Next Was Compute Magazine

While writing the PETpourri column for Kilobaud I wound up meeting Robert Locke, the publisher of Compute! magazine, and he asked me to write a few articles for his magazine. He was after programs, reviews and technical articles for the Commodore systems. He had acquired a number of Commodore-related newsletters and combined them into a bimonthly glossy magazine. Well I wound up writing 17 articles for Compute! and Compute! PC/PCjr magazines that were published between 1980 and 1984. Plus a few of those articles were reprinted in five books that were published by Compute! Publications between 1981 and 1985.

With the Compute! articles I got to write a lot of utilities, including the highly popular BASIC program compactor and uncompactor utilities for the Commodore systems. And when some of my Commodore contacts went over to Atari I wound up writing a few articles about the Atari 400 and 800 home computer systems also.

While writing for Compute! Publications I even got invited down to their offices in North Carolina and met with the publisher, Robert Locke and some of his co-workers. He actually offered me a full time job with their book division but my wife wasn't up to relocating or having me commuting to NC, so we passed on the opportunity. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had taken him up on the offer!

Here's a list of my articles that were published in Compute! magazine:

• An Easier Method of Saving Data Plus Home Accounting (Jan/Feb-80, p.23)
• D&R Cassette System (May/Jun-80, p.86) - review
• Word Pro Converter (Sep/Oct-80, p.89)
• Compactor (Sep/Oct-80, p.104)
• Disk Lister (Nov/Dec-80, p.110)
• The Atari 825 Printer (Feb-81, p.24) - review
• Atari Memory Dump & Disassembler (Mar-81, p.80)
• Atari Super Breakout & Others (Apr-81, p.105)
• Stud Poker (May-81, p.89) - review
• Un-compactor (May-81, p.124)
• PET/CBM Disk Formats (Jun-81, p.106)
• Atari Data (Jul-81, p.128)
• Atari Disk File Dump (Oct-81, p.110)
• Insurance Inventory (Feb-82, p.28)
• Word Hunt (Mar-82, p.68)
• Disk Explorer for Commodore (Dec-83, p.298)

There was also one of my articles that appeared in Compute's PC & PCjr magazine:

• Word Hunt (Mar-84, p.82)

And here's a list of the Compute! books with some of my articles:

• Compute!'s First Book of PET/CBM (1981) - Home Budget (p.166), Disk Lister (p.183) and Compactor (p.190)
• Compute!'s First Book of Atari Games (1983) - Word Hunt (p.109)
• Compute!'s Easy BASIC Programs for the IBM PC & PCjr (1984) - Word Hunt (p.33)
• Easy BASIC Programs for the Apple (1985) - Word Hunt (p.39)
• Compute!'s First Book of IBM (1985) - Word Hung (p.169)