DragonUser05_Sep83.pdf

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The independent Dragon magazine
6 0 p U S $ 2 _ 6 0 Se p te mb e r 1983
Getting bet r sound and graphics
Word processing software test
Disassembly introduced
Building an interface
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Contents
Letters
September 1983
Editor
GRAHAM CUNNINGHAM
(01-734 2631)
Assistant Editor
ANDREW BRIGGS
(01-734 2631)
Software Editor
GRAHAM TAYLOR (01-734 2953)
Editorial Secretary
SARAH OWEN (01-734 3454)
Advertisement Manager
DAVID LAKE
Advertisement Executive
SIMON LANGSTON (01-734 2923)
Administration
THERESA LACY (01-734 3454)
Managing Editor
DUNCAN SCOT
Publishing Director
JENNY IRELAND
Subs c ript ions
UK E8 for 12 issues
Overseas El 4 for 12 issues
ISSN 0265-0177
Dragon Us er, 12113 Little Newport Street.
London WC2R 3LD.
Published by Suns hine Books, Sc ot Press
Ltd.
Typesetting by Ches ham Press. Chesham,
Bucks. Printed by Eden Fisher, (Southend)
Ltd. Southend-on-Sea. Essex.
Distributed b y S . M. Dis t ribut ion, L o n d o n
SW9. 01-274 8611. Telex: 261643
reSunshine Books 1
983
How to s ubmit articles
The quality of the material we can publish in
Dragon User each month will, to a very great
extend, depend o n t he qualit y of t he dis-
coveries that you c an mak e with your Dra-
gon. The Dragon 32 computer was launched
on to the market with a powerful version ol
Basic, but with very poor documentation.
Every one of us who uses a Dragon will be
able to discover new tricks and quirks almost
every day. To help other Dragon users keep
up with the speed of the development each
of u s mus t as s ume t hat w e ma d e t h e
discovery first — that means writing it down
and passing it on to others.
Articles whic h are s ubmit t ed t o Dragon
User for publication should not be more than
3000 words long. All submissions should be
typed. Pleas e leav e wi d e margins and a
double space between each line. Programs
should, whenev er possible, b e c omput er
printed on plain white paper and be accom-
panied by a tape of the program.
We c annot guarant ee t o ret urn ev ery
submitted article or program. so please keep
a copy. If you want t o hav e y our program
returned y o u mu s t inc lude a s t amped,
addressed envelope.
We pay for articles according to the length
and the quality — it is wort h mak ing t hat
extra bit of effort
5
Cover feature
25
Using the USR command, more on
inputioutput, advice on saving and loading,
a graphics tip. Microline favoured and a
plea for the handicapped
t t
Learn how to make the most of the
Dragon's graphics with this excerpt from
Keith and Steven Brain's latest book which
covers animation and sound on the
Dragon
News
7
The range of peripherals and software for
the Dragon is increasing rapidly — we
bring you the latest details on new
products as they become available
Clubs
1
3
Disassembly
2
9
Dragon Dat a'S own c lub is f eat ured this
month o r a look at the important
difference between Stop Press and Scot
Press
An introduction to the advantages of
disassembly complete with a
comprehensive listing
Serious software
1
5
Interlacing
3
3
John Scriven gets down to some serious
business on the Dragon — looking at
software for business uses, graphic design
and program development — he returns to
the lighter side next month
Build an interface and link your Dragon to
the world outside — diagrams and all
details are included
Open File
3
4
9
7
US interview
1
9
Six pages of readers' programs:
Sketching, Squash, Pontoon and Yahtzee
A report f rom A me r i c a on t he launc h of
Dragon Answers
the Dragon 64, including an interview with
senior Tano management at their New
Orleans headquarters
This month Cathy offers advice on the
Dragon's speed-up POKE, changing
crystals and auto-running
Warp
Blitz the aliens playing this high resolution
space game which is our program of the
month
Competition Corner
5 0
Your chance to win a speech synthesis
package from DRG Business Machines
and Cotswold Computers
THE A RRIV A L THI S S UMME R o f Dragon Da ta 's d isk d rive syste m a n d Sin cla ir's
Microdrive brought an end to one of the longest and slowest races in home computing. If
you had held your breath waiting for the arrival of either then you would not have been
around to see them cro ss the finishing line — long ago you would have been carried
away prostrate and red-faced, perhaps only breaking silence at the end to mutter about
"coming soon" being the micro industry's equivalent to "free drinks tomorrow".
