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BMUG Meeting minutes 9/24/87

Acta document

BMUG Meeting 9/24/87

[ long discussion about memory upgrades, accelerators, hard drive interfaces, and the like ]

Announcements

Q: Why is there no real Mac clone?

A: Copyright Law in US is better than Patent Law.

Q: What about Magic SACâ„¢ (Atari clone)

A: It needs Mac ROMs, old revisions

Q: What’s up with the BBS?

A: It is now running Opus on a PC clone.

We exchange Mac messages on EchoMac with about 50 BBS’s around the world: PoloNet, MacQueue (661-7374), Macintosh Tribune (923-1235).

Q: How soon do BMUG meeting minutes get posted?

A: Right now, they don’t, much. Any volunteers?

Q: How about job listings?

A: Ditto

Telecom SIG: Every other Wednesday, 8 PM, BMUG office

New HyperCard Stacks:

At first, we haven’t been filtering stacks. At least half the stacks on any BMUG disk are solid. Most stacks are for “educational” purposes.

Q: Is HyperCard like BASIC?

A: Yes, in terms of its innovation and what people are doing with it. It imposes the Mac user interface and violates it in some ways. People are trying to make it like the Mac, but some watn to make it a different thing, with its own benefits. More like the Mac=> computers analogy

Q: I really mean “Is it programming for non-programmers?”

A: Yes and no.

A: It is a good environment for learning to program.

A: It allows a lot more flexibility from the user point-of-view, especially in the interface.

A: Redefine “programming” – communal applications… a tool for creativity with more flexibility.

We’re seeing trade-offs in terms of ease of use versus size of program… but this makes more possible.

BMUG’s HyperCard SIG meets every other Monday at 6 PM. It will concentrate on programming.

Q: Is anybody doing anything in 4th Dimension?

A: Writing an ordering system.

A: Messing Around

A: ACIUS has a list of developers – about 200 in US

Q: Omnis 3?

A: <no answer>

(some discussion of 4th Dimension and ACIUS news and philosophies)

Laurent Ribardiére, the programmer, is a very interesting character. “No line in the program is documented”? Written as one large piece of code, not broken down into units. Scott Knaster left to go back to Apple, in a different role than before he did Acius tech support.

Dbase Mac: slow as a dog, although it is released.

4d: appears excellent, resembles HyperCard in many ways. They were both written by one person rather than a committee.

Database market projected to be big by 1990.

Heizer software… stack exchange – like Excellent exchange. He will sell low-cost non-PD stacks that are really excellent. in Pleasant Hill. We’ve got flyers in the office. 943-7667.

BMUG has 11 Stack disks.

$3/ea.

MacToberFest

come & show stuff! See the list for needed topics in particular.

Thursday, October 22, Pauley ballroom.

lots of fun.

MazeWars & Strategic Conquest tournaments

ARTICLES WANTED FOR THE BMUG NEWSLETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deadline: MacToberFest

topics: what would you want to read?

what you hate, love, use, how you use it, how to do something, updates or extensions of old information.

Dbase Mac is shipping!

SEF HyperCard conference in November

Software Entrepreneurs’ Forum (SEF)

Hypercard/Stackware Programmer’s Seminar

Saturday November 21, 1987. Location, to be announced, but probably south bay. Price to be announced, but probably $95 for SEF members, more for non-members.

The current tentative list of topics include:

The HyperTalk Environment-a technical introduction

Command & Function Secrets

HyperCard Programming Strategies

Nuts-and-bolts Stackware Implement, incl. known bugs, etc

External HyperCard Resources

Sales/Marketing/Distribution

Source Protection

Data Transfer from other sources.

Communications

Danny Goodman, Author of the 700 page_The Complete Hypercard Handbook_ has signed on as a speaker. Selecting the participants in each panel has not been completed, but we have strong interest from a number of other speakers.

Additional suggestions are welcome.  

Software Entrepreneurs’ Forum is a non-profit group of over 300 people, mostly programmers, who have formed sort of a guild to help one another develop and market software products. Our organization was founded in ’83. Each month we have four separate meetings: a general dinner meeting, an IBM SIG meeting, a Marketing SIG and MAC-SEF, the Macintosh programmers SIG. This month’s MAC SEF speaker was Bill Campbell of Claris. This month’s general meeting speaker was Rob Campbell of Forethought (now MicroSoft); past speakers include Andy Hertzfeld, Jean Louis Gassee, Phillippe Kahn and many others.  

