• Tag Archives PET

  • Commodore Power/Play (Spring 1983)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Commodore Power/Play – Spring 1983

    Commodore Power/Play was one of Commodore’s early official publications. This magazine emphasized home and entertainment usage. In 1983 this meant mostly the VIC-20 and the then still fairly new Commodore 64. The Spring 1983 issue includes:

    Features

    • New Game Cartridges for the Commodore 64 – The cartridge format for games was really only briefly popular. Pretty soon most games were released on disk, at least in the U.S. Here’s a look at some early cartridge games including Jupiter Lander, Radar Ratrace, Speed Math/Bingo Math, Kickman, and Tooth Invaders
    • I Program with Gortek – A look at Gortek and the Microchips, a programming tutorial developed by Commodore for kids.
    • Making Friends With SID, Part 2 – Part 2 of an ongoing series on the Commodore 64’s SID chip including some examples of how to generate sound and music.
    • Decwar! – A look at this multiplayer interstellar war game available on CompuServe.
    • Getting the Chores Done – A type-in program for the VIC-20 to help organize and assign chore.
    • VIC Super Piano – A type-in program that turns your VIC-20 into a piano with which you can also record and playback music with visual effects.
    • Machine Language is a POKEr’s Game – A guide to incorporating machine language routines into your own programs.

    Departments

    • Braindrops – The magazine reaches 100,000 readers plus a look at the changes in this issue.
    • The VIC Magician – A guide to programming the function keys of the VIC-20.
    • Butterfield – Learn how to make music on your Commodore 64.
    • High Scores – High scores for Blue Meanies, Car Chase, Cosmic Cruncher, Draw Poker, Jupiter Lander, Gorf, Midnight Drive, Mole Attack, Omega Race, Pinball Spectacular, Radar Rat Race, Raid on Fort Knox, Sea Wolf, Sky Is Falling, Slither, Super Alien, Super Slither, Super Slot, Super Smash and VIC Avenger.
    • User Group Spotlight – The story behind the New Mexico Commodore Users Group.
    • Access: Commodore User Groups – A comprehensive list of Commodore user groups around the world.
    • Jiffies – Brief looks at new software including two new cassette six packs for the VIC-20. The first includes NumBowl, LCM Machine, Sector Five, Backfire, Ruler Dueler, and Scare City Motel. The second includes VIC Synthesizer, Crawler, Alpha Draw, Super Seekers, Big Bad Wolf, and Treasures of the Bat Cave. Also reviewed are Pinball Spectacular for the VIC-20, The VIC Programmable Character Set & Gamegraphics Editor, and more.
    • Program Listings – Type-in programs including Crazy Balloons (guide your balloon through an obstacle course without popping it), Fill-in-the-Blanks (a mad libs sort of thing), Craps (the dice game), Lazy Line Numbering (a program to auto number lines in your programs), and Phone Home (a guessing game featuring E.T.).
    • Tele / Scope – A type-in program for capturing your online sessions to save to disk and/or print.
    • Book Review – Reviews of Compute!’s First Book of VIC and True Names.
    • New Products – The most interesting thing here is the announcement of an Atari to VIC-20 cartridge adapter that supposedly let you play Atari 2600 games on the VIC-20. Multiple companies advertised such devices but as far as I know, they were all vaporware. Perhaps it was really a ploy by Commodore to get people to buy more VIC-20s?

    …and more!


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  • Compute! (May 1981)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Compute! – Issue Number 12 – May 1981

    Compute! was one of the earliest and longest running multi-format computer magazines published in the U.S. In the early days, it covered the Atari 400/800, Apple II and Commodore PET as well as various kit computers. The May 1981 issue includes:

    • The Editor’s Notes – A look at some of the things seen at the West Coast Computer Faire, including the Votrax Type-‘N-Talk text to speech synthesizer, the Commodore Super-PET, A 256K memory expansion from Axlon for the Atari 800, and more.
    • The Readers’ Feedback – Praise for the magazine, small business programs for the Atari, improving magazine distribution, and more.
    • Computers and Society – Addressing computer phobia.
    • Computer Aided Instruction, Boon or Bust? – Analyzing the effects of computers in the classroom. Still a novel idea at the time.
    • They Mysterious and Unpredictable RND – The last part in a series on random numbers. This part presents solutions for finding maximum and minimum numbers in a sample of random numbers, simulating dice rolls and a number of other exercises.
    • Land of the Lost – A Program For a Cassette Filing System – A type-in menu-driven program to create labels for cassettes (the dominant home computer storage medium of the time).
    • Using The 6522 to Drive a Printer – How to construct an interface for a parallel printer and create a machine language program to drive it using a Comprint 912P printer and OSI computer.
    • Using the Aim 64 as a Remote Terminal for an Apple – Using a 6551 ACIA (Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter) and RS-232C interface, NOVATION CAT modem, and AIM 65 single board computer to create a terminal for an Apple II.
    • EPIDEMIC – A Simulation of an Epidemic – A type-in BASIC program for the PET that simulates the spread of an epidemic based on your inputs.
    • A Floating Point Multiplication Routine – A type-in machine language program that converts two signed numbers to floating-point binary numbers and performs multiplication with 9 digit accuracy.
    • Naming Compounds – A type-in program for the PET designed for high school chemistry students that can test students on naming compounds and creating formulas from the names.

