Color Computer Magazine (November 1983)

Source: Color Computer Magazine – Vol. 1, No. 9 – November 1983

The Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer, also known as the Tandy Color Computer or simply the Coco was a line of home computers produced from 1980 until 1991. It was the only common computer I am aware of that used the Motorola 6809 CPU. This was an 8-bit CPU but had some 16-bit features and was powerful for its time.

There were three interations of the Color Computer with various features and improvements but for the most part they maintained backwards compatiability in terms of software. Some add-on hardware also maintained compatability across iterations.

There weren’t very many magazines that covered the CoCo relative to other popular machines at the time but The Color Computer Magazine was one such magazine dedicated to this machine.

The November 1983 issue included the following:

The Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer, also known as the Tandy Color Computer or the Coco was a series of mostly compatible home computers produced from 1980 until 1991. It was the only common computer I am aware of that used the Motorola 6809 CPU. This was an 8-bit CPU but had some 16-bit features and was powerful for its time.

The Coco wasn’t really as popular as Commodore, Apple or Atari computers but it was supported by Radio Shack for a long time and still had a magazine or two dedicated to it, including Color Computer Magazine.

The November 1983 issue included the following:

Features

- Super Spiro! – A type-in program for generating spirographs, including parameters for several different ones.

- Color Computing for Kids – A programming article for kids. Included is a tutorial on FOR/NEXT loops in BASIC with math examples and an example printing a Thanksgiving message.

- Star – A simple type-in program for drawing a star-like object on the screen.

- Sorcerer’s Puzzles – A type-in game that features several puzzle challenges.

- Slither – A type-in machine language game. This game existed on may computers in many forms. You control a snake as it goes around the screen eating things. As it eats it grows longer. If you run into yourself, you die.
- Unforgettable Characters – Creating custom characters on the Color Computer.

- My MC-10 Speaks ML! – The MC-10 was a sort of cut down version of the Color Computer designed to compete with even cheaper computers like the VIC-20. Other than BASIC programs, it was mostly incompatible with the Color Computer and far more limited. It was not a success. This article covers machine language programming on that machine.

- Custom Color – Despite the name, this is actually an article about music and sound on the Color Computer and computers in general.

- One-finger Hexload – A program that allows you to enter hex numbers without prefixing them with ‘&H’ which was normal procedure on the Color Computer. Useful, for example, for typing in machine language programs.

Graphics? Yes! Part II – Draw lines and circles – A tutorial for creating graphics in BASIC, including examples. This month the focus is on drawing lines and circles.

Departments

- PEEK (11,83) – An overview of the magazine’s contents this month.

- INKEY$ – Letters from readers covering topics such as piracy, machine language for beginners, productivity software and more.

- GOTO School – A column on education and computers. This month, the advantages of monochrome monitors and how computer information services are beginning to supplement encyclopedias as a go to resource.

- DEFUSR – Questions and answers, this month featuring questions about the Tally MT160L printer, power supply problems, using 64K without DOS and more.

- Reviews
  - Micron Eye – A digital imaging system for the 16K Color Computer.
  - Astro Blast – A Space Invaders clone for the Color Computer.
  - Colorkit 1.2 – A toolkit that provides a wide variety of programming tools for the Color Computer.
  - Kaleidophone – A program (and hardware) for creating visual effects based on audio input.
  - The BASIC Book – A book comparing BASIC version for different home computers. Useful if you wanted to convert a BASIC program from one platform to another.
  - Sketch Pad – A drawing pad for drawing on your Color Computer.

- New Products – Some new products covered this month include a new Daisy Wheel Printer, a program for creating pie charts, and Infidel, the latest interactive fiction game from Infocom among a number of other things.