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MarkO

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Posts posted by MarkO

    Bioshock on apple II

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    Is there a max line length in Applesoft BASIC, it's been a long time and I don't recall? The rem statement in line 70 is 176 characters. Maybe try splitting it into two lines.

    Keyboard Input Buffer is 255 Character, ( It's at Memory Locations 0x200-0x2FF ), So BASIC Lines can't be by longer than that..

     

    And are probably shorter..

     

     

    MarkO

    CoCo Madness (demos for the CoCo)

    in Tandy Computers

    Posted · Edited by MarkO

    Very cool, I couldn't see the jaggies in Tandy Assembly until I expanded the video ;)

     

    The soft synth with simultaneous animation is really impressive, reminds me of the SID player for the CoCo3:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s87EswP4xeE

     

    Simon is only using the Built In 6 Bit DAC...

     

    From the Code Snippet he shared with me, it looks like the Sound Routine ISR is about 40 Bytes..

    And is running at 58 Cycles per Note, with Three Voices.. ( and Possibly Better, since that was Last Weeks numbers... )

     

    Edit: And it run on the Dragons too....

     

    MarkO

    • Like 1

    Yet another "which model should I get" thread.

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted · Edited by MarkO

    Very cool. Do you know if this can be done from BASIC?

    Yes, both the Mocking Board Disk and the Echo+ Disk ( The Echo+ has Two AY-3-8913s just like the Mocking Board does, but they are addressed differently ) have BASIC programs that BLOAD the Sound Envelops and then setup the AY chips to play the sounds...

     

     

    Also, I saw that someone wrote a MIDI file to Mockingboard song converter program. That could be fun to use.

    Contact Tom Porter on Facebook... He has been doing a lot of Sound stuff and Double LoRes Graphics..

     

    I will seriously consider this for my Christmas present if I get enough Christmas spending money. I am broke at the moment.

    I know that feeling.... Lack on Money...

     

    I got an Original Mocking Board a few years ago, but it still cost me a bit.... I had received an Echo + a few years before that..

     

    There are Two or Three Clones available now... One from Korea, One from Japan, and One from Bulgaria, plus there is an AE Phasor Clone in development..

     

    Edit: Oh... In the mean time, get AppleWin.. It has Mocking Board Support...

    MarkO

    What is the future of flash memory for the Apple II series?

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    I still vote CFFA3000 for best USB/Flash solution for the Apple II simply because of the ongoing support. These boards have been supported since they came out years ago, including the earlier models. So that's my preference. But there are other solutions available like BMOW Floppy Emu and some other card (I forget exactly) that is an MP3 player that fits inside a standard expansion slot.

    The CFFAs need a Slot, so that leaves out the Apple //cs, but with all the Built In utilities and Floppy and Hard Drive Support, they are very hard to beat....

     

     

    Vague rumor has it there will possibly be a redesign of the CFFA board in a couple of years. Thus likely keeping it at the top of the heap. And I hope it supports standard/micro SD cards as I feel CF has become a niche format for pro photography. Not many consumer products are using it these days.

    As long as CF Cards are available, there should be no problem with maintaining the Current CFFAs, but probably the "next version" should be Micro SD and USB...

     

    It would also be nice to see an R&D card that's compatible for the //c. The //c has been gaining popularity for many reasons. Mainly small size and having basic interfaces already built in.

    That would be cool...

     

    So what's the future of flash memory for Apple 8-bits? What can we expect to see?

    Apple ][ to SATA....

     

    MarkO

    CoCo Repair, Identify IC?

    in Tandy Computers

    Posted

    Thanks Mark, yes I have tried on the Facebook page, but nothing new has come from that.

     

    I will join the list and see if any further information is available there.

     

    I have seen that Dave Jones at EEVBlog has just taken what looks to be a PAL Coco1 apart in a recent video, but no new information on it. I see that the chip on his board has a different number to the one above I am looking for. I might drop him a msg and see if he knows anything more on it.

    Having a Schematic would give you an idea of what the chip is used for... I have a Rev-D 4K CoCo 1, NTSC, I can look as see if it has a similar chip...

     

    MarkO

    Yet another "which model should I get" thread.

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    Wow, I didn't know you could get a Mockingboard for a IIc. That is the only thing I wish I could have that a IIe would allow. I will have to get one of these! That would make programming games so much more fun (assuming the mockingboard is easy to program).

    You merely have to "stuff" some registers with the sounds you want... There are programming examples and People that are working with it today..

     

     

     

     

    MarkO

    Yet another "which model should I get" thread.

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    I know exactly what you mean. I admittedly don't have nostalgia for any vintage Apple Computer model and can therefore base my decisions soley on capabilities and price. I do have nostalgia for the Tandy Color Computer II but not for the Color Computer III. The II happens to be much less expensive and more common than the III, so in my case nostalgia saved me a lot of money :-)

    I am Totally the Opposite.. I have a "deep" Vintage Apple ][ interest, but recently have been getting into the Tandy Color Computer... I got a NIB, CoCo 3 about 5 years ago, with a Platinum //e, that came with Drives and Monitor and Original Software....

     

    I kept the CoCo 3, because it has the Motorola 6809, and I wanted to learn more about it.. Since then I have added Two CoCo 2s, a 4K CoCo 1, two MPIs and a practically new FD-500 Disk Drive.. and a Dragon64 by Tano... The CoCoSDCs for the CoCos are just as incredible as the CFFA3000 for the Apples...

     

     

    MarkO

    Yet another "which model should I get" thread.

