THE
Bally/Astrocade
FAQ
Version 1.8
Created by Lance F. Squire 6/3/95 Updated 6/22/96
Much Info taken from Arcadian news letters 11/5/82 to 10/31/84.
* The existence of NEW or updated information will be denoted with a
vertical line "|" in the left border. Spelling & grammatical corrections will
NOT be marked. ;-)
In order to keep this information as accurate & complete as possible
send any Corrections, Additions, or anything of interest, to me & I'll mention
you right here on the top! (No, Below this paragraph naturally.)
Thanks to:
G. Chance For giving this FAQ a home! And providing a wonderful
service to all the curious among us!
Mike Curran Former Esoterica play tester ;-) for more info on the Soccer
cart.
Jay Fenton For linking to us from his Personal Biography page!
Glenn Saunders For asking some questions.
Brett Bilbrey For a wealth of NEW knowledge. (Well, new to me anyway.)
Michael Garber For the arcade name of Space Fortress.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
---------
1) What is a Bally/Astrocade
2) System Specifications
3) Hardware & add-ons List
4) Computer expansion
5) Cassettridge/tape List
6) Games written by users, slow and clunky?
7) Publications of note
8) People of Note
9) Connecting to a monitor
10) Joystick rewiring (Bally/Atari)
11) Bally/Astro Basic
Why only 1800 Bytes?
Command list
Keypad overlay
12) Sources of Bally/Astrocade Stuff
13) Closing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) What is a Bally/Astrocade
-------------------------
A short history
In 1978, Bally/Midway introduced a home video game system called the "Bally
Professional Arcade." Due to "stiff competition," they withdrew the system some
time later. (Date anyone?) A group of users who had enjoyed the system's games
& learned its potential through the Basic Programming Cartridge got together &
bought the system from Bally. They re-introduced it in about 1981(?) as the
"Bally Computer System". When you purchased this system they gave you a Basic
Programming Cart FREE.
The New company's name was Astrovision. In about 1982 it changed its name to
Astrocade & now labeled its system as the Astrocade. The system continued
till about 1985(?)
2) System Specifications
---------------------
Res.: True 160x102 Basic 160x88
Colours: 8* 2
Graphic type: Bitmap, 2 plane bit-packed
Palette: 32 Colours 8 intensities 256 total
CPU: Z80
Speed: 3.579Mhz
ROM: 8K
Ram: 4K
Cart ROM: 8K
Expansion: 64k total
Sound: 3 voice +Noise & Vibrato
Ports: 4 controller 1 expansion 1 light pen
* The bitmap structure of the Bally actually only allows for 4 colour
settings. However, through the use of 2 colour palettes and a left/right
boundary control byte, you could have the left section of screen (lets call
this the play field) use 1 set of colours while the right side (Info field)
used an entirely different set of colours
All versions of the system were physically the same except for the name plate.
The Astrocade version had small changes in the internal BIOS to display the
longer name on the built in menu screen.
Usually seen in Black with wood grain sides & gold trim there apparently was
a beige/white version advertised. The case measured 15" wide, 10 3/4" deep
and 4 3/4" high. Under a smoke coloured lid that covered the back half of
the unit, when viewed from above, was the built in cart & overlay storage
bin with slots for 15 carts & 14 overlays. The front half sported a 24 key
calculator pad, (where overlays went when used) a reset button and a spring
loaded cartridge port, labeled "Insert Cassette", with Eject button.
Diagram: Top view
Power-+
R/F cable+ | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
__|_|_-__---__---___================___---__---__==_____
|\|____________________________________________________|/|
||| |||
||| |||
||| 8 |||
||| |||
|||____________________________________________________|||
||\ ======9====== / ||
|| |-------------------------------------------------| ||
|| | ___________________________ | ||
|| | |.... | _________________ | | ||
|| | |.... | | | | | ||
|| | |.... | | | | | ||
|| | |.... | |_______________| | | ||
3/4 s->|| | |.... | __ _____ | | ||
||| |.... | R- Eject | | ||
||| --------------------------- | ||
|/------------------------------------------------------\|
--------------------------------------------------------
1. On/Off switch
2,3,5 & 6. Controller ports 1,2,3 & 4 respectively
4. Expansion port break out panel
7. Light pen port break out panel
8. Smoked storage bay cover
9. Name plate
s. channel select switch
R. Reset button
Unlike MOST other video game systems, the Bally's cartridges do not protrude
from the port. Instead they lay flat. The cartridges were designed like
audio cassettes. Being the same width, height, and thickness as a cassettes
opening. Where the write protect tabs for an audio cassette would be are
two openings for the Eject button to hold on to. Where the tape in an
audio cassette is exposed, there is an opening where the pins in the Bally's
"Cassette" port press against the single sided board in the Cartridge.
