February 2008
NEWSLETTER for February 2008 President’s Corner by Michael Current February 2008 Over the holidays I was able to spend quite a bit of time back in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan where I grew up. One of my "assignments" was to reconstruct our original Atari 800 system, and especially to take away as much as possible of the Atari stuff that had accumulated over the years (by me, before I had my own place to collect things). Basically, it was a matter of reverting the system to an earlier state, with all the games and the earliest books. Everything else, I brought with me back to La Crosse. This will be resulting in some SPACE auction material eventually, as I very slowly work my way through things. Furthermore, I managed to get that 800 working again. Not quite sure how. I took it all apart and swapped in a new CPU card we had purchased many years ago...Man is the 800 a bear to get into! I got it all back together, no change to the symptoms. It would generally boot, but there would be oddities on the screen, and usually some kind of strange sound as well. A couple carts actually played for a while, Defender, Star Raiders. Star Raiders was particularly bizarre, the stars were leaving trails! Well, as I kept fiddling around, suddenly it started working perfectly again. I could no longer make it not work. First time in several years it's been working. What happened? It wasn't the swap of CPU cards, obviously. My guess is that there was oxidation on the ROM card connection, or maybe one of the RAM boards, that was overcome just by my pulling those cards in and out multiple times. But I was really happy to see that old machine working again. I continued on to cleaning the case as best I could as well. Now, it never looked better, and never ran better. And wow, that machine puts out better video than any XE or especially any XL I've seen. One other bit of news, I've been in contact with Steve Elek, Jr. of IMAGE, and hopefully we'll be receiving their club newsletters again soon.
Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday February 8, 2008. **********************************************
Treasurer's Report by Greg Leitner For January 2007
Tony took my place and arrived early to open the doors for the meeting and I understand there were six members present. That was a vey good turnout. Since I didn't make the January meeting there is nothing for me to report for our Treasury. There are no deposit or expenses to add to the January meeting so our bank balance remains the same. My computer has a virus that I am trying to work out so I am writing this report from work. I hope to have everything back to normal by our next meeting in February. See you all then. **********************************************
Secretary's Report By Steven Peck For January 2007
Hello again, fellow Atarians! I hope that you new year is continuing to go well. It was hectic being the the only one at the meeting to preside over the topics discussed, but I want to thank everyone there that guided me through. You know who you are and it is duly appreciated. Anyhow, I will get to the point. All I can say right now is that as the new year progresses it will get better and better for us. These old Ataris still have a lot of spunk to them, and I am happy to own some of my own. I started out on my Atari lifetime adventure when i was eight years old, and we got the 2600 with Pac-Man. That was a delight, and over 170 games ago. I would never trade my Atari stuff for anything, even if they outlawed it (...they can pry my game controller from my cold, dead fingers... lol)!
But, we seem to be dwindling in numbers. That concerns me because I want SPACE to continue on. So, the question is what can we do? I don't know personally. But, it would be nice if new faces came along. So, here I close with this. We have these great little spunky machines for our hobby. We should make sure that these treasures last indefinitely... Well, that concludes the Secretary's Report. Thanks much and keep using that Atari. (NOTE: Greg Leitner, the SPACE treasurer was absent from the meeting on January 11, 2008. I was given the balance sheet from December 2007 by mistake. Unfortunately, I cannot provide the Treasurer's Report in Mr. Leitner's absence. I apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused. This should not be a concern at February meeting.) -Old Business(No old business was discussed at the meeting except one comment about the Christmas Party concerning the food during the festivities.)
BBS Corner By Nolan Friedland For February 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.
******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 9:44 PM Subject: Infogrames Entertainment announces David Gardner as CEO INFOGRAMES ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES DAVID GARDNER AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
-New Business-
Former Electronic Arts Executive and Industry Leader with 25 Years Experience and Strategic Vision Set to Reignite Company
Lance brought up news about the Coldfire evaluation boards and they were the talk of the meeting. Two boards were released for evaluation from Freescale Semiconductor (the developers of Coldfire), and TOS is now running on the boards. They are very close to being ready to be marketed.
