Computer Shopper magazine

[+Allan]

I started scanning in the Atari articles in Computer Shopper magazine with my new 17 x 11 scanner. Here's the first issue.

 

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperNov85Vol5No11AtariArticles

 

Each issue had a number of 8-bit program listings. Anybody want to type them in? It would be great to eventually see them all on a couple of ATR disk images.

 

Allan

 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

computer shopper type ins require that you have all the issues because the listings are often spread across more than one issue/edition/volume... you have to start with the core program and add in the corrections and enhancements as they appear. When you stitch them together and make the changes the type ins are usually very decent to good quality programs.

[+Allan]

computer shopper type ins require that you have all the issues because the listings are often spread across more than one issue/edition/volume... you have to start with the core program and add in the corrections and enhancements as they appear. When you stitch them together and make the changes the type ins are usually very decent to good quality programs.

Yes, some of them are like that. It's a good start, though. I just did another issue. February, 1985.

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperFeb85Vol5No2AtariArticles

 

Allan

[+Allan]

And May of 1985. The part of the program listing that got cut off from the bind is 'THEN CHOICE=1'

 

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperMay1985Vol5No5AtariArticles

 

Allan

[scotty]

I can not speak for all emulators, but Altirra you can highlight and copy text from a PDF and paste it into the emulator. The better the scan, the better the results. It is not perfect, but saves a lot of time and headaches. You still will more than likely get a few errors that will need to be corrected, but it beats typing the entire program in, and getting your own errors.

[+Allan]

I can not speak for all emulators, but Altirra you can highlight and copy text from a PDF and paste it into the emulator. The better the scan, the better the results. It is not perfect, but saves a lot of time and headaches. You still will more than likely get a few errors that will need to be corrected, but it beats typing the entire program in, and getting your own errors.

In my experience, this doesn't work very well for program listing. It introduces too many more errors. It's better to just type it. Until the technology gets better, that is.

Here's another issue I just posted.

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperJuly85Vol5No7AtariArticles

 

July of 1985 which includes an Atascii lister and a couple of numeric Keypad programs.

 

Allan

[Brentarian]

Thank you! I remember typing in the CX85 programs back in the day. I've been looking for these for a long time.

[+Allan]

Here's June and January of 1985.

 

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperJan1985Vol5No1AtariArticles

 

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperJune1985Vol5No6AtariArticles

 

Allan

[6BQ5]

Fantastic work! Thanks! I have to admit I get a little misty eyed thinking about 80's computing. It feels like the beginning of the end of the 8-bit era and the 8-bit era is my personal golden age of computing.

 

I kind of want to read the Battle of the Operating Systems in the Jan '85 issue.

[+Allan]

I put the rest of the issues of Computer Shopper I have (the Atari sections) up on www.archive.org.

 

https://archive.org/details/@allan52

 

Also here is the Program Prefect program that someone here on Atariage scanned that checks for errors as you type in each line.

 

Allan

 

Program_Perfect-rev40.pdf

[+Allan]

Also, I recently got a couple more issues and will add those as well when I get a chance to scan them.

 

Allan

[zzip]

I started scanning in the Atari articles in Computer Shopper magazine with my new 17 x 11 scanner. Here's the first issue.

 

https://archive.org/details/ComputerShopperNov85Vol5No11AtariArticles

 

Each issue had a number of 8-bit program listings. Anybody want to type them in? It would be great to eventually see them all on a couple of ATR disk images.

 

Allan

 

Computer Shopper had type in programs?

 

I just remember it being this massive phone-book sized "magazine" that was filled with ads from PC vendors. It was the way to find the best price on parts before the Internet was widely available.

[+davidcalgary29]

Fantastic work! Thanks! I have to admit I get a little misty eyed thinking about 80's computing. It feels like the beginning of the end of the 8-bit era and the 8-bit era is my personal golden age of computing.

 

I kind of want to read the Battle of the Operating Systems in the Jan '85 issue.

 

You mean the end of the inaccessible, 300 baud, 410 frustration, only-for-the-rich 8-bit era and the beginning of the completely awesome scene that exists today. The fact that more original users aren't currently engaged by the system is their problem, not ours.

 

Can you imagine the reaction if someone demoed Yoomp! in 1985? People would have had coronaries.

