June 2003
NEWSLETTER for June, 2003 President’s Corner by Michael Current June, 2003 So due to a conflict with my tennis team's first practice, I only made the very end of last month's meeting. I heard that the auction was successful as usual. I've just checked out the company web site for the Atari 10-in1 joystick game that Brian brought in a couple months ago, http://www.jakkspacific.com/ . Besides the Atari version, they also have an Activision 10-in-1 game, and a Namco 5-in-1 game. The Activision games are from the 2600, while the Namco games are apparently straight from the arcade, including the original Pac-Man. Some fun gift ideas! Next month is July, and that means planning for the SPACE 21st birthday party! I'm sure we can agree on what type of food to treat ourselves to once again. Something to look forward to! Don't forget to check out Nolan's new web site in support of the SPACE BBS: http://spacebbs.atari.org/ . SPACE home page counter update: as of 5/31/03, 12:30pm: 10253 hits since 2/9/02. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday, June 13, 2003.
Here is the financial picture for the month ended May 31, 2003: Beginning balance at May 1, 2003:
1,168.74
Receipts for the month: Memberships Doms Auction Total receipts for May 2003
15.00 9.00 52.00 76.00
Expenses for the month: Newsletter for nine months-08/02 thru 04/03 76.22 BBS 10.00 Total expenses for May 2003 86.22 Ending balance on May 31, 2003
1,158.22
We only dropped about ten dollars from our balance in April thanks mainly to our auction, and most of our expenses are paid to date except the big one, our monthly room rental. I guess I will have to beg again for the bill. I didn't want to call last month in the fear that they would bill us not just for the first quarter but also the second. Now that the second quarter is almost here I can ask for the billing and get the Club paid up for the year. As you can see, even with the room rental of $150.00 for the six months we will still have a healthy balance of over $1,000.00. Not too shabby!! Don't forget that we need to complete our plans for the SPACE birthday bash next month so please try to attend the June 2003 meeting. The Club can sure afford something different so come with some new ideas. See you all next month.
Treasurer's Report by Greg Leitner For May, 2003 I guess eight members isn't bad for a Mother's Day and fishing opener weekend. If I had thought it out more, I would have picked the June meeting for our SPACE auction. Well, it worked out all right after all, and even though most items went for a dollar the Club made $52.00. We held a very short meeting in May due to the auction and the fact that both Mike and Brian couldn't make it. Thanks to Nolan for taking notes for the minutes, and for bringing us important BBS updates. Seems that an interview may be taking place at our Birthday meeting in July. Attend the June meeting to find out more.
Secretary's Report By Brian-Angel C Little For May, 2003 No Minutes Submitted.
LOS ANGELES--May 6, 2003-- Game Available May 15, In Conjunction With Release Of The Matrix Reloaded Atari announced
today that worldwide retail orders for Enter the Matrix for the PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox(TM) video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube(TM) and personal computer (PC) have surpassed 4 million copies. The game will be available worldwide on May 15, in conjunction with the release of the highly anticipated second installment of the Matrix film trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded. "We are thrilled by the tremendous worldwide demand for what is going to be one of the most groundbreaking games our business has seen in years," said Bruno Bonnell, chairman and CEO, Infogrames. "Enter the Matrix is the biggest game we have ever shipped, and I'm happy to report that it does not disappoint. Matrix fans and video game players worldwide are poised to enjoy an entirely new entertainment experience with a complete meshing of Hollywood filmmaking and interactive