SPACE Newsletter

NEWSLETTER for September, 2003 President’s Corner

Treasurer's Report

by Michael Current September, 2003

by Greg Leitner For August, 2003

Hi all, how are things up your way? At this writing I've been in my new home in La Crosse for nearly two weeks now. No, my Atari stuff hasn't gotten unpacked yet, but neither have quite a lot of other things so far. I'll get to it, and at least one setup will get attached to the TV as before. Being new to home ownership, I'm learning about basic things like water softener, water heater, air conditioner, and the like. I'll tell you one thing, being able to get to the car without going outside, and having an automatic garage door opener, are REALLY nice living features I can get used to in a hurry. I've spent a lot of time researching and learning about telephone features. I finally decided that, for now, I don't need a cell phone, and I don't need to spend $50/month for highspeed internet. I did choose caller-ID and call-waiting, two features I've never had before. And the exciting this is this device I bought by a company called Command Communications called the HotCall 4000. This is a caller-id box that sits between the incoming phone line and both your modem and your telephone. Working with your caller-id/call waiting combination, the HC4000 rings and shows you who's calling if you happen to be online at the time. I can pick up the phone and answer it, or just let it ring based on who's calling. No more busy signals when I'm online! Awesome! Supposedly you can even answer the call briefly then hang up and the modem can re-establish the connection, but so far I haven't tried this, and I'm not sure I really care whether that part works or not. After I arranged all that, now I've learned that the new V.92 modems support a Modem On Hold (MOH) feature that would do the same thing I bought my HC4000 for. Most new modems now support V.92, but the major ISP's (like mine, EarthLink) don't support it yet because they don't want to upgrade all their modems again when the profits now are in convincing us to move to broadband. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday, September 12, 2003.

Okay, I give up. What are we going to have to do to get our members back to our monthly SPACE meetings. Just when things are picking up in the 8-bit Atari world our Club is sinking fast. It was great to read in last month's newsletter that former clubs of years past are not only thinking of re-starting but are actually already committing to doing so. Our Atari's are still making a connection with the world and people are interested. So what about SPACE? Are we going to call it quits or can we rally around the good news and rejuvenate our own Club? With an average of five members per month in the last three I don't feel very good about our chances. At least we have enough resources to keep the Club going for a couple more years but who for? Glen puts a lot of his time in producing a DOM for each monthly meeting and last month I bought the only one! I am sure he has other uses for his time if all he can generate for his Club is $3.00. So how about it; come to the September meeting and let's discuss where we are heading, and what support we can expect from you in the coming months. Here is how the Treasury breaks down for August 2003: Beginning balance for August 1, 2003: Receipts for the August meeting: Membership renewals Dom's Total receipts for August 2003 Expenses for the August meeting: BBS Ending balance at August 31, 2003:

959.17

15.00 3.00 18.00

10.00 967.17

As you can see even with a few members at our meetings we can still increase our cash. Just think what this Club could do with all our members present? Our rent has been paid through June 2003 and the next billing is not expected until sometime in October. That gives us another month in September to really increase our bank balance. I know there are a few members that have not renewed and it would sure be a comfort to all of us if we knew we could count on your support for at least another year. So how about it? Get to the September meeting and renew that membership and let us know that you still want SPACE around for another year! See you next month.

