Micropendium Volume 1 Number 3

Home budgeting - That's NOT what I meant by "Save"!

Micropendium Volume 1 Number 3

April 1984 Micropendium (Home Computer Compendium) Front Cover
Editor	Laura Burns
Categories	Home Computers, TI-99/4A
Publisher	John Koloen
Country	USA
Based in	Round Rock, Texas
Language	English

Comments

Why hasn't anyone produced a good database management program for the TI?

While I'll accept written answers throughout the month, I can't think of many good reasons. Not when you look at the growing proliferation of word processing programs available for the TI. Why so many word processing programs?

It doesn't make any sense. More computer users could put a good database program to work than will ever use a word processing program.

Why?

Economics. It's cheaper. Word processing requires printers, and printers are expensive. Database programs can print to the screen and everyone with a keyboard has a screen of some sort.

Part of the problem may lie in the fact that a good database program requires at least 48K of memory. With databases, the more memory the better. Even so, it's a good bet that there are more TI owners with memory expansion cards than there are owners with printers.

WHO'S PRODUCING WHAT?

The next several months will be very interesting for TI users in the market for hardware and hardware producers in the need of a market. Cor-Comp and Mikel Laboratories Inc. are planning to produce expansion boxes. There are already several sources for memory expansions and RS232 interfaces. Disk drives have never been a problem, though obtaining disk drive manager cartridges may be. There's no shortage of monitors to choose from, color, green, amber or black and white. And, I predict there will not be a shortage of new software for the TI, though obtaining it is probably going to get more difficult as time goes on.

But how long will the hardware producers hang in there? Producing hardware calls for a significant investment, both in time and money, and the big question now is whether there is a market large enough to make it worthwhile.

There are essentially two schools of thought on this issue: One, that everyone who has any intention of having a fully configured TI system already has one. Two, that as long as a manufacturer can produce affordably priced hardware there will be no shortage of people to buy it. If the market is firm, the real problem will be in reaching it. But that could be a bigger problem than anything that occurred during R&D.

This is where TI retailers come in. And I'm not talking about the K-Marts, Sears and department stores that TI relied on. I'm talking· about the local businesses scattered all over the country that have dealt largely, if not exclusively, in TI home computer products. We'll be publishing a feature next month about these businesses so I won't go into great detail now. But it is my belief that anyone who is serious about marketing products for the TI dealers' shelves. TI users may buy their software at the nearest discount house, but when they need to have a problem solved or want to see a piece of software that doesn't have the mass appeal of Donkey Kong, it's to these businesses they must turn.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Now that we've published our third edition, it's time to ask what you the reader would like us to write about. We're not asking this question because we have run out of ideas. Far from it. Rather, we're more likely to run out of space. So we'd like to know what you want to see covered in these pages. As you already know, we tend to focus on product news, reviews and features.

Tell us what you think. It will be of considerable help.

And while I'm on the subject, I appreciate the little notes many of you have included with your subscriptions, particularly the ones which give us ideas for stories, or questions to ask. In a way, that's what our job is-to ask questions for you. And the better the questions, the better the answers. So, if there's something you'd like to know about, let us know what it is and we'll do our best to find out for you.

— JK

Debugged

The saying is: three strikes and you're out.

Well, this is our third try with this item and we hope we get it right. In our first issue, we mentioned a program called Quick-Copyer that allows users to copy disks much faster than with the TI disk manager cartridge permits. Although it costs $39.95 we neglected to mention that there is a $2 shipping-handling charge. Purchasers must note whether they want the Extended BASIC, Editor/Assembler, or Mini-Memory version when ordering. For more information, call or write: Quality Software, 1884 Columbia Rd. No. 500, Washington, D.C. 20009, (202) 667-3574.

The last of the MBX games are almost gone and just about forgotten

If you see a Milton Bradley game for the Tl99/4A computer on a dealer's shelf, you'd be wise to snap it up if you want it.

