Fall 2009
Contents
1. however is masculine 1 No one but their creator under el lapiz stands their internal logic 2 The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else 3 Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possi ble later retrieval and 4 As soon as you make a commitment The women won Though ed Note to one you find yourself spending half personally ld request a review your paycheck on accessories for it A student asked What gender is computer Instead of giving the answer the teacher split the class into two groups male and female and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer should be a mascu line or a feminine noun Each group From the President continued from page 1 activities were also two miles away at the Stay Inn which had a very small room and if you needed extra Commodore equipment for the evening you either brought it with you or it was two miles away The downturn in the economy has actually worked out in TPUG s favour Back in 2004 it was much different fewer suitable hotels and high room rates that wouldn t budge but since then there have been more hotels built and the room rates have come down to earth We have managed to secure a hotel room that is large enough to accommodate the show but with a price tag small enough for a volunteer club like ours to afford This year s show will focus on Co2. but half the time they ARE the problem and 4 As soon as you commit to one you realize that if you had waited a little longer you could have gotten a better model I saw the Amiga in action at a friend s house and I had to get one Word of mouth sold the Amiga well The Amiga had tons of software to support it much of which was in cluded in impressive package designs I was amazed at the program debugger where you could step through a program line by line to find out the oops part of your pro gram I was impressed by the graphics capabilities of pro grams like Sculpt 3D Zoetrope Studios Animator and De luxe Paint blown away by music programs like Deluxe Music Sonix and Bars amp Pipes and swept away by the amazing games like The Pawn Battle Chess and of course Lemmings The Amiga was like a dream machine highly expandable and unlike anything that was on the market at the time I still think that its capabilities far exceed the standard IBM based platforms of today For me the best feature of the Amiga was the icons Not like today s icons where you click and they just dim out The Amiga had action icons When you clicked on them they changed they sprang into action Everything about the Amiga was unique the graphics chipset the CLI interface the wait icon Zzzzz the speech software standard with Work bench and the analog clock that you could expand to take up the entire screen area ye
3. I agreed she stamped the form and I went on my way Next was the border crossing into the USA itself The border agent saw all the computer equipment in the back of my SUV and asked What are you carrying with you A Commodore VIC 20 I replied And what s that he barked I didn t think a discourse on the history of this great little computer was called for so I settled for Ummm an 80 s video game system OK go ahead and he waved me on through Phew The rest of the drive was straightforward Those of you who ve taken this trip in years past will be glad to know the construction along I 294 is nearly finished and didn t slow us down at all We arrived at the hotel thanks to crossing the time zone at 6 PM just in time for an infor mal dinner at Aurelio s Pizza THE EXPO The expo started at 9 AM sharp on Saturday morning While the past big vendors Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club and Joe Palumbo Products By Mail were n t there this year there were still plenty of walk in ven dors selling miscellaneous hardware and software I picked up a pristine 1541 II for a measly 10 an Incredi ble Music Keyboard overlay for 20 and the new 64NIC network card for 60 The demos started am 11 AM with Dustin Fuzz Cham ers and Raymond WizardNJ Lejuez showing their map making tool Cartograph Cartograph c can be used to make maps for any kind of game with an emphasis on RPGs Role
4. PAGE 9 EMERGENCY At usual at ECCC the crowd moved to the hotel lobby to continue socializing until the wee hours Only this time we weren t alone A large wedding party had taken over part of the lobby so there were men in tuxedos and suits women in elegant dresses and several cases of beer Then someone noticed there were police officers milling around too The rest of the events are a bit of a blur but the police began to clear out the lobby and sending us back to our rooms including us even though we were just sitting quietly with out laptops and then things got even more crazy One of the revellers pulled a fire alarm the sprin kler system went off causing a flood in one of the stair wells and several of the partiers including apparently the groom himself were arrested In total there were an estimated nine to fourteen police cars three fire trucks and twenty four arrests that night We all stood around in the hotel parking lot until approxi mately 3 AM when the firemen gave the all clear to go back in But soon afterwards the alarm went off again and we were back out in the parking lot for another hour Finally the next morning we all sleepily met in the lobby for a late breakfast shaking our heads at the craziness of the night before Then the final straw the fire alarm went off a third time but this time we were all packed and ready to go so we all said our goodbyes and headed home Overal
