Geos
A very interesting product from a new company is GEOS from Berkeley Softworks. GEOS is a window-and-icon operating environment for the Commodore 64 which comcs with mouse-driven geoPaint and geoWrite drawing and wordprocessing programs. The GEOS shown at CES and shipping for the last few weeks is a black-and-white Macintosh-type product, but they arc now polishing a full color version. For 59.95 all-inclusive, you can bet we'll be taking a close look as soon as we can get our hands on this one.
Amdek Color 500
This Amdek monitor provides composite and digital RGB inputs for use with the C64 or C128. After a couple of weeks the RGB circuit went out on our test unit, one of two failures wc experienced during testing sec Magnavox . The Amdck's rear inputs arc standard RCA composite and IBM 9-pin D RGB digital connectors. There are two sets of composite inputs and audio jacks, so you could use this monitor with both a C64 and C128 without having to switch cables all the time, though it docs not offer...
Blast From The Past
thrilled by Pong. Eliza is far outshincd by today's Artificial Intelligence programs like Ractcr , and Life well, Life may be the sole exception. There has never really ever been anything else quite like Life. Though it runs faster than the old BASIC programs, this version is not as fast as some pure machine language versions I've seen. The graphics arc less than inspiring, too. The lo-res mode uses asterisks on the character screen, and the hi-res mode just uses half-block character graphics....
Sample Abacus Ada Listing
00010 with TEXT-IO use TEXT-IO 00020 with CBM-64 use CBM-64 00030 - 00040 procedure DECISION is 00050 -00060 -00070 - define the test variable. 00080 -00090 TEST float 00100 -00110 -00120 begin 00130 - 00140 screen-clr 00150 -00160 new-line 5 00170 - 00180 put-line OutputPrinterQ Screen 2 00190 - 00200 get TEST 00210 -00220 00230 00240 00250 00260 00270 00280 00290 00300 -00310 else 00320 -00330 00340 00350 00360 00370 00380 00390 -00400 end DECISION put-line Block structures are great Output...
Apple Clone
If you need Apple compatibility but don't have the bucks for a c or e, then the new Laser 128 Apple clone might be just what you're waiting for. It's a smart-looking legal Apple-compatible for only 395. It looks mostly like a c with a numeric keypad. It has a built-in 5.25 drive, and all the serial, parallel, mouse, drive, sound, modem, etc., ports the c has and then some. It also has a single e-compatible expansion slot, which is something the c doesn't have. The level of compatiblity is said...
Amiga A1080
Commodore Amiga's own A1080 RGB analog monitor is probably not the best monitor for the Amiga, but it's not bad. It docs not have the sharpness of some of the other monitors here, and the 80-column text display is somewhat fuzzy. The A1080 has two video connectors, a standard IBM 9-pin D connector for RGB digital analog input, controlled by a switch on the back of the monitor, and optionally scparated compositc RCA jack inputs selected by a switch on the front control panel. There is a single...
Micro Forge Hard Drives
Micro Forge is supplying 10, 20, and 40 megabyte hard disk drives for the Amiga. Since the 10 meg drive only costs 79.00 less than the 20 megger, they freely admit they haven't sold many 10 meg drives. Though we haven't had a chance to put ours through its paces yet, these arc steel-cascd heavy-duty units, and ours is hooked up and seems to be working fine. The power supply is a monster capable of supplying two drives and a seven-slot expansion box. At 1494.95, the 20 meg unit is some 500 or so...
Amiga Superbase
Commodore's Amiga sales are building rapidly after a slow start. Commodore announced sales of just 35,000 Amigas in 1985, but 10,000 in Jan 86 and 20,000 in February. Among the customers for the Amiga so far are Universal Studios, apparently intent on using the Amiga in music video production work. Ohio State University, where they have outfitted their prestigious Computer Graphics Lab with 17 Amigas. The added capacity provided by the new machines has allowed them to open the facilities to...
Degas For Amiga
Batteries Included has announced that they will be porting their excellent graphics program Degas to the Amiga. It is slated for release sometime this summer. It will apparently be considerably enhanced from the Atari ST version. Commodore will be bringing their European PC clones first mentioned in INFO in our CES Report in issue 7 to the American market later this year. We believe this move will help build Commodore's image here their PC-10 is one of the hottest-selling PCs on the Continent....
Commodore 1702
Commodore's 1702 is still a pretty good bargain. Its separated composite input produces a good, clear picture, and even the front-panel single composite input docs not do badly. The switch to select which input is displayed is on the back of the 1702, unfortunately. All the other controls on this unit are up front. They include tint, color, brightness, contrast, horizontal position, vertical position, and volume controls. This monitor is a bargain for the C64 owner, and with the proper cable...
800 7625645
IN CANADA APP1N MICRO, 1288 Pharmacy Ate. Scarborough, Ontario, MIR 2J1 41 448-OB48 Vizastar, the integrated spreadsheet, database and graphics program thai has the Commodore 64 world raving, is now available for the C128. It boasts 80 columns, and has over 40K of free memory in the spreadsheet. Those who already own Vizastar 64 will be pleased to know that your existing files can be read by Vizastar 128. Also, you can upgrade to She 128 version. Call us for details and pricing. The only other...
S8
2m hile driving deep into the Black Forest of Germany, our slow and unreliable Volkswagen just started sputtering and then to our dismay, quit running. After hours of unrelentlous tinkering, we were ecstatic to see a strange little creature, known as Hacker Gnome, emerge from behind a tree. Using his infinite wisdom and wizardry he fixed our poor bug and got us speedily on our way. Well, we were so impressed with Hacker Gnome's wizardry, that we convinced him to reveal his secrets for speed...
Panasonic Dtm140
This Panasonic display is versatile, sharp, and bright. Bccausc it supports composite, RGB digital, and RGB analog inputs, it can be used with all three Commodore computers. The Panasonic has an incredible array of connectors and input options. With full banks of BNC, RCA, and multi-pin connectors, it's hard to imagine a piece of equipment you could not hook up to this monitor somehow. For our purposes, it has RCA composite and audio inputs, RCA RGB analog inputs for the Amiga, and a unique...
Print Master
We had two wishes in regards to Print Shop one, that you could preview your work on the screen, and two, that the print speed could be faster. Well, Print Master addresses both those points, plus giving you the capability of making custom calenders. However, it does not have Screen Magic, and its graphics are not compatible with Print Shop's. Other than that, Print Master works in the same way as Print Shop, and is generally much friendlier due to its preview option and faster print speed....
Info Ups And Downs
INFO has experienced several ups and downs since the last issue was printed. A brief explanation follows UPS Many of the ups should be apparent from a quick look thru issue 10. We have changed improved our look again both on and in between the covers. The new cover reflects our affection for Amiga graphics can you really blame us , while our laser-printed interior reflects our desire to provide readers with clearer, easier to look at pages while remaining true to our philosophy of producing...