PROGRAM DESIGN, Inc.
11 Idar Court
Greenwich, CT 06830
Program Design, Inc., better known as PDI, has been involved in supporting the ATARI computers since even before its release. Most ATARI computer owners know of this company through the Invitation to Programming series, which was conceived and executed entirely by PDI. Located in southern Connecticut, PDI has been actively producing educational software for several small computer systems, concentrating on the ATARI in particular.
The majority of PDI's offerings are oriented towards children, with the age bracket ranging from 3 years old to high school level. All of the programs are on cassette format only, frequently taking advantage of the voice track capability. One of the newer programs, "Sammy the Sea Serpent", is an interactive storybook type game where the child participates in the story. While graphics are displayed on the screen, a voice (a female actress' voice was used in this case) narrates the story calling upon the child to use a joystick from time to time to move 'Sammy' about the screen. This program is easily one of the best to get youngsters involved with computers.
Other tapes drill students on vocabulary and number problems, with some aimed at preparing high school students for the SAT tests.
For adults, Astro-Quotes and Mini-Crossword Puzzle can be an interesting challenge (Astro-Quotes, our particular favorite). All of PDI's programs make use of the ATARI's sound effect capabilities adding some spice into what many might think are boring educational programs - which these certainly are not. You own a computer, not JUST an advanced computer game machine! It would be a shame to limit its diversification, along with your own.
ANALOG has been using the VORTRAX Type 'n Talk voice synthesizer for several months now, and we will provide a report on this remarkable device next issue. However, several of our readers have questioned us as to how the VOTRAX is software interfaced to the ATARI 400 or 800. The following demo program when run with the VOTRAX allows you a simple method of entering data and immediately having it 'spoken' by the Type 'n Talk. Be sure you have the RS-232 handler on disk if you are using the 810 disk drive. The most important functions in the program are on lines 20 and 30, the OPEN and XIO statements. These are used to open and direct the data through the port you are using on the 850 interface module. Use these two lines in a program you may write, to use the VORTRAX. "R2:" may be changed to port I on the 850 ("R:"), or any other port you may wish to use.
10 DIM A$(5000) 20 OPEN #1,8,0,"R2:" 30 XIO 34,#1,48,0,"R2:" 40 INPUT A$ 50 PRINT #1;A$ 60 GOTO 40
By Rick Williams
Have you ever been annoyed by only having one color in graphics 8? Try this program and you can see how you can have four colors and not use any extra RAM. This statement makes multi-color graphics 8 possible:
10 GRAPHICS 8:POKE 87,7:COLOR 1
The "7" in "POKE 87, 7" means graphics 7 so the limits of the "PLOT" are: X, 159 and Y, 95. Because of this the graphics are only displayed on the top half of the screen. Try this program and you will see what I mean:
10 GRAPHICS 8:POKE 710,0:REM ** Setcolor background black ** 20 POKE 87, 7:REM ** Make multi-color graphics possible ** 30 SETCOLOR 1,0,14:REM ** Brightness level 14 ** 40 FOR Y=0 TO 95:C=C+0.l 50 COLOR C: PLOT 0,Y:DRAWT0 159, Y 60 NEXT Y 70 END
To draw below this you must return to -normal graphics by writing "POKE 87, 8." This will not remove the above image from the screen but there will be only two colors possible in the bottom half of the screen - black and white.
HAPPY COMPUTING!!!!