Text content (OCR)
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APPLIED ENGINEERING IS 100% APPLE
That’s Why We're So Good At It!
NEW 1984
Automatically date DESIGN
raps files with An official
PRO-DOS PRO-DOS Clock
MATa
@ Just plug it in and your programs can read the year, month, date, day,
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@ A rechargeable NiCad battery will keep the TIMEMASTER II running
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@ Powerful 2K ROM driver — No clock could be easier to use,
@ Full emulation of most other clocks, including Thunderclock and
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@ Basic, Machine Code, CP/M and Pascal software on 2 disks!
@ Eight software controlled interrupts so you can execute two programs
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The TIMEMASTER II includes 2 disks with some really fantastic time
oriented programs (over 40) including appointment book so you'll
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when disk files are created or modified. The disk is over a $200.00
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to read the TIMEMASTER If, If you want the most powerful and the
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PRICE $129.00
Super Music Synthesizer
Improved Hardware and Software
®@ Complete 16 voice music synthesizer on one card, Just plug it into
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the disk supplied and you are ready to input and play songs,
It's easy to program music with our compose software, You will start
right away at inputting your favorite songs. The Hi-Res screen shows
what you have entered in standard sheet music format,
Now with new improved software for the easiest and the fastest
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We give you lots of software. In addition to Compose and Play
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Four white noise generators which are great for sound effects.
Plays music in true stereo as well as true discrete quadraphonic.
Full control of attack, volume, decay, sustain and release.
Will play songs written for ALF synthesizer (ALF software will nottake
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our synthesizer)
Our card will play notes from 30HZ to beyond human hearing.
Automatic shutoff on power-up or if reset is pushed,
Many many more features. PRICE $159.00
Z-80 PLUS!
@ TOTALLY compatible with ALL CP/M software.
The only 2-80 card with a special 2K "CP/M detector” chip.
© Fully compatible with microsoft disks (no pre-boot required).
© Specifically designed for high speed operation in the Apple Ile (runs
just as fast in the I+ and Franklin).
@ Runs WORD STAR, dBASE II, COBOL-80, FORTRAN-80,
PEACHTREE and ALL other CP/M software with no pre-boot.
@ A semi-custom LC. and a low parts count allows the 2-80 Plus to fly
thru CP/M programs at avery low power level. (We use the Z-80A at
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© Does EVERYTHING the other Z-80 boards do, plus 2-80 interrupts,
Don’t confuse the 2-80 Plus with crude copies of the microsoft card. The
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the Z-86 Plus you can access the largest body of software in existence
Two computers in one and the advantages of both, all at an unbelievably
low price, PRICE $139.00
wmaster 80
There used to be about a dozen 80 column cards for the Apple, now
there’s only ONE.
TOTALLY Videx Compatibl
80 characters by 24 lines, with a sharp 7x9 dot matrix,
On-board 40/80 soft video switch with manual 40 column override
Fully compatible with ALL Apple languages and software—there are
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Low power consumption through the use of CMOS devices,
All connections are made with standard video connectors.
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All new design (using a new Microprocessor based C.R.T. controle),
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The VIEWMASTER incorporates all the features of all other 80 column
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ViEWMASTIR 16) WSs MS vs oS oS MIS os YES
SUPRTERM «MORE «NOYES NO NO ND NOSIS
wasneo «= MORE «= NO NO NO ND MSN SES
MORE oY oS NO NO 5 NO NO NO
visionso
OVNSION MORE NO WS NO NO NO RO VS YES
wan «MORE YES. YES. NQ NOYES. «BONO
SMARTERM «MORE «= -S.S--NO. ONO) NOES. ES. NO
WOLOIERN MORE NO NO YES NO WS WS NO MES
The VIEWMASTER 80 works with all 80 column applications including CP/M,
Pascal, WordStar, Format II, Easywriter, Apple Writer Il, VisiCalc, and ail
others, The VIEWMASTER 80 is THE MOST compatible 80 column card you
ean buy at ANY price! PRICE $179.00
Expands your Apple Ile to 192K memory,
Provides an 80 column text display,
Compatible with all Apple Ile 80 column and extended 80 column
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Can be used as asolid state disk drive to make your programs tun up
to 20 times FASTER (the 64K configuration will act as half a drive)
Permits your Ile to use the new double high resolution graphics.
Automatically expands Visicalc to 95 K storage in 80 columns! The
64K config. is all that’s needed, 128K can take you even higher.
PRO-DOS willuse the MemoryMaster lieas a high speed disk drive.
MemoryMaster tle 128K RAM Card
@ Precision software disk emulation for Basic, Pascal and CP/M is
available at a very low cost. NOT copy protected.
@ Documentation included, we show you haw to use all 192K.
Hyaualready have Apple's 64K card, just onder the MEMORYMASTER IHe with 64K and use
the 64K from your old board to give you a full 128K. (The board js fully socketed 40 yOu
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MemoryMaster He with 128K $249
Upgradeable MemoryMaster Ie with 64K $169
Non-Upgradeable MemoryMaster Ile with 64K $149
‘uy boards ate far superior to most of the consumer electronics made today: All LC.'s
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also manufactures afullline of data scauisition and cantrol products for the Apple; APO converters and degital /O cards, etc, Pes
ry. A products are guaranteed with ano hassie TH
Send Check or Money Order to:
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Carrollton, TX 75006
‘sth complete documentation and available for immediate deli
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THIS ISSUE:
Hardcore
Volume 3
Number 2
COMPUTIST
8 Program Enhancements:
Quick.Bug
By Enrique Gamez
A more powerful version
of the popular CPU utility.
1 Personalizing A Program
By Enrique Gamez
A powerful search utility
which upgrades your monitor's capability.
14 Modified ROMs
By Ernie Young
An inexpensive answer
to those copy cards.
17-27 CORE Section:
Data Bases
30 Essential Data Duplicator:
Review
By Dave Thompson
The strong points and weaknesses of this
new breed of nibble copier.
31 The CIA:
Review
By Gary Peterson
A guide to whether or not the
CIA agents are for you.
SPECIAL FEATURES
5 Readers’ Softkey
And Copy Exchange
Deprotecting Pandora’s Box
By Clay Harrell
Softkey For Donkey Kong
By Dan Lui
Backup For The Caverns Of Freitag
By C.J. Singer
Short Softkey For Visifile
By C. Masters
10 Advanced Playing
Techniques
29 Whiz Kid
By Ray Darrah
A beginner's guide to copy-protection.
DEPARTMENTS
3 Input
32 Advertising Index
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
lean cc antares AUAUSUHOQOGOEUEORAUOREUUEOUAUEUEOSVEOUAUOUEOEOD AE EE TENS
Input/Output Made Easy!
The .D-1000™ 1/O System for Apple II* simplifies
computer control. Software support allows control of all
inputs and outputs using simple BASIC variable names.
System includes two boards shown, cables, 60-page
manual and disk.
Hardcore
COMPUTIST
Publisher/Editor Circulation
Charles Haight Valerie Robinson
Special introductory price
Advertising
Attn: Tanyalee Erwin
Advertising Department
3710 100th St. SW
Tacoma, WA 98499
Copy Editor
Bassam Bishuti
Apple Interface Board
1 Adjustable Reference
User Interface Module 2. BChannel A/D
: ode fou 5 sch a ; aie ase Technical Editing Business Manager
jigital Input Switches jigital Inputs 4
3 8 Digital Output Indicators 5 8 Buffered Digital Outputs Gary Peterson Ken Fields
4 Uses 9-\V Battery No External 6 Gold Plated Connector Plugs
Power Required into Your Apple
2 Jacks to User Circuits i Digital Butter Printing
Parallel Jack to Computer Penpheral Interface Adapter Pregraniaer Grange Printing, Inc.
™ Seattle, WA
“RCL RITE METGKIE Ray Darrah
Innovative Microcomputer Enhancement Systems
4860 East 345th Street * Willoughby, Ohie 44094 ® [216] 953-8414
“Appl lis egstered trademark of Apne Carauter, Publishing
SoftKey Publishing
Production P.O. Box 44549
& Graphics Tacoma, WA 98444
Lynn Campos-Johnson USA
Address all advertising inquiries to SoftKey Publishing, Ad-
vertising Department, 3710 100th St. SW, Tacoma, WA 98499.
Address all manuscripts and editorials to: SoftKey Publishing,
Editorial Department, P.O, Box 44549, Tacoma, WA 98444.
All subscription inquiries should be directed to: Subscription
Department, Hardcore COMPUTIST, P.O. Box 44549, Taco-
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Entire contents copyright 1984 by SoftKey Publishing. All
tights reserved. Copying done for other than personal or in-
ternal reference (without express written permission from the
publisher) is prohibited,
The editorial staff assumes no liability or responsibility for
the products advertised in the magazine. Any opinions ex-
pressed ie the authors are not necessarily those of Hardcore
COMPUTIST magazine or SoftKey Publishing.
DOMESTIC DEALER RATES sent upon request, or call (206)
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Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
INPUT INPUT INPUT
The Fourth Dimension
|am writing about the articles on UI-
tima Il in Hardcore Computist no.4.
The programs supplied were a great
aid to my gaming, The table on page
14 of that issue displays a few
“unknowns" which led me to discover
that a certain address, $4E13, refers
to the time period. Assigning these
values to this location will place the
player into the following periods:
Value in $4E13 Time Period
oo Legends
01 Pangea
2 B.C.
03 AD.
04 Aftermath
Using this information, the informa-
tion from an Ultimap or two, and that
from the table on page 14, it is possi-
ble to locate a place and time, and
project the character there!
Many thanks to your magazine fora
great group of articles.
Peter Thorpe
Hong Kong
Search or Destroy?
| have a problem that | hope you can
help me with. | copied a 99 sector pro-
gram from a magazine on my Apple
Il+ with 64K memory. | saved it, saw
a mistake towards the last and correct-
ed it, saved it again and wound up with
only one line in my program! Yet if |
use the view file utility on my Copy Il +
disk, | can see the text of the program
still there. | just can’t retreive it or bring
it back. This isn’t the first time I've
done this boo-boo and | don’t know
why it happened or what | can do about
it.
Do you have any suggestion outside
of blowing up my Apple? Can you
recommend any utility program that
would bring it back for me? | dread to
think of re-typing all that over again. |
am very interested in computing and
would also appreciate it if you could list
6 or 8 of the best programs or utilities
availablato heln. Jam in my, 70)s and
do not intend to’ compete witn the ”
younger hackers, but | like to keep my
brain agile, even if the rest of me is fall-
ing apart. Using my Apple sure beats
sitting in my rocking chair!
Another thing. In magazines, most
writers assume that the average read-
er must be a computer genius. | have
printed out entire programs, and at the
end the author might say it is for the
Apple Ill ... but with a few minor cor-
rections or changes It will work on a
ll+ or it is made to work on a Brother
printer but with a few minor changes
it can be made to work on an Epson.
Then they drop it. If they know the
changes, why in the “#%#$$#%$#"
don't they put them in the article? It's
discouraging and I'm not the only one
who feels that way. A lot of the mem-
bers in our Apple club have the same
beef.
Well, thanks for letting me bend your
ear. | hope you can help me with my
problem.
