Amiga 4000

The Commodore Amiga 4000, or A4000, is the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. There are two models: the A4000/040 released in October 1992 with a Motorola 68040 CPU, and the A4000/030 released in April 1993 with a Motorola 68EC030.
The Amiga 4000 system design was generally similar to that of the A3000, but introduced the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) chipset with enhanced graphics. The SCSI system from previous Amigas was replaced by the lower-cost Parallel ATA.
The original A4000 is housed in a beige horizontal desktop box with a separate keyboard. Later, Commodore released an expanded tower version called the A4000T.
Technical information.
Processor and RAM.
The stock A4000 shipped with either a Motorola 68EC030 or 68040 CPU, 2 MB of Amiga Chip RAM and up to 16 MB of additional RAM in 32-bit SIMMs. There is a non-functional jumper that was intended to expand the "chip RAM" to 8MB. Later, third-party developers created various CPU expansion boards featuring higher-rated 68040, 68060 and PowerPC CPUs. Such hardware also typically offers faster and higher-capacity RAM (128 MB or greater).
A4000-CR version.
Unlike previous Amiga models, early A4000 machines have the CPU mounted in an expansion board; the motherboard does not have an integrated CPU. Later revisions of the A4000 have the CPU and 2 MB RAM surface-mounted on the motherboard in an effort to reduce costs. These machines are known as the A4000-CR (cost-reduced) and the surface-mounted CPU is a 68EC030. The cost-reduced models also make use of a non-rechargeable lithium battery for real-time clock battery backup rather than a rechargeable NiCad battery. The NiCad backup battery is one of the most common causes of problems in an aging device that uses one because it has a tendency to eventually leak. The released fluids are somewhat corrosive and can eventually damage the circuitry.
Graphics and sound.
The A4000 is the first Amiga model to have shipped with Commodore's third-generation Amiga chipset, the 32-bit Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA). As the name implies, AGA introduces improved graphical abilities, specifically, a palette expanded from 12-bit color depth (4,096 colors) to 24-bit (16.8 million colors) and new 64, 128, 256 and 262,144 (HAM-8) color modes. Unlike earlier Amiga chipsets, all color modes are available at all display resolutions. AGA also improves sprite capacity and graphics performance. The on-board sound hardware remains identical to that of the original Amiga chipset (the Paula sound chip), namely, four DMA-driven 8-bit PCM channels, with two channels for the left speaker and two for the right.
Peripherals and expansion.
The A4000 has a number of Amiga-specific connectors, including two DE-9 ports for joysticks, mice, and light pens, a standard 25-pin RS-232 serial port and a 25-pin Centronics parallel port. As a result, at launch the A4000 was compatible with many existing Amiga peripherals, such as MIDI devices, serial modems and sound samplers.
Like the just-earlier Amiga model, the 3000, the A4000 has four internal 32-bit Zorro III expansion slots. This expansion bus allows the use of devices which comply with the AutoConfig standard, such as graphic cards, audio cards, network cards, SCSI controllers, and later even USB controllers. One of the most notable hardware items of the era is the NewTek Video Toaster system which became popular in the 1990s for amateur and commercial desktop video production of standard-definition broadcast quality video, consisting of tools for video switching, chroma keying, character generation, animation, and image manipulation.
The three ISA slots can be activated by use of a bridgeboard, which connects the Zorro and ISA buses. Such bridgeboards typically feature on-board IBM-PC-compatible hardware, including Intel 80286, 80386, or 80486 microprocessors allowing emulation of an entire IBM-PC system in hardware. Compatible ISA cards may then be installed into the two remaining ISA slots.
Later, in an effort to offer modern expansion options third-party developers created replacement expansion boards for the A4000 which provide PCI slots allowing use of higher performance and widely available PCI hardware, such as graphic, sound, and network cards.
Operating system.
The A4000 shipped with AmigaOS 3.0, consisting of Workbench 3.0 and Kickstart 3.0, which together provide a single-user multi-tasking operating system and support for the built-in hardware. Following release of AmigaOS 3.1 it became possible to upgrade the A4000 by installing compatible Kickstart 3.1 ROM chips. The later AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9 releases were software-only updates requiring Kickstart 3.1.
AmigaOS 4, a PowerPC-native release of the operating system, can be used with the A4000 provided a CyberStorm PPC board is installed. Likewise, MorphOS, an alternative Amiga-compatible operating system, can be used with this hardware.
Variants of platform-independent operating systems, such as Linux and BSD, can also be used with the A4000.


Samjiyon tablet computer

The Samjiyon tablet computer () is a North Korean Android tablet computer developed by the Multimedia Technology Research Institute of the Korea Computer Center. It is the first North Korean tablet able to receive television broadcasts.
It is named after the Samjiyon lake.
Samjiyon includes a browser with a support for the North Korean Kwangmyong intranet. However, there is no Wi-Fi support.
The computers are assumed to have been built in China, and the software has been localized for North Korea.
Applications.
These apps are reported to be available:
Language support.
It supports Korean, German, Russian, English, French and Japanese inputs.


Kodak DCS 300 series

The Kodak DCS 300 series comprised two cameras, the DCS 315 and DCS 330. They were professional-level digital SLR cameras built by Eastman Kodak's Kodak Professional Imaging Solutions division. They were based on the Nikon Pronea 6i APS SLR camera and were aimed at a lower price point than other models in the Kodak DCS range. The 1.5 megapixel DCS 315 was launched in 1998, while the 3 megapixel DCS 330 was launched in 1999.
The DCS 315 was the first digital SLR camera to incorporate an image preview LCD and inbuilt JPEG processing.
The two cameras had different sized CCD imaging chips, both of which were smaller than either 135 film or APS-C film frames. The 315's imager had a crop factor of 2.6 relative to 135 film ("35mm"), while the 330's was larger with a factor of 1.9.
The Kodak modification to the Pronea 6i involved removing the camera's film back and mounting instead a Kodak digital back. This not only covered the back of the camera, but also extended beneath it, approximately doubling the camera's height. This was required to accommodate the large PC cards used as storage media, the six AA batteries required to power the camera, and the circuitry for image processing. The Kodak back had two display screens. The upper was a full-color screen used for viewing taken shots. The lower LCD displayed the camera's settings.
An infrared filter was mounted just behind the lens mount. This had to be removed in order to fit certain Nikkor lenses, including the IX-Nikkor lenses designed for the APS format camera.
The DCS 315 was substantially faster than the 330 since only half as much data needed to be stored per shot. The 315 also allowed image storage in the smaller JPEG format, while the 330 only allowed Kodak's proprietary .TIF RAW format.


IOS 4

iOS 4 is the fourth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iPhone OS 3. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7, 2010, and was released on June 21, 2010. iOS 4 is the first iOS version issued under the "iOS" rebranding, dropping the "iPhone OS" naming convention of previous versions. It was succeeded by iOS 5 on October 12, 2011.
iOS 4 introduced folders on the home screen, significantly increasing the number of apps that can be displayed. Support for custom wallpapers was also added, although limited to newer devices due to animation performance requirements. The operating system also added a multitasking feature, letting apps dealing with Internet calling, location and audio playback function in the background, whereas a similar but more restricted "Fast App Switching" technology enabled any app to be left inactive in the background while users switch to other apps. iOS 4 also added a system-wide spell checking feature, enabled iBooks on iPhone, unified the Mail inbox to combine content from different email providers, and introduced both Game Center for social gaming and FaceTime for video calling.
The iOS 4 update introduced performance and battery problems on iPhone 3G devices, with Apple investigating the matter and promising then-upcoming updates. However, the company became the subject of a lawsuit from an unsatisfied customer over the issues. Around the same time, the release of iPhone 4 and its subsequent antenna problems made Apple focus on unsuccessfully attempting to patch the issues with software updates.
History.
iOS 4 was introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 7, 2010. Notably, it was the first iOS release to be named simply "iOS", ending the "iPhone OS" naming pattern of previous versions.
iOS 4 was officially released on June 21, 2010.
System features.
Home screen.
iOS 4 raised the maximum number of home screen apps from 180 to 2,160 due to the addition of folders. These folders would automatically be named based on the containing apps' respective App Store category. The ability to add custom wallpapers to the home screen was also added, though the feature was notably absent from iPhone 3G and the second-generation iPod Touch due to poor performance of icon animations.
Multitasking.
iOS 4 introduced multitasking. The feature allowed users to switch between apps instantly by double-clicking the home button. It was implemented in such a way that did not cause excessive battery drain. Multitasking was limited to apps dealing with Internet calling, location, and audio playback, while a similar "Fast App Switching" technology meant users could leave an app and enter another, with the original app remaining in the background until the user returns. This feature was notably absent from iPhone 3G and the second-generation iPod Touch due to performance issues.
Spell check.
iOS 4 introduced a spell checking feature that underlined misspelled words in red. Tapping on the word would provide a pop-up with a recommended replacement.
Camera.
The Camera app could take pictures with 5x digital zoom.
App features.
iBooks.
iOS 4 introduced iPhone and iPod Touch support in iBooks, which was already included on iPad. Though not a default app, it was available through App Store.
Mail.
The Mail app featured a unified inbox on iOS 4, allowing users to see messages from all of their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. It also gained support for MobileMe e-mail aliases and multiple Exchange accounts for business users.
Game Center.
iOS 4.1 added a new app called Game Center, an online multiplayer social gaming network, which allows users to invite friends to play games and to compare their scores on a leaderboard. It was not available on the iPhone 3G.
FaceTime.
iOS 4 introduced FaceTime, a videotelephony app that uses the device's camera to allow the user to make video calls with other FaceTime users. This feature was absent from the iPhone 3G, second-generation iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, and third-generation iPod Touch due to the lack of required features, such as a front-facing camera.
Safari.
The Safari mobile web browser on iOS 4 added Bing as a search option in addition to Google and Yahoo!.
Beginning with iOS 4.2.1, specific words or phrases on a page could be searched.
Problems.
Performance and battery issues.
iPhone 3G users reported performance and battery issues after upgrading to iOS 4. Apple started an investigation of the matter in July 2010. In November, Apple was sued for the issues, with an unsatisfied customer alleging "violating the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, unfair business practices, and false and deceptive advertising", with further allegations that Apple knew its software would cause problems on older models. Apple never responded to the allegations, but wrote in a reply to another unsatisfied customer in August 2010 that updates were "coming soon".
Alarm clock.
In all versions of iOS 4, the alarm clock in the clock app had a problem in DST when it would go off an hour too early or too late.
Antenna problems.
Upon its release, some iPhone 4 users reported having technical problems with the phone's antennas. Apple attempted to fix the issue with iOS 4.0.1, but failed to do so.
Supported devices.
The first-generation iPhone and the first-generation iPod Touch cannot run iOS 4 and above due to hardware limitations. This marked the first time Apple dropped support for older devices.


