• Tag Archives computers

  • Maximum PC (September 2000)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Maximum PC – September 2000

    Another issue of what was my favorite PC magazine. It was among the latest survivors in the magazine world as well. This magazine was generally targeted at those who were power users. People that build their own PCs, do PC gaming, overclock, etc. The September 2000 issue includes:

    • Commport – Letters from readers about the Voodoo 5 5500 AGP, color temperature calibration, the demise of Psygnosis, computer heat, AOL and privacy, the KX133 chipset, turning off the task scheduler, and more.
    • Inside Sources – Low power CPUs shown off at PC Expo including Transmeta’s Crusoe, a low power 600 MHz Pentium III, and AMD’s K6-2+ at PC Expo; the DVD-RAM / DVD+RW war continues; and a look at the new bluetooth technology.
    • Watch Dog – Philips settles lawsuit regarding defective CD-R drives; problems with Access Micro PC, getting Klipsch speakers in Canada, Aureal files for bankruptcy, and more.
    • Peripheral Vision – A look at new tech toys including the Casio Freedia FZ-500P Super-Compact Printer, Creative Video Blaster WebCam GO Plus, and Olympus Eye-Trek FMD-150W-US.
    • Fast Forward – A fair price for MP3a and the future of music consumption.
    • Dream Machine 2000 – Every year, Maximum PC editors built the ultimate PC that could be built. In 2000, that was a desktop featuring dual 1 GHz Pentium III CPUs, an Intel OR840 motherboard, a pair of 256MB Kingston RDRAM modules, a Hercules 3D Prophet II 64MB video card, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum + Live Drive II, Sigma Designs Real Magic Hollywood Plus MPEG Decoder, Plextor Ultraplex 40x Max CD-ROM, two Plexwriter 12/4/32 drives, Pioneer DVD-115 16x DVD-ROM, two 18GB Seagate X15 SCSI drives, a 75GB IBM 75GXP drive, an Adaptec 39160 Ultra 160 SCSI card, an Iomega 100MB Internal IDE ZIP drive, a Sony F500 monitor, Klipsch ProMedia V.2-400 speakers, Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro USB, Logitech First Mouse Wheel, and a PC Power and Cooling Solid-Steel Tower. All for the low, low price of $11,987.
    Dream Machine 2000
    • Hands Down: The 25 Best Palm Apps – This list of best Palm Pilot apps includes things like Unitconv (an app for converting units), Cruisecontrol (an overclocking app), Arranger (an organizer app), Moon Phase (will give you the phase of the moon for any date), and lots of others.
    • Thunderbird’s A Go-Go! – A detailed look at AMD’s new iteration of the Athlon CPU. The big changes were to the cache architecture which also allowed it to go from slot based back to socket based.
    • Whitepaper – A talk with Matrox regarding its OpenGL driver.
    • Ask The Doctor – Questions answered about using Premiere with a Compaq Presario 7970, problems with IE 5.5, problems with ripping MP3s, DMA issues, using SoftFSB, and more.
    • Hardware Reviews – Reviews of the Polywell Poly A30k7-1000 system, Diamond Rio 600 MP3 player, Hercules 3D Prophet II 64MB graphics card, Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 32MB graphics card, Hercules 3D Prophet II 32MB graphics card, OnStream 30GB tape drive, Dell XPS8100R Special Edition digital studio, Samsung SM-304B CD-RW/DVD drive, Toshiba SD-R1002 CD-RW/DVD drive, and Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 350CBi mobile color printer.
    • Game Reviews – Reviews of Diablo II, Deus Ex, MDK2, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, StarLancer, and Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption.

    …and more!


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  •  Home Computer Magazine Volume 4, Number 1 (1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Home Computer Magazine Volume 4, Number 1 (1985)

    Home Computer Magazine started life as TI99er which exclusively covered the the Texas Instruments TI-99 line of computers. With this issue (Volume 4, Number 1) it was re-branded and started covering the Commodore 64 and VIC-20, Apple II, and IBM PC (DOS) in addition to the TI-99. This issue was published some time in 1984 and includes:

    Features

    • Uncle Larry’s Fiddle Tunes – Type-in folk songs for the Commodore 64, TI-99/4A and PCjr.
    • Pocket Canon – More type-in music, this time for the TI-99/4A.
    • TI-Writer Tutorial – The third part of a tutorial TI-Writer, a word processor for the TI-99/4A.
    • I Write the Songs: Electronic Sheet Music – A type-in BASIC program for the TI-99/4A called Music Magic that lets you play, display, and save music.
    • Just Assemble Melody: Music in Mini Memory – A type-in program that makes writing music on the TI-99/4A easier.
    • PCjr: A Detailed Look Inside the Peanut’s Shell – An overview of IBM’s new PCjr. It was doomed to failure for a variety of reasons, including a terrible keyboard, incompatibility with PC parts, limited expansion ability, software compatibility issues, a relatively high price, and probably other reasons.
    • 66 Keys to Graphics Success: A Primer for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 – A beginner’s guide to the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.
    • Have No Fear: Assembly Language Won’t Byte, Part 3 – The third part in a beginner’s assembly language tutorial for the TI-99/4A.
    • Porsches and Other Pipedreams: Computer Assisted Savings – A type-in program for the Apple II, PCjr, Commodore 64 and VIC-20 that does things like calculating compound interest, payment plans, future value, and more.
    • 3D-IIe: Apple Graphics in Three Dimensions – A type-in program for creating 3D line drawing on the Apple II.
    • The Future Is Now in Apple Graphics – A look at new graphics products for the Apple II including the Supersprite board and StarSprite software, plus an interview with Don Fudge.
    • Biting Into Your Apple – A guide to customizing and expanding your Apple II.
    • Movable Feasts – A type-in meal planner for the VIC-20.
    • Don’t Be a SlowPOKE – A type-in machine language routine to help you animated your sprites on the Commodore 64.
    • Down Memory Lane – A guide to rearranging the memory map of your Commodore 64 to squeeze out more memory.
    • Easy as Apple Pie – A guide to creating simple graphics on the Apple II.
    • Microcomputer Accuracy – A guide to testing the mathematical accuracy of your computer. Typically, home computers were not as precise as scientific calculators, at least not with built in math functions.

    LOGO Times

    • What Is LOGO – It’s a programming language.
    • Lyrical LOGO – Recursion using LOGO.
    • LOGO Shoots for the Moon – Structured programming using LOGO.

    Product Reviews

    • Henpecked – A cartridge based Joust clone for the TI-99/4A featuring chickens.
    • Hopper – A cartridge based Pengo clone for the TI-99/4A in which you control a kangaroo on a cargo ship trying to avoid capture.
    • Zeus – A game inspired by Space Invaders for the Commodore 64 in which you must avoid lightning bolts from Zeus.
    • Beach Head – This classic for the Commodore 64 plays kind of like a series of mini-games with a World War II theme. It is definitely among the best early games for the commodore 64.
    • Gruds in Space – A sci-fi themed graphic adventure for the Apple II.
    • Jumpman Junior – A cartridge version of this screen based platform game. The graphics were definitely simple but this game was a lot of fun (and also hard).
    • Stellar Seven – A wireframe space combat sim for the Apple II.
    • Coveted Mirror – A graphics adventure game for the Apple II with the somewhat unique feature for the time that the screens were animated.
    • Fly Snuffer – An action game on cartridge for the TI-99/4A in which you have to spray flies to kill them.
    • Homeword Bound – A review of HomeWord, a word processor from Sierra Online for the Apple II.
    • Bank Street Writer – A popular 1980s word processor for the Apple II (and later other machines).
    • Bigger Better Basic – Reviews of The Super Expander 64 and Simon’s Basic 64, both of which are extensions to Commodore 64’s BASIC that add things like graphics commands among others.
    • Getting it Out of Your System – A look at the Buffered Grappler and PSIO interface cards for the Apple II.
    • Facemaker – A educational/art game in which you create and must remember faces for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and TI-99/4A.
    • Art at Your Fingertips – A color graphics system for the Apple II consisting of a Koala Pad drawing pad, Microillustrator art program, Transtar 315 printer, and a PICS Interface card which can transfer color screen dumps to the printer.

    Gameware Buffet

    • Flak Attack – A type in game for the Apple II, Commodore 64, VIC-20, PCjr and TI-99/4A in which you must shoot down enemy aircraft.
    • Slots – A type-in slot game simulator for the TI-99/4A.
    • Meltdown – A type-in game in which you must prevent a nuclear power plant from melting down for the TI-99/4A.
    • Challenging the Tower of Hanoi – A type-in implementation of the Tower of Hanoi for the Apple II, Commodore 64, VIC-20, PCjr, and TI-99/4A.

    Departments

    • On Screen – TI exits the personal computer market and all about the changes in the magazine.
    • Group Grapevine – News and upcoming events related to computer users groups.
    • Letters to the Editor – Letters from readers including converting programs for the TI Editor/Assembler, the IBM PC vs. the IBM PCjr, and more comments on articles from previous issues.
    • HCM Product News – TI announces two new games for the TI-99/4A (Symoids and Pirate’s Isle); the Super Stik from Personal Peripherals; Persuasion, a strategy game from Orion Games for the PC; new printing service for TI users; Flight Simulator II from subLogic for the Commodore 64 and Atari; a new TI BASIC compiler; and much more.
    • Tech Notes: TI – A guide to setting up data files on cassette for the TI-99/4A.
    • Tech Notes: IBM – Demonstrating mathematical accuracy on the IBM PC.
    • Tech Notes: Commodore – Restoring DATA pointers on the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.
    • Tech Notes: Apple – Modifying, inserting, and deleting from existing programs on the Apple II.

