I remember seeing this back then. I was 10 years old. I though that's how the games were programmed and then they would probably cut the cables from the cartridge after the game is done and it would become a real game cartridge.
THIS was my first computer, I learned Basic on that thing. Started my journey, then switched to C128, Amiga, PC. Today I have a CS Master's degree and make decent money. The "area" on the back is a "garage" for the Spectravideo cartridge when the CompuMate is not connected to the Atari 2600, just to be able to put it away nice and tidy.
My first computer in the 70s was literally a virtual computer! My dad got me a book on programming but we were too poor and I ran the programs in my mind 😅 now I'm CTO of a public company 😅
So someone actually used it with the intended purpose and didn‘t throw it away after 3hrs - Spectravideo was right all along! 😂 You‘ve made some former Spectravideo Marketing Manager very happy today (if still alive and reading your comment).
@@supercompooper Do you live, or have you ever been, in The Netherlands? I remember some student from the 80's with exactly you name, having internship at the company I worked for in those days.
I had a memory, what I thought was a dream, of my uncle and his friend playing with some kind of computer keyboard on a wooden Atari. It wasn't until maybe 2 decades later I discovered the CompuMate and it looked exactly like this "dream". My grandfather and uncle were well into the SpectraVideo systems in the 80s. My grandfather gave me his SV-328 in the 90s, but it stopped working and ended up being thrown out. I wish I kept it in hindsight as I would have been able to fix it with my current skills.
Robin! there's a Korean computer called the "Bit 60" (1983) that's nearly identical to this being fully compatible with the 2600 featuring BASIC and a not dissimilar keyboard layout. The computer has the 2k memory and basic ROM inside the 'computer' and the cartridge slot is free for Atari games. But it's so similar that I wouldn't be surprised if it's a related development - perhaps even a related BASIC ROM - perhaps more can be learned via the "Bit 60"
@@Mrshoujo - My apologies - but is it not such a big stretch to imagine the Basic ROM might be related? Same time period - nearly identical system (just inside out)
I hate to say it, but I'd be morbidly curious to see some of the "software" they thought to create for this. I'd love a follow-up going into more detail. ^_^
@@MetalApe That won't work on the Compumate, due to limitations of the BASIC: Only upper case letters are supported, INP statements can't print a text prompt, variable names have to be a single letter, only the variables A-P can be used for numeric values, PR statements can't have multiple fields, variable assignments need LET, there's no END statement. A version will actually work on the Compumate: 10 PR "ENTER THE FIRST NUMBER" 20 INP A 30 PR "ENTER THE SECOND NUMBER" 40 INP B 50 LET P=A+B 60 PR "THE SUM IS" 70 PR P
You have this rare gift... No matter if the stuff you show us is "good" or "bad", the video always feels too short. It always feels special when you start exploring and take us with you. Thank you very much! P.S.: The Outro-Music not only proofs your love for music... It also tells me that you have a great sense of humor ;) Stay well and healthy! Greetings from germany.
This is a great, awesome accessory for the 2600. Back in the day, it would blow my mind to use and make some music with Atari's square notes. Probably inspired many people to love computers. For those younger: on 1981, 1982 computers were something kind of magical for us, the end users.
I vividly remember seeing the official Atari "computer" add-on in the Atari magazine and wanting it SOOOOOO badly! I think it was only shown one time and then was cancelled. Ended up with a C64 a year or two later.
Same story here. In retrospect I'm glad my parents saved up for a 64 instead, but at the time I so desperately wanted to turn my Atari into a 'real' computer and dive into programming!
@@maxi-me I don't agree. It had a bitmapped display compared to the Atari's shift registers. Atari had the programmers and designed their very limited technology to do a few things very well, but the VCS wasn't more technologically advanced per se.
hey, I wrote my first game with that basic. it was a maze game where you had to navigate a maze to find the miinotaur. biggest problem was the limit to number of lines in your game
Was it a 2D maze, with your character moving inside the fixed maze? This BASIC is so limited I can't even figure out how to do that without redrawing (and scrolling) the screen every single move. But maybe there's some features I haven't discovered yet.
I love this. I just got a 2600 and several cartridges and am waiting for time to really get into it. As a kid, I had Atari's BASIC and the keyboard controllers, but didn't appreciate it at the time.
Hi Robin, thanks for the video! We discussed it half a year ago, when I pickup up one myself and you collected yours. Honestly I was also disappointed by it myself. Love to see what software you found for it.
These are awesome. The 2600 and it's market were far ahead of their time in so many ways, but this was always one of my favorites. I really just wish they were more available so I could have one myself! That you have one in such a clean box is truly a feat of time travel.
Mine doesnt even work anymore 😟 theres two double stacked rom chips in it, one of them has lost its memory, i have an eprom burner, but ive been too scared to take it apart and try to re flash them in case i cant put it back together properly
I would l to see a follow-up video where you compare the CompuMate’s BASIC with the BASIC Programming cartridge. I had that cartridge and was thrilled when my parents bought me a TI 99/4A which was quite the upgrade for not that much more.
Thanks for this! This thing really makes the MC-10 (which was also aimed at the Sinclair market) look like a rocket ship by comparison. And that was not much more expensive than this was, really less if you add in the cost of the VCS. Had all these system came out a year or two earlier they might have had a chance, but they were already outdated on launch.
I wonder if the developers were told they had a certain amount of time, but then market conditions made it clear that if they waited until they'd developed everything they intended, the product would be obsolete on launch so the developers had to rush to get *something* out. If the schedule had been established more in advance, I think adding music commands to BASIC would have been quicker and easier than trying to include a music editor, but having an editor available in addition to the BASIC commands could have been helpful for people trying to figure out what commands they should use to play sounds. Likewise, adding some graphics commands to BASIC, would have offered a major qualitative boost to functionality, but a picture editor could have been useful adjunct to the BASIC if there were a command to copy a portion of a hand-drawn screen to the displayed screen. Thinking about it, adding PEEK and POKE commands could also have made the graphics editor useful as a means of viewing and entering data tables for some powerful but memory-efficient programs.
Aw you drew a lovely heart ❤ Seriously though as a kid born in the 60s this would have been amazing. And a nice introduction to computing. It's also great to see the comments of people who were inspired to code by all these 'starter' devices. My first was a borrowed ZX80 and first owned was a ZX Spectrum. Hours of typing from magazine is one way to see whether you have the patience for the world of comupting. Key skill!
When I was a kid back in '83 I thought this would be the wave of the future! Turn a video game console into a home computer? Who'd bother with a dedicated computer then?! Ah, naivety!
I like how it stressed that it used "standard" cassette tapes, I don't think I knew anyone that used the expensive data cassettes. I used to buy prerecorded tapes to use, one day I found a Bay City Rollers cassette on clearance for, I think 49 cents, blank cassettes were 99 cents, (I believe it was at a Kmart) so I bought 4 of them and used them as my data cassettes.