Die Bahnwelt

Die Bahnwelt is a multi-directional Run and gun that was released for the Sharp X68000 in 1992 by Glodia.
Gameplay.
The player directly moves one character in three dimensions in an overhead perspective through science fiction themed dungeons. The player can shoot in eight directions. There are also different second characters that the player can indirectly control through AI. There are multiple weapons that can be collected that can be switched at will. There is a life bar that regenerates if no damage is taken for a period of time. The game has a save system. The game also contains many anime cutscenes. There is an English fan translation available for this game. The game is currently freeware.


Front Line (video game)

 is a military-themed run-and-gun shooter game released by Taito for arcades in 1982. It was one of the first video games to feature a ground combat theme and grenades, a precursor to many similarly-themed games of the mid-to-late 1980s. The original arcade version of "Front Line" is controlled with a joystick, a single button, and a rotary dial that can be pushed in like a button. The single button is used to throw grenades and to enter and exit tanks, while the rotary dial controls and fires the player's gun.
The game was created by Tetsuya Sasaki. It was a commercial success in Japan, where it was the seventh highest-grossing arcade game of 1982. However, it received a mixed critical and commercial reception in Western markets, particularly due to the game's difficulty. "Front Line" went on to inspire the SNK shooters "TNK III" (1985) and "Ikari Warriors" (1986), which follow the conventions established by "Front Line", including the vertically scrolling levels, entering/exiting tanks, and not dying when an occupied tank is destroyed.
Gameplay.
Playing as a lone soldier, the player's ultimate objective is to lob a hand grenade into the enemy's fort, first by fighting off infantry units and then battling tanks before finally reaching the opponent's compound.
The player begins with two weapons: a pistol and grenades, with no ammo limit. Once the player has advanced far enough into enemy territory, there's a "tank warfare" stage in which the player can hijack a tank to fight off other enemy tanks.
There are two types of tanks available: a light tank armed with a machine gun and a heavy tank armed with a cannon. The light tank is more nimble, but can be easily destroyed by the enemy. The heavy tank is slower, but can sustain one hit from a light tank; a second hit from a light tank will destroy it. A single shot from a heavy tank will destroy either type of tank. If a partially damaged tank is evacuated, the player can jump back in and resume its normal operation; however, with either type of tank, the player must exit the vehicle within a few seconds of being struck by a fatal shot. If the player does not exit a tank before it explodes, he loses a life. An extra life is awarded at 10,000 or 15,000, and none thereafter.
The tank battle continues until the player reaches the enemy's fort. The fort is a brick-barricaded tank which fires mortar rounds while the player attempts to take it out. In order to destroy this tank, the player must toss a grenade over the brick barricade, which can only be accomplished on foot. Once this is done, the tank will explode and an enemy soldier will wave a white flag, signalling surrender, plus 1,000 bonus points. The game repeats again with the infantry level, but enemy soldiers become increasingly quicker and deadlier in successive rounds; points are multiplied based on the level played.
Ports.
Following its release in the coin-op arcade platform, the game was ported to the ColecoVision console and the PC-8801 and Sharp X1 computers in 1983, the Atari 2600 and MSX in 1982, and the FM-7 and Nintendo Famicom in 1985. The Famicom version was Taito's first game for the console.
Reception.
The game was a commercial success in Japan, where "Game Machine" listed "Front Line" as the seventh highest-grossing arcade game of 1982. "Game Machine" later listed "Front Line" on their June 1, 1983 issue as being the twentieth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. In the United Kingdom, the game had limited commercial success due to its initially high difficulty.
Following its North American debut at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show in November 1982, it was reviewed by "Video Games" magazine, which listed it among the top ten "Misses" of the show and stated it was a "war game with a lot of potential, but also with a firing mechanism that's so difficult to maneuver it ruins the game". "Computer and Video Games", on the other hand, stated that, despite the initial difficulty, "the action really takes off" with the tank and it's "worth persevering with" until then.
In the 1983 Arcade Awards, "Front Line" was a runner-up for Coin-Op Game of the Year, behind "Pole Position". The award was given by "Electronic Games", which stated that this "arcade approach to the dirty business of infantry combat forces the player to keep moving and firing constantly" and the "action is non-stop in this attractive shoot 'em up".
Legacy.
"Front Line" was the basis for SNK's "TNK III" (1985), known as "T.A.N.K." in Japan and Europe. A programmer from SNK discovered "Front Line" at an arcade and thought that SNK could go further with the gameplay format. The team improved on "Front Line" with the addition of a rotary joystick. In turn, SNK went on to combine elements of "T.A.N.K." with Capcom's arcade hit "Commando" (1985) to produce the arcade hit "Ikari Warriors" (1986). Jaleco's "Field Combat" (1985) also has similar gameplay to "Front Line".
A Game Boy Color spin-off entitled "Sgt. Rock: On the Frontline" was published by Taito in 2000. The game follows the template of the original arcade game, but is set within the DC Comics universe.
The arcade original was included in "Taito Memories Gekan" for the PlayStation 2 console in 2005, and in "Taito Legends 2" for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows platforms in 2006. The Famicom version was released for the Virtual Console service in Japan on June 5, 2007 for the Wii and on January 15, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS.
The game was released on the Nintendo Switch in the Nintendo eShop on 14 February 2019 by Hamster Corporation as part of their Arcade Archives series and also on the PlayStation 4 on 8 January 2018 as part of the same series.


Amtix

Amtix (stylized as AMTIX!) was a magazine that reviewed Amstrad computer software in the mid-1980s. It was published monthly by Newsfield Publications Ltd.
Unlike "Zzap!64" and "CRASH" (its more successful sister publications from Newsfield), "Amtix!" was relatively short-lived. It ran for 18 issues in total between November 1985 and April 1987, plus a special preview issue ("Issue zero") which was given away with "Zzap!64" and "CRASH".
After issue 18, "Amtix!" was sold to Database Publications who merged the "Amtix!" games sections into their own "Computing With the Amstrad" magazine.
Like "Zzap!64" and "Crash", "Amtix!" had very distinctive, comic-style cover art, drawn by Oliver Frey.


Surface Go

The Surface Go is a 2-in-1 detachable in the Microsoft Surface series that was released on August 2, 2018. It was unveiled by Microsoft on July 10, 2018. This was the first generation of the Surface Go. In May 2020, this has been superseded by the Surface Go 2.
The device runs Windows 10 Home in S-Mode and features a 5MP front facing camera, an infrared camera, 8 MP rear camera, a NFC chip and a kickstand supporting an angle of up to 165°. The screen is a 3 by 2 optically-bonded PixelSense™ 1800 x 1200 display with a density of 217 PPI and a full 180 degree viewing angle. The Surface Go starts at US$399 and does not include a Type Cover or Surface Pen, which must be purchased separately. The Type Cover is offered in black, plus three options with Alcantara fabric—Burgundy, Cobalt Blue, and Platinum. The Type Cover also uses an 8-pin connection instead of the 6-pin connection featured in past Surfaces, breaking compatibility with other models.
Hardware.
The Surface Go is the 4th addition to small Surface lineup featuring a full-body magnesium alloy construction. The Surface Go is aimed toward kids, students and schools.
The device features a fanless Intel Pentium Gold processor inside.
For the first time, the device contains USB C port with power delivery, the first Surface device to support such port and a "Surface Connect" port. The front-facing camera contains an infrared sensor that supports login using Windows Hello.
The detachable keyboard, which is sold separately, uses an 8-pin connection which is compatible with the newer model.
Software.
Surface Go comes pre-installed with Windows 10 Home in S Mode and a 30-day trial of Office 365. With S Mode, users may only install software from Windows Store. S Mode of the OS can be upgraded to Windows 10 Home for free or Windows 10 Pro for a fee.
Windows 10 comes pre-installed with Mail, Calendar, People, Xbox, Photos, Movies and TV, Groove, Office and Edge. The device also supports Windows Hello login using a biometric facial recognition.


