about Commodore computersandmodeming forthreeyears with columns in Commodore World and BBS Magazine. After answering countless letters helping others learn the ropes of using the Internet, Gaelyne has announced that she's working on a book for Commodore users who want to take advantage of the Internet. The Internet For Commodore Users has a tentative release date of March 31, 1996 and will be packaged with Nick, Rossi's Novaterm 9.5 (shareware) term program.

COMMODORE WORLD

The first half of the book discusses Commodore software and hardware needed, setting up a term program, hooking a modem up to the computer, and finding an Internet provider. The second half of the book covers the basics of using the features ofthe Internet, such as E-mail, FTP’ing, browsing the World Wide Web, dealing with Unix commands and other subjects, all from the point of view of a dichard Commodore user.

The Internet For Commodore Users is expected to retail for US$24.95. Distributors have not yet been announced.

‘ax Software Update Announced Maurice Randall has recently announced that geoFAX V2.0 is due to be released in about 6 weeks. Versions 1.5 and 1.6 are not considered to be completed versions, and V2.0 will be sent free-of-charge to all registered users of these versions when it becomes available. For those that are FAX prior to the release of V2.0, you will also get V2.0 for free when it begins shipping.

‘The V2.0 disk will include the remaining printer drivers (several ofthose announced were not ready for the current release), and a few of the existing ones will have improvements. Both Class 2 and Class 2.0 fax modems will be supported, and modem control during the handshaking period will also be improved over previous versions, The new version also sports an

considering buyi

improved interf nges become your default setting the next time you run the program),

Other additions include an icon for choosing between tone and pulse dialing, a telephone directory, and a log file that de: (this can be viewed in geoWrite).

e, and remembers changes such as the baud rate (such

cha

ribes your fa:

The most drastic changes are what you see on the screen. The simulated fax machine display has beenimproved;and the dialogue boxes that pop- up haye taken on a more graphical look.

Final Press Release from dieHard

On September 22,1995 LynnCarthy Industries, Incorporated, publishers of dieHard, the Flyer for commodore bitters and The Sewing Raom closed its doors.

‘Theremainder ofthe Hyersubscriptions were to be fulfilled by Electronics Notv, howeverit took fourmonthsto geveverything worked out and by then Electronics Now felt the list was too‘old. The remainder of the Spinner subscriptions will be filled by LOADSTAR. The fulfillment needs for the Flyer are so great, that only an ad driven magazine could take it over. Commodore magazines are subscription driven, meaning the subscribers pay for the publication rather than the advertisers. And because of this, neither magazine canoffer refunds, LCI does not exist any more, and therefore cannot offer refunds. LOADSTAR isa top notch magazine and is a blast to read, I hope you stay with it for many years to come.

LCI had many problems over the last year, the postal increase, and the cost ofpaperskyrocketing, tonamea few. Time was taken offforadditional

Issue 12

complications during pregnancy, as well as paternity and maternity leave. Butoverall, LCI justgrew too fast. The Sewing Room gotsomany subscribers so fast, LCI needed to do more marketing to bring in more capitol to cover the increase in costs. Which, in turn, brought in more subscriptions to fill. Neither magazine could stay on schedule. LCII staff found they were doing everything but publishing. And everyone was stressed out. It was not a healthy atmosphere. Certainly nothing like the company that it once w So we closed the doors.

Thisisin no waya reflection on the commodore market. User Groups all over the nation are booming as ever. CMD and Parsec now both have store fronts. LOADSTAR has become a separate entity from Softdisk. (Congratulations all around!)

I want to thank everyone for staying with us. We really thought dieHard would be on a regular schedule and that it would continue. I really have enjoyed doing dieHard and will miss it dearly. It makes me sad to say good: bye.

Faretheewell-longlivethelowercase"c" machines! Brian L Crosthwaite

READY, a

Address Change for Kasara

We've recently been informed of an addre: Microsystems, who still supplies a large number of chips and other parts for Commodore users. The new address is: Kasara Microsystems, 705 Office Park Drive, Hilton Head, SC 29928, Phone: (803) 842-5057.

change for Kasara

SuperCPU Update from CMD

During the past few weeks, there have been many changes with respect to our SuperCPU project. In our quest to keep users as up-to-date as possible on the status of this project, we've put together this informative update,

SuperCPU 64/10 Cancelled

Advanced orders for the SuperCPU have been instrumental in helping us tr orders wehaye received forthe:L0MElxversion of this product, however, we cannot justify the extra costs involvedin stocking parts for this version. We have therefore decided to eliminate the 64/10, and from this point forward we will only accept orders for the 64/20 model:

SuperCPU) 128)

‘The most significant announcement is that we have determined that a'¢- 128 version of theacceleratorwill be released. This decision has been based on the overwhelming numberof requests we have received from C-128 users. Due to this response, we are confident thatsufticient demand for a 128 version exists, and that we can justify the expense associated with its development.

The specifications of the C-128 version will be virtually identical to its C- 64 counterpart, and\will support both G-64 and C-128 modes. Naturally, the SuperCPU 128 will have additional RAM, ROM and custom logic to support these capabilities,

Co-Development

In order to accommodate the development of the C-128 version, our engineers have had to alter their initial development schedule to allow

January,1.996.

‘ack the demand for this product. Due to the extremely low percentage of

additional time to co-develop portions of the C-128 version, Due to this we estimate that an additional six to eight weeks will be required, which will push initial deliveries for the C-64 version into April (the C-128 version should be available approximately 90 days later).

‘The main thrust of this co-development is to attempt to utilize the same PCboard for both the C-64 and C- sssfulwith this approach, we can reduce the overall development cost of the C-128 version by amortizing many of the fixed costs associated with the design and production over both versions.

While we may be able to use the same circuit board for both units, the chip sets for the two versions will be substantially different, and this may prohibit our ability to upgradea 64 version toa 128 version. Inaddition, the extra circuitry required to produce the C-128 version may effect the retail price of this unit by as much as $100.00. Our goal is to keep the cost of the ilable until later in the development cycle. Until then, we will not be taking advanced orders on the C-128 version,

8 versions. Ifwearesu

C-128 version below $300.00, but a firm estimate will notbe

A Better Product Overall With the additional development time we believe that both the C-6

128 versions will benefit. This time allows us to explore the possibility of additional features and capabilities which had previously been scrapped due to the tight development schedule, Additional information will be released as weare able to confirm the feasibility ofthese additional features.

Although we're disappointed that ourinitial production schedule forthe C-64 version cannot be met, we're excited about the potential this decision brings to the Commodore market. By supporting the C-128 pl believe that we will see more third party development asawhole, which will benefit both C-64 and C.

In closing, we would like to request that any questions be channelled to CMD by mail or E-mail at the addresses listed below. We will not be fielding questions about these products by phone until such time as the designs have been finalized.

form, we

128 users by further strengthening our market.

Mail Inquiries: SuperCPU Inquiries c/o Creative Micro Designs, Ine. P.O. Box 646, st-Longmeadow, MA 01028-0646. F-Mail (Internet): emd.support@the-spa.com (Technical Info) emd:sales@the-spa.com (General Info)

EaSrRrRRo FF CORRECTIONS

Okay, we blew the correction to Al Anger’s E-mail address in Issue 11's Error Corrections. The address should have read:

d014066c @cdfreenet:seflin.lib.fl.us

Worse yet (if that’s possible), some idiot here (not mentioning any names, Doug) apparently forgot to create a legend for the.Disk Drive Speed Comparison chart presented on page 16 of Issue 11). We've included a similar (corrected) chart in the FD-2000 review in this issue.

Finally, thanks to Jim Brain for quickly reacting to an error we made concerning his mail-server info, Jim quickly noticed the problem and added a function to the server to resolve the issue.

COMMODORE,.WORLD

Just For Starters

by Stove Vander Arb

OD

TIPS ON DEVICE NUMBERS & PRINTING COMMODORE GRAPHICS

So far in this column, I've talked about a number of pieces of equipment which you add onto your Commodore computer, You might remember that back in one of the early columns, l used the term peripheral to refer to any piece of hardware you add onto your computer. The subject of the first half of this column, then, is peripherals, Specifically, I'm going to talk about adding a second disk dt

I've talked about dis! before. Histed a few handy

Ve. di

at some length commands for things like formatting a disk or getting a directory of what's on a disk, At that time, I gave you certain parameters for these commands, Those are symbols or words which follow the command itself to modify or specify what that command means. The parameters ofa disk drive command

usually include a number to tell the command

which drive it is intended for, There is no particular reason, after all, why you have to have only one drive eventually add at least one drive of some kind onto theirsystems, Ina disk drivecommand, you have to give a di number in order to direct your command to the proper drive,

The first drive you hook up is given the number 8. The reason it isn't number 1 is that a printer or even the screen of the monitor or television, are also assigned numbers automatically, so numbers lower than 8 arealready taken. Device numbers from 8 on up are set aside for disk drives. Ifyou add on a second disk drive, you will want that device to be given the number 9, Trouble i when you first get that drive, you will most likely find that it is already pre-set to number 8. On top of that, you will quickly discover that

In fact, most Commodore use!

other devices, such as

there isn't even a port a

COMMODORE WORLD

ble on the back of

your computer for a second disk drive! Obviously, you will need to know a few tricks to getting things set up correctly.

First ofall, let's get the drives hooked up to the

computer, As I mentioned, therewon'tbeasecond

port open on the back of your Commodore, so you can't just plug it in there, You will find, however, that there are two ports on the back of each disk drive itself. You can use those double ports to “daisy chain” more than one unit together. You do that by plugging the second drive into the back of the first one, Your Commodore computer knows enough to send messages along the cables through the linked drives until it gets to the one you specify. Of course, then you need to have the right numbers set so the message you send knows where tostop.

Now, let's get the numbers set the way we want them, It isn’t hard at all to change the number on a drive. Ifyou have a 1571 drive particularly easy. Look on the back of the 1571 and you will see that there are two tiny switches set in a rectangular hole near the power cord. These are used to assign a number to that

10

particular drive. There are four possible settings using these switches. (You can flip them either up or down using a pen.) Here them for various numbers:

show you set

left switch right switch device number UP UP 8 DOWN UP 9 UP DOWN 10 DOWN DOWN "1

Unfortunately, the 1541 drive doesn't have those handy switches, so you'll have to change the number by sending a command to the drive itself’ each time you start up your system. Of course, this means that you can’t turn ona second drive until the first one has been set to a number different than 8. Here’s the procedure and the command you need to send:

1)turn on the drive you want to be number 9 2)type in the following program lines, pressing return after each one, of course: 10 open 15,8,15 "m-w" chr$(119 2) chr$(9+32)

20 print# 15, ) $(0) chr$ (9+64) 3@ close 15

chrs

Once you have this program entered, type: run

This will change the device number of the drive you just turned on, making it device 9,

3)turn on the other drive, which is set to 8

Issue 12

If you are always going to have to go through this procedure as you start up, you might want to consider changing the device number of one of your 1541 drives permanently to number 9. You can do this by means of a simple procedure using only a knife, a Phillips-head screwdriver to open the case, and a small bowl.

I know what you're thinking: Whoa! Open the case?! Yes! It’s really not hard at all. And there's nothing better for giving other people the impression that you area computer expert than opening the case of some piece of hardware, (This is definitely an operation to be performed at the kitchen table, for example, so the rest of your family can gape at you in amazement with anew-found respect.) Make sure that when you get the thing opened up, youlook over the highly ‘ow,

complicated stuff inside while saying"

which component shall | repair this time?” Of

course, since no one knows what a lot of that stuffin there really does (atleast, no oneL know), it’s best if you don’t actually touch anything.

Okay, here’s the procedure, Unplug the drive the conyputer, turn the drive upside down, and unscrew those four

from both the powers

serews that holdit together, Once the screws are removed, turn the drive back over and remove thetop. There'sametal plate kind-of-thing which

covers the really interesting bits, so you'll have

to remove that as well. Stpe one—you're in. This is the point where you will very likely you work, drop the

lose a screw or two, so a screws into the bowl. Also, make sure you are paying very close attention to how everything comes apart. Observation is everything in a job like this; in a few minutes you'll be needing those screws and also needing to know where to put them back in,

As you look over the “innards” of your drive, make sure you're facing the front panel and then look along the left edge about in the middle. You're looking for two “jumpers,” which are

little metal connections on the circuit board. These jumpers will be labeled either “1” and “2”

or "A" and “B,” depending on which model of

1541 drive you have, You're going to use your knife to cut thosejumpersin one of the following patterns:

DEVICE# JUMPERA/1 JUMPER B/2 8 don't cut don't cut 9 cut don't cut 10 don't cut cut "1 cut cut

Once you've done this, you can put the whole thing back together again. Make some off-hand remark like “There, that ought to do it!” (for the

January 1996

benefit of those you are trying to impress), and then mark that 1541 drive with the new number so you don't forget.

I know that may seem a bit daunting, but it’s worth it. Two disk drives are so much better than one, especially when you use programs hactively support two drives. Even without GEOS, though, that extra drive will definitely come in handy. Copying disks is much simpler with two drives. Creating and maintaining a library of disks (and we all do this; as the disk: umulate and it becomes harder and harder to remembe! where) becomes a lot simpler with two drives, since you can copy files from various disks onto archive disks by categories. Many programs can be loaded from either disk drive, too, and some let you write data to a second drive. All in all, a

suchas GEOSw!

what you put

second disk drive can be a very handy addition

to your Commodore computer.

Back to BASIC

We'vebeenloopingalotlately. We've been talking about IF... THEN commands and GOTOs. Those are very powerful concepts; I dare say that not a

program exists that doesn’t use some form of

looping. But thistimearound, Ithought wemight wander in another direction altogether. Let's createa screen display. We can use such a display for the beginning ofa program, for example, orto dress up a simple menu. Commodore's built-in BASIC language makes this kind of work very easy anda lot of fun, too. Essentially, we'll just use the PRINT command to place various lines, spaces, characters, and shapes on the sereen, With a little patience, we can design quite a nice display and even draw pictures.

The vi

the ones.

ious shapes we'll be using you see printed on the keyboard, We'll place themin our PRINT statements and when we run the program, they'll be zapped up on the screen, one line at a time. Before we start, though, let's clear the whole screen so we can work, Press and hold the shift key while you press the button on top row marked CLR/HOME. Your screen will and the little blinking cursor will move to ¢ that screen clear part ofa program by simply placing that SHIFT-CLR/HOME combination in a PRINT statement. Try it. Type this line (substitute the SHIFT-CLR/HOME key combo where you see (CLEAR/HOME)}) and RUN it:

cle

the upper left hand corer. You can ma

19 print "(Cc

You'll heart shape on the screen where you typed that key combination. That symbol is how your program shows SHIFT-CLR/HOME in a

11

command. When your program runs, that PRINT statement will not place anything on the screen;

in fact, it will remove everything from the screen.

You can PRINT other handy keypresses in this ), includingthecursorkeysandkeystochange colors of the text that will be printed.

Oka fancy display all set. Yoursereenisclearand you are ready to create a masterpiece. There is one small hitch, however. PRINT commands place things on the screen in thin horizontal lines. It's your whole picture will ike without a lot of trial and error. Ifyou're ding a few fri

wi

so now you have the first line of your

hard to see just wl look only too hard to do. To place a box around some text, for example, you just do this:

toamenu, that won't be

"(CR

int DN} (CE

rem move cu x down 2

30 print CMDR

" (SPACE}{ Y}(SHFT p)"

Notice how the shift key gives you the character on the right while the Commodore key gives you the character on the left.

CMDF

p){SHFT @)" Now RUN this program. See how nifty this looks? And see how easy it is to make cool displays? Thave created entire screens full of this kind of thing before, I've used those graphic characters to write large title sereens for games that I've written and dressed up many other programs with a little extra pizzazz I did a whole screen, though, | always planned it first on graph paper. That way I could copy the right things into my PRINT statements to make it all come out the

Whenever

I wanted. There are forty characters across the screen and 24 in all, Just be careful: you cter in the very last spot on the screen, the lower right hand corner, or the whole thing will automatically shift up on the screen one line and your top row will disappea ‘Try it once and you'll see what L mean, Commodore's built-in BASIC isa very capable programming language. Neat features like these char:

lines of characte

can't place a chai

cter graphics make it possible for even the novice programmer to createa very nice-looking sereen display.

€)

COMMODORE WORLD

Foreion Exchange

I'm not what you would consider the “jetset” type. I'm a hermitess/homebody who spends most of my time using my computer, For the last six months, I've been tapping at the keys in Reynella, South Australia, about 11,000 miles

from my US origins. Reynella is a suburb of

Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, The

seasons are the opposite in the southern

hemisphere, so when you're huddled up to your powersupply forwarmth thiswinter, Ubecoping with the summer heat here,

More than a ye ‘0 | decided to visit Rod Gasson, the author of QWKRR128, We met through the FIDONet Commodore echo, and have spent many hours typing mail to each other rs. We thought it would be nice (and Jess time consuming) to be able to talk with each other in person. There were many times I thought I'd never make it; that the ticket prices would be too high, that I'd chicken out (I HATE flying!), or Rod would get “cold feet” and rescind his invitation, None of my worst fears were founded, though.

over the

It takes some planning to move ones: Commodore equipment from one hemisphere to

the other! | had one suitcase filled with some of

my Commodore equipment while Rod supplied the major items: the C128, 1901 color monitor, and the power supplies I needed. My own C128 and monitor were left behind because, in North Ameri

, the computer and monitor are NTSC, whileherein “Oz” theyare PAL. The powertorun the equipment is also different. In the U.S. it’ 110v, while here in Australia they use 240v.

