NOVEMBER meet- due to lousy weather, attendance was light. I went to a Computer Show over at the NYSE&G Building- should have stayed at the meet, PCs and PC clones- ech.
DECEMBER meet- At the December meeting we saw Don Lamen’s “HASP”- a TS1000 machine hexadecimal assembly program (several hundred hours in the making). Using a 16K RAM pac, he squeezed a 2999 byte program above RAMTOP that does the following and more:renumber, disassembly, catalog tapes, basic, block,list, REM set, memory free, and more. Using a sort program he copied from ZX Computing, he loaded “Sort” (see listing below) in the TS1000 with “HASP” above the RAMTOP and proceeded to go thru all the functions of his program. Most of the program is user friendly with all inputs in hexadecimal. If interested in the program contact Don Lamen, at next meet or write him, RD#3, Box 3404, Windsor NY 13856
Wes Brzozowski gave a short talk on the “Undocumented Z-80 Instruction set”. If you look in the back of your user manual, under codes, look for after CB, starts on page 239. On page 240, near the bottom of the page, and top of the next, you’ll see a gap in the instructions, due to a bug in the processor, you will fill with 1’s instead of 0 if one calls sll b.
Gary Ennis demoed “Scrabble”, a Spectrum program, using a composite color monitor. The game has a 16000 word dictionary, but if you use a word not in it, the computer will trustingly ask you if it really a word. Why, yes, sure by golly! A very decent program, if you like Scrabble (the board game), you’ll enjoy “Scrabble”. Gary picked it up from a software house in England, and just recently got around to enjoying it.
John Colonna and myself tried to direct connect two 2068s via the 2050 modems. Not being too sure what would happen, John was a little nervous about watching for smoke, so he just closed his eyes and prayed. It worked, we had one monitor between us, so we went to half duplex, and one machine typed on the screen, ENTER and then the second typed on the next line. We were trying this to be able to demo modems at the next meet. While it may not have seemed impressive, right away some saw the possibilities for “looking” at unbreakable software. After some time using this procedure via Ma Bell’s phone lines John and I hope to show up and down loading between 2068s and transmission of data, programs and pictures.
A second swap tape was received from the Cleveland TSUG and it “hopefully” will be returned with a few of our home made efforts-we cannot expect to keep getting unless, we give, so come on send in your copied from magazine, newsletter or home made programs. Give REM statement credit where due, please. Send me your efforts on a 90 minute tape, and I’ll send a mix of 2068 and Spectrum programs. Include any documentation in REM statements. No copyrighted commercial programs thank you.
Via Dave Schoenwetter and John Colonna, we have a copy of “The Guide to T/S Telecommunications” by Pete Fisher and Steve Ishii, POB 2002, Temple, AZ 85281 write for a copy. Enclose a couple bucks for the photocopy edition or $5 for the deluxe edition, and your address. We’ll attempt to carry some of this ‘fanastic’ doc. in this and next couple issues. GET a modem- learn to use it and have a ball! These guys deserve a very large round of applause for their efforts and should be recognized for their efforts, Thanks Pete and Steve
We are starting to swap with the Dallas T/S Amstrad Users Group, this brings to 26 the number of swaps we maintain. Hello and welcome to new members; James Wilson, Akron OH; Dane Stegman, Akron, NY; Urouse William, Jr, Germany; Walter Hayes, Parma, OH; Bob Welburn, Lake Worth, FL; Gerhard Meyer, Oceanside, NY; Robert Lowe, Arlington, VA; Marinus Heuseveldt, Lantana, FL; and Lowell Heine, Minneapolis, MN; Laurie Futrell, Tucker GA and Robert Lowe, Arlington, VA; thank you for your membership and we look forward to HEARing from you all-we need articles-write-review- say hi- sell something-look for something!