Softside – Details
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 1
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 2
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 3
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 4
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 5
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For Disk Users
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 6
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 7
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 8
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 9
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Computer Graphics
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 10
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 11
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 1, Number 12
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Tank, July, 1979 Softside
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 1
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 2
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
A Column of Your Letters
Isolate
CLEAR, Cold Start, Multiple USR Calls
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 3
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
TRS-DOS 2.3, IF … THEN … ELSE, Clear Portion of Screen, Extended Tab, DELETE
A Column of Your Letters
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 4
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 5
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 6
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In This Issue:
Sonic Torpedos
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 7
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In This Issue:
Solitaire
A Review of T-Short
Special Casino Games Section:
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 8
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In This Issue:
The World’s Smallest Word Processor
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 9
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 10
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In This Issue:
Regular Features:
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SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 11
Table of Contents
Articles:
Explanation of graphics on each machine
The poor man’s joystick (Atari)
Sound routines for the Apple, Atari, and S-80
Programs:
Soar to new heights (S-80)
Sailing in the wind (Apple)
Golf: Can you break par? (S-80)
Golf, for the Atari too (Atari)
Rom on parade (Apple)
Catch the demons lurking in the maze before time runs out (Atari)
Can you beat the expert’s time? (S-80)
New concept for an old game – animation (Apple)
You are the earth’s last defense (Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Fiddling with VARPTR (S-80)
An address for the machine language programmer to remember (S-80)
A short routine that allows you to make easy program changes (Apple, S-80)
Recover your text after an unexpected reboot (S-80)
Departments:
From our readers
From our readers
from our readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 2, Number 12
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Table of Contents
Articles:
Tips to remember (S-80)
Have they made a difference?
Is the expense justifiable?
How to scale objects
Shorthand, maps and mazes
Simulating hoofbeats
Simulating new graphics commands
Customize your own data base program
A review (Atari)
What to look for when you buy (Apple)
Programs:
An intriguing game oflogic (Apple)
Stereo sound without fancy hardware (Apple)
Decode the hidden puzzle (S-80)
Trap your opponent (Atari)
Adventure in the dark continent (S-80)
With fast graphics (Apple)
A horse of a different color (S-80)
A word game that boggles the mind (Atari)
Discover what’s in the black box (Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Meet the program that Lists itself! (S-80)
You can have more than one (S-80)
An explanation of the machine code (Apple)
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 1
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Articles:
Update and Delete functions are added
Those neglected space compression codes (S-80)
A new column for Adventurers
Light sabers
Hardside is heard from
Simulating three dimensions
Plus: Checker Challenge (Atari)
The promised documentation (S-80)
From arithmetic to calculus (S-80)
Programs:
The Pyramid builder (S-80, Apple)
Baseball action (Atari)
A maze with a view (S-80)
Invisible walls and a dragon (S-80)
Draw in eight directions at once (Atari)
Another point of view (Apple)
Try for a soft landing (Apple)
Can you land on an alien planet? (S-80)
Shoot-em-down for two (Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Is your program ready to Pack? (S-80)
Put your machine routines in DATA (S-80)
An inside look (S-80, Atari)
Help with the NEWDOS/80 CHAIN command (S-80)
Departments:
Mark Pelczarski
From our readers
James Garon
Kay Pasa
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 2
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Articles:
A computer card shuffler (S-80)
Customize your own data base program
Apple Reviews (Apple)
Rotation of images in HI-RES
An improved LIVE-KEY input routine (S-80)
Programs:
Can you survive the asteroid belt? (All)
Computer-aided wargame (S-80)
Patterned after the arcade game (Apple)
Go to the lanes in this simulation (Apple)
Can you handle the construction inspector? (Atari)
For the adventurer in you (S-80)
Complete with an exhaust port to shoot at (Atari)
Your mission, save bouncing Barney!! (S-80, Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Playing cards with packed string graphics (S-80)
Tickle the ivories on your APPLE (Apple)
Duplicate cassette tape (S-80)
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 3
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Articles:
For adventurers (All)
Make the most of those free moments (All)
Search routines (All)
A look at Olympic Decathlon & Galaxy Invasion (S-80)
Programs:
The game we all played as kids (Apple)
The thing I hated most in school (S-80)
Here’s the S-80 version of HEAD ON (S-80)
With sound! (Apple)
Can you believe nine adventures? (S-80)
Will you win in the last of the ninth? (Apple)
Can you cross the mine field? (S-80, Atari)
Do you know your country? (Atari)
A new twist for Othello freaks (Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Slow down those listings (S-80)
Add 2K to your programs? (S-80)
Boot your disk any way you want (S-80)
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 4
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Articles:
SoftSide’s data base continues (All)
This month we stay with 3-D (Apple)
A look at Olympic Decathlon and Flight Simulator (S-80)
Programs:
Match wits with your computer (S-80)
You against your computerin space war. (Apple)
Pinball wizards beware (Apple)
This month’s feature, you against the Germans (S-80, Apple)
After you wipe out the Germans, attack the Soviets (S-80)
Now attempttodestroy a generic opponent (Atari)
Moving artwork on the Atari (Atari)
Classics for your enjoyment (Atari)
Heavy Stuff:
Which language are you in? (S-80)
Diskcommands in Level II? (S-80)
Yes, it is possible (S-80)
Departments:
From our readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 5
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Table of Contents
Articles:
SoftSide’s data base continues
Three-D Rotation, Part III
The Prince of Q$ encounters the Priests of String Gathering
The travails of Mom in Computerland
How to keep your zebras and aardvarks straight
– Condensed programming and endless loops
Visicalc; Enhanced BASIC; Lunar Lander; Interactive Fiction
Programs:
Keep track of those exorbitant phone bills
Life and times of a square golf ball
Can you make the old mine pay off?
Even Bartlett would have liked this one
A brain-twister with shifting patterns
A tank duel that will leave you a-mazed
This one saves patching the wall around the dartboard
Heavy Stuff:
How to protect your program
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 6
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Table of Contents
Articles:
Exploring the world of Base
The Final Chapter
Three-D Rotation, Part IV
ABM; Galaxy Wars; Monty Plays Monopoly
Madness at Tiffany’s
How is an Atari like an elephant?
Where does all that cash flow?
Programs:
Calling all mathletes!
Watch out for pyroclastic flows!
Name that nation
When chess seems too complicated
Miniature golf with an Apple
It’s the Integers vs the Fractions!
How fast are your reflexes?
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 3, Number 7
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Articles:
Tricks with your VARPTR.
Perspective Drawing.
Quick & Dirty vs. Elegant.
With apologies to Sherry Taylor.
The name says it all.
Temple of Apshai; Apple Machine Language; Dragonquest
Programming perspectives.
Programs:
An Easter greeting.
Cross this one when you come to it.
The long-awaited Atari version.
The Allied forces await your command.
Three versions of a classic game.
Watch out for those furry fellows.
Brush up on tactics.
A mathletic maelstrom.
A game. not a tutorial.