COMMODORE WORLD

By Gaelyse R. Moranee

COMPUTING DOWN UNDER

I didn’t leave any of my other equipment behind. [ brought an FD-4000 disk drive, my 5 meg RAMLink along with its battery backup (I didn't even try to see if the battery would hold for the trip!), my RAM Expansion Unit, 14.4K modem, SmartTrack trackball and my CMD hard drive, loaded with every file | thought I'd want, I also packed the user manuals for each device and many of my most used reference books.

While packing my suitcase, I kept having a vision of some movie-like Gorilla in the back of the airport mauling the luggage. lused reference books to create a padding layer in the suitcase, then put each device into anti-static plastic bags. J used sweaters and other clothes to wrap each item, The idea was to pack the suitcases so I could fit as much as w:

afe, and at the same time protect the electronic items from the luggage mauling gorill

I left Saginaw, Mi Wednesi

higan around 1:30 on a morning, and arrived in Sydney, Australia at 6:00 Friday morning. Because |

crossed the International dateline, Thursday never existed for me. I was prepared to have my luggage ripped apartin customs, sol had receipts

12

for each Commodore item to prove they were for my own use. [ found that they weren't very interested in my nifty peripherals, But I didn't get away that easy; [ still had to deal with the gorill With 400 other travelers, I waited and watchedas. the luggage came up a conveyer belt and was shot 3 feet, where it hit revolving conveyer, | watched other people's

id landed on the

suitcases crash, and upon impact, I sometimes got to see what they had brought with them! As 1 watehed, | kept thinking of my drives and RAMLink, wondering if I'd packed them well enough to handle the impact. After what felt like an eternity, my suitcase finally hit the wall (yes, 1 cringed). Did they make it? Remarkably, they did. I didn’t test things immediately (I had other things to do), but within a couple days | was reasonably sure most items had made it unscathed, Iwas metat Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport

Mark Dowsett, who authored the documentation for QWKRR128, and Darren “DaZZa" Gibbs, who is a Commodore user and the person responsible for bringing FIDONet CBM conference into Australia, Mark is an Air ‘Traffic Controller and uses his computers and modem to relax in his free time,

One of my first objectives upon arriving was to

get access to a computer and modem so I could send Rod a message to let him know I made it through the flight. My first lesson in using the phone system here in Oz was that the dial tone sounds like a distant phone ringing, waiting for someone to answer, only the “ring” doesn’t stop.

Issue 12

Also, BBSing here isn’t cheap, as each local call costs 25 cents. While it may not seem like much, it does add up.

Once I'd caught up with my mail, Mark gave me a tour of Sydney. In three days of walking around the city (including a ferry ride to the ‘Taronga Park Zoo, a walk around the Rocks area, watching a play, a tour of the Royal Botanical Gardens, and of coursea visit tothe famous oddly shaped Opera House) I was exhausted. The highlight of my visit in Sydney was visiting the new air traffic control tower with Mark, where I met another Commodore user. It was quite a moment to find myself chatting about my Commodore equipment while getting a spectacular view of Sydney, with the very latestin navigational technology all around us.

After my weekend in Sydney, I traveled on to Adelaide to meet Rod. He repairs VCRs and Camcorders from his home, and when not repairing video equipment he can be found in front of his computer. If he’s not reading mail with QWKRR128 or Browser, he's busy adding programming touches to these programs. His workshop is, politely put, “cluttered”—half of it devoted to his business, the other half filled with

computer related “stuff”. His system includes his C128, a 210 MB hard drive, 9 MB RAMLink, 1581, 15 wiftLink, and a laser printer.

We visited inventive Commodore user Paul Gardner-Stephens, the author of 64Net, to pick up the 128 I would be using. Paul's 64Net connects up to 4 Commodores to a PC in a networking system, and is distributed in the by Performance Peripherals. Paul is a ar old whiz kid studying Computer Science at Flinders University. His computers ina shed behind his house, with four different computer systemsset upin pairs facing each other with cables running between them. On the floor, a computer mouse was trying to escape it’s connection and managed to evade being stepped on. After watching Paul's hyperactive fingers type, showing us things on each computer, I wouldn't doubt that he uses his foot to control that mouse on the floor,

It took me about a week to get the power supplies, computer and accessories all together and set up. The size of the power strip/surge protectors used gave mea shock due to the large and unusual shape of the plugs, but it was good to sit down to “

ninete

were

my” trusty Commodore and

return to happily being a hermitess and tapping away at my keyboard.

Have I noticed much difference in using my Commodore “down under”? Not as much as | thought I would. | understand that PAL systems.

screen line in 80 column mode,

have an e: but I haven't really “noticed” it, My first impression was that there was more border on all the screens, in both 64 and 128 mode, In some ofthe programs use regularly I've noticed that the cursor flashes more rapidly, and Rod tells me that most programs written in the U.S. time don't track it correctly in —but it's not something I've found to be much ofa problem.

I've visited two user groups so far found them to be very similar to those when I lived and computed in the § come from all walks of life and ranges of computer experience, from the beginners to pros. It’s interesting to note that the Guru's arily those who run the meetings. | also found it fascinating (and comforting) that Commodore users, no matter where they are in theworld, can start talkingabout our computers

which Australi

ind have attended ates; we

and lose all track of time! Sound familiar?

€)

Commodore Chips NEW PRICK: NEW

6526, 6567,6569, 6581, 6522, 8502, 8562, 8500, 8563, 8564, 8721, 8722,

314972-03(C128 ROM Upgrade) $24.95

Motherboards

Paxtron

CORPORATION Hours: 9-5 pm EST*

$5.00 UPS Ch:

January 1996

1351 Commodore Mouse ‘Computer Saver

325302, 390059, 251968 $8.95 ©, 901225, 901226, 901227 $6.95 ae mike 251715, 251913, 8580,W01772 $10.95 (Any CBM Printor to PC)

Monitor Cables Used Monitors (Low Pricos)

nd Pa PRODUCT

Paral

GEOCABLE Il

lel Print Cable

inced Parallel Print Cable Ever! * Faster Output

28 Grove Street, Spring Valley, NY 1097: 914-578-6522 * ORDERS 600-595-5534 » FAX 914-624-3239

1541 ..., $14.95 1541/1571 Alignment Kit

154411 $19.00 1230 CBM Printer(Citizen120) .. $39.95

ue $19.50 PS1000 Ribbons ( min, 3 boxes) $,00/box

ces (untested, as is, all chips) Sirs C54 Keyboard base

-128 .. $49.95 _ C-128 Keyboard (limited Qty.) ... $27.50

C1280... $52.50 1084S Motherboard (Refurb) ... $69.95

1700 REU(512K) ard Only... $17.95 1084S Power Supply Board (Refurb) $29.95

Commodore Diagnostician: Guide to C-64 bl z $14.95 The Most Adva

ommodore Diagnostician: Guide to non-repairable ... $14

diagnose & fix CONI28/I541 ... $6.95 C64 pasa oe §19.95 * Uses Standard Cable

CBM C64/128 Dead Test Cartridge C-64 Heavy Duty (5.2 ace) $39.95 Equipped with a female DB-25

and Manual ..... + $23.50 ? cable connector to allow use of

C128 Diagnostic Cartridge (C-128 Heavy Duty (5.2 Amps) .. $39.95 standard 'PC’ printer cables.

and manual . $24.75 175052 amps $39.95 * Switchable Pass-thru

Manuals: MPS 802 & 1230, 1084, 1902, 154111 external 110 volts $9.95 Allows connection of printer and

1581, 1526, 1571, 801, C64, C128.Call_ 1581 external 110 volts $9.95 other user port peripherals such 1084S Flyback (Phillips) $35.50 as modems without conflicts,

tate fia Bybee BeAIED Gcocasten ist) ony sas.00

541 w/ PS . 1084 Flyback (Daewoo) $35.95 lt (15 ft. f ‘sr Str54041 for 1802C Monitor... $12.95 salededht ten este EY

Foreign $25.00,

Creative Micro Designs, Inc.

Parallel printing offers up to a 40% increase in output speed.

* GEOS Drivers Included Includes GEOS drivers plus useful GEOS utilities like MacAlttack Il, WronglsWrite, and GEOS CONVERT.

GeoCable I is compatibla with GEOS, Perfect

Print LO, Action-Replay MK VI, Superbaso,

Superscript, Paperclip Il, and a software thal

supports user port parallel printing,

PO. Box 646

zl \CRAD

ACiVisa

East Longmeadow, MA 01028

Orders: 800-638-3263 Info: 413-525-0023,

13

COMMODORE WORLD

By Katherine Nelion and Jason Compton of Amiga Report Magazine }

In today’s society, a new type of social status is arising. The basis of the status? Connectivity. Millions of people are connected through traditional phones, cellular phones, pagers, fax machines, and of course the newest craze: the Internet, Various forms of communication through the Internet are available, and more are being created. One of the most popular is the World Wide Web, also known as the WWW and simply “the Web.”

‘The WWW isa way to access information on more topics than you can imagineinanattractiveand useful manner. Thisinformationisaccessedby a program on your machine if you have a direct internet connection, or by a program on your “host” machine (your internet access provider). This program, or “browser”, relays the information to you intext form ifyouuse a text-based browser such as Lynx. Alternately, Mosaic, Netscape, and other graphical browsers allow for viewing in-line graphics, listening to sounds, playing movies, and other such “multimedia” experiences.

The advantages of using such graphical browsers are clear in that they allow for more detailed presentations. However, as Commodore 8-bits do not currently support the level of connectivity required for a graphical browser, using Lynxis your best bet. For maximum compatibility, usingan 80-column VT-100 compatible terminal is necessary. This will allow Lynx’s formatting to display properly.

Most Web sites use buttons, or “links” to allow you to travel from place to place (“page” to “page”), viewing more specific information on a topic, or examining a different topic completely, These links are selected in the graphic browsers through the use ofa mouse, and by the keyboard in the text-based browsers.

ery page has an address called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). ‘This is howa page is accessed for the first timeina browser or through the links, These addresses generally start with http:// followed by a directory and possibly a filename. Your internet provider will be able to tell you the address to use for any documents you eventually create.

What kind of file could incorporate all of these graphics, sounds, and links intoa presentable package? A simple text file written in the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format. The graphic and sound files are stored separately, and accessed by the browser when it sees the commands, or “tags” (surrounded by ‘<‘ and ‘>’ characters) imbedded in the text document.

COMMODORE WORLD

14

Beginners HTML

Don't be intimidated by the sound of “HyperText Markup Language”.

The basics are easy to learn and simple to use; no programming

background fs necessary. Many computer beginners have created their

own HTML documents, or “home pages.” What does a simple HTML >

document look like? j Note: The “begin” and

the documents. They are merely the

and ends, and give its filename,

s surrounded by dashes are not part of where the document begins

ant xa paragraph is es ol. <P>"Ht

talteegEe

4 </BODY> </HTML>

What does this look like in a browser? Well, the title would | either as a window title, or somewhere else near the to] Within the window or screen, the graphic (above right) would be shown. Starting from the beginning, the first tag is <HIMLS Tiss! es the browserknow thatthe documentisindeedan HTML document. The

Issue 12

Netscape: This Is the title,

Beeeeseee

[htto:77v ww 2net.com/=jeompton/simplepage htrnt

Hew2 |) Wratiecool?| | Handbook | NetSearcti | NetDirectorul Newsoroupy | This is the first header,

<P> is one of the most often used tags in HTML. Any time a new paragraph is to begin, a<P>isnecessary. Theexampleabove ‘Hem is another pangmeph, wah isabes, bold, and keyboant atyle types, illustrates how browsers ignore spacing, and this is true also of return characters, Another way to break a line (not shown) without causing a new paragraph is the stand-alone tag <BR>. When a browser encounters <BR>, it will immediately go to the beginning of the next line before continuing with the current paragraph.

You shouldn't be surprised if some browsers do not actually use bold or italics where they are placed above. The tags are actually <EM> for EMPHASIS, and <STRONG> for STRONG emphasis. The convention is, however, that <EM> isitalic, and <STRONG> is bold. Lyny’s ability to display these niceties is limited-but don’t worry, the text will still appear, in plain form ifnothing else.

These tags are enough for a basic document with no links, </HTML> likewise shows that the end of the document has been pictures, or other embellishments. However, adding a few pictures gives reached. page a personalized touch, and can be extremely useful for providing

Most tags followsthe <TAG_NAME> ...text... </TAG_NAME> mation. Even ifyour browser does not allow you to view the pictures SS with beginnin; nding markers delineating the ar tly, you will be able to download the image for later consideration.

may be nested, but each inner tag must be CO! 's another more complex example, followed by the image the HTML the outer tags. A tag can not hi i le” program creates: soc aD the endin ois of *

‘Ths is apargraph. The epacing of the words dotonk mater et all. The only way for abroveerto know that you wart 8 new paregraph iso wwe the <P> symbol

ITLE>Katie’s Home Page</TITLE></HEAD>

<BODY> e document that doesn’t <P><IMG SRC = “kati.gif” ALT = “[Picture of K

elf, such as the title. The atie]">q <Hl>My name is Katie Nelson, and I like...</H 14 <UL>4d <li> Gats <IMG SRC = “cat.gif" ALIGN = BOTTOM

ALT = "(Picture of Cat] ”>q

<Olip<LI> Grey Cats <LI> Black Cats <LI> Orang e Cats </OL>4

<LI> C64 Computerst

n size, and <H6> being <Ll> Making Lists] sers usually do not show <LI> Reading <A HREF = “http://www.the-spa.co 1 m/cmd/"> <EM>Commodore World</EM> </A>% <LI> Reading

om/Amiga UL>g A <A HREF = “simplepage.html*> s Pi is good for separating areas 1 iment </A> is also available. — is considered to be good form. <HR><P>Katherine Nelson<BR><EM>kati@cup Iso note that to-haye the browser actually, displaye<P>jayspecial oka COM</EM>Yors TREE character “&lt;” had to be used in place of the “<. Alternately, we could </BODY>4 ene é

have used “&gt;” in place of the “>” symbol. This is to prevent the </HTML> browser from following the instruction,

January 1996 15

[2]12) i=) 2l2)8) 2)

Location: sernpton /katipage html

Mmnt’s New?| What's Cool? | Handbook | Net Search’ | Net Directory) Newsgroups |

Inttp :/ www xnet.com/

My name is Katie Nelson, and I like

Netscape: Katie's HomePage BB

Graphics may be incorporated into the links, by placing the <IMG SRC> tag inside the <A HREF> and </A> t The picture included in this manner will become part of the link, and clicking on the picture will lead to the given document. This is useful for creating “icons” to follow different links.

Using the anchor links, one page can lead to many others of varying topics. Most people have links to pages about their favorite music, books, computer, and other such information,

For particularly long documents, links are also possible todifferent places within thesamedocument. Use<A NAME = “label”> and </A> to denote the destination of the link, and the link areais designated by <A HRI bel”> and

</A>. Any text can be substituted for “label”, but it must be consistent and contained in quotes. Be sure to remember the # sign before the label in the link.

This use of tags, to refer to locations within the same

atie’s Home Page” in the title) looks like the graphic The first new tag is the <IMG SRC = “filename” ALT = “text"> tag, Here, “filename” is the name of the picture to be displayed (.GIFs and JPEGs are the most common), and “text” is the alternate text to be displayed for a text only HTML viewer. Both need to be enclosed in quotation marks. In the example with the cat picture, there is also AL! = BOTTOM. This is actually the default alignment. The others are AL = TOP, where the top of the picture is aligned with the text, and ALIGN MIDDLE, where the picture is vertically centered with respect to the text.

Nextis the <UL>, </UL> set, and the stand-alone <LI> tags. <UL> stands for Unordered List, and with its </UL> counterpart, encloses all members

ofa list. Each member of a list begins with <LI>, as shown above. <OL>, Ordered List, and </OL> may be substituted for <UL> and </UL> respectively to obtain an ordered, numbered list (<LI> remains the same). Each of these two list types may be embedded within another list as shown. Notice again how spacing is unimportant within the code. Itis nice to have reading the source easier.

orderly spacing, however, to mi

Anotherimportant type of tagis the link tag, also known asan “Anchor” tag, Text surrounded by the <A HREF = “URL"> and </A> is generally highlighted and underlined. Selecting this text will take you to the address URL. If the linked document is on another computer, a full address is required, However, assuming that a document isin the same directory (as with simplepage.html), onlya “partial URL” is required, thatbeing only name of the linked document. Generally, on graphical browsers this text will appear in a different color and will be underlined, while on Lyn will find that the text highlighted in reverse video.

you

COMMODORE WORLD

16

document, is often used on what are sometimes called “flat” hypertext pages. That is, while there are several different of interest within a single document, the tags and links provide a vay tojump around the document without having toload anew, nto memory.

Now, to actually get your page up and running, check with your internet provider. Sometimes, they have a script that executes all necessary commands for you. Also, some machines may have different methods of

settii

g up a page. On our UNIX internet provider, however, we execute the

Then, outside entering the last two commands again.

