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(| ayo co oo0 Oo # 000” >) =|¢eeee¢ @F >o28 © QO OM) a eo 2 aa “ $ 338 —/ BP) soz ec Boers fe? 5 gg & 4 w Fees & gee ce é § 2 9 g bghe § 55 BO 8 & £ feos 3 25% fi o > Q of F a F perl & FRE > §# 8 © 43 Fagg § 288 4 ge ” ® £28 % § BeEg & $8 nn S c F 3 + 2 Fee a8 = "EY Ge ¢22 ok zest 22 om OO oO Se Fe 5 e823 PE Cc U.S. $3.75 2 z g & a A Fe e ey 3 a. | a oe =, Canada & Mexico $7 WwW JL = Zz = z a 225 aS lore) om et —| Ss 3 e BER = 3 Rog Tes & me =) © Contents g 3 = ggé Pa Fa) — SS z=) 2 3 5 3 z a c dp) =~ RDEX Contributors Softkeys: Parts of Speech II Level 3 ra) a BS 8 5 z o re} unClassifieds Ace Reporter ..... Parts of Speech II Level 4 a Bo e fo] wv Mi Advanced Blackjack .. 10 Parts of Speech I Level 5 a8 =f lost Wanted softkeys 23 Algebra I v1.7 15 Punctuation 1-3 . Advanced Playing Techniques: Alphabet Sequencing 16 Punctuation ‘i ‘ins Club Backgammon Arithmetic Critters 20 Punctuation la aaa 7 At The Races .. 17 Punctuation Pn en © @) I 3 ag f 9 2 z i Bitkeys: Bull’s-Eye.. 17 Punctuation 3 » {e) (eo) 1 BB? = &§ 3 Pensate.... 12 Buzzard Bait 10 Punctuation s bo ata o t Bugs: Case of the Great Train Robbery 20 Rocky’s Boots ae 0oW = —Sse¢ | B es: Cat N’ Mouse .... 17 Round Up, Roun @so me] He? 5 | tug in Airheart softkey Club Backgammon Science #2: Geolog _ (7) xc | ] Ge | I Features, notes and such: Collamore Castle: Level I Space Rogue... aor | a £8 1 A Bug in Fastcopya Crypto Cube 10 States and Traits : s 3 =a 28 g Enhancement Problem Division . 16 Strategies in Problem solving: a bD (0p) 429 J Backgammon Tidbits .. Division Skills 20 _ Dinosaurs & Squids .. 7 < = | i w ss | IIgs monitor tidbits .. Early Elementary I 17 Teacher’s Tool Kit, v3.1 5 c © EBS =? rT] Notes on ProDOS 8 Quit code Elements of Geometry: Technology and Basic Skills: 8 >. © pecs 1 Notes on Squirt 8 and Copy I Plus Intro to Geometry Estimatio 7 3s. © ~ | as at I Placing PaintWorks Gold Estimation Invasion ——, 6 © o 8 a ona Hard Drive Explore-a-Science Advanced Addition & Subtraction ..20 | 2 © i 288 | | Softkey Airheart ona IIc.... Dinosaur Construction Kit Vocabulary Skills ....... 20 | > Uf | = <& | Hard Corner: Tyrannosaurus Re: 19 Word Problems: | a Ss | ee = I Tepeue earner: Fractions ao 16 A Practical Approach | | $ & 1? Q 2 I The Superl[GTS card foil Cenmuse s Puls 17. Writer Rabbit...... e’s rammar Gremlii ii td ND a: 2 g | | Vaporware Announcements Kindercomp.... me 7 Ld Product Monitor o° Lb HES Be I TIgs RAM card Reviews: § ®& I 2°85 3 1 The Hyper IIgs Eye of the Beholder II: ° Ene The Legend of Darkmoon 5 23 | g 2 a | IBM Features notes and suc Heaven & Earth 6 3 r] = 2 8 g I Comerstone Softkey technique .. HyperStudio 3. 4 = Bo sé I Put Contraptions on hard disk Quest for Clues: The Book of Orbs.........5 3 es ge I IBM Softkeys Guest reviews: S I 8 8 = i Artwork (v2.43) RCES PC Radio Controlled a I 2 8e BAKUP .... Flight Simulator (v3.1) o YVoe N i Banner Builder . Fast frames, Updates, etc. g $e 21 I é § 3 nT Brown Bag Word rf Darkmoon: Return of the Golem............. 8 es > i Cadpower Manhunter: New Yor! Dick Tracy: . ag °2 I Carbon Copy v2.1 Math Problem Solving , The Crime-Solving Adventure «7 He & o I Contraptions Money with Bluebeard’s Ghos' Links386 Pro “ 8 I 8 B ° Comerstone Multiplication 1 . 16 More Cities fo Sim! 7 VE co BS ' Electric Desk v1.04 . Multiplication 3 . 16 Of Dark Designs, Gons, and 8 8 23 oc Be ¢ | Enplot v Slide-On Battery .... 9 mus 2 plot v1.1 .... Notable Phantom 20 225 DR | I Operation: Frog 19 The 1992 Viewer’s Guide to = 2 . y 2$ =n ' g | Parts of Speech I Level 20 yer rofessional Golf 7 9s Os ba | | 53 ] Parts of Speech I Level 20 F a> om iS Parts of Speech I Level 20 a [COMPUTIST. Charles R. Haight Editor Jeff Hurlburt Reviews Vincent Andrews BBS COMPUTIST is published by SoftKey Publishing. Address all inquiries to: COMPUTIST 33821 East Orville Road Eatonville, WA 98328-9590 (206) 832-3055 * COMPUTIST does NOT purchase editorial material. The entire editorial content consists of information submitted to COMPUTIST for publication in the shared interests of all COMPUTISTs. + Unsolicited material (manuscripts, letters to the editor, softkeys, A.P.T.s, playing tips, questions, etc.) are assumed to be submitted as letters-to-the-RDEX-editor for publication with all and exclusive rights belonging to COMPUTIST. + Entire contents copyright 1990 by SoftKey Publishing. All rightsreserved. Copying done for other than personal or internal reference (without express written permission from the publisher) is prohibited. +The SoftKey Publishing assumesno liability or responsibility for the products advertised in this newsletter. Although we are usually pretty much in agreement, any opinions expressed by the authors are not necéssarily those of COMPUTIST magazine or SoftKey Publishing. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Rates (for 8 issues): US. 325 Canada/Mexico ..$35 USS. Ist Class ..$35 Other Foreign......$54 + Subscriptions are sold by number of issues and not by month or year. An 8 issue subscription means that you will recieve 8 issues before you need to renew. It's when you will receive each issue that we're a little erratic about. + Domestic Dealer rates: Call (206) 832-3055 for more information. + Change Of Address: Let the U.S. Postal Service know that you are moving. Tell them that you want your mail forwarded. If your issue does not come to you in an envelope then you have a regular subscription and you must tell the USPS to forward your third class mail. Notify us as soon as you know your new address. When we receive your notice of change of address, we will send you an acknowledgement card. If you do not receive the acknowledgement card after 2 weeks, send another notice or call us direct. Issues missed due tonon-receipt of change of address may be acquired at the regular back issue rate. * We are not responsible for missing issues 90 days after mailing date. If you do not receive an issue at the usual time each month, please call or write. ‘Apple® is a trademark of Apple Computers. IBM@ is the IBM trademark. \ J Readers Data EXchange New COMPUTIST readers using Apple IIs are advised to read this page carefully to avoid frustration when at- tempting to follow a softkey or entering the programs printed in this issue. What is a softkey, anyway? Softkey is a term which we coined to describe aprocedure thatremoves, or atleastcircumvents, any copy-protection on a particular disk. Once a softkey procedure has been performed, the re- sulting backup copy can usually be copied by the normal copy programs (for example: COPYA, ‘on the DOS 3.3 System Master disk). Commands and control keys Commands which a reader is required to perform are set apart by being in boldface and on a separate line. The return key must be pressed at the end of every such command unless other- wise specified. Control characters are preceeded. by “tri”. An example of both is: 6 ctriP Type 6. Next, place one finger on the ctrl key and then press P. Don’t forget to press the return key. Other special combination keypresses include ctrl reset and open-apple ctri reset. In the former, press and hold down the ctrl key then press the reset key. In the latter, press and hold down both ctrl and open-apple then press reset. Software recommendations ‘The Starter Kit contains most of the programs that you need to “Get started”. In addition, we recommend that you acquire the following: + Applesoft program editor such as “Global Program Line Editor (GPLE)”. +Assembler such as “Merlin/Big Mac”. *Bit-copy program such as “Copy II Plus”, “Locksmith” or “Essential Data Duplicator”. +Word-processor (such as AppleWorks). *“COPYA”, “FID” and “MUFFIN” from the DOS 3.3 System Master disk. Super IOB and Controllers This powerful deprotection utility (in the COMPUTIST Starter Kit) and its various Con- tollers are used in many softkeys. (It is also ‘on each Super IOB Collection disk.) Reset into the Monitor Softkeys occasionally require the user to stop the execution of a copy-protected program and. directly enter the Apple's system monitor. Check the following list to see what hardware you will need to obtain this ability. Laser 128: Your ROM includes a forced jump to the monitor. Press ctrl return reset. Apple I+, //e, compatibles: 1) Place an Inte- ger BASIC ROM card in one of the Apple slots. 2) Use anon-maskable interrupt (NMI) card such. as Replay or Wildcard. Apple II+, compatibles: 1) Install an F8 ROM with a modified reset-vector on the com- puter’s motherboard as detailed in the “Modified ROM’s” article (COMPUTIST #6 or Book Of Softkeys III) or the “Dual ROM's” article (COM- PUTIST #19). Apple //e, //c: Install a modified CD ROM on the computer’s motherboard that changes the open-apple ctrl reset vector to point to the moni- tor. (This will void an Apple IIc warranty since you must open the case to install it.) Apple //gs: If you have the 2.x ROM, there is a hidden Classic Desk Accessory (CDA) that allows you to enter the monitor. In order to install the new CDA, you should enter the monitor (CALL -151) before running any protected pro- grams and press # return . This will tum on two hidden CDAs, Memory Peeker and Visit Moni- tor. Thereafter press openapple ctrl esc to go to the Desk Accessories menu. Select Visit Monitor and there you are. Use ctrl Y to exit. Recommended literature *Apple I Reference Manual (or Ile, IIc, etc.) *DOS 3.3 & ProDOS manual Beneath Apple DOS & Beneath Apple Pro- DOS, by Don Worth and Pieter Lechner, from Quality Software Typing Applesoft programs BASIC programs are printed in a format that is designed to minimize errors for readers who key in these programs. If you type: 10HOME:REMCLEAR SCREEN The LIST will look like: 10 HOME : REM CLEAR SCREEN Applesoft inserts spaces into a program list- ing before and after every command word or mathematical operator. These spaces don’t pose a problem except when they are inside of quotes or after a DATA command. There are two types of spaces: those that have to be keyed and those that don’t. Spaces that must be typed appear in COMPUTIST as special characters (0). All other spaces are there for easier reading. NOTE: Ifyou want your checksums to match, only type spaces within quotes or after DATA statements if they are shown as (0) charactors. SAVE the program at periodic intervals using the name given in the article. All characters after a REM are not checked by the checksum program so typing them is optional. « - Typing Hexdumps Machine language programs are printed in COMPUTIST as hexdumps, sometimes also as source code. Hexdumps are the shortest and easiest format to type in. You must first enter the monitor: CALL -151 Key in the hexdump exactly as it appears in the magazine, ignoring the four-digit checksum (S and four digits) at the end of each line. When \ finished, retum to BASIC with: 3D0G BSAVE the program with the filename, ad- dress and length parameters given in the article. Typing Source Code The source code is printed to help explain a program's operation. To enter it, you need an “Assembler”. Most of the source code in older issues is in S-C Assembler format. If you use a different assembler, you will have to translate portions of the source code into something your assembler will understand. Computing checksttms Checksums are 4-digit hexadecimal numbers which tell if you typed a program correctly and help you locate any errors. There are two types of checksums: one created by the CHECKBIN pro- gram (for machine language programs) and the other created by the CHECKSOFT program (for BASIC programs). Both are on the “Starter Kit”, If your checksums do notmatch the published checksums then the line where the first checksum differs is incorrect. CHECKSOFT instructions: Install Check- soft (BRUN CHECKSOFT) then LOAD your program. Press & to get the checksums. Correct the program line where the checksums first dif- fer. CHECKBIN instructions: Enter the monitor (CALL-151), install Checkbin at some out of the way place (BRUN CHECKBIN, A$6000), and then LOAD your program. Get the checksums by typing the Starting address, a period and the Ending address of the file followed by actrlY . SSSS.EEEE ctrl Y Correct the lines where the checksums differ. Writing to the RDEX editor RDEX (are-decks) stands for: Reader's