Elektronika MK-52

The Elektronika MK-52 () is an RPN-programmable calculator manufactured in the Soviet Union during the years 1983 to 1992. It belongs to the third generation of Soviet programmable calculators. Its original selling price was 115 rubles.
The functionality of the MK-52 is identical to that of the Elektronika MK-61, except that the MK-52 has an internal non-volatile EEPROM memory module for permanent data storage, a diagnostic slot, and a slot for ROM modules. The programming language and functionality of the MK-52 and MK-61 calculators were extensions of the earlier MK-54, B3-34, and B3-21 Elektronika calculators. The MK-52 is the only calculator known to have internal storage in the form of an EEPROM module.
As with many Soviet calculators, the MK-52 has a number of undocumented functions. In November 1988, the MK-52 went into space on the Soyuz TM-7 spacecraft, where it could have been used to calculate the trajectory of landing in the event of an onboard computer failure.
Architecture.
The MK-52 has 105 steps of volatile program memory, an internal EEPROM module (with 512 bytes of memory), and 15 7-byte registers. It uses four AA-size battery cells or can be plugged into a power adapter. It has a relatively dim, ten-digit (8 digit mantissa, 2 digit exponent) green vacuum fluorescent display. The MK-52 has an expansion port to which various ROM (Read-only memory) modules could be attached. Its system clock speed is approximately 75 kHz (derived from a phases generator chip), and it weighs approximately 400 grammes.
The MK-52 is the first Soviet micro-calculator with non-volatile electrically erasable memory (EEPROM, type KR1601RP1, with a capacity of 4 kilobits, and capable of 10,000 rewrites), ensuring security for programs, and for the clipboard, when the power is turned off. This EEPROM memory is capable of storing up to 512 1-byte program words (or the contents of 72 7-byte registers) and exchanging its contents with the calculator's RAM.
The calculator is fully compatible with the second-generation models (B3-34 and MK-54), using the same command system and machine codes. On average, a program that takes all 105 steps of program memory and 15 registers on the MC-52 will be equivalent in capability to approximately 140-150 steps and 18 registers on the B3-34. Additionally, the MC-52 has an extended set of commands that can allocate integer and fractional parts of numbers, search for absolute and maximum values of numbers, and perform certain logical operations.
Electric current requirements.
In standby mode (when the screen is illuminated zero) - about 89 mA,
In memory mode (execution of the program codice_1, resulting in the indicator showing only the luminous decimal point) - about 84 mA,
In counting mode, in accordance with the program - 73 mA.
ROM.
In addition, you can connect an external ROM which is a memory expansion unit with stored games and mathematical programs, produced by the manufacturer, that constitute the user library. Manufacturers have produced 4 types of ROM cartridges, three of them containing various mathematical functions, and one, the BRP-4, containing game programs:
BRP-2 "Astro" (Russian: БРП-2 "Астро"), with a set of programs for navigational tasks, information about which was published in issue 12, of 1988, of the Russian-language monthly magazine "" ("Marine Digest");
BRP-3 (Russian: БРП-3), containing 60 programs for solving mathematical problems. In 1988, 15,200 units of this ROM were manufactured, and were sold at a price of 16 rubles;
BRP-4 (Russian: БРП-4) was produced in 1989, containing game programs;
GRP "Geo".
There is another expansion jack in the MK-52, which serves to run diagnostics on the calculator during its production, and which could connect the calculator to external devices and their controllers, such as an external printer.
Basic operations.
The MK-52 has two main modes of operation: automatic mode and programming mode. General calculations and operations are performed in automatic mode, while programs are fed as input in programming mode. The keystroke sequence codice_2 codice_3 (codice_4 in appearance) switches the MK-52 to automatic mode, while codice_2 codice_6 (codice_7) switches it to programming mode.
Manual calculations in automatic mode are in accordance with Reverse Polish Notation logic. For example, to evaluate 2+3, the following keystrokes are required: codice_8 codice_9 (looks like codice_10) codice_11 codice_12.
Bitwise binary operations.
The MK-52 is fully capable of performing Boolean operations on binary numbers. The following example demonstrates the OR logical operation on the binary numbers codice_13 and codice_14:
Binary numbers are input into the calculator as hexadecimal numbers prepended by an codice_15.
First, the operator must divide the numbers into groups of four digits, adding leading zeros if necessary, e.g. splitting codice_13 into groups of four gives codice_17 and codice_18. The equivalent hexadecimal values of these two four-digit binary numbers are codice_19 and codice_15, respectively, which equal hexadecimal codice_21.
Similarly, codice_14 is equivalent to hexadecimal codice_23.
So, the numbers codice_24 and codice_25 are entered into the MK-52 and the OR operation is performed on them. The OR operation is achieved by pressing the codice_26 key, then codice_3 (which looks like codice_4).
The result displayed should be codice_29, which translates into binary codice_17 and codice_31, and, hence, the binary number codice_32, which is the result.
The following list details the MK-52's graphical representation of hexadecimal numbers:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, -, L, C, Г, E, (blank). Normal hexadecimal representation is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.
Programming.
The MK-52's programming commands are typed into the MK-52 in programming mode and are then executed. The MK-52 is fully capable of being programmed to manage memory and to use both conditional and unconditional branching.
In programming mode, the screen displays information about the program in memory, represented by two hexadecimal-digit operation codes. For example, if codice_33 is displayed, then this means that codice_34 is stored at program step 00, codice_35 is stored at program step 01, codice_36 is stored at program step 02, and the machine is prompting for data to be input, to be stored at program step 03.
Saving to EEPROM.
Before entering a program to volatile memory with the intention of saving this program to EEPROM memory, the EEPROM program space to be saved to must be cleared first, which clears the volatile memory as well as the selected area of the EEPROM memory.
Each program step requires 1 byte of memory and each data register requires 7 bytes of memory.
When clearing, reading, or writing to the EEPROM memory, the address and range are specified by a six-digit number, preceded by a non-zero number, in automatic mode: e.g. codice_37 specifies that codice_38 bytes are to be stored starting at memory address codice_39. A two-position data/program switch controls whether data (from the registers) or program memory is transferred; a three-position switch is used to select read, write, and clear operations.
Additional information.
Price.
Its original selling price was 115 rubles.
Colours.
The MK-52 was made available in a variety of colours, including black and grey, turquoise and blue, white and grey, and orange.
Schematics.
In what would be considered an unusual practice today (but was common for Soviet electronics), technical schematics were provided for the MK-52 when it was purchased, facilitating user modification and repair of the machine.
Error message.
When an error was encountered on the machine, the display produced a message similar to the English word "error". The word, written in this fashion, cut down on the number of display segments used to display the error message. In Russian, this spelling is not pronounced "error", but "eggog".
Games.
There is a host of games available for the MK-52. The MK-52's undocumented functions tend to be heavily used in the games due to their ability to make unusual calculations and produce specialised displays. A simple example of the modification of the display is accomplished by the repeated squaring of (and ignoring error messages).
Use in outer space.
In November 1988, the MK-52 went into space on the Soyuz TM-7 spacecraft, where it could have been used to calculate the trajectory of landing in the event of an onboard computer failure.
Bugs.
There is currently only 1 known bug in the MK-52: that the MAX function gives a result of zero if one of the two arguments of the function is zero.


Amiga 3000

The Commodore Amiga 3000, or A3000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in June 1990. It features improved processing speed, improved graphics rendering, and a new revision of the operating system. It is the successor to the Amiga 2000.
Its predecessors, the Amiga 500, 1000 and 2000, share the same fundamental system architecture and consequently perform without much variation in processing speed despite considerable variation in purchase price. The A3000 however, was entirely reworked and rethought as a high-end workstation. The new Motorola 32-bit 68030 CPU, 68882 math co-processor, and 32-bit system memory increase the integer processing speed by a factor of 5 to 18, and the floating-point processing speed by a factor of 7 to 200 times. The new 32-bit Zorro III expansion slots provide for faster and more powerful expansion capabilities.
In common with earlier Amigas the 3000 runs a 32-bit operating system called AmigaOS. Version 2.0 is generally considered to have a more ergonomic and attractive interface than previous versions, which were designed with television sets as a lowest common denominator display. Access for application developers was simplified.
The A3000UX is an A3000 variant bundled with the UNIX System V operating system. Commodore had a licensing agreement with AT&T to include a port of Unix System V (release 4). Commodore also sold a towerized variant called the A3000T.
An enhanced version, the Amiga 3000+, with the AGA chipset and an AT&T DSP3210 signal processing chip was produced to prototype stage in 1991. Although this system was never released, Commodore's negotiations with AT&T over the proper way to bundle their VCOS/VCAS operating system software in a personal computer environment helped Apple Computer deliver their Quadra 660 and Quadra 840 AV-series Macintosh systems, two years later.
Instead of the Amiga 3000+, Commodore replaced the A3000 six months behind schedule, in the fall of 1992, with the A4000.
Technical information.
The Amiga 3000 shipped with a Motorola 68030 at either 16 or 25 MHz and 2 MB of RAM. It includes the Enhanced Chip Set (ECS), a display enhancer for use with a VGA monitor, and a DMA SCSI-II controller and hard disk drive.
"Fast RAM" can be increased by fitting DIP (up to 4 MB) or ZIP DRAM chips (up to 16 MB) available in two varieties, Page Mode or Static Column.
The A3000, unlike most Amiga models, supports both ROM-based Kickstarts and disk-based Kickstarts (the early "SuperKickstart" model), although not simultaneously. Kickstart V1.4 is actually a beta version of Kickstart which is loaded from disk. 68040 microprocessors require at least 2.0 ROMs.
The A3000 has a number of Amiga-specific connectors including two DE-9 ports for joysticks, mice, and light pens, a standard 25-pin RS-232 serial port and a 25-pin Centronics parallel port. As a result, at launch the A3000 was compatible with many existing Amiga peripherals, such as MIDI devices, serial modems, and sound samplers.
The A3000 has four internal 32-bit Zorro III expansion slots. This expansion bus allows the use of devices which comply with the AutoConfig standard, such as graphic cards, audio cards, network cards, and later even USB controllers.
The two passive ISA slots can be activated by use of a bridgeboard, which connects the Zorro and ISA buses. Such bridgeboards typically feature on-board IBM-PC-compatible hardware, including Intel 80286, 80386 or 80486 microprocessors allowing emulation of an entire IBM PC system in hardware. A compatible ISA card may then be installed in the remaining ISA slot.


Scrapbook (Mac OS)

Scrapbook under the Classic Mac OS was a small desk accessory (DA) which enabled users to store images, text and sound clippings. It was included in the original Macintosh system software in 1984 with the Macintosh 128K, and was included throughout every Mac OS revision until Mac OS 9.
Since early versions of Mac OS were not capable of multitasking—they could only run one application at a time—a specially-written DA such as Scrapbook was the only means of keeping content readily accessible to be pasted into documents.
Starting in Scrapbook version 7.5.2, Scrapbook could also store QuickDraw 3D-based 3D models. It came with two 3D models in this version; one of a palm tree and one of a pencil.


