Source: Byte – December 1981
The December 1981 issue of Byte magazine weighs it at around 548 pages. All the more impressive when you consider that this issue was published only a few months after the IBM PC introduced. At this time, in the business world, if you were using a computer it was probably CP/M based or something custom. At home you would have been using a TRS-80, Apple II, Atari, PET or VIC-20. This issue includes:
Features
- The Coinless Arcade – A look at some of the newest games for computers available including Dino Wars (TRS-80 Color Computer), Voyage of the Valkyrie (TRS-80, Apple II), Space Warrior (Apple II), Apple Panic (Apple II), Galactic Empire (Atari 400/800), Olympic Decathlon (Apple II, TRS-80), Gorgon (Apple II), Raster Blaster (Apple II), Missile Command (Atari 400/800), International Grand Prix (Apple II), Snoggle (Apple II), Gobbler (Apple II), VIC Super Lander (VIC-20), Star Thief (Apple II), Eastern Front (Atari 400/800), Ultima (Apple II), and Asylum (TRS-80).
- Build a Touch Tone Decoder for Remote Control – A detailed guide to building both a DTMF-encoding circuit (basically the same as the dial-pad on a touch-tone phone) and a decoder that can be used for control purposes.
- Color Computer from A to D, Make Your Computer “See” and “Feel” Better – The first in a series of articles on the TRS-80 Model I, Model II, and Color Computer. This article includes instructions for using the Joystick port on the Color Computer to collect data such as temperature, light intensity, and other data (up to four channels at once).
- The Atari Tutorial, Part 4: Display-List – Part four in a series of technical articles on Atari computers. This part focuses on display-list interrupts.
- How to Build a Maze – A method for generating a traditional maze with one starting point, one ending point, with all locations reachable from the start, and only one path from start to finish.
- Toward a Structured 6809 Assembly Language, Part 2: Implementing a Structured Assembler – Part 2 in a series on creating a structured assembly language for 6809 CPUs. The first part involved creating a set of structured control statements. This part implements a structured assembler.
- MIKBUG and the TRS-80, Part I – Part 1 of a series on building a programming system for the MEK 6800 D1 (Motorola 6800 evaluation kit). This part focuses on creating a cross-assembler for the Motorola 6800 on the TRS-80.
- What Makes Computer Games Fun? – An article based on a PhD dissertation. Includes a survey of 65 students from Kindergarten to 8th grade.
- Computer Scrabble – A BASIC type-in scrabble game for the TRS-80.
- Generating Programs Automatically – Three utilities in Applesoft BASIC that write programs for you based on a few questions that you answer.
- BYTE’s Cumulative Index – An index of content from Byte from September 1975 to December 1981.
- Online Information Retrieval: Promise and Problems – In 1981 there was no Internet to speak of and there was certainly no Google. However, there were various online databases on various online services. Once dialing up to a service and selecting a database, you could query it with relatively simple select statements. This article goes over the prerequisites for making access to such data easy including having machine readable information in the first place, the hardware and software to store and retrieve it and the hardware and software at home to access it. However, preparing a search strategy ahead of time was important because online time could cost you $1 per minute or more depending on the service. Also, the syntax for searching varied between services and databases and was not always user friendly. This article also discusses ways to provide the bandwidth needed for mass access to such data.
- Handi-Writer, A Video Note Pad for the Physically Handicapped – Instructions for creating a system designed to help those with physical disabilities such as those with cerebral palsy to communicate. It is based on a TRS-80, custom software and a custom interface.
Reviews
- Robotwar – A game in which you program robots to fight each other on the Apple II.
- BYTE’s Arcade – A review of Olympic Decathlon for the TRS-80 and Apple II, a comparison of two Missile Command clones (ABM and Missile Defense both for the Apple II), a review of Gorgon (Defender Clone) for the Apple II, and a review of Commbat (a strategy game designed to play against another player over a modem) for the TRS-80).
- alphaSyntauri Music Synthesizer – A combination hardware/software music synthesizer for the Apple II.
- Battle of the Asteroids – A comparison of various Asteroids clones including Planetoids (Apple II), Super Nova (TRS-80), Apple-oids (Apple II), The Asteroids Field (Apple II), Meteroids in Space (Apple II), Bubbles (Apple II), and Asteron (Apple II).
- Pascal-80 – A pascal compiler for the TRS-80.
- Starfighter – An action game similar to Atari’s Star Raiders for the TRS-80.
Nucleus
- Editorial – How computers like the Atari 400/800 and IBM PC will give birth to new games.
- Letters – Letters from readers about Pascal/Z and benchmarking, artificial intelligence, software piracy, sci-fi computers, and more.
- BYTE’s Bits – National Semiconductor Corporation withdrawing from bubble-memory market; proceedings from microcomputer conference held at Arizona State University available.
- Book Reviews – Reviews of AIM 64 Laboratory Manual and Study Guide by Leo J Scanlon and Apple Machine Guide by Don Inman and Kurt Inman.
- Ask BYTE – Questions answered about floppy controllers for the TRS-80, CP/M, setting up a remote terminal for a TRS-80 Model II, upgrading TRS-80 memory, a D/A converter for the Apple II, and more.
- System Notes: The Game of Left/Right – A type-in game inspired by Pong.
- BYTELINES – News related to personal computing including: a look back at IBM’s performance in 1981, Seagate earns $2 million in its first year of operations, Genisco Computer corporation creates true 3D video systems for $100,000, IBM working on low-voltage inverter logic, UCD offers MUMPS database programming language via 8-inch CP/M disks, Telesoftware releases Ada compiler for 68000-based systems, and more.
- Event Queue – A look at upcoming events including the 1981 Winter Simulation Conference, Gulf Computer Exhibition, the Twentieth IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, the Computer Modeling of Linguistic Theory conference, the 1982 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, and more.
- Technical Forum: Apple X10 Control – Type-in software for using X-10 home automation controllers with the Apple II.
- What’s New? – A look at new products including the 8K CMEMORY cartridge for the TRS-80 Color Computer, the CD0331 64K memory card for the STD bus, a new disk duplicating service, new memory and I/O cards for the AIM-65, the PROCAP statistics and probability package for the TRS-80, the Zelco S.R.L MCW Z80B based computer, the CPU/68000 processor board for the S-100 bus, the HA-8-6 Z80 card for the Heath H-8 computer, the MiniFrame 3-CPU computer, teh portable Attache Z-80 based computer, a reduction in price for the Discus M26 26-megabyte 14-inch hard drive (now less than $173 per megabyte for a total of $4495), and much more.
…and more!
