Available for $12.95 from:
English Micro Connection
15 Kilburn Court
Newport, RI 02840
YS Megabasic is an extended version of standard Spectrum basic, adding some 60 new commands. YS stands for ‘Your Spectrum,’ the British magazine from which the program originates. The cassette tape comes with a 30 page manual plus a sheet of instructions to upgrade version 1.0 on the cassette tape to version 3.0. The upgrading involves typing in about 60 lines of code. This is necessary as version 1.0 will crash using some megabasic commands. My upgraded program worked first time, and no crashes have occured using this version with a Romswitch or emulator. Megabasic 3.0 may be saved to tape, but it also includes a Microdrive save option. My version is saved on a Microdrive cartridge.
The first and most obvious difference that you will notice when Megabasic is loaded is that the Sinclair keyword system is not utilized. All keys now give single characters, similar to many other computers, and commands need to be typed out using single letters. I like having my TS2068 behave as a ‘normal’ computer, but some of you may consider this a disadvantage. However, YS Megabasic does allow about 50 common keywords to be abbreviated by one to three letters followed by a period (e.g., PRINT may be PR.; NOT, N.; and CONTINUE, CON.)
Since sixty new commands are added to basic by Megabasic, it is not possible in a short review to discuss every new command, but a selection of the ones that I have found to be most interesting are listed here.
AUTO causes a line number to be generated before each line. This is very useful when typing in a long program.
WINDOW defines the size and position of the current window. Up to ten windows may be defined, and each window can be of any size up to the whole screen area and take up any position on the screen. Program input and output may use any of the defined windows.
PAN and SCROLL commands can be used to make a window scroll up, down, left and right.
MODE can make use of the 64 column facility of Megabasic. Using the MODE command the 64 column characters may be accessed as well as normal size 32 column characters, double height 32 column characters and double height double width 16 column characters. Each WINDOW can have its own character MODE. 16 column characters may be shaded by means of a STIPPLE command.
FONT gives access to three character sets. The default character set simulates that on the Amstrad CP464. The other character sets available are the standard Spectrum set and a set similar to that used on the BBC micro. I much prefer the Amstrad character set to the normal Spectrum/2068 set.
SOUND and its associated SOFF, SON and SREP commands allow various sounds to be produced, while a program is running, via the the interrupt sound generator.
SPRINT enables a string of characters to be placed on the screen magnified any amount in the X or Y direction.
These are only a small selection of the new Megabasic commands. The uses of Megabasic are limited only by your imagination. I have so far used the SPRINT routine for producing posters on my 80 column printer and an MTASK command to run two programs at the same time with each one sending its output to a different window. I understand that Your Spectrum magazine is now publishing programs in Megabasic.