[ Retro Scan ] The Hayden Sargon Hamburger

Thursday, July 6th, 2017

Hayden Book Company Computer Program Tapes Software Sargon Game Playing with BASIC How to Build a Computer-Controlled Robot The First Book of KIM General Math Complex and Matrix Math Introductory Engineering Math advertisement scan - 1979Starving for Software? Eat a tapeburger

For some reason, I find few things less appetizing than a black and white hamburger. (Maybe one with a computer tape on top of it.)

But we’re not here to eat this advertisement for Hayden Book Company’s 1979 computer tape offerings. We’re here to look at it.

I know very little about Hayden itself other than that it originated as a New Jersey-based book publisher and later transitioned into selling software on disk and tape as well (as “Hayden Software”). That stands in contrast to what I think was the firm’s first approach to publishing software — in paper books full of source code.

It’s worth noting that this might be the first-ever advertisement for what was originally called “Sargon: A Computer Chess Program“, a pioneering chess game and engine for personal computers that debuted at the 1978 West Coast Computer Faire. I recall my brother playing Sargon II for the Atari 800 and Sargon III on the IBM PC, and I had a copy of Sargon II for the Apple II. It was a stalwart, well-respected chess series for many years.

[ From BYTE Magazine, February 1979, p.143 ]

Discussion Topic: What’s the best computer chess game you’ve ever played?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Axiom Printer Card

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

AXIOM EX-801 EX-820 printer card TRS-80, Commodore PET, Apple II advertisement - BYTE November 1979* Feathered hair not included

Ah, the good ole days when you had to pay $535 (that’s $1,744 in today’s dollars) for the privilege of merely being able to hook a printer to your home computer. What can I say — it was a useful feature.

My first computer, an Apple II+, came equipped with a Grappler+ printer card (from the previous owner), although I can’t recall ever using it. Instead, I printed school reports by that time from whichever family MS-DOS machines we had at the time, each of which included a built-in parallel port for printer use.

What a great day it was when I switched from a noisy dot matrix printer to the that awesome Canon Bubblejet we had. Silent printing! And the day we got our first full-color photo capable HP inkjet printer around 1996. It was pretty low resolution, but still amazing.

Today, I don’t print much. I have a color laser copier in service to reproduce scanned documents (in lieu of a copy machine) in case I need a hard copy of something — usually a form or contract — to mail.

[ From BYTE Magazine – November 1979, p.162 ]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Do you regularly print anything from your computer these days? What do you print?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Computer Shopper Debut

Monday, September 22nd, 2014

Computer Shopper Magazine debut advertisement - 1979“The most divisive magazine in the USA.”

Veterans of the computer scene will no doubt recall Computer Shopper, a massively large (11″ x 14″, later 10″ x 13″) and thick (usually around 1.25″) monthly publication that mostly ran classifieds and paid advertisements for PC vendors. The magazine ended its print run in 2009, 30 years after it launched.

I only know when it launched because of this advertisement for the launch of Computer Shopper that appeared in the November 1979 issue of Byte. It’s interesting to see a legend at its birth.

I was never a huge fan of Computer Shopper, since it was essentially a month’s worth of computer junk mail stuffed into an awkward and almost unreadibly-large magazine format. But I did respect it as a mainstay of the computer industry — as familiar as a phone book and as timely as a newspaper. May she rest in peace.

[ From Byte Magazine – November 1979, p.189]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you ever read (or more accurately, peruse) Computer Shopper? What are your memories of the publication?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Altos Computer Systems

Monday, December 31st, 2012

Altos Computer Systems ACS8000-6 and Sun-Series ad - 1979“The first business computer system that will not instantly crush your secretary.”

Happy New Year from Vintage Computing and Gaming!

[ From BYTE, November 1979, p.21 ]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Quick! Name your favorite computer, calculator, or console with a Z80 CPU.