Text content (OCR)
Global Village N
Published by Dark Star Systems Ltd
ewsletter
SUMMER/AUTUMN 1986
We I to issue
e come number 2
of our Global Village customer
newsletter. Inside, you'll find news
of exciting new products from
Dark Star Systems and others that
are helping to keep the Apple II
right at the forefront of the
continuing personal computer
revolution.
Those of you who haven't yet
been introduced to our product
range will find answers to all your
questions inside these pages as
well.
For owners of Dark Star soft-
ware products, there are also full
details of thé new features to be
found in the latest versions of all
our programs, and instructions on
how to upgrade. In addition, we
have been sent a number of useful
Snapshot tips and applications
from customers worldwide that
we're happy to pass on to every
one. If you are using any of our
products to achieve something
noteworthy with your Apple, why
not drop us a line and give your
idea to the world?
Again, we have done our best to
keep our customer records
straight. However, if we didn’t get
your name and address right this
time, you can ensure that we know
all about it simply by filling in the
Blunder Box on the Business
Reply Coupon (postage free in the
UK) on the back page. Use the
Blunder Box too if you obtained
this newsletter with a magazine (or
by some other means) but wish to
receive it by mail in future.
Send all other correspondence
to:
Customer Services Dept.
Dark Star Systems Ltd.
78 Robin Hood Way
Greenford
Middlesex UB6 7QW
England
Electronic Mailboxes:
The Source: BCJ456
Compuserve: 73317,3015
MicroLink: MAG20297
Dark Star Goes
Down Under
In the Northern Hemisphere, Australia
is generally better known for sun,
cricket, and Fosters lager than for
electronics innovation. We hope to
change all that soon through our link
with Cybernetics Research of
Melbourne, with whom we have just
signed a contract to manufacture and
distribute Dark Star products in
Australasia and the Far East.
As part of the deal, we hope to bring
some innovative new Apple II products
from the outback to Europe. Of
particular interest is a great co-processor
card with the Apple-compatible 8 and
16 bit 65C816 processor on-board,
complete with 16 bit versions of Basic
and Pascal. This powerful, lightning-fast
board has the potential to make your
Apple take off!
More details in the next issue of the
Global Village Newsletter. Meanwhile,
Dark Star product users in Australia and
New Zealand should address all
enquiries to:
Cybernetics Research Ltd.
576 Malvern Road,
Prahran, Victoria ree
Australia Ds yA
Telephone: (03) 529 4844
Telex: 39741 ASIPAC AA
A Word on Price Labelling
One or two of our UK customers have asked why
Dark Star Systems (in common with many other
UK computer accessory companies) does not
include VAT in its stated prices.
Our reason for leaving you to work out the VAT
is simply this: We don't know about other
companies, but a growing proportion of our
business (over 45% at the last count) is done
overseas. Orders from outside the United
Kingdom are not subject to VAT, and we don’t
want to inconvenience people with complicated
CONTENTS
calculations, (It’s much easier for us in the UK
to work out VAT on basic prices than it would
be for our overseas customers to work out the tax
proportion of prices that included VAT:)
Legal Stuff
Virtually every product name included in this
newsletter is somebody's trademark. Since there are
far too many of them to acknowledge, just assume that
every word printed here is the trademark of somebody
or other
Dark’ Star product detailess.. 2255. .<2.ss3 sites 000 s0seeess <eecsentinnes
Update news
Apple Il Memory Expansion Cards.
Other products. =
Hints and tips.
Price checklist and ordering info........:-s:ssesseseseeseesees veseesPage 15
SYSTEMS
GOOD NEWS FOR APPLE II OWNERS
NEW LOW PRICES ON PAGE 15
—
dark Star]
SYSTEMS
ILLAGE NEWSLETTER
Why Apple users need the Snapshot system
Many computer users were originally
attracted to the Apple II by the sheer
number and diversity of the programs
written to work with it.
Unfortunately, because so many
programs for the Apple are copy-protected
and/or use outdated — or customized —
disk operating systems, many users cannot
even begin to exploit its full potential.
Copy-protected programs restrict your
ability to make backups, make screen
dumps, and tailor software to your own
requirements. Protection also means that ”
many innovative utilities, such as the
“program manager” for Cirtech’s one.
Megabyte “Flipper” card, just won't work
with most commercial programs.
In order to give Apple users a way to get
the most from their hardware and software
investment, Dark Star's engineers set out
to design a system that could by-pass any
operating system and all copy-protection.
The result of their endeavours is the
Snapshot card, a device with a remote
trigger switch that can be installed in any
vacant slot of the Apple Il. When
Snapshot’s trigger is pressed, it causes a |
hardware interrupt that lets you suspend
any running program, manipulate it, and
then resume running it from the point of
interuption.
The manipulation part is handled by a
family of Snapshot software packages
(Shuttle, Printerrupt, UniCopy 3.5, etc.)
that can be loaded into the card and give
you complete control over a variety of the
Apple’s essential functions. Here are some
comments from customers on those
Snapshot software packages:
I think that Snapshot is the most useful card
I’ve ever found for my Apple.
Massimo Gentilini - Bologna, Italy
Snapshot has proven to be very good value
for money for my business, to the point
Page 2
where I consider that it has really more
than paid for itself already.
Full marks, Dark Star.... I shall be
singing your praises!
R. Williams - Harpenden, England
Thanks to Snapshot, I can put the originals
in the archives, and use the copy to do what
has to be done.
I'm glad I decided to invest in the Dark
Star Systems card. (Just wish you folks
were on this side of the pond!)
P. K. Pagel - Connecticut, USA
The soft- and hardware works beautifully,
and I commend you on an excellent
product.
W. van Heeckeren - St. Leonards,
Australia
Starting with the Snapshot Copykit, I find
it most invaluabl.
software, I have the right to make backup
copies for my own use. An additional
advantage of having a Copykit backup is
that one can avoid unnecessary pre-amble
and have a version (of a program) that goes
straight to the useful part.
The Snapshot Shuttle is very useful for
switching from one program to another
quickly. When working on the graphics for
my lectures, for example, I am able to use
two different graphics systems virtually
simultaneously in this way, without having
to re-boot to go from one to the other.
The Snapshot Printerrupt is, for my
purposes, the most useful package of the
three. It makes it very easy to interrupt any
program, dump the display onto a dot-
‘matrix printer and then resume running the
program. I produce lecture notes that way,
as well as pictures for research papers,
reports, or even transparencies (by using
our Xerox copier to transfer the picture
from paper to an acetate sheet). It is
wonderful to be able to position the picture
on the sheet correctly, to crop or invert it
if necessary and to select the density of the
print, to name a few of the many features
available.
Inaddition to the usefulness of the system
itself, I find you and your colleagues at
Dark Star most approachable and helpful
indeed....
Dr. L. Svarovsky - Deputy Chairman
University of Bradford, England
EO
The Snapshot system reviewed
in Australian Apple Review -
January 1986
In summary, we have always found this one
of the most useful cards on the Apple Il and
there is no doubt the programs supporting
the card get more useful and sophisticated
by the year.
We have found that most serious
enthusiasts have one and would not be
without it.
Even Great Products Need
Great Backup
Certainly, a lot of Apple users find the Snapshot
system very useful. But as one of our above-
quoted customers suggests, the usefulness of a
system is only part of the story. Buying
computer products can sometimes be a risky
business. Even the best-designed hardware and
software manufactured to the highest possible
specifications can present the unwary with
unforeseen difficulties. We want you to feel
confident about ordering products from us.
That’s why we at Dark Star Systems back
everything we sell with an unbeatable service
package that includes a 12 months no-oibble
guarantee and free-of-charge technical support
There are no hidden costs with the prod.
el you need to get up
and
‘we'll bend over backwards to s\
engineers will sometimes spend weeks rewriting
one of our programs to work with obscure
equipment unavailable in the UK.)
We're happy to say that we've received many
acknowledgements of our efforts to provide
good service. Here are some extracts from our
correspondence on the subject:
We were very pleased with the speed and quality
of your technical back up. This service is
important to us and we will have pleasure in
recommending Dark Star whenever possible.
A. D. McNair - Chief MLSO
Department of Laboratory Medicine,
Ruchill Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland
(Continued on page 3, column 1)
eT
(Continued from page 2)
Iwould like to say how impressed Lam with the
technical back-up you provide for your products.
M. A. Ray - Bromley, England
feel the service from Dark Star Systems is
excellent.
C. Barden - Eastbourne, England
Many thanks for your most helpful attitude and
kind assistance, it's nice to find a dealer who
cares about customer support.
Mike Jones - Rayleigh, England
We would like to congratulate you upon your
efficient way of doing business, which we will
certainly bring to the attention of other
organisations in this part of the world.
A. McDermott - Principal
Moreau College, Dunedin, New Zealand
Iam so grateful that you have gone to so much
trouble to assist me with my Print Shop problem.
