The Apple II Review Spring 1986

, Software and la | | on RCViCVE More Than 50 New Product Reviews Home Finance Software Revisited Managing A Portfolio With AppleWorks Speed Demons For The Apple Ile , 2 ee eee) eee 70194, *) y q ~ ery, : Why The Biggest Names In Soft AST’s SprintDisk Memory AST and leading software manu- facturers are working together to break new ground, establish new stan- dards and provide new solutions that enhance the power of your Apple II for your serious business and edu- cational needs. In making their hardware compati- bility choices— choices that can make or break their companies —the “The most current versions SprinDisk. SprineCache trademarks and SixPakPlus registered trademark of AST Research, ne. Apple registered trademark and ‘Apple il, Macintosh, AppleWriter Il, Appielorks and ProDOS trademarks of Apple Computer. Inc: BusinessWorks i 9 trademark of Manzanita Software Systems, MouseWte is a trademark of inet Publishing, Ine. Dollars and Sense is a trademark mograr BPI apd BPL Systems are trademarks of BP isa trademark of Sensible Software. inc trademarks of Version Soft SuperCale 5a is a registered trademark TUS Micro Software, A Division of C PES: Write, PFS: orporation. Pinpoint is 3 tual Combinaties, Ine fark of Micro Education, ‘ 8 Corporation of Ame Copyright ©1986 AST Research, Ine. All rights reserved. software leaders look to AST, the hardware leader with the proven track record. So should you. AST is the world’s leading supplier of enhancement products for personal computers with a well-earned reputa- tion for outstanding quality and reliability. We offer a full-line of prod- ucts for the Apple II and Macintosh™ families. And you've heard of our award-winning SixPakPlus® multi- function card for the IBM PC— the defacto industry standard with well over 500,000 shipped. Introducing SprintDisk: Up To 2 MB Of Memory Expansion And All The Software Compatibility, With None Of The Modifications. The new generation memory card is here, now you can break the 64K barrier with all the software compati- bility you need. Designed for use as a rapid-access, mass-storage device, SprintDisk provides up to 2 Mega- bytes of desktop workspace for your spreadsheets, word processing docu- ments and databases Good-bye Software Patches. With SprintDisk you can take advan- tage of expanded memory while sa’ “good-bye” to the hassles of modi- é pple Writer r ware Are 100% Compatible With Expansion ForThe Apple II’ fications. All your favorite applications software* (those illustrated above and more) are completely, automatically and immedi- ately compatible. Of course, SprintDisk is ProDOS™ DOS 3.3 and Pascal 1.3 compatible. The Speed of AST’s SprintCache™ Buffer. We include exclusive utility software — we call it SprintCache — so if you are using multiple storage devices, you can also use SprintDisk as a caching buffer. It allows you to cache up to fourteen floppy, hard-disk or tape drives for higher performance and greater productivity. Hardware Facts. SprintDisk is compatible with the Apple II Memory BusinessWo Expansion board. It’s fully sock- eted and user-upgradeable with 256 Kb chips. And it comes with its own RAM diagnostic software. The Quality, Service and Support of an Industry Leader. AST’s worldwide reputation is built on quality. SprintDisk features the highest-quality four-layer construction and undergoes extensive testing and comprehensive burn-in procedures for the ultimate in reliability -AST has the lowest product failure rate in the industry. And don't forget our two-year warranty, world-renowned service and customer support. For more information call (714) 476-3866 or circle the reader service below. SprintDisk * Up to 2 MB Total Memory =256 Kb to 1.0 MB on mainboard —Up to 1.0 MB additional memory on piggyback card Apple Il Memory Expansion board compatible SprintCache for fast, user-transparent disk/ tape caching ProDOS, DOS 3.3 and Pascal 1.3 compatible No application software modifications necessary Fits any I/O slot except #3 in Il, I+ or He Fully socketed and user-upgradeable RESEARCH INC. when a, ing that luster? Tin the better. RAl what can you, more on an might imag Accelerator Cards THISWAP iccirrmmasennrawes 12 Apple IIc Additions VUE -acpsunl ungpe sgt ieSiaaabel sate 13 Hotlink and Grappler C . LiveWire Computer Vision Computereyes .: sisava.criaes ee ivus © 17 Maintenance Applesurance Modems Apple Personal Modem . Apple Cat aie Promodem 1200A And 300C......... 23 Monitors ColotMonitor Wes ccecauigeeen cuss 24 Printer Cards URIBE ceseccornsenanomemnucnesimneee mi... Enterta’ Advent Adventt tructiQM Set. ....... Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative . .33 The Alpine Encounter .............5 Construction Under Fire! . . GameMaker . . Creative Great International Paper Airplane Construction Kit. . Car Builder . . Magazine Uptime Magazine ..............9 Simulations Summer Games II. . The Other Side...... Crusade In Europe... . Learning Software Educational Software In The Home And School................ 42 Parents and teachers need to know the difference between software targeted for the home and school. As it turns out, there may be considerable overlap. The biggest difference may be in the teaching approach—not the programs themselves. Gi Mindstretcher Series... .... History The Oregon Trail . . Languages Batalla de P. Correct B Mi G mbe: ‘Math Asg Algebra Philo Prob! Arithm ichool wutterbug’s Nutshell, Pipel Pre-Writing Prelelissascusramnnesceremasns 59 Programming Pascal 1.3 Logo 3.0. P-tral . . Entire contents copyright 1986 by Redgate Communications Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, is an independent journ: including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Apple Il Review 0t affiliated in any way with Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Computer, Inc. has granted Redgate Communications Corporation the right to use the title The ‘Apple Il Review. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. The Apple lle and the Apple lic are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., used by permission. Redgate ‘Communications Corporation is not responsible for the accuracy of product listings and descriptions. Some of the views expressed by contributors may not be representative of the 2° Spring 1986 Teacher Communications Report Card . ASCII Express Professional Da Poma GB. Softerm 2 Let's Tk sees vsaucswesvs Words First Steps To Reading: Desktop Phonics I And Il, . Catalyst 3.0 Richard Scarry’s Best Electronic Mouse Desk . Word Book Ever! ............... 66 Filing Word Processing ProFILER 2.1............ Magic Slate . Miscellaneous Drawing Software Animation Fantavision . ggficeaneaer.... 70 Public Domain Real Estate t possible to combine the best of \dgeting with the sophistication of incial planning in a single program? drew Tobias thinks so. Maybe you should, tog Radio Exchange. Utility Profix . . software. It’s tiny, fast, cheap and the closest thing yet to the computer ap- Pinpoint: ciageerere sy pliance. AppleWorks Version 1.3 . FontWorks . Accounting General Accounting . Product Index BusinessWorks. . . By Company Name..... Apple Starter Kit......... Public Domain Software On File. . 88 89 90 -90 92 93 Next to each advertiser's name is a reader service number. Circle the appropriate numbers on the Reader Response Card in this issue, detach the card, affix postage and mail. Reader Page Advertiser Service # # AST Research, Inc. 1 TFC & 1 Applied Engineering 3 9 Apple Computer, Inc. - 4&5 Applied Engineering 6 5 Applied Engineering 9 4 Applied Engineering 10 45 Applied Engineering n 4g Applied Engineering 2 49 Applied Engineering B 51 Applied Engineering Mo 52& 55 Applied Engineering 2 B Applied Engineering 3 IBC Blue Chip Software 30 81 Bristen Press 16 537 cO-DU-CO 27 ol 08-30. & 31 3 5 55 DaPoma, Inc 29 103 Digital Vision, Inc. 28 103 Great Games Products 20 104 Kensington Microware Ltd, 31 BC MECA (Micro Education Corporation of America) 0” 29 Norwich Data Services Lid. 26 69 PM Software 7 Pinpoint Publishing a R 6 60 av Magazine 95 ‘els Fargo Bank-Quicken 19 views held by Redgate Communications Corporation. Unsolicited manuscripts and other materials will be returned only if accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The publisher is not responsible for unsolicited materials. Printed in the U.S. by R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Glasgow, KY. The Apple I! Review is published quarterly by Redgate Communications Corporation at 3381 Ocean Drive, Vero Beach, FL 32963, 305-231-6904. Subscription rates: $14.00 per year; Canada $20.00; foreign $4000. All orders are payable only in US. funds. Redgate Communications Corporation also publishes The Macintosh Buyer's Guide, The Marketer—The Magazine For Apple Computer Dealers, Wang Solutions, COMPAQ, FYI—The Harris Magazine For Information Management, LIST, a series of computer books and other properties. For more information contact Ted Leonsis, Redgate Communications Corporation. The Apple II Review 3 The Apple II Review Redgate Communications Corporation President: Ted Leonsis Vice President / Chief Financial Officer: Jeff Parsons Comptroller: Conrad Smith Assistant to the President: John J. Campione Editor & Publisher: Ted Leonsis Managing Editor: Paul Pinella Creative Director: Mark S. Ballard Associate Editor: Nan Herlihy Contributing Editors: Ron Errett, Thomas R. Kempf, Jeff Lea Editorial Assistant: Paulette Siclari Product Review Board: Philip Chien, Nan Herlihy, Gail Hodgkiss, Ken Landis, Mark Mathosian, Paul Pinella, Karina L. Quizon Director of Manufacturing: Deborah J. Graves Assistant Art Director: Wendy L. McCloud Typesetting Operations; Kathaleen S. Ross Production Coordinator: leslie D. Lehman. Circulation: Joseph J. Sparano Circulation Assistant: Karen K. Lindsey Credit and Collections Manager: Melinda K. Jones Advertising Sales Managers: Beth Murphy, Martin Olive © (305-231-6904) Client Services / Ad Sales: Sandy Van Salisbury (305-231-6904) _ Advertising Assistant: Kathleen Sofferin Support Staff: Sandi Byrd, Betty Clark Cover and Feature Photography by: Greg Leary Photography, Melbourne, Florida : 4 Spring 1986 he itor’s Fi Back To Tomorrow The reverberations from the Challenger disaster were felt around the world. But here on the east coast of Florida, the tragedy seems amplified by location. Red- gate Communications Corp. is located about 80 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center. Shuttle watching is best done from the beach, where palm trees, condominiums and hotels can’t obstruct the uncluttered ocean view to the north. From this distance, we can’t hear the awe- some thunder from the shuttle’s engines, but the view is still impressive. As the world knows by now, it was a cold, bright January morning when Challenger came to its end. It had been cold the previous morning, when a group of us gathered outside to watch a launch ultimately scrubbed due to overcast skies and high winds. Launch delays are nothing new to the shuttle program, so we took it all in stride and went back to work. The next day— January 28—the clouds were gone but the cold air seemed even colder and more un- forgiving, It was too chilly to consider standing on the beach, where the wind felt particu- larly harsh to those of us used to shirt- sleeve weather. We stayed in the office because launch time remained uncertain. The shuttle could have flown at any time that morning and we didn’t have time to wait. Besides, if you miss one launch, there's always another just a month away. Or so we thought. What happened next was a national nightmare. The close-up television shots of Challenger being ripped apart will re- main imprinted in memory, along with recollections of President Kennedy's assas- sination and the pictures of blindfolded hostages in Iran. When I heard the news that Challenger had exploded, I ran to the window’and looked up. There, high above the sea, was a solid jet trail ending in an eerie white cloud with several smaller trails spiraling outward in a lost, random pattern. Somebody turned on a radio. A few of us hoped that the orbiter would suddenly appear and glide down toward its runway, or at least be found intact, floating on the water. Perhaps the astronauts somehow survived. It soon became obvious, how- ever, that the white cloud was all-con- suming. Barely 20 