info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (12/01/84)
From: Wayne McGuire <MDC.WAYNE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> Date: Wednesday, 28 November 1984 19:12-EST From: cbosgd!bentley!drew at Berkeley (RD Davis) Sender: bentley.UUCP Wed Nov 28 19:12:33 1984 at Berkeley To: MDC.WAYNE cc: ggr at Berkeley Re: Koala Speedkey System Would you please do me a favor and post this to info-mac for me. Thanks... I have a Koala Speedkey System here that I have less glowing remarks for then the review excerpts that were previously posted to info-mac. However, I will preface my remarks by saying that SpeedKey does do what it is advertised to do and may be useful to others. First thing I discovered about SpeedKey is that while it works on our IBM PC/XT, it doesn't work on a compatible-but-faster AT&T PC 6300. In fact, it is the only "IBM-PC" thing I've come across yet that didn't just plug right in and work on the AT&T PC. (In contrast, we have an Iomega Bernoulli Disk that I never expected would work on my AT&T PC. The Bernoulli Disk works fine on the AT&T. The story is not the same on the SpeedKey). Second thing I discovered was that Koala is not much help on the phone for real technical problems like this incompatibility. To their credit, they never said it would work with anything but a genuine IBM PC. However, I tried very hard to reach someone who could help me tweak the timing constant that must be in there to get along with the darn game port interface. Koala was no help what-so-ever on this. I got the distinct impression that they bought the software from someone out of their control and that it is the way it is and I shouldn't bother them. So, I left the SpeedKey on the IBM PC/XT we had over in the corner. When I tried to use that XT for something unrelated to the Koala SpeedKey, I discovered a 3rd thing about SpeedKey: Probably due to IBM's miserable interface for the game port (which requires the software to observe how long it takes for a bit to "decay") (at least that is my guess as to why...), the SpeedKey software degrades the processing capacity of the PC to the point that 9600 bps input to the COM1 port of the PC gets data-overruns. That is, the COM1 interrupt routine, that ordinarily can service 9600 bps traffic, is late in servicing the COM1 interrupt so the hardware buffer is overrun. For sure the culprit was the SpeedKey software - When I used the provided command to request the Koala to "hibernate", my 9600 bps COM1 traffic flowed again without problems. A final note about SpeedKey: I tried the pad instead of a joystick for Frogger. I found it very hard to control the frog that way. I got much better scores using the cursor motion keys on the keyboard. But that is the least of my problems... Too bad. If SpeedKey worked on the AT&T PC and if it didn't degrade the COM line, I would have bought several more. As it is, I'll have to wait for something better. Koala did hint that there is an rs232-based offering that is more portable to "compatibles" that maybe will someday appear. Since the COM port differs from the game port in many ways, maybe I'll like that next version when it comes out. R. Drew Davis Speaking for myself and not my employer.