SPACE Newsletter

SPECIAL EDITION NEWSLETTER

Why The Need for a Special Edition Newsletter? Foreword By Steven Peck

November, 2015 Well, that is a good question Recap from August and I will answer that for you all. It seems that our veneraIt’s time for the SPACE Annual I was quite surprised to see more ble Newsletter Editor is pretMeeting, officially the most immembers at the August SPACE ty busy working overtime. So, portant meeting of your favorite meeting than we had at the July I will take his place again. We Atari computer club of the year. Birthday Party. Five members are going to pick up the slack We will be holding elections for were present and even though here. This newsletter will cover one-year terms for all of the poLance could not be there Steve THREE months instead of one. sitions in the club’s Executive Peck and Nolan did manage to Board: president, vice president, come. It was nice to see Steve BerYes. You have read me correctly. secretary and treasurer. And, we glund there also and he was able will again be asking for people to to use Glen’s knowledge to help I just wanted to cover all of the volunteer for the roles of Memhim solve an 8-bit problem he ran bases. So, I will keep up the bership Chairman, Newsletter into. He brought in a game called work on the newsletters until Editor, DOM Librarian, BBS OpI think something like The Return Nolan is ready to do it again. He erator, and Webmaster. As you of Heracles and it was pretty cool. is very busy and I will be there know, the club would not be here for the Club when it comes to without people stepping up in Glen had another great DOM and getting newsletters produced. one of these leadership roles. Can if you missed it please try to pick So, we will get started with the you do your part this year? See one up in the future. There are months of September, October, you there! some good games on this DOM. and November of 2015. Thanks, keep using that Atari, As far as the treasury for August and come to your SPACE Annuwe finally got to the three-hunSo, without further adieu… al Meeting, Friday November 13, dred-dollar mark for 2015 by sell2015. HERE WE GO! ing four 8-bit DOMs and two ST doms. We also had one memberTable of Contents ship renewal so we took in a total Foreword: 1 of $33.00. We paid out $20.00 for President’s Corner: 1 two months of web-site fees so all Treasurer’s Report: 1 in all we had a net gain of $13.00 Secretary’s Report: 3 to bring our bank account to just 8-bit DOM Review: 3 over $300. I hope this Treasurer’s report

comes out okay as I am typing it on an I-pad. It seems that Microsoft is no longer supporting XP so I guess I will have to upgrade. Everytime I have done that in the past something usually goes wrong. I hope it all works out otherwise I will be sending this out every month on the iPad. See you in September! Recap from September With only Glen and myself in attendance at the September SPACE meeting we decided to cancel after waiting until 7:45 to see if any other members would show up. Glen went through the September DOM and I bought one as I always do and that $3.00 was the only activity for the month. Glen and I also talked about his 1050 disk drive problem which is also a Club problem since he needs the 1050 to produce the DOM. It seems that he can format and write to three disks and then it stops as if it is overheating. If he lets it cool off for a while he can usually do three more. You can see how time consuming this is for Glen so we need to come up with ideas to help him out. Some 1050’s are available online but they are as is or are being sold for parts. I know we have auctioned off a few 1050’s in the past so if there is any member who has one he can part with maybe the Club could buy it back. In the meantime Glen may have to borrow the Club’s 1050 until we figure something out. Glen is trying to contact Richard Mier to see if he has any idea what part needs fixing if a fix is a possibility.

Anyway, with the $3.00 deposit and no expenses for September the Club’s bank balance is now at $306.54. I sure was hoping we would be further along to meeting our financial obligations for 2015, but there are a few membership renewals due (mine included) in the next few months. So I hope we can get everybody healthy and back on track and then we should be in good shape.

for Lance including some back months and my usual two DOM purchases we actually took in a total of $69.00. This included $30.00 for memberships, $24.00 for 8-bit DOMs and $15.00 for ST Doms.

