Sharp PC-1211/TRS-80 PC-1 Software

[pyedog]

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask, but there are several posts from years ago about the PC-1211 so I figured I'd give it a shot ...

I'm looking for BASIC programs that will run on Sharp PC-1211/TRS-80 PC-1 pocket computers. I had one back in the 80s and recently acquired one and thought it would be interesting to see what could be done with it.

I made a web site with several games (Video Poker, Cave Adventure, and BlackJack) at https://pc1211.epizy.com/pc1211/ but I'd be interested in other programs people might still have available. I'd be happy top add it to the list if anyone is interested.

Truthfully, it is slower and more limited than I remember - I've been spoiled by modern smartphones - but I remember how amazed I was when I first got it (I think it was 1981).

Anyway, thanks for any pointers or information!

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

Not sure if you are aware of this, but Radio Shack published two books with lots of programs for the pocket computer. You can get each on the Internet Archive Site:

119 Practical Programs for the TRS-80 Pocket Computer


and

TRS-80 Pocket Computer Programs


Internet Archive also has:

Pocket Computer Programming Made Easy



73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, pyedog:

First of all, welcome to the MoHPC forum, I wish you enjoy your stay. Read on ...

(03-14-2021 09:14 PM)pyedog Wrote:  I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask, but there are several posts from years ago about the PC-1211 so I figured I'd give it a shot ...

Some of those posts were surely mine.

Quote:I'm looking for BASIC programs that will run on Sharp PC-1211/TRS-80 PC-1 pocket computers. I had one back in the 80s and recently acquired one and thought it would be interesting to see what could be done with it.

I too had one in 80-81 or so, Liked it very much, wrote about 100+ programs for it and even took it with me to my military service to use in my (scarce) free time there. It was a sensation, everyone admired it and several people wanted to buy it from me.

I had at the time an HP-41C too, so I wrote an article comparing it vs. the SHARP PC-1211. You might enjoy reading it, as it also includes 6 programs for the PC-1211 , among them:

      "Towers of Hanoi",
      "Hyperbolic functions",
      "Compute and display up to 575 decimal digits of e" and
      "Solve N-Queen puzzle in a general NxN chessboard".

Two additional sample programs are given in the article for both the PC-1211 and the HP-41C, to serve as comparison of their respective programming models and capabilities. You can download the 12-page PDF article using this link:

      Know Thy Foe: A New Contender

Quote:I made a web site with several games (Video Poker, Cave Adventure, and BlackJack) at https://pc1211.epizy.com/pc1211/ but I'd be interested in other programs people might still have available. I'd be happy top add it to the list if anyone is interested.

You can find 7 additional programs I wrote for the SHARP PC-1211 here. They are:

      3-point Gaussian Integration
      Multiprecision Factorial
      NxN Matrix Inversion
      Multiprecision E
      Practice Checkmate with King-Bishop-Knight vs. King
      Truth Tables Generator

Also, there are many other materials for SHARP pocket computers at my site, including:

     Sharp Pocket Computers (67 files)

          Sharp Articles (1 files)
          Sharp Programs (9 files)
          Sharp Pictures (32 files)
          Sharp Brochures (2 files)
          Sharp Book Reviews (6 files)
          Sharp Selected Threads (17 files)


If interested in any of those programs or materials I suggest you include in your site the relevant links to the ones in my site you want, giving me proper credit.

Again, welcome and if you have any further questions, just ask.
V.

[SlideRule]

A modest contribution:
[attachment=9228]
[attachment=9229]

BEST!
SlideRule

[Hollerith]

I have the following Radio Shack programs (cassettes, manuals and keyboard overlays) for the TRS-80 PC-1.

Aviation
Business Finance
Business Statistics
Civil Enginerring
Electrical Engineering
Engineering Math I
Engineering Math II
Engineering Math III
Engineering Math IV
Games
Personal Finance
Statistical Analysis
Surveying

I have successfully loaded some of the programs from cassette onto a PC and decoding them into ascii using "Pocket Tools".

