Antic (March 1987)

ANALOG and Antic were the two most popular magazines that covered Atari 8-bit computers. While ANALOG stuck to being mostly 8-bit exclusive throughout its life, Antic moved to covering both the Atari ST and the 8-bit line when the ST was introduced.

The March 1987 issue includes:

Features

• Word Searcher - This type-in program solves word search puzzles for you. All you have to do is type in the letter grid and the words you are looking for.

• Rainbow Screen Customizer - A routine to make variable colored backgrounds in your own programs.

• Today's Victorious Atari Corp. - Praising the release of the Atari ST and XE line of computers, this article paints a rosy picture of Atari's future. This did not age well.

• Dvorak Keyboard - This type-in program changes the layout of your keyboard from the standard QWERTY layout to the supposedly faster to type on Dvorak keyboard. It may indeed be faster but I can't imagine learning a new keyboard layout after learning to type on a QWERTY keyboard. I can type fast enough. To give you an idea how much better it is though, supposedly the fingers of someone who types for a living will move 16 miles a day on a QWERTY keyboard as opposed to only a mile with the Dvorak layout.

• Page 6 Grab-Bag: Part I - A set of machine language routines that you can use from your BASIC programs to handle joysticks and the keyboard.

• Wage/Hour Paymaster - A type-in program to help you keep track of your hourly wage totals by week or by year.

• Multi-Autorun - A type-in program that allows you to load multiple programs at start-up.

Deparments

• Editorial - All about ANTIC On-Line, an online version of ANTIC available via CompuServe.

• I/O Board - Letters from readers this month include topics such as using Atari computers at an MDA telethon, sharing a hard drive between an Atari ST and Atari 8-bit, a correction to Budget dB, obtaining the Atari Developers Kit, the Microline 1025 printer, hints for Ultima IV, Atari 1020 Plotter pens, and more.

• New Products - New products mentioned this month include Video Vegas, a casino sim; Math Blaster!, Word Attack!, and Spell It! educational software; Guderian, a World War II sim; Stocks and Bonds, an investment game; Warship, a World War II ship combat sim, and more.

• Game of the Month: Vectron - The play mechanics of this type-in game remind be a bit of Combat for the Atari 2600...at least the game modes in which your shots bounce off of the walls.

• Starting Out; New Owners Column - This month, learn how to use the various graphics modes of your Atari 8-bit.

• Product Reviews - Products reviewed this month include the Seikosha SP-1000A printer; Kyan Pascal programming language; Leader Board, the classic golf game; and Vestor, an online investment database subscription service.

• Users Group of the Month: TACE - TACE is the Temple Area Computer Enthusiasts users group located in central Texas. It has ~400 members approximately most of which are Atari users. They have a BBS that runs on a one-megabyte Atari 520ST with a 20MB hard drive and MichTron BBS Software.

• Tech Tips - This month, pin-out diagrams for all of the Atari 8-bit ports and connectors are provided.

ST Resource

• Using INP and OUT - Learning how to use the INP and OUT commands by creating a terminal program in ST BASIC .

• ST Puzzler - A type-in program that generates random jigsaw puzzles.

• ST Reviews - Items reviewed include ST Pool and 8-Ball, two pool games; Timekeeper, a real-time battery backed-up clock; Mean 18, a golf game from Accolade; and MIDI Magic, software that sends MIDI music from disk out the MIDI port of the Atari ST.

• BASIC Alert - How to create alert boxes in ST BASIC.

• Starglider - A detailed review of this space combat simulator.

• Hippo Sound Digitizer - A detailed review of this sound digitizer for the Atari ST.

• ST New Products - New products listed for the Atari ST this month include: Animator ST, animation software for the ST; Thunder!, an alternative spell-checker for the hearing impaired; NEC CP6 and CP7, 80 and 136 column printers; Dr. T's Music Software, including the Keyboard Controlled Sequencer, MIDI Recording Studio and The Copyist; Fleet Street Editor, a desktop publishing package; Typesetter Elite; Laserimage 2000, a $3,495 laser printer; LDW BASIC Compiler Version 1.1; and more.

...and more!