7 -S\WM - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

CLASSIC SOFTWARE! 70 ALL-TIME BEST September 1988 

COMPUTE! 

The Leading Magazine of Home, Educational, and Recreational Co? 

COMPUTE! 

10fflYEAR 

Our First 

100 Issues Tell 

How It Started, 

Where It's Going 

15 Key People— 

What They Did, 

Where Are They Now? 

^Â 

7 -S\WM *.,*-♦ 

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Designasaurus recently won BEST 

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BEST PRESCHOOL or PRIMARY 

PROGRAM categories of the SPA's 

Excellence in Software Awards. 

Designed to never become extinct, 

Designasaurus for the Apple //GS 

has three dino-mite activities. 

WINNER! 

Best Educational Program 

Survive as a Brontosaurus, 

Stegosaurus or T-Rex did millions 

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if you can earn a certificate to the 

Dinosaur Hall of Fame. 

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'Apple 

GS and Amiga versions only

I FEATURES 

Years Gone By 

We chart the history of home computing by offering 

up covers and articles from the last nine years of 

COMPUTE! magazine.;Gregg Keizer 18 

That Was Then, This Is Now 

What were 15 movers and shakers in the computer 

industry doing nine years ago, and what are they 

doing now?/Paul Freiberger and Dan McNeil! 26 

100 Milestones in Computer History 

Our birthday present to you—the 

most important computer hard 

ware, software, and publications 

on a collector's-edition poster. 

Editors 

43 

Conversations 

Epyx Grows with David Morse 

Epyx's CEO spells out what it 

takes to move an entertainment 

publisher past the $100-million 

mark. 

Keith Ferrell and Gregg Keizer _ 

Buyer's Guide 

Classic Software 

Browse through these 70 classic 

programs from personal comput 

ing's history. 

Caroline D. Hanlon 

10 

54 

REVIEWS 

Fast 

Looks 

62 

SEPTEMBER 

1988 

VOLUME 10 

NUMBER 9 

ISSUE 100 

The Loading Magailn* 

of Homo, Educational, and 

Recreational Computing 

The Three Stooges 

Keith Ferrell 

The Graphics Studio 

Steven Anzovin 

Ultima V 

Shay Addams 

Wordbench 

Heidi E. H. Aycock 

Stealth Mission 

Tom Netsel 

Twilight's Ransom 

Brian Summy 

Read 'n Roll 

Carol S. Holzberg 

66 

67 

68 

72 

73 

75 

77

COLUMNS 

Editorial License 

Throughout its first 100 issues, 

COMPUTE! has been the maga 

zine that always speaks first and 

clearest to the home user. 

Gregg Keizer 31 

News & Notes 

CES wears many guises, Nintendo 

faces great DRAM drought, and 

GEOS gets to two./Editors 

Gameplay 

Comics on computers take on the 

Impact 

columnist, and win. 

Orson Scott Card 

The first 100 issues of COMPUTE! 

have seen the magic of a revolu 

tion's first decade. 

David D. Thornburg 12 

Discoveries 

Writing, the key to success in 

school, can be fun and fruitful with 

a word processor. 

David Stanton 80 

Levitations 

The Consumer Electronics Show 

sure isn't what it used to be. 

Arlan Levitan 

88 

COMPUTE! SPECIFIC 

MS-DOS 

Clifton Karnes _ 

64 & 128 

Neil Randall _ 

36 

38 

Letters 

COMPUTE! helps take a bite out 

of crime \jEditors 

New Products! 

Zak saves everyone's IQ, PC gets 

13 

palm-sized, sports explode from 

Accolade, and more new products. 

Mickey McLean 34 

Apple II 

Gregg Keizer __ 

Amiga 

Rhett Anderson 

Macintosh 

Sharon 

Atari ST 

David Plotkin 

Hints & Tips 

Editors 

Zardetto Aker 

39 

50 

51 

52 

15 

Cover photo © 1988 Mark Wagoner 

COMPUTE! The Leading Magazine of Home, Educational, and Recreational Computing (USPS: 537250) is published monthly by COMPUTE! Publications, Inc., 825 7th Ave.. New York, NY 

10019 USA. Phone: (212) 265-8360. Editorial Offices are located at 324 Wast Wendover Avenue. Greensboro, NC 27408. Domestic Subscriptions: 12 issues, $24. POSTMASTER: Send address 

changes to: COMPUTE! Magazine, P.O. Box 10955. Des Moines. IA 50950. Second class postage paid at New York, NY and sddrfonal mailinq offices. Entire contents copvriqht ©1988 by 

COMPUTE! Publica&ons. Inc. All rights reserved, ISSN 0194-357X.

GREGG KEIZER 

COMPUTE! S 

13lK TO All 

'S 

I—3St6CJ 

iff^timP 111 

l I CUM It: ill 

Dorennal 

rCI OUIICII 

Looking back is only slightly less dan 

gerous than looking ahead. 

Both pastimes—nostalgically 

glancing at the past or pretentiously predict 

ing the future—are often carried out with lit 

tle information and an overpowering desire 

to look for trends and patterns. Hindsight 

has only one advantage—at least we can be 

relatively sure of the facts. 

With that caveat in mind, we've decid 

ed to set aside most of our normal activities 

and dedicate this issue to remembrance of 

things past. .. our past specifically, a part of 

the computer industry's past generally, and 

perhaps even a bit of your past as well. 

The reason? This is COMPUTE!'* 

100th issue, as well as its 9th anniversary. 

The numbers, when compared to magazines 

in other fields, are not impressive. Life mag 

azine recently celebrated its 1000th issue; 

Time is in its 65th year of publication. But 

in the personal computer publishing world, 

heading into a 10th year is the equivalent of 

several lifetimes. 

It would be easy to take this birthday 

opportunity to look back and reflect on great 

achievements. Or to look ahead and set 

grander goals. I don't want to do either. In 

stead, let's look at now, today. Two things 

stand out. 

First and most important, there is a 

home computer market, a consumer market 

for personal computers. Millions of Ameri 

cans have brought the personal computer 

into their homes—recent surveys indicate 

that 20 percent of American households 

have a personal computer. That's an impres 

sive figure. It's particularly impressive when 

you remember the death knells everyone 

was sounding for the home computer in 

1984 and 1985. Here's an example: John 

Sculley, president and CEO of Apple, in his 

book Odyssey, called the home market "a 

figment of everyone's imagination," and 

said that "People weren't about to buy 

$2,000 computers to play a video game, bal 

ance a checkbook, or file gourmet recipes as 

some suggested. The average consumer sim 

ply couldn't do something useful with a 

computer." Those claims are both true and 

false. 

True: They weren't about to buy $2,000 

computers. Instead, they bought $ 1,000 (and 

even less expensive) computers. 

True: People aren't satisfied with com 

puterized checkbook balancing and recipe 

filing. They want to do more—word pro 

cessing, home education, telecommunica 

tions, and financial planning. 

False: The average consumer can't do 

something useful with a computer. Every 

month, COMPUTE! magazine shows how 

you can make the personal computer not 

only useful, but indispensable, to modern 

life. 

The second condition of today's state 

of 

personal computing is that the dominant 

computer system—in the home as well as in 

business—is the IBM PC and its clones and 

compatibles. The system has won over the 

home market because of typical consumer 

issues—price, performance, and price. The 

best evidence that the PC compatible is the 

champion of the home comes from software 

publishers, who continue to report phenom 

enal growth in MS-DOS entertainment and 

education titles' sales. 

The effect of the PC compatible on the 

future home market? I'm not going to guess. 

Today, though, its impact is significant in 

two areas: The first is an increase in nongame 

use of home computers; the PC and 

compatible made their reputations in the of 

fice, and much of that work and software 

has come home. The second is the clamor 

for an easier-to-use interface, something less 

clumsy than MS-DOS's commands. Tandy 

has offered its DeskMate as one graphic al 

ternative; IBM is working on another. 

What does all this mean to COM 

PUTE! magazine as it heads into its tenth 

year? 

I think it's a reaffirmation of COM 

PUTED focus. COMPUTE! has always spo 

ken to the home user first and most often. 

The magazine will continue to feature appli 

cations and issues of concern to anyone who 

has a personal computer at home—concerns 

ranging from home entertainment to educa 

tion, desktop publishing, and financial plan 

ning. The fact that more and more of the 

magazine's readers own IBM PC compati 

bles is an important, but not driving, influ 

ence for COMPUTE!. Nine years ago, the 

most important machine to the magazine's 

readers was the Commodore PET. Haifa 

dozen important personal computers have 

ridden the crest of popularity since then. 

Another half a dozen may do so in the next 

nine years. And COMPUTE! will be there to 

speak to those users of future computers. 

That's been the strength of the maga 

zine, this founding principle of communi 

cating to all computer users, not just a 

narrow niche of those who share a brand 

name. It's a strength that's lasted a lifetime 

in personal computing, one strong enough 

to last several more. ED 

4 COMPUTE!

'* 

Get ready for four of the most challen^ Permanently. You will when you endure 

ing, rugged, rump-bumping cross the longest winter of your life in the ice, 

sleet and slosh of The Michigan 

Course. The Georgia Red Clay 

Course has enough mud to keep 

you a human fossil for 2,000 years, 

And then there's Death Valley. 

Plenty of thrills guaranteed on the folfoming grounds: gumbo mud 

packed snau>. skid-sand, and till' scrubbiest terrain south of III? txirdc 

country road racing courses this earth 

has to offer. 

Fight the torturous terrain of Baja. 

Get it. D-E-A-T-H Valley. 

Start with pre-race strategy. 

Select and customize your personal 

vehicle. Your supplies. Your repair equipment. 

Believe us. You'll need everything, 

Rocks, boulders, skid-sand, even a few m m gm\ryw^ 

spikey cactuses. And of course, heat 4Y4 I IP T- 

that's hot enough to fillet any forehead. A^ R w* m 

Ever had your hands stuck to the wheel? commodore wm, ibm& companies. Amiga 

There are boulders, rivers, potholes, 

and mudbogs to contend with.What 

are mudbogs? You'll find out. (Just after 

you find out there's a Demon 4x4 chas 

ing you all through the race. A Demon 

hellbent on your destruction.) 

If you win enough races, collect 

enough points, only then will the 

Victors Cup be yours. It's 

the least we can do. After 

all, you did go through 

hell to get there.

mm&notes 

Computer Music 

Crossover Act 

Jim Cuomo is a musician who 

wants lo bring serious music 

into computer games and seri 

ous computer-game music into 

your home. His new CD (the 

kind you play through your 

stereo, not the kind you hook 

up to your computer), Game 

Play: Top Scores from Com 

puter Action/'Adventures, is a 

collection of his computer 

compositions from such hit 

games as S.D.I, and Defender 

of (he Crown. 

The sounds associated 

with early computer games are 

blips, bleeps, whistles, and 

buzzes. These sounds haven't 

disappeared, but real music 

has appeared. Far more im 

pressive ihan the randomly 

generated computer "music" 

of the past, more carefully 

chosen and adapted lhan the 

occasional public domain or 

plagiarized song from earlier 

games, modern game tunes are 

now custom-designed sound 

tracks composed by real 

musicians. 

Cuomo is a product of the 

age of specialists. Game design 

is far removed from the days 

when a programmer would 

submerge into a back room 

later with a hit game. Now. 

game designers design the look 

and feel of the game. Game 

programmers write the code. 

Game artists design the graph 

ics and animation. And game 

musicians write the music. 

Game Play consists of 15 

selections from nine games. 

The songs arc the originals— 

right out of the computer, 

sweetened a bit by Cuomo's 

saxophone, clarinet, and re 

corder, and CamilleSafeferis" 

percussion. 

Unfortunately, you're not 

likely to find the CD in your 

local Record BarorCamelot 

Music store. You'll have more 

success if you go directly to the 

source—Pigeon Music, 11684 

Ventura Boulevard. Suite 520, 

Studio City, California 91604; 

(818)505-1077. 

Even ifyou survey each 

computer game as it comes 

along, you probably haven't 

heard all these pieces. Game 

Play brings to light music that 

only the best game players 

hear—the music from the cli 

matic finales of the games. In 

other words, the songs for 

winners. 

Consumer 

Electronics Show 

Wears Many Hats 

Or was it the Celebrity Elec 

tronics Show? 

Endorsements was one of 

the names of Ihc games in Chi 

cago, with appearances by Pcle 

Rose (for Mediagenic via elec 

tronic hookup), wrestlers King 

Kong Bundy (Vcndcx) and 

Andre the Giant (Nintendo), 

and even Robocop {Nintendo 

again). 

Maybe it was the Cos 

tumed Electronics Show. 

Booths were attended by per 

sonnel wearing assorted kimo 

nos, combat gear, coats, caps, 

clogs, and promotional apparel 

of every stripe. 

Could it have been the 

Closed-circuit Electronics 

Show? Pete Rose appeared on 

a live feed, but 

videotape re 

mained one of the more potent 

means of hyping products, 

with clips of films on which 

games are based, in-depth 

looks at the programming ef 

forts that went into products, 

and plenty ofjust plain blar 

ney. (One company's taped 

spokeswoman, in as attractive 

a Japanese accent as we've 

heard, intoned sonorously 

about "Superman's gullfriend, 

Louise Lane.") vcRs them 

selves figured in Epyx's prod 

uct line, with both VCR games 

and Home Video Producer. 

Was it the Cinematic 

Electronics Show? Could have 

been—software publishers, 

showed games 

based on 

and emerge several months 

— Rhett Anderson 

6 COMPUTE!

-nms&notes 

ics and television programs, 

including The Three Stooges 

and Rocket Ranger (Cinemaware), 

Twilight Zone and The 

Honeymooncrs (Firsl Row), 

Platoon (Data East), Willow 

(Mindscape), and enough Top 

Gun- and Rambo-corcipzXxbles 

to alter the global balance 

of power. No sign of Crocodile 

Dundee on disk—but give 

them time. 

Might have been the 

Character-based Electronics 

Show. Although Infocom 

showed no new products, oth 

er companies filled ihc void in 

text and text/graphics games. 

Paragon's Guardians ofInfin 

ity lets you try to save JFK, 

Interplay gives you William 

Gibson's super-selling Neuromancer. 

and Lucasfilm ex 

tends the Maniac Mansion 

interface with Zack McKracken 

and the Alien Mindbenders. 

Or the Combat Electron 

ics Show. MicroProse has Red 

Storm Rising ready to rise, 

while Accolade's tank simula 

tion was referred to as a Test 

Drive on treads. Rainbird com 

missioned its Carrier Com 

mand, while Activision 

christened the U.S.S. Ocean 

Ranger missile ship. Interplay 

turned chess into a combat 

sport with Battle Chess. 

Mindscape went vertical with 

a Harrier combat simulator. 

Epyx brought Battleship to 

disk. Three Sixty's Harpoon 

promised to put the whole of 

the U.S. and Soviet navies on 

computer screens. Taito, flush 

with coin-op success, is putting 

on a push into the software 

market with a number of 

games, including Operation 

Wolf, which might be the most 

violent—and addictively so— 

game ever introduced. Combat 

of a more ancient variety is 

found in Koei's Nobunaga's 

Ambition and Romance ofthe 

Three Kingdoms, simulations 

■vhich recreate Japanese 

history. 

What about the Calisthenic 

Electronics Show? Athletics 

played a big part in nearly 

every software line, with Acco 

lade showing Serve & Volley 

tennis, Fast Break basketball. 

Rack 'Em billiards, and TKO 

boxing, complete with blood. 

Mountain climbing, of all 

things, is coming from Epyx, 

and TV football, from Cinemaware. 

Pete Rose Pennant Fever 

puts players at the tiller. 

Some said it was the Car 

tridge Electronics Show. Chalk 

up another big year for Nin 

tendo, which dominated the 

software hall with a booth that 

seemed to go on forever. The 

game maker is convinced that 

iis sales will go on forever, too. 

Talk at the booth was divided 

between the variety of new 

game cartridges—many of 

them from established soft 

is ready to hustle for Gamestar. 

Dolphin Marine Software 

ware superstars such as Broderbund—and 

the shortage of 

DRAM (Dynamic Random 

Access Memory) chips, which 

will have an effect on the 

availability of those cartridges. 

(The chip shortage is growing 

dire enough, we heard, that 

bribes are being offered in ex 

change for chip allocations. No 

word on whether the bribes 

were successful.) 

For software publishers, 

the DRAM shortage, while not 

exactly a plus, was not exactly 

a minus, either: You don't 

have to put chips in a disk. 

Some publishers hope the an 

ticipated shortage of cartridges 

will spur consumers toward 

computers, where you only 

buy silicon once. (The down 

side is that once is going to 

cost more. Blue Chip president 

John Rossi noted that DRAM 

prices are going to have an im 

pact on computer prices.) > 

PART 

ESTERN EUROPEAN TOUR" 

Scenery Disk is so beautiful t 

want to make it the centerpi 

Scenery Disk collection! This is part four of 

a five-part guided tour from 

Red Square. 

This month we continue our t"||r " 

Germany. Flying over Frankfu 

can be a harrowing experience. He 

have a close encounter with a telecon 

munications tower. 

Next stop, Stuttgart! We must app 

the city carefully, avoiding the mi 

ranges on both sides of our flight 

Next month - on to Moscow! 

"Find Red Square" Contest! 

Find Red Square in Moscow and 

enter to win a real trip for two to 

Europe, courtesy of SubLOGIC 

and TWA! See the SubLOGIC 

Product Chart at your dealer or 

write SubLOGIC for complete 

details and contest rules. 

TWA 

LOGIC 

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501 Kenyon Road 

Champaign. IL 61B20 

? SWS T ?069« 

ORDER LWE rBOOl 637-4983 i 

S E P T E M E R 19

For all of Nintendo, Sega, 

and Taito's cartridge empha 

sis, not to mention the chip 

shortage. CES was good for 

software publishers—perhaps 

the best software CES in recent 

years. There was a sense 

throughout the show that soft 

ware was back as a major force 

in consumer electronics, with a 

growing market that neither 

chip shortages nor cartridge 

wars can dim. 

— Keith Ferrell 

more. 

"It was really something 

that was sort of waiting for 

CD-ROM." Broderbund prod 

uct manager Joanne Bealy 

said. "And then with Hypercard 

as the front end. it's a per 

fect match. It's ideally made 

for CD-ROM and HyperCard" 

The catalog will use digi 

tized pictures and sound. 

"When someone is looking at 

more graphics and more var 

ied indexing to give people 

more flexible ways to get at the 

information." Jordan said. 

"We're aiming for user seren 

dipity, for letting them find 

things that they wouldn't ex 

pect to find." 

Jordan said putting the 

catalog on Compact Disc ful 

fills the original idea of The 

Whole Earth Cat 

alog. Before decid 

ing to print the 

information in 

a book, the orig 

inator of the 

third in the game hardware 

market, plan on bringing 

several more million house 

holds into the game-system 

resurgence. 

All this hardware has cre 

ated a fierce demand for game 

cartridges. To prevent a repeat 

performance of the disaster 

that overtook Atari in the early 

1980s, when supply out 

stripped demand and the mar 

ket was plagued by shoddy 

games at fire-sale prices, Nin 

tendo has kept considerable 

control over the manufactur 

ing process. Nintendo makes 

catalog wanted 

all the game cartridges, for in 

to have a phone- 

stance, and allocates cartridges 

in database. 

to the various game publish 

"The fan 

tasy at the 

ers, as well. It hopes to keep 

the lid on the number of car 

time was a 

tridges available at any one 

computer, 

time, and it promises 10 keep 

which 20 

Ul H yearsago, 

was not 

quality high, answering con 

cerns about the two primary 

contributors to the Atari deba 

feasible 

cle last time around. 

to do." 

And some of the games 

he said. 

are impressive. The Nintendo 

"It's kind 

system plays games that com 

of inter 

pare with those which ran on 

Catalogs on CD 

You'll have sound, better in 

dexing, and hyperlinked cross 

references between catalog en 

tries, but you won't be able to 

read The Electronic Whole 

Earth Catalog in the bath 

room—unless you happen to 

keep your Macintosh and CD- 

ROM drive next to ihe sink. 

The Point Foundation, 

which puts together The 

Whole Earth Catalog, has giv 

en Broderbund Software an ex 

a musical item, they will actu 

ally be able to hear a sample of 

the product." Bealy said. 

The project isn't really in 

tended to make Broderbund's 

fortune. It's more like an ex 

periment in a growing field 

with a product that is well-suit 

ed to the new medium. 

"We have no expectations 

of this being a moneymaker," 

Bealy said."H's just that we 

want to gel into this field. I 

think this will encourage other 

developers to go for it. I think 

it's going to become an indus 

esting that it 

has come back around to that." 

— Heidi E. H. Aycock 

Games Hot, but 

Cartridges Cool 

If the recent Summer Consum 

er Electronics Show in Chicago 

was any indication, dedicated 

game-system sales have yet to 

peak. The Nintendo exhibit 

sprawled over a major portion 

of the floor dedicated to com 

puter software; under its um 

brella were more than a score 

of game-system-cartridge pub 

lishers, including familiar 

eight-bit computers three or 

four years ago. Aimed at teen 

agers, the predominant play 

ers, the games are mostly 

sports-, action-, or fantasy-ori 

ented. A few games outside 

these genres are appearing, 

however, including The Battle 

fields ofNapoleon, a strategy 

war game based on the Napo 

leonic era, from Braderbund. 

Elementary action role-playing 

games are also finding their 

way to the game systems; sev 

eral were on display at the Sega 

exhibit. One even includes a 

small battery to keep saved 

games active until the next 

playing session. 

clusive license to market a CD- 

try standard." 

computer software names like 

Trouble looms for the 

ROM version of the catalog. 

HyperCard will be the interface 

for the product. Brodcrbund 

For the Point Foundation. 

CD-ROM is a new way to pre 

sent a special publication. 

Broderbund. Activision. and 

Data East. The Sega and Atari 

displays weren't as large, but 

dedicated game systems this 

year, though. The DRAM chip 

shortage (and even a reported 

Software plans to release the 

"What we sec at this point is a 

they added to the combined 

spot shortage of ROM chips) is 

package this fall, but a price 

very important long-term ad 

game-system square footage, 

having a big impact on Nin 

has not been determined yet. 

vantage in that the CD is both 

which easily dwarfed that 

tendo and its competition. 

The catalog lists all kinds 

of tools and how to order 

them. Tools include more than 

hammers and screwdrivers, for 

The Whole Earth Catalog lists 

books, records, software, and 

very easily undatable and it's 

also much bigger in capacity 

than a print book," Keith Jor 

dan, project manager at the 

Point Foundation, said. 

"We'll be able to include 

of the computer-oriented 

companies. 

Nintendo expects to sell 

seven million of its game sys 

tems in the U.S.A. this year; 

Sega and Atari, second and 

Each cartridge requires several 

RAM chips; the shortage of 

such chips and the spiraling 

cost of those that are available 

have put a crimp on sales plans 

continued on pg. SI

■/ 

ORSON SCOTT CARD 

I Take On 

Infocom's 

Computerized 

Comic Books, 

and the Result 

Isn't Pretty: 

Infocomics 3, 

Reviewer 0 

The Infocom people have long tried to 

earn the title interactivefiction for 

their text adventures. Now, in col 

laboration with Tom Snyder Productions, 

they've created Infocomics. 

What a great idea! Comics have really 

come of age in the last ten years, daring to 

call themselves graphic novels and insisting 

on being judged against artistic standards as 

high as those applied to prose fiction. Imag 

ine something as good as Batman: The Dark 

Knight Returns or The Watchmen on your 

PC. Mac. or Amiga. Computer comics could 

combine terrific art, exceptionally good story 

telling, and the chance for you to experience 

events in a way you simply can't on paper. 

But if you expect all that, you'll be letting 

your expectations rise a little too high. 

The art was the biggest disappointment. 

In the PC versions at least. Infocom decided 

to rely on a boot disk to stymie the software 

pirates—but what that means is that the 

game has to work on the lowest form of 

game computer: a vanilla PC with a CGA 

screen, with a maximum of four colors. 

That's right, folks, a maximum of four col 

ors. Sort of like time traveling back to 1984. 

Worse yet. the story is almost entirely 

carried by narration in a box under the pic 

ture. The art is mere illustration, and a static 

illustration at that. As a result, the best sim 

ulation of comics art on the computer con 

tinues to be the superbly animated Sierra 

games—visually. Infocomics aren't even in 

the running. 

What about the use of the computer's 

possibilities? Here the Infocomics score 

pretty well. They don't even pretend to be 

playable games. You don't make a single 

choice for the characters; the stories end the 

same way no matter what you do. 

Infocom's game designers use a hyper 

text approach in Infocomics. At many 

branch points in the story, you can switch 

from one character's point of view to anoth 

er's. If you want, you can get inside a charac 

ter and see a flashback of his or her past, or 

you can flip back through the story to an 

earlier branch point and choose to follow a 

different character's adventures through the 

same time period. You don't have control 

over what happens—but you have a great 

deal of control over the order and depth of 

the presentation. What about the stories? 

My first thought was that they were shallow 

and predictable—and I found no surprises. 

Lane Mastodon vs. the Btubbermen is a 

Buck Rogers-type space adventure. It be 

gins with rays from Jupiter that cause nor 

mal animals to grow into humongous 

monsters that destroy cities. When Lane 

Mastodon is sent to Jupiter to stop the ray, 

the Blubbermen confuse things by making 

clones of Lane and his two helpers—a ge 

nius boy and a nubile girl he rescued from a 

derelict spaceship. 

Gamma Force: Pit of a Thousand 

Screams is a superhero comic about three 

people who come from a planet that was 

taken over by the Nast. They each die and 

then are brought back to life with special 

powers which they must use to defeat the 

Nast. One can fly, one can control water, 

and the girl, a good fighter, is their leader. 

Zorkquest: Assault on Egreth Castle is a 

fantasy adventure about a small group of 

travelers who are unexpectedly involved in 

battling an evil magician. The characters are 

pretty ordinary; still, each has a surprise or 

two for us. Cliches? Yeah. Lots of them. 

About as many as in George Lucas's Willow. 

What finally dawned on me is that old 

guys like me aren't really the target audience 

for Infocomics. See, I performed a scientific 

test. I strategically left the games lying 

around where they'd be found by some of 

the shorter people in my household, and 

then I lurked. 

My son Geoffrey played for hours. He 

didn't know about my ironclad law that a 

good game is one that lets the player change 

the outcome. He didn't know he was sup 

posed to be annoyed by the CGA screen. He 

didn't know the stories were cliches—when 

you're ten years old. all stories are new. 

I interviewed him for this column. "I 

really got excited about finding out what 

happened next," he told me. Zorkquest was 

his favorite. "The best thing is you can fol 

low your own way through the story, just 

finding out what you're most interested in. 

You only go back to find out the other parts 

of the story when you want to." 

Problems? "I got confused at first—by 

following one character all the way through. 

Things kept happening that I didn't under 

stand until I followed other characters and 

found out what they did." Will he play 

again? Sure. He wants to go back to explore 

even more. 

Score: Infocomics 3, Reviewer 0. 

But maybe—since Infocom really does 

try to get better even when their first at 

tempt is a hit—maybe future Infocomics 

will come with better art and better stories. 

Please? I'll never be ten again, but I'd 

still like an Infocomic / can enjoy. Q 

S E P T E M 19

cmwersatums 

g " pyx chairman and chief 

I j executive officer David 

M Morse attracted a good bit 

L J of attention at the Summer 

Consumer Electronics 

Show when he announced an ambitious 

schedule for expansion that would drive the 

company to $100-million size by 1990. A 

cofounder of Amiga Computer (sold in 

1984 to Commodore Business Machines), 

Morse combines an engineer's fascination 

with technology with a businessman's con 

cern for growth and profitability—all of it 

informed by an awareness of the entertain 

ment industry and software's place in that 

industry. 

Epyx 

Grows 

with 

David 

Keith 

Morse 

Ferrell 

and Gregg Keizer 

"T\ oy Toys 

r^T Epyx has found a great 

i 1 deal of success reaching 

A-^ what is primarily an 

adolescent male market 

with sports-related products. Will teenage 

boys remain the core of your market, or do 

you see the company reaching out to other 

consumers in the years ahead? 

As we go down the road, we'll probably 

broaden that a lot. It's certainly our goal to 

appeal to the very wide range of entertain 

ment software users, and I think that you've 

seen us, in the past year, get into some 

other categories. 

Is your collection of VCR sports games an 

attempt to reach beyond the adolescent 

male audience or an attempt to deliver new 

products to the industry's traditional 

market? 

It still addresses that segment. We're trying 

to be very disciplined as far as defining our 

business in technology-based entertainment 

aimed at teenage and young-adult con 

sumers. Whether it's computer games or 

VCR games or other products, that is the 

10 COMPUTE! 

target market. 

That's what we know. Over the last five 

years, Epyx has built up a lot of knowledge 

as to what our consumers like, and we're 

trying to take advantage of that. 

where the Girls Are 

What about players who 

aren't teenage males—can 

you produce software for 

girls? 

We've tried to do that, but we have not had 

huge success. We'd love to get the other 

half of the market. The first thing that's had 

that sort of appeal is California Games. In 

the testing that we've done, we've found 

that California Games has equal appeal to 

girls and boys. There are a lot more boys 

[in our market] since more boys are into 

computers. 

Why is that? 

Basically it's directly proportional to the in 

terest in computers, and boys seem to have 

a much higher interest in computers than 

girls do. 

Is that a limitation? How do you combat 

that? 

Teenage girls have other interests. They 

just don't seem to be focusing on comput 

ers. I don't know if one software company 

can change that, but we are consciously try 

ing to do some things that would broaden 

the appeal. 

ames to Come 

GAre there entertainment 

categories we haven't 

seen yet? 

There may be. Some of 

the stuff that we're conceptualizing right 

now might turn out to be a new category of 

game, or a mixture of several categories. 

What sorts of things are coming up? 

Were going to do a lot of simulations, roleplaying 

games. We like the action/strategy 

category, which can cover a lot of ground. 

We'd like to do some things that are very 

strategic but which also have a lot of action, 

and raise the level of that category.

The company actually started with 

Temple of Asphai [a role-playing adventure] 

and so forth, and we really don't see why 

we can't do more of that sort of thing as 

well. 

Without abandoning your existing base. 

Yes. We're continuing to do a lot of sports 

games. Our Games line is not at an end— 

you'll see some more things there. 

The focus on sports products and 

teenage products is where we are right 

now, but you will be seeing our approach 

grow much broader. 

And there's a big, long tail on that 

young adult market, that goes out to include 

people in their 30s and 40s. That helps us— 

we don't restrict ourselves. We will sell our 

games to somebody who's 40 years old. 

Sports games have a lot of appeal. It's 

a major segment of the software busi 

ness—but it's not the only segment. And 

we want to be in all of the segments of the 

business. 

igger and Bigger but 

B 

Fewer and Fewer 

Can a company grow to 

$100 million or larger in a 

couple of years based on 

software alone? 

Sure. It might take a while longer, but the 

market is growing. The penetration of 

computers in the home is edging up. I don't 

think it's going to go to 50 percent or any 

thing like that, but it Is growing. Software 

sales are up dramatically. 

It's possible and probably likely that 

you'll see entertainment software compa 

nies approaching $100 million. 

Another reason that's going to happen 

is that the business is becoming more and 

more concentrated. It's more and more diffi 

cult for new companies to get into the busi 

ness. Marketing and distribution is a real 

barrier. I think you're going to see some 

consolidation that will result in fewer 

companies. Or at least fewer companies 

that fully distribute and market their 

products. 

Is that good for the industry? How will it af 

fect consumers? 

I think it'll mean better products. There are 

going to be some filters they'll have to pass 

through before they reach the market. 

That's going to weed out a lot of marginal 

things. A lot of retail space is wasted on 

products that aren't any good. 

As retailers have fewer vendors, there 

will be more of a selection process. 

Will creativity suffer as a result of fewer 

companies? Do we run the risk of a 

me-too/copycat entertainment software 

industry? 

That may be. We're working real hard to try 

and not get into that trap. There are certain 

things that we do that are based on for 

mulas that we know are going to succeed. 

But we've also made a real effort to do 

some off-the-wall stuff. 

Such as? 

With something like LA. Crackdown [a po 

lice thriller] or Final Assault [a mountainclimbing 

game], we're starting to do things 

that aren't really proven products. They're a 

little bit off the beaten path. And some of 

the stuff that we've been putting into the 

development process in the past six months 

is much less cautious and much more 

adventurous. 

n /ff achine Specifics 

/■ ft Let's look at some other 

I y M hardware and get some 

-*■ * ■*- quick responses to various 

computers. 

MS-DOS machines? 

The PC is the main platform that we're go 

ing to have to work on in the next few 

years. That is clearly what's driving the mar 

ket right now and where we really have to 

excel to do well. 

It's not easy to do. 

Commodore 64? 

The 64 is what has driven the market, but 

there are no new 64 buyers, or very few. 

It's a consistent group that's not growing. 

Just as a result of the aging process, it's 

going to shrink as part of our business. 

Amiga? 

If we want to show the world what we can 

do, and show them our best work, we'd like 

to do it on Amiga. It's gradually becoming 

more important. I hope for Commodore's 

sake it becomes a lot more important. 

Apple II? 

Apple II is a consistent, known market. But 

it's hard to do our best stuff on the Apple II. 

Apple IIGS? 

I put the gs in the same category as Amiga. 

We can do some good things—not as good 

as Amiga, but it's becoming more and more 

interesting. 

Macintosh? 

Macintosh is becoming more important to 

us. We've got our first Mac II product com 

ing up. 

Is the Mac likely to become more of a fac 

tor in the entertainment business? 

Yes. There are a lot of Mac Pluses and SEs 

in homes, a lot of people are playing games 

on them. That's a lot of opportunity for play 

ing games. We're paying more attention to it. 

Atari ST? 

ST is important to us in Europe and is ba 

sically a nonfactor in the United States. 

R 

eal 

Computers for 

Real People 

What's it going to take to 

create a VCR-size homecomputer 

market? 

I think price is one thing. If you look at 

penetration of videogame machines, it has 

been and will be a lot higher than comput 

ers. Part of that is because of price. 

Usefulness is important. Computers 

have to be more important to more people. 

Does ease of use figure in that? Are people 

scared off by the keyboard? 

Sure. I'm scared off by that. I will not use 

an IBM PC; it's too much trouble. So to the 

average guy, who doesn't spend a lot of 

time with computers, it seems like a lot of 

hassle. 

Do you see new technologies such as CD- 

ROM or CD-I (Compact Disc-interactive) 

having an effect on the entertainment 

industry? 

Yes. I do. I don't know which one, and I 

don't know when. Sooner or later it'll get 

developed and get useful enough versus 

the price that the impact will grow. 

To do the next step in graphics, for ex 

ample, the barrier is not basically power or 

being able to put the stuff on the screen. 

My ex-Amiga guys at Epyx could give 

you absolute cartoon-quality resolution in 

six months, but the price would be out of 

sight because of memory requirements. 

L 

ooking 

Ahead 

What are the biggest chal 

lenges and frustrations of 

the industry? 

What excites me is just the endless array of 

possibilities, the things we can do and make 

happen to make our company grow while 

providing exciting products and experiences 

for our customers. 

The frustrating thing is that you can't 

do them all. You've got to pick one or two 

or three and do them well. 

Where do you see Epyx at the turn of the 

century? 

I can't think that far ahead—1990 is as far 

as I go. 

And Epyx is going to be a $100-million 

company in 1990? 

You heard it here first. 0 

SEPTEMBER 1988 11

impact 

J. nAwin n Turn 

DAVID D.THORNBURG 

The First 100 

Issues of 

COMPUTE! 

Reinforce One 

Principle— 

Those Who 

Live by the 

Crystal Ball Eat 

Crushed Glass 

One of my most treasured possessions 

is my collection of COMPUTED 

dating back to the first issue, pub 

lished September 1979.1 had the honor of 

writing an article for that first issue and, ex 

cept for two issues. I've had something to 

say in every one since. 

With an office nestled in the heart of 

Silicon Valley. I've seen apricot orchards lit 

erally replaced by Apple buildings. I saw the 

first PET; watched Atari grow, collapse, and 

grow again; observed Apple's transformation 

of a city; and witnessed the pain and glory of 

more software companies than I can count. 

Looking back on 100 issues of COM 

PUTE!, I've learned one thing—in the 

words of IBM's Harvey Long, those who live 

by the crystal ball eat crushed glass. I pre 

dicted the demise of the TI 99/4 just before 

its sales skyrocketed and rescinded my 

prediction just before the product was 

discontinued. 

When I bought my first computer (a 

Commodore PET), it came with a tiny in 

struction manual that was virtually useless. 

User groups were essential in those days be 

cause they provided a forum for sharing the 

secrets of our computers. One user group's 

publication that was of great value in the 

early days was the "PET Gazette." pub 

lished by Len Lindsay from his garage in 

Madison, Wisconsin. As far back as 1978, 

Len had advice for computer owners that 

still applies today: If you haven't seen a 

piece of software with your own eyes, pre 

tend it doesn't exist. I find it strange that 

people are still willing to pay in advance for 

vaporware and then wait a year or even 

longer for delivery. 

As personal computer use began to ex 

pand beyond the hobbyist market, there was 

a need for general magazines. Robert Lock 

called one day to tell me that his company 

had purchased the "PET Gazette" and was 

changing it to a quarterly magazine that ad 

dressed all computers using the 6502 micro 

processor—a list that included the PET, 

Apple II. Atari 400 and 800, OSI Challenger. 

Sym-1, AIM-65. and KIM-1. 

I was asked to write about the social im 

pact of this technology and "Computers and 

Society" (now "Impact") was born. 

As I look back over my years on these 

pages, there are some subjects that have a 

special place in my heart. 

First, I've always thought that comput 

ers are not, in themselves, interesting, but 

that their applications are. Computers were 

created to meet the needs of people. There is 

no excuse for computers being any harder to 

use than a CD player or a television set. 