Tenvy your obvious thorough knowledge of the
subject.
Jim Goody - Southend-on-Sea, England
.. it's a pity other companies I have dealt with
in the past didn't give the same excellent service
and back up that you and Dark Star Systems
have given me and I have no hesitation in |
recommending your products to other Apple
owners.
L. Fava - Northern Territories, Australia
I would like you to know that I was very
impressed by your company's efficiency. | am |
just not used to computer peripherals,
programs, etc. that I have ordered arriving
almost by return of post!
R. Williams - Harpenden, England
The Snapshot Shell.
Now Applesoft
programmers can write
Snapshot software too!
All the Snapshot software packages Dark Star
publishes have a common element which we
call the “Shell”. This is the Snapshot card’s
| “house keeper”; a sort of memory manager
and mini operating system which allows
Snapshot software to work with an
interrupted program.
developers and other programmers so they
could store their own machine-code routines
in the Snapshot card and make use of its
interrupt-and-resume facilities. Now, if you
can program in Applesoft Basic, you too can
write Snapshot software.
Now’s the time for
Snapshot and Snapshot
Two owners to upgrade to
the version //e Snapshot
system.
If you are the owner of one of the original Snapshot or
Snapshot Two cards designed for use with the Apple I+,
You can still take advantage of our hardware upgrade offer
The version //e system is compatible with the Apple [I+
and //e, and upgrading means you can join the thousands
of Apple users worldwide who benefit from the latest
‘Snapshot multitasking, printing, backup and custom-
software enhancements — at a considerable saving.
Simply send us your original Snapshot disk and
payment of £100.00 (plus VAT, or airmail postage and
packaging as appropriate) and we will immediately
despatch your Snapshot version //e card complete with |
Copykit, Shuttle, Printerrupt and Shell software packages.
‘Snapshot One/Two Upgrade... . £100.00
Using the Shell, you can interrupt whatever
your computer is doing and take control of
it with a Snapshot package written by
yourself. It might be a super debugger, a
graphics editor, a comms package, or a
machine control program; the only
restrictions are space (just over 4K available),
and your imagination. When you have
finished with your Snapshot program, you
can return control of your computer to the
interrupted software without it ever knowing
it was disturbed.
The Shell comes with menu-building
routines which give you the ability to create
software packages just like ours. If you wish |
to commercially exploit your Snapshot
software, you may do so without any licence
from — or payment to — Dark Star Systems
. Ltd. Snapshot cards can be purchased for
marketing with your work by arrangement.
The Snapshot Shell..... --£20.00
i
Snapshot software package
updates — what the latest
versions have to offer:
‘© Support for all the popular Apple I+ 80-column
cards (Videx, Sup'R’Term, Vision 80, etc.)
Support for the enhanced Apple //e with
MouseText ROM, etc.
Support for double hi-res graphics programs
Support for Apple Mouse programs (MouseCalc,
MouseDesk, MousePaint, etc.)
Faster operating system - DS-DOS with TLIST
command for reading text files (like-CP/M TYPE
command)
Shuttle support for all the new ramecards and up to
four 128K programs
Printerrupt option for viewing and printing
MousePaint pictures
* More sophisticated Copykit “self-locating loader”
* Support for Applesoft Basic programs in the Shell
Price £1500 each for the Copykit, Shuttle, Printerrupt
and Shell; £50.00 for combination pack containing all
four packages. (Original disk(s) must accompany
order).
PSUMMER/AUTUMN 1966 ark Star/|
SYSTEMS
Dark Star Supports
Apple’s New UniDisk 3.5
The UniDisk 3.5 gives your Apple more storage space with
greater speed and reliability too. It uses robust double-sided 800K
diskettes that have over five times the storage capacity of your
highly fragile 5.25" floppies, and their data are saved andi loaded
uup to $0 times faster. In short, Apple's new drive resembles its
predecessor about as much as a Jumbo Jet resembles a bi-plane.
What about DOS 3.32
On the downside for faithful Apple users is the fact that Apple
is abandoning DOS 3.3 and supporting Prodos and Pascal 1.3 only
con the UniDisk 3.5. However, as is usual when Apple creates a
gap in the market, there's always someone around to fill it. A
couple of US companies (MicroSPARC and Nordic Software),
and now Cirtech have been quick to jump into the breach with
enabling software for users of DOS 3.3 and other operating
systems. No doubt there'll be more programs like these coming
along soon, but here are potted reviews of the three that are
available at the time of our going to press:
UniDOS 3.3 from MicroSPARC (publishers of the indis
pensable Nibble Magazine) lets you format 3.5" disks that
automatically boot DOS 3.3. It lets you have two 400K volumes
per disk and will support two daisy-chained UniDisks addressable
as drives 1 - 4, Price: $49.95
Profix 2.1 is similar to UniDOS 3.3 but has some extra
advantages. Profix lets you use DOS 3.3 of Beagle Brothers Pronto
DOS on any mass storage device having a Prodos interface.
Cirtech’s Uni-Mate
Now, Cirtech has entered the fray with its own UniDisk 3.5
product — Uni-Mate. Like its American cousins, Uni-mate is
designed to enable users to run unprotected programs on the
UniDisk 3.5 under operating systems that Apple hasn't seen fit
to support
Where Cintech’s program differs from the rests, as usual, best
‘measured in terms of performance against cost. The following list
ofits features shows quit clearly enough why we are offering Uni
Mate to our customers rather than either of the others:
* creates twoo 400K DOS 3.3 volumes accessed as drives |
a the first UniDisk 35, as drives 3 and 4 on a
. waza may Unik cml a you have
© supports up to two Unidisk 3.5 drives under Pascal 1.1 or
1.2, with 797K file-storage capacity on each diskette
* supports up o two UniDisk 35 dives under CP/M 2.208
or 2.23 with 784K file storage capacity on each diskette
Cirtech Uni-Mate.... ve £25.00
Introducing the Snapshot UniCopy 3.5
For those of you wanting to transfer copy-protected programs from
those old disaster-prone 5.25" floppies to relatively secure 3.5"
disks and take full advantage ofall that extra storage capacity 100,
‘we're offering a major improvement over those software utilities
Snapshot UniCopy 3.5 — a Copykit for the UniDisk 3.5
UniCopy 3.5 uses the interrupt-and-resume power of the
‘Snapshot card to let you load any memory-resident program and
then save it toa UniDisk 3.5 diskette in just a few seconds. You
can have up to twelve programs — using twelve different operating
systems if necessary — on the same diskette, Switching programs
can be accomplished with the minimum of effort by using
UniCopy 3.5 to interrupt one, save its current status, and then load
another. Each program on an UniCopy diskette resumes running
atthe point of interruption, so time-consuming disk 1/O operations
and searching for where you left off are both eliminated
As with all the other Snapshot software packages, UniCopy 3.5
features an easy-to-use menu-driven interface that means you can
learn its operation in just a few minutes.
Snapshot UniCopy 35. £20.00
ILLAGE NEWSLETTER
dark Star
SYSTEMS
Some people go to extraordinary lengths to get
a good picture
Frustrating, isn’t it? That dot-matrix printer
and expensive interface card were
supposed to let you print your Apple’s
display whenever the fancy took you.
But to get a print-out, you have to crash
your program or make a file, Either way,
it’s a slow and tedious business. Then
there’s that long list of control commands
you need to learn.
And nowhere in the manual does it
explain how you are meant to capture that
help-menu, those on-screen instructions,
that record-breaking high-score, that bar-
chart, or those brilliant graphics when
almost all your favourite software is
copy-protected.
But hold on, you don’t have to reach for
the camera yet!
The Snapshot Printerrupt.
Perfect pictures every time
‘The Snapshot Printerrupt is a different kind
of printing utility. It doesn’t matter what
program your Apple II or //e is running, the
The Snapshot Printerrupt and Thirdware’s FingerPrint compared by
Apple User -July 1985
Thirdware must try to make the card (FingerPrint) a lot more user-friendly, and they could do a
lot worse than having a look at Dark Star Systems’ Printerrupt package.
This is a software package — one of many — that is intended for use with their well-established
Snapshot card. It must surely be one of the simplest packages to use anywhere.
Printerrupt can interrupt it, print its When the present bewildering assortment of keypresses in the FingerPrint is compared to the
display, and resume running it as though | menu-driven and apparently crash-proof approach in the Printerrupt, then I have to come down
nothing had happened. No files needed, no | clearly in favour of the latter. —
photography, and no frustration.
What’s more, the Printerrupt’s easy-to-
use menu features a galaxy of really useful
options which put other printing utilities to
shame: You can crop text and graphics
displays; independently expand both axes
of the graphics screen; rotate clockwise
and anti-clockwise; invert and shade;
XOR, OR, or AND Pages | and 2, or print
them side-by-side; specify your printer's
different dot densities; check the form
position visually and aurally; automatically
centre and adjust left and right margins,
and set up your printer’s different character
sets, fonts, etc.
