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Welcome one, welcome all to 1990's very first BIOS CALL! !!!
This column will (I hope) be printed in the January, '90 issue of the newsletter, and yet here it is only the middle of November. I'm sure that as Christmas gets a lot closer, there will be a lot of exciting things happening in ADAMLAND; but in light of extreme procrastination tendencies on my part, I'm going to try to get ahead a little <gasp>.
This column is being written entirely from memory, as I have neither an ADAM nor a list of the STARTER PAK with me at the moment. I'm writing this column on a very ADAM-CP/M compatible laptop computer, the NEC PC-5000. To digress for a moment, the NEC is a really great companion for the ADAMITE on the go. It has ROM-based software which consists of Wordstar, Calcstar, Telecom and Filer. These are all very scaled-down versions of their parent versions, but it seems as though I do a lot of pretty good stuff utilizing them.
The NEC is the second CP/M laptop that I've owned, the first being an EPSON PX-8. Both have their good and bad points, but I would like to point out a few things about the NEC. First off, it has a full 80x25 LCD screen which is VERY unusual for the early laptops. Tandy's model 100, which is probably the largest seller of the NON-MS machines, has only a 40x4 screen. Secondly, the built-in software negates the need to carry around software cartridges or programs, and is very good for most uses. On the down side, the NEC has no built-in storage device, although it has a 64k ram disk and an additional 128k ram disk can be had for only $12. It comes with a standard RS232C port and a centronics parallel printer port, making transfers to and from the ADAM a snap with a null modem. In addition, the NEC also has a built-in 300 bps modem, allowing for those nights away from home when you can hear Compuserve calling your name.
NEC ceased production of the PC-8500 several years ago, but they can still be had through wholesalers (or, as in my case, pawn shops) for under $200. NEC did produce an external drive chassis that housed other hardware capabilities, including a disk drive and an external monitor. I don't have one of these yet, but if you know someone who does and who would like to get rid of it at a reasonable price, please mention my name.
Well, I think that I've used enough space on that; but I would like to emphasize that many of the programs for the ADAM CP/M will work on the NEC, including the two programs I am going to cover tonight.
The first program I want to cover is probably one that you'll find yourself using more and more as your use of CP/M progreses. The program is called UNERAS.COM. As its name suggests, it was designed to UN-erase a file that has been erased using CP/M's ERA command.
The proper use of ERA is covered in the CP/M manual, so I'll only mention that it's very similar to UNERAS.
The command line
ERA A:BOB.TXT
will erase a file called BOB.TXT from drive A:. You can use ERA from any drive to any drive, as it is what's called a "transient" command, which is always there as long as CP/M is in memory.
Well, let's say that in our case, we got mad at BOB just after we'd finished a letter to him, so we erased his letter. But then BOB calls and apologizes for not sending the right number of stamps to cover the disk mailer, so we decide that we really DO want to send him a letter, but we really DON'T want to re-type it! Now we have two options: 1) We could just scribble him a note on the back of an old DDP label, or (2) we could try to recover the file.
WHAT? Recover a File ? But we thought that only the sophisticates of MS-DOS could do magic like that! Nope. That hasn't been true for a long time. We ADAMITES can recover files just like the big blues; as long as certain things have/haven't been done.
First of all, we're hackers, not wizards. So if we've already re-formatted the disk that BOB's letter was on, we can pretty much forget it. (I hear that there ARE a few gurus who might attempt such a trick, but I sure wouldn't want to be around to see it. )
Secondly, the disk can't have been "packed (if you don't recognize that term, fear not ! We'll cover that later, and besides, if you don't know it you probably haven't done it.)
Assuming the medium hasn't been reformatted or packed, then let's see if we can retrieve BOB's letter.
First off, transfer URERAS.COM from your STARTER PAK to the ddp that had BOB.TXT on it; or, if you have 2 drives, put UNERAS in one and BOB in the othewr. From there it's as easy as entering the command line:
UREAS A:BOB.TXT <Return>
Now, in order for UNERAS to work, YOU MUST HAVE THE FILENAME SPELLED EXACTLY RIGHT. Let me reiterate this: THE SPELLING MUST BE THE SAME!! No problem if your friend is BOB. On the other hand, if you happen to be pen pals with a few Romanian nationals, well, we can only hope.
If you don't get it spelled right, UNERAS will tell you in the form of the message, "FILE NOT FOUND." Try again, using the spelling you think your fingers might have used, rather than the name you SHOULD have used.
As with most CP/M programs, UNERAS can be used from and to almost any drive. And (this is kind of neat) it can also be used to UNERAS a file that was on your RAM disk (drive M:) as long as the two earlier conditions have been met AND you haven't turned off your ADAM. There was talk awhile ago of battery backup for the RAM disk, but I think it was just more VAPORware.
The next utility I want to tell you about is FILTA.COM. If you are still in love with SmartWriter or are still heavily into EOS, then this one is for you!
FILTA.COM is a filter program for CP/M that will filter out many different problems from several different types of files.
For example, if you have written a really great article for MOAUG's newsletter, but want to upload it to a few different bulletin boards around the country, then your best bet would be to use the XMODEM protocol to transfer the file. Unfortunately, neither ADAMLINK I or II have that capability, so you would probably resort to a CP/M-based terminal program.
Well, the first thing that you'd want to do is transfer the files from the EOS format to CP/M using ADAM.COM. Unfortunately, this process will occasionally ADD character garbage to your text file. Well, FILTA will get rid of that! FILTA is also very adept at straining out extraneous characters from WordStar files that you want to convert to SmartWriter use.
FILTA is a very simple program to use. The command is:
FILTA A:BOB.TXT <Return>
...where BOB.TXT is on drive A:. Your drive will spin awhile and then a screen of text and numbers will appear, informing you of the status of the program.
When it's done running, FILTA will tell you that it's done, as well as what functions it has performed upon that particular file. From that point on, the file should be almost universally ASCII, and useable by almost any computer anywhere.
NOTICE: In the past several months, a lot of confusion has beset my
computer desk and it has come to my attention that there are still a
few copies of CATPRTV1.4 (discussed in the December issue) that are
incomplete. If your copy uncrunches to less than 10k, then you have
an incomplete copy. So I'll tell ya what I'm gonna do! If you have a
bad copy, send me a disk (formatted and SYSGENed) with your bad copy of
CATPRT on it, and I'll not only give you a good copy, but I'll also fill
up the medium with GAMES or UTILITIES (please choose only one!) I just
catalogued the library again, so I've got a real good handle on where
everything is. Fair enough? I thought so.
One thing I will ask is that any time that you write, PLEASE include a self-addressed envelope with the postage on it. I know that it's a pain, but with this method your response time is ALMOST guaranteed to be overnight. Otherwise it may take awhile.
Questions? Comments? (Ixnay on the criticisms!!)
JEROME HESS PO BOX 678203 ORLANDO, FL 32867 (407) 671-1063
Okay, now you have the can and the amulet, so head Up to the surface,
then South to the Southern shore. You can see a cave to the South,
and it looks kind of dark. In fact, it *is* dark in there, which is
why you have the repellant. So, spray the smelly stuff on yourself, and
go South, and you will find yourself in a Dark Place. Go South again,
then East, and you will be in the key room. Whew! At least there's some
light in here! And by the light you can see a strange key. Get the key,
then move the manhole cover and go down.
And here you are on an aqueduct. Since you can't go back <the Grue
repellant wouldn't have lasted that long>, you might as well go
forward. So, just head along North and you will come to the Water
Slide. Go North down the slide, and guess where you are? In the Damp
Passage! And there's the torch, so pick it up, because you're certainly
going to need a light source...especially when you think of where you're
going next.
So, from the Damp Passage hike along West to the Junction <you can't get
the sword out of the rock, so don't even try>, then South into Creepy
Crawl, and Southwest into the Shadow Land. Here we come to another
variable portion of the game. You will have to wander around in the
Shadow Land until a cloaked and hooded figure appears. When that happens,
the sword will suddenly materialize in your hand, and you will be able
to fight.
However, since there's no way of telling when that will happen, you just
have to keep moving around until it does. At least you will get a chance
to practice some elementary map-making! Also, this is the most dangerous
part of the game, as the figure is quite capable of killing you, too! So,
best to save before you enter Shadow Land.
When the mysterious figure finally appears, attack him with your sword
until he is badly wounded and cannot defend himself. At that point, get
his hood. The figure will then disappear, leaving the cloak behind. Get
that also. Now, you have to get out of here, and I can't tell you exactly
how, since there's no way of knowing exactly where you were when the
fight started. However, if you go Eastwards, you will exit the Shadow
Land at either the Creepy Crawl or the Foggy Room. From either place,
go North to the Junction.
ZORK III Part Two
From the Junction, it's West through the Barren Area, and West again to
the Cliff. Bet you just can't wait to climb down the rope, huh? Well, pick
up the bread first, then go down to the ledge. Well, well, a chest! Too
bad you don't have a key to open it. In fact, there's no way for you to
open it at all. But don't despair, there's a way of doing it.
Just wait around and someone will come along the top of the cliff. You
may not really trust him, but tie the rope to the chest when he asks,
and wait around some more. Eventually, he will return and help you back
up the cliff. He will also give you a staff, which is what you're really
after here. Take the staff, then go back down to the ledge, and from
there, to the Cliff Base.
Now trek South to the Flathead Ocean, and do a little more waiting. Sooner
or later a ship will come floating by. As soon as you see it, say:
"Hello, Sailor." The man in the ship will throw something onto the beach
for you. Take a look, and you will see it's a vial. It'll come in handy
later, so pick it up. Now comes the fun part: You have to wait for the
earthquake <notice how you've been doing a lot of waiting around? I
hope you're a patient person!>. While you're waiting, you might want to
wander around a little, although you've been to most of the accessible
places by now. In any case, wherever you are, once the earthquake hits,
make your way to the Creepy Crawl, and from there East into the Tight
Squeeze, then East again into the Crystal Grotto. Then all the way South
to the Great Door, and East into the Museum Entrance.
Now, open the East door, then go North into the Museum. Look at the gold
machine <it's a time machine, in case you were wondering>, then set the
dial to 776. Here comes the fun part: Push the machine South into the
Entrance, then East into the Jewel Room. Get into the machine, and push
the button. Aha! Now you're back in 776 GUE, but the time machine seems
to have vanished! No matter, wait for the guards to leave, then get the
ring <and *only* the ring!>, then open the door, go out into the Entrance,
open the North door and go North.
By golly, the machine is right there! Put the ring under the seat, turn
the dial to 948, get in, and push the button. Whew, you're back in the
right time period again. Get out of the machine, look under the seat
<you will get the ring automatically when you do this>, then back South,
and South again, to the Royal Puzzle. Okay folks, you are about to enter the absolute nastiest part of the game. You must follow the instructions *EXACTLY* as given, or you will never get out. And, since it would be easy to make a mistake here, I strongly recommend you save the game. 1. Go Down the hole, then push the South wall. Then go East, South, East, East. Push the South wall, get the book, and push the South wall again. 2. Push the West wall twice. Then go East, South, and push the East wall.
3. Now, go straight North until you come to the marble wall, and push the East wall.
4. Now, go West, South, South, South, South, East, East, North, North, North, and push the West wall. 5. From there, go East, South, South, South, West, West, West, West, North, North, North, West, North. Push the East wall three times. 6. Now, West, West, South, South, East, East, South, and push the East wall. 7. Okay, now West, West, West, North, North, North, East, East, and push the South wall two times. 8. From there, West, South, South, East, East, North, and push the West wall two times. 9. Now, South, West, and push the North wall until it won't move any more. 10. Then West and North. Finally! You have maneuvered the ladder under the hole <which was the purpose of all this pushing and running around>, and now you can just go up and out! WHEW!!!! ZORK III Part Three Okay, you've solved the Royal Puzzle and you have the book, so go North to the Museum Entrance, then open the East door and get your other stuff from the Jewel Room. Then it's back West to the Great Door, and from there back to the Junction. Now, East into the Damp Passage, and NE to the Engravings Room. Well, we have here yet another <!> of those variable events: Sooner or later, an old man will be sleeping here. If he isn't there the first time you arrive, walk around a little and return. When you finally do see him, wake him up and give him the bread. He will eat it and then make visible to you a secret door. He will then vanish.