Andrew Paranya
Winterhaven. CA
Mr. Paranya:
From the description you have given
of your problem, it sounds as if one of
the Applesoft line pointers has been
destroyed. Unfortunately, there are no
commercial utilities that we know of
that will remedy this problem. However,
your problem can be fairly easily solved
if you are willing to learn how Applesoft
stores the lines of a program.
An Applesoft program normally be-
gins at $801 (2048 decimal) in memory.
Each line of a program is stored as a
series of hexadecimal bytes with a 00
indicating the end of each line. The first
two bytes of every line contain, in lo/hi
format, a pointer to the memory loca-
tion of the next line. The program fine
number is stored as the third and fourth
bytes of each line, again in lo/hi format.
The remainder of the bytes in the line,
up to the end-of-line 00, are the encod-
ed statements of the program. If a line
Midwest
Phone 94
242
Know where your head is, at all times,
with TRAK STAR constant digital readout
« Saves copying time
« Fornibble programs
hon top of
2 Apple® computer
a
FREE INTRODUCTORY
BONUS with purchase
of Trak Star
* Trak Star disk contains patching
ftware.
* Simple-to-operate, menu-driven
Trak Star software automatically
repairs a bad track without
requiring technical expertise.
Foreign airmail & handling $8.00.
Microsystems
Suite 124
ik, KS 66242
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Page 3
DEAR AUTHOR:
Would you like to be published in
Hardcore COMPUTIST? We would like
to hear from you.
Hardcore COMPUTIST welcomes
articles and submissions on a variety
of subjects of interest to users of the
Apple (or compatible) computers and
would like to publish well-written
material on the following:
* Softkeys * Hardware Modifications
* Advanced Playing Techniques
* DOS modifications * Utilities
* Product reviews * Adventure Tips
* Original programs of interest
* Do-it-yourself hardware projects
* General interest articles
* Bit-Copy Parameters
We prefer to see your submission on
a DOS 3.3 disk using an Apple (or
compatible) editing program. Please
enclose a double-spaced hardcopy
(paper) manuscript using a dot-matrix
or letter-quality printer (or typewriter).
Submissions will be mailed back if
adequate adequate return packaging
is included.
Hardcore COMPUTIST pays on ac-
ceptance. Rate of payment depends
on the amotnt of editing necessary
and the length of the article. Payment
ranges between $10 for a short soft-
key, and $50 per typeset page for a
full-length article. We pay more for
softkeys if the original commercial disk
is enclosed for verification. We guaran-
tee the disk’s return.
Softkey Publishing buys alll rights as
well as one-time reprint rights (for up-
coming BEST OF Hardcores) on
general articles, and exclusive rights
on programs. We may make alternate
arrangements with individual authors,
depending on the merit of the contri-
bution.
At present we are not accepting fic-
tion or poetry submissions, but Hard-
core COMPUTIST may make an
exception for an outstanding
computer-related short story or poem.
For a copy of our Writer's Guide,
send a business-sized (20-cent) SASE
(self-addressed, stamped envelope) to:
Hardcore COMPUTIST
WRITER’S GUIDE
P. O. BOX 44549
TACOMA WA 98444
Page 4
INPUT continued from page 3
is the last line of the program then the
pointers to the next program line point
at 00's. Take for instance the following
simple two line program:
1 PRINT
20 END
This program would be stored starting
at $801 as:
Addr. Byte Function
801: 07 - Lo byte of pointer.
802: 8 - Hi byte of pointer.
803: A - Line # /o byte (10).
804: 0 - Line # hi byte.
805: BA - Token for PRINT.
806: 0 - Indicates end of line.
807: OD - Lo byte of pointer.
808: 08 - Hi byte of pointer.
809: 14 - Line # lo byte (20).
80A: 0 - Line # hi byte.
80B: BA - Token for END.
80C: 0 - Indicates end of line.
80D: 0 - The two 00's here
80E: 0 - indicate the end of
the program.
Apparently the pointers in the second
line of your program somehow got set
to zeroes, instead of pointing to the
next line in memory.
To remedy your problem you need to
load in your program, enter the moni-
tor and correct the pointers in the se-
cond line of the program (look for 3 con-
sectutive bytes of 00) so that they point
to the next line in memory. You should
only have to change these two bytes
before resaving your program (you may
want to save it under a different name,
in case of a problem).
If this does not work then you may
consider blowing up your computer (or
just pouring Pepsi over the mother-
board with the power turned on). But
seriously, we hope this solves your
problem. For more information on how
Applesott stores programs, see the Cail
A.P.P.L.E. publication “All About Ap-
plesoft.””
As to your question about what we
consider the best utility programs for
the Apple, our favorites are:
Global Program Line Editor (Beagle
Brothers)
Bag of Tricks (Quality Software)
The CIA (Golden Delicious Software)
Copy H+ (Central Point Software)
if you want to program in Assembly
language, our favorite assembler is the
S-C Macro Assembler from S-C Soft-
ware Corp.
Back to Basics
Ihave really enjoyed your magazine
and | think that it is about time that
somebody start publishing the things
you publish.
| have only one comment; your soft-
keys always assume that we know
what you are talking about. | can fol-
low the steps with no problem, but |
have no idea of what | am doing. |
would like to see accolumn or two that
starts at the basics and works its way
up. How about it?
Seth Miller
Sacramento, CA
Seth: Your point is well taken. Because
we have received so many suggestions
similar to yours, we will be publishing
a column on copy-protection which be-
gins with the basics. See page 29 of
this month’s issue.
Time Zone
For anyone who has Time Zone from
Sierra On-Line, a word of caution: Do
not try to copy it with the built-in copi-
er on side A of the disk. It is very un-
reliable and it would take a lot of
playing before you run across the er-
ror(s). | suggest using COPYA instead.
After using COPYA to copy the
disk(s), use a bit copier with a Nibble-
counter option to copy track @ of side
A. This will save you a lot of headaches
later on.
Eric Kinney
Walla Walla, WA
Rumor Mill
Have you looked closely at any of
the pictures of Apple's new Macin-
tosh computer and noticed that all
of its integrated circuits are sol-
dered directly to the motherboard?
Apparently the Apple Ile is to suffer
the same fate
The January, 1984 edition of Ap-
ple Assembly Lines (S-C Software)
reports that future Apple Ile’s will
have most of their chips soldered in,
rather than mounted in sockets.
Supposedly this will increase the
reliabilty of the lle’s, Needless to
say, this will make things hard for
those who like to make their own
repairs and/or modifications.
&
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
READERS’ SOFTHEY & COPY EXCHANGE
Deprotecting
Pandora’s Box
By Clay Harrell
Pandora's Box
Datamost, Inc.
8943 Fullbright Ave
Chatsworth, CA 91311
Requirements:
Apple, with 48K
One disk drive, with DOS 3.3
A sector editor, such as the Inspector
or Disk Zap
A blank disk
Pandora's Box
When program publishers buy a pro-
tection scheme, they generally use it
for as many programs as possible to
get the most for their money (yes, pro-
tection schemes are just programs that
people write and sell).
The advantage of this is that once
you learn what they are doing, it is
easy to backup many of their
programs.
Datamost and Infocom are two ex-
amples of this. If you can backup
ZORK |, then you can backup ZORK
ll and ZORK Il and DEADLINE and the
rest.
The people at Datamost used a
modified DOS for many of their pro-
grams until about April 1983. After that
they started using a different scheme
of protection on a lot of their programs.
But the company published at least
seven good games before April 1983
and Pandora's Box was one of them.
The deprotection method | am about
to describe will apply to many of them,
but we will be using Pandora's Box as
an example.
Modified DOS
As we said, Datamost uses a modi-
fied DOS for its protection scheme.
Normally, this is apparent from the
BASIC prompt that appears on the
screen after a few seconds into the
boot.
Datamost, however, turns on the hi-
res screen right when the boot starts
to hide this. But we still know there is
a modified DOS because of the way
the boot sounds.
Listen to your normal DOS disks
boot. You will hear the same sound ev-
ery time. First, the drive spins for half-
a-second or so. This is track 0, sector
@, through sector 9 getting loaded into
$B600 to $BFFF.
Then, you hear the drive's read-write
head slide up to track 2 to load in the
test of DOS. Tracks 2 and 1 are read
in quickly and the read-write head
slides up to the catalog, track 17, and
the hello program is located and run.
Now, listen to Pandora's Box load in.
You will hear the same sounds. This
is a dead giveaway that a modified
DOS is being used,
What to do
Whenever a modified DOS is used
the first thing you should do is boot
a normal DOS disk and defeat the
DOS error-checking, DOS checks the
carry bit to determine if any errors have
occurred in a disk access.
If the carry bit is clear, DOS as-
sumes that everything is OK and just
keeps on going. The routine that gets
jumped to if an error is suspected is at
$B942. This simply sets the carry bit
and returns to the calling routine.
To defeat the error-checking, we
only have to change address $B942
from $38 to $18. This simple modifica-
tion will allow us to copy previously un-
copyable disks with COPYA.
All that is left to do is to change the
Datamost DOS just slightly so that it
will live in a normal DOS 3.3 environ-
ment. At track 0, sector 3, change byte
$91 from $DF to $DE, What the
manufacturers have done to make
their disk ‘‘uncopyable”’ is to change
the epilog byte from the normal $DE
to $DF. This will sufficiently confuse
the copy program, preventing easy co-
pies. (If you do not know what is meant
by an “‘epilog” byte, please refer to
Beneath Apple DOS by Don Worth and
Pieter Lechner. This manual is in-
dispensible for further understanding
of DOS).
In addition, byte $42 must be
changed from $38 to $18 on the same
track and sector. This is an insurance
policy, more or less, that everything
will work correctly in the normal DOS
3.3 environment.
I. {i __ pul
7
i
TRACK
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MTHSPECTO fT]
li
tay
The Track Inspector is a
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Disk II drives. A window allows
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process. Includes instructions
for easy labeling of track loca-
tions on drives,
4S
RACK INSPECTOR
“It's a bit copier's friend”
* Locate bad track copies FAST
* Locate tracks & half tracks
to be copied fast
* Adjust drive speed without
removing cover drive
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Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Page 5
What you are actually doing is
changing byte $B942 in DOS, as we
did before to make the COPYA copy,
but you are doing it directly to the disk
for permanence.
These two modifications are all we
need to do to make Pandora’s Box a
straight COPYA disk.
The Steps
In step-by-step fashion, here's what
you should do to make Pandora’s Box
copyable with COPYA:
1) Boot normal DOS 3.3
2) Enter the monitor
CALL-151
3) Change byte $B942 from $38 to $18
by typing:
B942:18
4) Execute the COPYA program
RUN COPYA
5) Copy Pandora's Box to a blank disk
6) Re-boot normal DOS 3.3 and run
your sector editor. Change the follow-
ing bytes:
Trk Sct Byte From __To
00 03 42 38 18
00 03 91 DF DE
7) Write the sector back out to your
COPYA disk version of Pandora’s Box.
Softkey For
Donkey Kong
By Dan Lui
Donkey Kong
Atari, Inc.
