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I have been searching for scans of the magazine "Interface Age." This magazine was published from about 1976 - 1985. Although I've been searching on and off for quite some time for scanned issues, it seems that this magazine is unavailable in pdf format. There are quite a few copies of this magazine on Ebay, with the prices ranging from about $15 $15 to $80 PER ISSUE.

 

Following are some links about the magazine:

 

1. The First Issue of "Interface Age" (Actually referred to as issue 9):

 

http://www.vintage-computer.com/interfaceage.shtml

 

2. "Interface Age" published software on "Floppy ROM." These were actually records:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FloppyRom_Magazine.jpg

 

3. "Interface Age" Magazine Covers from Various Years

 

http://www.nadbor.pwr.wroc.pl/yesterpc/Press/Interface%20Age/item.htm

 

I have no issues of this magazine, but I'm very interested in the early years (1976-1980). Is there any interest in getting scans of this magazine online like what is currently being done with Byte?

 

Adam

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I received via Interlibrary Loan, the 1979 book, "Best of Interface Age: Volume I, Software in BASIC." This isn't the magazine, but it does have some great content that is FROM the magazine. I've written a short review of the book, as well including the preface and the table of contents. First though, here is the cover of the book:

 

Best%20of%20Interface%20Age,%20Vol%20I,%20%27Software%20in%20BASIC%27_Cover.jpg

 

"Best of Interface Age: Volume I, Software in BASIC"

Edited by Carl. D. Warren

Copyright 1979

ISBN: 0-918398-36-3

 

What an unusually named book. With the subtitle "Software in BASIC," the reader would expect to find software written in the BASIC language. That ISN'T what is included at all. Instead, this 314 page book includes four BASIC interpreters. Each program is QUITE lengthy and is written in assembly language for three different 8-bit CPUs that were popular in the mid-to-late 1970's: Intel's 8080, Motorola's 6800, and National Semiconductor's SC/MP.

 

If you're looking for another book full of BASIC software, then look elsewhere. If you're interested in early 8-bit CPUs and would like to see how some of the computer pioneers used their often "assembly required" computers then this book is for you.

 

 

Preface

 

Several months ago, it became apparent that we should give serious thought to creating a "best of" series from the pages of Inter-face Age. The idea seemed like it would not present a major problem at first, until we looked at the mountain of material we had available. The quantity wasn't the only problem. The decision had to be made on what was best, so it could be included in the reprint series.

 

After careful consideration, with close attention being paid to readers' letters, the decision was made to create a "best of" series of "Interface Age" Classics. What this meant was that rather than to create a huge, difficult to use book of just about everything, we are printing the classic software pieces and the ones that many readers said they would like to see.

 

The four reprinted articles that you find in this volume are those classics. Furthermore, they represent several different programming techniques. At the same time, they provide the reader with some of the most useful software ever created.

 

Chapter four, "The Great Experiment," offers the one piece of software that has been requested more than any other: the complete source listing of Uiterwyk's 4K BASIC. It is an absolute classic. The source code was released into the public domain by Mr. Uiterwyk for this software volume, so students of software could achieve maximum benefit from its use. For this, we at "Interface Age" are extremely grateful.

 

My staff and I are quite convinced that everyone who makes use of this first volume will find it invaluable in making better use of their systems.

 

Volume 2 of this series is made up of additional general purpose software from some of the "Interface Age" authors you have enjoyed over the past few years. Volumes 3 and 4 are dedicated specifically toward the small businessman. These two volumes contain more business software than any book currently available today.

 

To round out this current "best of" series, Volume 5, "Best of Interface Age- Things to Think About," contains those articles for the futuristic thinker and gadgeteer. This volume contains reprints from Roger Garret's famous "Inventor's Sketchpad." Also included are short and useful software tips, along with some handy hardware articles.

 

Interface Age has always been known as the leader in the publication of important and useful software and ideas. We feel that the publication of this "best of" series will further enhance our leadership and provide you with hundreds of hours of enjoyment.

 

Carl Warren

Editor-In-Chief

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Chapter 1 - Lawrence Livermore 8080 BASIC

By Jerry Barber, Royce Eckard, John Dickenson, David Mead, and E. R. Fisher

Original publication date: December 1976, January, February, and March 1977

Chapter 2 - Dr. Wang's Palo Alto TINY BASIC

By Roger Rauskolb

Original publication date: December 1976

Chapter 3 - National's TINY BASIC-- NIBL

By Phil Roybal and Mark Alexander

Original publication date: December 1976, January 1977

Chapter 4 - The Great Experiment-- Floppy ROM # 1, Robert Uiterwyk's 6800 4K BASIC

By Bill Turner and William Blomgren

Original publication date: May, July 1977

Appendix A - General Software Index

A comprehensive index of general purpose software printed in "Interface Age" since January, 1977

Appendix B - Available Back Issues

A list of all the back issues that are still available, and how to obtain them.

 

Index

 

 

This information should give readers the general idea of contents that can be found in the "Interface Age" magazine.

 

Adam

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I have now finished scanning "Best of Interface Age: Volume I, Software in BASIC," edited by Carl D. Warren. Since I got this book originally for it's 6800 CPU version of BASIC, I have the book available online at my APF MP1000 and Imagination Machine Programming site, here:

 

Best of Interface Age: Volume I, Software in BASIC

 

The scan is a high-quality, 300dpi, B&W, 9MB pdf. I took special care to give this pdf excellent bookmarks for ease of use. You may notice that some of the scanned pages of some of the Assembly Listings are of poor quality. This is due to the original book having very light print and is NOT because of poor scanning techniques.

