JJIZi^^l^-
News From The Summer Consumer Electronics Show
COMPUTE!
The Leading Magazine Of Home, Educational, And Recreational Computing
$2,95 August 1985 Issue 63 Vol. 7, No, 8
S3 75 Conado
021 P3
ISSN 019'3-357X
Animator The Easy Way To Create Your Own Colorful Graphics
"^ Atari
Advanced Commodore 1541 Disk Command Add Power To Your Programs
Appie lie IVIousor Efficient Editing With Fast Cursor Control
Atari Color Mixing How To Create Dazzling Color Displays
IBM Fiiecopy A Better Way To Mat<e Backups
i71486"0Z193'
0 8 d^VHlirJ k^
>$^
• J* « » •
If you own an Apple Ik, you'd have to add three more Apple Ik's,
an Extra Keypad,
30 Block Graphic Sets,
Color Sprites,
two more voices,
four instruments,
a Cartridge Port, a Joystick Port,
and a Commodore 64...
to match the versatility, expandability and higher Intelligence of the new Commodore 128
(and it costs less too).
The new Commodore 128'" per- sona! computer is breakthrough technology at a breakthrough price. It outshines the Apple® lie in performance capability, per- formance quality and price. It is expandable to 512K RAM. The lie
doesn't expand. Commodore 128 has a numeric keypad built into its keyboard that makes crunching numbers a lot easier And graphic and sound capabilities that far exceed those of the Apple lie. But the most important news is that
Commodore 128 jumps you into a new world of business, productivity education and word processing programs while still running over 3,000 programs designed for the Commodore 64.™ That's what we call a higher intelligence.
COMMODORE 128^ PERSONAL COMPUTER
•Apple Is oregistefedtrQClemarte of Appte Computer. inc A HIQlier inTeillQenC©
9 Ccxninodore 1985
AMAZING DMSy
NOW! FULL SIZE, FULL FEATURE, LETTER QUALITY AT ONLY $353
If you have been searching for a letter quality printer you have probably found the flood of claims and counterclaims to be a real roadblock in your search. Not long ago we were in the same position. We tried to determine which daisy wheel printer had alt the features our customers wanted, yet would not set them back a month's salary. Recently several manufacturers have introduced machines that had features we were seaching for. After a thorough assess- ment, we eliminated one model after the other for lack of one feature or another until we only had one left. THE RESULTS ARE IN
We found the printer which has all the features anyone could want. The winner is the Aprotek Daisy 1120, a real heavy- duty workhorse printing at 20 characters per second. The manufacturer is Olympic Co. Ltd., a highly respected Japanese firm,
FEATURES GALORE
This printer has it all. To start with, it has a front panel Pitch Selector button with indicators which allows 10, 12, 15 characters per inch (CPI) or Proportional Spacing. There is a Select (Online) button (with indicator) and a Line Feed button. You can also set Top- of-Form or Form Feed with the touch of the TOF button. Other front pane! in- dicators include Power and Alarm,
To load a sheet of paper, simply place it in the feed slot and pull the paper bail lever. PRESTO! The paper feeds automati- cally to a 1 inch top margin and the car- riage aligns to the selected left margin. In this manner, each page can have iden- tical margins automatically. You can con- tinue to compute while the Daisy 1120 is
printing. The built in 2K buffer frees up your computer while printing a page or two allowing you to go to your next job. To really put your printer to work, the Cut Sheet Feeder option is great for automatic printing of those long jobs. Also available is the adjustable Tractor Feed option. Compare our option prices! Best of all the Daisy 1120 is quiet: only 57 dB-A (compare with an average of 62-65 dB-A for others).
COMPLETE COMPATIBILITY
The Daisy 1120 uses industry standard Diablo® compatible printwheels. Scores of typeface styles are available at most computer or stationary stores. You can pop in a 10, 12, 15 pitch or proportional printwheel and use paper as wide as 14". At 15 CPI you can print 165 columns— great for spreadsheets.
The Daisy 1120 uses the Diablo Hytype II® standard ribbon cartridges, .i^gain universally available.
Not only is the hardware completely compatible, the control codes recognized by the Daisy 1120 are Diablo 630® compatible (industry .standard). You can take advantage of all the great features of word processing packages like Wordstar® , pfs: Write® , .Microsoft Word® and most others which allow you to automatically use superscripts, subscripts, automatic underiining, bold- face (shadow printing) and doublestrike.
The printer has a set of rear switches which allow the use of standard ASCII as well as foreign character printwheels. Page length can be set to 8, 11, 12, or 15". The Daisy 1120 can also be switch- ed to add automatic line feed if required.
THE BEST PART
When shopping for a daisy wheel printer with ail these features (if you could find one), you could expect to pay $600 or $700 dollars. The options would add much more. Not now! We have done our homework. We can now offer this printer for only $353. Order yours today!
NO RISK OFFER
Try the Dai.sy 1120 for 2 weeks. If you are not satisfied for ANY reason we will refund the full price— promptly. A full I -year parts and labor warranty is included.
THE BOTTOM LINE Aprotek Daisy 1120 (Order#1120) $353 w/standard Centronics parallel interface and 2K buffer. Options
Auto Cut Sheet Feeder (#1110) $188 Tractor Feed (#1112)577 A cc6 s sor j c s
8' Cable for IBM PC® and compatibles (#1103) $26
Interface with cable: 'TI-eDMA (.#106) $66 •Apple II or He (#1104) $76 •All Commodore (except Pet) (#1105) $44 •All Atari (#1107) $66
shipping IS $11— UPScontinertaJ US.^, If you are in a hum-. UPS Blue or Aif Parcel Post (second day air) \i S25. Canada, .Ala.ska. Mexico and Hawaii arc S3(l lairl. Other fnreiCn h S60 iairl. California residents add 6'S'o tax. IViccs are cash prices— VISA and M(C add .")% to total. We ship promptly on money orders, ca-^hiers checks, and charge cards. Allow U^Iay clearing for checks. No C.O.D.'s. Pay- ment in L!S dollars only.
TO ORDER ONLY CALL TOLL FREE
(800) 962-5800 USA ,„ „ p„^,
(800) 962-3800 CALIF. ' '
Or send payment to address below: Technical Information & Customer Service: (805) 987-2454 (8-5 pstj Dealer Inquiries Invited
'M9H5 APROTEK. All riStlH KStn-ed. Tradfmarl«: Diabki. Hytypi- II, 630.Xt;r«x Cor^i; Wiirdstir-Mkropro Corp.; PfS- Sdftwart" Publishing Corp.: Micrnsult Word.Microsoft Corp.; Apple. II, lie-Apple Computer. Inc.: IBM PC-IBM Corp.; PET, CUM.
1I)7I-A Avenida Aca.so. Camarillo. CA WMiUi
COMPUTE
AUGUST 1985 VOLUME 7 NUMBER 8 ISSUE 63
FEATURES
14 Report from the Summer Consumer Electronics Show Tom R. Half hill
16 Monster Memory
20 A Tantalizing Peek at the Amiga
42 Animator Steve Johnson
GUIDE TO ARTICLES AND PROGRAMS
AP/AT/64/1 28 Tl/PC/PCjr
REVIEWS
38 Archon II: Adept Arthur Leyenberger
38 WordPerfect for IBM Richard Mansfield
40 Adventures in Narnia for Apple and 64 C. Regena
AT/64/1 28/AP
PC
AP/64
COLUMNS AND DEPARTMENTS
4 The Editor's Notes Robert Lock
8 Readers' Feedback The Editors and Readers of COMPUTEI
24 The Beginner's Page Tom R. Halfhiil
26 Computers and Society:
Compilers, Interpreters, and Flow, Part 2 David D. Thornburg
26 On the Road with Fred D'Ignazio:
Buying the Right Educational Software Fred D'Ignazio
32 HOTWARE
33 Telecomputing Today — SIGs: Behind the Scenes Arlon R. Levitan
34 INSIGHT: Atari— Atari Input/Output Bill Wilkinson
35 IBM Personal Computing; New Life for Aging PCs Donald B. Trivette
36 Programming the Tl: Trivia Quiz C. Regena
AT PC/PCjr
Tt
THE JOURNAL
62
68 71
72 74 76 78 80 82 84
37
41
86 89
96 96
Archive; Two-Drive Backup for Commodore 64 Philip I, Nelson
Atari Color Mixing Karl E. Wiegers
Mousor: Escape Mode Cursor for the Apple lie ... J. Blake Lambert and Tim Victor
Commodore 64 Headliner Robert F. Lambiase
Using the Commodore USR Function Keith R. Bergerstock
Sound and Music on the Commodore 128, Part 1 Philip I. Nelson
Colorful Text for IBM Graphics Peter F. Nicholson, Jr,
Advanced 1541 Disk Commands Dave Straub
IBM Filecopy John Klein and Jeff Klein
Apple Text Windows Daniel L. Joynt
CAPUTEI Modifications or Corrections to
Previous Articles
Ciassified
COMPUTEi's Guide to Typing in Programs
MLX Mactiine Language Entry Progrom for
Commodore 64
Advertisers index
Product Mart
NOTE: See page 86 before typing In programs.
64 AT
AP 64
V/64/+4/16/128
128
PC/PCjr
V/64/+4/16/128
PC/PCjr
AP
AP Apple, Mac Macintosh, AT Atari, V VIC-20, 64 Com- modore 64. +4 Commodore Plus/4. 16 Commodore 16, 126 Commodore 128, P PET/CBM. Tl Texas instru- ments. PC IBM PC. PCjr IBM PCjr, CO Radio Stiack Color Computer. "General interest.
TOLL FREE Subscriplion Order Line 800-334-0868 (In NC 919-275-9809)
COMPUTE! Pubiications,lnc.®
One o( ttie ABC Publishing Companies: ^^^
ABC Publishing, President, Robert G. Burton
1330 Avenue of the Americas. New Vcuk. New Yoik 10019
Address all Inquiries to:
PC. Box 5406. Greensboro. NC 27403
COMPUTEI The Journal for Progressive Computing (USPS: 537250) is published monthly by COMPUTE! Publications. Inc., P.O. Box 5406. Greensboro, NC 27403 USA. Phone: (919) 275-9809. Editorial Offices are located at 324 West VVendover Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27408. Domestic Subscriptions; 12 issues, S24. Send subscription orders or change of address (P.O. form 3579) to COMPUTEI Magazine, P.O. Box 10954, Des Moines, lA 50340. Second class postage paid at Greensboro, NC 27403 and additional maiiing offices. Entire contents copyright ©1985 by COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. All tights reserved, ISSN 0194-357X.
Editors Notes
The subdued pallor of the per- sonal computer section at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show was somewhat sobering. Dozens of industry vendors sim- ply chose not to exhibit; dozens more have disappeared in the months since the last show. No- ticeable in the reduced clutter of exhibitors was the increased lev- el of professionalism and so- phistication of presentation among those present. Also no- ticeable was the lack of industry- shaking innovation we've grown accustomed to over the last few years. Among the bright spots were our old friends at Atari, the Tramiels. They high- lighted that which is best among us by promising new innova- tions and continued leadership at the cutting edge of truly con- sumer-oriented electronics. Their demonstration of an Atari/ compact disc interface which al- lows an entire multi-volume en- cyclopedia to be stored and quickly retrieved from less than one-quarter of a single compact disc is truly significant. Their proposed pricing for new Atari ST systems promises hope for fall. (See the Consumer Elec- tronics Show article elsewhere in this issue for more information.)
Commodorians are proper- ly pushing the 128 system and reluctantly admitting the com- ing of the Amiga. We were shocked to discover that appar- ently some at Commodore still enjoy political magazine games.
Several of our competitors had already received Amiga systems while Commodore public rela- tions personnel were concur- rently telling us that all magazines would be treated equally. It makes one wonder what motive Commodore might have for withholding access to the Amiga from the largest Commodore-related publisher in the industry. Ah, well. COM- PUTE! always perseveres, and you may rely on us to bring you continuing and timely assess- ments of the new Amiga. Among our articles this month on the Consumer Electronics Show, you'll find some early information on the Amiga. It looks like a pretty impressive machine.
On this increasingly hope- ful note, we'll point out that the traditionally upbeat Christmas season, while viewed with cau- tion, is expected to be a good one for the vendors who have remained in the marketplace. It's a bit of the smaller pie and fewer slices phenomena. That same principle can perhaps be extended to the magazine pub- lishing industry. We have a small group among our compet- itors whose attacks on us over the years have ebbed and flowed with the success of the
various magazines they launch to compete with ours. As prob- lems arise for whatever flagship they're currently pushing, we can detect a significant increase in the various voices they raise in criticism of us, our style, our policies, our editors, our writing. We have always chosen io re- main silent in the face of these rumblings and time has always proven to be our steadfast ally. We suspect such will remain the case. In the meantime, we'll continue our efforts to always provide you with the most bal- anced magazines of the best quality we can publish. Thank you for your continued support.
Editor in Chief
4 COMPUTE! August 1985
ThE Better Letter Box
Introducing EasyPIex! The new, easy-to-use electronic mail system from CompuServe.
Finally! Electronic Mail that's so easy to use you can start composing and sending messages the first time you get online.
Designed for various experience levels, EasyPIex has a menu mode with simple, easy-to-follow directions for beginners, and it lets experienced users save time by working irt the prompt or command modes. With EasyPlex, you can compose, edit, send, file, and take advantage of sophisticated
options previously available only with more expensive services.
CompuServe's EasyPIex lets friends and relatives, associations and club members communicate any time of the day or night. And small business owners, real estate professionals, insurance agents, lawyers, writers, etc can communicate quickly and simply— either interoffice or interstate. It's Easy." "Just Plex it!"
Best of all. EasyPIex is available to all CompuServe subscribers. And, along with EasyPIex, you get hundreds of valuable and entertaining computing options. Plus the assurance of belonging to the largest, fastest
growing computer information service in the world and the premier supplier of business information to FORTUNE 500 companies.
Start communicating! To buy a CompuServe Subscription Kit, see your nearest computer dealer To receive our informative brochure or to order direct, call or write:
CompuServe
Information Services, RO. Box 20212
5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.. Columbus, Ohio 43220
800-848-8199
In Ohio, call 614-457-0802 An H&R Block Coinpany
Publisher
Editor In Chief
Director of Administration
Gary f? InQersoll Robert C Lock Alice S Wolte
Senior Editor
Monoglng Editor
Editor
Asstslont Editor
Production DErectof
Production Editor
Editor. COMPUTEI's GAZEHE
Technical Editor
As$[5lant Technical Editors
Prograrri Editor
Features Editor
Assistant Editor, COMPUTEI's
GAZEHE Feature Writer Research Asslslanl Progrommlng Supervisor Editorial Programmers
Submissions Revhewef Piogrammtng Asslslanti Copy Editors Executive Asilitgnl Admlnistrolive Asstslonls
Assoclale fditors
Contrtbutlr>g Editor
Richard Mansfield
Kathleen Mortmek
Tom R. Hatfhill
Philip Nelson
Tony Rotierts
Gall Cov^per
Lance Elko
Ottis R. Cowper
John KtQuse, George WlHer
Charles Brannon
Selby eotemon
Toda Helmorck
Kothy Vakql
Sharon Darling
Potrick Porrish
Tim Victor^ Kevin Mykytyn,
Kevin Mortin
Mark Tuttle
David Florance. Suson Doss
Joon RouleoUj Ann Dovies
Susan Young
Julio Fleming, Iris Brooks, Jan
K ret low
Jim Sutterfielcf
Toronto. Canada
Hofvey Hermon
Greensboro, NC
Fred D'tgnozio
Roonoke. VA
David Thomburg
Los Altos. CA
Bill Wilkinson
COMPUTEI'S Book Division Editor
Assistont Editors Administrative AssisSani Director, Book Sales &
Marketing Assist on t
Stephen Levy
Gregg Keijer. J. Bloke Lambert
Lauro WacFaddon
Steve Vovotiis Cofol Dickerson
Production Manager
Art * Design Director
Assistant Editor, Art & Design
Mechonlcai Art Supervisor
Artists
Typesetting
liluslrolor
Irma Swain
Janice R. Fory
Lee Noel
De Potter
Debbie Bray. Dabney Gllck
Terry Cosh, Carole Dunton
Horry Blair
Dfrecfor ol Advertising Sales Ken Woodard Production Coordlnaloi Patti Stokes
Administratlva Assistant KothFeen Honlon
Promotion Asslslanl
CaroSlne Dork
Customer Service Manager Phiiippa King
Dealer Soles Supervisor Assistants
individual Ordet Supervisor Assistants
Warehouse Manager Sfotr
Gail Jones
Debl Goforth, Liz Kajsensljemo^
Rtionda Sovage
Judy Taylor
Betty Atkins. Gayfe Benbow,
Mory Hunt, Jenno Nosh, Chris
Potty
Lonnie Arden
Harold Ayers, Steve Bowman,
Lorry O'Connor. David Henstey
Data Processing Manager Assistant
Leon Stokes
Chris Cain
Vice President, Finance &
Planning Director, Finance & Planning Accountont Financial Analyst S(aft
Paul J. Mogiiolo R. Steven Vetter Robert L. Bean Koren K. f^ogolskl Dole Broncti, Jill Pope
Credit Manager Stofl
&arry L Beck
Sybil Agee. Anne Ferguson. Pat Fuller. Doris HoU. Undo Miller, Wory Waddelt. Jane WIggs
Purctioslng Manager
Greg L. Smith
Robert C. Lock. Chief Executive Officer
Gary R. ingersoU President
Paul J. Megiioia, Vice Presiderii. Fmonce and Planning
Debi Nosh, Executive Assistant
Anita Armfleld, Assistant
iflil
PlagaiitK PuMlHwrs AvKKiaMon
Atidh Bnrcm o^r ClrenlitioQi
Coming In Future Issues
Hands-On Reports: Atari 520ST Commodore Amiga Atari 130XE And DOS 2.5
Word Search:
Puzzle Generator For Atari,
Commodore 64, 1 28, VIC,
Plus/4, 16, Apple,
IBM PC/PCjr, TI-99/4A
Chess For IBM PC/PCjr
Easy Apple Screen Editing
Commodore 64 Disk Commander
The Last Warrior
Action Game For Commodore 64,
Atari, Apple, IBM PC/PCjr
COMPUTEt Publications. Inc- publlsnes:
COMPUTE'S
COMPUTE! Books COMPUTErs
Corpof at* offlca:
324 West Wendover Avenue Suite 200
Greensboro, NC 27408 USA Mairing oddrsu: COMPUTEI Post Office Box 5406 Gfsensboro. NC 2?403 USA T«l«phOfw: 919-275-9H9
Subscription Orders
COMPUTEI circulation Dept. P.O. Box 914 Farmlngdale, NY 11737
TOLL FREE Subscription Order Line 800-334-0868
In NC 919-275-9609
COMPUTEI Subscription Rates (12 issue Yeai):
us (one yr.) $24
(two vrs.) $45 (three yrs.) $65 Canada and Foreign Surface Mail $30
Foreign Air Delivery $65
Advertising Sales
1 . Nsw England
Jonathan M. Just Regional Manager 212-315-1665
2. Mid Atlantic
John Sovol Eastern Advertising Manager 212-315-1665 KQthy Hlcl<s Morsho A. Gittelman 215-646-5700 Brian S. Rogers 212-674-0236
4. Mfdwest
Gordon Benson 312-362-1821
5, Northwest/ Mountaln/Toxat
Phoebe Thompson 408-354-5553
3, $outh«ast & Foraign 6. Southwott
Harr/ Blair Ed Wincheli
919-275-9609 213-378-6361
Dlrsctor of Advertising Sales
Ken Woodard
COMPUTEI Home Office 919-275-9809.
Address all advertising materials to:
Patti W, Stol<es
Advertising Production Coordinator
COMPUTEI Magazine
324 West Wendover Avenue,
Greensboro, NC 27408
The COMPUTEI subscriber list fs mads QvQiiabie to ccrefully screened orQonizations willi a product or service which moy be of interest io our readers. B you prefer not to receive such mailings, please send an exact copy ot your subscription lobel to: COMPUTE! P.O. Box 914. Farmingdaie. NY 11737. Include a note indicating youE preference to receive only your subscription
Authors of manuscripts warrant that all materials submitted to COMPUTE! are original motenols with full ownership rights resident in said authors. By submitting articles to COMPUTEI. authors acknowledge that such materials, upon acceptance for publicotion. become the exclusive property of COMPUTEI Publications, Inc. No portion of this maga- zine may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Entire contents copyright © 1 985, COMPUTE! Publications. Inc. Rights to progroms developed and submitted by authors are explolned In our author contract. Unsolicited materials not accepted for publication in COMPUTEI will be returned if oulhor provides a self- oddressed. stamped envelope, Programs (on tope or disk) must accompany each submission , Printed listings are op- tionol, but helpful. Articles should be fumistied as typed copy (upper- and lowercase, please) with double spacing. Each page of your articia should bear the title of the orticle, date and name of the author, COMPUTE! assumes no liability for errors In articles or advertisements. Opinions expressed by outhors are not necessarily those of COMPUTEI
PET, CBM. ViC'2D and CommodOEe 64 are trademarks of Commodore
Business Machines, inc. and/or Commodore [riectronics Limited Apple IS a trademark of Apple Computer Company IQM PC and PCjr are trademarks of Intemationol Business tviachines. Inc.
ATAIJI is a trademofJt of Atari, Inc, TI-99/4A is Q trademork ot Text35 instruments, inc. ffaOio Shack Colo' Computer is a trodemortf of Tondy. inc
A SPECIAL OFFER FROM
COMPUTE! BOOKS
Buy any of the new Apple titles listed below before September 15, 1985 and receive a $1 .00 discount on each book, These information-packed books contain games, applications programs, buying guides. stef>by-step instnjctions, product reviews, special tutorials for kids, and much more for your Apple II, II +, lie, lie, or Macintosh computer.
COMPUTE!'* Kid* and the Apple
Edward H. Carlson $12.95
A fun and easy-to-use book for kids ages 10-14 interested in learning BASiC progran^ming on their Apple computers.
COMPUTEI's First Book of Apple
Edited $12.95
A collection of 35 exciting gomes, educa- tional programs, home applications, and graphics routines for owners of Apple II, !l-i-, lie, and He computers.
COMPUTEI'c Easy BASIC Programs for the Apple
Brian Rynn $14.95
A wide-ranging selection of short BASIC programs for the Apple II series of comput- ers, including thought-provoking games, home applications, and business forecast- ing tools.
COMPHITEr* Guide to Telecomputing on the Apple lie
Thomas E. Enright, Joan NIckerson. and Anne Waymon $9.95
An informative and eosy-to-understond book for the beginner which explains how to access bulletin boards, select tele- communications software, and use the Apple lie to communicate with other computers over the phone.
