• Tag Archives computers

  • Zzap! 64 (November 1987)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Here in the U.S., we never had a gaming magazine dedicated to the Commodore 64. I would have loved such a thing, especially as this one, published in the U.K. was published well into the 1990s and I was still using my Commodore 64 as my primary computer up through most of 1993. The November 1987 issue of Zzap! 64 includes:

    Redoubtable Regulars

    • Editorial – Info on a new editor at the magazine.
    • The Rrap – Letters from readers about arcade conversions, the cost of Zzap! in Ireland, competition questions, Microprose, and more.
    • Enter The Harlequin – A solution to Kayleth, an adventure game from US Gold. Plus, news about an upcoming adventures games, including Jack the Ripper.
    • Compunet – A look at the latest demos available via Compunet.
    • What’s New – SSI to work with TSR and US Gold to develop Dungeons & Dragons computer games (these would become the gold box series), a promotion for Bangkok Knights, and more.
    • Manoeuvres – Reviews of strategy games Armageddon Man and High Frontier.
    • Postmark – Games played via the postal service.
    • Cheap and Cheerful – Reviews of budget games Joe Blade, Anarchy, On Cue, Tunnel Vision, Special Agent, Pyramid of Time, Defcom, and Land of Neverwhere.
    • The Chart Show – A list of the top 30 games for the month. At the top of the list is World Games. Some others on this list I have played include Gauntlet (number 5), Paperboy (number 14), California Games (number 16), Kikstart II (number 17), Arkanoid (number 22), and Green Beret (number 24).

    November Novelties

    • International Karate + – A review of this fighting game from System 3. I never played it but it reminds me a bit of Yie ar King-Fu.
    • Solomon’s Key – A review of this arcade conversion by US Gold.
    • Morpheus – A review of this scrolling shooter from Hewson.
    • Starfox – Not to be confused with the famous series that got its start on the Super NES, this game is a space combat sim.
    • Quedex – A review of this game which is sort of like Marble Madness without the isometric viewpoint.
    • Enlightenment – Druid II – I don’t think I ever played this sequel but the original Druid was a fun Gauntlet-like game.

    Features

    • Hit Me With Your Best Shot – A history of Shoot ‘Em Up games. Some game mentioned here include Pastfinder from Activision (I loved this one), Spy Hunter (another great game), Paradroid, Hypercircuit, Dropzone, and many others.
    • Accolade’s Comics – An adventure game in comic book format.
    • The Tips Supplement – Tips for Impossible Mission, Quartet, Joustie, Master of Magic, The Evil Dead, Hercules, Gods and Heroes, Nodes of Yesod, 1942, and lots more.
    • RPG’s Scrutinised – A look at new RPGs including Moebius (Microprose/Origin), Alternate Reality: The Dungeon (Datasoft), and Legacy of the Ancients (Electronic Arts).
    • Combat Zone – A real-life capture the flag paintball game.
    • Minson Meets Microprose – A sneak peek at the latest from Microprose including Project Stealth Fighter and Airborne Ranger.

    …and more!


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  • PC World (September 2003)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    PC World was around for decades from the early 1980s until well into the 2000s. It was perhaps the most popular PC magazine for most of that time. The September 2003 issue includes:

    PC Makeovers

    • 60-Minute Upgrades – A look at relatively quick and easy upgrades for your computer including adding a 100 GB 7200 RPM PATA hard drive, adding a DVD burner, upgrading a CPU (in this case a Pentium 700 to a Celeron 1400 via a PowerLeap PL-ip3/T adapter), adding more RAM (1 to 2 GB was a lot at the time), upgrading your video card (AGP was all the rage at the time), and more.

