Keith's Gleanings

[krjpalmer]

ST-Log June 1987

This issue's content on programming led off with a editorial from Douglas Weir saying that while "it's anybody's guess that hardware will look like ten years from now," "if you want to you'll be able to program in BASIC on it. Or Pascal, or C, or FORTRAN," even if "what kind of BASIC" was uncertain with the way operating systems were developing. One look at games influenced by "the Orient" noted that "Black silk dressing gowns, oriental pictographic symbols on T-shirts, and a surfeit of dragons, gigantic robots and karate-wielding ninjas characterized the 'orient-ation' of the culture vultures." A letter complained that Atari "simply goofed in choosing the microprocessor for the STs" and should have picked "National Semiconductor's 32016 or 32032," which "would have outgunned the Amiga and IBM PC AT (with floating-point option)"; the editorial response was that "until recently" those chips had only existed "on paper." One article noted how well the ST was doing in West Germany.

[krjpalmer]

From the Bookshelf: The Island in the Sea of Time trilogy

At the beginning of May I dropped in on the nearest comic shop for “Free Comic Day.” With the thought that I shouldn’t jus

At the beginning of May I dropped in on the nearest comic shop for “Free Comic Day.” With the thought that I shouldn’t just help myself to that day’s promotional pamphlets, I looked into the large used book section at the back of the store. Passing by the science fiction shelves just in case, one recognizable title caught my eye, and then two more by the same author I understood to be connected to it...

[krjpalmer]

ANALOG Computing June 1987

An assortment of utilities and tutorials and a description of the creation of an Atari word processor (at a company that had also programmed the Color Computer graphical adventure The Sands of Egypt) made up the "programming" content of this issue. Near the back of the magazine, Arthur Leyenberger's "The End User" column noted Atari was "still planning to introduce a 32-bit-based ST workstation, originally dubbed the TT"; it was "purported to arrive in the second half of the year (which year?)" He also responded to a letter congratulating him for "finally realizing what a jerk Jack [Tramiel] is" and insisted "Jack is not a jerk," but did criticize Atari for not offering users much in the way of after-purchase support.

[krjpalmer]

Antic June 1987

This issue introduced what it promised would be a series on animation, starting off here by redefining text characters for quick and easy motion. One article described "wild inventions you can build for pennies," including a mechanism to make thermal printer paper by coating "ordinary calculator rolls" with a solution of "water, sugar, and Elmer's Glue." Nat Friedland's editorial implored readers to writer to Springboard Software and demand an 8-bit Atari port of the "Newsroom" program, even as one letter complained most software companies were now abandoning that platform with the excuse of "piracy" and insisted there was just as much of that in the Apple, Commodore, and IBM user communities.

[krjpalmer]

A+ June 1987

Suggestions for recouping the money you'd put into your Apple II provided the cover story for this issue, although there was also a suggestion of how to re-ink your printer ribbons and save a bit of cash that way. Frederic Davis's editorial suggested Apple had been so intent on "promoting the Macintosh as an office computer" that it had lost sight of how useful the cheaper Apple II (about the price of "a good electric typewriter") would be in the same setting.

[krjpalmer]

Profiles June 1987

A desktop publishing program for MS-DOS (that ran under GEM, which Apple had just managed to neuter on MS-DOS through threat of legal action) featured in this issue. One article described how to use commercial online services to plan the ideal vacation; a sidebar talked about how to take your transportable or portable computer with you on that vacation, cautioning that "your logistical problems mushroom."

[krjpalmer]

A Change Already Avoided?

As people fulminated over announcements you’d have to pay for not just a regular but an extra-special Crunchyroll membership just to o

As people fulminated over announcements you’d have to pay for not just a regular but an extra-special Crunchyroll membership just to order from their online store, I was picking up my first anime order (the second DAN DA DAN set) from a different online store...

[krjpalmer]

PCM June 1987

Desktop publishing for the (Tandy) MS-DOS computer received a full overview in this issue, working up from economy packages to Aldus PageMaker. Lonnie Falk's editorial noted that IBM's new computers weren't in fact "going with a closed architecture and custom chips", but in supposing they were aimed most of at all at "protecting its mainframe and minicomputer business" saw them as no threat to Tandy. One item in "MicroScopes" concluded the Tandy 600 would be phased out after "the first volley in what some fear may become an all-out trade war with Japan."

