 Issue 18 (March/April 1983) | |
| Editor | Bruce Beach |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Bruce Beach |
| First issue | November 1980 |
| Final issue | August 1984 |
| Country | Canada |
| Based in | Toronto |
| ISSN | 0821-1809 |
The TORPET was a Toronto-based computer magazine directed at users of Commodore's 8-bit home computers.
Though named for and associated with the Toronto PET Users Group (TPUG), [1] the magazine was published independently of the club as a commercial enterprise with paid writers. [2] [3] Twenty-eight issues were produced for TPUG from November 1980 to August 1984. [4]
In 1984 TORPET's owner and editor, Bruce Beach, dissociated the publication from TPUG and relaunched it as an oceanography journal, backronymming its name to Today's Oceanographic Research Program for Education & Training. [2] TPUG launched its own computing journal, TPUG Magazine , in February 1984. [5]
A 320-page anthology of The TORPET's most popular articles, The Best of The TORPET Plus More for the Commodore 64 and the VIC-20, was published in 1984 by Copp Clark Pitman. It featured type-in listings for over a thousand freeware programs, articles and cartoon strips teaching BASIC and machine language programming, memory maps, and user documentation for popular public domain software. [6]
The Commodore 1541 is a floppy disk drive which was made by Commodore International for the Commodore 64 (C64), Commodore's most popular home computer. The best-known floppy disk drive for the C64, the 1541 is a single-sided 170-kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks. The 1541 directly followed the Commodore 1540.
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes(65,536 bytes) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.
Commodore International was an American home computer and electronics manufacturer founded by Jack Tramiel. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Machines (CBM), was a significant participant in the development of the home personal computer industry in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The company developed and marketed the world's best-selling computer, the Commodore 64 (1982), and released its Amiga computer line in July 1985. With quarterly sales ending 1983 of $49 million, Commodore was one of the world's largest personal computer manufacturers.
The VIC-20 is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PET. The VIC-20 was the first computer of any description to sell one million units. It was described as "one of the first anti-spectatorial, non-esoteric computers by design...no longer relegated to hobbyist/enthusiasts or those with money, the computer Commodore developed was the computer of the future."
The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, and, in early models, a cassette deck.
Commodore User, known to the readers as the abbreviated CU, was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating Vic Computing in 1983 by publishers EMAP, the magazine's focus moved to the emerging Commodore 64, before introducing Amiga coverage in 1986, paving the way for Amiga's dominance and a title change to CU Amiga in 1990. Covering the 16-bit computer, the magazine continued for another eight years until the last issue was published in October 1998 when EMAP opted to close the magazine due to falling sales and a change in focus for EMAP. The magazine also reviewed arcade games.
The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was mostly sold in Europe.
The Commodore Plus/4 is a home computer released by Commodore International in 1984. The "Plus/4" name refers to the four-application ROM resident office suite ; it was billed as "the productivity computer with software built-in."
The Commodore 1530 (C2N) Datasette, later also Datassette, is Commodore's dedicated magnetic tape data storage device. Using compact cassettes as the storage medium, it provides inexpensive storage to Commodore's 8-bit home/personal computers, notably the PET, VIC-20, and C64. A physically similar model, Commodore 1531, was made for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 series computers.
Compute!, often stylized as COMPUTE!, was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's PET Gazette, one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET computer. In its 1980s heyday Compute! covered all major platforms, and several single-platform spinoffs of the magazine were launched. The most successful of these was Compute!'s Gazette, which catered to VIC-20 and Commodore 64 computer users.
Compute!'s Gazette, stylized as COMPUTE!'s Gazette was a computer magazine of the 1980s, directed at users of Commodore's 8-bit home computers. Announced as The Commodore Gazette, the Gazette was a Commodore-only daughter magazine of the computer hobbyist magazine Compute!. It was first published in July 1983.
SpeedScript is a word processor originally printed as a type-in MLX machine language listing in 1984-85 issues of Compute! and Compute!'s Gazette magazines. Approximately 5 KB in length, it provided many of the same features as commercial word processing packages of the 8-bit era, such as PaperClip and Bank Street Writer. Versions were published for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and 128, Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, and MS-DOS.
The Toronto PET Users Group is one of the world's oldest extant computer user groups, and was among the very largest. The non-profit group is based in Toronto but has an international membership. It supports nearly all Commodore computers, including the PET, VIC-20, C64, C128, Plus/4, C16, C65, and Amiga, including the COMAL, CP/M and GEOS environments. TPUG is noted for its ties with Commodore Canada, its extensive and widely distributed software library, and its association with prominent computing pioneers such as Jim Butterfield, Brad Templeton, Karl Hildon, and Steve Punter.
Frank James "Jim" Butterfield, was a Toronto-based computer programmer, author, and television personality known for his work with early microcomputers. He is particularly noted for associations with Commodore Business Machines and the Toronto PET Users Group, for many books and articles on machine language programming, and for educational videos and TV programs.
The Automatic Proofreader is a series of checksum utilities published by COMPUTE! Publications for its COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette magazines, and various books. These programs are designed to allow home computer users to easily detect errors on BASIC type-in programs, and work by displaying a hash value for each line entered that can be compared against the reference value printed in the magazine. Initially published for use with the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 in 1983, the Proofreader was later made available for the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II family, and IBM PC/PCjr as well.
.info was a computer magazine covering Commodore 8-bit computers and later the Amiga. It was published from 1983 to 1992.
Michael S. Tomczyk is best known for his role in guiding the development and launch of the first microcomputer to sell one million units, as Product Manager of the Commodore VIC-20. His contributions are described in detail in his 1984 book, THE HOME COMPUTER WARS: An Insider's True Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel. His role is also documented extensively in numerous interviews and articles. The VIC-20 was the first affordable, full-featured color computer and the first home computer to be sold in KMart and other mass market outlets. Michael joined Commodore in April 1980 as Assistant to the President. He has been called the "marketing father" of the home computer. Michael was also a pioneer in telecomputing, as co-designer of the Commodore VICModem, which he conceived and contracted while at Commodore. The VICModem was the first modem priced under $100 and the first modem to sell one million units.
PetSynth is an open-source music software for the Commodore PET computer, created in 2007 by Chiron Bramberger. It is noteworthy for being the only keyboard playable synthesizer for the Commodore PET that supports MIDI, stereo sound, and is released under a GPL license. It has been featured in print and web publications such as Return Magazin, TPUG Magazine, Commodore Free Magazine, Retrothing, and MatrixSynth.
The Transactor was a computer magazine directed at users of Commodore home computers.
World of Commodore is an annual computer expo dedicated to Commodore computers.