Videoton TV-Computer

The TV-Computer (or TVC in short) is an 8-bit home computer which was manufactured by the Hungarian company Videoton around 1986. The computer was based on the Enterprise (computer) and had a built-in BASIC interpreter. Programs could be loaded via tape or floppy. It had a built-in joystick and a keyboard with Hungarian letters and nine function keys.
There are three different models of the TVC:
The TVC has three graphical modes: 128×240/16 colors, 256×240/4 colors, and 512×240/2 colors (black and white). Few programs existed for the computer. Many of these were written by dedicated amateurs and were distributed by mail.


Matsushita JR series

The Matsushita JR series was a line of microcomputers produced by Matsushita Electric Industrial (now Panasonic) during the 1980s. The JR series included four computer models: the JR-100, the JR-200, the JR-300 and the JR-800. A version of the JR-200 called the Panasonic JR-200U was developed for the North American and European markets and was announced in January 1983. A handheld model called JR-800 was launched some time after the JR-300, but it was not compatible with the previous JR computers.
JR-300.
The JR-300, released in 1984, was completely redesigned in comparison with the earlier JR-100 and JR-200 models. The JR-300 had a Zilog Z80A CPU as well as a second 6802-compatible MN1800A CPU to allow backwards compatibility with the JR-200.


Agent Orange (video game)

Agent Orange is an action computer game released by A&F Software in January 1987 for multiple home computer formats.
Gameplay.
Tasked with cultivating crops on eight alien planets in order to fund space travel, the player must combat rival alien farmers whilst planting and harvesting crops for income; the ultimate goal is to reach the final planet and take possession of a batch of alien weedkiller called agent orange. Play begins with the player's mothership heading to the first planet, the mothership displays the number and strength of enemy farmers on the planet. The mothership contains seeds and 8 smaller daugheterships; seeds generate crops when planted and daughterships are combination fighter craft and planters. When ready the player's first daughtership is launched onto the planet's surface, it is this vehicle which the player directly controls and each represents the player's 'lives'. The daughtership can move in eight directions, the play area scrolls left and right from the mothership. Alien farmers attack while the daughtership flies around the planet's surface, initially they can be destroyed easily but this becomes more difficult as play progresses.
Aliens plant crops of their own, which act as weeds and choke the player's own crops and take up some of the planet surface's limited space suitable for crop planting. These weeds can be destroyed by the player firing on them. Indigenous weeds also spread across planet surfaces, unlike alien crops these cannot be razed by the player's weapon fire. The daughtership can plant crops if the player has seed available, when planted seeds grow through three coloured stages, once at the third stage they can be harvested; failure to harvest crops in time will result in them withering. Crops behave in a lifelike fashion; too many or too few crops in an area stunts their growth, players must find the optimum density of crop. The daughtership can hold a limited amount of crop units, indicated by a bar on the screen which fills when crops are collected, collecting more than the ship can carry will result in a crash landing and the destruction of the vessel. The mothership also has limited cargo space, once the mothership's hold is full the vessel must return home so that the crops can be sold. The mothership cannot ascend from the planet's surface until all alien aggressors have been eliminated, forcing the player to destroy the enemy before escaping. Upon returning home the harvested crops, remaining seeds and remaining daughterships are converted into cash, allowing the player to purchase new daughterships with improved shields to defend against rivals. At this point the player can return to the same planet, where additional alien farmers will now be present, or move onto the next and more difficult planet. Each new planet features more powerful and numerous alien ships.
Reception.
The Commodore 64 version was rated as being very poor by Julian Rignall and Paul Sumner of "Zzap!64" magazine, with an overall review score of 37%. Sumner stated that despite the game's graphics; which were rated comparatively higher in the review than other aspects of the game, that underneath it is "a very simple and unchallenging shoot 'em up". Rignall drew comparisons with other similar games being released at the time, stating "I'm sick to death with crummy two-way scrolling shoot 'em ups - why do companies keep churning them out onto the market?" He continued by comparing the game's graphics in comparison to gameplay as "gift wrapping an empty cardboard box", describing the title's gameplay as lacking the essentials necessary for an exciting shoot 'em up game.


HDE Controller X

HDE Controller X is a web-based system configuration tool for Linux. It allows server administrators to set up new websites, e-mail accounts, DNS entries, through a web-based interface.
Antivirus protection.
F-Secure is installed through HDE Controller for an antivirus scanner. It stops viruses and other malicious code before they spread to end-users’desktops and corporate servers. The product scans SMTP traffic for viruses, worms and trojans, and also blocks and filters out specified file types.
IPv6 and IPv4 Support.
HDE Controller X supports IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack access environments.


Ritz Dakota Digital

The Ritz Dakota Digital was a type of point-and-shoot digital camera, introduced in July 2003, and sold by the Ritz Camera Centers. It had a digital photo resolution of 1.2 megapixels (1280 pixels wide, 960 pixels high) and a storage capacity of 25 pictures.
When introduced, the Dakota Digital sparked massive interest, primarily due to its price tag: US$10.99. At the time, a digital camera of similar resolution and functionality was in the $40–$70 range. The reason for the low price was that the Dakota Digital was a "single-use camera", i.e. the consumer takes the pictures, returns the camera to the store, and the pictures are returned to the consumer in print and CD-ROM format (after an additional $11 processing fee) while the camera is refurbished and resold. The Dakota Digital wasn't the very first digital camera introduced as a single-use concept camera - Pentax and Sanyo did it in Japan two years before. However, it was the first single-use digital camera to be mass-marketed (the Pentax/Sanyo camera was only a three-month trial run), as well as the first single-use digital camera sold in the United States.
Almost immediately after introduction, several people began work on hacking the single-use Dakota Digital in attempts to transform it into what would be the least expensive reusable digital camera available at the time. In November 2003, only four months after it was introduced, they succeeded in this task. Technical details about the internal components were publicly posted on the Internet, along with instructions for creating various compatible link cables that connected the Dakota Digital to home personal computers. In addition to this, special third-party software provided a way to download pictures and clear the camera's internal flash memory to allow more pictures to be taken. The technical data, instructions and software met all requirements to make the Dakota Digital reusable.
Public announcement of how to transform the single-use camera into a reusable camera, paired with the very low camera price, immediately created high demand for the Dakota Digital. So Ritz began pulling the Dakota Digital out of its stores after learning of the hack, and the original camera soon became difficult to find.
In July 2004, a group of hackers made available methods to further improve the original Dakota Digital by upgrading the camera's firmware, or internal programming. These firmware upgrades added several new features, most notably the ability to adjust or remove the original 25 picture limit, along with various other changes and improvements.
A few months after the original camera was pulled off the shelves, Ritz introduced two new models of Dakota Digital, the "PV2" series. One was similar to the original model with a price of $10.99, while the other, priced at $18.99, contained a color LCD screen that displayed the most recent picture taken. Both were based on an entirely new chipset manufactured by SMaL Camera Technologies. Hacking of this camera has been more of a group effort than the first. John Maushammer removed and read the flash memory chip, wrote a disassembler, and commented significant portions of the firmware. Others investigated the USB interface, and John figured out the authentication mechanism and how to disable it. Others figured out how to download the images using modified versions of software for SMaL's other cameras, and other people are reverse-engineering the proprietary RAW file format.
The security mechanism on the original camera consisted of a challenge and response. The challenge was the camera's serial number, and the response was the 4-byte result of a simple hash function – the serial number converted from ASCII to binary-coded decimal, negated bitwise, and multiplied by 4. The weakness was that the hash function was stored in the firmware, so it could be completely understood and replicated. The PV2 used a better challenge and response mechanism. It was better not because it used a longer key (128 byte challenge, 128 byte response), but because the hash function was not stored algorithmically in firmware. Theoretically, the response could not be mathematically related to the challenge and the only correlation between the two could be a record saved in the manufacturer's database (which authorized processing systems would have to access to read pictures from the camera). In practice, though, only a few challenge/response pairs have been seen in the wild.


Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ45 (a.k.a. DMC-FZ40 in North American markets) is a superzoom bridge digital camera, replacing the similar Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 and earlier Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40/FZ45 superzoom slots in where the FZ38/35 left off, featuring the same 25-600mm equiv. lens as the FZ100, but with a 14.1MP CCD sensor and simpler 230K dot 3.0 inch fixed LCD (as opposed to the FZ100's CMOS sensor and high-res screen). The FZ40 also offers AVCHD Lite 720p HD video recording, manual shooting modes and the company’s Sonic Speed auto-focus system that offers the industry's fastest focus times.


