Enterprise Forever
:UK => Hall of Fame => Topic started by: Zozosoft on 2007.May.04. 18:16:40
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spectrum emulator (both the a-studio version and the beta version of the Box-Soft version - witch was better)
What is it the Box-Soft version? We never hear about this!
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spectrum emulator (both the a-studio version and the beta version of the Box-Soft version - witch was better)
What is it the Box-Soft version? We never hear about this!
Box-Soft in the UK (the ones that made Out of this World etc. You know them) made a Spectrum emulator before a-studio. I think it is mentioned in some of their ads in the old english usergroup magazine.
I sold Box-Softs software in Denmark and since Tim Box (who ran Box-Soft) did'nt have time and was afraid of the copyright with sinclair he borrowed me the prototype of the emulator. It was better and more compatible than a-softs - as far as i remember.
At the end i shipped the emulator (witch was some prints with a lot of wires and plugged in to the expansion port) to Kapacy Vilmos (William) from a-studio. The plan was the he should finish it - since it was better than the on he got at the time. But after that I lost contact with him. Btw. does anybody know what he is doing now?
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Box-Soft in the UK (the ones that made Out of this World etc. You know them)
I don't know :-(
Right now I am playing the 128 version of Out of this World. Still got it :-)
This is a Enterprise game?
In the Hungary we see only the Paintbox 1.2 (drawing program) from the Box-Soft.
Only now when got a some scanned Enterprise magazines (Private Enterprise from UK, EnterFace from Netherlands) we see some advertisments of Boxsoft with many interesting things!
Do you have more informations about these?
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It was better and more compatible than a-softs - as far as i remember.
Yes, the original 'a' Studio Emulator not too good...
I fixed some hw bugs, and writed new ROM program for this.
More details at this topic. (http://enterpriseforever.com/hardware/zx_spectrum_emulator_card-t123.0.html)
In the Ep128emu 2.0.3 you can try it, now works the Spectrum Emulator emulation in the Enterprise emulator :-)
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Box-Soft in the UK (the ones that made Out of this World etc. You know them)
I don't know :-(
Right now I am playing the 128 version of Out of this World. Still got it :-)
This is a Enterprise game?
In the Hungary we see only the Paintbox 1.2 (drawing program) from the Box-Soft.
Only now when got a some scanned Enterprise magazines (Private Enterprise from UK, EnterFace from Netherlands) we see some advertisments of Boxsoft with many interesting things!
Do you have more informations about these?
Yes Out of This world is a EP game. A kind of Trailblazer clone made by a guy called Andrew Richards. Very talented programmer.
I still got a lot of the software. I am not sure that I got the manuals thou. If you post me a mail address I will mail what I got.
I will start digging for the manuals.
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Yes Out of This world is a EP game. A kind of Trailblazer clone made by a guy called Andrew Richards. Very talented programmer.
I still got a lot of the software.
Wow! It is very good surprise if we see 'new' Enterprise softwares in year 2007! :-)
I am not sure that I got the manuals thou. If you post me a mail address I will mail what I got.
I will start digging for the manuals.
Thanks!!!
I send private message to you.
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At the end i shipped the emulator (witch was some prints with a lot of wires and plugged in to the expansion port) to Kapacy Vilmos (William)
Kopácsy Vilmos. You are personaly meeted with he?
from a-studio. The plan was the he should finish it - since it was better than the on he got at the time. But after that I lost contact with him. Btw. does anybody know what he is doing now?
When happened this?
I afraid he not finished them :-(
The Enterprise started at Hungary in 1987. The 'a' Studio released the Spectrum Emulator and the Plus Cartridge in 1988, and many games. But after no any new items released.
About 20000 Enterprises sold in Hungary. But insufficient original accessories in the markets :-( (EXDOS, floppy drives, SpeakEasy, Mouse, printer, monitor, etc) these are sold out in a very short time. Thousands of users who are bought the machine at later time (88-90-...) can't buy any hw extensions in official shops.
We only got a promises, promises, promises,.... about the new hardwares and softwares :(
In 1990 August started a official Enterprise Distribution company in Hungary. The director is Vilmos Kopácsy.
