SPACE Newsletter

SPECIAL EDITION NEWSLETTER

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

Well, that is a good question and I will answer that for you all. It seems that our venerable Newsletter Editor is pretty busy working overtime. So, I will take his place again. We are going to pick up the slack here. This newsletter will cover THREE months instead of one. Yes. You have read me correctly. I just wanted to cover all of the bases. So, I will keep up the work on the newsletters until Nolan is ready to do it again. He is very busy and I will be there for the Club when it comes to getting newsletters produced. So, we will get started with the months of September, October, and November of 2015. So, without further adieu… HERE WE GO! Table of Contents Foreword: 1 President’s Corner: 1 Treasurer’s Report: 1 Secretary’s Report: 3 8-bit DOM Review: 3

November, 2015

Recap from August

It’s time for the SPACE Annual Meeting, officially the most important meeting of your favorite Atari computer club of the year. We will be holding elections for one-year terms for all of the positions in the club’s Executive Board: president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. And, we will again be asking for people to volunteer for the roles of Membership Chairman, Newsletter Editor, DOM Librarian, BBS Operator, and Webmaster. As you know, the club would not be here without people stepping up in one of these leadership roles. Can you do your part this year? See you there!

I was quite surprised to see more members at the August SPACE meeting than we had at the July Birthday Party. Five members were present and even though Lance could not be there Steve Peck and Nolan did manage to come. It was nice to see Steve Berglund there also and he was able to use Glen’s knowledge to help him solve an 8-bit problem he ran into. He brought in a game called I think something like The Return of Heracles and it was pretty cool.

Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your SPACE Annual Meeting, Friday November 13, 2015.

As far as the treasury for August we finally got to the three-hundred-dollar mark for 2015 by selling four 8-bit DOMs and two ST doms. We also had one membership renewal so we took in a total of $33.00. We paid out $20.00 for two months of web-site fees so all in all we had a net gain of $13.00 to bring our bank account to just over $300.

Glen had another great DOM and if you missed it please try to pick one up in the future. There are some good games on this DOM.

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:

Perfect Pitch is an intersting game where you have to guess how to reproduce a sound exactly. I could not figure out how to exactly do it, but maybe the readers will have better luck than I did.

Deathrace XE is an awesome game set in a dystopian Europe in an apocalyptic future. You ride your motorcycle in the forest, avoiding trees and shooting at bikers and helicopters. Again, awesome game! It has great graphics and better sound. Kudos to whomever programmed it. My eternal thanks! Need I say more?

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

Total: 26/40

Total: 10/40

N/A 7 N/A 3

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: 36/40

Radioactive S#!t Happens is a very unusual game in the fact that Side B: it incorporates toilet humor where you have to pick up radioactive Speedway One is a game where human and bird droppings. you are racing against other cars on a road. The graphics need Yup. You read me correctly. some work, but the premise is solid. I liked the gameplay, which You can also beat back your enewas difficult. mies by running after them and touching them, blasting them back Graphics: 2 outside of the screen. I did not Gameplay: 9 think this was a very good game Animation: 6 in the fact that, in my honest opinSound: 2 ion, toilet humor is getting old.

Total: 8/10 Depixol is a demo from a group called Slipstream. It shows a ticker in real-time going across the screen. There is also text in the background of the demo. Personally, it’s a pretty good demo in my honest opinion. Graphics: Animation: Sound:

10 10 10

Total: 30/30 (Perfect) Mona is a reproduction of the Mona Lisa on the 8-bit. It selfdraws on the screen to reveal the famous portrait. Only, there was a problem. It crashed my system. I think it was a PAL issue. Just when it was starting to get good, too. Here is my score:

Total: 19/40

Nice try…

Slovenian Quiz is an educational game that teaches you how to speak eighty Slovenian words. The graphics and sound need work, but it is overall a great game if you want to learn some words in a different language. Great for kids.

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

Total: 12/40

Total: 36/40

Happy Pokey Stomper is a delightful little tune. The tunes in the demos are always pretty good, and although this falls short of a perfect score, it is still quite good.

Floppy Bird is exactly like Flappy Bird, only 8-bit. Keep the bird from crashing into anything and you are home free. Maybe. I think it’s quite challenging, so I will give it some high marks.