5. Proxy Voting Format This Will allow cc cece cc sc ec neneneneneeeneeees to vote on my behalf on all matters at the Annual Meeting of TPUG held 21 January 2010 At our 2009 Annual General Meeting the annual Membership fee was raised to 15 00 However in an effort to pacify the budget minded it was decided to allow our members the option of either receiving a newsletter by mail or on line in PDF format VISICALC WordPro and PaperClip This option allows us to save printing and mailing costs Should you indicate such a preference on your membership application these savings will be passed on to those who decline the paper and mail route your membership rate in this case will remain as previous ie 10 00 Remember to indicate this choice on your renewal form and should you choose the on line newsletter discount we ll certainly need your current e mail address INSTANT 1581 DRIVE KIT Just add a standard PC floppy drive 49 95 And note the membership year now runs from year end to year end Includes upper and lower shell with logic board amp faceplate a serial cord and power supply box JP PBM Products by Mail is the NEW Manufacturer of Super Snapshot Cartridge V5 22 NOW SHIPPING CURRENT Commodore Club MEMBERS SAVE 5 MORE off the regular price before freight and taxes Power Supply only 1581 41 II 24 95 7 95 7 95 19 95 8 95 Upper case only Lower case only 1581 Logic
6. a rem This will print it will put string a onto the screen 52 Entered from the keyboard no 53 more than 80 characters can form a string but strings can be combined 54 using semicolon and plus marks Strings that have nothing in them 55 have just the 2 needed double quote marks 56 b c This is c 57 a b ce 58 To put double quote marks inside a string use chr 34 59 Try chr 34 inside chr 34 a string To list a program type list or lI end pairs of lines with return and finally type run to start execution of the pro gram BASIC stores strings in memory at the time they are used in programs and in programs that use strings a lot it even tually runs out of space then it closes down other activities possibly for as long as several minutes for garbage collec tion discarding all the no longer needed storage of strings thereby regaining space for more string storage until the next garbage collection Just wait while this is going on even though it looks like a major malfunction of the com puter 3 There are also Integer whole number constants and variables They have a mark at the end of their names and are limited to the range minus 32768 to plus 32767 4 Arrays are a family of constants or variables they are either numeric floating point or integer or strings and unless only one dimension with no more than 10 elements must have been defined
7. by a dimension dim statement up to 255 dimensions with up to 32767 elements per di mension before they are used Integer arrays can save a lot of memory space For example dim a 11 permits a 0 a 1 a 10 and a 11 to be used Similarly dim a 11 permits a 0 to a 11 and dim a 11 permits a 0 to a 11 to be used For another example in a graphics application 5 x y pairs can be put into an array dimensioned as xy 4 1 the first x will then go into xy 0 0 the first y into xy 0 1 the second x into xy 1 0 the second y into xy 1 1 the fifth x into xy 4 0 and the fifth y into x whole number xy 4 1 Here is a subroutine to show floating point and string vari ables FALL 2009 TPUG NEWSLETTER PAGE 5 10 a 12 343 a Example only gosub 42000 print a end 42040 rem STRINGS 42000 rem Variables used so far By Joe Quittner TPUG October 18 2007 42002 print chr 144 chr 14 42010 def fnc xi peek xi 256 peek xi 1 42012 for xi fnc 45 to fnc 47 1 step 7 42014 if peek xi gt 127 or peek xi 1 gt 127 then next goto 42040 42015 xp chr peek xi xq chr peek xi 1 42016 if xp x and xq a or xq b or xq c or xq d or xq e then 42039 42017 if xp x and xq i or xq j or xq y then 42039 42018 if xp y and xq b then 42039 42019 print chr peek xi chr peek xi 1 42020 xa peek xi 2 129 xa 2xa 42022 yb peek xi 3 xb yb and 127 128 if
8. if you need more Rumor is the designer is a real piece of work I mean anyone who creates CBM hardware has to be a few pickles short of a jar right Dunno though some say he s a rather approachable per son but I m betting on the lack of pickles theory Jim kJ os e y PAGE 8 TPUG NEWSLETTER FALL 2009 Crazy Canucks Checkout Chicago THE TRIP Once again it was time to drive down to Chicago for the annual Emergency Chicagoland Commodore Convention hosted by Jason Compton The name of the event has always been tongue in cheek but this year the name turned out to be quite appropri ate THE BORDER Crossing the border into the USA is sometimes tricky especially with a car filled with retro computer equip ment First I stopped at the Canada Customs office and filled out a Y38 form This form proves that all the computer equipment I had with me VIC 20 monitor laptop and MIDI gear were all originally from Canada This would save me trouble at customs on the way back into Canada The Y38 form has no expiry date and can be kept for all future trips I highly recommend everyone get one filled out for their computer equipment retro and otherwise equipment when they travel to the USA The customs officer came out to the car to double check the serial numbers She did a double take when she saw the 1702 monitor You don t see those too often any more she said
