Arcadian, Volume 1, Issue 03

OCR'ed and cleaned up
by Richard C. Degler
on February 26, 2011
[note: _underscore_]
[Brett not= Bilbray]


------------------------- [arcadian Vol. 1, Issue 03] -------------------------
Page 17 - [originally at the bottom of page.]

Jan 13, 1979                  ARCADIAN                         Vol 1 No 3
------------                  --------                         ----------

_CONSUMER ELECTRONIC SHOW_ in Las Vegas was attended by myself and at least
four subscribers.  The Bally technical contingent included all the names we've
seen as originators of programs.  It was a pleasure to meet those people who up
to then were only telephone voices.  The Add-On Unit was officially introduced
at a press conference Saturday.  It _will_ go into production; it has a price
scheduled at $650 or less; and a delivery date of June-July.  A reprinted
brochure is included herein.  Note the comparison of attributes with other
current systems.  As you can see, the full~up capability will be equal or
better than comparably priced equipment.  In addition, a unique feature of the
machine is called "Concurrent Processing", where more than one program can be
run at once.  The speed of operation is inverse to the number of programs being
simultaneously conducted, apparently no real limit.  They had a little sit-
down theatre, and put on a show every hour with the Add-On, showing its
capabilities, primarily in the area of graphics which is the most visible
feature.  The unit was used in a slide-show mode, where the hand control
trigger was used to change "slides" while the knob was used to move a cursor up
and down to pick items off a menu.  Various illustrations had been made with a
light pen or directly and stowed, then called up as desired.  A small airplane
was "assembled" from component parts and smoothly "flown" across the screen.
Time was available for question/answers.  Remember, the show is for retailers
and distributors, no public.  A printer and mini-floppy were attached, but
Bally is still saying that just about anyone's peripherals will be compatible
(these were not Bally-built items.)  The Add-On can search for a particular
file on a peripheral and load it, at 2400 baud.  The unit will have PEEK and
POKE capability.  The name of the total system is now Bally Computer System, so
save those Arcade and Home Library Computer labels, they will be collectibles.
The new Football game was shown in an adjacent semi-secluded booth.  It allows
the offensive team a choice of plays, then shows the field with all the
players, running, blocking, etc., then the results of the play.  Part of the
"show" included a demonstration of the Concurrent Processing scheme, where the
screen was split vertically and the left side did the random box routine while
the right side did the random line program.

_THREE VIDEOCADES_ should be available right now, according to Ron Schwenk
(916-944-2001) who said that Football ($25.) Maze and Space Race ($20. each)
should be in his hands next week - so I'm sure other dealers will be receiving
theirs as well

_NEW BASIC MANUAL_ is being distributed with the cartridge. The only difference
I could see in content was the addition of a mention of the &(16) thru &(25)
sound system.  I will get a copy for inclusion in the next issue.

_CASSETTE INTERFACE WIRING DIAGRAM_ is included.  I was told of two changes in
the circuit, should be obvious on the print.  I've also heavied up some of the
lines.

_&(9)_ [HORCB] is a very interesting area, and I was introduced to some of its
complexities by Brett Bilbrey who commented on the mention in the last issue.
As a result, I have [not?] included a pageful of my observations as a personal
attempt at understanding it.  I'd like to include more descriptive material -
can anyone help???

_ONE SUBSCRIBER_ asked for a grid to locate x,y points - I'd suggest that one
put up a BOX 0,0,179,87,1 and then accurately measure it, and make a plastic
grid overlay, as TV screens vary in size of picture or position of picture on
the screen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 18

_"NEW" COMMANDS_ unearthed by Tom Wood are included with this issue.

_RM = REMAINDER_ is interesting.  Normally the TBASIC swallows the remainder
of a division and only tells you of the whole number part of the answer.  But
with the knowledge of RM, we can convert it to a decimal and print it, as:
         INPUT A
         INPUT B
         C = A [div] B
         D = RM x 1000 [div] B
         PRINT C, ".", D
This will give you an answer that is a bit disjointed, as "3.   421".  But
Chuck Thomka reminded me of the PRINT #A,B statement.  It bunches the printed
parts together (as "3.421") so they look normal.  Change the last command to
         PRINT #1,C,".",D
to get this effect.  There are limitations to the size of RM x 1000.