Lyon – France, January 31th 2008 – Infogrames Entertainment announces today that during its meeting on 30th January 2008, the Board appointed David Gardner as CEO of the Group effective immediately. The Board has also accepted the resignation of Patrick Leleu, Chairman and CEO of the Group.
It was mentioned that Atari was working on a Falcon 040 CPU tower as well as a Falcon 030 laptop before Jack Tramiel discontinued the projects shortly before Atari's demise, and the assumption from the developers is that the evaluation boards were what Atari were working on themselves because of the seamless synergy between TOS and the Coldfire chip. The developers thought that there would be more emulation written since Coldfire is 90% compatible with the 68000 processor. However, it runs at only 1-3% emulation, so it will be screaming fast, comparable to a high-end Power Mac G4 tower. The smaller board will cost USD$399.00 has a USB port on it for keyboard. However, there is no external floppy drive on the small board or other accessories. Where as, the full size board will cost USD$899.00 and have all accessories needed for operation. However, the owner must supply a case for the mother board. The smaller board is thought to be a laptop computer motherboard. That concludes the new business.
********************************************
Leading Industry Executive in Europe joins Infogrames… Mr. Gardner is one of the leading executives in the interactive entertainment software industry with a career that spans nearly 25 years at Electronic Arts, where he was a key contributor to the growth of the company globally. Mr. Gardner brings a wealth of experience and creative talent to Infogrames. In making the appointment, the Board stated: “We are delighted to welcome M. Gardner as the new CEO of Infogrames. David is one of the most recognized professionals in the interactive entertainment software sector. He is a leading figure in this market, who brings a unique vision and experience to the Group. His appointment as the head of Infogrames marks a transformation milestone in the Group’s history.” … to Open a New Entrepreneurial Era for the Company Mr. Gardner will assume responsibility for delivering a new vision for the Group, and will implement a multi-stage strategic programme to transform the Group into a market leader in its field. In addition to relaunching the publishing initiatives and optimizing Infogrames’ global distribution network as announced, Mr. Gardner will focus on implementing a new brand and online vision for the Group, key success factors for a worldwide leader in the video game entertainment sector.
This transformative process will include rejuvenating the Atari brand name by building an online platform for distribution and gaming, assembling a world-class management team and restoring Group profitability through selective cost-cutting measures. Michel Combes, the Chairman of Infogrames, made the following statement: “David is an entrepreneur, a gaming industry business leader, and has a strong vision for the future of Infogrames. We look forward to his leadership of Infogrames, as it enters a new phase of growth. We also want to thank Patrick Leleu for his able leadership of the company over the course of the last year. He has been successful in putting the Group back on a solid financial footing to execute its strategic plan and will continue, through a transitional consulting position, to offer his knowledge and insights to the Group going forward." Gina Germano, a Director of Infogrames and a representative of BlueBay Asset Management, led the selection process of the new CEO. She said, "We have had the pleasure of getting to know David well in recent weeks and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with one of the true gaming pioneers. He brings a unique creative talent, industry vision and pragmatic business sense to this company. He is one of the strongest professionals we have come across. Based on his excellent track record, we have no doubt that David will build a team and execute a plan that will improve shareholder value meaningfully.” Regarding his appointment, Mr. Gardner remarked, “I had a dream to work for Atari when I played Star Raiders in 1979. When you form such a powerful emotional relationship with a brand it can stay with you for your entire life. My goal is to help rebuild that passion around the company. First, with the employees and then very quickly to spread it virally on the Internet to millions of new customers. Remember that Infogrames was one of Europe’s first gaming companies. I have a personal challenge to create a world-class company that is European in flavour but reaches global markets. This will take some time of course, but here we have fantastic gaming DNA formed at the birth of the industry, access to creative talent and a company with the working capital to make the necessary investments to realize this vision. Over the coming months we want to work hard at showing the potential for what this renewed team can do and how it will excite gamers once again. Atari’s history is that of a world-class brand and I want to work with our team to create a world class company.”
