nstruction sets in good working order and I'll be glad to pay   
   any reasonable price.  If you have such a program in your collection   
   (documentation included) and no longer have a use for it, then please   
   consider selling it to me.  Just send me a note to my website   
   (www.lenardroach.com) with what you have and the price plus shipping.  No   
   reasonable offer will be refused.  I'll even take duplicates of what I   
   already got just to have backups.  I want to thank each and every one of   
   you in advance for your help.   
      
   Now to continue.  Sitting down at my Commodore keyboard sometimes just   
   isn't enough.  I have five projects sitting in my Commodore disk file box   
   that are in need of anything from minor code to complete re-works, and the   
   biggest pain in my fat, flatulent, flabby backside is my very first program   
   I wrote for a magazine -- "Check It Out."   
      
   "Check It Out" would seem like a little waste of time to spend so much   
   sweat on when with just a quick click of the mouse and your credit card   
   handy you can pay mostly anything through the power of the Internet.   
   However, I personally have some creditors that actually demand that I pay   
   either by check, money order, or cashier's check; no credit or debit cards.   
   So, I figure since I've got to sit down at a desk and physically write   
   these companies a check, I might as well go whole hog and send everyone a   
   check.  "Check It Out" was born out of a need to write about thirty checks   
   a month and at that time I was just beset with the wonderful condition of   
   carpel tunnel syndrome.  I wrote most of the code but the heart of the   
   program (the subroutine that makes it all work) was a collaboration of   
   myself and Commodore guru Carl Zuel.  Carl's fifteen line subroutine he   
   added makes the whole program worth it's while.  I've tweaked and shuffled   
   some of what he's done to "Check It Out" over several revisions of the work   
   but I never destroyed the original function of that subroutine.   
      
   The funny thing about "Check It Out" is that it is never the same program   
   for each dot matrix printer that is used with it.  In my naïveté at the   
   time I thought that all dot matrix printers that were Commodore and   
   Commodore compatible all followed the same program strings within their   
   microprocessors.  I was mistaken and should have seen this when I wrote a   
   subsequent second program that would allow the program to work on the   
   Commodore MPS 803.  The final program that was published in RUN magazine   
   was most compatible with the Commodore MPS 802, Commodore's business   
   printer.  It took several tries to get the PRINT#3 and empty spaces to make   
   the program print all the information correctly on the front of a check.   
   The program was not designed, but had to be tweaked to work on the several   
   models of Commodore and Commodore compatible printers that were available.   
   I also never realized that some Commodore print commands were unrecognized   
   by some of the compatible printers, the biggest of these commands being the   
   PRINT#6 and the PRINT#10 commands.   
      
   After all these years and the long disappearance of my MPS 802 manual, I   
   cannot remember what the PRINT#6 command did within the program, but I do   
   know that it was working only with the MPS 802 and MPS 803 printers; any   
   other printer that tried to access PRINT#6 would cause a "?" to be printed   
   on the check.  The PRINT#10 command caused the printer to go through a cold   
   restart without turning the printer off then on.  Again, printers that did   
   not recognize the PRINT#10 command printed a "?" like it did on the PRINT#6   
   command.   
      
   Then there was the problem of spacing on the check.  While PRINT#3 was a   
   carriage return on the printer, causing the printer to move down to the   
   next line, the empty PRINT commands (" ") moved the printer head from left   
   to right, and, similar to PRINT#6 and PRINT#10, a misplaced space on the   
   front of a check could mean the difference between acceptance or rejection   
   by financial institutions trying to cash the check written using "Check It   
   Out." That's was a big selling feature I pushed with the program was that   
   everything fell into place and all a user of same would have to do is sign   
   and mail the check.   
      
   The main controlling subroutine of "Check It Out" can be found in lines 900   
   to 1100.  Here is where the print commands come in to play and the printer   
   prints all the information written into all the inputs found in the first   
   half of the program.  Also, at the very beginning (around lines 10 to 200)   
   are some of the blank print strings used in adjusting the horizontal print   
   on the check.  These are the simplest factors to adjust by the addition or   
   subtraction of any blank lines that will best make the dot matrix printer   
   behave and locate everything accordingly.  When it comes to adjusting the   
   vertical print of the program one must (1) find out if PRINT#6 and PRINT#10   
   are recognized by the printer being used and (2) add or subtract PRINT#3   
   statements that best zeroes in on where each print line will start.  The   
   best results will occur when a check is inserted into the printer as flush   
   to both the left side and the top of the printer head.   
      
   "Check It Out" in its 1992 published form is nothing like what is sitting   
   in my 5.25" file box here in Kansas City.  With more miles on the keyboard   
   under my belt I see some errors I've made in coding it.  One was the   
   location of my setup text before actual functions begin.  In the original   
   code, the stringed text was scattered throughout the program; updates have   
   moved these "crunched" text lines to the beginning of the program.  Also,   
   I've inserted a new subroutine at around line 400 that gives the user an   
   option to access any data written and saved using "Check Mate," which I   
   hope to discuss in another article.   
      
   So far I've been batting 1.000 when it came to making my personal revisions   
   of "Check It Out" to work on several dot matrix printers I have owned.  The   
   last success was getting the program to work was on a Star NX10-C.  Now I   
   possess a Star NX1000, which one would figure that being from the same   
   family it would behave the same way....   
      
   Wrong!   
      
   This son of a bombastic mutant machine of a printer is nothing like its   
   predecessor.  I've been working on and off with this printer for about a   
   year and this thing still beats me on trying to get "Check It Out" to work   
   on it.  Even some other programs that require a printer are having troubles   
   obeying this printer.  I'd hate to admit defeat because of one machine but   
   I've almost run out of options.  I've been given a creative mind so I'll   
   pray and ponder over it some more before I order another printer.   
      
   I took this wonderful "masterpiece" to show at CommVEx knowing perfectly   
   well it wasn't ready for show or sale.  Good thing for me is that I didn't   
   show the program and worked instead with "The Ledger," which I also hope to   
   discuss in another article.   
      
   Please learn from my mistakes and make sure your Commodore creation is   
   perfectly ready for show and sale by alpha testing the living terror out of   
   your project beforehand.  Try to set up a circle of Commodore-using friends   
   who will be brutally candid with you about your work; such people hurt only   
   to help you become better.   
      
   Thanks for reading.  I'll chat with you next time.   
      
      
      
   *************************************   
              REVIEW: SHIFTED   
           For the Commodore PET   
   *************************************   
      
   www.revival-studios.com/commodore.php#cbmpet_shifted   
      
   SHIFTED (2013)   
      
   "How long can you keep shifting?", says the instructions.   
      
   Well Shifted is an action puzzle game that requires quick thinking and   
   quick responses.  You have to shift columns up and down to make   
   combinations of gems on the centre row.  The higher the combination, the   
   more points you will earn.   
      
   To play the game you use a joystick left/right or the keys (O,P) to move   
   cursor.  Use up/down (Q,A) to shift columns and use fire (or W/I) to rotate   
   centre row.   
      
   SOME OF THE GAME FEATURES   
      
   * Runs on all Commodore PET models (except 2001)   
      
   * Available on Tape and as Digital Download   
      
   * Highly Add   
      
   --- MBSE BBS v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux-i386)   
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- (3:633/280)