Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 97, Greencastle, Putnam County, 2 January 1982 — Page 3

Five years from now, TV video games will link players in different cities

By ANDREW POLLACK c. 1981 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK bored with the video games they received for Christmas this year, it might be time to look ahead Five years from now. electronic games promise to be more realistic, complex and, perhaps, more frightening than those now- on the market. Players will be able to engage in intergalactic warfare against opponents in other cities, using computers connected by telephone lines With two-way cable television, viewers on one side of town might compete against viewers on the other side. And parents who think their children are already too attached to the video games might ponder this: Children in the future might be physically attached to the games by wires, as in a lie detector. All those ideas have already been demonstrated to some degree. What remains to be seen is whether they can be made into games that are affordable and, an even bigger uncertainty. whether anyone will want to play them. Some experts think that future video games will use videodisks to give them realistic scenery. Videodisks are like phonograph records that play pictures as well as sound, and most are being used currently to play movies But the disks can hold up to 54,000 frames, and the players, particularly three of Magnavox and Pioneer that use lasers, can lock onto any one of the frames That allows the scenes on the disk to

Mrs. Judith Carr lies beside her daughter, Elizabeth, shortly after birth at the Norfolk, Va., general hospital. Elizabeth, born Monday, is the first baby born in the nation as a result of in vitro fertilization, the so-called test-tube process. (AP Laserphoto)

TV helicopter forced down in snow storm

PAGOSA SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) A television news helicopter made a forced landing Friday in a heavy storm while flying over the Rockies to cover a fatal airplane crash, stranding four people on a snowbound mountainside near the Continental Divide, officials said. KMGH-TV pilot Pete Smith radioed that all four aboard a reporter, a photographer and the pilot’s wife were not injured, KMGH assignment editor Linda Elledge said. In addition to Smith and his wife, Suzy Yeung, reporter Dan Dennison and photographer Tim Wilson were on the helicopter, she said. Ms. Ellege said all four were wearing warm clothes for their assignment covering the fiery crash Thursday night of a Sun West Airlines plane in Durango. Eour people died, and two 'young children survived the crash and were hospitalized in

Tax breaks exceed cost of Medicare

. WASHINGTON - The cost of ■tax breaks and other government health-care subsidies for well-to-do Americans is increasing faster than the cost of Medicaid and Medicare, a newfederal study concludes • While Medicare costs rose at an average annual rate of 17 percent between 1975 and 1979 and Medicaid costs jumped 13 percent annually, the cost of tax breaks was rising 19 percent a year, the study said. The pricetag for Medicare, Medicaid and tax breaks for high-income people was $9.7 billion, compared with $lO billion spent on the poor and near poor during the period, according to the National Center for Health Services Research. The poor and near poor were defined as those with incomes Up to SIO,OOO for a family of four in 1977. The high-income group Had incomes of $32,000 or more in 1977 four times higher than the government’s poverty line. Gail R. Wilensky, an

serious condition Friday. v Smith told searchers before his radio batteries gave out that the helicopter was not damaged and he would be able to take off if the weather cleared, Ms. Elledge said. However, an intensive rescue effort was launched as another wave of snow and high winds descended on the southern Colorado Rockies, officials said. “It's snowing very hard up there now and the visibility is severely restricted,” said KPAG Radio newsman Don Kirkpatrick. “You can’t see more than 3 feet in any direction.” The helicopter was forced down by weather about 1:30 p.m. and was believed to be near the summit of Wolf Creek Pass at an elevation of about 10,800 feet, Ms. Elledge said. Radio contact was maintained with Smith until the radio batteries gave out.

economist for the center, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, said government planners should take note that the rising cost of the tax breaks is outpacing the growth of Medicare and Medicaid. The study noted that since 1960, “government financing of health care has increased fourteenfold,” from $6.6 billion to

Baby had it timed c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service Despite what doctors said, her timing was impeccable. Erin Lynn Fish weighed into the world one minute into 1982 ai Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., giving her father, Kevin Fish, also a New Year’s Day baby, “the best birthday present in the world.” Erin's mother, Donna Fish, was pretty happy, too. The infant was about five days overdue, said Fish, who was 32 years old Friday. Mother and baby are both doing well. Erin is the Woodbridge, Va., couple’s first child. “I couldn’t ask for a better birthday present, to be truthful with you,” he said. “What a way to celebrate it. We were totally surprised.” Fish said his daughter weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces at birth and has dark red hair like his “She’s beautiful,” he added.

be played in any order the viewer or a computer chooses. Rather than showing block or stick figures, a computer game with a videodisk might show actual film footage of tanks rolling across a field. If the player hits a tank with his electronic weapon, the computer switches to footage of a tank being destroyed. Videodisks might also provide scenery for fantasy or adventure games, such as the ones in which players search for treasure in mysterious caverns with dozens of different rooms. Creative Computing magazine, using a videodisk of the movie “Rollercoaster,” has designed a game where the player must search an amusement park for the parts necessary to build a jammer to prevent the detonation of a bomb planted on the rollercoaster. As the player tells the computer where he wants to go, the scenery shifts accordingly. Since people are not likely to spend S7OO on a disk player merely to play games, however, such games will not be developed until more people buy the players, as well as the personal computers, for other reasons. It is estimated that about 100,000 consumers own laser videodisk players. New ways of communicating with computers, such as by speech, might also find their way into games. While such speech recognition systems are now limited in capability, they would at least allow a player to fire a weapon by shouting “fire” when his hands are too busy to press a button.