@@WilliamHostman i always wanted an Adam, hopefully I will add one to my Coleco collection soon...then I guess I will have to find some of the data cassettes for it!
@@CanadianRetroThings I only had one data cassette, and one prerecorded one (planet of Zoom, which really isn't great - Emulation does it fine) I'd honestly rather have seen Planet of Zoom on cartridge.
In the early 80s I was looking for a computer but Apple and Radio Shack computers were too expensive. I wasn't aware of Commodore at the time, but a PET would have also been to dear for my budget. I tried the programming cartridges for the Magnivox and the VCS and found them less than interesting. When the Atari 400 came out I sold of the game consoles and splashed the cash for the real computer with the crappy keyboard. I bought an upgrade keyboard, 32K memory and was happy as a clam. I probably would have skipped this too.
Yes. I got an Atari 400 for my birthday in 1981. It was pricy - $400 (over $1000 today). That machine was far more capable than the VIC-20, and even though it was designed in 1979, was still a match for the C64 in 1983. Loved that machine!
@@Chordonblue I learned to program on that 400 with the Progammer's kit. It lead to a career in IT and laboratory automation. Those 2 extra joystick ports with the analog inputs and digital I/O was the lead-in to my introduction to real world interfacing. It was a old-time answer to the modern Raspberry Pie. I still think there was a reason they called the keyboard computer version of the Pie the 400.
This thing really can perform computations, so I guess some of the marketing fluff is accurate. My guess why the box for this is in such good shape is because the CompuMate got usage for 15 minutes and then was quickly put into the closet. #ControversialHotTake
That is super interesting. I'm impressed that the basic on this thing can do as much as it can to be honest, given the extreme limitations of the 2600. Love to see more of the horrendous software. Even if it has 16k of memory of basic ROM, I bet thats including the kernel and character set for the device as well as load/save functions to the audio adapters, and I bet its all bank switched on top of that given the 6507 micro can only address 8kb max, so some of those address lines must also be dedicated to switching banks on the cartridge which must have more than 16 kb total memory for all its other programs, so that probably leaves you with about 4kb of actual working ROM+RAM at any given time
Dude I want to have a powerful personal computer😋 I remember this one, a real oddity. With the VC20 around it wasn't even a question. I'm getting the impression that the manual was written by the same person as the "Black Book" of the C64 I think, you showed it some time ago😂
I got the Famicom Family Basic recently. So far I have also not found any way to make a backslash for the proper 10 print. But I'm still working on it.
In case anyone was curious why some of the notes sounded flat, the Atari 2600's audio channels derive all of their pitches from a single fixed-frequency oscillator. They would divide a 30 kHz base tone by one five-bit value to determine the pitch, and another 4-bit value to determine the volume. This basically gave the A2600 the ability to play about 32 discrete tones at 16 volume levels, with only some of the tones coincidentally landing on what we'd recognize as a musical note.
I miss the cool boxes old computers, consoles and accessories used to come in. All the colors and pictures of the product being used on the back really grabbed your attention.
I remember seeing an advertisement for this back in the day. I always wished we could have gotten it. Maybe it was fo the best that we never did. Great video aa always.
What an interesting bit of kit and what an in-depth review! I never knew this was a thing. Shame the Basic is somewhat disappointing, I guess I'll stick to my ZX81 for now! 😄
From a hardware design perspective, I thought this had a lot of potential. The software falls so short that it is an incredible shame. Very cool video tho. I enjoyed your frustration with it a lot. It is a size we don't normally see! :)
Most of Spectravideo's carts fall short. On the other hand, the CPU on the 2600 is a lobotimized 6502 variant, the 6507, with only 13 memory lines (8k), and only implemented 12 of them, for 4k address space. So this thing's 16k is very much bank switched, especially given the 128 bytes RAM in the console.
I'll give them credit for this much: I've never seen a computer with dedicated, multi-tile-wide characters for BASIC commands. Closest I can think of is the weird "PK" "MN" characters the 8-bit Pokémon games used when they couldn't fit the full name where a pair of kanji used to be. I'm now imagining an alternate universe where Commodore used something like that for displaying control codes inside quotes, instead of repurposing the inverse characters. I'm also curious what happens if you try typing one right on the last character in the line; does it get cut in half around the wrap? That might be something to demonstrate in the followup video.
BASIC Programming (Atari 2600 title) did something similar. Many calculator "BASICs" treat Print, Let, etc. as single characters that can only be input with special button presses. It was commonplace for terminals to display ASCII control characters as two or three characters of their mnemonic codes (NUL, SOH, STX, etc.) packed into a single character cell, much like PK MN.
Haha you've found one. I never thought anyone would buy this. It had a whopping 2k RAM and was (incl. the VCS) more expensive than a stock VIC20 when this device was in stores.
Great video! Yeah, the Spectravideo branding and packaging looked awesome (same with SV-318 and 328). Would be fun to see the data format of the Compumate as well as those additional programs. The BASIC on the SV-318/328 by Microsoft is really a step up (it's basically pre MSX-BASIC), even from CBM BASIC. I think you would have enjoyed that, Robin.
In and around this 1981 or 1982, there was talk of Atari releasing a similar system to plug into the 2600 VCS to turn the game system into a full-fledged computer. My understanding was that Atari had promised something like this and was under legal pressure to deliver. I had some Atari magazine back then that showed the Atari version. Perhaps SpectraVideo was contracted ("look, see it can be made into a computer, just like we said") or maybe they followed Atari, thinking there would be money in it.
Mattel had marketed the Intellivision with the promise that they were going to release a Keyboard Component to turn it into a home computer. The Keyboard Component was fairly impressive and they actually did a very limited release of it in some test markets, but they were never able to get the manufacturing cost low enough to sell it for a competitive price. Eventually the federal government started fining them for false advertising until they released some kind of computer expansion--so they eventually brought out a completely different, much less powerful one that did not sell very well. I think Atari had been mulling over the idea of a keyboard expansion but did not market the 2600 on those grounds (aside from the very simple "Basic Programming" cartridge they did have that used the 12-key controllers), so they weren't under the same kind of pressure.
I literally never knew this existed, which just blows my mind, because I definitely know more about Atari 2600 peripherals and such than anyone I've ever met. Such a clever design. The video capture for things like this and Basic Programming really needs all the temporal information (60fps) to help avoid looking obviously interlaced. It could be that your device captured 60fps but that was inevitably lost due to the upload being 1080p30.