If you don’t take our pictures’ word for it, point your browser (more lingo!) at this URL — http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/ and you'll find the two sample pages used in this article, as well used aterin this article series, Or, if you feel that you're ready to branch out, try the CMD home page at URL http://www.msen.com/~brain/guest/ emd/ (Or, you can just use the link provided on our example page!)

The nd instructions listed here should provide you with enough material to create a functional home page. Next issue, we'll pick up where we left off here with more HTML commands and other useful applicati of the Web.

thing in the public_html directory should be able to be read by wers, If you test your site and you get an error message, try

future examples to be

Issue 12

Historical Perspective: The Mensch Connection

By Jim Brain

WDC founder William Mensch not only designed the W65C816S processor, but also played a vital role in creating the technology at the heart of our favorite computers.

he Internet is buzzing with the news. T Creative Micro Devices is planning to

introduce a 20 MHzaccelerator cartridge for the Commodore 64 and 128 (in 64 mode) in early 1996. The topic has generated much renewed interest in accelerator cartridges, which are special units that purport to speed up the operation of programs executing on your Commodore machine. Many are wondering how compatible the unit will be with GEOS, games, and productivity software. Othersare comparing the planned unit with earlier designs, including the Schnedler 4MHz accelerator, introduced in the late 1980's, and the FLASH 8 cartridge, which runs at 8 MHz and was introduced just last year. Some of these designs used a faster version of the 6502 (the CPU found in the VIC-20), while others used a new CPU, the 65C816, which is a 16-bit version of the 6502 that can emulate a 6502. This is the chip that CMD plans to use in its product. Some of the discussion on the “Net” revolves around this latter CPU design.

All of the speedy CPUs used in these accelerators are the product ofa small company in Arizona: The Western Design Center, Inc. ‘That may not surprise you, but the way these chips are related to the 65XX CPUs in the Commodore computers just might.

Let'sbegin in the early 1970's, when Motorola started work on a CPU based on the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-8 minicomputer system. The designers worked diligently to create a one-chip CPU that shared similarity with the multiple chip CPU in the

January 1996

PDP-8, thought of by as DEC's first successful system. While designing the chip, however, DEC came out with the very successful PDP-11 minicomputer. The designers wanted to design a CPU based onthe PDP-11, but Motorola Was not ready tocommitto the newer technology in the PDP-11. The designers finished the original CPU, which became the Motorola 6800 CPU. Inthe following years, Motorola enhanced the basic design and introduced the 6805, the 6809 (used in the TRS-80 Color Computers and 4 secondary processor in the Commodore SuperPET), and the 68HC11 (found at the heart of some American automobile computers). Nonetheless, the designers never forgot the PDP-11 id

One of the principal designers of the 6800 was

many computer

a

Chuck Peddle, whom many Commodore owne: remember as the father of the Commodore PET. Another was William D. Mensch, Jr., who is very important to this story.

After the 6800 was completed, the designers got a chance to work on their PDP-11 CPU derivative design. The engineers left Motorola

for a small calculator chip manufacturer named MOS Technologies. The company embraced the idea of this CPU, and Chuck Peddle, Bill Mensch and others set to work to realize their idea. By 1975, the chip was completed. In September of

17

William D. Mensch, Jr., chip designer and founder of The Western Design Center, Inc.

Photo courtesy of The Western Design Center, Ine

1975, MOS introduced the MCS6500 series CPU in two forms. One version of the CPU was pin compatible with the Motorola 6800 and was advertisedasthe MCS6501 for$20.00. The other, the MCS6502, didnot share the pin compatibility, and was priced higher at $25.00.

In November, 1975, Motorola filed suit with MOS Technologies over the 6501, which begana long series of negotiations. Eventually, Motorola agreed to drop the suit if MOS would cease marketing the 6501. MOS complied, and the 6502 became the only CPU offered for sale,

Many Commodore owners know the name MOS Technologies as the producer of all of the ICs in the Commodore computer sys years, Commodore had contracted with MOS for calculator chips, which was Commodore's big market prior to computers, As the 6502 was entering the market, Jack Tramiel of Commodore started continually asking for more volume on the calculator ICs, forcing MOS to add more staff for increased production. Then, almost overnight, Commodore told MOS no more chips were needed. MOS, over-staffedand having just lost a large customer, became

tems. For

COMMODORE WORLD

financially unstable, and Commodore stepped in and bought the company for a fraction of its worth. In late 1976, MOS Technologies and all of its employees became part of Commodore Business Machines,

Now comes the tale of the two engineers. Both started working on the new computer system to be offered by Commodore, the Commodore PET. One engineer, Chuck Peddle, decided to stay with the new company and finish the machine, while the other, Bill Mensch, saw

that Commodore had no intention of furthering the 6502, and left the company for greener pastures. As Commodore owners know, the Commodore PET system was the beginning ofa long line of successful computers, including the VIC, the C64, and the C128. The story should end here... or should it?

In 1978, Jack Tramiel sent word that Commodorenceded to re-engin it touse the new CMOS fabrication process (earlier MOS ICs used the older NMOS process). Bill Mensch was asked to come back and work for Commodore as a contractor. Jack met with Bill, and the two struck a deal, Mensch would star business whose sole customer would be

Commodore. The new business would engineer CMOS calculator ICs forCBM, and royalties from thesale ofthe chipswould goto Mensch. The deal inked in 1978 and the designing began.

The new company was named The Western esign Center, Ine, and was in business solely ate CMOS designs for Commodore. While the calculator designs were underway, Mensch tried to interest Commodore ina CMOS version of the 6502. True to their earlier stance, Commodore was still not interested in any new work on the 6502. However, Bill Mensch was

w

D

toc

COMMODORE WORLD

very interested. The project was put on hold and the calculator chip designs were engineered. As the designs for Commodore neared completion, WDC acquired facilities in Mesa, Arizona, where they remain to this day. However, part of the payment for the building was supposed to come from the royalties ofthe chip designs, which didn’tlook too promising. No sooner had WDC finished the designs for CBM, than Toshiba halved the price of its

The Mensch Computer™ = Photo courtesty of The Western Design Center, Ine,

Mr. Mensch established WDC to implement his philosophy ofdesign simplicity for high technology and to concentrate on design improvements for application proven W65C products. That philosophy evolved intoaproduct line that includes the W65C02S and W65C816S CMOS microprocessors, the W65C134S and W65C265S CMOS microcomputers, the W65C22S Versatile Interface Adpter, and the Mensch Comptuer™, (above) a system that encourages new applications for W65C products and the platform for a wide

calculator chips, and CBM stopped work on its calculator chip production. WDC was left to suffer the same fate as MOS.

However, Mr. Mensch not about to let that happen, In October 1980, shortly after the CBM/WDC deal was signed, Xerox Corporation had sought to contract Mensch for some design work, but because of the CBM deal, WDC couldn't have Xerox asa customer. Xerox offered to give CBM access to its latest fabrication techniques in return for the ability to contract

Mensch, but Commodore wasn't interested, After Commodore and WDC parted ways, Mensch contacted Xerox. They were still interested, and dumped their entire R&D budget into WD count to keep themalive until the beginning of 1981. At that time, Mensch and WDC helped design the CPU for Xerox's Star Systems Computers. These computers were the fabled work of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) that included the first graphical user interface and introduced the world to that amazing input device, the “mouse”.

18

range of consumer computers.

After that work was completed, WDC was contracted by Mitel Corporation to create a CMOS ver helped design not even a decade prior. Evidently, Mycel had created a design, but the design contained a serious flaw that prevented the unit from achieving a speed over 250 kHz. WDC helped Mitel redesign the part, and Mensch saw that Mitel’s fabri CMOS tried to interest Commodore in earlier. So as quickly as possible, WDC engineered a CMOS version of the 6502, called the 65C02, in 1982.

‘The new design was completed and initial prototypes ran at 4 MHz, 4 times the speed of the MOS/CBM NMOS version, Immediately, Rockwelland GTE licensed the unit and started production. Commodore, being the way they were, sued WDC over the design, claiming it used trade secrets acquired at MOS. Once n, the 6502 design faced legal problems. Luckily, this suit (as the first) was settled out of

ation process suited his needs. fo

ersion of a 6502, the project he had

ag

Issue 12

Important Events in the Timeline

* The September 8, 1975 Issue of Electronic Engineering Times contains the first ad

for 6501/02 from MOS. * The November 3, 1975 Electronic New * Mensch left MOS in March of 1977.

ws has first mention of Motorola/MOS suit.

* Mensch was contacted by CBM in February of 1978.

* Menschand Tramiel met on Mother's Day, 1978to strike the deal. They talkedafter Jack had won a couple thousand at the blackjack table (I assume in Vegas).

* WDC came into being on May 26, 1978.

* Mensch had 10 MHz NMOS 6502 CP!

Us in operation in 1978. They were due toa

mistake at the fab, and ran very hot, but also ran very fast, * Commodore and WDC parted ways in October of 1980.

Other Tidbits

+ Mensch says Commodore put many companies out of business, but put him in

business,

+ A 6600 CPU was designed at Commodore and included the 6502/RAM/ROM on

asingle chip. It was canned. * Mensch helped in designing the PET, * Mensch wrote a game for a test machi run the screen. The game was similar

court, since it was shown that the timing for the two units was not identical. However, the most important piece of evidence for WDC was a particular operation of the CPU that very few programmers ever use.

‘The 6502 can treat data in the CPU two different ways. The first is called binary mode, in which a byte holds a quantity from 0 to 255. The other mode (which most programmers stay far away from) is called decimal mode, in which each byte is treated as two 4-bit nybbles which can hold a value from 0-9. Thus, a byte can express values from00to99. Underarithmeticoperations, decimal mode causes the CPU to perform extra work. In binary mode, adding $01 to $19 yields $1A. However, in decimal mode, the same operation looks different ($01+$19=$20). Notice the difference. In decimal mode, the low nybble is computedfirst($1+$9=$0), a to the high nybble addition. ‘This is called high nybble fixup. Whileat MOS, Bill Mensch designed a way of doing the fixup elegantly and had been issued a patent for it. In designing the 65C02, he purposely performed the fixup in a different way which required an extra clock cycle, Therefore, Commodore couldn't claim patent infringement. So Commodore, without much evidence to take to court, settled the suit, As part of the settlement, WDC allowed Commodore to license the design.

After the 65C02 started taking on a life of its own, WDC and Bill Mensch set its sights on a

January 1996

the VIC-20, and the KIM-I. ine used to test 6502 chips. It used a 6522 to to “BarnStorming”.

16-bit version of the 6: Again, Mensch tried to interest Commodore in the idea, but CBM was not interested. In fact, Commodore thought the idea was ludicrous. WDC contacted Apple Computer Corporation, who came totakealookat the design. The Apple engineers were impressed, but flatly stated that Apple had no interest in such a CPU. Mensch was disappointed, but vowed to complete the design, believing that Apple would use the unit someday. ight he was!

To complete the design of the 16-bit 6502, Mensch worked on the plans at home on a game

table. Hekept it distinct from his business ventures, since the design could not be funded. Then, 1983 saw the birth of the 16-bit 6502, dubbed the 65C816. Initially, the unit ran at 4MHz and came in two versions. One, called the 65C816S, was the full blown design. The other, called the 65C802, “816 that was pin compatible with the 65C02. Toease migration of code from the 65C02, both versions could emul: 2 CPU.

Not long after the prototypes were produced, WDC got a call from Apple. It seems Steve Wozniak, the famed designer ofthe Apple Il, had come out ofsemi-retirement to head up the design ofthe Apple IIX, and the"W. antedtouse the 65C816. Bill Mensch’s prophecy had come true as Apple introduced the Apple IIX, called the Apple IIGS when introduced. Furthermore, all that time spent designing the unit at home had paid off for Bill Mensch.

a 65

19

The rest, as they say, is history. The success of the Apple IGS kept money rolling into The Western Design Center. As the years progressed, both the 65C : ize madesmaller, resultingin increasingly faster clock speeds, and finally culminating in the 20 Miz unit induced in 1995. Even after the Apple IGS was discontinued, each CPU found customers who were familiar with the 6502 architecture, and impressed with the speeds of WDC's CPUs. One such customer is more familiar to many of us. Atthe turn of the decade, a new genre of game consoles came on the market, one of the first being the Nintendo Entertainment System, Its or was the Super NES, which uses the main CPU,

Commodore has seen some use of this CPU as well. While Commodore never bought into the 16-bit CPU idea, third party manufacturers have brought out numerous accelerator cartridges for the Commodore 64, including either the 65C02 or 65C816S as the heart of the units, As earlier noted, the FLASH-8 cartridge introduced in Europe last year uses the 8 MI1z 65C816S, and the CMD unit planned for 1996 will use thenewly introduced 20 MHz version of the chip.

So, if you purchase a CMD SuperCPU accel

G6saw their die

rator cartridge, remember that when you hook the unit up to your Commodore 64 or 128, youwill be reuniting two technologies connected toa single man: William Mensch.

+)

The Western Design Center, Inc. 2166 East Brown Road

Mesa, Arizona 85213

Phone: (602) 962-4545

Fax: (602) 835-6442

E-mail: wdesignc @indirect.com

COMMODORE WORLD

TH

fam)

By Jim Brain

It has been announced on the Internet and FIDONet, written about in this mag: many others like it, and Iam sure some of you may have already ordered it, What am [ referring to? The CMD SuperCPU accelerator cartridge, Ata maximum speed of 20 MHz, the unit will be over twice as fast as the current crop of accelerators, In addition to speed, the unit contains a processor that is more than just a souped-up 6510 CPU. This article will touch on the differences between the 6510 and this new processor, the W65C816S from WDC, The Western Design Center, Inc.

The W65C816S from WDC is an interesting processor by itself, but most programmers and users are probably wondering how this change will affect them and the performance of the SuperCPU cartridge, and many are interested in the additional features this CPU contains,

zine and

Emulation Mode

When the W65C8 16S CPU (called the ‘816 from. here on) is first powered up, it behaves just like 65C02, which is a CMOS version of the 6502 as found inthe VIC-20, The 65 10in the Commodore 64 and the 8502 in the Commodore 128 are just 6502 CPUswithan internal I/O register and da direction register for that register. Since this set

a

of registers can be added externally to a 6502 without any loss of compatibility, anda 6510and

COMMODORE WORLD

RECT (0)

8502 only differ with respect to maximum processing speed, we will use the 6510 for comparisons, As the CPU will be in this mode most of the time, we should evaluate how it compares toa stock 6510,

Onboard 1/0

As earlier noted, the ‘816 does not contain onboard 1/O, but that can be addressed with some simple hardware in the accelerator unit. Therefore, this problem can be overcome and will not affect compatibility,

CPU Speed

‘The ‘816 can run at speeds from DC to 20 MHz. Obviously, this isa drastic change from the 6510, whieh runs at approximately 1 MHz, Pro which rely on the fact that instructions will be

executed at 1 MHz should be expected to fail. Notable examples include many “demos”, and programs that contain some disk speedup utilities. Programmers who want to ensure compatibility with accelerated systems should try to use the raster interrupt for video timing, and the CIA timers for general purpose timing, cle counting”, Where more precise timing is required, programmers could use a routine to check the number of cycles executed over a specific period of time via one of the CIA TOD clocks. [Note: the SuperCPU also has a

instead of

20

Western Design Center’s W65 8168

register that can beused to slow the clock downto 1 MHz for routines which require timing based on the standard clock rate.]

Undefined or “Illegal” Opcodes The original 6502, as designed by MOS ‘Technologies, contained only 151 opcodes, but it used an entire 8-bit byte to represent each instruction. Therefore, there are 255 opcode possibilities, leaving 105 151) undefined 10, MOS didn’t “mask" the effects of unused opcodes,

These opcodes are often called “illegal” because the CPU manufacturer reserved theright to change any or all of them at will, and advised

se of the 6!

opcodes. In the

against their use, They usually perform a function determined by others opcodes in the same row and column. Some programmers considered certain of the 6510's undefined opcodes usefull in certain instances, and have utilized them over the years.

Since the ‘816 defines all of the 256 opcodes, any program utilizing a undefined 6510 opcode will most likely fail. Since the number of programs using these opcodes are few, this should not pose a significant problem, It may even be possible to patch some important programs that contain these offending instructions, but programmers would be well

advised to avoid using undefined opcodes, or at

Issue 12

least make some attempt to determine if the target computer can support such opcodes at run-time.

Zero-Page Page Crossing

In the 6510, issuing the instruction LDA (SFE),X. would retrieve the contents of the address in (High:Low) $00:$FF. This behavior comes from the 6510 CPU's inability to cross the page boundary when using zero-page. The ‘816 will retrieve the data from the address in (H:L) $100:$FF, which is the more correct behavior. Very few programs should suffer from this difference, since most programmers don’t use address $00 (which is where the onboard I/O resides) as a regular RAM location.

Indirect Jump Across Page Boundary

Also in the 6510, trying to do a JMP ($XXFF) will jump to the location in (IU:L) SXX00:$XXFF. The ‘816 jumps to the more correct location in (H:L) SXX00+$100:SXXFF. Again, very few programs should fail to execute due to this difference, but the possibility is always there. Programmers — should strive to prevent this scenario from occurring.

Decimal Mode Status

In the 6510, the status of decimal mode (rarely used mode on the 6510) is unknown after reset. Also, the status of this mode i not changed after an interruptoccurs. On the’816, bot the Decimal Flag to be reset to 0. authorities like Jim Butterfield and most programming books advise against using mode at all, the effects of this are likely moot.