Milton Bradley no longer produces cartridge games for the TI computer and after the cartridges that are now out are purchased there won't be any more available, according to a Milton Bradley spokeswoman.

The games were originally designed for use with the Milton Bradley Expander, the game playing peripheral that was supposed to give TI users voice control capabilities. Some of the software that was designed to operate with the MBX unit permitted users to control the action on the screen by voice commands. However, only a limited number of the units were produced prior to Tl's pullout from the home computer market. Production ceased at that point and the units that were produced were quickly gobbled up by TI employees. However, more cartridges were produced than MBX units and some of these cartridges have found their way to retailers' shelves.

The spokeswoman said most of the cartridge-based games will operate on the TI computer without the expander unit, but the voice command capabilities cannot be accessed. Three of the 10 games that Milton Bradley produced, she said, cannot be played without the expander peripheral. These are Championship Baseball, Terry Turtle's Adventure and I'm Hiding.

Games that can be played with the TI console are Meteor Belt, Space Bandit, Big Foot, Super Fly, Sewermania, Sound Track Trolley and Honey Hunt.

"Sound Track Trolley, for instance, is a very delightful children's game where you match things up and follow a tune," she said. "On the TI without the expansion unit you can play the game and do the matching but you can't follow the tune."

— LB

Mikel has RS232; developing PEB

Mikel Laboratories Inc. says it is stepping up production and distribution of its RS232-C interface system for the Tl99/4A.

The Southern California company is selling its standalone unit for $149.95.

The unit allows home computer owners to use a printer or modem with their computer without buying a peripheral expansion box.

The company also offers a cassette interface system that includes a cassette cable and recorder for $49.95. It markets TI cassette cables for $11.95.

Mikel says it is developing a line of peripherals for the TI computer, including a peripheral expansion box, memory card and other accessories.

According to Mikel spokesman David Zislis, there seems to be no shortage of ideas for the TI99/4A. "We're finding there's a lot of engineers out there who have developed different kinds of hardware," he says.

Zislis thinks the TI market will remain firm for some time, noting, "What we're getting is a lot of people calling every day and then I talk to vendors who say there's lots of people coming in for TI products. My perception is it looks pretty good."

Whither has the Phoenix Flown?

Things are changing very quickly at Cor-Comp as it becomes apparent that the company will not be able to deliver its 99/64 computer to dealers this spring. In January company officials had said that demonstrator models of the TI-compatible machine would be at dealers' stores by early spring.

A new management team came on board in February and immediately began passing the word that production of the computer has been delayed.

A former Cor-Comp official indicated in early February that the 99/64, dubbed the Phoenix, "was sent back to R and D."

The new company officials are saying very little about the machine, except to express satisfaction in the interest being shown in the computer. Spokesperson Jacki Sagouspe indicated that the marketing of the machine has been delayed.

However, she said, the company's peripheral expansion box may be marketed this spring. The company also will market a disk drive controller card and an RS232 card for the box. The company also sells a 32K memory card.

It is not certain at this point whether the box will be physically compatible with TI-manufactured cards. Although company officials told the Compendium in early February that the box, with several cards, would retail for about $300, that may change before it actually reaches dealer shelves.

— JK

Educational Software - Sierra-Disney pact includes 3 cartridges

Walt Disney and Sierra On-Line are cooperatively developing three software cartridges for the TI99/4A. As reported last month in the Compendium, the two companies had signed agreements with Texas Instruments to take over development and marketing of several cartridges that were under development by TI before it left the home computer market.

According to Terry Bochanty, marketing manager for Walt Disney Personal Computer Software, Disney had been working with TI to co-develop ten educational game cartridges. However, when TI quit producing home computers development of the software topped. Sierra On-Line has taken over where TI left off and now some of the cartridges will be completed and marketed, Bochanty said.

Five of the ten cartridges were in the development stage before TI dropped out, Bochanty said, with three of the cartridges on the verge of production. Those three are expected to be marketed sometime by mid-year, he said. Although titles had not been determined by mid-February, Bochanty said the games involve three subject areas: astronomy, chemistry and language arts.