5 2 5 5

Total: 17/40

Graphics: 8 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 3 8 7 4

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

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 10 Animation: 9 Sound: 7 Total: 33/40 In Bad Bat Bart you control a bat in a jagged cave. You have to navigate through the cave with its twists and turns. The bad news is it’s dark and you usually cannot see the walls. However, you can flash lightning with the joystick button to light your way. It only works for a split second, however, and if you crash it’s game over. Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

6 8 7 7

Total: 28/40 Ancient Vanished Omen shows a fantasy character holding an orb in a picture which I believe is from the Ys Series of video games from the TurboGrafx-16 days. It looks pixellated, but it still looks pretty good. Good work. Graphics: 8/10 Small Men with Old Devices is from Squoquo, a group from Europe. It has some PAL problems, but I think that these guys underestimate themselves. They are better artists than they give themselves credit for. It isn’t perfect, but I will give it high marks. Graphics: 9 Animation: 10

Sound:

9

Total: 28/30 Side B: CaveBlaster is a game where you are speeding inside a cave and you have to avoid objects by blasting them or swerving around them. The graphics weren’t the greatest, they were alright, but the gameplay and sound were outstanding. Kudos. Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 9 Animation: 8 Sound: 10 Total 34/40 Invenies Verba is a simple word game. You have to make up an eight-letter word before the time runs out. Unscramble it and you score. Do nothing and you get nothing.

The next file was released by Video 61. This was a pirated version of Delta Space Arena on the DOM from Europe. Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 10 Animation: 8 Sound: 5 June 2015 DOM, Side A: We Are Brothers in ATRs 2 is a fast-paced tune that, in my opinion, can use a little work and polishing up. Nice and upbeat, but I have heard a lot of the same before. Sound:

8/10

Back Into the Cyberspace shows a spaceship going through a mixture of binary numbers. The music is repetitive, but it carries well graphics and animation wise.

I found this a very difficult game, and I think that it is because it is beGraphics: 10 cause I needed to use the keyboard. Animation: 10 So, I didn’t find it intriguing really. Sound: 7 Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:

1 7 1 0

Total: 27/30

Cyber Girl is a picture of a damaged female robot. It looks well drawn and I can see the Total: 9/40 artistic inclination of the person that drew it. This ranks up The next file is a pic with Helene there. Nice work. Fischer on it. It is a nice pic that is very well done, but it has a PAL Graphics: 10 (Perfect) problem, it seems.Other than that, it is pretty good. The Demons of Cycling Space is a cacophony of moving pixGraphics: 10 els and weird sounds. It is in Sound: 8 real-time, and I like that. But, it is annoying over time. Nice Total: 18/40 colors, though.

Graphics: Animation: Sound:

7 9 6

Total: 22/40 DJ Sona Approves of This is a picture of a female DJ wearing a futuristic costume with a Fuji logo on her helmet. She also seems to be grooving to an Atari 130XE computer. Pretty cool! I like this pic, especially the colorful background. Graphics:

10/10 (Perfect)

Atariculus is a pic of a guy with a brain helmet attached to the cartridge port of an atari 130XE computer. He even has Atari Fuji wallpaper. nice. It isn’t the greatest artwork, but I will give him an A for effort. Kudos! Graphics: 7/10 Fifty Shades of Grey is not what you think. It is a display showing fifty boxes each showing a different shade of grey with some cool music. So, out of the gutter, guys. ^_^ Graphics: Sound:

5 9

Total: 14/20 Lokalna Porucha is a musical piece. It is mostly beat with some funky 8-bit music in it. Then, it gets fast-paced later on. Now, this is a good piece. Sound:

9/10

Pow is an intro demo that

shows a bunch of rays radiating from the middle of the screen, like an explosion. It has some funky sound to it, too. Not one of my favorites. But, It’ s still striking. Graphics: Sound:

5 5

Total: 10/20 Quite a Sad Song does not sound so sad to me, although it may be somewhat to a degree. I think it partially misses the mark, but it sounds good nonetheless, I must say. Good going. I’ll give you effort. Sound:

9/10

16 Shapes of Grey shows grey silhouettes, in real-time, against a color background. Each shape shifts into a different shape overall. I love this demo and it really show the power of the 8-bit’s graphics capabilities. The music can be a little repetitive, though. Graphics: Animation: Sound:

10 10 8

Sound:

9/10

Tronix looks good, until it got scrambled on the computer. Great music and graphics. I think it is a PAL issue again. Oh, well. Programming isn’t perfect. Graphics: Animation: Sound: Total:

9/10 9/10 9/10 27/30

July 2015 DOM: Side A: In the game Spiders, you must stop invading spiders from reaching the ground. It is difficult because it is slow-paced. That is on purpose. Graphics: 5 Gameplay 10 Animation: 3 Sound: 2 Total: 20/40 In Space Voyager, you must avoid the asteroids and catch the hearts. It is quite easy once you get the hang of it. Almost too easy.