Okay, you're getting closer to the end! Open the door, and go into the Button Room, then North to the Beam Room. Put the sword in the beam, then go back to the Button Room and push the button. Now, back North to the Beam Room and North again into the Mirror Room. There will be an opening in the Mirror, so go North one more time, and you will be inside. Now, don't let the long and complicated descriptions scare you! It's not really as bad as you think <it's worse! heheheheh..just kidding!>. First, raise the short pole. Then, push the white panel twice. Now, push the pine panel, and go North. Okay, so here you are, standing a little too close for comfort to the Guardians of Zork. If I were you, I wouldn't try going past them quite yet! Open the vial, then drink the liquid. While nothing seems to have happened, you have in fact become invisible. Now you can walk North until you come to the locked door. Knock on the door, and the Dungeon Master will open it and let you in. All right, hang in there, you have reached the end game! Go North, then West, then North again. The DM will be following you. Go North to the Parapet, set the dial to 4, and push the button. Now, go South, open the cell door, and step inside. The DM will not follow you in. Once inside, you will notice a bronze door in one of the walls. However, you can't open it yet! Something else has to be done. And it will have to be done by someone else. So, first tell the DM to go to the Parapet. Then tell him to turn the dial to 1, and then tell him to push the button. All right!! The magic moment has arrived! Unlock the bronze door with the key, open the door, and go South! ***** TA DA!! ***** Finally, Zork is finished! You have survived all the perils, pitfalls, and puzzles, and now, *YOU* are the new Dungeon Master. Have fun!
walk North until you come to the locked door. Knock on the door, and the Dungeon Master will open it and let you in. All right, hang in there, you have reached the end game! Go North, then West, then North again. The DM will be following you. Go North to the Parapet, set the dial to 4, and push the button. Now, go South, open the cell door, and step inside. The DM will not follow you in. Once inside, you will notice a bronze door in one of the walls. However, you can't open it yet! Something else has to be done. And it wils is not friendly, but you can deal with him effortlessly: Just type in "Ulysses" (or "Odysseus," if you prefer). Old One-Eye will tear out of there right through the wall! In fact, he will create a passage eastward from that room right into the living room! However, you don't want to go that way yet! Instead, go upstairs, and you will be in the Treasure Room, the thief's secret lair. Now, give him the egg, and go back downstairs, then East to the living room. Deposit the coins in the case, then get the knife (the thief needs a little time to open the egg). Okay, go back West to the Cyclops room. Again, at this point, saving is recommended; the thief will not be easy to kill! So, head upstairs and use the nasty knife to kill the thief. Once he's dead, all treasures in the room will be visible. This includes the egg, a silver chalice, and anything he may have been stolen from you before. Get everything, then follow these directions: Down, NW, South, West, up, down, NE, and you will be in the Grating Room. Unlock and open the grate (watch out for falling leaves!), then go up. You will be in a clearing. From there, go South and climb the tree again. Wind up the canary that's inside the egg. A songbird will come by and drop a bauble for you. Climb down again and get the bauble, then return to the living room. Put all the treasures in the case, making sure you *REMOVE THE CANARY* from the egg and put it in the case separately! You're almost finished! Just one more trip to make! Now, for the last time, enter the cellar and go North. From the Troll Room, go East until you come again to the Loud Room. Type in: "Echo," and you will now be able to get the bar. So, grab it and return to the living room. Once you place it in the case, you will get a message. Follow the advice of that message, and you will get a map. Take that, and return to the place where this all started, the mailbox West of the house. You should have no trouble getting to the barrow from there. Of course, once you enter the barrow.... You didn't really think it would end there, did you? Not when there's still Zork II and Zork III waiting for you up ahead! Ah, but it's too late; you can't turn back now! You'll just have to grit your teeth and follow through to the end (with a little help, of course). See you in Zork II!
in the case, making sure you *REMOVE THE CANARY* from the egg and put it in the case separately! You're almost finished! Just one more trip to make! Now, for the last time, enter the cellar and go North. From the Troll Room, go East until you come again to the Loud Room. Type in: "Echo," and you will now be able to get the bar. So, grab it and return to the living room. Once you place it in the case, you will get a message. Follow the advice of that message, and you will get a map. Take that, and return to the place where this all started, the mailbox West of the house. You should have no trouble gettinge Dais, a wildly cheering crowd greets you! Fools! Don't they realize you're not here to dedicated the Heart of Gold, but to steal it? Ha! Wait until Trillian shows up and starts the charade. As she grabs you around your neck, rifle-brandishing guards rush onto the scene! As calmly as you can, tell the guards to drop their rifles. Trillian may hiss nasty remarks about yourineptitude in your ear, but ignore her. Now then, to complete your plan, tell Trillian to shoot the rifles that the guards have dropped! The crowd, deeply impressed, cheers wildly! Don't take time to take any bows, though, just head east and you find yourself in the.... Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of hearing, then head aft twice and down. Here you find the tool box, key, and seat cushion fluff. Unlock the tool box with the key. Inside you find a magnifying glass and a wrench. Put these twotools, the key, and the seat cushion fluff in the thing. Go up, fore and up to the Bridge. Flip the switch and you find yourself in the.... Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of smell, then SMELL. Ugh! What a repulsive odor that shadow has! Look at the shadow and you find yourself face toface with the stupidest creature in the Universe: The dreaded Bugblatter Beast of Traal! (Consult the Guide for further information about its stupidity.) As itroars toward you, it demands to know your name! Tell it that your name is DENT, then beat feet east! No time to linger! Get the stones you see here and then putyour towel over your head. The Beast is so incredibly dense, it believes that ifyou can't see it, it can't see you! While it's trying to remember where you are,take this opportunity to add your name to the memorial that has the names of allthe poor souls who've been unfortunate enough to have been invited for dinner bythe Beast. After carving your name on the memorial, the Beast (still living up to its reputation) looks at the memorial; and seeing your name carved there, decides that it must've eaten you already and curls up in its lair for a post-dinner snooze!
Remove your towel from your head and go back west and southwest to the Beast's Inner Lair. Reposing here, in eternal rest, is an alien skeleton clutching a Nutrimat Interface in its hand! Get the Interface and wait. Suddenly you find yourself captured and placed in a cage in a zoo! Amazingly, you've been mistakenfor the Bugblatter Beast! The nerve! Eventually, the zoo's error is duly discovered and you're released. Unfortunately, instead of being returned to the HOG, you've been given work as a paint scraper! After several months of experience, you are allowed to leave your job and take with you the tool of yourtrade...a paint chipper! Suddenly your surroundings shift and you find yourself in the....
Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of hearing, then LISTEN and go aft twice and port to the Galley. Open the Nutrimat panel, remove the circuit board and put the Interface in the panel. Close the panel and go starboard and up to the bridge. Put the chipper in the Thing, flip the switch and you find yourself in the.... Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of feeling, then FEEL. Odd, you seem to have your hand in some sort of liquid. Taste the liquid and you take a sip ofa nice white wine. It seems you're at a party! "WHO AM I" reveals that you're Tril to the Nutrimat and get another cup of tea! Touch the pad on the Nutrimat. As it whirrs to life, it gets completely confused regarding what it is you want and asks Eddie, the ship's computer, to lend it a hand. Eddie, in the meantime, has issued a warning that he's becoming overloaded with instructions and starts to panic! All around you, you hear shouts of anger, fear, hostility! Don't wait around for your tea, though! Go starboard and back up to the Bridge. When you arrive, you see that the HOG has, indeed, reached Magrathea! But the planet's inhabitants aren't to thrilled with this supposed invasion. Out the viewing screen, you see hundreds upon hundreds of missiles headed toward the HOG! No wonder everyone's panicking! Put the large plug in the large receptacle and flip the switch! As you watch the viewing screen in horror, you see the missiles turn into giant, harmless sperm whales! Ford, Trillian and Zaphod congratulate you on your fast thinking and return to their sauna, leaving you alone once more. (Whew...that was a CLOSE call!)
Go down and port back to the Galley. Sitting in the chute is a cup of Real Tea!Obviously the previous circuit board didn't know the molecular structure of realtea and the new Interface did! Get the real tea. As you pick it up, you find you've dropped no tea. Get No Tea. Wow...this is truly amazing! Well, no time towonder about this for long, so go starboard and back up to the Bridge. Remove the long dangly bit from the tea substitute and drop your real tea. Put the longdangly bit in the real tea, drop everything except the Babel Fish and the Thing and flip the switch. Strangely, you find yourself in the.... Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of touch, then FEEL. Your hand seems to be in some sort of liquid. Taste the liquid. UGH! It tastes like Whale Juice!My God! You're in the tummy of a giant Sperm Whale! Sitting here is a flowerpot.Get the pot, put it in the Thing and keep trying to go north until you find yourself back in the.... Dark. "LOOK" until you regain your sense of hearing, then LISTEN and go aft twice and up to the Bridge. By now you should have all four fluffs. Plant the fluffs, one at a time, in the pot. Wait until the fluffs start to sprout and yousee a tiny stem in the pot. (Consult the Guide about Fluffs and required growingconditions.) Hmmmm, warmth and moisture? That steam coming from port might just do the trick! Go port. In a couple of hours, you emerge a changed man with a changed plant! Examine the plant and you see it has, indeed, had a fit of furious growth! It has also produced a fruit! Take the fruit and eat it.
In addition to the wonderful flavor of the fruit, you find yourself having a dream about Marvin, the broken Hatch Mechanism and Marvin asking you to hand hima tool. Remember that tool (it changes from game to game). As your dream fades, drop everything except the Babel Fish. If you find that you haven't got the toolthat the dream told you about, Don't Panic! You'll find it in Marvin's Pantry (which is behind the Screening Door). If you do have it, though, get the required tool, the Real Tea (and pick up your No Tea!), and go up and aft to theScreening Door. If you fooled with trying to open this door at the beginning of the game, you know that it needs proof of your intelligence before it will allowyou to open it.
What better proof than the fact that you're carrying Tea and No Tea at the sametime!? Open the door. In your encounters with Marvin you have felt his waves of depression pouring over you whenever he enters the room. Well, right through this door is the absolute soul of his depression! Better drink something to calmyou before you enter here, so drink the Real Tea! Your quest for Real Tea was not wasted. The tea is the most calming, wonderful substance you've ever tasted!Go port through the door.
If you didn't have the required tool, you should see it here. Also here is Marvin, moross and despondent as usual. Tell Marvin to fix the Hatch. He'll grumble about nagging humans, but will tell you to meet him in the Hatch Mechanism Access in 12 turns. After he leaves (and you're sure you have the required tool), go starboard and down. Drop everything you're carrying except the Babel Fish and the required tool and go starboard again. After waiting awhile, Marvin will stalk into the room and look at the Mechanism. When he asks you to hand him the tool, do so. In short order, he repairs the Hatch Mechanism and leaves. Go port, open the Hatch and go down.
Timidly, you step down the steps. Eddie says something about humans who go out into strange environments without any clothing; but Zaphod, Trillian and Ford all urge your forward! As you plant your first step on the hitherto legendary planet of Magrathea, you wonder what fate awaits you! You'll have to wait to find out...in the sequel, perhaps?
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is copyrighted 1984 by Infocom, Inc.
The pi symbols are artifacts of the XMODEM download and should be removed or ignored.
ADAM Bios Patch V2.3
Introduction
The primary function of the ADAM Bios Patch program (ABP23.COM) is to modify the CP/M system provided by Coleco to properly support single-sided, double-sided or any combination of single- and double-sided disk drives. This software will also set up your system to fully support the new 3.5" 720K disk drives. For example, you can make Disk Drive 1 double-sided and keep Disk Drive 2 single-sided and CP/M will recognize that the two drives are different sizes. Other available double-sided drive patches do not allow this.
As a bonus, ABP23.COM makes other changes to the CP/M system to provide support for 2 serial cards (on user selectable I-O ports) and for a parallel printer port. It also fixes several errors in the original ADAM bios and adds a Hex/Decimal/Ascii/Binary
converter that is available whenever the WildCard key is presssed. As well, ABP23.COM provides support for Orphanware or Eve Electronic's 80 column display adapters. This support includes provision for SmartKey descriptions on line 25 of a 80 column monitor when permitted by the monitor or configuation of the display adapter. Finally, ABP23.COM provides support for large Ram Disks similar to the 256K unit supplied by Orphanware. Systems patched with ABP23.COM automatically adjust for the larger Ram Disk so that there is no need to repatch your CP/M system if you upgrade to a larger memory expander at a later date. Because the adjustment is automatic, you will not be asked about the size of your memory expander. As a by-product of the adjustment process, the effective size of the standard 64K expander will be increased from 56K to 61K.
The errors corrected by this program include:
1) The contents of the Ram Disk will remain intact through a Computer Reset though not through a power-down.
2) DIR will now report the correct directory whenever disks are changed.
3) CP/M's random write function will now work correctly under all circumstances.
4) The original Bios had an error that sometimes caused damage to the disk directory. This is now fixed.
Program Requirements
Adam Bios Patch has the following minimum system requirements:
One data drive and CP/M 2.2 for the Adam.
Of course, if you wish to make full use of the program, a double- sided drive such as those sold by In-House Service Reps or an upgrade to either 320 or 720K by Orphanware or Eve Electronics is highly desirable.
Backing Up Adam Bios Patch
It is strongly recommended that you create at least two backup copies of Adam Bios Patch before attempting to use the program. one of the copies will be your working copy of ABP23.COM while the other will be your primary backup copy. The distribution disk should not be used again unless some disaster destroys the working and the primary backup copies.
Adam Bios Patch is not copy-protected so making a backup is a relatively simple procedure. Use PIP.COM or COPY.COM to copy the ABP23.COM to two CP/M formatted disks that have at least 6K of free space available. STAT.COM can be used to verify that 8K is available on the destination disk.
Examples:
A>PIP C:ABP23.COM=A:ABP23.COM<return> or A>COPY A:ABP23.COM C:<return>
The two examples copy ABP23.COM from drive A to drive C. When the two backup copies are made, put the distribution disk away in a safe location.
Using ADAM Bios Patch
Insert your working copy of ADAM Bios Patch in the appropriate drive and at the CP/M command prompt, run the program as follows:
A>ABP23 <return>
Once the program is loaded, the screen will clear and you will be asked for the drive to be patched. You can either respond with a drive designation, A to D, or you can respond Z for no drive. The latter choice is used when you just want to patch the system that is already in memory, for example, if you want to temporarily reconfigure a double-sided drive for single-sided operation.
