Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...

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wm&notes evenis. contact Computer Learning Month. Depi. CPE 8. P.O. Box 60007. Palo Alto. California 94306-6007. lion, it has bounced back to post a net income of S3.6 mil lion for fiscal "88 (which ended 5000. which is aimed auhe pa ny s chairman and CEO. The PS/2 E. U.Aveoek System. IBM's new line of per sonal computers, uses Fortune a new patented bus design 500 market, has a called the Micro Channel Ar Quick, What's a Mediagenic? Activision. one of the nation's largest consumer software pub lishers, is Activision no longer. After some name-change sur gery, the company has emerged as Mediagenic. The new name signifies cx-Activision's expanding product lines and its intenl to move beyond the strict defini tions of electronic entertain ment which the company has demonstrated in its video games and computer emcrtainment software. Media genic. according to a company press release, means "suitable for creation, reproduction, or transformation in various types of media." Activision president and CEO Bruce Davis has been talking about the convergence of traditional media forms— video, computers, and print— for some time now: Mediagenic hopes to capitalize on the trend with products in such areas as CD-ROM. CD-I. HyperCard, video, and innovative personal computer software. The Activision name hasn't been discarded, however, for it's being retained as the premiere label for the compa ny's action and simulation soft ware and for it's videogames. The company's many affiliated labels will continue operating under their present names. March 31. 1988). such as City-to-Cily and Reports, both HyperCard packages, and a strong Apple IIgs line have contributed to the company's coffers. In a concurrent announce ment. Mediagenic said that it had agreed in principle lo pur chase ZSoft Corporation, pub lishers of the classic PC Paintbrush, and had signed Working Software, maker of Macinlosh utility software (Findswell and SpeUswell) as its newest affiliated publisher. — Gregg Keizer PS/2 Clones Coming from Tandy, Dell Tandy and Dell, two Texasbased computer makers, will be the first to bring PS/2 clones to the marketplace. Tandy announced its PS/2 Model 80 clone, the 5000 MC, last April with a full-page ad in the WallSireet Journal. Dell, with a lower profile, is offering two PS/2-compatiblc ma chines which should be avail able by August. Tandy"s 5000 MC is the most powerful—and most ex pensive—computer the com pany has ever designed. In addition lo its Micro Channel Archiiecturc. the 5000 MC boasts a 20 MHz 80386 micro processor; built-in CGA. EGA. MCGA. and VGA graphics; 2 megabytes of RAM (expand able lo 16 megabytes): five base price of S4.999 for a system without a hard drive. Systems wiih 40-megabyte and 84-megabyte hard drives sell for $6,499 and S6.999. respectively. John V. Roach. Tandy's president, chairman of the board, and chief executive offi cer, says that the new machine is more than jus! a clone: "'Not only is the Tandy 5000 MC the most powerful personal com puter we've ever offered, it is also a very unique product which contains a combination of features never before offered by a major microcomputer manufacturer all in an unusual ly compact desklop computer." Dell's soon-to-bc-relcascd PS/2 clones include the Sys tem 400. an 80286-based mi cro aimed at IBM's PS/2 Model 60 market, and the Sys tem 500. which uses an 80386 and is Dell's version of IBM's Model 80. In addition to its 20 MHz 80286 microprocessor, the Sys tem 400 comes with I mega byte of memory, expandable to 16 megabytes; one l.44-megabyte 3'/:-inch disk drive; VGA graphics: parallel and serial ports: and a PS/2-compatible mouse adapter. The highpowered System 500 has roughly the same specifica tions as Tandy's 5000 MC. Although the Micro Chan nel PS/2-compatible market is small now. there is interest in the machines, and Dell be lieves it will grow. "Although we don't expect a tremendous demand for MCA-compatible chitecture, or MCA. which al one time was thought to be uneloneable. The legal issues sur rounding MCA cloning are still cloudy "IBM has assured us that a license will be avail able which grants us license rights under their patents for use in our products." says Dell. In addition to legal prob lems. PS/2 clone makers mayface a price war with IBM. And unlike the last round— where clone makers beat IBM's PC. XT. and AT—IBM will likely win this battle. WiihlBM'sfirstlineof personal computers, mosi of the machines' components were made by third-party manufacturers. Competitors could buy parts