Industry Honors 25 Top Programs

The movie industry has its Oscar, television has its Emmy and the music business has its Grammy.

What does the computer industry have? The Software Publishers Assn.’s “Excellence in Software” awards, which were announced last month during an Academy Awards-style, black-tie dinner at Oakland’s Claremont Hotel.

The annual software awards may lack the sizzle of the honors that Hollywood bestows. But they do reflect the broad range of business, entertainment and education programs released by the Washington-based association’s 320 member companies.

Eight of the 25 awards went to games or entertainment programs, five went to educational programs and the rest went to business-related software. Surprisingly, 12 of the winning programs were written for the Apple Macintosh.

The awards ceremony is my opportunity to learn about programs that I don’t normally see. I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to “Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of Lounge Lizards” if it hadn’t received this year’s award for “Best Adventure or Fantasy Role Playing Program.” The object of the game, according to the packaging, is to “help Larry overcome his jerkism and loose his you know what.” The game, published by Sierra On-Line of Oakhurst, Calif., runs on IBM-style machines, Apple II and Apple Macintosh and costs $40.

Three awards--best simulation, best action strategy and best technical achievement--went to Spectrum Holobyte of Alameda for Falcon, a simulation of an F-16 jet fighter. The program is renowned for its outstanding graphics, according to Russell Sipe, editor of Computer Gaming World. The $50 program, which runs on an IBM PC or an Apple Macintosh, is the safest way I know to practice your skills at air-to-air combat or blowing up bridges.

Focal Point, from Activision, was voted the “Best Utility” and “Best Add-On” program. The Macintosh program, written by computer journalist Danny Goodman, is the first of a new category of commercial software that works with Apple’s HyperCard programming language. Focal Point, which retails for $100, is a personal information manager that helps keep track of time, money, phone calls, appointments and business prospects, among other things.

Best Programming Tool

Goodman’s other HyperCard program, Business Class, won the award for “Best User Interface.” That $50 program, which also runs on the Macintosh using the HyperCard language, provides international travel information. You point the mouse to a country on a world map to get customs information, important phone numbers, a programmed currency calculator and other data. It’s fun to use but not as practical as a $5 pocket travel book.

Dan Bricklin’s Demo Program (version II) from Software Garden of Newton, Mass., was honored as the best programming tool. The $195 program, which runs on IBM-style machines, is for people who want to design a software program without actually writing all the codes. It creates dummy software that looks and acts like the real product but doesn’t actually perform any computing tasks. You can mock up screens, show how commands are entered and demonstrate what the product might do. It’s popular among software companies that are interested in showing off what their prospective programs will someday look like.

The award for the best personal productivity program went to Macintax from SoftView Inc. Macintax is a tax preparation program that makes your Macintosh screen look just like the IRS forms. You enter your information in the boxes, just as if you were filling out a real 1040. Unlike paper forms, it does all your math and automatically brings up other forms and schedules as you need them. Your printed return looks just as if it were done on a real IRS form. In fact, the IRS has approved Macintax printouts as a legal substitute for the real 1040. The company offers a similar program, called TaxView, for IBM-style machines. Both programs retail for $119.

The association wisely chose Jam Session ($50), from Broderbund Software of San Rafael, Calif., as the best entertainment program. It also won for “best new use of a computer” and “best sound.”

Music Sounds Great

The software turns an Apple Macintosh into a recording studio, complete with a full cast of musicians. You lend a hand by pressing keys to add drums, saxophone, an extra piano or whatever is needed. You can’t hit a wrong key. No matter what you do, the music sounds great. It comes with several recorded songs (on disk) ranging from classical pieces to “chicken jamboree.” You hear the music through the Macintosh’s speaker or you can connect headphones or your home stereo system.

It certainly doesn’t make sense to buy a program just because it won an award. These awards, like the Oscars, Emmies and Grammies, reflect the opinions of industry insiders--not consumers or objective reviewers.

Some win because of technical achievements in sound, visual display or even packaging. Those are nice touches but not necessarily reasons to buy. What’s more, the awards are only for 1987 titles.

I didn’t go along with the association’s award for “Best of the Best.” It went to Adobe Illustrator ($495), a powerful drawing program for the Apple Macintosh. An image created or enhanced with Illustrator can be printed at a very high resolution, up to 2,460 dots per inch, when the Mac is connected to a compatible typesetting machine. Although Illustrator can do a lot, it is difficult to use, especially by Macintosh standards. Aldus Freehand ($495), which was released in 1988--too late for the awards--does the same thing and is much easier to use.

If I were giving the “Best of the Best” award, it would have gone to nominee Microsoft Excel ($495), an electronic spreadsheet program for the IBM PC and Macintosh that incorporates stunning graphics and easy-to-use, pull-down menus. But I’m not a member of the association, so I didn’t get to vote. Oh well; I don’t always like the Oscar winners, either.