How’s your geography?
An old game with a new twist.
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 4, Number 8
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Articles:
Who is this guy, anyway?
A look at Model III TRSDOS.
Perspective Drawing, Part II
All the programs that fit, since Day 1
Hellfire Warrior; Basketball; Strip Dice; Pseudodisk
Programs:
Missile warfare via keyboard
Dandy lines for your Apple
Another version of Head On
Get those nasty aliens
An udder delight!
The Olympics draw to a close
Can you land the Eagle?
Monkeying about with the Model III
How to get lost without ever going outside.
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 4, Number 9
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Articles:
A Showdown of sorts
More pattern Generation
Waste not, want not
Will Hagenbuch’s book in serial form
Tribulations in Chip City
Lords of Karma; Poker Tournament; Thrilogy of Games; Micro-Painter
S-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
For all you flag lovers
Befuddle your friends
Apple Programs:
The final installment
A new twist to an old puzzle
Translated from the Atari
Let your keys talk back to you
Atari Programs:
Mt. St. Helens erupts yet another time
Explore the tunnels beneath Petiteville
S-80i Programs:
The Electronic Vampire Nightmare Game
Are they aliens or amoebae?
Are you creatively articulate?
A listing utility
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 4, Number 10
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Articles:
Hearye! Hearye!
Magazine of the Future
Designing your own patterns
Another glass, please
Who was that masked VARPTR?
Computer that grounded Columbia
Computer Napoleonics, Atlantian Odyssey
S-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
Hup, two, three, four
S-80 and Atari Programs:
Deciphering game
Apple and Atari Programs:
Nine floors to freedom
S-80i Programs:
Scrolling calculator
How many words can you make?
Apple Programs:
Game for four players
Computerized drafting and drawing
Atari Programs:
Happy Landing!
Departments:
Our readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 4, Number 11
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Table of Contents
Articles:
Reflective Symmetry
S-80 Do it yourself.
The last round
Would you buy a used VARPTR from this man?
APPL-L-ISP, 3-D Computer Graphics Package
S-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
Look out for the Wraiths
Haul out the Howitzers
S-80 Programs:
Graphics galore
Apple Programs:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the keyboard
Atari Programs:
Cream ofthe crop
Departments:
From our readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 4, Number 12
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Table of Contents
Articles:
DV Premieres
An Apple blender for text and graphics
A how-to for compact creativity
Packing machine language into strings
Robotwar
S-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
Before it flips you
Meet your vocabulary head-on
S-80 Programs:
The best thing since flypaper!
Apple Programs:
Find the way out with your Apple
Departments:
From Our Readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 1
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Feature:
A revolutionary breakthrough in entertainment software
The first code to be unveiled
A fresh approach to a unique product
Instructions for S-80 DV
Articles:
The technique explained
Apple II User’s Guide
Rich Bouchard
Orchestra 80
S-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
Step back to 1944 and World War II
S-80 and Apple Programs:
Can you defeat the creatures of eight?
Apple Programs:
The long-awaited complete Apple listing
Apple DV Premieres
Esoteric computer applications
Atari Programs:
An artistic utility
S-80 Programs:
Defend the Eastern Seaboard with your S-80
Departments:
From Our Readers
From Our Readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 2
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Table of Contents
Articles:
A guide for building educational software
The micro container for sound
Reviews:
TRS-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
A new buzzword for the micro industry
Roll up your own Scott Joplin medley
Softside DV:
TRS-80 Programs:
The first Envyrn interpreter
Musical notes for the TRS-80
Apple Programs:
Musical notes for the Apple
Atari Programs:
Musical notes for the Atari
Departments:
From Our Readers
From Our Readers
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 3
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Table of Contents
Articles:
Editing packed strings
CLOADing troubles solved
TRS-80 DEFFN feature explored
Reviews:
TRS-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
A simple word processor
Mining on a Saturn moon
Apple Programs:
Instrument flight simulator
Atari Programs:
The new, improved version
Experiment with geometric patterns
TRS-80 Programs:
A circuit-designing utility
Softside DV:
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 4
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Table of Contents
Articles:
Patterns with vertical reflection.
Part 1 of the fix
RESTORE a data pointer to a specified line number.
Reviews:
TRS-80, Apple, and Atari Programs:
Add the printout module to your word processor
Don’t be afraid to take a chance
TRS-80 Programs:
TRS-Man goes into a feeding frenzy.
Who shall overcome in this war game?
Apple Programs:
My word against yours.
Don’t bark up the wrong tree.
Atari Programs:
Is this any way to spend a vacation?
Faster than a speeding number.
Softside DV:
Departments:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 5
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Front Runner:
You have been selected as a member of the exploration party searching for life on the planet Arcturus III. Radar indicates a meteor storm headed straight for that solar system. Can you, in your two-person rocket, rescue the people stranded there without crashing into a meteor? You are their only hope.
Features:
In another peek into the future, the authors tell how computers could help enhance the tension and excitement of fantasy role-playing games. With the addition of low-level lasers, computerized fencing would take on an unequalled element of realism.
In this tenth installment, J discusses the use of logical operators and relational operators in BASIC programming.
In Getting a Bit Serious – Part Seven, Lance discusses marketing projections and customer support problems. See how you can profit through his experience.
The series on disk drives continues. Read about floppy drives, flippy drives and aspects of a variety of DOSs.
Special Features:
Since the operating system of the TRS-80 DV has changed from TRSDOS to DOSPLUS, those subscribers should find this summary of the major differences helpful.
In a letter to the publisher from Ed Juge, director of computer merchandising for Tandy Corporation, some of Tandy’s policies about why only certain software and hardware products are supported by Radio Shack are explained.
Have you learned how to react in a civilized manner to that OTHER computer your acquaintances own? Have you been able to explain your feelings about YOUR computer to others? If not, try getting civilized.
*DEPARTMENTS
Apple/Side:
Lead the country of Andorra in this simulation.
William Pu
This color-graphics simulation will help you solve that famous 3-D puzzle.
Hi-Res Secrets
Atari/Side:
System Configuration Test
This dice game combines luck and skill as you arrange your dice scores to get the highest total.
Defense
Ramdisk
Protector
TRS-80/Side:
Lites Out
A utility for getting instructions on how to use your DOS, computer, or anything else.
A translation of Maze Search, this is an arcade-style game with optional sound.
Modify EDTASM for the Model III – Part II
Parsector V
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 6
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Table of Contents
Front Runner:
Hexapawn is a marker game played on a three-by-three grid that gets harder to win the more you play. The computer is given a set of operating instructions that enable it to improve its decision-making ability based on the success or failure of previous decisions.
Features:
The authors speculate about whether holograms could be used in the presentation of three-dimensional games and the role computers could play in the process. They give a brief introduction to projection and transmission holography and how holograms are produced by lasers.
“J” boldly leaps off the deep end and gives an introduction to TRS-80, Apple and ATARI graphics.
Using the same principles as those in making inkblot patterns, combine horizontal and vertical reflections to generate patterns with your computer.
