SLUG

Syntax

SLUG msecs

Location

Gold Card (v2.24+), SMS

A disadvantage of the speed improvements by Gold Card (and later expansion boards) is that most games become simply too fast. The command SLUG can slow down the whole system by advising the operating system to read the keyboard less often (other solutions install background interrupts but some games suspend these). The parameter specifies the delay in milliseconds. The higher msecs, the slower the general operating speed will be. SLUG 5 to SLUG 10 on a Gold Card gives roughly the speed of a normal QL, but this depends very much on the software. Programs which do not spend a lot of time waiting for keyboard input such as interactive games, will not slow down so much. Only keyboard access is slowed down.

Example

100 FOR n=0 to 1000 STEP 10 110 SLUG n 120 PRINT n 130 dummy=KEYROW(0) 140 END FOR n

NOTE

Since SLUG only slows down keyboard access (this is especially designed for arcade games), the above example would not be affected without line 130. All other lines run at maximum speed; the advantage is that screen output, which is a limiting factor for arcade games, is not affected by SLUG.

CROSS-REFERENCE

SCR2DIS and CACHE_ON can be used to speed up the computer’s speed.