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Home , Cromemco, Homebrew Computer Club

Robert Reiling, Editor □ Post Office Box6 26, Mountain View, CA94042 □ Joel Miller,Staff Writer Typesetting, graphics and editorial services donatedLaurel by Publications,17235 Laurel Rd., Los Gatos, CA 95030 (408) 353-3609

RANDOM DATA MPU SHOPS OPENED B Y SEMI SPECS By Robert Reiling

DATES—The next several meetings are scheduled Semiconductor Specialists, Inc., an industrial dis­ at SLAC on Wednesdays. This is a better meeting date tributor, will now cater to the “Computerists” or for many people but is not as satisfactory for some.home computer enthusiast by establishing twelve There will be some Friday meetings this year as well. MPU Shops at their twelve U.S. branches. The first The complete schedule will be in the next Newsletter. has opened in the Chicago area at the company head­ The February and March schedule is listed on quarters. page eight. The Shops will have working models of five micro­ SIXTEEN/8—A sixteen bit machine using the S-100 processor kits, three non-assembled kits, plus four bus was demonstrated at the December 12th meeting additional chips not in kit form. Two by Dick Wilcox and John French. It appears to be completean developmental systems will be available. In excellent computer system with outstanding soft­addition, books, power supplies, tape readers, and ware—time sharing even. You will be hearing more accessories in kit form will be carried. t e about this machine. For the current status and addi­ Paul Carroll, president, explains: “The industrial tional details contact the Orange County Computerdistributor has never really catered to the hobbyist, Mart in the Los Angeles area. Telephone numbers arebut always allowed cash sales because many engineers (714) 838-1381 or (714) 633-1222. and buyers from industry bought small quantities for COMPUTER NOTES—Andrea Lewis, editor of the their personal use. With the advent of the micro­ ALTAIR Users Group publication COMPUTER processor, a whole new market of ‘Computerists’ has NOTES, has sent many copies for distribution at thedeveloped. These people are engineers, programmers, Club meetings. Thanks to Andrea and MITS for the and technicians from industry who are learning, copies. All of the copies (several hundred) were dis­ designing, and programming microprocessor systems tributed in what seemed only moments. at home. They want a place to browse, read, have BAMUG—The Bay Area Microprocessor Users hands on practice, and see what they are buying. The Group Newsletter was issued by Timothy O’Hare, MPU Shops will have the advantage of supplying editor and writer, to announce the club’s new meetingmany of the extra transistors or IC’s they need to location and meeting on January 6, 1977. You mayinput or output their system. The fact that many of want to contact Timothy about future meetings. Histhese ‘Computerists’ will end up designing and speci­ address is 1211 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda, CA fying a future system for their employer is why Semi­ 94501. When writing it will be a good idea to include conductor Specialists is interested in this growing a stamped self-addressed envelope. market.” Mail orders as well as credit cards will be KILOBAUD—This magazine was delivered in accepted by the MPU Shops. Contact Semiconductor December and has received excellent comments from Specialists, Inc., P.O. Box 66125, O’Hare International readers. I haven’t managed to get a copy yet but did Airport, Chicago, Illinois 60666. □ get an opportunity to scan a copy at the last club meeting. It appeared full of good stuff. Why don’t you send me your comments about KILOBAUD for use in NEW JOYSTICK CONSOLE GIVE MORE the next Newsletter. If you don’t know, KILOBAUD is published by FLEXIBILITY TO the same organization that publishes 73, the amateur radio magazine. Wayne Green is the publisher with plenty of experience in the publication business., a leading name in the John Craig is the editor. He has been producing thefield, has introduced a new 2-axis joystick console I/O section in 73 for several months now. Subscrip­that has significant features not found in other tions are available by writing to KILOBAUD or 73,joysticks. Peterborough, NH 03458. □ For one thing, the new joystick is a console rather