9. of a jumper from switch S3 to switch S2 The missing pin on S3 must have a jumper wire connected to the middle of S2 for the EPROM socket to work correctly With this modification the boards func tion identically Hardware Features Hex switch FAQ Where can I find more information The Pictures of the C64NIC Page See this thread over at retro hackers How do I get one Contact the Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club 1 Will it play nice with a 1541U batch 1 or AR cart on a 2 1 extender It mainly depends on whether those cartridges decode IO1 or IO2 addresses If they leave one of the IO banks available the 64NIC or any other Ethernet cart will work If they take over both IO ranges on the cart port then it will not work What do the switches do S1 selects whether standard or RR NET register map pings are to be used S2 selects EPROM usage S3 selects C128 or C64 EPROM usage S4 selects IO1 or IO2 register space What do the LEDs mean RED Power Green Activity Software something Contiki See also netboot65 alpha Retro Replay Protovision Individual Computers Retrieved from http www c64 wiki com index php C64NIC 2B Category Hardware FALL 2009 In answer to a request by Leif for possible topics of discus sion for the next TPUG meeting From Jim Brain lt brain jbrain com gt To lt torontocbm freelists org gt Subject torontocbm Re TPUG Meeting October 15
10. some questions people from all over the world are asking Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website Q I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV so how do the plants grow England A We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die Q Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street USA A Depends on how much you ve been drink ing Q I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto can I follow the Railroad tracks Sweden A Sure it s only Four thousand miles take lots of water Q Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada Sweden A So it s true what they say about Swedes Q Are there any ATM s cash machines in Canada Can you send me a list of them in Toronto Vancouver Edmonton and Halifax England A No but you d better bring a few extra furs for trading purposes Q Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada USA A A fri ca is the big triangle shaped conti nent south of Europe Ca na da is that big country to your North oh forget it Sure the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Cal gary Come naked Q Which direction is North in Canada USA A Face south and then turn 180 degrees Contact us when you get here and we ll send the rest of the directions Q Can I bring cutlery into Canada England A Why Just use your fingers like we do Q Can you send me
11. the Vienna Boys Choir schedule USA A Aus t ri a is that quaint little country bordering Ger many which is oh forget it Sure the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary straight after the hippo races Come naked Q Do you have perfume in Canada Germany A No WE don t stink Q I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth Where can I sell it in Can ada USA A Anywhere significant numbers of Ameri cans gather Q Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population Italy A Yes gay nightclubs Q Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada USA A Only at Thanksgiving Q Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round Germany A No we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter gathers Milk is illegal Q I have a question about a famous animal in Canada but I forget its name It s a kind of big horse with horns USA A It s called a Moose They are tall and very violent eating the brains of anyone walking close to them You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking Q Will I be able to speak English most places I go USA A Yes but first you will have to learn it The World Of Commodore December 5 2009 from 10AM At the Admiral Inn which is located on the north side of the QEW just west of Eri
12. yb gt 127 then xa xa 42024 xc peek xi 4 xc xc 32768 42026 xd peek xi 5 xd xd 8388608 42028 xe peek xi 6 xe xe 2147483648 42030 xy xb xc xd xe xy xa 1 xy 42038 print xy 42039 next gosub 42060 42042 for xi fnce 45 to fnc 47 1 step 7 42044 if peek xi gt 128 or peek xi 1 lt 128 then 42056 42045 xp chr peek xi xq chr peek xi 1 and 127 42046 if xp x and xq a or xq p or xq q or xq y then 42056 42047 print xp xq 42050 xa peek xi 2 42052 xb peek xi 3 42054 xc peek xi 4 xc xb 256 xc 42055 for xj xc to xc xa 1 xp chr peek xj print xp next print 42056 next 42059 gosub 42060 return 42060 poke 204 0 get xa if xa then 42060 42061 if peek 207 then 42061 42062 poke 204 1 return by Joe Quitiner TPUG October 18 2007 C128 Program Merge reprinted from Midnite Software Gazette Issue 35 1986 as found by Jim Butterfield Mr Butterfield put a message on QuantumLink s C128 mes sage base telling how to merge two program files and was kind enough to demonstrate it when he came to Champaign IL to speak to the local users group Merging two programs is a relatively easy process on the C128 and it does not require any special utilities or hardware All you need to do to merge PROGRAM 1 and PROGRAM 2 is DLOAD PROGRAM 1 DOPEN 8 P1 W CMD8 LIST DCLOSE 8 NEW DLOAD PROGRAM 2 DOPEN 8 P1 SYS DEC FFC6 0 8 0 wait until things calm down SYS DEC FFCC DCLOSE 8 Thi