For more information, contact Ed Niehaus, (415)626-0651, or Reay Dick, (408)3654851 or Michael Odawa, 415-381-2650.  

Takeovers

VersaCad was taken over by Pr1me computer

SofStyle taken over by Phoenix Technologies

printer drivers and PostScript clones & hardware…

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BMUG Meeting minutes – 09/17/87

Acta document

BMUG Meeting 9/17/87

Bill Atkinson on Computer Show on TV last Tues

someone is working on MacPaint II. He isn’t.

10 people in the audience saw it.

Ch 32, Computer Chronicles at same time

Ch 26, every Tuesday nite at 7 PM

[ long discussion about memory upgrades, accelerators, hard drive interfaces, and the like ]

Mac II memory and SIMM prices discussion

3rd Coast computing $999/4 megs (512) 472-6278

Apple’s new dev price <$900/4 megs

Announcements

Pascal programmers wanted, familiar with print manager, 224-9130

Apple is looking for

1 Macintosh Product Mgr

1 A/UX Project Manager

2 System Software Project Managers

Applicants must have 3-4 years experience on the Mac, knowledge of Systems Software and the ability to handle high visibility, high responsibility positions. Salaries in the mid-60K, with a quarterly bonus of 10-14%, and full Apple benefits.

(408) 727-4717 – Kate Sullivan (paid recruiter)

Needed: Mac programmer: user-support & low-level business analysis. Two years MIS environment. San Jose – Peninsula – $30K – Sandra 454-5321

Steve Maller – training support department at Apple is always looking for contract Tech Writers with good pay, 1-6 months, work at home but visit Apple 1-2x/wk. Apple II & classroom networks, DT Pub, Mac II technical & service issues. (408) 996-1010

Apple Tech Support has tripled their budget for the next fiscal year – perhaps will hire more

U of Mo needs someone to do Mac graphics – see desk outside

Jim Ensign – JAM Technologies – Physician Practice program for the Mac – Mac User physicians sought for beta test sites. See him after the meeting or call 442-0795.

HyperCard – unopened – for sale – $52.45 (list) – SOLD

FullWrite Pro is almost shipping

WordPerfect will be at the BMUG meeting 10/29/87

MacWrite, MacDraw, MacProject, MacTerminal upgrades are available at Apple dealers – bring your original disk.

Red Ryder 10.0

is shipping

procedures are much faster

mostly similar to 9.4., but menus are more confusing

and more features are added. Better compatibility with MultiFinder, etc.

MacPascal

upgrades available to 2.1 for free

LightSpeed Pascal

upgrades available on networks like Delphi

Turbo Pascal

talk to David InterSimone at Borland for a Mac II-compatible rev

System upgrades

free at dealers or $4 from BMUG

only use if you have at least 1 megabyte and are having trouble with old systems and you’re not tight on space.

5.3/3.2 are good for the 512e

use the Installer to avoid copying more than you need and to keep from thrashing your FKEYs, DA’s and fonts

MPW 2.0 upgrade [Macintosh Programmers Workshop]

works on the Mac II

many other differences – Commando visual interface

takes up a lot more memory – may have trouble on the plus without Hard disk

distributed by Apple Programmers Development Association

usually recommended for professional development

Dan Cochran announced at MacWorld that a source-level debugger in MPW may be available by the end of the year

MacApp, under MPW, allows flatter learning curve and better compatibility than other development.

good way to learn Assembly Language – modular environment

[ 10 minute debate on the topic ]

Mac programmer wanted to write Excel macros

EDP Temps (Linda)

901 Sneath Ln, Suite 125

San Bruno, CA 94066

(415) 952-5010

[ Mac II section of the meeting]

choke your communications program if the modem doesn’t wake up properly

choke your communications program author if the program doesn’t work at all

ImageWriter II problems? Call your dealer.

use friction feed or single sheet feeder rather than tractor feed.

LaserWriter Plus upgraded

#47 should be stamped on outside of box (LW ROM version)

$350 – MUCH faster (50% bitmaps)

see MacUser comparison to QMS

especially in network environment

Programming languages for non-developers

HyperCard

Beginning programmers group for C programmers?

meet at the front of the room after the meeting.

Q: General ledger accounting programming for non-profit?

A: Insight is expensive ($2500 for all modules) but best.

Migent in-house accountant is also available, but the MS-DOS version has a buggy reputation. 1.5 $ & cents will soon be available.

