Category: Columns

By Val J. Golding Is the ugly head of price wars and cut-throat sales about to raise itself?  We sincerely hope not.  these are bargains in which no one gains.  If a dealer can move enough data in a given period of time, he can make money, even with a profit margin as low as 10%.  But in order to do this, he must also cut overhead. This is usually accomplished through reductions in sales staff and services to customers. …

The Apple ][ is country’s best seller?  This is what Phil Roybal, Apple Computer’s marketing manager expressed to us when we asked him recently.  Apple’s new Shuggart mini-floppy has now been officially announced at an unbelievably low $495.  The Delievery is scheduled to commence in lat June.  This drop of $200 was enough to influence our decision to buy. The Applesoft II ROM board will be available at $100 for an introductory period only, running through July 31st, at which…

COMPUTER COMPONENTS – formerly known as COMPUTER PLAYGROUND offers some large storage for Apple users in the form of PERSCI floppy drives.  This is the first in a series of articles about the “large” floppies available for the Apple ][ The drive is the PerSci Model 277 dual diskette drive.  this means it has two eight inch floppy disk surfaces with approximately 256,000 bytes for storage.  Half a million bytes of disc storage per drive!  optionally selectable is the dual…

We always look forward to writing this column each month, for a number of reasons.  One is that since it is usually the last new material writtem ,it is this column that gives us an indication of the length of the current issue will run. Secondly, because we look at it as sort of “our own” column we feel free to let our thoughts wander a bit, and we feel this line sometimes will produce some interestbig material. In any…

Sometimes the problem is not what to write about, but what not to write about. Such is the case this month when we have a large number of items to report. Our software library is first on the agenda. The library, along with the membership, has been growing by leaps and bounds.  So much so that by the time a catalogue is issued, it is out of date.  We will try to remedy this by listing new programs each month…

A collection of tidbits worth nothing What is a color monitor worth to you? One of our number has access to same and will consider all serious offers… If you want 16K chips, tell us. We would have to buy a large quantity, true, but we have to know how many we can handle before we approach a manufacturer. We feel we could do something for under $250. Speak now or forever hold your chips. We have to get moving…

This month, we have a number of brief programming aids. For starters, here is how you can break your long PRINT statements in pages:For more than two pages, use this subroutine, inserting the GOSUB after 20 or less lines: 200 VTAB 22:PRINT “HIT RETURN FOR NEW PAGE”: CALL -676: CALL 936: RETURN. This will halt the program with a bell, and wait for a Return to resume. To correct a line in a program listing, POKE __, 33 before listing….

CORRECTION to Apple II Reference Manual, Page 39, figure I. The peeks shown have been transposed and PP should PEEK at 202 & 203 while CM PEEKs at 204 & 205.

Bob Huelsdonk and Val Golding have been hard at work assembling new programs for the software library. See the complete listing below which includes many new programs. Programs from the A.P.P.L.E. library may be ordered as follows: For copies on cassette, send $1. 00, along with 35¢ in postage, a self addressed letter size envelope and the names of the programs desired, to Val. For listings only, a self addressed, stamped envelope.  As soon as Val has a printer up…