Data EXchange. We print what you write. When you send in articles, softkeys, APTs, etc., you are submitting them forfree publication in this maga- zine. RDEX does not purchase submissions nor do we verify data submitted by readers. If you discover any errors, please let us know so that we may inform our other readers. Remember that your letters or parts of them may be used in RDEX even ifnot addressed to the RDEX editor. Correspondence that gets pub- lished may be edited for clarity, grammar and space requirements. Because of the great number of letters we receive and the ephemeral and unpredictable appearance of our volunteer staff, any response to your queries will appear only in RDEX, so it would be more appropriate for you to present technical questions to the readers and ask for their responses which will then be placed in the Apple-RDEX. How to get a free library disk Whenever possible, send everything on Ap- ple format (5.25" - DOS/ProDOS or 3.5" - Pro- DOS) or IBM format (3.5") disks. Other formats are acceptable but there may be some delay as we look for someone to translate it for us. (If you use a 5.25" disk, when we print your letter,we will return your disk with the current library disk copied onto it.) Use whatever text editor you like, but tell us which one. Puta label on the disk with your name (or pseudonym) and address (if you want to receive mail). Don’t reformat any pro- grams or include them in the text of your letter. Send Applesoft programs as normal Applesoft files and machine language programs as normal binary files. We have programs to convert them to the proper format for printing. If you are sending source code files, and you are not using the $-C Assembler, send them as normal text files. When to include a printed letter Don’t include hardcopy (printout) unless: a. You are writing about a bug or other printing error. b. You are writing to ask for help. c. You are answering another readers help re- quest. d. You are writing about your subscription or sending an order for back issues or'software. Bugs, requests for help and answers to re- quests for help are bumped to the head of the line and go in the very next issue. Alll other letters are printed in the order that we receive them. Writing to get help When writing to request help, be sure to include ALL relevent information. The more information you include, the easier it is to find a solution. There’s an old saying that goes “A properly framed question includes 90% of the answer”. How to get mail If you are interested in receiving mail from other readers, be sure that we have a current address. If you use a pen name and want to receive mail, we need to have your address. Our readers privacy is important, so we will not print your address unless you specifically say too. How to write to RDEX authors When writing to one of the RDEX authors. Write your letter and seal it in an envelope. Put your retum address, the authors name (as it appears in RDEX) and the correct postage onthe envelope. Put this envelope into another and send it to RDEX. We will put the correct address on your letter and mail it for you. Check to the right of the authors name to see if the author is writing from a foreign country and include the proper postage. Help Line ‘These readers have volunteered their time to help you. Please call only within the given time frames (corrected for your time zone). No collect calls. (You can write anytime!) Jack Nissel (Disk Protection, 7-10PM EST) (215) 365-8160 Marc Batchelor, 6025 Coker St., Cocoa, FL 32927 Rich Etarip, 824 William Charles Ct. #2, Green Bay, WI 54304-4018 The BBS (Bulletin Board System) Vince Andrews isthe sysop for the Com- putist BBS. The NEW number is: (206) 964-8730 If you'already have a User ID# and password, sign-on using the User ID#. If you are a new user, it may take a day or so to validate your new ID# and password. Va DEPROTECTED backup copy: rightful. You have a LEGAL RIGHT _ to an unlocked backup copy of your commercial software. Our editorial policy is that we do NOT condone software piracy, but we do believe that users are entitled to backup commercial disks they have purchased. In addition to the security of a backup disk, the removal of copy-protection gives the user the option of modifying programs to meet his or her needs. Furthermore, the copyright laws guarantee your right to such a «It is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided: 1) thatsuch anew copy or adaptationis created as anessential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or 2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be ‘Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner.” q *: United States Code title 17, §117 J ~ Readers Data Exchange COMPUTIST #88 U.S. $3.75 Canada & Mexico $7 [88 |COMPUTIST Table of Contents RDEX Contributors........23 unClassifieds .................23 Most Wanted softkeys....23 Advanced Playing Techniques: Club Backgammon Bitkeys PENSALE .......scececcccecesssseeeeeesseenteeeeeees 12 Bugs: Bug in Airheart softkey ... Features, notes and such: A Bug in Fastcopya Enhancement Problem. Backgammon Tidbits IIgs monitor tidbits Notes on ProDOS 8 Quit code . te Notes on Squirt 8 and Copy II Plus...18 Placing PaintWorks Gold on a Hard Drive ..... Softkey Airheart on a IIc . lS 19 COMPUTIST #88 Hardware Corner: The Presto! card The Super][GTS card for Ile's.. Vaporware Announcements TIgs RAM Card .......:ccsssessseeeseees 14 The Hyper:lIgs :.sccocssvsseovsaecBeveeass 15 IBM Features notes and such: Cornerstone Softkey technique......... 22 Put Contraptions on hard disk......... 22 IBM Softkeys Artwork (v2.43) .. -21 Brown Bag Word Processor v2.55. Cadpower ’ Carbon Copy v2.14 .. Contraptions Cornerstone Electric Desk v1.04.. . Enplot V1.1 .......ccccsccessceseessseeesseeseeee 22 Questions: ®.. Softkeys: Ace Reporter .............0000 rceceereeareevees Advanced Blackjack . Algebra I v1.7........... Alphabet Sequencing .. Arithmetic Critters At The Races. Bull’s-Eye .. Buzzard Bait. Case of the Great Train Robbery Cat N’ Mouse Club Backgammon Collamore Castle: Level II.. Crypto Cube . Division ..... Division Skills .. Early Elementary I Elements of Geometry: Intro to Geometry . Estimation Invasion Explore-a-Science Dinosaur Construction Kit” Tyrannosaurus Rex .... Fractions Grammar Gremlins Kindercomp ........... Manhunter: New York . Math Problem Solving .... Money with Bluebeard’s Ghost Multiplication 1 .. Multiplication 3 .. +15 -16 -17 Readers Data Exchange Notable Phantom . Operation: Frog.... Parts of Speech I Level 3 .... Parts of Speech I Level 4 . Parts of Speech I Level 5. Parts of Speech II Level 3 Parts of Speech II Level 4 Parts of Speech II Level 5 Punctuation 1-3 Punctuation 4... Punctuation 5... Punctuation 6... Punctuation 7. Punctuation 8. Rocky’s Boots ... Round Up, Round Down... Science #2: Geology ... Space Rogue States and Traits Strategies in Problem solving: Dinosaurs & Squids .. Teacher's Tool Kit, v3.1... Technology and Basic Skills: Estimation.....cccssissccssopovessvsesvers 17 Troll Math Class level 4 Advanced Addition & Subtr Vocabulary Skills .... Word Problems: A Practical Approach Writer Rabbit ssssssssscsiesessevsserseerecrseess The Product Monitor Reviews: Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon . Heaven & Earth .... HyperStudio 3.0 Quest for Clues: The Book of Orbs ..... 5 Guest reviews: RCFS PC Radio Controlled Flight Simulator (v3.1)... 6 Fast frames, Updates, etc. Darkmoon: Return of the Golem ........ 8 Dick Tracy: The Crime-Solving Adventure ...... 7 Links386 Pro .. More Cities to Sim! .. Of Dark Designs, Gons, and 8's snes Slide-On Battery .......0.eeeeeeeeseeeeee The 1992 Viewer’s Guide to Professional Golf ( Editorial Notes Last minute change: In the Hard- ware Corner article on page 12, the Su- per II card is being offered for $170 not including memory. Memory prices change too fast to keep track of so you decide how much you want to put on the card. The minimum is 1M byte using aSIMM (Single Inline Memory Module). We called around and here’s the best price we found. (Prices at press time were going up.) 1 Mbyte x 8 SIMM (80ns) $32.00 4 Mbyte x 8 SIMM (80ns) $109.00 If you’re quick on the order or if you already have a 1 Mbyte SIMM laying around, you can get a Super II card for \about $200 or less. ) 3 we File Edit Tools Sound Settings MEMORY STATUS BUFFER STATUS EDITOR STATUS Total memory: 979712 Maximum tim 43 sec. Available: 868608 Clipboard: empty Record Rate 22824 Record Threshold off The PRODUCT MONITOR RATINGS Kank aaKK ke xk * 8 o & Superb Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor Bad Defective GUI The “Graphical User Inter- face idea” has received a lot of PC press attention due, mainly to revolutionary products like Microsoft “Windows” and “Vi- sual BASIC”. On the IIgs, it’s been ‘standard stuff since Pro- Somple size: 111104 Recordtime: 32sec. Playtime: Ssec. Clip time: empty DOS 16. GUI means that the user makes things happen by’ clicking, dragging etc. objects on the screen which ‘look like what they do’. (For example, dragging a program’s icon toa folder icon puts the program into the folder.) The main rea- son HyperStudio 3.0, Visual BASIC, etc. and their products areso popular and easy to use is that you are dealing with ‘ob- vious’ prompts and clear choic- es. At times, the GUI press re- leases, conferences, etc. may look like hype (sometimes it is). What matters to programmers and users is that GUI works! HyperStudio 3.0 tok $129.95, for 1.25MB IIgs Roger Wagner Some of the most absorbing computer-fun I’ve experienced in’92 was in using, of all things, a Ilgs “productivity” utility. Roger Wagner’s HyperStudio 3.0 is your ticket to becoming a builder of such GUI applications as video magazines, computer books, learning & testing mod- ules, manuals (like the stacks Size: 14105 Start: 106547 End: 106113 employed by ZIP/GS), on-line family photo albums, games, and more— all with full IIgs sound and options to employ such peripherals as a video over- lay card and touch screen. Your medium is a collection of “cards” called a “stack”; and your first message— the one you get run- ning the ‘Studio startup and tutorial stacks— is that “Hey, this stack-making stuff looks EASY!” 4 It is. Flexible, straightfor- ward editing tools let you take your vision— say, of an interac- tive widget sales presentation, and make it work! AND, like Platinum Paint, Appleworks, and other powerful wares, ‘Stu- dio is ground-up learnable: you don’t have to ‘know about ev- erything’ to begin producing at- tractive, useful applications. The 74-page Tutorial booklet and stacks deliver a good ‘first- pass’ learning experience; but, really, you learn about ‘Studio by using it to do things YOU want to do. For instance, you decide “what I really need is a nice voice saying ‘Hi, there! Widget buyer” and viola! you’re into the 208-page (indexed) Ref- erence hungry for info on using we File Edit Move Objects Colors Options Extras Cord 13 Brooklyn Londmar Brooklyn Bridge he Bridge Brooklyn Botanical le Beesklin Museum Brooklyn College ALO] S/O] |& Coney Island is N Readers Data Exchange ‘Studio’s sound recording fea- tures. Note: The package includes a microphone and easy to install A/D input module which needs no slot space. The module is compatible with other sound- input software; and, asclaimed, is notably less noisy than input boards which depend upon slot- supplied power. If you already have a good A/D input, it will work fine. To record, edit, and, if desired, compress sounds, ‘Studio includes a flexible “Sound Shop” utility. There is also a large Library of sound effects on diskette. Since many classroom, university, etc. IIgs’s tend to be bare bones installa- tions, RW offers an attractive compact amplified speaker unit for $12.95. On disk, a stack is a file with aname (like “Animal.Book”). Its cards are where you put the graphics and text. Aside from your own Clip Art collections and graphics created via ‘Stu- dio’s painter, you can draw upon the package’s on-diskette librar- ies of 640-mode pictures and icons. Naturally, a blank card can be colored or ‘patterned’ to taste OR a full-screen picture can become the card ‘back- ground’. Either way, the art- work you import can be pasted into the background or treated as ‘graphic