Phew! And as if all that weren't enough,
Epson and Epson-compatible owners even
have an option which gets rid of those
horizontal “‘pin-stripes’’ from their
graphics print-outs!
The Printerrupt will work with your dot-
matrix printer, with your printer interface
card (whether it has graphics features or
not), and with all the popular 80-column
cards. If the equipment you own is unusual,
Dark Star Systems will support you with
its unique free-of-charge configuration
service.
I would like to take this opportunity to
congratulate you on the Printerrupt. I have
been using this program for some months
now and it works perfectly
P. Tombling — Supply Squadron
Royal Air Force, Brize Norton
For MousePaint pictures on any printer, any
way you choose — It’s got to be MousePrintz.
MousePrintz is a patch program which adds
great new features permanently to Apple's
graphics painting package, MousePaint. It not
only lets you print your MousePaint pictures
directly to virtually any dot-matrix printer, but
gives you a mouth-watering menu of versatile
screen-editing and printing features as well.
(See Table | for full details.) Options include:
© Full-screen viewing of the current picture
Full-screen image inversion
Full-screen mirror image
Fullscreen upside-down image
© Full-screen cropping
© Independent expansion of the X and Y
screen axes
Clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation
through 360 degrees
Shading of black or white areas
Setting of all available printer dot
densities
Visual and aural checking of the form
position
* Chart recorder mode
Auto-centering and adjustment of left
and right margins
¢ Removal of Epson “pin-stripes”
MousePrintz is compatible with the 128K
Apple //e and the Apple //c. Price: £25.00
Making a better impression: More Printer utilities from Dark Star
MousePrintz works very well and has a lot of
very useful features
P. Taylor - Manchester, England
Thank you for your fine product! It sure
improves MousePaint for us Epson Printer
users.
Doug Trusty - Washington, USA
Merge Text and Graphics
quickly and simply with your
ImageMaker and the Bit
Image Printer program
Bit Image Printer (BIP) by Mike Glover and
Peter Meyer is an Applesoft program that lets
you define all or part of a hi-res graphics
screen and then save it to disk as a regular text
file of hexadecimal values. Capturing graphics
in this way lets you read pictures into
documents produced by wordprocessors, like
Applewriter, that let you use embedded printer
control commands. When printed, the
resulting mixture of text and graphics makes
for beautiful presentations in business and
education, and gives a unique stamp to your
personal correspondence.
BIP also lets you create an EXEC file from
ahi-res screen that will write a short Applesoft
program which lets you print your picture out.
BIP requires a printer interface card with
an ImageMaker EPROM installed.
Page 4
IMMER/AUTUMN 1986
ScreenSnapper —
The Programmer’s Printing
Program
ScreenSnapper is a software printing utility that
makes the purchase of an expensive graphics
printer card unnecessary. It is designed to
greatly enhance your current printing
configuration, and is intended primarily for use
with your own Applesoft and machine-code
programs (or other unprotected software)
running on the Apple II+, //e and //c.
ScreenSnapper lets you interrupt and resume
running programs in order to print the screen
ina variety of ways with menu options offering
enlargement, rotation, inversion, shading, etc.
(See Table 1.) The menu can be called up from
the keyboard, or from within a running
program.
ScreenSnapper adds an extremely useful
extension to Applesoft Basic that provides
graphics programmers with a complete set of
commands for double hi-res plotting plus
additional commands which access the
ScreenSnapper on-screen utilities. (See Table
2.) Other features include “what you see is what
you get” facilities, and built-in print commands
which can be slaved to virtually any printer card
in emulation of a sophisticated graphics
interface. (See Table 3.)
ScreenSnapper Pric
Thaye had a look round ScreenSnapper and am
Suitably impressed. The documentation is easy
10 understand and well written. The presentation
is
Jim Goody - Southend-on-Sea
The ImageMaker series of
Printer card EPROMs.
dark Star)
y rn replacing the ROM chip from one of
the supported printer cards with an ImageMaker
EPROM, you get access to a vast range of
advanced features (see also Table 1):
© Grappler-compatible graphics commands
for hi-res screen dumps
* selection of all features from standard
control codes as used by other popular
graphics printer cards
* use of all the ImageWriter’s different print
densities
© full compatibility with Pascal and CP/M
(and Appleworks)
* fast, easy selection of print modes, fonts
and international character sets, page-
length setting, fan-fold perforation
skipping, margin setting and word-wrap
© insertion of text commands within
wordprocessor documents and, use of bit
image graphics in Applewriter files
ImageMaker EPROMs are available for the
Apple Super Serial card, Epson 8132 (APL-
B, C, D & E) cards, and pre-Champion
Cirtech parallel cards. Price: £25.00
SYSTEMS
| Table 1. Dark Star Printer Utilities Feature Guide
| Feature | Printerrupt | ScreenSnapper | MousePaint | ImageMaker
‘Apple supported | a+&le | U+,He&ic | le&ie | D+&lle
Dot-matrix printer supported | All All All Epson
| ‘compatibles
and
| ImageWriter
Printer interface supported All All } all Epson 8132,
| Super Serial
| | & Cirtech
Operating systems supported All | DOS 33 | Prodos All
Programs supported All Unprotected | MousePaint | All text and
| graphics
| | printing
programs
incl.
| | AppleWorks,
Wordstar,
| Print Shop,
| | etc, & users’
own
| AppleSoft
om | ses
Program interrupt-and-resume | Yes Yes Ys | No
Menu-driven | Yes | Yes Yes No
Uses industry-standard control commands | N/A Ys | NA Yes
Built-in Double Hi-Res Support | Yes Mel WA No
Enables mixing of Text and Graphics Yes Yes NA | Yes
80-column text screen dumps on Apple //e Yes Yes N/A Yes
80-column text screen dumps on alee, NA No
ee a a eee
times Yes Yes Yes Yes
Clockwise rotation | Yes Yes Yes Yes
Anti-clockwise rotation Ys | Yes No
Inversion Yes Ys | Yes Yes
Supports all available printer fonts and | | |
character sets , a Yes Yes Yes
Supports all available printer dot-densities ae Vee: | hates
Optional printed shading of black or white | | | |
picture areas ee ee ee Yes
And/orlex-or of Pages 1 and 2 Pee ps Yes Yes
Visual and aural indication of the form
position Pipes Yes Yes No
Auto-centering of form position Yes | Yes Yes No
Left and right margin setting Yes Yes | Yes Yes
Chart recorder mode Yes Yes Yes Yes
Enables removal of Epson pin-stripes | Yes Yes Yes ” Yes
On-screen viewing of MousePaint picture Yes No Yes No
On-screen viewing of all standard text and
graphics pages vs | Xs NA No
On-screen image inversion No | ante Yes No
On-screen mirror image No Yes Yes No
On-screen upside-down image No Yes Yes No
On-screen cropping window Yes Yes Yes No
Adds commands to Applesoft No ane No Yes
Prints hi-res graphics stored as regular text
files of hex values Nos learn ee No Yes
Page 5
a
clears Sta e108 At VILLAGE NEWSLETTER]
SYSTEMS
Table 2. ScreenSnapper Basic Extension Commands ‘Table 3. ScreenSnapper and ImageMaker Printer Control
In addition to its menu-driven screen-dump and printer-card slaver capabilities, Commands
ScreenSnapper offers Applesoft Basic programmers an extended set of versatile Intelligent printer interfaces feature control commands whi
Basic commands for on-screen special effects and double hi-res plotting: fully exploit all the graphics features of your dot-matrix or ink-jet printer. An
industry-standard command set (based on Orange Micro's Grappler) is now
1. Double Hi-Res Graphics Commands (for Apple //e with extended generally adhered to in order to ensure software compatibility. Both
80-column card and //e only): ScreenSnapper's printer-card slaver and the ImageMaker firmware rigidly
& HGR Display and clear to black the DHIRES comply with this standard and offer several unique features besides. Here's
(double hi-res) screen (560 x 192). the checklist:
& HCOLOR= n Set colour (from 0 to 15) to be used by aaa
plot. Ifn = 128 then colour = reverse Out
(XOR plotting). Colours are the same as Monity: Pacion
lo-res. £ Substitute £ for $
& HPLOT x, y Use same as standard HPLOT but X co- $ — Re-enable $ symbol
hl age paliceal n< Send n to printer as 8-bit byte
‘i we — aa re n? _Applesoft TAB-fix
point mode for maximum definition. : ; :
Has ner Tebtiictions (eps Colour n> Send Hexadecimal string of bytes to printer
lines may be broken). @ Initialise printer, reset defaults
&LO Set full 16 colour mode. No colour A Turn ON Auto-linefeed
restrictions (contiguous lines but less B Tum ON Bell
definition than HI). C Tum OFF Bell
& GMERGE Convert hi-res pictures on Pages | and 2 D Set Double strike mode
to one double hi-res picture and display it.
