Usefulness of a MPS801 printer (?)

[orion70]

Hello all. Now that I have my brand new MPS801, I don't really know what to do, apart from showing it to perplexed friends and relatives, print listings just for the fun of it, and learn its functions from the manual (oh, and of course keeping a secret diary with Speedscript and printing parts of it to re-read them at night ).

Anyone can suggest funny games or utilities requiring a printer? E.g., biorhythms, calendar applications, agendas, etc. I don't have any in my original software collection, so it would be nice if you could point me to some Internet source.
For the Italian friends in the forum: any Papersoft program using a printer?

TIA

[Mike]

It could be use to make a hardcopy of a MINIGRAFIK screen.

I actually wanted to write a colour hardcopy for an Okimate 20 some time ago. However, my query about documentation (I don't own one for myself) was met with rather low interest.

[Vic20-Ian]

Mike,

that would be cool to see what a Vic could output and compare to today's tech.

I will see if I can track down the manual.

Ian

[vicist]

Some useful info on the okimate 20 can be found here

http://www.myokidata.com/om20ibm.nsf/0c ... enDocument

[orion70]

Interesting! How could I do a printed copy of a MG screen with my 801? I'd really like to print a high quality picture of my baby and frame it .

[Mike]

Interesting! How could I do a printed copy of a MG screen with my 801? I'd really like to print a high quality picture of my baby and frame it.

In principle, you could even do it in colour if you had yellow, cyan, magenta ribbons available besides your black one; by doing four passes over one sheet of paper and separating the colours before. However I think it's more sensible to print out the picture directly from the PC. Regardless, I'd still have to code a B/W hardcopy for a MG screen going to the MPS 801. Its printer commands for graphics are not too complicated, and I've done a few such tools before, mainly on the C128. It's just the Oki 20 is a natural choice (and contemporary to the VIC-20 as well) when it comes to colour printouts, and where the picture really originated on the VIC-20.

Some useful info on the okimate 20 can be found here [...]

I've found a complete scan of the IBM Oki-20 manual already some time ago. Alas, I found the IBM interface and CBM interface of the printer seem to use different commands.

I will see if I can track down the manual.

That would be great! I had already prepared a version of the hardcopy in BASIC, but with IBM commands (and which would most probably not work with the CBM interface). With your help, I could get it right - hopefully there's also someone here who could test the program.

[Vic20-Ian]

How about the Star LC10?

What printer interface would you use / recommend Mike?

Is it Serial on Oki 10 / 20 or do you have a specific parallel one in mind?

[Mike]

How about the Star LC10?

That had been another contemporary and fairly popular colour printer at that time, yes.

Is it Serial on Oki 10 / 20 or do you have a specific parallel one in mind?

Okimate made a version of the Oki 20 for the IEC serial port, so I'd think that would be the one which would have been bought by Commodore users.

As I don't own any of these printers, the (colour) hardcopy program would mostly be a proof of concept thing. Just to show it can be done. I'd put some further hours into it to get it working with one or two configurations, provided someone here on Denial is able to test it and would also post the results here, as scan or photograph.

[Vic20-Ian]

There seem to be lots in America but not in the UK.

There is a Star LC10 colour at a reasonable price but the ribbons are more expensive.

I would need a parallel port for this.

Does it make any difference which interface I choose? I assume any parallel port could receive the correct stream of data but I could be wrong.

Card G mentions graphics support I think.

If there is one that you know would work well I will try and secure both as it would he nice to do this.

[Mike]

Does it make any difference which interface I choose? I assume any parallel port could receive the correct stream of data but I could be wrong.

A printer with parallel port would have to be connected to the user port of the VIC-20, 8 data lines, at least 1 handshaking line and GND. However, there's no support whatsoever in the KERNAL for parallel printers (OPEN, CLOSE, PRINT# won't work), I'd have to do the protocol by myself. Without actual hardware at hand, this is rather impossible to get right. And you'd have to fabricate a non-standard cable.

One plea: I really don't want anyone to go into expenses because of this rather obscure project. If there's a Denial member who already owns a Oki-20 or Star LC-10 gathering dust in the basement, which otherwise has been proven to work with the VIC-20, *and* there's the complete manual available (possibly from someone else), then I will gladly try my luck to get the colour hardcopy program for MG pictures working with that combination.