objects’ which re- tain their separateness for spe- cial effects like animation. Sim- ilarly, text can be typed onto the card or brought into ‘text object’ areas which can be scrol- lable windows! Most important, cards are where you place “buttons” to make things happen. For exam- ple, you might use a bent arrow icon as a button to let the user move back to the previous card in a stack. HyperStudio 3.0’s Button Editing menus make it a snap to create buttons of any size and shape, tell what each does, assign special properties. (like invisibility, sound effects, and time-delayed auto activa- tion) and move them around on the card. Usually, the action you want will be a choice in the editor menus (e.g. go to next card, hop toa specific card, start another stack, RUN a .sys type program, etc.). If not, you can use a BASIC-like script lan- guage to get just the action de- sired. Roger Wagner knows that stack authors will want users to be able to run their creations without having to boot Hyper- Studio 3.0; so, they supply “Hy- perStudio” in two flavors. “HY- PERSTUDIO” is for running AND editing stacks. Depending upon patched-in options, it gob- bles a hefty 350 or so blocks of disk space. “HS.SYS16”, at only 139 blocks, is the run-only pro- gram you can copy to diskettes to produce ‘stand alone’. mod- ules any IIgs owner can access under GSOS 5.04 or System 6. The user simply clicks HS.SYS’ (or whatever you’ve renamed it). COMPUTIST #88 The program automatically looks for and runs your Home stack, which can be the whole presentation, an auto-starter for another stack, or a selector for any number of additional stacks. As noted last issue, a major incentive for going to AE’s GS- RAM III and 3.25MB was my experience with Hyperbole and similarly ambitious HyperStu- dio’-based productions. Thanks to options which allow cards to share backgrounds and for memory-gobbling components (like sound effects) to be part of a stack OR loaded when need- ed, you CAN do some great stack building with just 1.25 MB. You can not, however, control the RAM expectations of other au- thors who may feel that load delays detract from carefully crafted presentations. Anything less than 2MB looks very puny once you’re into the horizon- broadening possibilities and just plain fun of HyperStudio’! Quest for Clues: The Book of Orbs xk $16.95, 144 pg. softcover book Origin “QFC V” is due soon; but, lest you be caught ‘without a clue’, Origin’s ‘Orbs release covers 20 of the newer adventures includ- ing “Ultima Underworld’, “Monkey Island 2”, “Might and Magic III’, “Hare Raising Hav- oc”, and “Lost in L.A.”. For each, Shay Addams and the crew from “Questbusters” present a review and walkthrough with critical hints coded to prevent acciden- tal spoilage of challenges. (There’s a new code— only vow- els and 3 consonants are affect- ed— just in case users have over-learned the simple letter- shift scheme of earlier QFC’s.) Each section is nicely tailored to get the job done, with well- written prose and illustrations adding to the fun and good use of Bold face to make it easy to zero-in on the hints you need. ‘Orbs can, as claimed, save you big bucks versus individual clue books IF, that is, how-to- win hints and playing tips are what you're after. SSI’s 60-page Clue Book for “Gateway to the Savage Frontier” and the Acco- lade book for “Elvira II” both include complete, detailed maps which players can use without otherwise fishing for hints. Orbs’ coverage can enhance play beyond just winning; but, rela- tively small available space means maps, encounter details, etc. must, sometimes, be abbre- viated or omitted. Conversely, the need for efficiency results in some very handy charts and tables such as the “Robin Hood” Riddle Answers and Location of Objects lists. COMPUTIST #68 For someone who can ‘spot a good one’ by scanning an en- try’s hints, charts, and maps, ‘Orbs can also serve as a guide to likely prospects for future questing. The reviews present helpful overviews, but some- times pass over critical flaws or contain inaccuracies. “Martian Memorandum” is not, as indi- cated, free of arcade sequenc- es— it incorporates several, in- cluding one very good, fairly stiff challenge. Nor are D&D questers well served by com- ments like “The best thing about ‘Pools of Darkness’... is that it’s the last game of the series”. Believe that, and, if you nor- mally enjoy character building, exploration, and tactical com- bat, you miss out on a first rate adventure. Orbs, as Shay notes in the introduction, turn up in one form or another in practically every adventure. So do those tough, quest-snagging obsta- cles. When next you sally forth into “Willy Beamish”, “Spell- casting 201” or any of the other 18 adventures, you may be knee- deep in crystal balls, helm-view gems, or power globes; but, you'll seldom be ‘dead stuck’ when you pack ‘The Book of Orbs! to find his missing apprentice. She was supposed to infiltrate the ranks of Darkmoon clerics and discover the source of “some gathering focus of Enormous Evil” in the area. Being public spirited (and, perhaps, just a tad smashed), you make some crack about being in “the EE- busting business”, slip on the ring Khelben gives you, and TZAPPO, the ‘Fearless Four’ are off to plumb The Legend of Darkmoon! The first EOB was also the first multi-character D&D quest for PC to rely exclusively upon a ‘real-time’, animated, 3-D en- vironment as viewed by the ad- venturing party. (THE first, of course, is “Dungeon Master”/ IIgs.) Thanks to fine artwork, a large display window, great sound, and well thought-out point-and-click controls, it worked! Step-by-step a player could turn to examine walls or look down a corridor for ap- proaching monsters. You could actually reach out and pull le- vers, fit keys into portals, etc. AND handle multi-monster combats without experiencing arcade-class demands on mouse handling skills. ‘Darkmoon re- tains all of these features but presents a more complex games- Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon wkkr $59.95 for EGA-VGA 640K PC Strategic Simulations Ad Lib or Sound Blaster recom- mended Darkmoon Temple is not a place you are anxious to visit, especially in the midst of city- wide celebrations of your recent victory (re. EOB I: freeing Wa- terdeep of The Beholder, Xana- thar). Still, when a message arrives addressed to “The Fear- less Four” there’s no choice. A local mage, Khelben, wants you storm giants, mind flayers, and beholders encountered later on.) Explorations yield opportuni- ties to acquire weapons, armor, etc., plus food, potions, and crit- ical artifacts, such as keys and the stone symbols required to activate teleportals. You will also discover several potential recruits, some as prisoners in cells, others as bones which must be resurrected. If, like me, your mage transferee from EOB I is only a slow-to-advance mage/cleric, fill one of your six character slots with a full-mage recruit. In ‘Darkmoon’, magic is very important! A party with ready access to critical spells like Improved Identify, Haste, Hold Monster, Wall of Force, and True Seeing has significant- ly improved odds for success. Unlike EOB I’s maze, the cor- ridors and chambers of the Darkmoon complex boast count- less traps, illusions, and puz- zles. On more than one occasion Thad succeeded in suppressing local monsters only to find that the REAL ‘opposition’ was some puzzle-locked grating, shifting walls illusion, fireball gaunt- let, or other such device. (To which you can add some partic- ularly wicked trickery, courte- sy of Darkmoon’s mysterious CALANDRA cape, richer scenario, and a much tougher, longer-playing challenge. In ‘Darkmoon you encounter not a single ‘dungeon’ but sev- eral. First, you must wend your way through a wolf-infested for- est to reach the temple. (HINT: The forest is worth exploring.) The temple proper, itself a re- spectable challenge, branches downward to sprawling Cata- combs and out to three sizable towers and a prison. Each maz- escape offers its own ‘look’ rang- ing from crudely cave-like through luxurious; and, domi- nant monster groups are tai- lored, roughly, to match expect- ed level of character develop- ment. (Your party would not last long if, for example, you waltzed into the temple and met the Readers Data Exchange overlord.) That I was well into the middle of the quest (and had done several pages of maps!) before the $14.95 Clue Book arrived underscores the success of ‘Darkmoon’s maze makers. The game is exception- ally good about providing clues, giving ‘fair warning’ of traps, and placing levers, key holes, etc. where they can be noticed. Yes, it IS nice to have the Clue Book, especially if you’d rather leave the mapping to SSI. ‘Dark- moon’s CB is comprehensive, well organized, and attractive; but, nevertheless, optional! Temple Darkmoon’s twisted passages and vaulted chambers guard many dark secrets. You will encounter characters with sorrowful tales (and hints) to relate, overhear conversations of evil arch minions, free un- willing servants of the overlord, be taunted by foes you'll ‘love to hate’, and more; much more than mere monster bashing. (Still, monster bashing IS loads of fun!) From the night of that first fateful meeting with Khel- ben to the final confrontation with Evil in the Crimson Tow- er, once you take on ‘The Leg- end of Darkmoon, you’re in ‘for the duration’ on one of the greats of D&D computer adven- turing. Heaven & Earth xk $49.95 for 640K EGA-VGA PC Buena Vista/Walt Disney According to a sticker on the box, this first release on Dis- ney’s new Buena Vista “adult stuff” label is by the creators of “Shanghai” and “Ishido”. Whereas the latter feature ele- gantly simple rules and struc- ture, H&E is a collection of mini- challenges. Chiefly these are maze, jigsaw, pattern-match- ing, and other kinds of non-text visual puzzles; but, youcan also play “oriental rummy” or try the Pendulum “computer toy”. When confident of your skills, you embark upon the 108-step Pilgrimage. Each step is a puz- zle, rummy hand, Pendulum setup, or Tantra (an inspira- tional poem to read—i.e. a ‘free- bee’ step). Your goal is increased wisdom in the Way of the War- rior and, specifically, to uncov- er all 108 pieces of a “visual reward”. Featuring mainly 16-color 640 x 480 VGA displays and minimal sound support (AdLib/ SB and Sound Source), H&E delivers a crisp, smooth-run- ning, but rather bland gaming environment. The puzzles are just that, no Tetris-style scen- ery or music scores. Still, there ARE lots of puzzles, 576 in all; and with 12 kinds, you can ex- pect some interesting new twists. For instance, an “identi- ty maze” requires that you guide a pair of locked cursors through two different side-by-side maz- es. H&E’s “Pendulum’” is chief- ly for show. Mouse-pushing the pointer to turn off gravity wells may have some mystical appeal; but, it’s too easy to qualify as a challenge. According to H&E’s manual, the Card Game is “an original computer card game”. This ex- plains a great deal, since no such rummy variant could ever have gained popularity among real players. Aside from deal- ing with twelve derived “month” suits— each is defined by an “element” and a “season”— be- coming skilled in applying the obtuse grouping rules, hierar- chies, and scoring conventions is far more trouble than the game is worth. It’s too bad that the attractive, occasionally an- imated card illustrations were not applied to some tried-and- true diversion like, for instance, plain old rummy. Including a handsome 80- page manual, Heaven & Earth belongs in the collection of any dedicated puzzle fancier. As a quest, it suffers somewhat from low-pizazz sound and the need to play through 30 Card Game hands. “Hey, like nobody said The Way of the Warrior is all peaches and cream!” True enough. In fact, it could be fun to maintain the program on hard disk and nibble away a few steps every day or so. Since the game can keep track of play- er name and position for up to six separate pilgrimages, you and several friends might even begin a kind of ‘race to wisdom’! Guest Reviews RCFS PC Radio Controlled Flight Simulator (v3.1) wk $58.95 for 640K PC XT/AT (also available for Mac) Dave Brown Products review by Douglas Hecht Requires two joysticks and stan- dard Y-adapter or custom Transmitter Box (hardware, $100.00) Ihave been flying remote con- trolled model airplanes for about twelve years. My father got me started building them at around the age of eight and it has been a hobby ever since. We had to wait however, to actual- ly go out and buy the remote control equipment because it is rather expensive, (around $400.00 for a good six channel radio). When we bought our first ra- dio we took it home and installed itin an old plane. It was a train- er craft and let me tell ya, it was one tough piece of work to destroy, but I managed to wreck it and had to rebuild it literally dozens of times while I was learning to fly. You see, anybody can get an RC plane off the ground; get- ting it back down where you want it in one whole piece is the tough part! (It cost me about $2000.00 buying balsa wood and replacement radio parts, to which you can add numerous hours spent patching and re- building.) Once flying the train- er became ‘second nature’, I built another airplane. This one, a ‘classic model’ replica, was a higher performance craft, much bigger and faster than my train- er. I didn’t know it at the time, but when you move up, the pro- cess of ‘wreck em’, ‘rebuild em’, and ‘learn em’ starts all over again. Enough of my sad tales. This is the 90’s. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on kits, balsa wood, and radios to learn to fly a model airplane or heli- copter. All you need is a PC and the RCFS PC Radio Controlled Flight Simulator to ‘test the waters’ and see if the hobby is right for you. If “yes”, you just keep practicing, have hours of flight-sim fun, and learn the basics of what is required to fly RC. (Despite all the woeful tales of those who take up the hobby, Idorecommend it highly. There are few thrills that match RC- flying.) Supplied with manual on 5.25" or 3.5" media, the Dave Brown package is truly as close as your PC can get you to being out on a model airplane field at the controls of a real model. The optional “transmitter” is a typical two-gimbal stick box that plugs into the ‘game’ in- put; or, you can use two joy- sticks in a ‘Y’ configuration. Your “real models” include a basic “trainer”, electric glider, ducted fan jet, and four others PLUS a helicopter! Probably, your first plane will be the Trainer. Designed for those who are just starting out in the hobby, this is an unusu- Readers Data Exchange ally stable model that is very forgiving of mistakes. The “in- termediate” planes are a little less tolerant; and, the “ad- vanced” model generally won’t forgive anything. That’s all right.... If ya wreck it, start all over again. The software does, however, figure out a repair estimate for a crashed plane or helicopter depending on how hard you hit the ground. As you progress up through the ranks of planes and learn to fly, you can experiment with wind changes and modify per- formance characteristics like Elevator sensitivity, Rudder sensitivity and so on. There are 15 variables total; and, the us- er’s manual covers each in de- tail. Getting started is no prob- lem at all for novice users. For the advanced user there’s the fabulous opportunity to design and test-fly a working model from scratch BEFORE actually building it! That’s how accu- rate this simulator is. . I never knew how difficult it was to fly an RC helicopter! Like the planes, the RCFS’ helicop- ter has many different charac- teristics you can alter (such as Tail Rotor Mixing, Sensitivity, etc.). Accurate? Could you, for example, design and test a for- real flyable ‘bird? I was curious to find out, so I had a friend of mine, a ‘pro’, give it a whirl. He was amazed at how realistical- ly handling matches changes in characteristics. The pro’s bot- tom line comment was: “For the money, you won’t get a better deal!” When I first contacted Mr. Brown, he requested that I do some testing with the simula- tor on different machines. I must have logged about 50 hours. trying it on everything from ancient 8088 machines (CGA and VGA) through 33MHz ‘386 and ‘486 powerhouses. The simulator runs ‘well enough’ on the slow machines. Though per- formance is not ‘real time’, the program still rates as a depend- able trainer for the novice. For COMPUTIST #88 a pro RC-er, the delays might be a bit frustrating. On my 12MHz ‘286, (running under “Windows”) RCFS’ delivers practically ‘real time’ response! The speed and power of the ‘386 and ‘486 platforms did not have much impact. Overall I give RCFS PC Ra- dio Controlled Flight Simula- tor two thumbs up. Dave Brown’s software does every- thing you expect and more. It can save you an incredible amount of time and money learning to fly model airplanes and it does so with incredibly accurate speed and graphics capabilities. Installation is sim- ple, too. Just copy the files toa directory, fire up the program, and you’re ready to fly. The only problem that I could find with the package was that, once you get started, you can completely lose track of time. It’s that much fun! Fast frames, Updates, etc. More Cities to Sim! kxk* “Sim” stands for “simulate” and for would-be city simulat- ers, the ‘place’ is Sim City ($49.95 for CGA-VGA 640K PC) from Maxis. The practically uni- versal appeal of the package, of course, is the opportunity to build something, tinker with it, and manage its performance in the face of challenging obsta- cles. (Proof: Baywoof’s teenage daughter, Andrea, is one of many young-Computist “City freaks”.) Sim City permits start- ing from scratch or loading in “San Francisco 1908”, “Tokyo 1957” and six more pre-built scenarios featuring special chal- lenges like earthquake, monster attack, etc.. Neat; but, suppose you could try out your ‘City skills build- ing an empire in ancient Asia, a medieval kingdom, or an em- pire in the Wild West? How about 21st century cities in the U.S. and Europe, or a colony on the Moon?! Now you can, via SYSTEM OPTIONS DISASTERS Maps Graphs Budget Edi Evaluation Close Hide | Position Resize tCEdit> ‘Ancient Cities and ‘Future Cit- ies ($34.95 each). The new “Graphics Sets” and animations ‘overlay’ existing scenarios with text and sound effects mods to accommodate differences in di- sasters and other challenges. (i.e. You have problems with oxygen supplies on the Moon, tumble weeds in the Wild West, etc..) According to the manuals supplied with each set, some ‘old scenario’ stuff may slip through; but, so far, I haven’t noticed any. As before, you must make do with PC-sound or Cov- ox support; the new “Graphics Sets” do not expand sound op- tions. With more places and times to build, they DO expand the fun! The 1992 Viewer’s Guide to Professional Golf kxk* Anyone who gets into Acco- lade’s Jack Nicklaus Golf’ spends some time checking the overhead course maps and marking off distances prior to shots. “Gosh,” you may have thought, “these maps sure help. Too bad real golfers on real courses can’t do this.” Pending satellite links and pocket PC’s, they soon may! For now, ‘real DEB PAR COMPUTIST #88 golfers’ and TV golf fans can come pretty close via Intergolf’s ‘Viewer’s Guide’ ($24.95). Ar- ranged by month, the 200-page guide covers some 50 major tele- vised tournaments with the fo- cus on detailed course diagrams. You'll find an event introduc- tion plus full-course and indi- vidual hole maps for Bay Hill, Augusta, Pebble Beach, Bar- ton’s Creek, and other favor- ites. In vivid color by Golfax, every hole map includes text describing ‘best play’ for each shot and marked-off distances. In large, 8.5" x 11" spiral- bound format with plastic-coat- ed covers, the ‘Guide’ is intend- ed for the coffee tables of up- scale TV golf devotees— that’s why broadcast dates, times, and networks are listed for all 50 highlighted events. (Dates and networks appear for a total of 75.) Computer golfers, howev- er, will find the descriptions and JNG-style maps very helpful in both selecting a course to play AND picking the best shots. Oddly, there are no page num- bers; so, you may end up adding index tabs. (Not to worry, the 1993 edition is due soon. You can put IT on your coffee table.) Readers Data Exchange sitisisi¢igiel slg) chebebetebcbctctct] SEES el ed el el el al ol I baal ee 4 Including several golfing lore pieces by Bob Hope, Herbert W. Wind, and others, the ‘Viewers Guide’ looks pretty good on your computer table, too! Dick Tracy: The Crime- Solving Adventure © Disney’s Dick Tracy’ adven- ture challenges you to smash the octopus-like empire of the arch crime lord Big Boy. Since BB is far too slippery for a ‘di- rect hit’, this means a piece-by- piece assault against his chief lieutenants: Flattop, Shoulders, Pruneface, ... (i.e. the “usual suspects”). Answering a succes- sion of “Calling Dick Tracy” alerts (music, effects, AND voice via Disney’s Sound Source adapter), you stick-guide your police cruiser through the multi-screen street map to the scene. Leaving your vehicle switches to a detailed side-view so that your Tracy figure can search rooms, rooftops, sewers, etc. for evidence and deal with criminal types whom you inter- rogate, chase, and, ifnecessary, blow away. Supplied with classy manu- al, commands card, and Infota- tor-style copy protection wheel, DT, takes care of basics (like Game Save) but, nevertheless exhibits numerous rough edg- es. That Infotator illustrations do not look much like the dis- play pictures you’re supposed to match is a minor annoyance. Cumbersome car-steering con- trols and, when on foot, sloppy action figure response are the major league ‘downers’. Still, DT could attract a youthful ac- tion gamer following were it not necessary to maintain notes and actually do something with ev- idence. Adventure players might enjoy the latter activity; but, few are going to put up with anything short of flawless ‘action’ controls. Who, one won- ders, IS supposed to play the Dick Tracy’?! ($39.95 or $59.95 with Sound Source, for EGA- VGA 640K PC) DEMON'S FUN-TIME & Of Dark Designs, Gons, and 8’s As promised, SoftDisk G-S’s Lee Golden delivered a patched version of Dark Designs III; so, the bug is gone and I’m back into the quest. DD3 boasts an SSI AD&D ‘look’, including at- tractive 3-D forward views, and adds a very helpful self-map- ping feature. Since the entire game must fit on a single dis- kette (along with the rest of the stuffin SDGS Issue #17!), weap- on and spell variety is limited and “tactical” combat is chiefly a matter of trading blows. Still, with quality sound, alarge mon- ster-infested. mazescape to-ex- plore, goodies to find, and Text messages to enrich the scenar- io, the third Dark Designs is good for many sessions at your IIgs. Among more current SDGS entertainment offerings, Lift- a-Gon challenges you to move triangular, circular, pentago- nal, etc. “Gon” creatures from ground level, into an elevator, and up to safety. Not so easy, since both body and eye shapes (Gons have faces) govern who may go/remain safely with whom. The same issue (#33) ties. After seeing the beautiful near photo-quality course views PLUS optional resizable win- dows (for simultaneous over- head, green, etc. views), there really was no choice. Links386’ comes with the Harbour Town course in new “high-res” format and a utility to convert your old courses. I converted the latest old format course to arrive and, as promised, the desert scen- ery, and twisty water traps of Troon North looked great! (Of course, maximum detail at all distances is obtainable only from new format courses.) AdLib/SB sound (including voice comments) is improved; and, though there are still no ‘computer players’, a new Record Game feature is a de- cent (in some ways, better) sub- stitute. You can load a game you or someone else has ‘record- ed’ and play against the perfor- Computer Has 11 Cards Player Moves... Player Has 10 Cords presents an attractive, smooth- playing version of the vintage cards favorite, Crazy 8’s. Links386 Pro kk*k* After two enjoyable, produc- tive years with our 12MHz ‘286 machine, we have, at last, been dragged into modern PC com- puting. What did it was a visit to Baywoof’s and a look at Links386 Pro from Access ($69.95; $39.95 for registered Links owners). It REQUIRES at least a ‘386 and extended 640 x 480 256-color VGA capabili- @ File Extras Se narft Readers Data Exchange mances of recorded players. The Links386 package includes sev- eral