    Features

    • Well-Connected Handhelds – At this time, PDAs were gaining wi-fi capabilities and cell phones were gaining PDA functionality. Some devices looked at here include the Palm Tungsten C, Sony Ericsson P800, Handspring Treo 300, Kyocera 7135 Smartphone, Palm Tungsten W, Samsun SPH-i700 and Samsung SPH-i500, T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, T-Mobile Sidekick, Sony Clie PEG-NZ90 and Toshiba E755.
    • Online Music: New Hits and Misses – A look at online music services including RealNetworks RealOne Rhapsody, EMusic, Apple iTunes Music Store, Musicmatch WX Platinum, FullAudio MusicNow, Pressplay, and more.
    • More Broadband for Your Buck – Broadband was still relatively new and not as fast as it is today (5 Mb was common). This is a guide to optimizing your speed and getting the most from the features your service offers.

    Top 100

    • Top 15 Desktop PCs – The top power system this month is the ABS Ultimate M5 featuring an Athlon XP 3200+, 1GB of DDR400 RAM and 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card for $2739 while the top value system is the ABS Bravado 2280 featuring an Athlon XP 2500+, 512MB DDR-333 RAM, and 64MB EVGA E-GeForce Ti 4200 video card for $1139.
    • Top 15 Notebook PCs – The top power notebook is the IBM ThinkPad T40 featuring a 1.6 GHZ Pentium M and 512MB RAM for $3099 while the top value notebook is the Dell Inspiron 500m featuring a 1.3 GHz Pentium M and 256MB RAM for $1616.
    • Top 5 Photo Printers – At the top of the list is the Epson Stylus Photo 900.
    • Top 10 15-inch LCD Monitors – It’s hard to give away a 15-inch monitor today but it was the norm in 2003. The top 15-inch LCD monitor this month was the NEC MultiSync LCD 1560M for $370.
    • Top 10 DVD Drives – The top drive this month was the TDK Indi DVD 440N for $300.
    • Top 10 Digital Cameras – The top digital camera this month was the 3.2-megapixel Canon PowerShot A70 (I think this was actually my first digital camera).
    • More Reviews – Other list toppers include the Olympus C-4000 Zoom digital camera, Oki Data Oki C7300n color laser printer, Dell UltraSharp 1901FP 19-inch LCD monitor, and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y120P0 hard drive.

    Departments

    • Up Front – A look at some computer services actually worth paying for…maybe.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about adware, file trading, Windows XP updates, photo kiosks, and more.
    • Plugged In – A look at storage options for MP3 players, Microsoft’s new version of Office, AOL 9.0, turning your PC off at night, and more.
    • Consumer Watch – Preventing your PC from being hijacked by spammers.
    • Home Office – A look at the ten best free utilities including hard drive utilities, web browser accelerators, and more.
    • Full Disclosure – Copyright and the perils of ignoring it.

    News & Trends

    • Cheap Ink Probed – Part two of a series on third-party ink cartridges.
    • ISPs Promote Premium Extras – ISPs promote extra services such as antivirus software, digital music, firewall software, and more for an extra cost.
    • A 64-bit Computer: Your Next PC? – The next generation of PC processors will be 64-bit, including Apple’s G5 and AMD’s Athlon 64.
    • .Zip File Format Splinters – Winzip and PKZip use incompatible implementations of AES encryption.
    • Built-in Graphics Show Some Improvement – Integrated graphics show improvement but are still far inferior to even cheap dedicated graphics cards.
    • RSS: Hot Fix for Inter-Junkies – New RSS standard makes it easy to get news on the topics that you want.

    New Products

    • Notebook PCs – A look at new subnotebooks including the Compaq Nc4000 (1.6 GHz Pentium M and 256MB), LifeBook P5000 (900 MHz ULV Pentium M and 256MB), and Sony VAIO PCG-TR1A (900 MHz ULV Pentium M and 512MB).
    • Privacy Software – A look at the latest version of ZoneAlarm.
    • Digital Camera – A look at Apple’s ISight camera.
    • PDA/Cell Phone Hybrid – A look at Hitachi’s G1000 Pocket PC/phone hybrid.
    • Hard-Drive Backup Software – A look at Drive Image 7 for Windows.