Special Features:
Let your computer compare listings of different versions of the same program.
Departments:
This month we have a new department in SoftSide. New Products introduces DatasaverTM, Dragon’s Eye, The Data Reporter, a variety of cases for your hardware, and more.
Apple/Side:
PEEKER/POKER
Mike Westerfield
Examine and change sectors of Apple II disks.
THE MAGICAL SHAPE MACHINE
Tom Keith
This graphics utility provides an easy way to create and manipulate shapes.
This real-time Lo-Res game will test your coordination and timing.
BRODERBUND SOFTWARE’S APPLE PANIC
reviewed by Hartley G. Lesser
Learn how to use the Applesoft Ampersand function and how to implement it with a minimum of Machine Language.
Atari/Side:
THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOH
Peter Kirsh
Can you find and return the two rubies to the eyes of the mummy in the pyramid?
INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE CONTRACTORS
Phillip Case and Patrick Maloney
Our translation contest winner lets you try to become chairman of the board in this business management simulation.
Maneuver your laser base and destroy the wave of aliens before they bomb you or get past the horizon.
TAKE-APART OUTER SPACE ATTACK
Sheldon Leemon
The Player/Missile graphics and other graphics techniques used in Outer Space Attack are explained
How to fix your ATARI DOS I to take care of problems with random files.
K-BYTE’S K-RAZY SHOOT-OUT
reviewed by Sheldon Leemon
TRS-80/Side:
WARPATH
Ron Potkin
You can take the side of the Indians or the troopers in this two-player game of strategy and skill.
KILLER CARS
Richard Kipp
Equip your vehicle with armor, machine guns, lasers and other weapons in order to destroy your opponent’s car.
No claim jumping allowed in this two-player strategy game where you try to peacefully settle land in the old west.
ADVENTURE INTERNATIONAL’S STARFIGHTER
reviewed by Dave Albert and Alan J. Zett
DOSPLUS – HOW IT’S BETTER
Alan J. Zett
New DOS features on the TRS-80 DV are explained.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 7
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Table of Contents
Front Runner:
SoftSide’s basic BASIC word processor for all three systems acquires line editing capabilities, plus a few changes to the two previous installments.
Features:
“J” concludes a year-long exploration of the ins and outs of the intimate art of BASIC programming with some philosophical meanderings.
For those who like to encourage their computers to talk to other people’s computers, this extensive discussion of modems should prove to be very helpful.
This informative essay on the history of the written, printed, and electronic word leads to some fascinating questions about the future.
Departments:
Apple/Side:
Semaphore is a form of “word processing” that predates computers by quite a few years. This unique Hi-Res graphics program will enlighten you about a kind of flagwaving quite unfamiliar to most of us.
DV and CV subscribers get a sneak preview of the “Apple Fully Optimized Operational Language System” which will appear in listed form in next month’s magazine.
The old favorite board game is revisited in this compact computerized incarnation.
You’ll have to develop quick reflexes to keep from zapping yourself out of this game. Your score soars as you intercept elusive graphics blocks, but each time you get one it’s harder to maneuver.
If you have the need (or just an irresistable urge) to print out large-letter posters, this is just what your Apple needs.
SuperText II, SuperScribe II, Apple Writer II
Atari/Side:
This is an entertaining code-breaking game, coded into just the form for you and your ATARI to solve together.
Anyone who has written a program from scratch knows how messy the line numbering can get after all the changing and revising is done. This program lets your computer do the grubbing work of renumbering the whole thing in nice, neat increments of your choice.
This one will give you some heavy practice with your joystick as you defend yourself against attackers from all directions. It’s only a matter of time ….
This unique banner-printing program works not only with normal characters, but with any redefined character set that you care to program into your computer. The possibilities are limitless.
Letter Perfect, Text Wizard, and Word Processor
TRS-80/Side:
Adventure veterans and beginners alike will enjoy this subcompact interactive game.
Install a Machine Language routine into memory, and you can dump the text and graphics displayed on your screen to a printer – even while another program is running.
This remarkable program creates large letters in a beautiful Gothic font on your favorite printer. You’ll have no more excuses for sloppy garage sale signs.
This is a completely updated version of SoftSide’s Developing Database, in two versions: sequential access and random access. Those who have long awaited this complete TRS-80 version will not be disappointed.
The complete list of all DOSPLUS BASIC error messages – fully explained.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 8
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Table of Contents
Front Runner:
Klondike, the addictive one-player card game that just about everyone knows simply as “solitaire,” is beautifully implemented here for all three computers. The constant problems of shuffling the deck and rearranging the sloppy piles of cards are finally solved!
Features:
The authors discuss the dungeons and the adventures of the past and present, and present some thoughts and speculations about a future breed of Computer-Assisted Role Playing Games.
This article focuses on how to transform one object gradually into another through a series of computerized calculations.
You’ll be amazed by what the figures will show you about the possibilities of adding datamation to your business.
Departments:
Apple/Side:
This Machine Language utility will allow you to list your Applesoft programs in a logicl!l arid highly readable form, to greatly simplify development and debugging.
Internal documentation of your program with REM lines has never been this easy and looked this good.
Media subscribers got this one last month for an April Fool special. Here’s the listing and the explanation of how it works and what it does.
This excellent Apple version of George Delp’s TRS-Man will keep you busy for many hours eating all the monsters your diet will permit.
If you’ve been waiting with bated breath to use the Microtext word processor with your Apple cassette system, the solution is here.
Atari/Side:
This is an exceptionally well done arcade game which will keep you going for a long time as you attempt to penetrate alien defenses and retrieve the vital cloaking device which is Earth’s only hope.
Guiding your snake around the screen to gobble up points becomes more and more challenging as you go along.
A utility which finds and lists the lines in which variables are used can be an invaluable programming tool. Here is a simple one in BASIC that can make your work a lot easier.
Why wait for the daily paper when your ATARI can give you a new word-search game whenever you want one? Discover the joy of using a joystick instead of a pencil to find those hidden words.
This first installment of a new series on hidden features of the ATARI discusses the importance of the ANTIC chip and the display list for the BASIC programmer.
TRS-80/Side:
This is a fast and challenging Machine Language game which offers a variety of options and will test your reflexes and perceptioris to the limit.
Here is an exceptional K-Byter which POKEs a Machine Language invaders game into memory for some smooth and fast action.
Add an ATARI joystick to your TRS-80 for a new dimension, in playing action games. This article shows you how to do it.
The goal of this competitive game is to work your way up the ladders before your opponents do. It requires generous portions of luck, logic, and clear thinking to win.
Special NEWDOS-80 features are exploited to make the sequential-access version of So/tSide’s Database program even better.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 9
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
Prepare yourself for subterranean adventures as you search for treasures, fight monsters, and try to retrieve the “Chest of the Gods.” You’ll appreciate the encrypted program listing which keeps its secrets hidden until you play.
This valuable debugging aid will allow you to check your typing against printed listings and pinpoint any errors you may have made.
