Compute! Magazine Issue 133

10 NEW SUPER LAPTOPS PUT TO THE TEST!

cannpuTE

SEPTEMBER 1991

DOUBLE YOUR HARD DISK SPACE

KEY LEGAL STRATEGIES FOR HOME OFFICES

DOS 5-COMPLETE USE^S GUIDE

EXCLUSIVE! REAL MOTION VIDEO FROM A DISK!

us <i;?95niK El 95

I iiiiiiiiiimi I 9

'"71A86"02193' 3

ZE(E386SX-20!
Only '1195.

INCREDIBLE 20MHZ ZERO-WAIT PERFORMANCE $1195!

That's right! Now you can own
the incredible new ZEOS 386SX
2OMH2 s^tem, complete for only
$1195! Using ultra high speed
53 nanosecond DRAM, your new
ZEOS 386SX-20 delivers blazing
zero-wait state performance with-
out the need for a cache. And that's
just for starters.

Your new ZEOS 386SX-20 also
includes the most advanced SX
motherboard available anywhere.
Because we've not only added incre-
dibly fast 53ns DRAM, we've also
int^rated the hand and floppy drive
controllers /?/?is the serial, parallel
and game ports right on the mother-
board! This results in even greater
reliability and expandability

ZEOS SX SYSTEMS RATED #1!

After aU, the ZEOS 386SX-20
comes from a family oi Editor's
Choice '555 systems. And most
recently, in PC Maga2dne's Service
and Refebility issue, ZEOS sj^tems
received the #1 SX rating overall.
When you receive your new ZEOS
386SX youll see why ZEOS is #1.
Take our case and power supply
for instance.

Your new system will indude our
custom 200 Watt power supply and
seven bay SpaceSaver desktop case.

NASmo^l'£5^7'^'i°"^1S^"7fe,=?';'"T- """Ml «;!?=■ P[==f« ^lUl forc^nrat priciHK and warnuily details. ZEOS is a publicly traded company.

Circle Reader Service Number 14S

You save space and still have room
for lots of future expandability! And
the components in your system will
last longer too because ZEOS gives
you not just one, but two cooling
fans. After all, the cooler your
system runs, the longer it will last.
Now that's uncompromising value.
That's ZEOS value.

24 HOUR A DAY TOLL FREE SAL£S
AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT!

Too, you will receive our legend-
ary ZEOS 24 Hour a Day Toll Free
Technical Support. Plus our full 30
Day Absolute Satisfaction Money
Back Guarantee, One Full Year
Limited Warranty and Express
Parts Replacement Policy

Performance. Quality Price.
Support. These are the hallmarks
that have made ZEOS America's
favorite choice. These are the values
that make ZEOS your best choice
as well. You're going to be very
satisfied. We don't just say it. We
Guarantee it.

ORDER NOW TOLL FREE:
800423-5891

Order your new ZEOS 386SX
now with confidence. Your choice
of ZEOS quality and performance
is Guaranteed. Order now toll free
by calling 800-423-5891.

INCREDIBLE
20 MHz
ZERO-WAIT
PERFORMANCE

ONLY $1195

■ '386SX-20 CPU,

8/20MHZ.
• Ultra Fast 53n5 DRAM
providing true ZerO'
Wait state performance.
512K memory expand-
able to o System Total
of 16MB. RigKt on the
motherboard.

■ 42MB High Speed IDE
hard drive. Teac '
1.2MB floppy.

■ ZEOS 14" Hi-Res amber
monitor with Tilt/Swivel.
Includes Genuine
Hercules' brand
graphics controller!

JiZEOS/RSIOIkey
i SpaceSaver keyboard.

n Two Serial, one Parallel
& one Game Port.

a 6-16, 2-8 bit expansion
slots. 80387SX math
coprocessor support,
i Rugged ZEOS T-bay
SpaceSaver case with
our 200 Watt power
supply and two cooling
fans for added reliability
and product life.

■ Includes ZEOS 24 Hour
a Day Toll Free Technical
Support and Customer
Satisfaction package.

Options Ga\oret
Including 14 ' 1024 VGA,
more memory, on in-
credible selection of hard
drives: SCSI, IDE, ESDI RLL
or MFM and virtually any
other add-on you could
want. Ask about other
special money saving
packages too.

ORDER NOW TOLL FREE

800-423-5891

FAX Orders: 612-633-1325
Minnesota: 612-633-4591
Hearing Impaired (TOO)

Orders: 800-228-5389
Outside US and Canada;

612-633-6131
MasterCard, VISA, Discover,
Am Exp, Z-CARD and COD.
Open 24 Hours a Day,
365 Days a Year!

VOLUME 13,
NO. 9, ISSUE

33

DDnnpuTE

SEPTEMBER 1991

6

EDITORIAL LICENSE

By Peter Scisco

Magazines, like

sharks, must move forward.

8

NEWS & NOTES

By Alan R. Bechtold

Court jesters,

sandbagged silicon, and

more news.

14

FEEDBACK

Bad sectors,

disappearing menus, and

more.

18

BRAIN WAVES

By Sherry Roberts
If you're too busy

to attend traditional schiool,
tap into techinology

and give your brain a boost.

26

SHAREPAK

By Ricfiard C. Leinecker

This montfi's disk brings

two puzzles for gamers

and a writing coach.

28

BREAKING COMMUNICATIONS
BARRIERS

By Gail Dutton

Software and

hardware combine to help

aphasic patients
use and process language.

By Denny Atkin

Get help

for almost anything almost

anytime

through your modem.

66

TIPS & TOOLS

Really wild

cards, power pointers,

redirecting DOS,

batch files in graphic mode,

and more

strategies for computing.

TO

PROGRAMMING POWER

By Tom Campbell

Global variables

are tempting, but they can

backfire on you.

ArlisI Terry Rosen created Post-Modern Still Life using Lighispeed

Design software on a Sun Micro workstation. Recollections of a

Cezanne tabtetop — but is the table indoors or out? Even the

postcard suggests the historically eclectic vocabulary of

postmodernism. And what better way to express it than through that

most postmodern of appliances, the computer?

33

TEST UB: LAPTOPS

This month

we take ten top

portables on

the road for a series of

grueling tests.

56

DOS 5.0— A PERFECT 10

By Mark Minasi

Here's the best of

what's new

and how to get the most

from DOS 5.0.

POINT & CLICK

By Clifton Karnes

Work out a cold

hard cache for your GUI to

pick up speed.

74

INTRODOS

By Tony Roberts

Add some life

to your command line.

76

HARDWARE CLINIC

By Mark Minasi

Which computer

bus should you take?

COMPUTE (ISSN 0194.357X) rs published manlhly in ihe United Siaies and Canada Dy COMPUTE Publications Irternalional Lid.. 1965
Broadway. New Yoik. NY 10023 5965. Vblumo 13. Number 9, Issue 133. Copyright © 1991 by COMPUTE Publioations Inisrnalional Lid,
All fights reserved- Tel (212) 496^100. COMPUTE is a registered iraderrark ot COWPUTE Publications International Lid. Primed in the
USA and distnbuted ^voridwide by Curtis Circulation Company, P.O Box 9102. (^nnsaLken. NJ 08103 Second-class postage paid at New
York. Hf. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to COMPUTE Magazine, PO. Sox 3246. Harian, lA
51537-3041, Tel. (KM) 727-6937 Entire conlenis copyrighted. All righis reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole cr in part without
written permission from Ihe publisher. Subscriptions: US, AFO - S19.94 one year; Canada and elsewhere -S25,94 one year Single copies
$2.95 in US. The publisher disclaims all responsibility to return unsolicited matter, and all righis in portions published thereof remain Ihe
sde property o1 COMPUTE Pubiicalcns International Ltd Letters sent to COMPUTE or its editors becotrie Ihe property of the magazine.
Editorial offices are located at 324 W, Wendover Ave., Sle, 200. Greensboro, NC 27408. Tel. (919) 275-9809.

COMPUTE

Now '495 Stopslhe Clock
QnOerlOO GEnie Services.

Now enjoy unlimited non-
prime time usage of over 100
popular GEnie Service features.
For just $4.95 a month.* You get
everything from electronic mail to
exciting games and bulletin
boards. Nobody else gives you so
much for so little.

Plus enjoy access to software
libraries, computer bulletin
boards, multi-player games and
more for just $6 per non -prime
hour for all baud rates up to
2400. And witii GEnie there's no
sign-up fee.

Sign-up today.

Just follow these simple steps.

1. Set your communication soft-
ware for half duplex (local echo),
up to 2400 baud,

2. Dial toll free 1-800-638-8369.
Upon connection, enter HHH

3. At tlie U#=prompt, enter
KrX9g(l82,COMPUTE
then press <REniRN>.

4. Have a major credit card or
your checking account number
ready

For more information in
the U.S. or Canada, call
1-800-638-9636.

GE Information Services

•Applies only in US. .Mon.-Fri., 6PM-8AM local rime imd all day Sat, Sun., and select holiday Prime time houriy rale $18 up tn 2400 baud.

Some features subject to surchai^ and may not be ai'ailable outside VS. Prices and products listed as of Oct. 1, 1990 subject to change.

Tclecnmmunicarion surchai^gcs may apply. Guarantee limited to one per customer and applies only lo first month nf tse.

Circle fleader Service Number 20S

connpuTE

80

DISK UPDATE

By Richard C. Leinecker.

The latest on

COMPUTE'S PC Disk.

82

STACKER

By Clifton Karnes

Double your

hard disk space with this

combo.

84

WORKPLACE

By Daniel Janal

Use your PC to automate

thank-you notes.

86

STREET LEGAL

By Rosalind Resnick and

Susie Archer

Keep your home office

running on
the straight and narrow.

90

ARTS & LHTERS

By Robert Bixby
CorelDRAW! outshines
the competition with an

array of impressive
features and an elegant.

easy-to-use design.

92

TRANSPARENT LANGUAGE

By Anthony Moses
Everyone wants to know a

foreign language, but

nobody wants to learn one.

Here's a way.

113

REVIEWS

Sneak Peeks of Reader

Rabbit II and T/ie Treehouse.

Also, more

than two dozen reviews of

leading productivity,

entertainment, and education

packages.

94

PATHWAYS

By Steven Anzovin
Carpal tunnel syndrome.

Typist's neck.
Computer ailments with

a single
culprit: your keyboard.

96

GREAT HEAVENS ABOVE

By Lament Wood
Reach for the stars

with your
personal computer,

100

FAST FORWARD

By David English

Your laptop's parallel port is

the secret for

avoiding obsolescence.

106

CHUCK YEAGER'S
AIR COMBAT

By Denny Atkin

One of the best combat

flight simulations ever.

108

GAMEPLAY

By Orson Scott Card

In war games, abstraction

doesn't equal distraction.

110

MARTIAN MEMORANDUM: THE
MAKING OF A COMPUTER MOVIE

By Richard 0. f\/lann
Access Software's disk-
based video breakthrough is
the first computer "talkie."

144

CONVERSATIONS

By Peter Scisco

Trip Hawkins gets

interactive on

multimedia, entertainment,

and education.

COMPUTE

T^i!'ir

'&¥:•

^^^i?:Mi

<^:r-^

Protect your
■^and your ass

Our legal so ftware helps
put the law m your ^!

Now IT'S EASY TO HANDLE YOUR MOST
important personal and business legal needs.
With your PC and It's Legal" soitware, you can
create binding, legal documents and save on
costly legal fees. It's Le^flr"documents are
designed by a team of attorneys and fully
customized to be valid in 49 states and the District of
Columbia.*

Here's what you get with It's Le^af:

■ Wills, Living Wills, and Durable Health Care Power
of Attorney. Spell out your wishes regarding your estate,
your retirement years— even unforeseen accidents or
injuries. H Temporary guardianship and child-care
agreements. Assure your children's safety and proper care.

■ Legal letters to get action on consumer issues, vendor
problems and credit concerns. tM Promissory Notes, Bills
of Sale, Employment agree-
ments. Consulting contracts and
Leases for equipment and real
estate (residential and commer-
cial). Help assure performance
and protect your financial inter-
ests with these binding docu-
ments. Hi Whether you use It's .
Legal" to create your own binding I
agreements or as a fee-saving
way to prepare for meetings with
your attorney — this may be the
most important and valuable soft-
ware you can purchase.

I

[ Yes, I'd like to protect my family and vsf^
I assets. Send me It's LegaT for lust $49!

I Name

I .Vdilrcsii

1^

It's Guaranteed.

Order all new It's Legari.O with complete confidence.
If you're not 100% satisfied, you may return your purchase
within 30 days for a full refund (shipping excluded).

Special Introductoiy Offer.

It's LegaVis regularly priced at $69. Order
before October 31, 1991 and save $20. Get
It's Legarfor just $49 plus $7 shipping!

Order ToD-Free Today

1-800-223-6925.

Or FAX us at 1-319-393-1002. Call 24 hours a day Visa,
MasterCard, American Express, Discover and C.O.D.
orders are welcome. Or mail the coupon, with check or
money order made payable to
Parsons Technology, One Parsons
Drive, PO. Box 100, Hiawatha,
lA 52233-0100.

State

Daytime Phone 1

_L

Card Number:

ExplratlDii Date:

I'liase add S7 sliipping. Iowa residents add 4% sales lax.

DWkSBK: □a.S" □5.25"

PAYMKvr MKTIMin: QCheck endi)s(xi Q\4sa UMasterCard

□ ULstovcr Q American Kxprcss

PARSONS

L— TECHNOLOGY
OntPaiSfHlslSi^r * POBoi 100 • IUj»jtlu.lov.aD223:M)l«) CO.UISl I

Cfrele Reader Service Number 194

Stfstcm Reqttiremeitts,

//'•■.■ I.i'i^ii{ 2.0 n'quirca tin

IBM or ivrnpatwle PC,

with SUKKAM. DOS

2-77 tv liig)iiT, dual floppi/

or hard disk. Mouse sup- '

r ported but not required.
Worh wilh all printers and
inonilDrs. 'Mill/ not he valid
in Uwiaiiiiin. It's Legal 2.0
IS also availahk at yoursofl-
taire relailrr.

Coii>TT£hI S 1 9?1 tv Pi [ VI [w Tediflolofl) . Inc. Aa E^ls Kcscnwt

EDITORIAL LICENSE

Peter Scisco

Our new

presentation Is

designed

to sirowcase the

people and

Ideas that mahe

COMPUTE

Uie magazine It Is.

If you're familiar with Woody
Allen, you might remember
a scene from Annie Hall in
which our intrepid but
angstridden protagonist com-
pares his current love relation-
ship to a shark. "It has to
keep moving forward," he
says, "or else it dies." The
joke comes when Alvie Singer
closes his metaphor: "I think
we have a dead shark on our
hands."

It's a very funny line, first be-
cause of the incongruity of
comparing love to a meat-eat-
ing fish (who can hear that
line and not think of Jaws?)
and second because of its
small glimmer of truth.

Magazines, like sharks and
love, also must move forward.
(1 think only network television
reinvents itself faster.)

This issue of COMPUTE
marks another stage in our ev-
olution toward becoming a
computer magazine of the
nineties, which promise to be
a decade in which value re-
places vanity and activism
replaces avarice. The person-
al computer can play an impor-
tant role in all of this as the

tool for people who've chosen
to be active participants in
the Information Age.

Employers, coworkers, and
neighbors look to COMPUTE
readers for advice in choos-
ing, evaluating, and buying
computers, software, printers,
and all the rest of the devices
that complement today's so-
phisticated PCs. Industry an-
alysts and researchers point
to the consumer market as
the fastest growing segment
of the computer market. Just
visit your neighborhood elec-
tronics store or the office su-
perstore down the highway,
and you're likely to see
stacks of computer products
laid out like so many stereos
and typewhters.

The reasons behind this
shift range from falling prices
to changing social attitudes.
Fully equipped 386SX PCs
sell for under $1,900; 286-
based PCs, low-end Macs,
and hard-drive equipped Ami-
gas sell for less than $1,000.
Professionals looking for qual-
ity family time are choosing to
bring work home or telecom-
mute. Other workers, victims
of a tight economy, are strik-
ing out on their own, using
the PC as a support staff for a
variety of home-based servic-
es and other businesses.

You might be an old hand
at blazing trails through the of-
ten confusing and contradicto-
ry world of computer technol-
ogy, or you might be new to
the silicon jungle. But no mat-
ter where you fall in that
range, one thing is certain —
once you bring that PC
home, your world unfolds into
an expanding universe of pos-
sibilities.

In looking through this is-
sue of COMPUTE, you'll see a
lot of new images. But you'll al-
so find some old favorites. For
example, we've brought our
COMPUTE Choice reviews
back to the departments
where they belong, where we

can showcase these worthy
products and give them the in-
depth treatment they de-
serve. Our Test Lab section
boasts a new design and lay-
out. Inside, you'll still find the
information and benchmark
testing to guide you toward
making the best buying deci-
sions based on your needs,
not on manufacturers' spec
sheets.

Our Home Office depart-
ment will continue to examine
strategies to make you more
productive with your PC,
whether you're a home-
based entrepreneur or run-
ning an extended office and
telecommuting to company
headquarters. In Discovery,
you'll read of creative uses for
the computer and learn how
to use all this new technology
to give your kids an edge in
the classroom. In Entertain-
ment, you'll get a close look
at the latest in electronic
games, from executive play
toys to virtual reality.

Along the way, COMPUTE
will showcase artists who are
using computers to create the
images, music, and writing
that will define for the history
books a generation of techno-
savvy electronic eclectics.

The way people use com-
puters and the possibilities of
computer technology deter-
mine the shape of COM-
PUTE

If you don't own the fastest,
most powerful computer in
the world, if you've used your
computer only for word proc-
essing and number crunch-
ing, we'll help you upgrade
your system and discover
new uses like video, multime-
dia, and desktop publishing.
If you use your computer in iso-
lation, as a vessel of technol-
ogy, we'll help you set sail in-
to the world of telecommunica-
tions where you can join an ar-
mada of PC users who are
exploring a new world of elec-
tronic communities. D

COMPUTE

..~i2srr.s:^':'

PerfectWords
Every Time^buWrite*

$79*95

Imagiae this: You do your usual rough draft. But
when you read it later you're amazed by the colorful
choice of words, and the clear mean-
ing it conveys!

What% changed? You added
Language Master from Franklin
Electronic Publishers to your word
processor. It^ the easy-to-use linguistic
tool that improves all your writing.

LANGUAGE
MASTER'S POWER

Language Master itistantly gives
you over 80,000 concise definitions
with usage notes and h\T3henation
points. .And you get over 1.4 million
tiiesaurus responses. .Authoritative
sources: Meniam-^'ebster Concise
Dictionary and Collegiate Thesaurus.

Franklin's proprietary data
compression techtiiques mean >«u only
need 1.8 MB of hard disk space to store
over 7 MB of information.

Use Language Master with \irtually
all popular word pnxessors. Get free
tech support, too!

i,angiiage MosiCT
tmchi mdi ses-
sion's selections
for you.

LIMITED-TIME FREE GIFT OFFER

Try the new Language Master risk-ftee for 30 days.
Select any version (Windows,
DOS, or \iac), just S79.95, .And
get a FREE gift for trying
Language Master. (Offer expires
June 30, 1991.)

birrfriuL hMCitil^. »nii|hty- f^ilvnt. put&stipl;
Ciblfi. Cuptiljlo ciimputnni, obDcbvo. otIeclunL

vi^Hivi.. ciinviHc.iii.i),. ijiitaL invu»cihtH_ ^-^"""^"^^
ttummiuiK innwiiAiiJ. wunfUy

«e3«J:[jwwful_

3.

HOW LANGUAGE
MASTER WORKS

Pop up Language Master's window
over your application instantly and
display any word you've marked.

Choose a fiill definition or
synonyms. Smtch between the two
with keystroke or mouse click.

Select a synon^in with keyboard or mouse, and select "Replace." Language
Master automatically replaces the word in your document with the synonym.

EaZ]

Here's what tou get FREE:

Wliultmi &«clurToaU.TIvho(:Kt%^r,dow^
ulilttv pAifap Hilh Blc t;ndcktf.
Find, ind nrar' {tcm\ S;«-'»5)

DOS IniUDt pRMDtlttoDi. Complete

jnil wmplc cKaiti and slides tBciail

SI?,')!)

Macinlcnh Find*»clt Find any dctumcnl ^t
and easy vvi;h iku disk udlic>'. Mac
User Maid Tinner (Re!ailS59.Q5)

With your free gift, you

get as much as SI 59.90

in retail value for just

S79.95.!f you're

dissatisfied, return

Language Master

within 30 days for a

full refiind, and keep

your free gift.

Get symmyms, antonyms, relaud words,
compared words, and contrasted wards. Words are
grouped into common meanings and (wrts of speech.

You get the same part of speech you request, e. g.

'instruct" reamu "teach," "instructed" returns "taught"

No retyping to replace a word.

Select any keys you like
to pop-up Language
Master instanii-v.

SPECIAL SAVINGS!

Take a second copy of Language

Master (any version) for just $30

more. That's only $54.98 a copy,

a 30% savings. And you get a free gift with each copy, too!

Order or get a nearby dealer now on our hotline:

1-800-543-3511, Ext 69. Or complete and mail the coupon

below. Take adrantage of this limited time offer now.

IMPROVES YOUR
WRITING

You instantly and easily
match precise meanings of
words to the ideas and
concepts >"ou want to
convey.

You select more
evocative, colorful and
appropriate words, ichtle you
UTite, not later on, Your
editing takes less time and
focuses on impronng your
communication, not cleaning
up word choices.

STHxfti BeqaJrtncou

WfDd«w»l^l^ criTT>ter]&MD(CompitO>tt?C. i nvpt,vie r,f IL4I, jfueddlik dmr with l.S mefib>1ei het.ind MlcnMoftTlndc^^.1

2S6/186Vcnii>n 2. IX Dr\cnlon 3.0.

D08!lBM?C/Vrvi1tlstX)SV(raon2 0msrnleicrArorPS/jatCDtnpa[lliieiri[hDOSVcrtli>nJ.Ooiptiicr.ftxeddlilcdriwwithl.Sme^

frKnrMTil!nppyd[sk[lnvcs(illeutanemuitbchE|hden- ^_ _ _

iltvl.2MBuf>'liyl.ll°Ko(f[EeiysiiinmEmDiY. Ev>1|>|I'IbB> (!) 12) BliUKS now

MictaUHlii Macintosh Plus mjieiler.BndeiindSvileni ■^■■■■■■■■■■l MOLSTHOIHSJOSOK)

6.(l<prftBKr.fiifddiildnv««1lhl.SMBfrtt EfecCrOnk; PllHislierS "EFr.WW)

■-■■■■■■■■■■■ [22 BURRS ROAD, DEFT. AA069
Electronic Publishers MOUNT HOLLY, NJ 08060

Vrp C f Piease send me copv(s) or Language Masier in the versionlsl checked below. And send the FREE

i XjO * CiFTsomrare pack^els) tto go(es| with it (them).

I've enclosed S79.9> for the first veision and S30 for each additional version, plus $4,50 per orde ^hipping and handling
(NJ residents add sales ta.';!. If I am dissatisfied, I may return Language Master within 30 d3>'s and keep the gift.
Method of ftymenu Diskette Sitt! 03 'A' OiV

D Check Enclosed D Chacge my credit card: D MasterCard DVISA DAMEX D Optima

Venioa:

D Windows Wth
BeckerTools Utility)
D DOS (With Instant
Presentations}
D Macintosh |With
FIndswell Disk Utility)

Card*.

.Exp..

/

Same

Address

CiH'. State, Zip —
D8>time Phone -

No P.O. Boxes plei

Ontv a *T tan qunnoiu ib3ul ^oui n Jn

:. UPS cannot deliver to P.O. Boxes.

To order by phone or get a nearb'y dealer call our Language Master HOTLINE:

1-800-543-3511, Ext. 69

circle Reader Service Number 189

NEWS & NOTES

Alan R. Bechtold

Leading Edge

hopes to live up to

its name witti

ttie introduction ot

N3/SX and

N3/SX20 notebooks.

A Difference of Opinion

The federal judge who at first
ruled Ashton-Tate's dBASE
copyright claim invalid in
1990 has reversed his own de-
cision. According to the Wall
Street Journal, software pub-
lishers and industry iegal ea-
gles did a double take be-
cause such rapid reversals
are a rarity in the U.S. judicial
system. The reversal doesn't
spell instant relief for Ashton-
Tate, however, who must still
defend its dBASE copyright
in a lawsuit filed by Fox Soft-
ware, publisher of the popular
Foxbase dBASE ///-compati-
ble software packages and util-
ities. The decision should
give Ashton-Tate a bit more le-
gal ground when the suit
reaches court. Judge Terry J.
Hatter gave no reason for his
sudden reversal.

Into the Notebook Fray

Until now. Leading Edge Prod-
ucts resisted the urge to enter
the notebook PC market — but
it couldn't resist forever. The
company just unveiled the

N3/SX and N3/SX20, its first
two entries in the notebook
market.

The new Leading Edge
notebook PCs weigh just 6.9
pounds each. Both feature 9-
inch diagonal sidelit triple su-
pertwist LCD displays with
640 X 480 VGA resolution ca-
pable of generating 32
shades of gray. Each comes
equipped with an 84-key key-
board with an embedded nu-
meric keypad, 12 function
keys, and inverted-T cursor
keys with key spacing de-
signed for ease of use.

The N3/SX features a
3B6SX processor running at
16 fvlHz and support for an
80387 coprocessor. It comes
standard with 1MB of memo-
ry, expandable to 5MB, a
1.44MB floppy drive, and a
20MB hard drive. A proprie-
tary slot is dedicated for an op-
tional 9600-bps fax and data
modem. The unit is powered
by either an AG power adapt-
er or ni-cad batteries. The unit
retails for $2,595.

The N3/SX20 has the same
features as the N3/SX with the
exception of a 20-MHz proces-
sor and either a 30MB or
60MB hard drive. The 30MB
version retails for $2,895; the
60MB version retails for
$3,195. For more information,
contact Leading Edge Prod-
ucts, 117 Flanders Road, West-
borough, Massachusetts
01581; (508)836-4800.

Apple Suit Broadened

According to Microsoft corpo-
rate spokespersons, Apple
Computer wants to
broaden the scope
of its lawsuit
against Microsoft
and Hewlett-Pack-
ard to include Mi-
crosoft Windows
3.0. The original law-
suit, filed by Apple in March
1988, alleges that Windows
2.03, which was the Windows
version on the market at that

time, infringed on Apple's
copyrights. Windows 3.0 was
released in May 1990.

Microsoft claims the intent
to amend the complaint was
disclosed in a phone call
from Apple's general counsel.
Since the original filing of the
lawsuit, Microsoft maintains
that it hasn't infringed on any
Apple copyrights and that it
will continue to fight these al-
legations vigorously.

More Troubles for
Microsoft?

Lawsuits from Apple aren't
the only things Microsoft has
to worry about lately. Accord-
ing to Microsoft officials, the
staff of the Federal Trade Com-
mission has decided to ex-
pand the scope of its nonpub-
lic investigation of the compa-
ny. The FTC plans to examine
third-party allegations that Mi-
crosoft "has monopolized or
has attempted to monopolize
the market for operating sys-
tems, operating environ-
ments, computer software,
and computer peripherals for
personal computers,"

Until April 10 of this year,
the focus was on an alleged
horizontal agreement be-
tween Microsoft and IBM. The
agreement was purportedly re-
flected in a joint press release
issued at Comdex in Novem-
ber 1989. That press release
discussed future directions of
OS/2 and Windows.

Reconcilable Differences

You want to buy a Sharp Elec-
tronics Wizard palmtop organ-
izer to help you stay on sched-
ule, but what will that mean
for the schedule on your desk-
top PC? Will you be forced to
keep two computer sched-
ules updated and reconciled?
The answer is No. thanks to
Borland's Sidekick 2.0 and
the new Sharp Organizer
Link II.

The Wizard can easily be
connected to a desktop PC

Become a Lotus' 1-2-3
"Spreadsheet Performer",

Forget about thick manuals. Forget about searching

for the right key to punch. Because now you can get
help right on the screen — with MicroTutor* for Lotus.
You work smarter and faster with iVIicroTutor's tips and
easy instructions. It's quicker and simpler than any book
or seminatT.vand it's only $49.95.

Here's How It Works

MicroTuior'.s on-screen help walks you through Lotus 1-2-3 functions—
fonnat.s. r.inges. printing, gniphics nnd nioru. You can go through the complete
coiir.su or ;icce.ss jJi«Hhe hcl)5 you [lecd. Vou quickly create e;t.sy-to-read,
accurate .spread.sheet.s.

What You Learn

■ Hov\- to get sraned

■ How to luiiki complete, ea.sy-to-read-
.spreatl.>heets

■ How to use Lotus a.s a databa.se
management program

■ 1 low to save time with macros

■ How to enhance spread.sheet
apciearance

■ How to use Lotus graphics capabilitte.s

■•^«!i^>

Learn Lotus 1-2-3
Relets*' ^ ')

F) GtionihcFASTm^CK
nOU with MlCROTl.TOR ...

rf

,A\d\<i

Your Five Bottom-Line Benefits

1. You learn Lotus 1-2-3 in -i hours-
guaranteed.

2. You have hel[;> at your ilngenijjs any
time you need it.

3- You can share MicroTtitor with your
employees or co-workers.

I. Your spreadsheets look better becaii.se
you know all the formatting dps and
shortcuts.

5. YoLi earn back the low cost many times
over-— becau.se MicroTutor is faster and
easier than any seminar or manual.

p..

I%1

fiS Lve gone to

.seminars to learn computer

applications, but after they were o\er I

had forgotten some of the instRitlion. With

MicroTuior, ever\Thing is there for you to refer

to if you forget something or need heli5.9§

' — Marcia Scott, Massachu.setts

Your Satisfaction is
Triple Guaranteed

1. If you don't learn Lotus 1-2-3 within 4
hours, return the tutorial and receive a full
refund.

2. If in the first 30 days you don't save hours
using Lotus 1-2-3, return MicroTutor and
receive a full refund.

3. If you aren't satisfied with MicroTutor
within 30 days, return your purchase for a
full refund.

Put it to the test. Send it back if yoti're not
completely satisfied. No que.stions asked.

How To Order

1. Call 1-800-828-2917 and use your Master-
Card, .\m'X. VISA or Discover Card.

2. Fax the coupon below to 717-343-8041.

3- Mail the coupon below to National Learn-
ing Systems, Dept. 000000, 92t Oak St.,
Scranton. I'A 18Sli.

National Learning Systems, Dept. ABXB91

925 Oak Street, Scranton, PA 18515

Ypfif ' ^^''"' "" '''''^'■' ''"^^" ^'''"*'"f^ "" "'y ^'t:- •''L'nd .MicroTutor to me for the
lv9i product(s) checked. 1 under.siand I ha\e 30 days to return MicroTutor
for a full refund if I'm not completely satisfied.

Name

Title

Call Now: 1-800-828-2917, Dept abxb9i

All orders shipped within iS hours.

1 need this disk size: D 5 'A" D 3 '.^' 1 1 Do you have a hard drive? D Yes D No

Company,
Address

_2ip_

City 'Slate

i^hone ( )

D Check or .Money Order Enclo,sed D I'u rtlia.se Order Enclosed
Charge to:

D Ma-steiCard D A.MKX D VI.SA D Di.scover Cant Hxpire.s_
Card 3

Signature .

All iirtkfs muvt Ih- ^i^nc^.l

Plea.se mark your selection(s)' ami calculate yourioial l>clou.

D Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1 S'iy.95

D Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2 S49.95

D Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.0 S49.95

D Lotus MacrcK .'. S49.95

(For all Lotus Relea,ses)

n WordPerfect' 5.1 $49.95

□ WbjciPerfect* 5.0 ..S49.95

DMS-DOSM.Ol S49,95

D MS-DOS' 3.3 S49,95

n Leam to Use a PC S49.95

Total » of Seleaions at S49.95 each= S

Shipping and Handling s -■9>

(AK. HI, PR, PO. Box, $5.20; Foreign, S15.95)

Add Sales Tax (PA 6%) ..,„. s

Software names are registered trademarks of (heir respective

companies. Copyright © National teaming Systems
Circle Reader Service Number 201

TOTAL S

NEWS & NOTES

with a cable included with the
Sharp Organizer Link II pack-
age for connecting palmtop or-
ganizers to desktop PCs. Spe-
cial software, which is loaded
on the desktop PC, manages
the transfer of schedules di-
rectly into Sidekick's Time Plan-
ner feature. Sidekick's Recon-
ciliation feature then com-
pares the two schedules and
reconciles any discrepancies,
consolidating them into a com-
mon file.

The Time Planner, which in-
cludes an appointment book,
calendar, and to-do list, can
automatically track and exe-
cute actions such as sending
MCI Mail messages or activat-
ing a pager. In addition to the
Time Planner, Sidekick has
an address book, notepad,
and calculator. The Wizard in-
cludes an address book, tele-
phone directory, world clock,
notepad, and calculator.

A Home Computer That
Means Business

Radio Shack's newest person-
al computer, the Tandy 1000
RLX, is a home computer de-
signed to meet the demands
of many small businesses.
This IBM-compatible PC car-
ries the extra power of a 10-
MHz 80286 microprocessor
and one 3'/2-inch 1 .44MB flop-
py drive. A second SVa-inch
drive bay accepts either a flop-
py drive or a 20-40MB hard
drive. The system also has
one PC-compatible expan-
sion slot.

The 1000 RLX includes Tan-
dy's DeskMate and DeskMate
Home Organizer's 24 easy-to-
use home management appli-
cations. Pull-down menus
and pop-up dialog boxes,
along with the point-and-click
convenience of Tandy's
mouse, permit quick and
easy performance of most
tasks. Both the hard and flop-
py disk configurations include
high-resolution VGA graphics,
a voice message option in

10 COMPUTE

DeskMate's Information Cen-
ter, a two-button mouse, two
joystick connectors, micro-
phone and stereo headphone
jacks, and a realtime clock
with battery backup. All inter-
nal components are designed
to function without an internal
fan, meaning the 1000 RLX
runs cooler and quieter than
most computers on the mar-
ket today.

Suggested retail prices are
$799.95 for the 1000 RLX and
$1,199.95 for the 1000 RLX
hard drive model. Monitors
are additional.

900 Woys fo Fix It

Epson America has found a
convenient way to charge cus-
tomers for help with the instal-
lation, configuration, and oper-
ation of their computers. A
new 900 telephone line (900-
988-4949) supplements the
end-user assistance regularly
provided by Epson author-
ized resellers. The 900 line is
open Monday-Friday, 10
a.m. -7 p.m. Callers are con-
nected with an Epson support
representative after a pre-
recorded message, which
states that after an initial min-
ute of free time, the caller will
be billed at a rate of $2 per
minute.

End users who need assis-
tance locating the nearest Ep-
son Customer Care Center
should call (800) 289-3776.

IBM Goes to Hollywood

The latest Hollywood pre-
miere isn't an action-packed
star-studded motion picture.
It's IBM's new presentation
graphics software. Dubbed
Hoilywood. the package al-
lows business professionals
to create high-quality
hardcopy, transparencies,
slides, and onscreen presen-
tations.

Hollywood runs in Windows
3.0. Text- and graphics-
based presentations are easi-
ly created using the pro-

gram's integrated outliner, tem-
plates, color schemes, fully
scalable fonts, and charting,
drawing, and painting tools.
The program also features a
sophisticated screen-show ca-
pability. A spreadsheetlike in-
terface makes entering data
for presentations easier, and
the runtime screen-show mod-
ule lets users create presenta-
tions that include sophisticat-
ed transition effects, which
can be distributed and dis-
played without Hollywood but
still within licensed use.

Hollywood requires an IBM
PC, PS/2, or IBM-tested com-
patible with at least an 80286-
based processor (386 or high-
er is recommended), a hard
drive, and 1,6MB of RAM
(2MB or more is recommend-
ed); DOS version 3.3 or high-
er; Microsoft Windows 3.0; an
IBM or Microsoft mouse or
compatible; and any Win-
dows 3,0-supported color vid-
eo adapter. Suggested retail
price is $495.

For product information
and a demonstration disk,
call (800) IBM-7699.

Too Much Silicon?

What could be more perfect
for the beach than a comput-
er made entirely of sand?
World-famous sand sculptor
Todd Vander Pluym created
the sand computer as a
stage for an international
awards presentation honoring
technical computer solutions.
The idea was a natural. "The
raw material of the silicon
chip — the foundation of the
modern computer — is sand,"
said Vander Pluym. Unfortu-
nately the computer isn't ex-
actly portable, weighing
about 25 tons. The all-sand
work of art was also doomed
to break down quickly but for-
tunately it held up long
enough to stage the awards
ceremony.

Recipients of the 1991
CSC Technical Excellence

Another Eastern block falls.

There's a new'TRIS on the block, its name is
WORDTRIS. And if you love TETRIS, this latest fast-action,
falling block, Soviet game will boggle your mind.

This time the falling pieces are letter blocks. Form them
into words and score points. As
each block falls, it pushes down
the blocks below, producing an
ever-changing kaleidoscope of
letters where scoring oppor-
tunities appear- and vanish -
at the Wink of an eye.

Create words horizontally or
vertically, but don't put all your
E's in one BASKET Because
every time a word lines up, poof! those letters disappear,
and the blocks below pop up to fill the spaces. So when-
ever you earn points you stir up the alphabet soup. And
suddenly that falling M has no HOME to go to.

Avallablein retail storesor for Visa/MasterCard orderscall lollfree,

24 hours a day.7 days a weefc 1 -800-695-G A M E (Orders Only)

FortKhnicalquestlonsandavailabilitycall: 1-415-522-1164 (M-F: 9am - 5pm PST)

wmm

GoforXVLOPHOMEifyoudare.

WORDTRIS keeps raining vowels and consonants until
you've collected enough words to move to the next level,
or the well fills up. Of course, each successive roundups
the ante as the blocks fall ever faster. But you can choose
your difficulty level to match
your skills, and select from
single player, cooperative,
competitive, head-to-head or
tournament modes. The
built-in 30,000 word diction-
ary verifies even the most
obscure word.

Set the difficulty level at
10 and you'll find WORDTRIS
harder to keep up with than
the changes in Eastern Europe,

WORDTRIS. Another great
game from the TETRIS people.

SSilQIEaiEll

SIpectntmHoioByte

Available (or IBM and Mac/Macll.

Spectrum HdoB^^

A Division of Spiiere, Inc. 2061 Challenger Drive, Alameda, CA 94501

So™ SmwiiBMVC A. WOEJTlffi Copyright ewWAmenka.litAIJRi^BResen'td.WOBTtB led 5(1^^
TniUSCt5iyrighl eiW V/0 ElKimjgglediiUa lEtegl TFIlBis a tratoirk of Eloti. TFTliB

Circle Rndsr Service Number 1S2

NEWS & NOTES

Credit-card-
size memory cards
store data
in Hewiett-Pacliard's
new palmtop.

Awards were Robert Heppe
of Washington, D.C., who
helps the United States keep
tabs on satellites — where
they are and where they're go-
ing; Paul Gustafson of Chica-
go, Illinois, who helps indus-
tries cut costs by increasing
workloads on their existing
mainframe computers: Luc
Mercier of Brussels, Belgium,
who helps governments and in-
ternational industries track
down bugs, viruses, and oth-
er problems in computer net-
works; Eric Booth of Lanham,
fvlaryland, who has discov-
ered ways to stretch the life of
satellite software through
reuse; and Paul Chapman of
Belmont, Massachusetts, who
employed higher mathemat-
ics to reduce the amount of
steel used in manufacturing
processes.

Travel Agent on a Disk

tf you've had it with red-eyes
or 500-mile flights that should
only take an hour but require
four connections and three lay-
overs, don't despair. Now you
can figure out your own flight
itinerary and then have your
travel agent book the flights
and make all the other neces-
sary arrangements.

Now you can view more
than 250,000 direct and sin-
gle-connection flights to and
from 1200 destination cities
right on your own PC, without
a modem. Flight Disk, from Of-
ficial Airline Guides (GAG), is
a collection of floppy disks
featuring information on direct
and connecting flights for the
most frequently traveled city
pairs in the United States, Can-
ada, Mexico, and the Caribbe-
an.

The computer makes all
the information — over 700 pag-
es' worth — contained in the
OAG Desktop Flight Guide for
North America available elec-
tronically at a glance. Previ-
ous editions of Flight Disk con-
tained schedules for about

110,000 flights and 600 desti-
nations.

Flight Disk is offered on
a subscription basis for a
yearly fee of S199 plus $15
for postage and handling, or
$99 plus postage and han-
dling for subscribers to the
OAG Desktop Flight
Guide, North Ameri-
can edition. New is-
sues are published
monthly.

Anyone interested
in a free 30-day trial
of Flight Disk can
call (800) 323-
3537.

One Million
Served

Borland In-
ternation-
al's Quattro
Pro spread-
sheet soft-
ware is selling like hot cakes.
Since its introduction nearly
two years ago, over 1 million
copies of the program have
been sold.

The growing worldwide
spreadsheet market might ac-
count for some of Borland's
success with Quattro Pro. Win-
ning an unprecedented 37 in-
ternational industry awards
doesn't hurt, either. Since
1989, Borland's share of the
worldwide spreadsheet mar-
ket has grown from 8 percent
to 20 percent. In the U.S., its
share has doubled, growing
from 12 percent to 24 percent
in the same time period.

Check Out This Palmtop

Just when you thought com-
puters couldn't get any small-
er, Hewlett-Packard unveils a
new palmtop PC that's about
the size of a standard check-
book. Weighing just 11 ounc-
es, the 95LX comes with DOS
3.22, Lotus 1-2-3, and an ar-
ray of organizer tools, all load-
ed in ROM and ready to use.
Other very useful features in-
clude an advanced financial

calculator and communica-
tions capabilities.

The 95LX has a QWERTY
keyboard and uses credit-
card-size memory cards to
store data. A modem port
and printer port are also includ-
ed. It retails for $699.

For more information, con-
tact Inquiries Manager, Hew-
lett-Packard Company, 1000
NE Circle Boulevard, Corval-
lis, Oregon 97330; (503) 752-
7736,

TV for Computer Lovers

Serious computer users are of-
ten too busy watching their
monitors to spend much time
watching television. When the
subject is computers, howev-
er, it's a different matter. The
PBS series "Computer Chroni-
cles" is apparently one of the
best television programs
around with a focus on com-
puters. The program was re-
cently named Best Computer
Television Program of 1990 at
the Sixth Annual Computer
Press Association Awards.
The show won out over some
tough competition, including
ABC's "Business World" and
CNN's "Future Bytes."

Alan R, Bechtold is editor of In-
fo-Ma( Magazine, an electron-
ic news weekly published by
BBS Press Service. O

12 COMPUTE

My Citizen Makes Working At
HOME LOOK VERY Attractive.

SIMPBOirS -_

PROPOSED TREES FOR
MAIN STREET UBRARY PROJECT

From advertising copy to business letters to product
descriptions and designs, the Citizen GSX-130 is the practical
24-wire printer for the smaJl business or office at home. It's one of
the fastest printers in its class. And it gives you just about
everything you might need.

Even color. It's easy to print attention-getting documents that
express your ideas, facts and figures with impact. Simply snap in
the optional Color On Command™ kit and start printing in color
with the software you probably already own.

With Command- Vue 11'" you're in control of color, pitch,
popular typefaces, page layout and more. All in plain English, all
with the touch of a switch.

The GSX-130 handles paper easily and effortlessly, too, with
continuous paper tear-off that instantly advances the next page to

the tear-off bar. Paper parking allows you to switch between
continuous paper and single sheets, so you're always ready for anything.

You'll have all the power you need, all al^
a great value. And to assure you of that,
we include the Citizen Pledge of
Quality - a two-year warranty. ■

The Citizen GSX-130.
The practical way to
professional printing.
For more information call
1-800-556-1234 ext. 34.

CI 991 Clizan America Corporation

Gliafi, Cobr On Corrnoftd, Caftmnnd-Vu* U end ^

GdzOT lo^Q on Irodtmartu ai M CJtwi Wath Co. Ud.

^CITIZEN"

Circle RoBdsr Service Number 1ES

FEEDBACK

Amiga and 8-bit

Commodore

coverage, removing

bad sectors,

using GETS and PUTs,

contacting

GeoWorks, and more.

Representative Sample

1 could see it coming a few
months ago: COMPUTE has
gone IBM on us, rendering it-
self useless to those of us
who had subscribed for the
very reason that it featured oth-
er computers. I think that the
subtitle of your magazine
should be changed to The
Complete IBM-Compatible
Computer Resource. You
can't possibly be giving a fair
representation of the negative
mail you're receiving.

LEUND JONES
DALLAS, TX

COMPUTE still covers the Ami-
ga and 8-bit Commodore com-
puters. Issues of COMPUTE
are created for these comput-
ers in a very complex binding
process and sent to readers
who subscribe to Amiga Re-
source or Gazette. If you're
not getting the issues you
want to read, write to us, and
we'll notify the subscription
sen/Ice that you want your sub-
scription changed. Or for
more rapid response, call
(800) 727-6937 and request
that your subscription be
changed to the multiple-sub-
scriber edition. We try to pub-
lish a representative sample
of mail in "Feedbacl<," as
well as letters that will be help-
ful to other readers. It's true
that we receive some letters
from Amiga and 8-bit Commo-
dore owners confused by the
changes in COMPUTE.
Thanl<s for giving us the oppor-
tunity to explain how we han-
dle the special sections.

Hard Disk Headache

When I run CHKDSK on my
20MB hard disk, it shows
98,304 bytes in bad sectors.
Will a reformat of the hard
drive remove the bad sec-
tors? Also, when I first pur-
chased my computer, it
would automatically boot
from the C drive. Now it re-
quires a system disk in drive

A to boot up. What did I do
wrong?

ALFRED M, BELL
ARLINGTON, VA

Reformatting your hard disk
won't eliminate the bad sec-
tors, and you wouldn't want to
eliminate them because using
those marginal sectors could
endanger your data. Hard
disk manufacturers thorough-
ly test their products for de-
fects and areas that may not
reliably hold data. If defects
are found, a bad track map is
created and affixed to the top
of the drive. During low-level
formatting, those marginal ar-
eas are roped off so no data
can be stored there.

Bad tracks usually com-
prise less than 1 percent of a
disk's total surface — in your
case, it's about half that
much. In the normal course of
operations on a hard disk, a
few bad sectors are nothing
to worry about.

Your inability to boot from
drive C indicates that, for
some reason, your system
has lost the information that
tells it drive C is a boot disk.
This is a fairly common prob-
lem. The easiest solution is to
use a commercial disk-utility
program to identify and repair
the problem. No hard disk
owner should be without
such software.

It also may be possible to
repair the damage on your
own. but first make a backup
of the hard disk for safety.
Next, boot from a floppy disk
and use the command SYS
C: to place new copies of the
system files on the hard disk.
If this fails to get your hard
disk back to normal, you'll
have to reformat the disk to
make it bootable again. Be-
fore going ahead, make sure
you have backups so you
can restore your data.

Up a Tree

We at the Aldridge Company

appreciate your review of
Tree86 in the article on DOS
shells [COMPUTE, November
1990). I believe you found
one of the major strengths of
Tree86 — its small size. All of
Tree86 fits on one 5y4-inch
disk, and it can be run from a
floppy, making it extremely
portable.

We'd like your readers to
know that the multiple
screens Mr. Bechtold found
lacking will be available in
the next release of the pro-
gram.

Another of TreeSS's strong
points is its intuitiveness and
ease of use. This is accom-
plished through its pull-down
menus accessed v/ith hot
keys. The fact box included in
the article indicated that
Tree86 used function keys
and no menus, which is an er-
ror. We'd iike to let your read-
ers know.

VALERIE BURSON. VICE PRESIDENT
THE ALDRIDGE COMPANY
HOUSTON, TX

In Search of Works

I need the phone number
and address for GeoWorks.

E. WILLIAMS
HUNTINGTON BEACH. CA

The address is GeoWorks,
2150 Shattuck Avenue,
Berkeley California 94707.
The telephone numbers are
(800) 772-0001 for orders
and (4 15) 644-0883 for the
company's offices.

You Put What You Get

I can't figure out how to use
GET and PUT in GW-BASIC.
Also, I'd like to create a menu
that will pop up and then dis-
appear. How can I do that?

SETH FULMER
PALM, PA

This little program will grab
whatever is in the upper left
corner of the screen and
smear it In various ways
across the screen (note that
you have to type or draw

14 COMPUTE

UiiSfWZliHj

• All new graphics - the latest advances in 3-D technology!

• DynomJe/nte/Zigence"- the better you fly, the better your foes fly!

• Toto(/y new challenges - including bombers, taiiguns and morel f" ms-dos w/540k (^ems ucmixY raquijod *« immnt rapiayand J;giKi«i

. Instant replay - get an audience-eye view of the action!' -„^ ^:^^::t;fJ^^,''l'':;;t^^.';^:^:t^^. ^."^JS^d d^^l*^"'''

. Diglihed speech - unique voices for every character!' «®^ ^:it^C\To^6'c::;-ZT>^dif'"r::^^^^^

• Cinematic storytelling - you re the star in a whole new story! (fodemorv of origin systtm., ■«. 1991 origin s^jh™., im.

Available in retail stores or call: 1-800-999-4939 for Visa/Mastercard orders.

Circle Reader Service Number 18t

FEEDBACK

something In the upper left cor-
ner for this program to work).
The PSEl XOR. and OR op-
tions were used with PUT.
You could also use the AND
and PRESET options. Note
that you have to dim an array
variable to use it with GET,
but when you use GET and
PUT, you leave off the sub-
script.

The second half of the pro-
gram creates a menu and sen/-
Ices it. Of course, a menu pro-
gram like this only works
while BASIC Is running. If you
want to create a simitar pro-
gram that would work in DOS,
you should create it in C or a
compiled BASIC.

10 DIM A%(1000)

20 SCREEN 2

30 GET(0,OH123,123),A%

40 FOR I = TO 75

50 PUT(I,I),A%,PSET

60 NEXT

70 FOR I = TO 75

80 PUT (75+l,75-l),A%,0R

90 NEXT

1D0FORI = 0TO75

110 PUT (150+I,I),A%,XOR

120 NEXT

130 CLS

140PRiNTCHRS(201);;FOR 1 =

TO 11:PRINT CHR$(205);:

NEXT:PRINT CHR$(187)
150 PRINT CHR$(186)+"1. Goto

D0S"+CHRS(186)
160 PRINT CHRS(186)+"2. Exit

menu"-f-CHR$(1S6)
170 PRINT CHRS(200);:FOR I =

TO llrPRlNT CHRS(2D5);:

NEXT:PRINT CHR$(188)
180 GET(D,0H144,32),A%
190 CLS
200 PRINT"press any key to show

menu"
210 AS = INKEYS
220 IF AS=" "THEN 210
230 CLS

240 PUT(D,0),A%,PSET
250 A$=INKEY$
260 IF AS=" "THEN 240
270 IFA$="1"THEN

CLS:SHELL:CLS
280 IF AS="2"THEN CLS:END
290 GOTO 250

PC or Not PC

In the January 1991 issue of
COMPUTE, in the "Feed-
back" column, you stated
that TSR-management pro-
grams called Mark and Re-
lease were published in the
January 1990 issue of some-
thing called COMPUTEI's PC
Magazine. Is that something
different from COMPUTE? I'm
interested in the disk you men-
tioned. Please get me more in-
formation.

THOMAS C. SK1DMORE
SALT LAKE CITY. UT

Up until May 1990, COMPUTE
published four separate maga-
zines: COMPUTE!, COM-
PUTEl's PC Magazine, COM-
PUTEI's Gazette, and Amiga
Resource. COMPUTEI's PC
Magazine, along with the oth-
ers, was "folded Into" COM-
PUTE when COMPUTE Publi-
cations was purchased by Gen-
eral Media. COMPUTEI's PC
was a bimonthly magazine-
disk combination.

For any past issue of COM-
PUTEI's PC (including disk),
send an $8 check or money or-
der payable to COMPUTE.
The address is COMPUTE Sin-
gle Copy Sates, 324 West
Wendover Avenue, Suite 200,
Greensboro, North Carolina
27408. Specify that you want
the January 1990 COM-
PUTEI's PC and disk.

Readers whose tetters appear
in "Feedback" will receive a
free COMPUTES PC clock ra-
dio while supplies last. Do
you have a question about
hardware or software? Or
have you discovered some-
thing that could help other PC
users? If so, we want to hear
from you. Write to COM-
PUTE'S Feedback, 324 West
Wendover Avenue, Suite 200,
Greensboro, North Carolina
27408. We regret that we can-
not provide personal replies
to technical questions. O

16 COMPUTE

EDITORtAL

Editor In Chief Pelei Scisco

Art OlreclDr Robin C Case

Executive Editor Clifton Karnas

Senior Editor Emeritus Keitti Fefrell

Managing Editor David tiensley Jr.

FesttJres Editor F^bert Bixby

Associate Editor David Engiisti

Editor, Gazette Tom Nelsel

Associate Editor, Denny Atkin

Amiga Resource

Reviews Editor

Assistant Editors

Copy Editors

Editorial Assistant
Interna

Mtks Hudnall
M Cnampion
David Sears
Karen Huffman
Susan Thompson
Kandi Sykes
Ciiantefle OligschlaegGr
Efin Rtchler

ART
Assistant Art Director Kcnnclh A. hlardy
Designer Jo 6oykjn
Typesetter Terry Cash
PRODUCTION
Production Manager De Potter

Tratfic Manager Barbara A. Wiiliains
PROGRAMMING
Programming Manager Riciiard C Leineclter
Programnwrs Bruce Bcwdsn
Steve Draper
Troy Tucker
ADMINISTRATION
President Kaliiy KeetOfl
Executive Vice President, William Tynan
Operations
OHIce Manager Sybil Agee
Sr, Administrative Assistant, Julia Fleming
Customer Service
Administrative Assistant
Receptionist

Elireda Chavis
Cynthia Giles
ADVERTISING
Vice President, l^ter T Jotinsmeyor
(212MW-B100
James B. Martise

Associate Publisher

Vice President,

Sales Development

Marlcetlng Manager

Caroline Hanfon
(919) 275.ge09
ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES

East Coasi: FulH^ge and Standard Display Ads— Peter T Jolins-
meyer. Chris Coelho. COMPUTE Publications International Ud,.
1965 Broadway. New Vork. NY 10023; (212) 49fr«10Q- l>tew Eng-
land — Jack Garlend. Garland Associates. Inc . ID Industrial
Park Rd.. Hingham, MA 02043. (617) 749-5852. East Coast and
Midvrfest: Fractional an<l ProOuct Mart Ads — Caro ine Hanion.
Product Mart Manager; COMPUTE Publications International
Ltd.. 324 W. Wendover Ave , Suile 20O. Gieensboro, HC ZTAOS:
1919) 275-9609 Soolheaslern Accis Mgr: Fu!l-F^ge. Standard
Display, and Mail-Ofdar Ads— Harriet f^igers, 1726 K St NW.
Suile 903. Wasnington, DC. 20006. (202) 728-0320. Florlda-
J. M Remer Associates, 3300 NE 192nd St.. Suite 192. Aven-
lura. FL 331E0; (305) 933-1467. (305) 933-B302 (FAX). MidwesI:

Full-Page and Standard Display Ads— Siatr Lane, t4altonal Ac-
counts Manager; 1025 Crescent Blvd , tSlen Ellyn. IL 60137;
(708) 790-0171. Northwest— Jerry Thompson. Jules E. Th-
ompson Co.. 1290 Howard Ave , Suite 303, Burlingame, CA
94010; (415) 348-8222 John Taggarl, (415) 547-4102. Lucille
Dennis, (707) 451-8209 Souihwest— Ian Lingwood. 6728 Eton
Ave, Canoga Park. CA 31303; (818) 992-4777 West Coast: Erac-
tjonal Matl-Order. Sharewate, and Produci Mart ASs— Lucille Den-
nis. Jules E. Thompson Co , 1290 Howard Ave.. Suite 303,
Burlingame. CA 34010; (707) 461-6209. UK & Europe— Bever-
ly Watdale. 14 Lisgar Terr.. London W14. England: 01 1-441-602-
329a. Japan — Intergroup Communications, Ltd.; Jiro Semba.
President; 3F T[ger Bldg 5-22 Shiba-Koan. 3-Choine. Minato-
ku. Tokyo 105, Japan. 03-434-2607, Classilied Ads— Sharon
Sleinkemper, COMPUTE Publlcolions Internalionai Ltd.. 1966
Broadway. New York, NV 10023. (212) 724-0911.
THE CORPORATION
Bob Gucclone (chairman)
Kathy Keeton (vice-chairman)
David J. Myerson [chief operaling ofiicer)
Anthony J. Gucckine (secretary-treasurer)
William F. Marlieb (presideni, markeling & advertsing sales)
John Evans (presideni, loreign editions)
Patrick J Gavin (vice president, chief financial office:)
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
Sr. VP/Corp Dir . New Business Development; Beverly
Wardale. VP/Dir , Group Advertising Sales: Nancy Kesienbaum;
Sr, VP/Soulhern and f^idvvest Advertising Dir ; Peter Goldsmith
OlHoes: New York: 1965 Broadway, New York NY 10023-
5965. Te'. (212)496-6100, Telex 2371 26, MidweSI: 333 N, Michi-
gan Ave, Suite 1810. Chicago. IL 60601, Tel. (312) 346-9393.
South: 1725 K St. NW. Suite 903. Washington. DC 20006, Tel.
(202) 728-0320. West Coast 6726 Elon Ave., Cancga Park, CA
91303, Tel. (B18) 932-4777 UK and Europe: 14 Lisgar Terrace.
London W14. England. Tel. 01-828-3336 Japan Intergroup
Jiro Serrba. Telex J25469IGLTYO, Fax 434-5970. Korea: Kaya
Advtsng.. Inc. Rm, 402 Kunshin Anneir B/D 251-1. Oohwa
Dong. Mapo-Ku. Seoul. Korea (121). Tel. 719-6906. Telex
K32144Kayaad

ADMINISTRATION
VP/Finance. CFO: Patrick J. Gavin, Sr. VP/Administrative Serv-
ices: Jeri Winston: Sr. VP/Ari & Graphics: Frank Devino; VP/
New^tand Circulation: Marcia Orovitz: VP/Dlrector ot New Mag-
azine Developrr,ent: Ffena Cherry; VP Director Sales FYomotions:
Beverly Greiper; VP Produciion: Hal Halpner; Dir Newsstand Cir-
culation: Paul Roinick: Dir. Newsstand Circulalion Distribution:
Charles Anderson, Jr., Dir. Subscription Circulation: Marcia
Schultz; Director of Research Ftobert Ptatlner; Advertising Pro-
duction Director: Charlene Smith, Advertising Production Traf-
fic Mgr. Mark v^illiams; Tralfic Dir. William Harbutt: Production
Mgr.; Tcxn Stinson: Assl. Prodjction Mgr: Nancy Rice, Foreign
Editiorts Mgr,: Michael Stevers; Exec. Assl. to Bob Guccione:
Diane O'Connell; Exec. Assl. to David J. Myerson: Tefl Psani;
Special Assl. to Bob (Succione: Jane Homlifih.

^^Pff^yG^f: S*'

Pick Our Brains.

.^

Product support for your IBM
or compatible.

CompuServe, the worid's laiigesl net-
work of people with personal computers,
is also the world's largest network
of people with answers to your hardware
and software questions.

Brains abound on CompuServe. You'll

wpiw

B Nantucket,

.vrriif.iiro-r (vivlsp'ii'wi)"!"'" t"' ''■"

TOSHIBA

^S^^.

.. , 1 ..^ ipi >llEj i i l l^JI|WI.I [^^IfT J^'"*'

find quick solutions and information from
our thousands of forum members, some of
whom have already had your problem,
some of whom are the product developers
themselves. Company decision-makers are
online, too, discussing the next generation
of prod ucts, and ^ng CompuServe
members software updates ahead of every-

Circle Reader Service Number 103

one else, and before the)' hit the market.

Got a question? Got a problem? Get
smart. And get some answers, from the
many minds of CompuServe.

To join, see your computer dealer.
To order direct, or for more information,
call us today.

CompuServe

800848-8199

Education can be a
powerful thing.
Use your computer as
o doorway to
knowledge — online.

8RAIN

WAVES

BY SHERRY ROBERTS

p e've tieard thiat the computer
1 |f is an educational tool for so
^* many years that it's almost a

clictie. But thie next generation
of education programs — called online
education or computer-based distance
learning — is anything but dull and hack-
neyed. This is education on the brink —
technology tapped and tiarnessed to
bring learning to people who are too
busy to attend traditional school or
who don't have access to convention-
al campus environments.

For example, an American soldier
enrolled in an online college course at
NOVA University in Florida continued
to file assignments and attend elec-
tronic classrooms via his computer
while stationed in the Persian Gulf.

"The whole goal is to reach as
many people as possible with quality
instruction," says Margaret Morabito,
founder of the Computer-Assisted
Learning Center (CALC), which offers
continuing education, self-enrichment,
and college-level courses for long-
distance students of all ages on the
online service GEnie. "There are so
many barriers to learning in the offline
world. Online is an excellent medium
for overcoming those barriers."

In the offline world, there are busi-
nesses with inflexible hours, jobs with
strenuous travel demands, and chil-
dren that require babysitters. For the
handicapped, the offline campus may
be a chore to navigate. For students
living in out-of-the-way locales — a
ranch in the Australian outback or a
small burg in Alaska — the offline cam-
pus may be hundreds of miles away

Although online education appeals
to a broad spectrum of people, from
elementary students to senior adults,

19

the greatest growth in this area has
been undergraduate and graduate conn-
puter-based degree programs for wori<-
ing men and women.

Now a Fortune 500 executive can fin-
ish her doctoral degree without ever set-
ting foot in a classroom; she can do
her homework between business meet-
ings or on a flight to Japan; she can at-
tend class from a hotel room half a
world away — as long as she packed
her computer and modem.

Online education can be as unstruc-
tured as someone putting out a call for
help with homework on CompuServe's
Student Forum or as rigid as one of the
curriculum-based degree programs of-
fered by schools such as the Universi-
ty of Phoenix, NOVA University, or the
New York Institute of Technology.

The whole concept of computer-
based distance learning is so new
that everyone involved is a pioneer. No
two educational institutions have organ-
ized their programs the same way. The
only common denominator is the use
of computer and modem.

CALC, for example, requires stu-
dents to attend something called real-
time classrooms. Unless a student has
a medical or technical excuse, the stu-
dent is expected to meet with the In-
structor and other students online at an
assigned time. The University of Phoe-
nix, on the other hand, does not re-
quire online students to log on for a spe-
cific class; students log on and off at
their convenience to retrieve assign-
ments, turn in homework, and confer
with the teacher or other students.

NOVA University teams teleconfer-
encing in the electronic classroom
with videotapes of live classrooms and
attendance at on-campus institutes.

The cost of CALC courses ranges
from free to $40, pius connect time at
$6 an hour. Tuition for online courses of-
fered by accredited universities ranges
from $100 to S250 per credit hour.
Some programs charge an additional
communications fee, which covers
course and access setup and online
hours; others allow students to pur-
chase blocks of online hours.

School supplies are high-tech but ba-
sic: a computer (any kind), a modem,
and telecommunications software, usu-
ally provided by the school. Online
courses also require textbooks just
like their campus counterparts.

On Your Schedule

Flexibility — the ability to attend class
wherever and whenever they wish — is
the main reason students enroll in on-
line degree programs.

Lorraine Wright, an internal auditor
for AT & T in Atlanta, Georgia, says
the online program of the University of

20 COMPUTE

INEUS UDRLD
Lots of Lsnguaoes!
gSTORy WORLD
Sink or Sujimi
, B PUZZLE UIOHLD

Giggles 4 Games Ga
(gUJRflP-UP

'e\/reui before you paint,..
for a decision you'll
love living luith!

tSsim Bfili!! illgEa

Prodigy provides online Weekly Reader to
give younger users news and fun.

scJEncE cEnter

npiiiiiiiiRii

.^NOW -

*-■! This month's feature

—1 MERL OF FORTUNE

--B Tt^e KDUn Lab
.- JH H r^opien t of Eciejice

I suit !
NflilDNflL teoGKflPHlt SOCiElfV''"

Stirpes of Rncienl Egypt
Science Library
Schedule SCtENCE NELI5 CNEXT]

SHOE ON HTltitREDS of tui

isiaiiiariiafHssi

Science is one general interest area tiiat's
attractive to both kids and adults.

iW tt£R£ IN THE UIDRLD 1
/this yEEK'S CflPER

IS cflRMEN SflNBtEGO?

■hour loss tS CARMEN'S GHIN!

" " ■ 'tavmgs Time Crime!

ABOUT CRRMEN SflNBIEGO
How to PEay the Game
LaST iilEEK'5 WINNERS

flCHE BETECTIUE.fiEENCY
HONOR ROLL
OBrodjtrbur?d Software 193S
Uher-e do you FIND-H-G1FT7

In GIFT SERUICES

IWENOlPHTHlJUWPI

No mystery: you can always find Carmen
Sandiego on Prodigy, teactiing geograptiy.

Phoenix was the only way to get her
master's degree in business administra-
tion. "My job requires 50 to 80 percent
travel, but now that I have a laptop, I
can go to school. There's no way I
could make the ti'aditional classroom
setting."

When Wright first heard about com-
puter-based learning from a coworker,
she had her doubts about the quality
and the serious intention of such pro-
grams. She quickly learned, though,
that online learning is no easy cruise.

She estimates she spends 15-20
hours a week studying offline — five
hours of reading each weekend and
12-13 hours of work on two papers
due each week. The first six weeks of
class, she downloaded 500 pages of
class material and student comments.
"Because of the communication
mode, I think you spend more hours

per week on classwork [than in the tra-
ditional classroom course]," Wright
says. "But that Is the price you pay for
flexibility."

Students also choose online courses
because of the diversity of their class-
mates. The computer has facilitated
the creation of truly global classrooms
where students from Singapore study
with students from Seattle and the stu-
dent in the electronic desk next to you
could be an airplane pilot, a CEO, or a
retired schoolteacher.

"I like the networking with class-
mates," Wright says. "I've met people
in my class from all over the United
States from different companies and
backgrounds. If I were in any of their
towns, I'd feel comfortable enough to
call them up and visit with them."

Students and teachers alike say
there is a noticeable lack of shyness in
electronic classrooms. "It is a very lib-
erating and democratic environment,"
explains Tom Bishop, director of mar-
keting for the University of Phoenix On-
line program. The university, which has
13 campuses throughout the South-
west, began offering computer-based
degree programs in 1989.

"It is the content of the student's con-
tributions that is important," Bishop
says, "not the student's physical char-
acteristics."

CALC's Morabito agrees, "When
you're online, you don't have the phys-
ical presence, the facade that you
must put on. No one knows that you
didn't dress up to come to class or
that you're handicapped and in a wheel-
chair or what kind of car you drive.
Everyone is treated on the same basis,
and it opens people up."

As computer-based education has
developed, participants have noticed in-
direct benefits; students report a dra-
matic increase in communications and
analytical thinking skills. The logistics
of attending class via computer discour-
ages rambling monologues (on the
part of either student or teacher) and
eliminates the potential for off-the-cuff
answers.

Dr, Edward A. Becker, director of
Graduate Accounting Programs at NO-
VA University, describes four commu-
nication skills: reading, writing, speak-
ing, and listening. He theorizes that to-
day's highly technological and com-
plex work environment requires a fifth
communication skill: computer literacy.

Students taking computer-based
courses, by necessity, learn how to
use a computer. Few of them are hack-
ers. Often they turn to their teacher or
fellow students for help when technol-
ogy is about to get the better of them.
Schools provide students with support
while they learn the basics of comput-

FOR WRITERS,
STUDENTS, AND
INSTRUCTORS

# FOR IBM PC USERS

A SYSTEM FOR CHECKING
USAGE. MECHANICS,-
VOCABULARY,Wp ..
STRUCTURE M^^

, HELPS ELIMINATE
WORDINESS 1
VAGUENESS
CLICHES

• JARGON I

• POOR USAGE

• NONIDIOMATIC PHRASES

• GENDER-BIASED LANGUAGE

• NONSTANDARD SPELLINGS
-PUNCTUATION MISTAKES

BASIC GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

A Style Checker for
the Serious Writer

"Whether you're tvriting a research paper, thesis, or

ilkscriuiioii, Editor can help hy checking mechanics,
u'ord usage, uiiti rocabidan'. . . . Editor excels as an
aid to precise writing and tnight imprwe even the
uwst prose." -COMPLTE

"0/ tfu' /ice J>c»,i;)'am.'i rei'ieu'ed here, Editor is my
jamrite. . . . Editor /iiick inore oj the la'dfiiiesses in
my tiTitittg thnn docs Grammatik IV or Correct
Grammar." — OMINE

A C;VI-CMi Jauniul /or CominuJiity Colleges

Edi'ior, a new style checker from the Modem Language
Association, helps writers eliininate probletns such as
wordiness, poor usage, and punctuation ertors — over

16,000 common writing problems in fort^' categories.

Used for eight yeats in college writing labs, Edim

enables both students and experienced writers to

improve their composition sti'les.

Unlike other editing software. Editor's text-analysis
system emphasizes thoughtful revision, not quick fixes;
Editor helps writers improve their research papers, as
well as their everyday correspondence.

Users simply exit from their word processors and then mn Ei'ior from DOS. (Users need only a basic familiarity with DOS
commands — e.g., copying and renaming files, formatting disks, creating a subdirectory' on a hard disk.)

Writers who use EdiltJr Icam to avoid problems in their own writing and gain a better understanding of st^'listic principles.
Among Editor's many convenient features:

• Ediior is menu-driven, fa.st, and • A 128-page manual offers samples • Usage dictionaries can be modified
easy to use. of incorrect and proper usage and and expanded by the user.

• Comextualized online reference mechanics. • Users can create and run additional
help is available with a keystroke. usage dictionaries.

Writing Sample as Formatted
by Editor

<1 > Literature professors are caught up in
a historic al motion that challenges
them to confront ethical questions
raised by their teaching practises .

<2> Some writers claim that criticai
theory's day has_past_ifs zenith;
others complain that alot of students
have read "more wofits on theory than
works of literature!

<3> Those who teach theory in the
classroom claim that each and every
student should have a conscious
awareness of the Ideologies
underlying works of literature.

<4> In the ca se of the universities, this is
teading to a situation in which the two
sides are becoming more completely
polarized, to say the least .

Elaine C. Thiesmeyer
Rochester Instilute o/ Technoiog>'
John E. TTiiesmeyer
Hoburt and William Smith Colleges

D BY MAN',

EiJitbr can read texts produced by
MICROSOFT WORD 4+
MljlT[NiATE 3.3*-
.MORTON TEXTKA VVniTER 2*

n'ota bene
k'-writt;

WORDPERPECT4-5t
WORDSTAR i-5-r
XVAffilTE
many others

Eilitor can also read standard
'ASCII text files.

IBM PC or compatible systems

in die 80x86 familv

PC-DOS or MS-DOS, version

2.0 or higher

256KB or more of RAM

monochrome or color monilor

one floppy-disk drive

any IBM-compatible printer

$45.00 ;

/ Mastercard, Visa, ■
and American Express

(pOO) 955-TASi

9a.m.-3 p.m.
EST

Editor's Analysis of Writing Sample

FIX

<2> fias past

POSSIBLE COUmU PHRASE MISSPELLED; -passed"? [m]
<2> it's

POOR USAGE; contraction or misspelled possessive [U]
<2> alot

SPELLING ERROR; and note ttiat "a lof Is informal [1] [s]
<2>".

MISPLACED QUOTATION MARKS [ql

TIGHTEN
<3> each and every

TAUTOLOGY [Tj
<3> conscious awareness

TAUTOLOGY [T]
<4> in ttie case of

WORDY PHRASE [W]

POLISH
<1> practises

NONSTANDARD SPELLING [n|
<4> Itiis is

POSSIBLE VAGUE DICTION; can you clar
<4> to say the least '^

OVERWORKED OR TRITE PyRASE

CONSIDER
<1> historical

COMMONLY-IS
<2> critical ^

COMMONLY MISUSED TERM; "cmciar? [^
<4> more completely

POSSIBLE ILLOGICAL EXPRESSION [X]

■ Editor has four usage dictio-
tmes: FIX, TIGHTEN,
POLISH, and CONSIDER -
Man)' users run FIX jirsi ,
since it catches the most
egre^ous errors.

Braciteteci codes refer tisers lo
online Iielp and to samples in
the rwnud.

Writers who /md diat Editor
flags a term they always list'
correctly may delete that
term from Editor'^ lua^e
dicrinnaries. A scholar who
o/ten iwites about aiiical
theory, far instance, may
want [0 remote the term
"aided" from the
CO.VSIDER dictionary:

Circle Reader Service Number 160

PHONE OB
OLTSIDEl

^9l5^n 5-7447
(919)515-2682

Please make checks
paydile to TASL;
Itnciude ihifping
'charges. Said to
TASL, Box 8202,
North Carolina State
^University, Rtileigh,
^NC 27695-8202. .,

USANDCANAD;
S2.75for|iirst f)ro-
gram, 75 1^ for each
additional program.
OUTSIDE US AND
CANADA: 57.50 /or
first program, 7S« for
each additional program.

er use — from how to log on to the
school's system to how to get a tran-
script of last week's session from the
school's library.

The Price for Flexibility

The most commonly heard complaint
about online education is the lack of
the "warm fuzzy factor" and face-to-
face interaction. Participants miss the
human touch and sometimes dislike
dealing with an inanimate object.

Schools say they make a special ef-
fort to maintain contact with students in
online programs so that they feel nei-
ther stranded nor isolated. When stu-
dents yearn for the sound of the hu-
man voice, they frequently pick up the
telephone and call classmates and
teachers. Several members of a Univer-
sity of Phoenix study group that live in
New England drove to a mutually con-
venient location for a get-together.

"It is much warmer and more human
than most people would expect," Bish-
op says. "Humor comes through even
in the typewritten word."

NOVA University solves the problem
by integrating into its programs chanc-
es for students to meet their online
classmates and mentors in person' NO-
VA requires master's and doctoral stu-
dents to attend either week-long insti-
tutes or weekend seminars in Fort Lau-
derdale, Florida. NOVA students and
teachers also rub elbows at symposia
held every three months at regional
sites, such as Phoenix, Cincinnati, At-
lantic City and Jacksonville.

Degrees of Value

The New York Institute of Technology
started the American Open University,
its computer-based distance learning
program, eight years ago. Dr. Ward
Deutschman, director of the American
Open University, says today the pro-
gram is "clearly a success."

He says his online programs have on-
ly a 10-15 percent attrition rate as com-
pared to the 50-80 percent attrition
rate ordinarily found in traditional dis-
tance learning programs or correspon-
dence courses.

Interaction is the element that
makes online learning more than a mod-
ern day correspondence course. "We
have found that connectivity between
student and faculty the fact that a stu-
dent can get a response to his ques-
tion in a day or two and that he is ex-
pected to interact online, makes a dif-
ference," Deutschman says.

Even if the computer does help
keep some students in school, so to
speak, is it all for naught? Are degrees
earned via computer considered as val-
uable as those earned on campus?

Deutschman admits that the tradition-

22 COMPUTE

al world of academia has yet to wel-
come computer-based education with
open arms.

"Some institutions that haven't been
involved with distance education look
at anything different with a jaundiced
eye," Deutschman says. "The plus
side of this is that institutions offering
distance learning are really attending
to the quality of instruction they are giv-
ing. Tfiey are investing enormous
amounts of time and effort into ensur-

ing that their quality of education is scru-
pulously maintained."

Frequently schools defend the qual-
ity of instruction in their online pro-
grams by using the same faculty to
teach both campus and online cours-
es. Or schools hire experts in their
fields to teach particular online cours-
es. NOVA University has the invest-
ment director for Travelers Insurance
and an expert from the Internal Reve-
nue Service on its accounting faculty.

ONLINE WITH THREE UNIVERSITIES

Working adults make up the majority of
online students for a simple reason:
They're always working.

The purpose of online education is to
improve access to learning for people
who can't attend traditional classrooms
because of their jobs or other circum-
stances. Here are three academic insti-
tutions whose online programs are all di-
rected to adults.

University of Phoenix

The University of Phoenix Online pro-
gram not only requires all students to be
"working adults" but insists that all mem-
bers of the faculty be working profession-
als in their fields of expertise.

Incorporated in 1976 in Arizona, the
university has 13 campuses and learning
centers in Arizona, California, Colorado,
New fvlexico, Utah, and Puerto Rico. It is
accredited by the North Central Associ-
ation of Colleges and Schools,

The university started its Online pro-
gram in 1989 and has 340 students. De-
grees that can be earned through Online
include a bachelor's degree in business
administration, a master's in organization-
al management, and a master's in busi-
ness administration.

Oniine's electronic classroom is open
24 hours a day, seven days a week, allow-
ing students to control the time and
place of their individual participation. Stu-
dents go online at their convenience to
retrieve assignments, turn in or upload
homework, and participate in class dis-
cussions.

Programs are built upon the experi-
ences of the working professional so stu-
dents can apply what they learn as they
learn it. Frequently, papers and projects
must relate to the student's own
workplace.

"We find that adults demand that the
education they are consuming have im-
mediate relevancy," says Tom Bishop,
the university's director of marketing. "It's
not just a hobby."

American Open University

American Open University is the dis-
tance learning arm of the New York In-
stitute of Technology In Central Islip,
New York. Six hundred students from
throughout the United States, Singapore,
fvlalaysia, and Europe are pursuing de-
grees at AOU through their computers.

AOU, which is accredited by the fvlid-
dle States Association of Colleges and
Schools, offers Bachelor of Science de-
grees in general studies, business ad-
ministration, and behavioral sciences. It
also offers a Bachelor of Professional
Studies degree in general studies.

Students receive a course learning
package which includes a textbook, a de-
tailed syllabus, and assignments. Home-
work assignments and special projects
are sent in by the student through the com-
puter. In computer conferences, a men-
tor directs the learning activities just as an
instructor in a conventional classroom
does. Students can read, review, and
write messages to the instructor and oth-
er students through the computer.

NOVA University

NOVA University liegan offering online ed-
ucation in 1983. It is a muttifaceted pro-
gram that integrates computer confer-
encing, videotapes, and the traditional
component: the face-to-face classroom
environment.

Accredited by the Commission on
Colleges of the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools, NOVA has 300 on-
line students. The university offers doc-
toral degrees in information systems, in-
formation science, computer education,
and training and learning. It also offers a
master's in computer-based learning.

Students also may lake some account-
ing courses online. By the end of 1992,
NOVA expects to be able to offer online
an entire master's degree in accounting.

NOVA has perhaps the greatest va-
riety in its delivery system. NOVA stu-
dents not only are expected to spend a
great deal of their time on computer, ei-
ther in realtime electronic class or send-
ing in homework electronically, but they
also use videotapes of actual classroom
sessions filmed on NOVA's campus In
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Concerned that students might miss
the human contact ol classroom-based
education, NOVA requires attendance at
two week-long institutes or weekend sem-
inars held on campus. The university al-
so offers symposia at four sites through-
out the country to share in person the lat-
est research on that term's topic, to en-
courage students to share their own re-
search, and to provide face-to-face an-
swers to students' questions.

You Really Can
Change The W)rld . . .

with Sid Meier's Civilization.

Ramses II

Napoleon

Alexander The Great

Succeed where history's greatest leaders have failed!

Sid Meier's Civilization lets you try to accomplish the one feat that has eluded all mankind:
creating a culairal empire that stands the test of time.

From the foLinding of its fiist cities tlirough space exploration, guide your civilization toward
survival, expansion and dominance. But not without a stniggle. Tlie society you build competes for
land, raw materials, teclinology and military might against otlier civilizations, each guided by one of
history's most brilliant leaders. Challenge Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great and Napoleon, among
others. Flourish where they failed!

From the creator of the award-winning hits Pirates!, F-19 Stealth Fighter and Railroad Tycoon
comes this masterpiece of strategy, challenge and imagination.

PROSE

TM

ENTERTAINMENT • SOFTWARE

For IBM-PC/Tandy/compalibles. For the latest intormaiion on release dates and availabilitlBS. call MicfoProse Customer Servira at 301-771.1 151, 9 am to 5 pm EST weefcdavs © 1991
MicraPrase Software. Inc.. 1 BO Lakelront Drive, Hunt Valley, MD 21 030. ' j ■*■!"■

Circle Reader Service Number 140

FROM HOME SCHOOLING TO HELP WITH HOMEWORK

Every Monday night at 8:00 12-year-old
Danny Brumleve switches on his comput-
er and goes to school. This session he
is taking a course on C programming
fronn the Computer-Assisted Learning
Center (CALC) on GEnie. Last session
he aced English 203, also from CALC,

Danny's mother, Dorothy, describes
her son as "very bright, severely gifted,"
Last year she decided to remove Danny
from private school and try a year of
home schooling while he awaits accep-
tance into a special high school. She or-
ganized tutors, arranged a Latin course
for Danny, and browsed through GEnie.

Dorothy Brumleve, a computer pro-
grammer, considers the CALC courses
a valid part of Danny's curriculum, "I
think it's a unique opportunity. He's too
young to enter junior college, yet he's tak-
ing comparable courses on CALC."
CALC offers courses that can earn col-
lege credit from Edison State College.

Danny says the courses are fun. And
the Urbana, Illinois, ninth grader says, "I
learn a lot more this way"

Dorothy Brumleve is quite satisfied
with online education and proud of her
son, "It attracts a different audience, a stu-
dent that really wants to learn, a student
that's not there for the party. Because
there isn't a party. The student has to be
nnotivated to keep up when he doesn't
have the daily contact with a teacher."

Home schooling information also is
found in one of CompuServe's 240 fo-
rums: the Education F^orum.

Although CompuServe does not offer
curriculum-based online classrooms, it is
a source for online students to get help
with their homework. The CompuServe
Information Service, which was intro-
duced in 1979, offers members access
to 1400 databases, including Peterson's

College Guide to accredited or ap-
proved U.S, and Canadian colleges, as
well as Grolier's Academic American
Encyclopedia, a reference source updat-
ed four times a year.

CompuServe's Science/fvfath Educa-
tion Forum has a data library with prac-
tice problems to help students study for
college board examinations. The Stu-
dents' Forum is where it's happening for
middle schoolers: junior high students ex-
change ideas with teachers and other stu-
dents and receive homework assistance.

With 800,000 CompuServe members
worldwide, the potential for help is limit-
less. As Debra Pedersen Young of Com-
puServe says, "Who knows who is going
to answer your question? It could be
someone in the tJ.K. or someone next
door."

Homiework help is also available, and
independent study is encouraged on the.
Prodigy network. Although it, like Com-
puServe, doesn't offer curriculum-
based programs. Prodigy features online
learning situations. Besides gathering in-
formation through Prodigy's reference da-
tabases and posting calls for help on its
bulletin boards, students could supple-
ment their studies with features from old
favorites such as National Geographic
and Weekly Reader.

America Online also boasts a number
of homework options, including regular-
ly scheduled homework sessions each
weeknight, private tutoring, boards on
developing study skills, an Exam Prep
Center with tips for taking exams, and an
exam exchange where students and
teachers can upload and download ex-
ams to use or practice with. There are
many other options currently online or in
development intended to assist students
and make learning fun.

Thie University of Pinoenix requires thiat
its instructors not only tnave tine appro-
priate academic accreditation but be
currently practicing professionals in
their fields.

Tlie other attack on legitimacy
comes from critics who question (now
tfiose who administer online programs
know who's doing the homework and,
ultimately, earning the degree, fvlany
schools require online students to
take midterm and final examinations in
the presence of a proctor who has
been approved by the school. Or, as in
the case of NOVA, they actually re-
quire the student to show up on cam-
pus for brief but important seminars
and institutes.

There is a feeling among those in-
volved with online education that spe-
cial recognition ought to be given to
those who earn a degree via comput-
er. Take a look at the online student,
says Deutschman: The person has to

24 COMPUTE

be self-disciplined, motivated, and
able to work without a support group.
"If [people] can be successful in dis-
tance learning, then you know they've
got something," Deutschman says.
In fact. Bishop predicts online de-

grees will become increasingly valua-
ble as employers gain experience with
online graduates. "The development of
analytical skills, as a result of the me-
dium, changes the way people can con-
duct themselves in the workplace, Em-
ployers are going to be very pleased in
the kind of results they get with people
in this program."

The Quality Goes In

Educators running online programs
know that such programs will never re-
place traditional classroom learning.
Online education is seen as an alterna-
tive service for a special group.

They predict, however, that technol-
ogy-based education will have an Im-
pact on classroom-based education.
They expect it. in some ways, to en-
hance campus learning.

Campus students, Deutschman
says, may pressure schools to provide
the same technological access to teach-
ers that online students have. Online stu-
dents typically can ask their professors
a question via modem and get an an-
swer in a day or two, while the campus
student with a question is at the whim
of his schedule and his professor's of-
fice hours.

But perhaps the greatest success of
these groundbreaking education pro-
grams is that some educators have
stopped talking about computers and
begun using them. At last, in the case
of online education, the computer has
become an educational tool as essen-
tial as pencil, paper, and textbooks.

As Becker says, "We've been using
lecture techniques to teach from tie be-
ginning. Then, when Gutenberg invent-
ed the pnnting press, we began using
textbooks and lecture. All the studies
tell us that there are more ways to
teach effectively — one is videotapes,
and one is computer.

"Everybody is looking at [online learn-
ing], and everybody is talking about it.
The future is wide open; we're only lim-
ited by our imaginations." □

SOURCES

America Online

8619 Westwood Center Dr., Ste. 200

Vienna, VA 22182

(703) 448-8700

American Open University
(New York Instflute of Technology)
Colton Ave., Bidg. 66, Rm. 227
Centra! Istip, NY 11722
(800) 222-6948

CompuServe

5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.
Columbus, OH 43220
(614) 457-8600

NOVA University
3301 College Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314
(800) 541-6682

Prodigy

445 Hamilton Ave.
White Plains, NY 10601
(800) 776-3449

University of Phoenix Online
101 Caiiiornia St., Ste. 505
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 956-2121

How this $149 software will:
1) Improve the way you work and think
2i Instantly find the info you need, and
3) Help you make brilliant decisions ...

The next generation
of TORNADO

is here at

Surprisingty, tht:rc is a whale new
world of uses for your compuler!
You can use your compiiier lo deal
with all the countless bh.s of "rundom"
intbniialion scattered across your desk:
plans, notes, lists, actions contact^, idciLs.

Info Select

ind much more. INFO SELECT^ will
nol only give you in.slanl access to ihis
importanl infonnation ... il will lielp you
make belter decisions and see inipottant
new relationships. Try INFO SELECT
risk-free and discover a whole new
dimension of computing.

Photographic
memory

INFO SELECT is like havinp a
■pholographic memory' thai gives you
perfect superfasi recall of up lo 64,()00
items of information.

Telephone notes

When Harry calls you on the phone,
you'll display the six windows on Harry
before he finishes his first seiuencel No
more erobarrassins pauses or scrambling
for inforrtiation.

INFO
.SRLECTalso
includes the
world's first
".1-D" word
processor.
You'll be
amazed at how ii
works.

Instead of
one window or
ten, imagine up to 64.000! The uses are
endles.s.

INTO SELECT is Ciiij-
to use - yi;l piirterful.

Are you forgetful?

Were you bom with a memory
situated squarely on the tip of your
tongue? Do you forcct things like which
diiy you placed an order or important
numbers? If you an.' forgeiful you
especially need INFO SELECT - the
software that remembers almost
everything for you.

Thinking tool

Have you ever worked on a complex
project and fell lost.' With INFO
SELF;CT you'll group, scan, and cross
search through all your noles so fast
you']! see the big picture in seconds.

Will I be better off doing this now or
that later? Keeping priorities straight can
make or break your career or your
business. INFO SELECT lets you keep
till lop of what's hot.

.Should you use an east or west coast
supplier'.' To make decisions you need
I facts- Now you can view ihe facts any
I way you like... as fast as you can think,
' You'll make the best decisions ever -
, and fewer expensive mistakes.

The #1 PiM

What's all the fuss

about PIMs (Personal

Information

Mangers)?

Simple -you

pmbably have

more RANDOM

inlbrmation Ihan

any other type and

you need a PIM to

properly handle

this kind of

infonnalion, Tho
4: J * right P[M will
^y -f : save you lime and

make everything

you do go

smoothly.

Whv is Info

Select the ^ I PIM?

Because Info Select i-S based

on idea?! you can identify

with - like stacks of paper.

And it's free-form too. You
won"i waste days or v^coks learning
complex struciiires. Instead you'll be up
and running in nijnuics. Info Select also
d(x.'N more and costs less than other PlMs.

Dt-ci'^iotis

Owners- of our TORNADO suliwaie Isymboli^ed

by the famous "blue lomodo") can tr^^ up to the

secotid-gcncration Info Select under our special

offer. Tliere arc over lOii iiii prove men I'l.

Feature packed

INFO SHUiCT is nicni<(r\' resident
(if you choose), .so you can quickly jump
in from other programs. Info Select
windows can hoJii: notes, plans, lists,
facts, lellcrs. comacis, and much more.
You can search for a window or a group
of wintiows related by a word or phrase.
There arc five ways to see oven'iews:
hypertext, a fast sort, and line drawing.
Save lime with the dialer, dale tickler:
and seafching by text or date ranges.

Info Select allows
you to: add
columns of
numbers; store
data in EMS; use
lemplale or
free-foim
windows; import
and export files,
scrL-cns, and
databases; move,
Join, and duplicate
windows and
much more.

^'"^>

1?^ •'

,. "i>

i^^V

imLi

[f you have rimes, idtrj-in turii^iLis
ur Dthcr unurgani/cd RANDOM
information. )du need infa SclccL

'Rarely do I
recommend b
product as
whoteheartedly"
David Harve/,
Comp- Shopper

'Beats the pants
off just about
everything else."
Jeffrey Pafker.
PCM

Editor's Choice
'Rrst rate'
PC Magazine

LAN
option

The new LA.N version allows
integrated E-niail, sharing company
rolodexes and distrihiiling company
policies. You can shatie any kind of
infoimaiinii. It's yotir first step into the
exciting new world of groupware! Ask
about the five mnie LAN starter pack.

Easy power

Into Select is easy to use yet offers;
the [:<iiveryou need with infobases up lo
! I) megabytes; text searche.s up to
700kh/sec: up to .12,IX)0 characters per
window; and up to 64, OCX) windows per
infobase. Even bctlcr. Info Select can
swap down to as little as 7K memory!

TORNADO owners

INFO SELKCr is based on the
pioneering TORNADO'" software PC
World called "Rxcellent. Excellent.
E.\cellem. Excellent" and PC Magaj^ine
awarded Editor's Choice - twice. Call
about our special trade-up offer.

Endless
uses

Info Select can
do much more than manage
all your RANDOM
infomiation, U.se it lo
manage business correspondence, sales "
leads, orders, and client notes. Track
facts, plan projects, or interrelate all your
ideas. You can catalogue parts,
documents. ;md invenloiy items. .Match
buyers and scl lers or doetois and patients.
Setup an information desk. Edit E-mail.
Store notes on tnaga/inc articles,
software operation techniques, nr just
names and addresses. Whether you are a
lawyer tracking court cases or a zoologist
collecting feeding habits you'll find
countless uses for Info Scilecl.

info Select keeps your information in inteltigenl
automalically positioned windows.

Risk-Free Guarantee

info Sek'ci is sQcffeciiv!.' you will he

iimarad. Thill's why we offer nur

montry hai-'k guiiramcc. Try It for 30 days.

tf you on: [iot fully sali^tfKdi acccpl uur full

prompt refund- Could any offer be nwre

fair?

All for just

New:

$149.95! Ver2 01

INFO SELECT has a special price of
jusl 5149.9.1 You can eien tiy it
risk-free with a 30-day money back
guarantee. But hurry - this is a limited
time offer.

Doesn't ji make scn.sc to get the
software package that can open up a
whole new world of important uses for
your computer'.' Order today. Call
toll-free:

(800)342-5930

... and get ready for a ni;w dimension
of computing.

Micrff^LS§iS

POB TO, Dept. 901

Hackensack, NJ 07602

(600) 3J2-5930 (201) 342-6518

Fax: (201)342-0370

Makers ol: Tornado, Info Select,
Key Watch & Micro Chans

MAILORDERS : Serai nsnK. address, phone number, and payment by check. Visa, or MC lo address shown. Please include S.VSO shipping (S I J oULside continental USA). EUROPJEAN CUSTOMERS:
Cuntaci Ailames L.S.A. (21B) 6S5-69S0. IE4EK.MA81SS: Trademaik (owner): Tornado. InfoSclecl. Key Watch (Micro Losic). IBM PC, XT, AT. PS/3 IIBM). © I9W Micro Logic Corii. U.S.A.

SHAREPAK

Richard C. Leinecker

Four

programs to

entertain

you and your

family

for hours

SEPTEMBER PAKS
IT TO THE MAX

Go ahead; spend more than a
hundred dollars for four pro-
grams. But if you want real val-
ue, order this month's Share-
Pak. it's packed with four pro-
grams that will entertain you
and your family for hours.

Here at COfvlPUTE, we
search the online services for
high-quality shareware, which
means you get the very best
without having to take the
time to hunt for good online pro-
grams yourself.

If you're paying connect
time or long-distance charges
for being online, those costs
can add up quickly — another
reason why COMPUTE's Share-
Pak disk is such a bargain.

As a subscriber, you'll get
great programs every month,
selected from lists of hun-
dreds. And our disks come
with a money-back guarantee:
If you don't like the programs
for any reason, just return the
disk for a refund,

ARGH Version 3.0

ARGH. the first SharePak pro-
gram for September, is a col-
lection of sliding block puz-
zles. How hard can that be?

Well, playing is actually
easy: You just run the game
from DOS and type the letter
of the block you want to
move. When you finish, the
program sounds a beep, alert-
ing you that you've success-
fully completed the puzzle.

Sounds easy, huh? Sure,
it's easy to play, but it's not so
easy to master. Simple as it
sounds, the idea translates in-
to hours of fun.

To play ARGH version 3.0,
you'll need 256K of RAM,
DOS 2.1 or higher, and any
type of monitor.

Gapper

Talk about a game that will
both captivate and addict its

audience, try Gapper.

There's nothing fancy
about this game — arrow keys
move you around while you
avoid the blob.

Once you've captured all
the rectangles on the screen
by traversing their perimeters,
you're done with the screen.
But count on this: The next
screen will be harder, more
challenging, and more fun.

Gapper's CGA graphics
are simple. The pieces move
smoothly, and control is grace-
ful. A high-score feature lets
you face the ultimate chal-
lenge: Can I beat yesterday's
score?

To play, you'll need 256K
of RAM, DOS 2.1 or higher,
and a color monitor.

PRO football Picks

Don't you hate losing? Well,
it's time to improve your
odds. The next time you want
to pick the winning team, use
this fantastic program.

PRO Football P/cte' author
claims a 60-percent win re-
cord — not bad considering
that all you have to do is run
the program, enter the week-
ly statistics, and let the pro-
gram make the picks.

The program is well-
planned and easy to use, Sim-
ple keypresses control the
menus, and mouse support is
offered for all menus and di-
alog boxes, And you don't
have to be a propeller-head
or spend hours reading a man-
ual to use it.

Without knowing anything
about it, I made my selections
in five minutes. Did I win?
With magazine lead times the
way they are, it's now early
June, but you can be sure I'll
find out in September.

For this game you'll need
512K of RAM, DOS 2, lor high-
er, and any monitor.

PRO-KRlBi

Do you write well? Could your
prose be improved? Some-

times it's just plain fun to
have your writing style ana-
lyzed. Whatever the case,
don't consider your writing
complete until you've run it
through this full-featured gram-
mar-analysis program.

PRO-SCRIBE begins by re-
viewing your text for complex-
ity. Your writing is assigned a
grade level, and you're
shown a chart that graphical-
ly illustrates its complexity.
Your writing pattern is also an-
alyzed, and you're shown
how closely it corresponds to
PRO-SCRIBE'S "idea!" pat-
tern. For the ultimate in refine-
ment, you can do a line-by-
line analysis and track down
lines that need rewriting.

PRO-SCRIBE also lists the
complex words you've used,
including a count of how
many times you've used
each word. Synonyms can be
listed so you can easily find a
replacement for any word
you're not satisfied with. You
can even add jargon to PRO-
SCRIBE'S vocabulary to keep
it from pointing out words and
expressions it doesn't recog-
nize that are specific to your
audience.

A graphical chart with your
writing statistics lets you see
the big picture. It includes an
overall summary, a grade lev-
el and Flesch index, personal
sesquipedalian words (those
with many syllables), and sta-
tistics on writing style ele-
ments. That's plenty of informa-
tion for you to assess your
text and make changes if you
desire.

PRO-SCRIBE should be wel-
come, too, for any profession-
al writer. It's smaller than many
similar commercial programs
and doesn't require an exces-
sive amount of disk space, yet
it's packed with all the features
of commercial writing-analysis
programs and more.

To run PROSCRIBE, you'll
need 256K of RAM and any
type of monitor. □

26 COMPUTE

With CX>MPUTE's SharePak, You'll

Share in the Saviivis!

SAVE TIME — we carefully select and test all
programs for you

SAVE MONEY — each disk includes two to five
programs for one low price

SAVE KEYSTROKES— our free DOS shell lets you

bypass the DOS command line

ARGH Version 3.0

PRO Football Picks

PROSCRIBE

Gapper

COMPUTE'S SharePak disk contains tine best of
shareware— handpicked and tested by our staff— to comple-
ment this month's In Focus topic. You'll sample entertainment,
learning, or home office software at a great savings. Each
SharePak disk includes two to five programs plus complete
documentation for one low price:

$5.95 for 5V4-inch disk

$6.95 for Syj-inch disk

For even more savings,
Subscribe to SharePak and receive
COMPUTE'S SuperShell FREE!

For a limited time, you can subscribe to COMPUTE'S Share-
Pak and save more than 37% off the regular cost of the
disks— plus get COMPUTE'S SuperShell FREE. With a one-
year paid subscription, you'll get

• A new 3V2- or 5y4-inch disk deli\'ered to your home every
month

• Savings of over 37% off the regular disk prices

• Advance notices of COMPUTE special offers

• COMPUTE'S SuperShell at no additional cost!
Subscribe for a year at the special rates of $59.95 for
SV-i-inch disks and $64.95 for 3V2-inch disks — and get
COMPUTE'S SuperShell FREE!

COMPUTES SuperShell requires DOS 3.0 or higliar.

Disks available only foi' IBM PC and compatibles. Olfer good while supplies last.

For Single Disks

YES! I want to stiare In the savings. Send me the September 1991 issue
of COMPUTE'S SharePak disk. I pay $5.95 for each S'/i-inch disk and
$6,95 for each aVi-lnch disk plus S2.00 shipping and handling per disk.

Please Indicate how many disks of eaeh format you'd IIKer

S'Annch at $5.95 each 3W-inch at S6.95 each

SutJtotal

Sales Tax (Residents of NC and NY, please add appropriate sales tax for

your area. Canadian orders, add 7% goods and services tax.)
Shipping and Handling (SZOO U.S. and Canada. S3.0O surface malt, $5.00 alf-

mail per disk)
Total Enclosed

Subscript k>ns

I want to savG even more! Start my one-year subscription to COM-
PUTE's SharePak right away. With my paid subscription, I'll
get a FREE copy of COMPUTE'S SuperShell plus all the savings
listed at»ve.

Please Indicate the disk size desired:

6y4-inch at 159.95 per year S'Mmh at $64.95 per year

For delivery outside the U.S. or Canada, add $10.00 for postage and handling.

Name.

Address.
City

State/Province .
Total Enclosed .

. ZIP/Posta) Ctrie .

. C3ieck or Money Order

MasterCard

Credit Card No

SignaKjre _

Daytime Tetephcne No. ,

. VISA

. Exp. Data -

Send your order to COMPUTE'S SharePak. 324 Vifest Wandover Awenue, Suite 200,
Greenstwro, North Carolina 27408.

AnordersmustbepadmU-S. lundsbycrtwktjrawnonal S Dar^k or tjy moMy ordof MaslwCafd Of VISA aecepl-
ed rof orders over S20. Tnis offer vnl t» fried onfy at tr» a»we address and is n« mada m cor^unction wflfi any olher
magazine or d,s3t SLbscripbon offer. FNjase allow 4.6 waeloitw delivefy ol sngla issues or tor subscription lo be^n.
Sorry, bjt retephone orders cannol be accepted.

ftnportant Notfce: COMPUTES ShsiePak Is not assodaled wHh COMPUTES PC Disk. Pteffie
order StiamPak separately.

COMPUTING FOR THE
PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED

BREAKING

COMMUNICATIONS

BARRIERS

BY GAIL DU^ON

R

emember writing term papers? It
I seemed like a major chore in high
school and college. Just imagine writ-
king one blindfolded or without touch-
ing your PC, and you'll have an idea of what
it's like for blind and quadriplegic students
and professionals. Imagine writing it in, say,
Chinese, a language foreign to you, and
you'll understand the challenge aphasic pa-
tients — those who've lost the ability to use
and process language — face when trying to
communicate even simple requests.

Fortunately software and hardware solu-
tions are available, although they aren't wide-
ly known. Often the solution is simply a mat-
ter of locating the right pieces and integrat-
ing them into a computer.

Scanning and Voice Synthesis for

the Visually Impoired

One system pieced together by two Yale Uni-
versity students relies upon a voice synthe-
sizer and a scanner to let visually impaired stu-
dents and staff have full access to the infor-
mation stored in Yale's Sterling Library
{where the system is housed) and any other
written resources available. Built by Matthew
Weed, a blind political science and history ma-
jor, and Victor Grigorieff, a computer science
and psychology major, the system is based
on a Macintosh llfx, although it can run on ear-
lier models, since each Mac program has a
similar interface. It uses only commercially
available software and hardware.