We thinked: Yeeeessss! Now we got a real support and the most awaited items.
But no :( :( :( this company never released anything :-( only do one thing: prohibited publishing ROM disassembly books and schematics.
The Enterpress (hungarian Enterprise magazine) published interview with Vilmos Kopácsy at 1991.
He talked about Midi interface, video subtitling hw&sw, hard disk interface, PC card interface (for example VGA!),...
But he says: we not sell anything new items, because the warehouses full of Spectrum Emulators and SZJA'88 programs.
The Spectrum Emulator in the original format not too usable...
SZJA'88: tax calculator programs for year 88. But the tax rules changing in every years... who want 1988's program in 1991???
And he talked about Enterprise PC's and the new super Enterprise:
-Hitachi Super Z80 with a 21 address line and mathematics cooprocessor
-PC like slim house with external keyboard
-onboard EXDOS, Midi interface and hw networing
-EXOS 3.0 with graphical interface (EGI) looks lika about the Atari GEM
After this interview I not heard anything about Mr. Kopácsy...
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As visited Vilmos in the summer of 88 and 89. As far as I remember I mailed him the beta emulator in the autum of 89.
Your story dos'nt really surprise me. The last time I visited Vilmos his attention was allready shifting to Atari (witch you can see in the demos he made with guy).
The sad thing with EP has allways been that it came out at a time when the market was shifting to Atari and Amiga.
I have mailed you a lot of software. I have also located the manuals. I will start scanning them later on this day.
I just googled Vilmos and apparently he is or has been involved with a company called http://vtge.hu/
Maby you can track him down and see if he wants to donated some of the old stuff.
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Magic Ball is a Boxsoft game! There is the Boxsoft logo on the game screen!
So Out of this World=Magic ball?
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Maby Out of This World was renamed when it came out in Hungary.
Here is a dump:
http://home19.inet.tele.dk/amigay/Soft-Port/otw.jpg
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Yes, this is Magic Ball. :)
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Maby Out of This World was renamed when it came out in Hungary.
Yes this is and the Magic Ball are looks like same. (http://www.ep128.hu/Ep_Games/Leiras/Out_of_this_World.htm)
But the OTW have a Enterprise 64 version. And the Magic Ball program is a 48K the OTW128 only 34K. What is the difference?
Who is Andrew Richards? He is a English or Hungarian boy? His name removed in the Magic Ball, replaced to 'a' Studio.
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I don't really know what the difference between the two versions are. Sorry!
Andrew Richards is a young english programmer that made Out of This World, some of the brush and stripple routines for Painbox and the IS Basic extensions program (mailed you that yesterday). Besides that he made the beta version of a game called Insane (as far as I remember).
As far as I know he was a young guy who studied at Cambridge. The last time I talked to him, he was talking about shifting to Spectrum but I am not sure if he ever published anything there.
I have tried to google him but with no succes so far.
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Andrew Richards is a young english programmer that made Out of This World
Then the 'a' Studio is improper when removed the original programmer name from the program!
and the IS Basic extensions program (mailed you that yesterday)
This is a another amazing thing.
Now I see the Enterprise Plus ROM by 'a' Studio contains these Basic extensions! But never say: "these programs come Boxsoft"... this sold as original 'a' Studio program...
EP Plus user manual (http://www.ep128.hu/Ep_Konyv/Ep_Plus.htm), sorry on hungarian, but you can compare the Basic commands with the Boxsoft extensions commands!
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We need that Insane game! :)
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We need that Insane game! :)
There is it :-)
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Hm very simple game... but original EP game! I love the original EP programs!!!
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The Paintbox manual (http://ep.homeserver.hu/PDF/Paintbox_and_Neos_mouse_instruction_manual.pdf) is talking about NEOS mouse and Boxsoft intelligent mouse/joystick interface.
Anyone can talk more about these items?
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The NEOS mouse was a mouse originally produced for the C64. Search the net for a ton of references.