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    << BIG SNIP >>>

     

    As a side note / interesting observation - I'm sure I probably could have gotten a much better deal even just a few years ago. Old video games and computers have become more in demand as collectibles as of late with people such as myself getting on the bandwagon thanks to Atari Age, Youtube, etc. I've always had an interest in old computers - especially ones I grew up with - but it has only been recently that I have been obtaining them. Thanks to websites such as Atari and Youtube people have become more interested in these relics. Personally, I started obtaining vintage computers because I'm curious and want to experience these machines I've always heard of but never owned or even experienced. There weren't many kids or adults back in the day who simultaneously owned a Vic-20, C64, Apple II, TI-99, Tandy Color Computer, PC, Atari 800xl, Amiga 1200, and Aquarius at the same time but over the course of the past 3-4 years I've obtained all these (the only yard sale find was the Amiga for 1200, otherwise it would be outside my price range). These days, even though these machines are collectible they still only cost a small fraction of their original price and ordinary middle class folks like myself can get them. The prices have been going up, but the communities supporting these machines has grown and they are more respected for their place in history.

    The "opportunists", that want to Cash In are filling eBay with all kinds of Ludicrous Prices...

     

    OTOH, checking with people on Facebook, and AppleFritter and UseNet and here, and there are Machines to be had for reasonable prices...

     

    Check with Garrett at http://www.bithistory.org/. He is always getting Donated Hardware and needing to locate Good Homes for them....

     

    MarkO

    Yet another "which model should I get" thread.

    in Apple II Computers

    Posted

    I have to admit that I don't know a hill of beans about Apple II computers, but for me, it was the IIe (Enhanced) that I settled for.

     

    The Apple II (not even sure if it was a Plus) was the first personal computer I ever touched (elementary school), so it has a bit of an attachment for me. However, they seem like expensive collector's items now. It also bugged me that they didn't have lower case characters, and seemed to top out at 48k.

    I first used the Apple ][+ in High School, but when it came to a point that I could buy one, the ][e was available and I was able to acquire a slightly used ][e.

     

    If the Language Card was added to the ][ or ][+, you could have 64K of RAM.. This was mandatory to use Apple Pascal... The Apple ][+ I used in High School had the ROM Card with the Integer BASIC ROMs on them.. Lower Case could be added, but they didn't come that way from the Factory.

     

    The IIe looks enough like it to satisfy my nostalgia, plus it's later and presumably more reliable (fewer components) anyway. I bought the nicest, latest one that I could find at a reasonable price. It came in this box....

     

    attachicon.gifApple IIe 128K Box.jpg

     

    ....so I figured it must have been a later Enhanced model because it shipped with 128k.

    I don't recall if the choice to ship with 128K came before the Factory Enhanced ROMs and the 65C02.. I do know that there are Non Factory Enhanced ][es with the Newer Dark with Black keyboards.. I have three or four of them..

     

     

    The IIe Platinum looks too different for my nostalgia, although it looks like a really fine machine at the same time.

    The Form Factor of the Platinum is similar, but the added Keypad throws of the original esthetics... OTOH, the Keypad can be handy, and the Motherboard is further chip reduced, leading to lower power requirements and potentially better reliability.. I actually own One Platinum //e.

     

    The IIgs just came too late to pique my interest. By then, the Atari St and (to some extent) Amiga computers had my attention, and the lion's share of the 16-bit Home Computer software compared to what natively-supported the IIgs' unique capabilities. Apple II software that captures my sense of nostalgia are the ones that I do most remembering playing on a IIe with a color monitor.

    I had moved on to the IBM PCs by the time the ][gs came out, but I have aquired a few in the last 5 years... They have Great backwards compatibility with the 128K //es and //cs, and a whole lot of nicer features...

     

     

    I always though that the IIc was an amazing design for its time, but there's that darned nostalgia again for the bigger II computers, and of course the IIc can't accomodate the CFFA3000 card, so that makes it a no-go for me.

    I had one of the original //cs, and it was a cool, portable Apple ][..... I am very sad I sold it, BITD, to fund my first IBM-AT clone... :(

     

    The CFFA3000 is one bad-ass Apple II accessory:

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q113bbwR5A

     

     

    Although I grew up with (and remain obsessed with) Atari 8-bit computers, a IIe with a CFFA3000, and a Commodore 64 with a 1541 Ultimate II have somehow managed to generate some 8-bit junkie interest in me.

    The CFFA3000 is a fantastic addition to any Apple ][ system with slots... Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, SSD... What more could you ask for??

     

    MarkO

    DOS 7.10 conventional memory increase fun

    in Classic Computing Discussion

    Posted · Edited by MarkO

    Before microsoft came out with an extended memory manager, I used one called QEMM. From what I remember it could squeeze out a few more KB compared with Microsoft emm. They also had this very usefull multitasking environment for DOS called Desqview, with cut and paste and scripting automation.

     

    I bought Desqview and QEMM, BITD... Very Nice for Maximum DOS Applications....

     

    QEMM 8.0

     

    QEMM 97 9.0

     

    MarkO

    New Adventure Game for ZX-81 "Space Adventure"

    in Classic Computing Discussion

    Posted

    I do not have a Spectrum with which to try this, but I think that it is great that you are willing to share something that you created so long ago.

     

    In about 1984, I wrote a Centipede clone for the Coco called Multipede. Alas, there was no way to distribute it -- I did not know any local Coco users -- and so my masterpiece is (sadly) lost to time. :_(

     

    The ZX-81 is different than the Spectrum.... I have a bunch of the ZX-81s/TS-1000s... I will need to see if I can get one of them to Boot....

     

    MarkO

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