.IF DSK1.C3 ^^^^TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE, and ELSEWHERE ^^^^^What's Happening in 99-Land ^^^^^^^^by J A C K S U G H R U E It's a lark (albeit impossible) to try to keep up with all the great stuff coming out for the TI. There are new and wonderful things from ASGARD and MILLER'S GRAPHICS and COMPUTE! and TIGERCUB  and other old and some new companies (like GENIAL COMPUTERWARE and MIDNIGHT EXPRESS PUBLICATIONS). Not to mention the wonderful (in the old sense of the word) stuff put out through the Freeware and Fairware forms of distribution. Let's look at products from a new company and from an old company: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and TIGERCUB. The former has put out a book (or book/disk combination) entitled CRACKING THE 99/4A. The book is $12.95. The combo is $16.95. Disk alone is $6.95. Add one dollar for shipping. (Midnight Express Publications Order Department, PO Box 26941, Austin, Texas, 78755) CRACKING is edited by Brian Prothro and features loads of programs and tutorials by Prothro and many others. The 170-page 6x9 paperback devotes the first 37 pages to tutorials using the build-upon-a-program-step-by-step approach: an excellent approach. You have a fine program at the end of the tutorials. This section includes discussions on how to make programs user friendly, what structured programming is, how to make linked lists. The rest of the book contains programs (those which appear on the disk) and very appropriate descriptions and helps before each program. There are five Games (The "Seek and Find Puzzle Generator" actually creates those "word find" type games and is better than any other of that type I own - that includes Regena's and TI's.); three Home programs (two of which I would call utility); two Speech programs (one a good editor); and six Utility programs (two in ASSSEMBLY, believe it or not!). Some of these 16 programs (not counting those in the tutorial sections) are familiar: Checkers, Othello, Checkbook Management, Graphics Generator, Super Cataloguer. But, for the most part, these versions are superior to any other versions I own or sufficiently different to be interesting. Take "Hangman," for example. This version (XB, optional speech) has an automatic scoring system that gives additional points for guessing a word before all the letters are filled in. I've never seen that done this way before, and I really like this feature. The program shows which letters have been guessed, has an entry correction possibility, performs automatic "rounds," has the ability to enter phrases, words, or short sentences, contains an automatic blank removal guard. And gives the player the opportunity to play against time (with the player choosing the interval). Because blank spaces are allowed in phrases and sentences (with up to 24 letters and blanks), you may devise a "Hangman" game that is just film titles or famous authors. Excellent features in this game. And, although "Hangman" is far from the best program for ME in this book, I would have happily paid the combo price for this version of this game. For the "Seek and Find Generator" I would have paid double. "S and F" allows up to 35 words of 10 characters or less. This lets you build just about any puzzle you want. I used it first to put in all the names of my fifth-grade class. They loved it. Then I started on the names of bones (after they had used Regena's "Name That Bone" program from the old 99er). Then I did a Halley's special with all kinds of celestial terms. And so on. The hardcopy printout is very easy to read, gives you word list and answer key, too, like the original TI wordfind puzzlemaker. But this is faster, holds more, looks better, allows you to play on screen as well. (Try creating puzzles with Word Safari, Word Hunt (an XB program I created based on the structure of Word Safari, and this one. Choose for yourself. It'll probably be this one. Room limitations prevent me from going into detail about the utility, home, business, assembly, tuturial, and speech sections. They are also fine, really fine! I hope Brian has great success with this publication. Maybe it'll encourage others to get back into textware for our fantastic machine. From all the praising I've done of Jim Peterson's TIGERCUB SOFTWARE over the years, one would assume I had a share in the company. I don't. But Jim's one-man operation still manages to keep up a very steady supply of some of the most practical and interesting ideas for our computer. His regular "Tips from the Tiger" columns, which appear in user periodicals throughout the country, have been a source of marvelous information and exciting routines for a very long time. Last year Jim put out a disk of these "Tips" from the first year and a half of his columns. The disk was (IS!) great. As a companion seller at the time, a second disk, "NUTS AND BOLTS" was put out. This was (is) a diskful (over 100) merged subroutines that could be plugged right into your programs. Frankly, I think this is certainly THE most often used disk I own. "NUTS" comes with lengthy documentation. NOW! Now there is a Volume II of each of these extraordinary disks. And, if it is possible, they are even better than the first two. "Tips" starts from #15, so no "Tips" are missing. These are priceless. But for me the BIGGIE is, of course, the "NUTS AND BOLTS" merged utility subprograms. There are 108 in VOL.II and provide even greater range to displays (always the first set I try out). There are Bigbanners and Boxes and Blinkers and Curtains and Explodes and Flipflops and Titlers of all kinds. And even a Zoop! The Character Sets are even more bizarre than VOL.I and as much fun to put into your programs. Then there are whole sections devoted to Joysticks and Math and Graphs and Self-Changers (I love these!) and Sound Effects and Word Processing and Graphics and Programmer Utilities and File Handling and Menu Routines (Very handy, these.) and Sorts and Shuffles and even a Miscellaneous Section with a subprogram called "Moon" in it. I have to be honest; there is no way I can even begin to use all of these marvelous subprograms (and it takes about 4 months just to try them all out), but I enjoy having them done and done so well. It's surprising, too, how often I've used some routines I never thought I had a need for. "Nuts" does that to you. These are excellent buys: "Tips" sell for $15 each Volume; "Nuts" sells for $19.95 each Volume. ($37 if you buy both.) Shipping and handling included. TIGERCUB SOFTWARE, 156 Collingwood Ave., Columbus, OH 43213. And, while you're at it, throw in an extra dollar for Jim's latest catalog. It'll be deducted from your first order. The catalog is loaded with programs of ALL kinds. Over the years I bought lots and lots of games and utilities for school (mostly), home, and self-help. (But mostly FUN!) I never received anything from Tigercub that I was not pleased with. A superb company to deal with, albeit a one-man-show. You probably couldn't make a better investment. (I wonder how many consoles Jim owns. He must have gone through quite a few in order to discover all the things he shares with us month after month.) I still wish he'd publish all his "Tips" as a book. If you do, Jim, put me down for Copy Number One. [Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas, MA 01516] ******************* If any newsletter editor prints these articles, please put me on your mailing list. Thanks - JS €Š€ÑˆŠŽ•Ÿ©³½ÇÕÕÕÕÕÕ€Ž