    The Apple Gazette

    • Using Named GOSUB and GOTO Statements in Applesoft BASIC – A simple way to create named subroutines vs. just using line numbers.
    • Commas, Colons, and Quote Marks Too – Writing BASIC programs that can accept commas, colons and quotation marks as part of their input.
    • Generating Lower Case Text on the Apple II Plus Using the Paymar Chip – By default the Apple II Plus could only display uppercase letters. However, it could be modified with a PAYMAR (LC-1) so that lower case letters could be used. The type-in program can then convert strings in your BASIC programs to lowercase.

    The Atari Gazette

    • A Cure for Atari BASIC or, Make Your Atari a Bit Wiser – An assembly language program that adds the ability to do bitwise operations in Atari BASIC.
    • Copy Your Atari Screen to Your Printer – A short BASIC program that will dump the contents of the screen to a printer.
    • Hardware Information at Last! – Three new Atari technical manuals, including Atari 400/800 Technical User Notes, Atari 400/800 Operating System, and Atari 400/800 Disk Operating System.
    • Using Strings for Graphics Storage – A method for using BASIC strings to create graphics on the Atari.
    • Atari Machine I/O – Three machine language routines for processing input.
    • Disk Directory Printer – A couple of BASIC programs for creating directory listings of your disks.
    • Condensing Data Statements on the Atari – Using characters instead of numbers in DATA statements used as input for machine language programs to save space (one character equates to one to three digits).
    • Real-Time Clock on the Atari – A BASIC program that can set, configure, and use the real-time clock included in Atari computers.
    • Review: Stud Poker – A simple poker game designed to run on Atari computers with 16K.

    The OSI Gazette

    • Through the Fill-The-Buffer Routine with Gun and Camera – Some technical info on how the “Fill-the-Buffer” routine (FTB) of OS BASIC works.
    • FOOTU: FOO Revisited – Converting FOO (a racing game for the OSI) to run on OSI systems with BASIC-in-ROM.

    The PET Gazette

    • A Fast Visible Memory Dump – A program for creating a graphical memory dump to a printer.
    • Machine Language: Getting to the Machine Language Program – Methods for combining BASIC programs with machine language routines.
    • A Thirteen Line BASIC Delete – A short BASIC program that allows you to delete any group of lines form an existing program.
    • Calculated Bar-graph Routines on the Pet – How to calculate the length of bars in a bar graph so that they can be properly printed.
    • The Revised Pet/CBM Personal Computer Guide – A look at the changes in the newest revision of the Osborne/McGraw-Hill Pet/CBM Personal Computer Guide.
    • Un-Compactor – A BASIC program that reverses the process of the Compactor program published in a previous issue. It would “compact” programs by doing thing like combining multiple programming lines onto one line and separating them by colons, etc.
    • Using the Hardware Interrupt Vector on the Pet – Making the PET execute your machine language program every 60th of a second using the hardware interrupt vector while BASIC programs run normally.
    • Pet as an IEEE-488 Logic Analyzer – Using another PET and a IEEE interface cable to see what is going on on the GPIB.
    • Running 40 Column Programs on a CBM 8032 – A way to make 80-Column PETs work like 40-Column PETs.

    The SBC Gazette

    • Nuts and Volts – Information about building your own microcontrollers.
    • A Kim-1 Music File in Microsoft Basic: Part 1
    • New Products – Atari sponsors contest for new software; the BYTEWRITER-1 dot matrix printer from Microtek; Hayes releases the Smartmodem, a 300 baud modem that set the standard for years to come for $279; and more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Apple ][ Atari 8-bit Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • Compute! (March 1982)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Compute! – March 1982

    Compute! was an early multi-format computer magazine that prospered from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. In 1982, computers such as the Commodore PET, VIC-20, Atari 400/800 and Apple II were covered among others. The March 1982 issue includes:

    Features

    • The Winter of Our Content: A Report on the January Consumer Electronics Show – There was an impressive line-up of new products revealed at this CES including the Commodore Ultimax, Commodore 64, Bally Astrocade plus the official home version of Pac-Man was released among many other items.
    • Twenty Questions Revisited – A type-in program for a computerized version of twenty questions.
    • Energy Workbook – A type-in program to help you determine the best improvements you can make to your home to increase energy efficiency.
    • Two Short Programs of CAI for Teaching BASIC – I was trying to work out what CAI even stands for. Computer Aided Intelligence maybe?
    • Infinite Precision Multiply – Normally, the Commodore PET has 9 digits of precision for mathematical operations. This program gets around that limitation.
    • More About Numbers – Proving Ulam’s Conjecture and the 6174 problem.
    • Word Hunt – A type in program to generate word hunt games in a 10 by 10 letter matrix.
    • Count the Hearts – A type-in counting game for kids for the VIC-20.