One criterion for measuring a comput 

er's responsiveness to the user is to measure 

the time and keystrokes (or mouse clicks) it 

takes to bring you from an unpowered sys 

tem to the start of your desired task. Ad 

vances in the design of user interfaces, 

coupled with improvements in computer 

systems' speed, have moved us far along the 

path toward user friendliness. 

A second criterion for ease of use is the 

extent to which the computer allows you to 

feel that you have stepped through the look 

ing glass and are touching the application it 

self. Again, progress has been made, but 

there is still room for improvement. 

The second topic I have addressed on a 

continuing basis is that of software copy 

rights. From my perspective, there are as 

pects of this topic that are crystal clear and 

some that are cloudy. 

One point is clear: The duplication and 

sale (or gift) of copyrighted software is 

wrong and should be punished. People who 

rip off software are stealingjust as people 

who counterfeit money arc. 

I don't see copy-protect ion as a cure, 

however. Copy-protection works to the det 

riment of legitimate users who want to make 

backup copies or transfer their programs to 

other media, like hard disks. Also, pirates 

easily can break most copy-protection 

schemes. 

The fuzzier side of the copyright issue 

involves the protection of look and feel— 

the visual displays and the behavior of a 

program independent of the program code 

itself. There is a point where it's very diffi 

cult to distinguish between the expression of 

a program and its underlying idea. 

Lawyers tell me that expressions can be 

copyrighted but ideas cannot. Now that 

more look-and-feel cases are coming to 

court, we can only hope that the judges and 

juries have the wisdom to make the right de 

cisions. My fear is that bad decisions will 

cripple innovation in an industry that sorely 

needs it. 

Looking to the next 100 issues of COM 

PUTE!, I hope we'll grow beyond the point 

where software thievery is an issue. I also 

think that we'll see computers getting easier 

and easier to use. 

Remember that it's you. the computer 

user, who ultimately shapes this industry. 

Thanks for your years of support. I look for 

ward to our continuing dialog on these pages 

in the years to come. h 

12 COMPUTE

COMPUTE! 

Tht LiDisg Mogcnin* Of Horn*. lajcotkxwl. And BKUti;n:i C■ 7 r-i\,.1 j 

COMPUTE! Fights Crime 

Through most of the 1980s. I have been 

investigating high-technology and com 

puter-related crimes for the Austin Po 

lice Department. During that time, 

COMPUTE! has been my number 1 re 

source. Our offices have an assortment 

of IBM mainframes and personal com 

puters; at home. I have an Amiga 500 

system. But to be a successful investiga 

tor, I must keep on top of all the latest 

advancements in technology, and I 

have to be familiar with as many differ 

ent computer systems as possible. 

I subscribe to numerous computer 

publications, but COMPUTE! has con 

sistently provided me with the best 

information. I applaud the new format. 

The deletion of type-in programs leaves 

more room for the useful reviews and 

articles. I especially enjoyed David 

Thornburg's recent article on viruses— 

a problem I began dealing with long 

before the general public knew about it. 

I'm looking forward to my next issue of 

COMPUTE!. 

Sgt. 

Hurray! No More Type-Ins 

Robert Ansley 

Austin, TX 

Congratulations. The new format of 

COMPUTE! is right on target for me. I 

started my subscription to your maga 

zine in 1983 and also subscribed to 

COMPUTE'.'s Gazette when it was in 

troduced. As my computing needs have 

grown and changed from the VIC-20 to 

the Commodore 64 and now to the 

Macintosh, COMPUTE! has changed 

to cover a broader range of topics. 

The type-in software was great at 

the beginning, but for the last few years. 

I haven't typed in a single program 

from any magazine. 

The features, reviews, columns, 

and the "COMPUTE! Specific" sec 

tions are terrific. I like everything in 

them. But there is still room for im 

provement. The small print you use 

makes it difficult to read. I would much 

prefer a larger print size. 

Arthur Mah 

Slave Lake, Alberta 

I would like to commend you on the 

improvement of your magazine. It's an 

excellent idea to eliminate the type-in 

programs. I think most people would 

prefer doing something else on their 

computer besides spending two or three 

hours typing in a program they may not 

get to work. 

Your new format is a vast im 

provement over the old one. I currently 

own an IBM PC and a Commodore 

128. and your magazine is the only one 

on the market that satisfies my need for 

information on both machines. 

Better Than a Laser? 

JejfBarthel 

San Francisco, CA 

In your July issue, page 93, Neil Ran 

dall in his "COMPUTE! Specific" sec 

tion on the 64 and 128, says, "A good 

24-pin printer can provide copy that is 

actually superior to that produced by a 

300-dot-per-inch laser printer." Wow! I 

hope your author knows something I 

don't, but I doubt it. 

Enclosed is a sample of 24-pin out 

put driven by a Commodore 64.1 trust 

you agree that it is not up to laser quality. 

I really believe that this is a gross misstatement 

and demands a retraction. 

Thanks for a usually fine magazine 

and for your attention. 

Les Tremayne 

Sunnyvale, CA 

Mr. Randall responds: Although laser 

printers generally produce output superi 

or to that of dot-matrix printers, I have 

seen output from some 24-pin dot-ma 

trix printers that is superior to what's 

produced by some 300-dot-per-inch la 

ser printers. Perhaps my original state 

ment would have benefited from some 

elaboration, but it is true. 

Many 24-pin printers actually have 

a higher dot-per-inch (DPI) resolution 

than some laser printers, and they can 

produce amazing results. My advicefor 

anyone planning to buy a 24-pin dotmatrix 

or laser printer is to get some 

samples of the output before you buy 

and to shop around. > 

Editor Gfegg Keiier 

Senior Art Director Janice R. Fary 

Features Editor Keith Ferrell 

Assistant Editors Heidi E. H. Aycock 

Clifton Karnes 

Assistant Features Editor Tom Netsel 

Buyers Guide Coordinator Caroline Hanlon 

Editorial Assistant Mickey McLean 

Copy Editors Karen Siepak 

Tammie Taylor 

Karen Uhlendorf 

Staff Contributors Rhett Anderson 

David Florence 

John Shadle 

Randy Thompson 

Contributing Editors Allan Levitan 

David Thornburg 

ART DEPARTMENT 

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Junior Designer Meg McArn 

Mechanical Artists Scotty Billings 

Robin Case 

PRODUCTION 

DEPARTMENT 

Production Director Mark E. Hillyer 

Assistant Production Manager De Potter 

Production Assistant Kim Potls 

Typesetting Terry Cash 

Carole Dunton 

Advertising Production 

Assistant Anita Armfield 

COMPUTE! PUBLICATIONS 

Group Vice President, 

Publisher/Editorial Director William Tynan 

Managing Editor Kathleen Martinek 

Senior Editor Lance Elko 

Editorial Operations Director Tony Roberts 

Executive Assistant Sybil Agee 

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Assistant Julia Fleming 

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Cathy McAllister 

A8C CONSUMER 

MAGAZINES 

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Greensboro: COMPUTE! Publications, Surte 200. 

324 West Wendover Ave.. Greensboro, NC 27408. Tel. 

(919) 275-9809. Kathleen Ingram. 

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(212) 315-1665; Peter Hardy (508) 681-9000: Kathleen 

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(312) 726-9347 (Chicago], (713) 731-2605 [Texas]; 

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Address all advertising materials to: Anita Armfield, 

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Editorial inquiries should be addressed to The Editor, 

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PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 7ZZ1

MoreST 

First, let me say that I've been a reader 

of COMPUTE! since 1983, and I will 

continue to be, but the recent change in 

your magazine has brought to light a 

flaw in your reporting. COMPUTE! 

constantly places emphasis on the 

Commodore systems at the expense of 

others. The Atari ST and Mega com 

puters outperform the Amiga, but your 

coverage of the Atari is lacking. 

I haven't seen, for example, a re 

view of Spectrum 512 for the ST. This 

program allows the simultaneous use of 

512 colors on the screen and provides 

more than 23,000 colors through dith 

ering. It even has the ability to display 

the famous Amiga HAM pictures. This 

is a major software release that rivals 

the Amiga's graphics. 

At Spring COMDEX, a data sheet 

was provided detailing a genlock sys 

tem for the Atari, a long-heralded 

Amiga-only extra. There are also ST 

packages for MIDI and desktop pub 

lishing that haven't been reviewed in 

COMPUTE!. 

Your omission of type-in programs 

has not hurt your magazine, but this 

system bias has. Show the computer in 

dustry what all systems have to offer, 

and I'm sure the user of any computer 

system will be fascinated. 

David Brown 

Atlanta, GA 

COMPUTE! makes every effort to be 

fair in its coverage of each major com 

puter. To guarantee this, each issue has 

a "COMPUTE! Specific"section in 

which developments for individual com 

puters (including the Atari ST) are 

discussed. 

In our first issue with our new for 

mat (May 1988), DavidPlotkin, our 

A tari ST expert, reviewed the product 

you mention, Spectrum 512. //*the cur 

rent issue. Mr. Plotkin covers the gen 

lock product for the ST to which you 

refer. 

Through "News & Notes, "product 

reviews, and Mr. Plotkin's Atari ST 

"Specific" section, we try to keep readers 

abreast of the latest developments in 

Atari ST and Mega ST hardware and 

software. 

Positively Square 

You implied in your answer to Shane 

Evans in June's "Hints & Tips" that 

there is no such thing as the square root 

of a negative number. Have you forgot 

ten they factor defined as the square 

root of — 1? As a retired electronic engi 

neer, I have been using it for the past 60 

years or more (I'm now 81) in the study 

of waveforms and quanta. If you have 

14 COMPUTE 

read Einstein, you should remember. 

Mr. Evans, in his quest for knowl 

edge, asked a very legitimate question 

and you sidetracked him. Instead of 

shedding light, you returned to trivium. 

In common vernacular, you gave him a 

snow job. In view of his apparent basic 

knowledge, the expressions he men 

tions were (in my humble opinion) en 

countered in the solution of some 

simple equation such as the quadratic. 

A far better answer would have been to 

refer to such. I believe that Mr. Evans is 

a searcher and would have arrived at 

the truth: that there is a square root of 

— 1 which in computations produces 

vectors which have real values and arc 

always positive. 

My compliments to Arlan Levitan 

for his comprehensive coverage in his 

article on page 86 of the above-named 

issue. But why were pages 84 and 86 

swapped? Turning backward is just not 

in accord with today's thinking. 

Gavle Jones 

Defiance, OH 

We didn 't mean to give Mr. Evans a 

snow job. Mr. Evans didn 7 explain why 

he was trying to take a square root ofa 

negative number. We assumed (perhaps 

incorrectly) from his question that he 

was not trying to use a formula from 

physics. It seemed more likely that the 

formula was a financial or a simple geo 

metric one. 

There is indeed a mathematical 

abstraction of the square root of—I. It's 

commonly referred to as i. Readers in 

terested in this subject should refer to 

complex numbers in an advancedmathematics 

text. 

Asfor Mr. Levitan's column, beginninga 

column on thefinal page ofa 

magazine is a common journalistic 

technique. Some browsers flip through a 

magazine from back to front. 

Don't Forget to Teach 

Thanks for Clifton Karnes' nice review 

of the W&D {COMPUTE!, May 1988). 

He mentioned the increase to 64K in 

80-column video RAM. I would like to 

know how to make use of this addition 

al RAM. In particular, how can I create 

hi-res multicolor graphics? 

I like the new, readable format of 

COMPUTE!, as well as the increased 

number and quality of reviews. Thanks 

for the good work. If it means the loss 

of tutorial articles, however, that is 

regrettable. 

Hilary Stinton 

Santa Cruz, CA 

The only product that we'refamiliar 

with that fully supports the I28D's ex 

tended graphics capability is BASIC 8.0, 

by Walrus Software, available from Patech 

Software (P.O. Box 5208, Somerset, 

New Jersey* 08873). BASIC 8.0 extends 

the 128's BASIC 7.0 with a number of 

hi-res drawing commands. As the new 

graphics chip becomes more common, 

we hope to see more applications that 

take advantage of its power. 

COMPUTE! addresses many tuto 

rial and technical issues in our "Specif 

ic" sections—which cover MS-DOS 

machines, the Commodore 64 and 128, 

and Apple, Amiga, and ST computers— 

and in "Hints & Tips." 

Virus Damage 

My machine was recently infected with 

a virus. The damage resulting from the 

infection took three months to repair. 

The symptoms started when I was un 

able to write to the disks because they 

were reported full by the operating sys 

tem. I started using backup disks, but 

they also became infected and were thus 

damaged beyond repair. After weeks of 

trial and error, neither I nor my friends 

were able to discover what was causing 

these problems. As a result of my 

friends' helping me, their systems also 

became infected via disks used in my 

system. How far the virus spread be 

yond my immediate group is unknown. 

I frequently read your magazine 

and have not seen any articles fore 

warning your readership of software vi 

ruses. I eventually read a Newsweek 

article that described the problem. It 

was astounding to find the virus prob 

lem being discussed in a periodical that 

is dedicated to general news events when 

COMPUTE! had no mention of it. 

I think it is your responsibility to 

keep your readers informed about com 

puter problems which could result in 

months of work being lost. The damage 

just to my system could buy a subscrip 

tion to ten magazines for the next five 

years. 

Ralph Allen 

Arlington, VA 

COMPUTE! has covered the virus story 

since its beginning with the Commodore 

Amiga. In our March 1988 issue, we 

published a feature, by Amiga expert 

Jim Butterfield, on the virus. That fea 

ture contained a program to detect the 

virus on an Amiga disk. 

In subsequent issues, we'vefollowed 

the virus story and its spread to the IBM 

PC and Macintosh computers in our 

columns, news stories, and "Specific" 

sections. We've also discussed commer 

cial antiviral programs thai can detect 

viruses before they do damage. 

b

Voices from the Past 

1980 

"Readers' Feedback," (he 

precursor to "Hints & Tips," 

first appeared in the July/ 

August 1980 issue of COM 

PUTE! (Issue Number 5). 

For its first year, the col 

umn simply printed the com 

ments that readers wrote on 

the 3X5 Editor's Feed 

back cards inserted in each 

"Please make longer programs 

available on tape." 

"I'd like to see more business 

applications reviews." 

"I like COMPUTE!— keep it go 

ing! Make it monthly!" 

"Let's get a high-level language 

for the PET." 

"Give more space to Apple 

and Atari, and cut PET cover 

age in half." 

"I want my COMPUTE! to ar 

rive on time." 

1981- 

In 198], readers1 enthusi 

asm and their questions 

had grown to such an extent 

that "Readers' Feedback" 

changed to "Ask the Read 

ers," a column where read 

ers would write their ques 

tions and other readers 

would respond in subse 

quent issues. 

I saw a cryptic comment—I 

think in COMPUTE! #IO:"PET 

Exec Hello" by Gordon Camp 

bell. Second paragraph: POKE 

59458.62 (this may damage 

your machine). Can I damage 

a PET with POKES?? It scared 

me. 

Felix Rosenthal 

You can damage your PET 

with this POKE. Luckily, it is the 

only POKE which is known to 

be risky, as far as we know. 

You can POKE freely any 

where else. 

1982 

I have a few questions regard 

ing that pernicious malady 

known as "Atari lock-up." 

First of all. does this happen 

with other brands of micros? 

Secondly, though it is generally 

attributed to "over-editing," 

why does it occur at all? And 

finally, has anyone else suf 

fered a similar occurrence 

which I shall dub "two-line 

lock-up"? In this frustrating in 

stance, the cursor advances 

one row after a return, then 

docs nothing! The screen may 

be cleared or reset, but any 

command issued will have the 

same two-line response fol 

lowed by zilch, cipher, naught. 

nothing. 

Greg Kopp 

Several readers have respond 

ed to the issue raised by Greg 

Kopp in "Ask the Readers," 

May 1982, about the occasion 

al "lockup" where the Atari will, 

mysteriously, "go away" and 

no longer respond to the 

keyboard. 

Bill Wilkinson, COMPUTE! 

columnist and one of the au 

thors Of Atari BASIC, responds 

with "All substantial software 

has bugs. If it's in ROM, the 

bug can't be repaired unless a 

new set of ROM chips are 

brought out. For whatever rea 

son, Atari has never brought 

out a new ROM set. To be fair 

about it, there are bugs in the 

original TRS-80 which have 

never been fixed either." 

1983 

In 1983, "Ask the Readers" 

changed its name back to 

"Readers' Feedback," but 

not to the original format. 

To provide answers for 

readers as quickly as possi 

ble, COMPUTEI's editors 

began answering readers' 

questions—a policy we've 

continued. 

I have a VIC-20, and I want to 

know which is better for the 

computer—to leave it on con 

stantly or shut it off when you 

arc done using it? 

Bob Weber 

This is debatable. Some would 

say that the initial power surge 

when turning on a computer is 

actually more damaging to the 

electronic components than 

leaving it on continuously. On 

the other hand, most electronic 

parts have a definite life span, 

and leaving the computer on 

24 hours a day could shorten 

the overall useful life of the 

computer. 

1984 

Methods of RAM manage 

ment arc among the most im 

portant aspects of computer 

operation, but I can find prac 

tically no information on this. 

How docs one computer com 

pare with another in memory 

management? Why is it that 

even in the IBM 16-bil com 

puter, BASIC RAM is limited 

to 60864 bytes with 256K 

memory installed? What about 

the new Apple Macintosh? 

More than anything else, the 

speed with which swaps in 

memory arc made determines 

the horsepower of a computer. 

Orvilie E. Bean 

The factors which determine 

how effectively a computer can 

manage memory are the 

amount of memory the central 

processing unit (CPU) chip can 

address directly and the num 

ber of bits the CPU can trans 

fer to or from memory at one 

time. To use your phrase, a 16- 

bit machine has more horse 

power, since it can grab 16 bits 

at a time from memory instead 

of 8 bits. Most home computer 

CPUs, like the 6502 chip used 

in the Apple, Atari, and Com 

modore, can directly address 

64K and transfer 8 bits at a 

time. The 8088 CPU in the IBM 

PC and PCjr can directly ad 

dress 1024K. However, it orga 

nizes this memory into 16 

blocks (called segments) of 

64K each. IBM's Microsoft 

BASIC was written to operate 

within one segment, which is 

why only 60K is available for 

programming after the com 

puter takes away what it needs 

for its own operations. Al 

though the PC and PCjr are 

usually called 16-bit comput 

ers, their CPUs can actually 

transfer only 8 bits at a time. 

The CPU in the new Macintosh 

can directly address 16 mega 

bytes (16384K) and can trans 

fer data to or from memory 16 

bits at a time. 

1985 

Is it possible to get the pro 

cessing power of a $4,000 

IBM PC XT for just $500? 

That was one of the ques 

tions back in 1985. The an 

swer may seem ironic today: 

The Sinclair QL mentioned 

in our response to the fol 

lowing question is still alive 

in Europe, but it never made 

it in the U.S. market. And 

you can get an XT compati 

ble for §500 in 1988. 

S E P T E M E R 19 15

I read your piece on the PCjr 

in the October 1984 COM 

PUTE!. How dare you say that 

there will soon be computers 

with the processing power of 

the PC XT for less than $500 

and not say what they are? I 

was trembling on the verge of 

putting out $600 or $700 for 

an Atari 800XL system, and 

now I don't know what to do, 

and won't until your article en 

titled "Some Machines for 

Less Than $500 Which Offer 

More Processing Power Than 

a $4,000 PC XT" appears— 

probably (as they say in the 

computer biz) sometime dur 

ing the first quarter of 1985. 

Norman Hariweg 

A recent CES report included 

four paragraphs on the new 

Sinclair QL, which has been 

available in Britain for several 

months. Standard features of 

the QL include 128K of RAM 

{expandable to 640K); a Motor 

ola 68008 microprocessor; two 

built-in microdrives for mass 

storage; a full-sized, 65-key, 

typewriter-style keyboard with 

special function keys; BASIC in 

ROM; an operating system in 

ROM that supports windowing 

and multitasking; and more, all 

for $499. 

As you can see, the QL ar 

guably has more processing 

power than an IBM PC XT. The 

XT's CPU is the same chip 

found in the PC: the Intel 8088, 

an 8/16-bit microprocessor. 

The QL's 68008 is a 8/32-bit 

microprocessor, a version of 

the 68000 chip found in the 

Macintosh. 

1986 

By 1986, SpeedScript, the 

most popular series of pro 

grams ever offered by a 

computer magazine, was 

available in versions for Ap 

ple, Atari, and the original 

Commodore. In fact, Speed- 

Script had become such an 

institution that people be 

came interested in its 

history. 

What arc the differences be 

tween SpeedScript 3.0, 3.1. 

3.2, and so on? 

Leo Milchcner 

Here's the genealogy of 

SpeedScript for the Commo 

dore 64. The original 64 Speed- 

Script (now called version 1.0) 

appeared in the January 1984 

GAZETTE. A slightly modified 

version (1.1) appeared in COM- 

PUTEI's Second Book of Com 

modore 64. The next major 

update, SpeedScript 2.0, ap 

peared only on the premier 

COMPUTEVs Gazette Disk, in 

May 1984. Like the original, its 

title screen did not include a 

version number; however, it 

can be distinguished from oth 

er versions by its custom char 

acter set and help screen. 

Version 3.0 made its debut 

in the March 1985 issue of 

COMPUTE! and on the special 

COMPUTE! Disk for that 

month. It can easily be distin 

guished from its predecessors 

because the command line 

says SpeedScript 3.0. Several 

minor bugs were corrected for 

version 3.1. It was this version 

that appeared in the book 

SpeedScript: The Word Pro 

cessor for the Commodore 64 

and VIC-20, and on the com 

panion disk for that book. Fur 

ther corrections appeared in 

the December 1985 issue of 

COMPUTE! and resulted in ver 

sion 3.2. This version appeared 

on the January 1986 COM 

PUTE! Disk. 

For a description of how 

SpeedScript 3.0 differs from 

previous versions in terms of 

features, see the article in 

the March 1985 issue of 

COMPUTE!. 

1987 

One theme in 1987 was em 

ulation—having one com 

puter emulate another. 

Users who were considering 

moving up to more powerful 

machines didn't want to 

lose their existing ma 

chine's software. 

Rumors abound that the 

Amiga is or can be compatible 

with the Commodore 64. If il 

were. I would buy one without 

hesitation. 

William F. DeBerg 

Can ( expand my VIC to run 

64. 128, Amiga, or Atari ST 

programs? 

Jeffrey M. Powers 

Judging by the letters we re 

ceive, and by the questions 

and comments in the user 

group newsletters that we 

read, there is a great deal of in 

terest in emulation—making 

one computer run programs 

written for another. 

Emulation is a complex 

subject, so let's begin with a 

simple question that was popu 

lar a few years ago: Why can't 

my 64 run VIC programs? 

(Some people asked the oppo 

site question: Why can't my 

VIC run 64 programs?) They 

continue by saying that the two 

computers look similar, use the 

same peripherals, and were 

made by the same company. 

Although there are many 

differences between the two 

computers, the major differ 

ence lies deep within the com 

puters themselves: They have 

different display hardware. The 

VIC uses a video chip called 

the VIC; the 64 uses a chip 

called the VIC-II. For a program 

to work on two computers, it 

must "see" the same hard 

ware registers in the same 

memory locations. 

Adding components to 

your old computer to gain the 

speed and graphics capabili 

ties of the new computers is 

simply not feasible. To add the 

features of the Amiga to your 

64, for example, you would 

have to replace the micro 

processor, keyboard. RGB out 

put, and sound and graphics 

chips. Indeed, a 64 has almost 

nothing that an Amiga could 

use. In essence, you would 

have to add a whole Amiga to 

your 64. 

Others want their old soft 

ware to run on their new com 

puter. This approach is only 

slightly more promising. Pro 

grammers are working on an 

Atari 8-bit emulator for the ST 

and a Commodore 64 emulator 

for the Amiga. Unfortunately, 

this approach is bound to lead 

to lackluster results. 

The best solution to the 

problem is this: If you want to 

run programs written for a spe 

cific computer, or if you want to 

write programs to take advan 

tage of the power of a certain 

computer, buy that computer. 

Any other option will lead to 

frustration. 

1988 

In May 1988, COMPUTE! 

was redesigned and "Read 

ers' Feedback" was re 

named "Hints & Tips." 

Although the department's 

name has changed, our goal 

is still to provide timely and 

complete answers to read 

ers* questions. 

I have a very perplexing prob 

lem. Is there such a thing as a 

conversion table or program to 

change Commodore 64 pro 

grams so that I can use them 

on my Plus/4? I love my com 

puter, but it's frustrating trying 

to convert programs myself. I 

tried to type in one program by 

leaving out the POKEs. Ha! 

No way. So what's a Plus/4 

owner to do? 

Doug R. Lewis 

The differences in the hard 

ware of the two machines 

make it difficult to convert pro 

grams written for the 64 to run 

on the Plus/4. The Plus/4 is 

what's known as an orphan. 

Many orphan computers 

were born in the explosive peri 

od that occurred before the in 

dustrywide shake-up in 1983. 

The Mattel Aquarius, the MSX 

computers, the Commodore 

Plus/4 and 16, the Texas In 

struments TI-99/4, the Coleco 

Adam, and the Timex Sinclair 

are among the dozens of com 

puters that are now called 

orphans. 

Many people enjoy their 

orphans. Some buy a full or 

phan system, with plenty of 

software, as their first system. 

Needless to say, it's cheaper to 

buy a used Coleco Adam than 

it is to buy a used IBM AT. You 

can learn a lot by using one of 

these computers for a while. 

And if you write your own pro 

grams, you may never need 

another computer. 

You may love your Plus/4 

now, but someday you may de 

cide that you'd like to buy a 

new computer. 

Before you buy a com 

puter, read all about it. There 

are many excellent computer 

magazines available. For in 

stance, COMPUTE! Publica 

tions publishes magazines 

devoted exclusively to the 

Apple II, the IBM PC and com 

patibles, and the Commodore 

64 and 128. m 

16 COMPUTE!

Here's What People Are Saying about 

EIGHT-IN-ONE. . . 

'. . .a really powerful product. . .as good 

as $300 to $500.. .products." 

— Soft* letter 

"It's hard to suppress this reviewer's combination 

of admiration for [Eight-In-One] and bewilderment 

over how the company can offer so much for $59.95. 

— PC Clones 

works as promised." 

- PC Week 

".. .the only 

computer program 

they (users) will 

ever need..." 

— NY Times 

•**♦*. .the best integrated 

package I've ever seen 

— Home Office Computing 

". . .very easy to learn and use. 

quite intuitive." 

- PC Week 

"PFS: First Choice and 

Microsoft Works, move over! 

BetterWorking 

Eight-In-One 

may turn out to be the low-cost 

integrated sleeper of the year." 

— PC Magazine 

".. . this inviting and productive package would be 

a terrific bargain at twice the price..." 

— Washington Post 

BetterWorking Eight-In-One comes complete with every productivity tool you could ever 

need. It's a desktop organizer, outliner, word processor, spelling corrector, spreadsheet, 

graphics program, data base and communications package all rolled into one. Plus, Eight- 

In-One is integrated, allowing you to pass work smoothly among all eight applications. 

The reviews are in... isn't it time you looked at BetterWorking's Eight-In-One? 

Price: $59.95 

Available at fine software dealers, 

Or: For orders only call 1-800-826-0706 

IBM* PC and True IBM Compatibles 

Requires: 384K/DOS 2.1 or higher 

Supports hard drive systems 

Graphics adaptor required for 

graphics output 

SP/ZY/WWER 

©1988, Spinnaker Software Corp.. One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. 02139 

All rights reserved. Spinnaker is a registered trademark of Spinnaker Software Corp.

Gregg Keizer 

For 100 issues, COMPUTE! 

magazine has charted the 

explosive growth of personal 

computers. We've reported on 

the strange and the sublime, 

and we've offered up 

technological help and comfort 

to millions. In this, the first 

issue of COMPUTED tenth 

year, we take a moment to 

trace the times gone by. 

mm® 

18 COMPUTE!

COMPUTE. 

TOE 

Fall 1979 

Issue #1 

104 pages 

The first issue of COMPUTE magazine (note that 

the exclamation point had not yet made an 

appearance) hit readers' hands in the fall of 1979. 

Only a quarterly at this point, it billed itself as 

The Journal for Progressive Computing, a label it 

would keep on the cover for three years. Still on 

unknown ground, though, the magazine also made 

sure people knew it was The PET Gazette With A 

New Name. Robert Lock held the title of Acting 

Production/Coordinating Editor, while 'PET Ga 

zette" founder Lcn Lindsay was Senior Contribut 

ing Editor. The press run for the first issue was 

10.000. 

Lcn Lindsay, founder of the "PET Gazette," pub 

lished the newsletter for over a year as a nonprofit 

enterprise. After seeing it grow beyond his 

capabilities, and not wanting it to simply fade 

away, he let Small System Services "carry on the 

'Gazette' and improve it immensely." 

I i'- 'Aft*.- flf -t—'j-" 

COMPUTE! 

The Journal tor Progressive Computingzomrum 

LookiAt 

IItNi* TOS-30 

Color Computer? 

November/ 

December 1980 

Issue #7 

152 pages a 

■ASIC And 

Machine 

Language, II 

Harry Blair was the artist whose work was 

synonymous with COMPUTE! and who created 

virtually every cover of the magazine. His 

cartoonlike style—relaxed, informal, and person 

able—was immediately recognizable on the news 

stands. The exclamation point had been added by 

this time, finalizing the magazine's name. Another 

item of interest in this, the last bimonthly issue, 

included the debut of the OSI Gazette inside 

COMPUTE!; the Ohio Scientific Instrument com 

pany produced single-board computers such as the 

Challenger and Superboard II that, compared with 

today's machines, were more kits than computers. 

This issue also looked at the new TRS-80 Color 

Computer, a Radio Shack machine that is still be 

ing sold today. 

Many of the articles in the early issues of COM 

PUTE! looked like this. Titled "Atari Joysticks on 

the OSI CIP," this hands-on article showed read 

ers how to build and program a joystick interface 

for a single-board computer. Thoroughly technical, 

complete with soldering directions and pin di 

agrams, articles like this were eagerly sought by 

early COMPUTE! readers. i> 

S E P T E M E R 19 19

. — ,, 

COMPUTE! 

The Journal For Progressive Computng 

THE .. . 

Player-Missile Graphics 

withtheATAR! Personal 

Computer System 

January 1981 

Issue #8 

144 pages K 

An embarrassing mistake put the wrong year on 

the cover date; this is actually 1981's January is 

sue, not 1980'%. It is also the first monthly issue of 

COMPUTE!. Typical cover highlights of the time 

hype programs for loading Commodore PET tape 

files into an Apple II and for putting 40-column 

screens on an 80-column PET (the latter was writ 

ten by freelancer Richard Mansfield, who later be 

came senior editor and then editorial director). 

The most interesting aspect of this cover, however, 

is the mention of player/missile graphics (called 

sprites on other computers) for the Atari. 

Chris Crawford has been writing games for a long 

time, as evidenced by this insightful article on 

Atari computer player/missile graphics. Famed for 

such classic commercial efforts as Eastern Front 

and, most recently. Balance of Power, Crawford 

here outlines how to utilize one of the Atari's most 

impressive features, the spritelike player/missiles 

that made programming animation so easy on that 

machine. In years past, Crawford was director of 

research at Atari; today, he's a freelance game 

designer. 

Wbat To Get Your Compu'ef F« Christmas 

COMPUTE! 

A Buyer's Guide To Modems 

Lowr Gunnel 

An Action Gam« 

FwllotlAKlMT 

November 1982 

Issue #30 

256 pages 

As the personal computer marketplace exploded 

into a multimillion-dollar business. COMPUTE! 

kept up by growing larger and offering even more 

articles and programs for even more home com 

puter systems. Game programs were always very 

popular among COMPUTERS readers, and this is 

sue included two—'Laser Gunner" and "UXB"— 

which appear, by today's standards, quaint and 

primitive. Some of the commercial games ad 

vertised in the issue were, however, only slightly 

more sophisticated. 

One of the two games highlighted in this issue, 

"UXB" is a good example of the kind of 

entertainment programs published in COMPUTE! 

around this time. The program listing is quite 

short—the segment you see on this page is fully a 

quarter of the total program. The game came in 

two versions—one for the Commodore VIC and 

another for the Atari 400/800 computers (the 

Commodore 64 had just been released when this 

issue went to press, and IBM had yet to announce 

its ill-fated PCjr home computer). t> 

20 

COMPUTE!

MM 

Purchase one of the following titles from your local dealer. 

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falcon 

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IT'S THE BEST DEAL AROUND! Buy one of Spectrum HoloByte's holiest titles from from your local retailer; mail it along with proofs of purchase and 54 (per free 

your local dealer between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31.1988, and we'll send you another product product) for shipping and handling. If our product is unavailable locally, call us direct at 

of your choice absolutely FREE! 

415-522-0107. Teli us what product you wish to buy 

YOUR CHOICES TO PURCHASE ARE: FALCON, 

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simply complete either the coupon in this ad or one 

A Division of SPHERE, INC. 

2061 Challenger Drive • Alameda, CA 94501 

All scltware prncucts jfc \ralemaiks of or licensed lo Specirum KtaByle Hartlwae 

products are trademarks ol I heir respecliue hokteis 

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PROOF OF PURCHASE REQUIREMENTS: Send the following original Hems. |1) Ihe dated cash register ispe or sales receipt showing ihe product purchased, and 12] Ihe actual UPC 

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The Christmas Of The Compute! 

COMPUTE! 

Th* Uod)ng MopairfY Dt 

*dd»35Grophlci 

Command* 'c lo< 

December *£■£&». 

1983 *««'•• «-wc3o, » 

Issue #43 nwo,aR,_.ln9 

392 pages *TtWm 

This was COMPUTED largest issue, nearly break 

ing the 400-page barrier, with more than 250 

advertisers listed. In hindsight, this moment was 

also the apex of the home computer-buying curve. 

When the huge jumps in home computer owner 

ship didn't keep coming, companies which had ex 

pected 300-percent growth but which were actually 

experiencing only 30-percent growth found them 

selves in a pinch. Many went out of business. At 

the same time, however, COMPUTE! was con 

tinuing to chart the upswing in personal and home 

computer use. One of the features inside this issue, 

in fact, was titled "The Home Office," presaging a 

phenomenon that's only now gotten national 

attention. 

Eight different personal computer systems were 

supported by COMPUTE! in this issue, including 

the now-defunct TI-99 from Texas Instruments. 

"Get the Gold" was a Tl-specific adventure game 

with some interesting sound effects. Note that 

readers could send $3 to the author of the pro 

gram for a copy of the program on cassette tape 

(tape drives provided a more common and less 

expensive means of storing computer information 

than the costly disk drives of the day). Some pro 

gram authors made more money from selling such 

tapes than from COMPUTEPs purchase payment. 

Apple's Evolutionary New lie 

COMPUTE! 

!(*• L«dmjW;jga;irr* Of Hom t, tducahonal. And PaC rWl«w*Jl 

Evolutionary To The Core: 

The Apple He Heads For Home 

Jlu»btrtl«i And Si. ■', Hop: 

Two FaiclnaTing G=Tri 

ForCMIdrwi 

SIONiiiei For 

NonilaHitlclant 

For Th* *col», V1C-10, 

Cemmedew 44, Alari, 

I1M PC And pqr, H, 

And Bad/a fhock 

Color Compuftr 

July 1984 

Issue #50 

160 pages 

Cernmoderi 64 And 

1931 C.ik Drfv* 

BOM Gtn»rottoni: 

All THt

Wfiafs New In Computer Display Devices 

COMPUTE! 

in 

Cuwmm u 

S33B8S1 

March 1985 

Issue #58 

160 pages 

-^".~l.. 

E£SE«3J 

■* z? tit r**7^ iti"mT/ 

The most popular program published by COM 

PUTE! Publications has undoubtedly been Speed- 

Script, a word processor written by program editor 

Charles Brannon. First published in COMPUTE'.'s 

Gazette, a Commodore-specific magazine, more 

than a year before it appeared in COMPUTE!. 

SpeedScrip! was a full-featured, easy-to-use word 

processor that was also blindingly fast. SpeedScript 

was so good, in fact, that it was comparable to 

commercial word processors of the time. Versions 

for the Apple II and Atari eight-bit computers 

quickly followed in COMPUTE!, and SpeedScript 

was used to launch a new series of disks which 

contained the programs found in the magazine. 

SpeedScript was a long program, one of the longest 

published in COMPUTE! magazine. Because 

SpeedScript was written in assembly language, 

readers used an entry-checking utility called 

"MLX," another program developed by program 

editor Charles Brannon, to type it in. MLX made 

it possible for sophisticated software to be entered 

without errors, a development that greatly ex 

panded the universe of type-in programs, and 

something other computer magazines duplicated. 

i'z-i _■ ■ i.- ; '.■ :■ And Ft-nnaf Frxxvcui 

COMPUTE!! 

The MS-DOS Invasion 

An m-Oootn took 01 the las'-gtcwing IBM PC-clone 

Microcomputers And Personal Finances 

Portfolio 

POWER 

December 1986 

Issue #79 

112 pages 

a nv4». fc^w-t 

ii 

?»^S—"■■-*■ 

The surge in sales of IBM PC clones changed the 

flavor and content of COMPUTE! just as it did 

the personal computer industry as a whole. As PC 

clones dropped in price and made their way into 

more homes, more of COMPUTE!^ readers 

wanted MS-DOS information and PC-specific pro 

grams. One way that COMPUTE! satisfied PC 

owners was to run an MS-DOS version of each is 

sue's lead program—the game "Laser Strike" this 

time around. 

