Printshop Companion Reference Manual

The Holiday Edition gives you fonts, borders, graphics, and full panel designs that bring your favorite holidays to life all year long. Holidays represented include New Yearil, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, and Christmas, as well as Motheril and Fatheril Day, Grandparentil Day, Veterans Day, and many more! These sparkling new designs will help you make your holiday messages as unique and personal as the people you're sending them to.

This Special Edition disk of the Print Shop Graphics Library brings you the best of previously published Graphics Library disks, as well as a wide assortment of exciting new graphics, borders and full panel designs. The Special Edition has over 100 graphic elements that you'llfind useful for any occasion.

The Print Shop is an easy-to-use program that lets you view, select and assemble the various elements of a personalized, decorative message, and print it on your regular computer paper, all in a matter of minutes. Creative expression and practical computer-generated graphics have never been this easy, foolproof or fun!

Pro Sprite by Dosoft (1985) - Create, catalog, edit and manipulate sprites with this outstanding utility:

• Create and save 32 sprite libraries - each sprite vith its own name and catalogue number.
• Extract data 'statements tor use in your own programs.
• Full featured sprite editor for single and multi colour sprites.
• Full colour control. Image, reverse, flip and rotate features.
• Keyboard or Joystick control.
• 100% machine code for instant response.
• Create frame by frame animated sequences.

QUIKPRO + is a complete File Maintenance / Data 'Entry Program Generator. A program generator actually writes the program for you. Ahnost every program which uses files to store data requires file maintenance. File maintenance generally refers to the addition to, updating of, or deletion from a file. Since file maintenance is a part of almost every program application, a great deal of time is used in the production of programs to do file maintenance. QUIKPRO + is designed to eliminate the tedious task of hand writing this type of program.

Computer Diagnostics is a collection of programs that will test your computer equipment. The program is easy to use by simply following the prompts on screen as you go.

Renegade v2 on the Commodore 64 is an early commercial “pro” disk-copy and utility suite from Kracker Jax Protection Busters, essentially the direct predecessor of what later became known as Maverick. Designed to run on a C64 or C128 with one or two 1541/1571 drives, it bundles fast copiers and low-level GCR “nibbler” routines with a large library of parameter disks—around 300 ready-made patches—to back up many heavily protected titles, including Electronic Arts schemes, Rapidlok, and even GEOS disks, often stripping out manual/codewheel checks in the process.

Saracen Paint is a graphic program that can transform your Commodore 64/128 into a powerful drawing tool.

Saracen Paint enables you to start drawing immediately, with its intuitive icon-driven system, and its easy-to-use pull down menu.

With Saracen Paint you can touch up your drawing in the smallest details with the help of a large range of colors and two zoom options.

Saracen Paint is fully compatible with KOALA PAINT and supports all well-known paint programs. It works at low resolution with 160 x 200 16-colour-pixels.

You can use either the mouse or the joystick.

SCOPE 64 is a fully structurable language, primarily intended for high speed handling of graphics, sprites, colour, sound, music and animation. It consists of 46 command words which are written in BASIC Rem statements. The program is then compiled or re-written into an area of memory reserved for it, and run by means of a SYS command.

Although many SCOPE words only handle integer numbers in the range 0-255, there are also several words which enable the programmer to deal with double byte integers (0-65535).

The handling of colour, sound and music is approached in a different manner then in BASIC. See the relevant section of this manual for full details.

As far as possible SCOPE words have been made to appear similar to their BASIC counterparts. This is to aid programmers, most of whom will already be familiar with BASIC. What the words achieve, however, is much more powerful as the instructions are compiled into machine code with the resultant increase in the speed of execution.

SCOPE also has many other advantages in its flexibility and ability to construct almost any form of structure in its programming. It should be regarded as a series of programming building blocks enabling the functions of the machine to be used simply and effectively.

Note - You can find the program here.

