Vic20 guide additions

[Mayhem]

As the next DP guide has been put back a month or two, I've got the opportunity to tweak the section again before it goes to print.

So what do I need to change since the last few months? I can think of the following:

- move Close Encounters from rumour mill section to released
- add an entry for Waterloo Basic
- add an entry for the OEM joystick adapter

If someone can care to furnish me with the relevant info for Waterloo Basic (publisher, programmer(s), rough rarity and considered value, some words about what it is and does, size in K if known, what year released, a part/cart number) that would be great.

Anyone think of anything else that would be handy...

(you can check the current guide online at http://www.digitpress.com anyhow)

[ral-clan]

I don't know if you're including utilities, but the cartridge VTE-40 by MSD, Inc. seems to be missing from many lists. This is a software 40 column terminal program. I have the cartridge so I know it exists.

Also I think we've pretty much nailed down that VIC-1903 was Rally-X, and was commercially released in Japan. So it should no longer be considered vapour-ware (although still extremely rare).

[Jeff-20]

Darn, no homebrews...

[eslapion]

If someone can care to furnish me with the relevant info for Waterloo Basic (publisher, programmer(s), rough rarity and considered value, some words about what it is and does, size in K if known, what year released, a part/cart number) that would be great.

Waterloo Basic

by D.D. Cowan, J.W. Graham, J.W. Welch, T.A. Wilkinson
Computer Systems Group
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
N2L 3G1

(c)1983 by the Authors, Ontario, Canada

The file on Zimmer's is 4k but I do believe only 2k is actually used.

As for the rartity, well... I believe there is only one cartridge left in existence...

Added edit:
==============================================
I discovered, to my horror that the VIC-20 is not present in the emulation section of DP !!!

[eslapion]

I noticed that the online rarity/lookup guide does not contain the Ultimate Expander.

Only 20 of them were made so far, that should technically make it extremely rare. However, unlike virtually all other VIC-20 carts, it is still in production...

[Mayhem]

I am considering utility and memory expansion carts, but they are way down the list of importance. I'm not sure they will make the printed guide but everything exists in the online guide regardless so they will end up there if nowhere else.

Given MSD did Mobile Attack and I own (a yet to be added) 32K memory expansion by them also, then I would certainly think about adding this VTE-40 cart. Care to furnish information for me?

Thanks for the info Eslapion, is there a part number VIC-xxxx for the cart by any chance?

As for homebrews, yeah they went out the window because this is a cartridge only list... but if the megacart is released before the deadline then I'll try to sneak that in...

[Key-Quest]

Here's one that may need to be "deleted" from the cartridge section. In your on-line Digital Press Rarity Guide, you have a game called "Witch Way" listed, showing it as very rare and (I assume) being made as a cartridge. I own this game, as well as numerous other Commercial Data Systems' games, but they are all in cassette format. Mine has a date of 1982 and is an 8K game, with an official CDS label. But as far as I know it only came out in cassette format. Have you any confirmation that CDS made a "Witch Way" cartridge?

[KilrPilr]

Actually witchway did come as a cart and cassette. I own the cartridge version and at the same time I bought this from ebay, there was a cassette version of witchway on ebay too. Unfortunately I didnt buy the cassette version.

Please tell us the names of other games produced by cds and if you can provide pictures or scans of games,manuals,boxes etc, that would be extremely cool.

[Key-Quest]

Thanks, that was a very fast confirmation!

I will start a new thread in the "Games" section regarding CDS, what titles I have.

[ral-clan]

If someone can care to furnish me with the relevant info for Waterloo Basic (publisher, programmer(s), rough rarity and considered value, some words about what it is and does, size in K if known, what year released, a part/cart number) that would be great.

Waterloo Basic

by D.D. Cowan, J.W. Graham, J.W. Welch, T.A. Wilkinson
Computer Systems Group
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
N2L 3G1

(c)1983 by the Authors, Ontario, Canada

The file on Zimmer's is 4k but I do believe only 2k is actually used.

As for the rartity, well... I believe there is only one cartridge left in existence...

Just a few more notes on this cartridge:

The part number is: VIC-1001 (yes, this conflicts with part number for Japanese VIC computer).

The name as printed on advertisements and the manual is : WATERLOO STRUCTURED BASIC, however, the cartridge label mis-prints this as WATERLOO STRUCTURAL BASIC.

And, as far as I know, there are actually two cartridges in existence: mine and one owned by Ernie Chorny of TPUG. However, I would suspect a few more exist around the Toronto area.

I've started a WIKI article about it here: http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... ured_BASIC

...but it could really use some additional info regarding the functions of this version of BASIC (anyone want to add some info?).

[Centallica]

Very nice little write up Ral-can...it should of have read on the cart "WATERLOO STRUCTURED BASIC Eh!" though

[Mike]

Right ... some info: ral-clan, could you include these into the WIKI? I don't know how to handle pre-formatted text inside a WIKI.

Greetings,

Michael

Waterloo BASIC keywords:

Legend:

... : One or more BASIC statements
<expr>: A numeric expression
<name>: An alpha-numeric string of arbitrary length

Multi-line IF:

IF <expr> ... ELSEIF <expr> ... ELSE ... ENDIF

There is no THEN in a Multi-line IF! The ELSEIF, and ELSE parts can be omitted. Multiple ELSEIF parts are allowed, but only one ELSE part.

Loop Statements:

LOOP|WHILE <expr> ... ENDLOOP|UNTIL <expr>

Use either LOOP or WHILE <expr> at the begin, ENDLOOP or UNTIL <expr> at the end of a loop. Issuing QUIT within the loop also terminates the loop.

Procedure Definition/Call:

PROC<name> ... ENDPROC

CALL<name>

A block of statements enclosed within PROC...ENDPROC is ignored, if it had not been CALLed. Multi-line IF's, Loops, and Calls can be nested just like FOR and GOSUB. All new keywords - with the exception of CALL, and QUIT - must be positioned first in a line. LIST also accepts a comma instead of a hyphen.

[Mayhem]

The part number is: VIC-1001 (yes, this conflicts with part number for Japanese VIC computer).

The name as printed on advertisements and the manual is : WATERLOO STRUCTURED BASIC, however, the cartridge label mis-prints this as WATERLOO STRUCTURAL BASIC.

Yeah, I reread the original post here on the cart and added the Vic-1001 part number into the database. I've amended the title to be the majority concensus (ie. STRUCTURED).

[gklinger]

And, as far as I know, there are actually two cartridges in existence: mine and one owned by Ernie Chorny of TPUG. However, I would suspect a few more exist around the Toronto area.

I agree. The fact that there was a printed manual suggests that more than a few were made. I haven't any doubt that I could find find one if I spent a few weekends hitting garage sales around the University of Waterloo. The amount of C= equipment I've been pulling out of that area over the last year is staggering.