At this point you should remove the ADAM Bios Patch disk and put the disk with the system that you intend to patch in the appropriate drive.
Once you have selected the drive to patch, you will be asked to select the size of disk drive 1 (Check the switches on the back of your drives to determine which is disk 1 and which is disk 2). Note that the sizes presented in the menu are the amount of free space available on an empty disk...in other words, the disk size as reported by programs such as STAT.COM or SD.COM. The actual physical size of the disk is bigger but the space for the system tracks and directory has been deducted.
The 3 choices are:
0 - 145K (no change) 1 - 254K (medium-sized double-sided) 2 - 304K (full-sized double-sided) 3 - 720K (full-sized quad-density)
If disk drive 1 is single-sided or if you wish to reconfigure a double-sided disk to be a single-sided one, chose option 0.
If disk drive 1 is double-sided, select options 1 or 2. A disk drive configured according to option 1 can read from or write to conventional ADAM single-sided disks but it does not make full use of the double-sided drive. Option 2 does make full use of the double-sided drive but it cannot read from or write to a conventional ADAM single-sided disk. Under most circumstances, option 1 should be selected. Option 2 should be selected only when you are certain that you will not need to read from or write to a standard ADAM disk with the double-sided drive on a regular basis such as when you only own double-sided drives and all your frequently used standard format disks have been converted to the 304K format. The final option would only be used if you happen to own one of the new 720K 3.5" disk drive upgrades from Orphanware. This option will permit you to use it with your other drives whether single or double sided. The above considerations regarding inability to access other sized drives unless patched for them still apply.
Converting disks from single-sided to double-sided format is simply a matter of copying the files on the single-sided disk to a double-sided formatted disk in an appropriately configured double-sided drive. You must use PIP.COM, COPY.COM or another file copy utility such as the public domain NSWEEP.COM (highly recommended) for the copying process. Do not use BACKUP.COM. If you have only one disk drive, you must first copy your files to an intermediate drive such as your ram disk (M:) or tape drive with your double-sided drive configured according to options 0 or 1, reconfigure your disk drive to options 1,2 or 3, and then recopy the files back to the disk drive.
Once the size of disk drive 1 has be selected, you will be asked to select the size of disk drive 2 according to the same options as disk drive 1. Note the disk drive 2 can be larger or smaller than disk drive 1. The two drives do not have to be the same size.
The next two menus permit you to configure the default settings of two serial ports. Naturally, if you do not have a serial card or an 80 column display adapter, these steps can be skipped.
Serial port 1 is a general purpose port and corresponds to the CP/M physical device TTY:. It can be accessed by all of the CP/M logical devices (CON:, PUN:, RDR: and LST:). Serial port 2 is a special purpose port, intended for communication with a external terminal or another 80 column display adapter such as those supplied by Eve Electronics or Orphanware. It can be accessed by the logical devices CON:, PUN: and RDR:, not by LST:. Though serial port 2 is intended to be used with a terminal, it can be used with other peripherals such as a modem. However, it is not recommended for use with a printer since serial port 2 can not be accessed as the LST: device.
The serial port menu allows you to set the base port address, the baud rate, parity, number of stop bits, and the number of bits per word. The most important setting is the base port address. All of the commercially available serial cards for the ADAM use 4 consecutive I-O ports of the ADAM's Z80 microprocessor to control the operation of the serial card. The base port address is the first of those ports. Check the documentation of your serial card for the appropriate setting. Orphanware documentation refers to port 44H as port A, 54H as port B, 4CH as port C and 5CH as port D. 44H is the most common setting and is, for example, used by the Eve SP-1. If your documentation does not tell you what ports the serial card uses and 44H does not work, try the alternative port settings until the peripheral attached to the serial card gives an indication that the card is working. For example, seeing the DTR indicator on an external modem light up shows that the serial card is working. Trying to access the serial port through a wrong address will harm neither the computer or the serial card. Do not use port 5CH if you have an AdamLink modem. The AdamLink modem also uses this port and so your serail card should not use that port in order to avoid conflicts.
Now set the baud rate, parity, number of stop bits and bits per word according to the requirements of the peripheral connected to the serial card (check the peripheral's documentation for the correct settings). You will likely find that the settings already in effect (1200 baud, no parity, 1 stop bits, and 8 bits per word) to be satisfactory.
Repeat this procedure for serial port 2 if required. Once again check the documentation of your serial card or peripheral for the appropriate settings. The setings for Serial port 2 (base port 54H, 19200 baud, 8 bits per word, 1 stop bit and no parity) are already setup to work with the Orphanware 80 column display adapter. If you have the Eve version, change the base port to 4CH and the baud rate to 9600. 8 bits per word, 1 stop bit and no parity are fine for the Eve 80 column unit.
Once the two serial ports are configured, you will be asked to select the default IOBYTE setting. The IOBYTE determines where the ADAM gets its inputs from and where it sends its output. For a more complete description of the IOBYTE please refer to your CP/M manual. The following table summarizes the IOBYTE settings as supported by this patch program. Note that the LST: device supports a parallel printer port such as found on the Eve SP-1 or Orphanware's PIA-2.
Logical Physical Device
Device Input Output
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1) Console
CON: TTY: serial port 1 serial port 1 CON: CRT: keyboard television CON: BAT: keyboard serial port 2 CON: UL1: serial port 2 serial port 2
2) Reader
RDR: TTY: serial port 1 n.a. RDR: PTR: keyboard n.a. RDR: UR1: serial port 2 n.a. RDR: UR2: keyboard n.a.
3) Punch
PUN: TTY: n.a. serial port 1 PUN: PTP: n.a. television PUN: UP1: n.a. serial port 2 PUN: UP2: n.a. television
4) Printer (List device)
LST: TTY: n.a. serial port 1
LST: CRT: n.a. television
LST: LPT: n.a. ADAM printer
LST: UL1: n.a. parallel printer port
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For example, if you have an 80 column display using the ADAM keyboard and a dot matrix printer using the Orphanware printer port or the Eve SP-1, set CON: = BAT: and LST: = UL1:. If you want to use the ADAM with an external terminal including keyboard, set CON: = UL1:.
Next, you will be asked if you wish to display the description of your SmartKeys on line 25 of an 80 column monitor. Only respond yes if you have an 80 column display adapter that is set to a Heath H19 emulation mode and if your monitor supports a 25th line; most but not all do. Check your documentation. If your adapter does not come from the supplier in H19 mode, it can be generally reset through software or DIP switches to emulate a Heath H19 display. Also, your 80 column display adapter may have to be set to operate in the 50 Hz vertical refresh mode. Once again check your documentation for specific procedures.
If you reply yes, the 25th line will display the appropriate SmartKey number in inverse video, followed by the 10 character SmartKey description that was set by CONFIG.COM. Below you will find an assembly language subroutine that you can include in your own programs to provide custom SmartKey descriptions and responses.
Finally, you will be asked if serial port 2 is configured to run an Eve 80 column display such as the VD-MB. Only answer yes if you have an Eve unit set to run off serial port 2. Other ADAM owners, including those with the Orphanware video display adapter, should answer no.
After you have replied to this last prompt, ABP23 will read in part of the system tracks from the selected drive, modify the system and write the changes back to disk. The same changes will also be made to the system already in memory. If you replied "Z" to the drive to patch prompt, only the system in memory will be patched. This allows you to make temporary changes to try out various features of the patch program.
Hex/Decimal/Ascii/Binary Converter
Once your system has been patched, you will have a full-time Hex/Decimal/Ascii/Binary converter available to you whenever the computer is waiting for keyboard input. Simply press the Wildcard key followed by the appropriate entry and you will see its hex, decimal, ascii and binary equivalents as follows:
HH DDD AA BBBBBBBB where HH = hex equivalent (0-FF) DDD = decimal equivalent (0-255) AA = ascii equivalent (control characters start with a "^ and character beyond DEL are highlighted)
1) A hex number is entered by pressing <wildcard> followed by an "h" or"H" and a hex number between 0 and 7F. A bad entry will produce meaningless results but it will not crash the computer.
2) A decimal number is entered by pressing <wildcard> and any decimal number between 0 and 255.
3) An ascii value is entered by pressing <wildcard> followed by the single quote "'" and the appropriate key. For example, to see the equivalents of "M" enter <wildcard>'M<cr>.
4) A binary value is entered by pressing <wildcard> followed by a "b" or "B" and eight 1's and 0's. All eight binary digits must be entered to get a valid response. For example, to see the equivalent of binary 2 enter <wildcard>B00000010<cr>
Note that though the program that you interrupted to run the conversion doesn't know that it has been interrupted, your screen display has been affected ie the output of the conversion is still displayed. For most programs this will represent no problem since it will just continue where it left off. However, for full screen programs such as word processors, the conversion output covers up useful information and the cursor is no longer in the right space. The cursor can be returned to its correct place by pressing the cursor right and left keys (in Wordstar ^D and ^S) and the display can be corrected by displaying a new page and then returning to the original page.
Additions and Modifications to the BIOS Jump Table
The following is a list of the new routines added to the BIOS jump table to support the two serial cards and the 25th line SmartKey display.
Address Description-----------------------------------------------------------------
Input - address of new descriptions saved at memory locations 044/045H Output - none
0DA69H Output to serial port 1
Input - character to output in register C Output - none
0DA6CH Input from serial port 1
Input - none Output - character in register A
0DA6FH Status of serial port 1 output
Input - none Output - 0FFH in register A if ready to send 0 if not ready
0DA72H Status of serial port 1 input
Input - none Output - 0FFH in register A if character ready 0 if none ready
0DA75H Initialize serial ports 1 and 2
Input - none Output - none
0DA78H Output to serial port 2
Input - character to output in register C Output - none
0DA7BH Input from serial port 2
Input - none Output - character in register A
0DA7EH Status of serial port 2 output
Input - none Output - 0FFH in register A if ready to send 0 if not ready
0DA81H Status of serial port 2 input
Input - none Output - 0FFH in register A if character ready 0 if none ready______________________________________________________________
Note: the serial port input and output routines wait until a
character is received or sent before returning to the controlling
program. To prevent your program from hanging, use the status
routines to check to see if the serial port is ready.
Example Subroutine to Set Custom SmartKey Values
;The ADAM BIOS stores pointers to the SmartKey descriptions ; (what you see in your display) and the SmartKey values ; (what happens when you press a SmartKey) in two locations ; in page 0. Changing those pointers to ones pointing to ; your own descriptions and values allows you to put custom ; SmartKey displays in your own program. This subroutine ; makes use of those pointers and the new BIOS routine to ; set up a custom SmartKey display on line 25.
SmtOn: LXI H,smartkey ;get the pointer to the new smartkey
; descriptions SHLD 44H ;put it in page 0 LXI H,smartvalue ;get the pointer to the smartkey values SHLD 42H ;put that in page zero CALL 0DA54H ;call the new BIOS routine RET ;return to calling program ;This subroutine restores the system smartkeys
SysSmt:LXIH ,0DC9DH ;pointer to system SmartKey descriptions
SHLD 4H ;put in page 0 LXI H,0DCD9 ;pointer to system SmartKey values SHLD 43H ;in page 0 CALL 0DA54H ;call new BIOS routine RET ;return to caller ;custom SmartKey descriptions (fill in your own values)smartkey:
DB '1234567890' ;SmartKey 1 (10 characters long - must ; be space filled) DB '1234567890' ;2 DB '1234567890' ;3 DB '1234567890' ;4 DB '1234567890' ;5 DB '1234567890' ;6
;custom SmartKey valuessmartvalue:
DB '123456789abcdef' ;SmartKey 1 (16 characters - include ;the hex value for carriage return ;0DH as the last character in the ;return string only if you want the ;command to be executed immediately ;- fill any leftover space with hex 0 DB '123456789abcdef' ;2 DB '123456789abcdef' ;3 DB '123456789abcdef' ;4 DB '123456789abcdef' ;5 DB '123456789abcdef' ;6 ;to turn on and off line 25, refer to your display adapter's ;documentation. The standard ADAM procedure will not work.
ADAM NEWS NETWORK [A.N.N.] is a monthly service which makes available to Adam newsletter editors, BBS syops, AUG officers, etc. a pool or source of Adam information on disk.
This includes articles, reviews, product information, programs, news, etc. from many Adam sources. Most newsletters, BBS and AUGS are cooperating in this venture by supplying or making available Adam information for distribution by A.N.N.
A minimum of 250 K of material is distributed monthly on disk . Normally two disk sides are sent with each monthly mailing. This service previously only available to newsletters, BBSs, AUGS, etc. is now being made available to Adamites in general on a subscription basis.
A trial month is available for $4.00. 3 months for $ ll.00. 6 months for $ 20.00 and 12 months for $35.00. ADD $2.00/tape for DDP.
Contact A.N.N. % Barry Wilson, 12967 Weatherfield Dr. St.Louis Mo. 63l46. Checks payable to Barry Wilson .
