Star Tech Journal
Issue: 1983-November - Vol 5 Issue 9 - Page 3
3
STAR*TECH JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 1983
SDiR*
IECH
JOU
The Technical Monthly
• for the Amusements Industry
P.O. Box 1065
Merchantville, NJ 08109
609/662-3432
NOVEMBER 1983
VOLUME 5, NO. 9
Publisher/Editor
James Galore
Administrative Assistant
LT. DiRenzo
Art/ Advertising Coordinator
Paul Ehlinger
Circulation Promotion
Linda Geseking
Layout
Dale Meloni Graphics
Contributing
Technical Writers
Todd Erickson
Don Becker
Mark "Bear'' Attebery
Sam Cross
Duane Erby
STAR•TECH JOURNAL, November
1983, Vol. 5, No. 9. Copyright 1983
by Star*Tech Journal, Inc. All rights
reserved. Address inquiries to: P.O.
Box 1065, Merchantville, NJ 08109.
Phone: 609/662·3432. Subscrip-
tion rates: USA-$40.00. Canada-
$45.00. Other countries - $70.00.
Please remit payment in US funds.
POSTMASTER: Send address
changes
to
STAR•TECH
JOURNAL, P.O. Box 1065,
Merchantville,
NJ
08109.
STAR•TECH JOURNAL (ISSN
0739· 1048) is published monthly
by Star•Tech Journal, Inc., 18 North
Centre St., P.O. Box 1065,
Merchantville, NJ 08109. Second·
class postage paid at Camden, NJ
and additional mailing offices.
Advertising rates available upon
request. All manuscripts become
property of Star•Tech Journal. No
part of this Journal may be repro-
duced without permission. Contents
of the articles herein are verified as
much as possible. However, any
reader using this information does
so at his/her own risk. Star•Tech
Journal accepts no responsibility
for its advertisers' activities.
NEWS BITS/
* VIDEOGAMES
TO BECOME COMPUTER TERMINALS?
* NEW
COLOR DISPIA Y USES LIQUID CRYSTALS
* * ZILOG'S
32-BIT MICROPROCESSOR CHIP
THE "McDONAID'S OF INFORMATION"
* RANDOM-ACCESS CED
VIDEOGAMES TO BECOME COMPUTER TERMINALS?
A new service, Gameline, by Control Video Corp. of Vienna, VA, promises as
a start to allow any owner of an Atari 2600 video computer system ( and a few
other brands) to tap into a vast central computerized library of popular
videogames.
Eventually, says CVC, the game-system owner will be able to make use of a
variety of other features, such as sports reports, stock quotations, news,
electronic banking, and other services now available only to personal-computer
owners who subscribe to services like CompuServe or The Source.
In addition to giving access to an enormous variety of games, Gameline
gives the player a chance to preview new games just coming on the market, and
to sample games before purchase. Contests, from regional to worldwide, with
prizes ranging from T-shirts to four-year college scholarships, are also offered.
NEW COLOR DISPLAY USES LIQUID CRYSTALS
A display system that uses a monochrome cathode-ray tube and a liquid crystal
"color switch" to produce a high-resolution, field-sequential color display was
demonstrated recently by Tektronix at the Philadelphia meeting of the Society
for Information Display.
The success of the new system was due to the development of a new,
proprietary, fast liquid-crystal optical switch. Combined with the monochrome
CRT, it produces a high-resolution, field-sequential color display.
Because there are no shadow masks or penetration phosphors, the resolution
can be as high as that of any monochrome CRT. Other advantages are inherent
convergence (there is only one electron beam), excellent contrast in high
ambient light, and ruggedness. (The fragile shadow mask and complex color
gun are eliminated.)
The new technology is expected to find applications in instrument displays,
where its high resolution will make it useful. It will also be useful in small
process-control displays, where the color can be used for warnings or for
highlighting special situations.
ZILOG'S 32·BIT MICROPROCESSOR CHIP
Zilog has announced the Z80000, a 32-bit microprocessor chip that is
compatible with the 16-bit Z8000. Featuring a 256-byte on-chip cache,
instruction pipelining, and memory management, the Z80000 can run at 10 to
25 MHz. It should be available in late 1984 for $150 in 1000-unit lots.
THE "McDONALD'S OF INFORMATION"
Coin-operated computer terminals with attached printers are being marketed by
Data and Research Technology Corp. (Pittsburgh, PA) in an effort to become
the "McDonald's of information." Users with valid accounts can access local
nodes of such popular networks as CompuServe, The Source, and Dow Jones
for $1 for 3 minutes. The company hopes to have terminals in 50 cities by the
end of the year.
RANDOM-ACCESS CED
They said it couldn't be done - which gives RCA all the more satisfaction
with its introduction of a random-access CED videodisc player. The new
model, which was still unpriced at presstime, uses a wireless remote control to
let the user choose any "page" (single groove) or "band" (selection) of the
disc, or the choice may be made by dialing up the minute and second desired
These may be programmed to play in any sequence, repeat, etc. An added
feature of the new machine is on-screen prompting: Alpha numerical reminders
and queries appear on the screen - such as "please load disc," "audio track A
or B?'', "Band ___ to Band ___ ", and so forth. Special discs with
individual frames repeated three times (the CED disc has four frames per
groove) will be available for programs using stop-motion. The random-access
disc player may be programmed with its own remote-control unit or with a
Digital Command Center, a 51-button remote control that comes with many of
RCA's new-model TV sets and monitors and is designed to operate TV set,
VCR and videodisc player.
