July 2021
1982•39TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION•2021 The President’s Corner By Michael Current
The Secretary’s Report
The Treasurer’s Report
By Steven Peck
By Gregory Leitner
SPACE lives!
HELLO WORLD!
SPACE met at our usual time and place last month in our first post-pandemic meeting. How good to see everyone! Glen continued to make DOMs throughout the pandemic, so some of us made some very large DOM purchases. I always check out everything on every DOM, but I’m a little behind right now, I’m up to May 2020. I will catch up eventually!
Welcome back, Atarians! We had a dynamite meeting on June 11, 2021. The meeting came to order at 7:50 PM that evening. The club made a killing on DOM sales and membership renewals that needed to be made up after fifteen months of absence.
Another highlight for me was Roger’s demo of #FujiNet, the do-it-all SIO device that puts your computer on a WiFi network and, among other things, allows you to directly access Atari files stored on your computer, on your phone, or located on any of several Internet servers around the world. Roger demoed a live Internet weather app running on the Atari, showing the current weather in your specific location, with forecast for the next few days. Amazing! No pot-luck party this month (temporary pandemic facility restrictions still in place), but come celebrate another year of SPACE with us anyway! Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting: Friday, July 9, 2021.
The membership count stands at nine members paid up. So, if you haven’t paid up your SPACE membership dues, I suggest you do. It’s for a good cause as it supports SPACE and helps keep Atari alive for posterity. We even had some show-and-tell, as stated in the President’s Corner. A member showed off his Atari 800XL with Ultimate 1 MB upgrade and a device that connects to the Internet and directly to the FujiNet website. This is a site where we Atarians can download and install things for the A8. It connects to the SIO port of the A8 computer and acts like a 1050 drive. It uses an SD card for storage. It also has Bluetooth, but that is still being tweaked. Not to mention (as fellow officer and President Michael Current had previously stated), it can even tell you the local weather report in real time. We also heard about the Raspberry Pi and how it is being used in Amiga computers. Get this. It is being used as a replacement CPU for the 68000 in the Amiga through a CPLD (complex programmable logic device), and, I believe, an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) as well.
Message from Captain Irata: “Families Unite! Play Atari All Day! Do What’s Right! Yippy-Kai-Ay!” HOO-RAH!
I have researched this development. It’s called PiStorm, and the upgrade is vey fast. Up to 200 MFLOPS (millions of floating point operations per second). I could use this for my Amiga 2000, but I can see it being used for the Atari ST, too.
It was nice to see six members at our June SPACE meeting after such a long time between meetings. Our last regular SPACE meeting was February 2020. The good thing that came out of time away is that we didn’t have any expenses, but boy did we rake in the sales. Members agreed to pay their dues for the year we missed, and most members bought all the disks up to date. Thanks to Glen for making monthly DOMs during the down months. We started the month of June with a bank balance of $598.74 and we added six memberships ($90.00) and forty-seven 8-bit DOMs ($141.00). Our only expense was $15.00 for postage for three of us who had DOMs mailed to us thanks once again to Glen. Our new bank balance is now a whopping $814.74. Starting in 2020 the room rental increased by $5.00 per month to $30.00 and needed to be paid in advance. So I sent a check for $360.00 for the room rental to cover all of 2020. Since we only met in January and February 2020 they applied our balance of ten months to 2021. And since we didn’t meet until June 2021, we have all of this year’s room rental prepaid. We still are due a credit for three months since out of the twelve months we paid for in advance we only actually used nine: Two in 2020 and seven in 2021. If anyone has questions about this we can discuss it at the July meeting. Just to let everyone know, we still need to wear our face masks in the meeting room and we all need to sign a COVID waiver form. This just needs to be done one time. A reminder that we won’t be having a SPACE birthday party this year, but I am hopeful we can have a 2021 SPACE Christmas party, providing they give the okay for eating in the room.