COMPUTEI's Apple Game* for Kids
Clarlt ond Kathy H. K(dd $12.95
An instant library of quality educational software to teach and entertain the entire family.
Becomlitg a MacArllct
VohS Guzelimian $17.95
An excellent Illustrated guide to f^aclntosh grophlcs, giving you direct access to the power and flexibility of MacDraw, MacPaint, and MacWrite.
Mall In Ihe coupon below with your paymeni by September 15, 1985 to receive your special discouni from COMPUTE! Books.
To order your Apple tllies, call toil-free 800-334-086B (in NC 919-275-9809), or mall this coupon with your payment to COfVlPUTE! Boolts, P.O. Box 5058, Greensboro, NC 27403.
COMPUTEI's First Book of Apple. 69-8 $12,95
COMPUTEI's Kids and the Apple. 7&0 $12.95
Becoming a MacArtist. 80-9 $17.95
COMPUTEI's Easy BASIC Programs for the Apple. 88-4 $14.95
COMPUTEI's Apple Games for Kids. 91-4 $12.95
COMPUTEI's Guide to Telecomputing on the Apple lie. 98-1 $9.95
Subtotal S
ALL ORDERS MUST BE PREPAID
n Payment enclosed (check or money order)
D Charge D Visa D MasterCard D American Express
Account No.
-Exp. Dot©
_L
(Rec ed)
Less Si. 00 per book discount
NC residents odd 4.5% sales tax
Add $2.00 PER BOOK for shipping
Total payment enclosed
Please allow i-6 weeks for aelivory. All povmsnts must b« in U.S. funds
Signature
Name
Address _
City
State
. Zip Code
jsaiisi
Readers Feedback
Ihe Editors ond Readers of COMPUTE!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you would like to see ad- dressed in this column, write to "Readers' Feedback," compute!, P.O. Box 5i06, Greensboro, NC 27403. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot provide personal answers to tech- nical questions.
Modular Phone Booths
I'm writing a book — not on computers, but on radio news. Like you, we make great use of the telephone for relaying material recorded on cassette. Ours is analog voice material, and the similar- ity of what we do to computer applica- tions of the phone prompted me to write.
I've tried without success to inter- est Ma Bell and GTE in installing modu- lar jacks on their pay phones. This would allow us to use a simple patch cord to go from a cassette recorder out- put without wrenching off the phone handset cover or using an acoustic cou- pler, which lowers quality.
Are you aware of any attempts by computer users (or manufacturers) to get direct access to phone equipment? I would imagine this would be valuable for both groups, doing away with the need for acoustic couplers, plus their extra cost and size.
I'd appreciate hearing of any ef- forts you're aware of on pay phone access. It may take the clout of manu- facturers, computer users, and com- puter publications to convince these giant phone utilities to allow direct pay phone access.
F. Gifford
We haven't heard of any such lobbying efforts among computer hobbyists, but your most likely allies would be user groups that cater to portable computer owners. For instance, there's a special interest group (SIG) on the CompuServe Information Service for users of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 200. As active mem- bers of a commercial telecomputing net- work, these people are also likely to have encountered the same problems that you have. Battery-powered lap portables with built-in direct-connect modems are won- derfully convenient for traveling journal-
ists and business people, but as you point out, the acoustic cups necessary to link them to pay phones are bulky, clumsy, and less reliable.
However, it seems unlikely that the phone companies will bend to your de- mands anytime soon. For one thing, porta- ble computer users (and radio journalists) encompass a pretty small minority at this time— loo small, we suspect, to justify modifying all the pay phones in the coun- try. More importantly, handsets attached to public phones with modular jacks would be tempting targets for thieves. Anybody could unplug the handset and run off with it. Of course, pay phones could be redesigned with a conventionally attached handset and a modular jack as an accessory. Perhaps this will happen some- day when portable computers are built into wristwatches and nearly everybody has one.
By the way, while you're lobbying, you might also want to target hotels and motels— we've found that many of them don't equip their phones with modular jacks, either.
Fate Of The PCjr
Being the owner of a PCjr and with the recent bad news from IBM, it seems I have to make a decision on my future with the Junior. Hopefully you can give me some insight.
1. 1 could sell it and then buy a PC, but that would cost a thousand or two more for a system with similar color capabilities.
2. 1 could move to an Apple lie, but I would have to start all over with my software.
3. I could make the Junior as PC- compatible as possible.
I would like more help with this third choice. I have heard of two expan- sion chassis, one by Quadram and an- other by Racore. Both add a second floppy drive, clock, parallel printer port, etc. And they add a switch to change modes from PCjr to PC. The Racore also adds an optional ten- megabyte hard disk.
Could you test these add-ons? Which is better, a second floppy drive or a hard disk? Will these chassis help
to secure what I've invested in the Ju- nior, or should I bail out altogether?
Bob Hana
There's no reason to get rid of your PCjr as long as it meets your needs — and that's something only you can decide. IBM has not abandoned the PCjr; although produc- tion has been halted, IBM promises to continue supporting the computer with service and software. Since the PCjr al- ready IS fairly compatible with the PC, a wide selection of software is available and will continue to be available.
According to esti?nates we've seen, roughly 300,000 PCjrs have been sold. That's not a huge base compared to Com- modore, Tl, Apple, and Atari computers, but it's large enough to guarantee that software and expansion hardware will re- main in supply in the immediate future. Still, in time, PCjr-specific products — particularly from non-IBM suppliers — may begin to dry up. So if there's anything you think your system might need, you should plan to buy while it remains available.
If you need to make your PCjr more PC-compatible, you must balance the cost of expanding the Junior against the cost of a new PC or compatible. There are several expansion modules on the market in addi- tion to the products you mention which add more RAM, a second floppy disk drive, a realtime clock, parallel printer port, hard disk drive, and so on. Some of them allow more expansion than others and different combinations of options. See the September 1984 issue of COMputEI's PC & PCjr magazine for reviews of the Tecmar jrCaptain and Legacy expansion modules.
Be aware, however, that no matter which one you pick, your PCjr won't be 100 percent PC-compatible 100 percent of the time because of some fundamental design differences. (See "PCjr Memory Compatibility," compute!, March 1985.) Usually this isn't a major concern, but you should test new software on the PCjr before buying, or at least secure return privileges in case the program doesn't work.
The question of whether a hard disk is preferable to a second floppy drive de- pends on your needs and your pocketbook. A hard disk is much faster and stores much more data than a floppy drive, but it
e COMPUTE! August 1985
.nvTfw jikj. lArtl rtWx A* (ngp «*tA(t *trf p«wi Jffnm: OttrfN «l««*»nalrtiaJtoMtKtHr>«x)<Bfi«rMll>.
1200 ^^'
TW
Few word processors have allowed Atari users to tap the full resources of their computer until Atari Paper CUp. . .
Atari Paper Clip is an extremely powerful, fully featured word processor that will allow your Atari to operate to the limits of its potential, with an ease of operation and speed you've never thought possible.
PAPERCLIP FOR ATARI®AND COMMODORE^OWNERS WHO WANT THE VERY BEST IN WORD PROCESSING.
30 Mural Street Richmond Hilt, Ontario 1.4B IBS CANADA
Tfetex; 06-21-8290
/:
INCLUDED
\
"The Energized Software Company!'
17875 Sky Parl< North, SuiteP
Irving, California
USA 927)4
<416)aB1-9S16
WRITE TO US FOR FULL COLOUR CATALOGUE of our products for CO M MODORE, ATARI, APPLE and I BU SYSTEMS FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT OR PRODUCT INFORMATION PLSASE PHONE 1416)381-9816
■miex: 509-139
t 1983 BATTERliS INCLUDED. APPLE. ATARI. COMMODORE AND IBM ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS RESPECTIVELY OF APPLE COMPUTERS INC.. ATARI INC.. COMMODOHE
BUSINESS MACHINES INC.. ANDIBM BUSINESS MACHINES INC.
costs a lot more, too. One thing to keep in mitid is that some cotnmercial software is copy-protected in such a way that it re- quires you to boot off the floppy even if you have a hard disk.
Commodore INPUT Revisited
Your answer to Scott Mefferd's letter about suppressing the Commodore IN- PUT question mark (compute!. May 1985) is incorrect. It's quite easy to sup- press the question mark that INPUT usually prints, Use POKE 19,64 before the INPUT command to disable it, and POKE 19,0 to bring it back. Here is an example:
10 POKE 19,64:INPUT"ENTER
WORD";A$ 20 POKE 19,0;PRINT
You must enter some value when using this method (vou can't just press RETURN). Add a' PRINT statement after the input, since the cursor doesn't automatically go to the next line. You can also treat the keyboard as a periph- eral, reading it with an INPUT* state- ment as shown here:
10 OPEN 1,0: PRINT"ENTER
WORD"';:INPUT#l,AS 20 PRINT: CLOSE 1
David Tucci
A number of readers have written to sug- gest these methods, both of which work fine. The first method is simple and trouble- free provided you ahvays restore things to normal with POKE 19,0. The second method takes advaiUage of the fact that the keyboard is just another peripheral (device number 0) as far as the computer is concerned. You can OPEN a communica- tion channel to the keyboard and input a string with !NPUT#, the same as with other peripherals.
A third method, suggested by reader Robert Kodadek, bypasses the BASIC IN- PUT routine and calls CHRIN directly. CHRIN is a machine language routine stored in the computer's Read Only Mem- ory (ROM) which fetches one character from the designated input device every time it is called. Since the keyboard is the computer's default input device (unless you specify otherwise), CHRIN acts much like GET, retrieving one character at a time:
10 A$ = "": PRINT "ENTER WORD: "; 20 SYS 65487: A = PEEK{780): IF
A<>13 THEN A$'=A$ +
CHR$(A):GOTO 20 30 PRINT: PRINT AS
CHRIN stores the character's ASCII value in the microprocessor's accumulator register, which is echoed at location 780 in the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. If you have a Plus/4 or Commodore 16, substi- tute the address 2034 for 780 in line 20. This method is a little slower than the first
two because it has to compile the string one character at a time in BASIC, termi- nating when it detects a carriage return (CHRm3)).
Missing Atari Memory?
When I run the memory test on my Atari 800XL, it seems to check only the first 40K of RAM. There are no red blocks anywhere on the screen, but it refuses to check the last 8K of user RAM. When I check RAMTOP with PEEK(106), it returns a value of 160. If I am not mistaken, 48K of RAM should return a value of 192. The only other symptom is an above-average amount of keyboard lockup, What's wrong here?
Dave Nessell
Either you did not disable BASIC on powerup by holding down the OPTION key or you have a cartridge installed. A cartridge or the built-in BASIC uses the top 8K of your 48K of memory. To free up this 8K of RAM, disable BASIC or remove the cartridge when running the memory test.
The keyboard lockups are probably unrelated to the results of the memory test. Instead, BASIC is most likely to blame. The first Atari BASIC cartridge suffered from a lockup bug that was sup- posedly fixed in revision B BASIC, the version built into the 600XL and 800XL Unfortunately, the fix only made the prob- lem worse. (See "INSIGHT: Atari," COM- PUTE!, May and June 1985.)
Atari has finally eliminated the lock- up bug for good in revision C BASIC. This version is built into the new 130XE com- puter and is available on cartridge for earlier machines. To obtain a cartridge, send S15 to:
Atari Corp. Customer Relations 390 Caribbean Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94088
Resetting The SID Chilp
Does SYS 64738 completely reset the Commodore 64 to its power-up state? When 1 use this SYS after running a music program, and then run a game program, I can hear a faint lingering tone. This does not happen when I turn the computer off and on, then run the game program.
Bruce Snider
You've noticed a 64 "feature" that many programmers overlook. Though you might expect system reset to clear the 64's SID (Sound Interface Device) chip, all it does is turn the volume down. This is easy to demonstrate. Turn up the volume on your TV or monitor and enter the following line in direct mode (without a line nur7iber):
POKE 54273,20:FOKE S4277,15:POKE
S4278,24Q:POKE 54276,33:POKE 54296,15
Press RETURN after typing this line. The SID chip produces a continuous tone. Now type SYS 64738 and press RETURN, or press RUN /STOP-RESTORE. The vol- ume cuts off (you may still hear a faint tone in the background). Enter POKE 54296,15 to turn up the volume again, and the tone comes back loud and clear, prov- ing that the other SID registers retained the values you POKEd in.
SYS 64738 makes the computer jump into ROM and execute several reset rou- tines. One of these ROM routines — called lOINIT — IS supposed to reset the system for normal input/output operations (lOINIT also executes when you press RUN /STOP-RESTORE). Unfortunately, rather than putting zeros in ail 25 of the SID chip's control registers (as it should do to turn off the whole chip), lOINITjust puts a zero in the volume register (location 54296). If other SID registers are still active, crosstalk signals may leak through to the chip's output wire, producing back- ground noise even though the SID's vol- ume is off.
Besides adding unwanted crosstalk, residual SID values can prevent sounds from being heard. The three low bits of location 54295 control whether any of the SID's three voices are routed throug'' 'he SID filter. If any of these three bits are left on (set to 2) and the filter cutoff frequency remains at an extreme value, one or more of the voices may be distorted or inaudible.
To eliminate such probletns, use the statement FOR J= 54272 TO 54296: POKE J,0:NEXT at the beginning of ev- ery 64 program that uses sound. You can also execute the statement in direct mode by typing it in without a line number and pressing RETURN. Incidentally, siiice the Commodore 128 emulates a 64 when ruji- ning in 64 mode, it suffers from the same problem; however, in 128 mode RUN/ STOP-RESTORE seems to clear the SID chip correctly.
Hex Keypad For Apple MLX
Like Larry Watkins ("Readers' Feed- back," May 1985), 1 usually enter MLX machine language listings with one hand and follow the code with the oth- er. Is it possible to write a program for the Apple lie that changes the keys to a numeric keypad? I'd like to see a hexa- decimal arrangement and a colon you don't have to shift.
Bill Pearson
Only two line changes are required to redefine part of the keyboard as a 16-key hexadecimal keypad for "Apple MLX" (which first appeared in the June 1985 issue a)id is published periodically in COMPUTE!}. Replace line 410 of MLX and
10 COMPUTE! August 19B5
BREAK!
NA/ITH NIGHT iWlSSlOISF
You deserve the best. You've eamed it. Now reward yourself with a session of Night Mission PINBALL, the most realistic and chatlenging arcade simuiatlon ever conceived! ■ Stunning graphics and dazzling f — ,.~~^ sound effects put Night Mission PINBALL In a class by Itself. Game features: multl
i^ilf ^uTfii^J^t ball and multi-player capabilities, ten different professionally designed levels of play, ^^ »' * 'i -^f? and an editor that lets you create your own custom modes. ■ So take a break with izlzir'°'J ' I Night Mission PINBALLfromSubLOGIC. Winner of E/ecfron/c Games magazine's "^ i^i' '. Mi t 1983 Arcade Award for Best Computer AudioMsual Effects.
-7pE^^:3^g5
. ■^^"*tS:i'^-e-3'^^S^S5>V<&i?-: ;>.i7?3^V?; ft ?i€?-*i'??'> "
See your dealer . !
or write or call lor more inlormatlon.
Order Line: 800 / 637-4983
LOGIC
713 Edgebrook Drive Champaign IL 61820
(217) 359-8482 Telex: 206995
mm
■ "r^'i''-'- ri
add line 415 as shown here;
410 FOR 1 = 1 TO 17: IF K < > ASCI
MID$( "M,./JKL;UIOF7890", I, D) THEN NEXT: GOTO 420 415 A$ = L$ + MID$( "012345678 90ABCDEF", 1, 1) + R$: P = P + 1
Once these changes are made, Apple MIX accepts 7-8-9-0 for C-D-E-F, U-I- 0-P for 8-9-A-B, J-K-L-; for 4-5-6-7 and M-,--/ for 0-1-2-3. You can even put stick-on numbers on the front of the rede- fined keys. Since you don't need to type colons in Apple MIX listings, the colon key has been left alone.
Better Atari Color Combinations
Please tell me the proper POKE or SET- COLOR command to make my Atari SOOXL's text blue on darkest blue, blue on black, white on black, or any other combinations that might be easier on one's eyes. Will leaving the computer in these modes for long periods of time damage anything? Is there any way to make DOS 3.0 work in these altered text colors?
Jeb Branham
It's quite easy to change the Atari screen colors. The statement SETCOLOR 1, color,brightness sets the brightness level of text. The color value is irrelevant, since text is ahvays the same color as the back- ground (simply a different shade). The brightness value must be an even number from 0 (darkest) to 14 (brightest). Use SET- COLOR 2,color,brightness to control the background color. The color value can be any number from 0-15, and the bright- ness can be any even number from 0-14. You can alsp set the border color with SETCOLOR 4,color,brightness.
For instance, the statements SET- COLOR 1,0,10: SETCOLOR 2,9,0 pro- duce light blue on dark blue. Blue text on a black background is not possible, since both screen and character color must be the same color. However, some shades of the same color look like different colors. For example, bright red-orange looks like yellow, and white is actually "bright black." Thus, SETCOLOR 1,0,10: SET- COLOR 2,0,0 gives you white text on a black screen.
Many people find it easier to read black text on a white background, since this combination simulates the appear- ance of type on paper. Use SETCOLOR 1,0,2: SETCOLOR 2,0,10. You may have to fiddle with the brightness numbers to get the contrast right. Unfortunately, these color changes are transient. The normal screen colors return when you press SYSTEM RESET, change graphics modes, or go to DOS. To change the screen colors of the DOS menu, you'd have to disassemble DOS to find the instruction which sets the colors and then alter the
instruction yourself.
No color combination will damage your TV or monitor unless you leave very bright text on the screen for a significant period of time (such as overnight). Atari computers have a built-in protection fea- ture against burn-in: If you don't press any keys for about nine tninutes, the com- puter automatically enters attract mode, in which the screen colors continually cycle at 50 percent brightness until you press a key.
Programming The VIC/64 User Port
I have built a breadboard system and interface to the VIC-20 user port, but am having trouble with programs to make use of it. Could you give me more information on how to program the user port?
John W. Farrow, Sr.
The user port, located on the back of the cotnputer on the left side, gives you direct access to the computer and allows control of external parallel and RS-232 serial de- vices. Access to the user port is through the VIA (Versatile Interface Adapter) chips on the VIC, and the CIA (Complex Interface Adapter) chips on the 64.
Communications with RS-232 serial devices like modems are provided for in the computers' operating system via de- vice 2, so we assume your homebrew in- terface makes use of the user port's eight-bit parallel data port. The parallel port can be controlled directly from BASIC with PEEK and POKE commands. When the port is being used for input, the address (37136 for the VIC, 56577 for the 64) is PEEKed. When the port is used for output, the address is POKEd.
Before data can be exchanged through the port, the function of the eight data lines must be specified by setting the data direction register for the user port (37138 for the VIC, 56579 for the 64). Each of the eight bits at this address controls the direction of data flow for the corre- sponding bit of the user port. When a bit in this register is set to 0, the correspond- ing bit in the user port is used for input. Setting a bit in the data direction register to 1 indicates that the user port bit will be used for output. Pressing RUN/STOP- RESTORE or powering up initializes ail bits in the direction register to 0, setting all lines of the port for input. POKEing a value of 255 into the register will set all lines for output. Any combination of input and output lines can be specified by POKEing the value for the desired pattern of I's and O's into the data direction register.
Once the data direction register is set up, the desired lines of the user port can be read from or written to by PEEKing or POKEing the data register. If a line is
selected for data input, the corresponding bit in the data register will hold a 0 if the line is at its low state (0 volts) and a 1 if the line is at its high state (at least 2.4 — but not more than 5 — volts). If the port is set for output, setting a bit in the data register to 0 causes the correspotiding line on the port to be set to its low state, 0 volts. Setting a bit to 1 causes the voltage on the line to rise to its high state (usually about +5 volts). For example, the follow- ing statements set all eight lines of the VIC's user port for output, then present a high (+5V) state on each line:
10 POKE 37138,255 20 POKE 37136,255
Since applying improper voltages to the lines of the user port can damage the VIA and CIA chips — rendering your com- puter useless — we recommend that you use caution when experimenting with the port. If you're unfamiliar with the basics of electronics, you should connect only circuits designed by knowledgeable technicians.
For more information, and a simple peripheral device which can be controlled by the user port, refer to Chapter 5 in COMPUTEI's First Book of Commo- dore 64. Additional information can also be obtained from Mapping the VIC, Mapping the Commodore 64, and Pro- gramming the VIC, from COMPUTE! Books. ©
12 COMPUTEI August 1986
COMPUTE! Subscriber Services
Please help us serve you better. If you need to contact us for any of ttie reasons listed below, write to us at;
COMPUTE! Magazine
P.O. Box 914 Farmingdole, NY 11737
or call the Toll Free number listed below,
Change Of Address. Please a flow us 6-8 weeks to effect the change; send your current malting label along with your new address.
Renewal. Should you wish to renew your COMPUTE! subscription before we remind you to, send your current mailing label with payment or charge number or call the Toll Free number listed below.
New Subscription. A one year (1 2 month) US subscription to COMPUTE! is $24.00 (2 years, $45.00; 3 years, $65.00. For sub- scription rotes outside the US, see staff page). Send us your name and address or call the Toll Free number listed below. Delivery Problems. If you receive dupli- cate issues of COMPUTE!, if you experi- ence late delivery or If you have prob- lems with your subscription, please call the Toll Free number listed below.
COMPUTE! 800-334-0868
In NC 919-275-9809
CLOSE ENC0UNTGR5 OF THE FANTASY KIND
Afifit^
QUESTROff. A role-playing game so spell-binding. It suspends reality and conjures up an enchanted world whose only hope against the forces of evli is you.
QEMSTOME WARRIOR^ A lightning- fast action strategy game that will leave you breathless with excitement as It takes you through the labyrinths of the netherworld on a noble quest.
Open them up and step through the gateway to your fantasies come true. At your local computer/software or game store today.
QUESTRON' Is available on 48R diskette for AFPLC^li with Applesoft ROM, Apple II+, lie, and lie ($49.95). On 40R diskette for ATARI' home computers ($49.95). On 64K diskette for COMMODORE 64' ($39.95).
SsSi
GCMSTOnC WARRIOR" is available on 48K diskette
for APPLF.' II with Applesoft ROM. Apple 1I+, lie
and lie ($34.95).
Also on 64K diskette for COMMODORE 64' ($34.95).
1 1985 by STRATEGIC SINULATIOnS, INC. AII rights reserved.
If there are no convenient stores near you, VISA S M/C holders can order direct by calling 800-227-1617, ext 335 (toll free). In California, 800-772-3545, exL 335. Please specify computer format and add $2.00 for shipping and handling.
