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Author Topic: Quick note to say hi! (Read 13874 times)

Offline NickMilner

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Quick note to say hi!
« on: 2014.September.15. 10:45:48 »
Hi all, just discovered this site and it brought back a lot of fantastic memories.  I loved my Enterprise and considered it the pinnacle of 8-bit computing, and in many ways 16-bit as well!  I've spent the last couple of hours trying to dig out my old gear and I came up with this (see attachment)..

* Enterprise 64, which I sent off to be expanded to 128
* The EXDOS disk expansion (which was fantastic)
* The mouse interface and GUI - I mean, could a Spectrum ever do something like that?!
* Boxsoft's ZZZIP basic compiler plus a load of other software
* The assembler - I wrote a simple device driver that let you do flashing text like the Eugene Jarvis/Jeff Minter psychedelic colour pulse
* The Private Enterprise magazines and Enterprise Computing International mag
* The EXOS 2.0 technical manual (awesome read!)


I would never part with this as it has a special place in my memory.  Thanks for reading!
« Last Edit: 2014.September.15. 11:03:00 by MrPrise, Reason: Fixed list »

Offline MrPrise

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #1 on: 2014.September.15. 11:09:03 »
Welcome Nick,
I'm glad you found us and I think it is safe to say that we all feel the same way towards the Enterprise :-)

Offline Z80System

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #2 on: 2014.September.15. 11:52:13 »
Hello,

Is that little strange joystick converter like thing the mouse interface ?
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Offline gflorez

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #3 on: 2014.September.15. 12:45:46 »
Zozo has one of these mouse interfaces. It appears to convert mouse movements to joystick button presses. It works....

Hello Nick, beautiful gear.
« Last Edit: 2014.September.15. 12:49:34 by gflorez »

Offline jltursan

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #4 on: 2014.September.15. 13:27:46 »
Welcome and congrats for keeping such a great collection!. You have really cool items ;-)

Offline Zozosoft

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #5 on: 2014.September.15. 17:49:08 »
Wellcome here! Nice collection! Did you buy it when the Enterprise was new?
Can you write me the Serial Numbers? I collect these for my statistics.

For who answers it: yes this is Boxsoft intelligent Joystic/Mouse interface. It uses more than one buttons in mouse mode.
« Last Edit: 2014.September.15. 19:24:24 by szipucsu »

Offline NickMilner

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #6 on: 2014.September.15. 18:15:14 »
Thanks for the welcome. :)  Yes, I bought all this new when it was first released.  I'll dig out the serial number later on when I get back home.

The mouse interface did more than convert mouse signals to up/down/left/right joystick motions.  It came with a complete hi-res GUI much like what was available on the Atari ST or Amiga at the time (or maybe it did and hid it very well!)  I also had the paint package - can't remember the name but I can find out.

/edit - interesting/completely useless fact: over the 30 years since I bought the Enterprise I've written a metric shitload of software in my day job, and all my error messages start with three asterisks. :)

/edit2 - you can see a screenshot of the WIMP GUI in the picture, above.  It's just under the mouse interface itself on the front cover of the Enterprise Computing International mag.
« Last Edit: 2014.September.15. 18:36:42 by NickMilner »

Offline Z80System

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #7 on: 2014.September.15. 23:50:09 »
I have never seen that gui. Has anybody else seen it ?

Can you upload some screenshots or video from that gui sometime ?
« Last Edit: 2014.September.16. 11:50:34 by szipucsu »
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Offline NickMilner

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #8 on: 2014.September.16. 00:24:10 »
My serial number is: 33205
The model number is 128 (both numbers hand written on the label!) but it was originally a 64.

As for the GUI (called EGI, for Enterprise Graphical Interface), I probably still have a copy on one of the 3.5" floppies I still have but:

[ol]
  • The power cable is worn through and unusable so I couldn't plug it in to try it
  • I have no idea if the disks survived.  I guess they're FAT formatted so they should be readable in a PC but... who has 3.5" drives in their PC anymore? :(
[/ol]
The article on EGI in the magazine is very short.  It just says:

Quote
As you will have seen from the front cover of this Publication the most exciting new product soon to be released is EGI (short for Enterprise Graphical Interface).
We cannot compressively [sic] describe the program here because it is under-going a major rewrite, but to give you a flavour of things to come this is a run down on how it will work.
EGI is as the title implies, a graphical front end.  In use programs using EGI just make a series of system calls specifying what it wants done.  This will range from adding new icons to its icon table to displaying them and monitoring the mouse movements to providing pull down menus.  From this basic interface, programs can be built up with a very professional look and feel to them; it also means you won't have to reinvent the wheel every time you want to provide a fancy display.  There has already been several programs written to run under EGI, they include a File Manager, an Icon Editor and a full A4 page size screen designer, with multiple fonts and the ability to import pictures.  The quality of this program has to be seen to be believed.  As mentioned above it is not yet on sale but should be soon.  We will keep you informed of it's [sic] progress and will of cause [sic] be giving it a full review in the a [sic] forthcoming magazine.
I'm pretty sure I had copies of all three of the programs described above.  I've attached a closer look at the EGI screengrab from the cover...

Offline Zozosoft

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #9 on: 2014.September.16. 08:30:13 »
Wow!!! Very amazing! This software on of the most wanted missing programs! We never see it, only read about it in the magaznie, and also in one Hungarian article: EXOS 3.0 will come with EGI...

I think the disk will work, I used many 30 years old disks and no problem.

Offline Z80System

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #10 on: 2014.September.16. 11:36:48 »
Is there any application using that GUI ?

Or it comes only with some GUI feature demo ? Or only the library, nothing visible at all ?
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Offline gflorez

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #11 on: 2014.September.16. 11:53:20 »
It's archeology....Good archeology!

And probably works without the Mouse interface...

Offline gflorez

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #12 on: 2014.September.16. 11:55:35 »
It is a GUI for the whole operative system.

Offline Z80System

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #13 on: 2014.September.16. 17:16:40 »
Quote
It is a GUI for the whole operative system.

Which "operative system" ? I do not understand ...
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Offline Z80System

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Re: Quick note to say hi!
« Reply #14 on: 2014.September.16. 17:18:11 »
If the software will be for real,

then I see mouse interface hardwares coming ... :)
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