January 2009
NEWSLETTER for January 2009 President’s Corner
Well, here is the recap for the year ended December 31, 2008, and what a great way to end the year.
by Michael Current January 2008
Beginning balance for December 1, 2008:
934.38
Receipts for the December meeting: Membership renewals Auction sales Doms
45.00 38.00 18.00
Happy New Year 2009! Thanks to everyone for another really nice SPACE holiday party last month. It was a great turnout, and it seemed like everyone had a good time. And we had another eventful auction! Thanks to Nolan, Steve, and Greg for agreeing to run for positions on the Executive Board again, and to Glen, Mike, and Nolan for their continued willingness to produce DOMs, produce Newsletters, and run the club website. SPACE only keeps going because you choose to keep it going! Wasn't the December DOM particularly amazing? Animal Party and Loops of Zen are both great new games. Animal Party really benefits from good joysticks. My Atari CX40 joysticks updated with the Best Electronics Gold PCB board and improved plastic stick insert worked most nicely. My high score so far on Animal Party is 5,864. What's your best? Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting, Friday January 9, 2009.
Total receipts for December
101.00
Expenses for the December meeting: Web-site renewal annual fee Web-site expense for Nov. & Dec.
9.95 20.00
Total expenses for December
29.95
Ending balance as of December 31, 2008:
1,005.43
Wow!!! We really kicked butt in 2008. Even though we haven't gotten the bill for the room rental this year we will still have more money in our account this year compared to last year. We finished off the year on a really high note, and now we have a great start to the new year. Our membership is hanging in there and the support is very strong so I am very optomistic about 2009 and even much further down the line. Thanks to all our members on another fabulous year and cheers to you all. Merry Christmas!!! **********************************************
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Treasurer's Report
Secretary's Report By Steven Peck For December 2008
by Greg Leitner For December 2008
The members who attended the SPACE Xmas party were not disappointed. The food was great (so I heard, I'm not a taco fan) and there was plenty to go around. The auction took in $38.00, and we finished the election process. No changes to the SPACE staff for 2009. This is going to be very short this month as Jackie and I have a ton of things to do to get ready for Christmas. Our shopping is almost done but we have to wrap for quite a few people. Everyone around here is getting very excited waiting for the big day to arrive.
Well, we had a blast at the SPACE Christmas Party. There was plenty of food and drink to go around. There were some really good graphics and animation demos on the computer that really impressed me (it's amazing what those Atari 8-bit computers can do). Well, enough on me speaking about the DOM. I'll leave that up to Glen. The auction was very successful with practically all the software titles being sold. It was mostly software, with some hardware like a monitor for an 8-bit Atari, and a printer. I think that stuff went as well. Anyway, SPACE President Mike Current showed off the Best Electronics joystick upgrade for
the CX40 Atari 2600 joystick controller. It got good reviews and people enjoyed playing games with the rebuilt joysticks. I haven't heard anything in the Atari realm about anything, and I have been putting out my feelers for awhile. However, I found out info on hacking the hardware on Atari ST/TT/Falcon computers on a French website. If you are interested, go to Google and use search topic: "Atari ST Hardware Hacks". It got some interesting stuff that you might never have thought possible on an ST/TT/Falcon that you can upgrade it to do. Well, that concludes my Secretary's Report. Keep using that Atari, and I will see you in 2009. Thanks for reading.
******************************************** BBS Corner By Nolan Friedland For December 2008
Brief description of NEW features: NEWS IN SPARTADOS 4.42 (relative to 4.41) ========================================= EXTENSIONS TO OLD COMMANDS ========================== COPY ---The COPY command can now copy or move files in "flat" mode, as well as copy or move entire directory trees recursively. The recursion depth is limited only by the maximum length of the path (64 characters - practical limit of 8-10 levels). FORMAT -----Now verifies if the drive really has selected the requested number of tracks, sides etc. MENU ---Can now execute programs and serve as the DOS shell. X -
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.
Clears the memory on request.
