\.. ZY-1000
MZ-5600
~:,\',\ : ·::1. ~~ MZ-700 PC-3000
'NO'VEMBER ~Ol4 Volume 34 Number 2
SHARP USERS CLUB VOLUME 34 NUMBER 2 MAGAZINE November 2014
MAIN EDITORIAL (M.Hawes) ...... 2 CLUB NEWS & COMMITTEE ADDRESSES 3
Original Sharp Manuals for Sale (M. Hawes) ...... 4 Items Wanted (M. Hawes) ... 4
"From Bedrooms to Billions" (M. Smith) ...... 5
MZ-80 Nostalgia: Early MZ-80 Software Part 1 (J. Venor) . . . . 6 "I Ching" ...... 7 MZ-80K "Melody"; MZ-80B "Player" ...... 8 MZ-80K "Card Sharp" & "Demen at the Wheel" ...... 9 "Mystery at the Hause of Treasure" & "Sharp Hints" ...... 10 "Sketchpad", "Breakout" & "Pascal Functions" ...... 10 "Coup D'etat" ...... 11 "The Valley" ...... 13
John's Holiday in Weymouth, October 2014 (J.E . /M.H.) ...... 15
Expanding Boundaries of BOA Graphics (Pt 2) (B . Donnachie) ... . . 16 Switching the Display Off During a Frame ...... 16 Double Buffer Horizontal Split ...... 18
MZ-700 Section Editorial/MZ Web Links (P. Trainer) 21 MZ Items offered/sold on E-Bay ...... 22
News from the Czech Republic- by Martin Lukasec ...... 23 MZ-800 NOBOMI Unicard Mk3b ...... 23 MZ-700 NOBOMI Unicard Mk3c ...... 24 MZVGA-VGA output for SHARP MZ-800(& MZ-700/MZ-3500) ...... 25 David Luftner's internal VGA output for MZ-800 ...... 25 STMZ800: Tiny (67x66x28 mm) SHARP MZ-800 Emulator ...... 25 MZJOY: Connect Sharp/Atari joystickstoamodern PC ...... 25 2Mb MZ-800 RAM/ROM disk with battery backup ...... 25 QD I/F MZ-1El9 and MZ-lFll drive electronics replica ...... 25 MZ-1Rl8 64kB SHARP RAM File Board replica ...... 25 MZ-1E24 RS-232C for MZ80B, MZ-700 & MZ-800 replica ...... 26 MZ-1E05 FloppyDisk Controller for MZ-700/800 replica ...... 26 PC Covox audio i/fand MOD player for Sharp MZ-800 ...... 26 ROM Card for SHARP MZ-800 replica ...... 26 PEZIK 512kB RAM disk (no batt bkup) for MZ-800 replica ...... 26 VCTM1 Battery backed-up RAM disk for MZ-800 replica ...... 26 KBD adapter (PS/2 keyboard to SHARP MZ-3500) ...... 26
Q's about SUC & other projects in the 90's (M . Lukasec) . . ... 27 Same Answers to the Above Questions (M. Hawes) ...... 28
COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 BY THE SHARP USERS' CLUB, HENLEY-ON-THAMES, OXON. U.K .
- J - Sharp Users Club Volume 34 Number 2 Editori al
6 BelleVue tel: 01305 783518 The Esplanade e-mail : [email protected] Weymouth Dorset DT4 8DR 24 November 2014
Voila! (as they say in France). Hereis Vol. 34 No. 2 ofthe Sharp User Club Magazine. , A bit late out of the blocks again, due mainly to 4 queries from a !arge group of Sharp enthusiasts in the Czech Republic that required a Iot of research in our archives.
ln fact, the e-mail that contained those queries also carried a long Iist of Sharp MZ- hardware add-ons that have been produced by various members of this Czech group. This amazing Iist appears on pages 23-26 of this issue and is quite mouth watering, especially for those members of the SUC who use the MZ-700 or the MZ-800.
And who would have thought that it would ever become possible to buy a high-quality replica ofthe MZ-1 E05 Floppy-Disk Card for the MZ-700/800 (which, l am sure, could also be used, after only very minor modifications, on the MZ-80A or the MZ-80B).
The Czech queries appear on page 27 of th is issue, and are answered, as far as we are currently able, on page 28. These answers required a Iot of delving into our archives, and this process has led me to conclude that, for the record, we should perhaps publish a booklet giving full details of ALL the 'hardware kits ' that we ever produced, plus details of any special software that we wrote to go with them.
The 'Czech Saga' forms the technical backbone ofthis issue. But we also have 2 very nostalgic contributions from Mike Smith and Joe Venor; a very interesting article from Ben Donnachie on MZ-80A Graphics; the usual bit by Paul Trainer on MZ material on the Web and MZ machines on Ebay; and a 'Sales' pageaffering a collection of virtually 'as new ' Sharp MZ-Manuals, all salvaged from oblivion by Mike Mallett.
Plus some tips from John Edwards, re USB hubs and column formats in MS-Word.
All in all, for a one-make computer club that started in 1980 and still going strong, a pretty remarkable issue, with a very wide spread of interest, and hardly anything written by yours truly. Long may this trend continue!!
Piease remember to pay your Subscription for 2015, using the pull-out form at the centre ofthis issue. DO IT NOW, don 't wait till the New Year and then forget it!!!
Happy Christmas, and a Good New Year!