1 HCCNewsletter/Vol. 2, Issue 13/January 19,1977 than merely a simple 2-input device. the meeting on the 16th. Phil explains that NIBL is in It is called a console because it includes a speaker the public domain and he will have instructions for and speaker amplifier built into the same housing obtaining NIBL for copying costs. He is expected to with the joystick. The speaker greatly enhances the announce the future availability of NIBL in ROM. usefulness of this over other joysticks because it facil­ Don’t miss this meeting. □ itates such uses as sound effects for computer and other games—and provides an easy way to obtain such features as acoustic warnings in other applications. USEFUL BASIC PROGRAM Another interesting feature of the new console is By William Marlin that it includes four pushbutton switches. These can be utilized to add much more flexibility to such applications as using the console for cursor positioning This TINY BASIC program was among the first on a color graphics terminal. In such a case theprepared by William Marlin on his AMI Proto Board. switches can select desired colors. He needed label to tell people of his new address—so Cromemco also offers peripherals that simplify the program. The label is a listing from the program. application of the joystick. One is a fast 7-channel analog-to-digital I/O card. This unit will directly inter­ :L I ST face two of the consoles to microcomputers. The I/O is a plug-in card. 100 LET 1=0 Cromemco also offers a color graphics interface 110 PR I NT known as the TV Dazzler. This unit allows micro­ 120 PRIKT"FIRST LIKE OF MESSAGE” computers to display memory in color on an ordinary 130 LET 1=1+1 color TV set. The block diagram below shows how readily the 14 0 IF I /3 *3< >I GOTO 120 new console and other peripherals can be used with 150 PRIKT a microcomputer to form a complete operating 1Ó0 PR IKT"SECOND LIKE OF MESSAGE system. 170 LET 1=1+1 Price of the new console is $65 in kit form or $95 180 IF I /3 *3 < > I GO TO 160 in assembled, ready-to-use form. Delivery is 15 - 190 PRIKT 30 days. For more information, contact: Mr. Joe 200 PR IKT"THIRD LIKE OF MESSAGE" McCrate, Cromemco, Inc., 2432 Charleston Rd., 2 1 0 LET 1=1+1 Mountain View, CA 94043, (415) 964-7400. □ 220 IF I/3*3<>I G 0T 0 2 0 0 230 PR I NT 24 0 IF I <27 GOTO 110 8800 CROMEMCO COLOR 250 EKD OR TV TV 8080 DAZZLER SET I COMPUTER :RUK Í Plugs into FIRST LIKE OF MESSAGE Pluqs CROMEMCO computer into SEC0KD LIKE OF MESSAGE D+7A I/O computer THIRD LIKE OF MESSAGE

FIRST LIKE OF MESSAGE CROMEMCO CROMEMCO SECO KD LIKE OF MESSAGE JOYSTICK JOYSTICK THIRD LIKE OF MESSAGE

FIRST LIKE OF MESSAGE SECO KD LIKE OF MESSAGE THIRD LIKE OF MESSAGE NIBL FEBRUARY 16, 1977

NATIONAL BASIC—National Industrial Basic Language, NIBL, will be discussed at the February 16, CASSETTES IN THE HOMEBREW LIBRAR Y By Gordon French 1977 Homebrew Computer Club Meeting. Phil Roybal, MP Product Marketing Manager, and an asso­ ciate, both from National Semiconductor Corp., will present the NIBL story. Perhaps you read about There are now cassettes in the Homebrew Library. NIBL in recent articles in INTERFACE AGE and DR. To make it possible and practical to interchange data DOBB’S JOURNAL. Look these articles up before and software, and to put to use the experience many