In further news, AtariAge is hacking games and multi-button controllers for the A8 computers. They are trying to make sure games use multibutton functions. Also, there is news about older Atari ST games, as they are being hacked to work on the STE machines as well.
Until next month, let’s hope each day we get a little bit closer to normal, and I hope to see as many of our members as possible next month on July 9. See you then.
To me, this is really great news. Now, I wish that programmers can hack older ST art and publishing applications that don’t work on STE, TT, or Falcon so they can work on those systems as well. Now, that would be a decent paradigm shift, especially me, an STE user. I would welcome that.
The word transistor is a portmanteau of the words transconductance (or transfer) and varistor (yet another portmanteau which means varying, or variable, resistor). The first transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell Labs.
The classic game, “Alternate Reality: The Dungeon,” has now been reworked to play on a game cartridge. It used to be only on floppy disks. This is an amazing feat, being the game used four disks to have enough roon for the total content. Well, this concludes the SPACE Secretary’s Report. again, welcome back, I will see you next month. I now close in the words of the late, great artist Stan Lee… EXCELSIOR!
TRIVIA TIME!
Furthermore, speaking of electronics terms, the word MOSFET is actually a six-letter acronym, which means Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor. Table of Contents: Page 1: President’s Corner/Treasurer’s Report/ Secretary’s Report Page 2: A8 DOM Review Page 6: Tech Talk Page 7: SPACE Comics Section/Multi-Platform Game Review
I assume by the initials, “SV,” it’s a SillyVenture demo. But, I like the style. It isn’t much, but still it’s pleasing to the eye. Here’s my score on that: SCORE: Again, Welcome Back! It has been a while, fifteen months actually, but I am back with a triple-DOM Review for the A8! These DOMs will be from February and June of 2020, & June of 2021. I have been patiently waiting for this, and my waiting has finally paid off. Anyway, from now on, things will be a little different here. I would like to push my aesthetics a bit. I will put pictures of the files from the DOMs on here for the first time.
Graphics: Animation: TOTAL SCORE:
7 8 15/20
The next demo is called “Infinite Scroll,” again by Dmitry Krapivin. It scrolls upwards forever in a maze-like pattern. The graphics look great on this demo. There’s no sound, but that’s OK. This is also 256 bytes in size. To tell you the truth, I am amazed by its technical approach. SCORE:
It will make things look better, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. So, without further adieu, let’s get started with the A8 DOM Review. I guarantee you will enjoy it.
Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 10 9
TOTAL SCORE:
29/30
The next file I will review is called “Self Portrait,” by Dimitrov Albarran. As you can see, it’s his selfportrait made on the old A8.
February 2020 DOM: Side A The first file in this DOM is called “TMD”, a 256-byte demo by Dmitry Krapivin. It is a bunch of trailing dots on a blue screen. They look like falling stars coming down from the sky. The demo also has sound effects, a recurring buzzing sound. Very well done for such a small file. It impresses me. Arguably, it’s one of the best 256-byte demos on this DOM. Here’s my score:
It looks like the artist has extensive technical knowledge of the program he used to create the picture. Stunning detail and great use of color, this artist wasted no time doing a stellar job. Sorry for the bad picture, as I took it off of my TV.
SCORE: Graphics: Animation:
10 10
TOTAL SCORE:
20/20 (perfect)
The next file is a demo called “Beertime XL,” by Johan Halin. It’s full of interesting patterms and great music. It starts off simple, with the text message “Please wait while we waste your time.” Then, it really goes into it with the graphics. It is impressive for 256 bytes of code. Graphically, it’s really attractive looking to see the falling stars coming down from the top of the screen, with trails in behind them. Kind of relaxing, don’t you think? Well, here is my score for this demo: SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Sound: SCORE:
7 7 8 22/30
The second file, called “Silly Starfield,” a demo by Grzegorz Zyla. Again, it’s 256 bytes in size. But, for 256 bytes of code, it’s just as impressive as “TMD”. It shows a pattern of stars on the screen with the words “Silly Starfield SV,” on the screen.