* Vol.35 No.l will appear in Spring 2015, deadline circa 3 1/03/2015 * - 2 - Sharp Users Club General Section CLUB NEWS Nov 2014
MZ-80B Librarian *****NOTE NEW ADDRESS & TELEPHONE NUMBER! I Steve Bass, I Downlands Close, Nyetimber, Bognor Regis, W. Sussex, P021 3QA •' Telephone 01243 267548; e-mail: [email protected] / Treasurer/ Record~llolder ~" )'(~·i (\ ,{ I John Duxbury, 52 KenCial Str et, Barrow-i urness, Cumbria LA 14 5HH Telephone 01229 813578 · -mail: sharp.u [email protected] ' '-/ Hardware Consultant John Edwards, Oaken Piggeries, Holyhead Road, Codsall, Nr.W'hampton WV8 2HX J Telephone 01902 845273 ; e-mail : john _ edwards.suc@tiscali .co.uk P.S. John is often busy in bis garden; ifhe don't answer, LEAVE A MESSAGE!!
Secretary Andrew Ferguson, II Harcourt Close, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 I UZ ~ I Telephone 01491 574850
Chief Editor and MZ-80K Librarian Maurice Hawes, 6 BelleVue, The Esplanade, Weymouth, Darset DT4 8DR I Telephone 01305 783518 ; e-mail : [email protected]
Advisor for PC and Handheld Section (Web-Based only) .j Mike Mallett, 4 Kilburn Close, Calcot, Reading, RG31 7DH ***** NEW ADDRESS! Telephone 0118 9615019; e-mail : [email protected]
Curator ofSUC Website Mike Smith { Address ofSUC Website is now ...... www.sharpusersclub.org Mike Smith 's personal address is now .. ..mike.smith @sharpusersclub.org
MZ- 700/800 Editor and Librarian j Paul Trainer, I Elmete Walk, Roundhay, Leeds LS8 2LB Telephone 0113 2958192; e-mail : [email protected]
MZ-80A Librarian ./ Dr Joseph Venor, 16 Church Road, Wootton, Beds, MK43 9EU Telephone 0 1234 766703 ; e-mail: joe_ [email protected]
SOME BACK ISSU ES OF TI-JIS MAGAZfN E ARE STILL AV AILABL E AND WE NOW HAVE A FEW PACKS OF 'FONTWRITER' RißBONS (see Val. 32 No. I p. 15)
FOR FU RTHER DETAI LS PL EAS E RIN G 01305 783518 - 3 - Sharp Users Club General Section Manuals for Sale/ltems Wanted
Original Sharp Manuals for Sale- by Maurice Hawes
Mike Mallett recently sent me a Iarge box full of Sharp Manuals. A few were new to me, and I am keeping those for the SUC Reference Library. But most ofthem were duplicates of Manuals that I already had, and I can offer these to SUC members, at give-away prices that include p. & p., as shown below (all except the first Manual in the Iist in virtually 'as new' condition):
MZ-80K BasicManual (SP-5025) (cover slightly soiled, A4+, 131 pp.) f5-00 MZ-80K Disk Basic Manual (SP-60 15) (hard cover, A4+, 182 pp.) f7-00
MZ-80A Disk Basic Manual (SA-651 0) (A4+, I 0 I pp.) f5-00
MZ-700 Owner's Manual (MZ-IZ013B) (A4, 304 pp.) f7-00 MZ-700 Disk Basic Manual (MZ-2Z009) (A5, II 0 pp.) f4-00
MZ-800 Disk Basic Manual (MZ-2Z046) (A5, 74pp.) f4-00 MZ-800 Personal CP/M Manual (MZ-2Z-047) (A4+, 400 pp. app.) f8-00
MZ-3500 Owner's Manual (A4+, 69 pp.) fS-00 MZ-3500 Basic Language Manual (MZ-2Z007) (A4+, 374 pp.) fS-00 MZ-3500 Basic Language Manual Appendix (MZ-2Z007) (A4+, 51 pp.) f5-00 MZ-3500 CP/M 2.2 Manual (A4 + Ring Binder, 265pp. inc. Master Disk) f 10-00
MZ-5500 Manuals (MS-DOS, CP/M-86 User Guide, CP/M-86 Manual) p. o. a.
MZ-5600 Manuals (MS-DOS, CP/M-86 User Guide, CP/M-86 Manual) p. o. a.
Piease make your cheque payable to 'Sharp Users Club' and sent it to my address in Weymouth (see page 3), together with a note giving your postal address. (N.B. If you can collect from Weymouth, the prices can be reduced very significantly.)
ITEMS WANTED
1) A Sharp MZ-3500 Computer (preferably with the Main Unit and Keyboard in working order, but a working Monitor is not essential as we already have one.)
2) ANY software or documentation for the Sharp MZ-2500 - in particular, the Personal CP/M system, which we know existed, because they have Manual!!
A reasonable price will be paid for any of the above items- please contact me at my address in Weymouth (for details, see page 3 of this Magazine) - 4 - Sharp Users Club General Section From Bedrooms to Billions
From Bedrooms to Billions By Mike Smith, Curator of the Sharp Users Club Website
During the summer I was lucky enough to see the first public screening of a film called "From Bedrooms to Billions", a documentary charting the rise and fall ofthe British computer gaming industry. The golden years were during the era ofthe MZ-80K, and whilst the 'K' was not a renowned gaming machine (except for Minotaur's Cave), I thought it might be useful to discuss the film in the hallowed pages ofthis Magazine.
The documentary was made possible using Kickstarterand Indiegogo crowd funding, which began in 2012. It has been a longjourney, with the final version eventually being released on my birthday; 3rd October 2014. And what a Birthday present it was.
