Re: Adept: Discwasher calling-four

[TomCh <tomcharlesworth@blueyonder.co.uk>]

Thanks Michael, for doing the de facto look-up - when I last tried it
I got Nada from the Net :)

g...: Adept is just the regular Archon II game from the asimov
archives.

Interestingly (yawn) this game also supports the mouse... but just for
choosing the options! You still need either joystick or keyboard to
play the game. Seems pretty pointless adding the mouse support for
just the options screen.

Tom

On 30 Jun, 20:10, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> TomCh wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > Anyone know what a "Discwasher calling-four" is?
> >>From Adept's option screen, press Ctrl-C and it'll display a message
> > about what slot you have it installed in.
>
> A Google search turns up this excerpt from the NY Times archives:
>
> ================
>
> October 11, 1983
> PERSONAL COMPUTERS; SPLITTING THE APPLE, FOUR WAYS
> By ERIK SANDBERG-DIMENT
>
> ...
>
> Now along comes a game port expander, from Discwasher. It is an add-on
> board that fits into one of the expansion slots within the Apple, and to
> it, in turn, you can connect up to four controlling devices; for
> example, a joy stick, a trackball, a touch tablet and a paddle or, when
> software becomes available for it, one of those electronic rodents
> called a mouse.
>
> That is a lot of connecting, but once it is done, it is done forever.
> There is no more unplugging the computer, popping off the cover,
> disconnecting one peripheral and connecting another every time you want
> to switch. Instead, you insert Discwasher's Calling Four card into slot
> number seven of the Apple's main board, which is no problem at all if
> your Apple is accompanied by its manual. A connector from the expansion
> card then plugs into the spot where the joy stick, say, would normally
> plug into the computer, and the joy stick plug goes into the new card,
> along with those of any three other controllers you might want to use.
>
> The Calling Four card has a little four-light indicator which, if you
> slip its cable through the back of the computer, can be fastened just
> about anywhere on the console or display monitor by means of an attached
> double- sided tape. The four red lights, labeled zero through three in
> computer fashion, indicate which controlling device is active.
>
> To switch from one controller to another, all you need to do, or so I
> thought, is to type in a single command. True, only a single command is
> involved, but there are preliminaries to be attended to, and here the
> manual accompanying Calling Four begins to let the novice down. Before
> you can give the command to switch controllers, you have to load a disk
> that comes with the Apple and contains both the operating system DOS 3.3
> and the computer language Basic. THEN, too, under the heading
> ''Applications Software,'' the manual tells us that while number seven
> is the preferred slot for installing the Calling Four card, any slot can
> be used if necessary. The manual then goes on to list the appropriate
> command for each slot number. For someone who merely wants to slip a
> disk into the drive and run a program, however, being told to enter a
> computerese command like ''POKE -16144,3 CR'' may be confusing. Being
> greeted - as he will be - with that ubiquitous and annoying response
> from the computer, ''syntax error,'' is needlessly frustrating.
>
> A ''poke'' statement allows you to put a specific value into one of the
> Apple's 65,536 memory locations. In the case of the command ''POKE
> -16144(3) CR,'' you are entering the value three, representing the last
> of your four controller attachments, into location 16,144. If you do not
> use the ''poke'' statement, the value in this memory location will
> remain zero, meaning that the first of your four controllers will be the
> active one.
>
> ...
>
> ================
>
> -michael
>
> NadaNet file server for Apple II computers!
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it's seriously underused."