minutes after the explosion, eulogies were read for McNair, Onizuka, Resnik, Scobee, Smith, Jarvis and McAuliffe. It’s now more than two months after the Challenger disaster. We already know much of what went wrong with the shut- Ue, both from a technical and administra- tive standpoint. It’s now time to do the right thing. Let’s begin building another, safer shuttle, start work on a new genera- tion of expendable rockets and further explore the air-breathing space-plane con- cept. My guess is that the fallen astronauts wouldn't have it any other way. ProDOS Progression On a more Apple II note, I’ve begun to better appreciate the smooth evolution of the Apple II family over the years, espe- cially how the ProDOS operating system has kept the Apple II technologically current. This thinking was spurred on by the recent addition of a UniDisk 3.5 high- capacity disk drive to my trusty Apple IIc. The UniDisk 3.5 is a major improvement over the standard 5%4-inch floppy drive, and its disks store about six times as much information. It's also wonderfully ProDOS compatible. Using ProDOS filer utilities, its simple to move programs from one environment to another with nary a hitch. In many ways, ProDOS is nearly the -equal of Microsoft's MS-DOS in the IBM 16-bit universe and has carried the torch in keeping the Apple II at the forefront of eight-bit computing. If CP/M had received the same amount of attention as the Apple Il and ProDOS, it may still be battling in the commercial market. Who knows? Granted, mastering the finer points of ProDOS takes a reasonable amount of study. ProDOS procedures seem a little tricky at first. Even the most insignificant typo can leave you puzzled. That's why it’s worthwhile spending an evening with the manual or some of the better ProDOS books now appearing. You and your Ap- ple will be better for it. —Paul Pinella, Managing Editor Lets com An Apple llc Ts Apple IIc on the right works exactly the same as the Apple IIc on the left. Almost. The Apple on the right has a powerful memory expansion coprocessing card called Z-RAM. From Applied Engineering. Which means the Apple on the right can completely load AppleWorks into RAM—and then run it up to thirty times faster than the Apple on the left. Z-RAM also acts as a solid-state disk drive. Which means the Apple on the right will load and store programs up to 30 times faster. And, our included RAM disk is compatible with Applesoft, PRO-DOS, DOS 3.3, PASCAL and CP/M. Turbo Charged AppleWorks. Even a 256K Z-RAM can completely load AppleWorks into RAM. With Z-RAM, the moment your fingers touch the keyboard AppleWorks responds. A 256K Z-RAM lets y¢ IIc run AppleWorks up to 30 times faster, increases a desktop to 235K and maximum number of records from 1,350 to over 15,000, quadruples the number of lines allowed in the word processor, provides a print spooler, and auto- segments large files so they can be saved on two or more disks. A 512K Z-RAM boosts AppleWorks desktop to an incredible 425K. Take a closer look. There's more. Z-RAM has a built-in high speed Z-80B microprocessor that allows you to run CP/M programs. Which means you now have access to the single largest body of software in existence, including popular packages like WordStar, dBase II, Turbo PASCAL and Microsoft BASIC. A 16 bit option is also available. And still more. Z-RAM is compatible with all IIc software and hardware, installs easily in just ten minutes with a screwdriver (slightly longer without), is available with 256K or 512K of additional memory (a 256K Z-RAM can be upgraded to 512K at An Apple Ic with Z-RAM any time). Z-RAM is easily handled by the IIc power supply with our patent pending power saving design The only thing better than that would be a recommendation from Steve Wozniak. “I recommend Applied Engineering products whole- heartedly.” (Of course, Steve's IIc has a Z-RAM installed.) Steve Wozniak, the creator of Apple Computer For fast response. Z-RAM comes complete with simple instructions, RAM disk software, Z-80 operating system, CP/M manual. And a five year “hassle free” warranty. Make a good Apple great. With 256K Z-RAM “384K total” ($329); with 512K “640K total” ($389); 16 bit option may be added later ($89). If you want to run CP/M software, but don’t need more memory, we suggest our Z-80c card. The Z-80c has no memory expansion ports and is priced at only $159. Call 214-241-6060 TO ORDER TODAY. 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Seven days, or send check or money order to Applied Engineering. MasterCard, Visa and COD. welcome. Texas residents add 514% sales tax. Add $10.00 outside U.S.A. AE Applied Engineering P.O. Box 798, Carrollton, TX 75006 (214) 241-6060 Hardw Remember when a megabyte of RAM was something that only a mainframe could muster? Times have changed—for the better. RAM is now inexpensive, but what can you do with a megabyte or more on an Apple II? More than you might imagine. Going Dow! __ Memo By Philip Chien ight now, my Apple Ile has over 3 million bytes (3MB) of RAM installed. Besides the standard 64K of RAM on the motherboard and a small amount of memory reserved for input and output functions (I/O), I have three sepa- rate IMB RAM cards, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. About the only thing they have in common is that each board uses 256K RAM chips and all of them plug into an Apple Il. Few users would ever want this much RAM, and fewer still would want to deal with three incompatible cards from three separate manufacturers, But the question is which card should you choose and how can all of that memory be used? Be- fore you choose, read on. You'll be better prepared to take your own trip down memory lane. The Three-Meg Apple The AUX slot of my Ile (the one nor- mally equipped with Apple's extended memory card and 64K of RAM) has Ram- works II installed from Applied Engineer- ing. Slot 4 of my Apple Ile has the new Apple II Memory Expansion Card from 6 Spring 1986 Apple Computer. And slot 5 has the Leg- end $’ card installed from Legend Indus- tries, Ltd. Apple II Memory Expansion Card Of the various cards I tested, the Apple II Memory Expansion Card is the newest memory expansion board and has just been released by Apple Computer. Since it has the Apple name attached, it should be well supported by future programs. The card currently is compatible with the Cat- alyst 3.0 desktop environment (see “How To Make An Apple II Look Like A Macin- tosh” in the Winter °85 issue of The Apple II Review), ProDOS, DOS 3,3, Pascal 1.3 and Appleworks version 1.3. Since the Apple II Memory Expansion Card is RAM based, it runs much faster than a normal mechanical drive. The card plugs into any empty slot on the Apple II, I+ or Ile. When using ProDOS, the card “looks” like a hard disk drive to the Ap- ple Ile and acts just like one. The name of the drive is /RAM4. If the card is not plugged into slot 4, the “4” will be replaced by the appropriate slot ry Lane number, If you use the ProDOS Filer pro- gram to copy a program from diskette to the card, you can even boot from the card by typing PR#4. The Apple card comes with utilities al- ready installed in ROM chips, so there's no need for extra diskette-based software. One of these ROM programs includes an attach routine for DOS 3.3, thereby ena- bling you to load and run DOS 3.3 pro- grams. After you boot DOS 3.3, all you have to do is type IN#4 to activate the RAM drive patch. The DOS 3.3 attach routine is a nice feature, but not as powerful as it could be. You can create only one RAM drive for DOS 3.3 and the drive's capacity cannot exceed 400K. This means that any memo- ry beyond 400K on the card will be ig- nored by DOS 3.3. Still, a 400K RAM disk will hold a lot more data and programs than a standard 54-inch diskette, which holds 143K. Here's something else to keep in mind: the DOS routine only works with stan- dard 48K DOS 3.3. Any program that has to move DOS 3.3 up into the language card (and there are not that many) will not work. Pascal 1.3 (Apple's latest version of Pas- cal, reviewed separately in this issue) auto- matically supports the Apple II Memory Expansion Card as an extra block device. This means you can format it, transfer files to it and use the card like any other disk drive while in Pascal. Besides the RAM drive routines, the card’s ROM also includes a diagnostic rou- tine that verifies whether each of the RAM chips is working properly. Having ROM utilities on the card is con- venient. You can use the card without worrying about booting up special soft- ware to take advantage of its features. But ROM drivers are generic routines designed to please everybody. They’re also “frozen” in firmware; unlike diskette-based software, ROMs are forever (unless you physically re- move the chips at a later date and replace them). Consequently, ROM routines cannot be optimized for every application. Some newer programs bypass the ROM routines in order to directly access the Apple II Memory Expansion Card. Catalyst 3.0, for example, can automatically load and use programs from the Apple card. The latest release of Appleworks, version 1.3, uses the card to expand the Apple- works desktop up to 1,012K. Unfortunately, Appleworks has not been updated to take advantage of all the extra memory. The word processor is still limit- ed to 2,250 lines and the data base is limited to 1,350 records. While you can put more files on your desktop, those files cannot be much larger than those on a standard Apple II without the Apple II Memory Expansion Card. Legend S’ Card The Legend S’ card is the granddaddy of Apple memory cards and is based on the oldest memory-mapping technique. It was designed originally for the Apple II and II+ computers, but also works in the Apple Ie. It will work in any standard slot of either machine, including slot 0 of an Apple II or slot 3 of an Apple Ile. In slot 0 of an Apple II, the Legend $’ card will look like a 16K language card. It will even work in slot 3 of a Ile without interfering with any card in the Apple Ile’s AUX slot. Since the Legend S’ card was designed to work with earlier Apples, it looks to the computer like several 16K RAM cards strung together. Included with the Legend S’ card are several DOS 3.3 utilities, in- cluding software for creating a RAM disk. Software for ProDOS, Pascal and CP/M RAM disks is available as an option. Die-hard Apple III fans will be pleased to know that the Legend $’ card works well in that machine. An optional SOS driver is available that lets you use the card as a RAM disk in the Apple III’s na- tive mode. The Legend S’ card also comes with an Appleworks expander utility that enlarges the Appleworks desktop to 1,016K and al- lows Appleworks to run on an Apple II+ Since the Legend $’ card is based on the memory-mapping techniques of early Apples, the manufacturer came out with the Legend E’ card for the Apple Ile. This card replaces Apple’s extended memory card, allowing an Apple Ile to be expand- ed up to IMB of memory. The Legend E’ card emulates Apple’s standard extended memory card, but instead of one 64K bank of memory, the card has up to 16 banks of 64K each. In addition to a standard 80 columns of text, the Legend E’ card comes with 16 color RGB video capabilities and a special black-and-white video port. The card is supplied with an adapter cable, sporting the same DB-15 connector used by Apple Computer’s own RGB monitor. It does not come with the cable that attaches to the monitor, so the cable has to be purchased separately. The RGB video is crisp and clear. The black-and-white video port is a lit- tle more unusual and even more interest- ing. It produces an image with 16 levels of gray. Instead of a fuzzy black-and-white display with color dots mixed together (the kind of display you'll see when run- ning a color program on a black-and-white composite monitor), the gray port on the Legend S$’ card delivers a crisp picture al- most as sharp as a black-and-white pho- tograph, The gray video is supported by a spe- cial version of the Computereyes capture program (see the review of Computereyes elsewhere in this issue for more informa- tion on video digitizing) but, right now, no other software that we know of sup- ports the Legend E’ card’s gray video. It’s a unique feature and hopefully other soft- ware developers will start to use it. The Legend E’ card comes with an