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- D I S K O V E R Y : THE 80-COLUMN BLUES
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- by Fender Tucker
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- To me, the 80-column screen is a void to be filled. When I first
- discovered it back in 1988 -- I saw my first C-128 when I came to work at
- LOADSTAR -- I thought the characters were a little too small. I was used to
- the 40-column C-64 characters. But the tall, skinny letters started to grow
- on me, and by my second 80-column program I was hooked. It was our way of
- looking as good as the DOS-CGA computers, and the freedom of that huge
- screen was exhilarating. No more squeezing and squishing to get all the
- necessary stuff on one screen. And those new colors...
-
- Then the PC world started changing. CGA improved to EGA, then EGA moved
- up to VGA, and now the PCs use SVGA which allows characters so tiny I don't
- even bother to try to read what they're saying. But the trusty C-128 stayed
- with the 80-column, 640x200 resolution it's always had, and thanks to Jon
- Mattson's CONTROL80 and WalruSoft's BASIC 8, it became almost as easy to
- program as the old, familiar 40-column C-64 screen.
-
- The C-128 is the only computer left that supports the 80-column look
- and very few people are bothering to program for it. I'm not going to stop
- but I need help. Programmers, if you have an idea for a program, why not
- make it unique and classic by using the 80-column mode? Check out CONTROL80
- V1.21 on LOADSTAR 128 #25 and you'll find that it makes things like pop-up
- windows and scrolling easy. Write your 80-column masterpiece and send it to
- me, and all will be well in the C-128 world once again.
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- Our computer deserves a better fate than that of the Apples and old DOS
- computers, don't you think?
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