Many users who did not have to be carried away had also lost interest in this marathon
race long ago. Doubtless their interest will be revived by the actual arrival of the systems,
although the Microdrive is not available in the shops yet. But the time it has taken two of
the UK 's biggest home computer manufacturers to ma ke good their promises raises
questions about their abilities to keep to schedule. The American side of the US Dragon
venture is already promising advanced operating systems and 128s this year while the
UK waits, le ss than patiently in ma n y instances. f o r 64K o f " o f fi cia l
Dragon 32 was y . announced until it was ready. Doubtless Dragon Data wishes it had
- m e m o r not
T
h
e
done the same for its drives — so don't interpret silence from the company as indicating
a lack of activity, it's only that reticence may now be the preferred policy.
Al least the wait is providing chances to smaller companies offering memory upgrades
and disk drive systems. Premier Microsystems, in particular, has profited from the delays
at Dragon Data — not just in te rms of money but in enjoyment as well. The sound of
arcade games in use could not drown the laughter coming from that company's stand at
the London Computer Fair earlier this year. The " jo ke " was Dragon Data continuing to
struggle with a problem on its drives which Premier had long ago solved. Many users find
it harder to detect the humour in the situation, and it is unlikely that the belated arrival of
the "official me mo ry systems will erase the memory of the time spent waiting.
• WHEN YOU CAN'T WALK across the office without banging your arms or legs against
Dragons, peripherals o r software waiting fo r re vie w there's only one solution — not
amputation but n e w offices. Dra g o n Use r has moved to 1 2 1 3 Little Newport Street,
London WC2 R 3LD. Th e phone numbers printed elsewhere on this page are now the
correct ones on which to call us.
September 1983 Dragon User 3
1
1
E
d
i
t
o
r
i
COMPUS
BARCLAYCARD 11
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VISA
NSE
A I MA
A le s
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Software for Dragon 3 2
PO B OX 169, PALMERS GREEN, LONDON N 13 5X A
Telephone: 01-882 0681 (2 4 H r) and 01-882 6936
Offices a t 286D Green Lanes (9_45-6.00 Mon-Fri)
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FULL SCREEN EDI O R and PRO G RAMMERS TOOL KIT E34.50
Av ailable now — upgrade from HI-RES E12.20 plus SAE or 50p P&P
A super lull screen ed4or. with HI.FIES. on one carh dge. 'tour BASIC program
fan be readily changed by overtypong. inserting or deleting characters A ls o
included are powerful and easy to use functions tor FI ND STRING. CHANGE
STRING. COPY TEXT, SCROLL UP and DOWN. GOTO SPECIFIED LINE
and ENTER ANY BASIC COMMAND e.g. RENUM. DEL. CLOAD. CSAVE.
NEW and RUN that s how we did the screen dump). The FIND CHANGE and
BASIC commands are remembered and can be edited,
An extremely useful and powerful utility for the novice and the expert and very
easy to use Ov er 22 000 bytes still available tor programs
DC D
EOE
BASIC Converter
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DECODE converts BASIC programs between TANDY COLOR format and
DRAGON 32 formal Simply CLOAD the • foreogn program from tape E X E C
the cartridge and the program is converted. The same cartridge will work on a
DRAGON 32 and a TANDY COLOR i Extended BAsICI
COMING S O O N- COMPUSENSE SOURCE TAPES FOR DASM ASSEMS•
LER
VOL_ I — SINGLE PASS D1SASSEMBLER
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Includes commented Source and obiect code Others to follow — send SAE for
I it
• * * STARTOFTEXTA O
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R M>>> EDIT* THE FULL SCREENEDITOR <<<
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RM
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RMdumP HI-RES screen to EPSON F•-S0 Printer
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PRINTt-2,CHR$(27);"A"iCHR(S)
F R I . 0 TO 31
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FORJ.0 TO 191:PRINTt-21CHU(PEEK(0);:0A-32!