Secretary's Report By Brian-Angel C Little For August, 2003

No Minutes Submitted. ************************************************** --From: Steven J Tucker --Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 01:52:57 GMT Pre-ordering starts today for my Flash Multi-Cart/DiskCart/Homebrewing Cartridge, with shipment of orders by 08/11. The cartridge is professionally produced, with open-source software and extensive documentation. Limited edition pricing is $29.99 per cartridge, with a shipping discount for buying five. After 8/11 the price will increase to $34.99. For complete product information and the order form go to: http://www.atarimax.com/ or directly to the MaxFlash cartridge page at: http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/ ************************************************** --From: Carsten Strotmann --Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 16:43:50 +0200 Hello, I've published a little tool (Source and Binary) that shows some information useful during ACTION! Programming: # ATARI RTClock Timer Ticks # Shift Key Status # X/Y Screen Cursor Coordinates # ATASCII Key-Code of last pressed key # Interal Key-Code of last pressed key # ACTION! Base Adress (ORG) # ACTION! Program Code Size # Last Sector IO Number The Tool can be downloaded at http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/APG/ActionInfoLine Have fun Carsten Strotmann ************************************************** BEVERLY, MA _August 19, 2003 _A thrilling new addition to the Dragon Ball Z® series is coming to the PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system, Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) announced today. Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai" 2 will feature never seen before character fusions, a new single player mode, opponents new to the video game world and _Toriyama shading, a new and unique style of shading coined after the original author of the Dragon Ball series, Akira Toriyama. A sequel to the best-selling Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai" game, Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai" 2 is currently in production by developer Dimps, and is scheduled to ship in December 2003. _The Dragon Ball Z® video game franchise has achieved significant success and fan status because they invite fans to _play the show_, said Nancy MacIntyre, vice president of marketing for Atari_s Beverly studio. _Budokai" 2 will once again demonstrate Atari_s ongoing commitment to delivering fresh and compelling interactive entertainment.

_Atari continues to captivate fans by letting them participate in an authentically recreated, Dragon Ball Z® universe, including all of the most compelling story lines and memorable characters, said Gen Fukunaga, president of FUNimation Productions. _With surprising gameplay features and graphics enhancements, Budokai" 2 looks to set a new standard of DBZ® video game excellence. With highly detailed Toriyama shaded graphics, Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai" 2 features 34 of the toughest, most seasoned heroes and villains from throughout the Dragon Ball Z® sagas. The World Games through the Kid Buu sagas of the Dragon Ball Z® animated series are _all new in the Budokai" 2 experience. Players can battle in eight highly destructive arenas covering four gameplay modes, including Versus, Tournament, Training and the all-new, singleplayer experience, Dragon Mode, where players join forces with a team of AI-controlled DBZ® fighters on a quest to capture all seven Dragon Balls. Fans can perform fusions _the combination of two fighters into one, taken directly from the animated series _and play as the mighty villain Buu", who appears in three forms, Maijin Buu, Super Buu and Kid Buu. Dragon Ball Z®: Budokai" 2 follows on the heels of its successful predecessor, which has sold more than 1.1 million units in North America alone. As of June 2003, the partnership between Atari and FUNimation has resulted in Dragon Ball Z® video game sales totaling over 3 million units and $110 million in the U.S. (Data according to the NPD Group, Inc.). The Dragon Ball brand has generated over $3 billion in worldwide licensed merchandise _a number that few animated series can compete with. It is among the top-rated series on Cartoon Network and was the number-one rated show among all U.S. cable TV programs for _tweens 9-14, boys 9-14 and men 12-24 during 2002 season_s launch line-up. For the second consecutive year, _Dragon Ball was the most searched-for term on the Internet according to Lycos. For additional information on Dragon Ball Z®, visit www.dragonballz.com. ************************************************** BEVERLY, Mass.--Aug. 15, 2003-- Atari today revealed plans to bring the Trivial Pursuit® game, the most popular trivia game in the world, onto PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft with Xbox(TM) Live and Windows® PCs. The famous trivia game will come to life on console with innovative gameplay, multimedia clips and entertaining question topics that will be presented by six celebrity hosts from both television and movies. Sports personality Terry Bradshaw, along with television personality Brooke Burke, comedians John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg and John Ratzenberger, plus Bill Nye "The Science Guy," round out the roster of celebrity hosts for the Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game categories Sports & Leisure, People & Places, History, Arts & Entertainment, Wild Card and Science & Nature respectively. The celebrity hosts will deliver the game questions to the players. Their unique personalities and voices will add to the entertainment of the game content. "Bringing the Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game to next-generation console platforms will allow us to take everything people love about the board game even further by offering more ways to interact with other players, exciting new game play features and entertaining multimedia questions," said Nancy MacIntyre, vice president of marketing for Atari. "The Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game will stay true to the spirit and essence of the classic board game while also

