| Posted By
Luca
on 2019-05-03
03:42:15
 |  Although there are some minor issues...
Although there are some minor issues to trigger yet, Rüdiger has completed the Compute Mit Sonderheft SA series, providing all the disk compilations. We're still searching for the original TAP files and cassette cover scans.
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Posted By
Fonsis
on 2019-05-06
03:42:15
 | Re: Although there are some minor issues...
Oh dear! Oooooooh dear!
What do I see.... _Apfelberge 3D_
Well. It looks like I have to do my coming out now... 
http://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Apfelberge_3D
Yes, this "brilliant" piece of software was "programmed" by me and a buddy of mine back in 1989.
Yes, I am one of these guys you can read in the basic loader
Bernd Bachmann - that's me. 
Andre Schulze was a buddy of mine, back then in the late 80s.
So here I am - Hello folks!
And yes..... now it is 30 years later! :O
Jesus Christ!
WOW!
THIRTY YEARS! (in 1989 Apfelberge was released at Tronic Verlag, and now we have 2019)
What can I say... first of all a big thanks to Rüdiger for providing us this huge collection of Compute Mit disc images. And from me, I very (!) big thank you for retrieving "Apfelberge 3D" 
I thougt it was lost forever!
Well, in some kind it IS lost forever.
If you look closely at the second part "Apfel", it is obvious we first programmed it in basic and second we ran it through Austrospeed.
The point is, the source code (basic) is completely dead and gone!
Sorry for that.
Maybe there is a chance to recompile the file into basic.
On the other hand, I would not recommend to recompile the file, you will be affected with the crappiest basic programming skills in late '89. I have warned you!
Some hints (from my memories) for using this program:
There is a menu (german) which does the following:
1. shows you the current graphic - if you havent started to create a new picture, you will see a bunch of crap
2. save the current pic (1800-3fff) to tape/cassete, using kingsoft turbe tape.
You have to load and run kingsoft turbe tape FIRST, otherwise this option 2 will just.... break! (yep, thumbs up for programming skills from hell in 1989)
3. save the current pic (1800-3fff) to tape/cassette, no turbo tape. should always work
4. save the pic to disc - should almost always work fine - as long as there is enough space on the disc. If not - you loose.
5. directory (it is what it is)
6. neustart - here you can enter the needed coordinates to create a new picture
I will explain this in a moment...
7 ende - the end. Back to basic. Hooray!
So, Number 6 again.
If you press 6, some strange things seem to happen on screen. The prg changes to graphic4 mode, does some color adjustments (I really don't remember what exactly is going on there) and then it asks you to enter the coordinates for x-left, x-right, y-up, y-down and depht
So to give you an example how a 3D fractal may look like, please enter:
x-links (left) : -.5
x-rechts (right) : .5
y-oben (up) : .5
y-unten (down) : -.5
tiefe (depht) : 10
if you have entered these five numbers, you will see..... -->> nothing! <<--
WTF?
Ok, here it comes... my buddy Andre, who did the code with me, thought it would be a good idea to blank the screen during calculation. To speed things up a little bit. Back then he talked something about changing the Mhz from 1.something Mhz to almost 2 Mhz by blanking the screen... I have no idea if this ever worked. Forgive me.
But: if you press "P" during blank screen, you will the the current picture being calculated. With a nice line number counting (for whatever that was)... and the screen goes blank again after a few seconds.
And in the end, with a lot of patience... you will get a nice 3D fractal picture
You can now admire it in the menu, by pressing number 1
or save it to disc, tape, or do something else...
Ok, that's it. At least for "Apfelberge 3D".
In the 80s I did a few other things on the Plus/4, which already can be found here at plus4world.
Maybe I will tell you guys later about some other "fantastic programming" I did back then.
Laughter guaranteed.
btw: I already tried to recompile Apfelberge 3D with http://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Austrospeed_Recompiler
No luck.
I guess the code is really to bad. Even for recomiling.
Maybe someone else has more luck doing a recompilation?
If you have success, please let me know.
I am dying to see my source code....
Best regards
Fonsis
a.k.a. Bernd
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Posted By
Luca
on 2019-05-06
04:17:38
| Re: Although there are some minor issues...
Ohooo Fonsis, what a great picture of the past you've taken back
The program itself will be uploaded in the next hours/days, because is part of another massive upload round, which is on the way
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Posted By
Fonsis
on 2019-05-06
04:31:37
| Re: Although there are some minor issues...
Hi Luca & all,
yes, this was really a blast from the past. At least for me it was.
Anyway, to give you an example what the "standard" 3D fractal picture would look like, here is an actual screenshot I just took a few minutes ago. Using yape and "Apfelberge 3D"
https://i.postimg.cc/bw0N4yV8/apfelberge.jpg
Best regards,
Fonsis
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Posted By
MMS
on 2019-05-06
18:16:34
 | Re: Although there are some minor issues...
Rüdiger was nice (as always) to put things together! Thank you guys for the hard work, also uploading these stuff to be available. Respect!
@Fonsis:
Nice prg!
I saw your comments about the lame coding, but I disagree with you.
You could not overcome the CPU and HW limitations, and you also realized CPU speedup (like the C128's FAST function, worked in the same way), so seems it was arther advanced for the period and knowing the HW limitations.
According to my knowlegde, none of the working compilers support any +4 gfx BASIC command, I mean no speedup happens (but the calculation behind may be faster). Maybe if you draw with POKEs, like on C64, then could be faster...
I suppose for the compiled prg it would take just too much free space to add all thouse gfx routines to the package. (BTW it would be nice a feature to pack only those BASIC code elements by the compiler that are really used by the PRG itself. Eh, I know it is already a pretty tough job to write a compiler).
I really DO HAVE some really lame code and releases (not as advanced PRG as this one), but I focus on the future possibilities, and that is my history :-D
PS and OFF
My thesis work was about fractal geometry and practical use on nonlinear calculations, also made a fractal drawing prg. But it was still only in 2D, and was still pretty slow on a 386, despite compiled in Turbo Pascal. So I can really respect the good code in that field
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Posted By
MikeZ
on 2019-05-07
05:49:08
 | Re: Although there are some minor issues...
Fonsis: I was able to decompile Austrospeed itself a few years ago. It required mod to a C64 decompiler called "Blitz". If you want to decomp your prg you can email me at mikezuckerman7@gmail.com.
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Posted By
Fonsis
on 2019-05-07
08:11:08
| Re: Although there are some minor issues...
@Mike:
I just dropped you an email, any help on this decompiling mission is highliy appreciated!
Looking forward to hear from you!
@MMS
Well, my coding skills were a little rough back in the mid 80s, but anyway, thank you for your nice words.
You are right, back then 1988/89 Andre and I were thinking about the "FAST" option the C128 had and were looking for something similar for the Plus4
Andre found some interesting pokes, fiddled around with them a little bit and the result was the "blank screen option" during calculation process. I really have no idea if this made any differences or not...
Only the source code could tell us... maybe Mike and I can bring back the code to life again.
We will see...
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Posted By
Patrick
on 2019-05-08
03:05:33
| Re: Although there are some minor issues...
nice story, but what happened with Andre Schulze?
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Posted By
Fonsis
on 2019-05-10
07:02:09
| Re: Although there are some minor issues...
I lost contact to Andre long time ago. I have no idea what he is doing now or where he lives etc.
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