2 this

Flags in Decimal Mode

‘The ‘816 ensures that the Z (Zero), N (Negative), and V (Overflow) flags are correctly set and reset when in Decimal mode. The Western Design Center claims that the 6510 does not correctly set these flags while in decimal mode. However, alternate sources indicate that the 6510 does indeed set these flags correctly when in decimal mode. As noted, so few programmers use this mode, the issue is most likely nonexistent.

January 1996

RDY Pin Influence

On the 6510, ifthe RDY pinis pulled low during a write, the write will complete before the processor stops executing. On the ‘816, the processor will stop immediately. This is why both the VIC-II and the REC chip in the Commodore REU series wait 3 ¢ after signaling the processor to stop before making any attempt to use the data bus during the CPU is should only affect those ams which use severe mutations of andard video modes, [Note: While this problem if the 6510 were replaced by an ‘816, this isn’t the case with the SuperCPU, VIC-II memory operations ¥ occur only in the main computer, using the internal bus. REU access with the SuperCPU is handled by custom logic which mimics the i of the 6510.)

time slice.

difference would cause

described charac

Interrupt After Fetch of BRK Vector

iggered after the 6510 loads the vector fora BRK condition, the 6510 will ignore the pending BRK and load the IRQ interrupt vector and jump to it. On the 816, the BRK will continue to completion, and the IRQ will be handled after the BRK is handled. Thi incom

happening with other. Since BRK is normally used only while executil program in a monitor, this incompatibility should not affect typical users in normal situations. The ‘816 behavior does not pose a problem for the programmer, since he or she will always catch the BRK situation

21

now, whereas the 6510 might allow it to slip through the cracks. This also applies to other interrupt scenarios, as in NMI after IRQ, NMI after BRK, etc. The 6510 might lose the first condition, while the 816 will always handle all exception conditior

Allother aspects of the CPU are identical to the 6510 with respect to function and form. It is stated by The Western Design Center that the 65C816S can be inserted into an Atari 2600 game console and the user can play all but a handful of the games ever marketed for the machine. However, that was when the CPU ran at the same speed as the original 6502 it replaced, Although the above conditions do exist in emulation mode, the single most problematic issue is simply speed. Some programs will refuse to run at the increased CPU clock speeds, while others (mostly games) will simply execute too quickly to be useful.

Native Mode

‘The ‘816 is actually two microprocessors in one. As noted, it emulates a 6502/6510 very it, folks—there's more! The 816 contains an impressive set of extensions to the 6502 architecture that enable it to perform 16-bit operations. That's right! The ‘816 is a 16-bit CPU. Here is a quick rundown of the many features available in 16-bit, “native” mode:

Internal 16-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 16-bit stack pointer (stack space increased from 256 bytes to 64KB)

16-bit accumulator and index registers 24-bit address bus allows RAM capacity of 16 MB

Includes original 6502 addressing modes and opcodes

Additional opcodes to support 16-bit operations

Support for Virtual Memory

* Extrapinson|Cindicateinternal conditions: like interrupt vector fetch, valid data and valid program address

Instructions like WAI (Wait for Interrupt) and STP (Stop Clock) further decrease CPU power usage

Internal support for co-processor

For the end user, it is apparent that most of these enhancements will more than likely only be useful if software is written to use these new features. Other features may require that additional hardware be developed to take advantage of the many additional modes and

COMMODORE WORLD

properties, So in the remainder of this article, | will introduce the Commodore programmer to these new features and suggest some possible uses for them with respect to Commodore computers.

16-bit Architecture The ‘816 is a 16-bit version of the 6502. Internally, the unit can support either 8-or 16-bit data as single units. The

programmer between 8-and 16-bit functions via a bit in the status register, In8-bit mode, theaceumulator is 8 bits wide (A), while in 16- bit mode the accumulator is 16 bits in width (A +B =C). In 8 bit mode, the upper 8 bits of the accumulator, although not

can switch

Co.

accessible to the programmer, can be used as temporary storage with the

new

Inge (XBA) instruction. The index registers

Accumulator

(X and Y) can also be 16 bits in length, allowing the programmer to index across 64KB of data.

16-bit Stack Pointer

Stack oriented programming languages like “Cand Pascal are more suited to the ‘816 because the '816 contains a G4KB stack page. In contrast, the 6502/10 has but one-sixteenth of thats ge programmers will also appreciate the added stack area for multiple or recursive subroutine calls,

ace. Machine langt

24-bit Address Bus Allows RAM Size of 16 MB

With the address bus increase to 24 bits in width (the 6510 has a 16-bit address bus), the ‘816 can directly access 16 MB of memory. Since all of the area can be seen by

he processor at one time, the conceptsofbank switching, REU DMA, andother memory expansion tricksareno longer necessary. Ofcourse, the added memory must be present in order to make use of this feature, but the

possibility is there.

Includes Original 6502 Addressing Modes and Opcodes Pre

utilities to the ‘816 immedia

MMers can start porting applications and All of the familiar instructions and addressing modes found in the 65XX architecture are included, as are the familiar registers .A, .X, and .Y. In fact, programmers may opt to not learn any new instructions at all.

COMMODORE WORLD

Additional Opcodes to Support

16-bit Operations

To support the new features found in the '816, the CPU contains over90new opcodes, Theability to transfer the stack pointer to C register (TSC), store zero bytes into memory (STZ), and perform block moves with a single opcode (MVN, MVP) ensure that the ‘816 programmer has the tools needed to simplify programming tasks.

“Because the CPU provides so

many new features, the mmodore computer owner

and/or programmer may be initially overwhelmed by all the things that can theoretically be accomplished.”

Support for Virtual Memory With the ‘816, extra hardware outside the CPU can alert it to an exception condition on the memory currently being accessed, The ABORT pin can be brought low to foree the CPU from updating any registers affected by the currently ulinginstruction. Thi rdware, permits the er

ex

facility, coupled with tion of more sophisticated operating system designs

some additional |

that force programs to request memory and disallow access to memory areas not owned by

that program. This allows designs of

multitasking operating systems and multiple user systems, Imagine a Commodore 64 being used by multiple people. (This is my personal favorite feature.)

Extra Pins on IC

These indicate internal conditions like interrupt vector fetch, valid dataand valid program address. ‘Theserious programmerwillappreciate the ex outputs available on the CPU, These extra logic pins will reflect what is happening inside the processor during internal operations. These pins could be used for debugging large programs, or external CPU enhancement cartridges. Other uses

include co-processoroperation,and multipleCPU environments.

Instructions like WAT (Wait for Interrupt) and STP (Stop Clock) further decrease CPU power usage. Although not necessary fora home computer like the C-64 or C-128, these features

22

could prove useful for individuals taking machine into the field or on the road. Each of these opcodes puts the CPU into “sleep” mode, which requires very little current draw.

Internal Support For Co-processor ‘The Co-processor opcode (COP) can be used to support additional or second: emulate complex pseudo-opcodes in software,

127 unique user COP opcodes can be

ary processors, or

defined however the programmer sees fit, This feature provides an easy way for programmers tointerface with secondary processors, and emulate the operation of a secondary processor if one is not present.

And More Surprises There are many other notable the ‘816. In the pins on the chip, one pin indicates the mode the processor is running in (emulation or native mode), while another pindisplays whethertheaccumulatorand index registers are currently being accessed as 8-bit registers or 16-bit ones, Finally, one pin can be used to externally synchronize memory shared by multiple'816 processors (The Memory Lock or MLB pin).

Internal surprises. The programmer can switch between

features in

rea of indicator output

y, the processor has yet more

native and emulation mode on the fly, and the

stack of the CPU can be accessed via relative addressing. With the 16-bit index registers, G4KB chunksof

data in one loop, and the block move opcodes

programmers can read and write

make moving memory impossibly easy. Since all

opcodes are present in both modes, one can take

advantage of many of these features without

having to reprogram existing 6510 machine language.

completely address all of the features of the “816, Because the CPU provides so many

new features,

the Commodore computer

owner and/or programmer may be initially n

theoretically be accomplished, | am

overwhelmed by all the new things that ¢

convinced that only a short time will pass before many of these features will be exploited to further the power and usability of the Commodore computer system. However, let us always remember to walk before we run, and apply that principle to our computing as well.

Issue 12

Excrmne New Pr CTs AVaiLasLe From CMD

: ‘cao lana 6 f TR

Armed with an unlimited supply of ammo, you set out to retrieve all the stars and terminate or avoid the creatures who try to stop you, while humming the catchy tune featured in this game. SlaterMan features five unique screens for each — level, passwords LEVEL 102 : for moving to a

wi given level, plus the ability to enable both music and sound, just music, just effects or silence. SlaterMan is a well designed game promising a great escape from everyday stress; but best of all, you can play it without reading volumes of instructions! SLATER SlaterMan $14.95

SCORE:BB1208

known as the The ae so nin Shogun 9 Swor 4 Yuichiro's fami . AS oftime. Traditio

his soul an sword whichis why th

Fusion powered laser tanks firing through a

it, . 4 can tovcTgbeenguardedtor centuries field of geometric uy : fnungrydamion, Toronaga, shapes that deflect or The power" id do absorb each laser blast

makeup the fieldof play in this game of skill

pep oa J Giliionse nto have mastered the technique of banking shots in the direction of their enemy will survive! Single or Two player, Lazer Duel offers 40 screens and 80 levels - each victory bring's a greater challenge,

making it difficult to beat the game!

LAZERDUEL LazerDuel $14.95

s on this itthe story fine did Daas Strats right f compres: creel ay! rege Ns - over 2 co cori 4 To Order CALL CMD ons, vicious jal 3.5" version for | features: tna rg ere's Yen eae Lorne Winter 800) 638-3263

re! } fand i that's not enoud keep your eyes open i H wners! So keep See our generallad|for shipping details

HD and RAMLInk 0

of this outstanding action game!

of the

With the upcoming release of CMD'sSuperCPU, there havebeen numerous calls, letters, and E-mail messages from users ng about this new product. Whatisit? What does it do? Where does it plug in? How will it effect the operation of

your computer?

Hopefully, many of these questions will be answered by this exclusive preview ofthe product. It isimportant to note, however, that theSuperCPUisaworkin progress, and thatsome ofthe details simply aren'tayailableyet.Asthey become Known, we'll endeavor to keep our readers informed, and up-to-date,

Let mealso point out that CMD has already altered some of their plans for the SuperCPU product line. Ifyou haven't yet read On The Horizon in this issue, CMD has announced that the SuperCPU 64/10 (the 10 MHz version) has been cancelled due to insufficient interest in that model. At the same time, there has been an official announcement of a 128 version. This latter decision by CMD was based on the large response from the 128 user community for such a product. But this latter announcement comes with a price: time, In order to make the 128 version feasible, CMD will

COMMODORE WORLD

The SuperCPU from CMD (Artist's rendering)

24

attempt to co-develop parts ofthe 128 version alongwith the present 64version, which they expect will now be delayed for an additional -twomonths, For further details of these announcements, see this

jon of your C-64/128 fs ~ It plugs directly into the cartridge port, and not only ‘computer added speed in calculations, but also provides “thee ‘computer portion of JiffyDOS

~ (CMDs disk speed enhancement speed). At its heart is the W65C816S microprocessor running at 20 MHz and a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device IC) which contains the custom logic required to mimic the characteristics of the Commodore 64, The 64 version also contains 128K Bytes of high-speed Static RAM (the sametypeofhigh-speed cache memory foundin 486/Pentiumsystems), and 64K Bytes of ROM. The 128 version will include additional RAM, ROM and custom logicto allowit to operate in both 64 and 128 modes,

Issue 12

Physical Characteristics

The SuperCPUis contained within an enclosure that measures approximately 6" wide by 3" high and 2" deep. Theenclosurehasan opening forthe Cartridge-Port Pass-Thru connector at the rear, precisely in line with the computer's Cartridge Port. The unit is about the same width as a RAMLink or Commodore REU. The main circuit board inside the SuperCPU mounts vertically, keeping the depth ofthe unit toa minimum. This helps to prevent devices plugged into the pass-thru port from extending too far back from the computer, Three easy-to-use toggle switches line the upper front edge of the unit: a Master Enable/Disable switch, a JiffyDOS Enable/ Disable switch, and a Speed selection switch. While the current prototype lacks a reset button andLEDstatusindicators, these optionsare being considered for the final design.

Installation

Installing the SuperCPU 64 nple: just plug it into the Cartridge port. No additional wiring or jumpers need to be installed inside of the computer, (The C-128 version may, however, require a jumper clip.)

Operation

Operating the SuperCPU requires no special knowledge. The user can perform all standard computer tasks in exactly the same manner as with a stock system, gaining the benefit of greatly accelerated speed. The toggle switches ontheunitare clearly labeled, easily accessible, and can be used without having to refer to a manual in order to determine their function. As with CMD’s RAMLink, the SuperCPU has been designed to work out-of-the-box with any C64 or 128 computer—no manual “tuning” adjustments will be required.

Compatibility

The SuperCPU 64 operates with C-64 and C-64c computers as well as the C-128/128-D in 64 mode. The W65C816S supports all legal 6502/ 6510/8502 opcodes, and will therefore provide a very high level of compatibility with existing software. The €-64 memory map is emulated exactly bythe CPLD, and proprietary write-thru logicin this chip ensures full compatibility with all VIC graphic modes and memory mapping.

REU's: The CPLD chipin theSuperCPU includes Special DMA transfer logic to provide 100% Compatibility with all types of data transfers to and from Commodore REU’s. The unit does not have to be slowed down to 1 MHz in order to initiate a DMA transfer to/from the REU.

January 1996

RAMLink: The Super CPU is 100% RAMLink compatible, and contains its own version of RL-DOS, which runs from the SuperCPU’s high-speed Static RAM. The faster RL-DOS, along with the efficiency of new 65C816S opcodes allows faster data transfers toand from RAMCard memory and also speeds up data transfers to/from CMD HD Series hard drives connected to RAMLink’s parallel port.

GEOS: Version 2.0 will be 100% compatible. Special software will be provided with the SuperCPU allowing GEOS to run at full speed.

providing DOS-Wedge commands and enabling high-speed serial transfer ratestoand from JiffyDOS-equipped disk drives. The JiffyDOS Enable/Disable switch is designed to function on the fly without disabling the accelerator itself.

Cartridge Port Pass-Thru: Enables the full use of most plug-in hardware devices such as REU's, RAMLink, Swiftlink, SID Cartridge, GEORAM, and some software cartridges. These devices will work while the accelerator is running at 20 MHz.

sod Nddedn

The current prototype board for CMD's Super 64 CPU

Performance

To help achieve its high level of performance and to accommodate the 20 MHz speed, all operating system routines are downloaded into 64K of the high-speed Static RAM during power-up. This feature eliminates the bottleneck caused by ROM-based operating system code (on PC's, this technique is called ROM-BIOS shadowing). 64K of high-speed SRAM remains free for programs. In addition, buffered write-thru circuitry (similar to PC cache controllers) eliminates the need to slow down when writing data into computer.

Additional Features

Built-in JiffyDOS Kernal ROM: The computer portion of JiffyDOSis built into the SuperCPU,

25

GEOS Software: Custom software to optimize GEOS operation is provided. Additionally, an it designed especially for GEOS effectively eliminates major performance bottlenecks associated with previous accelerator designs, Coupled with the 20 MHz clock speed, thi feature will boost the performance of GEOS far

intelligent write-thru hardware ci

beyond anything previously available.

Speed Selection: The speed selection switch provides three options: 1) Slow (1 MHz) mode for compatibility with programs (such as some games) that may operate too quicklyin theturbo mode; 2)a “soft” Turbo mode which operates at 20MHzand provides programs witha software speed selection register for switching to Slow speed when necessary; and 3) a “forced” Turbo

COMMODORE WORLD

mode which keeps the CPU in 20 MHz mode regardless of the setting of the software register, This mode is useful for providing compatibility with existing programs that unintentionally alter the software register. (Note: The SuperCPU performs disk access functions properly in all three speed modes.) The user can change speed modes by toggling the speed selection switch while the SuperCPU is operating without quitting from the current program.

Expansion Capabilities

The SuperCPU includes an internal connector (called the“Rocket Socket") which will enable the user to plug ina CMD-supplied RAM Expansion card. This card will have on-board SIMM sockets and can contain from 1 to 16 Megabytes of Dynamic RAM (DRAM). The RAM on this card can be used as either data or program storage, In addition, some or all of this RAM can be configured for use as an ultra-high-speed RAM disk drive.

Development Support CMD will be acti

ly working with developers

of the SuperCPU. A comprehensive developers ye will be available, and will include an assembler which supports all 65C816S opcodes and addressing modes. In addition to the extensive documentation will provide pertinent technical specifications, guidelines, and sample code. This package will enable developers to produce programs which take advantage of the 65C8165's enhanced instruction set, 16 MB

COMMODORE WORLD

addressing capability (for users with the optional SuperRAM Expansion Card), as well as other SuperCPU capabilities.

Programmable Functions The SuperCPU contains a special register which allows programmers to control the clock speed.

An additional register is used to control the SuperCPU’s WriteSmart™ function (see the sidebar), which determines what areas of the SuperCPU memory are mirrored in the host computer. Applications which can use reduced mirroring can signific operating speed.