bCHR$
PRINIt-2:MEXT I
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2C H R
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C ( 1RD i ( 2
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?)"A"C
Upgrade to a 51 by 24 display
c a r t r i d g e
E25.30
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this
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into your DRAGON. s witc h on and you hav e a Si
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Just p r ig
column by 2 4 lone dis play wit h t rue lowerc as e characters. This amaz ing
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software uses the high resolution mode to draw the characters on the screen
R1
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AH
An easy•to•use 6800 mac hine code as s embler c a r t r i d g e £18.95
* Spec ially designed for convenient use on the DRAGON
• Do e s not use a separate editor
* I deal for producing machine code routines to be called from BASIC
* Inc ludes a 61300 Reference Card
Type your assembler program lust as you would a BASIC program and use
BASIC to call DASM, When DASM has assembled your program it returns to
BASIC where you can check for errors and execute the program immediately it
required T h e s ourc e program i s s av ed a n d loaded us ing t h e normal
CSAVE CLOAD T h e as s embled program ma y b e s av ed t o t ape us ing
CSAVEM (this can easily be done au tomatocally on BASIC when the assembly
has fi nished).
DASM is a two-pass symbolic assembler which allows labels of any length (the
test fi ve characters and the last character are used) A ll the 6800 mnemonics
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There are 12 commands designed to assist in debugging and running machine
code programs Or BASIC programs with PEEK and POKE I
DEMON, unlik e inferior products, has its own documented input and output
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Ill -RES
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We support our software!
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and allows you to use BASIC almost as normal. In fact there are a number of
extensions to BASIC to allow you to use the many additional features
- Mix graphics and text on the same screen
*
* Selec t any of nine standard ASCII character sets tor FRENCH. SPANISH.
GERMAN. ITALIAN. BRITISH. USA. SWEDISH. DANISH or JAPANESE
* Redefi ne any of the 244 characters
* SPRITE GRAPHICS MODE enables any character to be an B by 8 dot
Sprite
* A most responsove keyboard with AUTO-REPEAT
* Ex tra shift gives the missing characters on the DRAGON keyboard
* Leav es about 19.500 bytes for BASIC
* Switc h between HI-RES and normal modes at any time
* BLACK on GREEN. BLACK on WHI r E , GREEN on BLACK or WHITE on
BLACK
* 3 2 by 16 compatibility mode for existing programs
Hi-res is a must for serious orocirammmg
DAM/DEMON
cartridge E30.45
Combines DEMO N and DASM in one cartridge Th e ideal combination tor
developing machine code programs on the DRAGON
4 Dra g o n User September 1983
This is the chance to air your views — send your tips. compliments and complaints to Letters
Page, Dragon User. 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 3LID.
Letters
signal to pins 1 and 4 and screen
to pin 2.
I can only assume that the
output from the Dragon while
saving w as overloading t h e
microphone input stage ol the
recorder.
Brian Beesley,
Bishopstoke.
EastleIgh.
Hams.
'Handicap
plea
THROUGH H E pages o f your
magazine I would like to contact
other Dragon users with handi-
capped children.
Having seen some very good
software suitable for ESNtS) chil-
dren on a BBC B computer it
convinces me the Dragon can do
just as well.
I have started writing some
very simple programs for my
10-year-old mentally handicapped
son — and I am sure there must
be a Dragon owner somewhere
with more knowledge of program-
ming than
Bryony Glass,
Westbury.
W
r
routines much easier and pro-
vided you put the •O' on front of
the digit if greater than zero the
correct call is made, But don't put
a '0 i n front when defining the
address or you'll get the dreaded
SN error.
Robert Westwood.
Birmingham
Pal for
Dragon
I AM a snade surprised that your
July review of printers failed to
mention one low-priced machine
that works well with the Dragon,
the Microline 80.
The current cost is about E230
including VAT and though it has
limitations it has much to recom-
mend it.
The great advantages are that it
is a sturdy, workmanlike machine
with a high reputation for reliabil-
ity. Once set up properly it carries
on without giving trouble. I t is
capable of three sizes of print (set
with PRINT*- 2, CHRS(29, 30 &
31). though as the print head has
only six hammers it has no de-
scenders. There are machines
with better type, but it is quite
legible.
The paper may be fed with
either roller or tractor feed — it
works equally well with either.
And i t is possible t o get an
addition which allows for narrow
tractor rolls to be used — for
labels and the like.
Martin Bennett,
Londor• Wl.
Getting
it right
THEARTICLE "Getting to grips
with Dragon input and output
your July issue contained a num-
.
ber of errors. Perhaps the follow-
' in
ing will go some way to help
people who have been misled by
it.
