Antic was primarily an Atari 8-bit magazine though it did also cover the Atari ST. In 1987 it was nearing the end of its life. The April 1987 issue includes:
Features
Designer Labels – A type-in program that lets you combine Print Shop graphics with your text to create custom labels.
Page 6 Grab-Bag, Part 2 – Two short and useful type-in programs. The first gives you the ability to pause or slow down program listings with the press of a button and the second makes it easy to insert sounds into your own programs.
All About [Break] Disabling – Pressing the break key normally interrupts whatever program you are running. If you do it accidentally, it can be a real time waster as well as cause you to lose data. This type-in program provides a way to disable this functionality.
ICD Boosts 8-Bit Atari Power – ICD is a company that produced high powered upgrades for the Atari 8-bit. Some of these include the 1MB Multi I/O Board, 256K RAMBO XL memory upgrade, R-Time 8 Cartridge (real-time clock/calendar), SpartaDOS 3.2, hard drive interface and more.
BTL Hard Disk System – Connect up to two hard drives to your Atari 800XL or Atari 130Xe for up to a total of 128MB of storage.
’86 Federal Income Tax Spreadsheet – A template for SynCalc to make completing your 1986 tax return easy.
Departments
Starting Out: New Owners Column – Part 13 of a BASIC programming tutorial. This part goes over the various ways to use color.
Game of the Month: Taxman – Keeping with the April income tax theme, this type-in game is a maze game in which you must collect interest from your accounts while evading the IRS agents. If they catch you, you must declare the interest. If they catch you 10 times, you get audited and the game is over.
I/O Board – Letters from readers about Son of Infobits database, the Star NX-10 printer, Bumblebee high scores, modems and the hearing impaired, the Atari 800 attract mode, databases that work with the 10MB SupraDrive, and more.
Product Reviews – Reviews of video Vegas from Baudville, Mercenary from Datasoft, Wizard’s Crown (an RPG from SSI), Fight Night from Accolade, and Gettysburg from SSI.
New Products – New products this month include News Station desktop publishing software, Rambo: First Blood part II from Mindscape, Hollywood Hijinx from Infocom, the Tac5 joystick and Print N Stack paper tray/stand from Suncom, Mail Order Monsters from Electronic Arts, the Midwest Computer Camp, and InSyst! Version 3.0 business software.
Tech Tips – Short BASIC program routines to return 18 possible values from the joystick port, generate the famous Atari Rainbow effect, and a software driver for the Hardware Key project from the August 1986 issue.
ST Resource
Pathways Uncovered – File handling on the Atari ST, including creating folders or sub-directories.
ST Reviews – Reviews of The Pinball Factory from Michtron, Silent Service from MicroProse, Black Cauldron from Sierra On-Line, and Universe II from Omnitrend Software.
ST Product News – New products this month include Trivia Challenge, Backup!, and Pinball Factory from Michtron; HiSoft BASIC Compiler, DevPacST macroassembler and Saved! file utility/desk accessory from HiSoft; Accounts, Invoice/Order Processing, and Inventory Control System from Execon; and more.
Typesetter Elite – Software that enables you to create and print high resolution pages.
Antic was one of the biggest Atari 8-bit magazines in North America. It also covered the Atari ST at times. The June 1986 issue includes:
Features
Summer, Atari Style – It seems that by 1986, most computer camps had already died out. However, there were a number of camps still around that provided computers for learning as one of their many activities. Apparently there was even at least one that taught you skills like running your own BBS.
Weather Wizard – A type-in program that will predict the weather based on a few inputs.
Decide – A BASIC type-in program for creating a decision tree.
Math Art – A type-in program that generates graphical patterns based on mathematical equations and sine waves.
Recipe Converter – A type-in program that will automatically adjust the amount of ingredients needed based on the number of servings.
Micro Julius – A BASIC type-in program that will display a calendar from any month between 1900 and 2100 and calculate the number of days since an given event.