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The various articles, reviews, information, etc. on the A.N.N. disks are also being collected and organized into special interest disks, which will include the following:
*Game Reviews, SW Reviews Logo CP/M Graphics (Basic) *Hardware *Telecommunications *BASIC BarryPatch (Humor) *INFOCOM Machine Language GoDOS * AVAILABLE NOW
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Specific authorization has been given to the participating newsletters, BBSs and AUGS to freely reprint and to distribute in accordance with the current A.N.N. distribution list & file.
A.N.N. disks are available at PD prices but are copyrighted.
This is necessary to help with the costs of media, postage, mailers, long distance, etc. necessary to both obtain the information for the A.N.N. disks as well as the costs involved in distribution of them.
A3 03:29 Oct-27-1989
TO: Dictionary FROM: Dave Tidman AWAUG 143
SUBJ: def.
CP/M : 1) Control Program Monitor.
A4 04:51 Nov-03-1989
TO: ANYONE
FROM: Dave Tidman AWAUG 143
SUBJ: tdos
Could some one please tell
me just what t-dos is ?
What I've heard is pretty
interesting, but I don't
really know how it differs
from CPM.
A5 11:08 Nov-04-1989
TO: Whom concern
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: TDOS vs CPM 2.2
CPM (Control Program
Monitor)is another OS
(Operating System) that
available for the ADAM
beside EOS (smartBASIC),an
OS is a collection of
machine language routine
that handle tasks (read
keyboard,print a
character...),it get
information needed from
you (keyboard) or a
program then figure out
what to do thought a
lock-up table (called OS
Entry table) . All the EOS
functions is loaded into
memory at BOOT time. On
CPM, most of the functions
is on the disk (or tape)
and get loaded into memory
as needed and cleared off
when done, that why CPM is
an DOS (Disk Operating
System). In CPM, CCP
(Console Command
Processor) is the part
that doing the interface
between you (from
keyboard) or from program
at TPA (Transient Program
Area) to the BDOS (Basic
Disk Operating System),
this BDOS is the same for
any computer that run CPM.
The BDOS then figure out
what to do and use the
BIOS (Basic Input/Output
System )to carry out the
tasks, this BIOS is
different between one
computer to another
because it's the part that
actualy doing all the
communication task between
CCP (computer) and the
peripherals which have all
the hardware differentlly.
The BIOS talking to the
peripherals through the
routines called driver,
this is where one OS is
better than another
because the way how they
handle (Continue next
message)
A6 11:08 Nov-04-1989
TO: Whom concern
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: continue TDOS
the task faster, getting
data to and from
peripherals faster.. and
support more peripherals,
additional devices. The
original CPM 2.2 from
COLECO (Digital Research
Inc.) does not support
newer RS-232 serial
interface, Parallel
printer, Double sides disk
drive... and a lot of
other newly developed
devices available for the
ADAM. that why one of ADAM
expert programmer had
wrote TDOS (Thanks a lots
to him), a new CPM for
ADAM that run faster,
built in more functions
and support much more
devices including new 720k
disk drive,20,30
mega-bytes harddisk and
the 80 Col. video display
terminal. MT
A7 12:10 Nov-06-1989
TO: Minn Tah
FROM: Dave Tidman AWAUG 143
SUBJ: tdos
that helps a lot Minn.
Thanks
A8 02:50 Nov-11-1989
TO: Minh Tah
FROM: Richard Bailey AWAUG 6
SUBJ: TDOS
Is it a good idea to use
TDOS even if you don't
have all the new things
for the Adam, like double
sided drive, parallel
printer, etc? I use CPM
most of the time with an
80-column monitor and an
Adam printer, Adam disk
drive, and 64K ram pack.
Do you think I should
switch to TDOS?
A9 11:00 Nov-11-1989
TO: Richard Bailey
FROM: Rob Friedman [CISOP] 47
SUBJ: TDOS
Yup.. you should switch.
Very few program will not
run under TDOS <Write-
Hand-Man is one of them>.
with TDOS's extra TPA, and
built in commands, it's a
lot nicer to use. Having
the DU: option like ZCPR
is a great boon. USER is
gone as a command.
A10 08:42 Nov-12-1989
TO: Richard bailey
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: TDOS
Hi there, I think Rod
Friedman is right on his
comment about TDOS, You
should switch (but do
throw the old CP/M 2.2
into the trash can, it may
be good for some things
else...). MT
A11 08:42 Nov-12-1989
TO: Richard bailey
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: mis spell
I am very sorry,in the
previous message, I mis
spell the word DO NOT to
A12 08:42 Nov-12-1989
TO: Richard Bailey
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: mis spell
I am very sorry,in the
pervious message, I mis
spell the word DO NOT to
DO Please DO NOT throw the
old CP/M 2.2 into the
trash can, it had it's
value in some other
application and you did
paid some money for it, so
I repeat, DO NOT throw it
away. MT
A13 10:50 Nov-12-1989
TO: Minh Ta
FROM: Ricki J. Gerlach 48
SUBJ: 300 Baud modem
Is it true that you have
been able to change the
ADAMLink modem to 1200 Bd
internal modem ? And if so
do you do it, or can
anyone do it? Thanks.
Ricki
A14 08:25 Nov-14-1989
TO: Min or Bob or anyone
FROM: Dave Tidman AWAUG 143
SUBJ: File extensions
The are several file
extensions like RLE, LBR,
etc that really I have no
idea what they're for or
about. Could someone take
a few moments and list
them out ? I do know about
.com,.txt, .doc, .lbr, but
the larger number of them
act like ".?????" for me.
I need a "Dave.HLP"
A15 06:20 Nov-14-1989
TO: Dave Tidman
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: FILE.EXT
Hi there, the files with
.RLE extension is a
picture files that have
been digitized from some
unknown source (best to my
knownledge). You can
display them on ADAM by a
program called VIEW.COM.
About the .LBR, you need
to delibrary it to figure
out what in there (unless
if some one have a
description file accompany
with that .LBR file. There
will be one day you may
see my picture (of my
self-image !) in MT.RLE (I
hope.!..) MT
A16 06:20 Nov-14-1989
TO: Ricki J. Gerlach
FROM: Minh Ta AWAUG 16
SUBJ: Modem
Hi there, I only converse
the ADAM 300 BPS modem to
be a programmable serial
(50 to 19200 BPS) adapter
for ADAM. The advantage is
you can use any External
modem (1200 or what ever)
with any software you
already had for the ADAM
300 baud without any
modification needed (no
patches..). However, I did
look at a posibility to
have a 1200 BPS MODEM made
by WORLD-CHIP in a single
chip, but it cost more
that way (the modem chip
cost 25 buck by it self)
while you could by a 1200
baud modem for 50 bucks.
MT
A17 01:43 Nov-15-1989
TO: Min
FROM: Dave Tidman AWAUG 143
SUBJ: .ext
Thanks Min. There's a few
others I still dont
undstnd and I'll note them
when I see them. If you
could define them too it'd
help lots. that way I'll
know what to do with some
of these files ... Dave.
PS... Are you feeling
better now?
A18 01:14 Nov-17-1989
TO: Anyone
FROM: Nat Eiseman AWAUG 123
SUBJ: file extensions
What is a CPM file
extension and what do you
do with it? Know I have
heard an answer to this
some time ago but don't
seem to have any notes on
it. Any and all help
appreciated.--Nat
A19 07:11 Nov-18-1989
TO: Nat Eiseman
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: file extensions.
They are the last three
characters of a CP/M file
name; eg. ANYFILE.DOC The
DOC is the file extension.
It's purpose is to
identify what type of file
it is. The most common
file extensions are COM
(command file), DOC
(Document or text file),
TXT (another identifier
for text file), LBR (a
group of files assembled
into a single "library"
file - can be disassembled
with NULU.COM and others),
ARC or ARK (like library
files but called an
"archived" file. UNARC.COM
extractsthem.
""SERIAL\LOGIC"" SYSOP
ID# is 3.
bob
A20 12:11 Nov-20-1989
TO: Bob Blair
FROM: Nat Eiseman AWAUG 123
SUBJ: myfile.cpm
Inmy last message I
was referring to CPM as a
file extension, e.g.
arcadd.cpm (the current
problem file), not to cpm
files in general. Sorry
for not being more
specific. Thanks. --Nat
A21 04:17 Nov-20-1989
TO: Nat Eiseman
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: myfile.cpm
Try renaming the file to
MYFILE.COM and run it as a
command program. It may
work. bob
A22 09:43 Nov-23-1989
TO: Nat Eiseman
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: .CPM
Did converting the .CPM to
.COM work?? Bob
A23 05:17 Dec-02-1989
TO: Anyone
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: CP/M
If you accidentally erase
(era) something, you can
get it back by using a
program called XRASE.COM
(sometimes is has numbers
after it, like xrase33 -
those are version
-improvement-
identifiers). Xrase is
located on this BBS. To
find it, us the L command
(for locate) in any file
section. Type L
xrase33.com and press
return. When you
accidentally erase
something, do not store
anything else (that is,
use xrase right away). To
use xrase just type
exrase, skip a space, then
type the name of the
program lost (full and
exact name) and press
return. It will restore
the lost file. Since all
that happens when you
erase something is a
directory change, which
makes the space used by
the body of the
document/program available
for reuse, the xrase
reenters the program name
in the directory as it was
previous to the erasing.
To exit from xrase, do a
control + C. Bob
A24 01:06 Dec-05-1989
TO: Bob Blair
FROM: Nat Eiseman AWAUG 123
SUBJ: myfile.cpm
I renamed the files
with .cpm extension to
.com files and they worked
fine. Thanks for the
tip!--Nat.
A25 07:53 Dec-09-1989
TO: CPM Buff's
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: Utility Program
the most versatile CP/M
utility program I have
found is called
NEWSWEEP.COM. It is public
domain and located here on
the BBS (use the L command
in any of the files
sections and ask for
NEWSWEEP.COM to locate
it). With it you can list
files on a drive
(alphabetically), delete
files, rename files,
switch from one drive to
another quickly, print
files, view files on the
screen, transfer files
singly or in groups from
one drive to another,
unsqueeze files, and use
wildcards to use these
functions on groups of
files. I find that I use
Newsweep daily. It has
it's own listing of
commands. Just type
Newsweep and press return
to activate the commands
on the current drive, or
type Newsweep B or C (no
colon needed) to use it on
another drive. Get to
know it - you won't be
sorry. Bob
A26 03:17 Dec-19-1989
TO: Anybody
FROM: Bob Blair AWAUG 3
SUBJ: ADAM Tip
One way to make a tape
stop spinning (like when
the dinner bell rings and
the tape would take 5
minutes to boot), is to
press reset and hold it in
the pressed position, the
tape normally stops.
Another tape matter is:
you may have tried to copy
a game tape with a block
copier (like Uncle
Ernie's Toolkit, JKL
Utilities, Backup 3+,
etc.) but the tape will
not work. Sometimes game
tapes are made using a
"right side directory" (on
the far right side of the
tape) ranther than a
normal "center directory"
as normally comes on the
blank formatted tapes you
buy. By the way, AWAUG
can provide you with rite
side directory tapes (club
members only, $2.00 each),
on request. Bob
A usually reliable but unnamed source has told this reporter that his brother's wife's second cousin who dates a security guard at the Court House, over heard two assistant prosecuting attorneys talking in the Men's room at the Court house and it appears that ..............................
Based on a complaint by the National Association of Women in Computers (NOWIC) the Justice department is seriously considering a full scale investigation of sexual discrimination by Adamites.
Citing the fact that NO BBS SYSOPS are women and ONLY TWO NEWSLETTER EDITORS are women, an investigation was considered. The fact which will apparently tip the scales and cause the actual investigation is of course, the fact that our computer uses a MALE NAME---ADAM rather than a gender neutral name.
As Adamites, AUG officers, Sysops and Newsletter Editors huddle together to attempt to head off this investigation, there are rumors that a goal of not less than 45% female participation will be required to head off this investigation. This means that 45% of the BBS Sysops will have their choice of (l) moving the letter "r" in the word Board (BBS) three spaces to the left turning the word Board into Broad and probably also turning control of the broad, I mean board over the board or I mean to the broad or something like that OR (2) male sysops will have to voltuntarily undergo a sex change operation.
COULD THIS BE THE REAL REASON BJ IS GOING TO JAPAN ????
Likewise the 2 present Newsletter editors will count towards the 45% goal but there are a few newsletter editors who will have to undergo sex change operations, as the alternative suggestion of just cross-dressing will probably not be sufficent to satisfy those critics of the male dominated Adam Computer.
The above two steps are probably the easiest of those necessary to resolve this problem.
The really hard step is to change ADAM to AEDVAEM or some other combination of the words Adam and Eve. This will mean new labels for hardware, software, documents, etc. Wherever the word Adam appears the new compromise word (I personally prefer ADEVEAM, which backwards is MAEVEDA, an ancient Indian incantation to the spirit of sex neutral gender netrual words).
In any case, this reporter will continue to keep you uptodate on developements in this area.
I would also urgently request that several of you female Adamites ( or Evites) consider becoming a reporter on our computer or several of you male reporters consider the sex change operation, as I fear for my own ........****..................
****[Editor: censored, a rough translation would have to do with parts of anatomy which are gender related].
[Reporter's name & whereabouts withheld at his request]
LOOKING BACK The Best Of AIM by Terry R Fowler
SmartFILER - Allows up to 1000 records, each with 32 fields, of which 4 may be designated as searchable.