‘antly increase their overall

Temporary Conclusion

As mentioned previously, the SuperCPU is a work-in-progress, and it will take a little more time before everything is known, and before everything that appears to be ‘known’ now is really considered to be ‘carved in stone’,

If anything can be concluded, | believe that CMDis creating a powerful new engine to power our C-64's and 128's, for those of us who either want or desire that power. Clearly, the features outlined here show that this design goes f beyond other previous accelerators in the areas of performance, expandability, compatibility, and features,

Furthermore, the creation ofan the developers kit hints at the p ity ofnew applicationsin the future that will take advantage ofthe power and resources this new device brings to the C-64/128 platform. Naturally, we'll keep you informed as further developments unfold!

§)

emblerand.

Some SuperCPU Technical Notes

The SuperCPU operates independently of the host computer's clock, but can synchronize with the host when necessary. This allows the SuperCPU to process data ata full 20 MHz while the VIC chip continues normal operation, Slowdowns can occur, however, because the host computer's memory and I/O locations must be updated when the associated SuperCPU memory locations are changed. In addition, serial bus timing routines must be performed at the standard 1 MHz speed.

Since the host computer's clock and memory operate ata slower speed than the SuperCPU, memory transfers between the two must be synchronized. Such transfers are the result of using LOAD and STORE instructions (such as LDA or STX) when the memory referenced is part of mirrored memory.

By nature of its design, the SuperCPU is able to maintain a minimum effective speed of 4 MHz during these memory transfers. By optimizing code for the SuperCPU, higher transfer rates are possible.

26

Programmers can also take advantage of the WriteSmart™ and CacheWrite™ features within the SuperCPU to further optimize their code. Doing so allows optimum speed during memory transfers, and avoids transfers when they aren't required. Here's a brief overview of these features.

WriteSmart: This feature determines which areas of SuperCPU memory and host computer memory must be mirrored, A register within the SuperCPU allows setting of four different configurations; all memory, BASIC (for default screen and color memory), GEOS (GEOS screen and color memory), and none. I/O memory is always mirrored unless I/O is switched off.

CacheWrite: This feature works in conjunction with STORE instructions, and holds a byte that needs to be placed into the host's memory until the host can accept it. If no further STORE instructions occur while the cache is full, no clock-stretching will be required in the SuperCPU, and optimum speed will be maintained.

Issue 12

E X A N D YOUR SYSTEM

5 SUOT CARTRIDGE PORT EXPANDERS The EX2+1 and EX3 Cartridge Port Expanders bring new expandability to you Commodore 64 or 128. Combine the use of compatible cartridges. Disable cartridges notin use. Change the address your computer finds a cartridge at. Avoid the constant changing of cartridges that puts extra wear on your cartridge port. The EX3 offers 3 vertical expansion slots, while the EX2+1 provides 2 vertical slots and 1 horizontal slot. Both units offer 7 switchable signals per slot, address mapping on slot 2, and a reset button.

ose 8c

P

; programming ~"the Gatekeeper

* + Povlous ofthe, 610 First St. Fnews “2g Liverpool * and more!

Sample issue

(20 pages): $2.00

‘year subscription (6 issues): $1100

ed

Don’t forget to notify COMMODORE WORLD!

Please call or write with your change of address 6 to 8 weeks prior to your move so that you won't miss a single issue!

System Requirements

* SEND & RECEIVE FAXES to/from any fax machine or computer running a fax modem

* User-friendly and easy to operate + Auto-answer mode for unattended operation

* Manual send/receive mode lets you share phone line

* Built-in functions convert faxes to geoPaint files

* geoPaint files may be faxed without conversion

* Built-in printing functions for printing fax documents and geoPaint files

* Printer drivers may be selected directly from within the program

]| ° Full-page scanning into geoPaint is possible using a standard fax machine as a scanner

* Built-in simple terminal program lets you browse telecommunications services

* Commodore C-64, C-64C, C-128, 128-D computer * GEOS 64 or GEOS 128 version 2.0 * SwiftLink RS-232 cartridge

* Group Ill, Class 2 fax modem

* GEOS compatible disk drive (large capacity drive or RAM disk recommended but not required)

Prices & Specia undies

GeoFAX......4. $39.95 geoFAX &

SwiftLink ........ $75% SwiftLink .....0. $39.95

geoFAX, SwiftLink BOCA 14.4

& BOCA 14.4 Fax Fax Modem .. $129.95 Modem........+

Creative Micro Designs

January 1996

See our main ad in this issue for complete ordering information.

27

$1952 1-800-638-3263

COMMODORE WORLD

HD-40, 42 MB (Limited Supply) HD-340, 340 MB (Special Edition) .. HD-500, 500+ MB (Special Edition) HD-1000, 1 GB (Special Edition) HD-2000, 2 GB (Special Edition) FD Series 35 Floppy Disk: Davee FD-2000 (800K and 1.6 MB) (Special Otter) ... $159.00 FD Real-Timo-Clock Opton/Kit $20.00/$29.00 Box of 10, High Density Disks (1.6MB) $14.95 Box of 10, Enhanced Density Disks (3.2 MB) ... $29.00

(Specity computer serial number and drive model)

JitfyDOS C64/SX-64 Systom $49.95 JitfyDOS C-128/128-D System $59.95 ‘Additional Drive ROMs $24.95

| Miscolianoous Harawaros | a umn Monitors (Returb)

Se oe nS CO Aprotek User Port Extension Cable C-64/64-C Computers (Refurb, w/JD) C-64, C-64C Power Supply (Repairable) Cc 128 Power Supply (Repairable) Cannon BJC-4100 Color Bubble Jet Printer .. ‘$399. 00

CMD EX2+1 3-Port Cartridge Port Expander... $34.95 CMD EX3 3-Port Cartridge Port Expander $29.95 CMD Gamopad/Joystick Controller $24.95 CMD GeoCable Il Print Cable 6ft/15ht... $29,00/S34.00 CMD SmartMouse (1351 Gompatibie Mouse)... $49.95 CMO SmartTrack (1351 Compatible Trackball). $69.95 Inkwell Light Pen Model 1706 ummm $75.00 Monitor Cablos CALL Mouse Pad $2.95

MW-350 Printor Interlaco (OK/BK Butfer) $49,00/$60.00 Panasonic KXP-1150 Spin Printer... $169.00 Panasonic KXP-2023 24-pin Printer, ‘$229.00 Panasonle KXP-2135 24-pin Color Printer ...... $319.00

Se Utinities i

Big Bluo Reader V4,10 (SOGWAP) $39.00 CMO Utitios $24.95 slityMON-64 (ML Monitor) $19.95 The Comprossion Kit 94 (Mad Man) $39.00 Colotto Uvities (Handy Geos Utitios) $19.95 Dosk Pack Plus $29.00

Owoozils Groatest Hits (New To0ls2 Stamp Labwit28) $30.00

FONTPAGK Plus $25.00 gataWay 64 or 128 (Spocity Version) $29.95 eoBASIC $20.00 geoCale 64/128 $40,00'$45,00 gooChart - $29.00 OOF AX ..

ooFilo 64/128... $40.00/845.00 gooMakoBoot (Makos Bootable copios) $12.95 gooProgrammer $45.00, gooPublish $40.00 GEOS 64 v2.0 $44.00 GEOS 128 v2.0 $49.00 ooSHELL V2.2 (CLI tor GEOS) $24.95 International FONTPACK. $25.00

Pertect Print LO for GEOS (Laser-like output) $49.95 RUN GEOS Companicn $20.00 RUN GEOS Powe ak | or It (Specify) $20.00

2 a S

‘Anatomy of tho 1541 Basic Compiler Design tor the C-64 C64 Scionce & Enginooring

C128 Computer Aided Design

C128 BASIC Training Guide

Cassette Book for C64 and Vie 20 Commodore 64 Tricks and Tips

GEOS Programmers Retoronce Guide Graphics Book for the C-64 Hitchhikers Guide to GEOS

Ideas for Use on Your C-64

Printor Book for the C64

Mapping the C64

Simplo Internet

‘Suporbiase - The Book

Handyscannor Pagetox

CREDIT

Sag WE ACCEPT ALL MAJOR

$149.00 $229.00 $349.00 '$10.00/$19.00 $24.95 $14.95

RAMLink Base Mode! (OMB, No RAMCard) RAMLink w/t MB RAMCard .. RAMLink wid MB RAMCard .. RAMCard ATC Option/Kit RAMLink Battory Back-up (Optional) Parallel Cable (RAMLink to HD)

| SIDI. & Sound

Digmaster $34.95 SID Symphony Stereo Cartridge $44.95 ‘Sonus 64 Sequoncer, MIDI Interface, Cabies...... $99.00

‘Sonus 128 canes MIDI Intorface, Cabies ... $99.00 Ges & Compilers)

BASIC 64 Compl (Abacus) BASIC 128 Compiler (Abacus) $25.00 Bitz! 64 Compiler (Skyles) $30.00 Blitz! 128 Compiler (Skyles) $30.00 Buddy 64/128 Assembler $39.00 ‘Cobo! 64 (Abacus) $17.00 Fortran 64 (Abacus) $17.00 Pascal 64 (Abacus) $17.00

$14.00

Power C 64 (Spinnaker)

Cadpak 64 (Abacus)

Cadpak 128 (Abacus)

Chartoak 64 (Abacus)

Chartpak 128 (Abacus)

{Paint v1.5 (120, cot. 64K VOC) (Lvng Proon 1 Port v1.54 (128, 80-col,. 64K VOC) (Living Proof Qutrageous Pagos (Batons included) Personal Portfolio Manager (Abacus) Pocket Writer 1 (64) Digital Sol)

Pocket Writer 2 (64/128) (Digital Sol.) Pocket Writer 3 (64 or 128) (Digital Sol.) Pocket Planner 2 or Pocket Filor 2 (Digital Sol.) PoworPian 64 (Abacus)

RUN Productivity Pak I. Ii, or Il (Specity)

$15.00

RUN Super Startor Pak 1541 or 158t $20.00 RUN Works $20.00 SEC Check Rogister 128 $29.00 SuporScript 64 (Procision) $15.00 ‘SuporScript 128 (Procision) $20.00 Suberbase 64 Version 3,01 (Precision) $35.00

Superbaso 128 Version 3.01 (Precision) SwiftCale 64 (Timeworks)

Parfect Tax 64 (Free '95 Upgrade) Porfoct Tax 128 (Froe 95 Upgrade) TWS 64 w/Speller (Busy Beo)

TWS 128 w/Spelier (Busy Bee) $39.00 TWS Modules (HO/AL/Mustrator) ‘each $5.00

Aprotok MiniModom C-24 (C» ready, 2400 bau) $69.00 Aprotok MiniModom C (Ge ready, 1200 baud) .... $50.00

$35.00 $16.00 $69.00 $79.00 $29.00

‘Aprotok Modem adapter (C= to Ext. PC Modem) $20.00 $69.00

BOCA 2400 Baud Modem BOCA 2400 w/SwiftLink and Cable BOCA 14.4K bps FaxModem BOCA 14.4K w/SwittLink & Cable BOCA V.34 28,0 bps FaxModem BOCA V.34 wiSwiftLink & Cable... Dialogue 128

‘SwiftLink FS-232 Cartridge (Up to 38.4K baud) ‘SwitLink Modem Cable (089-0825)

$39.95 $9.95

‘Atomino Ballistix

ay in the Life of Prehistonc Man Escape Route Heavenbound

Island of the Dragon Laser Squad

ons of the Universe Mainframe

Monace

Navy Seal

Rings of Medusa

RUN C128 Funpak

RUN C64 Gamepak Skate of Die

The Amazing Spider-Man The President Is Missing! The Three Stooges

Tie Broak Tennis

Total Eclipse

Utima V

Wings ot Circo

Wizardry 5: Heart of the Maelstrom

Feel =e

CARDS

P.O. Box 646

CrAD

East Longmeadow, MA 01028

Creative Micro Designs, Inc.

Info: (413) 525-0023 Fax: (413) 525-0147

+ SOFTWARE - CMD JiffyDOS

Increase Speed Up to 1500% while retaining 100% compatibility

* Speeds up Loading, Saving, Verifying, Formatting and Reading/ Writing of Program, Sequential, User and Relative files unlike cartridges which only speed up Loading and Saving of PRG files

* Built-in DOS Wedge plus 17 additional features including file copier, text dump, printer toggle, and redefinable function keys make using your computer easier and more convenient

* ROMupgrade installs easily into most computers and disk drives. Supports C-64, 64C, SX-64, C-128, 128-D, 1541, 1541C, 1541-11,1571, 1581 and more.

EDSeries

1.6 MB 3.5" Floppy Drives

The FD-2000 disk drives utilize today's latest 3.5 inch disk drive technology. FD-2000's support 800K (1581 style) and 1.6 MB (High Density) formats. Fast and reliable, they support 1541, 1571 and 1581 style partitions, Native Mode partitioning and can actually read and write 1581 disks, FD's feature built-in JiffyYDOS, SWAP button and optional Real Time Clock. High capacity, speed and compatibility make the FD right for

every application, including GEOS.

Power-Backed Expandable REU The fastest possible form of storage, RAMLink provides instant access to files and retains data while your computer is turned off. Easy to use and expandable up to 16 MB, RAMLink utilizes the same powerful operating system found in CMD Hard Drives, Unlike Commodore REU's which are compatible with less than 1% of commercial software, RAMLink supports more than 80% of the commercial titles. RAMLink also offers built-in JiffyYOOS Kernal, SWAP feature, reset button, enable/ disable switch, pass-thru port and RAM port for REU/GEORAM use. RAMLink offers maximum speed, expandability and compatibility with all types of software and hardware including GEOS.

SCSI Hard Drive for the C-64/128 HD Series Hard Drives are available in capacities up to 1 GB, are fully partitionable, and can emulate 1541, 1571, & 1581 disks while Native partitions utilize MS-DOS-style subdirectories. HD's connect easily to the serial bus or parallel via RAMLink. Includes built-in JiffyYDOS, SWAP feature and RTC. HD's offer superior compatibility with most commercial software including BBS, Productivity and GEOS. And with new pricing, HD Series drives offer the lowest cost per megabyte of any C64/128 storage device.

Shipping and Handling Charges

Use the chart bolow to match your order subtotal with your shipping zone and mothod Continental United States

=a

—

PR [canada

sa | s1700| st200 | $500 52000 52099 3500 | e900 | S100] sian | s7o0 52000:85099 zoo | s1000 | s2000 | s1500 | seo sca 00 49.09 sm | $1200 | s2a00 | si900 | sia 5120 00820009 | s1000| siaoo | sev0o | sov0o | sono s300.005709.09 | $15.00 | seooo | saaoo | sev0n | s2500

UPS C.0.D. add $5.00 (USJPR only)

Policies: CMD accopts: Major Crodit Cards, Money Orders, COD and Personal Checks. Personal Checks are hold 3 weeks. Customor is responsible for shipping charges on refusals, Most items ate stock, contact CMD for itm delivery. Returns for merchandise credit only within 30 days with prior authorization, Credits are loss shipping, handling, taxes, customs, duties, and a 10% restocking charge. No relunds or credits on opened software. All prices and specitications are subject to change without notice

Topay's Most Apvancep Mass StoraGE Devices Just Became More AFFORDABLE

FD-2000 Drive Specifications

Amazing) 1.6)MB capacity) pls reads &) Writes 1567 disks.

* Upito 20% faster than a’ 11581) on/stock computers, and Up to 1500% faster on JiffyDOS-equipped systems

* Emulates 1541/71/81 disk formats for better compatibility, plus CMD) Native partitions for greater flexibility

* Configurable as devices 8)through 15, plus front panel SWAP button for instant device 8 or 9 selection

* Optional Real-Time Clock (RTC) stamps time and date on allfiles and automatically sets GEOS clock

* Reads, Writes & Formats MS-DOS diskettes using Big Blue Reader utility program (available separately)

aie s 1 5 goo

Optional Real-Time Clock (RTC) add 20%

This offer valid only in U.S. and Canada through February 29, 1996. May not be combined with any other offers. Prices do not include shipping and handling. Please see our main advertisement on the opposite page for shipping prices and policies.

o Order Yours, Call 1-800-638-3263

If you thought the HD-40 was affordable before, just look at this...

Recently, during one of our routine searches for hard disk drives, we were offered a significant number of 40 MB Conner and Quantum SCSI hard disk drives ata price so low that we just couldn't refuse.

Additionally, were offered some

superb pricing on the larger Hard Drives. Solow, infact, that we're offering the HD-340 at a price nearly $1,500.00

lower than the original HD-200 back in 1990. If you've ever considered adding a CMD HD Series hard drive to your

system, now is the time to doit! These outstanding prices .

will only last as long as our supply of these specially priced drives. So don't hesitate—add the power and flexibility of a CMD hard drive to your system today!

CMD HD-40 JUST $249"

HD-340 340 Megabytes CALL HD-500 540 Megabytes $399 HD-1000 1 Gigabyte $499 HD-2000 2 Gigabytes $899

Prices do not include shipping and handling. See our main advertisement on the opposite page for shipping prices and policies.

CPAD Creative Micro Desicns, INC.