Since Nolan wasn’t present we didn’t have any expenses to report for the October SPACE meeting. We started with a balance of $306.54 and with I hope to see as many in October an additional $69.00 we endas possible and I fully understand ed October with a balance of the circumstances that have affect- $375.54. ed our membership turnout in September. See you October 9. Now we have to wait for the room rental bill which could Recap from October be either $300.00 or $360.00 depending if we get billed for We had 50% more members in $25.00 or $30.00 per month for October than in September. That 2015. We also owe Nolan for means we had three members presSeptember thru December for ent. I hear that Lance may come in the web-site which is another November and that means Steve $40.00. So if we take in anothPeck and possibly Brian may also er $25.00 or more by year end accompany him. I was worried that then we have it made for this we would not have a quorum for year. Still getting a little too our voting since we would need close for comfort. at least five members present, but if Lance can make it we should be Don’t forget the meeting next covered. month so we can have voting for our SPACE officers and Lance has an answer for Glen’s membership and DOM chair1050 disk drive problem which we man positions. We also have to should discuss at the November plan our Christmas party for meeting. He is getting by as long our December meeting. So it’s as he can use a single side and this very important to attend the requires him to punch holes in each November meeting. See you disk to be able to use both sides. all in November. This is not a good solution and who knows how long the drive will last. Our treasury really got a boost even though we only had the three members. It just so happened that Steve Peck and myself were both due for membership renewals. Also, with Steve picking up disks

OBEY!

8-bit DOM MEGA Review By Steven Peck HELLO WORLD! :D Sorry I had not been available in the last few months. I will make up for that here with this current Secretary’s Report. So, here we are. I am sure you are wondering why I call this a MEGA reThe last meeting started on Friday, view. Here is the reason why. October 9, 2015, at 7:35 PM. We Because this review is going to were talking about what to do with cover ALL of the DOMs that I the disk drive, which is on the fritz have not previously covered as we know. Richard Mier was menyet. Some go back to 2014. I tioned as a person who could posthink that I should just take sibly fix it, but we are not so sure some time to accept responsiif it is able to be fixed. Glen went bility and just get it all done in on amibay.com to see about a new one issue. Sorry about the wait, drive, but the shipping cost from folks. Here are the DOMs to be Europe was deemed horrendous. reviewed, full of great games, There was talk of an XF551 kit from demos and music. Germany that could make formats of quad-density disks, but they do August 2014 DOM: Side A: not sell it anymore to anybody. The first game on this DOM The membership count stands at is a game called Tetris clone nine paid-up. I paid up myself in called Rolltris. However, it is October until next year. We also different from classic Tetris in talked about the new games coming the fact that you cannot control soon from V61, but they need docwhere the pieces fall, but you umentation and, once that is done, can manipulate the position of we might see a release. the bricks when they have fallen already. Pretty cool. AnyThe elections are in November, so way, I liked the difficulty on come along, cast your votes, and the game and I am going to decide who the officers that are rungive you my score on it. Here ning will get the positions they are are the results: running for or not. Maybe new officers will get voted in, I do not know. Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 8 The meeting concluded at 8:03 PM. Animation: 7 Sound: 6 So, that concludes the Secretary’s Report. In the words of Stan Lee… Total: 28/40 EXCELSIOR!

called The Hunt, based on the movie Predator. It is a game that resembles a board game. Despite the graphics being mostly black and white, this game is really top-notch. I loved it, despite the difficulty level. Here are my scores on it: Graphics: 10 Gameplay: 10 Animation: 7 Sound: 10 Total: 37/40 Side B: Side B is different because it is full of games that are written with only ten lines of BASIC code each. I scored the marks low on some of these, but do not mind me. I am a perfectionist when it comes to games looking good after all. These games may be small, but they do pack a wallop. Really. I will show you. The first game is a game called Boxing, and it actually looks good. The gameplay could be better, but what do you expect from such a small program? Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