The film is a monstrous two and a half hours long! Full of interviews with those early developers, distributors and commentators. It teils the story ofthe computer gaming industry in the UK, and I'm glad film makers Nie and Anthony who are behind the project resisted the temptation to cut material to attempt to make it more consumable by the masses. And the sound-track is great, with new material from composers Rob Hubbard and Ben Daglish (who composed music for several games titles in the 80 's) as weil as tracks from 'The British IBM'. In fact, it's all so good that I myself (like many others) upgraded our pledges so that we could to access the additional two and a half hours of bonus content as weil!
Computer Gaming is such big business nowadays- enormous titles and launches, and proceeds even bigger than the movie industry. But in reality it's even bigger than that! One new form of entertainment is actually watehing people play these games, and quite recently a packed stadium in South Korea watched a League ofLegends tournament, 27 million players ofthat game online. And Amazon recently paid over $1 bn for Twitch; a platform for live-stream video game action.
So where do we go from here? Sadly, after our own era of computing, including such machines as the MZ-80K, we lost a whole generation of progress whilst the education system decided to drop true computing science in favour of showing people how to use Microsoft Word. What a travesty! At least, with the Raspberry Pi, we have a glimmer of hope. Let's get our children and grandchildren back on track, and put the 'Great' back into Great British games development!
The documentary is now available as a download for just f9.95 and can be ordered on DVD or BlueRay. Go to
MZ-80 Nostalgia: Early MZ-80 Software (Part I)
By Joe Venor
Hello everyone, I thought I might take time in this issue to continue my 'Nostalgia' piece by starting to Iook at the MZ-80 software that was published in the computing magazines ofthe early 1980's.
As with the hardware, Sharp MZ-80 machines were moderately weil supported in these magazines. Also, it was a time when the frontiers were being pushed and, especially at the time ofthe MZ-80K, there weren't many machines available for the pushing of those frontiers.
One ofthe ways we obtained software, and indeed learned how to code for ourselves, was via the 'Type-ln' listings in these magazines, which were notoriously buggy and often incorrect, due to poor printing or even reformatting to fit the available spaces. lf you would like to access any of the originallistings, I have many of them as magazine scans.
But of course, almost all these programs are to be found in the Sharpsoft Catalogue and/or the early SUC Libraries, so if you have a working MZ machine and can obtain a copy of the program you are interested in on tape or disk, you can avoid the chore of typing it in for yourself.
In a later issue I will talk about listings that came from the biggest repository of Sharp listings (or forthat matter of listings for any machine), the 'Computer + Video Games' Magazine. But to begin with, I shall now pul! together one or two ofthe most popular listings from some ofthe smaller magazines.
I therefore begin with ' Your Computer', and an early listing MZ-80K for 'I Ching' in the August/September 1981 issue ofthat magazine. The article is an interesting if brief discussion of the philosophy involved, and the listing provides a somewhat diverting representation of it, even if it is little more than a curiosity.
(continued on the next page)
- 6 - Sharp User Club Genera l Section Early MZ-80 software
('Your Computer', August/September Issue 1981)
ORACLE OF CHANGE
I CHING BY JO HN ALDRED
The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient work on divination in whi ch is disti!led much of the wisdom of a culture measurably older than our Judaeo-Christian one. John Aldred offers an easily transtatable Sharp MZ-SOK program which augurs weil for the future of the more unusual micro applica tions .
.BoTfi OF T tn~ gre11t Chinese rtlit:ion$, Confu ci t~. nis:m 1nd. T~elsm, have d:tawn hcav.ily op idt:)!i conWr..ed in tht I CAing. h i1 prQ{ler, t~, tO (rat th ~ vl'!tum!! wj1h a tubltanti11l mtarurl! of ;(Sptct lt i~ not i gitme: 1he wmk onl,v &tg.iw, whcn- you ha'>t t.hrown your h~ugr~rn and ttriYe to understand the me::!Ung cl' a tc.'<:t whllt may !W:t:m ohscurt Jnd diffi\.11hJ.llnd ro rel.ate ·11 1t1 yourO:"-'" lifc. $om ~ o!::l"frvc~ tecQlornc;nd tn.edinuiQn b:efC.rtlttHld', to dear lh'e m\nd <:!f ~ Ii t b ~t \s ~rN.ial tli . t.Xtril;ncoU~i thh; moy r.o1 bt nc c t~$ - 7 - Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software The December 1981 issue of 'Your Computing' followed up with an article about making music on computers. This is specific to the MZ-80K and the Tandy, and includes some effusive words in praise ofthe MZ-80K 'out ofthe box' music and graphics capabilities and through music and POKE commands provides examples of tun es and 'sound effects'. Melody of Sharp distinction ~ .C~0- 1 !O l l.!t:O. ~ Il ltn~ ~l~P ot Ml·OO!< 1$ ~ ~ ...... ,~·~ 1.-'l;$;$> $~tN~tl!l-.lf""f$.0lt~ ~i:l~~ C~1 et'ljt)y \0.-iti~()U t ~.~a: ~~!~:0*:~~- • Also of interest is one of the few MZ-80B listings, that of a Music Player, essentially tuming your MZ-80B into a musical Keyboard, to play music and replay any tunes you have created, published in the May 1983 issue of 'Personal Computing Today' (who must have thought the MZ-80B smooth enough to associate it with Frank Sinatra !) - 8 - Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software Returning to 'Your Computer in December 1981 ', in fact that whole issue is a treasure trove of Sharp Snippets which are probably of only limited use, but it' s nice to know that many people were contributing, and that the Sharp community was certainly an active part of these pioneering days of home computing alongside the TRS-80, the Atom, the ZX-81 . .