As much as $lO per ticket Major airlines to hike domestic fares

c. 1982 N.Y. Times NEW YORK - Many of the nation’s major airlines will raise their fares next Friday by as much as $lO a ticket on many routes. The increases will come against a backdrop of heavily advertised fare cuts on flights between Northeastern and Middle Western cities and Florida and California, The move, by leading carriers such as Delta, Eastern, and United, continues a trend of steadily higher air fares on a systemwide basis since the introduction of airline deregulation in late 1978. In 1981, for example.. Delta Air Lines increased its systemwide fares by about 15 percent over 1980 levels. United Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier, said it had raised its 1981 fares by an average of 14.7 percent over 1980. Seen in the context of a single route, the 1981 round of increases raised the New York-to-Atlanta coach fare on Delta to the present $177 from $154 in December 1980. With the new increase, the fare will rise to $lB7 next Friday. Seen another way, from the perspective of the industry as a whole, figures supplied by the Air Transport Association show that a passenger’s cost to fly

Don't spend it yet Drop in federal income taxes won't start showing up on checks until July

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal income taxes on the average $20,000-a-year American family will drop by about $4 a week starting Friday, but the extra money won’t start showing up in paychecks until July. Until then, a 20-cent-per-week increase in Social Security taxes will make the same family’s take-home pay a little smaller. Higher-earning taxpayers will get a larger cut in income taxes but most also will turn over a bigger share to Social Security.

$91.4 billion in federal, state and local outlays in 1979. Ms. Wilensky said that data from a national health survey of 40,000 persons showed that the Treasury Department has underestimated how much it is losing in tax revenues because tax breaks. The Treasury estimated this at $5.6 billion in 1977, but the survey indicates the loss ac-

26 months without fatal mishap is record

WASHINGTON (AP) The nation’s major airlines have logged 26 consecutive months of flight travel without a fatal accident, eight months longer than the previous record, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. The government agency noted that this record was established “despite the firing of 11,453 striking air traffic controllers.” In a statement, the FAA said it marked the first time that the airlines had gone two full calendar years without a major accident involving a large passenger jet. “The record was set during a period in which the airlines flew well over a half-billion passengers on over 10 million flights,” the FAA said. “This sorts out to more than a trillion revenue passenger miles, enough to take every man, woman and child in

one mile rose during the first nine months of 1981 by 11.4 percent, to 12.3 cents, compared with the same 1980 period. Because Delta one of the industry’s five largest carriers and traditionally its most profitable had initiated the latest round of discounting to Florida, many of its competitors had privately expressed fears over the prospect that it might maintain its present fares on the rest of its route structure. A refusal by any large carrier such as Delta to raise fares systemwide would put pressure

The across-the-board cut in individual income-tax rates will average about 8.75 percent and is the second stage of the biggest tax reduction in history approved by Congress last August as part of President Reagan’s economic program. The Social Security tax increase was enacted in 1977. In addition to lower incometax rates, the new year brings a new tax deduction to offset part of the “marriage penalty” on working couples; a chance for 40 million workers already covered by pension plans to have a tax-deferred Individual

tually was $7.9 billion, the study said. The figure climbed to an estimated $22 billion in 1981, Ms. Wilensky said in a telephone interview Friday. The tax breaks include exempting the value of employerpaid health insurance premiums from workers’ personal income taxes. In addition, taxpayers can deduct half of their health insurance premiums, up to $l5O, plus all medical bills in excess of 3 percent of their taxable income. That cost the Treasury $2.4 billion in 1977 and an estimated $3.4 billion in 1981, Ms. Wilensky said. On a per capita basis, the study said, the government spends far more on the poor and near poor than on the affluent each. Medicare and Medicaid cost taxpayers nearly S6O billion in 1981.

Steven T. Mayer, vice president of research and development at Atari Inc., said the company has looked at even more exotic ideas. One is a heimet, now used by military helicopter gunners, which tracks the gunner’s eyeballs and aims the weapon where the gunner is looking. Others include wiring a player with sensors so objects on the screen can move when a player’s pulse rate changes or when he flexes a muscle. “It gives you a headache,” Mr. Mayer said of the muscle-flexing game. Advances in communications will also play a role. The Warner Amex Cable Co.’s Qube two-way cable system in Columbus, Ohio, allows viewers to be polled on questions presented on their television. The system has been used to conduct trivia contests pitting one neighborhood against another or seeking a single winner from the entire city. In a semi-pro football game, 5,000 viewers called the plays for the home team by majority vote and watched real athletes, rather than electronic blips, execute them. (The home team lost, 10 to 7.) People can already play games by connecting their computer to a larger one over telephone lines or cable television. The next step will be to allow players in different places to compete against each other that way. Because of transmission delays, such games will probably not be those demanding quick action, like the shooting games, but those involving strategy.

on the remaining lines to hold down their fares despite declining revenues and increasing costs. William D. Berry, a spokesman for Delta, said in a telephone interview on Thursday, however, that Delta would put through next Friday the increases of up to $lO on many of its routes. The Delta pricing action is “good news,” said James R. Ashlock, a spokesman for Eastern Airlines who confirmed that there had been concern among major carriers that Delta might not go along with the increase.