3 3 2 1

Total: 9/40

The next game is called Deathrace (without Jason Statham). It is almost like Night Driver, but with an overhead perspective.You are driving along until The next game on Side A is theroad starts narrowing down

until it gets too narrow to drive. be at a given moment. However, I Here is my take on it: could not figure out how to play the game. So, I gave it low marks. Graphics: 1 Gameplay: 8 Graphics: 1 Animation: 3 Gameplay: 1 Sound: 1 Animation: 1 Sound: 1 Total: 13/40 Now on to the next DOM. One The next game is a text advendown, eight to go… ture called Heisser Draht. I could not understand how to September 2014 DOM: Side A: play it because it is in German. So, I could not really test it to Assembloids XE looks like a puzzle see if it played well. I will not game. I could not figure out how score it at all because of that. to play the game for the life of me. It looks great and difficult. But, I Moonlander, the next game on could not understand it. the list, is a Lunar Lander clone. I liked this game the most out Graphics: 8 of the bunch. Try to soft land on Gameplay: 10 the Moon if you can. Or, if you Animation: 9 dare. Sound: 9 Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

7 9 5 5

Total: 36/40 Side B:

Deathrace XE is an awesome game Total: 26/40 set in a dystopian Europe in an apocalyptic future. You ride your Perfect Pitch is an intersting motorcycle in the forest, avoiding game where you have to guess trees and shooting at bikers and hehow to reproduce a sound exlicopters. Again, awesome game! It actly. I could not figure out how has great graphics and better sound. to exactly do it, but maybe the Kudos to whomever programmed readers will have better luck it. My eternal thanks! Need I say than I did. more? Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound: Total: 10/40

N/A 7 N/A 3

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

10 10 10 10

Total: 40 (Perfect)

October 2014 DOM: Side A: This is a DOM with only six titles, so the review of it should go quite fast. So, I will continue on with my review. The first game on Side A, Xirius Defect, is a puzzle game that I could not figure out how to play at all. I am sure it is a good game, but I guess I need to read the instructions better. Cool music and graphics. Graphics: 9 Gameplay: 4 Animation: 2 Sound: 10 Total: 25/40 Heli in the Caves, the next game on the list in this amazing DOM, is actually quite impressive. You pilot a helicopter in a cave, shooting your foes along the way. It is quite well done. Kudos! Graphics: 8 Gameplay: 10 Animation: 9 Sound: 10 Total: 37/40 Battle Eagle is a vertical shoot’em-up where you have to fly through basically a metal labyrinth battling alien spacecraft. It is a nicely done game, but needs some oomph. However, I did give it high marks anyway.

Graphics: 9 The final game on this disk is That is it for that DOM. Now, on to Gameplay: 10 called Catch the X. You have to the next one, and it is a good one. Animation: 9 pinpoint where the X is going to Sound: 8

Total: 8/10

Total: 36/40

Radioactive S#!t Happens is a very unusual game in the fact that Depixol is a demo from a group Side B: it incorporates toilet humor where called Slipstream. It shows a you have to pick up radioactive ticker in real-time going across Speedway One is a game where human and bird droppings. the screen. There is also text in you are racing against other cars the background of the demo. on a road. The graphics need Yup. You read me correctly. Personally, it’s a pretty good some work, but the premise is demo in my honest opinion. solid. I liked the gameplay, which You can also beat back your enewas difficult. mies by running after them and Graphics: 10 touching them, blasting them back Animation: 10 Graphics: 2 outside of the screen. I did not Sound: 10 Gameplay: 9 think this was a very good game Animation: 6 in the fact that, in my honest opinTotal: 30/30 (Perfect) Sound: 2 ion, toilet humor is getting old. Mona is a reproduction of the Total: 19/40 Nice try… Mona Lisa on the 8-bit. It selfdraws on the screen to reveal Slovenian Quiz is an educationGraphics: 5 the famous portrait. Only, there al game that teaches you how to Gameplay: 2 was a problem. It crashed my speak eighty Slovenian words. Animation: 5 system. I think it was a PAL isThe graphics and sound need Sound: 5 sue. Just when it was starting to work, but it is overall a great get good, too. Here is my score: game if you want to learn some Total: 17/40 words in a different language. Graphics: 8 Great for kids. Galaga, the old arcade classic, has Animation: 8 landed on the Atari 8-bit, sort of. Graphics: 3 You would figure that with the grTotal: 16/20 Gameplay: 10 phics capability of this microcomAnimation: 2 puter that it would look better. Pad is yet another Breakout Sound: 1 clone. It looks nice and it seems Unfortunately, it dulls in comparito need paddle controllers. It Total: 16/40 son, but the gameplay is astoundplays somewhat like Arkanoid. ing. It is the essence of Galaga, but It looks smashing (pun intendDev War is a game like Space War it needs better graphics and sound. ed). for the Atari 2600, except you fight an alien that keeps shooting Graphics: 1 Graphics: 10 at you. You have limited amounts Gameplay: 9 Gameplay: 9 of energy and shields. Once you Animation: 1 Animation: 9 are out, it is curtains for you. Sound: 1 Sound: 8 Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