A: Jeff Walker, leader of the Beginners SE SIG reports “Accountants, Inc.” is useful. It is available at M.A.C.

Q: Upgrade options: Levco MonsterMac vs. SuperMac Enhance for 512e?

A: LevCo MonsterMac $645 is more expensive but more reliable

A: Sell & buy

A: MacDoctor upgrade has power-saver circuitry keeps things cool & doesn’t physically conflict. It doesn’t require a fan

A: Oh yes it does.

A: but they sell it there.

A: Maybe they reroute it or something

Q: Is the MacDoctor upgrade reversible?

A: No, it is major surgery.

A: it does allow plug-ins for large-memory upgrades

A: 512 => 2 megs at M.A.C. for $450, if they ever get their Does in.

MacToberFest

come & show stuff! See the list for needed topics in particular.

Thursday, October 22, Pauley ballroom.

lots of fun.

MazeWars & Strategic Conquest tournaments

ARTICLES WANTED FOR THE BMUG NEWSLETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deadline: MacToberFest

topics: what would you want to read?

what you hate, love, use, how you use it, how to do something, updates or extensions of old information.

Dbase Mac is shipping!

Raffle prizes tonight

Parameter Manager Plus courtesy of Rebus

FUJI disks courtesy of MacOrchard

Mac II poster courtesy of MacWorld

Speakers tonight

Parameter Manager Plus – Rebus

Coral / Franze – Allegro Common Lisp

SEF HyperCard conference in November

Software Entrepreneurs’ Forum (SEF)

Hypercard/Stackware Programmer’s Seminar

Saturday November 21, 1987. Location, to be announced, but probably south bay. Price to be announced, but probably $95 for SEF members, more for non-members.

The current tentative list of topics include:

The HyperTalk Environment-a technical introduction

Command & Function Secrets

HyperCard Programming Strategies

Nuts-and-bolts Stackware Implement, incl. known bugs, etc

External HyperCard Resources

Sales/Marketing/Distribution

Source Protection

Data Transfer from other sources.

Communications

Danny Goodman, Author of the 700 page_The Complete Hypercard Handbook_ has signed on as a speaker. Selecting the participants in each panel has not been completed, but we have strong interest from a number of other speakers.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

Software Entrepreneurs’ Forum is a non-profit group of over 300 people, mostly programmers, who have formed sort of a guild to help one another develop and market software products. Our organization was founded in ’83. Each month we have four separate meetings: a general dinner meeting, an IBM SIG meeting, a Marketing SIG and MAC-SEF, the Macintosh programmers SIG. This month’s MAC SEF speaker was Bill Campbell of Claris. This month’s general meeting speaker was Rob Campbell of Forethought (now MicroSoft); past speakers include Andy Hertzfeld, Jean Louis Gassee, Phillippe Kahn and many others.

For more information, contact Ed Niehaus, (415)626-0651, or Reay Dick, (408)3654851 or Michael Odawa, 415-381-2650.

Takeovers

VersaCad was taken over by Pr1me computer

SofStyle taken over by Phoenix Technologies

printer drivers and PostScript clones & hardware…

Posted in BMUG Minutes | No Comments »

BMUG Meeting minutes – 09/10/87

Acta document

BMUG Meeting 9/10/87

Bill Atkinson on Computer Show on TV next Tues

Computer centre on Franklin in Oakland – Apple Dealer

1924 Franklin

MacCharlie / DaynaFile – often not as good as getting a PC clone

Stock Tips

Q: Experience with DASCH External RAMdisk?

A: Not recommended. Add internal RAM or external SCSI drive.

Q: 3 floppy drives (or more) on an SE?

A: You’ve gotta rewrite the system software and hardware to go beyond 3, up to 16.

Q: Most recent MazZap?

A: 5.0.

A: They just announced the update from 4.54

Q: Is there a program to take advantage of the function keys on the Apple Distended Keyboard?

A: Yes, QuickKeysâ„¢, from CE Software, $95. Out next week.

Q: Can you hook 2 Mac’s together with SCSI?

A: Yes, IF you can change the SCSI address of the MAC. Good luck!

Talk to APDA and NCR for technical information.

Q: Any Mac II’s broke?

A: Yes, and no dealers have any parts. Scholar’s Workstation has 2 motherboards in stock.

Q: Where’s best buy on SIMM chips?

