NEW BOOKS FOR ATARI
Roundup of the Latest Releases
by The ANTIC STAFF Mastering Your ATARI Through Eight BASIC Projects,
edited by Tom Marshall, comes with a disk containing the 13 programs discussed
in the book. These programs range from games and music generators
to timers and micro-calculators. Every chapter uses one or two of
these programs to demonstrate important programming concepts. Unfortunately
in many instances, the editor refers to tables and illustrations which
do not exist, and asks you to recall facts from chapters appearing much
later in the book.
$19.95. 174 pages. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 200 Old
Tappan, Old Tappan, NJ 07675, (201) 767-5000.
Basic ATARI BASIC, by James S. Coan and Rishard
Kushner, takes you from an introduction to the PRINT statement to an analysis
of Player-Missile Graphics. Beginning programmers should regard this
book as a reference tool, rather than a tutorial. It is not easy
reading, but the ideas and concepts presented are excellent. The
"Bugs in Atari BASIC," section outlines many ways to overcome the language's
limitations. Another section examines the special features of the
XL Computers, such as enabling fine scrolling through a single POKE statement.
$15.95. 324 pages. Hayden Book Company, 50 Essex
Street, Rochelle Park, NJ 07662, (800) 631-0856
Carl M. Evans's ATARI BASIC-Faster and Better shows
you how to improve your BASIC programs with machine-language subroutines.
The book contains listings and descriptions of more than 80 subroutines,
including routines which can make your program unlistable, analyze your
program's variables, generate AUTORUN.SYS files and create scrolling screen
displays. You don't need to know any machine language to use this
book; Evans has translated each assembly listing into DATA statements to
use in your BASIC programs.
$16.95. 300pages. IJG, Inc. From Antic,
524 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, (415) 957-0886
Advanced Programming Techniques for your Atari Including
Graphics & Voice Programs, by Linda M. Schreiber, will help you
master scrolling, page-flipping, and several other important programming
techniques. The book's most helpful chapter, "Working with the Display
List," shows you how to create and manipulate customized graphics.
The book is easy to read and contains more than 50 type-in programs, including
a character set editor.
$14.50. 207pages. TAB Books Inc., Monterey Avenue,
PO. Box 40, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214, (717) 794-2191.
101 Programming Surprises & Tricks for your ATARI
Computer, by David L. Heiserman, should provide about 30 minutes of
pointless entertainment and frustration for a bored eight-year-old.
The book is a disappointing collection of 101 "mystery" programs.
You type them in and see what they do. There are calendars, quizzes,
mock weather predictions, games. Only some games are programmed to
cheat, and there are other "practical joke" programs scattered throughout
the book.
$11.50. 196 pages. TAB Books Inc, Monterey Avenue,
PO. Box 40, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214, (717) 794-2191.
Robert A. Peck's Advanced Atari BASIC Tutorial,
is a solid sequel to the ATARI BASIC Tutorial. It offers clear
and comprehensive descriptions of advanced programming techniques such
as string manipulation, disk operations and sorting techniques. Featured
is a screen builder program to help you create and save your own graphics
screens.
$11.95. 174 pages. Howard W. Sams & Co.,
Inc, 300 West 62nd Street, P.O. Box 7092, Indianapolis, IN 46206, (317)
298-54oa
How to Get the Most Out of CompuServe, by Charles
Bower and Davia Peyton. If you got a CompuServe Starter Kit as a
present, or you're just thinking about maybe becoming a subscriber to this
telecommunications information service, get this book. It presents
a series of "guided tours" through CompuServe's many layers of menus and
commands. The tutorial will save you from wasting considerable time
and money as you get familiar with moving around Compuserve.
$14.95. 275 pages. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10103. (212) 765-6500.
The Coming Computer Industry Shakeout: Winners, Losers
& Survivors, by Stephen McClennan. The author is a leading
computer stock analyst whose purpose here was to counsel on which high-tech
companies to buy shares in and which to avoid. But the book also
gives a startlingly frank, no-holds-barred critique of the good points
and bad points of just about every important computer-related company.
You'll get a kick out of this if you're interested in the computer industry
as a whole.
$19.95. 349 Pages. Wiley & Sons, 605 Third
Avenue , New York, NY 10158. (212) 850-6500.
BASIC on the Atari Computer for Kids, by Keith and
Cherie Wyner, will give you a clear, simple and thorough introduction to
BASIC programming. The text and examples are written at a fifth-grade
level, but adults willing to study a "kiddie" textbook can expect to learn
a good amount of BASIC in very little time.
$12.95. 213 pages. Howard W Sams & Co., Inc.,
4300 West 62nd street, P.O. Box 7092, Indianapolis, IN, 46206, (317) 298-5400.
Getting Started with Your 600XL and The Atari
600XL Program Book, by Peter Goode, will help you get the most out
of your XL. The Program Book is filled with well-documented type-in
games, music programs, and Biorhythm graphings. Just remember that
these books were originally published in Great Britain, so the listings
substitute the "Pound" sign for our number sign (#).
12.95 each. 150 pages. David & Charles, Inc,
Box 57, North Pomfret, VT 05053. (802) 457-1911
Kids And The Atari by Edward Carlson is an excellent
choice for adult beginners too, despite its title. Chock-full of
brief BASIC samples and clever illustrations, the book is spiral bound
for easier program typing. The writing is clear and conversational
as it covers the fundamentals of BASIC.
$19.95. 219 pages. Datamost. From Antic,
524 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 957-0886.
The Musical Atari by Hal Glicksman simultaneously
teaches you music and BASIC programming for the Atari's four voices.
The book features 29 songs arranged for piano and Atari duets, plus a line-up
of sound effects routines. Includes programs for turning the Atari
keyboard into a piano or chord organ.
$14.95. 167 pages. Datamost. From Antic,
524 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 957-0886.
RESTONIS CREATIVE PASTIMES
The best way for most people to learn BASIC is by typing in short programs
and experimenting with them. If the programs are accompanied by text
that explains them and gives suggestions for alterations, so much the better.
Enter Creative Pastimes, a new series of $6.95 spiral-bound
books for beginners from Reston Publishing.
Homework Helper, at 149 pages the largest of the
series, presents programs for memory skills, spelling and word problems,
and history. The "Computer As A Tool" section gives you programs
for using your Atari as a calculator, to paint, plot bar graphs, sort lists,
and to learn number systems.
The programs are presented in fully-explained modules,
with instructions on how to combine modules for a larger, more powerful
program. The book appears to be a translation for the Atari from
a version written for some other computer. So it includes a few commands
which simply don't work.
The Code Breakers (subtitled An Atari Adventure)
contains a book-length narrative. Nikki and Adam are a teenage brother-and-sister
detective team on the trail of a mystery. Using their computer, they
decode clues with your help.
There are only seven short programs in the 75-page book,
and none is well explained. However, as an interactive story-program
for youngsters, "The Code Breakers" appears to have good entertainment
value.
Once the first thrill of novelty has worn off, 41 1/2
Fun Projects For Your Atari promises to get you interested in playing
with your computer again. There's a wide range of programs here,
with a solid emphasis on puzzles. In addition, there are plenty of
suggestions for modifying the programs to suit your requirements.
The first section, "Word Play," presents the familiar
word-search puzzle, word and sentence-scrambling programs. "IQ Building"
consists primarily of memory exercises, including a concentration-type
game. "Strategy Puzzles" contains the star program of the book, an
ancient Japanese game called Dozo with a skillful computer opponent.
This game alone is probably worth the price.
The "Music and Noise" section takes advantage of Atari's
flexible music-generation capabilities, including a program for tuning
guitars and one for tutoring guitar. Finally, "Computer Utilities"
provides programs such as "A Calculator Utility," "Decimal/Hex/Binary Conversion,"
and believe it or not, "A Computer Dating Service"! An appendix accounts
for the title's "1/2," and gives 12 suggestions for modifying the book's
programs or creating your own.
Atari Puzzlements is an interesting experiment.
It seems to be intended more for the confirmed debugger than for those
who are just learning about BASIC. The book is packed full with very
short routines, each of which contains an error of some sort. A line
may be scrambled or missing, or program lines may be in the wrong order,
or there just might be a tiny mistake in one of the lines. The book's
idea is to make you aware of the types of mistakes you make as a beginner,
so you'll become more adept at tracking down and solving them. The
quality is slightly marred by misleading instructions.
Creative Pastimes has a subcategory of books entitled
"Itty Bitty Bytes". Intended for children from ages 6-9, the series
attempts to capture children's interest with graphics and sound while teaching
them about programming.
All books use the simple, straight-forward approach of
presenting a short program on one page, with a line-by-line explanation
of the program (take-apart) on the facing page. In most cases, it
will be necessary for parents to help their children type in and use the
programs.
Itty Bitty Bytes of Space programs include "Gravity,"
"Music from Mother Earth," and "Meteors," a simple game. Some School
Days programs include "Spelling Counts!," "State the States," and the intriguing
"Gag Me With a Spoon," which lets you vent your frustration with the school
cafeteria. Matilda, the Computer Cat contains "Fleas!," "Nine
Lives," and "In the Kitty."
As inexpensive introductions to BASIC programming, the
Creative Pastimes series succeeds. Most of the books provide good
value and should keep young computerists occupied for hours with a minimum
of frustration.
$6.95 each. Reston Publishing, 11480 Sunset Hills
Road, Reston, VA 22090. (800) 336-0338