3 8 7 4

Total: 22/40 November 2014 DOM: Side A:

Total: 12/40

Total: 36/40

Happy Pokey Stomper is a deFloppy Bird is exactly like Flaplightful little tune. The tunes in py Bird, only 8-bit. Keep the bird the demos are always pretty good, from crashing into anything and and although this falls short of a you are home free. Maybe. I perfect score, it is still quite good. think it’s quite challenging, so I will give it some high marks.

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 10 Animation: 9 Sound: 7 Total: 33/40

Sound: Total: 28/30 Side B:

9

The next file was released by Video 61. This was a pirated version of Delta Space Arena on the DOM from Europe.

CaveBlaster is a game where you are Graphics: 7 In Bad Bat Bart you control a bat speeding inside a cave and you have Gameplay: 10 in a jagged cave. You have to to avoid objects by blasting them or Animation: 8 navigate through the cave with swerving around them. The graphSound: 5 its twists and turns. The bad ics weren’t the greatest, they were news is it’s dark and you usualalright, but the gameplay and sound June 2015 DOM, Side A: ly cannot see the walls. were outstanding. Kudos. We Are Brothers in ATRs 2 is However, you can flash lightGraphics: 7 a fast-paced tune that, in my ning with the joystick button to Gameplay: 9 opinion, can use a little work light your way. It only works for Animation: 8 and polishing up. Nice and upa split second, however, and if Sound: 10 beat, but I have heard a lot of you crash it’s game over. the same before. Total 34/40 Graphics: 6 Sound: 8/10 Gameplay: 8 Invenies Verba is a simple word Animation: 7 game. You have to make up an Back Into the Cyberspace Sound: 7 eight-letter word before the time shows a spaceship going runs out. Unscramble it and you through a mixture of binary Total: 28/40 score. Do nothing and you get nothnumbers. The music is repeting. itive, but it carries well graphAncient Vanished Omen shows ics and animation wise. a fantasy character holding an I found this a very difficult game, orb in a picture which I believe and I think that it is because it is beGraphics: 10 is from the Ys Series of video cause I needed to use the keyboard. Animation: 10 games from the TurboGrafx-16 So, I didn’t find it intriguing really. Sound: 7 days. It looks pixellated, but it still looks pretty good. Good Graphics: 1 Total: 27/30 work. Gameplay: 7 Animation: 1 Cyber Girl is a picture of a Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 0 damaged female robot. It looks well drawn and I can see the Small Men with Old Devices Total: 9/40 artistic inclination of the peris from Squoquo, a group from son that drew it. This ranks up Europe. It has some PAL probThe next file is a pic with Helene there. Nice work. lems, but I think that these guys Fischer on it. It is a nice pic that is underestimate themselves. very well done, but it has a PAL Graphics: 10 (Perfect) They are better artists than they problem, it seems.Other than that, it give themselves credit for. It is pretty good. The Demons of Cycling Space isn’t perfect, but I will give it is a cacophony of moving pixhigh marks. Graphics: 10 els and weird sounds. It is in Sound: 8 real-time, and I like that. But, Graphics: 9 it is annoying over time. Nice Animation: 10 Total: 18/40 colors, though.