P. O. Box 61657
Sunnyvale, CA 94686
$29.95
Requirements:
Apple, with 48K
COPYA
The Inspector, or similar program
One blank disk
Donkey Kong, another popular
game from Atarisoft, contains all the
four different structures (or screens)
and plays in a similar fashion to the
game that is featured in the arcades.
ft, also, uses a similar (if somewhat
different) format of protection to the
other programs that Atarisoft
produces.
The procedure to unlock it is as
follows:
1) Start the COPYA program
RUN COPYA
2) Once loaded, terminate the program
Page 6
with
cL,
3) Delete line #70 to avoid the reload
of the copy routine
70
4) Enter the monitor
CALL-151
5) Type the following:
B928: 18 60
B988: 18 60
3D0G
6) Execute the program
RUN
7) After the disk is copied, use the In-
spector to read track 0, sector 3
8) Change the following:
Trk Sct Byte From To
ti) 3 $35 AA DE
Ui) 3 $3F DE AA
vi) 3 $91 AA DE
0 3 $9B DE AA
The procedure is now finished and
you can copy the disk with COPYA.
Backup For
The Caverns Of Freitag
By C.J. Singer
The Caverns of Freitag
Muse Software
347 N Charles
Baltimore, MD 21201
$29.95
Requirements:
Apple Il, with 48K and Applesoft in
ROM
One disk drive
FID from 3.3 System Master disk
One blank disk
The Caverns of Freitag original disk
Being the parent of three kids who
like to play games on the computer, my
first thought after purchasing a pro-
gram is how to back it up before the
kids have an accident with the original.
What I usually first try to do is back-
up the disk with Locksmith, but I don't
really care for this method because it
doesn’t allow you to look at the pro-
gram to see how it works and it does
not allow you to modify it.
Here's my first, albeit somewhat
tedious, explanation of how to backup
the Caverns of Freitag. | will provide
another, easier method below.
The game comes from Muse Soft-
ware, of Castle Wolfenstein fame.
The Hard Way
1) Boot the Caverns of Freitag disk
from drive 6
PR#6
2) While the disk is booting, stop the
HELLO program from running
cma
3) To make sure the HELLO program
is in memory, type
LIST
You should see the Caverns of Freitag
listed on your monitor. If no program
is listed, go back to step 1 and try
again.
4) The Caverns of Freitag uses a modi-
fied DOS, which has changed some of
the DOS commands. The INIT com-
mand has not been changed, however,
so we can INITialize a blank disk,
which will contain the modified DOS
along with the HELLO program cur-
rently in memory. So, insert a blank
disk into your drive and type
INIT HELLO
If you want to see how Muse has modi-
fied the normal DOS commands you
can use a sector editing program, such
as ZAP from Bag of Tricks or DIS-
KEDIT, to view track 1, sectors 7 and
8. If you compare what you find with
a list of the normal DOS commands
you will find that the SAVE command
has been changed to LSDK, CATA-
LOG to KSJFLKA, MON to 983 and
BSAVE to 87364.
5) Now put your original disk back in
the drive and use Muse’s modified
CATALOG (KSJFLKA) to see what files
are on the disk
KSJFLKA
6) Write down the list of files which are
displayed so that you can save them
to the disk you just initialized. You
don’t have to write down the HELLO
file since it has already been trans-
ferred.
7) The first file on your list should be
a binary file called OILER. Load it into
memory
BLOAD OILER
8) When a new binary file is loaded into
memory, its address is stored at
$AA72 and $AA73 (hillo format) and its
length is stored at $AA60 and $AA61.
Enter the monitor and display the ad-
dress and length of the file OILER
CALL-151
AAT2.AA73
AAGO.AAG1
For the OILER file you should get an
address of $02DE and a length of
$00D5.
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
9) Put your backup disk in the drive and use the 87364 (the
modified BSAVE command) to save the file, using the ad-
dress and length parameters you just determined in the
previous step
87364 OILER,AS@2DE,L$00D5
10) Repeat the process of BLOADing each binary file from
the Caverns of Freitag original disk, determining its address
and length and using the 87364 (BSAVE) command to
transfer the files onto the backup disk.
11) For the Applesoft files on the list, you can just LOAD
each one of them from the original disk and, then, LSDK
(SAVE) them onto the backup disk.
Like | said; the above procedure is long and tedious, but
it works.
Now for the easy method!
The Easy Way
1) Go through steps 1 through 4, outlined above.
2) Insert your DOS 3.3 System Master and boot it
PR#6
3) Load the FID program into memory at $6800 where it
won't get overwritten when we boot the Caverns of Freitag
disk in the next step
BLOAD FID,A$6800
4) Boot the original Freitag disk and, again, stop it from run-
ning the HELLO program
PR#6
TAL
5) Enter the monitor, memory move FID from $6800 back
down to $803 and, then, run FID to copy the files
CALL-151
803 < 6800.9000M
803G
6) Copy the files from the original disk to the blank, initial-
ized disk using FID’s wildcard option.
Now that you have a backup copy you can look at the
Caverns of Freitag, using “™“C and KSJFLKA for CATA-
LOG. You can LOAD or BLOAD to study or modify any of
the files on the disk.
If you have a sector editor you may even want to change
track 1, sectors 7 and 8, so that they will contain the nor-
mal DOS commands, instead of the ones which Muse put
on the disk.
Short Softkey For Visifile
By C. Masters IW
«ly
Visifile me
VisiCorp.
2895 Zanker Rd.
San Jose, CA 95134
$250.00
Requirements:
Apple, with 48K
One blank disk and a sector editing program
1) Copy the disk, using COPYA
2) Use the sector editor to read track $22, sector 4, of the
backup disk
3) Change byte $2D from $0A to OF and write the sector
back to the disk.
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Highest Quality, Lifetime Guarantee!
DISKETTES
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each, 4 for $10 (beige, black, blue, green,
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Disk Drives
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VF ASSOCIATES
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Software banc, inc.
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1225 North Water Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
(414) 271-0100
ONE-PASS-COPY
By compressing data, it copies mast disks in one pas end in half
the time. You'll save so much time and hassles you ly wonder how you ever
did without it. A must for one drive Apples.
DRIVE 3—RAM DRIVE EMULATOR
Give your 00S the a touse RAM memory like a disk drive. For a 128K
APPLE lle, youget a3
you get 63 sectors. Access RAM drive with all DOS commands. For example,
type CATALOG D3 and get an instantaneous catalog on the screen with
no noise oF delay.
SPEED-DOS
Improves SAVE and LOAD time by up to 500%. Compatible with DRS, all
DOS commands, and most programs. BLOAD a HI-RES screen trom floppy In
3 seconds, from DR3 almost instantly LOAD and SAVE large programs
80 fast you'll hardly believe it.
SPECIAL OFFER
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Disks copyable, catalogable. Foreign shipping $5. Dealer inquiries ‘welcome.
Page 7
Quicktrace
Anthro-Digital
103 Bartlett Ave
Pittsfield, MA 01201
$50.00
Requirements:
Apple II Plus
QUICKTRACE (program)
I'm sure that many of you who are
Assembly language buffs have bought
either The Bug (by Sensible Software)
or Quicktrace (by Anthro-Digital) or
both, like me. Each is a great tool for
debugging or analyzing your own or
another's programs.
But this isn’t a review...
Quicktrace can display, “‘D,”’ up to
six memory locations for monitoring as
well as having a full-speed JSR com-
mand, “'X,'’ which is excellent. The
Bug has great display and disassem-
bly commands, "'Z” and "'L."
The following program is an adden-
dum to Quicktrace. It adds three new
commands: L, Z, and Q, which are
similar in function to those found in
The Bug. Quicktrace and this adden-
dum form Quick.Bug which has all the
advantages of both programs together
without suffering from the ommissions.
If you are wondering why | chose to
modify or add to Quicktrace instead of
The Bug, | can tell you that the latter
is protected and, thereby, much hard-
er to inspect or analyze.
Program Enhancements:
QUICK.BUG
By Enrique Gamez
ay
I He hi
i
Creating Quick.Bug
The following is a step-by-step
procedure for creating Quick.Bug:
1) Load Quicktrace at $8400 and enter
the monitor
WHET i
Aa |
| i | |
La
i
nih i!
a
ik il Ie al
il HN | ! |
AAR
le i) { i th
inca Hel bi ol H
BLOAD QUICKTRACE,AS8400
CALL-151
The default for Quicktrace's monitor
command, “‘M,” is $FF69. We must
change it to $9200, where our adden-
dum begins. The low byte is at $8551;
the high byte is at $8564.
2) Make the default monitor vector
point to the addendum
8551:00
64:92
Now, the first time you press ''M”’
from Quicktrace you will jump to the
starting address of Quick.Bug.
3) At this point you should enter the
hexdump on page 9.
4) Now all you have to do is save it
BSAVE QUICK.BUG,AS8400,L$EA8
That's it!
Here are the added commands you
have once you enter Quick.Bug:
L- Disassemble 14 lines
Page 8
hon ee Ma
yA
IM oe ati
My
Display a screenful of hex and A‘
H ay M- Exit to the real monitor
Q- Return to Quicktrace
Unfortunately, my code isn’t relocat-
Nal}, able as is the original Quicktrace. You
could make this conversion your next
pope but | must report that | have
ad only one instance where memory
conflicts forced me to load Quicktrace
elsewhere. One is usually just con-
cerned with analyzing sections of a
program. Rarely would you ever want
to step through a 120-sector game!
Try This One
But while we are on the subject of
enhancements, here is one for
Quick.Bug:
85EC:03 1A @9 04 02 2D 16 GE
Try this one too:
8575: 01 00 84 OO 18 80 8D 00 19 08
E9 00 13 10 00 62 10 13
These two little modifications high-
light the registers and other informa-
tion with inverse characters. This
greatly improves the display’s reada-
bey but they also mess up a printout,
alas!
Can't have everything...or can you?
Quick.Bug
Source Code
1000 * QUICKTRACE ADDED COMMANDS
1010 * BY ENRIQUE GAMEZ
1020 * L= DISASSEMBLE $14 CMOS.
1030 * Z= DISPLAY HEX & ASCII
1040 * M= GO TO MONITOR
1050 * O= RETURN TO QUICKTRACE
1060 » RTN= DO LAST CMO, DEFAULT
1070* 10
1080 * ——————_———____-_______
1090 OR $9200
1100 TA $800
1110 * ———-—_—--—-
1120 ov EQ $25
1130 INVFLAG EO $32
1140 PROMPT £0. S33
1160 PC £0 S34
1160 8GN.ADDA EQ. $30
1170 GETLNZ £0 $FOs?
1180 2MODE £0 $F?