Graphics: 2 Gameplay: 5 Animation: 4 Strasna Hudba! (Or How Matrix Sound: 3 Met Tron) is a heavy but short piece that sounds somewhat techTotal: 14/40 no. It’s good, but short. Here is my take on that. Wkorvek is a European puzzle game where you have to bounce a Sound: 9/10 ball to a certain goal in each level, but there are many obstacles in the Ten Minutes to Deadline is an upway. Very difficult, but I like some pity piece of music that sound too difficulty. Kudos. delightful to be urgent, but it still sounds good. I am going to give it Graphics: 10 some good marks anyway. Gameplay: 10 Animation: 10 Total: 38/40

Sound:

10

In Tecno Ninja, guide the ninja through the levels collecting powTotal: 40/40 (Perfect) er-ups and such without getting destroyed. Interesting graphics and Jawbreaker 2 is a puzzle game fun gameplay. not unlike Candy Crush Saga. In the game, you match cretain Graphics: 7 icons. If you do, they disappear. Gameplay: 7 If you clear the screen, you adAnimation: 6 vance. If not, game over. Sound: 5 Cool premise. A little overdone, Total: 25/40 but cool nonetheless. August 2015 DOM: Side A Graphics: 4 Gameplay: 5 Xmas Tree 2014: This is a decorative Animation: 4 Christmas tree graphic with a reSound: 9 flective ticker on the bottom of the screen. Total: 22/40 Pretty inventive design, especially the ticker on the bottom of the Curse of the Lost Miner is like screen. Miner 2049er and Boulder Dash in the way that Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) it is set up. You have to advance to certain levels and colMasterIt 2015 is a game where you 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 unlike Master Mind from the 1970s. Graphics: 7 I can see it being very challenging. Gameplay: 9 Animation: 5 Gameplay: 10/10 Sound: 5 Quarrion is a puzzle game where Total: 26/40 you have to match the colors on the screen to remove them from the The next game is another variascreen. Or, so it seems anyway. tion of the classic Boulder Dash. Guide Rockford through the Graphics: 7 mine to collect diamonds and Gameplay: 10 avoid getting crushed by boulAnimation: 6 ders. Total: 23/30 Graphics: 10 Gameplay: 10 The next file is a demo from DeAnimation: 8 sire. It looks striking and impresSound: 10 sive. I especially like the flames in the background. The music needs Total: 38/40 work, however.

Graphics: 10 Animation: 10 Sound: 8 Total: 28/30 Next, we have a TIP animation showing Happy New Year greetings for the year 2015. Now, this hits me good. I like TIP animation files. Graphics: 10 Animation: 10 Total: 20/20 (Perfect) NYDS is a demo commemorrating the year 2015. Although it could be better, the music is excellent. Graphics: Sound:

7 10

Total: 17/20 Happy New Year 2015 is a demo showing a comic doodle of kids wearing Atari garb. Funny. I like it. It accentuates humor and fun at the same time. Graphics: Sound:

8 9

Comic Squares is a PAL demo that crashed on me, but I found the part that I saw of it astounding. I will give it high marks anyways. Graphics: 9 Sound: 9 Animation: 10 Total: 28/30