 

The Preface of Volume 1 (see above) references the "Best of" series as having five volumes. Yesterday I requested the second book in the series via InterLibrary Loan: "Best of Interface Age: Volume 2, General Purpose Software." This book should arrive in a few weeks. As for the other three books I can not find ANY mention of them ANYWHERE online. I suspect that they may never have been released. If you know otherwise, then please post about it.

 

Enjoy!

 

Adam

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Thank-you for the excellent review!

 

It does not appear that volumes 3 through 5 of this series were ever published.

 

Both Amuicus (a union-catalogue of major academic and some public libraries in Canada) and the Library of Congress only list the first two volumes of the series.

 

Here is the catalogue record for the second volume:

 

TITLE(S):*General purpose software / edited by Interface Age staff

Interface age

PUBLISHER: Portland, Or. : Dilithium Press, c1980.

DESCRIPTION: viii, 204 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

 

SERIES: Best of Interface age v. 2

NOTES: Includes index.

NUMBERS: LCCN: 80126172

ISBN: 0918398371

CLASSIFICATION: LC Call no.: QA76.6 .G44

Dewey: 001.64/25 19

Edited by jhd
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Appendix A of "Best of Interface Age, Volume I, Software in BASIC" is an index of the software available for about the first two years of "Interface Age." This should give readers an idea of just what is available in the early issues of the magazine. I've looked for a more complete index: one that covers later years and also the included articles. I have not had any luck finding one, so I took it upon myself to OCR the index available in the "best of" book and include it here. If you find anything that you like, then please feel free to mention it.

 

 

"Interface Age"

General Software Index (Dec. 1976 - Dec. 1978)

 

Compiled by Jim Schreier

From Appendix A, "Best of Interface Age, Volume I, Software in BASIC:

Copyright 1979

 

The software published in "Interface Age" between December 1976 and December 1978 is rich and varied. Historically, this time period marked the apex of "hobbyist" software and the dawning of "business" programs. Generally, the 1977 pages of "Interface Age" contained assembled programs for the SC/MP, 6800 and 8080. The 1978 edition published software for a wider variety of chips plus BASIC, FORTRAN and PILOT programs. This variety of subject matter will interest most microcomputer users as well as provide a permanent record of excellent software.

 

This compilation is divided into two sequential sections: Software by High Level Language and Software by CPU chips.

 

The High Level Languages are in alphabetical order by the name of the BASIC. Most users will want to see what programs were published for their specific microcomputer. The term "GENERAL BASIC" means the documentation failed to identify a specific BASIC dialect. Of course, there is no such thing as a "General BASIC," yet. It is possible to translate one BASIC to another given enough time.

 

Likewise, the assembled software is arranged by CPU chips in numeric order. Some of the most important published software programs appear in this section. Foremost is the publication in four parts of the Livermore BASIC Interpreter.

 

 

ALTAIR BASIC v 4.0 Building and Land Development Program

BASIC listing, November 1978 p 88

 

ALTAIR Extended BASIC v 3.2 Computer(ese) Speech Writer

BASIC listing, January 1978 p 150

 

ALTAIR Extended disk BASIC v 4.0 Number Base Conversion

Two BASIC listings for disk and non-disk applications, May 1977 p 116

 

ALTAIR 8K BASIC v 3.2 Star Lanes

Computer game requiring 7K bytes, June 1977 p 137

 

ALTAIR 8K BASIC v 3.2 Star Lanes

Fixes to the computer game, October 1977 p 8

 

APPLE BASIC APPLE Star-Trek

Small BASIC listing, May 1977 p 134

 

APPLE BASIC LOGAN

BASIC listing for logic circuit analysis, May 1977

 

APPLE II BASIC Automated Dress Pattern

Floppy ROM-2 BASIC and assembled listings, September 1978 p 78 and 80a

 

APPLE II BASIC TV Pattern Generator

BASIC listing, August 1978 p 160

 

BASIC-E Membership File Maintenance

Illustrating random disk files, February 1978 p 159

 

BURROUGHS B6700 BASIC Machine Menace

Artificial intelligence game, March 1977 p 22

 

CBASIC Personal Management Program

CBASIC compiler listing, August 1978 p 79

 

COMPUCOLOR BASIC European Roulette in Color

Game, BASIC listing August 1978 p 57

 

FORTRAN IV M6800 Cross Assembler

Two pass cross assembler with symbol table, October 1977 p 152

 

FORTRAN IV M6800 Cross Assembler

Erratum, December 1977 p 134

 

GENERAL BASIC Aquarium Maintenance

Calculates 11 items, December 1977 p 66

 

GENERAL BASIC ASCII Control Character Program

BASIC listing, February 1978 p 8

 

GENERAL BASIC Base Number Conversion

Converts base 2-8-10-16, November 1977 p 161

 

GENERAL BASIC Bilingual Math Tutoring

English and Spanish BASIC listings, September 1978 p 131

 

GENERAL BASIC Biorhythm

Plotting game. Two listings with one designed for BASICs without SIN

function, October 1977 p 142

 

GENERAL BASIC Biorhythm

Plotting game corrected listing, December 1977 p 144

 

GENERAL BASIC Circuit Analysis

BASIC listing, August 1978 p 118

 

GENERAL BASIC Financial Analysis Program

Calculates annuity-lump sum and bonds, March 1978 p 55

 

GENERAL BASIC Function Approximation with 2 Variables

BASIC listing, October 1978 p 77

 

GENERAL BASIC Harmonic Analysis of Point Sources

Noise analysis program, October 1977 p 54

 

GENERAL BASIC Job Costing with Random Numbers

Based on number of trials, December 1977 p 86

 

GENERAL BASIC Local Mean Time

Difference between GMT and T calculated, August 1977 p 32

 