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FMT - simple text formatter LESS - paging text viewer MORE - simple text viewer RDDUMP - dumps a ramdisk contents to a file RDLOAD - restores contents of the ramdisk from file created by RDDUMP
From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 10:26 AM Subject: Oxygene releases Amiga Demo 2 Oxygene releases Amiga Demo 2 December 28th, 2008 Leonard of Oxygene released his STe/TT/Falcon Amiga music demo today. It's over three hours worth of Amiga music, most in form of "chip"-like tracks.
NEW COMMANDS ============
NEW DRIVERS =========== ENV - extension to environment variables DOSKEY - multi-function Command Processor extension
Many well known for Atari dudes but also big bunch of a bit less known tracks, all are really good. The demo uses Leonards new Paula emulator which focuses on accuracy rather than speed and it sounds really good.
COMMAND.COM BUILT-INS =====================
» Download Amiga Demo 2 by Oxygene (20081229: Updated archive) http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/AmigaDemo2.zip » At Pouet.Net http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=52336
Apart from the normal I/O redirection, where the program's or command's output to the console can be redirected to a disk file (the type DIR >>file), and a program's or command's input from the console can be fed from a disk file (type MORE <<file), there is new feature called "pipe". The pipe is an extension to the traditional I/O redirection, and it can transfer data from one program (or command) to another program (or command). For example:
******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 10:59 AM Subject: SDX 4.42 announcement December 25, 2008 DLT proudly presents the release version of SpartaDOS X 4.42
EXTENDED I/O REDIRECTION ------------------------
DIR | MORE (where DIR and MORE are Command Processor's internal commands) or ARC | MORE
(where ARC is an external program) or
DOSKEY allows the user to define up to 256 keywords aliasing valid DOS command keywords or entire command lines.
DIR | LESS (where LESS is an external program) or ARC | LESS If a program, that is supposed to be the receiver, only expects a regular file as the input source, the '-' sign can be used to signify the pipe, for example: ARC | TYPE - /P will do the same as "ARC | MORE" above; and, if INVERSE is a command that displays the given text in inverse video, the following:
FOR ALL ======= * A bit more free RAM. This will especially be visible on 64 KB machines, where MEMLO can be lower by as much as 900 bytes. * SIO calls can be now routed through OS ROM in any memory configuration (regardless of the location of the buffers) * String comparisons in BAT files now feature MS-DOS-like syntax. * System error messages are now fully customizable.
CHKDSK /X | INVERSE | ARC A CHKDSK will create a file CHKDSK.ARC containing the compressed and inversed output of the CHKDSK /X command. AUTOMATIC EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ---------------------------------------------
* On-line help system provides documentation pages directly available from the DOS prompt (on CAR: on Maxflash 8, or as separate archive for other versions). The manual pages are excerpts from the printed "SpartaDOS X Reference Manual".
Passing a word preceded with a '$'-character in the command line causes the Command Processor to evaluate it as an environment variable name and, if such variable exists, automatically substitute its value. For example:
FOR PROGRAMMERS ===============
ECHO $PROMPT
* new DOS function, "rename directory", is now available through a XIO call.
* all directory formatting modes are now available in OS and BASIC.
will display the current value of the variable "PROMPT", and * strings may now contain ESC sequences: a, b, e, f, n, r, t, \ DIR $TEMP will list the contents of the directory pointed to by the TEMP variable. When you want to switch it off, precede the '$'-sign with ''. DOSKEY ====== An additional utility called DOSKEY.SYS and usable on machines equipped with 128 KB RAM or more provides the following extensions to the Command Processor: COMMAND HISTORY ---------------
Versions for intSDX128, TurboFreezer 2005 and Atarimax Maxflash 1 and 8 Mbit are available here: http://sdx.atari8.info (http://sdx.atari8.info) If someone is new to this version of SpartaDOS and wants to know, why this one is the best DOS for Atari, a brief characteristics of the SpartaDOS X can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpartaDOS_X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpartaDOS_X)
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When DOSKEY is loaded, commands entered via the keyboard are stored in the memory buffer and can be invoked at any time with a key combination. The buffer can hold up to 240 command lines.