Is there any interest? It would be alot of effort to transfer all the programs and scan the manuals, but I am willing to do a few of the intersting ones such as the Complex Calculator in RPN from Electrical Engineering I.

Although they are small, I have not included the decoded programs in this post as all progams and manuals are copyright Tandy Corporation. Do Tandy enforce their copyright or are they happy for vintage stuff to be published?

Sadly my PC-1 has bad LCD leakage and is barely readable.

[robve]

(03-16-2021 01:33 PM)Hollerith Wrote:  Although they are small, I have not included the decoded programs in this post as all progams and manuals are copyright Tandy Corporation. Do Tandy enforce their copyright or are they happy for vintage stuff to be published?

Tandy is defunct since 2000 and became part of RadioShack. We know what happened to them, which is a big loss here in the US for many

The TRS-80 PC-2 software (not PC-1) is posted publicly here by pc1500.com, including Tandy applications:

http://www.pc1500.com/index.html

Although I do not own a PC-1, it would be really nice to have access to vintage PC-1 materials too. I am surprised that there isn't already a list of programs posted online somewhere.

- Rob

[pyedog]

(03-16-2021 01:33 PM)Hollerith Wrote:  Is there any interest? It would be a lot of effort to transfer all the programs and scan the manuals, but I am willing to do a few of the interesting ones such as the Complex Calculator in RPN from Electrical Engineering I.

I would be interested in any of them you would be willing to provide. I can't imagine anyone cares about copyrights on 40 year old basic programs that only run on obsolete hardware from companies that went out of business many years ago. Truthfully, the programs are more a curiosity than anything else at this point, my main interest is to see how people managed to solve problems within the performance/memory/display constraints. I can only imagine that back then I wasn't in as much of a hurry and didn't demand instant performance.

(03-16-2021 01:33 PM)Hollerith Wrote:  Sadly my PC-1 has bad LCD leakage and is barely readable.

I got lucky and the PC-1 I got off eBay has no leakage at all, but I suspect it is just a matter of time. I plan on ordering a replacement LCD from https://www.tindie.com/products/halfbake...p-pc-1211/ to keep just in case it fails in the future.

[Hollerith]

Here is the "Lander" program from the Games package. I chose this one because

I had already converted it.
It does not include special characters such as PI, SQRT, exponent
The instructions are only one page so I have OCRed it using FREEOCR.

Program

Code:


   10 " " PAUSE "ROCKET LANDING GAME"
   12 PAUSE "(C) 1980 TANDY CORP."
   20 PRINT "SHFT A TO INITIALIZE"
   30 PRINT "SHFT B TO RUN"
   32 PRINT "SHFT C TO REVIEW STATUS"
   40 PRINT "YOU WILL LAND OK IF"
   45 PRINT "YOUR ROCKET REACHES"
   50 PRINT "0 ALTITUDE WITH LESS"
   55 PRINT "THAN 10 UNITS VELOCITY."
   60 PAUSE "GOOD LUCK"
  100 "A" PAUSE "ROCKET LANDER START"
  110 USING "#####.##":V=-430:H=2678:F=725:T=0:X=F
  120 "C" PRINT "VEL=";V;" HT=";H
  130 PRINT "T=";T;" F=";F
  140 "B" INPUT "FUEL TO USE(0-75) ";P
  143 P=ABS P
  145 IF P>75 LET P=75
  150 IF P>F LET P=F
  155 F=F-P
  160 A=P*2000/(2000+F-X)-13:T=T+1
  170 H=H+V+A/2
  180 V=V+A
  190 IF F<=0 IF H>15 BEEP 1: PAUSE "OUT OF FUEL": GOTO 250
  200 IF H>0 GOTO 120
  210 IF ABS H<10 IF ABS V<10 BEEP 3: PRINT "LANDED IN ";T;" SEC": END 
  250 BEEP 5: PRINT "GOODBYE": END

Spaceship Lander

This program simulates a spacecraft landing on a planet. The
game starts with the craft descending toward the planet in
freefall at a starting height of about 2678 feet, and an initial
velocity of 430 feet/second toward the surface of the planet.

