I just modified my program to get rid of the polling. It did not really speed up the display of characters. ; ) I can now see the full records with some duplicated digits here and there. Its interesting that the program below free running can only process characters at 300bps 1 POKE 61441, PEEK(61457) 2 GOTO 1 At a 500Khz clock thats over 1000 clock cycles per loop. SO THIS IS HOW Micro-Soft got started with slow software??? ; ) So any suggestions on getting started QUICKLY with 6800 assembler? Maybe one that outputs in Motorola punch tape format??? I want to archive Altair 680 KCACR basic before anything else happens to this tape. I had about 5-6 failed loads this weekend and I don't want to risk loosing this KCACR basic! : ( Grant