    …and more!


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  • PC Magazine (May 28, 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Magazine – May 28, 1985

    Not only were 1980s issues of PC Magazine quite large (this one is around 375 pages), for a while it was also published every other week. The May 28, 1985 issue includes:

    Cover Stories

    • Plug-ins: The Inside Story – Some of the best add-in devices including hard drives and half-height floppy drives, and backup devices such as tape drives (these weren’t officially supported by IBM until the XT and PCjr came along).
    • Installing Megabytes in Minutes – A comparison of some of the hard drives available for the PC, including the Mountain Computer XT Internal, Micro Design IS 10, Falcon Technology PC Extender, Everex Everdisk, Quadram QuadDisk (12 MB), Sigma Designs HHK-02000, Kamerman Labs Megaflight, Micro Design IS 30, and Quadram QuadDisk (72 MB).
    • Portability Meets Privacy – A comparison of available removeable-cartridge hard disk systems including the Genie XL 10P, Quadram QuadDisk, IDEAssociates IDEAdisk, and Tecmar PC-Mate. These all coast in the neighborhood of $2000 for a storage capacity of 5 to 10MB per cartridge.
    • Double Your Driving Pleasure – A comparison of half-height floppy drives for the PC including the Panasonic JU-455, Control Data 9428, TEAC FD-55B-01-U, and QUME QumeTrak 142.
    • An Up-Front Approach to Backup – A comparison of internal tape drives for the PC including the Everex EXCELL 4500, Micro Design MT 10, Mountain Computer FSI60-AT, Sigma Designs STK-45, and Tecmar QIC-60-AT.
    • New Frontiers for Add-in Technology – A look at some technologies so new that IBM does not officially support them (but that didn’t mean you couldn’t use them…if you had the money). These include quad-density floppy drives such as the Tandon TM64-4, embedded servo drives such as the TeamMate 1103, and CD-ROM technology.

    Features

    • OmniTel’s Encore Performance – A look at the Encore 1200B Hayes compatible internal modem (1200bps for only $449).
    • Get Smart with MaxThink – MaxThink is a “thought processor”, a category of software designed to sort out the pros and cons and other factors for making choices.
    • 2001: Futuristic Accounting? – 2001 from FIS is an accouting package designe for small businesses.
    • Macro Dynamos for the PC – A comparison of two pieces of software for creating macros: ProKey 3.0 and SmartKey 4.1.
    • Fine-Tuning Your Sales Technique – A review of The Sales Manager, software for tracking clients, expenses, commissions, and more.
    • Perfect Components: All in the Family – The Perfect series is an integrated software package with the advantage that you can buy only the components you need.

    Pro Columns

    • Finding Anything Anywhere – A type-in BASIC program for searching text in files on your disk.
    • Keeping the Wolves at Bay – A look at a bankruptcy-reorganization program from Arthur Anderson & Co. called The Reorganization Model.
    • Banking on Your Computer – Online banking has been around longer than you might think. In 1985, you could access your accounts via dial-up to systems such as PRONTO.
    • Restoring Matrix Commands to BASIC – The original Dartmouth BASIC including matrix functionality but this was cut when BASIC was created for PCs. Matrix 100 is a BASIC software package that adds back these BASIC matrix commands.
    • Enter at Your Own Risk – A review of The Computer-Assisted Investment Handbook which includes 50 type-in investment programs.
    • The Organized Writer – ThinkTank is software designed to help in planning the structure of writing projects.

    Departments

    • PC News – IBM enters the “phone-computer” market; IBM cuts prices and releases new XT models; AT&T’s STARLAN; Ericcsson releases 15-pound portable computer for $2995; Kodak makes offer for Verbatim; electronic mail privacy issues; Japan’s new PC JX (sort of a Japanese version of the PCjr), and much more.
    • The Mouse That Roared – Editors at PC Magazine experiment with using a mouse.
    • Letters to PC – Letters from readers about Professional BASIC, user software rights, sending files by modem vs. LAN, BBS lists, and more.
    • Complementary Comments – A look at new printers from IBM (Wheelprinter and Quietwriter Printer), the advantages of using non-IBM hard drives with the IBM AT, and a look at IBM’s new Enhanced Graphics Adapter.
    • User-To-User – Using the IBM’s low resolution graphics mode (160 x 100).
    • New On The Market – A look at new PC related items on the market including the EIT-PS Personal Scanner, Modemphone, new half-height removable cartridge drives, PcOS 100 dot matrix printer, Star Cal II (database of celestial events through 1990), and more.
    • Taming a Wild Language – A review of the book Assembly Language Safari on the IBM PC: First Explorations by John Socha.

    …and more!


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