Ap- pleworks expander that can expand the desktop up to IMB of free space and DOS 3.3 disk emulators. ProDOS, Pascal and CP/M disk emulators are available separately. Ramworks II Similar to the Legend E’ card in design, but more expandable and powerful, is Ap- plied Engineering’s Ramworks II. With Ramworks II, you can start off with as lit- tle as 64K of RAM and expand to as much as 3MB, using only one slot in your Apple Tle. The standard Ramworks II card will accept four rows of either 64K or 256K RAM chips, for up to IMB of RAM on the card itself. A “piggyback” board will hold two more banks of memory for an extra 512K of RAM. A very special (and rather expensive) 2MB piggyback board is also available. With this piggyback board installed, Ram- works II can grow to 3MB of RAM ar- ranged in 48 64K banks. There is one limitation that you should know about, if you intend to expand Ramworks II beyond IMB. Due to the physical size of the piggyback expansion board, any board occupying slot 1 will have to be on the short side. If your board in slot 1 is longer than 13cm. (about 5”), it will physically interfere with the piggyback. Most printer interfaces are small, so there shouldn’t be any problems, As a tule, if you are using a printer in- terface that is the same size or smaller than the disk controller card in slot 1, The Apple II Review 7 everything should fit fine. If your card is longer and you require more than IMB of RAM, you will have to put your printer into another slot and reconfigure your software or purchase a smaller printer in- terface. If you have a parallel printer, the Videx Uniprint card will work quite well. If you have a serial printer, the Practical Peripherals Seriall will work. (Many other products will work, too.) Most users will never need more than IMB of RAM. Those who do can easily purchase a replacement printer interface, if required. Besides memory expansion, Ramworks Tl also has other features. An RGB adapter plugs into the back of the card. This card provides RGB video and, as a bonus, col- or text. Two switches on the RGB card let you select what color text you want on your RGB monitor. Available colors in- clude white, green, amber and blue. You can even select the color of the text and background for each letter in 40-column screen mode. While most pro- grams don’t use this feature, the few that do can highlight warning messages in col- or and make displays more interesting and easier to read. Ramworks II can also expand your Ap- ple’s computing power. A coprocessor port is provided for expansion. In the near future a board will be available that will let your Apple run 16-bit software. Ramworks II comes with RAM drive software for ProDOS and DOS 3.3. Pascal and CP/M RAM drives are available separately. I especially like Applied En- gineering’s DOS 3.3 RAM drive software. It comes with a utility that speeds up DOS 3.3, which allows you to partition the memory into several large drives and gives you an audiovisual indicator when it’s in use. Whenever your computer reads from the RAM drive, the letter “R” will flash on the lower right hand corner of the screen. When it writes information to the drive, a “W” will appear. In addition, the Apple's speaker will click. Both indicators can be turned off easily if you don’t want 8 Spring 1986 Hardware Addition to use them. The Appleworks expand software that comes with Ramworks II is the most powerful and flexible software of its kind. It will work with any version of Apple- works and adds several additional features besides expanding the desktop. With Ap- plied Engineering’s Super Appleworks Ex- pand software in effect, the Appleworks desktop is raised to as much as 2,277K (that’s 2.2MB) free with a 3MB Ramworks Tl card. Besides enlarging the desktop, Super Appleworks Expand also expands the maximum records in the data base up to 16,300 and the maximum number of lines in the word processor up to 16,300. That’s enough space for a massive mailing list and a small novel in memory at the same time. If you have a ProDOS- compatible clock, Appleworks will also display the time at the bottom of the screen. What's more, if you have a compatible printer interface, Appleworks will automat- ically use part of the Ramworks I] memo- ry as a printer buffer. If you want, Appleworks will even load itself into Ram- works II to increase speed when switch- ing between different Appleworks modules. Apple Versus IBM An Apple Ile equipped with a RAM card* and Ramworks-modified Appleworks soft- ware raises the Apple II to at least the same level as the IBM PC. Applied En- gineering recently ran a test between an Apple Ile and an IBM PC to prove this point. Both machines had 640K of RAM. The Apple Ile had a Ramworks II installed and used the expanded version of Apple- works, The IBM was equipped with Sym- phony, a popular and powerful integrated business package from Lotus Development Corp. Using the Apple was the author of a book about Appleworks. Using the IBM PC was one of the authors of Symphony. Both users were given a business plan to produce that included word processing, spreadsheet and data base functions. Each competitor was given three hours to com- plete the assignment. Guess what hap- pened? While the Apple user finished everything on time, the IBM user couldn't get everything done. Three Million Bytes— Who Needs It? Apple Ile and IBM PC clashes aside, the new crop of RAM cards brings up a major question. Why would anybody want RAM running into the megabyte range? When I first purchased my Apple more than eight years ago, I got my machine with an in- credible 16K of RAM—and that was twice as much memory as my old DEC PDP-8 minicomputer! For now anyway, 3MB of RAM is im- practical for most users. In fact, most peo- ple may never need more than 256K in their computer. Many (but not all) microcomputer programs that require more than 256K are filled with help screens, are inefficiently written or both. But there are ways to use the extra memory. With Super Appleworks Expand, for example, you can set aside a portion of that memory as a buffer and load Ap- pleworks into part of the memory. It’s also quite easy to set up large memory cards as RAM drives and then load entire programs into the space. For the most part, though, any memory beyond 64K in an Apple is fairly difficult to access. The reason is that the Apple II's microprocessor can only address up to 64K of memory at any given moment. The key phrase is any given moment. Memory can be chopped up into 64K banks and each bank can be selected and accessed, one at a time, by the 65C02 microprocessor. Many of the newer, more powerful programs take advantage of this banking technique. That's why they require 128K of RAM, even though the microprocessor can only work with half of that space at a time, Ram Factor All the Performance, Speed, and Software Compatibility of RamWorks” in a Slot 1 through 7 Card. “Trte right! Now Applied Engineering offers you a choice. While RamWorks is the dear winner for the auxiliary slot in a Ie, RamFactor is the standard for slots 1 through 7. Now anyone with an Apple I+, Franklin, or Apple Ie preferring to use slots 1 through 7 can now enjoy the speed and performance that until now was only available with RamWorks. With RamFactor, you'll be able to instantly add another 256K, 512K, or a full 1 meg on the main board and up to 16 meg with additional piggyback card. And since virtually all sofware is automatically compatible with RamFactor, you'll immediately be able to load programs into RamFactor for instantaneous access to information. You'll also be able to store more data for larger word processing documents, bigger data bases, and expanded spreadsheets. Very Compatible All the leading software is already com- patible with RamFactor. Programs like Apple- Works, Pinpoint, BPI, Managing Your Money, Dollars and Sense, SuperCalc 3A, PFS, Mouse- Write, MouseDesk, MouseCalc, Sensible Speller, Applewriter Ie, Business Works, ReportWorks, Catalyst 3.0 and more. And RamFactor is fully ProDos, DOS 3.3, Pascal 1.3 and CP/M compatible. In fact, no other memory card (RamWorks excepted) is more compatible with commercial software. AppleWorks Power ‘There are other slot 1-7 cards that give AppleWorks a larger desktop, but that’s the end of their story. But RamFactor is the only slot 1-7 card that increases AppleWorks internal memory limits, increasing the maxi- mum number of lines permitted in the word processor, and RamFactor is the only stan- dard slot card that will automatically load AppleWorks into RAM dramatically increasing speed and eliminating the time required to access the program disk, it will even display the time and date on the AppleWorks screen with any ProDos clock. RamFactor will automatically segment large files so they can be saved on 5%", 3%", and hard disks. All this performance is available to anyone with an Apple Ie or I+ with an 80 column card. RamFactor, no other standard slot card comes close to enhancing AppleWorks so much. True 65C816 16 Bit Power RamFactor has a builtin 65C816 CPU port for direct connection to our Ie 65C816 card for linearly addressing up to 16 meg for the most powerful 16 bit applications, (I+ 65C816 card under development) Powerful Program Switcher With RamFactor, you can organize memory into multiple work areas and switch between them. Each work area can contain different programs and even different operat- ing systems. Now you can switch from one program to another or even switch from AppleWorks to DOS 3.3 to CP/M to Pascal to ProDos in under a second. And with our Battery back-up option, you can have permanent storage for up to 20 years. Quality and Support of the Industry Leader RamFactor is from Applied Engineering, the largest, most well supported manufacturer of Apple peripherals and the inventor of large RAM cards for the Apple. With our 5 year no hassle warranty and outstanding technical support, you're assured of the most trouble free product you can buy. Features: ¢ Up to 16 meg total memory, 256K to 1 meg on main board Up to 16 meg with additional memory on piggyback card. Fully Apple II Memory Expansion com- patible ¢ Compatible with Apple Ie, I+ and Frankin Battery back-up option allows you to tum on your Apple and run your favorite programs in less than 1 second! Automatically recognized by ProDos, DOS 3.3, Pascal and CP/M "| © Built-in RamDrive™ software (a true RAM disk not disk caching) e Systems are directly bootable from Ram- Factor if desired ¢ Built-in linear addressing 16 bit coprocessor port Built-in self diagnostic software ¢ Automatic expansion with AppleWorks 1.3 or later e Allows Apple I+ and Ile to run your AppleWorks without buying additional software « Accelerates AppleWorks « Displays time and date on the AppleWorks screen with any ProDos clock ¢ Fits any I/O slot except slot 3 Fully socketed and user upgradeable Much, much more RamFactor with 256K $239 RamFactor with 512K _ $289 | RamFactor with 1 MEG $389 _RamFactor with 2-16 MEG CALL | Battery Back-up Option $179 65C81616BitCard = $159 Order RamFactor today... with 15 day money back guarantee and our “no hassle” five year warranty. Call 9 am. to 11 p.m, 7 days, or send check or money order to Applied Engineering MasterCard, Visa and. COD. welcome. Texas residents add 5%% sales tax. Add $10.00 if outside U.S.A. A Applied Engineering The Apple enhancement experts. (214) 241-6060 P.O. Box 798, Carrollton, TX 75006 Right now, there are only a handful of software packages around that support most memory expansion cards. These in- clude Appleworks and Pinpoint, a desk- top utility reviewed separately in this issue. If you use one of these packages, then the extra memory will be very con- venient. The rest of the memory can and will be used in the foreseeable future to work with a new generation microprocessor. The most likely candidate for the Apple II series is the WDC 65C816 from Western Data Corp. This chip can operate in two separate modes. In the standard 65C02 emulation mode, the chip will emulate the eight-bit 65C02 microprocessor built into the Apple. Programs will run perfectly, and the user will not notice any differences. Once a special instruction is called, however, the 65C816 changes into its na- tive 16-bit mode. In this mode, the microprocessor runs much faster and can address up to 16MB of RAM at once. Ramworks II can be upgraded