TV Typewriter Cookbook

A couple of good finds lately: A JDH Videomate a predecessor of TV cards. Which works with a VGA like a VCR does with the 8-bits. Works but need a manual. A Kraft KC-3 Joy-Stick ,swichable to work on an A-ll or PC with 9 and 15 pin connector. Nicest J-S I've seen. My main find tho was a "TV Typewriter Cookbook" from Sams by Don Lancaster, the author of the TTL cookbook among others. Might be old hat to most members on the list, but I find it's an amazing book. My apologies to those who've seen it before. Wozniac and others must have been influenced by it. A quote (long) from the end of the book is interesting. " WHERE TO FROM HERE? When this book was started, there was only one low-cost hobby microcomputer (the Mark-8) and only one very dated tvt (the TVT-1). If you could get them, 2102's were $30 each and nonexistent microprocessor chips were advertised for $300 to $400 each, without documentation, and the key interface and support chips were a figment of the data-sheet writer's imagination. Peoples Computer Company CC) and the Amateur Computer Society (ACS) were voices crying in the wilderness. An incredibly short time later, the hobbyist and experimenter are literally swamped with microprocessor computers and CPU evaluation kits. Well-documented and supported CPUs are now available for $20 each in single quantities. The 2102's are available as surplus for $1.50 each, only slightly over a tenth of a cent per bit. PROMs have dramatically dropped in price to half a cent per bit and less . Computer and tvt-user clubs and groups exist by the dozens. Besides PCC (Peoples Computer Company. Box 310 Menlo Park, CA 94025), and the numerous smaller newsletters, major computer hobbyist magazines now exist with excellent editorial materials, professional graphics, and wide distribution. These include BYTE, Interface and Microtek. Universities, junior colleges, industries, and even high schools now offer microprocessor courses. There are now dozens of retail computer stores. Now what? Where do we go from here? The answer literally changes by the minute. In fact, if things continue at their present explosive rate, many of the basic principles in this book may seem quaint or primitive by the time you read this. Let's suppose that for an instant we could freeze time at November, 1975. Suppose further that your main interest was not in experimenting with a CPU and software like everyone else, but was aimed at bringing tvt's and other truly low-cost peripherals as near to reality as possible, so that something useful could be done cheaply with the CPUs everyone else was building. Here, as I see it, are the major tvt-related questions that you can help answer at this instant in time: * Can a basic low-cost tv typewriter with cursor and memory be built to retail at the hobbyist level for $39.95? * Can a miniature calculator-style ASCII keyboard and encoder with quality features (2KRO, choice of strobe, tactile response, two shot keys) be built to retail at the hobbyist level for $14.95? * What is the longest length and highest character quality that can be obtained with direct rf entry of an unmodified tv set? * Can you build a legal, universal, single-channel rf modulator to retail at the hobbyist level for $4.95? * What is the minimum possible cost for a snap-on Selectric base-plate adapter and converter? How fast will it operate? Can it be made to enter as well as print? * How do you add light-pen feedback to graphic and tvt displays? * Can a single microprocessor such as an MOS Technology 6502 provide all the timing and control for a stand-alone tvt? * What are the most effective software and algorithms needed for graphic display games and puzzles? * Can you design a simple CPU backup for a graphics tvt that will move chessmen following chess notation, e.g., Bishop to King's Rook 5? * Can you build a basic compiler on a chip or two? * What is the setup needed for a tvt-oriented wordprocessing system to be used for addressing, printing form letters, and so on? Can this be done without a CPU? * What is the simplest and cheapest dedicated "super front panel" tvt configuration you can come up with that will read out the entire memory contents of a microcomputer a page at a time? ? Can you make it sequentially read out locations in hex or octa1 instead of ASCII? * Can you come up with a simple and universal locking system for video titling and superposition on existing EIA sync programs, both for studio and home video-recording uses? Can you make it crawl, have variable character size and shape, etc.? * How do you use a tvt for printed-circuit and schematic layouts? * What is he best way a CPU and tvt can interact with an electronic music synthesis system? * What about video art synthesis? Can you build a super spirograph? Make it follow music? Where to from here? Get literature. Pour over trade journals. Join a club. Subscribe to PCC, Interface and BYTE. Collect newsletters. Take some courses. Read. Read. Read. " Now that was excited enthusiasm you don't see any more. ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com