From: an130595@anon.penet.fi Organization: Anonymous contact service Reply-To: an130595@anon.penet.fi Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 21:26:55 UTC Subject: Commodore Trivia Edition #9 Answers Again! Lines: 154 I don't know if this is going to work, but it seems my outbound news is down. Therefore, I am posting this again (it wenrt out on the 15th) through email. It should show up in the correct places. If it does show up in the newsgroup, please mail me, since I hate for this to get off schedule. Here it is again: Here are the answers to Commodore Trivia Edition #9 for August, 1994 Q $080) During the days of the Commodore 64 and the VIC-20, Commodore produced at least two Commodore magazines. What were their names? A $080) The magazines were originally called "Commodore Microcomputers" and "Power/Play: Commodore Home Computing". They never did seem to nail down the name of the latter as I see "Power/Play" and "Commodore: Power/Play" used as the original names as well. Anyway, Commodore Microcomputers started its life in 1979, whereas "Power/Play" started in 1981. Both magazines were published until around 1987, when they were merged to form "Commodore Magazine". Then, around 1990, the magazine was sold to IDG Communications and was merged into RUN. RUN was continued for a while, but was finally pulled out of circulation. Creative Micro Designs purchased the rights to the magazine, and now Commodore World is being produced by CMD. I am not sure how strong (if any) a link there is between RUN and CW, but some of the same authors write for the new publication. Just for added info, here are the ISSN numbers: Commodore Microcomputers (Commodore Magazine) 0744-8724 Power/Play:Commodore Home Computing 0739-8018 RUN (Commodore/RUN) 0741-4285 "The Transactor" is also a correct answer, and info on it is below. Q $081) Back in the PET heyday, another magazine was produced by Commodore Canada. This magazine was later sold and showed up as a hardware journal. Name the magazine. A $081) The infamous "Tarnsactor". One of the noted C64 hardware-hacking magazines, it was originally published by Commodore Canada, before being sold to an individual named Mr. Hilden. Its ISSN number is 0838-0163. As far as I can tell, this magazine, died many deaths, but ceased to exist in 1989-90. Its first issue is dated April 30, 1978. Q $082) The Commodore 128 has a VIC-II compatible chip inside it. Can this chips be switched for a VIC-II from a Commodore 64? A $082) No! The newer 128 compatible chip (VIC-IIe) has 8 extra pins to perform timing functions specific for the 128. In addition, some of the registers have extra functions. However, a suitable card to make it compatible can be made. Q $083) What does the video encoding standard PAL expand to? A $083) Phase Alternating Line is the answer I was looking for, which describes the video encoding used in Europe, but Programmable Array Logic is also correct, which describes the family of chips used as "glue" logic for the C64 I/O and processing chips. Q $084) How many buttons were present on the earliest of Commodore tape decks? A $084) 5: Play, Rewind, Fast-Forward, Record, and Stop/Eject. Later models separated the stop and eject functions into two buttons. Q $085) Earlier SID chips had a distinctive "clicking" sound that some demo coders used to an advantage. Commodore subsequently removed the click, and then later reintroduced it. When does the telltale click occur? A $085) When you change the volume of a voice. The voice need not be outputting anything. Q $086) What does CP/M stand for? A $086) Take your pick: Control Program/Monitor Control Program for Microprocessors Control Program for Microcomputers. The last one is considered by many to be most correct. Q $087) What is the highest line number allowed for a program line in Commodore BASIC V2? A $087) Normally, the user cannot enter a line number higher than 63999. If you want to be tricky, however, the numbers can be made to go up to 65535. Q $088) What symbol, clearly printed on the front of a key on the Commodore VIC, 64, and 128 keyboard, is not available when the lower case character set is switched in? A $088) The PI symbol. It is [SHFT-UPARROW] in uppercase mode, but becomes a checkerboard-like character when in lower-case mode. Unlike the graphics characters printed on the fronts of the keys, this one is positioned in the middle of the keycap, and should probably be accessible in both character sets. Q $089) How do you get the "checkmark" character ? A $089) In lowercase mode, type a shift-@ Q $08A) On the PET computers, what memory location holds the Kernal ROM version? A $08A) It is different from the 64/128. It is 50003. 0 here indicates old ROMs, while 1 indicates new ROMs. Q $08B) The Commodore computers have 2 interrupts, called IRQ and NMI. What does IRQ stand for? A $08B) Interrupt ReQuest. This interrupt is used for things that should usually be allowed to interrupt the processor. This interrupt can be masked off by the SEI instruction. Q $08C) What does NMI stand for? A $08C) Non-Maskable Interrupt. Unlike the IRQ, this interrupt cannot be masked by an instruction. However, some tricks can be used to mask it. Q $08D) The 6502 line of microprocessors has a number of flags that can be used to test for certain conditions. One of then is the N flag. What does it stand for? A $08D) 'N' stands for Negative. On instructions that change this flag, it is set to be equal to bit 7 of the result of the instruction. Q $08E) How about the D flag? A $08E) It stands for decimal mode. This mode causes certain instructions to treat a byte as 2 4 bit BCD-coded nybbles. Q $08F) The shorthand for the BASIC keyword PRINT is '?'. What is the shorthand equivalent for PRINT#? A $08F) pR is the way to abbreviate PRINT#. Note that ?# will fail. End of Commodore Trivia Edition #9! Jim Brain brain@mail.msen.com 2306 B Hartland Road Hartland, MI 48353 (810) 737-7300 x8528