To order by mail, send your check to: STRATEGIC SIMULATIons inC, 883 Stierlin Road, BIdg. A-200, Mountain View, CA 94043. (California residents, add 7% sales tax.) All our games carry a "14-day satisfaction or your money back" guarantee.
WRITE FOR A FREE COLOR CATALOG OF ALL OUR GAMES.
AFFL£. ATARI and COMMOE>ORE 64 are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.. Atari, Inc, and Commodore Electronics, Ltd, respectively.
Report From The Summer
Consumer Electronics
Tom R. Halfhill, Editor
Considerably less frantic than past Consumer Electronic Shows — at least in the computer section—this sum- mer's CES nevertheless showcased some groundbreaking new products. Foremost was Atari's announcement of a mass storage device that may bri}ig optical memory into homes, schools, and businesses by early 1986.
It would border on the out- rageous to describe any Con- sumer Electronics Show as "quiet" — considering that 80,000 to 100,000 retailers, wholesalers, middlemen, and journalists spend four days jamming their way into convention halls for what is billed as the world's largest industry trade show.
Still, something was noticeably different about this June's CES in Chicago. The annual noise which emanates from the personal com- puter section in the McCormick West building had dissipated to a muffled roar.
Only two U.S. computer man- ufacturers were in attendance: Commodore and Atari. IBM and Apple, as is their custom, skipped the show. Atari, which a few weeks earlier had announced it was pull- ing out of CES, was enticed back by the show management but occu-
}4 COMPUTEI August 1985
pied a couple of meeting rooms in- stead of its extravagant exhibit of days past. And the lower level of McCormick West, once the exclu- sive domain of a hundred computer software companies, now was half- filled with videotape exhibits and purveyors of video porn. Rarely have the effects of the much- publicized industry shakeout been so apparent.
On the bright side, the mood was just slightly more optimistic as both Atari and Commodore moved closer to shipping actual production models of their latest personal com- puters. In fact, as the show opened. Atari said it had delivered the first 5,000 of its new 520STs to Canada and Europe and was expecting large-volume shipments to the U.S. by July 8. Commodore said it was only weeks away from shipping the Commodore 128, and was gearing up for a press conference in late July to officially announce its eagerly anticipated Amiga computer (see the accompanying article, "A Tan- talizing Peek At The Amiga").
Several software companies announced new products for the Commodore 128, Amiga, and Atari ST series, although most seem to be cautiously hanging back until they see how the machines fare.
On the hardware front, Atari announced a mass-market version of the ST, Commodore exhibited a dual disk drive for the Commodore 128, and a British company an- nounced it would export a 128K computer to the U.S. But the most interesting news from the show was a revolutionary new peripheral displayed for the first time by Atari:
A very fast mass storage device that uses high-density optical discs. It was a dramatic demonstration that the upcoming generation of person- al computers will place much of the power of a mainframe computer on a desktop. It also showed that the personal computer industry is not only far from finished, but is just getting started.
Atari's big announcement was the CD-ROM, which stands for Compact Disc- Read Only Memory. If you've never heard of a CD-ROM before, pre- pare to read dozens of articles about it in coming months, because with- in two years CD-ROMs will proba- bly be everywhere. (See the accompanying article, "Monster Memory.")
Atari hooked up a working prototype of a CD-ROM to a 520ST on the second morning of the show, and the Atari exhibit was packed for the next three days. Although the hardware looked rough, the software appeared to be nearly complete. In fact. Atari hopes to have the product ready for sale by late this year or early 1986 for about $500.
The software that allows the CD-ROM to work with the 520ST is being developed by an optical type- setting company, Activenture, Inc. of Pacific Grove, California. Acti- venture has placed an entire 23- volume, nine-million-word encyclopedia plus index on a single optical disc — and the disc is still three-quarters empty. The system is so efficient that any entry can be looked up in a matter of seconds. When the CD-ROM is intro- duced, Atari and Activenture hope to have other databases available, too. Some examples might be addi- tional encyclopedias, legal and medical references, cookbooks, phone books, and the whole Li- brary of Congress card catalog. In
fact, for reference works, the CD- ROM may be a significant step to- ward tlie paperless information age.
"The ink-on-paper business was fairly restrictive," says Tom Rolander, vice president for engi- neering of Activenture. "The only way you could look at information was in the way the original publish- er had organized and presented it while laying it down on paper. When using reference material — which is why we're starting with encyclopedias and things like that — the degree of usefulness is based on how well we can find the information within that material. In other words, how good its indexing system is. What we have here, by connecting the computer with the CD-ROM, is the ultimate indexing tool. We'll know every reference there is to everything that's in the database."
The paperless information age, however, is encountering some re- sistance by those whose business depends on putting information on paper — traditional publishers. For example. Atari and Activenture had to delay announcing the name of the encyclopedia on their CD-ROM disc because the publisher didn't want any publicity until the final contract was signed. Rolander says all the publishers will probably fall in line once the first one does, but that many publishers are wary of the new technology.
"They can charge $1,000 for a shelf-full of books, but how much will people be willing to pay for the same information on one of these?" asks Rolander, spinning a disc on his finger. "To consumers, it doesn't look like they're getting as much. Will people pay $500? Or $150? Or $50? We don't know yet. This may finally determine the true value of information."
Besides the CD-ROM, Atari announced two new vari- ations of its 520ST, the 260ST and 260STD. They're identi- cal to the 520ST except for three features: 256K RAM instead of 512K; a built-in RF modulator so they can be plugged into an ordi- nary TV set as well as color or monochrome monitors; and the op- erating system and GEM (Graphics
Environment Manager) in ROM in- stead of in RAM. Also, the 260STD has a built-in 3y2-inch floppy disk drive. They are scheduled for re- lease this fall for $399 and $499, respectively.
Atari says it plans to sell the 260ST and 260STD through mass- market channels, such as discount stores, while restricting the 520ST to specialty dealers, such as com- puter shops. This is a reversal of Atari's original plan to sell the 520ST through all types of outlets.
Atari also has been wavering back and forth on whether the op- erating system and GEM will ever be in ROM on the 520ST. When the 520ST was first announced in Janu- ary, Atari said all the system soft- ware would be in ROM. But delays in debugging the operating system prompted Atari to release it on disk with initial shipments of the com- puter. Then there were conflicting statements about whether early 520ST owners would be able to upgrade to a ROM-based operating system later. (A RAM-based oper- ating system takes longer to boot up, but is easier to revise; a ROM- based system boots up instandy, but can be upgraded only by replac- ing the ROM chips.)
At CES, Atari President Sam Tramiel told COMPUTE! that the op- erating system will be transferred to ROM for the 260ST/260STD, and then made available at "minimal cost" for 520ST owners with RAM- based systems. "These 18 guys back in Sunnyvale [at Atari's soft- ware department] are right now crunching the code to get it into the ROM size [192K]," said Tramiel. "TOS [Tramiel Operating System] now I think is 205K, or something like that. We feel it's not a big prob- lem, but we've got to get it done fast,"
Commodore was relatively idle at this CES. Its only new hardware announce- ments for the U.S. market were a dual floppy disk drive for the Com- modore 128 and a dot matrix print- er. Interestingly, before CES started. Commodore intended to show a hard disk drive for the 64 and 128, but pulled the product at the last minute for unknown rea- sons. Commodore also pulled the
LCD portable lap computer first shown at the January CES; report- edly, the machine has been post- poned while Commodore concen- trates on bringing the 128 and Amiga to market.
The new 1572 dual disk drive combines two 1571 drives in a slim- line case designed to sit atop the Commodore 128. It has the same multimode capabilities as the 1571 (Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and CP/M formats). Commodore says it should be available this sum- mer, but no price was announced.
The new MPS 1000 is a multi- mode dot matrix printer. In draft mode, it prints at lOO characters per second (cps); in near-letter quality mode, it prints sharper characters at 16 cps; and in graphics mode, it has a density of 50 to 240 dots per inch. It can also print in widths ranging from 80 to 160 columns. It's com- patible with the Commodore 128, 64, and many other personal com- puters. Like the 1572 disk drive, it's scheduled to be available this sum- mer, but no price was announced.
Two products exhibited at the Winter CES were firmed up at this show. The Commodore 1670 direct- connect modem, which transfers data at 1200 bits per second, will sell for around $200 and has auto dial, auto answer, auto mode selec- tion, and auto speed switching from 300 to 1200 bps. It works with the 128, 64, SX-64, Plus/4, and VIC- 20. And the Commodore two-but- ton mouse controller first seen in January will sell for $49.95 and should be available immediately. It works with the 128, 64, and VIC.
Commodore also showed four interesting computers for foreign markets, but apparently they won't be available in the U.S. in the near future. The Commodore 128D Inte- gral Personal Computer is a varia- tion on the 128 that separates the keyboard from the system unit and includes a built-in disk drive. Com- modore says it will be available in Europe late this year. The PCIO and PC20 are IBM-compatible com 'out- ers recently introduced in Europe. The PCIO has 256K RAM and two 360K floppy disk drives; the PC20 has 512K RAM, one floppy drive, and a ten-megabyte hard disk. And finally, the Commodore 900 Busi- ness Computer is a multitasking, multiuser workstation that uses a
August 1986 COMPWTEI 15
Monster Memory
The CD-ROM, an acronym for Compact Disc-Read Only Memory, is a compact disc audio player which has been slightly modified for general- purpose data storage and interfaced to a computer.
Compact disc players are the latest rage among audiophiles. Up to 75 minutes of digitally encoded music can be stored in the form of microscopic pits on a 4.7-inch rigid plastic disc. Inserted in a special player, the disc spins at 300 r.p.m. while a miniature laser reads the pits. The data is decoded by a mi- croprocessor, then converted into standard audio signals which are fed into the auxiliary input or tape monitor jacks on a stereo receiver. The result is exceptionally pure mu- sic of unprecedented dynamic range and frequency response, free of surface noise and tape hiss. Fur- thermore, since the disc is read by a laser, not a diamond stylus, com- pact discs last virtually forever with no deterioration. They can also tol- erate rougher handling than ordi- nary records and tapes.
But music isn't the only thing a compact disc can store. Any type of information can be digitized and recorded on a disc. That includes text, graphics, and computer pro- grams. And the capacity is enor- mous: A single compact disc stores about 550 megabytes. A megabyte equals 1,024K, so that's roughly equivalent to 1,564 floppy disks on an IBM PC, 3,520 disks on a Com- modore 1541 drive, 4,022 disks on an Apple II, 4,469 enhanced-density disks on an Atari, or 6,400 single- density Atari disks. They're cheap, too: compact discs can be mass- produced at a manufacturing cost of a few dollars each {audio discs cur- rently retail for about $15). Because audio CDs and CD players are al- ready in mass production, CD- ROMs can debut at affordable prices.
A compact disc is a read-only storage medium, so you can't re- cord data on it yourself. But CDs are ideal for storing large databases that don't have to be updated often. At CES, Atari demonstrated a sam- ple disc that contained a 23-volume, nine-million-word encyclopedia. The encyclopedia was transferred to the CD from magnetic tape, where it was stored in punchcard format — the equivalent of 976,000 punchcards. Yet, it fits on one- quarter of the space of a single CD.
To think of a CD simply as an efficient way to store mass amounts of information is to miss the point, however. Like a floppy disk drive, a CD player is a random-access de- vice; it can seek and retrieve any piece of data on the disc in a few seconds without hunting through the information sequentially. Therefore, a CD-ROM can find the slightest, most obscure fact in a massive database in less time than it takes you to pull a book off a shelf and flip it open to the index.
Here's an example: Let's say you're a student re- searching a report on Thomas Jefferson. On the Atari CD- ROM, there are two ways to ap- proach the task.
The first way is very similar to the usual method of looking up something in an encyclopedia. First, you boot up the CD-ROM on the Atari 520ST. This takes only a few seconds. A graphics display on the screen shows a bookshelf with a 23-volume encyclopedia. By rolling the ST's mouse controller, you move the screen pointer to the "J" volume and then click the mouse button. This brings up another screen with a graphics picture of the book you selected, opened to sever- al alphabetical tab entries. You move the pointer to the tab which would include Jefferson — for in-
stance, Japan to Jet. Another click calls up a screen showing all the article titles within that section. When you move the pointer to the title Jefferson, Thomas and click the button again, the computer loads the ardcle (and several preceding and following articles, as well) from the CD into memory. It takes less than four seconds for the CD-ROM to fill the 520ST's entire 512K RAM.
Now you can read the article on the screen, scrolling or flipping pages by clicking the mouse. This method of looking up subjects is recommended for those who aren't familiar with computers, because it requires almost no computer knowledge.
The second method lakes greater advantage of the comput- er's power. Instead of looking up the subject alphabetically by yank- ing a graphics image of a book off a shelf, you pull down a menu and select the search screen. This screen presents a number of options; to keep it simple, you can just type Thomas Jefferson at the prompt and ask for a general search. In about four seconds, the computer reports how many times the phrase Thomas Jefferson appears in the encyclope- dia. You can flip to the first occur- rence by clicking the mouse. Again, in less than four seconds, the com- puter loads the article from the CD into memory and even highlights your search phrase within the text. You can flip to subsequent occur- rences merely by clicking the mouse button.
What makes this technique so powerful is that the computer will find references to Thomas Jefferson in articles that may never have been checked using the old-fashioned method. The student may learn that Jefferson was not just a politician, but also an inventor, architect, and connoisseur of wines. Looking up the same references in even the most thoroughly cross-indexed pa- per encyclopedia would be much more time-consuming.
When the Atari CD-ROM soft- ware is finished, it will allow two- dimensional searches, too. You could look up every article that con- tains references to Thomas Jeffer- son and Thomas Paine, or Thomas
16 COMPUTE1 August 1985
Get I he jump on ihe weather- man by accurately forecasting the local weather yourself!
The beautiful princess is held capt ive by deadly dragons. Only a knighl in shining armor can sas'e her nowl
A time-saving organizerlor coupons, receipts and more.
.\ scientifieaily proven way to develop an awesome memory.
UTILITY AUDIT
Cut your energy cost.s by moni- toring your phone, electricand gas bills.
|
-==::rr^. - "~'^>Y. |
|
ftlflWICT «CKK? Iri fl HI^K• t, |
|
o-ii J (ri .» mad |
|
BBDailQDii |
|
c a |
|
r |
|
<-_- - -- _-^ |
Schuoi-ajje andpre-^chuul children are rewarded for right answers, corrected on their Wrong ones.
0Avip^!Ct
^
You are trapped in a five- stor\', 125-room structure made entirely of ice. Find the exit before vou freeze!
Computerize car maintenance to improve auto performance, economy and resale value.
^EFb^KiR
a
A realbrainflexer. Deflect random balls into targets on a constantly changing playfield.
Take control of your personal finances in less than one hour a month.
4THUV PftVBENT a 00
Create multi-colored bar graphs with a surprisingly small amount of memory.
TYPINOTEAGHER
A fun way to dramatically increase typing speed and accuracy.
Get up to 30 new programs and games
for less ttian 15 cents each —
every month in COMPUTE!
Every month, COMPUTE! readers enjoy up to 30 brand-new, ready-to-run computer pro- grams, even arcade-quality games.
And when you subscribe to COMPUTE!, you'll get them all for less than 15 cents each!
You'll find programs to help you conserve time, energy and m^oney. Programs like Cash Flow Manager, Retirement Planner, Coupon Filer, Dynamic Bookkeeping.
You'll enjoy games like Air Defense, Boggier, Slalom, and High Speed Mazer,
Your children will find learning fast and fun with First Math, Guess That Animal, and Mystery Spell.
Looking for a challenge? You can write your own games. Customize BASIC programs. Even make beautiful computer music and pictures.
It's all in COMPUTE!. All ready to type in and run on your Atari, Apple, Commodore, PET/CBM, TI-99/4A, Radio Shack Color Computer, IBM PC or IBM PCjr.
What's more, you get information-packed articles, product reviews, ideas and advice that add power and excitement to all your home computing.
And when it's time to shop for peripherals or hardware, check COMPUTE! first. Our product evaluations can save you money and costly mistakes. We'll even help you decide what to buy: Dot-matrix or daisy-wheel printer? Tape storage or disk drive? What about modems? Memory expansion kits? What's new in joysticks, paddles and track balls?
Order now! Mail the postpaid card attached to this ad and start receiving every issue of COMPUTE!.
For Faster
Service
Call Toll-Free
1-800-334-0868
COMPUTES P.O. Box 914, Farmingdale, NY 11737
Jefferson or George Washington. Other options let you limit the search for occurrences in adjacent words, single paragraphs, and word groupings of various sizes.
If you're an experienced pro- grammer, you might be puz- zled by the search times described above. Even in superfast machine language on the 520ST's 68000 microprocessor, how can the computer search through nine mil- lion words in less than four seconds?
The answer is that the com- puter can't. Instead, it refers to an extremely sophisticated index of search tables on the CD,
The search tables were com- piled with a VAX minicomputer by Activenture, Inc., the company which is developing the CD-ROM software for Atari. First, the VAX built a dictionary by identifying ev- ery unique word in the encyclope- dia— more than 140,000 words. Then it compiled search tables which cross-reference the dictio- nary to every occurrence of each word in the encyclopedia. In con- ventional book form, the finished
index would occupy about 20 vol- umes. That means the index is near- ly as long as the encyclopedia itself.
When you request a search, the 520ST simply consults the index of search tables on the disc and rapid- ly locates each occurrence of the search phrase. In effect, the search- ing has already been done for it by the VAX.
Retrieving the information is very fast, too, though not quite as fast as with hard disks. Because CDs were designed for storing mu- sic, which is played sequentially, their random-access capabilities are not as good as they could be. Still, they're much faster than most flop- py disk drives. Data is stored on a CD in 270,000 records containing 2,048 bytes each; the average ac- cess time for a record is about one second. The greatest access time — which happens when the head must move from an extreme outside track to an inside track or vice versa — is three to four seconds. To keep this from happening very often, data is recorded on a CD on the inside tracks first, moving out- ward. This takes advantage of the CD-ROM's very rapid track-to- track access time. To read a nearby
track, the player merely tilts a tiny mirror to refocus the laser rather than repositioning the entire head. (Each track of microscopic pits is only two microns — two millionths of a meter — wide).
Once the information is locat- ed, the CD-ROM feeds it to the computer at a rate of 75 records (150K) per second. To make sure the data arrives without errors, the CD-ROM's error-correction capa- bilities have been improved over that of a regular audio CD player. An audio player can be expected to pass one bad bit for every 10,000 bits — inaudible when listening to Beethoven or the Beatles, but not nearly good enough for computer storage. So CD-ROMs employ an error-checking and correction scheme that allocates an additional 288 bytes for each 2,048-byte re- cord. That much overhead — more than 14 percent — would be waste- ful on a floppy or hard disk, but CDs have room to burn. The im- proved error rate on a CD-ROM is at least as good as with a hard disk: about one bit error for every 1,000,000,000,000 to 1,000,000, 000,000,000 bits (one trillion to one quadrillion).
Report From Summer CES Continues Unix-compatible operating system. Although some of these higher- end computers will be available in Canada, Commodore announced no plans at present to market them in the U.S.
Another new personal com- puter was announced at CES by a British company, Amstrad, Already available in Eu- rope, where several hundred thou- sand units have been sold, the Amstrad CPC6128 is scheduled to be shipped to the U.S. later this year.
The U.S. version of the Am- strad has an 8-bit Z80A micro- processor, 128K RAM, a built-in 3-inch disk drive, CP/M compati- bility, BASIC and Logo, an expan- sion interface, joystick port, and stereo sound output, It comes pack- aged in two configurations. One in- cludes a green-screen monitor and WordStar word processor for $699, and the other has an RGB color monitor, Amstrad's own word pro- cessor, and some entertainment
18 COMPUTE1 August 1985
software for $799.
Briefly, here are some other highlights of the Summer CES:
• Abacus Software of Grand Rapids, Michigan announced Super C, a C compiler for the Commodore 64 and 128. It has a full-screen edi- tor with horizontal and vertical scrolling and is compatible with most other versions of C. Source files up to 41K long can be created.
• Commodore is releasing sev- eral titles for the 128, including/fl«e 2.0, an icon-based integrated pack- age with a word processor, spread- sheet, and filing manager, all of which can be manipulated with the mouse controller; Micro Illustrator, a graphics drawing program for- merly available for the 64, which takes advantage of the 128's extra memory and other features; and the Perfect series for the CP/M operat- ing system, consisting of Perfect Writer, Perfect Caic, and Perfect Filer. All three work in the 80-col- umn mode, are capable of sharing files, and have pop-up menus, split
screens, and automatic formatting for printouts.
• Epyx, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Cali- fornia is releasing Winter Gaines, a sequel to Summer Games, for the 64, Apple, and Macintosh; two new LucasFilm games for the Atari, The Eidolon and Koronis Rift; The World's Greatest Football Game for the 64, Apple, and Atari; and the Temple of Apshai Trilogy for the 64, Apple, Atari, Macintosh, and IBM. (Prices will range from $19 to $35.)
• Batteries Included of Rich- mond Hill, Ontario is releasing its Paperclip word processor for the Apple ($89.95) and Commodore 128 ($119.95 with SpeilPak); the Bl- 80, an 80-co!umn video adapter on a cartridge for the Atari XL and XE series ($79.95); an 80-column ver- sion of Atari PaperClip for the Bl-80 ($59.95); new versions of Home- Pnk — a combination word proces- sor, filer, and terminal program — for the IBM PC/PCjr, Commodore 128, Apple, and Atari ST ($49.95); an IBM version of The Consultant
When sorceiy ruled, and trolls and mlnotaurs still walked this Earth, a party of six intrepid adventurers set out to find the Nine Rings and use them to destroy the Dark Lord. This is your quest. This is your...
Ux^ for this new, exciting game at your local computer/software or game store today!
If there are no convenient stores near you. VISAS Mastercard holders can onderdirect by calling 800-2Z7-1617. ert. 33S (ton free). In California, call 800-772-3S4S, art. 335.
To order by mall, send your check to: STRATEGIC SIMULATIONS. INC.. 883 Stieriln Road, B!dg. A200. Mountain View. CA 94043. Piease add S2.00 lor shipping and handling (California residcrt- add 7% sales tax). All our games carry a "14-day satisfaction or your money back" guarantee.
WRITE FOR A FREE COLOR CATALOG OF ALL OUR GAMES,
JesisinjuredbyChoiiis the dungeons.