Because the Macintosh interface has re-
mained consistent, visually impaired users on-
ly have to learn one set of concepts to run sev-
eral different programs. The Mac also has

the flexibility Weed and Grigorieff require.
With It, they can convert from Mac to IBM
text files as needed so users can copy files
for use on their own computers.

In addition to the Macintosh llfx, the sys-
tem uses the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet Plus,
OmniPage and ou/SPOKEW software for scan-
ning and voice synthesis. inLARGEior mag-
nifying text, a word processing package, and
a 19-inch monochrome monitor With outSPO-
KEN, the visually impaired can use graphical
interfaces 95 percent as effectively as sight-
ed users. And system glitches are minor; for
example, the ScanJet Plus sees the number
2 as a tilde and the letter / as an n, but it's
about 99.5-percent accurate.

The ScanJet Plus is used to scan books,
research reports, journal articles, and other
printed documents into the Macintosh at a
rate of two side-by-side pages per 40 sec-
onds. The text is then converted to sound us-
ing OmniPage and outSPOKEN. To listen to
the file, the user opens the menu with a
mouse or keystrokes and selects the options
from the choices spoken by the voice synthe-
sizer.

When the file appears, the voice synthesiz-
er reads it aloud either one line at a time or
one word at a time as the user cursors from
line to line or word to word. Either method
can become tiresome, so Weed often in-
structs the computer to speak faster — up to
twice as fast as the average human reads
aloud. With outSPOKEN, the user can also
control type fonts, vocal pitch, and volume,
and it offers a word dictionary for user-de-
fined pronunciation, a graphics dictionary for
identifying common signs and symbols, and

28

COMPUTE

29

a Find command for locating informa-
tion on the screen.

By using this system, Weed's need
for hundreds of audiotapes and the
hours it tal<;es to search them for spe-
cific quotes are eliminated. He's cut
the time required to write a term paper
from four or five hours per page to
about 35 minutes per page.

The system is as advantageous for
dyslexics as it is for blind users. Grigo-
rieff says. With inLARGE software, in-
dividual letters, words, and lines can
be enlarged up to three inches in
height on the system's 19-inch monitor.
Words can still be spelled and words
or sentences spoken, making it easier
to read new words. To help users
keep their places, the system speaks
the word the cursor is on and presents
text with a ragged right edge and a ser-
if typeface. InLARGE a\so offers a full-
screen crosshairs cursor to make it eas-
ier to locate. Grigorieff says the sys-
tem's potential is limitless.

Visually impaired users can access
networks such as ARPAnet, Internet,
and Bitnet — invaluable aids in techni-
cal work, Eventually, Weed and Grigo-
rieff hope an interuniversity electronic
library will be established so scanned
versions of references can be loaned
just like printed versions of documents.
Right now, though, Weed says copy-

right laws are a problem. At Yale,
there are only about a dozen potential
users, and the possibility that any one
book that's scanned will be used again
is slim, he says. So to save computer
memory, he's spending part of his sum-
mer erasing the books that have al-
ready been scanned into the system.
Yale's system was built last fall with
a $15,000 grant from Yale University.
Because costs are dropping. Weed esti-
mates the same system could be built
today for a little more than $10,000,

Design by Voice and Movement

All the way across the country, Jeff
Burnett, an architecture professor at
Washington State University, and Tech-
nical Applications Group colleagues
have built a system that allows quadri-
plegics to work on electronic CAD pro-
jects with the same levels of expertise
as their able-bodied colleagues. This
system, Burnett says, also works with
anything graphically oriented, includ-
ing spreadsheets.

The project, as yet unnamed, trans-
parently links a DOS machine to the
powerful UNIX systems that are need-
ed for CAD and to a telephone. That
configuration can then be booted auto-
matically and controlled by speech rec-
ognition technology and an infrared
headpointer. The system is "glued" to-

gether with custom software.

Users can boot up the machine by
triggering a sensor — either a pressure
pad or a special reflector — that can on-
ly be triggered by their wheelchairs
when they roll up to the PC. Once the
machine is booted, the menu comes
up and can be used either by issuing
voice commands or by using a head-
pointer as a mouse.

The software was written specifical-
ly for a headpointer made by Millenni-
um Stride Computers, although others
can be used. Because the headpointer
uses infrared sensors, users don't
have to be tethered to their computers
with electronic cables,

The pointer is actually a reflective
tape mounted on eyeglasses or even
on a pencil tucked behind one ear. It's
tracked with an infrared device mount-
ed atop the computer — just the oppo-
site of a TV remote control.

To select a menu function, users
move their heads so the tape's reflec-
tion hits the desired icon; then a word
is spoken that's the equivalent of click-
ing a mouse button. The adaptive inter-
face allows users to move the window
around rather than moving their heads
in awkward positions.

The system has a small vocabulary,
oriented toward CAD work, that isn't
context sensitive. Individual users can
load a personal vocabulary or label doc-
uments by spelling the needed words
with the phonetic alphabet. To load the
word angle, for example, the user
would say, "Alpha, November, golf, Li-
ma, echo." Burnett's system uses a
Votan voice recognition board, one of
the most functional available.

When the phone rings, an answer-
ing machine or the computer picks up
the call, stopping the CAD program in
its place. The user can converse using
either a microphone and speaker combi-
nation or, for more privacy, a headset.
To hang up the phone, the computer's
voice recognition system listens for the
words hang up and a confirming utter-
ance. Upon hang-up, the user can re-
sume CAD work instantly.

"If users are familiar with CAD, they
can be functional on this system with-
in one day, and in only a few weeks, af-
ter creating macros and editing the
vocabulary, can compete in the same
arena and at the same level as their
able-bodied colleagues," Burnett
says. In practice, success can depend
very much upon the user's personal mo-
tivation.

Users are now being trained on this
system at the University of Washington
Center for the Handicapped in Seattle.
After the training, they leave with hard-
ware and software tailored specifically
to their own work environment.

30 COMPUTE

"^

vO

w

..•blast plfictlearnfiig adventure
with tki^exStlng, interactive software club!

Excitement explodes with every power-packed program featured in the
earning Adventure™ Computer Club. Begin your youngsters' action and fun
with this special, no-obligation membership offer!

The New Print Shop' Item #4

Begin the
Adventure
for just

$9.2i

The Playroom™ Item #1, Enter o
(hild-sized world filld witii gomes, loys, surprises
while developing rhinking and comprrtEr stills.
Delightful ortimotion, orrraiing sound, provide hrwre of
slimgtating ploy, ^es 3-7. Kegulcr Prke: S44.?5

Spell-A-Saunis" Item #2,

wrth Zug, the Megasnurus ond build o irfelime of

"■ _ '■ ■ " 'lenging gnmes, foscinotiog
coitesis, tombine wilfi un'imited voice
simulolion ood multicolor ooimafion for
hours of leorrriog fuo. Ages 3-7.
Regulor Price: S44^?5__---^ %-«=;;

Where In the U.SA. is Carmen Sandiego?*
Item #3, Advenlure obounds trocting Cormen ond hei larcenous
crew! US history, geogrophy, econorTtics and
mora ore just some of the treosures recovered JViiit SJmn
with ttiisoworthmning software! JSges 7-1 3+. _^'

Become on instont ortist onn create tusfomiied

statiofiery, cords, banners and more. Frofessionol

looking graphics buret from die printer

witfi ttris eosf tmise ond highl™puloi ptogrom.

Ages 10-i3+.M("Pnte: 559.95

Math Blaster Plus!* Item*5,

Take to the skies for o soaring exploration of

cridirion, subtracrion, mulSplicntiofi, division

ond more. Ch(e; 750 problems build

motlimcrstery It! rough the

'BkistemoLiI" gome!

Ages 7-10.

Regubr Price:

S49.?5

Hafras-on Learning — that's fun!

Every software projjram featured in ihe Learning Adventure Computer Club has been

kicJ tested and expert approved! Eucti combines powerfui teaching techniques with

unlimited entertainment. A beneficial blend that brings kids back — again, and again,

and again!

These are not just read-and-retain lessons! Each software program demands full child

participation — and offers unlimited rewards. From strengthening verbal and math

skills to honing problem-solving techniques, each interactive program expands the

mind and challenges creativity!

Plus, the software, praised by teachers, parents and kids alike, is carefully selected

and evaluated for its appeal to children from 3 to 13 and up. Just choose the ones

that are right for your young computer jockeys and sit back and watch them learn!

Turn on the power in your child today!
To start up the fun, return the coupon and receive your youngster's first program
loaded with activities, games and learning for just S9.95, plus shipping and handling.
Then, about every four weeks you'll receive our informative Parents Newsletter where
you'll get the chance to select another award-winning program on a special trial basis
for 15 full days. Do nothing — and you'll receive the featured .selection. Or return the
card to send for one of the dozens of alternates — or to receive nothing at all. You
order and keep only the ones you want. Your only commitment is to purchase three
additional selections sometime during the year at the special, regular club price.
You have nothing to lose — and a powerful lot for your child to gain.

LOAD UP FOR LEARNING AND FUN!
RETURN THE MEMBERSHIP COUPON TODAY!

Circle Reader Service Number 204

Save up to $50!

Gain a Bfetime of
learning for your child!

Watch your child's imagination,
skills and learning soar when
c'.'iplDring the far-out worlds of
this specially-selected software.
Just send for any one of the
programs shown and let your
youngster dive right in — for a
full 15 days — at no obligation.
Then, when you discover how
much learning and enthusiasm
this software inspires, just pay
$9.95 — that's up to S50 off
regular retail prices — plus
shipping and handling, or,
return it and owe notiiing.

FREEI Special Expert-to-
Parent Newsletter!

Increase your child's lo\'e of
learning and dis cover the
latest, specially-
selected .soft-
ware witli our
valuatile free
monthly news-
letter for parents |
and children.

TURN ON THE LEARNING POWER!

The Learning Adventure" Computer Club

925 Oak Street, Scranton, PA 18515 Dept. TARB91

YES! Please send me ttie program 1 li;ivc indicated l)elo\v uj preview
for f) days at no risk (ir obligation. I m;iy return tlic program Lrf'ler 1>
days and liave no furtliero!)ligation. Ifl am pleased with the program,
I'll pay )iisl S9.95 plus shipping and handling and enroll as a new
menilxT. I need buy iu.st 3 more selections at regular club prices in ihe
ne.\l year and may cancel anyiime thereafter.

Kame

Ackire.«

Zip

Jo preview.

City/State

Telephone ( )

Please send me Ttem No.

Age ofchild (check one): D 3-7 Dl-lO D 10-13+
Computer you own and size of disk required (check one);
D IHM/Tandy & Compatibles with S 'A" disk drive
n IBM/Tandy & Compatibles wiili i '/2" di.sk drive
D Apple 11 Family & Compatibles wiih 5 Vr" di.sk drive

Child's Name

Child's Birth Date

Please check if you have a: n Printer D Modem D Color Monitor

Parent's Signature

We resen'e the right to request additional information or reject any
application or cancel any memt>ership. Limited to new members in the
continental L'SA only excluding AK. Sales rax will be added in PA. Well
senci you details of the club's operation wiih your enrollment shipment
and you have a 15-day, no-obligation privilege to decide if you wish to
continue as a memlx-r.

Images Instead of Alphabet

Researchers at Tufts University School
of fvledicine in Boston are using com-
puters to tackle a different problem:
how to fielp patients wfio have lost the
ability to use language — usually as the
result of a stroke. The type of brain dam-
age called aphasia affects the portion
of the brain where words and speech
are processed, leaving patients with
the ability to comprehend much of
what others say but unable to reply.
They can't formulate thoughts into co-
herent phrases or sentences. Roughly
one-fourth of the half-million people
who suffer strokes each year also de-
velop aphasia, according to Cheryl
Goodenough-Trepagnier, associate pro-
fessor of rehabilitation medicine at
Tufts.

Aphasic patients can, however,
learn to organize symbols into a coher-
ent order to form thoughts and sentenc-
es. In the 1970s, patients learned to
use cards with symbols to express
their thoughts. Now those symbols
have been expanded and loaded onto
an Apple computer, simplifying their
use.

Trepagnier's system, called
NewVic, features hundreds of sym-
bols — still called cards and decks —
arranged in categories of people, ac-
tions, objects, modifiers, and preposi-
tions. Eight symbols are displayed per
computer screen. Patients use a
mouse to select cards, scroll through
the screens, and move from screen to
screen. Decks are flexible enough
that they can be designed to allow
speed and vocabulary size to match a
patient's abilities.

Some people pick up the system al-
most immediately, while others take a
few weeks and still do very well with it.
Although they don't know what the lim-
its are, Trepagnier says the patients
most likely to benefit are those who
take to the system immediately and
who are functionally impaired. "We're
just beginning to be able to develop an
appropriate communication medium
for people with severe aphasia. The
big problem is slowness," she says, "be-
cause people are trying to lay out mes-
sages through very impaired motor abil-
ities. I haven't clocked it, but it's faster
than three words per minute [for pa-
tients who are fluent with NewVic]. One
of our major concerns is finding a way
to communicate at a rate other people
can tolerate, so users actually get to en-
gage in conversation."

Another difficulty is in designing sym-
bols to match verbs since aphasics of-
ten have more trouble conceptualizing
verbs than nouns, Trepagnier current-
ly uses pictures to suggest verbs but
wants to develop an approach where

32 COMPUTE

patients can animate a figure through-
out an action, actually setting the imag-
es in motion. For example, eating an ap-
ple could be shown by choosing a
hand, apple, and head; putting the
hand and apple together; dragging
them to the head; and clicking a
mouse key. To say, "The girl is run-
ning," a user could choose a picture of
a girl, click the mouse at her feet, and
move the mouse rapidly across the
pad. The computer would show it as a
girl running across the screen.

Of course, aphasics can only use
NewVic if they have it with them. Hope-
fully someday a true portable machine
with a touchscreen will be available, sim-
ilar to some of the lightweight portables
that have surfaced in recent months.

Trepagnier plans to make her sys-
tem and basic documentation availa-
ble to the public this year. It uses the
NewVic software she developed and
runs on a Macintosh SE or SE30, or
any other Macintosh machine with at
least 512K of RAf^.

What About Tomorrow?

Great strides have been made in re-
cent years to bring the challenges of

the physically impaired to the forefront
of the American consciousness. In
fact, many other products geared to-
ward the disabled, in addition to the
ones mentioned in this article, are ac-
tually on the market now, but most are
known only within small circles.

Computer technology promises to
make life easier for the disabled. Per-
sonal fulfillment and overcoming stum-
bling blocks have always been the key
goals of the personal computer, Now
the technology that has leveraged our
productivity and filled our leisure
hours is helping the silent to speak, the
blind to see, and the paralyzed to ma-
nipulate their worlds, and it's enabling
technicians and research laboratories
to perform computer-aided miracles.

Perhaps tomorrow, finding special
hardware and software for the physi-
cally challenged will be as simple as
checking out a disk at the local library
or heading to the nearest electronics
store for the latest equipment. □

Gail Button is an independent writer specializing
in science and technology. Her articles have ap-
peared in Science. Sea Frontiers, The World & I.
IEEE Software, and other publications. She is
based in southern Calilornia.

PRODUa LISTING

For more information on

the products discussed in this article, contact the

manufacturers and publishers at the addresses listed below.

Software

Nod Headpo Inter

$495

Millennium Stride Computer

inLARGE

$95

1275 Kleppe Ln., Sle. 5

outSPOKEN

Sparks, tMV 89431

$395

(702) 331-6000

Berkeley Systems

1700 SiiattuGk Ave.

ScanJet Plus

Berkeley, CA 94709

$1,595

(415)540-5536

Interface Kit

S595

Hewlett-Packard Customef Information

NewVic

$500

19310 Prune Ridge Ave.

Department of Rehabititation Medicine

Cupertino, CA 95014

Tufts University Sctiool of Medicine

(800) 752-0900

Cheryl Goodenough-Trepagnier, Ph.D.

75 Kneeland St., 5th Floor

VPC 2100 Voice Recognition Board

Boston, IVIA 02111

$1,800

(617)956-5036

Votan

210 Hammond St,

OmniPage 2.12 for the Macintosh

Fremont, CA 94539

$695

(415) 490-7600

Caere

too Cooper Ct,

Los Gatos, CA 95030

Additional Resources

(408) 395-7000

IBM National Support Center for
Persons with Disabilities

Hardware

P.O. Box 2150

Atlanta, GA 30301-2150

Keyboard Switches

S60-$150

(800) 426-2133

Zygo Industries

Resource Center for the Handicapped

P.O. Box 1008

20150 45lh Ave, NE

Portland, OR 97207

Seattle, WA 93155

(503) 684-6006

(206) 362-2273

TEST LAB

AST PREMIUM
EXEC 3a6SX/20

Have you ever loved something
so much that you were willing to
overlook its flaws? That's how I
feel about the AST Premium Ex-
ec 386SX/20. Despite the prob-
lems with early production mod-
els, this is the best overall note-
book computer I've seen.

For one thing, it speeds along
at a full 20 MHz. which is fast
enough to run most Windows pro-
grams at a comfortable clip. In ad-
dition, you can order the Premi-

um Exec with a 20MB, 40MB. or
60MB hard drive that's rated an
impressive 23 milliseconds
(20MB drive) or even faster 19 mil-
liseconds (40MB and 60MB
drives). I'm using the 60MB ver-
sion, and it's a real joy to have so
many of my favorite programs
with me — no matter where I go.
AST Research has made up-
gradability a major feature of its
desktop computers and has car-
ried that philosophy to its new
line of notebook computers. You
can buy the 12-MHz 286 version
of the Premium Exec notebook
and upgrade the microprocessor
later to a 20-MHz 386SX— for not
much more than the price differ-
ence between the two machines
($400 as opposed to S499).

While the 386SX comes with
2MB of RAM and the 286 comes
with 1MB, you can expand the
memory of either machine to a to-
tal of SMB. Even though the Pre-
mium Exec is relatively new, you
can already buy memory up-
grades from discount mail-order
houses at a substantial discount.
(AST charges $995 for 4MB,
while one maii-order company
charges $388 for the same
amount of memory. As for the note-
book itself, you can buy the vari-
ous models by mail order at a dis-
count of about 20-25 percent.)

The Premium Exec's LCD
screen is the sharpest I've seen,
and its VGA controller, from Cir-

AST RESEARCH

16215 Alton Pkwy.

P.O. BOX196S8

Irvine, CA 92713-9658

(800) 876-4278

(714! 727-9292

List Price: $2,995 for 20MB; $3,395

for 40MB; $3,795 for 60MB
Street Price: $2,337*

rus Logic, does a great job of
translating colors into 32
shades of gray. For
those times when you
absolutely must have
color, you can hook up
a color VGA monitor
through the external VGA port.

In addition to the VGA port and
the usual parallel and serial
ports, the Premium Exec includes
a PS/2 port that lets you add an
external keyboard, mouse, or nu-
meric keypad, You can also add
an internal 2400-baud data mo-
dem ($249) or an internal 2400-
baud fax modem ($349). The fax
modem is send-only (9600 baud)
and uses the Sierra chip — so it
works fine with WinFax. Even
though you can hook up an exter-
nal keyboard, you'll probably use
the built-in keyboard most of the
time. The AST's keyboard stands
out as one of the best I've seen
on a notebook computer. It has
a good feel and a slight audio
click when you press a key. Un-

like some other notebook comput-
ers, this one doesn't make you
press a special option key to ac-
cess the Home, End, PageUp,
and PageDown keys. My only crit-
icism is that the right Shift and
Backspace keys are too small.

As for the case itself, it's solid-
ly built and looks great. The
small battery is relatively light-
weight and easy to remove. The
screen feels firm when you move
it into place and locks tight when
you close it for travel.

Many notebook computers of-
fer power-saving features to ex-
tend the life of the battery. The Pre-
mium Exec tops them all with
three ways to save power; pro-
grammable timeouts that can
shut down the hard drive and
LCD screen when they're not be-
ing used, a suspend/resume
mode that can shut down the en-
tire system while preserving your
data (unfortunately, this feature
doesn't work with protected-
mode programs, such as Win-
dows 3.0), and a BlOS-ievel
clock-speed control feature that
can automatically slow down the
processor when it isn't process-
ing data or redrawing the
screen. With the power-saving fea-
tures switched on, you can ex-
pect over three hours of battery
life with each charge. Until note-
book computers are available
with Intel's new power-saving
386SL chip, the Premium Exec is
the state of the art in power man-
agement.

So what were the problems
with the early production models?
The screen flickered slightly
when the Premium Exec was run-
ning on the battery, and Windows
programs wouldn't recognize the
modem, I also couldn t get one of
the units to recognize the PS/2
port. All three problems were
fixed with BIOS updates, so be
sure to get a BIOS with a version
number of 1 .06.04 or higher.

Notebook technology moves
so fast that a recommendation

'Test Lab street prices are an average ot
prices aavertised in computer magazines
and national newspapers during June.

33

Y

!

\

)

^

1

i „

L

f

1

1

"It expanded my horizons,
without exceeding my budget "

"With PRODIGY,® there's a panorama
of information, services, advice,
and entertainment at my command.

Hundreds of exciting features, and all for
just $12.95 a month, •with no online time
charges. That means I can use PRODIGY
without worrying that the meter is ruiming.

"The great graphics and friendly interface are
real attention-getters. And the menus and
cross-referencing features make it so easy,
my whole family's involved.

"There's so much to tell you about PRODIGY,
I hardly know where to start.

"We talk to other members.

We all love the PRODIGY clubs where
we exchange information about things
we eryoy. The computer club is great
because it keeps me up on the latest
PC technology My vrife's favorite is the food
club where she shares recipes and tips.

^l do more shopping and banking
in a lot less time.

I go window-shopping for ideas on PRODIGY
and make purchases by keyboard instead-
of by car. And when the bills arrive, no
problem. With PRODIGY I can pay them
right from my PC. It would take all
day to tell you about all the exciting
things I do on PRODIGY.

"You gotta get this thing."

The PRODIGY service, connected to your home
____,^,^ computer and phone
:^^ttKBA line, has games, sports
pj^iry .' information, an encyclo-
pedia, and much, much
more. And, it's just $12.95
amonth,includmg
30 personal messages.*

PRODIGY is available for IBM* or compatible, and Macintosh*
computers. Call 1-800-776-3693, ext: 212, to find out where
you can purchase a PRODIGY Service Start-up Kit
now. Or look for PRODIGY already included "
with many popular computers

Circle Reader Service NumbefJjSi

TEST LAB

can be outdated by the time you
read a review. Withi thiat disclaim-
er out of the way, I can safely say
Ihiat the AST Premium Exec offers
\he best speed, expandability,
arid power-management features
of any notebook computer. And
all for a very attractive price,

DAVID ENGLISH

DELL 320N

Given a notebook computer's de-
sign constraints, Dell has done a
superb job with the 320N. As
with any laptop, this machine cer-
tainly makes compromises, but
eacfi one is well thought out and
carefully engineered. In almost
every area, Dell has done a little
more and gone a little farther to
make this machine smaller, fast-
er, and easier to use than the com-
petition.

If you look at the dimensions
and weight of this computer, for
example, you'll notice that it's
just a bit smaller and a bit lighter
than most of the other laptops re-
viewed here, And if you place the
320N beside almost any other
notebook, this machine's sleek
black body and carefully sculpt-
ed features will make the other ma-
chine look clunky. But the 320N
is much more than just small size
and high style.

The standard VGA screen
(640 X 480) is exceptionally

bright. When you're looking at
LCD VGA displays, one of the
most important features to consid-
er is the finesse with which the vid-
eo controller maps colors to gray
levels. In this respect the Dell is
exceptional. In Windows' Soli-
taire, for example, you can tell the
red cards from the black ones by
their shading.

As far as video
speed goes, this ma-
chine's scrolling and re-

DELL COMPUTER
9505 Arboretum BEvd.
Austin, TX 78759
(8001 426-S150
List Price: $3,399 lor

40MB; $3,699 lor SOMB
Street Price: n/a

400 pixels of vertical resolution in-
stead of the VGA's possible 480.
a common compromise in note-
books. Laptop UltraVision from
Personics fixed this problem and
allowed DOS to use the full 480 pix-
els for a much improved display,
but I'd prefer that the machine's vid-
eo controller do this itself.

fresh rate are quite

fast. One of the

best ways to

judge video

speed is to

use a

mouse in

graphics

mode. Most

LCD displays simply can't keep up

with the mouse cursor, but the

320N does a very good job.

My onty complaint with the
screen is that it's compressed
when DOS programs run. This
happens because the video's ver-
tical resolution in DOS is actually

The 320N's keyboard is certain-
ly a compromise compared with
most desktop keyboards, but its
85-key layout is very well thought
out and offers a 3-mm key travel
(most notebooks have a shorter
2-mm key travel). The cursor

COMPUTE APPLICATION
INDEXES

Since the Test Lab section is
designed to give you the best
information about how sys-
tems will perform when you
take them home or to your of-
fice, we performed a set of
tests involving commonly
used applications.

The timings indicate how
long it took a particular com-
puter to sort a database, per-
form a search and replace in
a word processor, and recal-
culate a spreadsheet.

—RICHARD C- LEINECKER

35

TEST LAB

keys assume an inverted T forma-
tion and the Home, PgUp, PgDn,
and End keys line up along tlie
right side of the keyboard. None
require you to press a special Fn
key to access them.

There are also 12 function
keys, which are smaller than the
other keys. But you don't have to
press the dreaded Fn key to use
them.

The Dell sports a 2O-MH2
386SX CPU that provided more
than enough power for everything
I wanted to do on the road, includ-
ing running Microsoft Windows in
386-enhanced mode.

As for memory, the 320N
comes with 1fvlB, expandable to
SMB. The unit I reviev/ed was
maxed out with the full StvlB,
which 1 certainly recommend, if
you can afford it.

The machine comes with either
a 30- or 60MB 19-ms IDE hard
disk. The unit 1 reviewed was
equipped with a 60, and it siz-
zled. 1 never felt I was waiting for
the hard disk, even when using
virtual memory {using the disk as
if it were RAf\/l) in Windows.

The 320N's ni-cad battery
gave me a bit of a scare. It's sup-
posed to last for three hours, but
the low battery light came on af-
ter about ten minutes of use. The
machine continued to chug along
happily, however, for nearly
three hours. The warning light
kept me worried, however.

To help consen/e the battery,
you can employ several power-
saving features built into the
32QN. You can set timeout values
for the hard disk, the display, and
the system. In addition, there's a
convenient standby button that
places the machine in a special
battery-saving mode.

When it comes to talking to the
outside world, the Dell 320N has
a full complement of ports. There
is one serial and one parallel port,
an external VGA port, and PS/2
mouse and keyboard ports. An in-
ternal modem is available as an op-
tion,

You've probably gathered that
I'm enthusiastic about this ma-

36 COMPUTE

chine. It's beautifully designed
and exceptionally fast and pow-
erful. But is it worth the price'' At
S3,399 for the standard configu-
ration, it's not cheap, but if you
look at similarly equipped compe-
tition, it's almost a bargain.

If you're thinking about buying
a notebook, the next question to
ask about the 32GN is whether
you need this much power. If
you're primarily doing word proc-
essing, for example, then a note-
book in the 320N's class is over-
kill. But you need a powerhouse
like the 320N if it's your primary
machine. And for running Win-
dows, a computer in the 320N's
league is a must. For state-of-the-
art computing in a very small pack-
age, the 320N is a world-class per-
former that goes the extra mile.

CLIFTON KARNES

at 16 MHz, and my review unit
was packed with 3MB of memo-
ry. Only the 20MB hard disk left
me feeling a bit cramped for
space.

The two most important parts
of any laptop, arguably, are the
screen and the keyboard. These
are the parts that you have to in-
teract directly with, and the Grid
has the best-feeling keyboard
and the nicest screen I've ever
used, laptop or desktop. Key-
board springs are used in the
Grid to provide excellent tactile
feedbac[< without annoying click-
ing sounds. The keyboard spac-
ing is the same as you'd find on
a stand-alone PC l<eyboard, so
your fingers aren't cramped as
you type. The 12 function keys
are arrayed across the top of the

GRID SYSTEMS

47211 Lakeview Blvd.

Fremont, CA 94537-

5003

(8001 222-GRlD

(415) 6S6-4700

List Price: $3,495 lor

20MB; $3,995

for 80MS

Street Price: n/a

GRID 1720

Laptops are great, but it's rare
that you would choose one over
a comparably equipped desk-
top computer. That's exactly, how-
ever, what the Grid 1720 con-
vinced me to do. Ever since I've
had my review unit, I've only
turned on my 386SX desktop to
play Lexi-Cross. This sleek,
black, 6.9-pound Grid packs
enough power to run all but the
most demanding applications.
Its 80C2B6 microprocessor runs

keyboard, and the cursor keys
are in a standard inverted-T lay-
out. You can reverse the posi-
tions of the Ctrl and CapsLock
keys by simply switching the key
caps and flipping a switch on the
bottom of the computer. Only the
lack of a separate numeric key-
pad would ever tempt you to
take advantage of an externa! key-
board.

You owe it to your eyes to
check out the Grid's LCD VGA
screen. Easier to look at for long
periods of time than even the
sharpest Super VGA monitors,
the Grid's screen produces

crisp, solid black characters on
a gray background. Best of all,
you won't notice any of the ghost-
ing common to VGA-resolution
LCD screens. (The monitor was
noticeably sharper than that of
Tandy's similar 2810 notebook
PC.) I felt the desire to use an ex-
ternal VGA color monitor only
when I played games,

The Grid 1720 has most of the
amenities you'd expect on a mod-
ern laptop. Along with VGA and
keyboard ports, it comes with se-
rial and parallel ports, a 1.44MB

drain and decreases battery life.
With 3MB I was able to use the
1720 for about 3 hours. Remov-
ing the 2MB of expansion memo-
ry increased that duration to a lit-
tie over 3Vi hours. Unless you
absolutely require 5MB of memo-
ry, the 3MB-configuration com-
promise between battery life' and
performance will serve you well.
Adding memory or an 80287
math coprocessor won't cause
you much trouble — just remove a
panel from the bottom of the com-
puter and plug in the SIMMs or

floppy drive, and an internal
Hayes-compatible modem, Grid
chose a 20MB hard disk to save
space and weight — it's one of the
new 2'/2-inch models. Despite
the limited capacity, it's quiet and
uses very little power compared
to larger drives.

Normally I find Windows too
sluggish on a 286 system, but the
extra zip provided by the Grid's
16-MHz clock speed makes all
the difference. The 3MB of memo-
ry in the system I tested allowed
me to set up a large disk cache,
speeding operations even more.
Add one of the new clip-on track-
balls, and you've got a nice, porta-
ble, no-compromise M//nc/ows sys-
tem for the road.

While the 1720 can handle up
to 5MB of memory, each addition-
al megabyte increases power

math chip.

The Grid has above-average
power-managennent capabilities.
The hard drive and screen will au-
tomatically power down after a us-
er-selectable period. You can al-
so selectively disable the speak-
er, serial port, LCD display, and
hard drive in order to save pow-
er. For non-speed-sensitive soft-
ware applications, such as word
processing, toggling the system
down to 8 MHz will extend battery
life even further. A key combina-
tion will put the computer in stand-
by mode, turning off the hard
disk, LCD, backlight, and floppy
disk controller. The program in
memory resumes upon the first
keypress,

The concise 97-page owner's
manual covers all the computer's
features and provides a brief in-

troduction to MS-DOS. While oth-
er computer packages may in-
clude larger, more detailed man-
uals, average users will probably
find all the information that they
need here. And this manual is
small enough to slip into your lap-
top carry case.

The Grid 1720 is speedy, well-
constructed, and an ergonomic
marvel. And it's certainly one of
the most attractive MS-DOS com-
puters I've ever used, desktop or
laptop. Now I understand why NA-
SA has flown Grid laptops on the
space shuttle.

DENNY AiKIN

HYUNDAI SUPER-LT5

The Hyundai Super-LT5 makes
the machines I once toted under
my arm se(@m terribly limited —
and wonderfully light, At 11-plus
pounds, it's a load at the end of
your arm or on your lap, with a
bulky AC adapter when you're
not running it on battery power —
but then, that's true of any laptop
in this class. The Super-LT5 is al-
so a fast, efficient laptop with a
roomy hard drive, a sharp
screen, and a nice-size keyboard.

Weight aside, it's a well-made
machine with the advantages of
a desktop model compressed in-
to a box smaller than a briefcase.
With a built-in handle and a
screen that folds down and locks
readily Into place, the Super-LT5
is its own case.

The keyboard, though
understandably cramped, fea-
tures full-size, fully responsive
keys. It's laid out in a familiar man-
ner, with the function keys ar-
rayed horizontally along the top.
The number keyboard overlaps
some of the letters, meaning that
it's separated from the familiar
overlay with the cursor-movement
keys. Given that the Hyundai Su-
per-LT5 is a laptop, it's a perfect-
ly suitable layout, although the
f^lumLock key's proximity to the
right Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys
caused me to activate it inadver-
tently more than once.

37

COMPATIBILITY
GUARANTEE

BLOWOUT SPECIALS

MICRON TECHNOLOGY

2-8MB

EXPANSION BOARD

PS/2 MODEL 50/50Z/55SX/60

W/2A1B$28S W/4MB$39S

COMPAQ

2-8MB

EXPANSION BOAFID

fOR COMPAQ DESKPRO 386/16

W72WB$2«W/4MB$40S

PROCOM PS/2

ZERO SLOT
HARD DRIVES

MODELS 50Z,S5SX&70

bommsm^

124m 19m $740
200/V16/6MS$I085

NEWl!!
PROCOM TECHNOLOGY

CD-ROM FOR POAT

AND COMPATIBLES

6S0MB

STEREO OUTPUT AUDIO & DATA
WiTH OPnONW. CD PACK

(MTERWU. $499 VWO CD PA(K $420
EXTHML $590 W/0 CD PAOC $520

ORCHID

TINY TURBO 286

POXT ACCELERATOR

$!S9

CANON
BJIOE

BUBBl£ JET PRINTER
$375

ATI

GRAPHIG VANTAGE

COMBINED SUPER VGA

AND85I4/AGRAPHO

Wil2K6$389W/IMB$429

MEMORY PRO

EXPANSION BOARDS LASER PRINTERS

HEWLETT PACKARD

ORCHID TECHNOLOGY

RAMQUESTI4/32

WmS£R& PAR TORT

miOHmwmiiinsiJMcsui

m S2H M S379 4M6 J«» 8MS H99
FtAMQUESTS/lf

vp JO iimuM 4.0 paxrit.T

imi5im.moRmisims

m $1(9 m {279 4m im sm am

BOCA RESEARCH

BOCARAH AT PLUS

2ms m 4.0 ATS

m i\ 19 2MB 5227 4m $137 SMB S537

BOCARAM AT/IO PLUS

urn 4MB WiSBt^m PORT
™ 5157 2A1B S2i7 4m $377
BOCARAH XT & BOCARAM 30

Uf TO im POXT Ofi fS/2 MODE 30
lKe$II9 5(2fa$ISS M $187 2MB $M9

AST RESEARCH

6PAK m

WCfi SnV 5/2M JI5J mi $227 4m $JJJ
RAMPAGE PLUS 264

UP TO auBfORAriw 4,0

Offl S3« 5/2*3 $414 2MB $459 «ffl $579
RAMVANTAGE

mams yirsroMOra

UPTOiMBEXTiNDEDMEWORr
W;)28K $S9

LUERJET IIP, III, HID, HIP

1MB $«B 2A1B $139 WB $239

UFETIME WARRANTY

USERjET II & IID
IMS $95 2/iiB $149 4MB $249

PANASONIC

4420 & 44501

1MB $109 2MS $119 im $249

445D

im $179

TOSHIBA

PACE LASER i
im $129 2AiB $169 4A1B $2(9

EPL4000

1MB $129 2A1S $149 4A1S $249

IBM 4019 &40I9E

IA1B $139 2Alfl $189 l5Mi S2S9

C T S

MODULES

IBM Pm MODULES

4450404 imnmseissiKio $129

4450408 2mmD70ai $139

4450403 immSIMM $(9

4450372 2M6R»«J0J47 $249

4450375 immaBmi $135

4450379 2MflMODMI-IJ(/3;i $209

34F2933 « PS/2 SIMM $3J9

87F9977 4mPSIlSlMM $339

mim 2mmio-2Si $139

4451040 4MBMODSD-A2fMI $49$

4450118 4mmD90&95 $399

PS/2 EXPANSION BOARDS

4450409 2-SM6 MOD 50,502. 40 $440

4450405 2-3MflMOD70&80 $440

34F3077 2-H/HBM00 70&80W/2MB $485

34F30II 4-l4MSMOO70&e0WrtMB $490

4450185 l-)JMflMOOiO.J5SX;40W;(MB $415

EVEREX

RAM 3000 0K6 $99 5l2Kfl $129
RAM 8000 0KB $225 2MB $325

ABOVE BOARD PLUS 8 WI1P& $559
ABOVE BOARD PLUS W/JI2ra $559

FOR PSn MICROCHANNEL
ABOVE BOARD 1 PLUS 0KB $349

ABOVE BOARD MC 11 $559

I/O BOARDS

BOCA RESEARCH

IO/AT4liS£R!iiPAft$4i

IO/AT42 25ffl4IFAR $49

IO/AT44 2S£R4 2M $53

lOnaCLOCK/CAL I S£fl 4 I PAR $49

DUAl CfiAPHJG «W7H! W/PAR $49

FOR PS/2 MICROCHANNEL

MCA2S£J18i;PAR SII4

HCAPAMUaiPAJi $79

COMPUTER M CE

MICROSOFT rai«n s«

MICROSOFT BUS VERSION $104

MICROSOFT BALLPOINT $129

MICROSOFT SERWWINDOWS $149

LOGITECH C9SER-PSn $49

LOGITECH MOUSEMAN $79

LOGITECH TRACKMAN SER $J5

DEXXA MOUSE BT LOGITECH $11!

LOGITECH CORDLESS JIM

CANON

LBP4
JMS $1(9 2MB $219 4MB $319

LBP8
1MB $119 2MS$IS9 4MB $259

OKILASER4D0,800.820
2MS $189 4m $289

POSTSCRIPT

PACIHC PAGE FOR HP^
ADOBE FOR HP II

IMAGESCRIPT FOR HP'S

LAPTOP UPGRADES

$349
$289
$281

EXECUTIVE NOTEBOOK
im $91 4m $499

MEGAHERTZ MODEMS

FOR MOST LAPTOPS

240CeD INTERNAL $149

FOR TOSHIBA LAPTOPS

24O0BD IMTERNAL $149 W,'MN?5 $210

2400/9400 FAX/MODEM $347

ETHERNET ADAPTER $295

LAPLAN TWISTED PAIR
ETHERNET ADAPTER $199

REMOTE 5250 EMULATION $499
REMOTE 3270 EMULATION $499

PROCOM PS/2 DRIVES

IIOMBHDL 50I50I
200MB HDL JO/50Z
lOOMB SCSI EXT
200MB SCSI EXT
120MB SCSI EXT
1.2MB EXT FDD
MC SCSI ADAPTER

$849
$1375

$«S5
$1457

COMPAQ DESKPRO

TOSHIBA

TIlOOXEffiE, TliOO, T3I00E,T3I00SX,

T1100SX,TSI00, T5200 2Mfl $159

T3200SXC 2M6 $199

T3100SXC 4MB $399

TIOOOSEnCEAJ & nOOOSX /MB $189

Tl OOOSEOCEM & nOOOSX 2Mfl $249

TIOOOLEiT2000SX 4Mfl $495

T3I00SX.T3200SX 4Mfl $447

T320O 3MB S279

DESKPRO 384/20/15n0E/2SE & }t4S

IWBMODUlf $109 4M8MODU1E $299

IMS EXP BOARD $195 4MB£XPB0AJ!D $345

DESKPRO 384/11/484/25 SYSTEMPRO

2MBM0DUt£ $149

1/3 HEIGHT FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

1.44MB $129 (JMB $119

COMPAQ LAPTOPS

PORTASL£LTEl»

1MB $119 2MB $179 4m $SS9

PORTABLE LTE 3BtS/20

1MB $275 4M8 5485

PORTABLE 386/20

I MB UPGRADE KIT $217

4MB EXPANSION BOARD $710

4MB EXTENSION BOARD $710

SLTm

1MB $154 4MB $549

SLTlei

IMS $154 2M6 $1SS 4MB $M9

HARD DRIVES

CONNER

42MB 25MS IDE
104MB 25MS IDE
200MB I4MS IDE
100MB I4MS SCSI

SEAGATE

ST-I57A44HB28MSIDE
ST-I102AS4HBI9MSIDE
n-ll44AI25MBI9MSIDE
ST-I119AIIIMB ISMS IDE

$239
J457

$llf

$347
$4it
$740

THE NATIONAL LEADER IN MEMORY EXPANSION

UPGRADE TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS WITH CONFIDENCE

VIDEO GRAPHICS CARDS

ORCH D TECHNOLOGY

PRODESiGNER IIS Slim %m im im

PRODESIGNERIIHCFORl>Sa im im

eSM ULTRA Pill OR ISA BUS Slim J469

85 14 ULTRA PLUS VGA Wlim $599

VGA WONDER WIMOUSE S 1 2KB $239

VGA INTEGRA W/2jm J!19

BASIC VGA MXm $99

BOCA RESEARCH

BOCA SUPER VGA SI2K $119 IMS $179

BOCA VGA ^XSCO $119

MONITORS

CM I4« MULTISYNOSOPERVGA

H INCH raNmON/JSOP

S595

CHI450 HULTtSTNOSUPER VGA

14 INCH TRINITRON NON-INTiRiACED.25DP
$725

MULTISYNC 2A SUPER VGA 14" $565

MULTISYNC 3D 14" $74S

MULTISYNC4D $1195

EVEREX

EVERFAX 2«i W/MNPS INT
EVERFAX 24(96 V//MNP5 EXT
EVERCOM 24DaBAUD INT

JTFAX 9600/140OBAUD
PERSONAL MODEM 2400 PLUS

EXT 1400 MODEM 9600 SENDFAX
INT 240019600 SEND/REC. FAX/MODEM
INT 2400 BAUD MODEM
EXT 2400 BAUD MODEM

$119

$164

$39

$95

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS

INT 2400 BAUD MODEM WfMNPS $169

V.42 BIS $199

POCKET24C0 $109

US ROBOTICS

COURIER 2400 $258

COURIER 2400 FOR PS/2 $295

COURIER V.32BIS 1 4,40OBPS... ii&

MOTHERBOARDS

MADE IN THE USA
EXCELLENT QUALITY

4S6-J] EISA ENTERPRISE MK6 CACHE $2990

486-2S EISA ENTERPRISE im OICHE $2519

436-J3 VOYAGER J28»aaOVE $2519

486-2S VOYAGER J28K8 CAM $1955

386-13 HARK IV MKB CACHE $1092

386-15 MARK III 6m (XH£ $920

386SX-10 32KflaCH£ $W0

MICRONICS

MADE IN THE USA
EXCELLENT QUALITY

436-33 EISA 64raaCHE $3214

434-15 EISA 6«8aO^E $2849

484-33 ISA 64K&CACHE $1179

484-15 ISA tmaCHi $1725
384-33 AT CACHE IDE/2S/IP 64KB CACHE $ 1 092

384-15 BCP 4-JKSCHCHE $9«

384-15 BMP OKBCflCHE $720

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

GOLDSTAR

1423 VGA 14" .51 DP $290

1425 VGA 14" .39 DP $349

1430 VGA M" .11 DP $395

1450 MULTISYNOSUPER VGA 14" .3 1 DP S41S

1460 1024 X 768 INTERLACED .28 DP $440

MODEMS/FAX CARDS

5 1/4" 1.2MB HALF HEIGHT

3 1/2" 1.44MB
3 1/1" 710K

NEW!!!

3 1/2" 4MB

SCANNERS

PROLAB

256 COLOR 400 DPI

256 CRAY SCALE 400 DPI

OCR FOR COLOR/GltAY SCANNER

LOGITECH

SCANMAN 1S4 40CDPI W/OCR

$349 SCANMAN PLUS
$349 SCANMAN PLUS FOR PSn'S
$89 CATChWORDOCR

MARSTEK

W3' M-6000CGRAIMBOWW/OCR
*l" M-800W/CAT READER OCR

TAPE BACKUP

COLORADO

JUMBO IIOHB INTERNAL
JUMBO 250HB INTERNAL
QFA-500 500HB INTERNAL

GAME CARDS

2 PORTS AT BUS
2 PORTS PS2BUS

$39
$59

MEMORY CHIPS MODULES REASONS TO BUY FROM

IXI-70NS

IXI-30NS

IXI-IOONS

1S6X4-60NS

156X4-I00NS

256X4-I20NS

156XI-30NS

2S6XI-I00NS

$5.70
$5.50
$S.1S
$5.50
$5.25
$5.00
$105
$1.85

156XI-IJONS
156XI-ISONS
44X4- eONS
i4X4-IOONS
44X4-I20NS
t4XI-IOONS
44XI-I20NS
44X1- 1 SONS

$1.40
$1.40
$3.00
$175
$2.50
$1.75
$1.60
$1.15

SIHM^IPP MODULES

$74

$77
$73

$159

$507

$299

$39

S3BS

$149

$215
$115

$599

$259

$249

4X9-70NS $147.00 256X9-70NS $11.00

4X9-eONS $230.00 156X9-80NS $19.00

IX9-7DNS $59.00 256X9-I00NS $17.00

IX9-80NS $53.00 256X9-I20NS $15.00
IX9-I00NS $51.00

SIPPS ADD $3.00 EACH

MATH CO-PROCESSORS

THENEWGENEMTTON.'!!

3tl-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTH

UFETIME WARRANTY

US83C87-I4 $199 US33C87-13 $199

US33C87-20 $199 US33C67-I4SX $129

USS3ai7-}$ $m US33Ce7-20SX $149

B3D87-I4

$109

83087-31

83D87-20

$109

83S87-I6

83087-15

$109

83SB7-20

80187-14

$249

80387-1 6SX

80187-20

$149

B0ie7-20SX

80187-25

$149

80287-10

80187-11

$149

B0287XL

3C87-I6
3C87-20
3C87-25
1C87-33
1C87-16SX

$109
$209
$209
$209
$159

3C87-10SX

2C87-8

2C87-iO

2C87-t2

2C87-20

$119
$159

$169

$199
5109
$139

$149

$149
$79
$99
$119
$139

SOMETHING NOT USTED?

WE HAVE HUNDREDS

"°J OF PRODUCTS IN STOCK.
CALL UNIVERSAL MEMORY

PRODUCTS FOR PRICING

AND AVAJLABJUTY

HOURS MON - FRI 7AM-5PM SAT 8AM-2PM

NlV^JiML

MEMOnr PRODUCTS

I WE SUPPLY ONLY NAME

' BRANDS FROM PROVEN

INDUSTRY LEADERS,

- OUR CUSTOMER

* SERVICE IS UNRIVALED,

, ORDERS SHIPPED
■* SAME DAY

J. LOWEST PRICING IN THE
^ INDUSTRY IF YOU FIND A
LOWER PRICE, CALL US.

TOLL-FREE
TECHNICAL SUPPORT.

100% COMPATIBILITY
GUARANTEE.

NO SURCHARGE ON
VISA OR MASTERCARD,

FAST CREDIT APPROVAL
FOR NET ORDERS,

APO/FPO & INTERNATIONAL
^ ORDERS WELCOMED,

10

FIVE YEAR PRODUCT

WARRANTY GUARANTEE

UPGRADE TIPS FOR
PERSONAL COMPUTERS

I, Max out your motherboard first
Consult your computer owner's
manual to find out which kind of chips
your computer takes. If your manual
IS not available, count the chip or simm
sockets and get the part number of the
existing chips. Then call us.

1. Ail LIM 4.0 expansion boartk are
not created equal. Make sure the
board you wish to purchase can run
your applications and has the capacity
you need.

3, If your short on expansion slots,
you should consider a board tfiat has
I/O ports to allow future external
expansion.

4, If you plan on upgrading to a
more powerful computer in the
future, you may wish to purchase chips
^ enough so they can be used inyour
new system when you upgrade at a
later date.

800678-8648 5 YEAR WARRANTY ON PARTS 714 258-2818 FAX

UNIVERSAL MEMORY PRODUaS 1 54 II RED HILL AVENUE SUITE B TUSTIN.CA 92680 714 258-2018

NO SLRCHARGE ON VISWMASHRCARD. AMEX ADD 4S fURCHASE ORDERS ACCEPTED FROM QUAURED miS IVS, RETOCKiNG FEE ON AJ. NOW)BKTM REOJRNS PRICES SU^Ea TO CHANGE

Circle Reader Service Number 195

TEST LAB

The machine's floppy drive
and expansion ports are readily
accessible, as is the mother-
board. I had no trouble hooking
up my VGA monitor to get full col-
or, though the Super-LT5's
screen proved marvelously well
lighted, well defined, and easy to
adjust — just right for my v/riting.
Brightness and contrast were ad-
justable via two smoothly sliding
controls adjacent to the screen,
a more convenient location than
I'm accustomed to seeing even
on full-size desktop monitors.

bleshooting tips; however, it
should have an index.

There are no cables to install
and no screws to screw, and get-
ting the machine up and running
takes no more or less time or ef-
fort than with a comparable desk-
top model. Included with the Hyun-
dai Super-LT5 are DOS disks and
a reference disk that includes Win-
dows and OS/2 drivers.

The Hyundai Super-LT5 has a
built-in MS-DOS shell program,
which is a nice feature. It's too
bad this particular shell program

HYUNDAI ELECTRONICS

AMERICA
166 Baypolnte Phwy.
M San Jose, CA 95134
ISOO] 727-6972
List Price: $3,995
Street Price: $2,329

n

You'll
find expansion
jacks around the lap-
top's sides. Besides the port for
the external monitor, there are
ports for a keyboard, a 5%-inch
floppy disk drive to supplement
the built-in 3'/s-inch drive, and a
printer. I tried hooking up my desk-
top IBfvl-compatible's keyboard
to the Hyundai Super-LT5, but its
recessed external keyboard jack
proved too deep for my angled
plug. You can, however, plug in
an internal modem,

The laptop operates very qui-
etly, emitting just enough
squawks to let you know when it's
reading a disk. I found the inter-
nal speaker to be adequate, per-
haps just a little too quiet.

The user's guide provides
clear, basic guidance, with a par-
ticularly helpful chapter of trou-

40 COMPUTE

is unnecessarily complicated, re-
quiring unnatural key combina-
tions when a simpler menu prob-
ably would've done the trick.
Again, it's a nice feature to have;
it just doesn't make getting
around in DOS as easy as it
could.

Though not astoundingly fast,
the Hyundai Super-LT5 generally
works quickly and efficiently In-
stalling software onto the hard
drive takes relatively little time.

The battery for the Hyundai Su-
per-LT5 takes four to six hours to
charge and lasts for one to three
hours. Given the machine's pow-
er, that seems reasonable, even
though it would be nice if it could
hold out longer on a charge. One
problem I encountered using the
laptop on both electrical and bat-
tery power was that after a while
it got uncomfortably hot under-

neath, especially when I was us-
ing it while wearing shorts.

Fortunately, I never subjected
the Hyundai Super-LT5 to the
toughest test I ever gave a laptop
during my days as a newspaper
reporter: skidding it across a con-
crete parking lot after accidental-
ly tripping in the dark during a
late-night run for police news.
Even so, it appears to be a solid-
ly built, durable tool, capable of
performing almost as well as a
pricey desktop computer but with-
out the usual constraints; it's pow-
erful and portable.

EDDIE HUFFMArNJ

LEADING EDGE
D/LT3a6SX PLUS

Nothing makes the time go by on
a long plane ride like a good lap-
top, and whether you use yours
for spreadsheets or Star Control,
the Leading Edge D/LT386SX
Plus certainly beats a talkative
stranger when it comes to air-
borne companionship. Whatever
your reason for carrying a laptop,
you'll v/ant to balance weight, dis-
play readability, and price
against its usefulness. A close
look at this laptop reveals a per-
plexing mix of fine and somewhat
below-average features.

On the plus side, the D/LT
does run a 16-f\/IHz 386 proces-
sor, providing the necessary mi-
cro horsepower to make Win-
dows run at a usable speed, and
the 40MB hard drive provides
more than ample storage space
for on-the-road applications and
their data files. The 3y2-inch
1.44MB floppy drive port faces
you, so you can keep an eye on
disk activity. All the standard
ports — serial, parallel, and PS/2
mouse — further enhance the D/
LT's versatility. For you avid tele-
communicators, the roomy mo-
dem bay looks as if it should eas-
ily accommodate the Leading
Edge S199 proprietary modem.
Should you have the chance to
plug the D/LT into a color moni-
tor, you won't be disappointed by

the graphics; this laptop's crisp-
VGA 640 X 480 pixel output
does justice to your games as
well as your chart generators.

A winner all around, the D/LT's
keyboard doesn't complicate typ-
ing by shrinking its keys; they're
the same size as those of larger,
stay-at-home machines. While
the keyboard won't detach from
the D/LT entirely, it does have the
surprising ability to sled forward
away from the rest of the ma-
chine, putting just enough dis-
tance between you and the LCD

There's more to testing the life of
a laptop battery than turning it
on and letting the unit run until
the power gives out. To truly
test a manufacturer's claim of bat-
tery-powered operating time,
you have to lest the battery as
if it were in normal use.

Almost all laptops use re-
chargeable ni-cad {nickel-cadmi-
um) batteries, with a flat voltage
discharge. That simply means
that voltage discharges constant-
ly until the battery runs dry. For
example, a six-volt ni-cad bat-
tery will give a constant six-volt
discharge up until the moment
it dies, unlike, say, flashlight bat-
teries that gradually lose power.
Ni-cad batteries also operate
well in low temperatures, unlike
their acid-based automobile
counterparts that tend to be slug-
gish on very cold mornings.

Our test lab charges the ni-
cad battery according to the man-
ufacturer's exact instructions.
Once the battery is fully
charged, the laptop is put to
use, and its between-charge
lifespan is tested using COM-
PUTE'S battery-testing program.
The program monitors the lap-
top constantly until it completely
gives out, so the exact power-
up and power-down times can
be recorded.

But there's more to it than
that. To realistically simulate lap-

screen for a comfortable working
relationship at your hotel room
desk. Well, maybe not quite far
enough for some; the glare from
this laptop's 8x6 inch backlit dis-
play can quickly tire your eyes.
Compared to many other laptop
displays, this one's downright fa-
tiguing. And despite a purported
antiglare feature, text on the D/
LT display, like text on many lap-
top displays I've looked at, is
best read in indirect light. The
brightness and contrast sliders
do little to improve the situation.

Also problematic is the screen's
tendency to fall forward at the
slightest disturbance and to resist
proper positioning. Setting the dis-
play in place often requires mul-
tipie attempts. Practice patience
here; the manufacturer warns
against bending the screen back
too far. though it remains a con-
stant temptation. A more effective
locking and tilting mechanism is
definitely in order.

Those traveling computer-
philes who remember the heyday
of the KayPro luggable won't

HOW THE POWER GOES

top use, our testing program
runs the laptop disk drive in a se-
lected duty cycle. For instance,
in a 40-percent duty cycle, the
drive runs for four minutes of
continuous disk access and
then rests for six minutes. The cy-
cle is repeated constantly until
the battery dies. The test pro-
gram's timer constantiy saves to
disk, so when the system is boot-
ed up again after recharging or
plugging in, the time has been
recorded for reference. A stop-
watch serves as backup.

If a laptop has an automatic
rest mode or screen blanker,
someone physically monitors
the computer, tapping it every

screen cycle to return the
screen to normal mode.

Once the battery dies, the lab
repeats the test two more times
in its entirety, beginning with a
battery recharge. After testing
each laptop three times, the lab
uses a spreadsheet to calculate
mean times for each battery.

Most batteries are going to
yield about the same amount of
running time because they're es-
sentially the same product — re-
chargeable ni-cad cells. The re-
al difference is in how you use
your laptop, what type of micro-
chip runs it, and the machine's
built-in power-saving features.

—JILL CHAMPION

Battery Depletion Test

4
3

s -

X
1

o

1

1

! I

m

■

J

1

\

l^^'^'^^'^^x^-^S

\

H

» ^ >^ % %

%^

41

«0

SURCHARGE

ON CREDIT

CARD

MaxFax
9624

• PowBrful, intelligent, Group 3 9600 bps Fax

& Hayes compatible 2400 bps Modemn Card.

• Auto Direct compatibility

• On-Board Microprocessor & software package

• Supports several popular printer & scanners

• Compatible with IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2
Model 30, Compaq Oeskpro 386 and all
other IBM compatible PCs. Compact
half-card size
to lit most
portable &

|f;^ ^arstelc| J28

HAND SCANNER

Complete Package Includes...

• Mars 123 5' Scarinsr & Interface Card

• Scan Kit Utility Software & User's Manual

• Cat Reader OCR Software
& PC Paintbrush Plus

• One Year Warranty

^109

95

The MousePen

A

Uses existing drivers in Windows®
and works witii Microsoft or
IBM OS/2 drivers. Includes...

• f^enu Maker utility softwa/e for
non-mouse applications
• TelePAINT® cobr paint program
with VGA support
\ •IBM PS/2 Mouseport Connector
"i\ • Adapter for DB9 and DB25
' * serial ports

• 5-1/4" & 3-1/2" diskettes

• User's Manual

• Custom
Pen Holder

^38

FAX/MODEM

MACRONIX. INC. U A ll U V

For IBM Conf)patible Desktop & Portables

MaxLite/PC

• Pocket Size Portable Fax/Modem

• Send & Receive Fax/Modem with 9600 bps
G3 Connpatible Fax & Hayes
Compatible 2400 bps
Modem

• Interface with the PC
Via the RS232 Serial Port

• Optional
Software
Converts the
MaxLfte into
a Macintosh
version

• Operates
on AC or
Batteiy
Power

CHiNON ScanFAX96/
DS-2000 SCANNER

9600 bps Transmission Speed,
Group 3 Compatibl9

COMPLETE PACKAGE
INCLUDES...

• Chinon OS-2000
Scanner

• ScanFAX 96
Add-In Board

• Facsimile Software

• DS-2000 Utility
Software

• Scanner Cable

• AC Adapter

GALAXY EXTERNAL
NETWORKS unQDEM

UFO V.32 TURB0/V.42bis

MaxFax

96Z4LT-T

FOR TOSHIBA LAPTOPS

• 9600 bps Group 3 Compatible Facsimile

• 2400 bps Hayes Compatible Modem

• T1000SE,T1000XE, T1200,T1200XE,
T1600,T3100SX &T3200SX

• Menu Driven

• Multiple Phone books
w/ Edit Function

• Wordprocessing
& Graphics
Programs

^288

QMS IS 300

FULL PAGE SCANNER

• 300 dpi

• 6 seconds per page

• Complete with
Controller Card,
Cable, & Graphics Software

OCR Software Add $149.00

*328

Compatible with all existing, stand. 2-wire, full

duplex, dial up modems upto33400bj^

MNP' Class 5 -With Error-Free Transmission

up to 19200bps

Alphanumeric Dial/Name Dial

AutoSeled, User Friendly

Auto Redial/Quick RediaS

Satellite Capability

Future Expansion

Capability

Hl8

COLOR PLOTTER

• Handles paper sizes up to 1 4' X 26-1/2'

• High Resolution Matrix Printer Output ol
240X4SO dpi

• Four Resident Character Fonts w/ 1 9 optional
fonts available

• Emulates Epson,
IBM & Diablo

• Large Alphanumeric
LED display

«548

WE ACCEPT..

We buy and sell excess inventories..call or fax list

20308 Gramercy Place, Torrance, CA 90501

(213) 328-3344 ■ FAX: (213) 328-2907 • (800) 345-5568

WE ACCEPT: NSI CHARGE, VISA, MC, AMEX, COO, PO's from qualified finms. 20% restocking fee on all non-
delective retums. All returns/adjustments must be made within 15 da^. CA residents Add 7% Sales Tax •
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE • $8.50 Minimum Shipping.

Not VISA fWwt

CHARGE — — l'< P < |r

At^lERICAN
EXPRESS

CALL
TOLL FREE:

WO

SURCHARGE

ON CREDIT

CARD

KIFHn Vtmm^Pt94siefy^

IBM PS/2 MEMORY

HliMil.'ililillllil

CAT.*

30FS34S
30FS3a)
6450372
64S0EO1
6450604
6450608
34Fe933
645037S
6450379

DESCRIPnOM NSI

51 ZKB Upgrade PS/2 30 2S6 44.00

2MBUpgtai)ePSe302a6 126.00

2MBMOTwyAd3pteiG4503fi7 395,00

1MBaMUPS2 70-E81;l21 68.00

2MB SIMM PS,2 50Z-70 10800

2MBS!MfJPS,'270-A21 12800

4MB SIMM PSffiSSSXiBSSX 279,00

1MB Man, BO PS/2 80^1 96,00

ZMBMwi. BDP&2Sail1-]21 158.00

CAT. I -

6451060
6450605

34F3077

DESCRIPTION

NSJ

150 130

in

ao 70

to

ISO

12D iQD an

70 n

4MBMem.BDPSa80-A2IA31

293.00

2Sei8

15.00 17.00

19.00

22.00

64x1 .90

S20 ISO

J-eMB Xpand Mm. PS12 70iS0

348.00

2S&<9

t7.C0 19.00

21.00

24.00

E4x4

200 2.15 2M

IV/2MB

IMBxS

5050

51.00 60.00

65.00

K6)(1 I2S

).40 1.60 1£5

210

2-UMBXpand BO, PSffi 70480

388.00

IMSxQ

53.50

54.95 65,00

68.00

2S6rf

5.35 5.70 6.00

675 7J0

«/2MB

iMm

259.00279.00

309.00

1MBx1

5.45 5.65

6i0 7iO

2-14MBXpandaD.PSffi50-65SX
W/2MB

388.00

4M9I9

279.00 2G9.00

299.00

CNlL for PS/i MEMORY

LASER PRINTER MEMORY

CAT.t DESCRIPTION HS1

107331-001 512KB Upgrade Pdbble III 38.00

I07J32-001 2MB Uporads PofteKe III 118.00

107651JM1 tUBModJePcrlayeSeS 218.00

107653-001 4UeXpandMaii.Po<tk]le3ee 630.00

107654401 4MBMmn.XlansonPortablo386 630.00

lOeoeMCI tMBXpaidM«nofyDP3a6-16 288.00

106070001 4UBXpaidM«iiayDPi56-16 630.00

108071-001 1WBMomMyUp9iadoDP386-1G (08.00

108072-00) 4MB Mmwy UpQiade DP3S6-1 6 438.00

110235O01 IMG Memory BD 31 286 leaOO

110257.CO( 4M6Wotoo'B0S11286 630.00

I12S34«)I 4MBMj)dj6DPJ66S-16 298.M

111131-001 1MB Module DP3effifl6E. 386 2ft25E 96.00

111132-001 4MBModul8DP26c6£,3S620-25£ 228.00

111831-001 1MBXpwdM«ii.DP386S-ie 148.00

111634«)t 4MBXpandM«n.DP386S.16 358.00

CATt

113644^1

11364WM1

1I3«4»»1

115144-001

116561-001

1l65eS{(l1

117077-001

117081-001

1I7M1-0O2

1ia304JM1

118304001

118305001

11868M01

116689001

116690001

118700001

DESCRIPTION

1MB Xpand Mem. DP3SS 20E. 25£

NSI

148.01
4MBXpandM«ii. DP3e6 20e.25E 358.00
1MB Module DP386S-16 ItO.CO

1MB Module DP136-33,48G-25. SysprolSO.OO
SMB ModJs 456-25, Syjpio 899.00

32ME tAjdUo ClP4e6-25, Sraxo 4.990.00
5l2KBMiim. BDPwtaHoLTE
1MB Man. BO Putable LTE266
2MB Manory BO PcrUfcl« LTE 286
1MB Module tec SLTn86
2MB Module (a SI.Tn86
4MB Module (a SIT/1S6
1MB Module 0P288N,368N
2MB Module DP388N. 3363-20
4MB Modie DP2e8N. K6N. 3865-20 396.00
0-4MB Eip-BD DP286N, 3e6N 1 08.00

1l9.m
99.00
156.00
174.00
270.00
830.00
90.00
166.00

Ctll

m34748 IMB

H33475e 2MB

H33477B 4MB

K33443B IMB

H33444B 2MB

H3344Se 4M6

EP1000 1MB

EP2000 2MB

EP4000 4WB

T11000 1MB

TB1000 1MB

TB2000 2MB

TB3000 3MB

TB4000 4MB

WORKS WITH

HPUMfJ«IlP,lll,IIID
HPLaswJstllP.IIUIID
HPUs«Je(llP,lll,IIID
HPUserJetlltllD
HaawJelllillB
HfT.»«rJelll4)ID
Epson EPL-6<X)0
Epson EPI.-60QD
Epson EPL-axX)
Texas kis^unent
l^oUserPS
Tofihiba Page Ustf 8
TceHa Page User 6
Tofihte Page U^er 6
Tosliiba Page Laser G

»Sf
99-SS
13955
214.95

m.m

13995
214.ft5
129.00
169.00
249.00
129.CO

118.00
164.00
208.00
248.00

Ctll

1039136 1MB

1039137 2MB
1038675 3.5MB
M600S 1MB
MeOOe 4MB
SS3-1300 1MB
SS3.1SeO 2MB
N/A 4MB
PA1000 IMB

PA2000 2MB

PA3000 3MB

PA4000 4MB

WORKS wrm nsi

IBMLa!a4019:4019E 129.00
IBM Laser 4019:14O19E 169.00
IBM Laser 401 %4019E 229.00
Apple LaserWriter llfrnx 85.00
Apple LaserWriter IWD(319.O0
Ca™LBP.Efl 119.00

Ca»nLBP-6ll 189.00

Canon LBP-6II 269.00

PanasorW:iO(P4420; 118.00
K)(P445a

Paiusorio KXP4420; 164,00
KXP44S0i

PanasorkKXP«20;
IO<P44SOi

PaiBsoric KXP4420;
KXP4450i

208.00
248.00

TOSHIRA MEMORY

NEC MEMORY

CAT.I

PC6-PA7I371I
PC7-PA8301U
PC8-PA8302tJ
PC9-PAS340U
PC9-PA8341U
PC10-PAe304U

PC12-PA8307U

DESCRIPTION NSI

3MB Mem Card Potable T3200 228.00

2MB Mem Card Potable T51 00 188.00

2MB MemCard Pot^e Tl SX) )62.00

512K Man Card PortibleT3100E 120.00

2MB Hera Card Potable TllOOe 168,00

2MB Mem Card Pot^kile 168.00
TS200 Toshba Osstto T8500

2MB Mam Card PorUUeT3200SX 168.W

CAT. I DESCRIPTION NSI

PC12-PA8309U 4Ma Man. Card Portable TSJOOSX 389.00

PC14PA8306U2Ha Hem Card Portable T1200XE 168.00

PC14-PAe311U1HBHaTiCardPortabto 218.00

T1000SE:TlOOOXE

PC14PA8312U2HB Mem Card Portable 276.00

TlOOOSEiTIDOOXE

PC15^A8306U 2MB Mem Card Portable 162.00

T3100SX

Call

APCH655X
APCH656X

APCH657X

APCH850E

APCHe52E

DESCRIPTION NSI

2MBMo<fPowomate388^ 458.00

SMB Eipanson Board 1,1 90.00

Powermale 386)25

1MB Bffi» Board 1,250.00

Powermale 38&2S

IMBExpoisonSoafd 24000

Powermale SX Plus

4MB Eipaiskm Board 690,00

Powermale SX Bus

Call DESCRIPTIDN KSI

PC21.21 1 MB CD ProSoeed 286^868X245,00

PC2t-22 4MB CD ProSpeed 286386SX 569.00

PC21-26 2MB CD ProSpeed 2S6;386SX 309.00

PC31-21 2MB CD ProSpeed 386 319.00

PC31-22 8MBCDProS{»ed386 1,190.00

KrN2000 2MB Expulsion Board 440.00

/SX powermale SX Plus

KTtBOOO SMS Btpxiam Board 1,190.00

/SX PowermateSXRus

AST MEMORY

HP MEMORY

CAT. I

5«S10001
500SIOO02

600510003
500510004

500610007
500510008

500510010

DESCRIPTION NS)

512KUp^dKjlPiem286FASTRAM 39.00

2MB Upjrd Kil Prom WS 386SX; 1 18,00

WS 268; Bravo 286 j 366SX; Rampage

flus 286; Admlj Piem S/2; Ram Admlg;

Advantage

1 MB Upgrd Kit Premiura 186 98,00

4MB UpgtdKlPrwn 386. Rampage 31O00

Hu3/MC:Advntg 288 1386

1 MB Up7d Kit Pran 386C: 3S6n 6 85,00

4MB upgrd Kit Piem 3860; 366/1 6 23000

Advanced FASTRAM; FAStboard 386

51 2K Upgrd Kit Pr6mWS38eSXi 39,M

WS 286: Btavo 2S6, Rampage « 286

CATt
SCW10011
500709«I1
500709001
50071 8O01
50071 M02

500718004
500760001
S00818OO4

ASrSX20

DESCRIPTION

128K Upgrd Kit Bravo 288

512K Upgrd Kit Advn 12; Rampage PC

512K Upgrd Kit RmpageRirsflUC

1 MB Mod, Pran 38625 8 3e6SX/16

1 MB Mod, Prem 388(33 -25; SX/1 6;

486/33;25T; 2SrE; 25, 25£;

Adapter Board 500722-004

2MB Upgid Kit Prem 488 Series

tMBKt Prem 486 Series

1-16MB Exp Bd Prem 1S&25J1;

Pie!n486's

lMBMalPremll386SX/20

NSI
40.00
40.00
40.00
65,00
75.00

186.00
870.x
450.00

84.00

CaL I DESCRIPTION NSI

D13S4A 2MBUp-KilVec»aO£'16S 114.00

4ES12PC
01640A IMBUp-KitVECTRA 62.00

OSiZOPC; RS25PC S 20C
D1642A IMBUp-KilVECTRA 234.00

Q3i20PC;RS25PC*20C

Call DESCRIPTION NSI

D154aA IMBUp-KJlVECTTUkOS/ieS 6200
DI540A iMBUp-KKVECTRAQSneS 62.M
D2150A1MBModVECTRA<S6PC 78.00

D2l51A4MBModVECTflA486PC 26^00
Det52A SMB Hod VECTRA386®;486PC 900.00
D2381A2M8 Hod VECTTU 388/25 PC 144.00

IAIJ,',lil:yi:lil:l;likl;I.MirTTMmi

ZENITH MEMORY

CAT.I

DESCfllPnON NSI

CAT.I DESCRIPTION

NSI

ZA160*l

2MB CardSuper Sport SX;2B6E 240.00

ZA3034ME2 4MB Card Turbo Sporl 3a6E

590.00

ZAieM6

1 MB Cad Super Spot 286: 288£ 160,00

ZA3eO0ME lMBMod,Z-386/20-25-33-33E

79.00

ZA1B0-B6

2MB Card Super SporlSX (ALPHA) 240.00

ZA36Q0MG 2MGMod,Z-38&!0-25-33

13000

ZAieO-87

2MB Csd Super SpoitSX (BETA) 240.00

ZA3e00ME 1 MB Mod, Z-38S20-25-13-33E

79.00

ZA1034ME

IMB Card Turbo Sport 386E 199.00

ZA3800MK 4MB Mod. Z-38t20-2S-33-33E

288.00

2A1C34ME2

4HB Card Tirto Sport 386E 590.00

BOCAR A M/XT-Provides up to 2MB o(
aparxied rT«moy to 8 bit bus. Operates up b 1 2
MHz. U5e5 2S6Kb-fiAM-wili OK „.,,... St20.CC

wi1h512)( 139.00

«n1h2HB 219.00

BOCARAMfAT PLUS-Prov,desupio
6MB ot aidenied. exparKted or badrfil memoy.
Opaates up to 33MK2 and is sset Uyu soltware.

Uses 256K D.RAM-i«ilt OK $1 19.00

*ith2Ma 219.00

BOCARAWAT-l/0 PLUS-Pio«d9sup

Id 4M8 o( XlBided, Xpanded o baddil itemay.

For 16 bit bus. Opaaiss up b 33 MH: arid is set

tiru software, has saiai and parelEe/ port Uses

IMBD-RAM-

witiOK t149.IM

»rlh2MB 249.00

BOCARAM 30-Provides up lo 2Me of
a^unded memory lor IBM PS/2 model £5, 30 and
8l]|bu$ uliiaig 3.5* lloppy dislis. Uses 2S6K D-

RAM- wiDi OK (1 59.00

witti 2MB 249.00

BOCARAM S0/60-Provid«suptii4UB

BMpaiKled, extended o baddfll monorv fo f^S2

model 50, 60. Uses 1 MB D-RAH-

wil!i OK $149.00

wilh 2MB 249.00

*ilh4Mfl 349.00

BOCARAM SOZ-Protides up lo 2M6,
waKsbte, aqwided or extended mnnory fo
ISM, PS/2 modd 50, SOZ, 60. Uses 1 1 H8 D-
RAM-

srithOK $129.00

with 2MB 229.00

Calaloa/manufycturer's part numbers are for your convenience. Alt products are 3rd party manufactured. 100% Compatible.
ALL MEMORY PRODUCTS COME WITH 5 YEAR UNCONDITIONAL WARRANTY. CALL FOR QUANTITY PRICES.

WE ACCEPT...

L CHAflGE

We buy and sell excess inventories..call or fax list

20308 Gramercy Place, Torrance, CA 90501

(213) 328-3344 • FAX: (213) 328-2907 • (800) 345-5568

WE ACCEPT: NSI CHARGE, VISA, MC. AMEX, COD, PO's from qualified firms. 20% restocking fee on all rm-
defective relums. W! refums^Sustments must be made wfthin 15 days. CA residents Add 7% Sales Tax ■
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE ■ $8,50 Minimum SSiipping.

AMERICAN
EXPRESS

Cirde Reader Service Number 147

TEST LAB

much mind carrying the hefty D/
LT for short distances. After all,
this computer's 13 pounds
doesn't compare to the weight
and bulk of most earlier porta-
bles. More contemporary users,
though, might not want the bur-
den of this much weight, espe-
cially in this age of 386 note-
books. The D/LT thankfully bal-
ances on its edge quite well.
Even if the D/LT should fall over,
I wouldn't worry much about dam-
age — this machine's case could
stop bullets.

This laptop doesn't spare you
the cold reality of mysterious bat-
tery charges. You should expect
about two hours of use per full re-
charge of the ni-cad battery Ex-
pect less if you access your hard
drive and floppy frequently Lead-
ing Edge has built in some fea-
tures to help you conserve pow-
er and keep track of the D/LT's bat-
tery life, Left unattended, the D/
LT dims its screen to conserve
power. A battery check light flash-
es when power's low, and if you
don't soon save and shut down,
you might damage your hard
drive and will certainly lose your
work.

Alarm software, such as Bat-
tery Watch, warns you when bat-
tery failure will occur, but you'll
need to buy such software sepa-

44 COMPUTE

LEADING EDGE PRODUCTS
117 Flanders Rd.
Westborough, MA 01581
1800) 874-3340
List Price: $2,198.00 tor 40MB;

$2,599.00 for lOOMfl
Street Price: $1,846.33

rately The D/LT comes bundled
with DOS 4.01, Windows3.0,

and Microsoft Works.

You might think that

a laptop with a VGA

- — — port makes the perfect

go-between for home

computing and comput-
ing in your hotel room, but think
again. Most laptops just don't of-
fer the expandability that full-size
PCs do, and even the larger-than-
average D/LT won't adequately
serve as a substitute. With a 2MB
RAM limit and no card slots, the
D/LT won't replace your versatile
desktop PC. And for true portabil-
ity, you'll want to try the Leading
Edge NB 300S notebook comput-
er. The standard unit packs less
RAM and hard drive space than
the D/LT, but its reduced weight
and increased operating time per
battery charge probably bring it
closer to your idea of what con-
stitutes a laptop these days. At on-
ly about $400 more than its larg-
er cousin, the notebook warrants
a frequent traveler's attention.

So, who needs the D/LT? Well,
for shoppers who appreciate a
bargain, the D/LT could turn out
to be a surprise hit. To compete
with other manufacturers in this
market of increasingly smaller
and lighter portable computers.
Leading Edge lowered the sug-
gested retail price of the D/LT lap-
top by about $1,000. Any further
price cuts could carve out quite
a niche for this machine, especial-
ly with computer users who travel
only from time to time but want to
make sure they can work out of
town if they need to.

DAVID SEARS

PANASONIC
CF-270 BUSINESS
PARTNER

Can a seven-pound notebook
computer measure up to the
needs of someone accustomed
to using a well-equipped desktop
machine? Panasonic's CF-270
Business Partner comes mighty
close and offers many of the im-
portant features that we've now
come to expect in notebook com-
puters.

At a mere seven pounds, the
CF-270 is a lightweight whose ap-
proximate dimensions are 12 inch-
es by 10 inches by 2 inches-
small enough to fit into most at-
tache cases. The CF-270 com-
pares well with other notebooks
currently available, offering a 16-
MHz 80C286 CPU, 20MB hard
drive, 1.44MB SVg-inch floppy
drive, 640 x 480 backlit black-
and-white LCD display with 16-
leve! gray-scale VGA, and 1MB
standard memory (expandable to
5MB),

The CF-270 comes with two
3V2-inch floppies, which include
everything you would expect, in-
cluding MS-DOS 4.01 and GW-
BASIC. The floppies also include
some programs that add impor-
tant features; a setup program, a
power-management program,
FDISK to set up the hard drive,
and a diagnostic program that
tests each component of the sys-
tem.

How long the battery holds a
charge and how long it takes to
recharge can often be the deter-
mining factors when you're decid-
ing which notebook to purchase.
The CF-270 comes equipped
with a quick-charge battery that
will fully recharge in about two
hours when the computer is
turned off and in four hours if you
use the computer while charging.
The battery charge lasts about
two hours but will vary depending
on how often the drives are ac-
cessed and which power-conser-
vation options you've selected.

The CF-270 software (called
Power Management Setup Utility)
allows you to select power-reduc-
ing options including slowing or
shutting off tfie CPU when the
computer is not busy, turning off
the hard drive motor when it's not
in use, placing the floppy drive on
standby, and automatically turn-
ing off the screen or the entire
unit if there's no keyboard input
after a certain time interval. Each
of the power-saving features op-
erates only when the CF-270 is run-
ning on battery power.

Using the Power Management
Setup Utility is simple enough.
The manual briefly explains each
of the options, and the utility in-
cludes online help screens — a
handy convenience, especially if
you want to change an option at
31,000 feet and haven't brought
the manual.

I set the system to maximum
power savings and found that the
system functioned satisfactorily.
The only time I could detect a slow-
down in performance was when
I accessed the hard drive after
the motor had shut off. Usually
the delay was only a few seconds
while the drive got up to speed
again, a small price to pay to ex-
tend the life of a battery charge.

I especially liked the keyboard
and its layout; a touch typist
would have little trouble adjust-
ing. If you're a heavy spread-
sheet user, you'll enjoy being
able to convert the keyboard to a
numeric keypad. Although not as
convenient as a separate key-
pad, this compromise proves
quite workable.

The CF-270 comes with sever-
al external ports and jacks. With
the serial and parallel ports, you
can connect to your favorite print-
er, external modem, or serial
mouse. And with its VGA port and
keyboard jack, you can use your
CF-270 as if it were a desktop com-
puter.

The CF-270 comes with sever-
al manuals. Less than 100 pages
long, the basic User's Guide cov-
ers all the basics clearly and
concisely. Also included are a

PANASONIC
COMMUNICATIONS &
SYSTEMS
otiice Automation

Group
TWO Panasonic Way
Secaucus, NJ 07094
(800) 742-8086
List Price: $2,299.00

(or 20MB,

$2,799.00 (or

60MB
Street Price:

$1,995.33

very short Getting Started Guide,
a User's Reference Guide, an MS-
DOS Shell User's Guide, and a
Quick Reference Guide to MS-
DOS and GW-BASIC. Anyone
with any experience with MS-
DOS computers should find this
documentation satisfactory, albe-
it a bit skimpy. If you've never set
up a new system before, you
might find the process a bit intim-
idating, as you would with most
computers. And if you have lim-
ited experience with DOS, you'll
not learn much from these
guides.

Panasonic has designed a re-
spectable notebook computer
that includes most of the features
we've come to expect. If you're in
the market for a small, lightweight

computer that will fit easily into
your carry-on luggage and on an
airplane's table tray, you would
do well to consider the Panason-
ic CF-270 Business Partner.

STEPHEN LEVY

SHARP PC-6220

Sharp's PC-6220 is a compact
and, on the whole, well-designed
computer for its small size {11 x
8x 1 .5 inches). This 80C2e6 note-
book computer runs at 12MHz
and comes equipped with a full
megabyte of memory. Its durable
exterior and light weight (4.4
pounds without the optional flop-
py drive) should make this ma-
chine an attractive option in the
world of portable computing.

THE POWER-SAVING SL CHIP

Intel has introduced a new 20-
MHz SL chip, exclusively for lap-
tops, that's supposed to add sig-
nificant power-saving features.
Zenith claims its MastersPort
386SL (currently the only laptop
with an SL chip) will preserve an
application for two weeks and
then resume at the push of a but-
ton.

Since most of the recent lap-
tops carry the SX chip — and
will for some time to come —
your best bet for extended lap-
top battery use is to buy a lap-

top with an array of power-sav-
ing features. An automatic
screen timeout blanks the
screen after a period of time
passes without mouse or key-
board input, a sleep or rest
mode will actually slow down
the computer's processing time
while the machine is still running
but not in use, and standby
mode is designed to conserve
power while allowing instant ac-
cess to what you were working
on with the press of a key.

— j;ll champion

45

TEST LAB

Frequent travelers will appre-
ciate riot having to carry around
any more pounds than neces-
sary, Once you've loaded your
hard drive with the software you
use, you don't really need to lug
the optional 3'/2-inch plug-in flop-
py drive. If you don't care to in-
vest in the external drive, a ROM
version of Traveling Software's
LapLink software and the sup-
plied cables will let you make
transfers between this notebook
and your desktop computer. Lap-
L/n/f works fine, though, and in no
time f was transferring my favor-
ite word processor, graphics, en-
tertainment, and other software to
the 6220's hard drive.

The system's port covers must
be detached and stand a good
chance of getting lost (a storage
hatch for these little guys would
be a nice feature). And the
screen/cover is stiff and difficult
to place at just the right angle, It
would've helped if a demonstra-
tion program or at least some mod-
est utilities had been included ei-
ther in ROU or on the 20MB hard
drive. When you consider the pow-
er that has been packed into
such a small package, however,
a lot can be forgiven.

Though the 6220 is as power-
ful as a desktop AT, it shares
with many other notebooks the lim-
itations of a 20MB hard drive.
There are limitations on the num-
ber of powerful applications you
can use. For instance, Microsoft
C6.0 with all the associated utili-
ties takes up at least 3MB of stor-
age, as does GeoWorks Ensem-
ble, while WordPerfect 5A and
Windows 3,0 take at least 6MB
each.

An informal test of processing
speed, using a few of my own cal-
culation-intensive routines and
comparing completion time with
the completion time on other AT-
compatibles, showed that the
6220 compared remarkably well.
If you add a coprocessor in the
notebook's 80C287 socket, you
can expect even better perform-
ance. You have the option of in-
creasing the system menriory,

46 COMPUTE

which will also boost perform-
ance. Memory can be increased
to two or three megabytes
through the purchase of optional
1MB RAM cards.

You can set the liquid crystal
display for CGA, EGA, and MDA
emulation, as well as the default
VGA. And a Hercules option ex-
ists for an external monitor. The
6220 does a pretty good job of dis-
playing graphic images in 16
shades of gray. 1 tested several
compatible images with the

SHARP ELECTROHICS
Sharp Plaza

Mahwah, NJ 07430-2135
(800) 237-4277
List Price; $3,199.00
Street Price: $1,987.32

same resolution and
found reasonable faithful-
ness. The next test in-
volved running a few
graphic-intensive
games. Games, as
programmers
and game play-
ers were early ^^^
to discover, ^^r
challenge comput- ''"
er abilities like no oth-
er software. In fact, the
games I tried worked surprising-
ly well. The persistent problem
with any LCD screen continues to
be the slow liquid crystal re-
sponse times — if the image on
the screen is changing rapidly,
there's a blurred, shadowy effect
because liquid crystals, rather
than being strictly on or off, show
an obvious range of activation.
An optional adapter for CRT out-
put, to either a multisync or VGA
monitor, makes the 6220 more
convenient for desktop use. The
same is true of the separately
sold numeric keypad and expan-
sion unit. The expansion box will
provide power and peripheral con-
nectivity while furnishing two ex-
pansion slots.

The nickel-cadmium battery

supplied with the 6220, after its
initial two-hour charge and with on-
ly limited hard drive access,
goes for about an hour and a half
before a warning beeper informs
you that there's only about ten min-
utes of power remaining. If you
don't save what must be saved
within that ten minutes, it will be
lost. The AC adapter, included, ei-
ther doesn't recharge the battery
when the computer is being
used or does so very slowly Ei-
ther way, if you need to get
the 6220 back on the

road
again soon
you must switch it off and wait for
the battery to recharge. An option-
al battery pack, which plugs into
the back of the unit, is available,
and according to the manufactur-
er, It will extend battery-usage
time an additional three hours.

I also experienced difficulty in-
stalling the battery pack, a prob-
lem which I attribute to the ma-
chine's overall compact design —
sometimes a little extra space is
welcome. Because the battery
slot is barely larger than the bat-
tery, the connector wires can eas-
ily get in the way during battery
insertion. I worked and worked to

get the battery pack neatly seat-
ed without deforming the case or
mashing the wires; every possi-
ble permutation was (gingerly)
tried. At last I had the battery and
the wires in place, but the battery
cover remained misshapen on
the underside of the unit through-
out the review process.

Except for its hefty price tag,
I would not hesitate to recom-
mend Sharp's PC-6220 note-
book computer. In two weeks of
heavy use, it performed flawless-
ly. And what liberty when your
AT is no more difficult to lug
about than a common book!

BRUCE M, BOWDEN

VGA COLOR FOR LAPTOPS

What's next for the laptop comput-
er? Just a few years ago, color dis-
plays for portables seemed wish-
ful thinking, but with the Sharp Col-
orstar, wishes can come true. No
washed-out gray-scale images
here; this machine delivers a stun-
ning 256 vivid VGA colors, cho-
sen from a palette of 262,144 pos-
sible hues, Combine brilliant col-
or generation with the inherent
sharpness that comes with small-
er screens, and you have a re-
markable picture, whatever you
choose to display

Using Sharp's innovative thin-
film transistor (TFT) active-matrix
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) tech-
nology, the Colorstar stands
head and shoulders above the
competition in terms of visual im-
pact. Each pixel has its own sili-
con thin-film transistor to allov/ pre-
cise color control. Not surprising-
ly, color LCDs aren't easy to pro-
duce; even a single pixel error
stands out, so production stan-
dards call for perfection, not ap-
proxinaation. In part because of
this difficulty, the Colorstar will in-
itially sell for $10,000 to $15,000,
but you can expect prices to fall
as burgeoning consumer de-
mand for color LCD microtel-
e visions encourages the improve-

ment of factory methods.

The Colorstar comes with a 20-
iVlHz 386DX processor, 2MB RAM
(expandable to 10MB), a 1.44MB
floppy drive, and a 100MB hard
drive. Want expandability? The Col-
orstar has a half-size expansion
slot (AT-bus, for networking,
among other things), the standard
parallel port, two RS-232C ports,
a keypad port, and a CRT output.
And best of all, the Colorstar

coutd have been a set piece for an
episode of "The Jetsons." Sleek,
ergonomic, and the very picture of
high-tech, the Colorstar should
turn heads on the basis of its style
alone. And while this high-end ma-
chine may not wind up in your
stocking this Christmas, move it up
your wish list anyway

-^AVID SEARS

TANDY 2810 HD

Versatile and packed with fea-
tures, the Tandy 2810 HD laptop
computer offers enough features
to meet most of your computing
needs, even if you're accus-
tomed to working with a desktop.
You get 1MB of RAM (expanda-
ble to 5MB), a 20MB hard drive,
and a 3y2-inch 1.44MB floppy
drive. The computer operates at
16 MHz and has a socket for an
optional math coprocessor,

The 2810's 84-key keyboard
has full 101 -key emulation and al-
lows for some customization. If
you don't like where the Ctrl and
CapsLock keys are located, you
have the option of physically re-
versing their positions. Smartly
laid out, the keys have a good sol-
id feel to them.

Other keys on the 2810 initiate
battery power conservation.
These place the computer in
standby mode, toggle the speed
between 16 MHz and 8 MHz, dis-
able the speaker, switch from the
internal screen to an external mon-
itor, turn off the serial ports, and
more.

In most working environments,
I never noticed the small amount
of noise generated by the 2810's
disk drive. On the rare occasions
I was able to use the laptop at
home in my library-quiet den, I
found the noise distracting. No

47

TEST LAB

TANDY

1800 One Tanity Center
FL Worth, TX 76102
(817) 390-3300
List Price: $2,499
Street Price: n/a

problem; press a key, and the
drive shuts off until needed. You
can also configure the computer
to shut off the drive and/or dis-
play after a certain period of in-
activity. This saves battery pow-
er, too.

The 2810 warns you when the
batteries need recharging, giving
you ample time to save any work
in progress. If they should fail
while you're working, however,
the Resume feature remembers
what's in memory when the ma-

NORTON INDEXES

The Norton computing, disk,
and overall indexes show you
how well a computer performs
when compared to a 4.77-
MHz XT (the original IBM PC).
In the Norton index, such an
XT has a value of 1 .0. If a com-
puter is twice as fast, it will
have a value of 2.0. The great-
er the index value, the faster
the computer — and the faster
your applications will run.

The CPU (Central Process-
ing Unit) speed test rates the
computer's microprocessor
performance. The disk index
rates the performance of a sys-
tem's hard drive. The overall
performance index factors in
the CPU and disk indexes
among other things.

-RICHAflD C. LEINECKER

48 COMPUTE

chine runs out of power. When
you turn the power on again, the
program reappears, and you con-
tinue where you left off.

To add a printer and a mouse
to the 2810, just plug the appro-
priate cables into the computer's
parallel and sehal ports. You can
just as easily connect a VGA mon-
itor and a full-size external key-
board via the built-in monitor and
keyboard ports. This makes the
2810 a convenient backup for
your desktop computer

The 2810's VGA LCD screen
with fluorescent backlighting has
a three-position brightness
switch and a sliding contrast con-
trol bar allowing for readability in
a wide range of lighting condi-
tions. A key combination lets you
further vary the contrast of char-
acters and background; you can
even reverse the display entirely.

As with all Tandy computers,
the 2810 comes equipped with
the DeskMate graphics-oriented
interface and application soft-
ware. These applications include
a word processor, drawing pro-
gram, spreadsheet, calendar, ad-
dress book, filer, and telecommu-
nications program,

Other manuals should emulate
Tandy's User's Guide. Written for
the 2810. it isn't meant to cover
57 other models or configura-
tions. The introduction guides
you through the basics, explains
the different keys and setup op-
tions, and explains many useful
MS-DOS commands. A separate
manual guides you through Desk-
Mate and its applications.

Setting up a new computer is
always challenging, but Tandy's
manual removes much of the con-
fusion that comes from working
with a new system. The manual ex-
plains the different parameters
and what they do; then it explains
your options. For example, the
time and date functions are fairly
simple to understand, but do you
know if you want to enable or dis-
able the serial ports, FDC Stand-
by, Standby Timeout, or VRAM
Timeout? After a quick glance
through the slim but thorough man-
ual, you'll have no doubt about
what these functions do and how
you want them configured.

Adding extra memory cards
and allocating memory are also

carefully explained. The 2810 has
1MB installed with 640K of con-
ventional memory and 384K of ex-
tended or shadow RAM. Availa-
ble slots leave room for an addi-
tional 4MB of RAM. Depending
on the requirements of the oper-
ating system and the software
you run, you can configure addi-

2000 notebook just may be your
ticket.

It's an amazingly small 286 note-
book computer, measuring only
11 inches wide x 8.5 inches
deep X 1.4 inches thick and
weighing in at a meager 4.4
pounds. It comes standard with
1MB of RAM, a 20MB hard disk.

tional memory either as expand-
ed or extended. Some configura-
tions require minimum allocations
for shadow RAM and a software
driver installed in a CONFIG.SYS
file. Once again, you1l find this in-
formation clearly spelled out in
the manual.

A solid performer, the Tandy
2810 HD will keep pace with ad-
vanced users but, thanks to
clear documentation, won't over-
whelm a beginner. With 1MB of
RAM, a high-density disk drive, a
20MB hard drive, a VGA display,
bundled software, and solid work-
manship in an attractive pack-
age, this laptop is ready to go to
work for you in a big way.

TOM NETSEL

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
TRAVELMATE 2000

If you're ready to take your com-
puting on the road, then the Tex-
as Instruments (Tl) TravelMate

"Unadle to run lest.

and a backlit LCD VGA display.
The TravelMate has an attractive-
ly Styled case and a comfortable,
solid-feeling keyboard,

The unit I reviewed came with
the optional external SVa-inch
disk drive and 2400-baud mo-
dem/fax card. All of the optional
accessories can be quickly in-
stalled or detached, which
means you don't have to lug

them around when you don't
need them. The drive plugs direct-
ly into an expansion port located
on the back of the computer. To
install it, simply pop off the rear
cover and plug in the drive. Two
thumbscrews hold the drive in
place, so you don't have to fuss
with cables. It's pretty slick.

The modem/fax card plugs in-
to a small compartment located
just above the keyboard. The
card is held in place by a single
screw and the plug. I assumed
that this screw would be a thumb-
screw like those on the disk
drive, but it's not. However, if you
have a small screwdriver, you
can swap cards in a matter of min-
utes.

I was impressed with the soft-
ware that came with the system:
BatteryPro and LapUnk, a file
transfer program that serves as
your gateway to the outside
world if you don't purchase the
optional 3'/?-inch disk drive.
Connected by the LapUnk ca-
ble and running the LapUnk soft-
ware, two computers have com-
plete access to each other's
disk files. BatteryPro is perhaps
the more valuable piece of soft-
ware. It's a utility package that
functions as a power-conserva-
tion system for the computer.
The BatteryWatch feature of the
package monitors battery con-
sumption, and BatteryPro pro-
vides only the power necessary

TEST LAB

to do your work. This combina-
tion saves valuable battery pow-
er that's usually wasted by other
portables.

The battery test results for the
TravelMate were acceptable.
With the BalteryPro utilities in-
stalled, it's possible to get about
an hour and a half of use from
each charge, with moderate disk
activity. The battery pack con-

sists of a candy bar-shaped ni-
cad battery that's about 1 1 '/?. inch-
es long. It fits into a very tight com-
partment on the back of the com-
puter. The process of removing
and replacing this piece of hard-
ware is, at best, difficult. Howev-
er, that's an extremely small
price to pay when you consider
the small, lightweight design of
the TravelMate.

Included with the modem is a
well-rounded set of communica-
tions programs, BitCom and Bit-
Fax. BitCom is a full-featured ter-
minal program, and BitFax takes
advantage of the card's fax ca-

50 COMPUTE

pabilities. Both are extremely
easy to use; in fact, I successful-
ly used both without reading a sin-
gle page from the manuals. I'd
never sent a fax before doing
this review, but 6/?Fax walked me
right through the whole process
of sending files to a fax machine
here in the office.

I thoroughly enjoyed using the
TravelMate 2000. I thought the
computer was well designed and
attractive. In addition, it
seems to be very sturdy

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
Intormatlon Technology

Group
P.O. Box 202230
Austin, TX 78714-2230
(800) 527-3500
List Price: S2,309.00 for

2(iMB; $2,790.00

lor 40NfB
Street Price: $1,028.70

and solid, which is a big
plus in a portable computer.

The only thing I didn't like
about the computer was the
small plastic covers that protect
the external ports. They just
didn't want to stay in place for
me. I simply removed them and
placed them in the box for safe-
keeping. {Most partables don't
even have protective covers, so
it's not really a problem.)

Ifyou're thinking about purchas-
ing a high-quality notebook com-
puter, then you owe it to your-
self to check out the TravelMate
2000. It's a very powerful tool
that comes with good software,
has room for expansion, and of-
fers you a wide range of op-
tional equipment.

TROY TUCKER

COPROCESSOR SPEED

COMPUTE'S benchmark statis-
tics allow you to compare how
our Test Lab computers han-
dle COMPUTE'S proprietary
benchmark tests. But there's
another kind of comparison
you should consider — the
speed of a computer with a
math coprocessor versus the
speed of a computer without
one.

When one of our review com-
puters arrived at the lab with
a coprocessor, we decided to
run our benchmarks first with
the coprocessor and then with-
out it. The differences in per-
formance were quite dramatic
in some tests.

In the computer-aided de-
sign (CAD) tests, for example,
the coprocessor enabled the
computer to load a drawing in
just under 14 seconds rather
than the minute and 8 sec-
onds the computer required
without the coprocessor. Re-
scaling a drawing required a
minute and 12 seconds with-
out the coprocessor, 16 sec-
onds with it. In the floating
point math calculation compar-
isons, the differences are sim-
ilarly dramatic. With the
coprocessor, floating-point ad-
dition required 35 microsec-
onds, 306 microseconds with-
out it.

However, when our lab ran
speed comparisons in applica-
tions—including a database
sort, a database reindex, a
text search and replace, and
a spreadsheet recalculation —
the differences were decided-
ly less significant.

Any kind of application that
requires the plotting of curves
or other geometric shapes or
any type of vector-based graph-
ic will benefit significantly from
a math coprocessor. Anything,
in other words, that's math in-
tensive will benefit.

—MIKE HUDNALL

TOSHIBA T1000LE

At first glance you might pass
over this laptop for other more
powerful models. But that could
be a big mistake. I ran this 8086-
based machine under some of
the most demanding conditions
for months, and it performed with
flying colors.

Let's start with the important
stuff. It's lightweight and rugged,
and it has a good battery life. You
can't love one of these babies af-
ter lugging it to three trade
shows in two weeks unless it's re-
ally light — and this one is. Using
a canvas case to carry it, I trav-
ersed several airports, a hotel lob-
by, and several sidewalks without
any hint of soreness in my tender
shoulder. On our semiofficial
scale here at COMPUTE, it
weighed in at seven pounds.
With the carrying case, the pow-
er supply, and an assortment of
backup floppies, the total is
around eight pounds. Not bad,
considering everything I needed
to do my work was in the pack-
age.

And none of that banging
around broke anything. Sure, I'm
careful. But when fighting jet lag,
I, like most other people, get a bit
careless. You won't find any flim-
sy breakaway doors on this unit.
Just good, honest, substantial cov-
ers that stand up to almost any-
thing you can dish out.

If you've ever flown from one
side of the continental U.S. to the
other, you know it's a long trip.
Not being one for the in-flight mov-
ie, I counted on having some-
thing to work on for the entire SVa
hours. No, I didn't get that far. But
I did work for almost 4 hours with
heavy disk access. For most peo-
ple that's plenty

What about performance? As
an 8086-based machine, it was
good, though not as fast as a 286
or a 386. When you're on the
road, though, how often do you
reindex your database files or re-
calculate your spreadsheet?
Most of us run a simple database
program, contact manager, or

TOSHIBA AMERICA
INFORMATIOM
SYSTEMS
9740 Ireine Blvd.
Irvine, CA 9Z718
(800) 334-3445
List Price: $1,739.00
Street Price: $1,530.98

word processor,
and for those ap-
plications, my Toshi-
ba filled the bi
When I did compile a
program with my Micro-
soft C compiler and
stepped through the pro-
gram with the Codeview debug-
ger, I was pleasantly surprised at
how well it performed, Ttiese two
programs separate the men from
the boys real fast. They both
squeeze every available ounce of
performance out of a system.
And on this computer the perform-
ance was adequate.

I'm not fond of laptop key-
boards, but this was one of the
best I've experienced. Positive
key movement with definite con-
tact points let me know that I was
working on something solid.
There isn't a separate numeric key-
pad, but the most important func-
tions, such as PageUp and
PageDown, have their own sepa-
rate keys.

Reading the display is easy if
you've adjusted it properly, The
controls are right there on the
side— no fumbling around to get
the right setting. In a wide variety
of situations, this Toshiba's dis-
play was crisp and clear. One
nice addition that helps adjust for
different uses is the ability to
change system fonts with a hot
key. If you're having trouble read-
ing what's on the screen, you can
toggle between the fonts and de-
cide which is best. I found myself
changing fonts several times
each day as I went from setting
to setting.

I had an internal modem that
was a lifesaver when I had to
send files to the office. It's one con-
venience I wouldn't want to be
without. With the phone cord that
arrived in the box, I was able to
connect in all of my hotel rooms.

There's an indispensable fea-
ture built in that's as close as a
hot key away. It's a pop-up dis-
play showing you how much pow-
er is left in your batteries and let-
ting you set various switches so
that the computer is tuned for max-
imum performance. You can turn
the speaker and modem on or
off, set the display to reverse, and
toggle the auto power off features
of the hard drive and display.

A single internal floppy drive
was all I needed: Once all of my
files were copied to the 20IV1B
hard drive, I rarely needed it.
Disk access for both drives was
good — on par with any desktop
model with an 8086 processor run-
ning at 9.5 MHz.

If you have to be the first on
your block with the latest comput-
er technology at any price, you'll
probably look elsev/here. But if
you're interested in a great value
on a workhorse unit, this laptop is
for you. It's not fancy or overwhelm-
ingly fast, but dollar for dollar,
you'll get your money's worth.

