Steve Dompier's coding...

[Bill Sudbrink]

I took a peek at the access logs for the Cromemco Dazzler
files that I recently put up on my web server.  I'm
gratified to see that a lot of people are taking advantage
of the availability of these documents, that have not
recently (if ever) been easily available on the web.  I
also see that a lot of people took the Dazzlemation HEX
file and the Magenta Martini paper tape image, presumably
to run on Udo Monk's great Windows Cromemco Z1 simulator.

Also, thanks to everyone that generated pdf files for me!

One thing I noticed is that not many people looked at the
disassembly of Dazzlemation.  If you are an 8080 or Z80
programmer (or any 8-bitter for that matter) I really
recommend that you take a look, it's a real treat.  I'm
reliably informed that Mr. Dompier hand wrote that program
LITERALLY (hand, pencil, paper), no editor, no assembler.
He then toggled it in (or maybe raw keyed it in with a
primitive ROM monitor) and went through a few iterations of:

1) store to paper tape
2) modify in memory
3) test
4) go to 1

It's neat to see some of the "tricks" he used and also the
level of sophistication of the code.  It does a lot of
stuff in not a lot of bytes.  Also, here and there, in
"dead" areas, you can also see the debris of ideas that he
started and then abandoned.

Bill S.