The object of the game is to land at zero velocity (height = 0
feet, velocity = 0 feet per second), by firing your rockets,
using the proper amount of fuel, at the right time. However, you
will land safely if your rocket reaches 0 altitude with less than
10 units of velocity.

You have a limited amount of fuel to accomplish your landing
(725 units). The maximum thrust you can request (in a single
one second burst) uses 75 units of fuel.
At the beginning of the game, the rocket provides an
acceleration of 1 ft/second, away from the surface, for each unit
of fuel. However, as fuel is burned and the remaining weight of
the spacecraft changes, the acceleration for a unit of fuel will
change accordingly. The gravity of the planet is 13 feet/second.

Instructions

1. Type CLOAD "LANDER" and press
ENTER .

2. When the ready display appears (>), press SHFT SPACE for
the Menu. Press ENTER to see each line.
SHFT A TO INITIALIZE (to set the landing conditions).
SHFT B TO RUN (to start the landing manuevers).
SHFT C TO REVIEW STATUS (of the spacecraft).

3. SHFT A will set up the program and create the landing
conditions. The spacecraft’s initial velocity and height is
shown on the display: VEL = -430.00 HT = 2678.00.
Press . The display will show the amount of time and
fuel availab|e:T = 00.0 F = 725.00.

4. Press SHFT B to start the landing procedure. The display
shows: FUEL TO USE (0-75). The computer is requesting
your fuel requirements for the first one-second burn. Enter
the amount of fuel to be burned (from 0 to 75 units).
The new velocity and height will be displayed. Press ENTER to
see the time and the remaining fuel. Press ENTER again, and
the computer will ask for the amount of fuel for the next
one-second burn.

You can display the ship’s status at any time by pressing
SHFT C. Continue the landing with SHFT B . You will land
successfully if you reach 0 height, with no more than 10
ft/second velocity. If you run out of fuel, you crash!

Happy Landing!


I have typed the program into a Sharp PC-1248 (worst keyboard ever), making changes for the smaller screen, and it runs OK.

On the PC-1 you run in DEF mode. On the PC-1248 ther is no DEF mode; use the DEF key instead of the SHFT key.

[pyedog]

It is interesting to look at that code as an example of a commercial program from 1980 ...

It can be run as a "normal" program, but they used the "SHIFT" label functionality to allow you to skip sections rather than prompting the user if they wanted instructions, to restart, etc. I guess this method would allow you to stop the game and resume later as long as you didn't modify any of the variables in the meantime.

Saying "B" TO RUN seems a bit harsh as it skips the statistics so you wouldn't know what your initial velocity or height would be when they ask you how much fuel. For that matter they never tell you how much fuel you have remaining ... you have to have been keeping track yourself. Maybe they thought memory was part of the game? It seems like

Code:

120 "C" PRINT "VEL=";V;" HT=";H: PRINT "REMAINING FUEL=";F

would be more user friendly.

Likewise, when it asks you for the fuel to use it seems like it would be good to provide a way to remind you of your current stats, something like

Code:

140 "B" INPUT "FUEL TO USE(0-75) ";P:GOTO 143
141 GOTO 120

would allow you to just press enter to see your stats again.

When you win (survive) it tells you how long it took you to land, while if you lose (crash) it just says "GOODBYE" ... I would have thought they would tell you that you failed, crashed, died, cost NASA a lot of money, etc.

I t almost looks like it was a port of a program from an even more primitive system that was adapted to the PC-1 BASIC. These days even simple apps have a huge overhead of effort put into the user interface and user interactions ... those were simpler times.

Would it be possible to get a list of the programs on the Games cassette and any interesting titles from the Engineering Math packages? I couldn't find a list of what programs were available on Google.

Thanks!

[Hollerith]

To Pyedog

I agree with you - the Lander program could easily be improved.

As requested here is a list of programs on "Games" and "Electrical Engineering I".

