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Dial 1-8q0-63s-9292 Ask for Operator C11. 4517 Harford Road * Baltimore, MD 21214
ceptionally good editing capabilities for a machine of its class. The term program editor means something slightly different in the home computing world than in your mainframe experience. For eight-bit machines like the 64, editors are usually not discrete programs, but rather integrated with the language's interpreter or compiler. Because of the amount of memory available in eight-bit machines, their editors are usually screen-oriented and lack all the commands of mainframe editors like ISPF or XEDIT.
At first, the full-screen editor that comes with the 64's on-board BASIC may seem limited when compared with its mainframe counterparts, but after you use it a while you may begin to like it. Many people are disappointed with mainframe editors after using a Commodore 64.
Custom Cursor On The Apple
Can you tell me how f can change the cursor to any character that I want on the Apple lie with an 80-column card?
Gary Waters
Although undocumented, there is a way to change the cursor on an Apple lie, or unenhanced Apple lie with 80-column card. To change the cursor, POKE location 2043 with the ASCII value of the desired cursor character, plus 128. For example, to change the cursor to an underline character, enter the following statement: POKE 2043, ASC("_") +128
This does not ivork with an Apple He without 80-column capability.
If you do not add 128 to the character value, your cursor will be in a flashing mode. To get a solid flashing cursor, try this:
POKE 2043,32
To return the cursor to normal, press Control-Reset.
Location 2043 is part of the text-screen scratch-pad iMM used by expansion slot 3, or the auxiliary slot on the Apple He. This location is used by the 80-column card firmware to determine the cursor character, even when the computer is not in 80-column mode.
ProWrite Review Response
Thank you for your recent review of our Amiga product, ProWrite, in COMPUTE!. We feel that the review gave a fair overview of our product. However, there were two minor discrepancies that I would like to mention.
First of all, the review stated that ProWrite can use fonts only up to 20 points in size. This is not true; ProWrite will work with any font and size you have on your system disk. For example you can use the Zuma fonts, some of which are over 100 points in size.
Secondly, the review stated that only graphics printouts were possible, even when the document is exclusively text. Again this is not true. ProWrite provides both Near Letter Quality and Draft options for printing. Although you cannot get graphics with these two modes, these may be the preferable methods of printing if your document is exclusively text. You still get the onscreen WYSIWYG display and ease of editing and formatting when printing in these modes.
Thank you again for vour review. Aside from these two minor inaccuracies it gave a good description of our product.
James Bayless
President
New Horizons Software, Inc.
We regret the oversight and appreciate the clarification. @
The Future Of Computer Gomes:
Ten Industry Leaders Speak Out
Keith Ferrell, Features Editor
Computer games have never been more diverse—or more fun. Whether you want to play a sports simulation, play a strategy game, experience arcade action, explore alternate realities, solve text puzzles, or even create a challenge of your own devising, the software is available. Who develops these programs and brings them to the market? COMPUTE.1 talked to ten industry leaders to find out about the past, present, and future of entertainment softioare.
Surveys show that a computer bought for home use is used more often for playing games than for anything else.
And who could blame the users? Today there are games for every interest, from shoot-and-smash arcade games to high-level intellectual exercises. Behind these games are a variety of people, from programmers and designers to marketing specialists and corporate executives. For our annual games issue we talked with several people responsible for some of the most popular games and found them to be as engaging in conversation as their products are on the monitor. They are a diverse group, sharing some striking similarities of outlook as well as having dynamic differences of approach.
But we'll let them speak for themselves. Meet, in alphabetical order, ten of the industry's leading game makers:
Mark Beaumont, Activision
"We're moving beyond action/ arcade games and moving toward giving somebody a full-blown experience."
Mark Beaumont, product manager for Activision, entered the consumer electronics industry in 1982, joining Atari at the height of the Pac-Man craze. He moved to Activision the following year and, since 1985, has been involved in the company's product management.
Beaumont has seen both expansion and dramatic retrenchment. Activision grew dynamically, then faced a period of restructuring and realignment. Currently returning to economic health, Activision faces a market far different from that of a few years ago.
Many changes result from hardware evolution. "We're starting to move upwards from the 48K machines and the 64. The market today is as much driven by what works from a hardware system as from the sales area. If a machine is doing particularly well, as the MS-DOS machines are doing now, you'll see more people gravitate to that for development and more games designed specifically for that machine."