(Note that colours are not preserved.) Ee adhe gt eat)
nF Select Font/character set number n
G Dump Graphics (see below)
s Dina cence (used in your programs for on-screen special H Pass High bit of data to printer
&OR Logical OR of hi 1 and 2. The piste eA ace ver
i i-res screens :
result is copied to the current work u Tum OFF screen echo
screen. K Turn off (Kill) auto-linefeed
& AND Logical AND of hi-res screens 1 and 2 nL Set Left margin
& XOR Logical XOR of hi-res screens 1 and 2 aii ;
& VELIP Flip current work screen upside down. nN Set line length to maximum of n columns:
& HFLIP Mirrors
& WIPE mi m2 “
modes 1 and 2. (m= video switch. See nQ Set print densi
below, “3. Valid Switches”) nR Set Right margin for word-wrap
& SPLIT ml, m2, p,n Split screen: Top = mode 1, Bottom = nS Dump text Screen
mode 2, position = p (1 to 191), duration nf Set Transparent mode for next n characters
= n fiftieths of a second (1 to 32768) or U a
ees bec nes aut V_ Turn OFF double strike/width or bold mode
& SW ml,m2,etc. Set video soft switches indicated. Any
number of switches may be given, but W Set. double With text mate
they must be separated by commas. x Mask high bit
Y Disable printer card (like PRE)
Zz Reset printer card defaults
3. Valid Switches (equal to m in Utility commands): vera Tralee
g SEUGRAPHICS switch Graphics Command Summary
T Set TEXT switch cote
N Set NO MIX switch (all text or all graphics). followed by: Function
M Set MIX switch (for mixed TEXT and GRAPHICS modes). 2 Select Page 2 for printing
1 Set PAGE 1 D__ Print Double size
2 Set PAGE 2 E Print Enhanced
L Set LO-RES switch F —_Overstrike (Epson “pin-stripe” Fill)
H Set HI-RES switch I Print Inverse
4 Set 40-column switch (//e and //c only). J Shade white areas
8 Set 80-column switch (//e and //c only). K Shade black areas
S Set SINGLE resolution switch © OR pages | and 2
D Set DOUBLE resolution switch PAD pean?
Q __EX-OR pages | and 2
R Rotate
‘goes S Scale X axis x 2
&SWGM8D Display the double resolution screen ee
piel oc U Seale X axis x4
& WIPE GT Smooth wipe from Graphics to Text. V > Sale Xatees
& SPLIT T,G,95,50 Split screen to Text at the top and :
Graphics at the bottom at line 95 (half W Scale ¥ att x2
way down) for 1 second (or until a x Scale Y axis x 3
keypress). ¥ Scale Y axis x 4
Note that SPLIT and WIPE are not available on the Apple /c. Z Scale Y axis x 8
Page 6
SUMMER/AUTUMN 1986
aark Star||
SYSTEMS
It might even happen to your
software
Even experienced professionals have
their off days. Can you be certain you
will never accidentally corrupt or erase
your copy-protected program disks?
And what will you do when those
irreplaceable disks finally wear out?
Of course you may be lucky. For you,
a damaged disk may mean only weeks,
maybe months, of waiting for a costly
replacement. If you’re not so lucky, the
company that produced the software |
you depend on is now out of business.
The Snapshot Copykit.
Peace of mind at the press
of a button.
The only effective way to safeguard
your software investment is to make
backups. Some publishers encourage
you to copy their products, others use
copy-protection to make it as difficult
as possible.* The Snapshot Copykit is
an easy-to-use device which helps you
to make backups of your essential
programs whether they’re copy-
protected or not. It will copy memory- |
resident software in less than half a
minute, and it’s invaluable for dealing
with multi-access programs too.
Using Copykit backups rather than
your valuable originals doesn’t just
make sense from a security point of
view. Fast saving and loading of total
memory saves hours of time when you
need to work with spreadsheets or other
programs which take’ an eternity to
handle large files. And if games are
your thing, there’s no need to go
through the easy, boring levels of play
every time you resume the action — you
can use the Copykit to go straight to the
highest levels and return to them again
and again.
* Check the terms of your software license - by making even an archival
backup, you may be in breach of Copyright
Why the Copykit is better
Bit-copiers like Locksmith and Copy
II+ are quickly overtaken by new copy-
protection methods and hardware
updates, and they’re expensive to
upgrade. They'll only work with a
limited number of operating systems,
and the backups they create are exact
duplicates of the protected (and
inconvenient) originals.
The Copykit isn’t troubled by copy-
protection and will work with any
operating system, non-standard or
otherwise. And Dark Star’s cheap
update policy makes it easy for you to
upgrade to keep up with new hardware.
Copykit backups are easily examined
and customized, and can be transferred
to other media, thus reducing your
dependence on easily-damaged 5.25”
floppies.
The Copykit is also more versatile.
Taking frequent backups of work in
progress, for example, is an essential
part of sensible computer use. Yet this
is seldom — if ever — done, because
it is time-consuming and inconvenient
to close down your program, make a
copy of the work-disk, re-boot and find
the place where you left off. The
Copykit’s ability to save the entire
contents of memory to disk at any time
and then resume running your program
from the point of interruption
overcomes such difficulties and makes
the loss of many hours work much less
likely. And try using a bit-copier to
suspend a running program while you
answer the telephone or make a cup of
coffee!
The Snapshot Copykit
reviewed in Hardcore -
April 1985
The ability to save a program at the
point of use is, I believe, distinctly
advantageous. For instance, Print-
shop can be saved at the point of
producing a set printing routine, like
a letterhead, and it will then always
be ready to print this item without
having to go through the setting-up
procedures.
Game players will find the system
an answer to their prayers.... Ihave
found it without doubt the most
useful utility I possess...
SYSTEMS
The Snapshot Shuttle.
A flexible alternative to integrated software
What will I do with the
programs I use today if
I buy integrated
software tomorr
Where can I find an
integrated package that
combines the features
and power of the
programs I already
own?
You too have probably considered the benefits
of buying a program that does several differ
jobs from one disk. After all, most computer
users need to switch from one task to another
several times a day. And repeatedly closing
down your current program, booti
disk and then trying to find whe
wastes valuable time
work
Integrated software would be the obvious
solution if it weren't for the fact that one
Apple II user is likely to have very different
needs from another
The remarkable Snapshot Shuttle is an
inexpensive device that gives you a simple
alternative to worrying about the drawbacks
integration. It lets you keep up to four different
programs in memory at any one time
ne the best word-processor
a versatile comms
You want to comb
with the fastest spreadshee
package and Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy?
Fine. With the Shuttle you're free to choose
You switch
programs with just the flip of a switch, and each
where it was
rapidly bet
can ween your
one resumes running exactly
interrupted. @o fuss, no waiting. The Shuttle
even works happily with integrated software!
You already know everything you need to
know to use the Shuttle
commands for you to memorize and no piles of
impenetrable documentation to wade through
And because it uses the interrupt-and-resume
power of the Snapshot card, the Shuttle gives
you access to a whole new world of great, easy
to-use utilities that will enhance your Apple at
home and in the office
There are no new
System Requirements
Apple I+ or //e with minimum 128K RAM and
1 disk drive.
Memory expansion cards
The Shuttle will let you load 2 x 64K programs
into a 128K Apple. Naturally, the more memory
you have, the more programs you will be able
to load. The Shuttle works with all the popular
RAM cards. (See page 9 for more details)
‘The Snapshot Shuttl
With Snapshot Card.
Page 8
software?
wordprocessor or spreadsheet program just as the boss appears But, for serious computer users, the
What if I can’t use my
old files with the new
pshot Shutt!
GLOBAL VILLAGE NEWSLETTER
Will I have to spend
yet more time and
money learning
something completely
different?
le reviewed in Apple User - May 1986
ram designed to run on an Apple Il
nd no matter what operating system it uses.
the Snapshot range of utilities, The
f RAM cards and 80-column
he time. The Shut
5 menu-driven
bviates the need for extensive
e for
c en the
8 witching over t
Shuttle provides an inexpensive and effective introduction to the joys of multi-tasking.
The Snapshot Shuttle revi
use it (the Shuttle) to run
dictionary. We create a text file, sw
wed in Australian Apple Review - January 1986
ram and a spelling checker with an 80,0¢
icker
correct the spelling and then switch back
h load: unloading programs from disks
Data transfer made easy with Quality Software’s Universal File Conversion
If you use more than one Apple II operating system.