Box-Soft produced a small interface (plastic covered pcb) with a size of 2 cm. in with and 5 cm. in length that was plugged into the joystick port on the EP. The interface had a connector (standard atari format) for the joystick/mouse placed flat on top of the interface. Because the interface used a lot of power you had to connect a second small interface in another port in the EP (smaller than the joystick) that had a wire with a jack-plug (some as for tape) in the end that you plugged into the mouse/joystick interface. It looked a bit weird but worked as a charm.
I also had a couple of the Hungarian joystick interfaces but the BoxSoft version was better. Unfortunately I don't have any more information / drawings etc.
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This is the Boxsoft interface?
(http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Enterprise/enterprisemouse.jpg)
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Yes :)
Just found the same picture.
The version I had was covered with thin black plastic. But is is the same.
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"New" :-) softwares from the Boxsoft! (previously I never see any of them!)
Screenplay one (http://enterpriseforever.com/dlattach.html;topic=163.0;attach=944) (Pacman)
Screenplay two (http://enterpriseforever.com/dlattach.html;topic=163.0;attach=945) (Orbs)
Screenplay three (http://enterpriseforever.com/dlattach.html;topic=163.0;attach=946) (Galaxians)
(The .BAS files is the original programs, the .ZIP files the compiled versions, used the Boxsoft ZZZIP Basic compiler)
[attachthumb=1]
Big thanks for the tapes to Bagpuss22!!!
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Hello, Thanks for being so complementary about my programming abilities. I think I must have been about 16 when I wrote Out of this World. I never knew it had its name changed and my name removed when it went to Hungary. I knew Tim sent his software off to Eastern Europe, because he got some software back in return. He could never get any money out, though. Does anyone know what happened to Tim?
I found this while Googling around and was surprised to see the Box-soft name. But, John, I can't quite remember you. Did we meet? I do remember going to one or 2 Enterprise meetings in London.
Sorry if the Insane game disappointed you. I was quite young and got bored writing a game quite quickly. I always wanted to write shoot-em-ups, and still do get hooked on R-type from time to time (currently on the Wii). But I could never quite write them right. Just couldn't get the right playability.
I helped Tim work on the Spectrum emulator for a while, but I don't know if it was released. It was a remarkably simple piece of hardware, with some software that would convert the colour (or "attribute") information from Spectrum format to Enterprise format. I think I re-wrote that code, but whether that's the version that is being talked about on some of these boards, I don't know. I then went on to use the Spectrum emulator to help write some Spectrum games for Codemasters (none of them any good, I'm afraid). My Enterprise eventually got totally destroyed with all the re-wiring and hacking that went on, so I have no hardware to show, I'm afraid.
I still have some Enterprise disks lying around that I keep meaning to copy over and upload somewhere on the net. I don't know which could be acceptably released and which might still be considered copyright. I run a software company now, so have to be careful about legal issues.
That Paint program was a challenge. Someone else wrote it and then I added to it. The source was too large to load into memory, so we used a version of WordStar running under CP/M to edit the source. Then there was a CP/M assembler to assemble the source code into the program. It took about 15-20 minutes each time to assemble that one source file.
And I still configure every editor I use to treat shift-left as beginning of line, shift-right to go to the end, shift-up to go up a page, and alt-up to go to the top of the file. I'm used to it and I'm not going to change now. Does anyone else here do this?
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Welcome here Andrew!
Nice to see one of the Box-Soft members in our forum!
We have many-many questions about the Box-Soft and about the Enterprise user groups in the UK!
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Welcome Andrew!
I'm glad you found us! :-)
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Helo andrew. Dont afraid about the old EP game copyrights... I think...
I want to see new (new for me) EP programs. :-)
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Dan! Do you know anything about Tim Box?
I tried to search him on the net, but it looks a very common English name, impossible to find him :-(
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¡Yesterday I've found Tim Box!
And he promises to come here to speak...
He answered this:
Dear Gustavo
You have indeed found that Tim Box. Its been a long time since I was
involved with the Enterprise, Private Enterprise etc. From memory when
Enterprise folded we carried on a for a while. Just at the time the
developer of the post compiler ZZZIP (I do not remember that name but it
sounds right) was about to sign a deal with them but was told to leave asap
as once signed he would not be able to sign with anyone else. He came to me
and I added it to the collection. Really I did not sell much but it was fun
while it lasted.
