yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
b274874139
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
264 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
264 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Exidy SORCERER
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categories:
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- Computers
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types:
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- Home Computer
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origins:
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- U.S.A.
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years:
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- '1978'
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cpus:
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- Zilog Z80 A
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params:
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name: SORCERER
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_system_s1.jpg
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company: /companies/exidy
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company_name: Exidy
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specs:
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- label: NAME
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value: SORCERER
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- label: MANUFACTURER
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value: Exidy
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- label: TYPE
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value: Home Computer
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- label: ORIGIN
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value: U.S.A.
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- label: YEAR
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value: '1978'
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- label: END OF PRODUCTION
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value: '1982'
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- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
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value: BASIC interpreter ROM cartridge
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- label: KEYBOARD
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value: Full-stroke keyboard, 79 keys with numeric keypad
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- label: CPU
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value: Zilog Z80 A
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- label: SPEED
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value: 2.106 Mhz.
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- label: RAM
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value: 8 KB, later 16KB (up to 48 KB)
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- label: VRAM
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value: 2 KB
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- label: ROM
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value: 8 KB
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- label: TEXT MODES
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value: 64 chars. x 32 lines
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- label: GRAPHIC MODES
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value: 128 programmable graphics characters
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- label: COLORS
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value: Monochrome
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- label: SOUND
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value: By connecting a speaker to pins 1 and 4 of the parallel port.
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- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
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value: 48.3 (W) 32.8 (D) 9.7 (H) cm
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- label: I/O PORTS
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value: Expansion Bus (S100), Parallel Interface, Video out, Serial Interface, Tape recorder EAR & MIC (300 / 1200 bauds)
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- label: OS
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value: CP/M (needs the extender chassis with disk drive)
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- label: POWER SUPPLY
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value: Built-in PSU
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- label: PERIPHERALS
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value: Floppy drive unit, S-100 bus expansion box, Intelligent tape recorder, Micromation's Doubler disk drive controller
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- label: PRICE
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value: From $895 to $1395
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tabs:
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- photos
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- adverts
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- hardware
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- software
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- emulators
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- links
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- docs
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forum_thread: 224
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photos:
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- title: EXIDY SORCERER
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_system_s2.jpg
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- title: RIGHT SIDE
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcerer-vm_1.jpg
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- title: DINASTY SMART-ALEC
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subtitle: ''
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text: Compudata European version.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcerer_smart-alec_1.jpg
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- title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_keyboard_s1.jpg
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- title: BOTH SIDES
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subtitle: ''
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text: Note the Cartridge slot on the right hand side.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_sides_s1.jpg
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- title: ROM CARTRIDGES SLOT
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_cartslot_s1.jpg
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- title: REAR CONNECTORS
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subtitle: ''
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text: An additional TV/RF video output was added to this model, red jack, next to the expansion bus connector.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_rearcon_s1.jpg
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- title: COMPLETE SYSTEM
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subtitle: ''
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text: Complete system with the standard Exidy monochrome monitor and the FDM 180 floppy drive unit.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_completesys_s1.jpg
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- title: OPENED
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subtitle: ''
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text: The power regulation card is fastened on top of the motherboard.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_opened_s1.jpg
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- title: MOTHERBOARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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In 1978, all the functions of the motherboard - memory management and various I/O, were carried out by numerous standard logic chips.
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**(1)** Character generator 2 KB ROM\
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**(2)** Z80 processor, here a NEC D780 version\
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**(3)** AY-3-1015 UART *Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter* Manages various serial communications\
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**(4)** Power regulation card connector\
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**(5)** ROM cartridge connector\
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**(6)** 8 KB monitor ROMs\
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**(7)** 48 KB RAM chips (24 x 4116)\
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**(8)** RAM banks selector switches
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_mainboard_s1.jpg
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- title: MOTHERBOARD CLOSE-UP
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_mainboard_s2.jpg
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- title: TAPE DRIVE
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subtitle: ''
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text: Provision was made inside the monitor case for either 1 or 2 5.25" floppy disk drives or an intelligent tape drive. The monitor and tape drive could be switched on separately (2 black switches on the right hand side). The two chrome buttons allowed to adjust read and record levels.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_tapemonitor_s1.jpg
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- title: 'TAPE DRIVE #2'
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subtitle: ''
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text: The tape drive and card were provided by a third company called MECA. The card holds its own CPU, ROM and RAM.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_monitorinside_s1.jpg
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- title: USER'S MANUAL
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subtitle: ''
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text: User's manual and Word processor cartridge.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_manual_s1.jpg
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- title: THE BOX
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_box_1.jpg
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- title: BOOT UP SCREEN
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subtitle: ''
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text: Boot up screen followed by a memory dump command.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_bootscreen_s1.jpg
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- title: TEST SHEET
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subtitle: ''
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text: Final test before the system left the factory.
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image: /media/museum/photos/exidy_sorcererii_testsheet_1.jpg
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adverts:
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- title: FRENCH AD (JAN. 1980)
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/pubs/exidy_sorcerer2_pub_voici.jpg
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hardware:
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- title: THE COMPUPRINT PRINTER
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_compuprint_1.jpg
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- title: THE MECA DIGITAL TAPE
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_meca-digital-tape_1.jpg
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- title: THE "PENNYWHISTLE" ACOUSTIC MODEM
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcerer2_acoustic-modem_1.jpg
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- title: FDM 180
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subtitle: FDD unit
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text: This FDD unit was made in 1980 made by Liveport Ltd., in the UK. The FD drive was a hard sector Teac model, single sided, single density, 180 KB formatted capacity. The controller cards occupie both sides of the FD drive.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/exidy_sorcererii_fdm180_s1.jpg
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emulators:
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- title: WSorcerer
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url: http://www.geocities.com/emucompboy/
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platform: Windows
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text: The only Sorcerer Win32 emulator. Supports \*.SNP format file
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- title: Exidy Sorcerer Emulator
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url: http://www.liaquay.co.uk/sorcerer/index.html
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platform: Other platform
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text: emulator with files to download
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- title: JSorcerer
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url: http://www.liaquay.demon.co.uk/sorcerer/
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platform: Other platform
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text: Java Exidy Sorcerer emulator that can be played online with some games !
