December 2011
NEWSLETTER for December 2011 President’s Corner by Michael Current December 2011 It's time for the December SPACE meeting, and you know what that means: PARTY!! What would the Christmas season be without Atari, SPACE, and tacos?? Well, this may be the last SPACE party to feature tacos, so you won't want to miss it. It is a potluck, so bring a dish to pass and enjoy the festivities. Last month's Annual Meeting featured the re-election of the existing slate of club officers: myself as president, Nolan as vice president, Brian as secretary, and Greg as treasurer. The volunteer positions remain filled as well: Glen as DOM librarian and membership chairman, Nolan and BBS/Web site operator, and Mike Schmidt as Newsletter editor. Thank you, once again, to everyone for volunteering to keep this club going. We could not do it without you! Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your SPACE meeting and holiday party, Friday December 9, 2011. **********************************************
by Greg Leitner For December 2011
A very good Novmber meeting with eight members present. Elections were held and we finally agreed that all positions will stay as they were in 2011. It will be tacos again for the December SPACE Xmas party and Jackie and I will bring all the main ingredients plus the beverages and tableware. Please bring something for all to share and we will have enough diversity for all to enjoy. Here is the breakdown for the November finances:
Receipts for the November SPACE meeting: Membership renewals Dom sales Total receipts
30.00 19.95 - 49.95
Ending balance for November 30, 2011:
698.20
Not much of a change from October thru November, but we will see a big change when we get the room rental bill for $300.00. We have memberships that really need to be paid up as they are the biggest source of income we have right now. Also, I wish every member could buy the monthly Dom at only $3.00. It's not much but if every member purchased one we would take in around $30.00 per month. With no auctions in sight we really need every member's support. We have enough in our Treasury to last a couple more years, but after that we will need to make some major decisions as to what the future of SPACE will be. Until then let's enjoy what we have now and come to the Xmas party and partake in the festivities. If you can't make it the Jackie and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Hope to see at the party. **********************************************
Secretary's Report By Brian Little For November 2011
Treasurer's Report
Beginning balance for November 1, 2011:
Expenses for he November SPACE meeting: Web-site for Sept., Oct. & Nov.2011 Web-site for Dec. 2011 and yearly fee Total expenses
700.15
No minutes from the October meeting were submitted in time for this Newsletter. ******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 7:58 AM Subject: Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Honors Ed Logg as the 2012 Pioneer Award Recipient Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Honors Ed Logg as the 2012 Pioneer Award Recipient Asteroids Co-Developer Tapped for Accomplishments in Game Design and Programming In the Arcade Era
15.00 33.00 + 48.00
CALABASAS, Calif., Nov. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has unveiled its 2012 AIAS Pioneer Award
recipient, Ed Logg. As an innovator, game designer and programmer, Ed's work contributed to the creation of some of the most iconic entertainment properties – including Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet – arcade games that continue to shape the way that modern games are designed today. The Pioneer Awards is reserved for individuals whose careerspanning work has helped shape and define the interactive entertainment industry with the creation of a technological approach or the birth of a new genre. The 2012 Pioneer Award will be presented by Mark Cerny, president, Cerny Games, at the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards on Thursday, February 9, 2012, at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. The Awards will be hosted by actor, comedian and game enthusiast, Jay Mohr. "Ed's body of work is brilliant and game-changing," said Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "His games defined an era, spurred new genres, and influenced new technology that is still utilized today and has inspired generation after generation of game designers with his vision. Without Ed, many of the games that we have today would never have existed." Dedicating long hours of programming at Stanford University's AI Lab, Logg soon realized he could turn his hobby and passion into a career. Joining Atari's arcade division, Logg was instrumental in the development of a string of wildly successful games - Super Breakout in 1978, Asteroids in 1979, Centipede in 1980, and Millipede in 1982. Further inspired by his son's love of Dungeons and Dragons, Logg developed a fantasy dungeon-crawler Gauntlet for Atari Games in 1985. There was initial resistance to the cooperative multiplayer aspect, but this format later evolved to became an arcade staple. It was this intuition that helped Logg produce a further string of coin-op successes for Atari Games from the mid-to-late eighties. "I'd just play the game over and over and over in my head," shared Logg. "I play a lot of the games in my mind long before I ever write them because you have to get all the interactions down pat before you can start programming. I know what it's going to look like before I even get there." After an eighteen-month stint at Electronic Arts spanning 1993 and 1994, Logg came back to Atari Games where he focused on making consumer games, initially porting coin-op title Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey for the