SPACE Newsletter

NEWSLETTER for February, 2005 President’s Corner by Michael Current February, 2005 Such a busy time in Atari land! Add a USB port to your 8-bit! Connect your Atari directly to the Internet via a Lantronix serial to Ethernet "modem emulator"! The online discussion groups have been abuzz about these and other recent developments. I was contacted out of the blue by a Larry B. of Murphy, Oregon, who asks, "I noticed your page here: http://home.earthlink.net/~spaceclub/news9607.html . With mention of "Steve Bergland" which I'm wondering if it's the same Bergland I knew in the mid 70's in Southern California?" I told him, Steve Bergland was way before my time with SPACE, but that perhaps others remember. If anyone remembers Steve Bergland and could say whether or not he lived in Southern California in the 70's, please get in touch with me so that I can pass along the information to Larry B. Thanks. I heard from Tony Cianfaglione of Nova Scotia All Computer User Group (NSACUG) (Halifax, NS), who shared that their user group has just launched their new club newsletter, The NSACUG Times!. Their newsletter is published online only, check it out: http://www.chebucto.ca/Technology/NSACUG/ . Issue #1 has an Atari focus. I did buy myself a Blue Max cartridge (from B&C ComputerVisions; not that many vendors actually had this cart it turned out) as mentioned last month, so I spent some time reminding myself how fun this game is. Remember flying your plane down the streets of the big city? Taking out the trucks driving across the bridges? Aborting refueling stops to avoid getting bombed out? The SPACE Online Forum, at http://www.ilmarinen.us/forum/ has suddenly sprung to life in recent days, keeping head honcho Nolan and junior support helper yours truly busy keeping up with the discussions and ideas. If you haven't been there lately, check it out! Nolan's doing a great job administering it. One idea that was suggested, which Nolan very quickly implemented, is for an area of the Forum dedicated to members of SPACE, SCAT and IMAGE. I'm not completely sure if the idea will take off, but to all members of SPACE, SCAT and IMAGE, you are hereby invited to check out and join the SPACE Forum! Maybe our online Forum can serve your clubs as well as our own.

As you know, this past December's SPACE Christmas party was something of a bust. Well, January's planned bounceback was an even bigger bust. Greg's article in this issue describes that evening at SPACE. SPACE could easily shut down, any time. It's up to you. If that's what the membership indicates it wants, we'll do it, we'll be orderly about it, and we can fondly reflect on the club's 23 years. If you want SPACE to be there for you: attend meetings, renew your membership, buy DOMs, and, if you can, volunteer. Simple! Now, let's start a string of good meetings and put this topic behind us, shall we? SPACE home page counter update: as of 1/28/05, 9:00pm: 2,953 page views since June 7, 2003. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE Meeting, Friday, February 11, 2005.

Treasurer's Report by Greg Leitner For January, 2005

Okay, so it was cold. But hey! This is Minnesota in January and when I left for the meeting it was only 3 below and by ten in the evening it was only 4 below. So come on, you got to be kidding. If this is all it takes to call off a meeting then what happens if we two inches of snow next month? Glen and I were the only members who attended the January meeting and I was so disgusted that I told Glen to just take off. I arrived at 6:30 and I called the meeting off at 7:50. I hope the weather will co-operate next month so that I can feel like we really want to hang in there for at least another year. I got the bill for the room rental for July thru December 2004 which came to $150.00. Our bank balance is now at $638.73. There were no receipts to record for the month even though Glen had a dom of the month prepared. Well that's all I am going to say about this month. I hope you can restore my feelings for this Club with your attendance next month.

Secretary's Report By Nolan Friedland For Janurary, 2005

The meeting was called off at 7:50 pm by Greg because of the Lack of Members.