------·------··--·------, Card Sharp 5 REM SET UP STRI NGS 10 DI M fi***$ ( 53) *** c J Davison, r· ~ofj!).;? 20 C=B S$ ="CLU:BS .. HEARTS. SPfUlES. DIAMON.DS" Newton Abbat, Devon. L_I __ _ :...... J ·3e Df = "ACE •. TWO • • THREE FOUR. FJIIE. SIX • • SEVEfl EIGHT HI NE: Mr ROUTINE, creates, stores and shuffles a TEN •• .THCK. QUEEN KI NG . " pack of cwds in ehe normal way. The advan 40 REt-1 '** CREATE UNSHUFFLED PACK "'*"' tages of this are that the shuffled array may be 50 FOR S = 1 TO 4 callcd in order - i.c., A$(1) to A$(52)- and 60 FOR I~ c 1 TO 13 yet the outpur is completely random. Onct 70 C=C+ ! you ha.. ·e gone through .a11 lhe curds, you just 80 Af( C)•NJDf and uses approximatdy 2K. The. jdea of the I barrien and people in sight. Thc uv n key Dernon at the wheel game is to destroy as many people as ,posslble produces a machint•gtm dftct which can be without hitting any of rhe white barri.ers. The used five ümcs. After thisJ no firepower is Richard Bassett. car moves. acro.ss the screcn and the kcy ~ ·a·~ 1 ptoduced uotH ;-doadcd. Whent~·er you hit t Sutton Coldfield, wiU move it up.wards and "M'' dO'oi.'DWards: Ipe rsonor barrier, a t:cnain sound is produced. West Midlands. • 4 Ntl holds the car straight Al weil as rhe maximum nurober of people DEMON DRIVER "·ill run on a Sharp MZ·SOK In a t.ight spot, the L key will de.u-oy all destroyed.~ thc: rimc is also givco. The very next issue included a substantiallisting for an XT AL basic Mini Adventure entitled MYSTERY AT THE HOUSE OF TREASURE. Now doesn't that sound fun? For these early days it's a reasonably lengthy listing insmall print, though nowhere near as long as those that would appear later in C+VG. The program runs in about 14K, which was suitable for smaller memory MZ-80K's ofthe time, and is shown on the next page. . 9 . Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software GAMES MYSTERY AT THE HOUSEOFTREASURE The March 1982 issue carries a program to dump memory to screen, the June 1982 canies a small Deep- Space Attack program; and the August 1982 issue lists some useful MZ-80 hints: T•Ymalqo a P'Oll"""·"'"'.il$911 To change 11le,~~Q li:r~en . POKE 57347,5 Sharp hints whoo loade October 1982 brought a sketchpad program PLUSaversion of Breakout, and November 1982 brought example PASCAL functions (it's very pleasing to see other languages appearing at this point, such as XTAL BASIC and PASCAL). - 10 - Sharp Users Club General Section Early 80K Programs And so we come to December 1982, a month that holds very special memories for me, as my family were planning to buy a computer for the very ftrst time. My heart was set on an MZ-80K, and a teacher who owned one provided me with copious information. But of course the MZ-80K was 'old hat' by then, andin fact I received an MZ-80A. Then, a program in the December 1982 issue of 'Y our Computer' completely caught my imagination, and I spent MANY hours typing it in. Plus many more hours ftnding the bugs (which proved a valuable learning experience) and several more hours trying to ftgure out what it was meant to do. This was the ftrst really !arge listing that I committed myselfto typing in, and therefore holds a special place in my memory. I don't know ifit has the same signiftcance for anyone else, but anyway the game is in our SUC Library, so no one need ever go through the torture oftyping in and debugging this monster again. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you ...... Coup D'etat!! ('Computing Today', December 1982) GAMES SPEciAL COUP D'ETAT (The remainder of the above listing appears on the next page.) - 11 - Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software ('Computing Today', December1982) As you can see, this listing is only 4 pages long. But the print is very small, and in fact the program fills so much memory that it can't be run from Sharp's FD Basic!! Was this the first major MZ-80K Opus? Indeed it was not, as I 0 months earlier, in the Feb. 1982 issue of 'Computing Today', a 16-page article covered what may have been the first significant multi-platform game. lt is agame of which we are probably all aware, and regardless of its merits it was a gamethat imprinted itself on the consciousness of a generation i.e. the generation before the Spectrum and the C64 took off, and temporarily dominated the gaming Iandscape with 'Lords of Midnight'. The aforesaid 16-page article is mainly devoted to a full listing for the Commodore PET, so why does it merit coverage here? Weil, the simple answer is, it also included enough information to convert the program to run on the other two major serious home computers ofthe day, our own beloved MZ-80K and the TRS-80 l!nd (see next page). - 12 - Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software Scene Object PET MZ-80K TRS-80 VaUey Border 214 166 191 Safe Castle 219 74 35 Path up 78 118 154 Path 'down' 77 119 169 Woods 216 80 87 Swamps 173 42 83 Tower 87 65 84 Character 81 202 79 Woods Border 96 - 128 Trees 88 70 90 Lake 224 163 191 Vounim·s 230 239 86 Character 81 202 79 Swamps Border 96 . 128 Tufts 45 227 45 Lake 224 163 191 Y'Nagioth 230 239 89 Character 81 202 79 Tower Border 160 67 191 Vounim 8c Walls 160 67 191 Y"Nagioth Stairs 102 109 153 Doorway 104 212 176 Treasures 42 107 42 Character 81 202 79 Tahle 3. ~ c:u-e the uw:om.znen.ded POKE cod- fO'I' the thr s:ystema the gume ha.a ~n impl•mented on.