SPACE Newsletter

NEWSLETTER for July, 2007 President’s Corner

Treasurer's Report

by Michael Current July, 2007

by Greg Leitner For June 2007

25 years. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS! That's right, this month we celebrate a quarter century of the Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts. We can thank our club's Founding Fathers, Tony Walsh, Steve Howard, and Chris Tiggemann, for starting SPACE in April of 1982, and here we are, 25 years later! We are marking this occasion in our customary way: potluck party! Bring a dish to pass to this month's meeting, and let's all enjoy this moment with your fellow Atarians. If you have not had a chance, you really need to check out the new SPACE web site. Nolan has put a great deal of work into it, and while there are still a few glitches to iron out, I really think he has done a fantastic job with the site redesign. I wish to briefly point out here that next month's A-T-A-R-I column by Paul Alhart will be the last. Why is this? Because after next month, we will have re-printed every A-T-A-R-I article he wrote! More on this next month. Finally, this month may be an apppropriate time to give some thought and discussion to the future of SPACE. (Perhaps in the formal meeting, perhaps over the eats!) Our membership count is relatively low, and more importantly, recent meetings have seen very few people showing up. Financially we are okay for now; the main damper of late has been the size of the meetings, and the resulting minimal DOM sales. Do we still want to hold monthly meetings? Are there any viable alternatives? While we all wish SPACE to continue indefinitely, all things change, and even end, including SPACE, so we should not be afraid to bring up such topics to assess where we stand. We need not be slaves to tradition. SPACE can only be what we, the SPACE members, want it to be. We need your input and participation! Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting and birthday party, Friday July 13, 2007.

I hope everyone reads their Newsletter in time for the next meeting. You already should know that the July SPACE meeting is also our birthday month. Since only four members attended the June meeting we didn't get a lot of input for the birthday dinner. I guess we will just do the normal pot-luck again. Tony and I will bring the pop, napkins, plates, utensils and a main dish to share. Everyone else can bring anything you choose. We really need to discuss the future of SPACE. Glen and I almost called it a night at 7:40 at the June meeting when two more members arrived a little late. It turned out to be a good thing that they were late as an ST user brought his system in to donate at about 8:00. So we ended up with the Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Dom chairman as the four members present for the June 2007 SPACE meeting. With gas prices being so high I wonder if we should meet only every other month or maybe once a quarter. I don't know how you all think about this but it is very discouraging for me and Glen to be there every month and all the other members to come whenever it fits their schedule. We need feedback about the future of SPACE. I was going to have an auction at the July meeting but a few things changed my mind. For one, I don't know if enough members will show, two, we only have ST stuff to auction and no one was interested at the last auction and three with the nice ST system we had donated to SPACE, I can't bear to see it go for $1.00. We need to have more members present and I just don't see it happening even for the birthday meeting. Here is the breakdown for the SPACE treasury for June: Beginning balance as of June 1, 2007:

799.59

Receipts for the June meeting: Memberships Doms

30.00 15.00

Total receipts for the June meeting

45.00

Expenses for the June meeting: Newsletter-for twelve months Web-site-for four months

67.08 40.00

Total expenses for the June meeting

107.08

Ending balance at June 30, 2007:

725.51

We had catch up expenses for the June meeting but we are now in good shape until the room rental bill arrives which could be any day now. I never know when Falcon Heights will remember to bill us, and when they do it will be for six months ($150.00). We are still okay for now but we really need the membership renewals and dom sales to keep us strong. I bought the only dom last month and it is really a shame that Glen puts so much of his time producing the dom and no one shows up to buy them. If I sound like sour grapes I am sorry, but I could be doing other things with my wife on these Friday nights instead of waiting around to see if anyone other than Glen is going to show up for a SPACE meeting. I need some feedback from you guys to determine how to handle this problem. Please don't forget the Birthday meeting next month, and please bring a dish to share. I really hope to see a lot more of you next month.

******************************************** A-T-A-R-I Answers-Tips-And-Relevant Information Paul V. Alhart 1997.1 Who Ya Gonna Call? You say that gremlens have been been taking 'bytes' out of your disks and you need help restoring them. Who Ya Gonna Call? Or your latest programing efforts have hit a snag because you need to know what O/S address in your 1400XLD holds that data you need. Who Ya Gonna Call? Maybe you need to upgrade or sell off some of your hardware. Who ya Gonna Call? Need a cable to hook that new modem to your 850, or a hard drive to use with your BlackBox? Who Ya Gonna Call?