The mouse I developed i.e the hardware adaptor. I think I sold a few 100
from memory. It was a reboxed commodore or Amiga device and I just made an
adaptor for it. I then got someone to write a driver for it.
The specy emulator was one of those things that should not have been
mentioned until done. I came up with the idea.
It was basically a copy of the Spectrum rom on a chip. Then a FPGA that
mapped the spectrum keyboard address to a ram location. An interrupt at
50hz would read the Enterprise keyboard and write it to the FPGA so the
Spectrum code would read the keypress's.
But I relied on others to do some of the hardware and they never made the
time so it got delayed and delayed. There were issues that I never
understood. Also if it had taken of I'm sure Sinclair would have done me
for coping there rom.
I will try and look up web page and continue the conversation there.
I a very long time ago got rid of all my stock but know a friend who still
has one I think.
All the best
Tim Box
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¡Yesterday I've found Tim Box!
Wow :!: :smt038
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Great :smt041 :smt041 :smt041
Thank you very much :)
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Welcome Tim!!!
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Hi,
Seems like a great place to say hi.
I'm Tim Box from Box Soft. My only claim to fame is I was involved in Private Enterprise the Fanzine for the Enterprise computer. And some how started selling software for it.
Unfortunately I no longer have any hardware as I gave/sold of my remaining kit to a collector 15+ years ago.
Two enduring memories are of Peter Hiner who wrote ZZZip. He is one clever guy who was really a great chap to boot. And Kevin Richards who the first time he wrote to me ended with Kevin Richards 14.5 years old.
Feel free to ask me anything.
Cheers
Tim
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From my informations (magazines, etc) I think you are a central person of the UK Enterprise life. Made a great support for the users which are not got to many official support from the Enterprise company.
We have a lot of questions :oops:
I think the most easy: there is the magazines archive. (http://enterprise.iko.hu/magazines.htm) We have all Private Enterprise magazines or exist any more?
Unfortunately I no longer have any hardware as I gave/sold of my remaining kit to a collector 15+ years ago.
If possible you still have any documentations, schematics, letters, anything from the old good days?
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Welcome Tim. I'm glad you joined.
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And some more:
How did you start with computers? Did you have any other machine before the Enterprise?
And how did your story start with the Enterprise?
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Tim,
That collector may have been me, not too sure, memory not as good as it should be!
I remember going and collecting a large selection of Enterprise items including mice,
interfaces, magazines etc.
I may be totally wrong :oops:
This was years ago and when I first got into the Enterprise scene with Jean Pierre Malisse.
Regards
Russ
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Welcome here Tim :)
Do you remember the Hungarian contact Mr Kopácsy?
If yes, could you please tell us some story?
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Hi, Thanks for the warm welcome...
Russ, if you went up into the loft with me to look at them, then it will be you. Also part of it was a monitor. It was like a box with minimal bessel.
You said you and your friend/colleagues liked to set themselves a task of converting spectrum games over. I was impressed!
My computing started with a Spectrum 16k. I was never any good at programming but had fun with it. I built an XY plotter that I used to draw and scan images. And even drew my girlfriends 21st birthday invite with. Later when I got my Enterprise I scanned some more images (very slowly) if there is one out there of an astronaut on the moon with a reflection in the mask. That was done on it.
When I first heard of the Enterprise I was in awe. But it took a long time to get to market. Eventually it was available and I got one.
From the start I was wishing for a mouse, I used to stare at it for hours thinking how cool it would be to use one. In the end I did it my self. I can remember calling up the coder who wrote for it on the Commodore asking how you talked to it. As I was crap at coding I then passed that on to someone else. Andrew Richards took over the coding and wrote the drawing program that was sold with it.
The hardware was my design but as you can see if you ever saw one the edge connectors were a pain, sometimes requiring that you finely adjusted by trimming the heat sink.