Retirement Account; a liberalized deduction for jobrelated child-care expenses, and sharp cuts in estate taxes. Although the reduced incometax rates take effect Friday, new withholding tables will not be used until July 1, when they will drop by 10 percent. Withholding rates were reduced an average of more than 5 percent last Oct. 1. While the withholding tables determine the periodic takehome pay of most workers, it is the total' withheld over the entire year that counts at tax return time. And the new tables

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the country on a flight of more than 2,000 miles.” The agency said the previous record for non-fatal crashes by major airlines was 18 consecutive months, established between February 1964 and August 1965. The last fatal crash of such a jet operated by a U.S. airlines was an accident involving a Western Airlines DC-10 in Mexico City on Oct. 31,1979, in which 70 people were killed. In the last 26 months, however, there have been two fatal accidents involving other kinds of aircraft operated by the country’s flag trunk and local service airlines, the FAA said. One occurred on Jan. 20,1981, when seven people perished in a small, twin-engine propeller-driven airplane in Spokane, Wash., and 13 people died in the crash of a small, twin-engine turboprop at Valley, Neb.

If Delta had held back, he added, it would have compounded the loss of revenue that could come from the fare war that this week brought the cost of flying from New York to major Florida cities to $lO7, one way, on weekdays. Berry said that the price increases would affect most of Delta’s routes. He added that there would be no increases in the lower fares that will go into effect on Wednesday in 23 Northern and Middle Western cities and in nine Florida cities. Air Florida undercut Delta on some of the Florida routes this week but Delta and most other

are calculated to make the total tax withheld more-or-less equal the tax owed. For the wage earner, the effect of delaying the change in withholding is to concentrate the tax break in the last six months of the year. For the government, it enables the Treasury to retain more cash during the first half of calendar 1982 and thus run a smaller deficit during the latter part of fiscal 1982 than it would if new tables were used for the entire year. While the tax year runs from January to January, the gover-

January 2,1982, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

A forerunner is the complex strategy game played by mail. Flying Buffalo Inc., in Tempe, Ariz., offers games like Starweb and Nuclear Destruction that can have up to 15 players pitted against one another in warfare and diplomacy. Players mail in their moves every two weeks. A computer calculates the results of each round of moves, and keeps track of each player’s food supply, weapons, factories, and the like. “How many times do you think you can get together 14 friends to sit down and play the game all the way through?” asked Richard F. Loomis, president of the company. “With our system, you can play without leaving your home. We can get customers from all over the world.” The Gamemaster Corp. of Evanston, 111., which says it has 250 customers, is trying to take it a step further, communicating directly from computer to computer rather than using the mail. It offers games that are played by up to six persons who are connected to the company’s computer by phone. Phone bills are an obvious problem, however. The idea that people who do not see one another or know one another can play together using computers and telephones raises an interesting possibility: Computers themselves have been programmed to play games like chess and backgammon. What if several players are playing an electronic game over the telephone and one of the players is a computer? Hopscotch anyone?

major carriers matched the lower fares. Mardy Leaver, a spokesman for United, said that the airline would also increase its fares by up to $lO on many of its routes on Tuesday. He said the increases would not go into effect, however, on its transcontinental routes, such as New York-to-California and Chicago-to-California. Last October, United and other major carriers became involved in a price war on these routes. The 1981 fare increase rate of 11.4 percent for the 30 major carriers was lower than in 1980,

nment’s bookkeeping year runs from October to October. Taxpayers who qualify for the new “marriage penalty" deduction or a tax-deferred IRA may obtain a W-4 form from their employer and have less money withheld to reflect those changes. The cut in income-tax rates will mean a 1982 tax cut of $lB5

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when rising fuel costs caused an increase of 27 percent over 1979. The decline in traffic has brought numerous price wars this year as airlines fought to keep their market share and often added capacity in major markets such as the Florida and California routes. George W. James, senior vice president of economics and finance for the Air Transport Assocation, said in a speech that discounting had continued to increase in the third quarter. He estimated that 71 percent of domestic coach travel inmolved some type of discount fare in the third quarter and that the average discount was 47 percent off the full fare. This compared with the third quarter of 1980, when 61 percent of coach travel involved discounts that averaged about 43 percent off the full fare. Rather than cut back, most airlines have chosen to keep their planes in the air even though some flights have had few passengers. The load factor for Noverrfber, for example, averaged 54 percent, down from 55.8 percent in September. In a good year, such as 1979, when most carriers made high profits, the load factor in November was 59.1 percent.

for a typical single person earning $15,000. A typical oneearner couple with $20,000 income and two children will pay $203 less than in 1981; the $40,000 family of four with one wage earner will get a $560 tax cut. Similar changes are taking effect in retirement provisions for self-employed workers.

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