For this reason I personally like to call them "Cassettridges". To load
a cart into the unit, you slide the open end in over a spring loaded guide
then press down until the Eject spikes latch into the holes. You then press
Reset to see the new selections on the menu.
Also Unlike MOST systems you were instructed to load carts WITH the power
ON! (In the 14 Years I have owned my system this has never produced a
problem)
All Bally/Astrocades came with an on screen menu system that displayed the
4 built in programs (2 games 1 calculator 1 doodle) + any games on the
inserted Cassette.
The Bally's Controllers were also unique. They consisted of a large pistol
grip, appropriately contoured and knurled, a TRIGGER (NOT a button),a badge
on both sides with the BALLY label, (See BALLY fitness ;-) SAME BALLY).
Plus a brown knob on top that functioned as both a paddle & an extremely
short throw joystick. On the top of the knob is a gold plate with
controller number 1-4. On the Astrocade the Bally logo was removed but the
badge spots are still there.
To date I have never found a controller or joystick more responsive than
the Bally's. I actually use a modified Bally controller on my ST's, Amiga
and VCS.
The Bally controller does have 1 major weak spot that I have found. The wire
to the trigger usually falls off as it's extremely difficult to get the
trigger spring contacts hot enough to bond with the solder. After the 5th
resolder I actually placed the springs on an electric burner till the solder
melted, shut down the burner and placed the wire into the pool of solder.
I have NEVER had to fix my controller again!
3) Hardware & add ons
------------------
Hardware Known to exist
Name Comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extra Controllers Usually labeled 3 & 4
Audio Cassette interface for use with Original Bally Basic
Blue Ram 16K or 32K Ram expansion with ZIF connector
for adding keyboard or other peripherals.
Usually accompanied by a Blue Ram Extended
Basic. allowing access to extra ram.
|R&L 64K Ram Board Expansion board sold with NO ram on it but
| all the necessary hardware support. Use of Blue
| Ram Extended Basic or Hot Rod Bally Basic
| Recommended. See R&L Below.
Viper 1 16K computer add under with keyboard.
Optional 4 RS-232 ports.
Viper 5 16K or 32K Computer add under. As above.
Astrocade Arcade style Styled Like a real Arcade machine This
Game system display cabinet is beautiful! Bottom section
display Cabinet! Features glass door & racks to hold the
Many cartridge boxes the store would need.
Light Pen Comes with Creative Crayon cart.
Brett owns one! (but not the cart...)
===========================================================================
Hardware Hoped to exist (Can anyone confirm release)
Name Comments
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Viper Z-Grass System Complete computer add under. Features:
64K Ram, 32K ROM, keyboard, 2 RS-232s
320x204 colour graphics,
3 channel Stereo sound,
4 channel DD 5.25 drive controller
8231 Math Processor
Z-Grass programming language, C/PM compatable.
===========================================================================
4)Computer Expansion?
-------------------
Alternative Engineering Corp. contracted to create the Z-Grass
ad-under, decided it was in everyone's best interest to release the unit
them selves. In August 198?(5) they sent an order form to anyone who had
ever shown interest in such a device on the Arcadian mailing list. The units
were then to be made on an on order basis. Unfortunately I being a kid at
the time had no funds to send my self, so I ordered the Manual, offered for
people to determine if they actually wanted the system. It took over a year
(I think) to receive my manual. If any units were produced they were surely
in extremely limited quantities. Probably only those who ordered the unit it
self know for sure.
(If ANYONE has or has seen one of these I want to KNOW!)