13. Board only Serial Cable only OPTIONAL 1581 JIFFYDOS ROM add 32 95 plus 10 shipping 15 USA Mail Cheque M 0 to JP PBM Products by Mail BOX 60515 JANE WILSON P O DOWNSVIEW ONTARIO CANADA M3L 1B0 SSv5 22 Cartridge 74 95 C Club members 5 32K RAM add 19 subtotal 10 Freight 15 USA __ Taxes are extra for Ontario and Canada residents PST GST All Prices Are Cdn Funds US Funds at par Send 2 for a catalogue on disk 1541 format Subtotal Ontario Res add 8 PST Canada Res add 5 GST TOTAL CDN FUNDS Mail cheque or Money Order to JP PBM Products by Mail Box 60515 Jane Wilson P O Downsview ON M3L 1B0 Visit JPPBM COM for full product listings and PayPal ordering information Note Dealers and User Groups Welcome g PAGE 4 TPUG NEWSLETTER FALL 2009 Joe s World 5 Constants and Variables INPUT routines For a simple delay for example to check whether an input is without typing mistake do nothing if OK or quickly press stop if a change is needed 10 Any input here 12 fO i 1 to 1000 nE 14 stop Or using for example the f1 function key 20 If this needs a change press f1 22 fO i 1 to 1000 get g if g cH 135 tH CHANGE stop 24 nE 26 stop for f1 use 135 f3 134 f5 135 f7 136 f2 137 f4 138 f6 139 and f8 140 Or as a subroutine just waiting until any key except the stop key has been pressed with the cursor blinking un
14. Playing Games It s a very slick tool that in cludes custom char acter sets and even animation To com plete the demo they showed a preview of their new RPG Crimson Twilight which includes music and a few loca tions you can walk around in Jim Brain was on at 2 PM and he gave us an overview of how he creates his products starting from an idea to a design to completed circuit boards He shared some of what he s learned over the years about electronics design Finally how showed the first few of his ROM el boards These are ROM Eliminators that can be used in place of Commodore ROM chips i e to replace the Kernal He will be using the ROM el to distribute JiffyDOS soon and will sell them blank or pre programmed with your own custom ROMs I did my demo next I ve been working on MIDI software for the VIC 20 using a proto type cartridge built by Francois eslapion oe Levielle The software Z turns a VIC 20 intoa pag MIDI instrument that can be controlled from a keyboard synthe s sizer or sequencer software I gave a short talk on MIDI and how the software works and entertained the crowd with a short song I ve written to demonstrate the soft ware FALL 2009 Afterwards Marty Goldberg gave a talk on some of the history surrounding Commodore Atari and Jack Tramiel s involvement in both companies Chris THEWIZ McBride gave the last formal demo He demonstrated Xider a sophisticated Integrat
15. _o TPUG Newsletter Views and News of Toronto Pet Users Group c o John Easton 258 Lake Promenade Etobicoke Ontario M8W 1B3 phone 416 251 1511 Fall Sify a ee From the President This fall season brings with it lots of changes and antici pation of things to come No I m not talking about the leaves falling off the trees and the first snow of the year I m talking about the newest club initiatives and the World of Commodore show We ve been making changes and progress on many fronts this year One of the most exciting changes is our website Our website has under gone many changes over the years from dull grey to bright colours and now to content management and fo rums We ve switched our website over to Netfirms for our hosting needs which allow us to grow with the needs of the club The address remains the same lt www tpug ca gt and we still have our ever expanding content such as archives links and the TPUG store and now we have a forum The forum page allows TPUG members to keep in touch share information and gener ally chat about all things related to Commodore The annual general meeting will be coming up on the third Thursday of January Last year we held the AGM on the third Thursday of January same night as our chapter meeting and it was a successful evening Also starting next year TPUG will be taking memberships based on current membership year so you will pay for a 2010 membership which ex