Charting the more unusual and, in many ways, the 

more powerful uses of personal computers is some 

thing that COMPUTE!^ writers have always enjoyed 

doing. Over the years, the magazine has taken its 

readers into the mundane and the esoteric uses of 

personal computers. This feature about personal fi 

nance software and portfolio management pro 

grams touched on everything from electronic 

banking to business simulations, where, if you lost 

your shirt, it was only an imaginary one. i> 

S E P T E M E R 19 23

■ 

Computed in nê Ctowoom T>w» Sir* Of s Mow Age | 

COMPUTES 

September 

1987 

Issue #88 

116 pages 

arsHr: 

■ 

As evidenced by this cover, COMPUTE! was trying 

to support a lot of different computer systems—ten 

at the time, according to the table of contents—al 

though type-in programs were offered for no more 

than six of those systems. While there was some 

thing for everyone in this issue—from an audio re 

corder for the Apple II to extra memory for the 

Atari—the fragmentation of the magazine's contents 

actually meant there was only a little for anyone. 

Solitaire games have always been extremely popu 

lar with readers—not surprising, really, when one 

realizes that much of the time spent in front of a 

computer is time spent alone. This card game was 

typical of many published in the magazine; it had 

originally been written by an outside programmer 

on the Commodore 64. Only after a program had 

been purchased was the COMPUTE! programming 

staff let loose to create what were called homogs, 

or translations, for the other five computer systems. 

May 1988 

20 deal Computer Games You Musi Have! 

COMPUTE! 

ft U M I I C 

HIT THE ROAD! 

6 HOT LAPTOPS 

Which Portable 

Fill Your 

Budget? 

SUMMER FUN 

Counts' Carat* 

MMb 

>CU « 1OJ Kdt 

personal 

Issue #96 ggg 

94 pages 

PIUS 

On the surface, the first issue of COMPUTE! sans 

programs didn't look much different. The text dis 

played on the cover, however, gave readers a hint 

of how extensive the changes were. No mention of 

programs on the cover, for instance, was the only 

clue many readers needed to tell them something 

was up. 

24 COMPUTE! 

If there was one page in this issue which told read 

ers things were different, this was it. Photographs 

had been a rarity within the pages of COMPUTE!, 

and a shot such as this was unprecedented. The 

subject matter, laptops, had not been touched 

upon by COMPUTE! and offered a perfect oppor 

tunity to show readers one of the kinds of articles 

that the magazine would now run. h

21 MEN 29 «!-« 

PAHfC UlU>t \f 

1 minium 

LJ 

IllllllUlllilUt 

llllUIIIIIIMIIt 

- 

:r?"i 

\ 

MicroProse is committed to developing entertainment 

software that takes advantage of the speed and graphics 

capabilities of today's sophisticated PC. Look for these 

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• Full 16-color EGA and Tandy graphics (4-color 

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• Automatic speed adjustment for different 

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• More than 50 animated introduction screens in 

PIRATES! 

• Solid, filled, 3-D terrain and targets in 

GUNSHIP 

• Available in 3V2 and 5V* formats 

Our quality software provides hundreds of hours of 

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Suggested retail price: $49.95. 

II is the adventure-simulation that casts you in 

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ThatMen, 

This Is Now 

Leaf through a yearbook of the class voted most 

likely to succeed in the microcomputer 

industry. Where were they nine 

years ago, what have they 

done, and where 

are they now? 

n the fall of 1979, the personal 

computer industry had entered a 

stage of transition. Though few 

realized it, the halcyon days of 

the hobbyist were ending and 

the machines were beginning to move 

into mass society. 

Two pioneer companies, IMSAI 

and Processor Technology, folded. At 

the same time, VisiCalc and WordStar 

debuted, sparking an upsurge in de 

mand for computers. Sales at Apple 

quadrupled in 1979, and cofounder 

Steve Jobs toured Xerox PARC mak 

ing notes for the Macintosh. CP/M 

was the major operating system, and 

IBM's first personal computer was still 

two years away. 

The technology has come a long 

way since then, and so have most of 

the prime players in the computer 

world. Some destinies have flared 

against the night sky, visible far be 

yond the precincts of the industry it 

self, while others have dimmed or 

faded. 

We talked to Bill Gates, Nolan 

Bushnell, Andy Hertzfeld, Gary 

Kildall, Adam Osborne, and ten other 

notables, asking how they've fared, 

what highlights stand out in their ca 

reers, and whether they've enjoyed the 

ride. 

26 COMPUTE 

Paul Freiberger 

and 

Dan McNeill 

Dan Bricklin 

Author of VisiCalc; Founder of Soft 

ware Garden 

In mid-October 1979, Dan Bricklin's 

Software Arts had just started shipping 

VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet. "A 

month or two later," he said, "we 

moved out of the basement in Cam 

bridge which we were sharing with 

another company. We were four 

employees." 

Not for long. 

VisiCalc was a revolutionary 

product, tapping voracious demand 

and selling as fast as retailers could 

stock it. Moreover, since for a year it 

ran only on the Apple II, it firmly en 

trenched Apple in the industry. 

Bricklin, now a minor statesman 

in the field, looks back with fondness 

on many aspects of his life: the awards 

he has won, the products he has made. 

"I've also had people say, 'You helped 

me get into computers; thank you very 

much.' One woman said VisiCalc 

helped her meet her husband. She 

needed help using it." 

Today Bricklin runs Software 

Garden, a small but flourishing firm 

that sells a program for software devel 

opers called Dan Bricklin's Demo Pro 

gram. Though currently interested in 

voice recognition, he is alert to all 

possibilities. "There are many more 

metaphors to be worked out besides 

the spreadsheet and paste-up board," 

he said, "and if I knew what they 

were, I'd be working on them. 

"I'm in a much better position 

than I ever dreamed of," he mused. 

"Who would have thought, way back 

when...."

Roger Buoy 

President, Mindscape 

In the fall of 1979, Roger Buoy was in 

Sydney, Australia, programming main 

frames, as he had done since 1961. He 

worked at Rolls-Royce, monitoring the 

engine later used in the Concorde. 

Buoy saw the potential of per 

sonal computers soon after the Altair, 

and he wrote a few Altair programs as 

a pastime. One tracked average scores 

for his wife's tennis team. 

But he didn't seriously enter the 

industry until 1983, when he founded 

Mindscape in Northbrook, Illinois, 

just outside Chicago. " 'The Silicon 

Prairie,' we called it," Buoy said. 

"We went through the most diffi 

cult times of the industry," he said. 

"1984 through 1986 were dog-day 

years, and surviving that was a 

tremendous accomplishment. The suc 

cess of Balance of Power is also some 

thing I take pride in, after so many 

said not to sell it because it was a 

niche product. It's sold over 150,000 

copies by now. 

"I believe good entertainment will 

always sell," he added, "and I think 

there are many things left to be done, 

with particular emphasis on the user 

interface. Even the Mac is rocket sci 

ence to the uninitiated." 

"In the fall of 1979, Pizza Time 

was very profitable and growing by 

leaps and bounds," Bushnell said. "We 

had 15 stores at that time. It grew to a 

total of 280 stores and $240 million 

per year." 

In many ways, Bushnell has been 

a frustrated bystander to the computer 

business since 1979. "My prime 

involvement was through 1978; then I 

was excluded for the following five 

years because of a noncompetition 

agreement with Atari." 

He has other regrets. "At Atari, 

we talked about doing a personal com 

puter before Apple. But we thought it 

was a smaller market and that the 

game business had greater potential. I 

also think I could have sold Atari to 

Warner while keeping the rights to the 

personal computer business." 

Since then, Bushnell has created 

firms like a smiling god spinning off 

planets. His companies have manufac 

tured robots, video terminals for shop 

ping centers, talking teddy bears, and 

many other items. Recently, he an 

nounced plans to make coin-operated 

video games, for his heart has re 

mained with the computer business. 

"You're dealing with a fascinating 

class of people," he said. "There are 

very few mental slugs and I think 

that's exciting. The friends you have 

and the people you meet are the lit 

mus test of whether you're having a 

good time." 

a crux. "I was realizing that I was never 

going to make any money off safety 

reflectors," he said. "I was at the point 

of giving up. I was certainly confused. 

I'd been poor for a long time." 

His brother Doug owned a TRS- 

80, and Gary had used it a bit. Doug 

suggested selling software, and in Feb 

ruary 1980 they founded Brcderbund. 

By December 1980, their Alien 

Rain was topping VisiCalc in sales, 

and their lives had changed forever. 

"It was the first time anyone had ever 

had a game sell better than VisiCalc. 

We went skiing to celebrate. And we 

paid ourselves, for the first time. We'd 

been accruing three-dollar-an-hour sal 

aries. That was a highlight. I hadn't 

had any income since 1978." 

Bank Street Writer provided an 

other memorable moment. It was "the 

first time we had done something 

other than games." After the company 

had sold about 50 copies of the pro 

gram, "Time magazine came out with 

a story saying it was a breakthrough 

because it featured ease of use rather 

than features. We went from selling 50 

copies to, for a while, 10,000 a 

month." 

In the past nine years, he has seen 

the business grow far more compet 

itive, particularly with the boom in 

Nintendo products and entries from 

the British and French. "It isn't just 

'Throw stuff at a wall and you'll get 

some good sales,'" he said. "Back in 

1981 we could do that." 

Gary Carlston 

jan oaviljsnn 

Founder of Atari; President ofAxlon 

By fall 1979, Nolan Bushnell had gone 

through several careers. He had found 

ed Atari and popularized Pong, the 

breakthrough videogame. In 1976, he'd 

sold Atari; in 1977, he'd started Pizza 

Time Theatre, a fast-food chain with 

computer entertainment. 

Cofounder, Broderbund Software 

In 1978, Gary Carlston was driving in 

Scandinavia and nearly hit a child 

waiting for a school bus. He decided 

youngsters needed safety reflectors, 

and began marketing animal-shaped 

ones in the United States. But he had 

failed to study the distribution before 

hand, and the business was gasping. 

By the fall of 1979, he had reached 

President, Davidson and Associates 

In the fall of 1979, Jan Davidson was 

launching a tutorial service and trying 

to determine whether she could use a 

48K Apple II as an instructional tool. 

"I had purchased almost every piece 

of educational software available. That 

was 20 packages at most." 

Their quality amazed her. "Most 

SEPTEMBER 19 27

of it didn't work," she said. "A lot 

had misspellings on the screen and 

weren't designed very well. It prohib 

ited me from using this computer for 

education." 

So, drawing on her background as 

a teacher, with her sense for holding 

children's attention, she started writing 

her own software. 

"The most rewarding thing has 

been the response from users," she 

said, "whether it's been talking to 

teacher conferences or the letters from 

kids saying, 'I hated math till Math 

Blaster" or "I never liked reading till I 

got Word Attack.'" 

Davidson feels the educational 

potential of the machine has scarcely 

been touched. "The big thing is, you 

learn more if you're interactively in 

volved," she said. "I see the computer, 

video, and publication industries 

merging, and that will be particularly 

important in education, because the 

value of the computer as a learning 

tool will be greatly enhanced by video." 

John Dvorak 

Columnist 

In the fall of 1979, John Dvorak was 

selling software. He owned a small 

firm called California Software, and 

was also producing "Dvorak's Soft 

ware Review," a newsletter. 

"The big highlight for me was the 

realization that the IBM PC would be 

a dominating computer for a long pe 

riod of time. The PC legitimized the 

business." Dvorak is still disappointed 

by the scarcity of conceptual break 

throughs such as VisiCalc. "It's the 

hardest thing to achieve: to find an 

other use for these computers." 

Today, Dvorak has established 

himself as a major character in the in 

dustry, known to everyone and famed 

for outrageous utterance. He also has 

an OpEd column in the San Francisco 

Examiner, where he speaks freely on 

28 COMPUTE! 

world affairs, the TV show he watched 

last night, and whatever else springs to 

mind. 

The past nine years have been a 

carnival for Dvorak, who relishes his 

celebrity in the computer-journalism 

world. "As a hobbyist, this is like a 

dream come true," he said. "Instead of 

spending a lot of money and effort to 

keep up with the industry, things are 

thrown at you by the tonnage. I feel 

like a kid in a candy store." 

William II. Gates 

Cofounder and President of Microsoft 

In the fall of 1979, Bill Gates was 23 

and already a veteran computer exec 

utive, running one of the largest soft 

ware firms of the time. Four years 

earlier he had joined MITS, maker of 

the first commercial PC, the Altair. 

Soon after, he founded Microsoft on 

the strength of the BASIC he had 

written. 

It was a crucial moment in his ca 

reer. If Microsoft BASIC had foun 

dered, he had considered "doing pure 

theoretical computer science or pure 

mathematics, or possibly being some 

kind of trial lawyer. I think I would 

have ended up in AI research." 

But it flourished, and since then 

his life has been one unbroken ascent. 

Such programs as Excel, Word, and 

Chart have earned hefty revenues, but 

his greatest coup was in 1981 when he 

introduced MS-DOS, the IBM PC 

operating system. 

Today, Gates, 32, is the youngest 

self-made billionaire in the nation and 

probably the most powerful person in 

the industry. A few months ago he 

toured the country promoting IBM's 

PS/2 machines, for which Microsoft 

has written the base operating system, 

OS/2. He is also working on the 

Presentation Manager, its graphic user 

interface. "It's all a huge challenge and 

opportunity for us," he said. 

Of his recent traveling, Gates 

said, "I think I'm going to tone that 

down, spend more time at head 

quarters on product-design decisions. 

Sometimes I feel it would be fun to fo 

cus on one product for a month, but I 

have people who work for me who get 

to do that." 

President, Software Publishing 

In fall 1979, Fred Gibbons was prod 

uct manager on the Hewlett-Packard 

3000. "Steve Jobs came to H-P and 

walked me around the parking lot try 

ing to recruit me to work on a project 

called Sara, which turned into the 

Apple III. He gave me an Apple II to 

take home to get religion." 

Gibbons rejected Jobs' offer. He 

said, "Steve made me aware of PCs 

and I followed up on that." In April 

1980, he incorporated Software 

Publishing, and recently observed, 

"We were profitable in a matter of 

months, without venture capital." 

Software Publishing's PFS line of soft 

ware—low-cost and simple-to-use 

productivity programs—became the 

company's bread and butter. 

The highlights of the last nine 

years "have to be those first orders in 

my company. And seeing my products 

sold on the Super Bowl by IBM. But 

going public would be it. You've 

achieved the objectives and the prom 

ises you've made to give a return to 

the investor." 

The vagaries of the industry have 

fascinated him. "No MBA could ever 

have predicted 7-2-i's success, or 

dBase's. And there have been in 

credible failures, like Visicorp. They 

could have been the next Lotus." 

Has he enjoyed it? "That question 

is similar to: 'Do you like winning a 

marathon?' The process of building a 

top-tier company is a difficult one and 

I've wanted to run that race."

KOEI 

More than 

five years 

a best seller 

Greatest 

simulation game 

released in Japan 

■ iff ;V\, 

Nobunag a's Ambition 

The Struggl 

iance of The Three Kingdoms 

/e Second Century China 

¥m "'■■ IBM RC and ■ ' 

The Japan most people don't know about. The Warring States period of 

the sixteenth century. Central government was weak and ineffective as 

feudal lords called daimyos gained power. Each daimyo ruled a single 

fief, each wanted to rule the nation. One man, Nobunaga Oda, came 

close but failed. He paid the price for failure, death. 

Nobunaga's Ambition is a military, economic and diplomatic simulation 

for one to eight that puts you in Nobunaga's place, or in the place of one 

of his rivals. You start wiih one fief and try to take the entire nation, A 

game of both strategy and tactics, success takes careful planning and 

opportunism. 

Administer youi fiefs during peace to inciease their strength. Keep your 

peasants and army loyal or risk revolt. Use your resources effectively, not 

spending too much on either guns or butter. Negotiate with other daimyos. 

or perhaps you'd rather just send ninja. 

On the battlefield, control your troops in close tactical detail. Take advan 

tage of terrain, attack, retreat, fight a war of attrition or go directly after 

the enemy general. Just be sure your side is smarter, tougher and better 

prepared. 

Nobunaga's Ambition is fast moving and easy to play but historically ac 

curate. Character and game events come from the reality of sixteenth 

century Japan. Maps are almost entirely accurate, both geographically 

and politically. Advanced graphics and animation help give the game a 

feel of complete reality. One to eight may play either of two scenarios and 

five different levels of difficulty. Instruction manual and historical notes 

included. 

China's second Han dynasty has collapsed. The entire nation battles with 

itself as warlords struggle tor supremacy. You are a Master, one ol these 

warlords determined to beat out the others and control the country. 

Manage the states under your control to increase their power and resour 

ces. Cope with disasters, both natural and otherwise, when they occur. 

Choose good subordinates and win their loyally. Negotiate with other 

Masters, or take a less diplomatic approach, controlling your armies and 

those of your generals in great tactical detail on the battlefield. Take ad 

vantage of terrain as best you can. Choose the right kind of attack for the 

situation, or just try and trick the enemy. Do what the immediate situation 

calls for but don't fail to think ahead. 

A huge data base together with advanced graphics, animation and pro 

gramming give the game an unprecedented degree of reality. Romance 

of The Three Kingdoms is based painstakingly on the Chinese epic novel 

of the same name, but is fast moving and easy to play. Features include: 

*255 characters, each with a distinct personality 

♦ Military, economic and diplomatic simulation 

*Five different scenarios 

♦Ten levels of difficulty per scenario 

*Play by one to eight 

* Demonstration mode 

♦Complete instruction manual and historical notes. 

Some comments from Japan's leading computer magazines: 

"If you own a comouter you've got to try "Nobunaga s Ambition is the absolute 

this game'.' nacle ol simulation gaming: 

OH! PC Mamichi Shimbun 

January. 1987 May 7.1987 

'tf ihe user can supply intelligence and "A great hit" 

magination. Nobunaga's Ambition will pro- Asa*" Shimbun 

i/ide more and better entertainment than Fetouary 20.1986 

any other game on Ihe market: 

- Far and away the most authentic su 

. ._.. tion game I've ever seen" 

Hiroharu Seki. professor of Polilica 

'First jeleased more than live years ago. ence at University of Tokyo in an 

Nobohagas Ambition is still not just a best view with Tokyo Newspaper. 

seller but one of the very best simulation 

games on Ihe marker 

Popcorn magazine _r»_^Ma ^-v 

January. 1967 I^T»d M* 

'IBM is a registered trademark ol 

International Business Machines, Inc. 

"Our highest accolade to Koei's Romance 

ol The Three Kingdoms: 

Popcorn 

magazine 

'Highest award (or a simulation game: 

"All around best game: 

Login 

July. 1967 

"A simulation game without peer 

fnfer 

August, 1986 

'Romance ot the Three Kingdoms is simu 

lation gaming at its absolute best: 

Technopolis 

July. 1986 

KOEI CORPORATION 

20.000 Mariner Avenue. Stole 100 Tcxrance, CA.9O503 

PHONE. 213-542-6444 

CIRCLE READER SERVICE 11 

"Romance of The Three Kingdoms is a simulalion 

war game that will strengthen ;iny 

businessman's ability to work through a 

problem, logically or intuitively" 

P. C. magazine 

October. 1986 

"Romance ot the Three Kingdoms may be 

pricey but the entertainment it provides 

makes il a good buy at any price: 

OH- FM 

March, 1987 

For IBM' and compatibles

Trip 

Hawkins 

President, Electronic Arts 

In fall 1979, Trip Hawkins, business 

marketing manager at Apple, had just 

completed "the first-ever field training 

program in computer software." 

Around then. Steve Jobs took him 

to Xerox PARC to see innovations that 

later appeared in the Macintosh and, 

via add-on software, most other PCs. 

"Steve had a lot of crazy ideas 

which made sense intuitively. He 

really had the vision," Hawkins said. 

Jobs invited Hawkins to work on Lisa. 

the germ of the Mac. "Till then it was 

a pretty conventional computer: green 

display, no bitmapped graphics. The 

flicker was really noticeable." 

In 1982 he founded Electronic 

Arts. It blossomed into a major soft 

ware firm, with such best-selling 

games as Pinball Construction Set and 

Earl Weaver Baseball. 

In retrospect, he seems most 

pleased by his original contributions to 

the field. "'We were the first to talk of 

programmers as software artists, and 

the programmer as a producer. I think 

we had a lot to do with pioneering retail 

sales, in terms of developing our own 

direct sales. And everybody thought we 

were nuts to support the .Amiga." 

He added. "It's all been incredibly 

gratifying. I stili get goose bumps 

when I see people in the store buying 

Electronic Arts software. We've sold 

well over five million games now, and 

it's amazing to me." 

Andy Hertzfeld 

Macintosh Programmer 

"I was offered a job at Apple in 

December 1978, and I decided I'd bet 

ter wait six months to get my master's 

degree." said Andy Hertzfeld. "That 

cost me about 48.000 shares of Apple 

stock." 

Despite this inauspicious start, he 

moved to Cupertino in August 1979, 

and by that fall he was working on a 

silent thermal graphics printer. By 

198The was ensconced under the fam 

ous pirate flag atop one of the Apple 

buildings, helping write system soft 

ware for the Macintosh. 

The most rewarding experience 

was "obviously, doing the Mac. It was 

having my work affect a lot of people 

and make the world a better place." 

He also enjoyed the quickness and 

technological caliber of the people 

working with him. 

After the Macintosh, he went on 

to write Switcher and Servant utilities 

and clever software for ThunderScan 

and the Radius big screen. 

If Dvorak is like a kid in a candy 

store, Hertzfeld is like a kid making 

candy. "The best thing about working 

in the computer industry is I love 

programming," he said. "It's not really 

work. It's fun." 

Gary Kildall 

Author ofCP/M; Chairman of Digital 

Research 

In 1973, Gary Kildall wrote CP/M. an 

operating system designed to get a disk 

drive to work with a computer. Six 

years laler, it was an industry stand 

ard, and his company. Digital Re 

search, was hauling great bags of cash 

to the bank. 

And that was just the beginning. 

"We were still relatively small:" he re 

called. "In 1979, I'd say we were doing 

maybe $5 million per year, and em 

ployed about 40 people. 

"That was the heyday for the 

small independent manufacturers," he 

noted. "We were getting a lot of action 

from the press and we were appearing 

on national television. What im 

pressed me most was that all that 

notoriety and publicity made it hard 

to get work done. I was more in 

terested in programming." 

By 1983, DRI had become one of 

the largest software companies in the 

world, earning $200 million per year 

and employing more than 600 people. 

Since then, the firm has shrunk sub 

stantially, though it remains larger 

than it was in 1979, and Kildall is a 

very wealthy man. 

Recently, Kildall and his wife 

formed a corporation called Video De 

sign Group to make local commercials 

and videos for the computer industry. 

He also did well from the sale of a ma 

jority interest in his CD-ROM company, 

Knowledge Set, and reports that Dig 

ital Research turned a profit the last 

three quarters under a new president. 

Robert Lissner 

Programmer, Author of AppleWorks 

In the fall of 1979, Robert Lissner was 

a consultant for a school district in 

San Jose, California, programming 

mainframes as he had for 17 years. He 

wondered if his knack for tight code 

would ever find satisfactory outlet. 

In August 1981, a friend took him 

to Apple, telling him that he should be 

writing for personal computers. 

"Mainframe programmers often think 

personal computers are jokes, at least 

at first," Lissner said. "In my case, it 

appeared they were for hobbyists." 

He quickly changed his mind. Ap 

ple executive Mike Markkula offered 

him work on QuickFile, an early file 

manager for the 64K Apple II. "I saw 

that personal computers had a lot 

more horsepower than I realized," 

Lissner said. "I didn't see any prob 

lems making something run on 64K." 

He finished QuickFile and, late in 

1982, came across the Lisa office sys 

tem. He recalled, "Someone said, 'If 

30 COMPUTE!

The puck stops 

SUPERSTAR 

ICE HOCKEY 

STOP LOOKING. THEY DON'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. 

Here's what the 

critics say about the 

Superstar Ice Hockey 

action, strategy and 

on-ice moves: 

"Superstar Ice 

Hockey is the best 

action-strategy sports 

simulation ever pub 

lished. Period." 

—Ahoy I 

"It combines 3 

distinctly different ele 

ments of professional 

Fast realistic action 

ice hockey—on-ice 

action, coaching and 

strategy, front office 

decision making— 

into one very impres 

sive package." 

— Run Magazine 

"...comes pretty 

close to capturing the 

mental excitement of 

the game." 

—PC Magazine 

"Superstar Ice 

Hockey is one of the Complete league stats 

best sports simula 

tions I've seen in a 

long time." 

—Family Computing 

"The actual game 

has a nice feel to it, 

giving you the distinct 

impression of actually 

being out there on 

the ice."—Computer 

Entertainer 

"Ifs a crowdpleasing 

software 

hat trick that scores 

with every shot." 

—Commodore 

See what all the 

excitement is about. 

Play Superstar Ice 

Hockey by SportTime 

yourself! 

mind s c a E 

pIDeugn

you could do that on the Apple II, 

you'd really have something.'" 

He agreed. He began writing 

AppleWorks, and it went on to become 

the most popular and acclaimed 

application ever to appear on the 

Apple. 

"The acceptance of AppleWorks 

first within Apple and then by the 

marketplace" was the high point of 

Lissner's last nine years, 'it's that I 

did what I thought I was good at, writ 

ing small, high-speed code, and there 

was a market that appreciated that." 

Lissner continues to work on re 

visions to the program, and also re 

cently cofounded Connect, which 

markets a wide area network. 

David 

President, Epyx 

Morse 

In the fall of 1979, David Morse was 

vice president of marketing and sales 

at Tonka Toys, a job completely un 

related to computers. Then in 1982 

he met Jay Miner, who was designing 

the Amiga computer. Miner's ideas 

fascinated Morse, who decided to help 

create a company to build the 

computer. 

"Certainly the most memorable 

thing was, when we were starting 

Amiga, to walk into a 5,000-footsquare 

building, and 1 was the only 

guy there. And I was terrified: How 

am I going to do this? How am I go 

ing to start this company?" 

Another signal moment occurred 

on January 1, 1984, when all the 

prototypes worked for the first time. 

"Until that day, I wasn't sure we 

could build a great product," he said. 

"Then I was convinced we had some 

thing good." 

Now, at Epyx, Morse rides the va 

garies of the computer game market. 

"You'd be amazed at the financial dis 

ciplines at Epyx," he said. "I think 

that a few years ago everybody 

32 C O M P U T E I 

thought the lid was a lot higher and 

the penetration of home computers 

was going to reach 80 percent in two 

years. The realities of the industry 

have molded the companies that have 

survived." 

Adam Osborne 

President, Paperback Software 

In the fall of 1979, Adam Osborne was 

embarking on the greatest project of 

his life. He had already sold Osborne 

and Associates, his publishing com 

pany, to McGraw-Hill and was build 

ing the prototype of the Osborne 1, 

the first portable computer and the 

first with bundled software. 

He unveiled the machine in 1981 

and appeared on the cover of national 

magazines and on TV news shows. He 

claimed he would take on Apple and 

cut a blazing swath through the 

industry. 

But his company faltered because 

of hasty growth, failure to advance the 

product line, and IBM. The last de 

cade has not been springtime for Os 

borne. "I'd say there have been very 

few highlights," he said. "I introduced 

the Osborne 1, but that turned into a 

nightmare because of the lawyers. It's 

been a bleak last nine years." 

Osborne is now president of 

Paperback Software, whose most sa 

lient program is a Lotus V-2-i-compatible 

spreadsheet called VP-Planner 

(Lotus has sued for copyright infringe 

ment). "It's been very, very tough," he 

said. "The financial community said 

they didn't want to invest in me, so I 

had to do it on a shoestring. Despite 

that, we've fought our way to number 

1 in AI software, and we expect to 

establish ourselves as number 2 in the 

spreadsheet market." 

Even so, he would accept a decent 

offer. "Everything I've got is always 

for sale," he said. "I'm not in this for 

the ego. It's for business." 

Steve Wozniak 

Engineer and cofounder, Apple 

Computer 

In the fall of 1979, Steve Wozniak was 

at Apple, occasionally offering advice 

on the infant Apple III and working 

on other projects. When Apple went 

public in 1980, he instantly pocketed 

more than $150 million. In 1981, after 

a near-fatal crash in a plane he was 

piloting, he began distancing himself 

from daily corporate operations. Since 

then, he has been a man of leisure, 

community benefactor, and seeker of 

self-fulfillment. 

First, he returned to the Univer 

sity of California at Berkeley to earn 

his degree. To avoid favoritism, he 

took courses under the name Rocky 

Clark and generally sat quietly in the 

back of the room. At least once, 

though, he startled a professor with a 

detailed critique of the class. He 

graduated in May 1986, and, in his 

commencement address, he called that 

his crowning achievement. 

Under the heady influence of 

Berkeley life, he conceived the US 

Festivals, two rock concerts which lost 

about $30 million. But Wozniak never 

cared about fabulous wealth, and he 

does not regret these affairs. 

In addition, he formed a new 

company, CL-9 (for Cloud Nine), to 

market infrared remote-control devices 

for TVs. He also took up kayaking 

with ex-wife Candice, a kayak slalom 

champion, and suggested turning part 

of San Jose's Guadalupe Park into a 

world-class kayak course. In 1987, 

Wozniak funneled more than half a 

million dollars into a Bill Graham 

rock concert at Moscow's Izmailovo 

soccer stadium. 

Today, sheepskin in hand, the 

technical wizard behind Apple has his 

teaching credentials and will teach ele 

mentary school children. It's always 

been a dream of his. 

Paul Freiberger, coauthor of Fire in the Val 

ley, one of the first books to detail the his 

tory of personal computing, is a former editor 

with Popular Computing. Dan McNeill, who 

has written several books and numerous 

magazine articles on the subject, has been 

reporting on personal computers for years.

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Save the World's Intelligence 

Aliens are tryingt0 reduce everyone's 

IQ to single digits in Zak McKracken 

and the Alien Mindbenders, the latest 

release from Lucasfilm Games. Zak is 

the ace reporter for the National Inquis 

itor. He and his friends, two Yale coeds 

and an occultist, must travel around the 

world and beyond to save the planet 

from aliens. 

Players control the four characters 

as they collect clues and objects from 

locations such as San Francisco, Stonehenge, 

Mexico, Atlantis, Mars, and the 

Bermuda Triangle. Players can solve 

problems and puzzles with one charac 

ter or several characters at once. The 

characters, objects, and actions are con 

trolled by joystick or mouse. There are 

no type-in commands. The game fea 

tures 3-D graphics, music, and sound 

effects. Players can also use "cut 

scenes" to see what's happening in sev 

eral places at once. Puzzle solutions 

change from game to game. 

Zak McKracken and the Alien 

Mindbenders is available for the Apple 

lie and He and requires 128K. It has 

also been released for the Commodore 

64 and 128 and requires the 1541 or 

1571 disk drive. Both have a suggested 

retail price of $34.95. 

The version for the IBM PC, XT, 

AT, PS/2, Tandy, and compatibles re 

quires 256K and a CGA, EGA, VGA, 

MCGA, or Hercules graphics card. 

Both 5V4- and 3'/:-inch disks are avail 

able with a hard disk option. Players 

also have the option of using a joystick 

or a mouse. The suggested retail price 

for the MS-DOS edition is $44.95. 

The game is distributed exclusively 

by Mediagenic (formerly Activision). 

Mediagenic, 3885 Bohannon Dr., 

Menlo Park, CA 94025 

Circle Reader Service Number 200. 

One in the Hand Is Worth ... 

Micro Palm Computers has released 

the PC/5000, a new hand-held MS- 

DOS personal computer. The PC/5000 

is designed for data capture, processing, 

and transmission under almost any 

conditions. 

34 C O M P U T E I 

Features include an 80C88 micro 

processor and full implementation of 

the MS-DOS operating system. The 

battery-powered computer has a stand 

ard memory of 256K that is expandable 

to 2.2MB. Removable memory mod 

ules are included with the computer 

and function like normal disks. The 

memory modules come in 128K, 256K, 

512K, and 1024K configurations. The 

memory is supported by a lithium bat 

tery backup. 

The LCD screen, with a 20-character 

X 8-line display, has graphics capa 

bility. The unit has 51 large tactile keys, 

dual RS-232 ports, an optional built-in 

modem, and a high-speed, bidirectional, 

eight-bit parallel port. Users can oper 

ate the computer with bar-code wands, 

laser scanners, portable printers, and 

other input/output devices. 

Using MS-DOS, the PC/5000 is 

The hand-held PC/5000 uses the MS-DOS 

operating system. 

compatible with programs and files 

from IBM PCs. Program and data files 

can be transferred from PCs to the 

PC/5000 with communications soft 

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The unit can also operate in tem- 

Compiled by 

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peratures ranging from —22 degrees 

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From the Good Sports at 

Accolade 

Accolade has added four new sports ti 

tles to its line of computer games. The 

new action programs are Fast Break, 

Serve and Volley, Rack 'Em, and 

T.K.O. 

Fast Break is a three-on-three bas 

ketball game that features full-court ac 

tion from a television perspective. This 

one- or two-player game is played by 

professional rules complete with threepointers 

and slam dunks. You can se 

lect defensive and offensive plays from 

a menu, design plays, and make substi 

tutions. The game is available for the 

Commodore 64 and 128 for the suggest 

ed retail price of $29.95. 

Take to the tennis courts with 

Serve and Volley. The game emphasizes 

correct ball placement, timing, and 

stroke selection. You can choose from 

three difficulty levels and three court 

surfaces. Features include a full-court 

view with action windows. To play the 

game, choose from three serves and 

then hit volleys, forehands, backhands, 

smashes, and lobs. The game offers 

match or tournament play against the 

computer or two players against each 

other. Each tournament or match can 

be saved and resumed. Serve and Volley 

is available for the Commodore 64 and 

128 for the suggested retail price of 

$29.95. It has also been released for the 

Apple IIGS for $44.95 and for the IBM 

PC. Tandy, and compatibles for $39.95. 

Rack 'Em consists of five billiards 

games: snooker, bumper pool, straight 

pool, eightball, and nineball. This oneor 

two-player game displays the pool ta 

ble from overhead with a 3-D view. 

Several variables, including the ball and 

pocket, aim, English, and power, affect 

gameplay. A practice feature allows 

you to replay the last shot. You can try 

trick shots, and the ten best can be

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COMPUTE! .r 

specific 

Tandy's 

DeskMate 

Leaves 

Home; BASIC 

and GEOS 

Make Friends; 

New Chips 

Take Years 

Off Apples; 

Amiga's 

Monster 

Arcade Game; 

Newest Mac 

Desktop 

Buzzword; 

and No 

Gloom, No 

Doom for ST 

When Tandy recently an 

nounced that it was licensing 

its DeskMate interface to 

ihird-party developers, PC 

users raised a number of 

questions. 

run on my PC compatible? 

What DeskMate products will 

be available? Will I need a 

copy of DeskMate to run these 

programs? The answers to 

these questions shed some 

light on one of the most inter 

esting software announce 

ments of the year. 

DeskMate is a graphics in 

terface that Tandy has been 

bundling with its Tandy 1000 

series of PCs for four years. 

The product started out as a 

simple text-based program, but 

has matured into a full graph 

ics interface complete with 

mouse support. There are two 

variations of DeskMate: Per 

sona! DeskMate, an edition 

specially suited to the Tandy 

1000's hardware, and Profes 

sional DeskMate, a version 

lhat supports networking and 

runs on any PC compatible. 

There are only minor differ 

ences between the two. 

DeskMate's interface uses 

the desktop metaphor familiar 

from Apple's Macintosh and 

from such PC products as 

H 'inflows and GEM. But Desk- 

Male has its own look. Al 

though the top line of the 

screen sports a menu bar, the 

rest of the screen consists of 

rectangular application box 

es—applications and their as 

sociated data files. 

DeskMate comes with 

several built-in applications, 

including Text, a word proces 

sor; Draw, a drawing program; 

Filer, a simple database; Tele 

com, a telecommunications 

module; Calendar, an appoint 

ment book; and Worksheet, a 

spreadsheet. The applications 

are all basic, introductory pro 

grams, but some of the mod 

ules are surprisingly strong. 

The ensemble will definitely 

get a new user off to a good 

start. 

In addition to the applica 

tions, DeskMate boasts a num 

ber of desk accessories, in 

cluding a calculator, a calendar, 

a clipboard, a note pad, and a 

phone list. These accessories 

are available from the desktop 

or from any of DeskMate's 

supplied applications. 

What Tandy is licensing 

to third-party developers is 

DeskMate's look and feel and 

the DeskMate runtime mod 

ule—essentially DeskMate's 

device drivers. This means 

that you don't need a copy of 

DeskMate to run the programs 

which sport the DeskMate in 

terface; all of the new Desk- 

A/a/f-interface products will 

be stand-alone applications. If 

you do have a copy of Desk- 

Mate, it will automatically rec 

ognize the DeskMate-'mlcrfzce 

products, but this seems to be 

the only connection. 

What DeskMate products 

will we be seeing? Only a few 

titles arc known for certain: Intuit's 

popular check-writing 

program. Quicken: Sierra's 

flagship word processor, 

Homellbrd; and Activision's 

outstanding music-composi 

tion program. Music Studio. 

In the educational arena, 

First Byte is releasing eight 

DeskMate-'iMerface products 

for children. Titles cover the 

topics of geometry, mathemat 

ics, speech, reading, and 

spelling. 

Other developers actively 

creating DeskMate applica 

tions include Broderbund, 

3Com, Digital Learning Sys 

tems, Electronic Arts, Epyx, 

The Learning Company, Soft 

ware Publishing, Star Soft 

ware, and Symantec, so there 

should be a good sampling of 

software with ihe DeskMate's 

look available soon. 

Whether or not DeskMate 

becomes the new standard in 

terface for low-end PCs, we'll 

soon have several easy-to-use, 

consistent DeskMate-lookalike 

products from which to 

choose. 

DOS Bookshelf 

Whether you're a novice, a 

power user, or a programmer, 

if you want to get the most 

from your PC, books are the 

keys to knowledge. But choos 

ing the right reading material 

isn't easy; there are more DOS 

books available than you can 

shake a stick at. Separating the 

good from the bad is an almost 

impossible task fora beginner; 

it's no easy matter for a sea 

soned pro, either. To make it 

simpler to find the books you 

need, here's a tour of some of 

the best DOS books around. 

