There are 8 programs on this month’s cassette, not counting the LOADER program which loads in 28 seconds.
The program names are as they appear on the above menu, which is similar to what will appear on the screen when the LOADER program is running.
Each program is recorded only once on each side of the cassette. The first programs that can be LOADed will be of the small size followed by the larger sized programs. For example, this month’s cassette has the first to fourth programs recorded as 2K programs. The 5th to 8th programs are 16K. The other side of the cassette is a duplicate of the first side.
For you new subscribers who aren’t familiar with LOADing procedures for cassette programs, follow these directions:
A – Make sure that the volume setting of the recorder is set at about 80 % maximum.
B – If you have a Bass and/or Treble control on the recorder, make sure the Treble is at maximum and the Bass is at minimum.
C – To LOAD the first program, type in LOAD “” and press the ENTER key on the computer. Then press the PLAY button of the recorder. The lead time on the APR/83 cassette is about 10 seconds until the first program begins.
The time needed to load the LOADER program is 39 seconds. When the program is loaded, a list of this month’s programs will appear automatically.
Shut off the recorder when the LOADER program is loaded. Any of the listed programs can now be loaded into the computer by pressing the appropriate number on the keyboard and then pressing the PLAY key on the recorder. The loader program loads the program by searching for the name of the program you want and ignoring any of the other programs it may encounter along the way.
If you want to go directly to a program without waiting, we suggest you first find the tape location of the beginning of each of the programs with your recorder counter. This can be done as you go through the programs the first time, noting the tape location on the counter as each one is being loaded.
If you don’t have a counter, approximate the tape position with the fast forward key just before where the program would start, and then LOAD the program with the name of the program using the format LOAD “NAME OF PROGRAM”.
Some of our subscribers have told us that they could not get the programs to load by name but they would load with the double quotes. Others have told us that the loader program wouldn’t load certain programs. Most have told us that all the programs could be loaded either way. Every customer’s cassette is made from the same master tape, so the programs on everyone’s cassettes are identical. We feel it is most probably a problem of volume adjustment or recorder design. We have noticed this situation on some of our recorders.
PROGRAMS (all programs this
month are self running
except “BANK SHOT“.
– program’s name has inverse
last character if self
running
– all characters are inverse
in “BANK SHOT”
RT = run time/LT = load time)
There is an approximate 7 to 20 second pause between programs
“BANK SHOT” LT = :24
This game program takes up every bit of memory space in a 2K machine. Therefore, I could not make it self-running.
RUN the program and rest 5 fingers on the keys numbered 1 to 5. A graphic billiard ball will appear from the top of the screen and will move on an angle to the left, hit the wall and bank to the right toward one of the 5 pockets. Press the corresponding key in time and 100 points will be added to your score. Press the wrong key or no key at all and the pocket number will disappear. When four pocket numbers disappear, the game will be over.
You may notice that if you have a 2K machine, after playing a few games, a memory full error may occur. CLEARing the computer will not remedy the situation. If you have a 16K machine, you may want to add routines that would recycle the game, INPUT player’s name with high score displayed, and decrement the score if a miss occurs.
“DEPOSIT MULTIPLIER” LT = :13
Perhaps you have an interest-bearing account that you wonder how long it would take for you to double or triple your investment in. If you use this program, it makes no difference if it is a savings account, money market, etc. The only stipulation is that the interest is compounded annually.
There are two INPUTs to the program:
WHAT IS THE INTEREST RATE PER YEAR?
and
WHAT IS THE INCREASE FACTOR?
If you are looking to double your money, enter 2 – if you are looking to increase it by 50%, enter .5. The program will find how many years it takes to reach the increase factor to the next even year.
This program can also be used to find appreciation of value if an estimated annual appreciation percentage is known, such as for real estate.
“MATH-HELPER” LT = :32
THE LAZY MAN’S CALCULATOR is probably a more appropriate name for this program. It is a 5 function calculator that allows the user to add, subtract, multiply, divide and find powers of numbers. What makes it so different is that only one finger is required to do the calculations. Floating point arithmetic is supported.
