Zzap! 64 (November 1992)

Zzap! 64 was something we didn't have here in the U.S. and that is a gaming magazine dedicated to the Commodore 64. This issue is from 1992 and there was no longer much going on in terms of gaming (or anything else) for the Commodore 64 at that time. Which explains why this issue was the last (though it would be replaced by Commodore Force (also published in the U.K.) which would continue on for a little while. The November 1992 issue of Zzap! 64 includes:

Read more: Zzap! 64 (November 1992)

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (157-160)

All of the photos in this set were likely taken in Central Florida in 1959.

The first photo features a sign in Cocoa Beach advertising various motels in the area.

See more from this set here: Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (157-160)

MediEvil (PlayStation)

MediEvil is an action/adventure game released for the PlayStation in 1998. You play the role of Sir Daniel Fortesque, a knight who is resurrected from the dead to battle evil forces in the land of Gallowmere. During his life, Sir Dan was a coward but is resurrected for a second chance to prove his courage after the sorcerer Zarok returns from the grave to infect the land with evil. You, as Sir Dan, must redeem yourself by defeating Zarok and his army of monsters.

Read more: MediEvil (PlayStation)

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (153-156)

_{Norris Dam circa late 1950s}

More photos from this set: Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (153-156)

PC World (October 2011)

Once an excellent PC magazine, PC World had declined significantly by 2011. The page count was down of course but also there was a lot of coverage of non-PC items such as HDTVs, phones etc. It was really became more of a consumer electronics magazine. The October 2011 issue includes:

PC World (October 2011)

Digital Archaeology: Fujitsu FMV-BIBLO NF/D70

Digital Archaeology: Fujitsu FMV-BIBLO NF/D70

I picked up this laptop because of its relative uniqueness. First, it's a Fujitsu which I haven't had much experience with (except for one Lifebook I own). Second, it's a bright red color which I really like. Finally, this appears to be a laptop that was released in Japan...whether exclusively or localized for I'm not sure. The keyboard has a slightly different layout and there are Japanese characters on each of the keys in addition to English letters.

The model as printed on the laptop itself in the lower left corner of the keyboard is FMV-BIBLO NF/D70. The hardware consists of the following:

Read more...

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (1325-1328)

See the previous post in this series here.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are many thousands of these slides. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Getting your pictures processed as slides used to be pretty common but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides from the late 1950s that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.

This set continues a large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.

Click the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

All of the photos in this set are unlabeled and undated but are likely from the late 1950s or early 1960s. All of these are versions of the images processed with color correction and Digital ICE. Without that they consisted of barely discernible shades of red. I'm not sure what is going on in the first photo but I know it looks too cold to be in a tent. I believe the second photo is from Alaska as the building to the left looks like part of University of Alaska at Fairbanks. The third and fourth feature bees and are definitely in a geographically different location, either in Florida or somewhere else in the Southeast.

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.

PC Magazine (May 29, 1984)

PC Magazine (May 29, 1984)

PC Magazine was one of the most popular PC magazines around from the early to mid 1980s through the early 2000s. Along with PC World, you could find it at pretty much every bookstore and newsstand as well as most other places that sold magazines. The May 29, 1984 issue includes:

Read more: https://peakd.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/pc-magazine-may-29-1984

Byte (August 1985)

Byte (August 1985)

If you were interested in in-depth technical coverage then I think Byte was the best multiformat computer magazine around. Eventually, as the market became PC only, Byte would also. The August 1985 issue includes:

Features

• The Amiga Personal Computer - An advanced look at the Amiga 1000, the first in the 68000 based Amiga line of computers from Commodore. This is a very detailed preview of the machine.


• Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Build The BASIC-52 Computer/Controller - A single board computer designed for running BASIC. It includes an Intel 8052AH-BASIC micro-controller, an 8K BASIC interpreter, and 48K of RAM/EPROM. Basically, this was designed to act as a controller solving a specifi problem.
  
