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  • Computer Shopper (March 2001)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Computer Shopper – March 2001 –

    Computer Shopper, for much of its life, was a huge telephone book sized magazine with tons of ads of course but also tons of content. It had shrunk considerably by the turn of the century. The March 2001 issue, though much smaller than earlier years, was still a fairly hefty 250 pages. It includes:

    Features

    • Tower of Power – Reviews of “Power Systems” including the Compaq Presario 7000T, Gateway Performance 1500XL, HP Pavilion 9720A, IBM NetVista A60i, and Micron Millennia Max XP. These are all either 1.2 GHz Athlon systems or 1.5GHz Pentium 4 Systems with 128MB RAM and video cards such as the nVidia GeForce2 GTS Ultra and ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon. Prices range from $2513 to $3649 with the HP being the cheapest and the Compaq being the most expensive.
    • Handheld PCs – Reviews of five handheld PCs including the Casio Cassiopeia EM-500 (Microsoft Pocket PC), Compaq iPaq H3650 Pocket PC (Microsoft Pocket PC), Handspring Visor Platinum (Palm OS), Handspring Visor Prism (Palm), and Palm VIIx (Palm). Computer Shopper liked the iPaq ($500), Handspring Visor Platinum ($299), and Palm VIIx ($449) the best.
    • Take-Along Tunes – A guide to portable music players with a look at the various audio formats plus a look at various software players including FreeAmp, MusicMatch Jukebox 6.0, RealPlayer 8, SoundJam MP 2.5.1, Winamp 2.7, Windows Media Player 7, and X Multimedia System.
    • Many Happy Returns – Reviews of tax software including Kiplinger Taxcut Deluxe, Quicken Turbotax Deluxe, and TaxAct 2000 Deluxe.
    • Something for Nothing – Free stuff including free music at MP3.com, free clipart, e-mail, hosting, web access, phone, fax, and more.
    • Not of the Presses – A feature on eBooks with a look at the latest eBook readers such as the Franklin eBookMan, Palm OS Handhelds, Pocket PC Handhelds, RCA eBook REB1100, and RCA eBook REB1200 plus places to get free eBooks and more.

    News

    • Net Now – Arizona first to have public election using voting over the Internet, Zairmail offers letter service, an upgrade kit for furbies, and more.
    • Hot Gear – A look at some of the latest gadgets including the Cyber-shot DSC-P1 3.3 megapixel digital camera from Sony, the Pocket Concert Audio Player from Intel, the Kyocera QCP 6035 Smartphone, Kimar wireless audio streaming devices, and more.

    Opinions

    • Jack Blackford – The slow march towards seamlessly using all of your devices together (in this case, Cell phones, PDAs, LANs, and the Web).
    • John Dvorak – Thinner and flatter CRTs coming soon.
    • Jim O’Brien – A look at luxury shopping sites such as BlueNile, Ice, Millionaire, and Mondera.
    • Michael Slater – A look at multifunction devices and whether combining all those functions makes sense.

    Web Buyer

    • Site Reviews – A look at travel sites, online shopping sites, and more.

    Business Buyer

    • Off Site, on LAN – Keeping offsite workers connected.
    • e-Services and Tools – A look at the free online financial advice available on the Web from Intuit and Microsoft.
    • Building Your Business – Using cookies to add advanced features to your website.

    Help & How To

    • You Can Take It With You – A guide to moving your data, apps, and settings to a new PC.
    • The Hard Edge – The Pentium 4’s bus speed, DDR SDRAM, dealing with spam, and more.
    • Alfred Poor’s Computer Cures – Help printing to a file, upgrading RAM, checking your hardware configuration, and more.
    • Buying Advisor – Using the Panasonic Toughbook 47 for all your rugged computer needs.

    Reviews

    • Desktops – Reviews of the HP Pavilion 2755C (800 MHz Pentium III, 128MB RAM for $1049), Sony Vaio PCV RX280DS (1 GHZ Pentium III, 128 MB for $2199), and Tangent Medalllion Pro (1 GHz Pentium 3, 256 MB for $1995).
    • Hardware – Reviews of the Intel Pocket PC Camera and Kodak EZ200 webcams, Hercules Game Theater XP sound card, Matrox Marvel G450 ETV, Ricoh Mediamaster MP9120A Combo Drive, and Samsung ML-4600 printer.
    • Mobile – A review of the Acer Travelmate 351TEV, a laptop featuring a 700MHz Pentium III, 128MB RAM, for $2299, the Innogear Minijam, Motrola Timeport P8767, the NEC Versa SXI latptop, Sceptre Soundx 69502 laptop, and Tiny performance Notebook 800.
    • Software – Reviews of the newly released Netscape 6, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, Documents to Go Professional Edition, and Psync.
    • Web Services – Reviews of homeadvisor.com and Phonefree.
    • Games – Reviews of You Don’t Know Jack 5th Dementia, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, and No One Lives Forever.

    …and more!


    Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged

  • Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1 (DOS)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1 is a computer fantasy role playing game based on the first volume of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. This game was originally released by Interplay in 1990 though there was a later CD edition released as well. It was available on DOS based PCs, the Amiga, FM Towns, and PC-98 (the latter two being platforms available in Japan).

