The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 47

Saturday Oct 1 1983 The Miami Herald 3D Games Know your amps woofers and ia-KB sifev a chance to get back at Frank Burns By RICK VOGT get enough of that Korean-war movie that spawned a TV series that spawned a spinoff? Now Players M-A-S-H by Fox Video Games for the Atari 2600 You play against another player or the computer who is called Frank Bums The point is to rescue injured men from the Korean battleground picking them up with your helicopter You must in most game variations dodge trees and shells fired by a tank on the ground When your helicopter is full you must return to base and when picked up enough men to complete a round it's off to the operating room to remove shrapnel from an injured soldier In the operating room precision is the key to success One wrong move and your patient bites the dust flashes on the screen as testimony to your failure There are four versions of the game (eight if you count each two-player versions) Price: $31 rating: rating: Quote Unquote STEREO From ID say a digital display panel than in the components of performance Polsky adds that get by all the choices and wind up buying too little or too much Your best defense against these pit-falls is to shop around a while Ask questions of friends and knowledgeable salesmen Take the time to become familiar with current technology and gad-getry Decide what you want and need in a system For example is a tape cassette player essential or will an AMFM radio alone do? Then tailor a realistic budget for yourself Beware salesmen who know nothing of installation for they could sell you something that fit your car This is more likely to happen in a discount department or electronics store that install what it sells Also be prepared to say no to extra equipment One area shop is known among audio specialists for its chicken-in-every-pot pitch for amplifiers in every dashboard Basic needs Margol warns that there are a tremendous number of variables in designing a system for your car That is why it is so important he says to identify your basic needs then seek help to carefully construct a suitable system If starting from scratch Margol suggests you begin with the speakers Two speakers are standard You may want four for fuller sound but find out first whether your car can accommodate them all Look for speakers that provide a treble clean without being brittle and a bass tight solid and without a boomy sound Once selected speakers look for a low-distortion amplifier that will drive those speakers at their optimum Most amplifiers Margol says deliver earth-shattering power The typical radio-cassette player has a built-in amplifier with an output of 10 watts or 5 watts per channel Such a unit combined with a good pair of speakers is adequate for many people Margol says For others like the kids want to blow the doors only a custom-made system will do You also want to examine the radio and the tape player Most systems today 3 come with both and the savings can be as little as $35 for a radio-only unit It may actually be harder to find a simple radio that offers all the features you want than it would be to buy a combined unit Wow and flutter The radio should be sensitive enough to pick up weak signals without fading problem that someone could call up your computer and rifle through your files but rather that data you send over phone lines and the computers you work with at the office and at home are very open to outside Marc Rotenberg founder of the Public Interest Computer Association a not-for-profit organization in Washington DC dedicated to keeping tabs on technical legal and ethical problems confronting computer users 8 i i in and out and provide clean selectivity from station to station Among the things you want is tape waver or in the parlance of electronics and Also check the loading mechanism to see that it accepts the tape slowly and easily and keeps it locked evenly in place Among the radio brand names encounter are Concord Blaupunkt San-sui Alpine Proton Autotek Nakamichi Kenwood Sherwood JVC and Jensen Popular speakers include some of those same brands plus Philips Panasonic Sanyo Pioneer Clarion Visomk Altec Lansing and Polk Audio Many manufacturers offer low- medium- and high-priced models Among the radio brand names encounter are Concord Blaupunkt San-sui Alpine Kenwood Proton Autotek Nakamichi Kenwood Sherwood JVC and Jensen Popular speakers include some of those same brands plus Philips Panasonic Sanyo Pioneer Clarion Vi-somk Altec Lansing and Polk Audio Many manufacturers offer low- medium- and high-priced models When as Margol suggested you have found several models that fulfill your criteria for sound quality and performance the next step is to look at the other features The experts grouped these features into two categories Essential they say are: Treble and base control rather than a singular tone control The former allows you to turn up the treble without losing the base and visa versa Locking fast forward and rewind on the tape player Some units have only the fast forward which means you would have no way of rewinding the tape A locking mechanism permits you to remove your hand and makes the player do the work Personal Computers hard disk will save a lot of disk swapping All the programs can be on one disk In fact an entire book can be on one disk along with research notes first draft second draft final draft and various letters to various publishers Hard disks not only hold more but are also faster than floppy disks If you reformat a lot (as screenwriters tend to do) or change the names of your characters frequently (as romantic novelists tend to do) then a hard disk jui ijim pm mi ipiwjg' Groups tweeters XT raVsji- t-e NV VX £1 f' jj 1 1 ically tunes across the dial allowing you to sample the offerings of each station without further dialing or button pushing When pushed a second time the button will lock you onto your station of choice Some of the experts say this is really more a luxury than convenience item Once you've settled the matter of your concert-hall-on-wheels all you need worry about is protecting it For that need an alarm but another story Stereo for choppers es grandma they really do make stereo systems for motorcycles Ed Pierpoint parts manager at South Dade Yamaha says cyclists have had radios as long as had fairings A fairing he explains is the fiberglass bodywork on the front of a bike that costs $300 and up It creates spaces for radio and speaker installation