Demon Stalkers: Raid on Doomfane Electronic Arts

I deliberately waited until Halloween to re Demon Stalkers: Raid on Doomfane. adventure game from Electronic Arts puts youin adungeonfilled with gruesome creatures; perfect for the year's most haunting holiday

You have been elected to rid your kingdom of Calvi

k, the most dreaded monster in the land,

s awakened by the construction of the 100 level dungeon he now inhabits. You've been given an eternally-armed crossbow to aid you on your quest. Use extreme caution as you wander through the dungeon, because it’s loaded with many other dangerous monsters and traps, Also, keep your eyes open for treasures, clues and keys.

Demon Stalkers can be played with one or two players. Before you can begin game play,

HEALTH SCORE

12797

2676 4720 =<.

tei

HEALTH SCORE

COMMODORE WORLD

the manual suggests that, to prevent any damage to the master disk, you create a “scen

rio” disk, which takes approximately a half hour to make. | felt that this was an detraction from the game bee; people, Iwantedtostart game play immediately upon opening the package.

Once you've created the scenario disk, be sure to give yourself a nice chunk of time to play. Demon Stalkers is so much fun that it’s hard to tear yoursel fter all, there are 100 levels! If you manage to make your way through all of them, aconstruction kitisincluded allowing you to create all new mind boggling levels.

Asyouenterthedungeon, youareimmediately greeted by a host of rats. The rats are the least dangerous of the many monsters. During your rch for Calvrak, you'll encountera variety of rats, snappers, dervishes, and ghosts. The darker the color of the monster, the more harm itcan cause youand yourhealth. Also, dervishes can rob you of your hard earned possessions. You need to discover the clues, keys, treasures, and magic spells scattered throughout each level to complete the game. Inordertoadvanc to the next level of the dungeon, you must survive the monsters, and/or solve the rooms puzzle, and then locate the exit steps leading down into the next floor ofthe dungeon. The monsters and puzzles become increasingly more difficult with each new level.

The first time played Demon Stalkers, I made it to level 16, which consists of a series of paths filled with keys. Unfortunately, youcanonlyholdsomany

or

use like most

st

30

keys. Once your pockets are filled, you can't pick up any more keys, and your path ultimately becomes blocked by them. The only ways to dispose ofthe keysare to unlock doors or runinto adervish who, unfortunately, willalso steal away your health. Needless to say, Lam still stuck on level 16.

The game screen looks much like every other role playingadventure game. The playingscreen consists ofa maze filled with monsters, treasures, etc., and occupies most of the top of the screen, The bottom part of the screen is your status indicator. Look here to see how much health you have left, the number of keys, points, armor, and other treasures you May possess.

The game is fully equipped with a save and restore feature. You should become a pro at using these commands, because unless you're an expert game player or have a lot of free time on your hands, the only way to finish Demon Ikers is by regularly saving the game.

One feature | didn’t like in the game is the fact that after completion of every fifth level you are asked a question. The answer can only befound on the “wheel” supplied with the game, I think for copy prot question per g;

Demon Stalkers does not have out-of-this- world graphics oran extraordinary soundtrack. In fact, there is very little music in the game at all. But you will instantly love this game for the multitude of challenges awaiting you on each level and the constant variety of interesting

tion purposes one

ne would suffice.

monsters. Be careful, you may never see the light of day again!

-Sherry Freedline

Issue 12

Alcon Taito

Available from ?

Many of my all-time favorite Commodore games are among those produced by Taito. Who can forget the experience of playing Arkanoid, Arkanoid II, or even Bubble Bobble? What special quality do these games possess

that makes them so immensely enjoyable, even after owning them for so many years? Personally, I thinkitis the challenge these games provide, well as their amazingly bright, colorful graphics and unique soundtracks that keeps me and many others coming back again and again. All of the Taito games I have played todate feature many levels of difficulty, making them very hard to outgrow or master.

Alcon is one Taito game I never had the opportunity to play. Since I have played other games from Taito, my expectations for Alcon were understandably quite high. And, just as |

expected, Alcon did not disappoint me.

Alconis Taito’s venture into the land of space games. Alcon’s game play whisks you ahead to the year 2059 to the planets Theon and Orae, In the year 2055, humans were forced to exile to Theon due to planet Orac, Since this time, aliens have had total control of Orac and have been keeping some human hostages. Now, four years later, it's high time someone did something to end this alien reign and free the human hostage: thus, the Allied League of Cosmic Nations (ALCON) was formed.

The ALCON has elected you, Major Astor, to fly theirmost advanced starfighter, the SW475, The starfighter is capable of possessing a selection of seven different weapons/protection devices to aid you in your mission to liberate Orac: speed, shots, side (shoot from the side),

an alien invasion of their home

January 1996

ILA ALN

wing (enlarge wings & firing range), bomb, laser, homing missiles, and shields,

The first thing | noticed is how the Alcon game screen scrolls from top to bottom, unlike the normal left to right scrolling common in most games. The game screen consists of your SW475 starfighter flying up your screen over various space-type landscapes. Of course, you'll frequently meet up with a variety of alien ships. The second thing | noticed was the challenging game play Aleon presents. Unfortunately, | found this game to be very difficult right from the start. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took

me three attempts before I was able to knock off

the first two aliens of the game, An explanation arrassmentand maybe

here will reduce my em| prevent you from making the same mistakes | did. The first two aliens fly right at you, one on citherside. Ifyou concentrate on shooting both aliens, one of them will nail you with their incredible aim (they have homing missiles) | finally managed to get past them by dodging their missiles and flying to the right of the alien on the right side of my screen, Once | managed to get by these first two aliens, the game got a little easier, The next alien does not have a companion and is easily destroyed. The game continues in this manner,

Initially, the game furnishes you with three

$W475 starfighters, You are awarded additional starfighter after obtaining 50,000 points. Then, additional starfighters are awarded after every 70,000 points. Your starfighter does not come equipped with

31

enhanced weapons and protections devices; these valuable items must be earned by destroying aliens, The death of certain species of aliens results in the award of a yellow star. You must fly over the star to collect the w or device it represents, The weapon/devi then activated by pressing the spacebar, However, use caution in using these aids. For instance, the wing function augments the width of your ship and its firing range. This can be

pon

is

good as well as bad since it also gives your opponent a larger target.

Alcon is indeed one of the most challenging space games I have played to date. Unfortunately, if your are an easily frustrated game player, Alcon is not for you. It takes a great deal of patience to master this game, but patience pays off, The stimulating graphics make this game a great diversion from everyday stress. I would like to know if anyone has discovered any cheat codes or has made it through to the end of this truly awes

Sherry Fre

COMMODORE WORLD

Introduc’ Reputation is one of the only things | can think of which is acquired easily, but not lost quickly, | have personally found this to be true, Asan online Commodore resource, people think of me as someone who knows what I'm talking about. Boy, have [ fooled them! Butseriously, peopleask

me about very technical issues concerning Commodore computers,

and for some inexplicable reason, 1

come up with (somewhat) correct technical information in responses. Howit happens, Ihave ABSOLUTELY no idea, Maybe it's all in my name...

CMD is another group I think | must have fooled. Case in point: They sent me one of their CMD FD-2000 and asked me to do a technical review of it, claiming that they “appreciate my honesty and technical prowess.” So, one of the drives arrives at my house, and my reputation dictates that | review it on technical merit. So here goes.

Physical Appearance

The CMD FD-2000 comes in four pieces. The purchase will yield 1 disk drive, 1 Commodore serial cable, 1 small 9 volt wall power supply, and one disk of utility programs. The cableand power supply are pretty ordinary, is distinet

but the drive from other drives for the Commodore. The entire unit is painted black, which creates a striking appearance for the unit. (Personally, [happentolike black asa technology ¢ color, but that’s another story.) The drive appears to be a standard Teac 3.5" microfloppy

COMMODORE WORLD

drivemechanism, andisthe traditional IBM clone beige color. The front panel contains 1 swi Ds in addition to the custom manufacturer logo and drive model number. The LEDsarelabeled “Power”, “Activity” ‘Turning the unit around, we see the back of the unit is pretty simplistic as well. Two serial bus connectors are provide connector forthe power supply and a power switeh,

The drive can be plugged into the serial bus chain of devices at any point, although I would suggest locating it towards the beginning of the chain. Anyone who has ever plugged in a serial device will find connecting the drive a bree: CMD uses standard connectors for the hookups. The drive was up and operational in a

and “Error”,

matter of minute iting my grueling tests, Also supplied is a manual, which covers all of the features of the FD-2000, how to use the supplied utility disk, and how to use the FD drive with GEOS. Even though as a man, it is against my principles to read amanual, itis very clearand

32

well-written, presenting all of the commands available and what each does, Since the drive emulates the Commodore DOS functions very well, users will be able to get things going quickly, Still, one should read the parts of the manual detailing formatting and partitions, asthesearenewideastomany Commodore users.

Features and Operation

The CMD FD-2000 disk drive packs a lot of stuff into a pretty small case. Below are just some of the features the FD-2000 sports. The unit can do the following:

Format 800 KB 1581 style disks

Emulate the standard Commodore DOS. Commands, except BACKUP (found on early IEEE drives)

Work with GEOS and CP/M

Format 1,6 MB high density (HD) disks and utilize them with the CBM computer Logically “split” disks into multiple 1541, 1571, and/or 1581 p Logically organize partitions into subdirectories

Allow time and date stamping of files with the Real Time Clock (RTC) option Support burst commands on the C128 Automatically provides speed enhancement when used with Jiffy-DOS. enhanced computers

titions

One feature that bears special mention is the GEOS compatibility. Without any special

Issue 12

drivers, the FD drive will work with GEOS as a 1581 drive. GEOS can also take advantage of 1.6 MB disks by formatting them as two 1581 partitions. When used with GateWay, the replacement for G DeskTop, the user can use and abuse native 1.6MB disks in the FD. Since GEOS enjoys much popularity, the ED's GEOS compatibility is a welcome sight.

Since the test computer has JiffyDOS installed, the computer and drive could communicate at JilyDOS speeds, since the FD series of drives comes pre-installed with JiffyDOS. My first test involved a 1581 formatted disk. loaded dataand programs, performed utility chores like copying scratching files, renaming files, and initializing the disk. The only differences in operation from my 1581 were much faster access (my 1581 is not JiflyDOS equipped), and some operations done within the drive itself, like appending file, were also faster. This bodes well for the unit, as it did almost everything my 1581 does, only more quickly, The one thing this drive didn’t do that my 1581 doesis corrupt disks. [havea 1581 with the Western Digital 1770 drive controller IC, which Commodore offered a replacement for many years ago. So, in this respect, what the FD-2000 didn't do was welcome,

‘Thenext test involved high density floppy disks. Igrabbeda spare blank disk (Ithappened to bean AOL disk that came in the mail that day) and formatted it on the drive in the usual way. [then loaded a directory and saw that only 3160 blocks were available. This bothered me, as I could format that much space in a 1581. So, before wrapping the unit back up and marking it as non-functional, | looked in the user's manual entry for formatting and found that in order to format a fresh HD floppy for maximum space,

Rear view of the CMD FD-2000.

January 1996

you must specify a “,HDN”

after thedriveID. So with book TABLE 1 in hand, I followed the Command Type Deserition instructionsandthedrivewent Format Extension (format) after ID in regular (N)ew:

through its format process once more, After the drive stopped, lasked foradirectory

and found 6336 blocks New available for use. nay

With the newly formatted New

HD floppy, Iproceededtowork my way through the standard

New DOS operations. | saved files, New loaded thembackin, performed a save-with-replace, scratched New some files, copied a few files New around on disk, and then New verified a file, All operations New performedasexpected,withno New

surprises or mishaps, and all operations were completed

somewhat faster than the same operations on a 1581. Formatting still takes the most time, as I suppose it should.

After the standard DOS commands were , [tackled the CMD specific extensions. I'm told these commands are similar or identical to those used on other CMD devices, so not everyone will think these are as new as I do. For those who don’t know, some of the most used ones are listed in Table 1.

All of those commands functioned as describedin the owner'smanual, providing easy access to all of the extension and additions in the FD drive. Some of the commands, like G-P and C-P, have a version for direct mode usage 2, making even easier.

exerci

and a version for program us: are softw The subdirectory

development of FD.

commands are what really make the FD drive shine. Before, Commodore users had to group files separate disks or live withall theirfilesin one directory. Now, with the MD/CD/RD commands, users can

on

organize files more

effectively on the same disk. To explain, say a

group all f1* files into one place, all the £2" intoanother place, and

33

Drive Number Extension

Directory Extension

command dictates format density & partitioning options

Partitions can be numbered. (LOAD “2:JIM",8 loads from partition 2)

R-H command allows changing directory header name

G-P command retums info on specified partition

C-P command changes partitions

$=P views partitions, $=T views time R-P renames partition/drive name.

MD command creates CMD style subdirectories.

CD moves between CMD style Subdirectories

RD removes a CMD subdirectory Locks (or unlocks) a file

T-RA reads date and time from optional ‘on-board clock,

T-WA writes new date & time into clock

all the f3* files yet another place. On the FD, the user couldcreatethreesubdirectories (dirfl, dirt’, dirf3), and place each of the files into the associated directory, like so:

dirfl: 11 fl2 13 f21 (22 £23 131 (32 £33

dirf2:

dirf3:

When the user requests a directory listing of the disk, all he/she sees is the directory names. sting will show the files in that directory. The files are all on the same disk, just more organized. Directories can be nested and can be named just like regular files,

Since drive may have more than one partition, theFDallowspartitionstobenamedandrenamed, artition name is NOT thesame as the top level directory name returned when a user

Afiera CD commands issued, a director

However,

does a directory listing of that partition. This will confuse some, so it is best to try these commands and view the results. Also, the same applies to subdirectories, Thename ofa subdirectory asseen

from a parent directory does NOT have to be the same as the name displayed at the top of the directory listing when inside that directory.

C128 users will be happy to know that one can autoboot with the FD drive, and GEOS users can do soas well, although a special program must be used to make GEOS autoboot disks.

COMMODORE WORLD

Toincrease the usefulness of the FD with those programs which will only recognize drive #8 or drive #9, CMD has provided a SWAP button on the front of the case. Hitting this button once will temporarily change the unit's device number to 8. Hitting the button twice changes it to 9, while hitting it 3 times will change it to the default device number. This operation can also be done via software with the“S-8",“S-9" and"S-D" commands.

One of the first things that users who purchase the RTC option for the FD should do is set the clock. Setting and recalling the time and date is sily accomplished from BASIC and can be done in PETSCI, BINARY, or BCD, Time and date stamping of files is useful to help track dates of the last update on files, as well as which files are the newest revisions. Also, RTC users who have GEOS should take the time to install the supplied files on the utility disk that will automatically set GEOS' clock with the clock in the FD,

Compatibility

One cannot talk about a third-party Commodore peripheral without at le: mentioning compatibility issues. And so itiswith the FD-2000, Bynow, most peopleknow that Commodore drives all have their own CPU and memory map—a drive computer system. Over the years, programmers and others have taken advantage of that extra CPU and RAM in the drives to realize fast load routines or implement copy-protection schemes, among other things. When 1541 clones were prevalent, a successful clone needed to duplicate not only the physical drive characteristics, but also the computer system inside the drive. Commodore's 1581 wasa different story, as fewer software titles were released for the 3.5" disk format, and very few titles used

any of the features of the internal drive computer system. The 1581 was and is mostly used asa data storage drive. So, 1581 compatibility can be viewed

in two different ways.

If one views compatibility as the complete duplication of the 1581, the FD-2000 fails, as the internaldri lydifferent. If, on the other hand, one views 1581 compatibility as duplicating the 1581 disk format and layout, the FD-2000 shines. In practice, one has to take both issues into account. For people who want to use the FD-2000 as a data storage unit, the FD-2000 will work admirably. For others with copy-protected 1581 software, speed enhancement software, or non-JiflyDOS hardware based speed enhancement systems, the f'D-2000 will have problems.

Asthe FD literature states, the drive can also emulate 1541 and 1571 disk formats, called emulation partitions, but note that this implies only the disk format and layout will be emulated. Running copy-protected software

ecomputersystemisradi

COMMODORE WORLD

out of a 1541 or 1571 partition is an iffy proposition. In addition, attempting to use any 1541 or 1571 undocumented ROM routines will most likely fai

One possible compatibility ofthe FD-2000 involves programs that attempt to “discover” the drive typ some such programs that were developed prior ntroduction of the FD, the “discovery” code might fail if the code relies on undocumented ROM routines or special ROM/RAM locationsin the disk drive memory.

sue with all uses

nd

acity. For

to the

Internal As is customary with any product I receive, 1 don't give my seal of approval until I see how the unit is put together. I place great importance on this aspect of a product. I've seen many Commodore products over the years that were

flashy on the outside but a mess on the inside. | amhappytoreport thatthe CMDunitis well-constructed. The case is stamped from

standard gauge sheet metal, and is covered with what looks like a baked-on, black finish.

I took the FD apart for an internal look the fter my initial tests. The printed circuit rd is cleanly laid out, with standoffs to tain from the and appropriate masking and screening applied (r sprayed on boards, and the screen is the white lettering and outlining. Screening is . but masking protects against shortsand errant electrical behavior.) I noticed only a single hand-wired trace on the board, which appears to ground out an unused oscillator pin. The almost non-existence of rework on the board indicates a well- thought-out design, which means fewer problems for the end user.

ma distance

ca

se

asking is that green non-conductive stuff

34

Asforl/O,all connectorsare securely mounted, which will come as good news to those who regularly plugandunplugtheirsystems. TheSWAP button on the frontis securely mounted theboard, and protrudes through the case to rest against the back of the front bezel decal work. The mounted in front of cut-outsin the case, and show through “windows” in the decal.