16. ed Devel opment Environment IDE that helps you cross develop C64 software on Windows Xider enables you to step through your machine language programs while debug ging using the original source code instead of the disas sembly nice It also helps you link in object files like music or graphics and it ties in nicely with the VICE emulator There were some informal demos running all day too Jeff Jeff 20 Daniels showed off some new VIC 20 games he wrote recently and Glenn ShadowM Holmer demon strated geoChat Yes it s a GEOS based chat client that works with the RR Net 64NIC and other compatible network cartridges It s still in early days and he spent most of the day looking through geoDebugger code but we should see a more polished version soon One other curiosity was the discovery of many large cus tom cartridge boards that ran a Community Informa tion type of kiosk on a C128 Someone got one of them working from Fargo North Dakota I believe and we spent some time watching the old skool commercials done with sprites and custom character sets Several inspired hackers began reverse engineering the design The crowd then split into small groups for dinner and the festivities resumed for the rest of the evening Someone brought LEGO which added a bit of variety and the so cializing hacking and game playing continued until 1 AM or so when we had to clean up the room and get out TPUG NEWSLETTER
17. f you re good with code or hub if you re not for your lowly PC Mac etc Dress in goth trench coat and whip it out when you greet people Evangelize the fact the 64NIC has no user s manual is a HUGE Feature not an oversight Slay those who disagree Go online as two different personalities Use one to preach the 64NIC religion Use the other to trash the product paying special attention to lack of color coordina tion between the PCB and the switches lamenting the size of the integrated circuits and the fact that it won t boil soup for you Use the first account to attack each TPUG NEWSLETTER PAGE 7 point in excruciating detail Lather rinse repeat Come out with a Best Of book in a few years profit Try to work the term 64NIC into conversations and business documents Double points for adding the in inconspicuous ways Triple points if you can get it into a Powerpoint unnoticed Challenge the designer to a duel Forty paces with 64NIC cards First one to get one stuck in his mouth loses Enlarge the middle mounting hold and mount a clock mechanism through the board Sell as extremely expen sive analog clockpieces Insert unit into machine and wait for the 64 to dis pense money Exclaim to others that it is part of the de sign Resell on eBay under headings like L K RARE 64NIC board New In Box Of course make sure you keep the NIB box No the clear case does not count Let me know
18. h be known it will still take a bit more than that to encourage my wife to attend what appears to her as merely a Nerd Heaven weekend for geeks her words not mine In the rumour that s Canadjin for rumor but try to tell this spell checker that department word is out that for this show we are at tempting to gather together a display of the complete line of Commo dore technology As a preview take a peek at Steve Gray s collection mentioned on page 11 See ya there John TPUG Newsletter is meant to be published somewhat quarterly by the Toronto Pet Users Group TPUG TPUG is a volunteer non profit club dedicated to the service and support of owners and users of Commodore computers All rights to material published in TPUG Newsletter are reserved by TPUG and no material may be reprinted without written permission except where specifi cally stated When reprinting is authorized please credit TPUG Newsletter the issue date and the author note electronic copy may be available please enquire Articles letters tips questions art etc are welcome Send hardcopy or disks Attn TPUG Newsletter or use Internet e mail Advertisements are also welcome Member s small ads are free Commercial ads are 100 per page with a 10 minimum Newsletter Editor John Easton 416 251 1511 jeaston rogers com FALL 2009 Notice to new owners of SuperPet and CBM 8296 machines TPUG has copies of the Water
19. l the expo was well attended and very successful and demonstrated once again that the Commodore user community is as bustling and busy as ever Leif Bloomquist pics thanks to Glenn Holmer Stop the presses Transactor lives From Dan Gahlinger lt dgahling gmail com gt To lt torontocbm freelists org gt Subject Finally Available Every Transactor Magazine ever published Date Monday November 09 2009 6 15 PM Well I ve finally finished work on it Every Transactor Magazine ever published All the com pendiums extras Disk Magazines Specials and more And yes every volume every issue It s the first com plete set ever made over 2 4 gigs of data now on a single DVD The Magazines are all high quality PDF scans all the articles all the advertising even some subscription cards and other letters I m making this available in a limited distribution I can t put it online it s too much data so contact me off list if you re interested And yes this includes all the exception ally rare volume 1 and volume 2 issues complete I might be willing to bring some DVDs to WOC next month depending on interest Dan PAGE I0 Computer Gender A SPANISH Teacher was explaining was asked to give four reasons for its to her class that in Spanish unlike recommendation English nouns are designated as ei ther masculine or feminine House for instance is feminine la Casa because Pencil