Actually, it’s a prety decent demo. I enjoyed it myself, and it looks great. It sounds great as well, but I wonder if it has a PAL issue, because some of the graphics may look garbled. But, I liked it anyway. Here’s my score with the pictures of the demo.
With that, I will score this piece: SCORE: Graphics:
10 (perfect)
There are two music tracks on this DOM. One is called “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” by Ivo Van Poorten and another by Przunk, called “Synk Bass.” First off, we will look at “Synk Bass,” and the track definitely has a lot of bass in it. It sounds like it is nicely composed, with a lot of musical effects. It has a large variation to it. There are definitely a lot of sounds that sound very good in this track. I like the beat and the music itself. It definitely stands out. here is my score: SCORE: Sound:
9
The next music track is “Hallowed be Thy Name,” originally by the metal band Iron Maiden. It tries to capture the nuance of the original music, but this is an 8-bit track, and it isn’t like a live performance. However, it is a great attempt, and the beat is very good, actually. Here is my score: SCORE: Sound:
9
The next file on this DOM is called “Caleb 2,” a picture by by Robert Smolinski. The picture shows a man with glowing eyes and a gun, and there is an angelic statue in the background of the picture. It looks like it is set in a cave.
You can even somewhat climb on platforms, if you can reach them and cannot totally get up on them. There are platforms you can open up to climb on as well. It’s a funny-looking game, and I think that’s the point, but it is chalenging. You can even randomize the levels and select the level, as well as the game speed. I liked it, and for an A8 game it’s good. The combination of using the keyboard and the joystick adds functionality to the game.
TOTAL SCORE:
5/10
It’s a pleasing game and I an glad you can select the difficulty and start as a novice and end up as a champion later on in the near future. It seems pretty versatile in that respect. Graphically, it’s simple, but that’s OK for the game play, because it seems that there is more room for challenge.
The colors are well-balenced, and it is very detailed as a digital rendering. It reminds me of an old comic book from the 1990s called “Chakan,” about a swordsman who fights a duel with Death and becomes cursed with a ghastly face and eternal life and seeks eternal rest. The details in this picture are striking, to say the least, and I am impressed by it. It will receive high marks. Here is my score: SCORE: Graphics:
10 (perfect)
The last file on this side of the DOM is called “Distortions of Modern Times,” a picture by Ziembik. It shows a disfigured woman in the picture surrounded by a man and a boy.
UFO: Graphics: Animation: TOTAL SCORE:
7 5 12/20
I like the title screen as well. It has some detail. It could be better, but it could be worse. It’s still a great little platform game. With that, I will score. I remember seeing a person like this. This is based on a true story about a woman who had too much cosmetic surgery. She looks like this woman in the picture. Truly unfortunately experience, really. But, the picture looks interesting. It definitely looks like it is a true distortion of modern times. Here is my score:
SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound: TOTAL SCORE:
35/40
June 2020 DOM, Side A:
SCORE: Graphics;
8 9 9 9
9
Now, since we are done with Side A, let’s get to Side B of this DOM. Side B: The only file on this side of the February 2020 DOM is called “Block on Legs: First Steps,” a game by KendallSoft. It’s a platform game where you play a block running around trying to get gems on high platforms. There are perils, however, as you cal fall from a high distance and through pits. Those high falls can kill you. You can fly, however. That saves you some time if you cannot jump to get a gem from a high pedestal.