GENERAL BASIC Local Sidereal Time and Date

Six various time/date calculations, August 1977 p 33

 

GENERAL BASIC Pico Fumi

Game, BASIC listing, December 1978 p 141

 

GENERAL BASIC Play Number

Child's game, BASIC listing, September 1978 p 129

 

GENERAL BASIC Pot Roast Cooking Time

A sample BASIC listing, December 1977 p 33

 

GENERAL BASIC Preprocessor for Structured Programming

BASIC listing, February 1978 p 85

 

GENERAL BASIC Stop TV Display Routine

BASIC listing, June 1978 p 155

 

GENERAL BASIC Urine Sugar and Insulin Curve Plot

BASIC listing, December 1978 p 73

 

HEWLETT PACKARD BASIC Viking Uplink/Downlink

Communications between earth and Mars on Viking I, August 1977 p 78

 

HONEYWELL 1108 Random Number Program for Security Combinations

Calculates 3 number series, December 1977 p 148

 

IMSAI BASIC Business Risk Simulation

BASIC listing, January 1978 p 91

 

IMSAI BASIC Business Risk Simulation

BASIC listing, January 1978 p 91

 

IMSAI 12K Extended BASIC v 4.0 Injun Poker

Game, 4K BASIC listing, December 1977 p 162

 

MICROSOFT BASIC Recovery of Crashed TARBELL Tapes

BASIC listing, April 1978 p 149

 

MITS 8K BASIC Azimuth by Celestial Observations

BASIC listing, August 1978 p 76

 

MITS 8K BASIC Checkers

BASIC listing with graphics, March 1977 p 136

 

MITS 8K BASIC v 3.1 Crazy Ball

Video game for Polymorphic VTI board, August 1977 p 171

 

MITS BASIC v 3.1 Base Number Conversion

Converts base 2-split octal-8-10-16, November 1977 p 163

 

MITS BASIC v 4.0 Bowling

A Bowling simulation for 4 players, July 1977 p 170

 

MITS BASIC v 4.0 General Payroll

Ten programs using random files, June 1977 p 108

 

MITS BASIC v 4.0 Household Finance System

Includes monthly and yearly reports, December 1977 p 46

 

MITS BASIC v 4.0 Tic-Tac-Toe

Program allows computer to lose once in a while, August 1977 p 170

 

MITS Disk BASIC v 4.0 Heart Attack Probability

BASIC listing, July 1978 p 58

 

MITS Disk BASIC Motel's General Ledger

(a) Floppy ROM at 1200 baud, September 1977 p 32A

(b) Fourteen listings, November 1977 p 57

 

MITS Disk Extended BASIC v 4.0 Solar Eclipse Prediction

12K BASIC listing, August 1977 p 43

 

MITS Disk Extended BASIC v 3.4 The Word Processor

Floppy ROM with source code, January 1978 p 32A and 75

 

MSI Disk BASIC Full Function Mailing List System

Floppy ROM at 300 baud and BASIC listings, May 1978 p 59 and 64a

 

NORTH STAR Disk BASIC 1040 Tax Calculation Program

Based on California Tax Tables, January 1978 p 158

 

NORTH STAR Disk BASIC Crazy Ball

Game, BASIC listing, January 1978 p 170

 

NORTHSTAR Disk BASIC Random Access Name and Address Retrieval

Two BASIC listings, August 1978 p 104

 

NORTH STAR Disk BASIC The Tax Man

Game BASIC listing, February 1978 p 140

 

PDP-10 BASIC BASIC Cross Assembler for the 8080

BASIC listing, February 1978 p 79

 

PDP-10 BASIC Data Base Management System

BASIC listing, August 1978 p 113

 

PDP-10 BASIC Hexapod

Robotic walking program, June 1977 p 50

 

PILOT Animal Guessing

CIA game, PILOT Listing, September 1978 p 66

 

PITTMAN'S 6800 TINY BASIC Shooting Starts

2K BASIC games listing, April 1977 p 110

 

PROCESSOR TECHNOLOGY 5K BASIC Microcomputer Stock Options

Designed for a stock market hedge, 4.2K BASIC listing, February 1977 p 37

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 1.0 Calculating the Position of Venus

Calculates degrees or hours from the sun, August 1977 p 55

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 1.0 Checkbook Balancing

BASIC listing, May 1977 p 126

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 1.0 Day of the Week

From 1752, BASIC listing, June 1977 p 128

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 1.0 Depreciation Schedule Analysis

BASIC listing of 4 types of depreciation, September 1977 p 148

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 2.0 How to Buy an Apartment Building

Six calculations supported, January 1978 p 99

 

SWTPC 4K BASIC v 2.0 Resistor Sorting

BASIC listing, April 1978 p 167

 

SWTPC 4K BASIC v 2.0 Sine-Cosine-Exponential-Logarithm-Square Root

Algorithms, February 1977 p 103

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 2.0 World Power

Game, BASIC listing, February 1978 p 171

 

SWTPC 8K BASIC v 2.0 Zip Code Sort and Print Program

BASIC listing, April 1978 p 91

 

TDL 8K BASIC Personal Accounts Payable

Tape based program, December 1977 p 59

 

2650 Interface Design

Five assembled listings, November 1977 p 87

 

6502 Robot control routines

Assembled initialization program, speed control, joystick

control, etc., April 1977 p 24

 

6502 Search Subroutine for the 6502 Disassembler

Assembled listing: See Interface Age September 1976 p 14

October 1977 p 146

 

6502 Sidereal/Solar Clock for KIM-1

Assembled listing, August 1977 p 37

 