4b) R&L Memory Expansion
-------------------------
The brief history of our 64K RAM board product began in 1979 while I
was employed by Midway Mfg. The company, a division of Bally, offered its
employees a discount on the purchase price of the Home Video game system, I
couldn't resist. After fiddling with the Bally Basic (Rusty is still a
professional Basic developer) for a while we decided this system would
probably draw a significant hobbyist following. We felt the need to develop
a solution to the 1800 byte RAM limitation. First we lobbied the memory
manufactures to produce a device that would share the pin configuration of the
27xx series EPROMs (now the JEDEC standard). In early 1981 we received some
samples of the 2016 2Kx8 RAM, and immediately began layout of a board that
could be placed under the Bally unit and expand the memory space to 64K.
With these new RAMs one could develop a program in the RAM then clone it to
EPROM, either device could be plugged into the same board. In 1982 we
learned about the fickle nature of the hobbyist market, at our local Bally
Users Group, user were more interesting in copying the latest games than in
purchasing a development aid. When we learned of the Blue RAM we slashed
our price and advertised in the Arcadian newsletter. Sales didn't warrant
further investment in this project. We still have boards and a limited
supply of the 2Kx8 RAMs. (DaleS60440@aol.com)
5) Cassettridge/Tape List
----------------------
Name Comments
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Built in
--------
Gunfight Colour version of Boot Hill (Perfect!)
Checkmate Game that TRON Light Cycles is based upon.
0 players = demo
Calculator 5 function, 10 memory, "Printing Calculator"
Stores a video papertape of 92 entries
Scribbling Doodle program. 0 players gives kaleidoscope
Action/Skill Series
-------------------
2001 280 ZZZAP/Dodgem Like Night Driver & any vertical racer
2002 Seawolf/Missile 2 variations of target shooting
2003 Panzer Attack/Red Barron
2 player Tank battle & 2 Player Dogfighting
Good!
2004 Brickyard/Clowns Breakout/Circus (Very well done)
2005 Star Battle a simple 'star wars' like game that two
people played in a 'trench' like setting. You
could move up or down the trench while moving
around to try and get the best attack angle
on your opponent. Good sounds, but as many of
the games of that time, very simple. (Not
that simple is bad, it was fun to play a
simple game that you did not have to memorize
50 functions to play - like Mortal Kombat.)
(Brett)
2009 Astro Battle Space Invaders!!! Only they will LAND!
2010 Dogpatch 2 player skeet(can) shooting
2011 Galactic Invasion Actually Says "Galaxian"!!! when on menu
Very good conversion.
2012 Space Fortress Better than the original! Extremely FAST!
| Arcade name: Space ZAP! (Michael Garber)
2014 Grand Prix/Demolition Derby Racing & Drive around and crash into
other cars for points!
(Brett)
2015 Pirates Chase A grid of 'pieces o' eight' (something like
10x15) where one or more players tried to
gobble them up with a bad guy that would
chase you around. Sort of a Pac Man without
the walls. (Brett)
2017 The Incredible Wizard Wizard of WOR
2018 Solar Conqueror Like Asteroids
2019 Cosmic Raiders Like Defender
2020 Missile Attack "never made production" They may have put it
on the list anticipating working out a deal
to buy ICBM Attack from me. (Brett)
Sports Series
-------------
3001 Tornado Baseball, Tennis, 2 player only
Hockey and Handball Like the Old PONG games with little men
Instead of paddles. Baseball is decent.
3002 Football 2 or 4 player
3003 Demolition Derby/Grand Prix Moved to 2014
3004 Drag Race/Desert Fox Released??? [I saw a proto, but I never saw
it at a point that would be worth selling.
(Brett)]
3005 Bally Pinball Label change with release of the Astrocade.
Astrocade Pinball 2 versions on 1 cart. Very good play!
3006 Bowling Brett has one. "Not impressive"
|3007 Soccer As to the soccer cart. It never made production.
| I was talking to my dad about it and it never made
| it because of some lawsuit or something where the
| guy who made it was battling Astrocade over who
| would have the right to the royalties I think. We
| did have one, but unfortunately when my mom did
| some cleaning it was tossed with all the rest of
| the carts. That was like a keeper too, because
| there were only 2 or 3 ever made I think.
| <Mike Curran>
Educational Series
------------------
4001 Bingo Math/Speed Math
4002 Letter Match/Spell 'N Score
Crosswords
4003 Music Maker
4004 Biorhythm
4005 Creative Crayon "never made production"? colouring book?
4005P Creative Crayon W/ Light Pen " "
Strategy Series
---------------
5001 Amazing Maze/
Tic-Tac-Toe Can you do the maze before the CPU?