recordings to try out. Since the courses are built directly from digitized images, we may never see a course construction utility like the one in “Nick- laus” golf. It would be a nice feature; but, at the rate Access produces new course disks, and the high challenge level ofeach, users are unlikely to complain. The most notable Links se- ries deficit remains the absence of ‘big time golf pizazz (i.e. something like “PGA Tour Golf”’s TV-style fairway fly- through before each tee-off). The game’s current, low key ambience is pleasant and relax- ing; but, not golf like the ‘big guys’ play. Eventually, the best solution may be to build-in pro golf hype and add some kind of ‘Set Atmosphere’ option. For sure, ‘the handwriting is on the wall’ for ‘286 AT’s; on ‘386/486 machines, ultra-real computer golf is better than ever. Darkmoon: Return of the Golem The Horns of the Four Winds, wasp colonies, and flying snakes COMPUTIST #88 were behind us. But now, with the “Clue Book” still a distant promise, we needed to satisfy the cryptic demands of seven Magic Mouths to continue. While pacing the corridor and mulling over these riddles, whom/what should we stumble upon but the famous Computist Golem! As usual, it was in a nearly hidden alcove standing rock still and silent beneath a flickering neon sign which advised: “Cross my palm with silver.” Not so easy; the Silver Tower (and ev- erywhere else we'd seen on this quest) was notably devoid of silver coins. Then Iremembered the 5-Zorkmid piece sewn into the lining of my boots. Ina thrice 2.5 ounces of fine Venusian sil- ver plunked into the Golem’s enormous paw.... years. Once in place, it should keep your ROM 01 IIgs clock ticking for at least 5 years— a BIG improvement over the 18 months our original IIgs bat- tery lasted! To install, you move the pow- er supply out of the way and mark the old battery “+” side on the motherboard. (Probably, “+” faces toward the back of the computer.) Cut the old battery leads leaving about 1/2" on the board; straighten the old leads and slide on the ‘springy’ leads of the new battery. No solder- ing is required. The Slide-On kit includes directions with pic- tures, an “Installation Date” label, and a tube for disposal of the old battery. “Rats! Everything looks so easy, it’s ashame I have to write down all of those Control Panel “Itsssss niiiice tooo seee yooo againn,” it groaned, slowly com ng up to speed as the granite fist closed. “Listen well:” “Who's refuse is gold wants Food that’s too Old. To the one ‘born of greed’, several Rocks you must feed. The cursed Hungry Sword a long hunger retires. Another, I think, any Potion desires. ‘No matter how parched’ means matter quite dry; something of paper is what you should try. _ In the Idol, of course, is a green Hidden Glow. And the Red Gem possesses Nature’s own soul. When seven are sated, a sound you shall hear. The lock is defeated, the passage is clear! Slide-On Battery kkx Some day soon you may pow- er-up your computer and dis- cover that it ‘don’t work right’. The clock is. set to Quetmo Stan- dard Time, the screen colors are blue and light blue, and all of those Printer and Modem set- tings have been forgotten. Prob- ably, that little lithium bat- tery— the one that runs your Clock/Calendar/Control Pan- -el— is out of juice. For some users, this could be VERY inconvenient— they must start calling local shops to find a replacement battery; and, then, worry about restoring the lost settings. (Believe it or not, the precipitating event for Bay- woof’s bailing out of IIgs com- puting back in 1989 was bat- tery failure! When he couldn’t find anyone in town who sold a replacement, it was the prover- bial “last straw”.) YOU, howev- er, are prepared! Being a Com- putist reader, you’ve written down all of your Control Panel (and/or Hard Disk) settings AND you have a fresh Nite Owl replacement ready to pop into place. ; For owners of the pre-1MB ROM 01 IIgs (with the battery leads soldered to the mother- board) the choice is a handy Slide-On unit selling for $14.95. (The company also stocks Tadi- ran batteries priced at $10.00- $14.95 to fit Mac, PC, and New IIgs models.) According to Nite Owl’s Bob Shofstall, their Slide- On model is an improved design with a rated shelf life of 10 COMPUTIST #88 settings and then type them in again.” Exactly my feelings, which is why I wrote BATRAM- MER, a quickie BASIC program todo all the work for IIgs users. BATRAMMER pokes in a short machine language routine to access Tools in the Miscella- neous Toolset which read and write Battery RAM. To save your settings, the program tells Tool 9 to copy all 256 bytes of Battery RAM to addresses $1000-$10FF and BSAVEs the contents to BATRAM.SAVE. To restore the settings, it BLOADs BATRAM .SAVE at $1000 and calls Tool 10 to move the data into Battery RAM. RUN it now to record your settings. After replacing the battery, RUN it to restore Bat- tery RAM. BATRAMMER even reminds you to set your clock to the correct time! BATRAMMER™ 100 REM BATRAMMER: Save/ Restore IIgs BatRAM settings/ JH, Computist 1992 110 FOR I = 768 TO 795: READ X: POKE I,X: NEXT Ir 120 PRINT CHRS (4) "FRE(0)" : TEXT : HOME : PRINT "Boaltdr0admd m0eOr" : PRINT 130 PRINT "[S]}(SAVE(cur rent0BATRAMvalues(tod f£ile(BATRAM. SAVED" 140 PRINT "[R])RESTORE) saved0BATRAM values? from)file0BATRAM. SAVED" 150 PRINT "[Q]0Quit" PRINT 160 PRINT "[0]0Select" 7: HTAB 2: GOSUB 220 170 IF Q$ = "S" THEN GOSUB 310: GOTO 200 180 IF Q$ = "R" THEN GOSUB 410: GOTO 200 190 IF Q$ = "Q" THEN PRINT : END 200 PRINT : PRINT "Continue)>>0" ;: GOSUB 220: GOTO 120 210 REM GET KEY 220 GET Q$: PRINT Q$:X = ASC (Q$): IF X > 95 THEN Q$ = CHRS (xX - 32) 230 RETURN 300 REM SAVE 310 POKE 786,10: CALL 768 330 PRINT CHRS$ (4) "BSAVEOBATRAM. SAVED, AS$1000,1L$100" 340 PRINT "BatteryRAM) values(saved0in0filed BATRAM. SAVED" 350 RETURN 400 REM RESTORE 410 PRINT : PRINT "LOAD in0values(for0BATRAM® (¥/N)O" ;: GOSUB 220: IF Q$ < > "Y" THEN 460 420 PRINT CHRS$ (4) "BLOADOBATRAM. SAVED, A$1000" 430 POKE 786,9: CALL 768 450 PRINT "BatterRAM) values(drestored." : PRINT "Visit0Control0 Panelito?set0TIME." 460 RETURN 500 DATA 169,0,72,169,0, 72,169,16,72,169,0,72, 24,251,194,48,162,3,9, 34,0,0,225,226, 48,56, 251,96 $ _ Checksums 100-$0236 190-$6D4D — 350-$0422 110-$DCFO 200-$8FFD — 400-$7AE0 120-$D792 210-$8B5D — 410-$3900 130-$3DE0 220-$B00D + 420-$2C0D 140-$5621 230-$908D —430-$CC72 150-SF9BF 300-$395C — 450-$CCB9 160-S7CE8 310-SOSFF — 460-$BE29 170-$7BC3. 330-$B89A 500-$50D1 180-$C779 340-$D6B3 Next Expect SSI’s ‘Dark Queen of Krynn, Interplay’s Battle Chess II, Super Space Invaders and Pit Fighter from DOmark/Acco- lade, Martian Dreams and the new Quest for Clues ‘Orbs book from Origin... PLUS anin-depth look at Eamon text adventur- ing along with souped-up pro- grams for play and editing... and, for sure, More! Vendors Access Software 4910 W. Amelia Earhart Drive Salt Lake City, Utah 84116 atten: Susan Dunn/ Steve Witzel (800-800-4880/ 801-359- 2900) Accolade 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd. San Jose, CA 95129 atten: Melinda Mongelluzzo (408-985-1700; orders: 800-245- 7744) Readers Data Exchange Dave Brown Products 4560 Layhigh Road Hamilton, Ohio 45013 atten: Dave Brown (513-738- 1576) Intergolf 6016 Bridgewater Circle Ponte Vedra, FL 32082 atten: Witney McClelland (800-999-4106) Maxis 2 Theatre Square, Suite 230 Orinda, CA 94563-3346 atten: Sally Vandershaf (or- ders: 415-376-6434; 415-253- 3705) . Nite Owl Productions 5734 Lamar Blvd. Mission, KS 66202-2646 atten: Bob Shofstall (913-362- 9898) Origin Systems 110 Wild Basin Road, Ste 330 Austin TX 78746 atten: Wayne Baker (800-999- 4939) Product Monitor 7814 Santa Elena Houston TX 77061 atten: Jeff Hurlburt (713-645- 8680) Roger Wagner 1050 Pioneer Way, Suite P El Cajon, CA 92020 atten: Garland Buckingham (619-442-0522) Softdisk PO Box 30008 Shreveport, LA 71130-0008 atten: Lee Golden, Ed. (800- 831-2694) Strategic Simulations Inc. 675 Almandor Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94086 atten: Kathleen Watson (408- 737-6800) dist: Electronic Arts Susan & Company 319 Carpenter Avenue Sea Cliff, NY 11579 atten: Susan Kornick, Kim Adamo (516-759-4475) ref: Dis- ney/Buena Vista Walt Disney Computer Software 500 South Buena Vista Burbank, CA 91521 atten: Kirk Green (800-688- 1520 orders, 818-567-5360) ref: Susan & Co. Oe WM Carroll CA About your comment on only having enough material for the next 1 ¥, issues. How about fill- ing out an issue with some spe- cific articles on CDA, NDA, TIF and PIF files. What are they, what do they or can they do, how are they installed, etc, etc. It seems that very littleis avail- able in regular Apple publica- tions. Well readers! Anyone who knows how to explain these files got some time to help a fellow Computist in his quest for Rnowledge? ....c.ceccesessseee RDEXed Steve Kalynuik Canada Softkey for... Advanced Blackjack Muse (1983) Iota Systems Requirements: The original Advanced Black- jack disk A empty initialized disk A blank disk Demuffin+ A way to reset into monitor 1. First place a write-protect tab on Advanced Blackjack disk. 2. Boot Advanced Blackjack disk. * 8. When you get the prompt to remove tab, break into the monitor. (On a Laser, I use ctrl M reset.) 4. Remove Advanced Blackjack disk. 5. Insert the blank disk and type: INIT D call this Disk A 6. Fresh Boot DISK A. Type: CALL-151 to enter the monitor Note: Steps 5 & 6 may be skipped if the monitor prompt (*) is shown. Skip to step 7. (If skipping 5 & 6 doesn’t work try with them.) 7. When asterisk appears type: 6600<B600.BFFFM move RWTS toa safe spot 8. Place a “helloless” disk into drive. Type: C600G to boot disk 9. Place disk with DEMUFFIN+ into drive. Type: BLOAD DEMUFFIN+, A$803 CALL-151 FF59G B600<6600.6FFFM A851G 803G 10. Copy all files to INITIAL- IZED DISK. 11. With CopylIIPlus change boot program to SETUP. 12. Do not write protect. Boot and enjoy. Note: Try above crack with other similar protections. @This is a request for con- tact with APPLE IIe/IIc own- ers. Where are the APPLE pro- grams? It seems companies have forgotten all about us. So how about if someone out there can contact me, soI might be able to get new or used software and we'll talk. Steve Kalynuik 936 Southdale Rd E London, Ontario Canada N6E 1B2 Sang J. Moon MD Softkey for... - Buzzard Bait Sirius Requirements: Apple II+ or Ile with at least 48K DOS 3.3 Master Diskette Blank disk 10 This is an old game, and there is probably a softkey for this out there already, but Ithought Td start out small with my first submission. I tried originally to try to copy this program using Locksmith 4.1 & 5.0 and Copy II Plus 8.4; but being a fair nov- ice at bit copying, I could not do it. I also could not find parms for bit copying this program in any Computist issues I had. I found the softkey in Computist issue #5, but it required an Ap- ple with an old F8 ROM which I did not have. So I finally decid- ed to boot trace Buzzard Bait. Thanks to the boot trace arti-- cle in Computist issue #5 on Hard Hat Mack, I was able to take my first steps. I started my Apple without a disk, and reset to the Applesoft prompt. I then entered the monitor by typing “CALL-151”. Icleared all user RAM to make it easier to see where code is being loaded by typing “800:00 N 801<800 .BFFEM”. Then I copied the boot routine from $C600 into $9600 using “9600<C600 .C6FFM”, _ and I changed the jump address at $96F9 from $0801 to $FF59 by typing “96F9:59 FF”. This makes the Apple jump into the monitor after loading the first stage boot instead of executing the first stage boot. I then typed “9600G” at the monitor prompt with the Buzzard Bait diskette in the drive (write-protected of course). Then I turned off the drive by typing “COE8”, and I looked at the first stage boot code at $800 by, typing “800L”. Noticing that the byte at $800 was $01, I knew that the first stage boot was only one page long, so I scanned the disas- sembly of the code from $801 to $8FF. Luckily I found only one JMP, and it was at address $08C8 to address $B000. I then changed the jump from my mod- ified boot routine to a short pro- gram I created to let me look at the code loaded at $B000 after the first stage boot executed by typing “96F9:00 97”, I typed in my code at $9700 so that after loading the first stage boot, the