Universal File Conversion is going to make life a
ot easier for you. Use it to move programs and data
among the five main Apple operating systems -
DOS 3.3, CP/M, Pascal, SOS, and Prodos. Now you
can merge a section of your Visicalc spreadsheet into
a CP/M Wordstar document, use Prodos
AppleWorks data with Pascal Apple Business
Graphics, use data from one program with just about
any other! Using the program, you can also:
le
@ create CP/M files without a Z-80 card
© convert Basic programs from one operating
system to another
The Universal File Conversion comes complete with
an interesting and thorough manual that will teach
you everything you need to know about how your
various operating systems store files on diskette
Universal File Conversion... £32.00
Bill Allen explains why Dark Star
recommends Universal File Conversion for
use with the Shuttle multitasker (from Apple
User - May 1986):
I is only fair to point out that there is more to
integration than just swapping from one kind of
program to another - data have to be swapped as
| ‘well. Many manufacturers of the more popular suites
of business packages are fully aware of this, and
| offer a common format for transporting data from
| one program to another. For example, the well-
format disks for any operating system
known DIF (Data Interchange Format) is very use-
ful for such packages as Visicalc, Visiterm, and Visi-
plot. (DIF files are recognized by virtually all other
spreadsheet, database and business graphics
programs as well.)
Programs like AppleWorks and the Prodos version
of AppleWriter //e, which run under a common
operating system, are also able to interchange
standard text files.
Data transfer problems do arise, however, if we
have a CP/M program - Wordstar, say - running in
one workspace, and Visicale running in another.
How do we get that section of the spreadsheet over
10 our wordprocessor file? The people at Dark Star
have anticipated that question and have a ready
answer in the shape of the “Universal File
Conversion” program (UFC for short) which they
buy in for their customers from the American-based
publisher, Quality Software. So, in our hypothetical
example, we would simply print the appropriate
section of our Visicalc spreadsheet to disk as a text
{file, switch to the workspace containing the UFC and
convert the Visicale file to CP/M, and then switch
fo Wordstar in order to load it into our document.
True, you could do all this without the Shuttle, but
you could also go grey doing all the closing down,
disk-swapping, re-booting, and searching for the
place you left off, many times over, that such a task
would normally entail.
SUMMER/AUTUMN 1986
The Power to Grow
SYSTEMS
Memory Expansion Cards for the Apple II
Over the last year or so, the cost of RAM chips has
plummeted to a level that places the benefits of
memory expansion well within the financial reach of
most Apple II users.
‘What are those benefits? Traditionally, there have
been two reasons to invest in more RAM: For storage
use, as a high-speed, solid-state, pseudo-disk drive
(generally referred to as a ramdisk), or as a means of
enlarging the available work area of applications
programs like spreadsheets, databases, etc.
To these stalwarts may be added a relatively recent
innovation: The partitioning of memory to hold several
different programs (and/or operating systems) at once
and allow rapid switching between them. This is a
built-in — but limited — feature of Cirtech’s Flipper
‘one MegaByte card; it is a feature which can be added
to any memory card with Dark Star's Snapshot
Shuttle. The Flipper’s program manager will only
work with unprotected programs, and then only when
the user is at operating system command level. The
more-powerful Shuttle can interrupt any running
program, copy-protected or otherwise, and resume it
from the point of interruption.
‘These days, prospective purchasers of extra Apple
memory are faced with a bewildering — and
burgeoning — variety of different cards, each with its
‘own “unique” features and benefits. While it is
impossible to provide here a definitive guide through
the memory maze, what follows is an attempt to
provide an overview of what is available and what is
possible. We'll also try to highlight some of the pitfalls
which await the unwary.
‘There are basically two types of memory expansion
card the average Apple owner (if any such animal
exists) can install: the first is designed to fit into any
of the standard slots on the Apple Il, I+ or //e
backplane. The second, because it doubles as an
Apple //e 80-column card, must be installed in the //e
auxiliary slot and is therefore (not surprisingly) useless
for owners of any computer other than the //e.
Honourable mention might also be given to two
‘other categories of memory card: the dedicated
ramdisk with a back-up battery that keeps data in a
viable condition at power-off, and the “bubble”
memory card which (like ROM) retains data until it
is erased and rewritten. The high cost of such cards
precludes their consideration by the general Apple
user and they are thus excluded from further
discussion here.
bandwagon. Their efforts were sometimes compatible
with the Saturn card (eg, Ramrod, Ramex, U-Ram and
Vision 128) and sometimes not (eg, Legend 128 and
Rocon 128). The Saturn “standard” prevailed over the
rest, probably because after a while the world’s
markets became flooded with exact — but inexpensive
— copies of Titan's card and software emanating from
the Far East.
Apple //e Memory Expansion
The 1983 introduction of the Apple //e offered Apple
users an alternative means of memory expansion
through the “extended” 80-column card designed for
installation in the //e’s auxiliary slot 3. This had the
advantage over the old-style memory cards of leaving
the other Apple slots free for different uses —
considerable asset in view of the plethora of available
peripherals which make use of those slots.
The extra 64K available on the extended 80-column
card was designed primarily for use by applications
programs running under Prodos, Apple's successor
to DOS 3.3. Prodos programs could automatically
recognize the extra memory and invade it. A Visicale
spreadsheet, then, could be expanded to 95K, the
AppleWorks “Desktop” to 55K, and so on. For users
of programs running under DOS 3.3 or CP/M which
didn’t recognize the extra 64K, that memory could be
configured as a ramdisk with utilities like RamDrive.
Another useful feature of the auxiliary 64K was its
‘enhancement of graphics resolution on the //e. That
extra RAM enabled graphics programs like
Broderbund’s Dazzle Draw, and Beagle Brothers’
Beagle Graphics to take advantage of the far superior
display capability of the double high-resolution screen
(560 x 192 instead of the normal 280 x 192).
The Saturn 128K Standard
Until relatively recently, the most prevalent memory
expansion cards were those designed to use any
standard Apple II slot, and the most popular of them
was the Saturn 128 made by Titan Technologies of Ann
Arbor, Michigan in the United States. The Saturn card
was marketed with software which made it useful as
a DOS 3.3, Pascal or CP/M ramdisk, and as a
speadsheet expander. The latter use in particular led
to its initial great success. With the Saturn 128 installed
in a 48K Apple II and using a program called VC
Expand, a Visicalc user could increase the size of his
or her spreadsheet from a paltry 18K to about seven
times that
As often happens with an idea whose time has come,
other manufacturers were quick to jump on the
The Titan Neptune Card
While several hardware manufacturers introduced
their own 64K extended 80-column cards to compete
with Apple's version, it was Titan Technologies who
again led the way to further memory expansion with
the introduction of their Neptune card. This was an
extended 80-column card which could be expanded
in increments of 64K to a maximum of 192K which
(again with the appropriate software) could be used
either for ramdisk storage or for increasing the size
of spreadsheets.
Ramworks
The Neptune card had the large Apple //e memory
field pretty much to itself for quite a while. Then, in
late 1984, Applied Engineering introduced a
reasonably priced extended 80-column card called
Ramworks which was expandable to 1 Megabyte
(024K). Ramworks was different because it was
aimed specifically at owners of the AppleWorks
integrated wordprocessor, spreadsheet and database
program. The main benefit offered was the ability to
expand the AppleWorks Desktop from 55K to an
amazing (at the time) 736K. (See below for details of
what this so-called Euro version of Ramworks can do
now.)
Ramworks IT
Ramworks, like its predecessors from Titan
Technologies, has its imitators. Again, some of these
are direct copies (like the Glanmire 512K card and
MegaRamPlus from AST Research), some are not.
Applied Engineering responded to this competition
in late 1985 by introducing a refinement to Ramworks
called (with great originality) Ramworks II. This one
‘goes right up to 5 Megabytes of RAM, but that’s as
much as we intend to say about it because, for
European Apple //e owners, it has a major drawback:
It was designed for US-manufactured Apples. US
Apples are identical to European Apples in virtually
every respect bar one - the situation of the auxiliary
slot. On the Am in motherboard, the auxiliary slot
is situated at the side, close to the power supply. This
position allows the installation of very lange cards, and
‘yes, you guessed it: Ramworks II is too large to fit into
an European Apple. No matter. Applied Engineering
have updated the original Ramworks card to almost
the same level as Ramworks II, and are marketing the
thing as the Euro version.
MultiRam //e
Another card with a design problem was Checkmate
Technology's Ramworks-workalike (expandable to
6MB), the MultiRam //e. The trouble with the
Checkmate card was that although not physically too
big to fit in the case of the European Apple, its bottom
rear-end would clash with the standard Slot if
installation were attempted. The Checkmate designers
have since re-jigged their card, but European buyers
should be wary of ordering MultiRam without seeing
which version they're getting. (The one to beware of
| has RAM chips at the back, roughly in line with the
gold edge-connector.)