employees operating in fourteen countries. Mr. Gardner was also instrumental in making several acquisitions of games publishers in Europe and integrating them into EA. In 2004, Mr. Gardner was promoted to Senior Vice President of International Publishing, a post which was based in the US, where he continued to expand his international responsibilities, with a focus on Asia. Shortly, thereafter, he was appointed to Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of Worldwide Studios. During this period, he helped lead the reorganisation of the Studio business and expanded EA’s presence in the key Asian markets of Korea and China. Mr. Gardner left EA in August of 2007 to return to live in Europe with his family. He was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) on the Queen’s Birthday in June 2007. ********************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:53 PM Subject: AtarIRC v2.06 released AtarIRC v2.06 released Dec 17, 2007 - Check Version fixed (broke when I rearranged my website) - some other minor changes, see docs http://www.bright.net/~gfabasic/ [Download AtarIRC] ********************************************** Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:56 PM Subject: KK Commander 1.Q KK Commander 1.Q Jan 13, 2008 Pierre TON-THAT announced on usenet: Bonsoir :) Download on my homepage or directly in the folder http://rajah.atari.org/files/ -> kkcmd10_uk.zip (84KB) This program is derived from Litchi, for local usage. It's a Total Commander mock-up that can be used as an alternative desktop for Atari ST old systems. GEM only, with (trying to) convenient keyboard navigation. since 320*200 screen rezolution and 1 MB RAM. - copy/move/delete for files and folders - basic launcher - two windows display
An Exceptional Career in Interactive Entertainment David Gardner started his career programming PDP-11s in 1978 and selling Apple II computers in 1980 then joining Electronic Arts (EA) in 1983 as one of the first dozen employees. After focusing on sales and marketing early in his career, he became responsible for starting EA in the UK in 1986. In 1992, Mr. Gardner became the Managing Director of Europe. Over the next thirteen years, Mr. Gardner grew EA in Europe from a handful of people in the UK to gross revenue of approximately US $1 billion dollars with over 1,000
GFA source is provided, if you can to recompile it for MiNT MP compatible GFA Lib. Voilà PS: do not ask me about the name of the program. it's a private joke on ircnet #atari.fr, rather scatologic... sorry about that. -- Pierre TON-THAT - Rajah Lone / Renaissance http://ptonthat.club.fr
********************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:54 PM Subject: Phoenix 5.2 released
Just a small message to tell I built SDL 1.2.13 for Atari. I did not have time to make any improvements to it from 1.2.12, so there are only general bugfixes, not Atari specific.
Dec 23, 2007 Gerhard Stoll announced on usenet:
-Patrice Mandin WWW: http://pmandin.atari.org/ Programmeur Linux, Atari Spécialité: Développement, jeux
Hello,
**********************************************
I release the Version 5.2 from the database program Phoenix with sourcecode. This version based on the code from Dieter and Jürgen Geiß.
**********************************************
Phoenix 5.2 released
At the momenten there is only a english resource. The docu is in german. Gerhard http://home.ewr-online.de/~gstoll/ ********************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:52 PM Subject: TeraDesk 3.94 is released TeraDesk 3.94 is released Dec 16, 2007 Djordje Vukovic reports on usenet: Version 3.94 of TeraDesk open-source desktop for the 16-bit and 32-bit lines of Atari computers is available at: http://solair.eunet.yu/~vdjole/teradesk.htm This release brings several improvements to existing features, including new capabilities related to shutdown, special applications and display of the hypertext help. It also fixes a number of bugs noticed since the previous release. See the history file for more information. Btw. it is almost exactly four years since the release of TeraDesk 3.0 on December 14th 2003... ********************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:55 PM Subject: SDL 1.2.13 released SDL 1.2.13 released Jan 10, 2008 Patrice Mandin announced on usenet: Hello,
**********************************************
********************************************** ********************************************** ********************************************** ********************************************** **********************************************
**********************************************
**********************************************