A: Dove is backordered 3 weeks. M.A.C. has some in stock: $70/SIMM for Mac II; backordered on SE & Plus. There will be a squeeze on ’em soon.

A: 150 ñs chip won’t work on the Mac II. 511002’s will work on the Plus.

Q: Where to sell chips AFTER upgrade (256K SIMMs, 150 ñs)?

A: Good luck!

Q: Will 100’s work?

A: Yes, anywhere, if they fit.

A: 1 meg parts are 10 times as expensive as 256K parts.

Q: What printers besides ImageWriter II work on SE?

A: None besides LaserWriter work well. ImageWriter LQ looks very nice; who knows when it will be out.

A: Panasonic 1080 imitates the IW I perfectly but is very slow and produces a slightly smaller image

A: Toshiba 341 with ToshStart from SofStyle works but is slow except on draft.

A: Nearly anything with a serial port will work in draft mode only.

A: HyperCard may not work except on ImageWriter or LaserWriter

Q: What’s a good laser price?

A: 10 cents a page or less, $5/hr or less.

A: There’s lots of competition among local places.

Q: HyperCard with MacServe?

A: Make sure there’s enough memory

Q: HyperCard on networks?

A: It should. Remember that all stacks are opened Read/Write, always.

[ long discussion about memory upgrades, accelerators, hard drive interfaces, and the like ]

A: A few SuperMac technical support people left. A couple went ot work for Jasmine.

Q: Some sort of BMUG member discount on Cirrus drives?

A: Nobody’s heard.

Q: Has anybody used the new CMS drives? Special track-caching technology makes ‘em fast? Does it interfere with operation?

A: They claim to do more error-checking than other drives. “The fastest 80-meg drive for the Mac”

A: Douglas Electronics selling Avatex 2400 modems for $240. Fully Hayes-compatible.

Q: Problems with Stepping Out w/New Sys/F shutdown?

A: Yes, there are. Try Berkeley Systems Design.

A: Yes, an upgrade is available

A: Stepping Out gives you a software large-screen to scroll on. Very helpful in graphics and DT Pub.

Q: New Laser Prep with MultiFinder?

A: Yes, but you can use the old or new ones with different ones.

A: Yes, along with lots of other goodies.

A: It wants 2-4 megabytes. It will work on 1 megabyte, but 1.5 applications are required.

A: It should be available here, according to MacWeek.

Q: Mac II monitors?

A: Sony is much like Apple. PCPC is dimmer.

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Macworld Expo 1987 Boston

Trade Show

Dates: August 11-13 (Tuesday-Thursday), 1987
Location: Bayside Exposition Center
Exhibitors: 270
Attendees: 25,000

N.B. — In 1987 Macworld Expo was often referred to as “Mac Expo,” in sources both informal (user group newsletters) and professional (the pages of MacWeek magazine). The official Program Guide used “Macworld Exposition.”

Keynotes

Day 1 – John Sculley (President & CEO, Apple): The Second Generation: The Revolution Continues…
Day 2 РJean-Louis Gass̩e (EVP, Apple): Are Personal Computers There Yet?
Day 3 – William Campbell (President & COO, Claris): Success in Software: The Next Decade

Hardware

In the run-up to the summer exposition, MacWEEK described Apple as hoping to “solidify its new-found success in the business community with the release of a strong line of peripherals, communications products and systems software.” As Apple slowly began to work through production delays with the Mac II, it could begin to place more emphasis on the open, expandable system — previous trade shows had focused on the much simpler (and more available) Mac SE.

Indeed, some vendors couldn’t contain their excitement at the new hardware expansion possibilities of the SE and II:

SuperMac Technology continues its innovation with exciting new hardware and software for the Macintosh family. Come by our booth and see! Now shipping: Spectrum and SuperView high resolution graphics boards and monitors for the Mac II and SE; DataFrame 40 XP and 20 XP, our 20 and 40 SCSI Hard Disks.

Sigma Designs pitched monitors at both the Mac II and SE as well:

Sigma Designs will exhibit its LaserView Display System, the highest resolution (1664 x 1200) monitor and display board system available in non-interlaced mode for Desktop Publishing and Engineering. LaserView monitors come as 15″ or 19″ landscape models and provide useful features such as dual resolutions, multiple cursor sizes, switching between screens, screen-save timer, and others. The LaserView Display System works with both Macintosh SE and Macintosh II.