5002 Blackjack/Poker/
Acey-Ducey Good card games
|5004 Conan the Barbarian The game is very cheesy. You have a guy with
| a sword that you can move via the joystick and
| the sword move when you twist the knob.<Zagnut>
| (Unfortunatly some of the information was lost
| as my mail reader can't save lines more than
| 2 screens long. <Lance>)
5005 Artillery Dual Can you shoot over that hill and hit your
buddy before he gets you???
Functional Series
-----------------
6002 Bally Basic Basic programming on your Bally Professional
Arcade. Needed Audio interface to save to
Tape.
6004 Bally Basic Originally released under the BALLY label.
Astrocade Basic Either version has the audio cassette
interface built into the cart its self.
???? Dealer Demo I have the dealer demo, it does some
interesting things. Like playing checkmate at
10 times speed. It also has a Bach fugue
programmed in that plays in three part sound.
(An interesting note is that although the
demo cartridge plays three part sound, it was
not till I wrote the three part sound player
that anyone made three part music, either for
a cartridge or for basic games (like George
Moses).) (Brett)
Independent Carts
-----------------
Muncher (Ltd. edition) Originally Bally's version of Pacman. Not
(Esoterica) released by Bally due to Atari/Odyssey^2
Law suite. Near perfect translction! The sound
is dead ON, The graphics are mared ONLY by the
low resolution of the Bally screen.
Treasure Cove (Spectre Systems) Collect the treasure from the bottom of the
(Distributed by Esoterica) Sea, watch out for poisonous fish! Featured
256 colors concurrent on screen with three
part music. To date, the only game that ever
did this. (Brett)
Blast Droids (Esoterica) Like Asteroids
Machine Language Manager Write programs in Z80 Machine language
(Bit Fiddlers)
Ms. Candy Man (L&M) Ms. Pac Man type concept, but different.
Sneaky Snake (New Image) Centipede clone
Sea Devil (L&M) Protect your food stores from under sea
creatures & invading divers!
MAZEMAN (Dave Carson) Pac-Man type game with 12 different Mazes
No Sound. All Game play?
ICBM Attack (Spectre Systems) A missile command rip off. but with a twist.
Instead of the missiles coming in from the
sky, a plane would fly by and drop the
missiles. You could hit the plane or the
missiles, and their were three bases to fire
from and 6 cities to protect. Sold with a
home manufactured Keypad that featured a TRUE
XY positional joystick, 'pinball' like
flipper buttons on the side, and a keypad for
entering data. Sadly, I do not have one left
(we sold them ALL). (Brett)
Tape Software Load these into Astrobasic to play.
------------- -----------------------------------
Chicken! (Bit Fiddlers) Frogger variant
L&M Soft
--------
1. Claim Jumper/
River City Gambler
2. Cosmic Saucer Battle/
The Black Lagoon
3. Bombardier/Meteoroid
4. Target/Mind Bender
5. Search & Destroy
6. Star Base 2000/
Space Quest 2001
7. Phantom Star Fighters/
Space Checkers
8. Crazy Ball/
Ayatollah dart board An update would be the Husein Dart board ;-)
9. The Mummy's Treasure/
Galactic War 2002
10. Coyote-Roadrunner Desert race/
Atom Smasher Does Warner Bros. Know about this?
11. Sink the U-Boat/
Rescue Air Drop
12. Mission: Impossible/
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
13. The Fox & The Hare/
Space Sleuth
14. Alien Invasion I & II
15. Secret of Pellucitar Find your way through the maze.
16. Exitor's Revenge Space invaders with a few twists
17. Nautilus Sequel to Exitor's
18. Candy Man Pac Man but different.
Wave Makers
-----------
Max (Robot from Space)/
Horse Race
Clue/Flying Ace Fly your TV at on coming biplanes.
Maze Race/Obstacle Course/
Space Chase
Slot Machine/Perversion Perversion?!?!?
Music Composer/Yahtzee Does Parker Bros. Know about this? :-)
Mouse in the Hat/Speed Math/
Note Match
Guitar Course/Tune/
Progressions
Backgammon/
Obstacle Course Tournament
Pack-Rat I & II
Lookout for the Bull
Whiz Quiz Trivia game
Castle of Horror/
Four Famous Freebies
Monkey Jump/Gong the Kong Donkey Kong derivatives
Collision Course Same as Arcade game of same name!