RICHARD C. LEINECKER

51

SINCE 1979

UNBEATABLE PRICES ^.q^puter direct s __-■■, m
-•^^"'^^'^ -"• "excellent QUALITY

Complete 12MHz 286 Computer - Full AT Compatibility For Only!

A COMPLETELY EQUIPPED Personal
Computer for Home, School or Business

Includes: Complete IBM AT® Compslible 12MHz 80286

Microprocessor ■ 512K Memory • Expandable to4MEG • 5.25"

1.ZMEG Ftoppy Drive • IDE Drive ConltoUer • 1 Parallel, 2

Serial Porte • 200 Walt Power Supply 101 Key AT® Style

Enhanced Keylx»rd • ByteSa Software Package • Spate

Saving & Stylish Mini-Tower Case (Case subject to ava ilabUty)

1 YEAR WARRANTY

Compare Our Prices and Features

f

12MHz 80286 Computer
Byte Size Easy Start
Byte Size Word Processor
Byte Size Home Inventory
Byte Size Calendar

Sugg. Retail $799
Sugg. Retail $76
Sugg. Retail
Sugg. Retail
Sugg. Retail

Byte Size MaUing & Phone list Sugg. Retail
TOTALS

S49
S29
S29
S29

Our Price $299.95
Our Price FREE!
Our Price FREE!
Our Price FREE!
Our Price FREE!
Our Price FREE!

$1011.00 $299.95!

YOU SA^fE €>JfER STI ti

Complete 16MHz 386SX

Packed Full of Features!

Full IBM AT® Compatibility • 512K RAM, Expandable to 8 MEG • 803865X Micro-
processor with AMI BIOS • Parallel and Serial Ports • Your Choice o(l .2 or 1 .44 MEG High
Density Floppy Drive • 101 Key AT Style Deluxe Keyboard • 200 Watt Power Supply

SPECIALLY EQUIPPED WITH IDE HARD & FLOPPY DRIVE CONTROLLER

Monitor & 3.5" Floppy Drive Optional

la fwrgsin basemeal price.
Isincerely,

l°""A^!-r„..u.»o^.^^-'

Compare Our Prices and Features!

16MHz 80386SX Computer Sugg. Retail $1499 Our Price $579.95

Sugg. Retoil $76
Sugg. Retail $49
Sugg. Retail $29
Sugg. Retail $29
Sugg. Retail $29

Byte Size Easy Start

Byte Size Word Processor

Byte Size Home Inventory

Byte Size Calendar

Byte Size Mailing & Phone List

TOTALS

$1711.00

Our Price FREE!

Our Price FREE!

Our Price FREE!

Our Price FREE!

Our Price FREE!

$579.95!

YOU SAVE aVER SI 131!

i ">":V\1

Monitor Optional

25MHz 386 Computer with IM RAM & 32K RAM Cache $899.95

1 JM Floppy Drive • Tower Case • 1 ME* RAM, Expandable to 8 MEG • AM] BIOS • 101 Key Enhanced Keybo- J • 200 Watt Power Suply • Equipped with IDE Hard & Floppy Drive Controller

Mf r. Sugg. Retail $2999.95 WAS $1199.95

YOU SAVE $2100!

FAX Ordering 708-382-7545

800-BUY-WISE Ext. 51

800-289-9473 Ext. 51
Outside Service Arso, Pleoie Coll 708.382-5058

COMPUTER DIRECT, INC.

22292 N. Pepper Rood
Barringfon, IL 60010

'We Lovt Out Customers'

SINCE 1979

30 DAY HOME TRIAL (.q^puter direct s _-■,-,

- THE BEST SERVICti

10 GREAT REASONS TO BUY FROM COMPUTER DIRECT

#1 FREE CATALOGS!

WrTH 1 0CHTS Of POPUUW SOFTWARE TtTLES. ACCESSOHeS & HAftDWAne AT UP TO 80% OfFi

#2 QUAUTY PRODUCTS

Ouft PnOOUCTS AHE SEuecTEO BY TRAINED TeCHMIQANS TO ASSURE THE BEST ajALFTY AVAILABLE.

#3 30 DAY HOME TRIAL

TFWaiTOJfltXALfTy MAPOW«iEFOfl30 0*yS. |FWrThl«30tU¥SV0UABEHCiT 100%
SATRCIED wrm YCHJfl PliRCHASES, YOy CAN RETUBN THEU. HaSSLE FR££f

#4 NO CREDIT CARD FEES

No EXTRA CARD CHARGES WHEN YOU US£ VOUR VISA, MWTEflCARO Ofl DISCOVER CARD.

#5 90 DAY IMMEDIATE REPLACEMENT

Vi/E Wru. OO Eveft/TMIHG POSSIBLE TO HELP VOU W GET YOUR PURCHASES O^fUlCKAL iF
VOUn UERCKANOiSE FAPL5 TO OPERATE WTTHH 90 DAYS, WE Wia UUEOIATELY REPLACE T.

#6 FAST, LOW COST DELIVERY

We SHIP UPS GnojwD Service, Znc Day on Overnight oeuvery. We heure all

SHPMEffTS AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOtj!

#7 EXECUTIVE SPEED REPLACEMENT

S^IP us your DEFECirVf UMfT OVEmCHT, AND WE'LL RETUflH FT TO YOU THE SAME WAyI

#3 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

You'll never feel lost m the world of computers wheh you have ourtecwcal suhkjrt

TO &ACK rOU UP. OuFI TECHKtClANS ARE TFUkHEO TO HANOl£ UOsT PnOSLEUS OvEfl THE PtOfEl

Call (708)382-2882

09 CUSTOMER SERVICE

If you need H£|> WTTH VOUR etLWQ OH ADDtlONAi ^HPPfK WfOfOUTOH, OtJP PflOFESSOMAl
JSTAFF IS SPECUU.IY TRAWEO TO HAHCVLE YOUR MEEDS. CAU Otfi CUSTOMER SATSFaCTON EXPEFITS
(7M}3B2-5332 hlouRS: fl :30am to 4:30pm (CDTl Mcm.-Frl

^10 24 HOUR BULLETIN BOARD SERVICE

OrQER 24 WJURS A DAY WFTH OUR SPECIAL BBS SERVICEI TECHNICAL TIPS, DH-UNE OftDEfiWG.
ELECTROHC MAIL AND A WKXE LOT MORE !

High Resolution Serial Mouse

AGILER MOUSE FEATURES:

290 ■ I i50 dpi rowJuHor • pop-up memii fev 1 7 popola- opplkaliorj .,/
• Menu moJiflr yrfiiy ■ Egiy injldbticn • 3 buflorj opto-medyinkoi iw( ^

«18

95

Wfr. Sugg. RotolJ 549.00

Mars 105 Plus Scanner Kit

400 dpi - M Gray Scoiwr 105 mm icwining wkj^
Wtti CAT Oa Olid PC folnfeuiJi Plus So(f-o™.
•M holFtone Irnll ' ScanKi ulilV • EMS luppat

*134»?

Mfr.Si^.JfefoJ 5349,00

100 MEG ON VCR Tape Back-Up

Ekxk-up your honj diik on a itmidani VCR

""^ -"~ '^^k-i>p. AukxTvik file deksy ia*Jr., ^

3 vs« inihvctionj. Very high rsllobilitj-l

$1 3995

i^ your honJ diik on o itmidani VCR top*. A muil for quick
and miy bocki>p. AuktntaHc file dftb/ lolup, dncJecKon wildcards,
mpw *o*y b vw inihvctionj. Very high rsllobilifjl

Mfr. Sugg. PetoiVSrZP.OO

Seikosha 192CPS P£/?fo/mi>\nce Printer

Versatile Paper Handling ■ Compact Design - Excellent Print Quality

• 192CPS DRAFT • 48CPS NLQ

• 10" CARRIAGE

• AUTO LOAD PAPER PARKINo

• 2 RESIDENT NLQ FONTS

• FRONT PANEL CONTROtS

• SLf EK, EUROPEAN DESIGN

• PAPER SAVING PUSH-TRAaOB

Mfr, Sugg. Retail S299.9S

139"

MODEMS

2400 Baud Internal Modem

$54»5

Supefhr H<jyei Compaftfaifily

• tAyia n *« USA! • FiJI w Hc^F Du^
« fcNiw«ll Modem Chip S«t lor Fosl, Rellot^
Con>nbuni«]hons * By3Ho Wwk wi^ ihe

Send-FAX Internal Modem

Modam & FAX All-'m-Onel

• Haye» d Group 3 Cofnpaiiblfl • Wl or
Hal DupJax ■ Two raor Wononty • Auto
D)ol/Aniw«r ■ InKfixi^ SpAoker with
Soh«*o™ Seffrttblo Volyfne • 7 Statyj lECfi
■ Specid Combinoti'on Sohwora

wfr. Si^. ffflto.t5l9C.M

$7995

Lowest Price
IN THE Country!

5.25" DS/HD
Floppy Disks

100% CertrRd-Enw Free
Lifetime Guoranteel

IF rgur DIslcelte Fails We
Will Repla» it FREEI

Magnavox 14" Super
VGA Color Monitor

■ 1024x763 ReioJulon

• Dual froquerxy orxjbg
cokx dtjplcfy

• 1 4' onli-gkjrB frBohtd Kreen
*0.2amTidetpit<li

• Tilt & swivol itand inckxied

*339'*

Al/r. 5ugg. Rehil $799.00

The New Printshop^

.^m ^F Mfr. Sogg. Retail $59.00

HouRs{CDT): Monday - Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to Noon

OUR BEST SELllNG SOFTWARE TTTlfl
Moko bonrwrv, iFgns, oowjlettoni,
or gr«o*ing cordj, Ea>y *0 UW,
high quoll^ docurTMi^h and k^h oF hjnl

Seagate ST 1 5 7A
44 MB Hard Drive

QuoliV Seogoks IDE Hard Drrve

• 44.7 MegobylM of itorogo

• ATlRi Inteffoca

• 2Bnis crvflfoge occbu r!m«

$19995

Mfr. Sugg, Reloil $499.00

We Carry a Fuu Une of Computers,

Software & AccEssoRtEs!
Call for Your FREE Catalog Today!

lOOO'S OF ITEMS IN STOCK

"Sk'^ng dvKpw on no* r»(undoye. Pricw do ret i;»dude lliippirvg dM>rQtti. Coll to pH your low«il delnwd cott. W« \nwfv oU iKlprrwifi ol no txTro
COtI to yo«j! AH pockogm an nomwl^y vJilfjped LfPS C>0«JTid- 2rid dov ctyi tr*VT\\^i d*lv«y c>ra owilcfcis ol BJthn ttnl, We ilik> ta dl poimh in rha U$,
Conodo, Puerto Rico, Akjiko, Hcr-oli. Virgin likiodi cmd APO-FPO. Mexrikan only liiipped in Coriintrid US. (llinoii rswder^h odd 6.5% »[« tax. Pr^CM
ond cTvollobillV uk^d ta cKonge wittxx/l notkt- No* rmpootiUe fof typogropiiccil frfroo « OfrrlHiom. 'Compgter Dirwd wiE motcK ony cjfrent jwil^iir^ 30
doyi] rwfwnoUj' odi*rtiied prtce on «xod »ome ikm. Ssin tax no* inckJdBd. VariRco*io*i r»qui/W. Pidurw W itkiifroHon pjrpo«i only. AiS^kJ pfodud
may dLlnr, ua ipacJrfcoKans.

COMPUTER DIRECT, INC.

22292 N. Pepper Road
BarringlDn, JL 60010

'li'e Love Out Customers'

Circle Reader Service Number 114

TEST LAB

FURTHER
INFORMATION

AST PREMIUM EXEC 386SX/20

CPU: 80386SX, CPU Speed: 20
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K. Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB, up to
8MB

Ports: serial, parallel, VGA, 6-pin
PS/2-style mini-DIN (for
mouse, keypad, or keyboard)

Drives: 3y2-incti 1.44MB floppy,
20MB, 40MB. or 60MB tiard

Video Modes: VGA paper white
with 32 shades of gray

Screen Type: backlitCCFT super-
twist film LCD

Standard Accessories: MS-DOS
3.3, LapLinkS, serial interface
cable, BatteryWatch, tilt stand/
battery pack, 110/220-volt au-
tosensing AC adapter, carry-
ing case with handle, AST utili-
ties, complete documentation

Optional Accessories: 2400-
baud modem— $249, 9600-
baud fax/send— $349, numer-
ic keypad — $119, leather ac-
cessory case — $299, nylon ac-
cessory case — $1 29, car adapt-
er/battery charger with built-in
quick charger— $129, light-
weight small trickle battery
charger — $29, secondary bat-
tery pack— $99, 4MB memory
expansion (SIMMs)- $999, ex-
ternal charger for use with AG
and auto adapters to charge
secondary battery pack —
$119

Warranty: one year (extended
warranty available)

Sepu'ice Plan: through dealer or
third-party maintenance com-
pany

circle Reader Service Number 301

DEU 320N

CPU: 80386, CPU Speed: 20
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB, expand-
able to 5MB

Ports: serial, parallel/external
drive, VGA, keyboard/keypad,
mouse

54 COMPUTE

Drives: 3y2-inch 1,44MB floppy,
40MB or 60MB hard

Video Modes: VGA

Screen Type: triple supertwist
LCD

Standard Accessories; battery
pack, nylon case, AC power
adapter

Optional Accessories: 1MB mem-
ory— $149.00, 2MB memory—
$249.00, 4MB memory—
$498.00, monochrome VGA
monitor— $149,00, color VGA
monitor— $399.00, SuperVGA
color monitor— $499,00, 2400-
bps data/fax modem (price
unavailable), extra battery —
$79.95, DOS 3.3— $99.95,
DOS 4.01 or 5.0— $119.00,
pocket network adapter
cards— $279.00-$659.00,
9600-bps fax— $399.00, 8387
SX coprocessor— $349.00, ex-
ternal S'A-inch 1.2MB drive —
$349.00, 40/120MB external
tape backup unit — $449.00, nu-
meric keypad — $149.00, auto-
mobile adapter— $129.00, ad-
ditional AC adapter— $69.95,
pseudoleather case— $99.95,
replacement slip case — $17.95

Warranty: one year parts and la-
bor, 30-day satisfaction guar-
antee

Service Plan: automatic one-year
contract with next-day on-site
replacement, can be extended
for additional fee; offered by
Dell, performed by Xerox

circle Reader Service Number 302

GRID 1720

CPU: 80C286, CPU Speed: 16
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB. up to
5MB

Ports; serial, parallel. VGA, exter-
nal PS/2-compatible keyboard,
modular phone jack

Drives: SVa-inch 1.44MB floppy,
20MB or 60MB hard

Video Modes: CGA, EGA, VGA

Screen Type: backlit triple twist
LCD

Standard Accessories; internal re-
chargeable/removable battery
pack. DOS 4.01 , AC power sup-
ply, 2400-baud modem, real-

time clock

Optional Accessories: leather
carrying case, corduroy car-
rying case, enhanced battery,
Xircom token ring adapter, eth-
ernet adapters (prices unavail-
able)

Warranty; one year

Service Plan; information availa-
ble by calling Grid

circle Reader Service Number 303

HYUNDAI SUPER-LT5

CPU: 80386SX, CPU Speed: 8/
16 MHz switchable

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory; 2MB, expand-
able to 6MB

Ports: serial, parallel, VGA, exter-
nal floppy drive, external key-
board

Drives; SYj-inch 1.44MB floppy,
40MB hard

Video Modes: VGA

Screen Type: backlit supertwist
LCD

Standard Accessories: AC adapt-
er, ni-cad battery MS-DOS
4.01, GW-BASIC

Optional Accessories: 2400-bps
modem — $395, soft black car-
rying case with shoulder
strap — $95, extra battery
pack— $145

Warranty: 18 months

Service Plan: through dealer

Circle Reader Service Number 304

LEADING EDGE D/IT386SX PLUS

CPU: 80386, CPU Speed: 16
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 2MB

Ports: serial, parallel, VGA,
mouse

Drives: 3Va-inch 1 .44MB floppy,
40MB or 100MB hard

Video Modes: VGA

Screen Type: bacl<l!t supertwist
LCD

Standard Accessories: battery
MS-DOS, GW-BASIC, and Win-
dows 3.0

Optional Accessories: modem —
$199, extra battery pack— $70,
cigarette-lighter adapter — $6,
carrying case — $70

Warranty: 12 months on all
equipment

Service Plan: no on-site for lap-
tops; carry-in to dealers; num-
ber listed above

Circle Reader Service Number 305

PANASONIC CF-270
BUSINESS PARTNER

CPU: 80C286, CPU Speed: 16
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB, expand-
able to 5MB

Ports; serial, parallel, VGA< exter-
nal keyboard

Drives: 3 '/2-inch 1.44MB floppy,
20MB hard

Video Modes; VGA

Screen Type: backlit supertwist
LCD

Standard Accessories: MS-DOS,
GW-BASIC, diagnostic utilities,
AC adapter

Optional Accessories: 1MB RAM
card — $369, rechargeable
ni-cad battery — $99, internal
2400-baud modem— $199

Warranty: one year parts and
labor

Service Plan: through Panasonic

Circle Reader Service Number 306

SHARP PC-6220

CPU; 80286, CPU Speed; 12
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB, expand-
able to 3MB

Ports: serial, parallel, numeric key-
pad, bus for expansion unit

Drives: 20MB hard

Video Modes: CGA, EGA, VGA,
MDA

Screen Type: backlit triple
supertwist LCD

Standard Accessories: AC adapt-
er, MS-DOS, LapLink

Optional Accessories: CRT
cord— $149. 1MB memory —
$499, add-on battery— $249,
S'/s-inch 1.44MB floppy drive—
S299, fax/modem— $499, nu-
meric keypad— $99, expan-
sion unit— S699

Warranty: one year for service
and parts

Service Plan: through Sharp Elec-
tronics

circle Reader Service Number 307

TANDY 2810 HD

CPU: 80286, CPU Speed: 16
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 384K, expand-
able to 5MB

Ports: serial, parallel, VGA, exter-
nal keyboard, external disk
drive

Drives: SVs-inch 1 .44MB floppy,
20MB hard

Video Modes: VGA

Screen Type; backlit triple super-
twist LCD

Standard Accessories; MS-DOS
4.01, battery, DeskMate 3. LIM

4.0, AC adapter, charger
Optional Accessories: 2400-
baud internal modem —
$199.95, replacement bat-
tery— $99,95, 1MB memory—
$399.95, carrying cases —
$39.95-$49.95

Warranty: one year

Service Plan; optional extended

plan with Radio Shack
Circle Reader Service Number 308

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
TRAVELMATE 2000

CPU: 80286. CPU Speed: 12
MHz

Conventional Memory: 640K, Ex-
tended Memory; 1MB, expand-
able to 3MB

Ports: serial, parallel, numeric key-
pad, expansion station

Drives: 20MB hard (standard),
40MB hard (optional)

Video Modes; VGA

Screen Type: sidelit triple super-
twist LCD

Standard Accessories: DOS

4.01, BatteryWatch, Laptop
and File Manager, LapLink

Optional Accessories: modem —
S299, extra RAM module—
$399, optional floppy drive —
$219, math coprocessor —
$589, CRT interface— $109, ex-
tra battery pack— $89, external
battery pack — $179, numeric
keypad— $69, deluxe carrying
case— $69, leather portfolio—
$49, expansion station— $799

Warranty: one year

Service Plan; optional, varies by
location

Circle Reader Service Number 309

TOSHIBA T1000LE

CPU; 8086, CPU Speed: 9.54
MHz

Conventional Memory; 640K, Ex-
tended Memory: 1MB, expand-
able to 9MB

Ports: serial, parallel

Drives: aVj-inch 1.44MB floppy,
20MB hard

Video Modes: CGA

Screen Type: sidelit supertwist
LCD

Standard Accessories: DOS 3.3,
Reference Guide, Portable
Companion, MS-DOS Manual,
FirstTime Guide

Optional Accessories: 1MB mem-
ory— $269, 2MB memory—
$479, 4MB memory— $889,
8MB memory — $1,779, univer-
sal AC adapter— $75, battery
pack recharger — $279, battery
pack 2200 milliamps— $105,
battery pack 1700 milliamps —
$65, modem-slot battery
pack — $65, fabric carrying
case — $79, leather carrying
case — $105, automobile adapt-
er — $59, 2400-bps Hayes-com-
patible modem for dedicated
slot— $279, 2400-bps Hayes-
compatible modem (cellular
modem) — $359, external 5Vi-
inch 360K floppy— $399, Toshi-
ba BASIC 3.0— $99, MS-DOS
4.01— $99, Desk Station II—
$1,199

Warranty; one year parts and la-
bor

Service Plan; Exceptional Care
(Toshiba), first year free

Circle Reader Service Number 310

All Benchmark/Performance
Testing is conducted bu Com-
puter Product Testing Serv-
ices, Inc. (CRTS), an inde-
pendent testing and evalua-
tion laboratory based in
Manasquan, New Jersey.
Every effort has been made
to ensure the accuracy and
completeness of this data as
of the date of testing. Per-
formance may vary among
samples.

55

DOS 5.0
A PERFECT 10

THE

SOFTWARE BARGAIN

OF

THE YEAR

BY MARK MINASI

Since its introduction ten years ago,
DOS has seen a lot of clianges,
not all for the better. People with
long PC experience and good mem-
ories know that new versions of DOS
are often mixed blessings, so the
news that there's a new version may
not bring a smile to everyone's face.

But this version is different, and it
ought [0 make you smile. With version
5.0, DOS has emerged from its stormy
adolescence and developed into a ma-
ture, well-rounded operating system.

What's so special about this DOS?
Well, it uses less memory than previ-
ous versions and includes commands
that allow you to unerase files and,
more amazing, unformat disks.

It comes with a shell that lets you
run multiple programs at the same
time, and it remembers your last 20^ or
so commands, allowing you to recall,
edit, and reissue them, saving count-
less keystrokes.

With the new DIR command, you
can sort files by name, size, date, or ex-
tension; show hidden files; only show
hidden files or files that haven't been
backed up; and a multitude of other
possibilities.

If I sound breathless, 1 am. I've
worked with enough so-called new-and-
improved software products to know
what to expect of a new operating sys-
tem. I figured that 5.0 either wouldn't
work with my Novell network, would
clash with my OnTrack Disk Manager,
or wouldn't run with Windows, and on
and on.

imagine my surprise when I saw
that 5.0 ships with a Novell driver, a 5.0-
compatible version of the OnTrack soft-
ware, and new and cleaner versions of
EMM386.EXE and HIMEM.SYS, the crit-
ical memory-organizing device drivers
used by Windows 3.0!

Microsoft has really put some
thought into this system, and I'm sure
it's going to pay off. I wouldn't be sur-
prised if virtually everyone in the PC
world hasn't switched to DOS 5.0 with-
in a year.

More Memory

At a recent press conference, a Micro-
soft PR person asked, "What is Micro-
soft best known for?" A member of the
audience shouted, "The 640K limita-
tion!"

That wasn't the answer the flack was
looking for, but it addressed perhaps
the best-known and most annoying lim-
itation of MS-DOS. The operating sys-
tem is restricted to using the lowest
part of your computer's memory poten-
tial, called conventional memory.

Some vendors have responded to
this problem with clever programs
called memory managers. The best-

58 COMPUTE

selling of these are OEMM, from Quar-
terdeck Systems, and 386MAX, from
Qualitas. These programs allow you to
make some use of the extended mem-
ory that often goes unused on a 386,
386SX, or 486 system. These 386-
type systems can theoretically have
more than 4000 megabytes of extend-
ed memory, so any program that lets
you use some extended memory is ob-
viously valuable.

These memory managers perform
two main functions. First, they allow
you to load device drivers and memory-

You'll need to focus on the
HIMEM.SYS and EMM386,EXE device
drivers, the new DOS=HIGH,UMB com-
mand, the DEVICEHIGH CONFIG.SYS
command, and the LOADHIGH AU-
TOEXEC.BAT command.

You'll have to noodle around with
these a bit to make them work well, but
it's worth the time. One final caution: In
order to load DOS above the 640K ad-
dresses, you need an 80286 or better
computer; to load device drivers and
TSRs above 640K, you need an 80386
or better.

DOS 5.0'S TOP 1 hN FEATURES

• New memory manager that loads

• New QuickBASIC interpreter (QBASIC)

DOS, device drivers, and TSRs into

• New command-history retriever (DOS-

high memory {DOS, HIMEM.SYS, and

KEY)

EMM386.EXE)

• Improved SYS command (SYS)

• New unerase, untormal, and file-sys-

• Improved shell with built-in task switch-

tem tracking commands (LINERASE,

er (DOSSHELL)

UNFORMAT and MIRROR)

• Improved directory command (DIR)

• New text editor with full mouse support

• Improved disk checking (CHKDSK)

and pull-down menus (EDIT)

• Improved memory viewing (MEM)

resident TSR programs above the
640K of conventional memory, freeing
up conventional memory that was
once used by these helpers.

Second, they temporarily translate
some of that otherwise-unused extend-
ed memory into a third kind of memory
called expanded memory, memory
used by programs like 1-2-3 version 2
or l/VordPerfecf version 5.1.

Both of these functions are valuable,
and that's why both Qualitas and Quar-
terdeck sales are doing well at the mo-
ment.

But now, they have competition
from DOS itself. The new HIMEM.SYS
included with 5.0 does more than sim-
ply serve Windows; it provides the real
magic behind one of 5.0's most eye-
catching features.

Is There Really 61 4K Free?

1 just ran CHKDSK, and it told me that,
despite having loaded a pile of memo-
ry-hungry device drivers and TSRs, I
have 614K of my 640K free. Under
DOS 3.3, that number would've been
somewhere around 520K; under 4.01,
it would be about 508K.

HIMEM, in concert with a new CON-
FIG.SYS command DOS=HIGH, actual-
ly loads as much as 64K of DOS into
your computer's extended memory! An-
other 5.0 program, EMM386.EXE, al-
lows you to load device drivers and
TSRs above 640K, just like OEMM and
386MAX, and again, it works without a
hitch with Windows.

Once you get a copy of 5.0, don't
miss out on these memory benefits.

A Kinder, Gentler File System

You've done it. I've done it.
Everyone's done it at some point or an-
other: accidentally erased a file. If
you're like millions of PC users, you've
gone out and purchased The Norton
Utilities. PC Tools, or Ttie Mace Utili-
ties. But 5.0 now includes the utilities
UNDELETE, UNFORMAT, and MIR-
ROR from Central Point Software's PC
Tools Deluxe. UNDELETE reverses a
file erasure — within limits. If you wait
too long between when you've erased
the file and when you try to undelete it,
it may no longer be recoverable.

How does UNDELETE work this mi-
nor miracle? Simple. When DOS eras-
es a file, it doesn't go to the actual
trouble of overwriting the area on disk
where the file resides. Instead, it just
marks that area as usable for creating
new files.

As long as you don't create any new
flies, there's no demand to actually util-
ize this available area. Create a new
file, however, and there's the chance
that your "erased" file will actually be ir-
revocably overwritten. UNDELETE
sniffs out the waiting-to-be-overwritten
file and reconstructs its old directory en-
try.

You can make life easier for UN-
DELETTE, however, with another of the
Central Point tools now in 5.0: MIR-
ROR. MIRROR makes a copy of your
system's table of contents— two areas
you may have heard of, called the Pile
Allocation Table (EAT) and the root di-
rectory.

Both UNDELETE and UNFORMAT

Flightstick"

KICK BACK

and relax, you've got a CH Products Controller!

\

e.

•0.

^

MachI" and
MachlPtus"

Mach II " and CameCard III Automatic '• RollerMouse "
Machlll" GameCard III Automatic/MCA"

CIrple Reader Service Number 207

970 Paik Center Dms
Visia, Califortm 92083

(B19JS9S-S5I8

Tooi<iier:(80O)B24-58O4 gUMilSSH

Made in USA

Available for Apple, Mac, IBM PC/PS2
and compatible computers.

USING DOS 5.0'S MEMORY MANAGER

To get the most from 5.0's new memory
management skills, you need to follow a
few simple rules.

The first two lines in your CONFIG.SYS
file should install HIMEM.SYS and
EMM386.EXE in that order, if you're run-
ning EtvlM386 just to load device drivers
and TSRs high and aren't using its abili-
ty to emulate expanded memory, you'll
need to add the parameter NOEMS. Al-
so, if your system includes hardware
that uses addresses between 640K and
1024K, you'll need to add the exclude
switch (X) to tell EMM386 not to use
those addresses. Here's an example of
those first two lines:

DEVICEsC:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
X=CCOO-DOOO

Make sure you use DOS 5.0's HIMEM
and EMM386 commands. You may
have several copies of these on your
hard disk. Find the old ones and delete
them.

Now you're ready to load device driv-
ers and TSRs high-

To load a device driver high, instead
of using DEVICE=, you use DE-
VICEHIGH=. For example, to load AN-
SI.SYS high, you'd use the command DE-
VICEHIGH=ANSI.SYS. It's important to
note that you can't use DEVICEHIGH
with HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE.

As a rule, it's best to load programs in
order by size, starting with larger pro-
grams.

To load DOS itself high, you'll want to
add ttie command DOS=HIGH,UMB.

Here's a sample CONFIG.SYS for
DOS 5.0:

DEVICE=C:\00S\HIIVIE!V1.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EIVIIVI38B.EXE NOEIVIS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.SYS

2048 1024
DEUICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE

DEVICEHIGH=C:\D0S\ANS1.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\iViOUSE.SYS /S50
SHELL=C:\D0S\C0IV!1V!AND.C0IVI C:\

D0S\/E:512 /P
BUFFERS=ia
FILES=40
STACKS=0,0
DOS=KIGH,UIVIB

To load TSRs high, yot; simply pre-
cede the command in your AUTOEX-
EC.BAT with LOADHIGH. For example,
to load DOS's new DOSKEY command-
history retriever into conventional mem-
ory, you'd put the command DOSKEY in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. To load this
program into high memory, you use the
line LOADHIGH DOSKEY.

Here's a sample AUTOEXEC.BAT:

©ECHO OFF
VERIFY OFF
PATHC:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\

UT;C:\BA;C:\UT;C:\UT\NU;C:\UT\XY
C:\DOSMVIIRROR C: /I
SET DIRCMD=/W/P/ON
PROMPT SDSJP$G
LOADHIGH C:\DOS\DOSKEY /INSERT
CD \WINDOWS
WIN

There's one more command that's essen-
tial for memory management — MEM.
MEM's been around since DOS 4.0, but
it has a new feature that displays how
much memory your device drivers and
TSRs are using and where in convention-
al or upper memory they're loading.

To get the big picture, type MEM/C
IMORE at the DOS prompt. If some of
the programs you tried to load into high
memory actually loaded into convention-
al memory, change the order in which
they load. You'll probably need to experi-
ment a little to get the most from 5.0's ex-
cellent new memory management fea-
tures.

— CLIFTON KARNES

use this copy as a starting point when
reconstructing files after damage or era-
sure. The MIRROR backup isn't essen-
tial, but it greatly increases your chanc-
es of data recovery. And running it reg-
ularly is painless — just include it in
yourAUTOEXEC.BAT

The third command of this group is
the nnost annazing: UNFORMAT Acci-
dentally format a floppy disk or a liard
disk, and in a twinkling you can undo
the damage. This seems to violate the
laws of physics, but again, there's no
real magic involved. It's already been
said that erasure operations don't ac-
tually overwrite files. Instead they tell
DOS to forget that the files exist and
treat the areas in which they reside as
available. As it turns out, the FORMAT
command just does the same thing on
a grand scale.

60 COMPUTE

UNFORMAT reconstructs the FAT
and root directory, effectively nullifying
the accidental FORMAT operation —
again, this only works if you run UNFOR-
MAT before you create any new files.

Along the lines of data recovery,
there are two minor revisions of old
DOS programs that are worth mention-
ing. FORMAT itself is smarter and can
now format a disk in just 16 seconds,
provided that the disk has already
been formatted at some time in the
past.

And SYS, the DOS utility that makes
disks or hard drives bootable, used to
be very picky about which disks it
would work with. Its criteria for boota-
bility were so stringent that it was near-
ly useless.

SYS's limitations really showed
when trying to upgrade the DOS on

your hard disk. More than once, I
gave up trying to get SYS to play ball
and just reformatted the disk to get the
new DOS on the hard disk.

SYS is now much more accommodat-
ing. So much so, in fact, that it seems
amenable to making any disk boota-
ble, so long as there's about 85K of
free space on the disk for the system
files.

The UNDELETE and UNFORMAT pro-
grams, and others like them, have cer-
tainly been available through third par-
ties for years. But it's nice to finally see
them included with DOS. These tools
are too good for just power users to
know about. And the fact that SYS is fi-
nafly useful (after a mere ten years) is
quite welcome.

The Old Shell Gome

More and more PC users prefer a pro-
gram-launching, file-managing shell pro-
gram to the arid charms of the C
prompt, so word of DOS 4.01 's shell pro-
gram was greeted enthusiastically in
the user community — at least until the
community actually saw the shell.

You could say that the DOS 4.01
shell was to shells what EDLIN is to ed-
itors. DOS S.O's DOSSHELL improves
on the previous shell to a point where
it's actually not bad. as shells go. Even
veteran command line jocks may find
a use for the shell's newest feature —
task switching.

With task switching, any computer,
even an XT, can load multiple pro-
grams and switch among them. Now,
be sure to read that correctly This isn't
full-fledged multitasking. Load 1-2-3
and WordPerfect, and only one of
them is actually running at any time —
the program that you're working with.

But when you want to switch from 1-
2-3 to l/l/orcfPerfecf, you don't need to
exit 1-2-3 and start WordPerfect. Rath-
er, you just type Alt-Esc, a key combi-
nation familiar to Windows users.

The main benefit is quick switches
from one program to another, which
could be quite a welcome benefit for a
user with an older 8088-based system
or someone who doesn't want to have
to fool with Windows just to load multi-
ple programs.

Each DOS session, by the way,
gets 582K of RAM {on my system, at
least) — not bad for a task switcher
that comes free with the operating sys-
tem,

Other than task switching, the shell
has the usual shell features — mouse
support for selecting files for copying
and deleting, a visual representation of
your disk's tree structure, and point-
and-click program launching.

There are a couple of little extras,
too: a 50-line screen mode and the an-

|iiir4<iia.s('(l

THE wan L»'!i> BEST PROGRAMS

• The World's BEST User-Supported Software for IBM PC Compatibles •

• Programs run from Gold Hill's Exclusive Menu System - Just type WOW •

• Same or next day shipping • Federal Express available for only $4 more •

• Toil-Free Order line • Visa/MasterCard Accepted • FREE Catalog •
»> Unconditional 30 day Money-Back Guarantee!! <«

1

pitr<'liUN<>tl

ACT NOW!!

3 FREE D!SKS!!

LIMITED TIME!!

BUSINESS

J FormGen (1630) Design and print
any business/office form easily.

-i FormGen Fil! (1631) FiH out

FormGen-created forms more quickly
and accurately, i'equires FormGoni
J FormGen Business Forms (1632)
An excellent collection of pre-designed
business forms, iieq, FormGon) HD
J Doctor Data Label (1717) A profes-
sional matHist manager. HD, .512K
J Checkmate Plus (1109, 1110) A
complete cfiecktHxik manager. Handles
unlimited accounts and does reconcili-
ation, i?- disks) 512K. HD
J Business Kit (16S6) Two programs
(or small businesses: Simple Book-
keeper and Billing Statement.
LI Solvelt! (1 624,1 625) Excel lent finan-
cial calculations package. (2 disks) HD
U Invoice-It (1664) Keep track of in-
voices, merchandise, vendors and
customers at ttie point of sale. HD
:J Names and Dates (1619.1620) An
address book, calendar system, and
mailing list combination. (2diaks)512K
U ZPAY 3 (161 0, 1 61 1 ) A full-featured
payroll package. (2 disks) HD
U PC-Areacode(1655) Helps you find
the areacode for any city in the U.S. or
Canada quickly and easily.

EDUCATION

J Computer Tutor (123S) Become a
more effective computer user,
a School Mom (1 251 ) Teaches kids 2-
14 the basics of art, music, spelling,
English and math. FANTASTIC^! C6A
U World (1221) A computer encyclo-
pedia of global information. CGA

□ Total Recall (1245) This program
helps you quickly memorize words and
information on any subject.

U Algehrax (1233) A great program
that teaches algebra. CGA, DOS 3.0

J Pre-Caiculus (1218) Excellem pre-
calc tutor. Reviews algebra and trig.
'J Play n' Learn (1236) A collection of
learning games for cliildren. CGA

□ Kl nder Math (1 262) An excellent math
tutor for children- Three levels of diffi-
culty. Very entertaining, CGA

"JWordWhte(1252)Achallengingwofd
game that tests your vocabulary.

J Word Gallery (1256) Teaches kids
to link v^fiften words with objects. CGA
J Wunder Book (1 269) A collection of
5 colorful and fun games in Englisti,
Spanish, French, and German for chil-
dren 3 to 10 years old. EGA or VGA
J Animated Shapes (1264) Teaches
shapes and colors lo pre-schoolers
using animated graphics. 640K. EGA

SPREADSHEET

lJ On Side (1506) Prints your spread-
sheets (or any file) sideways.
U As-Easy-As (1805) A fantastic Lo-
tus 1-2-3 compatible spreadsheet.
J Lotus Learning Sys.(1810,t811)A
complete package that makes it easy
to learn Lotus 1-2-3. (2 disks) HD
U InstaCalc (161) A very high-power,
stand-alone spreadsheet which may
also be run as a TSR (pop-up) spread-
sheet. (2 disks)

MS WINDOWS 3.0

These programs require Windows 3,0.
J Almanac (1470) An excellent calen-
dar/information utility.
^ Icon Library (1 481 ) Customize your
Windows operating environment with
this collection of over 300 icons.
_1 Paint Shop (1488) An excellent
graphics tool for desktop publishing.
Supports BWIP, GIF, IMG, MAC, PCX,
and RLE fonmats.

_l Active Life (1 472) A poweriui sys-
tem for managing your active business
and personal life.

J Icondraw (1478) Create your own
icons to use with Windows
LJ XVTDraw (1489) A great drawing
program that is in many ways better
than the Wi ndows Paintbrush program.
J Screen Peace (1486) A FANTAS-
TIC screen saver with many beautiful
and interesting variations.
Zi Change Cursor Utility (1487) Al-
lows you to design you r own arrow and
hourglass cursors to use with Windows.

WORD
PROCESSING

a WP 5.0/5.1 Clip Art (1875,1876) A

large collection of c lip art to add spice to
your WP documents. (2 '.fisksl

J PC Write 3.03 (1851-1853) A very
popular fuH-featured word processor.
(3disks)HD, 512K

J WP 5-1 Learning System (1865-

1 867) Be a more prof icient WP user. (3
disks) HD. 51 2K

J Readability Plus (1340) A comput-
erized writing style analyzer.
JGrabPlus/LaserLabel(ie83,1884)

Takes addresses from a word proces-
sor and sends them lo the printer, HD

APPLICATIONS

J Trip Planner (1 33 1 ) A computerized
road map. Computes best route. Very
popular!

_l Melody Maker (1918) A fun and

easy-to-use program for new or expe-
fienced music students. Comes with
several songs.

J Calendar fVfate (1344) A full-fea-
tured program designed to create per-
sonalized calendars.
□ Lotto! (1 31 3) Win Ihe lottery with the
help of your computer!
JBowl 101 (1346) Auser-friendly bowl-
ing league management program.
J The Electric Almanac (1341) A
source for lots of useful information.

GRAPHICS

J Picture Label (1501) An excellent
label printing program that uses
PrintMaster or PrintShop graphics.
-I Banner Maker (1502) Prints ban-
ners in various sizes, styles, and fonts.
J Dazzle (1530) An amazing random-
ized color pattern generator. Perfor-
mance art for the eyes! i;GA or VGA
J Cooper PM Graphics (1516,1517)
Approx, 800 clip-art images to be used
with PrintMaster. (2 disksl
D Cooper PS Graphics (1518,1519)
Approx. 800 ciip-art images to be useci
with PrintShop. (2 disks)

HOME & FAMILY

J Family Tree Journal (1122, 1123)

Presents your genealogical information
in book form. (2 disks) HD
J l-fome Inventory (1 1 05) Keeps track
of all your personal property.
3 Personal Budget Tools (1 1 08) Pro-
vides a simple way to plan for annual,
semi-annual, and quarterly expenses.
J Win Kit (1343) Create your own will
valid in all 50 states.
Zl Cash Control (1127) Manage your
bank accounts the fast and easy way
with this great program, 320K

UTILITIES

J Auto Menu (1409) A professional
hard disk menu system. Run any of
your programs from a customized
menu. HD

J ViruScan (1440) Ivlake sure your
computer is virus-free with this vafuable
utility. Highly recommended!
J Tree View (1418) A superior DOS
command shell with pull-down menus.
J Telix (1422) The best telecommuni-
cations program available. HD
J VGA Fonts (1442) A collection of fun
and interesting fonts to spice up your
VGA screen display. VGA

-J Virus Central ( 1 441 ) A program that
simplifies the use of ViruScan by pro-
viding a menu oriented environment
Requires ViruScan 512K CGA, HD

J PC Pro (1443) Combines a user
menu, a file manager, an enhanced
DOS prompt, and many new features
into one environment 384K, HD

GAMES

a Double Blocks (1970) ATERRIFIC
Tetris clone for 1 or 2 players. Records
top scores. You will love this!!
a Video PokerAJItima 21 (1945) The
BEST poker and blackjack games!
Zl Pharaoh's Tomb (1974) Face mon-
sters and traps as you explore the
pyramid. Your goal is to sun/ive,
J Bass Tour (1 92S)Fishinyour choice
of lakes. Try to win the trophy.
Zl ZZT (1 921 ) Test your problem solv-
ing ability and your a rcade skills as you
battle your way through 43 rooms.
-J Field General (1931) Experience
the excitement of a pro football game
from a coach's point of view. CGA. HD
J Insanity (1 936) Find your way out of
this maze before going insane! CGA
Zl The Monuments of Mars! (1920)
Many tough levels filled with puzzles,
traps and creatures. 350K, CGA
Zl Arctic Adventure (1982) Contains
80 new levels of mind bending, finger
twitching, arcade action. 3yM. CGA

VGA GAMES

Zl Shooting Gallery (1990) Seven

variations of a shooting range on your

computer screen. VGA, mouse

J VGA Sharks (1992) Recover lost

treasure in stiark infested waters in this

action arcade game. vrjA

J Beyond Columns (1997) Beyond is

like Tetris with a tv/ist. VGA

J VGA Jigsaw (1993) Uses beautiful

pictures to create puzzles for you to put

back together. VGA

EGA GAMES

J The Last Half of Darkness (1962)

Scary graphics and mysterious puzzles
to challenge your mind. EGA. HD
-I Dark Ages (1 964) A bril liant arcade/
adventure game with superij graphics
and animation. 400K, EGA, 286 or faster
mHcnint;

J Poker Slot (1 989) Plays just like the
video poker machines you see in casi-
nos. Great graphics! EGA, mouse
J Commander Keen (1986) One of
the best games we have ever seen.
Exceptional play and graphics. EGA
J Double Link (1983) A great Tetris
style game that is sure to keep you
challenged. EGA

IMPORTANT

CGA

= Requires Color Computer

EGA

= Requires EGA or VGA

HD

= Requires Hard Drive

512K

= Requires S12K RAM

For multi-disk sets

count alt disks in set

' When you order and pay for 5 or
more (disks, select an additional 3
disks FREE (limit 3 free per order)

Name

Address .
City

Slate

Phone ( ) .

Visa/MC# -

Exp, Date

Signature

Disks Ordered

-Zip.

X S2.49 or $ 1 .99 each . . . S

J Need 3 1/2" disks?
If so - add SI per disk
(including free disks) . . , $

Packing & Handling . . . S 3.00
Foreign Shipping Charge
(Canada $2 / Other S4) S

jCOD (U.S. Only)

add $4 if you reg. COD S

J Federal Express - add $4
(Continental U.S. only) $

TOTAL S

JCheck'MO J VisiajlvlC -ICO.D.

GOLD HILL
SOFTWARE

l>0 Box 6KI

Gold Hill. on »7.>35

^ ORDER TOD
1-800-234-6467,

swer to an old DOS question, How do
I rename a directory? Tlie customary
way to rename a directory has been to
create a new one witli the desired
name, copy the files to the new direc-
tory, and erase the old one. But with
the DOS shell, you just click on the di-
rectory and select Rename under the
File menu.

Teaching an Old DOS New Tricks

Finally, there's a group of items for
which 5.0's designers can be justly
proud. DOS 5.0 eradicates bugs
(some ancient, some arising as recent-
ly as DOS 4.01), and it adds many
long-awaited features.

Perhaps the most significant of
these is much smoother support for
large drives. DOS 4.01 supported
drives larger than 32 MB — that was al-
most its sole saving grace — but it had
a catch. In addition to the extra 10K of
RAM that DOS 4.01 needed, you also
had to load SHARE, a memory-resident
program that burned up a few more K
all by itself.

Setting up dhves is a bit easier with
the new FDISK, FDISK, for those
who've avoided it, is one of the pro-
grams that you (or someone) must run
when setting up a new hard disk.

Part of the setup process divides a
hard drive into sections used by differ-

ent operating systems — some for DOS
and some for UNIX, for example. Most
of us give 100 percent of the disk to
DOS, but whoever sets up the disk
must still make the explicit step of allo-
cating the entire disk to DOS. DOS is
not the primary partition by default.

Under previous versions of DOS, a
setup person occasionally ran into a
blockade. If there's already a partition
from an operating system other than
DOS {such as UNIX), FDISK couldn't de-
lete it. This put installers in a difficult po-
sition if they didn't have the FDISK for
the originating operating system. Only
the UNIX FDISK could delete a UNIX-
created partition. 'With 5.0's FDISK, how-
ever, you can now delete any kind of
partition.

Since DOS 2.0, CHKDSK has done
an odd thing when it encounters a
disk problem called lost clusters. It
tells you that you've got lost clusters —
a relatively minor problem indicating
some confusion in DOS's disk house-
keeping — and offers to fix them. You
give it the go-ahead, but it doesn't ac-
tually fix the problem.

Then you look more closely at the
screen. Before it told you about the
lost clusters, it warned you that the /F
option wasn't activated, so changes
would not be written to disk. 'What it
was trying to tell you was that some-

thing was wrong, but that CHKDSK
wasn't started with the /F option and
that CHKDSK isn't allowed to make
any changes to the disk, even much-
needed fixes, without the /F option.

That doesn't keep CHKDSK, howev-
er, from leading you to believe that it is
going to do something useful with the
next few lines. It has confused more
than one user, but no longer. Now
CHKDSK is much more direct, telling
you that you have a problem and that
you must rerun CHKDSK with the /F op-
tion in order for it to fix the problem.

EDIT, DIR, and More

A few paragraphs back, I did a little left-
handed EDLIN bashing. EDLIN's still
around — for the purists — but now
there's EDIT, a fairly complete full-
screen text editor. It supports the
mouse and has search and block op-
erations, word-wrap, and printing — al
supported by a pull-down menu sys-
tem, It's easy to use, it boasts good
help, and it's fast.

Ever wanted to sort the output from
a DIR command? The new DIR com-
mand can sort files by size, extension,
name, or date of creation. When clean-
ing out a directory to make space, you
can sort the files by size {DIR /OS) so
that you can figure out which files will
yield the most space once deleted.

"Here's our last chance to figure out ttiat new program, guys.'

62 COMPUTE

IHFODESK

Smart Software. . .For Smart People

Your nine year old asks you for help with her science report. You need to
know whether to use "who" or 'whom" in a million dollar proposal for a
new account. And the seventh caller to name the capitol of South Dakota will
win a trip to Bermuda, compliments of your favorite radio station.

iS'ht'ther for school, work, or the pursuit of trivia, INI*"ODESK"' is a personal
reference library at your fingertips. This powerful desktop information source
gives you instant access to:

• The Random House Encyclopedia™ S119.

• Strunk and White's Tiie Elements of Style S59.

• Inside Information'" ' SI19.

(Inside Information is a writing tool for generating

J «" ° ''■ a11II!3 '^^"^ '^'"^ researd) for norels, ad copy, or any creative
% llAt Wm writing).

Easy to install and use, all you need is
a hard drive. Use it today: INFODESK does
not require a CD-ROM drive or modem,
so there are no start-up costs or on-Urie
charges. Look for additional INFODESK
NO CD ROM I :^ 1 1 titles in the future.

REQUIRED! I Elements i i *. i . ,

Microlytics"

A wholly o*n«J iubiidiary of Selectmnici

2 Tobey Village Office Park, Pitlsrorii, NV I4;}4

CaU 1-8O0-828-6293
In NY 716-248-9150

Circle Reader Service Number 155

DOS has iiad an almost human Ii1e cy-
cle. At birth, ten years ago, it was a
promising new baby of an operating sys-
tem. It couldn't support hard disks or se-
rial printers, but it could do basic things
fairly well, certainly as well as other op-
erating systems on microcomputers at
the time.

PC-DOS 1.0 included the COPY,
ERASE, and TYPE commands: it even in-
cluded a version of CHKDSK. DOS 1.1 fol-
lowed a bit later, offering a few bug fix-
es as well as support for the then-new
360K double-sided drives. (Remember
that for years, the driving force for new
versions of DOS was support for new
IBM hardware.)

Meanwhile, Microsoft began a tradi-
tion of offering roughly parallel, slightly tar-
dier, but more stable versions of DOS
called MS-DOS. In truth, it never really
mattered all that much whether you
used fvIS- or PC-DOS, since they both
ran on almost all machines. The first re-
lease of l\/IS-DOS was version 1.25.

DOS [eft toddlerhood with 2.0, which
saw the beginning of hard disk support,
■device drivers, and a few notions stolen
from an older operating system typically
seen then on minicomputers — UNIX.
DOS 2.0's quantum leap from 1.1 was
the kind of development that would
make any parent proud.

Somewhere after version 2, however,

THE CHANGING FACE OF DOS

DOS entered a stormy adolescence. PC-
DOS 2.1 (MS-DOS 2.11} was just a slight-
ly more memory-hungry version of 2.0
that IBM released mainly to support the
substandard floppy drives it put on ihe
late and unlamented PCjr and the now-
forgotten PC Portable.

DOS 3.0 was an example of more
growing pains. IBlVl released it to sup-
port the new 1.2IVIB drives shipped with
the AT, but inside it was very different,
The file system was cleaned up a bit,
and the entire operating system's
source code was converted from assem-
bly language to C.

tslone of these changes were appar-
ent to users, but people certainly noticed
the conversion's unpleasant side effect:
DOS 3.0 took up 50 percent more mem-
ory than 2.1.

DOS 3.1 was written to support an
IBM LAN product, 3.2 added support for
the 720K floppies on the IBM Converti-
ble and added a tew commands
(XCOPY is the most prominent), but it
was really 3.3 that convinced people to
upgrade to version 3.

DOS 3.3 was a bit more stable (al-
though it wouldn't run with some compati-
bles' hard disk controllers} and provided
a way to support hard drives larger than
32IV1B through logical drives. Instead of
telling DOS that you had a hard drive of
the unpalatable size of, say, 60MB,

you'd tell it that you had two hard
drives — one the maximum size of 32tv1B,
the other 28MB.

DOS 4.0 tried to present a better face
to the world in the form of the original
DOS shell, but that face suffered from
near-terminal acne. The quickly
patched 4.01 tamed the obvious bugs,
but 4.0 is still far outsold by its older broth-
er, version 3.3.

Now, with DOS 5,0, it seems that DOS
has gone to college, lost a little weight,
learned a few manners, and gotten a bit
of polish. It even gets along better with
its relatives, OS/2 and Windows.

Memory Munching

To get an idea- of how DOS's appetite for
memory has changed over the years,
here's a comparison of DOS versions
with the memory requirements for each.

Version Memory Requirement (K)

1.0 11

1.1 12

2.0 24

2.1 26
3.Q 37

3.1 38

3.2 S3

3.3 54
4.01 65

5.0 61 (without memory manager)

5.0 29 (with memory manager)

63

//—

Being online never felt so fine.

Join the online network with personality. The most interesting

conferences. 10,000 programs you can download tor your own use.
All the most popular services. Two
membership plans: $6 an hour or $1

Free Membership
Dial by nnodem.

1-800-365-4636

an hour wtth the 20/20 Advantage. Press return. At password,

type PC22

Join us online, the water's fine.

DELPHI

Voice, 1 -800-544-4005
617-491-3393

Circle Reader Service Number 202

You can finally display hidden files
(DIR /AH), or for that matter, you can
display only those files that have their
archive bits set (DIR /AA)— that is,
files that haven't been backed up yet.
And now tfiere's a feature wherein DIR
w/ill search more than just the current di-
rectory Can't remember where you put
RESUfvlE? It's easy to find; DIR \ RE-
SUME /S/B does the trick.

And once you've decided on the
DIR switches you'd Itke to use, instead
of typing them each time you issue the

64 COIVIPUTE

DIR command, you can set an environ-
ment variable. For example, to always
sort on filename, you'd put SET
DIRCMD=/ON in your AUTOEX-
EC.BAT.

Now DIR not only shows you how
much free space is on the disk but al-
so computes the total amount of
space taken by the files whose names
It has just shown you. For example,
type DIR ".BAT and it will, as always,
show you all the files with the BAT ex-
tension, but it will also tell you how

much space is taken up in total by
those files.

And once you've found all of those
BAT files, perhaps you'd like to erase
some, but not all, of them. Just type
ERASE '.BAT /R The /P means pause
and verify for each file. One by one, it
examines ail of the files, asking if that
file should be erased.

Of course, having all these new op-
tions means you may miskey now and
then, which makes yet another new
command, DOSKEY, all the more use-
ful. DOSKEY remembers your last 20
or so commands. Using the up- and
down-arrow keys, you can recall a pre-
vious command, edit it, and reissue it.
saving tons of keystrokes.

You can even write macros and as-
sign them to keys, the way you do
with 1-2-3 and other applications.
There have been public domain ver-
sions of this utility around for years, but
it's nice to see it's finally pari of DOS.

If you've cursed DOS's BASIC inter-
preter, either BASICA Of GW-BASIC de-
pending on your DOS version, DOS
5.0 has a surprise for you. The new
DOS comes with a reduced-function ver-
sion of fvlicrosoft's Oi//cy<6/AS/C compil-
er. It even ships with a few sample pro-
grams that are a bit more interesting
than the old mortgage calculator.

Space is running out, so let's see
what's left. The ATTRIB command can
now modify hidden and system attrib-
utes, in addition to the archive and
read-only bits, which it could modify be-
fore.

fvlODE CO80,50 shows a 50-iine
screen on VGA: there's a 43-line
mode for EGA. fvlODE wili also speed
up your keyboard.

And all these neat new features
cried out for another new feature: built-
in help. Can't remember the new syn-
tax for DIR? No problem. Just type DIR
/?, and you'll get a complete listing of
the options and syntax for the com-
mand.

So there you have it. Not only is fvlS-
DOS 5.0 a stable replacement for its old-
er brother 4.01. but it reduces the
need for file recovery tools like The Nor-
ton Utilities (around $100), task switch-
ers like Software Carousel (around
$80), 386 memory managers (around
$100), hobby-level BASIC compilers
(around $70), and full-screen text edi-
tors (S50 to $400). Not a bad deal. I'd
say DOS 5.0 is the software bargain of
the year.

MS-DOS 5.0

Microsolt

One Microsoft Way

Redmond. Washington 98052

(206) 882-8080

$99.95

ONLINE

Denny Atkin

No matter

when problems

arise, tlie help

you need can be

found online.

A NEW MEANING
FOR ONLINE HELP

It's 9:45 on Friday night, and
you can't get your new En-
dows spreadsheet to print side-
ways on your ink-jet printer.
The software company's offic-
es won't open again until Mon-
day morning, so you can't call
the technical support line.
What will you do?

You could try calling local
bulletin board systems and
posting a plea for help there,
but the odds are pretty slim
that someone else in Hat-
tiesburg, Mississippi, is using
the same hardware and soft-
ware combination that's troub-
ling you now. You'd better call
a national service, where
you're more likely to find some-
one familiar with your problem.

The first place to cfieck is in
the technical support chapter
of your program's manual. If
the company has an online sup-
port round table, chances are
good you'll find it listed there.
If not. log on to your favorite net-
work, open your terminal pro-
gram's capture buffer, and get
a list of ail of the special inter-
est groups (SIGs) on the net-
work. Log off and peruse the
list offline, looking for SIGs
that cover topics related to
your problem. Since you won't
feel the "time is money" pres-
sure checking the list offline,
you might find more areas ap-
propriate to your problem.

Once you find a SIG that
might help with your problem,
all you can do is upload your
problem and hope that some-
one ansv/ers you in time,
right? Wrong! Why wait for an
answer that might already be
there?

fvlany online sen/ices will let
you search message catego-
ries for occurrences of a spe-
cific word or phrase. If your
service of choice has such a
feature, use it to search for an
appropriate word— in this

case, perhaps sideways or
printing. If not, then open your
capture buffer and invoke a
nonstop read command of the
messages in that particular cat-
egory. Close the buffer, log
off, and load the capture file in-
to a text editor.

You can now use your text
editor's search command to
hunt quickly through the file
for words that might flag a mes-
sage that relates to your prob-
lem. With any luck, one of
these methods will find a mes-
sage relating to your problem
and how to solve it.

If not, though, don't de-
spair. Chances are you can
leave a message online and
still get some helpful advice be-
fore your deadline,

Check for a support area
for the publisher of your spread-
sheet program. If that turns up
nothing online, check for a Win-
dows support area. If you're
on BIX, you'll find IBIVl.WIN-
DOWS. On CompuServe,
there's the fviS Windows Ad-
vanced Forum (WINADV), the
Windows New Users Forum
(WINNEW), and three Win-
dows [hiid-pany forums (WIN-
APA, WINAPB, WINAPC).

If you don't have any luck
there, find the general forum
for your computer platform, in
this case an IBf^ compatible.
On BIX, check IBM. PC; on GE-
nie, go to the IBMPC Roundta-
ble at page 615; on Compu-
Serve, check the IBM Applica-
tions forum (IBMAPP); and on
People/Link, GO \BM. You
might also want to see if
there's a SIG run by your print-
er manufacturer, since you're
having a printing problem.

Hooray! You've found atop-
ic discussing your spread-
sheet program. The next thing
to do is to compose a mes-
sage describing your problem
and asking for help. It's smart
to leave messages in more
than one area, in the hope
that more people will see your
message and you'll be likely to

get an answer faster.

When you type your mes-
sage, make sure you provide
all the necessary details. In-
clude your hardware configu-
ration, DOS version, software
versions, and any TSRs or oth-
er applications you may be run-
ning at the time. Explain exact-
ly what's happening when the
problem occurs. The more de-
tail you provide, the more like-
ly someone will come up with
a solution for your problem.

If you post your message in
more than one SIG, though,
don't leave the same long, de-
tailed message in each one.
That would be costly to you
and to the people who have to
read your message over and
over again. In the other areas,
post something along these
lines: "I'm having problems
printing to my Howitzer BJ-220
printer using the Aileron for Win-
dows spreadsheet. If you
think you can help, please see
message 42 in the Windows/
Spreadsheets conference."

You could ask that any help-
ful hints be sent via electronic
mail, which would be easier to
check the next day, but then
you'd be depriving others of in-
formation that could potential-
ly help them later.

Next, you log off and go to
bed. The following morning
you log on, and someone has
referred you to a new printer
driver that you can download
on that service. You grab the
driver and install it, and your
spreadsheet prints beautifully.
Even if somebody didn't leave
a solution to your problem,
chances are good that you'll
find some hints that will help
you isolate the problem.

The next time your work
comes to a ghnding halt due
to a technical problem at a
weird hour, don't get ticked
off; log on instead.

Send comments and sug-
gestions to DENNYA on BIX
and GEnie, DENNY on Plink,
or 75500.3602 on CIS. □

65

TIPS & TOOLS

When I leach PC

seminars the

most controversial

advice in the

whole class is to

leave the PC

on all the time.

Really Wild Cards

Sometimes you want to be
able to use wildcard specifica-
tions on programs or DOS
commands that don't support
them. It might be convenient
to enter the command TYPE
'.TXT to read a directory full
of text files. But it doesn't
work that way.

However, STAR. BAT does
thai — and one better. It allows
you to use lists of file specifi-
cations! For example, enter
the command STAR TYPE
*.TXT *.BAS TESIC to run
the TYPE command on all
text files, all BASIC files, and
the C program TEST. The
STAR program does its mag-
ic witfi the sorely neglected
FOR command in batch:

ECHO OFF
CLS

HEM Check for at least 2 para-
meters.

IF "%1" = " " GOTO Syntax

IF "%r = " " GOTO Syntax

REM %%1 Is the command or

REM program. Everything else

REM is matched by the file

REM specilication.

FOR %%r IN (%2 %3 %4 %5 %6
%7 %8 %9) DO %1 %%r

GOTO Bottom

:Syntax

ECHO Need a program or com-
mand name and one or more
file specifications.

ECHO For example:

ECHO STAR TYPE*. DOC

ECHO STAR OB S.BAS
TIMER.BAS

:BDttom

The heart of the program is
its FOR loop. %1 is the name
of the program or command.
%2 through %9 are the com-
mand line parameters. Note
that the program will quit if it
doesn't find at least a pair of
parameters: the program or
command name, and at least
one file specification. The
%%r gets replaced by each
file matching each file specifi-
cation; in the TYPE example

above, all files ending in TXT
are matched and copied into
%%r file by file in directory
order.

You could improve this pro-
gram even further by using a
SHIfT. That would give you
even more than the eight file
specifications offered by this
version of STAR, although I've
never used more than three
or four.

TOM CAMPBELL
IRVINE, CA

Always On

When I teach PC troubleshoot-
ing seminars, the most contro-
versial advice in the whole
three-day class is to leave the
PC on all the time. Why?
Here are a few short reasons:

• Turning electronic devices
on and off subjects them to
a power-on or ballistic
surge. Light bulbs burn out
mainly when you turn them
on, right? The same princi-
ple is involved with your
computer,

• The small motors on hard
disks have a hard time start-
ing up in the morning. Grant-
ed, leaving them on all the
time will shorten their lives
due to the greater de-
mands on the motor bear-
ings, but generally the bear-
ings aren't the things that
die. What kills hard drives is
that one day they can't get
started. Leave them on and
avoid the start-up problem.

• Think of all the things that
you use every day whose cir-
cuits are active all the time:
electronic clocks, thermo-
stats, TVs with the instant-
on feature. These are all fair-
ly reliable, right?

There is a catch to leaving
your PC on all the time: You
have to make sure that you've
got good surge protection
and a good fan. With a good
fan, your PC can operate in
the desert at 105 degrees

and be perfectly happy.

MARK MINASI
ARLINGTON. VA

Reet Delete

Sometimes it's nice to have
DOS ask whether I'm sure 1
want to delete all the files in a
subdirectory, but most of the
lime I know what I'm doing,
and I'd just as soon not have
to ansv/er any questions from
the operating system.

Use DOS redirection to
solve this problem. Create a
file called YES.TXT with a text
editor or with COPY CON. In
this file put the letter V fol-
lowed by a carriage return.
Save it as an ASCII file.

Next, enter the following
line in a batch file and save it
as EMPTY. BAT

ERASE *.* < YES.TXT

Now, when you give the
command EMPTY, the batch
file runs and gets its input
from the file YES.TXT The Y
answers the Are' you sure?
prompt for you. You can put
the YES.TXT file anywhere on
your system (I keep mine in
the BATCH subdirectory) as
long as you include its full
path when you use it in batch
files.

The following command de-
letes everything in a subdirec-
tory, but this method lets you
see what's going on while the
files are being deleted:

FOR %%F IN (*.*) DO ERASE

%%F

This deletes every file in
the directory, but it does so
by executing the ERASE com-
mand for each file, giving you
a chance to double-check
the files as they are being elim-
inated. If you have second
thoughts about tossing a cer-
tain file, use an UNERASE util-
ity to bring it back.

TONY ROBERTS
eREENSBORO. NC

66 COMPUTE

Enhance Your Tandy

Hard Cards For looo, A,

SX, TX, SL, TL, SL/2, TL/2,
TL/3, IBM & Compatibles
21 Meg 40 MS $229
32 Meg 40 MS $239
42 Meg 28 MS $299
68 Meg 23 MS $359
85 Meg 16 MS $399
105 Meg 20 MS $469
120 Meg 19 MS $499
210 Meg 15 MS $689

15 Month Warranly, 30 Day Monej

lOOOEX/HX
External Hard Drives

Complete With CoQtroUer

21 Meg 40MS $349

32 M^ 40MS $359

42 Meg 28MS $399

68 Meg 23MS $429

85 Meg 16MS $449

105 Meg 20MS $489

120 Meg 19MS $529

210 Meg 15MS $699

Back Cnarauttt. TOLL FREE Help Line.

1000 HX
Internal Hard Drives

Complete wilh codttoUer, RepUce a Flofpy

42 Meg 28 MS $299

85 Meg 16 MS $389

120 Meg 19 MS $489

130 M^ 15 MS $539

IDE 'SmartDrive' Forbuutin

ConffoUer of TU2, TLB, RL, RLX

42 Meg 28 MS $289
CD ROM For lOOO's and SLOT BOX
Internal, complete with software $349

SLOT BOX Seven fan kngth
slots, two 5.25" drive bays, one 3^"
drive iwy. Power and haid drive
Ugbts. 200 Watt Power siqiply,
cooling (an, Atladies to EX, HX,
1000, A, SX, TX, SL, TL, SL/2, Tl/2,

RL, TL/3, and RLX $279.00

Jpgrading Your Tandy

215 information packed pages on
petformauce enhancing upgrades
and installation. Covers the 1000,
A, EX, HX, SX, TX, SL, TL, SL/2,
TL/2, RL, and the new TL/3
$19.95 PlusJ5.00S&H

Modems and Faxes

Haya Compatible, Idduda SoTlirare

2400 Baud Internal
2400 Baud External
9600 Baud Internal
Fax/Modem Internal

9600 Baud Pix, 2400 Baud Modem

360dpi Mouse w/sonware $49
j Serial Card AUEiceptHx/Ex $29

Serial Card EX/HX $49

$79
$99
$349

$159

jFIoppy Drive Solutions

iDttmiJ Eilemal

I360K $99 $199

1.2 Meg $189* $259*

720K $109 $199

1 1.44 Meg $189* $259*

• FaraB except 1000, A, EX, HX, SX

720Kor360K t19Q

Eirana] for EX/HX ^■'■■i-'

VGA Combinations

For SX, TX, SL, 11, SL/2, TUI, RL,
TL/3, 3000's, IBM, Compatibles

Combo $489

Monitor: 14" CTX

.28 Dot Pitch
Card: Paradise 256K
640 X 480, 256 Colors

Super Combo $589

Monitor : 14" CTX

.28 Dot Pitch
Card: Trident 1 Meg
1024X768, 256 Colors

Memory

1000, A to 640 K W/Clock, Ser. $229

256KEXorHXto640K $189

256K 1200 or IBM to 640K $189

384K SX. EX. HX. SL to 640K $49

TX,TL, TL/2 , 1173 to768K $49

3000NL from 5 12K to 640K $49

lOOORL to 768K $39

lOOORLX to One Meg $39

Memory Above 640K

MicroMainfirarae 5150T EMS Board

More Space for Spreadsheets, Windows,
and more

For 1000, A, SX, TX, SL, TL. SiJ2, TL/2, RL,TL/3, RLX

$289

1 Meg $229 2 Meg

1 Meg for 1500 or 2810 Laptops, also
I for Panasonic CF-170, 270, 370 $159

Math Coprocessors

For TX, TL, TL/2, TL/3. 80286's up to 12Mlu.

SALE Priced at $139.00
Math Sprint Socket

mak» 80287 iqi to 200% faster $59.00

Tandy, Hayes, IBM, AT & T,
Windows, are registered
TVademarki Prices Subject
to change witfaout notice.

(614) -592-4239 Foreign
{614).S9Z-1527FAX
(614) -S94-41«) Local

C.O.D.

circle Reader Service Mumtwr MO

Speed up Chips

50% Faster
For Tandy 1000, A. SX, and IBM XT E

For lOOOSL, SU2, and AT&T $3

PC Sprint $75

100%Fas(a'. For lOOCA. IBM XT

US. and Canada

AMERICAN
EXPRESS

^^2^

TIPS & TOOLS

Graphics Botching

You might assume that, like
most utilities, batch files won't
work in graphics mode. Not
true — they work just fine. Show-
ing remarkable foresight, the
designers of the PC wrote the
BIOS so that all text services
work equally well in either
mode, and DOS displays text
with the help of BIOS servic-
es. So batch files will work. To
try it out, create a file called
TEST.BAT:

REM TEST.BAT

PAUSE Note that text displays just
line in graphics mode.

Then fire up BASIC or GW-
BASIC and run this short pro-
gram:

100 REM Go to graphics mode.

110 SCREEN 2

120 REM Drop to DOS and run the

130 REM TESIBAT program.

140 SHELL "TEST"

150 REM Wait tor the user to

160 REM press Enter.

170 INPUT

TOM CAMPBELL
IRVINE, CA

Blank Echo

Here is yet another look at
echoing a blank line in a
batch tile. You can't just type
ECHO all by itself on a line, be-
cause you'll get a message
like ECHO is off.

ECHO Is a three-part com-
mand:

• With no arguments, it re-
ports status: ECHO is on, or
ECHO is off.

• With arguments ON or OFF,
it enables or disables com-
mand echoing.

• With any other argument, it
just repeats back what you
tell it: ECHO Hello will just
make the PC say Hello on
the screen,

How, then, to create a
blank line on the screen?

68 COMPUTE

There are three approach-
es. The first is to use the
ANSI, SYS escape codes to
move the cursor around, creat-
ing blank lines by skipping
lines. It's too much work. And
if ANSI. SYS wasn't loaded by
the user's CONFIG.SYS file,
this approach won't work.

An easier way is just to use
the ECHO command with a pe-
riod (.) after it. Try it out:

©ECHO OFF

ECHO The lollowing is a blank

line:
ECHO.
ECHO See?

(Editor's note: This tech-
nique won't work consistently
in all versions of DOS.)

The third way is to hold
down the Alt key and type
255 on the numeric keypad af-
ter the ECHO command. This
enters a blank character after
the ECHO command, which
will print to the screen.

MARK MINASI
ARLINGTON, VA

The Straight and Narrow

Sometimes you need to em-
ploy DOS utilities in a batch
file, but you can't ensure that
they are available on the tar-
get machine. For example,
this handy tine displays a sort-
ed directory:

DIR I SORT

However, it requires that
SORT.EXE appear some-
place on the path. IF EXIST
won't do it, because in order
to use it, you must know the
full pathname of the file.

FOR comes to the rescue,
thanks to the fact that DOS
treats the semicolon as a sep-
arator. Try this program twice.
The first time, use the name of
a program you know is on the
path; for example, SORTEXE.
Next, try a name you know
doesn't exist; for example,
LUNKHEAD.TMP. In both cas-

es you should remember the
extension: SORT won't work,
but SORTEXE will.

ECHO OFF

CLS

IF"%r'==" " GOTO END

SET TMP=N

FOR %%l IN (%PATH%} DO IF

EXIST %%f \%1 SET TMP=Y
IF %TMP% = Y ECHO %1 is

on the path.
IF %TMP% == N ECHO %1 is not

on the patii.
SET TIV1P=
lEND

The SET TMP=N line
means Make the value of the
environment variable T!\AP the
letter N. This is short for No.
because we assume the file
doesn't exist. (If you are al-
ready using TMP as an envi-
ronment variable, use some
other variable name in place
of TMP in the example.) The
next line is the heart of the pro-
gram. The FOR loop search-
es the path directory by direc-
tory doing an IF EXIST
search in each one. If the file
is found, the value in TMP
changes to Y. You can now
query this value anytime you
want in the program. The pro-
gram then displays the results
of the search and removes
the TMP environment varia-
ble, since it's no longer need-
ed by your environment.

TOM CAMPBELL
IRVINE. CA

If you liave an interesting tip
that you thinl< would help oth-
er PC users, send it along
with your name, address, and
Social Security number to
COMPUTE'S Tips & Tools,
324 West Wendover Avenue,
Suite 200, Greensboro, North
Carolina 27408. For each tip
we publish, we'll pay you $25-
$50 and send you a COM-
PUTE'S PC clock radio while
supplies last. O

yoir commodore

Owner's manial Is

WORTH UP TO $300 OFF
M AMIGA* COMPUTER.

Dhe Commodore Power Up'
program is the easiest way
to buy an already affordable
Amiga® 500 computer for even
less.

If you own a Commodore®
1 6. 64, or 1 28: ora Pet. Plus 4
or VIC 20, write the serial
number on the cover of the
original owner's manual (no
photocopies) and take it to your
authorized Commodore-Amiga
dealer. You can save $300 on an
Amiga 500P (off the MSRP of
$799), And $200 on an
Amiga 500S (off the MSRP
of $599).

-U

The powerful Amiga 500S
hooks up to your TV It has in-
credible graphics -with more
than 4,000 colors. Built-in sound,
word processing, a fascinating
program that teaches geography.
And three exciting games.

The Amiga 500P includes
one MB of RAM, a word pro-
cessor, a clocM:alendar, paint
and music programs, and a
challenging graphics-oriented
game.

And behind every Amiga
Is a 24-hour toll-free hotline.
Plus a one-year limited war-
ranty with free pick-up and
delivery.

Graduating high school or
current college students and
educators can also qualify for

THE AMIGA POWER LP HmmlSZSSoSis

MoreOcL3lst.l99lOr
V call 1-800-66-AMlGA.

■lift wy cMlwi tJki or iprcl*! mvi<h fUvnim ORrrrndt I1V31/DI
Connwlore VIC HIM. ii&. Mvii liitd l>i Jiir^ f»«\n-fnl ira*nurk.% -il
Comnutore UrctRnlct Lid Amiu &00 ncrtcs li a JT^ilMf^vd LFkJrniirii
d( Cimnouort EIrctnHin Ltd Anl«a SflO »«** L* t inninn] irtikiMrt

s« & atatwai a a a a ■ ■ ■ r'

I Circle Reader Service Number 182

H J-

C^ Commodore

AMIGA

PROGRAMMING POWER

Tom Campbell

Global variables

are tempting.

but lii<e spicy lood,

ttiey can come
baclc to haunt you.

GLOBAL
WARNINGS

If you're a regular reader of
this column, you're familiar
with my diatribes against glob-
al variables: They make code
harder to maintain and reuse,
they can be dangerous, and
so on. But globals offer an im-
portant feature that local vari-
ables don't: They retain their
values between subroutine
calls.

Of course, this can be a
trap. You may find yourself
dealing with an unexpected
bug (then again, how many of
them are expected?) in which
the value of a global is sup-
posed to change but doesn't,
it can be a long time before
you discover that you've cre-
ated a local variable in one of
your routines with the same
name as the global.

Another example: In some
multitasking environments,
where several copies of the
same program can be running
at the same time, the global var-
iable space, like the code, is
a shared resource. So if
you've written a word proces-
sor and user A adjusts the tab
settings while user B is pains-
takingly editing a complex ta-
ble, user B's work might sud-
denly take a nasty turn for the
worse the next time the dis-
play is reformatted, because
you've put the tab settings in
a global variable.

Closer to home is Microsoft
C. which relied on globals to
such an extent that a huge
number of its library routines,
including common ones tike
scanf(), didn't work under Win-
dows or OS/2 because they
multitask. The list of verboten
routines dwindles with each re-
lease of the compiler, but the
lesson remains — not even the
biggest developers are im-
mune to questionable program-
ming practices.

Disregarding for the mo-

ment that you probably pro-
gram on a PC and don't have
to worry about multiple users,
there's a third kind of variable
called static that gives you the
best of both worlds. It has the
same scope as a local varia-
ble, yet it saves the value of
thai variable between subrou-
tine calls. Statics may be ini-
tialized when declared, but
the initialization is performed
only once — not each time the
routine is called. The name stat-
ic is a C term; Turbo Pascal
gives these variables the con-
fusing moniker typed con-
stants. They're declared in the
CONST section, yet, unlike nor-
mal constants, their values
may be altered.

How can statics coexist
with the apparently exclusive
global and local types? By trick-
ery in the compiler.

Local variables are kept on
the stack, which on many ma-
chines (80;<86 machines
among them) can be just
about anywhere in memory.
Even between invocations of
the same routine, that rou-
tine's stack can be in a differ-
ent place, and it's tracked by
a variable on the CPU called
the stack pointer. Since the
same local variable could be
stored in a hundred different
places inside of a second, you
can't rely on its value.

Globals, on the other hand,
sit placidly in the same place
all the time. The compiler itself
is therefore written to "remem-
ber" the name of a global varia-
ble during the entire compila-
tion. It remembers a local var-
iable only while it's generating
code for the routine in which
that variable was declared (as
well as any nested routines, in
the case of Pascal) and lets
the slack pointer track its phys-
ical location in memory at run-
time. As you've probably
guessed, a static is stored in
the same area of memory as
global data, but its name is on-
ly meaningful to the compiler

while the routine it was de-
clared in is being compiled.

This month's program is ON-
PATH.EXE. which lets you find
all files on the path that meet
the file specification you give it.
To use it, enter ONPATH file-
spec at the command line.
Here are some examples;

ONPATH TLINK

ONPATH C0MMAND.COM

ONPATH README.TXT > LPT1:

Don't give it a leading directo-
ry name, as in ONPATH C:
\DOS\LINK.'. It won't work
right, and if you want to re-
strict your search to a directo-
ry, you might as well use DIR.
The first example finds all
files starting with TLINK and
ending with any extension.
For example, my path is
PATH=E:\BAT;E:\BIN;C:\DOS;
E:\W0RD5;C:\WIND0WS;
E:\B0RLANDC\BIN;E:\GEO
and the search for TLINK on
my machine turned up this dis-
quieting result:

E:\B1N\TLINK.EXE
53414 05-07-90 02:QOa
E:\BORLANDC\BIN\TLINK.EXE
72585 02-13-91 02:00a
E:\BORLANDC\BIN\TLINK.CFG
19 03-Z4-91 01:52a

3 File(s) found.

When dozens of strange er-
rors popped up in a program
after I installed a new compil-
er, I discovered I needed ON-
PATH. The same program
had compiled just fine before.
You can" see the culprit
above. Two different versions
of the linker. Since E:\B1N
came before E:\BOR-
LANDCNBIN on the path, the
older linker was being run
first.

The second example, us-
ing the filespec COM-
MAND. COM, will find all cop-
ies of C0MMAND.COM on
your path. 1 found three ver-
sions of COMMAND, from

70 COtiflPUTE

DOS versions 2.0, 3.2, and 3,
on the path of one machine
(not mine!). Note that, like
DIR, ONPATH appends ".*"
as the extension if you don't
provide one. ONPATH's out-
put is redirectable, as you
can see in the third example.

A static variable is used in
the routine NextDirOnPath,
which is passed a string to
which it writes the name of
the next directory on the
path. If you have the very
short path C:\iDOS;E:\BIN,
the first call will write C:\ DOS
to its Result parameter.

Note that NextDirOnPath
thoughtfully removes trailing
semicolons and backslashes.
The second call writes E:\ BIN
to Result, and the last call re-
turns an empty string. NextDi-
rOnPath must obviously save
the ever-shrinking path some-
where, yet ONPATH. PAS
sports no global variables.

NextDirOnPath works its
magic by storing the path in a
typed constant, Turbo Pas-
cal's confusing name for stat-
ic variables. The first time
NextDirOnPath is called, the in-
put variable Result is empty,
so Turbo's GetEnv function is
used to extract the PATH varia-
ble from your DOS environ-
ment, whereupon it's written
to the static variable (or
typed constant) SavedPath.

On later calls to NextDirOn-
Path, Result will be a nonemp-
ty value, so GelEnv is only
called the first time. A search
now commences for the first
semicolon. When it's found,
the path up to that point is cop-
ied into Result, it's amputated
from the beginning of Saved-
Path, and the surviving path
is automatically available for
the next call to NextDirOnPa-
th. You could have a global
named SavedPath and varia-
bles named SavedPath in eve-
ry routine, yet the static varia-
ble SavedPath would retain
its value and be visible to this
routine and this one only. □

UEES CHT, DOS: ( OHPATH showE files matching *1 on the pith,

PROCEDURE Pause; ( Pause on any Jtey except Esc. which <nits to DOS.
VAR

ch : CHAR;
BEGIN

IF KeyPressed then r r( a >:ey was pressed, pull it

BEGIN j off the keyboard buffer. Then

ch := ReadKey; I check to see if it's Esc.

IF ch = #27 THQl ( If it is, iiuit to DOE, setting

halt (II; ( ERRORLEVEL to 1.

REPEAT ( If it's not Esc, wait around

UNTIL KeyPressed; ( for another keypress; then

ch := ReadKey; ( toss that one into the bit

QID; t bucket as well.
EMD; ( PROCEDURE Pausel

PROCEDUBE NextDirOnS>ath|VSE Result
VAE

Semicolon : INTEGER;

caisT

SavedPath : STRIJiG = ' • :
BEGIN

IF Result o ■ ' THEN

SavedPath : = GetEnv { ' PATH ' i ;
Semicolon : = Pes ( ' ; ' . SavedPathI .
Result ;^Copy(SavedPath, 1, Pos(

: STHIHGI ; ( Writes the name of
( the next dir on the path to
( Result, saving the remaining
I path in a local static variable^

{ (which Turbo Pascal calls }

( •typed' constant. \

If the input is empty, it's the)

first time. Save PATH= here. }

Trim off any semicolon, tf need)

. .'. SavedPathI); { be.)

( Delete trailing semicolons. )

IF Semicolon' > THEN

Delete{Result, SesniColon. 1)
ELSE { Delete trailing backslashes.

BEGIN Result := SavedPath; SavedPath := '•; END;
IF Pes I A', Result! = Length I Result I THEN

Delete (Result, Length (Result) . 1);
Delete (SavedPath. 1. Semicolon); ( Remove this dir name from the
END; { PROCEDURE NextDir J { locally preserved pathname.

FUNCTIcai LeadingZero (Value
VAE

tnrp : STRING;
BEGIN

Str (Value: O.cmp! ;

IF Length (trap) = 1 THEN
tmg ; = ' ' + tesj?;

LeadingZeiro : = tffl)?;
END;

PROCEDURE WriteFilenafliednsertPsth

VAE

Display : STRING;
Index, Len : INTEGER;
ParsedTime : DateTiffle;

BEGIN

INTEGER) ; STRING;

Stolen straight out of the TP !

online help, this formats Value)

in a way siBilar to DIR'fi--withl

{ a leading if the number is )

i only one digit wide. >

STRING; Dirlnfo : SearchReo) ;
This routine displays a
filenajne in a manner similar
to that of DIR. except that it .
. precedes it with the path. That)
( maVes it easier to see matches,)

Display := InsertPath + Dlrlnfo.Name;
Len := Length (Display) ;
IF Len > <5 THaJ Len := 40;
Write (Display) ;

FOR Index := Len TO 40 DO Write! ' •)
Write I Dirinf o . Siie ; 8 1 ;
Write ( • ■ 1 ;

UnpackTimelDirlnfo.Time, ParsedTime)
WITH ParsedTime IX)
BEGIN

Year := Year - 1900;

Trfrite (LeadingZera(Honth) . ' - ' ,LeadingZero(Day)

( Create a 40-character )
( width pathname. Truncate)
( if it's over 40. )
( Display the filename; )
( then pad with spaces )
( Right-justify the size. ■)

{ Parse the time into three)
( fields, then display it )
( with leading Og. ]

IF hour - 12 THEN Hour :. 24;
IF Hour = THEN Hour ;. 12;
IF hour < 13 THEN

WriteLn(LeadingZero(hour) , ':
ELSE

WriteLn(LeadingZero(hour-12) ,
END;
( PROCEDURE writeFilename )

( TricJcy hiandling for noon)
( and midnight . )

*, LeadingZero(min} . 'a')

':', LeadingZero(rtLin) . *p');

■);

STRING;
Rewrite (Output ) ; { Hake output redirectable. )

END;

VAR

Dirlnfo : SearchRec;
FilesFound, Index ; INTEGER;
FileSpec. NextDir. NextNaaie

BEGIN

Assign (Output
FilesFound :=
FileSpec : = '

NextDir : = ■ *

IP ParainCount

ELSE
BEGIN

Write) 'File or file specification to search for
HeadLn( FileSpec] ;
IF FileSpec = • ' THEN
Haltd);
END;
TFPosr,", FileSpec) s THai ( Add an inplied

THEN FileSpec := ParamStrd)

FileSpec := FileSpec
NextDirOnPath I NextDir) ;
WHILE NextDir ■:> ' ■ DO

BEGIN

NextName := NextDir *

Enter to quit. ') ;

the way )

. ( DIR does, if no extension. I
( Get next dir name from path. J
( For each directory on the path: )

- '\' * FileSpec; ( Get full file spi

FindFirst (NextName. Archive, DirInfoi;i Find first match
IF DOSError = THQ( ( If match is found, display it
BEGIN

IrfriteFilename(NextDir * '\', Dirlnfo);
INC (FilesFound) ; [ Track numtier of files found.
END;
WHILE DOSError tt DO
BEGIN

Pause;

FlndNext IDirlnto);
IF DOSError . THEN
BEGIN

WriteFilename (NextDir

INC (FilesFound) i

END;
END|
NextDirOnPath(NextDir) ; ( Repeat this process for each
END; ( directory on the path.

trfriteLnC '. FilesFound, ■ File(E) foaio.'l;
END.

)

( As long as matching files can )

i be found in this directory. )
i allow user to press Esc to quit)

( or space to pause. Then print j

( the filename in question with )

its location on the path. )

'~ 'W Dirlnfo);

71

POINT & CLICK

Clifton Karnes

Where your

GUI is a tortoise,

a cache

wili bring It up

to speed.

COLD HARD CACHE
FOR YOUR GUI

Whether you're running Win-
dows, GeoWorks Ensemble,
or a more exotic graphical us-
er interface, one thing's for
sure: You need a disk cache.
Why? Because all GUIs are
disk-intensive. They simply
can't keep everything they of-
fer in the computer's memory,
so they routinely swap pro-
gram code and data from disk
to memory and back. Every
time your computer reads
from the disk, your system
slows down. Just how much de-
pends on how fast your hard
disk is.

By far, the most cost-effec-
tive way to speed up your
hard disk is to use a disk
cache. This is such an impor-
tant tool that Windows actual-
ly includes a cache as stan-
dard equipment, and it auto-
matically installs it for you.

GEOS doesn't come bun-
dled with a cache, probably be-
cause its programs run so fast
without one. You pay the
price for speed, however,
when you run a DOS program
or shell to DOS. Here GEOS is
a tortoise; a cache will dramat-
ically improve its speed.

So, you need a cache. But
which one? Windov/s users
get the latest version of
SMARTDrive free (it comes
with most versions of MS-
DOS, too), but there are other
programs that claim to be bet-
ter. This month I looked at two;
HyperDisk (HyperWare,
Route Box 91, Pall Mall, Ten-
nesee 38577; 615-864-6868;
$69,00) and Power Cache
P/us (Intelligent Devices, 112
Harvard Avenue, Suite 295,
Claremont, California 91711;
714-920-9551; $99.95). Both
high-performance programs
work with Windows, GEOS,
and DOS, and both claim to
be faster than SMARTDrive.

HyperD/s/c comes with spe-

cial versions for conventional
memory, 286 systems, and
386 systems. As with most
modern caches, it can cache
in conventional, expanded, or
extended memory, but if
you're running Windows, you'll
almost certainly want to use ex-
tended memory.

Power Cache Plus comes in
two versions; PCPFASr offers
faster performance, and
PCPSMALL is slower but opti-
mized to use less memory. As
with HyperDisk, it can cache
in conventional, expanded, or
extended memory.

Power Cache Plus has one
incompatibility with Windows:
It can't coexist with a perma-
nent swap file. If you run Win-
dows in 386-enhanced mode
and use a permanent swap
file, you'll take a performance
hit by switching to a temporary
swap file, as we'll see.

To test these caches, I ran
a series of benchmarks in Win-
dows, DOS, and GEOS and
found some surprising results.

For the Windows \esl, I cre-
ated a macro using Pub-
Tech's BatchWorks that opens
four applications along with typ-
ical documents. I loaded
Word for Windows with a 34K
document, Microsoft Excel
with a 15K spreadsheet. Q-hE
with a 190K database, and
Crosstalk. After each was load-
ed, its window was resized
(with BatchWorks), and then
each was closed.

I ran the tests on a Gateway
25-MHz 386 with 4h/1B of RAM
and a 17-ms 110MB hard
drive. I set each cache for
1024K using extended memo-
ry. In 386-enhanced mode,
the suite of Windows pro-
grams produced the following
times;

No cache 2.08 minutes

HyperDisk 1.03 minutes

Power Cache Plus 1 .68 minutes
SMARTDrive 1.13 minutes

Both HyperDisk and

SMARTDrive were able to
work with a permanent swap
file with which Power Cache
Plus is incompatible. Because
of this, its time suffered.
When I tested HyperDisk and
SMARTDrive without a perma-
nent swap file, their times
were closer to that of Power
Cache Plus. Next I tested all
three caches in DOS, using
the database cache test sup-
plied with Power Cache Plus.
Here, the results were amaz-
ing. Power Cache Plus aver-
aged more than twice as fast
as HyperDisk, and in reading
and writing random records, it
was more than three times as
fast. SMARTDrive and Hyper-
Disk were neck and neck. Av-
erage times were;

No cache 6.79 minutes

HyperDisk 4.61 minutes

Power Cache Plus 2.14 minutes

SMARTDrive 4.69 minutes

For GEOS, I tested each
cache with a variety of opera-
tions; loading GEOS from
DOS, running GeoDraw and
GeoWrite, and shelling to
DOS— one of GEOS's slowest
operations. Since GEOS is
less disk-intensive than Win-
dows, neither cache signifi-
cantly improved the perform-
ance of GEOS applications.
But the time it took to shell to
DOS and return was more
than doubled with both cach-
es. Cache times for these op-
erations were almost identical
for HyperDisk. SMARTDrive.
and Power Cache Plus.

What does all this mean? If
you're using lots of DOS appli-
cations and you don't mind
not being able to use a perma-
nent swap file in Windows,
then Power Cache Plus is the
choice. If you're not into DOS
apps in a big way, then Hyper-
Disk is the winner by a hair.
For most of us, SMARTDrive
will do just fine, especially if
you can afford to give it
1024K of memory. □

72 COMPUTE

SELECT 5 BOOKS
for only '^

ixlMrtJlliK

roNsuuANr

3826 S29.95

Knluinii'il

,>tS-IMISIUili'liHli'

Pn^fRiiiiniiii;!

i>ei

9339 SS9-95 3617P S!9.9S

Counts as 2 Counts ss 2

^4 ^^^^^^H

372D S^6.95

U«t KUt

tlVEAimitU

WiiftriectftMer

The two most comprehensive computer book clubs

have joined forces to bring you the largest selection

of business and personal computing references

available , * < at savings up to 50% off publishers' prices!

3799P S24.55
County as. 7

6ef633'9P S29,95

33EBP 519.c$

The Computer Book Club

15D37P SI 9.95

with the BYTE Book Cluf

TVTVTVTVTVT

Membership Benefits

▼VTVT VT VTVT

3057P SI 5.35

g30SP 52S.95
Counts as 2

The Computer Book Club and the BYTE Book Club have

joined forces to bring you the largest selection of business

and personal computing titles available today.

• Big Savings In addUion to this introductory offer, you Iceep saving substan-
tially with members' prices of up to 50% off the publishers' prices.

• Bonus Books Starting Immediately, you will be eligible for our Bonus Book
Plan, with savings of up to 80% off publishers' prices.

• Club News Bulletins 15 times per year you will receive the Book Club News,
describing all the current selections— mains, alternates, extras— plus bonus
offers and special sales, with scores of titles to choose from.

• Automatic Order II you want the Main Selection, do notliing and it will be
sent to you automatically, If you prefer another selection, or no book at all, simply
indicate your choice on the reply form provided. You will have at least 10 days
to decide. As a member, you agree lo purchase at least 3 books within the next
2 years and may resign at any time thereafter.

• Ironclad No-Rlsk Guarantee if not satisfied with your books, return them
within 10 days without obligation!

• Exceptional Quality All books are quality publishers' editions especially
selected by our Editorial Board. CMPT991

All books are hardcover unless number is followed by a "P" for paperback.

A sliipping/handling charge and sales tax will be added lo all orders. (Publishers' Prices Shawn)

If card is missing, use this address to join:

©1991 THE COMPUTER BOOK CLUB. Blue Ridge Summit. PA 1729+O820

Circle Reader Service Number 124

15057P $39.95
Cpunts •« 2

3S34P S27.S5
Counts aa 2

INTRODOS

Tony Roberts

Tirad ol that same old
DOS prompt? Here's
tiow to add a little tile
to your PC's com-
mand tine.

A PROMPT
RESPONSE

Over the years, the DOS
prompt has taken a lot of
heat. It's been called cold, un-
friendly, and a lot of other
names — many unprintable.
It's not hard, though, to take
the edge off the infamous
prompt. In fact, fooling with
the DOS prompt has provided
many an evening of recreation
for computer users.

DOS provides the PROMPT
command so you can custom-
ize the prompt to your liking.
In many cases, this command
is either ignored or placed in
the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and
forgotten. A common example
is the command PROMPT
$P$G, which is found on most
hard disk systems.

Although it doesn't look like
much, the above command in-
structs the computer to print
the current directory path fol-
lowed by a greater than sign.
It might come out looking some-
thing like C:\ DOS\ UTILITIES>.

But how did the cryptic com-
mand PROMPT $P$G turn in-
to something helpful and use-
ful? The answer is meta-
strings. Metastrings are
groups of characters (strings)
that the program changes in-
to something else. In the case
of the PROMPT command, (he
dollar sign is a signal that tells
the program to apply a special
interpretation to whatever char-
acter follows.

The metastring SP is trans-
formed into the current path,
and $G is transformed into the
greater than character. Your
DOS manual includes a table
that lists the PROMPT meta-
strings. Among them are
codes to display the current
time or date, as well as char-
acters to move the cursor to
the next line or to erase the pre-
vious character.

If you use a program such
as a word processor or spread-

sheet that allows you to shell
to DOS, you've probably had
the experience of forgetting
that your application program
was running, and you've tried
to run it again.

To remedy this problem,
start the application via a
batch file that uses the
PROMPT command to remind
you that you should exit back
to your application. Here's how
I do it for Borland's Quattro Pro:

©echo off

PROMPT Spreadsheet program ac-
tive. Type EXIT to return.$_$P$G
cd \QPRO

q

ci\

PROIVIPT SP$G

The metastring $_ is translat-
ed into a carriage return-line-
feed, so this prompt ends up
being displayed on two lines.
At the end of the batch file,
the prompt is restored to its
normal state.

Some users like to create
elaborate prompts using
some of the graphics charac-
ters that are available in the up-
per half of the ASCII set. To
use these characters, first
look them up in an ASCII
chart so you'll know the ASCII
number of each character
you want to use.

Then, to include the charac-
ter in your prompt command,
hold down the Alt key and
punch in the ASCII code on
the numeric keypad. When
you release the Alt key, the
character will appear on-
screen.

If creating the perfect
prompt has caught your fan-
cy, you'll want to take the
next step and include some
ANSI escape sequences in
your prompt, allowing you to
add color to your creation.

To do this, you'll need to
have the ANSI .SYS device driv-
er or an equivalent (NAN-
SI. SYS, GANSI.SYS, or TAN-
SI, SYS) installed on your sys-

tem. If it's not installed, you
can add the line DE-
V1CE=ANSI.SYS to your CON-
FIG.SYS file. If the ANSI.SYS
file is in a directory other than
the root directory, be sure to
include the complete path to
it in the DEVICE statement.

With ANSI.SYS installed,
you can make your prompts in-
clude boldface, flashing, or re-
verse type, and you can se-
lect foreground and back-
ground colors as well.

ANSI commands involve the
use of another set of meta-
strings called escape sequenc-
es. These sequences combine
an escape character (ASCII
27), a left bracket ([), an op-
tional parameter, and a one-
letter command code.

This gets pretty involved,
and there isn't room here to
list all the codes and parame-
ters for colors and video
modes, so I'll provide an exam-
ple to get you started.

Let's take the usual $P$G
prompt and spice it up by dis-
playing the prompt itself in re-
verse video.

PROMPT $E[7M$P$G$E[M

Notice the metastring $E in
the command above. This is
the PROMPT command's way
of sending the escape charac-
ter. When ANSI.SYS detects
the escape character fol-
lowed by a left bracket char-
acter, it knows that it should in-
terpret the characters that fol-
low. The code 7M is the ANSI
code for reverse mode. AN-
SI.SYS switches the display
to reverse mode, and then
the PROMPT metastrings
SPSG are expanded and print-
ed. Finally, another escape se-
quence changes the video
back to normal mode.

As I said, you can have a
lot of fun playing with
prompts. Send me your best
creation in care of COM-
PUTE, and I'll print a selection
in a future column. □

74 COIVIPUTE

"IcantMevBttfenotUNIX."

Take it from the critics, Coherent
is so dose to UMX, you won't
believe your eyes. Or the price.
"Mark WMams Co. seems
to have mastered the art
ofiRitsion; Coherent comes
so fully qualified as a UNIX
clone, you find yourself thinking
'I can't believe it's not UNIX.'"

-Sean Fulton, UNIX Today!,
November 26, 1990

". ..(Coherent) may be the best thing

that has happened to UNIX yet."

-William Zachmann, PC Week,
November 5, 1990

"If you want to come as close as you
can to real UNIX for a low price,
COHERENT can't be beat."

-Warren Keuffel, Computer Language
Magazine, November 1990

'7/yo« want a UNIX-like develop-
ment and learning system for less
than $100...! don't see how you can

go wrong with Coherent!'

-David Fiedler, BYTE Magazine,
November 1990

OVER 25,000 USERS,
AND MORE EVERY DAY!
Why is Coherent now the
world's best-selling UNIX clone?

-Sean Fulton, UNIX Today!

MWC

SCO

COHERENT

XENIX 286

Vcnmn 3.2

Version 23.2.

No. of Manuals

1

8

No. of Disks

5

21

Keme! Size

64K

198K

InstallTlme

20-30 min.

3-4 hours

Suggislcd Disk Space

10 meg

30 meg

Min. Memoiy Requirw

640K

1-2 meg

Pcrfomiance'

38.7 sec

100.3 sec

Price

$99.95

tl 495,00

*Byte Excel benchmark, 1000 ilerations on 20 MHZ 386.
Hardwan: frKjUiremenli; 1.2 mtgSV'i' or 1.4 meg JVi' floppy, and hard
disk. Docs nol run on MicrcKhannel machines.

NEW RELEASE 3.2

«99.95'

Because like the original UNIX,
Coherent is a powerful, multi-user,
multi-tasking development system
with a complete UNIX-compatible
kernel and C compiler.

Features include Lex and Yacc,
a vi editor, SCSI support and UUCP
capabilities.

And Coherent comes with a hill
set of over 200 UNIX commands
including text processing, program
development, administrative and
maintenance functions. All of it fully
documented in our highly acclaimed
1200 page manual.
WHAT UNIX WAS MEANT TO BE.

Unlike current versions of
UNIX, Coherent is lean and efficient.
Small and beautifully powerful, the
way UNIX was originally designed.

Coherent runs on affordable
286 as well as 386 and 486 based
IBM-PCs and compatibles with
space to spare. Enough space to keep
DOS co-residing on your hard disk.

And it's so fast to install, so fast
to learn and just so fast, Coherent
leaves UNIX in the dust.

HARD TO BELIEVE?
IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER.
Coherent gives you more
value from the start and keeps on
giving.Likeregularupdateswithnew
and enhanced features. Our write-your-
own device driver kit and COHware,
contributed software on diskette.

There's also on-going free tech-
nical support via telephone. An
active user network and a UUCP
Bulletin Board System. Plus, with
our new 3.2 release:

• A new Kom shell with sophisti-
cated command-line editing.

• Postscript and PCL support for
troff adding access to hundreds of
new fonts.

• Improved UUCP support.

• International keyboard and
character set support.

TAKE 60 DAYS TO
CONVINCE YQURSELE
Will you agree with the critics
and Coherent's 25,000-plus users?
Try it. And if you don't think
Coherent is everything you ever
wanted in UMX, we'll refund your
money No problem. No hassle.

You can't go wrong. So get to
a phone, FAX or mailbox now and
order Coherent today At $99.95,
it's unbelievable.

1-800-MARKWMS

a-800-627-5967 or 1-708-291-6700}

FAX: 1-708-291-6750
60-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

Mark Williams
Company

60 Revere Drive
Northbrook, IL 60062

*Ffu sbipnitg and fuadltng. Qihecnit K a Indetnjrk r4 MiA
WUums Contiuiy. UM1X k a tnitenurk of AT&T. XENIX is >
tnctcmaik oi Micmsoh.

HARDWARE CLINIC

Mark Minasi

Which

computer bus

Is best

for you— ISA,

MCA,

or EISA?

DON'T CATCH
THE WRONG BUS

In the past four years, there's
been plenty of smoke (and mir-
rors) about computer buses. If
you're like most people, you've
heard of IBM's Micro Channel,
and you may know of the clone-
meisters' response, EISA.
They're supposed to be better
somehow — aren't they?

Here's the straight and skin-
ny on what these new buses
offer and why you should
care. In the process, I'll ex-
plain a whole bunch of things,
including the horrifying DMA
Speed Scandal.

First things first: What's a
bus? Basically, a bus is the set
of connectors — the slots — on
your motherboard. It's the
point from which your system
can be expanded.