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- title: MESS
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url: http://www.mess.org
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platform: Multiplatform
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text: MESS can emulate the Sorcerer computer
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links:
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- title: Digibarn Computer Museum
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url: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/exidy-sorcerer/index.html
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text: Nice page with a lot of pictures from their acquisition
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- title: Mike's Exidy Sorcerer Z80 Page
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url: http://www.lisp.com.au/~michael/exidy/
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text: ''
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- title: oldcomputers.net
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url: http://oldcomputers.net/sorcerer.html
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text: Nice detailed page with pictures
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- title: Sorcerer's Lair
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url: http://www.liaquay.co.uk/sorcerer/
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text: A showcase of magical computing on the Exidy Sorcerer
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- title: The Trailing Edge
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url: http://www.trailingedge.com/exidy/
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text: Docs and ROMs for download
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- title: Wikipedia article
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url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exidy_Sorcerer
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text: ''
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- title: www.computer-museum.nl
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url: http://www.computer-museum.nl/Exidy.html
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text: a lot of info here with many pictures and scans
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docs:
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- title: TECHNICAL MANUAL
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url: null
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/exidy_sorcerer_doc_manual.jpg
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text: |-
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**TECHNICAL MANUAL**\
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written by Dick Smith Electronics
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compiled/archived by David Wilson\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 984 KB\
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source : www.old-computers.com
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software:
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- /software/chomp
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- /software/galaxians
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- /software/martian-invaders
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- /software/snake
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- /software/sorcerer-invaders
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oc_id: 214
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230603023204/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=214
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date: '2023-06-03'
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---
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The Sorcerer II was the successor of the Sorcerer I (launched in 1978).
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The computer used programs on 8KB ROM packs encased in 8-track tape cartridges. The CPU could only address 64k: 0-48k for RAM, 49-56 for rompacs, 57-64 for the OS.
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It shipped with Microsoft MBASIC and a development tools assembler / editor ROM pack. A word processor ROM pack was also available.
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Exidy initially provided an expansion chassis that would accept up to 6 S-100 cards, and a Micropolis dual-disk quad-density 16-sector hard sector floppy disk drive was available. These disks would hold up to 330kb of data on a single side. A later version of the expansion chassis also included a green-screen monitor and two floppy drives, but may have held only 4 S-100 slots. A standard serial port was available, but shared internal resources with the keyboard which made baud rates higher than 300 a problem. The Pennywhistle 300-baud modem was often provided with this machine.
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The MECA digital "intelligent" tape drive could also be used and inserted into the Exidy monochrome monitor. (1 MB storage capacity, 8000 bauds transfer rate, file access in 10s, plugged into the parallel port)
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**Dutch CompuData** (CD) imported the Sorcerer into the European mainland. When sales in the US dropped because of the heavy competition in home computers market, Exidy Inc. stopped production of the Sorcerer. CompuData then produced the original Sorcerer in Holland in exactly the same outfit, but with the CompuData Systems Trademark for the European market. EXIDY Inc. of Richardson, Texas, finally closed the doors on March 26th 1982.
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---
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**Brian Shoebridge** adds:\
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The Exidy Sorcerer II was used in Australia by a few scientific and research people, like my father. Not many were sold as it was hugely expensive (>AUD$3,000 1981) and no good for games (the best was "Tank-Trap"). Sorcerers here shipped with either 32k or 48k. As it used a standard cassette tape for data storage, volume control was always an issue when loading or saving. Disk drives cost as much again as the basic machine, but there was a urious "stringy-floppy" which was less expensive. I owned one for a year or two, and used it with a large Unisys greenscreen monitor unit i sourced from a mini-computer.
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**Tim Bishop** specifies:\
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The sorcerer had better games than Tank Trap. (Though I fondly remember the game, playing it for hours when I was a kid, and would love to get a copy of the source code.) The graphics were quite good, with Chomp a Pac Man clone and Glaxians a Space Invaders clone.
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**Alan Meyer** reports:\
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I bought an Exidy Sorcerer II for $715 some time near the end of its sales life from a store that wanted to get rid of the last one it had. My son, then aged 6, wrote his first program on the machine and played "Arrows and Alleys" for hours. In addition to a 6.5KB MBASIC interpreter that was smaller and less functional than those found on Apple, Radio Shack, Atari or Commodore computers, a Forth compiler / interpreter was also available. It produced programs that were intermediate in efficiency between Basic and assembler.
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Two distinguishing features of the Sorcerer were the ROM cartridge port and the screen size. It supported, IIRC, a 30 line by 64 column display. The good part of that was that far more information could be displayed than in the competing systems. The bad side was that a real video monitor was required. A TV RF modulator would not produce readable text on screen. The keyboard was also quite nice, as can be seen from the image.
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Sorcerer sales were never very high and the manufacturers never had the money to get all the bugs out of the hardware and software. Crashes and hardware failures seemed to me to be more common than on other machines - though that may have just been my experience.
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