_FORMAT VARIATIONS_ using the PRINT #A,B can be illustrated by a modification
of the above program.  Retain the first 4 lines, then
         FOR N = 1 T0 20
         PRINT #N,C,".",D
         NEXT N

_RS-232 SOURCE_ has been reported to me as R.W.Electronics,Inc. 3203 N.Western
Ave, Chicago 60618.  A 6 1/2' cable molded to a 9-pin female connector at $.50
each or 10 for $4.

_MODEM_ is barely mentioned on the cassette interface box, but nowhere else.
I understand that a tape recorder speaker output has gone over the telephone
lines to another recorder's microphone, but that's pretty crude.  We now have
a telephone modem prototype here, and should have more details next time.

_:PRINT_ is normally used with the :LIST command to transfer data from machine
memory to tape, but that's only part of the story.  Dick Strauss and Brett
Bilbrey have discovered that :PRINT alone turns on the hand control port 3 for
output.  Other commands can now take effect, and so if you tell the machine to
LIST, it will, and the data goes out the port.  Most everyone has had the
experience of punching in a lengthy program and then inadvertently touched the
RESET, and poof, all is gone.  Well, here is insurance.  Start the recorder on
Record, punch in :PRINT, and everything you key in will get taped.  If there is
a RESET, or the machine crashes for some reason, you can just load the tape
back in and go on.  0r just keep going and load the early portion later.

_RUN_ automatically after loading the tape into the machine?  Sure, the Bally
tapes do.  Remember that after you open port 3 with the :PRINT statement you
can write anything on the keyboard and it will go on the tape.  So, after the
listing has been completed, punch in RUN and that's it.

_ANOTHER WAY_ to make it run is to complete the loading, then punch in
;GOT0 10, as discovered by Jim Unroe.  The GOTO would be helpful if you wanted
to start a program at some specific location other than the beginning.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 19

COMMAND            EXAMPLE               EXPLANATION

CALL(n)            CALL(l6384)           Performs a machine level program jump
                                         to decimal location (n).
                                         In the example, this jump will be to
                                         location 4000 Hex.

&(n)=m             &(16)=0               Outputs m to decimal port (n).  The
                                         example sets the master sound divider
                                         to a divisor of 0.

m=&(n)             A=&(18)               Inputs decimal port (n) to variable m.
                                         The example inputs player l knob to
                                         variable A.

$xm,n,o            $x@(0),@(18),@(36)    Allows use  of the "executive" math
                                         routines. The example causes multipli-
                                         cation of the 16 digit number at @(O)
                                         by the l6 digit number at @(l8),
                                         leaving the product at @(36).
                                         The s may be +, -, x, or divide.

:RUN               :RUN                  Loads data from cassette into
                                         locations 4000H to 407FH.  Upon
                                         completion of load, performs a
                                         machine level jump to location 4000H.

*PRINT             *PRINT                Same as :PRINT, but will not record
                                         on tape any words entered with WORDS
                                         shift key. [note: spelled for printer]

STOP               STOP                  When encountered in a running program,
                                         causes an exit back to BASIC.

%(n)=m             %(Z0078)=32768        POKE command.  The example sets
                                         variable A to 32768 since 20078
                                         happens to be the memory address
                                         for storage of variable A.

m=%(n)             A=%(20080)            PEEK command.  The example sets
                                         variable A to the value of variable B.

LIST m,n           LIST 100,10           Lists the n lines starting with
                                         line m.


There are two variables available that aren't mentioned in the BASIC manual:
The first is RM which appears to be the remainder of a division action.
The second variable is XY which is the current X and Y position of the LINE
command (i.e. the next LINE starting point).  Using XY (and, for that matter,
%(n)) requires some care, since BASIC treats these variables as if they were
formatted decimal constants even though they are, in reality, two consecutive
memory locations.

                                          Tom Wood
                                          14 Dec 78

[note: the identical font being used, and the description earlier, leads me to
believe EXECUTIVE SOFTWARE is archived as "bally_on-board_rom_subroutines.pdf"]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 20 - [300 BAUD AUDIO CASSETTE INTERFACE schematic]
          [sideways, didn't scan properly]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 21 - [Bally Computer System specifications]
          [with Rear View and Fun-N-Brains logo]
          [sideways, didn't scan properly]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 22 - [Comparative Analysis: Personal Computers]
          [sideways, didn't scan properly]

[no mailing page ??]

------------------------------ [end of Issue 03] ------------------------------