I have two 256-byte demos from Sebastian Pawlak. The first one is called “Colorful,” and it shows a four-pixel sized block that changes color. It realy isn’t much of a demo, just a block on the upper left corner of the screen. The second 256-byte demo is called “UFO,” and it has more detail than the first demo. It shows a flying saucer in space beaming something down at the bottom of the ship. It is suspended in a starfield. That’s it. They are interesting, but I was wishing for more than that. Understood, it is limited code, but I thought it would be more than this. Here is my score and pictures of the demos: SCORE (for Colorful): Graphics:
5
The third file is another 256-byte demo, called “Happy 2020.” by Freddy Offenga. It is more colorful and almost all text. It looks better and the color gradients change into different colors, plus it shows snow falling. Here’s the picture of the demo. Let me just say it is one of the best-looking 256byte demos on the DOM. It has animated effects that are actually quite astounding. Here’s my score for this file: SCORE: Graphics: Animation: TOTAL SCORE:
7 9 16/20
The next file is called “2020 (PP’s),” a demo by Ralf Patsche. It looks really good, actually, like it was created using RastaConverter. It welcomes the year 2020, and shows two champagne glasses in a toast for the then new year. I like the color gradation and the realism of it. Here. The picture will say it all, as you will see.
The next track is call “Silent Storm,” by Poison. It starts slow. It sound menacing and looming. Then, it gets faster. It also has a nice beat with drum synth. I like this tune. It will be scored: SCORE: Sound:
10 (perfect)
The final file on this side of the DOM is called “Spacedog,” by Maciej Hauke. I think it’s pretty funny, as it is a Beagle with an alien head, and I love the colors and the detail. Very nicely done. It may look weird, but I loved it. As you can see, the picture explains all. It’s bursting with color and detail. I will score this. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 10 10
TOTAL SCORE:
30/30 (perfect)
The next demo is called “Ei aus der Taiga,” (“Eye of the Tiger” in German) by Mario Krix. It has scrolling text and four digitized pics from the Rocky movies. They even have the Rocky theme song. It is definitely impressive. I must say the graphics need some tweaking, but it still shines like polished silver. Here’s the picture of the screen for you to judge.
Poker, I find it pleasing and astounding. The next game is “Runner Bear,” by Paul Lay, Darryl Guenther, and Rob Schlortt. It is a Flappy Bird-like game, only it has the characters from Crystal Castles. The object: run as far as you can without being killed.
Here’s my score and the pic: SCORE:
You can play as Bentley or the Dragon. The Dragon cannot be hurt by enemies. But, Bentley can throw honey pots and stomp on enemies. You only have one life, but you can have four continues to play the game. I thought this was a neat game. It is definitely challenging. The graphics are prety good, too. It can be addictive, so if you like these type of games, get ready for fun. Here are some pics of the game and my score. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Sound: Gameplay:
10 10 10 10
Graphics:
10 (perfect)
Now, since we are done with Side A of this DOM, let’s go on to Side B. Side B: The last file on this DOM is a version of “Lord of the Orb,” a classic game from the 1980s with a map revision by XaVer. The map was redone this way to make it more difficult, and it has always been difficult. Believe me. You play a treasure hunter. You must get treasures, coins, and rings from evil creatures in four dungeons. You also need keys to open up the ultimatel treasure: the four pieces of the Orb, a magical sphere of immense power.
Again, absolute excellence. I also like the tiger head in the middle of the screen. It’s an interesting touch. Nice work. So, here’s my score.
You are armed with a limited amount of darts to kill your enemies. you also have a dwindling energy supply. Fear not, though, as the rings give you extra energy, but they are in limited supply. Use them sparingly!
SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Sound:
10 9 9
TOTAL SCORE:
28/30
If you touch an enemy, you lose energy. Once you have no energy left, the game is over. The graphics are mediocre, but the gameplay is amazing. I have played the original game by Jose Suarez, It is very difficult. Perhaps, not impossible, but still extremely difficult. I have never finished completing the Orb. I can get to Level Three, and that is it. Here are some pics of the game.
The next file is “Full House Poker,” a ABBUC contest entry by F. Dingler. It is, well, Poker. You select which cards to deal, and hope for the best. I don’t really play Poker. I never learned how (I play Cribbage, actually). But, for Poker players, I think it would be a nice game to play. It is simple in design and execution, yet difficut to play because it is really a game of chance, of course. There you go. I am sure that card players would like it. Here’’s my score and the game pic. SCORE:
TOTAL SCORE: 40/40 (perfect) Now, for some music.
