ROMANTIC ROBOT presents

Multiface Two


INTRODUCTION

MULTIFACE 2 Is a true MULTIpurpose InterFACE for the CPC range with:
1) Fully automatic back up of any program once loaded Into RAM
2) 8K RAM extension - for software such as our INSIDER, or as a buffer, etc.
3) MULTI TOOLKIT to study/modify/develop programs. POKE infinite lives, etc.
4) TRUE RESET BUTTON which clears the first 64K CPC RAM.


CONNECTING THE MULTIFACE

The CPC MUST be switched OFF before attaching/removing the Multiface.
Multiface is best plugged directly on to the edge connector; It has a
through connector to allow you to connect any other peripherals. Check all
connections carefully before switching the CPC ON, or else serious damage
may occur and your guarantee will be VOID. A proper attachment is vital for
the functioning of the Multiface - and a bad contact is the cause of 99% of
all problems. If attaching/using the Multiface brings random coloured
squares or other garbage on the screen, clean the edge connector with an ink
eraser and re-connect the Multiface. If your system and the Multiface should
still not work, switch the CPC OFF, remove any add-ons except the Multiface,
and re-read these instructions carefully. Should you really not succeed,
please phone us on 081-200 8870 or write to us. but do NOT return the
Multiface until we ask you to. In such case, please use the original
packing, state your name, address, phone number, and describe the problem
and the whole equipment used. Please read the guarantee as well.


USING THE INVISIBILITY SWITCH

Multiface has a software switch to make it (in)visible, to prevent possible
clashes with other hardware/software. Multiface can ALWAYS be activated,
irrespective if previously set ON or OFF - a program can ALWAYS be frozen,
even with the Multiface set OFF. Upon powering up the CPC, or after pressing
the Multiface reset button, the Multiface is set to ON. To set the Multiface
OFF, just press the stop button, and press r to return. If a program fails
to load with the Multiface attached, simply make the Multiface invisible.


USING THE MULTIFACE

Multiface works on the CPC 464/664/6128. It can be used at any point,
Immaterial of what is currently in the computer at the time, be it loaded
from tape, disc or typed in. Multiface doesn't save programs as such, but
computer contents (compressed RAM image). Upon returning from the Multiface,
programs continue as if never frozen.

To use the Multiface:

1) LOAD and RUN the program you wish to save/inspect in the normal way
2) Push the STOP button to activate Multiface and obtain the MAIN MENU

[r]eturn [s]ave [t]ool [j]ump [c]lear (6128 only)

3) Select the required option from the menu by pressing its relevant key -
it is always shown in inverse and it is usually the first letter (such
as r for return).


PIRACY IS ILLEGAL!

MULTIFACE 2 is NOT designed to encourage piracy!

Please note that you must not use it to copy, reproduce or infringe in any
way any copyright material without the clear permission of the copyright
owner. ROMANTIC ROBOT neither condones nor authorises the use of Multiface
for the reproduction of copyright material - to do so is illegal!


SAVING WITH THE MULTIFACE

Multiface automatically compresses the contents of the computer before
saving and 6128 users can further limit the amount of bytes to be saved and
speed up loading by clearing the extra 64K RAM block, provided it is not
used by a program to be saved! The CPC original 64K RAM may contain
code/garbage from a previous program or after a power-up. It is good
practice to reset the Multiface before each loading, as this is the safe way
to fully clear the original RAM (remember you may need to press the STOP
button and then return to make the Multiface invisible after resetting
it!). If you are certain that a program does NOT use the extra 64K, you can
press c to clear it before saving.

Having loaded a program, pushed the STOP button and possibly having cleared,
you can proceed to save a program (or just a screen) by pressing s.

Multiface will first ask you to input the name of the program/screen to be
saved with up to 7 characters (or just press ENTER to input RUN
automatically as a default).

Filenames can only be letters or digits, with all letters automatically
being converted to uppercase. The usual rules for filenames apply, only
extensions cannot be used. These are all legal filenames:

DISK
NEVER12
WRIGGLE

These are not:

DISK.BIN (no extensions allowed)
NEVER M (no spaces allowed)
WRIGGLER (too long)
MY,PROG (no punctuation marks allowed)

If you suddenly decide not to save, pressing ESC will take you back to the
MAIN MENU.


SAVING (contd.)

Once you have chosen the Filename, press ENTER (464) or RETURN (664/6128).
The display will change to:

<[ESC]> [h]yper[t]ape [d]isc ([s]creen or [program])

Pressing p or s toggles between saving the whole program or screen only. The
whole program Is saved by default. As from any menu, you can back out with
ESC. If saving to disc, press d; please ensure the disc is formatted and has
sufficient space: theoretically up to 128K on the 6128 with all banks
active, but the automatic compression should always reduce this.