HCC Newsletter/Vol. 2, Issue 13/January 19,1977 2 of us have had using cassettes, the library procedurework of genius. Please use care in handling the tapes. will be as follows: For those of you intrepid enough to have once Library tapes will all be kept on TDK Audua C-60called in an attempt to get something from the cassettes. This is a non chromium dioxide tape oflibrary, please skip to the next paragraph. First, I do high brilliance. It is readily available in the Bay Area.not have a Fortran of any kind, sort, style or descrip­ This tape has excellent response at the clock frequencytion. Same for PL-1. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. Next, of Tarbell standard. I neither steal, nor duplicate, software which is pro­ Tapes with data on them will have the data side ortected by copyright. I am a librarian, not a quick sides Write tap knocked out. copy service. Next, I will not list, catalog, or describe Tarbell format tapes will be with what I call “phase what is in the library. If you know what you want, up.” Meaning: phased as if recorded on a J.C. Penneyask me and I will tell you if we have it. Being a pack Co. Model #6536 with the Tarbell board strapped asrat of many years’ standing, I will invariably take any­ recommended in the assembly manual. The need herething I know can be had for nothing w’hether I need it is not obvious unless you are using some Panasonicor ornot. Many of you are better at this than I am, and Lloyd cassette machines that record or play backsince there are four hundred of you and only one of phase down. (My son got a Sears machine that recordsme, I’ll continue to pursue my hobby between phone phase down and plays phase up from a big beardedcalls. elf If a manufacturer makes low cost software avail­ in a funny red suit.). If you are running a Tarbellable, please support them by purchasing some. You cassette interface and you haven’t bought the Penney’sget a nice clean, readable copy of the documentation. machine, buy one! All the difficulties that I had wentBesides, if you can’t get it to load and go, you can away the minute mine was plugged in to replace write a a tear stained letter or openly cry over the tele­ Panasonic I had been using. phone and someone may be sympathetic toward your So far as phasing is concerned we have not hadcause, while a lowly library user must be happy with enough experience with either Processor Technology’sunreadable or incomplete documentation and gets no new “CUTS” board or IMSAI’S MIO board. PTC’s sympathy whatever he does. Lastly, I get what you “cuts” board has been designed to be insensitive giveto to the library. I constantly encourage everyone phase so we shouldn’t have a problem. When I knowto contribute to the library, but some desirable more about the MIO board, you’ll read about it here.materials never get into the library. If you can’t get it Those of you who are regularly working with cassettesfrom the library, but find another source for some and discover the whys and wherefores, please call meparticular thing, either put a copy in the library, or and share it. tell me where you were able to locate it. I’ll pass the Tapes should have handlettered information givinginformation along to the next fellow. the recorder’s index to start of record, end of record. To get a cassette from the library, please call ahead This obviously will vary from user to user, but itso is that I can verify that it is in the library and avail­ generally useful geographic information. Next theable. Then, you and I will set a convenient time for name of the program or data. Next the loaded mem­you to drop by my place and pick it up. Since the ory limits, expressed in hex, so the label may lookcassette has a given value, and neither the club treas­ like: urer or myself do this for profit, please come bearing a TDK Audua C-60 cassette as “deposit” against the 002 - 009 “STARFUNK” 0000 - 4800 safe return of the club tape. I won’t sell your tape, or take money of any nationality. A couple of the mem­ 012 - 022 “BYTES MY MOTHER LOVED” 0000 - 12AF bers who have found work have already seeded the library with blank tape and program tapes. You don’t 027 - 099 “SUPERSYS SPILLDUMP” CC00 - DFFF have to have money to play, and if your story is sad enough you can probably con me out of one for Tapes without labels or with unreadable ones willnothing. And if heaven rains bounty on you, bear in be reused for something else. mind we are trying to get tax exempt status, and your Leave plenty of blank area between records. Thecontribution may be deductible. TDK Audua C-60 is long enough to afford us lots ofOne last thing. Please respect the copyright law. room and avoids confusion when your index isYou not are specifically forbidden from making copies of the same as the label may show. For tapes in Tarbell many materials under the new laws. Several com­ format be sure to include two or three minutes ofpanies have produced software for commercial sync code so that it will be possible for the next userexploitation, and have protected its value by copyright to adjust his sync potentiometer setting. and whereas these companies may choose not to liti­ When making a copy of anything, load the copygate infringement of their copyright, it is their right that you have made. When in doubt, do it again.to protect their property. Purchase these products Make a copy as good as you would like to have itfrom for their rightful owners. There are, on the other your own use. hand, many programs in the public domain as a direct Cleanliness is next to having a tape that loads.result of your labors and mine. As time goes on, there Keep your greasy paws off the tape surface. If yourwill be even more. Here in we have the machine tends to eat tape, borrow someone else’s.best of the best programmers and I have seen some Sardine oil, cracker crumbs, dandruff, eraser dust,really great stuff simply given away. Remember that and many other things likely to be found in the the library is really a software exchange. Give a little. average household may inadvertently destroy Take the a little. Don’t use our facilities to rip someone off.

