features
Video game business
revives ‘Rug City’
>b JohnstM
United Press International
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — In
a year when many companies
closed plants and laid off
workers, Coleco Industries
doubled its workforce, tripled
its sales, and realized a drama
tic increase in the value of its
stock.
Coleco introduced Coleco-
vision — a home video game
system — last September and
since then its sales have sky
rocketed. It ranks third in
sales behind Atari and Mattel,
the manfacturer of Intellivi-
sion.
The success has Amster
dam officials smiling. Coleco
has helped to reduce Amster
dam’s unemployment, caused
by the gradual loss of carpet
makers which had given the
Mohawk Valley city of 22,000
the nickname of the “Rug
City.”
Coleco President Arnold
Greenberg said the firm had
record sales of $500 million in
1982 compared to $148 mil
lion the previous year. Its
stock has risen from 8 s /8 to
over 40 and traded over 50 on
the New York Stock Ex
change.
Greenberg attributed the
success to Colecovision, car-
enexpose tridges for the system and
hrP'jfh aid O /
fan mot
breath a«
e of ii
table-top video games such as
Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
Michael Katz, vice presi
dent of corporate communi
cations, said the firm shipped
550,000 units last year “and
had orders for several hun
dred thousand more which we
could not meet.”
Colecovision’s success,
Katz said, resulted in the com
pany doubling its workforce
to 3,000 in 1982 at its six
plants in Montgomery and
Fulton counties.
Robert Spearman, head of
the Amsterdam Chamber of
Commerce, said Coleco, the
largest single private em
ployer in the area, has helped
reduce Amsterdam’s unem
ployment of between 9.5 and
9.8 percent.
“Many of those people who
were employed at the carpet
companies were extremely
technically competent, having
dexterity with weavers and
looms — skills that could easi-
ly be transferred to working
on electronic equipment,”
Spearman said.
Mayor Mario Villa is equal
ly enthusiastic. “We’re looking
to Coleco to replace the carpet
industry and to build in the
80s what the carpet industry
was to Amsterdam in the 40s
and 50s.”
Katz estimates another
300600 workers will be hired
in 1983 and at one of Coleco’s
buildings a sign announces
“Positions Open.”
Katz says only one problem
is holding up increased pro
duction. Coleco imports elec
trical components from the
Orient and has been unable to
get all the supplies it needs for
Colecovision.
It’s not the first time. Supp
ly shortages in 1977 led to a
$22 million loss for Coleco
when it introduced Telstar —
an electronic tennis game. A
shortage of memory chips,
along with an East Coast dock
strike, delayed shipment of
circuit boards until after the
holiday and Coleco had to sell
the units at a loss.
Katz said the company is
confident the problems will be
solved. He added Coleco ex
pects to surpass Mattel’s Intel-
livision system to become No.
2 in home video games.
Frontrunner Atari recently
filed suit against Coleco,
charging patent infringe
ments over an expansion
module which allows Atari
cartridges to be played on Col
ecovision.
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Controls
Prospecting
claims filed
on state land
the
e to rece;
United Press International
AUSTIN — Twenty-five
Companies that filed claims for
ailuretk theap prospector’s permits on
the coiil inore than 200,000 acres of state
f in Afa | anc | g 0 t a sharp scolding from
lotor iml Land Commissioner Garry
t said. Mauro, who accused the firms of
if test an! trying to “cheat the school chil
es as
mship
je, causti
jmaly
HAT
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dren of Texas.”
Gov. Mark White signed
mergency legislation Tuesday
to dose a legal loophole that
ould have cost the state $100
illion in lost revenues from oil
and gas royalties.
But before the governor
ould put his name on the mea-
ure, 25 firms hurried to take
sVanfage of the foophofe that
ould circumvent a 43-year-old
rocess of using sealed bidding
xstW’mmeral ngVits.
Mineral leases under the bid-
ling process yield bonuses to the
tate of as much as $40 an acre
nd royalties as high as one-
hird of production. The bulk of
he money is used on public edu-
ation.
The prospector’s permits,
fhich were thought to have
>ee;? abolished in the 1950s,
iilowed people to pay just $2 for
he right to look for oil and gas
instate land. If the search was
uccessful, leasees paid bonuses
>fjust$2 an acre and royalties to
he state of one-eighth of pro-
luction.
Mauro said the 25 firms had
nade “an attempt to squeeze
hrough this loophole at the last
ninute.”
He did not immediately re-
ase the names of the com-
anies, but threatened to do so if
he 25 firms refused to withdraw
2heir claims by Friday.
“If they do not meet the dead
line, I will publicly release their
ames and make sure their
fhome communities know of
I these attempts to cheat the
school children of Texas,” said
Mauro, who promised to fight
the claims in court.
The Senate approved an
emergency bill to abolish the
permits last week and the House
assed the same measure
onday.
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CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST
Battalion/Page 5B
February 3, 1983
Program helps in selection
Computer for the birds
United Press International
Binjbreed, a computer prog
ram designed to help teach
genetics by simulating color in
heritance patterns in the para
keet, is definitely not for the
birds.
Wild parakeets are mostly
plain light green in color, but
selective breeding can produce
cage birds in hundreds of diffe
rent colors.
Birdbreed, written by an Au-
straliaii geneticist, is one of few
er than a dozen microcomputer
prograjus teaching genetics, and
probably the only one using the
color graphics capability of the
Apple 11 to display phenotypes
(the genetic term for the exter
nal appearance of an organism).
Using color graphics is a new
trend in computer assisted in
struction (CAI). Many of the
early CAI programs were of the
drill and practice type, often
structured like a programmed
textbook in which part of the
feedback for the student in
cluded progressing to new or
more difficult pages when ques
tions were answered correctly,
and returning to previous pages
for review when questions were
answered incorrectly.
The specific purpose of Bird-
breed is to help develop and ex
tend a student’s skills in infer
ring, rather than recalling, the
underlying genetic rules gov
erning the color and markings
of the parakeets. Students do
this by analyzing offspring of
pairs of birds having different
characteristics.
At the beginning of a session
with Birdbreed the student
chooses the level of difficulty,
ranging from "“not too hard” to
“perplexing.” Next, the student
selects the group of birds from
which the mating pair will be
chosen. All groups in the “not
• too hard” category follow the
same genetic rule. Beyond that
level, each group of birds will
demonstrate different traits
with different genetic rules to
discover.
Once the level of difficulty
and the group of birds are
selected, the student is pre
sented with a display of the
group of birds, in color. For
each subsequent session with
Birdbreed, this initial group ol
birds will be presented in a diffe
rent order, just to keep things
interesting. The low resolution
graphics do not produce Au-
dubon-quality reproductions,
but the birds’ characteristics
(their color and wing or face
markings) are clearly shown.
Each bird is identified by
number.
Data sheets are included in
the program documentation so
that the student can record the
number, sex and coloring of
each bird. To get the full value
from the program the student
must take notes based on what
appears on the screen. From
among the group displayed, the
student selects a pair of birds,
and Birdbreed then produces a
likely next generation.
The student can then con
tinue breeding the same pair of
birds or pick a new pair. This
choice brings the role of proba
bility into play.
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