Fortunately, the buses in
the PC are well documented.
That means that anyone can
design and sell an add-in cir-
cuit card, and that's got a lot
to do with why the PC is so pop-
ular in the first place. The en-
tirely open nature of the PC —
its bus slots, its third-party oper-
ating system (you had a
choice of buying DOS, CP/M,
or the p-System from IBM in
1981) — and its fully document-
ed BIOS are the reasons why
the PC is the market leader.

Ticket to Ride

The original PC had the bus
that's still found on XT
clones. If you count all the met-
al fingers in a PC bus slot,
you'll find 62— and each of
the 62 wires has a specific
job. Some transmit data,
while some communicate ad-
dress information. Some
warn the CPU of upcoming ac-
tivity or ask the CPU to yield
control of the PC, as when
one circuit board talks direct-
ly to another (that's called
DMA or bus mastering, and
I'll discuss it soon).

On the original PC, 8 of the
62 wires transferred data.
That's why the PC bus is
called an 8-bit bus. The ad-
vent of the AT in 1984 saw a
modification of the PC bus to
double the width of the dala
path, leading to the so-called
AT bus. This bus has a 16-bit
data path, allowing it to trans-
fer 16 bits in the time that the
PC bus would take to transmit
8 bits. Data paths on comput-
er buses are like lanes on high-
ways; the more lanes you
have, the more that can be
transported (bits on buses,
cars on highways). The AT
bus became the standard for
most clones and has been re-
dubbed the Industry Stan-
dard Architecture, or /S/\ (pro-
nounced ice-ah).

ISA has served us well to
date, but it's limited in sever-
al ways. First, the 16-bit data
path was nice in 1984, but it's
less than optimal for 386DX
and 486 computers. Both of
those chips have the potential
to do 32-bit data transfers, so
a 32-bit bus would create a
market for add-in boards that
could more fully exploit the
full power of those chips. 'Vir-
tually all ISA machines run
the bus slots at a mere 8
MHz. so even the fastest ISA
machines must slow down to
8 MHz whenever communicat-
ing with an expansion board.
Second, ISA uses edge-trig-
gered interrupts. The alterna-
tive would be level-triggered in-
terrupts. Edge-triggered inter-
rupts are more noise-prone
and so restrict how fast a
PC's CPU can communicate
with its expansion boards.

The DMA Scandal

IBM decided to scrap ISA al-
together with its post-1 987 PS/
2 line of computers. The PS/
2s use an entirely new bus
called Micro Channel Architec-
ture (MCA).

Working from a clean
slate, IBM was free to add

some nifty features to MCA.
First, there's a 32-bit version
of MCA as well as a 16-bit ver-
sion, allowing greater speed
in 386DX and 486 PS/2s than
would be possible if they
were ISA machines. Unfortu-
nately, it's not much faster —
the maximum clock rate for
MCA slots is only 10 MHz. It al-
so uses the cleaner level-trig-
gered interrupts.

But it doesn't stop there.
DMA is faster under MCA
than under ISA, and MCA of-
fers bus mastering. DMA is
short for Direct Memory Ac-
cess, an interface method
that allows peripheral devices
(such as disk controllers or
LAN boards) to transfer data
to and from memory without
having to first pass the data
through the CPU.

Why's that good? Consider
what happens when you ask
your floppy disk to read a file.
The CPU tells a board called
the floppy disl< controller to
read a block of data from the
floppy; that block is 512
bytes long. Once the data
has been read by the floppy
controller, that 512 bytes
must be moved into memory
so that the floppy controller
can get ready to read (or
write) more data to (or from)
the floppy. How does it get
moved? The basic way is for
the CPU to take each byte
from the controller (one at a
time), figure out where in mem-
ory to put that byte, and go
on to the next byte. The
buzzword for this kind of trans-
fer is PIO. or Programmed In-
put/Output. PlO's fine, except
for the fact that it's slow,

Enter DMA. With DMA, we
eliminate the middleman. The
floppy disk controller is tempo-
rarily empowered to talk direct-
ly to the CPU's memory —
hence the name Direct Mem-
ory Access. DMA is solely in-
tended for speed.

Which brings us to what I
call the DMA Scandal. For pur-

76 COMPUTE

start getting the absolute most from your PC and COMPUTE!
Subscribe to COMPUTE'S PC Disk today!

Every otiier montli— six times a year— you'll receive COMPUTE'S PC Disk chock-
full of ready-to-run programs, including the very best dazzling applications,
powerful utilities, and eye-popping graphics. And each disk contains special pro-
grams that tie in with the Tech Support section of the magazine.
You'll get a direct connection to commercial-quality, free programs and the very
best in shareware, all painstakingly debugged and fine-tuned by our experts.

Here's a list of the must-have programs coming on the October PC Disk.

n Big Desk — Make your Windows desktop eight times larger!

□ Directory Size — Help for an ovenweight hard disk.

□ Useful Notes — Kiss that paper notepad good-bye!
n VIRUSCAN— Protect your PC from viruses.

□ Mr. Filter— Salvage damaged text files.

Ml mm^

And that's not all. To make PC Disk as easy
possible, each issue contains CMOS— COMPUTE'.
Operating System — a special menuing program
allows you to fly through installation, run programs,
view and print documentation, get special
tips on program requirements, and more.

So don't delay! Subscribe now!
Super programs and our special
menu can be yours.

All ofdets must be paid in U S. funds by check drawn on a

U.S. bank or by money order. MasterCard or VISA accepted

tor orders ovsr S20.00, This Oder will only be filled at tbe

above address snri is not made in conjunction Willi

any other magaiine or d^k-subscriplior: offer. ^

Please allow 4-6 vreeks fof delivery of single ^

issues or for subscnptiwt to begin. Sorry, but ^

telephone orilers cannot be accepted. -^

Disks avalable only lor IBM PC

and compatible oimputers.

Current subscribers to COMPUTl

or COMPUTE'S PC Magaiine

will have their subscnp- -4

tons extended arxordingly ,;,'^

Menu

HARDWARE CLINIC

poses of toial backward com-
patibility, IBM ran the DMA on
its 8-MHz AT at 4.77 MHz—
the speed of the PC! Follow-
ing IBM's lead, the makers of
virtually all ISA machines to
this day run their DMAs at
4.77 MHz. That means that
when your 33-MHz ISA 386 is
doing DMA, it slows down to
the speed of the original IBM
PC. A few no-name doners
run DMA at 10 MHz, but
they're few and far between.
Incredible, ain't it?

Micro Channel improves on
ISA by running DMA at half
the processor speed, so a 10-
MHz PS/2 runs DMA at 5
MHz — basically the same as
an ISA machine, but a 20-
MHz PS/2 runs DMA at a
more acceptable 10 MHz.

Switch Flipping

Perhaps the nicest feature of
MCA is Programmable Option
Select (PCS). Anyone who's
ever had to flip switches and
move jumpers on an expan-
sion board will appreciate
this feature. When installing
an expansion board, you of-
ten have to configure the
board. For example, when in-
stalling an internal modem,
you must set it as either
C0M1 or COM2. You set it by
moving a jumper or flipping a
DIP switch. That's annoying
because it means that every
time you want to reconfigure
a board, you've got to pop
the top on your computer, re-
move the circuit board, make
the change, and replace it.
MCA {and EISA, for that mat-
ter) allow all of these choices
to be made with software — a
real timesaver.

Even better, an expansion
board whose configuration is
software adjustable means au-
tomatic configuration. Rather
than your setting the modem
to COM2 because you have a
mouse on C0M1, why not
just let the MCA configuration
software sense the conflict

78 COMPUTE

and resolve it automatically?
That's just what the PS/2 Ref-
erence Disk does (or tries to
do, but that's for another col-
umn). EISA, again, shares
this capability.

The Empire Strikes Bock

Nice as these MCA features
are, they come at a terrible
price: ISA-compatible boards
don't work in MCA machines,
and MCA boards don't work
in ISA machines. Further, IBM
wrapped up MCA in enough
legal red tape that it became
quite unattractive for third-par-
ty PC vendors to clone the
new bus. To legally offer an
MCA clone, vendors must
pay IBM a royalty equal to 5
percent of their gross sales
on the machines, Five per-
cent is usually the total profit
for most makers of compati-
bles — as Big Blue well
knows.

So Compaq and a number
of other vendors (Wyse, AST,
Tandy, Hewlett-Packard, Ze-
nith, Olivetti, NEC, and Ep-
son—the initials spell
watchzone when you include
Compaq) designed an alterna-
tive bus with features similar
to MCA's: software-setup bus
mastering, faster DMA, and
32-bit width. They call it EISA
(pronounced ease-ah), for Ex-
tended Industry Standard Ar-
chitecture.

Then they went IBM a hair
better. They designed EISA to
be backward compatible with
ISA. Every EISA slot has a dou-
ble-decker connector. The
top part is the ISA circuitry,
and the bottom part has the EI-
SA lines. Only EISA boards
have connectors that can ex-
tend down to the EISA part. (I
wonder if that's where the Ex-
tended in Extended Industry
Standard Architecture came
from.)

EISA has a few other leads
on MCA. An EISA machine
can have up to 16 slots;
MCA, 8. EISA can allow an ex-

isting ISA board to run its
DMA at twice normal speed
with no hardware changes to
the ISA board (there must be
some new software, howev-
er). The speed of EISA itself
is, unfortunately, stuck at 8
MHz.

The EISA specification al-
lows boards to be physically
larger and draw more power
than MCA. That's important be-
cause it means that EISA
boards are cheaper and easi-
er to design, and so presum-
ably will cost less.

All Aboard

So what's the right bus for
you? Well, the vast majority of
the boards out there are ISA
compatible, despite the fact
that the PS/2 has been
around for four years. EISA
boards are as scarce as
hen's teeth, so even if you did
buy an EISA machine, you'd
have to wait for boards that ex-
ploit EISA's capabilities.

Further, 90 percent of the
expansion boards wouldn't
benefit from the improved
throughput of MCA or EISA-
talking to my printer or 9600-
bps modem at 8 MHz Is hard-
ly what I'd call useful. The
boards that really would ben-
efit from better throughput are
VGA boards, hard disk control-
lers, and LAN cards. EISA
and MCA versions of these
are appearing, but slowly.

So buying an ISA machine
today still isn't a bad idea, par-
ticularly when you consider
the cost.

On the other hand, an EI-
SA machine has ISA compati-
bility. And when the EISA
boards do appear, you'll be
ready. And just to make
things complicated, one ven-
dor even sells a reasonably
priced EISA machine — the
ALR Business VEISA. It won't
be the only low-price EISA sell-
er for long.

Heck, maybe it is time to up-
grade ... O

BITERNATIOMAL, INC.

THE "GREAT DEAL" CATALOG

1-800-729-9000

ORDER TODAY!

londLuell

©

Supersfim Laptop Computer

Bondwell, famous maker of PCs and
laptop computers, closed out a large
quantity of tirese compact laptops right
before the 1991 price increases. Call
and order yours today— our operators
are standing by to take your call.

■ eOC88 SMHz microprocessor.

• 640K RAM.

• Two 720K 3.5" floppy disk dnves,

• Slim size, 1" high.

■ 10.5" supertwist nonglare
LCD screen,
resolution: 640x200.

■ IBM compalible.

■ Super lightweight — just 8 lbs.

• Includes removable
rechargeable

Ni-Cd battery pack, lasls
up to 2 hours.

• Retractable keyboard legs.

• Centronics parallel port.

• One RS232 serial port.

• One RGB! port.

■ Foldaway tiandle.

• Full size ei
key keyboard
with to
programmab-f
tunction keys.

• Includes DR-
DOS.

•Dim.:13"Wx
12.2"Dx
2.2"H.

• Model It: B200.

• One Year Distributor's Warranty!

• Factory New!

Mfr. Sugg. Retail: S1 ,295.00

$3gg99

DAMARK
PRICE

Hem No. B-351 1-1 75897 S/HS19.00

Carrying Case:

DAMAR
PRICE

1-175911 S/H!

i Battery:
RK $0099

Hem No. B-35 1 1 - 1 759 1 1 S/H S4.00

Extra Battery:

DAMA
PRICE

Item No. B-3S1 1-175904 S/H $4.00

386"' -SX
16MHz
Computer
Witti 42MB
Hard Drive
and 14" VGA
Color Monitor

• ffitel 306-SX micrDprocessor. running at 16 MHz.
zero wail stale. • 42M8 hard drive.

• 1 MB RAM expandable to 5MB on motherboard.

• One 5.25" 1 .2MB floppy disk drive.

• One 3.5" 1 .44MB floppy disk drive.

• IBM compatible. • 1 6-bit 800x600 video card.

• Four 16-l3it expansion slots,

• Two half-heigtil exposed and one internal S.S" drive
bays. • Includes Lotus Works, DH-DOS 5.01
sollware. • Two serial, one parallel port.

• IDI-key enhanced keyboard.

• Includes 14' VGA Color Monitor, res: 640x450,
dot pilch: ,41mm

• Six Month On.SrIe Mfr Warranty - CPU!

• One Year Depot Mfr. Wananty - Monitor!

• Factory New!

f^fr, Sugg. Retail: $3,698.00

$119Qm

DAMARK
PRICE

Hem No. B-351 1-182946 S/H S49.00

^GoldStar

386-25 Computer With 124MB Hard
Drive and 14" Color VGA Monitor

■ fntef 386
micfo-
pfocessof.
running at
20MHz (full
32-b(l
processof).

■ 124MB hard
drive (Dnve
fly Western
Digital, 19 MS
access).

■ 1MB R/\M expandable to
10MB. • One 5.25"
1 .2MB (loppy disk drive.

■ One 3.5" 1,44MB ffoppy
disk drive. ■14' color
VGA monitor; resolution
640x480. ■ IBM
compatible. • Expanscn
stots: one 32-bit,
five 16-bit & two 8-bi!.

■ 1 serial port & 1
parallel Mfr. Sugg,
port. _

DAMARK
PRICE

Item No. B-351 1-183555 S/H S4 9. 00

•101 key keyboard.

• Includes MS-DOS 3.3.
GW-BASIC, and Lotus
Works software.

• 80337 co-processor
sockel. • Dim,: 18.5'Wx
16"Dx6.rH.

• One Yr, M(r., 4 Month On-
Site Warranty!

' Factory New!

Retail: $3,269.00

^1699^

f !OMPUTEKPF.RIPIIF.RAU. ISC

Jetfont Super Font Cards

• 150 popular
fonts, Including
(he equivalent
of 1 B separate
HP foni
cartridges.

• For HP
LaserJel or
Canon laser
printers and
compatibles.

• Font families
include: TMS.
Roman. Lotica,
Helvetica, Courier,
Presentation, Prestige
Elite, bar code,
OCR/EAN/UPC

and others.

• Specially fonts for
presentation, legal and
business documents.

• Vertical and
horizontal
formats.

• Incluae:^ l.-.o cartridges.

■ fBM compalible.

■ Five Year
Manufacturer's Warranty!

■ Fadoiy New!

• 14" VGA high
resolulion
C0k)r monitor.

• Resolutions:
1024x768.
800x600.
640X480-

■IBU
compatible.

■ .28 dot pilch.

• Dar1( tint non-
glare screen.

■ Analog RGB
input signal.

■ 15-pin D-lype connector.

• Removeable
tilt-swivel base.

■Dim.: 14.4"Wx
15.4"Dxt2.3"H.

■ One Year
Mfr. Warranty!

■ Factory Newt

fncfuded Enhanced 512K
Super VGA Card features:

• 1024x786 or 800x600.

• 1 6 colors,
•612K video RAM.

• Backward compatible:
VCA/EGA/CGA/MDA,

Mtr. Sugg. Retail: $299.99

DAMARK s 7Q 99
pRice / J7 —

Item No- B-351 1-175442 S/H S6.00

Mfr, Sugg. Retail; $799.00

*399

99

DAMARK
PRICE

Item No. B-351 1-182925 S/H $13.50

NAME

ADDRESS .
CITY

FOR FASTEST SERVICE CALL TOLL FREE

m 1-800-729-9000

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1-800-733-9070

QTY

DESCRIPTION

ITEM*

S/H

PRICE

-STATE

ZIP,

PHONE

Checli/Money Order Visa

MasterCard Discover CARD NO.

□ELIVERV TO 48 U.S. CONTINENTAL STATES ONLY SUBTOTAL

in IWN add 6% Sales Tax

Total S/H
i^HP'l iJ^^ GRAND TOTAL

TOTAL
S/H

EXP. DATE -

SIGNATURE -

.B'3511

ISENO TO: DAMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC., 7101 Winnetka Ave. N„ P.O, Box 29900, MpIs,, MN 55429-0900 Copynghl 1991 DAMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC. All rights reserved, |

DISK UPDATE

Richard C. Leinecker

If you've

had problems wttn

SuperMAC,

yoit may not be

formaning

your files correctly.

Here's helo.

END MACROS
THE RIGHT WAY

We've streamlined COM-
PUTE'S Menu Operating Sys-
tem to make it simpler to use.
In the past, we've offered thie
option of running some of the
programs directly from the
menu. The menu program de-
compresses the files {or loads
them straight off the disk if it's
a3'/2-inch disk) and then exe-
cutes the code. IvIS-DOS has
some inherent problems, how-
ever, thai make this impracti-
cal in most cases, so we've de-
cided to eliminate this fea-
ture — al least for now.

If you try to run memory-res-
ident programs, such as
SCROLOCK from the April
1991 disk, your computer will
crash after quitting the menu
program. That's because the
system can't keep track of
where everything is in memo-
ry after the menu program is
terminated.

Some programs may look
for a configuration file or other
files they need to run. That's
the case with ASIC from the
February disk. It attempts to
run but aborts because it can't
find its support files.

There's one last problem re-
lated to running programs
from the menu program. We
used to use a file called
LAUNCH.EXE to help us run
programs from the menu, If
you typed LAUNCH from the
command line, though, it tried
to execute code that didn't ex-
ist. You won't find it on disk
from this point on, but if you
see it on old disks, don't run it.
If you do, your computer will
probably lock up, and you'll
have to reboot.

Ending Macros Gracefully

SuperMAC {AptW 1991) loads
a macro file that you create
with your text editor or word
processor. When the program
runs, it loads the file and con-

verts it to a format that its in-
ternal routines understand.
The conversion routines are
designed to alert you to any
problems in the macro file. If
problems are found, the pro-
gram quits with an error mes-
sage. We've gotten calls from
several people who've re-
ceived these error messages,
and we have some sugges-
tions for avoiding them.

The most common prob-
lem is leaving off the carriage
return at the end of the last
macro. Your text editor will
place a carriage return at the
end if you press Enter. You
can even add extra blank
lines at the end of the file to
make sure that at least one is
there.

A second problem can oc-
cur when your editor places
non-ASCII characters in the
file. You have to make sure
that your word processor
saves the file as straight AS-
CII text Make sure, too, that
your editor saves the file with
hard carriage returns and not
just linefeeds.

If you're still having trouble,
you might have to resort to
more thorough measures,
fvlake sure that the DOS pro-
gram called DEBUG is in
your path or in the current di-
rectory. At the DOS prompt,
type DEBUG filename.MAC
and press Enter. You'll see a
prompt that looks like a dash.
Press D and then Enter. DE-
BUG will show you the first sev-
eral lines of the text file as
hex data. Disregard the num-
bers in the left column; what
you're looking for is to the
hght.

When your editor inserts a
carriage return, it's actually in-
serting two characters — a 13
and then a 10. You'll see
these in the DEBUG dump as
a consecutive OD OA pair If
you don't see several of
these pairs, your editor isn't
saving in the proper format. If
you don't see one of these

pairs after the last macro, you
haven't ended with a carriage
return.

There's one more thing you
can look for in the hex dump,
Any character that's less than
20 hex or greater than 7F hex
doesn't belong in there. If you
see characters in these rang-
es, then your editor has insert-
ed its own special formatting
characters, and SuperMAC is
reporting an error when it
runs into these.

Getting the Best Support

If you call COfvlPUTE's office
for technical support, you'll
want to be prepared so you
can get the best possible re-
sponse. Here are some sug-
gestions that will help our tech-
nical staff solve your prob-
lems.

Be ready to list your com-
puter's equipment. Ivlany pro-
grams require certain equip-
ment configurations to oper-
ate properly. These programs
may also need you to config-
ure the program for the equip-
ment on which it's running.

It's especially important to
know your graphics configura-
tion for programs that run in
graphics modes and your
disk drive types for programs
that are disk utilities or that ac-
cess the drives often. Being
able to accurately identify
your system and its compo-
nents will help give the tech-
nical support person the infor-
mation needed to identify
your problem.

Know the version of DOS un-
der which your computer
runs. You can get this by typ-
ing VER at the DOS prompt.

Although not always possi-
ble, the most important factor
is to be right at your comput-
er when you call so the tech-
nical representative can taik
you through any problems
while you're on the telephone.
That may save you from hav-
ing to call again because
something wasn't clear. n

80 COMPUTE

Hands-on training for today's hottest
computer careers from ICS!

Prepare lor a money-making job at home in your spare time.

1

The deinand for skilled computer
professionals has ne\ei' been
jjreatcr. And now w ith the
revoliHionarv' ICS liome-lriiiiiiilg method
von can prepare For a hijih-paying career
in this nitihibillion dollar industry.
Respected educators and professionals
designed our coEiiputer courses that
inclutlc compreheasi\'e. state-of-the-an
instruction with hands-on iraininj^. You
receive an IBM-compatible computer,
software applications and expert
instruction that gives you the competitive
edge in today's computer fields,

HecaiLse we're the lai'gesi and ciiost
respected home-sttidy .school, our
reputation within business and indu.sliy is
well establishetl. Major employers
recognize an ICS Career Diploma or ASB
Degree. Companies like IllM. DuPont.
C'leneraJ l-,lectric, I'.S. Steel, International
Paper, l-'ord and hundreds of other
"Fortune 500" firms have all used !CS
training for their employees.

Hands-on training with an
IBM-compatible computer

'I'our training is centered around a high-
perfonnance computer, .so you get
practical, real-world skills. It includes an
8086 CPU, 512K IL\M. 101-key enlianced
keyboard, disk drive, color monitor and
much more. And you get the actual
software you need Ibr the course you
choose- — programming iangtiages like
BASIC, COBOL, C„. applications like
word prcx;essing. spreadsheets, database
management, bookkeeping and others.
Circle Reader Service Number 206

Choose from any ol tliese
growing careers:

Computer Programming in BASIC:

There '.s big demand for programmers
who are skilled in this easy-to-use, all-
purpo.se language. Learn computer
operations, graphics, applications and
much more.

Computer Programming in COBOL:
LcLirn to [irogram in COBOL, the most
widely used computer language in the
world. High-paying opportunities exisi
in business, industry', education and
government.

Personal Computer Specialist:
Learn lo iLse spreadsheets, word
processors, database nianagemem
software, telecommunications
eqtiipment and more. Thousands of
businesses need people who are trained
in tills growing profession.
Computer-Assisted Bookkeeping:
Gel the valuable skills yotj need to
break into this money-making field.
Work for others or start your own
business.

Associate in Specialized Business
Degree In Applied Computer Science:
Now you can get your .\S\i Degree at

home. Yoii iearn three progranuning
langiLage.s— C. COBOL and BASIC. ' |
Prepare for a career in programming,
systems analysis, operations or other
management-level [positions.

Your career in computers begins with
ttie FREE information we send you

Gel all the facts you ne«l on the computer
career that interests yoti iiio,st. Send for free
infomiation that describes how comprehen-
sive, hands-on training from ICS can start you
toward a high-paying
computer career, job
advancement or a
business of your
own. Mail the
poslage-patd c:ird
today. If card is not
available, indicate
the course of ^
your choice on
(he coupon
Ijelow and
mail today.

SEND
FOR
FREE
FACTS

^m

Training Includes IBM-Compatitiie Conipuiet

. LNTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS, Dept. PDZSy IS

' 925 0:tk Street, Scranion, PA IH5I5
] VkiK send me fr^-e faas thai idl how I can irjjn m home for the computer career I h;nf cliusen. I undersund
1 iIktl' is no cihlifiLiiion and no sjle.sman will visli. CHECK ONE BOX ONTV.

I D Cumpmcr-.A.'isisicd Bookkwping D Computer Programminn COBOL D Ciimpuier l'ri)Hramming/BA,SIC
I D Personal Ciimpuler Speciallsl Q ASH Degree in Applied CompLiler Science

I Xuilic

I .'\dc)fe,ss

Af!e_

j City Suiie .
I I'lione <

. Apt.

. Zip .

HOME OFFICE

COMPUTE CHOICE. Double the
storage capacity of your hard drive
without spending a bundle.

Clifton Karnes

STACKER

Face it: Your hard disk is too
small. If you have a 40MB
drive, you need a 60. If you're
spinning a 60, you'd be better
off with an 80. And on and on,
ad infinitum.

As a case in point, I recent-
ly acquired a new computer
with a 60MB drive, but before
a month was out, I was spend-
ing every free moment trying
to decide what to kick off the
disk to make room for some-
thing else. This is no way to
live, I told myself.

Until recently, a larger hard
disk was the only way to gar-
ner more magnetic real estate.
But Stacker, a hardware-soft-
ware combo from Stac Elec-
tronics, changes all that. With
it, you can literally double the
capacity of your hard disk with-
out paying a performance pen-
alty. How is this possible? In a
word, compression.

Stacker is a device driver
with an optional coprocessor
board that stores data on your
hard disk in a compressed
form. When you want to write
something to disk, Stacker
compresses the data before
it's written. When you need to
access the data again, Stack-
er decompresses the informa-
tion and sends it to you.

Compression may sound
complicated and dangerous,
but Stacker works flawlessly
and nearly transparently. In
fact, if you're using an RLL con-
troller (and almost everyone
with a 40MB or larger drive is),
your data is being com-
pressed at the bit level al-
ready. Mainframes have been
using RLL compression tech-
nology for years with no ill ef-
fects. So compression is OK
as long as it is 100-percent re-
liable, and Stacker is.

Installing Stacker isn't diffi-

cult, but
the more
you know
about your
PC, the easier it
will be. As I men-
tioned earlier, Stack-
er comes in two ver-
sions. One version uses
a software driver coupled
with a coprocessor board.
The other version uses a soft-
ware driver alone. The
coprocessor board offers fast-
er performance and much bet-
ter compression, so it's the-
choice if you have a machine
with an open slot. The
coprocessor version also uses
less conventional memory —
21 K RAM as opposed to 30K
for the software- only Stacker

To install the coprocessor
version, you place the board
in any available slot and run In-
stall. For the software version,
you simply run Install. The in-
stallation program creates a
Stacker volume on your cur-
rent hard disk that will hold
your compressed files. For ex-
ample, if you have one hard
disk labeled drive C, Stacker
will create a drive D to store its
compressed files. Your sys-
tem will see drive D as anoth-
er hard disk, but in reality,
drive D is a single large file on
your C drive.

Getting back to the installa-
tion, the first thing the setup pro-
gram asks you for is a base ad-
dress in upper memory to use

for your co-
processor card,
The program sup-
plies a default (CCOO),
which should work in most
cases. Next, the program asks
you for a size to use for Stack-
er's disk cache. If you want to
use your own cache, you can
specify a size of 0. Next, Stack-
er asks how much space you
want to dedicate to your new
SfacAer volume. After that, you
can exercise the option to
have the program transfer all
the files on your current disk to
the Sfac/<er disk, compressing
them in the process. By de-
fault, Sfac/cer leaves 1MB of
disk space on the non-Stack-
er volume. You can specify
more if you choose.

On a 60MB disk, Stacker
took about 25 minutes to com-
press 50MB of files, When the
installation was finished, I had
a 120MB hard disk with about
70MB free. Not bad.

If you're running Microsoft
Windows, Stacker will work
without a hitch, but you do
need to go through a few ex-
tra steps to install it correctly.
First, if you're using a perma-
nent swap file, you'll need to

82 COMPUTE

delete it before you run the in-
stallation program. Then,
when you're asked how much
space to leave on your non-
Stacker vo\ume, leave enough
room to re-create your swap
file later. If you normally use a
4MB swap file, for example,
you'll want to leave 4MB plus
an extra megabyte on the
drive: 5MB in all, After the
Stecter installation is finished,
you can rebuild your swap file
on the non-Stacker volume.
The only other thing you need
to do is tell Windows about
your Stacker coprocessor.
You do this by adding the line
emmexclude=ccOO-cfff in the
386Enh section of your SYS-
TEM. INI file.

One thing that may worry
you a little about this whole
business is the fact that you're
depending on this coproces-
sor board to access all your da-
ta. What happens if it goes
bad? Here, there's nothing to
worry about. If for any reason
the board stops working, the
program defaults to the soft-
ware-only version, which han-
dles everything itself. 1 tested
this by removing the coproces-
sor card and found that my sys-
tem worked fine, though a lit-
tle more slowly.

You can use all your usual
disk utilities on the Sfactervol-
ume. If you accidentally delete
a file, your undelete program
should work fine, if you use
Spinrite or another low- 1 eve I
disk diagnostic program, Stack-
er won't give it a moment's
pause. And programs like The
Norton Disk Doctor will exam-
ine your Stacker volume and
treat it just like any other hard
disk.

The only exception is that
you can't run a defragmenting
program on a Sfactervolume.
Because of the way Stackeror-
ganizes files, you could actu-

ally increase the volume's frag-
mentation. This means there's
no way to defragment your
Stacker volume, except by
backing everything up and re-
storing it. Stac realizes that
this is a weakness with the sys-
tem, and it is planning to in-
clude its own defragmenting
program with future versions.

Now we're at the bottom
line, and the two bottom-line
questions are, How much com-
pression will I get? and How
much will my system slow
down? On my 60MB hard
disk, I received an overall com-
pression ratio of 2:1 using the
coprocessor version. This
means I doubled the capacity
of my hard disk, from 60MB to
120MB,

As far as performance
goes, I ran a large number of
benchmarks comparing my
Stacker and non-Sfac/fsr vol-
umes and found some surpris-
ing results. Using a set of da-
tabase benchmarks that read
and write sequential and ran-
dom records, I found overall
performance of Stacker and
non-Sfac/<er volumes using
the coprocessor to be nearly
identical. When reading and
writing sequential information.
Stacker is faster than my na-
tive hard disk. When reading
and writing random informa-
tion, it is slower. As I men-
tioned, this all averages out.

I also tested Stacker and
non-Sfac/cer volumes without
the coprocessor card, and
here, the non-Sfac/<er volume
was about 18-percent faster
than the software-only version
of Stacker.

With Stacker and its
coprocessor board, my sys-
tem feels the same as it did be-
fore I installed Stacker Even
with Windows, which is prob-
ably the most disk-intensive
program on the planet, I

1 /J

s

r

1

^^ STACKER

haven't noticed any perform-
ance degradation.

If you're thinking about buy-
ing Stacker, there isn't much
to decide. The system is so
fast and transparent, you'll im-
mediately reap the reward of
a much larger hard disk and
soon forget you're using it.
You do need to take into ac-
count, however, the size of
your current hard disk and
how much you'll gain by install-
ing Stacker

The larger your current
hard disk, the more you'll get
from Stacker. If you have a
20MB disk, Stacker can turn it
into a 40, but for what Stacker
costs, you could buy a new
40MB hard drive. With a 40MB
disk, however, StackerwlW pay
for itself, and with anything larg-
er than 40MB, Stacker will
give you the most cost-effec-
tive increase in disk capacity
you'll find anywhere. To in-
crease your hard drive's capac-
ity, you just can't go wrong
with Stacker □

IBM PC am!
Gompatibles, 51 2K
RAM, hard drive—
$229 lor
coprocessor
version, $149 for
software-only
version

STAC ELECTRONICS
5993 Avenlda Enclnas
Carlsiiad, CA 92008
(619)431-7474

83

WORKPLACE

Daniel Janal

A computer-
generated
tliank-you note
doesn't liave
to look like the
most recent
clearinghouse
sweenstakes form.

HOW DO I THANK
THEE? WITH A
NOTE, OF COURSE.

When 1 was growing up, send-
ing thank-you notes for gifts
was considered a sign of
good taste. But lil<e most ad-
olescents, for me, writing
tliem took a back seat to watcti-
ing ball games. Maybe that's
wtiy relatives stopped send-
ing me birthday and holiday
presents, Maybe if I'd
thanked them, the presents
would still be coming.

Hmm, what a concept. May-
be it works for businesses as
well. You send business pros-
pects thank-you notes, and
they send more business your
way. After all, a proper thank-
you note serves many func-
tions.

For one, you can keep your
name in front of prospects and
clients by honestly thanking
them for their time, effort, and
interest. Your note will stand
out while a direct-mail piece
might not even register.

One editor has a tremen-
dousiy positive view of me sim-

ply because I sent him a thank-
you note early in our business
relationship. Even though our
paths rarely cross, he still
tells people I'm a gentleman —
all because I took the time to
thank him.

Why don't people bother
with thank-you notes any-
more? Let me count the excus-
es: sloppy penmanship, spell-
ing, and grammar; lost ad-
dresses; too lazy.

Fortunately, your computer
can solve these problems
and more. You can use a
word processor to write the let-
ter, check the spelling, and
correct the grammar. If you
have horrible handwriting,
you can use a font that mim-
ics handwriting like Script or
Architect. (Check with large
font libraries from Adobe or
with shareware sources.) If
you're truly lazy, you can
scan your signature into the
computer and paste it onto
thank-you notes.

Your note should contain
certain key components: It
should thank the recipient
and refer to a specific inci-
dent the two of you shared.
That way you avoid the look
and feel of a form letter, while
prompting the recipient to re-
member you. You then have
permission to conduct busi-
ness, addressing the per-
son's requests and questions.
Finally, you should end with a
specific promise to follow up.

How do you remember
enough about all the people
you meet to follow up without
getting them confused?
When I meet people at trade
shows and seminars, I ask for
business cards and then
make a note of the person's
interests, my promises, and
what we talked about. You
don't have to write The Great
American Novel.

How does all this save
time if you have to write 50 dif-
ferent notes to people you
met at the Gargantuan Con-

vention? Not to worry. You'll
find that 90 percent of your let-
ters fall into three categories:
I'll call you to follow up, I'm
sending you the product now,
and I'll be sending you the
product in the future. If you
create three separate notes
(or letters, if you have a lot to
say) with such sentiments on
your word processor, you'll
have covered the majority of
your thank-you-note recipi-
ents. Then, you can use the
time you've saved to corre-
spond even more personally
with the other 10 percent.

Sort your business cards in-
to three piles to correspond
with the three note categories
so you can "batch-process"
the letters and virtually auto-
mate the system. Write the
three basic notes, call up the
first one, and either type the
person's name and personal
references or use the mail-
merge feature of your word
processor.

By stonng the information
in a file, you can retrieve it for
reference and reprinting when-
ever you want. If you find
mail merge confusing, you
can make a copy of the mas-
ter letter and manually type
the information onto the copy,
print it immediately, and save
it for the future. Laser printing
will allow you to send nicely
printed letters and notes —
even on fancy letterhead and
odd paper sizes, such as
note cards. Try printing a few
sample sheets before invest-
ing in a load of paper,
though. You also should print
a few practice sheets until
you get the margin spacing
just nght.

Taking the time to send
thank-you notes to your cli-
ents and prospects is smart
business. You'll be remem-
bered for remembering them.
By the way, thank you for read-
ing this far. I wish I could
send a note to thank each of
you individually. □

84 COMPUTE

Tiyit
For just $19a*

Fh^ your ooQ^ inb
a wodd of infoonalioa

The easy, cost-effective information system from National
Videotex, using AT&T's state-of-ttie-art digital network.

*For a flat fee of $4,95 per month, you get National Videotex Ne^A/ork users may

unlimited access to National Videotex also access the expanding number of

Networt<, the user-ftiendh/ information ex- pay-as-you-go interactive and transac-

cfnange. This includes free access to six tional services, directories, games, stock

services provided by USA Today Decision- exchanges, environmental services and

line, "write-your-ov^/n" classified ads, and more, NVTEL multi-protocol communica-

unlimited usage of the gateway functions, tion software available at $ 1 4,95,

NATIONAL
VIDEOTEX

D3l3

Comiminicalions
ScivicGS

To register call 800-348-0069

'"^•,

-S?i^

.mm<^:^.

treet Legal

Keep

your home office

running

on the straight and

narrow.

By Rosalind Resnick
and Susie Archer

People who run home offices typically
spend half their time worrying about get-
ting business in the door — and the oth-
er half worrying that they've taken on
too much. With all the attention paid to
sales and marketing, the legal aspects
of setting up and maintaining a home
office are often overlooked. And yet
there are many legal questions that
ought to give you pause: What if you
need a contract drawn up'' Which le-
gal software gives you the biggest
bang for the buck? And, most basic of
all, does your community even permit
you to work from home?

Legal questions often defy easy an-
swers, but that doesn't mean that you
should rush out and hire a lawyer.
Your PC, a modem, and a couple of
self-help law books may be what you
need to cut through all but the thorni-
est of legal problems. Here's a begin-
ner's guide to Home Office Law 101.

Zoning

The first legal issue many home office
users must confront is whether they
can legally open a home office at all.
Some cities and states are very strict
while others take a more tolerant view

86

COMPUTE

i-gffr?^

M

\

I

of people running businesses in resi-
dential areas. Many communities don't
allow businesses to operate from a
home but make exceptions for profes-
sionals such as doctors, lawyers, writ-
ers, and artists. Illegally operating a
home office can result in a court order
to cease all business activity, fines,
and even jaiL The reality however, is
that in most places home business
bans are unenforced. (That doesn't
mean you should break the law.)

The best way to avoid zoning has-
sles is to maintain good relationships
with your neighbors, find out what

kinds of businesses you can and can't
run from home, and obtain all neces-
sary permits and variances. To find out
which home businesses are permitted,
simply go to city hall and leaf through
the local zoning ordinances or ask a
city or county zoning official for help.
If it turns out that your business is
not allowed, you can always petition
the local zoning or planning board for
a variance. You should try to show
that what you are doing is similar to a
permitted occupation, that enforcing
the ordinance would strip you of your
livelihood, and that your business

would not disrupt the neighborhood.
It's not a bad idea to take a few neigh-
bors with you — as long as they're on
your side. Getting a building permit
may require another trip to city hall.

Permits

Thinking about turning your spare bed-
room, garage, or toolshed into a cozy
home office? If you're planning to do
more than slap on a fresh coat of
paint, you may need a building permit.
You may also need to obtain an occu- "
palional license, register your busi-
ness, gain permission to collect sales

87

tax, get an employer's tax ID number
from the Internal Revenue Service, and
file articles of incorporation.

Insurance

Many people who work at home don't
realize that their homeowner's policy
may not fully insure computer equip-
ment used for business.

Depending on the replacement val-
ue of your home office equipment, you
may want to buy an additional policy
from a specialty insurer such as Safe-
ware, the Insurance Agency via Com-
puServe (type GO MALL) or by calling
(800) 848-3469.

Incorporation

If you're like most home business own-
ers and your company consists of you
alone or you and your spouse, you prob-
ably don't need to incorporate. As a
sole proprietor, you and the business
are one and the same. What the busi-
ness earns is yours to keep; what the
business borrows is money you owe.
As your business grows, you may
want to consider a more formal compa-
ny structure. But beware: A partnership
can burden you with somebody else's
debts. Incorporating your business
may lend it an air of permanence but
can also saddle you with unwanted pa-
penwork and legal bills.

Taxes

It's tempting to write off home office ex-
penses on your 1040, but unless you
want to risk an audit, you've got to
know the rules. The IRS uses this two-
part test: Is your home office used ex-

clusively and regularly for business?
And if it is, is your home office either
your principal place of work or a place
where you meet with customers or cli-
ents in the normal course of business?
If the answer to both questions is
Yes, your tax savings may be substan-
tial. But remember that you can only de-
duct the portion of your expenses direct-
ly attributable to your home office.

Lawyers

It's wise to comparison-shop when look-
ing for legal assistance. Depending on
the lawyer's expertise, reputation, and
the size and location of !^is or her law
firm, rates can range from $50 to over
$200 per hour. Savvy legal consumers
typically shop around — visiting, or at
least calling, three or four lawyers and
interviewing them about fees, strategy,
and past experience in handling their
particular type of case. Once you've de-
cided which lawyer to hire, be sure to
get a written contract. Run, don't walk,
from any lawyer who promises to win
your case or tries to bowl you over
with legal mumbo jumbo.

Prepaid Legal Plans

One v^ay to keep your legal bills low is
to join a prepaid legal plan that offers
discounts on lawyers' hourly rates
plus unlimited consultations by phone
or letter. LawPhone Advisory Commu-
nication Systems, a 50-state network of
private attorneys, charges $60 for a
three-month membership plus a S15-a-
month continuation fee or $180 for an
entire year. Members get free tele-
phone consultations with a plan attor-

ney; letters written on their behalf; re-
views of contracts, leases, and other le-
gal documents; and a 25-percent
break on legal fees.

Legal Software

For those home office professionals
who want to brave the legal jungle
alone, there's plenty of software avail-
able. Only a handful of programs are
capable of generating documents oth-
er than wills. It's Legal (Parsons Tech-
nology), Personal Lawyer (BLOC Pub-
lishing), and Hyatt Legal Services
Home Lattyer(MECA Ventures) are gen-
eral-purpose legal programs that spit
out commonly used legal documents.

Online Advice

A lot of law-related information can be
gleaned online at minimal cost. Ameri-
ca Online and PC-Link offer information
in their Small Business Resource area
on topics such as "Obtaining Good Le-
gal Advice and Controlling Legal
Costs" and "Keeping Your Business
Out of Legal Hot Water." CompuServe
offers law-related information in its Le-
gal (LAWSIG) and Work at Home
(WORK) forums. Forum members who
log on to LAWSIG can browse through
such libraries as Computer Law and
Software and Lawyer-to- Lawyer, an in-
formation exchange for attorneys.

How-To Books

Since online searches can be expen-
sive, it's a good idea to invest in a few
self-help legal guides. Three we recom-
mend are listed in the List of Products
and Services box. lJ

LIST OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

America Online
Quantum Computer Services
8619 Westwood Center Dr.
Vienna, VA 22182
(703) 448-8700

The Best Lawyers in America,

$95.00
Steve Naifeh

and Gregory White Smith
Woodward/Wliite
129 First Ave. SW
Aiken, SC 29801
(803) 648-0300

CompuServe
P.O. Box 20212
Columbus, OH 43220
(800) 848-8990

Everybody's Guide to the Law,

$11.95
Melvin Belli and Alien P, Wilkinson
HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022
(212)207-7000

Hyatt Legai Services Home

Lawyer, $119.95
IWECA Ventures
327 Riverside Ave.
Weslport, CI 06880
(203)222-9150

It's Legal, $49.00
Parsons Teclinology
P.O. Box 3120
Cedar Rapids, lA 52406
(800) 223-6925

LawPhone
P.O. Box 607
Lanham, iVID 20705
(800) 255-3352

Personal Lawyer, $59.95
Personal Lawfirm, $99.95
(includes Personal Lawyer

documents)
BLOC Publishing
800 SW 37th Ave., Ste. 765
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(305) 445-0903

Prodigy

445 Hamilton Ave.
While Plains, NY 10601
(800) 284-5933

Saieware, the Insurance Agency
P.O. Box 02211
Columbus, OH 43202
(800) 843-3469

Using a Lawyer, $8.95
Kay Ostberg
Random House
201 E. 50th St.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 751-2600

88 COMPUTE

PC Productivity Manager

I 4 I\

Work at your peak potential!
Break free of cumbersome MS-DOS
restrictions and limitations!

Single keypresses or mouse clicks do
It all for you with COMPUTE'S super
new PC Productivity Manager.

Packed with 38 PC batch-file extensions
and power utilities, this easy-to-use disk
includes Individual help menus for every
program. You don't have to be a computer
maven — just press F1 for Help anytime!

The power utilities alone are wortii
many times the cost of this disk. Imag-
ine! Programs to speed up your keyboard,
edit disk files, edit and search memory,
find a specific text string in disk files — plus
memory-resident programs such as a pop-
up calculator, a programmer's reference
tool, an editable macro key program, and
a graphic screen-capture utility, and more
all included on this jam-packed disk.

Our batch-file extensions add new com-
mands to standard batch-file language.
Now you can easily create menus, draw
boxes, and write strings in your choice
of colors anywhere on the screen — all
with simple, easy-to-use commands.
Then, add some zest to your batch files
with a command that lets you play a se-
ries of notes!

Plus handy system tools let you delete
an entire subdirectory with one command,
find out if the system has enough memory
for an application before it runs, cause the
computer to remember the current direc-
tory so that you can come back to it later,
and much, much, more.

ORtfER YOUl
yrPRODUCTIVITY
yMAHAGER TODI

^^^ i:iU^^9

i

gilt ii|Cir a&i

IkK l>lto|l\x X

■

QQQQB

OflBaD

□flBDB

□DUD

__!

r»ttiirb|iwri

Cite lDlij:ig
' ■'■-i:llo»i:«

Jtfiult Colin
U(c T>cie Colors

ckiMe the EoUrl lletan fm Urt to tk

y\ DYES! Please send me _ SV* Inch dlsk(s) ($14.95 each) _ ZVz inch dIsMs) ($15.95 each).

Subtotal

Sales Tax (Residents of NC and NY please add appropriate

sales tax for your area.Canadian orders, add 7% goods and

services tax, )

Shipping and Handling (S2.00 U.S. and Canada, S3.00 surface

mail, S5.00 airmail per disk.J

Total Enclosed

_ Check or Money Order _ MasterCard _ VISA
(MasterCard and Visa accepted on orders with subtotal over $20.)

Credit Card No. .
Signature

Daytime Teleplnne No. .
Name

Address .
City.

State/
Province.

ZIP/
. Postal Code .

Send your order to COMPUTE'S PC Productivity Manager,
324 W. Wendover A/B., Suite 200, Greenslxro, NC 27408.

I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I

ARIS & LETTERS

Robert Bixby

Horse, created by

Steve Lyons of

Fairfax, Calilomia,

winner ol tire

Grand Prize World in

tile CoremAW!

International Design

Contest,

demonstrates the

versatility

ol CorelDRAW!.

SHOWDOWN AT
THE OK COREL

It's little wonder that Co-
relDRAV! so dominates its mar-
ket, claiming over two-ttiirds of
high-end illustrator sales,
while its nearest competitor
has less than a tenth.

Four major factors account
for this dominance: Its easier
to learn and use; it uses wire-
frame representation, vastly
speeding the screen-refresh
process; it features associat-
ed tools for converting raster
graphics to vector and for im-
porting, exporting, and editing
fonts; and it subscribes to the
popular Pantone color-match-
ing system, making it very at-
tractive to professionals.

A fifth item is special ef-
fects. CorelDRAW! can now
create blends as quickly and
easily as Arts & Letters, which
it surpassed by bringing out en-
velope distortion first. Text and
graphics can also be extrud-

ed (extended into the third di-
mension) with the option of add-
ing perspective. Speaking of
which, you can now use an au-
tomatic routine to make your
drawn objects appear to be
on a plane oblique to the
screen.

CorelDRAWI's documenta-
tion has always been good. Its
onscreen tool box adds to the
speed of learning, and nearly
all of its processes are com-
pletely logical. The only ones
that might throw a newcomer
off are determining how to ed-
it existing text and how to
draw with Bezier curves. Both
are fully covered in the docu-
mentation.

CorelDRAW! gives you the
option of viewing a wire-frame
representation or a wire frame
and a preview side by side.
This almost completely elimi-
nates the waiting encountered
while Arts & Letters or Micro-
grafx Designer recomposes
the screen.

MOSAIC. CorelTRACE, and
WFNBOSS are programs
shipped with CorelDRAW!. MO-
SAIC changes the way you
load graphics and clip art via
disk. It changes the Open
Drawing dialog box to a pic-
ture gallery containing
thumbnail bitmaps of the
CorelDRAW! drawings. In-
stead of depending on hast-
ily conceived names to iden-
tify files, you can locate the
file in the MOS/A/C gallery
and double-click on it,
and it's loaded.

CorelTRACE is an
autotracing utility that
traces black-and-white,
color, or gray-scale imag-
es into an EPS format Co-
relDRAW! can import. It's
not as fast or sensitive as
Micrografx Designer's, and
you have to leave the draw-
ing program to use it.
Still, it's better than many,
and it's free with Co-
relDRAW!. WFNBOSS can
convert various font types

for use in your CorelDRAW! ren-
derings, and it allows you to ex-
port Corel's fine stable of
fonts for use as downloadable
fonts.

The Adobe Type 1 fonts ex-
ported by WFNBOSS don't
work with Adobe Type Manag-
er programs shipped through
late spring 1991, but a phone
call to Corel Systems yielded
assurances that registered us-
ers should have received an
updated version as early as
last June, fixing this problem.

As I mentioned, Corel-
DRAW! subscribes to the Pan-
tone color-matching system.
You can specify a spot color
by number, and your printer
will be able to come up with
the exact color ink to match.
You can also freely mix proc-
ess colors using several differ-
ent mixing schemes and save
your palette.

With the latest version of Co-
relDRAW!, you can now cre-
ate bitmap and vector fills of
your own or import any TIF or
PCX file as a new pattern.

Envelope distortion is a new
topic that may seem strange
to first-time users. Essentially
it creates an enveloping rectan-
gle around a selected object.
This rectangle can then be dis-
torted by dragging its han-
dles. There are three set
forms of distortion and a free-
hand tool. The feature makes
your drawing flexible — as
though It were on a piece of Sil-
ly Putty. By stretching and
bending, you can distort it al-
most infinitely.

CorelDRAW! is a treasure
chest of powerful tools. It's so
powerful, in fact, a printer man-
ufacturer told me it makes Post-
Script printers look bad be-
cause artists can easily over-
whelm the PostScript interpret-
ers in so many printers.

Next month I'll talk about
more powerful add-ons and
tools for making graphic arts
and desktop publishing pur-
suits even more fun. 3

90 COMPUTE

Pange%n>ance.-;^^.^ei«f''*

?!V\^SsouHi>

M\BtO

An Exhilarating
Fast Paced
Interactive Mystery
Guaranteed to
Entertain You!

THURq

dav

.! s ?

T^Tl

'i'!J3,i » 'I?

is

;9»;

isjs:

8

■•"hursoav

^ora "^:

1-kj

• The FIRST EVER Multimedia,
Entertainment Product

• FuUy Animated TALKING
Cliaracters I asi

• INTRIGUING Story Line

• IN DEPTH Character Development

• On Demand HINT SCREENS

• Rich MUSICAL SCORE - Digitized Sound Effects

• Supports ALL Major Sound Boards

• The Most Vivid, LIFELIKE GRAPHICS Ever Seen

• A Humorous, Thrilling Advennire With A KNOCKOUT ENDING!

MARTIAN MEMORANDUM

is now available at your loc;d Dealer
or CALL 1-800-800-4880 to order now.

4910 W. Amelia Earhart Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116

Circlfl ReadsT Servfce Numbar 175

DISCOVERY

COMPUTE CHOICE. Catch

up on the classics in their original

and foreign — language.

Anthony Moses

TRANSPARENT
LANGUAGE

To paraphrase Mark Twain,
everyone wants to know a for-
eign language, but nobody
wants to learn one. Whien you
consider how languages are
usually taught, it's no wonder.
Most of us encounter a sec-
ond language in a high
school class with lots of tedi-
ous rote memorization but few
rewards. And all that many of
us can do with that language
in our postacademic days is to
tell someone where the pen of
our aunt is, as long as it's on
the table. Years later, we may
toy with the idea of going
back and refreshing our knowl-
edge of the language, but
we've forgotten too much. Be-
sides, with our schedules, it
would be years before we'd ev-
er be able to read anything
worthwhile: Balzac, Cervan-
tes, Virgil, Maupassant,
Flaubert, Ovid — all closed
books to us until we can do sig-
nificantly more than success-
fully locate our aunt's Bic.

Transparent Language crea-
tor Michael Quinlan had a sim-
ilar problem: How could he re-
learn the German he had lost
years ago — and relearn it well
enough to read what he want-
ed? And then, while he and
his wife, Lynn, were teaching
their four-year-old son to
read, he had the chance to
watch how a mind first learns
a language. He concluded
that perhaps the best way to
acquire language skills is to ac-
commodate the way the brain
naturally works — not by mem-
orizing an abstract grammati-
cal system first, but by actual-
ly using the language in an en-
vironment that provides the
support of specific knowledge
whenever needed. Quinlan re-

alized that the comput-
er was uniquely empow-
ered to be that environment.
He began to design Transpar-
ent Language.

The philosophy of Transpar-
ent Language is that you can
learn to read a language by ac-
tually reading something in
that language— preferably,
something enjoyable, One
thing that makes learning to
read a foreign language so dif-
ficult is that, for a long while,
you probably won't be dealing
with anything worth reading.
The common instructional ap-
proach begins with a simple
core vocabulary and grammar
upon which you gradually
build. The textbook reading
samples reflect this, remaining
at a cautious, low-vocabutary
{and high-tedium) level. Few
people can long bear reading
denatured stories about
where Marie or Gaius or Este-
ban place their writing imple-
ments. Worse, a graded read-
ing sample can limit your pro-
gress by making no demands
upon you. The normal linguis-
tic environment of a child is
rich and challenging: the
child is aware that there's a lot

of

interest-
ing stuff going on over his or
her head and is motivated to
learn the language in order to
get the goodies. Quintan's
idea was, simply, to provide
some goodies worth getting
by immersing the reader in an
interesting work as soon as
possible and making reading
it practicable.

On the surface, the Transpar-
ent Language program
seems quite simple; the top
half of the screen displays the
text of an actual literary work
in German, French, Latin, or
Spanish, supported by five an-
cillary windows at the bottom.
As you scroll through the text,
moving the highlight from
word to word {or, in the case
of idiomatic constructions,
phrase to phrase), the win-
dows provide a literal equiva-
lent for the highlighted item, a
translation of each sentence
or clause into idiomatic Eng-
lish, and additional commen-
tary (such as tracing words to
their roots or commenting up-

92 COMPUTE

on their grammatical or syntac-
tic functions). If you prefer to
read the text without these
helps, you can opaque the
help windows; but if, while read-
ing, you don't recognize a
word, you can glance at the
definition window. If a phrase
or an entire sentence is incom-
prehensible, check the idiomat-
ic translation — and then go on
reading. Just as you'll improve
your tennis game only if you
keep playing tennis, no matter
how badly at first, your read-
ing comprehension will ad-
vance only if you stick to read-
ing. The odds are that you'll re-
member the words the next
time you encounter them be-
cause you're learning them in
the context of natural lan-
guage usage.

If this process somehow
seems familiar, perhaps it's be-
cause this is how you learned
to read in the first place. You
got the information you need-
ed as you needed it, from an
experienced reader, v/ithout
necessarily understanding its
place in a comprehensive
grammatical scheme. And
while such a knowledge of
grammar is, of course, useful,
it's not essential, As any lan-
guage instructor could tell
you, a good writer or reader
may have trouble dealing with
grammar exercises, while a stu-
dent who breezes through
grammar drills may have no in-
tuitive feel for the language —
and in language, the feel is
the important thing. Language
use is a right-brain activity; un-
fortunately, most language in-
struction comes in a left-brain
format that, though easily mem-
orized, cannot be as easily ap-
plied in concrete language-
use situations. Quinlan in-
tends Transparent Language
to operate more on the right-
brain model, supplying conno-

tation (or felt meaning) as well
as denotation (or dictionary
meaning) for tfie words you
read — and therefore making it
more likely that you will incor-
porate the words into a living
vocabulary.

This is Transparent Lan-
guage's advantage over
some other forms of computer-
assisted language acquisition.
While there are already a num-
ber of programs that purport
to help you improve your for-
eign language skills, most of
these, as Quinlan observes,
"are still mired in the textbook
model." They provide drills,
such as multiple-choice or
true-false exercises, or oper-
ate as foreign-language
phrase books. While these cer-
tainly have their legitimate us-
es — fine-tuning your language
skills or serving as stopgaps un-
til you can actually learn tfie lan-
guage, for example — they are
of little help in developing a flu-
ent linguistic ability. They also
fail to take full advantage of
the connputer's power to con-
solidate and present a lot of
information instantaneously, a
weakness that Transparent
Language seems to have over-
come.

The Transparent Language
starter set includes the master
program and four sample sto-
ries in German, Spanish, Lat-
in, and French, along with an
audio cassette of the stories
and an easy-to-read User's
Guide. The accompanying cat-
alog of other titles currently
available from the Transparent
Language company includes
such worthies as short stories
by Guy de Maupassant, "The
Windmill Adventure" from Cer-
vantes' Don Quixote, a portion
of Hoffmann's The Nutcracker
and the Mouse King (the
source for Tchaikovsky's pop-
ular ballet), excerpts from

tronsparente

langue

durchsichtig

sprache

transpaente

lengua

perlucidus

lingua

tronsparent

language

tronsparente

langue

durchsichtig

sprache

transparen'

lengua

perlucidus

lingua

TRANSPARI^NH
UNCxlACiF

Bre^ong The Langiage Bainer

"■*!C'

Ovid's Metamorphoses, and a
number of other works you
probably never imagined your-
self reading in their original lan-
guages. The works are availa-
ble in both 5V4- and 3'/2-inch
disks, as well as audio cas-
sette versions to help you with
hearing and pronouncing the
language.

As a complement to the
classroorm, Transparent Lan-
guage has a lot to offer in ex-
tending the student's reading
skills and building his or her
self-confidence. For self-moti-
vated former foreign language
students, Transparent Lan-
guage is the best available al-
ternative to digging out the
grammar books and dictionar-
ies. Don't fret over the loca-
tions of relatives' fountain
pens: read a work of literature
in a foreign tongue instead. ~1

IBM PC and
compatibles, 512K
RAM; hard drive
ODiionai, mouse
supported— $95

TRANSPARENT
UIHGUAGE
9 Ash St.
P.O. Box 575
Hollls, NH 03049
(800) 752-1767
(sales and support)
(800) 244-B952 (in
New Hampshire)

93

PATHWAYS

Steven Anzovin

The Wacom

graphics tablet.

Will this

device malte the

mouse

obsolete?

WHO NEEDS A
KEYBOARD WITH
THESE GADGETS
AROUND?

Carpal tunnel syndrome. Typ-
ist's neck, Weak back and ab-
dominal muscles. Ailments of
the computer age. And there
in front of you sits the main cul-
prit: your keyboard.

Mice aren't much better.
They're often clumsy, and
mouse fatigue is increasingly
common. So ! gave my key-
board and mouse to my 18-
month-old daughter, who
loves to type, and then
checked out some alterna-
tives.

The Wacom SD-510c graph-
ics tablet for PCs and fvlacs
(Wacom, Park 80 West, Plaza
2, Saddle Brook, New/ Jersey
07662; 201-265-4226; $695)
is receiving a lot of press as a
breakthrough tool for graphic
artists. What's new about the
Wacom is that the pen is cord-
less and pressure sensitive.

With the right paint soft-

ware, such as Oasis from
Time Arts (1425 Corporate Cen-
ter Parkway, Santa Rosa, Cali-
fornia 95407; 707-576-7722;
$795; fvlacs only), you can get
the look and feel of traditional
media like acrylics, pastels,
and watercolors. For example,
you can emulate a watercolor
brush stroke, with the color
lightening and brush width thin-
ning as you reduce pen pres-
sure.

The PC version of the tablet
works with any software that ac-
cepts a mouse, making it an
excellent alternative for peo-
ple more comfortable with a
pen. It's small enough for your
lap, and the pen only weighs
a few grams.

As a drawing tool, the
Wacom tablet has no peer,
but pressure-sensitive input de-
vices have real potential for
use in a Mnc/ows-style GUI,
For example, little gadgets at
the corners of windows could
let you page through a docu-
ment faster or slower by vary-
ing the pen pressure or let you
send a window to the back,
bring it to the front, or even
park it in the middle.

And why not adapt the
Wacom pressure-sensitive
technology for toot control of
a computer? I'd like to see a
"gas pedal" to increase my
computer's speed when I'm in
a hurry and a "brake" to keep
the machine from outrunning
my thoughts.

The Mac world offers more
alternative input devices PC us-
ers should ask for. One gee-
whiz tool is the Voice Naviga-
tor II from Articulate Systems
(600 West Cummings Park,
Suite 4500, Woburn, Massachu-
setts 01801; 617-876-5236;
$795). Once you've trained it,
you can speak any command
or menu option into its micro-
phone, and your Mac wili obey
instantly. The Voice Navigator
has real potential as a mouse
replacement, especially for
people who need free hands.

With this in mind, can verbal
text entry be far behind?

If your Mac isn't powerful
enough, you can really "play
with power" with Transfinite
System's Gold Brick (PO. Box
N, fvllT Branch Post Office,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
02139-0903; 617-969-9570;
$169-$245). This tiny inter-
face lets you connect any Nin-
tendo controller to a Mac
through the ADB port. It works
just like a mouse and even em-
ulates some keyboard ac-
tions.

Hooking up a Nintendo to
your Mac may sound odd, but
keep in mind that toys like the
Power Glove, Broderbund's
UFORCE, and Nintendo's Pow-
er Pad are inexpensive and
built like tanks, perfect for ap-
plications where ruggedness
and replaceability are impor-
tant.

The Gold Brick already has
some unusual applications. At
the Speech-Language Pathol-
ogy Lab at Northeastern Uni-
versity, experimenters Linda
Farrier and Harriet Fell are us-
ing a Mac, a Gold Brick, and
a Power Pad to develop a sys-
tem called the Baby Babble
Blanket, which allows speech-
disabled babies to make mean-
ingful sounds and initiate ver-
bal interactions. The Mac is-
sues digitized sounds — bab-
bling or any other noise, includ-
ing words — according to how
and where the baby moves
around on the Power Pad. Far-
rier says the system could al-
so be used as a biofeedback
device for adults in physical
therapy.

Wacom pen in left hand,
Power Glove on right, and bark-
ing commands into the Voice
Navigator, I tried to whte this
column but found that none of
these gadgets could do the
job sufficiently. I managed to
rescue my keyboard and
mouse from my daughter, but
I'll never feel quite the same
about them again. D

94 COMPUTE

"A UNIQUE MINDBOGGLING GAME OF AbUENTURE. ROMANCE AND SALUATEON!"

PC COMPATIBLE

AMIGA

ATARI ST ^

(COMING SOON)

CDTV & MACINTOSH -M

LEMMINGS^

from

Avaflable from your local

dealer or call: (617) 739 7478

PSYGNOSIS

29 SAINT MARYS COURT

BROOKLINE MA 02146

Amiga® & CDTV® are iraiemarks of Commodore Business Machines Inc. Atari ST® is a trademarit of Ihe Atari Corp. Macirvtosti™ is a trademarit of Apple.'

Ciicle Reader Service Number 168

Reach

for the stars

with

your personal

computer.

BY LAMONT WOOD

. alileo probably would have
been Ihe first person to suggest
a software program for tracking
ttie heavenly bodies tiad he on-
ly been born a few centuries lat-
er. As Galileo. Copernicus, and the
rest of the stargazing pioneers knew,
you can easily get lost in the night sky.
The random spread of stars can de-
feat any attempt to learn the ever-
shifting planetary positions and doz-
ens of star patterns that at first glance
look nothing like the constellations
ttiey're supposed to form.

In the old days, the undaunted
could venture into the night with star-
chart wheels showing the stars' nightly
positions, usually for the wrong latitude
and with confusing orientations. And
then there were clouds, mosquitoes,
jiggling.telescopes, and eventually, an
urban sky glow to drown out all but
the brightest stars.

Now there's a better way—astrono-
my software that literally lets you ex-
plore the sky during the day— even in-
doors. You can learn the sky and solar
system as if they were your own neigh-
borhood, which in a way, they are.

Here we'll take a look at several lead-
ing astronomy packages for the PC.
Each package was examined on a 16-
MHz 386 machine with a VGA monitor.
No coprocessor was used. First let's

go over some basic terminology.

Positions and sizes in ttie sky are
measured in degrees, where a degree
is about tlie width (not length) of your
index finger at arm's length. Brightness
is measured on a magnitude scale,
where 1 is about as bright as any star
gets and 6 is about as faint a star as

sky), has a clumsier menu-driven inter-
face, and provides no screen shots of
celestial objects. According to Zephyr,
it runs slower because things are cal-
culated with more precision. The basic
version comes with stars to magnitude
6.5, and there's an expanded version,
for about $30 more and 8MB more of

the positions of the four Galilean
moons, a favorite of many backyard as-
tronomers, (lo. Ganymede, Castillo,
and Europa, lined up with Jupiter's
equator and changing positions night-
ly, can be seen with a small tele-
scope.) There's even an overhead
view so you can identify each moon

Dance of the Planets allows you to view the
solar system from outer space, as in this
view of Saturn, January 1991.

you can see on a very dark night with-
out a telescope. The programs ask for
your location in longitude and latitude,
not only to figure rising and setting
times, but also to calculate the appear-
ance of solar and lunar eclipses.
You're also urged to use a coproces-
sor to speed up orbital calculations.

For the beginner, EZCosmos from Fu-
ture Trends seems like the best bet at
$69.95, The screen shows the sky as it
would look if you were on your back
with your feet to the north. Placing the
cursor on an object and pressing En-
ter will bring up identifying information
about the object. Additionally, there
are screen graphics (in the Compu-
Serve GIF format) of 41 objects, includ-
ing the planets and prominent galaxies
and nebula you can call up. (Alas, for
the beginner who might be misled,
these are time-lapse photos taken
through a big telescope — more colorful
and detailed than what you would see
through a backyard telescope,)

EZCosmos finds and displays
named objects and allows you to
speed up the pace of time and watch
the planets move against the stars. {At
intervals, Mars actually stops and
moves backward.) Also, you can focus
on the sun and watch for eclipses.

While this program does make it
easy to take a grand tour of the uni-
verse, it isn't for the serious backyard
astronomer. It doesn't offer stars dim-
mer than sixth magnitude, and it can't
zoom in to a field narrower than one de-
gree — a field twice the diameter of the
full moon,

Lodestar Plus II from Zephyr Servic-
es ($199,95) at first seemed like the
same thing, only it's slower (taking
more than a minute to draw the full
98 COMPUTE

EZCosmos lets you search the constel-
lations as if you were on your back with
your feet facing north.

disk space, which has an SAO (Smith-
sonian Astrophysical Observatory)
star catalog of 270,000 stars that
reach all the way to 12th magnitude.

As with EZCosmos. you can place
the cursor on an object, have the sys-
tem identify it, and then zoom in to a
specific magnification^this time up to
999.9 powers, covering a field barely
one-tenth of a degree in diameter. The
only way to get a printout is by press-
ing PrintScreen, and you need a CGA
monitor for that to work.

LodeSter^especially the expanded
version — would seem to be best for the
serious amateur who wants to plan an
observation session or perhaps identi-
fy the contents of an astrophoto, cas-
es in which precision matters more
than speed.

Meanwhile, The_Sky 4.^, from Soft-
ware Bisque, is meant to be used out-
doors. Its control menus are shown in
red so using the computer won't
wreck your night vision. You can point
and click your input from an onscreen
keyboard chart without having to fum-
ble at the keyboard in the darkness.

The star field is painted almost in-
stantly on the screen — no tedious
waits. You can zoom in on anything with-
in view by moving the mouse cursor to
the field you want to see and drawing
a box and clicking. It was quite a thrill
to zoom in on clusters like Pleiades.

The_Sky will take you down to two-
tenths of a degree, where the moon or
sun takes up most of the screen. How-
ever, only an outline disk is shown; no
attempt is made to show the actual so-
lar bodies. You're supposed to look for
those yourself througli your telescope.

In addition to showing the planets,
The_Sky has a special display to show

The_Sky is meant to be used outdoors. The
retrograde rnotion of Mare is shown with the
program's time-skip feature.

and its actual location in orbit, which
isn't evident from the edge-on view you
get from Earth, You can also watch
this miniature solar system in action by
speeding up the pace — orbital move-
ment is evident even with five-minute in-
crements.

There's also a special eclipse dis-
play that shows lunar and solar eclips-
es for your location, You see the way
the moon and sun will move across
each other with the times of first and
last contact and the times of maximum
coverage. Earth's umbra during a lunar
eclipse is seen in red — the color the
moon actually appears during a total lu-
nar eclipse.

The_Sky comes in three different
packages: At $75 for Level I, you'll see
up to 10,000 stars and deep-sky ob-
jects at magnitude 5.5; for $99 you can
get the Level II version and see up to
45,000 stars and other celestial objects
at magnitude 7.9; Level III, for $175,
shows 272,000 stars and objects to
magnitude 9.

A telescope-link kit is also available
for $699, You mount sensors on the
two axes of your telescope, and after
you calibrate your telescope's setting
on two selected stars, your cursor will
point in exactly the direction of your tel-
escope. It's pricey but with the link kit,
you can look at scores of objects in
one evening with no time lost due to
endless blind searches.

If The_Sky is intended for the seri-
ous amateur astronomer. Dance of the
Planets from A.R.C. Science Simulation
is intended for the serious amateur as-
trophysicist. Priced at $195, it shows
the celestial globe and stars therein,
but that's incidental.

The opening screen shows a

starfield with an unfamiliar bright star in
the middle, near the constellation Ori-
on. That's the sun, seen from your view-
ing position of about 2.5 billion miles
out in space. You can zoom in to a max-
imum magnification of 32,000 and
look at individual planets and, with an
accelerated time frame, vk^atch them ro-

LodeStar Plus II offers precision over
speed. The expanded version has an SAO
star catalog of over 270,000 stars.

tate. The software also includes maps
of the planetary surfaces. Although
Earth and Mars are hardly more than
large dots with crude features, Jupiter
is big enough for you to watch the
Great Red Spot slide by.

You can also switch to an Earth-
based view to watch eclipses and
events like the apparent merging of Ju-
piter and Venus on June 17, 2 B.C.
The point of Dance, however, is to pull
back into space, arrange the viewing
position you like (you can change the
angle from which you're looking into
the solar system), invoke the command
that outlines the orbits, and start the
dance of the planets. Everything is vis-
ual and obvious, and by the time
you're finished with the manual,
Kepler's Laws and the geometry of el-
liptical orbits ought to be second na-
ture. The five parameters it takes to de-
fine an orbit will no longer be mathemat-
ical gibberish, but seif-evident state-
ments.

Dance comes with orbital data not on-
ly for our nine planets, but for their 61
satellites (including Pluto's) and for
4650 asteroids and 1300 comets. Pick
out a particular cornel, track it into the
future, and see if Jupiter ever swallows
it or vectors it into the sun. You can
track 20 orbits simultaneously, al-
though for results anytime soon, you'll
want to get a coprocessor.

Dance will even give you a 3-D view
of the orbits, The package comes with
red-and-blue goggles like the ones
used for watching 3-D movies. They
work best for examining comet orbits,
which are often rotated away from the
plane of the planets' orbits. You can
make up your own comets, input their
orbit parameters, and watch what hap-

PRODUCT BOX

Chartwheels II

$150.00

Astrolabe

350 Underpass Rd.

Brewster, MA 02631

(508) 896-5081

Lodestar Plus II

$199,95

$229.95 with SAO Database

Zephyr Services

1900 Murray Ave.

Pitsburgh. PA15217

Dance of the Planets

SI 95.00

(800) 533^6600
(412)422-6600

A.R.C. Software
P.O. Box 1955
Loveland, CO 80539-1955
(303) 663-3223

The Sky 4.1

$75.00 for Level 1
$99.00 for Level II
$175.00 for Level III

EZCosmos 3.0

$69 95

Software Bisque
912 12th St., Ste. A

Future Trends Software
1601 Osprey Dr., Ste. 102
Desoto. TX 75115

Golden, CO 80401
(303) 278-4478

(214) 224-3279

pens. The only thing Dance left out is
a spaceship option so you can figure
in the results of acceleration and fuel
consumption.

For those of you who wonder what
it's all about, there's also astrological
software on the market. We looked at
Chartwheels II ($150 from Astrolabe)
and found that it does indeed track the
positions of the planets. You won't
learn astronomy, though, since it's on-
ly concerned with the zodiac for cast-

ing astrological charts and showing the
influence of the planets at a particular
moment.

Planets do, in fact, exert influence —
gravitationally on each other anyway.
Gazing at the results with the help of as-
tronomy software could help open up
the heavens for you, if that's what
you're after. At the very least, you'll no
longe fumble your way through the
night sky.

Galileo would approve. □

99

FAST FORWARD

David English

Today you can

have a sound card

and a SCSI

interface without

tlie need tor

a bus slot, wtilcli

allows you

to run CD-ROM

applications

such as Campton's

Mammm

Encvclapetita

trom any

laptop computer.

YOU CAN MIX
MULTIMEDIA AND
LAPTOPS

Laptop innovation is nnoving
so fast that the last thing most
manufacturers want to see is
a set of standards that will
lock them into yesterday's tech-
noiogy. Perhaps in a few
years, v/hen the size of the lap-
top has stabilized, manufactur-
ers will agree on standards
that will allow you to add vari-
ous peripherals and upgrade
your LCD screen or hard

Stereo (IVIsound International,
1965 West 4th Avenue, Van-
couver, British Columbia, Can-
ada V6J 1M8; 604-732-4849;
$249.95) is a sound-card-in-a-
box that plugs into your paral-
lel port and includes a built-in
amplifier and stereo head-
phones. Msound can emulate
present sound card standards
and can be upgraded to emu-
late future standards, Current-
ly, Msound ships with drivers
for the Ad Lib sound card and
the Covox Speech Thing, as
well as utilities that can con-
vert fvlacintosh and Tandy
sounds to f\/lsound's native for-

drive. But that's the future—
none of the laptop manufactur-
ers I've tall<ed to see that sce-
nario unfolding anytime soon.

With today's models, once
you buy your laptop, you loci<
yourself into today's technolo-
gy with little chance to
change with the times.

What's the answer? Your par-
allel port. Peripheral manufac-
turers have discovered how to
tap into your parallel port and
still let you use your printer.
Plug a small box into your par-
allel port, plug your printer ca-
ble into the box. and it's in-
stant expansion.

How would you like to add
digital stereo sound to your lap-
top or desktop PC? Msound

mat. The company is working
on drivers for the Sound
Blaster and Multimedia Win-
dows.

Msound provides high-
quality sound. Msound has a
dynamic range of 96 dB and
a signal-to-noise ratio of 60
dB, and can handle sounds
with frequencies of 20 Hz to
20 kHz. Unlike the Sound
Blaster, Msound doesn't offer
sound-in (just sound-out), but
it does offer a built-in expan-
sion bus for add-on modules.

The package also includes
a sample disk of sounds.
There was a bit of distortion in
some of them, but the stereo
effect was terrific. Unfortunate-
ly, the Ad Lib driver doesn't

work with all Ad Lib-compati-
ble games. ( I couldn't get Red
Baron or Stellar 7to recognize
Msound's Ad Lib driver.) The
company is working to line up
support for Msound's own
sound format.

Msound is well worth look-
ing into, whether for a laptop
or desktop computer. And
when Msound releases its Mul-
timedia Windows drivers,
you'll be able to use your com-
puter to hear a flood of new mul-
timedia titles.

What's that you say? How
can you run the new multime-
dia software without a CD-
ROM player? And how in the
world are you going to hook a
CD-ROM player to a laptop
computer? Glad you asl<ed.
For just $179, you can buy the
T338 MiniSCSI Parallel-to-
SCSI Host Adapter (Trantor
Systems. 5415 Randall Place,
Fremont, California 94538:
415-770-1400). The MiniSCSI
plugs into your parallel port
and instantly adds a SCSI
port to your computer. It's
small and lightweight (just 2.5
ounces) and works with most
SCSI-based CD-ROM players
and hard drives. You can dai-
sychain as many as seven
SCSI devices together with a
single MiniSCSI, The MiniSCSI
draws all of the power it
needs from the first device in
your SCSI chain.

There's a downside. The
MiniSCSI is rated only about
half the speed of a high-end
multimedia CD-ROM player.
According to Jim Switz, market-
ing manager at Trantor, that's
not as bad as It sounds. Be-
cause it's difficult for any CD-
ROM player to sustain a high
speed, the MiniSCSI is gener-
ally able to keep up. At the
worst, you'll see about a 30-
percent reduction in speed.

With these two new de-
vices, even If you have a lap-
top or slotless desktop, you
can still participate in the multi-
media revolution. D

100 COMPUTE

Take Control Of T he Future

Paragon Softvuare and GDW PRESEiyr Games On The CumiNG Edge of Technology

MegaTraveller Z. m i wiliohiy

Quest For The Ancients

Uoth featuring scenarios

written by Marc Miller,

Adventure Gaming Hall of

Fanner and creator of the

Traveller role-playing system.

l^

PARAGG^SOF^E

Pased on the role-playing classic from Came Designers'
Workshop, MegaTraveller 2: Quest For The Ancients contains state-
of-the-art innovations, including a completely re-designed, icon-
driven interface, combat system and role-playing engine.

• The sequel to the hit MegaTraveller 1 : The Zhodani Conspiracy
with over 1 00 of named, detailed wodds to explore

• New PAL role-playing engine lets you control one character v^'hile
commanding four others; advanced character generator
guarantees variety with each game

• Weapons and starship classes of all
kinds; a dazzling array of characters with
whom to interact

Your mission: save a work! threatened by
a mysterious artifact
built by the Ancients,
a legendary super-
race thought dead for
300,000 years.

Iwilight: 2000 places you
in the aftermath of World War 111, travelling
through terrain devastated by high-tech
weaponry and nuclear radiation.

• Create your character with the skills
and abilities you want

• Command three other party members
who respond to your orders based on
ffte/r personalities and objectives

• State-of-the-art graphics include 3-D
simulation and 2-D scaled overhead
sequences

• Hundreds of weapons and vehicles
make each encounter unique

Your mission: rebuild and defend the city
of Krakow, Poland against an onslaught of
marauders and military madmen determined
to win a war the world lost.

1 IBM screens shown.
J Actual scre6ns may vary.

PARAGON SOFmARE

Marketed by MicroProse Software, Inc.

For IBM-PC/Tandy/compatibles. Can't find these games? Call 1 -800-879-PLAY for prices and ordering information.

© 1991 Paragon Software and Game Designers' Workshop.

Circle Reader Service Number 110

'_r ' r'^ -r ■» ' ' -^ J^ J'- ^ -r ^ -f ^^ j»^^v^^^ .gz^

r r^^^-f* ^^^ jt r f j^ ^J- J J J J»- ^ ^^^■^^■^n'

The greatest hero for the Hyborean Age was a fierce
barbarian born of the harsh northlands,

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN

ou have heard the tales of Conan's adventures. Only
now will you have the opportunity to live the life of
this fierce barbarian from the land of Hyborea.
Our odyssey begins with murder most foul. When
Conan's village is massacred by the ravening hordes of Tholh
Amon, high priest of the vile cult of Set, Conan vows to avenge
the death of his family and friends.
In your search for vengeance, you as Conan, will explore
Hyborea to seek out its hidden secrets and learn of its powers.
Visit over 200 locations - taverns and inns, crypts and
dungeons, temples and tombs, lavish homes and poor hovels -
to learn the mysteries of Hyborea's sorceries to help Conan
overcome its many natural and supernatural perils.
Only with luck, courage and constant struggle will Conan have
the chance to force a reckoning with the powerful Tholh Amon.

i^ids^J^AMoLA ^^l

AVAILABLE FOR THE IBM AND AMIGA THIS SUMMER.
SL=CGESTED RETAIL - S49.99

T.M and C I99I Conan Propcnitt Inc.

CovcT illuslratian © 1990 Borw X'allcjo.

©1991 Virgin Games. Inc. All righls rrwn'cd.

Virgin^ is a reglslercd ll^dcmjrk of Virgin Enterprises, Ltd.

Virgin Games, Inc. 18061 Eilch Ave.. Ininc. CalKoriiia 92714

t'^ J y J J JJJ yj-

rjr^^ J-Jjj'jjjjjj^j^j yj/ jjjjj j i .i 1 1 1 1 in 1 1 ,

f ^ ^.^ ^ -^ ^ ^ ■r'j' ^ ^ -^ -y^^v ^-?--y7a

n Spirit of Excalibur, the Knights of the Round Table
fought to defend medieval Britain from the evil
sorceress, Morgan Le Fay. Morgan, dabbling in dark
arts beyond even her ability to control, had summoned
a great Lord of Demons, the Shadowmaster.

With Morgan's death, the Shadowmaster was freed to work his
evil will against the unprepared folk of Britain. Striking in the
night, he imprisoned the King with a spell, stole the greatest
treasures of the realm and kidnapped Nineve, the court
enchantress. With the loss of the sword Excalibur and the newly
recovered Holy Grail, Britain begins to sicken and die. The
Shadowmaster must be stopped!

Command knights and whatever followers they are able to
recruit to track the Shadowmaster through hazardous, beautiful
and mysterious medieval Spain. Explore the hundreds of villages
and cities, fortresses and castles, dungeons and palaces and all
the secret places where the Shadovraiaster may dwell.

Seek what aid you can as you acquire and learn the use of the
sorceries of Moorish Spain, for only with the aid of
enchantments and the loyalty of strong allies will you stand
a chance of ridding the world of the demonic Shadowmaster
once and for all.

I
i

AVAILABLE FOR THE IBM, AMIGA, ATARI ST AND MAC THIS SUMMER.
SUGGESTED RETAIL -S49.99

Developed by S^rrgi^iic ^ftware.

© 1991 Virgin Game*, tnc.

VtrginSlsittglsicrcdiraclcmirkal: Virgm Enterprise, Lid.

Vtrigcanctf of Einilibur Is a inidcmark of Virgin Games, Inc.

VirginGamcs, Inc. IH06I ImicIi Ave., Irvine, CaUrotnia 927M

y,j j-j.j.y yj-j^j*v J,j-^JJJJ3 3>'j J f j j j jj^

Circle Rud«r S«rvic« Number 176

A I

» trt

8 »(

I

I

8

8i

81

UHipiffllllilli

■M

mm:

mvmt

BR£ YOU TOUGH ENOUGH TO TAKE ON THE
21st CENTURY AND SAVE MANKIND FROM
HIS UNTIMELY DESTRUCTION BY
A GENETICALLY ENGINEERED

WAR MACHINE?!?

Talk about your work-related stress! As a ZODIAC
special agent, your job is to crack the complex
security systems of the Universal Cybernetics
Corporation and track down the mutant robot they
have designed as the ultimate killing machine.

You'll arm yourself with a whole arsenal of
weapons - everything from hologram projectors to
special vision enhancement visors to thermal
infra-red image intensifiers. If all else fails -
you'll have to rely on your own psychic powers!
FEATURES INCLUDE: *|i|^j^^J[m|4)^

■ 16-level 3-dimensional environment complete
with fast, smooth scrolling

■ Realistic action control of six characters: 2 male,
2 female and 2 droid

■ 360 degree vision

a Environmental sound effects

"Tension and unease, with danger lurking around
every comer.... This Number One European Hit
will keep you on your toes and coming back. ,. ^
for more."

UWHWnU

iillAtliiilll^

^

l^fi^M4.H

&VAILSBLE FOR

TBE IBM , IMIG A AND AT5RI ST THIS SVMMEST
SUGGESTED RTTAIL - S49.99

TM and © 1991 Tirgin Games, Inc. and Cone Deitgn.

All lights reierved.

Cocporatioii & Tiigiu® axe nglitered Iraduaaiks ot

Virgin Eateipmes, Ltd.

Tiigln Games, Inc. 18061 Fitch An., Irriae, Califunia 92114

CI

\'WtlilUBl

mm

©

©

-S ^

Q

O

Q

Q

Q

0!

:s:

^

^

j^

The space flight sixnulator to end all
simulators, SHUTTLE is the most accurate
and comprehensive simulation of NASA's
Space Shuttle ever produced for the home

computer.

With the aid of Mission Control, you will master
such challenges as deploying and repairing
satellites, launching spy satellites, maneuvering
your craft in zero gravity, attaining the correct re-
entry trajectory, and pulling off complicated
landings.

Advanced polygon and elliptical graphics, along
with actual land and star maps were used to create
the breathtaking 3D panoramas of the Orbiter and
its environment, which can be viewed from any
angle at any time.

Other features include:

■ Authentic control panel display

■ Detailed comprehensive training and reference

manual

■ Numerous training, scientific and "Star Wars"
(SDI) Missions

■ Multiple help levels &om "novice" to "veteran"

■ Various launch and lajiding sites

■ Orchestral q[uaUty music
Foldrout Shuttle flight deck postei

U

AT2ILXBLEF0R

THE IBM, SMtGi. BSD AXJUil ST L&TE SUMMER.

SUGGESTED RETJUL - 159 .99

^-.^ JldLJ^™ aod Rslaad™ lotind boards inpputed on IBM
■ I * SbntUe™ and Vligin® ate registered tndemarka of

Virgin Enierpilies, Ltd.
Virgin Gsmes, Inc. 1806 1 ritch five, , bvise, Califoniia 92714

Circle Reader Service Number 179

III.

ENTERTAINMENT

COMPUTE CHOICE. Prove your
right to the skies by flying the latest
Yeager flight simulator

Denny Atkin

CHUCK YEAGER'S
AIR COMBAT

"Bandit on your six! Break!"
the navigator yelled from the
rear seat. As tracers sinot past
the cockpit window, I did a vec-
tor fol! and pulled away from
the attacker. ! leveled out my
F-4E Phantom, wondering if
every raid against the Viet-
cong would see this much ac-
tion. I'd just taken damage
from the f\/liG'21 I shot down
over Hanoi, and now I had to
deal with more bogeys?

I scanned the horizon look-
ing for the enemy aircraft. I
spotted him, locked on a Side-
winder heat seeker, and
moved in for the kill. Wait,
there was something strange
about this plane. It appeared
to be ... a piston-engined
WWII fighter! "That's a Focke-
Wulf 190," my navigator ex-
claimed incredulously, I
glanced around . . . three, no
four FW-190 fighters and a for-
mation of Me-262s, the first Ger-
man jet fighters!

Humming the "Twilight
Zone" theme, I closed in on
the bogey and let go of the Si-
dewinder; it shot right past
him. I guess a heat seeker
isn't the best weapon to use
against an old prop job. ! did
a low yo-yo to reposition when
suddenly a group of tracers
ripped into my wing. Looking
over, I saw an Me-163 rocket
plane! I jinked to the left and
lit into him with my 20-mm Gat-
ling gun. He blew up with a
spectacular explosion. Survey-
ing my plane, I realized I'd tak-
en some pretty heavy dam-
age. One nice thing about
WWII planes — they were pret-
ty slow compared to my Phan-
tom. I lit the afterburners and
headed for home with growing
appreciation of antique war-

planes.
Chuck
Yeager 's
Air Com-
bat gives
me a new re-
spect for the
programming
talent of Brent Iv-
erson. (And he
wasn't doing too bad-
ly in my book anyway,
having created the PC
version of DeluxePaint.)
When I saw the spec sheet for
this program, I thought it
might be a fun arcade game,
but I didn't believe there was
any way a program could re-
alistioatly simulate aircraft
from three different wars with-
out making any compromises.
I was wrong. The original Yea-
ger simuiation, Chuck Yea-
ger's Advanced Flight Trainer,
is one of the best-selling enter-
tainment programs for the PC.
This program lives up to its
predecessor's flight-model re-
alism and surpasses it in
speed, sound, and graphics
quality. And it provides much
more challenging gameplay

Yeager offers three game-
play options. You can choose
to fly a historic mission over
World War II Europe, Korea, or
Vietnam; create your own mis-
sion; or test-fly a plane. Fans
of historical air combat will en-
joy the first option, which al-
lows you to fly 16 accurate air-
combat missions over Korea
and 17 each over Europe and

Vietnam. The Create Mission
option allows you to design
your own combat scenario, ei-
ther a realistic encounter be-
tween planes of the same era
or a fantasy combat between
aircraft of different eras. Test
Flight lets you simply take to
the skies in your choice of air-
craft and practice your flying
skills without having to worry
about enemy aircraft.

The program simulates a to-
tal of 17 different aircraft
types. You can fly 6 of these
models, and enemy aircraft
can be any of the 17. The
planes available from World
War II are the North American
P-51 D f^'lustang and the Focke-
Wulf 190A-8; from Korea, the
North American F-86E and the
fvlikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Fag-
ot; and from Vietnam, the
iVlcDonnell Douglas F-4E Phan-
tom II and the fvlikoyan-Gure-
vich rvliG-21MFFishbed. Oth-
er planes featured in the sim-
ulation, which you may have to
defend as allies or face as en-
emies, are the P-47DThunder-

106 COMPUTE

bolt, the Messerschmitt Me-
109E, the Me-110 twin-prop
fighter, the Me-163 rocket
plane, the Me-262 jet, the B-
17 Flying Fortress, the B-29 Su-
perfortress, the Yakelov Yak-
9, the MiG-17F Fresco, the F-
105D Thunderchlef, and the B-
52 Stratofortress (known as
the BUFF to its pilots.)

As you'd expect from a sim-
ulation bearing the Yeager
name, each of these planes is
simulated very accurately-
When you choose which
plane youYe going to fly, you
aren't forced to use a generic
cockpit; the program d'Splays
an instrument panel accurate
to that type of plane. The
more modern the plane you're
flying, the more sophisticated
the instrument panel. Each
plane is realistic from a perform-
ance standpoint as well. For in-
stance, the Me-1 63 Komet rock-
et plane will run out of fuel af-
ter a few minutes of combat
and have to glide back to
base, making it a sitting duck,
just like the actual aircraft.
You'll find that different fight-
ers have different climb rates,
turning radii, and maximum al-
titudes. No more of the "every
plane flies about the same" syn-
drome you've encountered in
too many other simulations. If
you're used to less realistic sim-
ulators, you miight find yourself
in trouble after trying to do ma-
neuvers that aren' t actually pos-
sible in some planes at certain
altitudes.

The game presents you
with an incredible variety of his-
torical missions. Many are of
the fighter-escort and ground-
attack genres, as you'd ex-
pect, but many others are
unique and unexpected. In Ko-
rea, for instance, one mission
puts you In the role of Lt. Kim
Sok Ho, the North Korean pi-
lot who defected with his MiG-

15 in order to collect a
$100,000 reward, You've got
toavoid both Korean and Amer-
ican pilots in that scenario. Oth-
er scenarios bring their own sur-
prises — you may spend most
of your time in what's sup-
posed to be a ground-attack
mission engaging in air-to-air
combat. Make sure you pay at-
tention to the mission's goals,
though. I shot down three Ger-
man planes in one mission, on-
ly to be chided by General Yea-
ger for not destroying enough
ground targets.

General Yeager offers help-
ful hints and warnings during
combat. If you seek further as-
sistance, a tutorial videotape
narrated by Yeager is availa-
ble from EA.

Each mission stands alone;
the program doesn't let you fly
a campaign or save your pilot
to disk so you can keep a run-
ning total of your kills.

The historical missions are
thoroughly enjoyable, but I
had the most fun using the Cre-
ate fvlission option. If you've
had a bad day, take a Vietnam-
era MiG-21 up against four or
five WWII 8-17 Bombers— it's
a piece of cake. If you're up
for a challenge, try to shoot
down a Mach-2 F-4E Phantom
in a 500-mph P-51 Mustang, It
can be done, but it's not easy.

The game has a nice replay
option. You can pause the com-
bat and watch what just hap-
pened, or you can save the en-
tire mission to disk and watch
it later. There are variable play-
back speeds, and you can
have the camera follow any of
the aircraft.

Yeager's VGA graphics are
beautiful. Each cockpit is a
nicely rendered VGA bitmap,
while the world and other air-
craft are done using fast filled-
polygon graphics. Down to
the ejection seat and canopy

that fall away from your plane
after you punch out, Yeager
misses no detail. A digitized
Chuck Yeager voice congrat-
ulating you or chiding you af-
ter each mission crowns a com-
plement of well-done sound ef-
fects. One truly neat feature is
that the game will actually run
under Windowsor\ a 386SX or
higher machine; other than a
scrambled digitized voice, all
features work fine under Win-
dows 3.0. With realistic flying
characteristics, fast-action
combat, an infinite variety of
possible missions, and top-
notch graphics and sound, it's
hard to find anything to com-
plain about. The terrain could
be a little more detailed and
less flat, and it would be nice
if you could keep a running to-
tal of your pilot's kills. Even with-
out these features, though.
Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is
the most enjoyable combat
flight simulator I've ever
played, □

IBM PC and
compatibles, 640K
RAM; CGA, EGA,
MCGA, VGA;
supports Ad Lit),
Sound Blaster,
Game Blaster—
S59.95

ELECTRONIC ARTS
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo, CA

1415) 571-7171

107

GAMEPLAY

Orson Scott Card

Combat ability.

tactics, and

strategy— every

step along

the continuum is

imuortaat

But there's another

continuum,

too . . . alistraction

versus

simulation.

ABSTRACT WAR
GAMES

You don't have to approve of
war to enjoy playing war
games, Besides, there are dif-
ferent kinds of war games.
Some are combat games —
those arcade games where
you kick or blast your way
through an endless onslaught
of enemies in order to reach a
higher level where you have to
kick or blast your way through
even more enemies. Victory de-
pends on the reflexes and
skills the player develops — by
playing, you train yourself into
a perfect "soldier" for that
game.

Some war games are stra-
tegic, like the excellent Com-
mand H.Q. (Microplay), in
which you play on a large
map, manipulating nations

and armies. The whole war is
your responsibility.

Some war games are tacti-
cal, a sort of middle ground in
which you maneuver the indi-
vidual units of a larger force.
Your game is usually a single
battle consisting of many en-
gagements and firefights.
Your units may be as large as
divisions or as small as tanks
or individual soldiers — but
you, as the player, control
many of them, not just one or
two.

The boundaries between
these kinds of war games are
never firmly fixed. Insofar as the
Ultima games are war games,
are they combat games be-
cause you control the individu-
al combat decisions of a very
small team? Or tactical, be-
cause you maneuver and con-
trol several players?

Does it matter? Well, it
does if you're playing war
games for real. When, at the
Marine University in Quantico,
I sat in on a war game session
led by Captain John Schmitt
(author of what may be the
most concisely brilliant book
of strategy ever written), it re-
ally mattered whether you
thought strategically as well as
tactically — because someday
v^hat you did in the game
might show up on the battle-
field.

Likewise, the best of the of-
ficers playing the game took in-
to account the Individual abili-
ties of soldiers in their made-
up squads. "I'd put my two
best marksmen here and
have them move very slowly in-
to position there during the
night. I know they could get
there because I trained them
to do it." Combat ability, tac-
tics, and strategy — every step
along the continuum is impor-
tant.

But there's another continu-
um, too, when it comes to war
games: abstraction versus sim-
ulation. Chess, for instance, is
a highly abstracted war

game. Sure, we speak of
"knights" and "castling," but
there's no sense in which our
use of bishops and queens re-
flects real warfare! And as for
moving castles . . . well,
enough said.

So when I tell you that Full
Metal Planet (Infogrames,
copyrighted and distributed in
the U.S. by Data East) is a fair-
ly abstract tactical game, that
doesn't mean that it isn't a
good war game. It does mean
that you won't get the thrill of
kicking your way through a
whole bunch of enemies — com-
bat is only scarcely more graph-
ic than seeing one piece take
another in chess. Yet you get
another kind of thril! — the ex-
citement of maneuvering your
forces defensively and offen-
sively against very tough com-
puter opponents or other hu-
man players, under a very
tight time limit of no more than
25 moves.

Unrealistic? No, just ab-
stract. The graphics are gor-
geous, somewhat impression-
istic and yet grittily real. It's a
bleak alien landscape, where
your corporation and up to
four computer opponents and
three other humans are trying
to gather as much ore as pos-
sible, all the while blasting or
capturing the other corpora-
tions' equipage and trying to
keep its men from doing the
same to you.

The rules of movement are
quite abstract, and the battles
themselves are simple. The
playing field is a hex grid with
a sea whose unpredictable
tides can drastically alter your
movement capability. It
sounds simple, but the compli-
cations are as intricate as
chess.

Whether you prefer twitch
games or games like Full Met-
al Planet is just a matter of
whether you want your reflex-
es to play the game for you or
you sometimes want the
game to reach your brain, □

lOa COMPUTE

All the nranhics. all the action, all the stats /

SSI sets the standard
with Tony La Russa's
Ultimate Baseball.
When the premier
manager of pro /
baseball puts his
name on a game,
you know it has to
be the very best:
State-of-the-art
graphics and ultra
realistic action.
Ballparks with differ-
ent fence distances,
, wind
conditions
and turf
surfaces.
■ And all the

i^<>tAj^?a^

'jj

^

Tony La Russa's Ultimate

Baseball comes with the

stats of yesteryears"

legendary super-

— stars. You can

also enter the

numbers for any

player on any pro

team — or even

those on your

local feague.

Choose to play

^^^^^^ a game with top-

"'' " ■ notch arcade

action, or let the computer

play through a 162-game

season in a

few hours!

batting,
14 fielding
and 44
pitching stat
categories!
Sorted any
way you like.
You make

the call.

WPM5 BUCSCSH07

SPORTS. iRiomim

to ORDER: Visit you; retailer. .4

VISA/MC orders, call 1-800-245-4?

Canada). By mail, send check or money order to

Electronic Arts. RO. Box 7530, San Mateo. CA

94403. To receive SSI's complete

product catalog, send si .00

to: SSI.675Almanor >«r|!jk«. /•—

Ave.. Suite 201. ,. - JrX~'

Sunnyvale. ~- -■ '>-:.--

CA 94086.

►IBM
►C-G4/128

(Not all features

are available (or

C-64/1 28 version)

Watch for

upcoming

Data Disks!

».

m e m o r a

The Making of a Com

When Access Software introduced the
award-winning Mean Streets two years
ago, its exciting movie sequences
were state-of-the-art technology. Now,
the Access geniuses are taking game
technology another quantum leap tor-
ward with Martian Memorandum.

This time, in what is rightfully called
full-motion video, Access gives us mov-
ie sequences with synchronized
sound. When you play the game, the
twelve speaking characters talk direct-
ly to you as you conduct your inter-
views, even if you don't have a sound
board. They move as they speak and
roll their eyes with disgust, shrugging,
laughing, and blazing with anger.
They're not animated cartoons or pho-
tos with dialog boxes; they're people
you have to deal with to get anywhere
in the game.

You won't believe your eyes and
ears. It's a breakthrough that parallels
the development of "talkies," when
soundtracks were added to movies.

But aside from the programming art-
istry that represents a giant step for the
technology, this is a computer game
good enough to deserve being the first
computer talkie.

Martian Memorandum's setting is
A.D. 2039. You take the role of Tex
Murphy, a San Francisco gumshoe in
the Sam Spade tradition (complete
with the trench coat and 1940-style
theme music), who is hired by wealthy

110 COMPUTE

Marshall Alexander to find his beautiful
daughter, Alexis, who is missing and
may have been abducted.

The faint trail eventually leads
through her boyfriend's incredible
South American jungle fortress to the
seedy back alleys of a casino district on
Mars. As you meet more people and un-
ravel the web of intrigue, you find
there is much more involved than just a
missing heiress. If you are successful,
you may save humanity from self-de-
struction.

It's a gritty, hard-boiled private eye
yarn in a futuristic, science fiction set-
ting. As the macho hero, you mix it up
with mutant villains, sexy secretaries,
gamblers, hired muscle, and an eclec-
tic variety ol characters, each of whom
is trying in his or her own way to influ-
ence the fate of the universe.

There's also a healthy dose of hu-
mor, particularly in the descriptions of
the various objects you'll examine as
you search for clues.

The story line is unusually deep for a
game. The game's electronic wizardry —
after the awe wears off— allows you to
get caught up with the people, their mo-
tivations, and the scope of the problem
you're desperately trying to solve.

The designers weren't content, how-
ever, with presenting this richly detailed
story in graphics and sound that no one
else can match. They had one more in-
novation in mind; they guarantee you

can finish the game. You'll be able to un-
cover the final solution without a hint
book and without frantic phone calls to
customer service.

How can they guarantee this?
They've developed a new system to
give you context-sensitive help at just
the level you want. If you want minor
hints at the tough spots, you can get
them onscreen. But if you aren't playing
for the thrill of outsmarting the program-
mers, persist in asking for help, and the
game will eventually spell out for you ex-
actly what to do.

This may be the first adventure/mys-
tery game some of us have ever fin-
ished. If you enjoy simple mysteries
and puzzles but have given up on ad-
venture games in frustration with their
seeming impossibility, you'll want to try
Martian Memorandum. You only have
to endure as much frustration as you
choose to accept.

The Making of Martian
Nlemoranmim

Like its predecessors, Countdown and
Mean Streets, Martian Memorandum is
the product of a talented team of crea-
tive technical geniuses hidden away in
an industrial park near the Salt Lake
City International Airport. Although
they're unquestionably brilliant comput-
er people, they work, talk, and think
more like moviemakers.
Martian Memorandum is story and con-

mM

um

How virtual

can it get before it's

real? Access

brings together

RealSound and live

action for an

unprecedented

adventure experience.

cept are the joint creation of financial
vice president Ciiris Jones and program-
mer Brent Erickson. Jones directs the
game's movie sequences and acts sev-
eral parts.

The visuals are born when the design-
ers explain the story to their artist, who
creates a storyboard with a rough
sketch for each game screen. The re-
sults of this intensely creative process
are pinned on the wall of a long hall-
way, and production begins.

Videotaping is much like a standard
movie or television shoot, with makeup
and sound people, a videographer (cam-
eraman), the director, and actors shoot-
ing multiple takes directly onto video-
tape. The difference is one additional
person: Erickson lurks in the back-
ground, mentally digitizing the scene
and fitting it into his program, making
sure the degree of detail, motion, and
position of the actors will work within
computer memory and program con-
straints.

Ninety-five percent of what you see
onscreen in Martian Memorandum is dig-
itized video or still photos. Every move
that Tex Murphy and the other charac-
ters make was created from digitized vid-
eo of actors. The derelict train in the
rail yard murder scene is a photo of an
abandoned string of rail cars a few hun-
dred yards from the Access office. Wher-
ever the appropriate image exists,
they'll find a way to capture it and fit it

into the game.

