CHILDRENS TREAT
Dear Les,
Besides being an enthusiastic Atari
owner who wanders around in ever decreasing circles in Sands of Egypt,
I am, in my saner moments, a Charge Nurse of the Childrens Ward of
Lewisham Hospital in London.
We were recently contacted by a local
charity group who said that they had raised some money to buy a
computer for the children of the ward. Imagine my surprise when it
turned out to be a brand new Atari 800XL! They obviously knew a great
computer when they saw one!
I have been able to supply a few
cassettes that I no longer use which are now in constant use by the
children but I wonder if I could ask through your columns if other
Atari owners would be willing to donate cassettes or cartridges that
they no longer use to a worthy cause. We cater for 23 children at one
time and they are of all ages right up to 16 years. Many of these are
confined to bed for long periods for a wide variety of reasons and the
computer will help to reduce some of the boredom they experience.
If anyone is willing to donate a
cassette or cartridge they should be sent direct to WARD C2
(Paediatric Ward), Lewisham Hospital, London. S.E.13.
Paul Boggust, London
* A few items are winging their way
to Ward C2 from PAGE 6. How about you? Do you really still want that
game you haven't played for months?
_____________
410 PROBLEMS SOLVED
Dear Les,
I have had several problems with
loading boot tapes on my 410 recorder and therefore read with interest
the letter in issue 12 regarding modifications.
I decided to investigate and removed the back cover of my recorder to
reveal the soldered side of a circuit board and then removed the four
screws holding the circuit board to the cassette mechanics enabling me
to take a close look at the components. There was indeed a 330k
resistor, in fact there were two, so which one to replace?
I decided to start with the 240k and
found it to be connected across an operational amplifier, one of four
within the LM324 microchip. This resistor is connected across the
output and negative input of the op-amp, commonly known as negative
feedback, but more importantly this resistor is used in the
calculation of the gain of the amplifier. On checking the 330k
resistors, I found one of them was also used in negative feedback,
hence I concluded that these were the two referred to in Mr. Fleming's
letter. With soldering iron in hand I replaced these two 240k and 330k
resistors with more accurate ones and fitted the recorder back
together.
Now came the test. I tried Colossal
Adventure, a cassette that I was previously unable to load and to my
amazement it worked! Thanks to PAGE 6 and Kevin Fleming, I have saved
a service fee and the trouble of having my 410 checked out.
J. F. Nugent, Peterborough
* Glad to see it works. In view of
all the problems that owners have had with their recorders, there must
be an opportunity here for some enterprising hobbyist to offer a
'resistor replacement' service for a small fee thus solving a lot of
problems for the less technically minded as well as making a few bob
for themselves.
_____________
....ANOTHER SOLUTION
Dear Les,
A couple of months ago I had problems
loading English Software's ACE program. Every time I took it back to
the shop it would load fine but when I got it home, no go.
In frustration and anger I checked the
shop's system against my own and found that the only difference was
that they were using one transformer for both the 800 and the 410
recorder whilst I had a seperate transformer for each. Luckily the
transformer for my 800 was one of the older type with the extra socket
for a cassette, so I wired it up and have had no problems since! Even
tapes that gave me problems before load first time now.
I thought that this might be worth mentioning in case it helps
somebody else. It seems that there may be a small difference in speed
with different transformers.
Bjorn Deutschmann,
Guernsey
_____________
BULL ANTS
Dear Les,
Congratulations, issue 13 is excellent
however I noticed a couple of mistakes or improvements.
Line 335 of Bull Ants has IF SS2=5.
This should be S2. I also had great difficulty in typing lines 2000
and 2002. Perhaps you could print them again?
I liked Camelot but when the game ends
and the castle appears again, all the Player Missiles are still on
screen. The following lines will rectify this.
1280
FOR Z=0 TO 3:POKE 53248+Z,O:N.Z
1281
FOR Z=O TO 22:COLOR 32:PLOT 0,Z:DRAWTO 19,Z:N.Z
1286
FOR Z=0 TO 3:POKE 53248+Z,O:N.Z
S. Cant, Staffs
* So many people had trouble with
the control characters in Bull Ants. Here they are in full:
Line 2000 ESC-CTRL-LEFT ARROW,
CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE N, SHIFT-ASTERISK, INVERSE CTRL-F, ESC-CTRL-LEFT
ARROW, CTRL-COMMA INVERSE N, SHIFT-ASTERISK, CTRL-COMMA, ESC-CTRL-UP
ARROW, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE L, SHIFT-PLUS, CTRL-COMMA, ESC-CTRL-UP
ARROW, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE L, SHIFT-PLUS, CTRL-COMMA, CONTROL-Z,
CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE J, Z, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-X, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE J,
Z, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-V, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE H, X, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-T,
CTRL-N, INVERSE H, X, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-R, CTRL-N, CTRL-N, CTRL-N,
CTRL-P, CTRL-P, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-P
LINE 2002 H, INVERSE CTRL-J, H, INVERSE
CTRL-X, H, INVERSE QUOTES, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE MINUS, CTRL-K, INVERSE
T, INVERSE I, CTRL-G, INVERSE p, CTRL-C, INVERSE FULL STOP, CTRL-A,
CTRL-B, INVERSE SPACE, CTRL-COMMA, INVERSE EQUALS, CTRL-C, CTRL-D,
INVERSE CTRL-Y, CTRL- V, INVERSE P, INVERSE h, INVERSE H,
INVERSE-SHIFT 8, CTRL-E, INVERSE P, INVERSE t, INVERSE CTRL-N, CTRL-E
CTRL-F, h, INVERSE OPEN BRACKET, h, INVERSE ASTERISK, h, SHIFT 8,
CTRL-COMMA, CTRL-A, CTRL-B, CTRL-C, CTRL-D, CTRL-E
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