BBS Corner By Nolan Friedland For January, 2005

Nothing Received This Month For The BBS Corner. ******************************************** A-T-A-R-I Answers, Tips And Relevent Information by: Paul Alhart 1989.5 Secrets for Successful Printing with AtariWriter+ After using AtariWriter+ (48K version) to write papers for work, school, and personal use nearly everyday for almost three years, I have run into a few strange problems. You know the kind. For no apparent reason, what you get on paper is not at all what you expected. Your header data may have been dropped, several lines of text may be missing or the program might just lock up. Well, here are some Secrets that you can use to help make sure this doesn't ever happen to you again. MISSING HEADERS If your header previews correctly but doesn't always print on each page set the Top Margin to 10 or 14 instead of the default of 12. Also see PRINTER DRIVERS: UP 1/2 LINE MISSING TEXT Have you ever found lines of text missing from you print out? When you chain files together the values of the first file's Global Menu are carried over to all the chained files and their Global Menu values are disregarded. Since the Global Values are saved at the beginning of the text files, AtariWriter+ just whacks them off the top. No problem if they are there. But if you use the SAVE ASCII: option to save the chained files, they won't be there and two or three lines of text will be whacked off instead.

CHAINING FILES If you are having trouble just getting Chaining to work properly try a different DOS. I could never get files to chain with SmartDOS 6.1J, but have had no trouble with SmartDOS 1.0M or 8.2D. ALIGNING RIGHT JUSTIFIED TEXT

When several lines of text such as a name and address, are to be right justified you may have trouble getting the first character of each line to line up correctly. Follow the longest line with at least one blank space and then pad shorter lines with spaces to make all lines equal in length. Use Print Preview to check the results. PRINTER DRIVERS For some time I have noticed letters to Antic and other magazines requesting various printer drivers for AtariWriter+. Could it be that the requesters have never read the manual? Page 38 describes the program on the AtariWriter+ disk that allows you to create your own custom printer drivers. More likely they have tried building their own drivers and run into more problems. For the most part the manual is a good guide but it leaves out a few important facts. Here are some tips for creating your own printer drivers. LINE FEED AND CARRIAGE RETURN When asked for the code for LINE FEED AND CARRIAGE RETURN use the decimal code 155 no matter what your printer manual says. UNDERLINE OFF & ON The codes you put here don't seem to matter much. If your printer can backspace, AtariWriter+ will default to the slow process of printing a character, backspacing one character, and printing a "_" character then going to the next character and repeating the process. Spaces won't be underlined and the underline will not always be smooth. To get spaces underlined you can substitute the character "_" for each space in the text to be underlined. If your printer can underline by itself place the underline codes directly into your text or in the Type Font 1-9 code area for a fast, smooth, continuous underline. UP 1/2 LINE This is normally used for superscript printing but placing a code here can lead to a couple problems. If your printer can NOT reverse line feed you must leave UP 1/2 LINE blank or you will not be able to do double column printing. Also if UP 1/2 LINE contains a code you will sooner or latter run into a problem with HEADERS. Although they will PREVIEW properly they will not always print on every page. To get around this bug, either leave UP 1/2 LINE blank, or go to the Global Menu and set "Ôop margin to 10 or 14 instead of the default value of 12. This change can be made permanent by using my DefaultWriter+ program "Antic Tech Tips July 1988." Since you can have several disk based custom printers on your disk, you could have one just for double column printing and another allowing superscript (UP 1/2 LINE). The codes for superscript or any other printer function could also be safely placed in the TYPE FONT 1-9 codes. There is also a BLANK printer driver built into AtariWriter+. To access it just hit RETURN when asked to enter the name of you disk based printer driver prior to printing. This driver will not recognize any of the ONE KEY instructions such as underline, elongate, or type fonts 1-9, but it will let you do single or double column printing on almost any printer. You

