by Jon A. Bell
It's been three issues since we've printed commentary on what's graced our pages, and, since our readers have been clamoring for information on the changes that have taken place in ANALOG, we thought that we should address the queries.
What happened to Sally Forth?
Sally Forth has taken an extended vacation, resting her keyboard-weary fingers from the rigors of opening mail and punching Forth code into her computer. However, we do intend to resume our Forth coverage very soon, so expect to see Sally -- or one of her relatives -- return to our pages. Like Mr. Spock, you just can't keep a good Forth programmer down...
Has Tom Hudson's BASIC Training been dropped? I noticed that it wasn't in the last issue.
Never fear. BASIC Training will resume next issue. In issue 20, we wanted to fit in as many printer utilities as possible, so Tom decided to work on his third solid states article and hold BASIC Training until later. Son of Solid States appears on page 79 of this issue, in lieu of BASIC Training.
What happened to Our Game?
Our Game will not be returning to ANALOG, due to Joel Gluck's intensive work and school schedule. What we intend to do is use Tom Hudson's BASIC Training as the new springboard from which to develop a BASIC game. However, Joel is not permanently leaving our pages. He is working on a number of new programs (some in Action!), which we hope to publish in the not-too-distant future.
The topic of this issue is education and the Atari... and, to illustrate this, we're featuring a wealth of educational games and tutorial programs. In our educational review column, Griffin's Lair, Braden Griffin takes a look at Atari Speed Reading.
Kicking off this issue's educational programs is Ed Rybczyk's Spelling.SAM, a program that teaches spelling fundamentals by actually sounding out the word being spelled. This program is to be used with Don't Ask Software's Software Automatic Mouth (SAM) voice synthesizer. Another program by Ed Rybczyk, The Reading Program, appears on page 91.
Haven't brushed up on your foreign language study since your high school days? Then take a look at Larry Nocella's Spanish Study Guide on page 21. Si usted no comprende esta frase, debe commencer con esta programme ... rapidamente.
Math Attack, by Manny Miller, shows that teaching math facts and having fun needn't be mutually exclusive. This fast-action game is for either one or two players. Micro-Puzzler, by Larry G. Hearin, enables you to take a Datasoft Micro-Painter screen and turn it into a computerized jigsaw puzzle.
Like to solve your daily newspaper's "jumbled word" puzzles? Then Steven T. Murphy's Word Scramble may be for you. Featuring three different levels of difficulty and a vocabulary of three hundred words, it should keep you and your friends amused for hours.
If your typing is in need of some improvement, try William Abell, Jr.'s Typing Evaluator, on page 60. It does the job of some commercially-available typing trainer programs for the cost of entering in less than one magazine page of code.
In Boot Camp this issue, Tom Hudson covers the remainder of the 6502 operation codes. Next issue, Boot Camp will begin exploring the world of useful 6502 programming. Tom also presents the third part in his series of three-dimensional object representation in Son of Solid States, page 79.
Should you desire to teach math to the younger set, check out Francisco R. Moncada's Mathman on page 85. Like Math Attack, it teaches addition, subtraction and multiplication, and the program itself is shorter, to boot (pun intended).
And finally, arcade game fans need not unsheathe their hari-kari swords, for we have Scott Sheck's Air Attack for BASIC fans and Donald Murphy's game Money Hungry for all you assembly freaks.
Time's a-wasting. Plug in that BASIC cartridge and start typing.