• The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board, Part I: The Hardware - A look at the hardware of the DSI-32 co-processor board which includes a National Semiconductor NS32032 CPU.

_{Table of Contents from the August 1985 issue of Byte}

Themes

• Prolog Goes to Work - A look at the Prolog programming language.


• Logic Programming - Using a procedural programming language to implement logic processing in a computer.


• Declarative Languages: An Overview - A look at the history of programming language with an emphasis on "declarative" languages (like LISP). SCHEME, a LISP derivative was what my Intro to Computer Science class used back in the day.


• Program Transformation - A program development methodology presented by a professor at Imperial College in London.

Reviews

• The Tandy 1000 - A low cost PC-compatible computer. There would ultimately be many Tandy 1000 models. This first one was like a much better IBM PCjr.


• IBM Pascal 2.00 - A review of IBM's Pascal 2.00 programming language. I remember using Pascal in high-school on an IBM PC but I have no recollection what version it was. This would have been like 5 or 6 years later though.

_{The Tandy 1000}

Kernel

• Computing at Chaos Manor: The West Coast Computer Faire - A look at the 10th annual West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.


• BYTE Japan: COMDEX in Japan - New products seen at COMDEX in Japan include a Fujitsu lap-size portable based on the MBL8086L microprocessor and 128K of RAM, new laser printers, the NEC PC-9801M2/3 based the 8086-2 CPU at 8MHz and 256K of RAM and supporting CP/M-86 MS-DOS and PC-UX (though not PC compatible), and more.


• BYTE U.K.: Declarative Update - A look at the Hope programming system and a couple of new books (Principles of Functional Programming and Introduction to Logic Programming).


• According to Webster: Greetings and Agitations - Coverage of Turbo Pascal 3.0, Copy II Mac, MacTools, MacASM, MacModula-2, Megamax C and QC-20.

_{Table of contents from the August 1985 issue of Byte (continued)}

Columns

• Editorial - An overview of what's in this issue.


• Microbytes - Sinclair survives bankruptcy; Atari shows CD-ROM device at CES; new products featuring the 65816 processor; C compiler released by Manx Software for the Commodore and 128 Macintosh and Apple II; and more.


• Letters - Letters from readers about the Macintosh, expanding Mac memory, Sanyo computers, Apple dealer support, BYTEnet, the MAGIC/L programming language, and more.


• What's New - A brief look at new products including Zoomracks (framework for creating database, text and appointment applications), Xecom's MOSART 300/1200-bps modem with voice detection, Tektronix AI Systems running Smalltalk-80, the SAM 3001 AT computer, the System/36 PC, the Conquest PC Turbo, the Cardco Digi-Cam and S'more BASIC for the Commodore 64, and more.

_{Back cover of the August 1985 issue of Byte}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2024/11/12/byte-august-1985/

Compute!’s Gazette (December 1984)

Compute!’s Gazette (December 1984)

Compute!'s Gazette was the most successful spinoff of the more general Compute! magazine. It covered 8-bit Commodore computers. For most of its life that really meant the Commodore 64 and 128 but in 1984 it was mostly the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. The December 1984 issue includes:

Features

• What if...? - A feature on simulation games. Games covered here include Ringside Seat (a boxing sim), various Avalon Hill battle simulations, SSI's Rails West! (puts you in the role of a railroad baron), various chess games, and more.


• Electronic Trivia - Trivial Pursuit had been released a few years earlier and had become very popular leading greater popularity of computer based trivia games. This article covers some of them including Trivia Arcade, Trivia Fever, Computrivia, Facttactics, Fax, Master Trivia, Trivia Trek, and Trivial Compute.


• Inside View - An interview with Byron Preiss and Ronald Martinez, software designers for Trillium who create games such as Fahrenheit 451, Rendezvous with Rome, and Dragonworld.

Reviews

• Microfiler - A cartridge based database system for the Commodore 64.


• NATO Commander - A strategy game from MicroProse for the Commodore 64 that pits NATO forces against Warsaw Pact forces.