Xerox 530


Terra Cresta

 is a 1985 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Nichibutsu. The player assumes control of a starship named the "Wing Galibur" that must destroy the Mandler army before they destroy all of humanity. Gameplay involves shooting enemies and collecting different ship parts that each provide their own unique weapon, such as a wave gun or a double shot. It is the sequel to "Moon Cresta" (1980), Nichibutsu's first big hit in arcades.
Gameplay.
The player takes control of the "Wing Galibur" fighter craft, and must shoot down the incoming enemy craft in the air and on the ground. Small capsules can appear on the ground, and once the player has shot all of them down, will award the player with a piece to attach onto the Wing Galibur. These pieces can give the Wing Galibur extra firepower and wider shots, with four individual pieces to acquire; should the player have all pieces to the ship and press the "transform" button, the Wing Galibur will transform into an enormous, flaming phoenix that is invulnerable to anything for a brief period of time. Additionally, the player can press the transform button without all pieces, and cause the pieces to split from the Wing Galibur and move into a triangular shape around the player. During this, the pieces are invulnerable to all enemy fire, while the player is not; should he or she be hit with the pieces, the Wing Galibur will revert to a singular craft, and if the Wing Galibur is hit, the player will lose a life, and the game will be immediately over should the player lose all of their lives.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Terra Cresta" on their October 15, 1985 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade unit of the year.
In a 2016 retrospective review, "Hardcore Gaming 101" compared the game to "Super Mario Bros." in terms of taking concepts established in its predecessor and expanding on it while adding its own unique ideas alongside. They greatly praised "Terra Cresta" for its unique power-up system in particular, namely the ability to split the different ships apart for a short while, and favorably compared the gameplay itself to "Xevious" for its design and challenge, alongside its several nods to Japanese science-fiction shows and mecha. "Hardcore Gaming 101" also praised the Nintendo Entertainment System version's soundtrack for being an improvement over the Japanese Family Computer score. In their coverage of the series in 2016, "Retro Gamer" magazine liked the game's enhancements over titles like "Xevious", alongside its "then-contemporary" power-up system.
Legacy.
"Terra Cresta" was ported to several home systems. European publisher Ocean Software published conversions for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 on their "Imagine Software" label, while Nichibutsu themselves published a version for the Family Computer in Japan. The Famicom release was later published in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Vic Tokai; it features a few alterations from the Japanese version, such as a remade soundtrack and the ability to customize the position of the player's ships when they separate from formation. In 1992, Japanese developer Dempa ported both "Terra Cresta" and its predecessor "Moon Cresta" to the Sharp X68000 as the debut title in their "Video Game Anthology" line of arcade game re-releases, titled "Video Game Anthology Vol. 1 - Moon Cresta / Terra Cresta".
"Terra Cresta" was released for the PlayStation 2 by Hamster Corporation in 2005 as part of their "Oretachi Gēsen Zoku" series, including, among other things, a mini soundtrack CD and a replica instruction card. Hamster later released "Terra Cresta" digitally for the PlayStation 4 in 2014 and the Nintendo Switch in 2018, both being published under the "Arcade Archives" series. The Famicom version was digitally re-released for Microsoft Windows in 2014 by D4 Enterprise, released for their Project EGG service. After acquiring the entirety of Nichibutsu's video game library in 2013, the rights to "Terra Cresta" are now owned by Hamster.


TI-59 / TI-58

The TI-59 is an early programmable calculator, that was manufactured by Texas Instruments from 1977. It is the successor to the TI SR-52, quadrupling the number of "program steps" of storage, and adding "ROM Program Modules" (an insertable ROM chip, capable of holding 5000 program steps). Just like the SR-52, it has a magnetic card reader for external storage. One quarter of the memory is stored on each side of one card.
The TI-58 (May 1977), and later TI-58C (1979), are cut down versions of the TI-59, lacking the magnetic card reader and having half the memory, but otherwise identical. Although the TI-58C uses a different chip than the TI-58, the technical data remain identical. The "C" in a TI (or Hewlett-Packard) model name indicates that the calculator has a "constant" memory (or continuous memory, respectively) allowing retention of programs and data when turned off.
These calculators use a parenthesized infix calculation system called "Algebraic Operating System" (AOS), where, compared to the postfix RPN system used by other scientific calculators (such as HP), the operator enters calculations just as they are written on paper, using up to nine levels of parenthesis.
The calculator can be powered from an external adapter or from internal NiCd rechargeable battery pack (although the battery has to remain present when using the external AC adapter to avoid damage to the calculator circuitry).
Display.
The red LED display shows 10 decimal digits of precision.
Programming.
Programming simple problems with the TI-59 or TI-58 is a very straightforward process. In programming mode, the TI-59 simply records key presses. Alphabetical keys provide easy access to up to ten entry points.
It is also possible to activate any of the programs in the pre-programmed memory module, and run one like any user-written program. Programs written by the user can also use programs in the module as subroutines. The module's programs run directly from ROM, so they leave the calculator's memory free for the user.
However, exploiting the computer-like capabilities of the TI-59 is a different matter. Although the TI-59 is Turing-complete, supporting straight-line programming, conditions, loops, and indirect access to memory registers, and although it supports limited alphanumeric output on the printer only, writing sophisticated routines is essentially a matter of planning machine language and using a coding pad.
A large degree of sharing occurred in the TI-59 and TI-58 community. At least one game, "Darth Vader's Force Battle", appeared as a type-in program.
Programming example.
Here is a sample program that computes the factorial of an integer number from 2 to 69. For 5!, you'll type 5 A and get the result, 120. Unlike the SR-52, the TI-58 and TI-59 do not have the factorial function built-in, but do support it through the software module which was delivered with the calculator.
 Op-code Comment
 LBL A "You'll call the program with the A key"
 STO 01 "stores the value in register 1"
 1 "starts with 1"
 LBL B "label for the loop"
 * "multiply"
 RCL 01 "by n"
 DSZ 1 B "decrements n and back to B until n=0"
 = "end of loop, the machine has"
 "calculated 1*n*(n-1)*...2*1=n!"
 INV SBR "end of procedure"
Here is the same program written for TI Compiler:
 #reg 01 counter
 #label A factorial
 LBL factorial
 STO counter
 1
 FOR counter
 * @counter
 LOOP
 RTN
 #end
Memory.
In comparison to its contemporary main competitor, Hewlett-Packard HP-67, the TI-59 has about twice the memory. The partition between program steps and memories is adjustable in increments of 80 program steps/10 memories, and as many as 960 program steps (with zero memories) or as many as 100 memories (with 160 program steps) can be configured. The TI-59 was the first programmable pocket calculator where the manufacturer provided a system for sharing memory between data registers and program storage. The memory is only about twice as large as in the SR-52, but more flexible, and thus the possible number of program steps was four times as high. Contents of this memory are lost when the calculator is turned off.
The TI-58 has half the memory of the TI-59 and supports up to 480 program steps or 60 memories. It competed with the HP-34C.
The TI-58 and TI-59 calculators have variable length instructions. Some keypresses are merged into one programming step, so that instructions from one to eleven keypresses are stored in one to six programming steps. The HP-67 always stores one instruction in one programming step, which is efficient for some frequently used instructions but also limits the number of possible instructions.
Magnetic card reader.
The TI-59 can store programs and data on small magnetic cards when the calculator is turned off and quickly reloaded when needed. Click below for a video of the card reader in action.
The video also shows the dual use of the magnetic card as a program documentation menu. Notes can be printed or handwritten by the programmer on the top side of the magnetic card. Once read by the cardreader, the card can then be stored, as shown, in a slot between the top of the keyboard and the display, thus providing a notation indicating both the name of the program currently loaded and the purpose of each of the five label buttons A-E and their secondary functions A'-E' within the loaded program.
The TI-58 does not have a magnetic card reader.
Solid State Software Library.
The TI-59 and TI-58 were the first hand-held calculators to utilize removable ROM program modules. The Master Library Module ROM was included with the TI-59 and TI-58, and contains several useful pre-programmed routines and even a game. Additional modules - for such applications as real estate, investment, statistics, surveying and aviation - were sold separately.
The programs in the modules used the user-defined keys heavily. To make the programs easier to use, plastic cards with the same size as the magnetic cards, but just printed to label the user-defined keys, can be inserted in the slot between the display and the keyboard to label the user-defined keys.
Printer.
Also available for the TI-59 and TI-58 was a thermal printer (the PC-100A, B, and C models); the calculator was mounted on top of the printer and locked in place with a key.
The calculator can be programmed to request input from the user, and output results of calculations to the printer. Alphanumeric text (64 characters total, including space, 0-9, A-Z and 25 punctuation and mathematical symbols) can be output as well as numbers. A limited ability to plot graphs is provided. The printer is also valuable for program development because it can produce a hard copy of the calculator's program including the alphanumeric mnemonics instead of just the numeric codes normally visible on the display, as well as a dump of the data registers, a trace of the program's execution and other information about the program.
In the early model PC-100A, a switch inside the battery charger compartment allows use with the earlier SR-52 and SR-56 calculators as well as the TI-58/59 series. In addition, it also works with non-programmable TI machines of the era such as the SR-50A. (Remove the battery pack of a TI calculator and look for the row of printer interface pads on the circuit board below the battery terminals.)


Herzog (video game)