Like moviemakers, they create futur-
istic sets in miniature. After lighting the
model set just as carefully as stage
directors light a sound stage, they
videotape it. Jon Clark, a multitalented
artist with 15 years of experience in thea-
ter set design, creates the models us-
ing a surprising variety of toys, balsa
wood, scraps of plastic models, wires,
and anything eise that comes to hand.
Jon also runs the studio's professional
sound equipment.

The digitized images of the sets
then go to Doug Vandegrift, a cartoon-
ist with a theater background known for
his work on "The Muppet Babies" car-
toon series. Vandegrift's PC tool chest
lets him blend in other images, includ-
ing his own drawings. He works with
the lighting, backgrounds, and whatev-
er else may need touch-up in the origi-
nal image.

The detailed exterior scene of the
Martian casino row, for example, start-
ed as a colorful, detailed model built by
Clark. Vandegrift blended in a stark Mar-
tian mountainscape background and ne-
on signs that came from photos of Las
Vegas augmented by his own artwork.
The result is a movie scene that looks
real without the flat, uniformly colored
and lighted look of a cartoon panel.

The live action sequences and char-
acters that talk in full-motion video ap-
pear onscreen in three- to four-inch win-

By Richard O. Mann

3S5^:

dows over the scene's set. They could
do full-screen video, but it takes so
much disk space that it isn't practical
yet.

In fact, the real technical break-
through allowing full-motion video with
sound is not the video or the sound
technology. It's fast disk decompres-
sion. Full-motion video is a series of
frames projected on the screen, just
like motion pictures. Each frame is
stored on disk and draw/n on the
screen at the right speed.

Images take a vast amount of disk
storage. To make this game work,
Erickson invented a system that com-
presses the video files by approximate-
ly 87 percent and then decompresses
them on the fly in a fraction of a sec-
ond, sending them to the screen as
needed, right on time, frame by frame,
synchronized with the sound files. With-
out the lightning-fast decompression
routine, this game could not exist.

The RealSound technology that
gives us music and voice through ordi-
nary PC speakers is the brainchild of
Steve Witzel, vice president of market-
ing at Access. It's so mature and solid
at this point that it's easy to record the
soundtrack on the videotape and dig-
itize it using the proven RealSound util-
ity program. If you have expensive
fVllDI sound equipment, the soundtrack

of Martian Memorandum will complete
the illusion of being in a movie.

All of these diverse elements feed in-
to Erickson's dimly lit, CD-sound-filled
office, where the master programmer
melds them together into a finished
product, Since the game was created
in close partnership with Jones from

Martian Memorandum is your ticket to an
interplanetary adventure.

the start, Erickson is qualified to serve
as the movie's cutter and editor. His
job is a lot harder, though, because
he's also writing the computer code
that causes everything to happen.

An Entertainment Experience

The designers of Martian Memoran-
dum are striving to make it more than
a game; they see it as an entertain-
ment experience. The intention is to

make the player identify with the hero
and feel surprise, anger, delight, and
tension as he or she solves the mys-
tery. The only concession to the fact
that it's a computer game is your lim-
ited ability to question and interact
with the people you meet in the game.
At each step along the way you are giv-
en three to five possible things to say
in these conversations. (Such conver-
sations may go on for ten or more ex-
changes; they are not perfunctory inter-
views.) Sometimes off-the-wall ques-
tions you'd like to ask aren't among the
choices, but such occasions are rare.
As games become more realistic,
merging full-motion animation and dig-
itized sound, the gap separating real ex-
perience from the game action nar-
rows. Martian Memorandum isn't quite
virtual reality yet, but it's closer to it
than any other computer game. Q

Martian l\Aemorandum S59.95
ACCESS SOFTWARE
4910 W. Amelia Earhart Dr.
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
(800) 800-4880
(801)359-2900

Requires VGA and hard drive with ap-
proximately 8fvlB free. Mouse recom-
mended. All sound boards supported
but none is required.

112 COMPUTE

64/1 28 VIEW

New 64 titles were scarce at the
Consumer Electronics Show, but there's
still some fun coming our way.

Tom Netsel

The 1991 International
Summer Consumer Elec-
tronics Show closed its
doors recently in Chica-
go after 55,629 attendees
logged many extra miles on
their Nike and Reebok Fre-
quent Hiker plans. It took a
lot of shoe leather to visit
each of the 1,019 exhibits
that filled a half-million
square feet of exhibit
space, and finding new 64 ti-
tles in this electronic mid-
way was something of a chal-
lenge.

There were plenty of PCs
and Amigas displaying new
software, but there were no
64s, Many companies say
they no longer get enough re-
turn on their investment to
continue producing prod-
ucts for the 64.

After much asking, prob-
ing, and poking around, how-
ever, I did manage to locate
some new products. Rea-
dySoft says its multidisk
Wrath of the Demon should
be out in September, but
look for it on cartridge, too.
"With the introduction of the
Commodore Game Console
in England, cartridge
games developed for that
system will work just fine on
a 64," says ReadySoft Sen-
ior Vice President Elizabeth
Arnold.

This state-of-the-art
game contains more than
3MB of graphics data, 600
screens of action, and 1400
frames of animation. Look
for more cartridges and
disks coming from the U.K.,
since ReadySoft has joined
Empire Software and will be
importing some of its prod-
ucts. Another title due out in
late fall is Guy Spy.

At Electronic Arts, affiliat-
ed labels SSI and Mindcraft
have new offerings that

should be exciting. Step up
to the plate with Strategic
Simulations' Ultimate Base-
ball. That's the working title,
but whatever it's called, this
simulation lets you play man-
age, or watch one game or
a whole 162-game season.

War game fans haven't
been forgotten. Look for an
SSI war game coming soon.
It's called Medieval Lords.

Gateway to the Savage
Frontier is the first of a new
AD & D series from SSI. It
takes place in a mysterious
territory in the world of Forgot-
ten Realms. Starting in the
town of Yarter, venture over
a vast wilderness on a
quest for four magical statu-
ettes.

Later this year, look for
The Magic Candle, Vol. 2
from Mindcraft. In this se-
quel explore the dreaded
realm of Gurtex in search of
the dark secrets of black can-
dles. A new user interface
lets you capture conversa-
tions, eliminating the need
for constant note taking. As-
tound friend and foe with
new spells, such as Glam-
our, Courage, and Terrify.

The Electronic Zoo is bun-
dling 20 popular games
from Great Britain and send-
ing them to the U.S. as Star
Collection. These hits
should be available now.

Konami is another compa-
ny supporting the 64— and
now one of the more active
ones. Over the next few
months, look for five new
games based on popular
movies and hit television pro-
grams. Look for such excit-
ing titles as Bart Simpson's
Adventure, Simpsons' Ar-
cade Game, Teenage Mu-
tant Ninja Turtles: The Ar-
cade Game, Back to the Fu-
ture III, and Predator 2. □

CONTENTS

64/128 VIEW G-1

The 1991 Summer CES had little for the 64, but new
products are heading our way. By Tom Netsel.

COMMODORE CLIPS G-2

Gazette goes online with QuantumLink, Commodore
earnings are up, and more. By Tom Netsel.

A GUIDE TO COMMODORE

USER GROUPS (PART II) G-4

User group listings for Nevada-Wyoming and around
the world. By Kandi Sykes and Dana Stoll.

REVIEWS

G-10

Sac/c to the Future tl, Fastfingers, Nightbreed, and
Power Drift.

FEEDBACK

Questions and answers.

G-1 6

GEOS G-1 9

GEOS telecommunicating. By Steve Vander Ark.

MACHINE LANGUAGE

Use binary fractions. By Jim Butterfield.

G-20

BEGINNER BASIC G-21

Crashproof your programs. By Larry Cotton.

PROGRAMMER'S PAGE G-22

Programming tips for the 64. By Randy Thompson.

DIVERSIONS G^

Has the robot revolution started? By Fred D'Ignazio.

PROGRAMS

Spanish Vocabulary Quiz

SpeedSwap

Credit Control

Plotter

Showdown

Medium Density Driver

RapldFormat 128

MLX

G-25

G-25

G-28
G-29
G-31
G-32
G-34
G-35
G-38

G-1

COMMODORE CLIPS

Tom Netsel

"Gazette

Gallery" presents

Lutanlst,

by Jack {DqgJM)

Modjallal of

Encino, Calllornia,

as this

disk's Picture of

the moniti.

GAZETTE GALLERY

Each month Gazette D/s/< fea-
tures a collection of the best
64/128 artwork submitted by
our readers. We pay $50 for
each piece of art we accept
for "Gazette Gallery" and an ex-
tra $50 for the one selected as
Picture of the Month and fea-
tured on this page. To submit
your original artistic creations,
send them to Gazette Gallery
GOfvlPUTE Publications, 324
West Wendover Avenue,
Suite 200, Greensboro, North
Carolina 27408.

Gazette Goes Online

Two of the biggest names in
the Commodore world are join-
ing forces to offer 64 and 128
users an exciting new dimen-
sion to their computing activi-
ties. COMPUTE'S Gazette will
soon be online at Quantum-
Link (8619 Westwood Center
Drive, Vienna, Virginia 22180;
800-827-8444).

You've read Gazette for
years; soon you can access
Gazette electronically on the
only Commodore-specific on-
line service. With your comput-

er, modem, and Q-Link's free
terminal software, you'll be
able to access many of your fa-
vorite Gazette features.
Check Gazette and Q-Link as
details become available
about our upcoming debut.

Check This Out

Sparks Electronics (P.O. Box
0475, St. Joseph, Missouri
64504-0475) has released
S.E.C- Check Register 128
($16) for the 128 in 80-col-
umn mode. Designed to man-
age personal or small busi-
ness checking accounts,
S.E.C. Check Register can
contain up to 750 entries.

Special emphasis is given
to data entry, recurring pay-
ees, check printing, and print-
ing of register data. Recurring
payee files can contain up to
54 names and addresses, but
users can load others into the
current register for an unlimit-
ed number of payees.

Earnings Up at Commoilore

Commodore International Lim-
ited reported $10.6 million in
income on sales of $246.3 mil-
lion for the third fiscal quarter
of 1991, which ended March
31. This represents a substan-
tial increase in earnings and
a 16-percent increase in
sales compared to the year-
ago quarter. An extraordinary
charge of $9.2 million relating
to a previously announced
court settlement of litigation
was recorded in the quarter,
resulting in net income of
$1.4 million.

For the nine months that
ended March 31, 1991, in-
come increased tenfold to
$54.1 million compared with
$5.0 million in the prior year.
Sales increased 21 percent to
$830.7 million, compared
with $689.2 million in the year-
ago period. Net income for
the nine months increased nin-
efold to $44.9 million, or
$1.37 per share.

Every product line contribut-

ed to revenue growth in the
quarter, Unit sales of Amiga
computers increased 30 per-
cent, while the 64 product
line registered unit growth of
48 percent, largely due to ex-
panded sales in new markets.

The Krynn Epic Continues

Strategic Simulations announc-
es the release of Death
Knights of Krynn ($39.95) for
the 64. (SSI products are dis-
tributed by Electronic Arts,
1820 Gateway Drive, San
Mateo, California 94404.)
This game is the sequel to the
popular Advanced Dungeons
& Dragons fantasy role-play-
ing game Champions of
Krynn.

Death Knights of Krynn be-
gins a year after the conclu-
sion of Champions of Krynn.
At a victory party on the anni-
versary of tfie evil force's de-
feat, the celebration is inter-
rupted by an unwelcome par-
ty crasher. The undead Sir
Karl sweeps in on a Death
Dragon and steals a revered
Dragonlance. The adventure
begins as the champions set
out to track Sir Karl and recov-
er the stolen item.

Your favorite characters
from Champions of Krynn can
be imported to Death Knights
of Krynn, along with their ac-
cumulated items and wealth.
This is a new feature not pre-
viously offered in AD & D fan-
tasy role-playing games.

Big Al and Pals

Return to Chicago's golden
age of gangsters and take on
the Mob in The Untouchables
($14.95) from Ocean of Amer-
ica (distributed by Electronic
Arts, 1820 Gateway Drive,
San Mateo, California 94404).
Guide Eliot Ness's band of
mob-busters through five lev-
els of arcade action: the Ware-
house Bust, the Border Raid,
the Alley Shootouts, the Rail-
way Station Confrontation,
and the Rooftop Duels. □

G-2 COMPUTE

FOR ORDERS AND ^ ng%g% -^Cil f^CflC
USA &SaM CALL 1 "0UU'/UU~DU65

Order Hours: Mon-Thun, 9am-7pi«/fri, 9omSpm/ClOS[D Soi/OPtH 5(.n,9:30-4{ET)

wommommm

WE CAN RKOHFIGUREAHYOf OUR COUPUm PACKAGES TO YOUR
SPECIflCATlONS. CAUFORDETAIISI

WE mm CORPORAU & [DUCATIONAL CUSTOMERS - DtSCOUHTS FOR
QUANTITY ORDERS - RUSH, 2ND DAY A NEXT DAY AIR SERVICE AVAIIASLE}

.°<!ffiKu (718)6920790

MoniiGOMfRv mm: majl order depi.

as 34U1 ST., SEPT. A, BROOKLVN, N.I. 1 1Z32
FAX #7186923372 / TELEX 422132 MGRANT

RETAIL OUTLET PENN STAnON, MAIIU CONCOURSE

(Beneath Madisen Sq. Garden) NYC, m lOOOI

store Hrs: MON-IHURS 9!30-7/fRI 8:30-5/tlOSED SAI/OPEH JUN 9S30-7

FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE OR ORDER STATUS CAll: (718) 692-1 148

CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS: MON-THURS 9am Spm/rRI 9ilm-4pm/SUN 10ani-4um

64€

HAcur

IN

C^ Commodore

to

Includes:
Quantum Link Software

v^yr?^

I AVE BIG $$$

IWHEN YOU BUY ONE OF OUR ALL IN OnTpACKAGES

64C

TEST PILOT

PACKAGE

• Commodore 64C
Computer

• Commodore 1541

Disk Drive

• Joystick

• Quantum Link

Software

G SOFTWARE
I PACKAGES INCLUDED

:d;

I Advanced Tactcal Fighter

> Inf t/alor U ■ Harrier I
■ Crazy Cars ■ Tomohawfc^

<289

COMMODORE

64C
COMPLETE
PACKAGE

• Commodore 64C
Computer

• Commodore 1541
Disk Drive

• 80 Column Printer

• 12" Monitor

• Quantum Link
Software

^359

COMMODORE

64C

COLOR

PACKAGE

• Commodore 64C

Computer
•Commodore 1541
Disk Drive

• 80 Column Printer

• Color fvlonUor

• Quantum Link
Software

PERIPHERALS FOR COMMODORE^

COMMODORE 154119
DISK DRIVE

n59

COIUMODOHE 1S71
DISK DRIVE

CALL

1750 Clone RAM EKpansion $169 Micro C-128 Power Supply $59.95

Aprolek 2400 Satd Madem lor 6«1 28....$99.95

Super SnapshrM 5.0 $59.95

Xelec S. Graphi« Jr. Interlace......... J29.B5

Xelec S. Graphix Sr. Interlace $49.95

Cardco G-Wiz Interlace Si>9.95

Commoeiore 1650 Modem SU.95

64, 64C Power Supply $29.95

Ejicelleraior Plus FS Dl I Power Supply. ...$1 9.95

I V OTHER ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR COMMODORE COMPUTER AVAIUBLE

C* Commodore*

1084
MONITOR

m

COMMOOOat

AMIG

500

i— Special Purchase BlowoutsI

MONOCHROME
COMPOSITE
MONITORS

(RECONDITIONED)

$3995

r

so COL. THERMfSL

PRINTER INCLUDES
COMMODORE INTERFACE

SPECIAU

S Free Games
with Purchase!

M

MfiGNffVOX

13 COLOR/

COMPOSITE/RGB

MONITOR

W/SOUND! (RECONDITIONED)
$14995

COMMODORE 84/128 SOFTWARE

Btj Bkjs Rsader S31.00 MavarickvS.0 529,00

Canran Time $26.00 ML Bassball II Enhan. $27.00

Caittwn USA. 529.00 Newsroom. S14.00

Carmen VforW $25,00 North & South. $20.00

Death KnighlB Kryinn $40.00 Paperdp III $40.00

Elemerrtaiy Gni BuWing $25.00 Pccliel Writef. $19,00

G(M5 Piiilsh $3100 Pocke! Writer II $34,00

GEOS w2.0 $40.00 Pnnt Master Plis. $24,00

Jr. High Grade Buikter $19.00 Print Shop „ $32.00

PBiMTER

Sngs Medusa. $19,00

SeoBl Silver Blades. $3200

Sim Cily $21 .00

Telris $14,00

Tunican II ...$20.00

UKma VI $49,00

Vtad Wrtor VI $34,00

SPECIALS

STAR PANASONIC CITIZEN

NX-IOOOC $166.95 KXP-1160 $159,95 GSX-UO

NX-IOOOC Rainbow $195.95 KXP-1191 $234.95 GSJC-US^

NX-1001 $149.95

NX-1020Rainbow $139.95

NX-2420 $279.95

NX-2420 Rainbow. $299.55

.$278,95

(Wide Carriage) $365.95

200GX $169.M

KXP-1123 $239.95

KXP-1124! $299.95 Color Option Kils....'.!:...:..CALL

{Commodore^ $1 QC|85
I MPS-1270 Inkjet 'WV

NO SURCHARGE FOR CREDIT CARD ORDERS

CctOlcdcrwdi. Bank Check Money OtdGf»,Approwd P.0.3,Visa,Ma&k^C3r(], AmDx.0pbRi3, [>nc(aC(ub.Caifi-et2nchc.
COD'9 & Wite Tiamfcri »cceptod Please call before submilling P.O s. N«nurti)i«] chccVs must wjil 24 wc^ks foi
ck-aidnco- Piico?&ndavJibbil>lY9ubt«llochwgcwithoutnot)ce. Nolrc^onstblcl(MtypogF3phiccno>3. Rctumol
dci«!ivc mciclundiK rnu$l have ptiw ictum auihaizalion numbci oi returns wi»not be accpplcl Sapping & Handling
addiuonal SccondDaf&Ncx,lDiyAiravailablcalpiii/acQst CanadanordcisplcascuEJrotshippingialcs APO FPO
flidcisplcAscaddlO^shjpping&hsTdimgtminimumSlSj. AIIAPOFPOotdEHsaiesfiippedlir&tclftSSpriorJlydii. V/e
dwek tor CTcdi! card Ihctt OCfti800231

G-4 COMPUTE

Here's Pari 2 of the list of
user groups, concluding
witli those in New Jersey
tinrough Wyoming. APOs,
and otiier countries.

NEW JERSEY

Info 64 Commodore User
Group, c/o Jerry Fieiscfier,
186 Delmar Ave., Glen
Rock, NJ 07452

Hillsdale Commodore 64 Users
Club, 32 Esplanade Lake
Dr. Hillsdale, NJ 07642

Garden State Commodore &
MS-DOS User's Group, 89
Stratford Rd., Tinton Falls, NJ
07724 (BBS# 201-938-3885)

Commodore User Group of Cen-
tral New Jersey, 112 Old
Bridge Rd.. Matawan, NJ
07747

Morris Area Commodore User
Group (MACUG), PO. Box
492, Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878

Rancocas Valley Users Group
(RVUG), c/o G. C. Heatfi,
806 Windsor Dr., Cinnamin-
son, NJ 08077 (BBS* 609^
267-7945)

Data Exchange-Beneficial Us-
ers Group 64/128 (D.E.-
B.U.G. 64/128), 713 Second
St., Dunellen, NJ 08812

Commodore E. Brunswick Us-
ers Group (CEBUG), P.O.
Box 314, E. Brunswick. NJ
08816

NEW MEXICO

New Mexico Commodore User
Group, P.O. Box 37127, Al-
buquerque, NM 87176
(BBS# 505-268-4662)

Los Alamos Commodore Us-
ers Group, 4214-A Arizona
St., Los Alamos, NM 87544
(Voice# 505-662-5934)

Taos Area Commodore User's
Group, P.O. Box 5686,
Taos, NM 87571

The Southern New Mexico Com-
modore User's Group, PO
Box 4437, University Park
Brancfi, Las Cruces, NM
88003

Commodore Users Group of
Roswell (CUGOR), 1619 N.
Kansas, Roswell, NM 88201

NEW YORK

New York Commodore Interest

Group (NYC=tg), 115 Essex
St., Box #146, New York, NY
10002

Kids' Computer News, St.
Hilda's & St. Hugh's School,
619 W. 114th St., New York,
NY 10025

Folklife Terminal Club, Box 555-
R. Co-op City Station, Bronx,
NY 10475

Brooklyn Commodore User's
Group, c/o Grodman, 1111
Shore Pkwy., Brooklyn, NY
11228 (Voice* 718-331-
3835)

Queens Commodore Users
Group (QCUG), P.O. Box
129, Ozone Park, NY 11417
(BBS# 718-366-7445)

Commodore Users Group of
Greater New York, 190-25
Woodhull Ave., Hollis, NY
11423

N.C.C.C, P.O. Box 233, Sea
Cliff, NY 11579

Commodore Lxing Island Club,
15 Rochelie Ct., Amityville,
NY 11701 {BBS# 516-489-
4061)

Brentwood 64/128 Computer
Ctub, Public Library, 2nd
Ave. & 4th St., Brentwood.
NY 11717

Moliawk Valley Computer User
Group, c/o William Nowak.
3818 Stinson Ave., Tribes
Hill, NY 12177

Tri-City Commodore User's
Group (TCCUG), PO. Box
12742, Albany, NY 12212-
2742

Hudson Valley Commo-
dore Club, P.O. Box 2190,
Kingston, NY 12401

The Commodore Computer
Club of Syracuse, 233 Wil-
liams St., Minoa. NY 13116
(BBS# 315-656-3544)

Oswego Commodore User
Group, 402 Mahar Hafl,
State University College,
Oswego. NY 13126

Commodore User Group of Mas-
sena (COMA), Star Tech,
280 E. Orvis St., fvlassena,
NY 13662

The Niagara Falls Commodore/
IBM Club, 2405 Willow Ave.,
Niagara Falls, NY 14305

Rainbow Computer Users
Group, c/o St. James United
Methodist Church, 4661 Por-

ter Rd,, Niagara Falls, NY

14305
Geneva Commodore Users'

Group, 25 Pine St., Geneva,

NY 14456
Commodore Users Group of

Rochester (CUGOR), P.O.

Box 23463, Rochester, NY

14692 (BBS# 716-621-5908)

NORTH CAROLINA

Triad Commodore Users
Group, RO. 10833, Greens-
boro. NO 27404

Bailey's User Group (BUG),

P.O. Box 70, Holly Springs,

NC 27540
Commodore Users Group of Lin-

cointon, Rte. 3, Box 457, Lin-

colnton, NC 28092
Salisbury Compute, Charles A

Huffman. 280 Deal Creek

Dr.. Salisbury NC 28144
Asheville-Buncombe User

Group (A-BUG), RO. Box

15511, Asheville, NC 28813

NORTH DAKOTA

Central Dakota Commodore

Club, RO, Box 1584. Bis-
marck, ND 58502-1584

OHIO

The Commodore Club of Cen-
tral Ohio (CCCO), RO. Box
292392, Columbus, OH
43229 (BBS# 614-523-3459)

Ashtabula County Commodore
Users Group (ACCUG),
1034 Michigan Ave., Ashtab-
ula, OH 44004

Basic Bits Commodore Group
(BBCG), RO. Box 447, N.
Ridgeviile, OH 44039

NorthEast Ohio Computer Us-
ers Group (NEOCUG), RO,
Box 196, Wickliffe, OH
44092

Portage County Commodore
Family User Group
(PCCFUG), RO, Box 901,
Ravenna. OH 44266

Akron Area Commodore Users
Group (AACUG), RO Box
9293, Akron, OH 44305-
9293

Trumbull Commodore Users
Group (TRUMCUG), RO,
Box 8632, Warren, OH
44484

Mahoning Valley Commodore
Club, RO. Box 1180, Young-

G-5

Stown, OH 44501

Canton/Alfiance/Massillon Users Group
(CAMUG), P.O. Box 2423, N, Canton,
OH 44720 (BBS# 216-453-3319)

Computer Erie Bay Users Group
(CEBUG), P,0, Box 1461, Sandusky, OH
44870

Shelby Computer User Group, PO. Box
512, Shelby. OH 44875

Western Cincinnati Commodore Club
(WESTCOM), P.O. Box 89, Amelia, OH
45102-0089 (Voice* 513-753-7387)

Cincinnati Commodore Computer Club, c/
Cure of Ars School, Berwick and Roe
Streets. Cincinnati, OH 45227 (Voice#
513-248-0025)

Southwestern Ohio Commodore Users
Group (SWOCUG), RO. Box 46644, Cin-
cinnati, OH 45246

Dayton Area Commodore Users Group
(D.A.C.U.G.), 1117 Lavern Ave., Ketter-
ing, OH 45429 (BBS# 513-878-1408)

Chillrcothe Commodore Computer Users
Group (ChllCUG), PO. Box 6014, Chil-
licothe, OH 45601

Hancock User's Group (HUG-e4), RO. Box
632, Findlay, OH 45839-0632 (BBS# 419-
423-6648)

OKLAHOMA

Commodore User's Group of Lawton, RO.

Box 3392, Lawton, OK 73502
Commodore Users of Bartlesville, 1920

SW Santa Fe, Bartlesville, OK 74003

(BBS# 918-336-3872)
Tulsa Area Commodore Users Group

(TACUG), PO, Box 52473, Tulsa, OK

74169-1842 (BBS# 918-428-2284)
Osage/Kay Commodore User's Group

(OKCOM), 317 Woodbury, Ponca City,

OK 74601

OREGON

geoMETRIX, 20224 S. Sprague Rd,, Oregon

City OR 97045-9641
Commodore East County {C.E.C.), 1714 SE

35th Ave,, Portland, OR 97214-5039
Crash-64 Salem Area's Commodore Us-
er's Group, RO. Box 241. Salem, OR

97308 (BBS# 503-585-3092}
Lane County Commodore User Group

(LCCUG), P.O. Box 11316, Eugene, OR

97440
Coos Computer Club, 2175 Everett St.,

North Bend, OR 97459-2336 (Voice#

503-756-4408)

PENNSYLVANIA

A-K Valley Computer Club, 1762 Fairmont
St., New Kensington, RA 15068

Betlis Commodore Users Group, 592 Ar-
bor Ln., Pittsburgh. RA 15236

Castle Commodore Computer Club, P.O.
Box 961, New Castle, PA 16103

North Coast Commodore Users Group
Erie, RO. Box 6117. Erie, RA 16512-
6117 (BBS# 814-459-1947)

Centre Area Commodore Computer Club,
c/o Neil Dowlin, 1104 S. Atherton St.,
State College, RA 16801-6001

Blue Juniata Commodore Users Group, 23
Oakland Ave., Lewistown, RA 17044
(BBS* 717-248-4877)

Huntingdon County Hackers, RO. Box 132,
Mill Creek, PA 17060

Harrlsburg Area Computer Group, 721 S,

29th St., Harrisburg. PA 17111 (BBS#
717-558-9080)

White Rose Commodore Users Group,
PO, Box 7501, York, RA 17404-0501

Lehigh Valley Commodore User Group, c/
Fred Knerr. PO. Box 2, New Tripoli,
RA 16066 (Voice# 215-298-2516)

Scranton Commodore Users Group
(S.C.U.G.), RO, Box 244, Scranton, RA
18501-0244 (BBS# 717-489-8001)

EPA Commodore Users Group, Edward H
Cohen, 1712 Aidenn Lair Rd., Dresher,
PA 19025

Horsham Amiga/64, 20-A Lumberjack Cir.,
Horsham, RA 19044

Main Line Commodore Users Group
(MLCUG), 1046 General Allen Ln., 'West
Chester, PA 19382 (BBS* 215-354-9750
and Voice* 215-388-1581)

Worldwide Commodore Users Group (In-
ternational Headquarters and Share-
ware Registry), RO. Box 337, Blue
Bell, RA 19422

Buxmont Commodore and IBM Users
Group, 1206 Cowpath Rd., Hatfield, PA
19440

Antelope Valley Commodore Users
Group, RO. Box 4436, Lancaster, RA
17603 (BBS* 805-272-9140)

RHODE ISUND

Narragansett Commodore Users Group,

RO. Box 8707, Cranston. Rl 02920
(BBS* 401-737-9774)

SOUTH CAROLINA

Greenville Commodore Users Network

(GCUN), PO. Box 5272, Station B,
Greenville, SC 29606

SOUTH DAKOTA

Amiga and Commodore 64 Users Group,

RO, Box IS, Vermillion, SD 57069
{Voice* 605-624-3471)

TENNESSEE

Clarksville Commodore Users Group, P.O.

Box 2171, Clarksville, TN 37042-2171
Multi-User Computer Club, 213 Holly Ave.,

S. Pittsburg. TN 37380-1313 (BBS* 615-

837-8352)
Chattanooga Commodore Users, 1406

Blackwell Dr., Chattanooga, TN 37412
East Tennessee Commodore Club, P.O.

Box 495, Knoxville, TN 37901
Raleigh-Bartlett Hackers CUG, c/o James

Patrick, 3457 Gatewood Dr., Memphis,

TN 38134

TEXAS

Society of Computer Owners and P.E.T.
Enthusiasts (SCOPE), RO, Box

833095, Richardson, TX 75083-3095

Texas Commodore User's Group, RO. Box
623, Royse City TX 75089

Central Texas Computer Users Group, 902
Carlisle, Killeen, TX 76541-7321

Commodore Houston Users Group
(CHUG), c/o Ben Daily, PO. Box 612,
Tomball, TX 77375-0612 BBS* 713-445-
2484 and Voice *713-664-2484

Southmost In Texas Commodore User's
Group (SITCOM), c/o Charles Duncan,
74 Laura Ln., Brovi/nsville, TX 78521

Amistad Commodore Users Group, RO.
Box 421212, Del Rio, TX 78842

Top of Texas Commodore (TOTCOM), Box

2851, Pampa, TX 79066-2851
Tri-State Commodore Users Group (Tri-

CUG), RO, Box 8971, Amarillo, TX

79114-8971 (BBS* 806-355-3031)
Commodore Users of Texas (CUT), 7007

Memphis Ave., Lubbock, TX 79413

(Voice* 806-792-7121)
El Paso Commodore User Group, RO. Box

370934. El Paso, TX 79937 (BBS* 915-

590-7678)

UTAH

Mountain Computer Society, 3898 Cheryl
SL, West Valley, UT 84119

Moab Commodore User's Group, 860 S. An-
tiquity Ln., Moab, UT 84532

VERMONT

Springfield Area Computer Club (SACC), 6

Bellows Rd., Springfield, VT 05156
Maple Valley Commodore Users Group, c/

Dave Swainbank, PO. Box 106, St. Al-
bans, VT 05478 (BBS* 802-524-9387)

VIRGINIA

Washington Area Commodore User
Group (WAC), RO. Box 3602, Fairfax,
VA 22038-3602

Dale City Commodore Users Group, RO.

Box 2675, Dale City, VA 22193-0265
(BBS* 703-361-7565)

Fredericksburg Commodore Club, RO.
Box 8438, Fredericksburg, VA 22404-
8438

Middle Peninsula Commodore User
Group, PO. Box 391, Gloucester, VA
23061 (BBS#s 804-642-3697 and 804-
642-4293)

CURVE, RO. Box 28284, Riclimond, VA
23228 (BBS#s 804-266-1763 and 804-
737-7936)

The Richmond Area Commodore Enthu-
siasts (TRACE), 2920 Pinehurst Rd.,
Richmond, VA 23228

Peninsula Commodore User Group of Vir-
ginia, 211 Nina Ct., Newport News, VA
23602 (BBS* 804-638-2118)

Henry County Commodore Computer
Club, c/o Doug Wilcox, 1047 Graves St.,
Martinsville, VA 24112

Lynchburg User Group, Rte. 2, Box 180, Lyn-
chburg, VA 24501

Commodore Users of Lynchburg (CUOL),
RO. Box 3386, Rivermont Station, Lyn-
chburg, VA 24503

WASHINGTON

Renton Computer Group, 11308 SE 269th
St., Kent, WA 98031

UT, RO. Box 1767, Bothell, 'WA 98041-1767

South King County Commodore User
Group (SKCCUG), RO. Box 5241,
Kent, WA 98064-5241

NW Commodore User Group, 2565 Dexter
N #203, Seattle, WA 98109 (BBS* 206-
261-7661)

PSACE, 1313 5th Ave. W Seattle, WA 98119-
3410

University of Washington Commodore Us-
er Group (UWCUG), RO. Box 25878, Se-
attle, WA 98125 (BBS* 206-281-7661)

Commodore Belllngham User's Group
(CBUG), RO. Box 2756, Belllngham, WA
98227 (BBS* 206-647-7120)

G-6 COf^PUTE

The Lowest Prices in the World on
Commodore-Ready Printers! Really!!

ONLY
$25995

Full color &
Commodore-ready!

NX-IOOOC Rainbow

Prim in full color! Near-letter quality ai 36 cps and high-
speed draft at 1 44 cps features Ihe new paper parking
function. Convenient front pane) controls. Great for
extra-impact graphics and text. This is the Commo-
dore-ready version — noadditional interfaces or cables
are required. Sug. Retail

NX-IOOOC Rainbow Color Printer,
Commodore Ready 75783 J3*ft9S^

LOWEST PRICE EVER.' S159.95

THE COMPUTER PRINTER

Printer Accessories

Black Ribbon for NX-IOOOC/NX-1 OOOC
Rainbow Color Printer 75471 $5.95

Color Ribbon for WX-1 000/NX-l OOOC
Rainbow Color Printer 75435 $9.95

Dust Cover for NX-1 OOOC/NX-1 OOOC
Rainbow Color Printer 77789 $8.95

ONLY
$13995

Ready to plug into your
Commodore and go!

NX-IOOOC

This is the Corrimodore-ready version of the NX-
1 000. You can just plug it in and start printing — no
additional interfaces or cables are required,
Sug. Retail
NX-IOOOC Printer 75060 J4'?9:9S'

LOWEST PRICE EVER! S139.95

Quality TENEX
Power Supplies

From

Lifetime Warranty!

TENEX MW 701 -A. Consavatiuefy rated at 5V
and I-8A this unit for the C64 features a double-
fused system. Its new heat-sinfc design allows cooler
operating temperatures inside the case. Lifetime
warranty. Sug. Retail S49,9S

TENEX MW 701^ 845 J 3 $34.95

TENEX MW 70S. Perfect for your C-l 28! This is a

heavy duty, switching power supply rated at 3 amps

at 5VDC. Lfetime warrantv Sug Retail S69.9S

TENEX WW 705 90686 $49.95

Don't miss out on the hottest new

products and great prices on the most

popular hardware and software!!

Call Today for your FREE catalogs!!

IBM Compatibles

" TENEX Computer Express
P.O. Box 6578

Computer Express (21 si 259-70S1 — fax )zi9| 259.0300

We gJadly accept maiJ orders!

vis^ As ^^p

No Extra Fee Fer Charges!

Commodore
& Amiga

• Shipping. Handling, Iniurance

Ordf: Arnouni Charge

to! thm 519,99 S4.50

SZ0OO-S39.99 5-75

S40,00-S7'l,99 6.75

575 00-593 99 7,75

599 00-5119 99 a.75

5150.00-5299,99 9.75

SJOO.OOiup SCALL

ORDER TODAY CALL 1-800-PROMPT-l

COMMODORE 64 and COMMODOiJE i 28 are registered iMdemnrts of CGmmoOore Eleciromci. Ltd. AMIGA is a registered trademark of Commodore Amiga Inc.. NOTE: Due to publishing
lead-iimes, product prices and specincaiions are subjea to change wiihout notice • APO, FPO, AK. HI, CM. VI, GU. and foreign orders are subject to additional shipping charges. QSQ

CIrcl* RHdar Service Number 170

Club 64, 6735 Tracyton Blvd. NW, Bremaer-
ton, WA 98310

University Place Commodore Home Users
Group (UPCHUG), PO. Box 11191. Ta-
coma, WA 98411-1101 (BBS# 206-565-
0690)

Lewis County CBM Users Group,
c/o Al Kistenmacher, 2476 Pell-Mc-
Donald Rd., Chehalis, WA 98532

Tri-Cfty Commodore Computer Club (TC
CUBED), P.O. Box 224, Richland, WA
99352-0224 (BBS# 509-588-6822)

WEST VIRGINIA

Bluefield User Group (BUG 20/64), RO.

Box 1190, Bluefield, WV 24701
Commodore Home User's Group (CHUG),

81 Lynwood Ave., Wheeling, WV 26003

WISCONSIN

Lakeshore Commodore Core, 519
Westwood Dr., Sheboygan Falls, Wl
53085

Computer Hobbyists Involved in Personal
Systems (CHIPS), PO. Box 1006, West
Bend, Wl 53095

Wisconsin Association of Vic/C= Enthu-
siasts (WAVE), 1020 Kurlis Dr., Elm
Grove, Wl 53122

Milwaukee Area Commodore Enthusiasts
(M.A.C.E.), PO. Box 26216, Milwaukee,
Wl 53226

Madison Area Commodore Users Group
(MACUG), P.O. Box 1305, Madison, Wl
53701-1305 (BBS# 608-277-9775 and
Voices 608-831-6995)

Price County Computer User Group, 630
Knox St., Prentice, Wl 54556

WYOMING

Cheyenne Association of Computer En-
thusiasts (CACE), RO. Box 1733, Chey-
enne, WY 82003-1733

Casper Commodore Users Group
(CCUG), c/o Crazy Mountain Software,
511 E. 2nd St., Casper. W/Y 82601

U.S. ARMED SERVICES ABROAD

The Muenster Garrison User's Group, c/o

Mr. Maki, 583rd Ord Co., APO, NY
09078

Commodore Computer Users Group — Hei-
delberg, RO. Box 232 (147th Postal).
APO, NY 09102

Chicksands Computer Club (C cubed) —
England, c/o Erik Pedersen, Sox 148
6950th ESQ, APO, NY 09193

USER GROUPS OUTSIDE THE U.S.
AUSTRALIA

Commodore Computer Users Group
(QLD), RO. Box 274, Springwood Old.,
Brisbane, Queensland 4127, Australia

Commodore Hornsby User Group, PO.
Box 1578. Hornsby Northgate, N.S.W,
2077, Australia (BBS# 61-02-484-2874)

C64 Computer User, RO. Box 826, Young,
N.S.W. 2594, Australia

Melbourne Commodore Computer Club,
RO. Box 177, Box Hill, Victoria 3128, Aus-
tralia

Southern Districts Commodore Users
Club, 186 Elizabeth Rd., Morphett Vale.
S.A 5162, Australia (BBS* 61-08-322-
2716)

BELGIUM

C64 User Group, Thauvoy Jesabel, Chee.
De Malines, 3, B-1970 Wezembeek-Op-
pem, Belgium

BRAZIL

Tcs Computer Club, Rua Job Lane 650,
04639 Santo Amafo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

CANADA
Alberto

Commodore Users of Edmonton (C.U.E.),

9550 83rd St., Edmonton, AB, Canada
T6C 3A1 (BBS#S 403-466-7656, 403-454-
2832, 403-459-7522, and 403-484-9200)

British Columbio

Cariboo Commodore 64 User Group, c/o

Nick Sardy, RO, Box 634, 150 Mile
House, BC, Canada VOK 2G0

ChilEiwack Community Computer Club,
PO. Box 413, Sardis. BC, Canada V2R
1A7

Port Coquitlam Computer Club, 1752 Ren-
ton Way, Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada
V3B 2R7 (BBS* 604-942-0947)

New Brunswick

Moncton Users Group, Box 2984 STN A,
Moncton, NB, Canada E1C 8T8 (BBS#
506-387-7963)

North American Commodore User Group
Association (NACUGA),

c/o Dave Quinn, Box 2984, Sta. A, Monc-
ton, NB. Canada E1C 8T8

Ontario

Brampton User's Group (BUG), RO. Box

384, Brampton, ON, Canada L6V 2L3

(BBS# 416-455-3610)
Ottawa Home User Group, RO, Box 4165,

Sta. C, Ottawa, ON. Canada K1Y 4P3
TPUG, 5334 Yonge St., Ste, 116, Willowdale,

ON, Canada M2N 6M2 (BBS* 416-733-

2933)

Quebec

Commodore 64 De I'Estrie, c/o Keith An-
drews, 805 Belmont, Sherbrooke, RQ,
Canada J1H 5P4 (Voice* 819-565-8750)

Saskatchewan

Commodore User's Group of Sas-
katchewan (C.U.G.S.), c/ o Barry Birch-
er. 182 Coidwell Rd.. Regina, SK, Cana-
da S4R 4K8 (BBS#s 306-543-7683 and
306-949-8605)

Saskatoon Commodore Users Group
(SCUG), c/o O.B. Harvey 2614 A Haul-
tain Ave., Saskatoon, SK, Canada S7J
1R6 (BBS* 306-249-4959}

COLOMBIA

Commodore Club Medellln, c/o Hector
ivan Londono, Apartado Aereo 1231,
Medellin, Colombia

ComSoft Commodore 64/128/ Amiga User
Group, c/o D. F. Cardenas or E. Lopez
de Mesa, Apartado Aereo 9872, Cali.
Colombia

COSTA RICA

Club Commodore de TIbas, Marvin Vega,
P.O. Box 516, Tibas, San Jose, Costa
Rica

EGYPT

Commodore 64/128 User Group, 15 Dr. Ma-

hegobe Thabet St., Agoza-Giza, Egypt
(Voice* 020-347-6149)

ENGLAND

Independent Commodore Products User

Group, RO. Box 1309, London, N3 2UT,

England
Independent Commodore Products Users

Limited, 45 Brookscrofi, Linton Glade.

Croydon, CRO 9NA, England

INDIA

Bombay Commodore Club, c/o Haji Bital
Malbarwala, Apna Ghar Housing Soci-
ety, BIdg. No. 46, B Wing, Lokhandwala
Complex, Versova, Andheri (West), Bom-
bay 400 058, India

JAPAN

Commodore Fan Club, c/o Koji Sugimura, 2-
1-10-1107 Higasht-Taishi Yao Osaka, Ja-
pan 581

MEXICO

Arcano 17-Commodore Group, Calle Plata
3307, Villa San Alejandro, Puebia, Rue.
72090 Mexico (BBS* 91-22-480-722)

Club Commodore de Juarez, Calle del Man-
antial #1448, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua,
Mexico 32500 (BBS#s 011-52-16-17-
3130 and 915-544-5549)

Club de Usuarios Commodore de Chihua-
hua (CUCC), R. Calderon *801, Chihua-
hua, Mexico 31240 (BBS#s 14-13-12-91
and 011-52-14-13-12-91)

NEW ZEALAND

Chrtstchurch Commodore User Group,

RO. Box 4665, Christchurch. 8000, New
Zealand (BBS* 0064-03-355-3896)
Waikato Commodore Computer Users'
Group (W.C.C.U.G.), RO. Box 787. Ha-
milton, New Zealand

PAKISTAN

RAOASIM Commodore User Group, 465-
C, Satellite Town. Gujranwala, Pakistan

TIGLON, c/o Ahmed Jamal, PO. Box 7237,
A.H. Rd., Karachi-74400, Pakistan

PERU

SoftSpa, c/o Diego or Juan Tejero Acha, Av.
Central mz. AT #5, Los Alamos de Mon-
terrico. Lima 33, Peru

SWITZERLAND

Computer Anwender Club, Rostfach 29,
8042 Zurich. Switzerland

If your group is not listed, contact us al this
address:

Commodore 64/128 User Group Update

COMPUTE'S Gazette

324 W. Wendover Ave., Sle. 200

Gfeensboro, NC 27408 □

G-8 COMPUTE

GAZETTE
D\SK L/BRARY

VALUE-PACKED SOFTWARE
AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

All Gazette disks are menu-driven for ease of use — and they feature complete
documentation. Just load and you're ready to go!

SpeedScript $ 1 1 .95

COMPUTE Publications' most popular program
ever. Powerful word processing package includes
SpeedScript for the 64, SpeedScript 128, spelling
checkers for both 64 and 1 28 versions, plus an
additional dozen support programs, including
mail-merge and word-count utilities.

Gazette Index $7.95

Every article and department from Gazette — July
1983 through December 1989 issues — is indexed:
features, games, reviews, programming, "Bug-
Swatter," "Feedback," and the other columns,
Disk features pull-down menus, help screens,
superfast searching/sorting capabilities, and
much more.

Best Gazette Games $9:95

Best dozen arcade and strategy games ever
published in Gazette all on one disk, Al! games for
Commodore 64. Titles: Crossroads //.■ Pandemo-
nium, Basl<etbali Sam & Ed, Delta War, Heat
Seel<er, Omicron, Powerball, Q-Bird, Trap, Arcade
Volleyball, Mosaic, Power Poker, and Scorpion II.

Gazette's Power Tools $9.95

Fourteen of the most important utilities for the
64 ever published in Gazette. For serious users.
Titles: MetaBASIC, Disk Rapid Transit, Mob Maker,
Ultrafont+, Quick!, Disk Editor, Basically Music,
PrintScreen, 1526 PrintScreen, Fast Assembler,
Smart Disassembler. Comparator, Sprint II, and
Turbo Format.

The GEOS Collect ion $ 1 1 .95

Gazette's best 1 3 programs for GEOS and GEOS
128 users. Selection includes utilities, applications,
and games. Titles: Super Printer Driver, Skeet, File
Saver, Help Pad, Word Count, Directory Printer,
Quick Clock, SlldeSh>ov\f, File Retriever, Screen
Dumper, Font Grabber, GeoPuzzle, and
GeoConverter.

128 Classics $11.95

Thirteen of Gozef fe's best 1 28 programs, including
utilities, games, and applications. Titles:
MetaBASIC 128, RAMDIsk 128, 80-Column Disk
Sector Editor, MultlSort, Block Out, Miami Ice,
Ttie Animals' Show, Cribbage, XPressCard, Sound
Designer, Video Slide Show, Math Graphics, and
3-D BarGrapher.

SPECIAL OFFER!

All 6 DISKS FOR ONLY $49.95!

A $13.00 SAVINGS!

All prices include shipping & handling.

SpeedScript D $11,95

Gazette index D $ 7.95

Best Gazette Games D $ 9.95

Gazette's Power Tools D $ 9,95

The GEOS Collection D $11,95

128 Classics D $11.95

Special 6-Disk Offer D $49.95

Name.

Address .
City

. State .

.ZIP.

Amount
enclosed

Mail to

Method of

payment D Check or Money Order
D VISA or MasterCard
(for orders over $20)

Outside U.S.

Subtotal .

Tax*.

or Canada" .

Total .

Gazette Disks

324 W. Wendover Ave.. Ste. 200

Greensboro, NC 27408

Credit card no Exp. date

Signature (required)

Daytime ptione number

• Residents ot Nortti CaoHna and New Yorti odd appropiiote soles lax. Canadian orders, odd 7% goods and services tax.

" For dei.very outside the U.S. or Canada, odd St tor surface moil or S3 tof Qirmoil. All ordefs must be in U.S. funds drawn on o U.S. bank.

REVIEWS

BACK TO THE
FUTURE II

Join Marty McFly as he trav-
els through time again in
Back to the Future II. The mov-
ie tells the comic, disjointed
story of time travel in Doc's
DeLorean time machine. The
software is mostly an arcade
game w/ith a couple of puz-
zles added.

The object of the game is
to make your way through
five levels of play to retrieve
a sports almanac stolen by
old Biff in 2015 and given to
young Biff in 1955. Three of
these five levels are simple
arcade games, and two are
logic puzzles. While the idea
is intriguing, the program
promises more enjoyment
than it delivers. The documen-
tation, which is brief but well
written, ties the game to the
movie by describing the
film's opening scene and
then provides the user with
background information
about each play level.

The game opens with
some elegant graphics se-
quences. On the first level
you must maneuver a hover-
board (a flying skateboard)
through the streets of Hill Val-
ley in the year 2015. Your mis-
sion is to reach the town hall
before running out of time or
depleting your energy,

Maneuvering the hover-
board is simple and fun. You
can move freely in all direc-
tions, accelerate, brake, and
jump. It is essential to learn
to time these last two maneu-
vers accurately, since you
must sometimes wait for pow-
er points as they drop from
the sky, Try learning to at-
tach yourself to the back of
a passing car for a joyride.

When you reach the pond
at the end of the last street,
you'll know how to get to the
town hall and complete the
mission if you've seen the
movie. Anyone who hasn't

G-10 COMPUTE

seen the movie will still quick-
ly figure out how to complete
the first task. Running out of
time never seems to be an ob-
stacle. Your time is extended
whenever you reach the end
of any of seven streets that
lead to the town hall.
Maintaining your energy

um earns you the most
points.

To aid you along the way.
speed, acceleration, and
power bonuses regularly
drop from the sky. Do not
miss an opportunity to gath-
er power points, as these
will restore all lost energy.

Iviarty McFly can hitch a ride through danger-filled streets.

level, on the other hand, is
considerably more difficult.
A roving gang on hover-
boards, old Biff with his
cane, stray dogs, cars, mo-
bile trash cans, and radio-
controlled hovercraft harass
you along the way. Coming
in contact with any of these
enemies lowers your energy
level. You can punch your op-
ponents on the hoverboards,
but it seems better to avoid
gang members rather than
confront them.

Cars, dogs, and hover-
craft are sufficiently powerful
to knock you from your hover-
board in one shot if you run
into them head-on. fvlan-
holes, slick spots, and curbs
do limited damage. Along
the way you can pick up
caps, shoes, soda cans,
newspapers, or plutonium
for extra points. Perhaps be-
cause of the obvious dan-
ger, scooping up the plutoni-

The best overall strategy is
to remain near the middle of
the screen, pick up all items
in the street, avoid all items
on the sidewalks, and use
quick, lateral movements to
evade obstacles, Back-
ground graphics are bnght,
colorful, and well conceived,
but sprites are jagged with
muddy colors. It is fascinat-
ing, however, to watch the
coordination of so many
sprites with the smoothly
scrolling backgrounds, but
the program is not without
flaws. Your hoverboard can
move faster than the back-
ground, so when you reach
the edge of the screen, you
have to wait for the back-
ground to catch up. Occa-
sionally, the action on the
screen overwhelms the com-
puter, making the sound-
track and character move-
ment erratic.
The second level is a log-

ic puzzle in which you must
get Marty's girlfriend, Jennif-
er, out of a house without her
being detected. You control
both Jennifer and the other
people in the house by open-
ing doors two at a time.
When a door is opened, a
room's occupant will move to
an adjoining room. At no
time should Jenny share a
room with anyone.

The house is viewed from
above, making it difficult at
first to differentiate the char-
acters, but Jenny is the one
on the far left, You are expect-
ed to race the clock while
planning your solution, but
the Run/Stop key turns off
the clock, so running out of
time is never a problem. This
level is a nice change of
pace because it requires
more planning than reflex ac-
tion. The puzzle, however, is
not very challenging. The
third level is a return to ar-
cade action with a special em-
phasis on violence. The ob-
ject is to reach the end of the
street safely, avoiding
armed villains, flying barrels,
rocks, and Frisbees. Your var-
ious karate kicks and punch-
es can eliminate most ene-
mies, but the individual with
the semiautomatic weapon
is virtually impossible to con-
quer or pass. This level's use
of gratuitous violence is a
disappointment, and its con-
nection to the movie's story
line is tenuous. The fourth
scene also is linked weakly
to actual movie action, but it
takes a more imaginative
turn. Here you are to solve a
sliding block puzzle while rac-
ing the clock. One added
twist is that the block puzzle
is animated.

The fifth level is another
street race in which you
must retrieve the stolen alma-
nac. The toughest part of
this level is reaching it. Sav-
ing games in progress is not
a feature of this program, so
you must complete the first

The Gazette

Productivity

Manager

(Formerly PowerPak) ^^^

Harness the productivity
power of your 64 or 128!

Turn your Commodore into
a powerful workhorse, keep track
of finances, generate reports
in a snap, manage your
money in minutes-
all with the new 1991
Gazette Productivity
Manager! Look at all
your 64/128 Productivity
Manager disk contains.

GemCalc 64 & 128— ^

A complete, powerful, user-
friendly spreadsheet with all
the features you'd expect
in an expensive commercial package

(separate 64 and 128 versions are included).

Most commands can be performed with a single keypress!

Memo Card — Unleashes the power of a full-blown
database without the fuss! Nothing's easier — it's a
truly simple computerized address file. Just type in
your data on any one of the index cards. Need to edit?
Just use the standard Commodore editing keys.
Finished? Just save the data to floppy What could be
easier?

Financial Planner — Answers all of those questions
concerning interest, investments, and money manage-
ment that financial analysts charge big bucks for! You
can plan for your children's education and know
exactly how much it will cost and how much you need
to save every month to reach your goal. Or, decide
whether to buy or lease a new car. Use the compound
interest and savings function to arrive at accurate
estimates of how your money vnll work for you.
Compute the answer at the click of a key!

DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS
POWERFUL WORKHORSE!

(MasterCard and Visa accepted on orders with sublalal over S20).

Froductimty Manager (lisk(s)

lJ YES! Please send me .

(S14.95 each).

Subtotal

Sales Tax (Residents of NC and NY please add appro-
priate sales tax for your area. Canadian orders, add
7% goods and services tax.)

Shipping and Handling ($2.00 U.S. and Canada, $3.00

surface mail, $5.00 airmail per disk.)

Total Enclosed

_ Check or Money Order _ MasterCard _ VISA

Crrfil Card So

SlIfDalBfp

Dtylimr Tekphotif No,
Nmnf

Cirj

Pnivinrr _

ZIP/
_ PoiIkI Codr -

Send your order to Gazette 1991 Productivity Manager,
324 W. Wendover Ave,, Sle. 200, Greensboro, NC 27408.

REVIEWS

four levels each time you
play before you get a
cfiance to tackle the final
one. As an arcade game the
program succeeds, but as a
computer reproduction of
tfie movie, it falls far short.
Tfie movie worked because
the action was supported by
dialogue wfiich gave the view-
er a disjointed sense of time
travel. If Back to the Future
It included a level that al-
lowed the player to interact
with other characters in or-
der to help Marty find his
way through time, the game
would be vastly improved. In-
stead, the characters and
time settings add nothing to
the action, and they seem to
have been chosen only as a
vehicle for standard arcade
fare. If joystick action is your
thing, you'll enjoy this pro-
gram. If, however, you're ex-
pecting to step into Marty
McFly's shoes and warp
through time, the game will
leave you flat.

JIM SMITH

Commodore 64 or 128— $29.95

IMAGE WORKS
Distributed by Konami
900 Deerfield Pkwy.
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-4510
(708) 215-5100

Circle Reader Service Number 316

FASTFINGERS

Students of sound, take
note; If you're interested in
shaping sounds or learn-
ing about synthesis and if
you have access to a Mat-
tel Intellivision keyboard,
check out Fastfingers.

Dan Laskowski devel-
oped this program (original-
ly in 1984) with two basic
thoughts in mind: to ex-
plore the sound synthesis
abilities of the 64 SID chip
and to allow the 64 to act
as a lead synthesizer
when attached to a full-
size external keyboard by

G-12 COMPUTE

means of a special connec-
tor. He is making the pro-
gram available again on a di-
rect basis, but it should be
noted that it is in limited sup-
ply with even fewer key-
board connectors. Availabil-
ity of the Intellivision key-
board is uncertain. At this

tain keys on the two bottom
rows (referred to in the man-
ual as piano buttons) are re-
served for playing. Octaves
are changed by selecting
them from the Sound
Shaper menu. Other keys ac-
cess preset sounds,
chords, and a sound se-

fASTFINGERS C0PVRI6HT 1984 DftH LASKOHSKl
HELODV

JaM<f^ I ^ ?>i i£ 'MM ai

ttiUalal*} 238

I liiima 5080

(1!

^^ FOR HANDS OFF SEQUENCER i
MELiaai ftRPB TRHtJ CLIPil SPLH

PULSEJSVHC R1K6 MAVE ftTK PICV_SUS_REL.

Learn more about sounds and music with Fastfingers.

writing, Laskowski has three
of them and will sell an en-
tire package for $119. With
an eye (or is it ear?) toward
reaching student musicians,
he offers special rates to mu-
sic educators.

Because it is somewhat
dated, Fasff/ngers' presenta-
tion is not as slick as those
of some other programs. Its
four menus are a bit crowd-
ed and clunky-looking, but
you get used to them. The
sounds, which are the impor-
tant part, are amazing.
Fastfingers was written be-
fore the MIDI explosion, yet
Laskowski programmed it
for 256 sounds and even
coaxed an extra suboctave
out of the SID chip.

While developing sounds
and recording a track on
disk are clearly easier with
an external keyboard (not
tested here), the computer
keyboard is sufficient. Cer-

quencer; permit loading and
saving sounds from disk;
and allow you to record,
play back, and control
sounds you've created.

This first menu, Play
Mode, is the default when
no control keys are
pressed. Pressing (and hold-
ing) Shift pulls down the
Sound Shaper and Effects
menu, the Control key pulls
down the Sound Banks, and
Controi/Shift accesses the
Sound Shaper.

The preset sounds are sim-
ply eight sounds taken from
the sound bank for easy ac-
cess. You can use these, re-
place them with others from
the bank, or create your
own and install them. One-
finger chords are available:
three major chords, three mi-
nor ones, and six others.
The chords can be can-
celed at the press of a key,
which causes all three voic-

es to play the same note in
unison. The sound se-
quencer allows you to trig-
ger arpeggios to play auto-
matically.

To simplify things, Laskow-
ski makes use of the familiar
style of a cassette record-
er's buttons to record, re-
wind, fast-forward, and play
your works. On playback,
adjustments can be made
to speed and sound. With
this you can create melo-
dies, arpeggios, and even re-
cord a "walking bass line"
by means of the transposer
function. Once you have
laid out your sounds the
way you want them, record-
ed your melody, and ar-
ranged your transposer and
arpeggio, you can save the
winole arrangement to disk.
This Save is an old-fash-
ioned save which dumps eve-
rything onto a disk under
the lump title Sounds. This
limits you to one file per
disk, and the manual rec-
ommends dedicating the
disk to Sounds only, al-
though you could probably
use it to save something not
connected with Fastfingers.

If this is sounding too tech-
nical for you, it gets more
so. Now we come to the
heart of this program: build-
ing sounds. While not sophis-
ticated enough to include
an on-disk tutorial (this is on-
ly a one-disk program), the
Fastfingers manual guides
you through modifying exist-
ing sounds and creating
new ones. One chapter
shows you how to play with
such effects as Flang,
Pulse Width Kick, Glide,
Thicken, Weow, Swirl, Wah
(1&2), Tremolo, Pswirl, Vi-
brato, Phase Shifter, and Dig-
ital Distortion. Effects are soft-
ware effects used to simu-
late or replace hardware ef-
fects, and they work on all
three voices.

Another chapter teaches
you about building sounds,

beginning with the selection
of voice 1, 2, or 3. You learn
about adjusting the oscilla-
tors up and down in semi-
tone increments, selecting
waveforms, using harmon-
ics, using (or bypassing) fil-
ters, and adjusting the
ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sus-
tain, and Release}. Students
of sound with the patience
to check out each minor ad-
justment will have a wealth
of sound to explore.

The dearth of new soft-
ware for the 64 has sent de-
velopers back to their clos-
ets to have another look at
older programs to see if
there's something to dust off
and reissue. Fastfingers is
one such program, and the
question arises, does it still
stand up? We are com-
pelled to give a qualified
Yes.

There are musical pro-
grams with far slicker presen-
tations. The tutorial and ani-
mation in the Sight and
Sound 3001 series leap to
mind. Fastfingers lacks feed-
back in that it doesn't tel[
you what sound (preset or
sound bank) or even what oc-
tave is in current use. It
seems to us, particularly if
you are using this setup in
performance as Laskowski
says you can, you ought to
have an onscreen reminder
of what you've selected. On
the other hand, the range of
sounds is almost mind-bog-
gling. Providing for the use
of a 48-key external key-
board is a unique touch
that may send some young
musicians hunting through
the classified ads to pick up
a used one.

Laskowski is first a musi-
cian, a fact that becomes ob-
vious when talking with him
or reading his manual. Al-
though certainly not the on-
ly person to envision the 64
as a synthesizer, he is the on-
ly one to take it to this de-
gree. In Fastfingers he has

taken an unusual slant on
the 64 and developed a 64
oddity, a program that's cer-
tainly not for everybody, but
will certainly intrigue those
with an interest in music.

DAVE and ROBIN MINNICK

Commodore 64 or 128— $29.95.
$69,95 with keyboard conneclor

DAN LASKOWSKI
9078 Copperfield Ct.
Windsor, ON
Canada N8S 4H3
(519)948-3915

Circle Reader Service Number 317

NIGHTBREED

From out of the dark shad-
ows of your mind came the
mystical thriller Nighitbreed,
a movie that had people hold-
ing tightly onto their seats.
Now, it's your joystick that
you'll want to grab tightly be-
cause Nigtitbreed is now an
arcade game on your 64.

You assume the role of
Boone, a guy with some psy-
chiatric problems, and begin
your journey at the gates of
Necropolis, a local grave-
yard. The object of the
game is to save the
Nightbreed from an evit or-
ganization that calls itself
Sons of tfie Free. Who are, or
what is, Nightbreed?
Nightbreed is a race of be-
ings older than mankind,
who possess the power to
change shape and form.

Once the game begins,
you'll constantly be chal-
lenged with different objec-
tives. Even though it's an ar-
cade-type game, you must
complete many different
tasks before progressing to
a different level of play.

At the bottom of the
screen is the game's status
panel. Here you'll find valu-
able information to help you
during play, There's a list of
objects in Boone's posses-
sion, as well as a power lev-
el that indicates his injuries,
life number, and status as ei-

Call or write for FREE catalog of
1.000's of programs for your PCt

(800) 233-2451

Mon - Prl 9am - Spim PBT

! Freeware For Commodore 64/128 \
GAMES, GAMES, GAMES!

~i (6102) ADVENTURE ROAD 1 - Conlairts 4 adventyre games: Scary, Africa, ArJventufe S mors,

3 (6123) ADVENTURE ROAO ; 2 - 1 teiVgfaphc adventure garnes including SLEUTH.

n (6124) ADVENTURE ROAD / 3 . 8 teJU/grapitic ariwnlure gamss Includino HACKER.

1 (6049)C-12B GAMES;! -«Dcol-

umn Qa^dc, Castit and Damsels.

SO column Star Trek-

3(0OM)C-128G«MES 2.60cel'

umn Marad. Wargames. not Lunar

Land. PrinlSpociii Kirk.

T (6088) C-51 GAMES I - Adjon

games like Robbers, Whirly Bird, Blue Thunder S more.

"1 (6089) C-61 GAM ES 2 ■ Lotio, Anack Force, Siar Trek, Joust, Derby. Delam i more.

"1 (6097) IN THE MALL T -Contains 14 arcade games. Try your skill on these gettis.

"I (6099) IN THE MtLL 2 ■ Contains 14 arcade games, [ndudes Moondog, Skiing, & more.

"1 (6142) IN THE HALL 3-12 more a/cade games including BOULDER DASH and KANGA.

~i (6100) IN THE PITS 1 - Conains 7 car garr.es. Includes Dragster, Dodge Cars S more.

~i (6101) LADY LUCK 1 - Contains 10 casino games. Roulette, Craps, BJ. Poker & more.

:n (6202) LADV LUCK 2 - 10 jambling games including ONE ARMED BANDIT and 21 .

"1 (6203) LADV LUCK 3 - 17 gambling games including CWDGE CrTY POKEH and KENO.

"1 (609B) ON THE BOAflDS / 1 - Contains 1 1 board games. Includes Yahlzee, Battleship i. more

"1 (6119) ON THE BOARDS 2 - 12 board and card games Includinj baltleship and chess.

n (6120) ON THE BOARDS 3-17 more board and card games including CRIBBAGE and BINGO,

"l(6116)PUBBOARDGAMES- Darts, eowling, Pool. Checkers. Backgammon. Chess, and more.

-i (6204) THE FINAL FROTOER 1 ■ 10 arton tilled space games induding METEOR SHOWER.

"1 (6206) THE FINAL FROHTiER 3 ■ 18 action tilled space games including CANYON RUNNER.

-1 (6207) THE FINAL FRONTIER 4 . IB action tilled space games ixluding SPACE DEFENDER.

n (6104) THE SPOR-HNG LIFE - Contains Golf. Miniature 6oll, Baseball 64, Boxing and Trap.

(6208) THE SPORTING LIFE 2 - !9 games relating to ^rts including BOWLING and BOXING.
"1 (6108) VICTORY SOFTWARE 1 - The llrst disk of shareware games b/ Victory Software,

I To

To order, please check the desired disk and Include $2.99 for each disk ordered.
Include shipping and handUng of $4 per order, CA residents add 7% sales tax.
Buy 5 dlsiis and get the 6th one free! ^J

H

Please servd order, payment, name, address and daytime phone # to:

^^,

mmre

We accep! Chei:k, MO,
Mastercard & Visa.
Sorry— No COD's.

.in,*|.ii, r.sr
91306

7657 Winnetka Ave, Ste 328-C, Winnetka CA
:|J818) 700-0784 Msg/Fax (800) 233-2451 Orders Only!
ClrcK Rndar Swviea Number 129

ther monster or man.

You control Boone with a
joysticl< to punch, l<ick, or
shoot your way past the
many different creatures
that pursue you. Each con-
frontation with a monster will
have different challenges for
you to overcome. For exam-
ple, I found the Fatman fairly
simple to overcome, yet the

Sons of the Free were chal-
lenging, using everything
from rocket launchers to gre-
nades in an attempt to stop
me. Also, you'll find each en-
emy has a unique power
that makes it dangerous.
The Fatman moves slowly,
but he vomits, and the vomit
is poisonous to the touch.
Since this is an arcade-type

Should Boone defeat the grenade tosser, lie still must defuse ttie time
bomb before he can continue h/s quest to save the Nightbreed.

G-13

REVIEWS

thriller, you can expect other
gross experiences through-
out the game.

In your path you'll encoun-
ter such graveyard charmers
as the Snakeman, the Hop-
per, Flying Teeth, a Head
Monster, and a Roof Crawl-
er. This last fellow delights in
dropping rocks on you.

One unique feature you
will find is the passkey which
allows you to skip certain
parts of the game. The key is
a password-type system
that uses graphics instead of
text. You create a passkey-
from various pieces dis-
played on the game's back-
ground scenes. Using the cor-
rect key allows you to skip to
certain points in the game.

Making a map of the
game is also useful. The
game can be confusing if

you don't know where you've
been or where you need to
go. As with many games of
this type, you can move in a
variety of directions and en-
counter a number of foes as
your hero attempts to com-
plete his quest. A map helps
you avoid many blind alleys.

At first glance I thought
that Nightbreed was going
to be a simple arcade game
and that completing it would
be an easy task, I was
wrong. It provides plenty of
nonstop action that should
have you grasping your joy-
stick for quite a few hours of
nerve-wracking play.

The graphics are very
well done, and the game re-
mains true to the movie's
theme. If you're looking for a
good action-packed game,
then turn down the lights,

grab some popcorn, and
boot up a copy of
Nightbreed!

JEFFERY SCOTT HALL

Commodore 64 or 128— $14.95

OCEAN OF AMERICA
Dislributed by Electronic Arts
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94404
(415)571-7171

Circle Reader Service Number 313

POWER DRIFT

For a fast-paced, hard-
edged race through five dif-
ferent road courses, try Pow-
er Drift. Pit your skills in this
arcade-style release from Ac-
tivision against 12 other rac-
ers who are out to win at all
costs. Speed through hairpin
turns at over 200 kph and

plunge over hills into steep
drops, just get to the finish
line first.

At the start of the game,
choose the race terrain you
want and a driver. Terrains in-
clude city, beach, desert,
countryside, and riverside.
There's also a wide selection
of male and female drivers
from which to choose.

As the starting lights turn
from red to green and the
race begins, the other driv-
ers will leap ahead of you.
Push forward on your joy-
stick to accelerate. This will
take you to about 130 kph.
Change from low to high
gear by pressing the firebut-
ton. In high gear your car
reaches its maximum speed
of 224 kph. Pulling back on
the joystick acts as a brake,
but with a little practice you'll

^^TIME

^\$ AND

$ MONEY

Yes, save time and money! Subscribe to the Gazette
Disk and get all tlie exciting, fun-filled Gazette pro-
grams for your Commodore 64 or 128— already on
disk!

Subscribe today, and month after month you'll
get all the latest, most challenging, and fascinating
programs published in the corresponding issue of
COMPUTE.

New on the Gazette Disk! In addition to the
programs that appear in the magazine, you'll also
get outstanding bonus programs. These programs,
which are often too large to offer as type-ins, are
available only on disk— they appear nowhere else.

As another Gazette Disk extra, check out

"Gazette Gallery," where each month we present the
very best in original 64 and 128 artwork.

So don't waste another moment. Subscribe to-
day to COMPUTE'S Gazette Disk and get 12 issues
for only $49.95. You save almost 60% off the single-
issue price. Clip or photocopy and mail completed
coupon today.

Individual issues of the disk are available for
$9.95 (plus $2.00 shipping and handling) by writing
to COMPUTE, 324 West Wendover Avenue, Suite
200, Greensboro, North Carolina 27408.

G-14

COMPUTE

T Cob Start my one-year subscription
to COMPUTE'S Gazette Disk right away
for only $49.95.*

O Payment enclosed (check or money order)
D Charge D MasterCard D Visa

Acct. No Exp. Date

Signature

[Requiredl

Name

Address _

City _

State/ ZIP/

Province Postal Code

Mail to COMPUTES Qazette Disk, P.O. Box 3250, Hartan. lA 51593-2430

• Residents of NO and NY. please add appropriate sales tax for your area, Canadian

orders, add 7'/o goods and services tax.

be able to maintain top
speed ttirougtiout the entire
course. Just watcin for ottier
drivers.

As you progress around
thie course, your time,
speed, position, and lap num-
ber are posted at ttie top of
the screen. To advance to
the next round, you must
place in the top three finish-
ers. Racing in the higher
rounds is more difficult and
there's a greater possibility
of ramming other drivers.
When this happens, the re-
sult is a dramatic spin-out
with you hurtling across the
course. When your car final-
ly comes to a halt back on
the road, try to make up lost
time, Don't overdo it or you'll
end up in another spin-out.

As long as you keep plac-
ing w/ithin the top three, you'll

continue advancing to high-
er levels. Finish back in the
pack and the race is over.
One of the best features of
this game is that it restarts
very quickly. You don't have
to sit and vt^ait for it to reload
every time. At the end of a
game you can try another
course and change drivers if
you want.

Power Drift's graphics are
colorful and interesting, but
if you have any Intention of
placing in the top three, you
won't have time to notice
your surroundings or the
scenery as it files by. One in-
teresting effect is the road; it
seems to be suspended in
air. There are no guard rails
and on hills the road often
drops like a rollercoaster.
Watch out for those blind
drops though. A car could

be just over the crest and if
you bump one at high
speeds, you could go crash-
ing off the road.

There is a steady, pound-
ing pulse to the background
music that keeps you racing
through the turns and hills.
Even when you're adding
your name to the list of high
scorers, the powerful beat
continues. It complements
the action as you move
through the courses.

The player's guide is easy
to understand. It explains
how to load the program and
how to use the joystick. All
you have to know is which di-
rection to push or pull the joy-
stick and how to change
gears. It's all clearly ex-
plained in the manual.
■ In all. Power Drift is not a
game to play for hours on

end, but it is fun. There's plen-
ty of white-knuckle action as
you speed around each
course and drift through the
corners. Tension builds as
you progress. The first few
races are fairly easy and the
courses somewhat forgiving,
but accidents become more
frequent and the amount of
driving skill needed increas-
es as you advance to higher
levels.

So, wait for the green
light, happy racing, and
don't forget to buckle up!

ALISON CHRISTENSON

Commodore 64 and 128— $29,95

ACTIVISION

3885 Bohannon Dr,

Menio Park. CA 94025

(415) 329-0800 □

Circle Reader Service Number 319

COMPUTE'S

SpeedScrlpt Dish

A powerful word processing
package for Commodore 64
and 1 28 owners

A Great Deal for Commodore
Users!

• SpeedScript for the 6i

• SpeedScript 128 — 80-column version

• Spelling checkers

• Mail merge

• Date-and-time stamp

• 80-column preview for the 64

• Turbo save and load

• Plus more than a dozen other SpeedScript
support utilities all on one disk (including
full documentation)

Hi

copies of COMPUTE'S

■ E3a Send me

SpeedScript Dislt.

I've enclosed SI 1.95 plus J 2. 00 postage and handling. (Outside
U.S. and Canada add $1.00 for surface mail or t3.00 for
airmail.)

ORDER NOW!

. .Amount
. Sales Tax'
. Toul

Name ,

Address .
City

State ,

ZIP-

Mail personal check or money order to

Commodore SpeedScript Disk

324 W. Wendover Ave., Ste. 200

Greensboro, NC 27408

RcsidctiES or Norih Carolina and New York, add appropriate ux for >-our area, Canadian
orders, add 7'A, good and services lax

Piease allow ^-6 weeks for deliver)-. PfO(y^m available only on 5U-inch disks.

G-15

FEEDBACK

Questions and

answers

about converting

programs

from Commodore

format to

tBNt, KoalaPads,

calendars,

BBSs, and more

Three Questions

Is it possible to convert Com-
modore type-in programs to
IBM-compatible format in a rel-
atively easy way for those
witfi limited knowledge of GW-
BASIC or machine language
programming?

As I am changing over to a
PC, am I right in assuming
that an alternative version of
COMPUTE thai is PC specific
and excludes the Gazette sec-
tion will be available?

From my current address la-
bel on my magazine, do I sur-
mise correctly that my sub-
scription is current through
June 1991?

C. W. M. ANDERSON
SANDTON. SOUTH AFRICA

Commodore BASIC and GW-
BASIC are similar in many re-
spects, and some elementary
programs entered in one lan-
guage will run if entered into
the other Simple print state-
ments, mathematical formu-
las, and commands such as
GOSUB. GOTO. IF-THEN,
and FOR-NEXT pose few prob-
lems when mal<ing the
change from one version to
the other Problems arise, how-
ever, when it comes to colors,
machine language routines.
PEEKS and POKEs. and other
commands that are machine
specific. Some commands in
BASIC 7.0 for the 128, for ex-
ample, would cause a 64 to
crash. There are ways around
many of these problems, but
it usually tal<es a good worl<-
ing knowledge of BASIC to
make the conversion work.

If you are subscribing to
COMPUTE'S Gazette edition,
you already are receiving ail
the PC-related material that
we publish each month.
There's no reason to change
your subscription unless you
want to drop the 64/128 cov-
erage: the price is the same.
Some COMPUTE subscrib-
ers, however, do not get the
64/128 material.

The month and year print-
ed on address labels indicate
the final edition of your cur-
rent subscription. Since the
June issue was the last one
you were scheduled to re-
ceive, I hope you renewed
your subscription in time to
read this reply

What's a Koala?

I subscribe to Gazette Disk,
and I enjoy your "Gallery,"
but, forgive me, what is a Ko-
ala? I gather that it is more
than a marsupial. Do you
need light pens or a mouse to
create graphics with it?

One more comment. Could
you explain why your new
GOS (Gazette Operating Sys-
tem) menu on Gazette Disk
will not allow me to directly
load any previous Gazette
Disk programs? it gives the
disk information, but the selec-
tion turns blue and sits there.

JOSEPH RUFFINI
NORANDA. PO
CANADA

A KoalaPad is a graphics tab-
let that connects by cable to
a 64's joystick port. With its ac-
companying software, you
can create colorful pictures on-
screen by moving your finger
or a stylus across the pad's
surface just as if you were
drawing a picture with pencil
and paper The pad is no long-
er in production, but used
units can often be found. Its
multicolor format is a popular
one with Commodore artists.
The new Gazette Operat-
ing System is compatible
with pre-GOS disks, so you
should be able to run pro-
grams from them. Load and
run the menu program that
contains GOS: then swap
disks. Now click on the disk
icon. When the disk menu ap-
pears, click on Directory.
GOS will read the current
disk's directory and print it in
a window. Scroll through the ti-
tles and click on the program

you wish to run. The red
band highlighting your selec-
tion wilt turn blue. Click again
on the disk icon and select
Run Program when this win-
dow opens. GOS has been
streamlined to make it oper-
ate faster than it did original-
ly, but you should stilt be able
to access and run other
disks. It also lets you copy
disks and files, delete and re-
name files, obtain disk and pro-
gram information, print files,
and perform numerous other
applications with joystick or
cursor keys.

Wide Open Spaces

I have recently started typing
in a few Gazette programs
with The Automatic Proofread-
er Since I am not a program-
mer, my understanding of
what I am typing is rather lim-
ited. Because the listings in
your magazine are printed in
columns, it is not always
clear when to leave spaces.

HANS SPARREBOOM
TOFIELD. AB
CANADA

When entering programs in
Commodore BASIC, spaces
are usually optional. Program-
mers may put spaces be-
tween words, variables, or
commands in their listings to
make them more readable,
but the computer doesn 't re-
quire them. Most program-
mers do not include spaces
simply because it saves
space, computer memory,
and typing time. If they leave
them in and a column line be-
gins with a space, our listing
program will usually print the
word SPACE within brackets.
Since most spaces are option-
al. The Automatic Proofreader
ignores them also unless
they fait between quotation
marks. To illustrate, load and
run Proofreader; then enter
the following statement.

100IFA$<>'T'TH£N100

G.16 COMPUTE

OMNI
TIME CAPSULES

Now the magazine of the tuture can be

kept for the future. Store your issues of

OMNI in a new Custom Bound Library Case

mode of black simuioted leather. It's built to

last, and !t will keep 12 issues in mint

condition indefiniteiv. The spine is embossed

with the gold Of^NI logo, and in eoch cose

there is a gold transfer for

recording the dote.

Send your check or money order

($8.95 eoch; 3 for $24.95,- 6 for $45.95)

postpoid USAordersonly. Foreign

orders add $1.50addilionaf for

postage and handling per cose.

To: OfvlNI MAGAZINE

Jesse Jones Industries, 499 E, Erie Ave,

Philo,, PA 19134

CREDIT CARD HOLDERS (orders over S15)

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-972-5858

Or mail your order, clearly showing your

account number and signature. Pa. residents

add 6% sales tax,

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

SOFTWARE
CLOSEOUTS

For Commodore 64 & 128

SSI BARGAINS, YoufChOiM SlSfich

PhanUiie 111, V/argsme Con's! rutticn. QubSIioh, 6-24, Ques1i!on If,
RQjdwi; 2M0. Panjet Strike, Demnn's Winter. Eliinal Dauger.
1 SI Qvtt Germany, Heroes of the Lance

AWLOHHiUOEALS , $1Dtich

DjrkhDfn. Gulf Sltik^, Dreaflnai 0^115. MaCbeth. Under Fite, W&m!en Ships
Df. Ftuih, Panhian Kiips, Jupiter Mission. Pander Jagd, TAC. Tsushina.
LeeioJiraife Par^Ers East. Ma>rweil Manor, Qubsi lor Space Beagfe,
GLJtJeren, Cam^Jter Slocks & Bonds^ Super Sunday, Rippe;
INFOCOM BARGAINS, Dea,;9line. Starcfoss. Suspe^iled, Im^ 3 ar 3 . i5 each

ACCOLADE LIOUIDATIOK, Your ChotCB ONir (Scachlf

Ace Of Aces. Figfit Niglii. Jei Boys. Daniijjsieib. CorrtiM. HsidBalL Kriied Until
Daad. Law of tno We^t, PSt 5 Trading Company

SSG BARGAINS. Your ChDiM Stfl.SOaJch

American Civil War Voiunie 1 , 3 or 3. Fire King, HaKs of Monteruma.
Paruer Batilgs. ^t3cAn^lur's War, Rommei BaWes for Nonh Alnca

ACTIVISIOH BARGAINS, Your Choice 114.50 BJCh

Chrislmas Model Kit, Ctossbow, Ocean Ranger. MasWt ol the Lamps.

OTHER GREAT DEALS

Super Expander 64 CaJlridge _

Partner i2a. by TtmBworks(C/12&fflnlif} —

Alt, by Bm Office

Aijens, Oy Activi$ion ...,.,,...,^^

Assembler, try Commodore

Pnnied Word -or- Thg Tool, by VaJirtwa/B ..

Congo Sorgo. Qy Sega (C2nri(]g«)

Entertamef -or- Educator, by Valueware .

--S5.M

Sir.50

SSOfl

S12-50

.,.,.,. iSOO
S2.75 eacti
..-, S7.5Q
$3.75 each
S7.50
S5-00

Eieciroric Adilfess Book, &y Bailenes IncluSed

GO, by Hiyrlen (4,000-year-D]d Chinese SMnJ ijame) „„.,„.,„

Home Manager, by Valueware „. JS.OO

Masterpiece, b's Cm (Drawing & painting graphics system) SU 50

Pracricatc 64. b/ Practtcorp ,.„....,......, Sl2 50

Praciicai'c II. by Practicorp $17,50

Spilai Malice -or- Siinlfy, byCosmi „- J?.?5ea:fi

Heswriiar &4. by HesWare [oariridgel ,™™...„h.»...™«^.*...^ S5 00

Turtlfl Toylai^d Ji -oi- Tri-Matfi. by HesWarB „....„ $4.50 each

AitACk ot the Mutani Cameis, by HesWa/B (eaoriiJgfl) 53,50

tragic Madness, byArtworx , S5 OO

LEATHER GODDESSES OF PHflBOS. by Irfocom WOWri SS.DO

MIHDSHADOW, &y ActivSslon ...^ WOWM SS.OO

Tag Team Wrestling, by Datasoft „...„ ....™ .„.,„,.„,„,.,...... S9 SO

COfnpLier Diagnostics, by Real Software Si d-SO

Alter Ego, by Activision (specify male -or- femate} Si 9.50

TO ORDER, SENO CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:

COMPSULT

DRAWER S16Q, SAH LUiS CBISPQ. CA »3<{}S-5tlM

bclj«H!oiift»nocfj'j--' - j'--. 5^ I:: :-j-i:i -!': ■:■ :-!! i:Af!r3*ri.rt3 fi*i 'S»i«U'

1-800-676-6616

CREDIT CARD QROERS ONLY, PLEASE!!! ! $25 MlJiimuni

jffyCtT title* 5UJ~B'.;n*£i:.^ sterns t^elMUV; -5 'FiEwyurvtrchr
Toch*t*fw an lian lol istri ^e:t ca^ iS05f5i4-fiti6

World Geography

for Commodore 64 and Apple II

Full-color 3-D rotating globe!
World Geography is the fun way to
learn the worM's countries. Dags, capi-
tals, populations, languages and cur-
rencies in an entertaining 1- or 2-player
oducational game for the whole family.
"The enlire presentation is oulslanding , , ,
Tliis is reaiiv an achievement!"

— Commodore Magazine
"A n awesome acb ievement ...the execution
is flawless." —COrvlPUTEfs Gazottu

Cm only S19.95. Apple //S24,a5 postpaid!
Also available in Spanish and German
Injured Engine (C64 only) $14,05

An eu^itw diagnostic simulation by IXIAGIC
Fish-Ed (C64 or Apple III $17.95

Eleii\enlar^' spslling and number concepts
Speller's Duel (C64 only) $12.95

Spelling program in n game sbmv format
Full refund if not completelv satisfied!

800 829-5551

Outside US call 408 4G2-I351

BOB CO Interactive Software

zoo 7lh Ave., Suite 111, Santa Cruz. CA 95062

Circle Reader Service Number 161

Circle ReadBf Service number 112

In English the line reads, "If A-strIng
does not equal the letter Y, then go to
line 100. " This line could be used in a state-
ment to halt a program until the letter Y —
and only the letter Y — on the keyboard is
pressed.

Proofreader should print MJ in the up-
per left corner of your screen when you
press Return. Now go back, delete all the
spaces, and press Return again. You
should still get MJ, indicating the line is
still entered correctly Spaces make
code easier to read, but often they are op-
tional to the 64.

Now go back and insert a space after
the first quotation mark and In front of the
Y and try it. Proofreader will return a dif-
ferent value this time because " Y" is not
the same thing as "Y" and it would affect
how the program runs.

Diary Needed

I'm an active 14-year-old looking for a 64
program tliat is a diary.

BRIAN S MULCAHEY
HAMILTON, OH

Almost any word processor could be
used as a diary You could write as little
or as much as you want and then save
each entry with a filename that repre-
sents the date, such as SEP20. There is
a program called Notepad 64 (Novem-
ber 1988) that could prove useful. This
machine language program resides in

Ot- EMERGENCY COMMODORE START-UP KITS O*

Save a \ol of time and rnorwy tje repaumg your o^n CDfrimodDre computer Ail cnps are fljrect socket piug-
in^ (no sokfering], EacH Hit JHCluQes all you r>c&2 to Start up /revive you; broken corripuier Originally
DJister-pscked lor government PXs wytEwide. this series is now avaiiable to you Total cos: savings per kn
far e:<ceeOs purc^-asmg cKips on an iriflividuai basis

Kit t^Z Pan #DIA15 C-64
Symptoms; No power up » Bcieen

bciiup • Flashing colors ■ Game cai-
f idge pfosiems

Contains; IC tfPLAj906nJ. Diagnos-
liasn tf6 Fi;5e. Cn-p puikji. Sche-
matic Uii^jfyca'l'iC^e ano Diag Tesi
DiSfc A-m 9 pFograms

An $87.50 value tor only S29.95

Kil #4 Part #DIA16 C-64

SymptOflftS; COflliOl Por; Propi&ms •
S&urw problems ■ KeyDoara pfoa-
lems • Soriai oeviCft prooJoms
ConUiiniJ IC ff6526A. IC «6581 D-

agnosiicjan *6. Fuse Cnip puller
basic scherriai-c. Ul-litv cart , and
Diacf Tcsi Os« wiih 9 proq-ams
A $79.B0 value (of only $29,95

Krt #5 Paft#SIA17 1541/1571

SyRlplOmSL Dtve r..rs. ccrjinucivsiy ■
MOiCf wCfi 1 siep • ReaC erro*? ■ N"a
power uD

Contains: IC ^6502 iC*6522
9Q1229Fj5e.Cr^ip puf*' BasiC scr»-
matH: Oagnostioan » 6 ana Diag
Tes: DiSk with' 9 programs
A $7Q.1Q value (or only S29,95

We Sl"'P WorldwKJe

THE GRAPEVINE GROUP, INC.

3 Cn^STnu; &I . Sullern. NY 10901
1'S00-252-7d,15o' 91iS57 2d24

m

Fax 9U 357-62^3

Circle Reader Service Number 128

Heart Attack.

Fight it with a

Memorial gift to

the American

Heart Association.

THEAMERiCAN HEART

ASSGEIATION'
MEMORIAL PRCERAiM .

f(j| American Heart Association

This space provided as a public service.

Cl' commodore diagnostician II Q[~

Originally developed as a soflwara package, then converted to a readable
tormat, (he Diagnostician has become a fantastic seller, Witti over 32,000 sofd
worldwide, tl>e Diagnostician II utilizes sophisticated cross-reference grids to
locate faulty components (ICs) on all C&A and C1541 computers IC128/64
mode). Save money and downtime by promptiy iocating what chlp{s) have failed.
No equipment of any kind needed, The Diagnoslician II has just been updated
with 30 changes to take advantage of the new 64C combination chips/RAM
changes found on new C&f^ boards. Succese rate from diagnosis-to- repair is
06%. Includes basic schematic.

X^A S6.95 «K|
^y (Avaiiabletor Amiga computers a! $14,951 ^^ [-q-|
The Grapevine Group, Inc.
We Ship Worldwide 3 Chestnut Street, Suffem, NY 1O901 Hours: 9-5 EST
1;800-292-?445 or 914-357-2424 • Fax:914-357-6243

Circle Reader Service Number 197

G-17

FEEDBACK

memory while your computer
Is working on another BASIC
program. This means you can
call it up at the touch of a
key, jot down some thoughts,
and then continue with your
BASIC program. You can also
save the notes with any file-
name you like. One limitation
to the program, however, is
that each note can be no
more than 1000 characters in
length. That's enough to fill
one screen. Back issues of
this disk and any other
Gazette Disk prior to October
1990 can be ordered from
our Greensboro, North Caroli-
na, office for $5, plus $2 for
shipping and handling.

Worldwide User Group

I am working to start a world-
wide association of Commo-
dore user groups. As support
for the 64 dwindles, user
groups play a more important
role in supplying users with
help and information. I be-
lieve an association of user
groups would be beneficial, es-
pecially for smaller groups.

I would love to hear from us-
er groups wfio would like to
help me organize this group
or who would like to join it.
Just drop me a line, and I'll
bring you up-to-date on
what's happening so far.

JOSH JACOBY
98-1639 HAPAKI ST.
AIEA. HI 96701

Keep Gazette posted about
your activities. Josh. User
groups represent a great re-
source of Information for Com-
modore users, and we encour-
age their growth. In this issue
we finish our two-part listing
of user groups in the U.S. and
other countries, if you are not
already a member, we recom-
mend you contact a group in
your area or see about joining
one by mail.

Back fo the Boards

Rick Lembree's article on

BBSs (f\^arch 1991) was an ex-
cellent introduction to what
has become one of the last
bastions of dedicated Commo-
dore users. Using a BBS is
the best way passible to sup-
port each other and enjoy the
potential of the still-powerful
64s and 128s.

Volunteering as a sysop is
a rewarding experience, not
only for the knowledge
gained, but tor the enjoyment
of knowing that you are pro-
viding others with a medium
for sharing and communicat-
ing. If you want to try your
hand at running a board,
there still are plenty of poten-
tial members out there who
would eagerly join a new
board. I especially urge Com-
modore users to participate
on a local BBS. Any comput-
er user who doesn't is miss-
ing out on an excellent re-
source of knowledge and en-
tertainment that is easily avail-
able to anyone with a mo-
dem. I'm sure many COM-
PUTE readers would be inter-
ested in reading more articles
about operating a BBS, as
well as about the many fea-
tures different boards have to
offer.

FREDERICK T MERRITT
ST PAUL. MN

At the end of your BBS article
in the March issue, the suppli-
er of the C-A/ef system was list-
ed incorrectly. The correct
name is Perspective Soft-
ware. The BBS number for sup-
port of this package is (313)
981-1524. Also, I feel that
this system was not given
enough credit as a commer-
cial BBS available for the 64.

JEFF FENSTERMAKER
NEWBURY. OH

Thanks for bringing the correc-
tion to our attention, Jeff. Be-
cause C-Net was last on our
list of commercial systems for
the 64 does not mean it was
considered the least. We sim-

ply tried to list as many of the
current BBS products as we
could find for our readers' con-
venience, and on any list
someone has to be last. The
listing was not meant to be an
endorsement by either f^r.
Lembree or Gazette.

Bug-Swatter

Several readers wrote in to
say that they have experi-
enced problems with Cross
Aid {March 1991) when they
try to use Shift-D to delete mis-
spelled or unwanted words.
The documentation was not
clear in stating that you must
first enter maintenance mode
by entering the word that's to
be deleted, followed by Shift-
Return. The delete function
can be invoked by pressing
Control-D to erase the word.

Several readers also informed
us of a problem with Castalia
(May 1991). We discovered it
has a peculiarity that affects
some machines at some
times. The problem causes
the screen to go blank when
you first run the program. If
you experience this situation,
there is no danger or program-
ming fix required; just try run-
ning the game again. On the
128, the problem is especial-
ly easy to fix. If the problem oc-
curs, it only does so when an
attempt is made to run the pro-
gram for the first time after
powering up. if this happens,
reset the computer to 64
mode by holding down the
Commodore key while press-
ing the reset button. You
should have no problem the
next time the program loads.

If you have a question, com-
ment, or problem, we want to
hear from you. Send your let-
ters to Gazette Feedback.
COfvlPUTE Publications, 324
West Wendover Avenue,
Suite 200, Greensboro, North
Carolina 27408. D

G-18 COMPUTE

GEOS

Steve Vander Ark

Teiecommunicating

with GEOS

requires special

attention. Here

are some tips to

mal(e IHe

process easier.

GO ONLINE
WITH GEOS

This won't come as a big sur-
prise to many of you. If you
haven't already discovered it,
you've certainly read articles
on the subject or heard com-
puter users expound about it.
/f is telecommunicating, and it
is great.

It's great, but it's also con-
fusing, intimidating, and a
whole lot of other things that
keep many people from plug-
ging in a modem and dialing
up a bulletin board system
(BBS). I avoided telecommuni-
cations tor these reasons for a
long time. 1 was afraid I would
make a fool of myself trying to
learn my way around. I
thought I'd find a hostile world
full of people who were in the
know and wouldn't be too hap-
py dealing with a novice pok-
ing around at 300 baud.

Boy, was I wrong. When a
friend finally convinced me to
hook up his modem on my
128 and I timidly dialed a lo-
cal BBS number, I had no idea
what a giant leap I was taking.
Over the next four months, I dis-
covered a lot of new computer
friends who didn't give a hoot
that I needed to call up a
menu every time or that I ac-
cidentally logged myself off
when I meant to upload a file.
They offered support, advice,
a little good-natured teasing,
and friendship.

Now I'm online all the time.
This electronic alternative re-
ality is populated by a wide va-
riety of users. They call using
IBMs, Macs, Amigas, and, of
course, Commodores.

That's where GEOS comes
in. It wasn't long before I dis-
covered a number of people
on various local BBSs who
shared my enthusiasm for
GEOS, and we began compar-
ing notes. We exchanged ide-
as, gave each other hints for
using various applications,

and swapped utilities down-
loaded from other BBSs.

But telecommunicating
with GEOS requires some spe-
cial rules. GEOS has its own
unique way of running a Com-
modore computer, and termi-
nal software and bulletin
boards aren't designed to han-
dle the differences. The stum-
bling block is the structure of
GEOS disk files, A file exists
on a disk as a scattering of in-
dividual blocks of data, linked
together with predefined cod-
ing. GEOS uses a different
code from the one built into
the 64's system, which means
that if you try to use normal
Commodore file commands
on a GEOS file, the system
won't know how to put the var-
ious chunks back together.
That's why you can't copy a
GEOS file using a normal file
copier; the same is true for
uploading or downloading.

In order to send or receive
a GEOS file by modem, it
must be converted temporari-
ly into Commodore DOS-com-
patible format. William Cole-
man has written a conversion
utility called Convert, which
has become something of an
unofficial standard for han-
dling GEOS files online. This
utility should be the first
GEOS file you download. It
can be loaded and run with BA-
SIC and will convert a pro-
gram or sequential file to one
that can be used by GEOS.
Once you have Convert,
you're in business.

Any GEOS file you down-
load using your normal termi-
nal program will be a standard
sequential or program file un-
til you switch into GEOS and
run Convert: the whole proc-
ess takes a matter of a few sec-
onds. Convert can work both
ways. If you have a GEOS file
that you'd like to upload, you
can convert it into a sequen-
tial or program file that your ter-
minal program can handle.
Converf can be found on Quan-

tumLink and on many local
BBSs. {File Converter is a sim-
ilar program published in COM-
PUTERS Gazette, April 1989,)
If you'd rather stay in GEOS
without returning to the Com-
modore DOS, there is one ter-
minal program available
which operates within the
GEOS environment. It in-
cludes the Convert utility as an
option, which makes handling
GEOSfiles a breeze. This pro-
gram is called geoTerm. It,
too, was written by Coleman,
with versions available for the
64 and the 128, Each version
includes many features, includ-
ing a 9K capture buffer for the
64 and a 30K buffer for the
128, programmable function
keys, built-in utilities to convert
the buffer to and from true AS-
CII and PET ASCII, as well as
the above-mentioned Convert
program.

The screen can be run in
40, 53, or 80 columns. You
can also access either drive
for uploads or downloads,
scratch files, and so on.

Whether you use geoTerm;
available from flUW magazine,
or another terminal program,
you'll find many GEOS users
out there who are glad to hear
from you. BBS Post, a bulletin
board in Michigan, has a
GEOS file area. The sysop, Bis-
mark, says he gets more calls
for the Commodore area on
his IBM board than for any oth-
er. I've put many of the public
domain utilities mentioned in
this column on BBS Post. If
you call long distance, you
may download GEOS files on
your first call. The number is
(616)531-1346.

For the price of a long dis-
tance call, it's not a bad place
to start. But there are probably
people on bulletin boards
right in your hometown who
would love to hear from you.
Why not give them a call?

Steve Vander Ark can be
reached on QuantunnUnk. His
tiandle is SteveVU. n

G-19

MACHINE LANGUAGE

Jim Butterfield

Move sprites,

draw lines, nudge

integers, and

do other clever

things with

tiie lieip of binary

fractions

GIVE IT A NUDGE
WITH BINARY
FRAQIONS

BASIC uses a number system
called floating point (or scien-
tific notation), which is power-
ful but complex to code in ma-
chine language. Often, you
can accomplish what you
need through the use of fixed-
point binary fractions,

In conventional base 10
mathematics, if you divide 7
by 3, the answer is 2 with a re-
mainder. But if we continue
the division, we establish that
7 divided by 3 gives
2,33333 . . , ,

Exactly the same thing hap-
pens in binary calculations. In
binary, we might write 'h as
7o111 divided by %11; using
any of several division meth-
ods, we produce a first result
of %10 with a remainder of 1.
But if we don't stop at the "bi-
nary point" equivalent of a dec-
imal point and provide some-
where to store the extra fraction-
al result, we will generate
%10. 01010101 . . . and cut
off the endless fraction.

In hexadecimal notation, V2
works out neatly as $.80, but
Vs is the repeating series
$.555 ....

You've noted that you must
trim an endless value at some
point. In machine language
coding, that amounts to decid-
ing how many bytes you will
use to hold the fractions.
Roughly speai<ing, each byte
gives the equivalent of 2.4 deci-
mal digits of accuracy.

Binary fractions fit nicely in-
to the whole scheme of math
coding. Such numbers add,
subtract, multiply and divide
in the same way as integers.
For example, you might want
to multiply a value by 8 and
then divide by 5 to convert
miles to kilometers.

Perhaps the most popular
use of binary fractions is to

nudge an integer value high-
er. For example, suppose you
started with zero and added a
value of V3 repeatedly. The in-
teger part would bump to the
next higher value every three
operations. This kind of nudg-
ing has many applications in
programming,

A programmer might be han-
dling one or more sprites;
each sprite is expected to
move from time to time. How
do we control its speed? Sup-
pose we want it to move grad-
ually, without leaping across
the screen. Let's say we just
want to nudge its position. By
repeatedly adding fractional
values to its location, we will
eventually cause the sprite's lo-
cation to move to the next pix-
el at regular intervals.

When working in high-reso-
lution graphics, it's often desir-
able to draw a line that's not
quite horizontal (or vertical).
Binary fractions will help us do
the job.

To create a line that's al-
most horizontal, you want to
step across the horizontal (x)
coordinates, but how do we
plot the vertical (y) coordi-
nates for each line? Nudge
the /coordinate value. If the
line were 50 pixels wide by 10
pixels high, you'd nudge the y
coordinate by a value of Vs; as
you sweep across the 50 x pix-
els, the y coordinate would trav-
el exactly the 10 pixels that
are needed.

Let's write a small program
that should be good on almost
any Commodore 8-bit comput-
er that will show this kind of cal-
culation. You'll place a value
to be nudged at address
S2100 with a fraction byte at
S2101. You'll place the nudge
value at $2102 and $2103,
then step through and show
the result.

For easy display you'll start
the value at $31 (decimal 49).
This corresponds to the ASCII
character 1 ; you can print it to
show how it changes.

2000 LDA #$31
2002 STA $2100

You will add Va (S80) to your
starting value; that allows
easy rounding of the result. A
hi-res graphics line would
look better with this kind of
rounding, for example.

2005 LDA #$80
2007 STA $2101

Now store your nudge value
in $2102 and $2103. We will
choose a value of Vs, hex
$00.55

200A LDA #$00

200c STA S2102

20QF LDA #$55

2011 STA $21 03

Now we have our values in
place. We'll count our loop
through 16 items (the initial val-
ue plus 15 steps).

Since we started at ASCII
49 (1), we should end up five
full values further along, at AS-
Cll 54 (6). We will use X as
our loop counter.

2014 LDX #$00

Foilo

wing

is the

loop

Print

first a

nd then add

then test to

see whether the loop should

be repeated.

2016

LDA

$2100

2019

JSR

$FFD2

201c

CLC

201 D

LDA

$2101

2020

ADC

$2103

2023

STA

$2101

2026

LDA

$2100

2029

ADC

$2102

202c

STA

$2100

202F

INX

2030

CPX

#$10

2032

BNE

$2016

2034

RTS

That's the whole program. To
use this routine while in BA-
SIC, type in SYS 8192 to
watch ttie character 1 as it's
nudged through its range. □

S-20 COMPUTE

BEGINNER BASIC

Larry Cotton

Make your
programs so user-
friendly that
even beginners will
iiave no
trouliie entering
valid data.

MAKE YOUR
DATA ENTRY
CRASHPROOF

The following general-purpose
"crashproof" data entry subrou-
tine can be inserted into any
BASIC program in which
you're asking an inexperi-
enced user to enter data.

The first decision is wheth-
er to use INPUT or GET IN-
PUT is easier to program, but
it's vulnerable to errant key-
board presses, such as cursor
up/down, Del, CIr, and so on.
It's also rudely unforgiving of
unexpected input data. GET re-
quires more programming
and is vulnerable to garbage
collection, a rather nasty habit
Commodore computers have.

