Month: July 1978

Use of Color Mask Byte in HIRES

by Darrell Aldrich This is a brief description of the use of the color mask byte (Location 81210) for high re solution graphics in Apple Integer Basic. This mask specifies an 8 bit pattern of plottable X coordinates, with the pattern repeating itself every eight coordinates, going from left to right. The bits in this byte represent the colors violet and green, alternately. (See Figure 1). Suppose we want to mask off every other green bar on the screen as…

Apple ][ Mini Assembler

The following section covers use of the Apple II mini-assembler only. It is not a course in assembly language programming. The following section assumes the user has a working knowledge of 6502 programming and mnemonics. The Apple II mini-assembler is a programming aid aimed at reducing the amount of time requir.ed to convert a handwritten program to object code. The mini-assembler is basically a look-up table for opcodes. With it, you can type mnemonics with their absolute addresses, and the…

New A.P.P.L.E. Staff

We would like to welcome the following staff to the A.P.P.L.E. fold:  Steve Paulson who will be assisting with membership files and John Backman, who has also contributed an article for this months issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E..

Discs & Applesoft ROM Delayed

Documentation has been cited by Apple Computer as a cause of delay in shipping both the new ROM board and the Disk II. Discs have been rescheduled for shipping during the first week of July, while the Applesoft ROMs should follow within two or three weeks. Well worth waiting for!

Apple Patch

Here is a patch to correct one of the few bugs found in Applesoft II. The HTAB function will space 2 places further to the right than intended unless corrected with this patch: POKE (HM-28), 202 where HM = the value of HIMEM: for your Apple. This should be done after loading & prior to running.

Routine to find page length

This handy little subroutine can be used in two manners; to fill a screen page with repetitive material or to determine the length of a screen page of print statements. Assume line 100 is a print statement with which you wish to fill the page. 100 PRINT” “:GOSUB 400 400 IF PEEK(37) < 18 THEN RETURN 410 POP:PRINT “FOR NEW PAGE HIT ANY KEY”:CALL 756:GOTO 000 Line 400 reads the cursor and finds whereitis on the page. If less than…

Premium Program Plan

For those members that have paid their $10 annual membership but have not returned the Softech membership form •…. These forms must be turned in before your application can be processed. If you have not received your application, please let us know right away at 932 -6588.

BASIC Programming Classes

Don Williams will be our instructor again for two levels of Integer Basic Programming classes available to our members.   Beginning and Intermediate classes will be available, with the beginning class starting sometime in August. Details will be available in the next issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E.

Key Clicker Routine

If you have a newer Apple with the silent keyboard, Don Williams has written a short and sweet machine language routine to solve your problem. 0300:  48              PHA 0301 : A9 20        LDA #$20 0303: 8D 30 CO   STA $C030 0306: 20 A8 FC    JSR $FCA8 0309: 8D 30 CO   STA $C030 030C: 68              PLA 030D: 4C 1B FD   JMP $FDIB 0038: 00 03 Once you store the address ($0300) in location $38 and hit return, your keys will click…

Meeting Minutes

A.P.P.L.E. Meeting Minutes

Date: 20 June 1978 Time: 7:07 pm The meeting got off to a flying start at 7:07 PM as we introduced ourselves. Our official membership now stands at about 64, with 31 present at this meeting. (And in the two weeks since the meeting, has increased to over 100!) Val reported that the new Call -A. P. P. L. E. “Hot Line” has been installed and that the number is 932 -6588. (Where have we heard that number before?) This…

An A.P.P.L.E. Editorial

By Val J. Golding A problem that arises in any such organization as A.P.P.L.E. is that of “Bootlegging programs.” We have a number of programs in our personal library which we have purchased from a software vendor,and when a friend says: “Gosh, that’s a neat program .. will you run me a copy off?”, we have to decline. Not because we don’t want to pass the program on, but because we happen to believe that the author / owner of…

Welcome New Members

This issue is devoted to you, and particularly those that live without the Seattle metropolitan area. We have recently received tremendous amounts of mail, largely a result of being mentioned in the club columns of some of the major computer periodicals. Letters have been coming in at the rate of 6-12 per day, and it has certainly solved any problem as to what to do in our spare time.! Those members who live out of state are at a distinct…

Call-A.P.P.L.E. Hot Line

We would like to announce the installation of the Apple “Hot Line”, (206) 932-6588. This number is now available so your club can assist you with questions, problems, etc. If we don’t have an answer immediately available, which is quite likely, we will either attempt to find an answer or refer you to another member who can answer. If might be well to mention at the same time (especially for distant members who may tend to overlook time zones), call…

A.P.P.L.E. Portland

We are pleased to report the formation of an Apple user group south of the border, Apple Portland Program Library Exchange. We attended their organizational meeting in May and spent an enjoyable evening in Portland as the guest of Terry Ashton of Computerland of Portland, who also hosted the initial meeting. We are happy to see that their membership now numbers in the 30’s. Their dues and program rate structure approximate sours, and we anticipate a good deal of interaction…

Here’s an “OOPS FIXER!”

By J.A. BACKMAN If you have dumped a program by hitting “RESET” when you meant to hit “RETURN” and Ctrl-C wouldn’t bring the program back – – I’ll bet the air was as blue around your APPLE II as it was around mine! – ! – ! A sweet little fix is a simple gadget that stops accidental keying “RESET” but does not stop its operation when it is needed. It does not hide the key, and doesn’t require lifting…

Note to Library Pak 1A Owners

For all owners of the A.P.P.L.E. Library Pak 1A, please note: There is a partial dropout in program No. 8 (Color Game Pak) in early copies. Try loading at a higher volume setting. If this does not work, let us know and we will replace. The same issue occurs with our early copies of Basic Tutorial.

Apple Mash

Last issue I talked about the general specs of the PERSCI 277 eight inch floppy disk drive. This issue I want to discuss some of the uses for a floppy disc and why anyone would even want one. But first, let me digress. Since Apple has announced its own Disc II, why should I be telling you about the Persci floppy? Two reasons. 1) Computer Components announced its own floppy as available before Apple did, and 2) I’m using one…

Bytes From The Apple

As usual, we are down to the wire again as it comes time to write this column. We are still receiving applications from all over the country as we pass the 110 mark in membership, and we would also at this time like to extend a special welcome to our first overseas member, Paul Moortgat who lives in Nieuwkerken, Belgium! There are many special features for new members in this issue, and we would like to refer you to the…

Computerland Ad

Memory Map – Apple II with Applesoft BASIC Loaded

MEMORY RANGE* DESCRIPTION ———————– —————————————- 0.1FF Program work space; not available to user. 200.2FF Keyboard character buffer. 300.3FF Available to user for short machine language programs. 400.7FF Screen display area for text or color graphics. 800. 2FFF APPLESOFT BASIC compiler. (Cassette Tape Version) 800. XXX User Program (ROM version – A2B0009X installed) where XXX is maximum available RAM memory 2000.3FFF High Resolution Graphics Display page 1. May be used by Ror-1 (A2B0009X) version of App1esoft II only. 3000. XXX User…