20. loo LANGUAGE DISKS 3 in 4040 for mat as supplied with the SuperPet on original purchase TPUG has the EXECUDESK disk 8050 format as supplied with the CBM 8296 on original purchase These disks are an integral part of the operating systems of the above machines and since Commodore in sisted on referring owners of these machines to TPUG for service we have added these somewhat proprie tory and also virtually unobtain able disks to our library all part of the TPUG mandate of service to our members We also will attempt to search out copies of original program disks to replace corrupted disks In this cate gory you will find such programs as TPUG NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 TPUG Annual General Meeting Take notice that the annual meeting of TPUG will be held in conjunction with the regular January 21st meeting only earlier 7 00 p m This is your opportunity to discuss club issues and to contribute to the organiza tion as desired Typical items covered at an Annual Meeting are but not limited to quo rum minutes of the previous meeting reports on activities within the club new business nominations of officers and election of officers If you are unable to attend and wish your proxy vote counted please en sure that your assigned proxy is in the hands of the Board prior to the meeting E mail to the vice president jeaston rogers com will be consid ered a legitimate means of submitting a proxy to the Board Typical
21. mmodore products as well as other 8 bit platforms There will be PET VIC 20 Commodore 64 Commodore 128 and Amiga In past years it seems that the Commodore 64 is well represented at the show but it seemed to many in attendance that the Amiga was not Let me say this this was not intentional TPUG exists to promote and support the entire Commo dore line including the Amiga and Amiga will be well rep resented at the show Besides I and many others like the Amiga I ve always thought that it was a super com puter that was years ahead of it s time in terms of multi tasking graphics and sound It was able to integrate well as a graphics powerhouse and companies like Disney still use the Amiga for its graphics capabilities I bought my first Amiga around 1990 It was an Amiga 2000 with 1084 monitor and 2088 IBM bridgecard in stalled This allowed me the best of both worlds I could use my IBM programs on the bridgecard and use the in credibly powerful applications that the Amiga had to offer TPUG NEWSLETTER The men s group decided that computer should definitely be of the feminine gender la computadora FALL 2009 The women s group however con cluded that computers should be Mas culine el computador because 1 In order to do anything with them you have to turn them on 2 They have a lot of data but still can t think for themselves 3 They are supposed to help you solve problems
22. n Mills Parkway Mississauga Ontario Canada Come see demos vendors and guest speakers regarding new and innovative products for Commodore computers Visit us at www worldofcommodore ca TORONTO PET USERS GROUP C O JOHN EASTON 258 LAKE PROMENADE ETOBICOKE ONTARIO M8W IB3 FALL 2009 We re on the web www pug a
23. p you tried it too So whether it s the Amiga the Commodore 64 the Com modore 128 PET VIC 20 or any other of Commodore s diverse line of computers you ll find it at World of Com modore The hardware the software the old the new the common the rare the demos the vendors and the com pany of your fellow Commodorians all combine to make the World of Commodore show the place to be on Dec 5 2009 Greg vanLaere FALL 2009 TPUG NEWSLETTER PAGE II From STEVE GRAY lt sjgray rogers com gt To Toronto CBM lt torontocbm freelists org gt Subject torontocbm My new web site Date Tuesday October 20 2009 1 39 PM Steve s Collection Hi all _ If you remember a while back my free geocities webspace was closing and I needed a new site Well I m happy to announce that I have a new location and have taken the opportunity to re vamp all my pages add some new ones and expand and add more pictures to others If you have some spare time please check it out www 6502 org users sjgray index html Some highlights e The CBM II Page CBMXfer The UltraPET Project The DX 64 Project My Commodore Collection now with some pictures more to come My PC freeware e Feedback is appreciated Steve And now for something completely different Now that Vancouver will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics and with TPUG once again hosting the World of Commodore these are
24. pires at the end of the year a small grace period applies if you re late with your re newal plus you can always renew at the AGM There s definitely more to come and more to do TPUG is a vol unteer organization that is looking for help in various areas specifically when it comes to our main event World of Commodore This year is our 30th year as a Commodore user club and the biggest change for the World of Commodore is that it will be held at the Admiral Inn Hotel in Mississauga phone 905 403 9777 That s right were back at a hotel which allows both the event and the accommodations to be at the same location with all the amenities like swim ming pool lounge restaurants nearby etc It s located at 2161 North Sheridan Way Erin Mills Parkway amp Queen Elizabeth Way Special thanks to Golan and Ian Colqu houn for securing this amazing facility http www worldofcommodore ca The first World of Commodore was held at the Belair ho tel in 2004 It was a successful event all around Hosting World of Commodore at a hotel is the ideal arrangement but volunteer clubs like TPUG are always mindful of the bottom line and a hotel can be expensive When the show committee searched for a hotel for the 2004 show several factors were considered We had to find the cheapest weekend demo vendor room rate a suitably sized room with plugs and internet access the cheapest hotel room rate proximity to restaurants etc Quite a lo