can still enter special printer codes directly into your text with this driver. Also you can use this BLANK driver to remove all Print Format and Printer Control Codes from text when printing to disk. MORE ABOUT PRINTER DRIVERS To change printer drivers without re-booting, go to Proofreader and back to AtariWriter+. When you create a printer driver using the program found on the AtariWriter+ disk you will find that two files are written to disk. The one with the extension of ".PDF" is used only by the driver creator program when a printer driver is loaded for editing. The other file is the one used by AtariWriter+. It is in exactly the same format as the Menu selected printer drivers contained within the AtariWriter+ program. The brave hacker with a sector editor could put his custom driver right into the program and then be able to call it right off the printer menu. To do this you will have to over-write one of the existing drivers. If your new driver is longer than the existing one, it will over-write part of the next existing driver. That's OK. Just delete that driver choice from the printer menu (Sectors B5B7). First write and de-bug a custom driver with the driver creator program on the AtariWriter+ disk. Then pick an existing printer driver from the printer menu. One that you want to replace with your custom driver. With a sector editor replace the data in that printers driver with the data from your custom driver's file. I have had good luck putting my custom drivers in place of the existing 1027 driver or the BLANK driver mentioned above. Following is a list showing the starting sector & byte in HEX of each of the menu selected drivers. NOTE that the program sectors are NOT contiguous. Sector Byte Selection Use 113

7C

114 114 114 1E1 1E2 1E2 1E3 1E3 1E3 1E3 1EF

1E 54 78 1A 09 58 0D 2B 47 6B 4C

A: B: C: E: I: J: RETURN: D: E: F: G:

Not used for printing 825 1025 1027 FX-80 IDS-480 JUNKI Blank 1020 1029 XMM-801 XDM-121

SYSTEM SPECIFIC PROBLEMS Program Lock-Up Some of the earlier ICD P.R. Connections allow the Firmware R: Handler to be reloaded at a higher memory location every time you switch back and forth between AtariWriter+ and Proofreader. This causes memory conflicts resulting in strange results including program Lock-Up. Although it is not mentioned in the P.R.Connection manual, the Firmware R: Handler can be disabled by placing a jumper between the pins labeled "R OFF". Open the P.R. Connection case to expose the "R OFF" pins which are located on the circuit board just

behind the R1: PORT connector. You can use a switch instead of a jumper if you need the R: Handler for other software. Scrambled Disks When configured for 2 single density Ram Disks with SmartDOS 8.2D I found that saving a file to a real drive after having used the Proofreader spelling checker causes disk failure. Data is written in the reserved sectors 1-3 as well as in the directory sectors and in the middle of other data files. This makes disks un-bootable and scrambles data files causing File Number Mismatch errors (ERROR 164). Configuring for only 1 single density Ram Disk eliminates this problem. Although I haven't checked it out, this problem may also occur with other DOSs as well or even when configured for 4 single density Real Drives. GENERAL TIPS MARGINS AtariWriter+ counts spaces from the left-most printable position of your printer to set margins. 0 will be the first column (0 spaces from the first printable position). Thus to get proper results from a printer that is capable of printing a maximum of 80 columns the RIGHT MARGIN should never be set to a value greater than 79. SPECIAL CHARACTERS If you printer has an extended character set (Characters with ASCII codes above decimal 122), these character can be easily used in your printed text. Just type Control O (press both keys together) followed by the decimal ASCII code of the character you want printed. ********************************************** --From: Carsten Strotmann --Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:21:43 +0100 The first version of a Mouse Driver (tested with Logitech USB Mouse) is available. It might also work with other mice. If not, please send me the USBTEST HID Trace (USBTEST 0.4) of your mouse. USB Mouse Driver Disk and Sourcecode https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11142 8&package_id=141744 Best regards and a happy weekend Carsten ********************************************** --Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:31:08 -0800 Anders Eriksson has announced: After a couple of years of talk and no action, Atari.Org has now published a rather large (but yet far from complete) collection of Falcon demos and intros. We're nowhere near a compelte collection yet, but the launch offers over threehundred demos and intros to download.

Looking around the files, one will find many common demos from the well known crews like Lazer, Avena and E.K.O. but also some lesser known ones. If you look carefully you'll find a very rare Carebears demo which is a conversion of their most famous Union demo screen - but in glorious Falcon overscan and with a cool house soundtrack.