6800 A Better Memory Test

Assembled listing with object code, July 1977 p 160

 

6800 A Faster TTY Paper Tape Load and Dump

Two assembled listings with object code, September 1977 p 162

 

6800 Bubble Sort Routine

Assembled listing with object code, September 1977 p 156

 

6800 Darkroom Prompter Program

Assembled listing, October 1978 p 84

 

6800 EXMON-- Extended Monitor System

Assembled listing with object code, April 1977 p 115

 

6800 GP Monitor

Assembled 4K RAM listing plus object code for 4-8-16 and 32K,

October 1978 p 133

 

6800 High Density Tape Load

Assembled source listing with object code, August 1977 p 167

 

6800 High Density Tape Punch

Assembled source listing with object code, August 1977 p 163

 

6800 IAPS International ASCII Publication Standard Conversion

Assembled listings for 3 versions, May 1978 p 73

 

6800 MIKBUG Do Nothing

Nonsense game, object code listing, December 1977 p 111

 

6800 PIA Test

Assembled listing without comments with object code, July 1977 p 162

 

6800 Program Data or Address Locator

Assembled listing with object code dump, December 1978 p 137

 

6800 Prototype Board Monitor Program with PROM Burner

Assembled listings, February 1977 p 115

 

6800 Re-entrant Self-Relative Subroutine ROM

Assembled listing, March 1977 p 129

 

6800 Relocator

Assembled listing, March 1978 p 166

 

6800 Software Aid for Firmware Production

Two assembled listings, March 1978 p 157

 

6800 Stars

Game, assembled listing with object code, October 1977 p 161

 

6800 Text Editor

Assembled listing, December 1976 p 89

 

6800 Uiterwyk's 4K BASIC Interpreter

Floppy ROM at 300 baud disk-object code listing with assembled

Binary Loader, May 1977 p 33

 

6800 Uiterwyk's 4K BASIC Interpreter: 3 routines

Assembled MIKBUG jumps: ACIA Break Routine, BILOAD Command, July 1977 p36

 

8080 2707 EPROM Programming Software

Assembled listing, December 1978 p 104

 

8080 A tabcounter for your Edit Buffer

Assembled listing, August 1978 p 151

 

8080 An 8080 Binary Tape Monitor

Assembled listing, February 1978 p 153

 

8080 An Intel Hex-Format Paper Tape Monitor

Assembled listing, March 1978 p 162

 

8080 Blockade

VDM-1 video game, assembled listing with object code, November 1977 p 167

 

8080 Cassette Operating System

Assembled subroutine listings, April 1977 p 129

 

8080 Convert Motorola 6800 Hex Format to Intel Format

Assembled listing with object code, May 1977 p 109

 

8080 Conway's Game of Life

Assembled listing for Processor Technology's video display

board, May 1977 p 138

 

8080 Copy/Sort/Search Data Manipulation

Assembled listing, September 1978 p 136

 

8080 Cromemco Dazzler Graphics Interface Driver

Assembled listing, January 1978 p 153

 

8080 Diablo Printer Drive Routine

Assembled listing, July 1977 p 25

 

8080 Dr. Wang's Tiny BASIC

Assembled listing, December 1976 p 89

 

8080 Generalized String Sorting Routine

BASIC and six assembled listings, November 1978 p 131

 

8080 I/O driver for PERSCI 1070 Intelligent Disk Controller

Assembled listing, September 1977 p 153

 

8080 IAPS International ASCII Publication Standard Conversion

Assembled listing, May 1978 p 79

 

8080 IAPS International ASCII Publication Standard Conversion

Assembled Load, Create, Verify, Dump listings, June 1978 p 148

 

8080 Intel Hex Format Paper-Tape Punch Program

Assembled listing with object code, July 1977 p 155

 

8080 Intelligent Terminal Program

Assembled listing with object code, September 1977 p 75

 

8080 Interval Timer Design

Five assembled routines, January 1978 p 127

 

8080 Interrupt driven floppy disk controller for the S-100 bus

Assembled listing, May 1978 p 152

 

8080 Livermore BASIC Interpreter Part I

BASIC and assembled plot functions, December 1976 p 115

 

8080 Livermore BASIC Interpreter Part II

Assembled listing, January 1977 p 97

 

8080 Livermore BASIC Interpreter Part III

Assembled floating point math package listing, February 1977 p 104

 

8080 Livermore BASIC Interpreter Part IV

Assembled octal debugging listing, March 1977 p 121

 

8080 Look

Byte look-up program, assembled listing, May 1978 p 167

 

8080 Memory Catalog Program

Assembled listing, May 1978 p 170

 

8080 Memory Object Code Search Routine

Assembled routine, February 1977 p 121

 

8080 Monitor Initialization and Printer Control

Two assembled Daisywheel listings, October 1978 p 111

 

8080 Morse Code Generator

Assembled listing, October 1978 p 89

 

8080 Octal Monitor Program

Assembled listing, February 1977 p 13

 

8080 Piranha

Game, Assembled listing with object code, December 1977 p 166

 

8080 Polymorphic Ideaboard Software

Two assembled routines, May 1977 p 98

 

8080 Punch and Read Intel Formatted Tape

Assembled listing, December 1977 p 152

 

8080 Random Number Generator Program

Assembled listing with a BASIC Chi-square subroutine, February 1977 p 100

 

8080 Robot's Random Programming Approach

Assembled listing, April 1978 p 158

 

8080 Text Editor for XEK and PTCo Assemblers

Assembled listing, October 1978 p 140

 

8080 Video Chase

Game, assembled listing with object code, October 1977 p 167

 

8080A Resident Operating System

1K SOL assembled listing, January 1977 p 90

 