25. rded due to cost issues and a desire to fit the design in a standard cartridge case An initial design based on C64NIC was created and a subsequent design revision added ROM capabilities based both on sugges tions from buyers and also realization of much unused board space in the design As the design progressed Bil Herd offered some suggestions to decrease signal degra dation and clean up read write signal timing to allow C128 FAST mode operation Hardware The unit contains a Crystal CS8900A Ethernet controller and the necessary 6502 6510 to ISA interface logic On board switches select the IO bank in use and register mappings The optional ROM socket supports 8kB to 256kB EPROMs offering 1 16 16 kB ROM images selectable via a 16 position rotary switch By default the boards are configured for a 27C010 27C020 32 pin JEDEC ROM They can be switched to 27 c 64 to 27 c 512 ROMs by cut ting the 32 side of JP4 and soldering the 28 side This will direct Vcc to pin 28 instead of pin 32 Additionally jumper JP2 can be removed to allow 8kB ROM images to be used on the C64 Note that images are 16kB in size unless JP2 is changed so 8kB C64 images need to be padded with a copy of BASIC v2 in the upper 8kB bank of the image As well if the 16 position image selector switch is not in stalled only the highest bank will be visible There are two versions of the hardware Model v1 0 Model v1 0a The difference is the lack
26. s Member Records Meetings and Shows Webmaster Greg VanLaere John Easton Ernie Chorny Ian Colquhoun George Turek Leif Bloomquist Tom Luff Ian McIntosh Joe Palumbo Tom Williams Greg VanLaer Ernie Chorny Tom Luff Ernie Chorny Joe Palumbo Joe Palumbo Greg VanLaer Ernie Chorny Ernie Chorny Ernie Chorny John Easton Tom Luff John Easton Librarians Ian Colquhoun Leif Bloomquist Ernie Chorny Tom Luff amp Ernie Chorny Leif Bloomquist Were back at it again the World of Commodore this year at a REAL venue Ya see some thought that it was really inconvenient to have to sleep sleep what s that somewhere separate from the ac tual location of the meeting and resultant lack of all night hacking ad ventures Well this year Golan and Ian have come up with an apparent winner Not only is the rate within our projected budget but the amenities are certainly not to be overlooked Think of this when trying to explain to your significant other that a weekend away could be worse Why not encourage the family to join us at this fabulous resort well you can try where not only is there a fairly large shopping mall across the street but the Admiral Inn has all the amenities of a resort Spa Hey where else are you going to find a Saltwater Swimming Pool and associated hot baths and pools Hey with luck we might be at the start of new trend in Commodore weekends the Wives World of Com modore though trut
27. s will give you a fully merged ready to run program It is easy relatively quick and you cannot beat the price Many thanks to Mr Butterfield for finding this feature and for all the work he has done over the years to make things easier for all Commodore users PAGE 6 TPUG NEWSLETTER FALL 2009 Using the C64 NIC card The 64NIC provides Ethernet access for the Commodore 64 and 128 systems It offers low cost RR NET TFE FB NET compatibility Jim Brain designed the cartridge based on an earlier Eric Pratt design and incorporating ideas from Fotios FB NET design Bil Herd of C128 de sign fame provided assistance on the design as well The device s development was sponsored by the Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club and currently offers the unit for sale While there are many multi purpose cards with Network Interface Card NIC functionality today 1541U Retro Replay RR NET 64NIC provides dedi cated NIC functionality Much like contemporary network cards the 64NIC pro vides support for an optional boot ROM If a suitable EPROM is installed the device can boot a ROM based OS or load an OS from the network Switches offer the option of booting into 64 mode or 128 mode on a C128 History At the 2008 World of Commodore Expo CCCC asked Jim Brain about the possibility of a low cost Ethernet car tridge Initial ideas were to clone the FB NET cartridge or produce Pratt s C64NIC design The FB NET design was disca