3 HCC Newsletter/Vol. 2, Issue 13 /January 19, 1977 operation before printing the playing board. If your TIC-TAC-TOE IN TINY BASIC TVT recognizes a FormFeed (hex OC) as the Home or function, either of the following will do the job: How to Make a Program TINY By Tom Pittman 2020 LET J=USR(G-11, 0, 12) 2020 PRINT “ [formfeed]

The only game I have that runs on my 4004 system The second one will of course look strange on the plays Tic-Tac-Toe, where the computer plays one listing. side. I wrote this some three years ago, but it recently After writing the program I realized that it is too occurred to me that it would be something that big for a 4K system in its entirety. So I separated the would run in TINY BASIC very easily. It is a simple 'etup operations (lines 100-500) so that you can load program and although the computer plays aggressive­ ind RUN them, then CLEAR and load the rest. Or ly, it is not unbeatable. This program is particularly you can omit loading the setup entirely, and just suited to TINY BASIC because there are only a few set G and P in the direct execution mode to the prop­ variables: we need a nine-element array for the play­ er values for your system. ing board, but that could have been handled by using The rest of the program is still too big. nine variables. I chose to use the USR function to Now comes the big squeeze. I have a nice text access nine consecutive memory locations in lowereditor on my 4004 which - allows multiple string memory (0007 to 000F). That is the only use of the substitutions. I ran the program through the editor, USR function, so if you want to use this program onmaking the following substitutions: some other TINY BASIC than mine, you know what to look for. LET deleted I did use one other peculiarity of TINY in this pro­ PRINT becomes PR gram: there are several loops where the index on the all REM lines removed loop is W, which takes on the four values 6100, 6200, delete all spaces (BASIC ignores them anyway) 6300, and 6400. These are line numbers for the remove 4th digit of line numbers entry points of a subroutine, and the only use of the (only makes GOTOs shorter) variable W is in a GOSUB W statement, which selects the corresponding subroutine entry. If you want to Then I manually rewrote the PRINT messages to convert this program to regular BASIC you will have shorten them or to re-insert needed blanks, and fixed to fix that part as well as the USR calls. the line number computations involving the variable When I was in high school I worked out a combina­ W. The result is a program only 1189 bytes long, torial solution for this game which could be imple­ compared to the original 3484. This is short enough mented in relays, and I actually knew somebody to run in 4K of RAM including the interpreter. who built a Tic-Tac-Toe machine. But when I wrote By the way, Just as I was getting ready to cheat this program I decided that a heuristic approach would and put a deliberate bug in the program so it could be more fun, so this program does not use the com­ be beaten, my wife found a way to beat it without binatorial approach. The heuristic is a tree-search cheating. It is not a bug, but a direct result of the way algorithm of depth one. This is trivial as game pro­ the heuristic evaluates each square. Also, on my 4004 grams go, but then, the game is nearly trivial itself. the program evaluates its next move in less than one Theoretically the program can be beaten, though I second, or so fast as to appear instantaneous. In could not find how. TINY BASIC it takes several seconds, so I put in a The algorithm is simple. Each empty square is line which prints a period from time to time as it assigned a score representing how good a play in that thinks. This way you know the computer has not square is, then the highest score wins. For each row, stopped. column, or diagonal going through this square, the This is the whole program; the compressed version score is incremented by 1 if there is an X (the human followed it. It is now in the public domain, so have play) and two blanks, by 2 if all three squares are at it. blank (i.e., the row, column or diagonal is available),

by 3 if there is an O and two blanks (aggressive: prefer 100 REM T I C - TAC-TOE, YOU (X ) VS. THE COMPUTER fO) playing to win than to block), by 20 if there are two 110 GOTO 2 0 0 120 BO Art 0 IS IM MEMORY LOCATIONS 00P7-000F X’s (must block those), and by 100 if there are two 13 0 . 0 IS EMPTY, 1 IS X, 3 I S O 14 0 I HAS CURRENT POSITION O’s (that’s a win). This scoring is done in lines 4300- 150 G IS PEEK ROUTINE ADDRESS 1 6 0 P IS POKE ROUTINE ADDRESS 4500. 1 7 0 F= 1 IF YOU PI,AY FIR ST I wrote the program so that the user can type in 180 U IS NUMBER OF UNPLAYED SQUARES 19 0 Z - l IF SOMEONE WON the location of the beginning of the interpreter (from 20 0 REM 210 PRINT "TIC-TAC-TOE, YOU AGAINST TINY PASTc" which the program derives the address of the Peek 2 2 0 PRINT "YOU ARE X, I AM O ." and Poke USR routines), then after that it just plays 2 3 0 PRINT "YOU PLAY YOUR TURN PY TYPING THE NUMPER OF A SQUARE. " 2 4 0 A*0 one game after another. Hopefully that minimizes 2 5 0 P=0 2 6 0 C=0 the need to make changes in the code for different 2 7 0 D*0 processors. One change which owners of TVT ter­ 2 9 0 E=0 2 9 0 F=0 minals might like is to add a line for a Home Cursor 3 0 0 PRINT

