Other EACA Computers - The Colour Genie - New ROM Features
Sometime in 1984, Trommeschlager Computer GmbH (TCS) of Germany wrote a new ROM for the Colour Genie. In the English-speaking world these seem to have been distributed by Lowe Electronics, UK. This upgrade improved speed in some areas and added new functionality. The downside is that (despite the assurances below) the new offering wasn't entirely compatible with the older ROMS. This meant a few programs written for the older ROMS wouldn't work, and those programs written for the newer ROMS were not always compatible with older machines.
The improvements to functionality appear below. This text is taken from an Auckland District Colour Genie Group Newssheet (issue 6) but the information itself is directly quoted from a Lowe Electronics bulletin..
The new ROMS add an extra line to the text display making it 40 x 25, and 8 lines to the Hi Res now 160 x 120. New commands have been added and a lot of the original ones speeded up i.e. the PLOT command etc. works a lot faster , the PAINT command will now paint intricate shapes. One of the commands added is SWAP which allows variables, especially string variables, to be swapped without using temporary strings and without causing string hang-ups. Apart from adding commands and speeding certain operations up they will also allow you to use the ROM based disk operating system which is shortly to be released. All the enhancements are upwardly compatible with the existing ROMS. (this proved to be not entirely correct - ed.) The
following features have either been added or improved:
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