Secretary's Report By Steven Peck For June 2007

What are the pin outs for the interface connector on your Indus disk drive? Who Ya Gonna Call? Do you just want to talk to other Classic Atari users to see what they are up to? Who Ya Gonna Call?

Well, we did not have much attendance in June for the SPACE meeting, but there were surprises this time. We got some ST stuff from Mr. Ron Dennis, a person from Georgia. He gave us a hard drive, a power center, an Atari 1040STf, and a slew of ST disks. We were not sure if he was going to make it, but he did. Thanks, Mr. Dennis for your donation. It is appreciated. Lance also e-mailed me. He told me that Allen Noble is doing fine and that he may come back to meetings later this year. Hopefully that happens. Nolan told us about the web site. I got a chance to look at the site myself and it looks very nice. I want to extend my thanks to those involved in making the web site updates. That is my report for now. Thanks for reading.

******************************************** BBS Corner By Nolan Friedland For July 2007

If anyone has any comments, suggestions, ideas, or submissions for the BBS Corner column or the SPACE BBS web site, you may email them to me, Nolan Friedland, at the address shown on the back of this newsletter under the "CLUB OFFICIALS" section.

I recommend you call FIDO. No, not the neighbors dog. Call a FIDO Net BBS. Fido Net is a network run on private BBSs. It started out as a small local network in the midwest, and now has almost 40,000 nodes or member BBSs from almost every country in the world. The message areas include some 800 topics. They run the gambit from A to Z. Atari to Z80 you might say. Not every Fido BBS carries every message area, or "echo" as they are called, due to memory and drive space limitations. Most SysOps will add any echo that BBS users request though. If you don't see what you want, just ask. All of the echos work pretty much the same. The Atari 8-bit echo is where you'll find me hanging out, as well as many prominate names in the Atari community, and that's the one I'm going to talk about. First make sure you are on the right echo. There are a couple of Atari ST echos as well as the Atari 8-bit echo. The #1 rule on the Atari 8-bit echo is that you only talk about the Atari 8-bit and related topics. You can send messages to a spicific person or to ALL. Its kind of like InterNet E-mail except that everyone else on the echo can, and will, read your message as well. That's half the fun. You"ll learn what other Atari users are up. And don't be afraid to butt right in with your own comments or opinions as well. Fido mail is generally sent bbs to bbs, sometimes taking messages a couple of days to bounce to their ultimate destination. The BBS I call uses PlanetConnect, which is a satellite reception system. A company in the east transmits all of fido's message and file echos and it is received on a dish at this end. The SysOp keeps what he wants and just dumps the rest. Like I said, most BBSs don't carry every echo available.

Since FidoNet is run on private BBSs, they all have their own "personality" as well as their own unique options and features. They do come and go from time to time too. For instance, when the SysOp of my local Fido BBS had the nerve to move to another state a couple years ago, he just pulled the plug on the BBS. I was lost. After finding another Fido board in the next town, I started making a list of other Fido boards that presently carry the Atari 8-bit echo from information found in message taglines. The following is the list I have compiled to date. Remember there are almost 40000 Fido BBSs around the world, so this is just a short list to get you started. Find one near you and call it. The SysOp should be able help you locate other Fido BBSs in your area. I hope to talk to you there soon. Location

BBS Name

Phone #

Bham, Al. Gadsden, Al. Montgomery, Al Jonesboro, Ar Mesa, Az Phx, Az Sierra Vista Az Az Escalon, CA Los Angeles, Ca Sunnyvale, Ca Ca Oildale, Ca Palmdale, Ca Santa Maria, Ca

Family Smorgasboard Toy StarScan ??? Wizard"s Domain Star*Link Battlestar Galactica Danish Tower BBS PC Heaven Beemer Board Masatek Atari Base Driven Element Got Milk Inc Miles Enterprises Tower