SmartWRITER - Deletion of a file does NOT delete the stored material. It only erases the stored name from the directory menu. When the directory is area on the datapack is full, no more files may be stored EVEN when plenty of room exists according to the BLOCKS LEFT information displayed using SmartBASIC.
The 160K DISK DRIVE was originally sold for $289. MODEMS originally sold for $100, ADAMCALC sold for $75, CP/M2.2 sold for $80, as did SmartLOGO.
Versions of SMARTFILER before Revision 27d will not sort more than 255 entries. To see your revision number, after the program loads and SmartKEYS are displayed, press the CONTROL KEY and the "R" KEY together. This also works on SmartWRITER (R79 or R80), ADAMLINK (R12, R12X12, R13X15 depending on whether you have ADAMLINK II, III, or III+), DISK MANAGER (15.0) after the system is first powered up. A block will be displayed onscreen which lists the revision number of the Software. In SmartBASIC V1, type "? peek(260) to see your revision - 79.
DEATH SPIN - SmartWRITER begins a loop (indicated by the pointer on the left side of the screen scrolling down over and over again) when certain events are encountered while storing a file. If at first the "NO MORE ROOM" message is displayed, and then an old file is DELETED from the menu to provide space for storage, when the file is then saved it will attempt to store the file and then RESTORE the original data while displaying the message, "RESTORING FILE." The spin may continue for 10 or 15 minutes ending with control being returned to the operator, or the ADAM may freeze and require a reset --- loosing all the text in the workspace. This is the single most encountered BUG in SmartWRITER.
SmartWRITER will place a space and a half on any line with only the RETURN symbol. A nonprinting character can be placed in front of the RETURN to overcome this problem. Try using the CONTROL KEY and "6" together before the RETURN. Although you can see the symbol onscreen, it will not print and resolves the printer problem.
If it happens that you need to place a RETURN at the end of a line so that the next line can be INDENTED, but you find you get a Buzz, rather than using the INSERT function (time consuming), just go to the end of the line and use the backspace key. Then space over and you will be able to add the RETURN.
UNDERLINE BUG - Problems occur when you reset your left margin to 1 and begin the line with an underlined word. There is no fix other than to set the margin at 2 in this situation.
SmartWRITER will not recognize a disk drive unless power is applied to the disk drive FIRST before turning on the ADAM System. SmartWRITER will not recognize a SECOND Disk Drive because the software was not completely written. The information needed at the time was not available.
SmartWRITER will freeze if the PRINTER Platen and gear assembly jams. Generally a high pitch tone from the printer indicates a problem. Rolling the platen back and forth will free the jam.
APPLESOFT and SMARTBASIC are only compatible insofar as the words used in the command language. However, many programs contain more than just Command Words (like LIST or GOTO). The memory locations are completely different where the execution of each command takes place.
INITIATING a disk will not allow 255 blocks of storage space even though the disk directory indicates it. To properly INIT your disk, type this first (in the immediate mode): POKE 25305,160 followed by the RETURN KEY.
Transferring text files using ADAMCALC may result in the file having gaps throughout the document. This occurs due to the way SmartWRITER line wraps each line. Those spaces are created because the file is saved or stored with the spaces at the end of each line.
When you INITIALIZE a Datapack, the old directory is stored in block 0. In this way, a program can be used to restore the old directory back to block 1, returning the datapack back to its original form.
When a DATAPACK wears out, the Directory area located in block 1 is the area of the tape to first begin showing signs of trouble since it is the most used portion of the datapack. The dreaded message, "CANNOT ACCESS THIS DATAPACK" appears, and only repeated attempts may provide access. Immediately make a backup copy before it is too late!
When a specific FILE on a Datapack cannot be ACCESSED, editing the directory can recover at least part of the file. The procedure works by changing the length of the file just prior to the file named in the directory in block 1 so that when the file loads it will load all information specified according to the length. It will be necessary to delete the first file information, some codes or garbage, and possibly retyping a portion of the document.
When revising a SmartWRITER File and storing it, the first version of the file becomes a BACKUP FILE on the datapack. If you use the CLEAR SCREEN COMMAND to eliminate unwanted text, the file name information will ALSO be deleted so that attempting to store the file will result in the message, "FILENAME ALREADY EXISTS".
SEARCH (in SmartWRITER use) will not search beyond any END PAGE MARKER used in your document. If you wish to quickly reach the end of a long document, use the search command while searching for "###."
PRINT HEAD - If your printer head goes to the right, or if it beats against the side of the case on the left, the problem is in the REED SWITCH located either on the printer head or on the left side of the case. It can be cleaned or adjusted with small bends (contacts should be closed in the normal position).
When saving text to a datapack, save your material often. Break the document into small "chapters" or sections. When you are ready to print, append all files into one file.
In SmartWRITER the controller keypad can be used to input numbers into memory and the joystick can be used to move the cursor.
With multiple block DIRECTORIES, SmartWRITER will display the first part of the directory. To see the rest of the directory do the following: Move the ARROW across to the top left name, press the UP ARROW KEY (which moves the ARROW to the Bottom Left name), move the ARROW across to the bottom right name, press the DOWN ARROW KEY. The datadrive will run to load the second part of the directory.
To create your own 2 BLOCK DIRECTORY, Poke a 2 into location 25308 (POKE 25308,2 followed by the RETURN KEY). Then INIT your fresh datapack.
SMARTBASIC on datapack may be transferred to DISK using many copy utility programs (block numbers 0 - 29 are all that is necessary for the transfer). However, SmartBASIC is CODED for use only with the tape drive. To change the code for DISK #1 use, EDIT BLOCK #18 on the disk, the second byte (08) should be changed to 04. Disk drive #2 is coded 05, Datadrive #2 is 24.
SmartFILER 27d has a bug which improperly prints the spacing for labels. It also prints an extra line between records, wasting space. The problems have been corrected, available by sending your datapack and $5 for recopying. If you wish to edit your copy, load block 18 and change byte FB on page 3 from 01 to 02 (using Edit-Block).
One problem using SmartFILER to print multiple copies of letters or envelopes with the ADAM Printer is that it will not pause long enough to change the paper. The trick to give you that extra time is to press the VI STOP PRINT SmartKEY JUST BEFORE it pauses normally. It will stay paused until your press PRINT.
Another problem in SmartFILER arises when trying to print columns and rows of information uniformly in line. When typing in your field information, insert CONTROL "q" characters (press the CONTROL KEY and "q" key together) according to how you wish to align the data. These characters will not print (even though you see them onscreen), but will maintain spacing when typing your data.
Although SmartFILER has four searchable fields, you may find occasions when more searchable fields would be desirable. Use the searchable fields to code letters separated by commas and you can then search in MANY ways. For example, M could stand for member, N for nonmember, X for exmember, and groupings could be sorted by simply searching for these coded letters in one field. If you want alphabetized listings, try using INDEX first before searching a field.
BINARY files are created in SmartBASIC using the program "cruncher." These binary files use the "H" type designation in place of the normal "A" type as displayed when you CATALOG your directory. The advantage of binary files is that they load ten times faster. Use the terminology: "BRUN filename" instead of "RUN filename." One bug found when SAVING a new version of a binary file is that the first version type is changed from "H" to "h", but the command RECOVER cannot bring back the "h" type file. To correct this type (in the immediate mode): POKE 20619,72 followed by the RETURN KEY. Now you may recover those backup "h" files.
BINARY PROGRAMS may load, but not execute, giving an error message instead, "ILLEGAL FORM OF OS COMMAND." This is normal. Simply type RUN and the program will execute after the RETURN KEY.
DATA & REM STATEMENT BUG - In SmartBASIC everytime you load and resave a program, it places an extra space at the beginning of DATA and REM statements, eventually pushing data off the end of the line. Correct this by typing: POKE 15824,216: POKE 15830,8: POKE 15831,55: POKE 15832,19 followed by the RETURN KEY.
MERGING SMARTBASIC PROGRAMS - There is no merge command in SmartBASIC V1. To merge or load a new program into memory, writing over the same line numbers and filling in new line numbers, do the following: POKE 6356, 201 followed by the RETURN KEY. This keeps the NEW function from working to wipe out the original program in memory. Return to normal by typing: POKE 6356, 205.
CP/M2.2 FORMATTING - Any formatted disk or datapack may be used with CP/M2.2 without FORMATTING using the utility program FORMAT. Simply use SYSGEN to copy the system to the media from your original or backup CP/M DATAPACK.
You can INIT PROTECT any medium by creating a short dummy program, POKE 23925,2 (in the immediate mode), and SAVE BASICPGM to your media. SmartBASIC will NOT initiate any medium with BASICPGM thereon. POKE 23925,65 after you're done to restore the normal SAVE function. If later you decide to INIT the medium anyway, POKE 20435,2 and then DELETE BASICPGM. POKE 20435,65 to restore the normal DELETE function. Now INITIATE normally.
This takes us through 1986 issues of AIM. We will continue this article next month.
SmartBASIC V2.0 is available in different versions. To check your revision number, load Smartbasic and type, PRINT PEEK(260) <RETURN KEY>. You should have # 52.
SmartBASIC V2.0 uses different values for colors in HGR and GR Color Tables. To correct this, type the following: FOR X = 0 to 15 : POKE 25360 + X, X : POKE 25378 + X, X : NEXT X <RETURN>
SmartBASIC V1 also uses different values for colors in HGR and GR modes. The following POKES solve the problem: POKE 18728, 121 : POKE 18729, 0 : POKE 18730, 0 : POKE 18735, 121 : POKE 18736, 0 : POKE 18737, 0 : POKE 19256, 0 : POKE 19257, 0 : POKE 19258, 0 <RETURN>
In SmartBASIC while printing, the screen echos each character onscreen. This can be disabled by typing, POKE 12043, 201 (default 245).
SmartBASIC V1 has a bug which prevents you from BRUNning a program from another drive by adding the Dx at the end of the BRUN Statement. This BRUN DRIVE BUG may be eliminated by typing, POKE 21019, 11 <RETURN>. The BRUN STATEMENT LENGTH BUFFER is too small for use of location, length, and drive suffix. This is corrected by typing the following POKES: 16601,35: 16602,249: 16604, 73: 16605, 249: 19450,249: 19459,34: 19566,72: 19567,249: 19585,35: 19586,249: 19558,73: 19559,249: 19563,73: 19564,249: 19576,73: 19577,249: 19595,73: 19596,249: 21019,11.
The SmartBASIC INPUT LINE LENGTH may be increased to 239 characters and spaces for each line number by typing, POKE 12185,239 <RETURN>. You can eliminate spaces placed after periods and commas (placed there by the computer) by typing, POKE 13357,0 : POKE 13349,0.
SmartBASIC V1 & V2 have a limited POKE RANGE which may be unlimited by typing, POKE 16149,255 : POKE 16150,255 <RETURN> for V1, and POKE 1648,255 : pOKE 1649,255 <RETURN> for V2.
SmartWRITER CLEAR BUG - To clear the screen or workspace press the CLEAR KEY, followed by the SmartKEY choice, and Final Clear option. Pressing these three keys in rapid succession may cause the system to lock up or loose the sound. And as you type at the end of a line, the characters do not appear until you jump to the next line. At times, the condition will correct itself. Use the CLEAR function carefully.
SmartWRITER VERTICAL LINE SPACING BUG - When changing the vertical line spacing, it may be necessary to do the change twice. Notice whether the pointer moves. If there is no hesitation, the change was not made.
STORING DOCUMENT BUG - As you type a document, you should store the text workspace frequently in case of problems. The name you choose is entered into the directory. Later, you be required to use a NEW name for your document when you try to SAVE the workspace. This can be overcome by clearing the workspace after the FIRST SAVE, and GETTING the file back. Now you can use the same file name as ADAM makes your latest SAVE your primary file, while the previous saved files becomes the backup file.
SMARTFILER can GET forms you create using SmartWRITER to type letters and labels in different ways. However, if you use a multi-block directory tape or disk, SmartFILER will not access more than the first block of your directory. Use a fresh medium to save your forms.
SmartWRITER will GET a SmartBASIC program, but the line numbers will not be separated by a space from the first entry in the line. You can correct this prior to saving your SmartBASIC Program. Type, POKE 24100, 0 : POKE 24101, 0 : POKE 24102, 0 <RETURN>. (Default values: 50, 20, and 63).
SmartBASIC V1 has a FILE LENGTH BUG - when you delete a large file and save a smaller file having less length, the smaller program will have all the space dedicated to the deleted program. To see the actual number of blocks assigned to a file, first type: POKE 21370, 8 (6 is default) <RETURN>. Also, if you wish to see each file's START BLOCK location on the medium, POKE 21370, 2 <RETURN> before you CATALOG the medium. To see the ACTIVE FILES blocks left on your medium, type: POKE 21298, 0 (default 235) <RETURN> before Cataloging.
SmartWRITER documents should never be ended with an END OF PAGE MARKER. Doing so may produce the DEATH SPIN spiral of the pointer.
ADAM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA Published by ADAM'S HOUSE RT 2 BOX 2756 1829-1 COUNTY ROAD #130 PEARLAND, TEXAS 77581 (713) 482-5040 9 AM - 6 PM
ADAM'S HOUSE is a full time SALES and SERVICE company supporting the ADAM COMPUTER SYSTEM exclusively! For a 20 page catalog, send $1.00 or a stamped self-addressed envelop with 45 cents postage (USA, 52 cents to CANADA).