to use the 65C816 by attaching a special board to its coprocessor port. This board has just been released and will be reviewed in a future issue of The Apple IT Review. In the 16-bit mode, the 65C816 can address all of the Ramworks II as one continuous bank, rather than several 64K banks strung together. Other manufacturers are also entering the race to develop 65C816 options for the Apple II. So far, there is very little software avail- able that supports the 65C816 chip. A number of nice assemblers are available, an operating system is on the horizon and an interesting integrated business program is scheduled to be released. Key questions that many are asking include why isn’t there more support and how come there aren't more programs available? The answer is really simple. Most com- panies are waiting to see what Apple Computer does. If and when Apple de- cides to announce a 16-bit version of the Apple II, a new market is bound to open up for third-party software and hardware 10 Spring 1986 suppliers. These vendors will want their products to be compatible with Apple's own offerings. It’s not likely that many vendors will commit time and resources to 16-bit Apple II software until Apple lays down the standard. Is there a new Apple II in the making? Contrary to the old adage, the rumors are too good to be false! With the right 16-bit engine running the show, the Apple II will become one of the most powerful per- sonal computers available—again! Il Philip Chien’s Apple II, named Chrystal, just celebrated her eighth birthday. He is @ free lance writer who has had more than 60 articles published. Phil is vice president of Earth News, a computer con- sulting firm in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the co-sysop of the Earth News Central BBS (718-934-0774). In his spare time, he pro- grams computers for NASA at the Kenne- dy Space Center. Product: Apple I] Memory Expansion Card Price: $299 $69 (256K Expansion Kit) Company: Apple Computer, Inc, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014, 408-996-1010 Requirements: Apple II, II+, Ile Supports: RAM disk for ProDOS, Pascal 13 and DOS 3.3; Appleworks 1.3 Warranty: 90 days Product: Ramworks II Price: $179 (64K) $1,699 (3MB) $129 (RGB color video) $89 (16-bit 65C802 option) Company: Applied Engineering, PO Box 798, Carrollton, Texas 75006, 214-241-6060 Requirements: Apple Ile. RGB option re- quires compatible monitor and connecting cable Supports: Appleworks expansion; RAM drives for ProDOS, DOS 3.3, Pascal, CP/M Warranty: 5 years Ramworks II Legend E’ Legend 8’ At A Glance Apple Il Memory Expansion Card Price 64K NA 256K $299 1MB $506 1.5MB NA 3MB NA Hardware Slot 1-7 Required RGB NA DOS 3.3 up to 400K ProDOS built in CP/M. no Pascal Pascal 1.3 Appleworks 13 only Catalyst 3.0 yes Warranty 90 days N/A—Not available, option does not exist. All data is based on information obtained from the manufacturer. $179 NA NA $ 256 $199 $249 $ 379 $499 $549 $ 549 NA NA $1,699 NA NA Apple Ie Apple Ie — Slot 0-7 AUX slot AUX slot $129 yes NA yes yes yes yes $30 $30 $29 $30 $30 $29 $30 $30 10-13, 1.0—-1.2 1.0—12 no - no no 5 years 2 years 2 years Street Smarts Now using your Apple® Ile and IIc with printers and modems is easier than ever before. With Street Electronics’ new smart Apple interfaces, “Macintosh -like” pull-down menus are used to activate an assortment of over 60 commands. These include double hi-res screen dump, image magnification and windowing, and selecting text style and size. The BusinessCard and AlphaBits are fully compatible with Apple’s new color ImageWriter ” II and Apple Personal Modem. BusinessCard” Apple Ile multifunction card > Printer port » Modem port > Clock/calendar with battery back-up » 64K buffer option > Built-in color graphics/text printing commands » Suggested retail $219.95 LiveWire” Apple IIc interface with clock » Connects a parallel printer to the Apple IIc > Built in clock calendar with battery back-up > Includes color graphics/text printing software > No power supply needed > Suggested retail $99.95 AlphaBits II” Intelligent Apple Ile interface > Over 60 built-in hi-res color graphics and text commands. > Compatible with all popular printers and modems » 64K print buffer option » Works with Apple software > Suggested retail $119.95 Fs Street Electronics Corporation 1140 Mark Avenue Carpinteria, CA 93013 (805) 684-4593 Send for our brochure. \ - Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc \ Macintosh is a trademark licensed to Apple Computer, Inc ImageWriter isa trademark of Apple Computer, Ine Product: Legend S’ card Price: $249 (256K) $549 (IMB) Company: Legend Industries, 2220 Scott Lake Rd., Pontiac, Mich. 48054, 313-674-0953 Requirements: Apple II, I+, Ile Supports: RAM drives for DOS 3.3, Pro- DOS, CP/M; memory expansion for DOS 3.3, Appleworks Warranty: 2 years Product: Legend E’ card Price: $199 (256K) $499 (IMB) Company: Legend Industries, 2220 Scott Lake Rd., Pontiac, Mich. 48054, 313-674-0953 Requirements: Apple Ile Supports: RAM drives for DOS, ProDOS, CP/M; memory expansion for DOS 3.3, Appleworks; RGB video, 16 level gray vid- €0; extra cables required for special video ports Warranty: 2 years Accelerator Cards Review Transwarp Hyperspace For The Apple II Let’s face it. The Apple II’s IMHz (one million cycles per second) CPU clock just isn’t fast enough to keep up with other computers. While other, relatively slow computers can be speeded up simply by installing faster chips and a faster clock, quickening the Apple II isn’t so simple. The reason: timing for the disk drive, vid- eo screen and many other accessories is tied in with the CPU's clock. If you were to double the CPU clock on the Apple II, a disk drive would try to read and write data twice as fast, ending up reading every other nibble and confus- ing the screen display. If your modem tried to dial a phone number faster, it would confuse the telephone company. If you want to speed up the Apple II, 12. Spring 1986 Transwarp you must speed up the CPU for all calcu- lations. You must also slow down the CPU for screen displays and for any speed- dependent input and output (I/O) functions. There are several popular accelerator cards available for the Apple II that can juggle these problems. We reviewed Ac- celerator Ie (Titan Technologies, Ann Ar- bor, Mich.) in the last issue of The Apple II Review. Now, there’s another new ac- celerator card worthy of your attention. Applied Engineering recently released the Transwarp. We received one of the first manufactured boards for review, and, by the time you read this, dealers should have them. A total of 16 switches on the card de- fine how your Apple is set up. Setting up the switches is explained clearly in the short but concise eight-page manual and is simple to do, After five minutes, we were ready to go. Seven of the switches tell the Transwarp what kinds of cards are installed. Certain cards, such as 80-column cards and paral- lel printer cards, are not timing depen- dent. They can be used at full speed. Other cards, including modems and disk drive controllers, are dependent on the Apple II's IMHz clock. The switches allow Transwarp to work with each one. Another seven switches tell the Trans- warp what kind of memory expansion board you have, if any. Certain memory boards must be accessed with special bank-switching techniques. As before, switches tell the Transwarp where these cards are located. The remaining two switches define what speed you want to use. We did find one typo in the preliminary manual. It says that the speed-up byte is “$C073.” In actuality, it is “$C074.” This won't make any difference to you unless you're a programmer. The Transwarp board plugs into any standard slot in an Apple II or Apple Ile. Applied Engineering recommends that if you have an Apple Ile, you use slot 3. Ap- ple II owners are encouraged to use slot 0. Normally, slot 3 is not used on the Ap- ple Ile, so a Transwarp located there shouldn't force anything out. Of course, there are exceptions. The SwyftCard, In- formation Appliance’s new ROM-based word processor (reviewed separately in this issue), also occupies slot 3. On the Apple II, a Transwarp board simulates the Language card. This means that the Language card can be replaced with the Transwarp board, and it won't take up any extra slots. After powering up an Apple II, the ‘Transwarp logo appears on the screen for about two seconds before the computer begins its normal boot process. Once your Apple II boots, you don’t notice any difference with the Transwarp in place— except everything will run about three and a half times faster! You may still see “Please wait” prompts in programs, but your waiting will be minimal. Three speeds are available with the ‘Transwarp: the standard 1.027MHz speed of the Apple II (slow); a 3.58MHz high- speed mode; and an intermediate 1.7MHz mode. Why the choice of speeds? Because there will be times when you won't want to speed up your Apple. When you are using a program that has very sensitive timing—for example, an ar- cade game that is already fast enough— you may not appreciate the extra speed. Still, you can use the high-speed mode for most productivity work performed on the Apple Ile. We use the slow speed (normal Apple speed) mostly with programs that won't work otherwise. The middle speed gets the least use, although for some games it is nice to make them faster and more challenging, but not so fast as to be impossible. It’s easy to disable the Transwarp if you want to run at the standard IMHz speed. Just hit the Escape key while the Trans- warp logo is on the screen and the card shuts itself off. This is much simpler than other accelerator boards, where a preboot diskette may be required. If you need to set the speed from a BASIC program, just insert a POKE command. Unlike other high-speed cards for the Apple Ile, the Transwarp speeds up mem- ory located in the AUX memory slot (where the extended 80-column card nor- mally resides). It does this by utilizing 256K of high-speed RAM: 16K of the RAM is used to speed up the ROM chips on the Apple's motherboard; 64K is used to re- place and speed up the motherboard’s RAM; and the rest of the memory is used to speed up the AUX memory RAM. With many other accelerator boards, programs that use the AUX memory will be speeded up, but only when calcula- tions occur in the Apple II's main memo- ry. The AUX memory is accessed at the normal IMHz speed. With the Transwarp board installed, all of the memory—both main and AUX—is speeded up. Transwarp and Appleworks make an ex- cellent combination. Since Appleworks is memory resident (whenever you work on a file, it is contained totally on the desk- top) and uses the AUX memory on the Apple Ile, the two go together really well. When running Appleworks together with Pinpoint, the desktop accessory from Pin- point Publishing (reviewed separately in this issue), then Transwarp really shines. The communications function of Pin- point, for example, is noticeably faster. Besides the AUX memory advantage, Transwarp is slightly faster than similar cards. Other cards use a 65C02 with a 3MHz clock rate—three times faster than the standard Apple II's 1.023MHz clock. The Transwarp uses a 3.58MHz clock— .58MHz faster than the others. As a simple test, we wrote a two-line BASIC program that counts to 10,000. A standard Apple Ile takes 14 seconds for the program to run. Using other accelera- tor cards, the program runs in about six seconds, Transwarp clocked in at four se- conds. For comparison, the same program takes eight seconds to run in IBM BASICA on an IBM PC. Overall, the Transwarp is as much as three and a half times faster than a normal Apple Ile for most pro- grams and twice as fast as other accelera- tor boards, All memory-resident programs that use the 6502 microprocessor will be speeded up. Programs that are heavily dependent upon input and output (for example, data base managers that use a lot of disk ac- cess, communications programs and so on) or programs that call upon the user to frequently enter information will not show as much improvement as memory- resident programs. As an expansion option, a 65C802 up- grade is being offered that works with or without the company’s Ramworks II board installed. This option includes a new 16-bit microprocessor that opens up many new possibilities. (For more infor- mation