SCREEN DUMP, ETC sets up F1 through F8 to give the following capabilities:

• F1 - HELP KEY (lnformation and ESCAPE KEY FROM OTHER ROUTINES)
• F2 - SCREEN DUMP TO PRINTER (True dot by dot dump | Screen can be LO-RES or HI-RES, and can even Include custom characters and spritesl - NO restrictions)
• F3 - BASIC MEMORY ALLOCATION (Displays and allows changes to Start/End of BASIC RAM. VarIables, Arrays, and Strings)
• F4 - SCREEN DUMP TO DISK (12 capabilities, PLUS sprite data blocks and custom character sets used for screen are also saved)
• F5 - SCREEN MEMORY ALLOCATION (Displays and allows changes to locations of screens, sprite memory blocks. and character set)
• F6 - SCREEN LOAD FROM DISK (Reverse of F4 - locations can be changed)
• F7 - HEXADECIMAL TO DECIMAL OR DECIMAL TO HEXADECIMAL CONVERSION
• F8 - USER DEFINED (Transfers Control to user supplied machine language program)

ALL of the above functions may be performed at anytime. even during execution of a BASIC or machine language program. After the function key has completed Its task, the interrupted program will continue as if nothing happened! Compatible with most BASIC and machine language programs. F2 requires a 7 or 8 dot per byte DOT ADDRESSABLE printer such as Commodore, Epson, Gemini, etc.

Thanks Anthony for sending over the scan of this manual.  If anyone has the program that goes with this and wants to share, please contact us. 

Script-64:  A word processing program for the Commodore 64

This manual describes Script 64 Version 2.0, which has two word processors on the program disk: Script 64 and Script 64/80.  Script 64/80 not only loads a word processor into your computer, it also turns your  Commodore 64 into an 80 column computer.  You can run Script 64/80 without any extra hardware but it is also completely compatible with the Data 20 Video Pak 80 cartridge.

Note - Big thanks to Robert P. for sharing this manual.

I haven't been able to find the actual Commodore 64 manual for Sky Travel, but I did find an older Macintosh version of the manual and this addendum.  

Update - Thanks to Bruce Thomas, we now have the manual, cheat sheet and easter eggs!

Welcome to Sky Travel! The magic of microelectronics has made it possible to have an accurate model of the universe in your own home at a modest cost. The awesome computations and enormous amounts of data are handled quickly and efficiently by your Commodore 64 computer. All you have to do is select your exploration commands and Sky Travel will return the information in pictorial form, directly on your screen - and in bright colors at that!

Thanks to Bruce Thomas, we now have the Commodore 64 manual plus some extras.  Inside the archive is Leroy's Cheatsheet for Sky Travel and a document about Sky Travel Easter Eggs!

Couldn't locate the Commodore 64 version of the Sky Travel manual, but found this Macintosh version that was released around the same time, so maybe it will be useful in conjunction with the Sky Travel 64 Addendum.

Update - Thanks to Bruce Thomas, we now have the manual, cheat sheet and easter eggs!

Thank you for purchasing the SNAPSHOT 64 ENHANCEMENT DISK! This disk includes several utilities for use with programs archived by the SNAPSHOT 64 cartridge. These utilities are NOT required for the normal use of SNAPSHOT 64 - they are simply the aids most frequently requested by SNAPSHOT 64 owners. The utilities on the ENHANCEMENT DISK Include:

• NEW BOOT PROCESS - The boot process has been updated, allowing SNAPSHOT 64 to successfully archive more programs than ever! The new boot can be added to previously SNAPSHOT'ed programs separately or in combination with the other options below.
• FAST BOOT MAKER - Adds a fast loader to programs already archived by SNAPSHOT 64. Can also be used to restore the original "slow" boot to the program if desired.
• CARTRIDGE MAKER - Creates a cartridge version of virtually any SNAPSHOT'ed program! The program will download and run from the cartridge in just a few seconds!
• COMPRESSION UTILITIES - For examining the compressed files 1n a SNAPSHOT'ed program. Decompress a file to memory, examine or modify 1t, then recompress it back to disk.
• MEMORY USE DISPLAY - Displays the memory areas used by a SNAPSHOT'ed program.