If you're new to MS-DOS, 

Van Wolverton's Running 

MS-DOS (Microsoft Press, 

$22.95) is essential. Now in its 

third edition, this well-written 

volume has become a classic 

and is a must-have for serious 

PC users. Seventeen chapters 

and five appendices guide the 

new MS-DOS user through the 

DOS basics, covering every 

thing from calling a directory' 

to LANs and DOS 4.0 (a mul 

titasking version of DOS 3.2 

available only in Europe). One 

of the book's pluses is a DOS 

command reference, which 

can make this volume a handy 

guide for anyone whose PC 

system doesn't include an MS- 

36 COMPUTE

DOS manual. If you can only 

buy one DOS book, buy this 

one. 

Inside the IBM PC, by Pe 

ter Norton, (Brady, $ 19.95; a 

disk is available for $65.00) is 

ihe now-classic nuts-and-bolts 

introduction to the PC. If 

you're interested in learning 

more about your machine's 

hardware and system software, 

this is the book to buy. The 

book's 22 chapters cover ev 

erything from the origins of 

the PC family to an analysis of 

DOS disk structure. A com 

panion disk contains programs 

from the book. Inside the IBM 

PC is an excellent supplement 

to the author's famous Norton 

Utilities. 

Supercharging MS-DOS 

(Microsoft Press. $18.95) is 

Van Wolverton's sequel to 

Running MS-DOS it's aimed 

at the intermediate user who 

wants to move up to the pow 

er-user class. The book's 300 

pages cover the hexadecimal 

numbering system, the extend 

ed character set. the ANSI.SYS 

driver, printer codes, DEBUG. 

designing interactive menus. 

CONFIG.SYS, setting up a 

ramdisk, and advanced disk 

and file handling. Six appendi 

ces and a glossary round out 

the information. One of the 

book's strengths is that it 

guides you step by step 

through the process of building 

a custom batch file menu sys 

tem. By the time you've fin 

ished the book, you'll have a 

friendly menu-driven interface 

for your system. 

DOS Instant Reference 

(Sybex. $ 10.95) is an easy-touse, 

quick-reference quide to 

MS-DOS commands that cov 

ers DOS versions through 3.3. 

The discussion of each com 

mand includes information on 

version, type of command, 

syntax, options, command use, 

messages, and more. Appendi 

ces include batch files. CON 

FIG.SYS, hard-disk partition 

ing, a glossary, and ASCII 

codes. 

If you're a programmer, 

there are two indispensable ti 

tles. The first is Programmer's 

Guide to the IBM PC, by Peter 

Norton (Microsoft Press, 

$19.95). Its 426 pages include 

information on the anatomy of 

the PC; ROM; video, disk, and 

keyboard basics; the ROM- 

BIOS services; DOS inter 

rupts; DOS functions; program 

building; and programming 

languages. One of the book's 

most valuable features is its 

well-annotated reference of 

ROM-BIOS routines and DOS 

services. 

Also for programmers is 

Advanced MS-DOS, by Ray 

Duncan (Microsoft Press, 

$22.95). Its 13 chapters cover 

the history of MS-DOS, the 

programming environment, 

MS-DOS tools. MS-DOS de 

vices, file and record handling, 

directories, subdirectories and 

volume labels, disk internals, 

memory allocation. DOS in 

terrupts, installable device 

drivers, and DOS fillers. There 

is some duplication between 

this book and Norton's Pro 

grammer's Guide, but Ad 

vanced MS-DOS concentrates 

on specific applications. The 

book boasts lots of examples in 

C and assembly language. 

In a category all its own is 

The MS-DOS Encyclopedia 

(Microsoft Press. $134.95). 

This is Microsoft's be-all-andend-all 

reference to MS-DOS. 

Its 1570 pages arc divided into 

five sections covering the de 

velopment of MS-DOS, pro 

gramming in the MS-DOS 

environment, user commands, 

programming utilities, and sys 

tem calls. Fifteen appendices 

round out this amazing com 

pendium. This is the final 

word on MS-DOS for 

programmers. 

Corporate Computers 

IBM may have lost the home 

PC market to the clone mak 

ers, but IBM is still the darling 

of the Fortune 1000. 

According to a recent Gal 

lup poll. IBM is still number I 

with corporate America, with 

96 percent of those companies 

surveyed indicating they use 

Big Blue's microcomputers. 

Compaq runs a distant second 

at 52 percent. Apple garnered 

21 percent, and Toshiba 

America came in fourth with a 

respectable 13-percent re 

sponse (the percentages add up 

to more than 100 because 

many corporations use more 

than one kind of microcom 

puter). Although the poll 

didn't mention particular ma 

chines, the Apple in the For 

tune 1000'seye must be the 

Macintosh; Toshiba is un 

doubtedly selling its popular 

portables to the movers and 

shakers. 

Why do more of these 

companies use IBM's PCs than 

any other machine? First on 

the list was compatibility with 

the existing software base. 

Next came technical capabili 

ty. And last, service was 

deemed important. 

What machines are on the 

Fortune 1000's list for next 

year? IBM, Compaq. Apple, 

Zenith, and Toshiba. 

Mighty Mice 

The PC mouse is becoming 

more popular every day, and 

the battle for best mouse is 

narrowing to a race between 

Microsoft and Logitech. Mi 

crosoft has recently introduced 

a redesigned two-button PC 

mouse that it hopes will take 

the mouse-using world by 

storm. Logitech has continued 

to develop and refine its popu 

lar three-button mouse, with 

the Cl model as its flagship. 

The two mice couldn't be 

more different. The Microsoft 

device is small and stream 

lined, with a very light clicking 

action and short button-travel. 

Perhaps this mouse's most no 

ticeable characteristic is its 

large left button. You use the 

left button about 95 percent of 

the time with most applica 

tions, so Microsoft has decided 

that it should be larger. The 

right and left buttons are sepa 

rated by a ridge to make it easy 

lolell them apart. 

The Logitech Mouse is 

rectangular and wide (to ac 

commodate its three buttons), 

has a firm click, and sports a 

longer button-travel than does 

the Microsoft device. Although 

the C7 is wide, the mouse is 

designed to be held between the 

thumb and little finger, which 

is quite comfortable and al 

lows the mouse to be used for 

long periods without fatigue. 

Both mice offer excellent 

control, but each is different. 

The Microsoft Mouse places 

the rollerball near the finger 

end of the mouse, giving it an 

unusual, though pleasing, feel. 

The C7 positions the roller un 

der the palm of your hand— 

the traditional location. 

Both mice are available in 

serial and bus configurations, 

and both companies ofTer vari 

ous software-bundling options. 

The basic package from Micro 

soft includes the mouse (and a 

mouse card if you choose the 

bus mouse) plus mouse drivers 

and some ready-made menus 

that allow you to use the 

mouse with applications not 

designed to support the device. 

Also included in the basic 

package is PC Paintbrush, a 

drawing program. More ex 

pensive bundles include either 

EasyCAD or Microsoft Win 

dows and PC Paintbrush for 

Windows. Missing from the 

Microsoft bundle is the soft 

ware that allows you to write 

your own mouse menus. This 

package is available from Mi 

crosoft for an additional $25. 

The Logitech Mouse 

comes with lots of ready-to-go 

menus; a compiler that allows 

you to create your own menus; 

sample programs; and Point, a 

mouse-driven text editor that 

one software expert named as 

one of the best products of 

1987. Other bundling options 

include everything from desk 

top publishing software to an 

EGA card-and-monitor 

combination. 

Choosing between these 

mice is difficult. Both are ex 

cellent performers. If you can, 

try both mice before you buy. 

If you can't try the mice, and 

money is an overriding con 

cern. Logitech is the better buy 

by a small margin. 

The Logitech Mouse is 

available from Logitech. 6505 

Kaiser Drive, Fremont. Cali 

fornia 94555; (800) 231-7717. 

A Plus Package is $ 119 for the 

mouse and software. Other op 

tions include the Publisher 

Package ($ 179), LogiCADD 

($189). and LogiPaint ($149). 

The Microsoft Mouse is 

available from Microsoft, 

16011 NE 36th Way. Box 

97017, Redmond. Washington 

98073-9717; (800) 426-9400. 

The PC Paintbrush package is 

$ 150. Other bundling options 

include EasyCAD ($ 175) and 

Microsoft Windows and PC 

Paintbrush for Windows 

($175). 

— Clifton Karnes > 

SEPT 

EMBER 1988 37

COMPUTE!. _ 

specific 

By now, everyone knows that 

Berkeley Softworks' GEOS is 

the 64's Commodorc-supportcd 

operating system. Packaged 

with the 64C since the com 

puter first appeared. GEOS 

has spawned its own forums 

and applications groups on tel 

ecommunications services, in 

cluding Q-Link and Compu 

Serve, and Berkeley has 

released several highly useful 

G£"0£-based products. Wheth 

er GEOS 128 will become the 

128's official operating system 

remains to be seen, but it cer 

tainly has a good chance. As of 

this writing, it is not being 

packaged with the 128D. 

The problem is thai not 

all software publishers recog 

nize the GEOS standard. Some 

popular programs simply will 

not load from GEOS, and 

most copy-protected entertain 

ment software, which has a 

huge impact on the 64/128 

marketplace, relies on good 

old Commodore BASIC to get 

started. GEOS has reached a 

point where it needs third-party 

support to verify its official 

status; fortunately, developers 

are starting to come to its aid. 

One significant recent 

product is Becker BASIC, from 

Abacus (5370 52nd Street, 

Grand Rapids. Michigan 

49508). Actually developed by 

Data Becker in Dusseldorf. 

West Germany. Becker BASIC 

extends the 64's BASIC 2.0 

and is compatible with GEOS. 

In fact, it runs under GEOS 64 

{but not GEOS 128). 

The back of the box tells 

you pretty well all you need lo 

know about Becker BASIC'S 

capabilities and whether or not 

you will want to give it a try. It 

includes a program called Pull- 

Down Menu Construction Set 

with which you create GEOSstyle 

menus. A separate pro 

gram lets you fashion GEOSstyle 

dialog boxes, which are 

probably the key to GEOS's 

Macintosh-like interface. Be 

sides listing these features, the 

box briefly outlines Becker BA 

SIC'S new commands for edit 

ing, disk access, graphics and 

animation, and sound. 

In all. Becker BASIC con 

sists of 273 commands. 

Among these, you'll find 53 

commands to aid disk access, 

plus 18 dedicated to creating 

sound. 20 to hi-rcs graphics, 37 

to sprite creation and anima 

tion, and more than 20 to edit 

ing and programming tools. 

DSQCONCAT. for ex 

ample, lets you simultaneously 

add multiple sequential files to 

a new file; DSAVEL saves 

specified lines of a program to 

disk; DMYPEEK pulls indi 

vidual bytes into memory; 

DRESET resets the disk drive. 

The sound commands give 

you control over volume, fre 

quency, wave, and envelope. 

Commands such as SDNOTE 

let you access a specific note. 

SDVCFTON gives you control 

over voice filtering, and 

SDRINGMODON controls 

ring modulation between two 

voices. 

The graphics commands 

give you full control over boxes, 

frames, and lines. HRSTRING 

allows you to perform a series 

of commands with one con 

trolling command, which 

saves some execution time and 

some memory. With the sprite 

commands, you control color 

(MBSETCOL). horizontal and 

vertical expansion (MBXSIZE 

and MBGTXSZ). and sprite 

collision. Meanwhile, editing 

commands include a sophisti 

cated TRACE, which has. 

among other things, a mode 

that moves you through the 

program from command to 

command. 

Becker BASIC contains 

three interpreter systems. The 

Input system and the Testing 

system work together. You can 

switch from one to the other 

without losing the program in 

memory- The Run-Only sys 

tem lets you distribute the pro 

grams you've created to be 

used without Becker BASIC. 

Another program. Converter, 

converts your programs to 

GEOS format. 

With G£OSand the inter 

preter systems in place, you 

have only 15,800 bytes of free 

programming memory. Over 

lays, which Becker BASIC al 

lows, help out here, and you 

can free 8K. if you decide not 

to use hi-res graphics. Ail in 

all, it's an impressive package. 

Gold Printer 

Super Graphix Gold is the 

most advanced printer inter 

face in Xetcc's growing line 

(Xetec. 2804 Arnold Road, Salina. 

Kansas 67401; 913-827- 

0685). It has 4 built-in fonts 

and 4 that can be downloaded 

to RAM. An accompanying 

utility disk holds 40 more 

fonts, and all fonts make use of 

underlining, italics, and superand 

subscripting. Further 

more, all fonts print in nine 

different pitches. 

The interface has 16 DIP 

switches, all easily accessed. 

There arc modes for 1525 em 

ulation and ASCII conversion 

(as well as many others), two 

available screen-dump modes, 

a command channel with 

more than 30 commands, and 

a host of other features. With 

support for standard serial for 

the 64 and fast serial for the 

128, and with a built-in 32K 

print buffer (which eases wait 

ing time substantially), this 

printer looks like a winner. 

Xetec, incidentally, pro 

duces two lower-cost inter 

faces, the Super Graphix Jr. 

and the Super Graphix; both 

also offer high quality. 

French Trains 

On the games scene. Acco 

lade's recent offerings are 

worth a serious look. The 

Train is a point-of-view-style 

game that places you in the 

French Resistance during 

World War II. For some rea 

son, the sheer romance of the 

French Resistance has made 

few inroads in the North 

American game market, a 

point The Train takes to task. 

Here you capture a 

train—a real train, with real 

coal, not one of those depress 

ing modern diesel things—and 

then plan your route to capture 

every station on your map of 

France. Standing between yuu 

and success arc enemy-held 

bridges. Clearing these bridges 

is needlessly difficult because 

of enemy fighters strifing your 

engine, enemy-occupied sta 

tions, and such niceties as an 

engine that tends to accumu 

late loo much steam pressure. 

When you capture a station, 

you can radio ahead to get help 

from fellow resisters. Use their 

help to take bridges. 

Mini Golf 

Mini-Putt, also from Accolade, 

is simply a lot of fun. A nice 

recreation of a fairly standard 

miniature putting course, the 

game also includes courses 

ranging from the unlikely to 

the nearly impossible. As with 

many computer golf games, 

the trick is to apply enough 

power at the proper angle dur 

ing your swing, but you're 

hampered by windmills, 

swinging logs, and the inevita 

ble walls and bridges, plus a 

wealth of other strange sur 

prises. The only problem with 

Mini-Pun is that it's difficult 

to determine the direction of 

the inclines. Still, as a group 

activity, it's almost as enjoy 

able as the real thing. 

Oldies But 

Although hardly new, two re 

cent Infocom offerings deserve 

attention. Border Zone, an 

Iron Curtain espionage story, 

puts you in the role of not one, 

but three major characters. 

This multiple point of view 

makes it the most sophisticat 

ed interactive fiction to date, 

and it suggests a fascinating 

future for the genre. The 

game's online hints are highly 

welcome. 

Another departure from 

the norm is Nord and Bert 

Couldn V Make Head or Tail of 

It, which is Infocom's first 

short-story collection. Unlike 

most Infocom stories, the in 

terface demands an ability to 

play with words rather than a 

knack for logical progression 

38 COMPUTE!

COMPUTE!. . 

specific 

from one place to the next. Cli 

ches, puns, and other kinds of 

wordplay make this game truly 

intriguing and educational. Ac 

tually, most interactive fiction 

depends on learning the de 

signer's word systems, but 

Nord and Bert elevates the pro 

cess to a new level. 

Finally, an oldie. Since the 

64 is an old machine by com 

puter standards, an occasional 

look to ihe past is more than 

justifiable. This is true espe 

cially since the 64 was unques 

tionably the best game machine 

for a few years, and many good 

games were designed for it. 

This month I'd like to re 

call Electronic Arts' Ultimate 

Wizard, primarily because my 

children play it at least two 

hours every single day. A 

jumping game along the lines 

of Donkey Kong, Hard Hat 

Mack, Lode Runner, and 

Jumpman, Ultimate Wizard 

uses graphics and sound ex 

tremely well. Add to these 

some very attainable goals and 

a commendable lack of vio 

lence, and you have a favorite 

for anyone over the age of 6. 

By now, the game is available 

by mail-order for next to noth 

ing; if you're in the market, 

consider it. 

— Neil Randal! 

Broderbund, which only re 

cently released Showoff, its Ap 

ple IlGS-specific desktop 

presentations package, has 

temporarily withdrawn the 

program from the market. 

According to Jenay Cottrcll, 

public relations manager 

at Broderbund, Shonvffwas 

shipped with incomplete docu 

mentation. Specifically, infor 

mation on how to format a 

presentation disk {what the 

program calls a show disk) was 

missing, as were details on 

using the package on a IlGS 

with a single 3'/:-inch drive. 

Although copies had been 

released to the computer press, 

and sneak copies had made 

their way to dealers. Cottrell 

said that very few copies of 

Showqff made their way into 

users' hands. Brederbund is 

planning to re-release the pro 

gram in mid-July. 

In informal testing at the 

COMPUTE! office, however, 

we experienced problems 

seemingly unrelated to incom 

plete documentation. Art im 

ported from Deluxe Paint II, 

for instance, went through an 

unexpected color transforma 

tion. Another problem was dis 

covered when creating back 

grounds, called templates; they 

should've automatically re 

peated from frame to frame, 

but did not. 

No More Fun 

Most of us like to play a com 

puter game now and then— 

maybe more now than then in 

some cases—and computer 

entertainment has always been 

a big part of any machine's 

software repertoire. But if Ap 

ple has its way, that won't be 

true of the Apple IIgs. 

Its recent reorganization 

has made it plain that Apple 

thinks little of computer enter 

tainment. Home computing 

areas of interest have been 

shunted to business (home of 

fice) and education (home 

learning) divisions within the 

company. There has been no 

mention of home fun or of any 

home-based activity that 

doesn't fall into the categories 

of working or learning at home. 

Developers putting to 

gether entertainment products 

for the IIgs aren't getting 

much help from Apple, either. 

Cinemaware, which just re 

leased its Defender ofthe Crown 

in a IIgs form, and which has 

five more IIgs games planned 

for 1988, had to delay Defend 

er because of problems with 

Apple. Apple first provided. 

then withdrew sound tools, 

leaving Cinemaware in the 

lurch. The company was forced 

to create its own sound-cre 

ation tools to recode the music 

and sound effects in the game, 

delaying it several months, ac 

cording to Cinemaware. 

AppleFest Boston 

The Eastern installment of Ap 

pleFest. the rejuvenated Apple 

II user show, was held in the 

almost-finished Hynes Con 

vention Center May 20-22 in 

Boston, Massachusetts. Amid 

the plaster dust and jackhammer 

sounds of construc 

tion, more than 21,000 people 

packed the aisles and browsed 

the displays of Apple II-specific 

hardware manufacturers 

and software publishers. 

With more floor space 

and more exhibitors than last 

year's opening AppleFest in 

San Francisco, the Boston ver 

sion was yet another indica 

tion of the continued interest 

in the Apple II. especially the 

Apple IIgs. Though Apple re 

portedly pressed Cambridge 

Marketing, the show manage 

ment, into including more 

Macintosh products on the 

floor and more Macintosh ma 

terial on the many panels, the 

people there were clearly root 

ing for the Apple II. 

Highlights of AppleFest 

Boston follow. 

AppleLink. Apple's own 

big news was the introduction 

of AppleLink—Personal Edi 

tion, the Apple-sponsored tele 

communications service 

available on QuantumLink of 

Virginia (see the August issue 

of COMPUTE! for AppleLink 

details). Planned for startup 

June 1 (the already-printed 

monthly guide to AppleLink 

had events scheduled from 

that date), the service seemed 

to have little chance of meet 

ing the deadline. Apple spokespcople 

were only saying 

summer when asked for a 

debut date. 

No-Show. Even though a 

new Apple II computer had 

long ago been rumored for roll 

out, perhaps at AppleFest, no 

new machine showed up. The 

expected CPU. a heavily mod 

ified Apple He with more 

memory, a faster processor, 

and an internal 3'/z-inch drive, 

would have made an excellent 

companion to the more expen 

sive and expandable IIgs. 

IIgs Everywhere. If Ap 

pleFest in San Francisco last 

September showed the IlGS 

wave forming, Boston made it 

plain that the machine is the 

Apple of choice among devel 

opers (and users who have 

deep pockets). With the excep 

tion of several desktop pub 

lishing programs, the most 

exciting Apple II software is 

being written for the IlGS. Dit 

to for the hardware that drew 

crowds of users—a perfect ex 

ample is Applied Engineering's 

Audio Animator, a MIDIequipped 

board that includes 

software which records a 

MIDI instrument, edits the 

melodies, then plays them 

back. 

GSWorks on the Screen. 

GSWorks, a six-application in 

tegrated package for the IIgs, 

was up and running in demon 

stration form at AppleFest. 

Still scheduled for an August 1 

release, the program packed 

the curious around the large 

StylcWare booth. The package 

looked good, at least in dem 

onstration, and it undoubtedly 

will be one of the most antici 

pated (and hyped) Apple II 

programs this year. 

More GEOS. Berkeley 

Softworks, makers of GEOS, 

the graphics operating system 

now available for the Apple II, 

showed prerelease versions of 

three new GEOS applications, 

geoPublish (desktop publish 

ing), geoCalc (spreadsheet), 

and geoFiie (database). Not ac 

tually new, since all three have 

working versions under Berke 

ley's Commodore 64 GEOS, 

they're scheduled for staggered 

release throughout this year— 

geoPublish is closest to com 

pletion, with geoCalc and geo 

Fiie further behind. All are 

worthy of attention, especially 

from anyone who has a 128K 

Apple He or He and wants to 

make use of a full-featured 

Macintosh-like interface and 

integrated applications. 

CD-ROM in the Glass 

Case. You had to look hard for 

it. They weren't making a big 

deal of it. But in a glass case— 

so you couldn't touch it, much 

less plug it into a computer— 

in the First Class Peripherals 

booth (makers of the Sider se- 

SEPTEMBER 19 39

lyco Computer 

Marketing & Consultants 

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lor Business 

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JL 

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NB-15 24 Pin S669.95 

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1 fllHill Office Automation/"^! 

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Office 

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^ 1524 24 Pin $559.95 

Fax Partner $579.95 

Optical Scannef $859.95 

1-800-233-8760

Lyco Computer 

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Prices special for this issue only! 

The Novice Friendly HEADSTART byvENDEX 

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3 - CPM: Uses 

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0 

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1-800-233-8760

PET 

Apple II 

Heath H-8 

TRS-80 Mode! 1 

TI-99/4 

Atari 400/800 

VisiCalc 

WordPerfect 

dBase 

Space Invaders 

Pong 

BASIC 

Pac-Man 

Creative Computing 

Byte 

Dr. Dobb's Journal 

Kilobaud 

Personal Computing 

Popular Computing 

(formerly known as OnCompt 

COMPUTE!

00 Milestones I 

■-' 

V1C-20 

Apple III 

TRS-80 Color Computer 

IBM 

PC 

Osborne 1 

Commodore 64 

Timex Sinclair 1000 

Zork 

MS-DOS 

Pinball 

Construction 

PC-Talk 

Norton 

Utilities 

ing) 

Computer Shopper 

80 Micro 

Softalk 

kfc-, 

Commodore Magazine 

InfoWorld 

(Intelligent Machines Journal) 

\ntic 

Computers and Electr 

Home Office 

Compu* 

(began as Family Computing) 

E.

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THOMSONS 4120 

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• 12" Amber TTL 

• IBM MDA, Hercules 

Compatible 

• TTL Data Cable Included 

230A 

Attention 

Educational 

Institutions: 

If you are not currently using 

our educational service 

program, please call our 

representatives for details. 

MONITORS 

MODEMS 

Thomson: 

Blue Chip: 

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4120 CGA 5199.95 BCM 12- Amber TTL $69.95 CM8505 $199.95 1200i PC Card S65.95 Smartmodem 1200 .... $279.95 

GB100 $119.95" n 

9CM-053 $339.95 1200p $89.95 Smartmodem 2400 .... $419.95 

GB 200 Super Card . S169.951 ' 

CM8762 $239.95 1200hc Modem S79.95" 

'Quantities Limited 

BM76S2 $79.95 SCM-515 S259.95 2400 $149.95 

BM7622 S79.95 CM9043 SCALL 24O0i PC Card $139.95 

NEC 

Multisync II 

Avatex: 

7BM-613 $79.95 BCM-873 S499.95 'w/cabte purchase 

S589.95 7BM-623 $79.95 

PRINTERS 

Hayes: 

Okidata 

Okimate20 $129.95 

Okimate 20 w/cart S189.95 

120 $169,95 

180 S219.95 

182 $209.95 

182+ $225.95 

183 S239.95 

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292 w/intertace S449.95 

293 w/interface E585.95 

294 w/intertace S799.95 

393 $955.95 

User 6 

SCALL 

390 $479.95 

391 $649.95 

320 $345.95 

321 $445.95 

Toshiba 

321SL $489.95 

341 SL $659.95 

P351 Model II $899.95 

351 SX400cps $979.95 

Epson 

LXBOO $184.95 

FX850 $339.95 

FX1050 $424.95 

EX800 $434.95 

LQ500 $339.95 

LO2500 $789.95 

GQ3500 

SLOW 

LQ850 $525.95 

LQ1050 $699.95 

Brother 

M1109 $159.95 

M15O9 $335.95 

M17D9 $459.95 

Twinwritef 6 Dot & 

Daisy $699.95 

M1724L $619.95 

HR20 $345.95 

HR40 $559.95 

HR60 $649.95 

Citizen 

120 D S144.95 

180 D S159.95 

MSP-40 $279.95 

MSP-15E $309.95 

MSP-50 S369.95 

MSP-45 $399.95 

MSP-55 $469.95 

Premiere 35 $445.95 

Tribute 224 $539.95 

Tribute 124 $439.95 

SEIKOSHA 

Sp180Ai 

SEIKOSHA 

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SEIKOSHA 

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MP5420FA $999.95 

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SP Series Ribbon $7.95 

SP 1000AP $159.95 

SK3000AJ $349.95 

SP 1200VC $149.95 

SK3005Ai S419.95 

SP 1200Ai $159.95 

SPB 10 SCALL 

SP 1200AS RS232 ... $159.95 

SL130AJ $599.95 

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Since 1981, we have led the industry by continuing 

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Turn the page for mom gmat buys!

Computer History 

Apple lie 

Apple Lisa 

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Tandy Model 100 

COMPAQ portable 

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Apple LaserWriter 

Amiga 1000 

CD-ROM 

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Microsoft Word 

Lotus 1-2-3 

PC-Write 

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Turbo Pascal 

SpeedScript 

Microsoft 

Windows 

SideKick 

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MacPaint 

AppleWorks 

The Print Shop 

Excel 

SuperKey 

ThinkTank 

PageMaker 

PC Magazine 

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PC World 

+ co 

Run 

MacWorld 

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Buyer's 

Guide 

COMPUTED 

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Monitors Available 

only 

Seagate 

$469 

■ IBM PC-XT 

Compatible 

95 

■ 4.77 - 8.00 Mhz 

Super Turbo 

Clock Speed 

■ Bunt-In 5 1/4 Drive 

■Buill-in RGB 

Video Output 

■ Parallel Printer Port 

■ Serial RS232 

* Joystick/Game Port 

ST135R30 Meg 

Internally Mounted 

Card 

Premounted on its own 

Controller Card 

EZ Slot Installation 

(app. 10 min.) 

20-30-49 meg drives available! 

520 ST-FM 

Monochrome 

System 

$599 95* 

'Quantities Limited 

Call lot more Hardware information 

95 

$335 95 

AATARI 

PC 

COMPATIBLE 

HARDWARE 

Use' Compact XTE 640K S549.95 

Laser Desktop Turbo XT 640K . $599.95 

Blue Chip Popular $549.95 

Vendex Hoadstart Color 5989.95 

Vendex Heacstart Mono SCALL 

Vendex HeaoBtarl 888 LTD 

Color S1599.95 

Sharp PC 4501 S679.95 

Sharp PC 4502 S1239.95 

Zucker CGA ColorCard S89.95 

BCC CG CotorCard S94.99 

User EGA + 4 Card $129.95 

ATI Graphics Solution $129.95 

ATI EGA Wonder 199.95 

ATI VIP $299.95 

Kraft PC Joystick Card $27.95 

Seagate 

5.25' Hall Heights 

hardware 

ST225 20 meg 65msec MFM .. $215.95 

ST225N 20 meg SCSI $289.95 

ST238R 30 meg RLL 5229.95 

ST25! 40 meg 40 msec MFM . 5345.95 

ST25I-1 40 meg 2B msec MFM . 5429.95 

ST277R65meg40msecRLL. $389.95 

3.5- 

ST125 20 meg 40 msec MFM . S235.95 

ST125N 20 meg SCSI $299.95 

ST138R 30 meg RLL S249.95 

ST138N 30 meg SCSI $329.95 

ST157R 49 meg RLL $399.95 

ST157N 48 meg SCSI $439.95 

Seagals Internal Cards 

ST125 20 meg Internal Card ... $299.95 

ST157R 49 meg Internal Card . 5485.95 

Controllers 

1-800-233-8760 

MFM Controller (XT) S55.95 

RLL Controller (XT) 564.95 

Call for kit pncing and specials. 

Ask about our 

Seagate Paired Solutions! 

COMMODORE 

HARDWARE 

64C Computer S159.95 

C128D Computer/Drive $439.95 

1541 II Disk Drive 5175.95 

1581 Disk Drive 5189.95 

Excel 2001 C128 Drive $199.95 

Exce! FSD-2+ C64 Drive $149.95 

1802C Monitor $189.95 

1084 Monitor $299.95 

C1351 Mouse $39.95 

1764 RAMC64 $117.95 

ff/ZLASER 128 

Compatible with Apple Software. 

User 128 EX 5429.95 

Laser External 5'/. Drive $119.95 

Laser External 3V4 800K Drive . $199.95 

Two Slot Expansion Box S44.95 

User 128/EX Mouse S55.95

Apple lies COMPAQ 

386-20 

Macintosh 

II 

GEOS 

Microsoft 

Works 

HyperCard 

Deluxe Paint II 

COMPUTErs 

PC Magazine 

COMPUTE! 

KFYEAR 

COMPUTE!^ Atari 

ST Disk and Magazine

Important Answers to Important Questions a^ 

About Lyco Computer! 

Why shop at 

Lyco Computer? 

Lyco Computer is one of, if not 

the largest, oldest, and most 

established firms to provide only 

quality name brand computer 

products to the general public 

at prices 30% to 50% lower than 

retail. We've set many industry 

standards, and we are setting 

the pace (or many more in the 

future. Our standards include: a 

separate department for 

customer service; a price 

guarantee; guaranteed factory 

fresh merchandise; diverse 

payment and shipping policies, 

including a C.O.D. policy which 

allows customers to have 

products in their hands before 

paying anything. Selection 

places Lyco at the forefront of 

the industry. Due to our in-stock 

volume, we cannot advertise all 

of our products. Enjoy one-stop 

shopping for national products 

by calling our marketing staff 

for products and low prices. 

How do I know I 

will get the product 

I need? 

Our marketing staff is well 

educated in the computer 

industry. They receive 

continuous formal training by 

our manufacturers which 

enables them to develop and 

maintain a high degree of 

expertise on the products they 

represent. Though our strict 

guarantee on providing only new 

merchandise prohibits free trial 

periods and a guarantee on 

compatibility, a wealth of 

knowledge is available to our 

customers to help with the 

purchasing decision. As 

thousands of people every week 

capitalize on our savings and 

services, we hope you too, will 

make Lyco Computer your first 

choice. 

What about warranty 

or service? 

At Lyco Computer we decided 

several years ago that a 

customer service department 

was needed in the industry. 

Unfortunately, few of our 

competitors offer this service. 

Our product line enjoys "name 

brand recognition." We back all 

of our manufacturer's warranties 

in accordance with the manu 

facturer's stated warranty terms. 

These warranty terms are 

normally outlined in each 

owner's manual or explained at 

a retail store near you. Our 

customer service department is 

available to provide assistance 

in all warranty matters. Many 

manufacturers will allow 

defective products to be 

exchanged. Before you return 

any item that appears to be 

defective, we ask that you call 

our customer service depart 

ment. They will assist you in 

determining if the product is 

defective, and then will give you 

a special authorization number 

and speed processing of your 

order. 

Will you rush an 

item to me? 

Since 1981, we have set the 

standard in the industry by 

processing orders within 24 

hours — not 4 to 6 weeks. We 

offer next day air, two day air, 

standard UPS, and postal 

international shipping services. 

With a multi-million dollar 

inventory and the utilization of 

an IBM mainframe for 

processing, our records show 

we fill 95% of our orders daily. 

Temporary shortages are 

normally filled within 10 days. 

Our experience indicates most 

of our customers will wait the 

ten days in order to receive the 

benefit of our price savings and 

products. If an order cannot be 

filled within 60 days, money is 

refunded in full in the hope that 

the customer will reorder when 

the product is available. Any 

time prior to shipment, 

customers may cancel or 

change the out of stock product 

by simply contacting our 

customer service department. 

How do I 

order? 

Simply send your order to Lyco 

Computer, P.O. Box 5088, 

Jersey Shore, PA 17740. Or, 

call either 1-800-233-8760 or 

717-494-1030. We provide four 

payment methods. We have 

always accepted C.O.D. orders 

through UPS. Prepaid orders 

over $50 are shipped freight 

free. For orders under $50, 

please add $3 for freight. Orders 

prepaid by a certified check or 

money order payments, 

merchandise is shipped 

immediately. Personal and 

company checks require a 4 

week waiting period prior to 

shipping. Visa and Master Card 

orders are accepted for your 

convenience, but we cannot 

pass along the 4% discount 

offered for cash. Purchase 

orders are accepted from 

Educational Institutions. We only 

charge sales tax on items 

delivered in Pennsylvania. For 

APO, FPO, and international 

orders, please add $5 plus 3% 

for priority mail. Advertised 

prices and availability are 

subject to change.