9900 Interactive Monitor

Assembled listing, July 1978 p 163

 

MOLYPROCESSOR Molyprocessor Music

Assembled listing, November 1977 p 153

 

SC/MP CRT Interface Firmware

Assembled listing, January 1978 p 120

 

SC/MP Lock Combinations Program

Assembled listing, July 1977 p 44

 

SC/MP NIBL-- Extended Tiny BASIC

Assembled listing, January 1977 p 113

 

SC/MP Seiko Printer Interface and Program

Assembled listing, May 1977 p 124

 

SC/MP Word G

A word game, assembled listing, December 1977 p 136

 

Z-80 BYTEMOVER for Cromemco's BYTESAVER

Assembler listing, January 1977 p 70

 

Z-80 Date and Time for CP/M DOS

Assembled listing, August 1978 p 154

 

Z-80 Disk I/O Keyboard Handler

Assembled listing, September 1977 p 167

 

Z-80 Letter Writing Program

Assembled listing, September 1978 p 94

 

Z-80 Patches to the MITS 12K Extended BASIC

Assembled routines, March 1977 p 138

 

Z-80 Spaceship Simulator

Assembled service routine, March 1978 p 74

 

Z-80 TTY handler for the Z-80 Development System

Serial and test assembled listings, May 1977 p 112

 

Z-80 User I/O for LIFEBOAT CP/M DOS

Assembled listing, December 1978 p 133

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Hey there.. Interface age.. I think I have some of those (the covers seem familiar) I did a quick peek (home for lunch) and all that I found in my collection were some of pre-cursor magazines from before the split (interface was split into two magazines - Interface Age and SCCS Interface) - I have Issue 7 from when it was still called "interface" from June of 1976.. I also have issues of 9, 10, 11, 12 of SCCS Interface, and 13 of MicroComputer Interface (for issue 13 they changed the name to MicroComputer Interface).

 

They tend to be pretty pricey on eBay!

 

 

I read your PM.. I'll PM you back tonight :)

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[interface Age tends] to be pretty pricey on eBay!

 

I read your PM.. I'll PM you back tonight :)

 

I'm still hoping to hear back via PM-- or we can just discuss it all here. That would be fine with me.

 

You are correct, "Interface Age" magazines are not cheap on Ebay. I'm sure that there must be an alternate source for them. Maybe some people that would like to see this project started can pool finds together? Maybe someone has many of these magazines stashed away and would part with them cheaply if they know that the magazines are going to be scanned and made available. There are many avenues to explore.

 

I'm still hoping to hear about the best scanning practices. I'm most particularly interested in:

 

1) How the Byte magazines have been obtained without breaking the bank?

 

2) Are the Byte magazines taken apart to scan them?

 

3) Is a flatbed or a sheet-feed scanner used? (I have both types of scanners.)

 

What are the "secret" tips for obtaining and scanning the magazines?

 

Adam

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I now have two issues of "Internet Age" that will be coming at a reasonable cost:

 

1) November 1977 ($5.50 including shipping)

2) February 1980 (Free, plus cost of shipping)

 

So, I'll go from owning NO magazines to owning two of them. Not bad.

 

Today I also received another "best of book" via InterLibrary loan.

 

1) "Best of Interface Age, Volume 2, General Purpose Software"

 

As "jhd" and I already mentioned, even though there are SUPPOSED to be five volumes in this "best of" series, we can only find the first two. If anyone is able to give me an ISBN or OCLC number for the last three volumes, then I'll request the last three books too.

 

I'll be scanning the book soon and then the magazines as they arrive.

 

I want to make sure that I get good scans of the magazines, so I'm still listening for scanning advice. Mostly I'm concerned about keeping the size of the pdf down while making quality pdf files. I was thinking about 200-DPI RGB Color TIFFs and then converting them to pdf with Acrobat. This will mean the file size for each magazine will be quite large, but readable and manageable. I THINK I'll have to "sacrifice" the magazine (by removing the binding). Is that right?

 

Also, I asked at the library today about InterLibrary Loans of magazines. I was told that most people don't usually ask for the WHOLE magazine and are only concerned about one article. In this case, the library will scan or photocopy the article for you (some sort of fee is charged). I don't want that. I know that some libraries WILL loan out the magazines on microfiche or microfilm, but that really doesn't help me. Even if I were to get it, I am not allowed to take the microfiche home (not that I have a way to view it- though I read online that scanning on a flatbed scanner at 6400DPI will actually work).

 

Well, that's the updates for now. I'm getting some magazines in the mail that I should be able to use for trade bait if anyone has some thoughts for trading any "Interface Age" magazines in their collection.

 

Adam

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If you are able to get issues of Interface Age on microfilm or fiche (good luck with that; most of what is available in microfilm format is rather more mainstream!), your only real option would be to photocopy each page and then scan it.

 

This would cost a modest fortune ($.10/copy, if not more) , take hours of your time, and it would look like crap beacuse it would be a third-generation copy.

 

Hardware to scan directly off of microfilm exists, but it is somewhat rare. I have been a professional librarian for 10+ years and I have only seen one large, academic library with this equipment. Even then, the quality will be worse than scanning from the originals -- especially with any photographs or coloured text.

 

Most libraries bind their magazines, so even if you could get access to paper copies, scanning them would be very difficult.

 

If you have a decent camera, photographing each page, while tedious, would probably provide the best quality reproduction.

 

A handful of Canadian libraries hold partial runs of this magazine. I can provide the details if you wish, which you could then forward along to your favourite local librarian. The magazine appears to have been published between December 1975 and October 1984. The earlier issues (vols. 1 and 2) are extremely scarce.