FEATURE VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE |Computer Shopper | PHYSICAL SAFETY GOOD | BAD, high risk of | hernia due to weight | HAS ADAM NEWS/COLUMN YES (Faye Deere) | NO. (Nothing Adam) | USE AS FLY SWATTER GOOD (weight is | BAD (too heavy to sufficent for good | (swat effectively) swatting speed,kill) | | DISCOUNT TO USER GROUPS YES* | NO | WHEEL BARROW REQUIREMENTS NONE (easy to move) | YES, Due to Size and | weight, wheel barrow | required to move) | EASE OF FINDING INFORMATION GOOD (enough pages | POOR (too many pages (to allow easy usage) | to find information & finding info) | easily) | DECISION MAKING FACTOR GOOD (enough ads | POOR (perhaps 28 ads to give a reasonable | for an item, makes choice) | for long drawn out | decision making ) | EYE STRAIN LEVEL ACCEPTABLE | UNACCEPTABLE (too | many pages to read) | TOILET TISSUE USE FAIR (slightly smooth)| POOR (Coarse to | rough) | PRICE GREAT* | HEAVY (like magazine) | *Special price to User Group members $8.95 for | 12 monthly issues. | | FAMILAR ADVERTISERS YES | YES (Found old favorites such as PANASONIC, COMPUTER--|--DIRECT, MICRO CONNEC- TIONS, COMPUMART, MEI/MICRO, MICRO STAR, SILICON--|--EXPRESS,US MICRO,ETC.) | LOW PRICE ITEMS YES | YES (Found low price disks, printer ribbons,printers, | monitors,supplies,etc.) | | HARD NOSE HARRY'S RECOMMENDATION | STRONG YES SUBSCRIBE NOW | NO ! WHY SUPPORT A | Magazine that doesn't | Support ADAM, NO WAY | COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE, POBOX 55886, BIRMINGHAM, AL. 35255 $8.95 for one full year BUT put down the Computer Group you belong to on your order to qualify for the reduced price (such as the BBS group you are reading this on or the newsletter you are reading this in, etc.).
R--|--DIRECT, M
THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL WAS SUPPLIED TO THE ADAM NEWS NETWORK BY "The ADAM's LEAF of the EDMONTON (ALBERTA,CANADA) ADAM USERS GROUP" THE WRITER/AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE IS INDICATED BELOW. WE APPRECIATE THEIR COOPERATION AND CONTRIBUTION(S) TO ADAM NEWS NETWORK AND TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CAPABILITIES OF ADAM BY OTHER ADAMITES.
THE CARE OF THE ADAM DIGITAL DATA DRIVE
by Claude Ferland
"Coleco data drives are prone to error." How many of you have heard this statement or read about it in assorted ADAM articles? My limited experience tells me that, on the average, this is true. Can anything be done to help minimize the error count? The answer is YES. Temperature control, routine maintenance and operating speed verification are the keys to attaining maximum performance from your data drives.
Temperature Control: can be achieved in two ways. Method #1 - Increase air circulation around your data drives. Do you have a small fan? If so, take the top cover off your ADAM console and point the air flow towards your data drives. I'm planning on cutting a round hole in my top cover directly over the drives and mounting a four-inch square fan (about $16 at Princess Auto). I should then be able to run my drives almost constantly. Method #2 - Duty Cycle. For every ten minutes of drive activity, let your drives cool down for twenty minutes. This will help limit how hot your drives get.
Once a program is loaded into your ADAM, if the program doesn't have to access the data drives for the next ten to sixty minutes, remove the data pack from the drive. When a data pack is installed in a data drive, the motors have some power applied to them to take up the slack in the tape.
When my ADAM was new, the console had four small rubber feet that would hold it a small distance above whatever flat surface I put it on. The console has many air slots molded into the case to allow passage of air though it. If the rubber feet fall off (three of mine did), and you continue to use your ADAM in this condition, the probability of heat-related problems and heat damage is greatly increased due to restricted air flow. You can buy self-sticking or screw-mounted cushion feet from popular electronics retail stores. You should install cushion feet that hold your console above the table or desk even higher than the original rubber feet.
If your ADAM console barely fits into the chosen location on your computer desk, get it out of there. The airflow afforded by such a set-up is probably unacceptably low. Operating your ADAM on a cloth surface such as a bed or pile of laundry or any cloth surface other than a thin, unpadded table cloth is an absolute no-no. You must not obstruct any air slots for any length of time on any piece of electronic equipment.
Routine Maintenance: Cleaning your data drives is a must. Magnetic particles on the surface of the tape inside all datapacks become loose and fall off regularly. This is known as SHEDDING. Brand new data packs are worse than old data packs for shedding. The most likely time that shedding takes place is when the tape is moving in either direction against the record/playback head in the data drive (normal wind and rewind). Therefore, the most likely place for these ferric oxide particles to accumulate is on the head itself. Some particles will cling to the rubber on the speed-transducer wheel and to the tape guide on each side of the record/playback head. These deposits must be removed regularly to ensure proper tape-to-head contact. This contact is extremely important when "reading" or "writing" is taking place (especially writing). How thick is a fingerprint? Would you believe thick enough to interfere with the record/playback process which must be 100% accurate within a computer environment?
Cleaning your data drives is a snap with almost any of the many products on the market. DO NOT use cleaner cassettes because they only clean what they come in contact with in the tape path and may take a path of their own. Most are advertized as non-abrasive but can become abrasive because they will contain foreign matter accumulated during previous cleanings. Solvents specially designed for head cleaning are perfect. Cotton-tipped cleaning sticks are just right for the job. Dip the cleaning stick only once into the container of solvent. Then, rub the cleaning tip back and forth over the record/playback head, concentrating on visible deposits. Next, clean the tape path guide on each side of the head. Hold the cleaning stick in the guide in approximately the same position as a loaded tape and slide it back and forth while exerting a small amount of downward pressure. Then clean the rubber speed-transducer wheel. Do this by holding the cleaning stick against the rubber wheel and turning the wheel with your cleaned finger. Finally, throw away the cleaning stick. DO NOT contaminate your remaining solvent by dipping a used cleaning stick into it. The cleaning sticks only cost about two cents each in hundred lots. I personally clean my drives at least once each computer day and after each datapack that I format and verify. I've taken the cheapie route. I bought a half-litre container of 99% ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL from an economy drug store and a 400-pack of Q-tip type economy cotton swab sticks. This route will cost me about two dollars a year. I store my "working" quantity of solvent in a two-ounce bottle that I refill from the half-litre bottle. The cheapie cotton swab sticks are too short to dip into the bottle once a couple of inches of solvent are gone.
Last and certainly not least, Data Drive Operating Speed Verification. Your data drives must operate reasonably closely to the original intended speed. If your drives have wandered off the original factory-set speed for whatever reason (components changing value or speed control played with), you should get hold of an ORIGINAL program similar to the SPEEDCHECK program, E.A.U.G. Lending Library tape #169. Upon loading this program, a scale that reads from +6 to -6 percent appears on the screen. After a few more seconds, a pointer will appear under the appropriate number indicating the operating speed of the drive. Many data drives have their speed asjustment control accessible only from the bottom of the data drive. You will need a Phillips screwdriver to remove three screws at the back of each data drive to allow removing the drive from its normal location. The two data drive connecting cables must remain connected to the console. Locate the speed adjustment control - about one tenth of an inch in diameter with a small screwdriver slot in it. You will need a very small screwdriver to adjust this control. Turn the control one full turn counter-clockwise and notice the effect it has on the pointer on the screen. You will also be able to physically see and hear the difference in the operating speed of the drive. Adjust the control so that the pointer appears under the "0" on the screen. Of the dozen or so data drives that I have adjusted, only one was operating more slowly than the correct speed prior to adjustment. Several drives were operating beyond the +6 percent indicator. Once adjusted properly, re-install the data drives in your console. -IMPORTANT- Be aware that if you are using a non-original copy of the SPEEDCHECK program, this copy of the program might not have been produced on a data drive that was not operating at the correct speed. This would cause an erroneous result and could leave you worse off than you were before attempting this procedure.
SUMMARY- Your data drives should now be ready to give you many, many hours of trouble-free operation. If, after following these steps, your drives have difficulty loading programs such as your original SmartBASIC V1.0, either there is a problem in your ADAM's console, or you could probably use a new data drive. I'm embarrassed to say how many replacement data drives I bought before getting around to applying the steps that I have just described. Happy computing. ###
ADAM'S HOUSE has been accumulating primarily COLECO and ATARI GAME CARTRIDGES for resale, many brand new in the box. We are currently selling each cartridge with original instruction sheet for only $10, but we are also swapping two of your cartridges for one from our list. The listing below is complete with those PRESENTLY IN STOCK UNDERLINED. Due to varying quantities of the different titles we suggest you offer optional titles when placing an order in case one of your selection has sold out. If you have cartridges to sell, we pay $5 each with documentation included. We reserve the right to change prices as costs rise or fall.
Coleco Cartridge List
2010 Graphic Action 9 to 5 Alacazar Alphabet Zoo Amazing Bumpman Antarctic Adventure Apple Cider Spider Aquattack Artillery Duel Astro Chase B.C.'s Quest for Tires Baseball Beamrider Blackjack / Poker Blockade Runner Blue Print Boulderdash Brainstrainers Buck Rogers Bump N' Jump Burgertime Cabbage Patch Adventure in Park Cabbage Patch Picture Show Campaign '84 Carnival Centipede Challenger Chess Challenger Choplifter Chuck Norris Superkicks Congo Bongo Cosmic Avenger Cosmic Crisis Dambusters Dance Fantasy Decathlon Defender Destruction Derby Destructor Dig Dug Dino Eggs Donkey Kong Donkey Kong, Jr Dr. Suess Fix Up Puzzler Dracular Dragonfire Dragon Stomper Dukes of Hazzard Earth Dies Screaming, The Escpae From the Mindmaster Evolution Facemaker Fall Guy Fathom Flipper Slipper Football Fortune Builder Fraction Fever Frantic Freddy Frenzy Frogger Frogger II Frontline Galaxian Gateway to Apshai Globe Grabber Gorf Grog's Revenge, B.C. II Gust Buster Gyruss H.E.R.O. Heist Horse Racing Illusions James Bond 007 Juke Box Jumpman Junior Jungle Hunt Keystone Kapers Lady Bug Learning With Leeper Linking Logic Logic Level Looping Lord of the Dungeon Lunar Leeper M.A.S.H. Madden Football Meltdown Memory Manor Miner 2049'er Mogal Maniac Monkey Academy Montezumas Revenge Moonsweeper Motocross Racer Mountain King Mouse Trap Mr. Do Mr. Do's Castle Mr. Turtle Nova Blast Oils Well Omega Race One on One Past Finder Pepper II Phaser Patrol Phoenix Pink Panther Pitfall Pitfall II Pitstop Popeye Porky's Power Lords Q-Bert Q-Bert's Qubes Quest for Quintana Roo Quick Step Rip Cord River Raid Robin Hood Robotron 2084 Rock N' Bolt Rock N' Roll Rock N' Roll, It's only Rocky Rolloverture Round Up Sammy Lightfoot Scraper Caper Sector Alpha Sewer Sam Short Circuit Sir Lancelot Skiing Slither Slurpy Smurf Paint N' Play Smurf Play 'N' Learn Smurf Rescue Smurfettes Birthday Soccer Space Fury Space Panic Spacemaster X-7 Spectar Spectron Spy Hunter Squish'em Sam Star Trek Star Wars Strike It Subroc Super Cobra Super Crossforce Sword & the Sorcerer Tac Scan Tank War Tapper, Root Beer Tarzan Telly Turtle Threshold Time Pilot Time Runner Tomarc the Barbarian Tournament Tennis Tunnels and Trolls Turbo Turmoil Tutankham Up N' Down Vanguard Venture Victory Video Hustler War Games War Room Wild Western Wing War Wings Wiz Math Wizard of Oz Wizard of WOR Word Fued Yokes on You Z-80 Macro Assembler Zaxxon Zenji
Atari Cartridges
Atlantis Combat Cosmic Ark Mrs. Pacman Reactor Rocky Space Jockey Star Voyager Swordquest
Odyssey 2 Cartridges
Alien Invaders Bowling & Basketball Casino Slot Machine Conquest of the World Cosmic Conflict Dynasty Electronic Table Soccer Freedom Fighters Invaders from Hyperspace I've Got Your Number Matchmaker, Logix, & Buzzword Pocket Billards Type & Tell UFO
Anyone having an Odyssey 2 System who wishes to sell it to ADAM'S HOUSE can call or write for further information! Cartridge supplies are limited!
The following select information is from a document of OVER l00 pages entitled: Solicitation of Acceptances of Chapter ll Plan of Reorganization for Coleco Industries, Inc. (Nov. 29, l989).
It is a part of the Bankruptcy Court file on the Coleco Bankruptcy.
l. Ranger Industries Inc. was formerly Coleco Industries, Inc.
2. Debtors (includes Coleco Ind.) has sold or otherwise disposed of essentially allof their non-cash assets which were associated with the operation of their toy and game businesses.
