The Saturday Night Special
or:
How to write a modem program in one day

This should not be considered as a full-blown, whiz-bang, do-everything-but-walk-the-dog terminal program. This is more of a bare-bones, kick-it-in-the-side-to-see-if-it's-dead type of program. It was written merely as a simple means of acquiring something better. If you have AMODEM or JTERM or DISKLINK or that great CompuServe downloader TSCOPE then do not bother with this program. However, if all you have with your modem and 850 interface module is a TeleLink cartridge, then this is what you have been waiting for. (This program will not work with an Atari 835 or 1030 direct connect modem, although we are working on something along those lines).

To run this program, format a new disk and write a copy of DOS II onto it. You will also need to copy the AUTORUN.SYS file from your DOS II master disk to this new disk. This file will allow the 850 to boot with the disk drive on. Next, you run the following BASIC program which will write a binary file named SNS.OBJ to your disk. You now have a disk with four files on it: DOS.SYS, DUP.SYS, AUTORUN.SYS and SNS.OBJ. Now comes the tricky part. You have to append the SNS.OBJ file onto the AUTORUN.SYS file. We do this with the copy command in DOS II by typing:

C
SNS.OBJ,AUTORUN.SYS/A

You can now try out your new toy by turning on your computer after power has been applied to the 850, your modem and your disk drive. Remember, this is a bare-bones system. It cannot dial for you and it will not type logon commands for you. It does not have a screen buffer and it will not fine scroll, but it does have a text capture buffer. When you wish to download text to your computer to save on a disk or cassette simply press the START key. The computer will begin putting all the text it receives from the modem into its memory. You then proceed to read a program from the bulletin board you are connected with. Besides the text going to the screen, it is also being put into memory. Remember, this is only a capture buffer. It cannot hold files bigger than the amount of memory available and you will be warned when the buffer is full.

When you are done with the download and want to save the text that is in memory, just press the SELECT key and the program will ask you for a file name. Just type C: for a cassette save or D: and then a valid DOS file name to save to disk. After you have now acquired one of the better public domain modem programs, you need never use the Saturday Night Special again. After all, no one is going to use a do-nothing program like this more than once, are they?

10 REM *** SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL ***
20 DATA 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,0,0,0,0,
0,0,10,11,12,13,14,15
30 DIM DAT$(99),HEX(22):FOR X=0 TO 22:
READ N:HEX(X)=N:NEXT X:LINE=990:RESTOR
E 1000:TRAP 110:? "CHECKING DATA"
40 LINE=LINE+10:? "LINE:";LINE:READ DA
T$:IF LEN(DAT$)<>98 THEN 160
50 DATLIN=PEEK(183)+PEEK(184)*256:IF D
ATLIN<>LINE THEN ? "LINE ";LINE;" MISS
ING!":END 
60 FOR X=1 TO 97 STEP 2:D1=ASC(DAT$(X,
X))-48:D2=ASC(DAT$(X+1,X+1))-48:BYTE=H
EX(D1)*16+HEX(D2)
70 IF PASS=2 THEN PUT #1,BYTE:NEXT X:R
EAD CHKSUM:GOTO 40
80 TOTAL=TOTAL+BYTE:IF TOTAL>999 THEN 
TOTAL=TOTAL-1000
90 NEXT X:READ CHKSUM:IF TOTAL=CHKSUM 
THEN 40
100 GOTO 160
110 IF PEEK(195)<>6 THEN 160
120 IF PASS=2 THEN PUT #1,224:PUT #1,2
:PUT #1,225:PUT #1,2:PUT #1,0:PUT #1,3
6:CLOSE #1:END 
130 ? "INSERT DISK, PRESS RETURN";:DIM
 IN$(1):INPUT IN$:OPEN #1,8,0,"D:SNS.O
BJ"
140 PUT #1,255:PUT #1,255:PUT #1,0:PUT
 #1,36:PUT #1,75:PUT #1,38:GOTO 150
150 ? :? "WRITING FILE":PASS=2:LINE=99
0:RESTORE 1000:TRAP 110:GOTO 40
160 ? "BAD DATA: LINE ";LINE:END 
1000 DATA 208024A9008552A9748DC80220B4
24A231A024206D24A220A90D9D42032056E4AD
EB02F00620F5244C1624204E254C1624,372
1010 DATA 5445524D494E414C204D4F44459B
4255464645522046554C4C7D9B534156452042
5546464552204F4E9B53415645204445,110
1020 DATA 564943453A4B3A9B523A9B8E4403
8C4503A200A9099D42039D49034C56E4A210A9
0C9D42032056E4A9679D4403A9249D45,522
1030 DATA 03A9039D4203A9049D4A03A9009D
4B034C56E4A9008580A220A90C9D42034C56E4
20A624A96A9D4403A9249D4503A9229D,76
1040 DATA 4203A9C09D4A032056E4A9269D42
03A9009D4A032056E4A9039D4203A90D9D4A03
2056E4A9289D4203A9009D4A034C56E4,656
1050 DATA A220A9079D4203A9009D48039D49
032056E4C908D002A97EC920B00160A68048F0
253023A0009181E681D002E682A582CD,41
1060 DATA E602D012A581CDE502D00BA9FF85
80A23FA024206D24A200A90B9D42038A9D4803
9D4903684C56E4ADFC02C9FFF02DA210,742
1070 DATA A9009D48039D4903A9079D420320
56E4C97ED002A908A22048A9009D48039D4903
A90B9D4203682056E460AD1FD0C907F0,550
1080 DATA F8C906D01AA680D016E680A96085
81A9268582A9248DC802A24CA0244C6D24C905
D0D6A580F0D220A624A200A95B9D4403,576
1090 DATA A9249D4503A90C9D4803A9009D49
03A90B9D42032056E4A9059D4203A9149D4803
8A9D4903A94C9D4403A9269D45032056,796
1100 DATA E4AD4C26C99BD00568684C0724A2
20A9039D4203A94C9D4403A9269D4503A9089D
4A03A9009D4B032056E43098A000A99B,553
1110 DATA 9181E681D002E682A90B9D4203A9
609D4403A9269D450338A581E9609D4803A582
E9269D49032056E430034C07244CAF25,605

10 DATA 879,957,832,439,727,195,599,55
3,272,701,611,124,258,778,36,7961
160 DATA 165,622,524,790,596,903,437,1
87,925,68,863,946,816,7842

The Assembly listing appears on a separate page.