magazine collection and heath-kit 89

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Mon May 12 12:27:50 1997

When I was at my parents' house, I also went to visit my old-timer
neighbor. My parents told me he wanted to talk to me about getting a new
computer. He has one of the first 1000 HeathKit H89 systems to come off
the assembly line. I remember going to his house back in 1988 a couple
times to trade programming tips with him and playing with it. He built it
himself. It's in cherry condition, with the original Heathkit covers for
both the computer and the heathkit printer. I gave him advice on buying a
new system and offered to buy his Heathkit from him, but I don't think
he's ready to sell it yet. Before I left I emphasized that when he's
ready to part with it to call me.

I'm looking through this old issue of Popular Computing (I also found a
good run of this magazine). This issue is September 1983. These things
are awesome. Let's take a look at this one...

The cover story is "Demystifying Computer Languages" and has a column
each for APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTH, FORTRAN, LISP, Modula-2, Pascal,
PROLOG and Smalltalk. You see, that's another thing that was great
about the 80s...not only did you have diversity of systems, but you had a
viable diversity of languages. Sure you could argue that today, but
let's face it, this is a C dominated world.

Hmm, cool, there's a hacking article, "Profile of a Computer Abuser".
And some way cool Do-itYourself article on how to build a $4 printer stand.

Let's see, there's the standard Elephant Memory Systems disk ad (remember
those? Always with a yellow backdrop, a lot of times on the back of the
mag). Anyway, here's an ad for a Percom Data disk drive for the T-99/4a
for $499. So whoever found that TI-99/4a disk in the thrift shop, keep
looking for the Percom Data disk drive. Here's the basic IBM ad with the
lame Charlie Chaplan impersonator. Ok cool, a big price page for a
company called computer mail order (how generic). Timex Sinclair 1000,
$39.95; Commodore 64, $239; Pet 64, $569; Sanyo MBC-555, $795; Eagle
IIE-1, $1,369; and on the CMO top 100, we have Choplifter at #1 for the
Apple, WordPro64 for the C64 and Donkey Kong for the Atari.

Moving on, we have an add for Fontrix (a cool Apple ][ page designing
program), an ad for Commodore 64 that compares its under $600 price to
the $1395 Apple, the $999 TRS-80 III and the $1355 IBM PC. Wow. A
2-page ad spread for the Apple ///. Dum de dum, hey an ad for the HP-86
personal computer. I don't think I've ever seen one of these...its like
an Apple in design, with the keyboard and CPU all one unit. I never knew
HP made such a beast. I'll have to find me one of those.

(are we bored yet?)

Oh, here's a good one: an ad for a C64 that says "More power than Apple
][ at half the price" (what a joke) and for the VIC-20 that says "a real
computer at the price of a toy" (they got the toy part right). I betray
my thinly veiled Apple ][ bias.

Moving on, here's a funky user definable keyboard called the keywiz VIP
(and in parenthesis it says Very Intelligent Peripheral) made by a company
called Creative Computer Peripherals. I guess you can assign a keyword to
each key and it was compatible with the Apple and TRS-80. Then an ad for
the TI Compact Computer. It shows a typically preppy 80s type dude
sitting at a desk (presumably in a library) with a typically preppy 80s
type chick sitting on the other side and the ad copy says "20 pages of
notes, a thesis, algebraic forumlas. Can you make a date at eight?" The
guy in the ad has one finger on a key on the computer which has a disk
drive attached, and one holding a pen as he writes down notes on a yellow
legal pad. Brilliant. I'll take two.

Ok, here's an add from Wisconsin Discount Sales, showing a Panasonic 32K
for $249, an Atari 800XL with, instead of a price, the word "NEW" in a
blast bubble.

Here's something funny. In caption from the article on Prolog, it says
"Japanese researchers have chosen PROLOG as the standard language for
their fifth-generation computer project. If the project succeeds, it's
very likely that we'll all be programming in PROLOG by 1995!" I guess we
all know the outcome of that particular project.

Anyway, then there's a review of the Radio Shack PC-4 "programmable
calculator" and the Casio FX-700P pocket computer.

Hey, a ComputerLand ad. They are now back in business as Vanguard by the
way.

Blah, blah, blah. More ads. Blah. And that's pretty much it. I hope
you enjoyed this tour of the September 1983 issue of Popular Computing.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Mon May 12 1997 - 12:27:50 BST