3. Debtors remaining assets consist of (l) cash, (2) payments due under an agreement with Hasbro, Inc. ; (3) proceeds to be derived from the liquidation of Coleco's usbsidiaries; (4) misc. inventory and other property held for sale; (5) misc. accounts receivable; (6z) prepaid expenses and security deposits; (7) tax refunds; (8) misc. real property; (9) misc. equipment and (l0) warrants to purchase one million shares of common stock of Hasbro, Inc.
4. The is a PROPOSED bankruptcy court plan for this matter which must be voted on and approved by the court. The following refere to the PROPOSED plan.
5. The bankruptcy court plan calls for the distribution of substantially all such property or the proceeds thereof to creditors and shareholders.
6. The bankruptcy court plan calls for payment in full in cash of all Administrative (Court costs, trustee fees, creditors committees, etc.), priorty claims (taxes owed, some wages,etc.) and Secured claims (those having a security interest, mortgage, lien, etc.) are to be paid l00% of their claim.
7. Holders of claims under $5,000.00 are to get 24% of their claim in cash.
8. Holders of other claims will receive 23-26 % of their claim.
9. There are other arrangements for other classes of claims.
l0. The Plan contemplates the emergence of a reorganized Coleco, now called Rangaer Industries, Inc. including the distribution of 4 million shares of common stock of Ranger to be distributed to unsecured creditors. The plan contemplates that Ranger will engage in the business of acquiring income producing properties or businesses.
ll. The Plan provides for 7 classes of claims and interests. See the following : Class l: Administrative & Priority Claims, Asserted $20,600,000.; estimated allowed $24,750,000. l00%.
Class 2: Secured Claims. $ll4,400,000. asserted; $2,300,000 estimated allowed. (Difference is payments already made to secured claims during bankruptcy to date.). l00%
Class 3: Insured Claims. Limited to amount of insurance coverage.
Class 4: Small Claims (Under $5,000.each) $l,000,000. asserted; estimated allowed $l,000,000. . 24%
Class 5 Qualifying Claims and
Class 6 General Claims.
Asserted $489,000,000.; estimated allowed $430,000,000. 23-26%.
Class 7: Pold Preferred & Common Stock. l7,800,000. SHARES asserted and estimated allowed.
12. Coleco was a publicly held Connecticut corporation organized in l96l, and is the successor to the Connecticut Leather Company which was found in l932.
13. Coleco had many subsidiaries including the following which did NOT file bankruptcy but none are currently operating entities and will be liquidated: Coleoc (Canada) Ltd.; Coleco Industries Japan KK; Coleco Far East Limited; Coleoc U.K. Inc.; Coleco S.A.; Spartan Industries; and Coleco Georgia.
l4. As part of the sale of substanially all of the non-cash assets of the Debtors (Coleco) to Hasbro pursuant to Court order dated July 7, l989, Hasbro acquired the right to use the names "Coleco Industries, Inc.", "Coleco". Concomitantly, the Debtors agreed to forbear from using those names except in certain limited circumstances set forth in the Purchase Agreement. As a result the debtors changed the Names "Coleco Industries,Inc.", "Coleco" etc.to Ranger Industries, Inc.
l5. During l988, Toys-R-US represented approximately l8% of Coleco's Sales.
l6. No other customer of Coleco represented more than l0% of its l988 sales.
l7. l986 & l987 losses were in excess of $ 215 Million. THese losses were due to a dramatic decline in sales of Cabbage Patch Kids products (from $600.5 million in l985 to $126.5 million in l987.
l8. In l987 Coleco was paying approximately $60 Million in interest.
l9. The larger creditors of Coleco included: Kader Industrial CO. of Hong Kong; Applied Electronics of Hong Kong; Sunshine Garment Factory of Hong Kong; U.S. Trust Co. of NY; D&E Packaging NJ; S.G.Warburg Soditic, Genevba Switzerland; MidAtlantic Nat. Bank of NJ.; and others.
20. Coleco also marked board games, principally Scrabble.
21. In a July 8, l988 agreement Coleco sold its pedal and battery operated rideon toy business and children's furniture and clubhouse products business to Hasbro for $l5.9 Million plus certain amounts for inventory.
22. In a July 12, l988 agreement Coleco sold its outdoor pool and plastic snow products business to SLM Action Sports for $5.4 million plus certain amounts for inventory.
23. Tonka Corp. paid Coleco $l.2 Million for the license rights (which Coleco apparently had) to market Trivial Pursuit.
24. Coleco terminated its Canadian operations and liquidated their distributon sudbisdiary, Coleco (Canada) Ltd. In Nov. l988 Coleco (Canada) Ltd. agreed to sell its inventory and accounts receivable to Irwin Toy Ltd. Irwin was to distribute Coleco Products in Canada. This sales relationship went to Hasbro in the Hasbro Sale.
25. In Feb. l989 debtors sold their corporate Headquarters in West Hartford Conn. for $ l3.2 million, realizing a net profit of $4.7 Million. Debtor relocated its headquarters to Avon Conn.
26. In June l989 debtors sold substantially all of their assets to Hasbro receiving $ 85 Million with another $ 20 Million estimated from sale of inventory and receivables.
27. The current directors of Coleco includes: Morton Handel; Philip Cohen; Mario Fromichella; Arnold Greenberg; Leonard Greenberg; Mary Anne Krupask; Geoffrey D. Lurie; Omer S.J. Wms. All of which will resign under the reorganization plan on the date of its confirmation.
28. Current executive officers of Debtors are Morton Handel and Michael S. Schwefel, who will resign on the Confirmation date but will be retained as consultants.
29. Ranger Industries will have Net Opeating Losses for Federal Tax purposes of $ 314,000,000 which can be used during l995-2003 to offset profit and cause no tax to be due.
30. Coleco's advertising expenses were: $34.7 Million in l988; $7l.l million in l987; $ 93.6 Million in l986.
3l. The l984 Operating Data of Coleco showed Loss from Disposition of ADAM to be $ ll8,602,000. A foot note indicates that the ADAM Family Computer was disconintued in l984 and the inventory was sold in l985.
32. In August l987 the Company issued 644,295 shares of common stock with a then market value of $6,000,000 in payment of the remaining liability for the l985 settlement of several class actions suits filed against the Company and certain of its officers and directors in late l983 and l984 relating to the introduction and manufacture of the ADAM computer.
33. The only shareholders owning more than 5% of the stock of the company are: Arnold Greenberg who owns l3.4% and Leonard Greenberg who owns 7/l%.
There is a great deal of additional information in the l00+ pages but the above appears to be what will be of most interest to Adamites.
There were very few references to ADAM as the bankruptcy was filed in l988, Adam was discontined several years prior to that. I found no references to Adam copyrights.
Barry Wilson
A REVIEW
By Hard Nosed Harry of Adam News Network. (See Quick Comparison Chart Also) This concerns a NEW NATIONAL COMPUTER MAGAZINE WHICH IS CARRYING ADAM INFO ON A TRIAL BASIS.
IT is upto us the Adam Community to make this a successful trial so that they will continue to carry Adam info. Please join in the campaign suggested in the following and help spread the word on this.
As you all know, The Computer Shopper has stopped carrying the ADAM articles. BUT................ ..a new computer magazine called the Vulcan's Computer Buyer's Guide has published its first issue and contains Faye Deere's ADAMCON 01 article . Further Vulcan's Computer Buyer's Guide has agreed to continue to run ADAM articles on a trial basis. If you can't find this new magazine on your newstand shelves, request that it be stocked. ALSO THEY HAVE A SPECIAL USER GROUP DISCOUNT PRICE IF YOU SUBSCRIBE AT THIS TIME AND INCLUDE THE NAME OF YOUR USER GROUP (the BBS or Newsletter you read this in/on can be used as the User Group name), the PRICE is ONLY $ 8.95 FOR ONE YEAR.
After reading it, if you would write a letter to the editor asking that the ADAM articles be continued, it may make a difference.
Address your letter to: Computer Buyer's Guide, Doug Kilarski, Editor, P.O. Box 2705, Titusville, FL 32781.
COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE A new publication (or at least new to me) has reached the market called VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE.
It is NOT just for buying computers but includes accessories, supplies, information and articles. YES, EVEN ADAM ARTICLES .
This one you can purchase and carry home from the store ALL BY YOURSELF, not like the Computer Shopper which due to its size and weight required a minimum of 2-3 adults to lift and carry.
If you want 28 choices for an item you will still need Computer Shopper but if a enough choices to satisfy a normal person while allowing you to make an intelligent decision between the several choices given you is sufficent then VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE will fill the bill. REMEMBER to properly evaluate your 28 choices you probably need an EZ-Evaluation Software Package costing several hundred dollars. With the reasonable number of choices present in VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE you can actually make a wise choice yourself in your head. Then you can take the money saved on buying an EZ-Evaluation Software Package and take a long vacation, buy a sterio, buy some accessories for your computer.
IS VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE ADAM FRIENDLY, YOU BET !!! It has an Adam News Column by Faye Deere and it offers a DISCOUNTED SUBSCRIPTION RATE TO MEMBERS OF USER GROUPS.
While Computer Shopper's price is as heavy as the actual publication itself, VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE on its special User Group price is ONLY $ 8.95 for 12 monthly issues. YOU CAN'T BET THAT!!
In VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE I found ads for generic (low priced) disks, ribbons, printers, etc. All the stuff that could be found in Computer Shopper IF one had the TIME, ENERGY and DEDICATION to search through Computer Shopper for it.
There are the old familar advertisers that we utilitzed in computer shopper are PRESENT in VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE, Panasonic, Computer Direct, Compumart, MEI/MICRO, etc. The only difference is that you can find them now, esepcially with the easy to use Advertisers Index in back, no hunting through hundreds of pages to find the one ad you are looking far, no more having to go through 3,345.8 ads before you finally find the one you want.
As noted in the CHART VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE is better than computer shopper as a fly swatter, having a good weight and feel, ease of swinging and sufficent kill power, while computer shopper always warns the fly ahead of time as you grunt and groan trying to lift it to swing it.
Other VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE ADVANTAGES include: less risk of hernia, less eye strain and objectively it is softer than computer shopper and therefore preferred for use as toilet paper should the necessity arise.
ALL IN ALL I FOUND VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE TO BE SUPERIOR TO Computer Shopper in almost all respects and only in a few catagories would I consider computer shopper equal to VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE. Computer Shopper was superior in NO catagory.
HARD NOSE HARRY'S RECOMMENDATION: A STRONG YES TO VULCAN'S COMPUTER BUYER'S GUIDE and a BIG NO TO Computer Shopper.
SYSOP, EDITOR, AUG INFORMATION & RULES
See other sheet for general information on contest.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS CONTEST IS TO TRY TO (l) INCREASE COMMUNICATION AMONGST ADAMITES; (2) PUBLICIZE AND INCREASE USAGE OF LOCAL BBS, AUG, NEWSLETTERS, etc.; (3) TRY TO GIVE ADAMITES A SENSE OF GROUP, BELONGING, FAMILY, ETC. YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE, IN FACT URGENTLY REQUESTED TO DO SO.
SHORTLY PRIOR TO FEB. l l990 THE FINAL GROUP FOR THE COMBINED WEIGHT WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU AND THE ADAMITE PUBLIC.
EACH SYSOP, NEWSLETTER EDITOR, AUG OFFICER IS ASKED TO PUBLICIZE THEIR OWN PARTICIPATION IN THIS CONTEST. The more publicity you give to it, the more people who will call your BBS, show up at your meeting, etc.
YOU MUST STAY WITHIN THE RULES AS INDICATED but you may offer reasonable inducements for Adamites to participate. In case of Sysops, you could offer an extra guess or two for each NEW caller to your BBS, after they signon they go back to the one guess per call rule.
Newsletter Editors can elaborate on my schedule of l guess per answer or question or short article, 3 guesses for a longer article, etc. for the newsletter.
AUG officers can indicate the guess for attending meetings, etc.
SYSOPS CAN USE A RUNNING SUMMARY SUCH AS LOWEST GUESS TO DATE & HIGHTEST GUESS TO DATE, ETC. TO TRY TO KEEP UP INTEREST AND PARTICIPATION.
IF YOU HAVE OTHER IDEAS, CLEAR THEM WITH ME FIRST BUT I AM SURE WE CAN USE THEM.
IT WILL BE YOUR OBLIGATION TO GET THE GUESSES TO ME AFTER FEB.28, l990. ONLY GUESSES PHYSICALLY IN MY POSSESSION AS OF MARCH l0, l990 WILL BE COUNTED.
PUBLICIZE THE CONTEST AND HELP MAKE IT WORK. YOU WILL HAVE AN IDEA OR PROJECT YOU WILL WANT HELP WITH IN THE FUTURE AND THEREFORE YOU SHOULD BE WILLING TO HELP WITH OTHER ADAMITES PROJECTS.
CONTEST STARTS FEB. l l990 AND ENDS FEB. 28, l990.
YOU MUST GET THE GUESSES FROM YOUR GROUP INTO ME BY MARCH l0, l990 OR THEY WILL NOT COUNT and IF YOU GROUP HAS A WINNER AND IT IS YOUR FAULT THEY DO NOT GET THEIR PRIZE THEY WILL BE UPSET WITH YOU.
Best regards, Barry Wilson FOR A.N.N.