Herzog (German: "Duke") is a strategy video game released by Technosoft in Japan for the MSX and NEC PC-88 computers in 1988. It was a real-time tactics and tactical shooter game with real-time strategy elements. The game served as the prototype for its sequel "Herzog Zwei", which was released in 1989 for the Sega Mega Drive and is often considered the first true real-time strategy game.
Overview.
The game is centered around a fictional war between the countries of Mercies (Blue side in game) and Ruth (Red side in game). In the single player mode of the game, the player takes control of the Mercies army, whose goal is to reach and capture the headquarters of the Ruth army.
Gameplay takes place among nine battlegrounds, beginning at the capital of Mercies, Vaxan. Each victory for the player brings the player's army to the next battleground and closer to Remerje, the capital of Ruth. The game ends when either the player is defeated at Vaxan, or the computer controlled army is defeated at Remerje. The game will also end if the player loses the last Land-Armor in stock (see Units below). If the player loses at a battleground other than Vaxan, the player will move backwards and complete the previous stage again.
Plot.
Ten years prior to the game's events, President Hughes, head of the Republic of Mercies, is assassinated. The Ruth Liberian Army, a terrorist organisation lead by Roger Tense, takes responsibility for the act. The previously friendly relations between Mercies and Ruth deteriorate and war breaks out. Major powers intervene in the conflict on both sides, and the war spreads to engulf the world. A decade later, Ruth's army is at the gates of Vaxan, capital of Mercies, and the war begins to draw to a close.
If the player is successful and captures Remerje, capital of Ruth, the war ends and the two countries sign a peace treaty five years later.
Gameplay mechanics.
Each battleground is a linear path in which the player's base is located on one side and the enemy base is located on the other side. Each side has a Land-Armor that can fly in the air or travel on the ground, pick up and drop other friendly units, and attack units (including friendly ones). Each side must use their funding, which is automatically replenished at a rate of ten money units every half-second approximately, to build various units that will travel the length of the battlefield while doing battle with opposing units. If a unit successfully manages to reach the opposing end of the battlefield, the unit will cause a certain amount of damage to the enemy base. The battle is over when a side manages to damage the opposing base enough to destroy it.
The visual aspect of the gameplay is represented by a vertically aligned graphical area where units are controlled in real-time, and a small horizontal radar at the top of the screen where units are represented by colored dots which scroll across the screen according to their position. At the bottom of the screen, each side has gauges the show the percentage of damage taken by their respective Land-Armors and Bases. When either reaches 100 percent damage, they will be destroyed.
The gameplay in two-player mode is essentially the same as in the single player game. The graphical area is split into two sides for each player, with player one being blue and player two being red. The only major difference is that the first battle takes place at the location in the middle of the two capitals and will progress forward or backward depending on who wins, until one capital is defeated.
Units.
During combat, the deployable units available are as follows:
Land-Armor - The Land-Armor is the most important unit in the game. Only one Land-Armor at a time can be active on the battleground and is directly controlled by the player (the other units move independently). The Land-Armor can travel on the ground or hover in the air and attack enemy ground and air units. The Land-Armor can also pick up other units and drop them a different locations. The Land-Armor's health is displayed on screen and will be replaced by another Land-Armor when destroyed. The computer controlled army has an infinite number of Land-Armors, but the player does not and must buy extras if needed. The destruction of the player's last Land-Armor results in an automatic game over.
Soldier - Soldiers are fairly slow moving ground units that fire single shots at other ground enemies. Soldiers are weak and can only take one hit before being destroyed, but they are very cheap to create and when a Land-Armor picks one up, it can repair the Land-Armor at a rate of 1 percentage point per second (this is the only way to repair the Land-Armor). The Land-Armor can carry five Soldiers at a time.
Tank - Tanks are the main attack unit of an army. They are fairly expensive to make and slow moving, but they can take a lot of hits before being destroyed, and do a lot of damage to bases. A Tank's rate of fire is about the same as a Soldier. The Land-Armor can carry one Tank at a time.
AAM (Anti Aircraft Missile)-Carrier - AAM-Carriers are medium speed moving units that are not equipped to attack ground units. Instead, they are armed with a finite number of homing missiles that can seek and attack the enemy Land-Armor on the ground and in the air. They are the only other unit that can attack the Land-Armor in the air besides another Land-Armor. The Land-Armor can carry one AAM-Carrier at a time, and upon pressing the fire button, the Land-Armor can unleash the entire payload of homing missiles the AAM-Carrier is holding.
Side Car - Side Cars are lightweight, inexpensive, motorcycle units that are fast and can reach the enemy base quickly. They also have a higher rate of fire than other units and can do damage a little faster. Their downside is that they have a low tolerance for damage. The Land-Armor can carry one Side Car at a time.
Antitank-Gun - Antitank-Guns are ground turrets that must first be placed by the Land-Armor, then they attack enemies from that position. Although they are expensive and unable to move without assistance, they are very durable and have a high rate of fire, making them ideal to take out tanks as the name suggests, or to defend bases. The Land-Armor can carry one Antitank-Gun at a time.
Grand-Slam - Being the most expensive unit next to the Land-Armor, the Grand-Slam missile is very powerful. It travels across the battleground very slowly, and if it successfully reaches the opposing base, it automatically destroys it with 100 percent damage. The Grand-Slam can't be seen or interacted with on the graphical area and can only be seen as a blip on the radar (the game will flash a warning when a Grand-Slam is launched). The only way to destroy a Grand-Slam is to send another Grand-Slam to collide with it on the opposite end of its path.
As a final note, the player can only have a maximum of 50 units out on the battleground at a time.
"Herzog Zwei".
"Herzog" served as the prototype for its more well known 1989 Sega Mega Drive sequel "Herzog Zwei", which is considered the first real time strategy game. It was the first with a feature set that falls under the contemporary definition of the genre, predating the genre-popularizing "Dune II" (1992).


Mega II

The Mega II is a custom chip from Apple Computer that is essentially an entire Apple II computer-on-a-chip. At least three products from Apple made use of the chip between 1986 and 1995. It was most predominantly used in the Apple IIGS microcomputer, and the basis for a modified variant, called the "Gemini" chip, which was later used in the Apple IIe Card for the Macintosh LC. This custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) integrated most of the circuitry from earlier Apple II models onto one 84-pin PLCC integrated circuit, drastically simplifying design and cost for Apple. The Mega II contained the functional equivalent of an entire Apple IIe computer (sans processor), which, combined with the 65C02 processor, plus ROM and RAM, provided full support for legacy (8-bit) Apple II software in the Macintosh LC. The result was one of the earliest single chip examples of full system hardware emulation.
The Mega II has the built-in equivalent of the IOU and memory management unit (MMU) chips, video and keyboard ROMs (with support for other display languages) and likely the keyboard encoder found in the IIe. It also has a built-in keyboard and mouse controller (neither were used in the Apple IIGS). Potentially the Mega II could have been used to produce future models of the 8-bit Apple II with a very low chip count (and reduced physical size) but instead used for IIe emulation on the Apple IIGS and Macintosh LC with plug-in card. It was also used as support circuity on the Apple II Video Overlay Card.
History.
In 1984, after the cancellation of the Apple IIx project, Dan Hillman and Jay Rickard, engineers at Apple, were assigned to lower the cost of the Apple II. They were able to compress the design of almost the entire Apple II onto one chip which they named Mega II. When the 16-bit Apple IIGS project came onto the table, the virtually completed design of the Mega II was a clear starting point for seamless backwards 8-bit system compatibility.


Thexder

 is a run and gun game from Game Arts, originally released for the NEC PC-8801 in 1985. It was subsequently ported to many other systems, including the Famicom.
Gameplay.
In "Thexder", the player controls a fighter robot that is able to transform into a jet.
Release.
The game was originally released in 1985 for the NEC PC-8801 platform in Japan. Game Arts licensed "Thexder" to Square in order to develop a conversion for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game console. In 1987, Game Arts also developed a "Thexder" conversion for the MSX platform. The game was licensed to Sierra Entertainment for release in the United States. In 1987, Sierra ported the game to multiple platforms, including the IBM PC, Tandy Color Computer 3, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh, and Tandy 1000 computer and became the company's best-selling title of 1987. In 1988, Activision released the game in Europe on the Commodore Amiga. By 1990, the game had sold over one million copies worldwide.
Reception.
"Thexder" quickly became a best-selling hit selling over 500,000 copies. The PC-8801 platform was only popular in Japan and, despite home market success, "Thexder" garnered little attention abroad initially. With the conversion for the MSX (the best-selling platform in Brazil and many east European countries) it became an international hit.
"Compute!" praised the Apple IIGS version of "Thexder" as the computer's "first true arcade game" with "excellent play value for your dollar". In 1988, "The Games Machine" gave the Amiga version a 74% score. In 1991, "Dragon" gave the Macintosh and PC/MS-DOS versions of the game each 4 out of 5 stars. The game went on to sell over one million copies worldwide, becoming Game Arts' biggest selling title of 1987. "Thexder" is considered an important breakthrough title for the run-and-gun shooter game genre, paving the way for titles such as "Contra" and "Metal Slug".


Timeball

Timeball is a puzzle video game released by NEC for the TurboGrafx-16. The object of the game is to guide a ball along pieces of track by moving tiles like a sliding puzzle. The game's name in Japan is Blodia, an anagram of "Diablo", the title of a computer game upon which "Blodia" is based. Versions of "Blodia" were released exclusively in Japan for the original Game Boy and the Sharp X68000. A spin-off titled "Blodia Land: Puzzle Quest" was released for the Famicom, replacing the ball with cartoon dinosaur-like characters. These versions were developed by Tonkin House and published by Broderbund.
Gameplay.
The grid on screen is composed of tiles. Some tiles have a piece of road, and a black tile represents "the void", an area where one can drag the tile nearby in order to complete a road which will be taken by a ball that will follow the path. Players must arrange the tiles such that the ball traverses all sections of track. The ball can be sped up by pressing a button. If the ball reaches a tile without a piece of track, it falls out of play.
The game also includes a level editor which allows for the creation of custom puzzles.
An earlier "prototype" version without the level editor was published for the TI-99/4a and other computers as "Diablo" in 1985.


Phantasie II

Phantasie II is the second video game in the "Phantasie" series.
Gameplay.
In 1986, SSI published the next part of the "Phantasie" series, "Phantasie II". Again, the Dark Lord Nikademus was the nemesis. This time Nikademus had fashioned an evil orb, and with it he cast a curse on a beautiful island named Ferronrah and enslaved its people. The player's mission was to find and destroy the orb.
"Phantasie II" used the same graphics and fighting as the original Phantasie game, with one improvement to combat: the ability of any character class to target any enemy rank with a thrown rock. There were improvements in the complexity of quests, but little was done to innovate the series. One option which endeared many veterans was the ability to transfer characters from "Phantasie I" to this sequel.
The manual included in "Phantasie II" was identical to the one included with "Phantasie", plus a small card explaining the differences. "Computer Gaming World" noted this was advantageous in terms of how players of the original would have an easier time getting into the game, but disadvantageous as to some particularly tedious mechanisms of both games, particularly "the infamous Distribution and Selling rigamarole." The review continued to note that characters imported from the original have their equipment removed as well as most of their gold and experience, affording only a slight head start over newly created characters.
Reception.
"Phantasie II" sold 30,100 copies. "Compute!" in 1986 recommended it to those seeking a more traditional role-playing game than SSI's "Rings of Zilfin" or who enjoyed "Phantasie". Scorpia criticized "Phantasie II" for not changing its predecessor's "infamous Distribution and Selling rigamarole", including a bug with the handling of money. The magazine concluded, "Although flawed in certain aspects, "Phantasie II" is an interesting, and overall good, game of the RPG type" and recommended it to fans of the first game. Reviewing the Atari ST version, "Antic" in 1987 liked the lack of disk-based copy protection and permadeath. The magazine concluded that "Phantasie II" "is very fun to play, and you will spend much time solving the puzzles". "Antic" also approved of the Atari 8-bit version, praising the "practically transparent user interface". It concluded that "Phantasie II is a fine addition to anyone's software library and a must to all adventurers".