Features:
The authors revisit the Golden Age of Animated Film, when Walt Disney was king. They trace the rise of the computer, as cartoonist’s assistant and special effects artist, in the movies today.
Does your spouse spend endless hours at the computer? Do you ever wonder what the results might be? If so, read on.
“J” is at it again. This article is the first in a series on converting BASIC programs from one system to another.
A lighthearted look at the consequences of video game playing.
Departments:
Apple/Side:
An excellent translation of Carl and Karen Russell’s and Ralph and Becky Fullerton’s program. The first challenge is to get into Darkest Africa alive. The next is to get out alive. Dr. Livingston, I presume.. .?
Guide your spacecraft to a safe landing and you’ll live to tell about it.
It’s up to you to discover the secret color code that your Apple has dreamed up.
Learn how to use this Machine Language routine which allows your Applesoft programs to accept function-definition statements as input strings.
The first installment in a bimonthly series of articles dealing with DOS 3.3, the Apple II’s current Disk Operating System.
Atari/Side:
Your ears will never be the same after you’ve played with this one for awhile.
Now your data file can fill a whole disk. This new version of Database offers all the advantages of random-access files.
Working your way through this maze of rooms in an attempt to accomplish your mission is liable to get you killed.
TRS-80/Side:
The little buggers keep popping up all over the screen, and you have to keep out of their way as you pick up the fuel canisters.
An interesting, two-player graphics wargame simulation with thousands of reproducible scenarios.
Now you TRS-80 owners can have the glamorous and heroic job of finding the bomb before it decides to level the Piazza.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 10
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
The Computer-Assisted Testing System will turn your micro into a masterful testing machine. This time we bring you the input module and will complete this educational utility in the next issue.
Features:
The authors continue their series on computer aided special effects in the film industry. This time – a fascinating scenario considering the movie theatres of the future.
Lance has received some interesting response from readers of his review of the Modem I. In addition, he gives us his comments on supposed software rip-offs.
An author who wishes to remain anonymous gives his views on a new command for BASIC – PUNT.
This article is a continuation of the series started in May. Transformation techniques are explored in-depth, varying the rates of change during a transformation series.
Teachers are finding themselves in a quandry when choosing educational materials to teach computer awareness. The author gives an overview of the available resources and some helpful tips on how to utilize them.
Departments:
Concerning SoltSide Line Listings, SWAT and Media Versions
Apple/Side:
Race around the base of a tree, swallowing the fallen apples as you go. Be careful though, take a bite of your own body and you’re a goner.
Here are some welcome and badly needed enhancements to the features of Applesoft, including RESTORE to line number and a true LINE INPUT.
Create your own custom puzzles, mix them up and try to put them back together again. It’s not as easy as it might sound.
This compact, extremely well-documented program allows the amateur investor to perform a simple analysis of his portfolio.
Atari/Side:
A colorful implementation of “Simon Says,” this sound and graphics game is a joy of frustration to play. In addition, the authors have given us an interesting tutorial on complicated graphics without Machine Language.
Through ingenious use of the ATARI’s XIO commands, this little gem creates paintings on your screen Mondrian would have been proud to sign.
Have you ever wished you could see a menu of your disk the moment you booted your system? Well, now it’s possible, and so are many other extremely convenient features with this utility.
This time we further explore the ATARI display list. Through a detailed example, the author constructs an elaborate “Title Page” sequence.
TRS-80/Side:
Get ready for fast action in deep space. The enemy is attacking at high speed and you are the only one who can stop them!
The wood board and golf tees you used to build this game in your crafts class are no longer necessary. Put them away and play this game classic on your screen.
Remember the pencil and paper game the teacher always used to yell at you for playing when you should have been studying? Well, here it is on the screen of your micro. You can play against your friends or the computer. Watch it – no one at SoltSide has beat the computer yet!
Review by Tim Knight
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 11
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
In another of our encrypted adventures, you’ll be challenged to infiltrate an alien installation on Mars. They are planning to build an incredible defense shield and you must steal the plans and destroy the complex. Good luck – you may get out alive.
With this month’s completion of the Computer-Assisted Testing System, you’ll be able to administer the tests you created with the first module, score the students on their responses and keep accurate records for future reference.
Features:
A tongue-in-cheek look at a fictitious company’s introduction of such unique products as a black phosphor monitor at the National Computer Conference.
Our mysterious contributor offers a few words of advice on the use of I and O, (Or is it 1 and 0?) as variables in program listings.
The creator of many of SoftSde’s Adventures of the Month will take you step by step through the process of writing an original adventure and translating it to other systems. He’s included his own “Adventure Skeleton” in this valuable tutorial.
This year’s NCC revealed that the microcomputer is a contender for almost all serious computing applications. Here’s a comprehensive report on the introduction of systems from such unexpected manufacturers as Sony and Epson.
Disney Studios’ TRON has brought a new age of animation to the film industry. The authors give an extensive background on the computer graphics companies responsible for these developments accompanied by some exciting scenes from the movie.
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, S WA T and Media Versions
Apple/Side:
The Classroom Teacher’s Diagnostic Reading Test enables the teacher or parent to determine whether a student is able to read materials with understanding. It is also a valuable self-improvement tool for reading comprehension.
You’re on your way to having a valuable disk utility with this installment of the series – Disk Snooper. It will allow you direct access to the secrets hidden away on your diskettes.
Atari/Side:
This useful listing utility will make the line output of your programs much easier to understand. Statements will be listed on individual lines and REMarks will be framed by asterisks. Debugging will never be the same.
If you or your family are annoyed by the constant output of the speaker on your ATARI console, here’s the solution. With only a few inexpensive parts, you can put a switch on that speaker so you are in control.
TRS-80/Side:
Exciting sea-battle action comes to the screen of your TRS-80. This wargame/simulation is packed with destroyers, submarines and a convoy of vessels to keep two players fast on the keys in dramatic competition.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 5, Number 12
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Cover Feature:
Many “authorities” have speculated that the age of computers and technology will bring the decay of the family and our appreciation of the beauty of life. Saul Bernstein, one of the best known figures in microcomputer graphics, offers some startling predictions of the opposite effect.
Features:
Lance continues his review of modems with his comments on the Hayes Smart Modem. He also offers his views on documentation for software packages, with an accurate parallel to instruction manuals for other consumer products.
In Home Movies, the authors postulate on a unique service to be available in the future – a studio in which you and a computer produce your own movies.
Artists often shudder when they think of facing the computer screen. This author has not only faced the screen, but conquered it. She offers a step-by-step guide for approaching this new medium.
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, SWAT and Media Versions
Apple/Side:
If you’ve ever wanted to insert text or special characters in your hi-res displays, this is the program for you.
Create amazing shapes on your screen and manipulate them like a wizard. This program brings magic to your fingertips.
Aliens are invading the moon and threaten the earth. Your assignment – destroy as many alien ships as possible. Strap yourself in front of your screen and start shooting!
