Commodore Free 18/Commodore_Free_Issue_18_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.b guide 3.1

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 12KB | 385 lines

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In the Beginning
by Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Chapter 3, Section 1

Right then lets do it again. You type
in ..

LOAD"0:*",8,1

 LOAD is telling the computer what you
want it to do. Which will be in the
quotes. 0 is that hang over from two
drives on one number. Commas are sort
of like a separator. 8 is the disk
drive number and that 1 at then end.
Well that is used for ML <we will get
to that later> programmes. Works for
Basic most of the time as well. That *
thing is a wildcard to load the first
prg on the disk.

 OK you then press return and
something should happen. If everything
is fine, you may see a fast "searching
for *". Then loading it and the screen
should change and the prg starts.
Well, there is that old saying about
the best laid plans of mice, men and
machines. Nothing may happen at all.
So lets troubleshoot that part.

 First it could be the load command I
gave you. Change it to ...

LOAD"0:*",8 press return

 This will load but not run the
programme. When it has loaded and the
ready is flashing type ...

RUN press return

 That is the 70% of the time fix to
the problem.

 But, Yet, However there can be
another problem. That being the first
prg on the disk isn't the one that
loads the files. This is found on some
factory/commercial disks. If you are
using one of them for your first time
<I did> and are very lucky <I wasn't>
Then you have the manual for the disk.
Which should tell you the load
command. More often you just have the
disk, and if you are fortunate. The
load command is written on the disk
label. Now it is possible to type in
the exact filename that you want to
load. Like ...

LOAD"AD&D DICE",8,1 press RETURN

 That will find the programme on the
disk of that name and load it for you.
As well as most of the time running
it. A trick here is the wildcard. That
is the * symbol. If you are like me,
old and mentally incompetent. OK maybe
not like me,but you can't memorise the
spelling of every prg on your disk.
You can type ...

LOAD"AD&D*",8,1 press RETURN

 This command will load the first
programme on the disk that starts with
AD&D. We can discuss this a bit more
later on. Right now, you want to see
what is on the disk and what happens
to the screen. Or what is on the tape
or what is on that cart, oral of the
above. Take a look at the things for a
while. We can do more after you have
had a little fun.

:::::::::

 What did you see? A game, a tool, a
utility a something or another? Did
you look at a factory disk, some
backup copy or a disk that had a
collection of separate unrelated
files? Sure I know that you have seen
a something that may or may not have
impressed you with the C=. We are
talking about 8bit graphics and all of
that 80s stuff. You have just seen
something that probably didn't make
that much sense. Don't worry, I wanted
you to have some hands on with
programmes. See what can be done in
some form. Now then we get to some of
the meat of the C=.

 Lets admit at this point that the
thing works differently than what you
already know on other platforms. How
to operate a programme is different.
You have to tell it to load and
perhaps to run. What you saw on the
screen, well it wasn't 16,500,000
colours, of which according to Ripley
you can only see the 500,000. Nor does
it have stereo sound. Unless you have
a modified one or the Stereo SIDcart
plugged into it.

 Lets get into what the computer does,
after we go into some background. This
part is antidote in part. Part also
from readings and talks with other
users.

 This unit came out in 1982ce. Some
people say in January, others say in
June. What it did was change the
computer world. Yeah that little thing
changed the computer world. Ill add
that it changed the world period.

 Tough talk and that needs an
explanation. So here we go, and yeah I
am and have been actually using that
manual during the previous stuff. Take
a look at the keyboard. Not the same
as you have seen before. I mentioned
the return vs. the enter key. Notice
that at the top row the third key from
the right is a British pound sterling
symbol <>. Don't have that on your
other keyboard. Nor a C=key or a
run/stop key or even a clr/home or
inst/del key. Depending on your model.
You will see that there are little
graphic things either on the top of
the keys or on the fronts. I'll have
you play with them in a moment. There
may also become abbreviations on the
number keys at the top row. We will
get to them in a bit. These are some
of the differences. Here is the first
one to tell you. While other platforms
used/use ascii character. Having 128of
them in the main set <there are
expansions> Commodore uses the
standard PETascii. You have about
256characters at your finger tips. If
you think that means the characters or
the letters are the same. Nope they
are not. If you try to read a text
type file from PET to ascii. What you
will see ... iS SOMETHING ON THIS
ORDER. wHERE THE CASE IS REVERSED.
Also the extra characters not found in
the main ascii file will show up as
strange garbage if they show at all.

 Now to the story. I was around in the
early days of computers. But not a
member of it. I think that I still may
have a popular electronic magazine
with an article about the first
computer for home use, the Altair. As
I mentioned in an earlier part. I was
a tech for Radio Shack. That machine
at that time was black and white with
no sound. Some coders would make a
"thing". Didn't do anything on the
screen. But it did play a song. What
you did was tune a little portable
radio off of a station. Put it about a
foot away fom the keyboard. Then while
loading you had a song. Not a great
song because all it was doing was
modulating the Radio Frequencies that
where generated when the programme
loaded from the  tape drive. That was
the sound of that time period.