jump address to $B000 would be changed to ajump to $FF59 (the monitor again). the follow- ing is the actual code I used: 9700:80 00 98 STA $9800 9703:A959 LOA #859 9705:80 C908 STA $08C9 S789 FF «LDA SSF STOA8D CA 08 STA $08CA STOD:AD 00.98 LDA $9800 STHO4C 0108 = UMP $0801 I saved accumulator before I actually changed the address at $8C9 and reloaded it before I executed the first stage boot because the first stage boot re- quired the original accumula- tor value. After booting the disk again using “9600G”, I typed “COE8” again to shut off the drive, and looked at the code at $B000. I assumed that this code was the one that actually loaded the game code because I had booted the original disk, and what I had done so far did not do all the disk access to load the game. I again looked for JMP com- mands which would go to the next stage. Luckily, the article in Computist issue #5 gave me the clue that $8000 was a possi- ble starting point for executing the game after loading, soI was pleasantly surprised when I found a JMP to $8000 at ad- dress at $BOF9. I then repeated the steps for making my modi- fied boot routine at $9600 be- cause it was erased, and I cre- ated the following code at $9700 to load in the first stage boot, modify the first stage boot so that it would modify the jump to $8000 to $FF59 before exe- cuting, and execute the first stage boot: 9700:80 00.98 STA G703:8E 0198 SIX 9706:A2 00 = LOX 97088 1997 LDA 970890 (8.08 STA STNECA DEX S70FD0F7 = «BNE S714:AD 0098 LDA STH4AE 0198 LOX STAC 0108 UMP STiA9 59 LDA 9710-80 FAB) STA QTiFAQ FF LDA 9721-80 FB BO STA $BOFB 9724-40 00.80 JMP $8000 I saved the accumulator and X register because I used them to copy the routine starting at $971A to $08C9 and the first stage boot needed the original values in the accumulator and X register. I didn’t worry about the code after address $08C9 because it looked like it would only be executed if the first stage boot failed. I then typed “9600G”, and the game proceed- ed to load and then stop before actually executing. I then veri- fied that I had the program in memory by typing “8000G”. I was rewarded with Buzzard Bait executing normally as if nothing unusual happened. I then created a DOS 3.3 slave by booting the DOS 3.3 master dis- kette and initializing the blank diskette with the following hel- lo program: 10 END I then repeated all my steps up to the point before executing the game at address $8000. I did a quick scan of the user memory to see how much mem- ory Buzzard Bait took by typing 800.BFFF. It seemed that Buz- zard Bait took up memory from $0900 to $97FF (the code at $800 and at $B000 weré from the boot and load process and were not used anymore). The DOS 3.3 slave would only over- write the memory at $800-$8FF and at $9600-BFFF, so I trans- ported the code at $9600-97FF to some unused memory at $3000 by typing “3000<9600 .9TFFM”. I then booted the slave and typed “MAXFILES 1” so that the DOS buffers at memory lo- Sano Saat 400 $o719,X $08C8,x $9708 $9800 $0801 #59 $BOFA AFF Readers Data Exchange $9801 . cation $9600-$97FF would not be used. I then entered the mon- itor and typed “9600<3000 .31FFM” to move back the code and pressed C to return to the Applesoft prompt. I then saved Buzzard Bait into two files because DOS 3.3 will not allow me do save it as a single large file. I cold started my Ap- ple and ran the copy of Buzzard Bait, and for some reason, the disk access normally done be- tween levels of the game disap- peared. I think I might have accidentally removed that copy protection by not including the code at $800 or at $B000. Step-by-step 1. Boot from the DOS 3.3 Mas- ter Diskette and enter the “Hello” program. NEW 10 DS=CHR$ (4) 20 PRINT D$”MAXFILES 1" 30 PRINT D$”BLOAD BUZZ ARD .OBJO" 40 PRINT D$”BRUN BUZZARD .OBJ1" 2. Remove the DOS 3.3 Master Diskette and insert the blank diskette. Initilize the blank disk with the “Hello” program. The blank diskette will now be referred to as the slave dis- kette. INIT HELLO 3. Enter the monitor and setup the altered “Boot0” code. CALL-151 9600<C600.C6FFM lower mem 96F9:00 97 set up link to $9700 9700:8D 00 98 8E 01 98 A2 0D :BD 19 97 9D C8 08 CA DO :F7 AD-00 98 AE 01 98 4C :01 08 A9 59 8D FA BO AQ :FF 8D FB BO 4C 00 BO 4. Insert the write-protected Buzzard Bait diskette and boot it. 9600G 3000<9600.97FFM 5. Insert the slave diskette. C600G you should get an error message’ MAXFILES 1 CALL-151 9600<3000.31FFM . BSAVE BUZZARD.OBJO, A$900, L$7700 BSAVE BUZZARD.OBJ1, A$8000, L$1800 You now have a COPYAble backup of Buzzard Bait. Install- ing a fast loader on this disk or replacing the DOS 3.3 with a faster DOS would be an option- al step. move boot0 to to enter the monitor Bitkey for... Pensate Penguin Software Requirements: Apple II Copy II Plus 8.4 (may work on other versions) I found that using the “TRY HEADER” autocopy parm in Copy II Plus 8.4 can be used to copy Pensate. COMPUTIST #88 Hail and well met, Eamon adventurer. COMPUTIST has news of great import for loyal supporters of Eamon and members in good standing at the Main Hall. There is a newsletter for Eamon Adventure Buffs. Y ce ae on ella a ae ee, | | Yes! I want to support Eamon adventure and encourage new adventures to be written. Sign me up for a one year subscrition. B © US & Canada: $7.00 If for 6 or more issues. O Jun'88 CO Sep'88 O Dec'88 1 Mar'89 O Jun'89 CD Sep'89 I O Dec'89 (1) Mar'90 © Jun'90 CO Sep'90 ODec'90 O Mar'91 O Dec'91 © Mar'920 0 Jun'92_-L Sep'92 Total enclosed OJum'91 Oi Sep'91 Name © Foreign: $12.00 (U.S. funds) Bf [also want to order some back issues at $1.75 each for 1-5 issues and $1.25 each “The Eamon AMbenturer’s Guilo” Tom Zuchowski is the editor and driving force behind it. The newsletter is printed on 8.5" x 11" bond, double sided with dot matrix type. It is non-profit (it’s his hobby) and Tom’s avowed purpose is to maintain a single point collection and clearing house for Eamon Adventures. He also intends to fix all known bugs in these adventures. City, State Zip. REE ed This is a grand concept worthy of support. We highly recommend that you subscribe. This newsletter will help you keep in touch with other Eamon adventurers. But more important, it will improve the state of Eamon adventures and encourage new adventures to be written. Tom has accomplished a great deal along these lines already, not only fixing bugs but also improving the Eamon Main program and authoring the version 7.0 Dungeon Designer Disk. The “'Guild” is printed quarterly. A 1 year subscription is: US & Canada: $7.00 . Foreign: $12.00 (U.S. funds) The Eamon Adventurer’s Guild 7625 Hawkhaven Dr. Clemmons, NC 27012 (919) 766-7490 Eamon Adventure for only Ss 1 (or less) each jC} Main Hall & Beginners Cave 1076 The Search for Yourself 1 147A The Dark Brotherhood 02 The Lair of the Minotaur (077 Temple of the Trolls . 0 147B The Dark Brotherhood HE 3 The Cave of the Mind (178 The Prince’s Tavern 1 148 Joumey to Jotunheim 04 The Zyphur Riverventure 1179 The Castle of Count Fuey 149A Elemental Apocalypse 15 Castle of Doom 1180 The Search for the Key 1 149B Elemental Apocalypse WE 6 The Death Star 181 The Rescue Mission 1 149C Elemental Apocalypse BE 27 The Devil’s Tomb 182 Escape from Mansi Island 1 149D Elemental Apocalypse Bf 28 The Abductor’s Quarters 1183 The Twin Castles 1150 Walled City of Darkness 119 Assault on the Clonemaster 1184 Castle of Riveneta 11151 EamonS.A.R.-1(Deneb Raid) 110 The Magic Kingdom (85 The Time Portal 1 152 The Computer Club of Fear 1111 The Tomb of Molinar 186 Castle Mantra 0153 Lost! C12 The Quest for Trezore (87 Caves of Hollow Mountain 1154 A Trip to Fort Scott HE G13 Caves of Treasure Island 1188 The Shopping Mall 11.155 Tomb of the Vampire Bf 014 Furioso 189 Super Fortress of Lin Wang 0156 The Lake Bp O15 Heroes Castle 190 The Doomsday Clock 1157 Pathetic Hideout of MrR. 116 The Cayes of Mondamen C91 FutureQuest IT 0 158 The Lair of Mr Ed 1117 Merlin’s Castle (92 The Fugitive 0159 The Bridge of Catzad-Dum BF 018 Hogarth Castle 1198 Flying Circus 21160 Monty Python & Holy Grail 019 Death Trap 1194 Blood Feud (161A Operation Endgame HE 20 The Black Death (295 The Maze of Quasequeton 1 161B Operation Endgame BE 0.21 The Quest for Marron (96 The Chamber of the Dragons 1 161C Operation Endgame If 2122 The Senator's Chambers (97 The House of Secrets 1 162 Eamon 7.0 Demo Adventure 1.23 The Temple of Ngurct 1298 Slave Pits of Kzorland 1163 The Sands of Mars BE 024 Black Mountain [2125 Nuclear Nightmare 26 Assault on the Mole Man 1127 Revenge of the Mole Man B28 The Tower of London Bf 222 The Lost Island of Apple 130 The Underground City 31 The Gauntlet (2 32 House of Ill Repute Bf 223 The Orb of Polaris 34 Death's Gateway HE 35 The Lair of Mutants If (236 The Citadel of Blood 1237 Quest for the Holy Grail 138 City in the Clouds [E39 Museum of Unnatural History If 240 Daemon's Playground 141 Cavers of Lanst 1142 Altemate Beginners Cave 1143 Priests of Xim! 0144 Bscape from the Ore Lair 145 SwordQuest BE 046 Lifequest BF 247 FutureQuest 1148 Picnic in Paradise HE 549 Te Castle Kophinos If 150 Behind the Sealed Door If O51 The Caves of Eamon Bluff 152 The Devil's Dungeon 53 Feast of Carroll BE 54 Crystal Mountain 055 The Master's Dungeon (56 The Lost Adventure HE 57 The Manxome Foe (58 The Land of Death 159 Jungles of Vietnam Bh 60 'The Sewers of Chicago Bi (61 The Harpy Cloud If 282 The Cavems of Doom 1163 Valkenburg Castle 1.64 Modem Problems 1165 The School of Death 2165 Dungeons of Xenon 167 Chaosium Caves HE 68 The Smith’s Stronghold 1169 The Black Castle of NaGog 1270 The Tomb of ¥’Golonac HE 5.71 Operation Crab Key [072 House on Eamon Ridge f 2.73 The Deep Canyon (074 DharmaQuest 175 Temple of the Guild COMPUTIST #88 199 In the Clutches of Torrik 1 100 Sorceror's Spire 1101 Ground Zero 1102 The Eamon Railroad 1 103 Top Secret 1104 The Lost World 1105 The Strange Resort 1.106 Camp Eamon 1107 The Last Dragon 108 The Mines of Moria 1109 The Forest of Fear 1110 Fire Island 11111 A Vacation in Europe 0112 Hills of History 1113 The Life-Orb of Mevirelek 114 Thror’s Ring _ 1115 The Ring of Doom 1116 The Iron Prison 1.117 Dungeon of Doom (40 col) 1.117 Dungeon of Doom (80 col) 118 Pitefall 119A Grunewalde (1 119B Grunewalde 120 Orb of My Life * 0121 Wrenhold’s Secret Vigil 0122 The Valley of Death 1123 Wizard of the Spheres 0124 Assault on Dolni Keep 1125 The Mattimoe Palace 1126 The Pyramid of Anharos 127 The Hunt for the Ring 07128 Quest of Erebor 129A Retum to Moria 1129B Retum to Moria 0130 Haradwaith 1131 Nucleus of the Ruby 0132 Rhadshur Warrior 0133 The Final Frontier 0134 Pyramid of the Ancients 1135 The Tomb of Evron 0 136 The Mountain Fortress 1137 The Ruins of Ivory Castle 1138 Starfire 0139 Peg's Place 140 Beginner's Forest 141 The Infested Fortress (142 The Beermeister’s Brewery 1.143 The Altemate Zone 144 Gartin Manor * (145A Buccaneer! (0 145B Buccaneer! (D146 The House of Horrors Name Address C164 A Real Cliffhanger (165A Animal Farm 0 165B Animal Farm 1 166A Storm Breaker (2 166B Storm Breaker (2 166C Storm Breaker C167 Expedition to the Darkwoods (C168 The High School of Horrors C169 The Black Phoenix C170 Ragnarok Revisited (171 The Pyramid of Cheops CO ¥72 The Mountain of the Master (173 The House that Jack Built (C174 Escape from Granite Hall 10175 Anatomy of the Body (176 Dirtie Trix's Mad Maze (0.177 Shippe of Fooles (178 The Alien Intruder 11179 The Wizard's Tower 180 Gamma 1 1 181 The Eamon Sewer System 1 182 Farmer Brown's Woods 0 183 The Boy and the Bard D 184 Quest for Orion 0 185 The Body Revisited C186 Beginners Cave II 0187 Batman! - C188 Encounter: The Bookworm 11189 The Ruins of Belfast © Send me the Complete set of Eamon for: __ $125.00 Total number of Adventure disks _. Add only if total # of disks ordered is less than 10: C190 Shift Change at Grimmwax 1 191 Enhanced Beginners’s Cave 0 192 Mean Streets 0193 The Creature of Rhyl 0194 Attack of the Kretons 10 195 The Training Grounds 12 196 The House of Horrors 0197 Star Wars - Tempest One 1198 Revenge of the Bookworm 11.199 Quest of the Crystal Wand 1.200 The Lost Isle 1.201 The Cavers of Vanavara 12.202 The Plain of Srevi 1.203 Lotto’s Masterpiece (204A Sanctuary 0 204B Sanctuary 1205 Unerly Outrageous 10 206 Curse of the Hellsblade (207 Eamon Renegade Club 1.208 Assualt on Helstar 1209 Apocalypse 2021 0.210 