205 744-0943 205 494-9613 334 279-7313 501 932-6961 602 464-4817 602 269-1209 520 459-6514 520 445-8472 209 983-0625 310 518-9524 408 745-2196 408 267-2335 805 399-9459 805 264-0200 805 937-4093 805 937-4492 818 763-0678 818 704-8838 818 704-6646 909 989-7745 909 274-9637 909 688-8427 916 723-1657 916 428-9808 916 721-1701 916 893-8079 916 737-1844 916 332-7141 916 498-1721 305 977-0098 305 378-2571 305 378-8809 305 472-7715 407 695-0594 407 574-0670 407 568-8774 407 831-1613 407 348-5295 407 831-6077 407 331-2874 813 969-1089 813 960-7267 904 789-8383 904 769-9431 904 746-6542 904 892-5635 904 862-8643 904 862-6917 904-722-9217 706 868-9726 706 321-9126 912 927-4857 912 788-5258 912 757-0576 217 446-9294

Ca Computer One Canoga Pk, Ca 22 Acacia Ave Rancho Cucamonga, Ca Star Tours II Riverside Ca Prime Connection Riverside Ca PC Widowmaker Citrus Heights, Ca Mind Keep Ca Odyssey Line Ca Deap Space Franchise Chico Ca Madman Sacramento CA Humanx Commonwealth Sacramento, Ca Vortex Ca Rest Stop Margate, Fl TechLands Miami, Fl Metro Data Gp. Fl Casselberry, Fl Deltona, Fl Fl Fl Kissimmee, Fl Orlando, Fl

Brass Pounder TJ's Sky-Net MoonRose HQ Twilight Zone Osceloa Express RUSH Room

Fl GIFfer Fl ?? Deltona, Fl NeverEnding Fl Computer Country Beverly Hills, Fl Gator Gulch DeFuniak Springs, Fl Rainbows End Ft Walton Beach, Fl 221B Baker St. Ft Walton Beach, Fl Baker St.Irregular Panama City, Fl Bejue Martinez, Ga Far Side Ga Animal House Savana, Ga E-Pages Ga ZAP Ga Southside Danville Il Jewel of the Night

Springfield, IL Bartonville, IL Chicago, IL Collinsville, IL De Plaines, IL IL IL Indianapolis, IN IN IN Plainfield, IN Louisville KY New Orleans, LA Ma Hingham, Ma Great Hills, MD

Fantasy Land Midnight Serenade Greg's Place Garage River Styx II FamilyNet Intl. Electric Estates Zoo Dedicated to Atari Mail Room Party Towne Pub LiveWire French Quarter Echo Fun-House Hafa Adai Exchange

Columbia, MD Pasadena, MD Mi

MetroNet Dollar Saver Abacus

Mi Mi Saginaw, Mi Minneapolis, MN MN MN St. Louis, MO MO Independence, MO Great Falls, MT Brandon, MS Madison, NJ Bridge, NJ Old Bridge, NJ Las Vegas, NV Reno, NV Rome, NY Utica, NY NY Seaford, NY Waterford, NY NY

Horseman's DeVaSTaTioN Four Flags FlightLine City Lights Warehouse Ajax Cat Grinder ChatMaster Dugout Milo's Bloom County Cell Block CryptNet Hologram Republic Rebel BBS Library Com Catfish Mecca W.A.A. BBS Blue Oyster Arena BBS InterState Veliss

NY Bronx, NY Bronx, NY NY NY Akron, OH Akron, OH Akron, OH Zanesville, OH Edmond, OK Owasso, OK Tulsa, OK OR Ivyland, PA Pgh, PA Whitehall, PA Shickshinny, PA PA Charleston, SC Irmo, SC Columbia, SC Kingston, TN TN TN San Antonio, TX San Antonio, TX TX Richardson, TX Garland, TX Houston, TX TX

NeoNexus Fordham Jesuit BBS Haven Overnight ][ DarkSide of the Moon Remote Access Rubber City Wind-Aided Unknown BBS Medicus Ham Radio Emporium South Forty Puddle City DSC Genealogists Father & Son Full Throttle Revelstone Roost Dreadnaught Class ViewPoint Online Soft Touch Final Frontier Night Falcon's Plains Last Chance Another Brick ST:ING Lunatic Fringe Road Kills Domain STarship HACE