• Road to Moscow - A strategy game for the Commodore 64 that recreates the Russian/German part of World War II.

Games

• Cosmic Combat - A type-in Space Invaders style game with versions for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.


• 3-D Labrynth - A 3D maze game for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 in which you must escape the maze (with an optional time limit).

_{Table of Contents from the December 1984 issue of Compute!'s Gazette}

Education/Home Applications

• Computing For Families: An Adventure in Telecommunications - A look at SkiWriter II, a combination word processor and telecommunications program.


• Word Guess - A type-in hangman style game for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.


• Letter Attack - An educational type-in game for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 that teaches typing.

Programming

• BASIC Magic: A Christmas Assortment - A Christmas themed BASIC tutorial for both the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. Basically a sort of electronic Christmas card with sound.


• Machine Language for Beginners - This tutorial guides you through creating a customized directory command for the Commodore 64.


• Hints & Tips - A guide to controlling the keyboard buffer on the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.


• Auto Line - A type-in program that will automatically number the lines in a BASIC program.

Departments

• The Editor's Notes - A summary of recent happenings at Commodore as well as a look ahead to the year to come.


• Gazette Feedback - Letters from readers about reducing disk drive chatter when using copy protected disks, typing in programs on the VIC-20, programming the SID, cooling the 1540 and 1541 disk drives, and more.


• Simple Answers to Common Questions - Questions answered about converting Atari BASIC programs to the Commodore 64 and transferring files between the Commodore 64 and IBM PC via and RS-232C interface,
  
• Horizons 64 - A guide to drawing on the Commodore 64 including a look at programs like Tech Sketch and Peripheral Vision as well as options for controllers including a mouse, light pen and KoalaPad among others.

_{Back cover of the December 1984 issue of Compute!'s Gazette}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2024/11/08/computes-gazette-december-1984/

PC World (July 1985)

PC World (July 1985)

PC World was one of two PC magazines that really dominated in the 1980s and 1990s (the other being PC Magazine). The July 1985 issue includes:

Community

• The DOS Drivers - DOS 3.10 had just recently been released and this article takes a look at Microsoft's future plans for DOS including new networking features and more.


• PC World Advanced Users Quiz - If you know things such as what the default disk drive is, which CPU the PC AT uses, and what a bootstrap loader is then you might be a PC expert.

Review

• Inside Modems - A look at internal 1200bps modems for the PC. Models reviewed here include the Qubic PC212A 1200, Cermetek Info-Mate 212PC, Microcom Era 2, Bizcomp Intellimodem XL, IDEA-Comm 1200, Novation Smart-Cat Plus, AST Reach!, and Hayes 1200B. Prices range from $149 to $549, however, lower priced models often had difficulty interoperating with other brands at high speeds.
• Corona at the Speed of Light - A review of the Corona LP-300 laser printer.


• Better and True BASICs - A look at two new BASIC implementations, including TrueBASIC and True BASIC.

_{Table of Contents from the July 1985 issue of PC World}

PCjr World

• The PCjr Survival Kit - IBM announced and end to the production of the PCjr in March 1985. This article provides advice for finding PCjr software, peripherals, service and support.

State of the Art

• Advanced Screening - A look at the latest in flat screen technology including LCDs, plasma, EL, and flat CRT technology.

Hands On

• Fraternizing With Framework - A detailed look at Framework, widely considered to be the first all-in-one office suite for the PC.


• Transfer of Power - A look at creating menuing systems with Keyworks.

_{Table of Contents from the July 1985 issue of PC World (continued)}

Departments

• David Bunnell -How to become an advanced PC user.


• REMark - The rise and fall of the PC's founder, Don Estridge. He was responsible for bringing IBM into the consumer world with the PC but also responsible for disasters such as the PCjr.


• John C. Dvorak - Large companies vs. small in the PC world.


• Letters - Letters from readers about IBM advertising, parking hard drives in portable computers, accounting software, data management, and more.

_{Back cover of the July 1985 issue of PC World}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2024/11/04/pc-world-july-1985/