Retum of Ngurct 0211 Lair of the Marauders 1212 Haunted Keep {2213 Demongate 1214 Deathstalker’s Castle (2215 Treasure Island 1.216 The Pirates Cave 11.217 Bye of Agamon 1.218 Retum to Pendrama 11219 The City of Sorcerors C Dungeon Designer Diskette v7.0 CO Malti-Disk Supplement (DDD7.0) C1 Eamon Utilities Diskette Graphics Main Hall ___ x $1 each = Washington State residents only add 7.8% sales tax. City Country. Visa Mc + Signature Exp COMPUTIST, 33821 Orville Rd. E, Eatonville WA 98328-9590 | Readers Data Exchange SER RR Adventure Gaming doesn’t have to cost a lot. The Eamon Adven- ture Gaming system was created. by Donald Brown and placed into the public domain. Since then it has been updated and improved by game players all over the world. Take a look at what $1 will buy. (Get free games too.) Note: Some Adventures are multi-part and take more than one disk. Be sure you have se- lected all of the disks. The Eamon Master disk (#1) is required to play most adven- Free Eamons Use the total number of adventures ordered to determine how many free adventures you get. Be sure and check the boxes of your free disks that you want but do not include free disks when figuring total number of disks ordered. # of disks at $1 ‘of Free disks 1-9 0 10-19 2 20-29 5 30-39 9 40-49 14 50-59 20 60-69 27 710-79 35 80-89 44 90-99 54 100-109 65 110-119 71 120-129 90 130-139 104 Complete set of Eamon All 238 disks (includes all adventures plus designer and utility disks.) .......00 ssssseeesersnen BLZS, Use your VISA/MC (206) 832-3055 COMPUTIST 33821 Orville Rd. E Eatonville WA 98328-9590 1 Hardware Corner Charles R Haight WA I think it’s about time for us Computists and all other Apple II enthusiasts to admit to our- selves that Apple doesn’t care about us. They’re too wrapped up in the MAC and in making money. We had better start tak- ing care of ourselves. And if we want new hardware, we’re go- ing to have to make it ourselves. Soifyou’ve done something neat with your machine (even if it involves cutting holes in your motherboard) how about writ- ing and telling us all about it. In line with that, here’s what I’ve been up too. The Super][GTS card (2GTS: Too Good To Stop) This one is for all of us who don't have the money or the in- clination to buy a IIgs or Mac. The Super II card works in all of the IIs except the IIgs. What it won’t do First let me say that the Su- per II card is not a Ilgs clone card and will not run IIgs soft- ware. Plugging the Super]| into your Ile is more like dropping a 454 cubic inch V8 engine into a VW Bug and bumping out the body to give the same room as a stretch limo. But it doesn’t add plush carpets, power seats and windows and a super stereo sys- tem. There’s only so much that Ican do for $200. So if you need the capabilities of the IIgs then you should buy one! What it will do But if you want to stick with your Ile and just need some zip and some elbow room for your programs, the “Super2” is for you. This card is intended to extend the useful lifespan of the Apple II. In “90’s” vernacular, it going to “empower” the older Il’s. The card plugs into a regu- lar slot and replaces the on- board 65C02 processor with the more powerful 65C816 proces- sor. It also increases the clock frequency to 4MHz (4 times fast- er than the normal II clock), has its own 128K bytes of sys- tem ROM and adds up to 15.8M bytes of directly addressable memory. (1M byte minimum memory.) . The Super II card uses the DMA line to take control of the Ile. Other cards that use DMA should be in lower numbered slots so that they may override the Super II card to access the Tle. Programs that “run” on the card will execute 4 times faster than in the Ile. From a speed standpoint, that’s better than installing an 8Mhz Zip chip. UT any references to Apple II screen, I/O or ROM should be changed to long references. A Hefty Power Supply Caution: This card is a power hog. You must have a beefed up power supply. One of the 60 or 80 watt aftermarket supplies will do. You can find these for about $50-60 in electronic sup- ply catalogs. The “JDR Micro- devices” catalog (1-800-538- 5000) has a 83 watt unit for $60 (plus $7 postage & packing). An add-on fan is also a good idea. The price of speed is in- creased power consumption. And more power means that your II will run hotter. The Super Il Upgrade Kit Includes: A 65C816 —16 bit processor zooming along with a 4MHz clock speed and 1Mbyte of memory (expandable to 15.8Mbytes using SIMM memory modules) ($200°2 “/1 Mbyte memory—For Il, Il+ and Ile) While the Zip chip has a faster clock speed, it must continually slow down to the IIs 1MHz clock speed for writes and cache miss- es. The best average speed that we know of for an 8MHz Zip is 3.9MHz. Hey, even the IIgs only runs at 2.8MHz. Running on the card also gives programs access to all of that extra linear memory. The (minimum) 1M byte of memory is 16 times more that the 64K byte regular memory in the II. There are no banks to switch nor any arcane access rules to follow. Just acres of DRAM for your programs to play in. Initially, we will be patching. programs to run on the card and encouraging software pub- lishers to convert their titles. Conversion is simple in theory, What’s your “Pain Level”? I’ve tried to keep costs down. Every design decision was made with an eye towards reducing the final cost without giving up speed or power. This is a com- plex board using state-of-the- art. Advanced Schottky (AS) chips. You’ll find that these chips cost more than the gar- den variety LS (Low-power Schottky) chips. There’s about $168 in parts including the 8MHz65C816 pro- cessor and a 1Mbyte (SIMM) memory module. The cost of the bare board alone is $43 each in small quan- tities. (That includes $15 of shared setup fees which can be reduced if we order larger quan- tities.) You could order the bare board and acquire the other parts yourself or you can order the assembled card from me. I am offering the initial run of assembled cards for $200 each to hackers who are willing to help convert popular software to run on the card. We need to jump into the water first to warm it up for the casual users who are unable to patch their own software. And just think of the programs that you could write with 1M byte of linear addressable memory and a 4MHz processor. This is not a vapor attack. The circuit has been fully simu- lated and checked. I’ve sent away for two prototype boards. At $328 for two bare boards, that’s $164 each. Ouch! Sol am serious and I’m looking for some far sighted individuals who want to get in on the ground floor. What’s Needed Besides patching some of the popular software programs to run on the card, we need to con- vince someone to convert a BA- SIC interpreter. We can port (and patch) Applesoft BASIC but I think we need something better, compatible with Apple- soft but with cleaner code and more commands. Also, we need to consider a custom operating system. We will use DOS 3.3 or ProDOS to start with but we’ll eventually want something else. Perhaps the folks who wrote GEOS would be interested. What do you think? Is this something that you can get in- terested in? Or am I barking up the wrong tree. I’ve already spent my money for my card. Don’t ask me to front the money for everyone elses cards. If you want this then Vote with your wallet! It’s the only way to keep this going. Send COMPUTIST your checks, we will hold them for 45 days. If enough readers respond, we’ll have the boards made. Otherwise, we'll return your checks with regrets. Remember, at the beginning of every great enterprise there | is always a core group of believ- ers and doers who get the job done. Send your letter, today. 12 Readers Data Exchange COMPUTIST #88 The Presto! card (for all ][s) Now that I’ve hyped the Su- per][ lets move on. Here’s acard for everyone who has twiddled their thumbs while their Disk II drive loaded DOS 3.3 or who goes out for coffee while their IIgs loads GSOS. Here’s an “In- stant On” battery-backed RAM disk that’s better than aspirin. Instant On The Presto! card has sockets for up to twelve (12) 128Kbyte static RAM (SRAM) chips. A lit- tle arithmetic (12 x 128K) gives us 1.5M bytes (1,572,864 bytes) of memory. I made room for 12 SRAM chips because of the new 1.44Mbyte super drives. With 1.5Mbytes of memory you can configure the card to look like a 1.44Mbyte disk. You can even make it the “boot” drive on your IIgs or Ile. If you’re tired of waiting for your machine to boot GSOS or ProDOS 8 (or DOS 3.3 even), use this card for “Instant On” relief. Or store your most often used software on it for reduced delays when switching programs. Making the card look like a disk drive simplifies access. There’s no new protocol for you to learn. Just LOAD, SAVE or RUN as if you were using a reg- ular disk drive. Only this one is a heck of a lot faster. Non-volitile memory SRAMs have a special mode that the Presto! card takes ad- vantage of. When you turn off: the enable lines and drop the supply voltage to around 3 volts DC, the chips current consump- tion is reduced to a handful of microamps and the data is not lost. This means that a very small battery will keep the in- formation stored in the chip “alive” and intact. When you turn on your machine in the cuits (IC). There are only 2 items that will impact your wallet. The SRAM and the bare board. The SRAM chips. are about $22 each (last time I checked). If I order a dozen bare boards, the cost is about $43 each, ($10 more if we want gold plated connec- tor fingers). If we order 50 boards the cost drops to $30 each. : So it’s about $76-89 (depend- ing on the number of boards that we order) to assemble the board with one 128K SRAM. Then youcan add SRAMs when- ever you have another $22 until the board is fully stuffed with the whole 1.5M bytes. The Presto! card Instant relief from long waits for system boots or disk intensive software (For Il, Il+, lle and IIgs) morning, the data will still be there. The hole in your Wallet Cost is pretty reasonable. A quick look at the parts list shows that there are only about $24 in miscellaneous parts including sockets for the integrated cir- If enough readers are inter- ested, I’ll have the bare boards made. It’s up to you, readers, how many of you are willing to vote with your wallets. If you want the bare board, send COM- PUTIST a check for $32 ($30 +$2 packing & postage). If you want the card already assem- Presto! card Parts List Bi 3-3.6 VDC battery (see text) * 3.00 3.00 C1-15 1 pf ceramic disc capacitor 12 1.80 Qi 2N2907 PNP transistor 13 13 Q2 2N2222 NPN transistor 10 10 R1 10K Q resistor .05 05 R2, 3 10K Q resistor network (10 pin SIP) .29 58 U1-U12 128K SRAM (see text) 22.00 22.00 U13 Maxim 691 Special battery control chip 6.95 6.95 U14 74LS573 Octal transparent latch 88 88 U15 74LS245 Bidirectional (TS) buffer 69 69 U16 74LS32 Quad 2-input OR 25 25 U17 74LS00 Quad 2-input NAND .25 25 U18, 20, 21 74LS138 1 of 8 decoder 39 1.17 U19 74LS139 dual 1 of 4 decoder 39 39 U22-24 74LS574 Octal latch 91 2.73 2 ea. 14 pin DIP socket 1 22 5 ea. 16 pin DIP socket 12 60 5 ea. 20 pin DIP socket 18 90 12 ea. 32 pin DIP socket 28 3.36 1 ea. Circuit board . 