8bitfiles.net/archives/archives.tar/archives/genie-commodore-file-library/Information/HIDDEN-SECRETS

Text File | 2019-04-13 | 5.8 KB | 166 lines

Commodore Secrets
=================

Taken from stecreta.zip by Joe Morris / MITRE

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Product: Commodore PET
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Source: Jan Schiefer ([e-mail])

On the Commodore PET 2001, a "POKE 6502,n" where 0 <= n <= 255 resulted in
the machine printing the string MICROSOFT! on the screen n times.

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Product: Commodore 128
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Source: Norman St. John Polevaulter ([e-mail])

And of course, going WAY back, there is the credits and anti-war message
you could coax out of a Commodore 128 by typing:

SYS 32800,123,45,6

---------------------------------------------------
Product: Commodore Business Machines 1581 Disk Drive
---------------------------------------------------
Source: Eric Pass ([e-mail])

   error = $ff3f
   org $3000
   lda #$79  OR  lda #$7a
   jmp error

The two messages are listed in the 1581 dos reference guide as:

 $79: Software by David Siracusa. Hardware by Greg Berlin
 $7a: Dedicated to my wife Lisa

Here is a program to illustrate the messages:

10 open15,9,15:n$="m-w":m$=""
20 fori=0to3:reada:n$=n$+chr$(a):next
30 fori=0to2:reada:m$=m$+chr$(a):next
40 print#15,n$chr$(121)m$:print#15,"m-e"chr$(0)chr$(3)
50 get#15,a$:printa$;:ifst=0goto50
60 print#15,n$chr$(122)m$:print#15,"m-e"chr$(0)chr$(3)
70 get#15,a$:printa$;:ifst=0goto70
80 data0,3,5,169
90 data76,63,255

Information derived from messages on the C_B_M Echo
by Russell Prater and David Schmoll


---------------------------------------------------
Product: Amiga hardware and software
---------------------------------------------------
Source: Raymond Chen ([e-mail])
        (Forwarding from [e-mail] (Phil Kernick) )

You have to be running KickStart 1.2 (33.166 I think, I can't remember if
they were all there in the 33.180 release).

Now, press the following all at the same time,

        Left-Shift Left-Alt Right-Alt Right-Shift

and then press one of the 10 functions keys (while still holding down
the above four) and you get one of 10 different messages in the menu
bar.

Now for the fun bit.

Do the above, and then while holding down all 5 keys, insert a disk in the
internal drive, and you get *another* message, and for the classic conclusion
after all this (still holding down all 5 keys?) eject the disk, and the
message:

        We made Amiga, they fucked it up

appears in the menu bar.


Now another Amiga hidden message (also in KS1.2).

Go into preferences, on the first screen, there are pictures of two mice,
one to set the double-click speed and one to set the mouse speed.  Click
on each of the buttons on the mice 5 time in the following order.

         1234 1234 1234 1234 1234

           /------\    /------\
           | 1  2 |    | 3  4 |
           |      |    |      |
           |      |    |      |
           +------+    +------+

Now select printer setup, scroll all the way up the list of possible
printers, and then all the way down.

Then the title bar of the preferences window changes to something like
(it been a *long* time since I tried this):

        Congratulations =RJ=

Appearantly just as the guys finished the preferences tool, RJ Michel, one
of the Amiga designers became a father (everybody say aaahh!).

---------------------------------------------------
Source: Jim Shaffer ([e-mail])

Dale Luck, formerly of the Amiga development team, tells a story about
hacking the system software when the custom chips were still on
breadboards.  To prevent blowing out the hardware, he put an anti-static
mat on the floor and convinced everyone to go barefoot.

They would also dance during late-night compiler runs to prevent falling
asleep.  One of the hidden messages in version 1.2 credits "Moral Support:
Joe Pillow and the Dancing Fools."

---------------------------------------------------
Source: Jim Shaffer ([e-mail])

Incidentally, I just re-checked my version of KickStart 1.2.  The "We made
the Amiga, they..." sequence is replaced by "The Amiga - Born a Champion,
Still a Champion."  I couldn't find anything at all in KickStart 1.3.


---------------------------------------------------
Source: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
           .stolaf.edu (The Laughing Prophet) writes:
> A quick search through KS2.04 reveals only two things that I noticed:
>
> 1] something like "what secret message?". (don't remember - I checked this
> a few months back.)
> 2] in hex, FE ED C0 ED BA BE. :)
>

  The hidden Amiga messages were on the Amiga 1000, and then only on earlier
units. One of the messages, accessed by holding down both "Amiga" keys and
two other keys WHILE inserting a disk into the floppy drive, was rather
explicit in its opinion of Commodore after they acquired the Amiga company.
Once word of that message got out, a purge was ordered of all hidden messages.

  BTW, the inside top cover of the Amiga is autographed by the machine
developers (and somebody's dog).

---------------------------------------------------
Source: Peter da Silva ([e-mail])

An undocumented feature of the Amiga 1.2 O/S. If you brought up the mouse
preferences and clicked all four mouse buttons in the picture, then clicked
an invisible gadget next to the date, the window title changed to a cute
message about the programmer's SO.

---------------------------------------------------
Source: Norman St. John Polevaulter ([e-mail])

While we're at it, the new OS2.04 has its own set of secret messages.
When workbench is running, hold down control, alt, and shift, and start
selecting items from the leftmost Workbench menu. It may take a few
tries to get them, but they're in there.