I will do the sme for the "Engineering Math I to IV"

Games

1. Missionaries and Cannibals (Cross the river without getting
eaten by the cannibals.)
2. Nim (An old game of logic in a new electronic form for 2
players.)
3. Spaceship Lander (Try to touch down on a strange planet
safely.)
4. Treasure Hunt (We hid it—you find it.)
5. Biorhythms (Not really a game, but a way to check your
cyclic mood for any day.)
6. Star Blaster (Save the universe by restoring its galaxies.)
7. Craps (A modern version of the old dice game.)
8. Quick Watson (The best-selling Radio Shack computer
game comes to the Pocket Computer— Who done it?)


b]Electrical Engineering I[/b]

The Pocket Computer Electrical Engineering I package
consists of six programs that cover seventeen functions.
A brief description of each program function is given
below.

1. Complex Calculator (COMPLEX is the name on the
tape)
A reverse polish notation calculator which operates
on complex numbers.

Complex Impedance Calculator for a Passive Circuit
(IMPCALC is the name on the tape)
2. Complex Impedance Calculator computes the effective
complex impedance of a network.
3. Capacitive Reactance Calculator computes the re-
actance of a capacitor at a given frequency.
4. Inductive Reactance Calculator computes the re-
actance of an inductor at a given frequency.

Low Frequency Transistor Amplifier Design (AMPDES
is the name on the tape)
5. Transistor Biasing computes the bias resistors
required for a low frequency transistor amplifier.
6. Heat Sink Calculations computes the heat sink re-
quired for a transistor amplifier.

7. Linear Equation Solutions (SIMEQ is the name on
the tape)
Solves a set of linear equations with up to eight
unknowns.

Filters (FILTERS is the name on the tape)
8. m Derived Lowpass computes the component values
required for an m derived low pass filter.
9. m Derived Hipass computes the component values
required for an m derived high pass filter.
10. Active Lowpass Filter computes the component values
required for an active low pass filter.
11. Active Hipass Filter computes component values
required for an active high pass filter.
12. Active Band Pass Filter computes component values
required for an active band pass filter.

Engineering Tables (TABLES is the name on the tape)
13. AWG to R/FT computes the resistance per foot for
a given wire gauge.
14. Current to Wire Size computes the minimum wire size
required for a given current.
15. Resistance Color Code to Value converts the color
bands on a resistor to a resistance value.

16. Capacitor Color Code to Value converts the color dots
of a five dot 1957 RETMA capacitor to a capacitance
value.
17. RF Coil Design computes the number of turns required
for an RF coil on an air core.

As a newcomer to the forum, I am a little wary that it might not be acceptable to "pollute" the forum with non-HP stuff.

[SlideRule]

Try;

Electrical Engineering I

Engineering Math III

Games II

BEST!
SlideRule

[pyedog]

(03-19-2021 04:51 PM)Hollerith Wrote:  As a newcomer to the forum, I am a little wary that it might not be acceptable to "pollute" the forum with non-HP stuff.

I too am a newcomer so I can't say, but it is the "Not remotely HP calculator" section, and this topic has come up a few times here over the years.

As far as I can find (my Google skills are not great) you seem to be the only person with the PC-1 cassettes. I myself am mostly interested in these from a historical interest plus the fact that I bought a PC-1 to re-experience the one I had 40 years ago. I can't honestly claim there is a real use for the PC-1 in this day and age except for a hobbyist's curiosity and enjoyment. But then, people spend a lot of time and effort on things that don't necessarily make sense on a practical basis.

Anyway, I think it would be a shame for these programs to disappear, and based on the number of replacement PC-1/PC-1211 and PC-3/PC-1251 LCDs being sold there seem to be more of them still kicking than I would have thought.

All that said, it would be a significant amount of work to get the cassettes in a state where the programs can be archived on the internet. I'd be happy to help, but I'm not sure what would make things easier for you. If you were to record the cassettes to a wav file I'd be happy to try cutting the file up into programs and trying to extract them with the pocket computer tools and test them on my PC-1. I'd also be willing to try typing up some of the instructions if you wanted to take photos. I can't promise I'd be successful, but I'd be happy to try.