Enter any number up to 8 digits by just pressing the number keys one at a time. If a mistake is made, press the Z key and the last number will be erased. When the whole number is entered, press the logical operator key, either “+”, “-“, “*”, “/” or “**”, and then enter the second whole number. End the equation by pressing the “=” key and the answer will be displayed. For roots, use the power key “**” with a fractional entry. The entry for square root would be “.5”, for cube root would be “.33333333”, etc.
This program should be of good use to mathematics students.
“NUMBER MASTER” LT = :24
This game is similar to MASTERMIND except it uses numbers instead of colors. The rules are as follows:
a. You have 9 rounds (the first one doesn’t count) to guess a 4 digit number that the computer picks at random.
b. A digit in any one position of the 4 digit number is between 1 and 6.
c. You enter a four digit number for each round which is your guess what the number is.
d. A half-box graphic character will be displayed for every individual digit of your entry that appears in the actual number unless –
e. If an individual digit in your guess appears in the same column of the actual number, a full-box graphic character will appear.
f. When all 4 of these full-boxes appear, you have guessed the number correctly.
g. If you do not guess the number correctly, it will be displayed after 9 trys. Press the ENTER key to recycle.
I have been told that it is possible to guess any such number in no more than 6 tries, once you know the tricks. I know them but still can’t get it in 6 trys every time.
“GRAN MARQUEE” LT = :50
For you machine language buffs – this program is the King of all the scrolling programs we have presented so far.
Complaints on other programs have ranged from the characters being too small to see from a distance to the large letter generator routines working too slow.
Picture the practicability of a program to be used by a business to generate a moving marquee message that can be seen from anywhere in the store where the TV is in eye sight. Sales and product information could be displayed in an ever-repeating scroll.
Well, here it is – with some extra bells & whistles. The program will start with a prompt asking you to set the speed. “0” is slow and “9” is fast. Press any of the number keys and sit back. Neat, Huh?
In the immortal words of Albert Einstein, “You ain’t seen nutting yet”!
You can still press any of the number keys to change the speed faster or slower. Try it!
But wait, there’s more!
The characters that are being generated are 1/4 size of the screen. Do you want larger characters? Then press the “L” key.
Wow! How about that! The characters are now twice as big. But we’ve still got a way to go! Press the “S” key. The 1/4 size characters return.
Set the speed at “9”. Those characters really zip by, don’t they? Now press the “F” key.
Jumping Jehosophat! This is the maximum speed that the characters can scroll at in this program. You will notice that none of the control keys work (don’t press BREAK) that have been mentioned so far. Press the “C” key and the scroll will slow to the last speed entered.
How do you enter your own message, you ask? Simple! Press any key except BREAK or the control keys mentioned so far and the message entry prompt will appear. You can enter a pretty long message and unlike other large-letter scrolling programs, the effect is seen almost immediately.
There are other uses for the machine language routine in this program, which the old Professor says he will discuss in a future tutorial.
“TAPE FILE” LT = 2:56
We apologize that this program has a few bugs in it. Change the following lines to read:
8660 to read the same as line
#2350
8662 PRINT Z$
8664 PRINT A$(N)
8700 PRINT ,,"WHAT IS THE NEW
SUBJECT?"and delete lines 8842 and 8844. The program should now run OK.
For those of you who do not get involved with inventory programs and never saw a use for one, here is a program that everyone of us can use. This program allows you to keep a neat record of all the programs you have on tape so far.
It is set up to allow entry of only 10 programs, which I’m sure all of you will want to change to a higher number. Change line 10 to read:
10 DIM A$(n,32)With “n” being the number of programs (or more for new additions) that you will enter, you should be able to set “n” to a maximum of around 250. The program bombs when it is set at 283 and slightly lesser amounts make the program bomb when data is entered. The larger “n” is, the longer the response time for data entry. For purposes of example, I set it at “10”.