The emulator was a prime example of vaporware. I worked out what I want to do and how to do it. But relied on others for help. Their commitments meant they were not able to always help. I got one working (kind off )in the end but it taght me not to go promising anything until you could deliver.
I can't remember how we started Private Enterprise but it meant I got to play with all the software and hardware which was great. There was a young lad who did all the initial artwork. He was fantastic, he gave it up in the end and Eamon O'leary took over.
I started BoxSoft as I thought that the advertising Enterprise was doing was not upto much and I could do a better job.
I will post more later. I have to catch up with some history on this site...
Tim
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Great to see you back Tim!
As a one-off contributor to 'Private Enterprise', how many of these were produced in the end. Is the tally more or less equal to the archive here, or were there some more issues that haven't seen the light of day?
It's been a long time, names such as 'Neil Blaber' are stirring in the back of my brain, wonder what happened to him?
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I built an XY plotter that I used to draw and scan images.
Wow, it is amazing! I understood the drawing... but how worked the scanning? Something light detector replaced the drawing pean, and it is report the pixel colours?
Later when I got my Enterprise I scanned some more images (very slowly) if there is one out there of an astronaut on the moon with a reflection in the mask. That was done on it.
This is?
[attach=1]
And this is also?
[attach=2]
When I first heard of the Enterprise I was in awe. But it took a long time to get to market. Eventually it was available and I got one.
The hardware was my design
Unfortunately in Hungary we don't know about it (including your intelligent joystick interface). Just in the last few years found it. I have it :) (http://enterpriseforever.com/hardver/eger/msg8185/#msg8185) (and found it is originaly are Commodore mouse)
Todays the SymbOS make a new life for your interface, you can see it in my video :) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwgPMNH31XI) Now thinking about a modern (PS/2 or USB) interfaces, but viewing from the Enterprise sw side will be compatible with the Boxsoft interface!
The emulator was a prime example of vaporware. I worked out what I want to do and how to do it. But relied on others for help. Their commitments meant they were not able to always help. I got one working (kind off )in the end but it taght me not to go promising anything until you could deliver.
Anyway very interesting idea and story! Will be very interesting: the final released emulator from the Hungarian 'a' Studio are the redesigned version of your?
In your letter what gflorez copied here, you wrote the idea of the keyboard conversion. And how worked the screen attribute conversion?
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Sorry Zozo, but I have already shown him that video on an email. Also I explained the improvements that you have done to that Enterprise ....
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Hello again Tim. I'm Gustavo from Spain.
Seems like the communities or clubs of Enterprise owners have been isolated each one in its different country, not knowing very much of what was happening outside(Internet was being born then).
As you already know this web is Hungarian, and they had a long history of association and development around the Enterprise128. But they where at the other side of the iron curtain, they grew isolated and so, only until recently they have learned that some significant advances where sold to them as if where achieved in Hungary by Hungarians.....(Spectrum emulator, Basic extensions, Paintbox without mouse... etc)
Much of them where Boxsoft's projects so it is why you are important here...
In my case, in Spain I also was isolated, but for other reasons, as at that time I didn't know any other Enterprise owner.
But a few years ago some of your material surfaced (now we know it was yours) and then we learned about the existence of Private Enterprise or Enterprise Computing International magazines.
Reading your adverts inside them was paradoxic to the people here as your company seemed to have plagiarized something that was obviously own for them. But the dates where clear, you made all that very early in UK...
Now all the members understand the obscure business of some Hungarian companies, but there are things of that years we still don't know.
For example, the SD-card reader that you see in the video is based on an HD interface developed by Zozo about eight years ago, but Inside the ECI (http://enterprise.iko.hu/magazines/ECI_No1.pdf) magazine, in an advert made by a company named Dataquip, they talk about a "German Hard-Disk Interface. (Page 12)
Do you know something about that HD project?
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Hi, EP addict, gflorez
Wow you found them! They bring back memories.
The scanning hardware was a rotring pen nib that I pulled the guts out of and stuck a LDR (with a lens I think) to the top. Then just raster scanned the image (the space man was in a news paper). At every pixel I worked out the gray level and plotted it to the screen. The stars in the background I think were added later.