A
Tantalizing
Peeli AtTlie Amiga
At this writing (early June), Commodore is scheduled to unveil its long-awaited Amiga Lorraine computer at a press conference in New York in late July. Although the machine was sub- stantially ready in June, Commo- dore evidently kept it off the show floor at CES to avoid stealing atten- tion away from the Commodore 128, which was due to begin ap- pearing on store shelves within weeks. Nevertheless, despite un- precedented secrecy and security, more and more details about the Amiga leaked out at CES press par- ties. Also, COMPUTE! arranged a peek at the Amiga through a help- ful source. We learned that even more capabilities have been added since our first look at the computer a year ago at the June 1984 CES (see "Software Power! The Summer Consumer Electronics Show," Au- gust 1984).
The Amiga's final configura- tion was still subject to change before its official introduction, but here's what it will probably include:
• Motorola 68000 microproces- sor for the central processing unit. This is the same 16/32-bit chip found in the Apple Macintosh and Atari ST series. It can address up to 16 megabytes of memory (1 mega- byte = 1024K).
• 256K of RAM (Random Ac- cess Memory), expandable to at least 512K on the system unit and more externally.
• 192K of ROM (Read Only Memory) containing Intuition, a Macintosh-like operating system
with pull-down menus, icons, hier- archical disk directories, multitask- ing, and mouse support. Unlike the Macintosh's operating system, however. Intuition can be manipu- lated with keyboard controls as well as the mouse. The keyboard, which is attached to the Amiga sys- tem unit with a coiled cord, in- cludes cursor keys and a numeric keypad.
• True multitasking. Thanks to the high-speed 68000 and a num- ber of dedicated chips for input/ output and other vital functions, the Amiga can run several pro- grams simultaneously with no ap- parent sluggishness, even while simultaneously accessing the disk drive. By opening screen windows of various sizes, you can watch all the programs running at once. This is an especially useful feature for business applications — you could simultaneously work v«th a word processor, terminal program, data- base manager, and spreadsheet without stopping one program to start another.
• A built-in double-sided 3Vi- inch disk drive that stores about 800K per disk. These are the same hard-shell microfloppy disks used by the Macintosh and Atari ST se- ries. Up to three external drives can be added to the Amiga by daisy- chaining.
• Custom chips for graphics and animation. Maximum screen resolution is 640 X 400 pixels (screen dots), with additional graphics modes of 640 X 200 and 320 X 200. Eighty-column text is standard, but the display is adjust- able to narrower widths for greater readability on low-resolution screens.
• Composite video/mixer input that allows you to feed standard video signals into the Amiga, dis- play them on the screen, and then superimpose the Amiga's text and graphics. The external video source could be a video camera, videocas- sette recorder, videodisc player, TV receiver, or even another computer. The potential of this feature is excit- ing: games and educational pro- grams with superrealistic backgrounds, titles for home video- tapes, and so on. Furthermore, a relatively low-cost peripheral called a frame grabber lets the Amiga digitize the incoming video signal so it can be manipulated with graphics utilities, stored on disk, and even dumped to a graphics printer.
• A palette of 4,096 colors, more than any other general- purpose personal computer on the market. Up to 32 of these colors can be displayed at once without spe- cial tricks.
• Video outputs for TV sets, composite color and monochrome monitors, and high-resolution RGB color monitors. Reportedly, the RGB output is analog, like the Atari ST's, so it's not compatible with RGB monitors designed for the Commodore 128 and IBM PC com- puters. Analog RGB allows more color intensity levels than IBM-type RGB.
• An expansion port that in- cludes every line on the system bus for almost unlimited expansion ca- pabilities. This could include co- processors, such as an 8088/8086 board for IBM compatibility. Re- portedly, the Amiga will be an "open system." That is, to help in- dependent hardware and software designers access the full power of the computer, Commodore is said to be preparing extremely detailed documentation on all aspects of the Amiga for general release. One in- sider who has seen the preliminary documentation says it's so com- plete you could almost build the system from scratch using the infor- mation it contains.
• Seven-level direct memory access (DMA) controller. Along with the Amiga's many dedicated chips, this lets the machine perform several tasks simultaneously with
20 COMPUTEI August W85
ONLINE tWe U.S. a
:l■£i^^^R.A^
m
"''^k
. W ^JlTJtmaiiMXaCTiEaBaBiMP^wTr^Tn^sTr^
'^.'f'wiwa
Be anything you want on American PEOPLE/LINK, where people from across the country get together every night.
They are people with interests in sports, movies, music, games, and just meeting other people . , . people like you. Whatever your interests or fantasies, you'll find someone to share them with on PEOPLE/LINK.
See for yourself why so many men and women are getting together and partying online with us. Not screen after screen of boring data . . . just lots of fun and friendly people.
And our low, low rates won't turn your online dreams into nightmarish monthly charges. To
discover our affordable videotex entertainment, call or write us today.
PEOPLE/LINK "Thank You."
the network that says
FAMERICAN
PEOPLE
American PEOPLE/LINK
Arlington Ridge Office Center
3215 N. Frontage Road - Suite 1505
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
1-800-524-0100 (ToU Free) 1-312-870-5200 (lUmois)
no apparent slowdown. It also sim- plifies things for programmers. An independent software developer who attended a recent Amiga sym- posium sponsored by Commodore in Monterey, California, told COM- PUTE! that systems-level program- ming on the computer is so easy that "it's more like parameter-pass- ing than programming. You just de- cide what you want to do — puU data off the disk, whatever — and pass the appropriate parameters to the operating system, and the OS passes them along to the DMA con- troller, and everything happens during the 68000's off-phase cycle so the machine doesn't slow down at all." (The programmer's sympo- sium, incidentally, was open only to independent developers and was sealed off by armed guards. Those who attended had to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement.)
• Built-in printer drivers to dump the Amiga's bitmapped screens onto graphics printers, in- cluding color and inkjet printers.
• Four-voice sound chip with stereo output. The Amiga's custom sound chip routes two voices to each stereo channel for high-fideli- ty reproduction through external stereo systems. In addition, the sound chip is the most advanced in any personal computer, surpassing even the Commodore 64's SID chip. The Amiga can closely simu- late a wide variety of musical in- struments, and at least a dozen instrument sounds are built in — such as guitar, pipe organ, cymbals, drums, piano, and violin. Sound envelopes (attack-decay-sustain- release) can be modified simply by pulling down a menu and making selections with the pointer.
• Digital sound sampling. At
this point, it's not clear whether this feature will be standard or optional. Even if it's optional, however, in- siders say it will cost much less than anything similar now on the market (the least expensive high fidelity samplers now cost around $2,000). Digital sound sampling lets you feed sound from an external source into a computer, convert it to digital format, and then play it back, modi- fy the waveforms, or store it on disk. With this capability, program- mers and musicians no longer have to spend hours trying to simulate a musical instrument or sound ef- fect— they can just feed the sound directly into the computer from a record player, tape deck, micro- phone, or instrument, and then ma- nipulate it at will. In fact, some Amiga software developers are tak- ing this approach to cut down de- velopment time.
• Built-in speech synthesis. The operating system includes a speech program with text-to-speech con- version. Since this is a standard fea- ture that requires no extra hardware, you can expect many programs to take advantage of the Amiga's speech capabilities — in- cluding programs written by home users. COMPUTE! has heard the Amiga talk, and its pronunciation was more understandable than most speech synthesizers now available for personal computers.
• BASIC programming lan- guage. Unlike the Macintosh, the Amiga will come with a language for those who want to write their own programs, but it's unclear at this point if BASIC will be built into ROM or loaded from disk into RAM. Pascal and C compilers will be available soon after the comput- er's release. A 68000 assembler also
will be offered, but it may not be as popular as assemblers on the cur- rent generation of personal com- puters— the compilers are so fast that few programmers are using machine language. One software developer says he has yet to see a single program written for the Amiga in machine language.
• Hard disk oprion. Although Commodore is said to have no im- mediate plans for a hard disk drive, an independent company known for its IBM peripherals is rumored to be preparing a hard disk with 10 to 20 megabytes of storage. This would probably interface to the ex- pansion port.
Tf you take the word of those who have worked with the Amiga, it is the most power- ful personal computer ever assem- bled. In terms of performance, they say it's more than a match for any business-oriented machine now on the market, and has the advanced graphics and sound features de- manded by home users as well. But how much will it cost?
At the Monterey symposium. Commodore reportedly told devel- opers that the Amiga would be sold with an RGB monitor and some software for about $2,000. Since then, however. Commodore has encountered some negative reac- tion to that figure. Many observers think a lower price is necessary to dramatically undercut the Macin- tosh and IBM PC, and also to com- pete with the Atari ST series for a larger share of the intermediate- priced market. At CES, rumor had the price ranging anywhere from $1,300 to $1,900, possibly without an RGB monitor.
Report From Summer CES Continues
database manager ($99.95); Battery- Pak, a seven-function desktop ac- cessory for the Macintosh ($49.95); and literature Challenge: Introduc- tion to Shakespeare, an educational program for the Apple, Commo- dore 64, and IBM PC ($29.95). In addition. Batteries Included an- nounced a new line of integrated programs for the Atari ST, Com- modore Amiga, and MS-DOS com- puters with GEM. Called the IS line, all the programs will have
Macintosh-like graphics in color and a number of powerful features. The first program. Portfolio, is for stock management and will be re- leased for the IBM PC and Atari ST this fall ($249,95 for the IBM). Oth- ers in the series will be a word processor with built-in spelling checker, a spreadsheet and graphics package, and a database manager.
• Br0derbund Software of San Rafael, California announced three
new programs to work with The Print Shop, its popular printer utili- ty. They are The Print Shop Graphics Library: Disk One, The Print Shop Graphics Library: Disk Tuw, and The Print Shop Companion. Other new programs are Bank Street Filer and Baiik Street Mailer, sequels to the Bank Street Writer word processor; and Fantavision, a special-effects generator for the Apple that uses animation technology adapted from the movie industry. ©
22 COMPUTEI August 1985
COMPUTE! Books
Are More Than Fun g^ Games
They're also challenging, informative. Full of valuable applications for your home and business. You'll find that our newest top-quality releases contain everything you need for successful word processing, programming, or Investment management.
SpeedScript: The Word Processor for the Atari
Charles Brannon, $9.95, (Disk, $12.95) iSBN 0-87455-CX)5-5
SpeedScript, the most popular program ever published by COMPUTEf Publications, is a commercial-qualitv word proces- sor for the Atari 400, 800, XL, and XE computers with a mini- mum of 24K RAM. Included in this boolc are all the listings and documentation necessary to use Atari SpeedScript In addition, we've included information and documentation about SpeedScript that have never been published before. For the price of the book, the user receives a commercial- quality word processor— an exceptional software bargain. There is a disic available for an additional $12.95 which in- cludes programs in the bool<.
Investment Management with Your Personal Computer
Richard C. Dorf, $14.95. ISBN 0-87455-005-X
Covering the best available investment software for the IBM PC and Appie lines of computers, this valuable guide dis- cusses and evaluates the programs that can help you better manage your investments. This isn't a manual of investment strategies; instead Investment Management with Your Per- sonal Computer introduces all the software you'll find vital. Capsule reviews are given for programs ranging from elec- tronic spreadsheet aids and financial databases to portfolio managers and graphics creators. The most significant soft- ware is discussed in great detail and thoroughly evaluated.
Mapping the Atari, Revised
Ian Chadwick, $16.95, ISBN 0-87455-004-1
This classic source book for users of the Atari 400 and 800 has been updated to include the 500/800XL and the new XE series Atari computers. This is the perfect supplement to the owner's manuals, and will prove valuable to both the novice and the expert. As with most COMPUTE! books. Map- ping the Atari, Revised also contains useful appendices and indices.
For the best in home and office applications, you need COMPUTE! bool<s.
Visit your local computer or book store for best-selling COIVIPUTE! books, or order directly from COMPUTE!.
Call toll-free 800-334-0868 (in |\IC 919-275-9809) for more information.
MAPPING THEAERRI
COMPUTE! Books are available in the U.K., Europe, Middle East, and Africa from Holt Saunders, Ltd., 1 St. Anne's Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 3UN, England.
COMPUTE!' Publications Jnc.S
One oi ire ABC PutHshrig Ccmpoies
The Beginners Page
Tom Q. Halfhiil, Editor
FOR-NEXT Loops, Part 4
Over the past few columns, we've covered some of the useful tech- niques possible with the FOR- NEXT statement. Even if FOR-NEXT could do nothing else than what we've demonstrated, it would be indispensable. Fortunate- ly, it can do still more — and all it takes is an optional keyword, STEP. With STEP, you can construct "long-legged" loops and counters by varying the step size by which the counter variable is incremented. You can even make FOR-NEXT loops that count backivard. For the sake of illustration, let's say you want to print out all the odd num- bers less than 100. Without a FOR- NEXT loop, you could take this approach:
10 x=l
20 PRINT X
30 X = X-l-2
40 IF X<100 THEN 20
The alternative is a little shorter and easier to follow:
10 FOR X = l TO 100 STEP 2 20 PRINT X 30 NEXT X
Without the STEP option in the FOR statement at line 10, this program would just print all the numbers from 1 to 100 because the counter variable X would be incre- mented by one during each pass through the loop, as usual. STEP 2 simply tells the computer to incre- ment the counter variable X by two during each pass through the loop. That is, when the loop begins, X equals 1. After the first pass, X equals 3. After the second pass, X equals 5, and so on.
No Cause For Alarm
Interestingly, although the FOR statement in line 10 tells the com- puter to count from 1 to 100, the counter variable X actually reaches 101. You can verify this by typing PRINT X and pressing RETURN or
ENTER after the program finishes. The computer reports the final val- ue of X is 101. But don't be alarmed — the computer isn't being disobedient. Although the final STEP 2 increases X from 99 to 101, the computer still performs only 50 loops, since the upper limit speci- fied in the FOR statement is 100 and we're stepping by twos. The program works the same if you change line 10 to FOR X = l TO 99 STEP 2.
For even more flexibility, the STEP option lets you loop in steps of any increment, including frac- tions and negative numbers. All of the following FOR statements are valid:
FOR X-1 TO 1000 STEP 10 FOR X = 15 TO 25 STEP 0.5 FOR X = 100 TO 1 STEP -1 FOR X = l TO 0 STEP 0.1
It may not be immediately ap- parent why you'd want to make such strange-looking loops. Mathe- matical operations are one typical application, but beyond that it's hard to generalize. This kind of loop is generally used to solve cer- tain programming problems. For instance, to make a musical note decay on an Atari, you could gradu- ally reduce the volume parameter of the SOUND statement with a backward loop (FOR X=15 TO 0 STEP -1: SOUND 0,200,10,X: NEXT X), If the note decays too quickly, you could slow it down by reducing the volume by smaller steps (STEP -0.5 or STEP -0.2) rather than embedding a second delay loop.
As you write more programs and use FOR-NEXT loops more often, eventually it will come to you in a flash that a fractional- or backward-stepping loop is exactly the solution to your problem.
BASIC Variations
FOR-NEXT statements don't follow
the same rules on all computers, so you might need to consult your BASIC manual. In general, Micro- soft BASICs (built into Commodore computers, the Apple, IBM, and others) let you omit the variable name from the NEXT statement if you want to. Instead of entering NEXT X you can just type NEXT. This makes the loop run faster. You can also close nested loops in Microsoft BASIC with a statement such as NEXT Z,Y,X instead of NEXT Z:NEXT Y:NEXT X or NEXT: NEXT:NEXT. (These options are not available in TI BASIC or Atari BASIC.)
Try to avoid jumping out of FOR-NEXT loops with GOTO and GOSUB statements. It's considered bad programming form, partly be- cause it makes the program hard to follow. Besides that, a program that repeatedly exits loops v«th GOTO or GOSUB before the loops are fin- ished can eventually cause some computers to crash with an out-of- memory error or the like. A few versions of BASIC have a special statement that lets you exit a loop with GOTO or GOSUB without causing any problems. In Atari BASIC the statement is POP; it's not available in Microsoft BASIC.
Almost all BASICs require the counter variable in a FOR-NEXT loop to be an ordinary numeric variable; array variables and integer variables are not allowed. An ex- ception is IBM BASIC, which does
permit integer variables.
0
24 COMPUTEI August 1 985
The complete 1541 enhancement system .
MAKES GREAT COFFEE I!
\ The 1541 is the slowest disk drive on planet earth. Even simple operations seem to take forever. Quickloaders and Fastload^rs that software-patch the operating system are vulnerable to being knocked out of memory, rendering them totally useless. Even Flashier products that require permanent modifications to the 64 and 1541 can't compete with the blinding speed of STARDOS.
STARDOS accelerates every (yes, we said every) function of the 1541 disk drive. Other fast loaders only load PRG files faster. STARDOS also speeds up SEQ, REL, USR and DIRECT ACCESS files. Everything including FORMAT, VERIFY, SCRATCH, VALIDATE,
INITIALIZE and COPY are much faster, in addition STARDOS adds a vast an^ay
of easy to use commands and utilities all at the touch of a key.
A sampling of STARDOS features:
Accesses ALL types of files up to 1,000% faster!
Saves up to 300% faster than normal (with extended verify)
• DOES NOT CHANGE THE SPEED AT WHICH THE DRIVE MOTOR SPINS
Makes your 1541 MORE RELIABLE and LESS PRONE TO BREAK DOVI/N or OVERHEAT! STARDOS is fully expandable for multiple fast disk drives
• Easy (5 minute) plug in installation. User friendly manual
' 100% compatible with software and serial bus peripherals
• Adds years of life to your disks and drive in ['educed wear
• Cures a number of bugs in the Commodore 64 and 1 541 disk drive including :
► The damaging 'Head Knock' that can mis-align your 1541
► The@: Save with replace bug!! The Editor lock-up bug
Harness the full power of your disk dnve with the built in DOS wedge
Lock/unlock files and protect/unprotect disks from the keyboard
Powerful sector editor allows direct viewing of diskette Upgrades computer and drive to the latest Commodore specifications
Instant access to the built in mini-wordprocessor for short notes and memos Built in copier copies all file types (even relative) easily and effectively - Built in disk duplicator copies an entire diskettte in less than 3 minutes
Fully expanded machine language monitor, always on line
* Quality hardware. Full 120 day repair or replace warranty
• Satisfaction guaranteed or money back —no questions asked
(Oh, by the way, we lied, STARDOS makes LOUSY COFFEE)
Simply the best. $74,95 [Take advantage of our introduction special at $64.95]
Personalize your C64! for a S10 (non-refundable) charge we will include a 21 character power-on message with your favorite screen, border and text colors. Example:
Ml K £ ' S COnnODOH.E-6-¥
Backaround.
Text__£c<ii.
Write of phone for additional information.
'Traflefna.''K a- ComrrxxJore Business Machines
WRITE OR PHONE
STikRPOtm SOFTWARC
Star Route 1 0
Gazelle, CA 96034
[91 B] 435-3371
When ordering by mail: •S64.95 + 3.00 shipping
• $64.95 + 4,00 COD orders
• Shipping out of USA $6.00
• Calif, residents add 6% sales tax
• VISA or Mastercard accepted Please allow 4-6 weeks lor delivery.
Computers and Society
David D. Thornburg. Associote Editor
Compilers, Interpreters, And Flow: Part 2
Last month I argued that one of the reasons Logo isn't used for serious appUcations programming is be- cause it's not generally available as a compiler. I'm not suggesting that programmers shouldn't have inter- preters— they should. However, I am suggesting that the ideal pro- gramming environment might in- clude an interpreter for writing and testing programs, and a compiler so the completed (and mostly de- bugged) programs can execute much faster.
There are many fine Logo in- terpreters on the market, but — as this is written — only one Logo compiler: ExperLogo from Expertel- ligence (for the Apple Macintosh). To illustrate the difference between these two Logo environments, let's examine a program that uses recur- sion to create a fractal "sponge." (If you're interested in programming fractals, by the way, you might want to explore the subject further in two of my books. Discovering Apple Logo and Beyond Turtle Graphics, both published by Addison- Wesley.)
Here's how the program is vmtten with an interpreter, Apple Logo 11, running on a 128K Apple lie or lie:
to sponge:size:liDiit if:size <;limit [forward;size stop] 5po^ge^size/3;limit left 60
sponge;size/3:liniit left 60
sponge:size/3:liinit right 120
sponge:size/3:liinit right 120 . sponge:size/3:Iimit left 60
sponge:size/3:limit left 60
sponge:size/3:litnit end
Once this procedure has been entered, it can be executed by enter-
ing its name with the appropriate values chosen for the variables. For example, the basic motif for the curve can be seen by entering:
right 90 sponge 81 81
To see a more detailed level of this curve, we could clear the screen and enter:
right 90 sponge 81 3
With the Logo interpreter, this
picture takes 223 seconds to com- plete. However, as soon as the pro- gram is written it can be executed; there is no time delay before the program starts to run.
Interactive Rhythms
To write this program in ExperLogo, you enter the same source code into an edit window on the Macintosh screen. Then the code is selected and compiled. The compilation time for this program is 19 seconds on a 128K Macintosh (faster on a Fat Mac with 512K).
Once the program is compiled, it can be executed with the com- mands shown above. The compiled program draws the picture in 7 sec- onds— more than 30 times faster than the interpreted Logo. Of course, the compiled program exe- cutes faster partly because it's run- ning on a 16/32-bit computer
rather than on an 8-bit computer; but, as users of Macintosh BASIC will attest, interpreters can run slowly even on the Macintosh.
Is the speed gain important? For small programs, it may not be. But humans are funny creatures. We have certain rhythms in our interactions with each other and with our machines. If our technol- ogy is not operating at our pace, we become frustrated. For example, even though most photocopy ma- chines operate pretty quickly, the perceived difference between a copier that takes 10 seconds for a copy and one that takes only 2 sec- onds is quite large. Those 8 seconds are just long enough to destroy the sense of flow.
In the case of computer pro- grams we use every day, this sense of flow is even more important. When experimenting with graphic images such as those shown above, the sense of interactivity — of being able to tinker with the curves — is lost when each picture can take sev- eral minutes to create.
The Logo compiler from Ex- pertelligence is most welcome, since it allows programmers to write commercially useful software with a powerful language — a lan- guage that in its interpreted form is often perceived as just a tool for children to draw pretty pictures.
Next month. 111 show that just as a compiler has made Logo a much more useful language, an in- terpreter is having the same effect on a language for which compilers are the norm — Pascal.
