More on the Jolt here.

A faithful replica of the Microcomputer Associates Inc. JOLT computer, based on photos and information gathered from various sources on the internet.

The JOLT was the first 6502‑based computer kit to be commercially released, beating the KIM‑1 to market by several weeks; the latter would launch in January of the following year. It is a small SBC featuring a 6820 PIA and the 6530‑004 RIOT, also known as TIM‑1. It includes 512 bytes of RAM, a teletype interface, and an RS‑232 interface. The 6530‑004 contains, in its 1K ROM, the monitor software DEMON, also simply referred to as TIM.

A faithful replica of the Microcomputer Associates Inc. JOLT computer, based on photos and information gathered from various sources on the internet.

The JOLT was the first 6502‑based computer kit to be commercially released, beating the KIM‑1 to market by several weeks; the latter would launch in January of the following year. It is a small SBC featuring a 6820 PIA and the 6530‑004 RIOT, also known as TIM‑1. It includes 512 bytes of RAM, a teletype interface, and an RS‑232 interface. The 6530‑004 contains, in its 1K ROM, the monitor software DEMON, also simply referred to as TIM.

Here a proposal for a Bill of Materials:

BOM Jolt V3

U9 6530-004 NOS
U1 6502 NOS
U8 6821 NOS

U2, U3, U4, U5 2111 NOS

U6 74LS27 Mouser 595-SN74LS27N
U7 74LS00 Mouser 595-SN74LS00N
U13 74LS04 Mouser 595-SN74LS04N
U12 CD4081BE Mouser 595-CD4081BE

U10 1488 SN75188 Mouser 595-SN75188N
U11 1489 SN75189 Mouser 595-SN75189AN

CR1 1N914 Mouser 512-1N914

Q1 transistor 2N2907 T0-18 Mouser 494-2N2907A
Q2 transistor 2N2222 TO-18 Mouser 494-2N2222A

C1, C6, C8, C10, C12 tantalium 10 uF 25V Mouser TAP106K050CCS or
https://electronicparts-outlet.com/nl/tantaal-condensatoren-3-35v.html 10 uF 35V (exact size and color)
C7, C9, C11, C13 ceramic disc 10nF Mouser 75-562R5HKS10 (may be a little too big)
C2 10 pF Mouser 598-CD15CD100JO3F
C4 100nF Mouser 871-B32529C1104K000

R1, R2, R3, R4, R7, R12 3K3 1/4 W
R6, 10K 1/4 W
R8, R17 5K6 1/4 W
R14 1K 1/4 W
R16 4K7 1/4 W

R9 180 1/2 W
R10 270 1/2 W
R11 220 1/2 W

R5 Potentiometer 50K Mouser 531-PTC10V-50K or Mouser 652-3339P-1-503LF

J1 2×20 pin connector Double row MALE 2.54MM PITCH Right Angle PIN Header connector 2×20
J2 2×20 pin connector Double row MALE 2.54MM PITCH Right Angle PIN Header connector 2×20

7x IC socket 14 pin
4x IC socket 18 pin

Optional but recommended:
520-ECS-10-13-1XH Crystal HC49U 1 MHz (the large Quartz crystal 1.0 MHz HC6/U is very rare)

The problem with local language keyboard layouts is solved by Eduardo. Now the host operating system takes care of the different layout.

The documentation has been enhanced and moved from a local limited html file to an online version.

Enjoy! See it here.

The keyboard and online improvements have been ported by me to the TIM/Jolt Simulator.

Download it here.

Of course there are much better terminal emulators, like Teraterm, Putty, Coolterm, Minicom etcetera.
And a real VT100 type device is really fun! Or a real Teletype …

A local terminal emulator on the same PC can also be used, with a virtual null modem like, com0com on Windows, socat on Linux

Windows with com0com and teraterm

Raspberry Pi with Coolterm

As application software Tiny basic and the Resident Assembler Program RAP are available.