All of these utilities have been carefully designed for convenience and reliability. Even a novice can create a cartridge or install the fast boot! Of course, each utility is thoroughly explained in this manual, just 1n case any questions arise.

Besides covering the utilities above, this manual will also provide detailed information about the files created by SNAPSHOT 64. You can use this information to investigate SNAPSHOT'ed programs.

S.A.M. -- the Software Automatic Mouth -- a versatile, high-quality speech synthesizer created entirely in software. You have added quality speech to your personal computer for a lower cost than ever before possible and, in the bargain, have gained features that other speech synthesizers cannot offer.

S.A.M. is designed to be easy to use. With a couple of simple program statements, you can add speech to your BASIC or assembly-language programs. When you have mastered the easy-to-learn phonetic alphabet, the inflection system, and the use of pitch and speed controls, you will be amazed at what you can make S.A.M. do. And, until then it will already match the performance of other speech synthesizers.

Note - this is a really bad scan of the manual, but it's the only Commodore 64 version I could find.

Here is a nice clean scan of the SAM - the Software Automatic Mouth.  Although it's for the Apple, most of the information is relevant to the Commodore 64 version also.

SPEEDWRITER is a BASIC compiler for the CBM 64. The programs originate in the United Kingdom and are improved and upgraded versions of DTL BASIC COMPILER, developed for Commodore business computers.

The function of a compiler is to convert a program from its source form (ie. the form in which it is written) into a more efficient form that can run much faster than the original.

SPEEDWRITER has been specially optimized for the CBM 64 and it not only makes every BASIC program a lot faster but will also make each program significantly smaller, except for programs with only a few lines.

SPEEDWRITER is 100% compatible with CBM 64 BASIC . This means that any existing BASIC program can be compiled without any alteration, to produce a program that peforms exactly the same, and yet is much faster and requires less memory and disk space.

SPEEDWRITER is designed so that it can be used by people with no programming knowledge to compile existing programs. Yet for more experienced users, a range of facilities is provided to enable the full potential of the CBM 64 to be realized.

Here's a link to the program.

SPEEDY ASSEMBLER is a comprehensive machine code development package, which is suitable for both the beginner in machine coding and the experienced programmer, who wants to write large, complicated machine-code programs.

To the best of our knowledge, SpellRight Plus/64 is the most capable proofreading software available for Commodore Microcomputers. Yet, SpellRight Plus/64 is actually a very simple computer program, requiring the operator to learn only a few commands and keystrokes. with a little assistance, the average user is capable of operating SpellRight Plus/64 in less than 30 minutes of study/instruction. Though simple to learn and operate, you will find that SpellRight Plus/64 will save you hours of drudgery while proofreading your important documents. In many cases, SpellRight Plus/64 can save hundreds of hours of professional and clerical time, while improving the quality and appearance of your documents. To maximize those savings, we ask a relatively simple favor.

The Spence System BBS. A program which has come back to haunt us again and again. A program which is never really complete. A program which continually groNns, evolves, improves and takes us every last clock cycle of our spare time. A program which had cast our names into modemland history and has made us less money than running a Kool-aid stand in January.

The Spritemaster 64 animation program is designed as a sprite generator and editor for use by programmers or as a fun and creative playmate for children or adults.

Sprites are movable object blocks which, through the power of the new Commodore 64 computer, can be made to imitate almost any moving object.

Spritemaster helps you build your sprite, then copy and modify it to produce a sequence of pictures which represent the object in motion. The Animate command will then put each picture on the screen in rapid succession to create the animation. This is similar to what takes place in a movie projector where still photographs, each a slightly different picture, are rapidly projected one after another onto the screen to produce a “ motion picture.”

Spritemaster lets you modify your sprite picture sequence to produce colors, shapes and sizes which give the best effect. In addition, you may change the speed of animation (the rate at which the still frames are displayed) or the speed of travel (the vertical or horizontal movement across the screen).