entertainment." Developed by award-winning Shiny Entertainment (an Infogrames studio), Enter The Matrix is a revolution in interactive entertainment - a third-person action game that effectively blurs the line between Hollywood blockbuster films and next generation video games. The game is directed by and features a script written by the Wachowski Brothers, creators of The Matrix trilogy, marking the most intensive collaboration between a video game publisher and a movie studio to date. Enter the Matrix for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC will be available at retail outlets worldwide on May 15, 2003 for an estimated retail price of $49.99 and an ESRB rating of 'T' for Teen. More information about Enter the Matrix is available at www.enterthematrixgame.com, in addition, to learn more about The Matrix Reloaded visit www.thematrix.com. ************************************************** --From: Matthias Reichl --Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2003 09:56:04 -0700 I've uploaded a new AtariSIO release to my homepage http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
- The Commodore C16, C116 and Plus/4. - The CBM 510 (aka P500), a quite rare Commodore machine (programs run in bank 0). - The CBM 600/700 family (programs run in bank 1). - Newer PET machines (not 2001) - The Apple ][ (library support by Kevin Ruland <kevin@rodin.wustl.edu>) - The Atari 8 bit machines (thanks to the Atari team: Christian Groessler <cpg@aladdin.de>, Mark Keates <markk@dendrite.co.uk>, Freddy Offenga <taf_offenga@yahoo.com> and David Lloyd, <dmlloyd@ataricentral.com>). - GEOS for the C64 and C128 (GEOSLib by Maciej Witkowiak <ytm@elysium.pl>) - The Oric Atmos (this one is BETA!). The libraries are fairly portable, so creating a version for other 6502s shouldn't be too much work. This release contains bug fixes (see http://www.cc65.org/bugs.php for a list of bugs that are fixed in this release), plus the following small additions: * As a contribution to the Contiki project, the _heapmemavail and _heapmaxavail functions have been added from the head branch. * The BETA library for the Oric Atmos has been added from the head branch, so I can get some more feedback. There is still no support for the following features: * Floats and bit fields.
Version 0.11 beta includes the following changes: * stdio file routines on some systems. * atariserver now contains loadable 6502 highspeed SIO code (like the HDI or Speedy 1050) - thanks to ABBUC for the code! * A "print DOS2.x directory" function was added to atariserver
* The 80 column mode on the C128 is not supported by the conio library (this will come with the next major release, thanks to the initial work of MagerValp <MagerValp@cling.gu.se>).
* AtariSIO now reached beta status
Available packages:
* serveral minor bugfixes and improvements
As usual I will provide the complete sources and several binary packages, including RPMs for RedHat Linux. Linux is the primary development platform, so the sources do compile out of the box on Linux machines.
so long, Hias ************************************************** --From: Ullrich von Bassewitz --Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 12:24:23 +0200 I'm proud to announce version 2.9.1 of CC65, a C crosscompiler/crossassembler combo for 6502 systems.
Please note that there are separate RPMs for the compiler proper and the target specific libraries. To develop for one of the predefined target systems you need the compiler RPM package *and* one of the target machine packages.
- The Commodore VIC20 (contributed by Steve Schmidtke <steve_schmidtke@hotmail.com>).
Binaries for DOS and and Windows will follow or may already be available at the time you read this. OS/2 packages will again be available, but since there are almost no downloads for OS/2, so the host platform may get dropped in the near future (again). As with the RPM packages, you need the package for the development system (Windows, etc.) *and* one or more of the target machine packages.
- The Commodore C64 and C128.