T190GETNUM = .£Q. $FFA7
4200 BELL £0 $EFBA
4210 CROUT
7220 LIST
4230 MONITOR
1240 XAMB
1250 PRAY
1260 PRTBLNK
1270 COUT
1310 ‘STA PROMPT
1320 DEC CV ;DON'T SCROLL
‘SCREEN
1390 ENTRY JSR_GETLNZ (INPUT ROUTIN
E FROM MONITORROM, PG. 169
1940 JSR ZMODE
1350 JSR GETRUM
1380 * ———-—-—___—. —— = =
1370 CMPARE CMP #S06 =$39+$8D =CR
1360 BEQ RETURN
1390 CMP WSF3 =$19+80A = 2
1400 BEQ Z-ENTRY
1410 CMP $05 =$39+S00 ='L!
1420 BEO L_ENTRY
1490 CMP #$EA =$19+$D1 =O"
1440 BEO O.ENTRY
1450 CMP #506 =$39+$00 ='M’
1460 ‘BEO M.ENTRY
1470 JSR BELL sNOT L.2.M.0
1480 DEC CV
1490 Jue AGAIN
19004: = —<—— SOPREREEEEEINEEpERp Ere
1510 RETURN LOA \FLAG — ;GET LAST CMD
USED
1520 MP CMPARE (BRANCH TO El
THER LORZ
1830 LENTRY ‘STA CMD.FLAG = ;SAVE IT.
1540 LOA #308 (DISASSEMBLE
10 OPERATIONS
1550 JSR LIST
1560 JSR CROUT
1870 AMP ENTRY
1580 O.ENTRY IMP QUICKTRACE
1590 M.ENTRY (JUMP MONITOR
1600 ¥ —————_—_-—___-- ———
1610 ZENTRY ‘STA CMD.FLAG
1620
1630 LOA #314 ot OF LINES T
O DECODE
1640 STA ROWCOUNTER
1650.7 LOA BGN.ADOR+1
1660 STA PC+1
1670 LOA BGN.ADOR
1680 STA PC
1690 EOR #$07 (TO ROUND OUT
ALINE TO
1700 ANDO #S07 SNEAREST 8 BY
TES
1710 ‘STA COLCOUNTER
1720 EOR #S07
1730 BEQ .1
1740 SA PRAT {PAINT CR AND.
BGN_ADDR IN HEX
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
OH Shhhh -
YOU NEED THE
Now the fun begins! With the
CIA (Confidential Information
Advisors) on the trail of your
disks. fixing those /O ERRORS is really fun! But repairing
clobberred disks quickly and easily is actually just the
beginning, The CIA isa collection of five advanced disk utilities,
working together te investigate, edit, locate, list, trace. rescue,
translate. patch, repair, verify, examine, protect, unprotect,
analyse encrypt and decrypt programs or textfiles on normal
and even protected disks, be they DOS, PASCAL, or CPM! As
you can see this is no ordinary bag of tricks! It is, in fact a new
generation disk utility that goes far beyond anything else
offered so far
But best of all, you don't have to bea member of the Glazed Eye
Brigade to make full use of every one of these sophisticated and
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about disk patching, repair, formatting, protection. and
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We're betting that within a few days of receiving the CIA Kit,
you'll be TRYING to clobber a disk — just to have the fun of
putting it back together! You'll enjoy a new confidence with
your data storage.
To get ALL FIVE utilities PLUS 'The CIA Files’, for use with
Apple (R) lIt/Ile, 48K, 1 or 2 drives. Send $65.00 Money Order
NOW—Full Power Assembly Language!!
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For use with Apple DOS tool kit assembler REL files
Relocate and link up to 255 REL files
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Kiwi Software does NOT copy protect its products.
Check or M0, (NJ residents add 6% sales tax)
Kiwi Software Company, PO. Box 218-H
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
sm req: Aap tl,
abankgnart of 3p
Relocating Linking Loader with Manual .
Manual ...........555
wpatizle| DOS 3.3 witb
(Checks, allow time to clear)
cepted
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3308, New York, NY
Salos Dopt., HC8 GOLDEN DELICIOUS SOFTWARE LTD.,
NOT COPY
PROTECTED
10001.
r
=
1750.1 (USA XAMS DOES ALL THE 2070 CMD.FLAG DA #SF3 (LAST CMD
DECODING WORK! 4 2080 ROWCOUNTER BS 1 E “Vi
1760 LOX #$2 {FORMATTING 2090 COLCOUNTER BS 1 asy: lew.
1770 (JSR PRTBLNK (2 SPACES .
1780 DY #0 j Quick.Bu js ij
1790.6 iA (PC). g Disk File
1800 BPL 2 163807
1810 CMP #SA0 CONTAL CHAR? Hexdump Work
1820 BOC sYES, SKIP IT i
1830.8 CaP #8e0 Romvaccwan, 9200: AQ A4 85 33 C6 25 20 67 $2EF6 Station
1889 ie es 9208: FD 20 C7 FF 20 A7 FF CO $EF99
be LOK WSFF —_SSETNORMALY 9949 G6 FO 18 CO F3 FO 2E CO $1ABA
i) STX INV.FLAG —_ ,SEE PG.168 { 9218: 05 FO 16 C9 EA FO 20 C9 $96BD
Heal 9220; 06 FO 1F 20 3A FF C6 25 $8653
1360-4 ‘se cout PANT IT 9228: 4C 06 92 AD AS 92 4C OF $BB37
jes0 LOX WSF SETNOAMALY 9230: 92 8D AS 92 AQ OA 20 5E $8BB4
9238: FE 20 8E FD 4C 06 92 4C S8D6F
1310 CPY COLCOUNTER ADJUST PRI 9240: 00 84 4C 69 FF 8D A5 92 $6250
NT LOCATION: +
ia sae a te 9248: AQ 14 8D AG 92 A5 3D 85 $9D72
1930 ny
1940 BNE 6 9250: 3B A5 3C 85 3A 49 07 29 $4680 ® Stores 100 Disks, Dust Free
ee eee paar nane 9258: 07 8D A7 92 49 07 FO 03 $CD22 © 25 Disk Titles Clearly Visible
1970 MP ENTRY 9260: 20 92 FD 20 A3 FD A2 02 $3E48 © Fast, Easy Access
1980 + ---———-——_______ 968: 20 4A F9 AO 00 Bt 3A 10 $4C88 © Top Flips Back, Locks Upright
ee oe ae ie enka: 9270; 25 C9 AD 90 08 C9 £0 90 $7E69 Giseg puasaieGuckable
SKIP IT 9278: 06 A2 FF 86 32 AQ AD 20 $1£32
2010 ORA #1880 ALLOTHERS MM —-9280: ED FD A2 FF 86 32 CC A7 SDDFC
ect Nel erie 9288: 92 FO 03 C8 DO DF CE AG $8748 $Q95
VIDEO 9290; 92 DO BA 4C 06 92 C9 21 SCFBB Eller iaaes
a STCINVLAG! ~ “SEE PS: 168, 9298: 90 £3 09 80 A2 3F 86 32 $O5E3 Shred Mereeagrinyets
2040 BNE 8
2050 JP ENTRY :DONE. GO BAC 92A0: DO D3 4C 06 92 F3 $6424
K AND WAIT FOR CMO.
2060 *
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
[_ RULE Ones
>
&
ADVANCED PLAYING TECHNIQUES
Offing the SS
Contributed by Sean Williams
Castle Wolfenstein
Muse Software
If you are tired of running into S.S. guards, especially
when you no longer have any grenades to destroy them
with, use the following technique and any S.S. can be killed
with the use of bullets.
1) As the S.S. guard approaches, point your gun at him
and run into him,
2) As the screen is going through the collision routine,
press the key which makes the gun point at the S.S. guard
again.
3) To take his bullet-proof jacket away, press 'U.”
4) If the screen replies with “SEARCHING...," run into
the guard again. (Remember to point your gun at him again
during the collision routine).
5) Press “U" again and the guard will lose his bullet-proof
jacket.
6) The guard can now be killed with plain bullets.
Note: This procedure works best if you are wearing a vest
yourself!
S-C Macro Assembler. The key to unlocking al] the
mysteries of machine language. Combined editor’
assembler with 29 commands, 20 directives. Macros,
conditional assembly, global replace, edit, and more.
Highest rating "The Book of Apple Software” in 1983
and 1984. $80.
Powerful cross-assembler modules also available to
owners of $-C Macro Assembler. You can develop soft-
ware on your Apple for 6800, 6805, 6809, 68000, 8085,
8048, 8051, 1802, LSI-11, and Z-80 microprocessors.
$50 each.
$-C Xref. A support program which works with the S-C
Macro Assembler to generate an alphabetized listing of
all labels in a source file, showing with each label the
the line number where it is defined along with all line
numbers containing references to the label. You get the
complete source code for this amazingly fast program,
on disk in format for S-C Macro Assembler. $50.
Full Screen Editor. Integrates with the built-in line-
oriented editor in the S-C Macro Assembler to provide
a powerful full-screen editor for your assembly lan-
guage source files. Drivers for Videx, STB8O, and Apple
ffe 80-column boards are included, as well as standard
40-column version. Requires 64K RAM in your Apple.
Complete source code on disk included. $50.
Page 10
Complete, Commented Source Code!
Our software is not only unlocked and fully copyable. ‘ Mesh
...we often provide the complete source code on disk, at unbelievable prices!
Bountiful Bobs
Contributed by Johnny Yukon
Miner 2049’er
Microlab
For this APT you need to have an old F8 ROM on the
motherboard or INTEGER card. This APT will let you
choose the starting level and will give an unlimited num-
ber of Bounty Bobs to player number one.
1) Boot up Miner 2049'er and go through the joystick ad-
justment routine.
2) When the game asks “One or Two Players?” hit RESET
to get into the monitor.
3) Enter the desired starting level minus 1 at $814 and the
actual starting level at $812. For instance to start on level
05 type:
814:04 N 812:05
4) Enter the following:
0972:A9 @3 8D 16 08 BD 17 08 4C 81 09 N 981G
5) The game will start up and player number one will have
an unlimited number of Bounty Bobs.
S-C Docu-Mentor for Applesoft. Complete documenta-
tion of Applesoft internals, Using your ROM Applesoft.
produces ready-to-assemble source code with full
labels and commen! icational, entertaining, and
extremely helpful. Requires S-C Macro Assembler and
two disk drives. $50.
S-C Word Processor. The one we use for manuals
letters, our monthly newsletter, and whatever.
columns only, requires lower-case display and shiftk
mod. Works with standard DOS text files, but at super
fast (100 sectors in 7 seconds). No competition to
WordStar, but you get complete source code! $50.
Apple Assembly Line. Monthly newsletter published
since October, 1980, for assembly language pro-
gcammers or those who would like to be. Tutorial arti-
cles, advanced techniques, handy uti programs,
and commented listings of code in DOS, ProDOS, and
the Apple ROMs. Helps you get the most out of your
Apple! $18/year.
$-C SOFTWARE CORPORATION
2331 Gus Thomasson, Suite 125
Dallas, TX 75228 (214) 324-2050
Professional Apple Software Since 1978
‘Visa, MasterCard, American Express, COD accepted
Seve 9 raGemnik o Apne Como.te
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Once a program is unlocked by my-
self or someone else, | quickly dive in
and ''personalize”’ it.
What | do is change title pages or
delete them to make the program load
faster; | change or add default
responses to entry prompts or |
change the general layout of screen in-
formation to suit my particular applica-
tion, | might even substitute my own
shapes for someone else’s shape ta-
bles (just for grins and giggles).
In games, | may want to change the
scoring criteria, what level | am on,
alter mazes, substitute sound effects,
etc. There’s all sorts of fun stuff one
can do without being a programmer of
genius. After all, it’s a lot easier to alter
another person’s program than to write
one from scratch.