Multiface has a full error-trapping combined with on-screen prompts - thus,
for instance, DISC MISSING will be displayed If the disc is not formatted or
inserted, DISC FULL if there isn't enough space for the program to be saved.
You can abort or just swap discs.

If saving to tape, make sure you are using a long enough tape, and that it
is in position. You can choose between the normal tape (1000 baud) and
hypertape save (2000 baud). Press Play & Record on your tape recorder, and
then any key on the computer as usual.

When saving on the Multiface is complete you will be returned to the MAIN
MENU and you can either return to continue the program or use any other
function of the Multiface.


RELOADING

Reloading Programs.

To reload a program saved by the Multiface, ensure the Multiface is switched
ON (you can always press the RESET button to switch it ON), and then type:
RUN"[filename]".

Reloading screens.

To reload a screen you need to type in and RUN the following:-

10 MEMORY 16384
20 LOAD "[filename]"
30 CALL 32768
40 WHILE INKEY$< >" "; WEND
50 MODE 1

Irrespective of what screen mode you are in (0,1,2), the saved screen will
appear properly with all parameters, colours, etc., because the CRTC chip is
set correctly by the special code saved along with screen and called by CALL
32768. The CRTC and the firmware may not agree over which screen mode they
are in, hence line 50.

If you want print the screen to a printer, using your own special print
routines, you have to load them into a convenient memory location outside
the range 16384 to 33000. You could then modify line 40 to call the print
routine.


THE JUMP COMMAND

You can jump to execute code at any address in CPC ROM/RAM or Multiface
ROM/RAM. You can do so either from the MAIN MENU - we call this INDIRECT
JUMP - or by setting the Multiface to JUMP DIRECTLY upon pressing the STOP
button and thus by-pass the Multiface MAIN MENU completely. The use of JUMP
requires a GOOD knowledge of m/c!

Indirect Jump.

The address to jump to is poked into &2000 (the low byte) and &2001 (the
high byte). A value &80 - &8E is poked into &2002 to set the screen mode and
ROM setting - please refer to info (Byte 19) on Page 5. On a 6128, poke
&2003 with a value &C0 - &C7 (please see sel an Page 5) to select which bank
of RAM you wish to jump to. Address &2004 can be ignored. To use any
operating system calls, the Multiface must be paged out by instructions LD,
BC 65258 and OUT (C),C. To page in, use LD BC, 65256 and OUT (C),C. Having
set up these values, pressing j from the MAIN MENU will cause the code to
execute from the address selected with all parameters as set up.

Direct Jump.

If you wish the Multiface to jump directly upon pressing the STOP button,
POKE all the parameters described for the indirect jump plus the keyword RUN
(&52, &55, &4E) into &2005-7. To disable the direct jump, press any key
while pressing the STOP button.


THE MULTI-TOOLKIT

Pressing t from the main menu produces the following menu:

<[ESC]> [RET]poke [SPC]addr [r]eg [h]ex [w]in [p]al [i]nfo [s]el

ESC - pressing ESCAPE returns you to the MAIN MENU.

RETURN (464 ENTER key) - to PEEK & scroll through the addresses, or to
POKE. If you type in a number (0-255 Decimal, &00-&FF Hex), RETURN will
POKE it into the current address. If you wish to PEEK only, do NOT input
any number, just press RETURN; by RETURNing repeatedly you can step through
successive addresses.

SPACE - to enter a new address, in decimal or hexadecimal.

hex - to toggle between hexadecimal and decimal.

reg - to point to the Z80 registers as they were when the program was
frozen. They start from the IY Register (Iow, hi) and can be changed.

window - to open a 56 byte window with full on screen editing using cursor
keys. The left/right cursor keys move the cursor as you would expect; the
up/down keys move the display up & down through memory, keeping the cursor
in the middle line. The address of the cursor is automatically reflected in
the bottom line. The window can be closed by pressing w again.

pal - to point to the pallette. The colours are the hardware colour numbers
and are stored in 17 consecutive bytes. If you wish to make a permanent
change to your colours, and altering the pallette directly is ineffective
you will have to alter either the program, or the system variables which
control ink colours - a complex task... If you can't work out for yourself
how to change the colours of a particular program, please do not contact
Romantic Robot as we will not be able to help you.


MULTI-TOOLKIT (contd.)

* - The toolkit can only look at 64K of RAM at a time. By default the first
64K CPC RAM is available, except for &2000-3FFF being replaced by the
Multiface own 8K RAM. The original CPC 8K block &2000-3FFF can be paged In
instead by toggling *

sel - to select - on CPC 6128 only - which RAM configuration (0-7) will be
in the TOOLKIT The numbers 0-7 follow the CPC hardware design and may
appear slightly illogical.