The Apple IT
Memory Expansion Card
Apple itself has now entered the memory expansion
market with its own 1 Megabyte card, and it is likely
that this one will establish a new standard to which
software publishers will adhere in future. The Apple
card is designed to look like a disk drive to DOS 3.3,
Prodos and Pascal 1.3 programs, and therefore needs
no special ramdisk software. It is certain that future
versions of popular applications programs will
automatically use all or part of the 1 MegaByte card
for expansion space as well as disk-caching.
Unlike Ramworks, MultiRam, Neptune, ef al, the
Apple II Memory Expansion card uses a standard —
rather than the auxiliary — slot. While this does mean
you have to take up a valuable slot to use it, it also
means that (1) if you already own an ordinary //e
80-column card, you don't have to replace it, (2) it will
Page 9
a
[ dark Star,
SYSTEMS
work on the good old I+, and (3) you can install one E
Megabyte of memory for every vacant slot you've got. Ramcard Feature Comparisons
Other manufacturers have not been slow to see AppleWorks
which way the wind is blowing, and the Apple card Compatible Maximum Desktop Ramdisk 5
hhas now been joined by compatibles from AST | Rameard Computer RAM Expansion _Software baad ‘
Research in the US with their (256K expandable to | Tjun/Satum 32K 10+ 30K NO DOs 32, $ 17900
2 Megabyte) “‘SprintDisk” and the UK's very own | RAM (Titan) 64K & lle 64K DOS 33, $ 19900
Cirtech with their 1 Megabyte “Flipper’” 18K 128K CPIM & Pascal $2390
Titan Neptune 64K He 12k NO DOS 33, £22900
The Cirtech Flipper (Titan) 128K CP/M & Pascal £264.00
Cirtech’s Flipper is the big-memory card Dark Star 192K £ 30900
Systems recommends to Snapshot Shuttle users and | Ramrod 28 8K Tit &le D8K NO DOS 32, £ 9000
others because, at the moment, it has td be the most (Dark Star) DOS 3.3, CP/M.
inexpensive, versatile and compatible ramcard. Unlike & Pascal
most of its more expensive rivals, the Flipper is | Special Features: Comparible with Saturn 128K and supporting software.
designed to emulate Apple’s own Apple II Memory. = sry
piesa, "That Pca a ant ee = = eK + & le IMB YES Doss CPM — § 31500
compatibility is guaranteed — no small consideration D8K $ 37500
in view of the high value of the average user's software 1K $ 43500
and hardware investment. 256K $ 49500
sak $ 59500
768K $ 69500
IMB $ 79500
Legend E’ 64K Me IMB YES DOS 33, CP/M —$ 29900
Card (Legend) & Pascal
18K $ 35900
1K $ 389.00
256K $ 41900
SDK $ 51900
768K $ 644.00
IMB $ 769.00
MultiRam ‘le 64K/RGB le 1.SMB YES DOS 3.3, $ 18500
(Checkmate) Prodos, CP/M
28K/RGB & Pascal $ 20300
320K $ 222.00
Like,
software to act as a ramdisk for programs running 124K/RGB
under Prodos, DOS 3.3, Pascal 1.3, and CP/M 1280K/RGB $ 52000
(versions 2.20B, 2.23 and 3.0). And you can use it to pis : pied
expand the AppleWorks 1.3 Desktop to 1012K. But the
nicest thing about the Flipper is the way its lets you
segment its memory for a variety of purposes. You can
Special features: includes AppleWorks expansion software; has port for connection to optional 65C8I6 (I6-bit) co-processor
card, and RGB included.
use part of the card for the Snapshot Shuttle, while Ramworks 28K le MB YES DOS 3.3, £ 19900
you allocate several different ramdisks (under several (Applied Prodos. CP/M
different operating systems) to the remainder. For | Engineering) & Pascal 2
‘example, you can have a CP/M program in one Shuttle pa : a
workspace which uses files stored in a segment of the 10MB £36900
Flipper’s memory designated as a CP/M drive; a 2.5MB £49900
Prodos program in another Shuttle workspace RGB Option £ 12900
accessing files from the Prodos ramdisk, and so on Special features: includes AppleWorks expansion software, print-spooling, and ramdisk software.
No other memory expansion card on the market gives
you this sort of versatility at any price. Ramworks If 64K le 3MB YES DOS 33, $ 179.00
(Applied Prodos, CPIM
The next best thing to a Flipper in the | Engineering) pare oki, & Pascal
Apple //e is a Ramworks Card “kK $ 26900
For //e owners, Applied Engineering's Ramworks is LOMB $ 389.0
the next best choice — especially if you are short of 1.SMB $ 549.00
slots. And the price has now tumbled toa much more 30MB $1699.00
affordable level. The Euro-Ramworks is now Sage! bees.
Special features: includes AppleWorks expansion software, prin-spooling, and ramdisk software; has port for connection to
expandable from 128K to 2.5MB (2560K) ‘optional 65C8I (16-bit) co-processor card.
AppleWorks owners with a Ramworks card containing
256K and up can now load the entire program into | Apple Il 256K T+ &/e IMB YES NO £ 24500
memory (saving a considerable amount of time used Memory S12K £ 30000
in disk access), and increase the size of the — | Expansion Card 768K £ 35500
AppleWorks Desktop to an incredible size. (Apple) IMB £ 41000
Ranmworks also offers AppleWorks users additional | Sia! ears: omatically reevgnized as a randist by DOS 3.3, Prodos and Pascal 1.3.
benefits like print-spooling, over three times the — | Cinech Flipper IMB I+ &/e IMB YES NO £ 35000
normal number of records possible in a database file, (Cirtech)
and auto-segmenting of large files so they can be saved | Special features: automatically recognized as a ramdisk by DOS 3:3, Pods, Pascal 1.3 and Cirtech CPIM Pls; includes
to several different disks, In addition, software for _ | memory management firmware allowing co-residence of several different operating systems.
ey et See at /M ramdisks, as well |S prices are atthe latest published level at the time of going to press and are marked in US Dollars unless a product is
as Visicalc expansion is available. A useful hardware generally available in the UK. Sterling prices are either Manufacturers Recommended Retail Prices or those set bythe
add-on for the card is an RGB option which saves :
British distributor, and are exclusive of VAT. Check list for discounu rs.
another slot when colour display is required. wel cima atari! TS Sh abaassstasscit
Page 10 ;
IMMER/AUTUMN 1986
CIRTECH:
Cirtech CP/M Plus (CP/M 3.0)
ems for the Apple //e and //c
Cirtech’s new //e and //c Z80 modules are two
of the finest Apple co-processors available
today. Cirtech’s superior design skills give you
not only the best available price/performance
ratio, but better reliability, greater efficiency,
and a cooler running Apple too.
CIRTECHED
Both modules come supplied with your
passport to some of the world’s finest business
, software —Cirtech’s unique version of CP/M.
Plus from Digital Research. Imagine the
power of DBase II or Wordstar running with
an operating system that offers features like
these:
© Compatibility with Prodos-oriented
devices like the Flipper IMB card, the
Apple II Memory expansion card,
Unidisk 3.5, and ProFile hard disk
© Full use of the 128K of program
memory available on the extended
Apple //e and //c
© Print-spooling (12,000 character printer
buffer)
© Password protection and file
time/date-stamping
¢ /Ic printer, disk drive and modem port
support with invisible buffering of
input/output from both serial ports and
the keyboard
© “Toolkey”, an innovative range of
functions that can be accessed at any
time — even while running a program
— allowing disk copying and
formatting, instant screen dumps, etc.
* “Mousekey”, a tool which allows you
to use the Apple //c Mouse with any
CP/M program (current version does
not support Apple //e Mouse)
° A disk-based Help system and “user-
friendly” error messages which let you
retry without sending you back to
system level
| Cirtech //c Z80 module with CP/M Plus
ie CP/M Plus
| rammer’s Pack
Save a slot!
The Cirtech //e CP/M Plus module features
the double-fast 8MHz Z-80H processor, and
it plugs straight into your Apple's motherboard
— no slot required. You will, however, need
an extended //e 80-column card installed in
auxiliary slot 3.
Cirtech //e Z80 module with CP/M Plus.
For Apple CP/M developers who have been
waiting for the opportunity to toss ALDS out |
of the window, the CP/M Plus Programmer's
Pack is available as a separate item
Programming utilities like MAC and RMAC
(macro assemblers), ZSID (symbolic
debugger), LINK, LIB, SAVE, HEXCOM,
ED,DUMP and XREF come complete with
documentation which is both comprehensive
and informative.
CP/M Plus Programmer's Pack... ++ £8900
cl
SYSTEMS
-More power to your computer
Apple I+, //e and //c Z80
Co-processors for CP/M
versions 2.20B and 2.23
| Cirtech’s Z80 cards for the Apple II+ and //e
are functional equivalents of the Microsoft
Softcard, but are less than half the size and use
| half as many components. Apart from the
obvious benefit to your pocket, that tight
design means that unlike the Z80 co-
processors offered by other manufacturers, the
Cirtech cards won't give you a hard time trying
to keep your Apple cool.