on Ramworks II and 16-bit expan- sion, see the “Going Down Memory Lane” feature article in this issue). Even with the extra features and capa- bilities, the Transwarp is relatively inex- pensive and carries a long warranty. Product: Transwarp Price: $279 $89 (16-bit option) Company: Applied Engineering, PO Box 798, Carrollton, Texas 75006, 214-241-6060 Requirements: Apple Il, II+, le Supports: All accessories and operating systems. Will not speed up programs us- ing CP/M or other alternate processors Warranty: 5 years Apple IIc Additions Review A Flat Panel Display Many people buy an Apple IIc because CYUE of the small size and portability. But you can’t just pack up an Apple IIc by itself and expect to get much work done over the weekend. The Apple IIc requires an external power supply, performs better with an extra disk drive and needs cables to hook everything together. Planning to travel with your Apple IIc? Then remem- ber to pack a monitor as well, unless one is available at your destination. C-UE is a new LCD display for the Ap- ple IIc that eliminates the need for a mon- itor and stand. It mounts on the rear of the Apple IIc and swivels up for viewing, down for travel. Both the C-VUE display and an Apple IlIc will fit inside the stan- dard Apple IIc carrying case. While it won’t make the Apple IIc as self-contained as a laptop computer, C- VUE does make bringing the computer home a lot more practicable. The product weighs two pounds, four ounces. CUE attaches to a plastic bracket that mounts right above the computer's carry- ing handle. The bracket has two small plastic connectors that plug into the Apple IIc’s rear cooling vents, Further stability is gained from an adhesive strip that glues the bracket to the computer's case. Install- ing the bracket took us about 15 minutes, and 10 of those minutes were spent wait- ing for the adhesive to dry. Once the bracket is in place, mounting the display is easy. It simply slides onto the bracket and snaps into position. A short ribbon cable behind C-VUE plugs The Apple II Review 13 Draw in living color Make one ofthese. Name that tune. Read to your kids. Manage your money Say the secret word. To the moon, Alice. We have more good fami than ABC NBC and CS combined. Youve taped every episode of the around your house, maybe its time programs, the worlds largest library Bill Cosby Show. Twice. you looked into an Apple*IIc Personal of personal computer software. So no You've flipped through the chan- Computer. matter what anyone in the family nels so often that its worn the decals Itcan run over 10,000 different — wants to do, an Apple Ic can help off your remote control. them do it. HHH enc BHAT You can manage your personal And your eight-year-old just came downstairs wearing 12 of your best | } finances with programs like Dollars gold necklaces and asked you to give and Sense and Tax a him a Mohawk haircut, fool! ey Pop a program like AppleWorks” If those are recurring plot themes {yen can plugin a TV, you can hook up a into its disk drive, and youve got an cat home. integrated spreadsheet, word processor and data base to help you catch up with your work at home, Or you can select from thousands of specialized programs for doctors, lawyers, contractors, farmers, brokers, screenwriters or just about any other legitimate business. And the Apple IIc is a compact version of the computer that’ used in schools more than all other computers combined—the Apple Ile. So, unlike TV, it can teach kids more valuable lessons than how to — a; — ee in Apple IIc has more accesories than a Veg-O-Matic. Includi ‘printer: Apple Personal Modem and UniDist™ 3.5 Solve mysteries. drive a car through the side of a building without getting a scratch. Of course, the Apple Ic isnit all work and no play. In fact, it can provide greater fun, adventure and excitement than the networks during the new season premieres. There are programs that let you travel space, solve mysteries, explore jungles, become an instant million- aire, get elected president and save the world. And an Apple IIc is easier to set up than the average VCR. Just take it out of the box, plug in two cords and youre ready to compute. Plus you can just as easily add things like our new Image- Writer" printer, ColorMonitor II, Apple Personal Modem, heck your mate, ing I Wiens 7 ‘See what's on sail mouse and external disk drive. To see everything an Apple IIc can do live and in person, visit any authorized Apple dealer. While they may not have all 10,000 software packages on hand, youll find plenty of programs the whole family will want to run. And rerun. ea, © 1985 Apple Computer Inc. Apple and the Apple logo are registered Irademarks of Apple Computer Inc. AppleWorks, ImageWriter and UniDisk are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Dollars and Sense is a trademark of Monogram. Tax Preparer is a irademark of Howard Software Services. For an authorized Apple dealer near you call (800) 538-9696. In Canada, call (800) 268- 796 or (800) 268-7637. Apple IIc Additions into the Apple Ilc’s external monitor port using a standard 15 pin connector. This cable provides both 12 volt power and serial data output, so no batteries are re- quired. C-VUE is an attractive, well made unit that looks right at home on the Apple IIc, so we were hoping for the best when we switched on the computer and booted up Appleworks. Somehow, we hoped that Seiko, the manufacturer, had overcome earlier problems with LCD displays that make them difficult to read except under ideal lighting conditions. Unfortunately, this was not the case. C- VUE's screen was difficult to read until we positioned a pharmacy lamp directly over- head. Once we found a workable position using the lamp and the contrast adjust- ment control, we felt comfortable with CYVUE. If it weren't for the lighting problem, C- VUE would be a great product. Individual characters are fully displayed 80 columns across and 24 rows down, and the screen can display Apple graphics. All software we tried was compatible. Also, the screen seemed to refresh itself just as fast on C- VUE as on a standard monitor. The prob- lem with earlier LCDs that scrolled with a wavelike rhythm is gone. Flat screen technology is now in flux. Some computer companies are bringing out back-lit LCD screens to make them easier to read, Others are turning to elec- troluminescent displays—easier on the eyes, but a lot more expensive. CVUE seems to be about as good as any stan- dard LCD screen on the market. Whether its benefits outweigh a fundamental read- ability problem except under the best lighting conditions is for the buyer to decide. Product: CUE Price: $360 Company: Precision International, Inc., 3030 Business Park Dr, Ste. E, Atlanta, Ga. 30071, 800-334-0275 or 404-449-8025 Requirements: Apple IIc Supports: N/A Warranty: 90 days 16 Spring 1986 Review Hotlink And Grappler C Eliminates The Serial Blues The Apple IIc’s printer port is hardly a standard in the world of personal com- puters. While it is a serial port (and serial ports are common enough), it uses a DIN 5 connector instead of the more common DB-25 connector. Apple Computer decid- ed to use serial connectors to avoid RFI interference and DIN 5 connectors be- cause they're easier to use; no screw- drivers are needed to attach cables. For the most part, Apple's objectives have been met and most people are happy. But if you have a parallel printer, then you can’t attach it directly to your Apple IIc. It is possible to use a serial-to-parallel converter with the Apple IIc. Normally, you'll need three items: an Apple IIc to DB-25 serial cable; a serial-to-parallel con- verter; and a power source for the con- verter, The Hotlink combines all three products into one package. It gets its power from the Apple IIc and has a cable with the IIc’s DIN 5 connector built in. One end attaches to the Ilc’s serial port. The other end attaches to the printer's parallel port. As a result, the Hotlink al- lows any standard parallel printer to con- nect to the Apple IIc. While the Hotlink is quite suitable for printing text, some incompatibility prob- lems could arise with graphics. Many new- er Apple IIc programs, including Mousepaint and the print screen com- mands from Catalyst 3.0, are designed specifically to work with the Apple Im- agewriter or a compatible printer such as the Apple Scribe. Most non-Apple printers, such as Okidata and Epson, use their own command codes, which are not compati- ble with the Imagewriter. Hotlink And Grappler The Grappler C is a serial-to-parallel converter designed to circumvent this problem. It acts as a translator, taking whatever Imagewriter codes are sent to it and translating them into codes needed for whatever parallel printer is attached. In this regard, it goes a step beyond the Hotlink. For example, the Imagewriter command to start underlining is Escape X. But the Okidata series uses Escape C and Epsons use Escape-Ctrl-A. The Grappler C receives the Escape X and “knows” that the user wants the printer to start under- lining. It will then send an Escape C or Escape-Ctrl-A, depending on what kind of printer is attached. The Grappler C has four switches for selecting what kind of printer the user wants. Switches also activate the graphics and text modes. The additional circuitry on the Grappler C uses more current than the Hotlink, so the Grappler C comes with an AC adapter that must be plugged into a power outlet. There are limitations to the emulation mode. Since the Imagewriter uses smaller pins in its print head than many printers, a true Imagewriter will print smaller, dens- er and finer pictures than similar pictures printed on, say, an Epson in emulation mode. In addition, each printer has its own special quirks and features that are occasionally used by exotic programs. For example, a printer may not have all of the foreign character sets built into an Im- agewriter. For the most part, the Grappler C does a good job of translating codes. Hi-res pic- tures dumped to our Okidata looked slightly different than similar dumps to an Imagewriter. But if you were handed both pictures, without being told which one was which, it would be difficult to guess what machine they were printed on. We have a couple of complaints with the Grappler C, The manual recommends that you unplug it when the printer is not in use, and we found that rather incon- venient. In addition, the small switches used to configure the text/graphics mode are slightly difficult to reach when the units are mounted on the back of the printers. Product: Hotlink and Grappler C Price: $69 (Hotlink) $119 (Grappler C) Company: Orange Micro, 1400 N. Lakeview Ave., Anaheim, Calif. 92807, 714-779-2772 Requirements: Apple IIc; parallel printer Supports: Grappler C emulation modes support Okidata, Epson, C Itoh and Gemini printers Warranty: | year LiveWire LiveWire For Parallel Printers An intelligent converter cable with a built-in clock, LiveWire connects the Apple IIc with a parallel printer. According to its vendor, LiveWire eliminates the need for a serial printer (such as the Imagewriter) to connect to the serial port on the Apple IIc. Parallel printers from Epson, Okidata and many other vendors may be used. LiveWire also includes a clock/calendar with battery backup. Built into the Live- Wire's connector, the clock allows time and date stamping of ProDOS files. The manufacturer adds that LiveWire in- corporates a low-powered microprocessor that uses power from the host computer. As a result, no additional power supplies are required. In addition, LiveWire comes with soft- ware for printing text and graphics to par- allel printers. The software utilizes “Macintosh-like” pull-down menus. Product: LiveWire Price: $99.95 Company: Street Electronics Corp., 1140 Mark Ave., Carpinteria, Calif. 