/|\ How to Connect to the Atari BBS's -=-=-=-=-=-=-=--==-=--===--=-=-=-=-=-= by Greg Goodwin, reprinted from: Volume 7, Issue 3 Online News, Etc. January 14, 2005

Atari

> Hi Doc, > If you can make me a step by step manual, I give it a go! > Cheers, > Sijmen. / Mr Atari

http://falcdemos.atari.org/ [This news item courtesy of Atari.org - http://www.atari.org] ********************************************** --From: adamofevil --Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:30:27 -0800 I am sure that a lot of you Atari users once had an Atari 8-Bit computer back in the day. Maybe you still do. You might remember a classic game called M.U.L.E. A game that you wish would have been ported over to the PC but never was. If you are a M.U.L.E. fan like I am, you probably used to have hordes of your friends over your house to play the best 4-man multi-player game ever written! After playing this game for hours upon hours, days upon days, years upon years, finally everyone grew up or grew apart and stopped getting together to play. If you are a M.U.L.E. fan like I am, you probably have done a bit of M.U.L.E. re-searching on the internet, in hopes for one day someone to create an internet capable version of this great classic. Well, I have some very good news for you. If you run Windows (98/XP) operating system, THE WAIT IS OVER!!! Thanks to the authors of the Atari800WinPlus (http://atariarea.histeria.pl/PLus/index_us.htm) and Kaillera (www.kaillera.com), you can now play the greatest multiplayer game ever made with 4 players OVER THE INTERNET! This is not a clone, it is the ORIGINAL M.U.L.E. un-modified! Same graphics, same sound, same game! The only difference is that it looks a lot better on your computer than it did on your TV back in the day! If this interests you, please hop on over to http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com where M.U.L.E. fans from around the world have been gathering and playing online! Some of our members include the authors of the most popular M.U.L.E. web sites such as World of Mule (http://www.worldofmule.net/index.htm) and Extreme MULEing (http://mule.eichberger.net/index.php) and M.U.L.E. Fans (http://www.100hosting.com/mule/). Even the creator of the recent M.U.L.E. clone game Space HoRSE (www.gilligames.com) has joined up with us! Ahh, the feeling of playing with 4 human players again is quite exhilirating! SO, what are you waiting for? Join us now!! http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com. See you there! Adam

**********************************************

That is the least I can do for someone who made a movie player for the Atari 8-bit and the MyIde interface. To matter the fact, this message is being sent out as a general invitation to a few that may or may not have known about the growing number of Atari BBS's that are being set up over telnet. (Or didn't know there was a movie player for the 800xl or ide interface I suppose as well.) :) The next big part of this will talk about what a BBS is and how to connect. If you have a good grasp on all that, and just want to know the actual BBS locations and what to find on them, skip past on this next part till you find the big Atari symbol made in ASCII art and the title heading "Here are the addresses and what to look for once there." /|\ WHAT IS A BBS? I always feel I should just put this blurb in when talking about the BBS's. I mean, though many Atari users are fully aware of what they are, I am happy to say that we have such a new crowd, many brought in by the internet, that they don't know. In short, we have new blood and that is a very good thing. A BBS, plain and simple, is some hobbyist setting up their own computer to answer incoming calls from other hobby computers. The visiting person leaves messages on this computer for other visitors, plays games while visiting, sends and receives files, and all that. Oh, and BBS stands for "Bulletin Board System." Think of a cork board where notes are thumb tacked to it throughout the day and that is a good visual idea of what this is. /|\ WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THAT AND THE INTERNET? Probably not much. So let's look at what an Atari BBS has to offer. First off, the internet! Since all the BBS's are connected through the internet, they are actually better in a way than their "good ole days" counterparts where the BBS was either local or a long distance charge was involved. At one time you might have found five Atari BBS's in a local dialing area and hundreds of other BBS's. Today, that feeling is there once again, thanks to the internet as hundreds of BBS's are springing up like weeds, and at least five BBS's (so far) are within dialing range once more, so to speak. ;) The Atari BBS's offer a segue of the internet that the Atari 8-bit computers can easily understand and use. They are usually 40 column, and feature ATASCII characters, which was the Atari special type of ASCII character set. Because of this, having a real Atari or Atari emulator to visit the Atari BBS's is nice to see the creative ATASCII art that has been created. And even more fun is the ATASCII "Break Type" movies where people have taken this art and made short cartoons. In truth, when you are on Atari BBS's you will be and see things that few will ever see. That road less traveled will make all the difference. ;)