The original Cirtech Apple //c Z80 module
simply plugs into the motherboard, right
inside the case! Once it’s installed, you can run
all your standard Apple Il CP/M programs
without modification. DOS and Prodos
programs run as normal.
If you're quite happy to continue using
CP/M versions to 2.23, a Cirtech Z80 co-
processor card or module is the ideal
replacement for or addition to — your
existing set-up.
Cirtech Z80 11+ version.
Cirtech Z80 //e version..
Cirtech Z80 //c version.
£40.00
£40.00
ILLAGE NEWSLETTER
Making the most of your printer’s graphics
features can be an expensive business,
particularly if you already own a “dumb” —
or non-standard — printer card.
If you don’t own a card which can be
upgraded with one of Dark Star’s ImageMaker
EPROMs, Cirtech’s “Champion” printer
cards are the next best option. They give you
more features at less cost than other
“intelligent” printer interfi ind software
compatibility is maintained with a full set of
Grappler-type commands just like the
ImageMakers’.
All the Champions are fully compatible
with DOS 3.3, Prodos, Pascal and CP/M, and
work perfectly with programs like |
AppleWorks that give less intelligent printer
cards big headaches. And every Champion |
card comes complete with all the necessary
cables and instructions you need to get started.
The Champion Parallel Card - the standard
graphics-capable card for parallel dot-matrix
printers.. veeeeeees £45.00
The Champion ImageWriter Interface - for |
owners of Apple’s excellent ImageWriter
printer who want the best industry-standard
graphics capabilities at the best possible price.
(Includes serial cable)................. £60.00
Page 12
The Champion Serial Adaptor - with this |
easily installed addition to your Champion |
card, you can benefit from
telecommunications facilities by switching
from parallel to serial mode with a single
| control-command. Al the standard Champion
Pi
| print features are available through the serial
interface, so it’s a great way to get the most
from your serial printer too........... £15.00
Serial Printer Cable - for printing with the
Champion Serial Adaptor...............£9.00
The Champion CacheCard 16K and
CacheCard 64K - for those of us who don’t
want to wait while printing monopolizes our
valuable computing time, here are two
buffered versions of the Champion printer
card;
CacheCard 16K for everyday printing
needs . £85.00
CacheCard 64K for extra long print
runs me £108.00
‘The Cirtech CacheBox - the CacheBox is a
64K in-line buffer for use with your existing
parallel or serial port. It comes in several
different versions for maximum versatility:
Serial and Parallel.
Serial/Serial...
Parallel/Parallel....
Fast, hassle-free EPROM blasting
Cirtech’s easy-to-use EPROM programmer
sits outside the Apple case, attached to its
controller card by two feet of cable. So you
won't waste time scrabbling around the
motherboard looking for dropped chips!
The programming software is fully menu-
driven and features automatic verification and
erasure checking. And it’s all resident in ROM
on the controller card, so there are no disks
to load. Here are the programming speeds for
Intel-compatible EPROMs:
Programming Time in Seconds
EPROM type Minimum Maximum Typical
2116 1S 112 2
TBA 25 225 190
7164 46 450 nv
m8 2 900 120
2756 154 1800 300
If you're a printer user, you can save a slot by
using the EPROM controller’s additional
parallel port as an Epson command-
compatible printer driver. All you need is a
parallel cable!
EPROM Programmer with controller
card. see £81.00
EPROM Programmer (for controller
card owners)....... seeeeeeee £50.00
Controller card......
Parallel Cable (for controller card
printing)..
The Cirtech //e 80-column cards function
exactly like everyone else's, but no other
company can match Cirtech quality at these
prices!
are two versions; one with 64K
extended memory, and one without. The
extended card lets you access the full data-
handling capabilities of 128K programs like
SuperCalc3A and AppleWorks, and the double
high-resolution displays of Dazzle Draw,
Fantavision, MouseCalc, etc.
If you want the standard unextended
80-column card right now, you can always
return it to us for upgrading when you need
the extra memory. So long as you bought the
card from us, it arrives in its original
packaging and is still in working order, we'll
exchange it for the 64K version there and then.
Standard //e 80-column card..........£27.00
Extended 64K //e 80-column card... £54.00
Standard for Extended exchange..
SUMMER/AUTUMN 1986
dark Star/)
SYSTEMS
Different Strokes From Different Folks
Here’s some useful information supplied by
our technical department and by Dark Star
customers that will help you take your Apple
closer to the limit of its capabilities.
Jaromir Smejc of the Czechoslovak Centre
of Fine Arts in Prague has made some
interesting points concerning use of the
Copykit and Printerrupt Snapshot software
packs which we're happy to pass on here.
Thank you Jaromir!
Remember: if you find that one of our
| products has helped you to solve a problem
\ that’s had you tearing your hair out up until
| now, you may be able to save some of your
fellow Apple users from premature baldness
as well by passing your tip to us for printing
in the Global Village Newsletter. We're not
offering pots of gold for your services, but
just think how great you'll feel basking in the
warm glow of admiration that envelops you
as thousands of your fellow sufferers give
thanks to the person who led them out of
darkness into light!
Using the Copykit to speed-up
AppleWriter with Videx’s
Ultraterm Card
Jaromir Smeje was irritated by the tedious
essity 0 boot two disks and make about
kes before he could start work with
riter and loss to
Ultraterm, screen. Here’s method for
cutting out most of that hard work by taking
advantage of the Copykit's ability to save and
reload total memory at any point in the
Operation of a running program:
1. Use the Copykit “Boot a disk’ option to
load in Ultraterm’s Preboot and go through
all the stages until AppleWriter is working
‘on the Ultraterm screen as normal
2. Load your glossary file (if necessary)
3. Use the Snapshot trigger to interrupt
AppleWriter after disk I/O has taken place.
Since Ultraterm is not a standard text
display card, pressing the Snapshot trigger
will appear to freeze AppleWriter, but will
do nothing else. In order to get to the
Copykit Menu displayed on the 40-column
screen, press the <Ctrl> and <Reset>
keys simultaneously.
. Place a Copykit disk in the appropriate
drive and use the “Save” option from the
menu to dump memory to disk. (If you are
working with an US-made Apple //e which
contains both an extended 80-column card
and Ultraterm, select the 64K dump
option to get an auto-booting disk.)
5. You now have a copy of AppleWriter which
will automatically use Ultraterm without
a preboot or all those keypresses. When
you come to boot that disk, remember to
press <Ctrl><Reset> in order to display
the Ultraterm screen when your disk-drive
stops spinning.
Using the Printerrupt to
overcome bugs in Fontrix’s
print drivers
According to Jaromir Smejc, Fontrix versions
1.0 and 1.2 don’t adequately support Epson
FX80 and FX85 printers. The problem
appears to be with dot density settings which
distort the aspect ratio and create badly
proportioned hard-copy of screen images.
This is quite a common problem, and not just
with Fontrix. Some programs (MousePaint,
for example) don’t support Epson and other
popular dot-matrix printers at all!
Hitherto, the only way to overcome this
problem was to quit Fontrix after creating a
graphic and use printer card control
commands to achieve a correctly
proportioned print-out. As Jaromir writes:
“This was a very time-consuming process,
especially if you wanted to create more
screens. Now, thanks to the Printerrupt,
using Fontrix and printing the results in the
right proportions (Printerrupt Density
Option 1) is a breeze!”
How to capture graphics
screens from protected
programs and save them to
A lot of programs feature great graphics
displays but offer you no facilities for saving
them to disk. No problem if the program
you're running isn’t copy-protected, but.....
Needless to say, we've had a lot of requests
from Printerrupt owners to supplement the
dump-to-printer option with a dump-to-disk
feature
Unfortunately, Printerrupt author Andy
Beveridge packed so many features into the
space available in Snapshot'’s RAM that
there's barely room to swing a byte let alone
a fat disk I/O routine. All is not lost, however.
There is a simple way to capture and save-to-
disk a hi-res picture from a copy-protected
program using the Snapshot Copykit. Here
it is:
| DOS 3.3 and Prodos Hi-Res Dumps
1. First, round-up the essential ingredients:
Your program disk, a formatted Prodos or
DOS 3.3 disk and a Copykit disk.
. Load the Copykit into your Snapshot card
and use the menu “Boot” option to get
your subject program up-and-running.
Use the Snapshot trigger to interrupt it
when the required screen is displayed.
}. Select the “Set Video Mode” option and
check whether the display you want is on
Hi-Res Page 1 or Page 2.