shows a bunch of rays radiating Sound: 9/10 Graphics: 7 from the middle of the screen, like Animation: 9 an explosion. It has some funky Tronix looks good, until it got Sound: 6 sound to it, too. Not one of my fascrambled on the computer. Great vorites. But, It’ s still striking. music and graphics. I think it is Total: 22/40 a PAL issue again. Oh, well. ProGraphics: 5 gramming isn’t perfect. DJ Sona Approves of This is a Sound: 5 picture of a female DJ wearGraphics: 9/10 ing a futuristic costume with Total: 10/20 Animation: 9/10 a Fuji logo on her helmet. She Sound: 9/10 also seems to be grooving to an Quite a Sad Song does not sound Atari 130XE computer. Pretty so sad to me, although it may be Total: 27/30 cool! I like this pic, especially somewhat to a degree. I think it the colorful background. partially misses the mark, but it July 2015 DOM: Side A: sounds good nonetheless, I must Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) say. Good going. I’ll give you efIn the game Spiders, you must stop fort. invading spiders from reaching Atariculus is a pic of a guy the ground. It is difficult because it with a brain helmet attached to Sound: 9/10 is slow-paced. That is on purpose. the cartridge port of an atari 130XE computer. He even has 16 Shapes of Grey shows grey Graphics: 5 Atari Fuji wallpaper. nice. It silhouettes, in real-time, against Gameplay 10 isn’t the greatest artwork, but a color background. Each shape Animation: 3 I will give him an A for effort. shifts into a different shape overSound: 2 Kudos! all. I love this demo and it really show the power of the 8-bit’s Total: 20/40 Graphics: 7/10 graphics capabilities. The music can be a little repetitive, though. In Space Voyager, you must avoid Fifty Shades of Grey is not what the asteroids and catch the hearts. you think. It is a display showGraphics: 10 It is quite easy once you get the ing fifty boxes each showing Animation: 10 hang of it. Almost too easy. a different shade of grey with Sound: 8 some cool music. So, out of the Graphics: 2 gutter, guys. ^_^ Total: 38/40 Gameplay: 5 Animation: 4 Graphics: 5 Strasna Hudba! (Or How Matrix Sound: 3 Sound: 9 Met Tron) is a heavy but short piece that sounds somewhat techTotal: 14/40 Total: 14/20 no. It’s good, but short. Here is my take on that. Wkorvek is a European puzzle Lokalna Porucha is a musical game where you have to bounce a piece. It is mostly beat with Sound: 9/10 ball to a certain goal in each level, some funky 8-bit music in it. but there are many obstacles in the Then, it gets fast-paced later Ten Minutes to Deadline is an upway. Very difficult, but I like some on. Now, this is a good piece. pity piece of music that sound too difficulty. Kudos. delightful to be urgent, but it still Sound: 9/10 sounds good. I am going to give it Graphics: 10 some good marks anyway. Gameplay: 10 Pow is an intro demo that Animation: 10

Sound:

10

In Tecno Ninja, guide the ninja Graphics: 10 through the levels collecting powAnimation: 10 Total: 40/40 (Perfect) er-ups and such without getting Sound: 8 destroyed. Interesting graphics and Jawbreaker 2 is a puzzle game fun gameplay. Total: 28/30 not unlike Candy Crush Saga. In the game, you match cretain Graphics: 7 Next, we have a TIP animaicons. If you do, they disappear. Gameplay: 7 tion showing Happy New Year If you clear the screen, you adAnimation: 6 greetings for the year 2015. vance. If not, game over. Sound: 5 Now, this hits me good. I like TIP animation files. Cool premise. A little overdone, Total: 25/40 but cool nonetheless. Graphics: 10 August 2015 DOM: Side A Animation: 10 Graphics: 4 Gameplay: 5 Xmas Tree 2014: This is a decorative Total: 20/20 (Perfect) Animation: 4 Christmas tree graphic with a reSound: 9 flective ticker on the bottom of the NYDS is a demo commemorscreen. rating the year 2015. Although Total: 22/40 Pretty inventive design, especialit could be better, the music is ly the ticker on the bottom of the excellent. Curse of the Lost Miner is like screen. Miner 2049er and Boulder Dash Graphics: 7 in the way that Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Sound: 10 it is set up. You have to advance to certain levels and colMasterIt 2015 is a game where you Total: 17/20 lect gems. But, this is a platform have to find the right passcode afgame. It is fun, but very hard. ter a certain amount of tries. It isn’t Happy New Year 2015 is a demo unlike Master Mind from the 1970s. showing a comic doodle of kids Graphics: 7 I can see it being very challenging. wearing Atari garb. Funny. I Gameplay: 9 like it. It accentuates humor and Animation: 5 Gameplay: 10/10 fun at the same time. Sound: 5 Quarrion is a puzzle game where Graphics: 8 Total: 26/40 you have to match the colors on Sound: 9 the screen to remove them from the The next game is another variascreen. Or, so it seems anyway. Comic Squares is a PAL demo tion of the classic Boulder Dash. that crashed on me, but I found Guide Rockford through the Graphics: 7 the part that I saw of it astoundmine to collect diamonds and Gameplay: 10 ing. I will give it high marks avoid getting crushed by boulAnimation: 6 anyways. ders. Total: 23/30 Graphics: 9 Graphics: 10 Sound: 9 Gameplay: 10 The next file is a demo from DeAnimation: 10 Animation: 8 sire. It looks striking and impresSound: 10 sive. I especially like the flames in Total: 28/30 the background. The music needs Total: 38/40 work, however.

Side B: Inc Year is a demo that starts out grey at first, then gradually includes color over time. this demo also has a fancy looking ticker at the bottom, showing a friendly greeting from the programmers. Love it! Graphics: 10 Animation: 10 Sound: 10 Total 30/30 (Perfect) Laglance is a pic that shows awoman next to a rocket, so I am assuming that she is an astronaut. It reminds me of those stipple drawing I used to make in college. Graphics:

7/10

Rej is a pic expressing a Happy New Year greeting. It is simple in design. I think Vincent Van Gogh is in the lower-right corner. It looks pretty nice. Graphics:

8/10

works display over a city. It looks but it could use polish. But, not very colorful and it looks pretty too shabby. good. Graphics: 8/10 Graphics: 8/10 Biba is a macabre pic of some FIREWORKS 2015 is a spectacular freaky dude mixing drinks at a demo with a nice picture of a firebar. But, I love the work put into works display and a nifty ticker. it. It actually is very good. Graphics: 10 Sound: 10 Animation: 10

Back from Fractalis is a music demo that is quite twangy, but Total: 30/30 (Perfect) that is in a good way. It exemplifies something to me. I don’t 35 Year-Old 1 is a scan of an Atari know what, but it does. 800 computer. It looks like a scan, but it’s very high-resolution. Also, Sound: 10/10 (Perfect) it’s extremely good. Back in Time: No. This is not Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Huey Lewis and the News. But, it is peppy for an 8-bit tune. It gets September 2015 DOM, Side A: faster and it is quite dramatic in the middle of the music. 2DE is a demo that may have a PAL issue, but it does have some great Sound: 9/10 real-time parralax scrolling effects. If I could get a PAL upgrade on my Popeye Arcade is only different XE, it might help. from previous versions of Popeye because it has a splash screen and Graphics: 9 somewhat enhanced graphics. Sound: 9 I like Popeye anyway. It always Animation: 9 was a pretty cool game.

DITCH is a game where you have to escape a cave in a certain amount of time. Or, you are toast. It looks fun, but it is hard. I like the graphics, though. Pretty good game.

Total: 27/30

Graphics: Sound: Animation: Gameplay:

Graphics: Sound:

9 8 9 9

Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect)

Graphics: Gameplay: Duch is a demo that shows a ghost, Sound: some words in Polish and has simAnimation: ple music. It was OK. I thought it could have been better. Oh, well… Total: 32/40

Total 11/20

6 5

7 8 9 8

Diver is a pic of a diver underwater near a fisherman. It looks silly, but I give its creator credit.