217 535-1005 309 697-2752 312 376-0081 618 344-8466 708 432-2659 708 230-9068 815 886-0494 317 356-5519 317 356-5519 317 644-5029 317 839-5793 502 933-4725 504 891-1388 508 883-3894 617 749-0526 301 994-9460 301 994-9462 410 720-5506 410 360-0640 517 645-0093 517 645-0239 517 769-2230 616 527-6299 616 684-3822 612 544-5118 612 633-1366 612 379-8272 314 282-4216 417 886-2737 816 795-0774 406 454-2682 601 992-5567 201 593-9035 908 727-1914 908 679-2680 702 435-0786 702 785-4191 315 336-8948 315 797-3054 315 732-8598 516 579-2069 518 233-0572 716-826-0762 716-826-6383 716-826-0279 716-826-3911 716-825-5956 716 624-8106 718 817-5500 718 904-9054 718 980-5838 914 736-1253 216 253-9247 216 376-0885 216 864-0313 614 264-1912 405 478-8250 918 272-4327 918-756-7006 503 289-9429 215 443-7390 412 681-5688 610 439-1509 717 542-7287 717 263-9689 803 767-4201 803 781-0243 803 788-8194 423 376-7623 901 835-4136 615 446-9900 210 822-7519 210 662-8367 210 509-3272 214 235-5288 214 240-0408 713 682-7474 713 458-9923

TX Insomnia Albany, TX Friendship Corner Wylie, TX Wylie Connection UT Hackers Haven Hampton, VA Outpost XIO Newport, VT CUS-VT Node #3 West Virginia Brooke High Tacoma WA Total Access Tacoma WA Permanent Crew Rest WA Gray Matter WA Elite Holmen, WS GatorNet North Comox, BC Guild Port Alberni, B.C. Wishing Well Vancouver BC iramax BC CobraTel Edmonton,AB,Canada UnderDog Canada Mach2 Valcan Calgary-Alberta Can. 40 Gig Toronto Canada Balmy Beach TAF Online Tonys Corner Ste-Foy, Qc. Sci-Fi Bradford Ont. FiEnds Puerto Rico RaMeY CyBeR Lloydminster, Sask. LBBS

915 915 972 801 804 802 304 206 206 206 509 608 604 250 604 604 403 403 403 403 416 416 810 418 905 418 787 306

690-1445 762-2745 442-0388 224-7961 850-0909 334-7975 527-3255 472-9884 472-6805 528-1941 736-9544 526-3561 339-9805 724-6280 323-9698 762-5511 454-2960 247-7900 489-4250 299-9900 690-9641 421-8999 754-1131 658-3875 775-2273 658-2462 890-1769 825-0224

Eschborn, Germany Mainframe Support System Oberursel, Line 1: 49-6171-76295 Line 2 (ISDN): 49-6171-981048 (1800-0100 CET only)

********************************************** Origins by Tony Walsh Reprinted with minor corrections from the July 1996 SPACE Newsletter I am one of the original members of SPACE. I, Steve Howard and Chris Tiggemann started SPACE back in April 1982. At that time, TAIG was the only ATARI club in Mpls. TAIG meetings were in Chaska and they had about 150 members. We wanted a smaller club in the northern part of the Twin Cities. Steve, Chris and I were talking one day at work (UNIVAC) and the idea came up to start another ATARI club. But no one was willing to be president. The ball started rolling when Steve reluctantly volunteered. Chris volunteered to be vice president and I took the librarian job. We had several monthly meetings before we made the public announcement. Many people had expressed interest during those early months so we new the club had a chance to survive. One of our first projects was to pick out a club name. Steve wanted the words "Saint Paul" in the name. I wanted "ATARI" included. Chris liked the ring of Twin City ATARI Interest Group or TAIG. So we made a list of words and started trying different combinations. It seemed like magic as SPACE was one of the first combinations that everyone liked. And we also agreed that our "temporary" name would be reviewed by the general club membership and they would pick a new permanent name. For some reason, our "temporary" name became permanent. The first public meeting was in June 1982. I can't remember where the meeting took place - about 8 people showed up. After that meeting, we encountered some problems. Steve resigned and the meeting room was to small. That was a