Thornburg welcomes letters from readers, but regrets that he cannot always provide personal an- swers. Correspondence should be sent in care of COMPUTE!. ©
26 COMPITFEI August 1985
Falling Prices
VERlftEX
Lifetime warranty. Free piastic library case. Boxed in tens. g^^ ^^^^
51/4" Single Sided/
IDouble Density 99 .94
SV-i" Double Sided/
Double Density 1.09 1.04
Nashua
Boxed in tens. ^^^ ^^^^
bVi" Single Sided/
Double Density 1.01 .96
5Vt" Double Sided/
Double Density 1.11 1.06
SONY
The original SVi" micro, boxed
''^*^"^- 20+ 50+ 100 +
aVi" Single Sided 2.28 2.25 2.19 aVi" Double Sided 3.45 3.39 3.35
DRTFICRSE
stores/files up to 50 5%" dislts. Includes dividers and labels. Compare at only S8.95
RIBBONS
Sold in dozens. £3^^
Epson MX-70/80 S3.29
Epson MX-100 4.65
Okidata Micro
801 /82A/83 A/92/93 1.39
Okidata Micro 84/94 3.35
Call lor other models!
tol'l^free 1-800-USA-FLEX
7 to 7 Central Standard Time In lllinDJs 1-312-351'9700
Rease mention mis ad w^en catling m ycur uraer Master- Card. Visa, COO- or Net 30 days wiin approved credit on purttisses over S2C0,O0 Sfiipping/Haniling additional Prices suDiect to change ivitnout notice
COMARK, INC. 135 N. Brandon Glendale Heights, Illinois 60139
STARPOINT SOFTWARE proudly presents
[say Icepick], a revolutionary new concept in software de-protection for the Commodore 64. ISEPIC is not a disk duplication system, but an extraordinary hardware/software combination that actually bypasses any disk protection scheme. ISEPIC captures and saves the protected program as it runs in the 64"s memory, this "snapshot" becomes ac- cessible to the user for complete inspection and alteration. From this image, ISEPiC can automatically create a compact, auto-booting, fast-loading file which is completely un- protected and self contained.
ii Copies ALL memory-resident software
-5^ ISEPIC'd programs load many times faster than originals
i? ISEPIC is invisible to software— cannot be defeated
i:i Eliminates drive "knock" due to antique protection schemes — adds years of life to your drive
it Automatically "cracks" protected pro- grams into single, auto-booting, super- fast loading files
•ix Place multiple programs on a single diskette
ix Create auto-booting, fast-loading versions of your own programs
•k Cracked programs are completely self- contained and run independently of the ISEPIC adapter
is Copies software with a flick of a switch
ix ISEPIC comes complete and ready-to- run, just plug into expansion port
■fir Programs cracked by ISEPIC may be used on MSD or 4040 drives as well as hard disks regardless of original pro- tection schemes
When ordering by mail:
* $64.95 + 3.00 shipping
* S64.95 + 4.00 COD orders
* Calif, residents add 6% sales tax
* VISA or Mastercard accepted
* Shipping out of USA $6.00 Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
WRITE OR PHONE
STi'^RPOINT SOFTWARE
Star Raui;e 1 0
Gazelle, CA 95034
[916)435-2371
On the Road With Fred D'Ignazio
Fred D'Ignazio, Associate Editor
Buying The Right Educational Software
What types of educational software are people buying? What kind of software do they need?
In the opinion of many educa- tors, the most important use of the computer as a learning tool lies in improving students' thinking skills through the use of programming languages like Logo; simulations and builder kits like The Whatsit Corporation (Sunburst) and Opera- tion: Frog (Scholastic); microworlds like Rocky's Boots and Robot Odyssey I (The Learning Company); and problem-solving software like The Pond, SemCalc, The Factory, and Geometric Supposer (Sunburst).
But the sales of these products are dwarfed by the sales of drill and practice programs and learning games. A quick glance at a recent Billboard chart of the ten best- selling educational packages shows that eight of them are drill and practice programs and the remain- ing two are learning games. Of the drill and practice programs, two teach how to type, three teach basic math skills, two help students prac- tice for the SAT college-entry exam, and one teaches basic vocabulary and spelling skills.
A look at TESS (The Educa- tional Software Selector), published by the Educational Products Infor- mation Exchange and the Consum- ers Union, shows the same dominance of drill and practice pro- grams. Of the 7,000 programs listed in TESS, almost 70 percent are drill and practice programs, and only 8.3 percent are simulation and problem- solving programs. (For more infor- mation about TESS, write to EPIE, P.O. Box 839, Water Mill, NY 11976.)
Most experts in educational computing have been critical of drill and practice programs for years. And most experts agree that
problem-solving and simulation software is the most challenging and interesting software for anyone learning on a computer. If this is true, why are companies producing so much drill and practice software? And, more importantly, why do people prefer it?
Wary Adults
The answer is that most parents (and many teachers) are not ready for new kinds of software that teach new skills in new, unfamiliar ways. They don't understand how the programs work or what they're supposed to teach, or why it's im- portant, and they don't see where the programs fit into their chil- dren's learning. And since they don't see a need for the programs, they don't buy them.
This is a natural reaction. For most people, computers are still a strange, almost alien, new medium. Many parents are still uncomfort- able having a computer in their home. And many teachers, too, feel privately fearful of computers. They see the computer as a threat — a means to automate them out of a job, The more the computer's role in the classroom grows, the more they see their own role being eroded.
In addition, problem-solving and thinking-skill software is an unfamiliar, new application of com- puters. We have a new medium (computers) trying to teach 'new concepts (logic and thinking skills) using new methods (microworlds, simulations, etc.). This is too much novelty for the average consum- er— whether that consumer is a parent or a school system. As a result, most consumers are buying drill and practice programs and learning games because at least this way they see the computer teaching practical, necessary, and familiar skills — using a nonthreatening, un- derstandable approach. And in the
classroom, since the skills are famil- iar, the programs that teach them are more easily integrated into a teacher's lesson plan and curricu- lum. A program that teaches a child some spelling words can slip effort- lessly into a curriculum, but what does a teacher do with a program that teaches a child how to think? For the present, most parents will be buying and using drill and practice software and learning games, and ignoring problem- solving and simulation software. Does this mean that companies should stop producing these more challenging, yet less successful pro- grams? Hardly. Instead, educators and software companies need to launch a major effort to communi- cate to parents and teachers the im- portance of the new kinds of software. To do this, software com- panies must demonstrate to parents and teachers why learning these skills is important, and how the software fits into their children's learning curriculum. Q
28 COMPUTEI August 1985
For Commodore owners, the latest collections from COMPUTE! Books
COMPUTERS Commodore Collection, Volume 1
Twenty-eight original programs for ttie VIC and 64
Edited
The Commodore Collection, an anthology of 28 previously unpublished programs for the \/IC-20 and Commodore 64, continues the COIVIPUTEI tradition of proctical programs in easy-to-use form. Includes exciting games, stimulating educational programs, valuable utilities, and useful applica- tions to make your Commodore computer an exciting part of every day.
$12.95 ISBN 0-942386-55-8
COMPUTEPs
ommodore
Collection
LOLUME TWO
ot£i pfogrcHTimirg cKte ton boJh fha w:-3Q otkS the """ Commooc<e 64-
|
i |
||||
|
■ |
icoMPunrs |
|||
|
ri |
Cl |
iTii>> |
lo |
%m |
|
Ilt- |
rCoHec |
« |
||
|
L |
||||
|
^^^^b '» )A9 VIC ax collora. ana uWfies (a Ifie .,.;■ VC-20 and CcitVTKxfne « i_ , |
■: |
COMPUTERS Commodore Collection, Volume 2
Programs for the VIC and 64
Edited
Exciting games, sophisticated applications, versatile educa- tional routines, and helpful programming aids for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 highlight this second volume in COM- PUTEI's Commodore Collection series. Included are some of the best articles and programs from recent issues of COM- PUTE! Qr\6 COMPUTEI's Gazette, as well as many programs published here for the first time. Designed for Commodore computer users of all levels, it's a book that every VIC or 64 owner will want to have.
$12.95 ISBN 0-942386-70-1
To charge your order, call toll free 800-334-0868 or send In this coupon with your payment to COMPUTEl Books, P.O. Box 5058, Greensboro, NO 27403.
Please add $2.00 shipping and handling per copy ordered,
n Payment enclosed (check or money order)
D Charge: D Visa D MasterCard D American Express
Account No „Exp, Date
Signature
Name
Address . City
Please oliow A-t weeks fof Oe^ive^y.
state
-Zip
_ copies of COMPUTEI's Commodore Collection, Volume I @ $12,95 ea._
7581101
—copies of COMPUTEI's Commodore Collection, Volume 2 @ $12.95 ea,_
Shipping &. handling, $2.00/book_ Total payment-
THE CMO ADVANTAGE HOME COMPUTERS PORTABLE COMPUTERS
rS!BC
►- THE BEST PRICES!
i^ Next day shipping on all in stock items,
^ Free easy access order inquiry.
.- Orders frdtn outside
Pennsylvania and Nevada save state sales tax.
1^ Free technicial support with our
factory trained tectinical Stan- ly There is no limit and no deposit on C.O.D. orders.
^ There's no extra charge for using your credit card. Your card is not charged until we ship.
^ No waiting period for cashiers checks.
^ We accept purchase orders from qualified corporations. Subject to approval.
^ Educational discounts available 10 qualified institutions.
^ FREE CATALOG MEMBERSHIP
ORDER LINE
1-800-233-8950
In PA 1-800-242-4215
CUSTOMER SERVICE & TECH SUPPORT
1-717-327-1450
Dept. A208
SHIPPING
Add 3%, minimum S500 shipping and handling on all orders. Larger shipments may require additional charges.
All Items subject to availability and price change- Returned shipments may be sub- ject 10 a reslocktng fee
1-800-268-4559
Other Provinces
1-416-828-0866
In Toronto
TELEX: 06-218960
2505 Dunwin Drive,
Missfssauga. Ontario
Canada L5L1T1
All prices shown are for U.S.A.
orders.
Call Tlie Canadian Office for
Canadian prices.
APPLE
APPLE He CALL
APPLE He CALL
MaclNTOSH CALL
lie LCD Display CALL
Macintosh Software
Lotus Jazz.................. ........CALL
MicrosoK Excel CALL
Microsoft Business Pah $375.00
Living VIdeotext
ThinkTank 512 S159.00
Manhatten Ready. Set. Go S79.99
Cralghton Deveropmant
Mac Spell S69,99
Monogram Dollars & Sense. ..$99 99 Psachtrea Back lo Basics ■ GLS109.D0 PFS File 5 Report (New Version)S1Z9.D0 Silicon Beach Airborn $25.99
A ATARI
130XE {12BK) CALL
520ST (51ZK) CALL
ATARI 60DXL CLOSEOUT $49,99
WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
800X1 64K CALL
BSO Interlace $119.00
1010 Recorder $49.99
1020 Color Primer $79,99
1025 Dot Matrix Printer S199.99
1027 Letter Quality Printer $269.99
1030 Direct Connect Modem... .$59.99
1050 Disk Drive $179.99
Toucti Tablet 564.99
7097 Atari Logo $69.99
4018 Pilot (Home) $57.99
5049 VisiCalc $49.99
4011 Star Raiders $12,99
4022 Pacr^an $16.99
6036 Atari Writer $79,99
BOARDS FOR ATARI
Axlon 32K $39,99
Anion 48K {4001.,-.,. $69,99
Axlon 128K $269,99
Microbils 64K (800) $109,00
Bit 3 Full View 80 S229,00
f E commodore NEW Commodore 128, LCD..CALL
SX.64 Portable CALL
Commodore Plus 4 $199,00
CBM 64 $149.00
C1541 Disk Drive ...$199.00
C1530 Dataselte $39.99
M-aOl Dot llflatrix Printer S1B9.00
M-802 Dot Matrix/Serial $219.00
llflCS 803 Dot Matrix $179.00
C1802 Color Monitor $199.00
C1660 Auto Modem $59.99
DPS 1101 Daisy Printer S339.00
Professional Software
Fleet System II w/SpelU $49.99
Trivia Fever $29 99
Word Pro 4 Plus/5 Plus eacti... $239.0?
Into Pro 3179.00
Administrator $399.00
Power $69.99
File (64| $59,99
Report (64) $49 99
Precision Software
Superbase 64 $54.99
BA-TTERIESi
MCLUOO?
Paperclip w/Spell Pack $79,99
The Consultant DBMS $69,99
Bus Card II $139,00
80 Col Display $139,00
Wtrm HEWLETT WIKM PACKAI^D
41CV $189,99
41CX $249,99
HP 718 $419,99
HP lie -,-,362.99
HP 12C;i5C/lSC $39.99
HP 75D $999.99
HPIL Module $98.99
HPIL Cassette or Printer $359.99
Card Reader $143.99
Extended Function Module $63.99
Time Module $63.99
We stock the full line sf HP calculator products
1V£C
PC-S401 CALL
PC-8201 Portable Computer... .5289.00
PC-8231 Disk Drive S599.00
PC-8221A Thermal Printers SK900
PC-82B1A Data Recorder $99.99
PC.B201.06 SK RAM Chips S10500
SHARP
PC-1350 5159.99
PC-126t $159.99
PC-1260 5109.99
PC-1500A $165.99
PC-1250A $88.99
CE-125 PfinterfCassette $128.99
CE-150 Color Primer Cassette.5171.99 CE-161 16K RAM S134.99
DRIVES
■BWWH
HARD
PC Slor CALL
IDLA.<itDci:iIts
5 meg Removable/Internal $1399.00
10 meg Fixed/Internal $1249.00
16 meg 5 Hemovable/10 Fixed52149.00 25 meg 5 Removable/20 Fixe(1S2499.00
10 IVteg Bernoulli Box S2099.00
20 meg aernoulli Box $2599.00
5 meg "MacNoulli" $1599.00
TAUOSAIS TiCHNOLOOIES
12. 2S. 35. 50. 80 meg (PC) from $1499-00
FLOPPY
INDUS
Apple GT 5209.00
Alan GT -,..- $239.00
C-64 GT $259.00
EE3I
A1 5 Aople 5199.00
A2 Apple - 5199-00
SDl C-54 Single $219 00
SD2 C-64 Dual $469.00
■■ndan
320KSV4" (PC) $119.00
Pume
320K SVj" $99.99
ACCESSORIES
KEVTRONICS
KB5150. 5151, KB5152B, KB6153CflLL 5151 Jt . 5149 Jr CALL
MEMORY CHIPS
4164 nPM Cttips {ea.)$i.99
Pronounce Speech Input System $399.00
MODEMS
Anchor
Volksmodem 559.99
Volksmodem XII $189 99
(.lark IL Serial $79.99
Mark VII (Auto Ans/Aulo Dial). .599 99 Mark XII (1200 Baud) $259.00
HlHayes
Smarimodem 300 $145.00
Smarimodem 1200 $389.00
Smarimodem 1200B $359.00
Smarimodem 2400 $099.00
Micromodem II© $249.00
Smart Com II $89,99
Chronograph 5199.00
Transei 1000 CALL
Reach 12C[) Baud Half Card, ,5399.00
mpp miCROBITS
MPP-1000E AD/AA (Atari) $79.99
MPP-10B4 AD/AA (C-64) $69.99
[Novation^
Smart Cat Plus $319.00
J-Cat $99 99
Smart Cat 103/212 .....$369.00
Novation 2400 CALL
212 AutoCal II $499.00
Apple Cat II, -.,.„. 5229,00
2ia Apple Cat II , $379,00
Apple Cat 212 Upgrade $229,00
Macmodem $319,00
OUADRAM Ouadmodem II
300/1200 5339,00
300/1200/2400 $499-00
TELELEARNIHa C64 300 Baud (Cioseout) $39,00
ZT-l r^m 5339.00
ZT-10 $309.00
ZT-ll 5369.00
Z-22 Video Daia Terminal 5529.00
maxell.
3Vi" SS/DD 539.99
3Vi" DS/DD $54,99
5V)" MD-1 w/Hardcase 317,99
5'/i'' MD-2 w/HardcasB 323,99
5Vi" MD-2-HD tor AT $44,99
i" Verbaiim.
S'A" SS/DD 321,99
SVa" DS(DD $29.99
Disk Analyzer 524.99
Elephant S'/i" SS/SD $13.99
Elephant 5yi" SS/DD $15,99
Elephant 5Vj" DS/DD $16,99
Elephant EMSP 5V4" $24,99
m
5'/a" Disk Head Cleaner $14,99
DISK HOLDERS
INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS
Flip-in-File 10 53,99
Flip-in-Flle 60 $17,99
Flip-m-Flle SO w/lock $24 99
Flip-in-File (400/800 ROM) $11 99
AMARAY
50 DtsR Tub 5V4" ,,59,99
30 Disk Tub 3Vi" ,58 99
^M^S
GRAPHICS
<;PllQBla
IBM $89,99
Apple/Franklin $79,99
■PotafDtd
Palette $129900
DO Grem --„..S129.00
M Amtisr S139.D0
10 Amber IBM-Plug $169.00
olor 300 Composite S239.00
Olor 500 Composile/RGB 3389.00
olor 600 Hi-Res (640x240) 3399.00
olor 700 Hi-Hes (720x240) S499.0D
olor 710 Long Phosphor 3579.00
2" Amber/(3reen Composile S99.99
2" Ambsr/Green TTL (Ba.)S1 19.00
NEC
3 1260 Greer S59.99
3 12Q1J120S (ea.) S99.99
3 1270 Green 3139.00
3 1275 Amber 3149,00
3 1230 3 TTU12a5 A TTL 5149.00
Z 1460 Color 3269.00
Z 1410 RGB S669.00
PRINCETDN
1AX-12E Amber 3189.00
IX-9 9" RGB $469.00
IX.9E Enhanced $519.00
IX-12 12" RGB $469.00
IX-12E Enhanced $559.00
.R-12 Hi-Res $699.00
.R-12 P Enhanced $649.00
15 12" Green Mono $119.00
16 ^2^^ Amber Mono S1 19.00
21 Green TTL $139.00
22 Amber TTL S149.00
30 Mett-Res RGB S299.00
20 Hi-Res RGB (IBM) 5429,00
40 Ultra Hi-Res RGB 3589,00
400 Quadchrome I S479.0O
410 Quachrome II $429,00
420 Amberchrome $179,00
500 Quad Screen 31499,00
VM 122/123 379,99
VM 124 IBM Amber 3149.00
VM 130 Color $269.00
VM 131 Color $279.00
VM 133 RGB $429.00
VM 135 RGB/Color $459.00
VM 136 RGB/Color $699.00
220, 1230. 1240 CALL
MMpfOCTKAL
iraphcard.. ~. $79.99
eriall Card $99.99
licrobufler II -l- 3169.00
licrobulter 32K $189.00
licrofazer from 3139.00
lajer (Epson) from $79.99
^Orange micro
rrappler CO (C64) $99.99
Tappler + (Apple) S39.99
rappler IBK* (Apple) 3159.00
DIGITAL DEVICES
pe Face (Alan).... $49.99
-Prim A (Atari) ,..$54,99
-Ai6/BuHer (Atari) $74.99
-Call Inierface (Atari) S39.99
-Prim C (C64) $49.99
■16 Pnnt Buffer $74.99
mpp miCROBITS
IB1150 Parallel (Atari) 379,99
IPP-11S0 Parallel (Atari) $69.99
IP-nSOXL (Alari 1200XL) 369.99
NcroStuffer 64K Prim Butter.. .3109,00
INTERFACES
PRINTERS
AT-IOO Atari Interface Primer.. .5139.00
AT.5B0 Atari Dual Mode 3249.00
GP-lOO Parallel Interlace S1B9.00
GP-700 Color Printer ,. 3449.00
GP560 Parallel Printer S239.00
Elite 5 Letter Quality 3239.00
Elite 5 C64 Interface 3249.00
Penman 3-pen 3289.00
^CITIZEN
MSPIO (80 co!-> 5349.00
MSP-15 (132 col.) $499.00
MSP.20 (80 col.) 3489.00
MSP-25 (132 col) $679.00
CITCDH
Prowriler 7500 5219.00
Prcwriler 8510P 3299.00
Prowriier 8510 NLQ $329.00
Prowriter 1550P $469.00
F10-40P Siarwriler $669.00
F10-55 Prinlmastar $1049.00
Prowriter B51Q.NLQ S329.00
.'M»->.T.!r':^"'
ComWntefll Letter Quality 3399.00
corona
Lazer LP-300 32799.00
DIABLO
D25 Daisywheel $599.00
630-109 Daisywheel, 31749.00
DB01F Daisywheel CALL
d*isywriter
2000 3749.00
EPSON
RX-eO. FX-SO+, LX-BO, JX-80 CALL
FX-100 + , RX-100. LQ1500 ..„,CALL
Homewriter 10 CALL
NEW! LX-90. SQ-2000. DXIO. DX20. HS-BQ CALL
^UKr
6000 Letter Quality CALL
6100 Letter Quality CALL
630O Letter Quality CALL
NEC
8027 Transportable - 3299.00
2000 Series 3699,00
3000 Series $1099.00
8000 Series $1499,00
ELF 360,. $449.00
OKIDATA
84, 182, 192, 193. 2410 ...CALL
Okiraale 10 (Specily C64/Atarl)$ 199.00 Okicnate 20 (IBM) CALL
OLYMPIA
Needlepoini Dot Matri* $299,00
Compact RO $339,00
Compact 2 $369.00
Panasonic
KX1090 $199-00
KX1091 3279.00
KX1092 3409 00
KX1093..... 3599.00
Quadjet 3399.00
SiSilYER-REED
500 Letter Quality $279.00
550 Letter Quality $419.00
770 Letter Quality $759.00
iis©yf
SB/SD/SG/SR Series CALL
Powenype Letter Quality CALL
TOSHIBA
1340 (80 column) $599.00
P351 (132 column) 31299,00
PC COMPATIBLES
IBM PC SYSTEMS
Configured to your
specification. Cali for Best Price!
IBM-PC, (BM-PC II, IBM-XT, IBM-AT
jptiarr
Qim
2220 Dual Portable $1499.00
4220 Dual Desktop $1399.00
4620 10 meg Desktop $2299.00
Safari (7300) CALL
630O CALL
SOFTWARE FOR IBM
Electronic Desk 3199.00
.\SHTON-TATEB
Framework 3399.00
dBase II $299.00
dBase III 3389-00
BBORUUID
Turbo Pascal 3.0 349.99
Sidekick 339.99
h^hI£LECTRONlC ARTS'
Get Organized , S69.99
Cul -n- Paste 339.99
Music Construction $29.99
One on- One 329.99
Financial Cookbook $34.99
# 1 ku-Auni Soi'tw-aiic Iiic.
Harvard Project [.Manager $20900
Total Project Manager $269,00
Human Edge™
Communication Edge , 399 99
Management Edge,... „. 3119 00
Negotiation Edge $139 00
Sales Edge 311900
IMSI PC PaintbruBti $94,99
• Lotus
Symphony.,. .,. 3439,00
1-2-3 $309 00
■WH MicnPtti
WordStar 2000 $249,00
WordSlar 2000-1- 3319,00
MCROSOFT.