The number of different systems is exerting an effect on the industry. "The market is getting segmented. At the low end you have the Atari 2600." The 2600 has enjoyed an unexpected resurgence recently, and Activision is responding by developing new software for 2600s.
Moving up, Beaumont sees several areas of opportunity. "At the lower end of the mid-range you have the Atari ST in 520 configuration, on through the Tandy machines which are making significant inroads at the $700 price point. Then, heading toward the high end you have the Amiga 500. And at the real high end there's the Apple IlGS and the full-boat Amiga. Games are appropriate for each of those machines."
While many of its products are ported to several machines, Activision has found that the games market varies somewhat from machine to machine,
"There's an audience issue at play. Different kinds of software, different games, appeal to the different machine owners. Arcade games may not work as well on the Amiga as they do on the 64. We're selective about which titles are ported to different systems, and on occasion we will develop specifically for a particular machine. Amiga owners seem to have a desire for fantasy role playing and graphics-intensive products, as well as high-end productivity products. Our Music Studio has done very well on the Amiga, for example, where things which are direct ports from other systems might not do as well."
The most dramatic growth has been MS-DOS machines. "As Tandy and some of the other clone manufacturers have brought the price of their computers down, it's opened up a whole new category of buyer. When the MS-DOS machines were a higher-end purchase, the demographics of the buyers were significantly higher, and the kinds of software that appealed to the consumer were quite different. As the demographics have come down, there's been a bigger demand for arcade software. Our Gamestar line is a good example. While I don't think that would have done well on MS-DOS machines four years ago, it is doing extremely well now."
Activision understands that computer owners represent a niche within the overall consumer electronics market. Beaumont notes that there are niche markets within this niche market. The key to success in entertainment software, he says, is targeting the largest number of consumers.
"There are subcategories within categories. Working in our favor is the fact that the market continues to grow. As it grows, you bring in a larger variety of people, and individual segments within the installed base also grow."
Market growth can carry dangers as well. "Activision ran into difficulty a couple of years ago. Our mistake was with trying to go to too many different market segments, trying to fragment ourselves too significantly."
With Bruce Davis as the new president and CEO, Activision's recent surge to renewed profitability shows that the company learned important lessons from its slump. "Now we've focused in on the products that have been most successful for us. We're channeling in on those areas that work best— sports software, entertainment software, creativity and productivity software, and not taking too many forays out into the never-never land of 'who knows what this product is.'"
Still, Activision is willing to take some risks. "We will occasionally gamble, but we'll make sure we have the core business taken care of before we do."
Within the proven categories, Activision is still committed to extending the capabilities of its software. "We're trying to create the experience and the environment of each of our games, throughout the software, the packaging, and the documentation, so that players actually feel that they're participating. We're moving beyond action/arcade type run-and-shoot games and moving toward giving somebody a full-blown experience."
Thus, new Activision products such as Gamestar's Top Fuel Eliminator offer players the chance to customize drag racers to the conditions of various tracks. The Last Ninja will put martial arts skills in the midst of a quest type of story.
Is there a universal game, a game that will sell 15 million copies? "Consumer taste is so varied that to find one thing that appeals to millions of people would be difficult. To find a market that big, you'd need, for one thing, to have many more computers in the home.
"But that's a double-edged sword. To get more computers into the home you need better software that appeals to more people. As entertainment software becomes better, more people will become interested in computers."
Roger Buoy, Mindscape
"In a decade, we'll be well on our way to projected environments, where you can, through holographic projection, actually take part in an adventure."
Roger Buoy, president and CEO of Mindscape, looks over the company's four-year history and sees the evolution of entertainment software as being shaped by the growth of |
both hardware capabilities and software development skills.
"The most dramatic change has been the introduction of the 16-bit computers such as the ST and the Amiga, and more recently the GS. They've brought a whole new level to game-play quality. We're gradually getting nearer the same quality that people expect to see on their TV sets. That's the progression that will continue until we finally reach that accepted standard, which we're all striving to achieve."
For all their advanced capabilities, the 16-bit machines face some problems. It will be a while before the 16-bit machines completely supersede the 8-bit machines. "The problem right now is marketing support for the 16-bit machines. Their market penetration is far below what Atari and Commodore in particular would have expected to achieve. The price has to come down before they become widespread, but also those companies have to focus their marketing. They have to decide what they want their machines to be. It's hard to push an Amiga as a professional workstation and as an entertainment product at the same time."
