Changes

Despite reports published recentlyin a leading home computer magazinethat indicated that Thorn E.M.I. ismarketing Computer War for the TIhome computer, the company is doingno such thing. According to spokeswomanVal Demeo in the company'sNew York office, Thorn E.M.I. has noplans to market any of its games forthe TI. The company had planned toproduce several games for the TIcomputer but everything was cancelledlast December after TI pulledout of the home computer market.Demeo says the company has''"nothing planned'' " for the TI. ==Foundation update== Software routines from Foundationwhich will let users save their BASICprograms into files with the company's128K memory card andEPROM chip will be available "in afew weeks," Foundation officials saidnear the end of February. The routines will also allow thememory to be used as a sequential file.The routines can be used in BASIC,Extended BASIC and assemblylanguage. Bill Hunter, vice president of opera-.tionsoperations, said the wait for the softwareroutines is because they are beingenhanced. The software to access theextra 96K memory in the card isalready in the EPROM chip. he says.32K of the card is directly accessibleby the computer. He said that the 128K card itself isbasically a memory assembly language.The 128K card is four memorybanks which can be switched back andforth at an assembly l􀃷rnguage lannguage level.He noted that it is not accessible withsuch cartridges as Microsoft Multiplanand TI-Writer. Kathy Hunter, vice president formarketing for Foundation, said thatthe wait for the routines is "frustrating'· " but was "to the customer'sbenefit" because the routines will do··everything "everything we said in our brochureand more.··" She said that the TI market '·shortterm"short-term looks very healthy. As for the thelong-term, we want to enhance it." She commented that she feels the TIhome computer will be around for along time as "the Volkswagen Beetleof the computer set.··" "More TisTIs" Texas Instruments ctidn ·t didn't actuallyend production of its home computerlast year. As late as last month thecompany w,1s was still produC.'.ing producing a limitednumber of the machines to be used bythe company·s company's 46 exch:.rnge exchange centers. <small>'''Newsbyles is a column of generalinformation for Tl99/4A users. It willinclude product announcements a n dand other items o f of interest. Vendors and othersare encouraged to submil submit items forconsideration. Items submitted will beverified by lhe staff before inclusion andedited to fit the Newsbytes format. Itemsmay be mailed to the Compendium, P.O.Box 1343, Round Rock, TX 78680.'''</small>