Graphics: 6/10 APP Clown is an image that seems to be created as a snapshot from an Viking Z is a pic of a Viking monNew Year is a picture of a fireart program. Actually, it looks nice, ster. Reminds me of the Wendol Total: 35/40

from the movie, The Thirteenth sounds epic. I can see it as triTorch is an elegant demo. it is stylWarrior. umphant music for the Olymishly produced and wonderfully Pretty cool artwork. pics or something like that. animated. I have seen it and it rocks. Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Side B:

Sound: 9/10

Graphics: 10/10

Gdansk Airport Doesn’t Like AtInternational Karate Enhanced 2014 ari is a musical piece that, again, is based on the classic game InterCGS Christmas Card 2014 is fast-paced and frantic. It national Karate. It is a great game shows a house in the wintersounds like an Atarian trying to and it takes a while to get used to time with snow falling to the hide himself and his wares from the controls, but it is worth playing ground wishing everybody a the Gdansk Airport security. It’s just once. Happy Holidays from the Claspretty good music, though. sic Games Shrine. It was pretty Graphics: 10 cool. Sound: 9/10 Gameplay: 9 Sound: 8 Graphics: 9 (NOTE: We had another copy of Animation: 8 Sound: 10 Curse of the Lost Miner on this Animation: 9 disk and it will not re-reviewed Total: 36/40 in the same DOM Report.) Total: 28/30 Self Test Terror is a musical piece Ka-Ri is a pic about a beautiful that has some suspenseful elements Wavy 256 Bytes is a demo show female figure with wings flying to it. I did not find it so terrifying to a bunch of dots on the screen above a cityscape. It looks very me, however. Still, you can sense an waving like a flag in real-time. detailed and I enjoy it. element of stalking to it. Pretty fluid animation. Graphics: 9/10 Sound: 7/10 Graphics: 10 Animation: 10 Romb Art looks like a crossThe Third sounds more terrifying stitch picture to me. It looks than Self Test Terror. I like this one Total: 20/20 (Perfect) great. From a distance, if you because it hits the mark more with did not know it was from a comhorror. I Came Here to Destroy Your puter, you could swear it was World shows a metallic juggerthe real thing. Sound: 9/10 naut with the Biblical Scripture reference to Revelation 13:18. Graphics 10/10 (Perfect) Pleasure is a pic that does not seem Somewhat apocalytic. But, it is a so pleasureable. I don’t think it nice piece of artwork. ST vs STe shows off the graphics would be appropriate to describe, it capabilities (simulated) of the isn’t pretty. Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) two 16-bit microcomputers from the former software giant. It is Graphics: 6/10 Jaggi show one of the aliens you well done and I like the colorful must fight in the classic game graphics. But, it can be a little Krasnoludek is a pic showing deRescue on Fractalus. It looks better. But this is 8-bit. Great job mons and an old man with a magpretty good and almost 16-bit. anyway. ic wand. It looks evil, but this was Stylish! Halloween at the time. Nice pic. Graphics: 8/10 Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Graphics: 8/10 October 2015 DOM: Side A: Destiny is a music demo and it Scary shows a toothy creature with

dreadlocks. It looks really cool, about someone that is sulking about for a Halloween pic. I quite ensomething bad that he could’ve prejoyed it. vented. Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 8/10

Postcard shows some scenes in black and white, and in color. The pics blend in together to form a sort of collage. It’s really neat.

Strazniczka is a pic of a woman with a crossbow and a vicious dog on a leash. It can be better, but I think it is still striking.

Graphics: 8/10

Graphics: 7/10

Rolo XI is a musical demo with graphics and a ticker in Polish. It looks pretty good. I like the dots that are displayed in a string pattern on the screen.

Ona Tanczy Dla… is a pic showing a troll-like with a captive fairy. A lot of detail went into this. It show and it pays off.