Get all your tapes in front of you and identify them with codes such as “001A” for one side and “001B” for the opposite side of the same tape. The next tape could be “002A” and so on.
Now, determine what is on each tape, if you havn’t done so already. Find out the name of each program on the tape, its counter location if you have a counter.
If you don’t, a good method of finding the approximate tape location is to advance a tape for about 20 seconds in the fast-foward mode and then stop the tape. Now put the recorder in rewind and time the rewind time. A stopwatch is helpful but it can be done with a sweep-second hand. Divide the advance time by the rewind time to get a ratio that we can call “P”.
Now advance the tape to the beginning of the program in question and time how long it takes to rewind the tape. Multiply this time by “P” and that is about how long the recorder would have to be in fast-forward to reach the desired program. Call this time “AT” (for “advance time”) and make a record of it to be used later in the “TAPE FILE” program.
After you have all the pertinent information, you are ready to enter this data into the “TAPE FILE” program. Execute prompt #1.
The program will ask you for the name. When you have no more to enter, just press the ENTER key and the menu will return. There will be a pause whose length is determined by how large “n” is dimensionalized in line #10 before the menu returns. Figure about 3 1/2 seconds for every 10 programs.
You may have to shorten some of the data that is to be entered. Each prompt tells you how many characters maximum can be inputted.
The prompt asking for program subject can be answered with GAME, BUSNS, EDUC, GRAPH, MACH L, TUTOR, MATH, etc. If you don’t have a recorder counter, put in “AT” as determined above or any other type of tape location.
For the TAPE/SIDE prompt, enter the codes you use or use the format we outlined earlier.
For the last prompt, enter any miscellaneous information you want. A good entry might be the number of the position that the program occurs on the tape – such as, is it the first program? – the second? – the fourth?
Prompt #2 from the main menu brings the user to a secondary menu. Prompt #2 from the secondary menu allows the editing of a program name. Prompt #4 allows editing of the other items. Prompt #1 scrolls all the data up the screen and prompt #3 allows one set of program data to be displayed
With any of the name search routines from the secondary menu, the user does not have to enter the complete name to perform the search, only enough characters that are unique to the name being searched.
Prompt #3 from the main menu allows the file to be stored on tape.
Prompt #4 clears all data so that a new file can be started.
Prompt #5 allows data to be printed.
Prompt #6 allows data to be sorted by any of the entered fields. A good method is to define the priority of the sort fields. An example would be to first sort by PROGRAM NAME and then sort again by SUBJECT. If the data was then printed out, the SUBJECTs would be in alphabetical order with the PROGRAM NAMEs in alphabetical order by SUBJECT. Always perform the sorts in reverse order of priority.
“SUB-NINER” LT = :46
Enter your name and the game will begin. Nine nines will appear in a box with a single number under it. Your score starts out as 100 but decreases each time you take a turn.
The idea of the game is to change all of the nine nines to zeroes. You do this by choosing the row you want the single number subtracted from. That row will have its number then decreased by the amount of the single number.
Your score will decrease by one, every time you enter a row – except if the single number is larger than the number in the row you wish to have it subtracted from. Then, your score will decrease by the amount of the single number and the program will treat the row-number as if it had 10 added to it.
This game combines skill and luck so that if you learn the tricks, you can consistently get scores above 60 (my best score was 70).
High player/Score will be displayed.
“BULLETIN” LT = 3:37 RT = 15:24
Our bi-monthly bulletin board program. This month’s version really bulks out the 16K memory as evidenced by the message running time of 15 minutes and 24 seconds and the time taken to generate the screen graphics before the messages start and a lot of that is done with machine language.
To stop the scroll, press any key but BREAK. To restart, do the same thing.
To enter your own messages into this program, BREAK it and enter the lines:
11 INPUT A$
12 INPUT B$
36 LET A$=Q$ + A$ + Q$
37 LET B$=Q$ + B$ + Q$The first message entered will appear in the top rectangular box and the second message in the bottom rectangular box. The messages look better if entered in the graphics mode.