IBM AATARIST AATARf apple COMMODORE 

Access: 

Wld. Cl. LBader Board .. S9.99 

10th Frame $27.95 

Actlvlslon: 

Beyond Zork $27.95 

Lurking Horror $22.95 

Might& Magic $28.95 

Broderbund: 

Ancient Art of War $26.95 

Print Shop $34.95 

Carmen San Diego 

Europe $26.95 

Electronic Arts: 

Yeager'sAFT $26.95 

Weaver Baseball S25.95 

Bard's Tale $32.95 

Epyx: 

$27.95 

California Games $22.95 

LA. Crackdown $28.95 

Home Video Proaucer. $28.95 

Print Mage $33.95 

Firebird: 

Universal Military 

Simulator $28.95 

Slarglider $17.95 

Micro league: 

Microleag. Baseball $22.95 

GM Disk $16.95 

Mtcroprose: 

Gunship $27.95 

Pirates $22.95 

Mlnd9cape: 

SuperSlarlceHockey. $22.95 

Willow $22.95 

Origin: 

Ultima IV 534.95 

Moebius $34.95 

Strategic Simulations: 

Phantasie 111 $26.95 

Questron II $29,95 

Subloglc: 

Right Simulator $34.95 

Jot $30.95 

Time works: 

Wordwriter PC S27.95 

PC Quintet S55.95 

Unison World: 

Newsmastet II $39.95 

Pnnl Master $29.95 

Access: 

Leader Board $22.95 

10th Frame $22.95 

Actlvlslon: 

Music Studio $27.95 

BrOdBrburtd: 

Superbike Chailenge ... S11.95 


Alien Fires $25.95 

Hunt lor Red October.. $32.95 

Epyx: 

Dive Bomber $22.95 

Impossible Mission 2 ... $22.95 

Firebird: 

Universal Military 

Simulator $28.95 

Carrier Command $25.95 

Micro league: 

Microleague Baseball .. $33.95 

Micro. Wrestling S25.95 

Microprose: 

F-15 Strike Eagle S24.95 

Gunship $28.95 

Mlndscape: 

Balance ol Power S28.95 

Hairier Combat 

Simulator $28,95 

Origin: 

Autoduel $29.95 

Ultima IV $34.95 


Questron II $32.95 

Stellar Crusade $35.95 

Subloglc: 

Right Simulator II $30.95 

Scenery Disks 

Tlmeworks: 

SCALL 

Wordwriter ST $44.95 

Partner ST $27.95 

Unison World: 

Art Gallery 1.2or3 .... $14.95 

Prim Master $19.95 

Access: 

World Class Lead. Bd.. $25.95 

Act I vision: 

Fairy Tale Adventure ... 528.95 

Ebon Star 522.95 


Weaver Baseball $33.95 

Ferrari Formuia One ... 533.95 

Epyx: 

World Games $22.95 

Destroyer $22.95 

Flrabird: 

Guild of Thieves $25.95 

Starglider S13.95 

Mlcroprose: 

Silent Service $22.95 

Access: 

Triple Pack $11.95 

Leader Board Double 

Pack S9.99 

Actfvision: 

Music Studio $19.95 

Great American Road 

Race $9.99 

Batteries Included: 

Paperclip $31.95 

Broderbund: 


Graphic lib. I, II, III $14.95 


Pinball Con. Set $8.95 

Mail Order Monsters $8.95 

Microleague: 

Microteague Baseball .. $22.95 

GM Disk $16.95 

Mlcroprose: 

F-15 Strike Eagle 519.95 

Silent Service 519.95 

Mlndscape: 

Gauntlet 520.95 

Infiltrator S17.95 

Origin: 


UltmalV $34.95 


Phantasie III $26.95 

Eternal Dagger 526.95 

Subloglc: 

Flight Simulator II $30.95 

Scenery Disks $CALL 

Mind scope: 

Balance of Power 

Harrier Combat 

Simulator 

Origin: 

Autoduel 

Echelon $25.95 

Ogre 

Mach 128 $28.95 


Win Cl. Leader Bid ... $22.95 

Gettysburg 

Phanlasie III 

538-95 

S26.95 

Famous Courses 1,2,or3 

$11.95 

Subloglc: 

Right Simulator II 

Jet 

Unison World: 

Print Master 

Fonts & Borders 

Access: 

Wohd Class Leader 

Board $23.95 

Echelon $25.95 

Actlvlslon: 

Might & Magic $28.95 

Maniac Mansion $19.95 

Broderbund: 


Carmen S. Diego{USA)..$26.95 


Yeagers AFT $26.95 

Bards Tale III $32.95 

Epyx: 

SI. Sports Basketball... $22.95 

Print Magic $33.95 

Firebird: 

Starglicer $13.95 

GulW of Thieves $25.95 

Microleague: 

Microleag. Baseball $22,95 

Stat Disk 511,95 

Mlcroprose: 

F-15 Stnke Eagle $t9.95 


Mlndscape: 

Indoor Sports $17.95 

Paperboy $22.95 

Origin: 


Ultima V $34.95 


Phantasie $26.95 

Questron II $29.95 

Subloglc: 

Flight Simulator II 530.95 

Jel Simulator $24.95 

Tlmeworks: 

Publish It $56.95 

Font Pack 1 $22.95 

Unison World: 

Art Gallery 1, 2 of 3 .... $14.95 

Print Master S25.95 

COMMODORE 

$28.95 Batteries Included: 

Paperclip III $31.95 

52895 Paperclip Publisher $31.95 

Action Soft: 

$30.95 up Penscope $1B.95 

530-95 Thunderchopper S1B.95 

Actlvlslon: 

$25.95 Music Studi0 S19.95 

$17.95 LaSt Njnja $19.95 

Berkeley Softworfcs: 

Geofile CS4 $29.95 

Geocalc C64 $29.95 

Geos&4 $35.95 

Broderbund: 

Bank St. Wnter 529.95 



Demon Stalkers $19.95 

Dragon's Lair $16.95 

Skate or Die $19.95 

Epyx: 

Faslkwd $22.95 

California Games $22.95 

Impossible Mission 2 ... $22.95 

4x4 Off Road Racing .. $22.95 

Firebird: 

$22.95 

Elite $9.95 

Guild of Thieves $25.95 

Microleague: 

Microleag. Baseball $22.95 

Microleag. Wrestling .... S16.95 

Mlcroprose: 

Airborne Ranger 519.95 

Gunship S19.95 


Mlndscap«: 

Infiltration S17.95 

Gauntlet S19.95 

Origin: 


Ultima IV $34.95 

Software Simulations: 

Pure Slat Baseball $22.95 


Gettysburg $38.95 

Phanlasie III $26.95 

Sublogic: 

Flight Simulator II 530.95 

Jet Simulator $30.95 

Scenery Disks SCALL 

Tlmeworks: 

Partner C64 522.95 

Swift Calc 128 S28.95 

Unison World: 

Art Gallery 1,2or3 .... 514.95 

Diskettes 

Joysticks 

3.5 

Maxell: 

SSOD $11,50 

DSDD S17.95 

Bonus: 

SSDD $10.95 

DSDD $13.95 

Verbatim: 

SSDD $12.95 

DSDD $18.95 

SKC: 

SSDD $9.95 

DSDD $13.99 

5-1/4 

Disk Notcher $5.95 

Maxell: 

SSDD 57.95 

DSDD $8.95 

Bonus: 

SSDD $5.95 

DSDD $6.95 

SKC: 

DSDD $6.95 

DSHD $13.95 

Generic DSDD $4.95 

Verbatim: 

SSDD $8.99 

DSDD $11.50 

Tac3 $9.95 

Tac2 $10.95 

Tac5 $12.95 

Tac 1 + IBM/AP $26.95 

Slik Stick $6.95 

Black Max $10.95 

Boss $11.99 

3-Way $19.99 

Bathandle $16.75 

Winner 909 $24.95 

Wico tBM/AP $29.95 

Lipstick Plus $14.95 

Kraft KC III Ap/PC $16.95 

Kraft PC Joystick 

Card $27.95 

Kraft Maze Master $8.95 

I Controller $13.95 

Spy* 500 XJ $13.95 

Look for Lyco Bucks!

COMPUTE! 

specific 

ries of Apple II hard disk 

drives), you could find a CD- 

ROM drive for the Apple II 

and Macintosh lines. When 

would it be available? Shrugs 

all around. Who makes the 

drive? More shrugs. How 

much would it cost? Around 

$800, $900—somewhere in 

there. Talk about laid-back 

marketing. 

Timeout Times Four. Bea 

gle Bros, made a splash at last 

year's AppleFest when they re 

leased their Timeout series of 

AppleWorksadd-ins. Ranging 

from small utilities to fullfledged 

applications, all Time 

out programs can be run 

directly from AppleWorks. 

Four new additions to the line 

were introduced at AppleFest 

Boston: Thesaurus, Desktools 

II, Macrotools, and Powerpack. 

With the exception of 

Macroiools, ($25.00), the new 

packages cost $49.95 each. 

Soviet Software. Tetris. a 

game that's gotten a lot of 

press because it was developed 

in the Soviet Union, is being 

readied for the Apple II and 

IIgs by Spectrum HoloBytc. 

Tetris is deceptively simple: 

Colored blocks of various 

shapes drop from the top of 

the screen as you rotate and 

move them into position at the 

bottom. Large groups of peo 

ple had to stare over shoulders 

to watch Spectrum HoloByte 

personnel hog the game—it's 

thai addicting. 

Fast. Fast Relief 

The most exciting thing on the 

Apple II hardware horizon is 

the appearance of speed-up 

chips and boards. Apple II 

technology is over ten years 

old now, and in many ways it's 

showing its age. 

processor replacement for the 

Apple He, seemed to be com 

ing to the rescue last Septem 

ber. The Zip Chip ($ 129) was 

touted as being up to four 

times faster than the 6502. 

Horrendous shipping delays 

(caused by manufacturing 

problems and a huge demand 

for the chip, according to Zip 

Technology) made a lot of peo 

ple skeptical. COMPUTE! 

magazine still has not received 

a chip for evaluation, for in 

Much of this aging prob 

lem is centered around speed, 

or the lack of it. The recent 

surge in graphics-intensive 

software—desktop publishing 

programs in particular—has 

pointed out the slowness of the 

Apple IPs 65C02 microproces 

sor. The processor is just not 

fast enough to handle the full 

screen graphics necessary in 

such software as Springboard 

Publisher, Publish It!, and 

GEOS. 

The Zip Chip, a micro- 

stance, although one was 

promised for arrival last Janu 

ary by the company's CEO. 

The Zip Chip was at 

AppleFest Boston in late May, 

again showing how fast it 

makes 8-bit programs like 

AppleWorks. Several of the 

Apple He computers at the 

Berkeley Softworks booth were 

Zip Chip equipped; the speed 

up of their geoPublish, geo- 

Calc. and geofite programs 

was noticeable and welcomed. 

Another promised chip re 

placement made an appear 

ance at AppleFest—the Rocket 

Chip from Bits and Pieces 

Technology. The prototype 

chip shown at AppleFest 

seemed similar to the Zip in 

both look and result. The 

Rocket Chip sped up the ma 

chine and the software running 

on it by as much as five times 

the normal speed, the compa 

ny claimed. The chip can also 

be slowed sufficiently so that 

the gazelle-like computer can 

run programs that require 

slower speeds. 

Without our having had a 

chance to evaluate either chip, 

however, recommendations 

certainly cannot be made. It 

would be prudent to wait until 

the desired chip is available in 

number before ordering—you 

shouldn't have to wait longer 

than a few weeks for any prod 

uct you order by mail to 

arrive. 

The Zip and Rocket chips 

take care of Apple He and He 

owners, but what of those with 

an Apple IIgs? The IIgs may 

be the fastest Apple II out of 

the box, but it's still too slow 

for many of the 16-bit applica 

tions either available or under 

development. Applied Engi 

neering, known for its Transwarp 

acceleration boards (as 

well as for such hardware as 

PC Transport, the MS-DOS 

computer on a card), is in the 

midst of developing Transwarp 

GS. The prototype shown 

at AppleFest Boston will lead 

to a $299 board either by the 

end of the summer or some 

time in the fourth quarter of 

the year, depending on which 

Applied Engineering person 

you spoke with at the show. 

Whether it's available in Au 

gust or December, the acceler 

ator will reportedly double the 

speed of the IIgs, to about 6 

megahertz. 

In a completely subjective 

test on a Transwarp gs proto 

type-equipped IIgs, Deluxe 

Paint II operated noticeably 

faster. Such time-intensive 

tasks as painting with full 

screen brushes were much fast 

er on the prototype. In fact, the 

response was much closer to 

that of Deluxe Paint II running 

on a Commodore Amiga, a 

68000-driven computer which 

also uses several graphics chips 

to take some of the processing 

load off the 68000. 

— Gregg Keizer 

Commodore recently an 

nounced that it has shipped 

over 600,000 Amigas world 

wide in the two years since the 

machine's release, at the same 

time noting that the Amiga 

development community has 

written more than 1100 soft 

ware programs for the graphicsintensive 

computer. 

Max Toy, president and 

CEO of Commodore Business 

Machines, said. "We see the 

Amiga becoming a standard 

business computer as well as 

the graphics system for corpo 

rate communications depart 

ments, television studios, and 

video production houses." 

While the Amiga is al 

ready a popular home com 

puter, whether it can become a 

standard business computer 

remains to be seen (witness the 

difficulties Apple had in push 

ing its Macintosh into the busi 

ness arena). The Amiga's 

hardware is up to the chal 

lenge, but there will have to be 

a lot more (and better) busi 

ness software developed before 

the Amiga can compete in the 

business market. 

Make a Video 

Video software is the current 

rage among Amiga users. Tele 

vision stations and animation 

studios are using the Amiga for 

dry runs of graphics and ani 

mations; artists are discover 

ing Amiga digitizing, painting, 

and animation software; and 

home users are connecting 

Amigas to VCRs to make their 

own videos and movies. 

The Director, from The 

Right Answers Group, is a 

display-and-animation pro 

gramming language that makes 

it easier than ever to master 

the graphics of your Amiga. 

The word programming 

may scare off some potential 

buyers. It shouldn't. If you 

know BASIC, you'll find your 

self right at home with The Direcior—you'll 

be making Direc 

tor scripts in minutes. If you've 

never programmed before, 

The Director's excellent man 

ual will tutor you. The demos 

on the disk and the examples 

in the manual are very helpful; 

they show you how to program 

everything from a simple slideshow 

program to a full-blown 

animation with text, color 

cycling, sound, and more. 

To write a Director script, 

you use a text editor to enter 

Director commands. The 

MicroEMACS editor supplied 

on your Amiga Extras disk 

works well. To run a script 

called dog, for instance, simply 

type director dog. Director cre 

ates a file called dog.film, then 

executes the script. After the 

dog.film file has been created, 

you can show your animation 

by typing projector dog.film. 

Projector is a program that can 

be freely redistributed—good 

news for budding animators 

who want to share videos with 

50 COMPUTE!

COMPUTE! 

specific 

their friends and the rest of the 

Amiga world. 

The Director loads IFF 

images of any resolution, in 

cluding HAM and overscan. 

Some of the features include 

fades, dissolves, blits (using 

the blitter to move rectangles 

with different effects), wipes, 

stencils, built-in drawing com 

mands, and input commands. 

If you have another ani 

mation program that produces 

ANIM files (the IFF standard 

for animation files), The Direc 

tor can load and display them 

as well. 

The Director ($69.95) is 

available from The Right An 

swers Group, Box 3699, Torrence, 

California, 90510; (213) 

325-1311. 

Perfect 

If the Amiga is going to be con 

sidered a business machine, it 

needs more heavy-hitting soft 

ware companies to develop 

software. WordPerfect was the 

first (and so far the only) large 

software company to support 

the Amiga. 

WordPerfect released the 

Amiga version of WordPerfect 

almost a year ago. They were 

amply rewarded for their fore 

sight. Supposedly, they re 

couped their investment 

almost overnight. 

What's next for WordPer 

fect? First, the company has 

said that it will eventually up 

grade the Amiga version of its 

word processor to incorporate 

the features of its IBM PC ver 

sion, WordPerfect 5.0. When 

will that be? After the fiasco of 

WordPerfect for the Macin 

tosh, which was delayed 

month after month, WordPer 

fect would rather not say. The 

semiofficial word is that it will 

be available in a year and a 

half. But that's probably a 

longer wait than the consum 

ers (or WordPerfect itself) 

would put up with. 

In the meantime, there's 

WordPerfect Library, a collec 

tion of desktop programs. In 

cluded are Notebook, which 

lets you organize information 

into an index file format that 

can be read by WordPerfect; a 

Calendar designed for lo-do 

lists and memos; a versatile 

Calculator, which features 

mathematical, financial, scien 

tific, and programming func 

tions; a File Manager to handle 

directories; and WordPerfect's 

Program Editor. 

WordPerfect Library is 

available from WordPerfect, 

1555 North Technology Way. 

Orem, Utah 84057; (801) 227- 

4096. The price is $129. 

Amiga Arcade 

Sick of sticking Quarters in ar 

cade machines? A personal 

computer has several advan 

tages over game machines, 

ranging from mass storage to 

versatile input devices (mouse, 

joystick, and keyboard). 

As a result, computers can 

play games that just wouldn't 

work in an arcade setting. But 

for those times when most 

computer games seem too ce 

rebral, you can always play one 

of the many arcade-like games 

available for your computer. 

On the Amiga, two new trans 

lations, Aaargh! and Roadwars, 

bring the arcade home. 

Both programs are distrib 

uted by Electronic Arts, 

though they were created by 

Arcadia, a company that sup 

posedly uses Amiga chips in its 

arcade machines. The excel 

lent graphics and sound clearly 

show the arcade heritage of 

these games. 

Aaargh! is a one-player 

game. The players choose be 

tween two monsters—a lizard 

and an ogre. The game is large 

ly a smash-and-burn campaign 

done in the style of a Godzilla 

movie. The graphics and ani 

mation are colorful and attrac 

tive. Aaarghl's stereo sound is 

nice. too. Your goal is to 

smash the local buildings of 12 

different cities, eating the food 

you find (including hot dogs, 

hamburgers, tacos, and the res 

idents of the cities}. When you 

find a golden egg. you must 

battle another monster for it. 

These battles are real knock 

down, drag-out fights. 

Arcadia's other release is 

Roadwars, a one- or two-play 

er game. If you play solitaire, 

you play against a competent 

(if rather dull) computer play 

er. In Roadwars, you are one 

of two balls rolling down a 

track. While in the form of a 

ball, you are shielded, but 

when you shoot, you lose your 

shields. After all the obstacles 

on the track have been shot 

down, you move onto another 

track. Roadwars' digitized 

graphics are especially nice— 

the objects in the game have 

been digitized from models. 

The result is a game that looks 

oddly realistic—halfway be 

tween normal computer graph 

ics and television. Digitized 

sound effects complement the 

game. 

Aaargh! and Roadwars 

($34.95 each) are available 

from Electronic Arts, 1820 

Gateway Drive, San Mateo, 

California, 94404; (800) 245- 

4525. 

— Rhett Anderson 

Do you think desktopifgtbHshing 

is the catch phrase today? 

If you do. you're a little behind 

the times. The latest is desktop 

presentations. 

When PowerPoint was re 

leased last year, it really de 

fined the presentation-software 

category. This software allows 

the user to design slides and 

easily make coordinated 

speaker's notes and audience 

handouts. Microsoft saw the 

writing on the wall and bought 

the program. PowerPoint 2.0 is 

on its way. 

In the meantime. Cricket 

Presents. .. was finally re 

leased in May. I first saw the 

program demonstrated in May 

1987 at the New York Mac- 

Fair, and I was told release was 

imminent. Cricket's an 

nouncement of the release was 

met by an announcement from 

Manhattan Graphics that 

Ready-Set-Show was on the 

way. With the corporate pre 

sentation pie being so large, 

there arc enough slices to go 

around. 

PowerPoint, Cricket Pre 

sents ... , and Ready-Set-Show 

are intended for static slides: 

You create them on the Mac, 

have them turned into slides— 

Microsoft and Cricket have 

deals with slide-production 

companies—and make your 

presumably corporate 

presentation. 

Personally, I prefer dy 

namic presentations, using my 

Mac and a projector. If you 

have that setup—and there are 

a lot of hardware possibilities 

out there these days—you can 

use any of the presentation 

programs; you can also use 

More, or HyperCard, or Video- 

Works, and make interactive 

or animated presentations. 

Quick Notes 

No online surcharge. The 

FCC's plan to impose a fivedollar-an-hour 

surcharge on 

connect lime for online surviccs 

has been dropped, thank 

goodness. If you use any of the 

electronic services, you know 

how fast the online charges 

rack up. even without a 

surcharge. 

Gassee1 s stock. Jean- 

Louis Gassee sold more than 

60,000 shares of Apple stock in 

February and March, netting 

about $2.7 million. Gassee, 

Apple's senior vice president 

of research and development, 

isn't saying why. Maybe it's 

because he Said out just under 

half a million for those shares 

about six months before; even 

after the lax bile on the $2.2 

million profit, he's left with a 

hefty chunk of money. What's 

Gassee like? I don't know, but 

when I met him in San Fran 

cisco in January at an awards 

dinner, he was wearing a tux 

with a needlepoint cummer 

bund, kiddy-print sneakers, 

and a diamond in his ear. 

No thanks for the memo 

ries. The memory-chip short 

age is still driving prices up. 

Apple's two-megabyte upgrade 

was less than $600 a few short 

months ago; now it's $849. 

Cray and Apple. When 

Apple purchased a Cray to 

SEPTEMBER 9 8 8 51

COMPUTE! 

specific 

help in its research and devel 

opment, the amusing thing to 

note was that Seymour Cray 

was using a Macintosh to doo 

dle new designs for a new 

Cray. Now. Cray Research's 

CEO. John Roliwagen. has 

been added to Apple's board of 

directors. It's a nice marriage 

for companies that make, re 

spectively, supercomputers 

and super computers. 

Out of Court 

We'll just ignore Ihe Apple vs. 

Microsoft/Hewlett-Packard lit 

igation this month. Maybe a 

quarterly report will be suffi 

cient to keep us up-to-date on 

what's sure to be a long, 

drawn-out prccourt battle. 

Antiviral Rx 

The original Mac Peace virus 

was generally benign, but the 

ncxl one, popularly called 

Scores, has been nasty. A virus 

is a self-replicating, autorun 

program that can creep into 

your system or files if you use 

infected software. 

Scores is rampant: The 

cross-counlry plague has in 

vaded NASA, Electronic Data 

Systems in Dallas, and corpo 

rations in Washington. D.C. If 

you're into online systems, you 

can download one of the many 

antiviral programs, some of 

which were specifically de 

signed for fighting Scores. 

Look for KillScores, Ferret, 

Vaccine, Inlerferon, or Virus 

Detective. Apple has even 

posted Virus Rx, an anti-viral 

program of its own. 

Systematic Updates 

As I write this, the release of 

System 6.0 is imminent, but 

already there's a list of features 

for the 7.0 version. Apple is fi 

nally using a single number for 

the System/Finder combina 

tion, so we don't have to worry 

about which System goes with 

which Finder. Let's hope the 

System and Finder version 

numbers are finally adjusted 

so they'll match the System 

Tools number. 

The 6.0 System set in 

cludes QuickerGraf, a Quick 

Draw speed enhancement by 

Andy Hertzfeld. He probably 

did ii on a coffee break some 

afternoon, after someone put 

an idle question to him: "D'you 

think QuickDraw could be 

made to work faster?" Also in 

cluded in 6.0 is a desk accesso 

ry. Macro Maker, which lets 

you record keyslrokes and 

mouse movements. 

There's a terrific option 

slated for the 7.0 version: IAC 

(InterApplication Communi 

cations). It will include a 

"smart" clipboard to let you 

pasle between applications and 

leave a dynamic link between 

them. If the information in the 

source document changes, so 

will the pasted material. 

MultiFinder is slated to 

become the default operating 

environment, although the 

Finder (UniFinder?) will re 

main an option. With memory 

chips so scarce and expensive. 

and with MultiFinder's appe 

tite for RAM. the change 

might have to wait until the 

minimum RAM configuration 

that comes with the Mac can 

be increased cheaply and easily 

to iwo megabytes. 

Finder's Keepers 

Last month's column included 

some tips on using Multi- 

Finder. This month brings 

Finder tips. 

• To close all the windows on 

the DeskTop in one click, 

hold down the Option key 

while you click in any win 

dow's Close box. 

• Returning to ihe DeskTop 

from an application takes 

time because the DeskTop is 

rebuilt, with windows and 

icons redrawn wherever you 

lefi them. To save time, you 

can keep everything closed. If 

you want to open a disk or a 

folder, you can fool the Find 

er: Hold down the Option key 

as you open windows on the 

DeskTop. The Finder won't 

remember that you opened 

those items, and il won't re 

draw them when you quit to 

the DeskTop. 

• If you like your icons neatly 

Click Art 

lined up in the windows, you 

can, of course, use the Clean 

up command to align them 

according to the invisible grid 

in the window. But if you're 

moving things around inside 

a window, the alignment is 

quickly lost. If you drag an 

icon around while holding 

the Option key down, it snaps 

into place on the grid when 

you release it. 

• When you drag an icon from 

one window to another (as in 

a folder-to-foldcr transfer), 

the item is moved from one 

place to the other. If you want 

to move a copy of the origi 

nal, hold the Option key 

down while you drag the icon. 

The original is left in place, 

and a copy is put into the newspot. 

The copy has exactly the 

same name as the original; it 

does not appear as "Copy 

of...." 

If you need bitmapped clip art, 

any one of Dubl-Click's Wei- 

Paint volumes is a safe bet. 

The art is consistently excel 

lent. There are 16 volumes so 

far, sold in 2-volume sets for 

$79.95. In addition to terrific 

clip art. WetPaitu volumes 

include one of the besi desk ac 

cessories around: Art Round 

up. Its original version was 

great, but the new. 2.0 version 

boasts even more utility. 

Basically. Art Roundup 

lets you open any MacPaintformal 

document and select 

part of it lo copy to the Clip 

board. It includes a pencil and 

eraser for touch-ups. and a se 

lection rectangle and lasso. You 

can also flip, copy, rotate, or 

even scale the selection before 

it's placed on the Clipboard. 

Art Roundup opens only a 

copy of (he graphics document. 

so the original stays intact no 

matter what you do. The new 

version even lets you set up a 

quick slide show so that you 

can thumb through a whole 

folder of art very quickly. 

Dubl-Click(l8201 Gresham 

Street. Northridge. Califor 

nia. 91325; 818-349-2758) also 

has a line of ImagcWriter 

fonts, called World Class 

Fonts, whose quality matches 

that of Wet Paint. 

— Sharon Zardetto Aker 

Forecasts of impending doom 

for the ST are exaggeraied. In 

fact, several auxiliary hard 

ware developers are showing 

confidence in the machine by 

releasing products that make 

the ST even more powerful 

and versatile. 

The ST's doom-andgloom 

forecasts stem not only 

from ihe poor availability of 

Mega STs, but from the rumor 

thai Atari is going to crack 

down on mail-order houses by 

limiting the shipments of STs 

to them and giving preference 

to established dealers. 

This strategy worked well 

for Apple, enabling Apple deal 

ers (and Apple) to garner 

healthy profit margins. This 

technique probably won't 

work as well for Atari, howev 

er, for the simple reason that 

Apples arc available in a wide 

variety of computer stores, but 

it's hard to find a store that 

slocks Atari computers. 

Because of Atari's limiled 

dealer network, a significant 

number of people buy STs 

from mail-order houses. If that 

supply dries up. then it's likely 

that people who can't get Atari 

STs from mail-order houses 

will simply buy something 

else—perhaps a PC clone. The 

prices of these computers are 

in the range of ST prices and 

PC software is plentiful. 

Mouse Moving Over 

Practical Solutions' Mouse 

Master (1930 East Grant 

Road. Tucson. Arizona 85716: 

602-884-9612; $39.95) conve 

niently solves the problem of 

52 COMPUTE!

COMPUTE! 

specific 

simultaneously connecting two 

joysticks and a mouse to an 

ST. 

Without such a device 

you must constantly plug and 

unplug the mouse and joy 

sticks. Not only is this plugging 

and unplugging inconvenient 

and hard on the cables, but it's 

downright difficult on the 1040 

ST, with its hidden connectors. 

Many games require you 

to plug a joystick into the 

mouse port. To start many of 

these same games, you must 

use the mouse to move the 

mouse pointer to their icons; 

then you double-click. After 

that, you have to unplug the 

mouse and plug in the joystick. 

Mouse Master eliminates 

this switching. The Mouse 

Master is a small box with a 

cable terminating in a pair of 

mouse/joystick connectors 

that piug into your ST. The 

box itself has a mouse port and 

two joystick ports, all clearly 

labeled. A switch on the top of 

the box lets you switch be 

tween using the mouse in port 

0 and using the joystick in port 

0. You can switch devices at 

anv time. 

Video Connection 

A genlock allows computer 

graphics to be superimposed 

on an industry-standard exter 

nal video source. While the 

concept sounds simple, a gen 

lock package is not—it may 

have more chips than the com 

puter with which it works. 

There are many uses for a 

genlock. The combination of 

external video and computer 

graphics can generate effects 

thai rate anywhere from trivial 

to stunning. 

With software such as the 

Cyber series, available on the 

ST for animation, a genlock 

creates the perfect marriage of 

computer graphics and live ac 

tion. The recent introduction 

of the Cartoon Design Disk for 

use with CAD ID/Cyber Con 

trol has made animating even 

easier. 

JRI's first-generation gen 

lock (P.O. Box 5277, Pitts 

burgh, California 94565; 

$400.00) works with the Mega 

STonh. although a 520/ 

1040ST version should ship 

shortly. Installation is sim 

ple—there are no connections 

to solder. You simply remove 

the cover of the Mega and plug 

the board into two plugs that 

are available inside the case. 

(Remember that removing the 

case voids the computer's 

warranty.) 

The external portions of 

this genlock extend through 

the expansion port on the back 

of the Mega, with a small con 

trol panel available for setting 

special effects. The JRI gen 

lock provides a jack for video 

in (for the external signal). The 

input can be any standard 

NTSC signal: camera, VCR, 

even a TV cable. The com 

puter graphics superimposed 

on the external video can be 

viewed on the color monitor in 

exceptionally bright, crisp 

color. The JRI genlock also 

has a video out signal for view 

ing the combined effects on a 

standard TV or recording on a 

VCR. 

It's possible to provide ex 

ternal video with one VCR 

and tape the superimposed sig 

nal with a second one. An au 

dio out jack is also provided to 

route sound to an amplifier. A 

second, RGB out jack allows 

previewing the computer ani 

mation without the external 

video. Thus, with two moni 

tors, you can view the com 

puter graphics either with or 

without the external video. 

Software control of the 

genlock is also possible, al 

though no software is currently 

available to integrate genlock 

functions with other software 

(such as the Cyber System Software 

from Antic). The JRI 

genlock provides an industrystandard 

RS-170 signal and 

will even synch to the output 

of a digital VCR. 

Be Selective 

The file-selector dialog box 

provided by GEM does work, 

but it's hardly convenient. For 

a machine that prides itself on 

point-and-click operation, 

there's entirely too much 

typing involved, and certain 

common functions are not 

available at all {moving a file, 

as opposed to copying it, for 

example). 

Universal Item Selector, 

from Application and Design 

Software (226 Northwest F 

Street, Grants Pass, Oregon 

97526; 503-476-0071; $15.95). 

provides an excellent alterna 

tive to GEM's file selector. 

It works much as the nor 

mal file selector does, but it 

provides many extras. Placed 

in the AUTO folder, the alter 

nate file-selector box appears 

any time your application 

would normally show a file se 

lector; plus, you can call it 

from the Desk Accessory 

menu. Extra buttons include 

Copy, Move, Rename, Delete, 

Format, and Folder. 

The Format function lets 

you format a fresh disk. The 

other functions can be per 

formed on single files as well 

as folders. The Rename func 

tion, when applied to a folder, 

actually creates a new folder, 

copies all the files to it, then 

deletes the old folder. 

The Copy. Move, and De 

lete functions can also be ap 

plied to groups of files using 

wildcards. The file-selector 

box itself has a horizontal 

scroll bar so that the size and 

time of creation of the file can 

be viewed. Also, the status of 

any file (its size, the folder it's 

in. and so on) can be viewed, 

and the Read/Write status can 

be changed. Finally, you can 

even print out a listing of the 

files and folders in the current 

directorv. 

Hard Tacts 

ICD has released a new line of 

hard drives in a case designed 

to fit under a monitor or a 

Mega ST (faST Disk Drives, 

ICD, 1220 Rock Street, Rockford, 

Illinois 61101; 815-968- 

2228; 20 megabyte—$699.95, 

30 megabyte—$949.95, 50 me 

gabyte—$ 1,099.95, dual 20 

megabyte—$ 1.149.95, dual 30 

megabyte—$1,349.95, dual 50 

megabyte—$1,699.95). These 

drives have a long, low config 

uration that can make finding 

space for one easier than might 

otherwise be the case. 

The drives include an ex 

pansion port for plugging in 

other devices (such as a laser 

printer or another hard drive) 

and a built-in clock. No pro 

gram is provided for setting 

the time on the clock, but you 

can use the control panel ac 

cessory to set the drive clock. 

Software packaged with 

the drive includes a hard drive 

install program, a program for 

configuring the drive for autoboot, 

a format program, and 

some miscellaneous utilities. 

Strangely, there's no backupand-restore 

program included, 

so you'll have to find one 

elsewhere. 

The hard drive autoboot 

will boot from the floppy in 

drive A if the Controi-Shift- 

Alternate key combination is 

held down during the boot 

process. This allows you to 

bring up your system with a 

custom configuration (to use 

GDOS. for example) without 

disabling the hard drive 

autoboot. 

The documentation in 

cluded with the drive contains 

all the basics as well as much 

information that is useful only 

to an engineer. An explanation 

of how to add other drives to 

the system is included, for ex 

ample, but it is far too techni 

cal to benefit the average ST 

user. 

ftasourec 

Current Notes (published 

monthly, except January and 

August) is an exceptionally 

well-written magazine for 

Atari users. It includes materi 

al on the ST and Atari's 8-bit 

computers. 

Articles, opinions, exten 

sive reviews, and regular col 

umns combine to provide a 

well-rounded, informative, and 

pleasant reading experience. 

There is even a regular 

column devoted to questions 

and hints on adventure games. 

Editor Joe Waters does an ex 

cellent job on this publication. 

An extensive public domain 

disk library' makes it possible 

to obtain a wide selection of 

good programs for a reason 

able cost. 

For information, write 

Current Notes, 122 North 

Johnson Road, Sterling, Vir 

ginia 22170;(703)450-4761.A 

one-year subscription is $20.00. 

— David Plotkin E 

SEPTEMBER 19 53

uyer's 

Classic Software 

Remember the first software you ever bought? Remember your obsession 

with finding a key to the locked room in the castle tower? Remember 

setting up your household budget on your first spreadsheet or writing 

typo-free letters on your first word processor? Whether your first home 

computer was for games or productivity there's a classic software 

package listed in this buyer's guide that will remind you ofthe early days 

of home computers. 

Some of these programs may not be 

available anymore, or may be sold as an 

improved version with a new name. 

Caroline D. Hanlon 

AppleWorks 

Claris 

Apple II 

$249 

AppleWorks combines a word processor, a database 

manager, and a spreadsheet for the Apple II. Add-on 

modules, such as the Timeout series, provide addi 

tional functions and increase the flexibility of this in* 

tegrated package, \fersion 2.0 includes a mail-merge 

feature. 

Apple Writer 

Apple Computer 

Apple II 

DOS, 64K required 

Not available' 

Documents could be written, edited, and printed on 

the Apple II with this word processor. There were tab 

ulation files, glossary commands, split screens, and 

formatting features. 

Bank Street Writer 

Broderbund 

Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64 

64K required for Apple and Commodore; 48K re 

quired for Atari 

$49.95 (Commodore, Atari); $69.95 (Apple) 

Onscreen prompts, commands, and tutorials help 

writers use this word processor to create and edit 

documents ranging from letters to term papers. Edit 

ing features include copy, erase, and move. 

Balance of Power 

Mindscape 

Amiga, Apple II. Atari ST, IBM PC, Macintosh 

S49.95 

The player takes the part of either the president of the 

United States or the general secretary of the U.S.S.R. 

in this strategic simulation. As head of the nation, the 

player has eight years to manage overt and covert ac 

tions, insurrections, political deceptions, divisions of 

troops, and diplomatic relations. During the course of 

play, each nation's prestige will rise or fall. 

The Brooklyn Bridge 

White Crane Systems 

IBM PC. IBM PS/2 

$139.95 

With this file-transfer utility, data can be accessed 

and moved between computers using either 3%-inch 

or 5'/4-inch disks, Volumes with more than 32MB of 

data can also be transferred. Peripheral devices such 

as printers, plotters, and tape backup systems are 

supported. An eight-foot universal cable is included, 

version 2-0 adds a file manager, four DOS utilitiesmove, 

remove, copy, and backup—device drivers, 

and Run, a utility that allows dual independent pro 

cessing so an application can be driven on a remote 

computer while another program runs on the master 

computer. 

54 

C O M P U T E I 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources.

uyer's., 

guide 

CP/M 

Digital Research 

8080-series computers 

One disk drive required, two preferred 

CP/M is not available retail, bu1 OEMs can pur 

chase it directly from Digital Research. 

An operating system for the 8080 series of comput 

ers, CP/M includes an assembler, editor, debugger, 

and file-management system. 

Crosstalk XVI 

Crosstalk Communications 

IBM PC 

128K and DOS 2.0 or higher required 

$195 

This telecommunications package allows automated 

communication with either menu- or command-driven 

operation. Protocols include Crosstalk, XMODEM, 

and Kermit. Popular terminal emulations supported. 

Transfer rates range as high as 115,200 bits per sec 

ond. Compatible with Windows. 

spreadsheets. It runs DOS applications in virtual 8086 

mode and accepts batch files, version 2,01 also runs 

on 80386 machines and supports Lotus/Intel/Micro 

soft Expanded Memory Specification (LIM-EMS), 

version 4.0. 

Eastern Front 

Atari 

Atari 


The premise of this game was to command tie Ger 

man forces invading the Soviet Union in 1941. Play 

ers needed to outmaneuver, surround, and destroy 

the Soviet army before its huge reinforcements 

arrived. 

F-15 Strike Eagle 

Micro Prose 

Apple II, Atari, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC 

128K and CGA or EGA card required for IBM 

S34.95 

Players can take part in seven historical flight mis 

sions, from dropping M-82 bombs on a Libyan oil re 

finery to firing air-to-air missiles at a Syrian fighter. 

This F-15 combat-jet flight simulator displays more 

than 24 cockpit controls and features radar, launch 

indicators, electronic defenses, missiles, aerobatics, 

and mach-speed capabilities. There are four skill 

levels. 

Finder 


Macintosh 


Finder is the system software included with the Mac 

intosh. It is the set of instructions that establishes the 

desktop and pull-down menus. 

dBase 

Ashton-Tate 

IBM PC. Macintosh (called dBase MAC) 

256K required for IBM 

S695 (IBM); $495 (Macintosh) 

A relational database-management program, dBase 

can be used to collect, store, and process infor 

mation such as mailing lists, research, inventory, ac 

counting, expenses, and cost control. It includes 

applications for handling large quantities of data and 

a programming language to create specific applica 

tions. The current version is dBase III Plus. dBase IV 

should be available in the fall of 1988. 

DeluxePaint II 

Electronic Arts 

Amiga, Apple IIGS 

Kickstart 1.2 required for Amiga 

$99.95 

This paint program incorporates a variety of tools, in 

cluding ten built-in brushes; stenciling; four levels of 

zoom; dotted freehand; continuous freehand; straight 

line, curve, circle, and polygon tools; an overscan 

mode that eliminates the Amiga borders; more than 

65 fills; and a palette of 16 colors created from 4096 

shades. The brush tool can be flipped, stretched, and 

rotated or used like an airbrush. Spaces can be filled 

with patterns, solid colors, or gradient colors. The 

fixed background allows the painter to attach a pic 

ture to the background so that it will not be removed 

when it's painted over. The perspective feature lets 

the user rotate elements in three dimensions around 

a fixed point to create perspective. A range of colors 

is cycled through a static image to create the illusion 

of motion; as many as four cycles per picture can be 

stored. Pictures can be sent to selected printers. 

DesqView 

Quarterdeck Office Systems 

IBM PC 

512K required 

$129.95 

DesqView is a memory-resident, multitasking integra 

tor that offers bitmapped-graphics support for 

Eliza 

Artificial Intelligence Research Group 

Commodore 64, IBM PC 

$45 

Eliza is a variation of the original psychoanalysis pro 

gram designed by Dr. Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT. 

The user types in statements, and the program re 

sponds with questions or comments, similar to the 

way a psychotherapist might respond to a patient. 

The source code is written in Microsoft BASIC, and 

the program is available on disk. 

Fastback 

Hazox 

IBM PC 

$179 

Fastback is a hard disk-backup utility. It can back up 

a 10MB IBM PC drive in eight minutes on twentythree 

5'/.-inch disks and a 20MB IBM AT drive in 

eight minutes on fourteen 5%-inch disks. The time, 

date, and volume are recorded on each disk, and the 

program checks the disk label to prevent writing over 

a disk. The program disk also includes Freestore, a 

utility to restore lost and damaged data. 