TRS-80/Side:
Programs dumped to a printer using the LLIST command are often difficult to read and nearly impossible to understand. This invaluable utility will format your listings so that they make logical sense. Debugging will become a joy.
With this program, you’ll be able to draw complex images on your screen with the ease of paper and pencil, then print them out on your printer.
Atari/Side:
You’re trapped in a seemingly endless maze, faced by alien creatures. Every time you shoot one of them, he rematerializes. It’s enough to make you Paranoid.
You can bring exciting and colorful geometric patterns to your screen and printer with this little gem.
This tutorial on multiple-display graphics will teach you how to have sixteen colors on your screen in any graphics mode.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 1
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
In the not-so-distant future, libraries and bookstores may undergo drastic changes, as computer books with no pages place the world’s literat ure at your finger tips. Imagine carrying a computer the size of a paperback book containing the capabilities of the Library of Congress. It’s not that far away!
This author may have been at his computer for too many hours. Heed his warning, or you may awake, under attack by your computer.
A look back at the fascinating world of mechanical musical instruments, and their startling similarities to programming computer music.
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, SWAT and Media Versions
PC/Side:
With this first of a two-part music synthesizer, you’ll have the PC singing in no time.
BASIC programs with unnecessary spaces and one statement per line can be slowed down considerably. With this handy utility, you’ll be able to fit your program in the minimum amount of RAM and light a fire under its RUN.
TRS-80/Side:
Stranded on an uncharted asteroid, you’re faced with a difficult mining expedition. Get your robominer to the fuel ore or your visions of this desolate terrain may be your last. Programs
Sharpen your ears and memory, for this program has vowed to defeat you. You’ll soon know the frustration of its annoying buzzer.
You may scramble your brain along with your puzzles as you try to put the pieces back together. The computer will do its best to stump you.
Atari/Side:
This is the first general release of the synthesizer that’s been delighting users’ groups for some time. Sit back and let your Atari entertain you.
If you’ve been frustrated by the tedium of entering music in your Atari, this assemblage of programs is the tool you’ve been looking for. Frankly, its one of the most powerful music systems we’ve ever seen in software.
The author finishes his series on building a custom Display List. You’ll not only explore the frontier, but tame it before you return.
Apple/Side:
Bach’s Little Fugue is accompanied by a valuable tutorial on multiplexing two voices to the Apple’s speaker.
This friendly Hello program allows easy access to any file on your disks. Save your typing fingers for your programming.
The enemy’s main computer is hidden somewhere in a dangerous maze. Your mission, destroy it before the laser boxes destroy you.
Alphie is the next installment of your disk utility. You’ll be able to alphabetize your disk directory and learn a lot about how it’s put together in the process.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 2
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
You poor little frog! You’ve lost your way and can’t find your way home. When you finally see it, a busy highway and river stand in your way.
Features:
Have you ever fantasized about driving a race car or exploring the moon’s surface? With a tete/actor device your fantasies may soon come closer to reality ,
The pros and cons of computer and video games are a hot topic in all of the media lately, Mr. Favaro offers an alternative to electronic game design which may quell the critics and make the games a positive social force.
If you’ve ever tried to get your computer to stop doing what you told it, you’ll appreciate the Phantom’s plea for NEVER MIND.
In this first of an ongoing series for home applications of VisiCalc, the author covers the spreadsheet calculator’s solution for balancing the checkbook.
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, S W A T and Media Versions
PC/Side:
The second part of this music processor for the PC adds improved editing functions such as note insertion and block controls.
The PC version of SojtSide’s official debugging utility, Strategic Weapon Against Typos, is finally ready. With this invaluable aid, you’ll be able to find the errors in programs you’ve typed in with much greater ease. We’ve also included the S WA T tables for the PC programs published in issue 34.
TRS-80/Side:
These Machine Language versions of the arcade classics will keep you in front of your computer for many hours. Be careful, or your plea for just one more game may make you miss Christmas dinner.
Ready your running legs. A skyscraper has caught fire and you must position your net under the falling victims if they are to survive. Don’t get them mixed up with the flaming debris.
Atari/Side:
Can you land the world’s fastest glider – the Space Shuttle Orbiter? You must in this complex simulation. The author included his calculations from a Master’s thesis in Avionics Instrumentation. Good luck – you ‘ ll need it!
Look out! The alien saucers are descending, dropping bombs as they come. Do your best, but be forewarned – the better you get, the more wily and quick become their strategies.
Clowns and Balloons, Shooting Arcade, Preppie, Raster Blaster
The Display List Interrupt (DLI) option of the Atari’s ANTIC chip can be very complicated to understand. We’ve tried to simplify it for you, using a take-apart of some of the features of Hopper as an example.
Apple/Side:
You’ll need nerves of steel for this one. You must build walls at high speed, being careful to avoid any built by your opponent. If you’re a person who thinks at right angles, this is the game for you .
Choplifter, Track Attack, Star Blazer
The seas beneath your ship are teeming with enemy submarines. Armed with a cargo of depth charges, you must scour the seas, eliminating the enemy wherever you find him.
If your thumb is close to having a hole in it from pushing the button on your paddle controller, we have a solution for you . Replace the small button with a larger one, big enough to push with your big toe if you want.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 3
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Cover Feature:
This exploration of the most popular languages available for microcomputers today, with comparisons to BASIC, reaches an interesting conclusion .
Features:
It was touted as a blend of technology fair and rock music extravaganza. Did it live up to its advance billing?
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, SWAT and Media Versions
*PC/SIDE
Now for the IBM PC – Developing Data Base gives PC users a convenient tool for keeping myriads of lists and data under control.
Your mission – paralyze the alien power which threatens the earth by destroying their base on Mars and stealing their plans for a powerful defense shield.
Atari/Side:
This enhancement allows you to play music in the background while the BASIC program RUNS. Also – an exciting musical example.
Avoid the hungry creatures determined to gobble you Up, as you try to devour a yellow dot. Will you be able to turn the tables on your pursuers?
Enter the exciting world of FORTH through this interactive tutorial. Then, start programming with the language – included on the disk!
Apple/Side:
The ancient civilization of Atlantis is under seige. As the gunner manning the neutralizers against the enemy’s weapons, the population’s survival depends on your steady hand.
Use your powerful laser to destroy the attacking aliens before they break through the deflector screens protecting your planet.
You man the last surviving fortress in the Mars defense line. The aliens are attacking! Can you hold your own against the marauding enemy?
TRS-80/Side:
Space intruders threaten your planet. You must fight back with your steerable missiles,
Are you the pursuer or the pursued? You’re never sure when the computer is going to turn the tables on you in this adaptation of a popular children ‘s game,
APL has been called the elegant computer language. You’lJ find out why with this implementation o f the language for both Models I and III. We’ ve even included a valuable series of lessons,
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 4
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
We present the checking account program of an impressive personal finance package in part one of two. It’s time to get control of where your money’s going.
Features:
In Television – A Changing World, the author discusses the dynamic nature of television’s impact on our society.