I'm a bit sad that while we have a list of the Games II cassette we don't appear to actually have the cassette or the programs (as far as I can find anyway).

Anyway, thanks for your efforts and everything you have provided so far!

[Hollerith]

List of what is on Engineering Math I to IV.

I am happy to convert the programs from cassette to text. Once the audio input levels have been set it does not take long and the wav2bin program of pocket tools runs in a few seconds. Scanning the manuals takes longer but only I can do this.

Just need to decide where to put the programs.

Engineering Math I consists of three programs:

GAUSS Gaussian matrix reduction
MATMUL Matrix multiplication
MATINV Matrix inversion

GAUSS can complete a Guassian reduction of a
square matrix from 3 x 3 to 10 x 10, display the
reduced matrix, and calculate its determinant.

MATMUL will multiply an I x J matrix by a J x K
matrix, displaying an I x K matrix as the product.
IJ + JK must be less than or equal to 108.

MATlNV will calculate the inverse of a square matrix,
from 3x3 to 6x6.


Engineering Math II consists of three programs:

VECTOR Vector arithmetic
COMPLEX Complex arithmetic
ADVMATH Advanced trig and exponentials

VECTOR provides all common vector operations in
three dimensions in both Cartesian and polar
coordinates: addition, subtraction, dot product, cross
product, angle between two vectors, and direct
conversion of a vector between rectangular and polar
coordinate systems. Chain operations are allowed.
The mode may be changed between polar and
rectangular at any point during program execution
without adversely affecting intermediate results.

COMPLEX provides for the most common complex
number arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, calculation of magnitude,
conjugation, base-e logarithms, e to complex powers,
sines, cosines, arc sines, and arc cosines. Chain
operations are allowed.

ADVMATH provides 24 common trig functions in
degree or radian measure. lt also provides logarithms
to any base and an exponentiation function which
can raise negative numbers to positive or integral
negative powers.
At the end of each section of the manual, there is a
description of the program variables. These may be
useful if you want to examine intermediate results.
Use the Backup instructions in Appendix B to make a
working copy of the tape. See Appendix C for
Maintenance instructions.


Engineering Math III consists of two programs:

SIMEQ Linear simultaneous equations
PCALC Polynomial math and calculus

SIMEQ solves systems of up to nine linear
simultaneous equations for all unknowns. It can also
be used to complete a Gaussian reduction of
matrices from 2 x 2 to 9 x 9.

PCALC provides common polynomial functions and
calculus solutions for polynomials to the ninth order.
Included are evaluation of the polynomial at any
point, calculation of an exact derivative at any point,
calculation of an exact integral between any two
points, and Newtonian root search.
At the end of each section of the manual, there is a
description of the program variables. These may be
useful if you want to examine intermediate results.
Use the Backup instructions in Appendix B to make a
working copy of this tape. See Appendix C for
Maintenance instructions.


Engineering Math IV consists of one program:
TRIANG.

TRIANG will solve for the three common unknown
triangles (side-side-side, side-angle-side, angle-side-
angle) and also can solve from three Cartesian
coordinates. TRIANG solves for all sides and angles in
any angular unit (degrees, radians, or grads),
calculates area, and tests for equilateral, right,
lsoscoles, obtuse, and scalene properties.
At the end of each section of the manual, there is a
description of the program variables. These may be
useful if you want to examine intermediate results.
Use the Backup instructions in Appendix B to make a
working copy of this tape. See Appendix C for
Maintenance instructions.

[pyedog]

For anyone interested, I have updated https://pc1211.epizy.com/pc1211/ with the following PC-1/PC1211 compatible BASIC games:
* Shut The Box
* Tic Tac Toe
* Camel
* Hamurabi
* BlackJack
* Cave Adventure
* Video Poker
Both source and wav files are available. I have tested them on PC-1/PC-1211 and PC-3/PC-1251 pocket computers, but they might run on others as well.