From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 10:29 AM Subject: SpartaDOS X 4.42 released
MULTIPLE COMMANDS PER LINE --------------------------
SpartaDOS X 4.42 released Version 4.42 (25 Dec. 2008)
When DOSKEY is loaded, multiple commands can be entered in single command line. The '&'-character is the separator, for example:
Changes in SpartaDOS 4.42 (relative to 4.41) ============================================
VER & DIR & CHKDSK
NEW FEATURES ============
will execute these three commands in order from left to right. There is no other limit of keywords per line than the maximum length of the command line (64 characters). ALIASES -------
KERNEL -----* in OSRAM mode, unless the ENV.SYS was loaded, the environment is now kept under the MATH PACK ROM.
This leaves a bit more memory under the main OS ROM to load drivers. * generic interrupt vectors for 65C816 native mode are put under ROM. For now they point to a RTI. * 65C816-specific OS-es detected at startup, and a flag is set if it is allowed to use interrupts in native mode. * The new directory formatting modes are now "connected" to CIO and available in f.e. BASIC. LIBRARY ------* Internal calls to GETENV and PUTENV are now always routed through the symbol list (this is necessary for the new ENV.SYS extension to work properly). * new library function: RENDIR (rename directory). * More error messages, and changes in already existing ones. * switches like /AB can be now given separately /A /B * new symbol: XCOMLI * FCLOSE on a non-opened file won't generate an error now. * Error messages are now stored on CAR: in a plain-text file, and the library uses $SYSERR to locate this file. * PRINTF now recognizes the following Escape-sequences in strings: \a, \b, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \\ FORMATTER --------* The formatter can now verify, if the drive can really execute the formatting with the parameters selected by the user. In Std and High mode it will be verified before, and in the UltraSpeed mode - after formatting. (this is because of the format protocol differences between Std/High and UltraSpeed, sorry). DRIVERS ------* Minor improvement in QUICKED.SYS. * CON64.SYS and CON80.SYS are now responsible for reconfiguring the screen and memory pointers when X.COM switches the library module off and on, and the console is under their control. * CON64.SYS i CON80.SYS provide new functions for user programs, and both are a bit faster. * SIO drivers reorganized: instead of three separate SIO.SYS, SIOOLD.SYS and SIO2.SYS, the user will see only one SIO.SYS, which in turn loads appropriate SIO module depending on parameters passed to in the CONFIG.SYS file and depending on the memory configuration. * OS SIO can now be used in OSRAM mode, even if the buffers are located under the ROM. * RAMDISK.SYS split into three modules: for 6502, for 65C816+standard OS and for 65C816+customized OS. That last leaves interrupts on when switching to the native mode. * The 6502 RAMDISK.SYS module uses now around 150 bytes less main memory than before (MEMLO 150 bytes lower). * SPARTA.SYS now always keeps the DISK and FILE structures under the MATH PACK ROM, when USE OSRAM was selected. Previously these structures were put to the same memory where the disk buffers were kept.
* SPARTA.SYS can now output the file's length as the full, ten-digit bytecount (previously: only six-digit byte count for files smaller than 1 MB, or kilobyte count for greater ones) in the long directory format. * New driver: ENV.SYS, provides 16k for environment variables. * New driver: DOSKEY.SYS, provides command history buffer for COMMAND.COM, multiple commands per one command line and command aliases. UTILITIES --------* X.COM, when the screen memory is not GR.0, now asks the CON: driver to reconfigure the memory when the library bank is being switched off and on. * X.COM, when used with /C switch, clears now all the memory from MEMLO to MEMTOP, $80-$FF & pages 4,5,6. * MAN.COM now displays the list of available manuals when invoked without an argument. /? displays help and copyright information. * MAN.COM can now use external text viewer. * MAN.COM now accepts commas as separators in $MANPATH. * FSYMBOL removed, its functionality integrated with shell's PEEK command (try PEEK symbol_name). * CON64.COM and CON80.COM, controlling the 64and 80-column screen drivers, replaced with a single utility CON.COM * New internal command in COMMAND.COM: RENDIR. * The batch command FI is now incorporated into the COMMAND.COM. * IF has now MSDOS-like string comparisons. * MENU.COM now works properly on 64and 80-column display provided by the CON??.SYS drivers. * DF.COM has new switch: /A, try it. * New version of SORTDIR.COM, even very long directories (~1400 entries) should now fit in the buffer. * In DELTREE.COM the /Y switch suppresses the confirmation request (MS-DOS like). * DELTREE.COM can now delete directory trees containing more than 256 nested levels (limited by available memory, practical limit somewhere between 2000 and 3000 levels). * The COMMAND.COM now supports pipes, try DIR | MORE. * The COMMAND.COM now adjusts the directory listings according to the screen width (try DIR in 64 col. mode for example). * Environment variables typed in the command line at the DOS prompt and prefixed with the $ character will get evaluated and their value is substituted (try "ECHO $PROMPT"). * '-' is now special filename for COMMAND.COM, the pipe filename is substituted for that. Try "DIR | TYPE - /P" or "DIR | ARC A PIPE -" * COPY has a variety of new options: /DIMNQRV and can copy or move entire directory trees recursively. * New utilities to dump/restore ramdisk: RDDUMP and RDLOAD. * New text viewer utility: LESS (better than MORE). * New text filter: FMT BUGFIXES AND THE LIKE ===================== ICD bugs, available ;) at least since 4.20
-----------------------------------------* If a file was opened R/W, it was possible to read past the EOF and these reads actually enlarged the file adding zeros to its end. * If FOO file existed in current directory, doing MKDIR FOO replaced the file. * It is now not possible to rename a file to FOO, if a directory FOO exists in the same directory, and vice versa. * It was possible to use FOPEN to create a file with the +S attribute set - and CLEANUP is not able to fix that! * In OPEN #1,x,0,"D:FOO.BAR" any value of 'x' was accepted, and most of them (0 for instance) actually created an uncloseable file (= invalid directory entry). * Hitting RESET when a file was opened for write used to leave an invalid directory entry on the disk. RESET now closes all files cleanly. * In DIRS listing, when the sector count of the file's length exceeded 999, three last digits of the actual sector count was printed. It will now be "999". * MENU.COM now properly handles directory names with extensions (like SPARTA.DOS>) Fresh DLT bugs -------------* Eliminated zero-page conflict between CON64.SYS and some programs (like TAR.EXE). * The bug in CON80.SYS causing problems with reading text lines longer than ~175 characters from the console is now fixed. * The bug in SPARTA.SYS allowing to rename protected directory entries in certain circumstances is now fixed. * Unsetting the $DAYTIME variable now properly resets the date/time format to default (i.e. EU). * Wrong formatting for the "DIR" text in the oldstyle (not the default) DIRS directory listing is fixed. * MEM.COM assumed $FFFF as the top of RAM in OSRAM mode, this is wrong, fixed. * Fixed a typo in COMMAND.COM preventing $COPY from being evaluated correctly by the internal COPY command. * DELTREE.COM no longer resets the current directory to '>' when invoked inside a subdirectory. * COMMAND.COM now does not accept invalid dates and times in DATE and TIME commands. * COPY,,d: works again. * INDUS.SYS is back to the default configuration file (it is necessary for Happy drives to work properly). * On the UltraSpeed format command the formatter will no longer feed the drive with random values in the unused part of the buffer (it is now zeroed). * The NUL: device now properly sets the number of bytes read by FREAD. This makes commands like "COPY NUL: fname.ext" work properly. * Making NUL: acknowledge the SEEK operation in 4.41 was wrong, reverted the change. DUMP corrected to justify that. http://trub.atari8.info/index.php?ref=sdx_upgrade_en
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From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 11:13 AM Subject: Tempest Xtreem For Atari 8-Bit Completed --Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:19:47 -0600 My Name is Sal (aka. kjmann on atariage) President of Atlantis Games Group. I just wanted to post a notice here that Tempest Xtreem has been completed and Carts are being made as I speak. If anyone is interested in obtaining a copy of the game, it can be ordered from www.atarisales.com (Video 61). It's not on the website lists yet but Lance is taking Pre-Orders by Email or phone (651-462-2500) A playable demo of the game can be downloaded from our website at www.atlantisgamesgroup.com in the Tempest project area, selectable from the menu on the left. Hope everyone likes the game and Hope you all have a good holiday. =)
Sal (kjmann) President: Atlantis Games Group www.atlantisgamesgroup.com
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