critical time as it seemed like our club foundation had vanished. Chris and I found out that Steve had volunteered, just to start the club and he had no intention of being the president. Steve was an author and he really wanted to write and publish the news letter. Out of nowhere, Ed Finegan stepped forward and replaced Steve. Ed found a new meeting hall on Lexington and Snelling - Minnesota Federal conference room. Our July meeting was a success with 13 people showing up. At our August meeting, we had 17 ATARI enthusiasts. Steve published our first news letter that month. And I started gathering software for the library. TAIG had 35 disc's of public domain software. I made a deal with Phil Seifert of TAIG to purchase their DOM and redistribute that software in SPACE. Ed surveyed the 17 members and found 8 had the 810 Disk drive and 9 used the 410 Program Recorder for loading software. That meant I had to build 8 DOM's and 7 COM (Cassette Of the Month) each meeting. The DOM's were easy to build as it took just a few minutes to copy the disc's. The COM's took a full day. I used 60 minute Radio Shack cassette tapes for the COMs. I wrote a basic program that copied all the DOM programs to my 410 Program Recorder. I would start a copy and return in 30 minutes, so I could flip the COM or start a new one. I was lucky if I got the job done in one day because the 410 Program Recorder was not too reliable. I also printed labels with counter numbers that approximated the start of the program. To load a COM program, you used the 410 counter to position the cassette. Then by pushing the PLAY button, you listened for a long silence in the tones. That meant you must have found the gap between programs. You typed in "LOAD C:" and waited for the computer to beep. Then you quickly depressed PLAY on the 410 and hopefully the program would load. The 410 was a "poor man's" loader and it was not too reliable. That meant the above process was sometimes repeated 3 or 4 times before you got a good load. It was near impossible to load a big program. And we found my 410 counter was different than everyone else so that added another problem. I swapped many COM"s because some worked for some people, and not others. What a time we had with our new toy! It was really encouraging to go to each meeting. We usually signed up 5 to 10 new members each month. And TAIG really grew - from Aug. 1982 to April 1983 there membership grew from 185 to 358 people. I don't have any numbers for SPACE - my guess is about 100 in April 1983. By this time SPACE and TAIG limited COM's to 5 programs per side because of reliability problems. And by now most people were using disk drives as the price dropped from $459 to $229. We charged $4 for DOM or COM. 5.25 inch disc's, in those days, were $2.25 each. ATARI 800 sold for $499 and the 400 went for $200. An ATARI 400 full stroke keyboard was $125 to $250. The 410 Program Recorder sold for about $80. And the 850 interface went for $250 if you could find one. My Epson, state of the art, MX-80 dot matrix printer cost $459 and for $80 more, I could buy EPROM's that printed graphics. The Anchor Signalman 300 baud modem sold for $99. The popular

magazines were COMPUTE!, 250 pages at $2.50 and Creative Computing at $2.50. COMPUTE! really supported ATARI and they usually devoted about 100 pages. They had type in software and informative articles from ATARI founding fathers like Chris Crawford. All that cost put quite a drain on our pocket books - no wonder the wife was afraid of bankruptcy. I remember starting many "new" events. SPACE birthday parties, swap meets, paper library, and the 65K upgrade. In Feb. 1983, Steve Berglund figured out how to add memory to his ATARI 400 and I organized a 65K upgrade SIG (Special Interest Group). $85 got you 65K installed on your ATARI 400. Remember that up to this time, most of us had 16K machines which ran 90% of software available. Now my 400 could compete with those 800's with 48K. I think this was one of the first memory upgrades and it seemed we started an avalanche - all you saw advertised after that was memory upgrades. It did not take long for software to catch up with the 65K. And in about 6 months, all you saw was large programs and 48K machines. Looking back in my notes I see names like Glen Kirschenmann paid $4 for Aug. 1982 COM. In Sept. 1982, Glen submitted COMPUTE! type in software to the library. Sherm Erickson in Nov. 1982 was working with the mail order cassette library. In Jan. 1983, Sherm wrote an article for the news letter explaining the COM mail order procedures and charges. At the Feb. 1983 meeting, Sherm and Rich Mier were working with Preppie! and cassette backup. Sherm and Rich also offered their computers and TV's for club demonstrations. Our club has come along way since 1982. Somehow, the club survived! I have always though the ATARI 400/800 are well though out and well documented computers. And they are a fast (machine language), 8 bit machines. They keep living on. I hope to see many of you at the SPACE meetings for years to come. ********************************************** ********************************************** ********************************************** ********************************************** ********************************************** **********************************************

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