Hi B9, Actually an expanded version of that write up is right on the front page current news on https://www.web8201.net/. Can't miss it! Thanks for the info about VARPTR, I'll check into it. Maybe there was a regression? Anyway thank you for the fixes.
As for the web crawling issue, I believe I know where that configuration was set up and I'll poke around a bit. Gary On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 2:11 AM B 9 <[email protected]> wrote: > That’s exciting news, Gary! Could you please post a link to where you > published your write-up? I tried googling > <https://www.google.com/search?q=Slabtop+Computers+discord+server+in+the+%23NEC+channel> > for it (in various > <https://www.google.com/search?q=%22SuperROM%22+nec+8201+gary+weber> ways > <https://duckduckgo.com/?ia=web&origin=funnel_home_website_measuresearchesaa_treatment&t=h_&q=%22SuperROM%22+nec+8201+gary+weber>) > and it doesn’t seem to be available on the open web. I am unfamiliar with > discord servers, but I see comments saying they are meant for private > discussions, so maybe that’s the problem? > > Which reminds me, a while back on this mailing list we were talking about > searchability and making sure knowledge is archived in multiple locations. > I mentioned you and your most excellent web8201.net site, but I don’t > know if you saw it. I said, > >> *“When I needed to implement VARPTR on the NEC PC-8201, I distinctly >> recalled seeing a solution on web8201. Googling with various search >> engines, even specifying the site >> <https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aweb8201.net+varptr&udm=14&oq=site%3Aweb8201.net+varptr&sclient=gws-wiz-modeless-web-only> >> explicitly, turned up nothing except people saying VARPTR doesn’t exist in >> N82 BASIC. When I finally stumbled upon the VARPTR page >> <https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> again, I tried to >> save it in the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, the web8201.net >> <http://web8201.net> server is configured so that web crawlers (like Google >> and Internet Archive) get redirected >> <http://waybackmachine.org/https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> >> to https://default.asp/ <https://default.asp/>. I hope we can create a >> public mirror of web8201.net <http://web8201.net> as it contains >> information that I haven’t seen anywhere else.”* > > > If you want, I can try to help you figure it out. I don’t know Microsoft > IIS-10, but I believe it should be just a small configuration change to fix > the issue. > > —b9 > > P.S. Your NEC VARPTR <https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> > code has some minor typos. In line 40020, address 64455 is skipped. In line > 40040, the variable *H* is used to mean both the address in memory and > the character position in the string. Here’s a patched version which has > those fixed and some other tweaks to reduce RAM and string space usage. > > 39999 'VARPTR > 40000 H=0:L=0:TY=0:A=64448! > 40010 POKEA,205:POKEA+1,175:POKEA+2,73:POKEA+3,235 > 40020 POKEA+4,58:POKEA+5,139:POKEA+6,250:POKEA+7,201 > 40030 L=LEN(VY$):IFL<1ORL>7THENPRINT"Invalid VY$!":STOP > 40040 A=64457!:FORH=1TOL:POKEA,ASC(MID$(VY$,H,1)):A=A+1:NEXT:POKEA,0 > 40050 POKE63912,201:POKE63913,251:EXEC64448 > 40060 L=PEEK(63912!):H=PEEK(63913!):TY=PEEK(63911!) > 40070 RETURN > 40080 ' VARPTR for NEC 8201/8300 by Gary Weber of web8201.net > 40090 ' Entry: VY$ must contain the name of variable of interest > 40100 ' Exit: H & L contain variable's address, TY contains type > 40110 ' Example: > 40120 ' 100 A$="This is a sample string." > 40130 ' 110 VY$="A$":GOSUB 40000 > 40140 ' 120 PRINT "VARPTR of ";VY$;" is ";L+(H*256) > 40141 ' > 40144 ' Notes from hackerb9: > 40150 ' Name in VY$ must be UPPERCASE. > 40160 ' For EXEC, NEC's HL is @63912/3, register A is @63911. > 40170 ' Address 64457 is an 8-byte, NULL-terminated copy of VY$. > 40180 ' Line 40050 sets HL=64457. (64457 = 201 + 251*256). > > > On Mon, Sep 28, 2026 at 11:41 AM Gary Weber <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Investigation into this type of project began in 2021. Well.... Guess >> what? >> [image: image.png] >> >> My big write-up is out on the Slabtop Computers discord server in the >> #NEC channel so I didn't want to duplicate it here. >> >> But, basically, I'm looking for volunteers to help with testing the >> mountain of features in this "pre-alpha" option ROM. >> >> -- >> Gary Weber >> [email protected] >> >