• Tb• bord:eH a:round th.e Woods and Swampa !or 'the MZSO-K (ma:rlnu:i • ln the Table) have to 1:>. PRINT«i i.nto place uslng 'the !ollowing cha:ra.cfers: S0. 51.60.6l.H2.l13. U 7 ., 9 2.3 Z.G 4 IS i! I 13 1.& l 2 3 0 1 2 <) <),3 OJG o) !VAl. !OCI)- lll Z -40 -"0 -"0 0 c 0 0 () 0 I'm sure some of the words in the table above have given away the game to which the table refers. lt is of course ...... - 13 - Sharp User Club General Section Early MZ-80 software And while the Yic-20, The ZX 81 , The Atom, and many other popular computers could not handle something on the scale of 'The Valley' without add-ons, the Commodore PET and the TRS-80 got there first, and the MZ-80K was right on their coat tails. Next time I shall carry on with some more MZ-80K and MZ-80A software, and begin our trek into the riches ofC+VG. Onward! Brave Adventurer! ~ 14 ~ Sharp User Club General Section John's Holiday John's Holiday in Weymouth, October 2"d to October 9th 2014 Strictly speaking, this article should not be given house-room in an SUC Magazine, because we did no work on Sharp computers. But we did do a couple of useful jobs on mysmall collection ofiBM-PC's, and I think these are definitely worth a mention. The first IBM-PC job started late on 'Day I', when I showed John how my Windows 2000 PC had stopped recognizing a 50GB expansion HD that was plugged into the machine via an unpowered 4-way USB expansion hub. We managed to uninstall the ) 50GB drive and reinstall it; but it was still inaccessible, so we gave up and went to bed. ) (On 'Day 2' we mended 2 faulty taps and revived my 'dead' VCR. On these jobs John I proved that it is possible tobe a good plumber's mate AND a skilled T.V. Technician.) On 'Day 3' we returned to the USB problern on my Windows 2000 PC, and were very pleasantly surprised to find that, ifwe removed the unpowered 4-way USB expansion hub and replaced it with a 7-way powered USB expansion hub that I just happened to have handy, the 50GBexpansion HD was immediately recognized and accessible. That is certainly a point worth noting. But there is also another, because our tests also revealed that an !BM-PC can easily get confused over which USB device is in which USB expansion port, and ifyou are using a multi-way USB hub it is definitely a 'good idea' to get into the habit of putting a particular USB device into a particular USB slot. We spent most of ' Day 4' watehing T.V. But in the evening, after John had watched me manually transferring data from 'MS-Access' to 'MS-Word', he started working on a VB program to do the job automatically, and we both stayed up till 01.30 hrs !! 'Day 5' saw more work on the 'Access to Word' project, and by 02.00 hrs on 'Day 6' John had a program that, in one go, could 'pour' data from 6 Access databases, each covering the years 1837-1885, into a set of294 'txt' files. 'Day 6' continued in the same vein, creating routines to count the numbers of data lines of differenttypesthat had been 'poured' into 'txt' files. And 'Day 7' saw the project completed, when the 294 'txt' files became a 49-page 6-column 'MS-Word' document. On hislast day John did his usual 'Holiday Shopping' (i.e. buying 'Weymouth Rock', 'Dorset Knob' biscuits, and other presents for his brother, sister, nieces and nephews). And then we made a Iast-minute discovery, that the column widths we initially set for the 'MS-Word ' document could later be adjusted, ifnecessary, to accommodate whatever data was in a particular column. And thus ended a very busy week! - 15 - Sharp Users Club MZ-80A Section Expanding 80A Graphics Pt 2 Expanding the Boundaries of MZ-80A Graphics (Part 2) By Ben Coffer Welcome back to my short series on making the Sharp MZ-80A do some things which, up to now, have yet tobeseenon this humble machine. I am going to demoostrate a couple more effects which make use oftwo other video functions available on the 80A - in combination, I think some of these effects could be used to create some interesting displays on the machine, particularly in gaming software. At the moment, l'm only taking you through the bare bones ofthe new routines, and the theory behind them, and l must emphasise that, in their current state, they may only be used on a completely static display such as a title screen. Anything more complex, such as using the routines in agame, would not currently work, as we need to rely on always synchronising with the vertical blank ofthe display. In agame, you can't guarantee that your codewill always take just enough CPU clock cycles to ensure the display effect is ready for the next vertical blank when it triggers. What we need is a guaranteed tim er that triggers the effect at the start of the display 'frame'. Fortunately, on the 80A, we can do this by using the in-built interrupt (meanr for the 80A's real time clock). !' II have more on this in the next issue, but for now, let's carry on with the basics. Switching the Display Off During a Frame The 80A has an interesting feature known as 'VGate'. This is a display toggle which can be used to switch offthe display when needed. Characters may still be drawn to the screen RAM, but the user does not see anything until the display is switched back on again. This can be done even in a BASIC game, and there is a chess game in BASIC which switches off the display while the graphics are being drawn and back on again . after the drawing is completed, to give the illusion of instantaneous screen updates. What no-one has tried before is switching offthe display during a display frame and back on within the