Flight Simulator 

Microsoft 

IBM PC. Macintosh 

128K, color/graphics card required for IBM 

$49.95 

Pilots can fly a single-engine Cessna 182 or a Gates 

Learjet with this flight simulator. The program takes 

pilots on scenic flights over the continental United 

States, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, and to 

118 airports. The instrument panel is displayed on 

the screen and includes flight controls and VFR and 

IFR instrumentation. Pilots can set conditions such 

as wind, time of day, and reliability of aircraft. Com 

puter pilots have an out-of-the-window view much 

like an actual pilot's. 

Gato 

Spectrum HoloByle 

Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 54, IBM PC, 

Macintosh 

128K required for Apple, IBM, and Macintosh 

$14.95 (Commodore): $39.95 (Amiga, Apple II. Atari 

ST, IBM); $49.95 (Macintosh) 

Control panels constantly display the speed, depth, 

heading, and radar trackings of a WWII Gato subma 

rine. The player is challenged to carry out missions in 

the South Pacific and return to home base without 

being detected or destroyed. Digitized voice com 

mands relay the missions from SUBC0M. Levels of 

difficulty increase as the game continues. 

GEOS 

Berkeley Softworks 

Commodore 64 

S59.95 

This graphics operating system includes a word pro 

cessor, geoWrite; a color graphics program, geo- 

Paint; desk accessories such as an alarm clock, a 

note pad, a calculator, and a photo album; and a 

desktop that manages files and displays them as 

icons or text. 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources. 

S E P T E M £ E R 19 55

uyer's., 

guide 

Hardball 

Accolade 

Amiga, Apple II and IIGS, Atari. Atari ST, Commo 

dore 64, IBM PC. Macintosh 

256K and color/graphics card required for IBM 

$39.95 

A baseball simulation, Hardball offers a 3-0 perspec 

tive of each field angle. Different screens provide the 

strategy selections for the managers. There are six 

pitches that can be thrown by left- or right-handed 

pitchers, and players appear in large graphics. 

HyperCard 


Macintosh 

One megabyte RAM and two S00K disk drives re 

quired 

$49 

HyperCards a programming environment and devel 

opment tool that is provided with Macintoshes 

shipped since August 1987. It allows the user to cre 

ate and modify graphics, music, video, animation, 

and text on the Macintosh by linking information 

stored on cards. The program is designed so begin 

ning and more experienced programmers can devel 

op applications. People who bought Macintoshes be 

fore August 1987 can purchase the program for $49. 

International Soccer 

Commodore Business Machines 

Commodore 64 


International Soccerwas an arcade-style game that 

replicated player action and ball movement on the 

soccer field. It was available as a plug-in cartridge. 

King's Quest: Quest for the 

Crown 

Sierra On-Line 

Apple II, IBM PC, Macintosh 

128K required (or Apple, 256K required for IBM 

$49.95 

Sir Graham, the brave and noble knight, undertakes a 

journey to find the lost treasures of Daventry and re 

turn them to King Edward. Along the way, the knight 

meets many creatures, such as a witch, trolls, and a 

giant. There are a variety of paths to take, and Sir 

Graham must rely on skill and intellect in order to 

reap the rewards. This is the first in a series of King's 

Quest adventures. 

Life 


Amiga, Apple II, Atari, Atari ST, Commodore 64, 

IBM PC, Macintosh 

$14.95 (Apple, Atari, Commodore. IBM); $19.95 

(Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh) 

Currently sold as part of the package Software Gold 

en Oldies, Volume I, Life is a computer simulation of 

the birth, life, and death of generations of cells. The 

program uses its own objects, phenomena, and 

physical laws to determine the survival of the cells, 

and the player can introduce patterns and situations. 

Lite was designed in 1970 by John Horton Conway, a 

Cambridge mathematician. 

Lode Runner 

Brederbund 

Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, IBM PC. Macintosh 

48K for Apple; 128K required for Macintosh and 

IBM; joystick optional for all versions 

$14.95 (Atari, Commodore 64); $34.95 {Apple. IBM): 

$39.95 (Macintosh) 

A Galactic commando searches for stolen treasures 

by running, jumping, drilling passages with a laser 

gun, and solving puzzles. There are 150 game 

screens, plus a game generator to design new game 

boards. 

Lotus 1-2-3 

Lotus Development 

IBM PC 

256K required 

$495 

An integrated package for business users, Lotus 1-2- 

3 combines a spreadsheet, graphics, and a database. 

The database can handle as many as 8191 records 

with a maximum of 256 fields and offers two levels 

of sorting. The spreadsheet includes ten cell formats, 

protected cells, variable column widths, and win 

dows, and it can perform a variety of calculations and 

analyses. There are seven graph options for display 

ing data or creating what-if scenarios. 

MacPaint 


Macintosh 

$125 

MacPaints a drawing program designed specifically 

for the Macintosh. It includes a variety of tools and 

palettes to use in creating detailed pictures and 

shapes. Drawings can be modified pixel by pixel with 

the Zoom option. The most current version is Mac 

Paint 2.0. 

MacWrite 


Macintosh 

$125 

MacWrite is a word processing program that doubles 

as a typesetting tool. It can be used to design logos, 

letterheads, announcements, advertising flyers, and 

newsletters. It offers a variety of font sizes and 

styles. Text can be formatted for left, right, and cen 

ter justification, and the margins can be set for any 

width. The most current version is MacWrite 5.0. 

Managing Your Money 


256K, DOS 2.0 or higher required for IBM; 512K re 

quired for Macintosh 

$219.98 

version 4.0 of Managing Your Money'is a financial 

planning package made up of nine integrated pro 

grams. The programs cover major aspects of home 

financial planning such as checkbook management, 

budgets, tax planning, insurance and retirement plan 

ning, and portfolio management. The software incor 

porates the 1987 tax-law changes and contains a fullfeatured 

word processor with mail-merge capabilities. 

The program can be used to set up budgets, track 

net worth, plan finances for a maximum of five years, 

keep records of insurance and investments, and print 

checks, invoices, mailing labels, reports, graphs, and 

tax forms. Memos can be stored on the electronic 

calendar, and financial data can be exported to Lotus 

1-2-3. 

MasterType 

Mindscape 

Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Macintosh 

48K required for Apple 

$39.95 

This typing program helps students learn to touchtype 

and improve their skills in using a computer key 

board. By offering onscreen prompts, the program 

encourages the students to watch the screen rather 

than their fingers. There are 18 levels, from single let 

ters to words and symbols. The package includes a 

user's guide. 

Math Blaster! 

Davidson and Associates 

Apple II and IIgs, IBM PC 

128K required for Apple; 256K, DOS 1.1. and 

BASICA required for IBM 

$49.95 

Students in grades 1-6 learn the basic facts of addi 

tion, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, 

decimals, and percentages. The 600 problems are 

grouped by math area and level of difficulty. There 

are four activities. The first activity explains the math 

fact and the second activity presents a problem the 

user must solve. In the third activity, the problem is 

missing a piece of information which the user must 

supply. The fourth activity is an arcade-style game 

with 30 math problems. An editor helps users enter 

their own math problems. 

56 COMPUTE! 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources.

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uyer's., 

guide 

Microsoft Windows 

Microsoft 

IBM PC 

320K, DOS 2.0 or higher, and graphics adapter card 

required 

S99 

Windows is an operating environment that enables 

the user to work with multiple applications and switch 

between them without quitting. Most standard appli 

cations that run under MS-DOS can be run with Windows. 

A note pad. a calculator, a card file with 

autodial, and a terminal program are also included. 

Microsoft Word 

Microsoft 


$450 (IBM); $395 (Macintosh) 

This word processing package contains an outline 

processor to help organize thoughts and ideas, a 

glossary, a dictionary, and a thesaurus. Style sheets 

can be used to establish page formats, and the 

WYSIWYG display can include special character for 

mats. As many as eight windows can be in operation 

at one time, and the saved documents can be printed 

on a variety of printers. 

Microsoft Works 

Microsoft 


384K. graphics adapter card required (or IBM 

S195 (PC); S295 (Macintosh) 

Microsoft Works includes applications for word pro 

cessing, database management, spreadsheets, and 

communications. The word processor contains a 

100,000-word spelling checker and an Undo com 

mand. The spreadsheet has 57 built-in functions and 

can produce charts. The database and communica 

tions functions handle and transfer large amounts of 

data. 

MS-DOS 

Microsoft 

IBM PC 


MS-DOS is a disk operating system for IBM PCs and 

compatibles. It is a collection of commands that 

allow communication between the hardware and the 

software of the computer. A clone's ability to run 

MS-DOS is the standard by which it is judged to be 

"IBM-compatible." MS-DOS is included with the pur 

chase of some machines or it can be bought sepa 

rately. The retail price is determined by the dealer. 

M.U.L.E. 


Atari. Commodore 64 

$14.95 

The player and three associates colonize a planet and 

try to make it survive as they simultaneously attempt 

to become financially successful. M.U.L.E.'s are 

stubborn, robotic creatures needed to perform many 

of the tasks on the planet. The game requires strate 

gy and skill. 

Music Construction Set 


Apple II. Atari. Commodore 64. IBM PC 

$14.95 

Users can compose, edit, save, print, and play music 

with this program. It includes accidentals, octave rais 

ers, triplets, dotted notes, and ties, along with graphic 

displays. The IBM version has six-note polyphonic 

sounds and 240 professional synthesized instru 

ments. It also supports the Music Feature sound 

card. 

The Newsroom 

Springboard 

Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM PC 

256K and color/graphics card required for IBM 

S49.95 

Desktop publishers can use this program to create 

newsletters for family, clubs, school, or business. 

Newsroom contains a word processor and more than 

600 pieces of clip art. Text wraps around photos and 

graphics added to the composition. There are five 

fonts, and the program supports most printers. 

The Norton Utilities 

Peter Norton Computing 

IBM PC 

S100 

The Norton Utilities recover lost data and aid in disk 

management. The program, which indexes disk and 

system performance and provides graphic tree dis 

plays for directories, can read, write, or modify 

ranges of clusters or sectors. Context-sensitive Help 

screens are available online, and batch files are inter 

active. All the utilities can run from one control 

program. 

Nota Bene 

Dragonfly Software 

IBM PC 

256K and DOS 2.0 or higher required, 512K recom 

mended 

$495 

Nota Bene is an advanced word processor that com 

bines the speed of XyWritewVn the flexibility to edit 

and print long documents. It uses a database for freeform 

or structured text with Help files and tofus-style 

menus. The program includes a variety of styles and 

formats, plus editing commands, sort features, mailmerge, 

math capabilities, printing capabilities, page 

layout, libraries and glossaries, a speller, a thesaurus, 

special characters, and programming aids. 

Paperback Writer 

Digital Solutions 

Commodore 64 and 128 

$59.95 

In 1986 the name of this software was changed to 

Pocket, and Paperback Writer's now marketed as 

Pocket II. This word processor supports word-wrap, 

search and replace, mail merge, 40 and 80 columns, 

side scrolling, global formatting, and a variety of for 

matting codes. The display is WYSIWYG, and the 

program offers 15 printer files. Enhanced versions for 

the 64 and 128 are available on one disk for $59.95. 

ttUOU'JjjJJJJJJ'JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ 

HyperCard 

Help 

□ I " !j:lion 

Clitt tt.-P".-!-lat. £■ 

■. ■ i 

HyperCard's online Help is a good ex 

ample of what you can do with hypermedia. 

PaperClip 

Batteries Included (Electronic Arts) 

Apple II, Atari. Commodore 64 

$59.95 (Apple. Atari); $49.95 (Commodore) 

PaperClip provides a vanety of standard word pro 

cessing features and more specific options for each 

machine. Phrases, sentences, and blocks ot text can 

be moved, copied, and erased, and the whole docu 

ment can be formatted for printing. A global searchand-replace 

automatically changes words and 

phrases. With the horizontal scrolling, documents 

can be as wide as 250 columns, and the program of 

fers an 80-column video display so that the complete 

page can be viewed. Word processing features in 

clude columns, alphanumeric tabs, built-in arithmetic 

58 COMPUTE 

'Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources.

Buyer's., 

guide 

functions, headers, foolers, automatic page number 

ing, personalized form letters, mailing label and mail 

ing list capabilities, and printer commands for 

underline, boldface, italic, superscripts, and sub 

scripts. The Commodore 64 version includes Spellpack, 

a spelling checker. PaperClipior the Apple 

provides macros and one-command access to the 

disk utility menu. The Atari version has dual text win 

dows (or transfer of text between files, macro com 

mands, Spellpack, and automatic Save. 

PFS:Write 

Software Publishing 

IBM PC 

DOS 2.0 or higher and 512K required 

S199 

The first word processor in the PFS line, PFS:Write 

can be used to generate form letters and documents. 

Data tables, graphs, and additional information can 

be added from other programs in the series (such as 

PFS:Report and PFS:Graph). The word processor is 

currently marketed as PFS:Professiona! Write, Ver 

sion 2.0. People who own PFSMite can upgrade to 

PFS;Pmfessional Write 2.0 for $50. 

Pinball Construction Set 



$14.95 (Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64 and IBM); 

S19.95 (Macintosh) 

With Pinball Construction Set, players can build, test, 

modify, play, and save their own pinball games. The 

games include bumpers, flippers, springs, and an 

illegal-tilt sensor. Gravity, speed, and scoring can be 

varied to affect the way the game is played. Music 

and sound effects can also be added to the games. 

This program was the first in the software-constructionset 

genre. 

The Print Shop 

Broderbund 


54K required for Apple; 128K or 256K for color 

printing and DOS 2.0 to 3.1 for IBM: 512K for 

Macintosh: printer for all versions 

$59.95 

Cards, flyers, stationery, and signs can be created 

and printed using The Print Shop. There's an assort 

ment of pictures, symbols, borders, backgrounds, 

and type fonts and sizes. The graphics and text edi 

tors allow simple changes. The program prints to 

most printers and accepts keyboard, joystick, or 

KoalaPad input. The package includes color paper 

and envelopes. 

ProComm 

DataStorm Technologies 

IBM PC 


$75 

ProComm is a file-transfer system that supports sev 

en protocols, including Kermit and exploding win 

dows. It provides a script language and offers 

terminal emufation. The current version available is 

ProComm Plus. 

The Oregon Trail 

MECC 

Apple II. IIGS 

64 K required 

S55 

Children aged 5 or older can relive the journey West 

on the Oregon Trail while they learn about nineteenthcentury 

American history. Color scenes depict the 

rugged landscape, covered wagons, and adventures 

faced by the pioneers. The program also encourages 

users to practice decision-making and problemsolving 

skills. 

PageMaker 

Aldus 

Macintosh, IBM PC 

640K, graphics card, DOS 3.0 or higher required for 

PC: System 4.1 or higher. Finder 5.5 or higher, and 

a hard disk required for Macintosh 

S795 (IBM); $595 (Macintosh) 

A desktop publishing package, PageMakercan be 

used to design and produce documents by combin 

ing text from word processors with graphics from • 

paint, draw, and clip-art programs. Developed for an 

office setting. PageMaker includes a text editor and 

tools to edit data and position graphics, define a for 

mat or layout, and then print out the document. Ver 

sion 3.0 is now available for the Macintosh and the 

IBM PC. 

ML 

Pro-Line Software 

Commodore 64 

S19.95 

Spinnaker PAL (Personal Assembly Language) is a 

machine language assembler for Commodore 64, 

8000-series, and 9000-series computers. It is avail 

able in The Programmer's Tool Box. from Spinnaker 

Software. 

Quicken Version 2 

Intuit 

IBM PC and PS/2 


$49.95 

Version 2 of this program contains the same checkwriting 

and financial-management features offered by 

the original version, plus some new capabilities. A 

bill-minder feature reminds the user when it is time to 

pay a bill, and the program can automatically write 

recurring checks. Financial records can be updated 

whenever a transaction occurs. Reports such as in 

come and payroll tax records, budgets, and income 

and expenses can be generated and printed. Vfersion 

2 also allows an unlimited number of bank accounts 

and transactions. The package includes a quick-startand-tips 

card, a manual, sample checks, sample en 

velopes, and a check and envelope order form. Disks 

are available in 3^-inch or 5%-inch format. Free tele 

phone support is provided. 

Reach for the Stars 

Strategic Studies Group (Electronic Arts) 

Apple II. Commodore 64 

$45 

One to four players compete to colonize empires in 

space. Empires can be built and maintained by im 

proving the industry and environment and by building 

warships. There are four classes of warships, trans 

ports, and explorers. Game options include novas, 

natural disasters, solar debris, and xenophobes. A tu 

torial is included. 

Sargon III 

Hayden Software (Spinnaker Software) 

Apple II, Commodore 64. IBM, Macintosh 

$39.95 

This computer chess program contains a library of 

more than 68,000 opening moves, instructions for 

novices, and brain-teasing chess problems for every 

one to master. Players can replay 107 of the world's 

greatest chess matches and review 45 classic chess 

problems. The program has nine skill levels. The IBM 

and Apple versions are on one flippy disk. 

Seven Cities of Gold 


Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, IBM PC. Macintosh 

64K required for Apple 

$14.95 (Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64, IBM^C): 

$19.95 (Macintosh) 

An educational adventure game, Seven Cities of Gold 

helps recreate the Spanish exploration of the New 

Vtorld. Players take the part of a conquistador to 

experience the thrills and problems of early explorers 

such as Cortez and Columbus. Obstacles include fi 

nancing the expedition, navigation, resource manage 

ment, mutiny, disease, and the unpredictable natives. 

Players can explore a variety of geographies in each 

game, or they can play on geographically accurate 3- 

D maps with real weather conditions. 

Shanghai 

MediaGenic (formerly known as Activision) 

Amiga. Apple II, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, IBM 

PC, Macintosh 

256K required for IBM; 512K required for Amiga, 

Apple IIGS, and Macintosh 

$34.95 (Apple II. Commodore 64, IBM); $39.95 

(Amiga, Macintosh); $44.95 (Apple HGS) 

Shanghaiis based on mah-jongg, a game played by 

the Chinese. Colored tiles are stacked on each other 

and must be matched and removed according to the 

characters painted on each piece. There are solitaire 

and multiple-player options. 

SideKick 

Borland International 


128K and DOS 2.0 or higher required for IBM; mo 

dem optional 

$84.95 (IBM PC): $99.95 (Macintosh) 

A collection of desktop accessories. SideKick can be 

used while other programs such as WordStar, Lotus, 

and dBase are running. Files as long as 25 pages can 

be entered and edited with the full-screen editor. A 

phone directory lists names, addresses, and tele 

phone numbers. With a modem and the autodialer 

routine, telephone numbers can be located and dialed 

automatically. There is a monthly calendar for the 

years 1901-2099, as well as an appointment calen 

dar to help the user keep track of meetings and ap 

pointments. The calculator can perform decimal-tohexideomal-to-binary 

conversions as well as standard 

business computations. An ASCII table is also included. 

• 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources. 

SEPTEMBER 19 8 8 59

Buyer's.; 

guide 

SpeedScript 

COMPUTE! Publications 

Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64 

Varies 

SpeedScript is a word processor written in-house at 

COMPUTE! Publications and published as a type-in 

program in magazines and books. It allows users to 

write, edit, format, and print documents of all sizes, 

from letters to novels. Margins, page length, spacing, 

page numbers, headers, and footers can be changed 

or added to the document. Formatting features in 

clude pagination, underlining, and centering. Graphics 

can be added to the text, and the files can be linked 

to print one continuous document. This word pro 

cessing program uses about 6K. It is available as a 

type-in program in book form, on disk, or in bookand-disk 

combinations. The price varies according to 

published format and machine required. 

Star Raiders 

Atari 

Atari, Atari ST 

8K required 

$6.95 (Atari); $29.95 (Atari ST) 

Sfar Raiders is an arcade-style game created for the 

original Atari eight-bit machines. The Atarian Federa 

tion is at war with the Zylon Empire, and the player's 

mission is to destroy all the Zylon star ships. There 

are four mission skill levels. Trie game is available as 

a plug-in cartridge. 

Summer Games 

Epyx 

Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 

$19.95 

As many as eight players can enter their athletes in 

summer Olympic competition, including swimming, 

diving, track, skeet shooting, pole vaulting, and 

gymnastics. 

SuperKey 


IBM PC 


S99.95 

SuperKey\% a utility program for the IBM PC and 

compatibles. It has macro capabilities so that many 

commands and keystrokes can be consolidated into 

one keystroke. By using the U.S. government dataencryption 

standard (DES), personal files can be en 

crypted so no one else can read them. And without 

the password, no one can decode the files. For more 

protection, SuperKeyzm lock trie keyboard to pre 

vent access. Another feature automatically turns the 

screen off after a predetermined amount of time to 

save wear and tear on the monitors. 

ThinkTank 

Living Videotext (Symantec) 

Apple II, IBM PC and compatibles, Macintosh 

DOS 2.0 or higher required for IBM; 48K required 

for Apple 

$195 

An outline processor, ThinkTank integrates word pro 

cessing and graphics capabilities to organize 

thoughts and ideas. The ideas can be listed as head 

ings and subheadings or in paragraph format 

Turbo Lightning 

Borland 

IBM PC 

256K, DOS 2.0 or higher, and two drives required 

$99.95 

Turbo Lightning is a RAM-resident integrated infor 

mation package containing a spelling checker, a the 

saurus, and a dictionary. It can be used with word 

processors, databases, or other applications for 

whole-page or instant text correction. Wards and 

phrases can be added to the dictionary, and the pro 

gram recognizes upper-, lower-, and mixed-case 

words. It can also provide synonymous or soundalike 

words. Additional utilities are provided with the 

Turbo Lightning Libraries. 

Turbo Pascal 

Borland 

IBM PC 


$99.95 

The basis of Borland's Turbo Pascal language-devel 

opment system, Turbo Pascal \s a Pascal compiler. 

The program offers window procedures, sound, 

color, graphics, I/O redirection, and DOS path sup 

port. Errors can be located and corrected with the 

built-in, full-screen editor. MicroCalc, a spreadsheet 

program, is also included. 

um!>k. ■*> nimi t> «ji tw iihiMh -ill u la 

IHllMlWI lltMMM* M U< UMM 

Wizardry—Proving Grounds of 

the Mad Overlord 

Sir-Tech Software 

Apple II, IBM PC 

48K for Apple; 128K and color graphics card for 

IBM 

$34.95 (Apple); $49.95 (IBM) 

Choosing from five races and eight different profes 

sions, the player assembles a party of six characters 

to explore a ten-level, three-dimensional maze. The 

goal is to find Werdna and retrieve the stolen Amulet. 

During the search, characters can gain experience, 

find treasure, battle dragons, and fight other foes. 

Characters can be transferred to other scenarios. This 

is the first of a trilogy. 

Ultima I 

Origin Systems 

Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM PC 

64K required for Apple; CGA or EGA cards required 

for IBM 

$39.95 

In this fantasy adventure, the player searches the 

land of Britannia and outer space for clues to defeat 

the evil wizard Mondain. The game is written in as 

sembly language for speed and graphics capabilities. 

The package contains a double-sided disk, four 

maps, a reference card, a manual, and coins of the 

realm. 

VideoWorks 

Spinnaker 

Apple II, Macintosh 

Not available* 

An animation program, IZ/tfeolAforirs could be used to 

create presentations, storybooks, movies, and car 

toons. It included drawing tools, artwork, tutorials, 

and examples. 

VisiCalc 

VisiCorp 

IBM PC 

Not available* 

VisiCalc was one of the early spreadsheet programs 

created for use on personal computers. It predated 

Lotus 1-2-3. 

Where in the World Is Carmen 

Sandiego? 

Broderbund 

Apple II and IIGS. Commodore 64, IBM PC 

64K required for Apple; 128K required for IBM; joy 

stick optional for all versions 

$34.95 (Commodore 64); $39.95 (Apple, IBM) 

The players follow Carmen Sandiego and her gang of 

thieves around the world, trying to solve mysteries 

while learning about world geography. The crime 

computer helps organize the clues, and the World Al 

manac provides information on the cities and coun 

tries visited. There are ten suspects in 30 cities, and 

more than 1000 clues. For children and adults. 

WordPerfect 

WordPerfect 


256K, two disk drives and DOS 2.0 or higher re 

quired for IBM 

$395 

Designed originally for the IBM PC, this word proces 

sor contains a thesaurus and a dictionary to check 

spelling. Word processing features include automatic 

formatting, footnotes, endnotes, automatic para 

graphing, outline numbering, indexing, table-of-contents 

creation, five newspaper-style or parallel 

columns, and a List Files option that permits file op 

erations such as rename, delete, and print without 

leaving the program. Math columns can be added to 

documents and automatically calculated. The merge 

feature can be used along with user-defined macros 

for special functions. Multiple documents can be 

printed, and the program works with more than 200 

printers. 

60 COMPUTE 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find ft through other sources.

uyer's., 

guide 

Publishers of Classic Software 

Accolade 

550 S.Winchester Blvd. 

San Jose, CA 95128 

Aldus 

411 First /We. S 

Suite 200 

Seattle, V\A 98104 


20525 Mariani Ave. 

Cupertino, CA 95014 

Artificial Intelligence Research Group 

921 N. LaJollaA/e. 

Los Angeles, CA 90046 

Ashton-Tate 

20101 Hamilton Ave. 

Torrance, CA 90502-1319 

Atari 

1196 Borregas A/e. 

P.O. Box 3427 

Sunnyvale. CA 94088 

Berkeley Soflworks 

2150 Shat tuck A/e. 

Berkeley, CA 94704 


4585 Scotts Valley Dr. 

Scotts Valley, CA 95066 

Brederbund 

17 Paul Dr. 

San Rafael, CA 94903 

Claris 

440 Clyde Ave. 

Mountain View. CA 94043 

Commodore Business Machines 

1200 Wilson Dr. 

West Chester, PA 19380 

COMPUTE! Books 

Customer Service 

P.O. Box 2165 

Radnor, PA 19089 

DataStorm Technologies 

2100 E.Broadway 

Suite 217 

P.O. Box 1471 

Columbia, MO 65205 


3135KashiwaSt. 

Torrance, CA 90505 

Digital Research 

60 Garden Ct 

Monterey, CA 93942 

Digital Solutions 

2-30 Wertheim Ct. 

Richmond Hill, Ontario 

Canada L4B 189 

Dragonfly Software 

do5 W. Broadway 

Suite 500 

New York, NY 10013 


1820 Gateway Dr. 

San Mateo, CA 94404 

Epyx 

P.O. Box 8020 

600 Galveston Rd. 

Redwood City, CA 94063 

Hazox 

P.O. Box 637 

Chadds Ford, PA 19317 

Intuit 

540 University Ave. 

Palo Alto, CA 94301 

Lotus Development 

55 Cambridge Pkwy. 

Cambridge, MA 02142 

MECA ventures 

355 Riverside Ave. 

Westport, CT 06880 

MECC 

Distribution Center 

3490 Lexington A/e. N 

St. Paul, MN 55126 

Mediagenic 

(formerly known as Activision) 

3885 Bohannon Dr. 

Menlo Park, CA 94025 

MicroPro International 

33 San Pablo Ave. 

San Rafael, CA 94903 

MicroProse 

180 Lakefront Dr. 

Hunt Valley. MD 21030 

Microsoft 

16011 N.E.36thWy. 

Box 97017 

Redmond, WA 98073-9717 

Mindscape 

3444 Dundee Rd. 

Northbrook, IL 60062 


340 Harvey Rd. 

Manchester, NH 03103 

Peter Norton Computing 

100 Wilshire Blvd. 

Suite 900 

Santa Monica, CA 90401 

Professional Software (PSI) 

51 Fremont St. 

Needham. MA 02194 

Quarterdeck Office Systems 

150 Pico Blvd. 

Santa Monica. CA 90405 

Sierra On-Line 

P.O. Box 495 

Coarsegold, CA 93614 

Sir-Tech Software 

P.O. Box 245 

Charlestown Ogdensburg Mall 

Ogdensburg, NY 13669 

Software Publishing 

1901 Landings Dr. 

Mountain View, CA 94043 

Spectrum HofoByte 

2061 Challenger Dr. 

Suite 325 

Alameda, CA 94501 

Spinnaker Software 

One Kendall Sq. 

Cambridge, MA 02139 

Springboard Software 

7808 Creekridge Cir. 

Minneapolis, MN 55435 

Strategic Studies Group 

1747 Orleans Ct. 

Walnut Creek, CA 94598 

Symantec 

10201 Torre A/e. 

Cupertino, CA 95014 

White Crane Systems 

Suite 151 

6889 Peachtree Ind. Blvd. 

Norcross. GA 30092 

WordPerfect 

288 W. Center St. 

Orem, UT 84057 

WordPro 

Professional Software 

CBM/PET 


WordPro was copyrighted in 1980 for the CBM/PET 

computers. It was a word processing program with 

editing, mail-merge, and printout capabilities. It was 

designed to create muitiple-page documents, form 

letters, and mailing lists. PSI has replaced WordPro 

with the Fleet System products. 

WordStar Professional 

MicroPro 

IBM PC 

Requires 384K or 512K with graphics card: EGA, 

CGA, VGA, or monochrome 

$495 

First introduced in 1979, WordStars a word pro 

cessing program containing a spelling corrector, mail 

merge, a thesaurus, and indexing capabilities. The 

most recent version is WordStar 5.0. Updates are 

available for $119. 

Zorkl 

Solid Gold Software (Mediagenic. formerly known 

as Activision) 

Apple II, IBM PC 

S14.95 

In this interactive-fiction game, the player travels to 

the ruins of an ancient empire far underground to 

search for the treasures of Zork. 

"Although this program is not available from the manufacturer, you may be able to find it through other sources. H 

SEPTEMBER 1988 61

n reviews 

Yuck It Up, Paint 

Pretty Pictures, 

Delve into 

Dungeons, Fly 

Invisibly over 

Enemy Territory, 

Work Hard with 

Words, Catch 

Kidnappers in 

the Big City, and 

Read All About It 

Each month. "Fast Looks" offers up 

snapshots of the newest software and 

hardware for the Amiga. Apple II. Atari 

ST. Commodore 64/128, IBM PC. and 

Macintosh lines of personal computers. 

These capsule reviews look at notable 

programs and peripherals, products 

which have just arrived in our offices 

and which haven't yet been fully 

evaluated. 

"Fast Looks" gives you glimpses of 

important and interesting software and 

hardware now, not next month. 

Inset 

Inset may be the easiest way on the 

planet to break into desktop publishing. 

With Inset resident in your IBM PC's 

memory, you can grab text or graphics 

screens, edit them, and insert them into 

word processing documents. 

Installing Inset is easy. You simply 

type INSET at the DOS command line 

prompt. The first time you run the pro 

gram, you go through an installation 

procedure. The program asks you to an 

swer several questions about your video 

setup and printer, suggesting choices 

when possible. You also have the op 

portunity to change defaults (such as 

the hot key that invokes the program) 

during setup. When you've finished the 

setup procedure. Inset installs itself as a 

memory-resident utility, taking up 

about I37K of memory. If you decide 

to alter your configuration later, you 

can invoke a separate program. 

With a text or graphics screen dis 

played on your monitor, you simply 

press the program's hot key to invoke 

Inset and grab the image. Inset presents 

a menu on the bottom of your screen, 

with options to view a screen, save the 

current screen, edit the screen, print a 

screen, or get help. You can use your 

cursor keys or a mouse to select an 

option. 

Saving a screen is as easy as giving 

Inset the Save command and typing a 

filename. If you want to modify the im 

age before you save it. Inset places a va 

riety of commands at your disposal. 

Perhaps the most important are the Ink 

commands, which control the way the 

screen's colors are printed on a blackand-white 

printer. Ink provides several 

standard color mappings that print the 

screen image as is, reverse the light and 

dark values, or print a black-and-white 

image. If the standard mappings don't 

produce exactly the printout you need, 

there's a command that lets you selec 

tively map each screen color to each 

printer gray level. For complex color 

images, this command is a must. 

You can use Inset simply to grab 

screens and print them, but the pro 

gram's real power comes into play 

when you incorporate your grabbed im 

ages into word processing documents. 

Merging text and graphics couldn't be 

easier. All you do is place the name of a 

saved screen within brackets in the text 

at the spot where you want the screen 

printed. When it's time to print, you 

use your word processor's print com 

mand. Inset monitors the output and 

prints the specified screen when it 

comes to the name in brackets. 

Inset may not give you the power 

of some dedicated desktop publishing 

packages, but it provides all the tools 

you need to produce first-class docu 

ments that mix text and graphics. 

IBM PC and compatibles—$99.00 

Inset Systems 

Mill Plain Rd. 

Danbury, CT 06811 

— CK 

(203)794-0396 > 

62 COMPUTE!

"An 

exceptional 

'I 

was impressed. 

It wins the costeffective 

award." 

John Dvorak, PC Magazine 

We appreciated those kind words. They helped 

make MONEYCOUNTS* 4.0 one of today's most popu 

lar accounting/money management programs 

for home and business. But we couldn't leave well 

enough alone. So we're introducing new 

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handles up to 999 accounts and 100.000 transac 

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now also... 

prints any type of pin-feed 

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estimates your 1988 

income tax 

analyzes financing options, 

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not copy protected. 

Depl. COM 

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Cedar Rapids. IA 52402 

NAME 

~l 

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COUNTS 

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ADDRESS 

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Price 

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MONEVCOUNTS B 5.D (Needs IBM or 

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S 29.00 

375 Collins Road NE 

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ifast 

looks 

Stellar Crusade 

That the economics and sociology of in 

terstellar warfare can be as fascinating 

as the mechanics of armed starships— 

or even more so—is displayed to good 

effect in this new SSI release. 

Long-range contact has been made be 

tween the League and the Republic in 

Stellar Crusade. 

The time is the distant future, the 

setting a cluster of stars inhabited by 

two cultures: one a corporate system, 

the other based upon religious fanati 

cism. Players must plant colonies, de 

velop resources, and position war fleets 

and assault troops to counter the 

growth of the opposition. 

Stellar Crusade offers several levels 

of play. At its simplest level, this is a 

strategy game in which task forces are 

moved about a stellar map over the 

course of four years, with each turn rep 

resenting three months. At its most 

complex, the game spans decades, and 

each turn calls for economic, explora 

tion, and military decisions and invest 

ments, as well as starship and weapons 

design and configuration. A variety of 

scenarios provide for games that last 

anywhere from a couple of hours to as 

many as 40 hours. 

Although this is not a graphics 

game, its graphics are excellent. The 

basic star map of the cluster is quite 

convincing; icons are used to good ef 

fect for deriving information about con 

trol of various star systems. 

A menu-driven interface makes 

getting to know Stellar Crusade's me 

chanics simple and efficient, The docu 

mentation is thorough without being 

exhaustive or exhausting. Reminiscent 

in some ways of SSG's Reach for the 

Stars, Stellar Crusade has more than a 

few original and thoughtful touches, 

making it one of the more mature SF 

games seen lately. 

— KF 

Atari ST with color monitor—$54.95 

IBM PC and compatibles—$49.95 

SSI 

1046N.Rengstorff Ave. 

Mountain View. CA 94043 

(415)964-1353 

Eng-LarV 

Gentry Software calls its Eng»Lan' 

package the easiest computer language 

in the world. That's saying a lot. but the 

package ts simple to use. 

The program presents you with 14 

command options. You choose one, an 

swer some questions about the com 

mand, and, presto change-o. you have a 

program statement. You can't encoun 

ter syntax errors because Eng»Lan' 

types the command for you. 

For example, you choose an IF- 

THEN statement by hitting the I key. 

Eng»Lan' responds with a smaller 

group of options. You can choose from 

different types of comparative state 

ments: IF variable 1 equals variable 2, 

IF variable 1 is greater than variable 2, 

and so o_n. After you've chosen one, 

Eng«Lan' offers a choice of variables 

for the statement. Finally, the statement 

appears in your program listing. 

You can edit programs by choosing 

View Or Change from the options. An 

other option reads from a file, and still 

another runs the program. There are 

commands which display characters 

and commands which erase characters. 

You don't even have to remember the 

commands because they're on the 

screen. 

This process saves you from those 

hours of frustration spent wrestling 

with syntax and rules. Eng»Lan* can't 

prevent you from making logical errors, 

however. No programming language 

can do that. But you'll be able to con 

centrate on correcting your errors in 

logic, not format, because Eng»LarT 

takes care of some of the more tedious 

tasks. _ 

Eng«Lan' won't be your last pro 

gramming language; after a while, you'd 

need a more complex language because 

this package isn't powerful enough for 

building applications and games. 

IBM PC with at least 256K—$49 

Gentry Software 

P.O. Box 4485 

Springfield. MO 65808 

(800)346-9475 

(800) 634-8439 in Missouri 

— HA 

Publisher ST 

What You See Is What You Get 

(WYSIWYG)—the ability of software 

and computer to exactly show the final 

document on the screen—has become 

the subtle benchmark of desktop pub 

lishing programs. For today's high-tech 

clientele, only WYSIWYG will do. 

Timeworks' Publisher ST, for the Atari 

ST 520, 1040, and Mega ST, makes 

WYSIWYG second nature. 

Publisher ST lets you lay out, de 

sign, print, and produce documents that 

look thoroughly polished. Nol happy 

with the way something looks? Resize 

it, change the font, or reshape the layout 

and see it on the screen. There are are 

four views to choose from, ranging 

from full-page to twice the actual docu 

ment size. Publisher ST can handle 

practically all your desktop publishing 

tasks. Newsletters, brochures, term pa 

pers, catalogs, leaflets, advertisements, 

labels, and almost anything else can be 

created with just a little imagination. 

Timeworks Desktop 

PUBLISHER 

ST 

Publisher ST is a fult-featured desktop 

publishing program which takes full ad 

vantage of the ST's graphics abilities. 

Best of all, Publisher ST takes full 

advantage of all the built-in graphics ca 

pabilities of the Atari ST. The main in 

terface includes four modes: text, 

paragraph, drawing, and layout. You 

can import text from any ASCII-based 

word processor (or use the accompany 

ing converter program to change the 

file's format) and import graphics from 

Easy-Draw, NEOchrome, or DEGAS. 

