Drennan on the KIMSI

Richard Drennan
4590 Oberlin Avenue
Lorain, Ohio 44053

Dear Joe:

Once again I must apologize for taking so long to write. It seems
the older I get the lazier I get. Oh well.

I got the KIMSI board to work, but I get intermittent memory failiers
that have really bot me stumpped. To test the memory, I've using the
following program:

10 INPUT "ENTER LOW MEMORY, HIGH MEMORY LOCATION" ,L,H
20 IF L>H THEN 10
30 J=170
40 FOR I= 1 TO 100
50 FOR K=L TO H
60 IF J=85 THEN 70 : J=85 : GOTO 80
70 J = 170
80 POKE K,J
90 M= PEEK(K)
100 IF J=M THEN 130
110 PRINT "FAILIER AT ADRESS ":K:" (";M;" SHOULD BE ";J;")"
120 END
130 NEXT K : NEXT I
140 PRINT "ALL ADRESSES TESTED O.K."
150 END

This routine takes a long time to run, but if your memory passes it O.K.,
you can be pretty sure that the memory is adressing, reading and writing
O.K.

I originally bought my APPLE I to have a micro processor to play games
on, but since I'm a compulsive tinkerer, The APPLE I is apart as much as
it is together. To solve this problem, I've bought an APPLE II. Now I've got
a computer that runs, and one I can tinker with. If I can copy the paddle
circuits used by the APPLE II and write some assembler routines to simulate
the APPLE II graphics comands, I should be able to write some "PONG" type
game for the APPLE I for use with the SWTP graphics board that I have
hooked to my APPLE I. I think games like "Breakout", "tennis", etc.
should be bossible. The APPLE II low resolution graphics mode is 40 X 47,
but my graphics board is a little better since it's resolution is 64 X 96.
The APPLE II graphics are in color, but my grpahics board is only black and
white.

I don't know how you can set up a grid without some sort of graphics
board unless you plan to re-write it every time. If you are going to
re-write each time, you just build an array with the proper date, then
write teh board from the array (the HORTA program I sent you is a good
example of this techinique).

In order to convert my programs to the APPLE II, I listed all of them.
If you would like, I will see if I can make you a copy of all of them.

Wll, thats about it. If there is anything I can do, just write.
I'll try to write back quicker next time.