28. t of plan ning and searching goes into finding the right venue and it s always a mixture of frustration and challenge We had a great show back in 2004 but our post show situation was bleak Although we wanted to go back to the hotel our financial position was weak and member ship was still low The cost for the rooms at these hotels back in 2004 was high and nobody was willing to lower the price on the use of the room Even mentioning that we were a non profit computer users group did nothing to lower the cost plus in 2004 the economy was doing well a far different picture than now so the hotels didn t budge on the pricing In 2005 we faced a grim decision either hold the World of Commodore back at our home base Alderwood church or go back to the hotel and face possible bankruptcy We decided to retreat to the church which in the end was a wise decision This allowed us to build the club financially build our membership and get on better footing as a club We made a lot of memories at the World of Commodore shows that were held at the church and each year had it s share of challenges In 2005 we were very short staffed 2006 helped us learn from mistakes execute the show better and we finally got media coverage 2007 when we had to deal with the loss of our friend Jim Butterfield and 2008 was our best show yet in terms of execution and turnout But there was still something missing the cohe sion of having all the ameni
29. th Date Friday October 09 2009 2 00 PM Miraglia Walter wrote gt Possible Topic using the C64Nic card gt I will be picking mine up from gt Ian at the meeting and would love to know what gt I can do with it World Domination Gaze at the perfection of your Printed Circuit Board investment Store on shelf for obvious long term value increase Frame as electronic artwork Find the hidden easter eggs Practice switch flipping hand eye coordination Quick go from RR NET IO1 128 MODE to STD IO1 64 NO ROM Turn upside down and make a PCB rubbing crayons work best ensure you re grounded no warrantee for ESD discharge Immediately after receiving hold above your head and run around the church yelling I HAVE A BRAIN Insert into C64 or C128 and telnet into a shell ac count somewhere Run IRC and exclaim your undying devotion to the 64NIC Buy 20 more as Christmas presents Enter the decorate your 64NIC cart case artwork contest Remember the case is clear so you can paint on the inside and it will show through to avoid scratches and blemishes Find 16 friends with CMD EX 2 1 expansion boards and 31 64NIC friends Daisy chain all expansions to create a 32 slot expansion port Plug all 32 64NIC units in being careful to set each one with a different 4 digit address the jumpers on top and set half for IO1 and the rest for 102 Write appropriate Layer 3 IP code for 64 and utilize as 32 port switch i
30. ties in the same spot If you wanted to go back to your hotel room it was two miles away If you wanted food we offered pizza but anything else was two miles or more away Saturday evening s continued on page 10 gt gt gt PAGE 2 Member Information Voice Info We have discontinued our TPUG phone listing contact members as listed here at home phones Website e mail www tpug ca info tpug ca TPUG NEWSLETTER FALL 2009 Meeting Schedule Westside and Amiga West Third Thursday of the month except summer at Alderwood United Church 44 Delma Drive Delma Drive is just west of and parallel to Browns Line south of the Queen Eliza beth Highway north of Horner Avenue From the west exit QEW at Evans Avenue east on Evans to next stoplight south on Gair to Delma Drive From the north or east follow signs from QEW or Hwy 427 to Browns Line exit right to Evans Avenue turn south on Gair first stoplight to Delma Membership Rates Contact Leif Bloomquist 416 221 2328 leif schemafactor com NEW 15 per year or Ernie Chorny 905 279 2730 chorny tamcotec com e see note page 3 From your Editor Well now Board of Directors President Vice President Secretary Membership Sec Treasurer Director Director Director Director Director Librarians Head Librarian Amiga C128 CP M GEOS C64 C64 Education Comal Plus 4 Vic 20 PET CBM SuperPET Support Mail Telephone Disk Order
31. til then 997 pO204 0 get g if g tH 997 998 if pE 207 tH 998 999 pO204 1 reT That subroutine is useful for menu trees such as 30 MENU 31 1 To go to 1000 press 1 32 2 To go to 2000 press 2 49 WHICH go0S 997 g 131 if g 1 tH 1000 132 if g 2 tH 2000 199 gO 49 1000 1000 here stop 2000 2000 here stop Constants and Variables in BASIC 1 Mostly used only numerical constants and vari ables are called Floating point because their positive and negative value can vary widely with the minimum value being zero or 2 93873588e 39 and the maximum being 1 70141183e38 e means 10 to the power of They are given names at first after which the use of a name calls the value involved Undefined constants or variables have a value of zero Names can be any length but only the first two characters are used with the first one being alpha betic and the second one being either alphabetic or nu meric Some names such as st or to cannot be used be cause BASIC uses these reserved names To see whether a certain name is acceptable try this 10 name 1234 substitute the name you wish to test 20 name stop 2 String constants and variables have a dollar sign following the end of their names All sorts of characters alphanumeric symbols control characters and spaces but NOT double quotes can be put together between the required double quotes such as 50 a Ab1 51
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