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roving report 2
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2022-08-26
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The Roving Reporter at SOFTCON: Part 2
=== ====== ======== == ======== ==== =
Other companies were doing the 64
thing as well. Sight & Sound Inter-
national Inc., one of the world's lar-
gest sheet-music publishers, and Ryo
Kawasaki, "a gifted Japanese guitarist
and visionary electronics wizard",
have joined together to bring 64 own-
ers the Kawasaki Synthesizer, one of
the most advanced SID-chip synthesizer
programs for the 64 I have ever seen.
Batteries Included has several home
and business products such as the Home
Organizer series of specialized Data
Base Management programs, including
specialized programs for keeping track
of stamp collections, photographs &
slides & home movies, mailing lists,
home inventory, recipes, checkbook,
audio/video equipment, and even a pro-
gram called "Electronic Address Book".
They also make the BusCard II IEEE-488
and Centronics Parallel Interface unit
with BASIC V4.0, which claims to be
totally invisible to all other hard-
ware & software; the B.I.-80 80 column
adapter which claims to have no flick-
ering, hashing or interference pro-
blems that characterize competetive
units (Oh yeah! It also has BASIC V4);
The Consultant (formerly Delphi's Or-
acle), a general Data Base Management
program; PaperClip, a word processor;
and SpellPack, a spelling checker.
Abacus Software makes many products
for the 64 including Synthy-64, a mus-
ic language; UltraBASIC-64, an exten-
sion package to BASIC that adds 50 ex-
tra commands for graphics, music, Tur-
tle graphics, sprites, etc.; Super
Disk Utility-64, a versatile disk copy
and zap utility package; Pool-64/20,
a hires Pool simulation ("8-ball off 2
racks into the corner pocket") for the
64 and VIC-20; Chartpak-64, a menu-
driven business-graphics program;
Chartplot-64, as above but with exter-
nal plotter support; Mercure-64, a
file-management program; Graphics De-
signer-64, a menu-driven program for
floor-plans, illustrations, etc.;
Screen Graphics-64, an extension to
BASIC that adds 24 hires, multicolor,
and sprite commands; Tiny BASIC and
Pascal COMPILERS and a Tiny Forth in-
terpreter; Checkbook Manager-64; and
Master-64, a professional software
development system with BASIC V4.0,
screen editing, report management,
ISAM file management and a machine-
language monitor. Master-64 and
Chartplot-64 are Abacus Software's
most expensive packages at $84.95,
which should give you an idea of how
competetivly priced they are.
Quicksilva, the Game Lords, has a
program called UltiSynth, which is a
rhythm and melody type music synthe-
sizer program; plus the games Aqua-
plane, Purple Turtles, Ring of Power,
Quintic Warrior and Sting.
PSYCOMP Self-Help Software address-
es subjects like Coping with Stress,
Handling Depressed Feelings, Handling
Relationship Problems, and Treating
Sexual Problems. The president of the
company is a licensed psychotherapist.
Computer Software Associates, ma-
kers of PractiCalc, introduced PS: The
Programmable Spreadsheet, which allows
the user to expand the program's capa-
bilities with BASIC; PractiFile, a
data-base program; Inventory 64, an
inventory-tracking program, 64 Pak, a
collection of 10 educational programs
for children; Tiny Tutor, a math tutor
with sound and graphics; 64 Doctor,
a complete set of diagnostics for the
64, 1541, etc.; Total Health, a nutri-
tional computation aid; and Zeppelin
Rescue, an arcade-style game.
Koala Technologies demonstrated
several new packages for their Koala
Pad, including Logo Design Master,
Paint-A-Rhyme, Spider Eater, Dancing
Bear, and others.
InfoDesigns showed their Management
Accounting Software Solutions series,
including AR, AP, Payroll, Inventory,
and of course, General Ledger.
Tymac, maker of The Connection par-
allel printer interface, announced
their "Tymac Talkies", a series of
games with speech that requires no
speech synthesizers. These are very
good arcade games, with excellent gra-
phics. There are four at present:
First Strike, Gandalf the Sorcerer,
Pegasus and the Trials of Perseus, and
Flyer Fox.
Systems Management Associates demo-
ed CodePro-64, a system of program-
ming tutorials and aids.
All in all, it was a really big
show, and not even this Roving Repor-
ter could cover all the exhibits in
only three days!
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