THE WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIR

On March 18, 19 and 20, the 8th Annual West Coast Computer Faire was held in the Brooks Convention Hall and Civic Center in San Francisco. The Faire was attended by over fifty thousand computer enthusiasts and hundreds of companies, representing an incredible diversity of products and services.

Among the many publishers exhibiting at the show was A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing. Editor Lee Pappas and technical staff members Tom Hudson and Brian Moriarty jostled around for a peek at the latest software and hardware releases for our favorite computer(s). The "payof f " for this jostling is one of the first profiles onthe West Coast Computer Faire to appear in print.

There's no better place to start our profile than with ATARI. DIG DUG, E.T. PHONE HOME and the recently-released QIX were among the main attractions at the ATARI Home Computers exhibit. The "mother company" has also prepared a new word-processing cartridge called ATARIWRITER (see review in this issue), and a very interesting 16K implementation of the LOGO programming language. ATARIWRITER should be on your dealers' shelves by the time you read this. Look for LOGO in August.

Bill Wilkinson of Optimized Systems Software was demonstrating yet another new language for the ATARI. Called ACTION!, this advanced 6502 development system has a structure similar to Pascal and Alqol, and is said to run at least 100 times faster than ATARI BASIC. The 16K cartridge includes a 128-column program editor and a built-in compiler, and will sell for somewhere around $100. Also coming from OSS are enhanced cartridge versions of BASIC A+ and MAC/65, and a powerful new mail/merge package.

Rana Systems, a hardware company best known for their Apple-compatible disk drives, is entering the ATARI market in a big way with their announcement of two 5 1/4 inch drives. The extraordinarily compact size and high-tech cosmetics of these products are almost as exciting as the prices: $399 for single-density and $549 for the double-density model. Rana drives have a reputation for outstanding reliability and performance. They should be available before the end of June.

The friendly folks at Adventure International set up their famous "castle" display for the introduction of PREPPIE II, a sequel to their best-selling arcade game. Datasoft was packing them in with the long-awaited home version of Sega's ZAXXON. It offers impressive high-res graphics and extended fine scrolling. The 32K ZAXXON disk faithfully recreates all of the action of the original; the cassette version sacrifices a few features to fit in 16K. Also on display at the Datasoft booth was an underground digging game called O'REILLY 'S MINE and the first spelling check program for the ATARI, SPELLWIZARD.

Hayden Software is expanding their ATARI product line with a new educational program, MONKEY SEE MONKEY SPELL. Its amusing animated display should provide plenty of incentive for young learners. Broderbund is continuing the tradition of their hit program CHOPLIFTER with A.E., a high-res shoot-'em-up with multiple screens and lots of quick action. Broderbund has also put CHOPLIFTER and SERPENTINE on cartridges, and is handling the distribution of BANK STREET WRITER, a $70.00 word processing package that was recently lauded in the computer section of Time magazine for its ease of use.

Sirius Software will be following up their phenomenally successful WAYOUT with another three-dimensional arcade maze game called CAPTURE THE FLAG! and a DEFENDER-type program called REPTON. They are also putting the finishing touches on a pair of illustrated adventure games, BLADE OF BLACKPOOL and CRITICAL MASS. Still more adventure for the ATARI is forthcoming from ScreenPlay, whose “Warrior of RAS" role-playing series will include DUNZHIN, KAIV, and THE WILDE. Each adventure in the RAS series includes a randomizing function which makers every game different.

Hofacker-Elcomp had a broad line of ATARI books and software on display, including a very usable implementation of FORTH for less than $40. Axlon has revamped their RAMDISK memory system for better software compatibility, with an attractive new package and a new name: RAMPOWER 128.

Finally, Exersoft Carporation was demonstrating two very unusual products: a foot-operated game controller and an exercise bicycle attachment which allows you to "pilot" an imaginary bike over a scrolling color TV screen. Both products are expected to retail for less than $60.

There you have it -- a quick report of new products from the 8th Annual West Coast Computer Faire. More extensive coverage of these and other new products will appear in future issues of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing.

Arcade fans had to wait in line to play Datasoft's Atari version of ZAXXON.

The impressive Synapse Software display featured a seperate TV monitor for every product.

The new Rana disk drives for the ATARI attracted lots of attention.

The ATARI exhibit was mobbed with fans eager to sample the new 16K game cartridges.

Business was brisk at the Educational Software booth.

Game fanatics peered over shoulders to check out the coming attractions from Sirius software.