This issue’s topic is a look at the intricacies of copyright law and their relevance to computer software.
You can manage your household like a business with the general ledger created in this edition of Calc/Side.
Departments:
Concerning SoltSide Line Listings, S W A T and Media Versions
PC/Side:
Poster Maker is a new banner-making program which allows you to make posters with oversized words running the same way ordinary printing would.
TRS-80/Side:
You sit in front of a control console in Battle Headquarters. The enemy’s tanks are bent on destroying your tanks, and you must hit Enemy Headquarters to de-activate them.
This modification will allow ILIST to work with Modell’s with all upper case.
This article shows you how to save time with the tedious chore of cassette input/output.
Planning a garage sale? This program provides a system for recording your sales transactions efficiently.
Atari/Side:
With this disk editing utility, you can examine and alter sector data on any Atari disk.
All the thrills and challenges of drag racing, without the hazards to life and limb, await you in this game.
Apple/Side:
Give Applesoft new scope and power with this easy-to-use enhancement package. Here are most of the features you could only dream about before.
(A User’s Report on Apple’s Personal Finance Manager)
One to five players challenge the dealer in this card game based on the rules of the Atlantic City casinos.
How many times have you deleted a file from one of your disks, only to immediately discover that you want it back? With Recover, we offer you a method for retrieving those precious files.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 5
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Front Runner:
In the second installment we present a budget program to help you manage your money more efficiently.
Features:
Everything you need to know about the Electronic Bulletin Board.
A report on the nation’s first electronic novel.
Get into the world of computer data communications.
Did you ever visit a haunted house? New technology, illustrated by the Epcot Center, may make the traditional attractions pale by comparison
Someday, in the near future, our offices may be our living rooms.
If you love games, and own a modem, you can enjoy this exciting new field.
With this article, you’ll learn how to use your computer to personalize, beautify and streamline your correspondence.
Departments:
Concerning SoftSide Line Listings, SWAT and Media Versions
PC/Side:
You’ll enjoy matching wits with your computer in this game.
Apple/Side:
If you enjoyed the television game show, you’ll love playing this memory challenging game on your Apple
This fantasy-adventure game takes you into the 23rd century on a quest for the elusive Mega Crown.
TRS-80/Side:
A Guide to the Operation of TRS-80 Microcomputers as Communication Devices
You’ll enjoy this challenging computer adaptation of a little puzzle of long ago.
With ST80-DUC you can operate a computer in another room, or in another part of the country.
Atari/Side:
This third and final Pokey Player installment offers enhancements to the Editor program and ties up all the loose ends.
You are the sole defender of Earth against the ruthless Vahrenian spaceiiners. To reach and destroy the enemy, you must dodge deadly space mines and space creatures along the way. Good luck!
This set of three utility programs takes the drudgery out of dealing with program errors .
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 6
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Explore the history and the wonder of EPCOT, the world’s premier theme park. The legacy of Walt Disney’s genius has brought entertainment technology to the brink of magic.
What keeps us sitting at our computers for hours on end? Why can’t we fight that irresistible urge to press SYSTEM RESET one more time? Mr. Favaro discusses his theories here.
Terminal software is hard to shop for. This time, we cover some of the more popular versions and offer a checklist for choosing the features you need.
In this installment, we present a budgeting feature for VisiCalc which can save you from unpleasant surprises.
Departments:
PC/Side:
Apple/Side:
With CONV, the program for this installment, you simplify and speed up decimal/hexadecimal conversion.
TRS-80/Side:
In this installment, you will explore the wonders and mysteries of the GTIA chip.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 7
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Robots scurrying through your home, computerized TV gameshows and a boom in educational computer games are the author’s predictions for the not-so-distant future.
In this installment, we take a look at the “little guys” of computer data communications – bulletin board systems.
Bridge the communication gap between television broadcasting and computer graphics.
Publicizing their efforts and their upcoming activities has always been a headache for the non-profit, underbudgeted organization. An innovative new service utilizing computer graphics is 1 changing all that for non-profit groups in NYC.
If the many dialects of BASIC confound you, you’ll appreciate this little book.
So you want your amputer to talk to you? The author reviews three of the most popular speech synthesizers on the market today,and suggests some practical applications for them, as well.
Writing your own software? This article is chock full of helpful hints for writing effective documentation.
The author reports on his trip to the American Toy Fair – a veritable blizzard of innovative games and entertainment systems for the younger generation.
Small and friendly, this conference highlights microcomputer graphics and music.
Departments:
Apple/Side:
PC/Side:
Atari/Side:
This article details the process of turning your Atari into an inexpensive oscilloscope.
This informative article explores the versatility of the Atari’s GRAPHICS 8 mode.
More on the mysteries of the GTIA chip. In this installment, the author demonstrates the uses of the GTIA with Machine Language.
TRS-80/Side:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 8
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Discover the many entertaining pastimes available on the large user networks.
Learn how to merge VisiCalc models to compare sets of data.
Library catalogues and book checkout systems, and books for the blind are among the myriad potential uses of the bar code.
Society questions the influences of arcade games on today’s youth, but what about adventure games? Some important benefits include improving the children’s problem solving, imagination and reading skills.
If you’ve puzzled over the many joysticks on the market today, wondering which one’s right for you, take heart! This review will help to make a difficult choice easy.
We welcome a new columnist, who (in the few odd moments he spends away from his yacht) shares his insights on using a computer to help build your personal fortune.
Take a group of computer people, challenge them with hard questions about the role of computers in society, and you have the makings for spirited debate.
Departments:
PC/Side:
Explore the mysteries and rewards of learning to write Machine Language for the IBM PC.
Apple/Side:
Come along as we explore ASOFTCOMPARE, a debugging utility which finds differences between two versions of the same program.
TRS-80/Side:
This tutorial shows you how to use INKEY$ to edit keyboard input effectively.
Atari/Side:
Meet Atari’s Player/Missile Graphics – the lazy person’s way to create complex, animated game graphics.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 9
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
The kitchen of the future might include a robot chef and open on to a computer-controlled greenhouse. Imagine gourmet meals prepared by a different “guest chef” every night. Have your computer take a weekly inventory and automatically transmit your order to the supermarket, for delivery at your convenience.
Electronic mail enables you to send messages instantly, anywhere in the world – no waiting for the Postal Service to hand deliver a letter. Networks also give you group conversations, bulletin boards, and even group games.
Is your prose too flowery? Do long-winded sentences exhaust your readers? This utility helps you to check verbosity, before fog enshrouds your ideas.
The latest update of the Apple II has an improved keyboard, upper and lower case, an optional 80-column card and up to 128K memory – everything you always wanted. Inside it has fewer chips, and generates less heat than previous models.
Convertible securities are a little-known but highly profitable investment medium today, and you’ll find out all about them in this installment.
Life with an unpredictable and opinionated robot is an exercise in patience and perseverance.
Departments:
PC/Side:
Apple/Side:
If you never seem to have enough disk space when you need it try this utility. It frees space on your disk for programming.