Nintendo 64. Today, Logg continues to program games, currently making elegant games for set-top boxes. "I was just in the right place at the right time," said Logg. "It feels a little strange receiving this Pioneer Award. Just think about it, they were paying me to have fun creating games at a time when the industry was just getting started and every game was something new." "Ed Logg is a true industry pioneer with that rare mix of a programmer's sharp, analytical mind combined with a strong sense of what is truly fun to play," said Bill Hindorff, an executive in charge of production at Atari Games with Logg, currently development director, Pipeworks Software. His games are always founded on the basic tenet of 'make it quick to learn, much longer to master' that keep you playing just one more time. Congratulations Ed, well deserved!" "What I learned from Ed was that creating the fun of a game did not require complex algorithms as much as it required the right approach," said Mark Cerny, friend and colleague of Logg's at Atari Games. "Which is to say that it wasn't virtuoso coding that made Ed's games a success, as much as it was putting all the proper features in the game in the correct order. Of course, you needed an
amazing intuition as to which were the 'proper' features, that was the difficulty in replicating Ed's strategy!" The Pioneer Award's first inductee was David Crane, co-founder of Activision and creator of games such as Pitfall and A Boy and his Blob; the second inductee was Bill Budge, creator of Raster Blaster and Pinball Construction Set. SOURCE Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Back to top RELATED LINKS http://www.interactive.org
******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:01 AM Subject: gwEm/PHF releases booTribe gwEm/PHF releases booTribe gwEm writes:
November 16th, 2011
This is a different sort of production from me. You could call it a musical toy. I've been inspired by the drum machine of the Korg Monotribe, and have combined it with STj into an executable boot sector. Unlike my 128byte productions, which are more or less pure demos in that they are concept investigations, this one could actually be quite useful to musicians and live performers. A list of the features may help to explain more: * STj like tempo control for precise DJ beatmatching * Three drum sounds * 16 steps (use shift to access odd steps, alike to Korg Monotribe) * MIDI clock output * Very fast loading - due to boot sector implementation * GEMDOS file system still supported (use it with STj in auto folder no problem) * No screen required The archive contains an installer/deinstaller/launcher program, a readme, and a picture to explain the keyboard mappings. » Download booTribe v1.0 http://files.dhs.nu/files_util/bootribe.zip ******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:03 AM Subject: STe release from Paradox STe release from Paradox November 20th, 2011 The fifth place demo from Sillyventure, 'SV2011' by Paradox was released today. Expect cool 505 music, blitter coding and some dancing(!) » Get it from the Sillyventure 2011 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202011
Subject: New Jaguar game from Reboot ******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:02 AM Subject: Blabla returns after twelve year Atari hiatus Blabla returns after twelve year Atari hiatus November 18th, 2011 One more of the demos from Sillyventure has turned up. It's a demo from Blabla, previously known for the 'Oldiez' demo from 1999. This new demo, entitled 'STreet Art' more or less picks up where Oldiez ended. Lots of truecolour screens at full frame rate. Code by Cyg, music by Dma-Sc, graphics by AcetOne and Nytrik. UPDATE 2011-11-19: New version with better transitions and loop instead of sudden ending. File download and video updated with the new version.
New Jaguar game from Reboot
November 27th, 2011
Sauron of Reboot writes: Reboot of JagWare are proud to present Kobayashi Maru, their latest freely-available game for the Atari Jaguar games console, written to utilize the new Raptor game engine. Kobayashi Maru is Reboot's version of an arcade favourite from the early 80s. Use your rotary controller or regular Jaguar pad to steer your warpship in this arcade space shooter, battling countless drones and huge boss craft in ever-tougher waves of attack. Kobayashi Maru is released hot on the heels of another Reboot release, the port of Downfall for the Atari Falcon030 computer. Head over to the Kobayashi Maru download page to obtain the full game in your favourite file format: BJL, ROM or CDI disc image. Have fun! » Visit the Reboot site http://reboot.atari.org/
UPDATE 2011-11-25: Another new version, now working with TOS 1.62 and some music bugs gone. Download and video updated.
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» Get it from the Sillyventure 2011 download page http://dhs.nu/files.php?t=partydl&party=Sillyventure%202011
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******************************************** From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:04 AM Subject: New release from No Extra New release from No Extra
November 23rd, 2011
Another Atari-demo from the Alchimie party has been released. It's a new STe-demo called 'Infinite Live of the Blitter' and made by No Extra. Plasmas, dots, polygons, Tomchi music, Mister A graphics plus code by Atomus and Zorro 2. UPDATE 2011-11-24: A bugfixed version is now available. Both the download and video are updated. » Download Infinite Live of the Blitter http://files.dhs.nu/files_demo/inflive.zip ********************************************
From: Michael Current [michael@mcurrent.name] Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:05 AM
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