While inside the case, I noticed a cutout on the rear ofthe case which couldaccommodatea DB-25 connector or similar. Possibly included for future expansion needs or to adapt the drive case for other uses, the holeis covered by the decal workon the rear. Also, it is apparent that the controller board used in the FD-2000 is also used to control

are

The circut board; inside the FD-2000.

theout-of-production FD-4000drive from CMD. There is a spot on the controller board for a different drive controller IC and some extra jumpers on the board itself,

Since this unit was equipped with the Real Time Clock option, a Dallas Semiconductor RTC module was installed in the ROM socket. For units without the RTC option, that module will be missing. The implementation of the RTC modulemakesaddingan RTC option toa FD-2000 unit a snap, and directions are printed in the manual for this purpose,

For the programmer, CMD has included information on the FD memory map, the of the drive tracks and sectors, the important functionsand memory locationsin the FD ROMs, and other technical information. Such openness is characteristic of CMD and should be useful to any programmer needing in-depth knowledge of the CMD drive.

Issues As you might have already guessed, | am very impressed with the FD-2000, CMD has produced

Issue 12

a fine piece of hardware, and packed it full of features. When I started looking at the drive, I was expecting a unit that would format 1581 per-1581” disk, with twice the ity. | was not expecting 1541/1571 partitions, Native mode subdirectory support,and SWAP button, Of course, I expected JifyDOS support, which is included as well. Nonetheless, have the following concerns and requests:

I'm confused by the ability to name a partition/subdirectory from one place, and then assign a different name to that same partition/subdirectory in another place. | was expecting to change the name of the

partition and see the change reflected in a top-level directory listin ich is not the case. For partitions, this is not a huge problem, since few will request partition listings, but the ability to giv two different names just adds unneeded complexity to the already foreign construct of subdirectories. | suggest either not renaming commands (the initial creation of a partition or subdirectory assigns the same name to both places), or making very sure that the names are in syne with each other,

‘The SWAP command/button takes control of theserial busand issues commands to other drives to perform its tri ‘xample: if the FD is device 10, and the user hits the SWAP button, the FD changes any device 8 on the serial bus to device 10, and then changes itself to device 8.) Users with more compatible drives will see no problem, I'm sure, but | wonder about less Commodore compatibledrives(IndusGT, MSDSD-LandSD-2, etc). Will the SWAP command work with them on. the serial bus?

asubdirectory

Drive Speed on C-64

(or C-128 in 64 mode) operation

LOAD

154 block PRG

SAVE

154 block PRG

READ

125 block SEQ

WRITE

125 block SEQ

January 1996

IfCMDeverupgrades the DOS forthe FD series, I would like to see an option to format and utilize MS-DOS disks. | know Big Blue Reader and other utilities exist to read and write such disks, but

nothing can compare to using MS-DOS disks with

native Commodore DOS commands.

For users who opt to install the RTC option after initial purchase, be aware that, as part of installation, the drive mechanism must be here isn’t any problem with that, but

removed,

bee: of aluminum, and ily, rendering installation much harder.) Since CMD has made it possible for users to do the installation themselves, a switch to a screw that is more forgivingtotypicalusertools would bebeneficial.

Through no fault of CMD, some BASIC 7.0 disk commands in the Commodore 128 work less than ideally with the partition concept of the FD. Evidently, BASIC 7.0 will only accept drive 0 and Lascorrect choices fordrivecommands, meaning thatissuing COLLECT, D2,U10will NOT validate

1841 1871 1581 FD-2000 FD-2000 w/JiffyDOS

time (seconds) operation

LOAD

154 block PRG

SAVE 154 block PRG

READ

125 block SEQ

WRITE 125 block SEQ

thesecond partition on device 10, C128 users will need to re-acquaint themselves with the BASIC 2.0 equivalents of the BASIC 7.0 disk commands. to get around such limi

Even as well written as the manual is, it will

ations.

probably intimidate some users. There are just so many features to describe! Thankfully, CMD supplies a utility disk that takes most of the work out of using the drives.

Conclusion

The CMD FD-2000 realizes the promise of a disk drive that betters the venerable 1581. The ability to format High Density disks, with GEOS, segregate disks into 1541/ 71/81 partitions, provide faster operation, and maintain the correct timeand datemake it immensely useful for the serious

wo

Commodore user. As for programmers, the rich set ofcommands, myriad of options, and overall stability ofthe drive makes supporting it in programs a rather easy task.

However, thedriveisnotutop

. Thedrive will best fit software developers, users who have the need for more removable storage capacity, and those searching for a better alternative to the out-of-production 1581. My only hesitation comes from the physical limitations of the FD drive. Its 1.6 MB capacity is only so much, and users needing more and not

needing the ability to transport files should probably look into a CMD HD series hard drive instead. Of course, the FD makes backups of an HD easier, so the above caution may have no bearing. But hey, what do / know:

- Jim Brian

9)

Drive Speed on C-128

(in 128 mode only) time (seconds)

COMMODORE WORLD

IN REVIEW

Three titles that may ease your entry to the Internet

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Unix Everybody’s Guide to the Internet

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet Second Edition, by Peter Kent, © 1994 Alpha Books

(367 Pages, $19.95)

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Unix

by John McMullen, © 1994 Alpha Books (375 Pages, $19.99)

I really hate being called an idiot, but I hate feeling like one even more. After discovering that some on-ramps to the Internet are different from others, | found myself needing to learn about accessing the Internet via a UNIX shell account. | felt the need to finda few sources of information.

After a brief hesitation due to the titles of The Complete Idiot's Guide” books, I finally decided to read a couple to see if they could offer me guidance. The books aren't written totally from the IBM-PC users perspective, which make them suitable for my use, since I'm using my Commodore 128 to access the Internet. A Windows disk is included in the Guide to the Internet book, which | promptly removed and reformatted foruse with my FD drive. Both books include a tear-out reference card, but the only one I've actually torn out to use was from the Internet guide. The booksand the reference cards area bright orange with dark blue in color, which make them extremely easy to find even in the most cluttered situations.

Both books use clear examples and a good dose of humor to get the information across.

The Internet guide assumes some working knowledge of how to load a term program and

COMMODORE WORLD

how to dial out, but makes very little in the way of assumptions about which type (there are a few) of Internet on-ramp you're using, whether it's dial-in to a UNIX system, a menu driven system, or for PC users, a direct connection. ‘The UNIX guide at times makes the assumption that you are using UNIX on a system which is available to you locally, such as your place of work. It spends a chapter or two on printing files, something you wouldn't need for use when using a UNIX shell account to access the Internet, but aside from this, most of the book discusses commands which are usable by those of us who are accessing a UNIX system with a remote computer, such as when I use my Commodore to access the Internet. As well, the Internet guide devotes a chapter or two on Windows, but luckily it didn’t devote the entire book to the subject, and the majority of it deals with things the average Commodore user will find of use.

In each book, each chapter ends with “The Least You Need To Know”, summing up the chapter as alist ofinformation, which can be a very quick way to skim through the book. If there are other methods which can be used, this information is included. Four different types of “additional” information are given in various places ofthe bookin the margins. These are highlighted in grey, with a different type of caricature graphic to go with it. One type explains phrases and shows a geeky looking character I call the “Geek Speak” guy, another has an older fellow who gives background information (the book actually says you can skip this fodder unless you're interested). A

36

scared looking kid ata computer gives help for when things go wrong, and an intelligent looking woman gives notes and tips to make things 5 The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet has subjects such as: “Your First Trip to the Internet”, “Menus and Shells, Oh My!”, and “A Unix Survival Guide” and then gets to more detailed subjects such as EMail, Newsgroups, FTPing, World Wide Web, Archie, Veron and WAISs. It includes a list of “Things to Do, Places to Visit”, as well as the complete archive of “Speak Like a Geek”. The index is accurate, something that I've come to depend on to quickly find information which isn’t included on the reference card, such as the correct syntax to use when uuencoding a file.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to UNIX takes the time to explain why UNIX is the way it is, and then explains why this information can be useful to the average user, Written with wit, it covers the basics and then deals with tips and tricks, using text editors, and mastering some of the mysteries, such as how to get the system to do more than one thing at a time. Most of the information in it is suitable for those who must use UNIX toaccess the Internet, including ways to make it easier and customized for personal use by changing specific files. It also has a chapter devoted to E-Mail and another devoted strictly to the Internet, but overall 1 found most chapters had something useful to remote users such as myself. | found the book to be quite beneficial.

- Gaelyne R. Moranee

Issue 12

Everybody’s Guide to the Internet hy Adam Gaffin, ©1994 Electronic Frontier Foundation, published by The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London, England (211 Pages, $14.95)

Noteverything good must comeinalarge, brightly colored package. “Everybody's Guide to the Internet” isa relatively small book, slightly larger than a 5x7 photo in size, but packed with useful Internet related items, and is written by someone who has definitely had experience with the various Internet software, such as the different types of mail readers.

Itbegins with information about computers, modems and terminal programs, most of which can be skimmed over since it covers only MS- DOS and MAC computers. Some of the information, such as the suggestion to use VT- 100 emulation is useful if we simply forget the type of computer being discussed. The rest of the book covers E-Mail, Newsgroups, Mailing

Lists, Telnet, FTPing, Gophers, WWW, advanced E-Mail, then spends time explaining what MUDs and IRC’s are (with the comment that they're more fun than they sound). It also gives listings of commands, and e given from a practical point of view.

The book includes two appendices, one explaining the terms used, and another with information about joining the Electronic Frontier Foundation, finishing with and avery comprehensive nine page index. While not a flashy or bold as “The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet”, it offers very straightforward information. While it’s not quite as humorous, it does have it’s moments, such as when the difference is explained between ELM and Pine, which are UNIX programs used to read and reply to mail with, the book covers both subjects individ d refers to the latter as “an barely mentioned

ples are

en better ‘The Complete Idiot's

Guide to the Internet” but are given comprehensive coverage in “Everybody's Guide to the Internet”, including a list of the basic commands for both E the pros and cons of each.

Other Internet/UNIX software is given the same treatment, making this book a very useful reference. It may seem odd than an electronic version of the book is readily available, but there isa distinct difference between having a text file and havinga book you computer. The frequently updated electronic version of this book is available via anonymous FTP to ftp.eff.org, in the pub/Net_info/ Guidebooks/EFF_Net_Guide/netguide.eff (please note, this is case sensitive) directory, or you can send an Email message to info@eff.org. EFF's Guide to

-M and Pine, as well as

referto

yy from the

The electronic version is entitled " the Internet”. - Gaelyne R. Moranec

Mastering the DON’T DO IT Key

by, Jin Bucttorfiold

The RETURN key is sometimes called the ENTER key; sometimes I call it the DO-IT key. That's because every time I press it, the computer does something, But I'd also like to tell you about another important key: the DON’T-DO-IT key.

This key is not documented in any Commodore manual, but everybody knows aboutit. Everybody, thatis, except YOU.. well-known that nobody thought to tell YOU about it,

The DON'T-DO-IT key (I'll tell you where to find it ina moment) does the reverse of the do- it RETURN key: it causes the cursor to leave the lineit’s working on without doing anything else. The cursor just hops to the next line.

Many of us enjoy doing nothing. But why

would you want the computer to do nothing?

There are two basic reasons: you might have muddled up a line you're typing; or you might just be doodling on the screen, Either way, you don’t want the computer to try to do whatever you have just typed.

Let me give you a use the screen to type a message. Perhaps the message is DON’T TOUCH THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE CLEANED YOUR ROOM, or BACK IN 10 MINUTES, or even FEED THE CAT. If you typed such a message and then pressed RETURN, the computer would respond

example: you want to

January 1996

saying it doesn’t know how to feed the cat. You could rename your cat SYNTAX ERROR, but that’s just avoiding the problem, Best to type the message, and then press the Don’t- Do-It key; the computer will know that you don't really want it to feed the cat, and move along to the next line.

37

I'd better tell you how to find that key before you get too impatient: it's Shift-RETURN, That is, hold down the shift key and press RETURN and your computer will move the cursor to the next line without trying to do anything else. By the way, ifyou ever touch those “other” machines (PCs, Amigas, and the like) the equivalent key combination there is CNTRL-X. But let's stay with our neat little 8-bit Commodore jobs, where

ETURN is the way to do nothing.

s Shift-

The other s ion where Don't-do-it, Shifted-RETURN, — is useful—almost indispensable—is when you're typing in a program line and somehow mess it up. The most common way to mess up alineis to get into “programmed-cursor” mode. That's sometimes called “quotes mode”, because one way of getting stuck there is when you're typing stuff in quotations. When you try to move the cursor around, it won't go: id, you get those peculiar reversed ch; hey are wonderful when you want them, but horrible when you don ouhavea wrecked line, RETURN would put it in your program, but Shift-RETURN abandonsit on the screen and lets you try again.

5

COMMODORE WORLD

Graphic Interpretation

In the last issue, we started writing our program. Here is the rest of that program listing.

400 @quit 410 c 420

(That was easy. Whena geoBASIC program ends, the deskTop is automatically reloaded and run.)

500 @colChoice 510 DBS number

RN"Enter color (9-15) ",c$

(I don't have to use the dialog box editor for this one; the DBSTRN command automatically creates one in order to accept user input and places the text string inside.)

> 15

520 IF VAL(c THEN 510

(Thisisstandard stuffin BASIC, trapping possible erroneous input.)

530 S

TCOL VAL(c$)

(We are actually setting the background color here. We'll draw our colored rectangle using that color. The foreground color, which we would use ifwewanted a framearoundourrectangle, would require some additional math. As it is, the foreground color will remain black, which we set it for back in line 320.)

540 RETURN 600 @pattChoice 610 DBSTRN"Enter pattern

COMMODORE WORLD

by Steve Vander Arh

(@-33)",p$ 4 VAL (pS)

700 @drawRect 710 DBSTRN"<C>olored or <P>atterned rectangle?*,r$

720 IF rS= THEN 740 730 IF x: 770 4 GOTO 710

75@ COLRECT 20, 35,22

(The color used for COLRECT is the background color we set with the SETCOL command.)

760 ‘ 71 RECT 20,12,35,22 (The pattern used for RECT will be whichever one was set with the PATT command.) 780 RETURN 800 @drawLine

38

PART 3

820 RETURN 900 @ 910 WINDOW @,50,100,100

(We're opening a new text window here. If we wanted to get fancy, we could use RND to place the text randomly around the screen, but fornow we'll just use the same spot each time.)

101@ DIALOG

"clrD",A

(The dialog box editor has pre-defined buttons which return certainnumbers when clicked. We'll test fora “YES” button, which will returna 3, and other wise assume the answer was “NO.”)

1020 IF A=3 THEN 1040 1030 RETURN 104@ SETCOL 15

(You never know what the color may have been changed to, but we want a filled rectangle using the background color, light gray.)

RECT @, 25,319,199 1060 RN

1100 bout

111@ DBSTRN"Program by Steve Vander Ark. any key ‘return'", AS

1050

Press and press

(could have defined a nice dialog box to display my name, but this will work too.)

Issue 12

RN

So just what does this program do? Nothing particularly useful. But it does demonstrate some of the basic techniques you will use when you write a geoBASIC program. There are plenty ofcommands I haven't even mentioned, including ones for sound and disk access. With alittleimaginationand some time trying things out, you could easily create very exciting GEOS programs this way.

GEOS Dreams... Most of the programs I've written over the years with BASIC have been simple games and the like. 1 enjoy the challenge of writing programs and wish I had more time to spen

don't consider myself a programmer at a

especially when I start ng to people lik Maurice Randalland Doug Cotton. Onearea that I would like to explore more in depth is disk access using geoBASIC. I have a feeling, though, that I'll never get to it.

There are plenty of folks out there, however, who have put in the time and know the tricks

nd shortcuts forusinggeoBASIC. lused to correspond with a few of them on QLink; people who had written truly powerful, exciting programs. I have since lost track of them, I'm afraid. I would really like to get a hold ofa few more of these experts, so if you're one of them, why don't you share some of your expertise with the rest ofus? | would be happy toinclude geoBASIC tricks and tipsin this column. Please contact me; you'll find addresses in the box at the end of this column,

write, let me offer ideas that I've had over the years for programs that I think would be perfect for the GEOS environment, Give them some thought. I'm sure some of them are outside of the scope of geoBASIC, but what the heck, I'll toss them out for you to consider anyway. And if you've got some great program ideas of your own you'd like

to suggest to the experts out there, why not send them tome for this column? Meanwhile, here are a few ideas of mine:

Mul This is a natural for interface is made for this kind of thing, and the

imedia Authoring Tool he point and click

Commodore computer is capable of all kinds of

multimedia output. This program would allow even a novice user to put together a multimedia presentation with clickable buttons on full-color graphic screens and all manner of music, sounds, and even animation tied in, The authoring tool

January 1996

itself could use a metaphor similar to HyperCard forthe Mac, wherethevariouselementsarestitched togetherall withthemouseandavariety ofattribute dialog boxes, The program should be able to incorporateSTD musicfiles, RAW digitized sounds. and voices, sprites, high-resolution and medium-

resolution screens, and animation files such as those created by Album Animator. How would this be used? I'd use it in my classroom, letting the kids create displays about their science topic, for example, Some people might use this to crea

te store window displays or informative presentations, A lot of people, myself included,

would just have fun playing around with it,

Web Browser Yeah, right. I know, browsing the World Wide Web takes a lot more speed than your average Commodore can handle. Those detailed graphics take a while to come in even on my Pentiumat 14.4 baud! What can anyone hope to do with a Commodore? The answer to that question is absurdly simple. You just browse! Maybe you won’ Il the pretty pictures, but that doesn’t mean you'll miss everything. As a matter of f images off when I roam the web using Netscape on my PC. They may look nice, but at the slow rate them come creeping onto my screen, I'm not so much browsing as stagnating. Hey, if I'm not going to be looking at the pictures anyway, why can’t use my Commodore? Surely it could interpret HTML, the programming language of the World Wide Web, and display a formatted text page. Then with GEOS we could point and click our way around. In other words, we could use “browse” as it’s real meaning!