@@datacipher i'm with the other guy on this one, i had over 400 games and went out of my way to buy special controllers and i never saw this thing either lol
@@blakenaftel3637 I wouldn’t expect anyone to have seen it, but it was in the magazines - I still have some of them. What was off-putting is him trying to humble-brag about his own expertise at the same time! 🤡
Great video!! I was hoping to see benchmarks on loops with math or other items to compare with other platforms. We know it will be slow!! But Id love to see just how slow via a timer. I think theres some standard basic benchmarks out there. Thanks for your awesome channel!
39:58 When Twinkle Twinkle Little Star started playing it exactly matched up to the drum-n-bass music that I was also playing at the same time. You had to be there to appreciate it lol.
You went deep into the memory lane right there, wow! When I was 16, my bday is in the middle of the year so I was transitioning from High School to Uni. I had a 2600, but the one with 4 switches and all black hard plastic. During my Engineering grad years I was addicted to recycling and hscking. Hacking in 1981 had a radically different interpretation than most folks reading this have in mind. I used to copy the EPROMS and change my master cartridge (I would.borrow from my mates, open, copy, and rrturn). One day I.had access to several Atari schematics. I.adapted a keyboard (do not remember whhich, it was not membrane like the two shown in the video, they would connect to the joystick ports. I burned an EPROM with a simple CPM-like boot and Microsoft Basic. The only problem was I go stuck there, I had to write whatever program, run and once the "computer' was turned off everything was lost. I never move further this point, and also I had a whole new MSX to go crazy.
This video is a revelation! ☺ I'd often thought back in the day that the one essential thing missing from these consoles was a Keyboard! How wrong I was. No good having a keyboard if there's no decent way of making good use of it. They could have done so much better, I'm sure! Did they actually make any SV-318s?
I thought the same. They did make the SV-318; it was a decent computer except for its poor chicklet keyboard. Built-in joystick though. They made an SV-328 too. It was the same internally but had a better keyboard.
I had read the ads for the SpectraVideo CompuMate in the various video game magazines in the 1980s and I thought that I would like to get one for my Atari 2600 VCS, but actually having seen your video review of the device I am absolutely happy that I had never foolishly bought the dreaded device after all. Thank you very much for showing me that I didn't make a terrible decision that I would have regretted for years onwards.
7:18 You should warn a guy before bringing a ZX81 into view. Those things are creepy. 8:30 The font is actually pretty good. I've never seen this before (the screen live) 11:29 Which is a proper computer! Some folks might laugh at things like this, but when you think about the limits of the Atari VCS/2600, it's pretty amazing what the engineers pulled off. Sure, the end result wasn't perfect, but you have to respect how they turned a simple, low-powered game console-a key part of gaming history-into something close to a working computer (and I'm stretching the term "close"). A few tweaks here and there, and it might have even been good for a few specific uses, especially for kids.
If it got some kids into programming then it’s a win. But it’s so limiting it might have turned some kids off! So I guess I’d have to hear from people who actually did have this to know if it was really good for them.
Just give me a CHR$() and an equivalent of a semicolon in a PRINT statement, and I'd be much happier. The concept is decent, it's just let down by the ROM.
When I was a kid I was fascinated by the Philips Videopac "computer programmer" cartridge. My friend had one he didn't want to sell and I never got a chance to see what it could do. Knowing the Videopac's limitations (which were more severe than those of the 2600) I wonder how it measures up against the Spectravideo one.
Great video! Man I wanted one of these when I saw the ad in Electronic Games. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Looks more frustrating then anything. I ended up getting a TRS-80 MC-10, which led to the Commodore 64.
This is one of the accessories I've been looking for (at a reasonable price) to add to my old consoles. I've got the Intellivision keyboard which from this demonstration is a better BASIC than the Atari's. Been looking for addons for retro consoles to make them have more micro computer functions.
23:00 that bit genuily made me laugh out loud "ok so we don't know enough about music to explain what this means so like just try random things until it works it's not like the atari is gonna explode"
Robin,thanks for another interesting Video on Additions to game consoles. I have a Mattel Electronics Intellivision Computer Module.I hope one day you have a look at one on your channel. John 🙂
Please do a followup to this, covering the additional programs for the 2600 Compumate, we must see the conclusion. Also I suggest trying different commands, anything you can think of not listed in the manual, there exist 80s computers with BASIC that have undocumented features.
I did... the Atari Basic Programming cart was better than this, but the interface (two 3×4 button pads) was far worse. And the Odyssey was doing machine code...
This is miraculous! My jaw hit the floor when you showed that it came with a music sequencer. For 1983, and on an Atari, that is almost unthinkable. For reference, this predates MIDI by about 8 months.
I had the version of the woodgrain cabinet that you mentioned briefly around 5:02 or so. Mine had the difficulty selection switches mounted in the back. Damn, I was today years old when I learned that this CompuMate even EXISTED....now I feel robbed :D Thanks for the awesome video and keep up the great work!
I remember seeing a commercial promising such an expansion for the 2600. It even had a mock setup. Atari never delivered and I had no idea SpectraVideo did deliver!
It was great to see one of these working. Music is in red as the notes etc are too. J for load like on the Sinclairs too. Be great to see the software.
Another idea is use a Similar Case,to do with an Raspberry Pi,or something,a Compumate that Acesss Internet via sorta of Linux Terminal,with BBS,linx browser and play CLI Games....and Stella Emulation of course....
If you do a part 2, you could cover the really interesting ways the Spectravision CompuMate works with the 2600's profound technical limitations, which you didn't really go into in this video. I found it very interesting to see how the 12x9 text mode was achieved: The text mode uses both player sprites from player/missile graphics, and it uses the NUSIZ register hack that was more commonly used by games to display six-digit score counts, but then it also uses the fake scanlines hack known from the 2600's chess program to double six to twelve characters. You can see how in the COMPUMATE™ logo the C uses lines not used by the O. The colour limitations of the graphics mode exist because it used the playfield background, which was monochrome (but you got to choose the hues). The MUCH more interesting mystery is how the paint program managed for the 40x40 graphics mode to be all-points-addressable. After all, the playfield register for each line was only 20 bits plus a mirror or repeat bit, so how are they achieving 40 pixels instead of 20 pixels per line? Are they somehow rewriting the register on the fly each line? This may be a unique hack; I've not seen it in any other 2600 cartridge. Or maybe only half of the 40 pixels are playfield and the other half is player sprites+NUSIZ hacks? I need to know. It's really one heck of an achievement to make even this very limited BASIC work with the 2600. To appreciate how much of an achievement that is, see David Crane's _The Internal Magic of the Atari 2600_ and _Racing the Beam._ That said, this wasn't the only BASIC for the 2600; there also was the (even more limited) _BASIC Programming_ cartridge for the VCS (see Wikipedia).