Graphics: Sound: Animation:

8 9 7

Total: 24/30 Side B: (NOTE: Happy New Year 2015, and Intro 2015, demos on this disk, have been on previous DOMs and will not be reviewed again in this DOM Report.) Oczoplas is a game where you have to avoid flying debris coming at you. It is in the style of Gyruss in the way that you have to move around the screen. The longer you stay alive, the more points you score. Graphics: Gameplay: Sound: Animation:

3 9 7 7

Total: 26/40 My Fault is a mournful tune that sounds pretty good. I think it is

Graphics: 9/10 Peace shows Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin shaking hands, while thinking about bombing each other to the Stone Age. Interesting pic. Graphics: 6/10 Transmission is a pic showing pictures of womens’ heads in abstract but detailed positions. It seems to be showing states of mind. Pretty nice pic.

(Yup! Even in Riverdale Atarians are going strong. Ask them about it there!)

Graphics: 10/10 Well, that concludes the DOM Review and, hey I am finally caught up with ALL of my DOM Reports! Well, isn’t that swell! I will catch Message from Captain Irata: you later with another DOM Report soon! Thanks! In closing… “OK, you SPACE Cadets! No matter where you go, there you are.

Get your DOMs out and start practicing those games! Hoo-rah!”

(I just wanted to share a little food for thought. Have a happy, folks!)

Atari++ Release 2015

tapes, and will decode them on demand. Output to .WAV files Posted Sun Nov 8, 2015 14:00 (audio-encoding) is now also possible. This integrates the Hi folks, wav2cas and cas2wav programs of the same author into the ema new release of Atari++, the ulator. portable atari emulator for Linux SIO sound emulation has been and windows has been released extended. The SIO sound now here in the download section - as also emulates the tape sound usual, you find there the Linux on input, and improves on the sources and a compiled version authenticity of the disk drive for 32-bit Windows. Release 1.80 sound. is a new major release of the The X11 front end improves Atari emulator, not only fixing the handling of mouse clicks. a series of nasty bugs, but also Mouse clicks that do not go into including new features and the window but into an overlapmajor improvements. The major ping window are now ignored. improvement is the inclusion of Audio outut can now be recorda Basic interpreter, named Baed into a SAP Record-Type R file sic++, which improves on Atari for playback. Basic in many ways. Disk drive emulation has been Atari++ has now a built-in Basic largely improved. Several drive interpreter, namely Basic++. It is types are now emulated, includa mildly extended Atari Basic diing their serial transfer charalect, which is quite a bit faster, acteristics, such as disk drive plus one additional command, speed. Note that the original “DIR”. See the Basic++ distribu1050 drive emulation no lontion for additional modifications. ger takes disks that are double The Basic settings have been density or have more sectors improved, the preferences allow than those of the original disk now up to three Basic images to formats. To play such extended be defined, typically corresponddisks, select one of the more ing to revisions A,B and C of the advanced drive types. language. SIO emulation has been reThe CPU emulation fixed the worked to some degree to allow cycle count for some rarely used the extended drive types, coninstructions. trol the serial speed and allow Added a profiler to the monifor proper tape emulation. tor. PROF.S starts the profiler. Binary disk images now also PROF.L lists the profile counts create a valid disk structure collected so far, PROF.C lists containing the load file as AUthe cumulative cycle counts of TORUN.SYS so it can be loaded subroutines. from DOS, too. Tape emulation has been largely The math pack patch has been extended and simplified. Enrevised and its precision has tering a nonexisting tape will been inproved by changing the now create an error immediately. rounding policy slighty. The The tape emulation also allows floating point to ASCII connow WAV files, i.e. digitized real version now also follows the

convention of the original math pack. Detection of .BAS (Basic) files as disk images is now handled more carefully, and the emulator will no longer confuse some xfd disk images with basic files. The built-in monitor supports now symbolic labels. Such label information can be read from a CA65 debug file output, i.e. use --dbgfile on the ca65 command line. The debug file is then read with the new ENVI.S command of the monitor. The math pack in the built-in Os ROM had a bug in the BCD to ASCII conversion which could not print signed zeros and some denormalized numbers correctly. This got fixed. The math pack could not handle signed zeros in the BCD to integer conversion, fixed. The BCD to integer conversion was pretty slow. The new release replaces the algorithm completely, making it a lot faster. http://www.xl-project.com/

The next SPACE Meeting is on Friday, November 13, 2015 at 7: 30 PM CST.