Bally and Astro BASIC Manual Differences By Richard Degler, Editing by Adam Trionfo October 2010 These differences were compiled from postings that Richard Degler made to the Bally Alley discussion group. The main points are broken into three sections: I) Bally BASIC Manual Differences (Rev. 2 Compared to Rev. 1) II) AstroBASIC Manual Differences III) Bally BASIC Programmed Instruction Course Addendum I) Bally BASIC Manual Differences (Rev. 2 Compared to Rev. 1) ------------------------------------------------------------- Pg. 2 - They removed "All Rights Reserved" in the newer version from the copyright 1978 blurb - don't all publications need that? Pg. 3 - Index - added sub-chapter page numbers and more appendixes. Pg. 8 - Overlay LETTERS - The 'slash' was correctly colored in red. Pg. 9 - They added an additional sentence = "Don't hold down the shift key when you press a letter or character key" Pg. 11 - Add "Never spell out computer words like B-O-X or S-T-E-P, use the gold WORDS shift key to enter these computer command words into your program." followed by a table of... RUN STEP RND LIST NEXT GOTO FOR GOSB INPUT TO RETN PRINT (they left out a few) and... "A complete description of these Computer Command words is on page 122." followed by a box that said "Note: If your computer says WHAT? you have made an incorrect entry. The computer will point out the mistake with a question mark (?). Correct that line only." Pg. 12 - Add after "HELLO!" - "The quotation marks are important because only the letters you put between them will be printed." Pg. 13 - (After "...number it 20.") "Notice that GOTO is one word." Instead Of "Check your program and see if it matches the example" uses "Notice how line 20 tells the computer to go to line 10 and print HELLO! again." Both variations continue "If your TV screen doesn't match this picture," - but "RESET your computer and enter line number 10 and line number 20 again." is replaced by simply: "fix the entire line that has the mistake by reentering the line number and the correct line." Pg. 16 - Changed (press the WORDS key before you press) GO to GO+10 "Be Careful to use the letter X not the multiplication sign (x)." Pg. 17 - Changed another (after "Or press WORDS and") GO into GO+10 Pg. 46 - Change this line: 143 NT=3 PROGRAMMING COURSE pages have TABs with LESSON number 1-8 on them Pg. 52 - Replaced wrong code "S" with "$" as seen in screenshot. Change these lines 20 FOR A=1 TO N 60 FOR B=1 TO@(A) 70 PRINT #1,"$", Pg. 60 - Change this line 60 IF K=31 A=A-1;GOTO 100 Pg. 63 - Inserted (computer) "draws the cursor box and" (waits), and also changed another Key 30 to 31 for "is the erase key." Pg. 64 - Screen size was only 159 by 87 instead of 160 by 88 dots! PROGRAMS | COMPUTER GAMES | PHASER PHUN program listing on... Pg. 99 - Added missing line "190 GOTO 10" to make it loop right!! Pg. 102 - ROCK/SHEAR/PAPER listing was missing even more lines... 280 H=H+1 290 GOTO 30 301 PRINT "ROCK";RETURN 302 PRINT "SHEARS";RETURN 303 PRINT "PAPER";RETURN Pg. 106 - Use program on page 60 Pgs. 107- Corrected some music scores for the PLAYER PIANO: including 110 Melody / March / Marine's Hymn / Stars and Stripes - and also added vertical lines between columns of musical notes. APPENDIX Terms and Symbols | Computer Words section... Pg. 122 - Changed "ERASE: means forget the last key you pushed." into "ERASE: means remove the last item you entered." Pg. 128 - Took out "Control Words" (for 300 baud tape) section and moved the old "Arithmetic" section up from page 129 Pg. 129 - New "Keypad Inputs" and "Music Synthesizer" sections Pg. 130 - Expands old "Control Words" into "Audio Tape Control" section - adding a picture and "With the Bally BASIC audio cassette interface accessory you can store programs on audio tape, play Bally software cassettes and exchange pro- grams over the phone." (Did anybody manage to make a MODEM work?) Stuck on the bottom of that last page was "For more information about the latest Bally BASIC software and accessories, see your