93013, 805-684-4593 Requirements: Apple IIc; printer Supports: ProDOS; parallel printers; mouse Warranty: | year Computer Vision Review Computereyes Digital Pictures Smile! Have you ever wanted to put your picture on an Apple II hi-res screen? With Computereyes you can. Com- putereyes is a video interface that attaches a video camera to your Apple's 16 pin game port. Essentially, it’s a video-to- digital converter that converts a standard composite video signal into an Apple hi- res screen. Obvious applications include robotic control, handicapped aids and security recognition circuits. We like it even more because it’s fun. Most similar devices cost between $300 and $3,000, but Computereyes retails for only $129, One reason for the low cost is that it attaches to the Apple’s game port. Since the game port has all the interface cir- cuitry Computereyes needs, the user doesn’t have to pay for a separate interface card. The tradeoff is speed. Limited by the speed of the Apple's TTL circuits, a typi- cal screen scan takes about eight seconds. The software with Computereyes uses three levels of contrast resolution: a single The Apple II Review 17 Hard Computer Vision Computereyes output (top) and packaging pass mode, a four pass mode and an eight pass mode. The single pass mode is best for line drawings and recognition circuits, and we found the four pass mode quite adequate for taking pictures of real life ob- jects. The eight pass mode gives enhanced resolution, but it takes almost a minute to scan the screen, We found it useful only for still objects and pictures. After a pic- ture is captured, it can be saved as a hi-res file and used with any hi-res program. Computereyes can be used with any vid- eo device that has a standard composite video output. This includes video cameras, television tuners, video tape recorders, video CD players, satellite receivers and al- most any video device that produces a still composite video picture. If you want 18 Spring 1986 to use a VCR, then we highly recommend a unit with high quality, freeze frame capabilities (¢.g., four or five heads). The software and hardware are easy to operate and well documented. The pro- gram is written in Applesoft BASIC with machine language capture routines and in- cludes a help command and demo. The manual documents how to use each of the routines from within your own pro- gram. We found it easy to add a dump picture command for our printer by adding a couple of extra lines to the program. Besides a capture and save program, there are several optional utilities available. This includes a double hi-res graphics conversion program that converts cap- tured images into Printshop or Newsroom form. The source code is also available for machine language programmers. A special version of Computereyes soft- ware is available for use with the Legend E’ card (see “Going Down Memory Lane,” a feature article in this issue). If you attach a monitor to the E’ card’s monochrome gray level port, the result is a high quality pic- ture with very clearly defined borders. You can also get interesting “false-color” pic- tures by attaching a color monitor to the standard Apple video jack. A special version of Computereyes is available for the Apple IIc that attaches to the IIc’s serial port. Computereyes is available by itself, or with an inexpensive video camera similar to a security camera you might see in a department store. Computereyes is fun and inexpensive. If you enjoy using video cameras, or making pictures on your Apple, then you'll like Computereyes. Product: Computereyes Price: $129 (specify standard or IIc version) $399 (with video camera) $15 (double hi-res software) Company: Digital Vision, Inc., 14 Oak St., Ste. 2, Needham, Mass. 02192, 617-444-9040 Requirements: Apple Il, ll+, Ile; special version for IIc; disk drive Supports: ProDOS and DOS 3.3; extra utilities available; any standard composite video input Warranty: 1 year on Computereyes; 90 days on camera Maintenance Review Applesurance Health Care For Apples Applesurance is a disk controller card with a twist for Apple II computers. It was designed a couple of years ago by Prometheus Products, Inc. and is now dis- tributed by Jameco Electronics. Besides operating as a standard disk in- terface card, Applesurance includes auto- matic diagnostic routines. When your Apple is turned on, the card checks the Apple's ROM and RAM chips for memory errors. If it finds trouble, then the card will tell you with on-screen messages. AF ter the diagnostics are finished, the disk- ette boots normally and the Apple operates as always. The diagnostic check takes about five seconds to run. If you are in a hurry to run a program, you can by- Let Quicken cut your Routine financial chores are made simple and easy. Guaranteed. Add Quicken™ to your Apple® Ile or Ilc* and you may never write another check by hand ’ again. It's the perfect combination for individuals or small businesses who write 10 or more checks amonth. Quicken is the only personal finance soft- ware that conforms to Apple's own ease-of-use standards and links-up with AppleWorks” With a few simple key strokes, Quicken elim- inates the drudgery of monthly check writing automatically. It writes and prints all your checks. Maintains your checkbook register. Reconciles your bank statement. Categorizes your expenses and keeps track of them for budgeting, taxes and business bookkeeping purposes. And you can forget about wasting time hunt- ing for checks written in the past. Quicken’s unique “Search & List” feature allows you to simply enter a few letters to locate, list and total checks by date, payee or category. As sophisticated as Quicken is, it’s still extremely simple to use. Or as Ellis J. Teel of Newark, California puts it: “Anybody who knows how to turn ona computer can operate Quicken. It’s the simplest program I’ve ever used...Quicken provides instant value” Quicken is brought to you by Wells Fargo — the folks who’ve been making personal finances easier to manage for years. That’s why it pays to order Quicken now. *Apple lle requires extended 80 column card, Also available for IBM" PC, XT, AT, PGjrand equivalent computers at $99. ©1985, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. bill-paying time in half. Just fill out and mail the coupon below. Or for faster delivery, call toll-free 1-800-346-6639 in CA, NV, AZ, ID, OR, WA, and UT. All other states, please call Intuit, Inc. direct at 415-322-0573. Phone for quick delivery or fill out this coupon and mail to: I Wells Fargo Quicken P.O. Box 7404, San Francisco, CA 94120 I DYES. Send me Quicken (Apple Ie or IIc ver- sion) for only $79 plus $3 shipping and handling. (California residents please add sales tax.) Guaran. I tee: If am not completely satisfied with Quicken, I I may return my Quicken package within 30 days of purchase in the condition I received it, for a prompt, full refund, or credit on my charge card. I Method of payment: O Check enclosed for $_____, payable to Wells Fargo Bank or, Charge my: [MasterCard 0 Visa Card No., Expiration date__/ Authorized Signature: (Required for credit card transactions) Name. Address. City. State. Zip. Daytime Phone ( ) Satisfaction Guaranteed. Or return for refund or credit. prp3g6 SS fcc Quicken"is a trademark of Intuit™ IBM® is a registered trademark of the International Business Machines Cor oration. Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc, AppleWorks” is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. WELLS FARGO BANK Hardware & Maintenance Applesurance pass the diagnostics by hitting a key. Since the diagnostic program is includ- ed on a 4K ROM chip and includes a stan- dard disk drive boot program, it is not as powerful as diskette-based diagnostic pro- grams. Unlike some stand-alone diagnostic programs we've seen, Applesurance pro- vides only a checksum of each ROM; each byte in the ROM is not checked individu- ally. In most cases, this check will be ade- quate. We haye seen cases, however, where a checksum was correct and there was still a problem in the ROM. The moral is to use the diagnostic re- sults as a guide, not as law. If your results tell you that your system is okay or bad, realize that is what the diagnostic program thinks is happening. It could be wrong. The card has a questionable design feature—the connectors are vertical to the card, unlike the Apple disk controller card, where the connectors are parallel. If your drive's cables have fairly large con- nectors, you may not be able to plug a card into the next higher slot on your Apple. Another “feature” of the card is that it runs diagnostics only if it is the first disk drive to boot. While this prevents the di- agnostics from running every time you 20. Spring 1986 boot another diskette, it can be annoying if you have high-density drives (e.g., a hard drive or UniDisk 3.5) as part of your system. Most of these drives have con- trollers occupying slot 7, which boot first when the Apple is powered up. If your Apple is so equipped, the Applesurance diagnostic routines will never run auto- matically, although they can still be run manually. The card uses the same 20-pin dual- inline connectors that were used on the older Apple Disk II computers. Apple Computer changed all drive connectors to PB-19 connectors in 1984. Today, all Duo- Disk and UniDisk drives use the DB-19 connector. None of these drives can be used with Applesurance. The card is somewhat redundant. The Apple Ile has built-in diagnostics that are activated by pressing the Ctrl-Closed Apple-Reset sequence. The only additional diagnostic offered by Applesurance is a disk-speed test. If you run across some older disk drives still using the dual inline connector, then Applesurance may make a good insurance policy. Otherwise, it may not be what the doctor ordered. Product: Applesurance Price: $69.95 Company: Jameco Electronics, 1355 Shoreway Rd., Belmont, Calif. 94002, 415-592-8097 Requirements: Apple Il, II+, le; disk drive with 20-pin connector Supports: N/A Warranty: | year Modems Review Apple Personal Modem Designer Communications The Apple Personal Modem is not the first modem to bear the Apple Computer, Apple Personal Modem Inc. logo. But it is the smallest modem sold by Apple to date and, more impor- tantly, the first to adhere to the command set originated by Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., Atlanta, Ga. Why is this important? Hayes pioneered the “smartmodem” concept a few users ago with its own modem line, Commands associated with these modems have since become a de facto industry standard. As a result, most communications software packages use these commands and work with any Hayes or Hayes-compatible modem. The Apple Personal Modem is a “smart” or “intelligent” modem that comes in two parts. The main plastic body is not much larger than a cigarette package and has lines and coloring similar to the Apple IIc. The smaller part is a three-prong power connector that plugs into the body at one end and into an electrical power outlet at the other. With this arrangement, every- thing is self-contained. There's no separate power supply to contend with (as there is with the Hayes Smartmodem line) and no desktop space to give up. This modular concept applies to the telephone and computer hookups as well. The Apple Personal Modem has two modular phone connectors on the bot- tom. One line plugs into a modular phone jack (just like a regular telephone), and “Pinpoint makes AppleWorks better than my Macintosh. It gives me the flexibility of Mac-like desk accessories and the ability to add the features AppleWorks ‘forgot Michael Fischer Columnist, Bay Area Computer Currents. Author, 65816 Assembly Language Programming, 1986, Osborne McGraw-Hill. INPOINT™ DESKTOP ACCESSORIES Now you can address an envelope, call a friend, schedule an appointment, search online databases, send or receive electronic mail, merge pictures and text, jot down notes, calculate numbers, or pop-up an electronic typewriter. Without missing a beat. Or a byte. These handy desktop timesavers “pop-up” via windows from inside AppleWorks and other selected ProDOS™ programs. Eight powerful applications $ 6 9 in one high-performance package. PELLING CHECKER Pop it up and quickly check individual words, paragraphs, or entire documents without leaving AppleWorks behind. Poof! Check for misspellings from a 55,000 word dictionary and an unlimited personal dictionary. It suggests up to 10 alter- native spellings, cor- rects words in place, and reformats as it cor- rects. You can even edit Upto6 Accessories. Add new accessories anytime. Like the ‘SPELLING CHECKER, or the powerful INFORMATION ENGINE™ for desktop refer- i cme en words it finds yourself. CDROM engelopedas, serge diecoresand Absolutely the quickest onions most convenient way Find misspellings, suggest, meen" to produce letter- correc, edt and reformal fect aan ee moe mee documents. $69. entry. Even edit your