 OK here comes the Commodore 64. We
now have a three voice and 9 octave
sound capability. Remember that I said
the Radio Shack one was black & white?
The 64 has 16 colours <there are ways
to increase that for your work> More
sound than any one else and more
colours, and more memory. All in one
built in system. I have monitors from
that time period. They are monochrome.
Black & White, Green and Amber
screens. Nor do they have an internal
speaker for any sound. In my
collection of papers for the C=. I
have a poster that gives the
capabilities of the different systems
of that time, along with the prices.
Best with out adding onto the system
was 4 colours on another platform.
Though the C= disk drive was costly at
first. No way did it rival the price
of another company's drive of around
$1300.

 The Commodore 64 became the most
popular and beloved computer. Oh you
can read that in the November 1998 ce
issue of PC World. Also the 64 is in
the 2000 and 2001 <seen those
issues>Guinness book of world records.

 Well the people have a "friendly"
computer. In fact that is what the
manual tells you. That "Commodore is
known as the friendly Computer
company..." <users manual page vii>

 What you may not know is the mindset
of that time period. At the price of a
home, or Personal Computer in that
time. Your average teen isn't going
out and buying one. Parents have to
buy one. So you have to sell the
product to people in their late 20s
and early 30s. Hey that was me at that
time. So what is so hard about that?
Well today computers are an active
part of day to day life. Back then,
this wasn't the case. We parents of
that time didn't have the same ideas
as they do now. You see going back to
the 50s and 60s, whereas kids. We
learned about computers. These where
the things in movies, cheap T.V.
shows, 25 cent paperback books, and
10-12 cent comic books. That wanted to
destroy all life or take over the
world and enslave the people. Sure
that probably makes you laugh today.
But that was the input that we had in
those days. Not appositive building
foundation for computers in the home.

 So why should I, making $4.00 and
hour. Blow close to a grand on a
computer system? I mean the computer,
the monitor, drives and of course some
software. BTW: I have some with
original price tags on them of over
$40. Answer is, that I don't. I was
buying a home and taking care of a
wife and two sons at the time.

 Well there obviously where people
that bought computers. Commodore was
doing around 2 million a year in
sales. This is in the early days of a
computer when most people didn't even
know what it was or could do. Thinking
that it was a big  game machine, of a
really strange typewriter of some
form. At least it wasnt that
electronic monster that was going to
rule the world. Hmm, perhaps we were
right about that part after all.

 General story goes this way. Dad for
some reason, buys the C=64. Brings it
home. Connects it to the T.V. Then
looks into the users manual. Here is
where Commodore hooks you in, the
manual is written just for that setup.
You see, the first part of the book is
the set up that we have already
covered. Save that it doesnt really
talk about monitors that much and we
didn't go into how to connect the
audio to your stereo system.

 Lets get started on the things in the
manual. Done enough sociological
history. Time to experiment with the
keys. So take out any disk or tape
that you have in your drives. Just for
safety and we will begin with the
computer turned off, wait a few
seconds and then back on again. This
flushes the memory. Now you may find
that your 64 has a small push button
on it. I have saved that for this
moment. That push button is a hacker
additive. 99% probable that it is are
set button. Give it a push and let go.
If the screen moves a bit and goes
back to the blue screen. You have a
reset button. Books and magazines had
the plans and parts lists for
installing these. I have a plug-in
port expander that has a reset on it
as well.

 You know that I am being devious with
these notes about additives to the C=.
Slyly inserting bits on things that
were done for the C=.Indicating a
greater amount of product and
background than you may have expected.
That is the good part. Bad part is
that you could be a reader with this
extra stuff. Not knowing what it is
about, and I don't mention it at all.
Worse are the readers that have a
stock machine and have to go through
this extra drivel, on top of the
ordinary drivel. At least you can see
that it is a large world for the C=.

 That all said, I must get back to the
keys. Manual takes you through things
in a simple, and friendly way. Great
method to hook the father into the C=.
He has the cheque book, and the
greatest fears of the new tech of the
computer. That might sound silly
today. It was the reality of the time.

 Press a key and you see the letter
show up on the screen. Today that is
taken for granted. First time the guy
did that in the 80s. Seeing his name
or what ever was typed on his T.V. Now
that was radically impressive. A
sensation of wonder and a touch of
fear. OK now then I don't have to tell
you about the fact the keys are like a
typewriter with some extra ones. You
are experienced in that already. Lets
mess around with the different keys.

 The CONTROL [CNTRL] key and the C=key
have a specific use at this time. Yeah
they do more, but not just yet. So
press the CNTRL key and the number1
key. That light blue flashing box just
changed to a black one. Type your
name. Yeah it is all in black.

 A fast look at the number keys,
depending on your model, show some
abbreviations as I mentioned earlier.
Except for 9 and 0. Lets get to those
now. You should still be in black. So
just press CNTRL and the number 9.Hmm
doesn't look like anything happened
right? Try typing in your name again.
Ah there it is, but in what is called
reverse video. Looks rather cruddy too
doesn't it? Black sort of doesn't go
well in reverse video over that blue
background. Well you can change the
background and the border. In fact
there are some little home brew
programmes that floated around that
will give you all the colour
combinations. So you can see what
looks the best for you. Now just press
the space bar a few times. You have
now a black bar. Press CNTRL and 0.
That turns off the reverse video.

         CONTINUED IN SECTION 2