It was not high res as you can see and wobbled. Also when drawing the base was a sheet of glass to get a flat surface suspended on bolts. So every time the pen dropped it went "plink". The sound is still in my head. plink, plink.......
The other image I think might have been a composite of 2 images where they were xored selectively using the drawing program that I shipped with the mouse.
It was not until many years later I heard the Enterprise went over to Hungary. I thought it all died as the parent company filed for bankruptcy in the UK. Its great it got used more.
The Private Enterprise magazine tally looks kind of right in the end others took over, Eamon would know for sure. I used to keep a collection in my loft but cleared it out in the past.
From memory there was only a floppy interface developed by Enterprise themselves. When I looked at hard drives they were massive and had no memory I do not remember one being available while I was playing with it. I tried opening the link to the ECI mag but it just brings up blank pages so cannot see it brings back memories.
Neil Blaber you can kind of see where he was going as in the last IEUG mag is pushing disks with MSDOS freeware. Last I heard from him he was a manager of some tech department. I would have to look back through linked in to see where exactly.
Kevin Richards last I looked runs a company writing compiler optimizers for the games industry. It fits as when I knew him he wrote his own asm compiler.
Sorry I will write more but have some orders to fulfill before tomorrow so better get on with them.
Cheers Tim
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It was not until many years later I heard the Enterprise went over to Hungary. I thought it all died as the parent company filed for bankruptcy in the UK. Its great it got used more.
Yes, in Hungary the Enterprise very successful! More than 20000 machine sold, I think the EP are the third most popular 8 bit machine in Hungary after the C64 and ZX Spectrum.
The main Enterprise era going from 1987 to 1995 in Hungary. And after few years pause on the internet started the Enterprise community again.
Back to your images, see this brochure from the Centrum Áruház (large department stores, in every big cities), where the Enterprises sold:
http://enterprise.iko.hu/brochures/EP-prospektus1~1.jpg
http://enterprise.iko.hu/brochures/EP-prospektus1~2.jpg
http://enterprise.iko.hu/brochures/EP-prospektus1~3.jpg
http://enterprise.iko.hu/brochures/EP-prospektus1~4.jpg
It is including two more images, the football players and windsurfer. I think these also yours, it is true?
In the '80 years when I see this brochure, I thought these are too good pictures as computer picture :-) I thought it is only - with todays word - photoshoped...
Only few years ago when I got some IEUG and Boxsoft tapes found these as real Enterprise picture file.
Ok, today we know the Nick can do many more better :-) (http://ep128.hu/Ep_Demo/Pic/Interlace3.png), but in the '80 years your images shocked me, what a fantastic images!
When I found the real picture files then I thought these are video digitized, never thought about scanning!
About the ECI: it is a PDF file, try to download it, and open directly with Adobe Reader.
The HDD expansion what about gflorez talking: it is from Germany, interfacing IBM XT Seagate RLL controller card to Enterprise. We have a ROM file for this, but never see it in the real life. In a interview with Mr. Kopácsy he is also talking about it, but he say: don't sale HDD interface until the warehouse full of Spectrum Emulators...
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Hi Zozosoft
Yes the footballer looks right and the surfer is definitely correct.
Are those other images really from an Enterprise? WOW is all I can say. If only we did that back then. :)
Ok that explains why I never saw the HD interface...
All very memory invoking..
Tim
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Are those other images really from an Enterprise?
Yes! You can download it (http://ep128.hu/Ep_Demo/Prg/Interlace_Demo_3.rar) and view on real Enterprise (if you buy again one :-) ).
IstvanV wrote the image converter program for PC, and I the viewer for Enterprise. Most of these pictures use a 16 colors attribute mode. The trick is the new palette in every LPT line :-D and also using interlace mode to double the vertical resolution.
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Or you can see it easily loading them in the Enterprise emulator. Take the installer from this (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ep128emu/files/latest/download) page , install and then change the executable with this last version (http://enterpriseforever.com/ep128emu/ep128emu/?action=dlattach;attach=9081).
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Ep128emu is accurate, but still doesn't emulate your mouse interface...
