Category Archives: Blog

Tape of the week : URSoft Tool Kit V1.1

TapeOfTheWeek
I begin a new article type : Tape of the week.
Months after months i have found software on tapes and will offer you these oldies šŸ™‚

This software comes from Switzerland, a hundred kilometers from home.
The tool kit V1.1 is written by Urs RIBI from the URSoft company.
URS_RIBI_URSoft_ToolKit_V1.1

It’s a set of new basic keywords :
REPEATā€¦ UNTIL, WHILEā€¦ WEND, LOOP X MALā€¦ LOOPEND, INITLOOP, POP, DATE$, ZEIT$, CLOCK, SECONDS, JAHR, GET , SWAP, SORT, FRAC,HEX$, BINDEC, BINSTR$, INC, DEC, INVERT, PRON, PWROFF.

This kind of package is rare and each time it’s a real pleasure to discover new keywords.
This one may be inspired by some PASCAL language.

You can download the files here : Package and Manual
There is a special file named URSOFT.KEY in the package. It’s to use with Torsten’s software WAV2BIN and this adds these new basic keyword when converting a Wav file to Bas file. šŸ˜‰

In the manual you will read something about a TOOL KIT V2.
If someone own this kit and want to share it with usā€¦ please contact me šŸ˜‰

The Sharp CE-515P printers (Part I)

A suitĀ of articles about the Sharp CE-515P printers will begin soon.
Yes i write “printers” !
There are two versions, the Japanese and the European/USA ones.
Packages and power are different.

The Japanese :
Sharp_CE-515P_JP_002

The European/USA :
Sharp_CE-515P_001

Stay tuned, the last article will be very interesting for some of youā€¦

H.-G. SCHLIECKER : ROM-Unterprogramme I

If you want to learn what’s in the system ROM then you must know H.-G. Schliecker publications !
Do you remember the “PC-1500 INTERN” with the whole disassembled and commented ROM ?

Today i have something all the assembly language programmers are dreaming to :
SHARP PC-1500 ROM Unterprogramme I“. When learning machine language programming you discover that there are 128 system routines you can directly call by short instructions. For example, some ones can handle Basic tokens and their parameters, others can execute mathematical calculations on real numbersā€¦
But who knows all the 128 routines ?

This very rare paper describe all of them with calling parameters but it’s in German language šŸ˜‰
As it’s named “ROM-Unterprogramme I” i suppose that a number II exists somewhereā€¦
Maybe one of you can help me to find it ?

ROM_Unterprogramme
Download

 

PC-1500’s industrial use from Spitezenberger Spies

Maybe some of you could explain us what this system is doing ?

The German company SPITZENBERGER was using the Sharp PC-1500A in one of their systems.
It seems to be an advanced signal recorder but i don’t have more informations than the pdf.
This document is restored from old papers.
I have contacted the company but never got any answerā€¦

Spitzengerger_004
Download the pdf document

Frank C. Odds : “STATUS 1500”, the U.K. magazine

One year ago, when i contacted Frank C. Odds, i was looking for informations about the EASI-THOUGHT program. I asked him if he knew a U.K. magazine named STATUS 1500 and here is his answer :

When I received your email, I looked to see if I still had PC 1500 materials anywhere. I quickly found all the catalogues and other bits and pieces, and several copies of Output. But no copies of Status 1500. It was with Status 1500 that my PC 1500 love affair really got going. And Iā€™m pretty sure it was Ronald Cohen who edited that magazine: he wrote just one article in one of my copies of Output. And Output was edited from Yorkshire (Jon Dakeyne was succeeded by Andrew Faint).

I hope I havenā€™t discarded my copies of Status 1500. I had a complete set and I donā€™t usually throw away things that have meant a lot to me. I hope this magazine is not the exception to that rule. If I can find my copies Iā€™ll scan them for you.

But one month later came his terrific sentence :

My biggest frustration is that I can’t find my copies of Status 1500 anywhere. I begin to think I must have thrown them away at some stage, even though to do so would go against my normal retentive behaviour!!

Yes, it was terrific because Frank was my biggest chance to learn something about this magazine. But there was some words in his answer i didn’t readĀ that much : “…would go against my normal retentive behavior !!” And one year later he send me an email with this title “Guess what I’ve found!”.
This was like Archimede’s “EUREKA” ! I open the mail and the big good news is inside :

“I think this mail is going to give you a happy Saturday morning. I have found my collection of the Status 1500 magazines, from Vol. 1 no. 1, February 1983 to Vol. 3 no. 12, January 1986.”

We have to say a big “THANK YOU FRANK !!!”
One big part of the PC-1500’s U.K. adventure is now saved.
After hours of scans he offers us all the STATUS 1500 collection.

But i publish them only 6 by 6 šŸ˜‰ (Like Alles fĆ¼r Sharp Computer)
If you know a such magazine in your country please contact me.

STATUS_1500_VOL1_N01
Download
STATUS_1500_VOL1_N02
Download
STATUS_1500_VOL1_N03
Download
STATUS_1500_VOL1_N04
Download
STATUS_1500_VOL1_N05
Download
STATUS_1500_VOL1_N06
Download