David Crane invented the 12-character kernel, which was used in Atari's BASIC Programming and Stellar Track cartridges. I've invented a 13-charater variation exploiting cycle-74 HMOVE and mid-line RESPx, but I don't think either trick was known in 1982. An interesting quirk of Crane's kernel is that the sprites only move back and forth by seven pixels, rather than eight, but the cycle-74 HMOVE trick makes it possible to move sprites left by 8 pixels on a scan line rather than seven. The ability to show a 40-column playfield bitmap was demonstrated in the 1977 Surround cartridge. Rewriting the playfield registers twice per line is hardly unusual, though many games that do so only use the middle 32 pixels with the "reflected" playfield mode, and with one of the writes timed to hit on the cycle before the screen midpoint. Donkey Kong is a very nice example of a game that does that while managing a very busy screen. Other games that use a non-symmetric playfield include all of the Pac Man variants, the amazing homebrew Thrust +, Hangman, Street Racer, etc. I'd perhaps be much more impressed with this BASIC had I not played with Warren Robinett's "Basic Programming" cartridge that came out a couple years earlier. That only had 4K of ROM and no expansion RAM, and was thus in many ways more limited than the SV Basic, but it could simultaneously have one window show the BASIC program with a cursor highlighting the current part being executed, a second window showing the contents of all used variables, and a third window showing the text screen output from print statements. It was necessary to use CLEAR statements a lot to limit the amount of text in the text window, since every byte displayed there would use up a byte of memory, but pulling off a Codeview-style display on a system with 128 bytes of RAM total, while leaving 64 bytes available for user programs, is mind boggling.
@@flatfingertuning727 Wow. Thank you for the info. Are you a member of the old guard, someone whose name is known? Only if you're comfortable sharing: Are you happy to say who you are?
I'm not a member of the old guard, but I have exchanged email with Warren Robinett who told me David Crane did the kernel used in Basic Programming, and worked with Rob Fullup to finish off and release a prototype cartridge of Actionauts. I've also met David Crane at a convention, and he told be the DPC Chip stands for David Patrick Crane (which is funny because I've always read other acronym expansions for it). I've done a couple games on the 2600 including Strat-O-Gems and Toyshop Trouble, as well as the menu code and music for Stella's Stocking.
There are varieties of both Microsoft and non-MS BASICs that have both the OK and READY prompts, so that's not enough to trace the lineage, I believe. Various Tiny BASIC derivatives use "OK" and many Microsoft BASICs (such as Commodore) use READY.
This isn't as terrible as I remember. I picked one up at a flea market for less than five bucks - no box or manual of course and had no idea it had the art and music options. I wonder, can you copy the Snowman into the other slots? If so you could copy it into all six slots, and then draw snow falling down the screen by drawing a pixel, moving one screen over and one pixel down, repeating until you had loops of pixels. I guess it would pass a little time!
Great job Robin. Keep it up. Also remember seeing around 84 or so a c64 adapter that plugged into a port that speed typing with one hand. Had 4 buttons or so in the peripheral and the combo of buttons pressed responded w the appropriate character. U remember this? Or anyone?
That was a great video, and a fascinating device. It feels like one of those things that probably made complete sense on paper, and then after some time developing it reality probably caught up and corners were cut. It's a lovely thing to see!
I was almost half expecting the patreon list at the end to be in SpectraVideo Basic.. but then I realised you probably don't have enough lines available to do it 😂
Imagine being a kid in 1982, visiting a friend that had just got a brand new C64, being blown away. Going home to mum and dad bugging them for a home computer. Mum or dad goes to shop and look at different options, sees this and thinks, "Oh, yea, this is perfect because we already have a VCS at home!". This device seems more like a burden than anything else. Also, can the cartridge port looking hole just be a place to put the actual cartridge when the device is not in use and attached to the VCS?
I remember seeing this back then. I was 10 years old. I though that's how the games were programmed and then they would probably cut the cables from the cartridge after the game is done and it would become a real game cartridge.
like an umbilical cord
Have you cut the cartridge cable? 😁
Awww😅
That sounds like it.
I think it would have been a very frustrating "first computer" for any kid to own back in the day.
THIS was my first computer, I learned Basic on that thing. Started my journey, then switched to C128, Amiga, PC. Today I have a CS Master's degree and make decent money. The "area" on the back is a "garage" for the Spectravideo cartridge when the CompuMate is not connected to the Atari 2600, just to be able to put it away nice and tidy.
I think I got lucky then, by starting on the Apple ][ europlus...
My first computer in the 70s was literally a virtual computer! My dad got me a book on programming but we were too poor and I ran the programs in my mind 😅 now I'm CTO of a public company 😅
So someone actually used it with the intended purpose and didn‘t throw it away after 3hrs - Spectravideo was right all along! 😂 You‘ve made some former Spectravideo Marketing Manager very happy today (if still alive and reading your comment).
Good to find another user! We're a rare breed! Did you ever find any software for it?
@@supercompooper Do you live, or have you ever been, in The Netherlands? I remember some student from the 80's with exactly you name, having internship at the company I worked for in those days.
I had a memory, what I thought was a dream, of my uncle and his friend playing with some kind of computer keyboard on a wooden Atari. It wasn't until maybe 2 decades later I discovered the CompuMate and it looked exactly like this "dream". My grandfather and uncle were well into the SpectraVideo systems in the 80s. My grandfather gave me his SV-328 in the 90s, but it stopped working and ended up being thrown out. I wish I kept it in hindsight as I would have been able to fix it with my current skills.
Robin! there's a Korean computer called the "Bit 60" (1983) that's nearly identical to this being fully compatible with the 2600 featuring BASIC and a not dissimilar keyboard layout. The computer has the 2k memory and basic ROM inside the 'computer' and the cartridge slot is free for Atari games. But it's so similar that I wouldn't be surprised if it's a related development - perhaps even a related BASIC ROM - perhaps more can be learned via the "Bit 60"
I reviewed the BIT60 for an issue of The 2600 Connection newsletter years ago. As I recall, it was from Taiwan. Not Korean.
@@Mrshoujo - My apologies - but is it not such a big stretch to imagine the Basic ROM might be related?
Same time period - nearly identical system (just inside out)
@@Mrshoujo - The keyboard layout is almost identical to this machine too - if nothing else? the keyboard seems like a related development
I wonder if someone could make homebrew for it
I hate to say it, but I'd be morbidly curious to see some of the "software" they thought to create for this. I'd love a follow-up going into more detail. ^_^
Maybe:
10 INPUT "Enter the first number: "; A
20 INPUT "Enter the second number: "; B
30 SUM = A + B
40 PRINT "The sum is: "; SUM
50 END
;)
@@MetalApeit's a start
@@MetalApe
That won't work on the Compumate, due to limitations of the BASIC:
Only upper case letters are supported, INP statements can't print a text prompt, variable names have to be a single letter, only the variables A-P can be used for numeric values, PR statements can't have multiple fields, variable assignments need LET, there's no END statement.