(1) The triggering of the cassette
relay is not related to any inter-
rupt handling.
(2) There is no such thing as a
"printer relay" in the Dragon: bit
0 of address FF21 is in fact the
printer "acknowledge" input line.
and although not handled by the
Dragon operating system. it can
be used by other software
(3) DDR-B of PIA-0 is always
configured as output. Reading of
the keyboard is achieved by out-
putting column selection data via
FF02 and then reading the re-
turned row data via FF00.
(4) The value o f the Joystick
comparator is not as simple as
suggested I t in fact represents
the result of the comparison be-
tween the current value that has
been output to the D-A converter,
and the value given by the joystick
reading that is currently selected
via the MUX MUX selection is
determined by signals output on
the CA2 and CB2 lines from
PIA-O. T his als o determines
which sound source w ill b e
directed to the TV.
M J Kerry
Seaford
East Sussex
, and 2
I ALSO have had problems i n
Millipede
change
I IRIED out the Millipede program
written by Keith Hunniford in your
June issue. On running the prog-
ram I found that an improvement
would be a pause alter the mes•
sage -
are dead'
You
M suggested amendment is to
y
a et350. Before GOTO 140 insert
lin
eO N - 1 TO 1000* NEXT N
FR
a ving you enough time to read
gi
s caption
the
Jun Thompson.
l
Famley.
u
Surrey.
g
p
e
l l
e
t ,
INTHE June issue in the article
y
comparing the Dragon and the
o
Tandy Color Computer i t said
u
there is a bug in we Dragon ROM
which stops you from using USR
machine code calls properly and
that you have to redefine each
address before calling it.
In fact you can use the USA
function normally provided you
make your USR call two digits. eg
05. 04.
Some examples:
10 DEFLISRO - 3 2 0 0 0 :
DEFLISR 2 = 3 2 5 0 0 .
DEFLISR5 = 32700
20 A - USRO(OI
30 B = USR02(X)
40 C - USR05(Z)
I hope you find this useful as it
makes us ing machine c ode
Saving
solution L.,
Killing
a bug
Software Top 10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
(—)
(- )
(—)
(—)
(1)
(5)
(—)
(3)
(—)
(7)
P A LOW MAY be experiencing
the same problems I had trying to
save and load programs with the
Dragon 32
Using a Ferguson 3T07 recor-
der I found that having saved a
program the volume control had
no tolerance in its setting when
reloading.
This problem was eventually
THEDRAGON uses memory loca-
solved when I changed the plug
tions 1536 to 13823 which ends
on the save lead and saved via the
on page 8 of the memory loca-
p la y
tion. By using POKE M. G. in the
the microphone socket. Connect
.
program. you can get in mode 3
or 1 255 different easy graphic
r ec
blocks. This also allows you to
D
use more than the set of four
I
colours in either mode stated.
N
Mountain
This will help users to overcome
Dragon Data
Basic T utor ial
s
the poor graphic set in text mode
Ampalsoft
10 P.C.L.S
Pers onal F inanc e
o
Dragon Data
20 P MODE 1: SCREEN 1,1
Spec ial Collec tion 1 c
Dragon Data
30 M = 1536: G 1
Microdeal
The King
k
40 POKE M. G
Microdeal
Space War
e
506 =
M
- M48
Andr oid Attac k
MicrOdeal
t
60 IF G - 255 THEN 60
Salamander
N ighttlight
70 GO TO 40
r
Microdeal
Planet Inv as ion
Martin Entwiste.
a
Microdeal
Farn worth.
Kater pillar Attac k
t
Lancs.
Chart compiled by Boots
h
e
September 1983 Dragon User 5
r
saving programs from the Dragon
32.
The output from the Dragon is
high and the auxiliary input of the
recorder must be used. not MIC
input. Even if the auxiliary input is
used the high level can cause a
drop in level during the first few
bytes of header producing an I 0
error.
The problem is the auto record
level on some recorders which
overcorrects produc ing t h is
effect.
I overcame this problem by
fitting a 100K ohms potentio-
meter between the Dragon and
the recorder. and adiusting the
level until the recorder input is
lust below the operating level of
the auto record level circuit.
Some Mal and error is required to
obtain the correct level, but once
set perfect saving of programs
results every time.
Mark Greene,
Thornton Cleveleys.
Blackpool.
Lancs.
Graphics
hint

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