[+Allan]

So here is Program Perfect 4.0 (hopefully without any mistakes) in text form. If someone wants to cut and paste this into an Atari 8-bit emulator and put it in a DOS 2 ATR, that would be great. I'm doing this on my son's Cromebook so I can't at the moment. If not I'll do it when I get home on Saturday. This way we can start typing Computer Shopper programs in without errors.

30000 CLR :CLOSE #1:CLOSE #2:N1=1:N2=N1+N1:N84=84:N84+1:N39=39:N65=65
30010 DIM LN$(120):OPEN #N1,9,N0,”E:”:OPEN #N2,4,N0,”K:”
30020 PRINT CHR$(125):POSITION 12,N0:PRINT “PROGRAM PERFECT”:POSITION 12,N1
30030 PRINT “By Jeff Brenner”:IF ST THEN PRINT :PRINT “Current line: “;ST
30040 IF  NOT ST THEN PRINT :PRINT “Starting line: “;:INPUT #16;ST
30050 POSITION N39,5:? “ “:POSITION N39,6:? “ “:POSITION N39,7:? “ “
30060 POSITION N2,5:PRINT “--- “;ST;:POKE N85,N2:PRINT “-”;CHR$(30);
30065 FOR I=N1 TO 3
30070 POKE 702,64:POKE 694,0:GET #N2,N
30075 IF N=126 AND I>N1 THEN PRINT CHR$(30);”-”;CHR$(30);:I=I-N1:GOTO 30070
30080 IF N<N65 OR N>90 THEN GOSUB 30310:GOTO 30070
30090 PRINT CHR$(N);:NEXT I:SP=LEN(STR$(ST))
30100 FOR I=N1 TO SP+N2:? CHR$(31);:NEXT I:Y=PEEK(N84)=PEEK(N85):ES=N0
30110 GET #N2,N:IF N=155 THEN POSITION N2,5:INPUT #N1;LN$:GOTO 30200
30120 IF N=156 OR N=157 THEN 30110
30130 IF ES THEN 30160
30140 IF (N=29 AND PEEK(N84)=Y+N2) OR (N=28 AND PEEK(N84)=Y) THEN 30110
30150 IF N=125 THEN 30020
30160 PRINT CHR$(N);:ES=N0:IF PEEK(N84)>Y+N2 THEN 30190
30170 IF PEEK(N84)=5 AND PEEK(N85)=SP+6 THEN 30060
30180 GOTO 30110
30190 GOSUB 30130:POKE N85,N39:POKE N84,Y+N2:PRINT CHR$(28);CHR$(29);:GOTO 30110
30200 POSITION N39,10:?” “:POSITION N39,1:? “ “:POSITION N39,12:? “ “
30210 T2=26*(ASC(LN$(N1,N1))-N65)+ASC(LN$(N2,N2))-N65:NL=ASC(LN$(3,3))-N65+N1
30220 POSITION N2,10:PRINT CHR$(156);LN$(5,LEN(LN$))
30230 POSITION N2,8:POKE 842,13:STOP
30240 POKE 842,12:POSITION N2,10:PRINT CHR$(156);:POSITION N2,9:LIST ST
30250 T=NL:POSITION N2,10:INPUT #N1;LN$:FOR I=N1 TO LEN(LN$):T=T+ASC(LN$(I,I))
20260 IF T>650 THEN T=T-650
20270 NEXT I:IF T=T2 AND NL<26 THEN ST=ST+NL:GOTO 30020
30280 IF T=T2 AND NL=26 THEN 30320
30290 POSITION N2,9:FOR I=N1 TO 5:PRINT CHR$(156);:NEXT I
30300 PRINT :PRINT “ERROR - TRY AGAIN”:GOSUB 30310:GOTO 30060
30310 SOUND N0,N85,12,8:IF N1^N1 THEN SOUND N0,N0,N0,N0:RETURN
30320 PRINT CHR$(125);”END OF PROGRAM - STAND BY…”
30330 FOR I=30000 TO 30320 STEP 5:POSITION 2,4:PRINT I:PRINT “CONT”
30340 POSITION 2,2:POKE 842,13:STOP
30350 NEXT I:PRINT CHR$(125):FOR I=30300 TO 30370 STEP 10:PRINT I:NEXT I
30360 LN$=”PROGRAM ENTRY COMPLETED.”:PRINT “POKE 842,12:PRINT CHR$(125);LN$”
30370 POSITION 2,0:POKE 842,13:STOP

[+Stephen]

There something wrong here - the line numbers are not consecutive. It goes 30250 to 20560. Was this intentional?