TRS-80/Side:
Atari/Side:
Remember the short demo program at the end of our last installment? This time we’ll take it apart and see how it works.
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 10
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Visicalc’s powerful recalculation feature opens the door to the fun of “whatiffing.” You can see instantly the effects of substituting alternative sets of values for your variables.
Computerized offices open the door to new working environments and lifestyles. Telecommuting is the next step in the evolution of the workplace.
For the advanced network user, CompuServe offers a variety of programming languages, powerful word processors, and even group games.
Computers can do more than drills and rote memorization exercises they can teach how to use ideas and make judgements.
The controversy over the direction education has taken over the last twenty years is hotter than ever.
Many colleges are beginning to integrate personal computers into the curriculum. The applications in arts and humanities, as well as in science and engineering are surprising – and exciting.
Creativity is distinctively human but computers lend themselves to automating the execution of creative ideas.
Does computer literacy result from a course in BASIC or from a course in VisiCalc? Find out in this in depth discussion of computer literacy.
See what Peter Favaro has to say about some important educational software, publications and materials for the new wave of microcomputers appearing in schools across the country.
The CES used to be an audio show. In 1983, everything took a back seat to computers at this enormous electronic extravaganza.
Let the pigeons fall for the get-rich-quick pitches of the “rental scam” seminars. Your computer can help you examine the real potential of rental property.
Parents and teachers are taking an ever closer look at where computers fit into the lives of children.
Departments:
Atari/Side:
Continuing the discussion of Player / Missile Graphics, Alan Zett shows how to make your displays come alive through animation.
Apple/Side:
This installment moves away from a semitechnical, utility orientation to tutor Apple users in how to use DOS and incorporate disk functions within your programs.
TRS-80/Side:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 11
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Technological crime is burgeoning in the microcomputer age. The source of the illness lies in the expanded capabilities the new technology offers, but so does the cure.
The telephone is a familiar device most of us use every day. Major changes are ahead which may affect our lives in significant ways as the simple phone evolves into a sophisticated communications tool for much more than voice transmission alone.
A Doomsday Computer playing war games with a young computer freak takes the world to the brink of total destruction. In the process, they raise troubling questions about humanity permitting large arsenals of nuclear weapons to exist, and how wisely our military and political leaders control them.
Adventure games can be much more exciting when you harness the power of fantasy to involve the player in the situation. Give him a scenario which stimulates him to act out his own role, and supply him with characters who have dramatic personalities.
You can succeed in the commodities markets. This program tracks price trends and accurately predicts major movements so you can optimize your profits – and avoid taking big losses.
Have fun with your spreadsheet. This adaptation of the old pencil and paper game of Battleship uses VisiCalc’s logic functions and grid system to hide stars in an imaginary universe.
Have you ever asked yourself, “What kind of a mind would design such a twisted game?” Find out in this rollicking, free-form interview with two of the industry’s most creative game designers, Marc Blank and Mike Beriyn.
It’s not easy being a robot. The oppression of our Silicon Citizens has reached intolerable levels, and Murphy bares his chips in this moving account of the widespread discrimination against robots.
Reviews:
One of the most sophisticated and enjoyable adventure games, Zork I enables you to talk to the computer in complete, natural sentences. It also “understands” the implications of your actions and relates the command you just typed to previous actions.
Cryogenically frozen, you must find a way to escape, using a corps of robots, each with specialized abilities. Meanwhile, the authorities have a couple of clones of yourself “frozen in butter sauce” so you’ll have to be careful.
Departments:
PC/Side:
Apple/Side:
Atari/Side:
Manipulating Players and Missiles
TRS-80/Side:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 6, Number 12
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Packaging and transmitting information is one of the most pressing challenges of the future, and rapidly developing telephone technology will play a leading part in solving the intrinsic problems.
Without a human operator (SYSOP) you have no BBS, and here are a few guidelines if you are thinking of starting your own BBS – equipment and software specifications, as well as responsibilities – the nuts and bolts of The World Connection.
Tyvek evening wear is only one of the hot, high-fashion ideas you’ll find in this informal interview with Paris designer, Elisabeth de Senneville. Haute couture and the computer meet and make friends.
More affordable systems, more colors, higher resolution, parallel processors, and improved software are the trends in computer graphics. Find out more in this engaging interview with Softside’s Special Projects Editor in graphics.
PUT and CALL your way to untold riches. If the options market intrigues you, learn some important tricks of the trade in this installment, before you break out your bankroll.
Spreadsheets are spreadsheets, as roses are roses – almost. This time “VisiClone” users will welcome the news that their software shares many important features with the Cadillac of spreadsheets, including the pivotal LOOKUP function.
An artist views SIGGRAPH ’83, and paints vivid word portraits of recent computer art, proving that computers can enhance the development and execution of ideas.
Peeking through the computer’s magic window at the mental processes of the old masters, we can see how they brought their paintings to life from successive layers of sketches.
Stroll through SoltSide’s First Computer Art Show and survey the broad range of styles and techniques artists are using in this new medium.
Reviews:
Free yourself from the power line, and give yourself a truly portable computing tool, with this powerful but compact “Notebook” computer. It includes everything the traveling executive or working poet needs on the road.
How about a letter quality printer at a dot matrix price? A unique “AutoLoad” feature makes handling single sheets easy, and an optional attachment adds a tractor assembly if you need it.
This state-of-the-art position-sensing device answers the need for a “humanistic” means of input for artists who prefer methods that emulate traditional artistic strokes.
Departments:
PC/Side:
Commodore/Side:
Learn how to incorporate disk files into your programs.
Atari/Side:
TRS-80/Side:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 7, Number 01
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
The size of the futurephone will playa large part in altering the way you use this homely tool. You may have to choose between the inconvenience of a la rge device in every room, or the convenience of a handset without full function.
Though the WarGames film has a few plot holes, computer break-ins and related capers are too common to ignore. Learn what’s happening to curb abuse of computer technology.
Do video games increase the level of hostility in players? Do they promote useful skills? Are video games more harmful than TV? Previously, the answers to these questions have been based on speculation, but pioneering scientific research has provided some surprising answers.
Interactive videodiscs provide a new entertainment and educational medium with capabilities never before possible. Solve a murder mystery by interviewing suspects, or searching rooms. Learn to cook like a French chef. Entertain the kids for hours on end with interactive games.
Plagued by headaches, bleary eyes or an aching back after a session at the computer? Most of it could be the result of poor posture and uncomfortable furniture . Human-engineered furniture can help.
Creating a machine with artificial intelligence is an area of intense competition, and at leads to heated discussions on what constitlltes intelligence. At this conference, scientists seemed intent on doing battle, rather than comparing notes.
In another response to the same conference, Arthur Fink expresses his disappointment that the social and philosophical issues, which were the announced topics, were ignored.
If you’re worried abo ut how compulers are taking over, if you’ve always wanted to be the controller instead of the controll-ee, here are a few tongue-in-cheek tips on how your computer can help you create the climate.