Sorry Alessandro for kidnapping this thread.

[Mike]

Here's a simple hardcopy program for MG pictures on MPS 801 (and compatibles): (download)

Code: Select all

10 INPUT"FILE";N$
11 INPUT"INVERT  N{3 LEFT}";YN$
12 DN=PEEK(186):@LOADN$,DN
13 POKE36879,27:FORT=0TO239:POKE37888+T,0:NEXT
14 IFYN$="Y"THENFORT=4352TO8191:POKET,255-PEEK(T):NEXT
15 OPEN4,4
16 PRINT#4,CHR$(8)
17 FORY=0TO191STEP7
18 P$=""
19 FORX=0TO159
20 P=128+@(X,Y)+2*@(X,Y+1)+4*@(X,Y+2):IFY=189THEN22
21 P=P+8*@(X,Y+3)+16*@(X,Y+4)+32*@(X,Y+5)+64*@(X,Y+6)
22 P$=P$+CHR$(P)
23 NEXT
24 PRINT#4,P$
25 NEXT
26 PRINT#4,CHR$(15)
27 CLOSE4
28 @RETURN

As could be expected, it requires MINIGRAFIK to be loaded and started first. Some explanations:

Line 10: a filename of a valid MG picture file (as, for example, saved by MINIPAINT) is entered. If you mistype the name, the @LOAD command in line 12 won't stop, and the hardcopy prints whatever else there is in memory instead.

Lines 13 and 14: force the loaded screen to B/W (eventually leading to funny results with multi-colour parts of the picture), and optionally invert the picture: you possibly won't want to print just a few white lines on black background.

Lines 15 and 16: open printer channel, set printer to graphics mode

Lines 20 to 22 collect a single graphics column (7 pixels) into a byte with the @() function of MINIGRAFIK. As the height of the graphics mode (192 pixels) is not divisible by 7 without remainder, line 21 is skipped for the last row.

Lines 26 to 28: set printer to text mode again, close printer channel, return VIC to text mode.

It's not especially fast, the aspect ratio most probably is wrong, but it should work.

Greetings,

Michael

[Vic20-Ian]

I have ordered a Star LC 10, need to track down an interface as I would like to see a Vic MG print in the flesh.

If anyone has a parallel printer interface they can recommend for me to get the LC10 going (e.g. Card G , Xetec etc.) Please post here.

Part of pushing the Retro boundaries

I received my Vic Modem today but was thwarted in trying it out as my home phones are cordless - you need to unplug the phone handset RJ9 cord to connect to the modem through the phone itself to the line. Need to get an old phone now.

Recovered a little against the thwarted BBS access with a Telnet to it. Not quite the same though.


Thank you.

[RobertBe]

If there's a Denial member who already owns a Oki-20 or Star LC-10 gathering dust in the basement, which otherwise has been proven to work with the VIC-20, *and* there's the complete manual available (possibly from someone else), then I will gladly try my luck to get the colour hardcopy program for MG pictures working with that combination.

I have an Okimate 20 -- the Commodore IEC version -- complete in box with manual and with the black and color ribbons. I'd have to dig it out, as I haven't used it in years. I tried it with the C64, and it printed Koala pictures very slowly with its color printer dump program. With a SuperCPU and the same color printer dump program, it printed faster! I've never tried it with a VIC-20.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[Mike]

I have an Okimate 20 -- the Commodore IEC version -- complete in box with manual and with the black and color ribbons. I'd have to dig it out, as I haven't used it in years.

We had a short PM exchange about that in 2011.

[orion70]

Here's a simple hardcopy program for MG pictures on MPS 801 (and compatibles):

Thank you very much Mike! As you probably guess, I'll have to print this here at work, and find the time at home to manually type it in and save to disk or tape, then run it with some disk containing a MG picture .

In the meanwhile, I tested your routine on the emulated VIC with the (in)famous 803 driver, and the result is not bad. Please compare the original picture, a b/w version used for the MG render, the screen output and the printed hardcopy (pictures rescaled to the correct ratio):



I'm sure such a result would have delighted the average user in the early 1980s! Can't wait to try the real thing.