_{Cover of the May/June 1986 issue of Info}

Throughout its life, INFO covered various Commodore computers starting with the Commodore 64. By 1986 it was already covering the Amiga and Commodore 128 as well. INFO has the distinction of being created entirely on home computer hardware, early on with the Commodore 64 and dot matrix printers and later with Amigas and laser printers.

The May/June 1986 issue includes:

Departments

• Editor's Page - Info changes its look and moves to new offices, Atari ST outselling the Amiga (though this would change when the less expensive Amiga 500 emerged), and Aegis uses the new "standard" IFF image format developed by EA.


• Reader Mail - Readers' write in about the Commodore 128, Amiga BASIC, and more.


• Amiga Gallery - Screen shots and brief reviews of various Amiga software including Arctic Fox (Electronic Arts), Mandlebrot, Racter (Mindscape), Images (Aegis Development), Mindshadow (Activision), and Digiview Digitizer (Digiview).


• Gallery - Screen shots and breif reviews of various Commodore 64 games including Floyd the Droid (Radarsoft), The Bard's Tale (Electronic Arts), Super Boulder Dash (Electronic Arts), Spell of Destruction (Mindscape), Lords of Conquest (Electronic Arts), Willow Pattern (Firebird), the Last V8 (Mastertronics), Fast Tracks (Activision), Touchdown Football (Electronic Arts), Leader Board (Access), Fight Night (Accolade), Spy vs. Spy Volume II (First Star Software), GATO (Spectrum Holobyte), Elite (Firebird), Ace (Educational Systems), Jet (subLogic), Europe Ablaze (Electronic Arts), and Acro Jet (Microprose).


• News & Views - Atari approaches AT&T to license Unix V for the Atari ST; the Atari 520ST will be sold at mass market discount stores such as K-Mart; Atari 1040ST coming soon; Amiga vs. the Atari ST; price cut coming for the Amiga; new Amiga models coming soon; Batteries Included porting Degas to the Amiga; Commodore branded IBM clones coming soon; rumors of an enhanced Commodore 64; Activision acquires Gamestar and Infocom; Commodore B128s show up in Jewel of the Nile; Amiga sales increase with large buyers including Universal Studios, Ohio State University, and Miami Vice...apparently the U.S. Navy was also evaluating them for use as a color radar display terminal; and much more.


• New Products - New products looked at this month include the Laser 128 Apple II clone; GEOS for the Commodore 64, a Speedscript enhancement; Power Cartridge all-in-one utility package; Print Master; Billboard Maker, Mighty Mouse (a joystick compatible mouse for the C64 and C128), Multibots robot experimenter's kit for the C64/128; CADPAK, SuperC, Chartpak, Super Pascal and BASIC-128 compiler from Abacus for the Commodore 128; Micro Forge hard drives for the Amiga (a 20 MB drive costs $1494.95); and more.


• Copy Corner - Latest copy protection schemes involve writing to track 40 (5 tracks beyond what the 1541 was designed for), Copy II 64/128 and Ultrabyte version 2.1 released, also the latest revisions of Fast Hack'Em, Di-Sector, and Clone Machine.


• Magazine Index - A brief look at what is in other recent magazines with Commodore coverage including Byte, Computer Language, Software Tools, The Transactor, Compute!, Compute!'s Gazette, Power Play, The Guide, Amiga World, The Midnite Software Gazette, and RUN.


• Network Wars - InterPlay, Inc. offers new online interactive gaming service. Each location can accommodate up to 16 callers on an IBM PC XT running a custom OS. Messaging and live chat services are provided as well as a D&D style game.

_{Table of Contents from the May/June 1986 issue of Info}

Features

• Monitor Roundup - A comparison of nine color monitors for the Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Amiga. Models evaluated include the Sony KV-1311, Magnavox CM-8515, Panasonic DT-M140, Amiga A1080, Atari SC1224, Amdek Color 500, Sears RGB/TV, Teknika MJ-22, and Commodore 1702.


• C64 Word Processors - A massive comparison of two dozen word processing packages for the Commodore 64. This is part one of two and includes a look at Creative Writer (Creative Software), The Write File (International TriMicro), Supertext Professional Word Processor (Muse), Paperclip (Batteries Included), Word Commander 64 (MMG Micro Software), The Whole Bit (Applied Technologies), Kwik-Write! (Datamost), TOTL.TEXT (TOTL Software), and Trio Word (Softsync).


• C128 Vs. 520ST - A comparison of the Commodore 128 and Atari 520ST in an ad format.

Reviews

• Book Reviews - Books reviewed this month include Machine Language for the C64, Digital Deli, Starting Forth, and Hackers.


• Lt. Kernal Hard Disk Drive (64/128) - A look at one of the most popular hard drives for the Commodore 64. Prices are: 5 MB = 599.95, 10 MB = 899.95 and 20 MB = 1299.95. This was after a dramatic price drop.


• C Compilers for the C64 - A review of two C compilers for the Commodore 64, Super-C and C Power.


• 1541 Physical Exam - Commodore 64 drives, especially earlier ones, were notorious for going out of alignment. You could either pay ~$35 for a technician to align it or use a program like this one for $39.95 and learn to do it yourself (it's not that hard).


• ADA Training Course - Somewhat useful for learning the ADA programming language but too limited.


• Golden Oldies - A collection of older games, including Adventure, Eliza, Life, and Pong.


• EM256K RAM Expander - A 256K RAM expansion for the Commodore 64 for only $94.


• Newsroom - A desktop publishing program for the Commodore 64 designed for creating newsletters.


• Bobsterm Pro-128 - An excellent terminal program for the Commodore 128.

_{Back cover of the May/June 1986 issue of Info}

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