Graphics: Gameplay: Animation; Sound:
7 10 6 6
The first music track is called “Kolektor Dream,” by Arson. It starts off with a nice beat. I like the drum synth. Then, it goes into some real music. I like it as it is peppy and pulse-pounding. Very nice. I will score this:
TOTAL SCORE:
29/40
SCORE:
So, it really is a great card game to play. I am satisfied with the game play. Even though I don’t play
Sound:
9
Despite the challenge, I enjoy the game, and you should as well. It’s really fun. I will score this game accordingly, as it does deserve some high marks. SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound:
8 10 10 9
TOTAL SCORE:
37/40
Now, onto the last DOM in this Review, for June 2021. Here we go! June 2021 DOM, Side A: The first file in this DOM is a 256-byte animation called “Crazy Hampster,” by Kanil Traska. It shows a hamster running on a wheel that spins forever. It’s pretty cool and I like the animation. Sure, it isn’t much, but it’s a pretty clever rendering for 256 bytes of code. Here’s the pic for your enjoyment.
SCORE: Graphics: Animation: SCORE:
8 8 16/20
The next file is a game called “They Are Many,” by Vlad Jankovic. It’s a role-playing game set up like a board game. You have to position your men, who look like archers and battles your enemies. You can also build buildings and fortify your troops. It reminds me of “Risk,” the world conquest game. I can remember my father playing it a lot with his friends when I was a boy. This is similar to that. Overall, it’s a good strategy game. I like the fact you can position your armies anywhere in the game and build them up. Basically, it looks like it’s divide and conquer. I suppose the last standing army wins in the end. But, I think I would love to have more instruction on how to play this game to its conclusion. It’s pretty neat. I will score accordingly.
You must not crash into yourself or touch any moving obstacles. You can lose lives that way. You start off with five lives, of course if you lose all your lives it’s game over. Graphically, it could be better, but it’s an improvement over the classic Apple II game “Snakebite,” which this game is similar to. The gameplay is pretty good, though, and it can be challenging as your snake gets bigger with every apple eaten. Then, it’s a bigger target for moving obstacles. So, with that, I will score this game program. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Gameplay: Sound: SCORE:
6 7 8 4 25/40
The next file is a pic called “Obelix,” by Petr Svoboda. It’s Obelix from the Asterix comics in Europe, where he is pretty famous. It is an excellent picture of Obelix, as you can see here. Sorry for the color. My camera was taking a pic of this demo from the TV again. But, I think you can still get the nuance from it. I will score accordingly. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: TOTAL SCORE:
7 8 15/20
Programmer Piotr Radecki created the next 256byte demo, called “Zen.” It’s flashy and colorful and shows a guy meditating with auras of light cascading around him in the form of a double helix. It’s prety cool. It is more active than “Crazy Hampster,” and it has a lot more going on. The colors look a little faded, but I understand it’s supposed to be very bright. The auras are animated so that adds a little bit of nuance to it. So, with that alll said, I will show you the pic and I will then score this accordingly. Needless to say, I like more complicated demos and programs, but this is pretty good. Here’s the picture. Then, you can judge for yourself about the look of it.
SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Gameplay:
8 6 10
TOTAL SCORE:
24/30
The next file is called “Cross Snake,” programmed by Fabrizio Caruso. You guide a snake through a maze eating apples until you eat all in the level to
Nice detail! It’s very well done. The colors bring out the detail and it stands out perfectly. I will score this picture with high marks: SCORE: Graphics:
10 (perfect)
The next game is a text adventure called “The Queen’s Footsteps 1” by Davide Bucci. You play an archaeologist who has found an Egyptian treasure from Nefertari Meitmut’ grave.
This is a text adventure, so there are no graphics, animation, or sound. This will easily have high marks in game play because ALL text adventures canbe difficult. It leaves a lot to the imagination. You can save your game through a password system, and they are scattered throughout the game.
