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System 80 User ManualsThe System 80 sold with three user manuals. These were A4 size, but printed in landscape orientation. 1. The Users Manual
Three appendices at the end help some
technical specifications, a memory and I/O map and an ASCII table.
To see the body of work in full, check out these scanned pages. For those who want a copy for themselves, download the manual (PDF format 1.95 Mb). The PDF version is a revision of the original manual and has an extra couple of pages dealing with features of the blue label model. A second revision of this manual appeared towards the System 80's final months. Rather than "extra pages" tacked on for the Blue-label features, these were incorporated into the body of the booklet. It also shows arrow keys on the diagrams rather than the Esc/Cntr/Bkspc/Tab keys which featured on Mk 1 models. Unlike the earlier releases of the manual, the EACA label appears on the back. This manual simply dealt with the mechanics
of operating the System 80, relying on the two associated manuals below
to teach the user how to get the computer to do what they wanted it to. 2. The BASIC Manual
The style was straight no-nonsense prose
with an explanation of the command, then a BASIC example to illustrate
the point. More a reference manual that a learning guide although it's
use was limited for the former due to a lack of an alphabetical keyword
index. A PDF copy is available
for download (2.06Mb). 3. Programming for Beginners
As with the two above, a PDF
copy is downloadable here (1.97Mb) for those who want to take a peek. |
The
user manual was a sparse 16 pages in size. It dealt with basic operations
like what connects to where, the video display unit, special keyboard
and cassette keys, how to load and save a program (no mention on how to
load SYSTEM tapes in this section though), how to connect and use a second
tape recorder and how to reset the machine. 
The
book was illustrated with the character to the right. He/she/it appeared
on every page in various poses giving the manual a friendly, folksy feeling.
Remember these were the days when computers were not a common household
item, and could be considered intimidating by some. 
This
was the largest of the manuals at a hefty 88 pages. It dealt with the
basics of BASIC, with chapters on active commands, text editing, programming
statements, processing arrays, string handling, built-in arithmetic functions
and graphic features.
A
short manual (22 pages) which introduced some of the concepts of programming.
A useful starting booklet for the completely uninitiated.