More about the Jolt, Micro associates and Superjolt at the Jolt and Superjolt pages

– DEMON
– Tiny Basic ad Resident Assembler Program
– Focal-65 V3D
– adaptations to Jolt sofware by Scott LaLombard
– Jolt/Superjolt/TOM simulator

DEbug MONitor (the program in the TIM 6530-004)

The JOLT CPU card comes complete with DEMON, MAl’s debug monitor program. The program is located in the 1,024 byte, Read Only Memory (ROM) of the multi-function 6530 chip and is therefore
completely protected against any alteration. DEMON provides a permanently available general purpose monitor program to aid users in developing hardware and software for MAl’s JOLT series of microcomputers.
DEMON’s Features Include:
• Self adapting to any terminal speed from 10-30 cps,
• Display and Alter CPU registers,
• Display and Alter Memory locations,
• Read and Write/Punch hexadecimal formatted data,
• Write/Punch BNPF format data for PROM programmers,
• Unlimited breakpoint capability,
• Separate non-maskable interrupt entry and identification,
• External device interrupts directable to any user location or defaulted to DEMON recognition,
• Capability to begin or resume execution at any location in memory,
• Completely protected, resident in Read Only Memory,
• Capability to bypass DEMON entirely to permit full user program
control over system,
• High speed 8-bit parallel input option, and
• User callable I/O subroutines.
DEMON’s Command Set Includes:
.R Display registers (PC,F,A,X,Y,SP)
.M ADDR Display memory (8 bytes beginning at ADDR)
: DATA Alters previously displayed item
.LH Load hexadecimal tape
.WB ADDR1 ADDR2 Write BNPF tape (from ADDR1 to ADDR2)
.WH ADDR1 ADDR2 Write hexidecimal tape (from ADDR1 to ADDR2)
.G Go, continue execution from current PC address
.H Toggles high-speed-reader option (if it is on, turns it off; if off, turns on)
See the TIM manual for more information on DEMON, the name MAI uses for the TIM program.

DEMON software manual (this manual has an alternative listing of the TIM 6530-004 monitor)

RAP — 1.75K Byte Resident Assembler Program
(This looks like a predecessor of the RAE of the SYM-1). The JOLT Resident Assembler Program (RAP) is designed for use on JOLT systems equipped with at least 4K bytes of RAM memory. RAP has some significant advantages over conventional assemblers:
1. Resident as part of the JOLT system on PROM chips. The assembler never has to be read into volatile memory before use. It, just like the DEMON monitor, is instantly available. In addition, costly time sharing services are not needed for cross assemblies.
2. Operates on one pass of the source code. The source tape is read in only once, thereby increasing assembler speed by a factor of two over conventional assemblers that make two or three passes over the source code.
3. Small in size. The assembler is smaller by a factor of 4 or 5 over comparable assemblers. Its size guarantees the smallest number of PROM chips needed and minimizes printed circuit board space requirements. With the assembler PROM chips installed in your JOLT PROM board (at address E800 hex), the assembler may be activated by reading the source code input on the console input device and transfering to location E800 hex using the DEMON monitor. As source code is being read in, a listing is produced on the console printer and the object code is generated directly into RAM at the addresses specified by the origin directive (.ORG).
After the assembly is complete, the object code may be punched onto paper tape or executed directly using DEMON. The assembler assumes RAM at locations 1FFF hex and lower to be available for symbol table usage. RAP uses an efficient symbol table algorithm and users can normally expect that about 4 to 6 bytes of RAM will be used for each symbol or that a 3000 byte program would use approximately 800 bytes for the entire symbol table (locations 1CEO to 1FFF hex). This space need not be left unused if buffers,’ etc. are allocated to it. The Resident Assembler Program is compatible with the MAS Technology Cross Assembler with the following exceptions:
1. Expressions and * (used for current program counter) are not allowed.
2. Thee .OPT and .PAGE pseudo operations are not implemented.
3. Octal and binary numbers are not implemented.
4. .ORG is used instead of *= to origin program.
5. .RES is used for reserving storage.

	Superjolt CP110 User Manual Contains Tiny Basic, RAP userguide
	RAP and Tiny basic ROMS

FOCAL

See the FOCAL065 V3D page for a TIM version of the FOCAl language.

Scott LaLombard software

While building a Jolt replica with many expansion boards. Scott Lalombard adapted some software like Tiny Basic. Read about his programs here.

TIM/Jolt Simulator

A Jolt/Superjolt/TIM simulator.

He succeeded in finishing a working replica as shown on this page.

He succeeded in finishing a working replica as shown in the next photos sent by Scott.

Attached is a picture showing the Jolt ‘stack’ running a late iteration of Microsoft’s 6502 Basic that Scott ‘ported’ to the Jolt. He even have it configured to support integer arrays and extended precision. Also included a picture of a replica of the George Morrow ‘naked’ 4k RAM board that was specifically marketed for Jolt owners back in the day (two are installed in the stack for 8k total). Last, there’s a picture of Scott’s own design of a 16K eprom board based on the mostly period correct 2716 eprom. It is jumper selectable for a base address of $8000 or $C000 (when configured for $C000, it only decodes $C000 – $EFFF because the Jolt decodes $Fxxx). One could install 28K of eprom with two of these boards!