Download:
CC65 has C and runtime library support for many of the old 6502 machines,including
For more information and a download link, please visit the cc65 web page at: http://www.cc65.org/ Mailing list: There is a mailing list for discussing cc65 related issues (programming, suggestions, bugs, ...). See http://www.cc65.org/#List for information on how to subscribe to this list. ----------Thanks to all who sent feedback and suggestions, and of course to anyone who helped developing cc65! ************************************************** --From: "Mark DiLuciano" --Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 08:39:15 GMT Well, after a lot of work, they are finally finished! We will be accepting preorders for the M.U.L.E. Cartridge on Monday [4/28], 10:00 AM Pacific time. Keep in mind, we only made 50 Cartridges. That is it! There will be NO more! Each cartridge is individually numbered. You can preorder by going to http://www.sunmark.com anytime after 10:00 AM Pacific time. The first order gets cart number #1, second order gets cart #2....etc. If you want a particular number, please specify in the comment section of the order form. If you order more than one, we will send you consecutive numbers. The carts will be shipped the week of May 12th. Until then, the price will be $34.95 each. After May 12th, they will be $39.95 each. ************************************************** --From: Carsten Strotmann <cas_news@strotmann.de> --Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 16:36:09 +0200
About: ATR8FS is a ATARI 8bit filesystem for Linux released under the GPL. It originated from the 8bit ATARI machines. It allows to read disk images from a more than twenty years old computer :-) Features of Version 0.1 - Can mount ATR images (currently the only possibiliy to access a ATARI 8bit disk :-) - Can read DOS2 compatible filesystems, like DOS 2.0S, DOS 2.0D, DOS 2.5, BiboDOS, MyDOS ... - Can read DOS3 filesystems - Can read DOS4 (Antic DOS) filesystems - Can read SpartaDOS 2+ compatible filesystems - Currently NO write support - Currently no direct disk access - Alpha implementation, not heavily tested yet Have fun, PS: Sorry if this may be posted a second time, I crossposted it to c.o.l.a which was not allowed ... -Michael Beck beck@ipd.info.uni-karlsruhe.de ************************************************** --Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 07:50:11 -0700 Version 1.4 of Atari800MacX has been released. It has several bug fixes in it (the Emulator state save now works with all cartridges). Most of the enhancements relate to Gamepad controls, and some of the bug fixes are in this area as well. See http://members.cox.net/atarimac for full details and download. [This news item courtesy of Atari.org - http://www.atari.org]
The first Version of the USB Device Driver Development Kit Disk is available.
************************************************** --Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 12:50:46 -0700
This disk will contain Information, Tools and Sourcecode f¸r USB Device Driver Development and will be updated regulary.
The new version includes the following enhancements:
Information on the USB hardware http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/APG/ProjUSBCart
- support for DCM/DI/XFD disk images - transparent (de-)compression support through zlib - devfs support in the kernel driver - support for non-standard SIO2PC cables (using DSR instead of RI) - added 'all' option to several atariserver functions - several minor bugfixes and improvements
Carsten Strotmann
AtariSIO can be downloaded from my homepage
**************************************************
http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
Please find the disk at http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/APG/UsbDDkD
so long, Hias ************************************************** --From: Vladimir Tichy --Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 23:41:10 +0200 --From: Michael Beck --Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 11:44:37 +0200 Hi, On the website http://www.rho-sigma.de/atari8bit/fs.html
I have developed Atart, the system for Atari 8bit casette emulation and for easy creating casette archives. It allows to connect Atari data recorder directly to the PC! See http://sdq.webpark.cz/atari/projects/atart/ thanks
you can find the first public release of the Atari 8bit filesystem driver for Linux.
