12-07-2023, 05:11 PM
From my recent purchase of Microbee material, Microbee Newsletters just keep coming, not many more to go. This time its a collection of THE BUZZ newsletters from the Hawkesbury Microbee Computer Club. These were some the most difficult newsletters I've ever scanned. Paper sizes varied from Foolscap, Legal, Quarto and A4 and sometimes mixed within each newsletter. Single sided and double sided mixed also, printing varied between Typewriter, photocopy and pale pink Gestetner that are impossible to read let alone scan. A couple were printed on paper similar to thick blotting paper 
The collection started with the May 1984 and June 1984 editions. There were just dated only and as the next was August 84 and as Vol 2 No 2. So missing v2-01 and any prior to May 84. The newsletters appeared regularly, but many bi-monthly, up to Vol4 No5 (Nov/Dec 1986) then nothing for 1987 and in 1988 they re-appeared not numbered but just dated and ending in Nov/Dec 88 issue. As seen from the following list, we are missing earlier than May 84 issues, Vol2 01, 06 and 10, any from 1987 and any after Nov/Dec 1988, can anyone help with these missing copies? Remember, we can do the scanning if you cant or not have the time. Its important that the history of the Microbee be preserved before its all lost forever.
One mod that took my notice was games running on CIAB and 64k Microbees that have colour adapters fitted and running a colour screen. From Vol 4-05 it explains -
Those people with colour monitors on their Microbees will know
that many games which work from MWBasic are hard to use because they
redefine the screen for 64 characters by 32 lines. The problem arises
because MWBasic only clears the first 1024 bytes of the 2048 bytes of
screen and colour RAM, which is normally enough - but in this case
it's not. The result is that the colour of the second half of the
screen hides the goings-on there.
I found in Premium Basics, a HIRES2 command fixes the problem, but doesn't work for CIAB and 64k Microbees. This mod simply changes one byte in the Basic rom or file to clear the whole Colour ram. If you have this issue, check it out.
Like all the newsletters from all the Microbee user groups, these are full of Whats new, Tips, Tricks, Hardware updates, Tutorials, Program & Book reviews, program Listings and much much more. Most of the clubs appeared to swap Newsletters with one another and they regularly reviewd the top articles from each in their own Newsletter. So all worth a great read for all Microbee users and collectors.
So in the Public Repository in the new Newsletters\The_Buzz folder we placed
the_buzz_v1_11.pdf <--May 1984
the_buzz_v1_12.pdf
the_buzz_v2_02.pdf <-- August 1984
the_buzz_v2_03.pdf
the_buzz_v2_04.pdf
the_buzz_v2_05.pdf
the_buzz_v2_07.pdf
the_buzz_v2_08.pdf
the_buzz_v2_09.pdf
the_buzz_v2_11.pdf
the_buzz_v2_12.pdf
the_buzz_v3_01.pdf <-- August 1985
the_buzz_v3_02.pdf
the_buzz_v3_03.pdf
the_buzz_v3_04.pdf
the_buzz_v3_05.pdf
the_buzz_v3_06.pdf
the_buzz_v3_07.pdf
the_buzz_v3_08.pdf
the_buzz_v3_09.pdf <-- May 1986
the_buzz_v4_01.pdf <-- June/July 1986
the_buzz_v4_02.pdf
the_buzz_v4_03.pdf
the_buzz_v4_04.pdf
the_buzz_v4_05.pdf <-- Nove/Dec 1986
the_buzz_88_01-02.pdf <-- Jan/Feb 1988
the_buzz_88_03.pdf
the_buzz_88_04-05.pdf
the_buzz_88_06-07.pdf
the_buzz_88_08-09.pdf
the_buzz_88_11-12.pdf
The collection started with the May 1984 and June 1984 editions. There were just dated only and as the next was August 84 and as Vol 2 No 2. So missing v2-01 and any prior to May 84. The newsletters appeared regularly, but many bi-monthly, up to Vol4 No5 (Nov/Dec 1986) then nothing for 1987 and in 1988 they re-appeared not numbered but just dated and ending in Nov/Dec 88 issue. As seen from the following list, we are missing earlier than May 84 issues, Vol2 01, 06 and 10, any from 1987 and any after Nov/Dec 1988, can anyone help with these missing copies? Remember, we can do the scanning if you cant or not have the time. Its important that the history of the Microbee be preserved before its all lost forever.
One mod that took my notice was games running on CIAB and 64k Microbees that have colour adapters fitted and running a colour screen. From Vol 4-05 it explains -
Those people with colour monitors on their Microbees will know
that many games which work from MWBasic are hard to use because they
redefine the screen for 64 characters by 32 lines. The problem arises
because MWBasic only clears the first 1024 bytes of the 2048 bytes of
screen and colour RAM, which is normally enough - but in this case
it's not. The result is that the colour of the second half of the
screen hides the goings-on there.
I found in Premium Basics, a HIRES2 command fixes the problem, but doesn't work for CIAB and 64k Microbees. This mod simply changes one byte in the Basic rom or file to clear the whole Colour ram. If you have this issue, check it out.
Like all the newsletters from all the Microbee user groups, these are full of Whats new, Tips, Tricks, Hardware updates, Tutorials, Program & Book reviews, program Listings and much much more. Most of the clubs appeared to swap Newsletters with one another and they regularly reviewd the top articles from each in their own Newsletter. So all worth a great read for all Microbee users and collectors.
So in the Public Repository in the new Newsletters\The_Buzz folder we placed
the_buzz_v1_11.pdf <--May 1984
the_buzz_v1_12.pdf
the_buzz_v2_02.pdf <-- August 1984
the_buzz_v2_03.pdf
the_buzz_v2_04.pdf
the_buzz_v2_05.pdf
the_buzz_v2_07.pdf
the_buzz_v2_08.pdf
the_buzz_v2_09.pdf
the_buzz_v2_11.pdf
the_buzz_v2_12.pdf
the_buzz_v3_01.pdf <-- August 1985
the_buzz_v3_02.pdf
the_buzz_v3_03.pdf
the_buzz_v3_04.pdf
the_buzz_v3_05.pdf
the_buzz_v3_06.pdf
the_buzz_v3_07.pdf
the_buzz_v3_08.pdf
the_buzz_v3_09.pdf <-- May 1986
the_buzz_v4_01.pdf <-- June/July 1986
the_buzz_v4_02.pdf
the_buzz_v4_03.pdf
the_buzz_v4_04.pdf
the_buzz_v4_05.pdf <-- Nove/Dec 1986
the_buzz_88_01-02.pdf <-- Jan/Feb 1988
the_buzz_88_03.pdf
the_buzz_88_04-05.pdf
the_buzz_88_06-07.pdf
the_buzz_88_08-09.pdf
the_buzz_88_11-12.pdf
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ChickenMan
ChickenMan