[foroplus]

Hi, pyedog.
Welcome to the forum, and thank you for keeping alive this calculator. Maybe the first pocket computer.
I jot down your site. Kepp populating it with new articles and programs, it's great.

[mikesuch]

Hi!

The magic of google brought me here. Hoping you guys can help. I recently found my old PC-3 and put some fresh batteries in it and it is working! I'm interested in trying to load some of these programs into the PC-3. I downloaded the wav files and audacity. I have the printer/cassette interface and plugged in the ear on the interface to the ear on my computer and the mic to the mic, I tried cloading one of the wavs and the screen shows 'busy' , I hear a 'tone' but it sits there and does nothing until I hit 'break' and nothing loaded. Interestingy I can csave a test program i hand typed and it saves it ok but I can't cload it either (same results).

appreciate any thoughts or ideas

Mike

[Dave Britten]

(08-14-2021 09:30 PM)mikesuch Wrote:  Hi!

The magic of google brought me here. Hoping you guys can help. I recently found my old PC-3 and put some fresh batteries in it and it is working! I'm interested in trying to load some of these programs into the PC-3. I downloaded the wav files and audacity. I have the printer/cassette interface and plugged in the ear on the interface to the ear on my computer and the mic to the mic, I tried cloading one of the wavs and the screen shows 'busy' , I hear a 'tone' but it sits there and does nothing until I hit 'break' and nothing loaded. Interestingy I can csave a test program i hand typed and it saves it ok but I can't cload it either (same results).

appreciate any thoughts or ideas

Mike

You may want to try adding a headphone amplifier. Modern PCs usually don't have the same volume on the headphone jack compared to old cassette recorders. I have to use an amp if I want to load programs from pretty much any sort of digital audio player (this goes for many different computers I've tried, not just Sharp pocket computers).

[mikesuch]

Thanks Dave!
I actually figured it out, not sure it will help alot of folks but it turns out the board for the cassette interface is bad. I bought a different interface from the bay and tried it and it's working. Now I debate trying to figure out what electrical component isn't good. It prints and csaves ok but cload just won't work on the old one. It's a TRS-PC3 Printer/Cassette interface, was looking for service guides but no luck. I'm pretty good soldering, not so good debugging electrical circuits. if anyone has any ideas on what component it might be (hopefully just a simple diode or resistor) I could bring it back to life .

[Dave Britten]

(08-18-2021 08:16 PM)mikesuch Wrote:  Thanks Dave!
I actually figured it out, not sure it will help alot of folks but it turns out the board for the cassette interface is bad. I bought a different interface from the bay and tried it and it's working. Now I debate trying to figure out what electrical component isn't good. It prints and csaves ok but cload just won't work on the old one. It's a TRS-PC3 Printer/Cassette interface, was looking for service guides but no luck. I'm pretty good soldering, not so good debugging electrical circuits. if anyone has any ideas on what component it might be (hopefully just a simple diode or resistor) I could bring it back to life .

Huh, interesting! I'd test it with a known good cassette recorder or amplifier before writing it off as broken - it's possible that manufacturing differences or differently aging components could be to blame for slightly reduced sensitivity. I am no circuit expert either, so I can't give any suggestions on components to check. When in doubt, recap it.

[Swell1]

Wow what a great thread. Just yesterday I saw a thread on a different forum where an enthusiast has purchased two Casio PB-100 (TRS-80 pocket computer ) in working condition and was asking for help using them. I had the PB-100 & 110 one after the other, both lost in 1980's.

Immediately located my pdf copies of manual and some software, and my own treasure stash of programs and will be offering to him. Found an android emulator on the playstore ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...i.pokecom2 ) which seems usable, definitely a work of love! Saves to android folder, thank God.

Decided to type out my own programs as a record, and try some of the above software. So I am keenly interested in the contributions being made by members of this thread. And yes, I would like to modify for use in QBasic or QB64 ...

Thanks a lot, guys, for this great thread