Vladimir Tichy ************************************************** --From: "Mark DiLuciano" --Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 22:37:10 GMT Rampage is now available on cartridge and it works on both NTSC and PAL We are only making 50 carts, so get your orders in early. M.U.L.E. sold out in two days! http://www.sunmark.com ************************************************** --Date: Saturday, May 17, 2003 7:15 PM +0200 --From: Walter Lojek --To: mcurrent@carleton.edu --Subject: March Newsletter from SPACE Hello Michael, As a frequent reader of your online news I like to give a comment on the March Newsletter, concerning TurboBASIC XL. It has been stated there: --From: Lance Ringquist --Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 12:51:58 -0600 The legendary turbo basic is now available on cartridge from video 61. Turbo basic is compatible with all xl/xe computers with at least 64k of memory. Turbo basic is compatible with dos 2.x, and mydos. Turbo basic is not 400/800 compatible, nor is it spartados compatible. Please visit our website for more details, and also to check out our new release page at, www.atarisales.com Thanks, Lance This is not quite correct! Turbo BASIC is also fully compatible with TurboDOS 2.1 and SpartaDOS X. Those two are my preferred DOS for running my XLSystem. There is also a let's say 'smaller' version of TurboBASIC available for the 400/800 systems with 48k of memory. I klnow that this is an ad from Video61, maybe they are no users .... Gx & Good Byte Walter Lojek Member of ABBUC ************************************************** A-T-A-R-I Answers, Tips, And Relevant Information by Paul Alhart, paulalhart@hotmail.com 1987.5 Last month Shirl and I attended the 12th West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. I had expected to find all the major computer manufacturers there showing their "yet to be released"-"Coming Real Soon Now" hardware. That was not the case. Although ATARI Corp. was not at the Faire, there were many computer manufacturers, including some I had never heard of, present. They all had their latest hardware up and running an available for you to purchase and carry home. There were also many third party hardware and software manufacturers, computer stores, office supply stores, magazines, and
user groups manning booths at the faire. They all had something to show, something to sell and something to give away free. Shirl and I both left with shopping bags full of free magazines, literature, pins, buttons, and advertisements. Some of the more interesting booths for us were Antic Publishing, ABACUS (Atari Bay Area Users Group),Byte, Broderbund Software, Coast User Group (Atari STs only), CompuServe, Supra Corp., SLCC (San Leandro Computer Club, and American TV. Besides all there was to see and the good deals to be had there were seminars and lectures covering almost any topic related to computers in any way. While we were there, Chris Crawford, <where have you heard that name before ?> gave a 2 hour workshop on game design. If only we had had the time!! Maybe next year Chris. Yes, I am planning on going again next year. I hope you can find your way there next year too. You won't be disappointed. Do you use your printer for graphics? Would you like to have a selection of colored ribbons? At the Computer Faire I picked up some literature from a company called I.P.S. They sell ribbons mail-order for unbeatable prices. Black ribbons start at $1.25 each for Okidata 82, 92, 93 and Star SG printers. Colored ribbons are just $2.00 for the same printers. They have ribbons for many other printers too, all at reasonable prices. I'll have all the information at the meeting this month so you can get it from me there if you are interested. Here is an interesting bit I picked up recently. Next time you are playing Super-Breakout press SHIFT, CONTROL, & "I" all at the same time to see a secret message put there by the programmer. While we are into secrets. Next time you play Space Invaders on your dusty old 2600 VCS, press RESET while turning on the power and you will get rapid fire. Keep the secret from the rest of the family and you will have the top score rapped up. ************************************************** LOS ANGELES--May 13, 2003-- Atari (Nasdaq:ATAR) will showcase more than 30 cutting-edge video games at this year's E3 in Los Angeles, including games based on major motion pictures; titles from Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons® (D&D®) franchise; hard-hitting action games; the Company's first massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG); and titles aimed at the mass entertainment market. Atari is one of the world's largest interactive entertainment publishers with hundreds of award-winning titles and industry-leading partnerships with Hollywood and other entertainment giants. E3, the video game industry's largest trade show and exhibition, will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from May 14-16. "Atari has been reborn with a lineup of the most entertaining and wide reaching video games available on the market," said Bruno Bonnell, chairman and CEO of Atari. "By joining Hollywood and entertainment partnerships with the industry's best collection of developers, we have positioned Atari