    Here’s How

    • Answer Line – A guide to reinstalling Windows without losing your data.
    • Windows Tips – Checking for disk errors in Windows XP and Windows 2000.
    • Step-By-Step – Upgrading to a Serial ATA drive.
    • Internet Tips – Optimizing your browser security settings.
    • Hardware Tips – Implementing BIOS passwords.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • Byte (April 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    You really got your money’s worth when you bought an issue of Byte in the 1980s. For only $3.50 per issue (less if you were a subscriber), you got a whopping 500+ pages. And the cover story in April 1985? Artificial Intelligence. Contents of this issue includes:

    Features

    • Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar: Build The Home Run Control System – The first part of a series on building a home control system using X-10 modules, sensors and a single board computer.
    • Coprocessing in Modula-2 – Writing concurrent programs in Modula-2.
    • A Million-Point Graphics Tablet – A guide to building a low cost graphics tablet for the Zenith Z-100.

    Themes

    • Communication With Alien Intelligence – How we might communicate with aliens from an artificial intelligence perspective.
    • The Quest to Understand Thinking – Attempting to understand how the brain works starting with the simplest steps.
    • The LISP Tutor – Developing a computer based tutor effective at teaching the LISP programming language.
    • PROUST – A knowledge based systems for automatically debugging Pascal programs.
    • Architectures for AI – Improving computational throughput for artificial intelligence.
    • The LISP Revolution – LISP was the first language primarily used for AI applications. It is still used today though Python and C++ seem to be the main players now.
    • The Challenge of Open Systems – In this context, “open systems” refer to systems of interconnected and interdependent computers.
    • Vision – Computer Vision was one of the earliest applications of artificial intelligence. This article discusses methods of making computers see.
    • Learning in Parallel Networks – Building learning systems with parallel networks.
    • Connections – Comparing parallelism in nature with artificial intelligence.
    • Reverse Engineering The Brain – Creating artificial intelligence by simulating the brain.
    • The Technology of Expert Systems – Expert Systems were another early implementation of artificial intelligence concepts.
    • Inside an Expert System – Developing an Expert System using Pascal.

    Reviews

    • The ITT XTRA – An IBM compatible computer with 256K of RAM, two double-density 5.25″ floppy drives, and monochrome display for $2395.
    • Insight – A Knowledge System – Review of this rule-based knowledge system for the IBM PC.

    Kernel

    • Computing At Chaos Manor: Over The Moat – A look at various products including CP/M Utilities, WRITE, dBASE III, Framework, S1 Operating System, Symphony, System Backup, The World Plus, and more.
    • BYTE West Coast: Lasers, Office Publishing, and More – A look at products from Canon, Imagen, Interleaf, Kurzwil, Ricoh, Sun Microsystems, Tardis Software, and Xerox.
    • BYTE U.K.: New Database Ideas – A look at Frame Theory for use in database management systems.
    • BYTE Japan: The Fifth Generation in Japan – A look at the Hitachi S-810 family of vector super computers. The S-810 was the second super computer from Japan and the first from Hitachi. The fastest of them could reach about 630 MFLOPS.
    • Editorial: Golfers and Hackers – A comparison of golfing and hacking.
    • Microbytes – An IBM PC emulator for Macintosh users; a memory upgrade for the Mac; Microsoft releases C compiler; Zenith releases new portables with backlit LCD displays; Proteon offers 80 megabits per second networking ($8000 per node); and more.
    • Letters – Readers write in about the Fujitsu Micro 16, the Apple II, Wordstar .BAK files, manual from Apple, and more.
    • What’s New – A brief look at new products including the General Electric 3-8100 thermal printer, SuperKey, GE TVs that can be used as 80-column monitors, 300bps direct acoustic modem from GE, the Kaypro 286i IBM PC AT compatible computer, the Alphacom Aero printer (Epson RX-80 compatible), 30-megabyte hard drive from Control Data Corporation, S-100 graphics cards, and more.
    • Ask BYTE – Questions answered about switching power supplies for the S-100 bus, high resolution graphics, and more.
    • Book Reviews – Reviews of Build Your Own Expert System by Chris Naylor, Artificial Intelligence In BASIC by Mike James, The Cognitive Computer: On Language Learning And Artificial Intelligence by Roger C. Schank.

    …and lots more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged