Super 8-Bit Contest Winners
Antic editors just completed the grueling but enjoyable task of digging through an avalanche of outstanding 8-bit software submissions--many of which you'll be seeing in upcoming issues throughout 1989.
Winner of the Programming Grand Prize in the Super 8-Bit Contest is Personal Pocket Calendar. This useful program for making mini appointment calendars arrived about midway through the contest period and we rushed it into print--as the Feature Application in last month's Antic. (All programs accepted during the first part of 1988 were eligible for the contest.) Author Jim Hodny of Newfolden, Minnesota wins a megabyte Multi I/O from ICD.
Appearing in this issue are two powerful runner-up programs: Newsroom Converter by John French, connects new pathways between standard Atari graphics software and the Print Shop and Newsroom page designers. Semaphore, by Howie Wishart, puts a little man onscreen waving flags so you can learn to read semaphore signal messages.
Our final runner-up winner is Top Banner!, the versatile banner printer by Jacob Donham and Lee Brilliant from the July 1988 Antic. Each winning runnerup entry receives a pair of prizes from ICD--an R-Time 8 clock/calendar cartridge and the SpartaDOS Construction Set disk.
All four winners of the Feature Article Division of the Super 8-Bit Contest are in this issue. Prizes are the same as for the Programming Division.
The 1988 Grand Prize Article is Atari at the Gazette, Robert McLean's indepth look at how a suburban weekly newspaper in a competitive market stays cost-effective with XL/XE power--including an XE Game System equipped with an extra-long, cable for its detachable keyboard.
The runner-up articles cover a fascinating variety of real-life uses of upgraded Atari 8-bit computers. Air Force Staff Sergeant Chester Cox entertainingly describes how his memory-enhanced system kept the paperwork moving at an isolated Korean airbase when red tape and crashes paralyzed official personnel recordkeeping. Rev. Earl Smith calls the Atari a "godsend" for his busy church. And former showroom violinist Joe Davis explains how MIDI on the 8-bit Atari made possible his longtime dream of playing in a string quartet with his children.
One sad byproduct of the contest articles was Antic's discovery that some key products used so creatively by the authors are no longer being manufactured. Dropouts are Electronic Arts' PaperClip plus Broderbund's SynFile + and SynCalc.
However, in next month's Antic you can expect to see a surprising breakthrough announcement about the return to availability of many outstanding 8-bit commercial programs that were off the market. If you have been looking unsuccessfully for top 8-bit Atari software, don't miss the January 1989 Antic.
Nat Friedland
Editor, Antic