You already know the program
works in its original state (or we'll as-
sume it does) so the trick is to change
‘one thing ata time then run it and see
if it still works. You may need to ana-
lyze a program a bit to make these al-
w>
M0 ames sar 28
IM sean
ait
ha so
mon
i
en
Hinia.ctl a
a re a
terations but you don't need to
analyze, or even understand, every-
thing to get started.
The very useful modification | will ex-
plain below shows how to change the
controls of your favorite game. I'm sure
most of you out there in Pac-land have
played those games (mostly made in
Japan) which force us to contort and/or
disfigure our hands in order to reach
the movement, thruster and fire keys.
co
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
There is a remedy
I'll venture to say that every game
ever written for the Apple, which can
be played with the keyboard, contains
the following three bytes:
AD 00 CO.
As it turns out, these bytes are so
common that | usually use their loca-
tion as a starting point in my analyses
of a program (game or otherwise). It is
a good point of reference since these
bytes are usually accompanied by
several CoMPares (CMP) to see if cer-
tain keys were pressed.
A$2A1,LSFC
To install the code finder, type
BRUN CRUCIAL CODE FINDER
Once installed, the code finder is
ready to take the drudgery out of pro-
gram analyzing,
Here is the format to use when call-
ing the code finder:
HHHH.GGGGe""Y J1 J2 J3 J4...
“HHHH" and ‘'GGGG" are four-
digit hexadecimal numbers like 092F
and D000, separated only by a period.
These numbers, respectively, desig-
Personalizing
A Program
By Enrique Gamez
A sample disassembly listing might
look like this:
LDA $CO@0 ;GET A KEY CODE
BPLNO.KEY EXIT, NO KEY HAS BEEN
PRESSED
STA $C@1@ = ;RESET THE KEY LATCH
CMP #UP :WAS IT THE UP KEY?
BEQ MOVE.UP ;YES, MOVE THE SHIP
UPWARDS
CMP #DOWN ;WAS IT THE DOWN
KEY?
BEQ MOVE.DOWN ;YES, MOVE THE SHIP
DOWNWARDS
All this brings us to my program and
why | wrote it. Most commercial pro-
grams are upwards of 80 sectors long
and a chore to flip through, 20 instruc-
tions at a time, using the monitor ““L”
command. My program, CRUCIAL
CODE FINDER, allows you to type in
the bytes you wish to search for and
then speedily does this otherwise bor-
ing task. | suggest the use of this pro-
gram whenever you're beginning an
analysis and see how much time and
eyestrain you'll save!
Once CRUCIAL CODE FINDER is
installed all you need to do is (from the
monitor) type the beginning address to
search, the ending address and the
bytes to search for. Of course, it may
find erroneous code, because the oc-
curance of the specified bytes might
be part of a data table or something.
But the valid code it finds is usually
quite useful.
Using the Code Finder
Before we begin, type in the hex-
dump on page 12 and
BSAVE CRUCIAL CODE FINDER,
nate the beginning and ending
memory locations you wish to search
through. ‘'cY"' is obtained by press-
ing the key marked *‘CTRL" and the
key marked “Y"' simultaneously and
should come immediately after
“GGGG." The “Ji J2 J3 J4...” isa
string of any length, consisting of two-
digit hexadecimal numbers represent-
BACK-UP
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ANYTHING!
Products below, when used appropriately,
either singly or together, will enable you to
copy virtually all software for the relevant
computer, The copy-products are intend-
ed to be used for back-up purposes only!
Products are Apple-compatible unless
otherwise indicated.
Locksmith 75 | Crack-Shot 129
Back-It-Up 49 | Snap-Shot Call
Nibbles-Away 59 | Wild-CardIIE 115
Watson 39 | Inspector 45
Copy Il + 35 | Copy Il + (IBM PC) 35
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Page 11
ing the bytes you wish to find in the
program. If you want, you may use X’s
instead of some of these numbers. In
this case, the search routine will allow
anything to match those bytes in the
string.
For example, let's change that
finger-contorting game | talked
about.First, you would install the code
finder, then you would BLOAD the
menace and type something like this:
0800.9500°™Y X 00 CO
The above command would find any
references to location $CO00. By
changing the machine-language com-
pares that undoubtedly follow to the
values representing the keys you wish
to use, your fingers will live happily
ever after.
The first time through, it is a good
idea to write down the places it finds
that seem to be valid code and then ex-
amine them with the monitor.
After it finds the specified pattern,
the program will display the instruc-
tions, starting with the matched bytes,
and wait for a key to be typed. At this
time, the “ESC" key will exit the
search and place you back in the mo-
nitor; any other key will continue the
search.
My theory is simple: let the computer
do all the tedious work, leaving the
creative, fun part for us. Have fun!
Crucial Code Finder
Source Code
1000 OR S21 JUST RIGHT S
0 THAT THE REAL CODE WILL END UP AT $300
1010 TF CRUCIAL CODE ANDER
1020 # ———— —==——
1030 * CRUCIAL CODE FINDER
1040 * BY ENRIQUE GAMEZ
1050 *
1060 * ENHANCED BY RAY DARRAK
1070 + ——_________---____—
1080
1090 ATL fa 930 ‘LSB OF FROM
LOCATION
1100 41H £0 $30 IMB.
1170 ASL £0 $40 :LSB OF TO
LOCATION
1120 ASH EQ $41 iMSB
1130 A2L EQ S3€ ;L88 OF TEMPO
RARY DATA
1140 AQH EQ Sif iMSB
1150 BUFF £Q $200
1160 BUFPTR £Q StF
1170 GETNUM £Q SFFAT
1780 WILD.VAL £0 SDB VALUE TO STO
RE FOR WILDCARD:
1190 MONITOR EQ $FF6o ENTER THE MO
NITOR ROUTINE
1200 KEYBOARD = ©—-£0_ $000
1210 KEV-RESET £0 $0010
1220 ESCAPE £0 $16 iKEY CODE FOR
ESC KEY
1230 PCL EQ $3 ;PROGRAM COU
NTER LSB FOR DISASSEMBLING
7240 PCH EQ $38 NSB
1250 HOME EQ SFCSS IROUTINE TOC
LEAR THE SCREEN
1260 DISASEMBLE £0. SFE63 :ROUTINE THAT
LISTS 6502 INSTRUCTIONS STARTING AT PCL
&PCH
1270 MODE £0 $31 TELLS MONIT
R WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED SO FAR
1280 CTRLY £0 $38 CONTROL ¥ VE
cTOR
4290 COUT! £0 $FDFO PRINT ASCIL
4300
4310 # ——————__—-
4820 * CHANGE <CTRL>Y VECTOR
1330 «-_—______—. a
3340
1350 SETUP LDA #s4¢ (MAKE THE CON
TROL ¥ VECTOR JMMP
1360, STA CTRLY
1370 LDA WSTART TO THE START
OF THE PROGRAM
1380 STA CTRLY+1
1390 LOA START GET MSB
1400 STA CTRL.Y#2
4410 Loy #0 PRINT THE IN
SATLLED MESSAGE
1420 PRINT LDA MMESSAGEI.Y :GET A BYTE
Ta PRINT
430 PHA SAVE ITING
ASE TWAS THE LAST ONE
1440 #80 MAKE IT NORM
it
1450 Ine “NEXT OFFSET
1460 J8R COUT! “PRINT IT
1470 PLA “RESTORE WHAT
ITAVAS
BMI PRINTY
1480 IF GREATER T
38 128, THEN PRINT ANOTHER
1490 ATS
TURN
1500 MESSAGES HS 8080
URNS BEFORE MESSAGE
1510
{WERE DONE, &
CARRIAGE RET
AS. CRUCIAL CODE FINDER INSTAL
ne
HS AD&D. -CARRIAGE RET
aN AFTER FIRST SENTENCE
ic AS -'USE<CTAL>Y FROM THE MON,
h
1540 HS 80
URNS AFTER ENTIRE MESSAGE
1550
:CARRIAGE RET
MOVE AZ & A
(TELL MONITOR
AMAKE THE BUF
SFIND THE FIR
SAT A CONT
{START WITH N
(KEEP GOING P
(SPACE
(CONVERT THE
sRETRIVE THE
(GET THE POIN
‘STORE IT
POINT TO NEX
(REPLACE ¥ Wi
sEXAMINE THE
‘FINISHED?
1560 * ——————_——.
1570 » BEGINING OF PROGRAM
1580 * ————————-
1590
1600 START LOA al.
2HTOASL & ASH
1610 STA Ag
1620 LOA A2H
158 STA AaH
INC MODE
Wor: TO OVERAWRITE THE ADDRESSES
1650
1660 *
1670 + CONVERT THE SEARCH BYTES.
VG BO nn
1690
1700 Loy #0
FER OFFSET ZERO,
1710 STY BUFPTR
1720 ANDFIRST == INY
1730 LOA BUFFY
ST DATA BYTE
7740 CMP #§99
ROLY?
1750 BNE FINDFIRST
1760 1
EXT BYTE
1770 LOA BUFFY
AST THE SPACES
1780 CMP #SA0
1790 BEQ 1
1800 CONVERT JSR GETNUM
BYTE INTO HEX
1810 LDA AL
CONVERTED BYTE
1820 LOX BUFPTR:
He AD WHERE IT GOES.
STA BUFFX
180 INC BUFPTR
T BYTE
1850 DEY
TH THE LAST CHARACTER GOTTEN
1860 LDA BUFFY
NEXT BYTE
1870 iy.
1880 CMP #S30
1390
BEQ START. LOOKIN :YES, BEG
PvSnerere1eierere!
© CRACKING TIPS
@ GAME CHEATS
© PARMS
PROGRAMS
@ INTERVIEWS
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Page 12
By Hackers
For Hackers
@ ELITE BOARD DOWNLOADS
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Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
1900 CMP #°X'+$80, IS IT A WILO CARD?
1910 BEG WILDCARD
1920 CMP ASAD IS IT A SPACE?
1930 BEG CONVERT sYES, KEEP CONVERTING
1940 WILDCARD = LOA WWILD.VAL —_;STORE TWO CONSECUTIVE VALUES
1950 LOX BUFPTR
1960 INC BUFPTR: sNEW LOCATION IN THE BUFFER
1970 STA BUFF.X
1980 EX
1990 STA BUFF.X
200 INY GET THE NEXT BYTE FROM THE BUFFER:
2010 BNE CONVERT TALWAYS
2020
2030 »- — Se to
2040 * SEARCH FOR THE SEQUENCE
2050 »- _
2060
2070 START.LOOKING
2060 LOY #0 (START AT BEGINING OF POINTER
2080 LOX #0. (START AT BEGINING OF INPUT BUFFER
2100 TRY1 LDA BUFF.X (GET BYTE TO LOOK FOR
2110, CMP#WILD.VAL — MIGHT BE A WILOCARD
2120, BNE NOT.WILD
2130 INX. ‘SEE IF TWO CONSECUTIVE WILD VALUES
2140 CMPBUFFX sMATCH?
2150 oe FOUNO1.MATCHYES, SIMULATE MATCH
‘NOT A WILDCARD SO RESTORE X
2160 ‘DEX
an NOT.WILO = CMP{AIL),Y sDOES IT MATCH THE CURRENT LOCATION?