. Select the Exit to Monitor option and, if
the display you want sits on Page 1, enter
the following line:
6000>2000.3FFFM <Return>
N
»
a
(“<Return>” means press the Return key and
should not be typed out in full)
or if your display is on Page 2:
6000<4000.3FFFM <Return>
5. Insert your formatted disk into Drive | and
boot it from the monitor by entering:
6<Ctri>-P <Return>
(“<Ctrl>-P” means pressing the <Ctrl> key
and the upper-case ‘‘P’’ key
simultaneously)
When you get the Basic prompt, enter:
BSAVE <name>,A$6000,L$2000 <Return>
‘That's it — you now have a hi-res binary file
containing the screen as it appeared at the
moment of interruption. Check it out if you
like by entering;
HGR2 <Return>
BLOAD <name>,A$4000 <Return>
Double Hi-Res Dumps
In all their excitement at discovering the
Double Hi-Res (DHi-Res) screen, Apple
forgot to give us a standard method of storing
it on disk. Below is a method for saving and
loading DHi-Res files using Dark Star's
ScreenSnapper printing utility. Since there is
no effective standard, however, we don’t
guarantee that you'll be able to use
ScreenSnapper files in conjunction with
other DHi-Res programs:
1. Load the Copykit into your Snapshot card
and use the menu “Boot” option to get
your subject program up-and-running.
Use the Snapshot trigger to interrupt it
when the required screen is displayed.
. Place your ScreenSnapper disk in Drive
1, select the “Exit to Monitor” option
from the Copykit menu, and enter:
v
6 <Ctrl>-P <Return>
3. When ScreenSnapper loads, use
<Ctrl-B> or & <Return> in the usual way
to get the menu on-screen. Go to the
Default Menu and set the screen defaults
to “Graphics” and “80-columns.”
. Place a formatted DOS 3.3 diskette in the
ScreenSnapper default drive. (Remember
that a Double High-Resolution file will
take up twice as much space as a normal
Hi-Res dump — ie, 60 sectors as opposed
to 30 — so ensure you have enough room
on your disk.) Now Select the Disk Sub-
menu and use the “‘Save"’ option to create
your DHi-Res file.
NB - You will need to have ScreenSnapper
in memory to load files made in this way. Be
sure that screen defaults are set to “Graphics”
and “80-Columns” before using the “Load”
option from the Disk Sub-menu.
Page 13
SYSTEMS
Using ScreenSnapper for
“Tron-on Transfer” printing
ne increasingly popular use of dot-matrix
printers is to load them with special ribbons
containing thermal-transferable ink and iron-
on the resulting print-outs to book-covers, T-
Shirts, and other materials which are
impossible to print on directly.
Both Jaromir Smejc and Tim Resche of San
Francisco, California have pointed out a
major drawback to the use of such ribbons.
That if you want to transfer graphics
containing text messages to articles using the
iron-on method, your text will end up back-
to-front. The simplest way to deal with this
problem is to use ScreenSnapper to load in
the desired graphic and select the
image option from ScreenSnapper’s Utilities
sub-menu before printing.
Using the Shuttle with
expanded programs
Now that memory expansion cards are more
popular with Apple users, we're beginning to
‘see more programs which know how to find
and make use of all that extra RAM. In
particular, the extra 64K of memory on the
Apple //e’s extended 80-column Card is
automatically recognized by applications like
Visicale //e, AppleWorks, Flashcalc,
AppleWriter //e, Apple Logo, and all Prodos-
based programs.
Whi
will use 128K ‘that is, if it will use both the
main 64K and the 64K on the Extended
80-column Card). If you say it will, the
Shuttle is careful to make room in the
Extended 80-column Card for the program.
If you tell the Shuttle that a particular
program will use 64K, but in fact it uses
128K, you will have trouble. The program
will overflow the main 64K and interfere with
whatever program the Shuttle is storing in the
auxiliary 64K. One or both programs will
behave oddly they may “freeze”, or random
characters may appear on the screen. Most
often, the program which you booted second
will mess up the program you booted first.
If you find that this sort of thing is
happening in some circumstances, try
allocating 128K to each of your programs —
or at least to the one whose size you are
uncertain of. If that solves the problem, then
you know that one or more of your programs
uses 128K.
Rules of thumb to follow are:
* Any ProDOS-based program uses 128K
* Any program that uses double hi-res
graphics is 128K
* Most Mouse programs are 128K
© Any program with “works” in its name
probably uses 128K
* Visicalc //e, Applewriter //e, Apple Logo,
Flashcale, AppleWorks and Pascal 1.3 all
use 128K
i}
Some programs can make use of other
© If a program can run on a 64K Apple, it
may still use 128K on an Apple with an
extended 80-column card
Having discovered that some of your
programs are larger than you thought, you
may find that you don’t have enough memory
in your Apple to “shuttle” all the applications
you want. Since memory is now so cheap, the
best solution is to add another RAM card or,
if possible, expand the one you already own.
However, if you’re short of cash as well as
memory and you're quite happy to work with
128K programs in their 64K form, there’s a
software solution: You can use the Snapshot
Copykit to fool programs into thinking there's
no extended 80-column card present. To do
so, you need to beg, borrow or steal a
standard (ie, non-extended) 80-column card
and make a 64K Copykit backup of each of
your expandable programs.
When you load these backups into your
128K Apple (using the Shuttle’s “Load”
option), they will be blissfully unaware of the
extra available memory and continue to use
64K only. (See below for information on
using the Copykit to curb the appetite of other
memory-hungry programs.)
Preboot Expansion Software
and Invasive Programs
memory cards. if the
example, there are Visicale “preboot”
programs which you can use to modify
Visicale to use a Ramrod/Saturn-type
memory card. You have to specify which slot
the card is in. This poses no problem for the
Shuttle you just have to make sure that when
you configure the Shuttle you do not tell it to
use the memory card that Visicalc is using.
When you want to switch out of Visicalc and
run some other program, the Shuttle will
move only that part of Visicalc that sits in
main memory. The expanded part will
remain snug in its card, untouched until you
return control to Visicale again.
Likewise, if you use an AppleWorks
expansion preboot, you can configure the
Shuttle to ignore Ramworks (or whatever)
and use only your other RAM cards for
storing Workspaces. (With some versions of
AppleWorks expansion software, you may be
able to segment Ramworks, Multiram, etc.
for both Shuttle and expanded Desktop use.
Consult Dark Star's friendly techies for
advice.)
A small minority of invasive programs can
cause problems for the Shuttle. These RAM-
gluttons search the slots of your Apple for
memory cards other than the Extended
80-column Card, and then invade that extra
memory and use it for their own purposes.
An invasive program may locate memory
used by the Shuttle to store programs and
wipe them out. (You can sometimes identify
one of these software equivalents to Atilla the
dark Star,
Hun by looking at the lights — if any — on
your memory card. If they flash when the
program is in use, it has invaded the card.
PinPoint, Locksmith 5.0 and Flashcalc are
invasive programs.)
In order to explain how to nip this problem
in the bud, we will look at one popular
invasive program Flashcalc. Flashcalc, when
it starts running, searches all your Apple’s
slots and makes use of any memory cards it
recognizes. It knows how to use the Saturn,
Neptune, Ramrod, Glanmire, Ramworks,
and other cards as well. It does this
automatically, without asking or notifying
you. This of course can wipe out any other
Programs stored in a RAM card by the
Shuttle.
Unfortunately, there is no way to physically
block Flashcale from invading your extra
RAM. We need to use the Copykit in a
similar way to that described above to fool
Flashcalc into thinking that the additional
memory isn’t there. That way, it will restrict
itself to the normal 64K or 128K. The
Copykit will backup Flashcalc by letting it
begin running, freezing it in memory, then
copying the frozen image out to a disk. The
frozen image can later be reloaded into
memory and set running again. It will resume
running from the point at which it was
initially frozen.
Apple for memory cards, then later, when we
unfreeze it, Flashcale will carry on as though
it had never been interrupted. It will still
remember the arrangement of memory cards
that it found when it searched for them. If we
have added more memory cards in the
meantime, they will be ignored. This gives
us a strategy for fooling Flashcalc. Here is
the method:
1. Remove all memory cards except the
Extended 80-column Card from the
Apple. (If you have a super-extended
80-column card like Ramworks, remove
all but the first 64K bank of RAM chips.)
Use the Copykit to make a 128K backup
of Flashcalc, following the instructions in
the Copykit manual.
2. Put the memory cards back in the Apple.
Configure the Shuttle (if you haven't
already done so) to use those cards. Start
up the Shuttle.
3. Use the Shuttle’s “Load” option to load the
Flashcalc backup into a 128K workspace.
Use the “Resume” option. to resume
running it.
4. Now you can use Flashcalc like any other
program running under the Shuttle.
Flashcale will not bother the Shuttle’s
memory cards, as it thinks it is running on
a 128K Apple.