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If you are able to get issues of Interface Age on microfilm or fiche (good luck with that; most of what is available in microfilm format is rather more mainstream!), your only real option would be to photocopy each page and then scan it.

 

According to WorldCat, all of the issues of "Interface Age" are available via Microfiche via InterLibrary Loans. I can request them at ONE library location here in town (the location with a microfiche reader-- so this makes sense).

 

Hardware to scan directly off of microfilm exists, but it is rare.

 

The University of New Mexico (UNM) libraries (which are about ten miles from my house) each have such a reader/scanner. Hardly anyone uses microfiche/microfilm anymore and for this reason the devices are not well maintained. I've tried them out and I've NEVER been able to get a scan of a full page that is in-focus (even with the help of librarians). The best I can do is get about 1/3 of a page in focus. My local library system has ONE of these devices, but I've never been to the library that has it.

 

Most libraries bind their magazines, so even if you could get access to paper copies, scanning them would be very difficult.

 

Yes, I've learned this the hard way. The UNM library has quite a few copies of this magazine-- all are bound. I've browsed through them in January, which is what got me on this kick. Supposedly (according to WorldCat.org) UNM has these issues available:

 

v.3:1-3,6(1978),v.4:4,8,10-11(1979),v.5:2-3,5-7,10,12(1980),v.7(1982)-v.9(1984)

 

They also supposedly have all of 1984 issues on Microfilm.

 

I'm not sure if that's all accurate. I think I checked for the microfilm and it was lost. I certainly DID check for various other classic computer magazines that were lost. UNM has TONS of file cabinets full of microfiche and microfilm, but the area is used so infrequently that that librarian that helped me look for the microfiche had NEVER looked for such periodicals before.

 

I've tried scanning the bound copies, but the scans are SO tight that I lose about one inch of the inside column... so it's not usable.

 

If you have a decent camera, photographing each page, while tedious, would probably provide the best quality reproduction.

 

I've tried this, but with quite poor results. My new digital camera (Panasonic DMC-ZS6) is 12.1 megapixel, but I've found that isn't sufficient for my needs. The problem is two-fold:

 

1) I can't get right up close to the page a keep the page in focus

 

2) When I "back away" enough so that the page is in-focus, then the page only fills part of the frame.

 

There probably IS a way to take care of this, but it's beyond me. I've looked at the camera scanners, but they are very expensive (thousands of dollars for a low-end model).

 

A handful of Canadian libraries hold partial runs of this magazine. I can provide the details if you wish, which you could then forward along to your favourite local librarian.

 

Unfortunately, that won't work. InterLibrary Loans, at least in my city, are only allowed between libraries in the United States. Which is too bad, as I've come across some REALLY neat and rare computer books in Japan and Germany. Still, I've used InterLibrary loans many, many times before and I've been able to get some quite rare books.

 

Adam

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I have received both "Interface Age" magazines that I mentioned I would be getting. I am including a 150dpi color jpg of the cover of each issue, as well as a 150dpi grayscale jpg of the table of contents of each issue:

 

Here is the cover of the November 1977 issue of Interface Age:

 

Interface%20Age%20%28November%201977%29_Cover.jpg

 

Here is the table of contents for the November 1977 issue of Interface Age:

 

Interface%20Age%20%28November%201977%29_TOC.jpg

 

Here is the cover of the February 1980 issue of Interface Age:

 

Interface%20Age%20%28February%201980%29_Cover.jpg

 

Here is the table of contents for the February 1980 issue of Interface Age:

 

Interface%20Age%20%28February%201980%29_TOC.jpg

 

I still need help figuring out the best method to scan these issues. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Enjoy these tid-bits of what is to come.

 

Adam

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Here is my method for scanning:

 

Step 1: Slice off the magazine binding.. I do this with a 17 inch guillotine slicer. They can be had on eBay for under 200 dollars. Replacement blades cost around 40 dollars but you will not go through many.

 

Step 2: Use a double sided auto-feed scanner to scan the pages. I user the ScanSnap S510. I scan at 300DPI (aka setting "best" which ironically is not...). Never scan anything in black and white.. even if it is black and white. Save to TIFF if you can. some only to to PDF which works OK.

 

Step 3: If you saved as TIFF use save the PDF as TIFF files into a separate directory.

 

Step 4: divide the TIFF file into two directories: One directory for pages with color, one directory with pages without color.

 

Step 5: Process the files to remove the scan-through. I use a macro in Photo Shop to go through each directory. Basically I alter the balance curves to remove some of the background.. ON the pages without color I convert them to gray-scale. For some pages this works wonders for other it is only marginally better.. It does shrink the file size a minimum of 25%

 

Step 6: Assemble the TIFF files back into a PDF and OCR them. I use 600 DPI searchable image using acrobat pro.. This will make a mess out of 1 of every 250 pages or so (miss-read the text and to a strange rotation on the page) but on the rest of the pages it does a decent job of making them straight. That is why in my PDFs on the dark page there is always a small corner of white - when the page is rotated it fills in the gaps with white. On the pages that are rotated like crazy you just replace it with the TIFF file and do an OCR scan and use the "exact image" option.

 

Step 7: Add in bookmarks...

 

You are done.. Yeah!

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I do this with a 17 inch guillotine slicer. They can be had on eBay for under 200 dollars.

 

I did a search for this type of slicer. Oddly, most of the hits are for a device that cuts bagels. Well, I'm not looking for that. The cheapest that I could find one for at the moment is about $500. I'll have to pass on this until something cheaper comes along. The neat thing that I definitely DO like about this is that I often scan books. I have the binding cut off of these and it costs about $3-$5 (depending on where I get it done). I'll never have to pay for that again.