BNE NEXT.BYTE — ;NO, TRY NEXT BYTE
219 FOUND1.MATCH
20 Nx ;GET NEXT BYTE FROM BUFFER
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210 Ny {GET NEXT BYTE FROM MEMORY
20 CPX BUFPTR COMPLETE MATCH?
20 BCC TRY! {NO, TRY TO MATCH THE NEXT BYTE
20 JSR HOME {CLEAR THE SCREEN
2250 LOA AIL IMOVE AIL & ATH TO PCL & PCH
2280 STA POL
2270 LOA ATH
2280 STA PCH
2280 LOA #23 :DISASSEMBLE2S LINES
7300 JSR DISASEMBLE :G0 D0 IT
2310
2320 WAIT BIT KEYBOARO WAIT FOR A KEY
2390 BPL WAIT
2340 STAKEY.RESET BESET THE KEYBOARD STROBE
2360 LOAKEVBOARD GET KEY VALUE
2360 CMPHESCAPE IS IT AN ESCAPE?
70 BNE NEXT.BYTE
2300 EXIT JUMP MONITOR ESCAPE WAS PRESSED SO JUMP TO THE MONIT
OR
2390
2400 *———
‘2410 + GET THE NEXT ADDRESS TO SEARCH
2420 «—————
2490
2440 NEXT.BYTE ING AIL GET THE NEXTO BYTE TO SEARCH
2460 BNE.1 START BY INCREMENTING LSB THEN MSB IF NE
EDED
2460 ING AIH
2470.4 LOK AIH {COMPARE T SEE IF ANISHED
2480 REACHED DESTINATION?
2490 aCe STARTLOOKN “NO, SEARCH HERE TOO
2500 LOA AIL ;O0ES THE LSB MATCH AS WELL
2510 CNPAIL
2520 BE START. LOOKIN MO, KEEP SEARCHING
2530 {IF DONE, JUMP INTO THE MONITOR
Crucial Code Finder
Hexdump
02A1: DA FD 68 6A 45 0B 2A $6BDB
02A8: 45 OC 85 0B 45 OC GA 85 $3027
02B0: 0C 20 DC 02 90 BD A2 03 $7149
02B8: 20 4A F9 AQ A4 20 ED FD $795E
02C0: A5 0B A6 OC 20 41 F9 20 $9EAB
02C8: 8E FD 60 A4 FD A6 FC 20 $5C3B
02D0: 8E FD 20 40 F9 AOD 00 AS $87D6
02D8: BA 4C ED FD A5 FC C5 FE $B30E
02E0: AS FD ES FF E6 FC DO 02 $2E86
02E8: E6 FD 60 BE D9 AO C6 D2 $5BB3
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
02F0: CF CD AO D4 C8 C5 AO CD $157A
02F8: CF CE C9 D4 CF D2 8D 0D $DA98
0300: A5 3E 85 40 AS 3F 85 41 $4E46
0308: E6 31 AO 00 84 FF C8 B9 $7639
0310: 00 02 C9 99 DO F8 C8 BY $7809
0318: 00 02 C9 AO FO F8 20 A7 $51FA
0320: FF AS 3E A6 FF 9D 00 02 $7A22
0328: E6 FF 88 B9 00 02 C8 C9 $142A
0330: 8D FO 18 C9 D& FO 04 C9 $FCIF
0338: AO FO E3 A9 DB A6 FF E6 $2CB2
0340: FF 9D 00 02 CA 9D 00 02 $8687
0348: C8 DO D3 AO 00 A2 00 BD $CC63
0350: 00 02 C9 DB DO 07 E8 DD $4955
0358: 00 02 FO 05 CA D1 3C DO $62F0
0360: 28 E8 C8 E4 FF 90 E8 20 $A97B
58 FC AS 3C 85 3A AS 3D $9625
85 3B AQ 17 20 63 FE 2C $62F6
; 00 CO 10 FB 8D 10 CO AD $3EBC
; 00 CO C9 1B DO 03 4C 69 $659F
: FF E6 3C DO 02 E6 3D AS $5811
: 3D C5 41 90 B6 A5 3C C5 $D4D3
: 40 90 BO BO EQ $3ECO
&
Page 13
Requirements:
48K Apple Il Plus
One disk drive
A supply of 2716 16K EPROM chips
Several 24-pin, low-profile sockets
Access to an EPROM burner
SoftKey Publishing assumes no responsi-
bility for any damage done to the computer
while following this procedure.
In the article “Hidden Locations
Revealed” (HARDCORE COMPUTIST
3, p. 10) the author addressed the idea
of what to do when performing a soft-
key on a program that uses the text
page for valid code use.
He suggested a small hardware
from snooping through their programs
and possibly reducing them to a more
copyable form.
Hitting “RESET”
To understand this more clearly,
let's examine what happens when you
hit the “RESET” key.
Instead of going through the input
latch at $C000 as the other keys on the
keyboard do, the “RESET” key is con-
nected directly to pin 40 of the 6502
microprocessor chip. This is the big
long chip just in front of the slots on the
motherboard.
When “RESET” is pushed, pin 40
locations point to a series of routines
that check to see if the computer is just
being powered up or if RESET" had
been typed before. If it finds the pow-
er already on, it jumps to the routine
pointed to by locations $3F2 and $3F3.
Normally, they point to the BASIC
warmstart and, therefore, you get the
Applesoft prompt.
The “old-style” monitor found in the
older Apple || models has $59 and $FF
stored in locations $FCCC and
$FCCD. This causes the Apple to jump
to the routines at $FF59. These rou-
tines set the keyboard for input, the
monitor (or TV) for output, the text
page for viewing and, finally, it puts
modifica- you in the
tion to the machine
Apple to language
enable monitor
one to see with an
the text f asterisk
pager ota 3 By Ernie Young ___ Bey
program In the
while “au:
another page (i.e., hi-res page) was
supposed to be displayed.
What | am about to discuss is an in-
expensive modification to your com-
puter that is about as good (maybe
even better) than those cards that save
all of memory. Needless to say, this is
avery good means to achieve that end
on programs which use volatile (easi-
ly eraseable) memory.
Volatile memory includes such loca-
tions as a great deal of page zero,
page one, page two and the text page
location at $400 to $7FF. For example,
as you type and characters are echoed
onto the text screen, locations
$400-$7FF change. Each ASCII
(American Standard Code for Informa-
tion Interchange) character is
represented on the screen in one of
the locations in the range of $400 to
S7FF.
In most softkeys it has been as-
sumed that by hitting “RESET” (with
the old-style monitor, of course) and
dropping into monitor, we can snoop
through memory and find what we
need to save or disregard.
In the softkey entitled “Hidden Lo-
cations Revealed,” the idea was ad-
dressed that the text page and the
keyboard input buffer (page 2) were
used for valid program storage and
that upon resetting, these volatile
memory locations would be destroyed.
Indeed, it is no new trick to many
software publishers that using the text
page and other volatile memory loca-
tions is a good way to keep the public
Page 14
gets connected to ground and the
computer unconditionally jumps to the
address contained in locations $F FFC
and $FFFD. These locations are in the
F8-monitor ROM and, depending on
which F8-monitor ROM you have, your
computer can do one of two things.
There are two flavors of monitor
ROMs in the Apple world, known as
the ‘‘autostart” and the “‘old-style”
monitor ROMs.
In the “autostart” F8-ROM, which is
used in the Apple {I Plus model, these
tostart’ ROM, anyone can program
where they want their Apple to go,
when the “RESET” key is pressed, by
changing the code at $3F2 according-
ly. In the “‘old-style’’ monitor, however,
there is no way to prevent a reset from
occuring and, eventually, giving you
the monitor prompt. This is
obviously essential if you want to break
into a program to examine the code
but, as mentioned in “Hidden Loca-
tions Revealed," this is no guarantee
to performing a working softkey.
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Destructive ‘‘RESET”’
The problem is that when we reset
into the monitor, many locations are
destroyed. These locations may or
may not be essential to the program's
operation.
For example, the following zero
page locations are destroyed by an
“old-style” reset: $20-$29, $32, $33,
$35-$39 and $48.
But, even worse than that, the entire
text screen scrolls up one line when
the monitor prompt is printed. This
scrambles locations $400-$7F8 and
destroys locations $400-$427 com-
pletely.
Most software publishers know this
and use it against us to keep us, ‘‘un-
wanteds,"’ from snooping through their
code. This becomes evident if you hit
“RESET” and find that the text page
Is filled with garbage and other incom-
prehensible junk.
Ultimately, we would like to be able
to save locations $00 to $8FF in non-
volatile memory upon hitting “RESET”
and, then, to exit to the monitor for ex-
amination. | include $800-$8FF, even
though it doesn’t get destroyed on
resetting, because it gets wiped out
when we do a 48K slave disk boot. The
best place to store this information
would be at $2000-$28FF, since this is
normally the hi-res page used in most
games and is not destroyed by boot-
ing a slave disk. (Remember that
$00-$8FF and $9600-$BFFF are des-
troyed when booting a 48K slave disk).
In order to save these volatile
memory addresses into locations
$2000-$28FF, we need to change what
normally happens when we hit
“RESET.” This may seem impossible
to do since what happens when we hit
that key is predetermined in ROM and,
therefore, is not changeable.
Well; yes and no.
We can copy the code from the
F8-ROM down to RAM, change it and
burn it into a new ROM!
Help from EPROM
Of course, this assumes that you
have access to an EPROM (Eraseablie,
Programmable, Read Only Memory)
programmer and some 2716 EPROM
chips,
Most computer stores that are worth
anything will be willing to burn you a
new 2716 chip for a reasonable fee if
you do not have your own access to an
EPROM programmer. These 2716
chips are available from many
sources. See the back of any BYTE
magazine for names of suppliers of the
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
The company that has over 18,000 Apple Il owners using
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¢ Editor —for preparing text files for transmission or editing received
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© Capture Buffer — List, Save, Print, or Transmit all or part of the
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Page 15
EPROM if you can't find any locally in
your area
So, assuming you have access to
these two resources, all we have to do
is alter the normal F8-code.
First, let's develop the code that we
will need to jump to when the
“RESET” key is pressed, moving
memory from $00-$8FF to
$2000-$28FF. This requires some
knowledge of assembly language but
if you are not familiar with machine
code try and follow along anyway.
(While going to the extreme of burn-
ing new ROM, it would also be a good
idea to change the NMI (non-maskable
interrupt) vector to point to our new
routine).
1, Let's start by moving the code at
$F800-$FFFF down to RAM. Location
$2800 would be a good place for it
2800 <F800.FFFFM
For our next step, we need a place
to put our ‘Super Saver" routine. We
don’t have any open memory loca-
tions, but we do have some routines
in the monitor code which we never
use, like the tape read and write rou-
tines. These will have to be sacrificed
for our new routines which are printed-
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Page 16
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To enter this code, CAREFULLY
type in the hexdump on page 28.
Now, change the RESET and the
NMI vectors in our RAM version of the
F8-ROM
2FFA:CD FE CD FE
Save the file onto a disk with the
command:
BSAVE MODIFIED F8.ROM,
A$2800,L$800
Now, burn your new EPROM!
Piuaging tn your New
8 Monitor ROM
In order to use your new, modified,
ROM, we must install it in the mother-
board (or in an integer card).