    I have mixed feelings about RPGs based on books. If I’ve never read the book, then I guess it doesn’t really matter. However, in the case of Lord of the Rings, I had read the books before the game existed. This affects your game experience because not only are you already familiar with the world, but with the specific story. However, the good news is that the game does add other significant side quests that aren’t in the books so you won’t be familiar with everything even if you have read the books.

    This game is played from a top down perspective and combat is turn based. This is very open ended game and you can roam wherever you want and complete various quests. Of course the main quest has to also be followed at some point in order to complete the game. This is my personal favorite style of RPG. It is reminiscent of the Gold Box AD&D games as well as other popular computer RPGs of the time.

    This game generally got positive reviews at the time it was released. The open ended nature and additional quests means that there is a little something for everyone here. The main storyline is largely intact from the book if that’s what you are looking for but there are also different quests and various ways to get there. Whether you’ve read the books or not, this should be an enjoyable game if you like RPGs of this style.

    The special edition CD-ROM version that came a long a couple of years later enhances the game somewhat. The most important thing it adds is an automapping feature. While I really like a lot of old school RPGs, I always found the ones that make you do your own mapping a bit more tedious than I would like so this is a welcome enhancement. It also adds a soundtrack and cutscenes from the 1978 Lord of the Rings cartoon. I don’t care much about the cutscenes but the soundtrack is nice.

    If you do want to give this game a try, you’ll have to find an original copy or one of the re-releases that came along a few years later. There was the above mentioned special edition that was also packaged with The Two Towers as well as a Interplay 10 year anniversary collection that included this game. Both of these were released in 1993 and I don’t think there have been any subsequent releases.

    Screen shots above are from the DOS version of the game. The ad at the top features the box art which was done by the Brothers Hildebrandt.


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  • PC World (October 1986)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – October 1986

    PC World was perhaps the most popular PC specific magazine from the 1980s through at least the early 2000s. 1980s issues especially had huge page counts with this one coming in at over 450 pages. The October 1986 issue includes:

    Getting Started

    • Up From the Drafting Board – CAD on the PC. Choosing the right software and hardware. Available CAD software at the time included AutoCAD, VersaCAD, ProDesign II, Personal Designer, EasyCAD, ProDesign II, RoboCAD-PC, and others.

    Community

    • World Class PC – Readers pick their favorite hardware and software in over 39 categories. Some winners include: IBM PC AT (best desktop computer), Compaq Portable 286 Model 2 (best transportable computer), Data GeneralOne (best lap-size computer), Hayes Smartmodem 1200 (best modem), SixPakPlus (best memory expansion board), 20MB ST 225 (best hard drive), WordPerfect (best word processor), 1-2-3 (best spreadsheet), Norton Utilities (best utility), Crosstalk XVI (best communications software), Turbo Pascal (best programming language), Microsoft Flight Simulator (best game), and many others.
    • PCs Into Plowshares – Using personal computers to improve farm efficiency.
    • Timothy Leary’s Looking Glass – A look at Mind Mirror, a “mental adventure” game designed by Timothy Leary and published by Electronic Arts.

    Review

    • Andrew Tobias: Right on the Money – A look at the latest version of Managing Your Money, a series of related programs for managing your finances.
    • A Plan for DBASE III – A look at the latest version of dBASE III Plus. The menu driven assistant, greater programming power, and new networking features are a few of the major improvements.
    • Mapping Strategies – A look at mapping software for the PC including Atlas AMP, Map-Master, and Randmap.
    • CD-ROM: The Little Leviathan – CD-ROM didn’t really take off until the early to mid 1990s. However, it had been around a while by that point. This article looks at some of the first CD-ROM releases for the Philips CM 100 CD ROM player. Titles include databases such as Electronic Encyclopedia, Compact Disclosure, Medline, Life Sciences, and ASFA. Costs were extremely high though with prices for these titles ranging from $1500 to $4500.

    State of the Art

    • The PC Prescription – New PC medical programs help doctors administer medicine with greater accuracy.
    • TARGA’s Vision Vision – A look at AT&T’s TARGA 16 image capture and display board which allows the capture of still images from video.

    Hands On

    • Outlining With Style – A look at Microsoft Word 3.0’s outlining capabilities using style sheets.
    • BASICally Better Menus – Creating custom menus with BASIC and batch commands.

    Departments

    • David Bunnell – PC vs. Macintosh.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about desktop publishing on the PC, Volkswriter 3, computer dealers, and more.
    • REMark – The difference between tools and solutions.
    • PC World View – Mitch Kapor leaves Lotus, government PC purchases, Z-Glove input device, and more.
    • From the Hardware Shelf – A look at the PC+ from Thompson, Harriman & Edwards, the Kimtron KT-7/PC, and more.
    • From the Software Shelf – A look at the Traveling SideKick organizer, SmartNotes, The Printing Press, and more.
    • Password: Communicate – A look at the services offered by CMQ, a Canadian online investment service.
    • The Help Screen – Questions answered about BASIC on XT clones, using DOS commands from BASIC, using BASIC BSAVE for saving image arrays to disk, and more.
    • Kevin Strehlo – The exaggerated problem of spreadsheet disasters.

    …and more!


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