1 puts the additional RAM Bank 4 in place of the original RAM Bank 4 at
&C000-FFFF
2 puts the entire additional 64K RAM in place of the original 64K RAM (see
* above, though!)
3 puts the additional Bank 4 at &C000-FFFF and moves the original Bank 4
down to &4000 instead
4 puts the additional Ram Bank 1 at &4000-7FFF leaving the remaining
original RAM intact
5 puts the additional Ram Bank 2 at &4000-7FFF leaving the remaining
original RAM intact
6 puts the additional Ram Bank 3 at &4000-7FFF leaving the remaining
original RAM intact
7 puts the additional Ram Bank 4 at &4000-7FFF leaving the remaining
original RAM intact
0 restores the default set-up with the entire original 64K RAM being shown
(see * above, though)

Press s followed by a number. Beneath the display on the bottom line, you
will see the number of the currently selected RAM configuration.

info - to display a series of bytes relating to the status of the computer
at the moment the STOP button was pressed. You can find out crucial
information about the CRTC and some system variables. 23 bytes contain the
information and the first 16 of these show the contents of registers R0 to
R15 of the 6845 as follows:

R0 Total number of horizontal spaces available (0-255)
R1 Number of characters displayed horizontally (0-255)
R2 Horizontal sync position (0-255)
R3 Length of synchronisation (0-15)
R4 Total number of rows available (0-127)
R5 Vertical sync (0-31)
R6 Number of characters displayed vetically (0-127)
R7 Vertical sync position (0-127)
R8 Interlace mode (0-3)
R9 Scanning (0-31)
R10 Start line of cursor scan (0-31)
R11 End line of cursor scan (0-31)
R12 Most significant byte of starting address of video RAM, offset
from 16383 (0-16383)
R13 Least significant byte of starting address of video RAM, offset
from 16383 (0-16383)
R14 Most significant byte of cursor position
R15 Least significant byte of cursor position
Byte 17 Screen start address in the system variables (LSB)
Byte 18 Screen start address as above (MSB)
Byte 19 Mode/Rom setting. This is bitwise information with bit 7 always
set, bits 6-4 should always be reset, bit 3 controls the selection
(0) or de-selection (1) of upper ROM, bit 2 as bit 3 but for lower
ROM and Bits 1 & 0 being mode control bits.

bit 1 bit 0 Mode
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 2
1 1 Illegal

Byte 20 Information as to RAM page selected (C0-C7)
Byte 21 Interrupt mode (0-2)
Byte 22 Interupts enabled (1) of disabled (0)
Byte 23 Basic ROM type


POKING INFINITE LIVES

To start with, please ensure that you are not infringing copyright. To POKE,
say, 31000,0: First load and RUN a program as usual. Then push the Multiface
STOP button and select the toolkit by pressing t. When the toolkit menu
appears, press SPACE and type 31000. Once you type 5 digits (address is
always 5 digits in decimal), the cursor automatically moves to the value (no
need to press RETURN), so type 0 (value is 1-3 digits long) and this time
press RETURN. Finally press q to quit the toolkit and r to return to the
program.


SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE COLOUR NUMBERS

Colour Soft Hard Colour Soft Hard

Black 0 20 Blue 1 4
Bright Blue 2 21 Red 3 28
Magenta 4 24 Mauve 5 29
Bright Red 6 12 Purple 7 5
Bright Magenta 8 13 Green 9 22
Cyan 10 6 Sky Blue 11 23
Yellow 12 30 White 13 0
Pastel Blue 14 31 Orange 15 14
Pink 16 7 Pastel Magenta 17 15
Bright Green 18 18 Sea Green 19 2
Bright Cyan 20 19 Lime 21 26
Pastel Green 22 25 Pastel Cyan 23 27
Bright Yellow 24 10 Pastel Yellow 25 3
Bright White 26 11


GUARANTEE

This guarantee is in addition to and does not affect any statutory rights of
consumers or purchasers. ROMANTIC ROBOT guarantee that if within 6 MONTHS of
the date of purchase the Multiface proves to be defective by reason of
faulty design, workmanship or materials, It will be repaired or replaced
free of charge provided that:

1) It has not been in any way misused, used with unsuitable equipment or
subjected to deliberate accidental or consequential damage

2) No unauthorized modifications, repairs or adjustments were made to the
Multiface

3) A dated proof of purchase will be provided to confirm that the Multiface
is still under guarantee; for units ordered directly from us, please
supply details of the original order instead. The purchaser's sole and
exclusive remedy under this guarantee is the Multiface repair or
replacement. No other remedy, including but not limited to, incidental or
consequential damage or loss of whatsoever nature shall be available to
the purchaser.


Designed and manufactured by ROMANTIC ROBOT UK Ltd.
54 Deanscroft Avenue, London NW9 8EN. Tel. 081-200 8870.

Multiface is a registered trademark of Romantic Robot UK Ltd.