 

Also an error in line 30000 = N84+1

[+Stephen]

Here ya go - I got the program to run, didn't test it.

Program Perfect.atr

[_The Doctor__]

that's because logically it's 30260 and 30270 , might be scanner error

 

*edit

a quick look at the pdf has shown that this is indeed the case

 

the other error is another ocr issue. It might be easier to just type it in.. ocr errors abound

n85=n84+n1

Edited April 16, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[+Allan]

I did not ocr this. That would have introduced about 200 errors. I typed it but was using a crappy chromebook and honestly didn't check it as much as I should have.

[+Allan]

Here ya go - I got the program to run, didn't test it.

Program Perfect.atr

thanks, Stephen.

[+Stephen]

that's because logically it's 30260 and 30270 , might be scanner error

 

*edit

a quick look at the pdf has shown that this is indeed the case

 

the other error is another ocr issue. It might be easier to just type it in.. ocr errors abound

n85=n84+n1

OK - sounds like my fixes were correct. Thanks guys.

[+Allan]

Still haven't had a chance to try the Program Perfect but I will. Just wanted to add here that I got two more issues of Computer Shopper. Dec. 87 and March 1988. It looks like in between these two issues Atari 8-bit coverage was dropped. I will scan the December 1987 issue at some point.

 

Allan

[_The Doctor__]

One of the problems with early magazines was the assumption that the Atari would be using the official Atari Microsoft Basic either I or II, it caused a number of them to drop listing when people would write in or complain it wasn't Atari Basic or it didn't work etc... If only someone including Atari would have pointed out to them and ask the magazines mention which of the official basics was being used, all of that could have been avoided. This statement isn't directed squarely at computer shopper but still may give some context as to what all went on and how it lead up to problems most magazine editors didn't wish to deal with.

[Atari_Ace]

I've begun HTMLifying the Applying the Atari columns by Jeff Brenner from these scans (all of 1985 thus far) to make these more accessible and readable. I've spot checked all the BASIC listings, but I doubt they are completely error free. The 3-letter codes for each line are in many places illegible, so I've not put extra effort to audit those.

 

I'll probably add the 1986 columns that have been scanned in a few months.

 

https://ksquiggle.neocities.org/columns/ata.htm

[+Allan]

I've begun HTMLifying the Applying the Atari columns by Jeff Brenner from these scans (all of 1985 thus far) to make these more accessible and readable. I've spot checked all the BASIC listings, but I doubt they are completely error free. The 3-letter codes for each line are in many places illegible, so I've not put extra effort to audit those.

 

I'll probably add the 1986 columns that have been scanned in a few months.

 

https://ksquiggle.neocities.org/columns/ata.htm

Thanks, Atari_Ace,

I still have the original magazines so eventually I can check the actually pages for the 3-letter codes. If you HTML the listings, I can copy and paste each line of them into the Program Perfect program in a emulator and run through them rather quickly, correcting and mistakes in the listings.

 

As I stated before, I got the Dec. 87 issue, which does still have the column by Jeff Brenner, but doesn't have any program listings. I will still scan it soon.

 

Allan

[Atari_Ace]

I decided to look for programs by Jeff Brenner among the various disks I've collected over the years. Since he put his name in REM statements almost universally, that got a few hits, but most ended up being work he published elsewhere. He had two articles published in ANALOG (Atari Graphics Overlay in #26, 1985-Jan, Screen Scroller in Analog #50, 1987-Jan). He also published Joystick Cursor Control in COMPUTE!'s Third Book of Atari and Big Buffer for Atari in COMPUTE! #46, 1984-Apr.

 

I did find a somewhat modified version of Programmable Numeric Keypad (1985-Aug) on the pooldisk in UMICH\CIS\XMO19.ATR (and also on TRACE Club's 1985-Dec disk), and Atari Forms Generator (1986-???) in OHAUG's OHSO99A.ATR. So some of this Computer Shopper material circulated.