Yet Macworld Boston did not turn the Mac II into an open platform overnight, despite expectations. “One of the more disappointing aspects of the MacWorld Expo held in Boston last August”,” wrote Macweek, “was a lack of NuBus product introductions, aside from color video and the data acquisition boards. It appears that Mac II users aren’t exactly clamoring for specialized hardware capabilities quite yet, and vendors aren’t rushing to introduce products.” With the benefit of several decades’ worth of hindsight, it’s clear that costs and complexities of next-generation card development hit both Apple and IBM as they tried to lure 3rd-party products to NuBus and MicroChannel, respectively.

Upgrades for the Mac SE, taking advantage of that machine’s processor direct slot, were on offer from Radius, General Computer, Levco and Peak Systems. But perhaps the most ambitious product aimed at SE owners was from Austin-based Second Wave Inc:

Second Wave, Inc. announces ExpanSE and ExpanSE II, expansion chassis systems for the Macintosh SE. ExpanSE expands the power of your Macintosh SE by providing a chassis with four expansion slots for Macintosh SE cards. ExpanSE II provides eight expansion slots for Macintosh II cards to operate with your Macintosh SE. Second Wave expansion systems include an SE interface card, cabling, and the expansion chassis which contains a power supply, fan, and external expansion brackets. The ExpanSE case (13″xl0″x8″) can be positioned vertically or horizontally on your desk. ExpanSE II is the same size as the Macintosh II. Expand the functionality of your Macintosh SE with an expansion chassis system from Second Wave!

Even the lowly Mac Plus had something to look forward to, as Radius (a company founded by ex-Apple hardware engineers) targeted it for the same big screen and acceerator that it offered for the much more expandable SE:

Radius, Inc.will show the Radius Accelerator and the Radius Full Page Display for both the Macintosh Plus and SE computers. The Radius Accelerator is an enhancement board which is capable of quadrupling the speed of the Macintosh. The Radius Full Page Display (FPD) is a 15 inch large display screen. The Accelerator and FPD transform the Macintosh Plus or SB computer into a professional desktop publishing system by adding greater processing speed and a larger display.

Apple announced a number of new physical products:

1. ImageWriter LQ
2. AppleFax Modem
3. AppleShare PC
4. HyperCard
5. MultiFinder
6. EtherTalk NuBus Interface Card

Of these, the ImageWriter LQ would not ship until the end of 1987.

Apple was still several years away from the Mac Portable, so show-goers had to make do with two third-party options: DynaMac and Colby. Both re-purposed a ROM chip that was only obtainable from a retail Mac, which made them expensive machines indeed.

As hard drives became more mainstream, companies such as Tecmar saw an untapped market for backup devices:

The Tecmar QT-Mac 40, a portable 40 MB tape backup system, is designed for use with all SCSI-based Macintosh systems. Combining the high speed flexibility of SCSI with industry standard QIC-100 compatibility, the QT-Mac40 makes the task of maintaining reliable backups quick and easy. Because of its unrivalled small size, the QT-Mac40 is portable and can easily serve the backup and archival needs of several users. The QT-Mac40 is the perfect complement to all Macintosh SCSI hard disks.

SuperMac’s software introduced Tapes Fit, a tape back-up system for the Macintosh that presumably worked with 3rd-party tape drives.

Apple Software New Versions

1. MacDraw 1.95
2. MacWrite 4.6
3. MacProject 1.2
4. MacTerminal 2.2

Hypercard

The big software story of the show. MacWeek was filled with articles about the new platform in the weeks leading up to the expo. Some of this speculation was prescient: “Apple’s decision to bundle the program will pay off in resulting sales,” while some was later proven wrong: “HyperCard in ROM is a tantalizing possibility for next year.”

Graphics Software

Perhaps the first 256-color paint program for the Mac, PixelPaint was developed by Pixel Resources and published by SuperMac. It was positioned as a software showcase for the latter company’s new Spectrum 8-bit color video card for the Mac II and accompanying 19″ monitor. Journalists noted that besides SuperMac, vendors such as PCPC (Personal Computer Peripherals Co.) and Mitsubishi were also shipping large-screen displays that would show off the software to good effect.

T/Maker released ClickArt PostScript Images, a $130 collection of 125 vector-based clip art images for laser printers, as well as a “vertical” product aimed at a specific demographic: ClickArt Christian Images.

A graphics product nevertheless aimed squarely at the DTP market, Symmetry Corp featured the PictureBase Art Management System, “designed for Desktop Publishers who incorporate graphics into documents they prepare. PictureBase is the first and only complete system which allows users to manage Macintosh graphics in an easy to use Library file system.”

MacroMind showed a category-defining product — although they themselves may not have known it at the time:

VideoWorks II — A new, more versatile and more powerful version of the acclaimed animation tool VideoWorks. Its new Over View window is an easy to use front end that adds slide show sequencing of animations and/or illustrations to the original animation system. The animation program features two ways to animate (real-time and cel), color capabilities (for the Macintosh II), and a unique scoring system. Animations may include elaborate sound effects including Macintalk, sampled and synthetized sound. VideoWorks II comes complete with everything you will need to leam the product; interactive tour disk, written tutorials, sample animation and art disks, and an extensive manual.

VideoWorks would of course grow into MacroMind Director, one of the behemoth multimedia authoring packages of the 1990s.

Word Processing Software

Ann Arbor Softworks showed off FullWrite Professional to big crowds (see photo above) but had no software to sell — the release date slipped to mid-September.

WordPerfect Corp had announced the Macintosh version of their leading software back in May, and was promoting it at the expo:

Wordperfect for the Macintosh includes features such as macros, merge, footnotes/endnotes, table of contents/index generation, paragraph/outline numbering, onscreen text columns, 115,000 word spelling checker, thesaums, and is file compatible with Wordperfect 4.2 for the IBM. Conversion from other word processing formats is provided, as well as support of the DCA format.

The software wouldn’t ship till April of 1988, however.

Microsoft showed Word 3.01, Works 1.1 and Excel 1.04, “working together in an office scenario on an AppleShare network.” New features in these products included Mac II compatibility and the removal of copy protection.

Symmetry Corp showed off their outline processor Acta, “designed for people who use the Macintosh to write. Use Acta to prepare and organize manuscripts, reports, journals, etc., and for almost any other kind of writing.”

T/Maker promoted WriteNow in the Program Guide as “one of the leading word processors available today.”

Desktop Publishing Software

The MACazine was eager to demo their own internal processes for desktop publishing the magazine itself:

The MACazine will be demonstrating the desktop publishing system used to put together our page layout. Our editorial staff will be available for questions and comments.

Letraset unveiled Ready, Set, Go! 4.0 with style sheets and text wrapping features.

Springboard Software introduced its own DTP package:

NEW! Springboard Publisher is an integrated desktop publishing program that offers page layout, word processing and graphics creation all in one program. Springboard Publisher is designed for people in home, school and business environments, enabling them to create professional looking pages quickly and easily. Springboard Publisher offers total page layout control, allowing users to change their design as easily as they change their minds. Text and graphics can be placed anywhere on the page.

Software Supply introduced Suitcase, a ‘long-awaited’ font management utility that would go on to play a large role in enabling Mac users to load and unload fonts as needed.

Quark XPress 1.10 was announced, featuring PostScript color separations and TIFF support, together with Works and WriteNow import. Quark promoted the following unique features in XPress:

word processing-includes auto-hyphenation, 80,000 word spelling checker global search and replace.

typography-auto or manual keming increments .01 em-space, leading to .001 of an inch, font sizes from 2 to 500 points, tracking and horizontal scaling.

page layout-hierarchical box system, precision placement, text pipelining, columns, continued to/from messages, auto pagination.

test runaround-automatically runs text around irregularly shaped graphics.

Multimedia Software

MaacroMind showed off VideoWorks II, featuring color support.

Games

Spectrum Holobyte showed off two simulators for the Mac:

Spectrum HoloByte will be showing the two latest additions to their simulation product line. Falcon is the F-16 fighter simulation that puts the user in the cockpit to perform fighter maneuvers while engaging enemy MiG’s in dogfight battles. Sound and digitized airplaine images lend to realism and playability of Falcon. Another new product PT-109, the torpedo boat simulation, takes you to battle on the seas. Enemy attacks will come not only by sea, but from the air as well, so the user must be prepared to make most effective use of his arsenal of weapons consisting of torpedoes, depth charges, rockets, and machine guns. GATO, ORBITER, and TellStar, are other products being displayed.

Silicon Beach presented “three new games for the Macintosh: Apache Strike, which features 3-D air-to-air combat, Android Arena, in which users program robots for battle, and Beyond Dark Castle, the much anticipated sequel to the most popular game of 1987.”

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