July 1983: The King on Top, and the Boss from Wales Shares His Plans

The King Returns, at Number One

Last issue we told how Donkey King had to change its name. And here it is a month later, in the Boots top ten: The King at number one. Seven of the ten places belonged to Microdeal, including Space War, Alcatraz II and Katerpillar Attack. Dragon Data itself had only two entries: Chess and Typing Tutor.

"You Must Want Dragon Data"

The cover feature is an interview with Tony Clarke, the managing director, a man standing about 6 foot 4. It opens with a lovely moment: step out of Port Talbot station, get into a taxi, and the driver says straight away, "You must want Dragon Data." The plan was ambitious: four computers on the market within a year. First an upgrade to 64K, then the Dragon 64, then a £400 machine with two 6809 processors, and next year a £2,000 business model.

America was in the plan too. The Dragon would sell there for about $399, together with Tano Corporation of New Orleans. At an American show in April, about 4,000 dealers made enquiries. Even so, Clarke stayed modest: "We're not expecting to sell millions in the US."

Waiting for the Dragon 64

The news pages revealed that the wait would be longer. The OS9 operating system would only arrive in September, together with the Dragon 64, expected to cost less than £275. Instead of a board swap, Dragon 32 owners would get a CPU swap giving 64K, likely to cost over £100. And the price of the Dragon 32 itself? Clarke said it was unlikely to fall again after the recent cut: "We got the cost of producing the machine down so we passed it on to customers."

A Robot on the Desk

Another story announced robots for the Dragon 32. Powertran's Micrograsp arm, with five axes, cost £199 before VAT. The Zeaker Micro-Turtle, a little robot that crawls across the floor, cost £50 as a kit and £70 built. And this month's competition offered the Micrograsp itself as the prize. You had to solve a letter puzzle built on the words DRAGON and USER, and show how to solve it with a BASIC program on your Dragon.

A Club That Started in a Flat

The clubs page went to Scotland. David Anderson, president of the Scottish Dragon Club, worked nights as a croupier in an Edinburgh nightclub. By day he ran the club and wrote roulette and blackjack programs. It all began with half a dozen people in his flat, because, as he put it, "I had the most space." Now the club had more than 500 members, from the Outer Hebrides to Denmark. And a little surprise: most of the members actually lived in England. Membership: £8, paid once, for life.

Games That Work Your Brain

Reviewer John Scriven gave his fingers a rest this time and tested thinking games. In Microdeal's Escape you must flee a 3D maze by lift, and if the code is wrong, down you go. The sleeve notes warned: "The fall is fun, but the stop at the end is a real killer." He admitted he now knew the inside of the lift shaft most intimately. Deadwood was Monopoly in the Wild West, with ranches and saloons, at £6.90. And at the end, a pleasant surprise: every game loaded from tape first time.

You can play Escape, Ken Kalish’s first game, on our machine today: the game’s page.

A Printer the Size of a Till

The printer test compared six printers, from £88 to £438. The cheapest, the Amber 2400, was a small black box that printed just 24 characters a line, on a roll of paper 2¼ inches wide, the same paper used in cash tills. The most expensive was the Epson FX80. And the letters page had a handy trick: when you switch on the Dragon, it reserves room for four graphics pages, leaving 24,871 bytes free. Type PCLEAR 1, and suddenly you have 29,479.

A Program to Type In

The Open File section also carried Lines by W J Greenall, which draws curves out of straight lines, like string-and-nail art on a wooden board. You can type it in today on our machine in the Type it in drawer and watch the curves build up on the screen.

An issue of big dreams: new computers, America, robots. That summer, it seemed there was no limit to how far the Dragon could go.

Dragon User, issue 3, July 1983, Sunshine Publications. Scan courtesy of archive.org.

An issue of big dreams: new computers, America, robots. That summer, it seemed there was no limit to how far the Dragon could go.

Dragon User, issue 3, July 1983, Sunshine Publications. Scan courtesy of archive.org.