A.N.N. [Adam News Network] ANNOUNCES A NEW ADAM CONTEST ........
Based on an idea by AL FITZGERALD (Sysop of St.Louis AUG BBS) and Sponsored by THE SOFTWORKS FACTORY (Tony Patterson & Sol Swift) AND AKRON BBS (B.J.)
YOU WILL HAVE TO GUESS THE COMBINED WEIGHT of a group of Adamites.
The group PRESENTLY includes the following but is subject to change upto date of Contest Start (FEB. l l990):
Al Fitzgerald (St.Louis AUG sysop) Adam System (Shipping weight of a complete Adam System). Bob Blair (AWAUG Sysop) Barry Wilson (St.Louis AUG, A.N.N.) Barry's Cat (who walks across his keyboard typing messages in code) BJ (Big John Lingrel) (AKRON BBS Sysop, hardware genius) Larry Overman (SOCA BBS sysop) (IEAUG) Tony Patterson (SOFTWORKS FACTORY) Rob Friedman (CIS Sysop--Compuserve) Ricki Gerlach (Voice of the Eagle BBS sysop, Gerlach Family Software) Sol Swift (SOFTWORKS FACTORY) Warren Foster (SOCA) 's Three PLUS grandchildren (there is one in the hangar) Allan Neeley (ADAM LINK OF UTAH BBS & Newsletter)
The person coming closest to the COMBINED weight in pounds, whole numbers final group is the winner. In case of ties, closest without going over weight wins. ONLY GUESSES WHICH YOUR LOCAL SYSOP, AUG, NEWSLETTER EDITOR GET TO A.N.N. WITHIN ten days after close of contest will count, SO BUG THEM TO GET THEM IN TIMELY.
The winner gets his choice of:
PIA2 (donated by BJ & AKRON BBS) OR $20.00 Coupons for SOFTWORKS FACTORY products (donated by Softworks Factory). 2nd Place gets remaining prize.
CONTEST STARTS FEB. l l990 AND ENDS FEB. 28, l990.
EACH TIME YOU CALL AN ADAM BBS DURING FEB. l990 YOU MAY LEAVE A GUESS. MORE CALLS............ MORE GUESSES.....MORE CHANCE TO WIN.
WHEN YOU GO TO YOUR LOCAL AUG MEETING IN FEB. YOU MAY LEAVE A GUESS. (l guess per meeting attendee with a minimum of 20 guesses for the meeting. So if only l0 people show up, each would get two guesses, etc.).
EACH TIME YOU CONTACT YOUR LOCAL AUG NEWSLETTER EDITOR with a question, an answer, a short article you get l guess,for a long article 3 guesses, upto 5 guesses per person).
EACH TIME YOU SEND A.N.N. (% Barry Wilson) $l,000.00 CASH, small unmarked bills, you get another guess.
REMEMBER CONTEST STARTS FEB. l l990 AND ENDS FEB. 28, l990.
IF YOU LOCAL BBS, AUG, ETC. ARE NOT AWARE OF THE CONTEST FORCE THEM TO CONTACT A.N.N. (Barry Wilson) FOR INFORMATION.
SUPPORT THE ADAM........SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BBS......LOCAL AUG.
NEW CONTEST BY A.N.N. [ADAM NEWS NETWORK]
I apparently reported incorrectly that they give free upgrades on all products.
IF YOU PRINTED THIS MISTAKEN INFORMATION, PLEASE CORRECT AS INDIATED BELOW:
During the warranty period of 90 days for a shipping & handling charge of $2.50 upgrades will be given when the ORIGINAL datapack or disk is returned. It is suggested that you write FIRST before requesting an upgrade to see if any program changes have been made.
PLEASE PASS ON THIS CORRECT INFORMATION.
Thank you
Barry WIlson
MORE CP/M By Stan Wong Due to a recent increase in my workload, I haven't had much time to devote to ADAM.
However, because of popular demand, I'm back with a new article on CP/M. As I have mentioned countless times before, I am certainly no expert in CP/M, but with time, I have learned how to use a few of the more useful utility programs and I would like to share these lessons with you. If you have CP/M 2.2, you know that there is a file transfer program called PIP.COM right on the tape. It works fairly well, but it does have bugs which crop up from time to time. A much better program that does the same thing and more is a public domain program called NSWP.COM (newsweep). The appeal of this program is that it is a simple, menu driven program that allows quick and easy mass transfers. That's right...in one swoop, you can transfer as many files as you want from one tape to another.
When you first load NSWP by simply typing "NSWP" and hitting return, you are presented with a display that tells you the current user area, the total amount of space occupied by the files, the number of files there are and the amount of space left on the tape. It then gives you the name of the first filename in the directory. Hitting return repeatedly will cycle you forward through the directory and you can view all the filenames on the tape. Typing "B" will move you backwards in the directory. If you type a question mark, the program will list a menu of all the NSWP functions. You may exit the program by typing X. What follows is a brief summary of the NSWP commands. Hopefully, this will enable you to use the program more efficiently. C - This allows you to copy a given file to the drive of your choice. D - This will delete the file that is presently displayed on the directory. P - This will send the file to your printer and print out the file. You can stop this with Control-C.
R - This will rename the file displayed. V - If the file is an ASCII file, this will display it on your monitor with automatic pagination. Hitting return will take you to the next page. You can cancel this at any time by typing Control-X.
T - This is the function that I use the most. As you scroll through the directory, press T for each file you want transferred. This tags the file with an asterix for mass transfers later. U - This untags a file. M - This is what you use after you have tagged your files. Hitting this will begin the mass transfer process. It will prompt you for the destination drive. After the tagged file has been transferred, the asterix that had appeared next to the filename in the directory is changed to a "#" symbol to indicate that it has been sent. You can cancel the transfer process at any point by typing Control-C.
L - This logs a new disk.
There are a couple of other commands as well, but these are the ones that I understand and use the most. By using L, T, and M, I can usually accomplish what I want from NWSP. It sure seems easier to use than PIP.COM (at least to me it does) and it usually performs without a hitch. If you want, it will even verify the copied file to ensure that the transfer has been accurate.
I hope this helps out those of you who have this program. If you have CP/M but don't have this program, get it! It's really slick and best of all, it's free! ###
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** AWAUG BULLETINS **
** UPDATED 12/20/89 **
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* AND NOW THE NEWS *
******************************
Big John Lingrel is going on a long term trip to Japan and we thought we might loose him as an ADAM benefactor. However, he has recently announced that while he is gone, his wife Jane will operate the BBS. We are all hopeful that when he returns (late spring, early summer?), he will resume active support of the ADAM.
Sol Swift and Tony Patterson have resumed operation of the Softworks Factory and have produced two Nibbles & Bits Newsletters. They are beginning a new BBS (called NEXUS) which is listed in the BBS section of this Bulletin.
Mark Gordon is now shipping the first orders for the POWERMATE hard drive system. If you are interested in getting information on his equipment, leave him a message in the PWRMATE message section on this BBS. (AWAUG BBS)
***********************************
*** A LIST OF YOUR FAVORITE ***
*** ADAM BBS Phone Numbers! ***
***********************************
Name : THE TRADING POST
Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud
Phone : (216)/791-4022 PCP/LINK
PCP/SLink#: OHCLE - 4222
Sysop : Herman L Mason (HERMAN)
Voice Ph. : (216)/231-8813
Name : UP - N - ADAM
Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud
Phone : (206)/859-2018 PCP/LINK
PCP/SLink#: WASEA - 2977
Sysop : Bart Lynch (ZONKER)
Name : PHONEX ADAM-LINK
Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud
Phone : (602)/936-3892 C/IK
C/Ln# ZH 52
yo ut ilt RSY
rs n e
Name : SLC ADAM-LINK BBS
Hrs/Baud : 6P-8A & WNDS 1200/300
Phone : (801)/484-5114 PCP/LINK
PCP/SLink#: UTSLC - 534
Sysop : Alan Neeley (ALAN)
Name : THE ST. LOUIS AUG
Hrs/Baud : THR-SUN 9P-6A 1200/300
Phone : (314)/773-1551 PCP/LINK
PCP/SLink#: MOSLO - 8979
Sysop : Al Fitzgerald (SHAMAN)
Name : LIL'E ORPHAN ADAM
Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud
Phone : (402)/455-8308 StarLINK
PCP/SLink#: N/A - 2521
Sysop : Steve Dawes OMAHA STEVE
Name : T.A.P.P.S. BBS
Hrs/Baud : 9A - 2A 24Hrs Wkn 300 B
Phone : (416)/741-2432
Sysop : Terry Cairns Name : CONNECTION BBS Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud Phone : (219)/422-6091 Sysop : Steve Major CONNECTION Name : THE TRADING POST Hrs/Baud : 24HR 1200/300 Baud Phone : (216)/791-4022 PCP/LINK PCP/SLink#: OHCLE - 4222 Sysop : Herman Mason Jr Name :AKRON BBS. Hrs/Baud : 24HR 300-1200-2400 Phone : (216)/883-4720. SLink # : 8740. Sysop : Ron Collins & J Lingrel Name : COMPUTER WISE GUYS Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 300 Baud
Phone : (404)/424-6258 PCP/LINK PCP/SLink#: GAATL - 8795 Sysop : SCOTT EARLEY Name : GARDEN OF EDEN Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 300 Baud Phone : (404)/445-0723 PCP/LINK PCP/SLink#: GAATL - 8795 Sysop : Sherman Murddock Name : TONY'S CORNER Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 3/12/2400 8 1 N Phone : (313)/754-1131 PCP/LINK PCP/SLink#: MIDET - 5968 Sysop : Tony Bauman Name : ADAM LINK IN NEW JERSY Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 300 Baud Phone : (201)/224-5764 PCP Sysop : Fred Vicente
Press any key Name : LAS VEGAS ADAMLINK Hrs/Baud : 24 HOURS 300 Baud 8N1 Phone : (702)/873-8056 Sysop : Harvey Seppala Lf-ON Name : THE GAS STATION Hrs/Baud : 24HRS 1200/300 Baud Phhone : (817)/265-8938 PCP/LINK Sysop : M. D. Henderson Name : MSB-BBS Hrs/Baud : 24/300-2400 Phone : (602)/395-9726 Sysop : MICHAEL BENEDICT Name : IEAUG-SOCA Hrs/Baud : 24HR 300/1200/2400 Baud Phone : (714)/775-1603 PCP/LINK PCP/SLink#: CASAC - 9184 Sysop : LARRY OVERMAN Name : MIDAS TOUCH Hrs/Baud : 24HRS, 2400/1200/300 Bd Phone : (407)/648-1133 StarLINK PCP/SLink#: N/A - 305 Sysop : DALE MALONE
Name : NEXUS Hrs/Baud : 300/1200 Baud 5pm-9am Mon-Sat all day Sun
Phone : (601) 875-7146 PCP/SLink#: not known yet Sysop : Sol Swift, T Patterson
Ricki Gerlach has set up a new BBS in Tenneessee. You are encouraged to call him on: WEDnesdays and THUrsdays between 8:30 pm and 5:00 am on 615-645-4317. Call at 300 baud.
MOST IMPORTANT!!! Perhaps the longest-standing BBS supporter of the ADAM has been COMPUSERVE. If you are not a member - maybe you should be? Call 1-800-555-1212 and ask for the COMPUSERVE number for your area! They are the major commercial BBS that offers full service for ADAM users. Please address questions about Compuserve services to Rob Friedman on the AWAUG BBS .
FOR SALE TO AWAUG MEMBERS ONLY (But membership is only $l5.00 per year and you get an excellent newsletter each month).. ADAM PRINTERS $30.00 (we have 6 printers in excellent condition).
ADAM Computer Consoles with one tape drive in excellent condition $55.00 each
ADAM KEYBOARDS with cord, $10.00 each.
DOT MATRIX PRINTER, $85.00 includes 6 new ribbons. (STAR, Gemeni 10x), very fast and works well with ADAM!
PARALLEL INTERFACES, $25.00 each, including the cable and software to work with your ADAM!! (attaches above printer)
SMART LOGO AND ADAM CALC (originals with manuals) $10.00 each.
SMART FILER (Tape), with manual in original box - $8.00.
256 K Expander $110.00, never used! Will mail without postage charge.
Game paddles: $1.00 each, brand new.
ADAM Printer Power Units: New, $12.50, Jim Howard
Note - there are 4 cables, including printer and standard rs-232 connectors. These cables were $30.00 each when bought - they are 1st class shielded, molded with gold tipped pins - no joke!)
80 column terminals $35.00 each !!!!! Act quick and get the last of these fantastic terminals!!!
GAME CARTRIDGES, $4.00 each all are guaranteed to work and any/all will me mailed to buyer with no postage charge.
#1. COSMIC AVENGER $6. SUPER ACTION BASEBALL
Order by name or number
Contact Bob Blair.
TO: Barry Wilson 114
FROM: mark gordon AWAUG 127
SUBJ: Powermate Info
All of the latest Powermate info is available on the Micro Innovations BBS - (703) 264-3908. I set up the BBS just to provide support for Powermate owners. It is up from 6 to 10 PM, Monday through Friday. I use my wife's business line for the BBS, so please do not call outside of those hours.
The BBS has the latest Powermate software and documentation, including press releases, price lists, installation instructions, etc.
A9707 01:12