Character Analysis
Dungeons of Dracula Wrap your chain around the monsters &
complete the mazes.
L.T. (Little Terrestrial) Based on the movie E.T.
"1000 times better than Atari E.T."
Gate Escape Lady bug clone
Tiny Arcade
-----------
T100 Space Gauntlet/
Quadron
T101 Omega Valley/ Prevent 18 ships from landing in 3 valleys
Astro terror or defend your space station from missiles
T102 Viperian/Cruncher
T103 Vindicator/ Looks to be a defender clone
Art Show & Fire Works
T104 Gamma Wars Space invaders?
T105 Beep! Maze game.(or is it Pengo-ish?)
HARD soft.
----------
Gamepak G1
Caterpillar Centipede clone
Tic Tac Tollah Tic Tac Toe that Cheats
The paper Chase Based on those "Don't squeeze the sharmin"
commercials
Micro Pac Pac-Man clone
Galactic Hitchhiker "Three dimensional graphics"
GM (Gorge Moses Co.)
--------------------
Make your Arcade Sing series:
Tape 1: Bach's 15 two part inventions
Tape 2: 27 Christmas Carols
Tape 3: Scott Joplin Ragtime Classics
Tape 4: Screen Ram 3 Voice Music Assembler
Tape 5: Sinfonia to Cantata 29 By Bach
Beatles Greatest Hits
and Flight Simulator
Other tapes:
Tape 6: Home Budget Keeper
Life/Nuke the !$&! ...should read "Life/Nuke the Bastard."
Life/Soundvision Nuke the bastard was a simple game that Jay
Life/Macromind Director Fenton wrote. It later became a Soundvision,
then Macromind Director demo. (Brett)
Esoterica
---------
Treasure Island/ Can you figure out the Map before your Pal?
Fox & hound
Wildcatter/ Can you successfully run an oil company?
Bomb Squad Defuse the Bomb!
The Great American Jigsaw/ Put the U.S. of A. together.
Big City Slick US city quiz
Garbersville/ Missile command?
Ten Pins Bowling.
Starship Command/ Star Trek theme.
Mini Golf
Road Toad Frogger
Super Slope Like Atari's Alpine Ski coin op
Hangman/Home Budget Keeper
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Games written by users slow and clunky?
-----------------------------------------
Although It's true that games written entirely in Bally/Astro basic
were prone to be slow and somewhat Clunky, Most of the companies selling
programs quickly began to use Machine Language routines from the Built-in
games to power their games. This type of hybrid programming produced good
results with the limited space available in the unit. Others took to using
complete Machine language coding for their games. By hiding the ML code
at the bottom of the screen, by reducing the vertical resolution it was
possible to have 4-8 colour Cart Quality games on tape.
7) Publications Of Note:
---------------------
Service Manual PA-1 Parts lists, Schematic Diagrams, ETC.
Peek N Poke Manual Useful information for the Basic Programmer.
On-Board ROM Subroutines Helpful for improving your ML programs.
Handbook of Hardware Source of most of the programming support
& Software AKA for most of the arcade quality games made
The Nutting Manual for the Bally/Astrocade systems
Arcadian Newsletters From which a wealth of information can be
obtained
Astrocade Underground A news letter by ABC Hobby Craft. Contents
unknown.
8) People Of Note:
---------------
These people had a lot of influence in what you saw/heard or read
about the Bally/Astrocade systems
Robert Fabris For the Arcadian news letters. Without which this FAQ would
be a few pages shorter!
Bob Ogdon Programmed "Bally Pin", "Brickyard/Clowns" and probably
Others.
Scot Norris Credited with most of the music & sound effects on the
various carts.
Jay Fenton Creator of the Bally BASIC cart! Others? NOW has a Home
Page of his own on the Net.
http://www.communities.com/people/jfenton.html
Gorge Moses For continuously poking around with the Bally's sound chip
and writing various music makers & other programs for the
Basic enthusiasts.
Dave Nutting For having something to do with the creation of this system
and writing the Handbook of Hardware & Software. Referred to
by some as The Nutting Manual.
Brett Bilbrey For writing the three voice music routine, the ONLY 256
colour game, and some new info here
9) Connecting to a monitor
-----------------------
Yes, you can connect your Bally/Astrocade to a composite monitor.
