Utilities, Applications, and Languages

TSC 10K BASIC – A lightly modified version of TSC's cassette BASIC for the HM-68, leaving the user about 20 KB for programs. It's my "daily driver" if I'm not using FLEX. This one has it all ... well, all but a user's manual. The manual for TSC FLEX BASIC 2 (the 58-block version found on many FLEX 2 disks (14K)) seems close, but I'd like to know how the cassette load and save routines work in the 10K version, because I have a few crazy ideas for a future project. You got a manual? If so, drop me a line, please. In the meantime, here are some notes about the BASIC.

ALTAIR 680 BASIC – A patched and modified version of MITS Altair 680 BASIC, originally ported to the 6800 from 8080 by none other than Ric Weiland, himself. This 6.4K, 6-digit-precision floating point language works with the Monster-68 and the SWTBUG version I use in my machine (modded for my weird ACIA addresses of $8018/19). If you're running this on the Monster-68, it is vitally important to set the memory limit to less than 32512; otherwise, BASIC will clobber the SWTBUG scratchpad RAM at $7F00 and the whole system will crash. In the picture above, I have the system set to exactly 16 KB of user RAM with the shown parameters. That ought to handle 97.4% of all your BASIC programming/game-playing needs. Please see Mike Douglas's site (he's archived Mike Holley's site there) for more information and the sources from which I built this version of BASIC. In fact, just go spend an hour at deramp.com -- you won't regret it. :^)

NAKAMOZU TINY BASIC – Arguably, the best tiny BASIC for 6800 machines. The archive contains everything you need to get this cool BASIC running on your 6802 (or similar) system - including the original source code with Haruo Yamashita's handwritten comments.

TINY PILOT -- UPDATED 14.JAN.25*** A subset of the PILOT-73 high-level language, Tiny was originally written by Nick Vrtis in 1979 for the 6502, but I've ported it to 6800. Only 1.75 KB in size, Tiny PILOT is an easy-to-learn, dialog-driven language that still has all the basic features of other high-level languages. It allows kids (and kids at heart) to get hands-on with basic computing concepts like variables, matching/comparison, looping, branching, subroutines, etc. Tiny PILOT can also play games, guide you on adventures, and aid in any academic pursuit. Included in this ZIP package: the Tiny PILOT source and object code (the latter for the HM-68), six games, five instructional/dialog scripts, five demo programs, and a User's Guide. To relocate or adapt Tiny PILOT for a different 6800/02/etc. system, only a handful of equates and locations have to be changed in the source code before reassembly. *** This update (vers B) fixes an error in the X: statement and adds the Aruba Baseball Dice game.

DENDAI TINY BASIC – Straight from the halls of Tokyo Denki University, circa 1978, comes Dendai Tiny BASIC for 6800, by Prof. Toshiaki Yasuda. It has the same memory footprint of Pittman's Tiny BASIC, but packs a bigger punch: FOR/NEXT/STEP looping, an array (OOoohhh!), STOP for debugging, output characters via CHR(x) function, ABS and TAB functions, MODulo division, scalable LIST command, AUTO line numbering, and an EXIT to monitor command. Wow - that's a lot in under 2.5 kb! Included in the archive: the interpreter (an S13 file patched for the HM-68), source code, a user guide, a "fast" <cough> text file loader program, programming examples (READ/DATA-type stuff in a REM, using ML for a GETKEY, etc), and original Japanese documentation. ** Now, if someone can point me to a hard-to-find copy of the "BLUE BACKS" book "Use My Computer: Peripheral Devices and Actual Usage," by Toshiaki Yasuda, I would be forever grateful.

DATUM TINY BASIC – A piece of history from the South Australia Institute of Technology, . this Tiny BASIC for the DATUM 6802 trainer SBC has most of what you need to write programs in BASIC. Documentation, source code, and S19 files included.

LIL' FILE -- A small, 1.5K, quite simple little filesystem for a CF card connected to the HM-68 expansion bus (plans in the Hardware section). You can load and save memory, print out a catalog, see the size and version of the CF card, and "format" the card's catalog tracks. That's it. To keep this über-simple, the program loads and saves ALL of user RAM from $0000 to $7FFF. It's based on Daniel Tufvesson's QUICKFILE 1.0 for his MC3, 6303-based computer. Sources are in the archive, so you can tailor this to your own needs. As is, it resides at $B000 (ROM version at $F200), but can be moved anywhere.