Learn how to set up your own IRA and maximize the investment return on it.
Experience the flavor of the 30’s, as you solve the mystery in the second release of the Infocom Mystery Series.
Create a VisiCalc utilities disk filled with templates, modules of models, formats and formulae, to save precious calc-time.
Literary agents and software authors a rediscovering each other. Learn how this will affect the marketing and distribution of software – and the price.
Departments:
Commodore/Side:
TRS-80/Side:
Apple/Side:
PC/Side:
Atari/Side:
SoftSide Magazine – Volume 7, Number 02
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Issue Information:
Table of Contents
Features:
Small can be beautiful if your wallet is thin. Telecommunications is affordable and this installment will show you how.
Optimistic writers sometimes overlook the awkward transition from a less technological to a more technological lifestyle. Here is a discussion of some of the obstacles to mass use of the futurephone.
Regulating expenditures to prevent becoming over-extended can be difficult. Now is a good time to create your forecast for 1984 and here is a model to receive the monthly tracking on the actual receipts.
Day trading the commodity market is tricky. This installment is a story and a dare to any brave computer/arithmetic mastermind who can extrapolate the magic formula from trading data. A 3,000ドル prize awaits the winning entry in this exciting contest.
A composer who learns to play the computer is to a composer who writes for performers, something like a film maker is to a playwright. Paul Lansky offers food for thought about music and modern musical tools for musicians and music lovers alike.
The music on a digital disc rises out of complete silence – no hiss, ticks, pops or other clues to tip you off that the record has started. This is only the beginning of the list of advantages the compact disc offers over analog recordings.
Learn how dramatic music (opera) meets technology in this in-depth interview with one of computer-music’s luminaries and authorities on the subject.
The Soundchaser opened musical doors the author never imagined possible, and proved to be a catalyst to disk-overy, as you’ll learn in this enthusiastic review.
NEWCOMP gathers the high-tech and arts worlds together to explore the application of intelligent machinery to music and related arts. Otto Laske and Curt Roads, the founders, have a great idea.
Departments:
Apple/Side:
Learn how to locate a particular record in a random access file using a binary search
Atari/Side:
PC/Side:
Commodore/Side:
SoftSide Selections – Volume ??
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Front Runner:
In this board game, you find your computer a formidable opponent as you match wits trying to outflank and capture one another’s pieces.
DV Bonus Program:
Can you conquer all of the Earth’s territories, and dominate the globe? Only the craftiest general can overcome his adversaries in this war of cunning, strategy, chance, and Force of Arms.
The WW II Battle of Savo Island was a humillatlng Allled defeat. In this computer simulatlon, however, you have a chance to change the history books
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Strolling In your neighborhood one day, you stumble upon a Time Machine. It propels you into the far future, where Henry Bowman’s B Bomb has annihilated all you knew. Is Earth doomed to hellfire?
SoftSide Selections – Volume #40
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Front Runner:
Play an exciting nine holes on the golf course with your computer and your friends without ever leaving your living room
DV Bonus Program:
Evil Proximans, preparing to attack the Sol System, have captured a plutonium mine on Jupiters moon, Io. Your mission: destroy the Proximan’s communications module at the mine’s lowest level, and save the Earth and her sister planets
You must kill the menacing aliens to survive in this bizarre world
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Shipwrecked on a hostile tropical island, you must get a message to someone before the Island’s volcano explodes, without offending the natives!
SoftSide Selections – Volume #41
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Front Runner:
In this adaptation of the old poker solitaire game, the challenge is to find the optimum placement for both your good and bad cards.
DV Bonus Program:
This adaptation of the world famous board game pits you against the wily intelligence of your computer.
Sharpen your memory skills tor this game,
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Your undersea explorations lead you to the long-hidden city of Atantis ruled by the evil King Retep. You’ll need all your wits about you to survive your encounter with this malevolent despot.
General:
SoftSide Selections – Volume # 42
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Front Runner:
Here is an easy-to-use BASIC word processor with edit, printout and search commands, for the whole family.
DV Bonus Program:
Watch cells get born, multlply, form colonies and die in this realistic simulation game.
Royal ways and whims determine the moves in this political war game of epic proportions.
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Brave the perlls of ancient Baghdad to save the fair Princess in distress.
General:
SoftSide Selections – Volume # 43
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Front Runner:
This program offers an easy, highly accessible system for relieving the tension that builds up after a long day at the computer, or over a hot stove cooking dinner for the family. After you learn how to use Relaaax …, you can exorcise tension whenever necessary
DV Bonus Program:
Little ones should have their turn at the keys, and here Is a collection of activities just right for your young children who are fascinated by the computer and who are 18 ready to hone their readiness skills
The stars in the heavens wlll never be the same old sight after you use this program to aid your gazing
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Anyone who ever went to high school knows what an adventure that was and is. Play the grade games and peer-group games, and wend your way through this simulation of one of life’s great adventures.
General:
SoftSide Selections – Volume # 44
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Front Runner:
The roar of the crowd and the hum of the silicon chip are irresistible attractions to the exciting world of the theatre
DV Bonus Program:
In this arcade game without aliens, lasers and bombs, you play a bee locked in mortal combat with a spider – one of Nature’s timeless battles. Sometimes the bee wins, and sometimes the spider has bee steak for dinner
Using only one K-byte of memory, this realistic light plane simulation lets you practice take-offs and landings, turns, rolls – even aerobatics.
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
You find yourself committed to an insane asylum – by mistake. Guards patrol every entrance, lunatics stagger down the halls, and raving maniacs scream in the night
General:
SoftSide Selections – Volume #45
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Front Runner:
Here Is SoftSide’s latest assault on typos, to make life easier for users who type in their programs from printed listings. This new, official debugging utility replaces SWAT, and offers still more assistance if you type in BASIC code
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save Atlantis II, a seabase resting on the ocean floor, while your technical crew develops new technology to compensate for the dying geothermal energy source
DV Bonus Program:
Drive your printer to generate stylish output with this program. Add text Interactively while printing, and check pertinent document statistics, all with one or two keystrokes
Create an almost infinite number of mazes, and wend your way through them – from a mouse-eye point of view
Adventure Disk and Cassette Bonus:
Suppose the evil Ripper never really died. This adventure casts you In the role of a modern Scotland Yard Inspector on the trail of Jack the Ripper number two
General:
PROG-80 – Issue 01
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In this Issue …
PROG-80 – Issue 02
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In This Issue:
PROG-80 – Issue 03
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In This Issue:
PROG-80 – Issue 04
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Feature Articles:
What’s New:
PROG-80 – Issue 05
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Software:
Hardware:
PROG-80 – Issue 06
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Feature Articles:
PROG-80 – Issue 07
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BASIC:
Disk:
Time Sharing:
Bits:
Garon’s Goodies
PROG-80 – Issue 08
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BASIC:
Disk:
Garon’s Goodies
Byteing Off More …
PROG-80 – Issue 09
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