lehman@crystal.ARPA (04/11/84)
So, not much came back - 3 people replied, two with VIC's and one with
a 64. Rather than try to summarize, I'll just include their responses
(I'm feeling lazy today)
I hope the contributors don't mind me including their names....
---------------------------------------
aak@Purdue.ARPA
1) PROTECTO (ads in COMPUTE!, COMPUTE's Gazette, RUN) sells a
software package that produces an 80 column display with no additional
hardware. But, like the VIC 40 column software, the characters are coarse
beacuse of the limitations of the hi-res screen.
2) Hardware 80 column boards (for the VIC and C64) contain their
own video RAM and CRT controller. In addition, they contain a ROM with the
necessary firmware to drive the controller. The VIC/C64 treats this ROM like
it treats a game cartridge, it passes control to it on power-up. However,
the ROM program merely initializes the controller hardwre, sets up the
address of its own output routine in locs $0326-$0327 (Output routine
vector) then passes control to BASIC.
3) Most software should work with 80 column boards, at least
software which doesn't do direct screen POKE's. All my BASIC programs
work with the Protecto/ Data 20 80-column board for my VIC. The free
word processor which came with it is fine (see the review of the
'Wordmanager' word processor in the Jan RUN magazine. It is the C64
version of the program I have, identical in all functions). My major
problem was not getting my programs to work with 80 columns - they
worked. It's just that I had to modify them to take advantage of all
80 columns!
A word of caution though, you might need a 15MHz+ monochrome monitor
to view the screen of 80 col. hardware. I don't know the resolution
of your color monitor.
--------------- a second reply from aak -------------------
Okay, the display of the Protecto / Data 20 boards looks just like an 80
column by 24 line display. The character generator ROM they use supports
all Commodore graphic characters. Whatever you print to the screen, does
exactly that - print to the screen. So, for example, my checkbook balan-
cing program which used to assume (on the VIC) a 22 column screen, had
to be modified to create a "prettier" display on the 80 column screen,
If it was run with no modifications it would only attempt to print at
most 22 chars per line, whereas there were actually 80 available print
positions. You could say it used only the left portion of the screen.
Unfortunately, these boards do not support hires graphics because the
character generator ROM within the board is hard-wired to the CRT
controller chip. You cannot have the controller access RAM as you can
with the VIC/VIC-II chips. The 2K of video RAM needed for the display is added
to the I/O block of addresses. The regular screen memory is not used,
nor is it needed. I don't know if this is possible with the C64 version
of 80 col boards, but at least on the VIC version you can connect your
monitor to the DIN jack at the back of the board, and a TV ( or another
monitor) to the RF output (or regular DIN jack) of the computer. The 80
column screen will then appear on the monitor, and the usual VIC screen
will appear on the TV. They operate independently. To redirect output
to one screen or the other, there are a couple of SYS addresses (supplied
in the 80 col board manual) you can call. For example you can run the
following program:
10 PRINT"HOW ARE YOU?": REM prints on 80 col screen
20 SYS40975: REM redirect output to 22 col screen
30 PRINT"I'M FINE": REM prints to regular screen
40 SYS40978: REM redirect output to 80 column screen
50 PRINT"END OF PROGRAM":END
And it will print "HOW ARE YOU?" on your monitor, and "I'M FINE" on
your TV.
Hope this clears things up a little. I'm very happy with my fully expanded
VIC with the 80 col board, so I doubt I'll upgrade to a 64. Good luck
with your setup. Please feel free to ask any other questions. Hopefully
there will be someone else on the net with experience with the C64 version
of the 80 col board who can help.
--------------------------------------
From: seismo!decvax!dartvax!dalcs!y7124 (J Gerard Olszowiec)
Although I own a Vic, I have purchased both a 40 column
software package and a 40/80 column cartridge. I thought I
would let you know what I have come across< and it may apply
to the 64.
1) If the package is software check to see if you can
make your own custom characters. I have a 40 column terminal
emulator that is a pain in the butt, because I can't can't
make custom characters and in some cases they have substituted
a dummy character in the place of characters they thought you
would never use. I work at home with our Univ. Unix and am
left holding the bag when it comes to tildes, pipes, under-
scores and backslashes. Quite a few of the characters are
substituted with an ' * '.
2) If it is a cartridge the best of them work better with
a monochrome screen. I have never seen one on a color monitor.
I have a Zenith ZVM-123 and the resolution is not bad,
although you will never get the resolution of a $500+ terminal.
I have a 40/80 column from Protecto and am quite pleased with
it. It came with bonus spreadsheet, wordprocessor, and a
built-in terminal emulator which I never use because it has
the upper case mapped to lower and vica versa. Even the 'lcase'
command in Unix doesn't seem to fix this. If you do get a
cartridge beware that the screen will probably be mapped to
$B800.
Try:
Protecto, Barrington, Il. (See Compute!)
or Midwest Micro, Kansas City, Missouri ?
From: George Famini (CRDC) <seismo!ucbvax!famini@amsaa.ARPA>
----------------------------------------------
I have a Data20 80 column card for my c64... and I like it most of the time.
It is only in b&w, but for me that's not much of a problem. The problem is
that many programs will not run on it, obvoiusly both the card and the program
try to access the same memory area. However there are many "standard"
programs that do work on the card, like the vicmodem terminal emulator
program, except the menu cannot be seen. It was expensive >$150, so I would
suggest trying to find something better and cheaper... oh I forgot to
mention... the card comes with a wp program and a mailing list program.
George