fully embracing the pace and distinctive style of console game play." The Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game delivers incredible new game features that turn a familiar classic into an amazing new experience where a crafty move might outdo a correct answer. The Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game includes three game modes - Classic, Flash and Unhinged, which features bonus points and special board moves. In Unhinged mode, players can now steal wedges, bet as to whether other players will answer correctly, earn and spend bonus points, as well as a plethora of additional special moves and squares that keep the game entertaining. Developed by Artech Studios, the Trivial Pursuit Unhinged game will be available this holiday with a suggested retail price of $29.95 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and $19.95 for the PC. ************************************************** LOS ANGELES _August 15, 2003 _Atari and BioWare Corp., under license from Hasbro, Inc., are set to expand the award-winning Neverwinter Nights", the best-selling, fantasy roleplaying game based in the Forgotten Realms® world from Wizards of the Coast_s classic Dungeons & Dragons® game. Following the release of the first official expansion pack, Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide" in June, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark" pits players in a battle to save the embattled city of Waterdeep from an ancient evil buried deep within the earth and stone of Undermountain. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is scheduled for release this November. _By combining classic elements of a traditional pen and paper gaming experience with the action and excitement of an interactive adventure, Neverwinter Nights has changed the very nature of roleplaying games, said Steve Allison, vice president of marketing for Atari, Inc._s Los Angeles studio. _Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, will expand on those great gameplay elements with an extensive new single-player campaign and a host of exciting new options allowing players to create their own adventures with the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark will include a new 20hour single player campaign, designed for high-level characters and set amidst the famous city of Waterdeep and the foreboding Underdark from the D&D® game_s Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Hordes of the Underdark will significantly expand upon the Neverwinter Nights universe, most notably with the addition of Epic Level gameplay. Based upon the rules published by Wizards of the Coast in the D&D game supplement Epic Level Handbook", Epic Levels will be available for characters who have reached level 20, allowing them to advance as far as level 40.

extending the value of their original game purchase, _added Ray Muzyka, BioWare Corp. joint CEO and Co-Executive Producer. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark will equip module makers with two new tilesets and additional content for the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset, the groundbreaking software included with the full game that allows players to create their own universes, quests and storylines. The two new tilesets will be based around the new campaign and will include exciting new features specific to certain denizens of the Underdark itself. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is scheduled for release in November 2003. Additional information about Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark can be found online at www.bioware.com. ************************************************** BEVERLY, Mass.--Aug. 15, 2003--Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) has announced that Once Upon A Knight(TM), a fantasy-based interactive PC game, is in development and will ship to retail stores in September. Once Upon A Knight combines the best elements of real-time-strategy (RTS) action and role-playing-game (RPG) adventure into a unique and exciting game set in a brilliantly rendered setting where players battle evil, save damsels and are generally noble and just. "We are excited to be adding this unique title to Atari's catalog of quality fantasy products," said Nancy MacIntyre, vice president of marketing for Atari's Beverly studio. "Fans of both RTS and RPG games will find Once Upon A Knight's style and personality refreshing and rewarding due to its wonderful blend of intense action, exciting adventure and incredible graphics." Set within a world of treachery, nobility and milk (yes, milk), Once Upon A Knight delivers powerful gameplay and forgoes conventions surrounding ordinary fantasy titles offering a milk-based economy, mother-in-laws, flying witches and secretive knights named Floyd. Players can chose to either jump right into battle in RTS mode, or slowly build up a character's attributes over time in RPG mode. Once Upon A Knight is set in a fully animated, highly detailed three-dimensional environment that features over 20 missions, hundreds of quests, creepy monsters, 80 different characters, countless spells and weaponry. Once Upon A Knight also offers LAN and online play where up to eight chivalrous gamers can test their skills and battle each other to discover who is the ultimate medieval master. Once Upon a Knight will be available in the U.S. on September 23rd for a suggested price of $49.99.

In addition, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark will introduce several new prestige classes, including the Shifter, a druidic class specializing in shape shifting; dozens of new feats, such as Epic Reputation, Craft Weapon and Armor Skin; a multitude of new weapons and spells, many designed solely for epic level characters; challenging new creatures pulled straight out of the Underdark, including Mind Flayers, Beholders and Driders; several new character voice sets for even greater character customization; and 17 new epic soundtracks from composer Jeremy Soule.