A version will actually work on the Compumate:
10 PR "ENTER THE FIRST NUMBER"
20 INP A
30 PR "ENTER THE SECOND NUMBER"
40 INP B
50 LET P=A+B
60 PR "THE SUM IS"
70 PR P
@@gwishart Interesting. Thank you. Incredible how far this technology has come. And what to expect. What an age we live in!
You have this rare gift... No matter if the stuff you show us is "good" or "bad", the video always feels too short. It always feels special when you start exploring and take us with you.
Thank you very much!
P.S.:
The Outro-Music not only proofs your love for music... It also tells me that you have a great sense of humor ;)
Stay well and healthy!
Greetings from germany.
I was laughing out loud when I heard that music for the first time and thought I have to use it for the end credits. I'm glad you enjoyed it too.
This is a great, awesome accessory for the 2600. Back in the day, it would blow my mind to use and make some music with Atari's square notes. Probably inspired many people to love computers. For those younger: on 1981, 1982 computers were something kind of magical for us, the end users.
I vividly remember seeing the official Atari "computer" add-on in the Atari magazine and wanting it SOOOOOO badly! I think it was only shown one time and then was cancelled. Ended up with a C64 a year or two later.
Same story here. In retrospect I'm glad my parents saved up for a 64 instead, but at the time I so desperately wanted to turn my Atari into a 'real' computer and dive into programming!
There were about four computer upgrades announced for the 2600; this was the only one to ever reach the market.
That box is just... Wonderful.
It makes me smile to think that somewhere out there in a closet or storage unit, is a VHS tape of some rad spectravision art.
That would be a real find. It would predate Mario Paint by almost a decade!
The dweeb that created the masterpiece was going to change the world!
@@BigAL68xyz The Fairchild Channel F had a "video art" program built in, so that's the granddaddy.
@jaxtraw IDK.....
It was less than a year ahead in release date and half a decade behind technologically. Seems more like _deadbeat dad_ .
@@maxi-me I don't agree. It had a bitmapped display compared to the Atari's shift registers. Atari had the programmers and designed their very limited technology to do a few things very well, but the VCS wasn't more technologically advanced per se.
hey, I wrote my first game with that basic. it was a maze game where you had to navigate a maze to find the miinotaur. biggest problem was the limit to number of lines in your game
Was it a 2D maze, with your character moving inside the fixed maze? This BASIC is so limited I can't even figure out how to do that without redrawing (and scrolling) the screen every single move. But maybe there's some features I haven't discovered yet.
I love this. I just got a 2600 and several cartridges and am waiting for time to really get into it.
As a kid, I had Atari's BASIC and the keyboard controllers, but didn't appreciate it at the time.
This video just makes me happy. I remember this device, never had one, and settled for the Atari key pads that included BASIC.
Hi Robin, thanks for the video! We discussed it half a year ago, when I pickup up one myself and you collected yours. Honestly I was also disappointed by it myself. Love to see what software you found for it.
These are awesome. The 2600 and it's market were far ahead of their time in so many ways, but this was always one of my favorites. I really just wish they were more available so I could have one myself! That you have one in such a clean box is truly a feat of time travel.
Mine doesnt even work anymore 😟 theres two double stacked rom chips in it, one of them has lost its memory, i have an eprom burner, but ive been too scared to take it apart and try to re flash them in case i cant put it back together properly
@@Colt45hatchback I was just about to say the opposite, that it's so crazy my systems still work fine.
Yes! Please, more on this add-on! Bring on the software for it. Cassette load/save functionality too!
There are two cassette tapes of commercial software; one each of music and graphics.
That's actually a great looking font. Some love went into this I'd say.
I would l to see a follow-up video where you compare the CompuMate’s BASIC with the BASIC Programming cartridge. I had that cartridge and was thrilled when my parents bought me a TI 99/4A which was quite the upgrade for not that much more.
Thanks for this! This thing really makes the MC-10 (which was also aimed at the Sinclair market) look like a rocket ship by comparison. And that was not much more expensive than this was, really less if you add in the cost of the VCS. Had all these system came out a year or two earlier they might have had a chance, but they were already outdated on launch.
I wonder if the developers were told they had a certain amount of time, but then market conditions made it clear that if they waited until they'd developed everything they intended, the product would be obsolete on launch so the developers had to rush to get *something* out. If the schedule had been established more in advance, I think adding music commands to BASIC would have been quicker and easier than trying to include a music editor, but having an editor available in addition to the BASIC commands could have been helpful for people trying to figure out what commands they should use to play sounds.
Likewise, adding some graphics commands to BASIC, would have offered a major qualitative boost to functionality, but a picture editor could have been useful adjunct to the BASIC if there were a command to copy a portion of a hand-drawn screen to the displayed screen. Thinking about it, adding PEEK and POKE commands could also have made the graphics editor useful as a means of viewing and entering data tables for some powerful but memory-efficient programs.
My thoughts exactly
Aw you drew a lovely heart ❤ Seriously though as a kid born in the 60s this would have been amazing. And a nice introduction to computing. It's also great to see the comments of people who were inspired to code by all these 'starter' devices. My first was a borrowed ZX80 and first owned was a ZX Spectrum. Hours of typing from magazine is one way to see whether you have the patience for the world of comupting. Key skill!
When I was a kid back in '83 I thought this would be the wave of the future! Turn a video game console into a home computer? Who'd bother with a dedicated computer then?! Ah, naivety!
I like how it stressed that it used "standard" cassette tapes, I don't think I knew anyone that used the expensive data cassettes. I used to buy prerecorded tapes to use, one day I found a Bay City Rollers cassette on clearance for, I think 49 cents, blank cassettes were 99 cents, (I believe it was at a Kmart) so I bought 4 of them and used them as my data cassettes.
I can't think of a better use for a Bay City Rollers cassette. 🤣
@@Metal_Maxine Hey now! 🤡
The ColecoVision Adam used a custom datatape format. it was noisy, but worked ok...
@@WilliamHostman i always wanted an Adam, hopefully I will add one to my Coleco collection soon...then I guess I will have to find some of the data cassettes for it!
@@CanadianRetroThings I only had one data cassette, and one prerecorded one (planet of Zoom, which really isn't great - Emulation does it fine) I'd honestly rather have seen Planet of Zoom on cartridge.
In the early 80s I was looking for a computer but Apple and Radio Shack computers were too expensive. I wasn't aware of Commodore at the time, but a PET would have also been to dear for my budget. I tried the programming cartridges for the Magnivox and the VCS and found them less than interesting. When the Atari 400 came out I sold of the game consoles and splashed the cash for the real computer with the crappy keyboard. I bought an upgrade keyboard, 32K memory and was happy as a clam. I probably would have skipped this too.
