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MicroReviews for October 1995
by Charles Good
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PGRAM UTILITIES V2.3 by Tony Kneer

I reviewed this before, but it has been upgraded.  You put the files
on your Pgram+ with multiple memory banks.  These files in Pgram+
banks 2, 3, and 4, plus XB v2.3 or some other extended extended basic
in bank 1 make a very powerful suite of software immediately available
from the powerup menu.

    TIWEA includes the TI Writer and EA modules plus all the
associated disk files all combined into one grom bank.  Included is
Art Green's TIW v4.3 editor, which is much nicer than the original
TIW.  You can access this software from the powerup menu or by typing
CALL EA or CALL TIW from either BASIC.  The formatter and assembler
return to their module's menu with Fctn/9.

    DSKUARCMC gives you Birdwell's DSKU, Barry Boone's Archiver, and
Mike Dodd's M-Copier all combined into one grom bank.  CALL DSKU, CALL
ARC, anf CALL MCOPY will get you there from extended basic.  You can
do the same thing by entering DSKU or ARC or MCOPY with no device name
from the EA5 loaders of the TIW and EA modules.

    GMENU will display all the software names, up to 24, of all your
runable software in all your gram banks simultaneously on one screen.
GMENU is loaded onto the end of a gram page with other gram software.

    You also get software that lets you use a Pgram and a CorComp
ramdisk in the same pbox, something not normally possible.  Finally,
there is a version of the Pgram DSR with colors set for white on dark
blue rather than the anemic light blue found in the original.

    Gram utilities is public domain and comes on a DSSD disk.  I'll
send it to you for $1.  The author requests an encouraging phone call,
letter, or Compuserve post as payment.
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IAN'S GAMES by Ian Howle

Ian Howle, author of "Attack of the Creepers" which I reviewed a few
months ago, sent me a disk labeled "Ian's Games".  In his cover letter
he encourages me to distribute his assembly language games as widely
as possible.  They are public domain, he says, and based on computer
games originally written in the late 70s.  Ian's Games are in assembly
language.  I have seen similar not as good TI extended basic versions of these
games in the defunct International User Group software library.  Each of Ian's
games reviewed here comes with on line instructions and an attractive title
screen.

TIC TAC TOE.  You get your choice of easy or hard levels and either
one player against the computer or two players.  I like this game
because I never lose, even at the hard level.  Tic Tac Toe is a game
that can't be lost if you know the system, as I do.  Even at the hard
level, if the computer lets me start which it does half the time, I
can often win.  Otherwise I get a tie game.  You use a joystick to
place your X or O on the board and press the fire button when the X or
O is positioned with way you want.  The screen display of the #
pattern is quite artistic.  The pattern is three dimensional.  You
appear to be placing your X or O into three dimensional boxes.  This
is the kind of visually attractive short game I really enjoy.  When I
get tired of doing other things I just boot up Ian's Tic Tac Toe and
play a couple of quick games with the computer.

SEAWOLF.  You are a submarine shooting straight up through the water
at surface ships.  These ships pass by on the surface from left to
right or right to left at varying speeds, sometimes very fast.  You
have to sink a certain number of ships before time runs out.  At
successive levels you have to sink more ships in the same amount of
time.  There are rapidly moving fish and slowly moving mines in the
water that can get in the way of your torpedos and prevent them from
reaching the surface.  It is very annoying to have a fish zoom by and
detonate a torpedo that you fired in an otherwise perfect setup.  This
game is hard! I rarely get beyond the first level.  The fastest moving
ships are almost impossible to sink.

SPACE ZAP DELUXE.  Your star base stays in the center of the screen
and the invading hords approach the star base one at a time from any
of 8 directions.  You rotate your base's cannon in the appropriate
direction with the joystick and shoot with the fire button to destroy
the enemy coming from that particular direction.  If the enemy gets
too close to your base you are dead and the game starts over.  The
time interval between attacks gradually decreases.  It takes a very
good joystick to work this game.  Locking on to the proper diagonal is
particularly difficult for most joysticks.

These three games plus a slightly updated version 1.6 of Attack of
The Creepers all come on a SSSD disk which I'll mail you if you send
me $1.
----------------------------
SCHEMATIC by Don Steffen

Computers are supposed to do useful things, not just entertain or
stimulate the mind.  SCHEMATIC is an extended basic program for a very
specific application.  It prints to a printer the schematic for a
TI425 programmable controller or similar device made by TI,
Allen-Bradley, and others.  These devices are used control the
operation of machines.  They are, in effect, the robot brains of the
machines they control.