Flight Simulator 339.99
MultiPlan $129.00
Crosstalk $89.99
RlBase 4000 3249.00
RlBase 5000 3399.00
Clout 20 $129.00
MoItiMate
Muiti Mate., rr.rr™ !^ 3249,00
I 1 l^^iyjtH
PeachPack (GUAP/AR) 5199,00
^*
IBM/APPLE
Access (NEW) 379.99
Wriie/Graph/File/Plari (ea).S79.99
Report 374.99
Proof 359.99
Mac Software CALL
Professional Software
PC Plus/The Boss $249,00
SOFTWARE GROUP
Enable.... 3369.00
Accounting SORIUM/IUS
AP/AR(GL/lfJV/OE (ea).S295 00
Supercalc III 3195 00
EasyWnief II Sysiem $195.00
Super Project $195.00
SPI
Open Access.. ..r7... $379.00
SSI Software
Word Perfect 3239.00
File Manager (IBM),.,".". 339.99
THOUQHTWARE
Trigger $289.00
Sell. Sell, Sell
Training $299.00
Application $179.00
PC-151-21 Single Desktop CALL
PC-151-52 Dual Desktop CALL
PC-151-53 to meg Desktop CALL
PC-161-21 Single Portable CALL
PC-161-52 Dual Portable CALL
Z-200 (AT) CALL
171 (Portable) .ts. CALL
.i>5^::
148 (DeskTop).-
AT
..CALL
corona
PPC400 Dual Portable $1799.00 I
PPCXT 10 meg Portable $239900
PC40022 10 meg Desktop 51999.00 |
@ SANVO
MBC 550-2 Single Drive 3699.00 I
MBC 555-2 Dual Drive 3969,00 j
MBC 775 Portable 31799.00 1
MBC 511 10 meg CALL
MBC 675 Portable CALL I
NBC aaO Desktop CALL
MULTIFUNCTION CARDS
AST
Six Pack Plus 3239.00 I
Mega Plus II 3269.00
I/O Plus II 3139.00
Advantage.AT 3399. (»
Graph Pak $599 00
Monograph Plus $399,00
Preview Mono..... .......3299.00
PC Net Cards 3379.00
5251/11 On-lihB 3799.00
5261/12 Remote 3579.00
3780 Emulation Card $639.00
BSC Bisync 3489.00
IRMA 3270 $879.00
IRMA Prim 3999.00
easLE
Mono Card (Closeout) $99.99
EVEREX
Color Card (Graphics Edge) 3299.00
Magic Card SJ99.00
HERCULES
Graphics $299,00
Color 3159,00
fDEAmax - ZPR, 64K, C, S, P.S229.00
IDEAmini - YPH. C, S. P 3189.00
IDEAminimax - MPR 12eK.. 3229,00
IDEAshare Software $219,00
IDEA 5251 3699,00
MYLEX
The Chairman $489,00
PARADISF
Modular Graphics Card 3274,00
MuUi Display Card 5289,00
Five Pack C, S ..,3159,00
PLANTRONICS
Color Plus $369,00 |
Captain - 64 $239,00
Captain Jf. ISBK 3339.00
Graphics Master 3469.00
Quadport-AT 3119.00
Ouadmeg - AT (128K) $349,00
The Gold Ouadboafd $449.00
The Silver Ouadboard,. $239,00
Expanded Ouadboard $219.00
Quad 512 -f $229.00
Liberty $309.00
OuadSprint 3499.00
OuadLink $399.00
Quadcolor 1,... $199.00
QuadJr. Expansion Chassis $469.00
Expansion Chassis Memory.,.. 3199.00
Ouadmem. Jr S199.00
Chronagraph 379.99
Parallel Interface Board 364.99
'S>00^
<^-^s^
i
Program Your Own EPROMS
$99.50
(D
c
(D
E
2
a
^ VIC 20 ^C64
PLUGS INTO USER PORT. NOTHING ELSE NEEDED. EASY TO USE. VERSATILE.
• Read or Program. One byte or 32K bytes!
OR Use like a disk drive. LOAD, SAVE, GET INPUT PRINT CMD, OPEN, CLOSE— EPROM FILES! Our software lets you use familiar BASIC commands to create, modify, scratcfi files on readily available EPROM cfiips. Adds a new dimension to yourcomputing capability. Works witfi most Mt. Monitors too.
• Make Auto-Start Cartridges of your programs.
• The promenade" 01 gives you 4 programming voltagec, 2 EPROM supply voltages, 3 intelligent programming algoritfims, 15 bit cfiip addressing, 3 LED's and NO switches. Your computer controls everything from software! Textool socket. Anti-static aluminum housing. EPROMS, cartridge PC boards, etc. at extra charge. Some EPROM types you can use with the promenade"
275S 2532 462732P 27126 5133 X2816A'
2516 2732 2584 27256 51« 52813'
2716 27C32 2764 68764 281 5' 4801 6P'
27C16 a732A 27C64 88766 2816"
"ComnmocMe B,JSin*55 Madimes 'Dffroles eJsctncaily eraseal^ types
Call Toll Free: 800-421-7731 In California: 800-421-7748
E9
JASON-RANHEIM
580 Parrott St., San Jose, CA 95112
SmftCalc
spreadsheet superiority!
A powerful,
easy-to-use
electronic
spreadsfieet
for home and
small business
use
For
Commodore 64
and
IBM
personal
computers
444 Lake Cook Rd.
Deerfield, II. 60015
1-800-323-9755
More power for your dollar.
■ I
I
i i^HF I W WiPmlmE j
^ Systems
Software Best Sellers
This Last .Month Month
intdrtalnment ,
TIHtt
Publlthftr
Remark*
3, 2,
4.
Flight Simulator tt The Hitchhiker's Guide
To The Galaxy Flight Simulator F- 1 5 Strike Eagle Sumrrrer Games II
SubLogic Aircraft simulation
Infocom Comic adventure strategy
gome Microsoft Aircraft simulation
MicroProse Air combat simulation
Epyx Action sports game
I
Education _
1. 3.
2. 3.
1. 2.
New Improved MasferType Typing Tutor III Math Blasterl
5. Early Games 4. WordAttackl
Scarborough
Simon & Schuster Davidson
Springboard
Davidson
Home Managemont ,
Typing instruction program
Typing instruction program Introductory math program, ages 6-12 Educational games, ages 2-6
Word meaning ond usage program, grades ^-12
1. 2.
3.
Print Shop
Print Shop Graphics
Library Bank Street Writer HomePak
Broderbund Broderbund
Do-it-yourself print shop 100 additional graphics
Sroderbund Word Processor
Batteries Included Word processing,
telecommunicatslons, & data
management Meca Home financial program
a
Q,
a
Andrew Tobias's Managing Your Money
zopyrlgti) f PS5 by Billboard Publlcallans, Inc. Compiled by the Billboard Sesearch Departmeryt cind reptlnf^ by permlalon. Data as of 6/OS/SS. 32 COMPUTEI AuQuSt 1985
E o
z
m
o
c o
o Z
Telecomputing Today
Arian P. Levitan
SIGs: Behind The Scenes
It appears that 1985 is rapidly be- coming a banner year for electronic Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Un- fortunately, rapid growth is not without its problems.
Electronic SIGs (also known as discussion forums) are like comput- erized clubs where people with a common interest get together on- line to exchange information, ideas, comments, complaints, and public domain computer programs. Usually they are operated by commercial information services such as CompuServe. Besides computer- oriented SIGs, there are groups for doctors, lawyers, educators, and other professionals, not to mention enthusiasts of travel, cooking, liter- ature, rock 'n' roll, politics, human sexuality, skiing, and ham radio. There are SIGs for every taste, and new ones are added every day.
SIGs are usually divided into three areas. The most active area is a message system subdivided into several sections by topic where us- ers can read and leave messages. The oldest messages are overwrit- ten when a new message is added, so each message tends to have a life of a week or less.
Each topic section also has a file access database where impor- tant messages may be stored more permanently as text files, and where users leave free copies of public domain software.
Finally, each SIG also has a conference area so online users can exchange messages in an immedi- ate mode. Everything you type ap- pears on the screens of others participating in the conference.
Online Bucks
SIGs generate extra income for information services because they encourage more online usage. But how valuable are SIGs to an infor- mation service's bottom line?
Frankly, most SIGs generate only a modest amount of revenue, and some don't break even. There are, however, a significant number of SIGs that are monstrous hits, large- ly due to the work of their sysops (system operators). In fact, each of the top SIGs generates well over a million dollars a year! That can mean big bucks for the head sysop. It's not uncommon to find the sys- op (or company sponsoring the SIG) pulling down at least 5 percent of the gross — $50,000 a year or more. The assistant sysops general- ly work for "fame and glory" and get free time on the SIG for their efforts.
Although SIGs used to be the sole province of CompuServe, the revenues that they've been pulling in lately have prompted Delphi, The Source, and other services to get into the act. And the competi- tion is just beginning to heat up. The lure of substantial amounts of SIG-generated money can do funny things to people.
For example, the entire staff of the Commodore SIG on one service recently jumped ship and set up shop with a competitor. The defec- tion wasn't a secret — the sysops used the SIG message base to let members know where they had gone. And within the last year, the head sysop of another popular SIG had to contend with a palace coup staged by his assistant sysops. After the smoke cleared, there were two SIGs instead of one — a SIG headed by the original sysop and another by the rebels. Keeping the SIG peace might soon be a job for the United Nations.
Fortunately, most SIGs are very well run and perform a valu- able function, acting as information clearinghouses. But as useful as they may be, there's no point in paying through the nose to enjoy the benefits of regular involvement
in a SIG. Here are some general tips that can help you save money when participating in a SIG.
Be Selective
Don't try to read every new item in the message area. Many of the more popular SIGs can turn over a thou- sand messages or more in three or four days. Pick one or two sections with topics that appeal to you and stick with them.
Many SIGs let you read streams of messages without paus- ing for a response from you be- tween items. To take full advantage of this feature, download the mes- sages you want and read them off- line. If you wish to reply to a message or leave a new one of your own, write your text offline as well; you can send the entire message in a matter of seconds rather than pecking away online. (See last month's column for hints on this technique.)
Unless you have a burning question that can't be answered by the folks who access the message section, pass up regularly attending special online conferences. Com- plete transcripts of the conferences are usually available in the file ac- cess areas shortly afterward. Given the speed that most people type, the text of a two-hour conference can usually be downloaded in about five minutes. If you can't re- sist conferences, don't bother to sign on at 1200 or 2400 bps if the service charges hourly premiums for these higher speeds. 01' 300 baud is just fine for conferences and will keep the hourly rate you pay at a minimum.
Finally, don't ignore using the public domain program library of your local computer user group as an alternative to downloading files from SIGs. An entire diskful of pro- grams from a user group usually costs no more than an hour of time on a SIG. ©
August 1985 COMPUTEI 33
INSIGHT: Atari
Bill Wilkinson
Atari Input/Output
Much of what I'm about to discuss this month has appeared in this column before. And the bulk of this information can also be found in the Atari Technical Reference Man- ual— presuming you can read "techlish." But this intro is neces- sary so we can start talking about the meat of our subject next month.
Still with me? Let's go. Atari's operating system (OS) — which, like the OS in any eight-bit com- puter, takes up the bulk of Read Only Memory (ROM) — is really a thing of beauty. In fact, it may be the only consistent OS to be found in any microcomputer, short of those sporting UNIX or its deriva- tives. CP/M and MS-DOS are such kludges that most commercial pro- grams bypass the OS. (That's why there are so many "almost PC- compatibles.") The Commodore 64's operating system comes close, but its disk input/output is difficult at best. And Apple's ProDOS man- ual states that "users desiring to perform I/O to devices other than the disk drive are on their own!"
Atari users, on the other hand, enjoy a system with such complete support that, for most programs, all necessary input/output operations can be executed by calling a single subroutine! That subroutine is called, appropriately. Central Input/Output (CIO). By calling CIO with the proper values in certain memory locations and the proper pointer in the 6502's X register, your programs can perform such diverse operations as formatting a disk, drawing a line on the graphics screen, fetching a keystroke from the keyboard, sending output to the printer, or reading 25,000 bytes from a disk file.
Yet, CIO is invisible to most Atari users. For example, many of the capabilities which magazine and newsletter articles attribute to
BASIC are not part of BASIC at all. None of the graphics (including the so-called BASIC graphics modes) in Atari BASIC are actually performed by BASIC. Instead, BASIC simply translates the graphics command into a call to CIO. Atari developed this system in 1978, and it wasn't until the Macintosh appeared that such a revolutionary concept was repeated in a popular computer.
Generally, you have to become a machine language programmer to appreciate and use all the features of CIO. So why read any of this, then? Because calls to CIO can't perform every input/output task possible on Atari computers. What can't CIO do? First, let's take a glance at what it can do.
Calling CIO
When CIO is called by a program, it expects the X register to contain a pointer to an Input/Output Control Block (lOCB). lOCBs are blocks of memory 16 bytes long which con- trol CIO functions. The pointer val- ue for the X register is easily calculated — it's actually the BASIC file number (as in OPEN #1,4, 0,"K:") multiplied times 16, be- cause there are 16 bytes per lOCB. One of the bytes within the lOCB then tells CIO what function the program is requesting.
There are seven fundamental functions available: OPEN, CLOSE, STATUS, PRINT, INPUT, Block PUT, and Block GET. In addi- tion, there are some extended func- tions. BASIC programmers are familiar with these because of the XIO statement, which allows you to call the functions from BASIC. But several other BASIC statements (in- cluding NOTE, POINT, DRAWTO, and LOCATE) access the CIO ex- tended functions, too.
After CIO examines the lOCB and determines which function is being requested, it decides which
device (keyboard, disk, screen, etc.) should service the request. Then it calls an appropriate routine within the device driver for that device. (For example, the Disk Operating System — or more properly, the File Management System — is the de- vice driver for the disk drive.) If the request is for an extended function, it is passed on unchanged to the device driver.
Well, with 256 possible com- mand values, you would think that there isn't any request, however bi- zarre, which couldn't be serviced via CIO. In theory, true. In reality, you have to stop adding functions somewhere or you run out of mem- ory. Thus Atari's ClO-based graph- ics have no function for drawing a circle, and DOS provides no com- mand to format a disk without also writing a boot and directory.
If you want to draw a circle, you can write a routine to calculate and PLOT points or change screen memory directly. If you want to mess with the disk drive, though, you have to learn about another routine within the Atari ROMs, Serial Input/Output.
The Mysterious SIO
SIO — which lets Atari computers talk to devices (such as printers and disk drives) which hook up to the serial bus — has acquired an unde- served aura of mystery. Actually, though, in some ways it is easier to call SIO than it is to call CIO!
For example, there is only one SIO "device" and only one Device Control Block (DCB). So even the X register pointer required by CIO isn't necessary when calling SIO. Intrigued? I hope so, because it's time to sign off for now. But after this brief overview, we're ready for next month's column: We'll show how to write a program to call SIO.
34 COMPUTEI August 1965
IBM Personal Computing
Donald B. Trivette
New Life For Aging PCs
This month's COMPUTE! is full of new wares from the Summer Con- sumer Electronics Show. But most of us can't afford to toss out the old and bring in the new — at least not yearly — -so let's look at an interest- ing alternative.
One way to give new life to an aging PC is with a PCturbo board by Orchid Technology (47790 Wes- tinghouse Drive, Fremont, CA 94539). PCturbo, which installs in one of the PC's expansion slots, contains a whole new computer and a whole new memory. It's like hav- ing a new computer inside an old computer. The old computer is the original IBM PC with its memory and Intel 8088 microprocessor. The new computer is completely con- tained on the PCturbo board; it has an Intel 80186 microprocessor with up to 640K RAM.
You don't lose your old PC in the bargain- — a PC with PCturbo is like two separate computers. In PC mode, the computer runs just as it always did. But in PCturbo mode, the machine zips through most pro- grams three to four times faster. Two new DOS-like commands — TURBO and GOPC—switch from one mode to another.
The PCturbo board executes all the usual program instructions, but handles input/output in a special way. For example, when a disk op- eration generates an input/output interrupt, the PCturbo's 80186 pro- cessor passes the I/O task along to the slower 8088 processor. That means the 80186 can run a program at full speed without stopping to process time-consuming interrup- tions from the keyboard, screen, disk, and printer.
Nor is the PC's original memo- ry left idle. Software supplied with PCturbo allows that memory to be used as one or more electronic RAM disks and as a disk cache (pro-
nounced like "cash"). Disk caching has been around for years as a way to speed up I/O on mainframe computers. No matter how fast disk drives are, memory is three to four times faster. The PCturbo disk- caching software automatically moves blocks of data (called sec- tors) from the disk to the cache (the old PC memory) so the data will be there when needed. In fact, the caching software anticipates re- quests: It moves the next disk sector into memory as well. All this is completely transparent to the appli- cation software — it still thinks it's reading and writing data on a flop py disk.
A Dramatic Speed-Up
How well does disk-caching work? To find out, I plugged a PCturbo board into my three-year-old 320K PC and invite.d over a friend.
Henry and his wife own an interior design firm; they use their PC with Lotus 1-2-3 to keep track of chairs, tables, wallpaper, fabrics, taxes, and all the other charges for a job. I had heard Henry complaining about the spreadsheet for a modest residence he is doing for a surgeon. The spreadsheet is 28 columns wide by 389 rows deep — about 170,000 opulent bytes. When something is added — say a Ming vase — it takes the program 15.5 seconds to recalculate. (We all should have to spend a half-million dollars at four items per minute!) With the computer in PCturbo mode, the recalculations were cut to six seconds. That's a speed increase of 250 percent (or six more items per minute).
My own problems more often involve checking the spelling in a manuscript rather than spending money more rapidly. I recalled a 2,049-word article (it took the PC three seconds to count the number of words; PCturbo, one second) and set Word Proof, the IBM spelling
checker, to work. In 41 seconds, PCturbo verified that the article had no errors; in regular PC mode, the job took 107 seconds. To speed things up even more, I moved Word Proof's 125,000-word dictionary from a floppy disk to an electronic RAM disk created in the regular PC memory. PCturbo polished off all 2,049 words in 18 seconds (almost 114 words per second); the PC by itself took 77 seconds — more than four times longer.
And how much does it cost to find spelling errors faster than Superman? The invoice from Or- chid Technology is $747 for the PCturbo board with 256K of mem- ory, and $375 for the optional 384K memory module to reach a total 640K. The fully loaded board— PCturbo with 640K— costs $1,122. Not bad for an accessory that al- most turns a three-year-old PC into a PC AT.
Almost, that is, because the PC won't do a few things in PCturbo mode. IBM BASIC is an IBM propri- etary product built into a chip on the PC's main circuit board; it's not available to PCturbo, so you must switch to PC mode to run BASIC or BASICA. But compiled BASIC runs just fine with PCturbo. Also, the PCturbo board I tested wouldn't run communications programs (it couldn't find the modem). How- ever, Orchid says it has a solution to that in the works. Somehow it's comforting to know there's lots of life left in the old PC.
Odds And Ends
The second edition of IBM's Direc- tory of Personally Developed Soft- ware has been out for several months, To get a free copy, call 1- 800-IBM-PCSW (a.k.a. 1-800-426- 7279). The new directory lists 58 software products ranging in price from $15 to $150, although most cost about $20. There are some real bargains here. ©
August 1 986 COMPUTB 35
S Programming the Tl
C. Regena
Trivia Quiz
There has been quite a big fuss about the trivia-type question and answer games — Trivial Pursuit and the various takeoffs. I'm certain that you've also seen ads for com- puter versions of these board games. Have you ever wanted to buy one? Wait! Write your own. This month's program, "Trivia Quiz," gives you the basic structure for a question and answer game.
The main part of either the board games or the computer ver- sions is the bank of queshons. Of course, we can't publish a program with questions already included be- cause it would take up the whole magazine. To make your own game, you must invent your own questions. Teachers can use this program for a basic essay-type quiz on any subject, and families can think up questions that appeal to their interests.
The computer is used to shuffle the questions, or to randomly choose one question at a time and give its corresponding answer. Once a question comes up, it is not used again.
I've previously published pro- grams for a matching quiz and a multiple-choice quiz. This program creates a fill-in-the-answer or essay quiz. You can even print out copies of tests that have the questions in a different order for each person.
Modifying Tlie Program
In each of the program's DATA statements, first write a question, then type a comma, then put the answer. Remember to adjust the spacing so it looks nice on the screen (no words split across screen boundaries). If you need commas within the question or the answer, you'll need to use quotes. Just to give you an idea, the sample pro- gram contains questions from nurs- ery rhymes and fairy tales.
Adjust the DIMension state- ment for the number of questions you put in your DATA statements. For an example, I've used only 20 questions. You'll probably want many more for a trivia quiz. Also define N in line 120 for the number of possible questions.
After the computer chooses and prints a question, the player inputs the answer. The computer then prints the correct answer. The computer does not keep score, however, because you may want to accept several forms of the answer. For instance, you could accept the answer to the question of what Lit- tle Miss Muffet ate as "curds and whey," "her curds and whey,"or even "cottage cheese" — but you would not accept "porridge."
Trivia Quiz simply asks the questions, so any number of people can play. You may want to expand the program to ask questions of each player in turn, to add scoring, or to make a more complex game. Of course, you can add graphics and sound, too.
If you wish to save typing ef- fort, send a blank cassette or disk, a stamped, self-addressed mailer, and $3 to:
C. Regena P.O. Box 1502 Cedar City, UT 84720
Please be sure to specify that you want the TI version of Trivia Quiz.
Answers To Reader Questions
I cover TI BASIC exclusively in this column because most COMPUTE! readers have console BASIC only. For other programming languages and hardware information, a good newsletter is published by the 99'ers User Group Association, 3535 South H Street, #93, Bakers- field, CA 93304. This is a nonprofit organization that communicates
with hundreds of local user groups.
User groups are still going strong and are your best source of information and help. Many pub- lish excellent newsletters (sorry, too numerous to mention here, and I wouldn't want to slight anyone).
New software is still being pro- duced for the TI — I guess because there are over two million TIs out there. Most new programs are en- tertainment and educational titles. And yes, the Extended BASIC mod- ule remains available.
Hardware also is abundant. There are separate units for each peripheral, which saves you money if you need only one item. There are also combinations. One attrac- tive unit I've used is CorComp's expansion unit that contains an RS-232 interface, 32K memory ex- pansion, and a disk controller, all in a box about six inches wide that connects to the side of the console. It works just like the TI Peripheral Expansion Box but without the bulk and the noisy fan. My only com- plaint is that the disk drive connec- tor isn't the same as the TI disk drive ribbon cable, but I understand Radio Shack has the necessary connections.