30.00 $76.05 COMPUTIST #88 Readers Data Exchange bled, send $81 (includes $25 for assemble and testing) plus $22 for each SRAM chip. We'll hold your checks for 45 days then if we have enough, we'll cash them and order the boards. Otherwise, we’ll return your checks with our regrets that not enough readers re- sponded. Think about it while you read the rest of this article. How to use the card Istarted with the Presto! card because it is the easiest to un- derstand (and fairly easy to as- semble). Ignore the cluttered look of the schematic diagram. It’s just all the lines that make it look complex. There’s really not that much there. Addressing The SRAM is accessed at the (16 byte) slot I/O locations. Eight of these locations are used to read or write data and the other 8 are used to.read or write three latches. These latches store the address of the bytes that you want to access on the card. Let’s take it a piece at a time. The card (fully stuffed) has 1.5M bytes of memory. It takes 21 bits of address (A0-A20) to spec- ify any single location. There are eight bytes in the slot I/O (Input/Output) location that are used to read or write data on the card. It takes three bits to address one of eight locations. So three of the 21 bits that you need to access the 1.5M bytes are actually the three lowest bits (A0-A2) of the I/O address. These three bits are driven onto the card at every access. That leaves 18 bits to be stored in the three latches. Latch U22 and U24 each store 8 bits so latch U23 stores the remaining two bits. These latch- es are accessed at slot I/O loca- tions $COn8 thru $COnF (where n is the slot number). Address Bits $COn8/COnC A3-A10 (8) $COn9/COnD A11-A18(8) $COnA/COnE A19-A20(2) $COnB/COnF unused When you access any of the latches, the latched address is not driven onto the cards ad- dress bus. The resistor networks 13 Mee Py ke 2 TROTTER PEt la ee elles eesterrely Moeiin 2 3 a nfofalofataala be 8 AA FRPPP PT ee eeiekt (R2, R38) pull address lines A3 thru A20 high. This means that when you read or write to a latch, you are also reading or writing to the eight (8) highest locations in SRAM. Reading & Writing the Memory The card is accessed by read- ing or writing to the lower eight slot I/O locations at $COn0- C0n7. Think of it as an eight (8) byte window onto the card. You determine where the window is by writing an address into the latches. Then you read or write the eight bytes thru the window (at the lower slot I/O locations). When you read or write data, the contents of the address latches (A3-20) are driven onto the card address bus. The latched address (18 bits) plus the lower three bits of the slot I/ O address (A0-2) form the 21 bit address necessary to access any one byte of data. The reason for using the low- er bits of the slot I/O address to address the card memory is two- fold. First, the multiple address access allows the IIgs (in 16 bit 14 mode) to transfer data almost twice as fast as the Ile. Second, the latches ate-write only and I wanted.to be able to read them. So I designed the card so that when you write to the latches, you also write to the SRAM and when you read the latches, you read those same locations in the SRAM. This allows greater flex- ibility in programming. The Slot ROM For the card to be a bootable device, you must have a slot ROM ($CnXX). But after stuff- ing twelve (12) SRAM chips onto the card there wasn't. much room left. Besides that, [havea strong objection to ROMS; they're hard to change/update. You need an ultraviolet eraser to scrub out the old data anda PROM burner to program them with the new data. That’s too much trouble and most users don't have the equipment. So I came up with a better idea. I'm already using the high- est eight bytes of SRAM to mir- ror the contents of the address latches. Why not use the high- est 256 bytes as the boot ROM. Then the Pseudo-ROM could be changed any time you please. So that's what I did. One other note on the slot ROM. The slot ROM is not re- quired to access the card. You only need it if you want the card to be a bootable device. That means that you can put the cards driver somewhere in mem- ory and then use the card in slot 3 on a Ile or a IIgs. Assembly This is a good project for any- one who has a modicum of dex- terity even if you have never soldered before. The board can be assembled using sockets so that the ICs won't be fried by an over zealous soldering iron. And the board is tin plated so the solder will flow quickly and ad- here easily. If enough people are interested, we can make up a kit of all parts with detailed instructions. A local reader has told me that he is willing to assemble and test boards for $25 each. You supply the board and parts. So. do it yourself or have it done for you. Don't just sit there, vote with your wallet. Readers Data Exchange “Vaporware Announcements” Iigs RAM card I was working on a $150—4M byte memory card for the IIgs but I delayed and got skunked. The latest issue of A2 Central featured a 4M byte RAM card for, you guessed it, $150. Well, you can’t win them all. But I hate to give up the idea so easily so here is the revised IIgs RAM card specs: 4 SIMM connectors using 1, 2 or 4 Mbyte SIMMs. That’s any- where from 1 Mbyte all the way up to 14 Mbytes of DRAM. There’s some question as to whether the memory above 4 Mbytes would be “fast” DMA compatable due to reports that the FPI. doesn’t put the DMA bank address onto the data bus soon enough in fast mode. 768K bytes of battery-backed SRAM used as a ROM card. The ROM card is supported by the IIgs operating system. I sup- pose that no one has done much in this direction because in the past all of the memory card space was taken up by DRAM chips. But with the SIMM chips, more card space is available. The card with 4 Mbytes of RAM would sell for the same price as the 4 Mbyte card of- fered by A2 Central. Or you could buy it with only one—1 Mbyte SIMM for about $80 and add more memory yourself as you get the funds. Drop me a postcard and let me know how to feel about it. Pll finish the. card if there is real interest. Otherwise, it’s just so much hot air. The Hyper IIgs Some of the local hackers have been jawing about ways to make the fastest ever IIgs. One of their less crazy ideas sound- ed possible so I burned some - midnight oil on the simulator and, what do youknow, it works! It would be more expensive than a Zip GS or a Transwarp and you would needa beefed up pow- er supply. Also, (shudder!) you would have to do a little “mod” on your motherboard (frowned on by Apple) in order to disable any memory on the mother- board. (The “mod” could be re- moved if you ever needed to take your machine to an Apple deal- er.) And wow, does it ever scream. What is it? Well, it seems that Western Design has reliable 12MHz 65C816 processors and some that even run at 14MHz. The crazy idea? Use two caches; a high speed 64K byte cache just like the other speedup cards and a second cache of high speed DRAM, an 8 Megabyte cache. It requires two cards, one reg- ular slot card and one that plugs into the memory expansion slot. That’s one reason why it costs more, the other is all of that high speed DRAM. The DRAM cache runs at an effective speed COMPUTIST #88 of slightly more than 5MHz. The 64K byte cache card (12MHz) plugs into the regular slots and allows DMA access to the DRAM as well as updating the 64K cache. So your new Hyper IIgs runs at 12MHzinits 64K cache. Ona cache miss/write thru it slows to 5MHz and only if the access is to bank $E0-FF does it slow to 2.8 or 1MHz. While its run- ning at high speed it outputs an address of $FF/FFFF to the FPI~ to fool it into thinking that a continuous read to that address is occuring. Making only a few of these card sets would cost $500 each, assembled. Sounds crazy to me, workable but cra- zy. What do you think? On that note I’m going to call it a day. But don’t you go to bed before you’ve scrawled a note on a postcard and sent it to COMPUTIST to let us know what you think. Bye! Curt Patch CT Softkey for... Teacher’s Tool Kit, v3.1 Hi Tech of Santa Cruz A copy of this 3.5" startup disk boots to a title screen that warns ‘This is not a valid.. STARTUP DISK! Press a key to restart...’ I loaded up Copy 2+ sector editor and searched the startup disk beginning at block $00 for these words. I found them at block $25 along with some logical code. I found I could bypass the protection with a jump command. At block $25 starting at bits $0200 I found 20 76 21 and changed it to 4C FO 21. So deprotect TTK as fol- lows: 1. Make a copy of TTK with your favorite disk copy pro- gram and put your original away. 2. Boot up your block editor and change as follows: Bk Byte» From Ty $25 $200 07621 AC FON 3. Write the changes to the disk and you are done. . The accompanying program disk is not copy protected. Bless all you teachers out there in Computist’s Land. May all of your backups work for you. Robin Locksley MO Placing PaintWorks Gold on a Hard Drive. Requirements: Apple IIGS Copy II Plus v9.1 I have been trying to get PaintWorks Gold on the hard drive by updating it to GS.OS as suggested in Computist 73 page 6. The article suggested doing a search for the string C9 08 00 00 CE. I searched but never found that string. But never fear I have found a string that works. COMPUTIST #88 Boot Copy II Plus and go to the Sector Editor. Do a search for C9 08 00 DO CE and replace the 08 to 7F. This will allow PaintWorks Gold to load on the hard drive. I don’t know if the original code was in error or if there are more than one set of codes (sometimes programers have several sets of copy pro- tection) but this worked for me. I would also like to be able to place the following programs on hard drive. If anyone out there has succeeded please send in your results. Dungeon Master Hunt for Red October Spirit of Excalibur The King of Chicago War in the Middle Earth Joe Trodello MA Softkey for... Algebra I v1.7 Eduware Requirements: COPYA Copy II Plus 1 blank disk 1 formatted disk The softkey in a previous is- sue would not work on my disk, but here is how to deprotect this version. 1. Run COPYA. Press ctrl C at the prompts. CALL 151 B942:18 RUN 2. Copy files from the copied disk to a formatted disk. Use Copy 2 + to copy DOS onto the new disk and to change the boot file from Hello to Boot. Aaron Culliney HI Softkey for... Space Rogue Origin Systems A while back, a friend asked me to take the (code wheel) pro- tection off Space Rogue. He was * angry that each time he request- ed to play a saved game, he was asked for a word from a certain page in the manual. This can be very annoying especially when you enter the incorrect answer and the game reboots. I’m not sure whether there is already a COMPUTIST issue detailing this krack, (itis an older game), but here is my method: In order to deprotect the disk, make a copy of both sides. I have to note that I had trouble using Copy II+ on the boot side for some mysterious reason, but Copya and Super IOB FAST .CON seemed to work just fine. Once copied, I set about snoop- ing through the code on the boot disk. I found the specific calls to the code wheel protection on track. $13 sectors $04 and $05. After some trial and error here, I pinned down the branch rou- . tine that handled the right and wrong answer on track $13, sec- tor $05. In bytes $71 and $72 there was a BNE +$0A which I changed to BNE +$08 ($D0 0A TO $D0 08). This change to the code enabled any answer to be entered without a problem. Step-by-step 1. Make a copy of both sides with COPYA or Super IOB FAST.CON. 2. Make sector edits with any standard editor to the SPACE ROUGE boot disk: Tk Sct Byte From at) $13 $05 $72 OA 08 If you prefer to scan for code, search for $D0 0A C8 CO 04 and change the $0A to a $08. Alan Chaney MD Softkey for... Manhunter: New York Sierra On-Line Requirements: 4 Blank 3.5 disks 3.5 Disk Copier 3.5 Sector Editor I fought this program for 3 months before I finally got lucky and found a softkey. There was two reasons. why this program took me so long to softkey. First Iam about as new as you can get to Assembly Language, and secondly this program don’t make regular jump long to some locations. Not knowing for cer- tain, but I think the addresses minus the 22 is pushed on the stack and are pulled off the stack in a way that I could not follow. An example of what I mean is the call to the routine that checks to see if the typed in word matches the total amount that is asked for (as long as the amount matches the letters don’t matter, the letter amounts are A=41 thru Z=5A). There is no 22 64 21 01 to the protection routine nor is there a call of 22 05 2C 04 for the Sorry Manhunter Screen,But the last 3 digits of that address is at 01/8141. Here are some of the things I tried while working on this pro- gram. When you type in the wrong word and press Return, the program jumps to a screen that simply says “Sorry that is the wrong word. Pressing re- turn again takes you to the Pro- dos Quit Screen. So I decided to Readers Data Exchange put a RTL(6B) at the beginning of the Prodos Quit routine 01/ 2B86:6b (by the way it ended with a RTL). Now the Sorry screen repeats after pressing Return. I found that the Sorry screen clears of everything be- fore rewriting the Sorry screen (it’s quick),But doing that peri-~ od you can reset into the Moni- tor and put a 20 at 01/7F8D: and the Question screen will be rewritten automatically when you return from the Mon