_{Cover of the January 1984 issue of Color Computer Magazine}

The TRS-80 Color Computer seemed like the black sheep of the 8-bit world. School’s mostly used Apple IIs, Commodore produced the most successful and popular 8-bit computer of all time with the Commodore 64 and Atari was there at the beginning with the best games playing computer of its time (until the Commodore 64 came along anyway). The TRS-80 Color Computer was also there early on and was commercially available almost as long as the Commodore 64. However, outside of Radio Shack, it seems like you never heard anything about it. While Radio Shack supported it well for a long time, third party support was weaker than it was for most other 8-bit computers at the time. It was barely covered in multi-format magazines and dedicated magazines were few and far between, however, Color Computer Magazine was one such magazine.

The January 1984 issue of Color Computer Magazine included the following:

Departments

• INKEY$ - Letters from readers regarding piracy, the MC-10 computer, software rental, finding extra memory on a 32K Color Computer, OS-9 vs. Flex, plus a listing of a handful of bulletin boards that support the Color Computer.


• Color Computing for Kids - A review of the various BASIC commands discussed thus far in previous editions of this column.


• New Products - New products featured this month include The Personal Touch (a program for creating banners), FICA-83 (a program fro calculating the approximate monthly pension check under the 1983 changes to the Social Security Act), Supercord (a computer-typewriter interface), KB-500 Keyboard (a keyboard replacement), O-Pak (various utilities for OS9), The Color Computer 2 and Extended Color Computer 2, Tax Command (tax software), and more.

Features

• Disk Drive Indicator - Instructions for how to add an on/off indicator light to your Color Computer disk drive.


• Cruncher - A type-in program that reduces the size of your own programs by getting rid of extra spaces, remarks and extra letters in variables.


• CompuServe Connection - An overview of the CompuServe online service and what it provides.


• Fifteen Database Managers - An overview and comparison of 15 different database managers available for the Color Computer. These include C.C. File, Color Data Organizer, Color File, Database Manager, Disk Data Handler, Filesys, Filemastr, Flexi Filer, Furst & Report Writer Combination, Homebase, Personafile, Personal File Manager, Pro Color File, RMS, and TIMS.


• The Dragon! - A detailed review with photos of the Dragon, a Color Computer compatible (mostly) machine produced by the Tano Corporation.


• Search! - A type-in program for searching text strings in ROM.


• Digital Video Camera - Overview of a very lo-res (~0.03 megapixels) digital camera for the Color Computer for about $300.


• ?REDO Remover - A subroutine for error checking user input.

_{Back cover of the January 1984 issue of Color Computer Magazine}

Reviews

• Arex - A worm-type game on cassette for $34.95 and requiring 16K


• Babylon - An educational game that teaches math by placing you in the role of king of a small Babylonian town in which you have to balance food supplies, defenses, and population. It comes on cassette and requires 16K.


• Beyond the Cimeeon Moon - A rather difficult graphics/text adventure that was available on cassette for $24.95 and disk for $29.95.


• Musical Lights - A configurable graphics/light show that changes in time to the music coming from your cassette deck.


• Spectrum Starblaster - A small pass-through device that turns your joystick fire button into a rapid-fire button.


• Starship Hercules - An action/strategy game inspired by Star Trek. It is big but slow as it is written in BASIC.


• Zeus - An arcade game in which you, as the might sorcerer, must defend yourself from lighting bolts from Zeus. You have a rechargeable staff to shoot down the lighting bolts and a shield to help you.


• Outhouse - An arcade game in which you mus stop the thief from stealing your toilet paper. It's almost as if the creators of this game foresaw COVID.
• Hyperzone - A first person space shooter.


• Gin Champion - Play five different versions of Gin...


• Celestial Basic - A book that contains BASIC programs to do thing like locate the exact position of a star at a given time.


• Wizard 64 - A sort of fantasy adventure maze game. When it comes time to fight, you issue a command but the computer does the fighting for you.


• Pooyan - Conversion of the classic arcade game for the Color Computer.


• Dragon Cruncher - Converts BASIC programs between the Dragon and Color Computer.


• Ms. Nibbler - Kind of like Ms. Pac-Man but with a nautical theme.


• The Compelte Handbook of Personal Computer Communications - A book for the beginning online explorer.


• A Mozart Composer - A program that compose music based on Musikalisches Wurfelspiel.


• TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Program - A book for teaching assembly language on the Color Computer.


• Glaxxons - A Galaxian inspired arcade game.


• Bumpers - A maze game with the novelty of invisible walls.

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