INMC News

Members of the INMC may be interested by the following information about an add-on graphics unit, which I have just purchased and connected to my Nascom.

1. Manufacturer BITS AND P.C.’s of _ ______ ____, Crigglestone, Wakefield, ___ ___,
2. Cost £32.75 in kit form, (Built for £2.50 extra).
3. Quality The board is single sided, tinned, well made. Sockets are provided, and are by Texas. The DIL plug used doesn’t melt when soldered to, which is both sensible and rare.
4. Delivery Eleven days from posting the order.
5. Documentation Building instructions are clear and concise, but the two sample programs are a little less legible.
6. What It Does It extends the number of characters to the full 256 possible, using a 2708 EPROM to store 64 extra characters, each of which can also be displayed in reverse video,

The characters provided are a good selection, and can be used to fill complete blocks of screen – none of the annoying gaps between lines produced by the standard set. Another EPROM containing Chess piece characters is available for an extra £10.

To sum up, a very useful extra, although the price does seem slightly high.

Chris Blackmore
Ilminster

Little Known Facts That No-One Seems To Care About (8)

Did you know that tapes recorded for the Nascom Tiny Basic can be made so that they can be transferred to the CC Soft (level B) Tiny Basic. All you do is go into ‘X’ mode in T4, then ‘LIST’ (having turned the tape recorder on). To load the program, simply replay the tape. Thats the theory anyway, I haven’t actually tried it, so perhaps someone can tell me if it works. Oh, by the way, you might have to output a few nulls between each line, as glossed over in LITTLE KNOWN FACT (6).