TECH TIPS

CASSETTE SOUNDTRACK

Don't retire that faithful old cassette recorder into the closet after you upgrade to a disk drive. Use it to play a music soundtrack or voice narration controlled by your BASIC programs. The sound will come out of your TV or monitor speaker.

Insert a cassette recording into the drive and press the Play button. Whenever you want the soundtrack to start, cue it with a program line such as:

10 POKE 54018,60:REM TURN ON CASSETTE MOTOR

When you want to turn off the sound, use this line:

20 POKE 54018,52:REM TURN OFF MOTOR

SLOW-MOTION LISTING SCROLLER

Wouldn't it sometimes be useful to examine your BASIC program as the listing slowly scrolls by-- either forward or backward? That's what you'll get if you insert these eight simple lines of code at the beginning of whatever other BASIC program you are working on. Type in the listing below and LIST it to disk. (This program utilizes line numbers 0 to 7, so make sure to start your main program at a higher line number.) ENTER the eight-line from disk after your main program is in memory, and it will be installed at the beginning. Do not use SAVE and LOAD for this program, because that would erase your new program from memory.

Type RUN and you will be prompted for a starting and ending line number. After answering, you may scroll forward or backward one line at a time by pressing either the [SELECT] or [OPTION] keys. Antic found this program by Jerry Ilaria in the newsletter of the Jersey Computer Society.

0 POKE 710,2:? "START LINE #";" INPUT L:? "END LINE #";:INPUT E:? CHR$(125):?:?:?
1 ? "PRESS [SELECT] TO SCROLL FORWARD":? "PRESS [OPTION] TO SCROLL REVERSE";: ?:?:?
2 LIST L:IF L=0 THEN L=1:LIST L
3 IF L=E THEN END
4 P=PEEK(53279):IF P=7 THEN 3
5 IF P=3 THEN L=L-1:GOTO 2
6 IF P= 5 THEN L= L+1:GOTO 2
7 IF P<>3 OR P<>7 THEN 3