Compute! was one of the earliest and longest running multi-format computer magazines published in the U.S. In the early days, it covered the Atari 400/800, Apple II and Commodore PET as well as various kit computers. The May 1981 issue includes:
The Editor's Notes - A look at some of the things seen at the West Coast Computer Faire, including the Votrax Type-'N-Talk text to speech synthesizer, the Commodore Super-PET, A 256K memory expansion from Axlon for the Atari 800, and more.
The Readers' Feedback - Praise for the magazine, small business programs for the Atari, improving magazine distribution, and more.
Computers and Society - Addressing computer phobia.
Computer Aided Instruction, Boon or Bust? - Analyzing the effects of computers in the classroom. Still a novel idea at the time.
They Mysterious and Unpredictable RND - The last part in a series on random numbers. This part presents solutions for finding maximum and minimum numbers in a sample of random numbers, simulating dice rolls and a number of other exercises.
Land of the Lost - A Program For a Cassette Filing System - A type-in menu-driven program to create labels for cassettes (the dominant home computer storage medium of the time).
Table of Contents from the May 1981 issue of Compute!
The Apple Gazette
Using Named GOSUB and GOTO Statements in Applesoft BASIC - A simple way to create named subroutines vs. just using line numbers.
Commas, Colons, and Quote Marks Too - Writing BASIC programs that can accept commas, colons and quotation marks as part of their input.
The Atari Gazette
A Cure for Atari BASIC or, Make Your Atari a Bit Wiser - An assembly language program that adds the ability to do bitwise operations in Atari BASIC.
Copy Your Atari Screen to Your Printer - A short BASIC program that will dump the contents of the screen to a printer.
Hardware Information at Last! - Three new Atari technical manuals, including Atari 400/800 Technical User Notes, Atari 400/800 Operating System, and Atari 400/800 Disk Operating System.
Using Strings for Graphics Storage - A method for using BASIC strings to create graphics on the Atari.
Atari Machine I/O - Three machine language routines for processing input.
The OSI Gazette
Through the Fill-The-Buffer Routine with Gun and Camera - Some technical info on how the "Fill-the-Buffer" routine (FTB) of OS BASIC works.
FOOTU: FOO Revisited - Converting FOO (a racing game for the OSI) to run on OSI systems with BASIC-in-ROM.
The PET Gazette
A Fast Visible Memory Dump - A program for creating a graphical memory dump to a printer.
Machine Language: Getting to the Machine Language Program - Methods for combining BASIC programs with machine language routines.
A Thirteen Line BASIC Delete - A short BASIC program that allows you to delete any group of lines form an existing program.
Calculated Bar-graph Routines on the Pet - How to calculate the length of bars in a bar graph so that they can be properly printed.
The Revised Pet/CBM Personal Computer Guide - A look at the changes in the newest revision of the Osborne/McGraw-Hill Pet/CBM Personal Computer Guide.
The SBC Gazette
Nuts and Volts - Information about building your own microcontrollers.
A Kim-1 Music File in Microsoft Basic: Part 1
New Products - Atari sponsors contest for new software; the BYTEWRITER-1 dot matrix printer from Microtek; Hayes releases the Smartmodem, a 300 baud modem that set the standard for years to come for $279; and more.