Yes. I got an Atari 400 for my birthday in 1981. It was pricy - $400 (over $1000 today). That machine was far more capable than the VIC-20, and even though it was designed in 1979, was still a match for the C64 in 1983. Loved that machine!
@@Chordonblue I learned to program on that 400 with the Progammer's kit. It lead to a career in IT and laboratory automation. Those 2 extra joystick ports with the analog inputs and digital I/O was the lead-in to my introduction to real world interfacing. It was a old-time answer to the modern Raspberry Pie. I still think there was a reason they called the keyboard computer version of the Pie the 400.
I don’t understand much of this but I love your videos. I did some simple programming on my TI-99 but nothing I remember now.
This thing really can perform computations, so I guess some of the marketing fluff is accurate. My guess why the box for this is in such good shape is because the CompuMate got usage for 15 minutes and then was quickly put into the closet. #ControversialHotTake
That is super interesting. I'm impressed that the basic on this thing can do as much as it can to be honest, given the extreme limitations of the 2600. Love to see more of the horrendous software. Even if it has 16k of memory of basic ROM, I bet thats including the kernel and character set for the device as well as load/save functions to the audio adapters, and I bet its all bank switched on top of that given the 6507 micro can only address 8kb max, so some of those address lines must also be dedicated to switching banks on the cartridge which must have more than 16 kb total memory for all its other programs, so that probably leaves you with about 4kb of actual working ROM+RAM at any given time
That is beautiful. I never knew it existed
Nice one Robin. I'd heard of this and was always interested to learn more
Dude I want to have a powerful personal computer😋
I remember this one, a real oddity. With the VC20 around it wasn't even a question.
I'm getting the impression that the manual was written by the same person as the "Black Book" of the C64 I think, you showed it some time ago😂
For some reason I love that "Ohhhhhh!" whenever you get INT instead of A.
I got the Famicom Family Basic recently. So far I have also not found any way to make a backslash for the proper 10 print. But I'm still working on it.
I heard you use the Yen symbol instead of backslash
¥
the whole unit is fascinating aesthetically good thing as a mesmerizing computer toy.
If I'd had a 2600 back in the day, I would have loved this, but those things were expensive. Luckily I had a ZX81, which was a joy at the time.
I'd like to see more, what this bad boy can really do in BASIC! (very little, but fun to see)
In case anyone was curious why some of the notes sounded flat, the Atari 2600's audio channels derive all of their pitches from a single fixed-frequency oscillator. They would divide a 30 kHz base tone by one five-bit value to determine the pitch, and another 4-bit value to determine the volume. This basically gave the A2600 the ability to play about 32 discrete tones at 16 volume levels, with only some of the tones coincidentally landing on what we'd recognize as a musical note.
Would love to see more on this. I always wanted one on these but I've heard most have dead keyboards, even new in box ones.
I miss the cool boxes old computers, consoles and accessories used to come in. All the colors and pictures of the product being used on the back really grabbed your attention.
I remember seeing an advertisement for this back in the day. I always wished we could have gotten it. Maybe it was fo the best that we never did. Great video aa always.
What an interesting bit of kit and what an in-depth review! I never knew this was a thing.
Shame the Basic is somewhat disappointing, I guess I'll stick to my ZX81 for now! 😄
From a hardware design perspective, I thought this had a lot of potential. The software falls so short that it is an incredible shame. Very cool video tho. I enjoyed your frustration with it a lot. It is a size we don't normally see! :)
Most of Spectravideo's carts fall short. On the other hand, the CPU on the 2600 is a lobotimized 6502 variant, the 6507, with only 13 memory lines (8k), and only implemented 12 of them, for 4k address space. So this thing's 16k is very much bank switched, especially given the 128 bytes RAM in the console.
I'll give them credit for this much: I've never seen a computer with dedicated, multi-tile-wide characters for BASIC commands. Closest I can think of is the weird "PK" "MN" characters the 8-bit Pokémon games used when they couldn't fit the full name where a pair of kanji used to be. I'm now imagining an alternate universe where Commodore used something like that for displaying control codes inside quotes, instead of repurposing the inverse characters. I'm also curious what happens if you try typing one right on the last character in the line; does it get cut in half around the wrap? That might be something to demonstrate in the followup video.
BASIC Programming (Atari 2600 title) did something similar. Many calculator "BASICs" treat Print, Let, etc. as single characters that can only be input with special button presses.
It was commonplace for terminals to display ASCII control characters as two or three characters of their mnemonic codes (NUL, SOH, STX, etc.) packed into a single character cell, much like PK MN.
Haha you've found one. I never thought anyone would buy this. It had a whopping 2k RAM and was (incl. the VCS) more expensive than a stock VIC20 when this device was in stores.
Great video! Yeah, the Spectravideo branding and packaging looked awesome (same with SV-318 and 328). Would be fun to see the data format of the Compumate as well as those additional programs. The BASIC on the SV-318/328 by Microsoft is really a step up (it's basically pre MSX-BASIC), even from CBM BASIC. I think you would have enjoyed that, Robin.
had zero idea this even existed, mind blowing.
In and around this 1981 or 1982, there was talk of Atari releasing a similar system to plug into the 2600 VCS to turn the game system into a full-fledged computer. My understanding was that Atari had promised something like this and was under legal pressure to deliver. I had some Atari magazine back then that showed the Atari version. Perhaps SpectraVideo was contracted ("look, see it can be made into a computer, just like we said") or maybe they followed Atari, thinking there would be money in it.
Mattel had marketed the Intellivision with the promise that they were going to release a Keyboard Component to turn it into a home computer. The Keyboard Component was fairly impressive and they actually did a very limited release of it in some test markets, but they were never able to get the manufacturing cost low enough to sell it for a competitive price. Eventually the federal government started fining them for false advertising until they released some kind of computer expansion--so they eventually brought out a completely different, much less powerful one that did not sell very well.
I think Atari had been mulling over the idea of a keyboard expansion but did not market the 2600 on those grounds (aside from the very simple "Basic Programming" cartridge they did have that used the 12-key controllers), so they weren't under the same kind of pressure.
Very interesting. More content on this and Sinclair computers would be great. Thanks for sharing
Yep. Still happy that despite thinking I wanted a console as a kid as all my friends had those, we got a VIC20 instead!
I literally never knew this existed, which just blows my mind, because I definitely know more about Atari 2600 peripherals and such than anyone I've ever met. Such a clever design. The video capture for things like this and Basic Programming really needs all the temporal information (60fps) to help avoid looking obviously interlaced. It could be that your device captured 60fps but that was inevitably lost due to the upload being 1080p30.
I'll try to make sure I get a 60fps video next time.
Stella emulated it literally since the DOS days, at least I think so. Could been a CX50 too. In real life I only saw one in a museum.
Uh… ok. It was advertised in magazines back in the day along with several other keyboards.