The program works in color or mono 

chrome. As for printing, Publisher ST 

drives practically any printer you 

64 COMPUTE!

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n reviews 

have—dot-matrix or laser—including 

all Epson-compatibles and the Apple 

LaserWriter series, or any other Post 

Script-compatible printer. 

Timeworks has a solid product 

here. If you do desktop publishing on 

the ST, you won't find a more appeal 

ing package. 

Atari ST with at least 512K—$129.95 

Timeworks 

444 Lake Cook Rd. 

Deerfield, IL 60015 

(312)948-9200 

— DF 

Macro Assembler A86 

Programming 808S assembly language 

(the native language of the IBM PC and 

compatibles) isn't for everyone. It's for 

those who are willing to spend hours 

staring at a few lines of code with the 

fervent conviction that the bug will be 

found. Assembly language can be ex 

tremely frustrating, and it demands un 

limited patience. But its speed borders 

on the miraculous; you can do with it 

what can't be done with any high-level 

language. Once you've learned assem 

bly language, you have the power to 

speak to the microprocessor in its na 

tive tongue. 

If you're ready to take the plunge 

into learning 8088 assembly language, 

A86, Eric Isaacson's shareware assem 

bler, is an excellent choice, primarily 

because it avoids many of the complex 

ities of the Microsoft Macro Assembler 

(MASM). MASM was created to write 

massive programs—the MS-DOS oper 

ating system, for example—and is 

amazingly full-featured and powerful. 

But few or us need MASM's power or 

its complexity. 

While .-156 is ideal for beginners. 

it's by no means a limited assembler. It 

has full macro capabilities compatible 

with MASM—in fact, it can assemble 

many source files written for MASM 

with few or no changes in the code. It 

can produce .COM files directly with 

out using LINK and EXE2BIN, or, al 

ternatively, it can produce .OBJ files 

that are linkable with the linker on your 

DOS disk. It even assembles 80286 protected-mode 

mnemonics. 

A86 is blazingly fast because it's a 

one-pass assembler, and because it's 

written in assembly language itself. It 

assembles a source file in a fraction of 

the time required by MASM. A86's doc 

umentation, which includes both tuto 

rial and reference sections, comes on 

the disk, so you have to print it your 

self. D86, an interactive debugger, is 

66 COMPUTE! 

also available. A86 is distributed as 

shareware, so you can try the program 

before you pay for it. 

— JS 

IBM PC and compatible computers—S50 registra 

tion fee 

Eric Isaacson 

416 E. University St. 

Bloomington, IN 47401 

(812)339-1811 

Contributing to "Fast Looks" this month 

were Heidi Aycock, Keith Ferrell. David Florance, 

Clifton Karnes, and John Shadle. 

The Three 

Stooges 

Breathes there a player with soul so 

dead who never to himself has said: 

"Hey, Moe! Yabibibibi! Nyuk! Nyuk! 

Nyuk!" The Stooges have arrived on 

disk. 

High time, too. After a decade of 

Pac-Men, Boulder Dash-ers, Mario 

brothers, and others, we finally have the 

trio of characters who patented their 

own form of arcade action half a centu 

ry ago. Arcade action? "Why soitanly!" 

Think about it. A typical Stooges 

short placed Larry, Moe, and Curly in a 

race against time or circumstance, dur 

ing which they overcame—or over 

whelmed—a variety of obstacles at a 

breathless pace. 

But how much of the Stooges can 

actually be captured on disk? Quite a 

bit. Cinemaware has taken the time and 

trouble to put together a game that 

looks like the Stooges, sounds like the 

Stooges—thanks to digitization of mu 

sic, sound effects, and actual dialogue 

from Three Stooges films—and most 

important, feels like the Stooges. 

This Stooge-esque sensibility ("Oh, 

a wise guy, huh?") flows from the mo 

ment the game is booted. In fact, the 

opening credits deliver not only the 

nostalgic atmosphere of a Stooges short, 

complete with theme song, but also an 

unexpected yuk or two. 

In true Three Stooges fashion, the 

setup follows immediately after the 

credits. Plot in this interactive "movie" 

is about the same as plot in one of the 

three-some's short films: There's an ob 

jective that Larry, Moe. and Curly must 

achieve. 

Part of the Stooges' success was 

that they were such nice guys, always 

out to help the underdog. Here, it's an 

orphanage under threat of foreclosure 

by heartless banker I. Fleecem. 

Ma, the widowed orphanage owner, 

weeps helplessly. Her charges are going 

to be cast into the streets of Stoogeville. 

No true Stooge could let that happen. 

Our boys take to the streets to earn the 

money to save Ma and the kids from 

homeiessness. They only have 30 days 

before Ma loses everything, and the 

boys lose their chance to marry Ma's 

gorgeous daughters. "Hiya, Toots!" 

The money is earned the way 

you'd expect the Stooges to earn mon 

ey. The boys move through the streets 

of Stoogeville in search of opportunity. 

What they find is something else. The 

town is set up like a board game, with 

various competitions derived from 

classic Stooge flicks. Players put the trio 

through their paces in pie fights, boxing 

rings, slapping and eye-gouging con 

tests, vicious bowls of oyster stew, and 

a wild gurney race through crowded 

hospital corridors. "Calling Dr. How 

ard! Dr. Fine! Dr. Howard!" 

Contests are selected via an icondriven 

interface that represents the next 

six squares in the game board. Hit the 

right square, and you get the chance to 

make some bucks: the wrong square 

costs you time. The contests become 

progressively more difficult, and more 

profitable, as you move farther into the 

town. 

All of the events are well realized. 

Larry's race to fetch the violin whose 

"Pop Goes the Weasel" can turn Curly 

into a boxer rather than a boxee comes 

from the short Punch Drunks, and it 

makes good use of a split screen. Hoi 

Poloi's famous pie fight at a society lun 

cheon puts you right in the midst of fly 

ing meringue. The gurney race from 

Men in Black—the very first film the 

Stooges made for Columbia—might 

make you forget other racing games. 

The slapping sequence ("Look at the 

ground!") comes from all the shorts. 

The oyster stew is just as aggressive 

here as it was in Dutiful but Dumb. 

Animation is superb throughout: 

The boys move realistically past wellrendered 

backdrops, with pratfalls, 

pokes, and punches reminiscent of the 

real thing. The game is stunning on the 

Amiga, and the IBM version contains 

some of the smoothest animation ever 

seen on that machine. 

As the historical documentation 

notes, sound-effects man Joe Henrie 

was in essence the fourth Stooge. 

(Doink! Twink! Crunch!) Sound effects 

and music play a large part in the game 

as well. The sound track includes 

"Three Blind Mice," and the "Alphabet 

Song." which, although the lyrics are

n reviews 

NyukI Nyuk! Nyuk! The Three Stooges 

turns you into Curly (and Moe and Larry). 

unfortunately not included in the docu 

mentation, went something like. "B - A 

(bay), B - E (bee), B -1 (bicky. bye), 

B - O (bo), bicky-bye-bo, B - U (boo), 

bicky-bye-bo-boo." Sing along with the 

Stooges! 

There's Three Stooges dialogue, 

too. Having Moe Howard's voice com 

ing from a computer was entertaining 

in and of itself; having his voice part of 

a delightful game for the whole family 

was an experience I wouldn't have 

missed. While the dialogue is excellent 

on the Amiga, 64, and 128. it leaves 

something to be desired on IBM com 

patibles, although the Tandy threevoice 

machine does a good job of 

letting the Stooges talk. 

Naturally, this much game, graph 

ics, sound, and music is disk-intensive, 

with swapping and accessing slowing 

things down somewhat. On the other 

hand ("'How many fingers?"), I found 

the action and humor well worth the 

wait. 

The Three Stooges are naturals for 

software entertainment, and their arriv 

al is one of the high points of the sea 

son. Cinemaware has done well by the 

sainted Larry, Moe, and Curly, and all 

of their fans, delivering a game that re 

creates the Stooges as well as paying 

homage to them. What more can be 

said but, "Ruff! Ruff! Whoo! Whoo! 

Whoo!" 

The Three Stooges 

— Keith Ferrell 

For... 

Amiga—$49.95 

Commodore 64/128—$34.95 

IBM PC and compatible with CGA or 

EGA—S49.95 

From... 

Cinemaware 

4165 Thousand Oaks Blvd. 

Westlake Village, CA 91362 

(805)495-6515 

The Graphics 

Studio 

Joining the recent spate of new paint 

programs is The Graphics Studio, from 

Accolade, an inexpensive, entry-level 

painl program that gives good value for 

the price. While not providing the latest 

and most advanced paint program fea 

tures (stenciling, perspective, dithering, 

and the like), Graphics Studio offers 

most of the standard drawing and 

painting tools, including freehand and 

straight lines; outlined and filled 

shapes; custom brushes; text, magnify, 

and grid tools; extensive color palette 

controls; a pattern menu; cut-and-paste 

operations; and a spare page (called the 

Clipboard). Tools and options are 

available with an easy-to-learn, pointand-click 

interface that mixes Amiga 

conventions with those native to the 

Apple IIgs, for which this program was 

first written. 

Pictures can be drawn on an 8Vi X 

11 inch page in the Amiga's Io-res (320 

X 200 pixels) and hi-res (640 X 200 

pixels) screen modes. The current ver 

sion of Graphics Studio doesn't access 

the lo-res interlace (320 X 400), hi-res 

interlace (640 X 400), HAM (hold-andmodify), 

or overscan screen modes. A 

Show Page option lets you see a smallscale 

image of the entire page on the 

screen. Pictures are saved in the stand 

ard IFF graphic file format, so you can 

load your Graphics Studio pictures into 

Amiga word processors, desktop video 

and desktop publishing software, and 

other paint programs. 

Some nice features that don't ap 

pear on other Amiga paint programs 

are a rounded-rectangle drawing tool; 

automatic concentric rectangles and cir 

cles; a tool for drawing visible grids; in 

stant drop shadows cast at any angle 

and distance; an Apple-style scroll bar 

for moving around on the page; and 

versatile color cycling that lets you cycle 

through 32 full-color palettes at selecta 

ble speeds (especially useful for animat 

ing). Included with Graphics Studio is a 

slide-show program that will show your 

pictures in any sequence you define, 

using a simple script language detailed 

in Graphics Studio's adequate but unindexed 

manual. 

Due to its origins as an Apple IIGS 

program, Graphics Studio doesn't al 

ways follow the Amiga interface. For 

example, the program contains two 

kinds of menus: a menu bar that is op 

erated with the right mouse button in 

the standard Amiga manner, and icon 

menus that are operated with the left 

mouse button from tool palettes at the 

top and bottom of the screen. Experi 

enced Amiga users will find it discon 

certing at first to make menu choices 

with the left button. Nor are there any 

drawing operations that use the right 

button, as in most other paint pro 

grams. In the drawing area, the right 

button is used solely to hide and show 

the menu bar and palettes. Also, Graph 

ics Sludio doesn't multitask, as wellbehaved 

Amiga productivity software 

should. It takes over the entire machine 

so that you can't run other programs at 

the same time. And it has some of the 

sluggish feel of IIgs graphics software; 

requester boxes take a long time to ap 

pear, and drawing thick patterned lines 

is slow. The version I tested contained 

one unusual bug—the pattern-edit re 

quester box sometimes left a ghost im 

age on my picture after I closed the box. 

Computer painting is made simple with 

Graphics Studio. 

Some basic aspects of the program 

need more polish. During cut-and-paste 

operations, you select a cut tool and de 

fine the area you want to cut by draw 

ing a box around it on the screen. You 

can then drag the cut area anywhere 

else on the screen and stamp down a 

copy. One of the commonest uses for 

cut-and-paste is to stamp down multi 

ple copies of the cut area—for example, 

to create a rose bush from a single 

painting of a rose. To facilitate this, 

most paint programs keep the cut area 

in memory so that you can paste down 

multiple copies with just a click of the 

mouse. With Graphics Studio, however, 

you can only paste down one copy at a 

time; to make multiple copies, you first 

have to choose the L (Last Copy) op 

tion from the cut-and-paste menu each 

time. Another minor annoyance is the 

behavior of the pointer. It doesn't change 

shape to indicate which tool you are 

using, and it disappears for seconds at a 

time while some operations are taking 

place, leaving you to wonder whether 

the program has locked up. Friendly 

S E P T E M E R 19 67

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and Apple Applications are $5.00 each. The following 

issues are NOT available: COMPUTE: 9/81. 11/81, 

2/82-12/82. 2/83. 4/83, 1/85. GaieHe: ID/83, 1/B4. 

3/84-6/84. 9/84. 12/84. 1/85-7/65, 10/85. 

Single disks lor COMPUTE!, Gazelle, or Apple 

Applications are $15.00. NOTE: No disks dated prior 

to January 1966 are available. 

Back issues of COMPUTE! $ PC Magazine and Atari 

ST Disk & Magazine are $16.00 each. (These 

publications are available only as magazine/disk 

combinations.) The following issues are NOT avail 

able: PC Magazine: 9/87. 11/87. Atari ST Disk « 

Magazine: 10/66. 12/86. 

Disk/magazine combinations are S16 00. 

Shipping and handling included. 

NO CREDIT-CARD ORDERS ACCEPTED. 

Payment must be in U.S. dollars by check drawn on 

U.S. bank. 

66 COMPUTE 

a reviews 

software should display a wristwatch or 

other time-related cursor to let you 

know the computer is working. 

Overall, Graphics Studio rates a 

mixed review. It is inexpensive, simple 

to use, and contains features that other 

Amiga paint programs don't. But it is 

slow, doesn't fully use the Amiga inter 

face, and has some annoying design 

flaws. Still, if you are in the market for a 

low-cost paint program, you should 

take a good look at Graphics Studio. 

The Graphics Studio 

— Steven Anzovin 

For... 

Amiga with at least 512K—$49.95 

Apple IIGS with at least 768K—$49.95 

IBM PC, Tandy, and PC compatibles with 

at least 640K and DOS 2.1 or higher— 

£49.95 

From... 

Accolade 

550 S. Winchester Btvd. 

Suite 200 

San Jose, CA 95128 

(403)985-1700 

And... 

The IBM version is available on both 3V2- 

and 51/4-inch disks. 

Ultima V: 

Warriors of 

Destiny 

Return to Britannia and explore a new 

underworld in Ultima V: Warriors of 

Destiny as you search for the missing 

Lord British. 

Unlike previous installments in 

the Ultima series. Ultima I7doesn't in 

troduce an entirely new fantasy world. 

The adventure unfolds in Brittania. the 

site of Ultima IV, and picks up where 

you may have thought that quest end 

ed. Volcanic activity has opened laby 

rinthine passages to an Underworld as 

big as the surface terrain. 

Lord British, who was your bene 

factor in earlier quests, took a band of 

knights and delved into the uncharted 

territory, where he was captured by the 

forces of evil. Iolo and Shamino. char 

acters from previous Ultimas, have 

summoned you to rescue Lord British. 

While the King is missing, Black 

thorn is running the realm like a tyrant. 

Corrupted by his newfound power. 

Blackthorn has declared Shamino and 

other sidekicks to be outlaws, forcing 

them to hide out in the tradition of 

Robin Hood and his Merrv Band. The 

outlaws and other characters will join 

your party. You can have six characters 

in your party, which is more manage 

able than the eight required to complete 

Ultima IV. 

The game assumes you've already 

attained Avatar status. An Avatar is 

someone who has earned a high status 

by embodying the virtues required in 

Ultima IV. The same eight virtues you 

mastered in Ultima IVmmt be adhered 

to here, but there are also Shards of 

Cowardice. Falsehood, and other unvirtuous 

qualities to round up. You're al 

lowed to use an Avatar from that game. 

It's not necessary' to have played Ulti 

ma IV, though, and you can create a 

new character with this program. How 

ever, you'll enjoy this pair of Ultimas 

much more if you play them in order. 

Scattered across the sprawling aeri 

al view, the same cities, towns, and cas 

tles are situated in identical locations as 

in Ultima IV. For this reason, people 

who played that game won't have to 

spend as much time drawing maps until 

they reach the Underworld. Don't 

count on finding a lot to do in the Un 

derworld, though, because there's only 

one town to visit. But many of the arti 

facts needed to complete the game are 

hidden there. 

By chatting with people in Brit 

tania, you can learn the exact location 

of these items before entering the Un 

derworld. As in Ultima IV, you may en 

gage townspeople in conversation by 

typing single words that often elicit 

clues. Sometimes they'll send you to 

find a character in another part of town 

or across the ocean. Sailboats, horses, 

and Moon Gates for teleportation are 

again the main transportation modes. 

There aren't as many people to talk to 

as there were in Ultima IV, and they 

don't have as much to say, probably be 

cause some of the new features took up 

a lot of disk space. 

While the location of the towns, 

castles and other areas is unchanged, 

their interiors have been dramatically 

enhanced. Empath Abbey, for example, 

is three stories tall, and you can walk 

around on top of the buildings. The in 

door and outdoor areas showcase a 

myriad of new graphics elements, ail 

sharply detailed and many bolstered by 

charming sound effects: flickering 

torches, a gurgling waterfall, harpsi 

chords you can actually play, candelabras. 

ticking clocks that accurately tell 

time, and more. The program supports 

six sound boards, including one that 

lets you play through a MIDI synthesiz 

er; without a board you'll get less so 

phisticated sounds. A new style of tile

u might use 

your car for pleasure, 

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BIG SAVINGS 

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• Works with the Commodore 64, 64C 

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90-Day Limited Factory Warranty. 

Us.:*69.00 

Liquidation Price .... 

Item H-3836-7342-074 S/H: $4.50 ea. 

Credit card customers can order by 

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I ^m ^m Mf hb mi tmm mm m am *■■ v ^ 

SEND TO: 

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Send Commodore Electronic Software Package(s) 

Item H-3836-7342-074 ai $19 each, plus S4.50 each (or 

insured shipping, handling. (Minnesota residents add 6% 

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graphics eliminates the blocky stair 

case-look of rivers and oceans where 

they meet the edge ofland. 

The runic letters that appear in all 

the Ultimas have an even more impor 

tant role in this adventure because you 

must learn to read them to understand 

the frequent signs at crossroads and 

other locations. The lavish documenta 

tion provides an easy-to-follow transla 

tion. When you read a sign, its picture 

and runic message appear in the text 

display. 

But the biggest change brings day 

and night to the world of Ultima. As 

time passes, light wanes and visibility 

decreases. More significantly, the intro 

duction of a time element imparts a 

new dimension to the lives of the popu 

lace. Depending on their professions or 

trades, each person follows a specific 

schedule. If you study their patterns, 

you can always count on finding certain 

people—farmers, cooks, pub tenders— 

doing predictable things at specific 

places. This is especially helpful in solv 

ing some of the puzzles, such as those 

dealing with regions patrolled by 

guards. 

All combat occurs in an arena 

whose terrain matches that of the area 

where you bumped into the monsters 

you must battle. Each fiend is animat 

ed, there are lively sound effects, and 

you have individual control over your 

entire team. My favorite new feature 

deals with the way you fire missile 

weapons, such as arrows and long-range 

spells. In Ultima IV I've always found 

it unfair that the monsters could fire di 

agonally at my characters, who were re 

stricted to aiming in the four cardinal 

directions. The combat system now 

grants players diagonal-fire capability, 

and a foe you've aimed at remains tar 

geted even if he moves. A few new 

spells have been added to your spellcasters' 

arsenals. You still must gather dif 

ferent ingredients for each spell, and 

now you also must learn 26 Latin-style 

root words that are combined to form 

spell names. You use these names when 

you plan to invoke magic. 

A tour de force in the realm of 

computer role-playing. Ultima Kis 

an enthralling experience for fantasy 

fans, but even with all the new features, 

graphics nuances, and fine-tuning, it 

doesn't match the elegance of Ultima 

IV. Ultima fans will still find weeks, if 

not months, of fun because the game of 

fers a variety of engaging activities and 

puzzles, the true test of a role-playing 

game. 

Each Ultima represents an evolu 

tionary stage in Richard Garriott's 

Characters can cast spells during combat 

in Ultima V. 

often-copied game system, so those un 

familiar with the prior games will find 

the landscape of Warriors of Destiny a 

vast one whose puzzles are unusually 

perplexing—and the net effect will be 

rather intimidating. Even if you're a 

highly decorated veteran of a dozen 

other fantasy role-playing games, you'll 

appreciate the new elements and fea 

tures introduced here much more after 

you've played an earlier Ultima. 

Ultima V 

For... 

Apple 64 K—S59.95 

From... 


136 Harvey Rd. 

Building B 

Londonderry. NH 03053 

(603) 644-3360 

— ShavAddams 

And ... 

5'A-inch disks can be swapped for 3V2- 

inch version 

ATTENTION FOOTBALL 

FANS, ROTISSERIE, AND 

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n reviews 

Wordbench 

When I heard about Wordbench, I told 

everyone I was going lo sell my Macin 

tosh and buy an IBM PC so that I could 

use this new word and idea processor. 

As I used Wordbench at work, I decided 

the Macintosh was my computer of 

choice after all. Wordbench is a beauti 

fully conceived, well-stocked writing 

tool, but, practically, it's too awkward. 

The strengths lie in what Addison- 

Wesley's new package offers: six inte 

grated writing modules and seven desk 

top tools. The modules include a 

traditional word processor, an outline 

generator, and a database-like note-tak 

ing application. The desktop tools in 

clude a spelling checker, thesaurus, and 

reference organizer. 

The Outliner is dynamically linked 

to the Notetaker. Together, they can 

generate a rough draft by sending out 

line headings and associated note-card 

text to the word processor. I don't know 

how exciting and unusual that sounds 

to anyone else, but it sure beats staring 

at a blank screen and fighting writer's 

block. 

Besides boosting a writer over the 

first-draft hurtle, Wordbench\ reference 

tool simplifies footnotes. Remember 

the pain of typing footnotes? Remem 

ber typing just a few lines too many on 

the page? Even with a word processor, 

footnotes are fairly tedious. With 

Wordbench, you can request a footnote 

window, request the source list you cre 

ated, and copy the source into the foot 

note window. It's really very easy, and 

you only format a citation once for each 

source. Wordbench even provides on 

line help about proper citation formats 

for different types of sources—books 

with two authors, interviews, and so on. 

What a treat for people producing term 

papers, theses, and dissertations! 

Another highlight is the Add-In 

manager, which allows you to import 

text from other applications—most no 

tably from Brainstormer, a collection of 

writing exercises. Brainstormer lets you 

forget about beautiful prose and just get 

ideas out. One exercise doesn't let you 

see what you write; another gives you a 

time limit; still another gives you a space 

limit. I enjoyed these tools, and they'd 

be helpful in starting a paper that defies 

the traditional writing techniques. 

Wordbench integrates several writing tools 

and brainstorming exercises in one package. 

Wordbench seemed great—so far. 

But after I used the package for a while, 

I found several annoying characteris 

tics. Navigation was awkward, and 

there were features missing from some 

applications that I thought were indis 

pensable. The package simply isn't flex 

ible enough. > 

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me 

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COMPUTERS Amiga Games Disk 

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copies of COMPUTERS 

Amount 

Sales Tax* 

Total 

-New York residents add BM percent sates tax. Nortn Carolina residents add 5 percent 

sales tax. All orders must be paid in U.S. funds by a check drawn on a U.S. bank. Sorry, 

no credit card orders accepted. 

Disks will be shipped the first week of August. Please allow 4-6 weeks (or detivery. 

72 COMPUTE

eviews 

Advertisers Index 

In the Outliner, you must follow 

the logic of a traditional outline: no .4 

without a B, no 1 without a 2, and so 

on. To protect that logic, Wordbench 

won't let you rearrange headings if the 

result would break up a logical group. 

Sometimes you must promote many 

headings just for the sake of reassigning 

the level of one heading. Then you 

must demote the other headings to get 

them back where you want them. This 

structure discourages outline revision. 

To be safe, you must sketch the outline 

on paper first to be sure you won't need 

any drastic changes onscreen. Also, the 

outline headings are limited to one line, 

and you can only have four levels of 

headings. The Outliner is good at estab 

lishing a structure for your paper, but 

it's not helpful as an idea processor. 

In the Notetaker, you can't manip 

ulate blocks of text. When I realized I 

wanted to break up a note, I had to 

copy the information from one note to 

the next. I could retype the text into 

each note, or I could copy the contents 

of the last card onto the newest card 

and delete or change what was different. 

Imagine deleting three paragraphs one 

letter at a time. 

In the word processor, I found 

everything I needed. Although the spell 

ing checker was a bit slow, and the the 

saurus didn't work nearly as well as the 

bound version on my desk, all the other 

features worked fine. The interface for 

the IBM PC version of Wordbench is 

much like Microsoft Word's interface. 

You choose menus with a keystroke 

and then an option from the menu with 

another keystroke. Like an older ver 

sion of Word, you must choose a writ 

ing mode from a menu, too. 

You choose nearly everything from 

menus in two-step operations. Naviga 

tion, through the word processor specif 

ically and through the program as a 

whole, is too involved. You go through 

two doors to get out of one room. To 

enter a note, you must go to the field, 

hit Enter to get in the field, and then 

type. To finish a note or a citation in 

the reference tool, you must hit Con 

trol-Enter twice. 

In all fairness, some of these prob 

lems might be a matter of only using 

the package for a short while. You 

might grow accustomed to those things 

that seemed like idiosyncracies at first. 

If you don't have a favorite word 

processor and you want something that 

simplifies report writing, Wordbench 

would be a good choice. It is a betterthan-average 

word processor, the price 

is very reasonable, and the features are 

stunning. 

I'd love to have many of the fea 

tures of Wordbench on my own word 

processing software. But I don't want to 

trade ordinary flexibility and grace just 

so I can have spectacular options. 

Wordbench 

For... 


Apple II with at least 128K—S189 

IBM PC and compatibles with at least 

256K—$149 

From... 

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company 

Rt. 128 

Reading, MA 01867 

(617) 944-3700 

And... 

The program comes on both 5'/4- and 31/? 

inch disks. 


The people who brought us the excitment 

of 3-D flight with Flight Simula 

tor now have something a little hotter 

on the runway. Stealth Mission puts 

you in the cockpit of an F-19 Stealth 

fighter, an experimental forward sweptwingX-29, 

or a Navy F-14 Tomcat. 

Strategy and tactics are the keys to 

this simulation. While you'll need dex 

terity and coordination to reach a target 

through a barrage of surface-to-air mis 

siles, all your efforts will be wasted if 

you're armed with the wrong weapons. 

After you select one of Stealth Mission's 

eight missions and ten levels of difficul 

ty, decide on a plane and the correct 

complement often specialized rockets 

and bombs to get the job done. 

Each plane has its own flight style 

and characteristics. The F-19 Stealth 

fighter is the slowest and least maneuverable, 

but its secret radar-absorbing 

technology makes it almost undetectable. 

The X-29 is small, fast, and maneuverable, 

but it carries the smallest 

payload. The F-14 Tomcat is fastest 

and carries more armament than the 

others, but it turns slowly. 

Before flying, read the instruction 

manual. You probably won't be able to 

leave the ground otherwise. If you don't 

know the difference between an AIM-9 

Sidewinder and an AGM-84 Harpoon, 

how can you know which weapons 

you'll need? It's a compliment to 

Stealth Mission's sophistication and at 

tention to detail that the game's handy 

reference card contains more than 60 

flight, view, weapon/defense, radio, and 

Reader Service Number/Advertiser 

Page 

102 Britannica Software 1 

103 COMB 70 

104 CompuServe IFC 

105 Comp-U-Store 57 

106 Computability 71 

107 Computer Direct, Inc ! 65 

Computer Learning Month 84-85 

108 Epyx 5 

109 Franchise Football League . .... 70 

110 BRtWALL/Free Spirit Software 75 

111 Gentry Software 78 

112 Independent Insurance Agent 69 

113 Indus-Tool 78 

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115 Lyco 40-42 

116 Lyco 47-49 

117 Marathon Software 77 

118 Meca BC 

119 MicroProse Simulation Software 25 

120 Mindscape, Inc 31 

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NRI Schools 33 

122 PC Enterprises 76 

123 Parsons Technology 63 

124 Precision Data Products 82 

125 Renco Computer Printer Supply 78 

126 Smart Luck Computer Systems 35 

127 Spectrum HoloByte 21 

128 Spinnaker Software Corp 17 

129 Software Discounters of America 87 

130 Strategic Simulations, Inc IBC 

131 subUOGIC 7 

132TEVEX 35 

133 Wright Computers 76 

Classified Ads 79 

COMPUTERS Amiga Disk 72 

COMPUTED Apple Disk 74 

MAIL TO: 

COMPUTE! 

SUBSCRIBER SERVICE 

P.O. Box 10955, Des Moines, IA 50340-0955 

Change of Address: Please advise as early as 

possible. Attach label with your old address and 

write in new address below. 

New Subscriber: Fill in your name and address 

below. Use separate sheet lor gift orders. 

PLACE LABEL HERE 

Renewal: Attach label. 

One year $24.00 Two years $45.00 

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For other subscription questions or problems, 

please write a note and send entire form to Ihe 

above address. OB CALL TOLL-FREE: 

1-(800) 727-6937 

SEPTEMBER 1988 73

□ REVIEWS 

simulation controls. 

Once in the cockpit, you're faced 

with an array of 26 different gauges, di 

als, radar screens, and computers, all 

feeding you flight, navigation, and 

weapons information. You can maneu 

ver with a joystick, the keyboard, or a 

combination of the two. Until you get 

the feel of a particular aircraft, you may 

be all over the sky trying to achieve lev 

el flight with a joystick. Touch a couple 

of keys on the keyboard, though, and 

your jet automatically levels out. 

Your view changes realistically as 

you gain speed and altitude. The per 

spective projection is generated from a 

3-D database. You can look forward, 

left, right, up, and to the rear. You can 

also switch views to a spot plane or con 

trol tower to watch yourself fly—this 

adds another dimension and viewpoint 

to a value-packed simulation. 

Midair refueling is another nice 

touch. If you're low on fuel and far 

from an airport, you can search out the 

KC-10 refueling tanker circling the mis 

sion area. Docking with the tanker 

takes considerable skill, but an on-board 

computer can handle the chore for you. 

You can follow the action from the 

Stealth Mission is packed with so many 

features, you'll learn something new every 

time you fly it 

cockpit or from the spot plane. After 

you've refueled, your plane is rearmed 

and repaired. Until you perfect your fly 

ing skills, Stealth Mission has an auto 

matic landing procedure to get you 

back to base and down safely. 

Stealth Mission has a full comple 

ment of navigational instruments: 

VOR. ILS, VDF, and DME. They'll 

help you locate the refueling tanker or 

find your home base. Instrument land 

ing approaches are not available with 

Stealth Mission, but they are with Sub- 

LOGIC's Scenery Disks. 

When flying combat missions, ene 

my targets flash as they come into view. 

Select a proper weapon, and a red tar 

geting box is superimposed over the tar 

get. Maneuver the crosshairs of your 

gunsight within this box and press a key 

to lock the weapon onto the target. This 

is where dexterity comes into play: It 

takes two hands to fly the plane with 

the joystick, and a third one is needed 

to lock onto the target. If you're suc 

cessful, the target-tracking computer 

will guide your missile or smart bomb 

to the target. 

According to the manual, you can 

lock onto several targets and then fire 

when you're within range by pressing 

the space bar or fire button. This is 

where Stealth Mission currently has a 

problem. When you lock onto a target, 

a bug in the program fires your missiles 

whenever you move your joystick to 

another position. SubLOGIC is aware 

of the problem and should have it cor 

rected by the time you read this. A 

company spokesman said people who 

bought early versions of Stealth Mis 

sion and experience this bug should 

contact the company. 

There are some ways to sidestep 

COMPUTED Apple Applications 

Disk is the easy way to enjoy the 

terrific programs found in COM- 

PUTEI's Apple Applications, your 

best source for inexpensive, 

quality Apple II software. 

COMPUTERS 

D 

(APPLICATIONS) 

Save yourself hours of typing time. 

Use the disk with Apple II+, He, lie, and IIgs 

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Get ail the programs found in each bimonthly 

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with additional supporting data files and even 

source code. 

Here are just some of the programs that you'll find on the 

October disk: 

Window Pack. Give your Apple II programs that professional 

look with windows and pull-down menus. A full-blown 

"Window Pack" demo program Is included on the disk. 

Air Rescue. Imagine a pilot's test where you have to dodge 

the clouds. Can you pass? 

COMPUTEI's Apple Applications Disk offers you some of the 

best and least-expensive Apple II software on the market. A 

year's subscription (that's six program-packed disks, more 

than 30 programs In alll) costs only $39.95. Complete docu 

mentation for the disk is provided in COMPUTEI's Apple 

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available separately for only $18.00). 

To subscribe to COMPUTEI's Apple Applications Disk, call tollfree, 

1-800-727-6937 (U.S.A. only). Or send a check or money 

order to 

COMPUTEI's Apple Applications Disk 

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Des Moines, IA 50340 

Fractal Sketcher. Explore the beauty of computer-aided art by 

creating your own fractal designs. Several predesigned 

fractals are Included on the disk. 

C09

n reviews 

the bug. After locking onto a target, cy 

cle to another weapon before you move 

the joystick. You can then change direc 

tions without the missiles firing. When 

you're within range and ready to shoot, 

cycle back to that weapon and press the 

space bar. The program doesn't seem to 

respond to the fire button. You can also 

use the keyboard flight controls since 

they're not affected. 

On the whole, Stealth Mission's 

animation techniques are excellent, but 

the system seems to overload occasion 

ally with data. While flying down a nar 

row canyon, the black walls and the 

green canyon floor sometimes suddenly 

and unexpectedly trade places, then 

flip-flop back. It can be hard to tell if 

you're flying into a wall or landing on 

the floor of the canyon. 

A lot of sophisticated program 

ming has gone into Stealth Mission, 

eliminating much of the annoying disk 

access that slows other simulations. In 

fact, this simulation is packed with so 

many features, you'll learn something 

new every time you fly it. One nice fea 

ture is the missile's-eye-view as a bomb 

or rocket homes in on a target. 

If you select a zero level of difficul 

ty, it's impossible to crash or get shot 

down. You can even land at enemy air 

fields, refuel, and rearm. At higher lev 

els, if your aircraft is critically damaged, 

you can bail out and watch from the 

spot plane as your ejection seat comes 

out and your parachute opens. 

When a program offers so much, I 

feel like it's nitpicking to ask for more, 

but there are a few extra touches I'd like 

to see programmers squeeze out of a 64 

or 128. I'd like to see my rockets streak 

forward. I'd also like to see tracers when 

I fire a burst from the M61 cannon. I 

know hits on the enemy are registered, 

and I can hear explosions when a pri 

mary target is wiped out, but I'd like to 

see a few explosions as well. Watching a 

MiG go down in flames may do noth 

ing to improve international relations, 

but I think most armchair jet jockeys 

would appreciate the effect. 

It would make an already great 

simulation truly outstanding. 


For... 

Commodore 64/128—$49.95 

From ... 

SubLOGIC 

P.O. Box 4019 

Champaign. IL 61820 

(217)359-8482 

— Tom Netse! 

Twilight's 

Ransom 

It has action! It has adventure! It even 

has suspense! Twilight's Ransom, from 

Paragon Software, is as interesting and 

challenging an adventure game as any I 

have played. 

This is an interactive graph ics-andtextgamc 

with terrific illustrations, 

beautifully written descriptions of vari 

ous locales, and one of the most sophis 

ticated command parsers you are likely 

to encounter. 

The game's basic premise is sim 

ple: Your girlfriend has been kid 

napped, and you have until sunrise to 

deliver what her kidnappers want... 

without knowing what they want or 

how to go about getting it. What follows 

is a desperate race against time, and 

also against all of the dangers a big city 

can pose: muggers, hustlers, and every 

other kind of criminal and natural haz 

ard that an average crime-infested me 

tropolis possesses. 

As the game progresses, you will 

find subtle clues to the solution of the 

mystery, but you must distinguish these 

from the false leads and distractions 

scattered throughout the quest. Take 

nothing at face value, for you will surely 

regret it. So far, I've been shot, stabbed, 

mugged, and dumped in sewage. 

Try everything; it's amazing how 

many command options the game de 

signers have anticipated. No matter 

how illogical your command may seem, 

the designers have probably accommo 

dated it. The parser exhibits a sense of 

humor, too—the game recognizes an 

interesting range of vocabulary. 

The command parser has a large 

vocabulary, and is very easy on new 

players. It will accept UNLOCK 

DOOR WITH KEY, and it will also ac 

cept UNLOCK THE DOOR WITH 

THE KEY, THEN OPEN THE 

DOOR. Thus, you may be as terse or as 

verbose as you please. Furthermore, if 

additional information is needed, the 

program asks you for it. You don't have 

to retype the entire command. This fea 

ture, in my opinion, is the best of all. 

I'm a programmer, and nothing bothers 

me more than having to retype a long 

command several times. 

This is a well-thought-out text ad 

venture. The descriptions are very 

clear, and you manage their interaction 

with the graphics automatically or man 

ually. In automatic picture mode, the 

first time you enter a scene that has an 

associated picture, the illustration is 

automatically displayed; in manual 

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1541/1571 Drive Alignment reports the 

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E2 REVIEWS 

mode it is not. In both modes, the com 

mand PICTURE displays the picture if 

one is available. The dual mode is use 

ful because you can easily display pic 

tures for visual effect or suppress the 

pictures for faster progress. 

The pictures are fantastic, especial 

ly in color. It's clear that the game de 

signers invested a great deal of time and 

effort on game scenes. The inclusion of 

graphics in a text adventure game helps 

bring the game alive. Even the most de 

tailed descriptions can't put across the 

look of a city as these pictures can. 

Monochrome-monitor owners must 

play the game without the superb 

graphics. 

The game's prose isn't so shabby, 

either. The text-based descriptions are 

impressive in their own right. The pas 

sages read like a mystery novel—this is 

not the usual sketchy adventure-game 

prose. You'll find yourself deep into the 

feel of the game because of the exten 

sive detail included in the scenes. 

