CURSOR - Programs for PET Computers was the name of an early computer-based "magazine" that was distributed on
cassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. Although originally designed for dictation, improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant reel-to-reel tape recording in most...
from 1978 and into the early 1980s. Each issue, consisting of the cassette itself and a short newsletter including a table of contents, contained
programComputer programs are instructions for a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute the instructions...
s,
utilitiesUtility software is computer software designed to help manage and tune the computer hardware, operating system or application software by performing a single task or a small range of tasks...
, and games. Produced for users of the
Commodore PETThe PET was a home/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in 1977. It was a top seller in the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, and was Commodore's first full-featured computer and would form the basis for their entire 8-bit platform.-Origins and the early models:In the 1970s,...
, and available by subscription only,
CURSOR was a forerunner of the later
disk magazineA disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, and also known by the portmanteau magazette , is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence their name...
s ("diskmags") that came about as
floppy diskA floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be confused with "fixed disk drive," which...
drives became common, and eventually ubiquitous, in
homeHome computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles...
and
personal computingA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
during the 1980s.
Ron Jeffries and Glen Fisher, of the software company The Code Works of
GoletaGoleta is a city located in southern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. It was incorporated as a new city in 2002, after a long time as being the largest unincorporated, populated area in the county...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, was
CURSORs publisher and editor, respectively.
Each issue came with five or six programs, preceded by a "cover page" program.
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CURSOR - Programs for PET Computers was the name of an early computer-based "magazine" that was distributed on
cassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. Although originally designed for dictation, improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant reel-to-reel tape recording in most...
from 1978 and into the early 1980s. Each issue, consisting of the cassette itself and a short newsletter including a table of contents, contained
programComputer programs are instructions for a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute the instructions...
s,
utilitiesUtility software is computer software designed to help manage and tune the computer hardware, operating system or application software by performing a single task or a small range of tasks...
, and games. Produced for users of the
Commodore PETThe PET was a home/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in 1977. It was a top seller in the Canadian, US, and UK educational markets, and was Commodore's first full-featured computer and would form the basis for their entire 8-bit platform.-Origins and the early models:In the 1970s,...
, and available by subscription only,
CURSOR was a forerunner of the later
disk magazineA disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, and also known by the portmanteau magazette , is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence their name...
s ("diskmags") that came about as
floppy diskA floppy disk is a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be confused with "fixed disk drive," which...
drives became common, and eventually ubiquitous, in
homeHome computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles...
and
personal computingA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
during the 1980s.
Ron Jeffries and Glen Fisher, of the software company The Code Works of
GoletaGoleta is a city located in southern Santa Barbara County, California, USA. It was incorporated as a new city in 2002, after a long time as being the largest unincorporated, populated area in the county...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, was
CURSORs publisher and editor, respectively.
Each issue came with five or six programs, preceded by a "cover page" program. Among programs circulated by CURSOR
included rudimentary animations, such as "
Dromeda"
, which was an adaptation of the film The Andromeda StrainThe Andromeda Strain is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. Directed by Robert Wise, the film starred Arthur Hill, James...
; games, such as an early Star TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series.The original Star Trek was an American television series, created by Gene Roddenberry, which debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons, following the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Federation...
-based campaign game, "Twonky"
(a version of Hunt the WumpusHunt the Wumpus is an early computer game, based on a simple hide and seek format featuring a mysterious monster that lurks deep inside a network of rooms. It was originally a text-based game written in BASIC...
), and "
Ratrun"
, an early dungeon crawlA dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters and looting any treasure they may find...
-style game (only with the player as a mouse searching for a piece of cheese in a 3D maze); and simple utility programs such as spreadsheetA spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper worksheet. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values...
s and code-tweakers. Initially, programs (specifically games and animations) distributed on Cursor
did not have sound, as the PET did not initially have this capability. As external audio devices such as Soundware
became available for PET models, sound-capable programs began to appear in Cursor
; these programs were identified by an exclamation point (!) in the title. For example: "Aliens!" or "Dromeda!".
CURSOR was discontinued in the early 1980s when the PET was superseded by other platforms. In total, 30 issues of the magazine were published.
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