@@datacipher i'm with the other guy on this one, i had over 400 games and went out of my way to buy special controllers and i never saw this thing either lol
@@blakenaftel3637 I wouldn’t expect anyone to have seen it, but it was in the magazines - I still have some of them. What was off-putting is him trying to humble-brag about his own expertise at the same time! 🤡
I remember seeing this in computer magazines way back in the day. Thanks for reviewing it. I never bought or saw it in real life.
Can you add strings ?
10LETC=0
20LETQ$=""
30LETA=RND(1)
40IFINTA=0THENQ$=Q$+""
60LETC=C+1
70IFC
Yes please more! That would be a lot of fun. Thanks for the new video.
Great video!! I was hoping to see benchmarks on loops with math or other items to compare with other platforms. We know it will be slow!! But Id love to see just how slow via a timer. I think theres some standard basic benchmarks out there. Thanks for your awesome channel!
39:58 When Twinkle Twinkle Little Star started playing it exactly matched up to the drum-n-bass music that I was also playing at the same time. You had to be there to appreciate it lol.
You went deep into the memory lane right there, wow! When I was 16, my bday is in the middle of the year so I was transitioning from High School to Uni. I had a 2600, but the one with 4 switches and all black hard plastic.
During my Engineering grad years I was addicted to recycling and hscking.
Hacking in 1981 had a radically different interpretation than most folks reading this have in mind.
I used to copy the EPROMS and change my master cartridge (I would.borrow from my mates, open, copy, and rrturn).
One day I.had access to several Atari schematics. I.adapted a keyboard (do not remember whhich, it was not membrane like the two shown in the video, they would connect to the joystick ports.
I burned an EPROM with a simple CPM-like boot and Microsoft Basic.
The only problem was I go stuck there, I had to write whatever program, run and once the "computer' was turned off everything was lost.
I never move further this point, and also I had a whole new MSX to go crazy.
This video is a revelation! ☺
I'd often thought back in the day that the one essential thing missing from these consoles was a Keyboard! How wrong I was. No good having a keyboard if there's no decent way of making good use of it. They could have done so much better, I'm sure! Did they actually make any SV-318s?
I thought the same.
They did make the SV-318; it was a decent computer except for its poor chicklet keyboard. Built-in joystick though. They made an SV-328 too. It was the same internally but had a better keyboard.
"Spicy notes" made me chuckle.
Great video!
I really enjoyed that cameo, from Granny Dell Taylor in writing, the User's Manual.
I had read the ads for the SpectraVideo CompuMate in the various video game magazines in the 1980s and I thought that I would like to get one for my Atari 2600 VCS, but actually having seen your video review of the device I am absolutely happy that I had never foolishly bought the dreaded device after all. Thank you very much for showing me that I didn't make a terrible decision that I would have regretted for years onwards.
7:18 You should warn a guy before bringing a ZX81 into view. Those things are creepy.
8:30 The font is actually pretty good. I've never seen this before (the screen live)
11:29 Which is a proper computer!
Some folks might laugh at things like this, but when you think about the limits of the Atari VCS/2600, it's pretty amazing what the engineers pulled off. Sure, the end result wasn't perfect, but you have to respect how they turned a simple, low-powered game console-a key part of gaming history-into something close to a working computer (and I'm stretching the term "close"). A few tweaks here and there, and it might have even been good for a few specific uses, especially for kids.
If it got some kids into programming then it’s a win. But it’s so limiting it might have turned some kids off! So I guess I’d have to hear from people who actually did have this to know if it was really good for them.
Just give me a CHR$() and an equivalent of a semicolon in a PRINT statement, and I'd be much happier. The concept is decent, it's just let down by the ROM.
@@8_Bit We could disassemble the ROM and fix it ;-)
@@MichaelDoornbos Exactly! Open it up, let's see what's inside it!
I love how the steps on the back are like "Easy as... 1, 2. 3" but then it has 4 steps and 4 pictures.
Interesting piece of hardware, I had never heard of this. Great channel looking forward to checking out your other content. Subscribed!
Thanks, yeah, it's an unusual item and I found it pretty interesting to play around with.
Pretty interesting, considering the technology back in those days. Cool Light Sixer, by the way.
Definitely interested in more of this thing and maybe that self-competing sister computer, too.
Quite interesting. I'd enjoy to poke around with that setup. Thanks for the vid and keep up the good work.
When I was a kid I was fascinated by the Philips Videopac "computer programmer" cartridge. My friend had one he didn't want to sell and I never got a chance to see what it could do. Knowing the Videopac's limitations (which were more severe than those of the 2600) I wonder how it measures up against the Spectravideo one.
See my note about that very thing. I had one - you didn't miss out on much, believe me. 🙄🙄
Was thinking about the tape software. Would love to see it!
Great video! Man I wanted one of these when I saw the ad in Electronic Games. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Looks more frustrating then anything. I ended up getting a TRS-80 MC-10, which led to the Commodore 64.
Thanks Robin! I had one of these and I don't remember even playing with the music or gfx packages. Not sure we really used it much to be fair.
This is one of the accessories I've been looking for (at a reasonable price) to add to my old consoles. I've got the Intellivision keyboard which from this demonstration is a better BASIC than the Atari's. Been looking for addons for retro consoles to make them have more micro computer functions.
Hey, you have a good show here! I'm glad I found it! Keep up the good work!
23:00 that bit genuily made me laugh out loud
"ok so we don't know enough about music to explain what this means so like just try random things until it works it's not like the atari is gonna explode"
Robin,thanks for another interesting Video on Additions to game consoles. I have a Mattel Electronics Intellivision Computer Module.I hope one day you have a look at one on your channel. John 🙂
You opened this funky can of worms machine... I've always been curious about it, so of course I want to see more!
Please do a followup to this, covering the additional programs for the 2600 Compumate, we must see the conclusion. Also I suggest trying different commands, anything you can think of not listed in the manual, there exist 80s computers with BASIC that have undocumented features.
I had one of these. Good times and memories. Thanks.
I never actually appreciated Microsoft BASIC until now.
I did... the Atari Basic Programming cart was better than this, but the interface (two 3×4 button pads) was far worse.
And the Odyssey was doing machine code...
This is miraculous! My jaw hit the floor when you showed that it came with a music sequencer. For 1983, and on an Atari, that is almost unthinkable. For reference, this predates MIDI by about 8 months.
I had the version of the woodgrain cabinet that you mentioned briefly around 5:02 or so. Mine had the difficulty selection switches mounted in the back. Damn, I was today years old when I learned that this CompuMate even EXISTED....now I feel robbed :D
Thanks for the awesome video and keep up the great work!
I remember seeing a commercial promising such an expansion for the 2600. It even had a mock setup. Atari never delivered and I had no idea SpectraVideo did deliver!