Paste (Unix)

paste is a Unix command line utility which is used to join files horizontally (parallel merging) by outputting lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding lines of each file specified, separated by tabs, to the standard output. It is effectively the horizontal equivalent to the utility cat command which operates on the vertical plane of two or more files.
History.
The version of codice_1 bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David M. Ihnat and David MacKenzie.
Usage.
The utility is invoked with the following syntax:
 paste ["options"] ["file1" ..]
Description.
Once invoked, will read all its "" arguments. For each corresponding line, will append the contents of each file at that line to its output along with a tab. When it has completed its operation for the last file, will output a newline character and move on to the next line.
 exits after all streams return end of file. The number of lines in the output stream will equal the number of lines in the input file with the largest number of lines. Missing values are represented by empty strings.
Though potentially useful, an option to have paste emit an alternate string for a missing field (such as "NA") is not standard.
A sequence of empty records at the bottom of a column of the output stream may or may not have been present in the input file corresponding to that column as explicit empty records, unless you know the input file supplied all rows explicitly (e.g. in the canonical case where all input files all do indeed have the same number of lines).
Options.
The utility accepts the following options:
codice_2, which specifies a list of delimiters to be used instead of tabs for separating consecutive values on a single line. Each delimiter is used in turn; when the list has been exhausted, begins again at the first delimiter.
, which causes to append the data in serial rather than in parallel; that is, in a horizontal rather than vertical fashion.
Examples.
For the following examples, assume that is a plain-text file that contains the following information:
and that is another plain-text file that contains the following information:
The following example shows the invocation of with and as well as the resulting output:
$ paste names.txt numbers.txt
Mark Smith 555-1234
Bobby Brown 555-9876
Sue Miller 555-6743
Jenny Igotit 867-5309
When invoked with the option, the output of is adjusted such that the information is presented in a horizontal fashion:
$ paste -s names.txt numbers.txt
Mark Smith Bobby Brown Sue Miller Jenny Igotit
555-1234 555-9876 555-6734 867-5309
Finally, the use of the option ("delimiters") is illustrated in the following example:
$ paste -d ., names.txt numbers.txt
Mark Smith.555-1234
Bobby Brown.555-9876
Sue Miller.555-6743
Jenny Igotit.867-5309
As an example usage of both, the command can be used to concatenate multiple consecutive lines into a single row:
$ paste -s -d '\t\n' names.txt
Mark Smith Bobby Brown
Sue Miller Jenny Igotit


MuMATH

muMATH is a computer algebra system (CAS), which was developed in the late 1970s and early eighties by Albert D. Rich and David Stoutemyer of Soft Warehouse in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was implemented in the muSIMP programming language which was built on top of a LISP dialect called . Platforms supported were CP/M and TRS-DOS (since muMATH-79), Apple II (since muMATH-80) and DOS (in muMATH-83, the last version, which was published by Microsoft).
The Soft Warehouse later developed Derive, another computer algebra system. The company was purchased by Texas Instruments in 1999, and development of Derive ended in 2006.


CompuMate

The CompuMate SV010 was a home computer peripheral manufactured by Spectravideo International for the Atari 2600 home video game console. It was released on 6 January 1983 at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In Germany, the CompuMate was marketed by Quelle, a catalogue company, as the Universum Heimcomputer. In Brazil (circa 1985), at least two clones of CompuMate were made: the Dactar-Comp by Milmar Electronics, and the CompuGame.
Hardware.
The ComputeMate consists of a membrane keyboard, output interfaces, and read-only internal storage. It connects to the console's module slot and to both controller ports. The user could optionally place the ComputeMate on top of the console—although not when used with the Atari 2600 Jr. model.
The CompuMate has a 3.5-mm phone connector in order to connect a Compact Cassette unit for non-volatile data storage. Its read-only memory is preinstalled with three computer programs.
PAL and NTSC versions of the CompuMate were manufactured.
Software.
The CompuMate has three simple computer programs in its internal read-only memory:
Spectravideo only published two programs for the CompuMate on Compact Cassette, PictureMate (1983) and SongMate (1983).


Sony Ericsson Yari

Yari (U100i) (Kita in the Philippines) is a slider phone from Sony Ericsson as a successor to the Sony Ericsson F305. It was unveiled on December 14, 2009. It is a phone meant for entertainment (e.g. games, music). It is available in two colors: Cranberry Red and Achromatic Black. It is the lowest end model for the Sony Ericsson entertainment series. It has three related phones, the Aino, Satio and Vivaz. It has motion sensing functions as well as an "MSN"-like chat function while sending text messages.


List of tablet PC dimensions and case sizes

Below is a list of currently available tablet PCs grouped by their width, depth, height, screen size, and appropriate tablet case sizes.
The most popular presently available tablet computers are compared in the following table:


Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 is a superzoom bridge digital camera, replacing the similar Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18. It was announced in 2008 and released for sale in the United Kingdom in August of that year. Like the FZ18 it has a Leica lens with an 18x optical zoom ratio. It has a slightly larger sensor than the FZ18, a 10.1-megapixel image resolution, and the newer Venus IV image processing engine.
Description.
The camera's macro mode allows the capturing of images at a distance of one centimetre. The camera also has intelligent scene detection, 15x face recognition, intelligence ISO, intelligent exposure. Three different aspect ratios are available: 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9. Still image quality settings include different qualities of jpeg output and RAW format (in .RW2 format); both jpeg and RAW recordings can be produced simultaneously. Various high-speed burst modes are available, going up to thirteen frames per second at two megapixels in 16:9 aspect ratio.
Video output is 1280x720 p at 30 frame/s HD 1080i in QuickTime format.
There are three data outputs: AV, component out, and USB2.0. Internal memory is 50 MB, supplemented by removable SD or SDHC cards of multi-gigabyte capacity.


Hermann Hauser

Hermann Maria Hauser, KBE, FRS, FREng, FInstP, CPhys (born 1948) is an Austrian-born entrepreneur who is primarily associated with the Cambridge technology community in England.
Education and early life.
When Hauser was 16 he went to the United Kingdom to learn English at a language school in Cambridge. After a master's degree in Physics from Vienna University, he returned to King's College, Cambridge to do a PhD in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory.
Career.
Hauser is probably best known for his part in setting up Acorn Computers with Chris Curry in 1978. When Olivetti took control of Acorn in 1985 he became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in charge of laboratories in the US and Europe. In 1986, Hauser co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in Cambridge with Andy Hopper, who became the laboratory's director. Hauser's role in Acorn was portrayed by Edward Baker-Duly in the BBC drama "Micro Men".
In 1988, Hauser left Olivetti to start the Active Book Company, investing £1 million of his own money. The company sought to develop a portable ARM-based microcomputer "the size of a paperback book", featuring a screen and stylus for interaction and employing a "book" metaphor known as Hyperpage. The company planned to launch its first product after Christmas 1990, featuring an approximately A5-sized reflective display, automatic recognition of printed, as opposed to cursive, characters, and employing a multipurpose chip called Hercules featuring a static, low-power ARM core. A licensing agreement had been signed with Acorn for access to that company's hardware and software technology, and the company was seeking application developers for the platform. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes made by Acorn, which had kept its technology to itself, he demonstrated the Active Book to as many large companies as he could. AT&T Corporation acquired Active Book in July 1991 and incorporated it into their EO Personal Communicator, which was released in April 1993. Hauser became chief technical officer and chairman of EO Europe. Sales did not meet expectations, and AT&T's EO subsidiary folded on 29 July 1994.
In 1990, Hauser was involved in spinning out Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) from Acorn.
In 1993, Hauser set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd with Andy Hopper. The company was acquired by Conexant Systems on 1 March 2004. He founded NetChannel Ltd in June 1996 as a holding company to begin work on marketing the NetStation. NetChannel was sold to AOL in 1996. He claimed in the 1990s that the networking technology used for AppleTalk was based on the (unpatented) Cambridge Ring.
In 1997 he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd, a venture capital company, and in 1998 he co-founded Cambridge Network with David Cleevely and Alec Broers.
In 2000, Plastic Logic was founded, with Hauser as chairman.
On 14 June 2001, the Hauser-Raspe Foundation was registered as a charity by Hauser and Pamela Raspe, to advance education.
In August 2004, Amadeus Capital Partners led the Series B venture capital financing of Solexa, and Hauser joined its board of directors. Solexa developed a next-generation DNA sequencing technology which became the market leader; the company was sold to Illumina, Inc of San Diego in January 2007 for over $US600 million. In 2009, Hauser was announced as the first customer of the Illumina Personal Genome Sequencing service.
As of 2009, Hauser is the head of the East Anglia Stem Cell research network.
Hauser is a non-executive director of Cambridge Display Technology, a non-executive director of XMOS Ltd and a member of the board of Red-M (Communications) Ltd. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath and Loughborough and from Anglia Ruskin University. He is a member of the advisory board on the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and of the UK's Council for Science and Technology.
Hauser was commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to write a report on technology and innovation in the UK. Publication of the report in 2010 led to the establishment of Catapult centres with £200 million of government funding.
He was co-founder of Arm Holdings, the Cambridge based microchip manufacturer that was bought in 2016 by Japan's SoftBank.
Since 2015, he is actively supporting Austrian start-ups and technology companies. In particular, he has invested in 2017 in the MEMS-speaker start-up USound and in eyeson, a cloud based Unified Communications solution nominated by Gartner Inc. as "Cool Vendor in Unified Communications, 2017".
Awards and honours.
Hauser was voted the UK's 'Computer Personality of the Year' of 1984. In 2010, "Eureka", in its "100 most important scientists", placed Hauser at 51. He became patron of The Centre for Computing History in December 2011, 30 years after the launch of the BBC Micro.
On 8 July 2002, Hauser was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). In May 2004 he presented the prestigious IEE Pinkerton Lecture. In 2005, Hauser received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. The award was presented at the annual European Electronics Industry Awards in London. Hauser was awarded an Honorary CBE for "innovative service to the UK enterprise sector" in 2001. In 1998, Hauser was elected into an honorary fellowship of Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and he was also elected into an honorary fellowship of King's College, Cambridge with effect from 1 January 2000. In the same year he was awarded the Mountbatten Medal.
Hauser was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2012. His nomination reads:
Hauser was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (DFBCS) in 2013 recognising his contribution to computing science in the UK.


Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 is a digital camera by Panasonic Lumix. The highest-resolution pictures it records is 14.1 megapixels, through its 24mm Ultra Wide-Angle Leica DC VARIO-SUMMICRON.


PC-6600 series

The NEC PC-6600 Series were a lineup of personal computers produced by the NEC Corporation in 1985. They were essentially a PC-6001 MK2 with a built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive. Two models in this series were produced: the PC-6601 and the PC-6601 SR.


Cyclone (computer)

The Cyclone, was a vacuum tube computer, built by Iowa State College (later University) at Ames, Iowa. The machine was placed into operation in July 1959. It was based on the IAS architecture developed by John von Neumann. The prototype of this machine is ILLIAC, the University of Illinois Automatic Computer. The Cyclone used 40-bit words, used two 20-bit instructions per word, and each instruction had an eight-bit op-code and a 12-bit operand or address field. In general IAS-based computers were not code compatible with each other, although originally math routines which ran on the ILLIAC would also run on the Cyclone.
Unfortunately, the Cyclone was completed just as the transistor was replacing the vacuum tube as an active computing element. The Cyclone had about 2,500 vacuum tubes, 1,521 of which were type 5844. (The IBM 1401 computer, announced the same year, was fully transistorized. About 15,000 IBM 1401 machines were produced.)
The person who supervised the construction of the Cyclone computer was Dr. R. M. Stewart who was a Professor of Physics at ISC (now ISU). The paper-tape input was upgraded with optical character reader with a high-speed stepper motor. Again this addition was done by a person from the Physics Department. Robert Asbury Sharpe organized and taught courses for interested faculty and wrote an Assembler as well as an ALGOL compiler for the Cyclone.
The Cyclone solved 40 equations with 40 unknowns in less than four minutes. This was the same type of problem that the Atanasoff–Berry Computer was designed to solve twenty years previously at the same institution.
The Cyclone computer was 10 feet tall, 12 feet long, 3 feet wide, and contained over 2,700 vacuum tubes. The Cyclone used 19 Kw of electric power and weighed about . "Good time" was about 40 hours per week.
The original Cyclone had:
The Cyclone had a major rebuild about 1961:
Both versions above had some interesting ideas or limitations:
The only input was a paper tape reader and the only outputs were the console printer and paper tape punch. As the paper tape punch was much faster than the printer, most output was punched, and then listed on an off-line printer.
This Iowa State machine should not be confused with the Atanasoff–Berry Computer of the late 1930s - neither John Vincent Atanasoff nor Clifford Berry worked on this machine.
References.
1) "A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems"
Report No. 1115, March 1961
by Martin H. Weik,
published by Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
2) "A Fourth Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems"
Report No. 1227, January 1964
by Martin H. Weik,
published by Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
3) LaFarr Stuart was an economics graduate student and also wrote
test programs and utilities during and after the development of the second version of the Cyclone. LaFarr wrote the assembler in machine code as there was no machine for a cross assembler. Also wrote a music program, see External links.


Starfleet Orion

Starfleet Orion is a 1978 science fiction strategy game written and published by Automated Simulations (who would become Epyx in 1983). It appears to be the first space-themed strategy game sold for microcomputer systems. The game was originally written in BASIC for the Commodore PET, but later ported to other early home computer platforms including the TRS-80 and Apple II. The game was something of a success, leading to a string of successes for the company, notably the major hit "Temple of Apshai".
Development.
The game came about in a roundabout fashion when Jon Freeman joined a "Dungeons & Dragons" game being hosted by dungeon master Jim Connelly. Freeman was an experienced gamer, a regular contributor to "Games" magazine and author of "A Player's Guide to Board Games". Connelly had purchased a PET computer to handle bookkeeping during his D&D games, and was interested in finding ways to make some of the money back. The two collaborated on "Orion"; Freeman coming up with the basic concepts of the game and Connelly coding them up. The game was completed just before Christmas 1978.
Automated Simulations claimed in advertisements for the $19.95 "Starfleet Orion" that "game mechanics are extremely simple, but play is exciting, challenging, and rich in detail". Versions were available for the Commodore PET, TRS-80, and Apple II. The complex setup and requirement for two players was an obstacle to casual play, which led Freeman and Connolley to quickly release the single-player "Invasion Orion".
Plot.
"Orion"s "Battle Manual" tells of the meeting of the Interstellar Union of Civilized Planets, or simply Stellar Union, and a group of planets colonized hundreds of years earlier by a forgotten breakaway group. The action takes place in an isolated corner of the expanding Stellar Union's space, allowing the two forces to be fairly evenly balanced as the much larger Union only can only muster a small number ships in the area. The game came with twelve pre-rolled scenarios based on this canon, each increasing the number of ships and their variety, eventually ending in a battle with seven ships on one side and nine on the other, the later being named the titular "Starfleet Orion".
Gameplay.
The playfield is a thirty-two high by sixty-four wide grid of possible locations. The map can contain ships, stacked on the same grid space if needed, as well as planets and other objects. The game is turn based, with the two players taking turns at the keyboard to enter their commands, which are then carried out simultaneously. Each player controls one or more ships, and the game continues until one or both are destroyed, or escape by flying off the playfield.
Ships are powered by a single energy source whose power has to be divided up among the many parts of the ship, including drives, shields and weapons. Each ship is armed with a beam weapon whose chance to hit a target is based on the target's size and the "beam quality" of the firing ship. The amount of damage caused by a hit are reduced with distance, making it primarily a short-range weapon. In addition, ships are armed with missiles or torpedoes for long-range fire. Missiles fly to a location in space relative to the ship "after" movement and then explode regardless if there is a target in that location. Torpedoes are fired in a particular direction (the eight cardinals) and explode if they pass within two grid spaces of any other material object (except other torpedoes). Some ships also include fighters equipped with missiles or torpedoes, which allow spoiling attacks. Generally the Stellar Union ships have more missiles, and the Orion ships more torpedoes.
Additionally, ships are equipped with a tractor beam that allow them to push or pull on material objects, allowing complicated strategies of pushing or pulling on opposing ships to throw off their aim. For instance, a torpedo aimed at a ship that is expected to be "due left" after the movement phase could be avoided by the target by pushing the opposing ship a few locations down. The distance a ship can be pushed or pulled is a relative measure of the strength of the beam and the mass of the target. This means larger ships can spoil the aim of smaller torpedo boats using this method, while smaller ships are better off simply using their drives to move themselves. Another useful strategy is to use the tractor beam to quickly push fighters into range of their targets, at "speeds" their own engines could not achieve.
The game originally shipped on cassette, and required the users to type in the scenario and save it to a separate data tape before playing. The pre-rolled missions were outlined in a separate "Battle Manual", which also included short stories introducing the game world and the individual missions. This process was greatly improved on the diskette versions, which had the games saved out as data files that could be loaded up by name. Users could also create their own scenarios using the separate "codice_1" program, saving them to tape or disk.
The "Starfleet Orion" game manual includes the complete source code, which may allow for a port to modern systems.
Reception.
Alan Isabelle reviewed "Starfleet Orion" in "The Space Gamer" No. 30. Isabelle commented that "I was quite impressed by "Starfleet Orion". I have seen enough bug-ridden, boring computer games to know when a good one comes along. I highly recommend it in spite of the rather high price."
Jerry Pournelle praised the "Orion" games' realism: "Classical principles of fleet warfare work, and strategy and tactics are more important than luck".
The game was considered historically important enough that it appeared in a chronology of personal computers written by David H. Ahl.


Applied Engineering

Applied Engineering, headquartered in Carrollton, TX, was a leading third-party hardware vendor for the Apple II series of computers from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s.
History.
In its day, Applied Engineering built a solid reputation among Apple II owners for their innovation, excellent build quality, and generous warranty support. AE was quick to fill in gaps in the market for Apple II add-on boards and expansion options, often developing products for the Apple II line that neither Apple Computer nor other third-party vendors offered.
By the early 1990s, as Apple Computer, Inc., began to withdraw support for the Apple II series and focus on the Macintosh line, the market for Apple II hardware and software began to wane. Many Apple II users began to migrate to other platforms, such as the Macintosh and IBM PC-compatibles. In an attempt to capitalize on its well-known brand name among previous Apple II owners, Applied Engineering began to market products for the Macintosh and Commodore Amiga lines. However, because of stiff competition in already active markets, and AE's late entries, Applied Engineering could not duplicate the success it had experienced with the Apple II. Around the same time, cost-cutting measures were implemented, such as shortening warranty periods, charging for technical support (via a 1-900 number) and a using inferior parts, turning off loyal and long-time customers. Eventually dwindling Apple II sales and a failure to shift into other markets caused Applied Engineering to go out of business by 1994.
Product offerings.
Some of Applied Engineering's best-known products for the Apple II included:
The TransWarp family of Apple II accelerators actually consisted of multiple products. The original TransWarp took over from the standard 1-MHz 6502 or 65C02 used in the Apple IIe with a 3.6 MHz version of the 65C02 (which could also be run at 1.8 MHz, selectable through hardware) and turned on and off completely through software. The TransWarp was later followed by a TransWarp II and TransWarp III, the latter of which was announced but never actually went into production. With Apple Computer's release of the Apple II, Applied Engineering followed with a TransWarp GS, which provided an accelerated version of the 65C816 processor on which the II was based.
Multi-function cards were a mainstay of AE's product offerings, of which the Serial Pro serial interface card was a typical example. Besides offering a standard RS-232 serial port, the card included a ProDOS-compatible realtime clock, thus combining two cards into one and freeing up an extra slot. When used with a dot-matrix printer, the Serial Pro offered several screen-dump print options, such as printing either of the two Apple II high-resolution pages alone, both in a single dump, or the first high-res page rotated or inverted.
See also.
Apple II peripheral cards