On the other side it emulates the Spectrum Emulator (http://www.ebay.es/itm/Enterprise-64-128-one-two-eight-SINCLAIR-ZX-SPECTRUM-emulator-with-system-bridge-/321677569538?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4ae57a2e02).
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My web based emulator (JSep) emulates the boxsoft mouse interface, but not so accurate emulation of the Ep128 in general :-)
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Sorry LGB. I've not mentioned your emulator because is not as easier to make it work. But, could you put here a link to a disk image of one of these slide-shows that Zozo is speaking?
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Sorry LGB. I've not mentioned your emulator because is not as easier to make it work. But, could you put here a link to a disk image of one of these slide-shows that Zozo is speaking?
http://ep.lgb.hu/jsep/demo/?disk=EPSLIDESHOW.IMG&autostart=yes&skiplogo=yes&mem=128&zt=no
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Interlace slideshow (http://ep128.hu/Ep_Demo/Prg/Interlace_Demo_3.rar) also can work with jsep?
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Interlace slideshow (http://ep128.hu/Ep_Demo/Prg/Interlace_Demo_3.rar) also can work with jsep?
I don't think so, since it does not emulate interlace at all :( That's why I told that way that my emulator can emulate boxsoft mouse interface but it's not so accurate Ep128 emulator in contrast of Ep128emu which is much more accurate but does not know mouse emulation, so it's kinda "funny" situation, that's all :)
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Sorry LGB. I've not mentioned your emulator because is not as easier to make it work. But, could you put here a link to a disk image of one of these slide-shows that Zozo is speaking?
Ouch no need to say sorry, I wanted to express some kind of "funny situation" about the features of ep128emu and jsep, what I've just described in response of Zozo's post.
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LGB, although Jsep doesn't emulate interlace mode it seems to do pretty well......without flicker.
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Now I have this conversation with Tim Box:
Hello again Tim, I'm Gustavo from Spain.
Today I managed to make a copy of your Boxsoft mouse interface only with
optocouplers, resistors and one transistor. I send here the scheme of your
adapter and of my clone.
My question is: when you created it, was there optocouplers?
I say it because your project is for me a very imaginative one, with the
principal objective of isolate the Enterprise odd Joystick connector. And
you achieved it cheating the OR gates....
Also the RTS signal drawn from the Serial port is isolated again with a
spare OR gate.
For me is impressive...
Gustavo.
Hello Gustavo
Really I do not remember why the design was made that way. What port was
it plug into?
*Edit* Ok its coming back now :) Was the main port a joystick one? So
the other was needed to strobe the mouse to get it to send the data out...
There were no opto couplers. It was all just TTL logic. I really did not
know much about electronics back then. Peter helped me out.
My only memory was that it was to interface to a 4bit CPU in the mouse.
You requested the movement since the last request and it sent it in 2
nibbles.
So looking at your schematic, I have not checked the logic fully but see
no obvious reason for it not to work. Only thing I will say is that It
will draw a lot of power. The Leds in the opto's will take a lot of
power. I hope the Mouse can sink that kind of current.
Cheers
Tim
Thanks for answer me.
My clone works... almost like yours(can be better...). The Enterprise seems unaware of the power drawn by the six optocouplers.
The problem with the Enterprise game port is that the common for the buttons is positive, as opposed to the Atari or MSX ports, where the 0v is the common.
On the other hand, the mouse acts exactly as if that nibbles where the direction buttons pressed on a joystick, directly shorting from the pins to ground. No problem at that.
Thanks.
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Tim says:
HI Gustavo
Ok sounds good. Well done :)
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[
Two enduring memories are of Peter Hiner who wrote ZZZip. He is one clever guy who was really a great chap to boot. And Kevin Richards who the first time he wrote to me ended with Kevin Richards 14.5 years old.
Tim
[/quote]
Haha! Hi Tim, great to see messages from you. That was a long time ago! I'm Andrew not Kevin, but I probably did put my age at the end of a letter. I remember being very worried about writing letters to people and them thinking I worked in computers, but was still at school!
Andrew