Next month I'll discuss how to use peripherals in your programming.
|
Trivia Quiz |
|
|
lee |
REM TRIVIA QUIZ |
|
110 |
DIM S% (20> , A» (20) |
|
120 |
N=20 |
|
130 |
CALL CLEftR |
|
140 |
PRINT TAB (8) ; "TRIVIA DU |
|
IZ" |
|
|
150 |
PRINT ::"A QUESTION WIL |
|
L BE SHOWN. " |
|
|
160 |
PRINT :t"TYPE THE ANSWE |
|
R (WITHOUT" |
|
|
170 |
PRINT : "COMMAS) THE^ PR |
|
ESS <ENTER>. " |
|
|
1S0 |
PRINT ::"THE CORRECT AN |
|
SWER IS SHOWN. " |
|
|
190 |
PRINT 5 : "PRESS THE SPAC |
|
E BAR TO" |
|
|
200 |
PRINT : "CONTINUE. " |
|
210 |
FOR C=l TO N |
|
220 |
READ S»iC) , A* (C) |
|
230 |
NEXT C |
36 COMPUTE! August 1 985
240
250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 Zb0 370 330 390 400 410
420
430
440
450
460
480
490 500
510
520 530 540 550
560 570 580 590 600 610 620
PRINT ::: "PRESS fiNV KEY
TD START. '■ CftLL KEY(0,K,S> IF S< 1 THEN 250 FDR C=l TO N CALL CLEAR RANDOMIZE R=INT (N*RND) +1 IF S»<R)="" THEN 300 PRINT SS (R) : : CALL SOUND < 100, 1497, 2) INPUT B« PRINT !fl«(R) CALL KEY{0,K,S) IF K032 THEN 360 S» (R) =■■ ■' NEXT C CALL CLEAR REM PUT QUESTIONS HERE
DATA WH TENS?, T K I TTENS DATA WH
MEN IN CHER, T NDLESTI DATA WH LE ROCK 8LDW5 DATA WH JILH6 PAIL OF DATA WH
TAILS? FE
DATA HO DL DID AVE?, TH DATA WH REE BEA CKS DATA WH PPLE7, S DATA WH UPPER?, KER DATA WH
PIBS U R HOUSE S, BRIC DATA WH HAIR TO E PRINC DATA WH
IN HIS MAS PIE DATA WH SS MUFF D WHEY DATA WH
RIDINS DING TD DMDTHER DATA WH
SPRAT< T
DATA WH D AWAY E PIPER DATA WH {11 SPA JACK DATA WH
STOCKI HN DATA WH
GLASSC ?, CINDE DATA WH DID ONE GGIES H END
O LOST THEIR MIT HE THREE LITTLE
0 WERE THE THREE A TUB?, "THE BUT HE BAKER, THE CA CK MAKER" EN WILL THE CRAD ?,WHEN THE WIND
AT DID JACK AND SPACES>FETCH?, A
WATER 0 CUT OFF MICE'S , THE FARMER'S WI
W MAY BAGS OF WO
THEBLACK SHEEP H
REE
0 VISITED THE TH
RS' HDME?, BDLDILQ
O CHOKED ON AN A NOW WHITE O SANG FOR HIS S LITTLE TOMMY TUC
AT DID THE THREE
SE TO BUILD THEI
S?, "STRAW, STICK
KS"
O USED HER LONG
{3 SPACES>SEE TH
E?, RAPUNZEL
AT DID JACK FIND
{3 SPACES>CHRIST
?,A PLUM
AT DID LITTLE MI
ET EAT?, CURDS AN
D WAS LITTLE RED
{3 SPACES>HOOD G
VISIT?, HER GRAN
AT COULDN'T JACK 4 SPACES>EAT?, FA
0 STOLE A PIG AN DIDRUN?, "TOM, TH
S SON" 0 JUMPED OVER A CESJCANDLESTICK?,
O SLEPT WITH HIS NGSDN?,MY SON JO
DSE FOOT FIT THE
4 SPACESJSLIPPER
RELLA
AT KIND OF MEAT
OFTHE LITTLE PI AVE?, ROAST BEEF
CAPUTE!
Tl Webster Dines Out
In line 480 of this game program from the June issue (Program 6, p. 57), the DISPLAY AT(3,22) should be DISPLAY AT(23,22). Reader Andrew Sonon supplied this cor- rection, which moves the score in- dication to its proper place on the screen.
Apple MLX Error Messages
Although there are no errors in the "Apple MLX" listing from the June issue (p. 114), a number of readers have encountered DISK ERROR messages at unusual times. During normal operation of the program, the only errors that should occur are ones involving disk access; line 100 traps these errors. However, a side effect of this error trapping is that typing mistakes you make while entering MLX can also pro- duce the message in line 610. Thus, if MLX gives you a DISK ERROR message when you are not access- ing the disk, you need to check for a typing mistake in the MLX pro- gram. Lines 330-340 are a common problem area. Make sure you have not confused the letter O (used in the variable names 0$ and O in those lines) with the number zero, which also appears in line 340. In COMPUTERS listings, a zero always has a diagonal slash through it.
Commodore Disk Editor
The POKE 1024, PEEK(254) in line 260 of this disk utility program from the June issue (p. 98) prevents you from changing the value of the first byte in a sector. This is the track number for the next sector in the file, so you may not need to change its value very often. How- ever, you can modify the program to allow editing of the first byte by replacing the GOTO 260 at the end of line 310 with WAIT 198,255: GOTO 280.
Editing Enhancement For Softball Statistics
This record-keeping program from the July issue (p. 30) works as pub- lished for all the listed computers. However, the data input process can be simplified by allowing cor- rections for each player's statistics. To accomplish this, make the fol- lowing changes to the general pro- gram (Program 1):
545 PRINT
546 PRINT "EVERYTHING OK (Y/N) 7"
547 INPUT AS
548 IF AS<>"N" AND A$<>"Y" THE N 545
549 IF A5="N" THEN 420
TI-99/4A users should also make the following additional changes:
548 IF (A$<>"N")*(AS<>"Y" ) THE N 545
Atari users should also make the following additional changes:
250 NEXT 1 SPRINT "<:DQWN>E verything DK (Y/N)?": BOSUB 630: IF A*="N" T HEN 210
255 GOSUB 460
Mindbusters For Atari DOS 3.0
To use the Atari version of this thinking game from the April issue (p. 50) with DOS 3.0, you must delete the DIM K(255) in line 5 and make the following changes to line 1:
1 DIM K(255);FOR I = 0 TO 255: Kd) - 0: NEXT I: GOTO 5 @
August 1985 COMPUTEI 37
Reviews
Archon II: Adept
Arthur Leyenberger
Requirements: Commodore 64 or 128; Atari 400/800 or XL with at least 48K RAM; or an Apple U-series computer with at least 48K RAM. Ail versions also re- quire a disk drive and a joystick.
In any entertainment business, whether it is movies, books, or videogames, there is a natural tendency to produce sequels to existing hits. Making sequels can be approached in a number of ways. Often the sequel is just more of the same thing, such as Jaws U and jaws 3-D; the hope is that there will be con- tinued demand for more of the same thing. The risk in this approach is that people may eventually grow tired of the old formula.
Another approach is to use the same basic theme of the original, but add something new or better to the sequel — as in the successful Star Wars and Star Trek films. This is also the case with Ardwn II: Adept, a new game from Free Fall Associates, published by Elec- tronic Arts.
Adept was designed to be a game that has the same mixture of strategy, action, and play mechanics as the origi- nal Archon. But it is sufficiently differ- ent to please both new players and long-time Archon devotees.
Casting Magic Spells
Adept is basically a game of magic, fo- cusing on energy and resource manage- ment. Unlike Archon, it allows people of different skill levels to compete more equally. The combination of strategic board play and individual combat means that people who don't have fan- tastic reflexes have a reasonable chance of winning.
Each side starts with four Adepts, similar to the Wizard and the Sorceress pieces in Archon. The game begins with one Adept on each of the four elements: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. The ele- ments are represented by colored bands on the screen. Your pieces are shown
vertically on each side of the screen, with the more powerful, flexible pieces at the top.
The more powerful pieces require more energy to manipulate. Choosing the beginner level gives you the most energy while choosing the advanced level gives you the least. The play level also affects the speed of the pieces in combat. Each piece can cast spells, and every spell costs magical energy. You can cast as many spells as you want with any piece as long as you can afford it. To gain magical energy, you must occupy "power points." If you occupy al! of the power points, you win the game.
You shape your magical army de- pending on such factors as your skill with a particular piece, a certain strate- gy, or the pieces you like. Each side has four different elemental pieces that can be called upon. They are strongest in their own element but can be played in any element, Some of the pieces are common to both sides, while others are unique.
When you choose a piece, you are shown the amount of energy you cur- rently have as well as how much ener- gy it costs to use that piece or cast a spell. Although many of the spells are familiar to the experienced Archon play- er, some have new twists. For example, the Imprison spell lets you trap an ene- my piece as long as you have the ener- gy to pay for it. Casting and main- taining this spell costs energy during every turn, so imprisoning everyone in sight would soon drain your resources and lose you the game.
Apocalypse Now
All of the spells can be cast repeatedly, with one exception: the Apocalypse. You can cast this spell only once, since it begins a battle that ends the game. It is a one-on-one, winner-take-all battle that is shaped by your strategic posi- tion: the amount of energy, number of pieces, and surviving Adepts you have left. The result can be either a well- matched or very one-sided battle.
This go-for-broke spell typically is cast in two situations. One is if you are way ahead and, for some reason, are having trouble occupying the last power
point. The other situation is when you're in danger of losing the game and have no other way out. Since the Apoc- alypse spell is expensive, casting it in a weak position weakens you still more.
Adept contains a wider variety of creatures than are found in Archon. Each piece has a unique weapon and performs best in a certain element. For example, the Juggernaut is best suited to Air and uses itself as a missile. When fired, it glows and charges across the screen. While in motion, it is invulnera- ble and destroys anything in its path. Using the Juggernaut in the water, however, significantly slows it down and makes it more vulnerable to attack.
In 1983, Archon ranked at the top of almost every gamer's list. It still be- longs in the videogame hall of fame. Archon H: Adept is even better than Archon and should rank even higher with experienced Archon devotees as well as with players new to the world of magic and strategy.
Archon II:Adept Electronic Arts 2755 Campus Drive San Mateo, CA 94403 S3J (Commodore & Atari) $40 (Apple)
WordPerfect For IBM
Richard Mansfield, Senior Editor
Recjuireinents: IBM PC or compatible with at least 192K of RAM, two disk drives, DOS 2.0 or higher, and a printer. Not compatible with the PCjr.
This is an excellent word processor. In addition to performing all the usual tasks with speed and efficiency, Word- Perfect includes many features which are either rare or unique.
Perhaps its best single feature is that it gives you a blank screen to write on — no distractions from control codes, command lines, or other clutter. Just a couple of unobtrusive numbers in the lower-right comer to identify the col-
38 COMPUTEI August 1985
DISK WORLDI is pleased to announce the /oM^esf-p rices ever on brand
name diskettes!
YouVe seen ads for lower priced diskettes.
But did vou evef notice that ttiey usuaillv cSon't carry or list a tjrand name. There's a reason tor that: there is no brand name to be listed, since these low-cosl "oeneric" diskettes are politely called qarbatje within the diskette industry
One or two individuals buy reject product from lower-quality manufacturers and put it out in the market place without a label. ..and without any meanihQful guaranty that you're qettino qood product.
But not at DISK WORLD!.
We deal only with branded merchandl5e...with diskettes made by people who are proud to have their name known.
3M:
Almost every diskette you buy has a little 3M In It. 3M manufactures more blank
diskette media than anyone else...and probatily produces more computer meOia in atl forms than any olher manufacturer. This is lactorv- fresh 2M product, boxed in 10's, reinforceO hubs, user ID latwls, write - protect tabs and a 100% LIFETIME WARRANTY.
5.25" SSDD w/ FREE Flip 'n File 15 S 1 .42 ea.
5.25-DSDDw/ FREE Flip 'n File 15 5 1.74 ea.
(Above FHEE oflers subject to limited availaDility.)
5.25- SSDD-9St R |2.06ea.
5.25- DSDD-96TPt $ 257 ea.
5.25" DSOD-HD for IBM PC/AT $ 3.93 ea
3.50' SSDD-135TPI for Mac and Others $ 2.86 ea.
BASF:
Exceptional value from one of the world's largest companies. Except where
indicated, BASF diskettes are packaqed in cardboard boxes of 10, reinforrad hubs Tvvet sleeves, user ID labels and write • protect labels. Of course, there's a 100% LIFETIME WARRANTY Oh all BASF product.
5.25" SSDD „ $1.14 ea.
S.ffi-DSDD .5 1.31 ea
525 DS[>D-HD for IBM POAT $ 3.14 ea.
525 SSDD in Bulk Padts of SO $ .89 ea.
525" DSDD in Bulk Packs of 50 „ _.„ $ l .1 2 ea
5.25" "FLIPPY" diskettes ub Bulk Packs of 50 $ 1 .20 ea.
a W R.i^nn-irW IJIir.RnPI nPPV fnr Morintnsh nthOfS S ? ;uoa
A\ 1 n/\l\/\«The diskette you've use<J hundreds of times... without knowing it.
ATHANA edalizes in producing top-o1-the-line diskettes for software ea.mctnufacturers . Cams pies with Tyvec sleeves, user ID labels, reinforced hubs and write-protect tabs. 100% LlFETIf<1E WARRANtY.
525- iSSDDn Sulk Racks of 50 _...- .$ 57
525 DSDD in Bulk PaO(S Of 50 .$ 1 .01 ea
NASHUA
One of the largest diskette manufacturers in the nation and the leader ir
riflid disk packs for mainframes. . Of course there's a 100% LIFETIME WARRANTY on all NASHUA oroducts.Tyves sleeves, reinforced hubs, user ID labels and write -
grotect tabs are inclluded. 25' SSDD Bulk Pack in SO's 4 57 ea.
525 OSDD Bulk Pack in SQ's „ 5 1 -07 ea
IVl C I VIVi/ 11 C ^ ■ Is it real or Is it Memorex? Ifs Memorex, packaged as shown,
complete with Tvvec sleeves, reinforced hubs, user ID labels and write - protect tabs. And ,.of course ^a 100% LIFETI^flE WARRANTV>
5.25" SSDD in boxes of 10 $ 1.27 ea.
5.25" DSDD in boxes of 10 , S 1.69 ea.
5.25' SSDD "FLIPPY" diskettes In boxes of 10 S 1.59 ea.
5.25" DSDD-HD lor IBM PC/AT in boxes of 10 $ 3,36 ea.
nsrV !Wnn-1S."iTPI MIP.ROFI OPPY in bnyan'nf in S 9 i7 aa
wwIM T iiThe company that invented the 3.50" drive.. .and licenses it to every other
manufacturer. Boxed in 10's with user ID latrels. (There's no need for wrile-profect tabs or Tyvec sleeves.
350'' SSDD lor me fvladntosh 4 255 ea
5.25" DSOD for Data General/One and HP .1 3.89 ea
_,___.,_ DISKETTE STORAGE: ^
R B B O N S ' Amaray 50 ^ 9.69 ea. + $ 3.00 Shpnq.
c.,,„„ «jv -7nmn * n cc „„ Amaray 30 S9.22ea„ +$2.00Shpn(j.
F^^m w^FX 1nn-|A^^^ tf Diskette 70 1 9,95. + i 3 00 Shpnfi.
oSidTla'wfSo^""! 1-.S1 II- '^'^^ KaOdies...! 1 .55 ea + .25 Shpr«.
Okidata Micro84....S 3.73 ea.
ADd .25 each ribbon for shono.
Ordering l N ST R U CTI O N S : Add $ 3.00 shipping per 1 0O diskettes or fraclion Ihereof. All other itenis, add shippinq as shown. VISA, MASTERCARD AND PREPAID orders accepted . COO orders, add $ 5.00 Special Handlinn fee. APO, FPO, HI, AK and PR orders, add 5% 10 cover Parcel Post shipping. No foreign orders. Hi, residents, add 7% sales tax.lVllNIMUM 6HDER: $ 35.00 or 30 diskettes.
DISK WORLD!, Inc. TOLL FHEE: 1 -800-621 -68Z7
{In Illinois 1-312-256-7140) 623 Green Bay Hd. Wilmeflo , Illinois 60091
HOWTO TURN YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER INTO YOUR PERSONAL
Here's how to make the investment in your personal computer really pay off.
Witti SPECTRUM,'" the new electronic home bank- ing and information system from The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A, Teamed up with your PC, SPECTRUM is your direct link to Chase. And the start of a better way to manage your money and your time.
A push of a button lets you pay bills electronically anywhere; transfer funds; keep records, and more. Even get vital financial infor- mation and trade stocks* at discount rates,
Right at home, anytime -with complete security All, including electronic mail, starting at just $5 a month. And with our new subscriber rebates and free offers, now's an even better time to get control of your finances. Call today for your free demo diskette.
CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-522-7766
o
0 19B5 The Chase Manhattan Corpofalron-'Stocks are traded through Rose & Company, a Chase affiliate.
August 1985 COMPUTEI 39
umn, line, and page. You can call up a screen with control codes, but when you're writing, what you see is what you get; Underlined passages are un- derlined, bold is bold, indenting looks like it will on paper.
The spelling checker is another ex- traordinary feature; it's fast and effec- tively organized. The dictionary comes with 100,000 words (more than most paperback dictionaries), is easily ex- panded, stunningly quick, and simple to use. It even looks up words phoneti- cally: If you type komitty it will look up committee for you. It checks for double words {such as "Paris in the the spring") and gives a word count as well.
If there are things you do repeated- ly, you can create macros, little pro- grams that control the word processor. Then, at the touch of a single key, you can type in a frequently used address, save the file, search for another file, etc. You can also create two screens and switch between them, and instruct the
word processor to automatically save backup copies of your current work every few minutes. And WordPerfect has a sophisticated, efficient footnote capability.
Sophisticated and efficient are good words to describe this program. While it is easy to use, it contains so many features and advanced com- mands that even the most demanding writers should find what they need. Statistical typing, math calculation, automated outline numbering, auto- mated compilation of tables of con- tents— the list goes on. If you need some arcane function, you're likely to find it in WordPerfect. If you simply need a powerful, sensible writing ma- chine, you owe it to yourself to consider this fine tool.
WordPerfect
SSJ Software
325 North Stale Street
Orem. UT S4057
$495
Adventures In Narnia
For Apple And 64 C Regena
Requirements: Commodore 64 with a disk drive; or an Apple U-series computer with at least 48K RAM and a disk drive.
Adventures in Narnia is an adventure game based on the book The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. When we first opened the package, my son exclaimed, "Hey, I've read that book!" Inside is a paperback entitled The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a popular story in the Chronicles series which was the inspi- ration for Adventures in Narnia. The characters in the game are the same as those in the book, You don't have to read the book to play the game, but if you play the game and enjoy it, you'll probably want to read the book.
Adventures in Narnia is actually a combination adventure, arcade, and board game. It even comes with a deck of game cards and a pair of dice. High- resolution computer graphics replace the traditional board, but sometimes during the arcade action you bump into something that requires you to roll the dice or choose a card. Adventures in Narnia was designed to use the com- puter, but still resemble a board game and bring human interaction into play. As a result, the game is not always machine-controlled. Its authors point out that the computer waits while you "think, discuss, decide." You can "stra- tegize and argue (without penalty) in the middle of the game, allowing the fun and humor of dialogue that is miss- ing in normal videogames,"
Other adventures are available in this series as well — such as Dawn Treader, based on the story The Voi/age of the "Dawn Treader."
Dodging Evil Dwarfs
The game actually is a two-part adven- ture with two different arcade screens. In the first adventure, you start out in the wardrobe and try to gain points and strength. In the second adventure, you use the strength to reach a character called Asian the Lion.
You start the game by shuffling the cards and placing them near the com- puter. Your player is at the right side of the screen among randomly placed bushes, flowers, and beavers. Evil dwarfs dart about, and you have to avoid them. Dwarfs can also hide in the bushes, so you don't want to hit a bush. You can gather flowers to gain points, and you can meet a friendly beaver to gain strengths (indicated by hearts at the top of the screen). The evil dwarfs patrol Narnia and go around stomping on flowers and beavers to prevent your success.
The game action is quick. If you hit a dwarf (or a moving bush), you're sent to a dwarf battle. The dwarf thinks of a random number, and you must roll the dice to beat his number. If you win, you get 500 points, but if you lose, you sacrifice one strength.
From time to time, Edmund and the Witch appear on the screen. Your
job is to intercept Edmund to prevent him from reaching the Witch. The first adventure ends if the Witch captures Edmund, or if you get ten heart strengths, or if your time runs out. Then the next adventure starts.
Inside The ice Maze
The second adventure takes place in the Ice Maze with your character at the lower-right comer of the screen and Asian the Lion at the upper left. Your object is to get to Asian, but the Witch sends evil crystals through the maze to stop you. If you get hit by a crystal, you're sent back to the beginning and you lose one heart. If you lose all the hearts and get hit again, you lose the game.
The gravity chutes are another hazard. Snow is falling inside these chutes, and if you step into one, you'll tumble to the bottom and find yourself sealed inside the maze.
If you run into a door, you're side- tracked to a subadventure. Since the game action is fast, you'll probably run into some doors by accident. Once in a subadventure, you're directed to pick a card. Then you enter the card's code into the computer. If your card is Asian the Lion, you automatically gain one heart strength. If you draw a Zap card, you're automatically sent back to the beginning of the maze and you lose one strength. Other cards — such as Fenris Ulf the Wolf, Cair Paravel the Castle, and Jadis the Witch — require you to roll the dice to determine your conse- quences, which can be good or bad. After the subadventure, you return to the maze for another crack at Asian the Lion.
You lose the game if the Witch steals all your hearts with her ice crys- tals or if time runs out. You win the game by reaching Asian the Lion. Your final score is determined by the running score on the screen plus 1000 points for foiling the Witch, 1000 points for each remaining heart, and the remaining time multiplied by 10.
The instruction booklet that comes with this package is very good. It pre- sents all aspects of the game so you can identify each object and recognize whether it is good or bad. Color screen photos are accompanied with explana- tions for each possibility. And as you play the game, the screen instructions also are easy to understand.
If you own more than one com- puter, note that the Apple and 64 ver- sions of this program are on flip sides of the same disk.
Adventures in Narnia
Word, Inc.
4S00 W. Waco Drive
Waco, TX 76796
$39.95 ©
40 COMPUTH August 1985
Classified
COMPUTE! Classified is a low-cost way to tell over 350,000 microcomputer owners about your product or service.
Rates: $25 per line, minimum of four lines. Any or all of the first line set in capital letters at no charge. Add $15 per line for boldface words, or $50 for the entire ad set in boldface (any number of lines.)