STAR*TECH JOURNAL/NOVEMBER 1983
SDiR*
IECH
JOU
The Technical Monthly
• for the Amusements Industry
P.O. Box 1065
Merchantville, NJ 08109
609/662-3432
NOVEMBER 1983
VOLUME 5, NO. 9
Publisher/Editor
James Galore
Administrative Assistant
LT. DiRenzo
Art/ Advertising Coordinator
Paul Ehlinger
Circulation Promotion
Linda Geseking
Layout
Dale Meloni Graphics
Contributing
Technical Writers
Todd Erickson
Don Becker
Mark "Bear'' Attebery
Sam Cross
Duane Erby
STAR•TECH JOURNAL, November
1983, Vol. 5, No. 9. Copyright 1983
by Star*Tech Journal, Inc. All rights
reserved. Address inquiries to: P.O.
Box 1065, Merchantville, NJ 08109.
Phone: 609/662·3432. Subscrip-
tion rates: USA-$40.00. Canada-
$45.00. Other countries - $70.00.
Please remit payment in US funds.
POSTMASTER: Send address
changes
to
STAR•TECH
JOURNAL, P.O. Box 1065,
Merchantville,
NJ
08109.
STAR•TECH JOURNAL (ISSN
0739· 1048) is published monthly
by Star•Tech Journal, Inc., 18 North
Centre St., P.O. Box 1065,
Merchantville, NJ 08109. Second·
class postage paid at Camden, NJ
and additional mailing offices.
Advertising rates available upon
request. All manuscripts become
property of Star•Tech Journal. No
part of this Journal may be repro-
duced without permission. Contents
of the articles herein are verified as
much as possible. However, any
reader using this information does
so at his/her own risk. Star•Tech
Journal accepts no responsibility
for its advertisers' activities.
NEWS BITS/
* VIDEOGAMES
TO BECOME COMPUTER TERMINALS?
* NEW
COLOR DISPIA Y USES LIQUID CRYSTALS
* * ZILOG'S
32-BIT MICROPROCESSOR CHIP
THE "McDONAID'S OF INFORMATION"
* RANDOM-ACCESS CED
VIDEOGAMES TO BECOME COMPUTER TERMINALS?
A new service, Gameline, by Control Video Corp. of Vienna, VA, promises as
a start to allow any owner of an Atari 2600 video computer system ( and a few
other brands) to tap into a vast central computerized library of popular
videogames.
Eventually, says CVC, the game-system owner will be able to make use of a
variety of other features, such as sports reports, stock quotations, news,
electronic banking, and other services now available only to personal-computer
owners who subscribe to services like CompuServe or The Source.
In addition to giving access to an enormous variety of games, Gameline
gives the player a chance to preview new games just coming on the market, and
to sample games before purchase. Contests, from regional to worldwide, with
prizes ranging from T-shirts to four-year college scholarships, are also offered.
NEW COLOR DISPLAY USES LIQUID CRYSTALS
A display system that uses a monochrome cathode-ray tube and a liquid crystal
"color switch" to produce a high-resolution, field-sequential color display was
demonstrated recently by Tektronix at the Philadelphia meeting of the Society
for Information Display.
The success of the new system was due to the development of a new,
proprietary, fast liquid-crystal optical switch. Combined with the monochrome
CRT, it produces a high-resolution, field-sequential color display.
Because there are no shadow masks or penetration phosphors, the resolution
can be as high as that of any monochrome CRT. Other advantages are inherent
convergence (there is only one electron beam), excellent contrast in high
ambient light, and ruggedness. (The fragile shadow mask and complex color
gun are eliminated.)
The new technology is expected to find applications in instrument displays,
where its high resolution will make it useful. It will also be useful in small
process-control displays, where the color can be used for warnings or for
highlighting special situations.
ZILOG'S 32·BIT MICROPROCESSOR CHIP
Zilog has announced the Z80000, a 32-bit microprocessor chip that is
compatible with the 16-bit Z8000. Featuring a 256-byte on-chip cache,
instruction pipelining, and memory management, the Z80000 can run at 10 to
25 MHz. It should be available in late 1984 for $150 in 1000-unit lots.
THE "McDONALD'S OF INFORMATION"
Coin-operated computer terminals with attached printers are being marketed by
Data and Research Technology Corp. (Pittsburgh, PA) in an effort to become
the "McDonald's of information." Users with valid accounts can access local
nodes of such popular networks as CompuServe, The Source, and Dow Jones
for $1 for 3 minutes. The company hopes to have terminals in 50 cities by the
end of the year.
RANDOM-ACCESS CED
They said it couldn't be done - which gives RCA all the more satisfaction
with its introduction of a random-access CED videodisc player. The new
model, which was still unpriced at presstime, uses a wireless remote control to
let the user choose any "page" (single groove) or "band" (selection) of the
disc, or the choice may be made by dialing up the minute and second desired
These may be programmed to play in any sequence, repeat, etc. An added
feature of the new machine is on-screen prompting: Alpha numerical reminders
and queries appear on the screen - such as "please load disc," "audio track A
or B?'', "Band ___ to Band ___ ", and so forth. Special discs with
individual frames repeated three times (the CED disc has four frames per
groove) will be available for programs using stop-motion. The random-access
disc player may be programmed with its own remote-control unit or with a
Digital Command Center, a 51-button remote control that comes with many of
RCA's new-model TV sets and monitors and is designed to operate TV set,
VCR and videodisc player.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).