THE SECOND YEAR (Jul'81 - Jun'82)
Following its 1980 debut, the machine bumped along with virtually no Radio
Shack support. The next 12 months, however, would witness the biggest
outpouring of Color Computer support to date. This period produced a flood
of upgrades, modifications, hardware, software, and most of all,
information.
In July of 1981, the Color Computer's first anniversary roared in like a
lion. I celebrated by upgrading to Extended Basic, buying the Direct
Connect Modem I, signing up with Compuserve, buying an LP VII, and ordering
SUPER "COLOR" WRITER from NELSON SOFTWARE, and the EXATRON disk system.
A word of sympathy here for anyone who, like myself, ordered Nelson's word
processor.
The seven month period after placing my order was filled with nothing but
AGGRAVATION! Suffice it to say that, by January of 1982, the software was
still nothing more than an ad on the pages of a few magazines.
Another ad appearing that July was for the EXATRON disk system. "32K PLUS
DISKS $298.00", read the ad. I immediately called the toll-free number and
my name was placed on a list, behind 24 other users. After a month and a
half of waiting, and countless phone calls of inquiry, it finally arrives.
The following day it is ready for a return trip back to Exatron's Sunnyvale
plant. The amount of generated RFI made the screen unreadable.
Steve Odneal, at about this same time, was having a little bit better luck.
With a home-built disk system hooked up to his 32K machine and 8K of RAM on
the disk controller board, Steve completes the first ever conversion of the
FLEX operating system for the Color Computer.
While MARK DATA rushes to convert their adventure games to run on the Color
Computer, IMB (Illustrated Memory Banks) releases its first offering.
Although written in Basic, METEOR STORM was the first software to take
advantage of our machine's graphics capabilities.
Thanks Fred Scerbo!
July also witnessed the introduction of the first educational software from
MICRO-LEARNINGWARE, and STRAWBERRY SOFTWARE, plus the first detailed
instructions on performing the 32K "piggyback" upgrade.
By the time CCN's Jul/Aug issue arrived on your doorstep, two more Color
Computer publications had sprung to life.
GET A CLOAD OF THIS...
The first ever, cassette based Color Computer magazine, was DAVE
LAGERQUIST's CHROMASETTE MAGAZINE. Instant software on a monthly basis for
a mere $3.50 an issue was quite a deal!
The "magazine's" first issue contained 5 Basic programs and a very moving
"cover". Very impressive!! In addition, all tapes are accompanied by a 5 or
6 page news letter explaining the programs. The news letter also features
tips, the latest rumors (Radio Shack disks soon?), and some of the editor's
own "colorful" insights, which brings me to the second publication
inaugurated in July.
Whoever wrote the words, "From small acorns, large oak trees do grow" was,
undoubtedly, referring to LONNIE FALK and the RAINBOW.
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The Rainbow's first issue was all of two pages in length (both sides, of
course) and you could tell immediately by the typeset (LP VII), that no
expense was spared in putting together this latest collection of Color
Computer information. The debut issue was photocopied at the corner drug
store and after the first 25 copies sold out ($1.00 each), another trip to
the drugstore was needed for an additional 10 copies.
Containing the usual assortment of Color Computer articles, comments, tips,
and program listings, the Rainbow became "legit" by the third issue with
its first ads from The Micro Works and from JARB SOFTWARE.
Thanks Lonnie!
Although initially set up for the Model I & III, by July, Bob Rosen's BBS
was crawling with Color Computer information left by WAYNE DAY, SYD KAHN,
"Barefoot" JOHN GRIFFEN, CAL RASMUSEN, KENT MEYERS, LEE BLITCH, and many
other "gurus" including JORGE MIR.
Radio Shack's cassette based Videotex, because it was the first (and only)
terminal program for the Color Computer at this time, was used exclusively
by anyone calling Bob's BBS with a Color Computer. Videotex, a very limited
piece of .... software, stored incoming information in a "buffer" but,
downloading, saving to tape, or printing out the buffer was not supported.
When off-line, the only thing you could do with the buffer was look at it
and, to make matters even worse, the only way to exit Videotexand return
to Basic was to shut off the machine.
Thanks to the efforts of Jorge Mir, information started showing up on the
BBS, about a Videotex modification allowing an exit to Basic by pressing
the reset button, thereby preserving the text buffer. The download
capability is not too far away.
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