module
38
The course disc is the Einstein System Master with the programs the course has no use for taken off, and a few added: the finished game, the same game compiled, and Xtal's compiler to compile it with. Nothing that came from the System Master has been altered.
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
XBAS.COM | Xtal BASIC 4.2, exactly as Tatung shipped it. XBAS at the 0: prompt starts it. |
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
XC.COM | The Xtal BASIC Compiler 5.10: XC NAME at the 0: prompt compiles NAME.XBS into NAME.XBI. S33. |
XR.COM | Its run-time system: XR NAME runs NAME.XBI. S33. |
Both come from Xtal's own X-Master disc, which is on this site's Downloads page too.
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
GAME.XBS | Mouse In A Hole, as it stands at the end of S32. LOAD "GAME" and RUN. |
GAME.XBI | The same game compiled, as in S33. XR GAME at the 0: prompt runs it, twice as fast. |
It is there so that you can see where the course is going, and so that you have something to compare with if your own copy will not behave. You do not need it to follow the course: you build the same program yourself, a section at a time, and save each stage as MOUSE1, MOUSE2 and so on.
Written at Tatung in 1984 and shipped on every System Master. S34 reads one of them; S35 suggests the rest.
| File | On the menu as |
|---|---|
DEMO.XBS | the menu itself, which runs the others |
INTRO.XBS | Introduction |
EINSTEIN.XBS | Einstein |
CLOCK.XBS | Clock |
OTHELLO.XBS | Othello |
MASTMIND.XBS | Mastermind - S34 |
HANGMAN.XBS | Hangman |
KEYBOARD.XBS | Keyboard |
PICPEN.XBS | Picture Pen |
SNAKES.XBS | Snakes |
DICTIONH.DAT, DICTIONE.DAT | the words Hangman chooses from |
Every file on the disc as it comes is locked - the * in a DIR listing. You can LOAD, RUN and LIST any of them, but not save over one: that is a File Locked Error. If you change one, save it under a name of your own.
The System Master also carries Dr Logo (LOGO.COM, with QUIZ.LOG and SKETCH.LOG), two disc utilities (BACKUP.COM and COPY.COM), and a small stray BASIC file. None is used in this course, and leaving them off gives you the room below. Dr Logo has a course of its own on this site, with a disc of its own.
The disc holds 190K. BASIC, the compiler, the programs and the game take 124K, leaving 64K for your own work. The fifteen stages of the game up to S32, saved as you go, come to about 48K; S33's MOUSE16 and the two compiled copies about another 14K. That fits, just. If the disc fills, erase the early stages - ERA "MOUSE1" and so on - since each later stage holds everything the earlier ones did.
Keep a copy of the disc as you downloaded it. If something on the working one gets damaged, you can start again from the copy.
