Hacking the Mags

If you know of a magazine that you would like to see summarized here, let C=Hacking know about it. These summaries are only limited by Commodore Hacking's inability to purchase subscriptions to all the Commodore publications available. We are very grateful to those publications that send complimentary copies of their publications for review.

COMMODORE CEE

Volume 1, Issues 1 and 2 came all packaged as one "mega-issue". This particular double issue should be renamed the memory map issue, with I/O and/or memory maps for the VIC, 64, 128, and PET computers. Information on 6522 bugs and on the 6526 CIA chips that was cut from the final compilation of the Commodore 64 Prorammer's Reference Guide is of interest to Commodore Haking readers. Some of the information is culled from the Internet: the 64 memory maps, the info on the 6522, and a list of all the CSG produced IC numbers with descriptions. Of course, these files are also available on the Internet, if you have access. Howver, for those who don't know where to look or for those without access, the information is welcome. Issue 3 has a PCX to GEOPaint converter, much like LOADSTAR, and Issue 4 will begin a column on PAL to NTSC program conversions. One thing we'd like to see at Commodore Hacking is a better menu program, as the current one is somewhat hard to navigate.

Commodore World

Issue 10 just arrived at the computer room, with a snazzy front cover. Slick paper aside, the picture of Al Anger's Tower 128 was a masterpiece. Editor Doug Cotton spews about the hype of Windows 95, and the first ads for the Super 64 CPU accelerator are present. If you're into hardware mods, you can't miss page 4, which shows some other Al Anger hacked Commodore creations. Jim Butterfield's 4 page 65XX ML reference is useful for the newer programmers, and Doug Cotton's Assembly Line topic of serial routines will help those disk I/O challenged in the crowd. This issue details the high level routines, while #11 will tackle the low level disk I/O. Maurice Randall goes over event handling in GEOS, while Al Anger details how to disable the internal 1571D in the C128D. Gaelyne Moranec touches on the Internet nitty-gritty of learning UNIX commands and includes a table of UNIX-like commands found in ACE and LUnix. At the end, though, C=Hacking's burning question is: What hangup does Doug have with those abstract graphics sprinkled throughout the mag? There's nothing wrong with them, but some look like those psycho-analyst inkblot test cards.

Driven

Driven 9 contains a rundown on USENET (written by Jim Brain), which will help those Internet "newbies". For those doing cross development, the review of the PC<->C64/C128 networking system called 64NET by Paul Gardner- Stephen might help some get object code from the PC to the 64/128. Eddie Bourdon has some info on GEnie, including what Commodore support is available.

Driven 10 presents some useful WWW addresses, while XMikeX and Pegasus tackle the issues of apathy and pessimism in the Commodore community. Both make for good reading, but the best (in our opinion) was the pessimism piece. How many times have YOU been laughed out of CompUSA for mentioning that modem or SCSI drive was for a Commodore?

LOADSTAR

Issue 138 just finished loading on the 1581 disk drive, and the disk is packed with information. Fender Tucker goes into much detail on the recent changes at LOADSTAR and its new Publishing company, J and F Publishing. Of interest to programmers is the PCX to GEOPaint converter program, written by Fender Tucker and Doreen Horne. Some details on Al Angers machines that are shown in Commodore World are related. Jeff Jones presents a simple program pause routine, which fiddles with the NMI interrupt, and gives out source code as well. The Internet 101 series takes a month off from the LOADSTAR letter in #28, but is expected back next month. Lastly, Dave Moorman presents his fractal generator called FRACTAL MOUNTAINS. C=Hacking couldn't get it to work, but we think it's user error.

LOADSTAR 128

In Issue 29, Fender apologizes for not paying enough attention to the 800 LOADSTAR 128 subscribers. Of interest to programmers is the program listing pause program on the issue, but the rest is pretty light stuff, not to knock LOADSTAR. Different audiences need different material.

Vision

In Issue 7, Rick Mosdell has an article on graphics formats, updated and reproduced in this issue. There is some information from USENET reproduced, and a list of FTP sites as posted to USENET is also presented. Not much technical content in here, but C=Hacking was impressed with the graphics, music, and stories in the mag. Besides, everyone needs some time to enjoy the machine.

Other magazines not covered in this rundown include The Underground, Gatekeeper, Commodore Network, 64'er, Atta Bitar (8 bitter), as well as those C=Hacking is simply not aware of. As soon as we can snag a copy of any of these, or get the foreign language ones in English :-), we will give you the scoop on them.