[krjpalmer]

The Transactor May 1987

While there were some "simulations and modelling" in this issue, there was also plenty of technical content for the Amiga. Karl J.H. Hildon's editorial referred to the Amiga 500 ("curiously similar to the Atari 1040 ST") and "2500", although one letter-writer complained how the computer no longer allowed the "so automatic" directory-printing command "open4,4:cmd4:(caT" or listing-printing command "list):print#4:close4" and supposed the "2000" and "500" amounted to a page "taken out of IBM's manual of deserting the loyal customers," and another letter, in supposing multitasking ran into "a lot of us have trouble enough concentrating on one task at a time" and "most tools that are easy to learn are less satisfactory for the experienced user," limiting the Amiga to "technofreaks and artists. Business empires on this market are not built." One article on RLE images mentioned how their rigid sizes had been tailored to "the original Radio Shack Color Computer" and included some samples from CompuServe, including an "FBI Ten Most Wanted" image, a missing child report, and one piece of art that was not just "in an anime style" but pretty much lolicon...

[krjpalmer]

Compute's Gazette May 1987

SpeedScript returned in this issue to the Gazette from Compute! itself, with some extra utilities available as separate type-in programs. Increased storage for the Commodore 64 and 128 was examined, ranging from RAM disk cartridges to hard disks.

[krjpalmer]

ST-Log May 1987

As the MIDI ports on the Atari ST came to seem ever more significant, this issue's musical focus included "the inside story of how Atari won the war against IBM, Apple and Commodore." The "Ian's Quest" column looked at the ST version of "Balance of Power," making a small point of how easy it might be to suppose Chris Crawford ("that old Atari 8-bit whiz kid") had a particular view of the world from the way the game played out. One article discussed Electronics Arts acquiring Batteries Included. The back cover ad was for "MIDI Maze," which allowed sixteen STs to be networked together to hunt "happy face opponents."

[krjpalmer]

The Twilight Zone: The Night of the Meek

Aware in advance in a general way of “a Christmas episode” of The Twilight Zone, I found some amusement in getting to “The

Aware in advance in a general way of “a Christmas episode” of The Twilight Zone, I found some amusement in getting to “The Night of the Meek” during July...

[krjpalmer]

ANALOG Computing May 1987

The musical content in this issue included a program to imitate the sound of a Japanese shakuhachi bamboo pipe, inspired by the soundtrack from The Karate Kid, and a review of the Roland TR-707 rhythm composer. The "hard disk primer" led off with the warning that they were "psychologically addictive" and included a later warning that they shouldn't be switched on multiple times in one day, given how much torque was needed to bring them up to operating speed. A news item mentioned Electronic Arts intended to purchase "rights to the brand" of the Atari software firm Batteries Included, which had been "plagued in its final days by piracy."

[krjpalmer]

Antic May 1987

At its latest anniversary, Antic handed out awards again. It was also able to report on Atari's latest products, a repackaged ST with more memory capacity and an MS-DOS machine; Jack Tramiel proclaimed "In 1987, we are declaring war on the computer business in the United States." One type-in program strove to squeeze "Rogue" into the 8-bit Atari computers; a grander (commercial) version of Rogue for the ST was also reviewed inside.

[krjpalmer]

Virtual (T-Snow) Connections; or another thing done the hard way

While a <a href="https://krpalmer.dreamwidth.org/465067.html">working</a> TRS-80 Model 100 is the one &#8220;1980s computer&#8221; in my pos

While a working TRS-80 Model 100 is the one “1980s computer” in my possession I can switch on without clearing what limited table space I have to cable together hardware, at times I’m just as likely to resort to its “Virtual T” emulator as to pull the computer out of its old slip case (which is itself stamped “made in Japan”)...

[humanoidhistory]

Radio Shack TRS-80 computer, launched in 1977.

[krjpalmer]

A+ May 1987

The Apple IIgs shipped with twice as much memory as the IIe and IIc, but 256 K was judged inadequate to run the software beginning to show up that made use of its unique capabilities. This issue looked at assorted expansion cards that would increase its memory to a megabyte and beyond. Fred Davis's editorial and the news section acknowledged the appearance of the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE, supposing that their expansion capabilities drew from the example of the Apple II.