from the same manufacturers as IBM. operate with lower overhead, and sell machines for less. With the PS/2, however. IBM makes about 70 percent of the ma chine itself and. according to reports, production is very cost effective. IBM is on record as planning to slash prices dra matically on its PS/2 line be ginning at the end of this year. And since IBM can directly control its costs, it has an edge. — Clifton Kantes Apple Us Talk the AppleTalk Talk It's been a long time coming, but AppleTalk, the network that ties together Macintosh computers and LaserWriter la ser printers, has finally come Activision's. ah... Media- IBM-compatible Micro Chan computers right now. many of to the Apple II world. genic*s comeback is weli docu mented. After a dismal fiscal nel expansion slots, plus two proprietary memory expan our corporate customers have expressed an inlerest in the Enhanced Appie lie com puters and IIgs machines can year 1987 (the last three calen sion slots: and one 1.44-mega- new technology and have indi now be connected to hard disk- dar quarters of 1986 and the byie 3':-inch disk drive with cated thai they are presently -based file servers for diskless firs! quarter of 1987). in which room on the front panel for examining its advantages." operation and sharing of files. the company lost S14.6 mil- three additional devices. The savs MichaelS. Dell, the corn- What's needed for each lie is 8 COMPUTE1 cuiiihnn'ti on peigc #5
gameplay ORSON SCOTT CARD 5x cb eO p9 h9 tO i5 ar h9 ti ei pg x9 cO iO av hu tk ia pa And Other Raw, Rude Nonsense I'll bet you never thought that etiquette applies to computer games—but it does. So where is Miss Manners when we real ly need her? Nobody has more power over game players than the computer game designer. Think of the standard arcade game. The de signer decides not only how fast the bad guys come at you, how accurately they aim, and how much damage their shots do, but also how fast your character moves, or how easily a mistake will bring you the GAME OVER display. Only a handful of decisions are left up to you. Your invisible opponent controls everything else, and if you don't like it, too bad. So what do you do if the game designer puts you in some impossibly unfair situa tion—a thousand bad guys shooting at you with pinpoint accuracy, for instance? You simply look at the screen in disgust and walk With home computer games, however, the creators get all their money up front. If you don't like the way the game plays, too bad. Fortunately, most programmers want the game to be fun to play, so they try to make the rules as consistent and fair as pos sible. When they fail, it usually isn't because of malice. They simply make the classic mis take of people with bad manners—they for get about the needs of the other guy. Sometimes problems arise out of the limitations of the game. Take, for instance, Computer Jeopardy. By using actual ques tions from the television game, the designer was able to keep the features that make "Jeopardy" the best TV quiz game. Unfor tunately, players have to type in their an swers, so you can lose even when you know the right answer, either because you type too slowly or because you don't spell perfectly. The Jeopardy programmer tried to be fair about spelling. I typed Barrymores and was credited for having answered Drew Barn>more (on TV, Alex Trebek would have said, "Be more specific"). But when I typed the title of the Steinbeck book as Travels with Charlie, I was counted wrong—because the actual title spelled the dog's name Charley. On TV, I would have been right. These problems are unavoidable in translation from a spoken to a written medi um. But one Computer Jeopardy error is sheer thoughtlessness: In Final Jeopardy, when you're making your all-or-nothing bet on the final question, the computer doesn't show you the other players' scores. Since knowing their scores is vital to making an intelligent bet, this can kill you. Computer Jeopardy is still a terrific game, but the game designer's negligence is annoying. Another example is the file handling of Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint II. This paint program is full of thoughtful extras. Yet the designers carelessly allowed the program to forget which directory your pictures and paintbrushes are in, so you have to move from directory to directory each time you load and save. So unnecessary. So rude. It's still my favorite paint program—but I mut ter each time I have to change directories. These are minor, forgivable lapses. Rudeness can make a game utterly worth less—to me, at least. At first glance, The Guild of Thieves (Rainbird) looks