module
39
The course names keys the way the Einstein does: ENTER, DELETE, ESC, BREAK, GRPH, F0. Where that key is depends on what you are sitting at.
Press the key with that name on it. For a character, find it on the keys; if it is the upper of two on a key, hold SHIFT.
Wherever the course has a line beginning In MAME, it is not talking to you, and you can skip it.
You are typing on a modern keyboard that is standing in for the Einstein's. MAME lays one over the other by position, not by what is printed on your keys. The letters and the digits land where you expect. These do not need thinking about either:
| Einstein key | In MAME, press |
|---|---|
| ENTER | Return |
| SHIFT, CTRL, TAB, ESC, CAPS LOCK | the key of the same name |
| SPACE | the space bar |
These do:
| Einstein key | In MAME, press |
|---|---|
| DELETE | Backspace |
| BREAK | the left Alt key, left Option on a Mac |
| GRPH | F8 |
| F0 to F6 | F1 to F7: always one more than the Einstein's number |
| F7 | F8, which is also GRPH. Pressing it presses both |
| the horizontal cursor key | Tab; SHIFT and Tab for left |
| the vertical cursor key | the Down arrow; SHIFT and Down for up |
And the punctuation:
| For this | On the Einstein | In MAME, press |
|---|---|---|
" | SHIFT and 2 | SHIFT and 2 |
@ | SHIFT and 0 | SHIFT and 0 |
( and ) | SHIFT and 8, SHIFT and 9 | SHIFT and 8, SHIFT and 9 |
: | the : * key | the ' key, to the right of ; |
* | SHIFT and the : * key | SHIFT and that same ' key |
; | the ; + key | ; |
+ | SHIFT and the ; + key | SHIFT and ; |
= | the = - key | = |
- (minus) | SHIFT and the = - key | SHIFT and = |
_ | the - £ key | the - key |
| | the one-half key | the \ key |
\ | SHIFT and the one-half key | SHIFT and \ |
[ ] ^ | the ← → ↑ keys (see The Cursor Keys, below) | the Left, Right and Up arrows |
. , / | where you expect | where you expect |
The key with - printed on it gives an underscore. It is the one that catches everybody: PRINT 7_2 prints 7 and then Syntax Error. Minus is SHIFT and =.
The positions are those of a British or American keyboard, which agree about every key in these tables. If yours is laid out differently, go by where the key is rather than by what is printed on it.
The Einstein does not have four arrow keys. It has two grey cursor keys, side by side at the right-hand end of the QWERTY row, each marked with a double-headed arrow:
| Key | On its own | With SHIFT |
|---|---|---|
| the horizontal cursor key | cursor right | cursor left |
| the vertical cursor key | cursor down | cursor up |
Three other keys have a single arrow printed on them, but they are ordinary character keys, and the arrow is the character they type: the Einstein draws [ as a left arrow, ] as a right arrow and ^ as an up arrow.
| Key | Where it is | Types | With SHIFT |
|---|---|---|---|
| ← (marked ¼ and ←) | end of the QWERTY row, next to the cursor keys | [ | { |
| → (marked ¾ and →) | end of the ASDF row, next to ENTER | ] | } |
| ↑ (marked ÷ and ↑) | the number row, between = and ½ | ^ | ~ |
In MAME the two cursor keys are on your Tab key and your Down arrow: Tab is right, Shift and Tab is left, Down is down, and Shift and Down is up. Your Left, Right and Up arrows are the three character keys: Left types [, Right types ] and Up types ^. That is why MAME users so often report that the Einstein's arrow keys type brackets and do not move the cursor. The keys under those three arrows are not the cursor keys.
In BASIC the two cursor keys are the editing keys of S5 under other names. The horizontal key does what CTRL-D does, and with SHIFT what CTRL-H does; the vertical key is CTRL-J, and with SHIFT CTRL-K. Move onto a listed line with them, type over the mistake and press ENTER.
Tatung's own manual describes the two cursor keys and the keyboard this way, and MAME's Einstein agrees with it. What the keys do in BASIC was checked in MAME, not on a real Einstein. If you have one and it behaves differently, please let us know and this page will be corrected.
The Einstein draws a few characters its own way. They are the same characters, the same codes, and BASIC treats them exactly as this course prints them; only the picture on the screen differs:
| Typed | Code | On the screen |
|---|---|---|
[ | 91 | a left arrow |
] | 93 | a right arrow |
^ | 94 | an up arrow |
\ | 92 | one half |
{ | 123 | one quarter |
} | 125 | three quarters |
| | 124 | a double bar |
~ | 126 | a division sign |
So the three keys marked ← → ↑, which type [, ] and ^, show the arrows printed on them; and ^, which raises a number to a power (S7), looks like an up arrow in your listings.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| CAPS LOCK | Capitals on or off. On when BASIC starts. |
| DELETE | Rubs out the character to the left of the cursor, on the line you are typing. |
| CTRL and a letter | The editing keys of S5: CTRL-K up, CTRL-D right, CTRL-H left, CTRL-L clears the screen and keeps the program. |
| ESC | Stops a LIST that is waiting at the end of a page. |
| F0 to F7 | Nothing, until KEY gives them something to type (S34). |
| The two cursor keys | The editing moves of S5: right, and left with SHIFT; down, and up with SHIFT. |
| The ← → ↑ keys | Type [, ] and ^. They are character keys, not cursor keys. |
In MAME no key stops a running program, BREAK included. That is why every game loop in this course contains a line like
IF KBD<>0 THEN STOP
or a key of its own for stopping, as the game's Q is (S13). And save before you run anything new (S2, S6).
MAME has control keys of its own: Esc to quit, F3 to reset the machine, F5 to pause it. They would collide with keys the Einstein needs, so MAME starts with them switched off, and Esc, Tab and the function keys go to the Einstein.
One key switches them on. On a Mac it is forward delete, which on a laptop is Fn and Backspace. On Windows and Linux, MAME's documentation gives it as Scroll Lock.
Leave it alone. If it has been pressed, the next ESC closes MAME instead, and takes with it anything you had not saved. Pressing the same key again hands the keyboard back to the Einstein.
To stop MAME on purpose, close its window, after SAVE.
In MAME, joystick 1's fire button is the left Ctrl key, which is also the Einstein's CTRL. Holding CTRL presses fire.