In addition to Microsoft Basic, the eprom board has VTL-2 (Very Tiny Language) that is also ported to the Jolt. And last but not least, the eprom board has MAI’s RAP installed as well.

You may notice some wires hanging off from the J2 connector, that is connected to a ‘high speed tape reader’ that Scott designed specifically for the Jolt. It works directly with the TIM monitor just as documented (using the ‘H’ command to switch to the high speed tape reader, and then ‘LH’ to load ‘tapes’ in MOS Technology hex format). It’s super fast compared to loading via the console.

Scott has also created replicas of the original 2K eprom board that uses the venerable 1702 eproms, as well as the original power supply board.

He also did a replica of a George Morrow Micro-Stuff “Naked” 4K RAM board that was primarily marketed for the Jolt as an alternative to the original Jolt 4K RAM board.

Here an archive with a Tiny Basic Enhancement ROM Scott did. See below for what has been enhanced.
It also runs on the TIM Superjolt Emulator!

The JOLT replica

EPROM card

RAM card

PTP Highspeed reader
The text of the Tiny Basic enhancement:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
JOLT TinyBasic Enhancement ROM Notes
Scott LaBombard
August 2025
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Just add the ROM at $D000. No SW/HW modifications are
required.

Commands added: MON, HSPTR, NEW, AND, OR, NOT, PEEK, POKE
                ABS, FRE, FOR, NEXT, LOAD, and SAVE
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

AND
example:  PRINT AND(125,589)
output:   77

OR
example:  PRINT OR(125,589)
output:   637

NOT
example:  PRINT NOT(43)
output:   -44

ABS
example:  PRINT ABS(-43)
output:   43

FRE
Prints free memory.
Usage:    PRINT FRE(0)

HSPTR
Toggles between using the high speed paper-tape reader
or the console for input.

NEW
Clears the current program.

PEEK
Print the contents of the specified decimal memory address.
example:  PRINT PEEK(8192)

POKE
Store the specified value at the specified memory address.
example:  POKE 8192,44
result:   value 44 will be stored at address 8192

PEEK
example:  PRINT PEEK(8192)
output:   44

FOR/NEXT
Standard FOR/NEXT loop support. STEP is not supported,
however reverse order loops are:
FOR I=1 TO 10      FOR I=10 TO 1
PRINT I            PRINT I
NEXT I             NEXT I
END                END

SAVE
Will save the current Basic program in MOS Tech Hex format
to the console. After entering the SAVE command, you will
be at the TIM monitor prompt.

After the SAVE command has finished, you will be at the
TIM monitor prompt. Just enter the TIM 'G' command to
return to TinyBasic (via the TinyBasic warm start entry
point, so the Basic program remains intact).

LOAD
Will load a Basic program in MOS Tech Hex format from the
console or the high speed paper-tape reader (depending on
which is selected for program input by the HSPTR command
or via the TIM monitor's H command).
After the LOAD command has finished, you will be at the
TIM monitor prompt. Just enter the TIM 'G' command to
return to TinyBasic (via the TinyBasic warm start entry
point, so the Basic program remains intact).

I have tested my 6530s with the excellent Backbit Chiptester Pro V2.

6530-002 black all tests passed and ROM dumped OK, confirmed to be the 002 ROM, main KIM-1
6530-002 ceramic all tests passed, ROM test fails
6530-003 black all tests passed and ROM dumped OK, confirmed to be the 003 ROM, audio cassette KIM-1
4x 6530-004 all tests passed, except the PORT B and no ROM dumped, TIM
3x 6530-005 all tests passed, except the PORT B and the ROM (which is to be expected, the 005 has no ROM)
2x R6530P/R3004-11 all tests passed, except the PORT B and no ROM dumped, pinball
2x 6530-24 all tests passed a except the PORT B and no ROM dumped, Commodore diskdrives

I also tested a 6530 replacement, built with a 6532 and some glue logic and an EEPROM, both 002 and 003 variants tested OK.

SO I suppose all these 6530’s except the ceramic 6530-002 are all right. The Port B test fails, since the 6530-002 and 6530-002 use pin PB6 for a chip select and the others may have this as I/O pin. Now waiting for an answer of the Backbit Chiptester Pro to my query about Port 2 testing.