It is important to briefly note that through BBS's, both Atari and nonAtari, you can read E-mail, check newsgroups (like the Atari 8 and ST newsgroups), and other activities are possible. And there are BBS's and services out there that have a web browser online that you can call with the Atari computer and surf the web with. The browser is all text and might take a bit of getting used to; however, it is interesting to search Google using an Atari 400. :D HOW DO I GET THERE? At the end of this brief introduction, I will feature the locations on how to get to the various Atari BBS's. But the ways to get there would include... 1) finding a local BBS that has both a dial in number and the means to "telnet" out. In this way, you are borrowing the internet connection of another computer that you will connect the Atari computer to via phone. Once you connect to that other computer, you would select the telnet option, and enter in the address like "telnet://bfbbs.no-ip.com" getting you to where you need to go. In this case, that other BBS acts as a bridge. If you want to try this option and don't mind a long distance call, let me suggest the following numbers... Collin County 972-562-8064 Log in, from main menu hit A for Arcade, 8 for other places and then 7 or 8 chooses already listed Atari BBS's. Family-Net BBs 972-496-0650 Log in, and at the main prompt type "Telnet" and then at the next prompt type the address, for example "bfbbs.no-ip.com" The best mostly accurate list for looking up such a service close to you, if there is one (and they can be rare) can best be found at www.bbsmates.com. Trick in these cases is to call using bobterm in ASCII. Once you have telnetted to the other BBS and connected, you can then switch your term program to ATASCII and enjoy the Atari BBS as it was meant to be enjoyed. When you exit the Atari BBS and return to the host BBS you called to get that Atari BBS, make sure to switch back to ASCII. 2) Use a more modern Computer (or non-Atari) This is perhaps the easiest way to start and try this out. Alan Sharkis is a well known Atari user who has logged on for quite some time with this method. First, for about any modern computer go to your internet browser and enter in the address line something like "Telnet://bfbbs.no-ip.com" and the browser will open (hopefully) the right program to take you to that BBS location. It will be understandable, though not with the ATASCII character set. There are solutions for seeing ATASCII characters on the PC. One is found at http://www.atarimax.com called the Atari Terminal Simulator (ATS) which is freely downloadable. This will only view Atari 40 column ATASCII BBS's, but does a fine job of it. There is one question... "Dr. Clu, I quickly see that for me to access BF BBS this computer seems to need to emulate a terminal program! Might you suggest one? Using Windows XP, the connection is not the best; was able to connect once out of 5 or 6 attempts. Of the 4 options to use the BBS, which one should be chosen? Be well.

Sparky!" Well Sparky, I have to admit, I have been able to use the ATS on Win 98 and 2000 very well, but have run into trouble with it under XP. I'm sure this can be worked out, and will tinker with at work when my boss isn't looking. :D But in the meantime, try logging on with Hyperterm. Check it out, have fun writing to Atari users, and we'll work out the rest in time. For now, we would love and even need your company so come on over! ;) 3) APE interface PC gateway. Speaking of www.atarimax.com, Stever Tucker made this wonderful ability in the windows version of APE (the program and cable that lets you make a PC an Atari's bit...er..slave. :D) there is a great ability to tap into the PC's internet. Bring up the APE program on the PC, Bobterm on the Atari, and Bobterm will notice the internet out there. Now you can enter in a telnet address and it will take you right to it. Nice and basically cheap setup, and great way to take advantage of the internet setup on your PC. 4) Serial to ethernet interfaces. (UDS-10/ MSS-1, etc) The buzz word in Atari BBS'ing these days is a fabulous device that allows your Atari to connect to it via the serial port. The device has a serial port on one end, and a lan port on the other. This device will add your Atari to your home internet network. "Internet what? Hold on pilgrim... What in tarnation are you talking about?" Ok, at home, maybe you have cable modem or DSL. Maybe you have one of those little fangled routers that let you share this service with more than one computer. That is what I'm talking about. From that router, you have cables going to your PC, and a few other PC's, and now you can have a cable that goes to your Atari computer as well. These serial to ethernet interfaces emulate a modem. You say "AT" in the term program, the interface, like a modem, will say "OK". I have the UDS-10, and I was able to set the interface up using an Atari computer and nothing else. The interface has enough smarts to give you a menu to set it up. Setting it up might take some work, but I, or Marius or anyone else with a UDS-10/100 or MSS-1 would be willing to help if you ask nicely. Once this interface is setup, you hit a macro on Bobterm, and quicker than dialing in, instantly you are on. And all that macro has to say is "ATDT213.10.217.144/8888" Just like you were dialing a phone number, but in this case it is the Atari BBS's IP address over the internet. Kewl eh? ._,-,_. ||| ||| "HERE ARE THE ADDRESSES... ||| ||| ;|| ||: ... AND WHAT TO LOOK FOR ONCE THERE..." ./ /| |\ \. |./ :_: \.|

