A
lot of novice programmers don't use poke statements except for the obvious ones
like POKE 752,1 for the cursor or POKE 82,3:POKE 83,37 for the margins, but
pokes are a lot more powerful than just for screen displays.
One
company that recognized this fact is Santa Cruz Software. Their Master Memory
Map booklet (15 pages) explains the use of many locations including some that
Atari doesn't even mention. The cost is a reasonable $5.95, and down right cheap
if you plan to do some serious programming.
One
of my favorite pokes (because I'm lazy) is POKE 580,1. 1 use an auto boot disk
and if I'm loosing in one of the computer-versus-human games, I
"accidentally" depress the system reset key. This causes the computer
to believe the keyboard unit was just turned on and sends the disk to find the
menu, no more typing RUN "D:MENU" wow, rough life.
Also,
people believe Graphics mode 8 is strictly one color, two luminescence. If you
know the right poke statements anyone can sweet-talk the Atari into believing
it's in Graphics mode 7. (see Analog No. 3, p. 32 for details) Even the clock is
accessible using Poke 18, 19 and 20.
The
one super great thing about pokes is that they are not permanent. As soon as the
Atari is powered down the values of the pokes return to their natural (default)
settings. Pokes can be entered in direct (POKE 755,4) or indirect mode (POKE
755,0). Hope I didn't lose anybody. Even the tape recorder motor has a poke
address (54018,52).
Now
Peek is the actual setting at the moment for the Poke value, in other words
PRINT PEEK (752) will give you the value of the address 752. PEEK 752,1 is equal
to POKE 752,1. It is a lot simpler than it sounds. Atari gave a minor list of
commonly used Pokes in the Basic Reference Manual Appendix I (use the decimal
location). Also, in the new Atari Connection Vol. 1, Number 2 p. 22 there is a
short routine for disabling the break key.
Queue,
Inc. announces the May publication of two new educational software catalogues
for the 1981 - 1982 school year: Queue Catalogue IVA covering Apple, Atari and
Compucolor; and Queue Catalogue IVB covering Pet and TRS-80.
The
catalogues carry the educational software offerings of over 70 publishers,
listed by computer, subject area, and grade level. All software can be ordered
directly from Queue. The two catalogues sell for $8.95 each. Write Monica
Kantrowitz, President, Queue, Inc., 5 Chapel Hill Drive, Fairfield, CT 06432.
NATIONAL
COMPUTER CAMP
Youngsters
ages 10-18, novice to advanced, can sign up for computer camp. This year's
National Computer Camp will be held in two locations: Simsbury, Connecticut and
Atlanta, Georgia. Oneweek and two-week sessions are available from July 11 to
August 6. This educational and recreational experience may offer a unique
opportunity to implement a program for the gifted and talented.
For
further information contact Michael Zabinski, Ph.D. (Professor, Fairfield
University) at P.O. Box 624, Orange, Connecticut, 06477, or call 203-795-3049.
This
small "One-Liner" demonstrates a very useful memory location. The peek
does not return the ASCII number for the key you press. It returns on an
internal code number.