Even though there are some making systems specifically for motorcycles some for as little as $85 car radios and standard four-inch speakers can also be used he says This spring Yamaha came out with Music in Motion which doesn't require a fairing The $329 newcomer has speakers that fit next to the two mirrors and a sound center that fits on the handle bars These babies Pier-point says are hot drives negative things about it: that its construction is poor that it is noisy and moves ail over the table while it is printing A Well it is noisy and the construction would not rival the Rock of Gibraltar but I have never seen it move over the The TP-1 was a pioneering machine: letter quality for less than $900 Now lots of competition and the best letter-quality printer (NEC) can be had for only a few hundred more than $900 hoping the TP-2 will be a major improvement both in price and quality My favorite low-cost letter-quality printer at the moment is the Morrow GET 150 IN VACATION SAVINGS CERTIFICATES WHEN YOU BUV A COLECOVISIOM DETAILS AT STORE NEW FOR COLECO MR DO TIME PILOT Q-BERT VICTORY SUB-SCAN OMEGA RACE MINER 2049ER EXPANSION MODULE 1 4 9 wpiirdmt of 1 Cartmtge I JK 800 1200 XL ATARI CALL FOR OUR NEW LOW PRICES RANA 1000 DISC DRIVE FOR ATARI COMPUTERS IN STOCK COLOR MONITOR F0RnQ9 ATARI 8 COMMODORF 259 PRINTERS GEMIN1 10 GEMIN1 15 ATAR1 1025 SElKOSHAlFOR ATARI) JK ocnn ATARI 2600 $75 -30 Rebate 45 ATARI 5200 145 -30 Rebate 115 IN STOCK POLE POSITION 3690 $23900 BLANK TAPE SPECIAL MAXELL SCOTCH AND PANASONIC T12Q No Limit each ACCESS 64X PORTABLE COMPUTER 2195 DISC DRIVE MONITOR PRINTER MODEM $2000 9QFTWARE PKG 8871 SW 107th AVE 271-8273 7370 RED ROAD SO MIAMI 665-9243 Whtto Ouantitwt Last Mo Rmchocfc AH Cath Price Offer Eipirw IQ-5 Prices dive on hardy iyasag i s- 'W A ivy' i i Preset buttons These enable you to select your favorite stations with the push of a button rather than having to scroll to find them Some experts consider presets a convenient rather than an essential component but most recommend it as a safety feature that enables the switching of stations without taking your eyes off the road Dolby noise reduction This clarifies sound by reducing tape hiss Fader control This adjusts relative levels front-to-back in a four-speaker system Convenient they say are: Bias switch This permits you to use chrome ferric or metal tapes and to get optimum performance from each Automatic reverse By automatically switching to the other side of the tape this feature saves you the trouble of having to manually remove the tape and turn it over At the push of a button you can also change tape direction at any time Key-off eject Turn off your ignition and your player automatically ejects the tape A related feature is the automatic eject which shoves out the cassette when done playing Music search This fast-winds the tape to the beginning of the next song It means you can switch from say the middle of the previous selection without a long delay Locallong-distance switch This cuts down on station interference It allows you to hone in on a faraway station by removing the sounds of a stronger local one Digital readout of station frequency This gives you a quick and easy-to-read display of your exact location on the dial It is another of those on the features because the numbers are so much larger and easier to see than those usually found on the dial Scan-and-seek The radio automat hard disk will save you oh five or 10 minutes a day The real speed of a hard disk is appreciated during routine editing Block moves insertions deletions and other sometimes complicated tasks happen at once But please if you get a hard disk make backup copies of your information regularly You of course Nobody does But my job to put in disclaimer sentences so that when that one person in 10000 loses his or her work in a single clunk I can point to that sentence and say I TOLD you to back it I was considering a Smith Corona TP-1 printer but I heard only Pkg INCLUDES QX-10 Computer RX-80 Printer Cable Peachtree Pack! (256 Valdocs) A BARGAIN! OSBORNE Exec Computer Pkg Includes non-glore monitor 1 995 OSBORNE DD 80-Column Computer w12" non-glare monitor $1395 WE SERVICE ALL OSBORNE COMPUTERS $1595 CITOH 200 CPS Printer $995 with tractor feed All Zenith Z90 Software Vi Price Computer Care Kit $30 val $1495 The Dade County Color Computer Users Group meets at 7:30 pm on the third Tuesday of each month at the Miami Shores Community Center 9617 Park Dr Miami Shores For more information write to the club at 468 NE 90th St El Portal Fla 33138 The North Dade Computer Society meets every two months Its subdivisions called for special interest groups meet more often to discuss Apple computers Ataris and TRS80s For details write to Steven Apple 17400 NE Seventh Ct Box M8 North Miami Beach Fla 33162 The Miami Computer club meets once a month on the second Thursday at the Hialeah He-athkit store at 7 pm Membership is open to all computer users Membership dues are $10 per year Members may make copies of software in the CPM library for $1 per disk Call Jack Curtis vice president at 353-1361 after 6 pm for further information Miami 994 A Users Group of the Texas Instruments Home Computer will be holding general meetings the last Sunday of each month at 1 pm in the Museum of Science Space Transit Planetarium Room A 3280 Miami Avenue The public is invited For details call 620-7723 in Dade and 431-1682 in Broward By PETER McWILLIAMS QI have heard that the cost of including hard disk drives is dropping fast Do you see any indications that they will get into the price range of a personal computer? A Yes A five-to- 10-megabyte hard disk now costs $1000 to $2000 This is much cheaper than it was only a short while ago Indications are that prices will continue to drop Hard disks are invaluable for managing large mailing lists or editing large files If you like to work over your prose with several programs (spell-check thesaurus grammar punctuation footnotes indexes etc) a CALL 350-2462 TO ADVERTISE IN THE MARKETPLACE You deserve a lot of credit DADELAND PLAZA: 9559 So Dixie Hwy 665-1013 HOURS: Monday through Saturday 9 to 9 AND Sunday noon to 5 pm Come see us! mtsaEszssss SAVE FROM THE PRICE OF AN IBM-PC! By buying the ALL NEW EAGLE PC COMPUTER ftfffoAY Of SundaY considered by experts to be the OX-10 Sate BEST PC available AT ANY PRICE! Compatible with ALL IBM-PC SOFTWARE' Purchase an EAGLE PC Computer' with FULL Software Package! 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