 

Is your slicer electric? I notice that less expensive slicers that are done by hand can be had for less money.

 

Use a double sided auto-feed scanner to scan the pages. I user the ScanSnap S510. I scan at 300DPI (aka setting "best" which ironically is not...).

 

I have a Canon DR-2010C sheet scanner which works well. Sometimes it grabs more than one pages at a time, so I have to sit there and sort of babysit it. I've only used it to scan books, so I'm not sure how fast it will scan in color. I'll have to experiment with that. I ALWAYS scan at 300dpi. Sometimes, if I'm scanning film negatives I'll scan at 600dpi or higher if I'm going to crop an image (but that's another subject, really). The other trouble that I get with my sheet scanner is that the page will sometimes be crooked and I have to rescan a page or several pages.

 

Never scan anything in black and white.. even if it is black and white.

 

Why not? I ALWAYS scan B&W material in B&W for my BallyAlley.com website. I'm not talking about grayscale pages with pictures, which I DO scan in grayscale. If a page is only text, then WHY NOT scan in B&W? You get a cleaner image and if you decide to print a page, then the printout is FAR, FAR superior than a grayscale printout.

 

Save to TIFF if you can. some only to to PDF which works OK.

 

I always save to TIFF with LZH compression. That works great. The files are large but there really isn't a way to avoid that if you want to keep the quality close to the original.

 

Process the files to remove the scan-through. I use a macro in Photo Shop to go through each directory.

 

I've always had problems with scan-through. I never thought about post-processing the files. This will require some experimentation on my part. I have Photoshop CS (the original one... I think it it really Photoshop 8 ).

 

Assemble the TIFF files back into a PDF and OCR them. I use 600 DPI searchable image using acrobat pro.

 

I hadn't thought about OCRing the magazine. My experience with OCR is limited to a few articles here and there. I've never used my version of Acrobat 7 Pro for that, I've always used a separate application called Omnipage Pro 14. I imagine that this would take a VERY long time to do, right? Also, how to you proofread something like this?

 

Add in bookmarks...

 

Yes, I've really learned to love bookmarks. I never used to bookmark my scans, but now I always try to do it. I'm actually going to go back and bookmark some scans that I did years and years ago. For scans in frequent use, bookmarks are an amazing timesaver.

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

Adam

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I added "Best of Interface Age, Volume 2: General Purpose Software," Edited By Interface Age Staff. This book is copyright 1980. Its ISBN is 0-918398-37-1.

 

Here is a picture of the cover of the book:

 

Best%20of%20Interface%20Age,%20Vol%202%20%28Interface%20Age%20Staff%29%281980%29.jpg

 

Here is some information about the book:

 

 

Preface

 

Volume Number 2 of the five volume "Best of Interface Age" series is significant since it presents thirteen of the most-asked-for system and application software articles printed in "Interface Age."

 

The articles that are contained within this volume were chosen not only for their value as working software systems, but also for their value in showing a number of different programming techniques. We at "Interface Age" firmly believe that serious students of software, and those that just enjoy making use of software will find this book invaluable.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Section 1: Useful Ideas

 

- Chapter 1: Inside ASCII, By R.W. Bemer, (May, June, and July 1978)

 

- Chapter 2: BASIC Cross Assembler for the 8080, By Peter Reece, (February 1978)

 

- Chapter 3: TLABEL: An 8080 Program to Punch Human-Readable Labels on Paper Tape, By Alan R. Miller, (January 1979)

 

- Chapter 4: TAPEMON: An 8080 Binary Tape Monitor, By Alan R. Miller, (February 1978)

 

- Chapter 5: Complete Data Base Management System, By Peter Reece, (August 1978)

 

- Chapter 6: The Computation of Direction, By Gene Szymanski, (August 1978)

 

- Chapter 7: Random Files Illustrated, By Frank E. La Plante, Jr., (February 1978)

 

 

Section 2: Some Medical Software

 

- Chapter 8: It's Not a Big Miracle, By Mathew Tekulsky, (December 1978)

 

- Chapter 9: Heart Attack: How You Can Predict It and Some Things You Can Do About It, By Leo P. Biese, MD., F.C.A.P., (July 1978)

 

Section 3: Games, Education and Personal Finance

 

- Chapter 10: Shooting Stars, By H. DeMonstoy, (April 1977)

 

- Chapter 11: European Roulette in Color, By W.C. Hoffer, (August 1978)

 

- Chapter 12: Child's Play Number Game for Beginning Micro-Bugs, By Karen S. Wolfe, (September 1978)

 

- Chapter 13: On A Bi-Lingual Math Tutoring Program, By Marvin Mallon, (September 1978)

 

- Chapter 14: The Personal Management Program, By Carl Townsend, (August 1978)

 

Appendices

 

- Appendix A: 8080 Instruction Set

 

- Appendix B: Available Back Issues

 

Index

 

 

After going through this book, I can think of two reasons why volumes 3-5 were probably not published:

 

1) By 1980 there were commercial programs available for many of the programs that were far superior to the programs published in this book.

 

2) Some of the program listings are downright difficult to read (especially "European Roulette in Color). Some of these listings would have really tired my eyes just trying to read them and type them in. I'm pretty sure that there are places where you might have to really study the program to figure-out what is printed. I've discovered that this isn't too different from the "Interface Age" magazine listings, some of which are SO tiny (to fit more print on the page) that I'm not sure how well scans will work out.

 

I don't find everything in this book interesting, but there is enough enough information for people with tastes for computer history to really dig their teeth into it. There is only one game published in this volume, and it is for the rather rare CompuColor (brief article and pics of the CompuColor I). There is an in-depth article about all the variations of ASCII that really opened my eyes-- I can't believe that ASCII was ever considered a standard at all. Overall, if you've interested in the beginnings of the microcomputer era (1977-1978), then this book will prove to be a fun browse for you.