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UCC N ew sletter/ Vol. 2. Issue 13/January 19, 1977 6 SHOW & TELL Be a SPEAKER or PANELIST at the FIRST WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIRE EXCLUSIVELY DEVOTED TO PERSONAL & HOME COMPUTING • Present a TUTORIAL for an absolute beginner, just starting to think about owning his own computer • Describe a COMMERCIAL or HOMEBREWED SYSTEM of interest to personal computing enthusiasts • Discuss the DESIGN or IMPLEMENTATION of SOFTWARE for home & hobby computers • Detail a CURRENT or FORESEEABLE APPLICATION of personal computers • Debate a CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE in the realm of individual computing Or, suggest an exciting speaker or interesting topic, appropriate for the Computer Faire ALSO EXHIBIT a HOMEBREWED SYSTEM • Hardware, Software, or an Integrated System • Prizes for the Best “ Home Cooking” (just like the old county fairs) SEE & HEAR Attend the FIRST WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIRE, April 15-17, 1977, in San Francisco Civic Auditorium

• 7,000 to 10,000 people • Banquets with nationally-known, present-world, • 100 Conference Presentations & future-world speakers •200 Commercial & Homebrew Exhibitors «Tutorials for Beginners • Special-lnterest Social Centers • Esotérica for Experts Co-Sponsors include amateur, professional, & educational groups. Some Conference Sections Being Planned: • Personal Computers for Education • Floppy Disc Systems for Personal Computers associated with a University of California short-course • Computer Games: Alphanumeric & Graphic • Computers & Amateur Radio • Computers & Systems for Very Small Businesses • Computer Graphics on Home Computers • Personal Computers for the Physically Handicapped • Computer-Driven, & Computer-Assisted Music Systems • Personal Word-Processing Systems • Speech Synthesis Using Home Computers • Software Design: Modularity & Portability • Microprogrammable for Hobbyists • Several Sections Concerning Standards • Program & Data Input via Optical Scanning • Other Sections for Club Leaders, Editors, Organizers, etc. Get Your free Copy of the Silicon Gulch Gazette

1 A tabloid newspaper for computer fanatics * Plus "'not. news” & raging rumors from Silicon 1 All the news about the Computer Faire Valley (the San Francisco Peninsula), product • Details about the Proceedings of the Computer Faire announcements, equipment descriptions, etc. Cut out, or photocopy ; then fold, and tape in position.

i 1 P 1 BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS Permit No. 91 No Postage Necessary If Mailed In U.S.A. Palo A lto , CA

□ Send a fre e copy of theSilicon Gulch Gazette. POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY □ Send program & accommoda- □ Send speakers' instructions. tions information, □ Send homebrew exhibitors' & Pre-registration Form instructions. (those who pre-register may □ Send commercial exhibitors' take advantage of a prospectus. reduced admission fee). □ Send details on the expected PLEASE PRINT OR TYPE Computer FaireProceedings. NAME ______

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7 HCCNewsletter/Vol. 2, Issue 13/January 19,1977 HOMEBREW COMPUTER CLUB MEETINGS Contents Where A n d When PAGE The Homebrew Computer Club meets at 7PM at Random Data,Robert Reiling...... 1 the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Auditorium. MPU Shops Opened by SEMI SPE C S...... 1 Dates scheduled for February are the 2nd and 16th, New Joystick Console Gives More and for March the 2nd, 16th and 30th. The dates and Flexibility to Microcomputers...... 1 the location are subject to change. If a change does NIBL February 16,1977...... 2 occur, every effort will be made to provide advance Useful BASIC Program,William Marlin...... 2 Cassettes in the Library,Gordon French 2 notice in theNewsletter. □ Tic-Tac-Toe in Tiny Basic,Tom Pittman...... 4 Bulletin Board...... 6 West Coast Computer Faire...... 7

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HCC Newsletter/Vol. 2, Issue 13¡January 19,1977 8