The sample schematic printed by SCHEMATIC is the logic code of a
Valley Hay Press.  Don says these giant presses are made by his
nephew.  One is in Pennsylvania, two are in Australia and several are
in the Pacific Northwest area.  The presses are used to compress hay
and straw for container shipment to Japan.  Up to 24 tons can be put
in a 40 foot container.   The printed schematic of the machine's
controller takes up several pages in condensed print.  Each part of
the schematic includes a specific name and number as well as a symbol.
The author uses a Star NX1000 printer.  I have no trouble getting a
good printout on my old Star SG10.  Both of these are 9 pin dot matrix
printers.

Symbols are made of ASCII keyboard characters and are contained in
DATA statements within the program.  These symbols include such things
as clock input, reset latch relay, master control end, ground
terminal, hot terminal, indicator light, set latch relay, master
control start, counter reset, solenoid coil, holdin relay, etc.  For
example, the symbol for solenoid coil is "-(sol)-", that for counter
reset is  "-Reset |-".  It would be easy for the user to alter this
symbolic notation to other specific symbols and meanings.

To get a printout you first, from within the program, make an elements
file and add the symbols described above, their names and their
specific numbers.  This file is saved to disk and can be altered at
any time.  You then make a logic code file from within the program
which is used by the program to format and print the schematic.  This
file is also saved to disk and can be easily edited.  Both these files
are used by the program to make the printed schematic.

If you want a SSSD disk copy of SCHEMATIC along with the proper data
files to print the schematic of the Valley Hay Press send the author a
disk and paid return mailer, or send me $1.  If you contact the author
directly you might ask him about his perpetual calendar scheme,
phonetic alphabet, and music notation characters which are all very
unusual and thought provoking and all of which are programmed on a
99/4A and displayed on screen and on a printer using a symbolic
pattern based on the binary system.
--------------------
FONT DUMPER by Bruce Harrison

Here is another of the seemingly neverending public domain
contributions Bruce Harrison is making to the welfare of 99/4A users.
You may remember that several years ago Jim Peterson released a whole
bunch of public domain screen fonts to the public domain for use with
extended basic programs.  There are 130 different fonts in the
Peterson release!  I have previously in this column reviewed a
Harrison utility (Font Converter) that lets you convert these fonts to
CHARA1 files for display on screen with your 40 or 80 column word
processing documents.  Now Bruce has taken the next step.

Font Dumper converts the Peterson screen fonts into a file that can be
downloaded into the RAM of a NX1000 or NX1020 printer for use as a
custom download NLQ printer font.  This means that you can display the
fonts on screen as CHARA1 files converted with Font Converter and then
print the same fonts to your printer, all 130 of then if you want, as
a WYSIWYG printout.  Your Font Dumper disk contains full instructions
and a couple of converted fonts.  The convertion process has to be
done with each font you want converted and it will take some time if
you want to do all 130 fonts.  You can preview the fonts from extended
basic using Jim Peterson's demo programs and than convert only those
that turn you on.

Font Dumper is guaranteed to work only with the NX1000 and NX1020
printers.  It may or may not work with other modern epson compatible
printers.  It does not work on my Gemini 10X or SG10 printers.

I can send you Font Dumper on a SSSD disk for either the NX1000 or
NX1020 printers.  There are different versions for each printer.  Both
versions means two disks.  I can also send you on 3 DSSD disks the
complete Jim Peterson screen font collection, with XB demo programs
that display all the fonts, for you to convert with Font Dumper.  Many
TIers already have these screen fonts.  I can also send you Font
Converter on another SSSD disk so you can see these fonts on your TI
Writer screen.  All of these disks are public domain.  Please send me
$1 for each disk desired.  Your money buys you the disks, mailer, and
first class postage.  Don't forget to tell Bruce Harrison how much you
appreciate his efforts on our behalf.
---------------------
ACCESS:

Don Steffen (Schematic). 10082 Silverton Rd., Silverton OR 97381.
Phone [phone].

Ian Howle (Ian's games). 3707 S.W. Southern St., Seattle WA 98126.
Phone [phone]

Tony Kneer (XBv2.3 and PGram Utilities author). 17 Marshall Circle,
Downingtown PA 19335. Phone [phone]. Compuserve #72070,573

Bruce Harrison (Font Dumper). Phone [phone]AM-midnight.

Charles Good. P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894.  Phone [phone].
Internet email [e-mail] or [e-mail]
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