promising, with its gorgeous EGA pictures. Imagine my astonishment, then, when I sat there looking away. The machine gets no more quarters from you. Soon the game fails and the de at a picture of a room with chairs in it, typed signer is out of a job. Arcade game designers Look under chair, and was told that there havexo play fair. weren't any chairs present! Other absurdities make it clear that the text of the game was prepared without any reference to the pic tures. Why? It would have been a simple task to have the programmer look at each picture and make the text agree with it. But the rudeness that made me throw the box across the room and wipe the game off my hard disk is the way Guild of Thieves handles hints. Instead of online helps or hidden-writing cluebooks, the gamewright makes you type code into the computer, which the program then translates. Here's a sample (by no means the longest): 5x cb eO p9 h9 tO 15 ar h9 ti ei pg x9 cO iO av hu tk ia pa xm ch ey ay hi tz it ax hn ts es pb xl c8 eq px xq tq ii an hu cu eb pm xa cu iu av I'm not joking. That's what they expect us to type. Even the best touch typists stumble over typing such raw nonsense. And is the clue, when we finally get it, helpful? Some times. But sometimes it's just a joke. I wish I could promise you that Guild of Thieves is the only worthlessly rude game on the market. But I can't—not in a world where people smoke in the grocery store checkout line or speed up on the freeway to keep you from merging. Game designers, please, don't get so caught up in the fun of designing and pro gramming that you forget the needs of the players. We're not your enemy; we're your audience. Q AUGUST 19
Page 1 and 2: COMPUTE! Who Works at Home, Why, an
Page 3 and 4: INFOCOM PRESENTS HI, I'M LAN6MASTOP
Page 5 and 6: I COLUMNS PFS: First Choice James M
Page 7 and 8: . ■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I ■t'VvV-A
Page 9: wm&notes COMPUTER LEARNING MONTH OC
Page 13 and 14: COMPUTE! Tr.* Leading Mogailnc Of H
Page 15 and 16: HELP YOURSELF Brainware I haled the
Page 17 and 18: HELP YOURSELF Diet, by Scarborough
Page 19 and 20: PRESENTING TECHNOLOGY THAT LETS YOU
Page 21 and 22: □ Homeward Bound Working at home,
Page 23 and 24: LOOK AT ALL YOU CAN DO FOR $9.95 Lo
Page 25 and 26: ■ Homeward Bound Setting Up at Ho
Page 27 and 28: CompuServe's reference databases ma
Page 29 and 30: * * * * * * COMPETE ON AN INTERNATI
Page 31 and 32: David D. Thornburg TODDLERS AUGUST
Page 33 and 34: Absolutely the best in educational
Page 35 and 36: Train for Fastest Growing Job Skill
Page 37 and 38: Toddler Software Alphabet Circus S3
Page 39 and 40: products. of $9.95 each. Both progr
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Page 43 and 44: COMPUTE! specific work with your ne
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Page 47 and 48: Lyco Computer Marketing & Consultan
Page 49 and 50: Lyco Means Total Service Risk-Free
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Page 53 and 54: Q Which Computer? [ am interested i
Page 55 and 56: uyer's., = guide Preschool Software
Page 57 and 58: Buyer's , _ guide Fun with Directio
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H REVIEWS without conflicts. You ju
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H REVIEWS He had a big stack of chi
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n reviews The Golden Spike Put on y
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Will No* AND WE /WEAIM IT! LD! Pric
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n reviews cartoon, not playing a co
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O REVIEWS importantly. Help. You ac
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□ REVIEWS from the book to my han
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n reviews Advertisers Index colors
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Software discounters of America ___
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compuieosb OUTSIDE USA—CALL (718)
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■jtem&notes popular educational t
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NOW YOU CAN TRAIN FOR A GREAT CAREE
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TbEvolmiunnlihcAn Pt InThe Beginni
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COMPUTE! THE LEADING MAGAZINE OF CO
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COMPUTE! THE LEADING MAGAZINE OF CO
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FOOTBALL THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE
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