FLEX INFO – Info on adapting 6800 FLEX v3.0 to a system other than a SWTPc 6800 computer. Included are source files for my particular adaptation of FLEX to the Monster-68's Compact Flash IDE drive, but those files, along with the included official TSC FLEX Adaptation Guide, should provide enough clues and breadcrumbs to successfully integrate FLEX with any MC6800/02/03-based homemade computer. And, I've posted Simon Wynn's massive FLEX disk archive, with over 1 gigabyte's worth of files, which now seems offline at his site (as of 01Dec24). Simon spent many months collecting these DSK images from all over the Web. Many of the disks are for FLEX 9, but there are still several hundred FLEX 2 images that will work fine on FLEX 3 as presented here (i.e., disks with 35 or 40 sectors). Maybe download the full file list first (only 590K)?

SPL/M LANGUAGE AND COMPILER – This is a FLEX 2/3 disk image (35t/10s) with the SPL/M programming environment and machine language compiler, version 1.2, by Tom Crosley. SPL/M was introduced in the late '70s as a subset of Gary Kildall's PL/M, the very first high-level language written specifically for a microprocessor. Also available is a ZIPped package of the SPL/M manual and source code for the games Chuck-a-Luck and Snake-n-Stars.

SWTPC 4K BASIC – A floating point BASIC in just a hair over 4K?!? You betcha!. Written by the legendary Bob Uiterwyk, you could buy this 6800 BASIC in 1976 for the price of a good meal, not the price of a mortgage payment. Documentation is included.

A/BASIC COMPILER – This is what I think is version 1.4 of Microware's A/BASIC compiler. You write a program in (or modify it to) the A/BASIC dialect in a text file (you can write it directly into the TSC Editor that comes with FLEX, or feed it in via a text upload), then from within FLEX 2 or 3, generate a 6800 machine code/binary object file. Et viola! The program runs at least 50 times faster than interpreted BASIC, and no "run-time module" needed. The BASIC it uses is decent, but the code it generates is a bit "bloaty," as would be the case with any simple compiler. Still, if you want to write a complex backgammon program in BASIC, the A/BASIC language and compiler are good choices.

PILOT-IN-BASIC -- This high-level language has been around since the early 1970s, and was widely used in schools and universities through the 1980s for what was then called 'computer-aided instruction.' It's dialog-driven, and not a big number-cruncher. Many home computer versions existed, too, and this one was published in 1982 for the Commodore PET and VIC-20. I modified it a bit for the HM-68, and it lives inside of Altair 680 BASIC - an interpreter inside of another interpreter - so it's no speed demon. Still, PILOT is perfect for introducing computing concepts to children - they have fun making stories and small things, and hardly know they're 'learning.' Heck, I have fun making stories on it, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style. Full documentation, source, object code, and sample programs included.

TSC MICRO BASIC PLUS -- A hopped-up Tiny BASIC by Bob Uiterwyk, weighing in at 3.1 KB, that includes READ/DATA and FOR/NEXT, variable DIMensioning, and more (no PEEK or POKE, but they're not strictly necessary here; although, you can write them yourself in ML and call them from BASIC). Plus, it works with SWTBUG/MIKBUG for fast and efficient saves and loads of user programs. This version, modified to run on the Monster-68, sits at $0100 and allows for 20,906 bytes of user program space (ends at $5EFF; EXT machine language call is at $5F00). A PDF of the manual is available.

TSC DEBUG -- A wonderful tool for your 6800 assembly language programming needs. Includes a disassembler; a simple assembler; breakpoints and trace; memory dump, search, and transfer functions; etc. Works fine business on the Monster-68. User manual included in the archive.

TSC TEXT EDITING SYSTEM -- This is a line-oriented text editor that can handle documents up to 26 KB in size. Included in the ZIP file is the original ML program as an S Record (documentation and source code can be found at deramp.com), a patch so this will work with my HM-68, and some notes about how to get text files to and from TES and a "modern" computer via serial terminal emulator.

CHECKSUM CALCULATOR – This little program calculates the checksum of a record's-worth of memory, so you can make changes to code in memory and then get a new checksum for manual edits of your .S1x text file. Very handy when patching things to work on "non-standard" systems, if you know what I mean. Run at $7F80. After "Hello, world!", this was my second 6800 machine language program.

ANSI SKETCH – Want to draw with the computer, but don't have a video board? Fear not! ANSI-SKETCH comes to the rescue. Written in VTL-2 by yours truly, there are versions for color ANSI terminals as well as monochrome. Don't have a fancy ANSI terminal (although, I'm sure you do)? Instructions for using only ASCII characters are included. Come get your art on!

ANSI COLOR DEMOS – Two small 6800 assembly programs demonstrating use of ANSI "escape codes" in programs. One makes a randomly colored block "fall" up on an 80-column screen, and the other fills an 80x19 screen with said blocks. The former runs quite fast at the Monster's max 19.2K baud rate (which was the max on a real VT-100 terminal, too).

*** Tiny BASIC and VTL-2 versions that run on the HM-68 are both available in the Hardware section of this site.