    Education and Recreation

    • Family: A Simulation in Genetics – A type-in program for the PET that demonstrates heredity with a hypothetical Martian couple.
    • Large Alphabet for the VIC – Generating a double size character set on the VIC-20.
    • Concentration – A type-in game based on the classic card game, Concentration.
    • Comment Your Catalog – A program to add comments to disk directory listings on you Atari 8-bit computer.
    • Starfight3 – Involves Klingons and the Enterprise. Sounds suspiciously like Star Trek to me? For the VIC-20.
    • Swirl and Scribble Two type-in Atari programs. The first generates various swirl patterns on the screen. The second is a simple drawing program that can be used with a joystick.
    • WEBS – A type-in game for the PET.

    Reviews

    • Votrax Type ‘N Talk: TNT – A simple to program speech synthesizer that works with various computers via an RS-232 interface…for $375.
    • Olympia’s ES 100 KRO Typewriter/Printer – An typewriter that also works as a printer (or is it the other way around?). It isn’t cheap though at $1680.
    • RPL: A FORTH Sequel? – RPL is a FORTH-like computer programming language. Versions for PET/CBM machines are looked at here.
    • Ricochet – An odd combo of checkers and pool by Automated Simulations (which would later become Epyx) for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit and TRS-80.
    • Atari Microsoft BASIC (Part I) – The first part of a three part review of Microsoft BASIC for Atari 8-bit computers.

    Columns/Departments

    • The Editor’s Notes – Editorial commentary on the new format of the magazine, the importance of reader feedback, and more.
    • Ask The Readers – Various question and answers about Atari BASIC, support for the 6502 processor, programming, and more.
    • Computers And Society – The merging of technology and art from lasers, to cameras to computers.
    • The Beginner’s Page: How Computers Remember – A discussion of computer memory and how it works.
    • Basically Useful BASIC: Tabulation – A subroutine for justifying text the way you want in BASIC.
    • Learning With Computers: Word Processing In The Classroom – Even as early as 1982 computers were being used in the classroom and word processing was one of the first truly useful applications. This article discusses using word processors to make the physical act of writing easier so more attention can be paid to the creative aspects.
    • Friends Of The Turtle – Drawing using Atari PILOT.
    • Telecommunications: MODEM Applications – A discussion of Computerized Bulletin Boards (BBS), multiuser systems (time-share computer systems), and more.
    • Machine Language: Loops and Quality – Creating efficient and reliable loops in machine language.
    • Insight: Atari – Using interrupts on Atari 8-bit computers.

    The Journal

    • Disk Checkout For 2040, 4040, and 8050 Disks – Part 1 of 2. This part discusses manipulating disks/disk drives via machine language.
    • Organizing Data Storage – Sequential vs. Random files.
    • Machine Language Sort Utility – An efficient, machine language sorting routine. Why machine language? The fastest BASIC sort of 200 records in this test was 8 minutes but only 3 seconds for Machine Language.
    • Dynamic Renumber – A program to renumber your BASIC programs.
    • Disk Data Structures: An Interactive Tutorial – The details on how data is structured on a disk.
    • Apple Addresses – Addressing memory in machine language, BASIC floating point and BASIC integer on Apple II computers.
    • More VIC Maps – A discussion on VIC-20 memory maps continued from the previous issue.
    • EPROM Reliability – A detailed analysis for determining EPROM reliability focusing on the 2708 EPROM.
    • Random Music Composition On The PET – A type-in program for generating random music on the PET with various parameters that can be easily changed.
    • Ghost Programming – A method for running many BASIC programs that normally require 24 or 32K of RAM on an Atari with only 16K.
    • BASIC 4.0 To Upgrade Conversion Kit – Converting BASIC 4.0 programs to run on PETs that have been upgraded.
    • Screen Save Routine – A type in program routine for capturing a screen and saving it to disk.
    • A Superboard II Monitor (Part I) – An improved, faster monitor for the Superboard II.
    • New Products – New products mentioned include the VICMODEM, a 300 baud modem for the VIC-20 for $109.95; MatheMagic which turns your computer into a programmable calculator; Scratchpad, mailing list software for Commodore computers; Dragon’s Eye, a fantasy role-playing game for the Atari 400/800 by Epyx; several new Atari 8-bit games and applications including Pac-Man, Centipede, Caverns of Mars, The Bookkeeper and The Home Filing Manager; and more.

    …and more!


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