Twilight's Ransom has some other 

impressive features. A save-and-rcstore 

function lets you stop in the middle of a 

game. You can save many games, and 

you can restore one at load time or any 

Kidnappers hold your girlfriend lor ransom 

in Twilight's Ransom. 

time during the game. Two command 

parameters allow you to skip the title 

screen and/or load all of the descrip 

tions into memory at once so you can 

leave the picture disk in the drive. A 

Transcript command allows you to 

keep a record of a game and save it to 

disk or print it as you play. 

Twilight's Ransom comes on 5Wfand 

3'6-inch disks and is not copy-pro 

tected. Some nifty clues come with the 

game. You encounter the clues as you 

go through the game, but instead of 

reading a description, you actually have 

some in your hands—a nice touch. 

The locations and characters en 

countered in the game are amazingly 

lifelike; each place has some interesting 

detail to discover. Every bar has some 

one interesting to talk to, every item is 

worth examining, and even the street 

derelicts have character. There is never 

a dull moment as you wind your way 

through the dark streets of an unfamil 

iar city, in search of the clues which will 

return your loved one to you. It's not 

easy. Even as I write this I have not yet 

solved the mystery. 

Twilight's Ransom is an excellent, 

interesting, tough adventure game. 

Twilight's Ransom 

For... 

Amiga—$34.95 

Atari ST—$34.95 

Commodore 64/128—$34.95 

IBM PC—S34.95 

From ... 

Paragon Software 

(Distributed by Electronic Arts) 

1820 Gateway Dr. 

San Mateo, CA 94404 

(800) 245-4525 

— Brian Sutnmv 

PCjr Owners 

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Upgrades which expand 128K sidecars to 512K 

Speed up & pseudo DMA cartridges 

Clock modules, printer ports & speech attachments 

Joysticks, optical mice & light pens 

Adapters to use your PCjr monitor with a PC 

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76 COMPUTE

Read 'n Roll 

A new reading program bowls a strike 

on skills improvement and doesn't 

spare the fun, either. 

Read 'n Roll combines entertain 

ment with drill and practice in basic 

reading skills. It offers 320 reading pas 

sages for children in grades 3-6, divided 

according to grade level. Each level has 

80 stories. There is also a program edi 

tor to help teachers create original 

exercises. 

The more children read, the more 

their comprehension skills develop. 

When they work through passages in 

Read 'n Roll, they get practice in one of 

five reading-enrichment areas: identify 

ing the main idea, recalling specific de 

tails, remembering a sequence of 

events, reading between the lines, and 

building a vocabulary. Passages focus 

on one comprehension skill at a time, 

so teachers can better assess each stu 

dent's strengths and weaknesses. Since 

each activity concentrates on building a 

single skill, it's not necessary to follow 

the menu options in any particular 

order. 

While all program activities rein 

force reading-comprehension skills, one 

in particular deserves special mention. 

It's an arcadelike game called Strike 'n 

Spare. Students try to define words dur 

ing a bowling match. For correct an 

swers, players can control an animated 

bowler—hence the name Read 'n Roll. 

Read 'n Roll uses bowling as a setting for 

reading-improvement drills. 

The game is a lot of fun. It uses 

words from one or all of the other activ 

ities and operates at each student's 

reading level. If the game is played pri 

or to the other activities, children be 

come familiar with the vocabulary used 

in the passages. If players choose Strike 

'n Spare after they've read the passages, 

they can test their knowledge of the 

words. Instructors can use the program 

editor to customize onscreen sentences. 

Strike 'n Spare teaches vocabulary and 

spelling without being overly pedantic. 

The four other activities work dif 

ferently from Strike 'n Spare. Students 

read passages and then answer multi 

ple-choice questions about what they've 

just read. Correct choices are rewarded 

with a colorful, animated graphic (a girl 

whizzing by on a skateboard, a singleengine 

airplane zipping upward, a 

bright orange car or a red fire engine 

zooming along, a rolling bowling ball, 

and more). Unfortunately, with a digi 

tal RGB monitor on an Apple He, you 

get only a dull gray monochrome, and 

the graphics are difficult to see. Com 

posite monitors, however, offer color 

graphics. There's no problem with an 

analog RGB monitor on an Apple IlGS. 

Each animated graphic is accom 

panied by an encouraging message such 

as "You're flying high," "Moving right 

along," or "Awesome job." There's also 

some audio reinforcement. Much to the 

A Complete Pro Football 

Prediction Program For The 

1988 NFL SEASON 

• • FEATURES 

Predicted Scores All Games 

Season Schedule By Week 

Season Schedule By Team 

Scores By Week 

Scores By Team 

Scoring Summary 

Win Loss Record Home/Away 

Division Standings 

Stats — Accumulated & Average 

Ljne By Week 

Line By Team 

Record vs Line 

Record vs Common Opponents 

Individual Team Match-Ups 

Printed Copy All Screens 

1983-1987 Data Base 

(Includes All of the Above) 

Easy Updates Playoffs/1988 

AND MORE 

Deajer Inquiries Invited 

Accurate Since 1982 More In 

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• • 95 INCLUDES DISK AND 

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DOCUMENTATION 

IBM, Tandy & Compatibles 

Commodore 64 — 128 

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Stats Needed To Run Program Available In 

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TOIL FREE FOR ORDERS OHLT

n reviews 

program's credit, if the child answers 

incorrectly there is no negative-sound 

ing buzz. The screen merely shows "Try 

again." After a second incorrect reply, 

the computer responds with the correct 

answer. 

Some teachers prefer programs 

that make students choose correctly to 

programs that answer for the student. 

Davidson might want to consider add 

ing a new option to the Activity menu. 

If teachers choose this item, students 

would be required to answer for them 

selves without help from the computer. 

As children work through the 

menu activities, they are awarded 

points for correct answers. Questions 

answered correctly on a second attempt 

score only half as many points as those 

answered correctly on the first try. In 

Facts and Inferences, students find a 

helpful hint if they look back at the pas 

sage after one incorrect answer. 

The program is packed with oplions. 

You can use a mouse or the key 

board. If you use the keyboard, you can 

access the menu bar by pressing Open 

Apple-Escape. Sound can be toggled on 

or off. Teachers with printer access can 

make certificates of excellence for de 

serving students or a hardcopy of stu 

dent progress reports. 

During the reading activity, a digi 

tal clock ticks silently in the upper right 

corner of the screen. The timer tells 

how long it takes the student to read the 

passage and answer the question. If a 

child finds the clock too distracting, it's 

possible to hide it. 

If you know you are going to take 

advantage of the program's printing 

features, be sure to configure the printer 

at program startup. There is no option 

for printer configuration during pro 

gram operation. While the printer setup 

conveniently remains in effect each 

time you boot the program, all other 

menu options unfortunately default to 

their original settings. 

The package includes two doublesided, 

5!/-i-inch floppies and an informa 

tive manual. If you have only one 51/*- 

inch disk drive, prepare for a lot of disk 

swapping. If your computer is equipped 

for 3'/2-inch disks, do yourself a favor 

and take advantage of Davidson's free 

exchange offer. With an 800K floppy, 

you'll avoid the disk swapping and save 

mechanical wear and tear on your 

drive. The rugged nature of a 3'/:-inch 

disk makes it more suitable for class 

room use. 

Davidson has done it again—Read 

'n Roll is another software winner. The 

program makes reading an enjoyable 

experience. The 320 passages are wellwritten 

and the focused activities will 

improve the reading-comprehension 

skills of children in grades 3-6. Even 

adults will want to try their hand bowl 

ing frames in Strike 'n Spare. 

Read 'n Roll 

— Carol S. Holzberg 

For... 

Apple II with 128K (lie with extended 80- 

column card)—$49.95 

IBM PC or compatibles with 256K and 

color graphics card—$49.95 

From... 


3135KashiwaSt. 

Torrance, CA 90505 

(213)534-4070 

(800)556-6141 

And... 

The program is available on 3Vi- and 5'Ainch 

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Transfer time to emergency power 10 Milli 

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microcomputer owners about your product or service. 

Rates: S25 per line, minimum of four lines. Any or all of the first line set in capi 

tal letters at no charge. Add $15 per line for boldface words, or $50 for the entire 

ad set in boldface (any number of lines.) Inquire about display rates. 

Terms: Prepayment is required. Check, money order, American Express, Visa, or 

MasterCard is accepted. Make checks payable to COMPUTE! Publications. 

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. 

Genera! Information: Advertisers using post office box numbers in their ads must 

supply permanent address and telephone numbers. Ad will appear in next avail 

able issue after receipt. 

Closing: 10th of the tnird month preceding cover date (e.g., June issue closes 

March 10th). Send order and remittance to: Kathleen Ingram, Classified Manager, 

COMPUTE!, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403. To place an ad by phone, 

call Kathleen Ingram 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. 

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S E P T E M E R 19 79

DAVID STANTON 

Put a Word 

Processor in 

the Hands of a 

Child and 

Watch Writing 

Soar to New 

Heights 

Jot notes and reorganize at will. Mold 

• Word-processed assignments always look 

and refine sentences for the perfect ef good when completed. Once students see 

fect. Replace weak words. Juggle para how well their work can look, they begin to 

graphs. Correct, improve, and enhance until take greater pride in themselves and their 

writing. 

• Word processing turns the usually tedious 

process of rewriting into a pleasant (and ef 

Shakespeare blushes. 

And when the writing process is all fin 

ished, computer print looks crisp and neat 

and clean, while pens produce a scrawl of 

messy goo. Such benefits can hardly go 

unseen. 

Questions of literary talent aside, quill 

pens and their modern-day counterparts 

don't stand a chance against today's power 

ful word processors. No other applications 

software has achieved such universal accep 

tance in business. When was the last time 

you saw a traditional typewriter in the press 

room of your local newspaper? Or at your 

lawyer's office? 

But word processing software can do 

much more than assist in the office. For 

thousands of Americans, it could radically 

change lives. Word processing holds great 

promise for those who struggle with writingrelated 

learning difficulties. 

Various sources estimate this group to 

be anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the 

population. Do you know a child who reads 

reversals crop up regularly in your child's 

work—saw for was, b for d? 

If not. here ends this column. If so, 

please consider the following personal obser 

vations based on several years of watching 

students struggle with these very real and 

debilitating problems. Nothing scientific, 

mind you—just a few thoughts and musings. 

• People who fail to recognize spelling errors 

in their own handwriting often spot and 

correct them when they sec their work on a 

screen. Perhaps this happens because on 

screen letters are more clearly recognizable. 

Regardless of the reason, spelling improves 

when students compose on computers. 

• Spelling checkers further refine processed 

text. Though some teachers have opposed 

the use of such software in the past, a re 

cent study at the University of Oregon 

found that the use of spelling checkers has 

no negative effect on spelling performance. 

■ Although grammar checkers arc still quite 

primitive, they do assist with homonym er 

rors of the too, to. and two variety. Many 

even offer advice on punctuation, cliche 

avoidance, and other typical writing 

problems. 

ficient) experience. 

• Belter-written work means greater success. 

In school, that translates into higher 

grades. In business, it may mean landing a 

better job or earning a promotion. 

• Perhaps most important of all: Computers 

make writing fun! Reluctant writers fre 

quently change their attitude when they 

learn how easy it is to produce "publishable" 

material. 

School success hinges on the ability to 

produce understandable and legible written 

work. Few skills can claim greater impor 

tance from kindergarten to graduate school. 

Those who cannot write face constant frus 

tration and failure. 

That need not happen. Excellent word 

processing software is available for every 

personal computer. If you don't already 

have the software, look for something that 

includes a built-in spelling checker or one 

several grades below the expected level, in 

that is compatible with a stand-alone check 

spile of diligent efforts to improve? Or 

er. The best programs accommodate chil 

someone who simply cannot spell? Do letter 

dren and adults alike—nothing too simple, 

nothing too complicated. Space prevents a 

listing of recommendations here, but good 

advice is available in COMPUTE! magazine 

software reviews, from knowledgeable 

friends, and from appropriate school 

personnel. 

One more thing: Don't rely on local 

schools in this matter. Some teachers still 

distrust technology, and those teachers who 

recognize its benefits may nevertheless find 

access to the lab limited. 

Word processing is computer-intensive. 

It requires several hours of writing and re 

vising to produce each essay. Unfortunately, 

most school districts have too few machines 

to handle this demand. If you want the job 

done, at least for now. you'll have to do it 

yourself. 

Will it work for your family? Maybe. 

Maybe not. Anyone who works with people 

knows the difficulty of predicting human be 

havior. If it does work, though, it could 

change someone's life. 

q 

David Stanton can be contacted via CompuServe 

(72407,102) or by mail at P.O. Box 494, Bolivar, 

New York 14715. 

80 COMPUTE!

-news&notes 

processor and a graphics 

package. 

"We've taken a lot of cus 

tomer feedback and put that 

into improving our package," 

Lee Llevano said. Llevano is 

vice president of marketing at 

Berkeley Softworks. 

"We've taken input from 

a variety of sources," he said. 

Those sources include custom 

er response and suggestions, 

comments in user-group publi 

cations, and in-house develop 

ment by product engineers. 

Besides the new features, 

GEOS 2.0 sports new possibili 

ties for old friends. The new 

deskTop adds the 1581, a 3'înch 

disk drive, to its list of 

supported storage devices. The 

graphics interface supports two 

disk drives and a RAM Expan 

for game publishers. According 

to some sources, Nintendo has 

authorized production, on the 

average, of only 25 percent of 

the number of cartridges re 

quested by publishers. Some 

publishers are getting a far 

higher percentage of requested 

production levels, while others 

arc getting next to nothing. 

Millions of dollars of potenlial 

sales are going to be lost. 

Everyone involved in the 

will grow up to become per 

sonal computer buyers, and 

carry their thirst for games 

with them to the more power 

ful machines. In other words. 

though sales of the Nintendo 

system, and others like it. may 

dent the rise in personal com 

puter entertainment software, 

it's only a temporary problem. 

The pragmatists, on the other 

hand, simply want to make 

GEOS Turns Two 

GEOS 2.0. the newly announced 

version for the Commodore 64. 

features new tools and in 

creased capabilities, said Berke 

ley Softworks president Brian 

Dougherty at the June Com 

puter Electronics Show. 

The upgrade should 

please seasoned GEOS users 

because of the new features: a 

sion Unit. You can perform 

file operations on more than 

one file at a time, and you can 

retrieve the last file you tossed 

in the wastebasket. 

geoWrite flexes new mus 

cles: individual paragraph for 

matting, four text-alignment 

choices, decimal tabs, search 

and replace, and full-page pre 

view are only some of the en 

hancements. Using the new 

Paint Drivers, you can create 

current game-system craze is 

keeping at least one eye on the 

sales curves. With figures from 

the last game system go-round 

in front of them, some publish 

ers (and probably Nintendo as 

well) arc wondering when the 

bottom will fall out. When sys 

tem penetration reaches satu 

ration level, the theory goes, 

things will start to unravel. 

Nintendo had a big year in 

1987; will 1988 be the lop of 

the wave, with everything else 

simply downhill? Some pub 

lishers believe 1988 will sec the 

money while there's money to 

be made, cither by investing 

directly in the cartridge busi 

ness, as Activision has done, 

or by licensing successful 

games to others, as Epyx has 

done with its popular Califor 

nia Games (licensed to Milton 

Bradley). 

Still others believe that 

the way to beat Nintendo is tc 

market high-quality games or 

disk—a medium that doesn't 

rely on RAM chips. Taito, the 

Japanese arcade-machine gi 

ant, is one such believer. It's 

Christmas of Nintendo, its 

high-water mark. Others think 

bringing a half-dozen of its 

top-flight arcade games to 

that the pent-up demand for 

disk-dependent computers 

games due to the RAM short 

age will postpone lhe inevita 

ble until 1989. 

The effect on personal 

computers and personal com 

puter entertainment-software 

publishers? Again, mixed an 

swers. The optimists believe 

that game-system purchasers 

such as the Commodore 64, 

the IBM PC, the Commodore 

Amiga, and the Atari ST. 

before it takes them to the Nin 

tendo. One Taito source said 

the company wanted Nintendo 

to "sit up and take notice" of 

games going first to personal 

computers. — Gregg Keizer 

spelling checker, mail merge, a 

file converter, a laser-printer 

driver, and more power for 

older tools. People who are 

new to the Commodore 64 will 

appreciate the completeness of 

the package—besides the oper 

ating system, you get a word 

columns and borders and in 

clude graphics with text. 

The upgrade to geoPaint 

adds more control over graph 

ics creation. For example, you 

can stretch and scale photo 

scraps, use transparent paint 

brushes to create overlav ef- 

S E P T E M E R 19 8 81

-nem&notes 

fects. and constrain shapes to 

perfectly proportioned circles 

or squares. 

For people who already 

own the old version of GEOS, 

the upgrade costs $29.95, in 

cluding shipping and handling, 

and can be obtained from 

Berkeley Softworks. 2150 Shattuck 

Avenue. Berkeley. Cali 

fornia 94694; (4! 5) 644-0883. 

The retail price of GEOS 2.0 is 

$59.95. 

Another announcement 

publicized the new, lower price 

on geoPublish, Berkeley 

Softworks' desktop publishing 

package. The price will come 

down from $69.95 to $49.95. 

Llevano said Berkeley 

Softworks had been working 

hard to reach more home com 

puter users with GEOS and as 

sociated products. For the 

future, the compam will de 

velop its product line to make 

it more useful for both experi 

enced users and novices. 

HIGHLAND 

"We're going to continue 

lo improve the existing prod 

uct line. That's where we'll be 

concentrating,'1 Llevano said. 


Epyx Gets the 

Gold, Heads for 

Hardware 

Epyx, one of the country's 

leading entertainment-soft 

ware publishers, is pulling in 

$8 million in new financing 

from several venture-capital 

groups in an effort to make it 

self a $ 100 million/year com 

pany by 1990. 

Best known for sports and 

action games aimed at teen 

agers, an entertainment catego 

ry personified by its popular 

California Games. Epyx last 

year launched a consumerelectronics 

division by an 

nouncing three VCR games 

and two audiocassette games. 

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According to David Morse, 

CEO of Epyx. the new financ 

ing will go to the new division 

since the entertainment-soft 

ware side of the company is 

self-funding. 

The financing is com-- 

ing from both current 

and new investors, 

and is nearly 

double the $4.3 

million brought 

in when the 

company sought 

its initial round 

of venture capital 

in 1979. Although Morse 

would not specify exact fig 

ures, he did say that the new fi 

nancing was buying control of 

less than 30 percent of Epyx. 

What will the money be 

used for? One thing is cer 

tain—Epyx is staying with 

what it knows best. Morse 

claimed that his company 

"really understands entertain 

ment for teenagers and young 

adults." and said that he 

"doesn't see a lot of potential 

for productivity software." 

Part of the money will un 

doubtedly be used to market 

the existing VCR games— 

VCR California Games. VCR 

Golf, and VCR Play Action 

Football—and the audiocas 

sette games—Head-on Base 

ball and Head-on Football. A 

$4 million ad campaign is 

scheduled for print in maga 

zines such as Sports Illustrated 

and Sport, and for television 

during such events as football 

games on national networks 

and ESPN. A current cam 

paign is airing on MTV. 

Morse said that the VCR 

game market is potentially 

huge—$100 million a year. "I 

would expect we would be the 

leading player in that market a 

year from now." he said at the 

June Consumer Electronics 

Show. 

But Morse and Epyx obvi 

ously have their eyes set on 

more than just VCR games. 

Morse, who cofounded Amiga 

in 1982 and sold it to Commo 

dore two years later, has expe 

rience in developing state-ofthe-art 

personal computers 

and related hardware. Eypx's 

I 

consumer-electronics division 

is working on an as-yet-undis 

closed hardware product. Ear 

lier this year it was thought 

that the unveiling would hap 

pen late this summer, but 

that's been pushed back to 

January 1989 at the earliest. 

"A lot of the $8 million is 

going into that [hardware 

product]..." Morse said. 

And that was all he would say. 

Taking a $27 million 

(Epyx's income in 1987) com 

pany to $100 million in just 

over two years would seem de 

pendent on hardware, not sim 

ply computer software and 

VCR games. But if hardware it 

is. what is that hardware? 

Epyx's considerable tal 

ents lie in the area of fastpaced 

games for young people. 

That's the same group which 

makes up the huge audience 

for dedicated game systems 

such as the Nintendo and Sega 

machines. Morse helped create 

the Amiga—a persona! com 

puter so graphically powerful 

that some claim Amiga ver 

sions of arcade-machine games 

look better on the Amiga than 

they do on the arcade box. (In 

a supplemental note, Epyx re 

cently hired Richard Rice, for 

merly with Commodore- 

Amiga, where he implemented 

production of the Amiga 1000 

in Japan.) 

What if Eypx puts the two 

together? A 16-bit, dedicated 

game system as powerful and 

graphically advanced as the 

Amiga running hot teenage 

games. As they say in Califor 

nia, "What a concept!" 

— Gregg Keizer

SMMOIl 

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Videogame 

Violence Is 

Everywhere. 

You Can Bet 

We'll Soon See 

Gruesome 

Games with 

Slasher-Flick 

Tie-ins. 

continued from page 88 

Rambo, Predator, Platoon, Robocop, and 

Wrestlemania abounded. The ultraviolence 

theme hit home as a PR flack proudly dem 

onstrated Sega's Uzi look-alike rapid-fire 

light pistol. You can bet that, by next Janu 

ary's CES, gruesome games with tie-ins to 

such horror flicks as Nightmare on Elm 

Street, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw 

Massacre will be on the screen. 

After a full day of this electronic may 

hem. I was pleasantly surprised by InterseFs 

Gone Fishin', a bass fishing simulation avail 

able for the Amiga and Atari ST. The game 

captures a lot of the slow, laid-back quality 

of leisurely casting for bigmouths. The only 

feature I found myself wishing for was a 

two-player mode. Half the fun for most an 

glers is sharing a boat and an afternoon of 

conversation with a friend. If you're looking 

for a break from the latest twitch-and-shoot 

arcade hit, give Gone Fishin' a try. 

Sports personalities endorsing products 

are always fashionable at CES. Walter Payton, 

Andre the Giant, and King Kong 

Bundy were among the luminaries who pa 

tiently sat for hours signing reams of publici 

ty photos for show goers who lined up. 

Mediagenic (formerly Activision) host 

ed a breakfast with a live satellite hookup 

that let the press quiz baseball great Pete 

Rose on the company's new Pete Rose Pen 

nant Fever game. Autographed baseballs 

(which one Mediagenicist claimed would be 

worth $ 150 as soon as Charlie Hustle made 

the Hall of Fame) were handed out as sou 

venirs. The best questions weren't about the 

game, though, but were about what Pete 

thought of the wrist slap Bad Billy Martin 

got for tossing dirt on an umpire. 

Those who weren't athletically minded 

could chat with a pair of Reagan/Gorbachev 

look-alikes plugging Spectrum Holobyte's 

Tetris, an addictive game imported from the 

Soviet Union. 

While computer hardware manufactur 

ers were relatively scarce on the show floor, 

the software scene seemed decidedly healthy, 

although considerably more low-key than 

the salad days of 1985 and 1986. Although 1 

don't own a Commodore 64, I've got to ad 

mit that I'm impressed with both the num 

ber and quality of new titles for that 

venerable machine. Today's programmers 

are pushing the 64's graphics and sound ca 

pabilities for all it's worth, and, according to 

the software manufacturers I spoke to at the 

show, their 64 sales have remained brisk, 

even as the popularity of Atari and Apple 

eight-bit titles has waned. Entertainment 

software for the IBM PC and its clones is 

continuing on a roll, with more and more ti 

tles including high-quality EGA graphics as 

a display option. Software development for 

the Atari ST line is in the dumper, with 

most software houses blaming poor sales on 

the current slowdown in ST sales and a 

higher-than-normal amount of software pi 

racy in the ST market. Developers are hot 

on new titles for the Amiga, but they've ex 

pressed concern over well-organized cadres 

of Amiga crackers based in Europe. 

With such a paucity of computers and 

software to graze, I went afield and hit the 

audio and video part of the show. High-end 

audio equipment manufacturers traditional 

ly take over the entire McCormick Center 

Hotel; the combined effect is said to simu 

late a sustained 8.5 on the Richter scale. The 

only thing more awesome than the sound of 

Infinity system's IRS Series V loudspeakers 

was its price. I can understand how they 

came up with the product name. If you can 

afford the $45,000, the IRS probably is inter 

ested in chatting with you for a while. 

Everyone who has used a camcorder 

knows that real home videos are supposed 

to be perpetually out of focus and jerky. It's 

not enough that nearly every video camera 

sold today automatically keeps Uncle Fred 

in focus. Now Panasonic has wiped out the 

last vestige of amateur artiness with a cam 

era featuring something called "electronic 

image stabilization," a consumer version of 

Hollywood's Steadicam. 

The computer product drought contin 

ued unabated throughout the week. I was 

even suckered in by Integ's Junior Com 

puter, a math and spelling tutor for young 

yuppies-in-training that looks just like Mom 

and Dad's laptop. The widest-vertical-mar 

ket computer-product award goes to the 

Lottronic's Personal Computer, which 

turned out to be a hand-held device with a 

one-button keyboard that picks up to six 2- 

digit numbers at random. 

I headed for the Gemini booth to check 

out the latest in low-cost printers. Whoops! 

Wrong Gemini. These guys were hawking 

the FlashFormer, an electronic device de 

signed by noted electronics wizard Grand 

Master Flash. The FlashFormer lets uncoor 

dinated boobs such as myself "rock, rap, and 

hip-hop . .. with one hand tied behind your 

back." I backed away warily, headed for my 

car and home, convinced that if these folks 

decided to market an impact printer, not all 

of the pins would be firing. 

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Pirates $25 

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Balance of Power $32 

Blockbuster $23 

Bop & Wrestle $19 

Captain Blood $24 

Defender of the Crown$24 

De |a Vu $24 

Gauntlet $24 

Harrier Combat Sim. .$23 

Irkloor Sports $19 

Infiltrator 2 $19 

Into Ihe Eagle's Nest. .$23 

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My Mail List $9.88 

My Phone Book $9.88 

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Wheel of Fortune 2 .$9.88 

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Manhunter 

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Police Quest $32 

Space Quest 1 or 2 $32 Ea. 

3-D Helicopter Sim. ..$32 

Thexder $23 

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Typing Tutor 4 S32 

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Certificate Maker . . . .$24 

CM. Library #1 $19 

Newsroom Pro $49 

SSI 

Gettysburg $39 

Kampfgruppe $39 

Questron 2 $29 

Star Command $32 

Stellar Crusade $32 

THREE SIXTY 

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Harpoon $24 

THUNDER MOUNTAIN 

Pac Man $6.88 

Top Gun $6.88 

TIMEWORKS 

Data Manager $25 

Partner $25 

PC Quintet ".$65 

Publish It! $129 

Swiftcalc w/Sideways .$25 

Sylvia Porter's 

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Word Writer $32 

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Crazy Cars $24 

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Stickybear Reading . . .$23 

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'Please Read The Following Ordering Terms & Conditions Carefully Before Placing Your Order: Orders with cashiers check or money order shipped immediately on in slock items! Per 

sonal & Company checks, allow 3 weeks clearance. No C.O.D.'s! Shipping: Continental U.S.A.-Orders under $100 add $3; free shipping on orders over $100. AK, HI, FPO, APO-add 

$5 on all orders. Canada & Puerto Rico-add $10 on all orders. Sorry, no other International orders accepted! PA residents add 6% sales tax on Ihe total amount of order including shipping 

charges. CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS; Mon.-Fri. 9 AM-5:30 PM Eastern Time. REASONS FOR CALLING CUSTOMER SERVICE—412-361-5291 (DStatus of order or back order (2)if any 

merchandise purchased within 60 days from S.D.of A. is defective, please call for a return authorization number. We will not process a return without a return auth. »! Defective merchan 

dise will be replaced with the same merchandise only. Other returns subject to a 20% restocking charge! After 60 days from your purchase date, please refer to the warranty included 

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to change! New titles are arriving daily! Please call for more information. NEW, MORE CONVENIENT ORDER LINE HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 8:30 AM-7:00 PM Fri. 8:30 AM-5:30 PM Sat. 

10:00 AM-4;00 PM Eastern Time.

ARLAN LEVITAN 

The Consumer 

Electronics 

Show USED to 

Be the Home 

Computer 

Market's Big, 

Bad Blowout. 

No More. 

As I pulled onto the exit ramp for De for home video and audio manufacturers, 

troit Metropolitan Airport, I winced COMDEX has become the show of choice 

at the thought of yet another plane 

for most computer manufacturers. 

flight on CattleCar Air. A scant quarter of a 

In fact, Atari and Commodore decided 

mile away, thousands of travelers immersed not to exhibit their computer products at 

in the hurry-up-and-wait lifestyle queued up Summer CES. Most of the handful of com 

for tickets, checked luggage destined to be puter manufacturers present were PC-clone 

misdirected to a remote radar outpost north manufacturers the likes of Vendex, Blue 

of the Arctic Circle, and fumed while gate Chip, Amstrad, and Hyundai. Even they 

agents offered air-travel vouchers. I glanced were not in particularly high spirits. 

at my watch and listened to the growl in my 

Three of the four privately admitted 

gut. Both told me that it was about half past that IBM has contacted them (and other 

noon. The sky was a cloudless azure—a 

clone manufacturers) about royalties alleg 

color I would surely get to know during the edly owed on IBM patents that their prod 

45-minute holding pattern over O'Hare Air ucts supposedly use. Even if some IBM 

port that the flight promised. An inexplica patents are in widespread use in clones, why 

ble force took hold of my steering wheel, 

has Big Blue waited over five years before 

and my car merged back onto Interstate 94. deciding that it owns a piece ofjust about 

I figured I could stop at Kellogg's in Battle every PC compatible? IBM's actions are the 

Creek (cereal capital of the world) for a 

poker equivalent of sandbagging—declaring 

quick bowl of corn flakes that I could wash that your cards are not good enough for an 

down with a bottle of Pinot Blanc from Ta 

initial bet and then raising the stakes after 

bor Hill in Buchanan. 

someone else opens. Even in games where 

such checking and raising is not expressly 

forbidden, it's considered a scumbag tactic. 

I suppose IBM figures that if it can't 

make enough millions from lagging PS/2 

Out of my car's glove compartment 

came the requisite road-trip survival kit— 

compact disc player, cellular phone, and ra 

dar detector. I set my vehicle's cruise control 

at warp 9 and settled into my seat. The 

steady hum of four Pirelli P6's were a coun 

terpoint to the music of Swing Out Sister, 

INXS. and the Talking Heads as the asphalt 

ribbon that binds the Motor and Windy Cit 

ies unwound before me. A mere three hours 

and 24 minutes later, I was pulling into the 

parking lot of Chicago's McCormick Center 

Exposition Hall (I leave it to the math stu 

dents and state troopers in the reading audi 

ence to calculate my average speed). 

During the height of the home com 

puter and videogame wars, the Summer and 

Winter Consumer Electronics Shows were 

the trade shows for the home computer mar 

ket. Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, Texas 

Instruments, and Coleco would fly in mas 

sive displays—staffed with scores of market 

ing types who didn't know which way to 

insert a floppy into a disk drive—in an ef 

fort to convince retailers that their machine 

was the hottest home computer. Wild allnight 

parties, extravagant press conferences, 

and bizarre promotional events were de 

rigueur. 

Then came the great shakeout. As the 

armies of competitors were winnowed and 

the money dried up, the carnival-like as 

pects of CES subsided. The catchword for 

vendors of computer-related products at the 

last two shows was a shell-shocked "You 

still here?" While CES is still a potent show 

system sales, it might as well cut itself in on 

the profits of companies successfully selling 

classic PCs. The unfortunate truth is that 

many companies, when faced with the pros 

pect of a protracted and expensive legal bat 

tle with IBM, throw in the towel, regardless 

of the relative merits of the case. Even the 

U.S. Government gave up without going to 

court after spending hundreds of millions of 

dollars in the late 1970s preparing an anti 

trust case against the computer behemoth. 

As I searched the show floor, it became 

apparent that PC products were as scarce as 

RAM chips at this CES. Even some old 

standbys couldn't be counted on. Bondwell 

had been purveying a line of low-cost PC 

laptops for several years. They must surely 

have some new computer wares on display, 

right? As I strolled up to the booth, a mar 

keting type zeroed in on my press badge like 

a heat-seeking missile and pumped my arm 

vigorously. "Our hot new products ... yes, 

sir.. .just check out this Ferrari Testarosa 

telephone and minimix console for kiddies 

who want to play disk jockey...." 

The stand-alone videogame market has 

come back with a vengeance. Nintendo 

dominated almost an entire floor of McCor 

mick North, with Sega and Atari both main 

taining a solid toehold. Grisly game 

cartridges with big-name titles such as 

continued on page 86 

B8 

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IOTH ANNIVERSARYM 

For $2 off prices advertised in ihis issue, mail this coupon along 

with your computer iypc and order 10: 

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pure hue. 

• Coupon may not be 

reproduced. 

• Valid on all advertised I.yco 

merchandise In this issue. 

• Coupon may nol be used w 

tender. 

• All l.yro poUciei apply as 

Haled in ad vert king. 

Void when prohibited. 

All Lyco policies apply 

fUted in advertUng. 

S nco we Tlahti 

10TH ANN VERSARY 

For $25 off prices advertised in ihis issue, mail this coupon 

with your computer lype and order lo: 

,yco Computer - P.O. Box 5088 -Jersey Shore, PA 17740 

• Only ooe coupon per 

purchase. 

• I uupon may not be 

reproduced. 

• Valid on all advertised Lyco 

merchandise in Ink taut. 

• All Lyco policies apply us 

■fated In advert bins. 

• Coupon may not be used a* 

legal lender. 

• Void where prohibited. 

10TH ANNIVERSARY; 

Fat $2 off pnecs advertised in this issue, mail this coupon along 

with your computer lype and order lo: 

I.yco Computer- P.O. Box 5088 -jersey Shore, PA 17740 

• Only one coupon per 

purchase. 

• Valid on all advertised Lyco 

merchandise In this r.vsur. 

• All Lyco pollciei apply as 

stated In Mlverttolng. 

Coupon may not be 

reproduced. 

Coupon may not be used ■> 

legal tender. 

Void where prohibited. 

CELEBRATE flCOMPUTE'S I IOTH ANNIVERSARY 

■fcryco wE 

For $S off prices advertised in ihis issue, mail ihis coupon along 

with your computer lype and order to. 

Lyco Computer- P.O. Box 5088 -Jersey Shore, PA 17740 

Only one coupon per 

purchase. 

Valid on all advertised Lyco 

merchandise in this bwue. 

All Lyco poltck* apply as 

Mated in MlvertlilnR. 

Coupon may not be 

reproduced. 

Coupon may not be used as 

legal tender. 

Void where prohibited. 

ISINCE 1

■ 

COMPUTE!'* 

FREE Reader Information Service 

Use these cards to request FREE information about the products ad 

vertised in this issue. Clearly print or type your full name and address. 

Only one card should be used per person. Circle the numbers that 

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cannot be responsible if advertisers do not provide literature to 

readers. 

Please use these cards only for subscribing or for requesting product 

information. Editorial and customer service inquiries should be ad 

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Use these cards and this address only for COMPUTE!'* Reader Infor 

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Circle 101 

a 

one year new U.S 

subscription to COMPUTE!: you will be billed 

■ 

$24. 

Please let us know. Do you 

own: plan to buy: 

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270 

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278 

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Apple 

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ibm 

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Other 

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273 

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275 

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(specifv model) 2B1 

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TO 

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Please print or type name and address. 

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IF MAILED 

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BUSINESS REPLY MAIL 

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COMPUTE! 

P.O. Box 10955 

Des Moines, IA 50347-0955 

1.1.1.II II..I., .I..I.I...I,II

Prepare for the ultimate fantasy when the 

Dungeons||pragons 

Game Product comes alive 

on your computer! 

proudly presents 

Pool of Radiance, 

the culmination of its collabo 

ration with TSR to bring the 

legendary ADVANCED 

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 

fantasy role-playing system to 

your home computer. 

Pool of Radiance is set in the huge, 

complex world of the Forgotten 

, \ 

Realms, a world brought to life by 

the combined talents and skills of 

top designers and programmers 

from both companies. Its game 

' system adheres faithfully to AD&D£ 

standards. Its state-of-the-art graphics 

push the very limits of the computer's 

capabilities. The only way to believe it is 

to experience it for yourself— wherever 

game software is sold. 

Look for the entire line of AD&D 

computer products coming soon 

from SSI. 

Roll up your 

characters 

and see their 

portraits 

and charac 

teristics. 

(C-64/128 

screen 

display.) 

Every single 

monster type 

is individu 

ally drawn 

by superb 

computer 

graphics. 

(IBM PC 

screen 

display.) 

STRATEGIC SIMULATIONS, INC. 

1046 N. Rengstorff Avenue 

Mountain View, CA 94043 

(415) 964-1353 

C1988 TSR, Inc. C19BS Strategic Simulation!, Inc. 

All right! rrttrved.

Will I have to take a third job in order to put 

the triplets through law, medical, and 

business schools in 1988?" 

Andrew Tobias' Financial Calculator? It Figures, 

Andrew Tobias' Financial Calculator"1 from the best selling software Managing Your Money" answers questions on: 

College and retirement planning 

Effects of new tax laws 

Mortgage refinancing 

Investment analysis 

Buy vs. rent vs. lease 

Internal rate of return 

Rental property analysis 

Compound interest calculations 

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And more! 

At dealers for only $44.95! Order your copy today by calling (203) 222-9150 ($2.00 refund for toll calls). 

Mention this ad and receive an additional discount! 

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We help you make the decisions that make a difference. 

355 Riverside Avenue • Westport, CT06880

7 -S\WM - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

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