work on the fy! Includes pop-up, auto log on modem software Cepture the latest news or the latest recipes; information you dialup plugs directly into AppleWorks. Or send AppleWorks documents without bothersome conversions, Convenience worth $69 ise FREE OFFER $29 RAM ENHANCEMENT KIT With purchase of both Pinpoint and the Spelling Checker, Pinpoint Publishing will send you the amazing $29 RAM Enhancement Kit FREE immediately on receipt of both registration cards. SPECIAL BONUS | FOR REGISTERED PINPOINT OWNERS Save $19 when you purchase the pop-up Spelling Checker. Pinpoint Publishing will send you the RAM kit for only $10 (postage paid) when you mail in your Spelling Checker Registration Card. Visit your Apple Dealer today Call TOLL FREE at 800-227-6703 (in California: 800-632-7979) for the name of your nearest Pinpoint Dealer... or, place your rush order direct by TOLL FREE telephone, using your Visa, MasterCard or American Express Card. p . poi t 5901 Christie Avenue, #501 Emeryville, CA 94608 415-654-3050 Brak the 128K bari For top performance use Pinpoint Accessories wi your RAM card from ‘ple Applied Engineering, AST or Checkmate. The RAM Enhancement Kit lets you do even mor Modems the other may be used to plug into a stan- dard telephone. When a telephone is con- nected, it can be used normally when the modem is not in use. The only other connection required is to the computer. The Apple Personal Mo- dem uses an eight-pin data cable. Apple supplies modem cables that work with its various computers, including separate ca- bles for the Apple Ile using a Super Serial Card, the Apple IIc and Macintosh, While the modem uses the standard RS-232C serial port protocol specification, the eight-pin arrangement is unique to Apple, so most users will probably purchase the data cable from Apple. We evaluated the Apple Personal Modem using an Apple IIc and Apple's Access II communications software. After plugging the data cable into the Apple IIc’s port 2 (the one with the phone symbol above it), we inserted the modem into the wall sock- et. The modem gives off a beep when it is initially plugged in. This indicates that the circuitry is properly working and that the unit is receiving power. The modem uses about three watts when working and about one watt when not in use. Since there are no switches, all features are accessed through software command or commands typed in at the keyboard. The only visual indication that communi- cations are taking place is a small LED on top of the modem that flashes when on-line. Like similar intelligent modems, the Ap- ple Personal Modem has a built-in speaker for listening to busy signals, wrong- number recordings and so on. The speak- er’s volume is controlled by a small dial adjacent to the telephone connectors. We found it best to keep the volume near the highest setting, since our modem was positioned under a desk and three feet away from the computer. The speaker is small, so the sound quality is marginal. In actual use, it’s hard to fault the Apple Personal Modem. It worked fine with the Access II software at both 300 and 1,200 baud and also performed well on a Macin- tosh using Macterminal. This was not sur- 22 Spring 1986 prising. The Hayes standard has long since been perfected, and many compatible modems have come to market. The Apple Personal Modem is a good- looking accessory, carries the Apple name and is compatible with just about every- thing (including the IBM PC), For poten- tial users not concerned with the relatively high price, it’s all the modem they'll need. Product: Apple Personal Modem Price: $399 $29.95 (Apple IIc, Ile data cable) Company: Apple Computer, Inc., 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014, 408-996-1010 Requirements: Apple II, II+, IIc, Ile; data cable Supports: Most Apple and third-party communications software packages Review Apple Cat Exotic Feline The Apple Cat modem may be the most powerful modem available for any per- sonal computer, That’s a pretty strong statement, but how many modems do you know that can act like a telephone an- swering machine, alarm clock, message service, automatic phone dialer, extension phone and home control system? As a modem, the Apple Cat is powerful. If you dial long-distance computers with your modem, for example, or need to ac- cess a system through a PBX, then the Ap- ple Cat can be programmed to wait for secondary dial tones. The Apple Cat can also be instructed to dial a “7” for an out- side line in rotary dial mode, wait for an outside dial tone, dial a local access num- ber for a long-distance service in touch- tone mode, wait for the tone and then dial an on-line system and send a password. The standard Apple Cat is a 300-baud modem, but a 1,200-baud upgrade is avail- able, The upgrade card can either plug into Apple Cat a separate slot or attach to the standard Ap- ple Cat board via a data cable. This way, it only takes up one slot in the Apple. A variety of exotic accessories are avail- able. A handset lets you use the Apple Cat as an extension phone or a line monitor. Optional firmware also lets you access the Apple Cat directly, without a program. The expansion module provides a LED in- dicator that shows when the modem is on line and expansion jacks for use with an audio recorder, remote control and BSR-X10 control module. The module even provides an extra RS-232 port for at- taching a printer or alternate modem. The most exotic (and expensive) option available is a touch-tone decoder chip. This lets the Apple Cat listen to incoming touch tones. A variety of remote control options are possible with the touch-tone chip and BSR options. With the addition of a voice generator, the Apple Cat can be programmed to call parents and report on children missing from school. If the parent doesn’t answer or the phone is busy, the program could keep dialing until it gets through. With the addition of a speech input board, the Apple Cat can be used as a “hands-free” phone by a handicapped per- son. The Apple Cat can be instructed to dial the phone, answer the phone, control appliances with the BSR controller and even call the doctor in an emergency. The Apple Cat can operate as an exotic telephone answering machine, It can pick up the phone, provide voice messages and turn on a voice recorder that operates un- til the caller hangs up. If the caller types in a special touch tone, he can receive any personal messages left for him by an Ap- ple Cat user. Exotic Apple Cat applications are only limited by the programmer's imagination. Nothing comparable exists for any per- sonal computer. There is one major disadvantage to the Apple Cat. Since it is so sophisticated, special software is required. Some pack- ages, designed to work with an external modem attached to a serial card or work with a Hayes Micromodem, may not work without modifications. Most better mo- dem programs support the Apple Cat, but there are communications programs that won't. Apple Cat users should check this out before buying modem software. We like the Apple Cat very much. Our only complaint is that no 2,400-baud ex- pansion option is currently available. Product: Apple Cat Price: $319 (300 baud) $595 (1,200 baud) $49.95 (expansion module) $99.95 (touch-tone decoder) Company: Novation, Inc., 20409 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311, 818-996-5060 Requirements: Apple II+, Ile Supports: BSR X-10 controller, touch tone decoder, most modem programs Warranty: 1 year Review Promodem 1200A And 300C Beyond The Standard In 1980, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc, introduced the Smartmo- dem 300, which quickly went on to be- come an industry standard for intelligent modems. Its sophisticated command set made this modem more powerful than ex- isting ones, and it could attach to any computer's RS-232 interface, regardless of make. Today, most intelligent modems (in- Promodem 300 (top) and 1200A cluding those sold by Apple Computer, Inc.) are compatible with the Hayes “AT” command set. Prometheus makes modems that are Hayes compatible, but they have extra functions beyond the Hayes standard. The Promodem 12004 is an internal 300/1,200-baud modem for the Apple II+ and Apple Ile, and the Promodem 300C is a portable modem that plugs into the back of the Apple IIc. Both modems can automatically determine whether to use touch-tone or pulse dialing, can redial when the line is busy, wait for second dial tones (very handy with long-distance serv- ices such as Telecom, Sprint or PBX sys- tems) and include built-in help and diagnostic programs. The Promodem 12004 is the electrical equivalent of an Apple Super Serial card attached to a 1,200-baud modem. It plugs into two of the Apple's slots. This modem includes dual phone jacks and a built-in speaker with a volume control. The Promodem 1200A operates in two modes. In the standard mode, a built-in miniterminal program is available. This mode allows you to access other com- puters and transfer files back and forth in DOS 3.3. Tt also lets you print the files you re- ceive on a parallel printer and shows the time on screen, if you have a compatible clock in your Apple. But it will not use 80-column cards, work with ProDOS or work with serial printers. The built-in ter- minal is convenient, but we found it only useful for quick-and-dirty sessions. In the alternate firmware mode, the Promodem 1200A emulates an Apple Super Serial card. In this mode, the modem oper- ates with software designed to work with a Super Serial Card and an external modem. Surprisingly, even with all of these extra features, the Promodem 1200A is slightly less expensive than a Super Serial Card and an external 1,200-baud modem. The Promodem 300C is specifically designed for the Apple IIc. The modem operates off the IIc’s power supply and takes very little current, so it’s perfect for a Ilc in portable operation. It’s almost as The Apple II Review 23 Modems small as an Apple mouse and stays at- tached to the back of the Ilc’s case. The Promodem 300C occupies the sec- ond serial port and covers the mouseljoy- stick port. However, the modem has a jack on the side that allows you to attach a mouse or joystick, so that port isn’t lost. A speaker is included on the modem’s case, but there is no way to adjust the volume—it’s either on or off. We didn’t find this much of a limitation, though, since the speaker is loud enough to hear under normal circumstances and not so loud as to be distracting. Unlike the Promodem 1200, the Promodem 300C has just one phone jack. You must unplug your telephone in order to plug in the Promodem 300C. An obvi- ous solution to this problem is to pur- chase a “Y” jack that lets you plug two phones into the same jack. The Promodem 300C does have one major disadvantage. It will not operate at 1,200 baud. Hopefully, the manufacturer will eventually come out with a 1,200-baud version. Both modems come with a decent ter- minal program called ProCom, which is “folder driven” (similar to Appleworks) and include a terminal program and mini word processor. It will operate in either 40 or 80 columns. The program supports file transfers and comes on a copyable ProDOS diskette. Although not as power- ful as other terminal programs, ProCom is quite adequate for beginners and those who want to keep communications simple. Product: Promodem 1200A and 300C Price: $449 (Promodem 1200A) $199 (Promodem 300C) Company: Prometheus Products, Inc., 4545 Cushing Pkwy., Fremont, Calif. 