Showing posts with label 1988. Show all posts

Sunday, December 7, 2025

PC World (November 1988)

PC World was probably the best general PC specific magazine (though I preferred Boot/Maximum PC when it came along much later). The late 1980s and early 1990s were probably peak for PC World, at least in terms of page count. The November 1988 issue of PC World includes:

Source: PC World (November 1988)

Monday, January 15, 2024

Compute! (November 1988)

Compute! covered popular home computers of the day. In the early days it covered exclusively 6502 based computers. By this time, they were covering all popular computers in the home which included The Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS based machines of all types, Commodore 64, Apple II, and maybe others. The November 1988 issue includes:

Features

Communicate by Design - An introduction to desktop publishing including info on where to get more training.

Print That Page - An overview of six printers recommended by Compute! including the Epson LQ-850, Star NB24-10, Okidata Microline 390, NEC Pinwriter P5200, Hewlett-Packard DeskJet, and Apple ImageWriter LQ.

How Are Computers Made? - A photographic tour of the Tandy Business Products Plant in fort Worth, Texas, specifically following the production of a Tandy 4000.

_{Table of Contents from the November 1988 issue of Compute!}

Reviews

Fast Looks - A brief look at recent releases including Sports Scheduler (software for organizing sports leagues) for the Apple II and DOS; and Cosmic Relief (an animated puzzle game) for the Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64.

NewsMaster II - A page layout program from Unison World for DOS.

Springboard Publisher - A desktop publishing program for the Apple II.

Street Sports Soccer - Part of Epyx's Street Sports Series. According to this, Streets Sports Soccer is available for the Commodore 64, DOS, and Apple IIgs with an Apple II version coming in the Fall.

_{Table of Contents from the November 1988 issue of Compute! (continued)}

Compute! Specific

MS-DOS - Extend-a-Name, a memory resident program designed to allow you to use filenames greater than eight character filename plus three letter extension allowed by DOS; Microsoft an IBM announces MS-DOS 4.0; starting programs from batch files and more.

64 & 128 - The possible demise of the Commodore 64/128 as software publishers de-emphasize releases for that platform; Bards Tale III by Electronic Arts released for the C64; Reach for the Stars released by SSG/Electronic Arts; Bubble Ghost released by Accolade; Metrocross released by Epyx; and more.

Apple II - Apple IIgs version of Pirates released by MicroProse; Computer Learning News (a newspaper aimed at kids 8-12) soon to debut as a monthly publication; the Apple IIgs gets a software update (including GS/OS 2.0); and more.

Amiga - New programming tools released including C.A.P.E. (assembler), MetaScope (debugger), and DSM (disassembler); Commodore introduces high resolution monochrome monitor; V.I.P. anti-virus software released; and more.

Columns

Editorial License - A criticism of personal computer provincialism.

News & Notes - Apple released the Apple IIc Plus; DOS 4.0 released; Kyodai and Broderbund join forces to release Japanese games in the U.S.; and more.

Gameplay - Orson Scott Card examines Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Impact - Why paper usage continues to rise in the era of the "paperless" office.

Discoveries - Resources for using older computers such as the TRS 100/200, Plus/4, Timex Sinclair, VIC-20, and others for various purposes such as education.

_{Back cover from the November 1988 issue of Compute! (continued)}

Monday, September 30, 2019

ActionSoft (1988)

ActionSoft (1988)

This ad is sort of odd in that it is more of an introduction to the company making the games than an ad for the games themselves. This ad appeared in the U.K. based magazine The Games Machine in 1988. ActionSoft (or Action Soft...it is written both ways in the ad) was a U.S. based companies and their first two games, Thunderchopper and Up Periscope were originally released in 1986. As far as I can tell, these are the only two games released by ActionSoft though here they are two years later selling them in the U.K. Both of these games are simulations and that seems to be what ActionSoft was going to be all about. Thunderchopper is a flight simulator. The ad says that it "simulates the flight characteristics of high performance scout/rescue/attack helicopter". In addition to being grammatically incorrect, it's also sort of vague. This doesn't appear to be a simulation of a specific helicopter. I never though flight sims worked very well on 8-bit or even 16-bit computers. The graphics weren't really good enough and more importantly the frame rates were usually pretty abysmal. Having said that, there were a number of pretty realistic ones at that time given the hardware that was available. This one seems to have been a pretty average one overall.

Thunderchopper (Commodore 64) Up Periscope! is a World War II submarine simulator. Like Thunderchopper it is kind of non-specific in terms of what is being simulated. It is a generic World War II sub that has the equipment and weapons of subs of that era but if it is simulating a specific sub, it isn't specified. This game is somewhat similar to the earlier Silent Service. It isn't a bad game and I think this kind of simulator works a lot better than flight simulators on computers of that era. I don't really know what happened to ActionSoft. I remember their ads in the U.S. for these two games but I don't remember any other games coming from them nor can I find a reference to any. They seemed to have milked these two for a while and even marketed them internationally (at least in the U.K.) but they just sort of disappeared after that. I did find a reference that says ActionSoft licensed the graphics for Thunderchopper from subLogic. Also, there is a later DOS version of Thunderchopper that seems to have been released by subLogic and is compatible with Flight Simulator scenery disks. So perhaps subLogic acquired them....

Up Periscope! (Commodore64) Thunderchopper was available for the Commodore 64, Apple II and DOS. Up Periscope! was available for the Commodore 64 and DOS. The screenshots above are from the Commodore 64 versions of Thunderchopper and Up Periscope! If you want to play either one you'll have to find original copies or resort to emulation. While it matters less for Up Periscope!, DOS is probably better for simulations during this time. At least you will get better graphics and frame rates.