But, first, we have to make one ex-
planation: both the 2716 you just
burned and the original 9316 ROM,
used by Apple, are Read-Only-Memory
devices, containing 2K bytes of infor-
mation, which gives us 16K bits of in-
formation. Hence, 16K ROMs. But,
unfortunately, they are not totally com-
patible. The arrangement of the pin
numbers are slightly different.
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To use your new EPROM, you must
make these changes directly to the
chip itself (not advisable), or to a jum-
per socket which your new chip will
plug into. This, then, will be plugged
into the motherboard, or integer card,
For the latter, you will need a 24-pin,
low-profile socket, which is available
from Radio Shack or similar stores.
With the socket upside-down and
the pins looking you in the face, it
should look like figure 1.
Figure 1
13 WIS We 7 IY 19 20-21 22 23 2H
Your soldering skills come in handy
now. Using some short, hi-gauge wire
(wire-wrap is preferrable, but anything
in the 26-30 gauge will work), solder a
piece between pins 21 and 24 and
then solder a piece between pins 12
and 18.
Be extremely careful not to short out
the wire or to cross-solder any pins!
Also, try and solder as close to the
base of the socket as possible, since
you have to cut off pins 18 and 21 af-
ter you have finished soldering them.
The next step is to cut off pins 18
and 21 as close to the base of the
socket as you can, without cutting the
freshly soldered wires. Remember that
pins 18 and 21 should be short enough
so they will not touch the socket you
will be plugging this one into.
The socket should now look like
figure 2.
Double-check your soldering and
Hardcore continued on page 28
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
DATABASES
Gn one wine nee e seas nnn we mre DATA BASES:
A comprehensive explanation
of data bases.
By Gary Peterson
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MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS:
How the “DB Master”
series measures up.
By Monty Lee
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Data Bases
By Gary Peterson
Have you ever watched a televised
baseball game on Saturday afternoon
and wondered how it is that Joe
Garagiola or Tony Kubek just happens
to know what the record is for the most
inside-the-park home runs by a Pres-
byterian short stop? Or, perhaps, is it
Howard Cosell who never ceases to
amaze you with his total recall of the
Statistics of virtually every sport ever
played by man?
Of course these sports announcers
do not have super-human recall facili-
ties. Instead, they have the services of
a computerized data base, which is
likely to be sitting in a van in the stadi-
um’s parking lot. Whenever the an-
nouncers need a particular tidbit of
information they can relay their request
to the van where the computer's oper-
ator can query the data base and,
hopefully, produce the desired
Statistic.
Down on the playing field the play-
ers and their managers are not being
left out of the computer revolution
either. It is becoming more and more
commonplace for professional base-
ball and football teams to have a per-
sonal computer containing a data base
of information about both their team
and the opposing team. The managers
and coaches can call on the facilities
of the data base in decision-making sit-
uations.
For instance, the manager of a base-
ball team may want to know which of
his pinch hitters has the best night-
game, clutch-hitting percentage
against a particular left-handed pitch-
er known to throw screwballs. The
defensive coach of a football team may
want to know what play the opposing
team is likely to run on a 3rd and 3 sit-
uation.
If the computer's data base is exten-
sive enough this information can be
obtained and in the long run it will give
the team an overall percentage edge.
This edge could be just enough for a
team to make it to the post-season
playoffs or bowl games.
Sports statistics are just one exam-
ple of the use of a computerized ‘data
base,” a computer industry buzzword
that is being heard quite frequently
these days.
From the way everybody has sud-
denly started using it, one could easi-
ly get the idea that no data bases ever
existed prior to the advent of the com-
puter. In reality, however, data bases
have existed since man first began to
use written symbols to record grain in-
ventories, herd counts, the number of
wives in a harem, taxation data and
any other information needed by
society.
A data base is simply data which is
interrelated and stored in some man-
ner, in one accessible place.
Figure 1
A good example of a commonly
used data base is the card catalog
found in any library. Each card con-
tains information pertaining to a book's
title, author, subject, catalog number,
Publisher, etc. Every book in the library
will have at least three entries in the
card catalog: one filed by the title, one
filed by the author and one filed by the
subject of the book. Thus, each book
is sorted alphabetically according to
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
three different pieces of information
(keys).
It is only a fairly recent innovation
that computers have been used to
store and manipulate the data con-
tained in a data base. With the use of
computers, vast amounts of informa-
tion can be stored on tape or disk and
that data can be searched for any
specific information, or relationship be-
tween pieces of information, that is
desired.
The computer software and hard-
ware which allow this are called a data
base system. A Data Base Manage-
ment System (DBMS) is the software
which allows the user to build, main-
tain and manipulate the data base.
A data base program can be written
either to perform a specific task, such
as maintaining a mailing list, or to ena-
ble the user to configure the data base
for particular needs. Obviously, a data
base program falling into the second
category is much more versatile, but
it can be more time-consuming to set
up and learn to use.
The basic unit of information in a
computerized data base is the byte. A
byte, generally, will store one numeric
or alphanumeric character. A field is
the next highest piece of information
and is composed of a series of one or
more bytes.
A field contains one piece of infor-
mation. For example, a simple mailing
list would contain the following fields:
Field 1 (Name) John Doe
Field 2 (Street) 220 Main St
Field3 (City) Fat City
Field 4 (State) FL
Field § (Zip) 88888
These five fields, taken together,
would constitute one record of the
mailing list data base. A collection of
Page 19
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MBIOO MIOO MION MBOO MIOO MBIOO MBIOO MIOQ MIONO MIOO MBIOO mMIOO MBOO MIBOO
records constitutes a file. The number
of records contained in the mailing list
file would be equal to the number of
names on the mailing list.
There are three generally-accepted,
logical models on which a data base
program can be established: hierarchi-
cal, network and relational.
Due to the similarities between the
network and the hierarchical models
some authors group the two together
and call the combined scheme a net-
work/hierarchical data base.
In the hierarchical model of a data
base, the data is viewed as having a
clearly-defined structure, or hierarchy,
with various levels from top to bottom.
This model is, sometimes, called a tree
because of the resemblance to a tree
which appears when the structure is in-
verted. A graphic example of this type
of structure can be seen in figure 1
which shows a planet's ‘‘address”’ in
the universe.
Apple's new operating system, Pro-
Dos, is designed around a hierarchical
file structure. What this means is that
files will be broken down into sub-
categories related to the type of infor-
mation in a file. Each of these
subcategories will have its own sub-
directory. This type of file structure has
been used on the Apple Ill for a cou-
ple of years now, but this concept is
new to most Apple Il owners.
A hierarchical file structure is more
versatile, but is also more difficult to
learn to use, especially for those of us
whose use of DOS 3.3 is ingrained.
The network model is very similar to
the hierarchical model with the excep-
tion that, instead of the data being con-
nected in a definite pattem, it is related
in an arbitrary manner. Thus, no infor-
mation is seen as subordinate to any
other data.
Relationships between data are
maintained through a series of pointers
or links. The telephone system is an
example of a network structure. All tel-
ephones in the system are logically
connected via telephone numbers,
which are analogous to the data links
or pointers of a network-type data
base.
The relational model is the most fre-
quently implemented and easily under-
stood of the data base types. In the
relational model, all the data is or-
ganized into a table of rows and
columns. Record information is held in
the rows of the table, while field infor-
mation is held in the columns.
Sometimes the columns of such a
data base table are called tuples, while
the rows are termed domains. Per-
Page 20
sonally, | have enough of a problem
keeping the rows and columns straight
without worrying about tuples and
domains.
Because of the relative simplicity of
using and writing a relational data base.
program, this is the type used most fre-
quently on microcomputers. Network
and hierarchical data bases are, or-
dinarily, used on mini- and mainframe
computers, where the amount of data
being stored and manipulated is fairly
large. The majority of data base
management packages offered for
sale on the microcomputer market to-
day are relational.
Relational data base programs can
fall into one of two general categories,
based upon the features incorporated
into the particular package: either a
fairly simple file management system
or, if it has sufficient features, a rela-
tional data base management system
(RDBMS).
A file management system is the
simplest implementation of a data
base program. A file management pro-
gram will allow the user to define the
file structure, add, edit or delete fields
and records, search the file for specif-
ic information and produce printouts
and reports of the information on file.
Generally, file management pro-
grams do not allow the user to manipu-
late the data in more than one file at
a time. A good file management pro-
gram Is probably quite adequate for a
Forel
lishing Corp).
A relational data base management
system (RDBMS) contains most of the
features of a file management system,
plus some additional features. Most
relational data base systems are capa-
ble of manipulating more than one file
at a time, have password protection
and can be set up for multi-user
access,
Other RDBMS features might in-
clude built-in report generators, a
mode to restructure records, a query
facility to enable non-programmers to
access the data base information eas-
ily and a system of reading files of any
format.
Most RDBMS packages have a built-
in programming language and/or the
ability to interface with a host lan-
guage, such as BASIC or Assembler.
With a good RDBMS package, an
experienced programmer can write a
customized and integrated computer-
ized accounting system for a small
business. Some of the RDBMS pack-
ages available for the Apple are Gener-
al Manager (Sierra On-Line), dBASE I!
(Ashton-Tate; Z80 card required) and
DB Master (Stoneware).
It is not necessary for the home com-
puter user to buy or write special soft-
ware in order to use data bases. With
the use of a modem and a subscrip-
tion to one of the information services,
such as The Source, Dialog or Com-
puserve, a person can access a varie-
home application of a data base pro-
gram, such as maintaining a mailing
list or a list of valuable items. Most
available file management programs
are menu driven, meaning that the
user simply picks the desired operation
from a menu presented when the pro-
gram is run.
The public domain program File
Cabinet, which has been available
since the early days of the Apple com-
puter, is an example of a file manage-
ment program. Other file management
programs for the Apple include Visifile
(Visicorp) and PFS:File (Software Pub-
Figure 2
ty of data bases containing information
for both professional and personal use.
Practically any information which is
publicly available can be found in the
proper data base.
There are many other applications
of data bases which cannot be covered
in one short article such as this. Sever-
al books are available with information
on microcomputer data base use, in
addition to the many books aimed at
users of mainframe data bases.
Several periodicals, also, contain in-
formation for data base users and
programmers. One of the more popu-
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
lar data base packages, dBASE Il,
even has an entire magazine devoted
to its use.
Other data base related topics co-
vered in the contents of CORE this is-
sue and the next few issues will
include a review of a specific Data
Base Management System along with
acomplete listing of a general-purpose
file management system.
Data Base
Definitions
ASCII — Acronymn for American
Standard Code for Information Inter-
change. Each character in the system
is assigned a unique number. For ex-
ample, the ASCII code for the letter A
is the decimal number 65 or hex-
adecimal $41. The Apple and most
other computers use this method of
character representation.
Byte — The smallest piece of infor-
mation in a record. A byte normally
holds one character.
Data base — A grouping of data
which is interrelated. The data base
may contain indices, pointers and a
dictionary for the data. Generally, the
entire data base is stored on either a
floppy, or a hard disk system.
Database — Generally, database
refers only to the information (i.e. the
files) contained in the data base (i.e.
the records and their related aspects).
In other words, the database is con-
tained in the data base.
Data base management pro-
gram — A program or set of pro-
grams which allow the user to access
and manipulate the information in the
data base.
