_{Cover of the December 1981 issue of Compute!}
Compute! was one of the earliest home computer magazines. Early in its history, it focused on 6502 based machines. In 1981 that meant the Commodore CBM/PET, Apple II, Atari and OSI. The December 1981 issue includes:

The Editor's Notes - The conflict between brick and mortar computer dealers and mail order.

Ask The Readers - Automatic line numbers, a Pet/CBM bug, the Atari BASIC COM command, and more.

Computers and Society - Using the computer as a tool for creativity.

Guest Commentary: The World Computer Revisisted - Why computer standardization would be a good thing.

The Beginner's Page - How computers use checksums to ensure data is saved correctly.

Basically Useful BASIC: A Quick-Fix Approach To Calculating Tables - A simple program for generating conversion tables.

_{Table of Contents from the December 1981 issue of Compute!}

Maze Generator - A type-in BASIC program for randomly generating mazings on the Commodore PET and Atari 400/800.

Part Two: An Introduction To Binary Numbers - The second part in a seven part series on basic computer arithemetic.

Book Review: Microprocessors For Measurement and Control - A book on real-time control applications.

Console Input/Output - Non-serial console input and output on the KIM.

MTU-130: A New 6502 Microcomputer - A look at a new 6502 based computer from Micro Technology Unlimited.

Animating Applesoft Graphics - A method for animating high-resolution and low-resolution graphics in Applesoft BASIC.

Programming The Reset Key The Easy Way - Making the RESET key do anything you want on an Apple II+.

A Simple Printer Interface For The Apple II - A guide to building a simple printer interface for the Apple II along with a driver program that works in DOS 3.3.

INSIGHT: Atari - A look at extended disk operations on the Atari and a disk file manager.

Discovering Atari's Hidden Graphics - Experiments in undocumented graphics commands on the Atari 400/800.

String Art - A type-in BASIC program that will generate art based on mathematical patterns using basic characters.

Billiard Bounce - A type-in program that generates patterns by simulating the movement of a billiard ball.

Blinking Characters - A more efficient way to produce blinking characters and other text effects on the Atari 400/800.

Make Your Atari Keyboard A Little Friendlier - Some tips and tricks to help prevent you from accidentally entering inverse video mode, locking the keyboard into character graphics mode, clearing the screen, etc. while typing on the Atari keyboard.

Adding High Speed Vertical Positioning to P/M Graphics - A small gneral purpose vertical positioning routine written in 6502 assembly which can be called via BASIC's USR instruction on the Atari 400/800.

A Poor Programmer's Word Processor - A very simple word processor written in BASIC for the Atari 400/800.

_{Back cover of the December 1981 issue of Compute!}
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The Howling (1981)