as a leader in our industry and an innovator among publishers. As our diverse AAA lineup clearly demonstrates, Atari is back, and in a big way!" From its impressive catalog of Hollywood licensed properties, Atari will showcase two games based on the biggest blockbuster films of 2003. The hotly anticipated Enter the Matrix is a third-person action game featuring a storyline written by the Wachowski Brothers themselves that parallels the upcoming film and marks the most ambitious collaboration between Hollywood and a video game publisher to date. Atari will also trumpet Arnold Schwarzenegger's foray into video games with its preview of Terminator® 3: Rise of the Machines(TM), for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which features both the actor's voice and likeness. In addition, Atari will unveil Terminator (R)3: War of the Machines(TM) for the PC. Both Terminator games are based on the summer blockbuster sequel, Terminator® 3: Rise of the Machines(TM), due in July. In addition,
Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma, which follows all new highrisk adventures of famed IMF agent Ethan Hunt, will make its debut. Under license from Hasbro Consumer Products Worldwide, the Dungeon & Dragons property will play a major role for Atari at E3. As the exclusive publisher of D&D video games for PC and console, Atari will showcase three games at the event. The Temple of Elemental Evil(TM), a classic Greyhawk® adventure for PC, features an exciting party-based single-player campaign, as well as a faithful translation of the latest third edition rules. Three-time winner of Best Roleplaying Game of E3, Neverwinter Nights(TM), grows even deeper with two expansion packs for PC that will be shown at E3 2003. The first, Shadows of Undrentide(TM), features a new, 20hour, single-player campaign, as well as new skills, feats, classes, monsters and spells. The second expansion pack will also be revealed at the show. On the action front, Atari continues to lead the pack with a fresh batch of groundbreaking adventures. The genre-defining Unreal franchise expands even further as Atari previews Unreal® Tournament 2004 for PC. Using the power of the Unreal technology and the Xbox, Dead Man's Hand, a fast-paced western style first person shooter, is in development at Human Head Studios and will be shown for the first time at the show. Taking real world combat to the next level will be Zombie Studios' Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, a first-person shooter featuring Hollywood quality production values for the Xbox. Developed by Atari's Eden Studios, Kya(TM): Dark Lineage(TM), an action-adventure game with platforming elements for PlayStation 2, will be showcased. For outdoor enthusiasts and tactical shooter fans, Deer Hunter(TM), the hottest selling PC hunting game journeys for the first time to PlayStation 2. Also being shown is a role-playing game sequel, Gothic II, developed by Piranha Bytes. Atari's first venture into the realm of MMORPGs -- Horizons for PC -- will also be previewed. Developed by Artifact Entertainment, Horizons will allow players to experience online gaming like never before in a single massive online world primed for exploration, brimming with adventure and rife with danger. Also in the Atari spotlight at E3 will be several of the company's premiere licensed projects, which represent some of the most successful franchises in the world. Magic: The Gathering® Battlegrounds, a fighting game for Xbox, features all the spells and creatures from Wizards of the Coast's popular trading card game and is licensed from Hasbro Consumer Products. FUNimation's Dragon Ball Z® will be represented with Dragon Ball Z®: Legacy of Goku II(TM) for Game Boy Advance, releasing next month, as well as showcasing game footage from several other new Dragon Ball Z® titles scheduled for release this year. Risk(TM), licensed from Hasbro Consumer Products, makes its debut on the PlayStation 2, marking the first next-generation translation of this popular game of world domination. The Atari Kids lineup will introduce several new titles releasing this year including two new adventure games from legendary kids' game developer, Humongous Entertainment, and four additions to the mega-popular Backyard Sports(TM) series including the debut on another next generation console. This fall the franchise will introduce Backyard Basketball(TM) for PlayStation 2, the first game in the series to come to the Sony console, two new PC games, Backyard Basketball(TM) 2004 and Backyard Football(TM) 2004, and Backyard Hockey(TM) for Nintendo GameBoy Advance. Marking the first new adventure games from Humongous Entertainment in two years, Putt-Putt®: Pep's Birthday Surprise and Pajama Sam®: Life is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff(TM), will continue in the history of the award-winning games by bringing enduring characters to life on the PC. The Atari kids' line will also feature titles based on the hottest Nick Jr. properties, Dora the Explorer(TM): Animal
Adventures and Blue's Clues(TM): Blue Takes You to School(TM), along with another addition to its successful TONKA® Interactive line, TONKA TOWN(TM). For additional information on Atari's E3 line-up, visit Atari's E3 Web site at www.atari.com/e3