Current Atari BBS List 01/12/2005 Atari Inside Boot Factory Closer To Home Mousenet BBS Inside the 8-bit

telnet://213.10.217.144/8888 telnet://bfbbs.no-ip.com telnet://cth.dtdns.net telnet://atari-bbs.kicks-ass.net telnet://216.78.138.17/8888 or 8889 (two lines)

CHAT ONLY (This BBS is not run on a Atari or Atari emulation but makes a simple chat room to reach with an Atari computer)

Www.atarinews.org telnet://216.240.173.22 (ANSI terminal like Ice-T suggested) Tuesday chat at 8 pm CST Thursday chat at 8 pm CST Sunday chat at 10 am CST (Also known as the Europe chat) What you will find when you arrive at these BBS's are usually a nice ATASCII drawing if you have a term program that supports that. If not, they usually have a creative non-ATASCII one.

--From: Norbert Simon --Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 09:40:00 -0800 Tempus Word has updated to version 5.4. Additionally there are 11 more dictionaries available - for free. Details: http://www.tempus-word.de/en/index.htm

Being Pro! BBS's (the type of BBS program they are running) most of them have a "Q" command which will give you a quick scan of the messages other have written. It will say you are on message 1 of 50... Skip to like 45 by hitting either a "J" for jump to number, or "G" for goto number. Just be careful that the G is not for "Goodbye". :) Read the last ten messages, maybe read the rest later or not. But see what has been written there. Then you can hit sometime like R for reply, or P for Post a new message, and that is how you jump in and have fun. Leave your message, and hopefully in turn others will write back. Cartoons at the main menu is where those ATASCII "break type" cartoons are. Usually quite entertaining. Just remember, these are not regular graphics, but key characters placed around each other to look like a picture or graphics. A fun art form in it's own self. Games section at the main menu usually has a selection of simple games like Kingdom, online Chess, and so on. SO ONE BIG QUESTION... WHY?!? ------And the question comes up again.. Why? These places make a great place to leave messages to other Atari users. But then you can do that in E-mail. These places offer a great place for discussions... But then there are newsgroups for that. These offer a place to share files, but the you can do that on the internet too. But you know what is really fun? Turning off the rest of the world for a bit, and turning on a Atari computer, and only that. And with whatever means listed above, or others not listed, calling BBS's, checking mail and the newsgroups, and then stopping off in that bit of Atari with the ATASCII graphics and just being off in another rarely seen world. A world that belongs to you a few others. And then you realize that your Atari computer is connected to another Atari computer on the other side. A fun thought. And maybe you'll turn on the rest of the world... Or maybe a day will go by when you don't have to if you don't want to. Just you and your Atari computer taking care of business. Always fun to dream. (I know you'll questions, to matter the fact, I'm hoping on it. ;) Write me at greg.goodwin ( A T ) rdfig (D O T ) net.) (Oh yeh, ST Users, I know these are mainly 8-bit BBS's, but please do stretch your ST's legs and come by and visit. And there is talk on a ST BBS making a return, so stay tuned...)

