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ST-Log
Issue Number 11
February 1987

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ST-Log
Issue Number 11
February 1987

Reviews

typing necessary for often-used commands), and to recall previously-typed command lines from a system-maintained buffer (history).

With Micro C-Shell, batch (shell) files are very easy to use (you call them as you would any other command), and they enjoy full access to all features of the shell itself. Their syntax is in some ways similar to that of C (hence the name). However, writing shell files can be something of a dark art, and you wont get much help from the documentation - the author seems to have taken a sacred vow never to give examples of anything. Beckemeyers MT C-Shell (to be reviewed in a future ST-Log) includes a long shell file used to install the system, from which you can glean many useful hints, but with Micro C-Shell I think youll be forced to refer to a Unix manual if, like me, you arent already familiar with shell files.

One of GEMCSHs external commands is CSH.PRG, which in fact is__.Micro C-Shell (minus the gem command). Two main uses for this command are given in the manual. First, you can put it in the "Auto" folder of your boot disk and have C-Shell automatically run every time you turn on the computer (thats the reason why this version doesnt know about GEM, which isnt yet activated when the "auto" programs are run). Second, you can call CSH.PRG from within your own programs, and thus use the shells internal as well as its external commands. You can also invoke copies of the C-Shell from within the current shell (too much of this sort of thing can lead to a species of user confusion known as shell shock).

as you might guess from its name, Micro C-Shell (and Unix, for that matter) has a certain affinity to C, the programming language. Implementations of Unix are usually written mostly in C, and I assume that this is true for Micro C-Shell, as well. But theres no reason why one couldnt use Micro C-Shell to build a system around another favorite language. I was able to work with the Personal Pascal package very easily. I ran the editor, compiler and linker as separate programs with no trouble at all. Without the GEM overhead, everything ran slightly faster.

Micro C-Shell contains just about everything you could ask for in a reasonable system, except for a format command - to get this you must buy Beckemeyers Micro C-Tools, a companion package.

Micro C-Shell comes on one single-sided disk. GEMCSH.PRG is about 67K bytes in size. The program in the BIN subdirectory (i.e., the external commands) total about 238K bytes. This is the minimum portion of the package you would want accessible from the disk at all times (you could of course, delete from teh disk the commands you dont use, making more free space). Micro c-Shell can thus be used conveniently in a floppy or hard disk environment.

My only real complaint with Micro C-Shell concerns the documentation, which in some way shearkens back to the worst days of user-hostility; even the official Unix manuals seem frienlier. And theres more than a little evidence that someone neglected their proofreading duties. Youll have no trouble using most of the commands directly, but youll probably need a second reference to figure out all the intricacies of history substitution and writing shell files.

Otherwise, I recommend Micro C-Shell enthusiastically - for programmers and developers. To "applications-only" users, I would say stick with GEM, unless you hate the mouse.

As mentioned above, Micro C-Shells repertory of external commands can easily be added to by the user. An example is the Micro C-Tools package (to be reviewed soon), which I also recommend.

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Starglinder
by Jez San, Argonaut Software
Rainbird Software, U.K., through Firebird Software
$39.95

by D.F. Scott

Dartmouth Star Trek (believed created in 1968) is the root of a long family tree which branches out like this: from Darmouth Trek came Cainbridge Trek - the first real-time variation and the basis of Segas arcade Star Trek - and the original PDP-11 Space Wars vector-graphics game. Space Wars was ported by Cinematronics over to the arcade years later, and Atari copied it with Cosmos. Though never released, Cosmos was changed so that the asteroids became targets rather than obstacles, and we know where that part of the tree leads already.

Lance Miklaus popularized Star Trek for the TRS-80s and Personal Software (later VisiCorp) came up with a great realtime variation in Time Trek. Doub Neubauer put the Atari 400/800s on the map by adding first-person combat to the scheme, while keeping the Dartmouth Treks sector grids and sensor scans - thus creating Star Raiders, the first heavyweight champ. None of the seven years worth of variations since have managed to dethrone it, but now Jeremy "Jez" San has taken the best form each of them (Star Wars, Battlezone, Red Baron), added a dash of Bob Polins Blue Max (where youre most vulnerable while refueling, instead of most secure), and given us Starglider, which may very well be the new champ. Starglider is that good, right from the opening soundtrack.

And so, ten billion years from now, when archaeologists of the new human civilization dig up remnants of the old, uncovering such treasures as the Taj Mahal, the REagan Memorial, the ANALOG Building, and the infinite pile of loose leaf papers under which rests D.F. Scott, they will most likely deduce the following:

Ancient Earth colonies were divided into 8x8 sector grids. Within one of these grids, mankind had harnessed a source of infinite energy called a starbase. In the outside world of never-ending combat, men and women lost bodily energy rapidly, and were often caught with their shields down. The starbase (a structure marked by two golden arches) was a place for rest and rejuvenation. From there, combatants could emerge to face the robotic minions of doom denoted in folklore only by the letter K.

Archaeologists will never realize that what really happened was that everyone with an ST - meaning most of us, of course - was simply spending most of their time playing Starglider.

in this game, you find yourself in a first person attack scenario similar to that of Battlezone. You have two main instruments: your forward viewscreen and your radar, which seem to hold up in battle a lot better than your ship. You fly a rather quiet sort of hovercraft. There are two wasy to control it; by keyboard a la Flight Simulator, or by mouse (which I prefer because of its greater responsiveness).

The mouse control is subtle and ingenious. The direction youre headed in is determined by the position of the mouse relative to the center of your mouse pad or roll-around area. The left button fires your lasers - more like a plasma beam, just the slightest bit of time delay - and the right button (held down, followed by an upward or downward movement of the mouse) controls your speed. After about three flights, the movements became instinctive for me.

There is one minor bug, though. Ive noticed that sometimes the speed automatically decays, and sometimes it stays con-

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ST-Log
Issue Number 11
February 1987

XLENT Software

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