same frame, so that only part ofthe display appears switched off. BASIC would be too slow to achieve this anyway, but this effect could be useful in games if, for instance, you could use this code to achieve the effect ofblank spaces on the screen. It could also be used to slowly fade a display into view, by pixel-by-pixel vertical seroHing characters onto the screen so they gradually appear piece by piece. In principle, VGate is accessed by storing a 'I ' or a '0' to bit 0 ofthe memory mapped l/0 address E002, and an example of it this technique is shownon the next page. - 16 - Sharp Users Club MZ-80A Section Expanding 80A Graphics Pt 2 LD A, (OE200H) ; Ensure display rolled up LD HL,ODOOOH ; First we fill LD DE,ODOOlH ; one page of screen LDBC,03E8H ; memory with the LD (HL),OlH ; Ietter 'A' LDIR LD HL,OE002H ; Store 8255 chip memory i/o address in HL LOOP: LD A, (HL) ; Wait for VSync to RLA ; become active JRC,LOOP ; (C = 0 means VSync active) LDBC,02DOH ; Set up long LOOP2 : NOP ; delay counter to DECBC ; wait a number of screen LDA,B ; lines ORC JRNZ,LOOP2 RES 0, (HL) ; Switch display OFF LD BC,0108H ; Set up delay LOOP3: NOP ; counter to DECBC ; wait a few more lines LDA,B ORC JRNZ,LOOP3 SET O,(HL) ; Switch display back ON LDA,OF4H ; Test to see if LD (OEOOOH),A ; Spacebar has been NOP ; pressed. If not then LD A,(OEOOlH) ; jump back to LOOP ANDl JRNZ,LOOP RET ; Finish program - 17 - Sharp Users Club MZ-80A Section Expanding 80A Graphics Pt 2 As you can see in the screenshot below, there is a !arge chunk ofthe display now 'missing' or switched off. This area could be moved around or lengthened and shortened by altering the delay values. Double Buffer Horizontal Split Another great function of the 80A is its ability to scroll its screen (via the software Monitor keeping track ofthings) vertically without losing any characters offthe top or bottom. The way this is achieved is by using an extra 1000 bytes of screen memory provided over and above the standard 1000 bytes which the user usually sees on the screen. We can control which portion of screen memory (or which 1000 bytes in particular) is shown by reading a range of different memory mapped i/o addresses.. The range ofthese addresses is E200 to E2FF. Foreach increment ofthis address range "(for instance by reading E200 and then E20 I) the display is shifted by 8 characters. The screen memory itself starts at memory address 0000, finishing at address D7CF. With all this information at hand, we can create some very interesting effects by forcing a change to the portion of screen memory that is being shown during the frame draw. lndeed, several changes could potentially happen in each frame. We can even splice areas of screen memory horizontally as I will now show in the next bit of code. This could mean that one 'playfield' of characters could be scrolled pixel-by-pixel down or up the screen to reveal or cover up a 2nd 'playfield' underneath. One example of code that can do all this is shown on the next page. · - 18 - Sharp Users Club MZ-80A Section Expanding 80A Graphics Pt 2 LD HL,ODOOOH ; First we fill LD DE,ODOOlH ; one page of screen LDBC,03E8H ; memory with the LD (HL),OlH ; Ietter 'A' LDIR LD HL,OD3E9H ; Now we fill LD DE,OD3EAH ; the second page of screen LDBC,03E8H ; memory with the LD (HL),02H ; Ietter 'B' LDIR LOOP: LD A, (OE002H) ; Wait for VSync to RLA ; become active JR C,LOOP ; (C = 0 means VSync active) LD A, (OE200H) ; Ensure display rolled UP LDBC,02DOH ; Set up long LOOP2: NOP ; delay counter to DECBC ; wait a number of lines LDA,B ORC JRNZ,LOOP2 LD A, (OE27DH) ; Roll screen down to top of2nd set of I000 bytes LD A,OF4H ; Test to see if LD (OEOOOH),A ; Spacebar has been NOP ; pressed. If not then LD A, (OEOOlH) ; jump back to LOOP ANDl JRNZ,LOOP RET ; Finish program The screenshot at the top of the next page shows the results of running the above code. - 19 - Sharp Users Club MZ-80A Section Expanding 80A Graphics Pt 2 The screenshot above shows that as the frame is being drawn, we allow a certain number of vertical scan lines to occur before switching screen memory to the 2"d page (the 2"d set of 1000 bytes). In the example above, this happens halfway through the 14th row on the screen, resulting in the upper half ofthe Ietter 'A' showing above the lower half of the Ietter 'B'. Altering the delay will result in a split happening in different places and, theoretically, allowing real pixel-by-pixel scrolling. That's all for this edition. It's probably enough tobe getting on with, and anyway, I think I have now introduced the bulk ofwhat is achievable. So for now I willleave you with the following teaser screenshot, which involves interrupt handlers and should prove interesting for those who know the limitations of our beloved MZ-80A: - 20 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section RES ET/Web Links Edited by Paul Trainer I Elmete Walk Roundhay, Leeds Tel. 0113 2958192 West Yorkshire LS8 2LB Email: [email protected] RESET Hi all, hope you areallstill with us in body and soul. Can't expect much more at this late stage I suppose. Anyway, nothing much to report this time, I've been up and down the web pages looking for anything worthy of inclusion, there wasn 't much to see really. But I did notice, again, the great site we all have access to at: www.sharpmz.org This is a great source of information for alt our machines and is very easy to navigate. I fo und myself looking at alt the PDF manuals for free down Ioad and wondered, just out of interest, if I could get a free PDF copy of the MZ-700 Owners manual from elsewhere. And sure enough at: www.8bity.cz/2012/sharp-mz-700-owners-manual/ You can get a choice of two- one at 41 MB , and a better quality one at I 05 MB . And ifyou go to: http://sharpmz800.sweb.cz/manual.htm l You can grab yourself a free copy of the MZ-800 Owners manual of24MB in size. (l think at least one ofthe above originates from: www.sharpmz.org But anyway, I scanned the files using Avast antivirus, and no threats were found.) I then downloaded service manuals for both machines from: www.sharpmz.org I also intend to get copies of alt MZ manuals from there in the near future just in case that site ever closes. You never know! I bet som e ofyou have already done that anyway! - 21 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section EBay stuff EBAYSTUFF At the time ofwriting this, quite a few Sharp MZ items were noted on Ebay: The first was a good condition copy of Peeking and Poking the Sharp MZ 700 by G P Ridley for (get this) f25 .00 inc. postage. It didn't sell and was later lowered to fl5.00. The same seller also had a complete set of Sharp MZ 700 Keystroke magazines for f30 .00 . They didn't sei I. A near mint Sharp MZ-700 Computer with manuals and original games took 14 bids and sold for f56 .00. A Vin tage Sharp MZ-80K Computer tested and working to boot screen is being offered for f 149.00. A Sharp MZ-80A plus manual and software sold for f83.55 A Sharp MZ-700 Owners manual is being offered for f20.00 . ****************************************** I little tip I can offer ifyou're searching Ebay or Amazon etc., is to try common misspellings of names and words. As an example, on Ebay there's a 'not working' Sharpe (with an 'E') MZ-700 offered at f85 .00. lt won 't sell because ofthe price, but also it might not get noticed because of the spelling. (I have a 25 year old Mitsubishi L300 van that l'm always looking for parts for, you wouldn 't believe how many commercial sellers spei! it 'Mitsubushi', and the second 'u' never gets noticed ! !) BE SHARP - KEEP SHARP - ST AV SHARP - 22 - harp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section News from Czech Republic News from the Czech Republic- by Martin Lukasec Hi SHARP fans, I have a little bit of news about SHARP developments herein the Czech Republ ic, and a few questions about SUC developments in the 90's. SHARP MZ-800 NOBOMI Unicard Mk3b http:/ /dzi .n .cz/8bit/mzun i3 b/ http://www.8bity .cz/20 14/sharp-mz-800-un icard-mk3 b-fdd-qd-rd-rs-rtc-lan-vga/ During last year Bohumil Novacek has evolved Unicard for SHARP MZ-800, as a great professional-looking product. It is based on the much older Michal Hucik's and Vaclav Peroutka's Unicard project http://sourceforge.net/projects/mz800ukpl!. The new Unicard Mk3b connects to upper interface slot of MZ-800, and can emulate up to 4 Floppy Disks, Quick Disk and RAM Disk on an SD card. You can emulate tloppies from 320 Kb up to 1.44 Mb using the LEC CPIM or other vintage SHARP software . And the RAM disk emulation, even though it is on an SD card, is fast enough to emulate a RAM disk from 32 Kb up to 16 Mb. This allows MZ-800 to run interesting tasks such as video http://www.8bity.cz/20 13/video-na-sharp-mz-800-madonna-2/ and other demanding projects. But so far, it can only support I Mb of RAM disk in CP/M. Other peripherals that the Unicard emulates are GDG and video circuit of the MZ-800, so it can produce high quality VGA output in both 320x200 and 640x400 pixels. - 23 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section News from Czech Republic It also has audio i/o, an embedded Real Time Clock usable by CP/M, RS-232c serial emulation compatible with MZ-IE24 using 9-pin D-Sub or miniUSB. There is also PS/2 miniDIN foraPS/2 keyboard or mouse, but there is a small problern with port emulation because the Unicard has to use different ports from the intemal peripherals, so programs that want access the extemal mouse or keyboard must be modified. Last but not least is Ethernet LAN support. lt has an internal web server with features such as display cloning, and Bohumil plans some other features, so that we will be able to communicate over LAN between SHARP computers. And I plan to develop some simple SHARP interconnecting server and some games. Bohumil makes the card hirnself for little more than the cost of the components, so the price is very reasonable and ifyou would like the card, go directly to SHARP MZ-700 NOBOMI Unicard Mk3c http://www. 8bity .cz/20 14/sharp-mz-700-un icard-mk3 c-emulace-qd-fd-rd-suc80-kp80- rtc-lan-vga-usb-rs-232-a-snad-i-pcg-emm/ Bohumil also has under development a version of his Unicard for SHARP MZ-700. It is external due to MZ-700 requirements, and can emulate the sameperipherals as MZ-800 version; but Bohumil has also extended so that it can emulate known 80-column kits. First the SUC 80-column kit, so it is capable of running MZ-700 adapted PCP/M in 80 columns. Second the K&P 80-column interface which uses Synertek SY6845E chip. Ifthe development goes weil, Bohumil plans to implement programmable character generator PCG700 and Japanese RAM disk PI0-3034 320K EMM from 1-0 DA TA. He also will make and sell this card, once its development is completed. - 24 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section Other Czech projects Other Recent MZ projects in the Czech Republic There arealso other projects we did herein last few years. I am not sure ifyou are f"am iliar with all ofthem, so here is a complete Iist, with links to fwther information: I) MZVGA- VGA output for SHARP MZ-800 (adaptable for use with MZ-700, MZ-3500, etc.) 2) David Luftner's internal VGA output for MZ-800 3) STMZ800- Tiny (67x66x28 mm) SHARP MZ-800 