**********************************************

Happy new Year! Norbert Simon Tempus-Word Project ********************************************** WINTER HAVEN, FL - The editor of The Atari Times (www.ataritimes.com) has announced the upcoming February 1, 2005 release of the annual paper-based book titled the 2005 Compendium. Copies will be available for sale at www.cafepress.com/ataritimes. The book will be at least 100 pages including news, features, reviews, and previews for all Atari home systems that have appeared on the website over the past year. These include articles for the Jaguar, Lynx, 7800, 5200, 2600, home computers, and even the arcade systems. In addition, the 2005 Compendium will include over 45 pages of previously unreleased material as well as a color cover. Gregory D. George, editor and writer for The Atari Times commented, "My previous 4 books have been quite successful and I have been very pleased at the response I received from the readers. This particular book will have more new material never printed on the website." From February 1, 2005 to February 7, the pricing for the 2005 Compendium is $13.95. After February 7, 2005, the price will be $15.95. Shipping charges also apply. Continued Mr. George, "As with last year's book, the 2005 Compendium is seeking sponsors and advertisers. We are able to reduce the ad prices drastically this year thanks to the fact that we are printing the book through CafePress.com instead of local channels. Full page ads are $10, half page ads are $7 and quarter page ads are $5. The only requirement is that the ad be something Atari related. To buy an ad, please contact Greg George at http://www.ataritimes.com/email" More information about The Atari Times Compendiums can be found at http://www.ataritimes.com/store/books.html The Atari Times is a web-based publication devoted to all Atari game systems. Updates to the site are on a weekly basis. Visit http://www.ataritimes.com/ for Atari related news, previews, reviews, and feature articles. **********************************************

--From: Carsten Strotmann --Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 12:26:09 +0100 Hi, the MicroUSB Team is announcing the new Logitech Formula GP Wheel Driver. see https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11142 8&package_id=134212 and http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Microusb/ProjUSBC artAtariLogWheel A Disk Image with VBI Drivers and the compatibility test Program HARDTEST.COM is available. A patched Game (possibly Ralley Speedway) will be released soon. This driver is based on the new Modular HID USB Driver. Best regards Carsten Strotmann ********************************************** --From: Carsten Strotmann --Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:47:38 +0100 Hi, the game Robotron 2048 can be played with two Joysticks (Joystick 0 - move, Joystick 1 - Fire Direction).

And here are the USB Drivers for use this Joystick with an original Atari... Files / Driver Disk https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11142 8&package_id=1299 89&release_id=296216 Documentation / Sourcecode http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Microusb/ProjUSBC artAtariCompProUsbJoy stick Have fun Carsten ********************************************** --From: Shawn Jefferson --Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 05:39:32 GMT Version 2.0 of the MyIDE Image Manager is ready. Features: - 30 character description for your images - rename or modify images - assign categories to your images, as well as view by category - 20 fully editable 4 character category names - substring search your image names New in version 2.0: - major bug in create image routine fixed - larger sector buffer for faster image copies - categories added - cosmetic changes - image table is incompatible with previous versions, sorry! Please read the accompanying documentation.

There is now a patched version that works with an Logitech Rumblepad USB and the USB Cart. With this Controller playing Robotron is even more fun. Check out the Disk Image at http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=774410#77 4410 Best regards Carsten ********************************************** --From: Carsten Strotmann --Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 19:19:57 +0100 Hi, german company Speed-Link has recreated the famous Competition Pro as an USB Joystick. The Quality and Gamefeeling is very original, the Stick has Microswitches, metal case and good old design with big buttons. And an Autofire switch ;) Have a look http://www.speedlink.com/prod.php?lang=de&sys_id=1&pb_id=1&prod_num= SL-6602

Also, just released MyIDE Config v1.0, allows you to swap your partitions drive letter assignments around, create and delete partitions with more flexibility than FDISK.BAS, as well as configure the option byte parameters. There is a short text file describing the keys and the basics of what it does. Get them both here: http://www.jeffersonsauctioneering.com/atari/myide/ Feedback, enhancements requests and bug reports most welcome. Send to sjefferson [ AT ] shaw.ca. **********************************************