Departments
Game of the Month: Bomb Squad – A type-in game consisting of ten levels in which you must avoid the mechanical guards and defuse bombs.
Starting Out: New Owners Column Lesson 4: Nested Loops – A BASIC tutorial on nested loops with type-in examples.
Education: Atari Learning Center – Making the case for why the Atari is the best educational computer.
ST Resource
68000 Exceptions & Interrupts – Part two of a three part series that details interrupts and exception handling on the Atari ST.
Basic Biorhythmics – A type-in program for generating biorhythms on the Atari ST. There was a (or many) version of this for every computer back in the day.
Zoomracks Review – A unique text-oriented database system for the Atari ST that uses a sort of card catalog or timecard metaphor.
DB Master One & 1st-Word Review – Review of a couple of pieces of software being included with each new Atari 520ST. 1st-Word is a word processing program and DB Master One is a database management program.
File I/O Intro – A guide to handling various file types on the Atari ST.
ST Product News – New products for the Atari ST examined this month include Holmes & Duckworth Forth, Brataccas (an animated adventure game from Psygnosis and Mindscape), Borrowed Time (an illustrated text adventure from Activision), HippoVision (a video digitizer), H & D Base (a database), The Manager (a relational database system), and lots more.
Columns
I/O Board – Letters from readers with topics including Atari Lie Detector, Silent Service, the Okimate 10 printer, Lunar Lander Construction Set, DOS 2.5 vs. DOS 3, Atari modems, RAM expansion, Amdek disk drives, and a country music BBS.
Antic Online – What’s new with Antic on CompuServe.
Product Reviews – Reviews of MIDI Music System from Synthetic Software, Nam from Strategic Simulations, Inc., Soundmouse from Soundsoft, inc., Spellbreaker from Infocom, Batallion Commander from SSI, Spy vs. Spy II from First Star Software, and more.
Computer Entertainment was not a magazine that I bought at the time it was on the shelves. I didn’t even have a computer yet and my only video game system at the time was the Atari 2600. However, I would have definitely have loved it. Computer Entertainment was the (sadly short-lived) successor to the original Electronic Games magazine. Game systems were not doing so well at the time though that would soon change with the introduction of the NES. In the mean time, home computers and gaming on them was really taking off. Computer Entertainment covers gaming of course but also other potential entertainment uses such as music, graphics and even desktop publishing among other things. The June 1985 issue includes:
On-Line – The monthly editorial column, this month discussing the demise of the PCjr and its implications on home computing and computer gaming in general.
Bulletin Board – News of the month including a new ‘pet’ project by Nolan Bushnell (creator of Atari and Chuck E Cheese), an update on software piracy, the release of Bounty Bob Strikes Back, new adventure games from Infocom and DataSoft, free Atari 2600 games, new games for the Coleco Adam and more.
Line Feed – Letters from readers asking about new Commodore computers, MSX, laserdisc games and more.
Do-It-Yourself-Software – An overview of various game construction sets that let you build your own games without knowing how to program. Titles mentioned include The Arcade Machine, Pinball Construction Set, Music Construction Set, Adventure Creator, Adventure Construction Set, Adventure Master, Adventure Writer, and more. This article also covers games that let you create your own levels or design other aspects of the game such as Lode Runner, Racing Destruction Set and Mail Order Monsters among others.
Building A Better Zork – Infocom may have been the king of text adventure games but they weren’t the only player. This article mostly covers Mindwheel and its creator who named the text parser he created ‘BTZ’ for ‘Better Than Zork’.
Compose Yourself – An overview of how to compose music for home computers including coverage of books and software. There were many choices as far as software including Moondust, Musicalc, 3001 Sound Odyssey, Music Processor, Simply Music, Music Studio, and Music Shop for the Commodore 64 and MacMusic, ConcertWare and MusicWorks for the Macintosh.
Electronic Gutenberg – An overview of various desktop publishing software for creating newsletters, banners, cards and much more. Software covered includes Koala’s Graphic Editor, Springboard’s Mask Parade, DMP Utilities (Apple II), The Print Shop (Atari, Apple II, Commodore 64) plus various add-ons, Fontrix (DOS, Apple II), and more.