emulator (and also Sindair ZX Spectrum 48K/ 128K, PMD-85 and maybe more) --http:// dzi. n.cz/8bit/stm z800/> ,..http :1/\vww .8bity .cz/20 13/stmz800-sharp-mz-800-do-kapsy-a-zx-spectrum-j ako-bonus/ 4) MZJOY - Connect Sharp/Atari type joysticks to modern PC using USB (f"or use with emulators) 5) 2 Mb MZ-800 RAM/ROM disk with battery backup 6) Quick Disk interface MZ-1 E 19 and MZ-1 F II drive electronics replica 7) MZ-IRI8 64kB SHARP RAM File Board replica http://www.8bity.cz/20 12/replika-64-kb-sharp-ram-file-board-mz-1 r 18/ - 25 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section Other Czech projects 8) MZ-1E24- RS-232C for SHARP MZ80B, MZ-700 and MZ-800 replica http://www.8bity .czJ20 12/rep1ika-mz-1 e24-rs-232c-pro-sharp-mz80b-mz-700-a-mz-800/ 9) MZ-1E05- SHARP FloppyDisk Controller for MZ-700/800 replica http://www .8bity.cz/20 12/replika-disketoveho-radice-sharp-mz-1 e05-pro-mz-700800/ 10) PC Covox audio i/fand its connection and MOD player for Sharp MZ-800 http://www .Sbity.cz/20 14/postavte-si-pc-zvukovka-podruh-covox-stereo-on-1 I http://www. 8bity .cz/20 14/covox -na-sharp-mz-800/ 11) ROM Card for SHARP MZ-800 replica http://www .8bity.cz/20 14/rom-disk-pro-sharp-mz-800/ 12) PEZIK 512 kB RAM disk (not battery backed up) for SHARP MZ-800 replica http://www.8bity .cz/20 14/nezlohovan-ram-disk -pezik-512-kb-pro-sharp-mz-800/ 13) VCTM1 - Battery backed up RAM disk for SHARP MZ-800 replica http://www.8bity .cz/20 14/zalohovany-ram-disk -pro-sharp-mz-800-vctm 1I 14) Keyboardadapter for connecting PS/2keyboard to SHARP MZ-3500 http://www. 8bity .cz/20 13 /adapter-pro-pripojeni-ps2-klavesnice-k -sharp-mz-3500 / ********* All the above projects have been developed by different SHARP fans here in the Czech Republic, including Bohumil Novacek, Radek Suk, Michal Medek, Petr Svejk, me and many others. Kind regards, Martin Lukasec - 26 - harp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section Q's about 1990's projects Now I have a few questions about SUC & other projects in the 1990's:- I) Do you have any information about the SUC 80-column kit? Schematic, PCB, photos, test articles, anything? I was looking through SUC Magazinearchives but lound only a little information. ßohumil implemented his emulator by using some very limited information he found on the internet, and by studying the software and Mr. Franzen's emulator. I would like to be able to reproduce and implement the physical hardware, in the best way, as a replica ofthe original kit. Do you have any software supporting it besides the PCP/M, which was also hard to find on the internet? ) Do you have CP/M or any other software for the K&P 80 column interface? 'l'hcre is a K&P version ofBASIC on sharpmz.org website, but only a briefmention of 'P/M and the possibility of other software? . ) There is quite a Iot of info about the PCG700 add-on at sharpmz.org, but does anyone have PCG700, so he could provide a detailed PCB photos from both sides and po sibly schematic forme, so I could make a replica ofthis device? 4) Does anyone have any information, photos, schematics, etc. about the PI0-3034 320K EMM or 640K EMM interface? **************************** lfyou know anyone who could help, please, spread the info and questions. Thank you! Martin Lukasec - 27 - Sharp Users Club MZ-700/800 Section Answers to Czech Queries Some answers to recent queries from Martin Lukasec By Maurice Hawes 1) Do you have any information about the SUC MZ-700 80-column kit? Our MZ-700 80-col. kit was designed and built by John Edwards, and was announced in the July 1990 issue ofthis Magazine. The first kits were built on home-made PCB's with surface-mounted components; but in 1993 we ordered a batch of commercially made PCB's, and from then on the components were mounted into pre-drilled holes. To protect copyright, we never published the circuit diagram. But after all these years John is happy to release it into the public domain. Therefore, in the near future, John and I will get together and send you a circuit diagram, a 1993 PCB, and instructions on how to assemble the components on the PCB, and wire the PCB into an MZ-700. Togo with the MZ-700 80-col. Kit, we produced CP/M780 and MZ-700 PCPM v.2. We also have CP/M software that will run in 80 columns under both these systems, including PEACHTEXT v. 783 and its associated SPELUNG PROOFREADER, the DISX Disassembler, and DISCMOD5 for direct disk editing. 2) Do you have CP/M or any other software for the K&P 80 column interface? 3) Does anyone have the PCG700 add-on? Kari-Heinz Mau visited Weymouth in April 2004, and showed us both the above MZ-700 add-ons. At that time Kari-Heinz had no documentation for the K&P 80-Column Interface, but he did have documentation for the PCG700 add-on, and 'BASICS' for both devices (80Z BASIC 3.55 and PCG BASIC-INT respectively). Very generously, Kari-Heinz (who is the brains behind www.sharpmz.org) left ALL the above items with us, on condition that, ifwe ever decided to dispose ofthem, he would have first option to take them back. So we have all you need here in the U .K. but before we can proceed we must contact Kari-Heinz Mau and, hopefully, obtain his approval. For short descriptions and small exterior photographs ofthe K&P 80-column interface, the PCG 700 add-on, and the BASIC-INTtape, see SUC Vol. 24 No. 2 p. 5. 4) Does anyone have any info on the PI0-3034 320K EMM or 640K EMM i/f? Sorry, can 't help on this one. Thesepart numbers mean nothing to me (but if I was asked to guess, I would assume that they were RAM disk upgrades). - 28 - SH Copyright ©2014 Sharp Users Club, II Harcourt Close, Henley-on-Thames