It was great to see one of these working. Music is in red as the notes etc are too. J for load like on the Sinclairs too. Be great to see the software.
"What am I going to draw by accident" I was already laughing thinking Robin surely you aren't drawing what I think you are :D
This is pretty interesting. I could see this being an appealing alternative to a real computer for Atari VCS owners.
This is so cool. Can’t thank you enough for this. You are the best.
Great vid Robin. I love the error-code that scolds the user for cassette "jostle".
And reminded "you" that math in elementary school taught you divide by zero wasn't valid.
Good thing I never knew this existed till now. Great video.
Thanks Robin, I always wondered about this device! Now I know, I didn't miss a thing!!! LOL
Another idea is use a Similar Case,to do with an Raspberry Pi,or something,a Compumate that Acesss Internet via sorta of Linux Terminal,with BBS,linx browser and play CLI Games....and Stella Emulation of course....
It cracks me up when you say "Print A, Ohhhhh!"
If you do a part 2, you could cover the really interesting ways the Spectravision CompuMate works with the 2600's profound technical limitations, which you didn't really go into in this video. I found it very interesting to see how the 12x9 text mode was achieved: The text mode uses both player sprites from player/missile graphics, and it uses the NUSIZ register hack that was more commonly used by games to display six-digit score counts, but then it also uses the fake scanlines hack known from the 2600's chess program to double six to twelve characters. You can see how in the COMPUMATE™ logo the C uses lines not used by the O. The colour limitations of the graphics mode exist because it used the playfield background, which was monochrome (but you got to choose the hues). The MUCH more interesting mystery is how the paint program managed for the 40x40 graphics mode to be all-points-addressable. After all, the playfield register for each line was only 20 bits plus a mirror or repeat bit, so how are they achieving 40 pixels instead of 20 pixels per line? Are they somehow rewriting the register on the fly each line? This may be a unique hack; I've not seen it in any other 2600 cartridge. Or maybe only half of the 40 pixels are playfield and the other half is player sprites+NUSIZ hacks? I need to know.
It's really one heck of an achievement to make even this very limited BASIC work with the 2600. To appreciate how much of an achievement that is, see David Crane's _The Internal Magic of the Atari 2600_ and _Racing the Beam._ That said, this wasn't the only BASIC for the 2600; there also was the (even more limited) _BASIC Programming_ cartridge for the VCS (see Wikipedia).
That really is interesting, it sounds like nearly a miracle they got any kind of BASIC running on that machine.
David Crane invented the 12-character kernel, which was used in Atari's BASIC Programming and Stellar Track cartridges. I've invented a 13-charater variation exploiting cycle-74 HMOVE and mid-line RESPx, but I don't think either trick was known in 1982. An interesting quirk of Crane's kernel is that the sprites only move back and forth by seven pixels, rather than eight, but the cycle-74 HMOVE trick makes it possible to move sprites left by 8 pixels on a scan line rather than seven.
The ability to show a 40-column playfield bitmap was demonstrated in the 1977 Surround cartridge. Rewriting the playfield registers twice per line is hardly unusual, though many games that do so only use the middle 32 pixels with the "reflected" playfield mode, and with one of the writes timed to hit on the cycle before the screen midpoint. Donkey Kong is a very nice example of a game that does that while managing a very busy screen. Other games that use a non-symmetric playfield include all of the Pac Man variants, the amazing homebrew Thrust +, Hangman, Street Racer, etc.
I'd perhaps be much more impressed with this BASIC had I not played with Warren Robinett's "Basic Programming" cartridge that came out a couple years earlier. That only had 4K of ROM and no expansion RAM, and was thus in many ways more limited than the SV Basic, but it could simultaneously have one window show the BASIC program with a cursor highlighting the current part being executed, a second window showing the contents of all used variables, and a third window showing the text screen output from print statements. It was necessary to use CLEAR statements a lot to limit the amount of text in the text window, since every byte displayed there would use up a byte of memory, but pulling off a Codeview-style display on a system with 128 bytes of RAM total, while leaving 64 bytes available for user programs, is mind boggling.
@@flatfingertuning727 Wow. Thank you for the info. Are you a member of the old guard, someone whose name is known? Only if you're comfortable sharing: Are you happy to say who you are?
I'm not a member of the old guard, but I have exchanged email with Warren Robinett who told me David Crane did the kernel used in Basic Programming, and worked with Rob Fullup to finish off and release a prototype cartridge of Actionauts. I've also met David Crane at a convention, and he told be the DPC Chip stands for David Patrick Crane (which is funny because I've always read other acronym expansions for it). I've done a couple games on the 2600 including Strat-O-Gems and Toyshop Trouble, as well as the menu code and music for Stella's Stocking.
@@flatfingertuning727 Very cool. So what did you think (or read that) DPC stood for?
I've always wondered how these worked. thanks! :D
I had never heard of this. Both impressive and gringy at the same time.
Excellent demo & discussion.
Gates made Altair Basic say "OK" instead of "READY" to compress as much space as possible for the 4k rom
Thats why this is believed to be M$ basic
There are varieties of both Microsoft and non-MS BASICs that have both the OK and READY prompts, so that's not enough to trace the lineage, I believe. Various Tiny BASIC derivatives use "OK" and many Microsoft BASICs (such as Commodore) use READY.
This isn't as terrible as I remember. I picked one up at a flea market for less than five bucks - no box or manual of course and had no idea it had the art and music options. I wonder, can you copy the Snowman into the other slots? If so you could copy it into all six slots, and then draw snow falling down the screen by drawing a pixel, moving one screen over and one pixel down, repeating until you had loops of pixels. I guess it would pass a little time!
Great job Robin. Keep it up. Also remember seeing around 84 or so a c64 adapter that plugged into a port that speed typing with one hand. Had 4 buttons or so in the peripheral and the combo of buttons pressed responded w the appropriate character. U remember this? Or anyone?
That was a great video, and a fascinating device. It feels like one of those things that probably made complete sense on paper, and then after some time developing it reality probably caught up and corners were cut.
It's a lovely thing to see!
I was almost half expecting the patreon list at the end to be in SpectraVideo Basic.. but then I realised you probably don't have enough lines available to do it 😂
I sense, for the tom of your voice, that you got a lot fun with those moments! I laugh just to hear you laugh! Great video.
An Atari “holy grail” I have sought for a lifetime
Imagine being a kid in 1982, visiting a friend that had just got a brand new C64, being blown away. Going home to mum and dad bugging them for a home computer. Mum or dad goes to shop and look at different options, sees this and thinks, "Oh, yea, this is perfect because we already have a VCS at home!".
This device seems more like a burden than anything else.
Also, can the cartridge port looking hole just be a place to put the actual cartridge when the device is not in use and attached to the VCS?
Given the 2600 limitations and had this come out in 1978 it would have been a huge deal!, Imagine that!!