Unfortunately the method described in the pages of the Arcadian (V5 #8 P129)
only gives a monochrome output.
First you will have to open your machine. Not to worry you can't
void any warranties as there isn't one anymore! ;-) However I cannot take
responsibility for what YOU do under the hood. A little soldering will be
required, but NOT near major parts.
Now that you have the cover off. Only the TOP please. you will notice
on the left (the front of the machine Facing you) an RF box.
Lift the left edge & pull out to the left. There are now a row of 8
large square metal pins coming off the motherboard. For the sake of this
job we will number them from front to back 1 to 8. solder a 300 ohm resister
between pin 1 and the shield. Now get 2 single ended RCA cables. Solder
their shield wires to the shielding. Solder the center of the Video cable to
pin 1. Solder the Audio cable to pin 3. Be sure to attach them close enough
to the board to allow the RF box to be replaced.
Replace the RF box & close up your machine. You're ready to go!
OPTIONAL:
---------
If you don't really want new cables coming out of strange places in
your machine You might try what I did. I mounted a 5 pin din connector to
the back left corner of the case bottom. Fit's nicely if installed with the
mounting holes 45 from horizontal. Wire to this and use a Commodore 64
monitor cable to connect.
This allows you to remove the cable for storage, & is virtually
invisible when not in use.
Din Pinout: O---NC--O
Video-----O O----Audio
O-Ground
OPTION 2:
---------
Thanks to the people at Active Surplus, and Brett Bilbrey I now have
a complete pinout list for the RF box inside the Bally/Astrocade systems!
Pins will be numbered as above.
Pin Tech Comment
8 GND Ground
7 B-Y Blue-Luma
6 R-Y Red-Luma
5 Chrom Bias Chroma no sync??? Guessing.
4 Chrom 3.57Mhz Chroma with Sync?? "
3 Sound Sound
2 +12V Power for RF
1 Video Luma + sync.
Any techno whizzes that can fill in the ????s or gets a full colour
RGB video working please let me know. I will try myself some time Next year.
Note from Brett: The 'video' is really just the luma ('Y') portion of the
video signal, the chroma is made up of the Red minus the luma, and the Blue
minus the luma. With this, you have enough information to reconstruct RGB
information. The reason Y, R-Y, B-Y signals are used is they conserve
bandwidth. The chroma signals can be half the bandwidth of the luma and
still maintain the full signal content. High-end broadcast digital tape
machines use this format and it is called 4:2:2 sampling. As far as being
able to provide you with a circuit, I don't have the time to play
(sorry), but it is not hard.
10) Joystick Rewiring
------------------
As I indicated earlier I use a rewired Bally controller on other
systems. There are 2 ways to do this. 1) remove the existing cable and use
a joystick extension cable to rewire.(Ok if you don't need to use it with
the Bally any more) or 2) make a translation plug or "Gender Bender" of
sorts.
Those wishing to keep the knob function should note that the Bally
uses a different restive value for the pot than Atari/Commodore. To this
end I actually removed the resistive board from the Bally pot & replaced
with 1 from an Atari Paddle. (Tricky but doable)
It's also possible to wire an Atari/Commodore joystick to replace
a Bally/Astrocade one. However I'm not sure how to include the Knob
function. In anycase the important wiring chart is Below.
Bally/Astrocade Atari
Controller port Joystick port
1. Trigger 1. Up
2. Right 2. Down
3. Left 3. Left
4. Down 4. Right
5. Not Connected 5. Paddle B
6. 50K Pot (Knob) 6. Fire button
7. Ground 7. +5v
8. +5v 8. Ground
9. Up 9. Paddle A
DB9
1 2 3 4 5 (Looking at Plug end)
6 7 8 9
11) Bally/Astro Basic
-----------------
As you may have noticed above there are 2 versions of the Basic
Cartridge, and possibly 3 Labels. So what's the difference & why should I
care?
The original Bally Basic is a robust & serviceable programming language. The
only complaints could be the extra purchase of an audio cassette interface.
The package came with a ring bound manual & Tutorial. The "Basic Expansion
Kit" included a tape library pak with some programming demos, and the audio
cassette interface. The interface saved data at 300 baud.