Tknow it isn’t quite that simple. I realize that

, I've recently been turning the

there are seads of little obstacles to overcome before a Commodore running GEOS accesses the Web in anything other than put text mode, But I also know that the Web is becoming a major form of communication, growing larger and more exciting every day. !don't want GEOS and the Commodore to be left behind,

Some Really Cool Games

Now, I do love geoTiles and other strategy games for GEOS. I love to pop up a game of blackjack every now and then. But I'm talking about other kinds of games here. Where the graphic adventures like the Bard's Tale series? Where are the war games and the flight simulators? And speaking of simulations, where is the GEOS version of SimCity? Any of these types of games could work under GEOS. We need more games like Cluster Wars along with our Tetris and Solitaire.

0

39

Connections This isn’t one program; it's more of an idea, really, but one which will translate into many

different programs, I'd like to see connec in GEOS for ROM drivesand scanners, These types of devices

II sorts of devices, including CD-

are becoming the norm in computing these days, and the Commodore should take advantage of them. Here's an example: I use a small, hand- held computer called a Newton in my classroom, Thave to trot on down the hall to the library to hook it up to a desktop computer in order to

store information or load new programs onto my Newton, But there is absolutely no reason why this Newton couldn't communicate with my Commodore instead, storing dataina geoFile database, for example.

hat Newton would 4,

become quite a nifty peripheral for my wouldn't you say?

And So On., Thereare alw ing ideas coming along in computing. Bill Gates and Company would have you believe that theway to computer happiness is through ever bigger and more powerful desktop machines. Many of the new computer users these days are buying their first machines on which to run multimedia software for the kids. The Internet is now referred to by commentators as a full blown craze in this country. All of this new high-powered, high- tech stuff is great, and I would love to see the GEOS user tap into some of it. After all, you don't need new equipment every six months to beinnovativeandon top of things, youjust need software that takes you places and let's you connect. | see GE s having that potential.

Maybeall those big ideas won't come through geoBASIC. But if you've got ideas and a hankering to get started with programming, geoBASIC isn'ta bad place to start. Who knows where it might take you?

new andexcit

%)

's for Steve Van

E-Mail on the Internet at: stevevark @ aol.com.

You may also send letters to: Steve Vander Ark

6730 Brad Ave SE

Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49548.

COMMODORE WORLD

The SysOp's Corner

By Max Cottrell

KY,

SO YOU WANT TO RUN A BBS?

Submitted For Your Approval Many ofyou Commodore users out there realize that with the rightideas and set up, youcan have a successful business based on a Commodore 64, But other people are so used to the IBM and Macintosh platforms that they forget about the smaller, older ones. When they are confronted ith theexistence of them, they are momentari amazed; jolted out of their mundan overproductive high speed programs to a supposed bygone era of small, inexpensive, yet useful computers.

So it has been with me. | am the owner and operator of a small online newspaper/support BBSin Ypsilanti, Michigan called “The Ypsilanti Community Information Service” (YCIS). My BBS/newspaper has been featured on the front page of the local newspaper and in five other articles, including an editorial about the system. I've been interviewed twice by a local radio station, and the Freenet which is starting in this, area has asked me to help design the systemand do graphies for them.

Running my BBS takesa lot oftimeand energy, butit has also taught mea lot about running my photography company. | learned some important lessons along the way, which is the basis of this column. I'll touch on some subjects here and then expand on them in future issues.

Publicity

When you start to set up your system, you will want to keep in mind that the most important thing to decide is what the theme of your system will be. Publicity goes hand in hand with that, The careful planning you do when setting up will mean little if you have no attention in the media. | suggest looking around your community; read the local paper and see if you can pick out what the interests are in your area. Is it community events, sports, debates, or

COMMODORE WORLD

political disassociation? I doubt if you need to make a decision right away, so take your time. Dual themes are okay if you can do it. My focus islocal news (with the help of city hall... moreon that another time), and support for my photography company.

Menu Design

Here's where the software that you choose comes into play. I did several weeks worth of research before | settled on the software I currently use called “Does The Job”. Most will allow you to create whatever you want in the way of menu

design. Color 64 will do it for you automatically, Omni 128 (which requires a 128 to run), needs to have menus created before you can start

Does The Job has no real menu system, but allows you to create whatever kind of menu you want. [ have found that after the 1,000-plus log-ons | had since starting the YCIS, that menus are where it’s at. What is ‘it’ interface. That is what your system. The files may be the personality of a BBS, but the menusare the face that the public sees. Too many colors, too much writing, difficulty in getting tothe menu willadd a feel of ‘klunkiness’ to your BBS. When I design a menu,

menuis. Itis the face of

40

Istart simple. No ANSI colors, no wacky or cute entries, just a screen clear and the selections. Then 1 log onto the system and see what it looks like from as many platforms as possible. lalways log on with my C64 and my IBM to see what it looks and performs like online. Then wait for feedback. Let that decide where you go from there.

Naming the System

Here is where publicity, advertising, and the theme come into play. The online newspaper | run is community based, so | named the BBS “Phe Ypsilanti Community Information Service’, If the theme were chess for example, I might have named it ‘Chess City USA’. Your imagination is the driving force.

I can’t stress enough the importance of two things: First, make surethat thenameyou choose is not already taken by another business, and second, make it something you like and can live with, and which is descriptive of the system you are running. But let me add a twist here, What if you decide to change the theme if it turns out that nobody is interested in what you are offering? (It might not happen, but be prepared.) Don't make your title too narrow; I suggest making the name generic, Here in Southeastern Michigan, w S ke “HAL9000",

ve BBS nam and “Motor City BBS”, These systems can all change themes without changing the name.

Advertising

Put your system everywhere you can; on other BBSs, in classified ads, door to door flyers, telephone poles, computer stores, andin the all- important press release. These are the least expensive avenues you can take. Start cheaply and see what happens. Continue if it generates interest, or try something else if it doesn't, and see what happens next. I was able to get over 40

Issue 12

new users by posting a flyer in a local computer store, which had an area where you can put flyers oradvertisements. Advertising takes time togenerate the interest that will get users online, so don't be disappointed if you get users who don'tcall back. Asalways, patience and feedback from the users is the key, as is cost.

Press Releases Go toa book store or the library and finda book on starting a small business. Look at the press release examples. Copy them. Make your BBS sound like it is the greatest thing since peanut butter! Ham it up and write it in a friendly manner, Show it around and ask your friends what they think. Then send it to every media outlet that deals with small news item Sending it to CNN makes little sense, but sendingit to the local radio station makes all kinds of sense! Post it on other BBSs, sendittonewspapers, and sendittostores that might be interested in getting involved. This is free advertising. If you do it right, you might be on the front page!

Modems

Ah, here is my favorite subject. What good isa car without an engine? A bicycle without a chain? A BBS without a good modem? I think you see the connection. However, this can get expensive very quickly. You don’t want to start out at 300 baud, and there is probably no need to have 28,800 baud either. Most systems still use 14,400. Error correction, speed matching, compression, and DTR detection all are important.

Recently, 1 switched from a Aprotek 2400 minimodem to two different stateofthe art 14.4 modems in one week. | started out with a US Robotics Courier, and had some error correction problems with it, so I switched to an off brand modem that works better. Remember that you will want to choose one that is designed with running a BBS in mind.

All modems have an auto answer feature, but many do not offer the ability to automatically change speeds, autotrain, compress data, and detect what kind of modemis calling. When you call GEnie or whatever online service you use, the modemat the otherendwillask your modem what speed itis, what error correction it is, ifit compresses data, if it is synchronous, asynchronous, autoasynchronous, error correction asynchronous, uses MNP, LAPN, V.42, V.32, V.21, and a ton of other questions that are important to modems. You have to

January 1996

keep in mind that when you are the answering party, you are expected to be able to accept signals from just about any modem. This is especially true if you are using a speed greater than 2400 baud. The faster the speed, the more things that the signal requires to stay ‘clean’, Thave found that letting the modem do it all is the easiest way. I set mine so that it willask the calling modem what is going on and what it wants to do. [ suggest one that will us

as many protocolsas possible. My current modem usesa few kinds of error correction, and other features

that are needed these days. This has proven to bea problem for my users, and generatesa lot of calls to my customer support line, Don't be

afraid to ask for advice from other BBS owners.

When I call a BBS, I always ask what kind of modem that they are using. This has really helped in my selection of modems. Ask other Commodore BBS owners what they use. Some BBS software programs don't support some jad that I got mineupandrunning with the Aprotek before I started messing around with faster speeds. This gave me a chance to get the BBS running well before I gave myself the stress of wondering if users were having

modems. I'm,

problems getting online.

Openness of the System

What kind of users are you trying to attract? Will ases or require real names? Do you ing list? Are you planning on in, relating this to ‘ounts. [havea

you allow al want to keep am charging for an account? Ag; my

tem, I have two levels of

guest account that everyone is welcome to u

and then | have actual accounts that my users.

use for E-mailing each other and to have a name attached tothearticles that they upload. I require an account be held to do uploads, so this works out well for me. But it might not for you.

41

Some systems allow the users to choose their own password, and some assign them for you. Will you force the user to give their real name? If not, they can start trouble on your BBS by doing ng something illegal or immoral. There won't be any way to stop them because even if

or say

you kill their account, they can just get a new one under a different name, The software that use has a swear checker that will dump the user offline ifthey use words that I don’t want on my system. All of this is up to you, the owner of the BBS. Remember, you have control over what

users do online and what they have access to,

Hours Online

This oneis easy: 24 hours. If you don't, it doesn’t matter how great or wonderful the system is. You will find that there will be no users who will schedule their online times around your schedule. This has been proven time and time again,

Beta Testing Have friends (whowill give youan honest opinion about what your system looks. like to them) call your BBS several times aweek. As you get more and more menus and files set up, more and more glitches and bugs will creep into the system. You will be better off having a friendly voice tell you that something is wrong than a irate customer (if you charge a fee to get online). This will also allow you to find out if the system is easy to use. Since you are so close to the subject, you might think that it’s easy to use, but your users might find it difficult or confusing. A good beta tester is nice toha That's about it for this time, but I will expand. on each of these subjects in future columns, Now, for a BBS kind of idea. My system is user driven, What the users want, | try to do. So, E-mail me at mephoto@sojourn.com or me.photo@genie.geis.com with your ideas and

(a

comments about what kind of BBS related subjectsyouwouldliketo see here, 1 with a lot of other SYSOPs on other and we frequently match wits to solve problems that we all share. Do you have questions? Feel free to ask. I might not have all the answers, but I can point you in the right direction. If there is amistake to make, | have made it; from erasing all the rooms on the system to forgetting to turn on the modem. These kinds of things WILL happen when you run a BBS. Expect to learn a lot, work a lot, and get a lot of attention when

econtact

ystems,

you run a BBS.

COMMODORE WORLD

Carrier Detect

By Gaelyne R. Moranec

DOWNLOADING MADE SIMPLE

The Case of the

Invisible Shrink-Wrap

You've downloaded the latest and greatest from your favorite BBS but now that you have it, how do you get the program to run? Have you ever seen funny looki

ng messages that seem like they, might ha file in them, but you didn’t know how to change these from text back into program form? For some reason, the idea of “codes” reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, grappling with mysteries to solve, So, let's go on an adventure

Vea

and find out about what to do with files once we've downloaded them,

The Shrink-Wrap

Mastering the mysteries of downloaded files is a matter of following the clues to find out where to peel the edge of the shrink-wrap it comes packaged in. Cool Commodore stuff that you find online doesn’t come in plastic shrink wrap of course, but you'll often find that it does come ged in one way or another, Many program files you'll find when ‘Sing or checking out the online services arein archived format. Archiving accomplishes the same thing as if the programmer had created a shrink- wrap package for the software, since he or she will usually include all the things you'll need to use the program such as supporting files and the instructions, so you'll know wh: it.

Most archival programs will perform a bit of magic and let you fit more into the package than you'd normally beablet ledcompression, When youdownload thesoftw ou'll need tounpackit from its packaging by using a program to “dissolve” the archive, Luckily, many of the newer you'll find online come in environmentally friendly ‘SelF-dissolving’ ages. These are usually called SDA (SelF Dissolving Archives) or SEX’s SelF eXtracting) files. This type of archive is easy for the end user because you simply make sure you havea blank disk (or more) handy, then run the file with the SDA or .SFX suffix.

Files ending with “SDA” don't give you much ofa choice as to what disk drive you want to use, asit will only dissolve to device #8. When you run the SDA, you will get a prompt to insert a blank disk and to pressany key when ready. The disk you use doesn't have to be blank, but it does need to have

to do with it once you ha

COMMODORE WORLD

42

enough space to hold the archived files on it. There are some SDA files that can be dissolved in 128 mode, but most I've run into have to be dissolved in 64 mode,

When youloadand run SFX files, y a pleasant surprise— these sometimes display text ora graphic which ma for the program, or a BBS, Some programmers use this screen to tell the user how to load or use the software. It always pays to read this before proceeding with dissolving thefile. Aftershowing this screen (ifthere is one), you will be prompted for the drive number (0, 1 ora partition number for CMD devices) and then for which device number (8, 9...) that you want to use when dissolving the files. Sometimes youneed alittle more to dissolve a file, as some archived files require you to usea utility program to dissolve their files. These archives have endings like «ARC, .LD IP, ARK, and .LZH.

One utility worth mentioningis the OMEGAQeII program from the now defunct Q-Link. This is a program which lets you do a lot of things, such as read text files, copy fil id even dissolve many of the different archive types (ARC, ARK, SDA, and .LNX to name a few), and lets you use more than one disk drive too. It’s an easy to use menu program and if you belong to a user group which had a Q-Link account, chances are OMEGAQ-I will be in the club library.

A program called ZIPUNZIP takes a whole Commodore 1541 disk side and compresses it into four files which are named A!IDISKNAME: DIDISKNAME. For this, you'll need a blank disk. The utility program you'll need is ZIPUNZIP.SDA.

Files which end with ARC, .LZH and Zip may have been created on another platform computer. I say “may”, because we have utilities which can createand dissolve most of these type archives. There are two different ARC files, both of which can be created on the Commodore. Of these, one is strictly Commodore and the other is an MS-DOS style. The name ARC is the same, but the method of compression is very different, and the software you use to dissolve it depends on which type it was made with. Its not hard to figure out which program you need to dissolve it, however, as if one doesn't work, you'll know to try the other.

oumay have

bean advertisement

Issue 12

ARC250.4 is the C64 utility (it’s really a small operating system) which is used to create Commodore style .ARC files. You can find it as ARC250,SDA, ARC250 has been called many things, but it’s never been called “user friendly”. You don’t have to use this program to dissolve -ARC files though, as you can use other utilities such as the above mentioned OMEGAQL, or depending on the size of the ARC file you could use a program called ARC-SDA2.SDA to turn the ARC into a SelP dissolving file.

TheC64 doesn’thave thenichein creating ARC files, as both Commodore and MS-DOSstyle ARCs can be created (and dissolved) using C128 software. Chris Smeets created an operating system for the 128 and named it after himself (if! wrote one, I'd name it after myself, too). CS-DOS is sometimes thought of as a utility to create or dissolve archives such as .ARC, .LZH, .SFX, but really it’san operating system witha lot of utilities, a few of which have to do with archiving files. CS-DOS has had many “add-on” utilities for it come out over the years. Look for CS-DOS15.ARC and be sure to pick up any supplementary files like CS-ASSTI.SFX, CS-As LHARC128.ARC, or CSXTRA4S.LZH.

CSXO1.SDA is a stand alone program for both the C64 and 128 which was also written by Chris Smeets. It allows you to dissolve MS- DOS style ARC's from either the 64 or 128.

You may evenrun into Commodore files which have been Zipped using

PKZip 1.x - and there are two utilities which you can use to unZip These files. The C64 utility is UNZIP101,SDA, and

the 128 utility is NZP12817.SFX. These programs will only dissolve Zip files which were created using PKZip version 1.x, not the later v2.04g version,

CBM To GEOS and Back

Again

Sometimes after you've dissolved a file, you may find you still need to do more with it before you can make use of it, especially if it's a GEOS file. GEOS uses its own file structure which means they have to be converted to Commodore format before they can be shared via modem.

When you download a GEOS file, it will often have a file extension of .CVT, which is a reminder that you need to convert it back to GEOS format before it can be of any use to you, Her example of a Catch-22: the program you need to convert the file: application so after you've downloaded it, it too needs to be put back into GEOS format again, Luckily, it’s not all that bad, as some (not all)