ASCII And You Shall Receive – An article about BBSes including coverage of several specific ones. I would loved to have known about the existence of such things earlier but as it was I didn’t call my first BBS until the early 1990s, a few years before the Internet took over.
“I Though You Brought The Torches” – General hints and strategy for fantasy role-playing games. Several specific games are mentioned including Beneath Apple Manor, Wizardry, Ultimat III, Xyphus, Galactic Adventures and more.
Boot & Shoot – Early video editing on computers. Well, not really video editing but capture still images from video cameras (and scanners) and editing those. This article includes an overview of software and hardware that you need to accomplish this. Products covered include Computereyes for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, MacVision for the Macintosh and Thunderscan also for the Mac.
Table of Contents from the June 1985 issue of Computer Entertainment
Load & Run – Reviews of new software. Covered this month:
Incunabula – A strategy game by Avalon Hill for the IBM PC and PCjr.
Chipwits – An educational puzzle game of sorts by Brainpower Inc. for the Macintosh.
Adventure Master – A design tool for creating text and graphic adventures by CBS Software for the Commodore 64.
Adventure Writer – A construction set for creating text adventures by Codewriter for the Commodore 64.
Beserker Raids – An action/strategy game based on Fred Saberhagen’s Berserkers by Baen Software for the IBM PC, Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit.
Wizard Expansion Set – A sequel to Wizard using levels submitted by players using the construction set for the Commodore 64.
Rock ‘N Bolt – an arcade/puzzle game by Activision for the Commodore 64
Psychedelia – A Jeff Minter game for the Commodore 64.
Stunt Flyer – A flight simulator involving aerial stunts for the Commodore 64.
Spitfire Ace – A World War II flight simulator by MicroProse for the Commodore 64, IBM PC and Apple II.
Trolls and Tribulations – An arcade game featuring you as the troll by Creative Software for the Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit.
Mind Control – What sounds like a not very good arcade type game with a couple of different screens by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64.
Heroism in the Modern Age: Project Contact – A role-playing game for the PC with a “modern” day mission impossible type scenario.
Kik Start – A motorcycle racing game that can be played split screen with two players by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64. I had a blast with this game and Kik Start II.
The Quest for the Holy Grail – An adventure game based on the Monty Python classic by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64.
Mind Castle I – A confusing puzzle game for the Apple II.
Station Five – Actually four different arcade games for the Apple II.
The Ancient Art of War – Strategy/war game set in fifth-century China for the IBM PC/PCjr/PC XT.
Bank Street Story Book – Educational program for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC that allows kids to complete stories by adding text, pictures and even animation.
GATO – World War II submarine simulation for the IBM PC/PCjr.
The Alpine Encounter – A graphical/text adventure with a secret agent theme for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC.
Swiss Family Robinson – A graphical adventure that follows the plot of the book for the Commodore 64 and Apple II.
Arcadia – Covering the latest games in the arcade including Karate Champ II, Kung-Fu Master, Chinese Hero, Yie Ar Kung-Fu (one of my favorites), All-American Football, Demolition Derby, Paperboy (another favorite) and more.
Hard Copy – Computer related book reviews, this month featuring “Zappers for the Commodore 64”. It’s a book full of type-in programs (games) for the Commodore 64. The games themselves are at best mediocre but it does teach you a bit about programming. Plus reviews of “The Plain English Guide for Home Computers”, “MacGuide: The Complete Handbook to the Macintosh”, and “The Adventure Companion”.
Q&A – Questions answered about games that use the Mockingboard sound card on the Apple II, Infocom’s Infidel, new Commodore computers, programming on the Atari 800, King’s Quest II, the VIC-20, Star Fleet I, cleaning your computer and more.
New Products – An overview of new and upcoming products including the TMS-1A 300-baud modem, G.E. computer peripherals, and an LCD for the Apple IIc.
