Compute! covered various home computers over the years. It was a little less technical than Byte (for example) at least in terms of hardware coverage. However, it was a great magazine and had numerous spin-off, the most successful of which was Gazette for the Commodore 64/128. The March 1988 issue of Compute! includes:

Features

• Computers: The Powerful, New Music Machines - A short history of computers in music and the technology currently available.


• Buyer's Guide to Tax Preparation Software - An overview of then curren tax software including DivorceTax (DOS), Estate Tax Planner (DOS), Everything You Need To Do Your Taxes With Lotus 1-2-3 (DOS), EZTax-Prep 1040 (Apple II, DOS, Macintosh), EZTax-Plan Personal Edition (DOS), Future-Tax (Commodore 64, Plus/4), J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 1988 (DOS), MacInTax (Macintosh), PC/TaxCut (DOS), Quick Returns! (Apple II, Macintosh, DOS), Swiftax (Commodore 64/128), Taxaid (Commodore 64, Plus/4), TaxView Planner (DOS), Tax Advantage (Apple II, DOS), The Tax Advantage (DOS, Apple II, Atari, Atari ST, Commodore 64/128), Tax Command Planner (Commodore 64/128, Apple II, DOS), Tax Command Professional (Commodore 64/128, Apple II, DOS), and many more.


• Casino Blackjack - A type-in blackjack game for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, DOS, Apple II, and Amiga.

Reviews

• Top Fuel Eliminator - A drag racing game from Activision for the Commodore 64 and Apple II.


• Thexder - An arcade style game reviewed here for the Apple IIgs and also available for DOS.


• ProDrive for the Amiga - A third part 3.5" disk drive for the Amiga that is compatible with the Amiga 1010 drive.


• Dark Castle - Dark Castle is a horror themed action game that has beautiful graphics but a very high degree of difficulty. The Amiga version is reviewed here but it was also available for DOS, the Macintosh, Atari ST, and Commodore 64.

Columns and Departments

• The Editor's Notes - A look at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show.


• Readers' Feedback - Letters from readers about copying Commodore 64 BASIC from ROM to RAM, the Atari BASIC NEW command, using Commodore 1541 and 1571 disk drives together, and more.


• Microscope - IBM celebrates shipping one-millionth IBM PS/2, the Amiga reaches an installed base of 500,000 meanwhile the Commodore 64 is still popular with an installed base of over 10 million, Motorola announces 68030, Apple announces that 200,000 Apple IIgs systems have been sold, and more.


• Computers and Society: Computers, Writing, and AI - Some of the limitations of spell checkers in word processors.


• The Beginner's Page: Making Music with BASIC - A tutorial for creating music in BASIC with the Amiga, Atari, Atari ST, Commodore 128, and IBM PC.


• IBM Personal Computing: Computer Stew - A look at God Speed Bible software and John Sculley's book, Odyssey, about his history at Pepsi and Apple.

The Journal

• Cursor Plus - A type-in program for Atari 8-bit computers that expands the capabilities of the editor.


• Math Graphics for the IBM PC - Two type-in programs for creating graphical displays based on math.


• The Elementary Amiga, Part 4 - The fourth part in a series on using the Amiga. This part includes information about directories, logical drives, command files, and more.


• Color Map - A type-in drawing program for the Commodore 64.

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