For a few simple daily en-
tries, however, garbage collec-
tion shouldn't be a problem.
So let's use GET

First, let's have all keys re-
peat, It's helpful when testing
the program, and it can be
fun. Here's the first line which
does that and clears the
screen:

10 POKE650,128:PRINTCHR$
(147)

Now decide on a cursor. I pre-
fer a nonblinking one. It im-
plies more patience. As for its
appearance, take your pick.
To determine which cursor
shape to use, select a charac-
ter from the front of the key-
board keys. Then in immedi-
ate mode, enter

PRINT ASCC'X")

This will return the value of
your preferred character.
(See 64 Programmer's Refer-
ence Guide for a complete list-
ing.) I like a thick horizontal
line made by pressing the
Commodore key and P simulta-
neously. This returns a charac-
ter string (CHR$) value of

175. Two keys we want to rec-
ognize are the Return key (sig-
naling completion of an entry)
and the !nst/Del key (for cor-
recting a typing error). These
are defined as constants R$
and D$ respectively. C$ is
the cursor. The CHR$ values
are from Reference Guide.

20 R$z=CHR$(13):D$=CHR$(20):
C$=CHR$(175)

Now we'll write the crash-
proof data-gathering subrou-
tine itself, which yields raw
data in string form which is giv-
en the arbitrary designation of
B$. Strings can contain let-
ters, numbers, punctuation —
the works. The subroutine
can begin anywhere, so let's
use line 100. Then change B$
to X$. Using VAL with X$, you
may extract the whole string
or just the numbers. You can
select a portion of XS by us-
ing RIGHTS, LEFTS, or MID$.
End the program for now.

30 GOSUB100:X$=S$:END

The first thing to do with
the input routine is clear out
BS; then reset the line length
to zero. More on that later.

100 B$=" ":U0

Now print your cursor (de-
fined in line 20). The semico-
lon ensures that anything af-
ter the cursor will be printed
on the same line.

110 PRINTCS;

Here's where we use the
GET statement.

120 GETA$:IFAS= ' "THEN120

The computer goes into a
loop until the user presses a
key. When any key is
pressed, that single character
becomes A$. A$ will be exam-
ined four times. The first time
checks for the Return key;

130 IFAS=R$THENPRmTD$A$;:
RETURN

if the Return key is
pressed, the cursor moves
back one space, deleting it-
self, and then moves to the
next line. The subroutine
ends with a RETURN state-
ment.

The second check is for
the Del key, which indicates
that the user is backtracking
and erasing previously typed
data,

140 IFA$=D$THENGOSUB210:

GOTO110

At line 210 we start anoth-
er short subroutine that will do
the actual deleting. Then we
want to go back to line 110 to
print the cursor again. This
time we're not ready to jump
out of the subroutine yet;
we're just deleting characters.

The third check is impor-
tant but fairly complicated.
We want to limit the charac-
ters which can be typed.
We'll do that by examining
their CHR$ values. Luckily,
the values we need are in the
range of 32 to 95, inclusive.
According to the ASCII and
CHRS code chart in Program-
mer's Reference Guide, this
will encompass the space, all
punctuation, all the numbers,
all the letters of the alphabet
(capitals only), and a few odd-
ball symbols, such as the Brit-
ish pound sign, brackets, and
the left- and up-arrow keys.
You can restrict that further if
you wish. Here's the check:

150 IM$<CHR$(32)0RA$>CHR$
(95)0RA$=HR$(34)THEN12a

Next month I'll repeat this
line with a detailed explana-
tion of it. Meanwhile, try to fig-
ure out why we don't want
CHR$(34) and what we'll do
next to make your programs
virtually crashproof in the
hands of computer novices. □

G-21

PROGRAMMER'S PAGE

Randy Thompson

Here's a whole

page of nifty

tips for the 64

submitted

by one reader.

GEZA'S PAGE

Every so often someone
sends me a tip that really
sparks my interest, and I may
center an entire column
around suchi a tip. Just last
week I got a letter from Geza
Lucz of La Jolla, California,
tfiat contained 16 great tips.
Unfortunately, we don't fiave
room for all of them, but fiere
are 4 of thie best.

Although the byline at the
top of this column is mine, the
credit and the "Programmer's
Page" award money go to
Geza. Thanks for the code!

OCEAN

This program makes the 64's
characters roll like the waves
in the ocean. There are
sound effects, too.

JX 100 FOR 1=49152 TO 49
258:READ D:C=C+D:
POKE I, D: NEXT

KX 110 IF C016497 THEN
{SPACE}PRINT "ERR
OR IN DATA STATEH
ENTS":STOP

CP 120 SYS 49152

DA 130 POKE 54278, 240:PO
KE 54276, 129:POKE
54273, 34:POKE 54
272,75

GK 140 FOR 1=1 TO 15 : POK
E 54296, I:FOR J=l
TO 50: NEXT: NEXT

MP 150 FOR 1-15 TO 1 STE
P -1:P0KE 54296, I
;FOR J=l TO 200:N
EXT: NEXT

SR 160 FOR 1=1 TO 6B0+IN
T(RND{1)*1000) :NE
XT

KR 170 GOTO 130

XB 180 DATA 120,169,35,1
62,192,141,20,3,1
42,21,3,169,1,141
,18,208,133,251,1
33,254

XH 190 DATA 173,17,208,4
1,127,141,17,208,
169,129,141,26,20
8,88,96,173,25,20
8,141

JB 230 DATA 25,208,48,7,
173,13,220,88,76,
49,234,166,251,23
2,232,232,232,232
,232

EH 210 DATA 232,232,142,
18,208,134,251,22
8,254,208,4,230,2

51,230,254,166,25
3,232

CD 2 20 DATA 138,41,15,17
0,134,253,189,91,
192,141,22,208,76
,188,254,200,201,
202,203

BS 230 DATA 204,205,206,
207,207,206,205,2
04,203,202,201,20

FREEZE!

This short machine language
routine freezes program execu-
tion whenever you hold down
the 64's Shift key. You can
load and run almost any
program and use Shift as a
Pause key, If you need to
pause a program so you can
go off and answer the phone,
the Shift Lock key keeps the
software frozen until you're
ready for it. This freeze fea-
ture is also great for program-
mers who need to pause the
computer when listing their
programs to the screen.

EX 100 FOR 1=49152 TO 49

191:READ D:POKE I

,D:NEXT:SYS 49152
HF 110 DATA 120,169,26,1

62,192, 141,20,3
KG 120 DATA 142,21,3,38,

96,120,169,234,16

2
EF 139 DATA 49,141,21,3,

142,20,3,88,96,32
SR 140 DATA 135,234,174,

141,2,224,1,240,2

46
KP 150 DATA 76,49,234,0

COMMAND HIGHLIGHT

Another practical utility is this
program that highlights all of
the commands in a BASIC list-
ing. Line numbers and varia-
bles appear in the usual blue
color, while BASIC com-
mands appear in white.

CC 100 FOR 1=49152 TO 49
230:READ D:C=C+D:
POKE 1,0: NEXT

CH 110 IF C011843 THEN
(SPACE) PRINT "ERR
OR IN DATA STATEH
EHTS" :STOP

CP 120 SYS 49152

HG 130 DATA 169,11,162,1
92,141,6,3,142,7,
3

EB 140 DATA 96,16,36,36,

15,48,32,201,255,

240
GP 150 DATA 28,133,251,1

34,252,132,254,16

6,253,224
QB 160 DATA 5,240,7,169,

5,133,253,32,210,

255
DG 170 DATA 165,251,166,

252,164,254,76,36

,167,133
PQ 180 DATA 251,134,252,

132,254,166,253,2

24,154,240
DJ 190 DATA 7,169,154,13

3,253,32,210,255,

165,251
PP 200 DATA 166,252,164,

254,76,243,166,20

8,14

GETTING DIZZY?

A close relative of the ocean
trick, this program is definitely
not recommended for the 64
owner with a weak stomach.

RS 100 FOR 1=49152 TO 49

266:READ D:C»=C+D:

POKE I, D: NEXT
EG 110 IF C013471 THEN

{SPACE}PRINT "ERR

OR IN DATA STATEM

ENTS" :STOP
HK 120 POKE 16383, 0:SYS

CSPACE}49152
RJ 130 DATA 120,169,31,1

62,192,141,20,3,1

42,21
BE 140 DATA 3,169,0,141,

18,208,173,17,208

,41
KX 150 DATA 127,141,17,2

08,169,129,141,26

,208,88
AE 160 DATA 96,173,25,20

8,141,25,208,48,7

,173
GS 170 DATA 13,220,88,76

,49,234,230,254,1

65,254
QP 180 DATA 41,3,208,21,

166,251,232,133,4

1,15
KR 190 DATA 133,251,170,

189,78,192,141,17

,208,189,94,192
JC 200 DATA 141,22,208,7

6,188,254,24,25
AE 210 DATA 26,27,28,29,

30,31,31,33,29,28
EG 220 DATA 27,26,25,24,

203,204,205,206,2

07,206
GG 230 DATA 205,204,203,

202,201,200,200,2

01,202,203,0,0,0,

0.0 —

G-22 COMPUTE

Best-Selling

Commodore Books

from COMPUTE

Machine Language Routines for the
Commodore 128 and 64

By Todd D. Heimark and Patrick G. Parrish

For both beginners and advanced ML programmers.

585 pages. S18.95

Mapping the Commodore 64 and 64C

By Sheldon Lecmon

Comprehensive memory map and programmer's guide.

324 pages. Si 8.95

Music System for the Commodore 128 and 64

The Enhanced Sidplayer

By Craig Chamberlain

Includes programs, utilities, and sample music.

Book/Disk Only. 274 pages. $24.95

Order your copies today.

Send the appropriate amount plus S2 shipping and handling for
each book (J4 Canadian, $6 foreign) and applicable sales lax* to:

COMPUTE Books
C/O CCC

2500 McClellan Ave.
Pennsauken, NJ 08109

*Resjdenls of NC, NY. and NJ add appropriaic sales !a:t for your area.
Canadian Orders add 1% goods and services tax.

All orders must be paid in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Please allow 4-6
weeks for delivery. JUL91CP

Big Blue Reader 128/64

Read & Write IBM PC Disks!

Big Blue Reader 128/64 is a fast, easy-to-use, menu driven program
for novice and expert alil^e. Transfers word processing, text, ASCII, and
binary files between Commodore 64/128 and IBM PC compatible 360K
5.25" and 720K 3.5" disks. Includes both C64 & C128 prQarams.
Requires 1571 or 1581 Disk Drive. Does not work using 1541.
BBR 128 Version 3.1 upgrade, $18+ original BBR disk.

Big Blue Reader 128/64 only $44.95

(BiS[e Scare ft 3.1

The only Bible Study Program with:

1) Entire Old and New Testament on (4) 1541/71 or (2) 1581 disks.

2) An Exhaustive English Concordance on (2) 1541/7] or (1) 1581
disks; includes more than 700,000+ references.

3) Incredible five (5) second look-up time, per/word, per/disk.

4) Instant, automatic spell checking of more than 12,800 words.

5) Boolean Search operators including AND, OR &; NOT logic.

6) Search entire Bible in 5 seconds with 1581 or Hard Drive (v3.5).

7) A Money Back Guarantee!

Includes: Easy-to-use, 064 and 0128 (40/80 column) programs,
printer and disk output, users guide, disk case, and more.
"- Available on (7) 1541/71, or (4) 1581 disks. (Demo disk $S}

KJV $49.95 st^^i^ti^r NIV $59.95

cs- Any questions? Call or write for more information.
<^ NOW Available! AMIGA Bible Search

Order by check, money order, or COD. US Funds only,

ra- FREE shipping in North America. No Credit Card orders.

Foreign orders add $5 S/H ($12 whole Bible)

SOGWAP Software ^ (219)724-3900

115 Bellmont Road; Decatur, Indiana 46733

1990 Gazette Index

Everything's included!

Features, games, reviews,
education/home applications,
programming, bug-swatter,
feedback, and columns!

A superb interface includes pull-down menus, help
screens, and keyboard, joystick, or mouse control. Fea-
tures include super-fast searching and sorting capa-
bilities. An options screen allows you to choose text
colors, drive number, and input device. And there's full
documentation on disk.

Choose from three modes of operation — browse for quick
scanning, view for detailed information and descriptions,
and edit for adding items from upcoming issues— and
print to any printer. There's even a turboload option for
maximum disk-access speed.

ORDER YOUR
1990 GAZETTE
INDEX TODAY!

(MasterCard and Visa accepted
on orders Willi subtotal over S20.)

D YES! Please send me .
diak(s) ($7,95 each).

Sy^-ioch

. Subtolil

. SaJes Tai (R«ii)(n(s or NC and NY pltaje add
apfiropriate sales tax for ynur area. Canadian or-
ders, add 7* goods and services tax }

. Sliipping and Kindling (S2.CK) U.S. and Canada.
(3,00 surface mail. iS.OO airmail pa diili.)

. Total Enclosed

— Chtck or Money Order

— MasterCard _ VISA

Ilililimr T»l*jihni^ Pir; _

(Required)

4^M.«*

C,t»

ProiLO^r _

ZIP/
. Venial Cade _

Send jDor order lo 1990 G»ie!(e Indes, 324 W.
Wendover live., Sle. 200, GreenjlMro, NC 27408.

DIVERSIONS

Fred D'Ignazio

The robot

revolution may

have started

in a way totaiiy

dilferent trom

wliat we imagined.

ROBOTS
IN DISGUISE

I was on my way to Dubuque,
Iowa, last week to train a
group of intrepid teachers in
the art of scavenged multime-
dia. As 1 left tfie airplane for a
layover in Chiicago's O'Hare Air-
port, I felt tfie urge to make a
brief stop at tfie nearest men's
room. After I conducted my
business, I made my custom-
ary stop at a washroom sink.
The sink was broken. No han-
dles on the water faucet. No
water. I turned to another
sink. Its handles were also miss-
ing. I turned to another sink.
All the handles were missing.

Suddenly ! heard the
sound of running water. 1
turned around. Two men were
standing in front of two sinks.
Two water faucets were gush-
ing gurgling water into two
sink bowls. The sinks weren't
broken after all!

I slipped back into the bath-
room, quietly placed my bags
onto the bathroom floor, and
tried to appear natural and in-
conspicuous until the two men
at the sinks had departed.

OK, I thought, how did they
make the sinks work? fvly first
guess was foot pedals. After
all, there were no faucet han-
dles, and I hadn't noticed ei-
ther man touching anything on
the sink. It hadXo be pedals.

I crouched in front of one of
the sinks. No pedal, fvlaybe
the pedal was tucked under-
neath the sink bowl. 1 reached
under the bowl, searching for
the mysterious device.

Suddenly a man walked in-
to the room. He immediately
halted when he saw me under
the sink. I'm sure he was won-
dering what a small, bearded
man in a raincoat was doing in
an airport bathroom crawling
around under a sink.

"Sink inspector," I said, smil-
ing and trying to appear non-
chalant. "We have to do this pe-

riodically." I kind of mumbled
the last part because the fel-
low took a brief, critical look at
this "sink inspector," smirked,
and shot out of the bathroom.

I stood up, still trying to fig-
ure out how to work the sink's
faucets, fvlaybe if I stuck my
foot under the sink it would
work. I lifted my leg, leaned
way back, and thrust the toe
of my shoe across the sink's
porcelain underbelly.

Three teenagers entered
the bathroom, jostling each oth-
er and laughing. However, af-
ter they saw me stroking the
sink with my foot, they sank in-
to immediate, puzzled silence.

"It itches," I said, pointing
at my foot. "This is the only
way to scratch it." I kept prob-
ing the fixtures beneath the
sink with my toes, desperately
hoping I'd soon see water flow-
ing into the basin.

The teenagers did their busi-
ness and approached a cou-
ple of sinks. Water instantly
sprang from their sinks' fau-
cets into the bowls.

I rushed over to the teen-
agers' sinks. "It's a miracle,"
I exclaimed. I dropped to my
knees and looked under-
neath. "How'd you do that?"

"Little sensor right here,
dude," said one of the teen-
agers, pointing at a small red
ovat on the wall that had es-
caped my acute observation-
al powers. "It's easy. You
stand in front of the sink; you
get water. You move away;
the water stops." The teen-
ager stared at me and
grinned. "You from some oth-
er country, maybe?"

When I was growing up in
the 1950s and 1960s, comput-
ers were big, new, and fright-
ening. In those days we were
afraid that computers would
one day be turned into spy ma-
chines. They would spy on us
average citizens and report to
"the people in power." fvluch
of this image came from the
book 1984 by George Onwell.

The future turned out to be
completely different. Comput-
ers shrank from barn-sized be-
hemoths into cornflake-sized
chips. As they shrank, they dis-
appeared — into washing ma-
chines, microwaves, automo-
biles, watches, toaster ovens,
and bathroom scales.

Instead of a single big broth-
er running a single big comput-
er, we now have zillions and zil-
lions of little computers acting
as little brothers. Little comput-
ers are now quietly watching
us from inside refrigerators, tell-
er machines, filling stations,
vending machines, and bath-
room sinks. They help us go
about our business and then
patiently wait for the next hu-
man being to come their way

For years we've been wait-
ing for the robot revolution.
We've pictured it as an elec-
tromechanical second coming
with robots who look like hu-
mans, rolling off factory lines
to rescue human beings from
the grind and toil of daily life.

fvlaybe the robot revolution
has already started. Except
it's totally different from what
we imagined. Instead of giv-
ing robots a human shape, we
are quietly giving them the
shape of the comfortable, fa-
miliar appliances. Remember
General Electric's motto: We
bring good things to life.

Maybe the being ! met in
that O'Hare bathroom was al-
most alive, a primitive precur-
sor on a new evolutionary lad-
der. Maybe it was a little like
Australopithecus or Neander-
thal man, a robot from the
dawn of a new generation of
intelligent robots. These ro-
bots won't have to have legs,
arms, or hands. They won't
have to resemble humans.
That would be too scary!

Instead they'll just keep
evolving at a faster rate, while
retaining the outward appear-
ance of our familiar, cozy, old
appliances. Except they won't
have any handles! CI

G-24 COMPUTE

PROGRAMS

SPANISH VOCABULARY
QUIZ

By Christopher M. Stoy
Learning a foreign language can be dif-
ficult. Not only do you need to learn a
new set of grammar rules, but you must
also learn an entirely new vocabulary.
The only way to do this is by continually
repeating the new words until they be-
come second nature.

Finding someone to quiz you on
your new vocabulary can be equally dif-
ficult. After all. who wants to sit around
asking you drill questions all day?
That's the beauty of a computer. Your
64 is happy to help out, with software
such as Spanish Vocabulary Quiz. This
Spanish tutorial will quickly help you
learn Spanish words, and it'll never com-
plain about your poor pronunciation or
your gringo accent.

Getting Started

Spanish Vocabulary Quiz is written in
BASIC with a small machine language
subroutine. To help avoid typing errors,
use The Automatic Proofreader when
entering the BASIC portion; see "Typ-
ing Aids" elsewhere in this section.
When you've finished typing, be sure
to save a copy of the program.

Enter the machine language routine
with MLX. our machine language entry
program; see "Typing Aids" again.
When MLX prompts, respond with the
following values.

Starting address: COOO
Ending address: COBF

Save the machine language routine
with the name SPAN.tvlL before you ex-
it MLX. Now format a blank disk and
place Spanish Vocabulary Quiz on it.
Use this disk to store the word files you
create.

Options

The options menu contains five choic-
es; 1. English Words 2. Palabras de Es-
paliol 3, Load a Word File 4. File Op-
tions 5. Quit

The first two options quiz you on Eng-
lish or Spanish words, respectively. If
there is no word file in memory, you'll
automatically be taken to option 3,

To load a file, enter its name at the

prompt and press Return. To see a list
of files on the disk, type a dollar sign
($) and press Return. When a file has
been loaded, you'll be given a set of
simple instructions. Press Return to be-
gin the quiz.

You'll be given a word in English (or
Spanish) and asked to translate it.
Type your answer at the prompt and
press Return. If you make a mistake,
use the Inst/Del key to delete a charac-
ter or press Shift-Clr/Home to erase
the whole word and start over. To en-
ter accented letters such as ^, S, i, 6,
or u, hold down the Commodore key
and type the letter. Likewise, to get the
tilde (n) character, hold down the Com-
modore key and press N. To write an
upside-down exclamation point (j),
press the Back Arrow key. Make an up-
side-down question mark (i) by press-
ing the slash {/) character.

You're given three chances to
guess the word. After three incorrect
guesses, the program provides the an-
swer. If you wish to see the answer be-
fore making three guesses, type a ques-
tion mark at the prompt and press Re-
turn. To exit the quiz before all the
words are asked, enter an asterisk at
the prompt and press Return.

Scoring

After the quiz you'll be given the num-
ber of words you identified correctly
and your percentage of correct an-
swers. Your score depends not only on
how many words you answered correct-
ly but also on how many guesses it
took you. Every incorrect answer will de-
crease your score. For example, in or-
der to obtain a perfect score of 100 per-
cent, you must answer every question
correctly on the first try. A good way to
study is by going through the same
list repeatedly until you can score 100
percent.

File Options

The menu of file options offers several
choices.

1, Create a Word File

2. Append to a Word File

3. Edit a Word File

4, Return to Main Menu

Create a file when starting a new word
list. First, enter the name of the file.

Next, enter the English word and then
the Spanish form. You'll then have a
chance to make any corrections, enter
more words, or stop.

Select Append to add words to the
current list in memory. It's a good idea
to limit your list to 20 words or less.

Edit a Word File lets you make cor-
rections to the current word file. The
first word in the list will be displayed in
English and Spanish. Press E to edit
the word. When editing, move the flash-
ing cursor over the English word,
make your changes, and then press Re-
turn. Do the same for the Spanish
word. To move on to the next word,
press C to continue. The program will
display the next word in the list. When
you've finished editing, press Q to quit
to the options menu and save any
changes you've made.

Spanish Vocabulary Quiz

XE REM COPYRIGHT 1991 - COMP
UTE PUBLICATIONS INTL LTD
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
RH 10 REM SPANISH VOCABULARY Q

UIZ VI. 2
RC 20 REM(8 SPACES )BY CHRIS ST

OY
SF 30 ;

EP 40 GOTO 220B:REM SETUP
SC 100 T=0:PRINT"{HOHE) (BLK}"A

NS"{5 D0WN)":P0KE 49153

,5:P0KE49157,S
RX 105 PRINT"<6>"AW$;SPC(20-LE

N(AW$))"CWHT)>"; :LN=i7:

GOSUB 200
GB 110 ON -(WD$="?")-2* (WDS="*

") GOTO 145,700
MQ 115 SYS 49152
KH 116 LC=LEN(AN$) :IF LEN(WDS)

>LEN(AN$) THEN LC=LEN (W

D$)
KH 117 PC=INT (PBEK(49212)*100/

LC)-INT (PEEK (49213) /2)
DP 120 IF PO70 THEN PRINT"

(DOWN) (WHT)<MUY BIEN! C

ORRECT ! " : SC=SC+ABS (T-3)

:C=C+l:GOT0145
PB 125 T=T+1:IF T=3 THEN 145
DM 126 IF T=l THEN POKE 49157,

245
XH 127 IF T=2 THEN POKE 49153,

6:P0KE 49157,229
JX 130 IF P033 THEN PRINT"

{DOWN}il> ALMOST. TRY A

GAIN.{D0WnT":GOTO 140
PE 135 PRINT"{D0WN}{2} SORRY,

{SPACE} WRONG. TRY AGAIN

.{DOWN}"
XP 140 GOSUB 4ia:GOTO105
BX 145 W=W+1:RN% (I)=1:PRINT"

G-25

PROGRAMS

{6>(D0WN]THE ANSWER IS
{SPACE) {WHT}"ANS"<6}.":
GOSUB 1000: IF W=X THEN
{SPACE} 700

SX 150 FL=1:GOTO 400

GX 200 WD$="":POKE 198,0:PHINT
" < " ;

df 205 get ke$:if ke$="" then

{spaceJzbs
xk 206 poke54296, 15:poke54296,

HQ 210 IF KE$=CHR$(13) THEN PR

INT: RETURN
ED 215 IF KE$=CHR$(17) OR KE$=

CHRS(19) OR KE$=CHR$(14

5) THEN 205
FA 217 IF KE$=CHR$(147) THEN F

OR ZZ=0 TO LEN(WD$);PRI

NTCHRS (20) ; :NEXT:GOTO 2

30
GC 220 IF KE5<>CHR$(20) THEN 2

3 5
HF 225 IF LEN(WD3)=0 THEN 205
AC 23 WD$=LEFT${WD$,LEN (WD$)-

1) :PRItJT"{2 LEFT}<

(LEF.T)"; :GOTO 205
PJ 235 IF LEN(WDS)>I.N THEN 20S
KR 240 WD$=WDS+KES: PRINT"

{LEFT)"KES"<";
GE 245 GOTO 205
GM 300 IF X<i THEN 1300
BP 315 PRINT"{CLR) {WHT){DOWN}"

TAB{11) "QUJZ "QTS" WORD

S"
DX 320 PRINTTAB(ll) 'HIXIS T>"
HH 325 PRINT"{2 D0WN){6>

{2 SPACESJI^ WILL GIVE Y

OU A WORD IN {WHT)"QTS"

{6>,"

HD 330 PRINT"{DOWN} THEN _I_ WIL
L ASK YOU TO ENTER THE
{ S PACE }WORD" : PRI NT "
{DOWN) I« {WHT}"0TS"i6}
n

JM 335 PRINT"{2 DOWN} {WHT } EXAM

PLS : " : PRI NT " { DOWN 1 "QT S ;

SPC(13) ;0T$
GG 340 PRINT"<3}{7 T}"SPC(13)"

{7 T>":PRINT"{6>"EQS:PR

INT "{UP} "TAB (20) ; EOS: GO

SUB 1000
XH 345 FOR Z=l TO X:RN%(Z)=0:N

EXT:W=0:SC=0:C=0
XF 400 I=INT (X*RND(0) )+l:IF RN

% (I)=l THEN400
CF 405 PRINT" {CLR} {DOWN) (YELjT

YPE YOUR ANSWER, THEN H

IT [ (WHT} RETURN {YEL} ] .

{2 DOWN}"
SF 410 PRINT"{WHT}"QTS;SPC(13)

;OT$:PRINT"{3H7 T}"SPC

(13) "{7 T}":RETURN
HD 500 QTS="ENGLISH":OTS="SPAN

ISH":EQ$="THE WORD":EOS

="LA PALABRA"
PG 505 GOSUB 300:IF X=0 THEN 2

100
QX 510 AW5=EN5(I) :AN$=SP$(I) :G

OSUB 100:IF FL THEN 510
BB 513 IF F=l THEN 500
PC 515 GOTO 2100
HK 600 OTS="ENGLISH":QT$="SPAN

ISH":EO$="THE WORD":EQ$

="LA PALABRA"
SQ 605 GOSUB 300:IF X=0 THEN 2

100
CX 610 AN$=EN$(I) :AW5=SP$(I) :G

OSUB 100: IF FL THEN 610
XK 613 IF F=l THEN 600
SJ 615 GOTO 2100
DX 700 FL=0:IF W=0 THEN F=0:RE

TURN
GR 703 PRINT"{CLR} {11 DOWN}

CWHT}"TAB(12) "CON^MULA

TIONSl!" ^-"^

JM 705 PRTNT TAB ( 9 ) " f DOWN } { 6 > Y

OU COMPLETED THE LIST,"
GR 710 FOR Z=1TO192:POKE53280,

Z:NEXT:F0RZ=1T08: PRINT"

{DOWN}" :next:print"

(HOME) {9 DOWN}"
GJ 715 PRINT"(3 spaces} {YEL}Y0
UR SCORE : {WHT } " ; I NT ( SC
/(3*H) *100) ; "%"
PP 720 PRINT"{DOWN} {3 SPACES}
UG_ {YEL}YOU GOT{WHT}"C"
^^~ {YEL}CORRECT OUT OF

{WHT}"W"{YEL} {LEFT} ."
KQ 730 PRINT" {2 DOWN}

{4 SPACES 5 <6}W0ULD YOU
{SPACE3LIKE TO TRY THIS
LIST"
RK 740 PRINT" {DOWN} {4 SPACES )A
GAIN ({WHT}Vt6} OR
{WHT}N{6}) ?TWHT} ";
OS 750 GET KES:IF KES="" THEN

{SPACE}750
JA 755 IF KE5="Y" THEN PRINT"Y

":F=1:RETURN
KK 760 IF KE$<>"N" THEN 750
HM 765 PRINT"N":F=0:RETURN
RF 1000 PRINTTAB(7)"{2 DOWN}

{YEL}PRESS {{WHT} RETUR
N{YELT] TO CONTINUE.":
POKE 198,0
FM 1005 GET KE$:IF KE$<>CHR$(1

3) THEN 1005
DS 1010 RETURN

XP 1100 POKE 53272, 21:P0KE 532
80,14:POKE 53281, 6:PRI
NT"{7}|CLR}":END
AJ 1200 INPUT#15,ER,ER5,DT,DS:

FL =
JC 1205 IF ER=62 THEN PRINT"

{CLR} {RED} {9 D0WN}"TAB
(13) "FILE NOT FOUND.":
FL=1:RETURN
FB 1210 IF ER>19 THEN PRINT"

{RED}{2 DOWM} DISK ERRO
R #"ER;ER$"{8 DOWN } " : F
L=l
BQ 1215 RETURN

RP 1300 PRINT"{CLR} {WHT} {DOWN}
"TAB (12) "LOAD A WORD F
ILE"
XJ 1315 PRINTTAB(12) "<3}{16 T}

PF 1320 PRINT"{2 D0WN}<6}

{4 SPACES }ENTER NAME
F FILE AT THE PROMPT."

QM 1325 PRINT"{D0WN} {3 SPACES}
TYPE {{WHT}$<6}] TO VI
EW DIRECTORY."

FC 1330 PRINT"{D0WN} {3 SPACES)
PRESS [{WHT)RETURN{6}j
ALONE TO RETURN TO"

RC 1335 PRINT" {DOWN) {3 SPACES}
{WHT} 0PTI0N5 (6}MENU."

RP 1340 PRINT:PRINT"{2 DOWN}

{7JNAME OF FILE:{WHT}>
"; :LN=15:G0SUB 200

FX 1345 IF WD$="" THEN 2100

QJ 1350 IF WD$="$" THEN 1410

GF 1360 FLS=WD$:0PEN15,8,15:0P
EN2,'8,2,"0:" + FL$+",S,R

II

PA 1365 GOSUB 1200:IF FL=1 THE

N CL0SE2:CL0SE15:G0SUB
1000:GOTO 2100
JJ 1390 INPUT#2,X:F0R S=l TO X

:INPUT#2,EN$(S) ,SP$(S)

:NEXT
CQ 1400 CLOSE2:CLOSE15:GOTO 21

00
FP 1410 PRINT" {CLRXejPRESS {

{WHT) SHIFT {6}1 TO PAUS

E.":SYS 49250:PRINT:GO

SUB I000:GOTO 1300
BB 1600 PRINT"{CLR} {WHT} {DOWN)

"TAB (11) "WORD FILE OPT

I0NS":PRINTTAB(11) "i3i

{17 TV
MQ 1605 PRINTTAB(16)"{D0WN}<6}

OPTIONS" IPRINTTAB (16) "

<2}{7 T}"
GX 1610 PRINTTAB(8) "{DOWN}

{WHT)1. CREATE A FILE"

:PRINTTAB(8) "{DOWN} 2.

{SPACE}APPEND TO A FIL

E"
AB 1615 PRINTTAB(8)"{D0WN}3. E

DIT A FILE"
CD 1620 PRINTTAB(B) "{D0WN}4. R

ETURN TO {WHT}MAIN MEN

U{2 DOWN}"
BK 1630 PRINT"<6}{6 SPACES}ENT

ER YOUR CHOICE{WHT}:

{4 SPACES) {3 LEFT}";
GJ 1635 GET KES:IF KE$<"1" OR

{SPACE}KE$>"5" THEN 16

35
SS 1640 PRINT KES:ON VAL(KE$)

{SPACE}GOTO 1700,1700,

1800,2100
XA 1698 REM CREATE/APPEUD A FI

LE
RE 1700 KE=VAL(KE$) :IF KE=2 AN

D X=0 THEN 1300
CJE 1705 PRINT"{CLR}{WHT}{DOWN}

"TAB (12) "MAKE A WORD F

ILE":PRINTTAB(12) "{3>

{16 T}"
JX 1707 IF KE=2 THEN 1720
FB 1710 PRINT"{D0WN}{4 SPACES)

6-26 COMPUTE

-{6JNAME OF FILE{WHT}:"
; :LN=15:G0SUB 200:IF W
D$="" THEN 2100

ES 1715 FL$=WD$+LEFT$ (NL$,16-L
EN(WD$) ) :F=F+1:F$(F)=F
L5:X=0:KE=2:GOTO 1705

HX 1720 X=X+1:PRINT"{H0ME}

{4 DOWN}"TAB(10) "{YEL}
FILE: {WHT)";FL$

KX 1725 PRINTTAB (7) "{DOWN}

{YELlNUMBER OF WORDS S

farTwht} :";X-l

JQ 1730 PRINT"{6}{2 DOWN)

{4 SPACES}FIRST, ENTER
THE {WHT}ENGLISH<6> W

ORD AT"
RE 1735 PRINT"(3 SPACES}THE PR

OMPT, THEN ENTER THE

{WHT) SPANISH."
RK 1740 PRINT"(D0WN1{8} E^NGLIS

H WORD: {WHT}"; :LN=17:

GOSUB 200:EN$ {X)=WD$:I

F WD$="" THEN 1763
KQ 1745 PRINT"{2 D0WN}{8} SPAN

ISH WORD: {WHT}";:LN=1

7:G0SUB 200 : SPS (X) =WD$

: IF WD$="" THEN 1763
BF 1750 PRINT"{2 D0WN}fYEL) I_S
THIS CORRECT ([WHT}Y

{YEL} OR (WHT}N{yEL}) ?

{WHT} ";
QJ 1755 GET KES;IF KES="N" THE

N PRINT"N":GOT0 1705
PX 1760 IF KES<>"Y" THEN 1755
SR 1763 IF WD$="" THEN PRINT"

{BLK}":X=X-1
FD 1765 PRINT"Y":PRINT"CRIGHT)

{YEL} {DOWN} ENTER ANOTH

er word ({WHT}Y{YEL}

R iWHT)Kl(YEL}) ?{WHT) "

}
PH 1770 GET KE$:IF KE5="Y" THE

N PRINT"Y":GOTO 1705
SE 1775 IF KE$<>"N" THEN 1770
PC 1780 PRINT"N":OPEN15,8,15: I

F KE=2 THEN PRINTilS,"

S0:"+FL5:GOSUB 1200
HJ 1785 IF PL THEN CLOSE I5:G0

SUB 1000:GOTO 2100
RM 1790 OPEN2,a,2,"0:"+FL5+",S

,W": GOSUB 1200:IF FL T

HEN CLOSE 2:G0T0 1785
XD 1791 PRINT#2,X:F0R S=1 TO X

: PRINT #2, ENS (S) : PRINT*

2,SP${S) :NEXT:GOSDB 12

00
HE 1792 IF FL THEN CLOSE 2:G0T

1785
QB 1793 PRINT"{CLR){6}{9 DOWN)

"TAB (14) "FILE SAVED.

{2 DOWN)"
XA 1794 CLOSE2:CLOSE15:GOSUB10

00:GOTO 2100
KP 1800 IF X=0 THEN GOSUB 300:

GOTO 2100
GP 1810 S=1:FL=1:PRINT"{CLR}

(WHT) (DOWN) "TAB (15) "ED

IT A PILE"

QJ 1815 PRINTTAB(15) "{3}-tll T}

II

QF 1820 PRINT" {DOWN} {YEL} FILE
: {WHT}";FLS;SPC(17-LE
N(FL$))"{YEL}# OF WORD
S: {WHT}";X

RP 1825 PRINT"{DOWN}{3J'E40 Y}"

PA 1830 PRINT"{HOME} (8 DOWN}
i6i ON WORD: [WHT5
{4 SPACES} {4 LEFT}";S

AH 1835 PRINT"{2 D0WN}'t8>

{2 SPACES }ENGLISH WORD
: {WHT} ", -ENS (S) , -LEFT? (
SC$,22-LEN (ENS(S)>) ! PR
INT

MS 1840 PRINT"{8}{2 SPACES}SPA
NISH WORD: {WHT}";SPS(
S) ; LEFTS {SC$,22-LEN(SP
S (S) ) ) tPRINT

GD 1845 PRINT"{2 DOWN} {YEL} {

{WHT}E{YEL}] TO {WHTjE
DIT{YEL} WORDS"

MK 1850 PRINT"{DOWN} ({WHT}C

{YEL}] TO {WHT)CONTIN0
E{YEL} LISTING"

QH 1855 PRINT"{DOWN} {{WHT}Q
{YEL}] TO {WHT}QUIT
(YEL) TO {WHT}OPTIONS
JYEL) MENU{DOWN}"

GQ 1860 GET KE$:IF KES="" THEN
1860

RK 1865 ON -(KE$="E")-2*(KE$="
C")-3* (KE$="Q")GOT0189
0,1870,1880:GOTO1860

PH 1870 S=S+1:IF S < (X+1) THE
N1830

JD 1875 S=1:GOTO1830

XA 1880 IF FL THEN 2100

QM 1885 KE=2:PRINT"{BLK}":G0TO
1780

DA 1890 PRINT" {HOME} {11 DOWN}"
TAB (16) ; "{WHT}"; :P0KE1
9, 65; INPUTTED SPOKE 19,0
: PRINT

HS 1891 PRINT"{DOWN}"TAB (16) ; "
{WHT}"; : POKE 19, 65: INPU
TTSS:P0KE19,9:PRINT

RK 1892 IF TE$<>EN5(S) OR TSS<
>SPS (S) THEN EN5(S)=TE
5:SPS (S)=TS$:FL =

BQ 1893 GOTO 1830

rk 2100 print"{clr} {down}"tab (
9) "fwht}spanish vocabu
lary quiz"

bs 2105 printtab (9) "<3}{23 t}"

pr 2110 printtab (16) "{d0wn){6}
options":printtab (16) "
Tblu]<7 t}{down}"

er 2115 printtab (8) "{wht}1. en
glish words": printtab (
8)"{down}2. palabras d
e espa{n}ol"

rf 2120 printtab(8) "{d0wn}3. l
oad a word file": print

TAB{8) "{D0WN}4, FILE
PTIONS"
BP 2125 PRINTTAB (8) "{D0WN}5. Q
OIT"

FS 2130 PRINT"{2 D0WN}i6}

{4 SPACES}ENTER YOUR C

HO ICE {WHT}: ";
FC 2135 GET KES:IF KE$<"1" OR

{SPACE}KES>"5" THEN 21

35
XX 2140 PRINT KES:OS VAL(KE$)

{SPAGE}GOTO 500,600,13

00, 1600,1100
XX 2200 POKE53280,0:POKE53281,

QO 2202 IF LV=1 THEN POKE 56,5

6:CLR:G0T0 2245
XR 2205 PRINTCHRS(14) "{6J{CLR}

"TAB (9) "{2 DOWN} {WHT }£

PANISH VOCABULARY QUIZ

11

PP 2210 PRINTTAB(9) "<3}{23 T}"
FX 2215 PRINTTAB(12) "{D0WN}{6}

COPYRIGHT 1991"
BG 2216 PRINTTAB (4) "{2 DOWN}

{WHT}COMPUTE PUBLICATI

ONS XNTL LTD {2 DOWN}"
EM 2220 PRINTTAB (10) "{YEL}Ai:.L

{SPACE }RIGHTS RESERVED

II

JM 2230 PRINTTAB (13) "{3 DOWN}

{WHT}PLEASE WAIT. .."
GC 2240 IF LV=0 THEN LV=1:L0&D

"SPAN, ML", 8,1
XH 2245 DIM EN$ (30) , SP$ (30 ) ,RN

%(30) ,FS(120)
DC 2255 POKE 56334, PEEK(56334)
AND 254:P0KE 1,PEEK(1

) AND 251:SYS 49217
CD 2265 POKE 1,PEEK{1) OR 4 : PC

KE 56334, PEEK(56334)

R 1
SF 2270 READ A: IF A=-l THEN228

FH 2275 FOB 1=0 TO 7: READ B:PO

KE 14336+A*8+I,B:NEXT:

GOTO2270
CD 2280 POKE 53272 , (PEEK (53272

)AND 240>OR 14
JC 2285 SCS="{21 SPACES}":GOTO

2100
PE 2435 DATA 30,36,0,102,102,1

02,102,62,0
EA 2440 DATA 31,0,24,0,0,24,24

,24,24
KX 2445 DATA 47,0,24,0,24,48,9

6,102,60
BD 2450 DATA 98,6,24,0,56,24,2

4,60,0
KA 2455 DATA 106,54,72,124,102

,102,102,102,0
HF 2460 DATA 112,6,8,60,6,62,1

02,62,0
QK 2465 DATA 113,6,8,60,102,12

6,96,60,0
KP 2470 DATA 120,6,8,102,102,1

02,102,62,0
GA 2475 DATA 121,6,8,60,102,10

2,102,60,0
EJ 2480 DATA 158,219,255,153,1

53,153,153,193,255
SG 2485 DATA 159,255,231,255,2

G-27

PROGRAMS

SP 2499

SA 2495

QE 2500

SB 2505

HJ 2510

FG 2515

BP 2520

GJ 2525

SPAN.ML

55,23

DATA
31,20
DATA
99,23

DATA

53,15

DATA

49,19

DATA

53,12

DATA

53,15

DATA

53,15

DATA

1,231,

175,25
7,159,
226,24
1,231,
234,20
3,153,
240,24
3,153,
241,24
9,159,
248,24
3,153,
249,24
3,153,
-1

231,2

5,231
153,1
9,231
195,2
1,183
153,2
9,247
193,2
9,247
195,2
9,247
193,2
9,247
195,2

31

,255,2

95

,255,1

55

,131,1

55

,195,2

55

,195,1

55

,153,1

55

,195,1

55

C000

A9

05

85

FC

A9

05

85

FB

80

C00S

A0

00

3C

3C

C0

3C

3D

C0

A2

C010

8C

3E

C0

AE

3E

C0

Bl

FB

BE

C018

C9

3C

D0

01

60

DD

00

04

36

C020

F0

10

CA

DD

00

04

F0

07

4E

C02a

E8

£8

DD

00

04

D0

06

EE

72

C030

3D

C0

EE

3C

C0

EE

3E

C0

21

C033

C8

4C

U

C0

00

00

00

EA

8A

ca40

EA

A9

00

85

FB

85

FD

A9

95

C048

D8

83

FC

A9

38

85

FE

A2

4A

C050

08

A0

00

HI

FB

91

FD

88

C3

C058

D0

F9

E6

FC

ee

FE

CA

D0

07

C06a

F0

60

A9

01

A2

08

A0

00

2E

C068

20

BA

FF

A9

02

A2

BC

A0

F7

C070

C0

20

BD

FF

20

C0

FF

A2

B8

C078

01

20

C6

FF

20

CF

FF

20

BB

C080

CF

FF

20

CF

FF

85

FB

20

19

C08a

CF

FF

05

FB

F0

25

A9

0D

CE

C090

20

D2

FF

AD

8D

02

29

01

79

C098

D0

F9

20

CF

FF

AA

20

CF

BC

C0A0

FF

20

CD

BD

A9

20

20

02

A0

C0A8

FF

20

CF

FF

F0

D4

20

D2

lA

C0B0

FF

D0

F6

A9

01

20

C3

FF

EF

C0B8

20

CC

FF

60

24

30

00

00

65

Christopher M. Stoy lives
Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.

m

a

SPEEDSWAP

By Larry Hagney

ivlost of us don't use SpeedScript to
write the Great American Novel, Usually
we confine our efforts to smaller endeav-
ors such as letters, reports, term pa-
pers, program documentation, and
such. As a result much of the text mem-
ory available to SpeedScript remains
empty.

Suppose you're using SpeedScriptXo
write a term paper. In the midst of your
efforts, you remember a couple of par-
agraphs in a document that you wrote
a couple of months ago and decide
they would fit perfectly with this paper.

e-28 COMPUTE

To incorporate that material takes more
than a little effort. First, you save your
paper to disk, load in the old document,
copy the relevant section into the text
buffer, erase the old document, load in
the term paper, and then finally insert
the saved text in the appropriate area
of your paper.

Well, those days are gone forever.
With SpeedSwap patched into your
copy of SpeedScript 3.2 for the 64, two
text documents can coexist in memory.
The problem mentioned above is now
simple to solve. Just move to your alter-
nate screen and load the old document.
Now both documents are independent-
ly accessible. Material can be copied
from one document to the other, or one
text area can be your workscreen while
the second serves as a storage area for
various reference materials.

Getting Storted

SpeedSwap is a BASIC program
which contains a short (227 bytes) ma-
chine language routine. To avoid typ-
ing errors, enter the program using The
Automatic Proofreader; see "Typing
Aids" elsewhere in this section. When
you've finished typing, save a copy of
the program to a disk containing
SpeedScript. Your copy of
SpeedScript must be saved with the file-
name SPEEDSCRIPT because
SpeedSwap automatically loads and
runs that filename.

When you run SpeedSwap, it lets
you allocate memory for each of two
text areas, identified onscreen as area

and area 1. Default sizes of 21,504
and 21,760 bytes are displayed in
white text. Pressing CRSR-down de-
creases the size of text area in 256-
byte chunks, while increasing text area

1 by a similar amount. CRSR-up per-
forms the opposite function. Note that
the total number of bytes of both text ar-
eas is always 43,264. This is 256
bytes less than SpeedScript normally
makes available because SpeedSwap
allocates a 256-byte safety zone be-
tween each text area.

If you're not sure how many bytes to
allocate for a file that's already on
disk, corresponding disk block sizes
are also displayed. Once the text
areas are adjusted for your needs,
press Return to boot SpeedScript.
SpeedSwap sets up its machine lan-

guage routine which loads
SpeedScript, patches itself in, and
then runs the word processor.

Only One Command

Witti SpeedSwap patched into
SpeedScript, you have complete, inde-
pendent control over two areas of text
memory. Only one command is need-
ed to switch between the two. Press
the Ctrl key and Commodore logo key
simultaneously to toggle between text
area and text area 1.

When SpeedScript's screen first ap-
pears, you'll see a in the command
line, indicating that you are now work-
ing in text area 0. Press the Ctrl key
and the = key simultaneously to see
the amount of memory allotted to this
area.

Press Ctrl-Commodore to access
area 1, indicated by a 1 in the com-
mand line. Area 1 provides 43,264
bytes minus the number of bytes in
area for text storage.

Each text area is completely inde-
pendent of the other. Text can be print-
ed from, loaded into, or saved from
one area, without disturbing or being af-
fected by the other. You can erase all
text in one area while text in the other
area remains untouched. Each area al-
so supports its own text and back-
ground colors.

!n short, every SpeedScript com-
mand behaves as though the active
text area is the only text area. One no-
table exception is SpeedScript's text
buffer; text from one area can be cop-
ied into the buffer and inserted into the
other text area. Similarly, HUNT and RE-
PLACE phrases are also portable to
each area. One handy SpeedSwap fea-
ture is cursor positioning. When you re-
turn to a text area, you'll find the cur-
sor in the same position as you left it.
This is convenient when using one
text area for viewing reference materi-
als and the other for writing.

Keep in Mind

The changes SpeedSwap makes to
SpeedScript are not permanent, so
load and run SpeedSwap whenever
you want to use it. There are a few cau-
tions that you should bear in mind,
however. Do not attempt to load a docu-
ment into a text area for which you ha-
ven't allocated enough space. For in-

stance, i* area has 21,504 bytes al-
located and you attempt to load a 100-
block document, text area will be
tilled, but the rest of the document will
spill over into area 1. The text in area
1, however, cannot be accessed, You
must erase all text in area 1 before you
can use that screen.

This could be avoided by allocating
25.600 bytes to area prior to loading
the 100-block document. Also, if you at-
tempt to load a file too large for area 1,
SpeedSwap's machine language will
be overwritten by the text, and
SpeedScript w\l crash.

Also, if you plan on using
SpeedSearch (May 1987) to search
any SpeedSwap-generated files, be
aware that documents saved from ar-
ea will have a normal load address of
9472. Documents saved from area 1,
however, will have a load address of X
* 256 where X = (number of area 1
bytes / 256) + 37. However, the load ad-
dress is irrelevant to SpeedScript. any
SpeedScr/pf enhancement program, or
any other program designed to proc-
ess SpeedScript text files.

If you plan to exit SpeedScript and
then return from BASIC, be sure that
text area is active when you quit. Oth-
erwise, text could be damaged.

SPEEDSWAP

db 10 rem copyright 1991 compu
te publications intl ltd
- all rights reserved

gp 20 poke808,234:print"{clr}
{n){h1{eV';:dimx,q$,a,b,

C,S,E,ES:X=121:E?="DATA
{SHIFT-SPACE} ERROR IN LI
NES"

AQ 30 S=828:E=934:GOSOB180: IFC
<>11409THE«PRINTE$190"-"
250:STOP

XC 40 SYSS:PRINT"S^PEEDSCRIPT 3
.2 SPEEDSWAP": PRINT "<4}
{D0WN}COPYRIGHT 1991"

MA 50 PRINT " COMPUTE PUBLICATIO
NS _I_NTL LTD": PRINT "ALL R
IGHTS RESERVED fOOWNT"

BH 60 S=53000:E=53226:GOSOB180
: IFC<>25771THENPRINTE$26
0"-"39B:SYS906:STOP

GF 7 PRINT "PRESS CRSR UP/DOWN
TO SELECT SIZE
{7 SPACES} tIN BYTES) OF
{SPACE} EACH TEXT AREA."

CM 80 PRINT"PRESS RETURN TO LO
AD SPEEDSCRIPT."

XG 90 PRINT"PRESS CTRL/C= FROM

EQ

100

MS

110

DF

120

PK

130

SP

140

BP

150

GB

160

QC 170

GO

180

AR

190

DM

200

MG

210

PG

220

BM

230

EG 24C

SQ

250

BX

260

MA

270

EB

280

HF

290

JE

300

CF

310

DB

320

WITHIN S^PEEDSCRIPT
{3 SPACES )T0 SWAP TEXT A
RE AS. {DOWN}"
F0RA=.T01: PRINT "TEXT AR
EA"ASPC(8) "DISK BLOCKS"
:NEXT

PRINT"TOTAL BYTES 43264
{3 SPACES }TOTAL BLOCKS
{ SPACE }169TWHT} {UP}"
PRINT"(2 UP}"SPC(11- (X<
77) )X*2 5 6-9 4 72SPC(13-. (X
<137)- (X<47)) " "X-37
PRINTSPCdl- (X>166) ) 529
92"(X+1) *2 5 6SPC (13-(X>1
06)-(X>196)) '■ "206-X
GETQ$:ON-(Q$="{DOWN}"OR
QS="{UP}")GOTO170:IFQ$<
>GHR$(13)THEN140
POKE 5304 1,X:X=X+1; POKE 5
320 9, X : PC KE 5321 8, X: POKE
53224, X:POKE53226,X
SYS906: PRINT" {CLRH8JL0
ADING SPEEDSCRIPT. . .":P
OKE808,237:SYSS:END
X=X+(Q9="{D0WN}")-(QS="
{UP}") :X=X-162*{(X=40)-
(X=2a3) ) :POKE646,-(X=12
1) :GOTO120

C=.:FORA=S TOE:READB:P0
KEA,B:C=C+B: NEXT: RET URN
DATA120,169,0,141,14,22
0,169,27,141,17,208,169
,91,141,20,3,169
DATA 3, 14 1,2 1,3, 16 9, 1,14
1,26,208,141,13,208,83,
96,169,58,172
DATA135,3,205,18,208,20
8,8,169,1,172,136,3,140
,32,208,140,33
DAT A208, 14 1,18, 208, 201,
1,240,8,169,1,141,25,20
8,76,188,254,169
DATA1,141,25,208,76,49,
234,0,12,0,120,169,0,14
1,26,208,141
DATA32, 208, 141, 33, 208,1
69,49,141,20,3,169,234,
141,21,3,169,1
DATA141,14,220,88,96
DATA16 9,5,162,8,168,32,
186,255,169,11,162,205,
160,207,32,189,255
DATA 16 9, 0,1 3 3, 10, 14 1,8,
32, 32,213,255,169,76,16
2,207,141,134,10
DATA142,135,10,142,11,3
2,169,121,141,177,9,169
,37,141,9,32,173
DATA29, 13, 141, 23 5,207,1
73,44,13,141,236,207,32
,55,9,76,13,3
DATA162,49, 14 2, 38, 216,1
73,11,32,201,207,240,1,
202,142,38,4,173
DATA141,2,201,6,20 8,103
,165,2,160,0,145,57,132
,162,165,162,41
DAT A16, 2 4 0,2 50, 162, 3, 18

9,12,3

,16,24

BE 330 DATA19
02,16,
32,190

MC 340 DATA21
2,136,
57,188

EC 350 DATA23
202,16
2,235,

RB 360 DATA14
13,172
3,141,

RS 370 DATA17
,9,76,
69,68,

MM 380 DATA82
,207,0
,0

DK 390 DATA0,

2,157,220

7,162,3,1

,32,157,2

247,160,1

,216,207,

6,207,138

16,240,16

,233,207,

3,207,152

,242,173,

207,140,2

1,235,207

,236,207,

236,207,1

7,57,133,

228,255,8

83,67

,73,80,84

,0,0,0,40

,207,202

89

27,207,2

6,135,8,

153

,153,8,3

2,1,181,

157

,1.49,57,

29,13,17

9,13

,173,44,

140,44,1

60,0

2,32,246

3,80,69,

,0,122,0
,0,122,0

1,0,122,0,122

Larry Hagney lives in Las Cruces. New
Mexico. O

CREDIT CONTROL

By George R. Reid

When the temptation to use a conven-
ient credit card becomes too great to
ignore, a program such as Credit Con-
trol can be a welcome financial guide
and advisor. Successful credit card
management depends on three requi-
sites: a careful budget, accurate ac-
counts, and financial discipline.

Credit Control is a simple program for
the 64 that can help you plan your ex-
penditures and alert you against over-
spending. It also provides some gener-
al fiscal advice.

Getting Started

Credit Control is written entirely in BA-
SIC. To help avoid typing errors, use
Ttie Automatic Proofreader: see "Typ-
ing Aids" elsewhere in this section. Be
sure to save a copy of the program
when you've finished typing it in.

Taking Charge

Have your monthly credit card state-
ment and any late purchase receipts
on hand when you run Credit Control.
When you first use the program or if
your financial situation later changes,
move the highlight cursor to the Statis-
tics menu option and press Return. A
series of prompts will guide you. Sim-
ply enter your card's finance charge

G-29

PROGRAMS

rate, your monthly payment date, your
self-imposed monthly credit purchase
limits, and your credit limit. After you
make these entries, you'll return to the
main menu.

To record your credit transactions, se-
lect the Data Entry option. You'll be
asked to enter the month and day of
each transaction and the seller's
name and description of items pur-
chased. (Keep the name and descrip-
tion to 13 characters or less.) For your
first entry, enter the date and balance
due from your last monthly credit state-
ment. Then enter any credit purchases
or payments made since the statement
date.

At the end of each transaction, you'll
be given several options. You may en-
ter another transaction, make changes
to previous entries, return to the main
menu, or display your current entries.
After you've entered all of your credit
card transactions, return to the menu
and select the Storage option to save
your data. You may want to save the da-
ta with a name that is similar to your
credit card's. Use any valid filename
up to 12 characters in length. Credit
Control appends a prefix of CDF to
each filename for easy identification,
but omit these letters when loading the
data back into your program.

Taking Control

After you charge an item or make a pay-
ment on your account, load your file
from the Storage option, select Data En-
try, and then enter the transaction. If
you make a payment, place a minus
sign immediately before any payment
amounts or returns. These will appear
as subtractions from the account bal-
ance. Save the file when data entry is
complete. Credit ConJro/ takes care of
everything else.

On the menu screen you'll be in-
formed of your credit card balance.
You'll also receive some friendly advice
on credit management, if necessary. A
listing of transactions and balances
can be made at any time. Error correc-
tions can be made easily for the last
two entries. Earlier errors can be recti-
fied by making a new entry that adds
or subtracts the proper amount to cor-
rect the balance.

Each credit card's account can be
maintained in a separate file. However,

G-3a COMPUTE

if you begin the system with a realistic
self-imposed monthly spending limit.
Credit Control will advise you when to
get rid of those extra cards. Also, be
aware that you don't have to accept
the card company's suggested month-
ly payment amount. Credit Control will
advise you on payment size and other
factors, too.

Keep all your credit slips handy in
an envelope or simple file. Then get in-
to the habit of regularly entering them.
Follow the program's financial advice,
enjoy Credit Control, and don't abuse
your credit with overuse.

CREDIT CONTROL

XE e

EX

10

KG

20

AK

30

ftA

40

AJ

50

MR 63

CX 70

REM COPYRIGHT 1991 - COMP
UTE PUBLICATIONS ItJTL LTD

- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

REM CREDIT CONTROL -BV G

. RE ID. CC

MX = 61:X=0:L = 1:OS'="10.5":

P$="10TH OF HONTH":H=10:

CL=1000

DIM D$(MX,4)

PRINT"{CLR5"

F0RXX=1T05:PRINT'MD0WN}"

:NEXT:GOSUB980

PRINT" {HOME} {2 DOWN}";TA

B(13) "(GRN} CREDIT

{SHIFT-SPftCEl C0NTR0L {7>"

PRINTTRB (13) "***********

CP 80 PRINT CHR5{14)

BP 90 SY$="(RVS) (CYNl":SZ$="

{0FF){7}"
GE 100 N$(1)="DATA ENTRY":N$(2

) ="DISPLAY"
AS 110 N$(3)-"ST0RAGE":N$(4) ="

STATISTICS"

N9(5)=="EXIT"

FOR C=1T05:PRINTTAB(13)

N${C) :NEXT
PRINT"(6 UP}":C=1:PRINT
TAB(13)SYSN$(1)SZS
GETG9: IFGS=""THEN150
IFG$=CHR9tl3)THEN20O
IFG$="{DOWN}"THEN PRINT

"{UP}";TAB(13)N$(C) :C=C
+ l:PRItJTTAB(13)SYSN$(C)

szs

IFC=6THENPRINT"{UP}"; :G

OTO140

GOTO150

ON C GOTO330,570,730,21

0,1240

PRINT"fCLR) [2 D0WN5STAT

ISTICAL DATA ENTRY" :PRI

NT

print"enter your new:-"
print"Tdown)annual FINA
nce charge rate"
pri«t"current is — ";0$:

SM

120

er

130

GK

140

XD

150

KR

160

CE

170

HK

180

DX

190

AE

200

AQ 210

QE 220
XS 230

GA 240

FS

250

AX

260

CP

270

AQ

280

FA

290

SJ

300

FF

310

DH

320

GQ

330

DE

340

HQ 350

BD 360

QE 370

XQ 380

HX 390

RS 400
BO 410
DR 420

RG 430

CB 440

SE 450

FG 460

MG 470

QQ 480

DD 490

BA 500

JC 510
JS 520

EB 530
QE 540

XF 550

KA 560

INPUT 0$:IFVAL(0S)<1THE
N210

PRINT"{DOWN}MONTHLY PAY
MENT DATE"

PRINT"CURRENT IS — ";P$:
INPUT P$

PRINT" {D0WN}BUDGETE0 MA
XIMUM MONTHLY CREDIT"
PRINT"PURCHASES AMOUNT
{SPACE )$"

PRINT"CORREKT IS — ";M:I
NPUT H:IFM<1THEN270
PRINT"{D0WN}ASSIGNED CR
EDIT LIMIT"

PRINT"CORRENT IS — ";CLt
INPUT CL
GOTO40

X=iX + l;Y = 0:IS = "--":IFX>M
X-lTHENPRINT" {CLR}
{D0WN}FULL FILE":X=L:G0
TO430

PRINT"{CLR} {2 D0WN)ENTE
R MONTH & DAY OF PURCHR
SE":GOSUB420
PRINT"{CLRl (2 DOWNlENTE
R SELLER'S NAHE/DESCRIP
TION":GOSUB420
PRINT"tCLR} {2 D0WN)ENTE
R AMOUNT (CHARGED OR PA
ID) $"

PRINT" (PAYMENT MUST BE
{SPACE)HINUS E.G.
{2 SPACES}-56) {DOWN)":L
=X:GOSUB420

B2=B2+VAL(D$(X,3)) :B2=I
NT (B2*100+.5)/100:DS (X,
4) =STR$ (82)

IFVAL(D$ (X,3) ) <0THENB4=
B3:B3=B2
IFX=LTHEN430
X=X+1:GOTO520
INPUTI$:Y=Y+1:DS(X,Y)=I
S:l$="--":RETURN
PRINT"{D0WN1 E=ENTER: C
=CHANGES: M=MENU: D=DIS
PLAY"

GET NS:IFNS=""THEN440
IF N$-"E"THEN330
IF N$-="C"THEN500
IF N$="M"THEN40
IF N$="D"THEN570
GOTO440

PRINT"{CLR5 {DOWNlHIT RE
TURN AFTER CHANGES OR T
BY-PASS {2 SPACES) AN E
NTRY"

X=X-1:IFX<1THENX=1
PRINT" {DOWN)ENTER NEW D
ATA AT CURSOR:-"
B2=VAL(D$(X-1,4)) : PRINT
PRINT"#";X;TAB(5) "DATE:
{3 SPACESl";DS(X,l) ; : IN
PUT D5(X,1)

PRINTTAB (5) "SELLER: " ; L
EFTS(0S(X,2) ,13) ; : INPUT

DS(X,2)
PRINTTAB (5) "AMOUNT: ";D
$ (X,3) ; :INPUT D$(X,3) :P

R1NT:GOTO380

HJ 570 G=1:C2=18:C1=C2

CH 580 PRINT"{CLR} (D0WN)";C$:P
RINT" NO DATE {2 SPACES}
SELLER/DETAIL {2 SPACES}
AMOUNT BALANCE"

AR 590 PRINT" —

{2 SPACES)

{2 SPACES)

FOR C=GTO L
PRINTC;TAB{4)LEFT$(D$ (C

,1) ,6) ;tab(10)leftS{D$C

C,2) ,13);

PRINTTAB(23) ; :F$=D$(C,3

)

GOSUB640:F$=DS(C,4) :GOS

UB640:PRINT:GOTO680

FS="{5 S PACES }*'+F$: FT $ =

RIGHTS {FS, 3) : I FLEETS (FT

S,1)="."THEN670

IFMID$ (FTS,2,1) ="."THEN

F$=FS+"0":GOTO670

F$=F5+".00"

PRINTRIGHT$(FS,8) ; :RETU

RN

IF C<ClTHEt]720

PRINT " ( DOWN } RETURN"

GET PA$:IFPAS=""THEN700

C1=C1+C2

NEXT:PRINT:GOTO430

PRINT"{CLR) {2 DOWN}":IN

PUT"ENTER FILE-NAHE";C$

PRINT" L=LOAD:

{2 SPACES}S=SAVE"

GET X$: IFXS=""THEN750

IFXS="L"THEN900

IFXS<>"S"THEN750

PRINT"WISH TO {YELj SAVE

{7} ";C$;" ? Y/N"

GETX$:IFX$=""THEN7 90

IFX$<>"Y"THEN40

OPEN 1,8,2,"@0:CDF"+C$+

",S,W"

QS=CHRS(13)

PRINT#1,P$Q$0$QSH,QSL,Q

$CL

C=lrY=l

IF OLTHEN890

A$=D$(C,Y) :PRINT#1,A$:Y

= Y+1

IF Y>4THEN Y=1:C=C+1

GOTO850

CLOSE 1: PRINT" (CLR)

{DOWN)SAVED "C$:GOTO50

OPEN 1,8,2,"0:CDF"+CS+"

,S,R"

INPUT# 1,P$,0S,H,L,CL

C=1:Y=1

IP OLTHEN970

INPUTtl,A5:D$(C,Y)=A?:y

=Y+1

IF Y>4THEN Y=1:C=C+1

GOTO930

CLOSE 1:X=L:B2=VAL(DS(C

-1,4) ) : GOTO 57

U=VAL{D$(X,4) )

UM=INT ( (U-M) *100+.5)/10

SK

600

DM

610

FE

620

BC

630

HF

640

XP

650

CH

660

MM

670

MQ

630

KG

690

ME

700

DB

710

MP

720

JS

730

■QD

740

HR

750

MH

760

AF

770

AQ

780

DG

790

MP

800

CP

810

GS

820

CM

830

JF

840

CX

850

HR

860

GG

870

RX

830

DH

890

HS

900

PK

910

FJ

920

DO

930

BS

940

PK

950

BC

960

JG

970

HE

980

MG

990

XG 1000 PRINT: PRINT" {YEL}S_ELEC
T{7} WITH CURSOR AND R
ETURN"

KQ 1010 PRINT"{2 DOWN ) " ;TAB ( 10

V M_____^^^^^, ^ 11

GC 1020 PRINT" {GRN} YOUR CURREN

T BALANCE IS 5";
BR 1030 IFU>MTHENPRINT"{3}"U"

<7>*':GOTO1050
BC 1040 PRINTU: IFU=<0THENPRINT

" CONGRATULATIONS 1":G0

TO1230
PH 1050 IF(CL-U) <CL*.2 THEN PR

INT" YOUR CREDIT LIMIT
IS $";CL
AD 1060 IFVAL(D$(X,3) ) <0THEN10

90
HD 1070 PRINT" TO AVOID FINANC

E CHARGE AT ";0$;"% AP

R,"
JA 1080 PRINT" PLEASE PAY BY "

• PS ■ " {7 J "
FA 1090 IFU=<M THEN1230
DD 1100 PRINT"'{1}BALANCE EXCEE

DS S";STR$(M) ; "-BUDGET
BY";UM
RF 1110 R=VAL(OS)/12/100:IF{a/

M*R) >.99999THEN1210
MF 1120 N=L0G(1/(1-(U/M*R)) )/L

0G(1+R)
QE 1130 PRINT" ^F NO FURTHER P

URCHASES, IT TAKES"
HE 1140 PRINTINT (N*10+.5)/10; "

MONTHS TO PAY OFF. {7}"
KD 1150 IF N<1.15THEN123a
JK 1160 IF VAL{D$(X,3))< (.25*M

)THEN IF U<B4THENPRINT

" GOOD TREND. . .BUT"
FQ 1170 IF N>2 THEN1220
KQ 1180 PRINT"<3>I_NCREASE YOUR
BUDGET TO S";INT(M*N)

r

PQ 1190 IF N<1.5THEN1230

BA 1200 PRINT" OR":GOTO1220

KD 1210 PRINT"{3J CANNOT BE RE

PAID. {2 SPACES3BUDGET

{SPACE}OF $";M;"IS

(4 SPACES3VERY LOW.

{2- SPACES) REPEAT I"
AK 1220 PRINT"{YEL} HIDE "

(SHIFT-SPACE) ¥OUR

{SHIFT-SPACE}CARD AWAY

!<7>"
CQ 1230 RETURN
AG 1240 PRINT" {2 DOWNjDID YOU

(SPACE) SAVE YOUR DATA?

U SPACES}Y/N"
JG 1253 GETS?: IF S$=""THEN1250
MA 1260 IF S$="Y"THEN PRINT"

{CLR)":END
HP 1270 GOTO40

PLOTTER

George R. Reid is a professor of busi-
ness. fHe lives in Savannah, Georgia,
and has excellent credit. D

By Daniel Lightner

Have you ever designed a screen on
the 64 tfiat you would like to use in a
program that you're writing? Poking
those character values into the proper
screen memory locations is a fast and
efficient way to do it, but determining
those poke values is another story. Plot-
ter is just the utility to help you deter-
mine those values.

Typing It In

Plotter is written entirely in machine lan-
guage. To enter it, use MLX, our ma-
chine language entry program; see
"Typing Aids" elsewhere in this sec-
tion. When MLX prompts, respond
with the following values.

Starting address: COOO
Ending address: C2Q7

Be sure to save a copy of the program
before you exit MLX.

Putting It to Work

To use the program, enter LOAD"PLOT-
TER".8,1 and then press Return.
When it has finished loading, don't run
it. Instead, type NEW, press Return,
and then enter SYS49152. If all has
gone well, the program will announce
its presence.

To see how Plotter works, place the
cursor on any character, anywhere on
the screen, Press f1. Two numbers
should appear in the upper left corner
of the screen. The first number is the
screen location of the cursor and the
number following the comma is the
poke value of the character stored at
that location.

If you load Plotter Uom the 64's open-
ing screen and go through the preced-
ing steps, you should see that Plotter
has been enabled and the word
READY should be near the bottom of
the screen. Place your cursor over the
letter R in the word READY and press
f1. At the top of the screen, you may
see 1904,18. If your cursor isn't on
line 24, you may get a different first num-
ber, but you should get an 18, which is
the value to poke to the screen to print
an R.

Now press the space bar to delete
the letter R. fvlove the cursor to any

G-31

PROGRAMS

blank line on the screen, enter POKE
1904,18, and press Return. (Use the
numbers at the top of your screen if
they are different.) The R should now
be back in the word READY. Press f7
to clear those values; then move the cur-
sor to another location and press f1
again.

How Does It Do Thot?

Plotter wedges itself into the 64's hard-
ware interrupt routine and then turns
control of the 64 back to the BASIC edi-
tor. The program waits in the back-
ground, quietly scanning the keyboard
for f1 to be pressed. When it detects
f1. it copies the characters and colors
from the first eight bytes of screen mem-
ory. P/offer writes the screen location of
the cursor and the value of the charac-
ter under the cursor to the top left cor-
ner of the screen. It then scans f7 for
a keypress. When the program detects
that the f7 key has been pressed, Plot-
ter replaces the characters at the top
of the screen that may have been over-
written.

You can disable Plotter by pressing
Run/Stop and the Restore key simulta-
neously. !t would be good practice to
disable Plotter before using the disk
drive. You can activate it again with
SYS49152.

PLOTTER

C00fl

A0

00

B9

B0

01

20

D2

FF

48

ca08

C8

00

54

D0

F5

AD

14

03

47

C010

8D

11

03

AD

15

03

8D

12

B9

C018

03

78

A 9

2B

8D

14

03

A9

8D

C020

C0

8D

15

03

58

A 9

00

80

2F

C028

20

CB

60

AE

20

CB

E0

00

95

C030

D0

16

A6

CB

E0

04

F0

03

2D

C038

6C

11

03

A2

01

8E

20

CB

0D

C040

A5

CE

8D

36

CB

6C

11

03

92

C048

A5

CF

C9

01

F0

13

AE

20

2B

C050

CB

E0

01

F0

12

E0

02

F0

28

C058

14

E0

04

F0

07

E0

03

F0

5E

C060

39

6C

11

03

4C

34

CI

4C

D6

C068

D4

C0

4C

88

CI

A9

03

8D

DE

C070

20

CB

A5

Dl

85

FB

A5

D2

01

C078

85

FC

18

A 5

D3

65

FB

85

0B

C080

FB

fl9

00

65

FC

85

FC

A5

5E

C083

FC

A6

FB

8D

34

CB

8E

33

AB

C090

CB

A2

09

8E

35

CB

A0

B0

75

C098

AD

33

CB

DD

A5

CI

AD

34

08

C0A0

CB

FD

A6

CI

90

0F

8D

34

38

C0A8

CB

AD

33

CB

FD

AS

CI

80

36

C0B0

33

CB

C8

D0

E3

98

CA

F0

EC

caB8

10

C9

B0

F0

03

8D

35

CB

5E

C0C0

2C

35

CB

30

04

A9

00

F0

D9

C0C8

05

29

7F

20

7B

CI

CA

10

91

C0D0

C5

6C

11

03

A9

02

8D

20

33

cBoa

CB

A0

00

A9

00

85

FB

A9

BA

G-32

COMPUTE

•

C0E0

04

85

FC

A9

21

85

FD

A9

C4

C0E8

CB

85

FE

Bl

FB

91

FD

C8

97

C0F0

C0

08

00

F7

A0

00

A9

00

06

C0F8

85

FB

A9

08

85

FO

A9

29

9B

C100

85

FD

A9

CB

85

FE

Bl

FB

3F

C108

91

FD

C8

C0

08

00

F7

A9

16

C110

03

BD

00

08

3D

01

D8

80

B5

C118

02

D8

8D

03

08

80

04

08

92

C120

8D

05

08

80

06

D8

8D

07

55

C128

D8

A2

04

86

FE

A2

00

86

B2

C130

FD

6C

11

03

A5

CB

09

03

13

C138

F0

03

6C

11

03

A9

00

80

OF

C140

20

CB

A0

00

A9

00

85

FB

2F

C148

A9

04

85

FC

A9

21

85

FD

FC

C150

A9

CB

85

FE

Bl

FO

91

FB

E0

C158

C8

C0

03

00

F7

A0

00

A9

en

C160

00

85

FB

A9

08

85

FC

A9

OF

C168

29

85

FD

A9

CB

85

FE

Bl

60

C170

FD

91

FB

C8

00

03

00

F7

23

C178

6C

11

03

8C

31

CB

A0

00

99

C180

91

FD

E6

FD

AC

31

CB

60

2B

ciaa

A9

20

8D

06

04

80

07

04

63

C190

fl9

2C

20

7B

CI

AD

36

CB

AC

C198

85

FB

A9

00

85

FC

A9

04

8A

C1A0

80

20

CB

4C

87

C0

01

00

72

C1A8

0A

00

64

00

E8

03

10

27

58

C1B0

BD

00

9A

43

4F

50

59

52

46

ciaa

49

47

48

54

20

31

39

39

72

C1C0

31

00

43

4F

4D

50

55

54

28

C1C8

45

20

50

55

42

4C

49

43

6F

C1D0

41

54

49

4F

4E

53

20

49

71

C108

4E

54

40

20

4C

54

44

00

60

C1E0

41

4C

4C

20

52

49

47

43

32

C1E8

54

53

20

52

45

53

45

52

EB

C1F0

56

45

44

00

0D

50

4C

4F

DB

C1F8

54

54

45

52

20

45

4E

41

7D

C200

42

4C

45

44

00

00

00

00

Ae

Daniel Lightner lives in Sidney, fvlon-
tana. He is the author of Noahs Arc,
which was published in July 1991. O

SHOWDOWN

By Arihant Jain

Some games are very simple to play,
but difficult to master. Showdown is
such a game.

This board game for one or two play-
ers resembles Chinese checkers. The
board has 32 pegs arranged in in a
cross-shaped grid, with one open po-
sition in the center. The object is to
clear the board of as many pegs as pos-
sible. You remove a peg by jumping it
with an adjacent peg, but you must
land in an empty space. If that space
has a peg in it, you can't jump.

Typing It In

Stiowdown is written entirely in BASIC.
To avoid typing errors, enter the pro-
gram with The Automatic Proofreader:
see "Typing Aids" elsewhere in this sec-

tion. Be sure to save a copy of the pro-
gram when you've finished typing it in.

Let's Ploy

When you run Showdown, you'll be
asked whether you want to play or
watch a replay ot an earlier game.
Since there will be nothing to watch at
first, press P for play.

You'll then be asked whether you
want to play singles or a combined ef-
fort. If you elect to play alone, make
sure your joystick is in port 2. When
two people play, two joysticks are re-
quired, and players take turns jumping
pegs.

Pegs are removed automatically
when you jump them. Remember that
you can jump a peg only if you are
next to it and the space on the other
side of the jumped peg is vacant. You
can only jump up, down, left, or right.
Diagonal moves are not allowed.

Use the joystick to position your cur-
sor on any peg you like. To jump,
press the fire button and then move
the stick in the direction you want to
jump. If the move is legal, the comput-
er will make the move and remove the
jumped piece. You'll get a message if
a move is illegal.

When you have removed as many
pegs as possible, press the @ key to re-
ceive your score and a message
about how well you played. If you are
sharp and have planned your moves
carefully, it's possible to remove all the
pegs but one.

Watch a Replay

When you've finished a game, you'll be
asked if you want to save it. Saving
games will give you a chance to
watch each move again and see
where you went wrong. It'll also give
you a chance to prove to others how
brilliantly you played.

If you decide to save a game. Show-
down will ask for a filename and then
your name. The game and each move
will be saved to disk.

To see a saved game, press R for re-
play on the opening screen and supply
the filename. The game board will ap-
pear, and Showdown will automatical-
ly play back every move you made dur-
ing thai game. You can slow down the
replay moves by pressing L or make
them move faster by pressing F.

SHOWDOWN

QF 100

FR 110

AK 120

PC 130

Rft 140

JA 150

HB 160

RX 170

SP 180

XS 190
HX 200

FA 210

PX 220

GQ 230

KX 240

SM 250

MG 260

HS 270

FC 280

SR 290

JJ 300

HE 310

EE 320
BH 3 30
DQ 34 9

DD 350

BH 360

AJ 370

DX 380

KQ 390
QS 400

DIMF(2a00) ,G(2000)

GOSUB 880

GOSUB1000

S = 1475:0=1274:3=1391:

C=1397:H=0:W=0:F=0:G=0:

U =

PRINT" (CLR) {HOME} (BLK)"

:P0KE 53280, 13:P0KE5328

1,12

PRINT" (4 DOWN)

(10 RIGHT}{RVSJ

{4 SPACES HDOWN} (LEFT}

(SPACE} (DOWN} (LEFT}

{5 LEFT} (UP} (LEFT}

{UP} (LEFT) "

PRINT" {HOME} {7 DOWN}

{7 RIGHT){RVS}

{3 S PACES} {OFF} WWW (RVS}

{3 SPACES} {OFF} {UP}

{6 LEFT} WWW "

PRINT"(DOWN} {7 RIGHT}

(RVS} {DOWN} (LEFT}

{DOWN} {LEFT} {DOWN}

{LEFT}{3 SPACES} {OFF}W

{RVS}W{OFF}W{RVS}

{3 SPACES) {UP}{LEFT}

{UP5(LEFT} {up} {LEFT}

{8 LEFT} {OFF}";

P R I NT " WWWWVJWW ( DOW N }

(7 LEFT} WWW~WWW "

PRINT" {8 RIGHT } WWWWWWW "

PRINT"{D0WN3 {9 RIGHT}

{RVS} {0FF} WWW CRVS}

{OFF}"

PRINT" (9 RIGHT} (RVS}

(5 SPACES}"

IFH=-1THEN 1190

V=2

IFV=3THEN V=l

IFI=0THENV=2

JO=USR{V) :GETAS

IF(JOAND15)=1THENW=-40:

GOTO480

IF {J0AND15) =4THENW=-1:G

OTO480

IF(J0AND15)=8THENW=1:G0

TO480

IF(J0AND15) =2THENW=40:G

OTO480

IF(JOAND16)=0THEN GOT03

40

IF A$ ="@" THEN 610

GOTO 240

JO=USR(V) :IF(JOAND15)=0

THEN GOTO340

IF(J0AND15) =lTHENW=-40:

GOTO400

IF (J0AND15) =4THENW=-1:G

OTO400

IF{J0AND15) =8THENW=1:G0

TO400

IF{JOAND15)=2THENW=40:G

OTO400

GOTO 240

Y=S+W:R=0;IF PEEK(S)=21

5THEN R=R+1

KF 410 IPPEEK(Y)=87THENR=R+1
GG 420 IFPEEK(S+W+W)=32THENR=R

+ 1
KF 430 IFR=3 THEN 450
BX 440 GOTO 530
JE 450 M=M+1:POKES,32:POKES+W,

32:GOSUB560:POKE S+W+W,

215:S=S+W+W: V=V+l:a=U+l
XH 460 F(U}=1:G(U)=W
PB 470 GOTO 240
JS 480 J=0:Z=PEEK(S) :y=S+W :IF

PEEK(Y) =87THENQ=87:J=J+

1
AH 490 IFPEEK(Y)=32THENQ=32:J=

J + 1
FD 500 IF J=l THEN 520
SB 510 GOSUB 530
KH 520 POKES, Z-128:POKES+W,Q+l

28:S=S+W:U=U+1:F(U)=0:G

(U)=W:G0TO 240
QM 530 PRINT"{HOME}{22 D0WN}IL

LEGAL MOVE": GOSUB 560
DQ 540 PRINT" {HOME} (22 DOWN}

{12 SPACES}"
SG 550 G0T0(2 SPACES} 240
HR 560 REM
EE 570 POKE54296,15:POKE54277,

64:POKE5427 3,162:POKE54

272,37
SQ 580 POKE54276,17:FORT=1TO20

0:NEXT
HJ 590 POKE54276,16:FORT=1TO50

:NEXT
HP 600 RETURN
MK 610 J=32-M:F(U+1)=-1:G(U+1)

=

BX 620 PRINT"(CLR} (2 DOWN)";J;

"PEGS REMAINING{2 DOWN}
II

AR 630 IPJ>10THEN PRINT"POOR!"

:W=-1:GOTO700
FG 640 IFJ>7THEN PRINT "SATISFA

CTORY PLAY !":W=-1:GOT07

00
HA 650 IFJ>5THEN PRINT "GOOD !" ;

W=4:GOTO700
RH 660 IFJ>3THEN PRINT"GREAT ! "

:W=5:GOTO700
BQ 670 IFJ>2THEN PRINT"WELL PL

AYED ! " :W=1 1 : GOTO700
FH 680 IFJ>1THEN PRINT"MISSED 1

":W=6:GOTO700
BX 690 IFJ>0THEN PRINT"DID IT!

":W=6:GOTO700
EB 700 PRINT" {3 D0WN3wANT TO S

AVE? (Y/N)"
QF 710 GETK$:IF KS=""THEN710
JB 720 IF K$<>"N"ANDKS<>"Y"THE

N 710
KQ 730 IFKS-"N" THEN 800

XF 740 INPUT"FILENAHE";N5:INPU

T"YOUR NAME";M$
SR 750 OPEN15,B,15:OPEN2,8,2,"

ia0:"+N9+",S,W"
HG 760 PRINT#2,M$:F0RV=1T0U+1
JB 770 PRINT#2,F(V)
RM 780 PRINT#2,G(V) :NEXT V
JS 790 CL0SE2:CL0SE15

AA 800 PRINT" {3 □OWN}WANT TO P

LAY? (Y/N)"
FB 810 IFW<0THENGOTO840
JD 820 QZ=4*40:FORK=QZ+55336TO
QZ+553 36+W;POKEK,V:V=V+
1:IFV>255THENV=0
QP 830 NEXT K
AH 840 GET MS: IF M$="" THEN 31

CG 850 IF H5="S"THENPRINT"

{CLR}":END
PB 860 IF M$="Y" THENGOTO 120
JQ 870 GOTO 840
MK 880 JJ=49152:JH=INT (JJ/2S6)
; JL=JJ--JH*256:P0KE785,J
L;POKE786,JH
SC 890 FORK=JJTOJJ+67:READ Y:P

OKEK,Y:NEXT
RQ 900 DATA 120,70,97,176,21,1

69,127,141
FS 910 DATA 0,220, 173, 1;220, 20

1,255,240
QE 920 DATA 4,169,31,208,13,17

3,0,220
PC 930 DATA 16,8,169,255,141,0

,220,173
XC 940 DATA 1,220,41,31,73,15,

208,4
HH 950 DATA 133,97,240,23,133,

98,169,136
BA 960 DATA 133,97,169,0,133,9

9,133,100
CX 970 DATA 133,101,133,102,19

8,97,6,98
CF 980 DATA 16,250,88,96
CE 990 RETURN

QB 1000 PRINT"(CLR}{2 DOWN}PLA
Y, WATCH A REPLAY (P/R
)"CHRS(142)
ER 1010 GETF$:IFF$=""THEN1010
RR 1020 IFF$="P" THEN 1050
KR 1030 IFF$="R"THEN 1120
HS 1040 GOTO 1010
JQ 1050 PRIOT"{CLR}{2 D0WN}0NE
OR TWO PLAYER GAME? (
1/2)"
GR 1060 GET 1$: :IFI$=""THEN106

PB 1070 IFI$="1"THEN I=0:GOTO1

100
DG 1080 IFIS-"2" THENI=1:G0T0

{SPACE}990
QH 1090 GOTO 1060
JQ 1100 H=0:PRINT"{2 DOWN}JOYS

TICK IN PORT 2"
SP 1110 PRINT"PRESS "CHR$(34)"
@"CHRS (34)" TO END":FO
R E=l TO 900:NEXT:RETU
RN
JF 1120 U=0:N=0:INPUT"FILENAME

"|N$
QR 1130 OPEN15,8,15:OPEN2,8,2,
"0:"+N$+",S,R": INPUT#2
,M$
MK 1140 GOTO 1330
EA 1150 INPUT#2,F(U) ,G(U)
DS 1160 IFF(U)=-1 THEN U=U-1;G
OTO1180

G-33

PROGRAMS

KF 1170 U=U+1:G0T0 1150

FR 1180 H=-1:PRIKT"{CLR}":G0T0

150
XD 1190 S=1475:TIt=200
XH 1200 FOR V=0TO(J
GJ 1210 E=S+G(V) :GETA$
KR 1220 IF F(V)=0THEN POKES , PE

EK(S>-128;POKE E,PEEK(

E) +128:S=S+G(V)
EG 1238 IF F(V)»1 THENPOKES,32

:P0KEE,32:POKEE+G(V) ,2

15 :S=S+G{V) +G{V) :GOSU

B560
JP 1240 IFA$="F"THENTI%=TI%-50
HF 1250 IFA$="L"THENTI%=TI»+50
CJ 1260 IF TI%>1000THENTI|=100

RA 1270 IF TI%<0THENTII=0
HR 1280 F0RA=1T0TI%:NEXT:NEXTV

:PRINT"BY:";M$

QH 1290 PRINT" {2 DOWN HRVS} PRE

SS SPACE BAR TO CONTIN

OE"
HJ 1300 GETA$:IFAS<>" "THEN 13

00
JA 1310 CLOSE2:CLOSE15
SR 1320 RESTORE:GOTO 110
XM 1330 INPUT|15,EN,EMS,ET,ES
XQ 1340 IF EN>0THENPRINTEH5:GO

TO 1360
AH 1350 GOTO 1150
XH 1360 CLOSE15:CLOSE2;GOTO 11

20

Arihant Jain lives in Ludlniana, a city in
northwest India. □

MEDIUM-DENSITY
DRIVER

By Matthew Spinks

Over the years, I've done a good deal
of graphics w/ork on my computer that
has included platting graphs and draw-
ing pictures. I've always been frustrat-
ed by the high-resolution graphics sys-
tem used by the 64. It's generally more
trouble than it's worth when all you
want to do is plot a simple graph or pic-
ture.

At the other extreme of the graphics
spectrum, the resolution of the normal
text screen is usually too low to provide
the detail required by straightforward
graphs or pictures. What is needed is
a graphics mode between the two ex-
tremes, a mode which offers a reasona-
ble resolution but avoids the complexi-
ty associated with bitmapped graphics.

Such a graphics mode does exist. If
you enter PRINT CHR$(190): PRINT
G-a-i COMPUTE

CHR$(188): PRINT CHR${187): PRINT
CHR$(172), you'll see four characters
on the screen. Each one fills one quad-
rant of a whole text cell. These charac-
ters enable the normal text screen to be
turned into a medium-resolution graph-
ics screen which has twice the resolu-
tion of the ordinary text screen. This for-
mat provides new screen dimensions of
80 points horizontally by 50 points ver-
tically, an overall resolution of 4000
plot points.

This medium-density graphics mode
has an attractive, chunky feel to it and
is excellent for plotting graphs and draw-
ing simple pictures. It also allows text
and graphics to coexist peacefully. Un-
like bitmap mode, the medium-density
graphics mode requires no extra mem-
ory to store graphics data, and it re-
quires only a small graphics driver. Per-
haps best of all, the medium-density
graphics mode is simple and easy to
use.

Entering the Program

Medium-Densily Driver is a short rou-
tine written entirely in machine lan-
guage. To enter it, use MLX. our ma-
chine language entry program; see
"Typing Aids" elsewhere in this sec-
tion. When MLX prompts, respond
with the following values,

Starting address: 033C
Ending address: 03D3

When you've finished typing, be sure
to save a copy of the program before
exiting MLX.

The driver sits safely in the cassette
buffer, leaving the overused area at
49152 (SCOOO) free for your own pro-
grams. This lets you plot individual
points to the normal text screen.

After you've typed in a copy of the
driver, you can then use it to create
your own medium-density graphic
screens. To use it, simply load the ma-
chine language program with the ,8,1
extension and type NEW. This NEW
command is necessary because it re-
sets some Important BASIC pointers.

The Plot Thickens

To plot graphs or pictures, simply use
the command SY3828, x, y, on/off, col-
or. Here x and y are the screen coor-
dinates for points to be plotted. The

range is 0-79 on the x-axis and 0-49
along the y-axis. On/off is a flag which
determines whether or not a point is
plotted or erased. If on/off = 1, a point
will be plotted. If on/off = 0, a point
will be erased. Color, of course, is the
color of the point to be plotted and
should be in the range 0-15, represent-
ing the standard Commodore colors.

For example, to plot a white point at
the top left-hand corner of the screen,
enter the following command:

SYS828, 0, 0, 1,1

Similarly, to erase a point at the oppo-
site corner (the bottom right-hand cor-
ner), the command SYS828, 79, 49, 0,
1 would be used. Note that despite the
fact that we are erasing a point, the col-
or must still be specified. This is nec-
essary because the program checks
all parameters, and if any value falls out-
side the ranges mentioned or if any
parameter is missing, you'll get a SYN-
TAX ERROR.

Points to Ponder

Because the medium-density graphics
mode uses the normal text screen and
color memories, setting the color of
one point will also affect the color of
the neighboring three points. Some
care must be taken when plotting in
more than one color to achieve the de-
sired effect. Although this may seem
like a drawback at first, it does have
the advantage of allowing text and stan-
dard Commodore graphics characters
to be integrated onto the graphics
screen.

Text can be printed and character
values can be poked to the screen in
the normal way. Note, however, that
with the graphics driver you can nei-
ther erase text or nongraphtcs charac-
ters nor plot over text or other char-
acters. This prevents text and other
graphics from being accidentally
erased.

A Demonstration

Demo is a short demonstration pro-
gram written entirely in BASIC. It will
give you some idea of how you can
use the driver. To help prevent typing
errors, use The Automatic Proofreader
to type it in; see "Typing Aids" else-
where in this section.

Demo plots Lissajous figures.
These are a series of curves found by
combining perpendicular harmonic mo-
tions. They are commonly exhibited by
feeding two harmonic frequencies into
an oscilloscope's X and V input cir-
cuits. (Don't worry. You don't have to un-
derstand Lissajous figures to see how
the program works. They're easier to
demonstrate than to explain.)

Before running the demonstration,
make sure Driver is already in memo-
ry. When running the demonstration,
try experimenting with the values the
program asks for. Entering 1,2 will pro-
duce entirely different results than will
2,1.

The patterns produced will be in mon-
ochrome, but you can easily add color
by changing the value of the color var-
iable, C, in line 270. For a rainbow of
color, try Demo with these lines added.

262 C=C+1

264 IF C°16 THEN C=0

Now that you have an idea of how Me-
dium-Density Dr/Verworks, try creating
some figures or patterns of your own.

MEDIUM DENSITY DRIVER

033C

•A0

03

8C

D2

03

20

00

E2

8D

a34'l

8A

AC

D2

03

D9

BE

03

80

C5

034C

6E

99

D3

03

88

10

EB

A9

A0

0354

02

SD

D7

03

4E

D5

03

90

4A

035C

06

as

D7

03

0E

D7

03

4E

38

0364

D6

03

90

03

4E

D7

03

AE

5F

036C

D5

03

20

F0

E9

AD

D6

03

E7

0374

18

65

Dl

85

Dl

90

02

E6

2E

037C

D2

20

24

EA

A0

00

Bl

Dl

61

0384

A2

0F

OD

C2

03

F0

04

CA

36

038C

10

F8

60

AD

D4

03

F0

lA

6E

0394

E0

0F

F0

15

AD

D3

03

91

92

039C

F3

SA

2C

D7

03

D0

0A

18

C9

03A4

6D

D7

03

AA

BD

C2

03

91

F2

3 AC

Dl

60

8A

2C

D7

03

F0

F9

6E

03B4

38

ED

t:7

03

4C

A7

03

4C

D0

03BC

08

AF

10

02

32

50

20

7C

64

03C4

7E

E2

6C

El

7F

FB

7B

FF

51

3CC:

61

EC

62

FE

FC

A0

00

00

65

DEMO

ex 100 REM DRIVER DEMONSTRATIO

N
BF 110 REM COPYRIGHT 1991 - CO

MPUTE PUBLICATIONS INTL
LTD - ALL RIGHTS RESER

VED
JB 120 REM MAKE SURE DRIVER IS

IN MEMORY!
DK 130 :
KX 135 PI=3. 14159

JS 140

GK 150

RD 160

RX 170

QE 180

BH 190

DR 200

HP 210

XM 220

MR 230

QP 240

SF 250

RR 260

POKE 53280, 11:P0KE 5328

PRINTCHR$(147)CHRS (5)
PRINTTAB(ll) "LISSAJOUS
{SPACE}FIGURES"CHRS (17)
PRINT"PRESS ANY KEY AFT
ER VIEWING FIGURE"
PRINTCHRS (17) "ENTER ANY

TWO NUMBERS, EACH"
INPUT"WITH VALUES LESS
{SPACE}THAN 5";X,Y
IF X>5 OR Y>5 THEN 180
PR1NTCHR$ (147)
FL^lrGOSUB 260
WAIT
260

198,1

POKE 198,0

FL=0:GOSUB

END

FOR T=l TO 2*PI*100+(10

*PI* (X+Y) )
JK 270 SYS 828, (1+SIN (X*T) ) *40

, (l+COS (Y*T) )*25,FL,C
SD 280 NEXT
SK 290 RETURN

Matthew Spinks,
Make/- (May 1991)
ria, Australia.

who wrote Loader-
, lives in Erica, Victo-

□

RAPIDFORMAT128

By f*/1ahmood Hasan Merchant
A number of fast formatting programs
have been around for the 64 ever since
the 1541 disk drive was introduced by
Commodore. These programs greatly im-
prove the performance of the drive in
terms of time saved.

Commodore probably took a lesson
from these programmers and added a
much more efficient format routine into
its 1571 disk drive. The drive formats a
double-sided disk in 41 seconds, but
wouldn't we all appreciate an even fast-
er procedure? RapidFormat 128
should do the trick.

RapidFormat t28 is an easy-to-use,
prompt-driven program for the 128 that
cuts almost in half the time required to
format all 70 tracks of a double-sided
disk. II will format a single-sided disk in
a mere 12 seconds.

Getting Started

RapidFormat 128 is written entirely in
BASIC. To help prevent typing errors,
use The Automatic Proofreader to
type it in; see "Typing Aids" elsewhere
in this section. When you've finished typ-
ing, be sure to save a copy of the pro-
gram. When you type RUN, the data

will be read and written to disk as
RapidFormat, a machine language pro-
gram.

Once RapidFormat has been gener-
ated, it can be loaded and activated
with the command RUN "RAPIDFOR-
MAT". At this point you should remove
the disk containing the program and in-
sert the disk which is to be formatted.
You are prompted to indicate whether
you wish to format only the top side (for
1541 use) or both sides of the disk. If
you frequently need to access your
files both in the 64 and 128 modes,
then it may be a good idea to format on-
ly the top side ol the disk. This will pre-
vent the annoying Illegal Track or Sec-
tor error message which results when
part of the file being accessed lies on
a disk's second side.

To V or Not to V?

Next you have to specify whether you
wish to verify the format. If verification
is enabled, each sector on every track
is read and checked for errors. If any
are spotted, they are reported by the
program. However, choosing this op-
tion will slow down the formatting some-
what. To format a disk at maximum
speed, omit the verify option.

This option is provided to meet the
needs of various users. Write errors oc-
cur rarely with the 1571, and if you
have reasonable faith in the head align-
ment of your drive (1571s are more
trustworthy in this regard than older
1541s), then you may save time by
choosing not to verify. As long as the
disk used is at least of average quali-
ty, there shouldn't be any problems.

If, however, the idea of not verifying
makes you nervous, then you have the
option. I would strongly advise you to
verify if you are using generic or low-
quality disks or if you wish to format
both sides of a disk which is certified
only for single-side use. In these cas-
es, the caution and the extra time are
probably worth it.

Enter a name for the disk as you
would in a conventional format routine.
Be sure it is no longer than 16 charac-
ters and is followed by a 2-character
ID, This ID is written as a sort of signa-
ture to every sector on the disk, and its
main purpose is to indicate to the
drive when a disk has been changed.

Once you press Return, the disk will

35

PROGRAMS

start to format. Make sure that the disk
containing RapidFormat is not in the
dnve. To be safe, put write-protect
tabs on disks that contain programs or
valuable data. RapidFormat checks for
write-protect tabs. If it finds one, the
disk will not be formatted, and an error
message will be displayed. Using write-
protect tabs on all valuable disks is a
good practice to follow.

How It Works

RapidFormat works by reprogramming
the disk drive. It transfers a section of
code to the buffer at address $0500.
Once activated, the program copies
the standard format routine from the
drive ROM to the internal RAM and
makes a few changes to it.

If the verify option is not chosen,
these routines are bypassed. Addition-
al time is saved by using a fixed value
to space out sectors on all tracks. The
standard format routine writes and re-
writes on each track to calculate the in-
dividual length of gaps between sec-
tors.

This modification, coupled with fast-
er changing of tracks, brings about the
speed improvement of RapidFormat.
Disks formatted with this program
work just as well as those formatted us-
ing the standard routine.