The Second release of Bally Basic, later called Astrocade Basic, Had the tape
interface built in! The speed of the interface was also increased to 2000
baud. This made the Old Bally Demo tapes virtually useless, but allowed
more data to be stored on a tape & shorter load times! There is a translation
program available for those owning BOTH the Interface and the NEW basic.
For the sake of ease of identification the news letters & Tape manufactures
referred to any Basic Cart with the built-in Audio cassette interface as
AstroBasic or AB for short.
Other new features to Astro Basic were the introduction of Music Processor
Commands, allowing direct control of the sound chip without using the memory
consuming port access array.
Why only 1800 Bytes?
-------------------
Q: Why with 4K of Ram does the Bally/Astrocade only get about 1800
Bytes of program space, when a PET or TRS-80 had a lot more?
A: The Graphics! Both the PET and TRS-80 use character based graphics
and were only B&W. The Bally/Astrocade uses Bitmaped graphics in 4 colours.
Lets look at the PET first. 40 columns by 25? rows equals 1000 Bytes
used for screen display. This leaves 3096 minus operating expense (say 16
Bytes or more). With the TRS-80, 64x25?=1600 Bytes leaving 2496 minus
operating expense.(BTW within 2 months My TRS-80 got a RAM expansion!)
Now the Bally. 160x102x4, 160 pixels at 4 colours a pixel(2 Bits) =
40 Bytes, (But Astro Basic only gets 2 colours! Ya, Ya, I'll get back to
that.) 40x102=4080 Bytes leaving *16 BYTES!* That IS the operating Expense!
----------------------->*THERE IS NO FREE MEMORY!!!*<------------------------
AND NOW...
The Wizardry of Jay Fenton......
or How to get 1800 Bytes out of 0!
This must have been the question when Mr. Fenton took to programming
the original Bally Basic Cart. The answer IS use every other bit for code.
This would leave a terrible mess on the screen, and it does. So you hide it!
Set & keep the colour palette so Code+Graf=Grafcolour NoCode+Graf=Grafcolour
Code+NoGraf=Background and NoCode+NoGraf=Background. Or simply Colour1&2 are
always the same, as are Colour 3&4. If you have a Bally/Astrocade you can
set &(9)=80 and half the screen will show the program underneath.
As this is not the place for a tutorial of Bally/Astro Basic, I shall simply
include the entire list of Astro Basic commands. For those who have the cart
and no manual to try out, and those familiar with other Basics to marvel at!
Astro Basic Commands:
---------------------
Basic Statements & Commands
BOX X,Y,A,B,1 Draw a box at position X,Y of Width A and
Height B, Mode 1
Modes available: 1 Foreground Colour
2 Background Colour
3 Reverse box (xor)
4 Invisible (Useful?)
LINE X,Y,1 Line to X,Y, mode 1 (See above) from last
Pixel location. Use BOX, XY or mode 4
to set start location.
CLEAR Clears screen. Not memory.
FOR/TO/STEP/NEXT Same as any For/Next loop function
IF NO THEN E.G.: IF A=5GOTO20 is not only valid
but actually preferred to save ram!!!
INPUT A Wait for Keypad Input
INPUT "HOW MANY?"A Prints message & waits for input
LIST AS all Basics
LIST ,5 List the FIRST 5 basic lines
LIST 100 List starting at line 100
LIST 100,5 Start at line 100 list next 5 lines
PRINT "A" Print Character A
PRINT A Print Value of A
PRINT #A,B Print A spaces then B value
GOTO A Goto line number A
GOSUB 100 Gosub line 100
RETURN Return to GOSUB
RND(A) Generate number between 1 and A
RUN Execute program
General Functions
ABS(A) Absolute Value of A
CALL(A) Goto assembly routine at A
RM Remainder of last division
SM=A Scroll Mode A
Modes: 0 Normal
1 No Scroll
2 Clear screen, Cursor at bottom
3 Clear screen, Cursor at top
4 Auto Pause. press key to continue
STOP Stop program here
SZ SiZe of available programming space
XY Location of last Box or LINE command
PX(X,Y) Is PiXel on or off?