There has been simultaneous growth in the ability to use 8-bit machines such as the Commodore 64 and 128. "We've learned to get a lot more out of 8-bit machines. Looking at a product such as our Superstar Ice Hockey, compared with what was a terrific product four years ago, the older product looks very crude. We're seeing some terrific products coming out for the 64 and the IBM PC, which are six- and seven-year-old architectures."
There are certain qualifications against which any piece of entertainment software must be measured. What does Buoy look for in a new product? "A couple of things. One is terrific depth, a product that kids and adults won't get tired of very quickly. Defender of the Crown is a good example of this and, again, Superstar Ice Hockey." Buoy feels that as a result of their depth, such games become experiences rather than just pastimes.
"In another dimension you have arcade games that are so superior in terms of their addictiveness that you can't leave them alone." Mindscape is presently preparing two arcade releases, Paperboy and Gauntlet, based on two arcade classics.
"On the one hand, you're looking for tremendous depth, hut depth of game design includes arcade games. In some ways arcade games theoretically haven't changed a great deal from what we were doing in 1983. You can still be extremely successful, provided the game design is deep enough to provide a very easy-to-play, easy-to-comprehend arcade product."
Perhaps the deepest of all of Mindscape's games, and in many ways the antithesis of an arcade experience, is Balance of Power, which simulates the complexity of interrelationships among the world's powerful and emerging nations. Is there a future for such games? "When I first published Balance of Power, people thought I was crazy. They saw it as a niche product that would not be successful." The game had been, in fact, originally commissioned by another publisher. "The game was just left to languish. No one wanted to do it." Buoy's instincts were right. "Before Christmas, we'll have done over 100,000 copies."
Not bad for a "niche" product. But aren't all products niche or category products? "We see several market niches, types of games that appeal to different folks."
Is there room for new ideas? Buoy thinks there is. "I'm prepared to take a risk on something new and which represents an opportunity.
And there are some things I think you should do just because it needs to be done. Balance of Power was like that—it was a product that had so much love and care put into it, and a year and a half of [developer] Chris Crawford's time, that the apparent quality, and the thought behind it, and its depth, were all just phenomenal. It had to be published. It's a great piece of work."
What comes next? "As a follow-up to Balance of Power, Chris has Trust and Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot. It's a new type of product, involving artificial personality."
In this game, scheduled for release later this year, the player faces the challenge of establishing communications with six different aliens. Buoy admits that Siboot is more of a risk than was Balance of Power. "Siboot is so radically different that it's obviously a publishing gamble. No one's ever done this before, it doesn't fall within conventional lines. But the program's intent is good and the amount of work that's gone into it is phenomenal. Siboot is very advanced in its design. It's a fun game, but it's also a very intellectual game. You've got to think about it. If you don't want to think about it, and you want something that's more of an arcade experience, it's not for you."
As Buoy points out, no game can appeal to everyone. Whether in arcade games, sports simulations, or intellectual adventures, Buoy is determined to continue developing Mindscape's potential.
He has a clear vision of the company's future and of the sorts of games that lie ahead. In the next few years, he suggests, "we'll be pretty close to TV-quality images, and interactive media will be available using compact disc or laser disc technology."
And farther down the road? "In a decade, we'll be well on our way to projected environments, where you can be in a room and through holographic projection actually take part in an adventure."
Peter Doctorow, Accolade
"You like to push the boundaries of enjoyment."
Peter Doctorow, vice president of design and development for Accolade, has been involved with com
puters for more than two decades, working first as a programmer in higher-order languages and in realtime assembly language.
Doctorow entered the consumer electronics industry in 1983, when he joined Nolan Bushnell at Androbot. "The company doesn't exist any longer, but at that time we were involved in the development of home robots. The heart of the product was basically a computer on wheels. It was called 'BOB'— Brains On Board."
Serving as director of product development for Androbot provided Doctorow with many challenges, "We spent a lot of time figuring out what we could and could not do in software for this robot." The job gave Doctorow much food for thought. "I was involved in software, and directly in the conceptualization of software capabilities." From Androbot, Doctorow moved to Accolade about a year ago, where he's now applying his experience to developing entertainment software. With games such as Hardball, Ace of Aces, Mean 18, and the new Test Drive! and Apollo 18: Mission to the Moon, Accolade has continued to broaden its approach to entertainment software, with the added effect of further enhancing Doctorow's understanding of the consumer marketplace.
What makes a game successful? "If I knew that, I wouldn't be vice president of product development. I would be king!"
More seriously, he points out
COMPUTE! Publications
_Presents the_
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