February 1986 — Vol 8 No 2
Source
Open original PDF • February 1986 • Vol 8 No 2 • 76 pages • $2
Overview
★★ MACINTOSH PLUS + LASERWRITER PLUS LAUNCH — Apple announced both on January 16, 1986. Pi covers in this issue. ★ "Apple Mac+ and LaserWriter+ Announcements" (p67-70) — direct coverage. Tom Warrick continues as President. ★ Microsoft Excel 1.0 for Mac arrives: "'EXCEL'ing With Your Mac" (David Morganstein, p54) launches Morganstein's Excel franchise; "Excel Power: Manipulating Cells" (Tom Warrick, p56) — the President writes Excel tips; "HFS Follies" (Tom Warrick, p58) — Hierarchical File System (introduced with the Mac Plus / System 3.0). "Macintosh & Scientific Environment" (Lynn R. Trusal, p43) + "Macintosh in the News, Etc." (Trusal, p44) + "The New Mac - Is It an NBI?" (Trusal, p45). "The Best (///) Picks in '86" (David Ottalini, p14) — Ottalini Apple /// list. "Quad Thermometer" (Tom Riley, p25). "OverVUE 2.0: Problem & Solution" (James J. Derhaag, p51). "Pascal & Modula-2 Implementations" (Robert C. Platt, p36). "The View From Durham" (Chris Klugewicz, p40) continues. "Computer Mail as Entertainment" (Brother Tom Sawyer, p47). "The Confessions of a Lurker" (==Zorro==, p62) — anonymous TCS-lurker confession (precursor to later "Confessions of a SYSOP" tradition). "Musements" (Fred Seelig, p63) — Seelig's column launches. Mac game cluster: Enchanted Scepters (Bedrick), Mindwheel (Payne), Time Zone (Payne), Wilderness (Swarztrauber), Baron (Klugewicz), Gemstone Warrior (Johnston).
Table of contents (selected)
| Article | Author | Page |
|---|---|---|
| President's Corner | Tom Warrick | 4 |
| Q & A | Bruce F. Field | 10 |
| The Best (III) Picks in '86 | David Ottalini | 14 |
| GAMESIG News | Barry Bedrick | 16 |
| Enchanted Scepters: A Review | Barry & Ben Bedrick | 17 |
| Mindwheel: A Review | Steven Payne | 17 |
| Playing "Time Zone" | Steven Payne | 18 |
| Wilderness: A Review | Beryl Swarztrauber | 18 |
| Baron: A Review | Chris Klugewicz | 19 |
| Gemstone Warrior: A Review | Thomas Johnston | 19 |
| Wizardry Transfer | Nicholas G. Carter | 20 |
| 80-Column Card & Wizardry | Steven Pearce | 21 |
| Quad Thermometer | Tom Riley | 25 |
| Pascal & Modula-2 Implementations | Robert C. Platt | 36 |
| The View From Durham | Chris Klugewicz | 40 |
| Macintosh & Scientific Environment | Lynn R. Trusal | 43 |
| Macintosh in the News, Etc. | Lynn R. Trusal | 44 |
| The New Mac - Is It an NBI? | Lynn R. Trusal | 45 |
| Computer Mail as Entertainment | Brother Tom Sawyer | 47 |
| Mac Q & A | Jonathan E. Hardis | 48 |
| OverVUE 2.0: Problem & Solution | James J. Derhaag | 51 |
| MacNovice | Ralph J. Begleiter | 52 |
| ★ 'EXCEL'ing With Your Mac (debut) | David Morganstein | 54 |
| Excel Power: Manipulating Cells | Tom Warrick | 56 |
| HFS Follies | Tom Warrick | 58 |
| The Confessions of a Lurker | =Zorro= | 62 |
| Musements (debut) | Fred Seelig | 63 |
| ★★ Apple Mac+ and LaserWriter+ Announcements | — | 67-70 |
Highlights
★★ Mac Plus + LaserWriter Plus launch — Jan 16 1986
The most significant single Mac event between the launch (Jan 1984) and Sep 1986 IIGS launch. Mac Plus brought 1MB RAM, SCSI port, 800K internal floppy, numeric keypad keyboard, expandable to 4MB without board swap. LaserWriter Plus added 35 fonts (up from 13) and the legendary Apple ImageWriter/LaserWriter price differential ($699 to $1675 upgrade from a Mac 128K via Clinton Computer).
★ Excel arrives at Pi
Microsoft Excel 1.0 for Mac (released Sep 1985) gets full Pi coverage three issues running. Morganstein's "'EXCEL'ing With Your Mac" column franchise launches here; runs through Vol 9.
HFS Follies — Tom Warrick
Hierarchical File System (the foundational Mac filesystem upgrade) arrived with the Mac Plus/System 3.0. Warrick warns about transition issues in plain English — typical Warrick "what to know" piece.
Entities
People: Tom Warrick, David Morganstein, Lynn R. Trusal, David Ottalini, Tom Riley, Robert C. Platt, Chris Klugewicz, Brother Tom Sawyer, Jonathan E. Hardis, James J. Derhaag, Ralph J. Begleiter, Fred Seelig, Bruce F. Field, Barry Bedrick, Ben Bedrick, Steven Payne, Beryl Swarztrauber, Thomas Johnston, Nicholas G. Carter, Steven Pearce, Amy T. Billingsley, Jack Mortimer, Peter Combes, James M. Burger Topics: Mac Plus Launch, LaserWriter Plus, Microsoft Excel on Mac, HFS Filesystem, Mac in Science, Apple III Best Picks References: Macintosh Plus, LaserWriter Plus, Microsoft Excel, HFS, OverVUE 2, MoneyWorks
Connections to other issues
- Mac Plus + LaserWriter Plus is Apple's first major hardware event after the September 1985 announcement (1985-10 — V07 N10)
- Excel coverage continues monthly through 1986-1987 (Morganstein 'EXCEL'ing column)
- HFS Follies thread continues in 1986-03 — V08 N03 HFS Follies Update
- Mac Plus + LaserWriter Plus presages the Apple Desktop Publishing era that explodes in 1986