Terms: Prepayment is required. Check, money order, American Express, Visa, or MasterCard is accepted.
Form: Ads are subject to publisher's approval and must be either typed or legibly printed. One line equals 40 letters and spaces between words. Please underline words to be set in boldface.
General Information: Advertisers using post office box numbers in their ads must supply permanent address and telephone numbers. Orders will not be acknowl- edged. Ad will appear in next available issue after receipt.
Closing: 10th of the third month preceding cover date (e.g., June issue doses March 10th). Send order and remittance to: Harry Blair, Classified Manager, COMPUTE!, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403. To place an ad by phone, call Harry Blair at (919) 275-9809.
Notice: COMPUTE! Publications cannot be responsible for offers or claims of advertisers, but will attempt to screen out misleading or questionable copy.
SOFTWARE
TI99 LOTTO PICKER. Go for Million Dollar Jackpots! Picks LOTTO, Daily Numbers, & Win-4. All USA Lotto games are programmed in. S25. RIDGE. 170 Broadway. #201 -C, NYC, NY 1003B. 718-833-6335. Free Catalog.
IBM PCjr OWNERS: We have the software you want. We also have kits for easy 2nd drive addi- tion. Free catalog. OOWL SOFTWARE, 1435 Burnley Sq, N., Columbus, OH 43229.
PRINT USR - Formatted numeric oulpul. Use with your BASIC program. ML speed. 48K-f Apple or C64. Send S9.95 lo: MAK Enl., 1702 W. Lender. Mesa, AZ 85202.
AMCUP, AN OFllGlNAL sailboat racing game, 1 or 2 players. C-64 w/1541 -t- joystick. $14.95 ch./m.o. BASE for info. Dream Dog Software, P.O. Box 1724, Eugene, OR 97440.
"CRAPSMAN!" The C-64 casino craps tutor! Learn all bets. Test systems. Up lo four plavers. $31.95 pp, disk. EMCEE SOFT CORP, P.o'. Box 402124, Miami Beach, FL 33140.
SHOPPING LIST PROGRAM for C-64 with 1541 disk and printer, it prepares a shopping list for meals you select, organized by your market sections. Send $42 lo 4955 Woodman Ave., Sher- man Oaks, CA 91423
SOFTWARE PROTECTOR 64. Copy and list protect your valuable Basic programs. Onlv SIO (disk only). Systems Software, 44 Rte 25A s209, Smithtown, NY 11787.
PINOCHLE for Commodore 64, PC and PCjr. Real, double-deck, partnership pinochle gives you a partner and two opponents! On disk, $25 postpaid. Jim Bernard, S018 Sunset Path Ct., Springfield, VA 22153.
Tl CHECKWRITER Letter code and dollar amount are all that's necessary lo print a complete check. Provides yearly totals for taxes. Disk $24.95. R.I. P. Software 248 Purisima Rd., Woodside CA 94062.
SCIENCE SOFTWARE with graphics for the Commodore 64. Astronomy programs, etc. Catalog and demo disk $3. David Eagle, 79S2 W, Quarto Dr. Littleton, CO 80123.
FIXED ASSET DEPRECIATION on C64. Handles acts and pre-acrs methods. $39.95. For free info write: MPM Softw^are Prods., P.O. Box 3522, Glendale, CA 91201.
ATARI USERS. 4 games on cassette, $25. Saucers + monsters, poker, sea finder, pinball. Write or call Keith Anderson, 8435 12th Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20903 (301) 434-0285.
HARDWARE
REPLACEMENT POWER SUPPLIES FOR C-64 or VIC-20. $29 ea. plus $3 shipping. 64 parts list $5-refundable w/lsl order. AA Computer, 2726 Park St., JAX, FL 32205.
NUMERIC KEYPAD with joystick CURSOR control, gold contact $75. Centronics interface $40. Aulodos cartridge automatically loads programs from easy-to-use menu $40. All C-64 fully compatible. SS 64 RF Mod. $40. Battery Back-up with best available protection for C-&4 $50, Apple/IBM $150 (U.S.) APPLIED COMPUTING, Box 1566, PTBO, ONT. K9J 7H7. Send $2 for cat. Call (705) 745-8617 anytime.
MISCELLANEOUS
Trade In your used Commodore or Atari
on a brand new C-128 or Alan ST. This offer mav not be available through retail outlets- Bro'chure $1.50 and SASE. NEW WEST TECHNOLOGY, 4B Monroe Pkw., Box 200, Ste. 134, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
FLYING COMPUTERS but stuck on the ground? Learn requirements lo fly airaafl, with or with- out license. $3.00 to: Aviation Resource, P.O. Box 369-C, Lancaster, NY 14086.
Super 99 Monthly— quality info for TI-99/4A & compatibles since 09/84. US $12/yr. Other $16/yr. Bylemaster Computer Svces., 171 Mustang, Sulphur, LA 7(1663.
FREE! SHOP BY MODEM in our revolutionary electronic shopping mall. We even accept credit cards! We have products YOU want! Call 1-818-840-8066 with your modem NOW!
BUY-SELL-TRADE computers, hardware, soft- ware. Announce clubs, BBS's, etc. Send for free sample of Micro-Swap, the coinputer classifieds. P.O. Box 24, Esmond, IL 60129.
COMPUTER OWNERS!!! Earn dollars and save money wilh your computer. Write C&D Associates, Box 851, Ml. Prospect, IL 60056. Specify computer type. No Investment!!
TI-99/4A Software/Hardware bargains. Hard lo find items. Huge selection. Fast Service. Free Catalog. D.E.C, Box 690, Hicksville, NY 11801
LOWEST DISK PRICES-SS/DD wilh sleeve & label-10/$8.80, bulk 100/S78. Ds/DD with sleeve & Iabel-10/$10.90, bulk 100/$99. Prime quality major mfr's overstock! Money-back satisfaction guarantee! Min order $15. Pay by MC/Visa/AE, UNITECH 20 Huriey St., Cambridge, MA 02141 (800)343-0472, in Mass (617) 864-8324.
HELP IS ON THE WAYI
Jusl call 1-800-334-0868 to get your free copy of the latest COMPUTE! B'ooks Catalog! tf you need help in getting information on all of the latest COMPUTE! book titles available plus all COMPUTE! backlist tides, call us today!
SAFEGUARD YOUR COMPUTER KEYBOARD from contaminants with OVERBYTE molded keyboard covers. $24.95 xparent & durable. Ca'u (213) 866-2583/send $2 further info. OVERBYTE-PO. Box 10652, Burbank, CA 91510.
PHONEMARK DATASETTES: C64, Plus4, Vlc20. $25.00 plus shipping. We are direct importers. American Mercantile Co., 2450 1st Ave., South, Seattle, WA 98134 (206) 624-6141.
DISK SERVICE MANUAL. Service floppies without special software or equipment. FREE information. Consumertronics-DSM, P.O. Drawer 537, Alamogordo, NM 88310.
MAXELL MDl, $1.39 - MD2, $1.99. Dvsan 104/lD, $1.79 - 104/2D, $2.39. Shipping $3.75. Also Verbatim, IBM, 3M, BASF. TAPE WORLD, 220 Spring St.. Butler, PA 16001, 1-800-245-6000, Visa, MC.
$$ MONEY MAKER $S
Increase your income by hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Money back guarantee! (Apple, Macintosh, IBM) Free brochure: 1-800-223-5838 (305-771.5498).
August 1985 COMPUTEI 41
62 COMPUTE! Augus'
NMAF
Steve Johnson
This feature-packed utility makes it a breeze to create your own short cartoons or anima- tion sequences on the computer screen. The original version is for the IBM PC with BASJCA and color / graphics adapter, or En- hanced Model PCjr with Cartridge BASIC. We've added versions for the Atari 400/800, XL, and XE with at least 32K RAM for disk or 24K RAM for tape; Commodore 64 and 128 (in 64 mode); TI-99/4A with Extended BASIC; and Apple Il-series computers with at least 48K RAM. The Atari and 64 versions also require a joystick.
Computer animation can be marvelous to behold but a drudge to produce. Whether you're working in BASIC or machine language, creating objects and manipulating them on the screen can mean fum- bling for hours with PEEKs, POKEs, bits, bytes, and other tedious details,
"Animator" goes a long way toward automat- ing this process. It works much like a cartoonist's sketchpad, letting you draw a series of similar im- ages which are then displayed in rapid sequence to create the illusion of movement. Your finished car- toons can be saved on disk or tape and reloaded for viewing later.
3H
What every Apple 11+ and He
user shoula ask before
buying the "Sider" 10 MB hard disk:
When a company offers a superior qual- ity 10 megabyte Winchester hard disk for only S695, it's bound to raise a few eyebrows . . . and a lot of questions. The fact is, you're probably already wonder- ing "Can I really get a 10 megabyte hard disk that's reliable for only $695?" The answer is: ABSOLUTELY... when you choose the Sider from First Class Peripherals.
What's so great about the Sider?
For starters, the Sider lets you boot your Apple 11+ or He directly off the hard disk— unlike some other Winchester subsystems. Rebooting is also trouble- free. And the disk is partitionable, allowing you to allocate space to four operating systems on the same disk. The Sider supports: Apple DOS 3.3; Pro DOS™; Apple Pascal; andCP/M®
What's more, a small "footprint" lets you incorporate the compact Sider into your existing computer set-up with ease.
In addition, with the Sider, you not only pay far less for the subsystem, you also save money on installation. Because, unlike other 10 MB systems that require the purchase of expensive "extras," the Sider is f^ug and ptay. Everything you need is provided, including cables, host adaptor, installation software and manual.
What makes it so reliable?
To start, the Sider is manufactured, and sold exclusively, by First Class Peripherals, an innovative computer company which is backed by Xebec. The computer industry's leading manufacturer of disk controllers. Xebec has over a decade of experience serving customers like IBM, Toshiba, Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard. It's this kind of expertise that helps assure the Sider's performance
Special design features further en- hance reliability The Sider's controller is the field-proven, industry standard Xebec S1410A. And Xebec's 3200 drive tester, the
Apple and Pro DOS are irademarks of .^pple Compuier, Inc. CP/M is a registered wdonark of Digital Research, Inc
"Onfy^F"
toughest in the industry, ensures that the Sider will operate reliably One more assur- ance of the $695 Sider's quality: it's UL Approved and FCC Class B rated.
But why is it only $695?
You pay less for the Sider than for other 10 MB hard disks simply because you're pay- ing for the superior quality components inside the unit, not for a lot of retail over- head costs. Since First Class Peripherals sells direct, vou avoid dealer and dis-
tribution expenses, and pay only for the product.
What about a guarantee?
Like many experienced Apple users, you may be reluctant to buy a hard disk priced at only S695 without first seeing for yourself how it performs. That's why First Class Peripherals offers you a re- assuring, money-back guarantee that eliminates any risk on your part. Simply order the Sider and use it for 15 days. Then, if you're not entirely satisfied, return it and receive a full refund— no questions asked.
The Sider also conies with a full one-year limited warranty. Plus, there's a convenient, toll-free hotline you can call anytime you have a technial or service question, or need help.
Don't delay. Order the Sider now.
To receive the Sider 10 megabyte Win- chester hard disk subsystem for only $695, simply order using the coupon below. For faster service, order by phone and charge to your MSA, MasterCard or American Express. (You can also call us if you have any questions or technical concerns about the Sider We'll see you get the help you need.) Call toll-free:
1 800 538-1307
Extension 709
DYes,
please send me the Sider, including half-height 10 megabyte Winchester hard disk drive.
iVame
Apple adaptor board, cable, complete installation software and documentation,
1 prefer to pay as follows:
n r\'e enclosed my check or nionc)' order for
S695* -I- S15 shipping and handling, payable
to First Class Peripherals. n Please bill the following credit card account
for 5695' + S15 shipping and handling: DVISA D .MasterCard D .American lixpre.ss
Adiin-ss
ai\
Slate
7aP
Card#
lixp. Date
Signature
■ Rcf idcnis of Z\. N\' and PA . plea.'k' add jRiropriaiL- sali'S lax.
Tekphmie {area code)
Mail to:
■^■■F I R S T
•^^m PERIPHERALS
^v') Highv^av 50 East Carson Citw S'V 89701
709
If you're using the IBM PC/PCjr version of Animator, type in and save Program 1, then run it and follow the instructions below, //you have an Atari, 64, Tl, or Apple, you should also read the following instructions as a general guide to us- ing Animator. Then refer to the typ- ing instructions and programming notes specific to your computer for additional details.
Drawing An Image
When you run Animator, it displays an editing screen with 20 numbered frames. You can draw as many as 20 pictures, one in each frame, then flip rapidly through the frames to create animation. The frame num- ber displayed at the upper left of the screen shows which frame you're currently working on. Nor- mally, Animator begins the anima- tion with frame 1 and ends with frame 20. But you can start and end the animation wherever you like. For example, a short sequence might start with frame 1 and end with frame 3. To view only part of a long sequence, you might start at frame 12 and end at frame 18, and so on. The frame number is con- trolled by pressing the right and left arrow keys.
The frame number also deter- mines which frame you'll be work- ing on when you go to the editing screen. Let's start with a simple ex- ample. Make sure the frame num- ber is set to 1, then press the 2 key to select the editing function and press Enter at the next prompt.
FREE CATALOG!
Features Precision Tools and Equipment for Computers
|
^^ |
|
|
»|k»^. |
f v^ |
|
KhfciBcs-'^ |
.■'..- |
|
H^^^ m^^^ |
.im. |
|
^Bfef "• '^ ^~^ . |
m |
|
'1, ^^ |
|
|
W ^*---' .'- |
■r,,_ |
|
1 |
Jensen's new catalog features hard-to- find precision tools, tool kits, tool cases, test equipment and computer acces- sories used by sophisticated hobbyists, scientists, engineers, faboratories and government agencies. Call or write for your free copy today.
781 5 S.46lh Street Phoenix, AZ 85040 (602) 968-6231
JGNSGN
TOOLS INC.
After a brief pause. Animator dis- plays a drawing grid with a blink- ing cursor. Edit mode has three main functions, selected by press- ing different keys. Press D to draw with the cursor, E to erase, and M to move the cursor without disturbing anything on the screen.
Draw a simple shape on the grid to become familiar with these basic functions. As you'll see, Ani- mator displays the shape in its actu- al size to the left of the drawing grid. An inverse function lets you reverse everything on the grid — every dot becomes a blank, and vice versa (be patient — it takes Ani- mator about a minute to complete this process).
Once the picture is finished, you can press S to save it and return to the main screen. Note that you must save a picture with S to put it in the frame. If you exit the edit mode by pressing Q, the new picture is lost and Animator uses whatever that frame previously contained. Try drawing a simple shape and saving it with S (since this is just for practice, any scribble will do). When you return to the main screen. Animator displays the pic- ture in frame 1,
Frame By Frame
Now you're ready to draw the next frame in the sequence. In most cases you'll want to make only slight changes from one frame to the next, to simulate smooth mo- tion. To save time. Animator lets you copy a picture from one frame to another. Let's demonstrate this by copying the picture from frame 1 to frame 2. Set the picture number to 1 with the arrow keys, then press 2 to edit. Animator displays a prompt, inviting you to enter a frame number. To edit the current picture number, you would just press Enter. However, by entering a different number you can copy the current picture into a different frame, then change that picture to make the next frame in your cartoon.
When you enter 2 at the prompt. Animator copies the pic- ture from frame 1 into the drawing grid. When the drawing grid ap- pears, make some change in the picture to distinguish it from frame 1. Now press S to save the picture in frame 2 and return to the main
screen. Animator displays both pic- tures in their respective frames.
After drawing a few frames, you're ready to bring them to life. The first step is to specify the start- ing and ending frame numbers. The starting number determines which frame begins the animation, and the ending number tells Animator where the series ends.
Set the starting number first. Use the arrow keys to set the frame number to 1, then press the 3 key. Now use the arrow keys to make the frame number match the last frame that contains a picture, then press the 4 key. This sets the ending number. You must always set the starting and ending numbers before selecting animation (if you don't. Animator flips through all 20 frames whether they contain pic- tures or not). Once these numbers are set, press the 1 key to view the sequence. Press the space bar to pause and Enter to stop it.
By selecting different speed and pause values, you can move the ani- mated figure across the screen. The speed value can range from — 15 to 15. When it is 0, the figure is ani- mated in place; positive values move the figure from left to right, and riegative values move it from right to left. The greater the value, the faster the figure moves. Press the 5 key to decrease the animation speed, and 6 to increase it.
The pause value controls the time delay between each frame of the animation. A small pause value makes the pictures change very quickly, while larger values slow down the process.
Macro Editing Features
Animator provides a few macro (large-scale) editing features to help you work with longer cartoons. The insert function lets you insert a blank frame anywhere in the series. To use it, set the frame number to the number of the frame where you want to insert a blank, then press the I key. The designated picture (and all those following it) are bumped forward one frame. Note that the picture in frame 20 is al- ways lost when you insert.
The delete function lets you delete any frame in the series. Change the picture number to the frame you want to eliminate, then press D. All the higher numbered
44 COMPUTEI August 1965
jM 88K Lowest Price In The USA! 152K
ATARI Computer System Sale
* Students * Word Processing • Home • Business
Rated "Best Buy" by Consumers Digest Buyers Guide, January 1985
$449
LOOK AT ALL YOU GET FOR ONLY
SYSTE/V\ PRICE
Atari 800XL 88K Computer
Atari 1050 1 27K Disk Drive
Atari 1027 Letter Quality 20 CPS Printer
Atari Writer Word Processer
Atari BASIC Tutorial Manual
All connecling cobtes S TV, interface Included. ^^
Monifors sold seporelly, T^jT A L J
LIST PRICE
SI 79.00
299.00
299.00
59.95
16.95
INDIVIDUAL
SALE PRICE
$109°"
199°°
199°°
39"
12"
$852.90 $559.90
SAVE $100
All 5 ONLY $44900
SYSTEM SALE PRICE
152K SYSTEM S49900
Other Accessories List
2" HI Resolution Green or Amber Screen Monitor $T99.00
13" Hi Resolution Color Monitor ■ ATARI 130XE 152K Computer
$399.00 S249.00
Sale Add S9. 95 for
Connection Cobles
"'■°5 (Monitors Only)
169.95 (Ltd.OtyJ
159.00 Add SIO for UPS
15 DAY FREE TRIAL. We give you 15 day, to try out tfiis ATARI COMPUTER SYSTEM i ■ If H doesn t meet your expectations just send it bock to us prepaid ond we v^.ll refund your purchase price! i »0 DAY IMMEDIATE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY. If ony of tfie ATARI COMPUTER SYSTEM equipment or progroms fail due lo foulty worhmonship or material within 90doy5 of purchase we will reploce it IMMEDIATELY with no service charge! '
Best Prices • Over 1000 Programs and 500 Accessories Available • Best Service * One Day Express Mail * Programming Knowledge * Technical Support
Add $2S.OO for shipping and handling!!
Enclose Cashiers Check Money Order or Personol Check. Allow U doys for delivery. 2 lo 7 days for phone orders. I day express mail ! We accept Visa and MasterCard. We ship C.O.D. to conlinentol US oddresses only. Add SIO more if C.O.D
COMPUTER DIRECT
We Lore Our Cu.stomrrfi 22292 N. Pepper Rd.. Barrington, III. 60010
312/382-5050 to order
pictures move down one frame, de- leting the picture in the designated frame. Frame 20 is always blank after a deletion.
The inverse function (press 9) works just like inverse in editing mode, but inverts all 20 frames at once.
To clear all 20 frames, press Q to quit or C to clear. Since these last two functions can have drastic re- sults, Animator lets you abort either one without harm.
When you finish a sequence, press S to save it on disk. The screen clears and displays three op- tions: You can Press A to abort the save, F to list the picture files on that disk, or any other key to con- tinue with the save. Picture file- names are limited to eight characters {the first character can- not be a number). Do not add a three-character extension; Anima- tor automatically appends the ex- tension . ANI when you save or load a picture file.
Finally, Animator's program option (available only in the IBM PC/PCjr version) can write a sepa- rate BASIC program to display your cartoon. Press P to select this op- tion, and sit back while Animator writes the new program to disk un- der the filename PRG.BAS. After- ward, Animator ends with a reminder to reload PRG.BAS and save it with a new filename. This prevents the program from being overwritten if you select this option again.
Commodore 64 Version
The 64 version of Animator is writ- ten entirely in machine language, but you can use it without under- standing machine language at all. Type in and save Program 2 using the "MLX" machine language entry program printed elsewhere in this issue. Here is the information you'll need:
Starting address: 49152 Ending address: 52991
After you've saved "64 Anima- tor," plug a joystick into port 2 and load the program with LOAD"/!7e- name",3A for disk or L0AD"/!7e- Hflme",l,l for tape. Type SYS 49152 and press RETURN to run the program.
64 Animator's main screen consists of 21 picture frames in- stead of 20 as found in the IBM
version. It also uses sprites to ani- mate the frames. Although the Commodore 64 normally is limited to displaying eight sprites at once, 64 Animator employs as many as 22 simultaneous sprites with the raster interrupt technique described in COMPUTEI's First Book of Com- modore 64.
When you begin the program, the frames may contain random data; Press C to clear them out. Most program functions are con- trolled with the joystick. Near the bottom of the screen you'll see a list of several functions (frame num- bers, options, and so on, as de- scribed above in the general instructions). As you move the joy- stick up or down, the function you select is highlighted in reverse vid- eo. To increase or decrease the se- lected value, move the joystick left or right.
Press the E key to enter edit mode. The joystick moves the blinking cursor around the drawing grid, and the fire button toggles the space under the cursor on or off. To draw or erase more than one space at a time, hold the joystick button down and move the stick in the direction you want.
The current picture number is displayed to the right of the screen. You can move to a different picture within edit mode: Press the + key to increase the picture number, and the — key to decrease it. Animator always displays the current picture in actual size above the picture number. Above and to the right of the current picture is the next pic- ture in the series, and above to the left is the previous picture. (If you haven't drawn any pictures yet, these frames may be blank or con- tain random shapes.)
Press 1 within edit mode to in- vert the shape (change dots to blanks, and vice versa). The cursor keys shift the entire shape one space inside the grid, either left, right, up, or down. You can also expand the picture horizontally (press X) or vertically (press Y). Ex- pansion is toggled off by pressing the same keys, and can be used on the main screen as well.
Edit mode lets you copy a pic- ture from one frame into another. Press the (7 function key to store the current shape in the picture buffer. Then change the picture
number with + or — and press f8 (SHIFT-f7) to copy the picture from the buffer into the new frame. In this way you can quickly draw a series of shapes without leaving edit mode.