RAPIDFORMAT 128

SH 10 BANK1:SCNCLR:COLOR0,15:C

0L0B4,15:C0L0R5,2
EC 20 PRINTCHR$(18) "

(16 SPACES}786/1I0

{17 SPACES}";
PC 33 PRINT" [11 SPACES }RAPIDFO

RMAT - 1571(11 SPACES}";
MQ 40 PRINT" COPYRIGHT 1991 -

(SPACE }C0MPUTE PUBS INTL
LTD ";
DE 50 PRINT"{11 SPACES}ALL RIG

HTS RESERVED (10 SPACES}"

AG 70 SA=7169:EA=8153:DT=16
DA 80 PRINTCHRS (17)SPC(14) "REA
DING ML!"CHR$ (17)CKRS(17

)
PF 90 FOR1=0TODT-2:READ DS:D=D

EC{DS)
GS 100 CHARl,ll,ia:PRINT"LOADI
NG AT:(2 SPACES}";HEX$(
SA + I)

QM 110 pokesa+i,d:ck«CK+d;next

:READ DS:D=DEC{D$) :CK=C

KAND255
DB 120 IFDOCKTHENBEGIN
QK 130 :PRINTCHR$(17)"DATA ERR

G-36 COMPUTE

OR IN LINE";

KD 140 :PRINTPEEK(65)+256*PEEK

(66) :STOP
FR 150 BEND
PR 160 SA=SA+DT-I:CK=0:IFSA<=E

AGOTO90
JK 170 PRINTCHRS (17)CHRS(17) "P
RESS "CHR$(18)" RETURN
(SPACE}";
XA 180 PRINTCHRS (146) " TO SAVE

' RAPIDFORMAT ' " ; : INPUTD
$
XA 190 BSAVE"RAPIDFORMAT",Bl,P
(7169) TO P(EA+1) :PRINT
DS5
MB 200 END
QR 210 :
JS 220 :
FC 1000 DATA 49,1C,0A,00,99,22

,93, 22, A3, 35, 29, 22, 12,

20,52,86
BH 1010 DATA 20,41,20,50,20,49

, 20, 44, 20, 46, 20, 4F, 20,

52,20,05
HM 1020 DATA 40,20,41,20,54,20

,20,20,31,35,37,31,20,

92,22,31
HK 1030 DATA 3A, 20, 4E , 24 ,B2, 22

,22,3A,56,24,B2,22,22,

3A,49,EF
QK 1040 DATA 44 , 24 ,B2, 22 , 22, 3A

, 53, 24, B2, 22, 22, 00, 74,

1C,14,A9
XE 1050 DATA 00, 99, A3, 35, 29, 22

,12,20,20,20,28,31,39,

39,30,29
XM 1060 DATA 29,20,20,40,41,48

,4D,4F,4F, 44, 20,40,45,

52,43,B5
XE 1070 DATA 48, 41, 4E, 54, 20, 20

,20,92,22,00,9E,1C,1E,

00,99,80
KF 1080 DATA 22, 11, 11, 46, 4F, 52

,40,41,54,20,54,59,50,

45,3A,A9
BS 1090 DATA 20,20,12,20,31,20

, 92, 20, 20, 42, 4F, 54, 48,

20,53,35
FG 1100 DATA 49,44,45,53,11,22

, 00, BE, IC, 28, 00, 99, A3,

31,34,FB
SX 1110 DATA 29,22,12,20,32,20

, 92, 20, 20, 54, 4F, 50, 20,

53,49,50
PQ 1120 DATA 44,45,20,4F,4E,4C

,59, 22, 00,04,10,32,00,

99,A3,6B
XC 1130 DATA 31,35,29,22,11,31

,9D,9D,9D,22,3B,3A,85,

53,24,50
XB 1140 DATA 00,EC,1C,3C,00,8B

,A8, 53, 24,62,22,31,22,

AF,A8,6C
PX 1150 DATA 53, 24, B2, 22, 32, 22

,89,35,30,00,FF,1C,41,

00,88,74
PH 1160 DATA 53,24,B2,22,32,22

,A7,53,24,B2,22,30,22,

00,12,F5

AJ 1170 DATA ID, 43, 00, 53,24,82

,C7,28,C6,28,53,24,29,

AB,34,E5
X8 1180 DATA 38,29,30,38,10,46

,00,99,22,11,11,56,45,

52,49,0F
EJ 1190 DATA 46, 59, 3F, 20, 28, 59

,2F,4E,29,22,A3,31,3S,

29,22,98
GS 1200 DATA 4E,9D,9D,9D,22,3B

,3A,85,4E,24,00,50,1D,

50,00,70
AB 1210 DATA 88 , A8 , 4E , 24 ,B2 , 22

,59,22,AF,A8,4E,24,B2,

22,4E,DF
EX 1220 DATA 22 , 39 , 3 1 , 30 , 00 , 6A

,10,55,00,56,24,82,22,

30,22,88
BB 1230 DATA 3A,8B,4E, 24,82,22

,59, 22, A7, 56,24,82,22,

31,22,CE
XR 1240 DATA 00 , 7D, ID, 57 , 00 , 56

,24,B2,C7,2a,C6,28,56,

24,29,90
MX 1250 DATA AB , 34 , 38 , 29 , 00 , 94

, ID, 5A, 00, 99, 22, 11, 11,

4E,41,B7
XX 1260 DATA 40,45, 22 , A3, 31 , 33

,29,38,3A,85,4E,24,00,

AD, ID, 1 A
PK 1270 DATA 64 , 00 , 8B,C3 , 28 , 4E

,24,29,B2,3O,B0,C3,28,

4E,24,64
HD 1280 DATA 29,81,31,36,89,31

,30,00,C2,1D,6E,00,99,

22,11,44
BB 1290 DATA 49 , 44 , 22, A3, 31 , 33

, 29, 38, 3A, 85, 49, 44, 24,

00,D4,5E
PM 1300 DATA 10,78,00,38,03,28

,49,44,24,29,33,81,32,

8 9,31,3 5
AX 1310 DATA 30,0a,DE, 10,82, 00

,9E,37,37,32,30,00,FB,

1D,8C,BF
EH 1320 DATA 00 , 99 , A3 , 31 , 34 , 29

,22,11,11,11,12,20,46,

4F,52,38
RK 1330 DATA 4D , 41 , 54 , 54 , 49 , 4E

,47, 20, 92, 22, 00, 26, IE,

96,00,C2
EK 1340 DATA 9F , 31 , 35 , 20, 38 , 2C

,31,35,3A,98,31,35,2C,

22,55,06
GA 1350 DATA 34,22,53,24,56,24

,49,44,24,22,2C,22,4E,

24,3A,14
FE 1360 DATA A0, 31 , 35 , 3A, 99 , 44

,53,24,00,00,00,A6,BA,

A0,0F,A3
XD 1370 DATA A9 , 00 , 20 , 38 , F7 , 8 5

,87,20,C0,FF,A6,B8,20,

C9,FF, 59
«E 1380 DATA 20 , 7D,FF, 55 , 30 , 3E

,52,01,00,20,CC,FF,A9,

05,A0,E8
RB 1390 DATA 00 ,85,FB, 84 ,FA, A2

XA

uee

BH

1410

DH

1420

EF

1430

BE

1440

RR

1450

CO

1460

BD

1470

CR

1480

HG

1490

RR

1500

SM

1510

MG

1520

BR

1530

AG

1540

PG

1550

GP

1560

HJ

1570

JC

1580

RC

1590

HQ

1600

PX

1610

,aA,8 6,FE,A9,AF,85,FC,

A9,1E,CE

DATA 85,FD,A5,BA,20,3E

,E3,A9,6F,20,D2,E4,A9,

40,20,26

DATA 03,E5,A9,2D,20,03

,E5,fl9,57,20,03,E5,A5,

FA, 20,80

DATA 03,E5,A5,FB,20,03

,E5,A9,20,20,03,E5,A0,

00,Bl,B2

DATA FC,20,03,E5,C8,C0

,20,90,F6,20,26,E5,18,

A5,FC,16

DATA 69, 20, 85, FC, 90, 02

,E6,FD,13,R5,FA,69,20,

8 5,FA,3E

DATA 90,02,S6,FB,C6,FE

,D0,AF,4C,E7,FF,4C,46,

05,20,9F

DATA C2,05,20,7C,87,A2

,00,8e,0B,A2,24,8e,0A,

AD, 02, 22

DATA 02,85,1F,F0,08,A9

, 80,85,02, AS, 02, 30, FC,

A2,01,F4

DATA 86,0A,A9,E0,85,02

,A5,02,30,FC,C9,02,90,

03,4C,1D

DATA 0A,E6,20,05,F0,A9

,24,A6,1F,F0,02,A9,47,

A0,07,20

DATA 8C,7A,02,4C,73,A7

,AD,00,1C,29,I0,D0,05,

A9,08,F6

DATA 4C,B5,99,A9,60,85

,20,A5,0A,a5,51,85,67,

20,4B,24

DATA F2, 85, 43, 20, 50, 06

,A5,1F,F0,10,20,F8,93,

1B,A5,5C

DATA 51,69,23,85,51,20

,50,06,20,F5,9 3,A6,0A,

E8,E0,49

DATA 24,00,12,86,14,20

,E7,87,C6,14,D0,F9,A2,

12,86,08

DATA 0A,A9,01,4C,B5,99

,86,0A,BD,08,94,85,44,

AD, 00, AD

DATA IC, 29, 9F, 05,44,80

,00,1C,20,DF,87,20,DF,

87,A5,87

DATA IF, 00,03,40,46,05

,C6,64,C6,64,20,F8,93,

20,DF,87

DATA a7,20,DF,87,20,F5

,93,4C,46,05,20,FE,05,

A9,E9,01

DATA A0,06,8D,77,07,8C

,78,07,A9,01,8D,CD,06,

A9,0A,79

DATA 80, 20, 06, A9, 08, 80

,26,06,A9,C5,A0,0 7,8D,

B9,07,7F

DATA 8C,BA,07,A9,60,8D

,EE, 07, AD, 03, 02, 00,05,

A9,4C,54

KX 1620 DATA 8D, 9A, 07 , 60,B1, 14

,91,2C,C8,60,AD,04,02,

AC,05,9C
1630 DATA 02, 85, 12, 84, 13, A9

, 93, A0, 98,85, 14, 84, 15,

A9,06,88
1640 DATA A0,50,85,2O,84,2C

,A0,00,20,F3,05,D0,FB,

E6,15,05
FF 1650 DATA E6 , 2D , 20 ,F8 , 05 ,C0

,9E,D0,F9,60,00,00,00,

00,00,87

AM

DC

Mahmood Hasan Merchant is an ec-
onomics student at the London School
of Economics and Political Science. He
is from Pakistan. a

TYPING AIDS

MLX, the machine language entry program
for the 64 and 128, and The Aiiiomaric
Proofreader are utilities that help you type
in Gazette programs withoui making mis-
takes.These labor-saving utilities are on each
Gazette Disk and printed in issues of Gazette
through June 1990.

If you don't have access to a back issue or to
oneof ourdisks. write and we'll send you free
copies of both of the.se handy utilities. We'll
also include iastructions on how to type in
Gazette programs. Please enclose a self-ad-
dre.s.s. stamped envelope. Write to Typing
Aids, compute's Gazelte, 324 West Wen-
dover Avenue, Greensboro, North
Carolina 27408.

Gazette is looking for utilities,
games, applications, educa-
tional programs, and tutorial ar-
ticles. If you've created a
program that you think other
readers might enjoy or find
useful, send it on disk to

Gazette Submissions Reviewer
COMPUTE Publications
324 W. Wendover Ave.
Ste. 200
Greensboro, NC 27408

Please enclose an SASE if you
wish to have the materials
returned.

ONLY
ON DISK

in addition to the type-in programs
found in each issue of the maga-
zine, Gazette Disk offers bonus
programs and original 64 and 1 28
artwork. Here are the programs
featured this month.

Super Cataloguer 128

Diego Martin Zamboni
Mexico City, Mexico

Catalogue all of your software (up to
2500 titles) quickly and easily with
this outstanding utility for the 1 28. An
80-column monitor is required.

Read a disk directory, select which
files you wish to add to the list, and
then save them, sort them, search
through them, and delete names at
the touch of a key. If you can't recall
the contents of a file, the program will
list it to the screen. It even works with
sequential, user, and relative files.

Super Cataloguer 128 is also a
great disk manager. You can edit
filenames and delete files, whole
disks, or even portions of disks. The
program provides memory informa-
tion, prints lists in several modes,
and much more. This is one utility all
128 users should have.

Spanish Vocabulary Quiz

Christopher M. Stoy
Edensburg, PA

To help you use Spanish Vocabulary
Quiz, one of this issue's type-in pro-
grams, see page G-25, we have
included ten vocabulary files, con-
taining dozens of English words and
their Spanish equivalents. Load and
use any of these files from the
program's main menu.

37

MLX

Machine Language Entry Program for Commodore 64
Ottis R. Cowper

Type in and save some copies of
MLX — you'll want lo use it to enter fu-
ture ML programs from Gazette. When
you're ready to enter an ML program,
load and run MLX. It asks you for a start-
ing address and an ending address.
Tfiese addresses appear in tfie article
accompanying thie MLX-tormal pro-
gram listing you're typing.

If you're unfamiliar with machine lan-
guage, the addresses (and all other val-
ues you enter in MLX) may appear
strange. Instead of the usual decimal
numbers you're accustomed to. these
numbers are in hexadecimal^a base
16 numbering system commonly used
by ML programmers. Hexadecimal —
hex for short— includes the numerals 0-
9 and the letters A-F, But even if you
know nothing about ML or hex, you
should have no trouble using MLX.

Affer you've entered the starting and
ending addresses, you'll be offered the
option of clearing the w/orkspace.
Choose this option if you're starting to
enter a new listing. If you're continuing
a listing that's partially typed from a pre-
vious session, don't choose this option.
A functions menu w\\\ appear. The first
option in the menu is Enter Data. If
you're just starting to type in a pro-
gram, pick this. Press tfie E key and
type the first number in the first line of
the program listing. If you've already
typed in part of a program, type the
line number where you stopped typing
at the end of the previous session (be
sure to load the partially completed pro-
gram before you resume entry). In any
case, make sure the address you en-
ter corresponds to the address of a
line in the listing you are entering. Oth-
erwise, you'll be unable to enter the da-
ta correctly. If you pressed E by mis-
take, you can return to the command
menu by pressing Return alone when
asked for the address. (You can get
back to the menu from most options in
the program by pressing Return with
no other input.)

Entering a Listing

Once you're in Enter mode, MLX
prints the address for each program
line for you. You then type in all nine
numbers on that line, beginning with
the first two-digit number after the co-
lon (:). Each line represents eight data
bytes and a checksum. Although an

G-38 COMPUTE

/MLX-format listing appears similar to
the "hex dump" listings from a ma-
chine language monitor program, the
extra checksum number on the end al-
lows MLX to check your typing.

When you enter a line, MLX recalcu-
lates the checksum from the eight
bytes and the address and compares
this value to the number from the ninth
column. If the values match, you'll
hear a bel! tone, the data will be add-
ed to the workspace area, and the
prompt for the next line of data will ap-
pear. But if /WLX detects a typing error,
you'll hear a low buzz and see an er-
ror message. The line will then be re-
displayed for editing.

Invalid Characters Banned

Only a few keys are active while you're
entering data, so you may have to un-
learn some habits. You do not type
spaces between the columns; /WLX au-
tomatically inserts these for you. You
do not press Return after typing the
last number in a line; MLY automatical-
ly enters and checks the line after you
type the last digit.

64 MLX Keypod

7

8

9

-1
U

5

1

6

F
P

1
J

2
K

3
L

E

A
M

B

C

D

/

4

Space

Only the numerals 0-9 and the let-
ters A-F can be entered. If you press
any other key (with some exceptions
noted below), you'll hear a warning
buzz. To simplify typing, a numeric key-
pad function is included. The keypad
is active only while entering data. Ad-
dresses must be entered with the nor-
mal letter and number keys. The figure
below shows the keypad configuration.
MLX checks for transposed charac-

ters. If you're supposed to type in AO
and instead enter OA, MLX will catch
your mistake. There is one error that
can slip past MLX: Because of the
checksum formula used, MLX won't no-
tice if you accidentally type FF in
place of 00, and vice versa. And
there's a very slim chance that you
could garble a line and still end up
with a combination of characters that
adds up to the proper checksum. How-
ever. tfie.se mistakes should not occur
if you take care while entering data.

Editing Feotures

To correct typing mistakes before fin-
ishing a line, use the tnst/Del key to de-
lete the character to the left of the cur-
sor. If you mess up a line badly, press
Ctr/Home to start the line over. The Re-
turn key is also active, but only before
any data is typed on a line. Pressing Re-
turn at this point returns you to the com-
mand menu. After you type a charac-
ter, MLX disables Return until the cur-
sor returns to the start of a line. Remem-
ber, press CIr/Home to quickly get to a
line-number prompt. To make correc-
tions in a line that MLX has redisplayed
for editing, compare the line on the
screen with the one printed in the list-
ing and then move the cursor to the mis-
take and type the correct key. The cur-
sor-left and -right keys provide the nor-
mal cursor controls. (The Inst/Del key
now works as an alternative cursor-left
key.) You cannot move left beyond the
first character in the line. If you try to
move beyond the rightmost character,
you'll reenter the line. During editing, Re-
turn is active; pressing it tells MLX to re-
check the line. You can press the CIr/
Home key to clear the entire line if you
want to start from scratch or if you
want to get to a iine-number prompt to
use Return to get back to the menu.

Display Data

The second menu choice, Display Da-
ta, examines memory and shows the
contents in the same format as the pro-
gram listing (including the checksum).
When you press D, MLX asks you for a
starting address. Be sure that the start-
ing address you give corresponds to a
line number in the listing. Otherwise,
the checksum display will be meaning-
less. MLX displays program lines until
it reaches the end of the program, at

which point tine menu is redisplayed,
You can pause the display by pressing
the space bar. {MLX finishes printing
the current line before halting.) Press
the space bar again to restart the dis-
play. To break out of the display and
get back to the menu before the end-
ing address is reached, press Return.

Other Menu Options

Two more menu selections let you
save programs and load them back in-
to the computer. These are Save File
and Load File. When you press S or L,
MLX asks you for the filename. You'll
then be asked to press either D or T to
select disk or tape.

You'll notice the disk drive starting
and stopping several times during a
load or save, This is normal behavior.
MLX opens and reads from or writes to
the file instead of using the usual
LOAD and SAVE commands. Also
note that the drive prefix 0: is added to
the filename (tine 750), so this should
not be included when entering the
name. This also precludes the use of
@ for save-with-replace, so be sure to
give each version saved a different
name.

Remember that MLX saves the en-
tire workspace area from the starting ad-
dress to the ending address, so the
save or load may take longer than you
might expect if you've entered only a
small amount of data from a long list-
ing. When you're saving a partially com-
pleted listing, make sure to note the ad-
dress where you stopped typing,

/WLX reports the standard disk or
tape error messages if any problems
are detected dunng the save or load.
It also has three special load error mes-
sages: INCORRECT STARTING AD-
DRESS, which means the file you're try-
ing to load does not have the starting
address you specified when you ran
MLX: LOAD ENDED AT address.
which means the file you're trying to
load ends before the ending address
you specified when you started MLX:
and TRUNCATED AT ENDING AD-
DRESS, which means the file you're try-
ing to load extends beyond the ending
address you specified when you start-
ed MLX. If you see one of these mes-
sages and feel certain that you've load-
ed the right file, exit and rerun MLX. be-
ing careful to enter the correct starting

and ending addresses.

The Quit menu option has the obvi-
ous effect— it stops MLX and enters BA-
SIC. The Run/Stop key is disabled, so
the Q option lets you exit the program
without turning off the computer. (Of
course, Run/Stop-Restore also gets
you out,) You'll be asked for verifica-
tion; press Y to exit to BASIC, or press
any other key to return to the menu. Af-
ter quitting, you can type RUN again
and reenter /WLY without losing your da-
ta, as long as you don't use the Clear
Workspace option.

The Finished Product

When you've finished typing all the da-
ta for an ML program and saved your
work, you're ready for the results. Re-
fer to the corresponding article for
details on loading and running the
program.

An Ounce of Prevention

Don't take chances — use The Automat-
ic Proofreader to type the new MLX,
and then test your copy thoroughly be-
fore first using it to enter any significant
amount of data, fvlake sure all the
menu options work as they should. En-
ter fragments of the program starting at
several different addresses; then use
the display option to verify that the da-
ta has been entered correctly. Test the
save and load options to ensure that
you can recall your work from disk.

64 MLX

SS 10 REM VERSION
30,950 MODIF
85-487 ADDED
EK 100 POKE 56,50:

I,J,A,B,A$,
DM 110 C4=48:C6=16

4=254:25=25

127
CJ 120 FA=PEEK{45

:BS=PEEK(55

) :H$="01234
SB 130 R$=CHRS(13)

:S$=" ":D$=

CHRS(0) :T$=
CQ 140 SD=54272:F0

+23:P0KE I,

( SPACE )SD+2

8,52
FC 150 PRINT"{CLR}

R5 (8) :POKE

E 53281,15
EJ 160 PRINT T$" {

{2 SPACESX

1.1: LINES 8
lED, LINES 4

CLR:DIM IN$,
BS,A(7) ,N$
:C7=7:Z2=2:Z
5:Z6=256:Z7=

+Z6*PEEK(46)
) +Z6*PEEK(56
56789ABCDEF"
:L5="{LEFT}"
CHR$(20) :ZS=
{13 RIGHT}"
R I=SD TO SD
0: NEXT: POKE
4,15:P0KE 78

"CHR${142)CH

53280, 15:P0K

RED} {RVS}
8 @}

{2 SPRCES}"SPC{28)"

{2 SPACES} fOFF} (BLU} ML

X II {REDHRVS}

{2 SPACES }"SPC( 28 ) "

(12 SPACES} !BLU}"

FR 170 PRINT"{3 DOWN}

{3 SPACES}COHPUTE! 'S MA
CHINE LANGUAGE EDITOR
(3 DOWN}"

JB 180 PRINT"(BLK)STARTING ADD
RESS't4J"; :GOSUB300:SA = A
D:GOSUB1040:IF F THENlS

GF 190 PRINT"(BLK) {2 SPACES}EN
DING ADDRESS{4J''; :GOS[JB
30 0;EA=AD:GOSUB1030:IF
{SPACE}F THEN190

KR 200 INPUT" (3 DOWN} {BLK}CLEA
R WORKSPACE (Y/N]<4>";A
$:IF LEFTS(A$,1) <>"Y"TH
EN220

PG 210 PRINT"{2 DOWN} {BLU}W0RK
ING. . ."; :FORI=BS TO BS+
EA-SA+7:P0KE 1,0: NEXT:?
R I NT "DONE"

OR 220 PRINTTAB{10) "{2 DOWN}
{BLK}{RVS} MLX COMMAND
{SPACE}MENU {D0WN}<4}":
PRINT T$"{RVS}E{OFF}NTE
R DATA"

BD 230 PRINT T$"CRVS}D{0FF}ISP

lay data": print t?"
{rvs}l{off)oad file"

JS 240 PRINT TS"{RVS}S{0FF}AVE
FILE":PRINT TS"{RVS}Q

{0FF}UIT{2 D0WN){BLK}"
JH 250 GET AS: IF A5=NS THEN250
HK 260 A=0:FOR 1=1 TO 5: IF A$=

MIDS ("EDLSQ",I,1)THEN A

=1:1=5
FD 270 NEXT:ON A GOTO420, 610 , 6

90,700,2B0:GOSUB1060:GO

TO250
EJ 280 PRINT"{RVS} quit ":INPU

T"{D0WN}{4}ARE YOU SURE
[Y/N]";AS:IF LEFTS(A$,

1)<>"Y"THEN220
EH 290 POKE SD+24,3:END
JX 300 IN$-NS:AD='0: INPUTINS: IF

LEN (INS) 04THENRETUBN
KF 310 B$=IN$:GOSUB320:AO=A:BS

=M IDS (INS, 3) :GOSUB320:A

D=AD*256+A:RETURN
PP 320 A=0:FOR J=1 TO 2:A5=MID

$ (BS, J,l) :B=ASC (A$) -C4+

(AS>"@")*C7:A=A*C6+B
JA 330 IF B<0 OR B>15 THEN AD=

0:A=-1:J=2
GX 340 NEXT: RETURN
CH 350 B=INT CA/C6) : PRINT MID$(

HS,B+1,1) ; :B=A-B*C6:Pai

NT HIDS (HS,B+1,1) ; :RETU

RN
RR 360 A=INT(AD/Z6) :GOSUB350:A

=AD-A*Z6:GOSUB350: PRINT

II # l( ■

• /

BE 370 CK=INT (AD/Z6) :CK=AD-Z4*

G-39

m

CK+Z5*(CK>Z7) :GOTO390
PX 380 CK=CK*Z2+Z5* (CK>Z7)+A
JC 390 CK=CK+Z5*(CK>Z5) tRETURN
QS 400 PRINT"{DOWN)STARTING AT

{4J"; :GOSUB300:IF IH5<>

MS THEN GOSUB1030:IF F

{SPACE}THEN40a
EX 410 RETURN
HD 420 PRINT"{RVS) ENTER DATA

{SPACE)":GOSUB400:IF IN

$=N$ THEN220
JK 430 OPEN3,3:PRINT
SK 440 POKE198,a:GOSUB360:IF F
THEN PRINT INS: PRINT"

{0P}{5 RIGHT}";
GC 450 FOR 1=0 TO 24 STEP 3:B$

=S$:FOR J=l TO 2:IF F T

HEN BS=MIDS (INS, I+J,l)
HA 460 PRINT"{RVS}"B5LS;:IF I<

24THEN PRINT"{OFF)";
HD 470 GET A$:IF A$=NS THEN470
FK 480 IF{A$>"/"ANDAS<":")0R(A

5>"@"ANDAS<"G")THEN540
GS 485 A=-(AS="«")-2*(AS=",")-

3*(AS=".")-4*(A$="/")-5

*{A$="J")-6*{AS="K")
FX 486 A=A-7*(A?="L")-8*(AS=":

")-9* (AS="U")~10*(AS="I

■M-11*(A$ = "0")-12*(A$ = "

P")
CM 4B7 A=A-13*(AS=SS) JIF A THE

N A$=HIDS{"ABCD123E456F

0",A,1) :GOT0 54
HP 490 IF AS'RS AND( (I=0)AND (J

=1)0R F)THEN PRINT B$;:

j= 2: NEXT: 1 = 24: GOTO 550
KC 500 IF A$-"|HOME}" THEN PRI

NT BS:J=2:NEXT:I=24:HEX

T:F=0:GOTO440
MX 510 IF(A5="{RIGHT3")ANDF TH

ENPRINT B$L$; :GOTO540
GK 520 IF ASOLS AND ASODS OR

( (1=0) AND (J=1))THEN COS

UB1060:GOTO470
KG 530 AS = I-S+SS + L$:PRINT B$L5;

:J=2-J:IF J THEN PRINT

{SPACE}LS; :I=I-3
QS 540 PRINT AS;:NEXT J:PRINT

{SPACE}SS;
PM 550 NEXT I:PRINT:PRINT"{UP)

{5 RIGHT}"; :INPUT#3,IN$

:IF INS=NS THEN CL0SE3:

GOTO220
QC 560 FOR 1=1 TO 25 STEP3:B5=

MID$ tIN$,I) :GOSUB320:IF
K25 THEN GOSUB380:A(I

/3)=A
PK 579 NEXT: IF AOCK THEN GOSU

B1060: PRINT "{BLK}{EVS}

(SPACE}ERROR: REENTER L

INE {4}":F=1:GOTO440
HJ 580 GOSUB1080:B=BS+AD-SA:FO

R 1=0 TO 7:P0KE B+I,A(I

) :NEXT
QQ 590 AD=AD+8:IF AD>EA THEN C

L0SE3: PRINT" (DOWN} {BLU}

** END OF ENTRY **{BLK}

[2 DOWN}":GOTO700

G-40 COMPUTE

GQ 600 F=0:GOTO440

QA 610 PRINT"{CLR} {DOWN} {RVS}
{SPACEJDISPLAY DATA ";G
OSUB400:IF IN$=NS THEN2
20

rj 620 print"{down} {blu}press:
(rvs}space{off3 to pad
SE, {rvs}return[off} to
break{4Hdown}"

KS 630 GOSUB360:B=BS+AD-SA:FOR
I=BT0 B+7:A=PEEK(I) :G0S
UB350;GOSOB380:PRINT SS

NEXT : PRI NT " { RVS } " ; : A=CK
:GOSUB350:PRINT
F=1:AD=AD+8:IF AD>EA TH
ENPRINT"{DOWN} {BLU}** E
ND OF DATA **":GOTO220
GET AS: IF AS=RS THEN GO
SUB1080:GOTO220
IF AS=SS THEN F=F+1:G0S
UB1080

ONFGOTO630,660,630
PRINT"{DOWN} {RVS} LOAD
{SPACE}DATA ":0P=1:G0T0
710

PRINT"{D0WN}{RVS} SAVE
{SPACE}FILE ":OP=0
IN$=NS: INPUT" {DOWN} FILE
NAME<4)-";IN5:1F IN$ = N$
{SPACE}THEN220
F=0:PRINT"{DOWN}{BLK}
{RVS}T(0FF}APE OR {RVS}
0{OFF}ISK: {4}";
GET AS: IF A$="T"THEN PR
INT"T{DOWN}":GOTO8 8
IF A$<>"D"THEN730
PRINT"D{DOWN}":OPEN15,8
,15,"I0:":B=EA-SA: INS="
0:"+IN$:IF OP THEN810
OPEN 1,8,8,INS+",P,W":G
OSUB860:IF A THEN220
AH=INT (SA/2S6) :AL=SA-(A
H*256) :PRIST#1,CHR${AL)
;CHRS(AH) ;

FOR 1=0 TO B:PRINT#1,CH
R$ (PEEK(BS+I) ) ; : IF ST T
HEN800

NEXT :CL0SEl:CL0SE15: GOT
0940

GOSUB1060: PRINT" {DOWN}
£BLK}ERR0R DURING SAVE:
{4}":GOSUB860:GOTO220
OPEN 1,8,8,INS+",P,R":G
OSUB860;IF A THEN220
GET#1,AS,B$:AD=ASC(AS+Z
S)+256*ASC(B$+Z$) : IF AD
OSA THEN F = 1:GOTO850
FOR 1=0 TO B:GETtl,AS:P
OKE BS+I,ASC (AS+ZS) :IF(
I<>B)AND ST THEN F=2:AD
=I:I=B

NEXT:IF ST064 THEN F = 3
CL0SE1:CL0SE15:0N ABS(F
>0)+l GOTO960,970
INPUT#15,A,A$:IF A THEN
CLOSE 1;CL0SE 15 :GOSUB10
60: PRI NT" {RVS} ERROR: "A

cc

640

KH

650

KC

660

EQ

670

AD

680

CM

690

PC

700

RX

710

PR

720

FP

730

HQ

740

HH

750

SQ

760

FJ

770

PE 780

FC 790

GS 800

MA 810

GE 820

RX 83

FA 840
FQ 850

SA 860

GQ 870 RETURN

EJ 880 POKEl83,PEEK(FA+2) :POKE
137,PEEK(FA+3) :P0KE188,
PEEK (FA+4) : IFOP=0THEN92

HJ 890 SYS 63466:IF(PEEK(733)A
ND1)THEN GOSUB1060:PRIN
T" {DOWN} {RVS} FILE NOT
{SPACE} FOUND ":GOTO690
CS 900 AD=PEEK(829)+256*PEEK(8
30):IF ADOSA THEN F = l:
GOTO970
SC 910 A=PEEK(831)+256*PEEK{a3
2)-l:P=F-2* (A<EA)-3*(A>
EA) :AD=A-AD:GOTO930
KH 920 A=SA:B=EA+1:GOSUB1010:P

OKE780,3:SYS 63338
JF 930 A=BS:B=BS+(EA-SA)+1:G0S
UB1010:ON OP GOTO950:SY
S 63591
AE 940 GOSUB1080:PRINT"{BLU}**
SAVE COMPLETED **":GOT
0220
XP 950 POKE147,0:SYS 63562:IF

{SPRCE}ST>0 THEN970
FR 960 GOSUB10B0:PRINT"{BLU}**
LOAD COHPLETED **":GOT
0220
DP 970 GOSUB1060:PRINT"{BLK}

{RVS) ERROR DURING LOAD:
{D0WN}<4>":0N F GOSUB98
0,990,1000:GOTO220
PP 980 PRINT" INCORRECT STARTIN
G ADDRESS { " ; : GOSUB360 :
PRINT") ": RETURN
GR 990 PRINT"LOAD ENDED AT ";:
AD=SA+AD: GOSUB360 : PRINT
D$: RETURN
FD 1000 PRINT"TRUNCATED AT END

ING ADDRESS": RETURN
RX 1010 AH=INT (A/256) :AL=A- (AH
*256) :P0KE193,AL:P0KE1
94, AH
FF 1020 AH=INT (B/256) :AL=B-(AH
*256) :POKE174,AL:POKEl
75,AH:RETURN
FX 1030 IF AD<SA OR AD>EA THEN

1050
CR 1040 IF (AD>511 AND AD<6528
0) THEN GOSUB1080: F=0
: RETURN
HC 1050 GOSUB1060;PRINT"{RVS5
{SPACE}INVALID ADDRESS
(DOWS} {BLK} " :F=1 : RETU
RN
AR 1060 POKE SD+5,31:P0KE SD+6
,208:POKE SD,240:POKE
{SPACE}SD+1,4:P0KE SD+
4,33
DX 1070 FOR S=l TO 100:NEXT:GO

TO1090
PF 1080 POKE SD+5,8:POKE SD+6 ,
240:POKE SD,0:POKE SD+
1,90:POKE SD+4,17
AC 1090 FOR S=l TO 100: NEXT: PO
KE SD+4,0iPOKE SD,0:PO
KE SD+I,0:RETURN -J

REVIEWS

Take a sneak peek at what's up in The Treehouse, gel the jump on
Reader Rabbit II, and peruse in-depth reviews of many more.

THE TREEHOUSE

Once your child encounters
The Treehouse, Brederbund
Software's excellent follow-
up to the award-winning Play-
room, the fun and learning
start right away. An interac-
tive chalkboard boasts six-
color click-and-drag drawing
capability. A small clock
tells time. But besides these
surprises, you get four de-
tailed games.

Unlike anything else for
kids, Tree/iouse's music syn-
thesizer screen displays an
orchestra pit with illustrations
and simple descriptions of
the instruments. The pro-
gram also plays a sample
note from each instrument.
But this is no simple play-
back machine. It's truly inter-
active and inspired. Children
can store songs in a song-
book and print them out,
look at a few notes, or read
two lines of music. They can
choose which instrunnent will
play their music, with such ex-
otic choices as bottles and ka-
zoos. Best of all, children
can write music by selecting
note and rest length and
then clicking on a piano key-
In addition. Treehouse in-
cludes a very clever music
maze game that plays sim-
ple musical phrases (two or
three notes) and then re-
quires you to pick the correct
one out of four options. A cor-
rect choice earns a note,
and completion of the maze
is rewarded with a song.

Another Treehouse game
teaches counting, with
chips or cash as options.
The third part consists of an
animal guessing game,
which teaches deductive rea-
soning, and an animated pup-
pet theater that encourages
storytelling. All of the games
boast excellent graphics
and sound- The synthesized
music especially is very true
to life, provided you have an

Ad Lib or Sound Blaster
card.

The Treehouse should be
on store shelves by early au-
tumn. Get your copy before
the leaves begin to falL

BETH ANN MUflRAY

READER RABBIT [l

This excellent successor to
Reader Rabbit combines
whimsy and word skills in
just the right measure to
keep your child interested

imSBMM"'*^

Give your child an educational boost with an entertaining visit to
this arboreal playroom.

Reader Rabbit II playfully teaches youngsters word association.

Scheduled Release: Oclober 1991
IBM PC and compatibles. 512K RAM
for C(3A, 64QK lor VGA; hard drive op-
tional, supports mouse, supports Ad
Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Master,
and Tandy 3-voice sound— $59.95

BR0DERBUND SOFTWARE
17 Paul Dr.

San Rafael, CA 94903-2101
(415) 492-3500

Circle Reader Service Number 350

and learning. The entire
game has fantastic graphics
appeal, and its fanciful de-
meanor hides, but doesn't de-
tract from, its educational con-
tent.

Reader Rabbit It consists
of four games, all designed
for early readers. The first,
Word Mine, teaches the for-
mation of compound words

and words that begin or end
with two-letter blends (like
match). Help your bunny pat
and his mole miner friends
put together words and fill a
rail car with word crystals.
Youngsters will enjoy the re-
wards of collecting the crys-
tals, and they will begin to rec-
ognize the relationships that
lead to a more complex vo-
cabulary-

A second game. Vowel
Pond, teaches long and
short vowel sounds in the
guise of a happy fishing trip.
Help Reader Rabbit net a
day's catch by identifying
words that match a particu-
lar vowel sound. For extra as-
sistance, children will also
see a word that matches the
appropriate vowel sound.
For instance, if they are look-
ing for words that contain a
short u, they'll see the word
stuff. As a parade of fish
swim by, the player must se-
lect the ones that carry the ap-
propriate-sounding words em-
blazoned on their sides.
Pick the correct fish, and it
goes into the net; pick the
wrong fish, and it's the one
that gets away.

Another word sound
game. Match Patch, asks
kids to identify word patterns
and associations. These in-
clude simple rhymes among
words that share the same let-
ters (like pat and fat), word
opposites (like find and
lose), homonyms (like to and
too), and harder rhymes
among words that share the
same sound but not the
same letters (like time and
rhyme). Each of these levels
draws upon different vocab-
ulary and pattern recognition
skills.

Rounding out this rollick-
ing rabbity foursome is Alpha-
bet Dance, which teaches
word order. This is an essen-
tial skill necessary for sorting
and for working with alphabet-
ized lists and references like
113

REVIEWS

dictionaries. Tiie game
takes place at a barn dance.
Tlie object is to line up. the
dancing partners as direct-
ed. Start out witin simple first-
letter ordering among words
that directly follow one anoth-
er {like Frank, Gertrude. Har-
vey, and Ismelda). and
move on to harder groups
that don't follow in direct se-
quence (like Alfred. Karen,
Paul, and Yolanda). For
more of a challenge, kids
can order names according
to the second letter in the
name, and by the first and
second letters in the name.
Each successive level
builds upon the skill learned
from the level before. For as-
sistance, a list of the alpha-
bet appears at the top of the
screen disguised as a ban-
ner above the dance floor.

Aimed at a slightly older au-
dience (from five to eight
years of age) than its prede-
cessor, Reader Rabbit II
promises to be as much a
classic as the original Read-
er Rabbit. Even in this video
age, word skills are as impor-
tant as ever. Here's a
chance to give your kids a
head start or to reinforce
what they're learning in the
classroom.

PETER SCiSCO

Scheduled Release; August 1991
IBM PC and compatibles. 512K RAM
{640K required for Tandy 16-color
graphics)— S59.95

THE LEARNING COMPANY
6493 Kaiser Dr.
Fremont, CA 94555
(BOO) 852-2255

Circle Reader Servfce Number 351

HIJAAK

Tame the Tower of Babel
that PC graphics formats
have become — that's the
goal of HiJaak, an all-pur-
pose graphics-translation pro-
gram and unparalleled

114 COMPUTE

screen-capture utility. De-
spite a buggy user interface
and lack of a screen-preview
program, its reasonable
price and encyclopedic list
of both raster and vector for-
mats make it a formidable
product.

HiJaak's installation pro-
gram is a little terse, with no
options and no explanation
of its functions. It doesn't tell

TSR mode requires three oth-
er programs: RPM.EXE,
L0ADRPM.COM, FREERPM
.COM, as well as HiJaak it-
self. RPM is the Resident
Process Manager, which
serves as a sort of master
menu to save screens, print
them, or run HiJaak.
LOADRPM turns RPM and Hi-
Jaak into memory-resident
programs. FREERPM re-

Through myriad options. HiJaak renders almost a!! graphics
formats accessible.

you that an installation is suc-
cessful, and it doesn't start Hi-
Jaak or mention that you
must choose a configuration
from the main menu the first
time that you run it (although
the manual's instructions
make this very clear). The pro-
gram takes up about 1.5
megs of disk space and re-
quires 320K of free RAM, or
5K of RAM if run in TSR
mode, which uses the hard
disk to hold the foreground
application at bay temporar-
ily. HiJaak loses no features
in TSR mode, so actually on-
ly 5K of RAM is needed to
run it, albeit with a perform-
ance penalty exacted in
more disk accesses.

HiJaak can be run com-
pletely in TSR mode and is
not limited to the screen-cap-
ture utility in this mode.
That's the good news. The
bad news is that running in

moves everything from mem-
ory. I'd much prefer that all
of these functions be rolled
into HiJaak itself. And I'm
sure inexperienced users
would prefer that RPM be de-
scribed in better detail; the
manual gives it short shrilt. I
had many more problems
with RPM than with other
TSRs, but it was still useful.
I'm. especially fond of its abil-
ity to save the state of HiJaak
at any moment, even in the
middle of a dialog; I never
lost my place when I
popped back from the fore-
ground application

Discussion of RPM is
about the only thing the man-
ual stints on, except perhaps
for the index (for example, nei-
ther Windows nor BMP
could be found there, even
though the program sup-
ports Windows bitmap files).
Otherwise, the manual is a

model of its kind, blessedly
covering even the most chal-
lenging topics with dogged
thoroughness, never under-
estimating the reader's expe-
rience or intelligence. Two
other unusual aspects of the
manual deserve mention
here. An initial chapter titled
"Condensed Instructions" al-
lows power users to be up
and running quickly and com-
pletely explains the support
policy. And because of the
wild profusion of PC graph-
ics formats, the manual's
more-the-merrier approach
is welcome; it covers every
detail. The section for each
graphics format, for exam-
ple, starts with a box giving
the address of the organiza-
tion that developed it and a
Vital Statistics box summariz-
ing answers to the most fre-
quently asked questions
about the format.

HiJaak stands out for
both its wide variety of sup-
ported formats and its world-
class screen-capture/print
abilities. If you need to pro-
duce screen shots for publi-
cation or in-house documen-
tation on laser printers, Hi-
Jaak is the way to go. If you
need support for literally eve-
ry popular graphics format
used on the PC, HiJaak will
do the trick. A partial list of
supported formats includes
Amiga IFF, ASCII text, Au-
toCAD DXF, CompuServe
GIF. GEM metafile and im-
age files, HPGL plotter files,
Lotus PIC, MacPaint.
MacDraw. Windows met-
afiles, TIFF WordPerfect,
and about 20 fax formats. Hi-
Jaak oiiers solid support for
translating a large number of
files at once. Use the point-
and-click interface to queue
up several files chosen from
a directory list (a mouse is rea-
sonably well supported) or
run HiJaak from the com-
mand line. I found the latter
option to be much quicker

•^^ ^yjNis

'«4'

l^V^

Congratulations - it's 1995 and you've been selected for the hottest seat
in helicopter history: the cockpit of the Pentagon's new AH-73IVI ^

Thunderhawk": So zip up your flight suit, adjust your sunglasses, and 1|
control your nerves 'cause this one makes Nam ^^^sdr

look like a day at the beach! AH-73I\/I .mu- ^ ""M^

Thunderhawk is the most advanced ^"^

helicopter combat simulation ^

ever brought to ^ ^

the computer

A vailable soon for IBM and Amiga.

Thunderhawk is a trademark of

Virgin Games, Inc.

Virgin is a registered trademark of

Virgin Enterprises, Ltd.

©1991 Virgin Games and -^"^

Core Design. All rights reserv

Virgin Games, inc. 18061 Fitch Ave.

Irvine, CA 82714 1(800|VRG-INO7

mr

e Read«r SenriM Ni^ber 105

■ A helicopter armed with ti,
latest in weaponry, .v

|electronic countermeasures,
fuiictionjng displays and
^^^t^puter-aided targeting
s,^^ systems.

\ J Realistic missions involving
\ actual military conflicts and
\ contingency plans.

^ jpyfCirue interactive "world"
^ outside your cockpit, with
. other locations and
^^characters that respond to
\ your actions.

\ □ Campaign scenarios with
i; a multitude of missions.

REVIEWS

than the new mousing inter-
face — the command line
seemed more flexible. Run-
ning HiJaak from the com-
mand line allows you to cre-
ate a text file containing exe-
cution options, but, notably,
neither the point-and-click
method nor the command
line method lets you change
settings for different files of
the same type. In other
words, if you have a group of
DXF files you want to convert
to CGM format and you want
some of them to be translat-
ed with gray scaling, others
to be translated using full col-
ors, and others to black-and-
white only, you must run
three separate batches. (In-
set promises to address this
shortcoming, and HUaak
may have these abilities be-
fore this review sees print.)
Oddly, you can't see any of
the files you convert; unlike
ImPort by Zenographics, Hi-
Jaak offers no way to see ei-
ther the input or the output
file without firing up a graph-
ics program that can accept
that file format.

HiJaak has the rare ability
to convert from vector files
(such as those produced by
CAD and draw programs) to
raster format, although not
the reverse {by nature, raster-
to-vector conversions are ex-
ceedingly tricky). This
means you can effortlessly
move, say, an /AutoCAD or Lo-
tus 1-2-3 image into a paint
program, such as the Paint-
brush program that comes
with Windows. I experienced
no problems with such con-
versions, although I suppose
there are some potentially
nasty problems with shaded
or 3-D AutoCAD images.

If you're among the grow-
ing number of LaserJet us-
ers who have a fax card in-
stalled in your PC, you'll ap-
preciate the inclusion of
fonts designed for just this
purpose. You can mimic or

116 COMPUTE

replace the basic fonts HP
supplies on its LaserJets,
and the default font is 300
dpi, the same resolution as
that of HP laser printers. Las-
erJet users will also appreci-
ate its brilliant handling of Las-
erJet soft fonts. You can con-
vert HP soft fonts into a for-
mat usable by HiJaak for a
perfect rendering of the im-
age. I've never seen this abil-
ity in any other conversion
program, even though HP's
font format is well known. Hi-
Jaak is indispensable for the
true LaserJet power user.

A simple Windows cap-
ture utility lets you snag Win-
dows 3.0 images in HiJaak's,
own file format, which can
then be translated into any of
the supported output for-
mats. The utility's interface is
a bit confusing, and there's
no help file, but the manual
explains its use well. To acti-
vate the utility, choose its In-
stall item, which puts up a di-
alog box explaining what
keys to press. The icon then
courteously disappears until
you've pressed the hot keys
to capture the screen, at
which time the capture utility
reappears with a request for
a filename. That's all there is
to it.

However, the conversion
process terms both Win-
dows and OS/2 Presentation
Manager BMP files as PM
Bitmaps, which isn't very
clear. You must choose PM
Bitmaps, then select the Win-
dows option to get Windows
bitmap files. Another side
note is that Microsoft Paint-
brush is one of the output op-
tions but it doesn't work for
the version of Paintbrush
that comes with Windows
3.0. Inset plans a fix. It
doesn't matter, though, be-
cause the Paintbrush in Win-
dows 3.0 imports PCX files di-
rectly, and HiJaak performs
flav/lessly on PCX files.

HiJaak has a mountain of

options. The conversion dia-
logs hide them artfully, and
the defaults are usually well
chosen, so you may never
need them. Nonetheless, eve-
ry input and output option
comes with a screenful (or
more) of options whenever
they're necessary. For exam-
ple, vector file formats sel-
dom have consistent han-
dling of fonts and typefaces,
and HiJaak allows you to re-
map (change) your typefac-
es. CGM files, for example,
contain only font numbers.
Since one person's font 1
might be a Times Roman
while another person's
might be a Dingbat, font re-
mapping can prove useful.

Colors are another source
of disparity. HiJaak not only
maps color schemes to your
satisfaction, but it also has
automatic conversions to
black-and-white or gray
scale — useful shortcuts for
owners of fax machines or la-
ser printers.

I called Inset's tech sup-
port with a number of prob-
lems and was dealt with
quickly and reasonably —
even on f\/londay morning, a
notoriously difficult lime to
reach support lines. It's a toll-
free call, and Inset charges
nothing for its support. The
manual promises that,
should you call while all tech-
nicians are busy, at least one
attempt will be made to re-
turn your call within an hour.
At least three attempts to
reach you will be made with-
in "a reasonable period," Fur-
ther, a ten-page booklet of re-
lease notes details shortcom-
ings in both HiJaak and the
products it supports. This in-
cludes work-arounds where
the other product is at fault
and common pilot errors
with CompuServe GIF files.
This all amounts to the best
support you can get for
$199. I'm very impressed. Hi-
Jaak is flawed, but neverthe-

less a major achievement. Its
features are comprehensive,
its uses myriad, and its sup-
port so good that even the
worst problems I encoun-
tered had a satisfactory work-
around. That's the sign of a
mature and well-developed
product, even if it does have
a few minor failings.

TOM CAMPBELL

IBM PC and compatibles; 480K RAM:
CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, or Hercu-
les; hard drive~S199

INSET SYSTEMS
71 Commerce Dr.
Brookfield, CT 06804-3405
(203) 740-2400 (U.S.)
(800) 828-8088 (OUlside U.S.)

Circle Reader Service Number 352

THE SECRET OF
MONKEY ISLAND

Obviously, The Secret of Mon-
key Island was designed as
much for fun as for nail-biting
adventure. That it manages
to provide a healthy amount
of both is testament to the re-
sounding success of its de-
sign.

"We believe that you buy
games to be entertained, not
to be whacked over the
head every time you make a
mistake," reads the manual
to Lucasfilm Games' The Se-
cret of Monkey Island. "We
think you'd prefer to solve
the game's mysteries by ex-
ploring and discovering, not
by dying a thousand
deaths."

They got that right,
Blessed forgiveness is only
one of several virtues that
make The Secret of Monkey
Island such a thoroughly de-
lightful adventure game. It los-
es none of its edge in excite-
ment or challenge by offer-
ing multiple chances at suc-
cess, and in doing so it
gains a friendly accessibility
that keeps it from becoming
frustrating and irritating the

THE OFFICIAL

THE OFFIC

GUIDE

MI

TO MEGA MAN

Defeat the power-mad

scientist, Dr. Wily!

AiIj

Make your way through

afe^- ,JiwAi

Monsteropolis!

^Bw'

Defend all of Mankind!

j^H^^jiia^v

Finally here it

W^'^^^^S

is-the complete playing

Lj^:vM^

guide to all

«-:?, ^WtF>^ WJ f

three of the best-sefling

.^:--'^ '

Mega Man games.

*.> .f.-

144 pages, $7.95

^-^^

^^^%>^3i

tJlrlr \'9\. i««" <MU. pnf Mill*

COMFUTE'S

fenluu) »bi|i tkt tnit Mdi rk» U

NINTENDO

m^^m

SECRETS

More strategies,

hints, tips, reviews, and

^^ '^'

ratings for

tSt'

^
#-

dozens of the newest,

iM

teC

most popular

11

Nintendo games.

s'-'mmmi

Maxout

^^

i;

scores on Super Mario

« * "^^

Bros. 3,

= - lll-#r'

Batman, Ninja Gaiden II,

— ^- *- - S^^rf

and more.

VOMguati^v^ ^^HeI

198 + 8 color pages,

$8.95

WITH THESE BOOKS FROM COMPUTE

CONQUERING

ZELDA

The Unouthodz&d Guide

Dcy^Okj fi. MCCriay

^

.^^■gc ^ftsav^^,

iUi

COMPUTE'S

NINTENDO

SECRETS

STEVEN SCHWARTZ

■•/.-.■i^

COMPUTEfs

G U I D E"tO

lMoI9^LlM

GAMES

CONQUERING

ZELDA:

THE UNAUTHORIZED

GUIDE

Finally-the hints and

techniques you

need to conquer two

of the most

popular Nintendo

games.

The Legend ofZelda® and

The Adventure of Link".

Step-by-step

instructions to rescue

the princess!

128 pages, $795

EOMPUTE'S

GUIDE TO NINTENDO

GAMES

Packed with hints

and tips
for better play and

dozens

of reviews of available

game cartridges

for the
Nintendo Entertainment

System.
272 pages, $9.95

STEVEN

^F ftT^Z I I 1 1 want more

■ mMUmm hints and tips.
Please send me the books checked below.

a COMPUTEI's Guide to Hlnlettdg Gaines
(2214) $9,95

D COMPUTE'S Hlntenito Secrets (234G) $8,95

D Coniitierfng Zelda: The Unauthsriied Guide

(Z39T) S7.9S
D The Otiicial Guide to Mega Man

(2417)S7,95

. Subtotal

. SjIcs lax (fles«)ents of NC. ^Y. i NJ add
apptopfiate sales tax- Canadian (Kders add
7'/, goods and services tax)

. SUflping and HamJIirig: S2 oef book US; M
Canada; S6 loreign.

Total Encloied

D Check Df mm order D MC D VISA

SiQfiaTure _

Acci no _
Name

. ExE3 Daw _

Slieei Address .
City

lNor>D BoiKp^ase)
. Stale ZIP .

All orders musi Ik pad n U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. Ijanfc.
(Here will be stippec ma UPS Ground Serws. OH* good
wtiile sut^plies lasi

MAIL TO Cinnpule BodI(s
G/« CCC

2500 McClellan Avenue
Pennsauken, NJ 08109

Nintendo and 7?ie Legend of Zefda are registered tradanarts
of Nimendo ol America, Inc. Ths Agvsnise c-l
Links} Irademaili ol Ninlendo of Amenca. Inc.
7G91C

REVIEWS

way other adventure games
can sometimes be.

The game begins on Me-
lee Island, where amiable
goof Guybrush Threepwood
has come to seek his fortune
by becoming a pirate. The
first stop is the Scumm Bar,
where Threepwood endures
the first of many cracks
about his silly name and
learns firsthand from three im-
portant-looking pirates what
he must do to begin a life of
robbing and pillaging. In
very satisfying detail, the ad-
venture-game hero gets to
dish out as many wisecracks
as he takes. "You're a
bunch of foul-smelling, grog-
swilling pigs!" Threepwood
can bark at his pirate men-
tors.

Initially, Threepwood
must learn about and com-
plete a series of tasks de-
signed to acquaint him with
pirating. These tasks include
sword fighting and treasure
hunting. Ultimately, he must
assemble a crew, obtain a
ship, and embark for fvlon-
key Island in search of the se-
cret that gives the game its
title. Among other frightfui en-
counters, Threepwood has
to outfight Melee Island's hot-
test sword slinger, outwit a
pack of frothing piranha poo-
dles, and navigate a dark,
dangerous forest.

Controlled by arrow keys,
joystick, or mouse. Threep-
wood moves briskly through
an impressively cinematic
graphic landscape. Melee Is-
land's village looks cartoon-
ishly ominous beneath a love-
ly, star-strewn sky, with
shady pirates and their pet
rats hanging out or roaming
the streets. Back in the is-
land's inner recesses,
there's an impressive circus
tent glowing with inner light
and a dimly lit shipyard
called Stan's Previously
Used Vessels. Unexpected
and humorous touches

118 COMPUTE

abound, some cornier than
others: "If there's one type of
piracy I don't like," says one
character, "it's CONS-pira-
cy!"

The Secret of Monkey Is-
land is good fun and may
have you laughing as you
study to become a high-
seas terror so hoist the main-

essed words found immedi-
ate and effective applica-
tions for the new technology,
composers and performers
exploited the artistic power
of the new machines just as
quickly. Amateurs, too,
found that these electronic
tools offered them inexpen-
sive ways to pursue music

Walk to

Open Wall* to Use {)

Close Pick! up Look at
Push Talk to Turn on
Pull Giye Turn off n

K.-r

A pirate's life means more than grog and doubloons.

sail and post a lookout. For
cutlass-swinging adventure,
Monl<ey Island is somewhere
on your horizon.

EDDIE HUFFMAN

IBM PC and compatibles. 640K RAM.
CGA, EGA. MCGA, VGA; hard drive
recommended, joystick and mouse
optional, supports Roland, Ad Lib.
and Sound Blaster sound cards—
$69.95 for VGA. $59.95 for ottier ver-
sions

LUCASFILM GAMES

Distributed by Electronic Arts

1820 Gateway Dr.

San Mateo, CA 94404-2499

(415)571-7171

Circle Reader Service Number 353

PLAY IT BY EAR

Few professions have em-
braced the arrival of the per-
sonal computer as eagerly
and as creatively as musi-
cians. While people who
crunched numbers and proc-

as a hobby or to prepare for
at least a part-time career.

Three features of person-
al computers make them
good tools for musicians:
their sound capabilities,
their connections to real mu-
sical instruments through
MIDI interfaces, and their un-
limited patience. A human
music teacher can tire quick-
ly of the repetitive drills neces-
sary to train a musician in
some of the more ele-
mentary aspects of composi-
tion and performance; a com-
puter exists to serve the stu-
dent.

Ibis Software's Play It by
Ear is an effective training
tool for both amateurs and
professionals who need to ei-
ther develop or hone their
skills in ear training. The in-
cluded exercises help you
recognize and play back mel-
odies, chords, scales, and in-

tervals, using graphic repre-
sentations of either a piano
keyboard or a guitar. You se-
lect the desired exercise, lis-
ten to the series of notes,
and play them back using ei-
ther the mouse (no option for
keyboard control is availa-
ble) or an actual instrument
(if you're connected through
a MIDI interface). Or you can
identify the chord or interval
played from the list of sever-
al displayed.

The main screen is divided
into several different work ar-
eas; pull-down menus pre-
sent options available for
choosing the desired exer-
cise, difficulty level, volume,
duration and range of notes,
and type of scale or chord
played. Once you've chosen
an exercise and the combi-
nation of musical notes to be
classified or repeated has
been played, you can
choose to hear the phrase
again, skip over it, or display
the correct answer. Good
note/bad note icons track
your correct and incorrect an-
swers as you go along, and
progress charts can be
pulled up at any time to
show how you're doing.

Play It by Ear's user inter-
face is sleek. While crowd-
ed, the main working screen
isn't difficult to navigate. Min-
imal written documentation
is provided, though you like-
ly won't need it if you just
take a few minutes to ex-
plore the menus and control
settings.

Ibis recommends a MIDI in-
terface, but if you're using
the program strictly for ear
training, it's unnecessary. I
tested the program on a
bare-bones XT clone with no
special sound capabilities,
and the notes were clear
and recognizable.

At $99.95, Play It by Ear
may be more appealing to
the aspiring professional
than to the novice. If you

want a simple drill-and-prac-
tice program that helps you
recognize and play back
notes on a guitar or piano,
though, Ear's just right. For
more advanced music stu-
dents who want to train their
ears to discern the differ-
ence between varying mode
scales (Dorian, Phrygian,
and so on) or to be able to
tell what interval is being
played in a chord (triads,
9ths, llths), Play It by Ear os-
iers this more sophisticated
capability too.

Serious musicians would
most likely want to be able to
use the program by connect-
ing their computers to an ac-
tual instrument through a
MIDI interface or to at least
broaden the program's use-
fulness with more enhanced
sound capabilities. For peo-
ple with such aspirations,
this program facilitates a ba-
sic element of music educa-
tion and offers a bridge to
their real-life musical tools,

KATHY YAKAL

IBM PC and compalibies. 64QK RAM.
CGA, EGA. or VGA; supports Roland
or 100-percent compatibie MPU-401
MIDI cards, Ad Lib, Sound Blaster—
$99.95

IBIS SOFTWAFIE

90 New Montgomery St., Ste. 20

San Francisco. CA 94105

(415)546-1917

Circle Reader Service Number 354

WORD FOR
WINDOWS

Imagine the ultimate word-
processing software. It
would be easy to use, with In-
tuitive commands. It would
be so powerful that you'd nev-
er run up against a wall cre-
ating a complicated docu-
ment. It would allow you to
use graphics and multiple
fonts, like your desktop pub-
lishing program, but would al-
so keep up with your fastest

typing, like your text editor.
A dream word processor?
No, it's Microsoft Word for
Windows.

The original version of
Word was always respected
as a powerfui program, but
its quirky menu interface
gave it something in com-
mon with WordStar: You ei-

anyone away from this as-
tounding progrann. You'll
need at least a 12-MHz 286
with 2MB RAM to get decent
performance from the pro-
gram, but that's true of all Win-
dows applications. You'll al-
so need Windows 2. 1 1 or lat-
er (if you're not using version
3.0 yet, upgrade now) and

Play it By Ear nurtures musical talent.

ther loved it or hated it.
When I first tried Word back
in early 1984, I was amazed
at the program's power, but
the user interface kept get-
ting in my way, and I eventu-
ally fell back to a simpler
word processor.

After seven years of devel-
opment, the program has
grown even more powerful,
but it wasn't the new features
that drew me back to it — it
was Microsoft's announce-
ment of a Windows version
of 14'ord.

Wjrdfor Windov/s 1 . 1 (Win-
Word) is an amazing pro-
gram. Its titanic suite of fea-
tures will please the college
student, tfie professional writ-
er, and the home office user
alike. Yet its simplicity af-
fords pleasurable ease of
use to the novice computer
user or the keyboard-wary ex-
ecutive. In fact, only the
steep price and hardware re-
quirements should keep

about 4.5MB of free hard
disk space to use the pro-
gram.

No matter how many fea-
tures a word processor has,
the most important character-
istic is ease of basic text ed-
iting. WinWord e)^ce\s in this
aspect. The program han-
dles even the speediest typ-
ing with no discernible lag.
Scrolling through documents
is faster than I thought pos-
sible in a graphics-based
word processor; the speed
is especially surprising on a
286. You can highlight
blocks of text in a snap with
the mouse; click once with
the left mouse button to start
selecting text or twice to se-
lect the word under the cur-
sor. Use the right button for
columnar operations.

All commands can be ac-
cessed using the keyboard
or mouse. While I found the
program quite usable sans
pointing device on my Grid

laptop, I was much more pro-
ductive using the program
with a mouse.

A row of menu items tops
the screen, with a control bar
called the ribbon and a ruler
betow that. At the bottom of
the screen, a status bar
keeps you informed of your
current page, line, and col-
umn number. You can tog-
gle the ribbon, ruler, and stat-
us bar off if you prefer to
have the entire screen avail-
able for editing text.

Fonts, point sizes, styles,
tabs, and spacing can all be
adjusted with single opera-
tions on the ribbon or ruler.
You'll find keyboard equiva-
lents for all icon and menu
items, but there are so many
choices in WinWord that
you'll appreciate having rare-
ly used commands on the
menu bar. (In fact, there are
so many choices that the in-
cluded keyboard template
wouldn't fit above my PC's
function keys!) If you do
have trouble finding a func-
tion, WinWord's, comprehen-
sive context-sensitive online
help is only a keypress
away.

WinWord has a plenitude
of features to simplify docu-
ment creation. The one I've
used most is the glossary,
which lets you abbreviate of-
ten-used text. For instance,
for this review, 1 created a
glossary item called ww,
standing for WinWord. When-
ever I needed WinWord in
my text, I just typed w/wand
hit F3. The abbreviation ex-
panded out to the full word,
complete with italics. You
can also store longer blocks
of boilerplate text as glossa-
ry items, such as addresses
or standard greetings.

Style sheets let you record
a group of character and par-
agraph characteristics, as-
sign them a name, and save
them. For instance, consider
using WinWord to create a

119

REVIEWS

newsletter. You could create
styles for headlines, sub-
heads, body copy, and side-
bar text. When you create a
new element, you can
change font, spacing, style,
size, and justification -with
one operation instead of
five. Style sheets can be
stored for use in other docu-
ments.

Even more comprehen-
sive is Win\Aford's document
template feature. Each tem-
plate can store boiler plate
text, style sheets, glossary
items, macros, and custom
menu and key configura-
tions. The 20-H sample tem-
plates included with W/n-
Word simplify the creation of
articles, legal briefs, bro-
chures, contracts, disserta-
tions, envelopes, form let-
ters, mailing labels, memos,
and other documents. They
also sen/e as excellent exam-
ples for creating your own
glossary items and macros.

WinWord has the most so-
phisticated macro facility I've
seen in an application pro-
gram. You can create mac-
ros by recording keypresses
and menu selections, as in
most other programs. Howev-
er, WinWord a\so has a built-
in programming language
called WordBASIC that lets
you create truly potent mac-
ros. You can automate even
the most sophisticated oper-
ations. For instance, you
could create a macro for de-
veloping a resume; that mac-
ro would bring up dialog-box
requesters asking for each
piece of information individ-
ually and then assemble
them into a formatted
resume. You'll need some pro-
gramming background to
take full advantage of Win-
Word's macro facility, but if
you've ever used Microsoft
QuickBASIC, you'll feel right
at home using WordBASIC.
Unfortunately, the documen-
tation for WordBASIC isn't in

120 COIVIPUTE

the manual — you must either
print a 77-page document in-
cluded with the program to
get basic documentation or
purchase the heipful Micro-
soft Word Tecfinical Refer-
ence for Windows and OS/2
for $22.95.

If your needs are fairly sim-
ple, you can use WinWord
as a desktop publishing pro-
gram. It supports multiple col-
umns (side-by-side or news-
paper-style snaking col-
umns) and can insert pic-
tures within your text. Manu-
al kerning gives you DTP-
style control over letter spac-
ing. You can directly load
TIFF-format graphics or
paste them from the clip-
board. WinWord also sup-
ports the DDE {Dynamic Da-
ta Exchange) feature of Win-
dows 3.0, so you can link a
graphic from another DDE-
capable program into your
document.

If you're using WinWord to
create documents that will
be seen and modified by
more than one author, you'll
appreciate the program's red-
lining and annotation fea-
tures. Redlining allows you
to make changes in a docu-
ment while keeping the orig-
inal text around for reference
(the old text is shown with a
line through it). Alternately,
you can use the document-
compare feature, which will
mark any paragraphs that
change between two ver-
sions of a document. Anno-
tations let you attach com-
ments or suggestions to any
block of text. The comment
author's initials appear in the
text, and the annotation in a
window below. You can lock
documents so that annota-
tions can be added but no
changes can be made in the
text.

WinWord has just about
every other feature you
could want in a word proces-
sor. You can automate the

Feature-packed,
Word tor
Windows will
satisfy
casual and
professional
writers.

creation of columnar tables,
outlines, indexes, and tables
of contents. Students and re-
searchers will appreciate the
program's footnote and
endnote capabilities. Win-
WordwiW perform math oper-
ations on groups of numbers
within your text, and you can
type mathematical and scien-
tific equations and see them
onscreen as they'll look
when printed. Other stan-
dard functions, such as
search and replace, spelling
check, and mail merge,
work as expected.

Writers will find the online
thesaurus invaluable. It not
only provides synonyms for
the selected word, but it al-
so gives you a choice of def-
initions for the word in differ-
ent contexts and lists the
part of speech. For instance,
different synonyms are given
for the word clear, depend-
ing upon v/hether you're us-
ing it to mean "transparent"
or "to remove obstructions
from."

If you're moving up to Win-
Vlfcirdfrom another word proc-
essor or if you share docu-
ments with users of other
word processors, you'll appre-
ciate its file-conversion fea-
tures. You can load and
save files in OCA, Display-
Write. MultiMate, RTF, Win-
dows Write. Word for DOS,

Word for Macintosfi, Word-
Star. WordPerfect, and
Works formats. All but the
most esoteric formatting
codes are supported, so you
should lose little or nothing in
the translation.

WinWord uses the stan-
dard Windows printer driv-
ers, so the quality of its out-
put is excellent overall, but at
the same time, dependent up-
on your printer. Generally,
your printer's built-in fonts
will look quite good, but the
Windows system fonts will
look rough. If you need to
use fonts not resident in
your printer, pick up a copy
of Adobe Type Manager.
The print-preview function
lets you view single or facing
pages before printing. You
can choose whether or not to
include summary info, anno-
tations, and hidden text in
your printed document.

WinWord's documenta-
tion lives up to the high stan-
dards set by other Microsoft
products. A 25-page Getting
Started booklet will walk you
through installing the pro-
gram. The 126-page Pocket
Guide is a tutorial that will in-
troduce you to WinV\brd's ma-
jor features. The 475-page Us-
er Reference tome lists all
the program's functions in al-
phabetical order, making it a
snap to find any feature, Al-

so included is a 90-page Print-
er Reference Guide and a
keyboard template. All the
texts are extremely well writ-
ten—simple enough for the
novice but not condescend-
ing to the knowledgeable.

I couldn't find anything to
complain about in Word for
Windows, except perhaps
the fact that the company
doesn't make a version for
the Amiga, the other platform
I spend much of my time us-
ing. Once you've used Win-
Word, other word proces-
sors seem like simple text ed-
itors in comparison. The only
negative aspects are the pro-
gram's hunger for memory
and its sluggish perform-
ance on machines slower
than 12 MHz. However,
those are more the fault of
Windows than Win Word and
a small price to pay for ver-
satility and power.

If you're looking for a no-
compromise word processor
and have the hardware to
handle it. Word for Windows'
herculean features and con-
nectivity with other programs
make it the obvious choice
for ail your text-editing
needs.

DENNY ATKIN

IBM PC and compatibles; 1MB RAM
(2MB recommended); EGA, VGA,
XGA, or 8514; hard drive; 80286 or
higher processor — $495

MICROSOFT
16011 NE36lh Way
Redmond, WA 98073-9717
(800) 426-9400

Circle Reader Service Number 355

AIR STRIKE USA

Armchair pilots looking for a
simple tactical flight simula-
tor may want to strap them-
selves into Cinemaware's Air
Strii^e USA. In this action/strat-
egy air-combat contest, you
concentrate on making the
world safe for the allies, rath-

For straightforward Ivgii-speed air combat, fly Air Strike USA.

^^ tfAm.rirmrm

Elltot'B Logo ProJL-cf
Mn 1991

Gen^t. r--^

Useful calendars are simple to make with Calendar Creator Plus.

er than memorizing a key-
board-load of esoteric flight
commands. But while your
jet is a breeze to fly, the mis-
sions, which have you taking
out both ground and air tar-
gets, require quick reflexes
and careful planning.

The EGA/VGA graphics
feature solid, 3-D scenery
and an assortment of 16-col-
or battle maps and instru-
ment panels. Unfortunately,
no sound cards are support-
ed. Although Air Stril<e USA
won't teach you to fly a jet,

it'll provide hours of missile-
pounding, machine gun-
biasting action.

CLAYTON WALNUM

IBM PC and compatibles; 3e4K RAM
for CGA. 640K RAM for EGA. VGA,
or Tandy 16-color; floppy or hard
drive; mouse or ioystick optional —
S39.95

Also available for Amiga— S39.95

CINEMAWARE

Distributed by Electronic Arts
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo. CA 94404
(800) 245-4525

Circle Reader Service Number 3S6

CALENDAR
CREATOR PLUS

Many of today's mainstream
applications are overkill
when it comes to doing the
smaller jobs we want our sili-
con partners to accomplish.
Power Up has managed to
create a product that not on-
ly fills a much needed niche
but can help you organize
the daily events in your life
without giving you a learning-
curve heart attack.

Calendar Creator Plus cre-
ates customized calendars
to help you organize both
your personal and business
activities. The program al-'
lows you to set up event lists
for all your activities, incorpo-
rating them into the calen-
dar. What's more, the pro-
gram includes clip art and
gives you the ability to high-
light special events using al-
ternative fonts and shading,
When ready to print, you can
preview the calendar, graph-
ics and all. Calendars may
be printed in eleven different
formats and in varying sizes,
from a giant one-year calen-
dar to miniatures small
enough to fit in your pocket
organizer. I found the docu-
mentation, tutorial, and
quick reference card well writ-
ten, concise, and easy to fol-
low. The installation process
was user-friendly.

Calendar Creator Is a qual-
ity product. The only disap-
pointments are the lack of
mouse support and the
lengthy printing times for the
calendars themselves. Us-
ing a print spooler alleviates
the latter problem, though
there's no excuse for over-
looking mice. Despite these
minor problems, for those of
you who need this type of
product, I can recommend it
without reservation. If you
pay Calendar Creator the
least attention, you'll always
121

you know the incredible
learning a foreign

whether for travel,
business or entertain
ment, conversing in a foreign
language will open up whole new
worlds to you. And now tliere's a
metliod that makes learning a
;n language simpler. Pain-
And faster than you ever
Light possible. The first 15
tapes of this package are the
ver}^ same tapes used by the
US. State Department to
train career diplomats.
They Ye tried and proven
effective. But it's the sec-
ond 15 tapes utilizing
the latest European
learning techniques that
make this systern so spe-
'cial. This marriage of two
teaching. concepts liter-

ally gives you wo
courses in one . . .

the

l:»est of both
worlds in
language
instruction..

SPANISH

Jilosseiies
plus Inpid hfliiiB

$245.00

FRENCH

.« csssenes
plus inpls hojim

S245.00

»^

II

GERMAN'

plus tii|ilt' hom->

S245.00

1TALI.4N

ill OiKtlti

fins Inple tonus

S245.O0

BREAKTHROUGHS in language technology

by European learning researcher Dr. Georgi
Lozanov mv [Ik* basis of the remarkahle

Accelerated Learning
Umguage Series.
The series is so effective,
we guarantee you'll be
hearing, reading, iinder-

"Amcrican managers with
language skills open more
doors."

Will Slreel punml EtSlmal
Julv 35, I98S

slanc-iing and beginning lo converse in your
new language in 30 days - or your money back.
Tliis unique new system links the left side
of the brain (language and logic) with the
right side of the brain (music and art) for
dramatically increased retention and learning
speed, In the same lb« j»~^ Right

way you remember
the words to a song
with little or no effort.
Accelerated Learning

uses Baroque music

to "un-stress"

the learning process.

Boost your memory
with music.

"(the supcrlearnini; method
is) fascinating . . . Ilie resulU
are extraordinary."

Pitif- ijs^TencE Hall
Han^ t'nisierste

Hive you ever wondered why you can re-
member the words to a song with little or no
conscious effort? Music stimulates right brain

i ii i i I J I I I ' J I ' ' ^

A - loU'Cl - tc Ccn.Ule A-lou-cl - le. A - tou-et -ic je ie ptu-me-i^

activity Speech is a left brain activity. When the
two are combined, as in a song, you have left/
right brain linkage. You've
used your whole brain, so
youi^jnemory is much
strotlger. Accelerated learning
uses the same technique. You
will learn the language as
stjvsilessiy as *child does, by
liearihg new vocabulary' and
phrases in alternately loud whispered, and em-
phatic intonations, all accompanied by slow,
rhnhmic music.The effectiveness of Baroque
music as a memory aid is well documented and
Iea\-cs you feeling alert and rested.

"Atnerican ignorance of
other tongues has been hun-
ing American business execu-
tives in their competition for
(overseas) markets,"

7U:Nttr)brt -Times
Seplembo- 5. 19S8

rewards of
language?

t

JAPANESE

.111 C:liSClLtt

plus ifiple Imiiis

$265.00

CHINESE
S265.00

mm

RUSSIAN BRAZILIAN

\k' .taihbic Portuguese

.1.111 91 Swl.tailahli- Ian 91

S26S.00 S265.00

I

"I'ni 52 years old, and if
someone had lold me I
would have become articu-
late in a foreign language In
four weeks, I would have
said diey were wrons."

JiBcpb K Kradidi
Fofii Motor Cqnjpimy

Two language courses in one.

Utilizing these untapped mental capacities of your
learning ability is the basis of this unique

course. Each language le.sson
contains a study tape and a
meinoty tape, the study tape
(along with the US. State De-
partment text) explains rules
and grammar of the new lan-
guage. These are the ta]5es
u.sed by the Foreign Service
Institute to train career dip-
lomaLs. Tiie memory tapes correspond one-on-one
with the study tapes — and contain the acceler-
ated learning memor)' and
\'Ocabu!aiy drills that take the
boredom and drudgery' out (jf
learning.

Our 'comfort' guarantee.

To correctly converse in a
foreign language you must
understand the meanings and
intent of a native speaker If
after 30 days of listening to the stud\' and memon-
tapes you are not beginning to comfortably under-
stand, read and converse in your new language,
then return them for afull tv/und.

"I decided in concenlrale on
Spanish around 196S, and
after I became proficient in
1967, my business with
Spanish-speaking countries
increased from nothing to
over twenty million dollars
yearfy-" .Aiidrf Crispin

Indiuulilisi

FREE! TRIPLE
BONUS OFFER! ^

Order your language course
now and you'll also receive a
triple bonus: An American
Expre.s.s liitcrnatioiTai Travel-
ler's dictionary in the lan-
guage you choo.se to study,
the 100-page book How To
I^arn A t-oreign Language
(used by the Peace Corps &
CIA), and v^'n extra 90-mi-
niiie vixabulary tapes. This is
in additioti to your 15 go\'ern.
ment study tapes, 15 memory-
tapes and workbooks — and
all for the price you would
normally pay for just the 15
basic course tapes. Order
now and we'll rush your
tapes and bonus to you.
Remember, we guarantee
you'll be comfonable speak-
ing the language in 30 days!

Ordering Information

CALL TOLL FREE WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD ORDER
ORDER TODAY

Or send your check, money order 1 •ftOO • ft ^ • A T TT^T^^

(or institutional purcha.se order) to: A 0"V/ O^ iWJ mJ m\J

m)n-S,SIONAI. CASSETTE CENTER p,,,,, ^jj jy„o shipping & haixiling.

DEPARTMLNT CPF California residents add 6-i'4% sales tax.

350 w: COLORADO BOULEVARD Need it TomotroWf' MiPSl

FASADEXA, CA y 1 105 Ask Operator for Express Sen'ice ! FS»'**'*1

^P.S. BesI Millie.' Wh a toUd of 32 cas^tes plus study material. Ibit offer njjreseiils lite
best value cimilahle /oiiiy in language instruction. Compared to otlxr programs, the Accelemled
iMmiiig series uul}>erfortm tk'in ifilh twice tlie audio and 20 times the sittdy materials.

Another language is a major social and business asset.

* Bonus Offer!

REVIEWS

know where you have to be.

GORDON OWENS

IBM PC and compatibles; 512K RAM;
CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, or Hercu-
les; two floppy drives or a hard drive —
$69.95

POWER UP
2929 Campus Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94403
(800) 851-2917 (orders)
(415) 345-1356

Circle Reader Service Number 357

HOVERFORCE

Lord DarkenilL the slime who
controls the streets of Meta-
City, is making another run,
selling Aftershock, a hideous
bioserum. But this tinne the
mayor is determined to termi-
nate the flow of drugs and re-
claim his city. He's commis-
sioned you to pilot technolo-
gy's perfect crime preven-
tion weapon — the HoverKill
1000.

In this sleek craft, you'll
sweep through the city at
breakneck speed and real-
ize why Accolade calls Hover-
Force the fastest game you'll
ever play. It'll have you zip-
ping around corners and mak-
ing 180-degree turns, and
you perform all these brilliant
maneuvers with a mouse.
Mastering wrist gymnastics
may seem impossible at
first, but soon you'll wonder
why games ever used key-
boards.

The HoverKill comes with
several weapons, shields,
and various detection de-
vices that keep you informed
of what your drug-running
opponents are up to. But
cleaning the streets of MetaC-
ity is no easy task, even with
the help of topnotch gadget-
ry. Four mutant criminals, or
Alterants, control different
sections of the city. You take
them on one by one, interfer-
ing with their drug runs when-
ever possible.

These masterminds have

124 COMPUTE

Drug lords meet their match when you pilot the deadly HoverKill.

help; henchmen lurk in the
shadows ready to attack in
what scientists call neoster-
oldal rage, a result of the Af-
tershock that turned them in-
to mindless automatons.
Fighting these street thugs
makes up most of the action
in HoverForce.

At night the Alterants
move on to the next drop.
Waste no time going after
them, or it's back to face
your boss, gruff Sheriff
Stone, empty-handed. Watch-
ing the drug runner's large
vessel go up in smoke only
once is not enough. As Alter-
ants, your foes have taken
enough Aftershock to sur-
vive three lethal assaults. If
you manage to beat them
three times, though, you sim-
ply move on to the next quad-
rant of the city until finally
you meet Lord Darkenill him-
self.

The designers graced
HoverForce with clean, swift
graphics, and fair, but serv-
iceable sound effects. Fast-
paced, full of bad guys, and
insidiously playable, Hover-
Force deserves a place on
the hard drives of action
fans everywhere. You need
only take the controls of the

HoverKill, and you'll be
hooked. Hunting down Alter-
ants is a hard habit to break,

JONATHAN BELL

IBM PC and compatibles, 640K RAM,
EGA or VGA; mouse or joystick op-
tional. Ad Lib. Sound Blaster, Roland
MT-32, LAPC-1, and Tandy 3-voice
sound supported— $49.95

Also available (or Amiga— $49.95

ACCOLADE

550 S. Wincriester Blvd., Ste. 200

San Jose, CA 95128

(800) 245-7744

Circle Reader Service Number 358

DESIGNCAD 2-D

Many professional CAD pro-
grams come with so many
bells and whistles attached
that they seem unnavigable.
Lightweight or stripped-
down versions may be easi-
er to use, but they usually
lack the power professional
designers demand. Enter De-
signCAD 2-D from American
Small Business Computers.
With this CAD package a
casual user can turn graph-
ic ideas into finished draw-
ings in minutes, yet profes-
sionals will find that the pro-
gram can easily handle

most design challenges. The
features packed into De-
s;fifnC,4Dare especially amaz-
ing when weighed against
the program's low price.

Easy to install and config-
ure for your computer, print-
er, plotter, or digitizer, De-
signCAD sets your units of
nneasure in either English or
metric units. Files can be di-
rected to any output device
or port. If you use a mouse
or digitizing tablet, these de-
vices can easily be included
dunng the initial installation
process. You can also spec-
ify aspect ratios of screen dis-
plays and a preferred back-
ground color for EGA or VGA
displays.

Once you've installed the
program, a 60-page tutorial
takes you through the ba-
sics. This manual guides the
new user through many com-
monly used commands:
lines, curves, arcs, circles,
boxes, and polygons.

Drawing commands in De-
signCAD use points as refer-
ences. To draw a line,
curve, or polygon, for exam-
ple, set a number of points
and then select the appropri-
ate command, A line ap-
pears and connects the
points.

You can set points in a va-
riety of ways, most common-
ly by pressing a mouse but-
ton. Points can also be select-
ed by more sophisticated
methods. Various com-
mands set points at the near-
est existing point on a draw-
ing, at specified ('x.yj coordi-
nates, or at a specified dis-
tance and angle from the
last point set.

When drawing perpendic-
ular lines for a blueprint, a
mouse or digitizing tablet
may be convenient, but not
necessarily the best choice.
Sometimes it's easier and
more accurate to position
the cursor with the comput-
er's arrow keys. Regardless

of which input device you
use, it's a simple matter to
set a point on one line and in-
voke a command to create a
perpendicular line, Another
command adjusts lines to
make them exactly vertical
or horizontal.

Should you create several
variations of a drawing, you
can display them simultane-
ously on the screen. A View
command lets you open win-
dows to display any three
files. You can also zoom in to
show different details of the
same drawing if you prefer.
Other features include a user-
definable icon menu that
lets you customize your
screen or digitizer tablet. De-
slgnCAD supports high-res-
olution printing on dot matrix
and laser printers. Further-
more, it also has its own pro-
gramming language that
lets advanced users create
their own custom commands
in a format similar to BA-
SIC'S. Frequently used sym-
bols can be saved as mac-
ros and inserted with a click
of a mouse, fvlore than 500
symbols are supplied with
the package. Extended mem-
ory and a math coprocessor
are supported but not re-
quired, and a 360-page man-
ual puts all Des/gnCAD com-
mands at your fingertips in
an easy-to-reference alpha-
betical listing

Version 5 of DesignCAD,
which should be available by
press time, will support even
more printers, plotters, and
digitizers and offer improved
dimensioning techniques,
multiple file handling, the abil-
ity to run external programs
from within DesignCAD, and
many new commands. Own-
ers of the previous version of
DesignCAD may upgrade
for $50.

Fucked with powerful com-
mands and features, De-
signCAD's power neverthe-
less proves easy for any us-

mmmmmmmrm^

DesignCAD 2-D delivers high-end blueprints lor a low-end price.

Freakin' Funky Fuzzballs could be the f^ifRper hit of the year

er to harness. Its system of
menus, keyboard com-
mands, and shortcut key-
strokes makes the program
immediately accessible. For
anyone looking for a power-
ful yet low-cost CAD pro-
gram, DesignCAD is an ex-
cellent choice.

TOM NETSEL

IBM PC and compatibles, 640K RAM.
graphics display, hard drive— S349

AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS COM-
PUTERS

One American Way
Pryor. OK 74361
(918) 825-4844

Circle Reader Service Number 359

FREAKIN' FUNKY
FUZZBALLS

Tired of shooting everything in
sight or flying cross-country to
blast some MiGs to their eter-
nal rest? Try Frea/c/n' Furyky
Fuzzballs, a refreshing
change from most of the
games on the shelves today.
The idea is simple: Collect
enough keys or cards to be
able to get out of the level
you're in. And every so often,
when you reach a new level,
you'll find yourself in a differ-
ent world. If you're good
enough to conquer level 15,

you may qualify for the
Fuzzball fHall of Fame,

Along the way, though,
you'llneedtoreplenishyouren-
ergy by scarfing shakes, bur-
gers. sundaes, andothergood-
iesthatappear. Shields andar-
mor can go far to further your
progress. Numerous magical
spells, including spellsfor con-
fusion, invisibility, blindness,
and enlightenment add varie-

ty-

Once you get started, you'll
find it hard to quit playing this
game. Unique and enjoyable,
Freal<in ' Funky Fuzzballs gets
my highest recommendation.

RICK LEINECKER

IBM PC and compalibles, 384K RAM
for CGA. 512K RAM (or EGA. 640K
RAM for VGA— $29.95

SIR-TECH SORWARE
RO, Box 245
Ogdensburg, NY 13669
(315)393-6451

Circle Reader Service Numljer 360

COLLEGE COST
EXPLORER

High school students who
think they can't afford a col-
lege education should take
a look at College Cost Explor-
er. With it you create a list of
colleges and calculate the
amount of aid available from
those colleges and the
amount you'll need to contrib-
ute toward your expenses.
The results could surprise
you.

Details on the types of
forms you need to complete,
deadlines for requesting aid,
and the total costs including
tuition, out-of-state fees (if ap-
plicable), room and board,
and transportation are dis-
played along with the nanne
of the college and its loca-
tion. The introduction, pop-
up menu, and online help

125

REVIEWS

and glossary offer all the in-
formation you need to apply
for financial aid to 2900 col-
leges and universities nation-
wide, and all information is up-
dated annually. Thougfi the
process of choosing a col-
lege remains a daunting
one, College Cost Explorer
promises matter-of-fact assis-
tance.

JOYCE SIDES

IBM PC and compatibles, 256K
RAM— $59.95 (1992 edition—
$89.95)

Also available for Apple II series —
59.95 (1992 edition— S89,95)

THE COLLEGE BOARD
45 Columbus Ave.
New York, NY 10023-6992
(212)713-8118

Circle Reader Service Number 361

AFTER DARK/
INTERMISSION

Screen burnout occurs
when a bright, unchanging
image— like the typical Win-
dows screen — is left too
long on the monitor. The
bright areas "burn in," and
the phosphors gradually die.
Screen-saver programs pro-
tect your monitor's display
by blanking the screen
when tfie computer is idle or
when you move the cursor to
one corner of the screen. But
most people reaily buy a
screen saver for the amusing
animated graphics the pro-
grams display during blank-
ing.

Two screen savers for Win-
dows, After Darkand Intermis-
sion, offer similar features —
with more than thirty sets of
screen animations between
the two, plus password pro-
tection. With mobile clocks,
dragon kites, a choice of
moire patterns, and a swarm
of bees and wasps. Intermis-
sion has a slight edge in
graphic cleverness, but I did
126 COMPUTE

After Dark's humorous flying toasters won't permit screen burnout.

Ot the many screens that come with Intermission, this is perhaps
the most mesmerizing.

like After Dark's flying toast-
ers. After Dark's stormy city-
scape is eye-catching, too.
Both programs offer simple
blanking to a black screen
for those times when you
don't need visual distrac-
tions, and either of these pro-
grams will do a satisfactory
job of saving your screen
from the specter of burnout.

STEVEN Ar4Z0VIN

After Dark

IBM PC and compatibles. Wirydows

3,0 or higtier- S49.95

BERKELEY SYSTEMS
170O Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley. CA 94709
(415) 540-5535

Intermission

IBM PC and compatibles. Windows

3.0 or higher— $49.95

ICOM SIMULATIONS
648 S. Wheeling Rd.
Wheeling, IL 60090
(708) 520-4440

Circle Reader Service Number 362

PAM: PROGRAM

AUTOMATED

METHOD

Despite the generic name.
PAM is a lightning-fast rela-
tional database with industri-
al-strength capabilities.
PAM consists of an appli-

cation generator and a run
module. Use the application
generator to design your da-
tabase through its associat-
ed screens and reports. Com-
pile it (with just a few simple
keystrokes); then move to
the run module to run it. At
no time do you write a single
line of program code. It's all
done for you by the applica-
tion generator.

Application generators
are not new. The ones includ-
ed with the big-name data-
bases are definitely more in-
tuitive to use, but they usual-
ly carry with them a hefty over-
head that slows things
down, fills up your hard disk,
and empties your pocket-
bool<. This is where RAM
earns its market share, by be-
ing faster, leaner, and less ex-
pensive than other relational
databases with comparable
power.

A curious but welcome
throwback to earlier days of
programming, PAM favors
speed and program efficien-
cy over glitzy, no-brainer in-
terfaces. The code is lean
and direct, leaving out the
high overhead associated
with holding the user's hand
every step of the way to pro-
ductivity.

To learn PAM, set aside a
good four- to six-hour block
of time to work through the ex-
cellent tutorial— 250 of the
manual's 355 clearly written
pages. As you progress
through the lessons, you'll
learn PAM's arcane key-
strokes, and while there's
nothing intuitive about them,
they are definitely learnable.
And a word of advice: Don't
skip the tutorial— you'll only
frustrate yourself.

I do have a few com-
plaints. In text fields, you
can't use the backspace
key. You're stuck with the
left arrow and delete combi-
nation. A fast typist or data en-
try operator hits the back-

GET THE

OmCIAL CLUES TO THE

HOTTEST GAMES!

,\S' THE OFFICIAL BOOK OF

' KING'S

THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO

ConlAim tiUl hints and sttatcgiKfoi^uIving
A'w.t's Qntft i-V a«d Iht llli=A i>n Sierr^V
CD-ROM ikv^i>E>]

THE OFFICIAL BOOK OF

KING'S QUEST,

SECOND EBITION

Here's the source for hints,
tips, and background for the newest

adventure, King's Quest V.

This new volume includes more clues,

maps, and inside details,

along with more ways to add even

more fun to all five of the

best-selling King's Quest games.

Covers King's Quest I ■ V.

THE OFnClAL GUIDE TD

SID MEIER'S

RAILROAD TYCOON

This is the book that makes
railroading and the game come alive.

Inside players will find interviews

with Sid Meier, the designer of Railroad

Tycoon, along with facts

on how the product was conceived

and developed. Also

includes formulas the program uses to

determine income and expense.

THE OFnCIAL GUIDE TD

ROGER WILCffS

SPACE ADVENTURES

For the first time.
Space Questers can learn what goes

on in the mind oi the most
legendary janitor in the universe. Inside,

you'll find complete maps for every
Space Quest scenario, point values for

every reaction, and Roger's

walk-through to the finish of all the games.

Covers Space Quest I ■ IV.

ri

YES!

I I I want more hints and tips! Please

send me the books checked below.

□ The Oflicial Book of King's Quest, Second Edition (2452) S12.95
G The Oniclal Guide lo Roger Wllco's Space Adventures (237) S14.95
D The Oflicial Guide lo Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (2443) S12.95

Tolel Numb«r of Books
Total Cost of Books Ordered

^

Sales Tax (Residents of NY, NC, and NJ add appropriate sates lax for
your area. Cai^adian orders add 7% goods and services tax.)

Shipping and Handling: S2 per txxik U.S.; S4 Canada;

S6 foreign

Total Enclosed

a Check or Money Order
Signature

DMC DVISA

n

Acct, No.

Exp. Date .

Please Print

Name

Street Address .
City

-State .

Zip.

All orders must be paid in U,S. (unds drawn on a U.S. bank.

Mail this entire coupon lo:

COMPUTE Books
CO CCC

2500 McCleilan Ave.
Pennsauken, NJ 08109

Offer good while supplies last.

BUY BETTER-SCORE HIGHER

WITH COMPUTE'S GUIDE TD SEGA GENESIS

The author of
the best-sell- >
ing COM-
PUTEI's Guide
to Nintendo
Games rates
each game's
features, chal-
lenge, and
playability,
and includes actual play-
ing screens so you can
find out about the best

TOMPUTE's

Guide to

SEGA
GENESIS

Se*v«n A. Schttnrti

'. games before
you buy Also
includes strat-
egies and su-
per secrets to
boost your
scores. Sneak
peeks at fu-
ture games
let you see
what's under develop-
ment Includes 33 reviews
and over 60 screen shots.

1 1 I 1 1 want to

'• Conquer Sega!

Copies at COMPUTE'S Guide to

Sega Genesis at S9.95each. (2389)

Suhtolal

Sales Tax (Residents of NC, NV.

and NJ add appropriate sales tax
for your area. Canadian orders
add 7% ooods and services tax.)

Shipping and Handling (S2 per book

U.S.: S4 Canada and S6 Foreign)

Total Enclosed

n Check or Money I5rder D MC D VISA
Signature

Acct. No Exp. Dale

All orders must be paid in U.S. funds drawn on i

U.S. bank.

MAIL TO Compute Books

C/O CCC

2S0D McClellan Avenue

Pennsaukei, NJ 06109

Please allow four lo Six weeks tor deliveiy. Offer eaod
wliilc supplies las!. 7091 C

space key automatically; it
should be supported by
PAM. And a few editing func-
tions don't work as de-
scribed in the manual.

PAM packs a rich feature
set. Fields can be set to be
all upper- or lowercase or to
automatically capitalize the
first letter of each word.
Fields can have required en-
try or be set to accept only
full fields. Automatic field du-
plication, incrementing, and
skipping are supported. Fur-
thermore, PAM offers a ma-
trix-table function that allows
spreadsheetlike "what if" cal-
culations — only much faster.
PAM imports and exports
standard Lotus and dBase
files, as well as other com-
mon formats, making your da-
ta extremely portable.

After the initial learning
phase, you can easily build
complex databases that com-
pare well in functionality with
the well-known database pro-
grams. Your databases may
not look as elegant, but
they'll do the job. And at
PAM's price, that's afforda-

128 COMPUTE

PAM puis you in direct conSrol of your database without a GUI.

ble dependability.

RICHARD MANN

IBt^ PC and compatibles, 256K RAM.
hard drive and floppy drive— S65 for
single database (flat file), S145 lor 3
relational databases, S245 for 6 rela-
tional databases, S345 for 28 relation-
al databases

SOFTWARE COMPOSERS
4500 Newcombe Dr.
Piano, TX 75093-3913
(214) 985-8018

Circle Reader Service Number 363

IMPERIUM

Control of the Throygon Em-
pire rests in your hands. As
Emperor Amarillus, you ex-
pand your empire from its pit-
iful beginnings to galactic
dominance. Accomplish this
by colonizing productive
worlds, some of which will,
hopefully, produce nostrum,
a drug that extends your life
span and that of your com-
patriots. Nostrum means

life — humans usually live
less than a century, but you
want to rule for 1000 years.

Competing empires are
led by the same motives as
yours, which means you
face a constant struggle.
And law requires that an elec-
tion be held every 50 years.
So stay sharp and don't do
anything rash, or your peo-
ple will vote you out, and
you'll be emperor no more.

Impenum requires more
than just military prowess
and political charm; several
economic and diplomatic fac-
tors must be taken into ac-
count. Your predecessor,
though, has left an intelli-
gence report describing the
responsibilities of an emper-
or at every game turn.

Within a single turn you
make decisions about eco-
nomic factors that will affect
the wealth of your empire, as
well as oversee the military
and handle diplomatic af-
fairs. You face decisions
about which planets to sub-
sidize so they will become
more productive, which em-

REVIEWS

pires to attack and wtiich to
befriend, and how high: or
low import taxes should be.

Balancing all those fac-
tors is daunting at first, but
you can delegate day-to-day
control to subordinates, leav-
ing you with the responsibili-
ties of initiative and interven-
tion. Do be careful; some of
your subordinates are incom-
petent or even disloyal,
though they may improve
with awards and promotion.

You'll need to intervene of-
ten anyway if you expect to
win the game. Assuming
your empire isn't destroyed
(or you don't die from a lack
of nostrum), Imperium lasts
for 1000 years or until you
conquer all other empires.
Both veteran game players
and novices should find /m-
per/um addictive, but master-
ing the game will take time
and effort no matter what
your level of experience. Ex-
pect to spend several week-
ends mastering the subtle-
ties of dictatorship. The de-
velopers help you out here
by including a complete ref-
erence to every game func-
tion in ttie /mper/urr? manual.
Read the italicized hints and
save your game often as you
try different strategies.

Control your empire using
the icon bar at the top of the
screen. From this bar you
pull down menus that pro-
vide access to areas of con-
cern — the military, economy,
alliances, colony ships, sub-
ordinates, and so on. This gra-
phical user interface is a
long way from the ease of
use proclaimed by its pro-
grammers. In a world witfi Mi-
crosoft Windows and the Ap-
ple fvlacintosh, Imperium's
GtJI is frustrating by compar-
ison. It requires too many key-
Strokes and mouse clicks to
navigate, For example, Impe-
rium demands at least six key-
strokes to enter the copy pro-
tection information.

HIMEM^

jt[|.iltlilNlTT^

LEHETH IF TOM ^
nm TtlRHI CLOSE I

=^:iTinfH

12048

ju

Anarchy poses some minor problems to your reign as emperor.

ile Oifertorv nackuii

RcckerTDDls lor WindoMS.SBZ

pislc (tpcr.lHl Oprtonri Ap()licflHDrtFi Help

ii5r'l r»r1rST\Tr.v--i

IHl

HIP

fc--

■SVSTEIt
TEW

Mc£s5nR mip

nUMRfH lull'

oarouis

BOSES

Icflte
ientc

'GALeNin!! EXE
-MLOBOR IIIP
Gnll5FILE EXC
'DflROFILE HIP
;C(tTS Pir

ICMESS OtiP

■cnpiiso rKi;

r- -rEii IKP
rsi
tsi:

IILP

i- y. !■: toNTBoi.

<I>IB>
<I>1R>

7»II5

HOJlBO

«I13E2
33211

i3m

5I<5
IS3/18

?asi?

159110

1113S

161 MB

COMV

njnooL?

oicr

■ooss.

onsiniiL

iitiiiinH

LfiSER

HOUELL

MWBKToai

psnronin

OSIUOI.

ic-qmcK

uifi_sfc

wiHPncK

HIHUailO

Hmoai

([1IR>

<itm>

<DIH>

•;oiR>

<I>1R>
<DIR>

<Oin>

CDiH>
<DSR>
(1)IH>

<D!n>

<DII»
<DiHJ
<D!R>
<tllR>

Files; Off) Dlfeaodon: l)«

: IS Enldci:

BeckerToois is a repiaccmant hi Wi/idows' File Manager.

Unfortunately, Imperium
has another major failing in
the way of graphics. Almost
everything appears in mono-
chrome no matter what the vid-
eo mode is. Does gray scale
interest you when you have a
VGA card? Probably not.

I will give credit, however,
to the sound and graphics of
the title screen. The color
graphic is a fair reproduction
of the package art. And if
you have a sound card in-
stalled, Beethoven's Moon-
light Sonata comes across
well, too. Despite its outward
appearances, Imperium

should keep anyone who ap-
preciates a challenge addict-
ed — especially those with ga-
lactic ambitions.

„0NATHAN BELL

IBM PC and compatibles. 512K RAM
{640K for Tandy), CGA. EGA, VGA,
Tandy 16-color, or Hercules; sup-
ports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, and Ro-
land MT-32 sound cards: mouse op-
tonal— $39.95

Also available for Amiga — $39.95

ELECTRONIC ARTS
1620 Gateway Dr
San Mateo. CA 94404
(BOO) 245-4525

Circle Reader Service Number 364

BECKERTOOLS
FOR WINDOWS

Some computing enthusi-
asts regard Windows 3.0
with near reverence. Yet re-
cent converts have been
quick to point out that Wir)-
dows' File Manager leaves
much to be desired. Sure,
you get conventional file and
disk management options
such as Copy, Move, Delete,
Rename, Find flies. Edit text,
and Format. Windows' File
Manager also launches appli-
cations. However, it handles
these tasks in a less than el-
egant way. Even fviicrosoft ac-
knowledges there is room for
improvement in File Manag-
er, and the company prom-
ises a performance upgrade
by year's end, when Win-
dows 3.1 ships.

If you seek file manager re-
lief now, don't despair. Beck-
erToois may be just what you
need to overcome File Man-
ager's deficiencies. Once in-
stalled, it offers dozens of
disk and file options previous-
ly unavailable under Win-
dows. For example, you can
undelete files and directo-
ries, read disks in a single
pass to make multiple cop-
ies, do selective backups,
pack (compress) or unpack
specified files and directo-
ries, find duplicate files, cre-
ate a bootable System disk,
and much more. Advanced
users will appreciate the spe-
cialized hexadecimal, sec-
tor, and file editors. Any one
of these options may be se-
lected with the point and
click of a mouse.

Setup is a breeze! Becker-
Tools installs directly from
File Manager or from the
DOS prompt. The applica-
tion {along with an aestheti-
cally pleasing screen saver
called STARUTE)can be con-
figured to load automatically
with Windows. Alternatively,

129

REVIEWS

you can disable automatic
loading and elect to have
BeckerTools and its screen
saver sidekick added to the
Accessories or Applications
group.

The first time you view the
BeckerTools window, you
may experience a bit of a
shock. The screen could be
a clip from a movie titled
Nightmare on Icon Street. I
counted 65 3-D icons, not in-
cluding scroll arrows and box-
es and title bar boxes. Luck-
ily, whenever the cursor
points at an icon in the Tool-
box area, the program dis-
plays a brief description of
that icon at the bottom of the
screen. For example, aim at
the icon labeled Info, and
the bottom line message
reads Display directory infor-
mation. Zero in on the icon
with the large red X, and the
bottom line discloses Unse-
lect all files and directories.
Toolbox options can also be
invoked from pull-down men-
us (on the menu bar) or with
keyboard command short-
cuts.

The BeckerTools work-
space is divided into five ar-
eas. The icon-rich Toolbox
and two windows depicting
the contents of Source and
Target directories occupy
most of the screen. A menu
bar and two additional infor-
mation fields (one showing
current source and target
paths, the other displaying us-
er and system messages or
icon descriptions) complete
the lineup. Unfortunately, the
information line at the bottom
of the screen displays icon
descriptions only for the Tool-
box area and not for the
Source or Target window ar-
eas.

Spend some time with
BeckerTools, and navigating
the workspace presents little
difficulty. To complete a
task, you must first set up a
Source directory. This tells

130 COMPUTE

the program where to iook
when you click on a Toolbox
icon.

Next, establish a target
path. Then select an icon
(tool) from the Toolbox win-
dow. In this way, copying or
moving files and directories
from one disk or directory to
another is reduced to a few
simple mouse clicks. Sever-
al tools — such as Delete or
Rename files and directo-
ries. Create new subdirecto-
ry. Display directory tree,
and Format disks — do not re-
quire a target path.

BeckerTools offers online
help and a choice of three
menu displays. To minimize
confusion, new users should
select Beginner. Seasoned
veterans of Wlndows-^pe in-
terfaces may opt for the In-
termediate feature level or Ad-
vanced (complete) menu dis-
play. Whatever option you
run Seckerroo/s under, it per-
forms flawlessly

You can launch an appli-
cation by selecting execut-
able programs from a
Source directory, double-
clicking to pull up the Quick
menu, and pressing
Launch. Alternatively, you
can launch as many as ten
applications via a user-con-
figurable list available from
the Applications menu.

As a substitute for Win-
dows' File Manager, Becker-
Tools offers a host of differ-
ent utilities designed to
please novices as well as
techies. And since it does
such a nice job of launching
applications, you might even
prefer it to Windows' Pro-
gram Manager.

CAROL HOL2BERG

IBM AT and compatibles, Windows
S.Oor later— $129,95

ABACUS

5370 52nd SI. SE

Grand Rapids. Ml 49512

(800)451-4319

Circle Reader Service Number 355

WILL BUILDER

Few of us welcome the pros-
pect of writing a will, and of-
ten the document remains un-
written until it's too late.
While the average person
probably has some hazy ide-
as about what's required, the
specifics are a problem, and
people are reluctant to pay
a lawyer for advice.

Will Builder offers a partial
solution. It educates, and it
helps you prepare docu-
ments that you might other-
wise dread preparing, wheth-
er for their supposed com-
plexity or simply for their
gloomy nature. A 240-page
companion book (prepared
by two attorneys) explains
the processes of creating a
will, assigning power of attor-
ney appointing an executor,
and writing a living will. You'll
find further explanations in
the program itself, along
with a rather lengthy index.
The user interface looks and
feels a tad primitive, devoid
of many of the visual niceties
we've grown to expect from
software. But since the pro-
gram doesn't have a lot of
functional depth, it doesn't
require much operational
assistance.

Will Builder meets its sim-
ple goal and takes you by
the hand to walk you
through the process of pre-
paring legal documents relat-
ing to the handling of your es-
tate after your death. You
can also put together docu-
ments that give other individ-
uals named by you power to
make certain decisions on
your behalf about your right
to die, should you become se-
riously incapacitated.

Will Builder will tailor your
documents to meet the re-
quirements of your home
state's laws and is equipped
to address many of the spe-
cial issues that have be-
come commonplace in late

twentieth-century life in this
country — personal affairs
like single parenthood, step-
parenting, and unmarried
life partners.