Input Output Functions
JX(1) Joystick 1 horizontal position -0+
+
JY(1) Joystick 1 Vertical Position 0
-
TR(1) Trigger for Joy 1
KN(1) Knob (Paddle) position for Joy 1
A=KP Wait for key press, store ASCII in A
TV=A Display ASCII character A to TV
MU=A Play MUsical Note value A
MU="A" Play same note as character A
(All characters in Bally Basic Produce a
Tone when displayed unless NT=0)
FC Foreground Colour
BC Background Colour
NT Note Time, Duration of note play
CX Cursor X position
CY Cursor Y position
Tape Commands
:PRINT Save Program/Variables & Screen to tape
:PRINT @(0),100 Save contents of @ array 0-99
:INPUT Load program from tape
:INPUT @(0),100 Load data into @ array locations 0,99
:LIST Check stored program against memory.
Used to confirm saves.
:RUN Load & execute ML programs
Punctuation and Operators
+,-,Multiply and Divide symbols Standard math functions
; Separate multiple statements on same line
, Continue printing on same line.
E.g.: 10 PRINT "A",
20 PRINT "B"
Gives AB
. REM statement
# NOT equal to
B=%(A) PEEK A,B
%(A)=B POKE A,B
@(N) First array in Bally Basic
*(N) Second Array Astro Basic Only
&(N) Read/write port N
Down Arrow Stop ALL sounds
Music Processor Commands Astro Basic ONLY
MO Master Oscillator Freq.
NM Noise Mode
NV Noise Volume NM must be 1
VR Vibrato Range NM must be 0
VF Vibrato Frequency
TA TB TC Tone A,B or C
VA VB VC Volume A,B or C
Error Messages
WHAT? Syntax error
SORRY Out of Memory
HOW? Catch all Error Code
E.G.: GOTO 50 No line 50 HOW?
GOSUB A A=10 NO line 10 HOW?
NEXT Y NO FOR Y HOW?
Bally/Astro Basic Overlay
--------------------------
Most keys on the keypad have 5 functions. Except for the 4 bottom keys which
are your shift keys.
Default Values:
GO Pause Halt Divide
7 8 9 Multiply
4 5 6 -
1 2 3 +
Space 0 Erase =
green red blue WORDS(gold)
Green Shift:
Blank blank blank blank
A D G J
M P S V
Y <- up aro &
$ < ( #
GREEN red blue WORDS(gold)
Red Shift:
Blank / blank [
B E H K
N Q T W
Z ' . @
, " ; %
green RED blue Words(gold)
Blue Shift:
Blank \ blank ]
C F I L
O R U X
! -> dwn aro *
? > ) :
green red BLUE WORDS(gold)
WORDS shift (GOLD):
Go+10 blank RUN LIST
FOR TO STEP NEXT
GOSUB RETURN RND IF
CLEAR LINE BOX GOTO
blank INPUT blank PRINT
green red blue WORDS(GOLD)
I realize that this format may not be the best to work from. If you devise
a more usable & understandable format Please send it to me.
12) Sources for Bally/Astrocade Stuff
---------------------------------
Well, The usual yard sales & thrift shops. If you can't find
anything there. (Not much luck here.) You could try those listed below.
I neither endorse nor condemn the services of these parties. I merely
list them for those whom may wish to acquire systems, carts or other related
paraphernalia. (Usual legal crap ;-))
Jerry G Jerry G Visionaries
jerry@hevanet.com
Steven Tucker classics@nacs.net
These gentlemen carry a range of systems and carts for most of the
Classic systems. Drop them a line & they'll tell you what they have in stock!
Dale R&L Enterprises
DaleS60440@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/rlentrprs/private/RL.html
Still has 64K expansion boards, Memory chips & Hot Rod Bally Basic for sale.
13) Closing
All of the information in this FAQ is as accurate as I have info for.
If there are any errors omissions or other things of note that belong here
please let me know so I can expand & enhance this FAQ. No special formatting
is necessary, I'll sort it out & plug it in! ;-)
If anyone is interested, I have a number of Basic program listings here from
the Arcadian news letters. Although I'm uncertain of the Legalities involved
in reproducing this material(Mr. Robert Fabris Did smartly (c) every page!)
I would like to hear if anyone would be interested in reprints of the
listings or preprogrammed tapes.
Whether I actually DO this will depend mostly on the response & my available
time. It takes a long time to type a 59 line program into a 4x6 keypad!
Also If anyone Knows Mr. Fabris (or anyone else associated with the
Bally/Astrocade) I'd like to talk with them & possibly include some of there
information here or in an additional source.
Lance F. Squire
komb1@io.org Web www.io.org/~komb1