************************************************** BEVERLY, Mass.--July 17, 2003--Atari today announced plans to bring Hasbro Inc.'s (NYSE:HAS) TRANSFORMERS ARMADA, the enormously popular male action property to PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system with TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: PRELUDE TO ENERGON. All the rage in the '80's, the TRANSFORMERS brand is as popular as ever with the top-selling TRANSFORMERS ARMADA toy line and comic book series, and Cartoon Network television series.

_Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark will expand on the already massive Neverwinter Nights franchise by adding a number of features requested by the extensive fan community, said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, BioWare Corp. joint CEO and Co-Executive Producer of Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. _The inclusion of Epic Levels alone should open up great new ways for people to play the game and create their own high-level adventures, further

Exclusively for the PlayStation 2, TRANSFORMERS ARMADA : PRELUDE TO ENERGON is a revolutionary 3rd person, 3-D action/adventure game. Players enter the world of TRANSFORMERS as they become one of three AUTOBOT robots and control their character's every move and decision. The massive robots can explore numerous rich 3-D environments on foot or convert to vehicle mode for high-speed maneuvering. Players will

battle DECEPTICON forces with an arsenal of weapons including cluster rockets, homing missiles and vortex cannons.

<steve_schmidtke@hotmail.com>). - The Commodore C64 and C128.

"We're working diligently to develop a game that expands upon the TRANSFORMERS ARMADA brand to provide a truly unique experience with intense gameplay, vast environments and an emphasis on combat," said Andrew Carter, vice president of product development for Atari's Melbourne House. "Every massive environment and character model will be delivered with an unprecedented level of visual realism by harnessing PlayStation 2 system's powerful graphics technology and techniques - resulting in incredible rendering effects and absolute immersion for players." "TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: PRELUDE TO ENERGON for PlayStation 2 is being developed to deliver a deep interactive experience that will immerse players into a rich, bold new TRANSFORMERS world," said Nancy MacIntyre, vice president of marketing for Atari. "TRANSFORMERS is a successful brand that continues to thrive nearly twenty years after it was introduced and we are excited to offer this highly anticipated title." "Atari is a leader in interactive gaming and has the talent to bring the world of TRANSFORMERS to life through a dynamic and engaging game that will captivate fans of all ages," said Tom Klusaritz, Vice President of Publishing for Hasbro Consumer Products Worldwide, the licensing and promotions arm of Hasbro. TRANSFORMERS characters are now armed with the ability to evolve, as players collect different types of MINI-CON robots that power-up character's abilities. MINI-CON characters possess a unique ability to make ordinary Transformers characters extremely powerful and are desired by both the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS. The ultimate goal is to free the MINI-CON race, battle to defeat MEGATRON warrior and his evil army of DECEPTICLONES to save the Earth from destruction. Developed by Atari's Melbourne House, TRANSFORMERS ARMADA: PRELUDE TO ENERGON will be available in Spring 2004 for a suggested retail price of $49.95. For more information, please visit www.atari.com. ************************************************** --Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:32:36 -0700 Version 1.26 of the Atari++ emulator is now available. Atari++ is an Atari 8-bit/5200 emulator that supports several operating systems, including Unix, Linux, Solaris, and Windows. Unix versions are source-only and must be compiled, but the Windows version is available pre-compiled with the SDL libraries. You can download the latest version of Atari++ and learn more about it at http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~thor/atari++/ [This news item courtesy of Atariage.com: http://www.atariage.com] ************************************************** --From: uz@remove-to-reply.musoftware.de (Ullrich von Bassewitz) --Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:01:53 +0200

- 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 (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 is a maintenance release that contains bug fixes for version 2.9.1 (see http://www.cc65.org/bugs.php for a list), but no additional features. Special care has been taken to make sure that this release works flawlessly together with Contiki, Adam Dunkels internet enabled operating system and desktop environment (http://dunkels.com/adam/contiki/). Thanks a lot, Adam! Available packages: 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. 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. 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. Download:

I'm proud to announce cc65 version 2.9.2. cc65 is a complete cross development package for 65(C)02 systems, including a powerful macro assembler, a C compiler, linker, librarian and several other tools.