TECH TALK By Steven Peck Today in Tech Talk, we are going to discuss what we could expect from technological advancement in the future. We have made great strides in the last 100 years in technology. Computers, portable phones, vaccines, and the list goes on.
In order to use a password, you need to find them in the game and write them down for future use. This game is going to be a challenge, I can tell, because text adventurs are challenging to me all of the time. Here are pics and my score:
When COVID-19 hit, for instance, we had no vaccine for it. It totally new to us. Less than one year later, there were multiple vaccines for the disease. It was one of the fastest deployments of vaccines iin human history.
Now, we are finished with Side A of this DOM. On to Side B! Side B: The last file on this DOM is the only file on Side B. It is called “Flagging Flamingos.” It seems you have to keep the flamingos facing a certain way by taking the cursor and clicking on them with the joystick fire button. There is a timing clock on it, and I suppose it is a time limit. I can’t really figure this game out, and it would be aewsome if I had instructions to play it. But, it looks great and the music is good, too. The ittle screen looks great, too. Here are some pics so you can judge for yourself.
We are dealing with computers than can perform billions of operations per second. Pretty soom, we may h ave quantum computers, which could perform today’d operations multiple times faster than the current fastest computers can. We have learned and advanced in technology mlore in a few decades than in the last century. Who knows, maybe in a few years we will have a room-temperature superconductor. That would revolutionize the world. It seems the more we begin to understand, the faster we will advance in science and technology. What would it be like in 100 years? 200 years, even? I can just say it is going to be exciting. I can remember when phone had rotary dials. Now, the phones don’t need buttons. It’s touch-sensitive now, and they are even waterproof. Amazing stuff, nowadays, and it will get even more amazing as time goes by. Well, this concludes Tech Talk for now. I will be back with another edition next time. until then, thanks for reading. MULTI-PLATFORM GAME REVIEW Today we’re going to look at “Attack of the Mutant Panguins,” for the Atari Jaguar. In the game, aliens come to Earth to destroy it. THe assume the form of penguins because they think that the transmissions from our planet were created about us (instead they found a wildlife program).
SCORE: Gameplay:
Enter Bernard and Rodney. These two aliens can stop the penguins from decimating Earth! In the game, you hve to create devices and get weapons to destroy the penguins. you have to keep the penguins form activating the machine that will destroy Earth. Ther are good penguins that can help you as well.
10 (perfect)
The final game is “Boulder Dash,” which has been on the DOMs before. You are all familiar with how it is played. Mugen created another variation of it. A harder variation, of course. The graphics are pretty good and getting all the diamonds can be dificult, especially with the boulders falling on you along with other obstacles.
It has great graphics and difficult gameplay. It’s funny and challenging, and fun to play.
I will show pics of this game, but since this has ben rated before I will not rate it this time. But, I know Mugen created a very challenging puzzle here. I know it will be hard. Anyway, these are the pics for this great game:
Judging from the picture, I think the flamingos have to face the same way, but I do not know that for sure. Other than that, it’s a decent-looking game. Here is my score on it. SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Sound: TOTAL:
9 9 8 9 35/40
Well, friends, this concludes the Atari 8-bit DOM Review! That’s all I have for now. I will be back next time with another triple-DOM Review to show to you all. Until then, see you soon! Carpe Diem, fellow, Atarians! See you in July!
There are also bonus rounds in between levels where you can get even more help by earning friendly penguins to help you stop the aliens.
Colorful, detailed, funny, and challenging, this game delivers. I will scor eit accordingly. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Ganeplay: Sound:
10 10 10 10
TOTAL SCORE:
40/40 (prefect)
This concludes the Multi-Platform Game Review. I will be back with another issue of the review next month. See you then, and thanks!
SPACE COMICS SECTION! Illustrated By Steve Peck The Misadventures of A-Man And C.D.
The next SPACE Meeting will commence on Friday, July 9, 2021, at 7:30 PM! We hope to see you there! Thanks!
Angel, Bandit, and Their Ferret Fracas
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