Done simply, this process
requires answers to a few per-
sonal questions, explains
what the law requires in each
matter discussed, and then
fills in the blanks of prede-
signed legal documents
based on your responses. As
with any software of this sort,
a disclaimer in the program
suggests that you employ le-
gal assistance if you're at all
unsure of anything.

If you follow the steps care-
fully and thoroughly read
and understand the refer-
ence material provided,
your documents should be
as legal as those prepared
by an attorney, though the
software designers cannot
take responsibility for any
problems that might arise.
You are, in essence, choos-
ing to act as your own law-
yer by taking on this task us-
ing a software package
alone.

Costing less than the av-
erage 60-minute period in an
attorney's office. Will Builder
contains more general infor-
mation than a lawyer could
easily dispense in that period
of time. For savings like that,
many of us would brave the
difficulty of completing our
own legal paperwork. If you're
willing to be your own coun-
sel in one area of your legal
affairs or if you want to be bet-
ter informed when you do con-
sult an attorney, Will Builder's
worth a look.

KATHY YAKAL

IBM PC and compatibles, 512K RAM,
hard disk— $59.95

SYBAR

2021 Challenger Dr.
Alameda, CA 94501
(800) 227-2346

Circle Reader Service Number 366

ABC
FLOWCHARTER

I've never liked flow charts
and never thought I would.
Roykore's ABC Flowcharter,
however, has changed my
mind. Drawing upon Micro-
soft Windows' advanced
graphics capabilities, the at-
tractive and flexible ABC
Flowcharter receives high
marks for functionality.

Programmers use flow
charts to chart out a pro-
gram before writing a single
line of code. A visual repre-
sentation of a program, flow
charts depict certain actions
with different shapes; a call
for user input might appear
in the form of a blue circular
box, while a message written
to the screen may be placed
in a rectangular red box.
Lines denote relationships be-
tween the shapes, and text
within a shape further ex-
plains that shape's function.

If you find traditional out-
liners too confining. ABC
Flowcharter provides a gra-
phical approach to structur-
ing information; you just
move shapes around with
your mouse naturally and eas-
ily. Programmers will find
that this program has the pow-
er to accommodate today's
complex software design —
a single chart can hold over
32,000 shapes. Office man-
agers can use ABC Flowchar-
ferto map office procedures;
because it's essentially a
minihypertext system, ABC
Flowcharter could assist in
creating training exercises.

Say you want to create a
simple training exercise. You
create a series of shapes sig-
nifying the various steps
needed to perform a task,
along with iines denoting the
logical procedure. Highlight-
ed by red shapes, important
tasks stand out; explanatory
notes, denoted by blue

shapes, don't clamor for at-
tention but wait in the wings.
(Since ABC Flowcharter
ships with 30 different
shapes built in, you
shouldn't run out soon.)

But wait — you realize that
the user could take an entire-
ly different course of action,
and you don't want to clutter
up your main chart with the
new branch. No problem: Be-
cause ABC Flowcharter of-
fers a three-dimensional ef-
fect, you can link the main
chart with a subchart. You
can uncover any shape
linked to another shape with
a simple click of the mouse
button, Subcharts can link to
subcharts, and thanks to a
command that shows every
aspect of your flow chart,
you'll never lose track of
your logic.

However, a few inconven-
iences and inconsistencies
in ABC Flowcharter w'\\\ drive
you to distraction, especially
if you work exclusively within
the Windows environment.
Written for earlier versions of
the program, the manual
doesn't reflect the changes
made for Windows 3.0. The
failure to place the Close com-
mand under the File menu
may have been technically
correct, but its omission still
annoys the end user.

Otherwise well presented,
ABC Flowcharter should
serve the needs of virtually
any computer user. Flow
charts can prove more use-
ful than you might expect,
and if you need to create
lots of them, you'll want to
use ABC Flowcharter

KEVIN REICHARD

IBM PC AT and compatibles, Win-
dows 2,11 or later, hard disk with at
east 1MB of free space— $295

ROYKORE

22 IS Filbert St.

San Francisco. CA 94123-3413

(415) 563-9175

Circle Reader Service Number 367

*Enter ^notfier WoHd
Wfiere the Living

art
Among the ^exv

CRUSADERS

of the
DARK SAVANT

The Sequel to Bane of the Cosmic Forge

CIrcte Reader Servtce Number 192

FINAL ORBIT

Fans of vertically scrolling
shoot-'em-ups will enjoy Fi-
nal Orbit, even though its
plot is a variation on an old
theme. Stranded on a plan-
et, you must battle your way
through nine levels to its
core and destroy it before gar-
bage bags and other intelli-
gent waste destroy you.

Due to awkward steering
controls and the sheer num-
ber of adversaries, the
game is difficult even in its
easiest mode. Fortunately,

you can pick up more pow-
erful weapons and play simul-
taneously with a friend. The
graphics and animation are
stupendous — this one will
put you in orbit.

LEN POGGIALI

IBM PC and connpatibles, 640K RAM,
CGA. EGA, VGA, or Tandy 16-color;
joystick optional, supports Ad Lib
sound card— S34.9S

INNERPRISE SOFTWARE
128 Cockeysville Rd.
Hunt Valley, MD 21030
(301)785-2266

Circle Reader Service Number 368

Final Orbit pits you against a planetlul of animate garbage.

131

IMPORTANT NOTICE

FOR

COMPUTE DISK

SUBSCRIBERS

COMPUTE Offers two different disk
products for PC readers: tlie
SharePak disk and PC Disk. SharePak
is monthly and ties a subscription
price of $59.95 for 5Va-incti disks
and $64.95 for 3'/2-inch disks. A
subscription to SharePak does not
include a subscription to ttie maga-
zine. PC Disk appears in even-
numbered monttis and tias a sub-
scription price of $49.95, wtiichi
includes a subscription to ttie PC
edition of COMPUTE. You can sub-
scribe to eithier disk or to botti, but a
subscription to one does not include
a subscription to ttie ottier.

REVIEWS

aBERGENIC
RANGER

A massive, state-of-the-art ar-
cade game, Cybergenic
Ranger consumes almost
five megabytes of disk
space, requires at least a 12-
MHz macfiine with EGA vid-
eo (VGA is infinitely better),
and deserves every bit of the
pampering you give it.

The story is lovingly de-
tailed in a professionally pro-
duced comic book, a comic
that also serves as copy pro-
tection (you have to enter a
randomly chosen word from
the book before you can
start). While the plot is pulp,
the graphics are (dare I say
it?) out of this world. If you've
been waiting for a game
whose makers had the guts
to leave CGA behind, wait

Cybergenic Ranger's striking advanced graphics bring arcade
standards home to your PC.

132 COMPUTE

no longer. Cybergenic Rang-
er features scrolling back-
grounds for a true arcade 3-
D effect. As you move the
character through scenery,
objects further back move
more slowly than objects
near the front. Digitized mu-
sic plays remarkably well
through the PC speaker,
though of course the Sound
Blaster and Ad Lib boards of-
fer superior sound.

While there are some ho-
hum space battles, interest-
ing travel on the surface of
seven different moons and
planets more than compen-
sates. Quick-moving, 256-
color monsters left me with
the impression that I should
have been feeding quarters
into my 386; Cybergenic
Ranger pushes the machine
to the limit and is every bit as
exciting as a visit to your
neighborhood arcade.

TOM CAMPBELL

IBM PC and compatibles. 640K RAM.
EGA or VGA, 4.9M8 disk space;
Sound Blaster and Ad Lib sound
cards supporled— $49.95

{Editor's note — Owners of earlier ver-
sions of Cytxrgenic Ranger receive
a free upgrade supporting sound
cards and a joystick. Call the toll-free
number listed below.)

SYMTUS
RO. Box 912
Palacios, TX 77465
(800) 255-2374

Circle Reader Service Number 369

STUDYWARE FOR
THE GRE

Some friends of mine took
the Graduate Record Exam
when they were fresh out of
undergraduate school.
Smart move. Not only do you
start to lose test-taking skills
shortly after graduation, but
that mass of knowledge that
you built up for a diploma
starts to fade away pretty
quickly, too. Depending on
what kind of higher degree

you're after, those GRE
scores can be quite impor-
tant. And whenever you take
the test, some studying may
be in order. Based on actual
current exams. StudyWare
for the GRE allows your prep-
aration time to be focused
and well used. If you're com-
fortable using the computer,
then SiudyWare may be an
appealing study tutor

The program is broken
down into two main areas of
preparation: the StudyWare
test preparations and
course reviews, and an elec-
tronic version of Cliffs GRE
Preparation Guide. (Remem-
ber Cliffs Wofes? Those inor-
dinately helpful little booklets
with yellow and black
stripes?)

You can take the Stu-
dyWare tests in either Test
mode (which operates like a
real examination, only allow-
ing you to answer questions)
or Tutor mode (which gives
you immediate feedback, tell-
ing you whether you an-
swered a question correctly
and supplying the right one
if you didn't, along with a
brief explanation).

In many cases, Stu-
dyWare can supply addition-
al information before you an-
swer a question, to help you
make the correct choice. If
you're in Tutor mode and
don't know the definition of a
word, you can look it up in
the built-in glossary. In math-
ematical areas, you can pe-
ruse online charts and
graphs as study aids.

Available tests gauge and
sharpen your quantitative, ver-
bal, and analytical abilities.
In the verbal area, for exam-
ple, choose to test yourself
in areas like sentence com-
pletion, analogies, and read-
ing comprehension. Quanti-
tative exams analyze your
abilities in standard mathe-
matical subjects.

StudyWare for itie GRE

comes with a paper copy
of Cliffs GRE Preparation
Guide; it is awkward to use
this portion of thie program —
you must read tfie test ques-
tions out of tliat document
and answer ttnem on tfie elec-
tronic answer form witfiin tfie
software.

You can operate ttie pro-

IBW PC and compatibles. 256K
RAM— $49.95

Also available for Apple II— S49.95
and Macinlosh— S49.95

STUDYWARE

4760 Murphy Canyon Rd., Ste. A

San Diego. CA 92123

(619)495-0190

Circle Reader Service Number 370

Through dash and daring, the lead in the Space Ace space opera
saves the day and gets the girl

gram ttirougti eitlier tfie
mouse or tfie keyboard, and
tfie user interface is ele-
mentary enougfi tfiat little
use of the accompanying
brief manuals is required. Stu-
dyWare monitors your pro-
gress and reports on your lev-
el of success at the end of
each section.

Gloomy projections regard-
ing the job market for this
year'sgraduatingcoliegesen-
iors may prompt many of
them to remain in academia
instead of job-hunting imme-
diately, in the hopes that a
higher degree may help
them nab a better position in
the real world. If you're one
of these seniors or if you're
trying to return to school af-
ter being out in the work
force for a few years, invest
in StudyWare for the GRE
and give yourself a decided
edge.

KATHY YAKAL

SPACE ACE

In this interactive cartoon
loosely derived from the pop-
ular Dragon's Lair series, you
take on the persona of
Space Ace as he struggles
to stop Commander Borf
fromtransformingEarth'spop-
ulation into infants. Space
Ace has already been mildly
affected by Borf's infanto ray
and so keeps metamorphos-
ing into a weakling kid
named Dexter. Reverse ag-
ing sure doesn't make his mis-
sion any easier!

Before you reach the end
of your quest, you'll ma-
neuver Space Ace/Dexter
through dozens of colorful
scenes. The animation is
smooth and cartoonlike, and
the digitized sounds, voices,
and music are clear and
crisp. {A sound card is re-
quired.) Dragon's Lair fans
will not want to miss this

^nd the visions

Appeared

as they never had

before

CRUSADERS

of the
DARK SAVANT

Now with 256-color VGA Graphics

circle Ftsodtr Service Number 192

engaging space epic.

CLAYTON WALr^JUM

IBM PC and compatibles: 640K RAM;
CGA, EGA, VGA, or Tandy 16-colar;
floppy or hard drive: supports Ad Lib
and Sound Blaster sound cards;
ioystick oplional— S59.95

Also available for Amiga— $59.95, Ap-
ple llGS-$59.95, Atari ST— $5995,
and Macintosh-"S59-95

READYSOFT
30WertheimCt., Unit 2
Richmond Hill, ON
Canada L4B 189
(416) 731-4175

Circle Reader Service Number 371

ARACHNOPHOBIA

On a dark and bug-infested
night, deep in the steamy jun-
gles of South America, an
arachnid steals passage on
a plane headed for the
United States. Immediately
upon arrival, it mates with
harmless domestic spiders.
Hordes of oversize, poison-
ous offspring result, ready to
take on the world,

The deadly new species re-
produces at an alarming
rate. One town after another
falls prey to the infestation. Bit-

ten humans drop like flies. On-
ly Delbert McClintock, ace ex-
terminator, and his Spider In-
festation Control Team can
eradicate the poisonous
threat. Loosely based on the
plot of a movie by the same
title, Disney's Arachnopho-
bia weaves a web of arcade
action that's sure to keep
you busy for several hours.

As Delbert, you maneuver
your truck through seven spi-
der-infested towns on life-
threatening arachnid search-
and-destroy missions. Your
goal: Locate and terminate
the Queen, mother of all spi-
ders. Only when the Queen
has been throttled can you
proceed to the next town.
But every town has several
buildings to explore, and
each building has loads of
surprises — mostly of the
eight-legged variety Obliter-
ate all the bugs in a building
and save defenseless hu-
man victims along the way to
earn extra bug bombs. Ter-
minate every Queen on the
home front, and you can clob-
ber critters in the heart of the
Amazon rain forest.

Realistic bug-crunching

133

REVIEWS

sound effects, digitized hu-
man speecfi, and an eerie
musical score really give you
thie creeps wfnen you plug Dis-
ney's inexpensive ($34.95)
Sound Source periptieral in-
to your computer's parallel
port. Don't go on a bug raid
without it! Arachnophobia's
animation is so well de-
signed and the sound ef-
fects so authentic that you'll
be watching where you
plant your feet long after you
shut down your computer,

Easy to play, Arachnopho-
bia nevertheless proves dif-
ficult to win. While carrying
out your mission, you must
avoid the menacing little mon-
sters, each intent on biting
you. Use your Toxi-fvlax insec-
ticide to fumigate every spi-
der and egg sac. Domestic
Soldiers succumb easily to a
single spray of the bug gun.
They also squish underfoot if
you stomp them.

Heavy-footed boot tech-
niques won't work on Queen
spiders and South American
beasties. These bugs re-
quire massive doses of Toxi-
Max or the firepower availa-
ble from an aerosol flame-
thrower. Be prepared to
meet your maker if you run
out of Toxi-fvlax at an inoppor-
tune moment. Delbert's com-
pany vehicle has a never-
ending supply, but when you
leave a house before locat-
ing the Queen, the building
repopulates with spiders!
You'll need that unlimited in-
secticide.

Delbert can sustain up to
four Soldier spider bites be-
iore dying. He can suffer on-
ly two bites from a Queen
and merely a single chomp
from the macho South Amer-
ican menace. Restore his
health with a quick shot of an-
tivenin, if you can locate the
first-aid kit. Pummel an egg
sac, and the directional ar-
row on the Bugometer com-
pass will point you in the di-

rection of the Queen.

Follow Delbert's tech-
niques, and you will live long
and profit. Slip up once too
often, and your days as an
Arachnid Abatement Techni-
cian are numbered. Arachno-
phobia may not offer many in-
tellectual challenges, but ac-
tion games don't necessarily

EGA, MCGA, VGA, or Tandy 16-col-
or: joyslick optional— $49,95

Also available for Amiga — 49.95 and
Commodore 64/128— S29.95

DISNEY SOFTWARE
SOO S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521
{818)841-3326

Circle Reader Service Number 372

Spiders make themselves at home in Arachnophobia.

Automate your card file with YourWay.

require tedious puzzles.
Grab your Toxi-ivlax and go
on a bug hunt!

CAROL HOLZBERG

IBI\/1 PC and compatibles. 512K RAM
(640K with Sound Source), CGA,

YOURWAY

Though YourWay is often re-
viewed as a personal informa-
tion manager (PIM), Prisma
Software prefers to call it a
Personal Productivity Worksta-

tion. What's that? It turns out
to be a contact manage-
ment-based program that
handles schedules, phones,
to-do lists, and basic written
communication centered on
the personal information da-
tabase that's the hub of an of-
fice worker's day.

Viewed as traditional PIM,
YourWay has shortcomings.
Once you understand its ob-
jectives, however, you'll find
that it's right on target.

YourWay is designed to au-
tomate an office worker's
card file of contacts, with au-
tomatic dialing, scheduling,
letter writing, and a historical
record of all contacts.

It all revolves around a sim-
ple card file. {As a Windows
3,0 program, YourWay pre-
sents the cards graphically
onscreen.) Simply label the
fields you want on each
card; thereafter the field
names appear on every
card. In the word processor,
you can design letter tem-
plates that pull address data
from the cards, or you can
simply write a letter while the
addressee's card is on top of
the pile. In either case, the let-
ter will be logged into the
card's note field, which
could be thought of as a
large piece of paper folded
and stapled to the back of
the index card.

To call someone, pull up
that card and have the com-
puter dial lor you. As you
talk, add directly to the note
field. The call and certain ba-
sic information about it will
be logged into the note field
automatically.

To schedule time, pull up
the calendar; put the card
for the person involved on
top of the pile. Enter the
event on the calendar, and
an automatic notation ap-
pears in the card's note
space.

Use the to-do list— present-
ed as a drawing of a clip-

134

COMPUTE

board with four lists in priori-
ty order — to track tasks witti-
out specific deadlines.
Again, entries post to ttie
note field of the top card.

Launch applications direct-
ly from YourWay by putting
the associated filename on
an index card. If you need a
certain spreadsheet when
you talk to the boss on the
phone, fof example, put the
filename on his or her card.
Click on it, and VourM/ay sum-
mons the spreadsheet.

For any serious word proc-
essing, you'll want to launch
your regular word processor.
VourlVay automatically pass-
es your text to the Windows
clipboard; just paste it into
your mainline word proces-
sor and continue. While less
versatile than \NrHe (the pro-
gram that comes with Wm-

vidual cards and type extra-
neous material anywhere on
a card- While useful, this fea-
ture sometimes proves dis-
concerting.

YourWay provides tightly
integrated contact manage-
ment and history, with basic
functions that are easily aug-
mented by fulf-function appli-
cations. While this clever pro-
gram isn't exactly my way, it
could easily be yours.

RICHARD MANN

IBM PC and compalibtes, hard disk
wilti 2MB available, 286 or higher mi-
croprocessor, Windows 3.0 or high-
er, mouse — $199

PRISMA SOFTWARE

2301 Clay Sl-

Cedar Falls, lA 50613-9990

(800) 747-0319

(319) 266-7141

Circle Reader Service Number 373

Miami's no placa to go on vacation in Fountain of Dreams.

dows), YourWay's word proc-
essor possesses a surprising-
ly robust spelling checker
and thesaurus that might
prove useful.

Some may find the index
cards themselves confusing.
The field names are there,
but they're not like those in
any other database you've
used before. You can enter
as much text as you'd fike in
each field — they're all free-
form text fields. You can
even delete fields from indi-

FOUNTAIN OF
DREAMS

Mutant rats? Homicidal beach-
combers? Killer clowns? In
the nuclear war-ravaged en-
virons of fvliami that serve as
the setting for Fountain of
Dreams, radiation levels
may be high, but the silli-
ness indicator jumps off the
meter.

The plot calls for you to lo-
cate the source of the pre-

/ fiave died

of untoCd guiCt

and horror f

but my secret is safe—

for now

CRUSADERS

of the
DARK SAVANT

As rich a tale as ever fold

Clrele Reader Service Number 1 92

clous Dream Water, the only
known curative for the horri-
ble mutations threatening to
overwhelm the remaining
pockets of "civilization." Fac-
tional strife among the differ-
ent groups vying for control
of Miami adds a bit of in-
trigue to the story line, but
this is an adventure where
brawn rather than brains will
carry the day. Combat oc-
curs frequently, whether
you're spoiling for a fight or
not. And if one of the bizarre
beasties or bad guys
doesn't get you, the tedium
of resolving the interminable
battles might.

Not for the gun-shy, Foun-
tain of Dreams is for players
who prefer to approach the
unknown with one eye glued
to the sights of an M-16 as-
sault rifle.

JEFF SEIKEN

IBM PC and compalibles, 512K RAM,
EGA, MCGA, or VGA— S49.95

ELECTRONIC ARTS
1820 Gateway Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94404
(8m) 245-4525

Circle Reader Service Number 374

NEGOTIATOR PRO

Scads of books, audiotapes,
and training sessions have
been dedicated to the deli-
cate art of negotiating. Now
there's a software program
that promises to provide ex-
pert advice molded to fit
your negotiating style and,
moreover, to propose strate-
gies that will help you work
effectively to reach a mutual-
ly agreeable solution.

Negotiator Pro is based
on 15 leading books, includ-
ing the best-selling Getting
to Yes, and draws on such no-
table experts as Roger
Dawson, author of several
helpful audiotape programs
and books. One of the pro-
gram's strengths is its hy-
pertext system, an online
help tool that lets you see def-
initions of highlighted terms.
If another term in the defini-
tion is highlighted, you can
read that explanation as
well. Hypertext allows you to
perform research by free as-
sociation, a very pleasant ex-
perience that stimulates cre-
ative thinking. You'll find re-
lated terms, definitions, strat-
135

REVIEWS

egies, and tips that you
might not otherwise unearth
using a printed text. You'll
find the information when
you need it so you can use
it for maximum effect.

First, categorize your nego-
tiating style. Negotiator Pro
asks ten questions concern-
ing your style of time manage-
ment, use of threats, meth-
ods of revealing information,
and likelihood of giving con-
cessions, The results lell you
whether you are cooperative
or competitive. You repeat
the process for your oppo-
nent.

How well does this system
work? I left one question
blank because 1 couldn't de-
cide how to answer Howev-
er, when Negotiator Pro
read my other answers, it sug-

gested how 1 would have an-
swered that question — a
nice touch that makes me be-
lieve that you can get a fairly
good idea of personality
styles based on just a few
questions. However, I had lim-
ited information for my oppo-
nent and can't believe that
Negotiator Pro could have
made an intelligent guess on
answers that I really wasn't
sure of. Still, if you have
some knowledge of your op-
ponent, this tool could pro-
vide further useful insights.
The computer selects the
most effective negotiating
style and displays sugges-
tions on the screen. For in-
stance, I have an amiable
style, as does my opponent.
The computer advised this
strategy: Be somewhat like

AV

1

DISTRIBUTORS

UNBEATABLE

800-423-VCRS(lirsttime)

Accepted

Personal

Checks 1-800-VIDEO-97 (repeal callers)
Fai: 713-4S6-8300

HOURS; Mon.-Sa! 8 a m.-9pm.' Sunday 10 a m.-6p,ni (CS.T.I

Camcorders * VCR'S • Fax Machines * Televisions * Laser Discs

fff/LASER

386SX-DE

• 386SX 1 6mhz

• 1 mb memory (exp to 4)

• 51/4" 1.2m floppy

■ 3 1/2" floppy

• Fast wail

• MS-DOS 4.01

■ Optional VGA monitor

40mb hard drive

256K VGA card

Mouse

Geoworl^s user interface

4-1 6 bit e)tpansion slots

Parallel port, 2 serial,

game port.

Technical Support * One Year Limiled Warranty with Onsile Service

lll/LASER PafeS^^
w/ 80mb Hard Drive

above wilti:

• Built in 2400
tiaud modem

• Telephone answering
mactiine

• Tilt and swivel
stand

m

Voice mail

Private mail t>oxes

Prodigy startup

2mb memory

14- S-VGA monitor

Send/receive fax machine

tin

Largest
Distributor at
Camcorders.

VCRs.
Televisions, 4
Accessaries in
the Soutliwest.

136

them: be friendly and infor-
mal. Ask personal questions.
Be nonthreatening, consis-
tent, and professional. Don't
push too hard, but gently
use objective criteria and
time limits to help the amia-
ble reach closure. Be reassur-
ing and stress the benefits to
alt the people that would
flow if your interests are ful-
filled. Show how everyone
benefits in a win-win out-
come. This paragraph con-
tains a lot of practical ad-
vice.

The next step involves the
creation of an action plan
and briefing book to guide
your team through the nego-
tiating process. The program
presents an outline of 35 stag-
es of negotiating, such as
opening gambits, midpoint
tactics, and approaches to
closing. After you select a top-
ic, the computer takes you to
a small word processor,
which allows you type your
ideas, goals, and strategies.

If you're strapped for
time. Negotiator Pro v/Wl pre-
sent you with the top ten out-
line topics. Whichever meth-
od you choose, you can also
import text from other pro-
grams, so if you assign part
of the plan to others, you
won't fnave to reenter the
text — merely integrate their
work with yours. When
you've finished, you can
print the document and pre-
sent il to each member of
your team. The publisher
stresses this feature be-
cause if participants enter
the negotiating sessions in lat-
ter stages, they will have the
benefit of reading this mas-
ter plan to gain insight into
the other side's negotiating
character and your side's
goals and strategies.

While clear, the manual
could be better organized. It
includes 35 pages of defini-
tions and negotiating tips,
but not all the hypertext

terms are listed. Why were
some terms and strategies in-
cluded but not others? What
was the distinction? The man-
ual does contain a wealth of
information, but it is present-
ed in alphabetical order, rath-
er than categorized by strat-
egies or skills, In short, the
material is interesting, but
not as valuable as it would
be with more logical organi-
zation.

Each time you use the pro-
gram, you must specify the
appropriate batch file to
load your computer's mon-
itor type. This is a minor flaw,
but a dated process. You al-
so must unload all TSRs as
the program uses all 640K
memory I failed to do this in-
itially and found myself wait-
ing literally 15 minutes as the
computer displayed a collect-
ing memo/'y message on the
screen, which led me to be-
lieve the computer was work-
ing. In reality, the computer
was hung up, A toll call to
the company for support re-
sulted in a phone message
and the promise of a return
call the next day The cour-
teous chief programmer
called with the answer the
next morning. Despite the
flaws with the manual and in-
stallation, Negotiator Pro w\\
help you organize your
thoughts, brainstorm, and
gain insight into your own
needs and wants as well as
those of your opponents.
That's a pretty good compro-
mise.

DANIEL JANAL

IBM AT and compatibles; 640K RAfvl;
hard disk; CGA, EGA, VGA, or Her-
cules -$299, Library of Negotia-
tions— $49

Also available for fvlacintosti Plus or
better— $299

BEACON EXPERT SYSTEIVIS
35 Gardner Rd.
Brookllne. MA 02146
(617) 738-9300

Circle Reader Service Number 375

Advertisers Index

Readsr Service Kumber/Advertlser Page

159 900 Software 140

175 Access Software 91

142 AclJon Management 140

153 AV Disfributors 136

162 Bare Bones Software A-13

112 BOBCO G-17

207 CH Products 59

166 Citizen American Cotp 13

182 Commodore 69

161 Compsult G-17

103 CompuServe ...- - 17

124 Computer Book Club 73

230 Computer Business Services 141

114 Computer Direct 52, 53

137 Covox 138

Damark 79

120 DCS Industries 67

202 Delptii 64

131 DemoSource 140

171 Dipital Micronics A-19

Disk-Count Software 141

189 Franklin Electronic 7

205 GEnie 3

149 GFXBase A-15

123 Gold Hill 61

155 GQSch Productions A-18

197 The Grapevine Group G-17

128 The Grapevine Group G-17

104 The Grapevine Group 139

164 Great Cover-Ups A-19

156 Heme Data Systems 142

117 Holosoft Technologies A-27

190 I. Leonard Co 142

183 Lucky Computer ..141

127 LWS Software 138

Mark Williams 75

106 McGee Software IBC

Reader Service Number/Advertiser Page

146 Meggido A-7

MicroLogic 25

155 MicroLytics 63

138 MicroMlga A-29

140 MicroProse 23

110 MicroProse 101

150 Micro-Tech USA 142

160 Modern Language 21

186 Montgomery Grant A-3

187 Montgomery Grant G-3

133 Motion Blur Publishing A-18

113 Mutual of New York 138

National Videotex Network 85

135 Natural Graphics A-27

147 NSI Computer Products 42, 43

181 Origin 15

129 Pardise Software G-13

194 Parsons Technology 5

143 Prodigy 34

Professionat Cassette 122, 123

151 Professor Jones 139

168 Psygnosis 95

116 SeXXy Software 142

167 Shark Byte Software A-IB

144 Sierra OnLlne BC

192 Sir-Tech 131. 133. 135

109 Sman Luck 142

241 Software olthe Month CluS 142

126 SoftShoppe, Inc 142

163 Softv/are Excitement A-5

SOGWAP G-23

152 Spectrum HoloDyle 11

SSI ...109

130 Stanware Publishlna 142

170 Tenex G-9

134 The Krueger Company A-29

132 The Other Guys A-11

Reader Service Number/Advertiser Pagd

195 Universal Memory 38.39

198 Villa Crespo 139

105 Virgin Games 115

179 Virgin Games 104, 105

178 Virgin Games 102. 103

172 Wedgewood Computer A-21

smP9 WOUNational Learning Systems 9

s«P3i WOL'LearninQ Adventure 31

206 WOUInternational Schools 81

145 ZEDS International IPC, 1

Amiga Resource Disk Subscription A-21

Amiga Resource Subscription 137

COMPUTE Books 117, 127

Gazette Disk Library G-9

Gazette Disk Subscription G-14

Gazette Index G-23

Gazette Productivity Manager G-11

PC Power Disk Subscription 77

PC Productivity Manager 89

SharePak Disk Subscription 27

SpeedScript Disk G-15

Available exclusively by subscriptionl

COMPUTE'S Amiga Resource edition

Your authoritative source for Amiga information

Amiga owners: Each month, the Amiga Resource edition of COMPUTE

brings you all the news, reviews, and home office information found in the

regular newsstand edition of COMPUTE, plus a special section devoted

exclusively to Commodore's

multitasking marvel— the Amiga Resource includes:

Amiga. Whether you use

your Amiga for multimedia,

games, video, desktop

publishing, or home office

work, you'll find plenty of

useful information in the

Amiga Resource edition.

PREVIEWS OF NEW AMIGA SOFTWARE
INDUSTRY NEWS AND RUMORS

AMIGA ART GALLERY

COLUMNS BY AMIGA EXPERTS

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REVIEWS

A BIMONTHLY DISK SECTION

AND MORE!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY and get a year (1 2 issues) of COMPUTE with Amiga Resource for only $12.97!
Or get 12 issues and 6 laimonthly tjisks packed with original software for just $49.95.

Mai! completed coupon to

compute's Amiga Resource

P.O. Box 3244
Harlan, lA 5 1593

or call 1-(800)-727-6937

DYES! Send me a 1 year subscripton
to the Amiga Resource edition of
CCiWPurFfor only 312.97.

D Send me 1 year of the Amiga Resource
edrtlon of COMPUTE(M issues) and the
Amiga Resource Disk (six disks) for
iusl S49.95.

n Payment Enclosed D Bill Me

tJame .

Address.
Dty

Canadian tesidenis add S4-91 (postaoe a^ Canadian Goods and Services Tax) for magazvie only:
add J7 50 loi magazine and liisk. Ollwr fueign orders add S4 00 U.S. funds only

H youre a COMPUTE subscnbcf wtw wsties to receive tne Am^ Resource etitnor nstead. send a
p*xj!wcpy of your cover and maiing label along wiTi a requesl 10 Amiga Res<wrce StJOSCntitlons.
324 W WenOover /Ve,. S». 203, GreensSOfO. NC 27408. or call toll-lrse 1800) 7Z7-5337

COMPUTE'S Product Mart

is a special advertising section designed to
benefit you, the PC direct marl<eter, by letting
you advertise directly to the readers that buy.
We offer:

• Marketing Assistance

• Qualified Readers

• Guaranteed Audience

• Cost Effectiveness

Space closing: First day of the second month
preceeding issue date (for example, Novembe
issue closes Sept. 1). Space limited to a first-
reserved, first-served basis.

For ad specifications or more infornnation call

East Coast & Midwest
Caroline Hanlon • (919) 275-9809

New England
Jack Garland • (617) 749-5852

West Coast
Lucille Dennis • (707) 451-8209

Call now to reserve your space!

Discover What The Casinos

Don't Want You To Know

About Video Poker!

Experience all the fast-paced excitement of
casino poker slots in the most vivid, excit-
ing video poker program ever developed
for the PC. Find out what cards to hold and
why. Test strategies with the Simulator.
Experiment with options - bel units, coins
played, payoff rates. Even print oul a guide
to take to the casino if you go!
Features include on-line strategy advice,
complete session statistics, tip rich 40-page manual, realistic
color graphics. Even if you never go to the casino, you'll enjoy
the endless challenge of this exciting game.

"Not only does it simulate a 'casino-quality' video poker
screen witk excellent graphics, but it provides an online
expert to help players acquire the skill they need to win."

PCM Magazine 3/91

"Strategic Video Poker is one of the most complete pro-
grams to be released. For any video poker player, fitj is the
light at the end of the tunnel," The Player 12/90

Order Now!
$49.95

plus $5 shipping & handling
(PA residents add S3.30 lax)

Visa/MC call toll-free:
800-828-2259 ext. 410

Pte^

LWS SOFTWARE

Dept.4C'P.O.Box688
Broomall, PA 19008

Requires IBM PCorcompatible; 512K: VQA,EGA, CGAorMono.

>^ MONYProflles Financial Calculator
disk has the answers to:

How much could your
savings be worth
in the future?

How much income could
your Investments provide
at retirement?

Find out with the MONYProflles Financial Calculator diski

It's free. It's fast. It's right on ttre money.

With youf MONYProflles Financial Calduator disk, you can make plans
for your future... at no cost. Send for it loday... tiecause not having the
anwers now could cost you financial well-being tomonow.

o|vj Hurry! Quantities are limltad! ,^

' a Please send me a FREE '

I MONYProflles Financial Calculator!

Select one: D 5.25"clisic D 3.5" disk

Hanw

I

Street M PO Box

Phone: D *m
( )

D pm

I City Stale Zip Code

M«ll your cofnpteted requeit to : MONYProniei • ^^ Rnnnclil Profile*, Inc. •
[5964 La PtKc Court • Stite 100 • Catlsladt. CA 92008 ■ Offer expire* 10/31/9t|

Mmnr

TKe MrnlMul L^e Insmrarux Cmnpany of New York

17^0 Broadwijr

New YorV, New York 10019

Circle Reader Sefvice Number 113

SOUND MASTER® II

THE MOST COMPATIBLE SOUND CARD IN THE WORLD

A fiigh quality alternative lo
"SoundBlaster". Better sound,
less noiSE, more features-

100% AdLib" Compatible.

Covox Voice Master" (voice
commands), Speech Thing®,
and MIDI Maestro" compatible,
internal PC speaker supported.

Ail digitized speecfr and sound
formats supported, including
syntfiesized speecfi. PCfvfl,
ADPCful, & CVSD.

"Direct-to-dlsk" DtulA digitizer,
variable sample rates to 25K/sec
for recording, 44K/sec for
playback.

Full duplex MIDI interface.
Cables and software included.

FiVI Music, I^IDI, and Digitizer can
function together.

Audio amplifier witti volume
control. Low noise, low power
slectfonics, Speaker included.

Proudly l^ade in tfie U.S.A.

Your Best Choice For Multi-Media Sound.

ONLY S229.95 (plus S5 Shipping & Handlinu)

ORDER HOTLINE: (503) 342-1 271 )^-F B Al^ lo 5 Pl^ PST.

VISA/f^C/AMEX ptione or FAX orders accepted. NO CODs. 30 Day Money

Back Guarantee // nof completely satisfied. One year warranty on hardware.

CALL OR WRITE FOR FREE PRODUCT CATALOG

COVOX INC. 675 Conger Street • Eugene, OR 97402
■■ Phone (503) 342-1271 • FAX 503-342-1283^

Circle Reader Service Number 127

Circle Reader Service Number 137

Stockmarket'Baseball'Basketball'Lotte ry

, Boise, 10 8^702

Thoroughbred'Greyhound'Standardbred

Circle Reader Service Number 151

EGA icreerti snwrn
OttKfL may varjf

Power statistics for the armchafr quarterback

Get Ihil "Midas Touch"
kH irDiir pndlctiioas.

"For staustjcs and handicapping,
rwilirng we have seer comes close,
in aclua! u^e QUEsefv^s. we found
Hiis syslem accurale. easy lo use,
and rewarding''^kVtefem GamtJlef

fiy 35 years. The Gold Sheet has been
the American SporTnuan's 'Bibte "
The jnlormadon it contgirts ts the
ifKliiStry siar^dard. Th^ GoSd Sheet ts
the mosl respected iMtbatl tiandi-
capping putiJicaiiG]] i^ the catkin.

Display 60 statistiLS bv tsam Dr

calegary

View OHensn^/Oel^nsw leani

rankings lor each statistic

Devise unlimited prediciion and

trend brmuilas

Do "What II ' a^a^y5es

2 vears stats inclLiJed mat

avaiUUe

PrtflKt game tcsutts

Oejic and print U'ticc pocH"

entries

Swtsignihcariuends

Easy uEKtaies t^t modem, by nuil,

Of manuiBy

Available ait your liKat software
duler or order direcTly by c^lEtnit
l-MO-m-3963. S59 J5 plus S5 00

sflijjpin^/harKjiiig, IL resKJenis atJd
S3.90 tajt. Allm 2 vreeitS delivery.

[avonnt inu*!^ ifiii.ir»JrPC«IUE<!w»
Dii^jtaw im H uutJi f nT g [CO Q^ I(;a^

tJ

yr^/j ^ifijx) "■""■fl

Circle Reader Servke Number 198

^m^'" THE GRAPEVINE GROUP. INC. ^^Mifi^t.

Cf"' compare our prices Cf™

8373 New Super Denise ' 54.50

Fatter Agnus (8372A) II^B witti

ctiip puller (a necessity)

and new inslruclions S4.9S

B362 Denise Hall Brigtit 26.50

8364 Paula Ctiip 26,50

5719 Garv Chip 12,95

8520A CIA Chip 15.50

1,3 ROM Kickstart 24.95

2.0 ROM Kickstart call

A500 Keyboard 109.50

A2000 Keyboard 114.95

•Tenlalwe Price

I MEMDIY UVktim I

1x4/80 SC Zip (Of A3000.... 32.50

1x1/100 NS 6,50

256x4/12forlCD,GVP,otc. ... 5,50

1x8/80 SIMM 47,95

A501-512KRAM Module

(for A500) 49.50

Kwikslait(A1 000 1 -3 ROM)- , . 58.00

COMHDDORE HEPLC.

ii;d paoDiiCTS

AdRAM540|A500)NOHAM-,. 96.65
(Each addihona! Meg add S36.00)

AdRAMSeOD-- 178.00

AdSCSI2000 127.50

AdHAM 2060 (A2000) NO

HAM 114.50

(Each additional Meg add $35.00)

AdSCSI2080 NO HAM 185,50

(Each additional Meg add S47.95)

AdSpeed 204-DO

Flicker Free Videa 299.50

Flicker Fixer (by Microway). . , 229.95

6510 CPU 11.50

6526ACIA 12.25

6581 SID ..,. 12.25

PUV906114 12,95

6567 RS VIC II 15.95

All 901/225C26/227/229 .... 10.95

8562 18.50

C-64 Keyboard (New) 19.95

C-64 Cabinet (New) 14.95

Super Graptics 57.50

Super Graphics Jr 49,95

REPAIHAILE COHIIODOIIE/
AMIGA PaWEH SUPPUEt

AMIWCDiMIIDOilE
DItBNOSTIGS

Amiga Diagnostician Book/

Sqttware 14.95

C-64/A500 Service Manual, , . , 34.95

A1 000/A200D Service Manual. .. 44.50

C- 1 28 ServicS Manual 44.50

Doctor AMI (Software) 29.35

AMI Alignment System 28.50

300 Baud Modem (Complete KiO , . 6.95

Utility Cartridge ■ In 2 key-
strokes you can pertorm 30
iHsic rurKlions(C64/128)

List Price SI 9 95

Our Price S4.95

A50a45WattUn(t(HeavyDuty)... 67i0
1541-11 Power Supply New. . . . 26.50
C64RB1.8anip(0urBestSellefl. .. 24,95
C64 Special 4.3 amp Heavy Duty
(Includes FREE "Diagnostician"

J6.95 value) 37.95

CI 28 Heavy Duty 4, 3 amp,. , . 39.95

USED PRINTER UPGRADE

HP Laser Jet II &IID

(2 MB HOD} 145.95

(4 MB MOD) 205.95

IIP, HP3&3D(1 MB MOD)... 89.00

(2 MB MOD) 135.00

(4 MB MOD) 224.00

Panasonic KX-P4420/440i

(1 MB MOD) 168.75

(2 MB MOD) 206.25

(3 MB MOD) 262.50

(4 MB MOD) 331.25

NOT COKHODORE/ilMIGA UPSRADES

■ EKHANCED CHIP SET •
Sifir Onln 8373 Ifpiraii

Now utilize productivity and scan mode, etc. Super lii-res mode (1 280 x 200

pixels). An absolute must with 2.0.

$S4.S0 (tentative price)

Cggiptlir Slilr [i;-B4 Pnlictlii Svitin ^ Avoid costly repairs Over 52% of failures are
caused by mallunclioning power supplies. Installs in seconds No soldering 2-yeaj

wananly. $1 7.95

C-S4 Heiry Ddir 1,9 mf Ripilnkli hiir Sippl) — Our Biggest Seller $24.95

Cgnmidirc Dliimttjciii II — tJtilizes sophishcated grids to locate faulty components on
all C-64S & CI 54 1 s (C- 1 28/64 mode). Save money and downtime by promptly locating
tailed cliips. No equipment needed. Success rate is 98%. Over 32,000

sold postage paid $6.95

(Available lor Amiga computers a) $14.95)
Nil Ciaailin Piiir Sippi) — Super- heavy, repairable C-64 PS witti 4.3 amps.
Includes ext fuse, schematics and 1 year warranty. Cornes with FREE Cofflmodore
Diagnostician II (S6.95 value) OH "piosramme/s utility" plug-in cartridge (S9.95

value) $37.95

Miltlilirl II — NEW ROM switch for 3 ROMs for A5a0/20QQ Keyboard

Controlled 77.95

OtiitiiUc Tni)lt-Skntii| Siftnn I STU] — A terrific diagnostic package and absolute

must lor all Amigas by Custom Services, Inc $29.95

1 50 Wilt "B If Fur' A500 Uiiiinil Piirir Sipplf — With fan. An absolute must for those

adding on more memory $85.50

E*ir|iic) Anlii Slirtip Kit — Sold to gavemment PXs and now available to alt Kit has
major chips, parts, schematic, instructions and diagnostic software progfam^ etc

Everything needed to get it started $99.5D

MilKhlp 2808 — Upgrade your A2000 to 2MB of chip RAM. Includes ASOOO 2MB
Agnus chia $332.00 less substantial rebate. MegAChip 2000 now available tor your
ASOO. FREE Rockwell chip puller with either.

Fittir A|iai|13T2| — iMBwithPREE Rockwell chip puller (a necessity) and complete
instructions , $84.95

lltliir It — NO RAM Board for A10O0 $199.95

liiliir II — 1 .5 MB (or A1 000 $273.00

• EICIUSHE •

Amiga 500 Printed Circuit Boards (rev. 4 & up) now available at a phenomenal
price Buy them unpopulated or populated. Don't miss out on this one!
cm lir Prfcii

Cill lir FREE 36-^11 liM/Aal|i Mtila|.
Ciitilit pnhcli yii iip't fli( aiyiliin ilu.

^F ^^ T])e Grapevine Groups Inc. ^m fHn

^ ^ Chestnut Street, Suffern, NY 10901 ■• t-^l

C/S (914) 357-Z4Z4 Order line only Fax (9U| 3S7-6Z43

Prices subject to change '"B0O-29Z-7445 ^g ship worldwide

Add UPS charges to above Hours: 9-5 EST

circle Reader Service Number 104

Voice Mail

MonevMaking

Toolkit

_r

J

*50.

Trade-in
Value

~ | Get CASH From Your Personal Compulerl

Generate thousands ofdollitrs monlhly in your spare time by
adding our voice processing hardware and software to your
existing IBM 286/386 personal conipuler or clone.

Starting at only '299, yourpcrsonal service bureau will offer

voicemail/pager rentals, lalking yellow-page advertising.

\ senior's monitoring, or outbound prospecting for profit.

Our *25 Entrepreneur's Toolkit provides a complete list

of proven PC based opportunities, clip-art materials, and

. invaluable insight into starting your own business.

A After your review, we invite you to cash-in your toolkit

towards over *50 in discounts on DemoSource products.

To ask questions / order vour toolkit!

1 800 283-4759

SIS 772-2514

COD ^ vi clcoTiic

A Few Home Based Ventures Featured In Our '25 Tooli<it!

NRME

DESCRIPTION

Pn£Kfl(LE

DEMO KIT

BigmOuth

Voice Mailbo.K Rentals

»299

818 772-7729

Voice BBS

Electronic Matchmaking

^799

^25

QuickLine

Write Programs in Basic

Ml 25

'25

ElderChek

Senior Citizen Check -In

M625

»25

Tiademarl^s rgpiesetilad belong la ihair [fls&eciive publishers ■ Checl; stale ruguidlioi'^s tw'ora usirg culbaurHl softwaro

1 1 DemoSource

8646 Corbin Avenue • Northridge, CA • 91324

USA

Circle Reader Service Number 131

Get the

OFFICIAL

GIJIDKS

to these Sierra Games

The Official Book of
King's Quest, 2nd Ed.

covers King's Quest l-V
$12.95

The Official Guide to Roger
Wilco's Space Adventures

covers Space Quest l-IV
$14.95

The Official Book of
Leisure Suit Larry

covers Larry l-lll
$12.95

To order, send the titles and quantities of
books ordered, ctieck or money order,' and
your name and complete street address;

COMPUTE Books
c/o CCC

2500 McClellan Ave.
Pennsauken, NJ 08109

'Please atW S3 stiipping $ tianrtlincj tS6 (o'eignj for eacti book

(res -dent 5 of NC. NJ. NY please add applicable sales tax|

Cartadian orders add 7'.o goods and f^ivics& tax.

Al3 payments must be m u S lunds Please allow 4 wee)t$ (Or

delivery

aerra. Kings CXiest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Space Ouest are

Cop/righ( and/or trademarks of Si«rra On-Line. Inc JULSICNS

PRE-SCHOOL SOFTWARE

NEW! TALKING SOFTWARE
for Kids 0-4 Years Old

(At Last! Software Designed to
Make Yoitr Child Smarter!)

Now! You can Easily give your Child a Learning
Headstart with Kiddyware Pre-Schoot Software.
Developed by Elementary Teactiers, Kiddyware is
the most Complete & Easy To Use, Pre-School
Software available Today. Here's Why:

• Over 12 Fun Lessons that
teach your child:

n Alphabets S NLmbers
□ Shapes, Colors & Directions
n People, Places & Things
•■1 Body Parts (Eyes, Nose, Etc. I

• 137 Graphic Screens filled
with Exciting Animation,
Sound, Pictures, Colors and
Music,

■ AMAZING! 93 Word Built-in
Speech & Sound Vocabulary

• TALKS THROUGH YOUR PC
No Additional Hardware
Required,

• NO SPECIFIC KEY-PRESSES
REQUIRED!

(Kids Press Any Key To
Operate)

• NO ADULT SUPERVISION
REQUIRED!

Start it. Adjust it & Leave.

• Tested & Proven Effective
with children Ages 0-4.

Put your child ahead of the
pack! Order Kiddyware Pre-
School. Don't Wait. Start your
child's education today. 100%
Money-Back Guarantee
Ad Now! |h f\n f\C '*' ^^

Send !>^O.90 S&H To:
Action Management, Inc.
915 S, Grand Traverse. Suite ft?
Ftinl. Ml 48S02
IS0O-964-KIDS

MC/VISA/OOD/CHECIVMO

CCA, EOA, or VGA Reqd. Demo only £5

Dealer Inquiries Invlled

EASY ACCESS TO OVER 6,000 TITLES

900 Software, inc.

Shareware Sc
Public Domain

Windows

3.0
mmties

Thot you con have INSTANTLY
using your 1 200 or 2400 Boud modem

FOR ALL IBM COMPATIBLE PC's
No Disk Fees • Tested Virus Free

Coll Now & Get It Now! Avoid The Mail Order Mess & Risk

No need to order ond wail, download and use 11 now.

SHAREWARE, the "Try Before You Buy"

concept is brought to you instontly. Most titles

tronsferred in 7 minutes or less'

Circle Reader Service Number 142

T HE BE ST TI TLES .
THE MOST TITLES . . . NOWl

TOT NAME SOFTWARE FROM CATAGORIES INCLUDING:

' Business • Progromming • Utilities

' Desk Top Publishing • Power Users * Graphics

• Education • Special InleresI • Communications

• Games • Windows 3.0 * Reference

• ChiWren's Programs • Desk Top Orgonizers • Computer Aided Design (CAD)

CALL NOW. AVAILABLE 24 HOURS

I-900-RUir-SOFTWARE

1-900-786-7638

98«/min. ■ S2.50 1 st minute - ' 2400 Baud MocJem

"Use Your Modem To Select From A Menu

of Over 6000 Titles Organized For Easy Selection

By Even Inexperienced Modem Users"

900 Software, Inc. Voice Ijne (714)889-0887

4442 E. Chopmon. Suite )(285 • Orange, CA 92669

Ctrcle Reader Service Number 159

386-25MHZ

O40iviB VGA Laptop

«2995il

Ljiptop System Pe&tuses

a 4MB RAM exp. to 8MB, 32KCache

a 1-16 Bit Exp. Slot (1/2 Card)

Q 42MB HD, f9ms, 1 .44 Floppy

D Integrated VGA (640x480)

Q BacRlit LCD Display 32Grayscales

□ 65 W AC Power 220*1 10V Autoswitdi

Q MSDOS 4.01 / Windows 3.0

o 2 Serial, 1 Parallel Port, FCC Class B

lOOMB 18ms HD $375."*' extra

Complele Systamt

1UB'Uono/40Ma

286-12 $795.00
3S6SX20$1195.00
3S6-2S $1335.00
3SS-33 $1695J)0
C<lltorConip4«te
conligilfitjon Inio

486-33 ISA

ConfJK* t>rtktB(> EjMm

□SUPER VGA, 4MB RAM
□120 MB Hard Drive, 18ms
□128K Cache, exp. to 2S6K

Since 1984

LoctUoni Nationwide

on *ir tta Ml X—mt Tiall

4151 BelUine, Suite 120

Addison, TX 75144

1(800)966-7687

PAX (214)387-1380

17338 Southccnler Fkwy
Tiikwila, WA 99188

1(800)367-6825

Hovfrt M-i 10,9PM P,S.T.

10773 SW Bvrtn.-Hi!t«. Hw>
Beaverton, OR?70a5

1(800)348-5825

HOURS inn to 6pin

tUOeyCTAB trTOtHATKHM,

MICRi)NICS

COUFUTIEI INC.

auttxirized distributor

Circle Reader Service Number 183

$$ Save - Save - Save $$

Stretch your advertising budget

with a cost-effective ad in the

PRODUCT MART;

• 1/9 page beginners rates
your company can afford

• FREE reader service number

• FREE listing in Advertisers Index

* 2nd color availability

■ Designated shoppers' section for PC direct
marketers— 1il<e you!

■ 355,000+ paid readers every month
Call for more information and to reserve your space:

East Coast— 919-275-9809

Midwest— 919-275-9809

New England— 617-749-5852

West Coast— 707-451-8209

Earn $4,000 Per Month

From Your Home

With A Computer!

Quit spending money on your compu-
ter and let it earn money for you. This is
a proven turn key business an individual
or couple can run. If you purchase our
i \^»- "^ software and business program, we will

m, ■" ■ *j52tj give you the computer and printer. If

Ta tf** ■ — **- ^°^ already own a computer, you may

— °^^^^^^ receive a discount. You do not need to

own, or know how to run, a computer
— we will provide free, home office
FREE CBS 386SX Computer training. Financing available.

Find out how other couples, and individuals like yourself,

are building a lifetime incomel

To receive a free cassette and color literature, call toll-free:

1-800-343-8014, ext. 303

(in Indiana: 317-758-4415) Or Write:

Computer Business Services, Inc., CBC Plaza, Ste. 303,

Sheridan, Indiana 46069

circle Reader Service Number 230

m

DISK-COUNT SOFTWARE

Ts^smm

Bac>(lotheFutui0|l
B&na olCo&mic Forgd
aeKJilalBtll

BiU Efbcn NASCAR

IT

37

BucKFlogBra:Cojnidawn V: luxjcixjts

2e Kings Que^tV (VGA}

36 KinBEQuestVfEGA)

32 Lflhorsvs.Cefbcs 30

30 LfKjOfxJorf^e.'afgfiajl 32

30 UiSu/*StiilLairyl(VGAJ 3?

30 lAtUuB SjiI Larry Z or 3 3?

31 L»5iir*Si«!LiuiyByn*i H
2* Lvrmngs 31

Lrts 37

Links -CoursstJisK 16

Managers ChateTkge 26
Gen. MgijOwnars OiA^ 1B

Wanhoie 31
M&nc ArKfriBtti Radng
KiathEHastef Mystery

BufiMudc.Oam«.Vikng 31
Casltes 37

ChallBngeoIArwenlEmp 31
CtiikJren s Writing & Publ.42
Complfile LotlBry imdcarSl
CompuMiveOOS 2*

Consn: Th * C uTvnflnan 3 1
ConBwt MkWIb EasI 37

Con^racyiDeadoi^FitA 33 hUlhBUsurRui
CorporaOon 3 1 hUth FUibbrt

Croa3wo«JlMagie4.Q 32 Mav«»B*«CCn Typing
Ds&Bool 32 McGMBllhs Fun Fair

DeaBi Kni^hits ol Kiynn 33 M«gBForlTB£5
[>9lux» Paint II Animabon B8 MDQa1rBV8tH£
DebxePaintllEnFianced BS MomotyLane
DesT^uauTLJSlI 23

DidcTtacy 31

DfaQonsLajrII 37

O(0amTBBjnNBA 31

DudttihniOuatlfDf Qotd 28
E«r1WMV«rll 33

Ehlsnim 31

EntsiUunmant PakAVtnd. 2B
EyBolifwBehokl&r 32

32

Secret Weapon Lufhvarie
Sesame Steel Trt^^ack

Sim(>ty

Sim City Graphc lot2

SiniEarTh

Space ^^6'

Space Qu^slBurxM

SpaceQuestJIIorlV

SpelkitPlus

Spjrilof Exca)ibjr

Sle&ai7

StJckybearA^abet Talk

800-448-6658 908-541-8768

Lowest Prices induding shipping
We will beat any advertised price

oeatanyao

I l II LH I . ' J.«J I

mwna

Houra

M-F 10-7
SAT 9-1

3Q Adcbe Type Manager 61
X; After Dark tor Wintiows 29
^ Amer. Handbook Bus. Let 31

^ AnriProl.2

.. Automeru

3^ Becker Tooli 2.0

y. CalendairC[ealor4.0

2j ConEfBi Poinl Anb Virus

3^ ChockHl!

iJ Copy II PC
Carol Draw 2.0

27
349

Correct GrammarAVirKJ. 62

31

38

SScttybflafShKMftTrfc ^ ueMMewz.3

AdUb

Aa Lib MicroChannel

Ad Ub POMS

AdUtiGokJ

Ad Lib Sottmrare avail.

SomlBUster

Sound Blaster MCA

Sound Bl as tacProl.

MKbKil

Voice Editor

Sound Masl&r II

Pro Audki Spect; um

Ro(ar>dLftPC-i

!;mTmtJiTJTa3

BO
130

lis

CALL

ULl
14S
210
CALL
5»
52

240
395

EZCotmot

F-tSStnkeEa^ell

FJSIIScwiirttjOi^

Fll7ftSl*BPIlbR^Tt9r2

F-^Retalia1or

Fakon3.0

FamtyTrw Maker

Riftftawk-ThextJertl
FKghlSimutatoirAT.P,
Gateway Savage Frontuf
QeoJg^v
Qo4d of the Aziec
GunsNp2000
Hard Nova
Heart ol Chma
Hoie-ri-One Mini GoJI
Hoy1e3BookGames1or2 22
Iron Lord 27

JachNKUaui'Unli/nted 37
1 NicklAufl Coui&e Di£k 14
JameeBondSieaftniAnarr 32
J«tf^erll 42

Joe Montana Footbal 31
Kftttusn 30

Mkd(flysABCor123
(^cto/s Sound Soui»
IMicro Cookbook
MicnstaaoM J^ootbal
UdwoHHeccue
Milliken SloryteHer
NFL Pro League Football
NirJB Turtle

Ninla TjrUa WorW Tour
Nudfiar War
NurnbarMjnch«r
Oregon Trai

SlicitytMafShapee

Street Rod 2

26 Slunl Dfiver

:s Tark

25 TeafnYankoe

Teenage Mutant World

■if TenniBCup

25 Terminattx
31 Theme Park Jnfystary
23 Treasure Mountain
31 Troika

26 Tnmv^CasHell

31 Twilight 2000

32 UlbmaVI «
48 U.M.S.II 37
25 U.S.Aaaa 36
n Vanoe 24
32 Vengeance or ExcaU^f 30
30 Warlords 32
30 Wh«e is Camwnir^ USA 31

Once Upona Time U,3ea.31 inAmenca'&Pul

31 in Europe

30 in Time
37 in World (DaLu;i«)
SO Wing Commander II

31 Wln{K)wiEntert.Pak

Outnumbered:

Overlord

P C Gkibfl or USA

PC Study Bible

PeraonoJProGolt

PQAGoff

Phonics Flui

PiaCnPile

Playroom

PnntShop

Pnni Shop Companion

Print Shop Graphic (ea.)

Pro Tmrul Tour

Quesl tor Gk>ry I or )l

Rw)dorn House Encydop.

Reader Rabbit

Red Baron

R>«e(rf the Dragon

Sv/ageEmpn

Scrabble DeiuM

31

R CX^S 5.0
£>vorak Of] Typine
ExprecaPUHahef
Facektt

Form Tool Gold
Gaoworks Ensemble
Grarrunabk IV or Wind.
hlaAfard Graphics 2-3

Home Lawyer

LAbel PiaLKur/DotMat.

Labels Unlrratwj 3,0

Laptniilll

Lotus 1-2-3 V2.3

Lotuft WOrtC*

MaHiTyiw

Microsofl Gorne Shop

Microsor Ouik Basic or C SS

Money Counu 6.5 27

htoneyManen 32

Norton LKlitiex $.0 intiQ ifA

P8g»r«l»f4.o
jA PascellotWirKtows
t: PCAnywtierelV

26 ^^^^^^ ^^**!P*''

MuucL

M0X-t6

Roland MPU-i PC

VoyWrsJrSa^ak

VoyetraSr-^/Pflk

Cakewalk

Cakewalk Pro

Copyit1App.2.0

MasLsf Tracks Pro

MuucPrmterPhK

CMRi3l5!53^^^^^44

CHMactilll

Eliminai£ir33MHiCarcj

GrBMsJoysbdc

Xiatt KC3

Kratt Thurvderstick

Quickfttyit Warrior

Thrmlmasler

2 Pkayer Ganrte Card

THHl

32 WintkiwiPnxluciJvityPak 40 ^^1*^"?^^ '^*

M IWrtnHnriBmri T,«. PL- IOOlS7,0

26 W0r»d«i1and

27 Wofd MuncJier
2S World A9u

36 World Claw Soccer
31 Writer Rabbrt

22 Wratti ol DerrxMi

30 Xencdde

37 X-MenI!

35

60 Your Personal Tra>ner SAT 31

37

Keytxwd Skint (spealY
make artd mo4«i)
Mouse Padi

PFS: First Ctwice
PFSiFfttPubisher
PFS: Wxlow Works
Prooomm Plus 2.0
Publish Kt

Pii3li£h«nPaintbmsh
OEMM
Qu'£ken4.0
Ouick en. Quick Pay
SItbackhyDOS
Turtjo Cad 2,0
WefTiPer(iclS.1
XT(e*Ea*y

60
1st
270

45«

t^ cHRo#erMouse(Mnal) es

CM2eoEMouw
ExperlMouse Serial
Mcroson Bus Mouse
Mtcf E»oti Sena! Mouse
Mouteman Cixdess
MousemonSenfll
Trft:j<maiiS«iml

maswsB

FrecoJ^MJtO^^

24

78

FreconjFMiie 130

FrecomOeOne-Liner IBS

3fi MaxFax9624 136

3* PM2400lntemal 120

^ SpoitslBr2400lntemaJ 120

^ Sportsler2400 External 140

229 Zoom Extern^ 2400 ao

30 Zoom Internal 2400 70

MaslerCard. Visa. Utsmver. arvJ Anwncariibxptass cards accepted. Nosjfchargeon credsi ca\&,. nocuu.s. io order by mai!:H.u.*3;(:j.
CartefBt.NJ, 07008. All prooucis Eie na*. We do tioT guaiantw co<npala&iiity. Ho relums. E^icrtange on tJ&f«::tr^a merchandise ONLY. NO
EXCEPTIONSf Sftipping charges: To me conliauous 43 stales $4.Atas)<a and Hawaii SIOlsl pc. Slea. add. AFO/FPO boxes Se.CanadaSS 1SI
pc.tl aa.mtd, N J.i65id4nl& add 7%saJes Isx. Call for prk:e A availability. NEW TITLES STOCKE D DAILY. iF IPS RELEASED, WE HAVE IT !

141

BEAT THE LOTTERY

29 Lotto Jackpot Wtnners Have Won

$71.3 MilliDd Willt GAIL HOWARD'S Systems!

ALL NflVCOMPUTEn ADVAMTAGE- M9 SO - $3 S'H
Tne ROLLS ROVCE ot LOItory So't»'a'^J"^ Comos Loaded
VVi!h ALL Slate Lottery Resulls Has P? CHarls & Reparts
Incretf.&ly Fast-On Scteen Install Help'Prmlgfl Marua*

SMART LUCK I COMPUTER WHEEL™ S39.50 • S3 S.H
Has 252 Lflltn Systems W<lti Specific Win Guarantees
Find One System Tnat Fails Its Win Guaranleo. And You
Get DOUBLE Your Money Bad*'

SMABT LUCK COMPUTER WHEEL FIVE " J37 50 . S3 SH
220 Sysioms lor pick-5 Lottos Has Won EIGHT Jickpots

FULL WHEEL OEHERATOH'" S23 50 . S3 S.H GuaranMS

a Jacupo: 11 Vou Trap tna Winflip^g Numbets ifi Vour GrQi.3

COMPUTER WHEEL" AND COMPUTEfl ADVANTAGE >
SAVESIO-OO! Buy BOTH For Only S70 * S3 S.H

Wo ship laWcomp 5?S^ disk Add SI tnf ^;^CH 3 5" disi^

SMART LUCK SOFTWARE

SDeptC-12, P.O. Box 1519 Mm,
White Plains, NY 1 0602 WIW

1-a00-e76-e-A-l-L(4245) or 914-761-2333

Circle Reader Service Number 1D9

s-T-R-E-T-C-H

your floppy disks with

MAXI Disk

Are you tired of running out of space
on your t^S-fyOS floppy disks? MAXI
Disk Is an ecasy to use software utility
that can give you 420k on a 360k
drive, 800k on a 720k, 1.4 meg on a
1.2 meg and 1.6 meg on a 1,44 meg.
Of course, MAX) also formats normal
DOS disks (360/720/1.2/1.44). Re-
quires DOS 3.20 or later.

SI 9.95 (US). 522,95 (CDN), plus S2.00
postage & tiandllng from;

Heme Data Systems Ltd., Box 250
Tiverton, ON, CANADA, NOG 2T0

Voice or FAX (519) 366-2732

Circle Reader Service Number 156

Disk #1 • An unbeiiev3t>3e

vSLial Picourrler - MUST SEE'i

Dtek #2 • NEWl 3

encounlgr garngs lor Iriends and

lovers guaranleed lo shed both

clothes and inhibiltons

Disk #3 * An aratomol

arcaOe oame wi^ unusual

ammunition

Disk #4*2 mote incredibl'e

vEual encountas - impress your

tnerds

Disk #5 • Oealc your own

tanta^ies about hiends & lovets

Dbk #6 • NEW! Vfcw, piml.

or edit len sizziing piciures

induding celebrities

S7 each, any 3 for $17, or

all 6 for S32. Rv IBM &

con>pat. CGA. EGA Of VGA

ADULT
SOFTWARE

CONNOISSEUR
COLLECTION

Ail NEW! (n 2SS Color VGAl!
Disk »CC1'* YOU BE THE
STAR * Tilt FIRST CUSTOMIZABLE
rrme allnis you lo wiile Ihc dialc^
and the lille Vt>] can star with the
pailiiB 01 your choiiM Inc/edihle
scenes fltsplay *itti ywjt dialog ONLY
AVAILABL£ FROM US'
Disk »CC2 • THE RFIST SOUND
MOVEI Tlie first coiTtputet iTWie
wiHi SOUND See Hie inaeOible 256
cda VGA graphics whiie heanng itie
actual dialog OURS EXCLUSIVELVi
Disk «CC3 • THE BEST IMOVEl
The best compuler movie awiiiabte,
ftiH' tor the serious cdlecla 256
shjnnng VGA colors
1 Mwe J29 2 Mov« MS 3 Movie 565
All CC Disks Reouire wyi moriiot
and hard d^ — wa 1 MB rt aclwr
INMADOnX

graphics req d

ADO S3 ^H • 3 5' W FOflf CN DfiOt* SDO S3 PER DISK
VISA/MC Ordara only
800-243-1010 Ext. BOOPL

Zi HOURS/7 D*YS« MUST STATE AGE OVER 21

OrdiKl(/WOlD:StXXyScthan;.28a)BetOTft),Depl 600FL HafieM. PA 19440

THE C0MPET1TIDN ISHT EVEN CLOSE! I

FREE -15 DISKS -FREE
FULL OF GREAT SOFTWARE

TRYUS! Get 15/5.25' or6/3.5' disks
of ourbestselling no virus software,
Business-EdLication-Programmer's
Utilities-Grapliics-Desktop publish-
irtg-Games-Finance.Alsoaskforour
special Kid's Pkg, our Mac® font
pkg, or our Clip Art pkg for IBM/Mac
or Amiga. Credit cards only!
PAY ONLY $5.00 FOR SHIPPING

IBM® APPLE][® APPLE GS®
MAC® AMIGA®

SMC SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS
ORDER TODAY - CALL

619 931-8111

since 19B5

Circle Reader Service Nunnber 241

r lai n l-r I— iJir #fc i.r i—

$1 .25 Per 5.25" Disk
$1 .50 Per 3.5" Disk

All ITie Popular New Programs
For XT's, AT's, and Windows.

No Minimum Order.
FREE CATALOG

inH,.«« 808-935-461 4
A,, omer, 1 -800-654-2467

I. Leonard Co.

P.O. Box 5476, Hilo, Hi 96720

Circle Reader Service Number 190

This spot^
IS seen ^IV
by more than
355,000
readers
each month.

snEaEaiafQ

D
I

Easily
Convert
Images to
BMP, GIF,
IMG, MAC,
PCX, RLE

MEGABYTES Of color Images in every product

#601 .... Swimsjils 16 color 14.88 256 color 19,

* 602, 603, 604, 60S and 606

X-Haled lecolor 14,88 ..... 256color 19.88

#105 ....601 -603 iBcolor 37.88 256 color 49.88

* 1 06 .... 604 ■ 606 lecolOr 37.88 256 color 49.88

* 107 ....601 -606 16 color 72.88 256 color 94.

Sena Ctieck or Wcney Order lo

SlBrwDie Publishing Corporatioii

P.O. Box 4ia8 - Oepi- 29

ln:lude S3 SSH Deerfield Sch, FL 33442 Add S3 tor 3.5"

AddS3tarlDrB,an (SOS) 426 - 45S2 FL add Bit

(S05)426-45S2
MUST STATE AGE 21

Circle Raader Service Number 130

^ SOFTSHOPPE, IN&

ASP Member

Q Selected Programs
g Latest Versions
s As Low as $1.50

FREE CATALOG
IBM PD/SHAREWARE

POB 3678, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106

Call 800-829-BEST (2378)
or 313-761-7638
Fax 313-761-7639

Circle Reader Service NumlMr 12S

MICRO-TECH USA

America's largest PD/Shaieware Distributor

Cimenily over 200.000 programs available and growing!
Order our lOOf page catalog for just S7.95.
Limilcd olTer: 4 fiee disks oryour choice.
100?^ giiarastccd high quality and virus bee.

Add^o

VISA/MC •

Ei]>.D>K

CiUlotpK S7.95 S

Shippait ml Hindiiv i 400
Foeiipi Sliippmf . add l&OO i
Wid>SlRfiiiteuiidd8.1«ul<alu S

Tool i
Method of pAymeec
O clEck Q] mixBy rvckr Q VISA/MuBnzrd

Circle Reader Service Numljer 116

MICRO-T£CH CSA

P.O.B1JXSM03. Rcmon. WA 98058-0403

Circle Reader Service Number tSO

CLASSIFIEDS

DISCOUNT COMPUTER BOOKS. Thousands of
titles available. Please call or write
for your free catalog today. BOOKWARE,
147 Campville Rd., Northfield, CT 06778
(203) 283-6973 {800) 288-5662

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

HOW TO MAKE THOUSANDS OF SSSS with
your own part-time HOME COMPUTER
BUSINESS. Will teach & help you setup. Send SI
for INFO, Box 1442-A14, Orange Park FL 32067

CATALOG

Help save the Gnviromnerit! For just $2,
get EARTH PRIDE catalog. Complete line of
environmentally friendly & 100% recycled
products. No animal testing! Send ck or
MO lo: Tobias & Co.. PO Bx 738,
Brunswick, ME 04011

COMPUTER REPAIR

24 HOUR Computer Repair. Commodore,
Amiga, IBM, Apple. A & M Computer
Repair, 20 Guernsey Dr. New Windsor,
NY 12553. 914-562-7271 1-800-344-4102

Auth. Comm, repairs C64/128, 1541/1571,
SX64, 128D & Amiga. Selling DTK-comp
computers. Quick 6ervice-30 day warranty
MOM & POP's Computer Shop. 114 N. 16th,
Bethany, MO 64424 (816)425-4400

EDUCATION

B.S. & M.S. in COMPUTER SCIENCE

The AnKfcan litsLlJie toi CompUei Soences otiers an fnifclh conespon
dence ptogfam lo on ytu Bxi^^ ol Scwkb and MkIej rf SoencE cle-
Dnes in Canputet Socnce ai rnvTu BS $iiti«as cavcfM are MS/OOS.
Bt&C. f ASCAL C, DU Fie PiDcesstfig Dm SUudure^ & Op^Ui) s^-
tnm. MS prognm ndudcs subieds n Sodwarc En^noetrq atJ Artifciai
■nteOigence. and a(tta: loppcs

AMERICAN INST, (or COMPUTEfl SCIENCES

21Q1 CC Magnolia Ave Sout^ Smile 200

Birrmrtgham, AL 35205

80O-T67-24Z7 CALL ^205) 933-0339

ENTERTAINMENT

SPEECH & MUSIC for IBM Comp!

Uses internal speakers. For demo disk
send $2.00 to: Bravo! Software, Demo/CO
1045 Griffin Ave., Mahtomedi, Mn 55115

GAMES

PLAY-BY-MAIL! Free Rules!
DISCOUNT ROLE-PLAYING GAMES!
Free Catalogue, Great Prices!
Jester Games, Etept C, 604 S. High St.,
Kirksville, MO 63501

HARDWARE

SOFTWARE PLUS - Your Commodore, Amiga -t-
IBM connection! lOOO's of generic -t- orig.
prgms, hardware + computer systems. For
catalog, write: SOFTWARE PLUS, 64 W. Cutts,
Biddeford, ME 04005 or call 207-284-9426.

HELP WANTED

EASY WORK! EXCELLENT PAY!

ASSEMBLE PRODUCTS AT HOME!

CALL FOR INFORMATION

504-641-8003 EXT 11315

MISCELLANEOUS

THE TEE SHIRT FOB PC LOVERS! In Ash or

White! Choose: "PC Habit" or "Modem Habit"
S-XL: Send S13.98 + $2.50 p&h (XXL■^S2) to:
PC Habit, Inc. 13876 SW 56 St. Suite 125C, Miami
FL 33175. Guaranteed! FL res add lax.

SOFTWARE

Call
212-724-0911

for

Classified Ad

Information

SOFTWARE

IBM - COMMODORE 64 & 128 - AMIGA.
lOOO's of PD/Shareware programs on lOO's
of disks. Free listing or $1 for targe
descriptive catalog {specify computer).
DISKS OTLENTY INC., 7958 Pines Blvd.,
Suite 270B, Pembroke Pines. FL 33024

Get Ifirce lop IBM shareware games for just S3.
Free shipping, handling -(- catalog dj^ included.
Specify H/CG A/EGAA'G A and floppy disk size.
Send S3, check or MO to #1 FiceWare, Hl^^^

p.o.Boini,"" ■ "

BUY/SELL used software! Lowest Prices!
Free list. Specify 64/128, Amiga or IBM.
Cenlsible Software, PO Box 930,
St. Joseph. Ml 49085. 616-982-0327

FREE! IBM PD & SHAREWARE DISK CATALOG

Specify SVi or 3'/!. Low prices since 1988 !
ASP APPROVED VENDOR, Finto Software,
Dept M, Rt 2 Box 44, Rosebud, TX 76570

IBM Compatilile PD and Shareware.
Programs as low as 12 cents each. Send $1
for catalog disk to: SMJ SOFTWARE, Dept
PC, 2912 SHERMAN AVE. ROCKFORD, IL 61101

Windows Shareware Ubraries Vol #1 & #2

S30/Vol (10 3'^ disks), S2 for file

list. NY add tax. C&D Programming PO Box

1305 Brentwood, NY 11717. 516434-3214

PICK-3 & PICK 4-LOTTERY PLAYERS! LIP is

the Lottery Inventory Program that gives
vou a fighting chance! IBM/Com. Only
S19.95-i-$2 s/h. OH add 5.5% tax. Specify
5V. or 3V! disk. OHIO res. ACT NOW
and receive FREE 3-digit database (1980-
1991 over 3600 entries) BL LIP Software
P.O. Box 5044, Poland, Ohio 44514

USED SOFTWARE— Free Brochure. Specify
Amiga or C64/ 128. We also buy used software.
Send list. Bare Bones Software, 940 4th Ave.,
#222, Huntington, WV 25701 or 1-800-638-1 123.

IBM-C64/128-APPLE PD & SHAREWARE - Free
catalog or S2 for sample & catalog
(refundable). Specify computer. CALOKE
IND (B), Box 18477, Raytown, MO 64133

HAVE YDU WON THE LDTTERY?
DO YOU OWK LOTTO PICKEH?
WELL, WHAT DID ITOU EXPECT!

IDnO PICKER 3 for MS-DOS and
^/1,.-' LOTTO PICKER 2.1 for Apple II and C64 ccm-
'■^ ^-^ pulers are a must purchase if you are SERIOUS
about winning farger jackpots and generating more
frequent smaller winnings on a routine basis! LOTTO PICKER 3
works by uncovenng hidden biases that creep into every lot-
tery Qame worldwide and exploiting these biases in order to
providE you with qualified loltery plays to make. Your lottery
card wil! be loaded with combinations and number patterns
tha! have proven lo be statistically significant for your areas
lottery game. Works lor all lotteries worldwide (Including daily
number games), NEW UM mCE i2i.% (-I-S4.55 s/h). SPE-
CIAL OFFER: Mail in the title page from a competitors manual
anij take a $10 iliscount! SATISFACTION GUARAHTEED OR
YOUR MONEY BACK! LOTTO PICKER - the original - the best!
ORDER TODAY! 1-800-484-1062 s-cade 0644
or 1-718-317-1961
GE RIDGE SERVICES, INC., 170 Broadway.
Suite 201 -CP. New Yprk, N.Y. 10038

PROGRAM VOUR SUBC0\'5CI0US FOR SUCCESS
Behavior modification program. Amazing
results MS/DOS. Send $12,95 to: Jim's
Software, PO Box 1346, Tailors, SC Z96S7

Beautiful full screen super VGA pictures

Set of 4 3'/i" disks -<■ catalog. New
subject monthly. Send $10 for set to:
LInken Graphics, Dept. 2, PO Box 98,
Manville, N] 08835

$SS LOAN CALCULATOR - SHAREWARE! SS$

Calculate Payment, Interest, Term, etc.
Print Schedules. Tax Totals. For IBM,
Send S4 (+.75 for 3.5"). Antelope 2D,
3190 NW Nyssa, Aloha, OR 97006-

SUPPLIES

GO FIRST CLASS! 100 Sheets of Quality
Computer Paper. "PERSONALIZED" with your
name and address. Add distinctive touch lo
vour letters. Only $14.95 + S3.5S s/h ($18.50).
SATISFACTION'GUARANTEED! Send to: Print
Trax, Box 905 Dept. C. Burlington, NC 27216.

COMPUTE Clauliled Is a law-cos) way to tell over

335,000 mlcrocompiitsr owners about your product

orssrflce.

Additional Infonnallon. Please reid carehilly.

R)t»: $3S perline. minimum ol tour lines. Any or all of the
llrst line set tn capital letters at no charge. Add $15 perline
(Of boldlaee words, or $50 for the entire ad s«t in boldface
(any number of lines.)

Terms: Prepayment is requirBif . We accept chedts, n^oney
orders, VISA, or MasterCard.

Qanenl InlornisHon: Advertisers using post otlico bo>
number in iheir ads must supply permanent address and
telephone number. Orders will not be acknowledged. Ad will
appear In next available issue after receipt.

Clotlng: First of the second month preceding cover itate
(e.g. October issue closes August 1 .)

CLASSIFIED DISPLAY RATES

Classilied display ads measure 2W wide and are priced
according lo height, r = $275: 1 W - MOO; r = $525.

HOW TO ORDER

To place an ad, call Sharon Steintemper. Classified
Manager. COMPUTE, 1965 Broadway. New York. NY
10023-6965. at 212-724-0911, FAX 212-724-0825.

143

CONVERSATIONS

Peter Scisco

GAMES ARE US

COMPUTE: What's in store for
computer games in the next
three years?

Trip Hawkins: 1 think what
tlie consumer cares about is
ttie audiovisual realism of the
experience, There's a big
leap from 8-bit to 16-bit. On
the Sega Genesis and the Su-
per Nintendo, tfie grapfiics
look as good as EGA graphics
and even better, because the
animation is very good.

C: Will we see the same
kind of explosion we saw with
the 8-bit NES happening with
these 16-bit systems?

Hawkins: Yes, in fact it's hap-
pening right now. It's related
to two factors. The smaller fac-
tor .. . is the growth of the
home office market. A lot of
consumers who are home of-

At the Consumer

Eiectronjcs

Show COMPUTE'S

Edilor In Chief

Peter Scisco caught

up with Trip

Hawldns, ctialrman

of Electronic

Alls, for some gamy

conversation.

fice workers are going to buy
an IBfvl compatible, and once
they make ttie decision to get
one, they can do a lot of differ-
ent things with it, including
entertainment. Videogames
have a far more dramatic
growth pattern because of the
price point of the hardware.
Plus, you've got 30 million
households that were brought
up on the 8-bit videogame sys-
tems. You only need a fraction
of those to switch over to the
16-bit [market] that's already
as big as the IBfvl floppy disk
market.

C; If 16-bit videogame sys-
tems become that successful,
will developers abandon the
personal computer?

Hawkins: A high-end flight
simulator like Chuck Yeager's
Air Combat — you can't do
that kind of a product on a vid-
eogame system. It needs to
have bitmapped graphics and
a lot of memory space. You
can't do really fast polygon ren-
dering, which is the technique
used in flight simulators. We're
still going to bring some of our
simulations technology down
to the videogames, but we
can't do it at the same level.
Other than that, if you have a
good game, you're going to
put it on all of the machines.
C: Define multimedia and
its role in entertainment.

Hawkins: Here's what it
means to me. It has to be in-
teractive, If it's not inter-
active, then why both-
er? There are all kinds
of digital technology
being brought to au-
dio and video, which
is fine. But to call it
multimedia and say
it's a new business —
well, what's new
about it? It has to be in-
teractive to really be
new.
C: Define interactive.
Hawkins: It's to be con-
trasted with passive, if 1
am watching television

and the information is all one
way, the oniy way I interact
with my TV is by pressing but-
tons on my remote.

C: How is that different
from an arcade game? Just
pressing a fire button — /
wouldn't call that interactive.

Hawkins: There's a lot more
going on than that, though the
control may be simplistic. The
thing about the TV remote is
that's a real strong indication
of people's desire to interact.
Television is passive, and the
passivity is brain numbing. Peo-
ple need to be stimulated so
they're constantly changing
what's on the screen.

0: I see arcade games as
a linear experience.

Hawkins: That may be a
function of the environment
more than anything else. In a
coin-op situation, you're trying
to get a couple more quarters
out of somebody every couple
of minutes. So that influences
the way the games are de-
signed. But there's nothing
intrinsic about the technology
that makes it have to be that
way.

C: Can entertainment soft-
ware play a role in education?

Hawkins: Absolutely. The
brain research that's been
done in the U.S. over the last
20 years has proven that inter-
action is the single best way to
increase your intelligence.
There's no question in my mind
that a kid who spends a iot of
time playing videogames will
have superior skills in pattern
recognition. This is a cultural
problem. Parents look at a kid
playing a videogame, and he's
staring at the screen almost
like in a trance — and it scares
them. They don't realize that
that's good. He's intense.
There's a lot of brain activity
going on. If parents see their
kid lounging around watching
the TV. they don't realize that
he's not being stimulated,
that there's not as much brain
activity going on. □

USE THIS CARD TO REQUEST
FREE INFORMATION ABOUT
PRODUCTS ADVERTISED
IN THIS ISSUE.

Clearly print of type your fulf name, ad-
dress, and phone number. Circle num-
bers that correspond to the key
numbers appearing on advertisements
and in the Advertisers Index, Mail the
postage-paid card today. Inquiries will
be forwarded promptly to advertisers.
Although every effort is made to ensure
that only advertisers wishing to provide
product information have reader service
numbers, COMPUTE cannot be respon-
sible if advertisers do not provide lit-
erature to readers.

Cards valid only until expiration date.

This card is for product information
only. Address editorial and customer
service inquiries to COMPUTE, 324 W.
Wendover Ave., Greensboro, NC 27408.

COMPUTE'S FREE PRODUCT INFORMATION SERVICE

Name = ^,

Address

City

Country

-= Slate/Province .

. Phone _

A Wnai (und dI compyteHb) do yfjy own'' D IBM PC/CompaWiie D TancJy D Amiga

□ UaafilDsh C Apple ]l O Cc»mmodO[e 64/1 28

4 5 S

B Do you use '^our camputer nwstJy for O playrng 9anK>^

□ wDthing ir yiyji rtome otfioe a wortong in o«ce OulSKte Uom^ n s*ool vwfh

B 9 10

C- Hcwv many rKxirs a w&ek 00 you irso your coTTiputer'' nS CiS GJS 035 +

n 1^ 13 14
D WluCh word procesSD' (Jo you use? O WcnOPerted D k*crqscrtl Wbrd
i& 16

n PC Wfie D WOfflSlar D DispiayWnte D Other
17 te ig 20

E Wh.ch sDfeaosne&t do you use'^ DLolus 1-2-3 D Excel Q OuaiB-o Pro

21 22 23

F whico ontine sefvces Oo you use? D CompuScfve D GEnie C Arnence Onum
24 25 25

n PfOd^Qy Q O-Lii*
27 28

G Whai othw compLilw friaoajines do yCu leatf' D PC/Compun™ □ Compuiw Gamm Wold

29 30

n Home Oftcfl Computng O ComptJlef Shopper n t*C SotroDS D PC MBoazioe Q PC Worw
31 32 33 34 35

h. Do you irtflLience the purcriaM oi PCs wt»afe ycxj work? D Yas

36
I What IS ymr lot* houseMoU income? □> 530,000 D > 540.000 □ >S50.000 D>S75 0a)

37 3& 39 40

J How man/ times per year do you purchase by maJ DTdef? 3-5 □6-10 □ >10

•11 42 43

K What 1$ ^wr age' yeys

Dfcte lOt lof 8 Ot«'y«it new sutwosptcxi lo COMPUTE Vou wtB bo bitod (or S12-97

ID1

m

103

109

no

in

nr

118

119

tK

126

12/

133

13*

19S

]ii

142

U3

149
157
IBS
173

lai

213

221

zn

245
2S1

234
302

3ia

31G
22f,
J3J
3U
3»
3S«
3B&

Saj

390

158

166
174

Its
190
198
206
214
222
230
238
!4«
254
262
270
279
287
295
303
311
319
327
335
343
351
359
367
375
383
391
399

223
231
239
247
255
263
271
280
288
29e

301
312
320
328
336
344
352
360
368
376
384
392
400

t04

112

120
12«
136

105

113
121
129
13?

145
153

130
13B

1 159

160

IBt

162

163

164

i 167

168

169

170

171

172

; 175

176

177

178

179

lao

! 183

184

186

186

187

1S8J

im1

20*'

1 191

192

133

134

196

1 199

20O

201

202

203

; 2D7

206

209

210

211

21?

r 215

216

217

218

219

ZX

224
232
240
249
256
2«4
272
261
289
297
305
313
321
329
337
345
353
361
369
377
385
393
401

225
233
241
249
257
2GS
273
282
290
296
Mi
314
322
330
338
346
35^
362
370
376
386
394
i02

226
234
242
250

274
283
291
299

307
315
323
331
339
347
3S5
363
371
379
i37
395
403

197

lis

123
131
139

147

155
163
171
179
187
196
203
211
219
227
235
243
251
259
207

308
316
324
332
340
348
358
364
372
360
3S8
396

404

116

124

1^

14(1.'

143

156

228
236
244
252
260
26S

275 276

284 28S'

292 293

360 301

309

317

325

3SS

311

3*9,

357.1

365

373

3eiJ

389"
397
405

Eiplritlan dale lD-31-41

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 853 PITTSFIELD, MA
POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

COMPUTE Magazine

Reader Service Management Department

P.O. Box 5145

Pittsfield, MA 01203-9654

USE

THIS

CARD

FOR

FREE

PRODUCT

INFORMATION

m...ll..l.lll...Mll,l.l.,<ll.nM,.l,.lll,..

Get everything you need in one place.

Join CompuServe. Ibu'll become a member of the most comprehensive
computer information service on Earth. With more experts, greater capabil-
ities, and more interesting people than you can find anywhere else,

To find out more about us, call 1-800-848-8199 or return this card today

Please send me your CompuServe Information
Services brochure.

Name .

Address.

City State, Zip

Telephone CompuServe'

COMPUTE - September

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST C[J\SS PERMIT NO. 407 COLUMBUS, OHIO

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

CompuServe®

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
PO BOX 20212
COLUMBUS OH 43220-9988

NO roSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

l,l..l..[|...l.l..l.lll...l.l..l.l..l..l.l..l..l.l.l

otate^f-the-
artquipmentL
and materials ^

ifldudedwith ^

IGtminine! ^ nma ^.^^^

^^\7'g~^^ 1 1 want to learn more! Please send me
X C^IfREE facts, color brochure and full
information about how I can train at home for the
: career I have chosen, CHECK ONE BOX ONLY!

. Mail this Post-Paid Card Today!

«i3SrnS ^^ ^^^^ or obligation. No salesman will visit.

Computer Career i ; ^ .■.;

n ASB Degree in Applied

Computer Science
D Computer Programming
D Computer Programming /COBOL
D Personal Computer Specialist
D Computer- Assisted

Bookkeeping

Associate in Specuiized
Bu^inKS Degree

n Business

D Accounting

□ Uusiniss Mgmt.^
Marketing option

D Business Mgmt.—
Finance option

□ Hospitalit>" Mgmt-

As«ocia1e in Specialized
Ttdinolog)' I>egrK FrDgrams
Q Mechanical Engineering

Technolog)'
Q Electrical Engineering

Teclirtology
D Civil Engineering*

Technology
D Industrial Engineering

Technology
D Bectronics Technology

-Career Diploma Fragrams -

D High School n Small Business
D Bookkeeping Managemcnl

DSecrelar)' D Electronics

nMedicfll/Denta] Office □ Legal Secretary

Intemalional Correspondence Schools, Norlh American Correspondence Schools

NAME AGE

STREET.^

CITY/STATE_
PHONE (

AIT.#

_ZIF_

Dept. PDZS91S Compute

Assistant
Q Aalo Mechanics
n Hotel /Kestauisnt

Management
DSuri'eying and

Mapping
n Drafting
Q Air Conditioning &

Refrigeration

□ Travel Agent

□ Wildlife/Forestry
Conservation

□ Art

D Microcomputer Repair
n Catering /Gourmet

Cooking
D Fitness & Nutrition
m Motorcycle Repair
Dn7VCR Repair
C Legal Assistant
DChild Day Care
D Police Sciences
D Private Security Officer
D Interior Decorating
DCun Pro
Qpashion Merchandising

n A Subsidiary f^ National Educatwtj Citrpprattm

□ Animal Care Specialist □ Journalism/Short
D Diesel Mechanics Story Writing

n Electrician n Photography

D Dressmaking & Design

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 1273 SCRANTON, PA

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS
NORTH AMERICAN CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS

925 OAK STREET
SCRANTONPA 18540-8888

NO POSTAGE
NECESSARY
IF MAILED
IN THE
UNITED STATES

|M.lllnl.ll.l..i..llI...l.l..lHLI..I.lHl.l.l..l

Select
5 Books

for only $4^

ENROLLMENT
APPLICATION

Please accept my membership in The Computer Book
Club with the BYTE Book Club and send the 5 volumes
listed below, billing me $4.95. If not satisfied, I may
return the books within ten days without obligation and
have my membership cancelled. 1 agree to purchase at
least 3 books at regular Club prices during the next 2
years, and may resign any time thereafter. A ship-
ping/handling charge and sales tax will be added to all
orders.

N«tne .

Address .
City

.State

.Zip

Vdid TpT n«w nKmben only ¥an\gn ipplicanu witi ncclvo spsciil mdcring iiutniclioru
CaiuiU mitir ramlt in U.S. cuirency. Tikit order luh^l \o K'^9ptll>cs byThs Colnputsr
Bnl aub. CMPT991

Ths ComputBr Book Club

Select
5 Books

for only $4^5

ENROLLMENT
APPLICATION

Please accept my membership in The Computer Book
Club with the BYTE Book Club and send the 5 volumes
listed below, billing me $4.95. If not satisfied, I may
return the books within ten days without obligation and
have my membership cancelled. I agree to purchase at
least 3 books at regular Club prices during the next 2
years, and may resign any time thereafter. A ship-
ping/handling charge and sales tax will be added to all
orders.

. '

Name .

Address .

. State

-Zip

City

VtJid foe new nMmbcrs only. Fa«i^ appliontl wdll ncsjve specill oHoting Initnictmiu.
Cuud* mui( ramlt In U.S. cumncy. TliU ottlAf subject la accsptince by The GompulHr

Book Quh. CMFTegi

■B

ThB Computer Book Club

eg

c

A

a

(0
(0

5^
Q

I

i. 3ra

' m ^
■^ mQ

00 • i

3

H
>
O

m

CD

m
>

5

CD
-<

>

a
o
»
m

m
m

■n

3D

H

03

r
>

G

to

C/3

^^

m

3D

Z

s

m

C/3

o

C/3

■c

tavl

CO

?9

r

^4

c

m

JO

^

m

r

^

C

2

S

S

H

>

>

N^

r

tj

^

en o

en y

c

z

-n

z
m

o

m
O

Z
H

2
>

3

>

H

X

r-
m
D

or)
>

-<

>

o
m

C/I

w

c
(D

3

a
n

c

?

3

- OB ^

■*^ mQ

(Oct.

00 a- C"

•n

»

t/5

H

dd

3

r-
>

c

C/D

>

O
m

NN

Z

2

w

z

C/3

r-

o

C/3

CD

m

>n

■V

a

^

>

v4

■^

D
DO

^

-C

g

m

r

>

^

O

c

TO

m

Co

2
s

2

on

m

H

>

tn

^

r

tJ

■P-

^ 2

CO ^

c

z

H

tn

O

z

m
o
m

z

o

>

m

X

m

o

>

50

•<

>

O

m

tfl

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS, SOFIWARE ENGINEERING, OR COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

Now! NRI training asstires
your success in three of today^s
fastest-growing computer fields

These days, success comes to
those who know how to get the
most from a computer. People
who know how to analyse
systems, design and develop
software to meet specific needs,
program in the languages that
will get the job done.

Now NRI has the training
you need to get a competitive
advantage in today's rapidly
expanding computer world.
Choose from NRI at-home
training in PC Systems Analysis,
PC Software Engineering Using
C, or Computer Program-
ming. . .and get the computer, the
software, and the hands-on skills
you need for advancement, a new
career, or a business of your own.

l.Leam the art of systems
analysis and get ahead in
today's competitive business
world

The name of the game in business
tcxlay is setting up systems that will increase
efficiency, productivity, and profits — using a
computer totli as the analysis tool and the
ultimate system st)lution.

Now, NRl's new :u-home training In PC
Systems Analysis gives you the computer, the
software, and the analytical skills to perform
this vital role for any size business.

Step by step, you leam the art of systems
analysis: how to define and break down the
problem, interview users, interpret and mcnlel
data, prepare proposals — every skill you ncctl to
map out the optimal system solution. But that's
just the beginning.

Training includes a powerful computer
system and software you keep

NRI gives you hands-on experience \\ith an
AT-compatible computer system — complete
with 1 .2 meg floppy drive, monitor, modem,
and a full meg of RAM — all yours to train with
and keepl

You begin by learning BASIC, today's
most popular PC programming language. Tlncn,
using the Microsoft'*' Works software also
included in your training, you master four
essential PC applications: word prticessing,
spreadsheets, database management, and data
communications.

Soon your computer becomes your most
important analysis tool, allowing you to prcxlucc
cost-benefit analyses, feasibility studies, long-
range projections, coinplex databases, and more.

Send today for your free NRI catalog, and
discover how NRl's new training can make you
a key player on any business team.

2. Build your own software as you build a
money-making career witti NRl's new
training in PC Software Engineering Using C

Jobs sn developing custom software will boom in
the 1990's, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics — up from about 500,000 positions in
1986 to over 1.2 million hy the year 2000. Now

— you can get in on the rapid growth of
this muki-biUion dollar industry- with
NRl's new training in PC Software
Engineering Using C.

Train with Borland C++^ and a
powerful AT-compatible
computer

Your NRI training gives you hands-
on experience with a powerful IBM
PC/AT-compatihIe computer system,
including 2400 baud internal
modem, 30 meg hard drive, VGA
color monitor, and advanced
programming software — Borland's
Turbo C+-^.

You icam software engineering
from start to finish, mastering each of
the essentia! phases involved in
developing a full range of applica-
tions. From analysis to design to
advanced programming in C, you're
in command as you assemble the
building blocks for success as a
software engineer.

Discover how NRI gives you the
experience and the know-how, the
computer and the software to
advance on the job or break into a

software development business of your own.

Send for your free NRI catalog today!

See other side to learn about NRI training
in Computer Pronramming~one more way
NRI can give you the computer ^^k

know-how you need for success ^^r

SEND CARD TODAY FOR FREE NRI CATALOG

Schools

McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center
4401 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008

YES! Send me the free catalog I've checked and show me how NRI can
give me the state-of-the-art computer training 1 need for success.

B Check one free catalog only
D PC Systems Analysis
n PC Software Engineering Using C
D Computer Programming

Other computer career training:
n Microcomputer Servicing
n Desktop Publishing and Design
□ Word Processing Home Business

Name

Addres.s .
CiD,-

. Age .

.■"iccrcdilcd Member. Nntion^il Homo Study Cuuncil

. State

.Zip.

4537-09T

pnlyNRI
ives you the
of real-
world training
you need
tor success

3. Begin a high-paying career — even a
business of your own— in computer
programnning

Now, with NRI training in Computer Program-
ming, you can give computers the power to carrv
out an astonishing range of business, profes-
sional, and personal applications. Because only
NRI gives you hands-on programming experi-
ence with a powerful AT-compatib!e computer,
plus training in four of today's hottest computer
languages— BASIC, Pascal, C, and COBOL.

NRI gives you everything you need to
succeed in programming, today's top-
growth computer career field

Your NRI lessons first guide you step by step
through the fundamentals, giving you a clear
understanding of the programming design
techniques used every day by successful micro
and mainframe programmers. Then the fun
really begins.

With your personal NRI instructor always
available to help, you use your computer and
software to actually design, code, run, debug, and
document programs in BASIC, P;iscal, C, anj
COBOL. Rounding out your training, you use
your modem — also included in your course —
to "talk" to your NRI instructor, meet fellow
students, even download programs through
NRl's exclusive programmers network,
PRONET.

For vivid descriptions of every aspect of
NRl's innovative Computer PtLigramming
course, send for your free catalog today!

SEND CARD TODAY FOR FREE NRI CATALOG

( H Check on the other side for the catalog you worrt)

NRI training — geared to the real world

Now you can enter today's rapid-growth computer fields with tine practical skills, hands-on
experience, and priceless confidence you need for success.

NRl's three exciting new computer courses (one described here, two on the other side)
prepare you for success in today's expanding computer world by giving you
first-hand experience with today's most in-demand computing tools:

►NRI's PC Systems Analysis course includes a powerful
AT-compatible computer system that features a full megabyte
of RAM, high-resolution monitor, modem, and 1.2 meg floppy
drive. Plus you work with three popular software packages —
MS-DOS, GW-BASIC, and Microsoft Works.

^The centerpiece of NRl's PC Software
Engineering Using C course is aLso an
AT-compatible system, this time
featuring a VGA color monitor, 30 meg
hard drive, I meg RAM, and a 2400 baud Hayes-compatible
modem. What's more, you train with and keep in-demand
software including MS-EXDS and Borland's popular Turbo C++.

^ Choose
NRl's Computer
Progranuning

course and you'll get
hands-on program-
ming experience as
you work with an
AT-compatible
computer featuring
monitor, modem, 1 meg RAM,
and floppy drive. Best of all, you learn to
program in four of today's hottest languages
using quality software compilers — GW-BASIC
Utah Pascal, Mix C. and Utah COBOL.

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY

IF MAILED

IN THE

UNITED STATES

BUSINESS REPLY MAIL

FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 10006 WASHINGTON. aC.

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

School of
Electronics

McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center
4401 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20078-3543

|„|,|||,Mll..ll..lllMi...llMl.1lll..lllllll»l<l

Train at home the NRI way. . .with step-
by-step lessons, petsonal guidance from your
experienced NR! instructors, plus hands-on
training designed around a computer and
software you keep.

Get all the facts about NRI training in
your choice of three high-growth computer
fields: PC Systems Analysis, PC Software
Engineering Using C, or Computer Program-
ming.

Send for your free NRI catalog today!
If the card is missing, wtite to NRI Schools,
McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center,
4401 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington,
DC 20008.

£MOST

¥ The WonderYears

That's The Wonder Of
NO WORDS Software"
From McGee:"

Your child's early
years— a time when
[ everything is new,
lever^'day an adventure.
__^_ [And every moment a
learn]ng"experience.

Nov,", you can enhance the
wonder of learning with your
personal computer and McGee
NO WORDS Software, Designed for
children ages two to sLx, McGee,
along with Katie's Farm' md McGee
at the Fun Fair," takes children on

the various advenaires of a lovable
character named McGee,

Using animation, digitized
sound and graphics from a child's
perspecti\'e. these programs en-
courage children to interact and
explore, holding them spellbound
for hours as McGee's discoveries
become their own.

A 1990 Parent's Choice Award
winner, McGee, as well as Katie's
(/turtles ^Farm and McGee at
[the Fun Fair are avail-
fable for Macintosh'
[.(black and white or
icolor), Apple IIGS,

liga and IBM/Tandy
nachines. For the name
|of your nearest dealer
3r to order McGee
^programs direct, call
1-800-776-0450.

McGee NO WORDS Sofav'are.
Making the most of the wonder
years and laying a foundation for
learning in all
the years to
come.

ff)c6ee"

McGee Software,
Fun for the future.

.^ppltf ami Mjtiniit.ll ZK n;){is[tn?d trddfliurks d .Apple Comptiscr, InC- IBVS is a rc>:t.!citd KJdenari: ol Inlenuwral liU-^inc>,s .\IaLhuie. Cfflptjrjtitjn.

T^Mi b;i n^awi irjdcimritufTjrxhOitpoQ:^^ ^ir^^ i.j rrjii^Jtrol trjdeimrii iifa)nVTKxk>a'..Anifti Ini:.

CIrcl* Rudsr Sarvic* Number 106

Qomina for groiNnups.* , . , j- )js (5.25" 1 .2

• TO ORDER CALL

ORDER BEFORE

SEPT I, I99I

and receive

a FREE URRY
AUTOSHADEl

SIERRA

Suggested R«""" .

Or send a check or money order for $59 95 to
Sierra On-Line, P,0. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA 936 U

m dlrigiKM iTsdimai g< Sno On^Jm, Inc Wn B I ngilMltd nodirial iJ ton] Oiv4ioi, lit

bar 144

rSPEtiri

]f you cyrrenfV om Leisure Surf lorrv fr,
rtelond of t^e Lounge [(Mds, you coJ

Send eifhef Disk #1 of your p mr
ve™ or t^e front poge f 'Se

order for 25 {fo cover ffie cos ™Z

tA UU, Aftn; LSLI Upgrode. Be sure

whedier you'll need 3.5" or 5.25 'disks

No upgrade orders will be accepted by
_ telephone.