Bally dealer or write: Bally BASIC Bally Consumer Products Division 10750 West Grand Ave., Franklin Park, Ill 60131" The BACK COVER had the BALLY(R) logo with "PROFESSIONAL ARCADE", "FUN & BRAINS tm", the address again, and an ISDN number: "0620 00304-A0000 1078", plus "Printed in U.S.A." as well. II) AstroBASIC Manual Differences --------------------------------- Mostly the Bally logo was changed to ASTRO when AstroVISION became AstroCADE in 1982, and they lost the rights to use the Bally name. In fact, every "Bally" mention became "Astro" in the Alt. Version. Pg. 2 - Added a Sue Forner (who's this?) to the "By..." line. Pg. 6 - Swapped the "Insert" and "Remove overlay" picture captions. Pg. 7 - [and others pages], blanked out the "(C)Bally" notice on overlay. Pg. 90 - Had duplicate of program "Perspectives", now has an ad. Pg. 95 - In the listing when they fixed line number 190 to show that you need a space (and not a GO) between "IF W" and the following "TV=", they erased the '5' in line 170 where it once had "P/5+1" (I used the '/' as the divide's sign.) One of the saddest mistakes, to me, is that Artillery Duel has a mistake in the first edition of the AstroBASIC manual that makes it so that it won't work correctly. The second version of the manual fixes that problem but has an entirely different set of mistakes. The Arcadian has the fixes for these. ARCADIAN, 4, no. 4 (Jan. 22, 1982): 36. ASTRO-BASIC (REV. 1) MANUAL CORRECTION There is a direct typo in the program "Artillery Duel" on page 95. In line 430, where BC is controlled, the printer dropped the initial "R" in the Random command, so change the printed portion to read BC=RND(3)x13+86 Then in line 190, when entering this line, be certain to leave a space after the IF statement. The printed line overflow to the next line has caused some confusion. This portion of the line should look like this: IF W TV=95+(W>0)X2 ARCADIAN, 5, no. 4 (Feb. 18, 1982): 56. ARTILLERY DUEL CORRECTIONS required in the newest Basic Manual (that comes with the #6004 Basic Videocade).... As an identifier, the older version of the Manual has two printings of "Perspectives" on page 90. Now that you know which version you have, those with the newer one should make two corrections in Artillery Duel on page 95. Line 170 should read 170 P=(S=1)x5;C=P-5+1 and line 350 should read 350 BOX 0,36,159,16,2; BOX (P+1),(P+2)+1,3,1,1 ARCADIAN, 5, no. 5 (Mar. 14, 1982): 77. ARRRGHHH, or "RATS!", DEPARTMENT. We found two errors in the last issue - One was caught before we went to the mail room, but I am sure that we missed hand-correcting some copies:- page 56, correction to Artillery Duel: In line 350, there should be an @ before (P+1) and (P+2) Pg. 112 - Added PX(X,Y) command description, which was missing. On the Back Cover - ASTROVISION, Inc. became AstroCade logo, and "Manufactured under license from Bally Manufacturing Corp." added And the actual overlay copyright now says "ASTROCADE BASICtm" and "1978 ASTROCADE INC" with NO (C) circle (and a very dubious date!) III) Bally BASIC Programmed Instruction Course Addendum ------------------------------------------------------- This is a copy of the addendum for the Bally BASIC Rev. 2 manual. These changes have been incorporated above, but this is listed here for completeness. Bally BASIC Programmed Instruction Course Addendum Please make these changes and additions to your Bally BASIC programmed instruction course. Page No. 11 Do not spell out computer words (B-O-X or S-T-E-P). Use the WORDS shift key. 46 Change this line 143 NT=3 52 Change these lines 20 FOR A=1 TO N 60 FOR B=1 TO@(A) 70 PRINT #1,"$", 60 Change this line 60 IF K=31 A=A-1;GOTO 100 63 Key 31 is the erase key (paragraph 5) 99 Add this line 190 GOTO 10 102 Added these lines 280 H=H+1 290 GOTO 30 301 PRINT "ROCK"; RETURN 302 PRINT "SHEARS"; RETURN 303 PRINT "PAPER"; RETURN 106 Use program on page 60 107-110 Do not use music Addendum to First Edition, April 1978 (C) Bally Manufacturing Corp. 1978 All rights reserved. FORM NO. 0620-00304-0100