Once you have created your animated figure, you can save the informaton to tape or disk for retrieval at a later time. You may want to refine several figures for use in a game program. Although Spritemaster is not a game program, it is a program to create game objects. For example, it cannot display a pitcher throwing a baseball to a catcher. It can, however, be used to create the pitcher as a separate sprite, including the throwing motion, then the baseball as another sprite, and then the catcher as the final sprite. Each object is created separately and then transfered to other programs for interaction and movement as desired. The programmer’s reference section provides guidance on how to manipulate sprites in your own programs.

Excellent Step-by-Step 64 BlazeTerm Guide by Andrew Wiskow of CottonWood / Borderline fame!

Welcome to the fabulous world of Desktop Publishing. With the STOP PRESS processor you can create your own newspapers, magazines, posters, leaflets, handouts, letters, infact whatever type of document you need. Impress your friends, school chums or work colleagues with really professional looking documents.

The Super C compiler is a four-part system. An editor makes it easy to enter programs. The programs are translated into machine language by the compiler. The compiler is a complete version of the C language except for bit fields. The linker binds separately compiled programs together. The fourth component of the system is a disk manager which can be used to copy files.

The SUPER FAST FILE BACKUP is the fastest file duplicating system available for the Commodore 64 computer. Also Included with the program is a set of helpful utilities for disk organization. These utilities and the SUPER FAST FILE BACKUP utilize the same hardware as the 21-Second Backup for all data transfer between computer and drive.

The SUPER FAST FILE BACKUP AND UTILITIES are Intended to be used for duplication and organization of pesky copy-protected disks using one or two 1541 disk drives.

This is the handbook to your SUPER Pascal Development System for the Commodore 64 and 128. The minimum hardware required to run SUPER Pascal is a C-64 (or C-128 in C64 mode), a 1541, and a television or
monitor. A second disk drive and printer will let you take full advantage of SUPER Pascal.

This handbook is designed to help you understand the workings of SUPER Pascal, assuming that you have had experience in the Pascal language. It is not a basic course in Pascal, and makes no claims to that effect Before using SUPER Pascal, you should be familiar with the PASCAL language and how it works.

The programming language C has been in existence since about 1972. It was developed by Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan for the operating system UNIX.  More then 90% of UNIX was written in C.  With the spread of UNIX, C enjoyed greater popularity as well.  Super C now makes it possible to program in C on the C-64 or C-128.

Super-Text Word Processor by Muse Software (1983)

Ideal for the student, businessman or novice computer owner, Super-Text's on-screen instructions and simple commands allow you to quickly create more professional looking correspondence.  80-column display and on-screen formatting shows how a document will appear before it is printed.  Super-Text also features automatic page headings, page and chapter numbering, automatic word wrap, single key commands, unlimited document size, multiple file search and replace, copy/save/delete blocks of text, split screen, disk storage and retrieval.

Thanks to Dave L. for scanning in this 175 page manual and sharing!

Superbase 64 is a database program for the Commodore 64, released by Precision Software in 1984.

This is the insert of revision information that comes with the Superbase 64 manual.

Superbase 64 Version 3.0 has several new features which may be of interest to you. These new features were added to make the Superbase 64 product more versatile and easier to use than ever before.

Thanks to Howlin' Alan for acuiring and sharing this!

Superbase is a computer filing system (database) for the Commodore 64.  This book was accompanied by an audio tape as a tutorial for Superbase.

The SuperFORTH 64 I/O UTILITY PACKAGE is a collection of utility words designed to aid in Input / Output operations. The package covers three main areas:

1. RS232 utilities.

2. COMMODORE PRINTER/PLOTTER utilities.

3. KOALA PAD utilities.

The SuperFORTH MICRO MANUAL assumes that your programming experience has been largely that of BASIC and machine language. So you may be asking yourself: "What’s so different about FORTH, aside from the fact that it runs faster than BASIC?" The answer is: FORTH is like no other programming language you’ve ever used!

SUPER FORTH 64 is a complete implementation of the FORTH-79 Required and Extension Word Sets. It contains extensions from FIG FORTH, STARTING FORTH by Leo Brodie, and special extensions to take advantage of the particular hardware in the Commodore 64 computer.