For more information and a download link, please visit the cc65 web page at: http://www.cc65.org/

cc65 has C and runtime library support for many of the old 6502 machines, including

Mailing list: There is a mailing list for discussing cc65 related issues (programming, suggestions, bugs, ...). See

- The Commodore VIC20 (contributed by Steve Schmidtke

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: "slawko70" --To: <hunmanik@earthlink.net> --Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 21:50:17 +0200 Hi, New version of EMUAPC (0.92) is available at http://www.komires.com/ main changes: - Improved sound and keyboard initialization The DOS version of EMUAPC works with real DOS, Win 95/98/Me/NT/2K/XP and Sound Blaster emulators for instance VDMSound; - New option 'sound buffer' added; - PC joystick support added; - New option 'calibrate joystick' added; - Fast cache added to the file decompressor; - Function key Ctrl+PrintScrn changed to Ctrl+F2. Best Regards Slawomir Koziol ************************************************** --Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 12:45:10 -0700 --From: Kevin Savetz --To: Michael Current The full text of the 1985 book "Atari Basic - XL Edition" is now online at atariarchives.org. Written by Bob Albrecht, LeRoy Finkel, and Jerald R. Brown, the book presents a guided tour to programming the Atari XL computers in Atari Basic.

are on the board just behind the R1:Port connector. Jumper across these two pins to disable the "R:Handler". If you use the R:Port (most of us don't) then put a switch here instead of a jumper so you can turn the "R:Handler On or Off depending on your application program and hardware requirements. Star Stuffer Fonts: If you are using my StarStuffer Fonts with AtariWritter (I hope you are), you may have noticed that when you print more than one page only the first page is in the font you selected. The easiest Fix for this is to put your Control Codes to select the down loaded font in a Header. The Header will be "printed" at the top of each page and thus reinitialize the font at the beginning of each page. This should also work for any other word processors that you may be using. XM301/1050 It has come to my attention that some early XM301 modems and some early 1050 Disk Drives are Not compatible with each other. This shows up as flakey drive operation when ever the modem is pluged in to the chain. One of our members had this problem and called Atari Tech Support. Atari agreed to replace his XM301 at no charge. Daisy Chain:

The book is the follow-up to the 1979 book "Atari Basic - A SelfTeaching Guide," which is also on the Web at http://www.atariarchives.org/basic/

Are you still unplugging your modem so you can plug in your printer interface because you don't have enough I/O Ports. The XM301 and several other devices don't have an extra I/O port (required for Daisy Chaining). To eliminate this problem you need two spare I/O cables. Cut both cables in half and splice them together with Pin #1 of one cable half going to Pin #1 of each of the other three cable halfs. Pin #2 to Pins #2 and so on. NOTE: The wires are color coded, but the color code may vary from one cable to another. Check Carefully!) Now plug one of the four connectors into your computer. Connect the other three plugs to three devices that have two I/O ports (like disk drives) and now you have three EXTRA I/O ports to use for other things. You can adapt this to your system by making the new cable with only three legs or as many legs as you need.

This is the 19th book to be made available at atariarchives.org. -Kevin Savetz

************************************************** --Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 10:47:55 -0700

************************************************** A-T-A-R-I Answers-Tips-and-Relevant Information by Paul Alhart, paulalhart@hotmail.com

The new version of Atari800MacX, 1.5.0, has been released. It adds a keyboard shortcut for preferences, adds an override for ATR disk image write protects, and fixes a major sound bug, which prevented the emulator and another sound source (such as iTunes) from working together correctly.

http://www.atariarchives.org/basicxl/

The following TIPS were all inspired by questions I received from you the membership this month. Thank you. Keep it up.

http://members.cox.net/atarimac/ [This news item courtesy of Atari.org - http://www.atari.org]

RANA: If you own a Rana disk drive, sooner or latter the disk eject spring is going to break. When it does, go to your local hardware store and pick up a 1/4" Molly Bolt. The spring used in the Molly Bolt is just what you need. P.R Connection: Having trouble with some of your programs like AtariWriter+ Proofreader that you can't explain? In some models of the P.R. Connection the "R:Handler" is loaded more than once by some programs. This causes memory conflicts and strange things happen. The "R:Handler" can be disabled though. Remove the P.R. Connection from it's case and locate two pins labeled "R OFF" that