Changes

A St. Louis company is planning onintroducing a BASIC compiler thisyear as well as several games writtenin assembly language. Challenger Software, 4127 Quincy,St. Louis, MO 63116, says all of its newprograms will require a disk drive,expansion memory and the ExtendedBASIC cartridge. According to company spokesmanMark Sumner, titles include GravityMaster, Maze Master and what is tentativelybeing called Pizza Parlor. Thegames are expected to sell for about$20 each. The compiled BASIC program isexpected to sell for about $50. "I always had a problem withassembly language," Sumner said byway of explaining the usefulness of aBASIC compiler. "With this compiledBASIC I managed to accelerate developmenttime for programs by 10 to 100times." Sumner says the program includescommands not found in ExtendedBASIC, including sprite coincidencechecking that is much faster than whatcan be done with Extended BASIC. ==Cutting back== A company that had been producinga parallel printer interface and 32Kmemory expansion for the TI99/ 4Ahas eliminated the interface from itsinventory. Doryt Systems Inc., 14 GlenSt., Glen Cove, NY 11542 (516) 676-7950,has dropped its Paraprint 18A interface.The 18A was designed to be aninterface between the TI home computerand any parallel printer, eliminatingthe need for an RS232 card. A spokespersonsaid the company willcontinue to market the 32K memoryexpansion. ==Nothing from Thorn== Despite reports published recen􀃶lyrecently