All three cartridges utilize popular Disney cartoon characters.

The astronomy cartridge, for children ages 8-11, uses Peter Pan. The chemistry cartridge, aimed at children over 11 years old, features Professor Ludwig von Drake. The language arts cartridge, for children six years old and older, features Pinnochio.

Prices have yet to be determined. Bochanty indicated that the cartridges would be marketed through a catalog that will be mailed to some 1.2-1.5 million TI users.

The programs were originally designed to take advantage of the speech synthesizer, Bochanty said, but require nothing more than a console to operate. At this point there are no plans to develop any of the remaining programs, he said. However, that could change depending on how well the first three sell.

Disney has been producing educational films and similar items for 30 years and, Bochanty notes, "we know how to reach and teach kids."

Programmer portraits: What have these six men got in common? A TI, for one thing.

Jobs that have been around a long time have stereotyped images attached to them.

Even though we all can think of exceptions to them, we have mental images: Policeman-tough-talking; schoolteacher-prim and proper; salesperson-overfriendly and glib.

Except, perhaps, for braininess, computer programmers haven't had many common qualities attributed to them by popular culture yet. And interviews with a group of programmers across the country (one in Canada) show them to be as diverse as the programs they write.

GETTING STARTED

The decision to become a program mer came after experience using a computer for most of those interviewed. For K.E. Vaughn of Vaughn Software in Arvada, Colorado, after he bought a computer and found out he was "pretty good at it," he decided he would rather sit at a computer than try a business trade." He says that a field in which it is possible to see the results immediately and apply creativity make programming satisfying. Vincent Lannie of Texas Software Design in Baytown, Texas, says that some things I was doing on my own would rival anything on the market by a third party operator," and that got him into programming. Scott Emory, a partner in EB Software in Santa Ana, California, says, I just started reading books about it, then I got onto the computer and I guess I had an aptitude for it. It seemed pretty easy to me. Two of the programmers got their start in computer courses. Dr. Allan Swett of Intelpro in Brossard, Quebec, who is also a math professor at a junior college, says he started programming in 1966 as a student at Penn State ' 'with really old-fashioned stuff, where you'd gnaw your fingers to the knuckles about whether you got a comma in the right place. He continued in the mathematics field but has become more interested and motivated in making a going concern out of business." Walt Dollard of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is 19 years old, says he began in high school 4½ years ago when he took a computer course. By contrast, Larry Hughes of Quality 99 Software in Washington, D.C., started programming so as not to take any further courses. tt1s programming career began 25 years ago. "I was in college, a math major," he says. "To get a job in math you had to get a Ph.D. and I was tired of school." At the suggestion of an instructor who said that programming looked like an upcoming field, he applied at Univac in Los Angeles. "The upshot is, I didn't want to be a mathematician so I took an easier job as a programmer. Gene Harter, a partner in NotPolyoptics in Woodbridge, Virginia, saw programming as a variation of what he was already doing. "I program games," he says. "For years before I programmed computers I would design games on boards and paper and I was always really interested in what a computer could do. I even got to the point where I designed games on programmable calculators-that's all I could afford. In 1980 I got a TI computer for $1,000. I knew what I wanted to do at that point." WHY TI? Economy was one reason. Vaughn says, "I wasn't sure I'd be very good at a computer. I picked the TI because it was cheap." Now, he says, "It's like a first love. I'd hate to switch," though "if they bring out the new 64 we may go into that." Swett says, Had I been a few hundred dollars richer I might have bought an Apple, but TI blows the Apple away. I regret that it's not being made any more." Emory says, "One, it was available and not as expensive as the others, plus there was a lot of good software I could use." Harter cites the price also. "Even at $1,000 that was a good price at that time." Dollard says the TI "looked interesting with the color graphics and I sort of thought I'd give it a try." It's the best," Hughes says flatly.