 

Enjoy!

 

Adam

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Why not? I ALWAYS scan B&W material in B&W for my BallyAlley.com website. I'm not talking about grayscale pages with pictures, which I DO scan in grayscale. If a page is only text, then WHY NOT scan in B&W? You get a cleaner image and if you decide to print a page, then the printout is FAR, FAR superior than a grayscale printout.

 

 

Hey there. sorry for not replying earlier.. Most everything that does not have color is Greysale, not B/W... A few times I have accidently scanned or converted to B/W looks terible in comparison... The greys are repaled but spacing black dots farther away based on the tint of grey.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yesterday I received fourteen different issues of "Interface Age" and three issues of "SCCS Interface" (the eight issue pre-cursor to "Interface Age"). These magazines were sent to me for the cost of shipping by a friendly man named Fred in New Orleans.

 

Although Fred owned all of these magazines, some of these issues are doubles (or even triples). I have marked the duplicate issues in the list below.

 

Here is what I now have:

 

 

"SCCS Interface" Issues (Magazine name before "Interface Age"):

 

Vol. 1, Issue 5, April 1976

Vol. 1, Issue 6, May 1976

Vol. 1, Issue 7, June 1976

 

 

"Interface Age" Issues:

 

Vol. 1, Issue 9, August 1976

Vol. 1, Issue 10, September 1976

Vol. 1, Issue 12, November 1976

 

Vol. 2, Issue 5, April 1977

Vol. 2, Issue 6, May 1977 (2 Copies)

Vol. 2, Issue 7, June 1977

Vol. 2, Issue 8, July 1977 (2 Copies)

Vol. 2, Issue 9, August 1977

Vol. 2, Issue 10, September 1977 (2 Copies)

Vol. 2, Issue 11, October 1977 (3 Copies)

Vol. 2, Issue 12, November 1977 (2 Copies)

Vol. 2, Issue 13, December 1977 (3 Copies)

 

Vol. 3, Issue 1, January 1978

Vol. 3, Issue 2, February 1978

 

 

I already owned these two issues (one is now a duplicate):

 

Vol. 2, Issue 12, Nov. 1977 (Duplicate)

Vol. 5, Issue 2, Feb. 1980

 

 

This means that I now have fifteen different issues of "Interface Age" and three issues of "SCCS Interface." I want to start scanning soon, but I still need to get myself a guillotine slicer to remove the binding. Also, ABBYY Fine Reader has come VERY highly recommended as the choice for scanning and OCR. My book scanner came with a limited version of this program, but I have not tried it yet. Soon, it will be time to experiment and get this project going.

 

Adam

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Someone asked me privately if I had an article from a 1978 issue about a device called the Writehander. I do have the article. Here is the MLA citation for it:

 

Owen, Sid. "Qwerty is Obsolete." Interface Age, 3.1 (January 1978): 56-59. Print.

 

I scanned the article and have included it here. The pdf is the four page article (with cover of magazine) with high compression. The file is about 5MB. I wanted to use no compression, but then the file was 50MB-- far too big for most purposes (especially for posting it here). I also included the schematic in lossless TIFF format-- this way it's as readable as I can make it available.

 

Here's the pdf document:

 

Owen, Sid 'Qwerty is Obsolute' Interace Age (January 1978)Writehander.pdf

 

Here is the TIFF document:

 

Writehander Schematic.zip

 

Hopefully some folks will find this article useful.

 

Here is an update about the scanning of the Interface Age issues. None have been scanned yet-- and I doubt that I'll scan them.

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  • 9 years later...

I am honored that someone referred to "Roger Garret's famous "Inventor's Sketchpad." Because, well, I am that Roger Garrett. Yep still around all these years later and still inventing. I'm the founder and president of the Hawaii Inventor's Association. I'm currently working on a novel design for a 3D Printer that should be able to make printing just about anything up to 25% quicker.

I'd love to hear from anyone who might remember my old articles in Interface Age.

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  • 5 months later...

I noted that the original topic was from 2011, so this may not be a timely reply. I bought three magazines regularly in the early 1980's - Byte, Creative Computing, and Interface Age. The first two seem to be well archived, but as you noted, not so with Interface Age. I'd be interested in joining (or supporting) a project to get every issue of Interface age online and accessible. Let me know if there's still interest!

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  • 2 months later...
On 4/19/2024 at 5:12 PM, Don S said:

I noted that the original topic was from 2011, so this may not be a timely reply. I bought three magazines regularly in the early 1980's - Byte, Creative Computing, and Interface Age. The first two seem to be well archived, but as you noted, not so with Interface Age. I'd be interested in joining (or supporting) a project to get every issue of Interface age online and accessible. Let me know if there's still interest!

 

@Don S Definitely still of interest! There are some issues available on the Internet Archive, but unfortunately it seems to have large gaps. (It's hard to say exactly how much since the metadata doesn't include the Published Date for many issues.)

 

@Roger Garrett Neat! It's fun to look back at futuristic proposals from forty years ago and see what became of the inventions. For example, in the October 1978 issue you mentioned moving blinking LEDs to create a "3-D TV".  

A picture of Roger Garrett's column from Interface Age Magazine

 

As you can see from this recent video from a maker, the idea of volumetric displays that hobbyists can experiment with is becoming reality:

 

 

P.S. Hard to say what constitutes a "timely reply" when the topic is computer archaeology! ☺ I like to think we're all writing for "the long-tail".

Edited by hackerb9
typo
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