94538, 415-490-2370 Requirements: Apple II+, Ie (Promo- dem 1200A); Apple Ic (Promodem 300C); disk drive Supports: ProDOS; Procom communica- tions software (supplied with product); printer; most modem programs Warranty: | year 24 Spring 1986 Monitors Review ColorMonitor Ile The Case For Color Apple's new color monitors have been selling well since their release late last year. We received a ColorMonitor Ie for review and were quickly impressed with its capabilities. The monitor attaches to any Apple II with a standard RCA cable. No adapter boards or special cables are required, so it’s as easy to set up as any monochrome monitor, Unlike monochrome monitors, however, the 13-inch screen provides viv- id, full color graphics. It also delivers crisp black and white text, even in 80-column mode. There are two different versions of Ap- ple’s latest monitor, one for the Ile and another for the Ilc. Internally they are identical—the only difference is the color and style of the cases. The ColorMonitor Ile is actually two monitors in one. Normally, an expensive RGB (Red-Green-Blue) monitor and special interface are required for displaying both color graphics and text. Technically, the ColorMonitor Ile is an RGB monitor on the inside. So where's the interface that most RGB monitors re- quire? Apple came up with a clever way to eliminate the interface card that is nor- mally needed. A standard composite video jack “looks” at the computer's video sig- nal. If the 3.58MHz color burst frequency is present, the signal is split from compos- ite video into its components (red, green, blue and sync signals). Those RGB signals are then passed to the display, and the user sees color graphics on the screen. If there is no color burst signal, then the monitor “knows” that it should be in text-only mode, and properly displays the 40- or 80-column screen. For those who ColorMonitor Ile prefer green text, a “green only” switch lets you change the display from black and white to a black and green display. There are a couple of minor limitations. If you have a very early (eight year old) Apple, or if you turn up the video level too high, you may fool the monitor into thinking that everything is in the color mode. Fortunately, a switch on the front of the monitor lets you force the monitor into text mode with no colors. Another problem may crop up with cer- tain programs. Since the monitor can be in only one mode at a time, it cannot dis- play color graphics and 80-column text at the same time. If your program attempts graphics or 80-column text, the text will be blurry. This is a minor problem, since few programs use 80-column text and col- or graphics simultaneously. Expect to pay more for the ColorMoni- tor Ie than you would for a monochrome or composite color monitor. But keep in mind that the ColorMonitor Ie will be less expensive overall than purchasing an RGB monitor and interface card. We feel that it’s definitely worth the price. Product: ColorMonitor Ie Price: $399 $25 (optional stand for ColorMonitor llc) Company: Apple Computer, Inc., 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014, 408-996-1010 Requirements: Apple II+, IIc, Mle Supports: Any computer with a standard video output Warranty: 90 days Printer Cards Review Uniprint Inexpensive Graphics When the Apple first came out, there was no way to dump a graphics screen to a printer, In fact, there was no way to print anything, since there were very few printers with graphics capabilities and no printer interface for the Apple. When Ap- ple released the parallel interface card in 1978, it came with text capabilities, but it still could not print graphics. To this day, there is no printer graphics standard for the Apple II. _ Several third party manufacturers, start- ing with Interactive Structures, made their own interface cards and customized them for various printers. If you had an Anadex printer with graphics, you would buy a special card customized for that printer; if you got an Okidata, you'd need a different card and so on. On newer, more advanced graphics in- terface cards (usually referred to as “smart” interfaces), a set of switches de- termines which printer you are using. The Videx Uniprint is such a card. It’s an inex- pensive smart parallel interface card with built-in graphics commands. To dump hi-res graphics on the Uniprint from a BASIC program, you simply send a Control-I G to the interface card and the picture will be dumped. Double, triple size, inverse, upside down and other modes can be selected easily. For example, putting the following command into an Applesoft BASIC program will tell the Uniprint to dump a triple size, inverse pic- ture in the double hi-res graphics mode, on its side: PRINT CHR§(9);"GTIXR” The CHR$(9) is a Control-I that tells the Uniprint that a command is coming. The “G” indicates that the user wants a graph- ics dump. “T” indicates triple size, “I” in- dicates inverse (white dots on the screen Uniprint will show up as white dots on the page), “X” indicates extended (double) hi-res graphics mode, and “R” tells the Uniprint to rotate the picture 90 degrees. The printout will appear as a double hi-res screen sideways, and will fill an 8% by ll-inch page. The Uniprint is an excellent, low cost parallel graphics interface card. It is inex- pensive, but not a cheap card. It comes with an excellent manual and full support from Videx. Many different printers are supported and the card even supports col- or graphics on the color Epson and Dataproducts printers. Although Videx’s official warranty peri- od is 90 days, the company has always had excellent in and out of warranty sup- port. Out of warranty upgrades are usual- ly handled for a nominal charge and repairs are generally free, as long as the customer hasn't abused the unit. If you want a printer interface for a par- allel printer that can dump graphics with ease, then check out Uniprint, Product: Uniprint Price: $89 Company: Videx, Inc., 897 NW. Grant Ave., Corvallis, Oreg. 97330, 503-758-0521 Requirements: Apple II, II+, [le Supports: Many printers, including Ep- son, Gemini, Okidata, Dataproducts, Ap- ple DMP, Anadex, Gorilla, Centronics and similar graphics printers. Epson JX-80 and Dataproducts Prism are also supported in color modes. Special cable required for Dataproducts printers. Warranty: 90 days Printers Epson AP-80 An Imagewriter Alternative The Epson AP-80 is an 80-column dot matrix printer that features hardware and software compatibility with the original Apple Imagewriter. According to the manufacturer, it provides Apple IIc and Ile users with high-resolution graphics as well as draft-quality and near-letter-quality output. The Epson AP-80 weighs almost 10 pounds less than the Imagewriter, is smaller and offers the following features: selectable near-letter-quality (NLQ) printing capability and software-selectable italics, boldface, double-width printing, propor- tional spacing, superscripts and subscripts. All of these features can be set from the printer’s front panel. The AP-80 prints draft documents at 75 characters per second (CPS). In NLQ mode, it prints business letters at 15 CPS. It also prints bidirectionally and unidirec- tionally, under software control. The manufacturer states that the AP-80 printer is equipped with both friction and adjustable tractor feeds. A built-in, single- sheet loading feature facilitates the han- dling of single-sheet paper without requir- ing the user to line up the paper once it is inserted. Product: Epson AP-80 Price: $379 Company: Epson America, Computer Products Division, 2780 Lomita Blvd., Tor- Epson AP-80 The Apple II Review 25 Hardwa Printers rance, Calif. 90505, 800-421-5426 or 213-539-9140 Requirements: Apple IIc, Ile Supports: Apple IIc and Ile hardware and software Warranty: 1 year Printer Buffers Review Microbuffer II+ Print Buffer And More Microbuffer+ is a multifunction card combining a print buffer with serial and parallel ports. Contrary to what the name implies, the Microbuffer Il+ operates on all Apple II computers, except for the slot- less Apple IIc. Print buffers are quite handy in most cases. As a rule, your computer can send text much faster than your printer can print it. A buffer acts like a holding area to store data. It can receive characters from your computer as fast as your com- puter can send them, but it will send characters to your printer only when your printer is ready to receive. Microbuffer+ has a special advantage over external buffers and buffers that fit inside printers. Since it is inside your computer, it can be controlled by your computer. The Microbuffer I1+ can dump graphics and text to most printers. What's more, it’s expandable. If you purchase the Microbuffer+ with 16K of RAM, then you can easily expand the buffer up to the 64K maximum by plugging in more RAM chips. A switch on the Microbuffer II+ tells it to clear the buffer when you hit Reset on your Apple, or you may opt to leave the buffer alone. In either case, a Control-Z sent to the card will clear the buffer. An optional clear buffer switch is available that mounts on the outside of the Apple's case, It’s useful for resetting the buffer manually. 26 Spring 1986 Microbuffer I+ If you dump fairly large files, we recom- mend that you get the external clear buff- er switch. Certain programs, notably Appleworks, do not let you press Reset from within the program. If you start printing a large file and find out it’s the -wrong one—or if the paper slips—then it’s easy to clear the buffer with the exter- nal switch. One printer can be attached to the card's parallel port and another to the serial port. The two printers can be select- ed through switches on the board, through software or through an optional external switch. It’s even possible to print the same text to both printers at the same time. This review, for example, is being printed on a serial letter quality printer and a parallel dot matrix printer. The capability can also be used to print mail- ing labels on one printer and letterhead stationery on another. Although the Microbuffer I+ is an ex- cellent interface, the serial port has some limitations. Since it’s an output port only, you cannot attach it to a modem. In addi- tion, the port will operate only at 300 or 1,200 baud. That's faster than most letter quality printers can print, but it is slower than fast dot matrix printers. Product: Microbuffer II+ Price: $199 (16K version) $259 (64K version) $24.95 (switches to reset buffer and select ports) Company: Practical Peripherals, 31245 La Baya Dr., Westlake Village, Calif. 91362, 818-991-8200 Requirements: Apple II, II+, Ile Supports: Most parallel and serial printers. Graphics supported on Epson, Anadex, Dataproducts, Okidata, NEC 8023, C. Itoh, Apple DMP Warranty: 5 years Storage Review Challenger The Inside Story In the last issue of Apple II Review we described briefly an internal hard disk drive for the Apple II called Challenger. Unfortunately, the drive itself arrived too late for a full review, but it was well worth the wait. The Challenger installs inside the Ap- ple’s case, so there are no bulky boxes or cables to deal with. There isn’t much room inside the Apple's case, certainly not enough for a standard hard drive to be added. So the Challenger box makes an end run around this restriction by replac- ing the power supply with a box not much larger than the Apple's original pow- er supply. Engineers at Spacecoast Systems have squeezed into this box a full 20MB, 3%-inch hard drive, a controller card, fan and power supply. The power supply sup- Challenger plies juice for the hard drive and con- troller. What's more, it has more power left over for the Apple than Apple's stan- dard power supply. Installing a Challenger is simple. All you have to do is open up the Apple's case (nine screws), remove the power sup- ply (four screws), put in the Challenger and screw the case back together. Chal- lenger makes two connections to the Ap- ple: a power supply cord, which plugs into the Apple's motherboard, and an in- terface cable. The cable plugs into a host adapter, which in turn plugs into the Ap- ple. It should take less than 15 minutes to install Challenger, but if you purchase it from a dealer, the dealer will put it to- gether for you. The drive comes ready to use with Pro- DOS out of the box. The drive will boot directly into ProDOS and will also work with Catalyst 3.0 (see “How to Make an Apple II Look Like a Macintosh,” Winter 1985 issue). If you want to use DOS 3.3, Pascal or CP/M, those operating systems are also available. A system utility called Housekeeper lets you set up whatever operating systems are needed. The program is menu driven and fairly easy to use. In order to add a new operating system, copy the system master for each operating system onto Challenger, then set up a user for that operating sys- tem. After the user is set up, you can as- sign a password and specify which volumes the user can access and which volumes are write protected. Besides Housekeeper and other utilities, Challenger comes with a backup/restore program that will back up the drive onto diskettes or to an optional tape streamer cartridge. If all of these passwords and accounts make the Challenger sound like a multi- user system, it’s for a good reason. C