Domain — Refers to a column of the
data table in the relational data base
model.
Encryption — A method by which
data can be transformed so that it is
meaningless to someone who does not
know the method of transformation.
Field — An individual data item wi-
thin a record. Each field has a defined
length and characteristic (numeric or
alphanumeric). The field length is the
number of bytes contained in the field.
File — A collection of data which is
normally stored on disk. A file contains
a series of individual records.
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Index — A table containing pointers
to the location of a record within the Want To Know
data base. When Your
Subscription
Key — One or several fields which
can be used to sort or search for
| records.
Ends?
We have standardized our subscriber
codes for your convenience. You will no-
tice that the label on this magazine uses
Random access file — A text file or- the new format:
ganized in such a way that any record
may be accessed without reading the ~~ ‘Take ‘Take j “A. Look! — Look!
preceeding records in the file. Each
record in a random access file has a [Name Record#
fixed length and a unique record Address
number. | City St Zip
Ex.
Record — A group of fields or data mE Pat PET
John Doe FL/599/10 (S) | (S)
elements which are related. 123 Main St
| Sequential access file — A text file Big Town, FL 33950 |
whose individual records are not of any ee
fixed length. A carriage return The record number FL/599/10 (S)
(CHRS(13)) indicates the end of each reads: state/record/ENDING ISSUE/
record. Individual records in a sequen- and S$ indicates subscription. The
tial text cannot be accessed easily ENDING ISSUE for this label is Hard-
without reading each preceeding core COMPUTIST #10,
record in the file. Now you can look at your label and
determine when your subscription wil
end. Consecutive numbering will begin
with this issue: Hardcore COMPUTIST
Tuple — Refers to a row of the data #6.........ending code 6.
base table in the relational data base record number may change, so
model. please note the most current label when
writing for information
Schema — The logical structure of a
| particular data base.
MOQ MIOO MBIOO MBION mIoO mIOQ mIOQ MBOO myIOQO MIOO MIoM mBoO MBIoO MmIBoo
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6 Page 21
mIOO MIOO MIOO MBIOO MBOO MHOON MBIOO MBOO MIOO MBION MIOQ MION mBoQ mBoo
A Data Base Management System
(DBMS) can be defined as a central-
ized collection of data stored for use
in one or more applications, utilizing
hardware and software facilities, to
produce information in a display or
report, hard-copy format. The goal of
a DBMS is to process personal and
business applications for the
microcomputer’s user, with some of
the approaches employed by users of
large computer systems,
The most basic building block of a
data base consists of ‘‘fields.'’ These
are units of information, such as the
name of a book in a library catalog.
The next building block is the record
which consists of a number of related
fields, involving the item being
cataloged.
Obviously, a DBMS is only as good
as its features. What constitutes good
features is an open debate among all
DBMS programmers, but, generally
speaking, there are several musts for
an effective data base program. These
include DOCUMENTATION, EASE OF
USE, DATA ENTRY, DATA SEARCH-
ING AND RETRIEVAL, REPORTING
CAPABILITY, FILE STRUCTURE and
other, MISCELLANEOUS FEA-
TURES.
In order to understand each of these
areas, a specific DBMS will be evalu-
ated in the light of these options and
the program will be assigned points in
each area (on a scale of up to ten). The
program we will be reviewing is DB
Master, Version Four. Also included in
this section are reviews of three utility
packages which are available for DB
Master: Utility Pak #1, Utility Pak #2
and DB Master Stat Pak.
DB Master, Version Four
Language: Applesoft
Manufacturer: Stoneware, Inc
50 Belvedere St
San Raphael, CA 94901
Suggested retail: $350.00
DB Master, Version Four, is the
newest Data Base Management Sys-
tem from Stoneware. It improves upon
the features of DB Master, Version
Three and previous versions. Any file
or “‘utility pak'' that worked with Ver-
sion Three will also work with Version
Four.
Besides slightly different display
screens, Version Four has an im-
proved editor, higher capacity, faster
performance in most areas and a
much better manual. Additionally,
some of the features that were on Util-
ity Pak #1 have been included in Ver-
sion Four,
Page 22
‘
DOCUMENTATION:
9 points
The documentation of DB Master,
Version Four is excellent. It is over 300
pages long and consists of a begin-
ners’ section, a tutorial for all the vari-
ous options, a reference guide, an
index, an appendix of terms and sam-
ple files.
For beginners, it takes you in se-
quential steps through both the
documentation and menu options. An
example is used throughout the tutorial
so that you can key in the same infor-
mation and follow the hands-on discus-
you will have some disk swapping to
do.
There is no type-ahead buffer like
the one which exists in most word
processors, Thus, if you have to enter
one piece of data at the bottom of the
screen, you have to wait for the pro-
gram to catch up. You cannot enter
data at maximum typing speed without
losing characters.
Defaults on entry are adequately
provided, These defaults are defined
at the time of file creation but can be
modified temporarily at any time upon
entering the data entry mode. Comput-
ed fields can also be defined to
Data Base
Management Systems
By Monty Lee
sion. Previous users of DB Master can
skip the beginners’ section and move
right up to the reference guide to look
up specific program functions.
EASE OF USE:
8 points
This program is relatively easy to
use. Contrary to dBase, DB Master is
a menu-driven DBMS. Screen design
for data entry is done entirely by menu.
There is little flexibility for free form
design, such as title banners on the
data screen. Instead, you select the
field type, length and location on the
actual screen. You can have more
than one page of data entry. Multiple
field types are supported, as well as
flexibility of field names.
Form development is very good in
that there is user flexibility for placing
a field anywhere on the screen. DB
Master doss not support any type of
80-column card and, thus, the field lay-
out must be in 4D columns. The pro-
gram also restricts you to a sequential
layout for the primary fields, plus a limit
of 35 characters.
DATA ENTRY:
6 points
DB Master will now format two dis-
kettes: a utility disk and a data storage
disk. Both are required for any given
data file. Because of this, two drives
are really needed to utilize DB Master
efficiently. But, even with two drives,
eliminate data entry where calculations
are to be performed.
DATA SEARCHING
& RETRIEVAL:
8 points
DB Master gets top points for flexi-
bility in search criteria.
The selection capability is excellent,
allowing for the Wildcard, ORs, ANDs,
Less Than, Greater Than, ascending
and descending searches, or any com-
bination thereof.
Using key fields, data retrieval is
almost instantaneous. Using secon-
dary keys it is still very fast, If you
search for an item that is not a key, the
search process is very slow. Each
record on the disk is searched until the
required match is found. For a large
data base, this can take some time.
Once the data is retrieved, DB
Master has a very sophisticated editor
that will allow you to edit the data on
the screen and, then, re-save it as the
old file, or even save it as a new one.
Ifa record is deleted, you can recover
it up to the point where you re-blocked
the files to remove all deleted files from
the disk.
REPORTING CAPABILITY:
5 points
The program's reporting capability
is not more than fair. This is the one
significant weakness of DB Master,
Version Four.
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Report layout is very difficult to ac-
complish and very confusing. You
must use worksheets to layout actual
print output. This is very poor. One of
the purposes of the computer is to
eliminate hand calculations. Some of
the simple commands in other DBMS
programs allowing you to center text,
left- or right-justify, etc. are non-
existent in DB Master.
Further, the various hierarchical
print formats can often be confusing.
There is very little flexibility for specify-
ing output page options. For example,
in designing label reporting outputs,
only the standard size labels are sup-
ported.
Until you have worked with the
tutorial several times and done some
experimenting you will not be able to
work effectively with the report options
of DB Master.
FILE STRUCTURE:
5 points
Expandability is good. Several data
diskettes for a given file are support-
ed, In order to modify the file, however,
you must use one of the optional utili-
ty paks. A special version of DB Master
exists that allows you to use it with a
hard disk. Although a special data
storage technique is used, all data dis-
kettes can be easily backed up with
any copy program.
The biggest drawback to DB Master
is the protection scheme. The disk is
protected so much that it is extremely
sensitive to drive speed and type.
Stoneware only guarantees operation
with Apple drives. Other drives will fail
to boot the diskette or will result in sys-
tem crashes during execution. The
disk is so sensitive that it may frequent-
ly create I/O (Input/Output) errors and
have to be replaced by Stoneware.
DB Master stores data in a special
format that cannot be directly ac-
cessed with other programs. The only
way to use the data is through a
separately-purchased program called
Utility Pak #1 and write the data out in
a Data Interchange Format (DIF).
MISCELLANEOUS
FEATURES:
6 points
DB Master supports mulitple drives
in various slots. The only requirement
is the boot disk in slot 6.
Single drive users will have a lot of
disk swapping to do. If you purchase
the option, a hard disk Is supported.
But the manual does not indicate that
the program can be upgraded to sup-
port this at a later date.
Also, as indicated before, there is no
80-column support. This is unaccept-
able, particularly since a common
standard allowing this in the Apple lle
does exist.
Lower case is not readily supported.
If you can enter lower case via your
keyboard, DB Master will accept it for
data input but not for program
responses.
Further, the search and sort routines
are strictly ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Interchange) and
so will not function correctly if a com-
bination of upper and lower case is
used,
Finally, error-trapping is very good.
But there are some instances during
file creation where screen error mes-
sages will be displayed that are incor-
rect. Also, partly due to the protection
mechanism, the disk may occassion-
ally dump to the monitor while loading
various modules. This leaves the user
with nothing to do but reboot.
SUMMARY
This results in a final score for DB
Master of 47 points, or roughly 67%.
As you can see, the program has
some very strong points, but the major
weaknesses really detract from the
program.
DB Master, Version Four is a power-
ful DBMS. It is not nearly as flexible as
dBase, but, then, it does not require
any programming knowledge. This
makes it very attractive to a beginner
or for a business only interested in es-
tablishing a data base.
The complexity of the output and
reporting formats, combined with the
inflexibility of design layout detract
from the product. The failure of DB
Master to use common hardware, such
as 80-column cards, is the one major
weakness of the program.
In short, DB Master, Version Four is
HEADQUARTERS
NEW YORK
BISONS
BASEBALL TEAM
“Jenkins here plays data base for us!”
Hardcore COMPUTIST no.6
Page 23
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a very good data base program, but it
still has room for improvement.
DB Master Utility Pak #1
Manufacturer: Stoneware, Inc.
Language: Applesoft, Machine
Hardware: 48K Apple, DB Master,
Versions Three or Four, Two disk
drives
Suggested retail: $129.00
DB Master Utility Pak #1 is the most
useful of all DB Master “‘utility paks.””
Some of the options on this program
include a Data Interchange Format
(DIF) translator, the possibility of file
restructure, replicate and merge and
damaged-file recovery,
The DIF option lets you use standard
text files and write your own special
purpose programs to work with DB
Master files or it lets you interchange
data with many of the other programs
which support DIF files, like Visicalc.
Utility Pak #1 cannot be booted but
must be accessed from the DB Master
main menu (via File Maintenance).
Restructuring Files
The first option is the Restructure
File Format and is the most powerful
option. It allows you to change the for-
mat of a file, including changing field
types, labels and screen locations. It,
also, lets you add or delete fields and
add a screen page of additional fields.
Once the new file format has been
designed, the program creates a new
file
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