SuperKey is a utility program for the Commodore 64 computer that allows you to redefine up to 96 keys on your keyboard. You can redefine some or all of the keys, and add, change or delete any of the definitions
at any time. The keys that you can redefine are the graphics characters that are accessed by pressing and holding either the SHIFT or Commodore keys prior to pressing one of the graphics keys. Throughout the remainder of this manual the SHIFT and Commodore keys will be abbreviated SH and C=, respectively.

Thanks to Anthony for providing this documentation.  Although it's a scan of a photo copy, so far it's the only manual I've ever seen for this software and it's much appreciated.

Note - If anyone has this utility, I would love to add it to the site.

Welcome to Superscript, the complete word processor for the Commodore 128 from Precision Software.  The tutorials cover only the beginners level of tuition, and get everyone going with the system as quickly as possible.  We've left some of the more advanced features of the program for a more leisurely learning session.

This manual presents the Superscript word processing system in different ways to suit individual learning preferences. We recommend that everyone goes through the TUTORIALS. These take you through a range of Superscript activities:

• Loading documents from disk
• Using menus and commands
• Creating new documents
• Updating documents, including cut and paste editing
• Arithmetic
• Handling a mailing
• Obtaining screen and printed output

A big thank you goes out to one of our visitors that has been kind enough to contribute this wonderful scan so we can take this of the "Wanted List".  Since I only know this person by their real name, I'll refrain from posting that info.

Here's a link to the disk image

Supremacy was originally designed and written on another Commodore machine - the Amiga - and the main manual was written to describe the game and its controls as they appear on that machine.

In converting Supremacy to the Commodore 64, the programming team made very few compromises. The scenario and gameplay are identical, no matter which machine you are playing the game on, and the ‘point and click' user interface is functionally identical, although one or two minor changes have been made to the graphics.

The main manual, although it was written for the Amiga version of Supremacy, will serve you very well - it acts as a detailed guide to the game. Read it closely to get the maximum enjoyment out of Supremacy - who knows, with enough practice you might be able to beat Rorn and win control of the Yottsu system.

Swift Desktop Publisher is a suite of graphics and printing software combined with sample fonts and graphics images. Draw & Paint is a program for making screen images. Create Clip Art is a graphics program for making smaller graphics images. Customize Characters is a program for creating custom character sets. Create lettering is a program for creating custom letters for specialized use. Format a printed page is a program to set all the parts of your document on page-sized layouts for printing. Banners & Bumpers is a program to lay out formats in up to 6-pages for a banner or "bumper sticker." Print, as the name implies, lets you select which type of document to print and then allows you to select the printer to print with. List Sample Files is a listing of the files on the Swift Desktop Publisher program disk that contain special lettering, fonts, clip art, and banner lettering.

SysRes is one of the best BASIC programming tools available for the C64. I've recreated the manual from scratch in an easy to read PDF. The index and many keywords are hyperlinks. I've fixed spelling and other obvious errors, but otherwise I've tried to match the original layout as closely as possible. 

SysRes - "THE ULTIMATE RESIDENT PROGRAM MANIPULATION SYSTEM" Users Guide.

TAS-SIGN produces large lettering in a variety of sizes and styles on dot matrix printers. The eye-catching nature of the output produced by TAS-SIGN makes the program particularly suitable for printing signs, notices, p ost^ s and banners.

There is an essential procedure which you should carry out before you' use the program to create your own signs. This is to run the TAS-SIGN configuring program, TSCONFIG, to specify information about your make and model of printer and how it is attached to the computer. This procedure is described in section 2.

Section 3 is a tutorial introduction to the use of the program. You should work through this section on your computer to gain an initial understanding of the uses, capabilities and operation of the program.

Sections 4 and 5 are reference sections which list and describe the TAS-SIGN commands. Refer to the commands in these sections while working through the tutorial of section 3. Section 4 describes the editor commands which are used to type in, and correct, the text that is to be printed on the sign. Section 5 describes how to control the appearance of the printed sign.

Section 6 describes restrictions concerning the use of the program and errors which may be reported.