Side B:

works display over a city. It looks but it could use polish. But, not very colorful and it looks pretty too shabby. Inc Year is a demo that starts good. out grey at first, then graduGraphics: 8/10 ally includes color over time. Graphics: 8/10 this demo also has a fancy Biba is a macabre pic of some looking ticker at the bottom, FIREWORKS 2015 is a spectacular freaky dude mixing drinks at a showing a friendly greeting demo with a nice picture of a firebar. But, I love the work put into from the programmers. Love works display and a nifty ticker. it. It actually is very good. it! Graphics: 10 Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Graphics: 10 Sound: 10 Animation: 10 Animation: 10 Back from Fractalis is a music Sound: 10 demo that is quite twangy, but Total: 30/30 (Perfect) that is in a good way. It exemTotal 30/30 (Perfect) plifies something to me. I don’t 35 Year-Old 1 is a scan of an Atari know what, but it does. Laglance is a pic that shows 800 computer. It looks like a scan, awoman next to a rocket, so but it’s very high-resolution. Also, Sound: 10/10 (Perfect) I am assuming that she is an it’s extremely good. astronaut. It reminds me of Back in Time: No. This is not those stipple drawing I used Graphics: 10/10 (Perfect) Huey Lewis and the News. But, it to make in college. is peppy for an 8-bit tune. It gets September 2015 DOM, Side A: faster and it is quite dramatic in Graphics: 7/10 the middle of the music. 2DE is a demo that may have a PAL Rej is a pic expressing a Hapissue, but it does have some great Sound: 9/10 py New Year greeting. It is real-time parralax scrolling effects. simple in design. I think VinIf I could get a PAL upgrade on my Popeye Arcade is only different cent Van Gogh is in the lowXE, it might help. from previous versions of Popeye er-right corner. It looks pretty because it has a splash screen and nice. Graphics: 9 somewhat enhanced graphics. Sound: 9 I like Popeye anyway. It always Graphics: 8/10 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: 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

Gdansk Airport Doesn’t Like Atari is a musical piece that, again, CGS Christmas Card 2014 is fast-paced and frantic. It shows a house in the wintersounds like an Atarian trying to time with snow falling to the hide himself and his wares from ground wishing everybody a the Gdansk Airport security. It’s Happy Holidays from the Claspretty good music, though. sic Games Shrine. It was pretty cool. Sound: 9/10

Graphics: 10/10 International Karate Enhanced 2014 is based on the classic game International Karate. It is a great game and it takes a while to get used to the controls, but it is worth playing just once.

Graphics: 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! Get your DOMs out and start No matter where you go, practicing those games! there you are. Hoo-rah!” (I just wanted to share a little food for thought. Have a happy, folks!)

Atari++ Release 2015 Posted Sun Nov 8, 2015 14:00 Hi folks, a new release of Atari++, the portable atari emulator for Linux and windows has been released here in the download section - as usual, you find there the Linux sources and a compiled version for 32-bit Windows. Release 1.80 is a new major release of the Atari emulator, not only fixing a series of nasty bugs, but also including new features and major improvements. The major improvement is the inclusion of a Basic interpreter, named Basic++, which improves on Atari Basic in many ways. Atari++ has now a built-in Basic interpreter, namely Basic++. It is a mildly extended Atari Basic dialect, which is quite a bit faster, plus one additional command, “DIR”. See the Basic++ distribution for additional modifications. The Basic settings have been improved, the preferences allow now up to three Basic images to be defined, typically corresponding to revisions A,B and C of the language. The CPU emulation fixed the cycle count for some rarely used instructions. Added a profiler to the monitor. PROF.S starts the profiler. PROF.L lists the profile counts collected so far, PROF.C lists the cumulative cycle counts of subroutines. Tape emulation has been largely extended and simplified. Entering a nonexisting tape will now create an error immediately. The tape emulation also allows now WAV files, i.e. digitized real

tapes, and will decode them on demand. Output to .WAV files (audio-encoding) is now also possible. This integrates the wav2cas and cas2wav programs of the same author into the emulator. SIO sound emulation has been extended. The SIO sound now also emulates the tape sound on input, and improves on the authenticity of the disk drive sound. The X11 front end improves the handling of mouse clicks. Mouse clicks that do not go into the window but into an overlapping window are now ignored. Audio outut can now be recorded into a SAP Record-Type R file for playback. Disk drive emulation has been largely improved. Several drive types are now emulated, including their serial transfer characteristics, such as disk drive speed. Note that the original 1050 drive emulation no longer takes disks that are double density or have more sectors than those of the original disk formats. To play such extended disks, select one of the more advanced drive types. SIO emulation has been reworked to some degree to allow the extended drive types, control the serial speed and allow for proper tape emulation. Binary disk images now also create a valid disk structure containing the load file as AUTORUN.SYS so it can be loaded from DOS, too. The math pack patch has been revised and its precision has been inproved by changing the rounding policy slighty. The floating point to ASCII conversion 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.